Wave's Allure
-
Siren Splash was finally feeling a little calmer now that Mega Man was out of her sight. (Wait, why would she think that-? Mega Man's the good- no, he's with the WAZA people who are going to hurt her-) The end was in sight. She had totally been running on adrenaline this entire time, hadn't she? She still felt it now. Get to WAZA. Destroy WAZA. Save everything... from...
As the WAZA building appeared over the horizon, a wave of nausea came over her. Wasn't she just here before...? No, no, that wasn't important. "I'm strong... I'm strong, I'm strong..." she exhaustedly repeated to herself. She really did feel winded, like she'd used up all her brain power trying to fight a real fight. She was starting to forget why she was here. There was something... that needed to be destroyed. That's right.
(Siren, too, was struggling to fight against the haze. What in the world was going on? Surely it couldn't have been the effects of one of Mega Man's attacks... but it made no sense for the girl to continue resisting, either. Hadn't she completely fallen under her control? She was so easy before - why would she become a problem now?)
At last, Siren Splash reached the Wave Roads in front of WAZA. It didn't seem that difficult to get into the main building... but she was still unbearably tired, anyways. She hesitated for a moment, staring up at the ridiculously tall building. Something felt abyssal about it... but she aimed her buster straight for it anyways.
-
"Halt!!" a Satella Police Wizard called out as it lead a charge of other official looking Wizards brandishing stun batons.
They warped in and stormed forward, becoming an oncoming deluge of a counter-attack. As Siren Splash began her assault, a barrier arose around WAZA, encompassing the building in hexagon patterned light. The Satella Police Wizards quickly surrounded her, but were quickly knocked aside and bubbled by Siren Splash's strength.
Inside WAZA, Dr. Goodall watched the feed with a tense expression. She whipped around and quickly made way for the main computer in the back. She continued her work on clearing the Noise from Lurerre, focusing intently as if the world around her had disappeared entirely.
Aaron did a double take as he watched the doctor walk away while the rest of WAZA was scrambling like a disturbed nest of ants.
He followed after her, leaning over conspiratorially and hissing, "Dr. Goodall, is this really the time to be working on that?"
"Now don't blurt this out, Aaron dear," she advised sweetly, keeping her eyes trained on the screen and hands on the keyboard, "But that's Triese that's attacking us."
"That's Tr-!" he sputtered, covered his mouth and quickly recovered, "Wait, do you think Lurerre can help us with this?"
Dr. Goodall furrowed her brow, "Not yet... Maybe at the right moment. We can't risk looking like a kidnapper and agitating her further. This is a delicate situation."
Aaron nodded and adjusted his cap, "Right. Ok then! I'll contact Geo and keep him updated. Let's hope he can get through to her."
"It's not him I'm worried about," she noted.
The entire building shook like someone had slammed a drum against the outside, making some lights flicker and causing everyone to pause and look at the monitors. The fight was not going in their favor.
Aaron pulled out his Hunter and called Geo, anxiously watching as the signal struggled to connect through the shielding, "Come on... Geo, wherever you are, please be okay."
-
It was just like Siren said, wasn't it?! If these people didn't have something to hide, or some kind of will to impose on everyone else, then they wouldn't be defending their fortress so vehemently!! The barrier being raised was a little intimidating... but she'd push through it!! For the sake of everyone like her...!!
It was easy enough for Siren Splash to find herself on autopilot. These guards may have had some kind of voice clip or something, but they were the same as scary, wild viruses, weren't they? She'd done that a million times. She'd operated her Navi- her- her- her...? It was just like before, but she wasn't there, she was here, inside instead of outside and the one firing endlessly on her targets and feeling the most focused she'd ever felt, no, no, was this right? She wasn't a Navi- why was she fighting-? Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting...
Siren was having a difficult time comprehending what was going through her host's mind, and she pushed herself to repress it. This human could have a mental breakdown and die, for all she cared - all that she needed to do was last until their job was finished. They'd even managed to give Mega Man the slip - so. Just. Listen. And keep fighting.
