VIvi's Bakery, Airport.
The shop wasn't just a simple bakery with shelves of bread—it also had a small restaurant-like area. The dark-toned walls, trimmed with gold, gave it a refined, upscale vibe.
Syd could believe it now—this place was definitely no ordinary bakery. The moment he stepped within five meters of the storefront, the aroma of freshly baked bread hit his nose hard.
"Damn... that line's long. Maybe we should skip this place."
Though there were many people in line, most of them just stopped by quickly. Only a few were actually seated inside the café.
"It shouldn't take long."
Hearing Jody say that, Syd relented. The three of them stepped into line. While waiting, Syd glanced up at the bakery's sign.
The name was written in elegant golden letters: ViVi's Bakery.
"Wai-Wai Bakery...? That name's so lame."
"It's pronounced 'Vee-Vee', actually."
"Come on, any Thai would read that as 'Wai-Wai'. Should've written it 'ViVie's'."
"ViVi looks prettier. Besides, we're in England…"
"Why not focus on the flavor instead of fonts?"
"It is tasty though."
"It better be."
"What, don't tell me you can bake too?"
Since living with him, Jody had sampled plenty of Syd Barrett's cooking, and she had no doubts about his skills.
He could cook—and cook well. She'd had his simple western-style dishes like stir-fried macaroni, spaghetti, and steak many times already.
"Nah. But bread tastes the same everywhere. Unless it's from Japan, of course."
"I've never been to Japan. What's Japanese bread like?"
"Way better than anything here. Miles better."
"Wow. You've been to Japan too?"
"Uh, Jody, who am I??? I've been all over the world."
"Oh, okay, Mr. Worldly—"
"Except America."
He cut her off quickly—charmingly so.
"Aww…"
"Don't give me that look, you brat."
"You really don't wanna go to America~?"
"Nope."
"Oh, come on, Syd. America's not as bad as you think~"
"Yesterday, there was news about a Black guy beating up an Asian till he died. Four days ago, a white cop hospitalized a Black man. Meanwhile, everyone's out here going hardcore on Black Lives Matter. Those mobs ransacked a mall. I'm not going to a lawless country like that."
"You really don't wanna visit Times Square in New York?"
"No! That damn city isn't normal. The only way you'll get me to America is if I'm a ghost in the afterlife."
"How many times do I have to tell you? Even normal Americans don't like those kinds of people. And we still live there."
"Really? Then why'd you run off to study here?"
"That's different… I ran from my home, not the country."
"Same thing."
"laughs fondly Not at all, Syd."
While the two of them bickered, the line had thinned out until only they remained. Sally walked up to the glass display by the cashier and started pointing out the bread and sandwiches she wanted.
"I want this! And this! And this!"
Thwack.
Syd gave her a light smack.
"One piece is enough, you brat."
"B-but, big bro—"
"Don't 'but' me. One piece. I don't care."
Sally pouted like a sad puppy. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something strange on the floor nearby.
"..."
Maybe it was just her imagination—but she thought the floor rippled.
"..."
She turned and stared hard. But everything looked normal again. So she shrugged it off.
"This one."
"Alright," said the bakery clerk, a short-haired woman with golden-blonde streaks—Caucasian, like Jody. She packed the hot bread for Sally.
Jody glanced around the café. It was quieter now, with only a few people seated in the dining area. Two were uniformed police officers, one was a suited man, and another was a female tourist.
Nothing suspicious.
The blonde cashier handed over the bread in a bag with a cheerful, "Here you go. Thank you so much~!"
"..."
"Something wrong, Jody?"
Syd noticed her zoning out while he was pulling out his wallet.
"...No."
He dropped a £50 note on the counter with a solid thump.
It was a large bill, so the cashier took a moment to make change.
And that's when Sally noticed it again...
She thought the floor outside had rippled again.
She paused mid-bite and turned sharply to look.
That made Syd and Jody pause too—she'd seen something.
But when they focused in, all they saw was solid ground.
"..."
"What is it, Sally?"
"I don't know... but I think I saw the floor... ripple..."
"The floor rippled?"
Syd stuffed the change into his pocket, frowning.
"You're saying the floor we're standing on... rippled?"
"Yes..."
Jody asked, "What kind of ripple?"
"Like... water..."
"..."
Syd and Jody exchanged tense looks. The atmosphere suddenly shifted.
"Are you sure?" Syd asked.
