The cab bumps along the road slowly. 

"Can you please speed up, we need to follow the truck," I say angrily. The cab driver finally speeds up, meandering behind the truck onto a big dirt road, along a big corn field. We pass huge, industrial buildings, the truck pulls into a small warehouse building, and screeches to a stop. 

"Stop now!" I say loudly, the taxi driver stops the car in its tracks and and looks startled. I hand him a 20 euro bill.

"Here you go, keep the change," I slap the money into his hand as he looks at me in disgust. 

"I'm sorry, this is important," I reply, attempting to sound kind. I slam the door shut and run over to the truck. The man gets out of his truck and grabs the small child, his legs helplessly dangling in the air. 

"Hey! What are you doing," I yell to the man, running closer to him as fast as I possibly can. He freaks out, I run closer, his face shakes back and forth, his eyes shift their form, and his hair turns curly slowly. He looks down, as his legs begin to shrink. I stop in my tracks, the gears in my head turn, confused about the strange, now shrinking man. The little boy struggles against his grip and hits the man in his left leg. He grunts and lets the child fall, he stumbles in the opposite direction, into the corn field. The boy stares at me, fear and tears swelling up in his eyes, running down his face. I grab his shoulders.

"Hey, its okay, your safe now. What's your name?" I ask looking into his sweet eyes.

"My-my name is Noah, I'm five years old," he says, shaking. I lean towards him, he wraps his tiny arms around my neck. 

I pull back, "Come with me, do you know your mom's phone number?" I ask him, grabbing his hand as we walk to Aero waiting in the cab. 

"Hey this is Noah, we need to call his mom," I tell Aero, as I life Noah into the cab. 

"Okay, come on little guy," he says in a sweet, father-like voice, so different than he normally is. I get in the front seat.

"Back to the market please," I say. We slowly drive through the night, Noah stares out the window, fascinated at the beautiful lights. I gaze out into the darkness, wondering what happened with the mysterious man in black. We arrive back at the market, the lights still bright and the sounds of laughter still as loud as it was when they had left. Aero picks up Noah, cradling as he begins to fall asleep. We called his mom in the taxi, telling her to meet at at the pizza restaurant. We walk inside, it is full of customers. I turn around, there she is, a woman in her 30's sitting by herself at a table for two. Her brown hair falls down her shoulders. I point her and the three of us go over to her. 

"Hello, ma'am. You're Noah's mom, correct?" I ask, crouching down to her eye level. 

"Um, yes, how did you know," she asks me, with a shocked look on her face. 

"Oh, well, in your purse there's a small child's jacket, it looks like the one he's wearing now-that could've been a coincidence, but the label inside it said 'Noah'," I say, barely breathing. Her eyes look confused, she looks down at her purse, she closes it.

"So you two have my son?" she says, hopefully. Aero turns around, putting Noah into his mother's lap.

"Oh my goodness, I can't believe it, thank you two so much," she replies, hugging Noah with all her might.

Aero and I both slightly smile, say 'no problem' and leave her and her son in the restaurant, caught up in the moment. 

Aero smiles, "Come on, Deya, let's go home," he says, staring into the starry night sky. I follow him to a cab, and we get in. I close my eyes, what was that thing? A mythical creature? Or just my eyes playing tricks on me? The taxi drives down the bumpy roads, and turns into our flat on 223B Sheron Avenue. We get out, pay the fee, and slowly stroll into the house. 

"Hello Mrs. Scott," I say, calling up the stairs. 

"Hello, dear, hope you had a good night, its very late now," she says, dusting off her old grand piano. 

"Yes, there was a kidnapping, now everyone shut up I need to think," I reply, storming up the stairs into my flat. 

"Nice to see you too," she calls behind me, rollin her eyes. 

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Scott, you know what she's like," Aero says apologetically. 

"Yes, I do. Do you know if she has any friends, or has anyone at all?" she asks Aero, worriedly.

"Not that I know of, no she doesn't," he says, sighing, "I'll talk to her about it."

"Thanks, and good night, dear," Mrs. Scott says one last time before she closes her door and goes to bed. 

"Hey, Deya, you wanna find out more about the case tomorrow morning?" asks Aero not knowing that I'm three steps ahead of him. 

He turns the corner, "So is that a no?" he looks through all the rooms, to find a small note on the fridge, and the window next to it, left ajar. 'Be back soon, on a case', reads the letter. Aero slumps down in his big arm chair, shaking his head at Deya, putting his shoes back on for the nighttime adventure. 

I jump out the window, and run across the park nearby to the corn field where we saved the little boy. I walk through the field, quietly. I hear a small rustling behind me, I turn around slowly, to see that it's just Aero, who followed me here. 

"Before you say anything just don't, be quiet," I whisper to him. We walk through the corn field together, pondering about the weird man in black. We walk to the small industrial building, the truck is now gone, only leaving behind deep tracks in the mud. 

"Look at this Deya, do you know where the truck could've been from?" Aero asks, excitedly. 

"Yeah, I'll measure the residual compounds left on the mud and compare them to other  locations," I reply taking out a small chunk of dirt from the ground, and put it into a small plastic bag. 

"Come on, we're going to the lab," I say, running away from Aero once again. He quickly gets up and dashes on behind me. 

We arrive at the lab, finding Cora deep in her studies about cell mutation. Aero knocks on the door quietly. She looks up at him, her eyes light up as bright as day. He smiles at her. I roll my eyes at them, and push myself through to the microscope. 

"I'm using the microscope, I announce to Cora and Aero, who are stuck in their own world of staring into each other's eyes.

"Huh? Sorry, what Deya?" Cora awakes from her daydream, and walks back over to me slowly.

