Castles in the sky

"In this day's international news, our current drones have found multiple massive megastructures- around the same height as Everest- on the Sahara Desert, with the supposed "mega-lake theory" being confirmed by conspiracists, aspiring some to cause debate on social media." 

Showing a picture and footage, most are unsatisfied with a 360-pixel video; some even mistake it for an analog horror series found on YouTube.

Though one would complain about the quality, some people are as equally complainant as the former, stating that it could be a rendering from a video game or perhaps using a 3d animation studio to create seemingly "hyper-realistic" models, all just to make a quick buck on content online or cause mass tomfoolery for overtly cautious individuals.

"Just recently- or rather, now- another worldwide earthquake had been unleashed during the speech of the current American President, Seno Pert, with magnitudes reaching over 9 and possibly even 10." explained the reporter rather calmly, though with dread present in their eyes as the camera would shake rather lightly.

"Most 21st century infrastructures have been destroyed thoroughly, though our technology fortunately has the means of stopping these events. The Disaster Management Committee has begun resolving these problems. May God Bless us all and stay tuned for further updates." an outro of music, followed by a sudden cut to an advertisement.

"Man..." sighed a teenage boy, twisting the knob on the invisible air-esque volume control- holographic- weakening the audio, "Ever heard of those end-of-the-world movies in the 2000s?" glancing at another boy.

"Yeah? What of it?" stopping to tap away, his eyes momentarily looking before coming back, pressing the button labeled '10x Pull'.

"It's pretty much like this, dude," he replied, watching the latter receive a golden star indicator from an animation of a meteor or comet falling. 

"Just out of... n-nowhere, this... uhhh- I dunno- things just- yeah. Y'know?"

Said star would glow, unveiling a neatly drawn woman possessing an umbrella surrounded by cannons of amber.

"I... I can't even describe it." shrugging, "Just a bunch of stuff happening all at once..." waving his hands as if he were to cast some spell.

"True. True. Can't exactly deny that..." the other boy replied, rapidly tapping the character's image and clicking a specific button- 'Auto Upgrade'- leveling up his new sniped girl to level 100. "I mean, surely with all the stuff that's going on, there's gotta be a cause and not just some random crap outta nowh-"

CRACK!

As if the very world just farted, the wind blew slowly as the soil would be unearthed, having the fire grow hot from friction, as the devil has spoken from under his breath. From a flash to a deafening dissonant impact, the two boys would be blown aback and crashed back to their shack- wood shattered at the seams, leaving nothing for them to cushion onward.

Moments shortly after, "What the heck?!" shouted the gacha boy, wiping the smoke clear off of him, revealing the deep Mariana secret...

Blaring horns, loud sounds, enough to wake a sleeping slug.

 EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM

 Disaster Management Committee

 Civil Authorities

 Issued a

 Civil Danger Warning

Following the teeth-biting noises...

"We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this emergency message. Important instructions will be followed after." as if it was the same text-to-speech voice, one enough to bring the wrong sign on the get-go.

"This message is being broadcast at the request of the Worldwide Intercontinental Union- Disaster Management Committee. A massive geological fissure was found in Hawaii, located where Mauna Kea was previously, now appearing to have vanished. Said aperture would reach the following countries in less than a minute."

In transition, there'd be a long white list within the black backdrop:

- Hawaii

- Mexico

- Cuba

- Jamaica

- Dominican Republic

- Mauritania

- Algeria

- Mali

- Niger

- Chad

- Sudan

- Eritrea

- Ethiopia

- Somalia

- Saudi Arabia (South)

- India (South)

- Myanmar

- Laos

- Vietnam

- Thailand

- Philippines (North)

"If you find yourself living within these countries, the following are to be carried out with haste."

Visuals would be simplified and drawn in stickman-esque figures, with words enough to be deciphered even by a four-year-old.

"Seek a nearby shelter 1 kilometer away from the area of destruction. Preferably, finding an anti-grav center would be the safest. Should you be injured, attempt to call anyone for help. Yell as loud as possible or use any form of device that emits light to create an SOS signal should you find it unable to do so. And remember... Stay Calm. Having a clear mind would help prevent any unnecessary dangers or accidents. Please stay tuned and do not turn off your device, updates will be given out as soon as possible."

Then returning to the same fork-scratching-plates noise, lasting seconds.

...

"Damn..." muttered, bubbles going up and into the surface, under the nautical. "She still got that much power left even when she's under overuse?" grabbing over the water like a stool, he stood up and rested on one big reef. Glancing at Xehnyier's own body, riddled with wounds seemingly farfetched from what he's supposed to receive. 

"[Lock] and [Unlock]..." said the fish turning a deaf ear, taking in a deep breath despite being underwater. "My power could be summarized in those two words- wherein one creates a series of pins and patterns, while the other releases them. A fairly simple yet equally complex Innate Ability."

"By locking the air and the impact that Nicole released, the damage was 'stored' by interchanging the patterns to ensure it won't exit, then using [Unlock] to release said pressure to knock me back." slowly applying some onto the broken parts of his body, makeshift patch-up.

"I am safe to assume that she's on her last legs, given that attack must've taken a lot of stamina to perform. Judging from her look earlier, it seemed she was trying to finish me off. Talk about irony." taking deep breaths and grabbing a slim container- one the size of a credit card- moving a slider, and drinking green liquid from it- yerba tea.

"But that move from earlier. It could be a good sign that she had my ability at least figured out. Which means that the interchanging trick I did just now won't work. And even with 'that', I bet [REDACTED] has implemented an immunity on her body, so that won't do either." finishing the drink, he let out a sigh.

"That'll be the same as with my projectiles. She'd figure out all formulas- in this case, patterns- and counter me with it." getting up again, he'd step on the new liquid stairs, doing arm circles on his right broken one, placing a hand on his forehead to block out the sun.

"Pacific..." looking down, "I think I'm nearby..." releasing energy using his ability, leaping in the air quickly and landing on air, staring down.

Right at the epicenter lies one limbless Nicole, left arm still intact, body full of cracks, crimson eyes deadlocked onto the returnee opponent- her still bleeding.

"Still alive, huh?" he muttered.