"...Not completely... but... I saw it twice."
"...Let's go."
Jody spoke firmly.
"Yeah. Now."
Syd grabbed Sally's hand and pulled her along as they quickly exited the store.
He already had his phone in hand, ready to contact the other four waiting elsewhere—but because he was taller and walking fast, Sally couldn't keep up and tripped.
"Ah—Ahh!"
The bread in her hand flew through the air—and as it landed...
It sank into the ground.
The white-tiled floor swallowed it whole like water, vanishing right before their eyes.
It was undeniable.
They were under attack.
"...Shit."
Syd yanked Sally back, shielding her with one arm and guarding Jody with the other.
"The floor... the bread sank into the floor!? I wasn't seeing things, was I?!"
"No... no, you weren't, Syd... the bread really sank..."
Jody was just as stunned.
They now saw that the floor in front of them rippled like the surface of a lake. It surrounded them, cutting off any exit!
Imagine stretching fabric and shaking it until waves formed across it—that's what it looked like.
"Oh no... this is bad..."
And it wasn't done.
The rippling... was moving toward them. Fast.
Too fast—they had to retreat.
Jody backed up, but just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw more of the rippling behind her too.
She stopped short, and Syd bumped into her.
"What is it, Jody?!"
"Behind us! It's blocking our way too!"
"What the hell?!"
Like with the bread—anything the ripple passed over sank. Even the nearby chairs were vanishing into the floor.
"Run!"
Thankfully, Syd always swapped Jody's leg properties before any movement, so she could sprint without risk of injury.
He scooped Sally up and zigzagged across the floor, dodging the ripples. Jody followed closely behind.
"Jody!"
Sally shouted her name, and Syd turned back to look.
Jody made a misstep. She'd leapt onto a bench to avoid the ripples, but the spot where she landed next... already had another ripple waiting for her.
She thought she was done for—but with the lightning reflexes of Syd Barrett, he managed to grab Jody by the collar and yank her back just before her foot could touch the strange rippling floor.
No matter how quickly the shifting ground tried to encircle them, it couldn't catch Syd and Jody.
As they ran, Jody activated her power—an aura of blue energy and a cyclone symbol swirled around her fingertips. She fired a blast of compressed air at the undulating floor—but nothing happened. It was like shooting a bullet into water.
Eventually, they found themselves right back where they started: ViVi's Bakery.
But it wasn't just them. Looking around, they saw that everyone in the area had been affected by the strange, wave-like floor phenomenon.
Screams echoed throughout the terminal.
"Wha—!?"
"What's going on?! What the hell is this?!"
One unlucky man accidentally stepped onto the shifting ground—and immediately sank beneath it like it was quicksand.
"!?!??!"
Panic had taken over. Chaos erupted. Whatever this floor was, it didn't discriminate. And now it had spread across the entire white-tiled floor, turning it into a shimmering, deadly sea.
There was no way out now.
They didn't know what the hell it was. The first thing Syd did was pull out his phone to contact the other four waiting elsewhere. But when he checked the screen—
"No signal…?"
"Same here!" Jody added, holding up her own iPhone and trying to call out. Nothing went through—not a single message or call.
"Syd… We've been cut off."
"No way… That's impossible! It was working when we landed!"
Sweat dripped down their faces. But even cornered like this, Syd Barrett wasn't one to freeze up.
He grabbed Sally's hand and tried to leap over the rippling area—but the moment his foot grazed it, some invisible force began sucking him down.
He immediately yanked his leg back—but his shoe didn't come with it.
"…Urgh!"
"Syd!"
Jody caught him as he stumbled backward.
"This isn't water, Jody… It's quicksand!"
"Quicksand?!"
Syd elaborated, "The surface looks like water, but anything that touches it gets yanked under. Hard."
He glanced down at the plastic bread bag in his other hand. "I was thinking about swapping its physical properties—make our bodies light enough to float across. But good thing I was cautious first. This isn't water. It's something way worse."
The only path out had been cut off. Every direction they looked was now blocked by this shifting floor.
But what was most disturbing—were the people.
"Whaaat?! What the hell is this?!"
"Ahhh!!"
People were scrambling, ducking into bookstores and shops—doing whatever they could to avoid stepping on the unstable floor.
"..."
The three of them stood inside the bakery, watching the bizarre sight unfold in stunned silence.
"Are we… trapped?" Sally clung tightly to both Syd and Jody, shaking in terror.
