M/M Planet Ape – A Fistful of Rust - SFP#1

A Fistful of Rust

A Job that Stinks

Rustport stank of wet metal and broken promises, just like every other night.

Jax Morrow stepped out of the dive bar, rain slapping against his cybernetic shoulder. The neon lights overhead sputtered, casting sickly shades of green and pink through the smog that hung like a dirty veil over the city. Nothing could wash the rot out of Rustport—not the rain, not the tech.

A hovercar whined somewhere in the distance, lifting off to places Jax could only dream about. Cleaner places. Richer.

He tugged his coat tighter, not that the synthetic fabric did much to keep the cold out. The client’s call had dragged him to this corner of the city—the Scrublands—where the promises were as fake as the mods people sold. This wasn’t corporate territory, no polished towers or clean streets. Just rust, decay, and desperation. You didn’t call a private eye out here unless things were about to go real sideways.

Jax’s cybernetic eye flickered—a glitch he should’ve fixed ages ago. He grunted, tapping the side of his head. The mod wasn’t worth much, but it worked well enough to get the job done. Not like he could afford better. The corps saw to that, keeping good tech just out of reach, dangling it like bait.

Still, he made do.

Always had.

Ahead, under the dim, flickering light of a busted street lamp, a hooded figure stood, tapping a foot nervously against the cracked pavement. Jax’s enhanced hearing picked up the click-click-click, steady but jittery. This job was starting to smell worse by the second.

As Jax approached, the figure’s voice cut through the rain. “You Morrow?”

Soft voice, shaky. The sound of someone in over their head.

Jax stopped a few paces away, his coat heavy with rain. “Depends. Who’s asking?”

The hooded figure hesitated, pulling the fabric back just enough for Jax to see. A young woman. Her skin was pale, marked by glowing lines running down from her temples—cybernetic implants. Cheap, probably stolen, or worse, homegrown.

“Dr. Rhyse,” she said, her voice quieter now, like the name itself was too heavy for her. “I need your help. My… sister. She’s missing.”

Jax narrowed his eyes. “Missing in the Scrublands?” His suspicion was already curling up his spine. Last time he’d been hired for a missing person out here, it ended with three bodies in a dumpster and a corp cover-up. He still had the scars to prove it.

“Why me?” Jax asked, folding his arms. “There’s cheaper bounty hunters around these parts.”

“You know the real Rustport,” Rhyse said, her voice trembling with a desperation that made Jax uncomfortable. “You know the places no one talks about. And you don’t ask too many questions.”

Jax stared at her, his eyes narrowing. There was something about her story that didn’t add up. But the desperation—that was real.

“Alright, Doc,” he finally said, his voice low. “I’ll take the case. But you’d better be straight with me. This city chews up liars and spits them out in pieces.”

The rain came down harder, thickening the smog around them. Jax had a feeling this job wasn’t just another payday. Rustport had a way of pulling you down if you weren’t careful, and he’d been swimming in its muck long enough to know when to watch for quicksand.

“Where do we start?” he asked.

Rhyse looked up at him, a flicker of hope crossing her face. “The Underdeck. That’s where she was last seen.”

Jax let out a low grunt. The Underdeck. Of course. Where else but the forgotten guts of the city? The part no one wanted to admit existed. He rolled his shoulders and nodded.

“Alright,” Jax said, pulling his coat tight again. “Lead the way. Let’s get your sister out before this city swallows her whole.”

Rotting Gears, Rotting Souls

The rain didn’t let up. It never did in Rustport.

Jax led Dr. Rhyse through the labyrinth of alleys in the Scrublands, his enhanced eye scanning every shadow, every flicker of movement. The underbelly of the city was alive tonight—Scrubbers huddled around rusting burn barrels, their gaunt faces illuminated by the dim, sickly glow of the flames. Hollow eyes followed him as they passed, eyes that had long since lost the spark of hope. Once, they might have been like him—trying to make a living, trying to survive.

Now, they were just fleshies. Cast-offs. Barely human anymore, their decaying implants a testament to a city that didn’t give a damn if they rotted away.

Jax pulled his collar tighter, rain dripping down his neck like a cold knife. He glanced at Dr. Rhyse, her metal-fused fingers twitching nervously at her sides.

“Tell me about your sister,” Jax said, his voice low, cutting through the drone of the city. He didn’t turn to look at her, keeping his eye on the shifting shadows.

