As I walked through the door, Doctor Light quickly dropped what he was doing and approached me. He smiled. "I'm glad you're okay."

I shook my head. "We've got bigger problems right now."

Michael stepped into the doorway behind me, and waved innocently with his arm that didn't have a cannon on it. Doctor Light seemed to have a number of different reactions at one time, to the point where it started to overload my processors, so I looked away.

Michael swallowed. "I suppose we've got some things to explain. Do you want to start, or-"

I looked at him and shrugged.

He nodded. "Yeah. So, should I start from the beginning...yeah, I'm gonna do that, seeing as it makes the most sense, and-"

Dr. Light groaned. "Please. Just...start talking."

Michael blinked. "Okay. Yeah." He sucked in and let out a big breath. He stood there for a moment, then asked, "Should we like, I dunno, get chairs for this or something?"

"Oh come on!" I groaned, and Dr. Light simply walked over to his office chair, more likely due to exhaustion than per Michael's request.

He finally seemed to get the message. "Well, I guess it happened sometime around the end of Rock's fight with Wily. I got something on my phone, and when I opened it, yeah. It turned out to be this alien thing that could bond with me and give me a suit of super armor and stuff like that."

Dr. light seemed a little confused, but he seemed to acknowledge what Michael had said. "I see. Go on."

There was a pause. "That's it. That's pretty much all I know."

He winced at nothing, and spoke aloud, "Well, you could try not narrating it in your 'dramatic' voice."

After a second, he seemed to notice that we were both staring at him in confusion. He sighed. "Oh yeah. And he talks to me in my head."

Dr. Light blinked and leaned forward. He extended an arm. "May I see your phone, please, Michael?"

He shrugged. With a flash, his suit disappeared, and he was left in his normal clothing. He pulled his device out of his pocket, and politely handed it over.

Dr. Light inspected it carefully, turning it over in his hands. He booted it up and began scrolling through. He probably wouldn't have stopped for sometime if the computer hadn't talked.

"You might wanna stop scrolling, Doc. There are things in there nobody wants to see."

All our attention shifted to the computer, where the monitor began to pixelate, the image slowly changing to a large image of a strange creature. Much like the cannon on Michael's arm, the head was blue and resembled a dragon. This time, however, it was accompanied by a sort of body. Its head extended down to its body in a somewhat long neck. The whole being glowed with green energy, and the only other part of it that seemed to be solid were two blue rings around the wrist area. Everything else seemed to be composed of this energy, including a set of large spikes extending back from its neck.

And he was kinda annoying.

He cleared his throat. "Sorry about that. It took me a second to transfer to this system. You got some high quality speakers here." He extended a hand on the screen, as if there weren't that obvious barrier between our interaction. "Name's Omega-Xis. Nice to meet you."

We all just kinda stared at him. Dr. Light gave a slow, overwhelmed nod.

He raised an eyebrow. "What, don't you humans ever see living energy bond with computer systems?" He waited a second, then burst out laughing. "I'm kidding! Of course you don't. You guys are really boring, you know that?"

Omega-Xis shook his head. "Anyway, what my here failed to mention is literally all the details of MY backstory. I'm part of a unique species of creatures that are made of living electromagnetic energy. We can bond with creatures like yourselves, if we can find a personality match. These bonds allow us to take full physical forms, and increase our power."

I frowned. "Sounds...interesting."

"So, what brought you here, and especially that...Tauros Fire." Dr. Light asked him.

He shook his head. "Without a bond, he's just Tauros. As for why he's here, it, uh, kinda has to do with me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

He shrugged. "I may or may not have a group of people like him hunting me down across the galaxy."

Michael's eyes widened. "What? You never told me that!"

Omega-Xis rolled his eyes. "Would you have ever worked with me if I told you that you would automatically become a galactic fugitive, and have to fight for your life a significant portion of the time."

"So you decided you'd tell me...when?"

The alien's face changed, and he put his hands behind his back. "So, anybody got any questions?"

Dr. Light eagerly obliged. "This is incredible. How did your species come to their current state? Do you have extensive records of your history? How do you speak our language?"

