Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Synthetic Emotions ❯ Phase 12: Syntacom ( Chapter 12 )

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Synthetic Emotions

By: Melissa Norvell

Phase 12: Syntacom

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"I'm so tired," Momo yawned as she sat slumped back in one of the white chairs of the small diner that she and Sonata were in. It was close to the school so they didn't have very far to walk. They had been hanging out after school and Momo now had the opportunity to wear her floppy black hat that that covered her eyes. It was her favorite one to wear.

"I'm actually not and I went to the same party you did," Sonata replied.

"Mrs. Takahashi's lecture didn't help either. I'm just glad that school is over with," the wavy-haired girl sighed.

"Here are your drinks," a feminine voice cut in their conversation. Both of them looked up to see a tall, slender girl with large blue eyes and a lavender colored curly afro that was pulled back with a pink headband. She wore a pink Lolita dress with an apron.

"Trista? I didn't know that you worked here," Momo looked up at the girl. Trista had always been very pretty with flawless skin and beautiful eyes. She was lucky to have such feminine features whereas Momo's were wilder with long, kinky hair, slender eyes and bright red lips.

"It's a part-time job," Trista winked. "It pays the bills. What brings you here anyway? Just hanging out?"

"Pretty much," Momo replied.

"Hisaka and Chacha said that they'd meet us here," Sonata told her.

"Oh, Hisaka is coming? I'll have to make him an extra special meal," Trista put a romantic emphasis on the two words as a look of love crossed her face. Her eyes sparkled and she batted her eyes as she held the serving tray to her chest with both arms crossed over it. The lavender haired girl sighed.

"What's with the squealy-lovey voice?" Momo asked, gazing into her starry eyes.

"You don't know? Trista's been in love with that guy since last year. She's always trying to impress him," Sonata informed as the lime-green haired female and Trista's love interest entered the restaurant "Speak of the devil…" the young man commented as the two walked towards him. 'I hope he knows what he's getting into…Trista can be a strange one…'

"Hisaka!" Trista beamed as she held the tray flat up against chest and squealed his name. Her face lip up with surprise then when she spied Chacha at his side, her facial expression turned a 360 into something angry and jealous. 'He's with her.'

"Here we go again…" Sonata sighed. He knew of her one-sided rivalry with Chacha. Since her love interest had always hung out with the lime-haired girl, she had developed a scorn for her that only grew over time and festered within her being.

Hisaka pulled his chair out beside of Momo and sat his laptop on top of the sleek, shiny table top. Chacha took a chair beside of him and Tetsumaru sat in the farthest chair to the right.

"May we sit with you?" The black-haired boy asked.

"Like we care," Momo said sarcastically. They were friends. Why ask her a question like that? Of course it was fine to sit with her. The blonde then heard a squealing voice call out Hisaka's name and before he knew it, he was glomped by the young waitress, who lifted one foot into the air and flung her arms around his slender neck. He greeted her in an awkward manner, mostly because his throat had been squeezed and it was hard for him to breathe.

"Is there anything you want?" Trista mustered up her most sexy voice. "I'll let you buy it half price."

"I'll have a latte'," the boy replied, as if the sexual voice didn't faze him.

"What kind?" She put a finger to her lips and batted her eyes as he simply told her 'English Toffee'. The waitress then told him that she would be right back and with a giggle, pranced off into the kitchen of the shop to prepare his drink. Sounds of her happy humming could be heard from within the room.

"Man, she really likes you," Sonata said when he noticed that she was out of earshot.

"Well, at least she's gone," Momo held up a nikuman and took a large bite out of it.

"We have something to show you but we don't want the word getting out," Chacha replied as she gave everyone who resided at the table a serious gaze.

The blonde girl yawned. "Sorry, I went to Hisamichi's party last night," Momo told everyone as a few drinks were sat on the table.

"Have you heard?" Trista asked. "Someone was found dead there."

"What!?" The wavy-haired girl exclaimed as she sat bolt straight in her seat and leaned in towards the middle of the table.

"I think I heard that on the news this morning," Chacha looked thoughtful.

"Regarding the alleged 'murder' the victim was sixteen year old Takeda Omoji, chairman of the Student Council. They don't know for certain if he was murdered or he merely fell from the balcony when he was drunk. The case is still under investigation," Tetsumaru informed from the evidence that she had gathered from both the news and student's talking to one another. Hisaka thanked her for the information. "It was no trouble at all," she replied.

"Must've happened after we left," Sonata commented. He had not remembered anything like that at the party when he and Momo were there.

"Yeah because I didn't remember it and all I had was a Cosmopolitan," the wild girl told everyone.

"Anyway, what did you want to tell us?" Sonata didn't want to think about something like that happening in a scene that he had been at. The short-haired male simply wanted a subject change.

