It was September 24th 1950, Caracas, Venezuela. A little before the dawn, a group of different people appeared in an abandoned establishment in the middle of the city. When they woke up, they were lost and confused, originating from distinct places and time periods. Many of them neither spoke the same native language nor had the same culture. Their clothing was unusual. After a few minutes of confusion, they found out all of them were able to speak English, although the non-native accent of some was quite noticeable.

“I’m Tommy Andrews, 25 years old and from Brazil. Who are you?”

“I’m Maddie Sink, I’m 21 and I’m from New Orleans.”

“I’m Claiton, I’m 20 years old and I’m from New York.”

“I’m Joaco Chan, 20 years old and I`m from New York”.

"I'm Joshua. I'm 21 years and I'm from Chicago."

Claiton notices that Maddie Sink had some quite different clothes than the rest of them. They seemed to be made of some kind of special synthetic polymer. As an answer to that inquiry, she quickly perceived that she is from a different time.

“When are you from?” She asked all the people there.

Almost everyone’s answers are unanimous: 2020. There were exceptions, though.

“I’m from 2050.” Maddie disclosed.

“I'm from 2062,” Joshua revealed.

The people there were surprised. Joshua’s clothing wasn’t very different from theirs, so that was unexpected. After a closer look, there were in fact some subtle differences. Suddenly, a few minutes later, with an uncomfortable and odd atmosphere among them, a hologram appeared out of nowhere. It was an unclear, humanoid figure.

"Greetings, you are in 1950. Let’s just say this is an experiment conducted by me. You need to find a way to go back to your time periods before time is up. If you do not do things quickly enough, you will be killed. Find the Red Star.” The entity said in a serious and uniform tone of voice.

“Wait, but how much time do we have? What do you mean with the Red Star?” Asked Joaco, outraged by the lack of clarity.

The hologram vanished. They were all lost and they had almost no idea about what to do. They decided it would be a good thing to leave that deserted building. Maybe they could find something important in the city. They went through the old, rusty door. The people on the street stared at them.

“Guys, everyone is staring at us, possibly because of our appearance or clothing. We have to do something about it, nobody can suspect.” Observes Tommy.

“We could go to some store to buy proper clothing.” Said Joaco.

“How will we pay for it?” Asked Tommy.

“We could steal them.” Suggested Joaco.

“Oh god! But we have to be very careful. Does someone have a plan?” Remarked Joshua, worried.

“I’ll create a distraction.” Said Maddie, while calling the shop assistant, pretending to pass out.

Quickly, Joaco, Joshua and Claiton got some clothes, and without being caught, they left the store. They returned to the place where they first woke up, planning to get changed, when they found a surprise: there were two people there.

“Who are you?” Asked one of the men.

“Do you know anything about the Red Star?” Maddie interrogated.

The two individuals looked at each other and quickly took their guns.

“How do you know about that?” They shouted, pointing the pistols towards the group.

“We don’t really know about it. A hologram appeared here and said something about it.” Answered Joaco.

“Hologram? What is that?”

“It’s like a person, but made with technology.” Explained Joshua.

“I don’t think that’s a good explanation, Joshua,” Maddie complained.

“I think we are just losing time.” Said Tommy, already nervous. “I don’t trust them, we should leave.”

“What are you talking about?”

They shot the group. Claiton and Joaco were injured, but they managed to escape, with considerable difficulty. They quickly hid behind the bushes, but the men were still trying to locate them.

“What will we do?” Tommy worriedly asked.

“I have a plan,” Claiton confidently said, before explaining the details of what he intended to do.

After listening to his proposition, they thought it could work, so they decided to execute it. When one of the men approached the hiding place, the agile Maddie knocked him down, using her superb martial art skills. Meanwhile, Joaco, an experienced shooter and military officer, took the gun from the person, pointing it at him.

“One step and you’re dead.”

His companion appeared, but that was not unexpected. They already saw that coming. Claiton was not in the bushes like the others, but hidden on the top of a tree. He jumped, scaring the persecutor, who stared at him and Joaco, confused.

“What? There are two of you!”

They were twins. Tommy stealthily stole the man’s pistol, pointing it at him in the same way Joaco did with the first pursuer. Without giving them time to think about how to respond, they ran away towards a crowded region of the city.

Everything was going well, they only had to figure out that whole Red Star thing. However, something unforeseen occurred: the cryptic hologram popped up again, with terrible news for the group. The civilians couldn’t see it, for some reason.

“Time is up, prepare to die.”

“Wait, what? No!” Maddie and Tommy objected, shedding tears as they thought about the fact their life was near to an end.

A few milliseconds after that, Graham Leggrater’s (the hologram’s person) nanobots quickly disintegrated them, every cell that was formerly part of their body was dismantled. They are now dead. What an unfortunate event… What? Joaco and Claiton are alive? That was not supposed to happen.

“何?” Said the villain, surprised.

To be continued...