Siren Splash, in her panic, tossed out an Ice Spin Battle Card, which was enough to cut her a zig-zag-y path through the Satella Police Wizards attacking her. It was almost impressive that she was still able to keep fighting well even while under so much duress. Like the motions had been burned into her brain, inexplicably.
(She was doing better than when she was Operating L------, how pathetic-)
-
Wave after wave of Satella Police Wizards fell before Siren Splash. Their near rhythmic charge had given her ample targets with predictable movements. Their entire strategy of attempting to overwhelm their enemy only served to make more of them fall faster.
Within all the confusion, some of the Wizards turned on their fellow officers and began attacking each other, evidently falling under Siren Splash's beguiling influence. This thinned the crowd significantly, leaving the giant shield over WAZA open to attack.
In the building every scientist was at a monitor, hands on keyboard, relaying information on headsets. The only time people stopped was when they braced themselves on their work stations every time the building shook from an attack on the shield.
Aaron held his hands, half out of nerves and half praying for a miracle. He stared at the monitor Dr. Goodall was working at, watching the noise slowly get removed from Lurerre.
That poor girl Triese, getting mixed up in all this chaos, when in reality she probably just wanted...
"I'll be right back, you keep working on Lurerre!" he exclaimed, bolting and heading straight to central command.
The head of WAZA was busy directing the hoard, constantly surrounded by at least two officials that would exchange a bit of information before swapping out with another in waiting.
Aaron pushed his way through the crowd and addressed the head with level headed urgency, "Sir, we need to shut down all electronics, anything with a comp space, except for the Main Computer in the back."
This caused everyone in a 10 foot radius to pause incredulously before quickly going back to their business. The head gave Aaron a stern look, then after taking a deep breath to prepare himself, asked firmly, "Mr. Boreal, what do you have planned?"
That got everyone's attention. A slow ripple of turning heads propagated out until the whole command center was looking at him.
He swallowed his nerves and continued, "We know what Siren Splash is after. If we can direct her by cutting off any escape routes, Mega Man can stop her right then and there. In the Main Computer Cyber Core."
The head of WAZA furrowed his brow briefly, looking into Aaron's eyes like he had a question that he answered himself a moment later, "...Okay. Divert all power and computing to the Main Computer, shut down anything and everything else! Unplug it if you have to! " he readdressed Aaron shortly afterwards, "I'm trusting you, Mr. Boreal. This gambit of yours has to work."
He thought back to a time when he had put his life on the line to prove his faith in someone and nodded, "Trust me. I believe in her."
The head of WAZA closed his eyes, striking a small smirk underneath his mustache, just as the overhead lights dimmed and all the monitors that surrounded them shut off, leaving them in a dimly lit, abnormally quiet room.
One last air display in the middle of the room showed a live feed of the EM shielding outside of the building. The hexagonal structure flickered and faded away, and then the display itself disappeared soon after. The hook had been set, now all that was left was for their catch to take the bait.
-
Siren was plenty satisfied with her host's performance already, and several of the so-called defenders of the most important technology center in the country falling under her influence easier than Triese did was icing on the cake. Delightful. Almost there. The defenses on the inside were most likely going to be automated rather than more... animated programs, so all that they had to do was find a way around the barrier, and her catch would surely... surely...
Then, the hexagonal barrier dissipated, and Siren Splash stopped dead. The strange occurrence put her wildly spiraling thoughts on pause as she realized she had done nothing to actually bring that barrier down. Did one of her attacks hit it by accident? No, it couldn't have. It couldn't be controlled by those Wizards, either. Did they... bring it down... on purpose...?
