[START OF TRANSMISSION - BBC WORLD NEWS]
PRESENTER, JONATHAN PIERCE: "...what officials are now calling 'Simultaneous Global Anomalies.' What began two days ago with the atmospheric phenomenon now dubbed the 'Crimson Moon' has escalated into a series of unprecedented and seemingly unconnected environmental crises. We have live reports from around the globe. First, we go to our correspondent, Sarah Jensen, who is on the ground in Giza, Egypt."
[CUT TO ON-SITE REPORT - GIZA, EGYPT]
SARAH JENSEN: (Standing before the Great Pyramid, the camera shaking slightly. The sky behind her is an unnatural twilight blue.) "Jonathan, it's a scene of both awe and terror here. For the past twelve hours, this beam of pure, golden energy has been emanating from the apex of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It's not heat, it's not radiation—at least not any kind our equipment can measure. The Egyptian military has established a two-kilometer cordon, but what's more disturbing are the local reports... stories of 'men made of sand' and creatures emerging from the desert. Unconfirmed, of course, but the panic here is very real."
[CUT TO SOCIAL MEDIA FEED - TIKTOK-STYLE VIDEO]
(Shaky, vertical video. A young man with a Brazilian flag patch on his shirt is whispering, breathless. Behind him, the lush green of the Amazon is punctuated by flowers of impossible size and color.)
VIDEO CAPTION:They're growing. The forest is GROWING! #Amazonas #BiologicoEstranho #SOS
SPEAKER: (In Portuguese, with English subtitles) "Look... look at this. This was all clear yesterday. My village... it's gone. Swallowed. The flowers... they're beautiful, but they're not natural. They hunt. Don't come here. Stay away from the trees! Stay..." (The video cuts out abruptly with a piercing shriek).
[CUT TO OFFICIAL MEMORANDUM - TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT, EMERGENCY PLANNING DIVISION]
SUBJECT: URGENT: CONTAINMENT BREACH - SECTOR 7-B (SHIBUYA WARD)
MEMO TEXT: ...following initial reports of vermin infestation, Sub-Extermination Team Delta was dispatched. All contact lost at 04:30 JST. Sub-level camera feeds show biological signatures exceeding Class-4 kaiju parameters. Mandible fragments recovered suggest an arthropod of unknown genus. Recommend immediate sealing of all Shibuya sub-level access points and deployment of JSDF Chemical Units. This is no longer a pest control issue. This is an invasion from below.
[CUT TO ON-SITE REPORT - CNN]
REPORTER: "...and the chaos is not limited to land. Maritime authorities are issuing global warnings after the sudden and catastrophic sinking of the container ship Ever-Fortune in the mid-Pacific. The ship's final distress call, just released, made reference to a 'living island' and 'a shadow that blotted out the sun.' This comes amid a flurry of reports of unprecedented seismic activity along the Pacific Ring of Fire."
[CUT TO REDACTED DOCUMENT - RUSSIAN FEDERATION, MINISTRY OF DEFENCE]
FILE REF: K-7 STATION (ARCTIC CIRCLE)STATUS: ██████COMMUNICATION LOG: CONTACT LOST 08:40 ZULU. SATELLITE IMAGERY: Shows accelerated glacial melt surrounding station coordinates. Thermal imaging indicates a single, large biological signature departing the area. Signature does not correspond to any known terrestrial animal. DIRECTIVE: Dispatch Borei-class submarine Knyaz Vladimir to investigate. Maintain full media blackout. Subject is a matter of national ████████.
[FINAL SCENE - MIT, CAMBRIDGE, USA]
Jack Wilson stood in the darkened lab, the glow of a dozen news feeds illuminating his pale, drawn face. Egypt. Brazil. Tokyo. The Arctic. The Pacific. It was a symphony of chaos, a planet suddenly at war with itself. His enhanced hearing picked out every frantic report, every terrified scream, every clipped official statement.
It wasn't random. His physicist's mind screamed that it couldn't be. There was a connection, a single variable introduced into a stable system that was now causing it to spiral into entropic madness.
His gaze fell upon the object on his workbench. The small, crystalline fragment he had taken from the meteorite. Under the lab's security lighting, it was no longer dormant. A faint, crimson light pulsed from within its geometric heart, a steady, rhythmic beat.
It looked like a disease. A fever that had infected the world. And on his desk, pulsing in