Frank held his chin with his other hand across his chest. He observed the whole control and said, "Trixx, increase lighting." Then he bent over and noticed the sparking wires at the side of the controls. 'Radiation sequence engaged.'

"Did you do that?" Aeo asked.

"No, or I don't think so," Frank said, still looking around the control panel. "Dad, is that liquid supposed to be dropping out of the control panel?"

"No . . . And its coffee!" Frank said. "Are you still sure that no one rigged this thing?" Aeo said.

"What matters now is we fix it." Frank said, standing back up. Aeo looked at the controls and sighed heavily. But the air that came out of his lungs was pressurized.

It blew the coffee out of the control box until it was dry. Frank tried not to let his mouth dangle open anymore. He looked at Aeo, almost demanding an answer.

"Don't ask. Cos I can't even explain . . . It just happens," Aeo said. "Ok. This shouldn't shock anymore so I'll just need to enter the right programming and shut it down."

Oh my gosh help! The dang robots are here! Alak do SOMETHING! Aeo heard someone say.

The voice was too familiar for him not to recognise. "Dad, Artemis is in trouble," he said.

"They're all in trouble I know, I just need to finish this-" "You don't understand, I can hear a lotta sounds from far and . . . Just finish the programming!" Aeo exclaimed, as he heard the voice even louder.

He immediately teleported back to the hall of discussions and met Artemis still yelling for help. The robot in front of him was about to blast him and Presilda and Alak were not able to leave where they were battling the other robots.

So Aeo let out a sonic energy blast from his hand and dismantled the robot. Sadly for him, it was too late before Aunt Lina saw the robot that fired at him.

"Nooo!!!! Aeo watch out!" She screamed.

But like i said earlier, it was too late. The blast hit him right before all the robots powered down.

Aeo flew across the room and landed into the arms of his father who just ran in.

"Aeo? Aeo! Wake up!" He said.

The cuffs fell of the arms and wrists of Artemis and Aunt Lina and they staggered to go and see Aeo.

"Smarty pants, get up would you? You're scaring me," Alak said, on the verge of tears.

"Aeo, okay fine I read your diary only once. The second time was coincidental. But I didn't read it again, I promise," Artemis confessed. "Artemis! Why did you?" Aunt Lina said.

"Lets get him to the infirmary quick. He can still make it." Presilda said, already crying.

When they got there Presilda hurriedly said to the chief doctors. "Juniper, Rupert please help. He was shot by the robot's blast, but he'll be okay right?"

"Okay, we can help. But only one person can stay, " Juniper said.as Rupert started his work.

"Let her stay with her sister, we'll be on our way," Frank said. "Fine, they can both stay, " Rupert said, needing no more distractions

__________________

"So, tell me more about your brother's diary," Frank said. "Uh, aren't you in the least way possible concerned about Aeo?" Artemis said.

"Don't worry, those doctors know their stuff . . . They've operated on different aliens at different levels, so don't sweat. Your mum is just being overly dramatic because y'know, this is her first time with you guys and she doesn't wanna lose you so soon." Frank explained.

"It feels so nice to finally be done with solving that whole mystery of you guys," Alak said , resting his feet on the stylish stool in front of him.

"That's good news." Artemis said.

"To be frank, I don't know why you guys freaked out like that-" Frank said, making emphasis on the frank.

"I see what you did there pops," Alak said, laughing.

"Oh my word, does that mean I shouldn't have said that about reading Aeo's diary. I'm so dead, " Artemis said.

"This feels so right. You have no idea how much I've wanted this." Frank said. "Yeah dad . . . Even saying that makes me happy," Alak said.

Soon after, they all fell asleep, with Alak and his father still in the same relaxed position as before and Artemis resting on his dad.

"Mr. Frank, Mr. Frank," a nurse said. "Oh Amir, I must've fallen asleep. What happened?" Frank said. "He's awake," Amir , the lab assistant said.

"Thank heavens and my lucky stars, I'll, I mean, we'll be there shortly." He sid and the man exited the room.

