Valerie sprinted with amazing energy, but she was just extremely worried about Sonia and that was all on her mind right now; her fatigue and soreness seems to have disappeared and was long forgotten.

'Whenever someone needs help, she just cannot ignore it... No matter how little a situation seems to be...' Chroma laughed. 'That is what Valor would do.' Even Geo was surprised about Val.

As soon as they reached the very top, she let go of his hand and was looking around with such energy, it was quite amazing... Usually, when he sees her, she was always appearing to be tired. Val would sleep if she finds an opportunity. Even when she stands, her slouching and constant yawning makes it look like she was one of the most worn out person on the planet.

"(Psst! Sonia! Are you here?)" Val whispered, scanning their surroundings.

"(Umm...)" Geo said. "(It's just me and Val... No one else.)"

They were both searching, 'hmm. Seems like someone decided to take the Pitcher machine after that...thing.' Val thought, noticing that the machine was long gone. 'Ugh, what're you doing?! Focus and stop getting off-track!' She scolded herself.

"(Over here!)" A voice called over from their left, near the train that was sitting alone and had plants growing on it. Peeking out from the shadows was her.

"A-Are you Sonia Strumm?..." Geo asked.

Sonia nodded.

"So, what are you planning to do with the concert thing?" Valerie questioned curiously. "Just going to suddenly leave your fans without a good-bye event of some kind?"

Sonia frowned sadly. "My manager should just cancel it already..."

"Val..." Geo turned to her, "you haven't really told me why..."

Sonia answered for her, "my manager just holds it for his own selfish reasons..." They all were standing beside the immobile train, Val gave Sonia her bag. "Thank you."

"Good thing that greedy guy didn't see your bag, or else...well, it wasn't gonna be pretty." Valerie stretched. "Anyway, did he see you?"

"No, hopefully never..." Sonia sighed deeply. "Please, do you two have any place where I can hide for the time being?... Somewhere no one will find me?.." She begged.

Another voice shouted, sounding angry and desperate. "Sonia!! Where are you?!"

They all looked around and lowered their tones, "(aw crud!)" Val cursed.

"(Oh, no! I can't let him find me!)"

They all quickly ran and used the train for cover, not long after, the manager in his tidy suit came by. He halted in his steps and looked around, grumbling bitterly under his breath. "Argh, where did she run off to?" He was sweating in panic. "If I cancel the concert, it'll be my neck... I'll have to find her no matter what..."

They all were watching in the shadows, Sonia was behind Valerie and Geo who were at the very front, keeping an eye on her manager. As soon as he left and descended down the stairs, Geo did a silence gesture and walked out of their hiding spot. He checked where the manager had gone.

"I think he's gone." He said.

Valerie came out and saw too. "Definitely." She blew a strand of hair out of her face.

Sonia finally released the breath she was holding, "please... Take me somewhere... Anywhere..." She gazed on her guitar. "I... I don't want to sing..."

Geo thought about it for a bit, Valerie only knew one place where she'd visit and hide. "I think this guy I know, Mr. Boreal..."

Val chimed in, "yeah! He can let you hide in his lab, he's at AMAKEN!"

Geo mumbled something at the side.

"Did you say something?" Sonia said to Geo, in response to whatever he muttered.

"N- nobody! Just myself..." Geo replied. "So... You want to get going?..."

"Yeah..." Sonia mounted her guitar on her back.

"Don't worry, Mr. Boreal would understand." She gave a sweet smile at Sonia, who is troubled at the moment. Sonia was somewhat relieved from her stress, as they went down the steps, Sonia was hiding behind Geo and using Val for cover.

-

Zack walked by them, and because he was approaching them, Sonia pulled her hood to hide more of her face. He also look a bit like he has a lot on his mind and distracted by something, which didn't surprise Val... Considering what him and Bud did yesterday...

He stopped and looked at their retreating figures, "Did I just walked past by Geo and Val earlier?... And that girl..." He was referring to Sonia, who didn't even realize it was his favorite celebrity. "She looked sorta familiar..." He shrugged it off. "Meh, whatever. Today is Sonia's concert!" He adjusted his glasses and breathed. "I must warm up so I can cheer my heart out!!"

