Location: A private boardroom — Zurich, Switzerland
Codename: "Consortium 5"
The room smelled like polished oak and control. Five individuals sat around a round table — not politicians, not celebrities, but the true hands that shaped economies. Oil tycoons. Pharmaceutical giants. Agricultural monopolists. Energy barons.
No names were spoken. Only sectors.
The screen at the center flickered to life, displaying a rotating globe. Highlighted were regions from Africa to South America — all showing unprecedented recovery in agriculture and stability.
No marketing.
No supply chain.
No recognizable brand.
Just one signature at the root of it all.
Aeternum.
A woman with sharp eyes and an older accent leaned forward. "We've traced shipments to over forty-four sectors, none bought. Every one of them received free shipments of that product—'Verdant Dust,' they're calling it now. Soil-reactive. Regenerative. Self-replicating in microdoses. No fertilizer company has anything like it."
A tall man beside her narrowed his gaze. "Worse. Our stocks have dipped in all connected regions. Fertilizer contracts are being canceled. Our lobbyists are screaming for damage control. And no one's claiming ownership. No leverage. No patents. Just a silent coup."
An American voice chimed in. "You don't give away something that revolutionary for free unless you're playing the long game. And if this 'Alex Kent' boy is who's really behind it, he's more dangerous than anyone in the tech sector right now. No shareholders. No regulators. No leash."
The screen shifted. A face appeared — Alex's. Young, presentable, unbothered.
They hated that look the most.
Calm.
Unshaken.
As if nothing in the world could touch him.
The woman tapped her pen against the table.
"We don't need to eliminate him. That's messy. What we need… is to slow him down."
"Lawsuit?" someone suggested.
"Won't work. He's not selling. No monetary trail. No claim to profits. There's no transaction, no liability."
A pause. Then someone else spoke with weight.
"Then we force his hand. Create pressure. False environmental scares. Stir up international concerns about bioweapons. Get the right countries to declare Verdant Dust a threat to local biodiversity. Push a narrative of overdependence. Make people fear it."
A smirk followed. "And once it's restricted globally… he'll have no choice but to come to the table."
The woman stood up.
"Alex Kent thinks he can walk like a ghost. That no one will notice if he shifts the foundations of agriculture quietly."
She turned to the others.
"But the old world doesn't give up without a war."
---
Location: Aeternum Tower – Gotham
48 Hours Later
The air was unusually still in the command hub of Aeternum. Monitors flashed a growing number of notifications—government requests, security warnings, legal advisories. Alex stood before the digital wall, arms crossed, eyes calm but focused.
Casey, one of his inner circle analysts, strode in with a tablet. "It's spreading. Fast. Twenty-seven countries have either opened environmental inquiries or suspended local distribution of Verdant Dust. Most citing 'unexpected microbial alteration' or 'possible synthetic contamination.'"
Alex nodded. "Predictable."
"They're not stopping there," Casey added. "Three international news networks ran simultaneous exposés last night accusing Aeternum of monopolizing humanitarian aid for political influence. None of them sourced anything real. Just spin."
Another screen lit up—social media chatter.
#GreenDeception
#SoilSubversion
#TechGodOrTyrant
Memes, edits, and even conspiracy theories were flooding the net. One showed Alex with glowing eyes like a comic book villain, another had captions warning about 'benevolent overlords in disguise.'
Casey scrolled down. "They're using your age too. 'Child genius turned silent dictator.' It's all manufactured, but…"
"It works," Alex said quietly.
She hesitated. "What do we do?"
Alex turned away from the screen and walked to the side of the room, tapping a control panel.
"I expected this," he murmured. "You don't rewrite the rules without the gatekeepers trying to burn the book."
On the panel, a different set of names appeared—anonymous investor IDs, encrypted communications, private reports.
"They think this will scare me into buying their silence. That I'll try to prove my innocence."
He looked over his shoulder.
"I'm not here to argue. I'm here to move forward."
---
Location: Small village – Northern Ghana
A local farmer named Kojo stood with three others, staring at the soil beneath their feet.