"Art . . . I've always wanted to call you that . . . I mean, good news. Your brother's awake," Frank said. Artemis shook uneasily on his dad's shoulder.

Frank tapped him and said, "Your brother's awake." Alak didn't even move a muscle on the chair he was resting on. His head was buried low and his hoodie was way over his head.

"You call that good news? He's going to kill me," Artemis murmured, then Alak opened up his cobalt blue eyes and blinked rapidly to get the sleep out of his eyes.

"You really need to work on your nervousness. You blurted out everything you knew . . . " Alak said.

"Can we just go to see your brother?" Frank said. "Ok." They said in unison as they all left to see how Aeo was doing.

____________________

Aeo looked blankly at the five figures that were standing in front. "So, brother, what dod you see in my diary?" He said sarcastically.

"Bro, I'm really sorry . . . The only thing I saw was what you said about you being happy that Roxanna is your friend but you aren't sire if she's more than that and-" Artemis blurted.

"Really? I was clearly being sarcastic there!" Aeo exclaimed. "Who's Roxanna? She seems nice," Presilda asked raising her eyebrows at Aeo, making him roll his eyes in return. "She's one of his friends from the new school," Aunt Lina answered.

"Do you want me to rat out all of y'alls secrets? Cos I'm just gonna blurt it out like it doesn't matter," Aeo said, and they all laughed.

"I think you guys have a lot to catch up on . . . I'll be on my way. Corey must've been calling," Aunt Lina said.

"Who's Corey? He seems nice," Frank said, making everyone laugh even harder. "Aunt Lina's boyfriend . . . What? Don't look at me like that? Told you I was gonna do it," Aeo said.

"Oh, and besides how're you getting back, we lost the remote?" Alak asked.

"Space taxi," Frank and Presilda said.

"Wow, is that anything like Uber?" Artemis asked. "Much better than Uber . . . Anyways, that's my queue. Bye!" Aunt Lina said.

"Bye!" They all said.

"Tell Corey I'm sending my regards," Alak teased and she just rolled her eyes at him.

"Um, when am I getting outta here?" Aeo asked, scratching his hair a bit. "I didn't even notice your braids were off," Artemis said. "Me neither," Alak agreed. "I took 'em off when I got here. Now I asked when I'm getting discharged," Aeo said.

"I've done a routine check and now you're feeling much better so I think you can leave now." Juniper said. "Thank God, I really hate hospitals," Aeo said.

As they headed back to Frank and Presilda's cabin on the ship Frank said, "Now that we're all here, why don't we get to know each other." Presilda suggested.

"Yes, I would love to know about that alien abduction stuff," Alak said. " But let's wait for Aeo, he said he was going to get something back at the hospital . . . Oh, there he is. "

Aeo walked slowly, looking at the piece of paper he was writing on and also the floor. When he got up to them, Artemis asked, "What you got there?"

". . . Uh, a piece of paper?" Aeo said, stating the obvious.

"Really?"

"Fine, if you have to be so nosy, I'm writing down the powers I have, looks like this spaceship unlocked a whole lotta them."

"Lucky you I guess?" Alak said.

"Boys, are you sure you're ready to possess these powers? I think it's a lot of responsibility," Frank said and Presilda nodded. "We never wanted them, so I'm not sure," Artemis said.

"Besides, how can we get rid of them?" Alak asked, as they reached the exquisite suite belonging to their parents.

"We've some pretty amazing gear around here, we could find something to get it outta you," Presilda said. "Start with me please," Artemis volunteered.

"We're still not sure but, with time we can do something," Frank said.

Aeo looked sad in a way for some reason. He didn't want to get rid of his powers when he just got them. For once he could actually relate to those heroes in his comic books. He thought that maybe saying some of his powers would make them say otherwise.

"Um, maybe you'd want to know my powers. I just listed everyone I've noticed in the heat of my emotions." Frank and Presilda could visibly see the sadness in the eyes of their son, and longed to say something to him, before the alarm for the League of Presidents went off.

"What's that?" Artemis asked.

