Location: ONYX CORE Hidden Sub-Basement – 1:15 AM
"You're saying—?" Emily breathed, her voice caught between fear and something older. Something remembered.
Ryan tightened his grip on the biometric briefcase. "The Glitch Wolf used to be one of us."
Not just a rogue hacker. Not just some digital anarchist with a wolf obsession.
He was ONYX CORE.
The corrupted ONYX gear. The precision. The inside intel.
He wasn't attacking them from the outside.
He was coming home.
1:17 AM – The Vault of Echoes
Ryan activated the last function Holly hard-coded into the briefcase: a signal jammer and beacon rolled into one. The surrounding crates flickered—then unlocked. Rows of confiscated ONYX CORE prototypes lit up like a haunted tech museum.
Emily's eyes scanned the shelves.
Then she saw it.
"Model A.V-09."
She froze.
Ryan turned. "What?"
She approached the device—half watch, half neural uplink—and whispered, "My dad wore this. I remember it. He kept it in a locked drawer. Said it was from 'the war before the wars.'"
Ryan stared. "A.V… Arthur Vance."
Emily turned to him slowly, the warehouse glow softening her face.
"You knew?"
He nodded, shame flooding his voice. "I didn't know he was The Glitch Wolf. But yes—Arthur Vance was ONYX CORE's best field commander. Your dad trained me. He's the reason I became Family Man."
1:21 AM – A Digital Ghost Appears
Suddenly, a nearby screen flickered. A video log.
A younger Arthur Vance appeared—sharp-eyed, charismatic, and already carrying the weight of too many secrets.
"If you're watching this… I failed."
Emily gasped.
"They're watching from inside. I've seen the future of ONYX CORE… and it's not a defense agency anymore. It's a surveillance empire. That's why I'm going dark. I'll fight them from the shadows. Even if it means becoming the villain in their story."
The video ended in static.
1:24 AM – Emotional Payload
Emily stared at the screen, hollowed out.
"All this time… he wasn't dead. He became this."
Ryan placed a hand on her shoulder. "No. He became what he had to—to protect you. Just like I did."
A silence passed between them, charged with grief and realization.
Then Emily whispered, "He never stopped watching me. I thought I'd escaped the spy world. But I was born into it."
Ryan kissed her forehead. "You weren't born into espionage. You were born into resistance."
1:27 AM – Incoming Threat
Suddenly, the floor above shook.
On a distant security feed, Bella Castini appeared—wearing an upgraded ONYX CORE exosuit, cracked and jagged, pulsing with stolen tech.
Behind her: drones. Lasers. And a new figure.
A tall, masked man in a trench coat. Glitch Wolf.
But this time… he wasn't on a screen.
He was real.
And walking straight toward them.
1:29 AM – Ryan's Decision
Ryan looked at Emily. Then the briefcase. Then the vault.
"We blow it all. Every piece of corrupted gear. We bury the secrets. He wants them—so we make sure no one gets them."
Emily hesitated. "And my father?"
Ryan looked her in the eyes.
"Your father might still be in there. But we fight the monster he became. Not for vengeance. For the girls. For the world."
Emily, voice cracking, nodded. "Then let's end it."
1:31 AM – Hook Ending
As they placed charges around the sub-vault, the Glitch Wolf's voice filled the comms.
"Hello, Family Man. Hello… Emily.
Took you long enough to find me."
The lights dimmed. The countdown started. And on a nearby screen, a photo of baby Holly and toddler Faith appeared—corrupted, glitching.
Then a final message appeared:
"I'm coming home. For all of you."
(TO BE CONTINUED…)