Star Rail: The Aeon Hunters

"Oh… Peppy, Peppy of the Space Station, grant me your wisdom…" Lead Researcher Asta sat on her desk, hugging an adorable white puppy in her arms. She then held up the pup in front of her, gazing at its face. "How to make the Antimatter Legion go away?"

'Arf'

Asta sighed and began to shake the puppy around, his body swaying below her. "Oh… Peppy, Peppy of the Space Station… Grant me your wisdom!" she exclaimed more earnestly than before. "How to make these pesky Trailseekers go away?"

'Arf, arf!'

"That's right Peppy…" Asta hugged the puppy. "Both requires coordinated attack by the security team. Followed by a drone hunt with state of the art technology,"

"Umm… Lead Researcher Asta," March said. "We're right here… we can hear you…" she looked at Dan Heng standing calmly beside her. "Pssst… Any clue? I think Asta's gone mad…"

Dan Heng sighed and faced Lead Researcher Asta. "How is the condition of the automatic security protocol in the Space Station?"

"Oh, Peppy, Peppy of the Space Station… Grant me your wisdom! Tell me the status of the automatic security protocol in the Space Station,"

'Arf, arf, arf!'

"That's right Peppy, all of them, compromised… And," she sniffled. "And my poor Arlan was caught in a crossfire… and I… " she sobbed. "I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to him…"

"Lady Asta, I'm over here," Arlan said. He sighed and turned to March and Dan Heng, a stern look on his face. "Look, the space station was just under attack and you both showed up after everything happened." he folded his arms. "What is your intention? Speak,"

Dan Heng rubbed his chin. "This is not us. We do not have the means to hack the space station, let alone do it so cleanly that not even the brightest mind in this place can track the culprit,"

"We know it's not you," Arlan's glared at the two. "Now stop avoiding my question, why are you here?"

March winced, this guy has always been the problem. "Uhh, we're here to help with the repairs and such!" she said with a sheepish grin. "We just happened to be around when the Antimatter Legion attacked and…"

Arlan's eyes narrowed. "You were here when the Antimatter Legion attacked?"

Dan Heng face-palmed and March put a hand on her mouth. The guards standing around them raised their rifles.

"We were this close March…"

"Yeah, I know, I know…"

A swirling vortex of water materialized around the two. The guards took a step back, but they held their grounds.

"Stop those thieves!" Arlan exclaimed.

Flashes of light came from the blasters, but the water froze in an instant. Not just froze, but it formed into the six-phased ice, one of the most exotic materials ever registered in the IPC. The bullets were simply deflected off the ice and the laser blasts were reflected off like mirror.

March giggled a little when some guards yelped in agony. "You guys have the worst luck running into me, ehehe~" she gave the two a finger gun. "Catch you guys later!"

The ice exploded into mist and the Trailseekers turn tail and ran down the corridor.

[LINE BREAK]

The duo ran deeper to the Curio Containment chamber. Some anti-matter legion soldier got in their way, but Dan Heng was more than enough to deal with them. He simply shred through most of the weaker ones, with the Dragon of Xianzhou bound and chained at the tip of his spear.

"Okay, can you slow down? You're sabotaging my kill count!" March complained as she let loose another volley of arrows, only to be beaten by a spear that came out of thin air.

"Sorry I can't keep up, you're just too slow," Dan Heng replied with a small smirk on his face. "Don't worry, the big guy is coming soon, you can try your luck then."

March's eyes widened. "Really!? Oh my gosh yes, I'm gonna show you what I can do!"

The two burst through the control room where the stellaron is hidden. However, instead of the stellaron, they found a strange girl lying unconscious on the floor. "Wait… what…?" March slowed down and they both walked towards the girl.

"Hmm…" Dan Heng put a hand on the girl's forehead. "This is the Stellaron,"

"The Stellaron turned into a chick?" March leaned forward and gently slapped the girl's cheek. "Wakey, wakey~"

The girl blearily opened her eyes. "Mmh…" her body shuddered and she coughed. "Wh-what?" her legs trembled as she stood up, she looked at the two persons before her warily. "Wh-who?"

"Only your most badass group of troublemakers in the cosmos! Ahaha!" there's a jingle in March's laugh as she introduced themselves. "We are the Trailseekers, I am March 10th by the way, this is Dan Heng, and you are a Stellaron!"

"I'm a… what?"

"Stellaron! Right Dan Heng?" March turned to Dan Heng.

"She's definitely not human and she has traces of the Stellaron deep inside her," Dan Heng replied. "What else could she possibly be?"

March nodded in agreement. "There we go!" she turned back to the Stellaron. "Anyway, since you're a Stellaron, we're going to call you 'Stella' what do you think?"

