INT. GUARDIAN AXIS – SKY CARRIER – OPS MONITOR ROOM – DAY 7 EVENING
Dim. Dozens of holographic screens flicker across a wide semicircular room. Data streams flow mid-air like waterfalls of code. The buzz of quiet urgency hums in the air.
Manager LYRA VANCE, mid-30s, sharply dressed, observant, and icy-efficient, leans over a tech-analyst's station. Her high heels stop with a precise click.
LYRA
Rewind that frame.
Timestamp: 14:03:11. Training Room 4.
The screen rolls back, showing John catching the dart in slow motion. The footage plays again — his form dodging metal arms like he was born in a physics engine.
ANALYST
We checked for VFX tampering.
Nothing. It's raw.
LYRA
(getting quiet)
Initiate Tier-3 Identity Reconciliation.
And call Medical Core. Full scan. Now.
---
INT. GUARDIAN AXIS – MEDICAL CORE – EXAMINATION CHAMBER – NIGHT
Sterile. Lit with pulsing white-blue glow. John stands shirtless in the center of a full-body biometric scanner, surrounded by humming machinery and rotating sensor arms.
Lyra watches through the observation glass, arms crossed. She's unreadable. Beside her, DR. HIRAN, a calm biogeneticist, scans the display of John's DNA profile spiraling in mid-air.
JOHN
(grinning awkwardly inside the scanner)
So... Is this because I dodged HR training?
DR. HIRAN
No. It's because your neural lag time is below 5ms.
You could outrun most drones — if you learned how to use it.
JOHN
I'm not even from here.
(not loud, just a whisper)
...Technically.
Lyra walks in, heels echoing. Her tone is sharp, clinical.
LYRA
That dart stunt wasn't reflex. It was pre-cognitive motion.
That's Level-2 Meta range. We're required to register you.
John gulps. His blood test is already uploading into the METAHUMAN REGISTRY DATABASE:
🧬 Subject ID: JOHN RICK
🧠 Cognitive Index: 231% Above Human Average
⚡ Reflex Sync: 4.82ms
🧬 Meta Classification: Gray-Level / Latent Potential
LYRA (CONT'D)
(stepping closer)
You're now part of the 0.1%.
Which means two things, John.
One — you'll be watched.
And two — you're no longer just an assistant.
John's eyes dart around the glowing room, the scanner, the medical staff now looking at him with subtle curiosity. His heartbeat echoes louder.
JOHN (V.O.)
I came here thinking I'd sketch a world I loved.
Not be
rewritten into it.
This isn't fan fiction anymore.
It's my registration form.