Return and Renew
Aug 21, 2022 15:25:07 GMT -6
Post by Gaia on Aug 21, 2022 15:25:07 GMT -6
Within the upper floor, where WAXA's lab was located, wave energy flooded the bustling and active room as a familiar figure returned, a highly advanced chamber flooding with familiar blue waves as the legendary hero arrived. Aged, taller, with a more physically fit body, but still with a gleaming smile and a plume of spikey brown hair, Geo Stellar emerged from the Deep-Space Satellite Launcher wearing a red and gold combat suit to match his usual colors. Wires and embedded technology in the suit seemed to be relaying information, the suit itself producing an EM Wave Signature, obviously a piece of technology. Over the suit, he grabbed his usual jacket off the rack nearby, foregoing his lab coat for the time being.
Several officers from the GSP, as well as scientists from WAXA, greeted him as he stepped out of, immediately running over some data, talking to him about what was going on his absence, handing him a few files and documents, and just trying to communicate with them. He smiled as he went over the whirlwind of forms and information presented to him, used to this by now, but perked up and ignored a few comments when he saw an old friend, waving at Tom with a smile on his face. "Dr. Dubius! Its great to see you," he called out, managing through the crowd to catch up with him. Tom paused, looked over at him, and smiled, chuckling.
"I could say the same, Dr. Stellar. Or is it Commander? I can never remember which one to go with," the oldened Tom responded. Geo just looked at him with a smile, shaking his head, referencing the lab all around them.
"In these walls, I'll go by Dr. Stellar. If you catch me out on the floor or the field, just call me Geo; you know that."
"Then when will you finally listen to my request to just call me Tom? You make me feel the years that have passed every time you do it. Speaking of, what were you off doing, this time? I forgot."
"You really do need a reminder for everything, huh? A high-grade remnant of Lyra Note had manifested in a pocket of Noise out in deep space, was out of control, terrorizing a nearby group of Hertz and on her way to a planet," he explained, giving Tom the file to look over. The scientist, capable of Wave Converging into Cygnus Wing, looked at Geo with a suddenly somber look, and went over the files.
"That's unfortunate. I'm sure you had quite a deal of frustration needing to brawl with Sonia's look-alike. I do guess its a fair deal easier than needing to deal with a remnant of Sirius or Apollo Flame, though - how many times did a remnant of Burai start making a fuss in the Bermuda Maze last month?"
"Too many times, that's how many; and not one of them were nearly as skilled as the real one. I haven't been able to detect his Wave Frequency for a while, either - any luck on your end with that? The only reason I went out to space was to see if he was poking around Sirius' black hole, again, or maybe the ruins with Murian design we found over in the Andromeda galaxy. Can't find him anywhere, though," Geo explained, waving at a few scientists as he and Tom walked by, pausing next to a large central computer to glance around, looking to see who else was here.
"He's as elusive as ever for us, too. The Crimson Dragon's noise should be easy enough to track were he still on Earth, but if he's gone deep enough into the Bermuda Maze, a particularly dense Noise Wave, or even far enough out into space, we've got nothing. Our best bet of finding him was you searching for him, as the most well-equipped Wave Warrior for both deep-space travel and high-density noise; you're the only one in the same league as what he can handle, or even close to it, for that matter. Even Acid or Joker couldn't handle that much Noise for prolonged periods of time."
"Heh! Guess that's why we need the blue bomber still, then!" Omega-Xis suddenly appeared from Geo's Hunter, large and proud as ever, the passage of time not wearing down on his form in the slightest. The boisterous Wizard flexed in admiration of his own capability, and Geo just shook his head; still, it brought a smile to his face.
"At least we have something - we know he's not on Earth, or if he is, he's very deep in the Bermuda Maze. I could go back and check there again, I'd just rather there not be any of his or Hollow's remnants, and I always seem to run into at least one while I'm there."
"What's it matter if Hollow's got a ghost in the Maze, kid?! We can go all-out in the Maze, no worries about civies! Hollow goes up in smoke!"
"The problem with a ghost of Hollow in the Maze is that he takes forever to delete; even if it isn't all that dangerous, it takes time. He paused, and began taking a closer look at the stack of files he was handed when he came back from space. Anyway - we're still searching on Burai, we've got that situation with the Viruses under management by the looks of it, all Astro Wave gates have temporary access being provided to help with the Virus excursion there, too . . . huh?" He looked at Tom, holding up a file in his hand. "The GSP got hacked? When? By whom?" He began flipping through the pamphlet, trying to look over it quickly.
"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that one until you'd at least gotten a break to go see your parents or friends. It was almost immediately after you went off-world, but we've yet to track exactly who accomplished it. We do know what was taken, though - our file on Andromeda's blueprints, which we found in -"
"Sirius' black hole server; yeah, I know. The fact that he knew how to make that thing wasn't a fun thing to learn - but now someone else does? What are the realistic chances they have access to the programming and design tools necessary to do it? Give me a threat assessment."
"We have to assume that it is as high a level threat as possible until given reasonable doubt to otherwise, and even if we wouldn't use the resources to make one, because it is just a Wave-Based program, with a sufficient amount of EM Waves and a dedicated laboratory, we've already confirmed potential for manufacturing them, although making them to proper scale would be a nightmare."
"Which means they must be doing that . . . can never have it easy, huh? As if fighting a remnant wasn't enough . . . "
Tom looked surprised, giving Geo a second look. "Remnants? Of Andromeda? When? Where?" The way he said it asked the very obvious question - how wouldn't we know about a remnant of Andromeda?
"Gigantic wave beings like Andromeda, the Crimson Dragon, and even Le Mu can have remnants form from incredibly hyper-dense pockets of Noise, but only ever in Deep Space; pockets of Noise so dense that there is enough Noise for Omega-Xis and I to finalize five times over, at full power each time. Before the propagation of Noise, remnants of Gigantic wave beings like them didn't really form; I'm forever thankful AM-ians like Omega-Xis and the Satellite Admins don't leave behind residual wave energy to form Remnants."
"No, but those lousy duplicates Dealer made of me lost that in the paste! Those things are still everywhere; the Wave World memorized how to make the buggers and it keeps on doing it!" Omega exploded out in frustration just then, making a lot of fuss in the office all at once.
". . . !" Geo turned, before he responded to Omega-Xis, the entire room suddenly much colder, and energy crackling in the air, almost seeming to pick Tom up and shove him away. Only one person had this sensation . . .
". . . I see you're still as loud-mouthed as ever. Hmph!"
"Solo!" Geo turned, staring down at the warrior that still looked like the teenage boy he had fought fifteen years ago, and has still been fighting from time to time when necessity arose. The room was suddenly very active, a number of scientists moving away, Satella Wizards filtering into the room, and a number of cadets grabbing at their Hunters, prepared to do something if he tried anything. There was a sense of foreboding and of fear in the air, however - even surrounded by all these people, Solo had the sole confidence of knowing that only one person in the room was a threat.
". . . A mistake was made. I needed to let you know about it. That's all."
What followed next . . . changes things.