SOCIAL MEDIA
The internet was a goddamn warzone.
Twitter, Reddit, 4chan, Instagram, TikTok, every single platform was burning to the ground with shaky, pixelated phone footage of the Flaxan invasion.
Trending #1 Worldwide: DRAGON GUY.
Trending #2: #FlaxanInvasion
Trending #3: #ChicagoMassacre
Trending #4: #WhereIsOmniMan
Trending #5: #InvincibleNewHero
People were losing their FUCKING minds.
Half the globe was calling this unknown "John" guy the new savior of Earth. Clips of him summoning a literal Blue-Eyes White Dragon were hitting millions of views per minute, the algorithm working overtime to push the footage to every corner of the internet.
@HeroWatcher99: "Bro summoned a mythic dragon while Atom Eve made pink bubbles lmaooo. Dragon Guy > Teen Team. Don't @ me."
@Invincible_Fan_Account: "Give some respect to Invincible! Dude took hits like a champ and saved dozens of civilians. New budding hero right there! #InvincibleForGuardians"
@ChicagoLocal44: "I was there. I SAW it. That dragon was the size of a fucking luxury hotel 💀It incinerated an entire battalion of aliens in one breath"
@SuperTheories: "Okay but WHAT IS THAT DRAGON?? It looks exactly like the Dragon from that old card game. Is this guy a weeb? Did anime just save the planet?? I have so many questions."
@TeenTeamDaily: "Atom Eve, Invincible, Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Robot all confirmed at the scene. Reports of Robot being destroyed TWICE. Teen Team might be in over their heads with this one."
@ConspiracyCarl: "Wake up sheeple! 'John' shows up out of nowhere with DRAGON POWERS and DIMENSIONAL GATES the SAME DAY as an alien invasion?? This was a false flag! He probably BROUGHT the aliens here to make himself look like a hero! #FalseFlag #DragonGate"
@SecretServiceFanClub: "Govt. is probably already all over this. The secret service doesn't miss. This 'John' guy is either getting recruited or black-bagged. No in-between."
@RexSplodeSimp: "Can we talk about how Rex Splode got absolutely bodied in that fight? Like my man got knocked out in the first five minutes. Still hot though. 🔥"
@DupliKate_Protection_Squad: "Kate used her powers to save SO many people and all anyone talks about is the dragon guy. Put some respect on Dupli-Kate's name! She DIED multiple times for you ungrateful assholes!"
@Kaisenislife: Omg he's so hot ❤️ ❤️ How could someone so beautiful be a villain 😍
@DragonDihhRider: I would like his sweat off the floor if he told me to 😋
But then, around 11:47 PM EST, the tone shifted violently.
As a new video dropped on Twitter.
Account:@Anonymous_Witness_CHI
The footage was high-definition, clearly shot on an expensive phone with image stabilization.
It showed the impossible.
Omni-Man.
Earth's greatest hero.
The Protector of the Planet.
The man who'd saved the world more times than anyone could count.
He was beaten and bloody. His iconic white-and-red suit was shredded and burned.
He stumbled out of some bizarre, floating Japanese wooden door that hung in mid-air.
The timestamp on the video was 3:42 PM, right in the middle of the Flaxan attack.
Omni-Man looked around, disoriented, like he didn't know where he was.
And then, a massive crescent slash of blue energy, easily thirty feet wide, carved through the air and slammed directly into his chest.
The impact was catastrophic.
The shockwave shattered windows for three city blocks.
Omni-Man was thrown backward like a ragdoll, his body tumbling through the air directly toward the collapsing green Flaxan portal.
Right before the portal snapped shut with a sound like fabric tearing, the audio picked up his voice.
A furious, booming scream that shook the phone's speakers.
"CURSE YOU, KAISEN!"
It sounded exactly like a villain monologue from a comic book.
The hatred in those three words was palpable. Raw and visceral.
The video ended.
The internet went completely, utterly silent for about five seconds.
Before, it exploded. Again!
@BreakingNewsGlobal: "OMNI-MAN BANISHED TO ALIEN DIMENSION BY UNKNOWN SUPER. VIDEO EVIDENCE ATTACHED. HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT."
@SaveOmniMan: "SOMEONE SAVE HIM! HE'S TRAPPED IN ANOTHER DIMENSION! THE GOVT. NEEDS TO ACT NOW!"
@ConspiracyCarl: "I FUCKING CALLED IT! JOHN KAISEN IS A VILLAIN! HE ATTACKED OMNI-MAN! THIS WAS HIS PLAN ALL ALONG!"
@HeroNewsNetwork: "BREAKING: Omni-Man allegedly attacked by 'Dragon Guy' (identified as John Kaisen) and forced through Flaxan portal."
@OmniManDefenseSquad: "This is propaganda! Omni-Man would NEVER lose to some random! This video is clearly edited! #FakeNews #DefendOmniMan"
@WhoIsJohnKaisen: "Okay so let me get this straight. This 'John Kaisen' guy: 1) Summons a dragon, 2) Fuses with said dragon like a fucking anime protagonist, 3) Carves a canyon through downtown Chicago, 4) ATTACKS OMNI-MAN, 5) Banishes Earth's greatest hero to an alien dimension. And we're supposed to believe he's a GOOD GUY??"
