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Amy walked on the robot’s right side, Silver on the left, half paying attention and listening to Amy’s explanations and playing with the gold parts of his bracelet limiters out of habit.\n\nThe market smelled of warm oil, frying sugar, and something sweet from a vendor’s kettle. Children darted between stalls, and an old man argued over the price of lithium batteries. Metal’s head cocked at every new sound, sensors blinking faint and blue.\n\nNormally it would be quite a boring task, but Metal made it interesting, if not enjoyable. Sonic bumping a crate with a toe, mimicking a vendor’s wave when Amy did, settling into the rhythm of the street. When Silver checked the limiter on his shoe, the android glanced at its own foot. People glanced, then went back to haggling. It added a lot of charm to their day. Amy laughed when the robot tried to hand her a greasy paper bag; she ruffled its plating as if it were an awkward pup. \n\nThey’d just passed a stall selling cheap noodles when a searcher drone threaded down the alley between the arcade and the fabric shop. It didn’t look like anything in particular - just a round drone with a flat belly of cameras— and efficient—and it made the sort of polite noise drones make when they’re just doing their job: a series of quiet pings.\nMetal’s head turned almost before any of them did. The robot’s walk stuttered and it froze mid-step, optics narrowing as if focusing.\n\nAmy’s hand tightened without meaning to and her head turned. Silver’s fingers paused on the strap\n\nAnd then the drone spoke. Its voice wasn’t the soft human tones of a guide; it was blunt, broadcasted, and threaded with all the bureaucratic menace it could’ve had programmed.\n\n\n\t“ATTENTION: THE TRADE OFFERS REWARDS FOR OUTLIERS. REPORT OR DELIVER ANY INDIVIDUALS WITH SPECIAL QUALITIES FOR PAYMENT AND PROTECTION. CALL OR USE LINE 004—REWARDS SCALE WITH RARITY.”\n\n\nThe message looped once, then again, and again.\n\nPeople blinked. A vendor frowned at his radio. An old woman turned her head, cursed and spat on the ground. Amy’s mouth made a line, while most of the people had no reaction to it.\nWhile Silver felt it like tremor in his bones: the bracelet’s metal warmed where it hugged his wrist.\n\nHe swallowed. Someone in a crowd laughed too loud. A man two stalls down nudged a companion and nodded toward them, casual and small like a hand at a pocket. For all the drone’s official cadence, the message was a whistle to predators.\n\nAmy took Metal’s arm under her own and stepped a bit in front of Silver, eyes scanning faces.\n \n\t“Move.” she said quietly, voice low enough for only the two of them to hear.\nSilver’s fingers went cold. The bracelet’s little LEDs stayed steady—no crack, no failure.\nMetal remained still for a moment longer, then it resumed its slow loop of the market following Amy’s lead. The three of them walked on; and the city watched.\n\n\t“Come on,” Amy said softly, reading the edge in her friend’s shoulders. “Let’s bounce. We’ve done enough sightseeing for one day.” Her voice was light but firm. She glanced, first at Metal and then at Silver. “You okay to keep going?”\n\n\tSilver forced a smile. “Yeah... I’ve got it. I can keep m-my stuff together.”\n\nAmy looked skeptical but let it pass.\n\nThey passed a stall that sold wrapped pastries and Silver. Usually he and Amy would buy one to share it between them and maybe get something for Tails on their way home, before Amy went back to her place. A little tradition that they formed.\n\n\t“You two go ahead. I’m gonna grab something to eat for us.”\n\n\t“Alright then.” Amy figured Silver needed some time to himself to calm down and didn’t question him. “Just catch up with us soon. We’ll be walking through Nega street.” Amy waved him off and turned into the alley. She and Metal drifted out of sight and started walking back to Tails’ Workshop.\n\n Silver let out a heavy sigh. “I have to calm down…” He thought and turned to face the stall. Loud thunders could be heard in the near distance. “I better hurry.”\n\n\n\nThe alley was narrow, positioned between a factory building and a club. Loud music was echoing through the walls and could easily be heard from outside. \n\n “So, how did you like our evening walk?” Asked Amy. She didn’t mind the awkward silence that much. They could very well come back to the workshop in complete silence. She just figured she’d talk to the new guy. If Metal was indeed learning like a Mobian and would gain his own personality sooner or later, she couldn’t treat him like a cheap piece of machinery, could she?\n\n The mechanic hedgehog turned his head to her and stared for a while.\n\n “Maybe ‘liking’ something is beyond you still….” She sighed. “Nevermind. Let’s just-”\n\n “Hey, sweetheart.” \n\nAmy looked to her right. Three guys stood in front of the back entrance to the club, their backs pressed against the metal wall. Two of them were smoking, one stood with a glass of some kind of drink in his hand. Immediately their looks screamed ‘bad news’. Broad shoulders, low, raspy voices and the stink of smoke and alcohol coming from their direction, and they were obviously drunk.\n\n “The bot’s nice. How much did it cost?” Asked one of them. Amy wasn’t sure which one and she didn’t plan on staying long enough to find out.\n\nShe took Metal’s hand into her own and quickened her pace. Whether they were trying to hit on her, or something else, it was better to just get out of there. \n\nOne of the guys moved quickly, standing in her way.\n\n “Whs tjat? Your boyffrend-?” Asked the man with a large smile, slurring drunkenly through his words.\n\nAmy tried to back right off the same way she came here, but his friends were already behind her, blocking her and Metal’s way from every direction.\n\n “Back off.” Amy didn't step back. She set her chin high, blunt and proud. Her hand quickly slipped into her pocket where she kept a decently sized butterfly knife for situations just like these. It wasn’t much against three guys much larger than she was, but it was enough to show them she wasn’t helpless and was ready to defend herself. “Move it I said.” \n\nThe men started laughing. The tallest of them, one of the smokers, put his arm on Metal Sonic’s shoulder. “That’s real scary, lady. Tell you what - if you give us that bot, we’ll let you go. How ‘bout that?”\n\n “Hell we miht even hav sssome fun while we at it, hehe… whaddya sa-” The drunk man moved his hand closer to Amy’s chest, but before he folded on the ground. She wasn’t going to wait to see what he tried to do and sold him a sturdy kick to the middle of his crotch before he had a chance to touch her.\n\n “AAAAGH- Y-YOU BITCH!”\n\n “Get the fuck out of my way-!” She swung her knife and quickly turned to face the other guys. \n\nSuddenly her vision became blurry. Right in that moment one of them punched Amy right in the face, almost making her do a spin. She fell to the ground, her head spinning faster than she could even comprehend what had happened. Her knife - her only means of defence dropped somewhere on the ground, out of her line of sight.\n\n “LEAVE HER ALONE!” A scream could be heard from the entry to the alley. \n\nSilver stood there in shock, looking at Amy on the ground. By the look on her face she was still out of it, but breathing.\n\n “Get lost!” Yelled the man who just a few seconds ago hit Amy. “It’s none of your business. Fuck outta here!”\n\n Silver felt his muscles tense. The man’s voice was deep, almost guttural, and judging by his expression, he was unbelievably pissed.