Jatara Tudeloni's Story

"Get out of my room!"

Jatara Tudeloni had just gotten home from work, only to find her twin brother with his hands in her side of the fish tank wall that separated their rooms. He was always doing things like that! It frustrated her to no end.

"Hold on," Leonardo was trying his hardest to catch a gold and black fish. Technically it was Jatara's fish, but he figured she would never notice it was gone...That is, until she caught him in the act of trying to pilfer it.

"What are you doing?! That's my fish!" Jatara flailed about, not wanting to yank Leonardo from the tank and get fish water on herself. She hated the smell of fish water just a tad more than she hated the fact that her brother was here, in her room, hands deep in the fish tank, trying to catch one of her fish.

"I need it! Hold on!" Leonardo had cornered the fish.

"For what?" Jatara had about had it up to here.

"GOT IT!" Leonardo flung the net from the tank, the fish thrashing about and getting droplets of fish water everywhere. Jatara screeched with annoyance, chasing her brother into his room as he cackled maniacally.

"That's my fish!" She screeched, when suddenly something strange happened in the Tudeloni apartment. A strange voice came from nowhere, permeating both of their minds and causing the two to freeze. The fish continued to flap around, this time getting water all over Leonardo's room.

That Depends the voice had said, and after it was heard the twins' ears were left ringing. The looked at each other in shock, glued to the spot.

"Did you...?"
"...Hear that?" Leonardo finished Jatara's sentence, shaking himself from the momentary stupor and tossing the fish into his side of the tank. The fish immediately hid between rocks.

"The calculations are all accurate, but that does not mean that the system will be successful. Its a hard situation all around. But one in which we have very little choice."

The Voice echoed through the room, and those within would notice a distortion forming in one corner, as though reality was bending on itself.

What's it talking about? The twins looked at each other and shouted with their eyes. Something strange was going on. They were unsure if they wanted a part of it.

"Don't look at the corner," Jatara moved to shield her brother from the disturbing view. Reality was collapsing. It shook the girl to her core.

"We should go," Leonardo pulled his sister towards the door.

Azrael Malavé slowly materializes from the depths of the shadows within an alleyway. As his presence is fully seen the rift that was created behind him closes within a blink. Azrael rubs his hands together, his brows furrowing as he tries to make heads as to where or when he is.

"Shit,"

Jatara arrived on shift to a shit show. So, someone had stolen the project she was responsible for? Great. Brilliant. Wonderful. It looked like they had pursuit handled, but now to buck it up and tell the bosses. Not fun. She unpeeled a cherry flavored piece of gun, popped it in her mouth, and tossed the wrapper at a trash can.

Jatara Tudeloni scurried into the building and barely bothered with the greetings. She hurried into an elevator and pressed the right buttons. Her phone hadn't stopped going off in an hour, but she wasn't really feeling looking at it just yet. She knew what all the messages said.

The elevator doors opened and Jatara marched her way into the office of her superior. She clicked the door shut and collapsed into one of the chairs. Before the superior could speak, Jatara made jazz hands and all but shouted, "I KNOW!"

Someone had stolen a mechanical artifact, which she was in charge of refurbishing. It was the final sprint of the whole project, the last week the damn thing would be under her responsibility, and somehow it had just took off into the atmosphere with an unapproved pilot. Nobody had been programmed as approved- that was part of the protocol she was assigned. Technically, this wasn't Jatara's fault, was it?