He took off, running around the perimeter, his shoes stopping on the grass and his blue backpack bouncing along.

Then, he started shouting at full volumes, practicing his cheering...

-

Meanwhile, Val and the others took the bus to AMAKEN Labs for a special request...

-

Once they were at the entrance, AMAKEN Grounds, they strolled over to the building. Sonia was impressed at the massive space objects that are in display, while Valerie was saying a tiny bit of information about each one, adoring each of them. Geo did too, but he was for some reason focused on his blue Transer.

"Here we are, let's go in!" Val beamed.

'She must really love space to be this excited, I wonder if that's how I'm like with it...' Geo thought, noticing the bright and joyful gleam that Val had in her crimson red eyes.

They both entered the massive building where many of space-related history is recorded in, Sonia looked around, amazed by all of the building's interior. They headed to Mr. Boreal's lab, going through the security gate and the elavator. "Want a drink, Sonia?" Val asked, pointing towards the vending machines. As usual, both coffee and Sour Soda are sold out.

"Mm... No thanks."

Val bought one for herself, "(can't go wrong with Strawberry Sugar Shot Shutdown...hehe...)" She sipped. "What about you, Geo?"

He declined. "Uh, no thanks..."

"Okay then."

They finally headed to Aaron's lab, Val saw the FlapPack hung on the wall, it's wings were bigger and it was very clean and polished. 'Ooh! Looks like Mr. Dubius' invention is done.' Geo had the same thoughts when he glanced at the invention. As always, the lab had nuts and bots everywhere, and the disassembled rocket continued to stay unfinished.

"Oh, what a surprise!" He settled down his screwdriver. "If it isn't Little Lily and Geo!" Sonia glanced at the two, Geo rubbed the back of his neck and Valerie turned her head to the side, blushing. "What brings you all here?" He asked, placing his cap back on.

Val spoke, "She needs a place to stay for a while, a...uh, it's a... Personal reason." Sonia was at the back, looking at her guitar and biting her lip while they were discussing.

"Um... So is it OK for her to stay?" Geo asked.

Boreal looked at Sonia. "Well, this is a surprising request for you two to make. Hmm... Did something happened at home?"

"...Something like that..." She said softly.

"Well, you seem like you've got some troubles." He stated, putting his hand under his chin, thinking.

"Y- Yeah..." Sonia mumbled with a downcasted expression.

Both Sonia Strumm and Aaron Boreal were talking, Valerie placed her hand in her pocket. Val realized something as her hand was feeling around an object inside of her jacket. "(Oh! I nearly forgot about this...)"

Geo turned to her with interest, "(about... What?...)"

"(Hehe.)" Placing the item in his palm, he opened his hand, revealing a lolipop in a blue wrapper. It had question marks on it and said 'mystery' all over. "(I didn't know what flavor you wanted, so the best way is to give you these limited edition ones. It's got a secret flavor that they had originally released back then, but decided to make them extra special like some kind of collector's stuff.)"

"(Um... Thanks.)" He put it in his pocket.

"We all have something troubling us. There isn't a person alive who doesn't." Mr. Boreal continued. "When I was your age, I had things happen in my family all the time." He gave a warm smile. "So it's okay for you to stay here a day."

Sonia's face lit up with joy, "r- really?! Thank you!!"

"But make sure you go home tomorrow. Deal?" Aaron asked. "Your parents are more worried about you than you think."

Sonia's little smile of gratitude faded. Even Val's eyes looked to the side as she frowned slightly; Geo had already gotten the idea why. . .

After a long pause, Sonia eventually agreed. ". . . . . Yes, sir."

Boreal glanced to the other two, "Well, Geo, Val?" Both their heads shot up at the mention of their names. "Do you want to stay overnight too?"

"I would love too." Chroma gave a little tug of reminder on her arm. "B-but... I have stuff to do..." Val quickly added, then took a sip of her sugary drink.

"Ah, that's OK. I've gotta go home..." Geo declined.

Sonia spoke. "Geo, so that's your name... Both you and Val helped me so much and I didn't even asked... I'm sorry... Thank you..."

"Y-you're welcome." He said.

"N-no problem! Hehe." She blushed a tiny bit. 'It's been awhile since I helped someone...not counting the Wave World things...'

