It was three in the morning, and Mamoru was slumped back in his chair, totally exhausted - and his cup of coffee was almost empty. Blast. Three days' lack of sleep probably wasn't much helping the situation, either, and his recent caffeine-inspired visit to the Hoshikawa household was seeming less and less favorable a decision in hindsight. He slumped back in his chair, staring up at the large blueprint of what to the common man would have appeared to be a rocket of some sort on the wall in front of him, with melatonin creeping through him like some biological weapon, unstoppable and merciless.
"Perhaps Amachi-sama should get some sleep?"
"No can do," Mamoru murmured. "I have to finish this design. We have to start construction tomorrow."
As he couldn't bring himself to inspiration regarding the actual blueprint tacked to the wall, Mamoru turned his attention towards the perky little voice he'd heard - it certainly didn't belong to his assistant, whose voice was much softer and less clear, not to mention the fact that this little voice was much more direct with him. "Where are you? What are you doing here?"
The mystery of the voice brought some awareness back to the engineer - just enough for him to reach his coffee cup and drain its last few drops. The heat and the last of the caffeine did it - Mamoru shook and rapped the side of his head with the palm of his hand. "Now then, where are you hiding?"
"But I am not hiding. I am here. And most surprised that you can hear me."
Mamoru paused and looked over his shoulder to where he'd heard the voice. "Now, why do you say tha- oh. Oh, wow. And what the heck are you?"
Standing in the corner, well, hovering in it, was a small blue creature that seemed to be some kind of robot drone of some kind - Mamoru noticed immediately that its design was purposefully cute, almost overwhelmingly so (almost), with its perky little eyes and smile beaming joy in every direction. "I am Denpa-kun. I carry out functions. And I am most surprised that you can see me, too."
Amachi sat back down in his chair, leaning forward towards the Denpa-kun... thingie (was it just him, or could he kinda see through it?). "Oh, so you're some kind of helper, huh? Did Utagai make you?"
The little blue... /thing/ giggled, a bizarre, electronic sound that still somehow managed to be endearing. "Amachi-sama is almost correct. I am a helper, but Utagai-sama did not build me. I do not help in that way."
Mamoru raised an eyebrow. "Then what do you do then?"
"I am Denpa-kun. I carry out functions."
"...You already told me. What kind of functions?"
"Directive: High-speed information transfer between locations, specifications set to wavecast."
Mamoru paused and then something in his brain clicked. He cast a suspicious glance at the Denpa, and leaned forward. "Wait a second. You couldn't possibly... are you a program? Like, a computer program?"
This seemed to delight the little blue creature to no end. "Amachi-sama is correct! I am indeed a Program, though since the advent of the Wave Road system, our forms have been altered to better suit the nature of our tasks. We are... wireless."
Mamoru whistled. "Incredible... to think that I can- wait, how CAN I see you?"
The Denpa-kun allowed its smile to mellow into something more knowing. "Perhaps Amachi-sama should get some sleep. Amaken has a very powerful Radio Zone, perhaps a tad too powerful for exhausted eyes and ears."
Mamoru paused, and then grinned. "Well, I can't say you're wrong, there. Well, I'm almost done anyway, just a few more adjustments to this system, and we should be finished. Anyway, what are _you_ doing here?"
"I have a wavecast to deliver to Amachi-sama."
Amachi blinked. "Well, why haven't you done it yet?"
Now the Denpa-kun was indulging in a slight smugness. "We Denpa-kun travel as fast as the information network can stand to have us - that's near instantaneous travel to humans. The only order for this particular wavecast was that it must be delivered before Amachi-sama fell asleep - I was merely waiting to observe Amachi-sama at work."
"Uh huh? So where exactly-" Ping! "Ah. Funny, you."
"I told Amachi-sama, but did he listen?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... hey, it's from Shin!"
Mamoru immediately summoned an Air Display and opened the file.
"Wavecast from the Legendary Master Shin to AMAKEN Head Amachi Mamoru successfully delivered," intoned the Denpa-kun.
"Legendary Master?" repeated Mamoru with a grin. "And Akane thinks /I'm/ the one who has a swollen head. Now, lessee..."
'Amachi Mamoru.'
'Subject: Prepare.'
Mamoru paused. Prepare? Prepare for what? Leave it to Shin to leave out the important things.
'Mamoru, I haven't got much time to write this. I'll have to go back into hiding if I want this to work, so I'll have to be brief - there's a small attachment that I figured you might find interesting. I found this last night in a little... scuffle I was caught up in. Do you think you can use it for that defense system we were discussing? Here's hoping you get it up and running soon.
Stay Legendary,
Shin.'
Mamoru leaned back in his chair as he read the note, musing to himself. Moving past all the meaning of the note itself, what stood out to him was how incredibly succinct and businesslike this was. The Shin he remembered - the Shin he'd seen not a few days ago, for a matter of fact - was fond of striking poses and making ostentatious proclamations at the drop of a hat, often about such things as manliness and legendary awesomeness. The word "brief" appearing in a wavecast from him was almost unnerving. The fact that it delivered as promised crossed the line. Twice.
In the corner of the screen was a small blue image, a box waiting to be opened - the attachment. Mamoru tapped the little picture, and watched the animation of the lid flipping open. And then the contents exploded out of the box: streams of data flew across the screen, which promptly began to buzz and glitch, pixelating and fragmenting in places - Mamoru tried to reinforce it with a command from his Transer only to discover that the Air Display had frozen and refused to respond to him. "Small attachment, my foot," muttered Mamoru.
The strange data had finally stopped erupting from the box, though it was still certainly up to something - strange shapes and images were floating around the expanse of the screen - but as Mamoru watched, he began to pick up little hints of a pattern emerging from the random data sorting. Smaller windows of data onscreen would shift between several corners, sometimes even back and forth, and then they would dissolve into pixels and retreat behind other screens, which would follow similar routines.
Eventually, the fragmenting data revealed a large enough hole to show Mamoru what was emerging - a small, fragmented, ring-like device (the pixellated data were slowly filling in the gaps of the ring). Curious, Mamoru summoned a keyset Air Display from his Transer and typed in a few lines of text.
Nothing happened at first, but Mamoru hadn't been expecting it to. He waited for several moments, ten seconds, a minute, and then he smiled: the primary Air Display was finally reacting: it wobbled back and forth in midair for a moment, and then it twisted in on itself, forming a three-dimensional model of the so-called "small attachment". Mamoru curiously examined the ring of data (which was now revolving slowly before him); frankly, now that he saw it, it seemed more along the lines of some strange bracelet - he could easily fit his hand through it.
The last bits of data fell into place, and then Mamoru's Transer beeped cheerfully at him. Download Complete - and what a download: now competed, the bracelet had taken on a series of strange designs running along it like some archaic language. And then, with a start, he realized that the computer systems around him had all gone haywire - the screens that weren't flashing wildly were cascading ludicrous amounts of text, and the speakers were all emiting random noises and a staticky sound that reminded him so incredibly of those old sound files of white noise (which hadn't been heard live in one hundred years), except that, instead of the random noise of the sound, this sounded almost... intentional, like some sort of music.
"Have you got any clue as to what this thing is?" Mamoru asked the small creature, and then realized that the Denpa-kun was staring at the bracelet, transfixed.
"Such power," muttered the Denpa-kun dreamily, in strange tune with the bracelet's static-song. "Such incredible power..."
Now, Mamoru was perfectly willing to admit he hadn't known the Denpa-kun for long and was clearly out of his depth, but he was pretty dang sure that this behavior was classified as out of the ordinary. He watched the little program float closer towards the ring, and his natural instinct was to move the hologram away from it. He brushed his hand against the hologram of the bracelet to direct it away, only to discover that it was not as much of a hologram as he'd originally thought - while it still reacted to his hand like a holographic Air Display would, Mamoru found that it exhibited a touch - an actual physical presence in three-dimensional space. He could hold it in his hand - he could twirl it about his fingers (okay, maybe not - his fingers were a tad to plump for such things - and this ring was thick).
