It was another new day. Arthur was only just getting off the train when the universe dropped the first hint it was going to be a weird one.
"Man, I feel kind of weird..." Said Treble. "It's like there's something sort of... pushing against me?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's not like wind, but... I guess wind is the closest description I have."
"Huh. But you're okay, yes?"
"...Yeah, I think so. Anyway, if there is something wrong then Scilabs can fix it!"
"Right."
Arthur went on, and once he went up the stairs, approaching the building, he got a second hint. The PET beeped with mail. "Oh, who's that?"
Treble opened the message. "It's from Denny. Hey, nice for him to finally be the one to talk to us! 'Blaze knows something important. Try not to get in her way.' Aaand he's being super vague."
"Well, considering I'm actively helping her by guarding some random corridor, the instructions seem a little redundant, but... Hmm. What would she know?" Mused Arthur.
"Uh, look, basing what I'm saying on my experience with Flare, when girls keep a secret it's normally something really important and life-threatening."
"...Right." Arthur's mind flashed back to a school year where nearly every girl got in trouble at least once for leaving class to secretly apply lipstick. "I... well... I have no idea how to properly refute that but I think you might need a bigger... pool of experiences?"
"Nah, this'll be fine." Said Treble.
Arthur stepped in and received a third, final, and much more obvious hint.
"I don't think today is going to be a normal day." Said Blaze, to his face. "Come with me."
She guided him over to Yuichiro's lab, where the Hikaris were waiting. Yuichiro brought up a picture on the screen, of the room divided into squares. "We moved our detector for the EM waves over the room, and plotted how strongly they were measured. These are yesterday's results."
Arthur saw a red circle of strong readings in the centre of the room, a clear node.
"And these are today's." The circle was twice as large.
"Hm. What does this mean for me?"
"I think it's likely to be relevant later, is all. Just... well, if it keeps growing this way, then eventually something's bound to happen, right?" Said Blaze. "If it causes something bad, then you know to come here. Since, you know, strong EM waves would stop them messaging you."
"Oh, fair enough." Said Arthur. "..." He wanted to ask what Blaze was hiding SO badly, but even if he'd countered Treble's argument, the thing was, he did believe Blaze had a genuinely good reason for hiding... whatever she was hiding.
"Oh, um, by the way, that video... Ethan got it from Zero, right?" Said Blaze. "I'd like to ask him, but he's at that hall all day, so it would save time if you knew."
"Afraid not. But it's not that far to walk, so you can probably catch him pretty easily." Said Arthur.
"Oh. Good." Blaze relaxed a bit. "Well, I'll talk to you later, then!" She smiled, back to 'normal Blaze'.
Arthur walked off, back to the corridor.
"At this point, we should start a betting pool over what Blaze is up to." Said Arthur. "I'm so curious. It's like being a kid and waiting for Christmas so you can unwrap that one present again."
"I've... never actually seen a Christmas." Said Treble. "Still, I'm curious too! I wonder what it could be..."
"Actually, I'm not really a gambler. At least Denny trusts her after... spying on... wait, woah, not cool now that I think about it. He shouldn't spy on his friends." Said Arthur.
"Hey, if there's anyone I'd trust to spy on me then it's Denny. He's crazy with his information gathering! But he never misuses it."
"Yes... Ow!" Arthur rubbed his arm. "I could have sworn I just felt an electric shock..."
"Something smells weird!" Called Treble. He looked around. "...Show yourself!"
'What... where...' A voice faintly called.
Treble spun. "There's someone here, and I don't recognise them!"
Arthur went from confused to fully alert. "Okay, try and speak with them. If they're not from here then we'll have to search them briefly and escort them out."
"Hello there? Where are you?"
"Pantheon... the hell was that last attack? Come here!"
Treble suddenly jumped back as a blast of blue energy seared the floor next to him. "What- Oh, you're fighting me?!" He challenged. "Big mistake!"
"You're not Pantheon..."
