"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.

That Mega Man looked shocked and a bit hurt at the blubbering Triese was making so Siren knew she as going to have to swoop in and salvage this whole thing. Subtle changes to the visor display made Mega Man more shadowed, obscured his eyes and expression, and projected a menacing aura looming over him.

The dialogue he was spewing was a bit harder to tweak, but she made due. Triese heard through the shells a low drone with a slight robotic compression to the sound each time Mega Man or that partner of his spoke.

"Triese!" she heard, "We don't have to fight. Just turn yourself in and you'll be safe. I'm Mega Man, I'm with the Satella Police. I'll need to bring you in to the station so we can talk."

"There's a way out of this, Triese," Siren advised gently, "Their databases are located in the same place as the monitoring equipment. Destroy them both and we can be free. Remember, you don't have to beat him, just survive long enough til we get to Mt. Belenus. Don't worry, I'll be right here with you, my doll."

---

"Geo I don't think she's listening," Omega-Xis grumbled.

"Should I apologize harder? I thought I was pretty clear..." Geo worried, holding his fists in close.

"It's not that... I think... If I had to guess," Omega-Xis contemplated, "This might be Siren's doing. I don't know much about her, never met her, but long ago Ophiuca and Gemini kicked an FM-ian named Siren out of Cepheus's court cause she was 'too good' at manipulating. So if we're dealing with a master manipulator, it's gotta be her."

Geo recalled the cutthroat world of Planet FM with its many power hungry advisors and their eyes on Cepheus's throne. For this Siren to be such a danger to Ophiuca's and Gemini's plans that they would agree to get rid of her? That must've meant she was downright terrible.

"The only way your words are gonna reach her is if Siren's grip is loosened," Omega-Xis shot a glance at Geo, "Forcefully."

Geo slowly recoiled, knowing what his partner meant but dreading the actions needed to do it.

"Triese if you can hear me..." he raised his buster, charging it, "You have to fight back against the Wave Change! You're being manipulated! Please...!"

He couldn't bear to fire, not until he knew for certain that it was absolutely necessary.

Siren giggled deep and melodically, "Perhaps there is something we can do..."

---

"It's not gonna be that big of a problem, Geo," Omega-Xis grumbled over Geo's shoulder.

"Well, I know, but," Geo sighed, arms full of fresh snacks from the local konbini, "It's gonna be awkward if I hand her a tuna fish sandwich and she doesn't eat fish and gets sad about it cause she likes fish that are alive, you know?"

"Things eat tuna! Ocean things! Probably some big thing like a shark!" Omega-Xis countered.

"No Triese likes fish and probably small and cute fish, right?" he wondered, trying to recall all the chatroom messages he had back read, "Girls like small and cute things, right?"

"Girls like many things, Geo," Omega-Xis warned with a far off stare.

Geo wasn't sure what his partner was thinking about in particular, but he nodded to himself in agreement. Girls did like many things.

They passed by the park outside Big Wave, but slowed down as they noticed Mr. Suther looking rather worried about something. Before even asking what was wrong, Omega-Xis held a claw up in front of Geo, stopping him.

"Geo, something's up," his partner cautioned, "I'm sensing... an FM-ian. Intentionally obscured trail. Whoever was here is trying their best not to be found."

"You're kidding," Geo worried, heart rate quickening, "We need to check on Triese!"

He ran as fast as he could to the top of Vista Point, huffing and puffing, nearly collapsing as he dropped all the snacks he was carrying once the truth was revealed to him. Triese was gone. And a new FM-ian was threatening the peace. He didn't like how that sounded.

"Mega-"

"It's Wave Changing time! Get to it Geo!" Omega-Xis barked.

"Right," he nodded, holding his Hunter-VG out and then up, "Transcode! Mega Man!" and in a beam like flash disappeared and jumped onto the Wave Road up above.

Up on the Wave Road Omega-Xis materialized next to the Wave Changed Geo to assist in looking around for anything Triese shaped. Luckily for them, it wasn't hard to spot the suspiciously blue thing in the distance and he dashed over to investigate.