Rhyse hesitated, her steps faltering for a moment. She glanced around, like she was afraid the walls themselves might be listening. “She… she was experimenting with something,” she finally admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “Off-the-record. I don’t know exactly what, but it wasn’t legal. She said she was close to something big, something that could change everything.”

Jax stopped, turning to face her, rain dripping from the brim of his coat. “Change everything how?” His eyes were hard, scanning her face for the truth she wasn’t telling.

“I’m not sure,” Rhyse whispered, biting her lip, her metal fingers trembling. “But she was… devolving people. Humans.”

The word hit Jax like a cold shock. Devolution. It had been buzzing around Rustport for months—hushed whispers in dark alleys, rumors of people being twisted into something else. Something less. Half human, half beast, stripped of everything that made them who they were, left with nothing but primal instinct and rage.

The kind of thing that made even the most hardened cybernetic gangs steer clear.

“You should’ve led with that,” Jax muttered, pulling his coat tighter against the rain. He could feel the weight of the city pressing in on him, the walls closing in. “You know what happens to people who go digging in those labs? They don’t come back.”

Rhyse’s shoulders slumped, the weight of her fear and desperation dragging her down. “That’s why I need your help,” she said quietly, her voice cracking. “Please, Jax. I don’t have anyone else.”

Jax stared at her for a long moment, feeling that familiar knot of guilt tighten in his gut. He didn’t want to care. He couldn’t afford to care. But damn it, the way her voice cracked…

“Alright,” he sighed, running a hand through his rain-soaked hair. “But you stay close, you understand? This city chews people up and spits them out—and your sister’s already halfway down its throat.”

He turned back to the alley, his cybernetic eye flickering as he scanned ahead. There was only one place in Rustport where devolution experiments were rumored to take place: The Underdeck. A forgotten sector below the city, where the rules of society didn’t apply. It was a lawless wasteland of black market tech and broken promises.

And that’s where they were headed next.

Where the Light Dies

Rustport always had a stench, but down here, in the bowels of the city, it was worse. The kind of stink that stuck to your skin, crawled into your lungs, and refused to leave.

Jax led Dr. Rhyse deeper into the forgotten alleys, where the city’s decay wasn’t hidden behind neon lights and flickering billboards. Here, the metal walls were rusted and collapsing, leaking neon-green sludge that hissed and bubbled as it flowed into the cracked pavement. Every corner they passed, every shadow they left behind, felt like the ghosts of those Rustport had swallowed up and spat out.

“The Underdeck,” Jax muttered. “It’s where people go when they’ve got nowhere left to run. Law doesn’t come down here. No one does.”

They stood in front of an old, decaying hatch, nearly swallowed by the city’s filth. It looked like it hadn’t been opened in years, but Jax knew better. The Underdeck was alive, just buried beneath layers of neglect.

He forced open the hatch with a grunt, the metal screeching in protest. A stale gust of air greeted them from below—a mix of oil, rust, and despair.

Dr. Rhyse hesitated at the top of the stairwell, her eyes wide. “People… live down here?”

“If you can call it that,” Jax said dryly, already stepping down into the dark. “You coming or not?”

Rhyse swallowed hard, then followed, her footsteps slow and reluctant as they descended into the shadows.

The stairwell spiraled downward for what felt like forever, the faint light from above swallowed by the darkness as they went deeper. Finally, they emerged into a narrow corridor, the only illumination coming from bioluminescent graffiti scrawled on the walls—bright, sickly green and blue symbols that pulsed faintly in the dark.

“The artists down here aren’t much for subtlety,” Jax muttered, his eye scanning the twisting passages ahead. His cybernetic sensors flickered, struggling to adjust to the erratic energy in the air.

Dr. Rhyse looked around nervously, her hands fidgeting. “How can anyone survive down here?”

“They don’t. Not really,” Jax replied, stepping over a pile of discarded wires and broken implants. “People come here to disappear. To forget. The ones who stay? They’re already gone.”

The Underdeck was alive with the low hum of malfunctioning tech and the distant murmur of voices. Rustheads and Scrubbers shuffled through the narrow corridors, their bodies a patchwork of decaying cybernetics and scarred flesh. Eyes glazed, limbs twitching with misfired implants, they wandered aimlessly, as if waiting for the city to finish the job.

