Karl spoke to his watch. “Ava, establish connection.”

“Connected,” the virtual assistant replied.

“I am from Earth’s Galaxy Defense Force. Identify yourself,” Karl said. When he got no answer, he tried once more. “I repeat, identify yourself.”

Without responding, the fighters sped towards the island and landed on the beach. Humanoid creatures with green fur, bulging eyes, and goat-like horns above their ears hopped out of their fighters. They had hostile expressions, and they were armed with weapons. As soon as they set foot on the shore, they started firing. “Crap, another wormhole invasion,” Karl frowned.

The mysterious man stood in front, shielding him. He reached for the scabbard under his cloak and pulled out a long sword, similar to that of historical swords called tachis that Karl had seen in museums.

“And now it’s a sword. It’s beautiful… But it really does look like cosplay,” he muttered unwittingly.

The red haired man, looking amused at Karl’s reaction to his weapon, rolled his eyes at those words. “Just stay back, little one. I won’t let them come anywhere near you.”

He flipped his long crimson hair then dashed towards the oncoming alien bandits, taking them down in swift, graceful moves. For a moment, Karl was mesmerized by the fluid motion until he noticed a couple of aliens bolting towards the wolf.

He raced towards the fallen invaders and kicked a gun to his right hand and then another to his left. Eyes focused, he shot at the ones going after the wolf first, letting the wolf run and hide. He then fired at the other bandits, aiming straight at their weapons with flawless accuracy, disarm the whole group and rendering them defenseless.

“Well then. We can either keep going, or you can scram,” Karl smirked, blowing on one of his pistols.

The dumbfounded enemies surrounding them hurriedly scrambled back to their fighters, even the ones who were already down on the ground. They flew off and disappeared back into the wormhole as if they were never there. Soon after, the wormhole vanished as well.

“Irregular wormholes like these have been popping out a lot lately,” he said as he stood side by side with the mysterious man, who looked genuinely surprised.

“Impressive. Looks like there was never a need to protect you. Forgive me; I had underestimated you.”

Karl looked up at him. “Never judge a book by its cover.”

Their gazes at each other lingered before the man said “Won’t you tell me your na-”

“Your fighting skills were no less impressive, either.” Chris’ voice came from the bushes, catching their attention before the mysterious man could finish his question.

“Captain! You’re back,” Karl grinned brightly as he trotted towards Chris with Bianca in tow. “Hey Bianca, you okay?”

“Yep!” Bianca beamed back. “You were amazing, as always.”

“You guys saw what happened?” Karl gawked.

“Yes, from behind the bushes. Captain said it was a good opportunity to observe him,” Bianca nodded her head towards the sword fighter. “And in case he did turn out to be hostile, we were ready to come to your rescue, both from the ground, and from the air. You can disengage stealth mode now, you guys.”

Karl looked up to see a pair of fighters becoming visible above them. In one of them, Hogan was standing by with a long rifle aimed at the stranger on the beach.

Chris held his hand up at the sniper, palm opened, then lowered it. The blonde-haired pilot put down his rifle by his side and relaxed, adjusting his glasses. Hogan and Tala landed their fighters on the beach, where the members of Team Alpha assembled.

Chris walked towards the mysterious man, who was just slightly taller than him. Looking directly into his golden eyes, he asked. “Just for confirmation, are you the pilot of the ship that entered our atmosphere last night and rescued my team member?” He gestured towards Karl.

“Yes, it was I,” the man nodded.

“You have my thanks. We are from the Galaxy Defense Force. Would it be all right if we asked you to come with us to our headquarters? We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“That’s fine with me.” The man complied with Chris’ request without hesitation, then shifting his gaze to Karl, smiling as he added “I, too, have questions I’d like to ask you.”

-

Designed to let in plenty of natural light, GDF had glass walls that offered a view of the sea surrounding the island on which it stood. As Team Alpha walked down the halls escorting the pilot, Karl’s eyes were fixed on the waters sparkling under the noon sun high above in the cloudless sky. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of someone staring at him. He turned around and caught the mysterious man’s eyes on him, who simply smiled, and broke eye contact only when they went into one of the conference rooms with a glass-etched image of a tyrannosaurus rex on the door.

“I will be meeting with our headmaster, as well as the lead instructors later. Until then, make yourself at home,” Chris said as they all sat down around the table. He put down an old, tattered book with browned pages in front of him. The cover had unrecognizable cursive calligraphy on it.

“Can I offer you a drink? Tea? Coffee? Or would you prefer juice?” Tala asked their guest.

“Tea, perhaps?” he responded pleasantly.

“Welcome to our Headquarters. My name is Chris, and this is my team: Tala.”

“Hi! That’s me,” Tala said as she served their guest’s tea.

“Bianca, Hogan.”

“Yo,” the twins waved.

“And Karl.”

“Hey!” Karl smiled.

“Karl?”The red-haired man echoed, looking unconvinced. “That is your name?”

Karl nodded.

“I see…” The crimson-haired man brought the cup to his lips and took a tentative sip of tea.

“I wonder if he finds my name strange…” The ace pilot leaned closer and whispered to Hogan, who shrugged.

“Why don’t we start with you telling us who you are and where you’re from,” Chris stared at their guest intently, elbows resting on the table with his fingers interlaced.

“My name is Rywa. I come from the kingdom of Mira, one of the great territories in a planet called Zirka many galaxies away. As you can see, our people look no different from humans, though it seems our eye, hair, and skin colors have a broader spectrum. However, there’s just a small difference: some of us have little horns in our foreheads.”

“You mean like unicorns?” Tala asked.

“Unicorns?”

Bianca pulled up an image on her phone and showed it to Rywa.