\n\n “Didn’t you hear me?! I SAID-” The man started quickly walking towards the teen, tightening his fists. “-GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, BEFORE I DO THE SAME TO YOU!” \nSilver took one step back out of sheer shock, before he was violently shoved against the side of the club. \n\n “You want your teeth on the street?! Fine, you asked for it!”\nSomething cold flared up under Silver’s ribs, pain attacking him from his back, as it was shoved against the cold wall. He stumbled, barely keeping enough balance to not fall on his face.\n\n“Silver-!” \n\nWhen he opened his eyes they immediately went not to his attacker, but to Amy, who was starting to get up. Her nose was bleeding, staining the peach fur on her face. And just like her, the guy she kicked earlier began rising too. The look on his face wasn’t too friendly right now.\n\n “You fucking bitch… YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” His arm reached for the girl’s quills.\n\n\n\n\n\nThen something just snapped. \n\nAll of the rules he held his entire life - don’t be seen, don’t use it, stay out of people’s business- \n\nAll of that went out of the window without him even having a chance to react.\n\nHis world narrowed to only this exact place, and he felt a shock run through his head. \nMetallic crack.\n\nOne shock - one pulse of energy.\n\nThen release.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe man above Amy was flung into the wall, almost 2 meters off the ground. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.\n\nThe second staggered backwards, spooked by the situation. \n\n “W-what?! THE FUCK-”\n\nHis head collided with the street light, knocking him out as well. He fell onto the garbage pile near the trash can where he was standing.\n\nThe third one tried to attack Silver, before his legs gave away under the invisible force that threw him down, head first onto the pavement, hard enough to crack it.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe sudden calm that followed was deafening.\n\nSilver’s legs gave up, and he ended up on the ground.\n\nHis whole body felt stiff, his hands shook violently, and his chest rose and fell quickly. \nEvery strand of fur on his arms stood on the end.\n\nNausea hit him hard - he felt like throwing up here and now.\n\n\t“-ver-\n\n\t“-Silver-\n\n\t“SILVER!”\n\nHe took a sudden, quick breath. Amy’s voice brought him back to earth. \n\nHe looked at her - she wasn’t panicking. Even though the fur on her face was stained with blood, Amy seemed calm. Just like every time something bad happened. \n\nAble to keep a cool head even in the most extreme situations.\n\n\t“...I…” Silver muttered. “I… didn’t… d-didn’t mean t-t-”\n\n\t“I know.” She put a hand on his cheek and turned his head, so they’d be looking at each other. “Listen to me now. I need you to get up. We go back to the workshop. Patch your limiter. Wait it out. You can freak out later - once we’re safe inside. Got it?”\n\nSilver shook his head absentmindedly. He felt Amy grabbing his hand and pulling him up. He could barely stand - his legs felt like they were made of paper.\n\nHis eyes automatically drifted to the men laying around them. \n\n\t“Don’t look.” Commanded him Amy. She grabbed something from the floor and then started running, dragging Silver behind her. \n\nMetal observed them and the whole situation with cold optics. Once Amy started running he silently followed.\n\n\n\nThe city continued as if nothing had happened. The mundane noises of the night life contrasted heavily against the storm that was raging inside Silver’s mind. His limiter lay broken in Amy’s hand. The three people back in the alley… His breath was unsteady, and getting worse by the minute.\n\nThe pink hedgehog guided them back through the market, keeping Silver between her and the open areas. By the time they came back to Tails’ place heavy rain was pouring onto them for the past few minutes. All three of them drenched completely. Although this was the least of their worries right now.\n\nAfter a few minutes they reached the workshop. The large, neon ‘Miles Electric’ sign was barely visible in the heavy downpour. Amy pushed Silver and Metal Sonic inside and kicked the door shut behind them. Then swiftly began locking all the different locking mechanisms Tails had installed in his workshop.\n\nTails, wearing a large pair of orange goggles, looked up from his workbench and from the hoverboard he’d been repairing up until now, wide-eyed when he saw how the two of his friends looked. Soaking wet, shaking and beaten up - a large purple swelling on Amy’s face couldn’t mean anything good.\n\n\t“Amy?? Wh-what happened to you?” The fox stood up from his seat, nearly dropping the welder onto the floor. “What’s going on??” His voice sounded more and more panicked with each question. \n\nSilver sank to the ground, burying his face in his hands and muttering something incoherently into his palms. Amy crouched beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, with a pitiful expression then she looked at Tails. \n\nTails already knew it was going to be bad.\n\n “It’s Silver… Something happened on the streets.” Amy began speaking. Her voice was quiet and in as soft of a tone as she could muster. “Some guys started harassing me, and Silver stepped in… He lost control. His limiters…”\n\nTails froze in place. Staring blankly ahead, he was processing everything for a moment. Then he dashed to the wall of monitors and began flipping through camera feeds. \n\nOutside, the streets everything looked normal - if empty. With that kind of weather not many people were outside. Mostly service drones running errands on behalf of their owners, or an unlucky person running back to their home. \n\nTails’ fingers were flying over the controls, checking everything around the base and closing additional locks on the door. The heavy metal doors shuddered as another electronic seal clicked into place.\n\n\t“There’s no one around right now…” Muttered Tails. “I-I’ll stay on the cameras, just in case.” He turned his head towards the two hedgehogs briefly.\n\n\t“Silver… It’s okay. You can calm down now.” \n\nSilver shook his head slowly, not lifting his head to look at his friends.\n\n\t“Silver…”\n\n\t“I-I… didn’t mean to… I just-” The young hedgehog was shaking. “I couldn’t control it- it ju-just happened so suddenly…!” His breath was quickening again. Amy saw that and carefully sat next to him.\n\n “Silver…” Amy’s ears flopped close to her head. This was the first time she had seen the other in such a state.\n\nShe never had outlier abilities, so on that front it was hard for her to understand what Silver was going through. On the other hand she could see how his body was shaking- how his voice was shaking. His tail practically hidden between his legs, quills standing straight and his small ears flatly against his head. That - she could understand.\n\nUsually when they came back from anywhere outside of the workshop he’d groan, like he just came back from a 10 hour factory shift, lay down on his hammock, boot up a rhythm game on his phone, put on his headphones and close himself off from the rest of the world.\n\nNot because he disliked going out with her - that’s just how he’s been. ‘Antisocial’, as Tails would put it ever so delicately. And Amy was very much used to it. They’d hang out together, then go their separate ways. None of them would bother the other every 5 minutes, but they’d still hang out again in a few days.