DYNAMIC DUO OF TRUTH PART 2

“Wait,” I said, “a pet…? Lost?”

“Yes,” Remi said, with an innocent smile. “And as the school’s self-proclaimed detectives, we thought you could help us.”

Liton finally found his voice. “The school has a pet club?”

Reddish rolled her eyes. “If you can have a detective club, why can’t we have a pet club?”

“Understandable,” Liton and I said in unison, nodding sagely.

The girls launched into a description of the missing pet. Its name was Sparky, a holo-dog with three purple glowing tails.

We began our “investigation” immediately. Liton whipped out his trusty detective kit, and I switched on my holo-notebook, ready to jot down potential clues and evidence. The girls gave us all the details they could remember while Liton asked groundbreaking questions like, “Does Sparky have any enemies?”

Reddish’s patience was wearing thin. “It’s just a pet. What enemies could it possibly have?”

Liton tapped his chin. “Jealousy is a powerful motivator. There are boys who would love to get treated as pets by you girls. Maybe they are jealous and have formed an alliance to take down Sir Sparky.”

I sighed. “Liton, focus. We can’t let our imaginations go wild.”

Liton: “What’s Sparky’s favorite snack? Could it have wandered off in search of it?”

Remi: “Holo-pellets. They don’t even exist in real life.”

Liton: (awkward silence) “…”

Our first stop was the Holo-Tech lab, where Sparky had last been seen. The lab was a chaotic wonderland of buzzing machines and glowing screens. The kind of place where nerds thrived and normal people walked out with a headache.

Liton immediately took charge, pacing around and muttering nonsense like, “The digital footprint doesn’t lie,” while squinting at holographic projections. Meanwhile, I approached the nearest engineer, a guy who looked like he hadn’t slept since the last software update. His introduced himself as Chira.

“So, Sparky disappeared during a system update?” I asked, trying to sound professional.

“Yeah,” Chira replied, yawning. “One minute he was there, the next he just… glitched out. We think his program might’ve been fragmented.”

“Fragmented?” Liton’s eyes widened. “A dastardly sabotage, no doubt! The villainous scoundrel responsible for this will rue the day they crossed us!”

Chira blinked. “I… don’t think it’s sabotage. Probably just a bug.”

“Rubbish!” Liton declared, pointing dramatically at the ceiling. “Cryil, write that down: Suspect denies involvement. Classic guilty behavior.”

“Noted”

Chira: “Ugh you guys don’t make sense. Whatever, take this with you.”

Liton: “What’s this?”

Chira: “Presenting our newly invented glitch vacuum”

“And how to use it?”

Chira: “Just like you use a vacuum cleaner. Once you turned this thing on, it would suck in the glitches.”

Chira: “Also don’t forget to promote our inventions to the school, when you solve this case. This will help us make a lot of mon… I mean this will help the school in many ways.”

[After a while]

Our investigation led us to the Entertainment Hub, a restricted area filled with VR simulations. According to the digital logs, Sparky’s signal had been detected there shortly before vanishing entirely. Naturally, the place was off-limits to students, but rules have never stopped us before.

“Leave this to me,” Liton whispered, holding up an empty clipboard like it was a magic key. He strode up to the security bot guarding the entrance. “Official maintenance business!” he announced. “Stand aside!”

The bot scanned him for about half a second before replying, “Access denied.”

“Ah, a formidable opponent,” Liton muttered. “Very well. Plan B.”

Plan B turned out to be me distracting the bot by pretending to trip over a nearby bench while Liton crawled under its sensor beam, whispering, “Stealth mode activated!” I have no idea how we didn’t get caught.

Inside the Hub, we found a malfunctioning VR simulation. The virtual environment flickered between serene forests and absolute chaos. One moment it was a peaceful meadow; the next, a giant spaghetti monster with laser eyes was chasing us.

“This is fine,” Liton said, dodging a flying meatball. “Totally normal.”

“Define ‘normal,’” I replied, clinging to a tree that had just turned into a rollercoaster.

Amid the glitches, we found Sparky—or rather, pieces of him. His program had fragmented into various parts, each trapped in a different section of the simulation.

We used the glitch vacuum and collected those parts of Sparky.

With Chira’s help, we managed to restore Sparky’s program. The holographic dog reappeared in all its glitch-free glory, wagging its glowing tails.

“Another case solved!” Liton announced, striking a heroic pose.

“But how did this happen?” I asked expecting an explanation from Chira.

Chira: “It seems like someone was trying to tamper with some VR simulation. And more than likely they used Sparky as an experiment in their activity.”

Liton: “That’s just awful”

Back at the courtyard, the entire student body gathered to celebrate our triumph. Okay, maybe not the entire student body, but at least a dozen people. That’s close enough.

Liton gave a speech that was equal parts inspiring and incoherent. “Today, we proved that no mystery is too great for the Dynamic Duo of Truth! Sparky is back, justice is restored, and the universe is safe once more!”

The crowd cheered. Or at least, Remi clapped politely while Reddish rolled her eyes.

As we walked away, basking in our glory, Liton turned to me. “Cryil, what did we learn today?”

“That we’re amazing detectives?” I guessed.

“Exactly.” He patted my shoulder. “Write that down.”

I did. In big, bold letters: WE ARE AMAZING DETECTIVES.

CHAPTER 21 END