"Apparently, its the meeting you disrupted when you came here," Presilda said. "Oops, didn't mean to do that," Artemis answered.

"So I guess we're to go now," Alak said. "We didn't want to end this convo like this but I promise we'll let you know when you can get back, okay?" Frank assured.

"Okay with me. But um, can we get a human to take us home on the . . . Space taxi?" Aeo asked. "Why not?"

"I can't wait to tell everyone that I got on a space tax-" Alak was about saying before his parents echoed, "NO! I mean, no one can know about this, okay. At least not for now or we don't know how long."

"Can we at least tell our friends who knew that we wanted to see you so bad that we met you some Irish country or something. What, we need a good excuse for not being in school, right?" Alak said.

"Fine, but nothing more."

It was only a matter of minutes before they were on a space taxi back home.

_________________

Something seemed very awkward to the boys as soon as they landed in backyard of their semi detached duplex. "Is it just me or-" Aeo was about asking. "Nope, I feel it too."

They walked slowly up to the front door, being careful with every step they took. "Are you guys sure its not just because we've been away and we're breathing natural oxygen again that our minds are playing tricks on us," Artemis said, worried to his bone.

Alak turned the door knob carefully and opened it gently. They all walked in and looked around at everything from kitchen to sofa, from sofa to stairs, from stairs to coat rack, to center table.

The sofa, Aeo turned his neck sharply back to it.

The butt marks on it were very fresh. Someone just sat there nothing more than 2 minutes ago.

"Look," he pointed, they all instantly understood because that was how they checked how long Aunt Lina had been watching tv, in case they wanted to past their bed time.

Of course, they'd seen that exact butt curve on that sofa so many times before.

The whole house was silent, but the only sound that could be heard was some very faint mumble.

They spread out across the living room, till their instincts jolted their necks to look up. That was where the mumbling was coming from.

Aunt Lina!

How did she get there? Who else was there? Her voice was tightly sealed by whatever it is that was holding her mouth together.

"Auntie L! What? How? Who?" Artemis wanted to say words, but they all came out jumbled up. It was only the tight screams of Aunt Lina under the guard on her face that came out in a more or less straight manner.

A weird looking man walked out dramatically, clapping his hands steadily.

His robot figure made him look more machine than human. Were they living in their fantasy world? I believe this is not happening right now.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" Artemis asked.

"Glad you asked that question . . . " the man answered. The boys glared with laser focused eyes on the man before, eager to know what was going to unfold of this awoken mystery.

". . . I am . . . Stark Steel," he said.

Almost immediately after he introduced himself, an energy blast was fired at them, but Alak who was quite distant from the blast's effect.

He watched Aeo and Artemis try to stagger back to their feet.

An army of seemingly identical robot men came out of the blue with weapons. Stark Steel was evidently different from them but they looked quite the same.

Aeo tried to blow the robots away like he had done in the control room, but it didn't work.

Artemis got the blast right there and couldn't gather his electricity. They were bundled up with Aunt Lina and they came for Alak when he grabbed a weapon from one of them.

He fired at them and went straight to martial arts.

All those hours in front of the WWE channel must've paid off.

"Alak go get help! Get outta here before its too . . . . " Aeo said before his mouth was covered.

"No! I can't just leave you guys here," Alak said. "Would you rather come with us and we won't get help?" Artemis said, before he was also mouth guarded.

Alak slid down the floor and jumped to Aunt Lina and pulled the access card from her neck as she had signalled to him.

"There's no escape for you young man." Stark said.

Alak ran out speedily desperate to find safety, before he realised he wasn't being chased. After a while, he returned to the house through Aeo's room window. After a thorough search, he found out that they were gone.

The only thing he could think of was swiping the access card and reappearing at the front desk of the space ship. "I need to see them," he said to Armand.

When he got there, they looked at him with demanding faces.

"They took them away."

The End.

So, what did you guys think? I wanna thank you for being loyal readers all this while.

Please follow my account @wayneKillman__

And not forgetting . . . Who is your favourite character and why?

It could be anybody at all.

N.B: You didn't think this was the end of the mystery. . . Did you?