Disclaimer: I don't own any Battle Cards and Star Force characters. I do own a few original characters.

Chapter 3: Aftermath

When he arrives back into his house and transforms out of his Mega Man form, he heard a doorbell rings. He answers the door to see a grown man and a teenage girl standing in front of him. The man is bald and wears a grey mechanic overalls uniform.

As for the teenage girl, she has short black hair and her front bangs has a white streak. She wears a black off-shoulder shirt over her purple long-sleeved shirt, black shorts, purple tights, and black combat boots. The girl is chewing bubblegum and she has face that says that she's disinterested on things.

Yusei greets them. "Hi, Mr. Gonzales! What brings you here?"

Mr. Gonzales is Yusei and Ayane's next-door neighbor. He's the first one to greet them when they arrive at their new home in Echo Ridge. Though Yusei wonders who the girl is.

"I'm here to introduce you to my niece," Mr. Gonzales answers. "Her name is Tama Watanabe and she's the same age as you. I want her to meet you yesterday, but she's a little shy."

The girl, Tama, glares at her uncle. "Shut up, old man! I'm not shy! I just don't like being friendly with the neighbors!"

Yusei chuckles. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?"

"Quit with the flirting, loser!"

Mr. Gonzales panics and decided to scold her. "Be nice to him! You're not going to make friends with that attitude, young lady!"

"Um… That's okay, Mr. Gonzales. I'm already used to people calling me mean names." Then Yusei notices a strange mark on Tama's wrist. He got a little curious as he asks, "Were you wearing gloves before your uncle drags you here?"

Tama notices what Yusei is talking about. "Oh, you mean this? I was just finishing up a maintenance work on my Mag Bike." Yusei tilts his head and Tama decided to explain. She said, "It is short for a Magnetic Bicycle; a bike that uses magnetic suspension on the wheels to make it easy for me to change them and lessens any sort of resistance that cuts down the bike's speed."

"So you're some sort of inventor?" Yusei asks.

"Yes," she bluntly answers, "Got a problem?"

Yusei shook his head. "Actually, I want your help on a special project that I'm working on. You see… I too am an inventor like you, so is that okay?"

Tama raises an eyebrow. "That depends on your 'special project'."

He replies, "Have you heard about Dr. Vega's Matter Wave project? She's planning to release her project onto an upgraded Transer-like system next year. I thought I could use that idea to make myself an assistant. I'm going to be busy soon and I need some sort of assistance to keep me updated on things that I would most likely ignored, even answer some of my calls. So I thought using the Matter Wave project to create an assistant to be the solution of my upcoming problems."

Tama's eyebrow twitches as she stares at him with disbelief. "You want to create an assistant from technology that isn't given to the public yet? That's an interesting project; however, the problem is the concept of the Matter Wave. How can you make it without knowing Dr. Vega's project?"

"Geo's dad may know it," Yusei spoke, "since he's one of the scientists helping out with the project. I could ask him about the concept of the Matter Wave and we can make my Matter Wave assistant. So, what do you say?"

Mr. Gonzales is happy to hear that Yusei is offering a request to his rebellious niece. He really appreciates how Yusei is such a nice guy and he hopes that he becomes his niece's friend. However, Tama doesn't seem a bit interested.

"Not interested," she answers as she walks away.

Mr. Gonzales panics again. "I'm sorry, Yusei. She can be impossible sometimes. But I do have to admit that your observation is good; Tama is good when it comes with technology."

Yusei chuckles and he replies, "Well, don't worry. I'm going to be her friend someday. But right now, I need to take things slow, okay?" Yusei watches Mr. Gonzales leaving and he closes the door. "Mega, I have some questions."

He puts on his Visualizer to see Omega-Xis floating next to him. Omega-Xis spoke, "Let me guess, it's about the enemy, right?" Yusei nods his head as the EM Wave alien explains, "I'm not sure what the FM King would send to claimed the Andromeda Key; however, I suggest that we must be prepare for the worst-case scenario."

"Worst-case scenario?" Yusei tilts his head. "You don't mean the FM King, right? Then that's definitely the worst-case scenario. Though I wonder what the king is like."

Omega-Xis answers, "King Cepheus, and yes that is his name, is a powerful king; however, he's extremely paranoid." Yusei asks him about the king's paranoia problem. "Ever since that he ascends to the throne after the previous king died, he becomes paranoid if other FMians would try to kill him for that position. It is because of that paranoia is the reason why that space station blow up that day."

Yusei cringes when Omega-Xis reminds him about the incident seven years ago. "Let's not talk about the space station. So King Cepheus has a paranoia issue… I bet one of his trusted companions would take advantage of his paranoia to do a crime that can never be forgiven."

