Blue lightning struck the road like a falling star.
The explosion shook the hillside.
Dust swallowed everything.
Rasheed instinctively covered his face.
When the smoke finally began to clear…
A figure stood in the middle of the road.
Black suit.
Blue energy racing beneath its surface.
A visor concealed the upper half of his face.
Electricity danced around his boots.
Rasheed had never seen him before.
But somehow…
His speed felt familiar.
The stranger looked toward the fading crimson particles where Kronis had disappeared.
“So…”
“I’m too late.”
His voice was distorted by the suit’s communicator.
Rasheed couldn’t recognize it.
Neither could the stranger recognize Rasheed beneath the hood and darkness.
They simply stared at one another.
Two storms meeting for the first time.
Red.
Blue.
⸻
Neither of them moved.
The air between them crackled with opposing energy.
Finally, the blue speedster spoke.
“You know him.”
Rasheed hesitated.
“I don’t know what he is.”
“But you’ve seen him before.”
“…Yes.”
The stranger slowly nodded.
“So have I.”
Silence.
“Who are you?” Rasheed asked.
The blue speedster tilted his head.
“Funny.”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Before either could say another word—
The ground shook violently.
A crimson fissure erupted beneath the road.
Chunks of asphalt floated into the air.
Time itself began to distort.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The silver pocket watch in Rasheed’s pocket swung open on its own.
Elias’ voice echoed inside his mind.
Run.
Without thinking, Rasheed shouted,
“Move!”
Both speedsters reacted instantly.
They sprinted in opposite directions.
A fraction of a second later, the entire hillside collapsed into the glowing fissure before sealing itself as though nothing had happened.
The road was gone.
⸻
Miles away, each speedster stopped at nearly the same moment.
Both turned to look back toward the hill.
Neither could see the other anymore.
Rasheed frowned.
“Who was he?”
Across the city, the blue speedster asked the exact same question.
⸻
The next morning…
Helix Dynamics.
The Director watched satellite footage of the incident.
The recording was grainy.
Two streaks.
One red.
One blue.
Meeting for less than seven seconds.
“Interesting.”
Dr. Sato folded her arms.
“They didn’t fight.”
“No.”
The Director smiled.
“They’re curious.”
He enlarged the image of the red streak.
“We’ll change that.”
⸻
School felt strangely normal.
Students complained about homework.
Teachers handed out assignments.
The world continued as if reality hadn’t nearly torn itself apart the previous night.
Rasheed found Omar sitting alone beneath the old banyan tree during lunch.
“You disappeared after training yesterday.”
Omar looked up.
“So did you.”
Rasheed laughed awkwardly.
“Fair enough.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Omar asked,
“Do you ever feel like…”
He searched for the words.
“…your life changed overnight?”
Rasheed’s heart skipped.
Every instinct told him Omar meant something more.
Instead, he shrugged.
“Sometimes.”
Omar looked away.
“Forget it.”
As he walked off, Rasheed watched him in silence.
If only they knew how similar their answers really were.
⸻
That evening, Adesewa sat in her room sketching again.
This time, she wasn’t drawing people.
She was drawing the symbol from Elias’ pocket watch.
Without realizing it, she added another symbol beside it.
A blue spiral.
She frowned.
“I don’t remember drawing that.”
The lights flickered.
The page turned by itself.
At the bottom, words slowly appeared in handwriting that wasn’t hers.
The Gate requires Three.
Adesewa dropped the sketchbook.
“What…?”
The words faded as quickly as they had appeared.
She was left staring at a blank page.
⸻
Deep within the Chronal Zone…
A man with a tired face stood on the edge of a floating fragment of earth.
His beard had grown long.
His clothes were torn.
Yet his eyes remained determined.
Dr. David Adewale.
Rasheed’s father.
He looked toward the crimson horizon.
“I felt him.”
He smiled for the first time in years.
“My son…”
“…you’re finally strong enough for me to reach.”
Behind him, the endless crimson storm stirred.
And something enormous began to wake.