The green and blue alien raised his hands. "Whoa, take it easy. Um, one question at a time please."

With a grunt, I asked, "So, why exactly are a whole bunch of aliens after you? Because that seems like a significant detail."

He gave me a nod. "Understandable. I stole something from them. A device called the Andromeda Key. On our planet, there's an ancient war machine called, well, Andromeda. It hasn't been activated for years, and the Key is the way to do it."

"So why do you want it?" I pressured.

"Because those that are following me here want to awaken Andromeda. They're corrupt, and with access to that machine, they could destroy entire planets."

I shrugged. "And what do you want to use it for?"

His view at me narrowed. He seemed more directly focused on me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Michael was quick to step forward. "Take it easy, guys. Nothing's gonna get done if we're at each other's throats."

Dr. Light nodded in agreement. "What do you think our first step should be?" His eagerness to trust this literal alien was concerning.

Omega-Xis put a hand to his chin. "Knowing a little bit about how they work, I suspect they're going to follow up with a direct attack, probably sending a few more of their forces down to try to take me out. Fortunately, we can send them back where we came from if we show up at the right time."

"What's that mean?" asked Michael.

"When we're in our un-bonded forms, we operate fully on the electromagnetic spectrum, only able to manipulate within that spectrum, which means affecting the physical world is almost impossible. If we can find at least a few of them before they're bonded, we can easily remove them from the planet without any damage."

Dr. Light nodded in understanding. "Incredible. I could likely use our satellites to determine any foreign signals landing on the planet." He turned around to his computer, then blinked. "Um, I don't suppose you could give me my computer back?"

Omega-Xis nodded and his image disappeared off the screen. Within seconds, Dr. Light was back in business, and had pulled up a large digital map.

He slipped quickly into what I had dubbed his "computer mode", rapidly inputting commands. "Well, thankfully, using our satellites, we should be able to detect anything unusual. And if they are coming for him, then they'll likely be centered around this city."

Within seconds, his computer flashed. "We have a location." He slid over in his chair, and pulled up the spot. "Hmm...I recognize this..."

"What's up?" I asked.

He snapped his fingers. "Of course. This is the construction site Guts Man was working at this week."

Michael nodded. "I think I got the location. Thanks." As he turned away, I put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm coming with."

He looked at me with a concerned look. "Why? I can handle this easily."

"I know, but Guts Man is a problem. If you want him to let you walk around, you'll need me there."

He sighed. "Fine."

"I agree." Dr. Light told us, looking over his shoulder. "I just created an update for your sensors that will allow you to detect unusual energy signatures like that of our alien friends. Plus, it comes with a monitor upgrade so that you can see them when they're around. I wouldn't keep that part on for too long, though. It's untested, and could be strenuous to your processors."

I tested the two functions, the monitor showing a small glow emanating from Michael's pocket area, clearly where his phone was. "Alright, thanks."

Michael smiled and with a flash, his armor appeared on his body. "You ready to go take care of some living energy creatures?"

I held up a hand. "Don't make this any more awkward than it is."

---

And so, a little while later, I found myself out in the sun again. The sky was still as bright as it had been, and light bounced off rows and rows of scaffolding on a large building shell. There was enough glare that I almost couldn't see the hulking mass of metal that was Guts Man. We approached him patiently from behind as he set a large girder onto a mechanical platform operated by a human worker.

After the worker gave him a thumbs up, Guts turned around and noticed me. He quickly wrapped me up in a one arm hug. It was still preferable to a full bear hug, but nonetheless painful.

"Hey, little blue! Good to see ya!"

I strained against his large body with my own strength, then placed my hand against the surface to download his Super Arm and used that to break free. "Hey Guts Man..." I panted as I disabled the upgrade.

He stared down at me, his intimidating size not at all masked by his friendly smile. "Heard about you taking on somethin' earlier today. Wily ain't back in town, is he?"

I shook my head. "Fortunately, no. That was something else. And that's kinda why we're here."

