3 | The Return

Six months later, and there was still no sign of Ali. With Missing posters up on every internet and pole, there was sadly no luck of the boy's figure.

Dr. Ghazali hasn't been taking the news well, taking breaks off work on a multitude of times, which was something he hadn't done in the past. After much pressure by the president, he quit his job and spent his days looking for his lost son.

That was, until a peace treaty finally came between MATA and TAPOPS, with only the condition of humanoids coming to the meeting. Aliens were still discriminated, and the people that stood by them were cast aside.

Three from TAPOPS were chosen, though they were to meet at the same café that led to HQ. As Alicia waited for their arrival, three figures entered the restaurant, looking around.

One of them looked to his phone, muttering incoherent words to his shorter friend. The same words were then spoken to the shortest one, though the reactions were vastly different. With a shrug from the shortest one, he gestured towards the end of the café where the two agents were sitting, and they made their way through.

A chair was pulled up in front of Alicia. She looked up and saw a teenage boy with dark sapphire hair and dark pink eyes.

"We're here for the negotiation," he said firmly, sitting down.

His companions pulled up chairs and sat with him, though the way they treated the situation were different. The shortest one had black hair, his long hair tied into a low ponytail, bangs covering the majority of his face; and the other had messy caramel hair, his physique feminine and soft.

What is this, a gay parade?

"Yes, I see," Alicia said. She set her hands down, and her eyes trailed over to each of them. "May I know your names?"

"Hm. Fair enough." The sapphire-haired male shrugged, his glasses jostling on his nose. "My name is Fang, and I'm the leader of this operation." He gestured towards the brunette. "This is Boboiboy, one of the Corporals in our organization." He turned to the final boy. "And that's Ali, whom you should already know, a cadet under Boboiboy's care."

Ali.

"What... do you mean?" Alicia looked at him skeptically, clenching her teeth.

The boy named Ali flashed a grin and posed dramatically at her. "Heh! You already forgot about me?" He shook his head, and his hair was pushed out from his face. "I'm back, Alicia! How's it going?"

"Ali!" Alicia shot to her feet, slamming the table in surprise. Customers turned to her outburst, but she quickly calmed and sat back down. She hissed at the boy, anger rising in her chest. "What are you doing? Where have you been? Do you know how worried your father is? Do you even know what he did to find you—"

Boboiboy coughed loudly and shut her rant off. "Alright. Can we get to the point?" He turned towards Fang. "This is worse than Vargoba's ship."

Fang snorted. "For the sake of our dead mothers, please remain professional." He turned back to Alicia. "We came as you requested. Would the negotiation take place here or somewhere else?"

Alicia looked like she wanted to strangle Ali, but she kept her cool. She called over a waiter and spoke the secret message: Nasi Kampung Mata Telur Empat Tak Nak Telur, and the waiter understood, writing a M in code. Instantly, the whole place erupted in song and dance, which distracted everyone from their stunts.

"Hold tight," the grumpy waiter groused, and walked away.

Three seconds later, as they fell through the long tunnel strapped to their chairs, no one said anything. The only time someone said anything was when Ali accidentally smacked Fang in the face when he was trying to scratch his head.

"Watch yourself, you dog!"

"Says the donkey who likes red carrot donuts—"

"Guys," Boboiboy cut them off. "Shut up."

The chairs came to a halt, and they were led into a chamber. With the silence and isolation looming over them, Alicia instantly went for the kill. Not really, but she did slap him. Hard. On the cheek. Ouch.

"You ran off with aliens!?" Alicia yelled. "Without telling anyone? All the teacher told us was that you stayed home because of clinical depression! She even showed me the note!"

Ali held his stinging cheek, but it didn't hurt much. Being in space, getting injured was a more or less hazard. His height didn't grow, but his physical status and endurance sure did. His hair was down to his neck now, and he didn't bother to cut it.

"For your information, that note is authentic," Ali said lightheartedly, shrugging as he blew a strand of hair from his face. "And whatever I do has nothing to do with you. I've already gotten a life-long career at TAPOPS, so you don't have to worry about me and my little self."

"Provided that he can stand Gopal asking for food every three minutes," Boboiboy added.

"Provided I can stand Gopal asking for food every three minutes," Ali echoed. "Besides, I've already decided I'm going to talk to my dad later, so you can calm down and let me handle my own life problems."

They would have argued further, but the others were still waiting. Alicia begrudgingly walked forward and the drones suited her up, and she was in her agent gear in no time. The drones then detected Ali's presence and tried to suit him up, but he dodged behind Boboiboy and they went away.

No one commented on that.

The door to the HQ opened, and there was no one. Usually, there would be hundreds of agents working around, but today seemed to be deserted. That's when Fang caught sight of the surveillance in the area, only having their eyes on them.

They didn't trust someone from space, after all. They never have, and they never will.

Eventually, they arrived at the meeting room, where the other agents were waiting. The four core pillars and the General, and a handful of other agents.

Four? Ali looked closely. Other than Dayang and Ganz, there were two other new additions. Ali's eyes widened as he realized who the Invisio leader was. Rizwan. As for the Neuro... it was General Rama.

Who's the General? Ali wondered, turning to the new general. His gasp was caught in his throat, as he recognized the red cap and curly hair.

Uncle Bakar.

"Welcome, agents of TAPOPS," the new general boomed with a seriousness Ali had never seen before. "We are here today to discuss urgent matters between our organizations."

Next to him, Fang clenched his fists behind his back. "We prefer to go by accomplices." He levelled his eyes with the general, his glasses never interfering with his deathly glare. "Unlike MATA, we choose to work with and alongside them. We are a mere branch."

