Raphael, June, and Miyra all walk through the hallway and into the office as quickly as they can, knowing that what the guard has just said is true.

When the door opens, Raphael jumps back as he sees the clean, silver-plated barrel of a handgun being pointed back at him from across the room. Lendlock withdraws his gun the second he notices that his visitors are not going to rip out his throat, but still, his facial expression is filled with tension and anger, since his clear instructions have not been followed.

He rises from his knelling position and let's out a burst of anger towards Raphael and his group. “Why in the one hell are you here, Guardian!? And more importantly, why in all the heavens did you give the Key a weapon!? She isn't supposed to be fighting on the front lines, you're supposed to be protecting her for gods' sake!? I mean, dammit! I gave you clear instructions over the intercom that you and your squad are to get to the portal room ASAP, and what do you do? You run to my damn office and go against direct orders!? Damn it Guardian, you better have a good excuse for this!”

Raphael, completely dumb-founded, just stands at the doorway in shock without muttering a single word. June let's out a sigh and gently pushes by Raphael before speaking in his place. “Listen Commander, I, myself, decided that I should fight, not Raphael, Miyra or anyone else on this ship. The decision to fight was my decision and mine alone, so if you want to blame anyone, then blame me.”

“As for why we came to your office,” June continues. “that's because we didn't hear your notice in whatever form it was given, and Raphael, as our leader, made the choice that we would use your office as a rendezvous point and would formulate a plan after we all arrive. He chose your office because it's the only place on the ship that everyone knows way to and also because you are here and could probably point us in the next best direction. Now Commander, is everything clear?”

Now Lendlock is dumb-founded. He was already starting to realize that June is becoming more self-dependent, but he wasn't expecting her to give such a detailed reasoning for her and the guardian's actions so soon. He is so accustomed to a June that would just sit in the corner and let others fight her battles that he is still a little uncomfortable with such a self-sufficient June. Stuttering, he is able to choke out. “I-It doesn't matter right now, just... just get into my office and we'll figure something out from there.”

Raphael and his squad all nod their heads and walk into Lendlock's office, as they are told. The door begins to shut behind them as they enter the office, but then re-opens as a faint female voice can be heard screaming to keep the door open from down the hall. Raphael and his squad know exactly who it is just by her tone. It's Sherah.

Sherah sprints full-speed into the office and before anybody can react, she grabs Raphael by his shirt collar and slams him straight onto Lendlock's desk, forcing him on top of it and yelling only mere inches from his face. “You Idiotic Bastard! What in all the heavens' made you think that moving June to the commander's office would be a good idea!? Lendlock gave you explicit orders to get June the hell out of here, and what do you do? You bring her to his office! I have the right mind to slap you upside your head right-” before Sherah can finish her sentence, Miyra leaps onto her back and grabs her around her neck in a choke hold. Miyra then pulls back with all of the might in her body and pulls Sherah off of Raphael.

Sherah stumbles away from Raphael and walks backward straight into the now-shut door as she attempts to pull herself out of Miyra's grasp, but it is to no avail, as Miyra hangs onto her with all of her might. June rushes over to the fighting pair and tries in every possible way to pull them apart, but her efforts go completely unnoticed by the two of them.

After an extended period of time with the two of them quarreling, Raphael decides that this has gone on for far too long. At the top of his lungs, he screams “Enough!”

His outburst is enough to stop everyone in the room in their tracks. “Miyra,” he commands, “get off of Sherah. If she attacks me again, then I give you the right to do that once more. Is that understood?” Miyra gives Raphael a swift nod before letting go of Sherah. “Good.” Raphael says before turning to speak to Lendlock.

“My entire squad may not be here right now, but I don't think we can wait. We need to discuss our next course of action right now! Commander Lendlock, what do you suggest we do next?” asks Raphael as he crosses his arms.