"I said I'm using the microscope," I say, again, a little louder this time. 

"You changed your hairstyle, Aero," I tell him, not looking away from the small chunk of dirt.

"What, excuse me?" He asks, shocked.

"Before we came in, your hairstyle sucked, you changed it before you saw Cora," I say, smirking slightly. Aero and Cora exchange glances, both blushing. 

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure that was just a coincidence," he says, nervously chuckling. I look back at the chunk of dirt under the microscope.

"Okay, Cora, look at this," I say, as she quickly runs over to the computer. "It looks like there are traces of cellulose, plastic, small chunks of brick, and plant leaves."

"Yeah, it does, I'll look up places that match up with all of those with industrial building and warehouses," Cora replies excitedly.

"I'm already on it," I say, sternly, "In Brandenburg, the only large cities that contain brick are in Kreuzberg, Bad Belzig, and Frankfurt."

"Oh, okay then," Cora says, rolling her eyes at me, thinking I don't see her. 

"They all have all the other elements that you found in the dirt," she says to me, proudly.

"Yes, now our man in black wouldn't travel as far away from Berlin as Frankfurt or Bad Belzig, and Kreuzberg is 45 minute away, that's where it is," I reply, without taking a breath. I storm past Aero and Cora, and slam the door shut behind me.

"You're welcome," Cora yells after me, glaring at Aero.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," Aero replies, hustling after me, flashing a sweet smile at her before the door closes.  

I run as fast as I can through the silent streets of Berlin. The moon slowly sinks into the ground, and the sun inches towards the sky. I hear Aero running behind me.

"Could you just wait for me once, once?" He says, gasping for air. 

"My thoughts will leave me if I don't," I reply, not even apologizing. We jog to the bus stop and sit down. We sit in silence for the next ten minutes. 

"So, what are you thinking?" Aero asks me.

"Shhh, do we want to find this guy or not," I reply, full of annoyance.

"Right, sorry of course," he says, clearly offended.

The bus to Kreuzberg rumbles along the street, and stops for us. We get on, sit down, and once again become silent for the ride. Why was the mans' complete figure becoming misshapen? I never thought something like that could be possible. This will change everything we know, I think to myself. 

"Next stop, in 5 minutes, is Kreuzberg. Please prepare for the stop," says the announcer, in a robot voice. Aero, a young woman with a small child, a man with his hood draped over his face, and I all get up. I look at Aero, the small child, standing behind his mother, and the man. Aero understands my panic, we slowly walk in front of the man, between him and the child. We create smalltalk with the mother, and the man behind us tries to walk around us to the front of the bus. 

"Now stopping at Station 5 in Kreuzberg," says the announcer again. 

"Come on, let's go home honey," the mother says to her daughter. We all get off, making sure that the man doesn't follow the mom. He finally gives up, sighs and runs off in the opposite direction. 

"Come on, now," I say, finally letting Aero know that we're leaving.

"Okay, thank you!" He replies, running on behind me. The man weaves through alleyways, not knowing that we are on his tail. He abruptly stops, and looks behind him, he spots us. I look to Aero and we both dart after the man. The mysterious person keeps getting further away from us. We both dash behind him, trying to get closer. My heart beats faster and louder every second that we run. I can't contain my excitement, we almost got this guy, I think. My curiosity forces me to try and run faster than humanly possible to catch up to the now-getting-further-away man. We jump over crates and dumpsters, in a full-on chase. 

"Oh no, a corner, Deya we can't lose him," Aero yells at me, his hair fluttering in the wind. The man in black turns two corners at an intersection, we’re too far behind. We turn the corners, and he's gone, we slow down. 

"No!" Is scream as I punch the brick wall in frustration.

“Hey, Deya, calm down, we’ll get him,” Aero says, bending over, panting in short, sharp breaths. I kick a box in anger, and as I look down I see a wrinkled piece of paper, I pick it up, barely wet, smells like new parchment, ink bled through the paper only slightly. I open it, the words "new assignment" are scrawled over it. I open the envelope, it already been ripped open, and is empty. I look to the corner of the paper, "Germany's Finest Quality Restaurant", is printed in the corner. I run back the way we came, not telling Aero anything, once again. We run back to the bus station, right in time for another bus to stop for us, and take us to the restaurant. Snow begins to slowly fall down from the pitch black night sky, the bus doors close on the icy air, and the bus drives off, once again, for not the last time this night.

About 20 minutes later, we finally arrive at the restaurant. We get off the bus, after paying our five euro fee. Together, we walk in the snow, bundled up in our thickest jackets. 

"Hello, do you have a reservation?" Asks the doorman politely, as another one holds the door open for us. 

"Um, yes we do," I reply, completely improvising. 

"And what time would that be at, ma'am?" He asks.

"The latest time, at midnight," I reply, as Aero tries to not act nervous.

"Yes, we love having a late dinner," Aero says, joining in. 

"Yes, I'm sure you do," the doorman replies, trying not to yawn.

"Do you want us to come back tomorrow for dinner if it's too late?" Aero asks him, clearly tired himself. 

"No, that won't be necessary, we would never require Mr. and Mrs. Schneider to reschedule," he apologizes quickly and leads us through the door. He sits us down at our table.

"We have your requested wine ready for you," announces a waitress, walking up to the table, "we will also be serving you an appetizer of a small salad, a main course of tenderloin steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. The desert will be served alongside a small glass of champagne and chocolate lava cake." 

I look at Aero, "Well yes that's great," I reply, wondering how long it will take to find this guy, before the real Mr. and Mrs. Schneider visit the restaurant. The waitress nods and heads off towards to kitchen to grab orders for another table. Aero and I stare at each other, I can see the nervousness in his eyes. I look around, trying to find someone who has a sigh of 'My shift is about to start' or 'I'm just waiting for someone else'. 