@TeenTeamDaily: "UPDATE: Atom Eve was seen flying with Invincible toward residential area."
@Guardiansoftheglobe_fAN: "The Guardians of the Globe HAS BEEN MISSING IN THIS GRAVE ORDEAL. Where are they?? Now this?? Something is seriously wrong. The GDA is hiding something."
@SuperPowerScaling: "Okay power-scalers, let's break this down. John Kaisen in dragon fusion form produced an attack that: 1) Carved a 15-foot-deep trench through reinforced roads, 2) Damaged structural integrity of buildings for 2 city blocks, 3) Generated enough kinetic force to launch OMNI-MAN through a portal. That puts him EASILY in S-tier."
@Viltrumite_Facts: "Fun fact: Viltrumites are nearly invincible. The fact that John Kaisen hurt Omni-Man badly enough to knock him through a portal means this guy is PLANETARY THREAT LEVEL."
@JohnKaisenFanClub: "JOHN KAISEN DID NOTHING WRONG! HE SAVED CHICAGO! OMNI-MAN ATTACKED FIRST! WATCH THE FULL FOOTAGE! #JusticeForJohn"
@ChicagoSurvivor1: "I was three blocks away when this happened. That attack was not meant for OMNI-MAN. John Kaisen is either saving us from something or starting a war."
@HeroPhotographer: "I don't care what anyone says. This was the most beautiful and terrifying thing I've ever seen. #DragonGuy #Chicago #FlaxanInvasion"
And through it all, one image kept getting reposted, shared, memed, analyzed frame-by-frame.
Omni-Man, Earth's greatest hero, bloody and beaten, screaming a name with pure hatred as he disappeared into an alien dimension.
"CURSE YOU, KAISEN!"
The world had watched a god fall.
And they had no idea what came next.
CECIL STEDMAN'S POV
"This has been a shity day and a half."
I stood at the head of the war room, watching the footage loop on the main projector for the seventh time.
"First, that convict escapes holding, and now this."
The GDA clerk, sweating through his cheap suit, hit the replay button with a shaking hand.
The footage played again.
That same convict, John Kaisen, summoning a massive mythological dragon out of thin air like he was pulling a rabbit out of a hat, except the rabbit was a fifty-foot-long engine of destruction.
Then, the fusion.
Blue and orange light swirling around him and the dragon, their bodies merging into something that looked like it had stepped out of a fever dream.
A man in draconic armor with massive wings.
And then, the systematic obliteration of an entire Flaxan invasion force.
Energy daggers with lightening crackling along them, raining from the sky like divine judgment.
And Energy beams that vaporized everything they touched.
A final attack that carved a goddamn valley through downtown Chicago.
And then, the real kicker that had the entire war room on edge.
Omni-Man.
Bloody, bruised, and furious, staggering out of a Japanese tatami gate like a doorway to hell.
Only to get hit by that same dragon-armored kid's finishing move and launched directly into the collapsing Flaxan portal.
I'd watched the footage so many times I could recite it frame by frame.
I could see the exact moment Omni-Man's eyes locked onto the kid.
Could see the pure, unbridled hatred in his expression.
"CURSE YOU, KAISEN!"
The audio quality was crystal clear.
Every analyst in the room had heard it.
Every news outlet on the planet had played it.
Social media had turned it into a meme in under twenty minutes.
I chewed hard on the inside of my cheek, as it finally started to bleed.
I was in a shitty mood.
That wasn't exactly new. I'd been in a shitty mood since I took this job.
But there was an undercurrent of anticipation vibrating in my chest that had the rest of the room walking on eggshells around me.
"Status report," I barked.
Leonard, one of the senior analysts, nearly fell out of his chair scrambling to respond.
"Sir, we've triangulated the quantum signature of the gate he produced. It's giving off readings similar to the Flaxan dimension, but with a different harmonic frequency. He's completely off-world right now. Wherever he went, it's not anywhere in our dimensional space."
I nodded slowly, turning my attention back to the frozen frame on the screen.
"What about the tracker?"
Donald's expression didn't change, but I saw the slight shift in his posture.
"We successfully embedded a GPS tracker. The moment he steps back into our dimensional space, every satellite we have will lock onto his position."
John Kaisen.
Unique name, I'd give him that.
"Alright," I said quietly. "The second he pings back in our dimension, I want a full tactical movement."
"Yes, sir."
I looked around the room, making eye contact with each analyst, each agent, each person who now knew exactly how precarious Earth's safety had become.
"Make sure that tracker works, Donald. Because if that kid comes back and decides Earth isn't worth saving..."
I didn't finish the sentence.
I didn't need to.
We both knew exactly what was at stake.
[A/N]: Drop them Stones if you want MORE!!!.....
Support my work and get early access to advance chapters, exclusive content, and bonus material at my P@treon - Max_Striker.
If you wanna hang out, join my Discord server- https://discord.gg/XxGEYk2PM5