Riley had no possessions to speak of to inhabit his room.

True, he had a mattress and more closet space than he could imagine, but he had no extra clothing save for the uniform given to him by faculty. He had to wear that uniform since his other clothes were torn from the fight he had with those two heroes. He felt his hands around each nook of the room in search for devices to capture his voice. Detecting none, he picked up his giant brick phone and pulled up the antenna.

Riley, stretching in his green muscle shirt and beige pants, stretched out his arms when the tone over the signal buzzed. He knew his home station already saw what occurred that day, but he wanted to express his emotions to the entire lab.

"Riley. What's your favorite song?"

The code question. Riley sighed.

"Macarena."

"Good. Now, what's happening?"

Riley looked at the wall mirror opposite him. With the bruises and bumps on his face, he appeared to have aged a decade in his first day of this new world.

"It seems most civilians here have these powers called quirks. What you and I know as superpowers from comic books. It varies between people, and I believe I passed off your instructions as a quirk."

"Good," the voice said. "We hoped the program we installed in you would work in detecting these variables."

"To an extent," Riley grunted when he rubbed a sore spot on the top of his skull. "I still got my ass kicked."

"That's okay," another voice blurted out. "It was quite entertaining."

"Enough," the deeper voice said. "Remember the mission, Riley. The sooner you can get out of there, the better."

"Understood," Riley said. "I am prepeared for any action necessary, sir."

"Good, and don't get attached. We noticed that annoying girl is suspicious of you, but likely people will just take her as crazy. If she does start to blab, feel free to kill her."

"Understood," Riley locked onto his own dark green eyes in his mirror. "I will eliminate her if need be."

"Good. Also, we-."

Beep.

Riley dropped his brick phone. He grabbed his head when a strange static bumbled through his head. The world devolved into monochrome not unlike the sharpened film of a dead television channel. He fell to one knee with his muscles quivering. Breathing became a challenge with his throat constricting while his ears twitched from the harsh ring that dazed him.

Soon, the beep stopped. The static eroded, and the world came back to focus for Riley.

"-ey. Riley! Riley!"

Riley forced air back into his lungs. He reached for the phone.

"Copy." Riley grunted out.

Over the phone, alarms blared out in the remote room of the command center. He heard footsteps running amuck from with papers slipping off of desks. People scrambled around with shouting and arguing slamming into an incomprehensible wave of noise in the background.

"Riley," a female's voice shouted. "Riley! the basement!"

"What?" Riley's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"The school basement," the female hurried out. "The entry point! The signal is about to be launched from there! Get the code!"

Riley pocketed his phone. Now in mission mode, he narrowed his eyes and shunted any pain out of his system. He forced his legs forward and ran for the door. He kicked it open, and the door lurched off its hinges and fell apart in front of his strike.

He marched down the hallway and ran past the empty common room. Pushing past the stairwell door, he darted down the steps towards the atrium.

The grounds on the school's island were perfectly manicured grass that tickled the bottom of Mai's feet. Her sandals off to the side, she grazed her soles on the prickling ground.

The soft scuff noise brushed above the soft breeze blowing from the tranquil river that flowed past the island. The main school building was separated from the dorm towers that lined the outside of the island by a giant clearing with soft rolling hills dotted with benches and auburn street lamps reminiscent of an old English park. Small oak trees stood within the clearing with the bright lights of the main building's office spaces and the main atrium of which students flowed out of the entrance off to their dorms for the night.

Mai watched some of them pass while sipping on a hot cup of lemon tea. The liquid kept her hands warm on the chilled evening with the soft moonlight refracted from the drifting dark clouds above. A black quilt rolled in the sky and smothered out the light to a low drone. Beyond the perimeter of the island shore was the twinkling lights of Downtown Detroit. To the other side was the occasional car zooming down the highway on the Canadian side of the border. An occasional conversation giggled past Mai, but most of the noise was the wind and the soothing waves lapping at the edges of the island.

Voom.

A low hum emanated from the lamppost next to her. The tungsten lamp dimmed and flickered for just a moment. What intrigued Mai was that the other lights appeared to do the same on the island. Around her, the island turned pitch black for a second before the lights strengthened to their normal state.