"It's not just us… Look, over there… and there too…" Syd said, glancing around the bakery.
Everyone inside had come forward, pressing against the windows to see what was going on. Fearful whispers filled the room.
"What's happening?"
"Look outside... Is the floor... moving?!"
People from inside the shop crowded near the entrance, and across the terminal, others were experiencing the same horror.
Syd's mind raced. The phenomenon only seemed to affect the outer area—not inside the shop. Or… was it simply unable to spread indoors?
Whatever the case, staying inside was clearly the safest option for now.
"What's going on?!" cried the blonde cashier from before, rushing over to Syd and staring out the window, asking the same question everyone else was.
Pointless questions. But both Syd and Jody were already piecing it together.
"No signal at all?!"
A tan-skinned woman behind them exclaimed in panic. "Can't anyone call for help?!"
"Everyone, calm down!" boomed a uniformed officer approaching with his partner. He stepped forward, trying to control the situation.
"Help is on the way," he shouted across the terminal.
The blonde cashier cautiously dipped her heel onto the rippling floor—then quickly pulled back with a yelp. "Wha—what the hell?! The floor's pulling me in?!"
"Don't step out there," warned the man in the black suit. He looked sharp, with a commanding presence. Short brown hair, a pitch-black suit—he was clearly someone important.
"…This isn't normal. This is an attack," he muttered, turning to the mustached officer beside him.
"You really can't reach anyone?"
The officers both shook their heads.
"But HQ knows our position. Reinforcements shouldn't have trouble getting here. They probably already know."
"Doesn't matter," the suited man replied. "This is clearly terrorism."
At that moment, a loud banging came from the back of the shop.
Someone was trying to break open the employee exit behind the bakery.
The blonde cashier rushed past the register to check—and found three teenagers trying to break through the emergency door: a red-coated boy tethered to a bespectacled girl with orange hair, and another blonde girl wearing a blue-white NY jacket.
"What are you doing?!"
But her words didn't seem to reach him. Maybe he didn't even hear her.
"Move it! Outta the way!!! I'm getting outta here!!!" Syd shouted.
Thankfully, Jody was more diplomatic.
"Sorry. But… why's the door locked?"
"Ah—w-well…"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The pounding from Syd's kicks startled the poor cashier.
"It's sealed shut," she explained.
"Sealed?" Jody frowned.
"This door? It's sealed?"
"Yes…"
THUMP! THUMP! BOOM! BOOM!
Syd redoubled his effort to break it down.
"Jody! It's no use! This thing's locked tight. Blast it open already!"
"Wait, Syd."
Jody turned back to the cashier. "Why is it sealed?"
"The airport's under renovation. They're building a new terminal on the other side of this wall. That exit leads straight into a concrete wall. They're still working on creating a new emergency door."
"…It's not built yet?"
"No, not yet. Over here, this is where they're planning to install it…"
She led them to a marked spot on the wall—sure enough, the outlines were there. She wasn't lying.
"Then it's pointless… We're not getting out through here."
"Dammit!"
Syd kicked the wall in frustration and stormed back to the center of the bakery. Jody followed, used to his temper. But the others weren't. All eyes in the shop turned toward him, wary.
Syd noticed—and stared right back.
"What? Got a problem?"
Everyone looked away—except the two cops and the man in the black suit.
Syd took Sally's hand and sat her down at a table, trying to think.
First problem: the enemy definitely knows we have the girl. This is their doing. One hundred percent. Damn it—they work fast. Did they know we were using Sera's jet too? No… unlikely. If they knew that, they'd have struck the moment we landed. No way they'd waste time like this.
His thoughts spiraled. This was an airport. Not like Paris where you could pull some crazy stunt and vanish. Something this big would draw too much attention. If they knew where they were, they'd only need to hit this one store…
Just then, Jody sat down across from him. Syd didn't miss a beat.
"They know we're somewhere in this zone… but they don't know where exactly. So they're attacking at random."
"..."
"…We can't let our guard down. They're breathing down our necks… I don't know how the other four are doing. Or how many enemies are even here…"
Despite his earlier outburst, Syd's tone was calm and measured now. This was his element—when things got serious.
Jody spoke up, "I'm sure by now, the others have realized something's wrong."
"Right now, we need to focus on the enemies hunting us," she added.
"Yeah… No doubt about it," Syd muttered.