[OPENING SCENE — SKYVAULT COMMAND CHAMBER]
The city is still recovering from the Nightfall Restaurant incident. Kael stands before a wide holographic table, its surface glimmering with two blinking red zones — the suspected headquarters of Savage Bratz and Cinder Strain.
Kael:
"They're not hiding anymore. They're digging in."
Tari:
"Which makes them vulnerable."
Echo-7:
"I've intercepted low-bandwidth chatter. Krakk's movement in the Lower Rift. Dreyven's holed up in the Emberline District… recruiting."
Yuna:
"Two fronts. Minimal margin for error."
Irion (quietly):
"Then we strike both."
The door slides open. A tall man in obsidian-blue armor steps into the chamber. His presence is immediately commanding — scar on his temple, twin pistols strapped to his side, and a combat staff magnetized to his back.
General Voss Halron — decorated SkyVault Tactical Commander.
General Halron:
"I'll take the Emberline raid. You Vanguards handle the Bratz."
Kael (nods):
"Appreciate the support, General."
Halron:
"You saved this city more times than I've slept. Time to return the favor."
[SCENE 1 — SAVAGE BRATZ STRONGHOLD: SUB-RIFT GARAGE COMPLEX]
The Vanguards drop in through the ceiling vents of a glowing underground street-racer hub. Bratz members scramble — flame guns, blade-bikes, and spike drones light up.
Jax (charging in):
"Knock-knock!"
Veya:
"You Bratz call this a hideout? Looks more like a bad arcade."
Explosions ripple through the space as Kael ignites plasma waves, Yuna tangles Bratz members with psychic vines, and Irion locks corridors with distortion loops.
Krakk is notably missing.
Tari (sniping from a wall pipe):
"He's not here. They've split ranks."
Kael:
"Then take who we can."
After a brutal takedown of mid-tier Bratz lieutenants — including the techno-brawler Spikejaw and twin blade-users Rye & Kaz — the Vanguards detain over 14 Bratz members.
[SCENE 2 — EMBERLINE DISTRICT — CINDER STRAIN RAID]
Halron leads a squad of elite SkyVault police — black-armor division with gravity boots and neural shields. They breach a furnace-core hideout beneath an abandoned foundry.
General Halron (into comms):
"Dreyven. You're surrounded. Drop the hammer."
Dreyven stands at the center of a molten forge chamber, dragging his obsidian warhammer behind him.
Dreyven (growling):
"We are born of ash. We don't kneel."
A brutal brawl erupts — Halron moves like fire incarnate, redirecting hammer swings with his staff, breaking metal tiles with timed shock grenades. He subdues multiple Cinder acolytes while shielding his squad.
Eventually, he paralyzes Dreyven with a high-amp phase baton strike to the spine.
General Halron:
"Yeah? Try kneeling now."
[SCENE 3 — PRISON TRANSFER FACILITY: FORT CHIMERA]
Dozens of arrested criminals from both groups are loaded into drop-pods. The camera follows their journey to Fort Chimera — an airborne maximum-security prison rotating above the SkyVault Rift.
Inmates are fitted with neural dampeners, powered by energy siphons. No tech. No powers. No escape.
Warden (to the camera drones):
"They're locked in. Cry all you want — but you're not getting out."
Jax (watching from above):
"Feels too easy."
Tari:
"It's not over. Bratz and Cinder were never just gangs. They were... preparations."
Kael (to his team):
"Stay sharp. We closed a chapter. Not the book."
[FINAL SCENE — NULL ZONE FISSURE, UNKNOWN LOCATION]
Far beneath the surface, in the silence of a glowing fracture, something stirs. A slow, skeletal hand of glimmering ash brushes against crystal veins.
A faint whisper leaks upward through the cracks.
??? (distorted):
"They've locked the flames... but left the fire."
[TO BE CONTINUED]