"Mr. Miller refused to grant us permission to go to the festival," said Justin, as they all gathered in Edel's apartment the next morning before heading to school. "The man outright rejected our proposal even before finishing reading it, and that's because you messed up the city park!""I think blaming Dim-Dim only worsens the situation," Valir said firmly."But I don't understand why you did that, Dim-Dim," Velicia said. "Why did you turn into a bear and—""Good question," Justin interjected. "Yeah, why didn't you just turn into a rhino and demolish the city hall?""Justin, that's enough. What's gotten into you?" Edel asked Justin, with a gentle tone."I'm angry because I thought I could go to the festival outside Safe City, like other normal kids, but everything's messed up because of you!" Justin exclaimed."Listen, I'm sick of hearing your complaints," Dim-Dim snapped. Then, before the others could react, he turned around and left."I'm sick of you too!" Justin shouted back, and t
In Safe City Pine Barrens, New Jersey, February 15, 2095.Five years had passed since Dim-Dim landed his first job as an Illicitor and made many friends in Safe City.*****At midnight, 00:01, Dim-Dim was awakened by the wailing monster alarm from his phone, along with rapid knocks on the door. He knew who it was, or at least he thought he did, and quickly got up to put on his bright blue illuminated Illicitor uniform in the dark room, and his comfortable, perfectly fitting boots."Wait a sec, Velicia!" he yelled. He tightened his belt and hurriedly stuffed various types of smoke bombs into his pockets, as well as some pain relief salve, anchors, ropes, super strong glue to mend the damaged parts of his boots, a pair of sickles that could be attached to his jacket sleeve for cutting branches when needed, and much more.And when he was done, he slung his bag over his shoulder containing clean t-shirts and shorts for changing clothes, and stepped to open the door. Only to find himself am
"Maybe you're right, I might be masochistic," Dim-Dim said. And for a moment, Dim-Dim looked into Amma's eyes, knowing that the girl wanted to kiss his lips so bad. But Dim-Dim stepped back, pulling her hand to sit with the others and eat pizza and pie.Justin immediately handed them both two glasses of cola. "Come on, let's finish the food and drinks and then we'll go to sleep as usual." Justin became a popular guy in high school, but he was dating the school radio announcer, while Velicia had just broken up with a bookworm guy. Both Justin and Valir agreed that Velicia won't match with any bookworm guy, and the girl seemed to trust them this time after regretting dating the last one.Suddenly, Damian approached Dim-Dim and bowed low beside him. "Dim-Dim, I almost forgot to tell you, Dad and Cendana invited us for dinner at home."And Dim-Dim immediately choked on the cola. Edel handed him a napkin, simultaneously with Amma handing him a tissue, and the two girls exchanged surprised l
Oriyan left Amma's room, and Amma kissed Dim-Dim's lips once again. "Listen," she said. "Don't let my jerk brother ruin our relationship.""What relationship do we have anyway?" Dim-Dim asked.Amma shrugged, then smiled. "Who knows. You're the boyfriend I've never had."*****Traveling by jet was quite enjoyable. But as he lounged on the plush sofa, examining the map of Vermont and trying to trace his fingers over its surface, he realized that the luxury he was enjoying was directly proportional to the hard work he had to put in.Now, almost every day there was a mission. Even with the Venator numbers increasing by almost a thousand percent (now they had two thousand Venators worldwide), monsters were still attacking settlements like crazy. The fewer humans outside the Safe City, the fewer cities to be attacked. And since last month's incident, when monsters attacked nuclear power plants in various countries and caused power outages, human civilization has been increasingly threatened
In the form of an owl, Dim-Dim maneuvered through the air. He flapped his wings soundlessly, his movements graceful, beautiful. With feathers of deep black, he blended seamlessly with the night sky. Despite the pitch-black Vermont night, he didn't need infrared glasses. The monsters hurried on their many legs, darting from one building to another, leaping from tree to tree, towards him.The creatures were chased by deadly bullets from the Venators. Three at the front fell, leaving twelve monsters remaining."Seriously, guys, where is the last one?" Damian asked, his voice coming through the earpiece nestled in Dim-Dim's ear."Two," Oriyan corrected, his voice trembling as he pressed the trigger. "According to the app, there should have been seventeen monsters.""Could the locals have killed two of them?" Charlotte wondered. "Type A monsters?""Well, if so, we needed to recruit them—watch out, Dim-Dim!"Suddenly, unexpectedly, Dim-Dim was attacked from the side by a monster out of his
"The last signal was sent a minute ago by the on-duty Illicitor, Sir. She said, 'ask Justin to stop time immediately'."And upon hearing that, Mr. Miller immediately called the head of Dim-Dim and Justin's school, while Dim-Dim quickly took out his phone, opened the Monstrachat app, and sent a panicked chat to Justin.DIM-DIM: Justin, stop time, NOW!DIM:DIM: PLEASE!DIM-DIM: Justin, where are you?DIM-DIM: Please! I think Velicia, Clarinassa, and others are in danger!He was typing 'PLEASE' again when suddenly someone touched his back, and suddenly Justin was already by his side, his hair disheveled from running, and sweat beads dripping down from his forehead. Meanwhile, everyone around them froze. Time froze."Hey," Justin said softly, and Dim-Dim immediately stopped typing. "What's happening?"Dim-Dim stared at Justin desperately, and immediately spilled about the report they had just received about the Clarinassa team being in danger from a strange blue Type A monster that could
"My plan is to smuggle you into the laboratory through food," said Valir to Dim-Dim as they hurriedly walked the emergency stairs in the hospital. While rushing, the boy quickly pulled out several candies from his Venator jacket pocket and showed them to Dim-Dim. "I'll throw candies at our friends they've confined. They might inspect the first and second candies to make sure it's food and not something dangerous. The third candy might also be checked. But on the fourth candy, you'll turn into a dragonfly and grip the wrapper tightly, then I'll throw that candy to Edel. Understand?""I understand," said Dim-Dim.But, upon arriving in front of the laboratory, they were surprised to see how crowded it was with people."Where's our child!?" protested one parent."Yeah, where's Noah!?""Where's Frank?""Amy!""George!""Isabell!""Where's Charon!?""Oh, my son."Groans, shouts, and cries could be heard from wherever they looked.Dim-Dim swallowed nervously, shocked. Meanwhile, the laborato
Blood splattered in all directions, and Dim-Dim could only feel his heart racing as Amma swung the scissors in her hand and then stabbed another scientist."Amma, stop," Dim-Dim said a moment later, when he finally managed to calm himself and transform back to his normal form.The girl didn't listen. Another person fell because of her actions, and Dim-Dim backed away from her in panic. "Stop! What the hell are you thinking!?"Amma glanced at him briefly. "Coward," she said, though with a sweet tone."You—are you stopping time?" Dim-Dim asked. He looked at Justin, that was frozen nearby, and then back at Amma."Yeah, why?" Amma replied, giving him a scrutinizing look. "Are you going to help me get rid of these damn people or not?" she asked."You're not like the Amaliah I knew," Dim-Dim said, and a flicker of hurt appeared in Amma's eyes."So which one do you prefer, this version of me, or the previous one?"Dim-Dim shook his head. "I don't prefer either of them.""My friends were righ