Wolf and Phoenix

Date: ???
Time: ???
Location: ???

Silence rung out in the quietest backstreet of the City. As quiet as one can get amidst a Stellaron crisis raging on the planet. That was until that silence was broken by a glitchy matrix like sound, marking the power of Aether Editing being used to allow someone to make an entrance onto the scene.

That someone. Was Silver Wolf, Stellaron Hunter and Hacker Prodigy. She looked around as the last few remnants of her body digitized into existence and she let out a small sigh. Elios script had left her out of the current crisis and instead opted for the efforts of Kafka and Sam instead. Blade was also needed elsewhere so that had left her to her own devices, watching the Nameless battle the many fragmentum monsters that were plaguing the planet through her screen. The Hunters had once again informed them of there being a Stellaron in the vicinity but they were more willing to take on the challenge after their help in the Luofu proved trustworthy. In another life and timeline, Wolfie would have been with them tackling the adventure with them but Elio had beaten the Express to the punch offering to take her away from her life on Punklorde and the Basement that she had grown to know and love. She often thought about Rainbow City and the life she left behind, but she knew that after reaching her so called "Legendary" status that she would soon suffer the same fate as all the previous owners of that Title. She knew that she couldn't return to what she once had, not the Fast Food Restaurant, not the Basement, not the The Arcade Machine that had stole her youth and especially not.....Him.

She winced at her own thoughts, she truly did beat Sam on being the overthinker of the Hunters. If she was left by her lonesome for too long without one of the girls or Blade to yap about her ideas or her latest Gacha addiction then this exact moment would occur. Sighing for the second time, She opened up her screen to take sitrep on the Nameless as well as keeping a tab open in the corner that contained her browser based Gacha which was currently auto-battling with millions of numbers plaguing the screen much to her joy. Because of the Stellaron affecting the surrounding Aether of the planet, she decided to bring herself here in a place that would not interfere with the Script but still allow her to check in on her......Friends? Comrades?........Coworkers? She still wasn't sure how to categorize them after all these years. But she was still being cautious about her surroundings. Despite being able to view any script that didnt include her direct involvement, this was the first time she was left in the dark about a Script since before the invasion of Hertas Space Station. Even though she wasnt around for the Luofu Crisis, she was still left informed about parts of the script due to needing to provide help with Kafka and Blades escape from the Divination Commission, but this time....it was all them and she was left wondering what was in that Script that didn't allow her even some knowledge on the mission.

Her thoughts were broken by the echo of a footstep behind her. She blinked at her screen....that doesn't seem right. There wasn't any targets in the area according to her map of the city, she had specifically chosen a part of the City that had been evacuated once word of the Stellarons existence was found out. She must've been imagining things. She was used to City noises from Punklorde but the Rainbow City had more....computer like sounds invading her eardrums at all hours of the day. Then another footstep broke that thought process. Okay. She is defintely not imagining anything but if nothing is showing up on the map then..........Wait. Could she be currently being stalked by another Hacker? There couldnt be anyway for their firewalls to be powerful enough to get through her all of her systems in place. Even if they could, their Punklorde Mentality would have appeared to invite her to a challenge because if it was one thing Hackers loved in this world, was a good challenge. So the only way that they could not appear is if she manually set up a way to block incoming traffic from a specific signal. Something she's only ever done to one person. Someone who.....

No....

No it couldn't be.....

Another footstep echoed but this time much closer, had she just been ignorning them in her small panic or were they just moving really slow. She couldn't tell because her brain had already filled the gaps. She knew that footstep. The distinct glitched sound that followed the stride when her stalker lifted their foot off the ground. Why? Why here? Why now? Is this why she wasnt allowed to read the script? Because HE would be here too? Is that why her companions gave her a side glance as they studied their new mission handed to them by Elio? How did he even find her? How did he figure out the codes she had set up to stop him from coming after her. She kept her gaze down on her monitor infront of her. She nervously blew a bubble so big it popped around her mouth forcing her to recover what she could with her tongue. Her usual stoic persona was fading at the speed of the internet on Punklorde and she was trying her best to not show it in her stance. She should just leave, she should edit herself back to the Hunters base. She should just......