Guts' face turned to a frown, and he seemed to notice Michael standing nearby. "Who's this guy?"

"He's my friend. Michael, remember?"

He looked down at him. "He always dress like that?"

I looked back at his costume. "I hope not. Anyway, we're investigating something around here relating to that thing I was dealing with before. It most likely won't cause you guys any problems."

The construction bot rubbed his chin while looking between the two of us. He ended up staring at me for a while, before breaking into a small smile. He slapped me hard on the back, causing me to step forward twice to keep balanced. "Alright-y, kiddo. I trust ya not ta screw anything up." He bent over towards me, his face becoming more serious. "I'm gonna hold ya to that."

And so, with that semi-threatening remark, we were free to look around. I approached Michael and let him know. He announced that he wanted to split up, and I agreed.

As I wandered around the perimeter of the site, my thoughts were on anything but the objective. I was thinking through all the events that had happened in...holy cow, was it just that day?

I kept a careful distance from the site, making sure I didn't cause any problems. I didn't want to interact with anyone anyway. I was frustrated about something. I was probably overwhelmed with the fact that aliens were now a thing. Whatever the case, I almost didn't notice when my sensors picked up something.

I heard the audio sensor alert, and readied my comms. "Hey, I think I got something. West side."

There was a brief pause, then Michael came on in response. "'Kay. Wait there, I'll help you."

For whatever reason, the wording of that comment sat with me a little too long. I activated the monitor, as a light flashed into my eyes. When my vision returned, there was a strange blue tint to everything I saw. I turned around slowly, and was amazed. I was looking at energy frequencies that were undetectable to the ordinary eye. It was incredible. Beams and waves rippled across the sky, bright yellows and blues.

I remembered what I was doing after a moment. When I looked around me, though, I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I didn't know what the aliens would look like, but there certainly wasn't anything that looked alien around me. That was when I noticed that the sensor wasn't going off anymore.

"Crap..." I muttered. I used my comms again. "Never mind. False alarm."

"Oh." His voice came sooner this time. "Really?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I snapped. "There's...there's nothing here."

Another pause. "Okay. Relax."

I hung up.

---

It was uncomfortably quiet as we walked back. Michael had insisted we do it, which frustrated me further. It probably looked kind of weird, the two of us walking together in full armor. I noticed a few people pointing, specifically at me, and whispering. I wondered what that was about.

Oh yeah. I had no secret identity now.

Michael finally broke the silence. "I think you need to tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing."

He swallowed. "Okay, let's try this again. Rock, will you please tell me what's wrong?"

I finally turned to face him. "You want to know? Fine, knock yourself out. Maybe I'm just tired. Tired of fighting, tired of giving up an ordinary life to take down...freaking aliens now!? Or maybe I just want control. I function best when I feel in control. Right now, with extraterrestrials showing up, you suddenly getting this ridiculous one bonded with you; heck, I just revealed my identity to the whole world THIS MORNING!"

Michael looked back at me. His brown eyes were tinted red through his visor. I couldn't begin to read his facial expression.

"Rock, I don't know if you noticed, but if you aren't literally the only person in the world, then by definition you don't have 100% control over a situation."

"Whatever." I turned. He started to speak, but stopped. At first I though he had decided against it, but then he said, "Really? I can make calls on this thing? Put it through!"

We continued walking as he began to talk. "Hello? Sonia? Hey. Um, listen, how did you get my number?" He stopped for a second. "Oh. Duh. Well, okay. What's up? Yeah, um, I heard about that. Yep, pretty...crazy. Gee, I dunno."

He listened for a little. "You, uh, you think so? Well, uh, I'd be happy to. Um, I'll be right over. Thanks. See ya."

He looked over at me. "So, you know that was Sonia?"

"Pretty obvious."

"Yeah, she uh...wanted to talk to me about something. I dunno what, but..."

"Go ahead. I'll just go back myself."

"You sure?" He asked as he stopped walking.

I didn't give him a response.

---

Michael walked through the suburb on the outskirts of the city. He was certainly glad he'd turned off the armor when he had a chance, because there was nowhere reasonable to do it out here.