“The same thing I had suggested you do in the first place, get the hell off this ship while we stay here and hold back the Demu. If we go die, then the Demu will think that June is dead and you kids will be safe from this war until the UMA is close enough to Planet Demu to end this war.” says Lendlock in a serious tone.

That's it?” retorts Raphael. “You plan on shipping me and my friends down to earth and then just have everyone on this ship die protecting us!? You have to have a better idea than that!”

“No Raphael, you misunderstand. The crew will not die, only the soldiers that have chosen to give their lives to end this war. The crew members are all using escape pods scattered across the ship as we speak. Of course, the ship's soldiers will only die if we lose the ship, so no innocent lives, besides those of the UMA soldiers, will be lost in the end either way.” Lendlock explains.

Raphael let's out a deep, heart-felt sigh as he realizes that Lendlock's plan is the only way out. “I guess you're right, Mr. Lendlock. We probably don't have any other choice anyw-” Raphael's face suddenly contorts and cringes in pure, unadulterated pain. He slams his hands against Lendlock's desk and grits his teeth as his mind begins to go light from the blistering pain that is now radiating through his brain. He grunts in agony before falling to the floor and grabbing his head while the flaming pain burns through his consciousness.

Just like before, the pain is gone in a flash, but this time it is replaced with not only a new ability that Raphael has complete control over, but also with a new spell that can only be used with the new form that he had unlocked previously.

Raphael starts breathing heavily, since this time the pain was so immense that it left him out of breath. He rises to his feet slowly to a room filled with concerned and frightened eyes, with nearly no one in the room exactly sure what has just happened.

Raphael calms his heartbeat and decides that if there is anytime that he needs to find out what this new spell or ability is, it's now. He shuts his eyes and begins recounting the words that he had previously heard in his mind. He begins to chant, but nothing happens once he finishes his spell. He sighs once he realizes that nothing is going to happen and turns to June.

“June...” Raphael speaks with concern in his voice. “you're the one here who knows the most about my role as the Guardian, so I need to ask you this. I just unlocked a new spell, but nothing happened when I chanted it. I doubt that I got a new ability, though, since all I saw during my headache was me looking at a wall and feeling invisible. Do you have any idea what I might have just learned?”

“Okay, let me think....” says June as she begins to ponder. The room is still and quiet as June thinks quietly to herself, not muttering a word during the process. After a few worrying moments, June's head shoots up as she finally draws to a conclusion. “Alright, I think I finally got it! The Guardian has many abilities and this one was a toughy to figure out, but I think that what you just unlocked is the ability to walk through walls.” Raphael's eyes go wide as he hears June mutter those last few, odd words.

Before Raphael can speak a word, June speaks out again as she realizes his astonishment. “It's not that odd, actually. As the Guardian, your angelic power's come from heaven and are contained within that dimension. When you go through a wall, you focus your existence on your other dimensional persona, giving you the ability to pass through inanimate objects in our realm.”

“All you need to do to activate this is to focus on your angelic form instead of what you need to do to activate your angel mode, which is focusing on bringing your other persona into existence on our side. Oh, and before I forget, the spell that you unlocked probably only works on one of the other modes that you have already unlocked. Right now, I think the only mode that you have, other than your hero mode, is your angel mode, so that has to be where your spell went. Also, you should only have three different modes so far. You have your human mode, hero mode, and your angel mode. The hero mode comes along with being the Guardian.”

“Angel...?” Raphael's mind shifts immediately back to only hours ago when his new friends were being handcuffed and led away like animals, realizing that when he lost his sense of control was when he unlocked his angel mode. “Oh yeah! That angel mode...! You know what, can you hold on for a second so I can try this new ability out?” Raphael moves away from his position in the middle of the room and over to the left-most wall of Lendlock's office. He takes a deep breathe when as he reaches it, closing his eyes, and placing his hand on the wall. He focuses on giving himself the same feeling that he had previously during his vision.

As soon as he is able to achieve that same exact feeling he had in his vision, his hand phases through the wall, going through until he himself stops his hand. Raphael looks back from his position near the wall to notice that everyone in the room has a look of utter astonishment splattered on their faces, besides June.

