Three Days Later – "The Suspended Quantum" Cafe – 2:30 PM
The small cafe in Sector 9 was different from anywhere else in the city. It wasn't the worn-out decor or the seriously mid coffee that made it special. It was the customers. All of them were Awakened. And they all knew the rules: no powers inside the building, no questions about the past, and no judging anyone.
Jas sat in a far corner, quietly observing the young man sitting alone at the opposite table. Kaiden Rios, seventeen years old, one of the first-generation Awakened. He'd been born two months after The Incident, so he'd never known a world without Impossible Physics. His file said he was a Causal Rift—a tachyon manipulator—but right now, Jas just saw a shy teenager who'd been staring into his cold coffee for the last twenty minutes.
"Are you just gonna keep staring at him, or are you actually gonna talk to him?" A deep voice from behind her broke her concentration.
Jas turned to see a tall man sliding into the adjacent chair without an invitation. Dr. Ibrahim Noor, her college classmate from twenty years ago, and now the most dangerous Vacuum Decay user on the continent.
"Ibrahim," she said, her tone neutral. "Didn't expect to see you here."
He gave a bitter laugh. "The only cafe in the city that doesn't kick our kind out? Where else would I go?" He ordered a coffee from the waitress, a young girl who was clearly trying to ignore the unsettling aura that clung to him.
"I heard about the Sam Carter incident," he continued. "Nice work. But you know that's just a bandage on a bullet wound."
Jas studied her old colleague's face. The tired eyes, the lines etched by constant anxiety, the slight tremor in his hands—the tell-tale signs of a chronic VD user. "What do you want, Ibrahim?"
"The same thing you want. To save what's left of this crumbling world." He took a sip of his coffee. "The difference is, I believe real salvation requires letting the old world die first."
Before Jas could respond, something strange happened. Kaiden, the quiet kid at the other table, blinked out of existence for a split second and reappeared, but the position of his coffee cup had changed. It had moved from the right of his hand to his left.
"Interesting," Ibrahim murmured. "The kid's using his tachyons subconsciously. Re-ordering minor events around himself."
Jas stood up. "I'm going to talk to him."
"Wait." Ibrahim gently grabbed her arm. "There's something you should know. The government is planning something. A project called 'Permanent Stability'."
Jas's eyes widened. "What do you know about it?"
"Enough to know they want to… eliminate the problem at its root. All of the Awakened." He let go of her arm. "Think about it. And if you change your mind about the right way to save the world, you know where to find me."
Ibrahim left the cafe, leaving behind a faint scent that smelled like absolute nothingness—a disturbing side effect of Vacuum Decay.
Jas took a deep breath and walked over to Kaiden's table. "Mind if I sit?"
The young man looked at her warily but nodded. Up close, Jas noticed his eyes had a strange, rapid flicker, as if he were seeing multiple events at once.
"You're Dr. Hawkins," he said quietly. "I saw you with Sam on the news."
"I am. And I can see you're dealing with similar challenges." She gestured to the cup, which had just blinked back to its original position without Kaiden touching it.
The kid blushed. "Sorry, I… I can't always control it. Especially when I'm nervous."
"No need to apologize. Tachyon manipulation is incredibly complex. Tell me, what do you see when you use it?"
Kaiden hesitated for a moment. "I see… possibilities. All the different ways things can happen in the next few seconds. And sometimes, I find myself just… picking the one that feels better."
"And that gives you headaches?"
"How did you know?"
Jas smiled. "Because you're processing faster-than-light information. The human brain wasn't evolved to handle that kind of data."
She pulled a small, earbud-like device from her bag. "This is a Causal Filter. It will help you organize the information your tachyon sense feeds you."
Kaiden eyed the device cautiously. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because I need your help, too." Jas's expression turned serious. "The world is in danger, Kaiden. And people like us, the Awakened, might be the only ones who can save it. But we need to work together."
