Time for a Megaman Star Force fanfic! I'm going to be using English names, since as much as I want to, using the Japanese names for everything would probably require me to research a bunch of stuff.
My other fic is still going though, this is just being posted to make sure that it's up here so I don't forget to do it. This will have sporadic updates depending on how much I feel like writing at times.
Quick story notes: This is a reboot fic where Geo and co. are 15 years old instead of 10. The space station Peace was destroyed 5 years before the story starts. The usual stuff about Geo not going to school still happened. More stuff will be revealed later on.
15-year-old Geo Stelar was rudely awoken by the incessant ringing of the doorbell. Rolling over and grumbling, he tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, before shooting up as he realized that since his mother was at her part-time job, he was the one who had to answer it.
Quickly hopping out of bed and changing into his clothes for the day, he trudged downstairs, slightly annoyed that whoever at the door was still ringing the bell. Did people not understand that the sound of a doorbell was made to be annoying?
Walking to the door, he grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, fully prepared to yell at the offending person. What he didn't expect, however, was to be bowled over onto the ground by a bundle of pink as a girl his age rushed through the door and slammed it shut.
"What the hell are you doing?" He glared at the girl as he slowly stood up, rubbing his injured head. Great. Now he had a headache from two sources instead of just one.
"I'm really sorry! Honestly! Please, can I hide here for a bit? I'm trying to get away from my manager. Please don't tell anyone I'm here!" The girl put on a cute face, complete with puppy-dog eyes, and Geo couldn't help but blush and look away.
"F-Fine." He stuttered. Who was this girl, anyway, if she was talking about having a manager or something like that? "My room is upstairs, first door on the right. Let me make something to eat and I'll be up in a few minutes. You woke me up with all that ringing, anyway. I haven't eaten yet."
"O-oh, sorry. I didn't mean to do that." After saying that, she quickly disappeared up the steps towards his room. Geo sighed, walking towards the kitchen and quickly making some toast to eat, munching on it while he walked up the stairs.
When he opened the door, the girl - Pink, he decided to call her, she was wearing way too much of that colour - was sitting on the chair in front of his computer, humming a tune while looking at the posters of space he had on the walls.
"Again, sorry about just barging in here like that. What's your name?" Geo sighed. Was something wrong with her? It's a common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking for someone's name.
"It's fine, it's fine. Anyway, Pink, generally you introduce yourself first before asking for someone to introduce themselves."
"What do you mean?" She looked genuinely confused, and then she had an angry frown on her face. "Wait, Pink?! What kind of a nickname is that?!" Geo let out a short bark of laughter at that.
"It's what I'm going to keep calling you until you tell me your name. Most people don't know the name of some random person who barges into their house without permission, Pink." If he hadn't been looking at her, Geo would have missed the surprise on her face, which devolved into another frown. This one of confusion. "Something wrong?"
"No, no, it's just... Everyone knows my name." Geo looked at her with a blank look on his face.
"Well, obviously, I'm not everyone, am I? So unless you'd like to leave, could you tell me your name?" Her face paled at the thinly veiled implication that Geo was threatening to kick her out, just for not introducing herself.
"No, no! It's fine, I'm sorry! I didn't realize there were people that didn't know who I was in this town. I see ads that I'm in everywhere!" It was Geo's turn to look surprised at that. She was in ads everywhere? He didn't notice. Not that he went out much.
"Well, okay then. But still, your name, please." Geo was getting frustrated by this point.
"Sorry! My name's Sonia. Sonia Strumm." Finally. She introduced herself.
"About time. My name's Geo Stelar. What do you do if you're in ads everywhere, as you put it?" Sonia started fidgeting, as if she was unwilling to tell him. Then she sighed, resigning herself to the fact that he deserved to know.
"I-I'm a really popular singer." Geo's eyes widened in surprise. No wonder she thought he already knew who she was. If she was as popular as she said she was, to get on ads everywhere, everyone must have known who she was. Seconds after she told him, they both heard a banging on the front door, accompanied by yelling. Sonia gasped. "It's my manager! Please, I'm serious, don't tell him I'm here! I don't want to go back right now!" Looking at her face, Geo could see that she seemed to be right on the edge of tears. What had to be wrong to make her react like that?
"It's fine. I'll make sure he leaves. Stay here and don't make a sound, okay?" Sonia nodded silently and he left the room, closing the door. The banging continued as he made his way to the door. What was wrong with people this morning? "I'm coming, damn it! Stop trying to smash the door down!" Well, at least it stopped.
He opened the door to see a man in purple waiting at the door with a worried look on his face. Geo scowled at him. "You're lucky it's the weekend. If it was a school day, I wouldn't have even answered considering how early it is." He wasn't lying. On the Thursday and Friday of the previous week, Geo had encountered 'Prez', the class president for his class at the school he hadn't attended in years, and her two lackeys. They weren't pleasant people, trying to force him to go to school. He had no doubt that they would show up tomorrow, to try the same thing.
His mother was originally receptive to the idea, but it quickly became apparent to her that not only did he not want to go and 'make friends at least' as she put it, but he was already tied up working at AMAKEN on his own project. He had been working at AMAKEN on occasion, going in whenever he chose, ever since he had turned 13. The man who ran it, Aaron Boreal, had been a good friend to his father before he had disappeared.
