Ben Battle Ready Now

Someone tapped his shoulder. The woman he’d seen frozen. “How did you know that would work?”

He walked back to his office, sat down, and re-tied his shoes. Double knot. ben battle ready

Ben had always been the guy who double-knotted his sneakers before a jog. So when the emergency alert blared—“Unidentified aerial phenomenon, downtown, all units respond”—he didn’t panic. He just opened the duffel bag he kept under his desk. Someone tapped his shoulder

Ben didn’t wait. He grabbed a fire axe from a broken display, stepped to the tear’s edge, and swung. Not at the rift—at the air around it, splintering the space like ice. The crack made a sound like a hurt animal and sealed with a soft thump . stepped to the tear’s edge