Treble jumped straight up, twisting, and landing facing the other way. The navi who'd appeared was... weird. Almost completely flying in the face of normal design traits for a navi. Bulky red chest armor, and a fierce helmet that was somehow familiar. It was a draconic in design, with wavy spikes pointing forwards. Black overtones lapped onto the helmet, and deep red eyes glowed, but unlike Treble's had actual irises. But most strikingly of all, the entire rest of his body was light blue fire. At least, it looked like fire, but it crackled in such a way that it just couldn't be, given the obvious attention to detail on the rest of the navi's design.
"Oh crud. Is... Nebula Gray? That you? You're still bitter?" Said Treble, in a fighting stance. "Anyways, prepare yourself!"
"You're not Pantheon- rgh!"
Treble dived forwards, and the mysterious navi was only just able to block his attack, moving an arm of the blue energy in front of himself. He threw Treble back, and shot another blast of blue energy.
"Let's do this. AreaSteal, Thunder in!"
Treble vanished, and reappeared to his target's left, rolling the Thunder and running after it. The navi turned and raised a hand before making a huge slashing motion at the floor, ripping out three of the panels. The Thunder sputtered out, and Treble stopped, and started firing his tail buster.
"Been I while since I fought like this." Remarked the mysterious navi.
Suddenly they vanished. If Treble had been less experienced he'd have been flattened when he was attacked from behind, just barely managing to parry, and then the fistfight started. The enemy was a fast attacker. Treble was keeping pace easily enough, but if things got much worse- He ducked under another blast of blue fire, then delivered a clawed uppercut. His opponent barely flinched.
"He's not bugging!"
"But we're doing damage. Wear him down and suppress him like any other intruder." Instructed Arthur. "CornShot, FireBurn, both in twice!"
Treble jumped back as the mysterious navi destroyed another chunk of floor in front of him, and then fired the first CornShot and FireBurn in quick succession, missing completely. His opponent flew forwards, floating above the ground, and roared as they tried to bite down. Treble confidently held his arms in front of himself, and was nearly pressed to the floor by the bite, but then growled right back and transformed. Suddenly the dragon's jaws were forced open and off as Treble's skin hardened and expanded to its true size.
Suddenly the fight didn't seem so fair.
"Oh. Today's one of those days." Spat the navi. They launched another blast of fire, and it harmlessly bounced off Treble.
"SURRENDER!" Treble blew wood-element breath over the area in front of himself, and when his enemy jumped upwards to dodge, Treble raised a giant paw and slapped him down to earth, into the attack. The breath cleared, to reveal the enemy still standing, and apparently unhurt- instead dulled, tired a little. They looked up defiantly, and held an arm forwards. It started to glow brighter, charging something.
"I didn't come this far to fall." They said.
Treble pounced forwards, and they fired with a blast. It had truly tremendous force, and to Arthur's amazement Treble was halted where he was, the beam of concentrated power striking into his mouth. Treble staggered, stunned, and coughed once. "I'M FINE! FINE! JUST GOT ME OFF GUARD." Arthur raised an eyebrow. It had done a good 500 damage- nothing to scoff at.
"Where did they go?" Arthur realised.
Treble shrunk back. "Oh, no! They must have run!"
"After them!"
Treble took off at a sprint. He was fast, rounding the corners in desperate pursuit until suddenly the smell he was following wheeled on him- he'd run past it. He turned just in time to get blasted squarely in the chest by another one of the deadly charged shots, the navi dropping down from an above point, bringing their claws down-
"BugAura!"
And then bouncing off before they could deliver a follow-up strike. They snarled and charged again, and with one well-timed swipe Treble sent them back a little, before he made one short sharp cut forwards, only for the enemy to deflect it. It was clear they were getting tired, and they took a deep breath. Treble braced himself for the attack, and then there was a crackle.
"...What's he doing?" Said Arthur.
"Not sure... It's an attack though!" Treble tried to strike again, but he was forced back like they were two opposing magnets. "It's some kind of... Elec? No, no quite?"
"Hyah!" They thrust an arm forwards, and suddenly Treble went shooting back as if there was a rocket attached to his front.
Treble crashed to the floor, and got up. "Darn, there's no way I can catch up after that! I can't take another charged shot!"