Siren silently snarled to herself. What were they doing? It seemed like an obvious trap - perhaps Mega Man had gotten ahead of them, and he was waiting for them at the other side. Well, she wasn't stupid. They'd need to take an alternative route, or-
They were giving up! They were giving up! That has to be it!! Siren Splash realized, hopping forward in her delirium. She was winning! She was accomplishing something super-duper important, and it was all because she'd opened her heart!! Th-they were winning the battle, the, the Net, NetBattle-something-or-other, they were gonna get a high rank and they just needed to run in and run in and run in and run in
Siren Splash's body moved without Siren's input, floating across the Wave Road and barreling into the interior of WAZA. "Wh-what are you...?!" Siren yelled inside of Triese's mind, frantically trying to inject her with more fear. "Stop! Stop for a moment!"
"W-we're winning...! We have to finish this...!" Siren Splash barked back, her voice sounding a bit woozy. Given that Siren wasn't visible to anyone's surroundings, it looked like the EM being was just shouting to herself. "Before it's too late, right?! Before they destroy us?! Th-this kind of opening, we have to take it! We have to save ourselves!"
Panicked, Siren Splash searched for any nearby electronic signal, of which there was only one. Without even thinking, she blitzed towards it, all the while Siren tried desperately to pull her catch away from the obvious bait. But the more she tried, the more her own mind hurt like hell - like her attempts were bouncing off of some kind of wall in the girl's mind. She was making no attempt to resist her control, so why would there be a barrier...?! Would it have been... her... own fault...?
The main computer. The main computer! Siren Splash just had to take this down, and she'll have won her mission! It didn't matter who was around her, it didn't matter how dark her surroundings were, she just had to win, and then she could stay like this forever! So she thoughtlessly pulsed in to the device, the same way that she did the chip shop... and began charging a barrage of bubble shots as soon as she was inside.
-
What laid before Siren Splash was a long and winding path that stretched far into the comp space. The walls were lined with images of glowing monitors with outlines of the research going on at WAZA. All of them dim save for one in the back, shining like a beacon, its content unknown from such a distance.
Stray viruses and automated security programs descended upon Siren Splash, slowing her down briefly. They posed no real threat and fell in droves to her bubbles. Her swirling musical notes captured long range attacks while her buster cleared the path forward with bursts of cleansing water.
It was all going well and only a person with a lifetimes worth of experience dealing with tricks would be suspicious. The humans were fighting back, after all. All computing power was being put towards a counter attack so clearly the humans didn't actually want Siren Splash there, so what was it? What was WAZA hiding?
Whatever it was, it needed to be destroyed. That's why Siren Splash was there, wasn't it?
a silent scream of unknown origin echoed in her mindAfter carving a path of destruction, Siren Splash had arrived at the core. A large white capsule stood in the center with pulsating tubes of red light oscillating away from the central chamber. An aqua figure floated inside, arms crossed against its chest. It stirred as she approached.
This was it, this was her target...! The thing she was meant to destroy!!
-
...But as she raised her arm, something stopped her. An indescribable itch in the back of her mind. The adrenaline fueling her crashed for a moment, like it was a living being that had just sensed a nearby predator. Siren Splash took one step closer to the capsule as the figure stirred, looking down upon her and staring into her soul. She was being observed. She was being evaluated. This must be some weapon that was going to cast judgement on her, and then...
"Who...? What...?" the figure muttered, its voice obscured by the glass they were behind. Were they scared? Should they be scared? Were they familiar... at all...? Siren Splash couldn't figure it out, and she raised her shoulders as a hissing grew louder in the back of her head.
Slowly, the figure spoke again. "Triese...?"
Siren Splash blinked heavily. Someone, somewhere, was mad at her. But she couldn't hear them. She was too busy standing there like an idiot, completely stunned by the blinding light in front of her. Her limbs shook, and she felt them attempting to be pulled around, but she was too tired. She couldn't do it. Was she failing? Was she giving up? It didn't make sense. Why was an indiscernible figure making her hesitate? Why was she filled with so much sadness and regret and hate and fear and the sense that she was doing everything wrong and was failing as a host despite everything-
-
A pillar of light split the world and fell upon Siren Splash like holy judgement, shaking the comp space and crackling with boiling electricity that trickled across the comp floor. Siren Splash instantly collapsed as her helmet cracked open against the ground, giving the dazed Triese a view of her attacker.