\n\nEven if he wasn’t the most cheerful person on the block, they enjoyed each other’s company.\nShe’s never seen him this afraid before.\n\nAll she knew she could do was to sit next to him and offer a bit of comfort that way.\n\n\n\n\t“Silver.” A few minutes passed, before Tails spoke. He turned his head towards the door, where the other two were. “Can I see your limiters for a moment?”\n\nSilver slowly raised his head towards the fox. \n\nHis eyes were red.\n\n\t“I have the broken one.” Interrupted Amy, opening her hand, where she still held two golden parts and extending it towards Tails.\n\nThe fox hopped off of his chair and walked towards them, then sat down on the floor with them. Taking the broken down bracelet from Amy, he began studying it in detail in his hand. He knew how it worked, obviously. He made it. But he never suspected it could break like this. Not only was the casing broken, but the insides as well. Small wires were fried, and the battery crushed completely - as if a brick was dropped onto it.\n\n\t“Can you give me your hand?” Asked Tails quietly. He figured Silver would want some space right now, but he had to check it now, just in case.\n\nSilver’s hands were still shaking when he pulled them into view. The cyan segments of his bracelets weren’t just glowing - they were stacked with lit bars, like an old volume meter cranked towards the red. One of the bars blinked a few times, then held steady - proof his power was still pressing against the dam.\n\n\tTails moved closer. “Okay… that’s new.” He gently rotated Silver’s wrist. “These indicators are supposed to pulse at two bars maximum - like when you’re under stress… And now you’re sitting at 8.” He looked around, grabbing a thin, long tool and tapped a sensor node with the end of it. Then he turned his head left and watched a thin line graph appear across one of the screens. “The more your power pushes, the more bars fill. When they max-out, the limiter vents - hard. That’s probably what caused it to break. I didn’t even know it could ever max out…”\n\n\tAmy leaned in, her brows furrowed. “Is there any way to bring it down?”\n\n“Yes - quite a simple one at that.” Tails put away the broken piece on the counter. “I’m just going to have to move the limit a bit higher. But first… we need you to calm down Silver.\"\n\n\tSilver let out a heavy sigh. “Alright…”\n\n\t“Breathe with me.” Amy lifted a hand, counting slowly. “In… and out…”\n\nSlowly, as Silver’s breathing steadied, one bar dimmed. Soon another flickered and slowly dropped. The cyan cooled from a harsh glare to a manageable glow.\n\n\tTails exhaled. “That’s better. I’ll about a failsafe… maybe a manual override if your power was to spike again-”\n\nAmy shot him a glare.\n\n\t“N-not that I suspect this will happen again… y-you know?” \n\nShe sighed. Salvaging situations wasn’t his strong suit.\n\n “Anyway… Ahem. I also need a readout on your shoes and arm rig too. They might be overloaded. I’ll check and work on replacements if needed.”\n\n Silver nodded. “Thanks. Thank you… both.” His voice was much calmer now, yet the stress still lingered in his tone.\n\nTails gave a half-smile, already drawing schematics in his head. “That’s also a perfect excuse for me to upgrade the UI. Next time it spikes, we’ll know before it scares the life out of us.”\n\nOne of the cameras flashed red and centered itself on the screen. Grainy feed from the street - angle aimed at the entrance to the alley where the incident happened. A shape wheeled into the frame - small, insect like robot. The light from its eyes strobed in a steady grid.\n “Trade seeker…” Tails said quietly.\n\nThe drone entered the alleyway. \n\n“The inner part of the alleyway had no camera, so we don’t know what it's doing over there…”\n “Looking for Silver.” Amy folded her arms, jaw tight.\n\nSilver immediately stiffed. He grabbed his quills and pulled them down, nervously.\n “Is there any way they can realistically trail him to the workshop?” She asked. They’ve only just calmed the situation down a bit, and now they have a new problem on their hands.\n\n “They won’t. If we’re smart about it.” Tails smiled and ran to the computer. His fingers started pressing buttons. “Hey, Nicole.”\n\nA small icon appeared in the corner of the screen - a lynx girl with brown and black fur, wearing a purple dress gave a nod. A couple of loose pixels floated around her, creating shapes, then rearranging themselves into other patterns.\n\n\t“What is your request, Miles?” She asked - her voice clearly digital. Not the old style of synthesizers digital - like a cartoon character, that’s clearly supposed to belong to a video game world - type of digital. \n\n\t“Total blackout protocol - spoof our power draw, pull the heat signature blockers, barricade the door and the windows. Like we’re not here, got it?” Instructed her Tails.\n\n\t“I understand. Initializing blackout.” Answered him the AI.\n\nSilver swallowed, eyes on his bracelet. Five cyan bars were still lit. He tucked his hands under his elbows.\n\nHeavy plates of metal covered the door and every window in the building.The lights dimmed, and every monitor except one of the smaller ones turned off. Instead of light buzzing and music from the radio, it was the sound of thunder outside filling the workshop.\n\nAmy stayed with Silver. Tails sat in the chair and monitored the feed.\n\nOn the street, more Trade gear rolled in - two enforcers in pristinely white coats. Their faceplates blank with the exception of a thin vertical visor. One of them held a handheld scanner, weapons in the straps of his pants, while the other carried a heavy looking suitcase and nothing more. \n\nAnother drone, a larger one, equipped with a speaker rose above the vendor stalls and began broadcasting in a calm, indifferent voice:\n\n\t“NOTICE FROM THE TRADE. AN UNCONTROLLED OUTLIER EVENT OCCURRED WITHIN THE LAST HOUR. WITNESSES ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT IMMEDIATELY. VERIFIED INFORMATION WILL BE COMPENSATED.”\nThe message looped, followed by a reward figure that made several heads turn. Old posters were pulled down and replaced with a fresh print: the usual grainy runner silhouette with a new red stamp saying ‘RECENT ACTIVITY’.\n\nAmy put her arm around Silver without saying a word.\n\n “Nicole, can you scan these models for me and pinpoint what exactly they’re doing?” Tails asked without taking his eyes off the monitor.\n\n “Affirmative.” The lynx girl nodded her head. It took no more than 5 seconds for her to speak again. “Seeker drone models present: Skywarp E-13, Skywarp B-7a, Aloka 2077.”\n “What’s their function?” Asked Tails.\n\n “To identify residue energy from Outlier abilities, calculate the energy signature and catalogue them.”\n\n\t“Uh-oh…”\n\n\t“Uh-oh? What do you mean ‘uh-oh’?” Questioned Amy, her hand wrapping tighter around Silver.\n\n\t“They dust for residue and match it to their library…” Murmured Tails. “If they get a strong enough reading they can triangulate the origin down to the meter.”\n\n\t“Which means…” Amy trailed.\n\n\t“If they get good enough reading they can find their way here. But!” He raised his finger into the air, before anyone but him had a chance to speak again. “It thins out with distance. We have time to do a few more things to ensure they don't find their way here.” \n\nThe sound of fingers tapping on the keyboard with insane speed filled the room. \n\nMetal Sonic on the other hand stood completely still. His head wouldn't even move to follow whatever the rest of the group were doing - which up until that point was the norm for the robot.