Confrontation and Escape
Seeing the man who seemed to be a police officer, the trio immediately turned and went on full alert. But the man raised both hands and stepped forward, approaching them.
"My name is Fadli. I'm from the police, my department specifically handles paranormal matters in this city. Could you introduce yourselves?" Fadli asked.
Indra, Alex, and Diaz fell silent. They glanced at each other, then turned and – crash! – immediately leaped out the window, shattering the glass, then flew up into the sky. Fadli ran to the window and watched the three fly away. He stood there, scratching his head, though it didn't itch.
"Why did they run? I was only asking a question," he wondered to himself.
Then, several police officers entered the room and began to evacuate the carcass of the strange creature lying on the floor. Fadli took out his smartphone. He opened a photo on it and smiled. The photo showed Amanda, Indra, Alex, Nara, Diaz, Fani, and Shin in front of the house earlier that afternoon, with Tari trying to push her way inside. He zoomed in on the photo, looking at all six of their faces.
"Hey!" Fadli called out to a police officer.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" the officer asked.
"You see this, right? Note it down and find out where they are," Fadli said, handing his smartphone to the officer and pointing at the screen.
"Understood, Lieutenant," the officer replied, immediately turning to leave.
Fadli looked out the window at the sky, gazing in the direction Indra, Alex, and Diaz had flown, even though they were no longer visible.
"I'll visit you later. Be ready," he mused silently.
******
The Aftermath
Meanwhile, on the roof of the boarding house, Indra, Alex, and Diaz landed, immediately shifting back to their original forms. The three of them sprawled out on the flat roof, panting heavily.
"Are we really okay just ditching him like that?" Diaz asked.
"No problem, he doesn't know our real forms," Indra replied.
"Yeah, you're right, relax. But I'm still curious about that creature," Alex added.
"What creature?" a girl's voice asked.
Indra, Alex, and Diaz turned to look up. They were startled to see a floating head above them, looking down, its hair cascading over them.
"Whoaaaaa!" all three screamed.
"Fani, you went too far! What if my heart stopped?" Indra demanded.
"Yeah, you, Fani! Why do you always have to scare us?" Alex added.
"Crazy! I'm still screaming, that's messed up, really messed up!" Diaz added.
"Well, you guys landed on top of my room, you scared me first," Fani retorted.
"This is Jakarta, Fani, not your house. Nobody's fighting in mid-air in the middle of the night here," Diaz said.
"Yeah, I know, I'm just used to being on guard. Come on, let's go inside. It's late," Fani replied.
Fani's head immediately floated back down. The three of them sat up, then stood, and entered the boarding house. In the living room, Amanda and Nara were already waiting. Soon after, Fani joined them. The six of them sat around the table.
"Where's Tari?" Indra asked.
"Sleeping in my room. Shin's watching her," Amanda replied.
"Okay, let's tell them," Indra said.
Indra, Alex, and Diaz recounted everything they'd experienced at Tari's house, which was now sealed by the police. They talked about seeing the strange writings, finding Nara's pendant (which Alex immediately placed on the table), and fighting a weird creature they'd never seen before. Alex and Indra tried to sketch the creature's appearance on a piece of paper torn from Amanda's sketchpad. Hearing their story and seeing the drawing, Amanda, Nara, and Fani were shocked.
"Yeah, you're right, this is my pendant necklace, but the gemstone is missing, the chain is broken, and it's covered in blood," Nara said, examining the pendant Alex had placed on the table.
"Do you understand what kind of creature this is?" Indra asked Nara while show his smartphone.
"I don't know, but Dad said before he disappeared that in Saranjana City, there are creatures that don't look human. Maybe this creature is one of them, because the gemstone in this pendant supposedly trapped something. Could it be this creature?" Nara asked, pointing to the drawing in the middle.
"But it's weird. Shin saw that Tari's dad's body was split in half like a cocoon. That means this creature probably came from inside his body. So I don't think it's the one trapped in Nara's pendant gem. Besides, where's the gem? We haven't found it yet, have we?" Amanda muttered.
"There were a lot of gemstones and crystals in that shoe box, I don't know what for. This necklace was in that box too," Diaz said.
"Oh, yeah... when you guys left, Tari mentioned that when her dad was lucid, he gave her his notebook and smartphone, asking her to give them to the police if anything happened. But Tari brought them to us instead," Fani added.
"That's right. I already tried to turn on that dead smartphone, but it has a password, and the battery was almost dead, so I'm charging it first. I'll try the password again once the battery's full," Amanda replied.
"Hmm, looks like the answer might be in that smartphone," Alex mumbled.
Suddenly, Amanda fell silent. She immediately grabbed her sketchpad and began drawing furiously with her pencil. Indra, Alex, Nara, Diaz, and Fani watched what Amanda was drawing. It turned out Amanda was drawing on the back of the picture she'd shown Indra that morning. She was drawing the area around Monas and Thamrin street, filled with various weird creatures. One of them was the creature Indra and Alex had just drawn. After she finished,
"What is this?" Diaz asked.
"New clue," Amanda replied.
"Creatures like these attacking Jakarta?" Fani asked.
They gasped after seeing Amanda's finished drawing. Amanda had depicted Jakarta under attack by strange creatures wielding spear-like weapons that could fire lasers and riding ancient bird-like or dragon-like creatures flying through the air, filling the entire city.
"So that creature earlier is just one of the many creatures Manda drew," Indra said.
"There's no way that many creatures could come out of the gem in Nara's pendant, right?" Diaz asked.
"Nara, why are you so quiet?" Alex asked, looking at Nara, who was stunned, covering her mouth with her hand.
"What's wrong, Nara?" Fani asked.
"My dad once told me, there used to be two great, technologically advanced civilizations in the world, called Atlantis and Lemuria. They were always at war, and their wars were like sci-fi movies because everything used lasers, even space warfare. The weapon Dad drew in his book, because Mom told him about it, looks like this spear..." Nara said, pointing to the spears held by the creatures Amanda had drawn.
"Are you serious?" Indra asked.
Nara nodded. Everyone fell silent, realizing a huge threat was looming over Jakarta, and even the world. After a long moment of stunned silence, Indra finally stood up and closed Amanda's sketchpad on the table.
"It's no use thinking about it now. Something more important: what about Tari? She has no family now," Indra said.
"You're right, Indra. Tari is more important right now," Alex added.
"Tomorrow when she wakes up, we'll ask Tari what she wants to do," Amanda said.
"And ask for the password to the smartphone she brought earlier. Maybe she knows it; we need clues," Nara added.
"Also ask what her dad's actual job was. After seeing his study, I don't think her dad was just an ordinary person, I mean, not just an inventor like she told us," Diaz added.
"Our orientation starts next week. This case needs to be solved quickly," Fani added.
Suddenly, Shin phased down through the ceiling and immediately went to Amanda. He seemed to be talking to Amanda. Amanda immediately stood up and looked towards the boarding house entrance.
"Shin says someone's coming..." Amanda said.