Black Skies over Brisbane

Brisbane should’ve been alive.

From the dropship, the city looked like it had been cracked open and left to rot. Columns of smoke wound skyward. Fires licked at broken rooftops.

Reiko leaned in beside Amara, eyes narrowing at the cityscape. “No air traffic. No comms.”

“They’re not jamming us,” muttered Amara, fiddling with the console. “There’s just… nothing. Total blackout.”

Leo stood near the back of the cabin, still suited in his hunter rig from their remote Queensland mission, arms folded. He hadn’t said a word since they’d crossed into city airspace.

Josh’s gaze followed the ruined skyline, then settled on the Atlassian Tower or what was left of it. Half of it had collapsed inward, a jagged, blackened husk.

He swallowed. “Who could do this? Vale doesn’t have this kind of firepower.”

“No,” Leo said flatly. “This isn’t him.”

They turned toward him.

“I recognise that pattern.” He pointed to the burned out arc of melted concrete near the CBD that was perfectly circular, the ground vitrified into glass. “Those aren’t mana strikes. That’s Rithari tech.”

“You’re sure?” asked Josh.

Leo gave a short, bitter laugh. “I lived twenty years in their world. I’m sure.”

They landed in the wreckage of the Atlassian courtyard. Twisted girders jutted from the pavement like ribs. The company logo, once a proud monolith of glass and steel, lay shattered across the plaza.

Reiko drew her blade without a word.

Leo crouched beside a scorch mark, pressing his hand to the ground. “This was recent. Within the last few hours.”

Josh’s nose twitched and beneath the smoke and charred rubble, he caught it. Blood. And someone familiar.

“This way,” he said, moving fast.

The others followed through a crumbling corridor that opened into a half-collapsed command suite. Most of the ops room had caved in, but someone had managed to prop up enough of the roof to survive.

Pinned under a support beam, barely conscious, was Richard.

Josh knelt beside him, voice low. “Don’t move. We’ve got you.”

Richard’s face was a mess of bruises and grit. One eye was swollen shut. Still, his good eye flicked open when Josh touched his shoulder.

“You made it,” Richard rasped. “Didn’t think… anyone would.”

Amara and Reiko worked quickly to brace the beam and slide him onto a makeshift stretcher.

“We thought you were dead,” said Leo, kneeling beside him.

Richard gripped his sleeve with a shaking hand. “They were looking for you.”

Leo froze. “Me?”

Richard nodded weakly. “Not Atlassian. Not random. They said your name.”

***

Leo’s building sat in a quiet part of the city, or at least it had. Now it looked like a war zone. His apartment block was scorched along the upper levels, and three balconies had been torn clean off. One of them was his.

The elevator was out, so they took the emergency stairwell two at a time, hearts pounding.

Leo kicked his own door open.

There was silence. Then shifting rubble and a soft groan.

Josh darted ahead into the main room. “Here.”

They found Leo’s wife behind the overturned dining table, bleeding, dust-covered, her left arm wrapped protectively around her torso. A jagged piece of glass stuck from her thigh.

“Shit,” Leo breathed, rushing to her.

She blinked up at him. “Leo…”

“I’m here,” he said, kneeling. “I’ve got you.”

Amara was already working on triage. “She’s lucky to be alive. This cut missed her artery by millimetres.”

“Where are the girls?” Leo asked.

His wife closed her eyes. “They took them.” she said in a terrified whisper.

Leo stood, slowly, the colour draining from his face.

Reiko emerged from the hallway. “Bedrooms are empty. Beds are unmade. No drag marks.”

Josh sniffed the air, circling the perimeter of the apartment. “No trace scent. It’s like they vanished.”

“They covered it,” Leo said hollowly. “They knew how to clean the scene. This was an extraction. Not a random kidnapping—a mission.”

Amara looked up. “We need to assume they’re off-world already.”

Josh clenched his jaw, fists trembling. “Why them? Why the girls?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Leo’s voice was flat. “Because of me.”

There was obviously more to Leo's story than he'd told them but Josh resigned himself to finding out later.

A low, pulsing hum echoed through the broken window.

Josh's ears perked. “You hear that?”

The others followed him out onto the ruined balcony. In the sky above Brisbane, a violet rift was collapsing in on itself like a clenched fist. Sleek black Rithari ships shaped like manta rays were retreating rapidly through the portal, vanishing one by one.

Then, with a subtle shift of unnatural light and a sound like cracking ice, the rift snapped shut.

Reiko checked her wrist scanner. “They’ve closed the portal. No signal bleed. Whatever tech they’re using has sealed it tight.”

“They didn’t want us following,” Leo muttered. “They took what they came for and locked the door behind them.”

Amara turned sharply to Reiko. “Get through to Harmonix HQ in the States. I want their portal specialist, Dr. Kaito. Get him on a plane, now.”

Reiko blinked. “You think he can re-open it?”

“He’s done it before,” Amara said. “If there’s even a sliver of residue left in the portal’s wake, he’ll find it.”

Leo stood frozen by the couch where his daughters' backpacks had been tossed aside, untouched. His hands shook.

“They’re gone,” he whispered. “My girls... they’re gone.”

“No,” Amara said firmly, her voice soft but solid. “With Good Boy on the trail, they have the best chance they could ever have.”

