The warmth of the evening was perfect. The three of them—Nate, Madison, and Alice—sat together on the couch, plates in hand as they ate, laughed, and casually watched a movie. The dim glow of the television flickered across their faces, a contrast to the soft ambiance of the living room.
Nate leaned back, stretching his arms across the back of the couch. "Man, this is nice," he said with a satisfied sigh. "Good food, good company, and a movie. What else could I ask for?"
Madison smirked, tossing a piece of popcorn at him. "I don't know… maybe to not be a cocky ass for once?"
Alice chuckled, shaking her head. "I think it's impossible for him to do that."
Nate shrugged, grinning. "Hey, I had a long day. Took Sera and Cleo out, gave them a proper tour of the world outside. And now, I get to chill with you two. My day's complete."
The movie played on, and they continued to talk, occasionally teasing each other about random things. It was one of those rare peaceful monts, where nothing else mattered except the present. No battles. No past haunting them. Just a simple evening with the people he cared about.
And then—
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
All three of their phones vibrated at the sa ti.
Madison frowned, picking hers up first. "Huh?"
Nate lazily grabbed his and glanced at the screen. The ssage was from Jack.
"Get to the lab. Now. Urgent."
Nate groaned loudly, slapping his face with his palm. "Are you kidding ?"
Alice sighed, already knowing what was coming next. "Well, there goes the relaxing night."
Madison rolled her eyes. "What's so urgent that it couldn't wait until morning?"
Nate sat up, rubbing his temples. "Judging by Jack's tone, it's definitely important."
Madison glanced between him and Alice before exhaling. "Fine. Let's go."
Without another word, she grabbed both of their hands.
In a blink—
The world shifted.
A rush of energy surged through them as the space around them distorted. The warm living room disappeared, replaced by the cool, sterile atmosphere of Jack and Ray's lab.
The mont they landed, the first thing Nate noticed was the intensity of the scene.
Jack was bent over a computer, typing furiously, while Ray stood nearby, arms crossed, staring at a massive whiteboard filled with complex equations. The numbers, symbols, and patterns stretched across the surface like an unsolvable puzzle.
Madison and Alice exchanged confused glances.
Nate, however, understood the math imdiately. His eyes narrowed as he stepped forward.
"…Jack, why the hell are you working on—" he paused, scanning the board.
The equations… they weren't just complex. They were insane.
So of them resembled theories about sending signals across vast distances—even through ti and space. Others looked like calculations related to quantum entanglent.
But there was one section that caught Nate's attention imdiately—a formula theorizing about a potential future communication system.
Jack never worked on anything theoretical.
So why this?
Jack's head snapped up at Nate's voice, his eyes lighting up with urgency. "Nate! You have to see this."
Ray, Madison, and Alice followed as they all gathered around a computer screen, which displayed a fluctuating graph filled with strange, vibrating waveforms.
Lines pulsed erratically across the screen, as if reacting to sothing unseen.
Nate's stomach dropped.
"What are we looking at here?" he asked cautiously.
Jack took a deep breath. "I've been studying the crystal ever since we got back—just checking for irregularities. For months, there was nothing. No changes, no energy spikes, no signals. It was just… dormant."
Nate nodded, following along. "And then?"
Jack's expression darkened. "Earlier today, that changed."
He pointed at the fluctuating graph on the screen.
"The crystal started reacting—but not to anything on Earth."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Alice's brows furrowed. "Then… what is it reacting to?"
Jack exhaled, shaking his head. "That's the thing. The frequency is nothing we've seen before. It doesn't match any radio signals, satellites, or known transmissions. But it's consistent—like it's responding to sothing that's trying to reach it."
Madison leaned in, eyes narrowing. "Wait… are you saying—"
Nate's expression suddenly twisted.
At first, confusion.
Then—pure shock.
Alice noticed imdiately. "Nate? What's wrong?"
He didn't answer.
Instead—without warning—he raised his hand and slamd his fist down on the crystal resting on the table.
BOOM.
A loud crack echoed through the lab as the crystal rattled—but didn't break.
Everyone staggered back in alarm.
"NATE?!" Jack shouted.
Ray's eyes widened. "What the hell was that?!"
Madison grabbed Nate's arm. "Why did you do that?!"
Nate's breathing was heavy.
His fist trembled against the unbroken crystal.
Everyone was staring at him, their faces filled with shock and confusion.
But he couldn't answer them—not yet.
Because what he had just realized…
Was sothing that could change everything.
---
The atmosphere in the lab was tense, the air thick with unspoken fears. The soft hum of machinery was the only thing filling the silence after Nate's sudden outburst. His fist was still clenched, his mind racing as he processed what he had just realized.
Then, without hesitation, he turned to Jack.
"Jack… what is Falkner's Law?"
Jack's eyes widened slightly at the ntion of the na. He stared at Nate for a brief mont before blinking rapidly and reciting the law from mory:
"A signal transmitted across temporal frequencies will always seek out its original source before adjusting to a new constant. Once aligned, the frequency becos an anchor, allowing information to travel through ti and space without physical displacent."
