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-)

"She didn't mention them...?" Rock questioned, genuinely surprised. "I mean, I dunno what they've been up to since we went on our whole overseas trip, but it was still pretty suspicious that they were on the island at the same time as us." She crossed her arms, looking away from the PET; it felt bad to be having a normal conversation with Dr. Wily again, but there was really no avoiding it. "They were makin'... robots or something, right? So what the hell would these data-absorbers have to do with that?"

Lan narrowed her eyes, dots connecting chaotically in her mind. "Maybe they're trying to hide something," she speculated. "It'd make sense why they'd want the vaults back if they messed up, right? Maybe they got... like, loose, or something."

"If what your contacts say about the vaults is the truth, then that very well could be the case," Dr. Wily surmised. "Technology firms often have some very interesting things to hide. If anything, it would be wise to track this vault down... if only so we can pry for info on how to end this little problem of yours."

Lan grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "Okay? Whatever. Where is it, then?" she barked. "If we deal with it, then will you stop calling me?"

Choosing to ignore Lan's threat, Wily instead explained the mission. "The company they're suing is a gambling corporation. Their largest casino just so happens to be in downtown Den City," he said. "So it doesn't surprise me that one of those vaults could've crawled all the way there. I'd start by investigating that business. I'm certain they won't even care if you loiter around the premises, given our gambling laws. Ha, ha."

Lan immediately blanched. "C-casino... company?" she muttered, bad memories already bubbling up in her mind. Rock, similarly, was looking quite displeased. "Ew... ew... ugh."

Lan couldn't help but jump as soon as Kaita barged in. Rock cringed, too, waving her hands defensively, though it did nothing to stop her operator's resulting outburst. "K-Kaita- why'd you follow me?!" Lan hissed, immediately trying to hide her PET. "It's nothing- it's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing-!!"

Unfortunately for her, the damage had already been done. Wily chuckled, his gravelly voice still audible even as Lan tried to muffle the speakers. "Todoroki Kaita, hmm? From Beyondard?" he said, sounding rather bemused. "I see that you haven't stopped making the rounds, Lan. A new friend?"

"Sh-shut up," Lan blubbered, completely embarrassed. The expression she was shooting at Kaita was wildly unreadable, besides her face being beet red.

Rock groused to herself, but there wasn't much she could to do perform damage control when Kaita was already engaging with the conversation. Well, it wasn't like they hadn't already been on a mission together - it was just that Lan (and herself...) had been particularly cagey about Wily lately. "A friend... yeah," she replied, sighing. "Just... spit out what you want, already, old man."

Ignoring Rock's less-than-satisfied tone, Wily finally responded to Kaita. "It would seem so. Or, rather... the vaults that those viruses sprung out from," he explained. "It doesn't surprise me. Anyone could've figured out they had some connection to those devices. After all, the first attacked not long after you met their agents, didn't it? But why they would want them back is another matter entirely."

Lan's lips twitched. "Hi...Hika... he, uh," she began, stuttering before she could bring herself to even acknowledge the other world's Dr. Hikari. "It was something like, they were absorbing data, right? Maybe they want that data, or something like that." She slapped the side of her head with her hand in frustration. "Or... that ancient... crap... ugh."

"That's what I want you to investigate," Wily said, before quickly correcting himself to clarify, "Help investigate. No one else has quite the combination of strong Navi and stealthing ability like you do. Ha, ha."

"Oh, how you flatter me," Rock barked back sarcastically.

"Huh. Sounds neat. For a second I thought you meant... here... which, uh, yeah, no," Rock commented, just before her hologram disappeared so she could catch up to her operator. Shows how good of hosts they were if Kaita was already jumping to going to a completely different Internet. She should really be putting more effort into finding interesting things to do, shouldn't she...? Especially after their meeting with the other Lan ended so poorly.

