The shadow grew larger.
Not drifting.
Falling.
Fast.
Lucas squinted up at the glowing rupture in the sky, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun reflecting off the surrounding towers.
“What the—”
The shadow suddenly twisted.
Arms flailing.
Legs kicking.
And then a voice came screaming out of the sky.
“WARNING—TEMPORAL VECTOR COLLAPSING—THIS IS NOT A STABLE—”
The words tore through the plaza.
The crowd gasped.
Heads snapped upward.
A woman dropped her shopping bag.
A man lowered his coffee slowly, mouth hanging open.
Because now everyone could see it.
Not a shadow.
A person.
A human figure falling straight down from the glowing tear in the sky.
Lucas blinked once.
Twice.
“…well,” he muttered faintly.
“That’s new.”
The falling figure spun wildly as it dropped.
A long dark coat flapped violently around her.
Something metallic flashed at her wrist.
Her voice continued shouting rapidly as she fell.
“—CHRONOLOGICAL MISALIGNMENT—STABILIZERS FAILED—THIS IS A MAJOR—”
Lucas’s brain finally caught up with reality.
“Oh no.”
He stepped backward instinctively.
“OH NO.”
The figure slammed downward.
CRASH.
The wooden table exploded into splinters.
Playing cards blasted into the air like a white storm.
The red top hat flipped end over end.
Lucas’s crate tipped sideways.
And in the center of the wreckage—
A young woman lay tangled among broken wood and scattered cards.
The crowd stood frozen.
Completely silent.
One card drifted slowly down through the air and landed gently on the woman’s shoulder.
Lucas stared.
“…okay,” he said carefully.
“…that definitely wasn't rehearsal.”
The woman groaned.
Her fingers twitched.
She pushed herself halfway upright, blinking rapidly as if her eyes were struggling to focus.
Dark hair spilled messily around her face.
A strange metallic bracelet wrapped around her wrist, blinking faint blue lights.
Her breathing was fast.
Uneven.
She looked around wildly.
Glass towers.
Crowds.
Digital billboards.
Cars sliding silently along the nearby street.
Her eyes widened.
“Nononono—”
She scrambled clumsily to her feet, nearly slipping on scattered playing cards.
“—that’s wrong, that’s completely wrong—”
Lucas cautiously stepped closer.
“You just fell out of the sky,” he said.
She spun toward him immediately.
“Where am I?”
Her voice was sharp.
Urgent.
Lucas blinked.
“…Neo-Veridian Plaza,” he answered.
She stared at him like he had just spoken an alien language.
“No,” she snapped. “What year?”
Lucas hesitated.
“…2026?”
The woman froze.
Completely still.
Her eyes darted toward one of the giant digital billboards across the plaza.
The screen rotated through advertisements before switching briefly to a city information display.
NEO-VERIDIAN CITY — JULY 18, 2026
The woman whispered something under her breath.
“…seventy years.”
Lucas leaned slightly toward her.
“Sorry, did you say seventy—”
She grabbed her head suddenly, pacing in a tight circle through the debris of the broken table.
“No no no no no this is catastrophic—temporal displacement magnitude seventy years, margin of error unknown—this is a complete chronological disaster—”
Lucas folded his arms slowly.
“Okay.”
The crowd around them had begun whispering excitedly.
Phones were pointed everywhere.
Someone clapped enthusiastically.
“Best street show ever!”
Lucas raised a finger.
“Give me one second,” he told the crowd.
Then he looked back at the woman.
“Hi,” he said calmly.
“My name is Lucas.”
She ignored him completely.
Her eyes scanned the plaza rapidly, calculating, measuring, analyzing everything she saw.
Cars.
Buildings.
Technology.
People.
Then she lifted her wrist.
The metallic bracelet suddenly projected a small floating sphere of blue light.
Lucas jumped slightly.
“Oh.”
The sphere hovered above her wrist.
It pulsed once.
Then a calm mechanical voice spoke.
“TARA-9 online. Temporal displacement successful. Environmental scan in progress.”
Lucas blinked.
“…well,” he said softly.
“…that feels important.”
The woman looked at the glowing sphere in horror.
“TARA, run chronological verification immediately.”
“Processing.”
The floating sphere pulsed again.
“Current timeline confirmed. Year: 2026. Temporal offset: negative seventy years.”
The woman closed her eyes slowly.
Her shoulders dropped.
Lucas tilted his head.
“So,” he said carefully.
“…you’re saying you didn’t mean to land on my table?”
Her eyes opened again.
She looked directly at him for the first time.
And said quietly:
“I’m not supposed to exist here yet.”
Around them, the crowd continued cheering and filming.
Because to everyone else in the plaza—
This was still just the most impressive magic show they had ever seen.
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