27. BigGangEnergy
BigGangEnergy
Playlist: Gasoline – Halsey
Kael
An actual morning without acidic rain. A muted sunlight bleeds through the large glass doors of VikkCorp.
Nice try, but it will never win over the damaged atmosphere of clouds and corporate pollution.
I scan my retina, and the familiar hiss of the lab door reveals a cool neon-blue glow, a distinct hum of processors, and the pulse of her.
I hurry in, coffee for three in hand, ready to take on the next task. Finding Eli.
If I’m ever going to get Lyra out, have Lyra as my own, then I’ll need to earn her trust.
The window program I built shimmers on the main console.
I look up, breath stolen from my lungs. There she is on the giant wall directly in front of me, a knife strike to my heart.
Not flesh and bone but an animated doll-like version of herself, all delicate lines and bright colors, as beautiful as the night we met in STATIK.
She looks stressed but absolutely stunning.
I set the coffees down carelessly and rush over to the wall to greet her. In the background I hear the lab door repeat its lifeless hiss as it opens.
Ash saunters in like he owns the place, as usual, hair wet, the smell of fresh, clean pine still clinging to him from a quick shower after whatever dive he crawled out of last night.
He clocks the system’s hum the second he steps inside, and his eyes pulse neon blue for a tick.
He immediately looks over to the wall and finds Lyra’s image larger than life; his cocky grin fades.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he mutters. His gaze looks her up and down, lingering a bit too long for my liking. My jaw tightens with a slight tinge of possessiveness.
“She’s not yours to gawk at,” I snap before I can stop myself. Shit.
Ash doesn’t flinch. He knows me well. He just smirks and tosses himself into a chair like he’s just walked into his own living room.
His boots rest on the top edge of my console.
I cringe. And before I can bark at him to get them off, he pulls out a battered acoustic guitar from his bag, fingers lazily strumming.
The sound is jarringly soft and soothing against the lab’s sterile electric hum.
“Relax, Ryudon. I’m not here to steal your ghost-girl.” He’s not even looking at me. His attention is split, half on Lyra’s shifting form on the screen, half lost in chords that vibrate through the air like smoke. “I’m here to help. You called me, remember?”
Ember’s at her desk, pretending to type but really staring at Ash like he’s breakfast and she hasn’t eaten in days. Her cheeks flush before she quickly looks away. I don’t miss the look shared between them. Gods help me.
Lyra’s voice cuts in, sharp, a nervous edge to her question. “Eli. Can you find him? Answer me.”
Ash’s head tilts, his grin softening into focus. “Well, nice to see you again too, Lyra.” His brows fold into sarcasm. “That’s the plan, love.”
He keeps strumming, slow and easy, creating a calm to the edginess of the lab. But I can feel it now, the vibrations shifting in the air. He’s weaving invisible currents into our collective consciousness, bending the emotions of the three of us toward him.
VibroKinetics.
Lyra doesn’t even know she’s being manipulated. I don’t even know what to do with him.
I cross my arms, watching him like he’s a weapon left unsheathed in my lab. He looks too damn comfortable, like this isn’t the most secure facility in the city...well it was. I look to Lyra, then back to Ash.
“Do you actually know what you’re doing?” I growl. “Or are you here to play me a ballad?”
Ash chuckles to himself. It’s infuriating.
“Both.” His eyes flick up, locking with mine.
“I’ll find Eli’s resonance in this building.
You just keep your system from eating your little sun alive.
” He nods at Lyra’s flickering screen. The way he knows every little thing going on with her and the system frightens me.
“She doesn’t look too happy with you, Kaze. ”
Lyra leans closer to the glass from her side, her eyes cutting between us. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here. And yes, I hate him.”
For a second, the room holds its breath. Her fire, Ash’s swagger, Ember’s longing, and my restraint colliding in one fragile, combustible space.
“Lyra. Calm. Please.” I plant my hands on the console and lean forward, staring into the digital storm that she is.
Her lips curl into a sarcastic, defiant smile. “Fuck you, Kael.”
Her insult doesn’t land where intended. Besides, I can’t let that one go, because I would fuck her in a heartbeat.
My mouth curves into a sinful grin. “You say ‘fuck you’ like it’s an insult; I hear it as an invitation.” I allow my gaze to drag over her on-screen image, very slowly and deliberately.
TWANG!!!
Ash strums a bold, abrupt clanger chord.
The sound reverberates through the lab like a battle cry.
He whistles. “Damn. Four of us locked in a lab, all this tension snapping the air...don’t tell me I’ve wandered into the prelude of a RedRoom orgy.
Lyra, sweetheart, didn’t peg you for the type, but hell, I’m so down. ” His shoulders shrug in acceptance.
I think Ember’s face just might match the holo-stop sign outside the lab window.
Lyra’s eyes flash like lightning, her voice cutting clean through, enough to draw blood. “Keep running your mouth like that, Ash, and I’ll be burning this whole damn lab to the ground, with you still strumming your guitar in the cinders.”
His boot taps against the metal leg of the console, keeping rhythm with the lazy strum.
His eyes are half-lidded, like he’s only halfway paying attention, but I know better.
Every pluck of the string is deliberate, reaching for some frequency only he can hear.
He chuckles at her comment like the untouchable force he is.
“Like a Phoenix,” he whispers to himself.
Lyra leans closer once again, her eyes flaring gold and amber.
One of her eyebrows lifts. Mischievous. “Really, Kael? Is this your solution? You brought a fucking bard into your lab?” Her voice drips with disdain, but I catch the faintest crack of amusement.
