Star Bearers

by dragonridley

Universe 1 and 2. In one Universe, two beings are taken from their fated paths onto new roads, rallying people to their causes as they venture through the Universe whilst in another, a band of people follow the shadows of a past to make their future.

10. U2: Times beyond

BarneyRubble: I just think the whole thing is pointless. You guys could've finished this project on Earth X for crying out loud!

Cerebrum_In_The_Cranium: Perhaps they could have. But as Mamoru Amachi pointed out before, the BrotherBand's projected waves have a limited range before the signal begins to decompose, and could render the purpose of the signal lost altogether to the receiver. And aiming for the Farside is not an easy matter, let alone going for a planet that is clearly habited.

BarneyRubble: What happened to the days where we just sent a ship over there and say hi? We come in peace and maybe shoot to kill? :c

TheFreeman: How many times has that led to aggressive stances instead of peace? This could lead to friendly negotiations before we even meet face-to-face. It helps ease negative emotions and helps show our peaceful intentions more clearly.

BarneyRubble: So we're brainwashing them?

TheFreeman: Very negative way of viewing it there Barney.

Eli101007: The target has to be willing to accept before anything can happen. We send a signal, offer the idea to them, and whilst laying our intentions bare, we're granted an insight into who they are and thus can avoid political mistakes or cultural. Both willing parties are able to understand one another.

BarneyRubble: So we spoon-feed them information while stealing theirs? What if the target is a kid? What, we get to learn they like the colour blue?

Cerebrum_In_The_Cranium: Whilst the possibility may exist the Brotherband can be adjusted to seek out specific requirements or specific locations on a planet, and with a signal from an alien species I highly doubt someone would just answer it without alerting their authorities.

BarneyRubble: Those children films were the kids befriend an alien seem to disagree with that notion doc.

Cerebrum_In_The_Cranium is typing

Cerebrum_In_The_Cranium has logged out

TheFreeman: You think the ARD at the Citadel would have bothered to fix the network connection problem by now on those floors.

Eli101007: Izzy's tried to fix it himself from what I heard. Led to the fire system triggering and getting a talking to from our boss.

DaiHoshi has logged in

BarneyRubble: Could use a booster like I do down at the ground, but knowing him he'll mess with it to the point it connects to everything but the Wave Network.

DaiHoshi: Kleiner lost the connection again?

Eli101007: Yep.

The_Freeman: Hey Daigo. Didn't expect you on here today.

DaiHoshi: Tried sending a message to your communicator but you've obviously not heard it. Lost it by any chance?

BarneyRubble: Someone's in trouble methinks.

The_Freeman: ...Probably in the canteen again. It just slips out of my pocket somehow. Most likely Mary-Ann has it now in the lost and found box, with a sticky label with my name on, again.

Eli101007: So I see you haven't changed much up there.

WrightStuff has logged in

DaiHoshi: I want you to come down to Deployment in about 15 minutes. We're just about to complete a test run before we fire the real thing.

Eli101007: Wait today's the day?

DaiHoshi: After ten months it better be. I don't mind working up in space but I'm getting homesick now. Wanna get home, see my kid and my wife. Missing Akane ALOT right now. If it works out I might have some new cool glasses for Alyx to try out Eli. Let her see the EM Waves.

Eli101007: You know that means I have to get it past Azian Daigo. She's always gets funny when it comes to new tech stuff.

WrightStuff: Hi guys. Isaac just came in my office and wanted everyone to know the wireless signalizer on the 4th Advance Research Division floor isn't working. He wants to wish you all a good day.

BarneyRubble: Yeah we gathered that Phoenix. Thanks anyway man. Tell him to be careful alright?

DaiHoshi: Hey Phoenix. How's the Attorney life treating you?

WrightStuff: Same old. Breen gets trouble, I have to defend our workers, and I get paid the minimum wage for it.

Eli101007: Still won't give out a bonus huh?

DaiHoshi: That's our leader.

The_Freeman: Well I better get moving. I'll see you shortly Daigo. Everyone else, see you another time.

The_Freeman has logged out

The man got up from his white metal desk with a silver coloured computer monitor, tower and keyboard pushing away his leather desk chair and heading over to his plain grey sheet bed with a white overall laying over it, picking it up and putting it on, showing it had an orange name badge on the top pocket, in front of three pens in said pocket, with the black lettering: Gordon Freeman. EM Research Team Alpha.

He stepped out of his simplistic temporary room out into a clinical looking corridor, clean with the blue flooring almost reflecting the white circular lights on the ceiling. The walls were bare save for the odd window showing the vast stars of the universe outside.

The people who passed by were dressed similar to him: buttoned shirt, plain trousers and shoes, coat overall and carrying data-pads or their small flip open communicators, hand-held devices that when opened materialized a small keyboard and microphone so you can communicate to others. While not as discreet as a com-link it allowed for written messages, images and even videos rather then just pre-recorded voice messages.

Gordon adjusted his black thick rimmed glasses and set on his way, wishing people a good afternoon and heading to the life close by, listening to the announcement system as he went.

"Brotherband will be firing at 17:40. Please make sure you have reviewed all safety measures and are in your correct work locations or if not on shift, in your correct rest room during the sequence. Please do not be in the Canteen, Activities lounge nor the Hologram respite rooms. Failure to do so will result in a disciplinary and a review of your work history with The Founders. Thank you."

Gordon got on the glass elevator and pressed '9' on the light blue panel inside, causing it to head downwards, passing by several other floors as he could see. He leaned on the back wall with his arms folded for a moment over his blue shirt and overalls, thinking.

He had expressed slight concern with this whole idea. To contact those of the Farside to show peace was bold. Dangerously so. The Hero Empires previous encounters with those that live beyond the established border between this side of the Universe and that side has been nothing but hostility. Demons, Oni, Turians, Krogan, the leaders known as Overlords...to name a few of the species that have revealed themselves from that side of the Universe have yet to want anything friendly.

Now here they were, close to the border, hoping the nominated planet they have found is willing to give things a chance. To open a new way forward. Wallace Breen likes the idea due to getting his people over to the Farside first to show off to the other sections what can be done.

Daigo Hoshikawa wants to do it to make sure peace is more guaranteed for the future his son will have to see.

The lift doors opened and Gordon got out, heading to the large twin grey symmetrical doors across the way with a black painted 'D' on them which opened on his approach.

Inside the scientists here were gathered around the computers spread around the sides of this huge cylinder shaped room, monitoring all the systems of the space station they were on, ensuring they had the power to fire the Brotherband device and that it was targetting the correct planet.

The man he was looking for, Daigo Hoshikawa was standing in the middle of the room looking up, wearing the same type of lab overall, a beige button top and black trousers and shoes. He had spiky brown hair that looked like it needed a trim, brown eyes and a small dusting of facial hair on his chin. He was also wearing glasses, but they were known as a Visualizer, a device that's been made by him for this very project. Green lens with small yellow circles embedded into it which was lines of electronic wiring allowed the user to see what was known as Electromagnetic Waves, often just known as EM Waves.

He soon looked away from the ceiling and saw Gordon, smiling at him. "Hey man. The test is finished and we're getting set up for the bid moment. Just checking things out, watching the EM Waves and all."

Gordon spoke, in a relaxed, slightly deep tone voice. "Everything okay?"

Daigo nodded, handing Gordon the Visualizer. "Have a look yourself."

Gordon placed the glasses over his own and looked up to the ceiling, which was dimly lit with spherical white lights embedded in the metal.

Colours from across the spectrum floated around in long lines, thin, twisting and splitting apart, gliding like they were on a breeze within the place, circling around the room and crossing paths in the center of it all.

"This was the result from a short range fire. We got fragments of old messages, data recordings and who else knows what. Nothing solid enough to make sense from but it's clear we can gather data from this just fine, and what we sent appears to reach the edge of our targeted distance intact." Daigo explained.

"Wow...It's quite beautiful, isn't it?"

"Wait till you see this thing go all the way to the planet. It's gonna be the best damn lightshow...well...I'll see anyway, if the recording on the Visualizer fails." Gordon's friend chuckled a little. "Tried it earlier while I was sitting at the computer to record some...stimulating video footage? Didn't work."

Gordon looked at him with a frown on his face. "You mean porn."

"I gotta vent my frustration somehow."

"You know that if Breen finds out you'll be in his office for misusing your work time."

"Hey I know how to get around that problem easy. Research purpose."

Gordon gave a small laugh and shook his head whilst giving the visualizer back to Daigo. "I'm sure that excuse won't hold up. So, spoken to Akane lately?"

Daigo placed the glasses back on. "Yeah. It was my boys birthday last week. 14 years old. Been skipping school so I had to have a word with him. Said it's because he doesn't feel like it's worth it and even stays indoors beyond school hours...Akane thinks it's because of me. Makes sense, pattern matches since every time I go away for a long time he begins to get reclusive. I just told him to keep going, I'll be home soon. Got passed back to Akane and well, we made promises to one another."

"Well let's hope the Brotherband works out fine then."

Daigo nodded. "It will. Speaking of..." He looked at his communicator. "It's 17:05. Wanna stay and watch when it happens? It'll mostly be me standing here and making shock and awe noises while everyone works on the computers."

"I'm supposed to be on shift at 19:00. I'll come and look at the results. I need my rest time."

Daigo chuckled "To write that sci fi story book of yours 'Full Life Consequences?' "

"When it becomes a best seller I'll be the one mocking you Daigo. You watch." With that, Gordon heads back out of the chamber and back on the lift.

Soon he was back in his room after collecting his communicator from the lost and found box, sitting at his desk leaning back on his chair, looking up at the ceiling.

Chapter 2: John Freeman and the Zombie Ghosts was proving hard to kick off. His been stuck on it for almost the entirety of their ten month work here. He glanced over at the digital clock on the wall noticing it was 17:38.

Soon their work will pay off, then it's back to the Citadel as always. This place will probably get taken over by another team and they'll continue the work while he and the rest of them will be writing the last reports and Daigo will get a little extra in his pay packet…or at least two extra days holiday. No doubt the latter as its cheaper for Breen.

Daigo will probably want to celebrate with his family, the team and his two close friends, Gordon himself and Carth Onasi. The parties are always at a bar, and Gordon hates that because he isn't good with liquor and somehow Daigo ropes him into it, only to apologise the next morning when Gordon has no choice but to sleep it off on the couch of the Hoshikawa family home.

