[Flashback – A Few Months Ago]

Across the fabric of a distant galaxy, a fire tore through space — burning with unnatural speed and silence.

A meteor, cloaked in blue heat and cosmic energy, roared through a veil of stars and clouds… before slamming into the forests of Earth like a god's fist.

The impact crater steamed. Trees had been shattered like twigs. No sirens came. No satellites picked it up. The wreckage was silent.

Until a boy crawled from the smoke.

He stumbled out, barefoot and breathing hard — his body faintly glowing, his veins illuminated like lightning caught beneath skin. His eyes burned bright for a moment… then flickered to normal.

He looked at his hand — it trembled, morphing slightly, shifting out of human form before he clenched his fist and suppressed it.

Voiceover (Zeno):

“The moment I left Nemesis… I knew I could never go back. Not as their weapon.”

His body gave out. The glow dimmed. He collapsed on the forest floor as a family of campers in the distance rushed toward him, calling for help.

The screen faded to black.

[Present Day – Morning, Earth City]

Zeno Carter jolted awake, chest rising sharply with the breath of a memory he couldn't fully shake. The room was small, clean, and barely lit by soft morning sun. Digital blinds hummed open.

He sat up slowly. Across the room, a flickering mirror reflected something he couldn’t explain — a split-second image of his alien self staring back at him. Blue skin, sharp markings, glowing white eyes.

Then it was gone. He blinked. Just his regular face again.

Keep it together, he told himself. You're not him anymore.

From the corner, the TV rambled on in that bright, uncaring tone:

“Another Drainer swarm neutralized by Project Earth yesterday. All thanks to our elite heroes and the rising generation. The Academy opens its gates this morning for a fresh wave of cadets!”

Zeno slung his custom bag over his shoulder. The moment he stepped outside, the city of Earth came alive.

Sky cars zipped overhead in orderly traffic lanes. Floating holo-screens advertised the Academy, showing shots of instructors, elemental battles, and cheering crowds. Power-wielding citizens walked side by side with civilians — some flying, some cloaked, some flickering with strange light.

But Zeno didn’t glow. Not today.

[Arrival at Project Earth Academy]

The gates were massive — silver and blue steel wrapped around a radiant energy symbol. It spun slowly above the entrance, the logo of Project Earth.

Students funneled through, some wide-eyed, others already cocky. Zeno kept his head low.

But he noticed a few faces — ones that seemed destined to cross paths again.

Calen Rhodes leaned against a pillar, smirking, sparks jumping between his fingertips like impatient lightning.

Lana Cross rolled her eyes at him, her hair flickering with embers.

Mira Lane stood alone, silent and sharp-eyed — water rippling calmly in her palm.

Darian Holt, bulky and stone-faced, helped a younger kid with his bag before walking inside without a word.

None of them truly noticed Zeno… except for Mira. Her gaze lingered just a second too long.

Why do I feel like I know him? she thought, her fingers curling around the edge of her uniform.

[First Trial – Simulated Monster Emergency]

The dome was massive — a glowing arena that transformed into a war zone within seconds. Screams echoed through a false city as Golems and Crawlers emerged from broken streets and shattered buildings.

Overhead, a cold voice spoke:

“This is your first test. Save civilians. Survive. Don’t show off — show instincts.”

Zeno stood still at first, watching the chaos unfold. Others sprang into action, launching fireballs, summoning walls, sprinting toward civilians.

But Zeno?

He hesitated.

A vision flashed in his mind — torn monsters, melting under the raw force of his true power. A planet painted in blood. His power wasn’t just for combat. It was annihilation.

You can't become that again, he told himself.

So he stuck to wind.

A soft lift here, a burst there. He gently pulled a child from beneath a bus, used wind pressure to push falling debris away from others. When a Golem charged him, he used smart redirection — no flashy takedown, just survival and protection.

Enough to be noticed. But not enough to expose himself.

[Ending Scene – Rooftop at Sunset]

Trial complete. Students celebrated. Some argued. Others tried to brag.