Aaron was kind enough to let Geo use some spare materials from time to time, even providing him with his own lab when he turned 15. The man had commented that he felt Geo deserved it, considering that when his father had disappeared, he stopped going to school but made up for it by studying all kinds of subjects so that when he was 13, he was smart enough to put a first year university student to shame.
Coming out of his thoughts, Geo looked at the man in purple expectantly. "So, who are you?" Common courtesy or not, this guy was the one knocking on his door.
"I'm Sonia Strumm's manager. You haven't seen her at all today, have you?" Geo forced a look of surprise on his face, before faking a wide happy grin.
"You're Ms. Strumm's manager?! I'm a massive fan! Wait, what do you mean if I've seen her? She isn't missing is she?" Geo put more expressions on his face, from being excited to being concerned. They were fake, of course. Geo knew exactly where 'Ms. Strumm' was, but he thought he might be able to make a friend for once, so he made sure not to let her down. He hadn't had any friends in years, not since his father was gone, and he knew his mother would be happy if he made one. Not that he didn't want a friend, but he didn't feel like he could open up to people without them pitying or bullying him.
The man in purple had a frown on his face at Geo's words. "So you haven't seen her? Damn, I thought she was seen in the area. She's got a concert happening in a few hours, how could she just run off like that? She's going to make me lose money, damn it!" Geo didn't let the surprise register on his face. No wonder she wanted to run off. This guy just wanted to use her to make money! Still, he kept up the act, hoping that the guy would go away.
"She's got a concert in a few hours? Damn, I didn't know about that! I hope you find her by then!" The man sighed, and looked like he was about to leave.
"Yeah, sorry kid. You know what, for trying to help, take this. It's an extra ticket that I keep on hand for times like this." He pushed a ticket out to Geo, so he took it, of course. It would ruin everything if he rejected the ticket now.
"Thanks! I'll definitely make sure to go when you find her!" The man turned away and started walking back down the path. "Goodbye!" He shut the door and sighed in relief. That had gone better than he had expected it would. He wasn't usually that calm in situations like that.
He walked back up to his room, where Sonia was back to staring at the posters again. She heard him re-enter the room, turned to acknowledge him before turning back to the posters. He sat down against the walls, perfectly content to wait for her to speak.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before she finally turned back to look at him, a smile on her face.
"Thanks for that, Geo. I was listening to you talking to my manager." She was suddenly cheerful, as if the tense situation with her manager hadn't happened at all.
"It's no problem at all. Even famous people have problems, after all. And from what he said, I can see why you wanted to run away for a bit."
"Yeah. As he implied, he only wants me to sing so that he can get more money. He was almost broke before he heard me singing that one time a while ago. Then he jumped on the chance and made thousands in the first month alone."
"That sucks. He doesn't seem like a very nice person, either. But, I don't understand one thing."
"What is it?"
"If you wanted to stop, why didn't you go back to your own parents?" As soon as he said that, her eyes started tearing up. His face paled as he realized that he had just stepped on a metaphorical landmine, as tears started running down her face.
"M-my p-parents died about a year and a half ago." She sobbed out. Geo's eyes softened in sympathy.
"I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have brought it up." The next thing he knew, she was glaring at him.
"Don't look at me with pity! I get that from everyone that I tell about my parents!" Geo's own eyes started tearing up.
"No, it's not that. I'm pretty sure my own father is dead as well. The space station he was on blew up five years ago. You're actually the first person my age that I've had a proper conversation with ever since." He was surprised to hear himself speaking about it. Was it because they had been in similar situations? Sonia's glare softened.
"Oh my- I didn't realize. I thought you were acting like everybody else."
"It's fine. Just, can we talk about something else?" Her face brightened again as she smiled at him happily. Of course, that caused him to blush again.
"S-Sure. What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, for one, what are those strange glasses on your head?" She pointed up at the Visualizers on Geo's forehead, with a curious expression on her face.
"Oh, these? These are my Visualizers. They used to belong to my dad, but they fell to Earth with this pendant-" He held up his pendant, "and someone from AMAKEN gave them to me."
"They look weird, but cool at the same time! Do they do anything special?"
"Well, they can see EM radiation, but that's about it." Well, they used to at least, until he accidentally filled his lab with EM radiation. Now they could see the Wave World, instead. But he wasn't going to tell anyone that little bit of information. Not even Sonia, even if she was seemingly going to be the first friend he had had in years. At least, he wasn't going to tell her yet.
"That's pretty cool! Can I have a look through them?" He quickly shook his head as a negative.
"Sorry, they're kind of important to me. Maybe in the future, though." She made a frown, but dismissed it, seeing as she could understand how important they must have been.
"Oh well, it was worth a try. It would've been cool! But anyway, you're interested in space, huh?" She questioned him with an obvious question, gesturing to the posters on his wall. His face lit up and she laughed. "Okay, I get it. You really like space, don't you." Geo nodded and launched into an explanation of what he knew, from constellations to the slightly more complex objects in space. Sonia listened intently. After all, it wasn't every day that she met someone who didn't care about who she was. In fact, Geo was the first person like that in the two years she'd been singing. Most normal people she'd met had tried to suck up to her, talking about how great her songs were, and she'd quickly grown tired of the endless praise that was thrown at her by everyone she'd met.