17:40 came.

He could hear the engines and the energy of the space station getting to work, becoming louder and louder.

So much for writing. He just decided to wait.

After a minute, his communicator was beeping. Looking at it's small screen he saw the caller; Daigo. "You alright?"

"Gordon it's fantastic! The wavelengths are swarming in! I think this might be an advanced civilization we're dealing with, or a species that's adapted to EM Wave technology! There's just so much to take in! It might take some time to find the right person to communicate to but it's working!"

The alarms suddenly going off across the station made Gordon think otherwise. "Daigo? What's going on?" as he stood up from his chair.

"Give me a moment. Halferd, report." After a few moments of silence. "We're suffering from energy depletion. I knew we should've tested it at full power." Then speaking to those with him in the room "Divert power from emergency reserves!" There was a cry of panic from several people there as Gordon overheard before Daigo spoke again. "I'm fine! The electronic waves you're seeing are an overflow! I'm perfectly safe!"

"Daigo?"

"I'm alright Gordon. We've got visible electro currents flowing around the room. No one's injured and as I can see...it's...it's all pure information, hundreds of strands of it, like, like as if the EM Waves here are alive...We're linked to their world now. Soon I might be able to contact their people and we can...wait. What is that? Black spots in the ceiling, growing larger and they seem to be-" The communicator gave off a high pitched static sound, then silence.

As the Space Station was rocked as if it was struck by a giant object sending Gordon flying to the floor.

The alarms were ringing in his ears and his vision was blurry in the now dimmed lit room, his glasses were missing from his face when he woke from his brief moment of unconsciousness from the impact. The ground was shaking, a distant groaning sound was coming from the station itself and a faint smell of smoke reached him.

He pushed against the vibrating ground, getting on his knees and hands struggling to stand from this position. He looked around trying to spot his glasses, and instead spotted...legs. Humanoid legs in a business suit, a white briefcase being held. Whoever it was brought his spare hand down that held Gordon's glasses, allowing him to put them on and see the person who had intruded into his room.

He looked up to find a pale figure with black short hair and green eyes looking down at him. "Dr Freeman. You are required elsewhere for the time being."

Outside, the space station, Cylinder in shape with a circular plate on top that housed dozens of Radio telescopes and four orange glowing thrusters below, was surrounded by blue and teal violent currents of electricity. Surging through the systems, rooms energy cores and corridors before finally the whole place was covered in a blinding white light like that of a star going nova.

A light colourful shockwave blasted out into space from it's location.

The light faded, and the space station ceased to exist.

---

2064 A.P was a turning point with the loss of Chad.

Beyondard had gained independence with the aid of his family, and Sun Jian had secured the Hero Empires territory from any outside threat.

By 2067 A.P, the Dominion that had invaded the United Federation of Planets and those it collaborated with were defeated and driven back to their own sector of space. The Borg suffered severe losses with the loss of their hub network and were last witnessed retreating into the Farside ending their presence near the other factions. The Hero Empire assisted in the restoration efforts from the aftermath of the war.

2073 A.P, the Galactic Empire was now mostly replaced with a force known as the 'Reborn Republic', created by several factions broken away from the previous controlling army, driving what remained of the once proud and mighty Galactic Empire to the corners of their once held territory.

In 2080 A.P, Lucy Oswald had passed away, the wife of Chad. Her children had gone away from Beyondard, seeking their own paths in life leaving behind the legacy of their father...a legacy that led to many people looking into the history of Primus, realizing that over the millions of years that came after Primus many of his bloodline appeared, rarely out in the open and were more like unsung heroes who fought evils and tyrants only to be forgotten to time.

The people of Beyondard kept gathering information on such history across the galaxies many of them came to a conclusion that, were it not for this family line as well as the four others that tied to it, the line of Anna, Odin, Thor and Fenir, they would be suffering in a universe of despair and destruction.

They were legends, like those of mystics, deities...perhaps even gods to some of them. And to these people, they were to be respected as such.

Sun Jian soon heard of the movement on Beyondard, as did many who left their homes to flock to Beyondard in recognizing the same thing. The Primus Religion had come into existence by 2082 A.P.

The Bastion of Hope meanwhile, had been falling apart in the wake of Atlas and the loss of the Capital City. Jack Harper was the last emperor known. With his death in Atlas' attack, no one had replaced him over the years that came, leaving the people with no one to turn to. The people that remained instead turned to Lan Light for guidance, who in turn suggested Yuriko Oswald to come home and take over as he felt he could not be a guiding force, Lacus refused, wishing to remain out in the galaxies as an explorer and Albert followed his sisters footsteps.

The newly-made religion welcomed the notion, and on her return greeted her with warmly and quickly pushed for her to be their leader on the planet. The Bastion of Hope, what small segments of leadership it had in various departments, did not agree to the proposal.

Sheer peer pressure from the people ousted those who opposed, and in effect brought the Bastion of Hope to an end. The only force now in control on Beyondard was the Primus Religion, and with it, Yuriko accepted the proposal of becoming the new leader of Beyondard.

In 2095 A.P, The Galactic Empire renews it's war, gaining aid from the Dominion, Wisdom Saiyans and Protoss remnants within the Hero Empire and even the Klingon Empire. The now known Republic is driven back across several galaxies and calls for aid in it's struggle. The 'Conquest Ender' War begins when the Hero Empire and the United Federation of Planets side with the Republic, whilst the Romulan Star Empire and the Cardassian Union side with the Galactic Empire causing widespread combat within several territories.

By 2100 A.P the Protoss are driven to complete extinction by the Hero Empire and the Wisdom Saiyans retreat to the outer rim bordering the Farside, pursued by the Hero Empire until they sign a cessation of hostilities, agreeing to withdraw support from the Galactic Empire.

Meanwhile the Cardassian Union, struggling after the previous war with the Dominion and Borg, collapses entirely due to being unable to sustain itself in such a long conflict and it's territory is divided between the Klingon Empire, Starfleet and the Romulan Empire.

The Dominion are destroyed and unable to recover after 'The Battle of the Founders' when the Romulan Star Empire defects from the Galactic Empire to expel the Dominion from the war in 2112 A.P. The Romulans shortly after withdraw completely from the war.

2118 A.P, the Galactic Empire is crushed by the three-way alliance in multiple locations and unable to gain assistance from the Klingon Empire who suffer in-house feuding due to previous ties to the Federation of Planets. At this time the Galactic Empire seeks an end to the war to lick it's wounds.

During the conference, Sun Jian kills the ambassador of the Galactic Empire and declares it's time to close the chapter on them, backed by the Republic whilst gravely upsetting Starfleet, causing them to leave the war. The Klingon Empire decides to withdraw support from the Galactic Empire as well, seeing them weak for trying to look for peace, whilst agitated by the alliances decision to crush a weakened target like the Galactic Empire.

Finally in 2120 A.P the 'Conquest Ender' War is declared over. A handful of Galactic Empire ships are reported to remain along with two habitable worlds under their control, barely, whilst all others are wiped out or forced to surrender by supply loss or isolation. The Hero Empire expands it's territory into what was the Galactic Empires whilst all else falls under the Republic. An alliance of peace is made between the two powers. The United Federation of Planets cuts ties with the Hero Empire and the Republic whilst reviving it's friendship with the Klingon Empire.

2185 A.P. The Romulan Star Empire is crippled with the loss of it's home solar system with its sun going nova. Many of their worlds integrate themselves into the Klingon Empire and Starfleet to survive, leaving both the most powerful factions in that sector of the Universe whilst the Romulan Star Empire becomes a shadow of it's former self and eventually disappears with the death of its last empress. A period of peace within the four remaining major factions; the Republic, the Hero Empire, United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire occurs.

2225 A.P. The Hero Empire undergoes major changes. The cyber networks of old are mostly discontinued with many Net Navis now living in the real world. Instead the three great EM Satellites are established to allow for EM Waves to be distributed across the territory, each one set up at the current known edges of their territory. Wave Networks are formed from this granting quicker and more effective access for everyone as well as new ways of transport, information gathering and teleportation.

The Hero Empire also decides to divide itself into four smaller sections to promote development in different sectors within each one; Science, Military, Industrial/Commercial and finally Residential. Sun Jian names each section The Founders, The Protectors, The Traders and The Labourers respectively. The central system which houses Gaia VIII under the control of Sun Jian remains the middle ground of all four to work with.

By 2334 A.P the peace is brought to an end as the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets relations begin to sour and attacks from forces known to exist within the Farside occur against all four major factions. This leads Sun Jian into seeking ways to handle the Farside with the aid of his four sections. The Founders are the only ones willing as Sun Jian begins to realize that during that time of peace, all four have been making their own moves now new people had control. It was especially noticed when in 2335 A.P a mass movement of Mobian populations ventured to Labourer controlled worlds rather than remaining in the other three sections thanks to the leader of The Labourers, Nigel Acorn, noticing Mobians were being mistreated by Sun Jian and the Hero Empire lately, often being overlooked and decided they needed to stand strong together.

In 2351 A.P the four sections begin to fight one another for small segments of territory within the Hero Empire. Civil unrest becomes common and Sun Jian is only able to resolve the situations by allowing them to fight and the victor to be handed their claims and no further fighting to be offered by the loser for a period of time.

By the time of 2357 A.P The United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire are now in complete war with eachother as J'mpok, the new Chancellor of the Klingons declares the Federation feeble and cowards. The Protectors side with the Klingon Empire and The Traders side with Starfleet, making the Hero Empire join in the war by attacking both sides for control of resources.

When 2360 A.P arrives, peaceful ideas for the Farside brings about the idea known as Brotherband, which allows for the Hero Empire to contact worlds deep within the hostile environment to help establish more peaceful relations.

By 2361 A.P the idea is ended by the destruction of Space Station KEN1 by an unknown force, believed to have come from the Farside. Only one survivor is noted to have escaped the incident. This day on, powerful viruses are spotted in the EM waves across the Empire coming from unknown locations.

---

Now we reach the year 2364 A.P. Earth X is the capital world of The Founders, who is commanded by Dr Wallace Breen from his grand tower base known as the Citadel. From there around it is a Metropolis known simply as 17, which covers mostly of what was known as Netopia in the past. A place that is used for hundreds of experiments that has been accepted by the Hero Empire, warning all residents of the place that if they stay it is their own choosing and all risks are theirs.

