The familiar blue light faded, and Johnny's heart pounded as his eyes adjusted to their surroundings. They had returned to their present time , but something felt terribly wrong. The air held a metallic taste, and an unnatural silence pressed against their ears like cotton wool.

Ella whispered, her voice trembling : "Did we do it ? Did we prevent the disaster ?"

Before anyone could answer, they noticed their shadows on the ground weren't behaving normally. Instead of following their movements, the shadows seemed to ripple and twist, as if trying to break free from their bodies. The time machine in Johnny's hands grew ice-cold, its surface crawling with strange symbols that hadn't been there before.

The buildings stood intact – not destroyed as they had been before their journey – but they were wrong. The architecture had shifted, becoming organic and twisted, like bones growing through concrete. Windows pulsed with an inner light that reminded Clara of deep-sea creatures.

As they walked through the empty streets, they began to notice other changes. The trees had eyes – actual eyes that tracked their movement. The pavement beneath their feet seemed to breathe, rising and falling in a slow rhythm. Reality had become elastic, stretched and distorted by their manipulation of time.

Johnny muttered, clutching Hiroshi's time machine tighter said : 

"This isn't what was supposed to happen. We prevented the disaster, but we've created something worse."