The alert on Mark's phone was a clear warning—the system wasn't going to give him much breathing room. It had already locked onto his location, and if he didn't move quickly, a new wave of enforcers would descend upon them in minutes. But the grin never left his face.
Mark didn't just feel like a glitch in the system. No—he was the glitch, and he planned to weaponize it.
"Alright," he muttered, cracking his neck as his mind swirled with ideas. "Time to rewrite the rules again."
Aya groaned. "You look way too excited for someone about to fight killer programs."
Byte rubbed his hands together. "What's the play, oh Great Reality Hacker?"
Mark's fingers flicked through the holographic code hovering in front of him. He was beyond a mere programmer now; he could bend logic, override natural laws, and rewrite existence itself. And right now, he had one goal—disappear from the system's radar while giving it something new to chew on.
The Decoy Code
Mark's eyes flickered with concentration as he set to work. He reached deep into the system's core, pulling fragments of digital identities and patterns that mimicked his signature. With a flick of his hand, he spread these fragments across the city like invisible breadcrumbs.
"Creating false leads," Mark muttered to himself. "The enforcers will chase ghost versions of me while we get some breathing room."
Aya raised an eyebrow. "You're spreading fake yous around the city?"
"Pretty much," Mark replied, grinning. "It's like throwing fireworks into every street corner so they can't tell where the real explosion is."
Byte gave a thumbs-up. "Smart. Distract them with the decoys, and we hit back when they least expect it."
A Surge of Power
Just as the decoys deployed, Mark felt a strange shift ripple through his body. His Architect's Core Rewrite ability pulsed unexpectedly, and new lines of code streamed into his vision.
System Update: New Feature Unlocked.
Ability: "Reality Sculptor" - Transform and weaponize objects in the real world.
Mark's breath hitched as the text scrolled across his vision. His power had just leveled up again—now, he could alter not just the Nexus but also the physical world. Buildings, vehicles, even objects around him—they were no longer just mundane things. They were his tools, waiting to be reshaped.
A wave of excitement rushed through him. His powers weren't just growing—they were evolving. The possibilities felt limitless.
Aya noticed the glint in Mark's eyes and smirked. "You just got stronger, didn't you?"
Mark nodded, the gears in his mind already spinning. "You could say that. We're about to cause some serious chaos."
The Arrival
A low hum echoed through the alley, followed by a flicker of glitching shadows. The system wasn't wasting any time—more enforcers were already on the hunt. The air warped and shimmered as five new enforcers appeared, their digital bodies crackling with raw energy.
"Five of them?" Aya muttered, gripping her knives. "They don't learn, do they?"
Byte twirled his spear. "Guess we'll have to teach them again."
Mark's grin widened as he extended his hand. The world around him shimmered like a mirage, and with a simple thought, the rusty dumpster next to them warped, shifting and elongating into an enormous iron hammer. He swung it experimentally, the weight perfect in his grip.
Aya blinked. "Did you just... make a dumpster into a hammer?"
Byte whistled. "Oh, I like this new power."
The enforcers twitched, their glowing eyes locking onto Mark. But this time, he wasn't waiting for them to strike first.
The Glitch Offensive
Mark charged forward, swinging the makeshift hammer with impossible force. The first enforcer moved to intercept, but it was too slow. The hammer connected with a deafening crash, and the enforcer shattered into pixelated fragments.
"That's one!" Mark shouted, already spinning toward the next target.
Aya dashed in beside him, her knives flashing as she cut through an enforcer's exposed joints. Byte vaulted over another enforcer, delivering a precise thrust with his spear. The trio moved like a well-oiled machine—chaotic, unpredictable, and devastatingly efficient.
The remaining enforcers tried to regroup, their glitchy forms flickering as they recalculated their strategy. But Mark wasn't going to give them the chance.
He focused on a nearby streetlamp, warping it into a long, jagged spear. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled it at the closest enforcer, impaling it mid-glitch. The digital creature collapsed into static, disintegrating before it could react.
"Two down!" Byte called, grinning ear to ear.
Aya leapt off a wall, her knives slicing through another enforcer's neck joint in a graceful arc. The creature fizzled out of existence, leaving only two more standing.
"Almost done!" Aya shouted.
Mark spun toward the final enforcers, his mind already rewriting their code. He overloaded their processors with nonsense logic—random sequences that disrupted their ability to move.
The enforcers froze mid-step, glitching violently as they struggled to execute contradictory commands.
"Boom," Mark whispered, slamming his hammer into the ground. A shockwave of warped reality surged outward, shattering the last two enforcers like brittle glass.
A Brief Respite
As the dust settled, Mark leaned on his hammer, catching his breath. Aya flicked her knives clean, and Byte collapsed onto a nearby crate, panting but grinning.
"Okay," Byte gasped. "I'm officially convinced—we're unstoppable."
Aya rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. "That was... actually pretty fun."
Mark smirked. "Told you. Reality is what we make of it now."
But even as the thrill of victory buzzed in his chest, Mark knew this was only the beginning. The system was relentless, and the enforcers were just one part of it. He had bought them time, but they couldn't afford to get comfortable.
Planning the Next Move
"We need to find a safe place to lay low," Mark said, his voice serious again. "Somewhere off the system's radar."
Aya nodded. "Agreed. But where? They're tracking us everywhere."
Byte raised a hand, grinning mischievously. "I know a guy. He's got this underground bunker—completely off the grid. Perfect for, you know, hiding from evil programs."
Mark raised an eyebrow. "How do you know a guy with a secret bunker?"
Byte shrugged. "I've got weird friends."
Aya snorted. "That's the understatement of the year."
Mark chuckled. "Alright, weird friends it is. Lead the way."
The Road Ahead
As they made their way through the dimly lit streets, Mark's mind raced with possibilities. The Nexus had declared war on him, and there was no going back. But with every enforcer he crushed, with every new power unlocked, he felt more certain of one thing:
He wasn't just a glitch in the system.
He was going to rewrite the entire thing—one broken rule at a time.
And if the Nexus thought it could control him?
Well, it had another thing coming.