"So, how are you doing?" Aero asks, folding the black napkin across his lap. 

"Um, I'm good?" I say, observing every move made by every person in the restaurant. A chubby waiter comes out of the swinging kitchen doors holding a platter with two small salads on it. His clothes aren't done very nicely, for this restaurant, he could be fires if someone saw his terrible tie-knotting job. Out of his pocket I see a small piece of paper. He comes over to our table slowly, maneuvering his way through the tables. 

I give Aero a death glare. He notices whats up. I swing a pair of sunglasses over my eyes, just incase this really is our man in black. 

"So, for you two I have two small caesar salads with iceberg lettuce, asparagus, cranberries, and gluten free croutons, just like you asked," he says in a very sarcastically nice voice. He puts the bowls down harshly, and begins to leave.

"Um, kind sir, could we have a water refill please?" I ask quickly. 

"Yes, I'll be back in one second," he replies, plastering on a fake smile. I smile back and gulp down half my water as fast as I possibly can. 

"Well, here you go, ma'am," he pours water into my glass. I unnoticeably knock the glass over with my hand.

"Oh my! I am so sorry mister, let me get that glass for you," I say bending down, picking up the glass. 

"Ahhhh! The waiter mutters, as he pats himself dry. Aero calls for another waiter to help us.

"Could we get some more towels please?" He asks, staring at me, trying to see why I'm causing this huge dilemma. The second waiter nods and rushes off in the opposite direction and quickly comes back with a big towel. The mess is cleaned up almost instantly, and we go back to having Mr. and Mrs. Schneider's food. 

"I think we are going to be done early," I tell the doorman, just coming in. 

"Okay, is there a specific reason?" He says politely.

"No, our eyes were just bigger than our stomachs I guess," Aero chimes in, as he gets up from the table.

" Okay, of course, you pre-paid so, come follow me back outside," the doorman says, pulling out my chair for me.

"Thank you, the food was amazing, we'll definitely come back again!" Shouts Aero through the closing doors. 

We get back onto another bus. Aero rubs his hands together quickly, as if making a fire. 

"So, what was the whole spilling water thing about?" He asks, pulling his hat off. 

"What? You didn't see? he had a piece of paper in his pocket and I wanted to see what it said. Now we are going to the small town condos 10 minutes from the restaurant." 

"Okay? And why? Did we get the right person?" He says, in a weird high pitched voice.

"Um, I just said we are going to his apartment, do you not listen?" I say, rolling my eyes at the reflection of him in the bus window. 

"Okay then," he replies, sighing and shaking his head at me. I keep staring out the window, I wonder, what am I going to do when I find this guy? Say 'We saw you kidnapping this child'? No, first, we have to be one hundred percent sure its him, I'll just put him under pressure and see if the same thing happens to his body. Then, I am going to find the heck is going on with his body, because well, that's just creepy. 

"Deya, Deya, hello, anybody home? When's our stop?" Aero asks, waving his hand in front of my face, ripping me out of my thought bubble. 

"35 Motzstraße floor 4," I snap back at him for no reason at all. 

I look around, "Well, is this it?" I ask.

"No, it isn't, it's in two stops," he replies, slumping back down in his seat. He takes his hat, and his gloves off again, and starts to read a small brochure about the city. The bus finally rattles to another stop, 'Motzstraße'. Aero and I hop off into the white street, pulling on our hats and our fluffiest gloves. 

"So, Deya, what are you planning to do when we get there, is it even him? I mean what if we just show up, at one in the morning, he's not at home, we go through his stuff, and it's not even the right person?" Aero rambles on and on as we walk towards the small, grey apartment building. 

"Will you shut up? I have everything under control, and yes, it is the right person. His height, shoe size, weight, and his looks were exactly the same. Plus, I put a tracking device on him while we got of the first bus at the restaurant," I say quickly, as we turn into the driveway of the apartment. 

"Wow! You couldn't have told me that before? Thanks for letting me know the details!" Aero replies angrily huffing like a wolf. I roll my eyes at him, yet again. 

"Come on," I say, pushing him forwards,"look, someone just moved here, the name is not replaced," I push the button.

"Umm, hello?" Says a young woman.

"Hello, I'm you're neighbor, I don't think we have met," I reply, in a sweet teacher-like voice.

"Oh yes, I just moved here two days ago, do you want me to let you in?" She asks.

"Yes that would be fantastic!" I reply thankfully. Aero and I walk in. 

"How did you know?" Aero asks astonished.

"Common sense, no one replaces the names after they've just moved," I reply arrogantly.

"Why do you have to be so arrogant all the time? For all I know, you could've used you're instincts, or you're high-functioning brain!" Aero yells as we walk up the stairs.

"You're just jealous, don't be, being boring and not caring seems so relaxing," I reply, pulling a bobby pin out of my hair. I rattle the pin in the door lock, until click, I push it and it opens slowly. Aero keeps pouting as we walk in the room quietly. The room is an absolute mess. Weird science magazines are strewn all over the coffee table and couches    and it smells of too strong cologne. 

"Yuck, it smells disgusting in here, aren't you glad I don't wear stuff this strong," Aero says, chuckling looking through the bookshelves, having already completely forgotten a reason to be mad at me. 

"Yeah, well I would've replaced your cologne if it smelled like that," I reply, rummaging through old CDs and DVDs. 

"Hey, Deya, I think I got something. Look at this," Aero says, walking over to me holding a old crumpled piece of paper. 

