The sky of the Under-Net didn't just flicker; it peeled back like a healing wound. The word REBOOT hung in the atmosphere, pulsating with a rhythmic, golden light that bypassed every corporate firewall and every outlaw jammer we possessed. It wasn't a command from the Aegis towers; it was an override coming from a layer of the world that hadn't been touched in twenty years.
"Dax, look at the Norton," I whispered, my voice trembling.
The Amber-Gold Engine was no longer idling. It was singing. The frequency was shifting into a complex, melodic sequence the same lullaby my father used to hum in the garage when he thought I was asleep. The bike’s hard-light frame began to stabilize into a solid, iridescent silver, and the HUD on my visor dissolved into a handwritten schematic.
"It's not a r