Mai examined the area. Now, the clearing was empty, and nobody seemed to notice the power surge that had just occurred. Perhaps it was just a consequence of the neglectful years hampering Detroit's power grid.

Her ahoge twitched.

Footsteps.

Mai, already recognizing the heavy footsteps over the rustic dirt pathway that snaked over the clearing, frowned and took another sip of her tea.

"Yo, Karanashi."

Aiden trotted over to the bench. His white tank top cling to his chest with his black sweatpants tied to his thin waist. Aiden's red hair was frazzled and wet from a shower with his face glistening from the remnants of a face wash.

"What's up with you," Aiden stopped by the bench and placed his large hands on the edge of the wooden backrest. "I didn't take you as a rule breaker."

"Rule breaker?" Mai asked and leered up at Aiden.

"This school has a curfew," Aiden looked down at a small wristwatch on his right arm. "It's five minutes past ten."

"I should be telling you to go inside," Mai said. "You'll get in trouble. And you're hair is all wet. You'll get a cold for sure."

"Then how about I have some of that tea," Aiden scooted around the bench and sat down next to Mai. "Warm me up?"

Mai slid away from Aiden. She huffed and looked away from the taller boy. Aiden leaned over and craned his head to face her.

"Did I do something wrong, Karanashi?"

"You were awful today," Mai lectured. "You used your quirk for bad."

"Isn't that the idea of that exercise," Aiden said. "My quirk can be used to make people see things that aren't there. So, that's what I did."

"You terrified that man," Mai closed her eyes and crossed her arms in defiance.

"He's a Pro-Hero," Aiden said. "You said you recognized him. He probably acted all of that stuff. And you know what I did with my quirk? A black screen. That's it. That's all I made him see. So he was possibly blind for a few moments. Big deal. I was brainwashed. One moment I'm next to you, the next I'm outside! How do you think I feel?"

"We have to be responsible with our quirks," Mai said. "And I don't want to be around someone who just scares people."

"Look, the world isn't some safe space, okay?" Aiden said. "They're bad people out there. And all they do is scare people. So maybe I do that sometimes, but it's for good."

"You don't need to tell me the world isn't a safe space," Mai turned back with a frown jabbing at Aiden's confused face. "I figured that out on my own."

"Then what are you even upset about," Aiden said. "You want me to be nicer? Whose gonna be nice to us when we're out there in the real world, huh?"

Mai sighed. She held up the cup of tea and sniffed the lemon scent wafting off the surface. She shivered and looked over at Aiden. He gave her a sliver of a smile, and his azure eyes twinkled under the auburn luminescence.

"I just think there are better ways," Mai said.

"Maybe there are," Aiden said. "But that's not what we're training for, yeah?"

"Maybe. Here," Mai said before handing the tea cup over. "I don't want you getting sick."

Aiden grabbed the cup's porcelain handle. His finger grazed Mai's for just a moment. He lifted up the container and placed his lips right on the lid. With a small tug, he poured some of the tea into his mouth. In an instant, hai body warmed with the hot tea coursing down his throat and soothing his chest.

The lemon flavor stuck to the tip of his tongue. He smacked his lips and turned his legs towards Mai. The girl stared down at her feet and swung them over the grass.

"Damn," Aiden said. "That's some good tea."

"I brought a lot of it over with me," Mai said. "From Japan."

"You bought it somewhere?"

"No," Mai swallowed and turned away from Aiden. "My mother had a whole stockpile of it. She owned a tea company."

"Maybe she can send some more over," Aiden said. "I wouldn't mind."

"She can't."

"I'll pay. I don't need it for-."

"She can't send it over," Mai said in a soft tone. "She can't send anything over. Anymore."

Aiden furrowed his brow. Mai hid her face from him, but based off the red flush he saw on the corner of her puffed cheeks, she was in an emotional, depressed state. Emotional girls were not his strong suit, but he knew he could not just walk away.

He took the tea cup and held it over Mai's lap.

"Here," Aiden said. "I'd like another one sometime. If you'd be able to."

Mai ran a hand over her face. She turned back to Aiden who smiled at her.

"You wouldn't want me to get sick, right?"

Mai nodded. She took the cup and rubbed the porcelain around in her hands.