The general coughed. "Very well." He turned to them, putting his hands behind his back. "May we introduce ourselves?"

"No need," Fang said. "We already know who you are."

Behind Bakar, the core pillars' expression tightened.

"But you don't know who we are," Boboiboy interjected, throwing Fang's deathly tone off. "So here we go! I'm Boboiboy, this ray of sunshine is Fang, and that's Ali! Formerly a MATA agent. He told us everything we needed to know."

Ali waved his hand happily, as if he was greeting an old friend. "Long time no see! Did you miss me?"

Nobody spoke, but eventually the General's lip quivered. "... Ali?" he stammered. "Is that... really you?"

Ali nodded. "Yep!" he said cheerily. In a flash, he was tackled in a bear hug by his uncle. He fell speechless, though his hug felt familiar, anchoring him back home.

Once or twice, he would think about his life back in Cyberaya. But never once he was homesick. But now, all those emotions gushed out at once, threatening to spill tears in front of everyone.

"Uncle..." he started, but he was cut off.

"It's okay, Ali. What matters is that you're safe."

A cough interrupted their short reunion, and it came from one of the core pillars, Rama. The pillars, unlike their previous appearances, were here physically. They couldn't afford to undermine this treaty, after all.

"YOU FOOLISH BOY!" Ganz roared, slamming his fist onto the table. "YOU GHOSTED MATA, AND YOU THINK YOU CAN WALTZ IN HERE BECAUSE YOU FELT LIKE IT!?"

Ali's expression turned neutral. "With all due respect, sir, any agent who withdraws communication from MATA for a month is considered dead." He walked back to his friends, facing the agents with a newfound confidence he'd learned over the months. "Given my withdrawal for not one, not two, but six months. Judging by that time period, I am no longer qualified as an agent. You have no power over me whether inside or outside of uniform."

"WHY YOU—"

"Ganz," Dayang cut in. "The boy has a point."

Ganz deflated instantly, his shoulders sagging over his outburst.

The others stared at him as if he was wearing a second skin. Ali brushed his hair from his eyes, and shrugged as if he'd just said something that the man deserved to hear.

Boboiboy grunted. "Jeez, Ali, we're here to negotiate. Not start another fucking war." He clipped his nose and sighed, as if he couldn't believe how rotten his luck was. Ali was too quick-witted for any of them to handle. "Four centuries, and humans still act the same. Why couldn't god just let me die already?"

"Are you not human?" Rizwan asked cautiously.

Boboiboy shrugged, scratching his neck. "I am human, if there are any doubts." He looked around the room, staring any questioning agents down. "I'm just semi-immortal."

"That doesn't make any—"

"Sense? No. It doesn't." Fang stepped forward and placed what seems to be a pendrive on the table. "Do you have a warp drive that could process interdimensional coding visualization message?"

One of the techno agents coughed behind Bakar. "A computer?"

"No."

"Then no."

Fang held in a sigh. "Then if this drive is connected to electricity of any kind, it will corrupt the computer and cause it to melt from the inside and explode." He pocketed the drive. "Long story short, the only condition we ask of MATA is to stop harassing the radio systems. It interferes with any emergencies anywhere and we can't get there in time to stop it."

"The last time you people changed the signal, an entire city was destroyed," Boboiboy added. "We didn't know until one of our technicians hacked back in to check about the disturbance. We raided one of our enemy's bases because we thought it was them."

"Yeah, it didn't end well," Ali agreed, turning towards Boboiboy. "What about the time Retakka's body was stored into a shelf and they stopped us from collecting it?"

"MATA."

"Oh." Ali turned to the core pillars and the general. "We still need that body back."

"For the love of god, you two!" Fang swerved around, glaring daggers.

MATA's agents stared at them, wondering how such an important mission could be entrusted to three immature(one supposedly immortal) teenagers, and if especially if one of them used to be their own.

"If you're here to joke around, then I suppose this treaty wouldn't work out."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice, and it turned out to be none other than Alicia. Her glare was steely, her expression battle-ready.

Boboiboy exhaled from his nose, but he fell silent. Oh boy, he thought. She's just like Yaya on her bad days. Wish she was still alive to see this.

"As much as I think this is important, MATA still has interfered with our work ever since they were created." Boboiboy glared back, with no respect for these kind of people. "You do realize that I am older than Cyberaya itself? That I have looked upon the founding of Cyberaya myself, that my father was the one that closed the bridge between humans and aliens before you people decided to shut aliens off and all his work is erased and here I am."

He didn't stop there. "You people have NO IDEA what it's like to watch your home turn into some monarchy where a stupid little agency running around thinking that they're the saviors of Earth. IF YOU PEOPLE THINK THAT YOU'RE SO SUPERIOR THAT YOU COULD JUST ERASE YOUR FUCKING ANCESTOR'S WORK, THEN FUCKING FIGHT ME!"

Almost instantly after Boboiboy's rant, he regained his innocent composure and turned to the agents. "So, it's either you agree to this treaty, or I will gladly take this place apart."

Next to Bakar, Fang groaned and his face met his palm. Ali looked like he'd heard the same speech a thousand times, struggling to stay awake.

"For the last time, stop threatening people we don't know." Fang walked over whacked him upside the head.

Boboiboy smiled innocently, rubbing his head. "Well, I've been keeping that in for some time now."

Bakar felt horror rise in his chest. Ali was hanging out with these psychopaths? He knew Ali had the heart to want to help people... but he feared that MATA was the one that needed help against this one boy.

When he turned to Ali, he didn't see anything about the Ali in the past. Instead all he saw was a stranger, standing at a side that had the power to end MATA once and for all.