"Hey, now here's an opportunity!" Mr. Boreal adjusted his cap and grinned, his sudden raise in voice caught all of their attention. "Why don't you three form a BrotherBand?" There was surprise on all of their faces, they looked at each other. Boreal continued. "You know, Geo. Your dad had always said, "Anything you can't solve on your own, can be overcome with a help of a friend. Other people can make us stronger and we can give other people strength too. If every person on this planet were connected by BrotherBands, we'd all live in a wonderful world where we could support each other"."

'Wow... Geo's father said that?... Him and Mom is so alike...' Val slightly frowned at the mentioning of her mother. She couldn't help thinking about her from time to time now.

'This is what a human's mindset is hrm...' Chroma found himself deep in thought about that incredible speech.

Geo looked uncomfortable. "But I...can't. Not this soon..."

Val on the other hand had already spent time with Sonia, it was hard for her to dismiss this choice. "Hmm..." She hummed. 'Relationships are the essence of society...'

'I am mildly surprised Valor and this human haven't formed one already...' Chroma has noticed Val's faint frown and hesitation. Considering that she and Sonia had a fun time this morning.

Aaron gave a hearty laugh. "Hahaha. Well, give it some thought."

"O-okay, I'll give some thought a little..." He was finding himself staring at the ground.

Val saw a odd set of sparks collecting at the corner of the room, her eyes shifted. Her eyes had caught some strange set of waves that looks like electricity forming, "I- I'm just going to go over some mails and stuff on my Transer..."

"We'll be waiting!" Boreal replied. All of them watched Geo and Val walk away, Geo's hand was in his pockets. "Don't take it the wrong way, Sonia. Both him and Val have their reasons for why they aren't keen on getting close to others."

She went to a secluded corner. "(I think were out of an earshot...)" She watched Geo exit.

"(Hrm. Yes, it seems so.)" Chroma stated as Valerie was staring at the Wave Road where that odd-looking orb was forming. "(Good eye, Valor.)"

"(Uhm... Chroma... what is-)"

The lights of AMAKEN Labs went out.

"(Th- that?!)" Val finished and jumped, startled by the sudden blackout. She almost dropped the soda can, but she caught it. Comically.

"(It must be the Z-Waves Defective mentioned. It had sent off an electromagnetic energy and disrupted electronics.)" Chroma explained, not surprised by one bit.

"(You mean.... like EMP?... )" Val asked.

"(Hrm? What is that?)"

"(It's 'electromagnetic pulse' grenades, I think. It does the same thing.)"

"(And you humans have such weapon to create some kind of EM disturbance?)" Chroma responded in slight curiosity.

"(Um... yeah. It's like those hand-held bombs that we used in battle, but it silences all electronics in an area instead.)" She gave it a little thought. "(I don't think people use them anymore since literally everything is... you know.)" She stated, referring to how everything IS associated with electronics and all, because of technology today in 22XX.

"(Those Z Waves are a dangerous threat when left alone. That is what it would look like when collecting and creating EM viruses.)" Since it was dim, she could see it as if seeing thunder or electricity in the black darkness. Before she'd ask, Chroma answered it. "(it will not go away by itself. It may even attract FM-ians.)"

Val almost spat out her soda on that last statement...

"(How can you be so casual about this? We gotta go and get rid of that nasty orb.)" She groaned.  "(Everything just has to attract trouble doesn't it?...*sigh*)"

"(Hrmph... I kind of like it.)" She sent a glare. "(Uragh! Don't give me that! I am extremely bored anyway. There are more than one of those in this building by the way.)"

Val was looking around for a Wavehole, going into the AMAKEN Foyer. "(So, how many of them are there?)"

"(Hrm.)" He closed his eyes, looking in deep concentration. But he answered briefly, as if finding a sum to a simple addition problem. "(I sense 8 around here... Huh?!)"

Valor tensed. "(Is it?!)

Chroma's gaze hardened while he looked down. "(It was in an instant, but there's no doubt. I sensed one.)"

She went to where the black hole generator was at. 'I wonder, where's Geo? Oh wait, I think he said something about being on the roof...' She checked, 'all clear, here it goes!'

