** Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan **

Heavy raindrops crackled down against Aiko's umbrella. She rounded the last corner towards her destination and made her way through the crowd. Tsukuba was a small town in the Japanese countryside so there really weren't many places to go. Tokyo was only an hour bus ride away and Aiko often chose to beat the monotony of campus life by visiting the nearby metropolis. Today however, Kaiya coaxed her into visiting the 'Frontier bar' which happened to be the exception and a popular haunt for foreign students and Japanese girls looking for the former. She had been friends with Kaiya since their freshman year in college five years ago where the girl had decided to take her under her wings. While Kaiya often led the charge into uncharted territory, Aiko found herself playing the role of the cautious navigator, steering them away from obvious pitfalls.

As Aiko stepped through the doors of the bar, the pulsating rhythm of the music enveloped her like a warm embrace. In the midst of the swirling lights and thumping bass, Kaiya stood like a beacon of excitement, her infectious grin lighting up the dimly lit room.

With a playful wink, Kaiya seized Aiko's hand, pulling her into the heart of the dance floor where bodies moved in fluid harmony with the music. In that moment, the worries of the outside world melted away, replaced by a shared sense of exhilaration and freedom. As Aiko began to lose herself in the hypnotic sway of the music, Kaiya tugged at her hand, leading her towards the back entrance of the club. With a mischievous grin, she gestured towards the dimly lit alleyway beyond and they escaped the confines of the crowded bar.

In the cool embrace of the night air, Kaiya reached into her purse and pulled out a small pouch. With practiced ease, she rolled a joint, the pungent herbal aroma mingling with the scent of rain-soaked pavement. While the consumption wasn't strictly a crime, everything else from possession to distribution was highly prohibited. Yet, with Kaiya's persuasive charm and Aiko's reluctance to dampen her friend's spirits, they indulged in the forbidden pleasure, passing the joint back and forth until the evidence was nothing but ash, the colors becoming more vibrant and the sounds more alive. Lost in the haze of their intoxication, Aiko's phone rang, the caller ID showing her doctoral supervisor, breaking the spell. Her voice was tinged with concern as she listened to the urgent message from the university. It seemed that equipment failures and strange lights had been reported at the particle accelerator, and Aiko was being called in to assess the situation.

Without hesitation, Kaiya insisted on accompanying her friend, her sense of adventure overriding any concerns for their safety. And so, with the remnants of their high still lingering in the air, they made their way to the particle accelerator.

As they approached the building a sense of unease settled over them, the air thick with anticipation and uncertainty. Despite the growing crowd of onlookers gathering outside, Aiko and Kaiya felt an inexplicable pull towards the building, a magnetic force that seemed to beckon them closer.

Using Aiko's keycard, they slipped inside the building. As they ventured deeper into the heart of the facility, the familiar hum of machinery echoing through the empty corridors. The whispers grew louder, the air heavy with the weight of unseen forces.

And then they saw it: a maelstrom of pulsating lights, swirling and shifting in an otherworldly dance. Unable to resist the strange allure of the lights, they reached out with their fingertips.

In an instant, the world around them dissolved into darkness. With a sense of vertigo, they drifted into the unknown, their minds awash with a kaleidoscope of colors and sensations, lost in the infinite expanse of the void.

** Berkeley California, U.S. **

Nils was lying face down on the makeshift bed he had improvised from two reclining office chairs. The cold, hard plastic dug into his back, offering little in the way of comfort. Responsibility weighed heavily on his mind, but beneath the weariness, there was a spark of excitement. Knowing he had only two minutes of rest before queuing up the next material for analysis, he turned over with difficulty.

He stared at the ceiling, longing for respite. It was 1:03 a.m. in Berkeley, California. Beam time at the local synchrotron was highly coveted, which was why Nils was orchestrating experiments on the otherwise deserted university campus. The synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator, was used by the staff and occasional visiting scholars like himself to study the properties of matter by accelerating charged particles. The importance of new energy materials and the exploration of their surface states had motivated him to go abroad, fuelled by the desire to make a difference in the world. The prospect of sun-bathed girls, Pacific waves, and the much-vaunted freedom of the USA had certainly helped.

The console’s display flickered to life, casting a soft glow in the dimly lit room, as Nils moved the mouse cursor to register the next sample they had brought with them from Germany. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him, his eyelids heavy with fatigue.

Massive plated steel magnets forced electrons traveling at nearly the speed of light into a dizzying circular dance, and high-energy radiation was directed onto the instruments like a cosmic spotlight. After dozens of calibrations and hundreds of tests, the impressive display of craftsmanship had not lost its charm. But amidst the awe-inspiring display of technology lingered a sense of unease. Nils had noticed subtle fluctuations in the energy readings throughout the day, small anomalies that whispered of something amiss beneath the surface. He pushed aside his concerns, chalking them up to the natural quirks of the synchrotron's complex systems. He loaded a tried-and-tested setup with slightly longer scan speed when he heard his colleague Danika entering the room signalling the end of his shift. She approached with deliberate strides and her gaze scanned the displays with a practiced eye. Shifting her focus to Nils, she spotted the bags under his eyes.

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“Has the pressure of living on the cutting edge of science finally gotten to you?” Danika chuckled, shaking her head.

Nils smirked, finally tearing his eyes away from the monitor. “Pressure? Oh please, I eat pressure for breakfast. It’s the lack of caffeine that’s getting to me.”

