My world was overcome with light. Light looking to engulf. Light seeking to destroy. Light seeking to blind. Light accompanied by the head of a thousand suns, it seemed.

As the explosion made its way towards me rapidly, only one thought raced through my mind. ‘Slow it down.’

I hastily called upon my power, without much concentration, in a desperate bid to halt the progress of the inferno advancing towards me and my team. I felt my core responding to my instruction as I tried to change what would be a drastic future for the entire team.

And for a fleeting moment, I felt as if I had succeeded. The raging inferno which threatened to engulf everything in its wake seemed to have slowed down a lot, almost to the point where it seemed as if it had halted. For just a second, it seemed as if the disaster had passed and we would all be safe.

I had barely released a sigh of relief when suddenly I had a feeling of being overwhelmed pass throughout my being and my core. Before I could begin to try to regain a semblance of control, my power was totally broken through by the light and heat. The inferno had fully regained its former momentum and was again advancing towards us in all its glory.

I could only look on in horror as the fire progressed towards me rapidly, helpless to do anything. All of a sudden, the fire surrounded me. I was vaguely aware of some sort of shield surrounding me, trying to protect me from the raging inferno. But the combination of my exertion of powers to the extreme and the overwhelming heat surrounding me, I passed out.

I was vaguely aware of some voices around me as I started to gain consciousness. I tried to open my eyes but everything seemed too blurry to comprehend, so I closed them again.

“Wake up, wimp. We need to get going.”

“Shut up, Broderick. He has actually saved our lives today if you have some trouble remembering the facts.”

“No, you saved our lives using force fields!”

“And he gave me enough time to regain my bearings and summon my force fields. Were you catching a nap when this was happening?”

“Why you…?”

A voice I vaguely realised to Samuel’s interrupted at this point. “That’s enough. I have had enough of your hostile behaviour and childish bickering for the evening. I don’t care who saved our lives. Just be thankful that we are all okay right now.”

That was the moment I decided to make everyone aware that I was conscious once more. I shifted uneasily, the action sending jolts of pain through my body as I tried to summon up the strength to at least sit up on my own. I felt someone grab my back to support me and prevent me from falling over. Which I was grateful for because my back felt as if it had been smashed into a million pieces.

Looking around, I saw that Broderick and Damocles were still shooting hostile glares towards one another, although their back and forth had stopped. Eirini was looking at me with a concerned look on his face while Samuel was the one currently supporting me in my efforts to sit straight. Angela, for her part, seemed entirely unconcerned by the happenings around her.

I asked Samuel dazedly, “What happened? How long was I out for? I just remember that explosion threatening to turn me into ashes.”

I was very relieved when Samuel replied, “You have only been put for five minutes or so, David. We were really concerned there for a moment but Damocles’ force fields did a good job of holding off the inferno. Your timely use of your powers helped massively, of course.”

I just nodded at that before asking, “What’s the damage? For both life and property?”

“None in the case of lives, David. Of course, our team was affected in some way or another. But no mortals or other Untethered got hurt. You were the worst for wear out of this whole thing, which is the best we could have hoped for, especially after the sudden turn of events.”

“The four buildings that we stood on are destroyed. Thankfully, they had been long abandoned so no worries on that account. Other than that, I can’t think of any other collateral damage that has happened.”

I was curious about whether our ploy had worked and asked Eirini, “So, did it work? Are we hidden from the mortals once more?”

Eirini just shrugged and said, “We are unsure as of now. We haven’t had any contact with any mortal after the explosion nor have we been near any sort of media. But seeing the utter destruction of the spaceship, I will say that it’s a safe bet that we are out of the mortals’ eyes now.”

I nodded, content before a horrible thought struck me. “Hey guys, have you tried to establish contact with the Council? I mean, if the spaceship had a self-destruction mechanism over here, it surely must have the same mechanism for the rest of the spaceships too, right?”

That question made everyone pause their thoughts as the gravity of my words seemed to hit them. before long, Eirini said, “We have to regroup at the Council headquarters anyway. Why don’t I rush on ahead so that I can inform the Council of this situation? The main Council members might not be there, of course, but whoever is present there could help us, massively in providing aid. You guys come slowly, keeping in mind David’s condition.”

We could only nod solemnly as he took off in the air, hastily making his way towards his destination. Silence prevailed amongst us as we could only pray and hope that the rest of the teams who had undertaken the same mission as we were safe and sound.

We stayed there for quite a while before the usual cameras started to focus in on us, indicating to us that it was time to finally move. I gingerly got up and but the fatigue racked through my whole body. Sensing my discomfort, Samuel just put me on his back as we started making our way towards the Council headquarters.

Samuel put me down near the entrance of the headquarters. we slowly made our way into the headquarters, anxious to find out the news that awaited us.

As soon as we had entered, we were greeted by one of the healers that were always available. “Good, you are here. Eirini told us you were basically unharmed but you, David, look like you could use some help. Why don’t the rest of you go ahead? I will send him your way as soon as I am done treating him.”