It wasn't until Geo accidentally looked at the clock before he suddenly started in surprise.
"Oh, damn! I'm going to be late! I told Mr. Boreal I'd be at AMAKEN at ten! It's half past nine!" Sonia frowned.
"You have to go somewhere?" Geo nodded excitedly.
"Yeah, I've been working on a project at AMAKEN for a while, and I told Mr. Boreal I'd show him what it was today!"
"Oh. I guess I have to go back, then?" Geo had a look of horror on his face.
"No! No! You don't have to! You can come along! I don't mind! Just let me call Mr. Boreal so I can let him know. I'm pretty sure that if it's only him, we can keep it a secret that it's you. I can trust him with that. There shouldn't be many other people because it's a weekend. Most of the employees like to stay with their families on weekends." Sonia's face lit up. Geo laughed, she looked so excited! "Oh, wait. Do you have a disguise? It would defeat the point if you got noticed on the way there."
"I always carry a disguise with me! After all, I get out a lot more than you would think, for being famous and all." Geo laughed again.
"You must really like worrying your manager." They both had a laughing fit at the comment, knowing that Sonia didn't care at all if her manager was worried or not. After they had finished laughing, Geo started rummaging through his drawers. "If you'll just head down to the living room, I'm going to have a quick shower, considering someone didn't let me wake up properly this morning." Sonia giggled, and quickly left the room.
"Okay! I'll get my disguise ready while I wait for you." She shouted back down the hallway as she descended the steps. Geo sent a short message to Mr. Boreal, saying he'd be late and that he'd call with more details when he was about to leave.
After a quick shower, Geo changed into another set of clothes more appropriate for working in the lab. He still wore a coat over them while he was at AMAKEN, but the clothes he was wearing now were a lot more comfortable to wear than anything else.
He stepped into the living room, looked over to where a person who he assumed would be Sonia was sitting on the couch flicking through the TV channels, and almost fell over in surprise.
"Well. You look... different." An understatement.
"I know, right!" Sonia had changed into a blue shirt and a red skirt, but that wasn't the main part that surprised him. She had dyed her entire hair blonde and put it into a ponytail.
"Isn't the hair dye... kind of problematic to get out?" She giggled at his confusion.
"Nope! It's a brand that comes out with a single wash. Unfortunately, that makes it inconvenient if it rains suddenly." Geo nodded his head in understanding.
"That makes sense for a disguise, I guess." There was something else he thought was different. Then it clicked.
"How in the hell did you manage to hide your guitar? I thought it was your transer?" He almost shouted in surprise.
"Well, actually," she started, pulling out three pieces of a guitar. "Only the top part is the transer! That way, it can be taken apart easily! Of course, not so easily that it will fall apart during a concert!" Geo shook his head.
"I... I have no idea how that's supposed to even make sense. Won't it ruin the strings? Wait, don't explain that. I don't want to know. All I need to know about that is that it somehow works." Sonia giggled again. Geo suddenly had the thought that it was a nice sound. He blushed for the third time that day and shook that specific thought out of his head.
"Something wrong?"
"N-no, nothing! I'd better call Mr. Boreal." He quickly dialled the man's number, and soon enough his face appeared on the screen.
"Geo! I got your message! Is something wrong?" Geo shook his head, smiling.
"Of course that would be the first thing you thought of. No, nothing's wrong, I just lost track of time."
"How do you, of all people, lose track of time?"
"I was, uh, talkingtomynewfriend." He mumbled out the last part, so nobody could hear him.
"What was that, Geo? I didn't hear you." Geo sighed.
"I said, I was talking to my new friend..." He trailed off, ignoring Sonia's start of surprise and chuckling at Aaron's sudden dive to catch something he'd dropped at the comment.
"You made a friend? That's great, Geo! Are they with you now?" Geo nodded, before gesturing for Sonia to move over so she was in view of the camera. Aaron suddenly had a mischievous smile on his face.
"A friend, Geo? Or a girlfriend?" Geo and Sonia both went red at the comment, before Geo slammed the transer shut with a "shutupyoudon'tunderstandanything", effectively cutting off the call. He tentatively opened the transer again, before quickly sending Aaron a message of 'I'll introduce you when we get there. But I'll seriously need you to keep a really important secret about her.'. Ignoring the implications that Aaron could easily draw from the message, he turned to Sonia.
"S-sorry about Mr. Boreal. He can be a pain sometimes." Their blushes were fading at this point, and so they were capable of coherent speech.
"It-It's fine. But, what you said. I'm a friend?" She looked honestly confused, and Geo almost pouted in response.
"You don't want to be? I thought we could be friends, because we're so similar. I don't care about your status as a popular person, I just wanted somebody to talk to occasionally." Sonia had a look of shock on her face as she realized she'd been misinterpreted completely.
"No! It's not that! I'd be happy to be your friend! It's just that I thought you wouldn't want to be since it would attract attention to you as well."
"No, It's fine. So, are we going or what?"
"Oh! Right! Yeah, we should probably go." Geo and Sonia set out towards the bus stop, before catching the bus to AMAKEN. As much as they wanted to, they couldn't talk on the way there because someone may have recognized Sonia by voice, even if she was wearing a disguise.
