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

Chapter 9: Getting to Know

"Are you sure that you're okay to go to school today?" Ayane asks as she worries about her brother, Yusei who happens to be injured yesterday.

"I'm going to be fine," he answers as he puts on his shoes. "Just as long as I don't do anything strenuous that would make my bones crack to the point of me being in the hospital. I have to go now."

He decided to walk to school instead of activating his Air Shoes. He thinks that the speed of the Air Shoes would be a bit strenuous for his injured body to handle. After Ayane watches him walking to school, she gets into her car and drives to work.

"Mega," Yusei spoke, "Can you at least talk to me?"

There's no response coming from his Transer. Ever since that Yusei allows Taurus to get away, Omega-Xis didn't speak to him. He couldn't help but think that he made a bad decision for that. He wonders if his alien partner isn't going to trust him anymore.

"Yusei!" a familiar female voice calls out to him. He turns to see Tama running towards him. "Talk about a coincidence that we're walking together."

"What happen to your Mag Bike?" Yusei asks that question because he remembers that she uses her bike to get to school.

She answers, "The chain for my bike broke and the back wheel got a crack. I may need your help afterschool because I don't like the idea of walking to school everyday."

Yusei sighs and mumbles, "And I was planning to see Geo's dad afterschool…"

Tama has good hearing as she said, "Don't tell me that you're still planning to make your Matter Wave assistant? I thought you have given up on that project since I don't see you making any devices that would work for the project."

"I didn't have the chance to meet Geo's dad because I'm busy with the housework and groceries. Also, I'm not even sure when Geo's dad is home. I thought that I should ask Geo to take me to his dad so I can work on my project."

After hearing his short explanation, Tama remembers that he wanted an assistant to help him when he's busy. She wonders what causes him to be so busy that he needs an assistant. She thinks school, housework, and his hobbies would keep him busy, but not to the point he needs some assistant. But she wonders why he wants to create an assistant by the use of a technology that is never release to the public? She thinks that he's going to take on a challenge to create the project before anyone gets his or her hands on it.

"I'll help you fix your bike afterschool," he said, "but as long as you actually help me because I'm not well enough to do anything that would make my road to recovery even longer."

"Not well enough…? What do you mean by that? Did you injure yourself?"

He nods his head. "Yeah, I did. It was yesterday and I sort of hurt myself by… um… On second thought, I plead the fifth on how I obtained my injuries."

Tama doesn't like that response as she grabs his arm and acts like a police officer as she pins him at a nearby wall of a building. She applies a bit of force onto Yusei's upper body with the use of his arm, which causes him to feel excruciating pain due to his injuries. The people walking by saw them and wonder what they're doing.

"I'll let you go once you told me how you get your injuries," she said as she keeps adding on the pressure.

After feeling that the bones of his upper body are getting crush, he decided to lie to her about how he gets his injuries. He said, "Okay! Okay! You win! I got injured by a bunch of boxes falling on top of me in a closet! Will you let me go?" She does let him go as he continues, "Ow… You got some strength! At least try to be gentle to my injured body!"

"Well excuse me! I would probably be gentle if you hadn't try to keep your injuries a secret." Then she notices Yusei is smiling at her and she starts to feel creep out. "Why are you smiling?"

"I'm just happy to hear that you actually care about my wellbeing despite your rough persona," he said and that made Tama's face turn bright red. They continue to walk with an awkward silence between them.

The two teenagers arrive and enter into the school building with their awkward silence. Tama broke the tension by saying; "I'm going to my classroom now! And I think that you should do the same if you don't want the foul-mood Luna Platz to ruin your day because of your little 'spat' with her before!" She walks away, leaving Yusei to stand in front of the stairs, as he is lost in thought.

He started thinking to himself about the events that had transpired since he first move back to Echo Ridge. Yusei met Omega-Xis and they fused together to become Mega Man, he found out that other aliens chase after Omega-Xis because he had stolen the Andromeda Key, and he had fought other people who have forcibly been EM Wave Change with those aliens. Thinking about the events has made him to think back of a superhero that said, "Great power comes great responsibility." He wonders how long is it going to be for him to protect the citizens, or at least the world, from the FMians because he is only one man. He has no one to help him with this problem or at least truly talk to someone about this responsibility.

