After weeks of grueling training and the intense abnormal hunting expedition, Kinnetos, Monty, and Sarah were desperate for a break. When Jade mentioned they had a free afternoon, all three of them immediately asked if they could go into town.
"Just to relax," Sarah had pleaded. "Eat normal food, see normal people,"
Surprisingly, Jes had agreed, though she insisted they stay together and keep their phones on at all times.
Now they found themselves walking down the busy main street of the nearby town, enjoying the simple pleasure of being around people who weren't trying to train them or shoot them with energy blasts.
"I forgot what it felt like to just… walk around," Monty said, looking at the shop windows as they passed. "No one here knows about paradoxes or abnormals or any of this crazy stuff."
"It's nice," Kinnetos agreed."
They decided to grab lunch at a small restaurant that looked quiet and normal. As they were seated at a corner table, enjoying burgers and fries like regular people, Sarah suddenly froze.
"Guys," she whispered, nodding toward a table across the restaurant. "Look at that person over there."
At a table by the window sat someone who looked completely ordinary at first glance. But as Kinnetos watched more carefully, he noticed something strange.
Purple energy was slowly leaking out of their body, just like the golden and silvery energy that had been seeping from him and Monty during their training runs. The wisps of violet light were barely visible, but once Kinnetos saw them, he couldn't look away.
The person was young, maybe around their age, with dark hair and casual clothes. They were eating alone, seemingly unaware that paranormal energy was radiating from them.
Then, as if sensing they were being watched, the stranger looked up and made direct eye contact with Sarah.
The moment their gazes met, the purple energy around the person flared brighter for just an instant, like a flame being fed oxygen.
"Did you see that?" Sarah whispered, her voice barely audible.
"The purple energy?" Kinnetos confirmed quietly. "Yeah, definitely a paradox user."
"But they're just sitting there eating," Monty observed. "Do they even know what they are?"
The stranger continued to look in their direction, and Kinnetos got the distinct feeling that this person knew exactly what they were looking at - three other people with developing paradox abilities trying to blend in with normal society.
"Should we approach them?" Sarah asked nervously.
But before anyone could answer, the stranger suddenly stood up from their table and quickly veered in the opposite direction, heading rapidly toward the back of the restaurant. Instead of coming toward them, the person was clearly trying to get away, making a beeline for what looked like the kitchen exit.
"Wait, they're running," Monty said, half-standing from his chair.
The purple energy around the fleeing figure was becoming more visible as their apparent stress increased. Other diners in the restaurant didn't seem to notice anything unusual, but to Kinnetos, Monty, and Sarah, the stranger was practically glowing with paradox energy.
"Should we follow them?" Sarah asked, watching as the person disappeared through the kitchen doorway.
"They're obviously trying to avoid us," Kinnetos pointed out. "Maybe they don't want to be found."
"Or maybe they're in trouble," Monty countered. "That energy spike when they saw us - that looked like fear to me."
The kitchen door swung shut behind the mysterious paradox user, leaving the three of them staring at it uncertainly.
"We should just let them go," Kinnetos finally said. "We're not exactly qualified to handle this kind of situation yet."
"Yeah," Sarah agreed reluctantly. "If they wanted to avoid us that badly, maybe there's a good reason. We don't know anything about them or what they might be dealing with."
They finished their meal in relative quiet, all of them thinking about the mysterious stranger and what it meant to encounter another paradox user randomly in public.
Later that evening, back at the base, they found Jade in his usual spot surrounded by monitors and keyboards.
"Jade," Kinnetos called out as they approached. "We need to tell you about something that happened today."
Jade looked up from his screens, immediately sensing the serious tone. "What kind of something?"
"We saw another paradox user," Sarah said. "In town, at a restaurant. They had purple energy leaking from them, just like what happens to us during training."
"He ran away when he realized we'd spotted him," Monty added.
Jade nodded, then asked, "What did y'all eat?"
"We went to the Turkey Diner," Kinnetos replied, confused by the seemingly random question.
"Oh, I figured there was a paradox user over there," Jade said casually, turning back to his monitors like this was completely normal information. "Don't worry. He's no threat. He hasn't caused any local problems, so I didn't bother him because he hasn't committed a crime yet."
The three of them stared at him in disbelief.
"Wait," Sarah said slowly. "You knew there was a paradox user at that restaurant and you didn't tell us?"
"You've been tracking him?" Monty asked.
Jade shrugged. "I track a lot of things. He's been living peacefully in town for months, working as a dishwasher, keeping his head down. No reason to interfere with someone who's not causing trouble."
They exchanged glances, then just kind of dropped it. "Oh, okay. He's not a problem then," Kinnetos said.
Jade then said, "Meet with Axe. He'll be teaching y'all today how to enhance your body."