"Will transforming protect you?"
"...Yeah, it should. Here goes!" Treble ran forwards, transforming once more. "COME OUT, YOU COWARD!" He continued to run, and turned a corner. This time when the blast came from his left, it bounced off, and Treble turned to strike at the enemy before they moved back. They were clearly low on power now, hunched over and barely keeping up a combat stance, but still seemed far from giving up, charging another attack to the mouth.
"Begone! Spectral Scream!" Considering their relatively normal size, the amount of fire they suddenly blew out was tremendous. Treble clamped his mouth firmly shut, standing straight in the way of the attack and using his innate defence to its fullest. If he'd been in his normal form he would have been incinerated where he stood.
He glared. "I WON'T LET YOU THREATEN OUR COMPUTERS."
"...Ah." They suddenly sounded somewhat smug, despite their low energy. Treble was about to attack, when they vanished.
"I DON'T SMELL THEM." Said Treble. "...HAVE THEY RUN AWAY?"
Arthur frowned, as his arms tingled. "No... It's like..." He looked at them to see all the hairs on end. "It's like there's some kind of presence in the air here."
Blaze rounded the corner. "Arthur! Someone appeared here, too, right?"
"Blaze! Well, yes, sort of? A navi appeared in the network."
Blaze nodded. "Where are they now?"
"Uhh... well, we fought, but then they ran-"
'Nope.' Came a disembodied voice.
Arthur looked around. "What the-"
'Took me a while to realise where I was, but you don't use navis to take on wizards! You can't reach me here. You can't even tell where I am without sensors-'
Blaze took two steps forwards and slapped the air. "Shut up and come help the girl who came through with you! First thing she did was ask me to find you. She's worried sick!"
'...How is it possible-' The voice started in shock.
"Come on, Chroma." Said Blaze.
Arthur looked on in confusion. "Should I come with you?"
"Yeah, I'll need to know what happened." Said Blaze.
The first hing Arthur saw when he entered Yuichiro's lab was a new girl sitting on the chair, next to Mayl. Her hair was pink like Mayl's, but a lighter shade. Aside from that, she was wearing a banded white jacket, tough red trousers, and had some kind of wireframe hair ornament that reminded Arthur of... cat ears? But what really caught his eye was her PET. It was a somewhat bulky green thing, mounted on her wrist.
"What k-" Arthur stopped himself asking about the PET for a better first question when a random person appears in your lab. "Are you okay? I've been taking first aid courses as part of my security training."
The girl nodded once. "I'm fine. What... what happened to me?" She sounded a little dazed, but it was as if she directed that question at something. Or someone.
Blaze shrugged. "Who knows. I've been keeping an eye on the local waves after they started acting strangely, but... I didn't expect a person to just appear out of nowhere."
Arthur raised a hand. "So... what's going on?"
Blaze put a hand to her forehead. "Um, not sure how to explain it without sounding crazy... It's just... well, sometimes I see things other people don't. In a nutshell."
The mysterious girl raised an eyebrow. "I... I can relate. Maybe on a different level though. I won't stick around and bother you, so... can I just have some directions to the nearest Sattela police station?"
"Sattela police?" Said Lan. "...Uh... Do you mean the NetPolice?"
The girl looked confused. "Aren't the Sattela police worldwide? If... that's what you people call them... okay."
"Well, this place does pretty much double as a police station." Said Blaze. "And as an official- How can I help you?"
"I-uh... this is all a bit much. All these people. Can I just go sit down somewhere and try to work out what just happened to me?" Said the mysterious girl.
"Okay. Just follow me. Arthur, can you stick around? I want to know everything that happened with the sudden appearance."
"Yeah, can do. I'll be in the lobby." Said Arthur.
Ethan came in through the doors, as the sun was setting. "Guys, I heard something happened today?"
"Yeah, it was crazy. A navi appeared out of thin air and attacked." Said Arthur. "They were strong, too."
Ethan nodded. "...Kind of weird, if you ask me. And have you seen Blaze around anywhere?"