Yusei's train of thought is derailed as soon as Geo, Luna, Bud, and Zack caught his attention behind him. He gasps, "Geo! Guys! How is it going?" He is trying to act surprise to see Luna and Bud walking together with smiles on their faces.

"Yusei! I try to call you, but you didn't answer," Geo said. "Both Luna and Bud here have both forgiven each other!"

"Really? I'm glad then."

Luna looks at Yusei with a smile, which made him step back a little. "I heard from Geo yesterday that you were following me because you want to apologize to me."

Yusei nods his head. "Yeah… I want to apologize to you about what I had said to you before: that you were a 'horrible' person for threatening your friend. I follow you, but you suddenly disappear and I decided to wait to talk to you today."

"I appreciate that you want to apologize to me, but I don't need your apology. Let me thank you instead."

"Thank me…?" He tilts his head.

She explains, "If you hadn't said those things to me, I probably not realized my mistake. I also want to thank Mega Man as well because he told me how friends should act after they fought."

Yusei acted like he doesn't know what she is talking about when she mentions Mega Man. Luna told him that some bad guy kidnaps her and Bud to try lure out Mega Man. She explains how Mega Man saves her and Bud and gives the two teenagers his opinion about their fight. His opinion causes them to forgive each other and she truly admires him for the advice that friends need to understand each other. Yusei knows that she's lying because he is Mega Man and he knows how it really happens; he figures that she told this lie because she doesn't want others to know that Bud is the bad guy and he tries to kill her out of revenge for the threat. He notices the guilt that is written on Bud's face despite that he's smiling.

Before Yusei can say anything, Sonia interrupts him by calling out everyone's attention. She asks, "What are you guys talking about?"

"S-Sonia Strumm!" Bud exclaims, as he is shock to see the famous idol walking towards him and his friends.

Yusei scratches his head from seeing Bud's reaction. "Oh yeah! I forgot that you weren't present in the classroom yesterday. You see, Sonia is a new student just like me and she's our classmate."

While everyone ignores Bud's speechlessness, Luna becomes the person to answer Sonia's question. She said, "I'm just thanking Yusei for helping me and Bud to forgive each other. Also, Mega Man saves me and Bud from a bad guy!"

Sonia becomes a bit dumbfounded when she heard Luna say that. "Mega Man saves you?" she gasps. "How is he?"

Luna looks sad as she answers, "He had suffer damage from that battle, but he had manage to beat that guy up." Then her tone switches into a cheery tone as she continues, "Mega Man is so cool and mature! I wish I could talk to him some more!"

"Same here…" Sonia mutters in a low voice that no one hears.

Yusei notices Sonia's sad expression as he heard the bell rings for the start of class. Every student quickly headed to his or her classrooms, while at the same time that everyone is looking at Sonia as if they're thinking up opportunities to talk to her.

Once the lunch bell rings, the students in the classroom started to gather around Sonia and ask her a bunch of questions relating to her idol job. Though one of the boys ask her if she has a boyfriend, which she answers with a no. She tries to keep a straight face to hide her discomfort of being crowded by her fellow classmates. Then she notices Yusei joining up with Luna and her friends to go to the cafeteria. Sonia quickly breaks free from the crowd and quickly joins them.

After they grab their meal from the cafeteria lady, they search for a place to sit and eat. Both Yusei and Sonia notice that some of the students scrunch together in their seats; they know that those students wanted Sonia to sit at their group. That's when Yusei notices Tama sitting at a table alone and he quickly approaches her.

Tama notices Yusei approaching her as she said, "It's a free country, and so you and your friends can sit in this table."

"Is that okay?" he asks, as he is concerned if the students around her would create some kind of rumor about her sitting next to a famous idol.

She answers, "I don't mind. Let people talk and/or spread rumors, it doesn't matter to me."

Upon hearing those words coming from her mouth, he admires her coolness. However, he remembers that she's putting up a persona to hide her true self from her peers. He sits next to her and he whispers, "I bet you're gleefully happy that Sonia is coming to sit in the table that you're sitting." Tama punches his chest in response to that whisper, which causes him pain.

Sonia and the others join Yusei and Tama as Geo notices Yusei is in pain. He asks, "What's wrong, Yusei? Did this girl punch you?" Yusei nods his head as his answer, which causes Geo to sigh. "I'm sorry for my friend's rude comment."