"Stella… Stellaron," the girl put a hand on her chest. "What's… a stellaron?"

"You know how in stories writers can't explain why something happen? Well, that's Stellaron! A hole in continuity itself, right Dan Heng?"

Dan Heng paused for a moment before nodding. "That is incorrect, but it's not far off either, you can think of it that way," he folded his arm. "Now, as March said, we go around collecting Stellaron, that means you. We're going to collect you too,"

Stella backed away slowly. "What will you do to me?"

"Dan Heng, you're scaring her!" March sighed. "You really don't understand anything about a maiden's heart do you," she turned to Stella and grinned. "You're going to join only the most badass crew in the whole cosmos! The Trailseekers!!! We go on adventures every day!"

There was a moment of silent. Stella opened her mouth, she was about to say something, but then the space station shook suddenly. The three held each other to stay up.

"Whoa! Is that…"

"Yes, 'The Big Guy',"

March took Stella's hand and led her out of the Curio Containment Chamber. Though the new girl resisted at first, she decided to go with the flow instead. Nothing to lose as she remembers absolutely nothing about herself or her past.

Learning more about the Stellaron would perhaps explains all of her questions.

Soon, they made it to the gigantic platform that led to the main Space Station. A group of armed guards already stood there, but even they look very nervous.

"March," a swirling vortex formed around Dan Heng's body. "Keep Stella safe, this might get messy."

"Whoa, you're gonna go all out on them?" She gestured at all the guards. "Sheesh, talk about overkill,"

"Not them," as if on cue, a huge shadow loom above them and a dragon-like creature emerged from a tear in the cosmos. "The Big Guy, remember?"

"Oh, right… Stand back Stella, lemme show you what the Trailseeker is made out of!"

The guards fled the moment they saw the Doomsday Beast, but the Trailseeker stood their ground, unperturbed. A chained dragon materialized behind Dan Heng and an array of ice spears formed around March.

"Watch and Learn Newbie!"

The Antimatter Engine began to vibrate, shooting off a beam of Destruction towards the two. But March fearlessly stood forth and an ice shield formed around her, deflecting the beam back at the sender. The deflected beam just barely missed the space station behind it.

"Watch it March," Dan Heng muttered while raising his spear. "Here, this is how you're supposed to do it,"

The chained dragon of Xianzhou roared and leapt straight at the antimatter engine, the torrent struck true into the doomsday beast's heart and wreak havoc into its bio-system.

"Oh nyoo~ don't splash me with water," March retorted sarcastically. "Here, let me give you a little bit of an edge!" the girl raised her hand and the water torrent turned into a hailstorm of ice spikes. Numerous explosions follows and the dragon anti-matter engine began to flash.

The two simply watched in fascination as the dragon began to implode in on itself. The core collapsing from the very pressure of reality. The wings, arms, body, head, all of them were sucked inside the miniature blackhole until only a single point remains.

The point shrunk faster and when it seems it's about to explode…

"Have some patience kids…"

A voice appeared behind them. Stella looked up to see a man floating towards the imploding destruction, carrying nothing but a staff. He landed in front of the collapsing destruction and pressed his staff on to it.

"Stand down,"

The implosion stopped, a glowing black sphere is all that remains, a crystallized singularity. The man then raised his hand and the crystallized singularity slowly formed into a stick-like object. The walls of the space station around them began to break down, traces of six phased ice floats from the ground, and everything else combined into the stick and…

A Baseball Bat is formed.

"Welcome to the team, Stella, wasn't it?" the man straightened his glasses before tossing the bat towards Stella. "This'll be your weapon for now, Herscher of Destruction,"

Dan Heng and March froze the moment he said that. The former turned towards Stella with newfound respect while the latter just glanced at Stella in disbelief.

Stella caught the bat, finding it warm in her hand. "Herscher?" she asked.

"The closest a person can be to an Aeon," the man said. "The name is Welt Yang. I am the Captain of the Hyperion and the leader of the Trailseeker," he turned to March and Dan Heng. "We got what we need and we have 12 minutes to depart before she arrives,"

That snapped March out of her stupor. "Oh yeah! Herta!" she took Stella's hand. "Come on! Let's get out of here before the doll arrives!"

"What doll?" Stella asked as the four of them start running through the wrecked space station.

"The owner of the Space Station, the member of the Genius Society, Madam Herta," Dan Heng explained. "She's not someone we want to trifle with,"

Stella cringed a little. "Didn't you guys wreck the space station? Wouldn't she be angry?"

"Oh don't worry," March replied. "We always return the things we stole from her before she needs them, no biggie~"