Lan would have darted out of the house on her own, but Kaita unexpectedly ferrying her out stunned her a bit. Once they were outside, it took Lan a few seconds to pry her hand away and look a little more alive again. "Y-yeah," she mumbled, still looking embarrassed. "Um... sorry. I-I mean, I don't want to look for trouble, but I hate just... sitting around... and..."

As if specifically to spite her, it was then that the PET was attacked by an incoming call. "What now?!" Lan couldn't help but groan, pulling her PET screen close to her face... and quickly finding out who was actually calling her. "What?! No! I'm not answering that!"

If it weren't for the fact that it would be a supremely bad idea, Lan probably would've thrown her PET to the ground. Instead, Rock reappeared on her shoulder, looking just as annoyed. "I wish we could just ignore it," she groused. "But it's probably... something important."

"Ugh! Fine!" Lan complained, before realizing that Kaita was still standing directly next to her. "Uh! One second! It's nothing!" she said sheepishly, scuttling off to the side and hiding on the side of the steps leading to the front door. Dr. Wily, of all people, was the absolute last person she wanted to be hearing from now. What was he going to do, trick them into using another super-powerful program or whatever?!

Once she answered the call, she didn't even bother turning on the face display. "What?" she quietly hissed. "Don't- I don't want you to-"

"We have a problem," Dr. Wily interrupted, before Lan could even finish her complaint. "News is getting out about those little Arcana-viruses that you've been battling."

Lan's blood instantly ran cold. Were they being watched? "Wh-what...?"

"Not the ones you fought," Wily corrected, which immediately relieved Lan. "Rather... There's some rumors going around that Dead Hand is suing a business for 'theft of proprietary data'... and their description of what they're after is all too familiar." Wily tapped his fingers on his chair, laughing darkly at the matter. "Oh, the things you find out about when you spend too long looking at public court records."

"...Okay?" Rock barked back. "What do you want us to do about it? We're not fuckin' lawyers." She crossed her arms. "If what's-its-name knows about it already, won't we just get in more trouble if we take it for ourselves?"

"It is way cooler," Lan muttered under her breath, puffing her cheeks. For a moment, she didn't even realize she'd voiced the thought out loud, and immediately shied away. "U-um... but, yeah. I don't know. I don't even think there's that many of them. I don't know what they do." She paused, averting her eyes. "At least you guys have to go look at those liminal spaces or whatever..."

Rock exhaled a little once Kaita realized that it was just Ms. Hikari having a very strange sense of humor. Really, she didn't understand half the things she said sometimes... but it wasn't like she saw her much, anyways. "Internet City...? They have cities on the Internet?" she couldn't help but question. "I sure as hell haven't seen 'em."

"I don't care what we do," Lan mumbled. "But if we go outside, then we could talk a little louder... I guess." She narrowed her eyes, having remembered some fuzzy things in the back of her mind. "When was the last time I ever thought about... soccer...?"

Without waiting for an answer, she kicked her feet up off the couch and swerved towards the door. Her mother, of course, wasn't going to let her leave without some comment. "Going somewhere?"

"I dunno," Lan mumbled back. "I just want to go outside."

"Well, be careful. Don't stray too far," Ms. Hikari responded, in a tone that Lan always had trouble tolerating. "You know how I feel when you're out late..."

Lan didn't respond verbally, instead opting for an incomprehensible, embarrassed "mmmph".

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.

Rock didn't know what it even meant to reject whatever Aon was trying to do to her, but she wasn't going to let it stand. She wound up her blades once more, prepared to wordlessly finish off this piece of shit as soon as the rain of Tri-Arrows did its job - and then, a spike of something in the back of her mind made her pause. Like something almost rose out of Aon... but... didn't...?

She took one step back; Lan clearly felt something, too, as she flashed a pained scowl. A feeling both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It was like a toxic aura that had become one with the air around them had wrapped around the two of them for the smallest of moments - and then it was gone. "Wh-what the fuck-"

It was stupid of her to let her guard down. In a real fight, the second she spent questioning that feeling could've cost her her advantage - and yet, the fight stopped dead when Aon admitted defeat. Rock couldn't even figure out a proper response for a few seconds, too confused and disoriented from everything else that was going on. "Huh? What?"

