The destruction of the DSP headquarters beneath Mumbai was absolute. Meteoroid Man had carved a path of annihilation, silencing the facility and everyone within it before disappearing back into the sprawling, indifferent city. He was a creature running on pure, unfiltered rage, the last vestiges of Dr. Bharat Maske's humanity seemingly burned away in the failed experiment and the subsequent slaughter.
He found refuge in the skeletal remains of a half-demolished high-rise building near the Navi Mumbai creek, a place of broken concrete and twisted steel, far from the prying eyes of the world. He didn't need rest, but the cold, silent consciousness of the meteoroid within him seemed to demand stillness after the eruption of violence. He stood motionless for hours on a high, precarious floor, looking out over the distant lights of the city, the wind whistling through the empty window frames.
His mind, or what was left of it, was a cold, empty landscape. The pain from the experiments was gone, replaced by a profound, echoing silence. The scientist's desperate desire for a cure was extinguished. The only impulse that remained was a raw, primal urge – the meteoroid's inherent need, buried deep within its alien core. But without Dr. Maske's intellect to guide it, that need was unfocused, a background hum beneath the surface rage.
He saw a flicker of movement below. A small news helicopter, likely investigating reports of the disturbance at the DSP site, flew past his hiding place. On its side was a logo for a major news channel.
Seeing the logo sparked something. Not a memory of Dr. Maske's life, but a memory from his time in the cage.
Flashback - The DSP Containment Lab
He floated in the energy-dampening gel, the sedatives keeping his physical form subdued, but the mind of Dr. Maske was still partially aware, a prisoner listening through the walls of his stone prison.
He heard voices outside his cylinder. Agent Rao was speaking with two senior scientists.
"...completely unprecedented," *one scientist was saying. "Four simultaneous onsets of significant abilities, all linked to the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar impact event. Happened at the exact same time our primary sample here," he gestured towards the cylinder, "was recovered."
*Agent Rao's sharp voice cut in. "And your analysis confirms the link?"
"Beyond doubt, Assistant Director," *the second scientist replied. "Our spectrometry on the pre-merger meteoroid fragments recovered from the park shows the fluid component contained complex, adaptable bio-signatures. Highly mutagenic. That fluid didn't just disappear. Based on the timeline and the nature of their powers... these four young women in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar? They absorbed it. Their powers came directly from the meteoroid."
*Agent Rao was silent for a moment. "Interesting. So, Subject M here is the core, and these 'Panch Shakti' girls... they're carrying fragments of its power?"
"Essentially, yes," *the first scientist confirmed. "Different manifestations, but the same origin."
Present Day
The memory ended, but the information resonated within Meteoroid Man's cold consciousness. Fragments. The missing part. Absorbed.
The vague, unfocused need that had driven the meteoroid suddenly sharpened into a single, piercing point of clarity. The pieces of itself it craved, the energy it felt missing, were not lost forever. They were contained within living beings.
His rage, which had been a directionless storm, now had a target. These 'Panch Shakti' girls. They carried the stolen essence of the meteoroid. They were impurities. They were incomplete. They were reminders of the state he was trapped in.
The cold emptiness within him was replaced by a new, burning purpose. He had to find them. He had to reclaim what was his. Whether that meant absorbing their power back into himself or simply extinguishing the fragments that shouldn't exist outside of him, the meteoroid consciousness didn't differentiate. They were loose ends. They had to be dealt with.
Meteoroid Man turned away from the view of Mumbai. His glowing green eyes, devoid of any human warmth, fixed on the distant southeast. He remembered the faint signal he had felt before, the call from the missing piece. Now he knew what it was. Where it was.
He stepped off the edge of the broken building. He didn't fall. Green energy flared from the cracks on his back and feet, catching him, propelling him silently into the night sky. He was no longer flying aimlessly. He was flying with intent.
The chapter ends with Meteoroid Man, a figure of dark stone and furious green light, streaking across the night sky, leaving Mumbai and its smoldering secrets behind. He is a hunter now, following an invisible thread of cosmic energy towards Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, towards the four young women who unknowingly hold the key to his past and, perhaps, his future.
[To be continued…]
Support me: vanshbosssrahate@oksbi (UPI ID)
Author: Vansh Rahate
Editor: Vansh Rahate
Story by: Vansh Rahate
Under: Alaukika Studios