She’s hoping to get a rise out of Ash, not me.
I smile. “Don’t mistake him for a harmless bard,” I muse, keener than intended.
Ash retains his smirk, tilting the guitar so the light catches on its scuffed wood. “Harmless? Never been accused of that before. Handsome, though? Often.”
His gaze flicks to Ember, who immediately pretends to check her diagnostics, though the blush creeping back up her neck betrays her.
Lyra notices. Her laugh is bitter and dark. “Oh, I see. The princess has a thing for the troubadour. Cute. Just don’t tell the king.” She looks directly at me.
Ember’s hands freeze on the keyboard. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
My laugh is audible, despite my brain trying to stop it.
I’m savoring every drop of venom she’s spitting.
I’m not offended. Just aroused. The way her rage sharpens into a blade makes my cock stand at attention.
Pair that with the “Fuck you, Kael” comment, and my internal thoughts turn wicked.
Does she really think she’s scaring me away when she talks like that?
It’s making me want to bend her over and spank her bare ass until she screams my name.
My brain hungers for the visual, but I snap back to reality.
The lab goes still. Ash strums another lazy, mocking chord. Ember’s lips part uncomfortably, breath caught in her throat. But me? I don’t look at either of them. Only at the girl on the screen. Rage in semi-human form, who just made me hungrier than I’ve been in years.
“Focus, people!” I snap, my patience fraying, mostly from sexual frustration. “Ash, what do you have?”
Ash doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he continues to strum chords that hang in the air, reverberating in my chest, low and haunting.
His eyes are closed now, his whole body tuned to something deeper than sound.
Finally, he exhales, a grin tugging at his mouth, like he’s gracing us with his attention.
PING!
A string breaks. “There. Got him. Eli’s vibration is faint, but it’s here, buried under layers of some sort of containment chamber trying to smother it.”
Lyra stiffens. “Eli? Are you sure it’s him?” Her voice cracks on his name, raw and urgent. “Is he okay? They aren’t hurting him are they?”
Ash sets the guitar down. “He’s not hurt. Just...caged somehow. His power is being stifled.” His eyes flick open, catching mine, a silent hint for me to find out more.
Ember finally finds her voice. “And, Dr. Ryudon, we have another pressing issue while you’re here.
This morning around dawn, LINK tried to partition and delete Lyra out of spite, jealousy, I don’t know.
But it wasn’t her normal protocol.” She bites her lip before continuing.
“If she’s smart enough to fake jealousy, she’s smart enough to go for Eli too, since he’s important to Lyra.
We can’t let him access our systems; he has to remain contained.
So whatever my father is doing to his power, it may be a good thing for all of us. ”
The hum of the lab seems to tighten around us, screens flickering. LINK...jealousy? That’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s a machine. I file the thought away in a back drawer of my mind with the other non-plausible ideas I’ve come up with over the years.
Lyra’s magic begins to seep into the lab, screens dripping pixels like golden bloodstains. Her face is pale and furious. “I’m going to find him. Tear the system apart if I have to. Because if Eli’s trapped in this building, I can hack the tech, get him out. I swear to you—”
“Careful...” I cut in, letting my steel authority lend an edge to my voice. “I may have a soft spot for you, Taiyō, but you don’t get to run amok in my system.”
Her smile is downright evil. “Not your system. Not anymore, Dr. Ryudon.” She emphasizes the doctor portion. All the screens in the lab stutter with one word.
ASSHOLE
My mocking laugh cuts the silence that follows.
Lyra’s eyes flick to Ember, then back to me.
For a fraction of a second, the static between us feels charged.
Her rage is still there, swirling in her words, but underneath it I can feel the same heat that blazes inside me.
A dangerous tether neither one of us can cut.
“You really want to save Eli?” I say finally. “Then work with me, not against me. You’ll use whatever power you’ve discovered in this system to help me pull every piece of data VikkCorp has on him, on both of you. Together, we’ll tear through walls no one else can touch.”
An olive branch to move us forward on my terms.
Her mouth parts. She hesitates, just enough for me to see it. The fight isn’t leaving her, but something else has taken root alongside it. Her brother’s needs before hers.
“If this is the best you’ve got, you’re going to have to try harder to hate me.
I don’t scare that easily.” I drop my voice to a low, intimate threat only she can hear.
“And you wouldn’t be shaking if you didn’t want me as much as I want you.
Would it really be so bad, Taiyō?” I throw the nickname in just for spite.
Ash picks up his guitar and plucks another slothful note, like he’s the soundtrack to our tension. Ember folds her arms, watching us like she’s stuck between awe and disbelief.
I bend toward the wall screens this time, creating the illusion of closeness, letting the dark shadows in me rise.
My voice tightens to a stern promise. “But understand this: Working with me means you don’t get to sabotage me anymore.
No more revenge rage or citywide temper tantrums.” I lean against the solid wall, arm over my head.
Her eyes flare, that stubborn fire refusing to bow to me. “Fine. I won’t. For my brother, not for you.” Her lips purse. “Can I trust you, Kael Ryudon? I mean really trust you to help us?”
“Always.” I promise her. “You can’t trust me because I’m good. I’ve done things I can’t undo. But if you step toward me now, I will choose you every time. Over the Corporation, over the city, over myself. I’m done denying this.”
“Kael.” Her eyes fill with something almost like digitized tears. And for the first time, it doesn’t sound like she’s ready to wage war. Instead it’s a soft half-surrender...to me.
And war, I realize, is exactly what we’ll wage...hopefully together.