Chapter 21: Synchronizer
17:17 PM (Honolulu Time), Friday July the 4th…
"… So! Isaac. You wanted to show me something?"
"Sorry to bother you: it could be nothing but…"
"Just tell me."
"Alright, Twilight – sama…"
Isaac had been looking up battle footage of him against Swallow Man when Yoru Yami opened his communications window: Isaac looked slightly troubled as if he was bothering him but the guy didn't mind it.
"I went to Internet City…"
"Higure Yamitarou's craziness dumbfounded you?" He tried to guess with a grin.
"W-well… Yeah. But…" He admitted.
"You say Sigma joking with Shadow Man?" He guessed next.
"Please let me explain it, Twilight – sama!"
"Alright."
"I spotted two Navis which picked me for some reason or another and I took a photo… Maybe it's worth looking up who programmed them or to see if they hold any special abilities we could try to imitate or use to alter a battle's outcome…" Isaac exposed.
"Oh? Show them to me."
"Here they are, sir."
"By all the… That little girl… That brat…!" He gasped and leant forward.
"Heh! Your ex-girlfriend and her kid…? Twilight?" A voice rang out.
"WHAT? My lady!"
"Hah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah! Oh! That face! Priceless! Truly!"
"My lady!"
Anaya had come up with a lame joke on the spot as she came into the room and burst into laughter while Yoru Yami looked scandalized and annoyed while at the same time trying to keep a firm pose which wasn't all-too-convincing to begin with.
"Kidding! I felt like it, bad boy." She told him with a grin.
"My lady!" He protested with some annoyance.
"Heh! Imagine~! A blushing fella~!"
"Not another "Imagine" parody… Anaya – san!" Izono groaned as he came in and looked fed up with the deal.
"Marco! Go find Marco Polo's grave, will ya~?"
"That joke is AGES OLD. Ma'am!" He protested.
"Tee, heh, heh! Heh, heh, heh!"
"Ahem, ahem!" Yoru Yami cleared his throat but the blush did not leave his face or the annoyance.
"Priceless!"
"My lady!" Both guys protested.
"So? What's the deal? Isaac found a girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend's kid, ya mean to say~?" She giggled.
"No, Anaya – sama!" Isaac politely protested.
"Oh! I get it! You found Madonna's friend's Navi taking their digitized kid away to Kenya!"
"That WASN'T fun." Izono grumbled.
"When it comes to conspiracy theories and rumors…"
"Jeez. Now I'd like for those "Patriots" guys to really control info flowing out there: they were right in saying it's a sea of garbage! It takes a lot of effort to find something which isn't trash or a lie!" Izono grumbled.
"Tee, heh, heh!"
"Ahem, ahem!"
"Ahem Meha Man came~!"
"OH PLEASE!" Yoru Yami was at the edge of his patience by now.
"Tee, heh, heh. So, bad boys… What's the pink tale?"
"No pink tale, my lady! Visitors… From "Beyondard"!"
"What!" She gasped.
"It was some kind of… parallel world, right?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah. That whole show with the "Zoanoroids" and the "Cybeasts" was a small-scale recreation of what happened there."
"So… Who are they?
"I don't remember too much the little girl: I was in Western Europe playing "Shadow Schemer" and always got the info second-handedly after sending Navis to scout the Cyber Worlds for sensor data. I couldn't do any monitoring after they were sucked up into that world either and I had to content myself with copying their memory files and playback them to learn what had happened… But that girl is the defender of the little kid which is the interesting guy around here…"
"Why's that?" Anaya asked.
"The "Synchronizer"…!"
"What! The "Synchronizer"…! Didn't you say it was a tool of immense power which was the key to ending the war in "Beyondard" because it had the ability to erase "Bestialize Factor"…? That little kid IS the "Synchronizer", you say?"
"Correct. There's no doubt anymore. It was designed in that shape to draw attention away since most people would think it was a weapon or something far more impressive than this."
"Wow." Isaac whistled.
"And how would they get here?"
"Some "Fossa Ambience" must remain somewhere or maybe one has opened recently…" He rubbed his chin.
"Interesting!"
"Isn't it?"
"I've got an idea."
"What would that be?"
"Catch them: and use the "Synchronizer" power to boost Isaac."
"Hmmm… If I could work out the ability to "tame" the "Bestialize" ability when exposed to the "Beyondard" atmosphere back when it had the "Bestialize Factor"… Then it could be useful to allow Isaac to power up and overwhelm his adversaries… I'd need some time to go over the data I got from "Alternate" Rock Man: they did split the carved power into two Chips to be called out anytime… And without consequences… I could try to recreate that as well…"
"Wow." Isaac whistled again.
"Cool." Nelaus' voice rang out through his radio band.
