EXT. ITALIAN COUNTRYSIDE — NIGHT..

Roy is gone, arrested, silenced—but the victory feels hollow.

Liam sits on a broken rooftop, breathing hard. Element Limbo is dormant, but the strain still aches in his bones.

Pele lands beside him, fire dim.

PELE

Roy wasn’t the head.

Kate walks up, serious.

KATE

He was just funding something worse.

Tyler looks toward the distant glow of a city.

TYLER

Venice?

Pele nods.

PELE

That’s where the real forces are moving.

CUT TO: VENICE

EXT. VENICE — CANALS — NIGHT

The city is beautiful.

Too quiet.

Water barely ripples. Gondolas drift without rowers. Lights flicker in empty buildings.

Something is wrong.

A man walks alone across a stone bridge.

He pauses.

The air grows heavy.

Dust lifts.

His feet leave the ground.

ASH — THE GAUNTLET REAPER

Ash stands at the end of the bridge.

Perfectly still.

Long black curls shadow his face. His gravity gauntlet hums, symbols rotating slowly, glowing brighter with every heartbeat.

The man tries to scream—

The gauntlet closes.

Gravity inverts.

The man collapses inward, crushed silently into the stone.

Ash doesn’t look down.

He simply walks on.

ELSEWHERE — ABANDONED ART STUDIO

A candle flickers.

A sketchbook opens by itself.

A green pencil moves—scratching, sketching.

A face appears on the page.

Then the face smiles.

Wilson sits in the corner, hunched, ink-stained fingers twitching.

WILSON (whispering)

They’re coming.

The drawing’s eyes blink.

THE PHANTOM

A mirror cracks.

Smoke pours out—not smoke, not shadow.

A presence.

The Phantom slides through the wall like mist, forming a vague human shape.

Its voice echoes from everywhere.

PHANTOM

Venice remembers every death.

Ash stops walking.

Wilson closes his sketchbook.

The three stand together for the first time.

PHANTOM (CONT.)

Roy failed.

Ash tilts his head slightly.

ASH

Then we remove the variables.

Wilson grins faintly.

WILSON

I want the one with the chains.

The Phantom laughs—cold, hollow.

PHANTOM

Bring them to Venice.

Alive.

CUT BACK TO THE HEROES

EXT. ROAD INTO VENICE — DAWN

Liam, Tyler, Luke, Kate, and Pele enter the city.

The water suddenly stops moving.

Liam feels it immediately.

LIAM

…we’re not alone.

A sketch floats up from the canal—paper dry despite the water.

On it:

A drawing of Liam drowning.

The paper bursts into flames in Liam’s hand.

Gravity shifts.

Windows rattle.

A voice echoes from nowhere.

PHANTOM (V.O.)

Welcome to Venice.