š¶šµ "Control" - Halsey
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It didn't begin with fear.
It began with beauty.
The sky turned red.
Not the soft orange of sunset, not the fading glow of dusk, but a deep, suffocating crimson that stretched endlessly above the world, as if something had torn open the heavens and let them bleed.
People stopped.
On highways. On sidewalks. On rooftops.
They stared.
Phones came out. Cameras flashed. Livestreams exploded.
No one ran.
Not yet.
Because it was beautiful.
And humanity had always been stupid in the face of beautiful things.
Then the sky started falling.
Streaks of fire tore across the crimson horizon, screaming as they descended.... dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.
The first impact came somewhere far away.
A distant boom.
Then another.
And another.
And then...
The world remembered how to panic.
Days later, they would name it:
The Redfall.
But here...
Right now...
Beneath what used to be a city block...
Something else was happening.
Silence filled the ruins.
Concrete had collapsed into itself. Steel beams twisted like broken bones. Smoke curled lazily into the blood-red sky.
Nothing moved.
Nothing breathed.
Then....
A sound.
Crack.
A hand burst through the rubble.
Not struggling.
Not weak.
Slow.
Deliberate.
As if whatever it belonged to had all the time in the world.
More debris shifted.
Fell away.
And a man stepped out.
If he was still a man.
Dust slid off his shoulders as he straightened to full height. His clothes were torn, soaked in something darker than shadow.
Light flickered around him....
No.
Not light.
Somethingā¦ red.
It pulsed.
Like a heartbeat.
His head tilted slightly, as if listening to something only he could hear.
Then he smiled.
It wasn't relief.
It wasn't joy.
It was hunger.
Deep.
Endless.
Ancient.
"ā¦Alive," he murmured.
His voice was rough. Unused. Wrong.
He looked down at his hands.
Flexed them slowly.
The red glow tightened around his fingers.
Something in the distance screamed.
His head snapped toward the sound.
And for the first time...
His eyes opened fully.
Burning.
Not metaphorically.
Actually burning.
Like embers given thought.
"ā¦Good."
He stepped forward.
The ground beneath his foot cracked.
Not from weight.
From something else.
Something inside him.
The air around him trembled, reacting, recoiling.. like the world itself recognized something it should not have allowed back into existence.
He took another step.
And another.
Each one more certain.
More eager.
More alive.
"ā¦Let's begin."
Far above....
Another asteroid burned through the sky.
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A bright studio.
Clean.
Normal.
Safe.
Or at least pretending to be.
A woman sat behind a desk, composed but not calm. The kind of calm that required effort.
Behind her, a massive screen displayed footage of the Redfall impacts, chaos, people running.
"Good evening," she began, voice steady.
"If you're just joining us, earlier this week, a global meteor event,now officially named The Redfall...resulted in multiple impact zones across the world."
The footage shifted.
Now showing something else.
People.
Doing impossible things.
"ā¦But that's not the only thing that's changed."
A pause.
Even she hesitated.
"As of today, approximately twenty-five percent of the global population has reportedā¦ abnormalities."
A clip played.
A man lifting a car.
A girl surrounded by electricity.
A boy vanishing into thin air.
"ā¦Abilities," she corrected.
The word sounded strange.
New.
Dangerous.
"We are entering what experts are calling...."
She glanced briefly at her script.
Then back at the camera.
"The Age of the Superpowered."
Another pause.
This one heavier.
"ā¦And we don't yet know what that means for the rest of us."
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š Quote
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."
- Sun Tzu