Pre-disaster

The day has mostly been fine for Xing Tian as she manages to apply what she has learned about her position. While she still has more to learn, she would try to do some work to alleviate her fellow employee's workload.

She wonders where Noelle is at first, until informs her about the woman's situation. Apparently the woman didn't get any sleep so he left her to sleep for the day. Of course, her pay will be cut even if she arrives later the day.

And indeed the woman did arrive later that day looking better than what she imagined. After Noelle greets her and informs her she will take over teaching Xing Tian, the girl begins following her seniors everywhere.

She makes notes in her mind as Noelle is currently teaching her how to look through a report of a crime scene. It is almost like normal office work except it requires more thorough analysis. Other than report reading, she would also be called to investigate a crime scene if needed; provided if a senior officer calls for her assistance.

"Now, we will move on to uploading the report into our cloud storage." The woman begins to explain how to do it while Xing Tian attentively listens. Each step is done methodically and carefully so that nothing is lost.

"Now you put this file under this sub-file and…" the woman trails off for a moment, which earns the attention of the junior officer. She quickly glances at where the bispectable woman's attention is at.

'Case file: Flora Gang's destruction.' She mentally reads before Noelle quickly calls her attention back.

"Sorry," Noelle apologizes to the girl. "I was distracted by a sudden thought. Let's continue for now." Xing Tian nods before continuing the lesson, holding back her bubbling question. She wonders why that case causes a distraction for the woman.

Regardless, both of them continue their day without any issues propping up out of nowhere. When lunch rolls around, Noelle has pretty much taught Xing Tian what she needs to know.

"Thank you for teaching me everything, Miss Noelle." The girl bows by nodding her neck respectfully to show her appreciation. The woman has done her best to help Xing Tian to understand her work in its entirety in a simple, compressed manner.

The woman smiles, happy by the simple gesture. "It is no problem Xing Tian. I've done this for three years after all so it is no problem for me." Teaching junior officers has always been something she truly enjoys. There are some who are hard to teach, but experience has helped her in those times.

"Hey girls," a familiar man greets the two girls by announcing his presence. Jace sits on Xing Tian's table casually which earns the ire of his sister. "Do you want to have lunch together across the street? Someone…" he glances at Noelle, who gives him a deadpan expression. "... slept in today and didn't make our lunch boxes."

"Shouldn't you be the one making it when I'm not available?" The woman tilts her head sideway, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "I remember I told you to make lunch when I'm down." She can see the man stunts for a moment and becomes sheepish. Oh now she knows what happened.

"Doesn't matter." The woman huffs, exasperation clearly seen in the way she acts. "We'll go across the streets for that food. It's been a while since we have it anyway." Xing Tian nods, eager to try something new.

Jace visibly sighs in relief before hopping off the table. "Let's go then, we're burning daylight right now." The three of them begin making their way out of the station with Jace and Xing Tian chatting up a storm. Noelle is simply content with being quiet and listening to their conversation.

There are times Noelle will speak to clarify a few things. Jace would recall a part of their past, only over dramatising it to enrapture the girl. Her clarification downplayed the fantasy behind those stories, but she secretly enjoys her brother becoming downtrodden by every clarification.

"Since you don't like me making it sound nice," the man grumbles as they cross the street, nearing the destination. "Why don't I tell her your 'addiction'?"

The woman whips her head to face him and Xing Tian worries she might snap her neck. "Don't you dare." Her eyes widen as she threatens her brother. "I will end you."

The man only grins wider at the reaction. "Go ahead, I am telling her anyway!" The woman quickly tries to cover up the man's mouth to stop him from talking, only for Jace to easily keep his distance away with his hand.

"Do you want to know about her addiction? It's cho-"

Xing Tian feels her ears are covered tightly as soon as he speaks. She is surprised that Noelle can completely cut off any sound with her hand, which causes her to be unable to hear anything.

Without sound, she can only see the expression of Jace who is disappointed. She cannot see Noelle, so she assumes the woman is at her back. Jace seems to say something, but she cannot hear it.

"I'm not being a control freak dummy!" She can hear Noelle's muffled voice through her hands. It seems Jace is bickering with his sister as the man suddenly becomes serious and talks more.

"Fine! I'll stop 'rewriting' your over dramatised story then." Just then her ears are free and she can hear sounds again. It is slightly disorienting but she easily recovers from it. She can tell the siblings are not in the best mood by their expressions.

She looks between them before hooking her arm with theirs, catching them by surprise. "Let's put down the hostility and eat guys!" She optimistically says and pulls them together towards a nearby restaurant. "Come on, I'm hungry and we don't have time to be angry."

Noelle stares at the girl for a moment before sighing, amused by the girl's attempt to break their hostility. Perhaps the girl is just that good at influencing others, and Noelle didn't mind this at all.

Just as they nearly approach the restaurant, Noelle's phone rings suddenly, interrupting their merry mood. The woman untangles herself and before picking up the phone to see who is calling her.

"Commander?" She mutters under her breath before accepting the call. "Commander, what is the occasion?" She asks Aquila while mentaly prepare for any emergency.

As Noelle listens to the phone, Xing Tian notices Jace has a serious demeanor. Curious by the change in atmosphere, she tugs Jace's sleeve in an attempt to get his attention. The man breaks out of his demeanor and turns to the girl. "Something you want to ask?"

"Is it something serious?" She asks worryingly, as there is something that seems to concern both of them. She did hear the commander call Noelle, so it could be something truly serious.

"Depends." The man simply replies and he leaves it at that. Just then, Noelle ends the call and gestures to both of them to follow her as she begins marching towards the police station.

"The commander is calling all of us to stop a new type of Glitch our space satellite just found." They enter the station, where a flood of people are moving about as they receive the same news. "But we did have a solid classification of the new Glitch type, which is a titan class."

Jace pauses for a moment, clear shock and fear plastered on his face. "We're dealing with a titan class? Are the international teams assisting us?" Xing Tian can see the level of danger a titan class glitch has, and couldn't help but feel worried.

"We will get assistance soon, but we are the only squad to hold back the glitch."

They continue to march before entering the briefing room, where the projector is showing a live feed of a large glitch.

The glitch looks like a mansion sized tortoise with its shell looking like a hive. The entry ways of the shell's hexagon are seen equipped with turrets. The head of the Glitch is a combination of a tortoise and dinosaur, making it look like a movie monster. On the forehead of the monster is the name, S̶̢̛̱̝̖̪̤̮̃̒̿̈́͌̈́͘͜p̵͍̫̘̭͑̕͜͜͝ą̷̧͎̬̖̩̭͈̙̒̎͊̃͠m̵̢̨̟̝̣̩̖͂̓̈͊̄͒͗́͝ͅ.

"As you can see, we are dealing with something requiring heavy firepower." Aquila begins as people listen. "We are deployed to hold it back for now with what we have. Now get moving to the field!"

Everyone in the room salutes and shouts "Yes, ma'am!" before quickly leaving the room for deployment.

This battle will not be easy for everyone.