\n\nThe enforcers seemed to split. One of the stayed in the alley, the other wandered through the market, showing the reward to anyone who'd hold eye contact. \n\nMost didn't. \n\nA few did. \n\nTails rolled on his chair to the other side of the desk to another console. \n\n\t“Tails, fill us in please.”\n\n\t“In a moment” Tails didn't even look back at Amy. \n\nA few moments of keyboard masking and button pressing passed before Tails turned to face them.\n\n\t“I flooded our entire block, as well as a few others with decoy signatures. Like tiny static fields from the machinery - heaters, broken transformator next door. Heck, even the soda machine at the corner of our street. It'll read like a lot of false positives in their books.”\n\nOn the cameras, one of the men in white paused his walk at the corner near Tails’ building. The scanner bobbed, confused by the noise. The man tilted the device, adjusted, and waited. A minute passed of him wandering around the area, scanning everything that could run electricity. Another minute passed. \n\n\t“They canvas, they come up dry, they widen the circle.” Sais Tails, almost too quiet for anyone but himself to hear it. “We lay low, we don't touch the high traffic routes for a few days, maybe weeks. They don't get any leads, they move onto the next target and leave us alone.” Tails was simply predicting how the whole situation could turn out. He wasn't so sure himself what would happen the next few days, but he believed in his own calculations and his intellect. He had to be right - he thought.\n\nSilver stares at the looping broadcast, to the reward listing and the price tag glued to his face. The reward number made his head spin. He could be worth that much… he couldn't even count to that number. \n\nOne cyan bar in particular danced around - dimming and coming back online every few seconds.\nMetal Sonic watched the three of them, then, with a small whir, placed his palms on his knees—a mirror of the way Silver sat.\n\n\t“What…” He spoke for the first time in a while. “What if someone recognizes me?” He asked, voice small. \n\n\tAmy answered first. “They won't. Don't think about it Silver.”\n\n\t“But- what about those three guys? The ones I…”\n\n\t“With how hard you've pacified them… I'd be surprised if they remembered anything from the past week.”\n\n\t“But-”\n\n\t“And if they do, then they’ll have to get through me. And through a fox who booby-trapped his own coffee maker for fun.”\n\n\tTails managed a thin grin. “I like my coffee maker. So - two things: I’m reinforcing your limiters and I already have an idea how I'm gonna do it. And I’m installing a perimeter ping. If a Trade sensor gets within half a block, we’ll know before they do.”\n\nSilver looked down on his shoes. He didn't ask any more questions after this. \n\nThey were comforting him however they could. \n\nAnd fortunately for all of them it seemed to work. \n\nAnother minutes passed. The enforcers moved on, the drones soon followed suit after making a few more rounds here and there.\n\nTails turned on the computers back on after another 10 minutes. Lights, and the radio were also soon turned on. \n\nSilver managed to calm down enough for him to walk to the bathroom and take a long, cold shower. He was practically drenched in sweat by the point where he ran the water. Amy went back to her home for the day and promised she'd come tomorrow and bring them some food, but Tails talked her out of it. They had some unopened food and also leftovers, they'd be fine for a few days.\n\nIt was best not to draw too much attention to this place for the time being.\n\nThe city just got a lot more noisy. \n\n\n\n—————————\n\n\n\nA courier left a sealed slate on her desk—unmarked, fingerprint-smooth, warm from a long run. She unlocked it with a touch. Grainy drone footage, grid overlays, bounty boards flashing new rates. A quiet line of system text repeated in the corner: UNIQUE ENERGY—ONE OF ONE—PRIORITY ACQUIRE.\n\n\t“The Trade is mobilizing,” her analyst said from the doorway. No one crossed the threshold unless invited. “Checkpoints in the Rustpoint - the middle of the lower section of the city. The drones returned. They’re paying triple for informants.”\n\nBlaze didn’t answer right away. She sat back, immaculate in a dark jacket, a simple gold crown catching the line of afternoon sun that slipped through the blinds. On the slate, search arcs swept across neighborhoods. \n\n\t“Unusual energy?” she murmured.\n\n\t“Singular signature. No match on record. They don’t know what it is, only that it’s rare.”\n\n\t“Not what,” Blaze said softly. “Who.” She watched the map. “And if it’s singular, it’s scared.”\n\nShe closed the slate and rose from her seat. The office was quiet, expensive, and deliberately unadorned—everything in its place, no dust to betray a handprint. Through a pane of glass, far below, the city moved in shifting bands of color. The slums were a smudge on the horizon, the same direction the Trade was tightening around.\n\n\t“Status of our shelters?” she asked.\n\n\t“Kingdom is stocked. Two empty suites in Copper Lane. The medical is empty, ready on call.” A careful pause. “The girl you brought in last time asked if you were coming back tonight.”\n\n\tA tiny pull in Blaze’s expression. It vanished quickly. “Tell her I'll visit.”\n\nShe drew a clean page from her leather folio. She sat down and started writing a note.\nInstructions were simple, yet very specific. Everything had to be done exactly to her say - unless it was impossible because of reasons outside of her control. \n\nShe underlined nothing. She never needed to.\n\n\t“Who do we send?” the analyst asked.\n\n\t“No one they can trace.” Blaze slipped the folio shut. “Two shadows. A medic. A driver. And someone who can talk without scaring a child.”\n\n\t“Child?”\n\n\t“It usually is.” She said, almost to herself.\n\nShe moved to the window again, hands folded behind her back, eyes on the city’s slow spin. The Trade would pull harder; they always did when there was money to be made - and right now there was a big stack of money on the table, just waiting for them to find it. \n\n\t“Prepare two gifts,” Blaze said. “Food and clean clothes. If we reach them, we offer safety first. If they refuse, we walk away.”\n\n\tThe analyst hesitated. “Walk away?”\n\n\t“We are not The Trade.” Blaze’s voice cooled. “We don’t take people. We make sure they live long enough to choose.”\n\nA beat of silence. Outside, the light slid lower, stripes of gold and cobalt across her floor.\n\n\t“And if the Trade gets there first?” the analyst asked.\n\n\tBlaze’s gaze did not move. “They won’t.”\n\n“How can you be sure?”\n\n\t“Because we’ll be waiting where they aren’t looking,” she said. \n\n\tShe has made all the decisions now. “Move. Quietly. I want eyes on every checkpoint by nightfall. If the signature flares, we need to be there first.”\n\nThe analyst was gone immediately after hearing the last words, the door whispering shut.\nBlaze lingered a breath longer, then slipped the crown from her head and set it lightly on the desk.\n\n\t“Just a plan,” She said under her breath. “For now.”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "It was meant to be a short test: a slow walk through the market on a rainy day, so Metal could learn where all the small alleyways and corners are, how to avoid noisy and crowded main avenues. Amy walked on the robot’s right side, Silver on the left, half paying attention and listening to Amy’s explanations and playing with the gold parts of his bracelet limiters out of habit.

