(2020)
At a farm outside Gaithersburg, Maryland, emergency vehicles and law enforcement surround a barn. Something's happening inside and guns are trained on the door. Inside, a costumed super villain, the Red Dagger, faces off against a hero named the Patriot. The Red Dagger's costume is stained with someone else's blood, but the Patriot has him cornered. The Red Dagger talks gleefully about his victims and licks their blood from his hand. The Patriot flies forward in anger, killing the Red Dagger.
The Patriot staggers outside in a daze. Cops tell him to freeze, but he ignores them and flies away.
At the Catalano home, father Stan watches the news discuss the events in Gaithersburg. Son Max comes into the living room wearing his graduation cap and gown. He's on his way to a graduation party. Mom Joan gushes over her graduate. His parents ask him where the party is and he notes it's at a home of people his father knows. Joan tells Stan to join them for a picture, but Stan says he already did pictures at the graduation ceremony. Max leaves for the party. Stan keeps watching the news and hears about a manhunt for the Patriot.
(2021)
Max gets ready for school while his roommate Diego and his girlfriend smoke a joint and watch cartoons. Max, now a student at Towson University, is majoring in journalism and he's off to class. On TV, the anchor talks about government manufacturing technology to even the playing field with supers. Max is concerned, but heads out to class.
(2022)
Max leaves a building on campus, he's late for his next class. A poster on the wall tells students to report supers if they see them.
A large blue-skinned Hulk-like woman named Baby Blue arrives, she's hungry. She demands that Max tell her where she can find chicken fingers, which confuses Max. The Patriot arrives and engaged Baby Blue in battle. Another super, a woman called the Fox, arrives and helps Max and other students and employees to safety.
(2024)
Max jumps into a MooVers rideshare car with the driver Steff. He's on the way to graduation from Towson University in journalism. He's interviewing for journalism jobs. Driving through the city, they see video screens and cameras everywhere.
Max joins the editor of the Baltimore Sun, Cameron Pritchett, in his office. A poster on the wall tells everyone to keep an eye out for supers. Pritchett likes Max's writing samples and asks him why he wants the job. Max says he wants to find the truth and make the people in charge do better. Pritchett gives him the job.
(2025)
On 2/24/25, Sun mailroom employee Steve-O drops a package off for Max. They chat about pop culture. Max forgets about the package until it's time to get off for the day. He notices is as he's leaving and stops and opens it. The package contains blueprints for some kind of intense military armor suit, the Eradictor Mark 25. He's puzzled and curious, but he locks the plans in his desk drawer.
On 3/24/25, Max gets another package. Max checks it out and, like the last one, this has no markings of of origin. He asks Steve-O if he saw who dropped it off, but Steve-O didn't see anything. Steve-O leaves and Max opens the package, which includes dossiers on a bunch of supers, including the Patriot. The dossiers include how to kill the supers. He takes the dossiers, the Eradicator schematic and his gun, stuffs them in his bag and leaves.
It's 4/24/25 when Steve-O puts another package on Max's desk. Max returns and finds it. He goes to the Mailroom and asks Max if he saw who left this package. Steve-O says it's not and they watched the place all day, nobody came in. Max asks if Steve-O has video on thath room, which he does. Steve-O and the other workers make a joke about how video surveillance cameras are everywhere now. Max asks Steve-O to get the video.
Max watches as Steve-O checks the security video. They see the package appear, but don't see anyone put it there. It just appears. At MUCH slower speed, it turns out that a super, the Black Heron, used his super-speed to deliver the package unseen. Steve-O recognizes him as part of the Super Supreme Dream Team. They open the package and it's a long list of military recruits. They've each been assigned an ERADICATOR suit. Max warns Steve-O to forget this conversation. Inside the package, Steve-O finds a card that says "let's meet" and has a QR code.
Max waits outside until a car picks him up. He gets in and the Fox is driving. She intimates that she'll secretly provide transportation for supers as long as she can, but danger is growing. She tells him he's going to meet the Black Heron.
In an empty house, the Black Heron tells Max he has documents for him. He gives him a portable safe and a code to open it, but he says to open it somewhere he's never been before then get rid of it. He says it is evidence that the government has recruited an army and armed it with the most dangerous combat weaponry ever given to a soldier. They are going to kill all the supers. Black Heron tells Max that he's a journalist and he has to get the truth out. Max accepts the challenge.
(2026)
Max sits in Pritchett's office in front of a sign that says supers are illegal. Max says he's got the story and all the evidence. Pritchett says the White House contacted him and wants to know who his source is. Pritchett tells him he better turn in all of his documentation and drafts and fires him. The story is dead.
The Fox picks Max up outside. She pulls her mask off to reveal her identity to him. He tells her Pritchett killed the story. Max says they can't kill the truth and the Fox replies that "they" will try to kill the truth. He's confident they can't win, she's not so sure.
Max stands in his kitchen cooking. The window and wall explode inward, throwing him against the wall. When he wakes up, the Black Heron stands over him wearing the Eradicator armor. Max asks why and Black Heron says he loves to monologue. He reveals that the whole thing was a trap. Black Heron isn't a super, he's a human and they wanted to make sure to catch any do-gooder journalists. Black Heron says a new world order has arrived and there's no place in it for people like Max. Black Heron punches him in the ribs, cracking them and knocking him into the wall. Black Heron was an angel investor in the making of the Eradicator armor. Black Heron says Max is guilty of treason under the new constitution and the penalty is death and smashes Max's left foot.
Black Heron demands Max tell him where the Patriot is. He prepares to destroy Max's right foot. He says tell the truth and he'll die quickly, lie and there will be so much more pain. Max says he'll die before he tells Black Heron anything. Black Heron says "okay." Outside, the Fox looks through the window and makes eye contact with the Black Heron. He points a finger gun at her and shoots. He winks then kills Max. She runs.
(2027)
In the offices of the Baltimore Sun, Max's desk sits empty and untouched. The TVs in the bullpen play a conversation between news anchors who talk about the program to eliminate all supers from society. The anchors seem compromised and don't question the methods used to eliminate supers. The anchor reveals that a new government is in place and that they are run by the extreme religious right.
(2043)
The Patriot stands in a disguise outside Comic Con. It's raining heavily and a man futilely tries to change his tire in the rain. A Lamborghini speeds around the corner and is about to hit the man and his young daughter, who is in the car. The Patriot breaks out of hiding, leaping to save the man and his daughter, revealing his powers after years of hiding.