It hit the internet before sunrise.
The video opened mid-laugh, camera shaking as a group of Trinity lads joked their way home down wet Dublin streets, streetlights bouncing across rain-slick cobblestones.
"Alright, alright, one more," the guy holding the camera called, voice muffled with tired amusement. "Conor, mate, look alive!"
"Feck off," Conor laughed, flipping a lazy peace sign, blinking through the drizzle. "Can't even feel my face."
The camera bobbed slightly as laughter rippled quietly, blurry faces briefly crowding the lens.
Then, from somewhere nearby, an odd sound, sharp enough to cut the laughter short. A distant crash echoed from an alley.
"Wait, shh... lads, hear that?" the cameraman whispered, suddenly serious.
The image swung sharply, tracking down a dark, narrow passage between brick buildings, just beyond the orange glow of the streetlamp. Two figures struggled in the gloom, flashes of weird blue sparks illuminating the alleyway walls.
"What the hell…?"
The cameraman moved forward cautiously, footsteps splashing faintly, breath quickening behind the lens. The picture stabilised enough to clearly show a massive man swinging something glowing and sparking, a gauntlet, maybe, towards a smaller figure, hooded and masked, who danced back with unnatural speed.
"Oh shit," someone whispered urgently off-camera. "Are they fighting?"
The hooded figure dodged again, faster now, moving fluidly in the pouring rain. Then, with no hesitation, he planted a kick straight into the bigger man's chest.
"Jesus!" came a breathless voice behind the camera.
The large figure hurtled backward, slamming straight through a metal storage shed wall. Wood splintered outward violently, metal buckled inward with a tortured shriek, the whole structure shuddering as the body disappeared into darkness.
The camera froze, perfectly still, capturing the hooded figure standing motionless in the rain, chest rising and falling heavily. Two faintly glowing white eyes stared blankly toward the wreckage, completely still as rain cascaded around him.
No one spoke for several seconds, just ragged breathing and stunned silence.
Finally, a voice whispered unsteadily behind the camera, "Holy shit... Did we just film a real superhero?"
The camera abruptly shook, cutting out as the footage ended.
It looped again immediately, raw, grainy, impossible, and somehow very, very real.
The video landed on YouTube at exactly 3:42 AM under the simple title:
"Superhero fight?? Caught on cam, Camden Street Dublin (REAL footage)"
By 7:00 AM, as Dubliners reluctantly dragged themselves awake into another cold January morning, the shaky footage was already lighting up Facebook timelines, Twitter feeds, and WhatsApp groups. Students shared it alongside blurry photos from nights out, tagging their mates beneath grainy screenshots:
"We were literally right there last night—how did we miss this???"
Tweets began pouring in immediately:
@SeanOG97: "Woke up to find Ireland has a superhero and the country's acting like we've won the World Cup."
@CiaraC123: "Ireland just woke up with a superhero overnight and honestly I'm living for it. About time we joined the party. 🇮🇪 #DublinSuperhero"
In 2013, superheroes weren't exactly new.
America practically had one in every city now, Avengers in New York, vigilantes in Hell's Kitchen, mutants popping up in shaky phone footage from teenagers in California. England had Captain Britain, Canada had Alpha Flight. Even smaller countries had local heroes occasionally making headlines. Footage of Avengers battles replayed endlessly worldwide: Captain America deflecting alien lasers, Iron Man rocketing past skyscrapers. It seemed everywhere had a superhero or two…
Everywhere except Ireland.
To Irish people, heroes and villains still felt distant, fictional—Hollywood stuff. Cool to talk about online, fun to see in comics, but never close enough to feel real. Ireland had become a running joke internationally as "the only country too boring for superheroes," something locals joked about but quietly resented.
Until now.
By breakfast, hashtags #CamdenStreetHero and #DublinSuperhero were trending nationwide. Phones pinged relentlessly:
"Holy shit lads, we've actually got our own superhero now!"
"Mam, have you seen this? Dublin has an actual superhero."
"Jesus, forwarding this to your Auntie now, mad stuff."
"Just watched it, sending it on to the work chat."
Twitter exploded with excitement, and nervous jokes:
@AoifeSaysRelax: "I'm so proud we finally got a superhero but also kinda terrified we're getting villains next? Typical Ireland 😂🇮🇪 #Sentinel"
By mid-morning, new footage emerged, locals filming Gardaí taping off the alley. One young lad recorded nervously from behind the barrier:
"Lads, guards are everywhere, look, they're after moving some weird crate. Looked proper dodgy, like alien stuff or something."
