As they were approaching the area around Tokyo Tower, Karl’s grip on the lever unconsciously tightened as he took in the magnitude of the blaze below.

“I’ll find a place to land so you two can get off,” Karl said over his shoulder.

“No need, we can jump off,” said Zephyr, then turned to Rywa. “You know how to use a parachute, right?”

“A para-what?” Rywa tilted his head to one side.

“I guess not. A parachute is a device used to slow down our fall once we jump out of the fighter.”

“Oh. In that case, wouldn’t a teleport gem take us there quicker?” Asked Rywa, taking out what looked like a blue sapphire the size of a ping pong ball.

“How does that work?”

“Like this,” Rywa grabbed Zephyr’s arm before he turned to Karl.  “We’ll see you later, then.” And they vanished.

Karl was astonished, but did not have time to process what just happened as the next second he was dodging canon fire from an alien spaceship the size of a Boeing 777. At the corner of his eye he noticed a missile headed for Tala’s fighter, so he quickly spun his own ship around and shot the projectile before it could hit her.

“Thanks, Karl!” Tala’s voice resounded through his watch. “Bianca, Hogan, and the SDF pilots are shooting down the fighters coming out of that ship. And Captain’s on the ground, putting up a barrier.”

Karl saw a magic circle below with Chris and his fighter in the middle, shielding the perimeter of Prince Shiba Park where everyone had evacuated. The alien ship’s canons have set the buildings surrounding Tokyo Tower on fire. Karl frowned at the flames that seemed to be crawling closer to the barrier.

“This is bad... The fire crews are struggling to contain the fire. We have to do something before it reaches everyone,” said Karl.

“First we have to eliminate the source of the fire. Karl, I’ve got an idea. I need you to distract the ship so I can set up a trap and toss it back to the wormhole before it closes,” said Tala.

“Leave it to me,” Karl nodded.

“Ava, establish contact,” said Karl as he took off and approached the ship.

Team Alpha’s virtual assistant replied, “Connected. Line is open. Compatible language found for translation is Morse code.”

“Always wondered why Dad had to integrate the use of this ancient communication system into our program. I guess his fascination with a lot of things comes in handy,” Karl muttered. He tapped on the small round button on his communication panel designated for Morse code, saying the words out loud as he finished each one, “why... are... you... attacking... us?”

Not long after, Ava said “Incoming message.”

“Put it through.” A series of long and short timed beeps went through. The reply was short and succinct. “‘Revenge’...?”

The spacecraft aimed at his fighter and fired aggressively. With their attention now on him, he lured the ship away from the civilians below. He maneuvered his fighter and effortlessly danced with the rapid blasts coming his way.

After failing to land a single hit on Karl, the spaceship turned its attention to the ground and fired. Their shots were deflected by Chris’ barrier, but the impact shook the ground and sent debris falling from the burning buildings, landing dangerously close to the ambulances where Zephyr and his medic team were treating people. 

Karl’s eyebrow twitched. Smiling sweetly, he said “Ava, recalibrate my cannons. Disable limiter.”

“Fighter cannons recalibrated. Limiter removed.”

He swiftly spun his fighter around to face the enemy. Karl’s screen showed the alien spacecraft in the middle with two words below: Target Locked.

“Not my brother, bud.”

He fired with full power, instantly creating a gaping hole on the ship’s rear.

“Just so you know, my canons don’t run on ammunition. I can fire another shot— or ten.” He was about to pull the trigger when Tala’s voice came through. “Karl, my stellar orbs are in position. Pull back.”

As soon as he did, five silver orbs the size of basketballs fired beams forming a star surrounding the alien spacecraft and created a thin film of light, binding the ship and immobilizing it.

Tala’s voice came through his watch. “Nice work, Karl. I’ll take it from here.”

Karl watched as the star trap pulled the ship and tossed it back into the wormhole where it came from. But before the wormhole completely closed, the alien ship went berserk and made one last attempt to fire randomly at everything around it.

One of the shots hit a construction crane on top of a towering building along Sakurada Avenue, detaching it. Seeing it was about to fall on the street with ambulances that had just departed from the evacuation site, Karl sped towards the crane and caught it seconds before impact.

“Warning: External damage sustained. Engine 1 has stopped working,” said Ava, as the alarm blared from his dashboard.

He tried to maneuver the crane towards the building, but the weight of the steel bars attached to it complicated the task.

“Warning: Overheating detected, emergency cooling systems activated.”