"Right," Mai said. "Also, you need to get to sleep. If you go now, you can still get your eight hours or so. But also, brush your teeth. Otherwise the tea can corrode your gums. And don't forget to floss, too."

"Anything else, ma'am," Aiden said with a teasing tone.

"I wake up early," Mai said. "If you happen to be up thirty minutes before class…I may have some extra tea available."

"I usually work out early anyway," Aiden stretched out his arms. "I can meet you wherever."

"Cafeteria," Mai got up. "Don't be late."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aiden turned around and watched Mai give a quick nod to him. Her face still flushed, she spun back to the dorm building and hurried over the grass away. Aiden watched her body disappear into a dark silhouette, and then enter the building lobby. He smirked and traced a thumb over his lip.

"Damn," Aiden said. "I'm already down bad."

Aiden certainly found Mai attractive. There were hardly any Japanese girls in his po-dunk Midwest town, let alone anyone with a quirk similar to his. At first, he just admired Mai's appearance, but he felt his heart skip at the strange connection he already felt he shared with her. She would be a touch girl to get close to, admittedly. But if there was one thing Aiden loved from his old days on the football field or swimming, it was a challenge.

Vroom.

Aiden looked up. The lights around him all dimmed. The street lamp by him blared dim, then blinked back to full strength. A strange electric zing hummed over the clearing before reverting back to its quiet state. A few crickets chirped with the occasional firefly blinking past in the wind.

"Ah!"

Aiden whipped around. At the base of the tree, Riley fell and slid over the bumpy roots. Aiden, surprised at seeing the boy, jumped back when Riley regained his footing.

"Whoa," Aiden said. "Dude, are you okay?"

Riley, without looking at Aiden, brushed past him and sprinted for the main school building. His eyes, strangely bright and focused, seemed to glow under the lamp as he disappeared from Aiden's view and ran for the unlocked school doors.

Aiden shrugged.

"Weirdo."

Aiden shook his head and tried to ignore the whole situation. Maybe that was the indicator for him that it was time for bed. He waltzed back to the dirt path and traced over Mai's steps to the dorm building.

Crash!

Aiden flinched at the sound of metal crumpling underneath a heavy object. Glass shattered, and the impact echoed over the clearing and between the tall buildings.

Honk! Honk! Honk!

A car alarm blared behind the first year dorm building.

Aiden, curious, jogged off the path and traversed the soggy dirt covered by the untrampled grass. He rounded the wide, steel-tinted building and landed onto the pavement of the parking lot behind the dormitory. He huffed and stopped right at the edge of the parking lot. It was wedged between the dorm building and the shoreline of the river. A few cars sat dormant in the lot.

One car, however, honked with its headlights blinking in alarm. A sleek, black muscle car parked next to a moving truck with an open cargo bay door.

Underneath an open window, a body lay writhing in pain like a dying worm on top of the caved-in aluminum of the black Gran Torino roof. The windshield was broken with glass splintered over the hood and asphalt underneath the frame. The loud alarm roared like a train passing through with the figure on top groaning and clutching his back.

The figure reached for his pocket. He clicked on his keys, and the car honked once more before falling silent. He groaned with his head falling onto the crunched metal.

Aiden glanced up at the open window on the third floor. Lynn's blonde head poked out into the air with her hands covering her mouth in shock. In the terse silence, Aiden walked up to the car. His shoes scrunched on the glass while the boy lifted his head up on the car for just a second. Then, it fell with a soft dink onto the roof. The boy lay motionless with his limbs splayed out and blood protruding from his skull like a tiny halo.

Aiden looked up at Lynn. The girl froze in a horrified state at the windowsill.

"Damn, Lynn," Aiden said. "I've been pushed out my share of girls window, but at least they push me into the bushes."

In the school, Riley made a turn towards the basement. He marched through the gigantic atrium where a rotund security guard sat in a chair. As Riley made his way over the marble tile to the side entrance of the basement lab staircase, the guard stood up and placed a hand on his radio.

"Hey, buddy," the guard said. "Students aren't allowed her past curfew-."

Bam! Riley jabbed his palm into the nose of the guard. He cried in pain with saline drowning his eyeballs. He clutched his nose before Riley grabbed his tie and yanked him down towards his waist. With a quick tug, Riley jammed his elbow onto the guard's skull.

