STELLAR RIFT

Chapter 2: Into the Rift

The night fell quickly on Velora, as it always did, with the sky deepening into an endless curtain of violet dotted with stars. The wind had died down, leaving the desert unnaturally still. The four boys sat in silence around the glowing shard, their minds buzzing with the strange, unexplainable events that had just unfolded.

Kade kept his eyes fixed on the shard. It pulsed faintly, a slow and steady rhythm, like a heartbeat from a distant world. The blue light was no longer blinding, but it still carried an eerie energy that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He could feel it in his bones—the rift in the sky above them, the crack in the fabric of their reality. It felt wrong, but also... inevitable.

“We can’t leave it like this,” Kade said quietly, breaking the silence. He glanced at his companions.

Jett, who had been pacing around the crater, his mind whirring with ideas, stopped and nodded. “I agree,” he said, rubbing his chin as he considered the situation. “This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The energy here—it’s... it’s like nothing in our database. Whatever this is, it’s powerful. And it’s not just going to sit here, waiting for us to leave.”

Orin shuddered slightly, still staring up at the rift above. “I saw... things,” he whispered, almost to himself. “Worlds beyond worlds. Places I could never imagine. But there was something in the darkness, something... watching.” He pulled his knees closer to his chest, his voice dropping lower. “I don’t think we can just walk away from this. I think we’re meant to go through it.”

Zane, who had been quiet up until now, adjusted the strap of his rifle across his shoulder and turned to face Orin. “You’re saying you want us to just... jump into whatever that is?” He motioned to the rift. His voice was calm, but there was an edge of disbelief. “Orin, we don’t know what’s on the other side of that. We could get lost. We could...” He trailed off, the words unspoken, but everyone knew what he meant.

“I know,” Orin said, his eyes bright with a strange intensity. “But we have to go. I saw something. A warning, I think. It’s not just calling me—it’s calling all of us. And we can’t ignore it. Not now.”

There was a long pause, the weight of Orin’s words hanging in the air. Kade glanced at Jett, whose mind was already racing with plans and calculations, then at Zane, who looked more uncertain than usual.

“Alright,” Kade said finally, breaking the silence. He stood up, dusting the sand off his pants. “If we’re going to do this, we do it together. We go in, we stick together, and we figure out what this is. But we do it carefully.”

Jett grinned, as if the idea excited him more than anything. “Carefully? You know that’s not really my style.” He waved his spanner, eyes gleaming with excitement. “But, hey, I’ll try. I’ve got a few tricks I can try to hack into the rift’s energy, see if I can get us some answers. I’ve got a bunch of tech I can use to stabilize the entry. Just give me a few minutes.”

Zane didn’t respond immediately. He ran a hand through his hair, his mind clearly racing. “I still don’t like it. But if we don’t do something, we’ll be stuck here, wondering what happens next. We can’t just leave this thing to... whatever it is.”

Kade nodded. “Exactly. It’s not just a random explosion. This is a sign. Whatever it is, it’s here for a reason. And I don’t know about you guys, but I want answers.”

They stood together in silence for a moment, the only sound the faint crackling hum of the shard.

Jett quickly set to work, pulling tools from his belt and attaching them to various parts of his wristpad and small devices. He began to tap away at the screen, muttering under his breath as he made calculations.

“Okay, guys,” Jett said, his voice filled with determination. “I think I’ve got something. It won’t be perfect, but it should stabilize the rift long enough for us to pass through. We can’t just run in without any kind of protection. The energy here could fry us in an instant. So this should give us a shield of sorts, or at least buy us enough time to figure out what the heck’s going on.”

He turned to face the others, a small but satisfied grin on his face.

“Let’s do this.”

They moved toward the rift cautiously. Kade was the first to step forward, his heart pounding. He had no idea what was waiting for them on the other side. He didn’t even know if they’d be able to get through at all. The rift was like nothing he had ever seen before—an open wound in the sky, flickering and shifting like an unstable mirror.

As they approached the edge of the rift, the air grew colder. Kade felt it first—a sudden drop in temperature, as though the atmosphere itself was bending and twisting. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself, but the chill still seeped through.

Jett was already fidgeting with his devices, his fingers moving fast. “This is gonna be tricky,” he muttered. “I’m not sure how long I’ve got before the rift rejects us, but we’re about to find out.”

Orin stood beside Kade, his eyes fixed on the rift. “I feel like it’s pulling me in,” he said quietly. His voice was distant, as if he were lost in thought. “It wants us to come closer.”

Zane scanned the area, his sharp eyes missing nothing. “Stay alert,” he said, his voice low but firm. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us. But we’re not backing down now.”

They all nodded.

Jett clicked a button on his wristpad. “Here goes nothing.”

There was a hum, a sudden blast of cold air, and then, without warning, the rift seemed to open wider.

Kade’s stomach lurched as the world around him twisted. Colors bled together, the ground beneath his feet seemed to pull away, and the very air felt like it was warping and stretching. For a moment, it felt as though time itself had stopped, and Kade was caught in an endless loop of distortion.

Then, just as quickly as it had started, the world snapped back into focus.

They stood on the edge of a completely different landscape.

The first thing Kade noticed was the sky. It wasn’t the deep purple of Velora, nor the usual cloudless expanse of the desert. Instead, it was a swirling mass of colors—shades of orange, pink, and violet mixing together like paint on a canvas. The air was thick, almost as though it were alive, swirling around them in strange currents.

The ground beneath their feet was soft, almost like moss, but it shimmered with an unnatural glow. Strange plants—tall and thin, their leaves glowing faintly—dotted the landscape, their shapes unlike anything Kade had ever seen.

“Where... where are we?” Orin whispered, stepping forward with wide eyes.

“I don’t know,” Kade said, voice tight with awe and caution. “But this doesn’t look like Velora.”

Zane took a step forward, scanning the area. “It doesn’t feel like Velora either,” he muttered, his hand never straying far from his weapon. “We need to be careful. Whatever brought us here—”

A sudden gust of wind picked up, howling around them like a distant storm. Kade turned to see a strange creature emerge from behind a nearby rock formation. It had the body of a giant, insect-like beast, with glowing antennae and shimmering wings that sparkled like crystal.

Kade’s breath caught in his throat as it stared at them, unblinking. Its eyes were like black holes, drawing him in.

“Is that... real?” Jett asked, voice tight with disbelief.

Orin nodded slowly, his face pale. “I think so.”

The creature tilted its head, as if studying them, before it gave a low, vibrating hum and then turned, walking away with slow, measured steps.

“What do we do now?” Zane asked, glancing around.

“We move forward,” Kade said, his voice firm. “There’s something here—something important. And we’re going to find out what it is.”

With that, they took their first steps deeper into the strange world. The rift had opened for them, and they were ready to face whatever awaited them.