In this new installation of general wackiness I get to tap a tiny part of the huge potential that is Rockman Starforce. I will be using the Japanese anime names for this one, as well as the appropriate name suffixes, when they apply. For example, Geo will be Subaru, Omega-Xis will be War-Rock, etc. Knowledge of the EXE continuity will make things a bit clearer.

-c-c-

Time: Some time after the whole Andromeda mess, since the Tribe season is still running and the second game is still untranslated.
Place: The wave world.
Title: A not-so-new breakthrough

Our favorite wave-human superhero, that had accidentally been dubbed Rockman by the token clueless police officer, was travelling the wave roads at barely sub-light speeds. The order of the day was training since both component beings of Rockman, Subaru and War-Rock, firmly believed Andromeda was merely the beginning of their joined adventures. This is Capcom we are talking about, after all. The victory they had scored over the gigantic and mindnumbingly lethal planet destroyer had been circumstantial at best. None of them complained about pulling a victory out of where the sun doesn't shine, but that did not mean they got to rest on their laurels. At least not too much.

War-Rock, despite getting surprisingly close to being domesticated, had always been and would always be a warrior. It was part of his nature and a way to establish his identity in the Cosmos. Of course, if anybody were to say that to him, he would tell them to stop geeking out.

War-Rock is known for his peculiar take on tact and people skills, after all.

Subaru, on the other hand, had never been a warrior before, in any kind, shape or form, but that didn't mean he could not enjoy the action. Thanks to War-Rock he had learned he liked to be a protector despite the dangers involved. After all, if you are the only one that can make a difference between life and death for everything sentient in a planetary radius, you might as well enjoy the perks. Also, meeting a pretty, adolescent female singer that had the potential to grow into a seriously hot girl in the future was definitely a perk. Not that he was about to admit it.

"Fess up, Subaru. You really have the hots for Misora, haven't you?" Naturally, certain alien masters of subtlety had different ideas.

Rockman suppressed a groan. "Battle card, Brave sword 3!" he declared, rushing ahead and wasting a couple of lowly Metennae with his newly-formed blade. "Misora-chan and I are merely good friends War-Rock. We only recently met each other untransformed, after all."

The alien grafted on his left arm laughed aloud, grateful that the AMAKEN Star Carriers made the Predation procedure obsolete. It's easier to tease your host human when he is not trying to staff your mouth with battle cards. "Not buying any. Incoming to your left!" he warned casually, and Rockman complied, instinctively leaping to the right and avoiding the large tongue of fire a Melamander virus breathed. "You think I never saw the way you have been ogling Harpnote ever since the first time we saw her?" he asked smugly.

The wave human introduced his blade to the flame-virus' favorite inner waves, then changed his body frequency, backpedaling right through another virus that was going for a sneak attack and stabbing it on the back. "What you call 'ogling' I call threat assessment. We didn't know where her loyalties lied back then. Battle card, Fire Ring 3!" He blocked a wooden spear with his Brave sword, then send a flaming wheel right in the wood virus' face, deleting it instantly. He frowned when his blade reached its limit and dissipated. "Battle card, Break Saber! After all, you are supposed to keep your eyes on the enemy. You taught me that."

Instead of arguing, War-Rock nodded. Or more accurately, the Flame Ring launcher on Rockman's hand nodded, which looked increasingly ridiculous. "Yes, yes, I see", came the alien's voice, tinted with an entirely condescending tone.

Rockman sighed. "You are mocking me, aren't you?" he stated more than asked. He launched another two rings in different directions, his eyes narrowing when only one of them deleted a threat. "Great, a Black hole virus. Need to get close…"

War-Rock offered his advice almost as an afterthought. "Go from the right. It will give you a speed advantage. And I am not mocking you, I'm merely observing how susceptible humans are when it comes to denial", he returned, just as the powerful Break Saber ripped through the elusive virus.

"Misora-chan and I are only eleven, War-Rock. Humans are still considered kids at eleven", he reminded him as both his hands returned to normal. "I don't see any more here."

The alien, now visible, turned his head and smirked openly towards his host. "Only kids. Right. You two are soooo close to the human baseline. I imagine all humans your age have extensive knowledge of astrophysics and rocket science or manage to live by themselves while being obscenely popular music idols. And of course, all kids at eleven risk their lives, save the world and befriend alien lifeforms." He stopped his little rant for a while, then frowned. "Something's fishy here, Subaru. There have to be more enemies close, but something is confusing my senses. Try phasing through a couple of buildings to your left."