Thankfully, they made it to AMAKEN without incident, and Geo quickly led Sonia through the courtyard to the doors. As expected, the place was almost empty, with just a receptionist and Mr. Boreal in the lobby.
"Mr. Boreal! Over here!" Aaron looked over at them and waved.
"Geo! Nice to see you made it! So, who's your friend? And what's that secret you were talking about?" He asked, the smile on his face once more.
"I'll explain in a few minutes. We're going to my lab, first." He quickly led Aaron and Sonia to his lab, where he shut the door and closed the small window on it. "There's a washroom over there." Sonia nodded, and quickly ducked into the room to change out of the disguise.
"Is something wrong with your friend, Geo?" Aaron was clearly confused, and Geo smiled slightly.
"Nothing, you'll see." About a minute later, they heard a knock from the washroom door and Geo walked over to it. Opening the door slightly, Geo peeked in and sure enough, Sonia was back in her normal clothes.
"Are you sure about this?" Sonia nodded, so Geo turned back to Aaron and looked at him. "Please stay quiet for a bit."
He opened the door more, and Sonia stepped out. Aaron looked like he was about to faint.
"Mr. Boreal, meet my new friend, Sonia Strumm." Aaron fainted. "He fainted."
"He did."
"I guess you probably expected that?"
"Yep."
"I suppose that makes sense. It's you, after all." They both found themselves laughing at the short conversation, before Geo decided to prop Aaron up in a chair. "I suppose we need to wait until he wakes up."
It only took a few minutes for him to wake up. The first time, at least. As he woke up, he slowly lifted his head and looked around. "Oh, Geo? What are you doing here?" Then his gaze shifted to the other person in the room. His eyes widened as he remembered what happened. Then he proceeded to faint again.
"I hate this guy sometimes." Sonia giggled.
"I guess we just need to wait for him to stop fainting." Geo nodded.
They went through the cycle another time before Aaron managed to get a hold of himself. This time, Geo and Sonia were sitting on the ground playing a card game; it had been almost fifteen minutes since he had last fainted.
"About time you stayed awake, Mr. Boreal. You fainted three times upon seeing her." Geo and Sonia were both laughing at him.
"Sorry about that. I guess this is the secret you wanted to keep, then?" Geo nodded. "I think I can understand why. Considering the fact that just before you got here a missing person report came through the news."
"Already? Stupid manager. I run off for a few hours and he worries about his money. I don't feel like playing music today." Sonia grumbled out her own thoughts about the matter.
"You have a concert today?"
"Had. Until I ran off. But, yeah, it was meant to be a secret one, but I ran off because I overheard him comment about how I was making him tons of money with it, because he could increase the price due to the scarcity of the tickets. He can get what's coming to him when everyone demands their money back." Aaron couldn't help but laugh, but then he frowned.
"But what about your par-"
"Don't." Aaron looked at Geo in confusion. "Don't ask." When Aaron looked back at Sonia, he noticed that she seemed to be trying to hold back tears. "I'll tell you later, so just don't." Aaron's eyes widened as he realized what Geo may have been implying.
"Alright. I won't ask. So, on a better note, what were you going to show me today, Geo?" Geo nodded behind him and he turned around.
"It's that device on the table. Don't touch it, please. It's in a fragile state. I've been uploading the test operating system I designed since last night."
"T-test operating system?" Sonia looked surprised and confused at the same time.
"Oh, right. You don't know. I've been kind of working here since a couple of years ago. Mr. Boreal here only gave me this lab, what, a few months ago now?" Aaron nodded.
"About that long. You see, Sonia, ever since Geo's father disappeared, he dropped out of school and had been studying a lot more than the average student. I only let him work here because going to school would quite literally be detrimental to his learning, seeing as he knows and understands university-level topics." Sonia's jaw dropped in surprise.
"You didn't tell me that, Geo!" Geo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, grinning.
"I... didn't think it was important at the time?" Sonia gave him a look that simply said 'Really, Geo?' all through it. Geo stepped back, nervous. Thankfully for him, Sonia dropped the look quickly and he could get back to his explanation.
"So, once it's done uploading, I'll just need to put the frame back on, tweak a few settings and it should be done! Unfortunately, it isn't going to be uploaded until tomorrow morning, and the rest should take until tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow morning?! Why is it going to take so long?"
"Well, since it's a test operating system, I'm making sure it uploads slowly and gets all of the information properly. Once the tweaking is done, I'll be re-uploading the operating system in its full form at full speed, just to make sure it will work afterwards."
"That makes sense, I guess. So, what's it called?"
"It's called the Star Carrier!"
"The Star Carrier?" Sonia questioned Geo's decision.
"I came up with the name on a whim, but basically it's an upgraded transer. I've been trying to analyse the lens on the Visualizers so I can replicate the feature, but that hasn't gone so well, so I'm leaving it out. I actually have no idea how Dad made them."
"I don't know either, Geo, I just know that he suddenly came out of his own lab at NAZA with them years ago. When somebody searched his lab for any blueprints, they couldn't find them. I have a feeling he destroyed them for some reason."
"Maybe he did what I'm doing with the Star Carrier." Aaron looked at him, confused.