Before he could answer, the cafe door flew open and someone who immediately commanded attention walked in. Alex Chen, twenty-nine, a former engineer and a Casimir Forge user. His average height, thick glasses, and rapid-fire, enthusiastic way of speaking made him seem more like a mad scientist than a super-powered individual.
"Dr. Hawkins! I finally found you!" he said loudly, ignoring the annoyed looks from the other patrons. "I ran the equations from your last paper, and I think I found a flaw in your…"
"Alex," Jas cut him off in a calm, firm voice. "Sit down first."
Alex sat down excitedly, pulling a tablet from his bag. "Look, if you apply modified string theory to the…"
"Alex," she interrupted again. "Remember what I told you about talking to other people?"
Alex paused and turned to Kaiden as if noticing him for the first time. "Oh. Sorry. Hi! I'm Alex Chen, vacuum energy engineer. You're the tachyon kid, right?"
Kaiden looked stunned by the casual omniscience. "How… yeah. How did you know?"
"The temporal distortion artifacts around you are pretty obvious to anyone who understands the physics!" Alex said enthusiastically. "I was wondering, have you ever tried applying your ability to…"
"Alex," Jas intervened before he could scare the kid off. "Maybe we start with simple introductions?"
Alex laughed nervously. "Sorry, I just get really excited to be around other Awakened. I'm usually alone in my lab."
"And what do you do in your lab?" Kaiden asked, starting to relax a little.
"Trying to solve the world's energy crisis! Imagine if we could safely harness zero-point energy. No more nuclear plants, no more fossil fuels. Just clean, infinite energy from the vacuum of space itself!"
Jas watched the interaction between the two young men carefully. Alex, the brilliant optimist, didn't seem to grasp the real dangers of what he was proposing. And Kaiden, the cautious introvert, needed someone who understood him without judgment.
"Alex," Jas said, "I know your intentions are good, but extracting vacuum energy on a massive scale could have unforeseen consequences."
"But the calculations show the effect would be minimal if…"
"The calculations don't account for the interaction with other powers," Jas cut in. "Every use of our abilities leaves a footprint on the cosmic fabric. The cumulative effects…"
She stopped abruptly when she noticed Kaiden had gone pale. His eyes were flickering faster, and the coffee cup began blinking in and out of existence rapidly.
"Kaiden? What is it?"
"I see something," the young man whispered. "Something bad. In two minutes and forty-seven seconds."
Jas and Alex exchanged a worried glance. "What do you see?"
"An explosion. In the building across the street. And people… people in black tactical gear are surrounding the cafe."
Suddenly, the lights in the cafe flickered and died. Through the windows, they could see black, unmarked vehicles pulling up on the street.
"Project: Permanent Stability," Jas whispered. "They found us."
Alex looked around in a panic. "What do we do?"
Jas stood slowly, calculating her options. Using her own power here would endanger everyone. But doing nothing meant the end of any hope to save the world.
"Kaiden," she said calmly. "Can you see a window of probability where we all get out of this safely?"
The young man closed his eyes, concentrating hard. "I see… maybe one. But it's complicated. We need perfect timing, and someone to create a distortion in their tech fields."
Alex understood immediately. "I can do that. A controlled burst of vacuum energy will scramble their sensors."
"Alright," Jas said. "But after this, you both need to come with me. You can't go back to your old lives."
Kaiden and Alex looked at each other, then nodded in agreement.
Outside the cafe, the sound of heavy boots grew closer. Jas knew this was just the beginning. The government wouldn't stop here, and Ibrahim was right—time was running out.
But for the first time in months, Jas felt a glimmer of hope. She now had two of the most powerful young Awakened on her side. And if she could just find the others…
"Get ready," she whispered. "We're leaving. Now."
At that moment, the front door of the cafe exploded inward, and a squad of soldiers in heavy armor stormed in with futuristic-looking weapons. But they found only empty tables and cold cups of coffee.
Because Kaiden, in a moment of perfect focus, had shifted the small group three seconds into their own past—just moments before the soldiers arrived—giving them the window they needed to slip out the back door.
As they ran through the dark alleyways, Jas knew the real game had just begun.