Lan winced, lowering her head a little bit as her eyelids fluttered. Her eyes were still crimson red, of course, but the rage fueling their fire paused to make way for fear. "H-hey, wait, no, you can't... you can't just..." she blubbered. This wasn't how a battle ended. There wasn't any satisfaction in a forfeit. Were they just going to leave now?! "Th-that's it...? Then... then what's going to happen?"

"I think they're just savin' themselves the pain," Rock observed, her coat fluttering as she crossed her arms. "Not sure if I get it. But let that be a lesson for what happens if you fuck with the kid."

Lan's breathing was getting heavier. Her surroundings felt... distorted. None of this made any sense. What just happened? Did they accomplish anything at all? O-or... were they just going to make someone... run away again...?!

The Black Ink popped against Siren Splash's shield of notes, briefly obscuring her vision and making her panic. "Why... why, why, why?!_ Stop interrupting! P-please...?!" she shouted, the tiniest hint of vulnerability slipping into her voice. Her lips twitched, making her hesitation more noticeable. The Elec Slash cut a crackling gash through the side of her helmet, and she squeaked in pain as she pulled away.

It was so annoying to Siren that her host was still trying to act soft, as if she was actually going to talk Mega Man into leaving her alone. Actually, everything was starting to get on her nerves. It wasn't like her to lose her composure, even if she was painfully close to getting off scot-free... It was more like some kind of petulant rage, or perhaps fear, was bubbling in the back of her mind. Was it even... her own feelings...? Whatever- it didn't matter. She needed to stab another round of needles through this girl's heart so that their plan didn't fall apart.

As an anxious sting hit Siren Splash's mind, the remaining watery notes shot out and bounced along the Wave Road like rubber balls. There was some sort of urge in the back of her mind, to pull out some kind of finisher, like she would in Net-something, with.... with.... That didn't matter.

"S-Sticky... Rain!" Siren Splash shouted, throwing her arm out in a panic. Raining on Mega Man's parade would keep him at bay for just a little longer, ah-ha-ha-ha. Bubbles formed around her right arm as she desperately tried to think up some kind of super-move. Why didn't she just have that by default? Any cool ---- would have that! "Need... WAZA... get to WAZA," she muttered under her breath, gliding across the road as fast as she could with the time she bought.

Unfortunately for them, Kaita's outburst was enough to attract the attention of Lan's mother, if only for a moment. "Is something going on with a chatroom?" Ms. Hikari called out from the kitchen. "I hope you're not getting in trouble online, again. Everything's safe? You aren't doing any drugs, or anything? Ha, ha."

Lan blanched at such a strange attempt at a joke. "What?! No!" she barked back as she peeked over the couch. "It's nothing! It doesn't have anything to do with me." She ducked behind the cushion again before any part of her face could betray the lie... though Kaita's reassurance quickly changed her expression to a strangely thoughtful one, anyways.

"I've only heard of Net Saviors bein' in your guys' world," Rock observed as Lan lowered her head. "There's Officials, and Net Sheriffs, and stuff, but some of those Officials have been way more of a pain in the ass than you'd ever expect." She shrugged. "I don't really get it, myself."

"...I mean, you're not an adult," Lan muttered to herself, before immediately hurrying to correct herself. "I-I guess Netto-san, and Meiru-san, they kind of are, but- um- it's different." Embarrassed, she looked away for a moment. "But... I didn't think of it that way. With the stuff that happened to Netto-san..."

Rock raised an eyebrow. "The Silver Division stuff?" she asked, her expression becoming just as thoughtful as her operator's. "Yeah... yeah, that's true, ain't it? There wasn't ever going to be a perfect answer... so we might as well just play the cards we're given, right?"