The final footstep stopped behind her and for the second time tonight, Silver Wolf winced. She continued to tap away at her screen to feign as much ignorance to the person standing behind her as she could, watching as her Crew defeated another raid boss and the victory screen flashed out of the corner of her eye. She was mentally frozen, waiting for something, ANYTHING to happen.

Until, she heard a intake of breath, one that said a thousand words, words that she knew the meaning of. "Where have you been." "I was worried sick about you." "I couldn't find you for years". But none of those words left his mouth after taking said breath. Instead another pause of silence lingered over the two before she swears she heard the equivalent of a smirk appearing on his face before he opened his mouth again.

"You know....." his gruff voice had started.

"You're a tough pup to track.....**Wolfie**."

The way the nickname that Kafka had given her lingered on his lips gave the sign that he knew Alot more than she was hoping for. She continued to tap away at her screen and continuing to hide her face from him, she couldn't let him see her eyes right now. She slowly reached up and pushed her glasses down from resting on her bangs down to her eyes before she did as much as she could to not falter her voice in what she was about to respond with.

"Maybe I didn't want to be found."

A soft chuckle sounded behind her.

"Yeah. I gathered that much."

She instinctively rolled her eyes behind her glasses, muscle memory that had never left her body after all this time. He's still the same even now.

"Why are you here? Don't you know what's happening around here? It's dangerous on this planet."

Another brief pause before the audible smirk appeared again.

"Oh you know~, there was some rumours from an ~Unknown Source~ that told me the legendary Stellaron Hunters were making their appearance here to do what they do best or whatever it is that YOU do"

She winced again, how does keep doing that to her? The punctuated YOU was all she needed to know about how he feels right now. She wanted to curl up into a ball and die more than ever......wait a minute what did he say about an Unknown Source??? The only people who knew Kafka and Sam were here were the Hunters themselves and....the..........Nameless.....

Stelle.

Once again the beloved former Stellaron Hunter Trashpanda continued to surprise her with her ability to make friends with everyone in the universe, even after losing her memory and joining the Express. He must've encountered them during their travels of the Trailblaze. She cursed under her breath. She is sooooo lowering her odds of winning on that next banner when she next sees her.

He spoke again before she could finish her mental threats to the Galatic Baseballer.

"I took it upon myself to make sure I could fend for myself before I arrived here by the way so I appreciate your enthusiastic worry"

There it was again. His sarcasm. Not dripping with any venom. Just as playful as it once was when they.........Stop. Don't think about that. She needed to get out of her head and deal with the situation at hand.

Keeping up the stoic mask she responded in kind.

"Well, who knows what could be lingering around these streets. Anything could attack you at any moment and inflict you with all kinds of Debuffs"

He chuckled under his breath again at her lingo. She really was the same girl from before.

"Well damn! Guess I will need a bodyguard to protect me and take me back to safety then! Do you know anyone nearby that fits that description? Oh Miss ~Legendary Genius Hacker~"

"Don't call me that."

"Oh then what SHOULD I call you? Criminal? Escapee? Con Artist? Hmm? Bronya?"

"Don't call me that EITHER"

It's like nothing had changed. Here they were once again bickering like an old married couple. Years had passed but had they really? Had anything changed between them? There was some small part of herself, a teenager full of life and love for her passion of her hobbies and interests that had someone with her at all times to experience that with. Someone she based one of her virtual partners after for her journeys and even named them "Preschool Classmate" in kind. That part of her regretted leaving Punklorde. Leaving him behind. But that was decision she made when they came to her and that was something he immediatly reminded her of that fact.

"Well then I don't know WHAT I should call you. A friend? An enemy? Who really IS the great Silver Wolf of the Stellaron Hunters? The girl I see on all of those wanted posters with other ~Dangerous Criminals~ because as far as I'm aware. That isn't the same Silver Wolf I know. The Silver Wolf I know wanted to become one of the Nameless! To trailblaze across the stars! Not escape from them!"

Silence filled the air again as it did from the start. She didn't know how to respond. She had been living her life one step at a time, chasing highs of running from the IPC and spreading information leaked from the Genius Society. But nothing could have prepared her for this moment. A moment she never thought would come.

He sighed before she had begun to formulate a response.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't be.....I shouldn't have..."

He drifted off failing to find a way to finish his half-assed apology.

"No. I. I understand.....You..."

"are right" was her thought but couldn't bring herself to say. She rested both her hands against her virtual keyboard and sighed.

