Chris walked towards the window and opened it, letting all the rain and stormy winds in. Hogan moved in front of Karl and put his arms around him, shielding him from the onslaught of water as they moved farther back.
The captain put out his Artifact— the sage's book. His long fingers ran through the fragile pages in one smooth, elegant stroke as he uttered, "Ddaearyneinhamddiffyn".
Upon the last two syllables, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the object. A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, hitting the drone. Chris walked towards Karl and ruffled his hair. "Sorry, did I get you wet? Go get changed, I don't want you to catch a cold."
He took out his handkerchief and wiped the younger pilot's face.
"I'll be happy to lend you my shirt, if you'd like to take your wet one off," Rywa offered.
"Oh, sure! Thanks"
Before Karl could take off his shirt, Chris put his hand over the younger pilot's.
"I'll have your brother bring spare clothes and you can go change in the washroom. I don't think it's a good idea to undress in front of this man. He's a… guest, after all."
The room went dead quiet, except for Karl, who chuckled "Actually, Captain I already-"
"Captain!" Hogan whined theatrically, speaking over his younger teammate. "I'm soaked, too.
"Oh, you were there, too. Good job spotting the drone." He patted the sniper's head.
"Of course!" Hogan grinned. From the corner of his eye, he saw his twin give him a thumbs up.
"Okay guys, it's almost time for lunch so let's go on break now. I'd like to meet with the surveillance team for a little chat as well," Chris said then left.
Karl sneezed, prompting Tala to pass over the tissue box.
"Tenggyu," he muttered as he accepted.
Rywa approached him. He stopped right in front of him then extended his hand, palm upturned, where a small ball of fire appeared.
Karl put his palms close enough to just feel the heat.
"I can't explain it, but the power that I feel coming from you is really gentle. Just like that time, when you saved me. You healed me on the beach, didn't you?" Karl looked up at the bright golden eyes.
"All I did was lend you a little strength," Rywa said with a wistful smile. "This power can still be very destructive, just like how your captain destroyed that drone with lightning."
"But Captain has saved many lives with his power, including mine. Many times. And that night, had you not used your power, I would've suffered from another attack."
"Attack?" Rywa frowned.
"I have difficulty breathing, triggered by things like dust, pollen, other allergens, and physical exertion like diving. Because of this, when I was young, I would be in and out of the hospital for long periods of time. I can manage it better now that I'm older, but every now and then, I still have attacks. But thanks to you, I was able to avoid it."
"You dove to save me even though you knew that was going to happen?! You risked your life for me, all because of my foolishness…" Rywa's voice faltered as his face contorted with remorse.
"Foolishness?" Karl asked, confused.
"That night, when we first met, I had come down to Earth to scout. As luck would have it, there was a meteor shower. But matching their speed and movements to use them as camouflage was a lot harder than I thought. And I'm guessing you noticed that, that was why you went after me, no?"
Karl nodded.
"So I pretended to crash, hoping I could shake you off. You diving in after me to try and rescue me was beyond my expectations. I feigned unconsciousness, yet you were persistent. When you stopped banging on the windshield, I thought you finally left so I peeked, only to see it was because you had passed out. So I immediately got out of my fighter and pulled you up to the surface."
Grimacing, he retracted the flame on his hand and reached for Karl's hands, giving them a tight squeeze. "I'm so glad you're all right. Forgive me," Rywa looked at him with eyes like that of a kicked puppy.
A flurry of emotions surfaced on Karl's face. He looked annoyed at first, then angry— like a teacher about to scold a naughty student— and then he took a deep breath before finally looking up at Rywa with a kind smile.
"It's fine. I mean you still saved me, after all, so don't let it bother you anymore."
"But… I still put your life in danger."
Sighing, Karl reached up and flicked the taller man's forehead.
"That hurt…!" Rywa nursed his forehead.
"Good," Karl grinned boyishly. "Now we're even. So please stop beating yourself over it. Besides…" Looking out the window and into the stormy seas, Karl spoke. "I don't regret going after your ship that night. Thanks to that, our paths crossed." He shifted his gaze back to Rywa and looked straight into his eyes as he said, "I'm glad I met you."
Rywa's expression slowly changed from that of guilt into a warm smile. "Thank you, Karl. I'm glad I came to Earth and had the pleasure of knowing you, as well."
"No more fake crash landings, though. I'm not gonna dive in to save you a second time," Karl smirked.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," Rywa finally let go of Karl's hands, only to move one hand up to caress the younger man's cheek. "This time, I'm falling for real."
