Early Thursday morning in Precinct 98th police station.

“Hey, what’s with the long face?” a woman just came out from the elevator with a cool ice americano in her hand.

She slapped a person on the head with the folder in her other hand. The unfortunate man woke up from his daze.

“Lopez, what the hell are you doing?” a frown on the face of this man, known as the 80s detective, Detective Jake Moretti.

“Still moping around because of that case being snatched by the feds?” said Lopez.

Her words only stabbed deeper into Jake Moretti’s heart.

“Under the law, the homicide case was supposed to be dealt by us the 98th precinct,” Jake Moretti couldn’t let such a thing slide. He felt his reputation was being tarnished.

“Put a sock in it, Moretti, there’s a ton of other cases left on that desk of yours and our captain want it to be done,” a hulking mass of brutish masculinity went passed Lopez and Moretti. He went to get some donuts and coffee at the pantry.

“See, you just made Johnson mad,” said Lopez with a smirk on her face.

“Leave me alone Lopez, don’t you have some case to be solved or something?” Jake Moretti trying to shoo her away.

“We’re partners unless you start something on that desk. I’m not going to do all the hard work while you sit here moping around like an eight-year-old girl,” she clearly didn’t like being used.

“Since when the hardworking and diligent Lopez turned this lazy,” Jake Moretti replied back.

True to his words, Lopez wasn’t like this.

“and that’s none of your business Moretti,” her face turned stoic as she threw the folder on Moretti’s table.

Jake Moretti opened up the folder and saw black and white images of a familiar location. He grabbed the folder and went inside Lopez’s office room. For someone being his partner, he still didn’t understand why Lopez has her own office room.

“Where did you get these? Didn’t the FBI and homeland took everything?”

"Unlike you, I got a few friends within the agencies," the smirk on Lopez showed her utter confidence.

Jake Moretti glared at her as he couldn't refute her abilities. Thinking back, she indeed always held the bigger card whenever they did an investigation together.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"So is the guy in the picture, our suspect?" Jake Moretti changed the topic. He didn't want to feel inferior over his own partner. She having her own office was already like a big slap across his pride.

"I'm not sure, the only CCTV that managed to get the picture of the suspect is the one near the street. The CCTV back at the alleyway is too dark to see anything. Except there's something else caught in the picture," said Det.Lopez.

"I don't see anything else in here," replied Jake Moretti with his hands shuffling the pictures on the desk.

"Because it's with me," Lopez took out a single picture from within her inner suit pocket. She slid the picture on the table letting the irritated Jake see.

His expression hardened as he couldn't say anything about it.

"What is this?" he threw it back at Det.Lopez.

She held the picture in her hand, observing the thing inside the picture.

"Well, that's the question we need to solve right?" said Det. Lopez as both ends of her lips curved upwards.

"But-" Jake Moretti wanted to say something but the door to the office banged opened.

"Hey, did you see the news? There's something going on above NYC," a colleague of them barged in and alerted them.

Both Det. Lopez and Jake Moretti rushed out and stood in front of the wide flat screen tv along with the rest of the department's personnel. Lopez read the title of the news.

"Breaking News, the end of the world? The sky showing signs of breaking?" her eyes glanced back at the picture she held in her hand.

Her eyes darted around between both the picture and the news. The resemblance was uncanny despite the difference in scale of it. She nudged Moretti gaining his attention.

"Moretti," she handed over the picture. "It's the same, and I've got a bad feeling about this."

---

Moretti and Lopez stepped out of the beige mustang as their sight was attracted by the sheer size of the crack in the sky. It was right above Central Park, a place of fun and recreation for the people of New York. Yet all eyes were on the anomaly in the sky.

"What the hell is that Lopez?" asked Jake Moretti.

"I don't know, I really don't," the tone of her voice couldn't hide her nervousness.

Soon, black SUVs came rushing at Central Park. The FBI and Homeland security came rushing into the scene as they take control over the perimeter of the park.

"Lopez, I think the FBI already knew something was up," his gut was telling him so. "You think one of your guys in the agencies could give us a few insider's intel?"

"I doubt it," Lopez replied shut down whatever Jake was thinking.

"Come on, get in the car," he tapped her shoulder and went inside his mustang.

She sat beside the driver's seat.

"Where we headed?" asked Lopez.

"Where else, we're going to Queens," said Jake as he throttled down the accelerator.

---

A pair of men and women dressed in their own fashion sense was walking around the crime scene in the back alley of some street in Queens.

"What are we looking for? You know those goons already take everything as evidence," Lopez didn't get the point of coming back here.

All shreds of evidence here were swiped clean by the FBI and Homeland. They probably fought over it.

"We're not looking for evidence," said Jake in response.

"Then why the hell are we even here? We could go find a professor at the nearby university, they might get an inkling about that crack in the sky," replied Lopez.

"We're waiting for the fish to bite the bait," he was smiling as if he made a perfect plan.

Lopez with both of her hands on her waist was definitely not approving of this plan of his.

“Suit yourself, I’m going to get a cheeseburger,” she left her partner alone waiting behind a dumpster in some unknown back alleyway.

The sound of a mustang being driven away made Jake to rummaged through his pockets.

“When did she take my keys?” he ran out from behind the dumpster and saw the back of his car being driven by Lopez.

“Please don’t crash my baby,” he muttered hoping for the best.

With nothing else to do, Jake Moretti hid behind the dumpster. For better or worse, he needs to stick to his own plan. He waited and waited, time ticked by and soon night came. He nods off while waiting but rustling sound coming from the alley woke him up. His groggy eyes were half-open but he maintained his vigilance.

He took out his revolver and prepared for the unknown. It was dark and he could barely see a thing. Yet he could saw a silhouette standing there staring at something. Jake noticed the silhouette was holding on to something.

A weapon perhaps?

He didn’t know but it was now or never. He stood up and aimed the nozzle of his gun at the suspect.

“Who are you?” he shouted as his voice echoed through the alleyway.

The suspect turned around as he faced Jake Moretti. Jake couldn’t see a thing, he could barely saw the shape of his figure.

“This is the police, hands up in the air,” Jake ordered the suspect, following his usual protocol.

But out of sudden, the silhouette ran.