Most now are people who were against the Founders, captured and placed here or people with no where else to go. A Stark contrast to the ever improving opposite side of the world that is known as Electopia. Constantly growing and developing with the results of the experiments in 17 being brought to here whenever it was a positive improvement to the population.

In Electopia was DenTech city. A small suburb section of it was named ACDC which has a two story blue metal house, simplistic in design with a yellow front door, a small walkway with bushes of flowers leading up to it and an empty garage close by. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and an alarm was heard going off within the house in one of it's bedrooms. Messy with clothing thrown about the place, used gadgets and computers left over the yellow carpeted floor, the wall papered walls covered with posters showing a hero in a red shirt, blue jeans and black sleeveless jacket fighting various villains.

In this room was a bunk bed that the underneath was converted into a desk with a light blue laptop on, in the bed above was a boy who groaned, found his small alarm clock which was in the shape of a Net Navi crest that was pink and yellow and threw it on the floor. The batteries fell out and the alarm ended. The spiky brown haired lad sighed in relief and rolled over to get back to sleep, ignoring the sunshine coming in through his window.

"Subaru! It's time for school sweetheart!"

"Ugghhh..."

The boy now known as Subaru Hoshikawa dragged himself out of bed wearing blue spotted pyjamas, heading to his cupboard making sure to avoid the games across the ground, out of their casing discs with names like 'Hero Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends', 'Han Kingdom II' and 'Conquest: Galactic Civil War'.

Once he got dressed he moved over to the desk beneath his bed to pick up the two items he always carried with him; one was the arm mounted Transer device, a machine that is a personal data device for those who can afford it. Other people within the Empire still settle on communicators, com-links or data cards. Those who have Transers have it come in three colours, blue, red or green. Each represent one of the three radio satellites. Red for Satellite Leo. Blue for Satellite Pegasus and Green for Satellite Dragon. It didn't seem to make a difference which one you had so it was mostly personal preference on what you chose. Subaru had Pegasus, much like his father and mother had.

The other thing was the Visualizer...The only thing ever found of his father three years ago from the sector of space he worked in.

That day was the worst day of his life. Coming home from school, keeping up with it as he said he would to his father, to find Carth and Gordon there, the latter carrying the Visualizer, his mother distraught at the dining table, crying into her arms with her head down. He asked them when would his father be coming home.

Gordon told him what happened. How the experiment they were using seemed to cause a major power surge that wiped it all out. He explained that he had been on a transport shuttle leaving the station when he saw it go.

Placing the visualizer on his head he headed out of his room down the stairs.

The living room spacious, wooden flooring from the front door to the back, a light dull blue coach and chair set pointing towards a large flat screen TV in the middle of the room that had an advert on, showing a Mobian orange fox. "-We need anyone and everyone who is willing to work hard and create a future on once-uninhabitable worlds, colonized and terraformed for the sake of our great Empire. Support us today." The image now changing to a logo that was in the shape of a red planet, with a hand in the middle holding a hammer. "Support the Labourers."

In the neat nearby kitchen with a white finish design was his mother, Akane Hoshikawa, her brown hair tied at the back into a rough ponytail, brown eyes, a purple patterned shirt and baggy jeans is what she wore. She was clearly cooking up some eggs in a pan of water poaching them whilst nearby the black toaster was seen on. Subaru made his way over to the couch and slumped down in it. "Subaru. Are you going to go today?"

"Is it a Friday?"

"Thursday."

"No. I'm good."

"Alright then. I'm just getting breakfast ready." Akane happily answered...but inside she felt that small hope she had that something may just change today dashed. Subaru only had two more years of schooling left. It was to end once he hit 19, either to advance to diploma level learning or to go out there and seek full time work...and for the last year his only been going in on Fridays when it's a half day at school, the previous two years after his father perished he didn't go at all. She worried for his future, a bright kid but it was obvious he wasn't using that intelligence for anything at this stage.

The school tolerates it. They noticed his absence but allow him to stay with her gaining help from Dr Breen to convince them, who for her husbands employer, has been very generous and has yet to encounter anything that's too out of his way to assist Akane. He suggested to her that if Subaru continues to lose out in his schooling, he's sure to find a job for the lad in his citadel as he knows the kid is knowledgable with technology.

Soon she got him to sit down at the dining table and enjoy his poached eggs on toast. Having already eaten herself, she just watched him, counting down the minutes until.

Knocking on the door.

'Here we go again.' Akane got herself up from the table and opened the door. "Hello Luna, Zack, Bud. Here for Subaru?"

Standing there was girl of Subaru's age, with long blond hair that had a red bow on top and the hair twisted into, what could be described as two drills pointing slightly away from one another, dull dark golden eyes in an aqua short skirt dress and blue and yellow leggings. Luna Shirogane, the year 14 group president of the school.

Next to her was a burly large kid with short spiky black hair, a yellow shirt with a knife and fork symbol on the front of it, wearing brownish overalls that lacked sleeves and had the leggings folding up to his knees. Bud Bison, same year as Luna and Subaru.

To the other side of her was a short boy with huge nerd-like glasses on, medium dark brown hair that was all messy wearing green baggy shorts, a white shirt with a yellow tie. Zack Temple, a kid from year 11 that follows Luna and Bud around.

Luna smiled at Akane. "Hi Mrs Hoshikawa. Yep. Is he there?"

She nodded. "Just a heads up. He doesn't want to go again."

The president sighed in annoyance, closing her eyes for a moment. "As expected. Can I see him?"

"Of course. Subaru?"

Subaru cursed under his breath. He knew the voice he heard well enough. Leaving his breakfast be he headed over to the door whilst his mother went upstairs. "...Yeah? What?"

Luna scrunched up her nose a little on his way of greeting her. "Well...Subaru. I'm here to convince you once again that for the sake of your future you need to come to school and get the education that you need!"

Subaru gave her the same reply he always does in this moment.

He just closed the door on her.

He heard her call out to him, demanding he open the door again as he headed back to his breakfast to finish it off. Warning him that the future will be bleak if he doesn't try and etcetera etcetera...before eventually he last heard Zack go "So. Same time Monday Luna?"

Akane eventually rejoined her son, sitting at the table as he finished his breakfast whilst she had just put on some washing. "You know it's nice of her to try and convince you to go. She doesn't have to go out of her way so much."

"Mom it's because she MADE it her mission to drag me into school after noticing my absence, feeling it'll leave a mark on her year as President if she can't convince the one kid who won't come. Perfectionists are annoying."

"And cute looking. You sure that's all she wants?"

Subaru looked annoyed at that. "Mom please. No. I don't like her like that. She's just aggravating."

"Well it never hurts to try. I met your father at your age-"

"No we're not talking about this please." Subaru groaned loudly "I don't need to know what you guys got up to."

Soon Akane got to talking to him about the local news today, about how there was a murder in DenTech city, the Marina Clothing range shop was closing up for good and finally about the weather...and finally about the new movie coming out at the end of this month. 'Broly: The story of the Nightmare'.

That was a talking point for Subaru. He had been waiting for the movie for over a year now, as it was announced after the last movie 'Gabriel: The story of the Beyondard Distorter', the fifth in a series of films expanding on the villains backstories.

They had mini-episodes on the TV series that described the Villains and gave a small hint of their past but to have it fleshed out was always awesome for him. He had to admit his only friends may not be so joyful about the film coming out. One of them felt most of it was just crap slapped together for a sake of a story and the other nearly fell asleep at the Gabriel one as well as 'Blind Io: The story of the Fallen God.'.

And speaking of one of them, half an hour after breakfast with Subaru sitting on the couch whilst his mom decided to head out to meet a few of her friends, he called them up on his Transfer, lifting up the top of the device to reveal a screen and after dialling a number, on the screen was the purple haired lad known as Silver Oswald, who was 2 years older than him. Clearly outside somewhere. "Hey Silver."

Silver seemed a little relieved it was Subaru calling. "O-Oh! Hey Subaru. How's it going?"

"I'm good. Skipping school. Wanna hang out?"

Silver gave him a weak smile. "Well I would love to but my parents got me to go to the university this time and-"

There was a sudden cry in the background of a girl. "SILVER! THERE HE IS! SIGN MY DIARY PLEASE!"

Silver looked panic stricken. "Oh crap I thought this was far enough!"

"Girls again?" Subaru chuckled.

Silver was clearly seen starting to run. "Guys and Girls! My last name is a curse when it comes to these Primus Religion followers Subaru! I told my parents to teleport me to the place but they firmly said I should walk for once whilst they let Blaze get teleported! And look what happens! I gotta bolt! See ya around this evening alright?"

With that he disconnected the call. Leaving Subaru to sit there and flick through the channels.

"Tonight on HEWE, The Undertaker takes on Kane-"

"I HAVE THE POWEERRR-"

"-Bite my shiny metal ass-"

"And The Traders 'Falcon Elite' takes the lead in this savage G-Zero Race-"

"-Shepard is the only one who can stop the Reaper threat, yet the council sends her to deal with-"

Subaru briefly stopped flicking through for a moment. Miranda was one of his crushes.

He decided against it eventually. As much as he likes looking at her...assets he'd seen that episode of Mass Effect enough times.

Flicking on he eventually found there was little to watch. He turned the TV off and headed upstairs. Maybe a game will help today to distract him?

Hero Warriors worked the charm. He needed to level Darkmega to Max, then defeat Dark Richard on Ultimate difficulty to gain the achievement 'Dark Soul's true power' and the grind took till 4ish in the afternoon, whilst the fight with Richard took till 6. Being one shotted by the Final Light Beam was a goddamn cheap move the AI loved spamming and Chad and Roll were the only ones to have the skill 'Light Protection' to ward off the instant death effect.

His mom had made dinner for him and had watched for a time his attempts at defeating Richard before heading back downstairs to watch one of her quiz shows she enjoyed.

As he turned the game off he noticed his bedroom door open, and walked in was Silver Oswald, in now his hedgehog mobian form, silver fur with a white tuff of hair on his chest, his sword on his back and his red transer on his arm. "Hey. I didn't hear mom call up to let me know you were here."

"She did twice, but mentioned you were dealing with a tough boss battle on one of your games."

Subaru stood up from the floor placing the black controller with two sticks and five buttons down, stretching his arms and legs before focusing on his friend. "...Going disguise mode this evening?"

"No one knows me in my mobian form and after that horrific chase this morning, I'm not taking any chances tonight."

"Heh. So where are we heading?"