The next moment, something soft hit Rywa's head. He turned around and saw Zephyr, who had just come into the conference room. He was carrying a cloth bag and an extra towel.
"Whoops. Sorry, I meant to pass that to my brother. Name's Zephyr, nice to meet you," Zephyr flashed a cordial smile as he unrolled the fabric and draped it over Karl's shoulder. "And you are?"
"Rywa, it's a pleasure to meet you," said Rywa then muttered under his breath "Why am I suddenly having a sense of déjà vu…?"
Karl introduced their guests to his brother. "Zeph, these are our guests from planet Zirka: Rywa, Viernn, and Sahd." He gestured to each one.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm head of the medic division here at GDF. Feel free to let me know if there's anything you need my assistance with" Zephyr flashed his most businessman-like smile.
Zephyr passed the cloth bag to his brother. "Captain Norland told me you needed a change of clothes. Here you go."
"Oh, thanks! Sorry, you must be busy. Did you go all the way home for this?" Karl looked up at him apprehensively.
"Oh, no, don't worry. Those are mine. I always keep spare clothes in the infirmary. He also told me about the drone."
"Yeah. Luckily there were no pilots or passengers on board. I'd hate to see you guys sent out for search and rescue in this kind of weather," Karl looked out the window as the storm continued to rage on.
"All part of the job. And you're one to talk. It's no secret what kinds of dangers Team Alpha faces on a regular basis," Zephyr said, ruffling Karl's hair. "Okay then, I gotta head back. Still have work to do."
"I'll walk with you. I need to go to the washroom to change," Karl turned from his brother to everyone else in the room. "I'll be right back."
"I'm heading back to the dorms to get changed as well," said Hogan, who got up and followed the brothers.
"Do you all live on the dormitories in the island?" Viernn asked Bianca.
"Just me and Hogan. Tala's renting an apartment. She used to be an English teacher in Fukui City, so she was already living in the area even before she got into GDF. Captain has his own place, if I'm not mistaken one of their relatives operate in real estate here in Japan. Karl's family still lives in their house."
"Isn't it inconvenient, especially if there's an emergency?"
"Not really," Bianca tapped on her watch. "I integrated an autopilot system into our fighters that enables them to fly to us anywhere as long as it can pick up our coordinates. And thanks to Dr. Lyle and Tala, they're engineered to reach us within minutes, even if we're on the other side of the world."
Karl came back wearing Zephyr's navy blue sweater, which was at least two sizes up. The sleeves were long enough to cover more than half of his hands even though they were already folded. Rywa looked ready to cuddle him, but before he could walk towards the younger pilot, Tala swiftly walked towards him and extended her tablet.
"Rywa! Would you guys care to look at the menu? I will be asking the cafeteria staff to bring our lunches up, so let me know what you'd like."
"Oh. All right," Rywa nodded then took her tablet.
By the time their food came, Hogan was back. "So you think it might have been your dad in that picture?" He asked Karl, his glasses fogging up from the steam of the udon noodles he was slurping.
Karl was going through the bento box his mother had prepared for him— a colourful arrangement of veggie tempura sprinkled with ume shio (plum salt), rice, kinpira, and sweet, golden mango cut into cubes.
"That photo was pretty old, and the paper came out long before I was born. But my gut tells me there's no mistake. He was the one who helped those graduate students with their discovery in that news article."
"If that's the case, do you guys think it's possible that it had something to do with aliens? Since that's what Dr. Lyle studies," Bianca asked before she took another tiny bite of her ham and cheese croissant.
"Who knows?" Tala answered pensively as she finished her crispy panko curry bread. "It may not necessarily be connected to the documents Rywa's searching for, but it might offer a clue. At this point, we can't cross off any possibility."
"True," Karl nodded. "I'll ask my mom about that article later." He took a tentative sip of his tea, but decided it was still too hot and ate his dessert instead.
He had a blissful expression as he spooned up the silky soft soy milk pudding, until he noticed Rywa staring at him. "You seem so happy, it must be very tasty."
"It is! Zephyr made it. Wanna try? Ah but, sorry, I don't have an extra spoon," Karl smiled sheepishly.
"I don't mind using the one you did, if it's all right with you," Rywa drew his face closer and opened his mouth.
Karl took a spoonful and fed Rywa.
"Mm. Sweet, but not as sweet as your smile."