Lan went quiet, like she wasn't fully able to express her feelings. "I... I guess," she murmured to herself. She made eye contact with Kaita again, and after a few quiet seconds of contemplation, she blushed. "W-well... um. Either way. I don't know what I like," she admitted shyly. "I mean, battling isn't going to calm me down..."

"You're always watchin' anime when you're-"

"We're not watching anime," Lan instantly responded.

Lan grew a little frustrated that Kaita didn't seem to get it, but pushed her feelings away so that her mom wouldn't sense that something was up. "I-I mean, my friends were happy that I did it, obviously-" she began to blubber, shifting in her seat. "It's, it's just, I feel bad about it. And..."

"You know your friends aren't the ones who're beatin' you down for this," Rock couldn't help but interrupt. She turned to Kaita, crossing her arms. "People from the chatroom are givin' her a hard time over this power we found, is the short of it. We're still tryin' to figure out what to do."

Lan pulled her knees up to the couch cushion in shame. "I-I just shouldn't think about it," she muttered to herself. "All it does is scare people and make them upset." There was an awkward pause, as her eye contact drifted away from Kaita. "I-I don't want to upset you, either."

It was such a sincere declaration that Rock couldn't help but smile. "There just hasn't been much time to breathe after all that crap, y'know? Traveling overseas, and then all the fallout from everything," she continued explaining to Kaita and Turboman. "She needs a little bit of leeway, is all. Something that'll actually calm her down."

In turn, Lan was equally as bewildered at what Kaita first assumed that she would be upset about. "Wh-what...? A prize...? N-no, I don't care about that," she muttered awkwardly, pausing to check behind the couch as if her mother would listen in. "I-I mean, I got this trophy, but that doesn't really matter. I just mean, um, that a lot of bad stuff happened."

She curled into herself, though, as the desire to simply not say anything overtook her. What was she going to tell Kaita, that she was apparently this super dangerous darkness-person now? Really, it was Wily's fault, at the end of the day, because he made them go to the tournament to begin with! B-but, but, she wasn't going to tell Kaita that, she couldn't afford to make one more person think she was a freak-

"People judge her a lot," Rock interrupted, snapping Lan out of her fervor. "We had to step up our game to deal with the shit people were throwing at us, and... well, it brought a lot of attention. Kid doesn't like attention, period." Lan lowered her eyelids, but Rock brushed her off, continuing to talk in her place in the hopes that they could perhaps, maybe, somewhat, have a normal hangout with someone she was already friends with. "It wasn't just a tournament. We had to kinda, sorta... stop the Net from being destroyed. Stuff like that."

Lan puffed her cheeks. "Rooock," she complained, before realizing her Navi was totally cornering her on purpose. "W-well, it sucked. It was horrible, and I hurt someone that I cared about." She shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. "I-I mean, I know that it's fine, but... still..."

Lan couldn't help but be a little bewildered by the insinuation that they would need to find the couch, since it was literally just right over there... although now that she thought about it, maybe Kaita just expected the couch to be in a different place? Netto-san's house was different from hers, after all. It was a lot less... old.

"R-right..." she muttered to herself, motioning for Kaita to follow. The living room was on the opposite side of the hall as the kitchen, and the worn-looking couch had headrests that were more than suitable shields to hide behind. Lan nestled herself on the couch and ducked her head down as a dour expression washed over her face. She'd been trapped now, hadn't she...

"I'd have thought that hoodie-her would've sent you, or somethin' like that," Rock began as Lan sat down, her hologram appearing on the coffee table in front of them. "You're really just here for fun, then?"

Lan pouted, keeping her voice down. "...Everyone's bothering me lately," she mumbled, her eyelids lowering. "I wish I didn't win that stupid tournament."

The vaccine that Aon was attacking Rock with fucking hurt like hell. It was difficult to hide her pained expression, but entering Shadow Trance helped soothe the pain, at the very least. As she kept holding Aon up, her operator lowered her head, responding in a strangely calm tone. "I-I don't care if you think a chip is illegal," Lan muttered under her breath. "All that mattered... was that you wanted to prove you were better than us, right?!"