"Look around. Do you see any blueprints?" Aaron's eyes widened as his eyes darted around the room.
"No, I suppose I don't."
"That's because they're all in here." Geo stated, tapping the side of his head.
"Wha- how?!" Aaron was surprised, to say the least.
"I don't know, I just have a really good memory for some reason. It really helped when I was studying all those years ago."
A huff came from behind them. "Did you guys just completely forget I was here?" Geo, startled, span around to see Sonia right behind him with her cheeks puffed out. "That wasn't very nice!"
"S-sorry Sonia, I just get a bit excited when it comes to my inventions."
"Well, I can see that, can't I? Also, inventions? Plural?"
"Uh, yeah. I made a few things."
"Such as?"
"Well, when did you get your custom transer?"
"About a year and a half ago. Why?"
"I... may have invented the technology to allow that soon after I joined AMAKEN?" Then he got tackled in a hug and fell over.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was the last gift my parents got me, before... you know... but still! It was the best present ever!" Geo laughed awkwardly as Sonia smiled the brightest she had the entire day, while Aaron looked on with a raised eyebrow. Geo looked over at him, then smirked.
"Oh, Sonia, you should show Mr. Boreal what your guitar does. He'll probably be more confused by it than me." Aaron stepped back in shock.
"You got confused by something? I have got to see this."
"Well, okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Sonia took her guitar off of her back and dismantled it. Aaron looked at it for a second, then spoke as he grabbed his head.
"I... I have a headache." He proceeded to sit in the chair and turn it so he wasn't looking at the guitar anymore.
"I know, right? I don't even want to know how it works. Please put it back, Sonia." Sonia put the guitar back together and on her back once more.
"What would you have done if I'd refused?" Geo paled.
"I would never be able to look in your direction again." Sonia had a giggling fit at his comment.
"Well that's not very nice, is it!" She started poking his shoulder, laughing as his face reddened.
"You two..." They looked over at Aaron. "Maybe I should just leave you two alone. From what I can gather, you only met today, but you're already acting like a couple." Both of them reddened as they shot to opposite sides of the room, and Aaron let out a full-blown laugh at their reactions.
"S-s-s-shut up! It's not like that!" They simultaneously shouted at Aaron, but it only served to make them blush more.
"Fine, fine. I'll stop teasing you both. Geo, why don't we show her the Space Simulator? It's going to open to the public at the end of the week, so it's already set up and ready to go." Geo brightened, completely forgetting about the awkward situation.
"Really? That's great! Let's go, Sonia!" Sonia looked over at him, interested.
"Space Simulator? Sounds exciting!"
Aaron led the two through the halls of AMAKEN, making sure nobody saw Sonia out of her disguise. Fortunately, they made it to the museum without incident, and Aaron sent them off to get a space suit each.
"Wait, why do we need a space suit?" Sonia looked honestly confused. "I thought we would just be floating around?"
"Well, it's designed to be just like space. There's no air in there at all, so if you went in there without a suit you'd die of oxygen deprivation." Sonia paled.
"I should probably put the space suit on, then." They headed back to Mr. Boreal, who was waiting patiently with his own space suit already on.
"Are you guys ready? Make sure your oxygen is connected properly when we get into the dividing chamber." He pressed a button next to the entrance, making the doors slide open into a small room, large enough to fit about twenty people in it.
Once they stepped in, he closed the doors behind them and Geo quickly attached his oxygen pipe. Looking over, he noticed that Sonia seemed to be having trouble with attaching it.
"Need some help? It can be difficult on the first try." Sonia's helmet bobbed as she nodded, and he walked over and attached the pipe easily.
"You do this a lot, don't you?"
"Well, all of AMAKEN worked together on it, so we all had to make sure we could attach it easily just in case we were on our own. Not that it was recommended for us to be alone."
"Everyone worked on it?"
"Well, yeah. It took us almost six months to get the gravity system working, but it's going to be worth it. We run tours every now and then, and we think people will like it in there."
"Are you guys ready yet?"
"Yes, Mr. Boreal. We're ready."
"Great! I'm going to drain the oxygen then, so make sure you don't take off your helmets!"
"Mr. Boreal, are you trying to insult our intelligence or what?" Aaron laughed.
"Sorry Geo, just practicing for the tours." Geo laughed.
"Sure you are." Aaron reached up and flicked a switch on the ceiling. They couldn't feel it, but all of the oxygen in the room was suddenly filtered out by a vacuum, before he turned it off and opened the doors into the Simulator.
Aaron was the first to step through, followed by Geo and then Sonia, who looked down in surprise as she suddenly lost her footing and started floating away from the exit.
"Wah!" Geo and Aaron laughed at her as she started flipping around when she tried to move back. "Geooo! Help me out here!" Geo just made a blank look, sighed, and started floating over.
"I can't have a little fun at your expense? It's always amusing to see someone on their first time in here." He reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her, before beginning to show her how to move properly.
"You can't move erratically. Just slowly lean in the direction you want to go. Like this." Geo leaned back a small amount and he suddenly started floating away from her. Sonia tried, only to start flipping again. She quickly tried to lean in the opposite direction, but overcompensated and flipped the other way. She soon started spiralling out of control once more, and Geo moved in to steady her.