"Blaze suggested the arcade zone of DenTech. We can grab a snack and a drink and have some fun."

Subaru was quite happy with that idea, soon getting himself ready and heading out with Silver telling his mom he'll be back later on. Heading on the monorail that took them into the heart of DenTech.

The lights, sounds and visual filled their eyes and ears in the somewhat busy streets of the arcade zone. The place was littered with cafes, game shops, collective stores and of course, plenty of arcades, be they physical or holographic. Walking with them was a purple cat Mobian, Blaze Oswald, Silver's sister who was the same age as her brother.

Subaru had met Silver 4 years ago. When the Oswald was trying to hide from people that were clearly over-the-top followers of the Primus Religion after school once, he bumped into Subaru in an alleyway that the boy was going through to take a shortcut home. Agreeing to hide with Silver and asking him who he was, they soon got to know eachother with Silver thanking him for not blowing his hiding spot.

Eventually he met Blaze through Silver, and gotten to know this part of the Oswald family that lived on Earth X. The family was very picky on those they would have an actual friendship with, as in ones that didn't need money or fame to be friends, since most who wanted to be friends outside of that criteria just wanted to be known for being close to an Oswald line rather then get to know the people.

Granted Silver got worried when he found Subaru was an avid fan of the Chad timeline and stories that came with it, as well as most things related to that, but Subaru has made it clear that yes while he loves the adventures Chad had he doesn't want to chase down those who are just related to the Hero's blood. Having Silver hang out with him and sometimes avoiding their schooling together created a close bond for him.

He does however, have a crush on Blaze when she's in her human form. Silver's noticed but warned Subaru it's not a good idea as his sister isn't interested in anything like that and most people that approach her in offering a relationship meet the energy she can form into flames.

Now there they were, away from the lights and scenery sitting near a man-made canal which had grass planted at the sides which they sat on, listening to the water flow and looking up as the sun was gone replacing the sky with darkness and the odd sparkling star that managed to get through the lights. Silver sat in the middle now in his human form holding a sea-salt ice lolly, whilst Blaze was to the left of him with an orange flavoured one and Subaru to his right with an ice cream cone with two servings of lemon sorbet, his Visualizer over his eyes looking at the passing colourful EM Waves and the 'roads' of yellowish ones that flowed around the skyline, something Silver and Blaze couldn't see.

"You know. It's strange that they hadn't made the Visualizer a public buy-able item yet. You think with what it can do it would be a major selling thing." Silver commented whilst sitting back and looking up.

"I guess The Founders haven't got it to a mainstream production phase yet, or they're concerned on what people will see...or maybe it's proving hard to do without dad..." Subaru looked at his ice cream now, feeling that old pain start to surface a little.

"Hey." Blaze focused on him. "Chin up."

Subaru looked over at her, giving a weak smile. "I'm fine. Still hoping that...someday, he might just, come home."

"Heck you never know. With all the weird things in this Universe anything is possible." Silver pointed out.

"What like the time travel jumps Chad went through? Maybe the Nexus got to the Space Station? Maybe their stuck in a time void like Chad was by Chaos?"

"...Or ya know, anything else that Chad didn't experience." Silver glanced his eyes over to his friend. "The fact is there was nothing left, so there's a good chance it never exploded. Just...gone somewhere. I'm sure your dad is doing all he can to get home if that's the case."

Subaru sighed, before looking back up at the stars and Waves. "Three years is an awful long time..."

Silver focused back up too. "Yeah..."

The sound around them took over, time seemed to drip on by.

Until a bright blue streak of light was seen rushing through the sky, colliding with a green streak of light, over and over, the clashes causing small but noticeable energy explosions.

Subaru wasn't sure if it was only he that noticed it. "Uhh...hey guys? Can you see the lights up there?"

Silver and Blaze could see it as Silver confirmed. "What in the hell is that?"

They got themselves up, watching the light show whilst people within the streets nearby also noticed, many stopping what they were doing and pointing up at the skies above. Four of the crowd gathered seemed unique as they had heavy combat armor on, clunky and clearly built to withstand numerous hits, with a skull that had a cog around it as their symbol.

Soon the green one was beginning to get bigger and bigger. Without Subaru realizing it was heading towards him and the others.

"Subaru we should quickly move-" Blaze was saying, before the green energy streak hit Subaru, causing him to yell out in pain, a brief pillar of light covering now where he was, which carried enough force to knock her and Silver away from the spot, rolling the grass for a moment before they were on their feet looking at it with many of the crowd nearby grasping in shock at what they saw. "SUBARU!"

---

To Subaru, he was surrounded by a sphere of EM Waves, drifting within them.

Waking up to eventually notice there was something else with him in this strange place.

A Green energy being with a strand of energy where his legs would be, a shining metal blue and dark blue mixed torso, pauldrons, gauntlets and a predatory mammal like helmet and mouth piece, with a white pattern on top and it had the green energy form out the back like long unkempt hair. Subaru quickly realized the helmet was it's head, as the red eyes on it soon opened revealing dark pupils that focused right on the kid.

"Tch...of all the luck in the Deepside." The being seemed to curse as Subaru was feeling fear begin to build up in him. "I come to hide here from my people and I hit this person."

Subaru was stuttering as he spoke, expecting the thing to strike at any moment. "W-What a-are y-y-you? How d-do you know-"

The alien turned towards him. "Galactic Basic? Relax. If I wanted to kill you I would've. I learnt from another human."

Subaru still didn't show any signs of calming down, so the alien continued. "Listen. Young human. My name is War-Rock. I'm from the Farside. FM Planet. Who are you?"

The kid now began to get the hint the intention of this conversation was peaceful, if a little abrupt. "I'm, my name is, Subaru Hoshikawa."

War-Rock looked annoyed. "It really is ironic then."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. What did you see before I collided with you?"

"Before you…? Well, if you were that green light up in the sky bumping into the other blue and causing explosions-"

"I was fighting one of my kind. Cygnus Wing. Bastard found me after all this time."

"You're enemies with your, kind?"

"Been for some time. Betrayed them. I chose to hide in the Deepside. This world was suitable. Seems like I got found out."

"Why have you-" Subaru began to ask before being interrupted.

"Listen, you'll have to do. I'm low on energy. Your device is perfect."

"What do you mean by that?" Subaru managed to quickly ask before the alien turned into a sphere of energy and shot into the Transer on his arm, causing this realm of EM Waves to disappear, and for Subaru's world to turn black.

---

Eventually, he found himself breathing, waking from the sudden strange slumber he had been in. "Mmm...did, anyone get the number of that donkey cart?"

As his eyes focused, he found it was night time. He was at home in his bedroom. He was still in his clothes.

He sat up carefully, feeling small hints of pain down his back of his head and spine, gently rubbing his head as he focused on his room.

He spotted Silver. Who was sitting against the wall opposite the bed, eyes closed and clearly had fallen asleep himself. His head tilted down.

"Silver?"

That seemed to wake the Oswald family member up, who shook his head and got himself out of his drowsiness when he saw who was saying his name. "Oh. Hey." He got himself up off the floor walking over to the side of the bunk bed. "Glad you finally came around. I thought this might be a whole night watch at this rate."

"What, happened to me?" Subaru was trying to gather his thoughts.

"You got hit by...well, something. I have no real idea and nor did the guys who got the crowd to leave us alone long enough to get you home. I felt you needed medical attention but when the people started to recognize me and Blaze, hoo boy. One of the guys helping us had a Transer with a medical scanner and quickly did a once over on you saying nothing's wrong besides you were taking a deep nap. After he confirmed that I just grabbed you and legged it. It was after I got you home that Blaze reminded me you got hit by an unknown energy and could be suffering adverse effects or you might not wake up. That convinced me to stay and watch over you. Blaze is staying the night too after calling home. She's in the spare room." Silver gave him a small smile. "Anyways, you okay?"

"Besides feeling like I got ran over. I'm alright...Just trying to recall things." Subaru looked to the end of his bed, thinking. "So who were the people that helped you?"

Silver frowned. "Gears."

"The Protectors infantry?" Subaru looked over with an eyebrow raised. "On Earth X?"

"Yeah I got suspicious over that too. But when I asked what they were doing here one got annoyed, swore a little and said about the laws of the sectors allow them to reside on planets that are not in a state of hostility against theirs before another pointed out they were actually ex-Gears. Still didn't trust them fully but they didn't seem intent on anything besides helping. The one who said about them being ex-Gears, Marcus, mentioned about 'Freeman' needing to know about this."

"Wait Gordon Freeman? Dad's friend?"

Silver shrugged. "No clue. Didn't wanna stay remember? The eyes of those girls were looking hungry in the crowd." He shuddered a little. "And my father wonders why I'm not dating at the moment..."

"OH!" Subaru suddenly clicked on something. "I remember!"

Silver rolled his eyes looking away for a moment "About why I'm not? Trust me I don't want to talk about that fan again who went almost psycho when I refused to have se-"

"No about what happened to me! War-Rock!"

Silver just stared at him, confused.

"He's an alien! He hit me and we were floating in EM Waves! He told me he came from the Farside! He was a floating green alien from the FM planet!"

"...Uh huh."

"I'm serious! He said my Transer will do! He's probably in there now!" Subaru opened up his transer on his arm and lo and behold, there was War-Rock staring at him from the screen. "LOOK!" Subaru quickly turned his arm so Silver could see…

A blank screen. "...Yes I've seen the 3.5 version screen. Very stimulating Subaru but you should use the 3d maze screen-saver sometime, it's more engaging." He dully commented. "So should I tell your mom you're okay but minor hallucinations or should I warn her you might have a minor case of insanity?"

"Silver I'm being serious!" Subaru looked at his transer screen now and noticed as well it was empty. "He, he was right here just now!"

Silver gave Subaru a pitying look. "Hey. I think you need to get some sleep alright? We can talk about it in the morning. Your head might be a bit clearer okay? If there was an alien you might recall the full details by then. I believe something got to you, just, it isn't nearby right now, okay?"

Subaru wanted to argue, but instead chose to lay back on his bed. "I...yeah. I suppose you might be right. Maybe it's all just jumbled in my head right now."

"Well I'm gonna head to the spare room and sleep on the floor. Much as I like hanging around in yours it's hard to get comfortable when there's wires and everything else thrown about. I'll see you later."

"Wait. Isn't Blaze in the spare room?" Subaru looked over his bed at his friend. "Isn't it a little odd your staying in the same room as brother and sister?"

