//------------------------------// // Fighting in Sync // Story: Canterlot High Ends With You // by Golden Flare //------------------------------// The group got outside and Neku stood at the front. “Let's start with scanning and imprinting.” “Huh?” The two girls asked. “Your player pins,” he said, showing them the skull pin. “They can allow you to scan, imprint, and can prevent those from happening to you.” “Interesting…” Twilight said. “How do we do it?” Sunset asked. “It's a combination of handling the pin and concentration,” he answered, “Now doubt, when you first scanned, you felt as if you were hearing everyone's thoughts. The trick with scanning is isolating one voice to listen to.” “As for imprintin’,” Beat continued, “You can put simple thoughts into someone's brain with the pin.” “But you have to be careful when doing both,” Neku added, “Noise can interfere with both and attack.” “So, should we try it now?” Sunset asked. Neku nodded. “But on who?” “ARGH!” Someone shouted from one of the outdoor tables of Sugarcube Café. Turning to the person, they found a nerdy teen in glasses that looked like he was racking his brain. “Try it on Glasses there,” Beat suggested. “Okay, who should go first, me or Sunset?” Twilight asked. “How about you do it,” Neku said, “Besides, if my suspicions are correct, you may have to fight.” “And we can get two stones with one bird. You'll learn how to fight and work with your pin,” Beat said. “First of all, it's two birds with one stone—” “It's fine, Twilight,” Sunset interrupted, “I know what he meant.” She takes a deep breath, “Okay, here goes nothing…” Sunset focused her thoughts on the nerdy teen and found his thoughts a scrambled mess with a weird yellow symbol swirling around his head. “His thought process...it's a mess. I think that mark over his head has something to do with it.” Sunset speculated. Neku scanned him. “You're right! That Noise is possessing him! We need to erase it to clear his thoughts.” “How? I don't know how to make contact with Noise.” Sunset said. “Focus on the Noise and it'll manifest,” he said. “Okay, I'll try.” Sunset scanned the teen again and focused solely on the Noise symbol. It moved towards her and it felt like the world around her began to warp. Soon, she and Neku found themselves against the Noise, two wolves and two snakes. Out of nowhere, a strange voice spoke, “Are you ready?” “You're good as gone!” Neku responded, and jumped into action, striking with a Vulcan Uppercut at one of the wolves. Sunset quickly lit that wolf on fire. When she did, the Harmonizer pin lit up a bit. She then pulled out the Dream pin and focused on the snakes as Neku charged up a Massive Hit. A strange bat suddenly appeared and attacked the snakes just as Neku’s attack struck. The Harmonizer pin then glowed brightly and showed a star wreathed in flames on it. “Activate the pin!” Neku called out. Sunset focused on the pin and felt a connection with Neku. Her hands then lit on fire. “Let’s go!” Neku shouted. “You got it!” She responded. Immediately, they rushed to and fro, slashing and stabbing at the Noise with energy blades and fire. When they stopped, the Noise looked unaffected at first, then suddenly burst into static. One of the snakes dropped what looked like a bronze medal when it was erased. It floated to her and arrived with a *BLING!* “Wow, that was actually kinda fun!” Sunset said. As reality seemed to warp back, Sunset checked her pockets and found another pin. It had an image of a shield with flames on it. “What pin is this?” Sunset asked. Neku looked at the pin. “Fire barrier psych,” he commented, “Used one like that for a while back in Shibuya.” “Sounds like it could useful.” She said. “Yep.” Once reality was back, they saw Beat on the ground in fetal position, with Twilight noting something on a notepad. “What happened to Beat?” Sunset asked Twilight. “I don't know,” she said, “I was confused about your brief disappearance and started talking. When I turned around, he was like that.” “She fried my brain with analistical mumbo jumbo,” Beat muttered. “...Anyway,” Sunset turned to Neku, “What happens now that we beat the Noise possessing that guy?” “Give it a sec.” The nerdy guy shook his head a few times. “Okay. Calm down Micro Chips,” he said to himself, “No need to pressure yourself because of unexpected changes in D&D Dungeon Masters. You just gotta come up with something...but what?” “Now what do we do?” Sunset asked Neku. “Well, we imprint him with a fresh idea, or a meme.” “And how exactly do we do that?” Twilight questioned. “Usually, memes arrive on our phones when they are needed for mission specific imprinting purposes. However, if those are lacking, players can get creative and imprint “custom” ideas or thoughts,” he explained, “To imprint, first scan the subject, then think of a word or phrase you want to imprint.” “Okay.” Sunset said. She scanned the teen once more, then she remembered he said something about dungeon masters, so she kept it simple and imprinted the word, “dice”. Micro Chips lifted his head in surprise, “Dice? I'm pretty sure that we've got dice for our D&D session.” Sunset stopped scanning him and turned to Neku, “How was that?” Neku lightly smiled in amusement. “Not bad. You got the thought in, but he isn't much closer to his goal.” “Why don't you try, Egghead,” Beat said. “Okay, but I don't know how I can help. I mean, I don't even play games like that.” Twilight said. Despite her words, she scanned him and tried to think of a word or phrase to help him, but came up with nothing and chose to wing it by imprinting, “spicy tuna roll”. Micro Chips lifted his head in surprise again. “Spicy tuna roll? OF COURSE! Our characters can face off against Killer Mutant Food! I gotta text the others!” Twilight halted her scan and looked at the others with a sheepish smile and chuckled nervously. “Huh. Never woulda thought that one of my least favorite foods could do that,” Beat commented. “Nice job, Twilight!” Sunset congratulated, “You did better than me, that's for sure.” “Really?” Twilight asked in surprise, “Thank you.” “And when did you start hating spicy tuna rolls,” Neku asked, “Cause last I saw, it was your favorite right next to curry ramen.” “Ken Doi and his experiments. Happened a few days after the Slam Off,” he explained. “‘Slam Off’? What's that?” Sunset asked. “Tin Pin Slammer,” Neku said, “I'm not much of a bragger, but I'm pretty good at it.” “What kind of things do you guys do for fun?” Beat asked. “Well, for the most part, I study, spend time with my family and my dog, Spike.” Twilight answered. “Same as me, except I spend time with my friends, either at Sugarcube Café or at one of Pinkie’s slumber parties.” Sunset added. “WHA?!” Beat shouted in surprise, his face taking on a shocked yet goofy look before showing disappointment. “Aw man. So stale, Yo.” “Beat, don't expect too much from others,” Neku said, “They all have different likes, dislikes, and ways of entertainment.” “Yeah, well, it's still seems stale to me.” “You know, Joshua was right,” he said, sarcasm thick in his words, “You're such a fast 'learner', you're practically a sponge.” “Me!? I'm not a sponge. I'm just...me.” “You mean Daisukenojo Bito.” “BWAAAH!!!” Beat suddenly shouted out, flailing back a bit comically. “I fell for it again!” “So he's Daisuken—” “BWAAAH!!! Not you too!” Sunset just giggled at his reaction, “You're right, Neku, that IS a weird name.” Twilight giggled along with Sunset. The laughter became contagious and soon, Neku was laughing a bit as well as Beat. “And to think that I thought I could do without friends,” Neku said. “You sound like the old me.” Sunset commented. “Well...minus the bullying.” “Well, even with friends to connect with, you'll find that you won't understand people.” “Never have, never will.” FIGHTING IN SYNC CHAPTER CLOSED