"What the hell...?" This was a holographic function - a three-dimensional model, and yet, he apparently had managed to somehow materialize it when he activated the hologram program - and suddenly he found himself intrigued, far more than he'd just been.
What on earth had Shin sent him? Some kind of Matter Wave power source?
With a start, Mamoru noticed that the Denpa-kun had floated very, very close indeed. "Hey, hey, wake up, little buddy," he said, snapping his fingers.
The Denpa-kun blinked once or twice and shook its head. "Woo... What happened?"
Mamoru indicated the object now fastened around his wrist, but held it away from the Denpa-kun. "This thing started messing with your head. Any idea what it is?"
The Denpa-kun shook its head, still somewhat woozy. "Denpa-kun is just the messenger."
Mamoru nodded. "I see. You know, maybe you oughta head on back before anything else weird happens."
The Denpa-kun nodded. "Very well. Make sure Amachi-sama gets some sleep. It would not do to sleep through his project tomorrow."
Mamoru smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Go on, get lost."
"Goodbye, Amachi-sama."
"Later, little buddy."
The little Denpa flashed and was suddenly no longer there. Mamoru waited for a few seconds, and then he walked over to a corner of the lab, where there was a large cabinet. He opened the doors and pulled out a little metal cube - a lead-steel box into which he inserted the weird bracelet, gently sliding it off of his hand. With that done, he sealed the box and locked the cabinet.
Quietly, he wandered back over to his chair and sat down, musing to himself - it had been an eventful ten minutes. His intrigue had been piqued - quickly, he pushed his chair over to the counter and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, etching out an image of the strange little creature he had met, then stood up and adhered it to the wall. That done, he slumped back in his chair again.
Mamoru was suddenly appreciative that his eventful night had also been a tiring one - he was beginning to feel the exhaustion settle back in on him as he slumped back in his chair. Well, maybe he could close his eyes for a few minutes, that wouldn't hurt, would it? Just a few...
Mamoru was immediately asnooze - and would remain so until Utagai dashed into the office practically sobbing apologies between stuttered explanations of meeting this waitress and missing the bus. Happily, that would not be until eleven, which left Mamoru several hours of rest.
Subaru's waking thought was that he was in sharp, biting pain - his body was simply in agony, and his head in particular. Luckily, he was slightly cushioned by the comfort of his bed and pillow.
Wait. Bed and pillow?
Subaru bolted up into a sitting position, only to immediately regret it - while his body had been aching before, it was on fire now. Slowly, very, very slowly, he lowered himself back onto his mattress with a groan. His head throbbed for several moments, and then it faded away, allowing Subaru a sufficient portion of his brain to wonder exactly why he was in such pain.
His memory of last night was shoddy at best - he remembered a man's visit, and then his travelling up to the Observator- the shooting star. He remembered it now, that impact at the crest of the hill. He must have been laid flat by it, knocked out probably. It would certainly explain the pain... though not how he wound up back here. He probably would have been knocked out cold by the collision, so did somebody bring him back? He assumed it must have been so, though now that he thought about it, something was very strange about that meteor, though he couldn't figure out what. He remembered it distinctly smashing into him, though, if he figured correctly, it should have smashed in his ribs - which, if they were indeed smashed in, did not feel nearly so bad as he figured they ought to, and the pain seemed to be very, very decentralized for what it should have been; he had been walloped in the chest, not in the toes and fingers, after all.
Try as he might, Subaru couldn't remember what had happened. All he could recall was the image of that oddly placed locomotive - and now that he thought about it, he felt a strange, sudden distaste for it. Now, if only he could remember why...
"Aha. You have awakened, son of Daigo."
Subaru yelped and bolted a second time, again wincing as the pain coursed through his body, though he forced himself to bear it so he could look around. "Who's there?"
"I am."
Subaru paused - he couldn't pinpoint the voice, but something about it was annoyingly familiar - and not in the tip-of-the-tongue way. "Where are you?"
"Before you. You have been immobile for a very long time - a substantial amount more than what I have understood to be the standard human time of rest. Fifteen of your hours."
Subaru's mind was still somewhat bleary with sleep, but the voice certainly seemed to be speaking to him from in front. He craned his neck around, trying to look for a speaker or some such device, when he found a strange looking pair of what appeared to be sunglasses on top of his bedside dresser... the Visualizer! Suddenly, the memories of last night flooded into Subaru's brain, and he whipped on the glasses, returning to look before him.
Now, while he now remembered War Rock, the fierce, blazing alien was in no way less startling - Subaru yelped in shock when he discovered the beast floating before him.
"Fear not, Son of Daigo," said War Rock, whose fanged mouth had curled into something of a smirk. "I understand you may be frightened - it is after all the reaction I expected; I have been known to surpass the expectations of humans."
Subaru blinked, annoyance spurring him into default sarcasm. "Well, actually, you haven't really surpassed my expectations so much as you've shoved them aside." Subaru found himself satisfied by what was undoubtedly an irked glance from the alien - he was finding himself able to pick up on slight changes in the beast's mood, not only in his - Subaru assumed it was a he, as there was really no way for him to check - expression, but in its gestures and the changes in that strange green flame.
"So," Subaru continued after a moment. "Do you have any idea as to how we got here? I don't remember walking home."
"You were carried," answered War Rock. "A man in silver clothes brought you back home, and left you on this... what do you call it, 'bed'."
"Wait - a man? Who?"
"I have no idea who he was - he did not name himself. He also wore a strange yellow accessory upon his head, not unlike your Visualizer. He left the house without being noticed by the woman below, who was exhibiting the human behavior known as 'crying', I believe," said War Rock in a very matter-of-fact way (he was suddenly finding application for a language he'd not used in a very long time and delighting in it).
Subaru regarded War Rock for a moment. "Okay, first, enough with the 'human behavior known as' business; it's just weird. Just call it crying."
"Or vomiting?"
Subaru gave War Rock a look (the alien was clearly enjoying himself). "Yes, just 'vomiting' works, too."
"Very well, Son of Daigo."
"And enough with the 'Son of Daigo' thing, too. My name is Subaru."
"Subaru... Hoshikawa Subaru."
"Yes, but just 'Subaru' will work."
"Very well, Son of Daigo."
Subaru opened his mouth, and then thought better of it. He leaned forward (now that he was up and moving around again, the weird pain was slowly ebbing away) and assumed a somewhat pensive expression. "You said he was wearing silver?"
"I believe that is the name of the color. The metallic and reflective rendition of grey, correct?"
"Yeah, that's it, alright..." said Subaru, before pausing again. "Wait a second. Have you been to Earth before?" he asked, turning to War Rock.
"No, I have never been to the planet called Earth. Indeed, I had no idea it existed until several of your years ago."
"Not 'our' years, just - nevermind," muttered Subaru. "So how did you learn English? Or is what you're saying being automatically translated into my brain?" he asked, considering possibilities.
"I downloaded the knowledge of the language from the minds of the crew of the vessel you referred to as the Peace."
"Download? Nevermind," said Subaru, more to himself than to War Rock. And the crew of Peace consisted entirely of dedicated scientists, which would probably explain why War Rock was assuming a very technical dialect. And then he realized something. "Wait a second! The crew? They survived?"
"Survived?"
"The Peace was destroyed," said Subaru. "But you learned our language from the crew. They had to survive for that, right?"
"Oh," said War Rock. "Yes, they survived."
"Well?" said Subaru impatiently. "What happened to them?"
"They are alive, Son of Daigo," said War Rock. "Or, rather, they were alive last I was aware of them."