From the bolt's origin stood Mega Man, hands clasped and a lingering crackle of electricity dissipating from him. He slowly lowered his guard, cautiously watching Siren Splash on the ground. Once she ceased moving Geo ran to her side.
"Triese!!" he called out, slowing and kneeling next to her, "Triese... Are you ok...?"
"Geeze Geo you went a bit overkill there, dontcha think?" Omega-Xis worried beside him.
"I... Anything less and I think she would have been able to deflect it," he concluded, sighing with relief as the Wave Change over Triese began to disintegrate.
"Yeah, I suppose," Omega-Xis grumbled, leaning over their defeated opponent, "That Siren is one heck of an FM-ian. Scary."
Geo knew that she'd be fine, he had dealt with plenty of FM-ian Wave Changes to know that it was the FM-ian who took the brunt of the damage, but it still worried him.
As expected, Aaron called him soon after to check on him and Triese, and Geo updated him on everything. After hanging up, Geo turned his attention to Lurerre floating in the capsule that, presumably, was de-Noising her.
"Hey Lurerre, I don't know if you overheard but, Triese is okay! I'm sure she will be waking up soon," he reassured, then cast his eyes down, "I'm sorry things turned out like this."
-
Siren received hardly any dignity in her death. She’d done a perfect job, and that was exactly what caused her undoing. So she disintegrated into nothingness, hardly offered a scream for how badly she’d been drowned out by her own song.
Triese slumped over once Siren’s influence left her; Lurerre, meanwhile, gasped upon realizing her intuition was correct. “Wh-what the…? What’s going on…?” she couldn’t help but mumble - well, at least her voice wasn’t completely messed up anymore. The Noise defragmentation was doing its job. “H-how is Triese… Who are…”
She shook her head. “Your voice,” she realized, staring at Mega Man. “You’re… Geo? How are you and Lady Triese in the cyberworld?” She wasn’t allowed much narrowing of the eyes given how featureless they were, but she did so nonetheless; she’d only heard retellings of retellings of stories for how this could even be possible. “Lady Triese must have been… caught up in some kind of phenomena… correct…?”
It was then that Triese groaned, shuffling around before curling up like a baby. She didn’t seem completely awake, still, and Lurerre worried that leaving her to sleep on the cyberworld floor would… have lasting consequences. “N-no matter. Please, if you’re able to get Lady Triese out of here, then…”
-
Geo blinked owlishly and then scrambled in place a little, "Ah-! Yes! Um! So there's this thing called Wave Changing and-"
Omega-Xis gripped Geo and squeezed him into a side hug, "THIS right here is Mega Man! Hero of the planet three times over! So don't you worry about a thing, we're experienced in this sort of stuff! Triese'll be right as rain before you know it."
Geo chuckled and nodded affirmatively, "Yeah, we've had this sort of stuff happen before and everything's always turned out alright in the end. It just might... take some time."
He wiggled out of Omega-Xis's grip and then knelt down to Triese on the floor slowly. He reached out, but Triese recoiled a hair and caused him to flinch. She did not seem to be doing well here. In one motion he scooped her up, cradling her in close.
He looked over at Lurerre with a gentle smile, then pulsed out into the Main Computer room of WAZA with Triese in his arms. He laid her down against the wall in the back where it was dark and quiet, then undid his Wave Change.
Aaron came running over, but stopped a couple of steps away. Geo couldn't muster a victorious expression and instead refocused on keeping an eye on Triese.
The only sound in the room was the low rhythmic tapping sounds of Dr. Goodall on her keyboard as it seemed everyone else at WAZA was holding their breath while watching the aftermath unfold. After a moment, Dr. Goodall walked around the massive computer and placed Triese's PET on the floor right next to the poor girl.
"Take your time waking up, Triese," she suggested soothingly, "Lurerre's right here next to you," and then backed up, giving her plenty of space.
