At the entrance of the Science and Technology Bureau, two tiny figures stood hand in hand, cautiously poking their heads out to peer inside.
"Oh! Whose little Ultraman are you guys?" Karlo walked over upon seeing them and asked with a beaming smile.
Taiga quickly stepped in front of Tregear and answered in a super-loud voice: "I am Taiga, Ultraman Taiga, from Ken's family!"
Hearing this, the smile on Karlo's face noticeably stiffened. Please, that obvious pair of Ultra Horns on your head already gave away your true identity ages ago, didn't it?
At that moment, Tregear tugged at Taiga's hand and spoke obediently: "I am Tregear. I'm here to find my uncle, Ultraman Alno."
Looking at the adorable and sensible Tregear before him, Karlo couldn't help but feel a surge of affection.
"So you're here to find Alno..." Karlo scratched his chin, thinking for a moment before speaking. Just then, he suddenly spotted Roga walking past carrying a huge stack of data files, so he hurriedly called out to him, "Roga, have you seen Alno? His kid is here to look for him."
"Alno?" Roga's voice sounded somewhat dazed; he had been working overtime so much that his memory seemed to be failing him. He vaguely remembered Alno mentioning something about going somewhere, but he couldn't remember the exact details no matter how hard he tried.
"Ah! I remember now! He went to the Space Security Agency. Seven 21 asked him to help build a reconnaissance system because Seven 21 discovered unidentified aliens approaching the Land of Light."
"Are you guys going? I can take you," Roga said with a smile, shoving the stack of files in his hands onto Karlo and asking in a cheerful tone.
"Whoa!" Karlo had completely not anticipated this move; the sudden weight caused his body to lurch violently forward, and he almost lost his balance.
"Karlo, would you mind helping me deliver these files to Skar, please?" Roga pressed his palms together, putting on a sincere and pleading expression.
"No, you go do it yourself," Karlo frowned slightly, pushing the files right back to Roga without the slightest hesitation.
"All right then..." Like a deflated balloon, Roga turned around listlessly and walked toward Skar's laboratory.
"Are you guys really not going?" Roga seemed reluctant to give up, looking back at the two of them in an attempt to make one last effort.
"No thanks, Uncle. Taiga, let's go," Tregear gently tugged on Taiga's little hand, signaling for them to leave together.
"Oh, okay," Taiga nodded obediently.
"Goodbye, Uncle!" said the two little fellows in unison.
"Goodbye!" Karlo watched the cute and polite little Ultraman, a warm current welling up in his chest.
——
"Treo, do you want to go out and play?" Taiga looked at Tregear expectantly, his color timers flashing with an excited glow.
"Go out and play?" Tregear frowned slightly, seeming a bit puzzled by the suggestion.
"Yeah! Have you ever heard of the Monster Graveyard?" Taiga asked excitedly, a trace of hard-to-suppress thrill in his voice. Tregear nodded, remembering his teacher mentioning the place in class.
"Then let's go play in the Monster Graveyard!" Taiga said impatiently, as if he could already see the adventure and excitement awaiting them in the Monster Graveyard.
"But... is this really a good idea?" Tregear looked somewhat hesitant, feeling that doing this might cause some trouble.
"Don't worry, as long as we get back before the other Ultras find out, we'll be fine," Taiga patted his chest reassuringly, his face beaming with a confident smile.
And so, the two little Ultras carefully avoided the Ultras patrolling the Space Port, quietly flew out of the Land of Light, and sped toward the Monster Graveyard.
——
Space Security Agency
Alno was frantically busy, surrounded by numerous optical screens displaying dense lines of code, his hands tapping across the displays as swiftly as shooting stars. In front of him were hundreds of marble-sized spheres.
"How's it going?" Seven 21 walked up to Alno, looking at his exhausted state with a hint of concern.
"It's fine, almost done, just need a bit more tuning," Alno shook his head helplessly, indicating he was alright. "Why didn't you go ask Hikari for help? Do you know I was planning to take Tregear out to play today?!"
By the end of it, Alno was practically at his wit's end; he had planned everything out to go traveling in space with Tregear once the boy was on break. But now he was tied down by all this work and couldn't get away.
"Hikari would extract my light particles," Seven 21 answered honestly. He would rather face Alno's verbal barrage than let Hikari extract his light particles. After all, that was a syringe half an Ultraman tall!
"Alright, finished!" As Alno clicked the complete button, all the surrounding optical screens vanished instantly, leaving only the single one right in front of him. Immediately afterward, countless miniature reconnaissance spheres flew out of the Security Agency one after another, rapidly speeding toward pre-set trajectories.
"The reconnaissance range of these probes is extremely vast. Within a 150-light-year radius centered on the Land of Light, no life signatures can escape their monitoring. I've already sent you the user manual," Alno introduced proudly.
"Ah, not bad! Hey, wait, what are those two things?" Seven 21's gaze was suddenly drawn to two small dots moving across the optical screen. The two dots were in motion, seemingly flying out from the Land of Light, and the direction they were heading was precisely the Monster Graveyard.
"Let me zoom in on the feed to check," Alno operated the controls immediately, magnifying the image. When he clearly saw the objects on the screen, Alno couldn't help but feel the light particle pressure inside his body spike instantly.
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Seeing Alno's face turn gloomy and his departure without a single word upon seeing the screen, Seven 21 asked anxiously.
"Going to beat up some bratty kids!" Dropping those words, Alno transformed his form into a streak of light and sped toward the Monster Graveyard. At the same time, he casually sent an Ultra Sign to Zoffy.
Upon receiving Alno's Ultra Sign, Zoffy immediately stopped what he was doing, his expression turning pitch black. He knew all too well what that sign meant, and without the slightest hesitation, he flew toward the Monster Graveyard, while dispatching an Ultra Sign to the Father of Ultra and Mother of Ultra along the way.
Just then, a sudden chill washed over the backs of the two little Ultras, followed immediately by Alno's ice-cold voice: "Taiga, Tregear, where do you think you're going?"
*Click... click...* The bodies of the two flying little Ultras instantly stiffened as they slowly turned their heads. When they saw Alno and Zoffy standing behind them, despair washed over both pairs of eyes exchanging glances—they were completely doomed this time!
Alno reached out and pinched the back of Tregear's neck, hoisting him up like a little chick; meanwhile, Zoffy, wearing an equally stern expression, grabbed Taiga by the scruff of his neck. Carrying their respective "captives," the two of them turned around with grim faces and headed back toward the Land of Light.