“Figured as much.” says June with a shrug. “Now that you have that ability, I think you should get off the ship and see what you unlocked for your angel mode. We'll start getting the ship evacuated while we wait.”

It takes Raphael a few seconds to realize exactly what June means, and then he let's out a gasp of astonishment. “You want me to go through the ship into the middle of space!? Are you crazy!? There's no air in space...!”

“But in this vicinity there is.” says Lendlock as he fiddles with his microphone. “The asteroid belt in this solar system has been unlocked, meaning that now on each of the asteroids here now grows millions of microscopic plants that give this solar system an atmosphere and breathable air, so if you leave the ship, you should be fine.”

Raphael let's out a deep sigh and says “It sounds ridiculous, but if you say so...” before walking toward the room's door and going through it using his newly-found ability.

Moments later, he is at the last wall that stands between him and the deep, dark space beyond.

“Lendlock...” he thinks “you better be right about this....” Raphael takes a deep breathe as he stares at the wall in front of him. Slowly, he extends his tennis shoe-clad foot toward the wall and pushes it through into the dense space beyond. He leaves his foot there for a few moments, making sure that the space beyond really isn't going to squeeze the life out of him.

As amazing as it sounds to Raphael, Lendlock is right, this solar system isn't going to kill him. Raphael no longer questions the oxidized part about the spacial area they are in, the fact that a part of him wouldn't get crumpled up as soon as it goes out there is enough to make him believe what Lendlock had said is true. Without a second thought, he walks through the wall into the great space beyond.

Once he has left the confines of the ship and out into the oxidized space that lays outside of it, his body starts to feel incredibly light. So light that he has almost no control over which direction he is going. He begins to flip and turn in random directions as he attempts to figure out what to do next.

Then it dawns on him. He needs to go into the angel mode that June had mentioned before. He closes his eyes as he tumbles through space and begins to think clearly as he attempts for the first time since his transformation into the Guardian to become his angelic other self on his own accord. Time seems to pass by indefinitely as he floats aimlessly through space. His mind completely clear, he can feel his other self slowly seeping in bit by bit until he opens his eyes, discovering that he has now truly become his other self, the true Guardian, a true...

...Angel....

“Am I really an...” Raphael throws his hands to his mouth as he hears that his voice has now changed into something more... noble. Despite his bewilderment, he quickly figures out that this must have been something that comes with being an angel. “Wait, if I'm an angel now, shouldn't I have wings?” he reaches his hands behind his back and is fascinated to find out that his questioning over having wings is concrete. To the side of his shoulder blades and connected to his spine are a pair of proud, angelic wings that have seemingly appeared from the unknown.

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Raphael takes a deep breathe while floating in the midst of space to clear his head, for now he has become an angel. As amazing as this is to him, it is nowhere close to the last and most amazing thing to come in his life.

Raphael jolts himself out of his state of amazement as he remembers that he still has a mission to finish. He looks in his general vicinity and sees a massive black and red starship looming overhead. Despite the fact that a battle is still going on between the Starlooper and the said ship, Raphael can't hear a single blast from a particle ray or disruption cannon or whatever kind ofweapon that the Demu or the UMA use.

Raphael quickly figures out why, though. Even though the two ships are fighting, the Demu are the only one in the fight that are attacking, most likely because the Starlooper is putting all of it's focus towards getting June and the rest of her squad down to earth as fast as possible. The reason for the silence is because of the fact that the Demu are not trying to destroy the ship from the outside with cannons or laser beams. They are instead trying to destroy it from the inside using infiltration pods to send their troops into the Starlooper.

Raphael then remembers exactly why he had left the ship the way he did. He needs to destroy the Demu ship while he is still in his angel mode. He closes his eyes and begins to chant the words that he had muttered minutes ago. “Uyomito Comfinate Comenson. . .” he speaks confidently to himself, hoping that whatever this spell did, it would be enough to end this fight swiftly.