"No doubt..." Omega-Xis muttered, "That hair and that water theme..."

"Triese!" Geo called out, "Are you okay!?" coming to a stop some distance away, just in case things were not okay. And in his experience... things probably weren't okay, but he had to hope.

What a good natured girl. If there was one flaw to this whole plan it would be that.

Siren kept her thoughts to herself on this matter, even if she longingly contemplated the Break Time Bomb. Those things probably had some sort of tracking program on them as they were high value items. Can't be having that. Oh well, c'est la vie.

As they popped back out onto the Wave Road Siren waited for the opportune moment. Right when Triese began to settle, curious about what could possibly be next, Siren made her move.

Ever so slightly she increased the tension, the anxiety. That little reptile part in the back of all human minds that squirmed and ran from danger. Fear of something far away as if a sniper was aimed a poised to fire at any moment at her position.

When Triese finally acknowledged the feeling, Siren was quick to swoop in and soothe, "You've noticed it, haven't you?" she directed Triese's attention far off into the horizon, "That."

She put a circle over the target -- the far off peak of Mt. Belenus.

"What you see there is where the headquarters of a pernicious organization lays, one that is hellbent on monitoring all EM Wave Change activity. They're watching us, Triese. Never taking their eyes off of us nor any of our fellow Wave Changing brethren," Siren intoned low and quietly, then sighed, "It's just a shame that no one has shown up who's brave enough to take them on. To free all of us. Maybe one day a hero will appear."

Silence, with a low growing anxiety emanating from that peak like it was a crack that broke the horizon. Like it shouldn't be there. Like with just a swipe of the hands it could be wiped off the face of the Earth if the hand was strong enough. And Triese... Siren Splash... was strong, wasn't she?

"We'll never lose anything ever again," Siren giggled.

Even though she knew she was the one pulling the strings, Siren was taken aback briefly by how easily Triese was falling deeper and deeper under her spell. This was going much more smoothly than she expected! How wonderful, maybe she should press her luck.

"Nice shot!" Siren cheered, "You cleared out the targets with ease! You're a natural!"

And she really did mean it. Triese was perfect. The delighted anticipation Siren was feeling was infectious.

"Now all you need to do is go inside the treasure room and pick out the cards that suit you best," she suggested.

In addition to the regular fair of cards that were frequently traded in, there was a selection of extremely rare exclusive cards that dealt massive damage. She would let Triese decide which ones she wanted to use as it was so much easier when the weapon chose the bullet themselves. She did however, point out the Ice Stage and Sticky Rain cards as they worked quite well with their Aqua abilities.

"Once we're done here, we should skedaddle," she mentioned, excited for the next phase.

The Cyber Core featured a vault in the back with a Mr. Hertz floating in front of it, just as Siren suspected. With some quick thinking, the visor overlayed an image of a virus over that of the Hertz. They were far enough away that the naive human would not be able to tell the difference.

"Hmm, it seems we have company, doll~" Siren hummed a bit theatrically, "No worries. I'll overlay reticles to help you aim for their weak spot!"

Just as she said, crosshairs covered the vault on key weak points and one large crosshair over the Hertz virus.

Ah, there was a bit of righteousness to the human wasn't there...? She could work with this.

"Yes, we're fighting to protect you as well, because although together we are quite strong, life is... so fragile, isn't it?" she emphasized a feigned sadness (humans were always going on about their tiny, short lives), "But behind that door will be something that will make us stronger. Something that will keep us safe. Go ahead, take it down, I know you can do it."

What was that thing Triese was about to say? It seemed as though she had familiarity with Wave Battling but perhaps called it something differently? That's certainly what the thought process felt like. Didn't this human have a Navi of all things?

She dismissed this train of thought before it sprouted legs. Whatever was going on with WAZA didn't concern Siren -- it was all not going to be a problem soon with any luck anyways.

"You pick up on things quickly! Good~" Siren hummed, "Next I should warn you, not all viruses on the Wave Roads are peaceful. Don't worry, I'll be sure to indicate which ones are hostile and areas where they are going to attack. Ah, speaking of attacks..."