A deafening crack echoed over the hall. The guard fell limp onto his face. Riley grabbed the radio and turned off the speaker. He snagged the key card off the guards necklace and pressed it to the keypad by the door. Above the keypad was a small sign reading "Wright Experimental Laboratory."

With a green light, the door slid open. Riley trotted down the familiar circular steps to the basement he had exited earlier that day. His heart remained calm with his breathing repetitive. He approached the bottom door and pressed the key card in again. With another flash, the door slid open.

Fortunately, the man at the desk opposite the entrance had his headphones over his ears and faced away from the door. Riley crouched behind a long counter with beakers and a sink. He stalked to the side and held his head out to examine the man. A green light illuminates his body with blinking emerald lights dotting the entire area of the room's computers and generative towers that hummed with a cracking radio signal.

He recognized the boy as the upperclassmen speaking to that pink-haired Canadian girl earlier. The boy, hunched over the keyboard of what appeared to be an elaborate computer set-up, pushed up his glasses and hummed away to the music in his headphones.

Beep.

At the desk in the basement of the school, Gavin licked his lips. Seated next to a strange tubular glass chamber, He tapped away at the desktop before him. Lines of code traversed over the computer. He imputed the language and ran one of the programs on his screen. He took off his headphones and clapped his hands.

The computer buzzed and whirred with the green code trickling over the screen like a waterfall. At the very bottom of the screen, a small script that read:

Signal active.

"Ha ha. Yes," Gavin chortled in a nerdy way. "It is ready."

Gavin pressed a button on his smartphone. A voice memo recording began to capture sound underneath Gavin's presence as he looked over the charts on his desk. Then, he pressed a recording button on a small camcorder perched on a tripod next to one of the screens. He fixed his chestnut brown hair and wiped away his glasses.

"Test one of one. This is test one. My name is Gavin Michael Carter. I am a second year at the new school in Detroit. I am recording this in case of emergency. I have been working on this project for quite a while, and I am prepared for the first test."

Gavin lifted up a chart and held it to the camera. It was a signal that fizzled like a frantic heartbeat in the middle of the page.

"Five years ago," Gavin stated. "There was a strange signal in the California desert. A signal that many attributed to the events at avoid Industries concerning the kidnapping of Deku and other children. This signal, however, was explained as an electric surge due to the Pro-Hero breaking out of the digital prison his mind was held in. What occurred in that prison is still a mystery to many today."

Gavin held up another paper. This time, it appeared to be coordinated lining each row that traversed down to the very bottom of the page. "This signal, however, represents an intrusion in the system. It was built to be closed to only certain individuals and locations. But if you look at these coordinates, they don't exist to this world. They are equatorial coordinates. Not horizontal, but equatorial. The signal was detected on Earth, but its origin was not here.

He circled one number pairing in the center.

"The signal changed every picosecond it was detected by NORAD. It was seen as a glitch due to the internal rescue operation to save Deku. But notice that the declination and right ascension change at random. Perhaps a glitch. Except here."

Gavin taps the center number with his pen.

"This is a supergalactic coordinate. SGB and SGL both zero. Where the supergalactic plane intersects with the galactic. Passing through earth."

Gavin turned to a radio telescope next to him. He grabbed another paper and underlined the next set of numbers on the paper.

"The intensity of the signal. 6EQUJ5. The same intensity detected by the Big Ear Telescope in 1977. This time, the signal had a strong enough bandwidth to detect its size and distance. It's origin? Sagittarius A. About eight parsecs away from Earth. Galactic zero. The galactic center of the Milky Way galaxy. The signal begins and ends with these coordinates. Which means…."

Gavin stood up and walked to the wall of CPUs at the perimeter of the laboratory. He held his finger to a red button above an oscillating arrow that remained dormant on a voltage meter.

"Either this was a glitch, or this was a signal sent by a travelling source. And these travelers, in whatever vehicle they used, were sentient beings from elsewhere."

Riley's mouth hung open. Few things phases him, but this explanation was making his mind race. Sentient beings? Elsewhere?

"From this computer, I can send a signal to this location in the galaxy. If this is the source of that intrusion into the digital universe, then this is proof that sentient, otherworldly beings have been trying to communicate with us," Gavin announced. "Aliens. Higher life forms. They've called. It's time to answer back."