"What? Wait, is that a theory on how cells mutate? Doesn't Cora do that stuff too?" I ask, immediately snapping pictures of the paper.

"Yeah, she does, do you want me to call her?" He says, concerned. 

"We will go to her house tomorrow, she's probably asleep, its already 2 in the morning," I reply, slouching back down onto his science magazines and images of random little shapes. 

"Hey, wait, Deya let me take a picture of all the images, from what Ir remember Cora telling me those are images of cells," Aero says, pushing past me, snapping pictures from as many angels as he can get.

"Oh, you were with Cora?" I ask, annoyed.

"Oh, yeah, I went to her lab the other day to see how she was doing," he replies, slightly blushing. I roll my eyes at him. 

"Stop, don't move, run, the guy is coming back," I whisper to Aero, he drops the paper and runs out the door, and up the staircase. I run behind him and lock the door. Then I dash to the nearest window. I yank it open, crewel out of it, and jump onto the small allege underneath it. I lock the window from behind me and jump off of the window and into the snow. I land, rolling down over and over again, until I finally stop, face down with a bunch of snow in my face and down the front of my jacket. 

"Deya! Are you okay?" Aero shouts at me as he comes running from the stairwell. 

"Hey, Deya, you all good?" He asks, helping me up and brushing the snow off of my jacket. He wraps my arms around his body as I don't reply. We hobble to the main street closest to the apartments and Aero hails a cab as my eyes slowly open again. 

"Hey, Deya, does anything hurt?" Asks Aero, relieved of my awakening. 

"My ankle and wrist hurt," I reply, leaning against his shoulder in the back of the taxi. 

"Okay, we'll get you some ice on those when we get home and tomorrow you can sleep in as long as you want," Aero, says, comforting me. My eyes slowly droop back down, pushing me into a deep sleep that is ruined by Aero's calming voice, waking me up at our front door. 

"Thank y ouzo much for driving us, here's the money, you can keep the change," Aero says quietly, lugging me out of the car.

"I can walk on my own," I say, sighing, "come on, lets go to bed, I need to think about all this."

The smell of sweet pastries and coffee wakes me up. I rub my eyes, and look at the clock, it reads 9:57 am. 

I jump up, "Aero! Why didn't you wake me up? It's so late, when where you planning to work on this case?" 

"First of all, you are welcome for the amazing food, and good morning, how nice it is to see you today," Aero says, in a too-happy-for-waking-up-this-late voice. 

I stand up to grab my coffee cup from Aero's hands, "Ahh, my ankle."

"Oh yeah you can't forget about that, next time, let me know when you're going to jump out of a window on the FOURTH FLOOR of an apartment complex!" Aero yells. I don't mind because I know he yells because he cares. 

"Ugh, its fine, at least we got some new information, have you called Cora yet? When are we going to the lab?" I ask, walking out of my room together with Aero, we sit down at the cluttered dining room table.

"Well, I called her, and she said we can come around 11, so we better hurry," he replies, stuffing a fresh croissant into his mouth.

"Okay, fine, we can wait until 11 to work on the case," I say, grumbling. I grab a croissant, dip it into my coffee, and take a huge bite.

"Oh my goodness, it's so good!" I say, feasting on my croissant.

"You're welcome, I got up at 8 to buy the food for us, I'm still so tired, you have to promise me that we'll go to bed earlier than 2:30 in the morning today, okay?" He asks, his eyes slowly falling shut again. 

"We will see, it all depends on if you have a brain that works correctly today," I reply, eating as much as I can.

"Haha, very funny," Aero replies, grinning at me, and rolling his eyes at the same time.

"You know, for the amount of times that you roll your eyes, I would have thought that you would have found brain back their, but I guess not," I say, glaring into his eyes. 

"Wow! Shots fired, you don't have to be all rude about me not being as smart as you, sheesh!" He replies, his mouth open, in shock at what had just come out of my mouth. 

About 30 minutes later, we walk up the cold hallways of the lab that Cora works at. 

"So, how are you and Cora doing?" I ask, trying to bring up conversation. 

"We're good, why do you ask?" He asks me, looking confused.

"Oh, well it doesn't take a person who is super smart to notice that you guys like each other," I reply, sounding a little too jealous.

"What? No! Cora and I? That's not something that's going to be happening anytime soon," He says, chuckling slightly.

"What? Really, well you sure do make it seem like you do, if you don't stop acting like it, she really likes you, and trust me, I know what that feels like to not have someone like you back, it sucks," I reply, arching for the doorknob to Cora's lab. 

"Really, you've liked someone? I didn't think it was possible, hey everyone, Deya is a human who has feelings, who knew?" He says, joking around.

"But really, stop acting like you're in love with Cora if you aren't, it'll come back to hurt you eventually," I say, rolling my eyes at his dry humor.

"Okay, fine! I didn't even realize that I acted like that," he says holding his hands in the air, as if confronted by the cops.  I swing the door open, to find Cora deep in her studies, looking into a microscope.

"Hey, can you help us?" I ask, she looks up at me.

"Oh yeah, of course! So Aero sent me images of the pictures and well, these are just pictures of cells," she replies, zooming in on the computer image. 

"Is there anything that is weird about this? I saw this man start to shrink and change form infant of my eyes, his face was shaking back and forth so fast, I couldn't focus on him," I tell, her looking closer at the picture, as if I understood the image.

"Oh! Really, that is so strange! I'll look at some cells under the microscope to see if they have a similar structure, because the only thing that I would say is weird is that there are two people's cells in this, but that's not possible," she says, now realizing this vital information. Aero and I sit down on the ground, and wait while Cora works her magic on the microscope. After about one and a half hours, Aero gets up and walks around.