Jax pushed through the crowd, his eyes scanning for something—someone. Finally, he stopped in front of a stall, where a wiry figure with half his face replaced by a glitching cybernetic mask sat, tinkering with a pile of junk.

“Morrow,” the vendor sneered, his voice distorted by the malfunctioning tech in his jaw. “Didn’t think I’d see your rusted mug down here. What brings you to the scrap heap?”

“I need information,” Jax said flatly, tossing a few credits onto the stall. “Devolution experiments. Who’s running them?”

The vendor’s grin faltered, his glitching eye flickering nervously. He glanced around, as if expecting someone—or something—to be listening. “You don’t wanna mess with that, man. People who go digging in those labs? They don’t come back. Even the Cogs steer clear of that mess.”

Jax’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t here for warnings. “I’m not asking twice.”

The vendor sighed, pocketing the credits with a resigned shrug. “Alright, alright. Word is, there’s an outfit down in the lower sector. They ain’t running outta any of the usual labs—this is something darker. Real black market. No names, no traces. They’re splicing DNA with cybernetics, playing God. And your sister?” He glanced at Dr. Rhyse, who stood behind Jax, pale and silent. “She’s probably their latest experiment.”

Dr. Rhyse’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes wide with fear. Jax didn’t look back at her. He didn’t need to. The knot of dread tightening in his gut told him everything.

“Where?” Jax growled.

“Lower sector, near the core,” the vendor said, his voice low and jittery. “But you didn’t hear it from me.”

Jax nodded, turning away from the stall without another word. He led Dr. Rhyse deeper into the Underdeck, his pace quickening as they pushed through the malfunctioning crowds. The light grew dimmer, the air colder, the hum of tech louder.

“We’re walking into a real mess,” Jax muttered, more to himself than to Rhyse. “Let’s hope we’re not too late.”

Shadows in the Circuit

The deeper they ventured into the Underdeck, the darker and colder the air became. The faint hum of Rustport above was replaced by the chaotic crackle of malfunctioning tech and the groan of the city’s decaying bones. Jax could feel the weight of the place pressing down on them, suffocating the last remnants of humanity that clung to the surface.

“Stay close,” Jax muttered, glancing back at Dr. Rhyse. Her face was pale, her movements jittery, but she held on—barely. He couldn’t blame her. The Underdeck had that effect on people.

“We’re heading to the core,” Jax continued, scanning the labyrinthine alleys around them. “That’s where the real monsters work. The place where they play God, turning people into… whatever they want.”

“Do you really think she’s there?” Dr. Rhyse’s voice was quiet, trembling, but laced with desperation.

Jax paused, staring ahead into the abyss of shadows. “I’ve seen it before, Doc. If she’s mixed up in this devolution mess, that’s where they’ve got her.”

They rounded a corner, and Jax slowed, his cybernetic eye flickering as he took in the sight before them. The lower sector stretched out ahead, a maze of metal walkways suspended over a massive chasm. Below them, the city’s core pulsed with eerie green light, its machinery grinding and sparking, like a broken heart struggling to beat.

This was it. The end of the world, as far as Rustport was concerned.

“This place…” Dr. Rhyse whispered, her voice barely audible. “It’s… alive.”

Jax nodded, his gaze scanning the walkways for any signs of life. “Yeah. It’s alive. But everything down here is rotting. Stay sharp.”

They pressed on, the sound of their footsteps drowned out by the constant hiss and hum of the core’s machinery. The walkways creaked underfoot, rusted metal groaning with each step. Above them, flickering monitors blinked erratically, displaying garbled streams of code. One word kept flashing on every screen they passed:

DEVO-LV1.

Jax’s jaw tightened. “That’s it. That’s the signature of their experiments. We’re close.”

Dr. Rhyse’s breath hitched, and she fumbled with the small device in her pocket, the one she’d been clutching since they entered the Underdeck. A faint red light blinked on it—a tracker of some kind.

“She’s… she’s near,” Rhyse muttered, her voice fragile, like she was teetering on the edge of hope and despair. “I can feel it.”

Jax didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what kind of hope he could offer at this point. They were heading straight into the heart of something worse than death.

They came to a halt in front of a large, rusted door at the far end of the walkway. No markings. No windows. Just a single panel next to it, flickering with static.

“This is it,” Jax murmured, his voice low.

Dr. Rhyse’s hands shook as she lifted the tracker again. The red light blinked faster. “She’s in there… I know it.”