Gavin flicked the switch on the CPU. The towers around the perimeter came to life with an ominous ruby glow. The gears inside the machines spun and clattered while the frames shook faster and faster.

"Oh, no!" Lynn squeaked. "Is he dead?"

Back at the parking lot, Aiden placed a finger under Jason's nose. "I'm no doctor," Aiden said as he examined the boy. "But the fact that he isn't breathing is good evidence of that."

Lynn squeaked again. She slammed the window shut and rushed away from it to the door. She burst out into the hallway nearly bumping into Sigi who was on the phone with someone. The smaller girl stumbled back and smacked into the brick wall behind her.

"Watch where you're going, spaghetti head!" Sigi shouted.

Lynn laid no mind and ran past the common area. She barreled into the stairwell and flung herself down to the bottom floor. When she exited, she entered the lobby which was empty save for a receptionist that was texting the night away on her phone. The lobby was a spacious area with blue carpet and rustic brick walls and exposed piping hanging in the rafters. A marble table with a lamp sat in front of the receptionist and by the wide glass doors that led to the outside world. She threw herself past the doors and rushed out.

"No leaving the building after curfew," the receptionist

In the boy's common area, the accessibility elevators opened with a hydraulic hiss. In the compartment, Skylar babbled away with a large box labeled "makeup" in black marker. Next to him, Leon held a box that had a sign marked "prop weapons."

Somehow, Skylar had roped him into helping him unpack his mountain of boxes and Knick-knacks that were parked in a moving truck downstairs. With the freight elevator out of order, the two traversed the hallways and lugged each back over to Skylar's room. Which, as luck would have it, happened to be right next to where Leon would be sleeping this year.

"…And it's so lucky how we're neighbors now!" Skylar babbled away while carrying his box down the hall to the very corner of the floor. Leon, with his typical blank expression, trailed next to the boy. The boxes were not heavy, but there was an avalanche of them that spilled out from Skylar's room into the hallway blocking part of it from use. The boxes towered up to the top of the doorway, rendering the path into his abode blocked without swimming through the receptacles of unassembled furniture and a warehouse worth of clothing.

"It's luck of some kind, all right," Leon huffed under his breath. He set down his box at the base of the barrier and wiped his hands on his pants.

"We can do so many activities together!" Skylar said. He walked back to the elevator with Leon in tow. The boy practically skipped while behind him the taller teenager watched the golden halo shimmering above his head in curiosity.

"Activities?" Leon asked as they entered the elevator. The doors closed, and the elevator began to descend to the bottom floor.

"Yes! So many things," Skylar chirped. "We should come up with some kind of code. Maybe if you want to come over, you can knock once on the wall. They're thin, so I'll be able to hear it."

"What if I don't want to come over?" Leon asked.

Skylar laughed and smacked the side of Leon's broad shoulder. "Oh, Leon. You're hilarious."

"That wasn't-."

Ding! The elevator opened up to the ground floor. Leon and Skylar exited right by the back entrance facing the parking lot. Skylar hummed to himself and pushed on the bar to go out into the cool nighttime breeze. Leon followed and exited into the still night and walked to the open moving truck.

"We can stay up all night watching tv on that giant plasma screen you have! And then we can make TikToks, and I can help you with that. You'd get tons of followers right away. Maybe we can-. Wah! Holy Jose!"

Skylar leapt back into the air and floated down in front of Leon. By instinct, Leon caught Skylar and cradled him in his arms as the two watched the shocking sight before them; A dead body, a smashed Gran Torino, and a red-head from Wisconsin.

"Hmm," Leon stated. "It appears there was a defenestration here."

"Nah, man," Aiden held his hands up in defense. "I don't defenestrate no more. Not since last summer."

"Ah! Skylar! Leon!"

Leon spun around with Skylar still in his arms. Lynn scrambled past them with sweat drenching her face and a wild look on her dazed and confused green eyes. She hustled for the car and stood in front of the wreckage. She leaned on the car and lifted herself up on her tiptoes to try and hide the body on the roof.

"Lynn," Leon asked in a cool tone. "Did you already kill someone this year?"

"No!" Lynn laughed in a nervous tone. "What are you talking about?"

