To the Headquarters

The masked man, fixing his pajamas, walked back towards Akira and Pako. "Look at the mess that thing created, " he said. "This will be all over the news unless we do something about it."

"What are you going to do about this?" Akira asked and peered around at broken stumps of trees and wrecked ground. Trenches and craters now blanketed the whole place.

"Covering this up is not my job," the masked man said. "We a have a team--" He froze, and his legs and hands started shaking.

"What's--" Akira started, felt Rin slipping from his arms, buckled his knee, and heaved her up to a proper resting position. "What's wrong?"

"T-there is a spider on my sleeves," the masked man stuttered. "P-please, someone, get this thing off me."

"Are you being real right now?" Akira asked incredulously.

"P-please. Get this thing off me."

Akira sighed and peered down at Pako.

"Fine, I'll do it," Pako said, floated toward the guy, and brushed a small, black mass away from the guy's sleeves.

The masked man let out a loud sigh. "I almost thought I was going to die today. Thanks a lot." He turned the camera-like eyes on his mask towards Pako. "I owe you my life..." Looked back at Akira and yelped. "Hey, don't stare at me like that, kid. Never seen an adult being scared of an insect?"

Akira said nothing. He was probably giving the masked guy a look, which said: That was not what I was expecting. Or something worse, like, I thought you were cool, but a cat from outer space is cooler than you.

"Seriously, drop it... Anyway, you must be tired," the masked man said and held out his hands. "You can give her to me."

"Okay." With some effort, he passed Rin to the masked guy. Akira's arms were glad to have her off. Though Rin was lean and in good shape, she was heavy. "I think your name was Maxim?" Akira said, waving and shaking his arms to get his blood flowing.

"Max," the masked man said. "My friends call me Max."

"Okay, Max. Why are you wearing a mask?"

"That," Max said giddily, "is an excellent question, and I have an excellent answer to that. But we first need to get the hell out of this forest. It's giving me creeps."

"You are taking her to the headquarters?" Akira asked Max as Pako climbed onto Akira's shoulder.

"Yes," Max said. "You'll also have to come with me. You and that little guy on your shoulder who saved my life."

"W-will you try to erase my memories?"

"Of course not!" Max shifted his arms under Rin. "Now, quickly keep your hand on my shoulder. We can talk somewhere else. I want to get away from this place."

Akira faced Pako. "You are coming with us, Pako?"

Pako shifted over Akira's shoulders. "As much as I hate it, I don't think I have a choice. I'm tired. There is no running now, not in front of this guy."

Akira nodded and placed his hand on Max's shoulder. "You better don't erase my memories."

"Like I told you... I won't do it. Now." Max looked around. "If we are in Japan, then the headquarter must be somewhere in that direction." He peered down at the ground below them.

Akira, confused by Max's words, opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, he felt a surge of static electricity running through his body. Akira blinked. A moment ago, he had been standing in the middle of a dark forest, and the next moment, he was inside a large, brightly lit room with a high ceiling.

"What the--" Akira staggered back and fell hard on his butt. Pako climbed down his shoulder and began looking around the tall, empty room.

"This is the entrance," Max said. "Really spacious, isn't it?"

"What did you do?" Akira said, breathing hard. His whole body was tingling. The sensation was eerily similar to what he had felt after touching that stone.

"Are you alright? Can you get up on your own," Max asked.

"Yeah," Akira said, waited for that weird tingling to stop, and started climbing to his feet.

"Maxim, sir," someone shouted.

Akira looked to his right and saw two people, a man and a woman, dressed in white, hurrying toward him with a stretcher. They had apparently entered the room from the only corridor which Akira had missed on his arrival.

"How is she doing?" the woman asked as she and the guy lowered the stretcher.

"Severely burned," Max said laying Rin down. "But I think she will be fine."

"Alright," the woman, whom Akira assumed was a medic, said. "We'll take it from here." She and the man lifted Rin and began walking toward the only passage.

Max and Akira, with Pako again back on his shoulder, walked right behind the medics. The passage was wide and tall. Akira peered across it and found that he couldn't see an end. Walking across it sounded like a bad idea. But thankfully, the corridor's floor was divided into two, carpeted lanes, each moving in either direction.

"We are moving on our own," Akira told Pako a few minutes later. "Why are you still on my shoulder?"

"I like the view from the top-yo," Pako said and licked his paw.

Akira shooked his head.

A few seconds later, they came across an intersection. The medic team turned left while Max took Pako and Akira in the other direction. Though still equipped with moving floors, this section of the headquarter was modest compared to the entrance. The halls were of the right size, lined with rooms with large, seethrough, glass-walls. The place was bustling with people and creatures, which Akira was sure were aliens, all in either gray, white, or black uniforms.

"Where are you taking us?" Akira asked.

"I'm taking you to our second captain," Max said. "This way." He dramatically pointed at a big sliding door.

If the previous rooms had been huge, then the hall behind the sliding door should be called enormous. The room was the size of a plaza, with a web of escalators, neatly arranged desks, and a giant screen covering the whole front wall.

"Whoa," Akira muttered, enthralled, as Max led him down the long escalator and past the rows of desks and people working in front of them.

Right in the center of the room was a long curved desk, elevated above the rest, with several people either sitting or standing before it. Akira realized Max was taking him right toward the curved, raised structure.

Max stopped at its base. "Wait right here," he said and climbed up to a middle-aged guy standing almost in the middle of the long table. They talked for a while, and the middle-aged guy, who now looked oldy familiar, shot Akira some seething looks.

"He must be the second captain," Pako said and jumped down from Akira's shoulder.

"He looks mad at me for some reason," Akira muttered. "He also looks familiar."

"He is angry because you probably took his milk," Pako said and began grooming his whiskers.

"I--Nevermind." Akira turned his attention back to Max. He was now walking back toward Akira with a woman by his side.

"Sir," Max told Pako. "This lady here will take care of you. Please follow her."

"What's this all about-yo?" Pako asked, sounding wary.

"You don't have to be afraid of anything," the woman said, "please just follow me. We just want to discuss with you about your problems and how we can help solve them."

"I'm too tired to move around," Pako said and flopped to the ground.

The woman shot Max and Akira an embarrassed look and said, "I'll carry you, then." She scooped Pako up and began walking away.

"See you later, kid," Pako called as the woman took him away.

"Where is she taking him?" Akira asked Max.

"Don't worry about him," Max said. "Just sit down on this." He gently shoved onto an empty chair. After that, he walked around and stood behind Akira.

"Freta," Max called and a woman with lustrous pink skin, dark eyes, short white hair, and a cute smile came up and stood before Akira.

"Hi," Freta, the pink-skinned alien woman, said.

"H-hello," Akira said, not sure of what was going on.

"This is Freta," Max said and placed his hands on Akira's shoulder. "She is a visiting Grevatian, and she will be erasing your memories."