"Who else saw another pickup line coming?" Bianca said, deadpan.
"Me," Hogan and Tala replied in unison, while Viernn and Sahd shook their heads, chuckling, as they quietly enjoyed their meal.
"It's a message from the Captain," Tala said when her watch beeped. "Mrs. Lyle and the research team called him over to narrow down our findings so we can start investigating right away."
"Then he won't have any time to eat. I'll grab something from the caf for him." Karl hurriedly finished the last spoonful of his dessert and put away his lunch containers.
As he was leaving, Bianca and Hogan followed him with their gaze. "Man, he has no idea how much tinier he looks in Zephyr's clothes, does he?" Hogan remarked.
Giggling, Bianca nodded, "The perfect boyfriend fit. He's adorable."
"More like child fit, really" Hogan snorted.
When Chris came back, he was immersed in their notes from earlier that now had red scribbles on, which Karl recognized as his mother's writing. Karl was about to ask if he had time to grab lunch at all, but the captain looked so deep in thought, so he hesitated. It was Tala who approached Chris instead.
"Captain, have you had lunch yet?"
"No. Mrs. Lyle had to shuffle her meetings around just to accommodate me and her research team while we were on break. But it's okay; I'll just grab something later."
Tala looked at Karl and nudged her head, signalling to come. He then trotted over to Chris, offering onigiri and warm bottled tea that he got for him. "Captain, if you'd like, you can have these."
"Thank you, Karl. This is perfect, I'm starving!" Chris took them and stole a few bites as Tala set up his tablet to the monitor and everyone settled on their positions around the table.
Chris pulled up three pictures. The first was of a white-haired male with thick glasses standing on a podium, the second was of a middle-aged man with an SLR camera around his neck, and the third image was that of a map with a red dot on an island.
"These will be the starting points of our search. First is Dr. Jaime Perez, a retired professor who specializes in finding, verifying, and researching possible alien artifact. He had worked together with Dr. Lyle when he was studying the alien ship that landed years ago. He's here on vacation, so Tala and I will be flying out to Tokyo and see if he can accommodate our request to meet him.
Next is Rihito Echizen, an investigative reporter. He writes about alien sightings and suspected alien artifacts around the world. He's of Japanese descent but was born and raised in Germany. He has accepted our request for a video call, but says he isn't as fluent in Japanese as he is in German or English. So Hogan and Bianca, you two will be calling him.
And the last one is Tenogawa Island. It has a fishing village with a population of roughly 2,000 people. A fisherman found a suspicious object that was washed ashore, so he reported it to GDF. The description sounds similar to the drone I destroyed earlier, so the research team would like us to confirm if it is indeed another one, which could mean there are more out there. Karl, that will be your mission. Speak with the fisherman who found the drone and if it's the same, destroy it.
That's about it. I'll be sending you the information on the people we'll be meeting with. Any questions?"
"No, sir," Team Alpha replied.
"Tenogawa Island... I've been there before." Karl muttered.
"Is that so?" Chris' interest was piqued.
"My dad used to take me there. It was a long time ago, but I still remember the place. It's small— you can walk the whole island in a day."
"That's great then. Perhaps there are some people there who still remember you."
"I wonder..." Karl's voice trailed off at the memory of children pointing at him and jeering.
"Look, it's the kid with strange eyes!"
Their leader, a boy about twice Karl's size, with a Mohawk-style hair and missing front tooth, smirked. "You don't look like you're from around here. Go back wherever you came from!"
Karl shook the memory off as Chris spoke.
"All right, team. We're done for today. As for Rywa, Viernn, and Sahd, since we're still not sure if they have any information related to the documents you're looking for, it would best if you let us meet with them first. We'll update you with our findings upon our return."
"In that case, would it be all right if I accompanied Karl instead?" Rywa asked.
"I'm not quite sure I like the idea of leaving my youngest member alone with you," Chris eyed Rywa suspiciously, earning lopsided grins from Tala and the twins.
"Permission to speak, Captain," Karl said tentatively.
"Yes?"
"I think it would be good for Rywa to see with his own eyes what the people of this world are like. Outside of GDF setting, that is. Is it okay if he comes with me? I promise not to let it interfere with my mission." The ace pilot looked at his captain with puppy dog eyes.
"Sometimes I wonder if you're fully aware that I can never say no to that face," Chris muttered under his breath. "Oh all right. But I'll have someone accompany you two."
"Yes, sir," Karl beamed. "Thank you, Captain!"