CARDINAL: SHATTERED SKIES

Year 2003

Opening Scene – Small Town Shadows

A cold December wind cuts through rural Texas. The town of Brenton sits just outside Austin—old barns, dusty roads, and a school football field covered in frost. In the stands, a 17-year-old boy sits alone, tossing a worn-out baseball in his hands.

This is Elias “Eli” Kane, later to become Cardinal.

He’s wiry, medium build, mixed Mexican-American heritage, shaggy dark hair and intense eyes. He wears a red varsity jacket over torn jeans. On the outside, he’s just another quiet kid. Inside, something burns.

As he throws the baseball into the air, it flickers—just slightly—and then pops like a firecracker. The sparks fade before anyone notices. Eli quickly hides his hands in his pockets.

Scene 2 – Eli’s Home Life

His house is small and cluttered. His mom works double shifts at a diner; his dad’s been gone since Eli was six. Bills pile up on the kitchen counter.

Mom: “You’re up late again. Studying?”

Eli: (half-smile) “Something like that.”

He sneaks into the garage at night. It’s his secret lab: stacks of scrap metal, old electronics, targets. We see dents in the walls where he’s been practicing. He picks up a smooth stone, closes his eyes, whispers:

Eli: “Control. Don’t blow up. Control…”

He throws it. It lands against the far wall, glowing red—and explodes in a flash, leaving a smoking mark.

Eli’s ability: anything he throws can detonate on impact. The size and intensity depend on his focus. But he’s terrified of what could happen if he loses control.

Scene 3 – The Villain Appears

Cut to Denver, snowy night.

Inside a corporate high-rise, a press conference is underway. Billionaire tech developer Richard Vale stands at a podium—white, mid-30s, slick hair, sharp suit. He’s known for designing next-gen security drones and “non-lethal” weapons. But whispers in the crowd say his experiments aren’t ethical.

Suddenly, a flash of red light from his palm vaporizes a security drone on stage. Gasps. The media thinks it’s a demonstration. But Vale smiles too thinly.

He’s been altered by his own experiments: unstable energy coursing through his cells, giving him the ability to disrupt and disintegrate electronic or physical matter he touches. He calls himself “Anarch.”

Vale/Anarch: “The world clings to old power. I will tear it down. And from the ruins, we’ll build something better.”

He leaves the conference as panicked journalists shout questions. Helicopters follow his black convoy disappearing into the snow.

Scene 4 – The Incident

Back in Brenton, Eli’s powers are discovered by accident. After a football game, a bully corners him behind the bleachers.

Bully: “Heard you’re hiding something, freak. Show us.”

Eli: “Leave me alone.”

They push him. His hands tremble. A small coin in his palm glows red. He flings it instinctively. BOOM—a trash can erupts behind the bully, who flees screaming.

Within hours, rumors spread: “The Cardinal Kid” who can blow stuff up. Eli’s mom is horrified when police show up, but there’s no evidence. He runs before they can question him.

Scene 5 – Enter Hari Prasad Shrestha

At a hidden government safehouse near Austin, Hari—now older, still the Sentinel recruiter—reads the report about “the exploding kid.” He’s intrigued. Another potential Sentinel?

He finds Eli sitting on a bus stop bench, hoodie up, shivering.

Hari: “You don’t know me. But I know what you’re going through.”

Eli: (snaps) “You don’t know anything about me.”

Hari: “I know power scares you. But it’s not a curse. It’s a choice.”

Hari hands him a red glove lined with stabilizing material.

Hari: “Throw something with this. Trust me.”

Eli throws a pebble—no explosion. He stares at the glove.

Hari: “With training, you could be more than just a scared boy making craters.”

Eli hesitates but follows Hari to an unmarked SUV.

Scene 6 – Training Montage

At an abandoned airfield turned Sentinel outpost, Hari trains Eli:

Throwing different objects at targets.

Practicing control—timing detonations, suppressing them.

Parkour across obstacle courses.

Precision aim under stress.

We see Eli’s progress. He learns to charge objects with energy without detonating them until impact. Small baseball-sized blasts, then bigger.

They design a suit: crimson and black, reinforced with Oscide weave from Tibet (a nod to Kang Rauma). The suit protects him from his own shockwaves. The emblem: a stylized red bird—Cardinal.

Music swells.

Scene 7 – The Villain’s Plan

Anarch’s plan unfolds. He hijacks a military satellite uplink, threatening to “shatter” the U.S. energy grid unless the government surrenders access codes to national defense drones. Explosions rock substations across multiple states. He’s proving he can disable entire infrastructures at will.

He calls into the news:

Anarch: “Your machines, your cities—they’re fragile glass. I’ll break them one by one.”

The Pentagon panics. Hari realizes only Cardinal’s unique power—controlled kinetic detonations—can counter Anarch’s destabilizing energy fields.

Scene 8 – The Love Interest

While training, Eli meets Jordan, a 16-year-old girl volunteering at the base library. She’s African-American, wears glasses, witty and sharp. She calls Eli “Bird Boy” after seeing his suit prototype. They bond over late-night chess games and music.

Jordan: “You don’t have to be perfect. Just be better than you were yesterday.”

Eli: “That’s harder than it sounds.”

Jordan: (smiles) “Then start small. Like you do with your throws.”

Their friendship blossoms into quiet affection. She becomes his anchor, reminding him why he fights.

Scene 9 – First Confrontation

Cardinal tracks Anarch to a derelict oil refinery outside Houston. Sparks shower the night as Anarch tears apart steel beams with his touch.

Cardinal (arriving): “Vale! Stop before you tear the whole place down!”

Anarch (laughs): “Another child soldier? They’re sending kids at me now?”

They clash. Cardinal throws charged discs—BOOM!—but Anarch redirects the shockwaves, absorbing some energy and hurling it back. Cardinal is knocked into a vat of oil. Fire ignites. He barely escapes, coughing.

Anarch disappears into the night. Cardinal tastes defeat for the first time.

Scene 10 – Doubt

Back at the base, Eli punches a locker in frustration.

Eli: “I can’t beat him. Everything I throw, he twists it. I’m just making him stronger.”

Jordan: “Then stop trying to fight like him. Fight like you.”

She kisses him lightly on the cheek before leaving. Eli stares at the glove Hari gave him—the symbol of control. Inspiration strikes.

Scene 11 – The Plan

Eli studies Anarch’s energy signature. He realizes Vale can only destabilize continuous energy—not brief, staggered pulses. If Eli can throw a sequence of micro-charges timed perfectly, he can overload Vale’s absorption reflex.

Hari warns:

Hari: “This could kill you if you miscalculate.”

Eli: “If I don’t, he kills everyone else.”

Scene 12 – Final Battle – Downtown Austin

Night. Christmas lights twinkle over the Colorado River bridges. Anarch stands atop a power plant, palms glowing, the city flickering below as blackouts spread.

Cardinal arrives, suit gleaming under the moon.

Anarch: “Back for another beating?”

Cardinal: “Back to end this.”

They sprint at each other—Anarch a blur of white energy, Cardinal a streak of crimson. The clash is spectacular: shockwaves shatter windows, sparks rain from transformers.

Cardinal begins his pattern—small timed throws, micro-detonations circling Anarch like red fireflies. Vale laughs until he realizes he can’t destabilize them all at once. The pulses form a cage of kinetic force.

Anarch: “What are you—”

Cardinal hurls his final charged sphere straight up. It detonates above them in a dazzling burst, forcing Anarch’s energy field inward. The villain convulses, his own power collapsing.

Cardinal: “This ends now!”

With one last sprint, Cardinal tackles Anarch off the platform into the shallow river below. Water erupts in a geyser of steam. When the spray clears, Vale lies unconscious, his powers flickering out.

Cardinal drags him to shore, panting. Sirens wail as agents rush in.

Scene 13 – Resolution

At the base, Hari places a Sentinel badge on the table.

Hari: “You don’t have to say yes now. But the world could use someone like you.”

Eli: “I just wanted to protect my town. Not be some big hero.”

Hari: “That’s exactly why you should be one.”

Jordan hugs Eli tightly.

Jordan: “You did it, Bird Boy.”

Eli: “We did it.”

He looks out over Austin from the base’s rooftop as dawn breaks, his red suit catching the first sunlight. For the first time, he smiles without fear.

Epilogue

News anchors call him “Cardinal” after a blurry photo shows a red streak saving civilians. Vale is in custody, stripped of his tech. The power grid recovers.

Eli walks through his high school hallway, hoodie up. Nobody knows the quiet kid with a red backpack is the one who saved them.

He slips a small, harmless stone into his pocket. No glow. Just a rock. For now.

CARDINAL: SHATTERED SKIES

December 2003 – A new legend takes flight.

Hari

now the HERO!!

Villain

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