"Actually… You're not that far off." Omega-Xis looks down at the floor as he scratches the back of his head. "Sometime ago, King Cepheus becomes so paranoid about Planet AM that he actually uses Andromeda to destroy the planet and its inhabitants."

The teenage boy is flabbergasted upon hearing this. "I can't believe it. His paranoia drags him that far to destroy an innocent planet. Wait… Is Planet AM innocent?"

The EM Wave alien being nods his head. "Planet AM is the sister planet of FM and they lived peacefully, unlike the warring planet. The only threat for the king would be the three AM Sages, but they left the planet before its destruction."

"Why would the AM Sages leave the planet?"

"Who knows," Omega-Xis shrugs. "All I know is that King Cepheus is a complete nut that has a hard time trusting people outside of his ranking officers. Then again, I stole the Andromeda Key right under his nose."

"Speaking of the Andromeda Key; why didn't you destroy it? I mean… you could put an end to the king's power by destroying his precious device that controls the weapon. Seriously, I would destroy the key if I'm the one who stole it."

Omega-Xis just smile. "I know destroying the key would stop the king's reign, but I just don't have the heart to do it."

In Yusei's mind, he quickly figures out Omega-Xis's motive for stealing the Andromeda Key; it's for revenge. Considering that the key controls a world-destroying device, it would mean that the user has the power to rule a planet or something. Though there is some questions that he has a hard time to figure out. Why doesn't Omega-Xis use Andromeda from the moment he stole the key? Why couldn't Omega-Xis destroy the key instead of keeping it and leading the enemy to an innocent planet? Also, what is his revenge? He really wants to ask the alien these questions; however, he chose not to force someone to answer his questions. It's because he wants to have some trust in this alien and hope he will be there to stop the alien to go on a path of killing his own kind.

"That's enough information for today," Yusei said as he scratches his head. "Let's EM Wave Change to prepare ourselves for the upcoming fight." He chuckles when he says that. "It's funny. I just got back from saving people and I want to prepare myself instead of resting. I must have video games in my head again."

Omega-Xis smirks. "Normally a human would become tired after EM Wave Changing; however, you don't seem to be tired. I wonder why."

Yusei tilts his head and replies, "That's a good question, I don't feel tired at all. Strange…" Then he shrugs it off as he pulls out the blue Battle Card. "EM Wave Change! Yusei Light, on the air!" After inserting the Battle Card into his Transer, his belt glows and he transforms into Mega Man. He warps out of the house and into the EM Wave World.

Yusei have been fighting against viruses near the area of his home. He wanted to get better at his Mega Buster as much as possible because he figures that drawing Battle Cards from his deck box would probably be an exploited weakness. Why? If the FMians saw him drawing out a Battle Card, they would either destroy that card or knock it off of his hand. So by using the Mega Buster only for combat, he could counter that weakness. However, after studying the power of his arm cannon, its power isn't enough to take down viruses with or without charging. One Charged Shot is enough to take down small enemies like the Mettenna, but anything larger than that took more than one shot. He also discovers that his arm cannon can do rapid fire, but it took longer than a Charged Shot to defeat a virus. He wonders how he can make use or improved the Mega Buster in battle, but he has no idea because he doesn't know the FMians' power.

Then it dawn on him as he asks, "Mega, are weapons the only way to defeat viruses?"

Omega-Xis answers, "You can use your fists and kicks to beat the viruses. With your enhanced power you can take down enemies, but you told me that most of your fighting skills came from TV shows."

Yusei can understand Omega-Xis's doubts on his fighting capabilities. However, he remembers the time when he used what he saw from television in a street fight back in Harmony Town. His reason why he got into a street fight back then was because he got stick his nose into his friend's street fighting business. His friend got into an unfair street fight and he sort of jump into help him. The last thing that he remembers after the fight was his sister scolding him for getting into a fight.

As Yusei is reminiscing his first street fight, a knight-like virus appears behind him with a long sword in hand. As the virus is about to strike at him, Omega-Xis warns Yusei that causes him to quickly dodge the attack. When Yusei saw the knight virus, he's thinking that he should try his hand-to-hand combat skills on the virus.

He goes into a stance that reminiscent to the tiger fighting style that he saw on TV. The virus swings its sword at him, but Yusei quickly moves to the left and claw-punch the virus's face. When the virus is wiping its face from the punch, Yusei took this opportunity to punch the virus in the stomach. As the impact of that punch is enough to make the virus to bend forward, Yusei kicks its face that causes the virus's deletion.

"Seems like close combat is very effective," he said as if he discovers the solution of getting rid of his weakness.