"Oh yeah. You brought the PET with you to the balcony, right?"
"Sure. But, really… Boss. Those jokes were lame. No offense." Nelaus told Anaya with a sigh.
"My bad." She shrugged.
"No good." Izono grimly muttered.
"What… Not like I'm gonna slaughter anyone!"
"Your jokes are enough to drive anyone mad and there I thought Dragon Hell's banners were weird enough."
"Those are fun too!"
"They aren't intended to be fun."
"Dryness Man shows up!"
"That joke is too old."
"Well… I'll talk it with Mr. Opoulos… I've remembered about that Navi's Operator and such we could physically catch them along with the "Synchronizer" and hold them as hostages… Their knowledge could prove to be useful…" Yoru Yami cleared his throat.
"Good. Go shake a rumble."
"Excuse me?"
"Tee, heh, heh! Heh, heh, heh! Never mind it, Twilight, bad boy."
"… Roger." He looked like he was starting to get annoyed again.
He walked out of the room and both guys sighed while rolling their eyes: Anaya giggled and headed off-room.
"So! Aiming to catch a model, Nelaus?"
"No, Boss. I have no interest on that. I just want to experience things."
"Experience an experience sponsored by Experience Man."
"… Jeez." Nelaus grumbled.
"Tee, heh, heh... Maybe what you actually need is some looks like those of Daniel Craig… Tee, heh, heh..."
"I dunno who Daniel Craig is but I don't think I need to imitate him to begin with, Boss."
"I'm a genius! Did ya know it?"
"Nobody ever denied that, Boss."
"Crafty guys… Well! I'm off to playing MGS4 and digging out secrets there and there~… Secret Girl will come and expose them to the light!"
"Secret Girl… How original!" Izono grumbled.
"Anaya – sama and her weird jokes…! They drive you MAD."
13:03 PM (Japan Time), Saturday July the 5th…
"… Guys! Guys! You there?"
"We finally found it out!"
"Whoa! What's with the excitement?"
"Did you figure something out?
Netto and Saito had been playing a game on their house's living room which happened to be Pokémon Battle Revolution: Sigma and Blood Shadow showed up on their PETs so they stopped the game.
"The girl we met earlier…! Her name is Iris." Blood Shadow began.
"And they come from "Beyondard"!"
"WHAT?" They both gasped.
"Yeah! We met her back when we explored "Beyondard" 3 years ago and put an end to the "Cybeast War"!"
"Wow! Tell us more!" Netto was thrilled.
"Well… To begin with, they were the guardian of the "Synchronizer" over at the "Dimensional Area Lab" from where all began… They were the only person living there apart from the "Synchronizer"…"
"And "Beyondard" Grandpa's electronic brain as well, right?" Saito seemingly remembered.
"Yeah. He told us about the true purpose of the "Synchronizer" and how to put an end to the war… Kuroshiro told you guys about it last summer."
"So… Why would she be here?"
"Well… Dunno. Maybe she found a "Fossa Ambience" and since they've already completed their duty they thought they could explore new horizons or try to find us… I'm sure she must've recognized something in us: it's not easy to forget guys like us!"
"You've got a point there." Blood Shadow admitted.
"So! You think she brought the "Synchronizer" along?"
"Of course. They were like bro and sis."
"How did you figure out about "Beyondard", anyway?" Netto asked.
"Pure dumb luck… It was back in April, 2005… We were trying to get a hold on Forte's location and we tried a closed off military base from which odd energy spikes had been detected…"
"And those were a "Fossa Ambience"? What exactly was it about to begin with, anyway?" Saito guessed before asking.
"Huff. Explain it yourself, Blood. I'm not good at those."
"Fine. The "Fossa Ambience" was a crack in Time-Space… A connecting tear between two dimensions of Time-Space… We approached it and were treated to a vision of a spot somewhere… We were shocked to see the whole of the skies filled with huge circuitry patterns and "Juuka Viruses" chasing each other in the real world… Boss ran some analysis… I should note that the crack was in real space to begin with but another had opened in the Cyber World… We dared to explore it… And we soon had to use our abilities to escape a stampede of Juuka Viruses…"
"Huff! That wasn't easy."
"Yikes."
"And then we began to analyze and figure out what was going on there by analyzing the atmosphere… And we ended up fighting "Zoan" Napalm Man and "Zoan" Freeze Man…"
"Whoa! A "Zoan" Freeze Man!"
"The "Zoan" Napalm Man was of the Greiga Army and had managed to "Bestialize" but "Zoan" Freeze Man of the Falzer Army without any need to "Bestialize" held the upper hand… He destroyed the opponent and we then had to beat the guy out of self-defense…" Sigma detailed.