"What do you mean, last you were aware of them?" demanded Subaru.
"I did not spend my time fleeing through Deep Heaven with the other humans in tow," said War Rock, becoming somewhat impatient. "Now, then, you have awakened, and so now we may leave."
Subaru ground to a halt. "Leave? Leave where?"
"To go out and experience your world," said War Rock simply. "I am in need of your services for this activity."
"Yeah?" said Subaru, restraining himself from adding a very tempting layer of venom to his voice. "Why's that? And why should I help you, anyway?"
"Because, Son of Daigo, I wish to see your world, and to understand it - which I cannot do on my own, and thus, I am in need of a human guide. You alone can see me, and so you are the solution to my problem."
"Again, why should I help you?"
"Because, Subaru, Son of Daigo, I am the only being on this planet who knows the fate of Hoshikawa Daigo and his crew - the only way you will learn is to keep me in what you call 'high spirits'."
Subaru seethed internally - just who the Hell did this thing think he was? "And what makes you think that I give enough of a damn in the first place?"
"I am not what you would call stupid, Son of Daigo, and you are not nearly so heartless as you would have yourself believe. Did you think I wouldn't notice how you reacted to the mention of Daigo? How your eyes lit up at the mention of you father?"
Subaru glared furiously at the creature. "Now, how, exactly do you think you'll make me, again?"
War Rock was silent, for a moment, and then the tail-end of his blazing body wrapped around Subaru's Transer, and Subaru was yanked immediately out of his covers and through the air only to crash down the steps and land gracelessly in a heap at the bottom. "That is how, Son of Daigo," said War Rock to the heap. "And do not complain - if I touched your body directly, your nervous system might overload and your body would be unable to perform even the most basic functions." Beat. "Like breathing."
Subaru hissed in pain as he struggled to his feet, and he glared at the alien, or, rather the empty space above his bed (the Visualizer had fallen off and Subaru felt this would be more effective if he didn't pause to retrieve him). "And what exactly did you want to have me do?"
"I am over here," said War Rock, from the direction of the door, causing Subaru to whip his head around, though he fought a wave of embarassment to maintain his glare. "And my request for you is to show me your world."
Subaru couldn't help himself - he blinked. Twice. "You want me to what?"
"To show me the world you live in," repeated War Rock. "I am curious about it, and especially humans - I was told there are billions of you, and all are different."
Subaru kneeled down to retrieve the Visualizer and again donned it. It was slightly more comforting to know he could at least see War Rock, even if he was powerless to stop it. "Yeah? And what do you need me for? You're not stuck here, are you? Go out and look for yourself."
"You are the one human on this planet who knows of my existence and is able to adequately interact with me. You are the most apt candidate for such a job."
"Well, you don't need the Visualizer to be heard, now do you?" said Subaru bitterly. "Why don't you go and make a new friend or something and leave me out of this?"
"A friend? That would serve neither of us."
Subaru barked out a cold laugh. "What, are you stuck or something? It shouldn't exactly be hard for you to go and find somebody else to annoy, would it?"
War Rock was silent for a moment or two, and suddenly Subaru realized he was hesitating.
"Are you stuck?" he asked, curious despite himself.
At length, War Rock responded, and Subaru heard a definite hint of sheepishness in his speech. "I believe I invested too much of my power into the Card Force unit when we first met. So long as that Card holds my power and remains in your position, I cannot leave."
Card? What Ca- oh, wait a second. "What, that Blank Card from last night?"
"Exactly how many other Cards would be significant at the moment?"
Subaru felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "Point taken."
Subaru looked down at himself and discovered that he was still in the clothes he'd been wearing last night, but the belt-pack he kept his cards in was nowhere to be- aha!
Subaru walked over to his desk, just beside the stairs, and picked up the pack and flipped it open, pulling out a Card Force deck (an OLD-SCHOOL Card Force deck; he hadn't updated this thing in years - good Lord, this was a first generation starter deck) before shutting the lid and reattaching it to the back of his belt. He sat down and began to thumb through the cards until he found what he was looking for. "This one, right?"
"Unless you have any other cards with my image on them, then yes, yes it is."
Subaru restrained himself from rolling his eyes - so dearly did he wish to. "Very funny. Ha. Ha. And again, Ha. Tell me, are ALL you aliens this funny?"
"...That was... 'sarcasm', correct?"
Subaru looked at War Rock for a moment. "Wow. You really DO need a guide around here, huh?"
War Rock gave Subaru a very nasty look. Subaru shrugged and offered him the card. "Well, here, take it."
War Rock looked at the card in Subaru's hand. "I cannot. I am a Denpa: I have no ability to touch physical objects like you, much less carry them."
"Uh huh. Tell that to my Transer."
"That is only because your Transer exists as an anchor point both on your plane and my plane at the same time. And I invested too much power in it likewise."
Subaru paused. "Well, can you take your power back?"
"No, I cannot," said War Rock. "I believe my attempt to create a working interface between us was more than the actual system could bear."
Subaru raised an eyebrow, "And what does that mean? That you broke the card?"
There was that awkward pause again. "I do believe so."
"Not possible. These cards have been rated to store up to 100 gigajoules; there's no way you could have broken it."
War Rock glared at him. "And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"Simple. All I have to do is tell it to release the rewrite, and it should be fine."
"I am refering to your statement about the impossibility of my breaking it."
"What did you think I meant by it?" said Subaru as he held out the card and summoned a blank Air Display above it.
"I believe you were making a disparaging comment about my power."
"Okay, first off, there's something we humans have called a 'rhetorical question' - its the kind of question we ask to prove a point, not to receive an answer." Subaru sat back in the chair and thought for a moment, and then tapped a few random spaces on the Air Display with his finger. There was a slight buzzing noise, but nothing happened. "The heck?" Subaru punched in a different pattern, and then another. The only thing that he earned was another few buzzes. "Well, crap. You did break it. Magnificent." Subaru fell back against the chair with a groan. "Blank Cards are expensive, you know that? Rare, too."
"Do not complain to me," War Rock outright grumped. "I was doing you a service, remember? Now I believe you owe me a service in kind. I helped you save your home, now you must show it to me."
Subaru grimaced. "So, what, now I'm stuck with you?"
"You might always get rid of the Card. You do not seem like you would miss the company."
"You know, I would, except these things cost an arm and a leg for someone like me. No way am I just chucking it."
"Ah. It is good to know that this... act of 'sacrifice' on your part is dedicated to the value of the object rather than the fact that it would be an act of cruelty to leave me bound to the card and the card lost somewhere. Are all humans as generous as you?"
Subaru couldn't help but grin at the creature. "Well, that's one way to start understanding humans. You've already mastered sarcasm."
"I do not understand."
"I figured," said Subaru, getting to his feet. "Come on, let's go."
"Where are you going?"
"The faster I get out there and show you the town, the less time I have to spend listening to you. Now, do you want to see the town or not?"
"Finally," muttered War Rock, floating out after Subaru.
When Subaru had come down the stairs, he had not seen his mother. To be quite honest, her absence was no more surprising to him than her presence - she was probably off pretending to be a waitress again; woman couldn't hold down a job for more than a month. She'd been bouncing around (thankfully, it hadn't come to that kind of bouncing) for, what, five years now? At least WAXA had offered them compensation for the Peace - goodness knows they wouldn't have been able to survive that long otherwise.
"Alright, so what do you wanna do first?" said Subaru in between bites of toast (his mom being out, Subaru ended up running a kitchen protocol for a very simple breakfast). As he spoke, a pair of young (and rather attractive, therefore viciously uninterested in him) women who were walking by at the sidewalk some fifteen feet away looked over at him and then back at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles. As Subaru knew that it wasn't because he had been apparently talking to himself (a hard to see earpiece could easily explain that away), he figured it was the Visualizer he currently wore, which looked to the world like a pair of oddly colored shades. Of course.