"So, Cora have you found anything yet?" Aero asks her, rubbing his eyes.

"Um, wait, almost got it, and yes! I just put some chemicals imported from T.E.S.S. labs into the cell mixture, and now, suddenly the cells are reforming themselves, they are completely changing how they look!" Cora says, taking off her goggles. 

"Do you think that this man stole the mixture from T.E.S.S. labs to do this to his cells?" Aero asks, trying to sound smart.

"Well, come on let's find out! Cora, text Aero the address now please, and thank you, goodbye!" I shout as I run out of the lab, and back down all the hallways and staircases we had climbed up about 2 hours ago. Aero comes running after me, we walk out of the science industry doors, breathing heavily. 

"What's the address?" I ask, running to the sidewalk to hail a cab.

"It's Industry Building 247, Kreuzberger Road, so not too far from here," he answers just in time, a taxi comes rolling up to us on the street. We get in and ride in the car for about 20 minutes, in complete silence, my brain works and works, trying to connect the dots of how and why this man would need this chemical to somehow mutate him into looking different. Finally, we arrive at our destination.

"Come on Deya, snap out of it, we are here," Aero says, unbuckling himself and handing the taxi driver his money. I get out of the car, wave to the taxi driver and slam the door shut. Aero and I walk through the jumbles of people. We finally reach T.E.S.S. labs, we are greeted by a young woman.

"What are you two looking for?" She asks politely.

"Um, we are looking for the storage room, to see if anything was stolen recently," Aero replies.

The lady looks at us confused, "Are you sure? we have high security here, and do you have badges only advised personnel are allowed into storage."

"Yes, we are sure," I say back to her, pulling out the cell pictures, "we are scientists who are conducting an experiment, and we have some questions."

"Oh, okay then, follow me," she says to us, leading us both through the giant building, in several hallways and finally into a big, spacious room filled with technology and piles of weird started projects. 

"Mr. Meier? Are you there?" The lady asks. Suddenly, out of the corner of the room appears a man, in his 60's.

"Yes, I am, who are these two wonderful scientists?" He asks, brushing dust off of his lab coat. 

"My name is Aero, and this is my friend Deya, we have some questions about a particular chemical and the storage here at T.E.S.S. labs," Aero says confidently.

"Okay then, thank you for bringing them up here, Angela," he says, sending the woman away.

"Mr. Meier, could you look at this image please? Our friend helped us figure out that it was an image of cells, and then she added a chemical, that was imported from here, the cells then completely changed their forms, and multiplied, how is this possible, and are you aware if anything was stolen from your storage as of late?" I ramble on and on, until I can't breathe anymore. 

"Wow, yes I can look at the image, and I believe the chemical you were talking about-we do have it here, and it is a prototype that my colleagues and I have been working on a lot recently, I can go check if it was stolen-this would be very bad news, though," he replies quickly. Aero and I follow Mr. Meier back through the hallways we came from, and take a right turn into a small, dark room full of vials and containers labeled with odd names. Mr.      Meier rummages though a bunch of shelves until he finds the correct spot. Until, he looks at where it should be, and surely, it's gone. He turns around, his eyes open wide, and his mouth drops down to the floor.

"No, it can't be gone this is terrible!" He exclaims.

"Yup, just as we thought, can you please help us find a way to stop this person do whatever he's trying to accomplish?" I ask.

"Yes, let's go to the lab, hurry now!" Mr. Meier says, running back to the lab. 

We all walk run back to the lab. Mr. Meier immediately sits down and starts looking through all his manuals and notes on his computer to try and find anything that might help him find a weakness to the chemical. Aero and I find no way to help him, we just sit down on the floor of the lab, and again wait, and wait, and wait. It seems as if we sit there for hours. All I do is think, I turn around and see Aero slumped over on the ground, asleep. 

More time passes when finally, "Guys, I got it, the main ingredient in the chemical is very weak when put against anything that may be humid or wet, so bring him into something like a greenhouse," Mr. Meier says sighing, tired of all the work he just put himself through.

"Great, lets find this kidnapping-transformer," Aero says, he runs off into the hallway. I turn to look at Mr. Meier, confused, this is how Aero must feel all the time, oops, I think to myself.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Meier," I say before I run behind Aero to catch up with him. I quickly find Aero, waiting outside for me.

"So are we going to just wait until we get a message that there is a kidnapping happening or what?" Aero asks me, walking towards the bus station.

"That is exactly what we are going to do, I already let Greg at the police station know that if he finds out anything, that he has to text us immediately," I respond, as we jump up onto the bus, and pay the driver.

"Okay then, so we have some time to relax, that's great," Aero says sitting down in a seat. I turn around and sit down next to him.

"So, what are we going to do while we wait?" I ask, and turn around to face him, "oh, never mind, you're already asleep." I take off my hat, make a timer for when we have to get off and, slump down onto Aero's shoulder. I slowly fall asleep to the light scent of cologne coming from his jacket.

Beep beep, beeeep, beep beep.

My alarm sounds quietly. I slowly come to consciousness. I rub my eyes, and look outside, sure enough, it's our stop. 

"Aero, get up, now!" I shout in his ear, abruptly waking him up from his sweet dreams. 

"Huh? I'm coming," he says, stumbling up from his seat and out the doorway into the cold weather, the wind biting at our ears. 

We get inside our house, turn on our fireplace, and sit down with some warm tea, cuddled up in piles of blankets, watching the snowflakes fall, and thinking of all that has happened in the last few days. Once again, Aero and I both fall soundly asleep next to each other. As soon as I fall into a deep sleep, I begin dreaming. I dream about everything. 

