Melodies of Youth

Engineer Ye contacted Goo Joon, telling him:

- Chief Hae, it seems we have everything...wait, but what the...

The touch screens and indicators on the consoles turned red, filling the room with notifications, beeps, and error boxes that prevented other operators from being able to operate them normally:

- What does this mean? It was supposed to hibernate... -Goo Joon said

The director and her sister heard him speak, while they saw how the portal's pulsations became irregular, and the screens over the consoles glowed red:

- Tell us what's happening, do it now! – Raon ordered

- Don't know. This error shouldn't be possible. When those...those things forced entry, they may have created instability in the quantum tunnel, but I would need more data, so to be sure of...

- Moron! – the director shouted, as S-1 advanced and lifted him by the neck – I told you I wouldn't accept mistakes! If anything else goes wrong, I'll make you pay dearly.

He did not finish speaking, when luminous arcs of blue-white electric plasma hit the entire chamber, breaking the window of the observation room, getting the experts to take cover while the Awoken Ones held their positions and several on the staff were hit and thrown, dying instantly. Nothing stopped the vortex from beginning to open into fine peaks for a short interval, which was accompanied by Elijah Wood suffering new convulsions and Soo Young being thrown off the platform by the entity inside him, leaving her unconscious; no one noticed his shackles cracking. The rotating rings came to an abrupt stop, remaining in different and incorrect positions, throwing sparks everywhere in an attempt to move again, but it was useless, the machine continued its process, and suddenly the portal opened at its maximum, becoming transparent once again.

The sparks stopped, and all those present got back to their positions.

Everyone looked on in fear and amazement, perplexed by the new idiosyncrasies the machine had acquired before their very eyes, but the place shown was quite different from before, and that was a relief for all, Raon, S-1, Goo-Joon, Ah Ra and the 4 remaining guards, but especially for Mari herself. Before them stretched the image of an empty field on a sunny morning, strewn with garbage and remains of both concrete and steel, half swallowed by grass, nothing unusual except for what, Gong Wu noticed, was an enormous black canvas banner with some characters written on it:

- Is it me, or that's Hanja? – the spy said – Cans, covers, boxes… everything is written in Hanja…

- This is the world where Ma-ri came from, isn't it? – Ah Ra asked.

- Let's find out – said Raon,

She activated the speaker again:

– Hey, Kang Ma-ri…

The aforementioned turned around and looked at Raon, fearful of what she would say next:

- Think your work is done? Go up and tell us if what you see is your world. In fact, I you go in and take a closer look at the tarp lying right there.

She felt a chill run down her spine, still touched by the horrifying experience of a couple minutes ago, and still bearing the fresh scratches on her legs.

- No, no, I can't, I don't trust you, I won't - he responded shaking his head, looking around.

- Allow me to disagree – said Raon.

The guard who handcuffed her hesitated, but following the procedure, he stuck the barrel of his gun against the actress's back and propped her up a couple of times, but she refused to move so he fired a warning shot right next to her with his pistol. Mari looked at him pale and incredulous, but he just looked away from her:

- Orders are orders...and you already have yours. Go to the portal. You should, for your own good…

- Good. I will.

- I'm really sorry about this, young lady... - the man mumbled.

With no other options, the actress climbed the steps again, followed closely by the guard, who had his gun raised while the other 3 took the side steps to prevent her from fleeing; she looked back and then reached the portal's. The sergeant took off his communicator and put it on her suddenly:

- Now you can report if...anything weird happens.

Seeing that, Raon just snorted in amusement as her bodyguards climbed onto the platform and stood behind Mari, Seo Jin motioning with his head for her to continue; with legs trembling, and after hesitating for several seconds, she crouched under one of the tilted rings. S-1 saw how the actress made contact on the vortex with one hand, and how the girl was absorbed inside it by an invisible pull, ending up at the other side, unharmed, which for the director was already an overwhelming success:

- Now, let's wait - said the twin.

The actress fell onto the ground, rolling a couple times and becoming covered in dust and grime on the broken tile floor just besides; she stood up looking grown grass between the ceramic's joints, and gazing up she was forced to close her eyes and cover herself from the light with both hands. She hadn't seen the sun for a while, and it took her a couple minutes to adjust to its shine amidst a beautiful blue sky, walking around the place as she adapted, starting to smile, breathing deeply, touching a piece of concrete with her hand, wanting to believe for a while she had returned home. It was so much like her world, the outskirts of any Korean city she knew, that it wasn't difficult for her to intentionally fall into this fantasy; but as she explored more and more, feeling the ground and the grass under her feet, the moment would come, painful for her heart, to finally see the truth:

- Hey you... - Raon's voice said - Stop playing and go to that banner, right of where you just fell...