Zeno sat alone on a high rooftop, overlooking the city that had taken him in. The sky was painted gold and violet, his silhouette dark against the setting sun.

Then came a voice.

“Hey,” someone called, climbing up beside him. “You’re kinda weird, you know that? But not bad.”

Zeno turned to see Calen smirking with that same spark in his eye.

“I’m Calen.”

Zeno smirked faintly. “Zeno. Just a normal guy.”

[Cut to Space – Planet Nemesis]

Far away, in the cold void of space, a monstrous throne room pulsed with energy.

Nexar Nemis stood over a glowing war table, his cloak fluttering despite no wind. A soldier knelt at his feet, armor cracked from interstellar travel.

“He has arrived,” the soldier said. “Just as predicted.”

Nexar turned — his right hand warped and unstable, energy pulsing through it like liquid void.

“Then it’s time Earth remembers who they let in…”

His smile, twisted and cold, stretched beneath his hood.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Morning – Project Earth Academy]

The halls of the Academy were alive with motion — students hustled between sectors, voices buzzing, uniforms flashing with house emblems and squad colors. Futuristic holograms flickered above, updating live student rankings from the previous day’s trial.

Zeno’s name sat somewhere in the middle. Not remarkable. Not forgettable either.

Exactly where I want to be, he thought.

He kept his hood low, eyes calm as the Academy’s internal systems offered a guided scan of the grounds.

Training Grounds — wide arenas with projection walls that mimicked real-world terrain. Simulated monsters roared, their AI dangerous but controlled.

Tech Labs — students working alongside engineers to mod and test their personal gear. Armor pieces hovered mid-air in holographic renderings.

Meditation Domes — filled with pulsating orbs of light, the place gave off a deep calm. Powers were emotional here — and emotions needed walls.

Observation Decks — above it all, instructors watched behind dark one-way glass, their eyes always tracking... especially the unknowns.

[Hall Encounter – The Freshmen]

“Yo, wind boy!” Calen called out with a grin, lightning twitching at his fingers like impatient static. “Join my team. Sparring match today. We’re one short.”

Zeno blinked. “I’m not really—”

Before he could finish, Lana Cross crossed her arms, fire coiling lazily around her forearm.

“If you’re too weak to back him up, just say so.”

The insult was casual, not cruel. But it hit something in him.

Zeno sighed and nodded. “I’m in.”

Across the room, Mira Lane watched quietly. The surface of her iris shimmered, like watching calm water before a storm.

There’s something buried in him, she thought. Something he’s afraid to feel.

Darian Holt, calm and quiet, gave Zeno a small nod. It said more than words could.

[Sparring Match – Team Calen vs. Team Bronn]

The arena was vast — terrain shifting from cracked pavement to canyon walls and uneven ruins. Simulated wind howled. The crowd above watched in silence.

Team Bronn — seasoned upperclassmen — stood tall, their powers humming like restrained beasts. Sand manipulation, wind blasts, brute force.

Zeno stayed toward the back at first. He used his air skills with precision — vaulting over obstacles, redirecting force, and sweeping pressure to knock enemies off balance. Never flashy. Always just enough.

Calen’s lightning was relentless — zapping targets and overcharging metallic traps Lana had rigged with searing heat. She torched the ground, driving enemies into pre-set zones. Mira’s water moved like needles — silent and sharp. She froze a sand manipulator mid-strike.

Darian summoned towering stone walls, dividing the field with clean, brutal control.

The team flowed like they'd trained together for months. They hadn't.

Until Zeno got separated.

[Zeno vs. Bronn’s Captain]

He landed wrong, rolled under debris — and found himself alone with Bronn's team captain. A tall, smirking senior with blood-red eyes and a heavy blade of compressed storm metal.

The captain cracked his knuckles.

“You don’t belong here, freshman. You’re hiding something. I can smell it.”

Zeno’s breath caught.

He knows.

The enemy lunged. Zeno deflected with a burst of wind, but it wasn’t enough. A punch landed — ribs bruised. He stumbled.

No. Not here. Not again…

His vision blurred. His hands twitched. The air… stopped moving.

His eyes glowed faintly — alien blue piercing through.

