The city was collapsing under its own screams.
The sound waves tore through everything. Glasses, steel, bone, and will. It was an all-consuming force that made the air itself bleed. Entire streets quaked with the invisible pressure as thousands fell, their cries swallowed by the endless shriek from the sky.
In the middle of it all, one man barely in his thirties, dirt and blood smeared across his shirt held his daughter close. He had thrown himself over her the moment the sound began, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame like a living shield. His ears bled freely, his teeth gritted so hard that one cracked, but he refused to let go.
"Hold on, Caitlin! Daddy's here! I got you, baby, I got you!"
The girl's small body trembled under him, her hands clamped over her ears, her cries long since reduced to silent gasps. The sound was tearing through her and through everyone. The street around them was littered with motionless forms, people half-conscious, some not moving at all.
He pressed his forehead against hers, his was vision shaking. "Please, please just stay with me—"
Then, through the haze, something changed.
A faint golden glow flickered at the edge of his vision. At first, he thought it was his mind giving out and a hallucination before death. But then he saw it again. Someone, just a few feet away, shimmered like a mirage and vanished.
"What the hell…?" he rasped.
Then another disappeared. And another. The glow spread like wildfire. One by one, people around him began to dissolve into light, their outlines turning to gold dust before vanishing entirely.
"Wha—what's happening!?"
Before he could comprehend it, Caitlin's trembling stopped. Her tiny frame pulsed with that same golden hue. The blood on her cheeks vanished, her breathing evened out, and her pained expression softened into something peaceful like she was dreaming.
"Caitlin? Cait—Caitlin!"
He grabbed her shoulders, but she was already fading, her small fingers still clutching his shirt as her body turned translucent.
"No, no, no, no—wait! Don't—!"
The light swallowed her whole.
He looked down, his hands grasping at air. Then his chest glowed too. The pain, the unbearable crushing agony lifted all at once. The sound faded. His body felt weightless. And before he could scream her name again, he was gone too.
——————————
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was light. Not blinding or harsh, but soft and golden, stretching across a canyon that seemed to go on forever.
He was standing on dry, reddish earth, the air warm but breathable. Around him were hundreds — no, thousands of people, all looking just as bewildered as he was.
"Daddy?"
The voice nearly broke him. He spun around and there she was. Caitlin. Whole. Unharmed. Her eyes wide but no longer in pain.
"Caitlin!" He scooped her up in his arms, clutching her so tight she squeaked. "Oh my God… you're okay. You're okay." His voice cracked, and tears stung his eyes. "I thought— I thought I lost you…"
All around them, similar scenes played out as mothers finding children, lovers clinging to one another, strangers trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"What… what is this place?" one man muttered, looking around.
The canyon stretched for miles. Red rock walls rose around them like ancient sentinels, and high above, a transparent dome glimmered faintly like a bubble holding them within.
The father walked closer to the edge of the crowd, carrying Caitlin. Through the shimmering dome, he could see the outside world or what remained of it. And further out, he saw other domes, vast and distant, dotting the landscape like pearls scattered across a desert and possibly out of the desert.
Each one pulsed with faint golden light and each one full of people.
"My God…" he whispered. "How many, how many of us are here?"
"Thousands," a voice beside him said. A young woman, clutching a torn handbag, stared up in disbelief. "Maybe… millions."
Someone else shouted from the crowd, "How did we all get here!?"
That single question ignited the inevitable.
Panic.
The murmurs turned to shouting in seconds. People ran from one side of the dome to the other, slamming their fists against the barrier. Children cried. Some screamed for help, others for explanations. The man tried to keep Caitlin close, calling out, "Everyone, please! Calm down! We're alive — just—just stay calm!"
But his words drowned in the rising storm of fear.
"It's that thing in the sky!" a man yelled, face pale with terror. "It's that monster! It's taken us! We've been kidnapped!"
Others joined in, their voices frantic. "He's right!" "We're next!" "This is how it ends!"
The chaos spiraled until the air vibrated.
A single voice spoke in all their heads, calm and impossibly clear:
'CALM DOWN.'
The words weren't shouted, but they hit like thunder. Instantly, every heart slowed, every trembling hand stilled. The panic bled away, replaced by a strange, heavy quiet as if their fear had been erased.
Then the voice continued, smooth and almost playful:
'Good. You're all safe. I teleported you here. You're under my protection for now.'
A young man near the front yelled, "Who are you!? Where are you!?"
There was a beat of silence and then a chuckle. A sarcastic, smug, and almost amused laugh that rolled through their heads like velvet thunder.
'Oh, me?' the voice purred. 'Well… let's just say, I'm honored to meet you all.'
There was a pause as the tone turned teasing, dripping with a kind of effortless confidence.
'So you can call me…'
'...the Honored One.'
Then silence.
The voice was gone.
————————————
Manhattan, a city of noise, light, and endless pulse now stood frozen under the echo of destruction.
Then, the world glowed gold.
The golden waves continued rolling out like ripples from an unseen sun, washing over the crumbling streets and twisted wreckage. Everywhere the light touched, the chaos slowed as the wounds sealed, shattered glass reformed midair, broken structures knit themselves back into shape.
