CITY B – THE ENTERTAINMENT CITY – AFTERNOON
The sun was soft, the streets lively. City B, nicknamed "the entertainment city," was living its usual rhythm. Young people were making TikToks in front of the cultural monument, families strolled through shopping centers, and the lines outside figurine shops stretched for blocks.
Kotobe walked calmly, his new robot Funny-GPT trotting beside him.
"Kotobe, I'm detecting a concentration of positive emotions within a two-kilometer radius! Should I distribute happiness stickers?"
"No, Funny. We're on patrol. We observe, we don't distribute anything."
"Okay! I'm observing!"
The robot stopped dead to observe a trash can.
Kotobe sighed. This is going to be a long ride.
A few streets away, Zane was running. Not for fun, but for training. Beside him, his mentor, Fast Track – Number 19 of Class S – followed him effortlessly, hands in his pockets.
"You've slowed down, kid."
"I… I'm not tired!" Zane panted.
Fast Track smiled. "That's not what your heart says."
Zane sighed for a moment.
"Why did you choose me over someone else? Why didn't you choose Blink?"
"He looked way faster than me… I… I heard you bet everything on speed, so why…"
Fast Track looked at him for a moment, understanding his frustration, then replied calmly.
"I watched your fights, and I can tell you that you were the best choice."
"Blink seemed to have teleportation powers, which goes beyond the scope of speed, but in reality, his power was something else."
"He could shrink and grow at the right moment, giving the impression of teleporting."
"Do you understand now why I chose you and not someone else?"
Zane looked at him, reassured for a moment, then spoke up to change the subject.
"Hahaha… cool. And your rollerblades, they're interesting. They make you really fast. Is that a gadget?"
"No, it's linked to my power, which is…"
They were about to resume their run when the sky tore apart.
———
BOOM.
The explosion was so violent that windows for three blocks shattered instantly. A cloud of dust and smoke rose above the city, visible for miles.
Kotobe dove behind a car, Funny-GPT thrown against a lamppost.
"Oh dear! Alert! Alert! Critical energy level detected!"
The cloud settled.
An immense crater, fifty meters wide, had opened in the heart of the shopping district. Debris, overturned cars, people running and screaming.
And from the crater, shapes emerged.
Bodies. Muscular bodies with strangely shiny brown skin, like tanned leather. Their heads were topped with a bizarre membrane, a kind of fleshy hood, which gave them a… circumcised look. Red eyes glowed in the shadows.
They emerged from the ground by the dozens, by the hundreds. Their hands ended in sharp claws, their muscles bulging under their hard skin.
People screamed, fled. Phone cameras were already aimed at the scene.
On Nano-Neko, live streams exploded.
#CityBAlert: 5M views in three minutes.
#DaemonInvasion: 8M views.
#WhatAreTheseThings: 12M views.
———
AT THE HEART OF THE CRATER
The ground trembled again. A larger, more imposing shape extracted itself from the depths.
He was twice the size of the others. His skin was darker, almost black. His eyes burned like embers.
He spoke.
His voice resonated throughout the city, amplified by an unknown power.
"WE ARE THE TERRA TRIBE."
Silence on social media. On rooftops, in the streets, in front of screens. Everyone was listening.
"We are creatures formed from stones that contain souls and Ether. But you humans… you call us Daemons."
At Association HQ, analysts were in shock.
"A Daemon… that speaks?" a technician murmured.
"Several. Hundreds. And they say they come from underground…"
——
IN THE STREET
The great Daemon raised his arms, showing the rubble, the collapsed buildings.
"We wanted nothing against humanity. We lived beneath your feet, in our cities of stone and shadow. Then you started digging. Tunnels. Mines. Subways. And your negative feelings… your hatred, your fear, your greed… seeped down to us."
His voice filled with ancient anger.
"Daemons began appearing among us. To you, it was a threat. To us, they were… our cousins, our brothers."
Zane, hiding behind an overturned bus, watched the scene, breathless. Fast Track was beside him, serious for the first time.
"What the fuck is he saying?" Zane whispered.
Fast Track didn't answer. He listened.
"We weren't going to do anything. We wanted peace. Until we learned that our father… our big brother… BIG TEDDY… was killed by you."
The great Daemon clenched his enormous fists.
"So we will carry out what he started. Crush humanity. Create a new world."
He raised a hand.
Behind him, hundreds of Daemons emerged from the crater. They advanced in ranks, silent, relentless.
———
Several explosions rang out across the city. Craters opened up everywhere, each time a horde of Daemons emerging.
The Association reacted within minutes.
Rapid Fire, Class A, arrived through the air, creating explosions from his hands to propel himself.
Beast, Class A, rushed into the fray, transforming one of his arms into a gorilla arm to grab the creatures, the other arm morphing into a bear's paw, his legs into cheetah limbs, his claws and fangs tearing Daemon flesh like paper.
Touchme, in Nano-Tech armor, his suit perfectly upgraded for the occasion.
Fast Track and Zane, inseparable, charged through enemy ranks, cutting down creatures one after another.
But the Daemons were numerous. Very numerous. And they weren't retreating.
——
Kotobe was at the heart of the red zone.
Funny-GPT clung to his shoulder, blinking all its sensors.
"Kotobe! I'm detecting eight hundred and forty-three Daemons within a five-hundred-meter radius! That number is increasing every second!"
"Shut up, I can count!"
Kotobe clenched his fists.
I'm alone. One is on the other side of the city. Reinforcements are here, but…
He looked at the Daemons advancing toward a school, toward a shopping center, toward people still running.
I'm a hero too. I have to do something.
He charged.
——
IN ANOTHER PART OF THE CITY
Zane and Fast Track were smashing through a group of Daemons when a silhouette landed in front of them.
The great Daemon, the leader. His red eyes glowed like beacons.
"You," he said, pointing at Fast Track. "You're fast. I want to see if you're fast enough."
Fast Track smiled.
"Go ahead and try. But it's a losing battle. Want to know why?"
"Simply because I have the ability to accelerate the rotation of anything. So I can accelerate the rotation of my rollerblades' wheels."
They charged.
———
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Images looped endlessly.
#CityBInvasion: 50M views.
#DaemonsSpeak: 40M views.
#BigTeddy: 35M views.
Comments flooded in, panicked, angry, incredulous.
"They talk! Since when do Daemons talk?!"
"Big Teddy, who's that? A Daemon we killed?"
"They say we dug into their home… is that true?"
"Who gives a fuck! We need to kill them all!"
At HQ, analysts tried to keep up. But Daemons were everywhere. Chaos was total.
——
KOTOBE had joined a group of civilians trapped in a building. He was guiding them toward an exit when three Daemons blocked his way.
"I'm not letting you through."
He attacked.
His fists struck, dodged, adapted. He copied their movements, found their weaknesses.
One Daemon fell. Two. Three.
He was out of breath, but he held.
The civilians fled.
Kotobe watched them go, a tired smile on his lips.
Then he saw in the distance the silhouette of the great Daemon, facing Fast Track.
He's the leader. If I can get close…
He started walking again.