For a moment, everything went still. The pressure shifted — like the world paused to hold its breath.

But Zeno didn’t snap. Instead, he focused that pressure, shaped the air, and launched the captain vertically — hard — smashing him into the ceiling with a controlled blast of molecular force.

The crowd gasped.

Match over. Team Calen wins. Barely.

[Observation Room – Instructor Review]

High above, behind mirrored glass, a veteran instructor rewound the fight footage. His eyes scanned through layers of energy and motion in x-ray clarity.

“That wasn’t just wind. He manipulated molecular weight… like someone who’s trained under gravitic thresholds.”

Colton Briggs — scarred, sharp-eyed, in charge of security review and the main Project Earth Recruiter, — said nothing for a moment.

Then: “Keep watching him. But don’t interfere. If he’s hiding something… it’ll surface soon enough.”

[Rooftop – That Night]

The city glowed below, a sea of hovering lights and neon haze. On the dorm rooftop, Zeno sat alone again — back against the steel railing, eyes on the sky.

But this time, footsteps approached.

Calen flopped down beside him. “Told you you weren’t normal. That was sick.”

Lana followed, arms crossed. “Still don’t like you. But I guess you’re not useless.”

Mira stood a few feet away, gaze soft. “You don’t have to pretend with us, you know. We’re all holding something in.”

Darian didn’t speak, just nodded and leaned against the wall.

Zeno didn’t say anything. But for the first time, he smiled — just a little.

They sat there as teammates. Not friends. Not yet. But maybe something close.

His gaze rose again.

One star, faint and far off, glowed dimly — red with a flicker of blue.

Zeno (inner monologue):

That’s Nemesis. Still watching. I can’t slip. Not yet.

[Final Scene – Planet Nemesis]

A room of obsidian crystal pulsed with sick light. Nexar Nemis stood before a warping orb, his hand dissolving into raw void as he pressed it into the energy pool.

Earth’s surface shimmered into view.

“He still breathes like them. Talks like them. But he’s ours,” Nexar muttered.

A new figure stepped forward — cloaked in ash-gray robes, eyes glowing red behind a black visor.

“Shall I retrieve him, my lord?”

Nexar smiled.

“No... not yet. Let them grow attached to him first. Let him believe he’s safe.”

He turned toward the stars, the war behind his eyes already unfolding.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Morning Briefing – Project Earth Academy Dome]

A thunderous chime rang through the main dome — hundreds of cadets stood at attention beneath the glimmering lights of the high-tech ceiling. Holograms pulsed above their heads, displaying scrolling text and instructor commands.

Then came the announcement — direct and cold:

“Today, all first-year candidates will be sent on supervised real-world simulations. Each team will face a randomized threat scenario. Success will move you forward. Failure returns you to training.”

A ripple of tension passed through the room.

Team assignments flickered on digital panels — and once again, Zeno found himself paired with Calen, Lana, Mira, and Darian.

Coincidence?

He doubted it.

[Transition – Simulation Field: Outskirts of the City]

A hover-shuttle cut across the skyline and descended into an abandoned stretch of Earth City — a forgotten zone where buildings stood cracked and power lines drooped like dead veins. The wind moaned through the ruins. The ground was layered in ash and silence.

They stepped out, boots hitting the crumbling pavement.

Above, a small camera drone hovered silently — blinking red.

Their mission flashed on-screen:

Objective: Evacuate any civilians. Neutralize active threats. Time limit: 45 minutes.

No instructors. No support. Only eyes watching from afar.

[The Calm Before the Storm]

They swept through the empty street in formation.

Mira checked windows with sharp sweeps of water. Darian scanned seismic readings. Calen muttered jokes under his breath to calm his nerves. Lana lit her fingertips to check for heat signatures.

Zeno trailed behind, silent. But his skin itched. A pulse ran through his bones — not from Earth, but from Nemesis.

Something’s coming...

He pushed the feeling down.

Inside an old grocery store, they found a frightened family huddled beneath shattered shelves. Mira immediately stepped forward, calming them with a wave of cool mist. Darian motioned the exit route.