"Nope, she took this girl who also mysteriously appeared to go and have some space. Haven't seen her since."
"Huh... well, want to come see some stuff we've been messing around with in the lab?" Offered Ethan. "Wily's the be-all and end-all for mad scientists. He's the best."
"I... did promise to wait here for Blaze. She hopefully won't be much longer." Said Arthur.
"Hm. Not like her to be late. Hope she's not in trouble."
"No, I don't think she's left the building." Said Arthur. "What's she going to do, get sucked into a computer?"
"Yeah, true. Hey, stay put, there's one thing I really want to show you." Ethan walked off into one of the corridors, leaving Arthur alone.
Treble spoke up. "So earlier... that navi called themselves a wizard?"
"I noticed. Plus they managed to literally just jump out of the computer. To get... well... what did Blaze do to them?"
"Looked like she slapped them. Though they didn't seem effected. Not that I saw. This whole thing is kind of confusing."
"Yeah... Plus Blaze is being secretive over it. If she'd just explain then things would be way easier to make sense of."
Ethan came back holding something. "So, take a look at this!"
Arthur looked. "That. That is a bucket with wires attached."
"Pretty much." Said Ethan. "It's the prototype of our safety suit. We made it in our spare time."
"...How is a bucket going to protect you from anything?"
"Well... why don't you put it on? Eyeholes are by the front." Ethan passed Arthur the bucket, and he saw that it did indeed have two eyeholes drilled in it, with an assortment of wires around the outside.
Arthur slipped it over his head.
"Okay, now let me turn it on..." Ethan reached underneath and flicked a switch. "And now don't flinch." He drew a hand back, and slapped forwards at Arthur's face. Arthur reflexively flinched, but didn't get out of the way of the push. Ethan's hand bounced off... something. "Tadaa. It's a magic bucket of protection."
Arthur straightened out. "You put forcefield generators onto a bucket?"
"Well, it's just the prototype. Basically a protection bubble until the battery dies or it gets overloaded or wet or something." Said Ethan. "Yeah. Don't wear it in the rain. If we made it block raindrops it would shut out the air and you'd suffocate."
"...What's the final version going to look like? A saucepan?"
"Har har, no. I bought a fairly nice suit and tie for the presentation I'm doing, and I'm going to wire everything into that. I'll show it off with the new systems. Or maybe not. We'll see. Anyway, can I have the bucket back?"
Arthur tried to lift it off his head and felt a bump on his feet. "Uh... I think I'm trapped in here. Where's the off switch?"
"Left, just under the rim."
Arthur felt around and turned off the bucket, before handing it back. "Pretty cool thing. Maybe you should take it down to your conference hall in case the suit doesn't work out?"
"...Good idea. Anyway, I'm going to have a few netbattles with Lan. See you later." Ethan walked off.
Arthur kept waiting. The winter sun sunk out of view, and with his shift over, Arthur was now sitting in the corner, on the verge of getting up and going to find Blaze, until finally, she came on out.
"Whew. I was worried you'd have gone. Uh... sorry about the wait." She waved sheepishly.
"What happened? I mean... actually don't apologise, I just want to know what's going on? At least, whatever you're hiding."
"Well, I'll start with the easy stuff. First things first, you know that girl? She's not from here, to say the least. Her PET isn't any kind I recognise, and it's almost twice as powerful as mine- but according to her, it's just a normal off-the-shelf one."
"Oh? But yours is pretty much-"
"The best you can buy, I know." Blaze frowned. "I had a look at the data in there and a lot of it just simply wasn't even compatible with my PET. And then there's the matter of her navi."
"The blue one?"
"Yeah... they're not a navi. She called him a 'wizard', and when I asked what those were she looked at me like I was crazy for a second, before saying 'You know, those things that replaced navis? Basically the cornerstone of modern life for 50 years?'"
"...Ah."
"So she's either a very skilled actress, or... ACTUALLY from the future. And given her PET and this... 'Wizard'..."
"So what do we do now?"