Tama chuckles as she said, "I'm already use to him and his personality; I am his neighbor after all. I even crash at his place some of the time to blow off some steam."

Everyone in the table looks at Yusei and he's confused about their stares. "Huh? Why are you guys looking at me?"

Luna quickly change the subject by saying; "We just want to know something about you." She then glares at Zack, which made him to nervously nod his head in a fast pace.

"Y-yes! That's true!" he exclaims. "Geo did tell us about that you were weird in the head and you were kind of righteous yesterday. So we thought that we should get to know you a bit more."

Yusei scratches his head. "What is there to know about me? I thought Geo would tell you stories about me from the emails that I have sent him for seven years."

Geo retorts, "I think it's better to hear those stories from your mouth rather than mine's. Besides, friends should know each other, right?"

After Yusei took a bite from his cheeseburger, he started to talk about himself. He said, "Geo is right about my mind being a bit weird and I do have a righteous side, mostly because of my parents forcing me to watch superheroes and follow their examples of morals. Besides that, I'm an inventor and programmer."

Yusei pulls out a tennis ball that is black and metallic from his vest pocket. As he shows the ball to everyone in the cafeteria, he squeezes the ball from top and bottom. The ball started to glow red stripes and he lets go to let the ball spins horizontally, which surprises everyone. The ball stops spinning as it transforms into toy-like black bird with red stripes. Everyone's eyes are on the small bird. Then they got surprise when that bird starts flapping its wings and perch on Yusei's shoulder.

"This is one of my inventions," he said with a smile, "this little guy is called Spy Bird and just like the name implies, it spies on people. This bird can record anything it sees and hears within a hundred feet radius and transfers the recording into my personal computer. Not only that, this bird also acts another means of communication that can never be tampered by outside forces, even the government." Yusei taps the mechanical bird's forehead and the bird transforms back into its ball form without the red glow. He catches the ball and puts it back into his vest pocket. "Though I only made three of these Spy Birds, but they're useful to send messages to people without having this irrational fear of someone trying to hack in your communication line. I have issues, okay!"

Then Tama spoke, "I know that you're the son of both Thomas and Marie Light, but that is incredible! But I wonder what make you think of creating this bird. Is it from a superhero media that you watch before?"

Yusei shook his head and that surprise both Geo and Tama since they know how much he loves superheroes. He answers, "I got the Spy Bird idea from my one of my friend's birds."

He explains that his friend has this special power that allows her to communicate and befriend a lot of animals, regardless if they're dangerous. She sometimes uses those animals as a means to communicate with her friends because she never owns a Transer because she is an orphan and she still chooses not to own a Transer after living with a rich, kind friend who Yusei form a Brother-Band with. His female friend also uses birds to spy on Yusei and his friends in Harmony Town because she's a caring person and she doesn't want to lose her first human friends. Her spying birds becomes Yusei's inspiration to create the Spying Bird, but uses it for emergency purposes like calling for help or spying on people who Yusei finds suspicious.

"When I first show her my creation," he said, "she sort of hits me for creating a mechanical bird that looks like her birds. Boy, I wish you could meet her! Her power is so interesting!"

"Speaking about friends," Sonia spoke, "how many friends do you have back in Harmony Town?"

He looks up the sky as he answers, "Including the girl who can befriend with animals, I have seven friends back in Harmony Town. Besides Geo, I have two friends outside Harmony Town: a male racer from New Mute City and a young female medicine maker from Choina. So altogether and including Geo, I have about nine friends."

"Nine friends, huh…" Geo looks at Yusei, as he is happy to hear that he made some friends to keep him company during his time in Harmony Town.

Then Yusei change the subject by asking Luna a question. He asks, "Luna, are you from a rich family?" Luna nonchalantly nods her head. "I knew it! One of my friends told me that she met a haughty girl from the Platz's family from a business party that she went to."

"Really? Your friend told you that she met me! Can you tell me that person's name?"

Yusei nods his head. "Her name is Sophie McDowell; she's the girl who wears gothic Lolita clothing."

Luna gasps, "I do meet someone with that name from a party last year!"

Everyone finishes off their meals just in time when the bell rings for the start of class. Just as Yusei follows his classmates to the classroom, Bud grabs Yusei by the arm and it stops him from moving.

"What's wrong, Bud?" he asks as he notices the sad look on the big guy's face.