As Jack spoke, his own expression slowly shifted from recollection to horror.
Nate's eyes sharpened as he jabbed a finger at the pulsing frequency on the screen.
"This isn't just a reaction," Nate said. His voice was controlled but urgent. "It's not just picking up signals from sowhere else."
His hand clenched into a fist.
"This thing is trying to send our location."
A cold realization crashed over the room.
Ray inhaled sharply. Madison and Alice stiffened. Jack's fingers twitched over the keyboard.
If what Nate was saying was true…
Then Zoro had planned this from the very beginning.
The crystal—the sa one that had brought them back to Earth—had never been a mistake.
It had been a bait.
A thod for Zoro to track them without ever leaving his throne.
Jack's throat felt dry as he whispered, "Oh, shit."
Alice, still trying to grasp the weight of this revelation, suddenly asked, "Wait—if Zoro had the crystal all along, then why didn't he just use it to co here himself?"
Nate exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Because there are trillions—uncountable numbers—of frequencies in the universe. It's impossible to know which one belongs to Earth." He gestured toward Jack. "Jack managed to isolate Earth's frequency before we used the crystal, which made our return possible."
Madison crossed her arms, frowning. "So what? Zoro had Claire on his side. Couldn't she have done it for him?"
Nate shook his head. "Apart from Jack and , I'm confident no one else could've pulled it off."
Jack nodded in agreent. "Not Claire. The calculations were beyond anything she's capable of."
Alice narrowed her eyes. "So… if we're right, then the crystal is actively trying to send our location. aning—"
"If it successfully delivers the ssage to Zoro on that island—" Nate's expression hardened.
"—then it's ga over for us."
A deadly silence followed his words.
Madison's fingers curled into a fist. Alice looked tense, while Ray remained quiet, calculating the situation in his head.
Jack turned back to the crystal, his mind running through every possible solution. Then, reluctantly, he sighed and said, "The problem is… we can't destroy the crystal."
Madison's head snapped toward him. "Wait, what?"
Jack rubbed his face, exasperated. "That thing is indestructible. Even if we throw it into the deepest part of the ocean, it will still transmit."
Nate was already flipping through Jack's research notes, scanning every single discovery Jack had made about the crystal. Lines of equations, patterns, energy readings—all of it. His fingers moved quickly, eyes darting across the data.
Then—
He stopped.
"…That's it."
Jack blinked. "What?"
Nate turned to him, his gaze sharp.
"Freeze it."
Jack furrowed his brows. "Excuse ?"
"Freeze the crystal. That way, it won't be able to transmit anything."
Jack stared at him like he had lost his mind. "Nate, what makes you think ice will stop sothing that's indestructible?"
Madison, Alice, and Ray just stood there, completely lost. None of this made any sense to them.
But Nate was already pacing, thinking fast. "The crystal itself is indestructible, yeah. But it's still a conduit."
Jack's frown deepened. "Go on."
Nate pointed at the graph still displayed on the screen. "Based on your research, the crystal operates by shifting its atomic structure at a subatomic level, right?"
Jack nodded slowly. "Right."
Nate snapped his fingers. "Which ans it still follows basic energy principles."
Jack's eyes widened slightly. He was beginning to catch on.
Nate continued, his tone quick and precise. "Look at the particle reaction rates in your previous tests. The higher the energy input, the more active the crystal becos."
He turned back to the group, explaining further.
"The crystal doesn't generate energy—it absorbs and converts it into a transmission signal. That's why it remained dormant until now. Sothing—soone—has started pinging it, feeding it energy so it can start transmitting."
Alice's brows furrowed. "Okay… and what does freezing it do?"
Nate tapped the screen, pointing at the molecular energy readings.
"If we expose it to extre cold, we can slow down its molecular vibrations enough to force it into a dormant state again."
Jack blinked. "You an like absolute zero?"
"Exactly."
Jack's jaw slightly dropped. He quickly turned back to the whiteboard, staring at his own equations as if he had just realized sothing massive.
Nate kept going. "Think about it—if heat and energy increase the transmission, then freezing it should do the opposite. It won't destroy the crystal, but it will stop it from being able to actively transmit anything."
Jack rubbed his chin, considering the possibility.
"It's not permanent…" Jack muttered, still thinking.
"No," Nate agreed. "But it buys us ti."
Jack turned toward Alice.
"…You think you can do it?"
Alice, who had been silent the entire ti, slowly looked at the crystal.
Her ice powers were imnse. But if what Nate was saying was true, this would require her deepest level of control.
She swallowed hard.
"…I can try."
Ray finally spoke up, rubbing the back of his neck. "So… while you two were talking about God-knows-what, I'm just gonna assu this ans we actually have a plan now?"
Madison and Alice both nodded.
Jack took a deep breath, processing everything.
Then, finally, he grinned.
"…Nate, you might be a genius after all."
Nate smirked. "Took you long enough to admit it."
Jack rolled his eyes before turning toward Alice.
"Alright, Ice Queen. Let's see if we can put your powers to real use."
Alice cracked her knuckles.
"Step back. I've got this."
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