"This is too hard to move around in!" She pouted and Geo laughed at her again, making her glare at him. "You're not going anywhere until I can do this properly!" He had a look of horror on his face.
"But some of the other guys took days to get moving properly!" Sonia smirked.
"Then I guess we'll be in here for days, then, won't we?" Then she made a mock pout. "Or do you not want to be here with me?" Her lower lip started trembling, as if she was about to cry. Geo panicked.
"Eh? No, no, I'll help, I'll help!" Sonia grinned in victory and he looked at her in disappointment. "That wasn't very nice, you know." Sonia giggled.
"I know, that's why I did it. But I'm serious about staying here until I get it right, you know." The look of horror reappeared on Geo's face.
Thankfully for Geo, Sonia only took about an hour to get used to moving around without his help, and soon they were wandering around the simulator, with Geo showing her all of the different exhibits and planets, while Aaron supervised. Not that Geo couldn't, but he doubted that Geo would be able to keep track of time, considering the events from that morning. A few hours passed before Aaron decided to alert them of how long they'd actually spent in the simulator.
"Uh, Geo, you are aware that it's almost three o'clock in the afternoon, right?" Geo and Sonia both looked over at him in surprise.
"What? Damn it! I guess I'll have to show you the Star Carrier when it's done, then."
"It's fine. I'd rather you have fun, you haven't had a friend in years." Geo nodded in thanks, before turning to Sonia.
"Come on, let's go back to my house." They left, with Sonia commenting on how fitting it was for the Earth to be the exit.
Once they got back to Geo's house, once again without incident, they decided to just kill time until his mother got home.
"Do you want to stay for dinner?"
"If it isn't inconvenient, sure!" With that, they ended up just watching TV for a few hours, talking about random topics.
At about half past six, Geo's mother got home.
"I'm home, Geo!" She called through the house, and Geo quickly shot out into the hallway to greet her.
"Hey, Mum! I've got a friend over, can they stay for dinner?"
"Sure, Geo." She said distractedly, then froze. "Wait... A friend! You have a friend?" Geo gave a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, I met them today. Can you keep a secret about them, mum?"
"You know I can, Geo!" Then she seemed to remember something. "Oh, Geo! An idol named Sonia Strumm went missing today, so if you see her at all, make sure you call her manager!" Geo froze.
"I-I'm sure she can take care of herself, mum. I mean, isn't she my age?"
"Yeah, but I'm sure her parents are worried about her, so if you see her, you definitely need to call her manager immediately. She's been gone since this morning, you know."
"I know. Her manager showed up at the door this morning asking if I knew where she was."
"Oh! I hope he didn't wake you up."
"No, I was already awake at that point." Then he mumbled. "Thanks to the girl herself."
"What was that?"
"N-Nothing!"
"Okay... But still, you're going out to Vista Point again tonight, aren't you? Just keep an eye out. She might be your age, but her parents will still be worried since she has been gone all day."
"But-" He was interrupted.
"No, she's right, Geo. Maybe I should go back." Geo's eyes widened as he looked back at Sonia.
"Eh? Wait, but-" Then he was pushed aside as Sonia ran past him and his mother, out of the house, tears streaming down her face. Hope Stelar had a stunned look on her face, but was broken out of it when Geo shouted out.
"Sonia, wait!" Hope looked at her son, a question in her eyes. "She was my new friend, mum, and you just made her run off!" Now she looked confused.
"What? But... How did I make her run off?" Geo glared at her, and she took a step back.
"You went on and on about her parents! Even idols have problems too, mum! Her parents are dead! Both of them!" Hope was stunned.
"T-That was Sonia Strumm?"
"Yes!" Then Geo was gone, too, running out after her into the night.
In the house, Hope suddenly broke down in tears as she realized that she may have just ruined her son's chances at finally having a friend.
Sonia ran. She knew she was overreacting, so she wasn't totally sure why she ran away from Geo and his mother. Perhaps she couldn't handle somebody else's parent talking about her own parents, even if it wasn't directly. She was fine when she was talking to Geo about it, but hearing his mother talk about how her parents would be worried hit her feelings too hard. So much so, that she felt she needed to be alone, just for a little while.
She boarded one of the late busses to the next city, seeing as how that was where her apartment was. She walked home slowly, thinking about how she had just left Geo behind without saying anything. She slammed her apartment door open, startling her manager who was pacing back and forth across the entryway. He immediately started fussing angrily over how she had been gone the entire day and that he had been forced to push back the concert for two days, promising her fans that she would definitely be there.
"Get out. Now. I want to be alone for a while." Her manager clammed up, her tone leaving no room for argument. He quietly left the apartment to head back to his own residence, and she began to make herself something small to eat.
Minutes passed, and soon she was lying on her bed looking at the ceiling. She was such an idiot. She'd completely forgotten to trade contact info with Geo. She didn't even know where he lived, she'd just knocked on a random door and he just happened to be the one living there. And there was no way she would get away from her manager within the next week or so. He always made sure of it, getting to her apartment long before she woke up.
Beginning to slip into a haze of sleep, tears started falling onto her pillow as a single thought ran through her mind.
Now I'm alone all over again.
That night, Sonia cried herself to sleep for the first time in months.
