2 Hand Them Over

"What does that mean?! Who is it referring to?" Veer's brow knitted together as he looked at Ravinder for further orders.

"Sir! The energy readings!" Shouts were heard from the other side of the radio at ISRO.

"Air Marshal Ravinder, tremendous amounts of heat energy is accumulating at the location!" Ravinder's face turned grim as he heard the news.

"We can't let more energy pile up at the location, sir! If that energy explodes, it's going to severely affect India and all the neighboring countries." ISRO chief's statement made Ravinder decide on what to do.

"Where is Ranger-7 now?"

"Sir, he is almost back."

"Does he have enough fuel for another trip?"

"Negative, sir."

"Sir!" Another shout alerted the whole deck,diverting their attention to the screen again. Ravinder knew well enough that it wouldn't be anything good.

Seven white and beaming pillars made of pure energy stood around the portal radiating immense amounts of energy. At this point, every research station in the world that had the equipment to read energy fluctuations was alerted.

"Air Marshal! We have another problem, seven similar kinds of energy readings of the pillars are being read in different countries of the world." ISRO was buzzing with calls on the other side of the radio as Ravinder strengthened his resolve. Every nation's research station including ISRO assumed that the source of the disturbance was the portal.

"Scramble the Jets! Take it down, before it causes any unwanted scenarios!" Ravinder waved his hand as he held his stance.

Seven MIG 29Ks immediately made their way into the sky and were en route to the coordinates. As the MIG's made their way to the location, Ravinder was flooded with calls and demands for an explanation of the situation.

Ravinder decided to ignore all calls but he couldn't ignore the call from the Navy Chief. The information and orders he received from the chief aligned with what he had in his mind. Indian Navy was requested to take down the assumed source of the energy pillars before any catastrophe could follow.

"Sir, the MIG's are almost there."

"Bring the drone back." Ravinder was keen on making sure that the source of all this trouble was destroyed.

"Sir, the MIGs are within the range to take down the target."

"Tell all the Rangers to lock and fire now!" Ravinder shouted on the top of his lungs as he stared at the screen without even batting his eyelids as he awaited the destruction of the portal.

"Roger that, Missile away!" All the Rangers in the MIG's fired a missile locked at the skeleton. The Missiles made their way towards the skeleton from the gaps between the pillars.

But nothing happens exactly as it is planned, does it? Just before the missiles hit the skeleton, seven shadows appeared inside the white beams of light around it and as if it was never there, the portal, as well as the pillars of light all across the world, disappeared releasing a massive energy surge which engulfed the Earth.

"What just happened?!" Ravinder was shocked at the surge he felt, which had pushed him and everyone on board onto the ground. Everyone in the world felt the impact, that had managed to knock half of the sleeping world out of their beds. The MIGs were met with a huge impact as well, but the pilots immediately recovered control over the jets and tried to figure out what had happened.

"Reporting in! We have no visual of the skeleton or the portal, no signs of abnormality and the whirlpool seems to be clearing, sir."

Ravinder fell onto his seat slowly as he started to contemplate about the series of events. What and why it all had happened was something that he couldn't understand and he wasn't alone in his doubts.

Debates and analysis of the situation took place worldwide among different associations, trying to find out the answers to the same questions Ravinder had. It was only after two days that they found something.

Five of the seven pillars of light that fell on different places of the world had been caught on the camera, each pillar of light engulfed a certain person and after the portal disappeared, so did the pillars of light, along with the people it engulfed.

After proper investigation, the countries on which the light pillars fell declared that the pillar probably incinerated the person or did something with them. They declared that they were missing.

Seven people went missing around the globe from different countries and the nations had no idea how to rescue them or even find them.

A meeting was immediately conducted internationally which requested Ravinder and ISRO to attend and give a detailed explanation of the series of events. India had no choice but to accept the request. Ravinder along with Veer and the Rangers who piloted the F-35 and MIGs attended the meeting.

The meeting concluded with the assumption that the skeleton's words "Hand them over" mean to hand over the seven people that went missing. It was highly likely that all the seven were alive, wherever they were.

All the research stations in the world tried to replicate the energy flow that took place in the series of the events. It was funded by all the nations in the world in an attempt to bring back the seven as well as in the hopes to discover a new world.

The families of the seven people abducted were questioned regarding various matters as well as the bystanders who saw what happened.

As the world went on with its busy schedule trying to find out what happened, a certain old man deep inside the Himalayas, rose from his rocky seat and looked into the sky with a smile that made his wrinkles stand out. In a soft voice, he murmured;

"Good Luck, you seven."