Omega-Xis chuckles and replies, "That's a good way of fighting. But I highly recommend not relying on hand-to-hand combat because most of our upcoming battles would require us to rely on the Battle Cards. The FMians aren't as weak as the viruses on Earth is."

Again, Yusei couldn't help but to agree with Omega-Xis. Even if hand-to-hand combat is effective for battle, but with the weakness of losing Battle Cards and a weak Mega Buster, he felt like he has no choice. Unless he figures out a way to timed his switching out of all the three to counter the problems. In other words, he must strategize each of the things he learn about his abilities and use them to his advantage.

As he's pondering on how to timed his switching, he notices that eight viruses surround him: two knights, two fiery boxers, and four bomb cannons. Yusei smirks and said, "Perfect timing! I needed some training dummies to help me with my problem. So get ready… because here I come!"

The viruses start their attack: the knights and boxers charge at him. Yusei jumps to dodge the attack and pull out the Gatling Gun Battle Card to use it and shoot at the four viruses. The bullets from the Gatling gun hit only the knight viruses. When Yusei landed, he realizes that bomb cannon viruses are targeting him and getting ready to launch their bombs at him. The bombs have been launch and Yusei quickly reacted by kicking the bombs back to where they came from. The bombs hit the cannons, but the cannons are left standing and are still aiming at Yusei.

Before Yusei is getting ready to move, the two boxer viruses appear in front of him and they both uppercut him at his face. Yusei felt the pain of two fiery fists at his face, but his face isn't burn by the punches. The Gatling gun disappears as he pulls out his Mega Buster and charged it while he's flying in the air. His Charged Shot is complete as soon as he hits the Wave Road and he immediately fire it at one of the bomb cannon viruses. That virus is deleted as Yusei pulls out another Battle Card.

"Now then! Battle Card! Ice Stage!" He inserts the Battle Card into his Transer as his left hand begins to glow light blue. He clenches his hand into a fist and punches at the road, transforming it into an icicle road.

The viruses are surprise at the sudden change of field as Yusei uses the ice to gain speed as if he's ice-skating. He charges at the remaining bomb cannon viruses; the first one got a right hook, the second one got a left straight, and the last one got a roundhouse. After Yusei did a few spins and stops, the bomb cannon viruses got deleted.

He turns to the boxer viruses as he pulls out another Battle Card. The viruses charges at him as he inserts the Battle Card into his Transer and said, "Battle Card! Ice Burst!"

The icy Wave Road explodes and destroys the remaining viruses. The Wave Road is still intact, while the ice around him is gone completely. Yusei felt real proud at what he did, while Omega-Xis is shock.

"Yusei," Omega-Xis spoke, "do you really learn fighting from TV? From the way that you were fighting earlier kind of made me wonder about that."

Yusei nods his head. "I watch a TV show about a superhero who is good at winging things to win some impossible battles with a quick use of gadgets and martial arts. So I guess you can say that I mimic his way of fighting as my own. Though I still want to experiment more on my timing skills."

Omega-Xis wonders if Yusei is lying or is telling the truth. Does Yusei really learn his fighting from television? Or is he fighting genius? It doesn't matter now. After witnessing the fight, he feels confident that with Yusei as his partner that they can't lose.

Yusei returns back into his house and transforms back into his normal self. He felt tired and sore from fighting viruses until the sunsets; however, he doesn't let the fatigue to get him. He looks at the time to notice that his sister is coming home in the next hour. He decided to kill the boredom by cleaning the living room before cooking dinner. Just as he is about to do the cleaning, he heard someone knocking on his door.

"Who is it?" Yusei asks as he opens the door. "Tama! What are you doing here?"

Mr. Gonzales's niece, Tama Watanabe, barges pass him without saying a word and quickly sits on his couch. Yusei finds her recent behavior to be rude as he tries his best not to get mad at her. After he takes a deep breath, he calmly analyzes her: he looks at her scowling face and he could tell that she's mad about something. He figures that the cause of her behavior is from earlier, when Mr. Gonzales introduces her to him. Since he remembers that Mr. Gonzales asks Yusei to be her friend, he should try and attempt it.

He approaches her and asks, "Why do you come into my house?"

"I got into argument with my uncle and I decided to hide here until he chills out." She didn't look at him when she bluntly answers his question.

"But why my house?"

"It's the last place he thinks to look," she said with a sly smirk.

Yusei looks at her in disbelief and he just feels disappointed in her. Omega-Xis whispers, "Are all humans like her?"

"No," he whispers back, "all humans have different personalities. Tama is just rude and cold-hearted."

Tama notices Yusei is whispering to his Transer. "Whom are you whispering to?"

Yusei gulps and nervously replies, "I'm sorry, I'm just talking to myself." He nervously chuckles, which causes Tama to raise an eyebrow. "So I hope you don't mind that I do a little cleaning here, okay?"

