Night had fallen over Tōriku City, the skyline shimmering with neon lights casting reflections on wet pavement. Atop the Kurogane hideout, Hiroshi stood still, his black coat fluttering in the chill wind as he gazed out over the city. Below, the heartbeat of the metropolis throbbed with sirens, laughter, and unseen dangers.
Inside, the core members of SPECTER gathered in the war room. Yuki sat at the head of the table, her posture poised and regal, dressed in a sharp black suit tailored to fit her new public image. Across from her sat Black Viper—formerly a Syndicate assassin, now a member of SPECTER, her sleek frame lounging in the chair, dark eyes alert and calculating.
"We need to move on Project Helix before the Syndicate makes their next play," Yuki said, her voice cool but edged with urgency. "We can't let them get their hands on it."
Hiroshi stepped into the room, drawing all eyes. His presence was like a blade unsheathed—quiet, but humming with lethal intent.
"We strike tonight," he said simply.
No one questioned him.
---
The target was a corporate tower: Kurozen Pharmaceuticals, a gleaming fortress of steel and glass. Rumor held that deep within its underground labs, Project Helix—a bioweapon prototype—was being developed, one that could tilt the balance of power across the entire underworld.
Under the cover of darkness, the team moved. Hiroshi led the infiltration squad: himself, Black Viper, and Spark—their hacker prodigy. Yuki would play the distraction, appearing at a gala hosted on the top floor to draw the attention of the company's elite security forces.
The night split into two battles.
On the gala floor, Yuki was a vision. Dressed in a crimson gown, she moved through the glittering crowd with the ease of a practiced socialite. Cameras snapped. Businessmen bowed. But beneath her charming smile, she guided the conversation toward chaos, quietly planting false rumors about corporate mergers and insider leaks. Soon, the room was a web of distrust, keeping the corporate heads too distracted to notice the shadow war unfolding below.
In the depths of the tower, Hiroshi's team was a whisper against the concrete. Black Viper dispatched guards with fluid grace, her knives flashing in the dim light. Spark disabled cameras and bypassed biometric locks, fingers flying over her custom console. And Hiroshi—he was the storm at the center of the silence, taking down armored soldiers with his reinforced chopsticks and precise strikes.
They reached the vault.
"Three minutes," Spark whispered, her fingers dancing on the keypad. Hiroshi and Viper held the line, dispatching wave after wave of private security. The vault clicked open with a final hiss, revealing a sleek black case.
"Got it," Spark grinned.
But the smile faded as the alarms blared.
Above, at the gala, Yuki's earpiece crackled. "Extraction now," Hiroshi's voice came through.
She smiled smoothly at the CEO beside her. "If you'll excuse me, nature calls."
---
The escape was chaos. Helicopters roared over the roof, searchlights slicing the night. SPECTER's team raced through maintenance shafts, avoiding patrols, weaving through the mechanical underbelly of the tower.
Black Viper stayed behind at one corridor, holding off Syndicate reinforcements. "Go!" she shouted. Hiroshi hesitated—just a flicker—then nodded, pulling Spark with him toward the exit.
They burst onto the roof as Yuki's extraction helicopter hovered, blades chopping the air. Hiroshi lifted Spark inside before vaulting in himself. The helicopter banked hard as Black Viper sprinted into view, leaping and grabbing the landing skids with feline precision.
As they rose into the night, the tower behind them erupted in confusion, alarms echoing across the cityscape.
---
Back at the hideout, the team gathered in the war room. The black case sat on the table, unopened.
Yuki leaned forward. "We need to know what's inside."
Hiroshi gave a small nod. Slowly, carefully, he opened the case.
Inside lay a small, crystalline vial, glowing faintly blue. A data chip rested beside it, marked only with a string of numbers: 12-21-7.
Spark's eyes widened. "That's… coordinates."
Yuki's expression hardened. "This isn't the end of Project Helix. It's the beginning."
Hiroshi's gaze swept across his team. Shadows danced on the walls, but inside him, a fire burned.
The war in the underworld had just escalated.