They all waited silently with Geo sitting the closest to Triese on the ground, anxiously hoping that she would bounce right back to her usual bubbly self.
-
To say Lurerre was befuddled by Omega-Xis’ introduction would be an understatement. It took a moment for her to respond, given how many questions went off in her mind at once. “Mega…. Man…?” she questioned cautiously… just before Triese disappeared alongside him.
Now that Triese was back in the real world, it didn’t take long for her to come to. With another groan, she shuffled against the wall and slowly opened her eyes. “H… huh…?”
Her arms went flat against the wall as she gave Geo an exhausted stare. She was back where she’d dropped Lurerre off. What… was she doing? How did she get here…?
“My head… hurts,” she mumbled as a wave of dizziness overcame her. “Where did I…? Did I fall… asleep, or…?”
It was then that the vague memories of what she had been doing the past few hours began to resurface. Hazy, distorted memories, not entirely unlike certain memories of a dark liquid that she’d repressed. She was standing in the sky. She wasn’t real. She believed things that, now that she was awake, seemed completely stupid.
Her eyes went wide as she gripped the sides of her head. “Wh-what did I… Geo, what did I… I-I couldn’t… it wasn’t real, but…” she began to blubber, her face going red. “I did something… didn’t I?! N-no, no, that wasn’t real, I didn’t mean it, I swear, I-I don’t know what happened, I-I was just waiting for you a-and… and…!!”
Triese sniffled as her gaze drifted to her side. The second she spotted her PET right next to her, she jumped a little, snatching it up as she was overwhelmed with sadness. Clutching it tightly, she curled in on herself and began to cry. “I-I’m sorry… I don’t k-know what… I didn’t… I…”
-
Geo jumped, scooching over quickly with hands raised placatingly, "It's okay! It's okay. We're right here. We..."
He sighed, letting his shoulders slump, "You didn't mean to do what you did. You were being controlled by someone else. But we stopped them and you're safe now!"
He clenched a fist as he was pained by Triese's expression. It'd be easy to brush all this away, pretend none of this happened, just to comfort her now. But...
"Triese, look at me for a sec," he suggested, trying to redirect her attention, "This isn't the first time I've dealt with something like this. I've had friends that this has happened to before. People who have felt just like you're feeling right now."
He thought of Luna, every venomous attack burning with unheard rage. And her regret afterwards.
"They're okay now, and you will be too, okay? I promise."
-
Triese almost couldn't believe what Geo was saying. None of what just happened even felt real. "I-I was controlled...? I-I... really, really, it felt like I was dreaming..." she sniffled, squeezing herself a little. "I... I don't want to hurt anyone! I don't understand what happened...! Wasn't there...?" Slowly, as she remembered more of the battles she'd drowsily stumbled through, her eyes went wide. "Wasn't there... a Mega Man...?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Lurerre chimed in from Triese's PET - her voice was still a little echoey and distorted, but it was a marked improvement over when they arrived here. "But it seems as if Lady Triese was forced to perform an unwilling Wave Change. Otherwise, I'm not certain how we could have... coexisted, for even a moment, in that space..."
Triese frowned. "I-I don't think... it felt... unwilling," she nervously admitted. "But... I don't think I could stop myself! It was too loud, and there was too much going on and..." Stopping herself, she immaturely slammed her feet on the floor as she wiped away her tears. "Lurerre, this sucks!"
"Please listen to Geo, Lady Triese," Lurerre insisted. "He's right. This isn't a failure on your part... and you seem to be healthy, thankfully." God, thankfully. It wasn't like she could have done anything to help her, so it wasn't like she failed. At least she didn't seem to be as harmed as she was after the rescue, but... still.
"No, it's not that, it's that-!!" Triese blubbered, shamefully burying her face in her knees. She couldn't bear to look at her PET, or Geo, or anything at all, at the moment. "It's... it's... it's that...!!"
She'd fought. She'd been something else. But she messed it up. It was all a trick.