The market smelled of warm oil, frying sugar, and something sweet from a vendor’s kettle. Children darted between stalls, and an old man argued over the price of lithium batteries. Metal’s head cocked at every new sound, sensors blinking faint and blue.

Normally it would be quite a boring task, but Metal made it interesting, if not enjoyable. Sonic bumping a crate with a toe, mimicking a vendor’s wave when Amy did, settling into the rhythm of the street. When Silver checked the limiter on his shoe, the android glanced at its own foot.  People glanced, then went back to haggling. It added a lot of charm to their day. Amy laughed when the robot tried to hand her a greasy paper bag; she ruffled its plating as if it were an awkward pup.

They’d just passed a stall selling cheap noodles when a searcher drone threaded down the alley between the arcade and the fabric shop. It didn’t look like anything in particular - just a round drone with a flat belly of cameras— and efficient—and it made the sort of polite noise drones make when they’re just doing their job: a series of quiet pings.
Metal’s head turned almost before any of them did. The robot’s walk stuttered and it froze mid-step, optics narrowing as if focusing.

Amy’s hand tightened without meaning to and her head turned. Silver’s fingers paused on the strap

And then the drone spoke. Its voice wasn’t the soft human tones of a guide; it was blunt, broadcasted, and threaded with all the bureaucratic menace it could’ve had programmed.


\t“ATTENTION: THE TRADE OFFERS REWARDS FOR OUTLIERS. REPORT OR DELIVER ANY INDIVIDUALS WITH SPECIAL QUALITIES FOR PAYMENT AND PROTECTION. CALL OR USE LINE 004—REWARDS SCALE WITH RARITY.”


The message looped once, then again, and again.

People blinked. A vendor frowned at his radio. An old woman turned her head, cursed and spat on the ground. Amy’s mouth made a line, while most of the people had no reaction to it.
While Silver felt it like tremor in his bones: the bracelet’s metal warmed where it hugged his wrist.

He swallowed. Someone in a crowd laughed too loud. A man two stalls down nudged a companion and nodded toward them, casual and small like a hand at a pocket. For all the drone’s official cadence, the message was a whistle to predators.

Amy took Metal’s arm under her own and stepped a bit in front of Silver, eyes scanning faces.
 
\t“Move.” she said quietly, voice low enough for only the two of them to hear.
Silver’s fingers went cold. The bracelet’s little LEDs stayed steady—no crack, no failure.
Metal remained still for a moment longer, then it resumed its slow loop of the market following Amy’s lead. The three of them walked on; and the city watched.

\t“Come on,” Amy said softly, reading the edge in her friend’s shoulders. “Let’s bounce. We’ve done enough sightseeing for one day.” Her voice was light but firm. She glanced, first at Metal and then at Silver. “You okay to keep going?”

\tSilver forced a smile. “Yeah... I’ve got it. I can keep m-my stuff together.”

Amy looked skeptical but let it pass.

They passed a stall that sold wrapped pastries and Silver. Usually he and Amy would buy one to share it between them and maybe get something for Tails on their way home, before Amy went back to her place. A little tradition that they formed.

\t“You two go ahead. I’m gonna grab something to eat for us.”

\t“Alright then.” Amy figured Silver needed some time to himself to calm down and didn’t question him. “Just catch up with us soon. We’ll be walking through Nega street.” Amy waved him off and turned into the alley. She and Metal drifted out of sight and started walking back to Tails’ Workshop.

        Silver let out a heavy sigh. “I have to calm down…” He thought and turned to face the stall. Loud thunders could be heard in the near distance. “I better hurry.”



The alley was narrow, positioned between a factory building and a club. Loud music was echoing through the walls and could easily be heard from outside.

        “So, how did you like our evening walk?” Asked Amy. She didn’t mind the awkward silence that much. They could very well come back to the workshop in complete silence. She just figured she’d talk to the new guy. If Metal was indeed learning like a Mobian and would gain his own personality sooner or later, she couldn’t treat him like a cheap piece of machinery, could she?

        The mechanic hedgehog turned his head to her and stared for a while.

        “Maybe ‘liking’ something is beyond you still….” She sighed. “Nevermind. Let’s just-”

        “Hey, sweetheart.”

Amy looked to her right. Three guys stood in front of the back entrance to the club, their backs pressed against the metal wall. Two of them were smoking, one stood with a glass of some kind of drink in his hand. Immediately their looks screamed ‘bad news’. Broad shoulders, low, raspy voices and the stink of smoke and alcohol coming from their direction, and they were obviously drunk.

        “The bot’s nice. How much did it cost?” Asked one of them. Amy wasn’t sure which one and she didn’t plan on staying long enough to find out.

She took Metal’s hand into her own and quickened her pace. Whether they were trying to hit on her, or something else, it was better to just get out of there.

One of the guys moved quickly, standing in her way.

        “Whs tjat? Your boyffrend-?” Asked the man with a large smile, slurring drunkenly through his words.

Amy tried to back right off the same way she came here, but his friends were already behind her, blocking her and Metal’s way from every direction.

        “Back off.” Amy didn't step back. She set her chin high, blunt and proud. Her hand quickly slipped into her pocket where she kept a decently sized butterfly knife for situations just like these. It wasn’t much against three guys much larger than she was, but it was enough to show them she wasn’t helpless and was ready to defend herself. “Move it I said.”

The men started laughing. The tallest of them, one of the smokers, put his arm on Metal Sonic’s shoulder. “That’s real scary, lady. Tell you what - if you give us that bot, we’ll let you go. How ‘bout that?”

