“It has been an exciting month for everyone across the globe, and I am here today with none other but the dark horse heavyweight lifting, sprinting and shot put champion himself... Mike Caler!”

The host turned towards the guest as the camera panned across, revealing the prodigy himself.

“Mike, your performance has been nothing short of a miracle and a testament of the strength a person can acquire through hard work and relentless practice. Why don’t you let everyone know more about how the world’s strongest man came to be.” The caster continued to smile into the camera and Mike at the same time.

“Yes, it has been a difficult road for me. Every day I ran no less than ten kilometers, one hundred push-ups, sit ups and squats without fail. There were people that laughed at me for doing such a regime. But a month ago, I was rewarded for my effort. I must have collapsed mid run and taken to a hospital. After waking up I felt a burning sensation within me.” The man looked down at his hands and clenched them into fists.

“At first I was scared, worried that I damaged my body and my dream of becoming an international athlete was ruined but then I looked at the time and realized a day had passed. I knew I had to get back to my family and after checking out I ran back home.” A low chuckle followed,

“Conveniently, my house was about ten kilometers from the hospital, I had no means of transportation other than my own two legs, yet I got back home in thirty minutes.”

“That’s an impressive feat, but not enough to score gold in the ten kilometer run.”

The host interrupted, clearly tired of the excessive backstory.

“You’re right, thing is, I wasn’t pushing myself. It felt like a light jog more than anything else. So the following day I had my coach watch me run at the arena. This is when I really ran, ripping every fiber in my body to achieve the best time - something told me I could do it, and I did. I finished in twenty-five minutes.”

“According to your performance in the race, you finished with a staggering time of twenty four minutes. How did you achieve such improvement?” The host steered the conversation towards a more intriguing topic.

“I upped the frequency of my runs, from several times a week to several times a day. I would loose a second here, a second there and within two weeks I got to where I am today.” The man began to tear up a bit, clearly overjoyed by his success.

The view altered, and a shaky scene recorded from a helicopter was shown.

“We are here on CNN reporting live of a bank robbery. According to the reports it is being carried out by a pair of men, only one of which is armed- Hold on a second, it appears we have been given access to a camera feed positioned outside the vault.” A black and white video opened up,

“Dammit, why are there no proper cameras in that building?” A voice muttered in the darkness, preventing anyone from knowing who it came from.

The man dressed completely in black approached the enormous metal door and started punching it. There was no sound as the camera wasn’t equipped with a microphone, but that did nothing to lessen the apparent power behind each strike. The metal was slowly, but surely bending. Showing no signs of stopping, the man kept hammering at the vault. Each strike shook the camera.

The view switched back to the helicopter top-down perspective. The police had made a barricade around the bank with cars, using them as shields. The gave out the order to surrender or to be eliminated. A single gunshot was the response. Immediately the car covering the speaker burst ablaze.

“It appears the convict is using modified HE rounds-“

The video was fast forwarded, all of the vehicles were burning brightly and a quick change in cameras showed the man had finally banged a hole large enough to crawl through inside the vault itself.

The hologram flickered out and the lights returned.

“Stories like these have become the norm over the past month. From the shattering of Olympic records, to bank heists, mass murders and upheave of orders.”

A man called Ignatius opened the meeting once again in a dimly lit room. The metallic table was surrounded by people of high ranking sitting behind it, stacks of files and paper in front of each of them.

“Several of our own agents have undergone such... improvements. All of them described the sensation reminiscent of a slight electric shock running through their body. Further tests of electricity showed no signs to trigger or cause anything out of the ordinary.”

A man in charge of the the biological sector had stood up, explaining his findings and taking a pause to bring up new videos onto the hologram. The spectators watched as people performed various physical exercises, lifting absurd weights, balancing atop of spoons while upside down and more.

“There was no correlation between the affected, taking place at random. The effects brought by this upgrade vary from increased strength, speed, reaction, balance and hand eye co-ordination. Combinations of both are few, but possible. We are working to figure out the true cause, but there are no negatives observed so far.”

With a wave of his hand, the man dismissed the videos and sat down.

“Lastly, when scanning the bodies, we detected a strange form of radiation, the equipment couldn’t decipher it or place it onto the known electromagnetic spectrum, only labeling as undefined. We asked the research section if they have encountered anything of the sort…”

“Ahem…”

The man in charge of research stood up,

“As just mentioned, the form of radiation is indeed unique, and just calling it radiation is technically incorrect. The only reason that it was picked up in the first place was due to the extreme sensitivity of our equipment that would not be present in hospitals around the world. Thus, this knowledge should be relatively safe for the time being. As for the... radiation itself, no information about it is known or has been discovered, we found no method of altering it, affecting it or anything else other than being able to detect it.”