Jax drew his pulse pistol, flicking off the safety with a quick, practiced motion. “Stay back. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”

Without waiting for her response, Jax pressed his ear to the door. There was a low hum behind it, mechanical and rhythmic. The unmistakable hiss of machines at work. He took a breath and reached for the panel, his augmented fingers tapping at the cracked screen.

The door creaked open slowly, the rusted hinges screeching in protest. Cold air rushed out from the room beyond, bringing with it the sharp, metallic tang of chemicals. The hallway stretched ahead of them, dimly lit by flickering overhead lights. But it wasn’t the lights that caught Jax’s attention—it was the walls.

Every surface was lined with monitors, each displaying distorted images of human figures. Limbs replaced with crude cybernetic parts. Eyes glowing unnaturally. Faces twisted in agony. It was a gallery of nightmares, frozen in flickering motion.

Dr. Rhyse gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “Oh my God… what is this?”

“Welcome to hell,” Jax muttered, his voice grim.

They stepped inside cautiously, the door hissing shut behind them with a sense of finality. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, a never-ending corridor of broken bodies and shattered souls.

Jax’s eye flickered as he scanned the room. “We need to move fast. Whatever they’re doing in here… it’s worse than I thought.”

Dr. Rhyse nodded, her eyes wide with horror but determined. “We have to save her, Jax. We have to.”

Jax didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. He just kept walking, his pulse pistol raised and ready. Whatever lay at the end of this hallway, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

As they neared the end of the corridor, the lights grew dimmer, the hum of machinery louder. Jax could feel the tension rising in his chest, the sense that something was about to go horribly wrong.

They stopped in front of another door. This one was reinforced, thick metal plating sealing it shut. But the faint glow from Dr. Rhyse’s tracker told them all they needed to know.

“She’s in there,” Rhyse whispered, her voice cracking. “I know she is.”

Jax took a deep breath, his finger hovering over the trigger. “Alright, Doc. Let’s end this.”

With a quick pull of the trigger, Jax fired at the control panel. Sparks flew, and the door hissed open, revealing the room beyond.

And there, suspended in a tank of viscous fluid, was Dr. Rhyse’s sister.

But she wasn’t human anymore.

The Flesh and the Wire

The room beyond the door was bathed in cold, sterile light, but the scene inside was anything but clean. The walls were lined with machinery—large, humming generators feeding into a series of tanks that bubbled with thick, viscous fluid. The air reeked of chemicals, sharp and acrid, making it hard to breathe. But it was the figure floating in the center of the room that turned Jax’s stomach.

Dr. Rhyse’s sister, or what remained of her, was suspended in the largest tank. Her body was twisted, parts of it barely recognizable as human. Mechanical limbs jutted out from her once-organic form, grafted crudely to her skin. Tubes and wires snaked in and out of her torso, feeding some kind of thick, green liquid into her veins. Her face—once beautiful, according to Dr. Rhyse—was a patchwork of flesh and metal. Her eyes were wide open, glowing a sickly yellow, and they stared blankly ahead as if she were trapped in some nightmarish state of half-awareness.

Dr. Rhyse gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she stumbled forward. “Oh my God… Ellie…”

Jax stepped forward cautiously, his pulse pistol raised, eyes scanning the room for any signs of movement. The hum of the machinery filled the silence, but there was something else—a faint clicking sound, like metal tapping against glass. He followed the sound to a monitor beside the tank. Streams of data flickered across the screen, most of it unreadable. But one word stood out, repeating over and over:

Devolution Complete.

Jax gritted his teeth. “She’s not coming back from this, Doc.”

Dr. Rhyse shook her head violently, tears streaming down her face. “No… no, she’s still in there. We can save her. We have to!”

Jax’s eyes narrowed as he watched the figure in the tank twitch, her limbs jerking sporadically. He wasn’t sure how much of her humanity was left, but he knew one thing: this place was built for monsters, and right now, her sister was just another experiment gone wrong.

“Doc, listen to me,” Jax said, his voice low but firm. “She’s too far gone. These people… they don’t care about saving anyone. They’ve turned her into a weapon.”

Dr. Rhyse’s hands trembled as she reached for the glass of the tank, her fingers barely brushing its surface. “No… she’s my sister. I can’t just leave her like this.”