"Well, I need to get her to open up a bit." Said Blaze. "I mean, I've been nice, but she's not so social. But if I don't know everything, then more time travellers don't show up. Oh yeah, and you fought her wizard. How strong are they?"
"Very. Even without any kind of support from the operator, we struggled to match them- although the fact they got us with some surprise tactics might have helped."
"Hmm... more evidence she's telling the truth. So... what now?"
"Shouldn't you be asking Chaud that question?"
"...Maybe. But you might have a better idea."
"I can't think of anything, apart from... are you sure no other time travellers have come through?"
"Positive. I didn't see any other anom-" Blaze clapped a hand over her mouth. "..."
"Uh... look, I don't know what you're hiding but I'm sure you can just tell me."
"...I'm not. It's kind of a big deal to my family." Said Blaze. "Forget I said that?"
Arthur sighed. "Okay. I won't push."
"I'll... I'll tell you one thing. It's an old legend." Said Blaze. "It's simple. There was once a boy, who could see things others could not. Many didn't believe him, until the day that boy saved someone's life. But then nobody would leave him alone- while he was believed, he lost any semblance of a normal life, forever placed on a pedestal, only a tool to be used in the eyes of his society."
"You have some kind of special power you don't want exploited? That's kind of what I'm getting from this."
"Oh, was I really that obvious?" Blaze smiled defeatedly. "Well, just keep it secret okay? I'll have to try harder to keep it."
"Does... Burn have this power?"
"Nope. Passed down to girls only. See the red eyes? That's how y- OF COURSE!" Blaze suddenly jumped up and clapped a hand to her forehead. "How could I not realise it before! She's... She's my..." She turned and ran off, leaving Arthur very confused.
"So... what is this power?" Said Arthur.
"I wonder if she has laser eyes?" Went Treble. "Let's get after her!"
Arthur walked towards where she'd gone, and rounded the corner to almost bump into someone. He scooted back. "Oops, sorry ab-"
"Don't worry. Oh, you're that first-aid guy." Commented the girl. "Bye."
"Er, bye? I think Blaze is looking for- and she's gone." Said Arthur, as the girl turned and walked off. Blaze came running past.
"They let her go! Have you seen her anywhere?!" Said Blaze frantically.
"Yeah, she just left."
"Oh no!" Blaze ran off, out of the doors. "Wait uuup!" She called.
Arthur shrugged. "Do we help her search?"
"Of course!"
Arthur got out of the building, but couldn't see a trace of Blaze or the girl. "...Suddenly I'm less confident."
"Well, if she's not fron here where would she go?" Asked Treble. "I'm betting it's the train station. It's nearby and you can get to other places, like wherever she's from from there!"
"But it's night time. A hotel would be a better choice, especially if she's tired from however she got here." Countered Arthur. "And there's one just down the street there."
"...Actually, it doesn't really matter." Said someone else.
Arthur turned. "Oh, hey Burn."
"She wasn't just randomly let go, into a potentially foreign city with no passport. She just asked to go for a walk." Said Burn. "For the time being, she's staying here."
"Alright. In that case... I think it's about time I got home. I'll come back tomorrow."
"Even though it's Saturday? You don't have a shift then."
"I think we both know that there are times when I need to just be around." Said Arthur. "Have a good night."
"You too."
The next day, Arthur stepped off the train. "You think Blaze got to speak to her about whatever it was?" Said Treble.
"You know Blaze. There's no stopping her once she gets heated up." Said Arthur. "We should get Ethan in on this too."
"Hey, you already brought me. Although I do wonder just what's going on. Time travel just isn't possible. It's completely unscientific."
"Hey, people said that about bug fusion until Gregar was a thing." Said Treble. "I've done my research!"
"...Hm. Looks like I learned something today. Anyway, her technology really does strongly indicate time travel, but maybe a new perspective will help?" Reasoned Arthur.
"Logic's where I'm strong. Come on, I'm excited to see if she's the real deal." Said Joe.
They continued to walk, and as they were going up the steps, Ethan went down past them, holding The Bucket, filled with a handful of electronics.
"Hey, Ethan, a moment?" Said Arthur.
