In public eye
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The entire ordeal with the monsters was easily resolved, the entire force of the Untethered in the city proved too much for the combined might of the monsters. To be frank, we weren’t even worried about that. Because the repercussions for the assault of the monsters would be felt after the actual confrontation.

Just as I was finishing off the last monster, a cyclops, in my vicinity, I became aware of the numerous cameras pointed at me, carried by drones or in fewer numbers, by actual people. I was quite anxious at the sight of these cameras and did something that I would come to regret pretty soon after that moment. I nervously showed off a victory sign towards one of the cameras after finishing off the cyclops.

That image, of me performing a victory sign, with an awkward smile frozen on my face would be plastered on all online newspapers and news channels within the hour, making me the unofficial and frankly, an embarrassing face of the reveal of the existence of the Untethered to the mortal world.

Before long, I was trudging along the street, hesitant to go home since I was afraid of confronting my parents. As I walking, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I spun around quickly, poised to attack. I stopped myself when I saw that it was just Samuel.

“Quite the clusterfuck, isn’t it?”, he asked, his expression sordid as he looked around at the cameras. I could only nod, since his word described perfectly, in my opinion.

“This isn’t even the worst for me. I am dreading going to my house because I know the grilling that awaits me. Not to mention, the world will be conscious of our presence now. And everyone knows how humanity reacts to anything outside their sphere of influence or understanding.”

Samuel didn’t react to that, as he knew I was speaking the truth. The future looked grim on all accounts as we would be faced with war on multiple fronts, fronts which we didn’t have any experience handling. Samuel just patted me on the shoulder before wishing me luck and turning around, probably to go back to his place to escape the media storm that was surely about to begin.

I reached home, entering through the window of the dining room, not wanting to announce my presence straight away by using the door. What I saw had me trembling and blushing at the same time.

My parents’ were glued to television at what must have seemed like a fantastical scene to the. There, on the screen, was me, posing with a victory with a dumb grin on my face and my other hand holding a menacing a scythe, all while an evaporating corpse of a cyclops lay at my feet.

I couldn’t bear letting my parents watch any more of the coverage as I would melt in embarrassment if it continued. I coughed loudly, hoping to catch their attention and to my simultaneous relief and terror, they turned around in alarm almost immediately.

They didn’t react for a long time seeing me. I was actually becoming worried about their health when they sat motionless for too long when my mother said, “What?” That one word was enough for me to understand the utter bewilderment and fear she felt at the moment and I could only sigh as I prepared myself for the inevitable questions coming my way.

I made my way over to them, resigned to my fate and said, “Mom, Dad, I am an Untethered?”

“Untethered? What does that even mean?”, my father asked.

“Untethered is a human that has transcended the mortal plane and moved over to a separate one, called ‘The Dimension’.”

“Transcended the mortal plane? You aren’t making much sense here, David.” My father’s voice was flustered as he said that and I could feel that he was close to shouting in his current emotional state.

“Look, there’s no easy way to explain this but I am going to try my best.” I could see my parents hanging on to my every word. I proceeded to give them a lengthy explanation of what an Untethered was and my experiences and actions over the past month and a half. To say they were shocked would be an understatement.

They had difficulty accepting the things I had told them as evidenced by my mother asking, “So you are off playing a superhero?”

I sighed, I seemed to be doing a lot of that, and answered, “No. It’s just that I have an ability that comes with a responsibility. A huge one, in fact.”

“What responsibility does a child like you have? How can anyone assign any sort of responsibility to you when you have been doing this for, what did you say, one month?” My mother was almost rambling at this point and I could see that she was getting too overwhelmed by this whole situation.

“Mom, it’s nothing that was assigned to me. It just comes with the territory.”

My mom was having none of it and began to talk about how I would not be allowed to leave home because I was grounded indefinitely. For what seemed like the hundredth time, I sighed and gave up on trying to explain the matter.

And after all, this was over, my father finally brought the conversation to the crux of the matter. “What are all these spaceships, son? Are the aliens real and are they attacking or something?”

I could only grimly nod as I said, “Yes and yes. Aliens are a reality. Not only that but from what I have heard, they are much more advanced in almost everything. And one leader wants to conquer other planets for his own domain. And now he has set his sights on Earth. That's why you see this spaceship and the others around the world.”

“You are making it sound like there will be a war? Between planets?” My father’s tone was hesitant as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing or maybe he didn’t want to believe it.

