ANCHOR: DAVE HENDERSON LOCATION: Z-NEWS CHOPPER 7, ABOVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA
"We are here, live, above Phoenix, folks, and frankly, I don't even know where to begin."
Dave Henderson, Z-News's veteran field anchor, gripped his mic, his face pale, reflecting the crimson glow of earths new orbital ice belt. The choppers had regrouped, drawn back to Phoenix by the sheer audacity of what they'd just witnessed on Camelback Mountain. They were now maintaining a wary distance, but close enough for the long-range optics to track the impossible.
"Just minutes ago," Dave continued, his voice strained, "we saw... well, we're calling it 'The Hand.' This colossal, multi-limbed, silver bio-steel construct—whose origins are entirely unknown—just ran off Camelback Mountain. And atop it," he gestured wildly towards the distant, thundering form now tearing across the desert, "is the group we just saw eradicate an entire lunar beast horde with... we don't know what! But it made a kilometer-long strip of alien plant life!"
The screen behind him split. One feed showed the now-pristine, yet unsettlingly changed slope of Camelback. The other, zoomed in with digital enhancement, showed "The Hand"—or as the anonymous psychic broadcast had subtly branded it, "Atlas"—hurtling toward downtown Phoenix at impossible speeds. On its flat, bio-steel wrist, a group of figures clung like barnacles: Two mysterious winged females, one of the winged women had vipers atop her head, there was a wheeled mutant, a Bettle-man, and the small, tiger-striped girl, who appeared to be the commander. Attached to the top of the hand was a behemoth weapon that the small tiger-striped girl had used to vacuum up an entire alien infestation. They were a living, breathing, heavily armed spectacle.
"We are currently tracking 'Atlas' as it approaches Downtown Phoenix," Dave reported, the chopper buffeting in the strong winds. "The city, as you know, has been partially quarantined for days now, overrun by what the military classifies as 'Lunar Worms'—burrowing, highly defensive, massive alien invertebrates."
Suddenly, Atlas slammed to a halt at the edge of the quarantined zone. The sheer force of its stop kicked up a dust storm that momentarily obscured the view.
"It's stopped!" Dave shouted, adjusting his earpiece. "The commander... she's aiming that... that thing... into the city!"
On screen, the monstrous weapon—the "Sex Pistol," as it was being tentatively, nervously labeled in some military comms they were illegally tapping—swung into position. The ground crew in the chopper gasped, then fell silent.
A streak shot from the cannon and began to unfurl mid-air, in Daves mind it looked like someone unrolling a big white shag carpet.
"My God!" Dave whispered, his eyes wide, watching the monitor. "It's... it's growing! A huge, kilometer-wide strip of alien plant life is erupting in the middle of Downtown! It's consuming the worms! It's... it's a wall of jungle!"
The camera zoomed in on the newly formed Beast Zone, a vibrant, pulsating strip of white and purple growth now sealing off a section of downtown. The ground within writhed as hundreds of Lunar Worms—thick, segmented, and furious—were forced to the surface, completely disoriented.
"The worms... they're exposed!" Dave exclaimed, his voice rising in disbelief. "And the commander! Shee just... she just threw something into the middle of them! A wave of... something!"
Ash, the commander, had indeed made his move. The 'Aura of Submission' slammed into the L-Worms, paralyzing the vast majority of the mob. In the Z-News chopper, the long-range sensors picked up strange energy readings, and even the camera feeds flickered with a subtle crimson distortion.
"Sensors are going wild, Dave! Massive psychic energy spike from the target!" a crew member yelled.
"Folks, this is unprecedented!" Dave shouted over the comms. "These creatures, these invaders, they're being stopped! They're being... farmed by this force! This isn't just a resistance; this is a counter-invasion! What are these people? Who are these...these...Beast people! And what is this 'Beast Zone' they're planting? We'll be right back with more on this breaking story after the break, but I can tell you one thing: the world just changed."
Advertisement