Mari looked back at the place she was avoiding, and there it was again; a spherical, trembling mirage, the same size as the vortex she passed through but inside which nothing was visible, only what laid beyond that same place, a clearing, then a pine forest, and a dirt road in-between. She retraced her steps, and searching for a few seconds in that dirty field, she saw the tarp lying in front of her and approached to inspect; she tried to lift it up to better read what it said, however some ropes crossed between the fixing holes made it take her a while to unfold the enormous banner little by little, and going halfway through:

- Okay, Mari – said S-1 – I have a clear view of the object. Hold your position.

She looked from a corner, able to confirm it was an advertisement, and when the twin and the actress read what it said, both were able to understand it, meaning that at least it was in Korean, despite the characters and syllables not being common to find in the Koreas from which they came. What Gong Wu said was indeed true, everything was written in Hanja, but what Mari read, still, was much less familiar to her than the writing itself, since at least this was still taught in the schools of her world; what that statement said, however, she had never heard of in her entire career.

Her thought was interrupted by the static in her comms, which came to life with Raon's voice:

- And well? What does it say there? Something familiar?

- This is not my world - she responded, sad - The poster talks about a girlband's debut.

- If that's not where you came from, better get back, or you could get trapped - S-1 stated.

- Bags and cans on the floor, there's nothing written in Hangul anywhere, it's strange.

- Stop wasting time and come here at once – said Raon.

- Poster says the debut was in 2019, but I never heard of them. Their names...it can't be true.

- So what? What is this about? I care nothing about it! – the director replied, irritated.

- This band had 5 girls, listen. It says… Haesoon… Jiejiang… Mai… Minami… and… Raon…

- Wait, what did you say? Mari, do you copy? – asked S-1.

Mari then decided to raise the entire canvas, and there they could see the five aforementioned singers in all their splendor, doing the initial pose of some choreography on a Halloween-themed background, from an MV for sure; above all was the name of the girlband, which read "M@NY€0". On the other side, the operators and guards through the portal were beginning to feel a little embarrassed, while the experts were amazed by the fact that not only did they have access to the multiverse, but that it presented possibilities none would have ever imagined for their absurdity. Raon was left expressionless as she saw her own face smiling so stupidly, wearing a ridiculous outfit and an in-ear microphone set decorated with plastic-made candy motifs; S-1 smiled, remembering what her sister had told her about the dialogue she had with Mari while inside the latter's mind.

At that moment the director had felt nervous just recounting the part where Mari had dared to tell her that, perhaps, she should've become a singer. And as it seemed, somewhere in the vast infinity of worlds, such a thing had actually happened, much to the hushed laughter of everyone present.

- That'll be all – Raon interrupted – Coordinates will be recorded, now come back.

The actress saw herself making a decision, as either she could try her luck by fleeing to this world, and abandon her colleagues with Raon, or return and hope the latter would actually keep her word of bringing them home; she stood motionless, looking up at the sky, and back towards the portal. On the other side, the guards pointed their weapons at her as soon as they saw her not returning, and the director, impatient, watched her from the distance; but the actress realized she really had no choice, for if she ran away right now, they would hunt her down and catch her immediatly. Whether it was the guards, the super-powered escorts, or whoever, they would come and confine her again inside that moldy barracks without being able to leave, perhaps forever this time; she gritted her teeth, holding back a tear as she closed her eyes and felt the sunlight one more time.

She sighed deeply and turned back to the portal; with her augmented vision, meanwhile, S-1 was startled when observing a pair of people appearing from the distant line of trees covering buildings crowned by holograms, approaching at full speed, female faces quite familiar thirsting for death:

- Hurry up, we must close the portal now - the twin said in a hurry.

- Those two again…? What an ending. – said Raon to herself.

At those words, Gong Wu, Goo Joon and Ah Ra also looked through the portal, while the experts could not understand what was happening; looking at the ones approaching full speed to the actress, everything became much clearer for them, and there were no longer any doubts:

- But what... aren't they...? - Ah Ra muttered.

- Director - engineer Ye said - an error occurred in the closing mechanism, it's not responding.

- Solve it right now!