“It looks like it at the moment. We have been alerted that war might be on the horizon. Already, there has been some escalation on the aggressor’s part, ergo the spaceships.”

“War? You are going to take part in a war?” My mother was close to breaking down and it broke my heart seeing her like this. my father saw this and rushed to console her before asking, “Are you?”

I only nodded, confirming that it was, in fact, true. He continued seeing this, “Why do you have to? Shouldn’t our governments be taking care of this?”

“I don’t think they can. I don’t think they can, in any way, affect anything in the Dimension. Only we can.”

My father nodded at this before, “Do you have to? I mean you personally.”

“I may not have a choice, dad. I may be one of the primary targets, in fact, due to some circumstances.” Hearing this, my mother started crying and my father just started taking her away to their room. Before leaving though, he looked at me and said, “Whatever you do, stay safe.”

I could only plop down on the sofa after they had left, overwhelmingly tired by the whole thing. The television was still on and the fiasco of the reveal of the Untethered’s existence had everyone in meltdown mode as I tried to decipher what this possibly mean for them.

Already there were rife reports that supernatural human beings not answering to anyone and not enforceable was a disaster waiting to happen. somehow, we were also being blamed for the arrival of the spaceships. Some sensationalists had even gone so far as to suggest that we wanted to take over the planet and the spaceship was just part of our ploy.

I switched off the television, having no more desire to listen to people ramble on with my dumb expression at the front. It was in this situation Light found me in when he entered my house through the window, just like I had done not too long ago.

His voice startled me when he said, “Get up. This is no time to be sleeping.”

I turned to look at him and asked him groggily, “Light? What are you doing here?”

“I have come to take you to a very important Council meeting. You have been requested to be there. Urgently.” He added the last part when he saw that I was not making any move to get up from the sofa.

I followed him out of my house and saw that more reporters were present, some even surrounding my locality. It seemed like they had an idea of the rough location of where I lived and wanted to find out my residence. Which was the last thing I wanted since that would lead to undue harassment for my parents?

Some monsters were still lurking in our general vicinity but they were being taken care of by Untethered squads who seemed to be on patrol. They looked wholly uncomfortable, not due to the presence of the monsters but by the numerous cameras trained on them.

Light seemed to be unconcerned by this, his attitude was totally cavalier. He didn’t pay any attention to the cameras and we made our way to the entrance of the Council headquarters without too much of a fuss. Thankfully, there weren’t any reporters or drones in the area housing the entrance. Probably due to some Council work, I mused.

We entered the room for meetings that I had already been in several times. Light went and took his seat while I stood in the corner. For some reason, the room seemed bigger than it normally was. The whole situation got even more extraordinary as it kept expanding in size the more people shuffled in through the door.

When everyone who was invited made it, Nova took the lead and said, “The Council has decided that we have been reactive for far too long. We have to decide to take action against the revelation of our existence as soon as possible so that the mortals cannot see the Dimension anymore.”

One of the people in the crowd asked him, “Hasn’t the damage already been done? What will any action taken by us accomplish?”

Nova answered, “While it may be true that our existence has already been revealed, we would nonetheless like to stop the mortal world’s exposure to the Dimension, simply because I don’t think they will react well to seeing monsters roam the streets or people just like them jumping on top of buildings with no regard for the laws of physics.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that and there was some collective muttering among the crowd. Nova continued, “We have decided that we will launch a tentative attack on the spaceships with a tentative strike force all around the world.”

That sent a collective shock throughout every person present in the hall as this would be almost an unofficial acknowledgment that we were finally entering the fray of war. The silence in the hall was tense as everyone waited for the plan of action to be revealed.

Shadow took over and said, “Every spaceship will be attacked by a special team composed of a few Untethered each. The primary objective will be to destroy the panels radiating the red light. If possible, we will search for an entrance into the spaceship itself so that members can be sent for reconnaissance itself. Every team will be led by a member of the Council.”

Nova added, “Yes, that is what has been decided. But we are one member short, as everyone knows very well. So the last team will be jointly led by Eirini, our guest from Mars,” at this everyone looked in his direction but his face remained devoid of any expression, not giving a clue regarding his thought process, “and David.”

At this, all eyes in the chamber snapped to me and in my mind, all I could think was that the face I was probably making right now would probably eclipse my photo on the television channel and that I should learn from Eirini about expressions. Maybe a course called ‘How to be stoic all the time 101’.

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