Cats and Dogs

Year 2084, the rain fell in torrents, slicking the streets of Eidolon in a relentless cascade of water and neon. The light refracted in jagged streaks across puddles, transforming the city into a kaleidoscope of artificial vibrance and decay. A handsome looking yet drained out man, limped through the chaos, his black coat billowing behind him, soaked in water and blood through, clinging to his form. His left leg dragged slightly, blood seeping from a gunshot wound just above the knee, staining the dark fabric. Each step was mechanical, a clockwork rhythm as though his body obeyed commands his mind wasn’t invested in.
Ahead, the figure he pursued disappeared into a knot of shadows between two towering megastructures. The figure’s breathless gasps and panicked movements betrayed his fear. He quickened his pace, pain flaring like static in his circuits. People passed by, absorbed in their lives—holographic screens floating around their heads, conversations with AI partners, or simply ignoring the drenched hunter with blood painting his path. In Eidolon, nothing was unusual if you didn’t stop to look. Above, a massive screen projected an advertisement for neuro-links, the smiling face of a woman urging passersby to “upgrade your reality.” Her eyes followed Aether as he passed.
His foot caught on the slick surface, and he tumbled forward. The pain in his leg flared as he hit the ground, water splashing around him. The figure he’d been chasing vanished, absorbed into the labyrinth of the city. But he didn’t move. He lay there, staring at the rain-soaked sky above, the neon glow painting it in bruised colors.
“This rain,” he murmured, blood pooling beneath him. “It strips everything away… flesh, steel, soul. Leaves you hollow.” A pause, his eyes half-closing. “I hate the rain. Always have…".
As his vision blurred, fragments of a memory surfaced—faces, voices, moments—none of them cohesive. He closed his eyes, succumbing to the weight of his body. He closed his eyes.
Eyes open, it was morning. The faint hum of a city that never sleeps filtered through the cracks of the hotel room’s window. Aether’s eyes opened to find dark clouds smothering the sun, leaving Eidolon bathed in dim light. He sat on the edge of the bed, his movements precise, his expression a void.
The room was sparse—a table cluttered with dismantled firearms, a holographic clock flickering on the wall, and a mirror reflecting a man who didn’t fully recognize himself. He stared at his reflection for a beat longer than usual before getting up and moving through his routine. Brushing teeth, assembling his gun, inspecting his gear. Every motion was mechanical, devoid of hesitation.
The silence broke with a chime from his comm device. A male voice, cold and efficient, came through. “Mr. Aether Osborn. Report to the office. There’s a new assignment.”
He stepped into the rain-drenched streets dressed in his usual attire—a fitted white t-shirt, long black leather jacket with a hood, black jeans, and polished boots that reflected the city’s vibrant chaos. His usual round black shades protecting his eyesight from the dull, clowdy and dusty sky. His motorcycle, a sleek chrome machine humming with quiet energy, roared to life as he activated its auto-start. Holographic readouts flashed across his vision from the odometer of the bike: Power—58%. Weather—Severe. Traffic—Minimal.Maximum Speed— Up to 1,200 km/hr.  Aether rode through the neon labyrinth, ignoring the holographic advertisements that screamed at him to consume, upgrade, and evolve.
He stood his vehicle beside one of the lesser known B-Grade strip club which operated on the ground floor of an 10 storey building in Eidolon's seediest sector. Neon Reverie. It's facade was a wash of neon pinks and blues, animated figures enticing passersby. Inside, the air was thick with synthetic pheromones, the bassline of music reverberating through the floor. Aether walked past half-naked dancers, some of them with explicit tattoos and their desperate patrons without a glance, his boots clicking against the floor.
In the elevator, he keyed in a sequence of numbers:2049.The neon lights flickered, and the elevator began descending. Beneath the surface, the fabricated floor gave way to a hidden facility. It was sleek and sterile, the walls glowing faintly with embedded circuitry. After getting out from the elevator, Aether was standing in an office alike facility consisting a reception desk and a well maintained atmosphere. He directly headed towards a corridor by taking a left turn from the reception desk and walked straight down the corridor towards the door at the end of it which was being guarded by two black suited armed men.