That clip quickly hit tens of thousands of views. Another video showed uniformed Gardaí carefully loading a heavy metallic crate into a white van marked "Garda Technical Bureau." Comments flooded beneath:
"Alien tech like New York?? Dublin getting serious.""We have one superhero fight and suddenly alien gear pops up. Mad day."
On Reddit, threads exploded. Amidst the chaos, one comment from u/McPunchington quickly shot to the top:
"He just stood there like a sentinel. Unreal."
Within minutes, someone tweeted the screenshot:
"Sentinel. Perfect name for our Dublin superhero."
It stuck instantly.
@StiofanTweets: "Ireland's reaction to Sentinel: Step 1: 'No way that's real.' Step 2: 'I will defend him with my life.' Took about 20 mins total. 🇮🇪"
By noon, #Sentinel trended globally with over half a million mentions. Tweets flooded in from the UK, Canada, the US, Australia—all amused, celebrating, or jealously acknowledging Ireland's leap into the superhero club:
@KieraTweets: "Love how Ireland waited 8 months after New York to casually drop our own hero. Classic Irish timing. 🇮🇪 #Sentinel"
Memes exploded everywhere, pushing the buzz worldwide.
On Vine, teenagers in hoodies recreated Sentinel's viral kick, crashing dramatically through piles of cardboard boxes or sofas, laughing hysterically as their mates shouted "Sentinel!" before they hit the ground.
On Instagram, overly-dramatic fan edits flooded timelines, grainy screenshots of Sentinel standing in the rain, captioned with popular 2013 song lyrics: "Welcome to the new age" (Imagine Dragons), or "Tonight is the night, we'll fight till it's over" (Macklemore).
Tumblr turned Sentinel's quiet intensity into perfect meme material:
"When you finally take out the bins after your mam asked 12 times:"[GIF of Sentinel standing silently in the rain, hood dripping dramatically]
"Me staring at my microwave waiting for popcorn like:"[GIF of Sentinel standing completely still in the pouring rain]
"Waiting for the bus in Ireland during winter like:"[GIF of Sentinel standing silently in pouring rain]
"Nobody: Me imagining how I'd fight if someone broke into my house:"[GIF of Sentinel kicking the thug clean through the shed wall]
The memes were addictive, shareable, irresistible—and soon Sentinel was everywhere.
Twitter captured the madness succinctly:
@IrishProblems: "Ireland: No superheroes. Also Ireland: Gets exactly one superhero, immediately turns him into 10,000 memes. Typical 🇮🇪 #Sentinel"
Local pubs even joined in, renaming pints "The Wallbreaker," "Rain Punch," and "Concrete Uppercut."
By evening, RTÉ ran a special report titled:"Sentinel: Dublin's Newest Urban Legend?"
And late into the night, international outlets finally caught the wave:
CNN: "Ireland gets its first superhero—meet Sentinel."
BBC: "Who is Sentinel? Dublin's viral vigilante captures global attention."
Internationally, jealousy and humor sparked:
@AussieJane: "Ireland has Sentinel, Australia still stuck watching from the sidelines. Feeling neglected tbh 🇦🇺🇮🇪."
@SwedishSara: "Ireland gets a hero before Sweden? Honestly feeling betrayed. 🇸🇪🇮🇪 #Sentinel"
@SpainCarlos: "Sentinel trending globally. Even Ireland has a hero now, Spain, we're officially behind. 🇪🇸 #Sentinel"
@GermanChris: "Dublin finally joins the superhero club. Congrats, Ireland, better late than never! 🇩🇪 #Sentinel"
@USMike1989: "Ireland gets exactly one superhero, acts like they discovered electricity. Love the energy. #Sentinel"
Within 24 hours, Sentinel wasn't just an Irish sensation, he was global.
[SHIELD European Operations Centre – Berlin, 05:19 AM, January 2013]
Beneath a discreet warehouse facility on Berlin's outskirts, SHIELD's European surveillance centre hummed with quiet efficiency. Analysts monitored screens, tracking satellite imagery, CCTV feeds, and global intelligence data with practiced precision.
At the central console, a critical alert steadily blinked:
INCIDENT ALPHA-213 – DUBLIN, IRELAND (POTENTIAL ENHANCED)
Maria Hill entered briskly, her coat still damp from the early morning drizzle. Analysts subtly straightened in their chairs.
"Give me a full rundown," Hill ordered crisply, eyes already scanning the displayed footage.
Agent Kwan quickly cued the main footage: grainy, night-vision enhanced surveillance from a Dublin alleyway. A masked figure dropped fluidly into the frame, dispatching two armed individuals swiftly and efficiently.
"Incident flagged internally at 04:12 local. Went viral publicly by 04:44," Kwan reported swiftly. "Subject currently unknown, male, Irish, estimated eighteen to twenty-five, confirmed local accent."
