Neon City never slept.

From the rooftop where I stood, its lights burned endlessly below neon blues and violent pinks bleeding into the smoggy night air. Starships drifted between the skyscrapers like metallic whales, humming softly as they disappeared into the upper traffic lanes.

I should’ve felt powerful up here. I usually did.But tonight, all I felt was the weight of the girl bound behind me.

She sat in a sleek carbon-fiber restraint chair nothing painful, just secure. A faint blue holo-field shimmered around the cuffs on her wrists. She wasn’t trembling; she wasn’t screaming. She just watched me, trying to understand whether I was the monster the Hero Society claimed I was. Most days, I wondered the same thing.

My name is Kade Veylan.

Neon City’s most wanted “villain.” A cybernetics smuggler. An information thief. A man who once believed the Hero Society T.H.S. actually protected people.

Now I knew better. I heard the sonic boom before I saw him.

A streak of white-blue light tore across the sky, landing on the rooftop with enough force to rattle the entire tower. Wind whipped across my coat as Astra Leonhart straightened, pristine armor glowing like he carried the sun on his shoulders.

T.H.S.’s golden boy. The galaxy’s favorite hero. And, years ago, my closest friend. He didn’t even look at the girl. Astra’s gaze locked on me with practiced righteousness.

“Kade,”

he said, voice amplified through his visor.

“Step away from the civilian.”

I barked a laugh.

“Nice entrance. Still doing the whole ‘dramatic savior’ thing, I see.”

“She shouldn’t be involved,”

he snapped.

“She wasn’t,”

I shot back.

“Until your Society framed her father for treason. I’m getting answers…you’re the one turning this into a spectacle.”

Astra took a slow step forward, hand hovering near the hilt of his photon blade. The rooftop lights reflected in his armor, making him look more machine than man. He still hadn’t looked at her. Not even once. She noticed. Of course she did.

“Are you here to help me?”

she asked quietly.

Astra hesitated. The tiniest pause but long enough for me to see the truth.

He wasn’t here for her. He wasn’t here for justice. He was here because T.H.S. ordered him to neutralize me before my evidence went public.

“Kade Veylan”

Astra said, voice going cold and official

“you’ve stolen classified files that compromise the stability of the entire planetary network. Hand them over, and I can still negotiate leniency.”

“There it is,”

I muttered.

“The script.”

Astra’s jaw clenched. I reached into my coat, and the girl stiffened thinking I was going for a weapon. But I wasn’t. I pulled out a small encrypted data shard glowing faint violet.

“This”

I said, holding it between two fingers

“contains proof that the Hero Society engineered catastrophes across three star systems just to justify their expansion. They’re not guardians, Astra. They’re tyrants wearing halos.”

Astra’s face cracked, just for a second. Old guilt. Old friendship. Old truth. And then it was gone.

“I’m sorry”

he said, barely audible.

“But this is bigger than her. Bigger than you. If the public sees that file… the entire system will fall into chaos.”

“Maybe it needs to”

I replied.

The girl whispered

“He’s choosing them over-”

Astra ignited his blade with a blinding flash. I swore under my breath. I didn’t want this fight. Not tonight. We clashed light against shadow, photon steel against my shock gauntlets. The rooftop shook beneath us. Sparks showered the girl as she ducked her head. And in the chaos, Astra made his choice. He knocked me back with a blast of kinetic force, and instead of freeing her, instead of assuring her safety, he turned to the city’s security drones screaming toward us.

“All units,”

he spoke into his comm,

“target the hostiles. Authorization: Hero Prime.”

Hostiles. Plural.

He had just labeled her the civilian he was supposed to rescue as a threat. The drones locked onto her as she stared at him in disbelief.

“You monster”