You slowly raise your hands, the chrono-weapons still strapped to your body but clearly not drawn. The crowd murmurs as you step forward, your boots kicking up small puffs of neon-lit dust from the cracked pavement. The armored figures tense, their weapons humming louder as you approach, but they don't fire. Up close, you see intricate circuitry pulsing beneath their matte-black armor, like veins of liquid light.

The lead figure tilts their head, visor displaying rapid-fire symbols you can't decipher. Their voice emerges distorted through the helmet's vocalizer: 'Identification sequence not found. Temporal signature matches Class-9 anomaly.' The others spread out in a practiced formation, weapons trained on you from multiple angles.

Suddenly, your wrist-mounted Quantum Disruptor beeps urgently. Its tiny display shows a rapidly decreasing percentage next to the words 'Temporal Synchronization.' The lead armored figure notices the device and makes a sharp gesture. 'Contain the chrono-pollutant before phase shift completes!' One soldier lunges forward with what looks like a glowing net made of crackling energy strands.

From above comes an earsplitting shriek of rending metal. A massive chunk of building facade breaks away and plummets toward your group. The armored figures scatter with unnatural speed as the debris crashes between you, sending up a cloud of pulverized concrete and sparking wires. Through the chaos, you glimpse a shadowy figure watching from a broken window high above - a gaunt face with piercing silver eyes that seem to glow in the settling dust.