Lyrics

Night covers the city The stars are out, but the light barely filters down through the buildings to the streets below. Towards the center of the sprawling metropolis, the neon signs spill angled shadows down the alleyways, and the streetlights pour pools of garish white down onto the pavement. Further out from the city's center, the lights become fewer and farther between. The darkness deeper. Rising up from the street, pockets of steel are just visiblе framing the few windows holding back hints of dim lamplight within. The blankеt of shadow lifting only once you've broken free of the crowded sleeping buildings and emerged into the cool night air above the skyline. The soft glow of the collective lights breathing slowly in the dark The faint outline of a girl stands over the city, the silhouette of a helmet hanging at her side. She watches silently under the canopy of stars in the night sky A streak of light pulls her attention from the slow pulses of red to the northeast as she watches a star shoot across the sky and disappear beyond the horizon. She looks up into the heavens as a second sails silently by. A few more now cut a similar path. And then a single curious star streaks westward. As it nears the horizon it lingers somehow, halting its escape from view. The pinprick of light getting brighter, its luminous tail seeming to shorten and disappear behind the white-hot center, growing angrier and quivering. Now it trembles violently. emitting a howling whine as the light forces her eyes closed. She feels the heat rip past just above her. A blast of searing air knocks her off her feet as the impact into a neighboring building buries her scream in the sounds of torn metal and shattering glass... and then plunges her into total darkness Thick dust and acrid smoke fill her nose and mouth as she struggles to find her footing. Unsteady but intact, she stumbles toward the fire escape, stopping to pick up the helmet from where it landed, her burning eyes trained on the red pulsing tower in the distance, straining to make out the signs of the next imminent threat, cursing herself for letting her guard down. She should've known something was coming. She hadn't seen a robot patrol for blocks. For a brief moment, she'd let herself feel safe. In this city... you are never truly safe. This is something she's known her whole life. In this city... to be afraid is to be alive The girl hurries to make her way down to the street. Rung. by rung. Fingers gripping the cold metal tightly as her heart pounds in her chest. There's a thrill to survival, and by now she's figured out how to harness that fear and turn it into momentum