Silver looked baffled at that. "Not when we're fully dressed it isn't Subaru. We don't exactly have our nightwear here. Your mom said we can use the shower in the morning and she'll get our clothes washed early." With that, he gave Subaru a wave and headed out of the room.

Subaru waited for the door to close, then got himself off the bed, climbing down and getting changed into his Pyjamas, wondering what, if anything he saw in that strange moment, was actually real. But as he was climbing back onto his bed and started to pull the bed cover over himself...

"I don't trust your friend. Sorry for the avoidance."

Subaru quickly leaned over his bed and looked beneath to check on his Transer to see if it was open and War-Rock was there, but soon realized the voice was near him. "I snuck out of it into your machine on the desk. Easy to slip through your resting location without being seen."

"...Where are you exactly?" Subaru was sure it was next to him.

"I'm right here. Use the visor you have on your head."

Subaru seemed surprised at the fact he forgot he was still wearing his Visualizer. He placed it on looking down at the end of his bed.

And floating right there looking back at him, was War-Rock.

"Azrael's name! Don't do that!" Subaru pretty much shouted.

"Could you not be so loud? And who is Azrael?"

Subaru made sure to be a little more quieter this time. "You don't know Azrael? The god of creation?"

"Ah, you mean The One. He actually has a name this side of the Universe? I didn't hear humans say it before. Mostly I keep picking up on this 'Primus' fellow and thought that was it." War-Rock explained.

"Primus is a god too."

"He is? There are more than four?"

"Well some deities are-wait four?" Now Subaru was interested.

"The One. The Lady. The Prodigy. The Opposing Prodigy...Well I guess it's five if you count my king, rumours are he's a child of The Prodigy." War-Rock seemed to chuckle to himself "And he has a brother and sister so could even be seven."

Subaru just stared at him now confused.

"Right. The Lady is the mate of The One. Azrael."

Subaru now knew who that was. "Ronni."

"Yeah. Now they had two children. The Prodigy who you guys might know as her lover was killed here in the Deepside, and The Opposing Prodigy exists in Chaotic Space."

"Oh! The Prodigy must be Ingrid! The one who disappeared before Broly attacked Chad Oswald and Chaos Oswald!"

"...The Legendary Slayer has a name then. Chaos or Chad?"

"Oh uh, probably Chad as he killed Broly after his father gave his life to save him. His a descendent of the god Primus."

"Hm. That would explained how that was even possible back then...Well now. The Deepside is getting more interesting."

Subaru had to ask about that, now on his knees sitting there. "Why do you call this the Deepside?"

"Why do you call our area of space the Farside?"

"Well because it's far away, the opposite end of the Universe for us."

"And yours is in the depths of space on the opposite end to us. Now we cleared up that obvious question Subaru-" War-Rock answered with strong sarcasm, "We should get some rest. I'm still worn down from my fight earlier."

"Wait I still got plenty of questions!" Subaru leaned onto his hands, really wanting War-Rock to stay put.

But the alien clearly wasn't interested. "Save'em kid. I just wanted to confirm to you that you weren't imagining things. I'll answer some when the sun rises." With that he turned into a stream of green energy and flew through the bed into the Transer beneath.

Subaru wanted to get out of bed and chase after the alien, but he did feel honestly tired himself, closing his eyes…

---

"Subaru did you forget to put the batteries back in your Roll Crest clock?"

"Look that strange thing happened to me and I'm a little disorientated alright. Where's Silver and Blaze?"

"Already left. They had to run home before heading to their University. Needed to grab their bags."

"How much time do I have?"

"20 minutes. You better get in that shower young man."

"Alright alright..."

It was a Friday.

The one day of schooling he did had come. Throughout his preparation he hadn't forgotten War-Rock, but had lowered him on the priority list. He didn't want to become late on Fridays too.

Rushing off to the large school site and heading into class, he spotted Luna and Bud, choosing to quietly ignore them and head to his seat at the middle of the classroom. His teacher was used to this. "Subaru. Welcome."

"Hi Mrs Mulberry..."

"What's a Mrs Mulberry? Where have you taken me?"

Subaru froze. The voice from his transer was quite clear to the point the class overheard it and all were looking at him. He opened his transer for a moment. "Personal Interface, turn off." And quickly closed it. "New application I have to help me get moving in the mornings. Nothing much else."

That seemed to make people lose interest...besides Luna who was clearly staring at him for a few minutes before turning back to the front of the class. War-Rock didn't seem to say another word throughout the lesson for the morning, so was clearly aware other people heard him.

Soon the classed passed over, and Subaru sat outside on the sports ground to enjoy his break. Normally he'd look for a quiet classroom and wait to avoid others, but today...it just felt a little different. He wanted the time to go by fast. He was hoping watching others would help with that. He wanted to get home, get on the phone and get Silver and Blaze round his, convince War-Rock to come out and show he wasn't suffering from any hallucinations.

War-Rock now was speaking though. "Subaru. I suggest you keep your guard up. we're out in the open here and I can sense-"

"We're in school War-Rock. It's alright."

"An education center. That's fine but what I mean is I can detect familiar energy waves from those that come from my planet and one feels like it could be-"

"Subaru Hoshikawa." Subaru heard Luna as she was walking towards him.

"Shh War-Rock!" He hissed as he got up off the short trimmed grass. "Hey...Uh, where's the two flunkies of yours?"

Luna soon was standing close to him and clearly annoyed at what he said. "They are my friends, Subaru. Zack is busy reading and Bud is snacking out. I wanted to have a small talk with you."

The boy sighed. "What is it?"

"I'll be round yours again on Monday."

"Nothing new."

"I want you to come with me to school."

"Nothing new still."

"And I know you need to stop hanging around the Oswalds over your schooling."

"And that's nothi—Wait you know about who I'm with!?" That grabbed his attention.

"Last night when I was at the Arcade Zone shopping with a few of my servants. I saw you were unconscious and the two children of the Oswald household were protecting you. What happened?"

He got defensive about her wanting to know. "That's none of your business. I do what I want in my spare time."

She seemed to look around, as if trying to see if anyone was watching. Before focusing back on Subaru..and her facial features softened. "I'm worried about you being with them. Oswalds are troublesome people. There's always stories about terrible things going on when they're around. How can I help you come back to this place if your going to get yourself involved with them and anything that comes their way?"

"You don't...oh by the name of Primus you don't believe in that stuff right?" Subaru looked a little angry. "They're nice people. Silver's been my friend long enough. Nothing's happened besides us playing games. No enemy of them has targeted me or some evil force has come nor has any Deity made themselves known. They're as normal as me."

"Normal is not the word I would put with them. They're the center of a Religion that treats all of that blood as heroes and more times than not they get mixed up in issues that normally lead to people suffering!" She responded with, that seemingly look of genuine concern being replaced by her standard agitated look he sees. "My family knows it well enough."

"Oh your rich family knows the difficulties of being around ANOTHER rich family. Sorry to hear it." That little bit of sarcasm he placed in that seemed to make her only more mad as he heard the school bell ring, meaning it was time for the other class of today before he could go home. He started to walk past her when he felt her grab his arm painfully tight to get his attention.

"My uncle and aunt got pulled into matters with a branch of the Oswald family on Gaia VII. They lost their lives along with my nephew because of them." She said in a dark, pissed tone. Wanting to shout after what Subaru said but clearly didn't want to pull attention to herself, clenching her spare hand into a fist to restrain her emotions. "I don't want to hear the one person I've been hounding to go to school end up dead by their hands too."

"...It would make it easier for your walks to school not having to stop at mine." Subaru yanked his arm away and headed in, noting the fact there would be bruises where she grabbed him, not noticing her shocked expression at what he said to her.

No one noticed the orange and red energy being with armor plating and bull-like horns floating just above the school, looking down on it. An FM-ian Alien like War-Rock. "...War-Rock...So Cygnus Wing lost sight of you and fallen back away from this world for a time, but here you are hiding with the humans of the Deepside. I should tell the winged fool to contact our king, but I think I can deal with War-Rock easy enough...now to find something to merge with instead of risking it by myself."

"Do what exactly by yourself, beef ribs?"

The being snarled and looked to the side of the school building. Soon another was flying up to him. A being like himself but light blue in energy and with a wolf-like head.

"Wolf Forest. Keep out of my way. I've found War-Rock."

"No way Ox Fire. We agreed with the king to show some cooperation on this endeavour. Do you want to instead explain to him why you wandered off alone? You know it's against my instincts too yet here I am."

"You have a suggestion then?"

"I think I found myself a host that'll be useful. Why don't you explore this...place, and see who you can find? You surprise War-Rock from the inside, I'll jump him from the outside. I'll come when I detect your energy spike."

"...The human he was being carried by. In that device on the wrist. Do you think that's his host?"

Wolf laughed a little. "I doubt it. The child barely read at a power level of 8. Nothing in this place goes beyond 10."

Ox seemed to get agitated at this. "And you want me to find a host amongst these low-levelled creatures!?"

"You just need one to draw War-Rock out, then with my host we can easily finish him, grab what he has and go home away from this side."

The fiery FM-ian was snarling, before finally accepting the idea. "I'll take my time and pick one close to him. You wait." Soon flying down into the school, Wolf meanwhile flew away from the school towards the center of DenTech.

---

It was now 10 minutes past 2 in the afternoon and the school was closed. Subaru was now waiting patiently in one of the many shopping mall centers around the city, sitting at a metal bench in the main area where it was decorated with planted flowers, trees and a beautiful fountain, sunlight flooding in and the people around him going about their daily business, glancing at advertisements on the walls and through the windows of the shops.

Silver said he and Blaze would come and see him. He was fine sitting there and waiting.

War-Rock wasn't. "Subaru. I suggest you keep moving. The others know where I am."

Subaru looked down at his transer and opened the top. "War-Rock what others are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about others like me, FM-ians. Normally once Cygnus has detected my presence the others quickly follow to the world he found me. It's safer to move as my signal blends in with the background. Sitting still makes it more clearer and obvious."

"This Cygnus guy. The one that attacked you."

"Yeah. Been dogging me for 3 years straight. Our King made him the frontman of hunting me down. The moment he finds me it lets the others know in a matter of hours."

"3 years?"

"Yeah. Defected and abandoned the others after an incident. They want me dead because I got something they desperately want. The key to the world destroying device known as Andromeda."

