"Luuuuukkkke!!!!!"
A shout sounded through the building.
"arrgh... Again, this morning?"
"Are we ever going to have peace in this company?"
"Hahaha, the Captain is going to die early at this rate"
"What a waste of such beautiful face"
"I hope Captain Nathan doesn't get killed by Luke"
A fairly handsome young man storms into the large room.
It was a room filled with desks, computers and stacks of papers with the word confidential written on them. Different men and women sat or stood in groups around different desks. It was your typical staffroom with different employees and work stations.
This was the 1008th district, a branch of a cosmic organization known as the 'Tower'.
The tower is large organization deal with supernatural or cosmic occurrences around the cosmos. They were basically the universal police. With supernatural powers, aliens and mythical creatures becoming a normal thing. The multiverse had undergone change. Travelling through space and dimensions has become as easy as taking a bus. The existence of mythical creatures and aliens or other species is now normal. Your next door neighbor, classmate, co worker could be a phoenix or dragon. Basically the entire multiverse had become a giant neighborhood.
The tower branches had a large hierarchy system. Districts were the smallest unit, only in charge of a one or two countries. The 1008th district was one of the 1008 districts located on Cone, a small refugee planet, and were in charge of a small city called Sanctuary 4. A refugee planet was basically like the slums of the universe, a place where people who lost their planets and have no where to go stay.
The handsome man that had just stormed in had a bright red hair that grew upward looking like little flames. He wore a blue shirt and black trousers. He was Nathan Burnz, Captain of the 1008th district.
"Luke!!!, where's Luke!!" The handsome young man shouted as he entered the large room swinging a collection of papers in his hands. On his head were orange flames as his red hair had turned into fire at some point in time.
Everyone in the room all simultaneously turned in the same direction. In a corner of the staffroom room was another small room with a glass door. The door was transparent but blurry making it hard to clearly see what was happening inside.
Captain Nathan stormed in. Inside Lukas, a young man looking like he was in his early twenties. He was dressed in a white shirt and pair of black pants. By his side was a black coat inlaid with white lines and a gold watch. The handsome captain that had just dashed in, looked at the younger man who was asleep.
"Hey Luke!! What is this?!!" He yelled slamming the papers in his hand on the table Lukas was sleeping on. The flames on the young captain's head grew brighter.
"ugh.. Can't a man have a rest anymore? Heh Captain?" Lukas groaned as he sluggishly raised his head and sat up straight looking at his captain with tired eyes.
He had a face that would be considered handsome even with the dark circle under his eyes. Long Whitish Grey hair tied up into a bun behind his head with a few strands of white hair at the sides . It made you think that his hair was originally white but it had not been washed for a long time making it look dull.
"You can rest when you do your job properly!!" Captain Nathan slammed the papers on the table once again.
"But I already sent the report"
The captain swung the papers in his hand across Lukas face. "Report? You call this a report?!! Ugh.." He grabbed his face as he slumped into a nearby couch, his flaming hair seemed to reduce as some of his red hair began to show. He stayed motionless on the couch.
"Captain.. You're not dead are you? You should rest more, your flames are not burning as bright anymore, you're beginning to lose hair from all the stress" Lukas said looking at the tired figure in front of him.
Nathan's mouth twitched as the recinding flames on his head grew taller again. "Whose fault do you think this is?!!"
Nathan sighed as he pointed at the papers he had dropped on the table. "You can't even write a proper report. Look in there, there's a letter for you.". The flames on his head turned blue before going off leaving only his hair.
Lukas went thorough the papers before picking the envelope stuck in between them.
As he tore the envelope and opened the letter in it, familiar words appeared in Lukas's field of vision.
" Mr. Lukas, Congratulations. You've being selected for the opportunity of a lifetime. Do you want to see and explore the stars?. Join the space wanderers now for a thrilling adventure!!! "
Lukas puts down the letter as he yawned.
Nathan stared at Lukas for a while. " This is the first time I've seen you receive a letter. Who? A girl? She must be pretty influential, if she can send you a confidential message like that." He said with an amused smile on his lips.
Silence
Lukas just stared at the captain like he was looking at a fool.
Nathan' lips twitched slightly.
"It's not a girl" he finally said has Captain Nathan snapped.