Before Jax could respond, a loud hiss filled the room. The machinery surrounding the tank whirred to life, and the fluid inside began to drain rapidly. The figure in the tank twitched violently, her mechanical limbs scraping against the glass as she began to move. Her eyes—those sickly yellow eyes—snapped toward Jax and Dr. Rhyse, locking onto them with an unnatural intensity.

“Move back!” Jax barked, grabbing Dr. Rhyse by the arm and pulling her away from the tank.

The glass cracked with a deafening screech, and in an instant, it shattered. Fluid gushed out, flooding the floor as the figure—Ellie—collapsed in a heap, her limbs twitching and sparking. She lay still for a moment, her mechanical appendages twitching sporadically.

Dr. Rhyse broke free from Jax’s grip, rushing toward her sister. “Ellie! Ellie, it’s me! Please, you have to—”

“Stay back, Doc!” Jax warned, but it was too late.

Ellie’s head snapped up, her glowing eyes locking onto Dr. Rhyse. With a mechanical growl, she lurched forward, her claws—those twisted, jagged things—slashing through the air toward her sister. Jax fired, the pulse blast hitting Ellie square in the chest, sending her crashing back into the wreckage of the tank. Sparks flew as her metal limbs hit the ground, but she wasn’t down for long.

“Get behind me!” Jax yelled, shoving Dr. Rhyse toward a nearby console.

Ellie staggered to her feet, her movements jerky but fast. She wasn’t human anymore—whatever they had done to her, it had turned her into something else. Something primal and vicious. Her claws scraped against the floor as she charged at Jax, her eyes wild with fury.

Jax fired again, but this time she dodged, moving with an agility that shouldn’t have been possible. Her claws slashed through the air, inches from Jax’s face as he ducked and rolled out of the way.

“This thing’s too fast,” Jax muttered, his mind racing. He glanced over at Dr. Rhyse, who was frantically tapping at the console, her hands shaking with fear. “Doc, do something! There’s gotta be a way to shut her down!”

“I’m trying!” Dr. Rhyse cried, her voice trembling. “But I don’t know what they did to her!”

Ellie charged again, her mechanical limbs whirring as she lunged at Jax. He fired once more, this time hitting her in the leg. She stumbled, but only for a moment, before regaining her balance and slashing at him with terrifying speed. Her claws grazed his shoulder, sparks flying from his cybernetic arm as he barely dodged a lethal blow.

“We don’t have time for this!” Jax growled, dodging another attack. He scanned the room, his augmented eye locking onto a power junction at the far end of the room. If he could overload the systems…

“Doc, keep her busy!” Jax shouted, making a break for the power junction.

“Keep her busy?!” Dr. Rhyse’s voice was shrill with panic, but she didn’t argue. She scrambled behind the console, trying to distract Ellie as best as she could.

Jax skidded to a stop in front of the junction, his cybernetic hand tearing away a panel of wires. The machinery in this place was advanced but crude—perfect for a quick overload. He grabbed a handful of wires, yanking them free. Sparks flew as the lights flickered, the hum of the machines growing louder.

Ellie turned, her glowing eyes locking onto Jax as she realized what he was doing. She let out a guttural, inhuman screech, charging toward him with blinding speed.

“Come on, come on,” Jax muttered, his fingers flying over the exposed wires. He could hear Ellie closing in, her claws scraping against the floor as she neared.

“Jax!” Dr. Rhyse screamed.

Just as Ellie lunged for him, Jax ripped the final wire free. The room was instantly flooded with a blinding light, the power junction overloading with a deafening crack. Electricity arced across the room, striking Ellie mid-lunge. Her body convulsed violently as the surge of power coursed through her, her mechanical limbs sparking wildly.

For a moment, it looked like she might break free, her glowing eyes flaring brighter. But then, with a final, tortured scream, Ellie collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap, her body twitching one last time before going still.

The lab fell into silence, save for the faint hum of the remaining machinery.

Jax stood there, panting, his pulse pistol still raised as he stared at the smoking remains of Ellie. He didn’t lower his weapon until he was sure she wasn’t getting back up.

Dr. Rhyse approached slowly, her face pale and her eyes hollow with grief. She stared down at the twisted remains of her sister, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Jax said quietly, his voice gruff but sincere. “There was no other way.”

Dr. Rhyse didn’t respond. She just stared at what was left of her sister, her hands trembling. The weight of it all seemed to crush her in that moment, and she fell to her knees, sobbing quietly.