When he finishes chanting, his hands instinctively shut together in a prayer-type hold. His hands start to glow a brilliant yellowish-white light. The light extends from the tips of his fingers, growing until it has reached monumental proportions.

As far as Raphael can tell, this light has grown to almost the size of the enemy ship by the time it finishes expanding. His mind starts to race as he begins to realize exactly what he needs to do to end this fight.

He needs to slice through the enemy ship.

With a flap of his mighty wings, Raphael rushes through the breezing air of space towards the distant Demu ship with a speed that is reminiscent of a hyper-powered jet. He soars forward until he is within striking distance of the ship, but that is still not enough. Raphael knows that the only way to end this immediately is to make sure that he slashes the ship completely in two, so he continues to travel until he has gotten to a distance where he can nearly touch the vessel. Then, and only then, does he strike. He throws his hands from the side of his thighs to above his head, swiping his light blade from the exact bottom of the ship to it's top and beyond, effectively slashing it in two and irrefutably ending this battle altogether.

From aboard the Starlooper, crew members and soldiers rejoice as they witness the enemy ship being destroyed in front of them, torn to sunders by the UMA's new champion. That day, Raphael saved many, if not all of their lives.

When Raphael retracts his wings and re-boards the Starlooper, he is met with a screaming chant of his name. “Ne-Ro-Ma! Ne-Ro-Ma! Ne-Ro-Ma!” they cheer as he walks through the halls of the Starlooper. Everyone he meets on his way back to Lendlock's office congratulates and thanks him for saving their lives and putting a stop to the Nes. Demu ship, some even saying that he is their last hope of ending the war.

When he re-enters Lendlock's office, Raphael is greeted with nothing but smiles and thanks. Everyone in the room either shakes his hand, thanks him, or in June's case, hugs him.

Sherah, on the other hand, doesn't show any signs of concern or thanks in the slightest. She doesn't even give him a simple hello. Raphael can tell from that point on that Sherah is beginning to have a general disliking toward him, which really doesn't seem right to him since she had treated him kindly earlier in the day.

“Well,” says Lendlock after giving Raphael a firm handshake and offering him a seat. “it looks like the God of Many really did pick the right person for the job. I never would have thought that a twelve-year-old boy would have that kind of power, but that isn't important right now. Raphael Horizon Danteo, as the commander of this ship, I can tell you that you have the thanks of both me and everyone else on this ship for your actions today.”

“Yeah,” says Raphael as he scratches the back of his head and blushes. “I kind of got that idea on the way here.”

“Anyway, now that the Demu have been dealt with, we can start thinking up a more complex defensive plan. While you and June were eating, I called up the portal room staff to pin-point the coordinates of your house so that the portal that would send you to earth would have already been aimed directly for your backyard. Now remember, this is your choice, but we were thinking of building the bunker in your backyard.”

“Are you crazy!? yells Raphael. “If you do that, then everyone will know that I work for aliens! Not that you guys are bad people or anything, it's just that I could get into tons of trouble for this. Creating a bunker would probably take weeks to finish, meaning that my parents would be back by then and I would be in loads of trouble with just them alone.”

Raphael continues, “The construction of a bunker would be way too noisy and would draw too much attention, meaning that the people from my neighborhood would notice and call the government when they see alien's creating a worksite in my backyard. Even if you're able to fix all of those problems, there is still the fact that the entrance to the bunker is probably going to be noticeable in some way, giving off our location immediately-”

“Raphael, please calm down for a second so we can explain.” speaks Lendlock in a calming tone. “All of the issues that you have just brought up can be dealt with quite easily. Miyra, if you would, please.”

“Gladly.” says Miyra as she begins to walk forward, drawing something from the inside of one of her jeans pockets. What she reveals are four stick-like metallic rods. “Raphael, these little rods here will form a barrier around any object when they are activated. Anything within this barrier cannot be seen or heard from the outside. These rods are special, though, because they have been synced with your species' eyesight so that materials and people from your world can be seen by people from your world from outside of the barrier, but people from the outside will not be able to see people or materials from off your planet while they are inside of this barrier.”

