Boboiboy: Elemental Tales

Return to Us: Gone

The date in the corner was almost seventeen months ago, but every time he reread the article, it felt like only a day again.

Unable to bear looking at it any longer, Ice slid the clipping back to Gempa, who gave him a small smile and placed it back on top of the stack of papers. Ice caught a glimpse of the sheet beneath it - a poster dominated by blue and white, with the words MISSING emblazoned in bold red letters across the top.

It was no surprise, not when Gempa had for months been compiling every little clue that could help find their missing brothers. TAPOPS was still searching, of course, but due to intergalactic laws, now any participants had to be volunteers; needless to say, after ten months with no new leads, there weren't many.

Ice was still lost in thought when a hologram of Admiral Tarung popped up in the middle of the table. The shout of "CADETTT!!!" almost had him falling out of his chair.

"Yes, Admiral!" He hurriedly stood and saluted with the rest of his brothers and friends.

"Next time, pay more attention to your surroundings! Now sit down!"

"Yes, Admiral." He repeated, smiling sheepishly as he did as he was told.

"Now, let us start your briefing," The Admiral adopted a more professional tone and pulled out a binder, "Your mission will be at a small fuel station in outer space, not far from Earth. We received an anonymous tip a few days ago, and, upon following it up with some investigation, found that there indeed seems to be a Power Sphera hidden somewhere in the station. Your mission is to retrieve this Power Sphera and deliver it to TAPOPS, with as little structural damage as possible. Be careful, however; our spies report that there may be a villain guarding and misusing it. Overheard conversations indicate Retak'ka-level powers."

"Retak'ka-level?!" Solar repeated incredulously.

"Indeed. We selected you for this mission due to your past experiences with Retak'ka himself, which will help you in your planning. However, we understand that this may be an issue emotionally, in which case we will assign the mission to another team."

"We can do it, Admiral," Gempa said firmly, "It would be wrong to endanger the other teams when we have such a tactical advantage. We won't let lingering fear distract us."

"Excellent. Mission data is now being sent to you. Dismissed."

***

"Everyone know the plan?" Gempa asked again as their spaceship touched down on the landing pad.

"Team A distracts the employees, Team B sneaks into the back. Team A joins Team B as backup as soon as possible." Gopal recited in a monotone, having apparently heard it one too many times on the ride. If the boy hadn't been shaking with nerves, he probably would have added a sarcastic comment at the end, too.

Outside, a neon sign cheerily flashed the words: 'Fuel! Snacks! Spacecraft parts! Camping stuff! Get it all for only half the price! You won't find an offer like this anywhere else!'. Nothing hinted at the fact that there was potentially a threat to the galaxy residing within the station's walls.

"Is this place giving you guys Bago Go vibes, or what?" Ying muttered as they exited the ship.

"Discounts for no particular reason, flashy advertisements, excessively big and extravagant building?" Fang snorted, "Seems like him, alright. Too bad it isn't actually him, or we'd have this mission in the bag."

They parted ways then, Gempa, Duri and Gopal continuing to the front door of the store while the rest made their way around to the back. Next to the ship, Papa Zola had struck up a conversation with an employee as he refueled their ship, hopefully buying them some extra time.