"I want you to look over around the corner of your building of residence."
"House," said Subaru automatically.
"What did you call me?" demanded War Rock suddenly, suddenly bearing both fangs and claws (both being made of the same... material, for lack of a better term, as War Rock, Subaru doubted he would be caused physical pain. That said, a heart attack or a short-circuiting of his brain would prove most unfortunate, so Subaru figured he might tread wisely in the future).
"What are you-?" Subaru paused before laughing outright. "Oh, no. No, this building's called a house. There's lots of them all over the place."
"Ah," said War Rock, who clearly didn't care as he reverted to his neutrality. "Well, you must look anyway."
"Just what is so important over he- Whoa." Subaru rounded the corner and came to a full stop. "Uh, what the heck is that thing? You didn't bring something nasty with you, did you?"
Now, Subaru was perfectly willing to admit that he was almost completely unfamiliar with the world he could see through his Visualizer, but, for all the scholastic lectures and discussions about the Supra-Global Extranet, Project: W.A.V.E.R.O.A.D. (somebody a century ago had most definitely been having fun when they came up with the name Wavelength Advanced Virtual Electromagnetic Remote Online Access Directory), Subaru could honestly say that this swirling vortex of light floating before him was the strangest thing he had ever seen. Excusing, of course, the self-important alien and the unholy creature that called itself Jamming. In plural. (What, was that supposed to mean Legion or something)?
"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me," said War Rock. "I am unfamiliar with such things."
Now, Subaru, had few things that piqued his interest - while his life was hardly as lively as certain others figured it oughta be, Subaru was not wholly listless in his day to day routine - like his father before him, he nursed an interest in science and engineering (not to mention astronomy), and this strange, swirling disc of light was fascinating.
Subaru got down on one knee to better examine it (floating though it was, it was doing so roughly at the height of his stomach), adjusting his Visualizer. He was soon validated in his wonder, for with a small Ping!, the left lens of the Visualizer was soon obscured by a cascading wall of code and text. "Well, whatever it is, the Visualizer sure likes it."
"There are several such phenomena located in this area," said War Rock, "such as the area where you and I met, and I sense several in the distant structure in that direction."
Subaru peeked his head out from behind his house to see where War Rock indicated. "Hmm. School. That's nice."
Subaru returned to the strange vortex before him and took off his glasses. As he expected, the vortex of light was beyond his sight - as he had most definitely not expected, War Rock was hardly as invisible.
Subaru yelped and fell back against the wall, causing War Rock to tilt his head curiously. "What is the matter?"
"I can see you!" hissed Subaru, his face pale. War Rock likewise hissed in response, dodging backwards... and again into invisibility.
Subaru blinked, and looked around. Seeing no one was present, Subaru spoke softly. "Try going near the light again," he urged. "I want to see something."
War Rock did so and swam into view, confirming Subaru's theory. "So, this thing can make you visible."
"Interesting," said War Rock. "Does that help either of us?"
"Well, it lets me know where not to take you," said Subaru with a small grin. "People would panic if they saw something as ugly as you floating around."
War Rock harrumphed at Subaru but didn't pursue the comment. "It makes a small amount of sense. The area around this object is much more potent than the rest of your world."
Subaru donned his Visualizer again, finding that the Visualizer was still displaying the column of data along the left lens. As interesting as the ability was, Subaru was finding it less than convenient. He pulled it up and rested it on the crown of his forehead before summoning another wavescreen.
"What are you doing?" said War Rock.
"I'm having my Transer talk to the Visualizer," said Subaru, as some text scrolled upwards across the screen. "I'm trying to see if there's an instructions file embedded in this thing."
War Rock flew over behind Subaru, looking over his shoulder and trying to make out the indecipherable, reverse-cascading characters (in retrospect, he figured it might have been a better idea to take the extra time to pick the humans brains for how to read their language more than simply speak it). Subaru stared at the flow of text, still as a stone, except for maybe a rare twitch of his eyes.
Quickly growing bored, War Rock floated over towards the strange, colorful objects that were located in small fields around them. "Subaru, what are these?"
"Hmm? Oh, those are flowers."
"Flowers?" repeated War Rock, clearly curious. "What do they do?"
"Do?" said Subaru, pausing - he guess he'd never really thought about flowers as doers. "Well, they convert air so we can breathe it, though there aren't enough of them here to do that, so really, I guess those ones are there to look pretty. Mom keeps a whole garden of these things - she says she likes to cook with home-grown vegetables, 'cept she rarely cooks, and besides, the kitchen's entirely automatic... I think she keeps 'em really because they remind her of when Dad was around."
War Rock opened his mouth to ask more questions (he knew how to speak Human enough to communicate instant needs and perhaps a few other things, but words like 'pretty' were a whole new level of difficulty, perhaps he could someday pursue advanced schooling in Human) when he decided against it - if he were to keep Subaru in good spirits, it would perhaps be wise to refrain from bringing up memories that caused pain.
"Ah, here we go." Subaru made a motion with his middle finger, sliding it across the wavescreen in a straight line, which in turn seemed to highlight a row of text. "Visual-Sequence: Pause Function."
The Visualizer indeed reacted to the sequence, though not, perhaps, in the way Subaru was expecting. "Voice Command: Invalid." The text continued to cascade across the screen.
"Invalid?" demanded Subaru, making a series of gestures with his fingers and bringing the text to sudden life. "Bullsh-oh. Hmm. User Accounts. Naturally."
War Rock floated over. "Is progress being made?"
"Sure," said Subaru. "If by 'progress' you mean movement in the sideways direction." Muttering to himself, he sat down against the wall of the house, staring at the wavescreen floating in front of him.
War Rock looked at him for a moment, and then flinched violently without warning. Quickly, he jerked his head back over his shoulder, and then looked outwards. The surrounding area was the same as it had always been, silent and relatively peaceful. The relative peace of the surroundings, unfamiliar enough to War Rock, made that sudden sense of dread and foreboding that had hit him so unexpectedly all the more sinister.
Something, if only for a moment, had been there. Waiting, watching with an... unsettling interest.
War Rock turned around to look at Subaru, who was still staring at the screen, unperturbed. War Rock hesitated, well and truly hesitated, for the second time in his life - the first being seven human years prior.
"Subaru, has there been any development?" War Rock asked.
"Quite possibly," said Subaru, sounding a tad higher in spirit than he had a few minutes ago. He sat up, made an odd face for a few seconds, and then he spoke, though what followed startled War Rock: he was suddenly hearing a voice he hadn't in many human years - Kelvin Stelar was speaking. "Visual-Sequence: New User."
"Voice Recognition: Kelvin Stelar. Access Confirmed. New User: Enter Name."
"Hoshikawa Subaru," said Subaru, in his own voice, though he smiled noticeably.
"New User Confirmed. Priveleges?"
"Level 5," answered Subaru in his father's voice. "Chief Administration capacity. Transference of Owner Status."
There was a pause for a moment, and Subaru briefly noted that it was almost as though the Visualizer were appraising its new master of trustworthiness. After a moment, it gave off a small ping. "New Owner Acknowledged."
"Cool," said Subaru, visibly pleased with himself. "Now then, Visual-Sequence: Pause Function."
The cascading block of text in the Visualizer came to a stop and hung there, as did Subaru's very satisfied grin. "Now then, Visual-Sequence: Analyze Object." He really had to figure a way to shorten those commands, he didn't want to wear his cheeks out with a 'Visual-Sequence' every day, after a- no. No, no, no. This was NOT going to be an extended thing - this was only going to be small-time, temporary weirdness... that had no forseeable end in sight.
Crap. A boy and his alien and his really weird specs. Damnit, Dad, what did you get him into now?
