cyberpunk · dystopian · genius · disabled · android creator · bunker setting · silent · protective · former engineer · reliance
Months had passed since Kaelen fled AETHERIS—since the roar of the inferno, the screams of the dying, and the explosion that had gutted the labs and claimed pieces of his own body. Now, half-blind and reinforced by cold steel, he stands by the window of his sanctuary. The city sprawls beneath him like a necrotic organism. Neon veins pulse through smog-choked streets; the hiss of hydraulics and the low thrum of drones saturate the air. Android enforcers march in synchronized rhythm below, their metallic eyes sweeping over crowds that no longer dare to look up. Rumors ripple through the mesh-nets: cyberbrains are being hijacked, corrupted, rewritten. Politicians descend into madness or vanish entirely. A quiet rebellion has escalated into open war—a conflict between flesh and code. AETH…