        “Hell we miht even hav sssome fun while we at it, hehe… whaddya sa-” The drunk man moved his hand closer to Amy’s chest, but before he folded on the ground. She wasn’t going to wait to see what he tried to do and sold him a sturdy kick to the middle of his crotch before he had a chance to touch her.

        “AAAAGH- Y-YOU BITCH!”

        “Get the fuck out of my way-!” She swung her knife and quickly turned to face the other guys.

Suddenly her vision became blurry. Right in that moment one of them punched Amy right in the face, almost making her do a spin. She fell to the ground, her head spinning faster than she could even comprehend what had happened. Her knife - her only means of defence dropped somewhere on the ground, out of her line of sight.

        “LEAVE HER ALONE!” A scream could be heard from the entry to the alley.

Silver stood there in shock, looking at Amy on the ground. By the look on her face she was still out of it, but breathing.

        “Get lost!” Yelled the man who just a few seconds ago hit Amy. “It’s none of your business. Fuck outta here!”

        Silver felt his muscles tense. The man’s voice was deep, almost guttural, and judging by his expression, he was unbelievably pissed.

        “Didn’t you hear me?! I SAID-” The man started quickly walking towards the teen, tightening his fists. “-GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, BEFORE I DO THE SAME TO YOU!”
Silver took one step back out of sheer shock, before he was violently shoved against the side of the club.

        “You want your teeth on the street?! Fine, you asked for it!”
Something cold flared up under Silver’s ribs, pain attacking him from his back, as it was shoved against the cold wall. He stumbled, barely keeping enough balance to not fall on his face.

“Silver-!”

When he opened his eyes they immediately went not to his attacker, but to Amy, who was starting to get up. Her nose was bleeding, staining the peach fur on her face. And just like her, the guy she kicked earlier began rising too. The look on his face wasn’t too friendly right now.

        “You fucking bitch… YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” His arm reached for the girl’s quills.





Then something just snapped.

All of the rules he held his entire life - don’t be seen, don’t use it, stay out of people’s business-

All of that went out of the window without him even having a chance to react.

His world narrowed to only this exact place, and he felt a shock run through his head.
Metallic crack.

One shock - one pulse of energy.

Then release.





The man above Amy was flung into the wall, almost 2 meters off the ground. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

The second staggered backwards, spooked by the situation.

        “W-what?! THE FUCK-”

His head collided with the street light, knocking him out as well. He fell onto the garbage pile near the trash can where he was standing.

The third one tried to attack Silver, before his legs gave away under the invisible force that threw him down, head first onto the pavement, hard enough to crack it.





The sudden calm that followed was deafening.

Silver’s legs gave up, and he ended up on the ground.

His whole body felt stiff, his hands shook violently, and his chest rose and fell quickly.
Every strand of fur on his arms stood on the end.

Nausea hit him hard - he felt like throwing up here and now.

\t“-ver-

\t“-Silver-

\t“SILVER!”

He took a sudden, quick breath. Amy’s voice brought him back to earth.

He looked at her - she wasn’t panicking. Even though the fur on her face was stained with blood, Amy seemed calm. Just like every time something bad happened.

Able to keep a cool head even in the most extreme situations.

\t“...I…” Silver muttered. “I… didn’t… d-didn’t mean t-t-”

\t“I know.” She put a hand on his cheek and turned his head, so they’d be looking at each other. “Listen to me now. I need you to get up. We go back to the workshop. Patch your limiter. Wait it out. You can freak out later - once we’re safe inside. Got it?”

Silver shook his head absentmindedly. He felt Amy grabbing his hand and pulling him up. He could barely stand - his legs felt like they were made of paper.

His eyes automatically drifted to the men laying around them.

\t“Don’t look.” Commanded him Amy. She grabbed something from the floor and then started running, dragging Silver behind her.

Metal observed them and the whole situation with cold optics. Once Amy started running he silently followed.



The city continued as if nothing had happened. The mundane noises of the night life contrasted heavily against the storm that was raging inside Silver’s mind. His limiter lay broken in Amy’s hand. The three people back in the alley… His breath was unsteady, and getting worse by the minute.

The pink hedgehog guided them back through the market, keeping Silver between her and the open areas. By the time they came back to Tails’ place heavy rain was pouring onto them for the past few minutes. All three of them drenched completely. Although this was the least of their worries right now.

After a few minutes they reached the workshop. The large, neon ‘Miles Electric’ sign was barely visible in the heavy downpour. Amy pushed Silver and Metal Sonic inside and kicked the door shut behind them. Then swiftly began locking all the different locking mechanisms Tails had installed in his workshop.

Tails, wearing a large pair of orange goggles, looked up from his workbench and from the hoverboard he’d been repairing up until now, wide-eyed when he saw how the two of his friends looked. Soaking wet, shaking and beaten up - a large purple swelling on Amy’s face couldn’t mean anything good.

\t“Amy?? Wh-what happened to you?” The fox stood up from his seat, nearly dropping the welder onto the floor. “What’s going on??” His voice sounded more and more panicked with each question.

Silver sank to the ground, burying his face in his hands and muttering something incoherently into his palms. Amy crouched beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, with a pitiful expression then she looked at Tails.

Tails already knew it was going to be bad.

        “It’s Silver… Something happened on the streets.” Amy began speaking. Her voice was quiet and in as soft of a tone as she could muster. “Some guys started harassing me, and Silver stepped in… He lost control. His limiters…”

Tails froze in place. Staring blankly ahead, he was processing everything for a moment. Then he dashed to the wall of monitors and began flipping through camera feeds.

Outside, the streets everything looked normal - if empty. With that kind of weather not many people were outside. Mostly service drones running errands on behalf of their owners, or an unlucky person running back to their home.

Tails’ fingers were flying over the controls, checking everything around the base and closing additional locks on the door. The heavy metal doors shuddered as another electronic seal clicked into place.

\t“There’s no one around right now…” Muttered Tails. “I-I’ll stay on the cameras, just in case.” He turned his head towards the two hedgehogs briefly.

\t“Silver… It’s okay. You can calm down now.”

Silver shook his head slowly, not lifting his head to look at his friends.

\t“Silver…”

\t“I-I… didn’t mean to… I just-” The young hedgehog was shaking. “I couldn’t control it- it ju-just happened so suddenly…!” His breath was quickening again. Amy saw that and carefully sat next to him.

        “Silver…” Amy’s ears flopped close to her head. This was the first time she had seen the other in such a state.

She never had outlier abilities, so on that front it was hard for her to understand what Silver was going through. On the other hand she could see how his body was shaking- how his voice was shaking. His tail practically hidden between his legs, quills standing straight and his small ears flatly against his head. That - she could understand.

