The industrial district of Carmine City was a sprawling graveyard of rusted shipping containers and dilapidated factories, bathed in the sickly amber glow of sodium streetlamps.

Perched high on the rusted gantry of a derelict crane, Jayden crouched in absolute silence. His tactical suit blended seamlessly with the night, and his invisibility was active, rendering him completely imperceptible to the naked eye. Beneath the mask, his Dragon Eyes were locked onto the massive, corrugated steel warehouse across the street.

His vision was shifted to the thermal spectrum, painting the world in stark hues of orange and blue. Inside the warehouse, half a dozen bright red heat signatures clustered together. All having the shape of men. But in the center of them stood a localized void of absolute zero—a pitch-black silhouette radiating an unnatural, freezing aura.

It was Frost.

She appeared to be having a quiet conversation with the men. Her body language visible through the thermal reading was relaxed in the way that extremely competent people were relaxed in situations other people would find stressful — not absent of attention but comfortable with the attention in a way that came from long experience. Whatever the meeting was about, she was not concerned about its outcome.

Jayden’s muscles coiled tight like a compressed spring. He’d found her thirty minutes ago using the tracker. And he’d been patiently stalking her ever since, waiting for the right moment to strike.

And after a while he decided that the right moment was now.

He calculated the entry points. He could shatter the skylight, drop into the center of the room, eliminate the grunts in under three seconds with his speed, and finally face the Ice Queen one-on-one.

But just as he shifted his weight to leap, the thermal signatures inside the warehouse dispersed and the heavy steel doors shrieked open.

Frost stepped out into the damp night air alone. She paused under a flickering streetlamp, exhaling a plume of white frost. Jayden expected her to climb her hoverbike and ride away, but she didn’t summon it.

Instead, she stood at the warehouse entrance for a moment. She slowly turned her head, scanning the street around her with the unhurried, comprehensive attention of someone performing a specific task that was not casual. Then her eyes locked exactly onto the rusted gantry where Jayden was hiding.

Jayden held his breath, his heart skipping a beat. He was completely invisible, his aura suppressed to absolute zero. There was no physical way she could see him. Yet, the corners of her lips curled into a faint, knowing smirk. She casually slipped her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket, turned on her heel, and began walking away on foot, disappearing into the labyrinth of narrow, shadowy alleyways.

Jayden frowned behind his mask. Her actions were completely strange. She was either taking a path she was confident about or she was creating one. Either way, following her on foot through Carmine City’s alley network in full stealth was the logical next step. He couldn’t let the trail go cold

He dropped from the gantry, his boots making no sound as they hit the wet pavement, and began his pursuit.

He trailed her like a phantom, keeping a generous distance. He moved across rooftops and fire escapes, tracking the blinking red dot on his HUD while keeping her physical form in his sights. Carmine City’s alleys were tight, claustrophobic corridors choked with steam vents and neon signs buzzing with faulty wiring.

As Jayden leaped across a gap between two tenements, a shadow suddenly detached itself from the brick wall beside him. Before Jayden could even react, a hand clamped around his throat with the force of a hydraulic press.

He was violently ripped from his trajectory and slammed brutally into the brick wall of the alley. The impact disrupted his camouflage, causing his invisibility to violently flicker and shatter.

"Why are you tracking Frost?" a cold, feminine voice demanded.

Jayden snarled, instantly extending his Knuckle Claws. He brought his arm up for a lethal strike, but the pale moonlight broke through the clouds, illuminating his attacker’s face.

Jayden froze. His claws halted an inch from her neck. The face he saw was not a face he had expected to find in Carmine City tonight or any other night.

"Penelope?" He rasped.

The woman’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Jayden retracted his claws and reached up, deactivating the faceplate of his mask to reveal his face.

Penelope stared at him in shock. "Jayden?"

"H-Hello." Jayden murmured, his voice strained from having her hand around his neck. "Can I... have my neck back please."

Penelope gasped. "Oh, sorry." She released him and stepped back in the same motion. She looked him over. The suit. The mask. The tracking equipment visible at his belt. She was assembling something in her expression — not surprise exactly, because surprise was a thing that arrived and passed... this was something that was still arriving, still being incorporated into a larger understanding.

"Cassie told me you were off-planet," Jayden said.

Penelope let out a dry, sophisticated chuckle, dusting off the sleeves of her black trench coat. "I returned yesterday evening." She looked at him with a knowing smirk playing on her lips. "So, you’ve been busy."

Jayden flashed a wry smile. "It’s a work in progress," he looked away.

Penelope laughed softly. "I have to admit, I had my suspicions that you were the masked vigilante, but I wasn’t entirely certain until now."

She crossed her arms, genuine respect flashing in her eyes. "You’ve been doing incredible work, Jayden. Taking down Black Cobra Pioneers single-handedly? It’s no small feat. And for someone who’s training for a tournament, you’ve been covering a great deal of ground." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Jayden rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a strange mix of pride and embarrassment under her scrutiny. "I’ve had some help a few times," he muttered.

Penelope smiled sharply, "Well you’re about to get some more help tonight," she said. "You’re hunting Frost, correct?"

"Yeah," Jayden nodded.

"Good," Penelope’s smirk widened. "So am I."

Jayden raised an eyebrow. "May I ask why?"

Penelope’s expression hardened into a mask of pure, regal fury. "I’ve been trying to find out the identity of the client who hired Black Cobra to kidnap Cassandra. That is why I left the planet. I went to meet directly with the leader of the syndicate to ask him personally."

Jayden hummed. "And did you find out who it was?" he asked.

Penelope shook her head in disdain. "The man kept lecturing me about ’client confidentiality’ and syndicate privacy laws. A decade ago, I would have just tortured the name out of him. But..." She sighed. "That isn’t my style anymore. I made a promise to Cassandra to leave that darkness behind. So, I came back to Earth to hunt down the Pioneers instead. Surely, one of his top lieutenants must know who hired Scorched."

She looked at Jayden’s suit and let out an amused laugh. "Imagine my surprise when I returned and heard on the news that some masked vigilante was already hunting the pioneers down one by one."

"I couldn’t just sit around and wait," Jayden explained, his eyes hardening. "I couldn’t risk the syndicate connecting the dots to me and coming after Cassandra or my family. I had to take the initiative and go after them first."

Penelope stared at him, a profound fondness softening her sharp features. "That is exactly what your mother would have done." She rolled her shoulders, her aura flaring with a subtle, searing heat. "So, how about we team up for the night? I get the answers I need first, then you get to finish your hunt."

"Deal," Jayden agreed instantly.

He pulled out his tracking pad. The red dot had moved significantly during their conversation, but it was now stationary just a few blocks away. "She’s this way."

"Lead on," Penelope said.