"EM Wave Change!
Val Ayaka,
On the Air!!"

They stepped onto the Wave World once again. A tug of that familiar gut feeling in the pits of her stomach made her say, "I have a bad feeling about this..." She frowned, a weird feeling prickled her body, it made her stiffen. "I bet the Z Waves has already attracted those nasty aliens - just how many of those FM-ians are there?..."

Chroma, who serves as the helmet of Valor's armor (or the 'head'), closed his eyes. "How many?... Hrm... I've only encountered a few on my way to Earth, but they were good at concealing themselves. I apologize Valor... I cannot draw to any estimated number." He sighed. "However. . ." It drew Val's attention. "Who we've faced - it was none of the pursuers... What will you do. When they come?" He finished with a low tone. 'What will you do, Valor? Cower? Run? Hide?'

Val's mouth became a firm line, a tinge of fear ran through her guts. "We. . ." Her muscles were still stiff.

Chroma had a sense of doubt. 'Some humans would cower out, not all can keep up their facade for long. Some may, but not for an eternity.' Chroma wanted to see her response, 'although our fights with Cygnus and Taurus was proof of her courage, much, much worse things have yet to come. . .'

After a long drawn out pause of complete silence, "We face them."  She stated, her face was hardened with seriousness and determination.

"Well said. . ." He praised, an invisible smile flashed. He hummed for a moment, 'well said. . . Partner.' But eventually stated, "Let's go, Valor."

"Mm-hm." She nodded. "Are the Z Waves also outside of AMAKEN?" She asked, her body remained tensed.

"Yes. But only 2. The rest lays in this very building...are... are you feeling well Val?" Chroma questioned. "You're tense." He noted.

"Y- yeah... I'm fine. It's just that... Something feels weird, like I'm being drawn to it." She explained.

His eyes faintly widened. 'Only we are supposed to feel that...' Chroma asked. "Are you able to feel that?" They both wandered around the Wave World, endless strands of ghostly paths swirled ahead.

She nodded. "It's unusual... But yeah...I can. Some are already dissipating, it's like a weird pressure in the air, it must be their energy being released... It kinda actually feels more like a magnet, am I nearing one?" She asked upon feeling the intensity of the pull increasing.

"(Hrm... Impressive.)" He briefly noted under his breath. "Yes, we are. Up ahead." Chroma was curiously wondering about Val's peculiar connection with the Wave World. . .

They deleted a few mingling viruses as they explored, many of them were the Peekaboos, the ghost with the pink tongue that spits out waves of rings. 

As soon as they reached this ball of black energy being traced with blue electricity, she took a closer look at it while carefully approaching. Ribbons of light blue electric currents swirled within the darkness of the sphere, a sense of slight danger was in the air.

"Wander too close, and you'll be putting yourself in danger." Chroma warned. "Make haste, while the other viruses we have escaped from have no sense of our presence yet."

"Okay, let's burn it!" Poised herself at ready, inhaling for a great big blow of fire.

The orb spat out a blob at Valor!

"Ack!" She nimbly jumped out of the way, looking at the blob. "What's that?"

"Valor, focus! The wave ball!" Chroma shouted.

She turned to face the ball of energy again, but this time, the tugging feeling suddenly disappeared. The sphere has spit into two more blobs, which floated, those two were much larger than the first one. Val, sensing an attack from behind, she leaped and landed until all three of them were in her front. They took in different shapes, beginning to form itself, one of them was very familiar to her. "Is that?..." Upon looking at the hands and arms forming and its bottom half of the body was ghostly, she said, "a Peekaboo?"

(A Peekaboo.)

Indeed it was, however. . .

"A giant one." Chorma stated the obvious.

The rest didn't waste taking in their new forms, two of which were new viruses. "What is that?... A UFO? But yellow??" 

"BellGongs, slow and dull but literally, packs quite a punch." Chroma stated.

(Yep, that's a BellGong.)

"Hope I won't have to feel that! It's time for some virus busting!" The more Val does battles against viruses, the more she found herself quite liking. 

https://youtu.be/jjPt9tZAM9U

[Mega Man Star Force OST - T25: Ride On (Battle Theme)]

Of course, she dislikes the fact that even though her physical abilities is clearly enhanced through a Wave Change, she can still find her own body defeated by soreness. If laziness wasn't enough.

