The abandoned skatepark was a graveyard of the early 2000s.
To many people, preserving old none futuristic building was becoming a challenge as many people loses interested in those relics of the past.
But a small number still cared enough, to keep these buildings preserved.
The skatepark was a crumbling half-pipes tagged with real paint graffiti of various types of art. Ranging from: Former gang names and real people to random cartoon character drawn.
Zero leaned against a rusted railing, smoke curling from his lips as his modified hoverboard idled beside him, its thrusters glowing faintly in the dusk.
Miles landed perfectly besides him captions his attention with the new hairstyle, the white highlights in his high fade.
Zero smirked as he flicked some ash, "Looks good on you, if I known a few hours in advance. I would fresh up a bit."
Miles rest his arms against the railing, "Well my wife wanted us to have our partners natural colour in their hair. Her creative way of telling all the other girls that this guy is taken."
Zero quietly chuckle, "If only I could have a company as loyal as yours. But with my line of work, the honest one are masked by greedy ones."
Zero flicked his cigarette butt to and light a new one, "So. Surprised?"
"About you playing lab rat for a corporate messiah? Yeah, a little." Miles crossed his arms. "When'd the whole 'evolution' kick start?"
Zero's smile faded.
He stared at the crumbling *Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3* mural, "When I was six, I built a radio from nothing out of scrap I found. And used that radio to save a young girl who was lost in an underground cave. My actions was what I called a gifted that everyone was meant to experience but chose to rely on our cybernetics as the means of our evolution. Humanity could have been far greater, but compare to the Android slowly begun the second humanoid lifeform on earth. We are doom to dye out if we don't do something. And The Eclipse Stones? I view it as a possible next chapter of humanity evolution."
Miles studied him, "To what?"
"Zero dropped and crushed his cigarette underneath his foot, "Imagine human DNA spliced with extremophile bacteria. Or cheetah musculature. We cold finally experience the deep sea with the required aquatic features needed to breath underwater. We were given a rigged universe with limitless possibilities that could be achieved if we could see or gasped it." He grinned, sudden and wild.
Miles exhaled, "That's a hell of a dream."
"Dreams need funding." Zero pulled a holochip from his jacket.
"Nyx is hosting a masquerade gala. Black Ice, corporate elites—the kind of people who *buy* revolutions." He tossed it.
"You and your wife should come. See the future before it's sold." He said.
Miles caught the chip, "No location?"
"Security protocol. You'll get coordinates an five hour before." Zero remounted his board. "Race you back to the city?"
Miles smirked, "Try not to cry when I win."
They shot into the neon-soaked night, weaving through skyscrapers so fast the wind tore the smoke from Zero's lips.
---
After Miles departure from Zero, he received a message from Sarah with coordinator. The message said, "I found her."
Sarah's coordinates led Miles to the Flood Zone's northern edge, where the canals thickened with genetically modified algae that glowed a sickly green.
He found her crouched on a corroded fire escaped.
"Took you long enough," she murmured, not turning.
Below them sprawled Kira's haven—a derelict botanical garden strangled by vines that pulsed like veins.
Guards patrolled with toxin-scanners grafted to their wrists.
Miles crouched beside her, "Zero's invited us to a party. He is showcasing some experiments of his."
Sarah's optics narrowed, "Convenient timing."
She tapped her temple, projecting a thermal overlay onto the garden, "Kira's in the central conservatory. Guards have neural disruptors—one touch and your cybernetics fry."
"I'll handle them. You get Kira." She said.
Miles frowned, "You're not going in alone."
Sarah's fingers split open, revealing slender hacking tools, "Sweet of you to worry." She kissed his cheek. "But I *want* them to see me coming."
She dropped silently into the shadows. Seconds later, the nearest guard's toxin-scanner *exploded* in his face, spewing pink mist.
He gagged—then collapsed as Sarah's EMP round shorted his neural implants.
Miles counted to ten. Then he moved.