Rock's glare only intensified as Aon screamed at them. "I don't get it," she barked back. "What're you really after? Do you actually want to help? Or are you just tryin' to piss the kid off?" With a scoff, she tossed Aon to the ground, moving the giant Roller Blades to hover over Aon like twin guillotines. "You know she's not gonna be too happy to see all that Alpha shit. What'd you expect?"

Lan began to shake, which only made Rock more nervous in the cyberworld. It was all because Aon was with those Official people, wasn't it? All because of that. M-maybe Mayl was okay, but...! "P-people like you... th-these stupid Officials... with all the power in the world..." she seethed. "You just want to use it to hurt people! You want to feel superior to people! I-I won't let you!"

She slot in a Tri-Lance chip, which Rock used before her operator even had to say anything. Rock loaded a crossbow and pointed it at Aon as three shadow copies of her showed up to surround their opponent in the other cardinal directions. Lan swiped her hand, and the barrage of arrows fired at Aon, stabbing them in the back as the blades above them began to fall.

Siren detested how much Mega Man was trying to plead to this human. Well, if he believed that he was somehow at fault for this, then that was some pleasant schadenfreude... but she would have to keep nestling herself inside of Triese's heart to make sure she didn't get any funny ideas. She pushed her own soul a little harder, and made Siren Splash almost scowl when Mega Man made such a foolish blunder.

"Wh-what are you...?" Siren Splash stammered, charging up another spray of bubbles. "M-make-up- what, you-?" It was then that the Flicker Kick slammed into her; she'd hesitated too long herself, and ate another seriously painful attack because of it. "Ah-ha-ha-ha..."

Siren Splash stumbled backwards, before jumping away and escaping to a higher connected road. "S-stop, stop, leave me alone," she whined, her tone unreadable. It almost sounded unnatural for there to be a hint of anger to Triese's voice. "I'm going to be important! I'm going to do something that matters! Don't get in my way!"

They were making progress toward WAZA. Just a little bit longer, and she could be free. She could live the life she always wanted to, without anyone interfering.

For good measure, she swiped her arm in an arc, summoning an array of watery notes to hover around her like a shield. A few more Bubbler shots, and he'd stop, right. He'd stop! He'd stop! He'd leave her alone! She was Siren Splash!

For whatever reason, Triese only reacted to Geo's second callout, rather than the first. Whether or not it was because she couldn't hear him, or because she was no longer thinking of herself as 'Triese', was unclear. "A-are we...? Friends...?" she couldn't help but confusedly mutter to herself, which Siren responded in turn by dialing up the anxiety in the back of her host's mind.

Unfortunately for the two of them, such a conflict left them wide open for the Stealth Laser. Triese was electrocuted by the triple-shot of static beams, and for a moment, she felt an uncharacteristic glee at having been inflicted with that kind of pain. That was her weakness! She had an Aqua-element body! She was just like a Navi, wasn't she?! She got to fight like a Navi, she got to feel like a Navi, she got to delete like a Navi...

"Push through it, my doll," Siren helpfully reminded, though she could sense Triese's bizarre masochistic glee. Why a human would feel that way was beyond her. Regardless, she kept her focus on controlling Triese, refusing to acknowledge the so-called hero chasing after them. She forced Triese to stagger backward and resume fleeing, controlling Siren Splash's arm to fire another curtain of bubbles to keep Mega Man at bay.

"I-I... um... S-Snowball," Triese stuttered, awkwardly throwing out a - who could have guessed - snowball that quickly gained traction and size as it barreled across the Wave Road. Geo wouldn't be able to see it beneath the visor, but Triese was feeling vaguely hurt and confused. "I-I'm... but I'm Siren Splash..."