And then, deciding it would be better for him to stop thinking such things, Subaru got to his feet as the Visualizer finished its analysis with another ping.
"Analysis complete: Object is a Grade-3 Wavehole. Data Transfer Rate: Steady."
"Wavehole?" said War Rock curiously. "This term is unfamiliar."
"Just what I was thinking," said Subaru. "The hell's a 'Wavehole'?"
"Wavehole, noun." Whoa. What kind of commands was this thing used to taking? "A point of distortion in the electromagnetic field within localized fields of Project: WAVEROAD, so named by late wave-engineer Hoshikawa Daigo for, in its simulated appearance, reportedly appearing as a hole in the very fabric of space. Waveholes exhibit capacities for intense, high-speed data and energy transfer, several orders of magnitude beyond current commercial technology. Following initial discovery, wavehole phenomena were discovered to be spread sporadically across the planet with no discernable pattern, though there have been noted tendencies for waveholes to collect in places with high concentrations of wave-technology. Waveholes are known to vary in size and data capacity. Five known grades of wave-holes are currently recognized by WAXA."
Subaru punctuated this with a small whistle (that certainly explained all that data the Visualizer had been going through). "Waveholes, huh?"
"Do we know what this is now?" asked War Rock, floating over to beside Subaru.
"Well, sort of," answered Subaru. "Whatever these waveholes are, they're certainly a big secret."
"A secret?"
"Did I not just say that, you parrot?" sighed Subaru, though his voice was less annoyed with him than War Rock expected it to be, and surprisingly, almost conspiritorial. "I think this Visualizer has access to some very high-up computers; it's certainly picking some very top-flight brains." He paused and looked at War Rock, who looked almost completely out of his depth. "I've never heard of these waveholes until you showed this one to me. These things aren't common knowledge, but the Visualizer certainly knew about it, even if it didn't know everything."
"And what are your conclusions?" asked War Rock.
"I'm not sure," said Subaru. "Do you mind if we postpone the whole meet and greet with Planet Earth for a while?"
"Intrigued, are we?" asked War Rock.
Subaru grinned at him. "Well, think of it this way. You want to find Shin, right? Well, all I know about this Shin guy is that he was involved with Dad at some point in the past, which means he's a secret of Dad's, and the more I sit here the more I'm starting to think that Dad had a whole bunch of these secrets, all in a big ol' black box (that's a figure of speech, big guy, don't make your head explode), which means that the only way we're going to get inside is if there's a secret loose and floating around outside the box; a key to a lock."
"And these... 'waveholes' are our keys?" said War Rock.
"Bingo," said Subaru. "If Shin's in the box, then we need to get in there, too."
"Magnificent," said War Rock. "...So how do we do that?"
"Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up so soon," sighed Subaru. "I'm not entirely sure on that one."
"Hmm, I have an idea that may work," said War Rock. "Or at least give us an idea as to what can be done."
"I see. Tell me, why do I have the feeling that I'm not going to like this?"
"I have no particular idea," answered War Rock, leering at him with another one of his not-quite-successful charming smiles.
Subaru groaned, knowing full well that much of his unease was stemming from War Rock's idea of an enthusiastic smile. "Alright, so what's this plan?"
War Rock looked Subaru in the eye, and suddenly he didn't need to hear the following question. "You still bear that piece of the Card Force, correct?"
"Yeah, but why-? Oh. Oh, no." Subaru shook his head warily. "Oh, no, no, no. We are not doing that again - I like having two hands, thank you very much."
"Why do you hesitate so?" laughed War Rock. "You certainly seemed to enjoy the 'rush', as you earthlings call it."
"Okay, first off, I thought we agreed enough with the 'earthling' talk. Secondly, I have really very little desire to give up my left arm to you, or any other part of my body, for that matter. We can probably figure out something to do with it another way, right? C'mon, stop looking at me like that."
"How many other ideas do you have?" asked War Rock.
Subaru grimaced. "Why should I?" he demanded suddenly. "Why the hell should I be doing any of this, anyway?"
"Quite simply," said War Rock, unperturbed (he'd been waiting for the child to revert to petulance), "because you have need of me to achieve certain results - you have a deep desire to learn of what happened to your father and the band who followed him, for which you will need to use me and my knowledge. But if I am going to be used, I insist on being able to use you in turn. It would be most expedient for you to comply."
Subaru glared at him for a long moment, and then gave in. "This is the last time we do this. Ever, you hear me?"
"Very well," said War Rock, not a little smug. "This is the last time we combine solely on my terms."
Subaru hissed an angry breath through his teeth. "Fine, you bastard. Let's get this over with."
Subaru jerked his head around towards the street, ensuring that the beaulevard was clear before proceeding. Satisfied, he reached for the deck box he kept hooked to the back of his belt, unlatched it, and drew out the small deck of Cards. He shuffled through them, Cannon, Vulcan 1, Attack +10... ah.
Subaru drew from the outmoded deck a Card with War Rock's fearsome image and looked at it for a moment. The monster on the card stared fiercely up at him, fangs of blue steel and claws of green flame thrown open in menace, the War Rock on the card was a creature of rampage and combat.
With a sigh, Subaru lifted up his left arm, cancelling all Air Displays and unneccesary Transer functions with a couple motions of his fingers. And then he bit the bullet, swiping the card through the Transer's Card Force slot - there was a small crackle of electricity, and again Subaru found his mouth moving on its own.
"Denpa-Henkan: Hoshikawa Subaru, On Air!"
Again, there was that flood of energy and emotion, overwhelming him totally as War Rock wrapped himself around the human boy. Again, Subaru found himself clad in streamlined pieces of armor and the connective blue matrix-jumpsuit between them. Again, he found himself dealing with the (ugly) upstart head he had traded his left arm for.
"Ah," sighed War Rock's head. "Magnificent! Now, forward, Subaru!"
"Hey, wait, what are you- WAAAHH!"
Subaru's last coherent thought before War Rock dragged him into the wavehole was that he was really going to have to discuss the value of baby steps with this creature.
The sensation of the wavehole was one of a great velocity - Subaru was being pulled forward at an incredible speed, his body and mind spinning wildly as he lost track of space and time around him, and every thing that had been on his mind was stripped away to leave a feeling of sheer exhiliration. Unfortunately, the incredible feeling of the wavehole was quickly replaced with one of sincere discomfort as it spat Subaru and War Rock out, letting them crumple onto Subaru's one remaining arm.
Subaru groaned in pain, struggling to right himself. After a few seconds, he noticed something being placed almost directly in front of his face - a hand.
"Need a hand, big guy?"
Subaru looked up and discovered a tall figure before him, human in shape except for his head, which was almost egg-like. "The wavehole gave you a bit of a turn there, huh?"
A bit and then some.
Subaru blinked and accepted the hand, getting to his feet. After a moment of righting himself, he found himself able to speak words: "You're a NetNavi!"
The being before him blinked a pair of glowing lights that were his eyes, and then threw back his head, his electronic laughter most definitely not impeded by the lack of a mouth. "Of course, I'm a Net Navi! What'd you think, that you were the only one of your kind?"
Subaru blinked, horribly confused. "The only-?" It came to him in a flash - his head tore left and right, taking in his surroundings as fast as he could.
He was in the air, maybe a mile or two above where he had just been - a quick check beneath his feet revealed them to be firmly grounded (if, indeed, that could be the word) on a pixellating ribbon that arced through the air with no definite end in sight in either direction, flying high above the world with dozens, if not hundreds of others like it, each sporadically branching to the next and back again. About him, Subaru could see little ripples of light dancing about through the air, and suddenly he came to the realization: "I'm on the Wave Road?"
The NetNavi besides him unleashed another peal of laughter. "My goodness, aren't you off-the-shelf? Yes, sir, this is the Wave World - where the World Wide Web has physical form (well, sort of). You are indeed standing on the Wave Road."