"Will do", replied Rockman, passing through said constructs and only paying attention to avoid crossing through the bathroom areas. "And I don't see what's so unusual about me and Misora-chan. Let's talk about the relationship between you and Harp."

War-Rock blanched at that and Rockman could swear the alien blushed. "Let's not. Take a right after the monorail line. Of course, I could be wrong and you could be pinning for Luna instead. All these 'Rockman-sama' cries are good for the ego, after all."

Rockman twitched. "Inchou and I are only friends and I sometimes feel more like her lackey. You are merely imagining things."

The alien's voice turned sly. "Perhaps you are thinking of double-timing them, then? You sleek dog, you!"

Rockman went beet red at that. Not because he had really been considering War-Rock's admittedly suicidal proposal but rather because his treacherous imagination, something he had loads of, promptly conjured the (in)appropriate images.

It proved to be too much for him and he lost control of his flight, materializing into the real world and falling from a great height, War-Rock head first. "Oy, oy, kid! Snap out of it!" ordered the alien, trying and failing to retain their altitude. "I'm serious here, this will be very painful", he followed as the ground mercilessly closed in. "Subaru!" he bellowed a second later, growing desperate. "Uncle, uncle!"

"Gotcha!" returned Rockman, stopping a mere three centimeters from the concrete ground. "That was payback for the first time you plunged us through a monorail without warning."

"You are no fun", groused the alien after recovering his wits. "The enemies should be just to our left."

They phased through another wall then stopped, both of them gawking at the sight. The building they were in, a large empty warehouse, was full of viruses, as in choke full. The wave lifeforms were piled upon each other in a way that wasn't even remotely comfortable. War-Rock recovered first. "This is bad. There are just too many of them", he whispered.

Rockman nodded. "This looks worse than Utagai-san's virus attraction device incident. Do you think we can turn tail very very slowly?"

As on cue, hundreds of eyes focused on them and narrowed menacingly. "That good enough an answer for you?" inquired the alien sarcastically.

Rockman gulped. "What are the chances of Harpnote dropping in and saving our behinds again?"

War-Rock sighed. "You told me Misora was having a concert overseas. We can still call her and she'll be here in seconds, though. You know how she spoils for a fight."

Rockman dodged the combined ground attack of fifty Mettenae as he contemplated that. "She'll leave her fans hanging. I can't do that to her. Or them. Battle card: Wide Wave 3! It will take time, but we'll do it alone."

War-Rock nodded again, firing charged shots from his mouth to compliment Rockman's other hand that was launching large bows of water at almost gattling rate. "We'll keep that as a last resort, then. Go up! Leap now!" he exclaimed suddenly a moment later.

Rockman, blindly trusting his partner, jumped upward, barely clearing a KaiserAxe virus that had phased in from a different frequency. The gigantic Axe of the wave entity cleaved through a dozen smaller enemies and released a shockwave that injured several more. On impulse, the wave-human looked upwards and blanched. Another KaiserAxe virus materialized above him and went for another attack, this time a vertical chop aimed for his head.

"Battle card, Gravity Stage!" he exclaimed frantically, manipulating gravity to make his body fall faster. His eyes almost rolled off their sockets when he noticed yet another identical virus timing a slash poised to downsize him. With no time to alter his momentum, he changed frequencies again and dived into the ground. "That was a bit too close for comfort", he exclaimed, which was probably the understatement of the year. Later that day, he'd have to explain to his mother why the tips of his two hair spikes were missing.

"We can bail out if you want. They've lost us for now", observed War-Rock. His host was not sure if he was serious or was just trying to goad him into fighting anyway. On one hand, the alien's ideal life entailed periods of slacking off interrupted by periods of glorious, gratuitous combat. On the other hand, The AM lifeform possessed a very developed sense of self-preservation.

Rockman sighed since the point was moot anyway. "We have stirred a hornet nest here, War-Rock. If they can't find us, they'll just rampage on the surrounding neighborhoods instead."

"So, it's your 'helping people' fad again doing the talking, huh? Meh, we'll manage somehow." Both of them secretly smirked at that. Said 'helping people fad' was an inside joke after all they've been through together.

