A flash of light flickered and vanished.
The floor shook. The air shimmered as if disturbed by a stone thrown into still water.
The geniuses had returned.
Upon opening their eyes, they saw themselves standing in the same place where it had all begun — in a humming room that housed the Time Machine Prototype. In Vinci's Experiment room- just from where they left.
The contraption kept humming quietly, as if whispering secrets to itself.
Yet, someone had been there.
A diminutive figure was standing beside the array panel, one little hand resting on the glowing buttons.
A boy ; nowhere near the age of nine — with disheveled brown hair, round curious eyes, and that very same sharp gaze that belonged to Vinci.
Vinci went rigid. "Marcus?"
The boy blinked and nervously smiled. "Eeem am sorry I didn't.. ."
Eliza gasped and lowered her bag. "Hey...who's this sweet little thing?"
Before any clarification could be provided, Vinci quickly stepped forward. "That's my little brother - Marcus. He must have activated the override. He saved us. Hypatia would have torn us apart."
Einstein dusted his clothes with a half-smile. "Well, you probably shouldn't have set the switch wrong beforehand, Vinci. In any case, we're still alive — that's what really counts."
Hawkings murmured as he checked the glowing prototype, "Barely."
Eliza sighed and looked toward the door. "Our parents may be waiting. We should go — we'll talk later."
"Yup," Hawkings added. "Before anything else may happen. We'll meet in school and talk about our next assignment... err, properly this time."
The group chuckled softly.
With that, they slipped out of their travel robes[The ones they got from the past ] and quickly dressed in flash for their dear little school uniforms — ties straightened, sleeves cuffed, the faint scent of smoke still hanging to their clothes. They strapped their school bags onto their backs once again.
In the mirror, they almost looked normal. Almost.
"So," Einstein pushed his hair back, "back to ordinary geniuses."
"Until next time," Vinci smirked.
And from there…
The geniuses waltzed out into the Time Room. The metallic door slid open with a hiss.
Bright sunlight poured warmly and golden through the tall windows. Awaiting them near the car were their parents, completely oblivious to the cosmic chaos their children had just evaded.
They exchanged a few knowing glances, trying hard to suppress their laughs and to tell.
Moments passed, closing the doors of the car. The engine roared alive.
They drove toward school — five minds, one secret, and a thousand questions still echoing in their heads.
No one noticed Marcus still standing in the Time Room… gazing at the flickering lights.
The prototype was still humming.
And something or someone was still connected...
Marcus, on the other hand, had shown up at the Time Room during their absence.
The machine's humming was the only sound in the room — gentle, rhythmic, almost inviting.
Marcus then moved to the machine, his eyes filled with the wonder of a child. The prototype was shimmering with lights, resembling the twinkling of small stars.
He touched the buttons with his small hand, just as he had seen Vinci do before.
"Uh... year... something-something," he said half aloud, while he was already hitting the panel at random. The numbers changed.
He was unaware that the system had recognized the input.
A very soft whirring started.
The room was getting brighter.
Marcus retreated — but it was already too late.
The machine gave out one pulse, then another — and suddenly, a bright light.
It was quiet in the room.
Marcus had vanished.
The next day, however, in school, the same group of kids, namely, Hawkings, Eliza, Maria, Vinci, and Einstein, were already sitting together in the canteen. They had their trays filled with various snacks and juice boxes. They talked less and laughed more, which was the most wonderful thing after the horrors of time rips and deathly panic to be finally freed of them.
Einstein smiled widely and playfully pushed Vinci. "I am still in disbelief that you sent us to the wrong year. Hypatia was almost our final exam."
Vinci only gave him a bored look. "If Marcus hadn't been there, we would have been gone."
Maria, in exemplary fashion, raised her cup. "This time, Marcus was our Savior. We are lucky that He did not let us down."
There was laughter all around, except for Vinci, who was quietly smiling and remembering his little brother.
The bell rang. Lessons started.
Their Science teacher, wrote boldly on the board...