Triese wasn't going to be conscious enough to notice that Siren was burrowing a little bit deeper into her, especially when she was panicking at Mega Man breaking free of her attack so easy. She stumbled to get out of the way of the Shuriken, before she reflexively shot her bubble buster at the ground, forming another bubble that bounced her up and over the incoming attack.

For a moment, she felt proud of herself for the maneuver! It was sort of like how she'd always known she'd fight if she finally got to transform... right? That meant that she couldn't allow the bad guys to take this away from her, right?! Th-there was no way she could back down from this fight... especially when she'd already made the first shot...!

As she made a break for it, she loaded a Battle Chip... Card?... to try and distract Mega Man. Oh, wow, that was so cool, she was just able to pull that up with her mind, there was no way she could let this go! "I-Ice Grenade!" she shouted, awkwardly overhand-throwing the projectile at Mega Man's location. The grenade exploded on the Wave Road behind her, freezing it up.

There was a tiny urge in the back of her mind to use the ice to her advantage, to freeze the opponent and then use a big breaking attack, just like she would with Lu- with Lure- where was Lurerre? Wasn't Lurerre-?

"Ah, don't falter now, my little doll," Siren interrupted, sensing that Triese's thoughts were spiraling out of control. A tone continued to hum through the conch-shaped receptors on Triese's head. "Remember, I'm right here with you. We can take any threat on, together. We, alone, have the power to stop this madness."

Triese's head lowered as she dashed across the Wave Road. "Y-yeah... yeah," she mumbled, choking up a little. "I-I'm going to fight... I'm going to keep fighting..."

Siren's tweaks worked like a charm, at least for the first few seconds that their opponent spoke. She took a step back, glancing at Mt. Belenus nervously... and then their mysterious assailant just to happened to specify his name. Something in the Wave Change snapped, and Siren couldn't help but recoil. "M-Mega Man...? Huh?" Triese muttered, her shoulders raising as she swirled back to face him. "B-but that... wouldn't that mean...?"

"What's wrong, my doll?" Siren immediately interjected, though she was having trouble keeping herself completely composed. Well, it was no surprise that Triese would have that sort of reaction to hearing the name of the supposed 'hero' of this wretched planet. "Ah, you didn't know? Yes, despite his reputation, Mega Man is quite the... unsavory character. Every wise Wave Changer knows not to cross into his territory..."

It was then that Mega Man raised his buster, and Triese began to panic. "N-no, wait that doesn't make any sense," she muttered to herself. "If he's Mega Man, then that means, he, he- Reg- he-" Her head twitched a little bit. "He... helps people..."

...What was she trying to say? Whatever. It didn't matter - Siren needed to get Triese back under her thumb before she figured out what was going on. A bass-heavy tone began to hum in Triese's ears, drowning out her thoughts. "Only the people under the Satella Police's thumb," she clarified, her voice lowering to a whisper. "But there's an easy way to beat him, my doll. We have to strike the very place he gets his support from. Only Siren Splash can do that... do you understand?"

Triese clutched her head, her oversized sleeve briefly drooping over her visor. "I-I'm... I..." she muttered, before she slowly took another step back... and raised her buster back at Mega Man. "I-I'm... Siren Splash..."

Suddenly, she fired a cluster of bubbles at Mega Man's feet - and then made a break for it, following Siren's directions to try and reach Mt. Belenus before they were crushed.

Triese immediately jumped as soon as a weirdly familiar voice called out to her, turning around to face the first actual EM Being she'd had the opportunity to encounter. "H-huh...?! Who are you?!" she reflexively barked out. "H-how do you know my name?!"

Siren let some of Triese's own panic overtake her the second she saw that Mega Man had caught her red-handed. Of course, this wasn't entirely unexpected... this girl just so happened to latch herself to a dangerous person, after all. But for Mega Man to come after them before they had even made it to WAZA... Well, her luck was certainly taking a turn for the worse. Luckily, she had just conditioned Triese with the very excuse she could use to turn the tables in her favor - and it was all the better that Triese didn't seem to recognize the person she'd been hanging out with, either.