"That was a joke. Of course I know it's not a girl. What kind of girl sends letters, what happened to texts. Besides you spend all your time holed up in here and with your personality there's no way you're getting a girl"
"That's hurtful"
"It's the truth"
"..."
"Who is the letter from? Family?"
"The tower"
"The tower?" A look of surprise flashed across Nathan's face. He picked up the letter and after reading it, he looked meaningfully at Lukas's face.
"You don't wanna be a space wanderer? It's the dream of the galaxy. Fame, money and adventure. You get to wander the cosmos you know. Space. "
Lukas paused and then said in a low voice.
"... I'm scared of the dark"
The corners of Captain Nathan 's mouth twitched.
"You're really are a pain in the neck Luke."
The young captain sat up as he looked at Lukas as if appraising him.
"Did something happen today Captain?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Well Firstly you're not shouting at me as much as usual"
"That's the reason for your suspicion?"
"It's enough reason"
"I'm really curious about you. I've known you for 8 years now and the only thing I can say about you is that you're one of my best detectives, it's like I just met you. I know nothing about you or Where you're from."
"What do you mean Captain? I'm just a kid"
Lukas said smiling
The corners of Captain Nathan's mouth twitched again.
"Kid? I've known you for 8 years and you look the same as 8 years ago. You haven't aged one bit"
"Neither have you"
"I'm a mythical creature. Everyone knows about my long lifespan but you..."
Lukas smiled again
"is this why you don't address me as Kid like you do to the other guys?"
"Yes.. I don't know what race you are. You might very well be older than me." Nathan stood up and grabbed the papers he had brought as he walked towards the door.
"I'll ask Noelle to write the report, just refrain from writing anything close to reports from now on. I'll really die at this rate. "
Captain Nathan pushed his hair backwards as he opened the door.
"Captain.. You had this thoughts for a long time right? but you never said anything about it, what made today different? Did someone ask about me? "
Nathan stopped infront of the door.
"Sometimes I hate how observant you are. It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
Lukas paused for a moment before saying
"Captain, you know everything you need to know about me."
"Really?... I'm guessing that didn't include your name."
The captain pointed at the letter where the name Lukas was written. Then he turned back to leave.
"Lukas huh? I still think Luke sounds better."
....
Lukas sighed and picked up his coat. Checking his watch he whispered
"It took 8 years..."
....
Lukas walked out of the small room into the large staffroom.
"Big brother!! "
A big fluffy ball that was white in color suddenly flew into Lukas's arms.
"Hm? Ava?"
The white ball uncurled itself as it revealed the face and body of 8 year old looking girl with white hair.
"Big brother!, big sister Ann keeps bullying me!" Ava said as she curled back into ball.
"Hey Ava! Get off Luke! Tsk I won't bring you to work next time." A black haired lady in white shirt and a black trouser walked towards Luke, and started poking at the white ball with an angry look on her face. Luke's lips curled upwards into a little smile.
"Hoi Luke, ya locked ya self up in tha little room for so long, ze Captain had to come bring ya out. Tsk tsk"
An old dwarf, dressed in a black tuxedo walked up to Luke with his hands behind his back. He shaked his head while he spoke. Luke's smile grew as he pulled a chair and sat. He placed the white fluffy ball on his laps. "Hoi little rascal, me see ya smiling. Me feel like today gon' be a bad z'day."
"Old man, you shouldn't say such thing at your age."
"What ya know about me age? Hmph. Spill it ya rascal, what ya planning?"
Lukas leaned back in his chair, patting the white ball gently.
"I'm leaving old Ben."
The entire room suddenly became silent.
"Hm?" Lukas looked around and realized that at some point everyone in the room was now looking at him. Even the fluffy white ball on his laps had revealed a little head staring at him with cute eyes.
"Little rascal, you're retiring?" Old Ben asked
"Yes. I'm just about to write my letter-"
"What?!!!"
"Why?"
"Senior Luke is leaving?"
Different shouts suddenly rang through the large room as Everyone left their work stations and moved towards Luke. Even Ann had stopped poking at the white ball and started poking at Lukas's face.
"Heh? Luke, you're leaving?"
"Hold on-"
Lukas was interrupted by a loud alarm sound as red light suddenly started blinking in the room. Everyone hurriedly went back to their workstations.
"We have a situation."
"It's a breach, someone is trying to open an unauthorized portal."
"Unauthorized? What do you mean unauthorised you moron. This is a free zone. Anyone can open a portal anywhere."
