[FADE IN — BLACK SCREEN. Sound of wind. Soft humming. Cracking.]
Narrator (V.O.): In a city above the clouds, we were chosen. Given power... and a price. Before we took our oaths, before the suits, before the symbols... The sky shattered.
[OPENING SCENE — SKYVAULT CITY]
Wide shot: A futuristic city suspended mid-air, glowing towers levitating through anti-gravity rings. SkyVault City shimmers like a jewel over an endless sea of clouds. Airships glide, neon birds flutter. Peace. Perfect peace.
[CUT TO — VAN HQ]
A sleek, silver tower hovering at the city's center, shaped like a compass needle pointing skyward.
Inside: TRAINING ROOM. Sparring dummies, glowing targets. KAEL RYUU (17), short crimson jacket, breathes heavily. He wipes sweat from his brow.
Kael: (half-grin) That's 58 hits in 30 seconds. New record.
Voice (O.S.): Only took you three years.
Enter YUNA VELLIN (17), serene, lavender uniform. Carries a cup of hydra-leaf tea. Offers it to him.
Yuna: It's not for taste. It's for clarity.
Kael: (sips) Still bitter.
[BROADCAST ALARM — LOUD STATIC, THEN A SOFT FEMALE VOICE]
City Alert System (V.O.): :: Alert Level Theta. Anomaly detected near Prism Line District. Vanguard stand-by. ::
Kael and Yuna freeze.
[INT. VAN HQ – BRIEFING CHAMBER]
The rest of the team gathers:
JAX TORRENT (18): Louder-than-life, hoodie with built-in subwoofers.
NIKO HAZE (16): Pale, sharp-eyed, doesn't make eye contact.
TARI NOVA (19): Sniper, polishing her Nova Lance.
ECHO-7 (age unknown): AI projection glitching with neon light.
Commander Aurix (V.O.): (via hologram) Vanguard. An unidentified spatial fracture has appeared in Prism Line. Same pattern as the Polaris Breach six months ago.
Kael: Deploy us.
Aurix: This isn't a training sim, Ryuu. This is real.
Yuna: We're ready.
Jax: We've been ready.
Aurix: …Then this is your real beginning.
[TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE — FAST, FLUID, CINEMATIC]
The six heroes don their Vanguard Oath Suits. Color-coded, sleek, pulse-lit. They leap onto floating cycles that arc into the skyline.
Echo-7: Uploading threat diagnostics. Quantum noise detected. Distortion levels: rising.
[SCENE — PRISM LINE DISTRICT]
A massive structure made of glowing violet crystal has erupted from the street, forming like a claw out of the pavement. Civilians run. The air hums with harmonic distortion.
Niko: I sense… eyes.
Suddenly, the crystal pulses. From it steps a figure: tall, obsidian armor, embedded with glittering gems.
SHARD.
Shard: (polite) Good evening, Vanguard.
The air around him warps. A man screams — and in seconds, his body calcifies into red gemstone. Solid. Perfect.
Kael: Get the civilians out — NOW!
[BATTLE — CHAOTIC, CINEMATIC]
Kael's plasma fire burns bright, clashing with crystalline shards.
Yuna traps civilians in bloom shields.
Jax amplifies a car horn into a concussive blast.
Tari snipes Shard's shoulder — it fractures but reforms.
Niko phases through buildings to flank.
Echo-7 merges with drones, deploying decoys.
Shard: Do you know what you protect, little Vanguards? Chaos. Decay. They will all be perfect, like her.
A photo emerges from a crystal embedded in his chest — a girl. Frozen. Smiling. Made of amethyst.
Kael: Who did this to her?!
Shard: …She was the first. The most beautiful lie I ever sealed.
Shard claps. The ground cracks. Three more figures emerge from his gem-portal:
DREIVA: Ribbons of refracted light.
GRAVEMIND VOX: Whispering. Wearing sorrow like armor.
PRISMMAW: Four-legged, fractal mouth. Growling.
X-O-X.
Kael (V.O.): That was the moment everything shattered.
[CUT TO — VAN HQ – NIGHT]
Six hours later. Damaged. Bruised. The team stares at the city's ruins from above. Dozens crystalized. Thousands injured. The city… no longer invincible.
Aurix (via screen): This is no longer defense. This is war.
Yuna: (softly) They weren't just stronger… they knew us. Shard… knew you, Kael.
Kael: (whispers) I've seen his face before.
[CLOSE-UP: KAEL'S NECK — A FAINT GEM-SHARD IMBEDDED IN HIS SPINE]
Kael (V.O.): The Vanguard Oath was supposed to protect us…
[FADE OUT]
Kael (V.O.): …but no one told us the sky could bleed.
[TEXT ON BLACK]
VANGUARD OATH — SEASON 1
COMING NEXT: EPISODE 1 — "The Phantom That Sings"
[END]