“Ahhh, yes, just like that, around the forehead. But smaller, and more blunt. We don’t have unicorns on our planet, however. They look like fascinating creatures. Very colorful.”

“And they’re not real,” Bianca explained.

“Oh. I see…” Rywa blinked owlishly.

“You said some people have horns but others don’t, just like you. What’s the difference?” Hogan asked.

“Perhaps it would be easier for me to show you. You have an interesting item there, Captain,” he said, eyeing Chris’ antique book.

Rywa stood up. He raised his hand, fingers outstretched and poised as if holding an invisible ball. He turned his hand as if he was turning a doorknob then his fingers swiftly closed to a fist, and the instant the tip of his fingers touched his palm a ball of fire shot out of his hand and sped towards Chris.

Chris instinctively grabbed his book and opened it, as he chanted, “Ddaearyneinhamddiffyn.” Water splashed from the spine of the book, quickly dousing the fire. “You can wield Elements without an Artifact,” Chris stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

“And it appears your people can’t,” Rywa voiced his conclusion, looking genuinely curious.

“No. That’s why M.A.G.E.s like me always have our mediums by our side,” Chris said, tapping on his book, which he had put back down on the desk.

“But you must be called mages for a reason. That means you’re also capable of magic, no?”

Rywa looked confused, so Chris walked to the touch board and wrote ‘M.A.G.E.’ with his finger. “I’m one of GDF’s Medium-Activated Gaian Element operatives, or M.A.G.E. operatives for short.”

Tala added, “Twenty years ago, an alien spaceship landed on Earth. There were no pilots or passengers found, but Dr. Artemis Lyle, my mentor and Karl’s father, believed the threat of aliens was real. However, no one believed him, so he single-handedly established GDF. He also spearheaded the M.A.G.E. Initiative, because according to his research, some aliens are capable of magic. So he believed it was necessary to level the playing field.”

Rywa looked impressed. “He sounds like an amazing man. I would love to meet this doctor you speak of.”

Tala looked down, smiling ruefully. “That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. He left when Karl was still young, so now his mother is the one who runs the organization.”

Rywa quickly turned towards Karl at those words. Eyes wide and anticipation almost palpable in his voice, he asked “Your mother, she’s still alive?!”

“Of course she is. Why would you ask me something like that?” Karl scowled.

“Forgive me, I mean no offense. But tell me, does she look like you?”

Karl, not really sure where the conversation was leading, obliged anyway.

“My dad used to tell me I’m like a mini version of my mom.”

The other man looked in total disbelief, almost hopeful. Looking away, Karl added “B… But as I grew older, I guess my features changed, too, so we don’t really look that much alike anymore. If anything she looks more like my sister. Practically carbon copy.”

“I see…” The other man’s shoulders slumped and his eyes were downcast. He then tried to regain his composure and met Karl’s eyes again. “So you have a sister.”

“I do… and a brother as well. But why are you asking me all this? Do I know you?”

“I was wondering that myself…” Rywa absently muttered under his breath, then shook his head. “Forgive me. You looked like someone who was very dear to me— a swordstress second to none in our world. She was the one who taught me the art of the sword.

But she passed away many years ago. In fact, she died in front of my eyes, so I knew it was impossible. But… just for a moment… I had hoped I was wrong and you are-” He sighed wistfully, shaking his head. He smiled at Karl. “It’s nothing. Seeing how our features don’t look very different from each other, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see someone who looks just like her.”

Buried under that gentle smile were eyes filled with pain. Karl was about to reach for the man’s shoulder, but stopped midway when he heard Bianca’s voice.

“Nah, we don’t really look that similar, either. For one thing no one in this day and age wears cloaks anymore,” Bianca teased playfully.

“Yup, yup,” Hogan nodded. “And what’s with the red hair? Is that natural or did you colour it?”

“The healthy shine of your hair makes me want to trim it out of jealousy…” Tala huffed theatrically.

“This cloak is very cozy, mind you. And yes, this is my natural hair color.”

“See? Told you, you look like a guy in cosplay,” Karl chuckled, jumping in with the others’ attempts to lighten up the conversation.

Their lively chatter was disrupted by the door slamming open and two people barging in. One of them, a big, buff guy raised a broad curved sword and was about to slam it down on their captain. Karl moved on sheer reflex and positioned himself between them, blocking the blade with the alien gun he picked up at the island.

“Who are you?” Karl’s voice was soft, but sounded like a growl. “To have gotten in undetected, you’re no ordinary guy.”

“You’re not bad yourself, little boy. But before you could pull the trigger, I would’ve cut your throat already.”

“That’s not quite right, General Sahd.” Rywa pointed to the attacker’s chest, where the identical pistol on Karl’s left hand was pressed against. “You would’ve had a bullet in your heart long before your sword could come anywhere near him or his captain.”

“Whoa! When the hell did you-?! Well I’ll be damned,” Sahd sounded impressed as he dropped his weapon and raised his arms in surrender. He had a big build, with dark grey skin,  lush ebony hair framing a square face, and eyes like those of a puma’s.

Karl put lowered the alien guns as well but he still stood ground in front of Chris, shielding him.

“General?” Karl echoed.

“Former generals,” said a woman on the other side of the conference table. She was lavender-skinned and had a short, dark blue bob tied in a tight bun, with the sides of her hair falling over the side of her face. Her bow and arrow were restrained by Hogan, while Tala and Bianca had the tips of their daggers against her chin.

She loosened her hold on her weapon and let Hogan take it from her as she, too, held her hands up in the air as she sighed. “Looks like you did not need any rescuing, after all.”

“Everyone, forgive me for the commotion. These are my companions, Sahd and Viernn.” The mysterious man gestured to the two.

“Hello there,” Sahd gave a little nod.

 “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Viernn said.