Josh didn’t speak. He walked into the girls’ bedroom, stepping carefully around scattered toys and half-folded laundry. The pillows were still faintly warm.

He lowered his snout and took a long deep breath, filling his lungs with their scent.

He stepped back into the lounge room and met Leo’s eyes.

“We’ll find them Leo. Whatever it takes,” he said.

“Let’s go to my place in Belmont, we can use it as a temporary HQ.” Amara said.

***

Kaito’s arrival at Amara’s estate was quiet, but not unremarkable. The cars that pulled up the curved driveway gleamed like obsidian under the Queensland sun. The man who stepped out looked just as polished: pressed shirt, keen eyes, and the weight of too many late nights hiding behind a cool, efficient smile.

Jules popped out of the car behind him.

“You’ve had this place the whole time?” she asked, glancing around at the manicured gardens and Art Deco windows.

Amara dropped her sunglasses down her nose “Obviously.”

“And you never thought to mention it?”

She smirked. “No one asked.”

Leo grunted from the hallway, where he had already set down a weapons crate.

The Americans entered just inside the foyer waiting. Darya wore cargo pants and a sleeveless vest. Her hair was longer now. Her face was taut with something that looked a lot like worry.

As he came around the corner and saw them Josh hesitated.

They didn’t.

Darya crossed the space between them and hugged him like someone who’d been scared to death. Josh’s tail twitched before he could stop it. Her arms were warm. Her voice, muffled against his neck, said simply, “I’m glad you’re back.”

Jules was next. Her big hug lasted a few seconds before she started groping his back muscles. "You've gotten stronger.”

“I have,” Josh said with a smile as he pulled back.

It was bittersweet and Josh wished he could have caught up with them properly.

Kaito was already inside the study, an oversized office decked out in antique bookshelves and holo-screens. Amara called it her “boredom bunker.” Today, it became their situation room.

Once they’d all gathered, Kaito flicked his wrist and brought a time-rippled gate map onto the screen.

“This,” he said, “is the temporal signature of the gate Leo’s daughters were taken through. We’ve confirmed it belongs to a category of Class-VII anomalous streams. Time moves drastically faster inside.”

“How fast are we talking?” Jules asked.

Kaito looked grim.

“For every month that passes here, approximately ten years will pass on the other side, confirming the action reports from Leo.”

The room fell silent.

Reiko leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “So the girls…”

Kaito nodded.

Josh’s stomach twisted.

Leo’s voice was quiet. “I told you. They’re tough.”

Kaito continued. “This kind of temporal distortion is catastrophic to the human body. Age, stress, mental resilience, all of it is pushed to extremes. Even if we found a way in, most of us wouldn’t last.”

Leo crossed his arms. “But I can.”

“Yes,” Kaito said. “Your physiology is resistant to chrono-friction. That makes you the best candidate for a long-term mission. You could survive… perhaps even thrive. But for anyone else to follow...”

“We’d need a stabilizing device,” Reiko finished, already reaching for the whiteboard.

Kaito’s eyes lit up. “Exactly.”

The two of them launched into a flurry of theory. Diagrams, sigil equations, mana vector models. Josh watched as Kaito and Reiko geeked out like they were solving a Rubik’s cube that could kill them. Somewhere between the seventh glyph and an argument over nano-threaded enchantments, Jules leaned over to Josh and muttered:

“They look like they’re on a first date.”

Josh huffed out a breath. “Why is it always Asian scientists? Why couldn’t it be a cocker spaniel?”

“I’m from Michigan.” Kaito said loudly, not taking his eyes off the holo display.

Reiko laughed at that.

Minutes later, Kaito clapped his hands. “We’ve got it. Crude, but functional. A one-person chrono-shield. It will insulate the wearer from the worst of the timestream.”

“How long will it last?” Darya asked.

Reiko gave her a look. “You don’t understand. Time passes differently in there. This isn’t a timer. It’s a lifeline.”

Kaito nodded. “The device has one core. Once activated, it will function for ten subjective years inside the portal. After that… whoever’s inside won’t be protected.”

“One person,” Jules said. “Ten years.”

Josh was quiet. His hand went to the back of his neck, claws scratching against fur.

“That’s a long time,” Darya said.

Kaito was gentle. “If you go, you’ll spend a decade in a hostile world. When you come back, only a month will have passed here. You’ll be changed. Everything else will have barely moved.”

Josh’s heart pounded. “I’m going.”

Leo gave him a solemn nod. “Thank you Josh.”

Josh looked around the room. At Jules. At Darya. At Reiko and Amara and Kaito. At the life he’d built, fragile and new.

And then he looked at the gate.

“Let’s do this.”

***

The chrono-shield was fitted to Josh’s spine like a harness made of glowing vines. The mana core throbbed gently, synced with his pulse. Leo was already suited up beside him. The man was taller, broader, impossibly steady.

Kaito made final adjustments to the portal ring, reactivating its fold point with a stabilized anchor.

Josh turned back to the group one last time.

Reiko gave him a thumbs-up.

He looked at Leo.

“Ready?” Leo asked.

Josh forced a smile. “I bet it takes two years, tops.”

And together, they stepped into the gate.

Light engulfed them and the world disappeared.