Feigning a gasp, she began to speak inside of Triese's mind again. "Ah! Speak of the devil! They must have been tracking us down after all," Siren exclaimed, trying her damndest to sound worried so Triese would also worry. "That's one of the Wave Changers that sold themselves to that organization! I suppose we can't all be so noble..." Already, she was placing targets on Mega Man through their visor. "If there's any time to act, it's now, my doll~! Before he gets the upper hand!"

The idea couldn't help but make Triese hesitate even more, though. She couldn't run, and this person would probably chase her to that mountain in the distance, right? She raised her buster in a panic as she took a step back, but she didn't fire, not yet. "W-wait! Please! I'm just trying to help! I-I'm not doing anything bad, I swear!" she blubbered. "D-don't make me fight... because I don't want to... I promise!"

(She didn't exactly sound confident about it, though. Which was great for Siren!)

Triese twitched once Siren spoke up, having been hit with a bizarre wave of anxiety as she listened to her partner explain the situation. W-well, of course. All good things had to have a catch, didn't they? She'd always been warned about how the Net in ACDC was monitored, so this wasn't really a surprise. Staring at Mt. Belenus from afar, a strange feeling of deja vu overcame her - but the anxiety was slowly winning out, and she stepped forward on the Wave Road as if to get a better look at the peak on the horizon.

"Th-that's horrible," she muttered, putting a hand on her mouth - perfectly following Siren's script. "Wh-what can we do about them, if they're watching us? I mean, we can't just go in and fight them alone... right?" Nervously, she curled her fingers, taking a look around the Wave Road. That's right... no one like her was around. It was just a bunch of smaller maintenance programs... just like how her own Net worked...

"B-but what if..." She didn't want to imply that they were the 'only ones', because Siren was telling her there were other Wave Changers she had to help. "W-well... we have to do something! I can't be totally useless! We need to go there... right?! Sabotage something... at least!"

(Too easy.)

Triese was brave. She was getting stronger. Siren had gifted her power! She wasn't going to be a coward and completely ignore the problem, right...? If she Wave Changed back in her world, then she'd start taking down all the people she didn't like with no hesitation... right? Siren Splash would do that, right?! No... would she...? What was she thinking...?

She continued to step forward toward the silhouette of Mt. Belenus in the distance, as if she expected it to whisk her away at any moment, but her anxiety was slowly turning to hesitation and panic.

Triese felt a mixture of emotions as she saw the vault split open - it was mostly the sight of the rare Battle Chips (cards? Were they the same...?) that made her hesitate. It was so hard to get something like a Giga Chip, so much so that a few falling into her lap this easily just seemed... wrong. W-well, she didn't need them, anyways. She would earn them... from her hard work... like she usually did...!!

"Y-yes! Um! Okay!" she nervously responded, nodding her head as she ducked into the vault. They would have to hurry, wouldn't they?! She wasn't completely sure why they were under a time crunch, but she just knew that it was true intuitively. After she took Siren's suggestion and pocketed the Sticky Rains and the familiar Ice Stage, she searched for any other Aqua cards she could find. She didn't really have time to ask what any of them did... so she was running off of a lot of assumptions, but...

Wait! Wait! If they were getting Battle Chips out of the vault, then did that mean she got to use them?! It really was like Cross Fusion...! Oh my gosh, she had to pick the cutest ones and then use them as soon as she could!! There was a card with a shark on it that seemed kind of familiar, and another with what looked like a yeti virus on it, and one that kinda looked like an Ice Seed, th-there was this really cute bunny oh my gosh...

"I-I don't want to take too much, because it kinda feels weird if I do," Triese voiced as she backed away from the vault. "I'll do my best with this, anyhow!" She bounded across the comp and to the exit pad, returning back to the main Wave Road above Echo Ridge. Giddily, she bounced in place, staring at the sky in lieu of actually being able to see Siren. "Okay! What next, what next?! This is so awesome!!"