As they closed the door behind them, Mira excitedly said, "I can't believe we actually did it!"

Jelo, feeling breathless and excited from the entire scenario, leaned against the wall for a moment to catch his breath. His heart was still racing, adrenaline coursing through his veins. "I thought you had the plan from the beginning. You know, the whole break-in thing."

Mira turned to face him, her expression sheepish despite the lingering grin on her face. "I did have a plan, but… it was highly based on speculation. I had no chance to be sure it would work." She gestured vaguely with her hands, as if trying to emphasize the uncertainty of it all. "And I also had to make do with crude materials. Graphite from a pencil? Scotch tape? That's not exactly professional-grade equipment."

Jelo stared at her for a moment, processing what she'd just said. Then it hit him, the full weight of what she was telling him. They'd made it in here more through luck than anything else.

Sure, Mira had been clever, resourceful even, but there had been so many variables, so many things that could've gone wrong. The fingerprint could've been too old, too smudged. The scanner could've rejected the lifted print. The guard could've shown up thirty seconds earlier.

Jelo gulped, his throat suddenly dry. They'd gambled, and somehow, improbably, they'd won.

"Right," he muttered, trying to shake off the nervous energy that was building in his chest. "Luck. Got it."

Mira didn't seem bothered by the revelation. If anything, she looked even more energized, like the close call had only fueled her excitement. Jelo envied that confidence, even if he wasn't entirely sure it was warranted.

While they were in the portal room, they looked around, trying to get their bearings. The room was larger than Jelo remembered, or maybe it just felt that way in the dim emergency lighting that illuminated the space. Rows upon rows of portals lined the walls, each one a shimmering oval of distorted light, like looking through water.

Some pulsed with soft blues and greens, others with harsher reds and oranges. Each portal had a small plaque beside it, inscribed with codes and destination markers that meant nothing to Jelo at the moment.

They were trying to remember which portal they had chosen the last time they were here for class. It should've been simple, just retrace their steps, find the familiar markings, and they'd be set.

But standing here now, surrounded by dozens of identical-looking portals, Jelo realized they hadn't paid nearly enough attention during that field trip.

"Do you remember which one it was?" Mira asked, her eyes scanning the room.

Jelo frowned, squinting at the portals nearest to them. "Uh… maybe?"

"Maybe?" Mira repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Look, I wasn't exactly taking notes when we went through last time," Jelo said defensively. "I was too busy trying not to throw up from the splitting headache I had."

Mira sighed but didn't argue. She moved closer to one of the portals, studying the plaque beside it. Her brow furrowed as she read the inscription, then she shook her head and moved to the next one.

Jelo wandered down the line of portals himself, trying to jog his memory. They all looked so similar. The swirling energy, the faint hum that emanated from each one, the way the air felt charged and electric near them. How was anyone supposed to tell them apart?

Eventually, Jelo stopped in front of one portal that seemed… familiar. Maybe. He wasn't sure. But something about the placement, the way the light flickered inside it, felt like it might be the right one. Or maybe he was just convincing himself because they needed to pick something.

"This one," Jelo said, pointing at the portal. "That's most likely the portal we used last time."

Mira walked over, her expression skeptical as she looked at the portal, then at Jelo, then back at the portal. "Are you sure?"

"Seventy percent sure," Jelo said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

"Seventy percent?" Mira crossed her arms. "That's not exactly reassuring."

Jelo shrugged. "It's better than zero percent. Besides, we don't have all night to stand here debating. Someone's going to notice that door's been opened eventually, and I'd rather not be here when that happens."

Mira considered that for a moment, then sighed. "Fair point." She glanced at the portal again, then nodded. "Alright. Let's do it."

"Really?" Jelo blinked, surprised she'd agreed so easily.

"You said seventy percent, right? I'll take those odds." Mira stepped closer to the portal, the light from it casting strange shadows across her face. "Besides, worst case scenario, we end up somewhere we didn't plan on going. We'll figure it out."

Jelo wasn't sure if that was bravery or recklessness, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He followed Mira to the portal, standing just beside her at the threshold. The energy coming off it was palpable now, a tingling sensation that made the hairs on his arms stand up.

On the portal frame, there was an inscription, a simple code etched into the metal. It read: XD.

Jelo noticed it but didn't think much of it. He'd seen similar codes on other portals during class. They all had designations, right? This one was XD. Whatever that meant.

"Ready?" Mira asked, glancing at him.

Jelo nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."

They both stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the shimmering light.

The sensation was immediate and disorienting. It felt like being pulled in every direction at once, like his body was being stretched and compressed simultaneously. Jelo's stomach lurched, and for a moment, he thought he might actually throw up this time. The world around him became a blur of colors and shapes, reality warping and twisting as the portal did its work.

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

-----

Portals were an incredible mode of traveling that could take people between places in minutes. What would normally take hours, sometimes days, of travel could be accomplished in mere moments through a portal. It was technology that had revolutionized the world, changing everything from commerce to warfare.

The science behind portals was quite complex yet very simple. In the fabric of space, portals would cut shortcuts that connected places, folding space in on itself so that two distant points became neighbors, if only temporarily. It was a marvel of physics and engineering, a literal bending of reality.

Portals were the result of the work of six men who worked at the Doston Institute of Technology Research Group. During the war with the ihes, they had come up with portals as a way to transport weapons quickly to needed areas and to transport humans to safe places in large numbers.

The technology had been born out of desperation, one of the last-ditch effort to give humanity an edge in a conflict that had been going poorly.

The portals had quickly been duplicated and had helped humans in the war with the ihes tremendously. Supply lines that had once been vulnerable to attack became nearly instantaneous. Evacuation efforts that had taken days could now be completed in hours. The ihes, for all their strength and resilience, couldn't counter the strategic advantage portals provided.

But portals weren't without their dangers.

There were four grades of portals, and they were labeled based on danger level. S for safe, portals that led to secure, well-mapped locations with minimal environmental hazards. D for dangerous, portals that led to areas with known threats, whether from wildlife, terrain, or other factors. XD for extremely dangerous, portals that led to hostile environments where survival wasn't guaranteed. And XXD for the most extremely dangerous portals, destinations so lethal that only the most elite soldiers and ability users were authorized to enter.

The one Jelo and Mira had entered was an XD portal, which was the second most dangerous portal.

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