And the people, the terrified, the broken, the dying all vanished.
One by one, civilians dissolved into golden dust, carried upward by an invisible current until they disappeared entirely.
The golden radiance spread beyond Manhattan, racing outward like a sentient tide.
In Paris, it washed over a bridge where civilians had fallen screaming, the air suddenly going quiet as the waves absorbed the noise and sealed the city in a translucent shell as well.
In Berlin, soldiers raised their weapons skyward in disbelief as the shimmering barrier surrounded them, the destructive frequencies outside suddenly muted.
In London, the light cascaded through rain and smoke, turning the sky to liquid gold before a translucent shield enveloped them.
Across Europe, domes of translucent barriers followed after the golden wave that repaired everything like silent guardians.
————————
The X-Men had barely gotten their bearings when the sky itself changed.
Jean Grey was the first to notice. The translucent barrier glowed faintly, bending the light into waves.
"Scott," she said aloud and telepathically, her voice echoing in their minds, "something's happening—"
The golden hue bathed them in warmth, healing the minor ruptures from the sonic waves.
Cyclops looked up, visor glinting. "I'm seeing it. Everyone all right?"
Kurt groaned, rubbing his head. "Ja… if by all right, you mean my brain didn't come leaking out of my ears, then yes."
Storm's voice came through the mental link from her squad across the city, her tone calm but sure.
"If I were to guess…" she said, watching the energy wrap around the skyline, "…this is his doing."
"Yeah," Logan's voice cut in, "The kid's pulling his tricks."
Rogue's voice followed, more worried. "How the hell are we supposed to help him if he's locked us out?"
Scott frowned. "We don't. Not now. From the looks of it, whatever he's doing… he doesn't want anyone close."
Beast crouched, running his blue-furred hand along the shield's surface as it rippled like liquid glass under his touch. "Fascinating… extraordinary even. The energy matrix appears self-regulating, yet reactive. A dynamic telekinetic work-adapting to both physical and metaphysical forces."
"In English, Hank," Logan muttered.
Beast smiled faintly. "In English… this thing's smarter than any force field I've ever seen."
——————
Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Dozens of monitors glowed with data, each screen filled with live footage of the golden energy waves and translucent barriers all around the globe.
"Director," Hill called out, blood still faintly dried near her ear, "reports are flooding in every major city within the sound radius has been sealed under those… domes. Casualty rates have dropped by seventy percent in the last two minutes."
"Good," Fury said gruffly. "Now tell me can anyone get in contact with the kid?"
Heads shook no as he wasn't with any comms they could tap into.
Fury exhaled sharply. "Then we wait," he muttered. "And pray he knows what he's doing."
His thoughts were cut short by a blaring alarm of an energy spike detected.
Every screen on the command floor flickered red.
"Source: Ground zero. Manhattan."
——————————
A destroyed skyscraper, half its structure sheared away, leaned like a wounded titan in the dark. Smoke and dust veiled everything.
Through the haze, insectoid shapes buzzed and skittered, their wings buzzing.
Then silence.
A line appeared.
The insectoids froze.
And in the next instant, their bodies fell apart in neat, perfect slices. They were all diced into nothing.
A voice echoed through the dust, smooth and lazy, tinged with amusement.
"Now that that's done,"
He stepped through the mist.
"And all possible casualties are in their little safe zones…"
Gojo smiled wide.
"Heheheheh… this is about to become a battleground."
His Six Eyes flared faintly, perceiving every fragment of energy in the collapsing city.
He could feel it, the presence pressing down on the world from above.
Annihilus. A being whose very existence strained the fabric of this reality.
And yet, Gojo just cracked his neck and said softly, "Let's get started, shall we?"
He raised his hands, interlocking his fingers a gesture so fluid it seemed more ritual than motion.
"Technique Amplification: Blue."
To his left, an orb bloomed, a sphere of impossible color, blue so deep it distorted the air. It pulled everything toward it dust, debris, gravity itself bending slightly.
"Technique Reversal: Red."
To his right, another orb appeared, this one pulsating with furious, repulsive energy. The air around it warped violently as if reality itself was pushing back.
"Take the amplified and reversal… and smash together."
His voice dropped.
"Those two different infinities to create an imaginary mass."
The red and blue orbs quivered, gravity and repulsion screaming in opposition before slamming together, birthing a swirling, chaotic sphere of violet light.
Gojo smirked. His Six Eyes locked miles ahead, at the tear in reality and the enormous silhouette of the being forcing its way through.
He extended a hand, and with a flick of his fingers, a telekinetic shield enveloped the Avengers and Fantastic Four far below, wrapping them in invisible protection.
"Hollow Purple."
The words were a whisper and then everything erupted.
A torrent of impossible energy tore across Manhattan. The beam erased buildings, air, even light itself were consumed in the path of the swirling purple void.
Annihilus turned his head, golden eyes narrowing, the very air bending from his presence. He reached forward flexing his claws.
Too late.
The purple mass struck him head-on.
The explosion that followed was a vacuum that devoured all.
Gojo watched with his lips curling into a feral grin.
"Welcome to Earth, insect."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The light turned everything purple.
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