After entering the room he saw at the center of the room a brown skinned handsome man stood observing a suppressor keenly which he was holding. The room also consisted an rotating chair and a table over which a file, an transparent laptop, three packets of cigerette and a ashtray was kept. The man had sharp blue eyes wearing a metal square framed spectacle. His tailored black suit clinging to a powerful frame. He was in his forties, his silver hair slicked back, and his face chiseled like a statue. His presence exuded authority.
“Mr. Osborn,” the man greeted, his voice sharp and deliberate. “Lydia. She’s your next target.” Aether looks directly into the man's eyes, " Elaborate please, Vinsel." Vinsel walks towards the table picks up the file and passes it to Aether. Aether opens the file and studies the holographic documents closely, " Another rebel." Aether looks at Vinsel without any expression, " This is the fourth time in a row" he says and keeps the file over the table in an open state. " Is there a deadline ? " Aether looks at Vinsel's eyes. Vinsel smirks "Offcourse, it's the next 24 hours once the contract gets verified." He passes Aether the suppressor he was holding and observing meanwhile.
Aether nods and accepted the suppressor handed to him without any further word, he took out a roughly used Glock 17 pistol from one of the inside pockets of his long leather jacket and started attaching the suppressor to it while glancing over the dossier kept open on the table for the last time. Lydia’s image flickered on the holographic sheet—a woman with sharp eyes and defiance etched into every line of her face.
“She’s hiding,” the man added. “Probably Highly guarded. Near the Time Square Alley. Quietly, Aether. No noise.”
Aether nodded, tucking the pistol into his long leather jacket. He turned on his heel, heading out of the room walking towards the elevator to make his way back to the surface.
The bike drove over the city through the fancy yet busy roads, bridges and underground tunnels thoroughly washed with a neon reddish facade. The two wheels of the vehicle even occasionally drove through some of the lesser known as accessible rain soaked darkest alleys of Eidolon to cut the time short when the heavy on road traffic started to affect the urgency of the limited time he has to accomplish the task. On reaching the exact mentioned alley of Time Square, instead of parking his vehicle aside on a lot to lookout for the lady, he drove his vehicle a bit deeper into the streets in a limited speed. Untill, he reaches by a perticular bar, The Oldman's Deck. He parked his bike aside and walked straight in looking for someone perticular.
Aether took off his shades and looked all over the place consisted of either half of fully drunk people busy with their own issues. He took no time to figure out where the man was for whom he came looking for. Aether coldy approached that man, who was probably in his sixties, wearing an old dusted red t-shirt and a torn blue jeans. That man was keeping his head down over the bar counter table, his dusted hat covering the back of his head. Aether knocked coldly over the counter table to wake him up. The man slightly tilted his head up towards Aether and asked in a heavy voice "one whiskey and a 100$". Aether gritted his teeth slightly in annoyence still took out a digital transaction card from his pocket and scanned over a holographic QR code which was flashing out of the robot bartender's mechanical chest hole. There, from the options he selected a moderate glass of fine whiskey and after the transaction process completed automatically the robot bartender with it's mechanical arms took a bottle of whiskey and poured it over a glass and passed it on the desk before standing there lifelessly as before letting the holographic projection flash out. Aether kept the transaction card back and took out a 100$ bill from his pocket and kept it under the glass filled with whiskey. " There you go, Kevin.." he murmured being slightly annoyed. Kevin who was constantly staring at Aether's eye throughout the transaction process with a unusual stern look, quietly holded the glass up and swallowed the whiskey peg quickly like a person drinks water. After that he kept the glass aside and took the 100$ bills and tucked that into his chest pocket before saying " Show me ". Aether looked around first ensuring no one was giving them attantion and then he took out a picture of Lydia from one of the inside pockets of his long leather jacket. As soon as Kevin saw a sight of the lady's face in that picture, before even Aether could say something, he took up the empty whiskey glass and smashed it over Aether's face which disbalanced Aether and he fell down over the counter table. Kevin took this chance and ran off the bar throughout the main entrance, but the breaking of the glass alarmed and triggered the automatic defense system of the robot bartender and in an instance it took out a 9mm gun from a drawer nearby with it's mechanical arm and aimed that at the blank empty seat where Kevin was present while repeating a pre-recorded phrace " Please Leave, we do not promote any kind of violent behaviour within the premises. Please leave." Over and over. This whole incident snatched away everyone's attention towards Aether who currently somehow stood up after reviving himself from the sudden hit. He gritted his teeth and rushed out from the bar looking for Kevin.