They formed a good team despite their differences. The chemistry was undeniable — a shared passion for science that bound them. While she was studying the behaviour of elementary particles, he was pursuing more applied topics. Their dynamic was one of unspoken understanding, forged through years of late-night experiments through triumphs and failures. He could always rely on her for support and answers as to why his newest materials, well, worked.

Danika rolled her eyes. "You and your coffee addiction. I swear, if caffeine were a form of currency, you'd be a billionaire."

Nils shrugged, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it. It's the secret to my scientific genius.”

She snorted, unable to suppress a laugh. "Right, because nothing says 'groundbreaking discovery' like a triple-shot latte."

Nils turned back to the monitor. "Hey, whatever works, right? Now, let's see if we can squeeze in one more experiment before I collapse from caffeine withdrawal."

Danika shook her head, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "You're impossible, Nils."

"Hey, if being impossible means pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, then I'll take it," Nils quipped, a grin spreading across his face as they dove back into their work.

There was tension in the air as they surveyed the data, brows furrowing in concentration and their words took on a sense of urgency. Nils tried to brush off Danika's pointed questions about the equipment's integrity, but her persistence only served to deepen his unease. As they worked together to make sense of the machine’s parameters, a subtle thrum resounded through the large hangar like a warning, almost imperceptible beneath the heavy hum of the turbo-molecular pumps strewn around the laboratory.

Nils paused, a chill running down his spine as he glanced around the room, searching for the source of the disturbance. Nils groaned, his eyes darting back to the console. “Alright. Let's run a diagnostic scan, see if we can pinpoint the source of the problem.”

As they worked together to troubleshoot the equipment, Danika's eyes flicked across the various monitors, scanning for any anomalies in the data readings. She froze, her voice reflecting her apprehension.

“What happened; why is the the ultra-high vacuum offline? This shouldn't be possible.”

Nils' eyes widened as the pieces clicked into place. "You're right. If the vacuum pressure is too high, it could cause all sorts of issues with the equipment.”

A sinking feeling settled in his chest as he surveyed the damage before him: fried ion optics, overheated magnets and only as an afterthought did he lament about having to redo his analyses. If he still had a job, that was. Anxiety gnawed at his insides, a sense of helplessness creeping in as he grappled with the magnitude of the situation. His mind was racing to understand how things had gone so catastrophically wrong. He had meticulously checked the pressure, gaskets and other equipment, used the same protocols as always. Where had the failsafes gone?

The room heated up, plunging them into partial darkness as electronics failed, neon LEDs popping into silence and the synchrotron's machinery heart thrummed like its very essence pulsed with a raw, almost primal energy. “The equipment,” Nils murmured, his voice barely audible over the rising hum. “It’s like it’s drawing power from somewhere else.”

Nils and Danika exchanged a glance filled with premonition. It was as if the machinery was trying to tell them something important and urgent. A tense silence enveloped them, broken only by the faint hum of the synchrotron's malfunctioning gears. The beam line now emanated a pink luminous light from the plasma contained within, casting eerie shadows on the walls. The glowing plasma was the only light source left in the room.

Their gaze was drawn to the centre of the machinery where threads of light coalesced. As they watched, the brightness intensified, pulsing with an otherworldly energy that seemed to defy explanation. The anticipation was palpable, each moment stretching out like an eternity as Nils and Danika stared at the swelling lights, now coming from seemingly everywhere. For a heartbeat, they stood frozen, uncertainty casting a heavy pall over the room.

“You know, Danika, for a high-tech research facility, this place is starting to feel more like a portal to another dimension.”

She chuckled hesitantly, her worried expression still fixed on the swirling lights ahead. "I always knew our experiments were out of this world, but I didn't think we'd be the ones discovering the gateway to the cosmos."

Time seemed to stretch, with each second dragging on as they wrestled with the gravity of their predicament. Then, as if drawn by some invisible force, they stepped forward in unison, their movements mirroring each other with uncanny precision. The luminous lights loomed ominously, mere meters from them. A sense of foreboding hung in the air, whispering of mysteries yet to be revealed, promising adventure and discovery beyond their wildest dreams. Nils’ heart raced as he realised the magnitude of what they were witnessing. His breath caught in his throat, his pulse pounding in his ears as he struggled to make sense of the chaos unfolding before him, dread settling over him like a heavy shroud. With each step closer to the radiance in front of them, their resolve wavered, footsteps hesitant as they grappled with the decision before them. Uncertainty flickered in Danika's eyes as she met Nils's gaze and a silent question lingered.

"We have to shut it down," Danika said, her voice trembling with urgency. Nils hesitated, his curiosity warring with his fear. His scientific wonder won out against the instinctive urge to flee. ”What if we're on the brink of something incredible?" he pondered, yet he couldn’t suppress his nagging doubts. Danika shot him a look of disbelief, but there was a flicker of something else in her eyes — something that mirrored his own sense of wonder. With a shared glance that spoke volumes, Nils and Danika steeled themselves for whatever lay ahead. As they reached out to touch the pulsating light, a surge of energy washed over them, enveloping their senses in a whirlwind of sensation. Colors danced behind their closed eyelids, and for a moment, they felt weightless, as if floating on the cusp of reality. Then, with a jolt that sent sparks flying in every direction, they were plunged into darkness, their consciousness slipping away like grains of sand through an hourglass. Time seemed to lose all meaning as they drifted in the void, their minds swirling with fragments of half-formed thoughts and fleeting memories.

The next morning, news stations all over the world would feature sensational headlines like 'Global Crisis Unfolds: 30,000 Particle Accelerators Worldwide Plagued by Equipment Failures and Mysterious Lights' .