A Normal Day

---5:30---

Ringing. All he could hear was ringing. Shiro rolled over in his bed to turn off the alarm that was currently disturbing his well needed rest. Shiro checked the clock. It was 5:30 AM. He kicked himself for setting the alarm to such an early time. He groggily sat up in bed. "Why the hell did I set it so early?" he asked himself.

Just then He remembered the night before when he was told by Cereal that they had an important meeting early in the morning. Shiro quickly got dressed and headed over to Mary's diner. When he was about to enter, he noticed the closed sign, but paid no heed to it. They commonly held meetings there and he assumed that they had reserved the diner for that reason. As he entered, he surveyed the room. There was nobody there, the kitchen behind the counter wasn't set up, and he was hearing a constant creaking sound coming from the second floor. Shiro started towards the stairs to check out what was going on when it stopped. He stood at the bottom of the flight of stairs for a moment, and then right as he was about to walk up the stairs Mary popped out at the top, covering herself with a blanket. "S-Shiro! Hi! I w-wasn't expecting you to b-be here so early," she stammered.

"Yeah, I didn't want to, but Cereal said that there was going to be an important meeting early in the morning," Shiro replied. "So, where is everybody? I thought they would already be here."

"No... it's uh... It's just me!" Mary replied, obviously covering something up.

"So where's Gabriel?" Shiro inquired. "I know he sometimes stays overnight here."

"Oh? Um, he went out yesterday to do something. Something time god related probably."

Just then Shiro heard Gabriel's voice coming from the bedroom upstairs, "Mary, who's there? What kind of idiot is up this early?"

Mary sat there in shame, looking down like a child who just got caught taking from the cookie jar without permission. "It's Shiro..." she responded, still looking down.

Gabriel stepped out at the top of the stairs. He was wearing only a pair of boxer briefs and looked as though he hadn't gotten much sleep the prior night. "Shiro! How's it going! What brings you here so early?" he said cheerfully as he walked down the stairs, contrasting his tired appearance.

Shiro covered his eyes flustered and quickly yelled, "Go back upstairs and get some clothes on you idiots!"

---6:00---

As Shiro and Gabriel were sitting down waiting for Mary to get ready, Shiro asked, "Do you have any idea what the meeting is about?"

Gabriel stared at him for a second, like he didn't know what to say, then came to a realization. "Oh, the meeting. No, Cereal was a bit vague with me too. It's annoying when he does that." he answered.

Just then, Mary came down, fully nude. Both of them sat there shocked for a second, then reacted appropriately. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Gabriel yelled.

"I always serve the customers breakfast in my morning attire," Mary responded, looking like everything made sense to her and they were the crazy ones.

"And that means that you wear your morning CLOTHES! Not what you were wearing in the morning!" Gabriel snapped.

He quickly took her back upstairs to get her dressed. "Sorry 'bout that. She is a bit of an airhead when she doesn't get enough sleep." Gabriel said as he returned.

"No, it's fine," Shiro replied, "It wasn't too bad. In fact, I wouldn't mind it happening again!"

---6:15---

When Mary was finally dressed and ready to serve customers, she went over to the table where Shiro and Gabriel were at. "What would you guys like to eat?" she asked.

"The usual," Gabriel replied.

"I guess I'll have what he's having," Shiro answered.

"You sure? You got any idea what I'm ordering in the slightest?"

"No, but I'm not really sure what I want right now."

"How about some eggs and toast?"

"Sure, that sounds good."

Mary went back into the kitchen to prepare their meals, and the two of them began to talk. "So, when is the meeting supposed to be?" Shiro asked Gabriel.

"I don't know that either," Gabriel responded, "Cereal was pretty vague about the whole thing. He just said that we had an important meeting early in the morning, that's it. He didn't really specify where it was, when it is, or what it's about."

"Wait, did you just say where?" Shiro said, panicking, "Is the meeting supposed to be here or not?"

"I'm not really sure, but I don't think it is. If it was, then Cereal would've requested to reserve the diner for today."

"Crap! I gotta ask!"