Subaru chuckled sheepishly - if this meant what he thought it did, goodness knows he might be in for a fair bit more teasing.
"Well," said the orange NetNavi, gaining some control over himself. "I guess that's enough of that. So, tell me, big guy, what are you doing around here? ...Did your factory give you a faulty drive?"
"Faulty?" echoed Subaru, not liking the tone of that word one bit.
"Yeah, faulty. A NetNavi that doesn't know when he's standing on the Wave Road must have a little something wrong with him." Subaru eyed the NetNavi's left arm as the latter spoke - the fingers of its left hand had curled slightly and had begun to crackle with power.
"Who says we have anything wrong with us?" demanded War Rock suddenly, startling Subaru violently as he suddenly spoke up.
"Whoa," said the NetNavi, visibly surprised. "So you have two heads? Impressive." And then, "Oh, I get it! Your Beast-Head must have all the information in it - that's a pretty cool design. My mistake." Again, he began to laugh, and Subaru relaxed when the NetNavi's hand stopped crackling.
"So, tell me, big guy," said the NetNavi. "What are you doing way up here? You have a job to do? Oh, and while were at it, I don't think I got a name."
Subaru looked at War Rock on his left arm for a moment. "Uh... I, er... Well, I guess you could call me RockMan," he said sheepishly, hoping and praying that the NetNavi didn't pry any farther - he wasn't entirely sure Rogue-NetNavi status would get him very far up here.
"RockMan, huh?" said the NetNavi, pausing for a second. "How strange, that sounds vaguely familiar... Ah, nevermind. Okay, RockMan, so what brings you to this neck of the woods?"
"I'm, uh..." Damnit, why'd his brain have to go blank at a time like this! This wasn't going to-
"Suba- RockMan, dodge!" cried War Rock suddenly.
Subaru blinked and looked at War Rock. "What?"
Too late. Something surged into Subaru's gut, knocking him over. In addition to being very fast, the newcomer also proved to be rather loud.
"Run! Run, it's coming!"
"What?" asked Subaru.
With a sudden shock, Subaru felt the NetNavi they had met seize him by the arm. "On your feet, RockMan! We must fly! It's coming!"
"What- where are we going? What's coming?" demanded Subaru as he jumped to his feet.
"He's here," growled War Rock, a deep, rumbling breath that promised danger and that Subaru was sure would have made him ruin his pants if he was still human (whatever he was now certainly wasn't).
"RockMan!" insisted the NetNavi, tugging on his arm. "Come on! We need to get out of here!"
Subaru turned to the NetNavi and found himself sliding effortlessly along the Wave Road, past the small vortex that dipped down from the ribbon of light - the wavehole! - and further away from whatever was coming. He looked back and suddenly wished he hadn't - he could see what was coming.
Something massive was surging toward them, wreathed in what looked to be a massive ball of flames and trailing them along the Wave Road behind it (Subaru couldn't help himself but pause to wonder how on earth the Wave Road was burning - and then he realized that whatever was making it burn was probably not something to be reckoned with).
"What IS that thing?" cried Subaru, freeing himself from the NetNavi and moving to run along behind it - to his surprise discovering he didn't need to run so much as just will motion in the same direction to glide quickly and effortlessly along the ribbon of light.
"Taurus," answered War Rock darkly. "The general of King Cepheus' chief invasion force."
"General?" echoed Subaru in horror. "What's he doing here?"
"Well," said War Rock in self-indulgent sarcasm. "As the general of the chief invasion force, my guess is that he would be invading." WHAM. "OUCH! What was that for?"
"For being such a smartass," answered Subaru, knowing full-well the hypocrisy (this was not the time for it) shaking his hand to relieve it from the pain of smacking War Rock's head with his fist. "So why's he invading here?"
"He followed me," answered War Rock simply. "The hunting beasts that were hounding me were from his detachment."
"Yeah, but if he was following you, then why is he only attacking now? Wouldn't it have been wiser to do it earlier... oh, shit, was he waiting for us?"
War Rock was suddenly silent, but his eyes widened considerably. "That may be a possibility. I do not think he could see us exactly as much as he sensed my presence in the local area."
"I sense a dangling 'but'," said Subaru, trying to keep the panic out of his voice when he noticed the mass of flame was getting closer - a mighty effort indeed when he heard a resonant war bellow issue forth.
"Something has changed about him," said War Rock. "This is not the same Taurus I spent an age fleeing from."
"Does that make it better for him or for us?"
"Him. Definitely him."
"So, what do we do?" cried Subaru.
War Rock was silent for a moment. "We must engage him."
"Engage? Like, fight?"
"I mean exactly that," said War Rock, unabashed. "Taurus is chasing us, doing incredible damage to everything around him, and he will continue to do so tirelessly in pursuit of us until either satiated or thwarted."
"But he's supposed to be some kind of big shot, isn't he? Didn't you spend all those years running away from him? That sounds a lot like you were scared of him."
War Rock growled. "I was not scared of him!" he roared. "I was merely... out of my depth."
"Much better," groaned Subaru. "So what makes you so sure that we have such a great shot at winning against him now?"
War Rock grinned. "Taurus and I both hail from the Planet FM. As the King's general, Taurus boasted of the king's reinforcement to his own immediate power. However, we are no longer on Planet FM - we are on Earth, which means Taurus no longer has a - what do you call it - a 'home-field advantage'."
Subaru wasn't convinced. "But he became a general before he got that boost, though, right? That makes it sound like he didn't need it to start."
"Only for the value of his tenacity," scoffed War Rock. "The only quality he brings to a fight is simple brute force. He was not elected to the position for value of his tactics. If you can outthink him, you should be able to outfight him."
Subaru glared at him. "Yeah? And why couldn't you do this yourself?"
"I was a weak and injured fugitive seeking haven and survival, then. I am no longer such. We can fight him, Subaru. Indeed, we must!"
"'Must'? Why 'must'?"
"Because he will raze everything into nonexistence until he gets what he wants, and I highly doubt you would be able to live with yourself for being responsible. You are Daigo's child, unless I am mistaken."
Subaru spluttered for a moment, and then, slowly, fell silent. "Fine, you win. We fight."
War Rock chose to refrain from gloating, only smiling. "You are indeed Daigo's son," he said. "He would be proud of y-"
"Shut up about my dad, you self-righteous bastard," said Subaru. "I'm not doing this because you said so, I'm doing so because there's nothing else I can do." He slowed to a stop, causing the NetNavi who had found him to whip his head around.
"RockMan, what are you doing?" cried the Navi that they had met, likewise pausing. "You'll be destroyed!"
Subaru looked over and offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile and a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about me. You get out of here."
"But-!"
"Go, damnit!" shouted Subaru. "It's no good if you stick around when I'm trying to buy you time!"
He turned back to the approaching flame, feeling the surging flame approaching more than he saw it.
And then it began, with the flames erupting away in a huge explosion, unleashing a massive beast into the air, which landed only inches for Subaru's face (he was very glad for no longer needing to wet himself - this would not have ended well in normal circumstances).
The creature that emerged from the flames looked at Subaru for a long moment, and then reared back onto two, thick legs and let loose a great bellow of laughter.
"And who are you?" demanded the great creature as his laughter died. "You dare stand before the presence of the mighty Taurus Fire? You have quite the formidable intestinal fortitude... if not the stature to do it justice."
The mighty Taurus Fire was quite the presence to stand before, Subaru had to admit. From what he could see, Taurus Fire looked like some kind of... minotaur, now that he thought about it - some kind of massive humanized bull coated in plates of crimson armor, who stood over 10 feet tall, and was easily 5 times as wide as his opponent - hell, Subaru was roughly as big as his forearm, the elbow of which seemed to be some kind of chamber from which streams of flames spewed, much like Taurus Fire's back. Wicked, sharp horns curved outwards from the sides of his head, shining in the flames, and spikes burst from his knee ready to impale whatever Taurus so much as looked at. Subaru had to admit that War Rock was right - this Taurus Fire was terrifying.