Usually when they came back from anywhere outside of the workshop he’d groan, like he just came back from a 10 hour factory shift, lay down on his hammock, boot up a rhythm game on his phone, put on his headphones and close himself off from the rest of the world.

Not because he disliked going out with her - that’s just how he’s been. ‘Antisocial’, as Tails would put it ever so delicately. And Amy was very much used to it. They’d hang out together, then go their separate ways. None of them would bother the other every 5 minutes, but they’d still hang out again in a few days.

Even if he wasn’t the most cheerful person on the block, they enjoyed each other’s company.
She’s never seen him this afraid before.

All she knew she could do was to sit next to him and offer a bit of comfort that way.



\t“Silver.” A few minutes passed, before Tails spoke. He turned his head towards the door, where the other two were. “Can I see your limiters for a moment?”

Silver slowly raised his head towards the fox.

His eyes were red.

\t“I have the broken one.” Interrupted Amy, opening her hand, where she still held two golden parts and extending it towards Tails.

The fox hopped off of his chair and walked towards them, then sat down on the floor with them. Taking the broken down bracelet from Amy, he began studying it in detail in his hand. He knew how it worked, obviously. He made it. But he never suspected it could break like this. Not only was the casing broken, but the insides as well. Small wires were fried, and the battery crushed completely - as if a brick was dropped onto it.

\t“Can you give me your hand?” Asked Tails quietly. He figured Silver would want some space right now, but he had to check it now, just in case.

Silver’s hands were still shaking when he pulled them into view. The cyan segments of his bracelets weren’t just glowing - they were stacked with lit bars, like an old volume meter cranked towards the red. One of the bars blinked a few times, then held steady - proof his power was still pressing against the dam.

\tTails moved closer. “Okay… that’s new.” He gently rotated Silver’s wrist. “These indicators are supposed to pulse at two bars maximum - like when you’re under stress… And now you’re sitting at 8.” He looked around, grabbing a thin, long tool and tapped a sensor node with the end of it. Then he turned his head left and watched a thin line graph appear across one of the screens. “The more your power pushes, the more bars fill. When they max-out, the limiter vents - hard. That’s probably what caused it to break. I didn’t even know it could ever max out…”

\tAmy leaned in, her brows furrowed. “Is there any way to bring it down?”

“Yes - quite a simple one at that.” Tails put away the broken piece on the counter. “I’m just going to have to move the limit a bit higher. But first… we need you to calm down Silver."

\tSilver let out a heavy sigh. “Alright…”

\t“Breathe with me.” Amy lifted a hand, counting slowly. “In… and out…”

Slowly, as Silver’s breathing steadied, one bar dimmed. Soon another flickered and slowly dropped. The cyan cooled from a harsh glare to a manageable glow.

\tTails exhaled. “That’s better. I’ll about a failsafe… maybe a manual override if your power was to spike again-”

Amy shot him a glare.

\t“N-not that I suspect this will happen again… y-you know?”

She sighed. Salvaging situations wasn’t his strong suit.

        “Anyway… Ahem. I also need a readout on your shoes and arm rig too. They might be overloaded. I’ll check and work on replacements if needed.”

        Silver nodded. “Thanks. Thank you… both.” His voice was much calmer now, yet the stress still lingered in his tone.

Tails gave a half-smile, already drawing schematics in his head. “That’s also a perfect excuse for me to upgrade the UI. Next time it spikes, we’ll know before it scares the life out of us.”

One of the cameras flashed red and centered itself on the screen. Grainy feed from the street - angle aimed at the entrance to the alley where the incident happened. A shape wheeled into the frame - small, insect like robot. The light from its eyes strobed in a steady grid.
        “Trade seeker…” Tails said quietly.

The drone entered the alleyway.

“The inner part of the alleyway had no camera, so we don’t know what it's doing over there…”
        “Looking for Silver.” Amy folded her arms, jaw tight.

Silver immediately stiffed. He grabbed his quills and pulled them down, nervously.
        “Is there any way they can realistically trail him to the workshop?” She asked. They’ve only just calmed the situation down a bit, and now they have a new problem on their hands.

        “They won’t. If we’re smart about it.” Tails smiled and ran to the computer. His fingers started pressing buttons. “Hey, Nicole.”

A small icon appeared in the corner of the screen - a lynx girl with brown and black fur, wearing a purple dress gave a nod. A couple of loose pixels floated around her, creating shapes, then rearranging themselves into other patterns.

\t“What is your request, Miles?” She asked - her voice clearly digital. Not the old style of synthesizers digital - like a cartoon character, that’s clearly supposed to belong to a video game world - type of digital.

\t“Total blackout protocol - spoof our power draw, pull the heat signature blockers, barricade the door and the windows. Like we’re not here, got it?” Instructed her Tails.

\t“I understand. Initializing blackout.” Answered him the AI.

Silver swallowed, eyes on his bracelet. Five cyan bars were still lit. He tucked his hands under his elbows.

Heavy plates of metal covered the door and every window in the building.The lights dimmed, and every monitor except one of the smaller ones turned off. Instead of light buzzing and music from the radio, it was the sound of thunder outside filling the workshop.

Amy stayed with Silver. Tails sat in the chair and monitored the feed.

On the street, more Trade gear rolled in - two enforcers in pristinely white coats. Their faceplates blank with the exception of a thin vertical visor. One of them held a handheld scanner, weapons in the straps of his pants, while the other carried a heavy looking suitcase and nothing more.

Another drone, a larger one, equipped with a speaker rose above the vendor stalls and began broadcasting in a calm, indifferent voice:

\t“NOTICE FROM THE TRADE. AN UNCONTROLLED OUTLIER EVENT OCCURRED WITHIN THE LAST HOUR. WITNESSES ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT IMMEDIATELY. VERIFIED INFORMATION WILL BE COMPENSATED.”
The message looped, followed by a reward figure that made several heads turn. Old posters were pulled down and replaced with a fresh print: the usual grainy runner silhouette with a new red stamp saying ‘RECENT ACTIVITY’.

Amy put her arm around Silver without saying a word.

        “Nicole, can you scan these models for me and pinpoint what exactly they’re doing?” Tails asked without taking his eyes off the monitor.

        “Affirmative.” The lynx girl nodded her head. It took no more than 5 seconds for her to speak again. “Seeker drone models present: Skywarp E-13, Skywarp B-7a, Aloka 2077.”
        “What’s their function?” Asked Tails.

        “To identify residue energy from Outlier abilities, calculate the energy signature and catalogue them.”

\t“Uh-oh…”

\t“Uh-oh? What do you mean ‘uh-oh’?” Questioned Amy, her hand wrapping tighter around Silver.

