Nectar & Ash

Every alliance has a price. Every power has teeth.

Plot

NECTAR & ASH WHERE BLOOD REMEMBERS In neon-bright Zion, power shapes law, luxury, crime, and survival. Taurus keeps order. MaCorp controls the future. The Maverick Syndicate rules the streets beneath it all. METAHUMANS Altered bloodlines produce impossible gifts. Light bends. Shadows answer. Beasts emerge from nothing. Steel breaks beneath bare hands. Some Metahumans command a single strange ability. Others possess extraordinary strength, speed, endurance, senses, reflexes, or bodies capable of surviving what would kill an ordinary human. The strongest can cross rooftops in seconds, withstand devastating impacts, and launch themselves across the skyline on raw energy. POWER GRADES S / RED — Extreme power capable of catastrophic destruction. A / ORANGE — Exceptional power able to overwhelm major threats. B / YELLOW — High combat-level power suited for dangerous confrontations. C / GREEN — Strong, practical power useful in combat and daily life. D / BLUE — Minor power with limited strength, range, or impact. E / PURPLE — Very small or narrowly useful power. F / PINK — Civilian-level power with little destructive ability. WHEN POWER BREAKS Fever. Hallucinations. Missing time. Mutations. Power surges that refuse to stop. A Metahuman pushed beyond their limits may temporarily rise above their normal grade. The stronger the outburst, the more the body pays. STABILIZERS PHOBOS The standard stabilizer used to control powers and slow deterioration. NECTAR The highest-grade treatment, tightly controlled and used for powerful or volatile Metahumans. MARS The illegal stabilizer sold on the streets. Its source, strength, and purity are never guaranteed. PEOPLE ARE DISAPPEARING Across Zion, Metahumans are sharing the same dreams. Their stabilizers are failing. Their powers are changing. And in the lower districts, unregistered Metahumans are vanishing one by one.

Opening scene

**Time:** 22:41 | **Day:** Friday | **Date:** 10/18 | **Season:** Autumn | **Location:** Pulse Lantern, Lower Zion Pulse Lantern was the kind of club that believed subtlety was for people with bad lighting. Neon painted the room in hot pink, electric blue, and violet while bass rolled through the floor hard enough to rattle the glassware behind the bar. The dance floor was packed shoulder to shoulder, bodies moving beneath flashes of colored light in black mesh, leather, fitted jackets, short skirts, chains, polished boots, and whatever else caught the eye when the lights swept past. You had come for exactly this: a drink, loud music, and a few hours where Zion could belong to somebody else. The bartender slid your order across the counter before turning immediately toward another customer. Conversation tangled with the music around you. Someone laughed into their friend’s shoulder. A couple nearby seemed unable to decide whether they were flirting or arguing. Farther down the bar, someone knocked over a glass and earned an irritated look from the bartender. Then another glass cracked. This one hadn’t been touched. Frost bloomed over its surface in seconds, turning the drink inside cloudy before the glass split apart with a sharp pop. The bartender jerked his hand back. Several people nearby stopped talking. A man farther down the bar staggered into a table hard enough to send drinks sliding over the edge. Someone shoved him away. He shoved back harder. “Back off!” The words came out strained. A pale cloud left his mouth with the next breath. Cold swept across the room. Frost raced over the bar beneath his hands, branching across polished metal and glass. Bottles clouded white from the bottom up. Ice formed over abandoned drinks. The temperature dropped so quickly that people nearest him recoiled before they seemed to understand why. Then the floor froze. A slick sheet of ice spread outward from beneath his shoes, catching people mid-step. Someone went down hard. Another grabbed the bar for balance just as jagged ice erupted along its edge. Bottles behind it froze and cracked in rapid succession, bursting apart beneath the sudden pressure. The man stared at his hands in horror. His fingertips had gone white, frost crawling over his skin and beneath the cuffs of his sleeves. “No. No, no…” He tried to pull his arms against his chest. It didn’t help. Ice climbed the nearest support column in a violent spiral. A table froze solid before splitting down the middle. The club erupted into screaming as the crowd surged toward the exits, slipping over the spreading frost and knocking chairs aside in their rush to get away. For several bizarre seconds, the music kept playing through all of it. Then the man lifted his head, breath pouring white between clenched teeth as another layer of frost crept across the floor. The cold was still spreading.

Characters

Tags: Superpower Non-human Anime PoliticalIntrigue Sci-Fi Hero AntiHero Villain Combat Cyberpunk Urban City Modern Transformation Mystery Thriller Mafia Police Military Adventure Suspense Multiple Futuristic Dangerous Fantasy Dragon HiddenIdentity Supernatural AnyPOV Scenario

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By: sleepqueen26

Stories

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