Geo searched for over an hour, running up and down the streets, before deciding that she must have headed home. He didn't want to go home just yet himself, so he decided to head up to Vista Point so he could stargaze.
Laying himself down on the grass, he watched the stars floating overhead. He was troubled. If anyone looked at him they would easily be able to see that. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, nobody was ever at Vista Point at this time of night. Therefore, nobody else was there to see sudden electricity cracking out through the air above him.
Geo shot up, looking at it intently. What the hell was that? Some kind of EM disturbance? He quickly flicked on his Visualizers, and was surprised at what he saw. Were those... living EM beings? Sure, there was the occasional Mr. Hertz every now and again, but there were never beings that look like these.
One of them was a mass of green energy, with what seemed to be blue coloured armour on his head and shoulders. No, looking again, the head wasn't armour at all. It was just a head.
The other seemed to be some kind of instrument. A harp? It was bluish in colour, with pink flames on the arms.
The two beings seemed to be fighting, clashing a few more times before... holding a conversation? That's what it looked like to him, at least. Then, as the harp charged forward once more, the green one looked down and seemed to notice him. Geo suddenly felt very, very nervous. And then it shot down at him. The harp followed it, before also seeing him and uttering a curse, before flying off.
Of course, the green being didn't notice that. Geo let out a shout as the being got closer, and did the first thing he could think of. He stepped back at the last second. The green being collided with the ground, before picking itself up.
"Huh. She left." Geo's jaw almost dropped in surprise. It could talk? That was interesting. "But still, how did that human avoid me? He couldn't have seen me." Then it looked over at him.
Geo almost stepped back, before the thing seemed to recognize something. He watched as it seemed to reach one of its hands into its body, before pulling out... a photo? He looked back and forth between Geo and the photo, before shaking his head.
"Nah, couldn't be his son. That would be much too coincidental. Imagine that, running into Kelvin's son just minutes after arriving on this planet." It turned around, preparing to fly off as Geo's eyes widened, and he stepped forward.
"Y-you knew my dad?" The being suddenly jerked around in surprise.
"You can see me?! How?!" That most certainly was the reaction Geo expected from him. He was an EM wave, after all. The only technology on Earth capable of seeing even EM radiation were his Visualizers, and nobody knew how they were even made!
"Uh... My dad made these Visualizers so that he could see EM radiation, and I accidentally saturated them with EM waves about a year ago. So I can see the EM Wave World with them." The being nodded thoughtfully.
"Hmm, I thought I recognized those glasses from somewhere. So you're Geo, then?" Geo stepped back in shock. It knew his name! Just how did this thing know his dad?
"Y-yeah. Geo Stelar." The being nodded to himself some more, before turning to face him directly.
"Well, kid, sorry about your dad. He died while I was trying to save his life." Geo's eyes widened in shock at the sudden announcement, tears starting to form.
"I-I guess I expected it. Him being dead, that is. He's been gone for five years, after all."
"So it's been that long, huh?" The being settled down. "Well, kid, my name is Omega-Xis. Just call me Mega, nobody ever gets my name right. I'm an FM-ian from Planet FM." Then he noticed Geo lying back down on the grass, tears streaming from his eyes. "Is something wrong, kid?"
Geo shook his head. "No, it's nothing. Just... everything that happened today is catching up with me. I made my first friend in five years this morning, lost that friend just over an hour ago, and now I find out that my dad is dead, even though I expected it. It's a bit too much to handle."
"You made, and lost your friend in the same day? How did you manage that?" Geo chuckled.
"It's kind of silly, really. We forgot to exchange contact information, and then mum made her run off by accident before we could. So I'm back to having no friends again." Omega-Xis made what seemed to be an expression of confusion.
"Made her run off by accident? How did your mother manage that?" Tears prickled Geo's eyes again at the topic.
"She's just like me, except both of her parents are gone. Mum carelessly mentioned that they must have been worried about her, since she'd been gone all day, and I guess she must have taken it hard, since she ran off and I couldn't find her anywhere. I probably won't ever see her again."
He slowly pulled out the concert ticket that her manager had given him from his pocket. "Too bad that her concert got cancelled, since she didn't show up to it. If it had been rescheduled I could have gone to it to see her again." Of course, Geo had no way of knowing that it was rescheduled. It was a secret concert, after all, so only the people who actually showed up were told about the rescheduling. He hadn't shown up, simply because he was the reason there was no concert in the first place. They'd been at AMAKEN when the concert had been due to start.
"I guess it's kind of worthless, now." He slowly folded up the ticket, before tearing it into small pieces and throwing them out into the wind. "Better luck next time, I suppose." He wiped away his tears, then turned to Omega-Xis.
"So, Mega. What brings you to Earth anyway? Also, who the hell was chasing you?" Well. He certainly had a sheepish look on his face.
"I, uh. I stole the activator to Planet FM's world-destroying weapon?" Geo glared at him.
"So you brought it here." Omega-Xis brought his arms up in denial.
"No, no, that wasn't the only reason! They were targeting you guys because they misunderstood the BrotherBand that your father was aiming at the planet! They thought you guys were preparing for war!" Geo stood in shock and anger. The FM-ians were targeting his home? How dare they! His father was trying to be peaceful, and they respond by trying to go to war!