"The body on your roof!" Skylar shouted.

"What body?" Lynn asked. "There's no body here. Just me chilling with my Gran Torino and Avery. Yup, me and Avery! Best buddies. We go way back.

"Yeah, she even calls me by my nickname," Aiden chuckled. "And not my real name, which is Aiden."

"Oh, Aiden," Lynn grit her teeth with another mock laugh. "You jokester. That was just a joke between friends-."

"Ahhhhhh!"

A scream!

From the roof, Jason shot to a seated position and screamed at the top of his lungs. He cried out in agonizing pain with one of his legs twisted like a pretzel. The others screamed along with him in shock at the boy being alive.

In her panic, Lynn activated her quirk and hardened the bones in her right arm. She swung back and jabbed an upper cut right at Jason's bloodied chin.

Thwap!

Jason's head slammed back. His scream died in his throat, and he fell limp and lifeless back onto the roof.

The group fell silent. Aiden smirked a tad impressed by the gumption of Lynn. Leon blinked with an unreadable face. Skylar, however, collapsed to his knees and wretched on the ground.

"Oh, God," Skylar said. "I've never seen a dead body before. Ack! Ack!" He heaved and coughed on all fours with his body wracking in shock at the event.

Beep!

The lights in the building shut off. The group, and the whole island plunged into darkness. Aiden looked around at the dark sky which only betrayed a hint of moonlight due to the clouds obscuring the crescent moon.

"What?" Aiden asked.

Then, a rumble.

A soft rumble. A few shards of glass toppled off the roof and pecked the pavement below. Some pebbles rolled down the soft incline to the water. Lynn's feet vibrated with the shake from the ground. Skylar's hands shook since they were on the floor, and his arms trembled with the soft quake making his fingers dig into the hard asphalt. The waves at the shoreline rippled and regressed to reveal the hard sediment and jagged rock underneath the manicured waterline.

Blam!

The voltage meters rose by the second. Higher. Higher.

The whine of pulleys clicking in the metal towers.

The beeping of the machines indicating a signal about to be fired away.

The computer buzzed with code raining over it like sheets of water on a hurricane.

The floor began to shake. Gavin lost his footing for a second and tumbled at the edge of the table. He picked himself up with a grin and stumbled for the laptop.

In the cacophony of sound, Riley's phone rang again. He grabbed the device and answered the call.

"Riley," the male's voice shouted. "If this succeeds, we need the signal's receiving code! This could be our only chance! Have him send the code and then copy the receiving code!"

Riley hung up. He held himself at the ledge of the counter and watched the man make it to his computer. Step by step, he neared the console.

Then, the lights flashed green.

On the screen:

Ready to send.

"Send!" Gavin shouted.

He pressed the enter key on his computer.

Lynn toppled over. She fell onto the hood of the car while Aiden twisted his legs and slammed onto his back. Leon fell forward and rolled to his side to lessen the impact. He landed next to Skylar who let out another melodramatic scream.

Then, it stopped.

Lynn collected herself when the tremor ended. She brushed away some glass off her sleeves and looked around when a loud noise blared around her.

The other cars in the parking lot honked with a symphony of alarms beeping in rapid succession. The noise rang through Lynn's ears, and she covered them as the tremors stopped as fast as they began. The lights flickered back on, but dorm building came to life with students turning on their dorm lights from an interrupted slumber.

"What was that?" Lynn asked.

"An earthquake?" Leon replied.

"In Detroit? Are we near any fault lines?"

"How should we know? We're not cartographers," Aiden shrugged and picked a piece of glass out of his shoulder.

Lynn huffed. Regardless of what that was, she needed to handle business with Jason. She ran over to the side and found the keys in Jason's hand. She grabbed them from his cold clenched fist and then yanked him backward from his wrists. She grunted and pulled him to the trunk.

"What are you doing?" Skylar screamed.

"I need to get this to the landfill," Lynn said. "I know a guy that can handle this for me."

"Did you kill him?" Skylar gagged again.

"Get a grip!" Lynn threw Jason's body onto the ground. She heard some muttering s above her and looked up at the building. A few students poked their heads out the windows to see the source of whatever that quake was. Lynn squeaked and popped open the trunk. It obscured Jason's body which was right underneath.