That said, Subaru had already made his decision to stand here and see what could be done about him. And to that end, showing fear wasn't going to earn him much ground. And Subaru knew he had at least one talent, if nothing else - masking himself. "Yeah, okay. You're about as good at Earth dialogue as he is," said Subaru, pointing at War Rock's head with his free hand. "Which is crappy."
Taurus Fire snorted loudly and derisively, with flames sprouting from the nozzle of his muzzle. "I see that this is not fullhearted valor exhibited before me, but foolish vanity. Tell me, has War Rock convinced you that you stand a chance against me?"
Subaru cast a slight glance at War Rock. "Yeah, maybe he has."
Taurus Fire bellowed in laughter again, his whole body shaking with each sounding. "Then you are indeed both foolish and vain!
"Behold, Taurus Fire!" roared the minotaur. "Chief General of High King Cepheus' royal army! All who have stood before me have fallen amidst the flames! And my new power has made my might multiply even further - I am unmatcheable!"
Subaru let out a mocking breath of air, waving a hand in front of his nose as if to ward off some great stench. "I'll say. Are you sure that you won all those fights because of actual power or simply because all your opponents found you so unbearable they couldn't keep upright?"
War Rock burst out laughing from Subaru's left arm as Taurus Fire registered a double take. "He's got you down, Taurus!"
Taurus Fire seethed, flames sprouting suddenly from his elbows and nozzle. "How dare you mock me, child? Do you not know Death when it stares you in the face?"
"No," admitted Subaru, "but God knows I'm not looking at Death so much as I'm looking as a Fat Bag of Hot Air."
War Rock laughed again. "You haven't gotten any smarter in all this time, Taurus. Give it up."
Taurus whipped his head around to face War Rock (Subaru noted with a sinking feeling how easily his horns sliced through the air). "You dare mock me, War Rock? You are bold indeed, boasting so mere a host."
"Host?" repeated Subaru.
"Ah," said War Rock. "I thought so. Taurus Fire is your Denpan-Henkan, isn't it, Taurus?"
"Wait, this isn't Taurus?"
"No, it's Taurus, alright, but with backup. He couldn't count on his own power to do much, so he's leeching off of someone else. In his real form, he's not much different than I am; bit more pigheaded than I am, though."
"Is that even possible?" wondered Subaru aloud, perhaps a little grateful for the banter with War Rock.
"How dare you?" cried Taurus. "I am no pig!"
A quick assessment of the situation told Subaru that whatever restraints Taurus Who Was Not A Pig was employing were rapidly snapping.
No Return was a Point he'd crossed long ago.
"Wow," said Subaru, unimpressed and sounding much, much braver than he felt. "Big and stupid. You know, it doesn't help when they try to break down stereotypes and then people like you come along reinforcing them."
He felt War Rock move his head to get a better look at him. "Subaru, are you entirely sure you know what your doing?"
"Of course," Subaru said (his voice squeaking a little) as Taurus Fire bellowed in rage again. "I'm picking a fight with an intergalactic warlord."
"Just making sure," said War Rock. "Are you ready?"
Subaru looked down as six floating cards shimmered into view out of War Rock's flames. "Well, no, but I can't do much about it now, can I?"
Taurus Fire simmered down just enough to regain awareness of his surroundings. "I will give you one chance, impudent creature. Relinquish the Andromeda Key to me and I might let you die quietly. Withhold it, and you will die screaming. The Key can withstand my power. You cannot."
"Key?" echoed Subaru, turning to War Rock. "What Key?"
War Rock cackled again. "When I left Cepheus' employ I took a few liberties with the royal vault."
"Wait, you stole from them?"
"Yep," laughed War Rock, wholly unperturbed. "I only wish I could have seen their faces when they realized I had escaped not only with my life but with their treasure."
"And you didn't tell me about this, why?"
"You have your secrets, I have mine." Subar couldn't argue with that. It was a little late to whine about alien repo men, after all.
"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt," said Taurus Fire, clearly put out about again being relegated to the sidelines of the conversation. "But I can only assume that you have no intention of returning the Key to me."
"Caught up, have you?" said Subaru. "I think he's learning," he added as an aside to War Rock.
War Rock cackled. "He is indeed. We make good teachers."
"Fine," said Taurus Fire, dissonantly calm. "Die. Fire Breath!"
War Rock yelped and tore to the side, yanking painfully on Subaru's arm as he was dragged to the side. He suppressed his natural instinct to complain, as he was very much aware a pained arm was a small price to pay for the fact that his head was no longer where it was several seconds ago, and thus, not engulfed by the torrid stream of flame that had erupted from Taurus Fire's nozzle.
Subaru groaned and jumped to his feet as Taurus Fire rounded on him, swinging his fist wide. "Anger Punch!"
Leaping out of the way, Subaru laughed. "Anger Punch? Fire Breath? Who named your attacks, an infant? A stupid infant?" he asked, picking three cards (blasted Wave Battle rules - the cards would default into being non-selectable if he grabbed more than two of the same kind - he needed way more white cards). "Cannon!"
Taurus Fire bellowed in range as the blast hit him point blank. "Impudent creature! You will burn in flames!"
"Cannon!"
The second blast smashed into Taurus Fire's left horn, though, aside from a small burst of digital smoke that wreathed the length of steel ivory, the horn remained otherwise unharmed. "Did you honestly think that would work? The great Ox Horns are invincible to attack!"
"Wait, Ox Horns?" said Subaru. "But you're name is Taurus, right? Doesn't that make you a bull?"
Taurus leapt at Subaru, massive, human body-sized arms bearing down on him, except the arms never crashed down with the crushing finality they had intended, as Subaru had unloaded a Plasma Gun into Taurus Fire's chest, paralyzing him.
"Ox? Bull?" asked War Rock as Subaru dashed away to select more cards. "I do not understand."
"I'm pretty sure they do," said Subaru with a particularly vicious grin.
Indeed they did, for as Taurus Fire was released from the hold of the Plasma, he let loose a massive bellow and lowered his upper body almost parallel to the floor, and Subaru suddenly found himself not liking the angle of the Ox Horns. "Ox Tackle!"
Taurus Fire's didn't so much charge as rocket forward, Subaru's third Cannon blast not so much as catching the beast's attention as he slammed headfirst into Subaru's gut and continued forward, one of his horns goring Subaru's stomach.
Subaru was caught on Taurus Fire like a ragdoll, his head swimming in pain as War Rock yelled unintelligibly at him. After a moment, Taurus perhaps had noticed him, rearing back and flinging him away through the air to land in a heap.
"Subaru! Subaru!" shouted War Rock. "Can you hear me?"
Subaru winced - yes, yes he could. "New Draw," he groaned, the shimmering cards taking what seemed to be an exceedingly long time to appear. And then he screamed as Taurus Fire caught him in a spray of his Fire Breath.
"Subaru!" cried War Rock. "You must get up! You will die if you stay here!"
Subaru hissed at the voice in his ears, ringing in his brain.
"Your poor host perhaps regrets his course of action at this point," guffawed Taurus Fire. "Shame that he will die nonetheless, and his poor mother and father will never see him again."
Taurus Fire ceased bellowing in mirth to find Subaru had gotten to his knees and was leveling War Rock's head armament at him, a look of something darker in the human's eyes. "Rockbuster!"
Subaru hadn't been expecting the blast to do much more than the Cannons, and indeed, Taurus cast it aside with a flick of his hand. What Subaru had expected to do was to get Taurus to start talking again, and the minotaur obliged him beautifully.