Her mood became slightly devious as she recalled a location with particularly good loot, "You'll need more than basic attacks to survive out here. It's a good thing I know of a place nearby that has some powerful ones hidden behind a large locked door. It'll be like... The final boss of the tutorial."

Siren indicated with a ping on the visor a small antenna off a colorful building nearby.

Big Wave was having some odd problems with their signage out front and Mr. Suther was busy scratching his head over it. The storage Cyber Core was completely open and unguarded at the moment.

The jubilation that Triese experienced threatened to overtake Siren before she quickly centered herself. This Wave Change was going to test her abilities to maintain a level head in the face of this human that was essentially a very excitable dog. But Siren was a master of her craft and smoothly giggled along with Triese's joy. She wouldn't be swept away by that human's feelings, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't excited at all, after all, things were finally going her way.

"With my power you can do anything, my doll," Siren whispered about Triese's mind, "You can swim over the Roads with ease and attack foes with explosive water based attacks. You can also confuse opponents with sound based attacks if you're getting overwhelmed. With our combined strength, nothing will stand in our way!"

She eased her excitement and pondered, "Tell me, what do you know about fighting? Have you ever done anything like this? Ah, no matter, let me show you something."

Crosshairs appeared over the visor on seemingly arbitrary points in the area.

"Fire at these points with the bubble buster so we can gauge your skill," she suggested, holding off on sharing the thought that she was only setting this up to tell how much she'd have to do the fighting here.

Of the many crosshairs that were situated about, one was locked onto an electronic sign on a building. Put there by Siren just to see how much damage this Wave Change was capable of.

"Perfect~" Siren chirped with a high pitched note that flowed right into the overwhelming crescendo that descended upon Triese like a deluge.

A sensation of cold then numb overtook her, making her suddenly light as air yet surging with strength in every part of her body. Her movements were her own and when she finally opened her eyes the entire world around her was different.

She stood upon a central platform at the crossroads of two Wave Roads with yellow-orange paths stretching far in every direction, winding around and intersecting at right angles all over. Antennas on the ground spiraled light that fed into the roads like many upside-down waterfalls flowing into rivers.

The world glowed and pulsed softly in much more vibrant hues than Triese had seen with just her visualizer. In the distance Hertzes of all types traveled up and down the paths, occasionally avoiding viruses that trotted alongside them. It was full of colorful, quiet life.

"Well, my doll?" Siren's voice echoed deep in Triese's mind, "Is it everything you had ever imagined?"

Outside of the Wave Changed Triese, the roads did not appear quite as peaceful. Hertzes that came across any virus panicked and scattered while the viruses gave chase.

There it was. Her catch had swam right into the rip tide and was being pulled out into the open ocean's loving embrace.

Siren's grin stretched across her face and the music grew in volume to such a point that it seemed to drown out the world around the little girl. Siren swayed down to Triese, holding her hands behind her as she floated right up to her.

"It's incredibly easy, my little doll~" she trilled, "All you have to do," she poked Triese's nose, "Is open your heart up to the possibilities! Open up, to me~"

The world swirled and wobbled, but Triese's feet were rooted in place. A strength seemed to rise in her body, urging her forward while her head swam about in a sea of clouds.

The music rose to a melodic cacophony, reaching towards an ever encroaching crescendo.

"Just take," she whispered, "my hand," and beckoned.

It was always easier when they decided for themselves that this is what they wanted all along. To tie the little strings on their wrists themselves. That way she won't question why they were there. She wanted this.

A sudden sour note played in the soundless music as one of Sirens' eyes twitched, but it recovered when she spun her back to Triese.

"That's too bad..." Siren sighed, tilting her head to the side, "It really isn't that scary. I had hoped you were going to be braver..."

She paused, slowly turning her head back over her shoulder, peering just beyond her shell right at Triese, and then forward once more.

"I suppose it's better to back out now rather than later," she slowly drifted away, "You have to be pretty brave to do what it takes to walk along the Wave Roads. To deal with viruses up close," pause, "To Wave Change."