"Can we talk afterschool? I want your advice about something."

Yusei tilts his head as he wonders why Bud wants his advice. "I promise Tama that I would help her fix her Mag Bike, but… if you want my advice, then could help us with the Mag Bike because my upper body isn't feeling well right now."

Bud makes a surprise face when he heard that Yusei isn't feeling well. "Really? What happen?" He uses the same lie that he uses on Tama, which causes Bud to make a sad face. "Sure, I'll help."

Yusei is happy to hear that Bud is helping him out and they head back to the classroom.

"Why is Bud walking with us?" Tama asks as she and Yusei are heading back to Yusei's place with Bud Bison, since school is over. Yusei told her that Bud wanted to talk to him at this time, but due to his promise to her, Yusei asks his help because of his injuries. She sighs and said, "I really don't care actually. Just do whatever you want."

Yusei notices that Tama is upset and he wonders why. However, he shrugs as the three teens arrive at Yusei's house. Tama went to her house to get her bike, while Yusei and Bud goes to Yusei's garage with the door open. Yusei asks Bud to grab the big white box at the top shelf over the tool wall and gently place it down next to him, which Bud complies. At the same time, Yusei grabs his welding equipment, metal cutting equipment, and laptop.

"Bud…" Yusei calls out Bud's name after he puts the box down. "What is it you want to talk to me about?"

Bud makes a swallowing sound that Yusei can hear. He's being hesitant on his words because he's afraid of what Yusei is going to say about the lie that Luna used. However, he builds up enough courage as he said, "You remember that Luna told you about how Mega Man saves us, but there's a lie that isn't true. The truth is that the bad guy is actually me."

Yusei listens to Bud's story of the events of when he became Taurus Fire and how he tries to kill Luna out of rage. Though Yusei knows what really happen since he's Mega Man, but he pretends to be interested in his story. The reason why he wants to talk to Yusei about this is because Luna told him how harsh, righteous, and blunt Yusei is when he talks to her. Bud hopes that Yusei's opinion would give him some sort of peace of mind, despite the fact that Mega Man gives him his opinion. Unknown to them that Tama is standing behind the wall as she too listens to their conversation. She doesn't want to walk in there and create an awkward atmosphere in the room when they're repairing her bike.

"I understand," Yusei solemnly said. "I do hate that you were the bad guy and you try to kill Luna because of her threat. However, Mega Man knocks some sense into you and gives you a chance to make up for what you've done. So I'm proud that you took his opinion. As for my advice, you must forgive yourself to continue your life."

Bud wonders what he means by that. "What do you mean?" he asks.

Yusei points his finger at him and answers, "When Luna was telling me her 'story,' I notice your guilt that was written on your face. I have a feeling that you're feeling guilty for that lie when you know the truth. You can't forgive yourself for keeping the truth from your friends, but I'm sure they'll understand and forgive you eventually. So take your time, okay?"

The big guy nods his head with a happy grin on his face. Bud was expecting Yusei to be harsh and blunt to him, but he wasn't. Yusei is acting like a parent to him and using mature talk to reassure his fears. He felt really grateful to have this talk with Yusei.

"Now how long Tama is going to make me wait for her?" Yusei asks out loud.

Then Tama enters the garage with her Mag Bike in her hands. She doesn't want the two boys to know that she has listen in on their conversation, so she decided to lie. She said, "I'm sorry that I'm late! My uncle was berating me about my neglectfulness of not cleaning my room."

Yusei sighs and replies, "That's okay, Tama. Let's repair your bike!" With that being said, the three teenagers started to repair the Mag Bike.

Nighttime came to be and Yusei is in his room studying. He was able to finish repairing Tama's Mag Bike with the help of Tama and Bud. The two teenagers left to go home as soon as they're done and now Yusei is just take his time resting his body from injuries.

Then Omega-Xis calls out Yusei's name, which made the human teenager to smirk. "Oh, so now you're talking to me!"

Omega-Xis sighs as he said, "I've been doing some thinking and I believe that I can't stay mad at you. You're only just following what your parents told you to do: to follow the morals from the superheroes. However, leaving an enemy alive would result into something bad for you and for this planet! Don't you want to save the people you care about from the FMians? Do you?"

