Read NEON SHADE: Accel Protocol | Tapas Web Community

“The system calls silence peace. But silence was how they erased us.”

— Unknown fragment, recovered from SubArchive-1

Scene 1 – Routine

The sky is too clean.

Above the city of Glimmerpoint, simulated clouds roll on a thirty-minute loop. At 06:30 every cycle, the horizon displays a digitally rendered sunrise. No weather. No wind. Only peace curated by the Veil. Below that, people file through glowing lanes, heads slightly bowed. Most wear neural visors, feeding the Veil data.

Smiles surface on command. Laughter is silent. Nobody speaks unless the system allows it. But something glitches.

A brief spark a delay in the neural stream. One pedestrian twitches. Another clutches their chest. For half a second, someone remembers something.

Then it's gone.

Scene 2 – Accel

High above, at the city’s fringe, a lone figure crouches at the edge of a broadcast spire. Wind isn’t real anymore, but data-surge curls his cloak as if it were. He wears a black mask — matte, angular, glowing with shifting blue code. His hair flickers, strands of digital static, pulsing as if tuned to some hidden signal.

The system tries to scan him — and fails. On nearby screens, glitch-text flickers:

🔲 SUBJECT: ACCEL // STATUS: UNKNOWN

🔲 RECOGNITION PROTOCOL FAILED

ACCEL (internal):

“Same time every cycle. The Veil blinks. The static whispers. Something still remembers me.”

He checks a worn device clipped to his belt — a memory spike, unstable and illegal. The readings show elevated echoes in Sector 9.

It means someone — or something — is waking up. Accel leaps from the spire.

Scene 3 – Life Below

As he drops into the alley below, his boots spark against the metal scaffold. Civilians don’t see him. Or rather, they’ve been conditioned not to notice. The Veil edits their perception in real-time. If you aren’t on the approved list, you don’t exist.

That’s how Accel moves. In the cracks. In the static between frames. But today is different. A nearby terminal flashes red unauthorized broadcast.

"Echo signature detected."

"NON-VAILCORE DATAFLOW INBOUND."

"RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE PURGE."

ACCEL (aloud, low):

“You just made my list, whoever you are.”

He pulls the mask tighter and vanishes into the static.

Scene 4 – Elsewhere: A Flicker

Beneath the city, deep in an old transit hub covered in wire roots and forgotten code… A girl wakes up. Her eyes are glitching one human, one full of cascade data. Her voice comes in fragments, like she's buffering. She blinks into the empty tunnel. No memories. No name. But one word flashes across her retinal UI:

> GLITCH_001 // CORE UNSTABLE

She looks upward.

And smiles.

End of Chapter 1 – “A Spark in the Static”

The spark has landed.

The system begins to tremble.