A kid named Hydro Undergrove woke up with a quiet groan, head slumped against the cold surface of his desk. The room was dim-just the glow of a monitor frozen on static light.
Next to his hand lay a small, framed photo. Dust clung to the edges, but the smile in it was still clear. A younger him, with his old friends, before the world tore itself apart. He stared at it for a long second, expression unreadable, eyes tired but alive with something old. Something he'd rather forget.
He sighed. "You're still haunting me, huh?" he muttered under his breath. Hydro pushed himself up and shuffled toward the kitchen. The silence felt heavier than usual. He boiled water, peeled the lid off an instant ramen cup, and watched the noodles soften.
When he finally sat down on the couch, the TV flickered to life automatically, blaring news reports, footage of cities burning, skies cracked open, and soldiers firing at something massive moving in the background.
The anchors were panicking. The world was panicking. Again.
Hydro leaned back, ramen untouched, and said quietly,
"Guess it's happening again. You'd think the universe would learn from its own mistakes."
He looked down at his reflection in the ramen broth, dark eyes behind cracked glasses, and began to speak, as if narrating to no one but himself.
"The world you're seeing now... it's not the original one. Not even close. This place is just a stitched-up afterimage of the last timeline, the one that failed.
The TV cut to chaotic visuals, people screaming, crowds trampling over each other to escape a monstrous shadow.
Magic Beasts, towering, impossible creatures, were tearing through cities, turning skyscrapers into rubble like paper toys.
"Back then, Earth broke apart into floating continents, unstable fragments of reality. Every story, every world, every piece of fiction somehow bled into ours. People woke up next to characters they once watched on screens. Heroes, villains, side characters... none of them knew why they were here. None of them were ready."
The camera panned to a crumbling Guild building, an office worker hurled his documents in despair as the alarms blared, a monster crashing through the walls behind him. Outside, tanks fired at the sky while the skyline burned purple.
"It wasn't a war. It was an extinction event wearing the mask of fantasy."
And amid that chaos, Hydro appeared. Just fifteen then, still a kid but already branded "the anomaly."
He was standing in a dead city when the robotic Magic Beast lunged at him, claws splitting the air. The moment it struck, his eyes flared. A sharp pulse of light cut through the fog.
"Decimate," he whispered.
The creature's body convulsed, half its frame collapsing like paper crushed by invisible pressure. Even dying, it still tried to crawl toward him. Hydro didn't flinch.
"Disappear."
A blinding explosion erupted, erasing the monster and everything around it. Silence followed, just dust and a heartbeat.
Military sensors caught the power spike instantly. From miles away, the Air Force deployed drones, recognizing the same energy signature that once appeared at their base. The commander's voice came through the comms:
"It's him. The Undergrove kid. Engage Escort Mode. Keep visual. He's not the threat, we're betting on him."
Hydro's figure walked through the smoke, expression blank, eyes dim. He wasn't proud. Just tired. Later that night, in a dim hospital room, he sat beside his comatose grandmother. Machines beeped quietly. He reached for her frail hand, whispering,
"Just wait a little longer, okay? I'll fix this. I'll finish what I started. Then maybe... we can both rest."
A single tear slipped down his cheek. Then, like turning off a switch, his expression hardened again. Back outside, his shadow stretched unnaturally long under the flickering hospital light.
"Rise," he commanded softly.
From the dark, a shape began to crawl out, one of his Shadow Soldiers. Then another. And another. Soon, a small army knelt before him, silent, awaiting orders. Hydro looked toward the horizon where the world burned.
"This is my last run," he muttered. "Erase everything that threatens the living. No hesitation."
He opened his eyes, and reality snapped back.
The screams outside his apartment window were real. The present was catching up with his past. Chaos wasn't history, it was reborn.
Hydro stood up, heart steady. He reached for his Outing Wear, zipped up the jacket, and tied his boots tight. His reflection in the window flickered as emergency lights flashed outside.
"Guess peace was just another lie," he said, cracking his neck. "Fine. Let's end the rerun."
He leapt through the window, glass shattering behind him.
Wind roared past his ears as he fell, then, using Warrior's Touch, he extended his hand and caught a metal pole dangling beneath a helicopter. His grip tightened, pulling himself up against the screaming winds.
When he finally looked up at the horizon, his stomach dropped.
Above the clouds, something was descending, a second Earth, colossal and glowing like a dying star, its continents visible through the haze.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Hydro breathed. "A celestial Earth? Bigger than Jupiter... We're not done, are we?"
The helicopter trembled as gravitational waves tore through the sky. Hydro stood at the edge of the open ramp, wind whipping his hair and coat.
He narrowed his eyes at the cosmic sphere closing in.
"If the universe wants another round, I'll give it one. But this time... I'm not saving it. I'm surviving it."