The sky cracked open again.
Silver rays lanced across the globe, blinding, silent, and wholly unpredictable. They defied all patterns, no latitude, no time, no continent left untouched.
From deserts to mountaintops, rainforests to urban sprawls, they struck like lightning but left no thunder.
Then came the sinkholes.
They appeared without seismic warning, massive chasms tearing open the earth's crust, often in uninhabited areas.
But even uninhabited land belonged to someone. The photos from satellite feeds were impossible to ignore.
Giant craters, nearly two hundred meters wide, and yet… not bottomless.
They all stopped at the same depth.
As if something dug in and stopped deliberately.
Red markers dotted a spinning globe on the digital table in the dark room.
"Jesus…" Whispered one technician, clutching his coffee cup with trembling fingers.
The lead scientist, Dr. Myra DeCastro, leaned forward.
"They're appearing in patterns… spirals. Look, you align them on a 3D temporal model and rotate using Earth's magnetic field as a base."
"It's… it's a map. Or a countdown."
The screen zoomed in.
Sky pits.
But the name felt wrong.
These weren't natural.
"…major metropolitan areas across the western United States are experiencing complete grid collapse."
"Power outages are now widespread across California, Nevada, and parts of Colorado—"
The screen flashed again. Footage rolled of.
Subway cars stuck mid-tunnel, passengers using phone lights, panicked voices rising.
Jets grounded at LAX, unable to launch.
Cruise liners dead in the water, their electronics fried, drifting powerlessly off the coast.
ER rooms plunged into darkness, doctors screaming for manual tools.
Anchor James Rayburn pulled off his earpiece mid-broadcast and muttered to the producer:
"If this is terrorism, it's alien."
"…"
A holographic globe spun above a console as Tony Stark, dressed in a ragged MIT hoodie, narrowed his eyes at the shimmering silver line traced through Earth's stratosphere.
"Alright, J.A.R.V.I.S. — tell me we're not all going insane."
The AI's voice was smooth, but urgent.
"Negative, sir."
"Cross-referencing all global anomalies with StarkSat visuals now."
The hologram pinged. A new image appeared, grainy at first, then sharpened.
A humanoid figure, streaking through clouds on what appeared to be a surfboard, trailing a comet-tail of gleaming cosmic energy.
Tony's mouth went dry.
"Enhance again. Show me heat signatures."
"Sir, the subject radiates energy exceeding any Stark Industries reactor. No known weapon or tracking system is capable of locking on."
"Movement speed is Mach 75 and rising."
"Mach what now?! That's… that's not a speed! That's a freaking event horizon!"
Tony's fingers flew across the console, dragging data into models, overlaid energy charts, and alien threat profiles.
Tony strapped on his suit. J.A.R.V.I.S. locked each piece into place with magnetic precision.
"I need a direct uplink to Fury, Banner, and Rogers. This thing's beyond weird, and I'm not waiting for it to knock on the front door."
"Done, sir. Message relayed: 'possible planetary threat detected. Prepare contingency.'"
"Yeah. Understatement of the year."
Helmet slammed shut. Repulsors flared.
The lights above the roundtable hummed quietly as the Avengers watched the rotating 3D image of the humanoid blur that Tony Stark had captured earlier.
"It's not possible." Clint said, his voice low with disbelief.
"You're saying that's a person? No way someone survives that kind of speed. The G-forces alone~"
"I said humanoid." Tony cut in, voice clipped.
"I didn't say human. There's a difference. Trust me, I've already had J.A.R.V.I.S. crawl through every camera feed, satellite ping, weather drone, even traffic cams."
"It's like this guy's allergic to being recorded."
The hologram shimmered. A silhouette, shaped like a man, sleek, metallic, inhuman, surfing on a streak of light.
Steve Rogers folded his arms, frowning. "Without S.H.I.E.L.D., we're flying blind."
"We don't have the global net we used to. We're reactive, not proactive."
"I'll reach out to Coulson." Steve added after a beat. "Maybe he~"
"Already did." Tony interrupted again, his voice softer this time.
"He's neck-deep hunting down what's left of HYDRA. He can't help."
There was a pause.
Everyone knew it, even with all their powers, they were suddenly small in the face of this.
Bruce Banner leaned forward, eyes calm but sharp. "We're thinking about this wrong."
"That thing, whoever he is, hasn't hurt anyone yet. Just… appearing. Moving."
Tony gave him a look. "Yeah, and shutting down every electrical system he passes. I'm not calling that peaceful."
"But it's not hostile either!" Bruce said.
"He's not interacting with us. That might mean he doesn't see us as a threat. Or maybe… he's focused on something else."
Banner paused.
"There's one person we haven't talked to yet. Someone who actually understands aliens..."
"Someone who might know what we're looking at."
"…"
Everyone turned toward him before he even finished.
"Soren." Natasha's voice came through on the intercom, joining them remotely from her mission. "You're thinking of Soren."
Steve's eyes lit up. "Of course. If anyone's already seen something like this, it's him."
Tony groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, yeah, I know him."
"I'll go."
Bruce smiled faintly. "You sure you're okay with that?"
"Definitely okay," Tony grumbled, using his old Stark sarcasm protocol. "Just let me pack my ego in a travel-sized box."
DAY OF THE WEDDING
It was a beautiful day, cloudless, warm, the kind of day that made skyscrapers sparkle and made tourists believe in magic.
And today, there was magic.
Crowds gathered, reporters jostled, and fans screamed as Reed Richards and Susan Storm stepped onto the red carpet leading up to the raised glass platform at the center of Central Park.
The press called it the wedding of the century, a union of science and power, intellect and beauty.
Johnny Storm winked at the camera drones overhead, arms spread as he soaked in the attention. Ben Grimm stood behind him in a pressed tux in human form.
At the top of the aisle, Reed was adjusting his tie again and again, even though Susan had already fixed it five times.
"You're going to stretch the knot out of shape." She whispered, smiling.
"I know."
"But something feels… off. Like the whole fabric of reality is holding its breath."
"Reed." Brushing her fingers along his jaw. "Today is about us. Not the universe. Not physics."
"Just us."
He gave her a rare smile.
The priest stepped forward, smiling.
"We are gathered here today to witness the union of two extraordinary people~"
FLASH
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream