The Mal Wizards Eight and Nine dashed out of the village and towards the open desert beyond. However, Nine soon screeched to a halt, and grabbed Eight before he could get any farther.

"Ow! What're you doing?"

"Take a look, idiot!"

A silhouette was fading into view not far ahead. Unfurling his cape, Hyde said, "Greetings, gentlemen. Would it be presumptuous of me to assume you are under the employ of Dealer?"

"Ain't it obvious?" Eight said.

Nine glanced back over his shoulder. Amy had caught up as well, and looked ready to attack as soon as she saw an opportunity. Nine turned and backed up against Eight, saying, "Seems it's time, pal."

"Urgh, guess so," Eight grumbled, putting a hand to his arm. "I'm turning off our Noise Blockers."

"You know," Hyde said, "this doesn't have to end in violence. I'd be more than happy to jump to the scene where you surrender to us."

"Dream on!" Eight shouted. "Do it, Nine!"

Nine raised one hand high, revealing two Sword Cards. Before Hyde or Amy could do anything, a dense orb of Noise engulfed the two Wizards, growing steadily larger for a few seconds before collapsing away. Their bodies looked larger and sturdier, with geysers of red Noise shooting out from their shoulders, the tops of their heads, and their backs. Each had some sort of cannon weapon on one hand, while the other was a large claw made of electricity. They stared blankly at their foes, and then slowly advanced, growling and gnashing their teeth.

"They Noised themselves?" Yeti said. "Why would they do that willingly?"

Amy reared back and created a snowball in her hand. "I'm not sure the reason really matters right now!"

She attacked Nine, but he pulverized the snowball with a blow from his claw. Roaring at Amy, a light could be seen inside his mouth, and soon a laser beam shot out of it and hit Amy square in the midsection. She stumbled back and tripped over her feet, and Nine pointed his weapon arm. Amy managed to call up a small shield of ice, but the grenade exploded on impact, flinging her further back despite the barrier. She got back up to see her foe advancing. Leaping high into the air, she angled herself towards Nine and began to spin, generating cold as she did: snow materialized and wrapped around Amy, encasing her in a giant ball, and when Nine coughed up another blast it barely affected the protective coating. The Mal Wizard was flattened by the impact. Amy burst out of the snowball and stomped on Nine again, and then rolled away to avoid a swipe of his claw. However, the tendrils of electricity lengthened suddenly, getting a clean hit on her just the same.

Meanwhile, Hyde moved about the field erratically in an attempt to confuse Eight, and it seemed to be working. Unfortunately, as a result of this, Eight decided to simply open fire with his grenade launcher, slowly blasting away the landscape before him. Hyde appeared before him and swung his cane, but it had little effect. Eight grabbed him with his claw, letting the electricity course through Hyde's entire body at once, and then smashed him into the ground a few times before hurling him away and launching another grenade at him.

"Splendidly done," Phantom grumbled.

"My door is open if you have revisions, partner," Hyde said as he got up.

Yet another grenade was headed his way. Tapping his cane against the ground, Hyde called a shadowy hand up to block the attack and threw his hat at the same time. The maneuver caught Eight off-guard, so Hyde teleported forward, spun in a circle to kick up a whirlwind, and tossed his enemy into the air. Before Eight could recover, Hyde summoned another hand to swat him into the dirt.

"Hyde," Amy shouted, "get clear!"

Jumping up and out the way, Hyde looked down to see an avalanche sweep over the field, taking both Wizards with it and breaking as it finally slammed them into a large rock. He landed beside Amy and said, "Excellent delivery, miss, but be sure not to strain yourself."

"Don't worry about me," Amy said, forming more snowballs in her hands. "More importantly, we should try to steer these guys in a different direction—the village being right behind us is making me nervous."

After she launched her attack, Hyde swung his cape out in front of her, and a second later they both stood at their enemies' left flank. Hyde was quick to smack them with his cane before they realized what was happening, and Amy followed with a powerful kick to Nine's face. However, her target recovered quickly and slashed her with his claw, and Eight followed up with a laser blast that sent her flying. Something cushioned her impact: one of Hyde's shadow hands, she realized. Giving him a nod, she encased herself in another shell of snow, and with a grin, Hyde willed the hand to hurl her back at the Wizards, bowling them over and stunning them for a moment. They both advanced on their opponents and managed to get in another hit. However, before they could retreat, both Wizards lashed out with their claws, trapping them both in their electric grip, and pinned them to the ground.

"Darn it!" Amy grunted as she struggled to break free. "Don't suppose you can get us out of here?"

Hyde's body spasmed from the shock. "Erg…trying, but it's a bit difficult…"

Eight and Nine readied their launchers. Just as they were about to fire, a blast of purple flame rammed into both of them, knocking them aside and freeing their captives. Amy turned to see Solo standing not far away, a still-smoking glyph in front of his palm.

"Thanks for the save," she said.

"Hmph," Solo said. "I was just attacking my enemies."

"Right," Amy said with a sigh.

Ace dashed in next, whacking Nine with his blaster before turning and spawning a small tornado on top of Eight. They both tried to counterattack, but he was too quick for them, and regrouped with the others a moment later.

"Hope you don't mind us joining the fun," Ace said. "Our guy didn't stick around as long as we were expecting."

Solo was already on the move. Nine shot a blast at him, but he stepped aside and dashed, tackling the Wizard and carrying him away from his ally.

"I'll back up Solo…again," Ace said. "Think you two can finish off the other guy?"

"Leave it to us!" Amy said.

As Ace rushed off, Eight turned and raised his weapon. Hyde's hat knocked him out of the attack, and when he looked that way, all he saw was Amy sliding towards him. She flattened him with a kick and then bounded back a short distance. Eight lashed out with his claw, and Hyde summoned one of his own to catch it. One snowball to the face later, Eight found himself a bit disoriented, and that gave Hyde the chance he needed for his claw to flip Eight overhead and into the ground. Amy jumped on him once more, and he gave a weak shout.

"And thus the curtain falls," Hyde said as he came closer. "I do hope you'll be a bit more cooperative once we dig you out of all this Noise."

Suddenly, Eight screeched; energy shot out from him in every direction, expanding in an instant to form a small dome around him and his opponents that greatly reduced the light in the area. Amy was taken aback by the change, but Hyde jabbed his cane into Eight without a second thought. The Wizard pushed him up into the dome, and an intense, burning pain shot through Hyde, leaving a sickening feeling in its wake that made it difficult for him to stand. Seeing this, Amy moved to attack Eight. He dodged, and she had to carefully stop herself from charging on into the barrier, making dodging the next attack more difficult.

"Hyde," Phantom groaned, "it seems touching the barrier briefly overloaded our Noise Filter."

"Ah, that would explain some things," Hyde said as he shakily got to his feet. "I trust you're not permanently damaged, my dear friend?"

"Oh, shut up. I'm sure I'll recover once we're done here, but the Noise is too concentrated right now—if you screw up too much, I'll be too damaged for us to continue fighting."

Hyde glanced at Amy. "Did you get that, miss?"

Narrowly dodging another swipe, Amy said, "Uh, yeah, the gist of it! Think you can lend me a hand still?"

Not too far away, Nine had opted to employ the same tactic, though he seemed to be having less success. Ace and Solo still flinched whenever they came into contact with the barrier, but it took them seconds to recover each time. If anything, it was the restriction to their movement that was causing problems.

"Noise levels within manageable range," Acid reported. "However, our time is starting to run low."

Ace ducked under a grenade. The shields on his back shifted to protect his head and neck from the blast, though it still pushed him forward a bit. "Copy. Solo, any objections if we speed things along?"

Solo didn't answer. Nine extended his claw, managing to pin Solo against the barrier and making his fist light up in response. Forming a glyph in the air, Solo then flicked his fingers up, and three sharp wooden stakes rose from the ground to strike Nine. Ace attacked with his blade while the Wizard was reeling. He loaded a Battle Card and prepared to finish it, but Solo charged in right as he aimed, and the two of them collided and fell in a heap.

"Watch it!" Solo said, rolling back to avoid Nine's claw.

Before he could reply, Ace realized Nine's grenade launcher was in his face. Thinking fast, he darted forward and punched the Wizard's lower body, throwing him off-balance, and the grenade was shot at the ceiling of the dome, raining fire down on everyone inside it. Just as Nine was about to recover, Ace pressed his blaster into his chest and activated a Mad Vulcan card, firing a series of bullets that tore through their target with little resistance. Ace stepped back and let Nine fall to the ground. After a moment, the dome began to recede.

"All's well that ends well," Ace said.

Rather than dispersing, however, the energy all converged on Nine, messily forming a new layer of armor on the Wizard as he got back up. Ace slashed, but Nine barely reacted. He retreated, but it wasn't enough: Nine shot a clump of Noise from his fist, the loose mass of particles clinging to Ace and weighing him down immensely. Solo lashed out with a flurry of punches, and appeared to succeed in pushing Nine back. Before long, however, Nine coughed up a blast right in Solo's face, sending him tumbling backwards.

"Shoot," Ace muttered, trying and failing to get closer. "Acid, how much power to we have left?"

"I estimate one significant attack being enough to drain what is left of your stamina," Acid replied.

"Sounds great. Let me know when it's ready, and I'll tell you when to fire."

Solo stood and glared at Nine. He shot a barrage of fist-shaped projectiles, some of which managed to break off small chips of Nine's Noise armor. His foe still took aim, so Solo stopped his attack, crossed his arms, and braced himself. The grenade shot through the air, but exploded before it reached Solo. An oval-shaped shield of translucent white light had appeared to block it. Solo's eyes widened.

"…Laplace…?"

Nine roared, spitting up a laser beam that similarly failed to hit Solo. As he moved to make a third attempt, Ace shouted, and the Wizard turned in surprise. Two powerful blasts launched from Ace's shoulders, striking Nine dead on and blasting huge chunks of his armor away. Solo immediately grabbed his shoulder armor.

"Come!"

Purple flames spewed out of the adornment. Solo rushed forward as Nine staggered, and Ace hit the ground as his Wave Change dissipated. The flames compressed around Solo's hand, and as he came upon Nine, he lunged and swung that hand out. A large, curved blade with jagged edges formed in it as he did. Nine gave a short yelp. A few seconds later, the two halves of his body slowly slid apart, and then the Wizard faded away. Solo turned to look at the sword.

"…Took you long enough."

The blade floated up and out of his hand, and then transformed into a simplistic EM being with long arms and a nearly featureless face. A low buzzing sound came from the creature.

"Hmph. I suppose that makes sense." After a short pause, Solo mumbled, "I'm glad to have you back, Laplace."

Laplace nodded, and then glanced at Ace. Solo now noticed that the Satella Officer was still trying to crawl free of the Noise that had been thrown at him. He looked up and grinned.

"Oh, is that Laplace? Great, glad they're doing alright. Say, um, would you mind lending me a hand here?"

Laplace buzzed something. Reluctantly, Solo walked over to Ace.

As that was happening, Amy and Hyde were continuing their battle with Eight, and had very nearly managed to wear him down. Amy had been pushed into the barrier once or twice, but Yeti was doing his best to pretend it was nothing. They were feeling a bit sluggish, but regardless, Eight was moving far more slowly, so when he went to make a claw swipe it was easy for Amy to move in and grab his arms.

"Got you!" she declared.

Releasing as much cold as she could, she began to slowly freeze the Wizard, and he was too exhausted to do much in return. It wasn't long before Eight was entirely encased in ice. Hyde raised his cane and electrified it, and then he stepped around Amy and thrust the weapon straight through their foe. Slowly, the dome began to recede.

"Whew," Amy muttered, sitting down on the ground. "That was a little rough. You okay, Yeti?"

"No need to worry about me," Yeti said. "You just rest for now—you've earned it."

Eight twitched. Scrambling to her feet, Amy tried to get battle-ready as the Noise from the dome coalesced around him.

"Rats, an encore," Hyde said. "I was thinking an illusion may be excessive, but this can't go on much longer. Are you up to the task, Phantom?"

"Don't ask stupid questions," Phantom replied. "Get the preparations in order, fool."

Hyde and Amy stood ready as Eight roared at them. The corrupted Wizard pulled back his claw, but then paused, looking curiously up at the sky. Against her better judgment, Amy turned slightly. All she saw was a rush of green as a missile shot just above them and hit Eight dead-on. The weapon detonated in a small but focused implosion, eradicating the Wizard altogether.

"…Nevermind, Phantom," Hyde said. "It seems our good friend Eight had to cut his performance short."

With the threat dealt with, Amy was able to turn fully and get a good look at what was flying through the air at them. It appeared to be a crimson jet with a bird-like face, its wings carved with notches that resembled feathers and angled inward slightly, with white lines that ran down its body to a tall fin at the rear just above an opening that housed a tongue of flame. Amy blinked a few times as she tried to process the image.

"Are you unharmed?" came the voice of the Shaman. "I apologize for surprising you, but you seemed injured and I felt I had already wasted too much time."

"Oh, so this is what your Wave Change looks like," Amy said. "Thanks for the save! Or, um, thank you very much, Shaman. We're in your debt."

It was at that point that Ace made his way over to join the group, with Solo and Laplace trailing behind. Coming right up to the Shaman, Ace said, "I see you joined us after all!"

"We could not merely sit by and let outsiders defend our land," Condor said. "Your friend the detective provided us with one of your Hunters so that we could help—he said it would provide me with a program to defend against that strange energy these villains use."

"Good call. Without that, they probably would've made you berserk as well, and that would've only added to our problems." He paused to stretch. "Well, we should probably go over the logistics…but if it's all the same to you, mind if we go sit down somewhere? I'm kinda beat."

"…lighting up the sky for all to see, because I know, no matter what, you're all here with me."

Sonia lowered her guitar and looked up at the sky. "Hm, maybe, but I'm still missing a bit…"

She got to her feet and went to the other side of the Wave Road. Over on the roof of the school, it looked like one of the candidates was just finishing their speech, meaning it was almost time for Luna to give hers. Sonia could see her standing just behind the stage that had been set up, checking the notes on her Hunter one more time.

"Don't worry," she said quietly. "You've got this."

Someone replied, "You think so?"

Whirling in a small panic, Sonia raised her guitar and stumbled back a few steps. Floating just down the Road was none other than Virgo.

"What crack did you crawl out of?" Lyra said. "I'm more than happy to humiliate you again, but now's not the best time."

"Kyahaha!" Virgo laughed. "What's that, you're not in the mood to have some fun? You'd better change your tune real fast! The fun's about to start whether you like it or not!"

A chill crept up Sonia's spine. She glanced back over her shoulder: the other candidate had finished their speech, and the class was applauding as Shepar made his way over to the microphone. "Thank you, Trisha, for that wonderful speech! It sounds like all of our candidates are very well-prepared for this race."

Sonia quickly turned back to Virgo. "Look, Virgo...I'd rather we settle this peacefully, but I'm not about to let you cause any trouble here."

"Bleh, settle things peacefully? How boring can you get?"

Shepar continued, "With that, we only have one more candidate for you all to hear from!"

"Fine!" Sonia said. "If you want to fight we can, but let's at least take it somewhere else! There's no reason for anyone here to get hurt!"

Virgo cocked her head. "Huh? But if you go somewhere else, they'll all get hurt a lot more."

As Sonia tried to figure out what she meant, she realized that Shepar's pause was dragging on exceptionally long. More than that, a nervous murmur could be heard coming from the class. Sonia turned to take another look. A massive, flickering distortion had appeared in the air above the roof, surrounded by bursts of green static that she was certain was Noise.

"Oh no," she said.

Virgo waved. "There you are, Corvus! I was beginning to wonder how long you'd keep me waiting!"

The distortion burst open suddenly, and several red orbs flew out of it. The class screamed, but Shepar said, "E-Everyone, remain calm! Make your way to the elevator, or the stairs, and we can—"

One by one, faces appeared on the balls of Noise. The cloud swooped down on the students, and their panic was instantly renewed. Sonia played as fast as she could, sending out note after note to blast the creatures, but that plan was ruined when Virgo dealt a stunningly painful blow to her back.

Sinking to one knee, Sonia said, "Why are you doing this?! Why did it have to be here?!"

"It's just orders," Virgo said, raising her staff again. "Now hold still!"

Sonia spun and swung her guitar, batting Virgo away and giving her a chance to get over to the roof. By the time she had gotten there, Geo, Bud, Pat, and Rey had already Wave Changed and were doing what they could to protect the students as they fled.

"Virgo's here," she said as she continued blasting, "and it sounds like we're about to see Jack and Corvus too."

"Are we gonna have to fight Jack?" Bud asked.

"I'll do what I can to talk him out of it, but…"

"We know you'll do your best, Sonia," Geo said. "If things go wrong, I'll back you up!"

Sonia thanked him, and then used a sound pulse to clear a path over to the stage. Luna sat crouched behind it, hand on her Hunter; she started when she saw Sonia, and then looked down at the device.

"I—"

"No," Sonia interrupted, "you need to get out of here!"

"But, I think I can—" A Noise creature landed right next to Luna, and she practically flung herself in the opposite direction. Sonia kicked it away and destroyed it with a note.

"Luna!" she said, gently but urgently taking her by the shoulders. "It isn't time. We can handle this—you just focus on getting to safety, okay?"

Hesitantly, Luna nodded. Before she could take a step, however, the distortion opened even more, and a new form flew out of it. It was a boy in Wave Change, wearing a black jumpsuit covered in zig-zagging orange lines, accented by grayish-black armor on his feet, shoulders, and clawed hands. A small blue crystal could be seen on his chest, and his head was covered in a helmet with four sharp points that held a raging purple flame between them. Four large feathery wings carried him through the air, and when he reached roughly the center of the roof, he flapped them and ascended quickly.

"Is that…Jack?" Luna asked.

Up above, Jack held his arms wide, purple flames appearing around his claws. He shouted, "Harp Note! I know you're here—come out and fight me!"

"Finally some good old-fashioned chaos!" Corvus said. "Let 'em have it, Jack!"

Jack swung one hand forward. A ball of fire shot out from it, striking the roof as the teachers were guiding the last of the kids into the building. Shepar took a look back, but suddenly a Noise creature swooped at him, knocking him back into the wall. He managed to stay on his feet and watched the odd entity carefully.

"What's going on?" he asked, mostly to himself. "It's one crazy thing after another lately!"

The Noise creature roared, but it was blasted apart before it could do anything more. Shepar turned to see Geo lowering his buster and shouting, "Get inside! Keep the students safe!"

With a nod, Shepar left the roof. Jack took notice of Geo and moved towards him, saying, "Hey, you! Where is she? I know she's hanging around here somewhere!"

"I'm right here, Jack!" Sonia said, stepping out and readying her guitar.

Jack whirled to face her, but as soon as he did he froze. He stared, wide-eyed, right past Sonia, spotting Luna hiding behind the stage. "…You're…alive…?"

Luna looked up at him, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

"But how? I saw Joker—"

"Snap out of it, Jack!" Corvus said. "Who cares about her? You've got more important stuff to see to!"

With a quick shake of his head, Jack scowled down at Sonia. "R-Right! Harp Note! I hope you're ready to die!"

"We don't need to fight, Jack!" Sonia said.

"Shut up! It's your fault they captured my sister!"

"Listen to me! If you stand down, we can take you to see your sister. There's no need for any of this!"

"Shut up! Just shut up and die!"

Jack hurled a fireball at Sonia. Not feeling it was a good idea to dodge with Luna so close, Sonia crossed her arms and took the attack head-on—she winced at the pain, but stayed focused, and said, "Lyra, can you connect us?"

"With this much Noise, easily," Lyra replied.

Sonia transformed as she brought her arms apart, her armor taking the shape of Ophiuca Noise but most of it turning red, save for the blue breastplate and scarf and the blue highlights on her boots and sleeves, and her guitar sported a crab-shaped ornament at the head while its body was shaped something like a crab's claw. She played one note to strike Jack in the face with a blast of water, and then leapt onto the Wave Road and tried to get as far away from the roof as she could. It wasn't very long before Jack recovered and chased after her, and at that point, Luna slowly crept out and made her way towards the elevator. However, she paused.

"Luna," Ophiuca said, "the rest of your class likely needs help as well. It's part of your responsibility to keep them all organized and safe, is it not?"

"Well, yes…"

"Then we'd best get back to them. Everyone up here will be fine."

Hesitantly, Luna stepped onto the elevator. As she did, Geo shot down another Noise beast and looked around, seeing Sonia leading Jack away. He got about two steps before a large wall of water sprang up in front of him.

"I don't think so!" Virgo said from the other side of it. "Corvus and his pet have a very important mission to fulfill, and I can't have you mucking it up!"

Clenching his teeth, Geo used the Mega Attack to teleport to the other side of the barrier and swing at Virgo, just barely missing her. He sprayed bullets as he headed in Sonia's direction, but a loud sound from above caught his attention, and he looked up to see even more Noise beasts pouring out of the distortion.

"Kyahaha, nice try! But if you go help out your friend, who'll stop these lovelies?"

The beasts dove at the school roof, blasting loose chunks of concrete at every impact. Realizing he couldn't leave them unattended, Geo readied his Battle Cards and went at them.

Not too far away, Sonia was dodging Jack's fireballs, trying to retaliate with water blasts but missing every time. Jack twisted as she soared, darting about erratically; it was impossible to predict when he would attack, but luckily it took him a moment to launch his flames and they didn't move too fast, allowing Sonia to maintain the stalemate if nothing else.

"Stand still already!" Jack shouted.

"Jack, calm down! This isn't the only way to solve things! Let's just talk!"

"Don't give me that shit! You beat my sister down and then I'm supposed to believe you just want to talk? No way!"

Sonia twitched a bit, and one of the fireballs grazed her. Seeing this, Jack dove in, and when Sonia fired a blast he moved just past it and extended his wings. One of them sliced a gash in Sonia's armor as he passed by. He ducked under the Wave Road then, and Sonia clutched her wound as she tried to steady herself.

"…Fair enough," Sonia said. "I wasn't really trying to help your sister—I was just focused on stopping her. I should've tried harder to find out why she was doing what she was doing, to talk her out of it. I'm sorry."

She ducked under a fireball as Jack flew back up over the side of the Road.

"But I'm asking you now, Jack! Why are the two of you working for King? Do you really think this is the only option?"

Jack spread his wings wide, and numerous purple flames spawned in a circle around him. "Who cares? Killing you is exactly what I want to do, orders or not!"

He swung both hands forward, and the flames all shot out, angling to home in directly on Sonia's position. She dug in with her feet and brought her hand down on her guitar: a tall tidal wave sprang up in front of her, intercepting the projectiles, and then she played a few more notes that she set on delay. She jumped back just as Jack flew down at her, and released the notes so they would all charge him at once. He whirled around expertly to avoid them all, but when he came out of the maneuver he was met with Sonia's flail, and the attack sent him careening backwards.

"So King sent you here?" Sonia asked. "Why would he want to attack the school?"

"It's not about the school, idiot," Jack said as he picked himself up. "It's about you! He said if I kill you, he'll go break my sister out of WAZA! Anything else is just collateral damage!"

Sonia quickly set her guitar for more power as Jack's claws lit up. Producing several large, slow-moving bubbles in front of her, she said, "You really feel that way? You don't have a single problem if any of your classmates get hurt?"

"Why would I?" Jack yelled as he began hurling fireballs. "This whole thing was just an act! It's not like I actually care about any of these jerks!"

The bubbles popped easily, but from each one emerged either a crab or a snake that rushed down the Road directly at Jack. Surprised for a moment, he switched his focus to dispatching them, and Sonia took the opportunity to aim the head of her guitar at him. A highly-focused jet of murky water shot out and struck Jack square in the chest, the force enough to send him sliding back several feet.

"I'm not so sure about that," Sonia said. "You had plenty of opportunity to attack the students when you first appeared, but you didn't. And you looked pretty surprised to see Luna again. Would you be more willing to talk to them?"

An aura of flame enveloped Jack, drying him instantly. "Shut up! Once I've killed you, I'll burn the whole school to the ground if that's what it to takes to prove I don't care about any of you! And when Sis is free, then…"

His final words were lost in a scream as he charged forward. Sonia fired shots as he charged and then prepared for another attack from his wings, but she soon discovered she made the wrong call. Jack tackled her, carrying her off the Wave Road and careening straight towards the ground, only letting go so he could veer away at the last second. The force was more than Sonia had been prepared to deal with, and the pain made her mind go blank for a few seconds. She looked up to see Jack readying another fireball.

"Just die!"

Her body ached, and she knew it wouldn't move fast enough. All she could do was brace herself. As she did, however, something else leapt at Jack from his blind spot, colliding with him and sending him crashing to the ground a short distance away. With effort, Sonia was able to push herself up and take a good look at the newcomer.

"Get up, girl," Wolfe said. "You know how long it's going to take me to landscape that crater you made?"

Wolf Woods had lost the spikes on his armor, and he no longer had extra bits of armor attached to his cheeks. His hands also looked like normal hands, though his large armguards looked quite familiar, and he already had long claws extended from the fingers on one hand. As she got up, Sonia said, "S-Sorry about that, Mr. Wolfe. Won't happen again, eheh."

Jack was getting up now too. He immediately glared at Wolfe and Sonia, but before he could move, Corvus said, "Hang on a sec, kid!"

"What?! Why?"

"This here's an old friend of mine. Charge in if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. You might just get sliced to ribbons!"