I see a strange man in walking to work, he walks past a newsstand, the date is from two weeks ago. The man walks far away, so far I can barely see him anymore, and then I see him so clearly once again. He looks up to see a light cloud coming out of the lab.He runs into the lab, he hides in a small closet, and locks it shut from the inside. Panting, he sits in the closet, gasping for air, sweat drips down his forehead, and his hands cover his head. The ground rumbles, a wave of something travels through the building, employees scramble for shelter. The man scrunches down into as small of a ball as he can go. The wave hits the closet and rattles the door so hard, that the lock unhinges, the doors fly away, and the man opens his eyes, a huge fear wells up inside them. He struggles to stay in the closet, and finally he gives up , screaming he falls out of the closet, being submerged by the yellow-orange glow. He falls on the floor, gasping for air, his arms scramble as he picks himself off of the ground. As he stands up, his curly brown hair turns black and straight, he suddenly grows seven inches, and has an evil look in his eye. He storms off through the building once again, he passes his laptop on the way out, he quickly grabs it, I glance at the date, it reads 8:27 am, Tuesday, September 15th 2018.

"Hey Deya! Deya, wake up are you okay?" Aero says, abruptly waking me up from my intense dream. His arms are wrapped around me.

"You were screaming in your sleep, is everything okay, did you have another 'time dream'?" Aero asks me, worry filling up his eyes.

"Yeah, I did, I had another 'time dream', it was about the man in black, I think this is really going to help us, also Aero, I didn't mean to scare you, the dream was so weird, thanks for worrying about me," I say to him. Aeros eyes open wide, and his eyebrows furrow when I tell him that I'm sorry.

"Hey, I can be nice once in a while, can't I?" I say jokingly hitting him in the shoulder. 

"Owww! So tell about this dream of yours," he asks, I continue to tell him the whole dream in great detail, he takes notes while I talk. His mediocre brain can't hold information as easily as mine can. About an hour passes in the time that I tell him my dream. I get up and grab myself a bag of chips. 

"Wow, Deya, good job on this one, now we know why this man transformed in front of your eyes! There was a wave of the chemical that Mr. Meier had transported to almost all of the research facilities across Kreuzberg, it hit this man, and because he was exposed to it so much, his cells transformed, and mutated to what he looks like now, but how is the man we are following bald?" Aero rambles on and on, he finally finishes and gasps for air.

"Well, if he worked in a research facility, he must have been exposed to more chemicals, which could have maybe allowed him to just constantly switch to look like anyone," I say, eating my chips in front of his face. He looks at me deeply, trying to comprehend what I just said.

"That make a lot of sense actually," he replies, sticking his hadn't into my chip bag, "come on, they can't be just for you, we both won't his apartment, remember that."

"Hey, they are my chips, not yours!" I reply, laughing for the first time in a long time. Aero then proceeds to rip the chip bag out of my hands, and runs away through the kitchen, eating my chips. I laugh again, roll my eyes, and decide to let him have them, he deserves something for the amount of times that I tease and make fun of him. Hours go by, still no message from the police. Aero is quite happy about this. He makes us more tea, puts on a Christmas movie, and pulls out a 1000 piece puzzle for us to do.

"Aero, come on, we really need to focus on the case right now," I say, reaching for the remote.

"No, all you do everyday is work, work, work, its time that you did something fun," Aero replies, snatching away the remote from my hands. 

"Ugh, fine, I give in," I say, holding my hands in the air. Aero laughs at me, and pours out the puzzle pieces onto the coffee table. I look at Aero, smiling, how does this guy not have a girlfriend? He is so kind, and good looking, and has a great personality, I think. Crap, do I like his guy? No, I can't he is my roommate and my business partner, I can't like him. 

He looks up at me, and smiles, "Come one, are yo ironing to help me or not?" 

"Oh, yeah sure," I say, slightly blushing. I pick up the puzzle pieces slowly. I wonder if he likes me too? I mean he is so nice to me, and he doesn't like Cora, that's for sure. It would be nice to date him, we already know so much about each other, I mean, we will see what happens. He takes care of me though, he helped me when I hurt my leg, and he just seems like he cares a lot about me. My mind travels through all the possibilities of me and Aero being together, they all seem nice. 

Finally, my phone vibrates rapidly. I pick it up, a text from the police station, there has been a sighting of a man in black lurking around the city parks.

"Aero, get up, the police finally found something, grab your jacket, let's go," I yell, jumping up for the couch. Aero jumps up behind me, only stopping to turn off the fireplace. We dash outside, and just in time, a cab rolls by on the road. 

We get in quickly, "Take us to Park at Gleisdreieck, and go as fast as you can," I say to the driver. I look down at my ankle, I completely forgot about it, it throbs with pain, I can feel it swelling more and more. I grab my ankle, and rub it. 

Aero looks at me, "Hey is your ankle doing okay?" 

"No, I forgot about it, but now it really hurts a lot, its fine though,"  I say, clearly in pain.

"No, I got this, as soon as we get back home, I will put an ice pack and some healing ointment on it, okay?" He says, reassuring me. We pull up into the park, pay the taxi driver and jump out of the car. We walk to a bench in the park that overlooks all the slides, the swing sets, and the sandbox. Not many people are around, but then a gain, its 28 degrees outside. Still, there are about three families, with young children, that run around in their winter jackets. 

"Look, I found him, look over a three o'clock," Aero whispers. I turn unnoticeably, and sure enough there he is, walking around on the paths covered in snow. Lucky for us, if he runs we can still follow his tracks. The man starts walking over closer to the children running around. Aero grabs me as we stand up, trying to help my ankle not have pressure on it as we walk. The man keeps getting closer the the little girl in pigtails. The father of the child looks away quickly to take care of his son. The man looks around, we quickly turn away to not make it obvious we are watching him, and he takes the girl as fast as he can and covers her mouth so she can't even cry for help. HE begins running.