She just shrugs and lies on the couch. Yusei went to the stair's closet and pulls out the cleaning supplies: a vacuum cleaner and a rag. Tama watches him cleaning the living room and she wonders what happen to his parents. She knows that Yusei is currently living with his older sister from her uncle. At first she wasn't interested in someone else's personal life, but she got a little curious about his life. As she stretches on the couch, she notices a small picture frame on top of a drawer table. Just as when Yusei goes on wiping the countertops, she got up and looks at the small picture frame. In the picture frame is a young Yusei and Ayane with their parents smiling together.

Tama looks at the father, Thomas Light; he has short brown hair and slightly tanned skin. He wears a white lab coat over his green business suit, brown pants, and a red tie. Next she looks at the mother, Marie Light; she has shoulder-length brown hair and slightly pale skin. She too wears a white lab coat over her pink shirt and long black skirt. Looking at the picture, she felt like she knew who Yusei's parents and sister are, but she couldn't remember where she saw them.

After Yusei finishes cleaning, he quickly went into the kitchen and start making dinner. He decided to cook fried chicken, rice, and vegetable stew. As he's cooking the food, he heard a loud scream coming from the living room, which causes him to jump in surprise. He lowers the heating of the stove and quickly ran into the living room.

"Tama!" he yells. "What's wrong?"

Tama runs up to Yusei with a surprised look on her face, which caught him off guard. He notices the picture frame in her hand and wonders what in that frame got her to act like this.

"Are you and your sister really the children of Thomas and Marie Light?" she asks and Yusei nods his head as his answer. She begin to act like she's having a panic attack as she keeps breathing in and out to calm herself down. "I can't believe it! Your parents are the people who inspired me to continue my hobby!"

Tama explains her encounter with Yusei's parents, which is a couple of months before Peace was sent up into space. It was at a competition that shows off young and bright kids their inventions. Tama was among of the participants and her invention was magnetic gloves that could pull and lift metal with magnetic properties. Despite that her invention sounds cool and useful, she didn't get first place.

When she was about to give up, Yusei's parents approach her because her magnetic gloves fascinated them. They gave her some encouraging words that made her to continue her hobby of inventing. She was really happy to hear someone actually telling her to keep going because she was feeling a bit discourage when she saw the other inventions.

She remembers Thomas's words as he said, "Don't let the other inventions get you down. If you're an inventor, then be proud of your inventions and continue to improve. Being proud of the things that you invent shows how much love and care that you pour into."

It was those words that got her to continue to become an inventor.

After hearing her story, Yusei is surprise to know that she met his parents before their deaths. Though he still feel awkward when he saw her acting like a squealing fan girl, which destroys the image that he has of her: the image of a rude, cold girl who act tough because of some parental issues. Yusei wonder why he added "parental issues" for the tough part of the image. When Tama came back to her senses, she coughs and regains her cool composure. She felt embarrass about the way she is acting in front of the boy as Yusei just snickers out of amusement.

"You better not tell anyone about my behavior," she angrily said with a glare.

Yusei smiles and replies, "Don't worry, I just find that side of you to be really amusing and cute."

Tama's face became red with embarrassment when she heard him say that. "Jesus, do you always flirt with girls like that?"

"I couldn't help it… Ayane told me to be nice and compliment girls so they could be my friends." He always has this high respect for his older sister, so he always takes advice from her.

"Are you sure that she's not setting you up to get dates?" she asks as a remark, which causes him to cringe a little.

It never did occurred to him the possibility that his sister may be setting him up to get dates, but he rather makes friends instead of going on dates. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm going back into the kitchen to finish cooking the food. You can join us for dinner, if you want."

"Huh? Is that okay?"

He nods his head. "It's okay. I made enough for three people."

Just as soon as he went inside the kitchen, Tama heard someone entering the house. She turns to see Yusei's sister, Ayane entering the living room with a tired look on her face.

Ayane groans, "Yusei, I'm home. You can't believe what had happened earlier: there was this traffic jam because of a train malfunction. I thought I was going to be late for dinner, but I'm glad that traffic resolved very quickly." Then she notices Tama in the living room and asks, "Who are you?"

Yusei introduces Tama to his sister and she quickly get along with her very quickly, though Tama couldn't handle Ayane's friendliness. When dinner is ready to serve, the three of them gather around the table and started eating and chatting a bit. During the time, Tama is wondering where she saw Ayane prior today; she just couldn't put her finger on it. Yusei notices her odd behavior and knows what she's thinking about. He made a sly smirk in his head and finds even more amusement at watching Tama trying to figure out where she saw Ayane.