Jack gritted his teeth.

"So, how you been, Wolf? I see this planet's just full of familiar faces!"

"It won't be once I rip off yours," Wolf growled.

"Hey, is that any way to treat your old partner?"

"Look who's talking! You're the one who tried to stab me in the back, you overcooked fowl!"

"Hey, hey, get the facts straight! I tried to stab you from the front. At least I was polite enough to let you see it coming!"

Wolf roared at him. At that moment, Jack decided he had been waiting too long, and he threw two fireballs forward while he took to the air once again. Wolfe slashed his claw through one of them, and the fire bent around the blades and stuck to them. Sonia blocked the other and then took aim.

"I tried poisoning him earlier, but I don't think it's affecting him," Sonia said, firing quick water blasts in succession. "He's definitely taken damage, though. It shouldn't take much more."

"Then let's slice him in two!" Wolf said.

Wolfe extended claws from his other hand and swung upward, sending out a shockwave that scarred the school building when Jack dodged it. Sonia managed to hit him with a few blasts when he moved, but he retaliated immediately with a rain of fireballs, and she quickly summoned a wall of water to extinguish them. Jack used the opportunity to charge, but Wolfe then raised the claw that was still on fire: it extended tremendously when he swung it, allowing him to swat Jack out of the air and straight into the ground, and Sonia followed this up with another focused water beam. Wolfe charged as Jack was getting up. The boy managed to slash him with his wings as he leapt up, but Wolfe jumped and caught him before he got far, driving him back into the ground and doing his best to pin him there.

"Give it up, kid," Wolfe said. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Yeah, just give us Corvus!" Wolf snarled. "I'm not gonna pass up my chance for revenge!"

"Yikes, dial it back, buddy!" Corvus said. "What makes you think I'm going to be the one getting revenge-killed today?"

Jack shoved a fireball straight into Wolfe's face, making him stumble back. He then leapt forward, lighting his claws as he did, and started to swing furiously, gradually pushing his enemy back.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" he shouted. "Drop dead! I'm not giving up until you're all dead!"

He was so focused that Sonia was easily able to entangle him in strings. Using a few notes to stun him, she said, "That's not happening, Jack! You have to be able to see how this is going to end by now!"

Jack screamed. Spreading his wings, he was able to snap the strings apart, and he flew straight at Sonia in a purple blaze. "It's not over until I've got my sister back!"

Sonia brought her guitar forward, using it to block Jack's initial claw strike. The force still pushed her back, so she leaned with it and used the momentum to cartwheel back, avoiding his follow-up. He kept coming, however, and Sonia expected that. She swung her guitar around and smacked Jack right in the face with it. He spun around in the air, flapping his wings to get stable. Just as he did, Wolf Woods' claws extended past either side of him, and before he could react they snapped shut.

"Let me go!" he yelled. He struggled fiercely, but Wolfe's grip was too tight.

Sonia aimed the head of her guitar. "I'm sorry, Jack. I know you just want to help your sister…but I've got people I love too."

Another focused water blast rammed into Jack. His body went limp, and Wolfe retracted his claws and let him fall to the ground. Jack twitched a few times, trying to do his best to get up, but he could only move an inch before he passed out.

"Get over there, Wolfe!" Wolf said. "Now!"

In a burst of light, Corvus separated from Jack, and he immediately bolted back towards the school roof. "Virgo!" he shouted. "Pack it up! We've gotta jet: Wolf's here!"

Wolfe rushed forward and leapt onto the side of the school, extending his claws just enough to let him dig into the wall and propel himself further up it. About half-way up he pushed off of it and extended his claws to try to pluck Corvus from the air. The FM-ian managed to weave between the blades, continued upward, and turned back to smirk. Sonia launched strings at him, but he incinerated them before they caught up. He darted up and over the rooftop. Wolfe looked up after him, and then turned back to Sonia.

"Dammit!" Wolf said. "How long has that guy been on Earth?"

Sonia's guitar rang before she could answer. Putting a hand to the side of her helmet, she said, "Hello?"

"It's me," came Geo's voice. "Corvus came back this way, but he and Virgo disappeared into that weird opening and shut it behind them. There are a couple of Noise balls left, but other than that…I think it's over?"

Sonia glanced at Wolfe. He shrugged, deactivating his Wave Change.

"Do you need any help down there?" Geo asked.