The low melodic sound thrummed back and forth like the coming tide, slow and all encompassing. Each wave pulling her target in closer and closer. Could you blame Triese for being curious? She was such a good girl. And good girls listened.

Siren let out a spirited laugh and clapped her little hands, "I knew there's a reason why I liked you! You're so smart!! Always thinking, aren't you?"

She hummed as she floated around Triese, leaning about to inspect her closely, "I know these things because I've been following you since you hopped on that train leaving Echo Ridge, but I also know these things because we resonate. You can tell, can't you? It's something that can't be expressed with words."

That sound, deep and calming, was more apparent in that moment and all the while, Siren's eyes glittered.

"Power..." she sang, voice dripping with hunger like sickeningly sweet honey, "Is just what allows us to do whatever we want, doll. To break past the things that limit us. You want to see the Wave Roads up close, don't you?"

She unfurled her hand, reaching out with her tiny palm face up, "What do you say, Triese? Don't you want to see all the things the world has to offer?"

Something like music filled the air, whisper quiet but building, slowly. The tempo quickening. And a bass that rumbled deep in the chest.

"My, my!" a mysterious voice echoed around Triese from seemingly everywhere, "What a poor little thing!"

With a blue flash that made a sound like a water droplet, a strange creature appeared before Triese. It looked like an imp of sorts with a long fish tail sitting in a shell all made of a shifting ethereal matter. She floated up to the young girl, leaning over with her head propped up on her hands as Triese stared up into the Wave Road above.

"You're a charming little doll aren't ya?" she giggled sickeningly sweetly, "So excited over the most boring of things!"

To Triese's obvious confusion, the mysterious creature spun and pose, holding a little limb to her mouth, "I'd be careful, doll! No one else can hear me right now so let's keep things hush hush, shall we? I bet your little head's swarming with a~all sorts of questions, so let me tackle the most obvious ones first."

"Today is your lucky day~!" she bounced and spun, scattering ethereal wisps all about, "You get to meet me! Siren! I've been watching you for a bit as I was drawn in by the sad, lonely song in your heart," she wiped a non-existent tear, "And I just knew I had to help. For you see, I am a very special Wizard with a particular power. A power than can help you achieve all your dreams~"

Siren's words came out in a rapid fire rhythm, plowing right over any and all things Triese was trying to interject with. But now, Siren had settled down, leaning her head on her little limbs, peering over Triese like she was the most interesting specimen in the menagerie. Emanating from the strange Wizard was a quiet, yet lovely sound that Triese could feel more than she could hear, and all the while Siren peered onward with playful eyes.

And with that, Geo's little world got that tiny bit bigger. These days he really enjoyed meeting new people and learning more about them. Even though his social battery was struggling to keep up, Triese's cheery demeanor kept things lively.

And then she asked, how Geo and Omega-Xis met.

"Uh! Well!!" Geo hesitated, back straightening out swiftly and glancing over at his partner with big, worried eyes.

"He means this is where I was activated," Omega-Xis lied smoothly, much to Geo's relief.

Triese did not need to know about aliens, Wave Changing, or Mega Man. Even though he figured she'd probably get very excited about it, considering her general enthusiasm for pretty much everything here, he was really not feeling up to explaining all that right now. If he was being honest with himself, what he really wanted was to get up and move around.

"How about I go get some snacks before the sun goes down so we can just chill when it hits night?" he asked as he pulled himself up onto his feet, "There's a place close by where I can pick up sandwiches and fried chicken. Stay right there, I'll be right back."

He waved bye to Triese and quickly trotted down the stairs.

"Geo, you're just gonna leave her up there? Some host," Omega-Xis snarked.

"Mega, she'll be fine. Vista Point is nice and quiet, especially at this time of day," Geo dismissed nonchalantly, "I really just needed to step back and recharge though."

"Alright!" Omega-Xis shrugged, "It's on you if 'Lady Triese' gets bored out of her gourd then!"

Geo sat back and watched as Triese opened up, glancing at the grated floor and back up, taking some time to gather his thoughts.