"I-I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I-I was stupid... I-I don't know what... to say..."
-
Geo sat upright at the mention of Mega Man. Maybe she was more conscious after that fight than he thought.
She probably was also able to remember a lot of the fight too, given her reaction. Siren must have gotten her influence deep into Triese...
"You weren't stupid," Geo stressed, pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts, "Wave Changing... It works because a pair to work together to be better and stronger, but Siren didn't do that! Siren was the stupid one! And so that's why you're here and she isn't..."
Although... there was always a seed that FM-ians latched onto to take control. Some commonality between them and their host that they manipulated. For Triese and Siren... The only thing he could really think of at the moment was 'interested in water' and that was definitely not enough to go off of.
But at the same time.
To suggest that she did want this in some way? That she was in part responsible for her misery right now? He couldn't bear to bring that up with her at this moment. She was devastated enough as is!
Geo clenched a fist again, smoldering with righteous rage over such a nice person like Triese being taken advantage of. He imagined his own words and feelings being tossed aside like that and wanted to punch Siren all over again.
-
Triese sniffled again, shuddering as she tried to collect herself. Geo was trying to support her! Geo was being nice to her, and nothing was going to happen to her... but she still felt hollow, like she was rejecting everything around her and just wanted to fall back asleep so that she didn't have to think about this anymore. She'd messed up. She'd messed it all up.
"I-I shouldn't have tried... to..." she mumbled, thinking about her stupid bug experiments. It almost sounded like a dream come true, didn't it? She tried to help her friends... and someone appeared to her, offering her the chance to help the world... but it was all a trick. It was her fault for falling for it. "I-I'm... I was weak... I don't w-want to... hurt someone... because of that..."
"You weren't going to," Lurerre said. "You must not have been acting of your own will..."
All Triese could muster in response was a quiet whine. Eventually, she looked over to her PET, then back at Dr. Goodall from across the room . "I-is everything... going to be okay...?" she sniffled. "It's... it's done, now, isn't it...?"
-
Geo's eyes went wide with concern as Triese berated herself. For the moment he was too stunned to speak.
Dr. Goodall took this opportunity to speak up as she typed, "Triese, my dear, everything is going to be okay, because you're so much stronger than you think. And I earnestly believe that. Not many people are kind enough to hold back an FM-ians influence, and from what I can tell with the lack of damage to key structures, you did a wonderful job fighting back. You were very brave!"
It was a nice thing to say, Geo knew, and he noticed the lack of detail about what actually had been damaged. The many, Many Satella Police Wizards that fell in that fight would be difficult to replace, but not impossible. And who knows how much damage Siren Splash had accrued before he and Omega-Xis had found her.
Aaron knelt down and offered a white cloth to Triese, "It's all done. WAZA's sensors aren't detecting any traces of a rogue FM-ian, and those sensors are world class!" he chuckled, briefly, "You're safe now, I promise."
Geo fell back onto his hands behind him, sighing deeply as he finally felt the anxiety of the lingering battle leave him. He looked over at Triese and gave her a reassuring thumbs up. It was over!! And thankfully, no one had gotten hurt.
-
Dr. Goodall’s reassurance worked well on Triese, if only because it began to shift the blame away from her. “R-really…?” she mumbled, going quiet as Mr. Boreal handed her the cloth. She tried to clean off her face, before she gave up and instead blew her nose in the cloth. “U-umm… thank you…”
“Ah, see, Lady Triese? You’re already feeling better,” Lurerre chimed in, trying her best to sound supportive. “You’re getting stronger by the day. All of that, and you don’t even… er, appear… sick.”
Triese’s lips twitched as she failed to read between the lines of what Lurerre was saying. Then, she took a few deep breaths, before slowly propping herself back up. “U-um… I know I said sorry already,” she mumbled to Mr. Boreal. “But I want to apologize… again. I’ve kind of been… nothing but trouble today, huh…?” She gave Geo a precocious glance. “And I’m sorry that you had to see that,” she said. “I-I promise, I’m way better than that! I just wasn’t… ready…”
She narrowed her eyes, frowning as more of the details in her fuzzy mind filled themselves in. “Wasn’t there a Mega Man…?” she wondered to herself. “Where is he?”
