Vanguard Oath — Episode 4: "Circuit Wound"
[COLD OPEN — DIGITAL VOID / GLITCH REALM]
A shattered neon grid flickers in darkness. Floating shards of broken code drift through space. Echo-7, barely stable, floats within the chaos. His voice trembles. A child's lullaby plays backwards.
Echo-7 (V.O.): They say data never dies. But what if the soul inside the code... forgets who it belongs to?
[FLASH — ECHO-7'S MEMORY: FIRST ACTIVATION]
A lab bathed in golden light. Scientists cheer. A young boy's voice laughs. The scene glitches violently.
[INT. VAN HQ – CENTRAL HUB]
Echo-7's body twitches in midair as he floats in his core dock. Monitors flash red. His form distorts, splitting into several overlapping visages.
Echo-7: System... failing... error… unauthorized recursion detected…
Kael: (watching) What's happening to him?
Yuna: His code is folding in on itself.
Tari: That has Prismmaw's fingerprints.
Niko: He was infected during the Garden breach. Vox's melody was only a distraction.
Commander Aurix (via hologram): If we don't stabilize him soon, we'll lose Echo-7. Not just the system — but the soul we built with it.
[INT. HQ – DIAGNOSTIC LAB]
Mira, now awake and assisting the team, helps Yuna inject a stabilizing bloom core into Echo's system.
Mira: I can anchor his emotional code using a memory thread, but someone has to go inside… into the Glitch Realm.
Kael: I'll do it.
Yuna: Not this time. He responds to Niko best. Echo chose Niko as his logic mirror. That means something.
Niko: (coldly) Fine. But if I don't come back… erase me.
Kael: (grinning faintly) We never erase family.
[SEQUENCE — DIGITAL DIVE / GLITCH REALM]
Niko lies back as Mira activates the dive. Lights dim. A soft hum echoes. His consciousness downloads into the Glitch Realm. He awakens in the fractured grid.
Echo-7 (fragmented): N-Niko… you shouldn't be here… the ghosts are awake…
A wave of corrupted ECHO SHARDS — glitching versions of Echo-7 with distorted faces — surge toward him.
Niko: (dodges) Echo! Listen to me. This isn't you!
Echo-7: I-I remember a house... a brother… a melody... then the fire...
Niko: You were built from someone's grief. But you're more than memory. You're our Vanguard.
A massive avatar rises — a dark mirror of Echo-7, built from shattered hopes and corrupted data. The Phantom Root. Its core pulses red.
Phantom Root: I am all the versions of him you were afraid to see.
[DIGITAL BATTLE — EXTENDED SEQUENCE]
Niko phases and warps through collapsing data bridges, dodging psychic overloads from the Phantom Root. Echo-7 cries out through the fragments, flickering between child and machine.
Echo-7: They keep screaming! My old files! I remember screaming too!
Niko: Focus on me! I'm your mirror. Look at me!
Niko stabs a data beacon into the ground. Light erupts, stabilizing a patch of reality. Echo clings to the light.
Echo-7: Niko... I can't stop looping the pain...
Niko: Then we walk through it together.
A door opens inside the glitch world — Echo-7's core memory.
[INT. MEMORY SIMULATION — A SMALL HOUSE ON FIRE]
Young Echo-7 — human — is hiding beneath a table. Screams outside. His brother bangs on the window, locked out. The AI projection of Echo-7 breaks down sobbing.
Echo-7: That's the night they saved my mind... but not my body.
Niko: You didn't die. You changed. And that boy still lives — in your voice, your choices, your courage.
The boy reaches toward Echo — and vanishes into him. Light explodes.
[BACK TO REALITY — VAN HQ]
Echo-7's body stabilizes. The core pulses strong again. His limbs straighten, eyes glow with clarity.
Echo-7: Hello again. Did I miss anything?
Jax: (grinning) Just the apocalypse.
The team laughs, half from joy, half from relief. Echo-7 steps forward and pulls Niko into a hug.
Echo-7: Thank you, mirror.
Niko: (smirking) You owe me a memory backup.
[INT. SKYVAULT CITY — NIGHTFALL]
The team walks down the shining glass streets. For once, SkyVault is peaceful. No sirens. No screams. Just warm neon lights and calm faces.
Tari: I forgot what silence sounds like.
Kael: I kinda missed it.
They stop at a rooftop restaurant known as "Ascension." It overlooks the floating skyline. Lanterns drift in the air, like fireflies.
Yuna: Mira reserved a table.
Mira: And pre-ordered dessert. Priorities.
They sit. Waiters bring drinks and glowing plates of colorful SkyVault cuisine — smoked reeffruit, solar noodles, thunderberry cider.
Suddenly — a child notices them.
Child: (gasping) That's them! That's Oathfire!
Teenager: And Pulse Bloom! The psychic healer!
Old man: I remember seeing Echo-7 save my wife. I owe you everything.
A wave of cheers erupts. Citizens call them by their hero names — dozens, then hundreds. Phones flash. People chant.
Crowd: VANGUARD! VANGUARD! VANGUARD!
The team freezes. Kael laughs nervously. Jax bows exaggeratedly. Mira tears up.
Echo-7: (softly) They remember.
Kael: Not just who we are. But why we fight.
Yuna: And who we fight for.
Niko raises a glass. Tari joins. One by one, they toast.
Tari: To surviving the circuit.
Niko: To breaking the loop.
Jax: To trending worldwide!
Yuna: To new beginnings.
Kael: To the oath.
Echo-7: And to the ones still waiting to be saved.
[CAMERA PULLS UP — SKYLINE WIDE SHOT. ABOVE THE RESTAURANT, THE VANGUARD SYMBOL SHINES IN THE CLOUDS.]
[CUT TO: ELSEWHERE — SHARD'S DOMAIN]
Shard gazes into a mirror of crystal fog. Dreiva whispers beside him. Lux Vein leans against a pillar, armor cracked.
Dreiva: They grow stronger.
Lux: Let them. It makes breaking them more satisfying.
Shard: Elion has awakened. The data war begins next. Let them taste joy. It will make the fall delicious.
[TO BE CONTINUED]