Jax holstered his pulse pistol, watching her for a moment before turning away. He had seen this too many times before—people broken by the cruelty of the world they lived in. But this time, it felt different. More personal.

He took a deep breath, the acrid smell of smoke and chemicals filling his lungs. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. Whatever sick experiments were being run here, they were only the beginning.

And he wasn’t going to stop until they were all wiped out.

Ashes of Humanity

The smoke lingered in the air as Jax and Dr. Rhyse left the shattered lab behind, their footsteps echoing through the dimly lit corridors of the Underdeck. Rustport’s twisted metal skeleton loomed above them, and for a moment, the weight of it all felt crushing. Neither of them spoke as they climbed out of the depths of the Underdeck, the city’s familiar stench of rot and metal filling their lungs once more.

The streets were quiet, unnervingly so. The Scrublands, which were usually alive with the sounds of malfunctioning tech and the whispers of lost souls, seemed to hold its breath in the aftermath of what they had just faced. Jax’s mind was still reeling from the encounter, but he pushed it aside, focused on the task at hand. He always pushed it aside.

Dr. Rhyse, on the other hand, was a wreck. She stumbled beside him, her face pale and tear-streaked. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, as if she were trying to block out everything that had happened. Jax couldn’t blame her—what they’d seen down there was enough to break anyone. But the fight wasn’t over yet.

“You okay?” Jax asked, though he already knew the answer.

Dr. Rhyse didn’t respond. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, her fingers twitching slightly as if trying to grasp at something that wasn’t there. Her sister was gone—whatever hope she’d had of saving her had died back in that lab, along with what little remained of Ellie’s humanity.

Jax clenched his jaw, forcing himself to keep moving. “Look, I know this is hell, but we need to get off these streets. The people running these experiments—this wasn’t a one-off job. There’s more going on, and they’ll come looking for us.”

Finally, Dr. Rhyse seemed to snap back to the present. She blinked a few times, her eyes flicking toward Jax. “You mean there are more like… like her?”

“Yeah,” Jax said, his voice grim. “And worse.”

The words hung in the air like the smog that choked the city. Dr. Rhyse’s face twisted with a mixture of grief and anger. Her tears dried up, replaced by a cold fury. “Then we stop them.”

Jax smirked, though there was no humor in it. “That’s the plan.”

They turned a corner, heading back toward the neon-drenched heart of Rustport. The lights flickered overhead, painting the cracked pavement in vibrant pinks and greens, but nothing about the scene was pretty. The city was rotting, just like the people inside it. And no matter how many times Jax tried to ignore it, that decay always had a way of creeping into his soul.

“You ever think it’s pointless?” Dr. Rhyse asked quietly, her voice barely audible over the hum of malfunctioning tech. “Trying to save people in a place like this?”

Jax’s footsteps slowed for a moment as he considered her question. He’d been asked that before—by people who had been chewed up and spit out by Rustport’s cruelty. And every time, he’d given the same answer.

“I don’t do it because it’s easy,” he said, his tone hard. “I do it because someone has to.”

Dr. Rhyse nodded slowly, but her eyes still held a haunted look. “Do you think she… do you think Ellie even knew what was happening to her? Or was she just… gone?”

Jax swallowed the lump in his throat, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t know, Doc. I’ve seen people go through things like this before, and sometimes, there’s something left. Sometimes, there’s nothing. But whatever was done to your sister… it was meant to strip away her humanity. These people—whoever they are—they’re not playing by any rules. They’re tearing people apart, piece by piece.”

Silence fell between them once more as they walked. The neon lights faded into the background as they approached a quieter section of the Scrublands. Jax’s mind raced, turning over everything they had learned. Whoever was running these experiments had resources, power, and no regard for human life. But that wasn’t new in Rustport.

What was new was the scale of it. And the fact that they’d gotten this far without anyone stopping them.

Dr. Rhyse broke the silence again. “What do we do next?”

Jax turned to face her, his expression steely. “We find out who’s behind this. We tear down every lab, every experiment, every piece of this operation. And we make sure they don’t hurt anyone else.”

“And if they come after us?”

Jax shrugged. “Then we’ll give ‘em a fight.”

For a moment, something flickered in Dr. Rhyse’s eyes. It wasn’t hope, exactly—but it was something. Resolve, maybe. A spark that told Jax she wasn’t done fighting.

