Ayden: The Exceptional

Synopsis

Josephine lies in a hospital bed crying after the loss of her newborn son. Her husband Isaac stands next to the bed, comforting her. A beam of light shoots through the sky and lands on top of the roof of the hospital. A portal opens, and Marisa steps out, cradling a blanket in her arms. She hurries into the hospital. Marisa makes her way through the maternity ward and sees Josephine holding a blanket and crying. She gently touches Isaac's forehead and putting him in a deep sleep. She touches Josephine's forehead and puts her in a state of paralysis. Marisa exchanges blanket with Josephine and whispers Ayden in her ear. Draven, wearing a futuristic military uniform, exits the portal before it closes. He finds Marisa in the hospital and tells her she is wanted by the high council for treason. Marisa tells him the baby died. Draven escorts her into the portal, and the beam of light shoots into the sky. Sitting in the backseat of a moving car, a five-year-old, Samuel Emerson, wearing a first-place science ribbon, sees the light rip through the sky and out of the atmosphere. He yells to his dad that he saw a spaceship. A vagrant pushes a cart down the street into an alley. He hears a noise and sees a figure move behind him in the darkness. A knife slits the vagrant's neck. Police Officer Mike Jamison responds to the murder scene and questions other vagrants if they saw anything. Ayden Daugherty, 13-years-old, quickly awakens, sweating profusely. He sits on the edge of the bed, grimacing in pain as he massages his legs. He goes to the bathroom and takes two pain pills. The newspaper's front page reads, "Another Vagrant found Murdered," The third in the past two weeks. Samuel Emerson, 17, sits in his high school philosophy class discretely reading a book titled "The Further Reaches of Science." He debates with his teacher and fellow students that superhumans exist in our modern society. Everyone laughs at him that he would conceive such a notion. Thirteen years past Colossal City, which is now a shadow of its former self, has seen a spike in crime, poverty, homelessness, and government corruption. Three parties now exist; the rich, working lower-class, and the poor. Samuel Emerson, now a successful billionaire and world-renowned Doctor of Medicine, Biologist, and Gene Therapist, gives a motivational speech to a graduating college class. He wraps up and is chauffeured away by his underling and assistant, Reese, 28, a biologist. They cross paths with Samuel's high school classmate, Allison, and her six-year-old daughter Madison. They have brunch, and she tells him she married and divorced her high school sweetheart Tobias. She tells him that Tobias has been diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and doesn't have much longer to live. Ayden Daugherty, an ex-army grunt, works in a forty-two-story building as a maintenance technician. He runs up the stairwell up to the roof, looking over the city. His friend, Nina, the building security guard, joins him and asks him if he's training for a marathon. Ayden's father, Isaac, questions him about the number of pain killers he has recently taken. Ayden is involved in a car accident and is transported to the hospital, where Doctor Chaney discovers that his anatomy is exceptionally unique. Detective Jamison, now 46, discovers a dead vagrant, the same as thirteen years prior. He informs his captain that he suspects the killings have started again. He goes in search of the serial killer. Samuel, who has known nothing but success, lost his wife to a severe form of lupus two years prior. He's working tirelessly to crack the code to cure lupus and other deadly diseases but has failed at every test trial. Reese discovers an article written by Doctor Chaney in Advanced Health and Research detailing her encounter with Ayden. Samuel meets with Doctor Chaney, and she explains to him that Ayden is something she has never witnessed before. His organs were more prominent; he had densely packed cells in the epidermis layer of his skin, twice the bone density, and double the muscle fibers, causing increased speed, stamina, and endurance. She tells Samuel that she was able to get a small blood sample that solidified in the syringe. Samuel makes her an offer that she can't refuse to join Emerson Genomics, and she steals the lab sample from the hospital. Ayden tells Isaac that he has finally found his true calling, and that's to assist those in need of help. Ayden frees a family and injured police officer held hostage in an apartment building standoff with a group of drug-dealing gang members by making a death-defying jump through a window and killing the men. The police are in awe at the mystery man wearing a skully, dark goggles, jacket, gloves, and tactical gear. Ayden stomps a hole in the floor and escapes through the apartment below. Samuel has a breakthrough in creating his serum using Ayden's DNA. He meets with Tobias and tells him he has discovered a cure for his deadly form of muscular dystrophy and offers him a chance at a new life. Tobias agrees and goes through with the procedure. He is miraculously cured and gains superhuman strength. Samuel finds Ayden with the help of Doctor Chaney. He tells Ayden the importance of his DNA and offers him a chance to join him. Ayden declines and jumps over the stairwell ledge, falling six floors, grabbing the railing, and running down the stairs using cat-like agility, leaving Samuel in awe. Samuel tells Tobias to bring Ayden to him, and he'll help him reconnect with Allison. Tobias agrees and goes in search of Ayden. He kills Isaac, and he and Ayden have a knockdown drag-out fight. Samuel intervenes, and they take Ayden back to his lab. Samuel injects himself with the last of Ayden's DNA sample. Detective Jamison discovers that Samuel is the serial killer and sneaks into his mansion. Samuel tells him the vagrant's deaths all served a higher purpose, to find Ayden. Tobias and Ayden square off, and Ayden kills him. Samuel and Ayden come to blows on a 400-foot damn. Ayden throws Samuel from the damn. He thinks he killed Samuel, but miles downstream, a hand reaches out of the water and grabs a toppled branch. In a faraway galaxy sits the planet Memnon. The Palace of Shomar is heavily guarded. Elio, 'The Keeper,' summons Draven,' and he sees the heart of Saros glowing red. Draven tells Elio that it is impossible because a child hasn't been born in twenty-six ions. Elio tells him that the heart of Saros detected a Memnonian on Earth, and they must inform the high council.