My companions nodded at her before leaving me alone with her. The healer grabbed my head with both of her arms and closed her eyes. I was freaked out, to say the least. The emotion got stronger when her eyes started glowing a pale green. I was about to extract myself from her grasp when a voice called out, “You better not do that.”

To say that I was surprised to hear the voice would be an understatement. After all, it was the voice I had become increasingly familiar, although in the current moment it seemed like a thing of the past.

“Hello, Emma. Long time, no see.” I didn’t turn around, trying and failing to give off a cool vibe. ‘Long time, no see? Why would I say that?’, I thought to myself.

Emma seemed wholly unaware of my mental anguish as she said, “You’d better let the healer do her job. You may not remember this, seeing as you weren’t conscious and probably unaware of at the time, but this procedure has already been performed on you a couple of times. The last you were here.”

That did little to soothe my nerves, although I did stop struggling. I asked her, “So, what’s the situation? In case you aren’t aware of it by now, we were ambushed by a nasty surprise on our mission.”

“I am quite aware of it, David. That’s what I wanted to ask. How are you doing? There was no information about any sort of self-destructing mechanism being installed on the spaceship.”

I couldn’t help but retort with a dry quip, “Obviously.”

Before Emma could reply, however, the healer opened her eyes and said, “Classic case of core exhaustion. You really should try to strengthen your connection with your core even more, so you do not waste effort on summoning your powers. Here, have this.”

She handed me a pill I was becoming increasingly familiar with. Swallowing without much ado, I instantly felt better. I turned back to continue my conversation with Emma but she had already disappeared. I could only smile wryly at her actions.

I walked down the halls to the main chamber. What awaited me was a room full of people who had just heard sombre news. The atmosphere was akin to a funeral, leading me to assume the worst. I quietly shuffled to the back of the room, intent on keeping myself out of the way.

All the Council leaders were there which was great news because they weren’t harmed by the spaceships. Their attitudes suggested that they weren’t much pleased with the result.

Nova took over the lead as always. “As you are already aware, our missions didn’t go quite as planned. The enemy seemed to have pre-empted our decision and had employed failsafe protocols, designed to inflict as much damage as possible. While there were no casualties tonight, three of our more experienced Untethereds were grievously injured.”

“They are expected to make a full recovery, although the impact this will have on their core and powers is yet to be determined.”

“The primary objective of tonight’s mission, which was to destroy the radiating panels, was achieved. The spaceship, too, was destroyed. Although we didn’t have much to do with it.”

“The target of the mission was simple. To cloak ourselves from the eyes of the mortals once more, as has been the norm since the dawn of The Dimension. We seemed to have failed though.”

I was puzzled by his statement as I saw no reason that the mortals would be able to monitor us, now that the panels were destroyed. I didn’t voice my inquiry, although my brash partner from tonight, Broderick didn’t have any such qualms.

“What do you mean? We destroyed the panels, didn’t we?”, he all but shouted, any pretence of respect out of the window.

Nova just let out a tired sigh as he said, “That we did, young Untethered. But we seemed to have underestimated the industriousness of the mortals and the fascinating feats they are capable of.”

“What do you mean?”, I couldn’t help but ask, an uneasy feeling passing through me.

“I mean that we aren’t cloaked from the mortal world anymore. The scientists of the mortal world seem to have devised some way to replicate the radiation of the panels. Right now, as we are speaking, they are launching a series of satellites designed to radiate light waves of the same frequency, thus exposing us once more.”

“While I can understand their desire to know the events happening on their own planet, especially now that they realise the dangers of our world, this puts us in an uncomfortable position, a position we haven’t been in before. We also cant, in good faith, retaliate or react in any way.”

That news sucked the air out of the entire room. The entire objective of the evening, for which we had put our lives on the line, had been thwarted by the ingenuity of the mortals. And we had no option but to accept it.

Before we could come to terms with the news and let it sink in, he spoke up once more. “If that wasn’t enough, we have been hit with another conundrum. See for yourself.”

A hologram sprung up at the centre of the table, the likes of which I had only seen in sci-fi movies. But what stunned me wasn’t the hologram, it was what it was displaying.

A prominent leader of the mortal world, the President of the foremost country of the world was speaking.

“We have been unaware of these threats and these enhanced, if you will, walking among us. While they have shown no indication that they mean us any harm for all these years, recent events have shown us that the world which we inhabit isn’t as carefree as we thought.”

“After looking at all these facts, the coalition of the leaders of all nations in the world have decided to extend an invitation to a representative group of these enhanced individuals, so that we can understand the recent phenomenon a little better. If they don’t accept our invitation, we may have to take steps to ensure that our world doesn't come to harm due to the inaction of these self-anointed protectors of the planet.

The only thought that passed through my mind was, “That’s a threat!”