28Vile: *blows into noisemaker* Happy 2019, everybody! Bet you thought I forgot about this, didn't you? Nope, I was just getting it ready for new year! Man, it's been a long time since I did a Numbershot, and don't worry, I do have plans to truly come back to this series, so for my 100th story on , I made my return. Today's Numbershot is maybe, maybe not a crossover with GSTART, as I mentioned earlier. IDK if you'd actually call it that, but you can make that decision for yourself by the end. For those who don't remember, this fic picks up right after the end of Keys to the Solution Chapter 4. Without further ado, let's get started! Enjoy!
Numbershot 64: A Trial Across Time
Chapter 1
Yuma, Kotori, and the Arclights all had to take a seat to make sure they could focus on the story that Zaman, the time-traveler that once kidnapped Kotori, had to tell them. "To start off my tale, I'm going to condense the overall point of things down to one sentence: That Number card actually traveled through time as well." Zaman said.
"A time-traveling Number?" Kotori wondered, looking at the card.
Marcus rubbed his chin. "I knew Numbers had incredible abilities, but I didn't think they could become this powerful."
"It didn't." Zaman said. "Someone else caused it to time travel, and it wasn't me."
"EHHHH?!" Everyone cried.
"B-But that means… someone else has time control powers like you?!" Yuma shrieked.
"Yes… but they're a bit more limited than my own." Zaman told him. "That's where I'll get into the details of this situation. You see, due to the alternate dimension outside of time, I'm able to keep an eye on any problems that happen in the timestream. It doesn't happen much, but when it does happen, problems are sure to follow…"
*Story Flashback* *Zaman's Time Period: Approximately 30 years in the future from ZEXAL's time*
In a city whose name was never seen, life seemed to go on like normal: People doing business, children having fun, etc. In a park nearby, Zaman, or rather Zeke Driscoll, was enjoying being back in his life as a normal teenager, sitting under a tree while trying to solve a handheld 16-piece slider puzzle. His friends were nearby, either Dueling, throwing a football back and forth, or just relaxing under the sun. "Almost… there…" Zeke said to himself, face scrunched in concentration as he moved the pieces around, getting close to returning the picture to normal.
"Zeke, watch out!" One of his friends cried, making him look up to see the football barreling right toward his face at high speeds.
"WHAA!" He cried, instinctually reaching for the watch on his wrist, pressing a red button. "Hyper Flow!" A red clock symbol appeared over him as he appeared to move at speeds unseen, instantly getting up and dashing to the side as the football struck the tree hard enough to actually lightly crack the bark. Zeke undid the Hyper Flow, letting out a breath as his friends walked over to him.
"Jeez, sorry about that, Zeke." One of them, an 18-year-old who was the only other boy out of the group of five, said, scratching the back of his orange hair nervously. "Some jackass came out of nowhere and took a baseball bat to our ball, smacking it your way just to screw with us." A laugh was heard as Zeke turned to see a boy running away from the park, with a blonde girl in their group already flipping him off with an angry look.
"Thanks for warning me either way, Shotaro." Zeke said, brushing dirt off his jacket. "Didn't want my face to be a crater."
However, it was at that moment that Zeke's watch started beeping. "Eh? Did you set an alarm, Zeke?" A pink-haired girl in their group asked.
"No, it's a link to the other dimension's database." Zeke said, pressing a button on his watch. A small holographic screen formed over the device, information filling the screen, and as Zeke was reading it, the word "WARNING" appeared in red letters with a small alarm sound, followed by more information. Zeke's eyes widened as he read it. "Nani? It can't be!"
"What is it, Zeke?" His girlfriend Touko asked, concerned.
A lightly irritated sigh came from the time-traveler, placing his slider in his pocket for later. "I'll tell you in detail later. Anyone who wants to follow, go right ahead." Turning in a direction where none of them were facing, Zeke stepped forward, clicked two buttons on the sides of his watch, and held it out. "Time gate, open." The watch's actual screen glowed a bright cyan before firing a laser beam at the air, and with the aesthetic of spinning clock hands, a gate of cyan energy was cracked open in front of them. Without hesitation, Zeke entered the portal, and even though they weren't as certain, his four friends followed.
On the other end of the portal, the group of five existed to find themselves in the dimension where time didn't flow. The place they appeared to be was some kind of wide-open plaza with plenty of smaller paths branching off from it leading to other portals, and in the "back-center" of the area was a large computer of some sort. "This place still kinda creeps me out." The pink-haired girl said, looking around at the black, dark gold, sky blue, and gray void surrounding their platforms.
Zeke walked up to the computer and pressed another button on his watch, causing a cyan ring to form on the ground underneath him. The circle slowly rose as clock hands appeared to spin around it, replacing his civilian garb with his armor, clock hands, and alternate watches on his arms, his bangs going from curved to straight points, his eyes briefly flashing to show that he had changed to his Zaman persona. Cracking his knuckles, Zaman got to work, rapidly typing on the computer. "Zeke, what happened?" Touko asked, walking up to him.
"The database here picked up a distortion in the time stream." Zaman replied. "And that shouldn't normally happen because of how stable it is. Since I have these powers, I need to get to the bottom of this." Visuals appeared on the computer screen, showing what appeared to be a diagram of the timeline itself. "Okay, now to pinpoint the temporal distortion." More clacks of the keyboard came about, with a part of the diagram being zoomed in on and highlighted. "Year 2054. Oh, that's Yuma Tsukumo's timeline… but why there?"