"Hey! Stop that, now!" Aero shouts as loudly as he can.

"Lizzy? Hey, honey where did you go?" The father says, nervously.

"That man took her, call the 112, now," Aero says, he turns around and I am already gone, stumbling after the man in the snow. He had already turned multiple corners when Aero and the father carrying the little boy come running behind me. 

"Where did he go!" The young father screams, anger and fear building up in his eyes and voice. 

"Lizzy, scream as loud as you can," Aero says, running past me as fast as he possibly can, his feet kick up snow and ice behind him, as soon asI saw him, he is gone, chasing the kidnapper around the city. 

"Come on, keep going run that way, try to cut him off, we know where he's going! Go to the old industrial building off of 8th Street, " I shout the the little boy and the father. The man then runs off straight, running as fast as his legs will carry him. The little boy suddenly stops and falls down in his tracks. I keep running until I hear a small voice crying for help.

"Hello, lady please help, I'm tired," he says, crying form the snow that has gotten into his jacket. I stop and turn around to this little 7 year old boy laying on the ground behind me. I roll my eyes, but still I grab him by the armpits and lift him up, stroking the snow off his face and jacket. 

"Come on, we are gonna go get your sister," I say, for once realizing that, maybe I don't need to be closed of and mean to everyone all the time. I rest him on my hip for two seconds to catch my breath and rub my ankle. Then, I grab him as tightly as I possibly can, and I run off, following the dad, it being the shorter way to the buildings. I see an empty taxi drive along the street slowly. I punch my hand in the air, waving to the cab driver. The woman understands, and comes driving towards us. I sit the little boy on my lap, and buckle ourselves in.

"The industrial buildings now, GO! There is a kidnapping happening leave, now!" I yell at her, my veins in my face bulging, my hands grab the boy's arms. The woman driving the cabs' eyes open and her jaw drops, she presses down on the gas pedal as hard as she can and skids off towards the buildings. It feels like 30 seconds that we are in the cab until we have already reached the buildings. I burst the door open, grab the child, and run.

"I'll pay you later, just wait, or come with us, I don't care, we need help," I shout to the girl in the cab. She parks the taxi, jumps up, and comes sprinting behind me. We run together until, we reach the dirt road by the cornfield. We look around, trying to find the girl. I grab my phone and dial Aero's number.

"Deya, we're coming up on the buildings, I am so tired, we still have him, he's running to the corn field, Lizzy's dad is fast, man, he is on the guy's tail," he says, panting so hard it sounds like he is about to faint. I hang up on him.

"Go over there, in the cornfield, the guys right there, we'll cut him off!" I shout the the young, blonde girl. She nods and runs into the field, completely blending in. The man in black runs through in to the field, still barely holding the girl by her waist, she fights against his grasp. She may be young, but she isn't stupid, she hits her tiny arms and legs against the man's body. He grunts against her hits, also gasping for air. I circle around him.

"Stop moving NOW!" I scream at him. Out of the corner of my eye I see that the police have finally showed up, they sneak up, guns in hand. The man stops in his tracks, turn around, and shakes his head. His black face mask is now white, covered in snow. Aero, the dad, the young woman, and I, who is still holding the little boy have cut off the man's way out, he sighs and shakes his head.

"Really? Are you kidding me? You are all so dumb," he says before turning around again, and running off further in to the field. I put down the boy, who runs to be with this father. I sprint off as fast I possibly can, completely ignoring my throbbing ankle, I see the man close to me. I sneak up to him, just as the taxi driver jumps out and cuts him off. He turns around, and there I stand behind corn, leading ten police offers behind me. 

I jump out at him, "NO, you're the dumb one," I say smugly. The police all advance toward him.

"Put down the little girl, now, put your hands in the air, and get on the ground," says a police officer through a megaphone ,the sounds rings through the air. 

"Gahh, why, why?" He says, he grabs little Lizzy, and everything begins to move in slow motion, throws her. The taxi driver screams, along with me. I jump in the air, and catch Lizzy, who is crying. I land and roll onto the ground, spraying the white, cold snow into the air as I am grasping Lizzy as tight as I possibly can. The man finally gives up, he puts his hands in the air, and kneels onto the snow. The police come in closer slowly, their weapons still ready, their fingers hovering over the triggers. The man in black tries to get up. One police officer, obviously still a rookie, takes this as a threat and fires. Again, the world slows down. 

"STOP!" I scream as I lunge myself in front of the man, out of instinct, not wanting him to die. I could've pushed him out of the way and not gotten hurt, but, well I decided differently. Everything suddenly speeds up again. I land on the ground with a loud thud. 

"What were you thinking? This is why I didn't want a rookie on this case!" The head police officer yells at the new officer. 

Lizzy, still laying on the ground sobs her eyes out. Her father runs to her, picks Lizzy and his son up and walks away. At least they are safe, that's all that matters, I think. I flop over onto my back, weirdly, in silence, through all the pain of a bullet going into the side of my stomach, no sound is able to escape me. Aero, who was safely guarded from the police comes sprinting through the people.

"Deya!" he shouts as he comes and slides down next to me, the police officers speak into their walkie-talkies, demanding an ambulance. Other officers calm down the poor taxi driver. The rookie officer, runs to get gauze to hold on my wound. She comes and sits down next to me.

"I'm so sorry, I'll pay for the insurance," she says, sniffling. Aero pushes her aside, and grabs the gauze from her. 

"Deya, stay with me, come on, stay with me please!" He shouts. He beings to sob as he holds me in the snow. 