Meanwhile, Kevin who was running through a series empty but twisted Alleys–a bit far away from the streets where the bar is, hoping to escape from Aether fell down on the ground tumbling forward due to the rain soaked slicking surface. When he tried get up, suddenly he looked forward and noticed Aether was standing right in front of him with a annoyed facial expression. Aether bended over, holded Kevin by the collar and pulled him up, straight forwardly banged his head hardly on one of the walls of the alley on which Kevin let out a slight groan and fell down again on the ground due to the hit. Aether said coldy " Where? ". Kevin somehow pulled himself up on his legs while holding support on the wall his head was just banged on. He murmured being genuinely afraid " You will regret this, it's dangerous." Aether holds him by the collar again and pulls him close looking sharply into his eyes " Where?, I won't repeat myself." Kevin crumbled in fear realising he doesn't have any way out of this without telling Aether the truth. He slowly mumbles " The Central Church, heavily guarded. " After hearing the location, Aether remembers that due to being abandoned, it might really be one of the safest place to hide if the time-span is atleast for few weeks. Aether, without wasting a single word throws Kevin back on the ground and makes his way straight out of the labyrinth of dark and rain soaked Alleys towards the street where he parked his vehicle.
After reaching, the Central Church loomed like a relic of a forgotten time. The building was a contradiction–stained glass windows illuminated by neon halos, its ancient stone walls reinforced with carbon steel. Aether moved through the shadows, his steps silent, his breath steady. He bypassed the two guards at the perimeter with calculated efficiency, slipping into the structure undetected.
Inside, the air was damp and cold, the silence broken only by faint murmurs. He encountered his first target—a hulking man armed with a pulse rifle in the groud floor. Aether being steady while using stealth went directly behind the guard and before the guard could turn around, Aether holded the guard's mouth tightly so that he can't make any sound by one hand over an instant and his silencer whispered three times over the man's abdomen by the other hand, and he collapsed, his weapon clattering to the ground, blood mixed with small muscle tissues gruesomely splattered over the wall behind. Aether took out a knife he found from the inside pocket of the dead guard's coat and and dragged the body leaving a trail of blood into the shadows, his movements precise and practiced.

Aether went up stairs sneakingly and from the left side of the corridor two men were approaching in his direction. He quickly rushed into the shadows and when the guards came in a linnear line to his own hiding spot, he shot one of them in the skull with the suppressed glock by one hand and in a swift before the other one could react, he took out the knife from his front pocket which he collected earlier and stabbed the other guard on his throat by the other hand making him bleed out on the floor heavily and choked on blood to death on an instant. He hid both the bodies into the shadowy corner of the corridor and moved forward, leaving stains of blood all over. He entered the room at the end of the corridor where he saw two men sitting on two chairs and another empty chair was kept there beside them. They had a walkie talkie where one of them constantly tries to contact the ones Aether just finished off, the room didn't had any parts or options like dark corners or shadowy areas to rely on stealth. So, Aether in an instant shot a guard in the head who was sitting there with his suppressed glock and did the same with the other one with the walkie talkie who was about to pull out his gun from his inside pocket. The walkie-talkie fell down while blood droplets fell on it. One by one throughout the corridors, the guards fell—each shot deliberate, each kill devoid of hesitation. Blood pooled beneath the flickering lights of ancient chandeliers, staining the sacred ground.
After reloading the glock with a fresh magazine and throwing the empty one over the blood stained ground–he reaches the central chamber carving his way through the path of blood stains, either disfigured either shot dead bodies of guards and empty bullet shells, pushing open the heavy door to find Lydia. She stood near an altar, as if she knew someone will come looking for her. "So, finally you're here".