Rockman seemed thoughtful. They were still underground and the total darkness around them made thinking easier. "We just need the right plan. Battle cards: Break Saber, Jet Attack 3, Typhoon Dance!"

Above the ground, the torrents of viruses were almost ready to leave their warehouse and take a destructive walk though the city. After that rude wave-human had stumbled on them, they had been roused enough to gain the desire for personal space. Then the ground beneath them exploded and all hell broke loose. Rockman emerged from the hole, one hand resembling a beak and leading the way and his body spinning in the middle of a tornado. His other hand was extended outwards, the Break Saber at its tip spinning along at maximum velocity. The end result resembled a large drill mounted on a rampant rocket.

The next minute was pure massacre that would only hope it could become a rout. There was no escape, though. Any virus that had the bad luck of being close to Rockman would wish it had never been emitted just before being reduced to its component particles.

After a while, the wave bomber became slower, then stopped altogether, descending to the floor and keeping a hand on the wall while trying to regain his wits. While the Wave Change gave Subaru extreme resistance to motion sickness, he was not immune to spinning like an electron for a full sixty seconds.

"That was awesome, Subaru, awesome!" Apparently, wave aliens are even more resistant to dizziness. "I hadn't even considered such a combo. We need to find a good name for it."

As the world decided to stop dancing around him, Rockman concealed a wince. They had been down the naming lane before and it had been proven they had a very different idea about what a good name is. His names were 'geeky' for War-Rock and the alien's ideas seemed unbearably cheesy to him. Fortunately, there were other concerns they could occupy themselves with. Namely the other half of the viruses that had survived their onslaught and was truly and seriously enraged. "We are not out of the pan yet", he observed, prompting the alien on his arm to realize their only slightly improved predicament.

War-Rock nodded. "Even so, we have been growing stronger constantly. We could have never pulled that against Andromeda or Gemini."

"Battle card, Sword!" exclaimed his host, parrying the twin electrodes of a ZapJoker virus and kicking it away. "I know what you mean. These last days it's like we are thinking similar things. Sometimes I can swear I'm hearing your thoughts."

The alien shot another charged shot, followed by a rapid stream of lesser projectiles. "It's true. You are probably the only entity that knows me as well as you do", he added when his target was deleted.

"Battle card, Wide Sword!" Rockman decided it was time for some more payback. "Even better than Harp knows you?" he asked, making sure to sound as innocent as possible. At the same time, he stabbed a Wibbledum virus almost as an afterthought.

"Shut up!" snapped his wide sword agitated. "Anyway, it's not only our thoughts. Our attacks seem to be stronger at times, too. It's like… like we are in sync or something."

Rockman nodded, then frowned. "A mere sword won't cut it here", he observed as he barely managed to reflect an attack back to its source. "Battle card, Long Sword!"

At that point, both Rockman and War-Rock expected the sword arm to be replaced by the longer blade. Instead, A large aura of power appeared around their body, knocking away all close enemies. Rockman's hands moved above his head by their own volition and words he had never heard before formed in his lips. "Wave Advance: Dreamwave Blade!" His right hand reached for War-Rock's mouth and clasped the hilt of a sword made of luminous green light. He then tugged the weapon, wielding it and slashing once downwards. Thousands of energy beams poured from the new weapon, each forming a copy of the sword and homing to stab at the closest enemies.

Both Rockman and his alien blinked, gawking at the swiftly vanishing blade in their hand and at the enemy viruses that resembled gruesome pincushions. A second later, the Dreamwave copies vanished along with their deleted targets and the two partners remained completely alone inside the now empty warehouse.

"What just happened?" asked Rockman at length.

War-Rock swiftly recovered his speaking capabilities. "I think we unlocked some kind of secret battle card combo. Not sure how that works, though", he replied slowly. Right then and there the alien decided that coming to earth had been the best decision of his life. Despite the boring aspects of the human lives, he was getting more excitement in a month then he would have gotten in a year back on planet FM.

Rockman blinked again, then laughed. "Oh well. We won and we found a new technique. I bet nobody else could have discovered such a power by accident. Such things only happen in spamfics like this one."

Exactly two hundred years in the past, a genius net-battler and his navi/twin brother sneezed in unison.

-c-c-

And that's the end of the story. Even though program advances were present in all EXE games and were getting a bit monotonous, I still felt cheated the first time I managed to select a sword, a widesword and a longsword in Starforce 1 and nothing happened…