My Deskmate is an Alien

🌌 Chapter 10 Return to Earth

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Chapter 10: Return to Earth

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The portal opened with a thunderous pulse, its golden spiral now infused with shimmering threads of violet and blue. Minh stood at the threshold, gripping the strap of his backpack tighter than ever. Behind him, Lyra’s silver-blue suit glowed steadily, her eyes fixed on the world she once left behind.

“Earth won’t be the same anymore,” Hải said, a nervous grin on his face. “Right?”

“No,” Lyra replied, her voice calm but firm. “Now that the Trackers know where we are, they won’t wait.”

“Good thing we’re not the same either,” Linh added. “We’ve changed too.”

Minh nodded. “Let’s go home.”

They stepped through.

---

The air on the other side hit Minh like a wave of reality. The scent of concrete, motor oil, and city trees filled his lungs. It was just outside their school gate—exactly where Lyra had first fallen. Only now, everything felt… fragile.

It was late evening. The sky bled orange and gold. Students were gone. Teachers, too. It looked like any regular day, except for the subtle crackle in the atmosphere—as if the world held its breath.

“Do you feel that?” Minh asked.

“Yes,” Lyra said, tilting her head slightly. “They’re already here. Watching.”

Linh shivered. “How many?”

“Too many for comfort. But scattered. Not yet coordinated.”

“They’re observing,” Hải said. “Like before.”

“Exactly,” Lyra replied. “That’s their weakness. They’re afraid of acting too early.”

“Then we act first,” Minh said.

---

Their return didn’t go unnoticed. The next morning, strange things started happening.

Cameras flickered when pointed at Lyra. School computers rebooted at random. Cellphones displayed distorted messages—images of stars, fractured faces, strings of binary that made no sense.

And then came the new student.

His name was Kai.

He arrived in the middle of math class—tall, pale, eyes too dark to be normal. His smile was too perfect. His voice, monotone. Even the teacher seemed unsure, as if she didn’t remember approving a transfer.

Lyra froze when she saw him.

“What is it?” Minh whispered.

“That’s not a student,” she said. “It’s a Tracker. Wearing a skin.”

Minh’s blood went cold. “What do we do?”

“We watch,” Lyra said, clenching her fists. “Just like they do. For now.”

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Kai—or whatever he was—didn’t act like a normal teenager. He didn’t eat. Didn’t talk unless spoken to. And when he did speak, his words were always eerily formal.

“May I inquire where the cafeteria is located?”

“I have completed the assignment. Your educational systems are… inefficient.”

“I find this environment surprisingly primitive.”

But the worst part was his stare. Cold. Calculating. He watched Lyra constantly.

Minh noticed something else too—Kai’s presence affected the electronics around him. Light bulbs dimmed when he walked under them. Electric fans slowed down. His touch left faint static burns.

They had to act soon.

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That night, Lyra brought them to the school rooftop.

“We can’t let him report back,” she said. “If he confirms I’ve restored my memory, they’ll bring the others. A full assault.”

“How do we stop him?” Linh asked.

“He’s a scout unit. Powerful, but isolated. He doesn’t expect resistance.”

Hải cracked his knuckles. “Then let’s surprise him.”

Lyra smiled faintly. “We’ll need more than muscle. We need a signal disruption. We need to isolate him from the network.”

“I can help with that,” Minh said. “If I can h****k the school’s broadcast system, we can create a pulse—something to confuse his comms.”

“Exactly,” Lyra nodded. “That’ll give me a window to disable his core.”

“What happens if we fail?” Linh asked quietly.

“We won’t,” Lyra said. “We can’t.”

---

The plan went into motion the next day.

During lunch, Hải distracted Kai by “accidentally” spilling juice on him. Linh kept watch at the security room. Meanwhile, Minh worked at the AV control booth above the auditorium, wiring cables, patching circuits, and praying it would work.

At precisely 12:17 PM, the intercom speakers screeched with a pulse of distortion. The lights flickered across the school.

Kai stopped mid-step. His pupils shrank to pinpoints.

Lyra stepped forward.

“You’re not welcome here,” she said.

Kai’s voice shifted—metallic and inhuman. “Lyra Caelis. Imprint bearer. Eliminate.”

He moved faster than human eyes could track—but Lyra was faster.

They collided in a burst of energy, crashing into desks and lockers. Sparks flew. Tiles cracked. Screams echoed down the hall.

Hải ran forward, swinging a fire extinguisher. It hit Kai’s side, sending him staggering. Linh launched a stun flare—something Lyra had cobbled together the night before. It exploded in white-blue light, momentarily blinding the Tracker.

“Now, Minh!” Lyra shouted.

He slammed the final switch.

A blast of electromagnetic feedback pulsed from the speakers. Kai screamed—not in pain, but in fury.

Lyra dashed forward, hands glowing. She pressed her palms to his chest.

There was a surge of light—and silence.

Kai collapsed.

---

The four of them stood over the crumpled shell. It wasn’t human anymore. The disguise had peeled away, revealing smooth metallic plating, a face like a mask, and circuits that still sparked with dying light.

“Is it… dead?” Linh asked.

“No,” Lyra said. “Just offline. For now.”

Minh exhaled. “That was too close.”

Lyra knelt beside the body. She placed a small device against the Tracker’s head. Lights flickered.

“What are you doing?” Hải asked.

“Extracting its memory. We need to know what it reported—how much they know. What they’re planning.”

The device beeped.

Lyra stood. “They know I’m back. They know I’ve restored the Core Memory. And they’ve found the Earth node.”

“What’s that?” Minh asked.

“It’s the gate,” she said. “A hidden rift between our worlds. If they open it fully… they’ll bring the swarm.”

“Then we destroy it,” Linh said.

“No,” Lyra said. “We protect it. We use it.”

“To do what?” Hải asked.

“To bring the fight to them.”

---

The next few days blurred into preparation.

Lyra trained harder than ever—teaching them how to use Caelaryan tech, how to resist Tracker scans, how to think like a defender of worlds. Minh became the tech lead, building defenses out of school servers and old camera equipment. Linh mapped the area, identified energy hotspots. Hải handled weapons—mostly improvised, some scavenged from Lyra’s gear.

They weren’t just students anymore.

They were a unit.

And then came the vision.

It struck Lyra in the middle of the night—waves of energy radiating from her core. Images flooded her mind: burning cities, Earth torn apart, a massive Tracker queen rising from the center of a shattered dome.

She woke up screaming.

Minh was the first to find her. “What did you see?”

“A possible future,” she said, shaking. “If we fail.”

Minh sat beside her. “Then we won’t.”

Lyra looked at him. “You don’t understand. If I fight them, I might have to use the Imprint fully. And that could destroy me.”

Minh grabbed her hand. “We’ll find another way. Together.”

She didn’t answer—but she didn’t pull her hand away either.

---

The final scene came sooner than expected.

One morning, the sky above their city cracked.

A black tear ripped through the clouds—a rift, pulsating with mechanical energy. Trackers began to pour through—small at first, then larger, stranger ones. The swarm had begun.

Panic broke out. Streets flooded. News reports failed to keep up.

And in the center of it all—Lyra stood waiting, silver-blue suit blazing with energy.

“This is it,” she said. “Are you ready?”

Minh, Hải, and Linh stepped beside her.

“We were born ready,” Hải said.

“Let’s finish what they started,” Linh whispered.

Lyra closed her eyes.

The Imprint glowed.

And the battle for Earth began.

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