“Once you set these up around your house and backyard, we'll start construction on the bunker. Oh, and for the part about the entrance being visible, we already have a solution to that just by how the entrance works. Now, if you wouldn't mind, can you get back down to earth? The sooner we get this done, the better!” Miyra says.

“You didn't mention exactly how I'm suppose to activate them, Miyra?” says Raphael with a serious look on his face.

“Whoops.” says Miyra, realizing her mistake. “To activate these barrier devices, you need to grab them by it's bulk top and turn clockwise. After that you need to plant them into the ground. Once all of them have been activated and placed, the barrier will activate. We'll be able to see it from where we're at right now, so don't worry about trying to contact us when you're done. As soon as you're finished, I'll head down with an engineering battalion and we'll start getting to work on our new bunker.”

“Raphael,” says Lendlock as he re-positions his commander's cap. “the portal room's targeting device has already been calibrated to send you back down to earth at the exact middle of your backyard, as I have mentioned earlier. If you get down there at a relatively quick speed, we will likely have the bunker complete before you wake up tomorrow morning.”

Although the last part of Lendlock's speech confuses Raphael, he still understands what he needs to do. He says his goodbyes to his squad and Lendlock, and tells them that he will see them shortly. As Raphael reaches for the button to open the door, he hears Lendlock calling for him. Raphael spins around as Lendlock begins to speak.

“I almost forgot to tell you, Raphael,” says Lendlock. “I'm will attempt to get you registered for the Universal Heroes Guild, or the UHG for short. It normally takes a few weeks in your world's time for a registration to go through, but since you're the Guardian, it shouldn't take too long. I would like to talk more about the procedures with you, but we're starting to run out of time.” Lendlock turns his attention away from Raphael and focuses on Miyra instead. “Miyra, would you mind escorting Raphael to the portal room? He hasn't been there yet, so having someone who knows the layout of the ship acting as a guide for him would get him there more easily.”

Miyra gives Lendlock a quick nod of agreement and then turns to Raphael. “Come on Raphael, I'll show you the way.” As Miyra walks past Raphael, she motions for him to follow her with a quick movement of her fingers. Raphael agrees and follows Miyra through the doors of the office and out into the hall.

As Miyra and Raphael walk through the hallways, Raphael notices the carnage that had been induced by the invading Demu. Bodies litter the hallways on all sides, bodies of both the Demu and the Starlooper crew. Raphael is now starting to realize exactly what he has been thrown into as he walks through the bleak, black hallways of the Starlooper; This is war, and he has just stepped straight into the middle of it. Nonetheless, it matters not to him, for he has now become the Guardian, and he is going to protect June no matter what.

Raphael's mind drifts as he walks behind Miyra down the hallways and the stairs of the Starlooper until they both eventually reach their destination, the portal room.

“Welcome, Guardian.” says the portal tech as Raphael and Miyra walk into the portal room. Once they have both entered the room, the door to the portal room shuts behind them. “Sorry about that,” says the portal tech “there's still some Demu wandering around the ship and we don't want them getting in here.... So, you ready to go back home, Guardian?”

Without even waiting for an answer, the portal tech immediately begins typing in commands to the portal console. Within two seconds, the circular portal machine in the center of the room begins to rotate at an increasingly high speed. It spins until it is turning at an unrivaled speed. At it's highest point of rotation, a flash of light appears in the center of the wheel-like device. The light expands until it eventually becomes a large window into the yard behind Raphael's house, a window just nearly as large as the portal generator itself.

“Alright, captain,” says Miyra before giving Raphael a playful nudge forward at a certain point in her sentence. “you better get yourself moving before another ship shows up.”