"Don't worry, Blaze told me everything. I've got Zero helping out up there, but I need to scramble to get everything together for the presentation on tuesday! I really don't want it to get messed up, and I'm behind schedule!"
"Good luck! I'll handle things here." Said Arthur. Ethan was already getting down the stairs. "...Wow, he's really serious about this presentation."
"Come on, Let's go see if anything's happened with Blaze!" Said Treble.
Arthur walked into Yuichiro's lab. "Guys, have you seen Blaze anywhere? I've checked most of the building."
"Oh, that... It's a good thing you're here, actually. That girl ran off last night, and we can't find her anywhere." Said Yuichiro. "Lan went looking for her, and so did Blaze. They've been up all night."
"W-what?! I'd better go after them."
"Okay. We know she can't have used the LevBus since she doesn't have a pass, and even so she doesn't know how to."
"Right... well, guess it's a good thing we don't have many crime problems here." Arthur left.
Treble spoke up. "Guess we should have stayed last night... Hey, I'll text Ember, see if I can get any info."
Arthur nodded. "I suppose it couldn't be avoided... but what could possibly have driven someone to just run off into a completely unfamiliar city? Maybe we should contact Denny. He'd probably only need a few minutes to track her down."
"Nope, he couldn't do it." Replied Treble. "I just got a message back from Ember, and apparently some kind of electromagnetic radiation is messing with the city's cameras. She thinks the girl's hidden herself somewhere around here, though."
"Oh? Why?"
"The radiation... it's suspiciously circular, in her words. And it gets weaker towards the edges."
Arthur realised what Blaze was deducing. "So something is putting out that disruption, at the center of that circle."
"Yeah. Let's get down there."
Arthur got to the area, seeing nothing more than a cheap fast-food outlet. It was wholly unremarkable. Blaze was sitting inside, struggling to keep her head from drooping into her cup of coffee. Arthur strode in, feeling oddly purposeful in his security outfit (minus the badge that actually said 'Security'). "Blaze, I heard about the situation."
"Oh... good, good." Blaze looked burned out. Dark circles under her eyes, and a vacant stare on her face. "I'm just waiting for her to show up. She must be pretty near here, and she has to get breakfast at some time. Right?"
"...Makes sense, but I'll check around. I think you need to get some sleep in, perhaps?"
"Tsk, what am I, a lightweight?" Blaze looked around. "I'll check too, once you're done."
Arthur nodded, first scanning the restaurant. He wasn't sure how well they'd be trying to hide, just praying they weren't trained at it- because he sure wasn't.
Joe thankfully had some idea of how to act. "Okay, first things first- let's assume she's trying not to be found. She'd cover up any sign of her identity, and stay inconspicuous. But I doubt she knows where to buy contact lenses, so she can't hide her eyes. Second, have Blaze check the ladies' bathroom. And third... Hmm, I'll save that for if the first two fail."
They split up, looking around the restaurant inside. It was early in the morning and quiet- not a soul in sight. Arthur awkwardly asked one of the staff if anyone had come in and hidden during the night, which they thought was stupid, until he bought a coffee, then they were quiet. Blaze found exactly zero signs of life in the bathroom. And Joe stood before them. "Okay, so Blaze, you're an official, right?"
"Yeah."
"Can you make it so Arthur doesn't get in trouble for going on the roof?"
Blaze raised her eyebrows. "You think she's on the roof?"
"Logically. We've checked everywhere else, and she's definitely around this building, right? And Arthur, you're the one who's been doing strength training as part of becoming a secuity guard, so if you can just climb up there?"
"Can do. Blaze, I won't get arrested?"
"Of course not, silly. It's not even illegal to be up there. Not sure what crazy laws you have back at your town."
"Cool." Arthur walked out, looking for somewhere to climb up. "Hmm... Treble, see anywhere I can get up?"
"Those dumpsters, near that wall. You could use them as a foothold!"
"Let's do it." Arthur had reasonable confidence in his ability to get onto the roof- he'd been doing strength training for a while, and his natural agility wasn't too bad. He climbed onto the lid of the dumpster, then onto the wall, and with a bit of effort, shifted himself onto the roof, carefully climbing up onto the large square.
