Devante barged into Emilia's office without knocking. He was breathing heavily, and a look of urgency was etched across his face. Without saying a word, he dropped his phone onto the sleek glass table and pressed a glowing button on its side.
"Devante, what is the meaning of this?" Emilia asked, her voice sharp with irritation as she looked up from her holographic reports.
"Just watch," he replied curtly, pointing at the device.
A bright blue holographic image flickered to life above the table. At first, the graph displayed a perfectly straight horizontal line, steady and predictable. Then, without warning, it erupted into chaos. The line began spiking wildly up and down in a scattered, disorderly fashion, as if the very fabric of time itself had become unstable.
"Time disruption?" Emilia asked, leaning forward with narrowed eyes.
"Yes," Devante confirmed, his tone grave. "And I am almost certain this was caused by a Time Disruptor."
Emilia leaned back in her chair and let out a long, frustrated sigh. "How many cases of Time Disruptors are we going to get in these past few days? This is becoming far too frequent."
"Where did this happen?" she asked, already standing up.
"At Ato Store. The parking lot, to be exact."
"Take me there right now."
Emilia grabbed her long black coat from the hook by the door and strode out of the office with determined steps. Devante quickly followed, the door sliding shut behind them with a soft hiss.
**********
Meanwhile, Trevor and Alvin had left their home early that morning and headed toward the A-3 Military District. They needed to report in at the station before they could proceed to the prestigious Military Academy. It was a regular routine that was done by anyone who wanted to go to the school.
When they finally arrived at the district, however, both boys were taken aback by the unusual atmosphere. They had expected the place to be bustling with officers shouting orders, vehicles moving about, and the general noise and disorganization that usually filled military compounds. Instead, everything was remarkably quiet, neat, and calm. The pathways were spotless, and only a few personnel moved about in an orderly fashion.
A cheerful young woman with short brown hair and a bright smile approached them. "Hi, my name is Amy," she said warmly. "You guys must be Trevor and Alvin. Deputy Devante is not here right now, so I will be your guide for today. Right this way, please."
Trevor and Alvin exchanged a quick glance before following Amy down a wide, brightly lit corridor. She led them into a comfortable waiting room furnished with soft chairs and a small refreshment station. "Please wait here," she instructed kindly. "There will be another set of individuals joining you shortly."
The two boys nodded and settled into the seats, trying to remain patient. Time seemed to stretch on forever as they sat in silence, occasionally glancing at the clock on the wall. Just when the wait was starting to feel endless, the door opened again. Amy returned, this time accompanied by a girl and a boy walking closely behind her.
"You guys!?" Trevor and Alvin exclaimed in perfect unison, their eyes widening in complete shock.
**********
At the same time, Emilia and Devante arrived at Ato Store. They parked their sleek hover car and headed straight to the parking lot, stopping at the exact coordinates where the time disruption signal had originated. The area looked completely ordinary. There were no signs of fighting, no scorch marks on the ground, no scattered debris, and no evidence of any struggle whatsoever. The asphalt was clean, and a few vehicles were parked neatly nearby.
This puzzled both investigators deeply.
"What else would someone use a Time Disruptor for if not to disrupt an opponent during a fight and gain the upper hand?" Emilia wondered aloud, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
"I don't know," Devante replied, scanning the ground carefully with a handheld scanner. "But there was clearly no fighting here at all."
While they stood there deep in thought, Emilia suddenly caught sight of the store manager walking past. She quickly approached him with purposeful strides.
"Excuse me, sir," she said politely but firmly. "Do you have any idea what happened in this exact spot yesterday?"
The middle-aged man followed the direction of her pointed finger and nodded slowly. "Oh, right there? Yeah, there were two teenagers — a boy and a girl — who came by and were playing some sort of game."
"What kind of game?" Emilia pressed, her interest sharpening.
"It seemed like one of those classic shell games or box games. You know, two boxes, and you have to guess which one has the right prize inside. They were having a lot of fun with it, drawing a small crowd even."
Emilia's mind raced as the pieces began to fall into place. In a normal game of chance, someone with activated abilities or enhanced perception should easily win every time. The only logical way to make the players fail repeatedly would be to interfere with their sense of timing and reality — exactly what a Time Disruptor was designed to do.
But that realization only raised an even bigger and more troubling question: how did two ordinary teenagers come into contact with such highly restricted and dangerous military technology?
"Sir, do you by any chance remember what they looked like?" Devante asked, stepping forward.
The manager scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "Sorry, I don't remember their faces clearly. They were just two regular-looking teens. Nothing particularly stood out about them."
Emilia nodded politely. "Thank you very much for your time."
She and Devante turned away and walked back toward their hover car in silence. Once inside the vehicle, Emilia turned to her deputy with a serious expression.
"Devante, I need you to get me detailed information on all our higher-ups and their children — names, ages, recent activities, everything you can find."
Devante's eyes widened slightly. "Ma'am, that's highly classified information. I won't be able to access most of it through normal channels."
"Try your best," Emilia replied firmly, her gaze fixed on the road ahead as the hover car lifted smoothly into the air. "Get as much information as you possibly can. This is important."
The vehicle accelerated away from the store, leaving the ordinary parking lot behind.
*********
Back in the waiting room at the A-3 Military District, Trevor and Alvin sat across from Mia and John. The four teenagers stared at one another in tense silence, the air thick with surprise and unspoken questions.
"What are you guys doing here?" Alvin finally asked, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer.
"We want to join the Military Academy too. Is that a problem?" John replied coolly, leaning back in his chair with a slight smirk.
Mia's sharp eyes dropped to Alvin's wrist, where a sleek, high-tech watch gleamed under the lights. "Looks like you're wearing our watch," she noted.
"Yeah, it feels really nice," Alvin answered with a wide, proud grin, flexing his wrist slightly.
The staring contest between the two pairs continued, filled with a strange mix of rivalry and familiarity, until the door finally opened once more. Amy stepped inside with her usual cheerful energy.
"Okay, everyone," she announced brightly. "You can all come with me now. Captain Emilia and Deputy Devante would love to see you."
The four teenagers stood up, exchanging one last glance before following Amy out of the waiting room. None of them knew what awaited them in the meeting ahead, but the unexpected reunion had already set the stage for something far bigger than any of them could imagine.