---
Location:Halfworld
The presence of the Eternal Genesis Core was a physical weight in the grove, a promise so potent it felt like a new law of physics. Rocket, Lylla, Jax, and the others could only stare, their minds reeling from the impossible transition from rusted failure to transcendent artifact. The air itself seemed to thicken with potential, each breath tasting of ozone and something else, something new.
Sam observed their awe, a clinical satisfaction settling within him. The psychological impact was precisely as calculated. But a tool of this magnitude was not to be activated on a whim. Its unveiling would be an event, a ceremony to cement his authority and bind this world to him irrevocably.
"The promise is now tangible," Sam stated, his voice pulling them from their stupor. "But a new dawn deserves a proper audience. The meeting is tomorrow, as stated. And everyone is invited."
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't give a command audible to them. He simply willed it.
Across Halfworld, the shadows stirred.
In a dusty canyon, a family of armadillo-like engineers looked up from their geothermal tap to see the shadows in the ravine coalesce into silent, humanoid forms. In the humid, bio-luminescent swamps, a tribe of frog-like creatures watched as the darkness between the glowing fungi thickened and stepped forward. There was no aggression, no sound. Only an implacable, gentle pressure.
The Shadow People did not drag or threaten. They simply appeared, a silent, endless river of them, and began to guide. They pointed. They gestured. They made the path to the Grove of Forgotten Code the only logical direction to walk. Those who hesitated found the ways behind them softening into impassable walls of gloom. Those who ran found that every path, every turn, inevitably led them toward the gathering. It was a planetary-scale migration executed in utter silence, a display of control so absolute it felt like fate itself.
Back in the grove, Rocket and his crew watched, their small world shattered, as the clearing began to fill. The initial trickle of creatures—a few scared foxes, a hesitant badger—swelled into a river, then a sea of beings. The air filled with a low, anxious hum of chitters, barks, and whispers, a symphony of confusion and a dawning, terrified hope. They were all here: the clever, the strong, the meek, the broken. Every soul on Halfworld, gently but inexorably herded by the silent shadows.
Sam stood before the pulsing Eternal Genesis Core, the shadow-raven an impassive monument behind him. He said nothing, simply allowing the scale of the event to imprint itself upon every conscious mind. The display of power—the effortless summoning of an entire planet's population—was as potent a message as the miracle of the Core itself. He was not a visitor. He was the environment.
His gaze swept over the multitude, finally landing back on Rocket, whose face was a canvas of conflict—awe warring with a lifetime of ingrained suspicion.
"Rest now," Sam's voice carried, calm and absolute, to the very edges of the vast, silent crowd. The murmuring ceased instantly. "Tomorrow, your world begins."
With that, he turned and walked into the shadow cast by the Raven. He didn't vanish in a flash; the darkness simply accepted him, and he was gone.
He left them there—thousands of beings under the watchful stars, surrounded by his silent army of shadows, with the heart of their reborn world pulsing gently before them. The night was deep, the silence broken only by the rustle of leaves and the quiet, anxious breaths of a populace holding its collective breath. The anticipation was a physical force, thicker than the atmosphere. The longest night of their lives had begun, and with the dawn, Genesis would arrive.
----Next Morning
The first light of Halfworld's sun did not so much break as it succumbed—it spilled over the horizon only to be absorbed by the sheer presence gathered in the grove. The sea of animal-folk had not slept. How could they? They had spent the night standing, sitting, or crouching under the silent watch of the Shadow People, the pulsing light of the Eternal Genesis Core the only campfire they needed.
The air was thick with a silence that was neither peaceful nor fearful, but anticipatory. It was the silence of a breath held before a plunge.
As the sun's rays finally touched the Core itself, Sam emerged.
He did not step out of a shadow or descend from the Raven. One moment, the space before the Core was empty. The next, he was simply there, as if he had always been part of the scene. He wore the same simple, modern attire, a stark contrast to the divine artifact beside him. His hands were clasped behind his back.
No fanfare. No greeting. His gaze swept across the assembled thousands, and his voice, when it came, required no elevation to reach the farthest listener.
"The Kree saw you as failed experiments. Scraps to be abandoned." He began to walk slowly along the front of the crowd, his eyes missing nothing. "You have internalized that lie. You see yourselves as scavengers, fighting for survival in a universe that has forgotten you."
He stopped, turning to fully face them.
"That era ended last night."
He gestured to the Eternal Genesis Core. "This device does not fix flaws. It reveals potential. It does not heal wounds; it rewrites history so the wound never existed. It will not make you 'normal.' It will make you what you were always meant to be."
A wave of uneasy shuffling and whispered translations moved through the crowd. It was a promise too vast to comprehend.
"I am not a savior. I am an architect," Sam continued, his tone utterly matter-of-fact. "I am building a universe of order, and this world, your world, will be its cornerstone. In return for your loyalty and your labor, I offer you this: purpose, power, and a place in the new reality."
He turned and placed a hand on the Core. "The first demonstration."
He didn't ask for a volunteer. His will was command enough.
[Ding – Activating Eternal Genesis Core. Target: Planetary Biosphere & Designated Population.]
[Initiating Genesis Pulse.]
The Core did not explode with light. It breathed it.
A wave of golden energy, silent and profound, washed out from the Core. It was not a blast, but a transformation. As it passed over the animal-folk, it was not a violent force, but a gentle, undeniable correction.
A badger in the front row, missing an eye from a long-ago fight, blinked as a new, perfectly functioning eye simply appeared in the empty socket. An elderly otter, her back bent with age, suddenly straightened, the years falling away from her not as a reversal, but as a restoration to her prime. Jax the rabbit stared at his cybernetic arm; the metal seamlessly integrated, becoming living, feeling tissue stronger than any alloy.
But it was more than physical.
Rocket felt it like a lightning strike. The constant, gnawing ache of his imperfect genesis—the feeling of being a mistake that had been the bedrock of his entire personality—vanished. It was replaced by a terrifying, exhilarating clarity. His mind, always sharp, now felt like a polished diamond, seeing connections and solutions he never could before. He wasn't just fixed; he was optimized.
And then, the Law Imprint began.
A fox-like creature near the back suddenly gasped as flames, harmless and controlled, danced along his fingertips. A large, bear-like being felt the ground beneath his feet respond to his unspoken will, the soil shifting and hardening. Lylla, the otter, looked at a puddle of water and watched it rise into a perfect, swirling orb at her mental command.
The Genesis Pulse washed over the entire planet. The grey, crystalline trees began to glow with a soft, internal light. The rusted Kree ruins shimmered and reformed into elegant, organic-looking structures that hummed with power. The very air grew cleaner, easier to breathe.
Halfworld was no longer a scarred relic. It was awake. It was alive. And it was theirs.
Sam stood before them, the architect of their rebirth. The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the soft, awed whispers of those discovering their new selves.
"The work begins now," Sam said, his voice the calm at the center of the storm. "You are no longer the people of Halfworld. You are the Genesis Guard. The first citizens of the new order."
He looked out at the transformed faces, seeing not gratitude, but a nascent, fanatical devotion. He had not just given them a gift. He had given them a cause.
"Your first task is to build the shipyard. The galaxy awaits."