She evaded the ghost virus, loading in a card. Her hand transformed into a cannon, and she fired right at the phantom's mouth! She gained an extra card in her arsenal, due to the close counter. 

Still sharp and kept what Chroma said into her mind, she saw the BellGong virus advance in front of Valerie, reeling back a punch!

It was close, but not close it enough, as the boxing glove nearly went past her. She used the firebreath and ignited the giant BellGong (or "VirusNameG", so BellGongG), its face was fully burnt and blacken, but it was much formidable than what Val had expected. Much to her slight annoyance.

"See if you can take this! AquaChange!" Engulfed in bright light, she changed into the blue dragon heroine once again, "Tidal Wave!!" Upon announcing it, she felt the power of the card through her fingertips, it was as if there were strings tugging on her fingers. With one swift of her right hand in a sweeping motion, she called forth a mighty ocean wave! The empowered card of WideWave showed no mercy to its victims, and it tackled them with great force, upon their deletion, they exploded!

She almost tripped over, "wow! That card took quite a lot of energy and strength... I almost had to use both my hands to rip out those tides..." Chroma silently agreed, since he assisted her, she didn't need two hands.

Valerie bent over to pick an item off the ground from one  of those BellGongG's that exploded. "Ah, SynchroHook?" Chroma chimed. "These can be used to do a powerful left hook to multiple enemies who possess the same element."

"Sounds really useful! I ought to try it out right now..." Val muttered with a smile.

Chroma chuckled darkly, "heheheheheheh, I have always missed throwing my fists at my enemies."

"Your laugh is too ominous for my liking, Chroma..."

"Hmph! Says the human who has devilish ideas as well as violent thoughts."

"Let's not dwell on that and find the others so we can get this over with..."

"Indeed."

After travelling through several machines to check anything about that eerie presence, they had found nothing, but they both still have at the back of their heads. They continued destroying the collected Z Waves, which was unfortunately fast at  generating viruses, including the giant, stronger versions of the enemies they had faced before. It didn't proved it to be more difficult, it was just irritating that there was so many of these foes already scattered throughout Wave World, and the spheres adding more to it made it such a tiresome errand.

Eliminating some of the spheres, Valor replied, her mood obviously showing how caught up she was with this situation. At least she got enough Zennys for a particular chip back at Big Wave."3 out of... Uhm... Chroma, didn't you say?.." 

"8. Yes, but someone else is also getting rid of them..." Chroma explained.

"Let's hope their our allies..."

"Whoever they may be, it is highly likely that they are. It would be unnecessary for them to eliminate these orbs."

"(True. They're also kinda close. . .)"

"(Caution, Valor.)" 

---  

A/N : So here's one of those "story missions" of MMSF, and trust me, there's quite alot of them in games like these before the bigger things int he plot happens. It's been awhile guys, and I....don't deserve an apology. Anyways, about that WideWave card, I'm pretty sure Val has never actually got it in the story, specifically meant that it didn't go over how she got it. It's gonna be a funny little flashback on how she got that card, just a tiny bit, because the way the virus looks. Speaking of that, I may put pictures of the cards, it has some viruses' appearances on them. Like the Peekaboo and BellGong you saw, they're quite small photos...

If you want to read the MegaMan Battle Network (AFTER 6th GAME), it's on fanfiction.net. It's called "A buggy wolf" by Consort. It's being worked on by 3 or 4 people, I'm basically the artist because Consort's writing is FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR MORE SUPERIOR THAN MINE. I swear, the fight scenes are the fucking best. Now why am I recommending this? Because my OCs Blaze Kazyuhaya, Burn Kazuhaya, and their navis: Ember and SteamMan are actually in that book before I even made my own BN (Battle Network) fanfic. CAUTION! IT'S AFTER BN6, SO ANYTHING ABOUT BN 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. QUITE A LOT OF BN GAMES LOL.

Now, onward... TO "Haven's Heroes" IT'S COMING BACK. AND I'M GONNA MAKE SURE OF THAT.

JaneValentine007, pulsing out!!