Shiro pulled out his phone to text Cereal when Gabriel caught his attention and asked "Why not ask if we can hold the meeting here? I mean both of us are already here, Mary hasn't opened up yet, and I don't think the meeting is going to start for a bit."

"Kay..." Shiro realized that that last statement made his efforts of getting up early were futile, and he could've slept in. "Sure I'll ask."

He texted the group chat to see if they could hold it here. The second after they got confirmation that they could, they heard the ring of somebody entering the diner. "Did Mary just open up?" Shrio asked.

"No, I doubt it," Gabriel answered, "I'll go check who it is. If it's one of the regulars, then I can probably convince them to leave. In the meantime, go tell Mary to reserve the diner for us."

"Okay," Shiro replied. He felt like they should just hold the meeting somewhere else, because it wasn't planned on being here in the first place.

He got up and walked to the kitchen, where Mary was preparing breakfast. He noticed that she was preparing a rather large meal, he couldn't help but wonder to himself who was going to eat all that. "Hey could you reserve the diner for us this morning?" Shrio requested.

"Sure, why?"

"We decided on holding today's meeting here."

"Yeah, I could do that."

"Thanks, that helps us out a lot."

As he walked back to their table, he couldn't help but think about how nice Mary was. She always was considerate of the people around her, trying to help wherever she could. He just didn't understand why Cereal had such an irrational fear of her. Cereal went to great lengths to distance himself from her, to the point of it getting annoying.

As he sat down, Gabriel returned with a familiar face. "Turns out the person who walked in was Kana!"

As the two of them sat down, Gabriel turned to Kana and asked, "So, How long were you sitting there waiting?"

"A bit," Kana replied.

So how long would 'a bit' be shorty?" Gabriel inquired.

"Shut up, I'll kill you," Kana retorted.

"Oh! Your temper matches your height!" Gabriel mocked.

She pulled out her handgun and let three shots off right in his face. Mary rushed into the room and yelled, "Hey! No shooting each other in my diner, somebody might get hurt!"

Gabriel then calmly said behind the veil of smoke, "Don't worry I can take care of this."

As the smoke from the gun cleared it revealed that the bullets were yet to meet their mark. They were suspended in the air, as if they were being held there by some invisible force. Gabriel slowly picked the three bullets out of the air and opened the window. He placed each of them outside, and then they shot off continuing on their previous course.

"You still can't hit me," Gabriel said with a taunting grin on his face.

"Maybe I just need to try again!" Kana yelled angrily.

"Guys! Guys! Stop!" Shiro interjected, "Kana just tell us how long you were there!"

She turned towards Shiro, her attitude taking a complete 180 turn. "I was sitting there since you entered!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Shiro let out an exhausted sigh. He proceeded to get up, walk over to her, and lecture her for the next fifteen minutes.

---6:30---

"Also, why in the WORLD would you hack into the street cameras just to see where I am! That's extra creepy! Doing that could get you in serious tro-" Shiro was then interrupted mid rant by the sound of somebody opening the diner door.

Gabriel quickly said, "I'll go check who it is."

He got up and walked out of the back room, obviously trying to get out of the awkward situation that he was stuck in. As he left, Shiro looked back at Kana, who was trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible. Shiro noticed how she was acting and decided to calm his tone of voice. "Seriously, there are some lines you just shouldn't cross," Shiro said.

"Do you hate me?" Kana asked.

"No," Shiro answered, "but if you keep doing this kind of thing, you're going to end up making me want to avoid you as much as possible, and you don't want that do you?"

"No, I don't..."

"Ya know, you have a kinda cute side when you're being told off."

"W-wait what?" You really think that?" Kana replied, looking very flustered by the unexpected complement.

Before he could answer, Gabriel burst into the room with a grin on his face and his arm around the shoulder of Corby. "Look who decided to show up! Corbs!" He exclaimed.

"I told you, please don't call me that," Corby responded.

Gabriel then looked at him and repeated over and over, "Corbs, Corbs, Corbs, Corbs, Corbs, Corbs."

Corby looked like he was holding in his anger, getting closer to snapping for each word Gabriel spoke, until he finally had enough. "Alright that's enough! Shut up!" Corby yelled.