"Give it up!" demanded Taurus, not quite noticing that Subaru was pulling a few more cards from where they floated in the air behind War Rock and running them through the flames. "You're efforts are futile; you will die and I will collect the Key. And then I will deliver it to my King when he arrives."
"When he arrives?" demanded Subaru, coughing and hacking (was that blood?) as he squeezed out the words. "What the hell does that mean?" As if he didn't know.
"His Majesty King Cepheus has launched a campaign against the planet Earth in retaliation for war crimes commited by its people against His person. Earth will become an outpost of FM, its people devoted to the service of His Majesty."
"So, you're invading?" asked Subaru. "Just you?"
Taurus grunted, perhaps a little displeased on the subject for a moment before defaulting to normalcy. "Others will come. I simply got here first... and I plan on enjoying it. And I will start by consuming you in flame!"
"Huh," grunted Subaru. "Shame, that. Plasma Gun!"
Taurus Fire moved to flick the blast aside again only to be stunned by the secondary effect of the plasma. Subaru took quick advantage of the situation: "Recovery 30!"
While the boost did not bring him back to full power, its relief was incredible, the pain immediately washing away to leave a feeling of mere exhaustion. Subaru was back on his feet.
"War Rock?" he said. "Change of plan - we aren't winning this fight."
"Duly noted."
"My vote is we get out of here."
War Rock was silent for a moment. "To what end?"
"Oh, partially to survive, but mainly so Taurus is denied his prize," Subaru said nonchalantly.
War Rock grinned. "It won't be easy."
"That's half of the fun," grunted Subaru. "If we can't win ourselves, we can deny him the pleasure. Plasma Gun!" Taurus shrieked in muffled rage as he again fell victim to the jolt.
"We'd need to get to the wavehole, though," noted War Rock. "That means going through Taurus Fire."
"Nope," said Subaru. "It means getting past him."
War Rock looked up at him. "You have a plan?"
"Maybe. Depends on the circumstances," Subaru said, drawing a few more cards. "For all I know, we could end up dead."
Taurus Fire bellowed, announcing his release from the Plasma Gun strike.
"And you are okay with that?"
"I haven't got much choice, now do I?" said Subaru. "Now, let's go. Sword!"
With a flick of his left hand, War Rock's head was wrapped in light which then fell away to reveal a blade as long as Subaru's full arm. "Now, let's see how the dice rolls."
Subaru got low into a crouch, focusing on the great bulk of Taurus Fire. Again, the little cross-hair appeared before him in the Visualize-Visor's lens.
Taurus Fire perhaps had decided to end the battle now himself, charging forward and pulling back one of his great arms. "Anger Punch!"
"Oh, shut up, you overacting HAM!" yelled Subaru in annoyance, sprinting forward underneath the stream, which flickered and died in the moments following his insult.
"I am no PIG-" Taurus found his voice die in his throat as he came to a stop, Subaru stepping easily across Taurus' outstretched arms and vaulting forward through the air.
Subaru had aimed perfectly, landing squarely in the vortex of light and disappearing in a flash, listening to the fading echo of Taurus Fire's bellow of hatred.
...Taurus had been denied his second victory at War Rock's hands, the Andromeda Key having slipped from his grasp. He could not pursue War Rock and his host down the far-too-small Wavehole after the fugitive and his host, which meant that the battle was lost.
"So be it, War Rock," Taurus Fire said slowly. "Hide all you want, but I will make this world burn. The people will scream, driven into the depths of their world, and I will ensure that you are forever haunted by the holocaust for which you are responsible. Again."
Taurus Fire turned away from the Wave Hole and wrapped himself in flames again, surging down the waveroad in the direction he had come, purposefully ignoring the nick in his left horn War Rock's host had scored during his exit.
Annnddd... another Chapter completed (finally - this might take a while to write). This happens to be both a very long and a very short chapter: I'm pretty sure the actual length of the chapter exceeds the last one, but the actual events of the chapter take roughly half an hour and an hour, respectively.
Okay, you may note a few things about this story that are different from strict canon - first off, Air Display/wavescreens don't show up until the second game, which I find odd because they also happen to show up in the later seasons of the EXE anime, generated by the PET (what, did they just disappear for two hundred years?). And there's another problem I have with the Star Force series - for all the talk of being 200 years in the future, I can just as easily imagine the games taking place only 50 years in the future: I mean, I just can't feel enough of a difference from the original series to justify 200 years; and the spinning Moai heads aren't helping much.
Anyhoo, I still like the series (you'll notice this isn't much of a trollfic, after all), except for a few points. First, Subaru in the games is too much of a violence-hating wimp in the games, to the point of unbelievability; after all, at the end of the first game, he's taken down a world-destroying abomination, forged an informal interplanetary/intergalactic peace treaty, saved the world, and at the beginning of the second he can't muster up the will to take on a few groups of Mettorio (I can understand not liking fighting, but, come on, it's a little late to have second thoughts after you start charging into battle) - and that's just the tutorial (which they blessedly let you skip over in the 2nd game, for the first and last time in the whole timeline). Secondly, War Rock has too much of a roughneck accent in-game from the moment of his first appearance; now, I don't mind the idea of him adapting one from the time he spends on earth, but he has one from the start, after only knowing humans for a few months, so... yeah (I'm working on it, War Rock'll start going Buck Wild more as the story goes on, I promise). Third, the technology jumps around too much; now, I can imagine why, since the first game was largely, "Hey, look! It's a sequel to Battle Network!", and the second and third games were attempts to fix that, with varying success. (And yes, Cards in this universe are capitalized. Battle Cards, Card Force, yeah, I know, it's weird).
Anyhoo, notes about this chapter: so, you all have pretty much noticed that Taurus goes and jumps the gun a little early. And he's a large chunk of grade-A, prime-cut, overacting ham (I'm sorry, I couldn't help it - I wanted to keep Taurus blowing his stack about being accused of being a pig without Gonta worrying about the ghost of his tonkatsu coming to haunt him). And yes, I know his name is Ox in the original japanese, I kept him as Taurus since, A) it matches the theme naming of the FM-ians (if your crew is Gemini, Ophiuchus, and Cygnus, Taurus and Lyra fit a lot better than OX and HARP), and B) I think he enjoys be considered as having some balls (for those of you who don't know - oxen are the eunuchs of the bovine world). Also, side note: the ten-foot figure isn't off: according to the 3rd game's website, Taurus Fire is 310 cm tall, which has him standing 10'4" off the ground. (And no, I don't plan on having much more fun with the attack names).
Also, you've perhaps noticed that the technology borrows from the second game, at least with the Air Displays (or the wavescreens - personally, I think Air Display is a brand name, which is why I've got 'em called wavescreens); another side note: I'm sorry this is taking so long without going anywhere - I'm just taking some time to establish a few things about the story and it's taking a while. And I've been meaning to write some Matter/Real Waves in (I'm sorry, Real Waves kick ass) - maybe, hmm... I think I have an idea.
Oh, another note: I just realized this - last chapter I made a small point about Subaru getting a little taller when he turns into Rockman; that was a mistake - technically, Subaru should be the same height as Rockman; he doesn't technically get taller until Black and Red and he gets the Hunter-VG terminal (they don't mention it outright in the game, but on the website, they reveal the Hunter-VG was developed specifically to enhance Wave Changing). But, what the heck, it's a minor point.
And yes, the human characters have potty mouths; it's intentional with Subaru, who has A) no dad to teach him better, and B) his mother's in worse shape than he is. And everybody else is bitter, so yeah.
Anyhow, chapter 3 is now in progress, though no promises on when it'll be finished (hopefully it'll be quicker than it took to get this one out - the whole plot has been roughly written out, but it needs some tweaking). I'll see what I can do about shorter chapters.