Subaru's heart felt like it had stopped for a moment. He felt himself go cold and sweating as he stared at War-Rock. "D, Did you just say, world destroying?"

"Yeah. Goes deep into the planet, hits the core and blows it from the inside out. Very effective because it's hard for most things to track and quite fast. I mean compared to Overlords who can tear chunks out of a planet for which they need vast amounts of power, this can be used by anyone."

"You don't plan to use it, right?"

"...I make no promises on that matter. I've got in on standby for my own reasons. I would use it on this world to cover my tracks since something tells me I won't have a way to evade my old allies this time. My last decoy warrior was used up on...what was it? Sirafin II? The things you people clearly call EM Viruses are our ground troops or if you prefer, energy shields since their useless compared to-"

"Please don't blow up my planet!" Subaru quickly pleaded to War-Rock, causing a few people around him to look over to him like he was crazy on saying that, which he smiled at him and gave a weak laugh to look like he was joking before they walked on.

"Look. I have to watch my back. I want to keep away from them as much as possible for that very reason. They want use it on your worlds. Your capital worlds. If that means I have to drain it of power to take this one out and render it inoperable for a time I'm not going to restrict myself."

"Why do they want to target our worlds?"

War-Rock gave a long deep sigh, looking downwards. "Our seer saw a future where humanity of the Deepside would strike us. They would destroy our people and enslave those who surrender, plundering our resources and killing all who resist. When you're being warned a great unknown wants to gun for you...well, our king decided to strike first. His faith in our seer is unquestionable. An attack force aimed for a space station that was 'targeting' us, proving the seers vision, three years ago to show we won't go quietly and then we deployed our force across your EM Wave networks to cause disruptions to delay the dark future waiting for us."

Subaru very quickly clicked on what space station it had to be. It was after it vanished that the viruses rapidly appeared so… "My dad's station...was attacked by you guys?"

"I guess so. I, wasn't there. The story went around of a great victory of taking it out. It had aimed a weapon at our planet. The energy surge it produced was almost at our surface when our team hit…that attack made me turn against them. I had questioned the seer's visions before but to me, that and the followed up idea of an invasion force was too far."

The boy felt a pang of anger towards War-Rock, knowing his people killed his dad, but it subsided by the fact War-Rock wasn't present there and was clearly unhappy with the way his people have gone about it.

"Subaru? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's...no one knew what destroyed the space station. My dad was working on something that would 'bridge the sides and bring a new future'. Never told me what it was...i don't think it was a weapon."

"It wasn't." War-Rock responded. "My final reason for walking away was that. I detected the energy and scanned it, noticing it wasn't dangerous at all...It was a signal to us. But it died shortly after when the station went."

"...Father wanted to know you..."

"And my King killed him for it."

A moment of silence surrounded them, not noticing the fact there was clearly someone coming towards Subaru, and soon enough another voice was talking to them, one that Subaru thought he left behind at school. "So this is where you hang out?"

He quickly put his transer screen down and looked up.

Luna. In her hands were a few logo stamped bags of fashionable wares. She seemed a little moody. "So...how are you?"

Subaru didn't want to say much to her. "I'm waiting at the moment."

Luna moved to the side and sat down besides him….which made him rapidly uncomfortable. He didn't like people too close to him. "Waiting for who? Mrs Hoshikawa?"

"The Oswalds."

"…Oh. I see."

"So they don't follow outside of school?"

Luna looked a little confused for a moment at before figuring it out. "Buds on his way. Zack went home to play his video games."

"Okay."

Silence crept in as they sat there, the people around them passing by and going about their business.

Luna soon had something on her mind. "So, do you know Misora Hibiki?"

Subaru nodded. "I have all her songs. Listen to them now and then."

"Well she's suppose to be coming back to Earth X in a few days. Do a few homecoming shows. I'm going to treat Bud and Zack to tickets for the one she plans for DenTech city as they're my friends."

Subaru looked away trying to focus on a nearby store to get through/ignore this conversation. "Neat."

The girl looked at him, unsure if she should ask, but soon went for it. "Do you, want a ticket too?"

"We're not friends."

That ended that line of talk. Luna fell quiet once more, gutted at his answer to that.

Subaru soon found relief from this strange silence they were locked in when he spotted Silver and Blaze coming his way in their mobian forms, Silver waving to him before they arrived at the bench. Luna watched them as they greeted him and her. "Hey Luna. Subaru. Hey how did school go today? You doing alright after..." Noticing Luna watching them. "Ya know. Last night…?"

Luna gave a small huff. "I am aware Subaru was hurt and you guys were there Silver. I watched you take him."

"Sorry Luna. Wasn't sure if you did. We were in a hurry afterall. How's your family? Haven't seen'em in a while."

"Dad and mom are fine." the long blonde haired girl focused away from them as she saw Bud coming down of the pathways. "If you don't mind I have to go. Bye Subaru...take care alright?" She looked to him before giving Blaze and Silver a brief glance and walking away.

Whilst Silver shrugged off the way she left them, Blaze seemed a tad more irritated by it. "I know she's been snubbing us lately but I swear it feels like it's getting worse with each passing encounter."

"You know why she does sis. Leave her to it. We can only try and keep it pleasant." Silver focused back on Subaru. "Heard anything from that alien you said about?"

"War-Rock and yes. Here he is." Subaru showed his transer screen to them. Half expecting a surprised look but also expecting the same result as last time.

It was the same as before meaning War-Rock hid again. "...You know I still think you should add the 3D maze. You can create it from stored pictures...Knowing you it'll be Chad related, the girls of that time or that singer you always fancy and listen to whenever she's on."

Subaru sighed in annoyance looking at his transer "War-Rock is real guys. I'm serious he just, doesn't like showing himself."

"Uh huh." Blaze folded her arms. "Well I think you should go up the hospital to have a proper check over."

As the three friends continued with Subaru still trying and prove the fact War-Rock exists Luna and Bud had met up just outside one of the shops with her telling him about what shopping she still needs to do.

The FM-ian Ox Fire was close to the shop. Unseen to the naked eye of those that pass by and through him, especially since he was in his complete energy wave state. He had been tailing Bud since the school. He wanted a target close to the carrier of War-Rock but so far it seemed this one and the female he was talking to were the nearest that weren't moving away. He eyed up Silver and Blaze for a moment but the fact they were right next to War-Rock would allow the FM-Ian to detect him before he could even merge. "Of all the filth I have to go for..."

He slowly moved himself into position, choosing to fly a little higher up to get clean sight of Bud, switching from his complete energy state into a more materialized state of being, building up energy around him still unseen but detectable to transers, radios and radars.

Luna seemed to stop talking to the human he was targeting and looked right at him, appearing surprised.

Had she seen him? He couldn't wait to find out should she blow his chance.

"HOST MERGE!" Ox Fire yelled, as he dived down towards Bud's back.

Subaru, Silver and Blaze all now heard Luna scream "BUD LOOK OUT!" as they turned to see what was going on as did most of the crowd around the trio.

Bud's eyes widened as he felt something almost flow into his body for a moment, before yelling out grabbing onto his head as pillar of red energy engulfed him and making Luna take a few steps back losing her balance and falling with her bags littering the floor, horrified at what was happening.

Once the energy dispersed, there stood Ox Fire, fully materialized into his mechanical like body gleaming in the light, his mighty steel fists rising up above him and his giant horns, numerous hole-like vents in his nose blowing steam and his now echoey deep voice calling out "War-Rock! I've come for what's ours!"

"Ah hell! Ox Fire!" War-Rock cursed his luck in Subaru's transer, clearly enough for Silver and Blaze to finally hear as they spun around to look back at the boy and his device. "Of course it's that pain in the ass! Subaru we need to run!"

The large FM being looked straight at the trio and readying his shoulder, yelled "OX TACKLE!" and charged. Leaving indents in the ground as he rushed towards them, slamming past bystanders and causing a rising surge of panic from those in the mall making them flee for their lives.

"GO SUBARU!" Silver quickly placed his hand on his sword pulling it out of it's holding and held it tightly in the palms of his hands as he decided to get in front of Subaru and use it to halt Ox Fire. Subaru did as War-Rock suggested and quickly got off the bench and ran down one of the hallways with the crowd.

When Ox collided with Silver...the Oswald family member wasn't expecting much force behind it. He had a, degree, of combat training offered by his school, a benefit for his bloodline.

But he quickly recalled as his sword was easily dislodged out of his hands and he found himself being flung over the bench after getting smashed in the face with Ox Fire's metal shoulder, he skipped nearly every sword combat training lesson to hang around with Subaru and mostly carried it around for show, telling Blaze once 'he'll just wing it'. The result of now him being on his back, legs up in the air resting on the back of the bench showed that winging it wasn't going to cut it.

The FM-ian seemed pissed off that Silver got in the way. "Idiot! I carry a power level of 4000! Even with the meager boost of 20 from this host I easily surpass your rating of 310!"

"Fire wave!" A trail of fire flowed towards Ox Fire and struck him in the left side, hardly doing a thing as he turned his attention to the one unleashing the flame from her hand, Blaze.

"And you carry a mere level of 360! Don't waste my time! ANGER PUNCH!"

Ox Fire jumped into the air and came down with his fist first, slamming it hard into the flooring causing it to bow and create a small crater where he hit whilst Blaze easily avoided the attack and jumping away, readying a few fireballs in her hands and tossing them at the monster.

They too didn't do anything besides keep his attention on her, charging at her and trying to gorge her with his horns, something she barely avoided whilst Silver got himself to his feet, picking up his sword and rushing to the back of Ox Fire swinging the weapon down.

The audible clanging sound it made caused a moment of vibrations down Silver's arm and merely made the tauren-looking FM-ian to focus on him again, socking him in the stomach and causing him to fly back slamming through one of the windows of a woman's dress line shop.

Ox Fire now focused back on the other low-levelled annoyance...and found the metal bench that Subaru once sat down slamming into his face with enough force that he stumbled back in surprise. "What the-!?" Glaring at the mobian cat he suddenly noticed something different besides the faint light purple glow around her body. "Your power level! What!?"

"Brother will you please forget the sword swinging crap and just use anything else!" Blaze complained aloud, as the metal bench was covered in the same aura as her, floating up near Ox Fire ready to be used again.

"Ugh fine!"