For a few seconds Gabriel looked surprised by the outburst, but then grinned again as if he were preparing another onslaught. Before he could continue his chant, Mary popped into the room. "Hey Corby, could you help me out in the kitchen?"

"Yeah... Sure..." he said, his eyes slowly drifting downwards.

"Yo Corbs, her eyes aren't down there," Gabriel scolded.

Corby shot him an angry glance, and then followed her into the kitchen.

---7:00---

After waiting and having some idle conversation to pass the time, Mary and Corby returned with their breakfast. Corby was pushing a rather large cart full of food. "Wait who ordered all that?" Shiro asked.

"I guess you've never seen how much I eat for breakfast," Gabriel replied.

"Should I be concerned? I think I should be concerned."

"No need to worry. This is normal, as I have a higher metabolism than most people, because I am a time god."

"At least I didn't choose to eat the same thing you were having."

"Yeah, that would've been an interesting thing to try and sort out."

They all laughed at the thought and began to eat. Had just started to dig in when he noticed that Gabriel was already finished.

Shiro was astonished at the speed in which Gabriel ate. "You ate all that in such a short amount of time!?"

Gabriel let out a loud belch. "Yeah, and now I'm gonna go see where Cereal is."

Shiro was also curious about what was taking him so long. "Wait, could I come with you?"

"You still have to eat your breakfast," Gabriel responded, pointing down at Shiro's nearly untouched plate.

Shiro began shoveling it down at lightning speed while simultaneously keeping eye contact.

Gabriel was surprised by Shiro's speed, "O-okay then, I guess if you really want to find him that badly."

Shiro knew that cereal was never late to a meeting, so something could have been seriously wrong if he showed up late. He got up and began to head to the door when he was stopped by Mary. "You forgetting something?" she said as she pointed over her shoulder at Gabriel, who was cleaning up his dishes.

"Oh, sorry."

---7:15---

As they began to head out, Shiro stopped. "Hey, could we wait a minute?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, sure. Why though?" Gabriel replied.

Shiro pointed to his phone, which he had just gotten out. "I want to call him and see if he'll tell us where he is."

"Hm, that seems like a good idea."

Shiro began dialing Cereal's number. As he finished he waited for Cereal to pick up. There was no answer. He tried once more with no luck the second time. "I can't seem to get a hold of him," Shiro said.

"How about we just try checking the places that he commonly goes?" Gabriel responded.

The first thing they checked the plaza across town. It was the farthest place away from Mary, so Cereal would commonly hide out there. As they looked around, they came to the conclusion that he wasn't there. Next they checked the cereal aisle of some of the local stores. He would have to go restock on cereal every once in a while so that seemed like a logical place to check, but they didn't find him there either.

---7:45---

After no luck during their last half hour of searching they finally went and checked his apartment. They tried to open the door but there was a comically large spoon propped up against the door. "Damn him and his cereal themed character..." Shiro mumbled.

He took a step back and yelled, "Yo Cereal! You in there?"

They waited for a second for a reply, but no answer came. Gabriel noticed that Shiro looked a little down after his failed attempt to find Cereal. "Well, it was worth a shot. Come on, we still have a few more places we can check." Gabriel said, in an attempt to reassure Shiro.

"Check for what?" said a familiar voice.

"Cereal!" Shiro and Gabriel said in unison.

"Where were you? We couldn't find you anywhere we looked!" Gabriel asked.

"I was checking out the target for our final strike," Cereal explained, "C'mon, let's go back to Mary's diner. We have a meeting to hold."

"Wait, final strike?" Shiro said.

As they started to walk back, Cereal explained what was going on to them. "Yep! After four months of hard work, tedious missions, and difficult planning, we finally will be putting an end to the gang that has been giving this city all the trouble it could possibly muster, or at least after Corby fills out the paperwork for the strike.

"Wow," Gabriel exclaimed, "It really was over fast. I'm surprised that you guys have come this far. It feels like it was just yesterday that you were just a couple of people who were sick of the tyranny of that damned gang. Now you have the backing of the local government and a specialized strike force. You really have come far."