“Ugh, Bianca’s gonna kill me.”

“I heard that, Karl Takaya Lyle,” Bianca yelled at him over the comms. “What were you thinking?! You could’ve gotten hurt doing that!”

Karl flinched. “Sorry, Bianca! It’s a GDF fighter, it should be able to handle this much. But I need a little help here.”

“We’ll be right over,” said Hogan.

The twins came and Bianca shot wires to tether Hogan’s fighter as Hogan went around the crane to secure the secure it and pull it off Karl’s fighter. They lowered it on the now empty street after police cars created a diversion so the ambulances could take a detour and clear the road.      

“Good work, team,” Chris’ voice resounded from their communicators as he took down the barrier. The rest of Team Alpha landed close to Chris’ fighter and met up with their captain.

“Karl, what are you doing out here? Get back to your fighter, there’s smoke everywhere. The rest of you, check on the civilians and assist them in any way you can while medics tend to those who need urgent care. I’m going to help put out-“ Chris, doubled over, holding on to Karl for support.

“Captain!”

“I’m fine,” Chris straightened up but swayed a little.

“Captain, perhaps you should rest. Putting up such a massive barrier must have sapped your strength,” Tala remarked, concerned.

“Now’s not the time to rest. We need to put out that fire.”

Running his fingers through his book, Chris uttered “Ddaearyneinhamddiffyn.”

Water from surrounding ponds, fountains, and waterfalls all formed an arch as it surged towards the fire.

“It’s all spread out. If the fire was all in one place, it’ll be easier for the captain and the firefighters to put it out. But as it is, it’ll take them hours to fight something of this scale.”

Karl’s eyes widened on Tala’s words.

“Perhaps there’s someone who can contain it…” Karl frantically looked around until he spotted Rywa helping Zephyr and the other medics carrying people on stretchers.

“Karl, where are you going?” Bianca called after him as he took off.

“Rywa! We need your help.”

“What’s wrong?” Rywa asked.

“You can control fire, right? Can you help us contain it? Captain and the others may have a better chance putting it out if the blaze wasn’t so widespread.”

Rywa frowned. “I’m sorry, Karl. I can’t do it.”

“But-“

Grimacing, Rywa shook his head, avoiding Karl’s gaze. “No, I can’t do it. I can create little flames but this… this is a different story. One false move and I’d end up killing people… again… I’m sorry.”

Karl shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

Rywa hesitantly met Karl’s eyes. His face was forlorn. “I really am sorry.”

Karl reached for Rywa’s hands and gave them a light squeeze “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something ou-” He pressed his hand over his chest as he started coughing.

“Karl, you shouldn’t be out here.” Rywa wrapped an arm around his shoulders and ushered him towards his fighter. As they were treading through the rubble, a girl’s yell called their attention towards the front entrance of cake shop with shattered glass.

“Shu! Come back here!”

Karl bolted towards the girl in a sailor uniform and caught her just in time to stop her from stepping over the sharp edges of the glass. “What are you doing?! That’s dangerous!”

“Let me go, mister! My cat ran inside!”

“He must have been terrified so he wanted to hide,” Karl held her shoulders “It’s very brave of you, but let me help. We’ll find him quicker together.”

“... Okay,” the girl nodded.

“I’ll help as well,” said Rywa. Karl nodded and pulled out his gun. With one precise shot, he broke the lock of the front entrance. The chime above jingled when he opened the door.

Karl heard the faint sound of a small bell. He turned towards one of the tables with a half eaten  Mont Blanc and iced coffee that still looked untouched. He ducked to look underneath and grinned when he saw a pair of little glowing eyes looking right back at him.

“Found you. Come here, lil fella.”

As he reached out his hand, the cat softly bit him before licking his fingers.

“Hey, that tickles,” Karl chuckled. He looked over his shoulder and yelled “Hey guys, I found him.”

The girl bolted towards him and knelt down beside him. “Shu! Thank goodness you’re safe. Come here.” As soon as the girl reached for the cat, however, he moved further back and hid under a collapsed furniture, where he could not be reached. She let out an exasperated groan. “Argh, Choux Cream!!! Come on, we gotta go!”

The neon scrunchie that stood out from the young student’s uniform sparked an idea and Karl said “Let me try something. Could you let me borrow your scrunchie?”

The girl took it off her wrist and handed it to him.

“Thanks.” Karl approached Rywa and said “Sorry!” then promptly plucked a strand of long, crimson hair.

“Ow!” Rywa flinched.

