“Sorry I ruined your game.” Denise gave her sincere apology. Her rash behaviour earlier, caused the Megaminx Rubik’s Cube to slip out of her hand. “Let me just get through here.” She walked around the longer path very carefully this time around to avoid trampling over any other of Andy Smart’s sophisticated toys.

While Denise was tip-toeing around, Andy Smart was staring fixedly at the object that bumped into his leg. At first, he thought it was just a simple puzzle, so he picked it up and attempted to solve it quickly so that the busybody detectives could get out of his room. Although he didn’t explicitly say anything or showed any external signs of how he truly felt about his visitors, he was thinking that they were annoying, especially the lady who messed up his jigsaw puzzle that he had been extremely focused on for 3 long hours.

“…?” A sudden shift in expression appeared on Andy Smart’s visage whilst he was trying to solve the Megaminx Rubik’s Cube.

“Hmm?” Story Book Fairy was quick to notice this change in him. When Denise got around all the mess to take the object from Andy, she signalled to her to let him be.

“Are you sure?” Denise glanced at Story Book Fairy briefly then at Rebecca before looking back at Andy. She stood by him in silence watching him do his thing.

Crackle! Crackle!

The repeating sounds of Andy Smart swiftly operating the Rubik’s Cube were irregularly ricocheting across the room. He was expelling the usage of his brain power to solve the puzzle. Earlier when he picked it up, he thought it would be over quickly, but now he was twisting and turning the movable blocks of the Rubik’s Cube with the utmost intricacy, yet he was nowhere close to completion. Not even a single cluster of faces was solved by him.

“Hmm…” Andy Smart had never experienced a Rubik’s Cube that sophisticated before. His handling of it started fast, but now, he was operating a bit slower. He even paused for 10 seconds to figure out his counter-strategy. He continued this varying momentum for close to an hour and still he was nowhere nearer to the goalpost.

If it was any other person trying to solve this complicated Rubik’s Cube that had unique reactions during certain turn-points, then they would have burst a blood vessel of frustration already. But Andy Smart wasn’t like this. He was built differently. He was a 9-year-old artistic genius who thrives and received thrills at solving puzzles.

Instead of despairing despite his failed attempts with the Rubik’s Cube, Andy Smart produced a genuine smile which startled the onlookers.

“He’s smiling?” Detective Sleuth couldn’t fathom the reason for the boy’s positive reaction. She gave a questioning gaze to her partner who said--

“That’s the first time I’ve seen him show any real expression. So he is human after all.” Rebecca was relieved, however, she was getting tired of standing around. “My feet are killing me. How much longer do we have to wait? It is obvious by now that the boy can’t solve the puzzle.”

“I beg to differ.” Story Book Fairy pitched in the conversation while staring at her child prodigy. “Whenever Andy gets like this, it usually means that he is having fun. That translates as he’s found something worthy of his genius. Just give him a bit more time. I’m certain that he will solve it.”

“Hmm…” Denise observed Story Book Fairy’s sureness and wondered where it stemmed from. Since she came all this way for Andy Smart’s help, she decided to stick around a while longer. “We’ll wait 10 more minutes. If he doesn’t solve it by then, we will leave and I’m taking the puzzle with me.”

“Finally.” Rebecca expressed her gratitude to Denise. She was dying to get out of there and go find something to munch on. “Only 10 more minutes until food time. My gut is starting to growl.”

“…” Andy Smart was listening to everything that was spoken around him. He knew he didn’t have long before the adults took away the fun toy from him. This compelled him to solve the Rubik’s Cube even faster.

Twist! Turn! Twist! Turn!

Andy Smart increased the momentum with which he was interacting with the puzzle. His eyes and brain power were working in tandem to overcome the hidden obstacle. As the minutes ticked by, he became so excited that he got up from his seated position and began walking around in circles with the Rubik’s Cube in his hand.

“I’ve never seen him this eager to solve a puzzle before.” Story Book Fairy voiced this comment upon recognizing Andy Smart’s unexpected behaviour.

“He looks like he’s into it.” Remarked Rebecca.