Suddenly, all around them the street lights started flickering. Omega-Xis was suddenly more alert.
"Viruses! We've gotta delete them, kid!"
"Do it yourself, I can't help!" Okay, now he was nervous. Omega-Xis was staring at him.
"Oh, but you can help. You just need to do what I tried to do to you before, before you stepped out of the way."
"Heh, well sorry for trying to avoid what I thought would be complete and utter disintegration. You are a highly concentrated mass of EM waves, after all." Then he stopped. "What did you try and do, anyway?"
"I tried to wave change you, kid."
"Wave change?" Okay, Mega was confusing him now.
"Yeah. I would fuse with you, and we would be a lot stronger than just our strengths combined."
"Sounds... interesting. Let's try it, then." Omega-Xis grunted in confirmation.
"Alright kid, I'm just going to hop in your terminal there. Just hold it up and call out what's on the screen." Omega-Xis suddenly flew straight into Geo's transer, before some words appeared on the now-opened screen.
"Okaaay, that sounds really embarrassing to say."
"Well, kid, it won't work without it, so get used to it."
"Urgh, fine. If you insist." He shot his arm into the air and, blushing, even though nobody could see or hear him, started shouting the words.
"EM Wave Change! Geo Stelar, On Air!" Suddenly a light shone around them and Geo's body felt weird as he felt it being converted into EM waves. As they came out of the transformation, Geo looked down at his body. He fell over in surprise when he saw his hand.
"You-You're on my hand! Get off, get off!" He started shaking his hand furiously, trying to pry Omega-Xis' head off of it.
"Sorry kid, I have to be somewhere, and this is the best place to be. I'm not on your hand, I am your hand." Geo calmed down at the explanation, but was still just a little annoyed.
"So? What can we do about the viruses?"
"Well you can see them better than with the Visualizers now, right?" Geo looked back at the lights. There were several Mettenna hanging around each light. "Just aim my head at them and concentrate on shoving energy out." It wasn't the best explanation, but Geo got the point, aiming Mega's head at the viruses and concentrating. He was surprised to see a burst of purple energy flare up, before shooting out towards the viruses.
"Good job, kid!"
It only took them a few minutes to delete the viruses, and as Geo was about to turn away, he noticed a shine coming from the ground where a virus had been deleted. Confused, he walked over and picked it up.
His eyes lit up.
"Mega."
"What, kid?"
"I really, really hope that this is real." He grinned as he looked at the 200 Zenny coin in his hand.
"Well, it might be. Try spending it sometime."
"I won't need to, the transer can add it to my bank account on its own." It was true. Transers had recently been upgraded with a feature with which to scan any Zennys that people might find, wiping out the unique EM wave in each one and causing the coins and notes to crumble to dust.
"That's handy then, isn't it?" They released the wave change, and Geo held up the coin to his transer. Sure enough, the coin soon crumbled to dust and 200 Zennys were added to his unique bank account. The Satella Police didn't really care about how people acquired money anymore, because the unique identifier in each and every coin made them impossible to fake. They also had much bigger problems dealing with any virus outbreaks in the towns and cities.
"I think I just got a job by accident." He wasn't paid to work at AMAKEN, he was just given access to materials to mess around with. The only times he got money was when he invented something big, but that had only happened twice so far. He'd already spent the money from those particular ventures on getting more materials for himself to work with.
Something important caught his mind. "So, then. Now that we've dealt with that, who was that you were fighting?"
"Ah, I almost forgot about that. That was Lyra. She's one of the more annoying FM-ians. Not in strength, just because of her personality."
"So when will we have to fight her off?"
"Probably in the next day or so. It won't take her that long to find a host. You're already resigned to fighting?"
"Well, it's not like I have much of a choice, is it?"
"I suppose not. At the very least, after Lyra the next one will take about two weeks to a month to arrive. I was much faster than them and they kept losing my trail. Lyra was the only one able to stick to it well, but the FM-ians eventually got split far enough apart in space that they couldn't help each other. At best even after the first one they'll be weeks apart. At worst, days."
"That's lucky, then. I need to get used to the wave form. Good to work with you, Mega."
"Likewise." Geo checked the time. He still wasn't that happy about what his mother had done, even if it was by accident. He probably wouldn't be able to make another friend for years because of it, and there was no way in hell he was going to that damn school. "Let's go delete some more viruses."
"Something wrong, kid?" Geo shook his head, hiding his tears.
"No, nothing is wrong. Let's go, already!" Inside, however, he was thinking something different.
Looks like I'm alone again, huh.
Hope left a note on the kitchen table telling Geo that dinner was in the fridge when he got home.
However, when she woke up in the morning, it wasn't even touched.
That night, Geo hadn't even bothered to come home.
Well. I guess updates will be sporadic indeed, if the chapter length is of any indication.
That was entirely an accident, by the way. I got caught up with writing it. I don't think future chapters will be quite as long as this one. I'll probably try and alternate chapters between my two stories, unless I don't feel like writing one and/or get writer's block for one.
I'm actually more excited to write this one than I was when I started writing 'Wrapped in Shadows'. I feel like there's a lot more for me to work with here.
Expect a chapter for either one of these stories in the next week!
And yes, Geo's dad is actually dead in this one.