Then...

The lights blinked.

The air grew thin.

A sound — like clicking teeth — echoed overhead.

[Sudden Attack – Drainer Ambush]

They fell from the sky like shadows.

Drainers.

Insectoid horrors, with twitching tendrils and long, segmented bodies. They latched onto power poles and walls, sucking the energy from every source — including people.

The city dimmed.

Sparks exploded from wires.

And an electrical pulse cracked through the air, dropping some cadets to their knees.

Zeno barely stood, hands shaking. The civilians convulsed in place — frozen by invisible drain tendrils. Their energy was being siphoned, their very life fading.

“Engage!” Lana shouted, hurling fireballs skyward.

Calen sent bolts of lightning upward, but his blasts flickered, warped by the Drainers' interference.

“Too much static!” Calen yelled. “They’re absorbing the field!”

Mira called out, “Cover me!” and summoned a dense fog across the street, shielding the group from visual contact. Darian raised a jagged stone wall around the civilians, shielding them completely.

Zeno exhaled. His eyes narrowed.

He didn’t strike wildly.

He aimed.

A concentrated burst of air pressure launched upward, hitting one Drainer between its twitching eyes. Another gust swept the second to the ground, where Lana blasted it clean.

Mira caught it — that surgical precision again. It wasn’t flashy.

But it was terrifyingly efficient.

[Surprise Twist – The Evolved Drainer]

Then, the air changed.

Something heavier landed behind them — with a wet crunch.

An Evolved Drainer crawled into view. Its skin glowed faint red, warped by a pulsing core of corrupted Nemesis crystal embedded in its chest. Tendrils pulsed not just with power, but with emotion.

Fear. Hallucination. Paralysis.

The team staggered.

Lana screamed — seeing fire where there was none.

Calen fell to one knee — voices whispering in his head.

Mira gasped — the ground rippling like waves.

Darian froze — staring into a vision only he could see.

And Zeno…

“Zenoro…”

“Come home…”

The whisper came from inside. From Nemesis. His vision cracked — his past bleeding through.

But he clenched his fists and shattered the illusion.

A flicker of his soul manipulation sparked from within — invisible, but powerful — just enough to break the psychic link.

“Airwave disruption,” he lied calmly. “Snapped you all out. Let’s move.”

[Final Coordination – United Strike]

Zeno called the shots.

“Mira — trap it.”

“On it,” she said, forming a rising sphere of water that wrapped the beast.

“Lana — boil it.”

“Gladly,” she grinned, fire dancing into the sphere, bubbling the water violently.

“Darian — hit center mass.”

Spears of concrete ripped from the earth and struck the beast's sides, pinning it in.

“Calen — now!”

Lightning surged through the water sphere — a living cage of destruction.

The beast shrieked, but didn’t fall.

Zeno stepped forward. Silent.

He gathered the wind into a spiral inside his palm — precise, invisible.

Then with a small, almost unimpressive punch, he struck the air in front of the monster.

A hole formed in its chest — imploded from the inside.

The monster collapsed. Twitching. Dead.

[Aftermath – Mission Complete]

The civilians stood unharmed.

The city remained intact.

A final scan from the hovering drone lit up green.

“Threat neutralized. Mission success.”

The team sat back, breathing hard — the closest they'd ever felt to something real.

But far above… they were being watched.

[Rooftop – Hidden Observer]

A cloaked figure crouched on a high rooftop, completely motionless.

Red sensor eyes glowed beneath the hood.

It tilted its head, scanning Zeno through layers of stone and static.

A Nemesis scout.

It vanished in silence.

[Final Scene – Project Earth HQ]

Inside the observation chamber, Colton Briggs stood over the holoscreen, watching slow-motion footage of Zeno’s final move.

“That one… Zeno Carter. His movement doesn’t match any known Earth-style technique.”

Another veteran leaned forward, scanning the data.

“Let’s invite them to the Hero Trials.”

Colton crossed his arms. His voice low, calculating.

“Let’s see what secrets these kids are hiding.”

TO BE CONTINUED…