While the operators got on to it, Mari was about to touch the threshold when a grumbling voice caught her attention before touching the vortex. A girl her same age, with a round face and black short hair. She was chewing, and from afar her breath smelled of tobacco:

- But just look who we come to meet Woobin, are you as excited as I am?

The girl she was talking had a thinner build, an oval face and very slanted eyes, whose malicious grin shone at the sight of Mari while taking out a pair of long daggers from under her red raincoat's long and wide sleeves. The first girl took two combat knives sheathed in her belt, hidden until then by a blue coat; the actress was so afraid that she touched the portal by pure reflex to pull back, and she was sucked to the platform, hitting her arm against the tilted ring on arrival, fracturing bone.

Everyone saw her hitting herself hard and screaming in pain:

- No, you're not gonna fool us with another trick – said Woobin on the other side.

Mari had no time to sit up properly when she came from behind, jumping without hesiation into the portal, followed by her partner, avoiding the tilted ring with a double jump; they stood on the platform, and stopped at their tracks for a moment when they saw the cold chamber around them. The guards fired their guns at the intruders, but they had a longer reaction time than their adversaries, who managed to dodge blasts that would have blown an adult man to pulp, also using their telekinesis to cover themselves, erecting a psychic barrier which stopped every single round. The two strangers quickly launched a counterattack, each enemy being lethally striked by their blades, including the sergeant, who was now clutching his cut carotid, trying in vain not to bleed out; Mari could only watch him fall, then he looked at her with remorse before meeting his end.

The actress was breathing rapidly, and was completely in shock, recalling the attackers yet again; she barely stood when Woobin put a knife pressed against her neck from behind, and another got against her lower back. The one with short hair was to run off the platform and attack the rest of the people present but got distracted by looking towards the observation room, at that woman in a suit with rosy cheeks, smiling hatefully at her; she looked back again, where Mari was being held. She rubbed her eyes with both knuckles, and looked once more, but the double vision of the same person didn't disappear, getting her angry and to spit the gum straight out on the floor in frustration as she prepared to take a big leap towards Raon.

But someone else lunged at her, right in mid-jump, knocking her back down. She stood up, locking her knife with her new opponent's, who grabbed her by the other wrist with great agility:

- What a weird turn. Never thought I would see your silly face again, Shadehand – said Gong Wu.

- I say the same, Shadow-5; betraying us should've been enough shame for you.

- You mistake me for someone else, but with that little head of yours, explaining would be useless.

While this happened, the two escorts had taken cover under the platform, waiting for a favorable moment, and finally decided to intervene, much to the disdain of their boss who expected an earlier action. Chae Gun broke the metal over his head, and in the blink of an eye he got behind Woobin, kicking her back and head while Seo Jin climbed the railing, and after breaking her ribs with a punch, he positioned himself with his pistol pointed at Shadehand's chest, grabbing her neck with his free hand. These movements took Gong Wu by surprise, and as her opponent was hit in the side, accidentally broke her own knife by unlocking it too quickly, so she backed away taking Mari with her, almost dragging the battered actress:

- S-7555, you dare attack me from behind? – Shadehand said – So big and so cowardly.

- Once the order is given, I'll make you swallow those words, pathetic gnome.

- Hey, moron, that was mine - the spy replied - You'll pay for this one.

-And what about you, Ark-4688? – Woobin said – Did you finally learn to fight, or you still can't? In fact, they told us you had already died...

- Try me...Let's see who's superior - Chae Gun retorted.

Saying that, he slit Woobin's throat with his hand sickle, but she, dripping with blood, took her knife from the floor and counterattacked by cutting her enemy's abdomen; Shadehand took advantage of the distraction to cut Seo Jin's hand with her knife and make him trip. With his opponent down, Shadehand prepared to deliver the final blow, but Gong Wu launched herself to stab her broken weapon into the former's brain; the first reacted in time and interposed a hand as Woobin, just regenerating, jumped up and propelled herself with her gravitokinesis back down. She got ready to hit, but Chae Gun also jumped and kneed her in the jaw, knocking her out of balance such as to allow him grab and throw the woman against the wall.

Engineer Ye and a couple of operators were the only ones who hadn't run away, still trying to deactivate the machine at any cost. They then received a reprimand from the director, who had determined the fate of those two intruders, considering they were still as short-sighted as ever:

- Will you do something about it? – Raon asked – Disconnect the machine, restart it, anything…

- I can't just unplug it - Ye replied - if I do, the portal could remain active and get out of control.

- What would that mean?

- That it could become an actual black hole, in the worst case. I would not recommend any forceful shutdown at the moment.