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Hawkings immediately straightened his back. This was his realm , the cosmos, the universe, the stars.
It was a common knowledge that he would have the answer to the next question regardless.
The teacher spun around. "Who can introduce us to solar system?"
Hawkings had no time to make a move when suddenly a hand was up.
The class was frozen.
It was Maria.
The same Maria who was never interested in school, the principal's daughter living on her privileges and playing tricks, was actually helping out.
"Yeah, Maria?" the teacher asked, sounding almost sarcastic.
Maria got up, put her hair back, and started talking ;fluently and confidently.
"The Solar System is a grouping of celestial bodies such as planets, moons, asteroids, and comets that revolve around the Sun because of its gravitational force. It is approximately 4.6 billion years old…"
The students in the class blinked their eyes.
She went on explaining the orbits, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, and even exoplanets. Hawkings crossed his arms, both amazed and curious.
He chose to challenge her.
"What's the distance from the Earth to the Sun?" he inquired, trying to sound nonchalant.
The class became her audience. A few even laughed quietly.
Aria's answer was instantaneous, "About 149.6 million kilometers which is around 93 million miles."
Then she let out a slight smile. "Is that why? Did I miss a decimal?"
The atmosphere of the room was so quiet that one could have heard a pin drop. The teacher even blinked a few times before stating, "That… is correct."
The students started chit-chatting loudly. Aria slowly took her seat, with a confident glimmer in her eyes.
Hawkings raised his brow. There was something about her that felt… different.
Break
By the time of second break, Aria had become the main topic of discussion in the school.
The students talked in whispers in the corners, their f and her footsteps were followed by the eyes of all.
"She has transformed."
"Now she is intelligent."
"She even managed to win over Hawkings!"
The geniuses returned to their usual table in the canteen.
Einstein took a bite of his sandwich. "So she is the new prodigy?"
Maria chuckled. "Well, it's about time somebody else got into the club."
Eliza beamed. "We are really happy with you, Maria. You covered every bit."
Vinci gave his assent through a nod. "She is with us from now on. And tomorrow we march into the time of Genghis Khan — provided nothing goes wrong."
They all agreed...
Soon after school finished, all of them went back home.
Einstein did some experiments with his Calculations and stuff.Hawkings looked at the universe's data on his tablet. Maria made drawings of the planets' paths. Eliza wrote the day's happenings in her diary.
However, at Vinci's place… everything was wrong.
He got there and saw his mom talking on the phone with a worried look on her face. "Vinci- your brother, Marcus, the one who is missing."
The sentence struck him like a bolt of lightning.
The police had already started searching the area. The sun was going down and turning the sky into flames of orange. Vinci's thoughts were running wild.
The group chat was buzzing by 5:45 p.m.
Hawkings: "Hey, Vinci, why are you not in the call?"
Einstein: "You alright, buddy?"
No response.
Then, Einstein rang him up.
When Vinci finally picked up the phone, he sounded very nervous. "It's Marcus... he is missing. We have looked everywhere but can't find him."
In just a few minutes, everybody was aware of the situation.
Hawkings straight away said, "Look into the project, Vinci. Perhaps-just perhaps-he may have played with it."
Vinci dashed into the Time Room, his heart thumping. The machine was softly buzzing again.
He went through the logs.
The last recorded entry was:
1324 CE
He went still.
"Mansa Musa's time..." he murmured.
He phoned the group back, his voice breaking the noise.
"I have located him. He is in 1324 the Mali Empire. Mansa Musa's time."
The conversation was dead.
The sound of Einstein's bothering came next. "Then our Genghis Khan trip is off."
Maria very softly said, "First we need to rescue Marcus."
They all reached a consensus. No kidding this time. No delay.
It was not long before they had all trickled off to bed, one after the other, each one occupied with the same thought.
Tomorrow they would embark on another adventure, one that would take them through the world of gold, history, and peril.
The era of Mansa Musa was waiting.
And once again, time was running out.