"So that was your first contact with the "Zoanoroids"?" Netto deduced.
"Sure… It spooked us, really… Their talk about the Armies picked us…"
"And how did you know to go to the "DA Lab"?"
"Handle that, Blood."
"OK, Sigma. We encountered a town which had been abandoned time ago and which the desert had left in total decadence… We salvaged some old computers and managed to find some old data which was news broadcasting about some "great change" happening as a possible result of a failed experiment in the "DA Lab"… Talks about an aurora-like phenomenon spreading across the world too… And rumored sightings of materialized Viruses: that had to be the first few hours or days after the "accident"…" Blood Shadow narrated.
"And you decided that investigating the place might wield some answers as to what had happened to this world…"
"We even stumbled upon a resistance group which looked like desert nomads but had advanced weapons against Viruses and they had their Navis to fight "Zoanoroids" back… But the design of the "Juuka Inshi" or "Bestialize Factor" was such that they could only materialize for 10 minutes because their HP fell very quickly… And then they needed to recharge for at least 3 hours…" Sigma detailed.
"Oriol talked about that, yeah…" Saito recalled.
"On our way there we did find "Zoan" Stone Man and "Zoan" Cut Man which we beat as well… They were looking for the "Synchronizer" and they claimed that whoever gained it first would achieve total victory and the annihilation of their hatred enemy…"
"They thought it was a weapon?"
"It could be turned into a weapon if misused… Their own ability to absorb "Juuka Inshi" could be used to generate antibodies which they could infect the enemy with and delete their whole data…"
"Yikes. Luckily you found it first."
"Yeah… We got to the lab and we met Iris who immediately guessed we weren't "Zoanoroids" because Boss was there and the sensors told her."
"And "Beyondard" Grandpa told you the whole tale, right?"
"Yeah. You know it already… He told us to bring the "Synchronizer" to the "Wily Lab" and there we would figure out how to end the war. Iris asked of us to give them a name too so Boss picked "Trill"… And he liked it so he attached that name…" Sigma grinned.
"Trill, huh… It sounds like a nice name." Saito seemed to like the sound it carried.
"Maybe we should show you a photo instead."
He showed them a photo of Trill as he looked a bit shorter in height and a bit younger as well standing next to a large glass-made body in a room somewhere.
"So that's Trill AKA "Synchronizer"…" Both muttered.
"Well! We made our way to the "Wily Lab" using our robot bodies' abilities while Boss used a vehicle the lab still had and which was able to make the route… We took profit of some freight train lines those guys had taken control of but which were abandoned… We managed to reach in less than 12 hours despite the 200km distance… And there we stumbled upon old Wily's hologram… Taunting us and trying to have his Viruses defeat us… Commander Omega inputted a program into the lab which cut the electronic brain off from the other systems… And then we used the "Dimensional Generator" there along with the "DA Lab" one to shoot out antibodies in a "synchronized" manner hence the name "Synchronizer" because both of them had to be properly "synchronized" and that was how it had happened at the beginning…" Sigma excitedly described while looking cocky.
"And thus the war ended…" Netto muttered.
"At last…"
"Yeah. It really did. The "Cybeasts" were slowly erased until nothing remained of them and the same happened with all data infected with the "Juuka Inshi"… Old Wily tried to blow us up with the lab but failed and only blew himself up so… No trouble over there." Blood Shadow finished.
"Cool. And the reason she wanted to see the Science Labs could be related to see how much technology had progressed here along with the Cyber World?" Netto deduced.
"That's what we think, yeah."
"Then maybe we'll meet her again and we can try talking with her this time around…"
"Possibly."
"By the way… The mood in the HQ hasn't changed?" Netto switched topics around.
"No. Boss went away with Commander Omega so we simply accessed the server and left a note for them." Sigma replied.
"It must be something important if both went out." Saito looked surprised at the news.
"There's no doubt about it but maybe they're on a trail they don't believe to be genuine so they're being careful not to stumble too quickly into a blind alley and get laughed at." Blood Shadow offered a possible explanation.
"Or else… Dragon's aunt kidnapped him with some spell!"
"Oh come on. That's silly. I dunno if any of his aunts, if any, are still alive out there or really care for what he does…"
"Well! Netto – kun. Let's settle this match. Both of us are at the last PKMN and none of both has type advantage so we have to resort to another type of attack altogether to win!" Saito rallied.
"Heh, heh, heh! Bring it on, Saito – niisan!"
"Alright! Bloody~ Shadowy~! Let's have some leveled-up games!"
"No. Go play at the VR Simulator and come up with a co-op virtual R2-D2 to bust all enemies. But leave me alone." He sighed.
"Not bad, pal! Heh, heh, heh! Alright! To be continued! Let's go~!"