Ox Fire spun around to look at Silver, when a collection of long dresses, bras, panties, tops and jeans smothered his vision, covering his entire head causing him seconds of absolute confusion on what's going on whilst Silver jumped out of the broken shop window covered in a faint light blue aura. "So much for trying to keep a look of coolness..."

"No one is around to witness it!" Blaze then smashed the bench across the back of Ox Fire's head.

No one but Luna, who was keeping low besides one of the shops, watching the whole fight go down.

---

Subaru had gotten outside into the city streets, panting and a little relieved it was clear the alien hadn't pursued him. Looking back into the shopping mall as the last of the people got out he clicked on the fact a few people were missing. "Silver! Blaze! Luna!" He quickly opened his transer. "War-Rock what the hell happened back there to Bud!?"

"We can fuse with people, unwilling or otherwise! Ox obviously targetted him because he was close by in the education center you were in earlier! We have to leave your companions to handle him!"

"What!? But they might die!"

War-Rock shrugged. "I don't care! I have my own hide to save at this stage as well as yours!"

"Fuse with me!"

"No way! That'll leave me wide open for all of my enemies to sense me! It's only Ox Fire right now so let's keep it minimal and get the hell out of here-"

A howl was heard along with the ground briefly reflecting a source of light blue energy as the crowd around the entrance to the mall along with Subaru were panicking again and scattering to get away from something behind Subaru in the road.

Wolf Forest, now materialized into his true form like Ox had, with giant claws on his hands, a metal, werewolf-shaped body and tail and razor-sharp teeth was seen looking straight at Subaru. "War-Rock! Give us what we want!"

"Him too! Damnit and he found himself a decent host on this planet!" War-Rock was obviously now starting to worry. "I'm running out of options here! Subaru do you have anything that can help!? We've already used your companions on Ox!"

Wolf was clearly getting ready to dive at Subaru, and those claws were gleaming in the sunlight, much to Subaru's deep concern. "I have Wave Battle Cards!"

"Combat weapons!? Excellent! Use them!"

"I can't! I'm not licensed to!"

"What!?"

"You need a license to use battle cards outside of hologram rooms and video game transmissions!"

"Why would your kind create such a thing if it's restricted-" War-Rock wanted to go on a tandem but noticed Wolf no longer was going to wait, launching himself into the air and readying his claws to slash the boy apart, causing War-Rock to curse his luck before saying. "WAVE CHANGE!"

For a moment, a sphere of green energy consumed Subaru where he stood. Before he suddenly found himself leaping back several feet and landing with ease avoiding Wolf, everything seemed a little redder in his eyes, and a small brief window of information popped up with a line coming from Wolf Forest, showing his name and a number of 6,640.

Then he realized he was now wearing a visor which was connected to a helmet on his head. He soon noticed as well that War-Rock's head was now replacing his left hand, he was in some-kind of Navi one-piece suit, with a blue gauntlet, pauldrons and boots to cover some of it. War-Rock didn't want to spending time on the sudden change. "Focus on Wolf! We're not as high a power level but we have to take him on! Give me one of those battle cards!"

"But I'm not in my clothes!"

"Think of them and they'll materialize in your hand so long as you had them on your person! MOVE!" War-Rocks command was not without reason as Wolf lunged at them, making Subaru leap to the side, flipping in the air without even trying and landing on his feet masterfully.

"Wow! I never knew I could pull this off!" Subaru seemed very pleased with himself looking at his feet then at where Wolf now was.

"That's because I'm working through your sub-conscious to enhance you! Please focus!"

"WOLF CLAW!" Wolf swung his weapons of choice, this time creating streaks of yellow energy out of them flying towards the merge team, which to Subaru seemed like they were going to hit and tried to swerve out of the way...finding himself easily bending and moving his feet around the energy as it flowed by and slashed into the nearby wall of a building, causing a chunk of it to collapse.

"I'm like a master at this! This is like my TV shows with Chad and the Hero Base-"

"BATTLE CARDS! NOW!" War-Rock pointed himself right at Subaru's face to make sure he was solely focused on him and him alone.

"R-Right! Sorry sorry!" Subaru quickly thought of one, looking at his right hand...and nothing appeared. A sudden realization kicked in. "OH NO! I left them at home when I came to school!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS CRAP SUBARU!? WE, ARE GOING, TO DIE!"

"Howling Wolf!" Their enemy called out, as three adult-sized mechanical brown wolves appeared before him, and ran towards Subaru. "When your human host is dead you're mine!"

Yellowish balls of energy with trailing tails rained from the sky, striking the wolf-like creatures and disintegrated them before several of the same type of energy rained down on Wolf Forest. The one who had created these attacks landed nearby Subaru, in a combat stance ready to fight, about half his height, bald with six dots on his head, wearing an orange gi outfit with the symbol of the Turtle school martial arts style on the back and wearing a green transer on his wrist. "Yamcha! You got to stop this!"

Wolf was only slightly harmed by the energy, snarling and lunging at the small human who evaded the sharp claws, kicking Wolf right in the chin with his knee as he launched himself up and over the FM-ian, firing several more energy shots at the monster to try and take it down.

Wolf turned to face the newcomer as he landed and was swinging wildly, easily missing and having the human go underneath him frequently and occasionally punching and kicking causing the creature plenty of agitation.

"Subaru! Use me!"

Subaru had been staring at the newcomer and watching his movement, picking up his visor was noting that the person was unknown, and had a number of 4,700. Hearing War-Rock snapped in out of it, and soon figured out what War-Rock meant, as planted in his mind was a move that, while weak, could do some minimal damage. "Right!" He aimed War-Rock at the back of Wolf who had used one claw to stop the human from dodging one way and aimed the other at him. "Rock Buster!"

He fired off purple energy spheres from the maw of War-Rock that struck Wolf Forest and making him lose focus on his new target as he gave a small yell of pain quickly turning to focus on Subaru now...which led to the small human pulling his arms and hands back. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!"

The blue energy wave fired out of his hands and slammed into Wolf Forest sending him packing past Subaru in mere moments and smashing through a nearby tower block.

Subaru was just, awed by that, staring at where Wolf had went watching the cinder blocks and debris slowly mount up where the hole barely shaped like the FM was placed. The human on the other hand was quickly standing besides the boy. "So I don't think that quite put him out of commission. Ya might wanna get ready because something tells me he isn't gonna be happy when he comes out. Battle card Big Axe!" The person pulled out from his gi one of the battlecards and placed it through the transer, creating a large steel axe with a big head to appear in his hands, which was about the same size as himself, easily holding it like it was as light as a feather. "Let me handle this."

Subaru noticed then his visor was now showing the person had a number of 5,300.

Wolf smashed through the debris on all fours running wildly towards Subaru and his ally who just was running towards the FM-ian, and as Wolf lunged, the human used the flat side of the axe and smacked it across the head of the alien with such force that he spun around following his head losing complete balance and as he began to fall to the ground the human uppercutted him into the air.

Which led to someone else colliding with Wolf, kicking him right in the side and sending him spiralling through the air slamming across the ground on impact. The same gi outfit as the small human, but with spiky black hair, floating in the air for a moment before coming down landing near his friend, a number of 7,000 showing up on Subaru's visor. "Hey Krillin! I thought I could pick up something going on."

"Goku! I thought you'd never even show up! I did tell the others I saw Yamcha get struck by something but I thought I'd have to deal with it alone. Ya know, because you don't have a transer?"

"Ah you know I don't need that tech-stuff. My senses work just fine."

"And you can't afford it."

"And I can't afford it." The one known as Goku soon looks back at Subaru. "Who's this?"

Krillin looked at him as well. "No idea but his fighting the thing Yamcha is a part of, so I just let him join in."

Subaru smiled at them. "Hi, I'm..." He paused, looking at War-Rock, who was shaking his head. "I'm uhhh..."

"'Uhhh' huh? Well I'm Goku, and this is Krillin."

"No that's not my name. Mine is...well...War...Rock...man...Rockman!" Subaru was beaming on the fact he came up with that. War-Rock meanwhile gave a long sigh. "Really?"

"Well it's nice to meet you Rockman. You a fighter?"

Subaru, now calling himself Rockman, scratched his head a little. "I'm, learning?"

Krillin smiled. "Gotta start at some-point I guess. We're from a group called Starforce. I take it you might know the thing Yamcha is being taken over by?"

"Well I don't but my friend-"

"IT'S NO USE!"

That came from inside the shopping mall as all three looked over.

"TAKE THIS!"

Ox Fire smashed through the automated glass doors of the entrance, spinning wildly whilst briefly covered in a light blue aura, rolling past Rockman, Goku and Krillin cursing and yelling.

Out of the destroyed entranceway came Silver and Blaze, both looking a little tired but Silver was clearly smirking at what he just said. "And that's the sixth time you'd tried that same tactic! Call it quits already!"

Ox Fire was heard responding in the distance with a defiant "NEVER!"

Krillin stared at the two mobians, before looking at Rockman again. "Friends of yours?"

He was smiling on seeing they were okay. "Yep! Hey! I'm glad you guys are okay!"

Silver was about to answer when he spotted something a little more important, as did Goku and Krillin.

Ox Fire had returned, panting and tired, and besides him was Wolf Forest. Who seemed in about the same state as his partner. "Y-you think we're done!?" The bull-like alien furiously said.

"Well I'm seeing a five-to-two battle going on here, and I don't like your odds in it." Silver stood with Rockman, as did Blaze whilst Goku and Krillin were in front of them.

Ox looked to Wolf, who seemed to motion with his head they should back off. That seemed to trigger Ox. "But they're nothing to us! You've got a good one and you're suggesting we run!?"

"The longer we use these bodies the weaker we get and more likely our hosts will resist! Let's scram while we can and try later! Plus-" pointing to Goku "-THAT is not a human if you bother to use your senses! I don't know what one of them is doing here but I'm not waiting when his powerful enough to take me down!"

With that, a light blue pillar of light shot up around Wolf Forest, who returned to his wave state form and shot away from the area, leaving behind a very dazed, long black haired man with a cross scar on his left cheek and a small scar vertically down his right eye, a red transer on his wrist and wearing a blue and white one-piece tight skinned suit on, black leathery shoes and a pair of white fingerless gloves. Subaru recognized the gear. A Blitzball player.

Then there was a red pillar and Ox followed suit, leaving behind a very tired looking Bud, who just fell back onto the ground, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

"Yamcha!" Krillin ran up to the blitzball player, who blinked his eyes and just looked at Krillin.