Lo and behold, there was the girl, asleep next to one of the heat vents. It had been a cold night after all. "Found her!" Called Arthur.
"Great! Coming up!" Blaze's dexterity was clearly suffering from her tiredness, but she was about able to follow. Joe came after her, just barely avoiding falling into the dumpster. She looked at her. "Wow, no blanket. Hope she hasn't caught a chill."
"Wake up." Called Joe, carefully rubbing her shoulder. "Come on, this isn't a good place to sleep."
"Whu- Oh." The girl didn't seem thrilled. "Look, I told you I'm not falling for it!" She stared at Blaze.
"Hey, I only just found you. It took all night." Said Blaze.
"You feel okay? It was a cold night." Said Arthur.
"This is a heat vent. I'm fine." Said the girl. "...But look, you can't convince me."
"Convince you of what, may I ask?"
"Look, I refuse to believe this nonsense about it being 20XX." Said the girl. "It's just not possible. Either I'm dreaming or this is one big, elaborate prank."
"Let me change your mind." Said Joe. "If you'd listen?"
"..." The girl frowned. "Fine."
"First of all, you're not dreaming. You can't think clearly in a dream- or act clearly. Try pinching yourself. Nothing crazy will happen."
She pinched herself. "Okay, so tell me why this isn't some big hoax."
"Because this is an entire city. You can get maybe... ten people in on a hoax without it becoming too common knowledge? A whole city? Just ask anyone. Any random person about whatever you think is a trick."
"Okay. What year is it?" Said the girl.
"20XX. Of course."
"Okay, okay, maybe you weren't a good one to check that on."
"Say, I have another point." Said Blaze. "Navis have been outdated for ages where you're from, right? But all of us have them! Good, custom ones."
"Fine. Show me."
Arthur slipped his PET out of his pocket. "This is Treble."
"Hi there!"
"I have Ember." Blaze showed her navi. "Although you already know that."
"And I have MathMan." Joe took out his PET.
"Greetin-"
"WHAT?!" Shouted the girl. "They... okay... right. I don't know if I need to stop believing you all right this instant, or... or..."
"Uh, what's so special about him?" Said Treble.
The girl looked at him sideways. "That's my MATHS TEACHER. At least, the online one."
"Oh." Said Blaze.
"Forgive me, but I'm not even old enough to go and teach a subject." Said Joe. "...What year are you from?"
"22XX. I doubt you're around."
"...Well. I suppose... that's a bit of a shock, finding that out... this isn't some kind of reverse trick is it?" Said Joe. "Pretty impressive prank if it is..."
"...Alright, MathTeacherMan. I never knew you even had a sense of humor, so... this isn't some big trick?"
"It's just MathMan. But no. I promise that this is the year 20XX AD."
The girl looked conflicted for a few moments. "Then... alright. I suppose I have no choice but to accept. If you went to all the trouble of dragging my math teacher into this then you deserve to trick me. I'll believe you, Blaze."
"Yay." Blaze yawned. "Don't... mind the yawn! I'm happy we got past that whole not-believing-me-and-running-off thing."
"Um, what's your name? I never managed to get it." Said Arthur.
"I'm Valerie." The girl looked at her PET for a few moments, as if listening to something. "...And my partner is Chroma."
Author's notes: And here we have the golden rule of all crossovers; the main protagonists must fight and be enemies for at least the first encounter they have.
You see that window over there? Well it's now cracked, because I threw a chunk of gold at it. Didn't quite manage to get away totally conflict-free, but I won't be cliche.
Reviewer answers!
Lucaura678: Nope, this will be the third and final arc for my story, before I bring it to a close. No seperate fic.
Skotino: EM energy was always an interesting thing to think about for how it would interact with all the old technology too, since in StarForce 1 navis are perfectly capable of fighting wizards, even though wizards are far more advanced- which means wizards must offer some serious utility that navis don't, at the least. And I'm glad to get the compliment, and so is JaneV!