"Well... except supervised places."
"Supervised?"
"You know, places like banks, museums..."
"We had those?"
" You fool, how long have you worked here and you didn't know we had supervised areas?"
"Well we've never actually been breached before have we?"
"Less talking. Find out what the breach is about" Old Ben said
"Hai Boss"
" Is it a bank? Which bank?"
"Who is trying to open a spatial portal to rob at this time of the day "
"Couldn't they just go over the fence or through the front door?"
"Hoi, who's side are you on?"
Old Ben looked at the large screen on the wall at the end of the room. A look of surprise flashed across his face.
"Wait this is.. This is not a spatial portal!" His body suddenly grew taller as he pushed the guy In front of a desktop computer away. He turned to Lukas. "It's a Time portal." Everyone in the room showed expressions of shocked before they started running around. "Someone inform the Captain!!"
Old Ben turned back to the computer and started typing on the keyboard muttering. "A time breach? Where is it?"
Lukas's face sank as multiple thoughts ran through his head. "A time breach right after the tower sent me a message? No, if 'he' found me that means-"
Boom!!!
A powerful explosion suddenly sounded through the building. Lukas and everyone were blown in different directions, the explosion had started in the middle of the room right in front of Lukas's face.
" Cough.. Coughs"
Lukas crawled out from beneath a broken pillar as he examined the white ball he had pressed to his chest. "Ava? Are you alright?"
Ava's head peeked out of the ball. "Coughs.. I'm fine big brother."
A loud humming sound entered Lukas's ear as he turned around to look at his surroundings. The entire building had been destroyed and pushed to the side leaving the middle of the destroyed building clear. Old Ben who had grown even bigger than before was on one knee and in front of him was a green and black portal.
The portal was twirling as it produced a loud humming sound.
"The supervised zone? It was our building?" Lukas looked around and found Ann. Lukas ran up to her and helped her out of the rubble.
"Argh this was a really bad bring your cousin to work day. ?" Ann said as Lukas helped her up.
"Here, take Ava to a safe place, we don't know what might come out of the portal"
'Well.. Actually I do'. Lukas added silently
After passing Ava to Ann, Lukas ran up to Old Ben.
"Hoi, za Captain ze out. And from ze aura that ze coming out from za portal. Me say there's at least an arcane level being in there." He looked back at the others still helping each other out of the rubbles.
"Those za guys won't be able to help."
"No that thing is higher than arcane... it's an indescribable rank"
Old Ben froze after hearing Lukas.
"Haha an indescribable? Might as well just let us all kill ourselves why would an indes-" Looking at Lukas's face Old Ben stopped laughing.
"Ya serious kid?" Lukas nodded
"Hoi!!!! Move it!!! Get out of here!! It's a BSS!!" As soon as Old Ben's voice reached everyone, a look of shock flashed across their faces as they looked at the portal in fear.
A BSS also known as 'beyond scale situation' was when the danger level was so high even the officers in charge of that jurisdiction needed saving. When a beyond the scale message was sent. It didn't mean 'Send backup' , it meant 'send saviors'. The others started helping themselves up as they tried to move as far away from the swirling portal as possible.
'As expected of an experienced veteran. He did not even ask me how I knew. He prioritized the safety of the people'
Lukas thought as he turned bank to the portal.
'What do I do? This is bad. Just when I was about to retire and leave in the most normal way possible. The portal is already opened, it'll be a problem if they started coming through. Is there's only one way to stop this?'
"Ben?!!" A large flaming bird suddenly landed in front of the portal before transforming into the figure of Captain Nathan. His hair, hands and feet were on fire. Even his shoes were gone.
"Ben!! Luke!! What's the situation?"
"Time portal, motives unknown, danger level: indescribable rank." Old Ben answered quickly.
A frown appeared on captain Nathan's face. "Indescribable? How did you know?"
"The little rascal said so. Ya chosen Za really bad day to retire boy" Old Ben answered still watching the portal.
"Luke? Retire?" Nathan looked at Lukas for a while, then turned back to the portal. "We'll talk about that later, a spatial dome has been deployed to prevent the situation from spreading. We need to throw a portal disruptor into the portal hopefully it would collapse on itse-"
Captain Nathan stopped talking and stood on his guard so did Luke and Old Ben. Out of the Portal, an arm had just appeared.