He tied the scrunchie at the end of the hair to create a makeshift toy. He tossed the scrunchie as close to the cat as he could and successfully lured him close enough to grab. As he pulled him into his chest, the cat wriggled and whined as he attempted to break free.

“Calm down, we’re not going to hurt you,” Rywa said as he gently stroked the cat behind the ears. As soon as his fingers made contact, the cat relaxed in Karl’s hold and bunted Rywa’s hand.

“Somehow that makes me jealous,” Karl pouted.

Chuckling, Rywa stroked Karl’s head as well.

“Ah, no, that’s not what I- Nevermind. Let’s get out of here.” Karl gently handed over the cat to the girl, who securely cuddled him in her arms. They made their way to the door, but as soon as they exited the cake shop, something above them snapped.

Karl looked up and saw one of the building signs swinging before its last hinges snapped and the object fell from above. He instinctively shielded the girl and the cat with his body. But the impact he expected never came, instead he felt Rywa’s arm around him. As he raised his head to look at the man, he saw how flames came out with wave of Rywa’s hand and reduced the building sign into mere ash flakes fluttering around them.

“Are you all right?” Rywa asked.

Karl nodded. “Thanks, Rywa.”

Rywa frowned. “It’s just as you said Karl, I might be able to help. I might mess up, and cause more harm than good… But I can’t bear seeing you and everyone get hurt while I stand here and do nothing.”

“Rywa…”

Rywa took a deep breath. “The problem is the wind. It’s unpredictable. One small gust could be disastrous and-“

“There won’t be any wind gusts,” Karl said firmly.

“How do you know that?”

“I… I just know. Please trust me,” Karl reached for Rywa’s hands. “And I trust you. You can do this.”

Rywa looked straight into Karl’s eyes, searching, before he nodded.

“All right. Stand back.”

Smiling, Karl let go of Rywa’s hands before they stood a few steps away from him.

Rywa closed his eyes and a magic circle appeared. Karl had seen a lot of GDF’s M.A.G.E. ops in action, including his captain, but this was the first time he had never seen such intricate writings as the ones that glowed beneath Rywa’s feet. The moment Rywa opened his eyes, his golden irises shone with intensity that rivaled the flames he had raised his hand towards to command.

As soon as his right palm faced the direction of the blaze, its movement halted. Karl could only watch in wonder, this was the prowess of a real-life mage. Every controlled yet graceful motion of Rywa’s hands altered the course of the flames, before compressing them into a much smaller area. The firefighters as well as Chris seized this opportunity and went all out, and it didn’t take long before they had doused the fire.

“Rywa, that was amazing!!! I knew you could-”

Karl froze when he saw Rywa looking at his trembling hands, face filled with remorse.

“Rywa… What’s wrong?”

“The last time I ever handled fire of this magnitude was when my power lost control. That fire burned down an entire forest… and killed people important to me.”

Karl gingerly reached for Rywa’s hands. “But Rywa, look around you. You saved everyone today.”

Rywa looked up and saw the firefighters, medics, and other emergency responders who, though visibly exhausted, looked relieved. People who didn’t need care have started to disperse and cautiously made their way through the smoldering rubble, while some stayed in huddles, comforting each other.

“If you hadn’t contained the fire, the firefighters and Captain would have had a much harder time to put it out. More people would have gotten hurt,” said Karl.

Rywa smiled bitterly. “Since that day, I’ve always thought the power I posses was only meant to destroy. I will never be able to atone for what I have done, however, if this power can help others then I will no longer hesitate to use it.” He brought Karl’s hands to his lips and planted a soft kiss on the back of his fingers.

“And you are the one who made me realize this. Thank you, Karl.”

“You’re the only one who can decide what your power is… meant for…”

Karl fell to his knees clutching his chest, wheezing and coughing.

“Karl!” Rywa crouched down in front of him.

Zephyr bolted to his brother’s side carrying an oxygen therapy unit and quickly put the mask over Karl’s nose and mouth, slipping the band behind his head.

“Thanks Zeph, I’m okay. But Captain, he-“

“He’s fine. Look,” Zephyr gestured to where his medic team was checking on Chris.

“By the way, Karl. How did you know there weren’t going to be any wind gusts?” Rywa asked.

“Gut feel,” Karl shrugged. “I seem to have a good sense when it comes to wind movement. It’s really handy when I’m flying.”

Looking at his boyish grin through the oxygen mask, Rywa’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe I trusted you on that.”