“I’ve got connections,” Dr. Rhyse said, her voice steadying. “People who might be able to get us more information. I’ll reach out to them.”

Jax nodded. “Good. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

As they reached the edge of the Scrublands, the noise of the city began to pick up again. The faint rumble of hovercars in the distance, the chatter of desperate souls bartering for scraps of tech, the distant hum of malfunctioning machinery—it was all a reminder that Rustport never slept.

Jax stopped, turning to face Dr. Rhyse. “Get yourself someplace safe. We’ll regroup tomorrow.”

Dr. Rhyse looked like she wanted to argue, but she knew better. She nodded reluctantly, her eyes lingering on Jax for a moment longer before she turned and disappeared into the shadows.

Jax watched her go, his mind still buzzing with questions. The city was full of ghosts—people like Ellie who had been lost to the machines. And now, more than ever, he knew that those ghosts would never rest until someone put an end to it.

As the rain started to fall again, Jax pulled his coat tighter around him. The neon lights flickered overhead, casting their sickly glow over the crumbling streets of Rustport. It was a city built on broken promises, a place where hope came to die. But for some reason—one he could never quite explain—Jax still held onto a sliver of it.

Maybe, just maybe, there was still something worth saving.

Epilogue: The Cost of Secrets

The rain was relentless, tapping out a steady rhythm on the metal roofs and cracked streets of Rustport. Jax stood on the balcony of his small apartment, a cigarette glowing faintly in the dim light. He watched the city below, the neon signs flickering through the haze, casting twisted reflections on the pools of dirty water that gathered in the alleys.

He exhaled slowly, the smoke curling into the air and disappearing into the smog. The weight of the night still pressed on his shoulders, but there was no shaking it. Ellie was gone, another casualty in the city’s never-ending hunger for power. And Dr. Rhyse? She might have been saved, but she was different now—her hope was shattered, replaced by a need for revenge.

Jax couldn’t blame her. Rustport had a way of twisting people, turning even the purest intentions into something darker. He’d seen it happen too many times. Hell, he’d been a victim of it himself.

He glanced down at his cybernetic hand, the dull metal catching the light from the flickering neon signs below. This city took pieces of you, bit by bit, and it never gave them back. Jax had been lucky—if you could call it that. He still had a part of himself left. The part that cared. The part that made sure people like Ellie and Dr. Rhyse didn’t vanish into the shadows without a fight.

But for how long?

Jax flicked the cigarette off the balcony, watching it spiral down into the abyss. His mind was already racing ahead, planning the next move. Whoever was behind these devolution experiments—they were playing a dangerous game, and Jax was going to make sure they lost.

A soft chime broke through the silence, pulling him out of his thoughts. Jax glanced over at the small comms unit on his desk. The screen blinked once, displaying a single message.

You’ve stirred up the wrong nest, Morrow. Back off, or you’ll end up like her.

No name. No signature. But Jax didn’t need one to know who had sent it.

He smirked, wiping a hand over his face as he let out a tired chuckle. “So, they want to play rough, huh?”

He leaned over the comms unit, typing out a quick response before hitting send.

Come and get me.

The message disappeared, and Jax leaned back in his chair, the tension in his shoulders loosening just a little. They thought they could scare him off. They thought he’d turn tail and run.

But they didn’t know Jax Morrow.

This was just the beginning.

As the rain continued to fall, Jax sat in the dim glow of his apartment, the hum of the city filling the silence. He didn’t have all the answers—not yet—but one thing was certain: Rustport’s underworld had just made its biggest mistake.

And Jax was going to make sure they paid for it.

Stay Wired, Glitchers! – The pulse of the undercity beats with hidden dangers… Gear up and sync in, because the streets of Rustport are calling you back! As we peel back the neon-slicked layers of the city, Jax Morrow is revving up for even darker dives into the twisted techscape that’s devouring the soul of humanity. Where does the man end and the machine begin? Keep riding shotgun with Jax to find out. What new terrors and tantalizing secrets will Jax unearth in the sprawling cybernetic slums? The pulse of the undercity beats with hidden dangers, and our gritty hero is just the Glitcher to navigate through the chaos. Dial back in for your next dose of “Planet Ape,” where the rot never sleeps and every shadow could be your last. Stay sharp, stay alive, and remember—every neon glow might just be hiding a darker truth. Get ready for the next chapter; Jax Morrow isn’t done yet, and neither are you!