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After the events at Shisa Island, Mehk and Cherish were called back to global headquarters to give a report of what had happened, have themselves scanned for any anomalies created by such extreme noise, and return the Noise Card that they had found out in the field.
Being surrounded by scientists in lab coats with wave-projected clipboards was the norm on the 57th floor, as the duo was scanned, asked to wave change back and forth in a chamber for observation purposes, and even exposed to normal levels of noise just to see how their ambient wave data responded. Some of the scientists involved in Cherish's suit production took her back separately from Mehk and made sure the suit was still working fine, too. Noise, while far more understood now than it was 20 years ago, was still a wild card even in the chaos of the Wave World. No chances were taken in their assessment of their operatives.
Finally, after the science team had exhausted everything they could consider, a young but spry looking scientist came from the backroom holding a normal clipboard, with a yellow wizard that looked like its head was just a giant book with a face coming out of it floating next to him. The two made their way towards the pair and the scientist paused, looked over the last few bit of numbers on his paper, and then pulled his gaze up to stare at the two of them, a pair of square-trimmed green glasses adorned on his face. A stunning intellect burned behind his eyes, easily looking like the youngest man in the room - not much older than Cherish, to be sure - but the badge on his coat dignified him as the lead scientist.
"Dr. Temple," he introduced himself, holding out one hand to Cherish. "I'm in charge of all the reports on Wave and Noise-based anomalies that attract the attention of the GSP. You two went into a Deep Noise Wave for an extended period of time, and were exposed to some pretty serious Noise, so I hope you'll forgive all the poking and prodding. Based on mine and Pedia's estimates," he explained, looking over at the wizard that was like a walking encyclopedia, "That Deep Noise Wave generated enough Noise that something far more dangerous than the Diamond Ice remnant you encountered could have spawned. Levels of Noise we don't normally see anywhere but in deep space; the kind of Noise the Commander deals with," he explained, turning to Pedia to explain.
"Noise Percentages approached 900% on multiple occasions throughout the encounter," Pedia reported, an intellectual and surprisingly human, if not slightly obnoxious, voice coming out from it as its mouth shone while it spoke. "That means that the amount of Noised Waves in the environment exceeded the percentage of Non-Noised Waves in the environment by 9 fold - there were significantly more Noised Waves than Non-Noised Waves. Such extreme cases of Noise allow hyper-erratic wave formations in rapidly shifting Noise clusters. There was a 34.37% chance upon attempt to Resonate with the Noise, that Diamond Ice's remnant data would have collapsed into the Noise Cluster and created a remnant of an Omega-Grade Wave Being, and a separate 17.23% chance to create a remnant of a Sigma-Grade Wave Being. Chances of victory or survival in such an occurrence were projected to be between 0% and 0.223%."
Dr. Temple held up his hand as Pedia finished his report, shaking his head as he turned to look back at the two. "Put simply - I want you to understand the danger, so that we can then get onto the next part of the conversation."
Cherish accepted the handshake and went on to kept up with all of the information as best she could, but she wasn't the most versed in the technical aspects of things. Luckily, Temple and Pedia broke it down for her well enough to grasp the levity of what had occurred.
" Sounds like we were pretty lucky. "
She didn't forget that she was the one that suggested they escalate the Noise in the area when they originally arrived. Whether or not that meant she was to blame for the how the situation unfolded didn't bother her as much as it would bother most -- everything was resolved successfully and that's all she was really concerned with now, the "could haves" and "may haves" were worth future consideration, but not worth fretting over since they weren't what came about, she figured.
The projected success rates did leave her displeased, but that just meant she'd have to get stronger to be on par with "the Commander" that they'd normally send to deal with those kinds of scenarios. That was no surprise, of course, since she was still relatively new to this stuff.
Without much more to add, she'd allow Mehk to pitch in as well, or allow Dr. Temple to continue on if he had nothing to say on the matter.
Mehk, positioned next to Cherish, rested one elbow on the rest of his chair and held up his chin on his fist, considering Dr. Temple's words. He'd only had to report to Dr. Temple so many times thus far, as when he got involved, things were rather serious. Dynamo was an acting commander, but not at the same caliber as the commander - he was in a whole other league on his own.
He didn't have much to say, as it sounded like Dr. Temple had more to say. As they said nothing, Dr. Temple took it as his cue to keep going.
"We've taken the liberty of upgrading your Noise Programs to the most advanced models we have. While it won't make you completely immune to incredibly high levels of Noise, it will make the Deep Noise Waves more manageable, and should enable you to pulse out of a Noise Wave so long as the Noise isn't too extreme. That'll make getting out of a Noise Wave easier for you in the future.
"As for what comes next, of course - noise generators and noise cards mean that when our systems were compromised a month ago, the perpetrator had a specific interest in Dealer's technology. While Pedia and I have worked to make sure that cannot happen again, we still need help on the ground recovering what was lost.
Dr. Temple pulled out his pad and began swiping through information above him on his Hunter, sliding information through the Wave World onto Mehk and Cherish's hunters, sending them information and locations.
"Our readings of similar Noise patterns show that there are four other major collections of Noise that are being created either on Earth, or, in one circumstance, on the Astral Wave. Right now, they're isolated enough that civilians aren't being affected by them, but I do worry about some of the professional Wave Warrior teams detecting them and trying to move in, or, even worse, for one of those new private schools to find one and make it a field trip.