"I think..." he leaned forward hugging his knees in close, "I think you deserve to have friends and be able to hangout with people, even if you don't have every one of your problems solved," he clutched his knees closer, muttering into them, "Especially if you feel like you don't have your life together..."

"Sheesh..." Omega-Xis grumbled quietly, sensing the rising tension, "You're so young and you're already worried about that? Let me tell ya, folks that have been around for a while like me feel like that all the time. We're basically making it all up as we go."

Geo huffed, but smiled wryly, "Mega, I don't think that's as comforting as you think."

"What!?" Omega-Xis croaked, "I'm just saying that everyone feels like that!"

"Oh, okay," Geo chuckled, loosening up, "You know, I used to think that I didn't deserve good things happening to me until I did something that made me worthy. What that something was, I could never figure out, so I ended up doing nothing, until this guy showed up," he flung his thumb at Omega-Xis, "and cared about me for no reason."

"For no reason??" Omega-Xis guffawed, faking offense, "We're friends cause we're the same and you know that!" and then grappled Geo into a headlock and noogie.

Geo let out a full body laugh, and waved his partner off, "My point being," he quickly settled down, "I wanna be friends with you cause I want to be friends with you, simple as that," he finished extremely matter-of-factually.

"My favorite place...?" Geo pondered, glancing at Omega-Xis and everyone else in the room, "Well, that's gotta be-"

---

"-Vista Point!" he cheered, stepping aside to show the view from the platform, "It's even got a small telescope so you can both get a cool view of the city and mountains behind Echo Ridge, and space! You get a great view of the night sky here! And this is where I met Mega!"

Omega-Xis nodded along, but added gruffly, "And that's all important, but there really isn't much to do here, Geo."

"Well, sure there is!" he objected hesitantly, holding a hand to his chin as he thought, "Well, most of the cool things happen at night when the stars and the Wave Roads are really visible at the same time."

"Nah, come on! Let's do something!" Omega-Xis countered, "Baseball! Video Games! Something to do while we're waiting, right Triese!?"

Geo pursed his lips and glanced between his partner and Triese. He turned his gaze to look at Echo Ridge below and the sky above as it slowly shifted to evening, then back to Triese, giving her a small smile as he reached up to adjust his Visualizer.

"I think we've had enough action for the day, what do you think, Triese?" he asked, squatting and then sitting down on the cool metal of the observatory platform, "How are you feeling after all... that?"

"No kidding...?" Mr. Boreal wondered, giving his head under his hat a little scratch, evidently imagining how that would all work.

He stepped back as Triese did her thing and an unfamiliar voice echoed through the room. Everyone, save for Geo and Dr. Goodall, were surprised to hear a Navi address someone with such personality.

Dr. Goodall, however, chuckled to herself, "Lady Triese," and turned her attention back to the two young teens, "Well Triese, my dear, sounds like your Navi will be safe and secure in our Main Computer here. We'll be able to get to the bottom of the source of your Noise problem once we analyze your PET, but you'll have to let us borrow it for us to do that, will you be ok without a communication device in the meantime, my dear?"

"Oh! She can hang out with me and use my Hunter while you're working on her PET, Dr. Goodall," Geo piped up, nodding to Triese.

"We should at least contact your parents to let them know how to get in contact with you while we're working on your PET," Mr. Boreal suggested.

"Already taken care of Mr. Boreal!" Geo cheered quickly before Triese could say anything.

"Really?" Mr. Boreal replied, adjusting his hat, "That's impressive, you're really on top of things, Geo!"

Geo sheepishly chuckled and gave Triese a light smile while Omega-Xis circled around and held onto Geo's shoulder tightly.

"And don't worry," Omega-Xis barked brightly, "If anything happens, I'll be right here to take care of things!"

"Yeah, since we've got a bodyguard," Geo giggled as Omega-Xis flexed smugly, "Triese, was there any place you'd like to visit while you're... in town?"

Dr. Goodall hummed as she peered into the PET, making tiny nods as she adjusted her glasses. Mr. Boreal leaned over curiously and went wide eyed as he apparently recognized it.

"An old style Progress PET? That's ancient!" he awed.

