Three weeks after the crater.

The footage had spread faster than any government could contain. Shaky smartphone videos from survivors in the civilian zones. Military bodycam recordings leaked by soldiers who couldn't reconcile what they'd witnessed with what they'd been told. Satellite imagery showing figures wreathed in black flame pulling children from rubble while tanks sat idle.

The world had watched monsters become saviors, and nothing would ever be the same.

São Paulo, Brazil

The ...