The streets of Paleview were in full meltdown.
Buildings cracked like dry bones, streets split open with rifts pulsing dark energy, and civilians poured through the ruins like ants fleeing a magnifying glass. Screams and sirens tangled in the air. Gunfire cracked from shattered rooftops. A city once proud now sounded like the inside of a blender mid-breakdown.
Then the lightning came.
Not the kind the weather forecast warned about. This was a single flash of white-blue wrath descending from the heavens like judgment day forgot its manners.
BOOM.
The ground exploded near City Block 12. Asphalt rippled. Dust shot up in a mushroom bloom.
Out of that controlled chaos stepped a man.