"We've detected Deep Noise Waves being formed in Whazzap, on Dream Island, and on the Astral Wave above Electopia. The one on Shisa Island was thankfully handled by you, and the fourth one was actually formed not too far away from us, here, but we've already got that one handled." Dr. Temple paused, turning to look at Pedia for a second, before nodding at some unspoken message and turning to look back at them. "Pedia . . . Pedia will explain the big concern on the table for the Astral Wave."
"Frequency analysis indicates that each of the locations has a strong and prominent Noise Cluster at its center, indicative of a Wave Remnant being formed at the center of the Noise Wave. Analysis of wave frequency data coming from the Noise Wave on the Astral Wave, positioned above Electopia, indicates an incredibly irregular wave data signature, with an unmistakeable Wave Length. Data suggests that an OOPArt has resurfaced and repositioned itself inside of the Noise Wave from wherever it had originally traveled."
It would be a pretty bad scene if others wandered their way into those Noise Waves unprepared, given everything Cherish had just learned about them. Fortunately, she and Mehk were better geared to traverse those spaces now, and one of the nearby sites was already being taken care of.
She was reminded of her first patrol with Mehk, when he had transformed with the power of an OOPArt Remnant. For one of those to be left unguarded, especially after having witnessed what only a remnant of it was capable of, was a serious concern. Undoubtedly enough to warrant priority over the other sites, from what she understood.
" You'll want us to investigate that one first, then? "
There were probably more logical questions to ask surrounding the phenomenon, such as where the OOPArt had come from or what the meaning was behind all of this, but Cherish was too straight-forward a thinker to have lingered on any of that. Her goal had already been placed before her, so now the only thing left on her mind was reaching it.
Mehk sat up straight in his chair once the locations were revealed, concerned first with Dream Island, and secondly with the Astro Wave. Those two locations having Noise Waves were definitely dangerous, but what was hiding in the Astro Wave . . . Cherish's go-to attitude meant she didn't care for questions, hows, or whys, she just listened to orders, but Mehk was already brain storming in his own mind what such a thing could mean. Knowing how Dr. Temple could be, from past experience and from rumors, he decided it would save them a lot of time to avoid asking questions, though, and just waited to hear how he responded to Cherish.
"You get full points for deductive reasoning, Officer Cherish," Dr. Temple said with a smile, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose as he turned back to the screens floating all around him, picking out some information. "Knowing which OOPArt is there proves impossible due to how similar their Wave Frequencies are, but we at the very least currently have the Leviathan Spear accounted for, so we can rule that out. As with any mission, utmost care is advised, but the OOPArt's presence of course brings in a whole other level of worry."
He pulls out a file of information from his screen and flicks it once, the information instantly appearing on the screen of Cherish's and Mehk's Hunters.
"This should help you out insurmountably during your battle with whatever Remnants you may find. While already Satella Officers, as you're working in the big leagues, we'll need you better equipped moving forward.
Recovery Lv4 Support Card || Single-Use Benefit: The user restores a Great amount of health to themselves or an ally. Improves by a Great amount per 100% maximum health the target has.
}[img style="border: 1px solid #f8c527;" src="http://www.sprites-inc.co.uk/files/Starforce/SF2/Cards/HP_recovery.gif"] [font color="f8c527" style="text-shadow: -1px -1px 0 #0b0b0b, 1px -1px 0 #0b0b0b, -1px 1px 0 #0b0b0b, 1px 1px 0 #0b0b0b;"][b]Recovery Lv3[/b][/font] [font size="1"][font color="80a0ff"]Support Card[/font] [b]||[/b] [font color="1979e6"]Single-Use[/font] Benefit: The user restores a Great amount of health to themselves or an ally. Improves by a Great amount per 100% maximum health the target has.[/font]
Satella Badge Equipment Type: Purpose Card Benefit: Can Resonate with Noise to enter Vibrant Noise or other Advanced Forms at 100% Noise by sacrificing a Mega Class Card alongside all other costs for Resonating with Noise. When the user enters Vibrant Noise or Advanced Form, they immediately refresh their current Custom, regaining all 'Once per Custom' or 'Start of Custom' effects and resetting all Card use restrictions. This does not reset their current Custom duration.
}[img src="https://tinyurl.com/5x4rz55j" style="max-width:15%;max-height:15%;"] [font color="80a0ff"][b]Satella Badge[/b][/font] [i]Equipment Type:[/i] Purpose Card [i]Benefit:[/i] Can Resonate with Noise to enter Vibrant Noise or other Advanced Forms at 100% Noise by sacrificing a Mega Class Card alongside all other costs for Resonating with Noise. When the user enters Vibrant Noise or Advanced Form, they immediately refresh their current Custom, regaining all 'Once per Custom' or 'Start of Custom' effects and resetting all Card use restrictions. This does not reset their current Custom duration.
Mehk looked over the data himself, surprised that the data he had could be improved upon any further at this point in his career. There were levels of access even greater than he first presumed.
Still, the equipment made sense of the situation - it was dire, which is what he expected. If they were to come out the other side, decisiveness was necessary. He turned to Cherish and just nodded.
"None here, either. To the Astro Wave we go."
Mehk turned and began to wheel out of the facility, towards the Elevator, as the Wave World inside the complex was completely isolated from the Wave World outside. They would need to leave to get anywhere.
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