He took no time spot her on. In a cold demeanor, he approached her slowly gripping tightly over his glock. Lydia smirked " Finish it, what you came for. Afterall the powerfull ones only know how to suppress." Aether looked at her eyes " I don't get you, but trust me nothing's personal." Lydia unusually screamed out as if Aether didn't get something she meant " YOU WON'T GET IT EITHER BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS SOMETHING ONLY I KNOW ! REGARDING PROJECT EIDOLON AND THE EXACT REASON FOR SUCH FASTER ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE MERGING WITH CIVILIZATION IN THE RECENT YEARS ! " Aether as usual like always wanted to finish this job without much nonsense so he planned to just end her without trying to dig deeper into her words which might be an excuse for the non-stop rebellion she's causing since past year against this perticular government scheme–but before he could raise his weapon, a gunshot echoed behind him, and searing pain erupted in his leg. He staggered, turning to face the source, but the strike of a blunt object—Lydia wielding a rusted steel pipe—dropped him to the ground. His vision dimmed as he heard her whisper, “You’re not ready for the truth.”
Aether's cautiousness suddenly kicked in and he awoke in a dim alley, rain falling in sheets around him. Two men dragging his limp body, their boots splashing in puddles. His systems recalibrated, adrenaline surging. With sudden precision, he grabbed a sharp peice of shattered glass from the ground near a trashbin in the alley he noticed while being dragged away and in an instant motion, stabbed that into one of the men’s knee and pulled the peice out. The man screamed out in pain and sat down on the ground unable to stand, Aether quickly stood up on his knee and slitted the man's throat open with the same piece of glass by one hand while taking out a knife by other hand from that dead man's inside pocket he saw in a glance. Meanwhile the other one already pulled out his gun but Aether in an instance stood up a bit further, rushed towards the man and slashed apart his fist holding the gun, decapitating it apart from rest of his hand with that sharp knife in one single stroke using brute force. That men stumbled back, panic and pain setting in, and ran leaving a  trail of not-stop blood flowing out endlessly through his disfigured arm. 
Aether after throwing away that blood stained knife and the sharp glass peice in the alley gave a chase, pain radiating from his wounded leg. His steps were uneven, but determination drove him forward. People passed by, absorbed in their lives—holographic screens floating around their heads, conversations with AI partners, or simply ignoring the drenched hunter with blood painting his path. Above, a massive screen projected an advertisement for neuro-links, the smiling face of a woman urging passersby to “upgrade your reality.” Her eyes followed Aether as he passed.
His foot caught on the slick surface, and he tumbled forward. The pain in his leg flared as he hit the ground, water splashing around him. The figure he’d been chasing vanished, absorbed into the labyrinth of the city. But he didn’t move. He lay there, staring at the rain-soaked sky above, the neon glow painting it in bruised colors.
“This rain,” he murmured, blood pooling beneath him. “It strips everything away… flesh, steel, soul. Leaves you hollow.” A pause, his eyes half-closing. “I hate the rain. Always have…".
As his vision blurred, fragments of a memory surfaced—faces, voices, moments—none of them cohesive. He closed his eyes, succumbing to the weight of his body. He opened his eyes. Throughout the blurred vision, while being collapsed on the wet ground mixed with his blood–he felt something, inside one of his pocket. His hands reached inside and what it took out is a cryptic note, damp from the rain. 
He stared at it, the neon glow casting alien colours over the soaked paper. His figures trembled as he unfolded it. The words etched on the card were:
" Project Eidolon: You are the key ." 
His memory quickly kicked in as he realised few moments ago on his and Lydia's confrontation, Lydia spoke about this 'Project Eidolon'. This card is an old invitation card of that event, which took place a  decade ago resulting in this Unnatural technological evolution which is quite fast. The main issue was regarding the ceremony of a Government Scheme where Artificial Intelligence were approved to be slowly introduced into civilization for being civilized aside the humans in Eidolon City and the organisation who collaborated with the Government hoped that it would start to portray positive results atleast within a approx time span of next fifty years, which would mark a technological revolution that no one had achieved ever before across the globe. Nothing was making any sense to him anymore. Rain poured down as Aether lay there, bleeding, his mind a storm of fragmented memories and unanswered questions as the word echoed "You are the–key." He faintly murmured " Lydia, she told I'm not ready for something yet. Wait a moment...How does she know about my identity ? How am I connected to an old ceremony regarding Artificial Intelligence Civilization ? Who am I ? " before passing out.