Lynn grabbed Jason's midsection and flung him into the trunk. She closed it and ran to the driver's door. When she got to the handle, she looked at the other three.

"Listen, you three," Lynn glared at them. "We are all in this now. All of our DNA is on this crime scene. So we need to act fast and act now to get out of this. Got it?"

"Lynn, why would you do this?" Skylar cried out.

"I'll explain on the way to the landfill. Now, if you three don't help me get out of here, I'm gonna rat on all of you! You got it?"

Leon understood the situation was dire. He knew of quite a few of father's friends that had done illegal activities and needed to cover them up. He supposed that evading responsibility for crime was just something high schoolers normally did.

"What do we need to do?" Leon asked.

Lynn blew out a quick sigh of relief. At least one of them was going to assist her. "I need someone to distract the guard out front. Although hopefully that earthquake will have already done it."

"I got that covered," Aiden said. He smirked at the others and flexed his arms. He had to admit, this school isn't as lame as he thought it was gonna be. Robbing banks and hiding bodies in one day?

This was going to be a fun year.

Then, out of nowhere-.

Crash!

The ground rattled beneath them. The four collapsed with the entire structure of the building next to them shaking. Aiden held onto the tire of the vehicle while the others cried out around him.

"Oh my God," Skylar screamed. "We're gonna die!"

Inside his room, Tao knocked over some candles surrounding him as he meditated. One of his Persian rugs caught fire. He jumped on it and rolled around.

In the hallway, Sigi fell onto her back.

Already asleep, Sam The Dog barked. Merle turned over and fell off his bed.

On the girl's common area sofa, Melanie ripped a page from her book by accident. Then, a light fixture smashed onto the ground just feet in front of her.

In the taxi cab, the car swerved from the jumbling earth. Izuku banged his ear on the window. The car stabilized while Ivan gripped the door handle to maintain balance. Next to him, Ayumu stirred and grumbled something unintelligible before falling back asleep on his shoulder.

Beep!

Gavin fell onto his back. On another screen, a small blue line traces over a grey screen. The arrow traversed in an arc across a labeled graph with "parsecs" as its y-axis. At the end of the graph we're the coordinates for Galactic Zero.

The ground still tumbled, but Gavin held onto the desk for dear life. Behind him, Riley saw his moment and leapt to his feet.

He dashed for Gavin and the central console. The sound disguised his footsteps, but Gavin saw in the reflection of the camera lens facing him the approaching figure of the tall, muscular boy. He gasped and spun around in his chair.

"Hey! Who are-.

Blam! Riley crashed into the man. They tumbled to the ground just as the building shook again. The machines vibrates off each other and caused sparks to fly out into the room and die off like comets in the sky. Gavin, with the wind knocked out of him, tumbled towards one of the processing towers and bounced his shoulder into the facade.

"Ow," Gavin grunted in pain. "Kid, what are you doing?"

Gavin gazed up at Riley who stumbled to his feet by the console. He locked eyes with Gavin and approached him at a rapid speed.

"Hey, stop!" Gavin shouted. "You don't know what you're-."

Riley kicked at Gavin's head. The older boy fell onto his face and rolled away from underneath him. Creating space between the two, Gavin stood in front of the computer and blocked Riley's access from it. Then, Gavin grabbed a small pen that was in his shirt pocket.

Riley raced for Gavin. However, he was too fast and did not notice how the pen had morphed into a thin, sharp slice of silver. Riley gasped at the knife that gleamed in Gavin's grasp. His momentum taking him too far, he tried to sidestep Gavin. However, Gavin crouched down and swing his arm wide with the knife pointed right for his abdomen.

Stab!

Riley shouted when the knife penetrate his midsection. Gavin dug the weapon deep and sliced through his body. Riley collapsed and grasped the gash that spurred our blood into his hands and spilled on the white floor. With the room glowing red, the puddle appeared black with Riley regurgitating blood that he tasted in his mouth.

Riley gritted his teeth and spun back around on his hands and knees. He glared at Gavin who held the knife out at him. Interestingly, Gavin's hand trembled at the blood that dropped off the knife and beaded up by his knuckles.

"Don't come any closer," Gavin stated. "I don't know who you are, but this has nothing to do with you!"