Three weeks ago, it was cracked, dry, and mostly useless.
Now it was black. Healthy. Alive.
"We got the letter this morning," Kojo said to the others. "Government says to stop using Verdant Dust. Claims it's 'under investigation.'"
A woman beside him frowned. "They never cared before. Never sent any help. And now when something finally helps us, they want to take it away?"
Kojo held up the small, matte-gray bag with the Aeternum seal — subtle, elegant, and unbranded beyond the crescent-like arc stitched on its edge.
He shook his head.
"They're scared. Because they don't control it."
The group murmured.
And for the first time, quietly, not with anger but with clarity, they understood:
This wasn't about soil.
It was about power.
---
Back at Aeternum Tower, Alex stood on the terrace as the sky dimmed over Gotham.
His expression remained steady. Measured. Almost bored.
But inside, the gears of his mind turned faster.
The global corporations had just stepped onto the board.
And now?
Now they'd get to see what Checkmate Protocol: Genesis was really for.
---
Location: Aeternum Tower – Sublevel 3, The Core Room
Holograms flickered in mid-air. A three-dimensional globe rotated slowly, flashing red in regions tied to hostile activity — legal barriers in the EU, disinformation spikes in North America, quiet lobbying from multinational conglomerates in Asia.
Alex stood before it in silence, surrounded by his core operatives.
To his left was Quinn, the firm's information warfare expert, ex-NSA.
To his right, Hana, his internal affairs coordinator, whose specialty was influence management and embedded asset extraction.
He didn't look at them as he spoke.
"They want to drown me in bureaucracy, smear my name, and fracture public trust."
He slowly raised a hand, tapped a floating node on the hologram.
"They forgot one thing."
Another tap — and six hidden networks linked to offshore shell corporations lit up.
"I don't just play defense."
---
Location: Tokyo – CEO Summit, Kyuden Technologies
A man in a sleek suit adjusted his tie as he stepped up to the podium. A Japanese biotech billionaire, known for subtle influence and silent funding of global agricultural resistance against Verdant Dust.
Before he could speak, a tremor of confusion spread through the crowd.
Phones buzzed.
Screens flickered.
On the main screen behind him, a newscast began rolling — intercepted.
"Kyuden Technologies Implicated in Global Price-Fixing Scandal. Whistleblower Documents Leak Tens of Thousands of Internal Emails."
The CEO froze.
Every major outlet's camera stayed on him.
---
Location: Brussels – EU Parliament Building
A secret meeting between five agriculture committee members was underway.
They were reviewing a motion to blacklist Aeternum's Verdant Dust based on a fabricated report. It was going smoothly — until two of their phones buzzed.
Then the others.
Simultaneously.
Live security footage from an hour earlier played on their screens, showing a corporate lobbyist handing off a briefcase filled with cash to one of the members — timestamped, verified, undeniable.
No threat from Aeternum. No message.
Just exposure.
---
Location: Gotham
In a quiet rooftop bar, Clark Kent sat with Bruce Wayne, both in civilian attire.
They had heard the storm building — across governments, corporations, even the League's global information channels. Rumors, scandals, overthrows in corporate boards — all starting just days after the smear campaign against Aeternum went global.
Bruce sipped his drink thoughtfully.
"I underestimated him," he admitted. "I thought he'd be subtle. Long-term. But this isn't just damage control. It's cold. Surgical."
Clark gave a small nod.
"He didn't strike first," he said. "But he's not letting them get up either."
---
Location: Aeternum Tower
Back at the Core Room, Alex finally spoke again.
"One campaign cost them billions in lobbying and influence."
He flicked his hand, and all red zones on the map turned neutral.
Then green.
"Their entire offensive? Erased in six days."
Casey stepped in. "Do we push back further? Now that we've got momentum?"
Alex's eyes sharpened.
"No. That was a message."
He let the screen fade to black.
"They'll regroup. Retaliate with more teeth. That's fine."
He turned to his team.
"We just made them realize what they're up against. From now on, we don't play their game."
He tapped a final button.
"We play the Genesis Accord."