“Let’s just hope that this was all worth it.” Denise began thinking about the consequences of her failure. What if Andy couldn’t solve the Rubik’s Cube or even worse, what if he solve it and it turned out to be nothing major or even the slightest bit important? She would be known as one of the biggest laughing stock at the precinct for wasting valuable time investigating a kid’s toy.

The grin on Andy Smart’s face started to grow bigger and bigger as the time limit approached the 9-minute marker. A few more seconds of twisting the Megaminx Rubik’s Cube enabled him to match 2 lower rows correctly. As soon as he did this, the puzzle began to vibrate slightly. He became scared and hurriedly dropped it.

“Andy, what’s wrong?” Story Book Fairy was concerned by Andy smart’s reaction. She thought he wilfully tossed the Rubik’s Cube on the ground because he was having a difficult time solving it, but she later found out that this wasn’t so.

“Denise look there.” Rebecca pointed out to her partner the weird movement occurring with the Rubik’s Cube.

“Is it vibrating?” Denise along with the other occupants of the room were observing the Rubik’s Cube closely. They all witnessed the matched portions rotating on their own, moreover, they collapsed from their binding into the upper section until it completely rearranged the puzzle.

The second the Rubik’s Cube stopped spinning, a sudden shudder bombarded Greenwich Orphanage. It lasted for almost a minute. Most people across the grounds thought that it was a natural earthquake, but the individuals inside the room with Andy Smart had mixed thoughts.

“Was that an earthquake just now? It just came out of nowhere.” Rebecca was acting really scared. “That was a crazy magnitude. I wonder if the rest of the city is affected. I left my baby with the sitter. I hope she is ok.”

Denise consoled her partner to lessen her stress. “I’m sure that your daughter is fine, Rebecca. But aside from that, don’t you think that earthquake was a bit off?”

“What do mean?”

Story Book Fairy interjected by saying, “I agree with you, detective. That earthquake just now was very bizarre.”

In response to this, Denise said, “So I am not the only one who is thinking about it.”

“Thinking about what?” Rebecca was the only clueless person in the group. “Come on, tell me.”

Denise directed her eyes toward the Rubik’s Cube and spoke up, “I believe that thing might have been the cause of the earthquake.”

“There is only one way to find out.” Story Book Fairy suggested that Andy Smart solve the rest of the puzzle.

“You 2 can’t be serious.” Rebecca was very sceptical about a kid’s toy causing that strong earthquake. “That was just a mild natural disaster. It has nothing to do with that thing.”

“We’ll see, won’t we? Andy can you continue please.”

Hearing the Head Mistress telling him to continue, Andy Smart bent over and picked up the Rubik’s Cube. He immediately began solving it. His enthusiasm grew with every turn of the blocks. This time, he was able to successfully match another portion of the puzzle faster than he previously did. Once again, the same procedure occurred followed by a powerful earthquake.

Rumble!

“It’s stronger than the last one.” Denise quickly observed this change.

“We should take cover!” Rebecca became terrified. The earthquake continued to shake the compound for close to 3 minutes. It toppled over many items, short-circuit appliances and put huge cracks in the floors and walls. Greenwich Orphanage was in complete disarray.

Throughout the earthquake, Andy Smart held tightly to the Rubik’s Cube, not caring for his environment. He was still trying to solve the rest of it.

“Stop!” Denise had to act quickly to snatch the puzzle from Andy’s grasp then ran with him to a safer spot.

“What the fuck is happening?” While Greenwich Orphanage was shaking like crazy, Smoke Pac was having his shared experiences of annoyance. His head was ringing constantly and he kept on seeing numerous alerts popping up in his vision.

“What the fuck does this mean? Is there someone out there who is trying to screw me over?” Just after his outburst, Smoke Pac was hit hard with a sudden blow of terminal headache that landed him on the ground.

“AHHH!”

“Smoke Pac, what’s wrong?” Upon hearing the alarming cry, Razi rushed into the bathroom and discovered her master collapsed on the floor buck naked. She tried helping him up. “Are you ok?”

“Hell no! I’m in pain.” Smoke Pac’s facial features were printed with anger. “Someone is trying to hack my power. Whoever that bastard is I’m going to fucking tear him apart!”