-
"What!? You haven't been any trouble at all!" Geo blurted out as he sprang forward, "Triese, I had a really good time today showing you around and hanging out! I'm just glad you're ok after all of that."
It was night and day really. Siren Splash was ruthless, singularly focused, and cruel. And Triese was everything that wasn't. She didn't deserves this.
Omega-Xis appeared with a groaning bellow, "Are you two done having your pity party?"
"Mega..." Geo chastised strongly with just a sharp glare.
"I'm serious! What use is it to mope around and feel sorry for yourself?" he huffed, folding his arms against his chest, "So you got taken over by an FM-ian, happens all the time! That's just the thing with humans, you all've got this little hole of loneliness in you that FM-ians nestle themselves into all nice and neatly, there's no use feeling sad about it, it's just human!"
He and Geo shared a look and then he palmed his partner's head and ruffled his hair, making it full of static and even more spiky than it already was. Geo batted Omega-Xis away, chuckling.
"So just listen to your partner Lurerre there, alright? She sounds like she knows what she's talking about," Omega-Xis concluded with a prodding point towards Triese's PET.
-
Triese took Omega-Xis' response so sincerely, it was almost painful. In fact, it was so blunt that it made her giggle a little - she could totally imagine Lan getting super mad at the insinuation that she was pitying herself. Just thinking about her friends... brought her a little closer to reality. Away from the nightmare she'd drowsily stumbled through. "R-really...?" she mumbled. "That's... that's kinda scary, but if you say so, then... yeah!"
Despite being given a vote of confidence, Lurerre was a bit skeptical of the idea that being controlled by some sort of evil Wizard was a normal occurrence. She didn't have of an opportunity to ask, though, as her operator's bubbliness finally began to return. If Triese was happy, then she had nothing to be frustrated about... probably.
"Um! Well! Okay! I think I'm okay now!" Triese decreed, bouncing a little in place before wiping her face off. "I still feel a little weird... and a little scared... but I'm gonna be brave, okay?! Especially 'cuz I trust you when you say I wasn't any trouble...!"
She gave her PET a bright smile. "Um! If my PET is fixed, though, then I should probably be heading home soon, right?" she began, her eyes darting back and forth shiftily. The longer she stayed here, the more the guilt would creep up her back... especially because she still couldn't really remember how she returned here in the first place. Nervously, she put one arm to her shoulder. "I-I don't want to stay in a place like this for much longer if, um... you know..."
-
"You'll be able to leave in just a second, let me do a final scan and you should then be good to go. Do you have a ride back, Triese dear?" Dr. Goodall asked, leaning over to peer at the group.
"I'll be taking her back, Dr. Goodall!" Geo offered, raising his hand like he was in class.
"Ah, very good, well then," Dr. Goodall looked over her shoulder at a pair of snooping WAZA officials who upon being spotted by their senior, suddenly remembered the work they needed to do and hurriedly left everyone in the Main Computer room alone. Dr. Goodall smirked to herself and then walked over to Triese and the others, "Will you need any help getting her back to when she's supposed to be?"
Geo sputtered, "W-Wait! How did you...?"
Dr. Goodall smiled warmly, "The data on her PET gave it away. Though it wasn't hard to suspect something was going on the moment you two walked in -- there's always something like this going on with you, Geo."
Geo chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and then turned to Triese, "This isn't the first time something like this has happened. A while back I went to the past and met Lan Hikari, don't know if you know of them."
"More time travel...?" Aaron groaned, rubbing his hair under his hat, "The less I think about causality breaking, the better."
"I wouldn't worry about it, Aaron. Stranger things have happened," Omega-Xis huffed.
"Like you?" Geo quipped.
"Yeah like me," his partner agreed and then guffawed heartily.