He very rarely went this far out of town. The neighborhood was very impressive, large houses on all sides. Some of them even had gates.

He didn't like to dwell on his thoughts. He worried about a lot of things, and he had found that one of the best ways to deal with that was to act like he didn't care. The less attention he got, the better.

And now, Omega-Xis was there to help him battle those thoughts. His rough voice jolted Michael back to reality. "What's up with your friend, anyway?"

Michael could only sigh. "I wish I knew. He's never been like this before."

"You thought any about what he said?"

The boy frowned. "Why do you care?"

He could almost feel the alien shrugging. "Well, if I'm gonna be sticking with you for any length of time, I better get to know your life a little bit." Omega-Xis chuckled. "You missed it, by the way."

"Huh?" Michael spun around to realize that he had in fact strolled directly past his destination. He came back to the house. It was a large multi-story, with beautiful white wood on the outside. As he approached the door, it was covered with a number of bright gold touches. Standing in front of it, he started to feel his knees wobble.

"Let's get this over with, kid." Omega-Xis reminded him. "I don't like that we're not being more proactive in our efforts."

Michael rang the doorbell. "You'll be fine. Besides, she said it was important. I'm sure you can tolerate me helping someone deal with ordinary-"

The door opened, and Sonia stood in front of him, a set of white earphones running up to her head. However, before he could say a word, his phone began to vibrate like crazy. Omega-Xis energetically whispered, "Wave change. Now."

Michael attempted to play it normal, temporarily ignoring him. Sonia looked surprised as well. She seemed to be trying to form words, but eventually just reached out and pulled Michael by the shirt. As soon as he was inside, the door was shut behind him.

Michael's assumption in that moment was very natural, and he quickly distanced himself and said, "Now before anything happens, I think you should know that I have dedicated myself to remaining-"

She shook her head. "Enough, just listen to me. Are you...do you have someone with you?"

Michael blinked. "Just for the record, I honestly can't tell if that's supposed to be an innuendo or not."

Sonia sighed. "Just...let me see your phone."

Michael was confused. "What?"

Omega-Xis vibrated the phone again in his pocket. "That's not happening, kid."

After Michael had hesitated for a moment, Sonia, with a look of frustration, thrust her hand into her own pocket and removed her phone. She presented the screen to him.

There was something on it. A small blue instrument like a harp, in a U shape. There were two red flames on the top of either side, and a pair of eyes at the bottom. Somehow, from looking at it, Michael made the connection.

Unfortunately, Omega-Xis had already made a decision. The alien now loudly exclaimed, "Let's go, kid!"

Omega-Xis was answered by the entity within Sonia's phone, which, with a gentle feminine voice, said, "Just as uptight as ever, I see."

Omega-Xis grunted. "Lyra. Didn't think they'd send you this quickly."

"Who said they sent me?" The harp replied. "I never liked the way they played."

"You say that as if you weren't working with a group dedicated to obtaining the power to destroy planets."

"I've had enough of this. We don't have much time. Soon they'll-"

"What?" Omega-Xis laughed. "You're just acting like I'm gonna trust you now?"

Michael and Sonia looked at each other and tried to facially convey a sort of, "well this is happening", kind of look.

Omega-Xis and Lyra continued to argue, and with Lyra remaining calm and direct and Omega-Xis quickly losing his cool, almost shouting, which was very annoying for Michael, who kind of wished the aliens would just have their talk alone.

And then the front door blew up.

Michael was thrown to the ground, and he weakly looked ahead. He saw two large pairs of boots walking through the smoking crater of a door.  One black. One white.

Omega-Xis cleared his throat. "Definitely time for that wave change."

"Agreed."

---

Well, that took a while. I wanted to get this out sooner, but I had a loosening of my schedule last week, and despite thinking that would allot me more time to write, it...uh...

It did nothing.

So this one is late. Whatever. I hope you enjoyed it.

For those of you who may be worried about the future of this story, don't be. This is a classic Mega Man story, not Star Force, and things will mostly be back to normal after one or two more chapters.