"Hey. So, am I out of the game?"

"...Do you recall what just happened?"

"I dunno. I was playing, got the ball and was performing my wolf fang blitz move and that's it. Must've got hit by one of the Ridge Mavellers..." he yawns, looking at Bud. "Hey, this guy's got the right idea. Imma just take a small nap." With that, he closed his eyes and fell with Krillin just catching him and laying him down.

Krillin was relieved regardless. "Well at least we got him back. We better tell Starforce HQ we dealt with the aliens with the help of others and they ran." He opened his transer...and noticed something. "Wait. I'm still detecting waves similar to them nearby. Right close to us." He glanced over at Rockman. "...Oh."

Rockman looked down at War-Rock as he now noticed Silver, Blaze, Goku and Krillin looking right at him. "What do we do?"

"Run you idiot! Double time! Let me help with that!"

"What do you mean help with-" Rockman soon phased out of their view, and to Silver and Blaze, they could vaguely see his outline as he shot up into the sky, and seemed to fly off through the city, when in actual fact War-Rock had changed himself and Subaru into a wave state and were now traversing down one of the wave roads as fast as possible with War-Rock leading, keeping Subaru's arm outstretched ahead of him as he tried to ask the FM where they were going.

This left Silver and Blaze, who were now face to face with Krillin and Goku. The latter who asked them. "So you guys know Rockman?"

---

"Oh man oh man we should've stayed put!"

"Subaru calm down will you? They won't pursue the matter further!"

"Why the hell won't they? We left my friends there! And those two are from Starforce!"

"Who are…?"

"I dunno but it sounds space-y enough to me meaning they'll look for you! They were actively sensing for your waves!"

"Look if they chase me up I'll just blow this planet and we both can move on!"

"War-Rock no!"

"Well what else am I suppose to do!? I'm not turning myself in to your human police system! Can't trust an unknown like that! Especially since you don't seem to either stuff souls into Prinnies or make them listen to awful poetry and suffer a lack of pudding!"

"I'm...sorry what?"

Subaru was in his room. The sun was on the horizon. War Rock was floating near Subaru who was sitting cross legged on his bed. He told his mother he felt a little ill and was gonna go lay down. She did bring him up some slices of toast to eat thinking it's an upset stomach.

The toast was cold now and Subaru was still trying to accept the fact they ran away and Silver and Blaze will especially want some answers.

"The fact is I won't speak to anyone else but you Subaru. I don't trust them." War-Rock folded his arms.

"But...look what about Blaze and Silver? They're my friends and you can trust them like you trust me."

War-Rock frowned. "Trust is a strong word Subaru. I feel 'fine' with you despite the fact you get easily distracted. Look, just settle down. Do something to pass the time. No one has come here so far. It's been about three hours."

Subaru looked over to his alarm clock that he had now fixed up. 5:43 pm. He seemed to suddenly recall something. "Oh! It starts tonight! That's why no one would be coming over!"

"...Huh?"

Subaru quickly climbed off his bed and went over to a calender he had on the wall, with a...quite attractive picture of a purple haired woman with a large bust and booty, wearing a nurses outfit and bending over forwards, blowing a kiss with the name in purple 'Medi' besides her. "It's the 19th of October! It's the start of the Lexnus period!"

"...I don't understand!"

Subaru sighed a little, getting back up on his bed and opening his window, leaning out of it a little with his arms resting on the side. War-Rock floated up beside him and did the same. "Just listen. Give it time."

Time just slowly passed on, and as the sun disappeared and darkness swallowed the sky, the stars arriving to litter it, there was the faintest of cries...a chime of calls in the darkness that didn't sound like that of a vicious predator, but something that echoed into the night. The lights in the nearby street and the outside light of Subaru's house seemed to get stronger and brighter, covering more of the ground as if on cue.

Subaru placed his visualizer down over his eyes...to him now, through the wave roads he could see, there was ripples of energy accommodating the sound, red, blue, green, yellow and violet, they blinked in and out barely showing the fact the very beings making this noise were flying past overhead.

"...What are they?" War-Rock asked quietly, as he could see the same as Subaru.

"A species that outlived the extinct Zerg. Space flyers who establish routes through habitable worlds in broods. They stay on each world for a period of time. Eat whatever remains in the dark, hunting at night and hiding in the deepest caves in the day. They'll be around for a week...it's great to hear them."

"...And you humans allow them to exist despite being a threat? I mean, they hunt humans right?"

"Anything really. If it's in the dark it's free game to them. It's something we're all warned about. Cities rarely have any sign of them being around because the dark spots they could use are normally surrounded by other light sources."

"Interesting. You let them exist despite being a danger."

"They make lovely songs." Subaru continued to listen to their cries as War-Rock moved away from the window and back near the floor of the bedroom.

There was a knock on his bedroom door as Akane peeped in, unable to see War-Rock. "Hey."

Subaru looked over to her for a moment. "Hey mom."

She came over and joined him, sitting on the bed and leaning out of the window a little. "I was gonna tell you they've come back...enjoying it as always?"

"Mm hmm."

"So, did school go okay today?"

"Yeah. It was...busy."

"Well that's good. Did you see Silver and Blaze afterwards?"

He nods. "Hopefully I'll see them again this weekend."

"I'm sure you will."

Akane looked at her boy, and wanted to ask him something. She knew what he'd probably answer with but something told her...maybe this time will be different. "Subaru, I want to ask you about your school...do you think you'll go-"

Downstairs there was a knock on the door. Akane got off the bed. "I'll be back shortly. Probably Carth. I did ask him round this evening. Gonna watch Battle of the Dark Stars. Wanna sit with us?"

"Not tonight mom. But, thanks for asking."

With that she left the room.

War-Rock soon spoke after that. "What's wrong with your education center?"

Subaru sighed. "I don't go there often. Once a week when it should be five times. Been avoiding it for three years since...I lost my dad."

"A place of learning is a good place to use while you're a young one. Make more use of it. It will teach you ways of combat when you forget your battle cards again."

Subaru frowned and looked into his room. "That was today. From now on I won't leave my deck behind."

"Good, because I can bypass the silly little coding I detected on your transer to use them. They should provide an edge against my old allies. Power levels seem to get boosted when they are in use."

"Power levels...is that the number I was seeing in my visor when I was Rockman?"

"Yep. It seems compared to you folk of the Deepside, we monitor people's power in numbers, you have standard power levels and overlord power levels."

"...the difference being?"

"When a standard power level reaches 100,000, it is classed as 1 on the overlord power level. So when you encounter an overlord who holds a power level of 50, they're actually 5,000,000 on the standard scale. It's an effective system that you people could learn."

"Sounds complicated."

"That's because you haven't used it for hundreds of thousands of years like our races."

Subaru then thought on it, moving away from the window and now looking over his bed at War-Rock. "Who's the strongest you've known then?"

"...One who is at an overlord power level of 2,500, and that appears to be when he's relaxed. He is one of the most feared figures alive over on my side. His name is Orochi, and that is-"

Akane called out from downstairs. "Subaru! Someone is hear to see you!"

The boy looked a little baffled, but got off his bed and heading to his door, looking back at War-Rock for a moment. "Probably just Silver and Blaze. Look if they come up...please let them see you. They'll understand."

"Hmph...I'll think on it."

With that Subaru headed down the stairs spotting his mom standing beside the front door. He came to a stop on the third step from the bottom.

Gordon Freeman was there, wearing his scientist clothing, to his left was Goku and a man in a blue office suit, with a dull grey waistcoat, red tie and white shirt beneath, black shoes with his short black hair gelled back. To Gordon's right was Silver in his human form along with Blaze.

Gordon spoke. "Subaru? It's been a while. You know my friend Goku. The other is Phoenix Wright. And of course you know your own friends...We need to talk to you."

---

"My lord...Ox Fire and Wolf Forest failed. Again. This time War-Rock had allies. It appears he has support in his exile which may lead to him rallying the humans against us."

"..."

"My lord?"

"Our war with the Deepside may need to escalate. I have hoped you four could hunt him down while the viruses create enough chaos to keep them busy. It appears I was mistaken."

"Forgive me. I should not have rested while allowing the other two to try. I have yet to see Cancer Bubble on Earth X. He is late."

"Again? Disappointing."

"Yes my lord. What shall I do?"

"As always. Hunt War-Rock as you see fit. You will be given command of any others that I send to the Deepside. I trust you with this my loyal Cygnus Wing."

"Thank you! Your trust in me will push me to fight on with all I have!"

A glowing orb in the darkness showed within it, Cygnus, who was in his EM Wave state. Soon he vanished, and the sconces on the stone walls lit up with an eerie deep blue flame. The imposing figure that was speaking to Cygnus overshadowed the orb as it slowly went down onto an altar and it's light died, leaving a green jade sphere in it's place.

He turned away from it, the giant black steel embedded doors he walked towards opened almost by themselves as he passed into a corridor that was lit with the same flames, the ground covered in a blood red carpet, his metal boots echoed throughout as he went along.

In the middle of it, he came to stop as another figure was waiting for him. "Zamasu."

Zamasu the Hylden deity bowed gracefully. "My lord. I take it Cygnus has struggled with his task once more as Da Ji predicted?"

"Send for Gemini Spark, Ophiuchus Queen, Crown Thunder, Harp Note and Libra Balance. I shall send them to the Deepside."

"Of course. But my lord, the meeting with the other Overlords will be soon. May I make a small suggestion to aid in this matter?"

His leader glanced in his direction in silence.

"Why not suggest sending other species as well? Is this not an effort that requires unity?"

"We are busy with the Oni."

"Of course. But to send a few unique individuals will not effect our efforts to unify the worlds here. I only humbly ask you consider what I say...Lord Orochi."

Orochi's blue and red serpent-like eyes did not look away from Zamasu as he eventually nodded to confirm he would consider it, and walked on with Zamasu following him in silence.

---

1. Subaru, War-Rock and such are from Megaman Starforce.

2. Goku Krillin and Yamcha are from Dragonball.

3. Barney, Kleiner, Eli and Gordon come from Half Life.

4. Phoenix Wright is from Ace Attorney, his appearance being akin to the most recent.

5. Lexnus are the Bio-raptors from Pitch Black.

6. Overlords is a term used in Disgaea/Makai Kingdom.

7. Power Levels will only be a Farside thing. And not for the long term since ya know...power levels are bullshit.