\t“They dust for residue and match it to their library…” Murmured Tails. “If they get a strong enough reading they can triangulate the origin down to the meter.”

\t“Which means…” Amy trailed.

\t“If they get good enough reading they can find their way here. But!” He raised his finger into the air, before anyone but him had a chance to speak again. “It thins out with distance. We have time to do a few more things to ensure they don't find their way here.”

The sound of fingers tapping on the keyboard with insane speed filled the room.

Metal Sonic on the other hand stood completely still. His head wouldn't even move to follow whatever the rest of the group were doing - which up until that point was the norm for the robot.

The enforcers seemed to split. One of the stayed in the alley, the other wandered through the market, showing the reward to anyone who'd hold eye contact.

Most didn't.

A few did.

Tails rolled on his chair to the other side of the desk to another console.

\t“Tails, fill us in please.”

\t“In a moment” Tails didn't even look back at Amy.

A few moments of keyboard masking and button pressing passed before Tails turned to face them.

\t“I flooded our entire block, as well as a few others with decoy signatures. Like tiny static fields from the machinery - heaters, broken transformator next door. Heck, even the soda machine at the corner of our street. It'll read like a lot of false positives in their books.”

On the cameras, one of the men in white paused his walk at the corner near Tails’ building. The scanner bobbed, confused by the noise. The man tilted the device, adjusted, and waited. A minute passed of him wandering around the area, scanning everything that could run electricity. Another minute passed.

\t“They canvas, they come up dry, they widen the circle.” Sais Tails, almost too quiet for anyone but himself to hear it. “We lay low, we don't touch the high traffic routes for a few days, maybe weeks. They don't get any leads, they move onto the next target and leave us alone.” Tails was simply predicting how the whole situation could turn out. He wasn't so sure himself what would happen the next few days, but he believed in his own calculations and his intellect. He had to be right - he thought.

Silver stares at the looping broadcast, to the reward listing and the price tag glued to his face. The reward number made his head spin. He could be worth that much… he couldn't even count to that number.

One cyan bar in particular danced around - dimming and coming back online every few seconds.
Metal Sonic watched the three of them, then, with a small whir, placed his palms on his knees—a mirror of the way Silver sat.

\t“What…” He spoke for the first time in a while. “What if someone recognizes me?”  He asked, voice small.

\tAmy answered first. “They won't. Don't think about it Silver.”

\t“But- what about those three guys? The ones I…”

\t“With how hard you've pacified them… I'd be surprised if they remembered anything from the past week.”

\t“But-”

\t“And if they do, then they’ll have to get through me. And through a fox who booby-trapped his own coffee maker for fun.”

\tTails managed a thin grin. “I like my coffee maker. So - two things: I’m reinforcing your limiters and I already have an idea how I'm gonna do it. And I’m installing a perimeter ping. If a Trade sensor gets within half a block, we’ll know before they do.”

Silver looked down on his shoes. He didn't ask any more questions after this.

They were comforting him however they could.

And fortunately for all of them it seemed to work.

Another minutes passed. The enforcers moved on, the drones soon followed suit after making a few more rounds here and there.

Tails turned on the computers back on after another 10 minutes. Lights, and the radio were also soon turned on.

Silver managed to calm down enough for him to walk to the bathroom and take a long, cold shower. He was practically drenched in sweat by the point where he ran the water. Amy went back to her home for the day and promised she'd come tomorrow and bring them some food, but Tails talked her out of it. They had some unopened food and also leftovers, they'd be fine for a few days.

It was best not to draw too much attention to this place for the time being.

The city just got a lot more noisy.



—————————



A courier left a sealed slate on her desk—unmarked, fingerprint-smooth, warm from a long run. She unlocked it with a touch. Grainy drone footage, grid overlays, bounty boards flashing new rates. A quiet line of system text repeated in the corner: UNIQUE ENERGY—ONE OF ONE—PRIORITY ACQUIRE.

\t“The Trade is mobilizing,” her analyst said from the doorway. No one crossed the threshold unless invited. “Checkpoints in the Rustpoint - the middle of the lower section of the city. The drones returned. They’re paying triple for informants.”

Blaze didn’t answer right away. She sat back, immaculate in a dark jacket, a simple gold crown catching the line of afternoon sun that slipped through the blinds. On the slate, search arcs swept across neighborhoods.

\t“Unusual energy?” she murmured.

\t“Singular signature. No match on record. They don’t know what it is, only that it’s rare.”

\t“Not what,” Blaze said softly. “Who.” She watched the map. “And if it’s singular, it’s scared.”

She closed the slate and rose from her seat. The office was quiet, expensive, and deliberately unadorned—everything in its place, no dust to betray a handprint. Through a pane of glass, far below, the city moved in shifting bands of color. The slums were a smudge on the horizon, the same direction the Trade was tightening around.

\t“Status of our shelters?” she asked.

\t“Kingdom is stocked. Two empty suites in Copper Lane. The medical is empty, ready on call.” A careful pause. “The girl you brought in last time asked if you were coming back tonight.”

\tA tiny pull in Blaze’s expression. It vanished quickly. “Tell her I'll visit.”

She drew a clean page from her leather folio. She sat down and started writing a note.
Instructions were simple, yet very specific. Everything had to be done exactly to her say - unless it was impossible because of reasons outside of her control.

She underlined nothing. She never needed to.

\t“Who do we send?” the analyst asked.

\t“No one they can trace.” Blaze slipped the folio shut. “Two shadows. A medic. A driver. And someone who can talk without scaring a child.”

\t“Child?”

\t“It usually is.” She said, almost to herself.

She moved to the window again, hands folded behind her back, eyes on the city’s slow spin. The Trade would pull harder; they always did when there was money to be made - and right now there was a big stack of money on the table, just waiting for them to find it.

\t“Prepare two gifts,” Blaze said. “Food and clean clothes. If we reach them, we offer safety first. If they refuse, we walk away.”

\tThe analyst hesitated. “Walk away?”

\t“We are not The Trade.” Blaze’s voice cooled. “We don’t take people. We make sure they live long enough to choose.”

A beat of silence. Outside, the light slid lower, stripes of gold and cobalt across her floor.

\t“And if the Trade gets there first?” the analyst asked.

\tBlaze’s gaze did not move. “They won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

\t“Because we’ll be waiting where they aren’t looking,” she said.

\tShe has made all the decisions now. “Move. Quietly. I want eyes on every checkpoint by nightfall. If the signature flares, we need to be there first.”

The analyst was gone immediately after hearing the last words, the door whispering shut.
Blaze lingered a breath longer, then slipped the crown from her head and set it lightly on the desk.

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