"Oh! Well, how kind of you," Haruka responded in turn, though she still looked a little confused. She eyed the source of the voice reminding Kaita of his manners, apparently surprised that another Navi was present. "Lan shuts herself in a lot, so I'm glad she has friends that will check on her. Come to think of it, you haven't told me much of anything about your friends as of late." "Th-there isn't anything... to say," Lan answered awkwardly. She wriggled around a little bit, attempting to slip into her poker face as Kaita walked up to her. It was hard to really him away when he was looking at her like that... but her mom was right there, so it wasn't like could say everything. Haruka walked back into the kitchen, but continued to engage with the so-called conversation from across the house. "The trip over... Hmmm, you must have met over the Internet, then?" she wondered out loud. "Where are you from, if it's not Den City?" "...Yeah, it's another city," Lan immediately interrupted, before Kaita could say anything would get her in even bigger trouble. Leaning closer to Kaita, she lowered her voice. "W-well, you did it. I mean, there isn't anything that would've broken it, or whatever, but..." Rock's hologram appeared on her operator's shoulder, interrupting her train of thought. "You guys should sit on the couch or somethin'," she suggested, perhaps as part of a ploy to give them a little privacy. She figured that Kaita couldn't lie even if he tried... but she still needed to keep Lan calm, lest she blow up over recent events yet again. "Can't tell you how glad I am that it was you at the door. The kid's been having a hard time lately." "Rock!" Lan hissed, and her eyes wandered just in time to notice an eyebrow raise from her mother. Lan didn't want to say anything! She had the right to remain silent!!

“I stated what I wanted to see from the start! Why are you surprised?! Is it because I’m not coddling you like everyone else?! Letting you think it’s all fine?!” Aon struggled to keep their hold while they argued, bracing their arm with their other hand attempting to pump more of their vaccine toward Rock. “You’re arguing what I’m doing isn’t fair? After using illegal chips on me, and now this?” They knew they were going to be dealing with whatever this Shadow Trance was, and in all truth they hadn’t made any kind of plan for it, not even this. But now here they were, unable to take it back. They could only attempt to excuse their way out of it. “What’s with the double standard? First it’s ‘no one told me so it’s fine’ but it’s not fine when it’s used against you. Is it? I haven’t said one thing I didn’t mean!” Their gaze meandered to the screen to glare at Lan, taking note of her reactions. It left them off guard for the sudden transformation and the swiftness of Rock breaking free, appearing directly in front of them and the shadow from behind, They struggled briefly, slacking when it became evident they were far outmatched. They could barely keep up with these two as it was, this new form was as Ellen put it ‘Frightening’ but not fun by any means. They couldn’t do anything about this, no matter how badly they wanted to. “I’ll take the hate. I’ll take it all! If you brats would. Just. Get it!!” They hissed through their teeth, tilting their head up and to the right against the blade to shoot a direct glare at Rock with their good eye from under their visor.

"No..." Geo faltered weakly, lowering his buster in disbelief. Not only was Omega-Xis right that it was this mystery FM-ian Siren, but she was clearly in complete control of Triese. She was unreachable like this. His hesitation left him completely unprepared for Siren Splash's attack and he was hopelessly bubbled by it. "Geo!!" Omega-Xis barked, slashing at the inside of the bubble, tearing it open with one claw attack. "Right!" he bounced back, righting himself and tossing a hand out, "Shuriken!!" A spinning blade whirled out of the arc from Mega Man's arm, swooping low and then angled up, aiming to head Siren Splash off and prevent her escape. He readied a Jet Attack and began pursuing after her, holding off on activating it until she attempted to dodge his first attack. The visor indicated a line of hazardous space just before Siren Splash. A twinge of excitement arose from Siren as Mega Man very clearly became aggressive, "Trust me, little doll, we've got this." Words alone would likely not be fast enough in this fight so Siren nestled into the nice little space she had carved out in Triese's heart ready to steer her precious little catch whenever the poor little thing inevitably faltered. Triese's body no longer belonged just to her now.