Both of them. Young adults in their early twenties and here they are stuttering apologies to each other like a child who had accidentally hit their friend and the teacher made them say sorry infront of the whole class. Why couldn't he hate her. Why couldn't he have just forgotten her and moved on with his life. Why come here and ruin a persona she had built for close to half a decade. Why can't she keep her thoughts straight. Why cant she just LOOK AT H-

Her borderline self-destructive thoughts were immediatly brought to a halt as long arms wrapped around her from behind, forming a cross over her small chest. He rested his forehead right on the top of her own head and let out a large sigh. A large sigh that had been sitting in his core for a very long time. A sigh that just says "This is real".

Her thoughts stopped. They were silent. All she could do was feel him press against her. Their size difference only bringing her up to the bottom of his breastbone. She stared down at her gacha game on her screen as it proudly displayed the results screen of her once again doing the maximum damage of the Crew, beating out everyone out by trillions. She secretly wanted to be in this moment forever.

His voice muffled in her silver hair.

"It really is you."

She let out a breath she wasnt even aware she was holding. She lifted a hand from her keyboard and rested it on his arm. She tilted her head down ever so slightly to not disturb him to confirm that he was also real. She noted a few visible scars that he had gained, either from Home or maybe an encounter with the Fragementum, she wasn't sure. She also smelled a combination of a cheap body soap and burnt dust wavering off him. A partially nostalgic smell but different at the same time. Despite those little things. It was still him. She let a small smile form on her stoic face. A smile different from when she was being a smug brat towards Herta and Screwllum when she bested them again or when Stelle lost the 50/50 and catapulted her phone across the Express hitting poor Pom-Pom in the back of the head by accident. No. This was a smile that belonged to him. One she would show him when they were alone in the Basement and she would beat him in Battle Wheel 32, much to his chagrin. The smile when he finally pulled the Haxxor Bunny costume and was excitedly showing her saying "It looks like you Wolf! Do you think they did that on purpose?". She mentally chuckled at the memory. He really did make her feel at Hom-

"By the way your team build for this boss sucks."

Her affectionate thoughts were immediatly shattered when he used the hand that wasnt being held by her to point at her screen despite never lifting his head from her own.

Oh this son of a

"What do you MEAN? Do you see that score? Do you see how much higher I am than everyone?"

"Oh yeah I see that I'm just saying you could be doing MORE damage"

"You cant even see my screen! How are you seeing this?"

"Oh Wolf. You may be the Legendary Genius Hacker but you suck at hiding your usernames in your games"

"WHAT?"

She tilted her head up at him finally showing him her face so she could glare at him behind her glasses. His eyes were more tired and his hair was shaggier. There were small cuts visible near his chin. Either from a battle or from cutting himself shaving his beard. But it was still him all the same. Her Phoenix. The Gold to her Silver. He had found her.

He smiled down at her pouting form and chuckled behind his closed mouth. He wanted to do so many things right now upon seeing her face like this but he settled upon one that would get the purest reaction out of her that he could. He reflected on when she would poke him on the nose after his tantrum of losing for the 32nd time in Battle Wheel to get him to shut up, always following up with a quiet "Boop~" while grinning at him, her tongue stuck between the gaps in her teeth.

Tilting his head slightly down making her flinch. He softly kissed her on the nose.

"Boop"

Her face exploded into red as she made an expression indescribable to her thoughts. She slapped his arm that she had been holding and pouted harder than ever before causing him to burst out with laughter. Oh that laughter. How she missed i-NO. SHE SUPPOSED TO BE UPSET RIGHT NOW. She swiped her hand to dissipate her screen and keyboard and with all the muster she could in her tiny body, stomped down the street away from the wheezing boy who slowly begun to follow her. If you looked closely one could see visible anger smoke spewing from her ears but also the smallest hint of a heart floating over her head like a virtual pet from her favourite mascot platformer.

She still wasn't sure why Elio didnt allow her to view the current Script. But she is very thankful that she wasnt spoiled on it like a sequel to a game she had waited decades on. They both had some catching up to do and both needed to air out their grievances. But in this moment, hearing his voice again as he called for her to slow down, voice hoarse from wheezing so hard. She allowed the smile to come back to her face. A smile brighter than the sun.

A smile as bright as her Phoenix.