To all my faithful readers: if this story has a slow start, I'm sorry. It's going to heat up really soon, so don't worry. And I'm sorry about all of the delays. Like I said before, college is a trip.

Note: Valerie's theme song is Determined Eyes from Mega Man ZX Advent.

Face of the Enemy

"What's the situation?!" Val said as she and Luna ran into the main computer room, Bud, Zack, Sonia, Solo, and Pat already there.

"Whoever it is hacking into the systems has already passed through all of the firewalls!" Zack said typing on the computer, "What's really strange is that they aren't using any viruses to attack."

"How is that possible?" Bud asked, "You can't hack a computer without a virus!"

"Unless they just go and do it themselves," Solo stated, catching everyone's attention.

"You mean..." Sonia started, getting a nod from Solo.

"EM Being. Someone used EM Wave Change and Transed into the Cyber Core of the main computer," Solo further explained.

"If someone EM Wave Changed then why weren't we notified? Especially if they Wave Changed so close to the Satella Police base." Val asked sternly.

"We didn't even know! No Transcode appeared on screen!" Zack stated.

"Do you think it's Neo Arcadia?" Pat asked.

"If it is, then let's get in there and take 'em out!" Rey said in Pat's head.

"Probably..." Val said thinking to herself.

"So what are we waiting for? Pat, Solo, the three of us will Trans In and-" Bud started, but Val held up her hand.

"Hold on, why don't we just send Zero," Val asked, making Luna jump.

"Me?" Luna asked.

"Should we really ask Luna to fight?" Sonia asked, "She just got home a few days ago, and she was fighting for three weeks straight."

"Perhaps, but she's probably the strongest one here. Besides, there aren't any viruses, like Zack said, so there's no reason to send an entire three man squad. Well, four counting Gemini Spark as two operatives. And this is a good chance for me to see Zero's power," Val then looked at Luna, "So Luna, are you in?"

Luna had to think about this a little. What Sonia said did have merit, but she wasn't about to turn away knowing full well that she could help.

"I'm in," Luna said with a nod.

"Be careful in there," Pat said. Luna nodded to him, and then looked at Xerox in her Hunter VG, "Let's go Xerox!"

"Right!"

Luna then put the Visualizer on her eyes, and held up her arm as Xerox materialized behind her, "Transcode 666! Zero!" Xerox embraced Luna from behind and they both disappeared in a red light.

Zero appeared inside the Cyber Core. She was astounded by her surroundings since it was the first time she had ever been inside a Cyber Core. It looked almost like she was in space, only there weren't any planets. The "ground" under her feet looked like the Wave Road, only it was purple instead of orange, and wasn't really a "road" so much as a platform.

"Amazing..." Zero said looking around.

"This is our first time in a Cyber Core." Xerox stated. Even he was amazed by the inside of the computer. Zero looked forward and saw four large doors opened in front of her.

"Those must be the firewalls," Zero said.

"Definitely an EM Being. No virus would be this neat." Xerox added. Zero nodded and then ran through the doors.

Zero passed through the third door when she heard someone in the distance.

"Damn it, where is it meow?!" someone shrieked, catching Zero's attention. Zero ran in the direction of the voice and saw the strangest EM being she had ever seen. She had really long and full pink hair, white cat ears and a bushy white tail, wearing a white leotard and white boots. Zero just eyed her strangely.

"Um, who in the world..." Zero asked. The mysterious EM being turned around and Zero got a better look at her. Her figure was definitely on the bombshell level, she had sharp green eyes, and red lipstick, making her a cross between cutesy and seductive. Thing was, despite her outer appearance Zero got the impression that they were the exact same age if not close.

The cat girl looked at Zero suspiciously, "Blond hair, red armor, and a green blade arm," the cat girl's eyes lit up, "You must be Zero!" she started jumping for joy, "I've always wanted to meet you meow!"

Zero looked at the screen on her wrist where Xerox was, who looked really confused.

"Um, is this chick for real?" Xerox asked.

"Sadly, I think so," Zero said, annoying the cat girl.

"ROWR!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the cat girl screamed, "Stop ignoring Lynx!!!!!" Zero looked up at the cat girl.

"So, your name is Lynx?" Zero asked. The cat girl, now identified as Lynx, retained her composure.

"That's right. My name is Lynx, second in command of Neo Arcadia," that made Zero get in a fighting stance.

"You're with Neo Arcadia?!" she asked.

"Why are you guys infiltrating the Satella Police main computer?!" Xerox added.

"Wouldn't you like to know meow," Lynx said also getting in a fighting stance, "If you want to know, then why don't you and I have a quick Wave Battle? I always wanted to fight you Zero," she said in a creepily seductive.

"I could use a warm up. It's been a while since I had a good Wave Battle," Zero said confidently. She then said a familiar line...

"Wave Battle! Action!"

Sorry about how impossibly slow I'm being with this story. And I'm sorry that this chapter was shorter than the other ones. I wanted to follow the same flow of the previous story, and the first boss battle was about here.