"It's my mission," Riley coughed. He stumbled back up to his feet. The world grew light and calamitous around him. His legs squeaked like a freezing tin man with his arms dangling limp with the strength of noodles. His spine was a frozen tundra while his skin paled with every drop of blood onto the floor.

"What is?" Gavin shouted. "I don't even know you! This is my project! My livelihood! This is the future of humanity! All here!"

"I know that," Riley coughed again. "Your past is my future. And I need this…to have a future. An eternal one."

"What?"

Beep.

The machines stop.

The floor ceased rumbling. The building remains still, and only the blinking green lights create a stir in the still room.

Silence. Save for a simple beeping from the screen before the two.

Gavin and Riley look over to the computer. Both of them creeped to the screen together. Gavin dropped his guard and allowed Riley closer while the two peered at the screen.

Signal received.

Beep.

Signal accepted.

"Accepted," Gavin whispered to himself.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Then….

Click.

The screen switched off.

Darkness.

Riley gasped for air. He grabbed the backrest of the chair and leaned on it. Gavin looked around room. He scanned the voltage meters to find them at zero. The room was pitch black with Gavin's eyes adjusting to the darkness. He saw Riley's desperate face with his eyes dazed and his limbs starting to falter.

"Hey, kid," Gavin reached over and dropped his knife. When he did so, the pen reverted back to its normal state.

He threw Riley's arm around his shoulders. Despite being younger, Riley was larger and more muscular, so helping the boy stay on his feet was a chore. Gavin, relatively skinny in comparison, huffed and strained his knees to stay at full height.

"You alright?" Gavin asked.

"No," Riley coughed more blood. "My mission. I need to succeed."

"You need to get upstairs to the hospital wing," Gavin said. "Look, I don't know who you are, but you-."

Beep.

A hum emanated from the computer. A single screen turned on. A green light emanated over Riley and Gavin's faces. It was a black screen, but the cursor at the bottom of it blinked green. Riley's pained expression reflected the blinking cursor on the screen. Gavin gasped and stepped closer to the monitor. The two were mute, as if any noise could scare away whatever phenomenon was occurring.

Blink.

Blink.

Then, in a flash, a set of words to formulate a sentence popped up from the blinking cursor on the screen.

I know what you're doing.

Riley and Gavin exchanged glances. Gavin, however, felt his heart race at the prospect of seeing this message. With his hand still shaking, he reached slow towards the keyboard. He gulped, and then he typed in a few words. His fingers pattered on the keys until he composed his message. He pressed the enter button, and the message popped up under the anonymous sender.

"Who is this? Do you understand English?"

A terse few seconds oozed past. Riley squeezed at the cut in his abdomen. While darkness started to fill the corners of his eyes, he wanted to see what was occurring before it disappeared from existence.

I know what you're doing. This is your one warning. Do not contact us again.

A chill tingled over Gavin's spine. This was real, whatever he was communicating to. This had to be a being not of this world. He glanced at Riley whose entire frame shook. Whether it was from the blood loss, or from fear, neither he nor Gavin were sure.

With another gulp, Gavin braved another sentence to the source.

"Who is us? Who are you?"

I am of the past, present, and future. You will not understand this until the end.

"End of what?"

The end.

Riley's breath hitched. What dod this being mean by that? The end of his life? The end of theirs? The end of time?

Gavin typed out another response. Slow, methodical. His brows furrowed akin to a brain surgeon transplanting to a patient. He thought out his response, understanding this may be his one chance at contacting another presence in the galaxy.

"Can you please tell me what you identify as? And can I please receive proof that you are not of where I reside?"

This is your one warning. Do not contact us again.

Gavin typed away in a furious fashion. His thumb jammed into the enter key to send another message.

"Please, I just want to know who you are."

The cursor blinked.

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

My name is Shoto.

Before either could response, an electric zap flared in the containment tube on the platform aside the desk.

Riley whipped his beard towards the bolt. As he did, another bolt exploded in the chamber, and a quick wind whipped right over Riley and threw him back into an infinite canvas of blinding ivory. His limbs jumbled backwards, and the incinerating heat enveloped his body with a silent scream echoing only in his mind.

Whether his eyes were still open or not, he was unsure. Because all he witnessed beyond that moment in time was white.

White.

Please review.