"You're familiar Aaron?" Dr. Goodall stepped back, impressed.

"Tom's gotten me interested in old PET designs," he admitted sheepishly, for some reason, "He's real passionate about them," he quickly turned his attention to Triese, "I think we have an IR receiver somewhere in one of these drawers around here so you can... What do they call it? When they activate a Navi, but not with a card...?"

"Jacking in, Mr. Boreal," Geo supplied.

"That can't be right..." Mr. Boreal muttered, "There's no physical jack on this model..."

Dr. Goodall walked over with an IR receiver coiled up in her hands, "You can argue semantics some other time, Aaron. I need your help adapting this tech to the Main Computer. This thing is older than I am if you can believe that!"

After finagling with a back panel and finding a hardly used port off on the side, the IR receiver was finally all hooked up. Mr. Boreal gave a big thumbs up that Dr. Goodall acknowledged with a nod, turning to Triese with the receiver held up proudly.

"Go ahead and 'Jack in' your Navi whenever you're ready," she gave Triese a warm smile, "We'll get a wired connection when we're ready to analyze the Noise, but for now, we should get that poor Navi away from all that first."

Well... Rockman didn't exactly know what Cometman was talking about, and to be fair, he really didn't know either. How in the world could he possibly describe the feeling of being in his world's net and the net of the past? Where every movement brought errors and warnings that were honestly just annoyances and nothing else. But it all made him feel like an awkward puzzle piece.

There was that one thing that brought this all up to begin with...

"Ah, okay, so. Do you remember back at the Colosseum when you said I wasn't really a Navi? That you really didn't even know what I was?" Cometman hummed, retreating into his collar, "What did you mean by that...?"

He was thinking about that. He was thinking about the time Mel looked into his code. He was thinking about the time Dr. Hikari looked into his code too. He was thinking about the fact that no other Navis could exist at his time.

So what was it? What made him... like this?

It wasn't just curiosity that drove him to ask these things... There was this fear that, since he was so different, and if something were to go wrong with him, what could he even do to fix himself...?

Just thinking about it was making him suddenly and constantly imagine the horrible possibilities. And all of this was plain to see on his worried face.

It surprised Geo how normal this all felt. After all, he was just helping a stranger when you looked past all the dimensional stuff. It helped that she seemed really adaptable to weird and new things happening to her.

"Bah! Don't worry about it Triese!!" Omega-Xis scoffed as he appeared next to both of them in the elevator, "You're among weirdos! This whole building is full of them! Top to bottom and filled to the gills!"

"Yeah and the weirdest of them all glows green and quotes old detective shows," Geo gave his partner a teasing side eye.

"Hey!! They have great writing!! Don't diss the classics just cause they're ancient!!" he shot back, "Just wait til we corner a guy and then walk away cooly like nothing's wrong, and then slowly turn back to face the baddy and go, 'oh just one more thing' and see the guy sweat."

Geo stifled a laugh, "There'd have to be a 'baddy' like that first, Mega."

"Ack-!" Omega-Xis croaked, "I guess it'd be kinda wild for us to come across something exactly like that..."

They arrived at the top floor, exiting out into a large dark room with many monitors and uniformed adults. Their garb was a lot more business than tactical like the ones on the ground floor, but even then, everyone greeted Geo warmly with familiarity.

He led Triese to the back through a large gate into a massive room with a computer that filled the majority of the space. At its keyboard was a couple of uniformed officers, a short older woman, and a large man in a third type of uniform not yet encountered by Triese.

"Oh Geo!" the large man greeted with a wave.

"Mr. Boreal! And Dr. Goodall! Hey!" Geo waved back.

The old woman turned around and smiled brightly upon seeing the visitors, "Geo!! And Meggers! How lovely to see you! And I see you've brought a friend!"

Geo stepped aside and let Triese come forward, "Yep! This is Triese! The girl I messaged you about."

"Oh wonderful! It's so good to meet you. I'm Dr. Goodall, an old friend of Geo's," she reached out and offered her hand to shake, "Now Geo has told me you were having some problems with Noise, could you go ahead and fill me in about what's going on?"