Repeating the exact motions of the previous speaker, images and videos began to flood the table instead of the hologram this time.

“Moreover, this form of radiation was found in NASA’s data servers, encrypted and hidden along with the images you see before you. All of these are from Mars.”

Absolute silence swept over the room. There, satellite images depicting parts of green, blue and white all over a planet. All traits clearly unique to Earth, traits that takes many millennia to form, not a mere month’s worth.

“Since the satellites were not created for detecting the new radiation, only vague traces of it have been picked up originating from Mars. The reason for the sudden formation of water, a suitable ozone layer and presence of vegetation is also unknown and has been severely suppressed by governments around the world. However, it is only time until this is leaked, or an image slips past the censorship.”

The man sat down and looked towards Ignatius, who was now rubbing his temples, as did everyone else.

“That explains the strained meetings between American, European and Asian leaders. Those rats keeping silent while placing knives against each other’s throats.”

Ignatius spoke up for a brief moment.

“Thatchell, would it be possible for us to take control of this situation?”

A man half-way across the table spoke up,

“...Sorry sir, if you could clarify as to what you mean by, ‘taking control’”.

“With the appearance of empowered humans, the normal hierarchy is being thrown out of place, off balance. This is the perfect opportunity for us to step out of the darkness and into the light, become the leading global power.”

No one dared to even blink, too busy processing what just been said. For decades the organisation has led from the shadows, indirectly influencing global decisions for their own gain. Eventually rising to the top of their field before taking over all the others, military, technology, diplomacy anything that can be named, the organisation had a hand in it.

“But sir, would that not raise countless questions about our pasts and where we came from? Both of which have been thoroughly removed. Not to mention that we would be making an enemy out of every government there is?”

Thatchell had stood up, taking his position as the speaker.

“Please, the governments are now a joke, bending to the will and whim of the large corporations. We have the key to every single leader’s closet containing their skeletons, simple blackmail will keep them silent. The corporations wouldn’t dare to act directly against the government knowing that we are behind it. We will end up using some of our greatest trump cards in trade for something greater. The global population.”

“Would the current chaos be enough to have people follow a company that appeared overnight?”

Thatchell continued to voice the doubts circulating through the minds of all present.

“Open your eyes, the world is falling apart, the media heavily controlled, the dam is about to burst and the truth close to emerging. People are gaining massive powers and doing whatever they want, robbing banks, performing rape and murder as they feel like it. Normal ammunition completely useless, with anything below a forty five caliber leaving little less than a bruise. Once such people started ganging up, special ops became a necessity to take on such groups.”

Ignatius scanned the faces around the room.

“The fake happiness enforced by democracy is completely falling apart as people are afraid of terrorist attacks with most response force’s hands being tied by random groups of superhumans.”

Ignatius took a breath and motioned for Thatchell to continue.

“Very well, but under what pretext shall we control everyone? We have nothing other than…” Thatchell stopped, eyes widened in realization.

“Exactly, we will use the withheld information and release to the public in all languages at the same time. We will make ourselves known while keeping the government's quiet, unable to respond for fear of digging a bigger grave than the one we have provided them. With all the information released at once, we will state that the empowerment is next, a natural step in a humanity’s evolution.

“We shall then give everyone around the world a goal and a hope to unite behind. That they too can take this step along with everyone else should we discover the heart of the truth on Mars. The origin of this strange so called radiation.”

Another man stood up, head of the research department,

Sir, manned missions are at least a decade, the technology simply too unstable. Although the development of habitable conditions greatly increased our progress, it would still take a decade at our current pace.”

Ignatius once more motioned to take his seat

“Did you not hear me? We are not simply stepping into the light, we will be at the forefront of it, eclipsing everyone else in the shadow that we create ourselves. We will take quick action to stomp all of the global terrorist attacks, develop a method of detecting this strange radiation and intercepting anyone in possession of it for global safety. All while forcing the governments to support us and our claims as well as speed up the colonization of Mars, a colony that will be solely under our control.”

Having finished his explanation Ignatius took a sip out of his still steaming, black coffee.

“Everyone is to fully co-operate on this operation, we will have one, and only one chance at this. I want all of this data ready to be uploaded and distributed all over the web and television. The governments must also be told to stay quiet when we take action. Further instructions will be sent to each one of you later today. Any questions or problems shall be immediately sent to me. Is everyone aware of their job and what is at stake?”

Everyone present answered in unison,

“Yes sir!”

“Dismissed.”

As everyone departed from the room, Ignatius resumed his drink and watched the false media reports on the hologram.