Raphael almost feels like fighting back against the push, but he quickly understands that it is just a playful nudge. “She probably didn't mean anything by it.” he thinks. Raphael looks back at Miyra with a sudden smile, saying. “Guess I'll see you on the surface then....” and with his final words, he sets out through the portal and returns to his home planet.

Once Raphael has completely gone through the portal, it shuts quietly behind him, leaving him alone in the black of night that has now enveloped his neighborhood. He looks down at his palms, where in which the barrier devices that Miyra had given him now lay, her giving them to him along with the nudge. He sighs, knowing that after this he will probably go to sleep and end his day. He looks forward, gripping the barrier devices tight in his hand. He slowly starts moving forward in a brisk walk until he reaches his house and goes inside through the back door.

He moves through his house quickly, turning off the den television as he goes. He is out through the front door in a flash.

He sprints from the door out toward the left-most portion of his front yard, which nearly intersects with his neighbor's yard. He kneels down near the corner of the house, places down three of the barrier devices while leaving one in his hand. He grabs the top portion of the device and twists it just like how Miyra had instructed him to.

The device immediately comes to life in his hands, with a drill springing out from the bottom of the device and the lights at it's thicker top portion turning on, shinning a dim light into the surrounding darkness. Raphael grasps the device firmly in his hand, pulls his arm back and then plunges the device's drill-end down into the ground.

The device stands still for a second after Raphael takes his hand away from it, but then it turns to life, drilling itself down deeper into the ground until only the lit top portion of it is visible. It then dims out, though, leaving Raphael alone in the darkness once again.

Not wanting to waste time, Raphael immediately gets to his feet, gathers up the rest of the barrier devices and repeats the same process around the perimeter of his house and backyard.

When Raphael places the last of the devices into the ground behind his fence in the woods, he wipes the sweat from his brow and looks upward toward the sky, waiting for whenever the devices might activate.

He waits and waits, but the devices don't activate. Raphael is beginning to believe that he must have forgotten to do something else with the devices that activates them as he wanders back into his backyard. Only as he hears a slight opening sound behind him, signaling the fact that a portal has opened, that he begins to realize that the devices are working, he just simply didn't notice it turning on because he was already within it's range when they activated and formed the barrier.

Miyra rushes ahead of the rest of the engineering battalion that is coming through the portal and grapples Raphael in a quick hug. “Hey there buddy!” Says Miyra with a large smile painted across her face. “The crew is all set and ready to go, so you can get some rest for the night.”

“Alright then,” says Raphael after prying Miyra off of him. “I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow then.”

Raphael and Miyra say their goodbyes to one another and then go their separate ways for the night, Raphael walking back into his house, and Miyra turning around to speak with the engineering battalion that has just stepped onto Raphael's backyard.

As Raphael wanders back into his house, he sighs, knowing that that was just the start of a very hectic new life for him. He flips on the back, outside floodlights, knowing that Miyra is probably going to need some light for the bunker project.

Suddenly, the stress of the day comes raining down on Raphael, making him completely exhausted. Slowly, Raphael walks through the den and the living room, up the stairs of his house and into his bedroom across the second-story hallway to the right of the stairs.

Being incredibly tired, Raphael doesn't even think for a second to turn on his bedroom light, he is just too tired. He walks straight from his doorway to his bunk bed on the other side of the room and flops himself onto the bottom bunk.

Despite his severe exhaustion, Raphael can't help but think about everything that had just happened today. From the downed ship to June to the aliens to this war that he has just been thrown into, everything that had just happened to him today is borderline insane.

Whatever anyone else might think, it does not matter. Everything that had just happened and what happens from then on in he now realizes will have to be kept an utter secret from everybody he knows on his earth, and then some. Despite his worries of the future, Raphael is still able to find it in his body to bring himself into a long and tired sleep, a sleep that is filled with dreams and visions of the future.

Within these dreams, he witnesses battles, friendships, partners, alliances, and above all else, the thing he envisions the most are two simple letters. “H... V...”