Shiro looked over at Gabriel. "Well it helps to have a literal deity on your team."

"Yeah, for all the trouble you caused, you did come in handy a lot of the time," Cereal claimed.

"Aw thanks guys, you really are the best," Gabriel said, looking a little bit flustered from the complements.

"So, where's the strike and how's the strike going to go down?" Shiro asked. He wasn't really sure at that point where the gang's HQ was at so he was curious.

"Well their hideout is on the west side of the city and you and kana will be taking the front ent-" Cereal was cut off by Gabriel, who motioned them to be quiet.

They all crouched down. Shiro whispered to Gabriel, "What is it? Why are we stopping?"

"Something seems off over there," Gabriel whispered back, pointing into the alley they were passing by. There was a frightening aura coming from the path that split off inside the alley.

"Could it be a trap set by the gang?" Cereal inquired.

"No, it feels like there is something that doesn't belong in this time stream over there."

"Even so, I'll go check it out just to be sure," Cereal said.

Cereal then got up and went into the alley. "Wait! It could be dangerous!" Gabriel called out, but it was too late, he had already vanished around the corner of the inner alley.

"Damn it why doesn't he listen to me," Gabriel muttered.

Gabriel got up and rushed in after Cereal. Just before they rounded the corner, they heard the sound of a bowl clattering to the ground. As they came to the entrance of the sub alley, they looked around. They saw a dead end formed by a construction sight, a broken bowl on the ground, and no Cereal. Shiro crouched down and picked up the bowl. He turned it around and to his horror it was Cereal's bowl. He jumped back out of shock kicking the bowl away out of fright. It skidded across the alley and then hit the wall at the end of it.

Meanwhile Gabriel was kneeling down, inspecting the area around where Cereal's bowl head was. "It looks like he aged at a rapid pace," Gabriel said, outlining a faint discolored area where a slight bit of decomposed body was.

"You mean to say that he died of old age?" Shiro replied, still shocked by finding the dead remains of his friend.

Gabriel got up and dusted himself off, a grimace plastered to his face. "Yeah. He would have never seen it coming to."

Gabriel then pointed to the glowing green orb that was beginning to form at the end of the alley. "It's called a Tachyon Rift. It displaces the time around it randomly. Very dangerous. If left unchecked it could destroy an entire timeline. I can probably fix it, but it'll take a lot out of me."

Just then, the orb began to burst with crackling green energy.

"Quick get back Shiro!"

Gabriel lunged forward, tackling Shiro to the ground, the bolt of energy hitting Gabriel in the back. Gabriel yelled out in pain and then collapsed.

"Gabriel!" Shiro screamed.

"Don't worry," Gabriel said, his voice strained, "I'll take care of this."

He slowly struggled to rise. He started to walk towards the rift. "Now then, before I would have been able to seal it easily, but it got stronger and I got weaker, so now I can't."

"What, are you saying?" Shiro said, worried about Gabriel's next move.

"So, I'll have to seal myself along with it."

He put his hands up as if he were going to push the rift away. "Since you'll be the only survivor, I want you to relay a message for me."

"What are you saying?" Shiro said, even though he knew full well what was about to happen.

"Tell Mary I love her," Gabriel said.

"Wait! No! Don't!" Shiro yelled out, but his pleas never reached Gabriel.

After saying his final words he then vanished along with the rift. It was all over in an instant. Shiro fell to his knees, broken. He had just lost two of his closest allies, his closest friends, in such a short amount of time. He sat there, his eyes empty and his heart broken. Suddenly the orb appeared again, raging with a fierce energy that it didn't have before. Shiro let out a quite "no..."

His friends; deaths were futile. They went out being unable to stop or contribute to stopping the problem. As the rift ravaged the alley with destructive arcs of green energy, he sat still staring at it. One of the energy arcs blasted the unfinished building in front of him, dislodging one of the beams in the structure. The structure gave out and one of the beams began to slide towards him.

It began to pick up speed and came rocketing straight at him. It smashed into the ground, crushing and killing Shiro instantly.