"No," Sonia said. "I'll contact the Satella Police in just a second—the others should get back to class when they're done, but could I ask you to stay put for a minute? I think we should be able to investigate that distortion they used."

"Sure thing."

Sonia hung up. Wolf didn't seem to have anything to say for the time being, so she turned back to Jack and sighed heavily.

"Well," Lyra said, "I think first we need to decide what to do with our friend here."

Crouching next to him, Sonia called up a display and began dialing WAZA. "…It might not be how he wanted it…but he'll get to see his sister."

Notes:

-"I'm going to write as much as I can in September" my ass. I'm a damn liar. I'm just going to stop setting goals, I never meet them. I'm sorry.

-When I decided to add additional suites, even after deciding the Sword Card would be responsible for the standard Noised Wizards I still kind of wanted to have a boss affiliated with it. Mixing the Noised Wizards and Mal Wizards seemed like an easy, unobtrusive way to do that—originally it was going to be one specific Wizard who would call themselves "Mal Sword" after Noising, but plans changed a bit when I started bringing in Dealer's numbered grunts. These Wizards' abilities are meant to be a mix of what regular Noise and Mal Wizards can do: the grenade launcher arm as a mix of the MW grenades and the NW cannon arm, the electric claw as a mix of the MW electric whip and the NW sword arm, the laser breath as a variation on the NW energy ball spit attack, and the Noise dome as a variation on the MW's Hack Panel. The Noise Armor was just something that ended up happening, though looking back it has some similarities to how Red Joker's armor is supposed to work, so perhaps King programmed that ability into the cards after studying the Joker Program?

-Since Dealer's working with Noise, I realized they needed their own equivalent of the Noise Filter; changing it to Blocker is just to differentiate the origin, since King made this one on his own.

-It seemed fair to give Yeti Blizzard the snowball armor of the Snowlem (?) viruses from that scenario in SF2.

-Originally I wanted to have Laplace regenerate during the attack on WAZA scenario, but I couldn't find a good place to fit the scene in and it ended up getting delayed. PM-ians normally regenerate very quickly, but since Joker's weapon is designed to break and scatter EM waves, it took Laplace a lot longer to recreate their body after being destroyed by it.

-Finding a way to streamline Terra Condor (Transcode 014) was…difficult. All I really did was reduce his wingspan a bit by folding them in, changing the lines on his body to white, and changing the back portion of his body a bit. I've also had a bit of trouble giving him new abilities, but I think I've got some ideas I can work with.

-I worry that the fight at the school got a bit messy. First it was just going to be everyone fighting Jack, then I remembered the Noise beasts, then I felt like Virgo would probably want to tag along, and at that point I had to find a good way to split everyone up, and then I still needed to bring Wolfe and Wolf in…I did my best, but I apologize if it still didn't turn out great. This chapter and the wait for it were both already so long…

-I feel like Sonia would still have Ophiuca Noise set as her default, but obviously she's going to want an Aqua Element form for this fight. Multi-Noises can mix together the abilities of the component Noises, but Sonia can control how much so, which is why she can choose to make the water she attacks with murky to cause poison but doesn't always have it set to that. Combining these two skillsets was a little hard. I briefly considered combining their summoned animals to create…crabsnakes, or…snakecrabs? But that sounded dumb.

-I know Jack attacked on his own volition in the game, but since I showed Tia being held at WAZA HQ, it created the question of "Why would he attack the school and not WAZA?" So, King had to give him incentive.

-Not sure about the change to Wolf Woods' claws, but he needed to be made less bulky somehow. For new abilities, he can now extend his claws much further than before, and he can move a lot faster. I'm thinking he'll also have better control over his frenzy state when we get to that. Also, he can "catch" fire attacks and light his claws with them, though he needs to keep them extended to stay lit. This…was a last minute addition, I'll admit, but I felt like I hadn't really added enough and that it would make a certain amount of sense for him to have an ability to cover his weakness. Eh, if it's too much I can just have him stop using it. We'll see what happens.

-Originally, I was actually going to have Wolfe kill Corvus here, with his later return being facilitated by back-up data King had made. However, while Wolf definitely wants Corvus dead, I realized that would be wildly out of character for Wolfe, so it was altered. Sonia's definitely happier with this change, let me tell you.

-And that's chapter 20. Who knows when 21 will be. I've put a dent in it, at least I can say that. Thank you for your patience.