"Of course I do!" he didn't hesitate to answer that. "But I don't think killing is the solution to save the people of this planet! I'm going to continue what Peace has started! I'm going to form a Brother-Band with the Planet FM!"

Omega-Xis becomes shock to hear that. "Are you nuts? What makes you think that's going to work? The FMians killed your parents and the workers on that space station! Surely you must think of avenging your parents!"

"And that's what I don't like! I know that there are heroes who have gone the vengeful route, but most of them stay true to their morals of not killing people and just find the solution. I want to find a solution that wouldn't have the entire inhabitants of Planet FM to come to Earth and drag even more innocent people into a galactic war. All I want is less blood to be shed!"

Omega-Xis can see the determination in Yusei's eyes. The alien can tell that he won't back down on his decision. He gritted his fangs and said, "Fine, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm staying by your side so I can see the result of your decisions. However, if your decision leads us to our deaths, then you have no one to blame but yourself."

Those words from Omega-Xis have made Yusei to steel his heart to keep his belief of using Brother-Band to end the war. But Yusei knows that he must beat the FMians that came to Earth for the Andromeda key. Yusei decided to end the conversation by going to sleep.

At the same time, there's an agency called AMAKEN: a research facility and space museum that was founded by Geo's dad and his other friends after they left NAZA seven years ago. In the hallways outside of AMAKEN's laboratory, there are two male workers conversing with each other.

"Have you heard this morning's news?" the man with a mustache asks.

"You mean the one about the stolen pickup truck being found in riverbank?" The man wearing tinted glasses tilts his head as he listens to the mustache man.

The mustache man said, "The Satella Police found a pickup truck at a riverbank and they discover that the truck's computer system has some sort of abnormalities. They believe that the viruses must have taken controls of the vehicle. The truck is lucky that no one got into an accident."

When they heard the laboratory doors open, they gasp to see another male worker coming out of the room. The worker is skinny, his hair is brown with a bang covering half of his face, and his skin is fairly pale. The worker looks at his two fellow workers and those two jumps back and walks away. As he watch them walking away, the skinny worker sighs as he walks somewhere else.

As the skinny worker walks pass the computer room, he was stop by another worker. This male worker has a big belly and wears an AMAKEN hat to cover his brown hair. This big guy is Aaron Boreal and he is also the founder of AMAKEN alongside with Geo's dad.

The skinny man asks, "What do you want, Boreal?" His tone sounds like he's being wary of Boreal's approach.

Aaron answers, "I was wondering if you're available after work. Kevin and I are going to this new fast food place on the way home and I wanted to invite you to join us. So want to come, Tom?"

The skinny worker, Tom, shook his head, which disappoints Aaron. Tom's reason why he wouldn't join him because he's busy with his "secret project." Aaron understands as he told Tom that he hopes that he would join him the next time he talks to him. Tom agrees to that promise, but he says that promise with a grim smile and Aaron walks away. As Tom looks around his surroundings, he becomes paranoid and just hurriedly left the hallway.

At Vista Point, there's a mysterious woman wearing a black trench coat, black gloves, a black bowl hat, and black-tinted glasses. The woman looks up at the sky and mutters, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star… How I wonder what you are…"

"You sure like singing that children's song," said a young male voice behind her.

The woman turns to see a young man and she is happy to see him. The young man wears a black body suit that is underneath his red armor: chest armor, gauntlets, waist guard, and boots. On his waist is a metallic belt that looks a bit similar to Yusei's belt. He wears a red helmet with a black visor to cover half of his face.

"It's great to see you again, Proto Man," said the woman. "It has been years since I last saw you!"

Proto Man nods his head. "It is great to see you too! By the way, have you seen the news about this Mega Man person?"

"Yes I did, but I wonder if he and his partner are ready for the upcoming battle since they're still fresh."

Proto Man bows down like a gentleman. "Don't worry about it. If the situation gets any worse, I'll be there to save him. Though I may be a little rusty…" A red glowing sword appears out of his left arm as he uses the glow to shine the dark surroundings of the night.

Side Note Correction: It was the "ex-girlfriend." In chapter 2 of the story, Yusei stated that he only has female friends, but not a girlfriend. I forgot that I scrap the former girlfriend idea a long time ago and I forgot to fix that correction before I post it and I didn't even notice it until now. So I fix it and I'm amazed no one corrected me on that little mistake.