Hill studied the footage carefully. "Combat capabilities?"
"Significantly enhanced," Kwan replied immediately. "Speed, agility, strength all exceed human baselines. Tactical movements indicate intermediate-level Muay Thai training, supplemented by boxing. Effective, instinctive execution but not fully polished. Displays clear enhanced reflexes and strength beyond normal training."
Hill's expression hardened slightly. "Comparable to Captain Rogers?"
Agent Torres promptly highlighted another video segment clearly showing Sentinel delivering a precise Muay Thai-style kick, hurling a large attacker violently against a parked van, denting the vehicle deeply.
"Strike force between 3,500 and 4,000 newtons," Torres explained carefully. "Comparable to early serum-enhanced Rogers benchmarks. Fighting style indicates structured martial arts training, Muay Thai specifically, rather than formal military discipline. But enhanced capability clearly evident."
Hill paused thoughtfully, absorbing this detail. "Any extraterrestrial, magical, or alien signatures detected?"
"No extraterrestrial or magical readings detected," Kwan reported succinctly. "We've run standard protocols, no known alien physiology or Asgardian signatures. Negative on Chitauri biological markers, aside from intercepted contraband itself."
Hill's eyes narrowed slightly. "Mutant possibility?"
"No confirmed matches from internal mutant registries or known mutant energy-signature detection systems," Kwan said. "If mutant, the mutation is subtle, purely physical, no psychic or energy anomalies detected. Completely under standard detection thresholds."
Hill paused briefly. "Has Xavier's group shown any interest?"
Torres shook his head. "No observed activity from Westchester. As far as we can tell, they're unaware or uninterested."
"Let's keep it that way," Hill said firmly. "Mutant politics are sensitive enough without external parties complicating this. Any foreign intel or external agency interest?"
"Minimal," Torres responded quickly. "MI13 and INTERPOL inquiries triggered by Chitauri contraband seizure, but Sentinel himself hasn't been identified or linked yet."
Hill exhaled slowly, summarising carefully:
"So: no identity, no registry, no clear origin, possible enhanced traits, alien contraband, and now international attention."
Kwan nodded once. "Correct."
"Any leads?"
"Too early," Kwan admitted calmly. "We have preliminary voice-pattern analysis from social media clips, some basic motion overlays, and a handful of blurred facial images possibly matching him without the mask. Dublin surveillance sweep ongoing, local CCTV patching in now."
Hill nodded decisively. "I want Rogers' full physical benchmarks pulled immediately. Compare serum DNA blueprints, mutant registries, and unexplained youth enhancements globally over the past five years, particularly in Europe."
"Yes, Director," Torres responded swiftly.
Hill continued sharply: "Also bring in Dr. Malhotra. Have him review this footage. If this individual's biological profile even remotely resembles Rogers' serum-response curves, I want it flagged immediately."
"Understood, Director," Kwan confirmed without hesitation.
Agent Torres interjected cautiously: "Director Hill, Commanding Officer Brandt questioned why you're personally involved. He suggested this seemed routine."
Hill's eyes hardened immediately. "Inform Brandt Incident Alpha-213 is anything but routine. Director Fury flagged this personally. Subject 4-B's profile aligns dangerously close to early Captain Rogers' biochemical and combat benchmarks. Fury is taking no chances, particularly after New York."
Torres nodded promptly. "Understood clearly, Director."
Hill turned back toward the footage once more, silently watching Sentinel standing still in the rain, lenses glowing faintly. The figure blurred silently into shadows, vanishing from view.
She tapped the screen lightly, voice firm and precise.
"For now, classify Sentinel as a Tier-Two Unknown, observation only. No direct contact. No pressure. I don't want him pushed underground. But I want constant, discreet eyes on Dublin."
[Darren's flat in North Dublin]
Darren lay on his back, phone glowing against the ceiling.
He scrolled through videos showing people reacting to the video of hi,.
He even saw a six-second Vine of some kid doing his kick in a supermarket.
He scrolled, heart thudding.
RTÉ: "Masked Figure Saves Locals from Armed Gang."
BBC: "Ireland's New Hero?"
Daily Mail: "Vigilante or Terrorist?"
Tumblr had made moodboards.
Reddit had started mapping his alley routes.
Facebook had a page: "Sentinel Support Group – Protecting Our Lad."
One tweet had 50k likes: "If America gets Cap, we're keeping Sentinel. Sod off."
He stared at the screen, speechless. The world was catching fire.
He sighed, slumped lower in his chair, and pulled his hoodie tighter over his face like a child hiding under the duvet.
"Shit."