Younger Officer Tina reports for duty

'This is so unfair!'

Tina's hands clenched into fists as she rushed through the streets. 

The city was in total chaos. 

Mere minutes after the first portals started to appear all over the place, all semblance of order and stability went down the drain. 

In a disaster like this, humans could only go one of three ways. Most would act as usual, trying to keep their rationale and just ignore the events around them, hoping they wouldn't affect them directly. A silent majority. 

But then, there were two cases, both of minor numbers, that would more often than not decide the outcome of a disastrous event. 

Some would exhibit the worst trait of humanity… or rather, its animalistic, rule-free side. 

With the unknown danger falling all over the city - and likely the rest of the world - some were bound to assume no rules applied anymore. Vandalism, looting, rapes, or even murders, something that the rules of the society and the fear of punishment put a bar on… 

As the chaos unhinged the usually stiff frame in which those people operated, crimes of all sorts were bound to sprout. The worst part about those people was that… It was nigh impossible to predict who they were. 

A baker down the street who always stocked up on candies to share with the children of the neighborhood was as likely to end up as a derailed psychopath as the CEO of a top company. A well-respected actor could become a victim of his stunt double. 

There was no rule or logic to the people affected by the chaos, making the job of policing them all the harder. 

But it was the exact same, troubling times that also gave rise to the people with a certain particle in their soul, a calling that forced them to step up to the challenge when things got really dire. 

Like a mother lifting up a massive log to free her child, like a newsman intervening in a bullying case, like a father going against his instincts moments before the crash and spinning the car so that it would be the driver's side that took the brunt of the accident rather than the passenger's side where his daughter was sitting… 

In moments of chaos, there was one great advantage that the forces of good had over the forces of evil buried in the depths of the human souls. 

For if the most devoted troops of the bad were mostly locked behind bars, the uniformed officers of the public services were there and always ready to intervene. 

'THIS IS SO FUCKING UNFAIR!'

Tina had to use every last bit of her willpower to stifle her screams of despair. 

The only reason why she kept up with that childish moron was in hopes of being in the correct place on a day Leo would return. Yet, rather than limiting herself to just this hope of chancing upon him, she spent the last four years working hard so that she could look for clues about Leo's disappearance herself. 

But now that he returned… 

Tina gritted her teeth and took a deep breath right as she pushed the huge, glass doors open and nearly fell on her face as she stumbled inside the entrance of a massive compound. 

"Younger officer Tina Maloy…" The young woman took a moment to regain her breath, still tired after her sprint over to the police headquarters. "Younger officer Tina Maloy reports for duty!" 

The reception area of the headquarters was a mess, an even bigger mess than what was going on back in the city. 

Police officers rushed around, all of them struggling to keep up with the sudden surge of citizens swarming the policemen on desk duty while simultaneously trying to manage all the reports from the officers out in the field. 

'I've never seen this place like that…' Struggling to remain on her feet, Tina gulped her saliva down. 

It only made sense. 

While this city, no, the entire country was spared the relatively recent wave of terrorism that swept through the western side of the continent, this wasn't the first rodeo she got to witness. Merely two years in the past, while she was merely a second week into her training period, Tina ended up as one of the many dealing with the massive manhunt for the massive group that skimmed off some insane amount of money in a tax carousel scheme. 

Still, the mobilization back then and the mobilization right now… was on a different scale. Back then, the headquarters still operated as usual, with most of those involved in the high-profile case working from where the public couldn't see them. 

Today was different. And without even a shred of a doubt, it was an all-hands-on-deck type of scenario. 

"Tina! Quick, as always," as if impervious to all the chaos around, Officer Sebastian approached in a casual manner. 

Even though Tina's time as the man's boot was long over and she hardly interacted with her former training officer ever since, there was still this link of camaraderie stretching between the two. 

"Doing my best, boss." Tina stabilized her breath before replying. "What are the orders?" 

As much as she wanted to just scream out in frustration… Tina knew her duty well. And her reasons for joining the force, in a moment like that, were simply insignificant. 

'I got into this job knowing the responsibilities. Now it's time for me to pay my dues, even if I never ended up learning anything about Leo vanishing through it.'

"We are still waiting for the chief's dispatch. Apparently," Sebastian lowered his voice as he threw a sneaky glance over his shoulder, "one of those portals appeared in the main conference room and swallowed some of the top brass. Don't take my word for it, but apparently, the chief greenlighted the specials to go after the kidnapped, but…"

'Is avoiding responsibility all that's on that bastard's mind?' Tina thought, gritting her teeth in mute frustration. 

Over the last four years, she learned to know better than to assume that all of the policemen were pristine examples of a pro-citizien approach. Just like in every other walk of life, there were a lot of great people serving… but there were also those who took this job as a mere career or an outright springboard into politics.

And now, when the shit hit the fan, all they could think of was protecting their own ass to the best of their ability. Which, in the case of the chief of the prevention department of the headquarters, was all about finding someone of a higher rank to give out the orders. 

"At this rate, things are only going to get messier," Sebastian muttered, turning away when he noticed someone, only to greet them with a small wave during which he closed off three fingers at the hand he waved with. "The one good thing is, things have not yet started properly. The real mess will start once people start coming out of those portals," he added, only to suddenly freeze as he turned his old, weary eyes back to his former boot. "Speaking about portals, I'm surprised you didn't dive head-first into one of them…"

"Huh?" Tina nearly jumped, surprised by the sudden turn in their hasty conversation. "Why would I do that?"

For a moment, Tina couldn't really help but feel genuinely confused. 

Jumping into a portal that led god-knows-where, with all sorts of possible dangers and likely lack of radio communication with the outside…

'Why would I be so stupid to jump into one of those things just like that?' Tina thought, only to recall the last thing she saw Leo do before she ran off to do her duty as a fully-fledged police officer and report up to her station, even though today was supposed to be her day off. 

"Isn't this obvious?" This time it was Sebastian's turn to look at Tina with a surprised if not outright weirded-out expression on his weary face. "Aren't those portals like the first clue that could possibly fit the profile you've been so desperately searching for ever since the day you joined?"