The episode opens up with a group of police sirens blaring across the outskirts of New York City, near the coastline. A man wearing a green, striped shirt is running down the road away from the cars. He eventually hops over a fence and runs towards the beach. One of the police officers then spots the man and the chase resumes. One of the officers then reports into his radio "He's gone, sir. Flint Marko has disappeared." However, as the police leave, Marko is secretly hiding behind a large rock. All of a sudden, a huge flash of light occurs on the horizon, and Marko looks out to see that a large mushroom cloud has formed over the sea. Marko, frozen by fear, is unable to move when the ensuing shockwave blows sand all over him, and the fallout of the blast causes a mutation in his cell struct