Finally, I open my eyes, I can hear Aero's voice shouting through loud sobs. The world is a haze. 

Snow begins to fall, "Aero, look, snow," I say, reaching my hand in the air with all the strength that I have left. He slightly laughs, his eyes stained red. The ambulance still hasn't arrived, it feels like it has been two years since they called for it. 

"The ambulance isn't coming fast enough, we need your taxi!" Aero says, wiping his eyes. He bends down, grabs me under my legs and shoulders. He carries me to the ambulance. I get laid down across the back row of the taxi seats. My legs drape over Aero. My eyes begin drooping lower and lower. All I see is lights, and Aeros face, his straight brown hair falls down over his forehead. He grabs my hand and squeezes it. We begin moving, Aero sits next to me, watching everything. The taxi speeds through the streets, heading for the nearest hospital. Aero keeps talking to me as much as he can, to keep my eyes from closing. Tears roll down my cheeks. I think, I will die. Why did I risk my life to save that idiot kidnapper? Maybe there is good in me, I'm not all ignorance and smartness. I can't start a family. I finally found what I want, and now I won't be able to have it. Aero, I will never see him again, never experience what it could be like to be with him. The last thing I remember is the tires squeaking into the hospital parking lot, big lights flashing, people running around to try and help me.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. 

Again, I wake up to beeping noises. My eyes slowly rise up, revealing that I am in a small, white hospital room. My eyes open up all the way. I groan, feeling a soreness in my stomach. IV's are in my arms, needles, that's the one thing I can't deal with. I look up, there he is, Aero, curled up in a small ball in a chair. The sun falls down onto his face. His eyes blink quickly, and then open. In the light, his bright blue eyes look like pools of ocean water. He turns to me, rubbing his eyes, not thinking that I am awake. His gaze falls on me. His face lights up with a huge, wide smile. He jumps up and gets to me. His arms embrace me, filling me with joy. He laughs as happy tears stroll down his tan face. 

"How are you alive? The doctors said there was barely a chance you'd make it," he says, looking at me.

"Well I guess I'm a fighter to stay for people I love," I reply, smiling for the first time in a while. 

"Wow, I've never seen that expression before, I thought you were just cold to the bone," Aero says, walking to the door to call a doctor. The doctor comes in, looks surprised, and does a bunch of tests on me. 

"You will stay here for two more days or until you're completely stable, and then we will send you home with a wheelchair. Also, you will have physical therapy everyday so you can actually walk," says the doctor as she measures millions of things about my body. 

"Okay, fine, what happened though ,why does my stomach hurt so much?" I ask.

"Um, Deya, you were shot," Aero says, leaning over to hold my hand. 

"I was shot? I'm fine though, we need to keep working on the case, I need to find out about the guy," I say, fighting the doctor's request. 

"Not now, Deya, please rest, we an go home, sit by the fire," he suggests.

"Yeah, you are able to go out to places, you will just be in a wheelchair, then you guys can go on a date in the time you're still recovering," the doctor says, washing her hands for about he fifth time since she had entered the room.

"Oh, we aren't together," Aero says looking at the nurse, blushing. I feel my cheeks getting hot. 

"Oh, my apologies, it just seems like it," the nurse says, grinning, as she walks out of the room. I clear my throat, trying to break the awkward silence. I try sitting up, my arms aren't strong enough, I flop back down. 

"Ahh, why did I have to do that? I'm an idiot," I say, scrunching the bedsheets in my hands.

"You're a genius, calm down, maybe you're not all arrogant," he says laughing. 

"Stop! Fine, I really am not all mean, I can be sweet occasionally," I say, pouting. Aero scoots his chair closer to my hospital bed. He takes my hand softly, and holds it.

"You're going to be okay, Deya," he says. My head immediately comes up with millions of things that could happen right now. Either he doesn't do anything, he talks more, or he tells me that he likes me, it obvious to me now that he does, and I think I like him too, so why not? I think to myself.

"Deya? Are you okay?" Aero asks.

"Yeah I'm fine, just tired and sore," I say, chuckling nervously.

"So, Deya, I have been wanting to say this for a while now, but I never found the right time to say it. I really like you. I think you are really beautiful, and underneath that hard exterior, you are truly so kind, and I was wondering, if you did want to go out on a date with me?" He says, nervously blushing.

"Um, wow, thank you, Aero. I think I have also been wanting to tell you something for a long time. So, here it goes, Aero, you are so kind to me. You take care of me so well, and you stick with me no matter how annoying I may get. I think that sounds like a great idea," I reply, looking down, too nervous to look at him.

"Wait, really, all this time, Deya, who knew you had feelings," he says, making the awkward moment funny.

"Haha, wow, now, leave me alone," I say back to him closing my eyes to fall asleep.

About a week later, I am finally out of the hospital.

I get out of bed, walk over to Aero laying o note couch by the fire watching movies. 

"Hey, good morning," I say sweetly.

"Morning, hun," he says back to me.

I sit down next to him, grab a blanket, and curl up into a ball, leading on his chest.

"I love you so much," Aero says, grasping my arms. It's crazy how much one person can completely change you as a person. I never thought it would be possible, yet I'm thankful for it. Now, I finally know how it feels to love someone and be loved so strongly by someone else. My phone goes off with a text alert.

"Who is it?" Aero says.

" It's from the police, they have a case for us," I reply, jumping up.

"Really? What are we waiting for?" He says, grabbing his jacket and putting on his shoes. I jump into my sneakers and lock the door behind him. He stares at me on the stairwell.

"Are you ready for this?" He asks.

"Is that even a question?" I say, giggling, dashing down the stairs behind him , on to our next adventure together.