"Can't you zoom in on the exact point the distortion happened?" The blonde girl asked.
"Yeah, I can. Thanks for reminding me, Mao." Zaman replied with a smile. "Let's take a look." Typing away on the keyboard once more, Zaman caused the computer to change to a visual that almost resembled a video feed outside their current dimension.
"Whoa, candid camera. How come I never saw this before?" Shotaro asked.
"Zeke never really had to use it before." Mao replied.
A timestamp on the video feed indicated its vision on Year 2054, and as the "camera" panned around, Zaman recognized the area he was seeing. "Heartland City… after I first came to that time. I need to further pinpoint its location." Bringing up a small radar with the current "camera" angle visible on it, he directed the visual in the direction of a field of static that indicated the distortion's location, causing the feed to slowly move toward Heartland Tower. However, the tower itself showed red energy on the radar, in the same position as the temporal distortion. "I've got a bad feeling about this…" Regardless, he pushed on, moving the feed inside the building.
On the video feed, the Distributor worked tirelessly on his computer, not even noticing the air behind him being distorted, turning a navy blue, nor hearing the symbolic "shatter" behind him. However, his attention WAS caught when an unexpected voice was heard behind him: "Greetings to you, Distributor."
"Hmm?" Hearing his own name, the Distributor whirled around to face two figures that had somehow gotten into his control center. Both figures were males in their 20s of average height and weight, and both appeared to be wearing jumpsuits with armored gauntlets and boots that had cybernetics going across them. One had long silver hair, navy eyes, and a more lithe figure, giving off a bishounen air, his jumpsuit being navy blue with a design resembling the top half of a clock, having blue lights on the gloves and boots and blue cybernetics, the right arm's cybernetics connecting to a large shoulder pad with angular edges. The other had short bright pink (almost white) hair, darker pink eyes, and more masculine facial features (even though he wasn't too muscular), his jumpsuit being dark pink with a pinkish-purple design resembling a wormhole, having lighter pink lights on the gloves and boots and lighter pink cybernetics, the left arm's cybernetics connecting to a large shoulder pad with round edges. "How did you get in here?"
"Not important." The blue-clad man said with a smile and a dismissing handwave. "What is important is insuring your legacy lasts throughout time."
The Distributor was suspicious of these two, but hearing that claim made the corner of his mouth twitch. "…You have my attention."
"My name is Chrono, and he is Ourano. Consider my friend and I emissaries from the future." The blue-clad man said with his hands clapped together. "We require the use of one of your unused Numbers for a little pet project."
"Just a small experiment against those who still stand against you." The pink-clad man followed up with.
The Distributor blinked a few times. "Emissaries... from the future." He said, making his difficulty in believing them clear just by the tone of his voice. "As much as I consider your claim an insult to my intelligence…" A smirk crossed his face. "…I'm interested. Might I inquire a little further about this 'pet project' of yours?"
"Aha, but of course." Chrono said. "In the not-so-distant future of your victory, there is another who stands against you, trying to rally the troops under the banner that Yuma Tsukumo once flew. We two and a few others who work with one of your allies believe he may have a chance of victory since he knows all 100 Numbers."
"Is that so…?" The Distributor mused, Vector emerging from within his body.
"I see where you're going with this. You want to surprise them with something they've never seen before, yes?" Vector asked.
"Your great knowledge knows no bounds, oh mighty Vector." Chrono said before he suddenly gained a sparkly background. "Conqueror of Earth. Grand Herald of Barian World. Mightiest of the Emperors." Each statement was punctuated with an elaborate pose, while Ourano could be seen rolling his eyes despite also smiling.
Vector couldn't resist letting out an evil giggle. "Oh, you're too kind, boys! Distributor, give these smart young men something extra special for this!"
The Distributor smirked and pulled out a blank card, holding it out to them. "I'm certain this will serve you well. It may not look like much now, but it will show its power later. Just be sure to return it whenever you get the chance. We're going to need it later."
"Oh, I assure you, you'll get it back." Chrono said, taking the card.
"Break a leg, boys." The Distributor said with a sign-off gesture. Both of his visitors saluted before high-fiving each other with their shoulder padded arms, their shoulder pads glowing. Blue and pink energy surrounded them briefly before dissipating, showing that they were gone. After a moment of silence, the Distributor spoke again. "...You didn't actually believe them, did you?"
Vector chuckled. "Of course not. I know brown-nosing when I hear it. Those two nutcases were probably members of a force out to destroy me. Probably more of Tsukumo's friends."
"Then the nice Number-flavored cocktail I slipped them means they are in for a very rude awakening." The Distributor replied, the two of them sharing another chuckle.
Having watched the entire exchange on the "camera", Zaman clenched his fist with a groan. "Looks like this is a bigger problem than I thought it was…"
Vile: Ah, it feels good to be writing for ZEXAL again, even if this story isn't entirely ZEXAL-focused. *Miracull barks* I know, boy, the spirit's still there. I just hope this story turns out well enough for being my 100th story. It's not exactly a blockbuster. *Miracull licks my face* Heh heh, thanks. If you guys liked this chapter, leave a review for me! Next chapter coming tomorrow! Ja ne for now!
Computer Voice: Vile, logging out.