Hisaka opened his computer and granted his silent request. "It's more like something I found last night. You see, I was doing some research on the Syntacoms to help Chacha with her advanced robotics class when I stumbled upon a website that had a very familiar person on it. I want you two to tell me what you make of this." He moved his cursor to his favorites list and scrolled through the contents. When he came to a link, he clicked on it and out popped a robotics page with a picture of Eros featured at the top and paragraphs of information below.

"What?" Confusion ran across Sonata's blue eyes. Why did the robot on that screen look exactly like Eros? Wasn't he Aroura's cousin?

"That's Aroura's cousin!" Momo had nearly read his mind.

"There's something wrong about all of this," the black-haired boy straightened his glasses.

"You mean she's related to a robot?" The blonde asked as she looked to Hisaka.

"I doubt it. I think there is something much deeper at work here."

"Maybe she doesn't know he's a Syntacom. Gee, you think you know a guy."

"If that's the case then we need to tell her," Chacha looked to Momo. "This type of Syntacom is an experimental version and is potentially dangerous." Her voice was dire. She didn't want Aroura to be with something that may harm her and it was her duty as her friend to tell her about vital information like this.

"She could be in major trouble," Hisaka agreed.

"Take a look at this," Chacha ordered as she turned the computer towards Sonata and scrolled down to the paragraphs below his image. "I want you to read this."

Sonata began to read. "The 07 Syntacom was an experimental unit designed by Professor Iga Gaiga two years ago in the spring. It is currently the most powerful robot in existence, capable of superhuman actions.

Only one model was created but was soon after deemed hazardous after he went berserk and nearly killed his creator. He was shut down soon after and declared unfit for human kind.

Due to malfunctions in his berserker mode, he was unpredictable and capable of mass annihilation.

This model is experimental and not much is known about it because this model has never reached mass production. It is said to have an evolving program that makes it extremely human-like, even more so then its prior models." He finished the article, and then cast a worried glance at Hisaka. "No wonder Aroura was confused by him. He acts so much like a human that she probably thinks that it is her cousin."

Trista leaned over Sonata's shoulder. "Doing research?" The curly-haired girl asked as Hisaka quickly minimized the screen before her large, expressive eyes could take in the information on the page.

Trista had unfortunately seen the picture before it could find its way to the bottom of the page and conceal itself. "Hey, isn't that the new guy in school?"

"Yes it is," Hisaka replied calmly. "I'm just doing a little human relations project involving our new student, nothing to be worried about." The boy informed and Trista obliged. Just then, they were saved by a man who had yelled for assistance. Trista walked over to his table and away from the group, which left them some time to themselves.

"She almost heard us," Momo glanced over at the lavender-haired girl, who had now taken an order from the seated gentlemen.

"Do you think we should move to a more private place?" Sonata asked. That was too close of a call and he really didn't want anyone to find out what they were talking about or it would be all over the school in a matter of seconds.

"My house is a definite negative," Chacha informed.

"Indeed, her father is head of the Robotics Forum and used to know Professor Gaiga. Word would get back to him in some fashion," Tetsumaru further explained.

"My parents are members of Human Resources. They definitely wouldn't like to know about an at large malfunctioning robot," Hisaka added.

"We can go to my house. My parents aren't here," Sonata suggested.

"Mine are and I don't want to face them. I'm already in trouble for going to that party," Momo sighed in exasperation as she heard footsteps near her.

"You were at the party too, huh?" A deep voice questioned from behind her. The blonde turned and nearly ran into Asagi's well-muscled stomach.

"Gack!" She nearly yelled as she drew back and put her forearm in front of herself as a brace. "How long have you been here?"

"Susumu and I just got out of a sparring match, so we decided to come down here for a drink," Asagi stated. He had changed out of his fighting gear but Susumu was still sporting his feudal wear, which consisted of long, blue hakama pants and a red shirt with a black chest plate that had straps that tied at the chest plate. He also wore a cape that resembled a bird's feather pattern. It was a dull brown and helped the shroud him in brush and brown settings. He perched at an empty seat beside of Tetsumaru while Asagi took a vacant one beside of Hisaka. The table was now full of people and there were no extra seats available.

Susumu had stopped Trista and told him that he wanted to cold water. Asagi then asked her to bring him a beer. Trista obliged and walked off to get their order.

"Didn't you drink at the party?" Momo asked. He was at the party and he was ordering ANOTHER beer? He must have been some alcoholic to put away that much liquor.

"Not really, I just hung around in the corner and watched everyone make fools of themselves," Asagi stated.

"Asagi, do you think Eros is above average?" Hisaka's light blue eyes shifted to the darkly-clad man who sat beside of him.

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to take a look at this," the dark-haired boy slid the laptop over to Asagi, who read the excerpt from the website.

"What the hell is this? You mean Eros isn't human?" The green-eyed man looked up from the screen and questioned him. Susumu looked in the direction of the commotion from the other side of the table.

"Don't tell anyone. I trust you to keep it a secret, Asagi."

"No problem," the man complied as his lime-green eyes skimmed through the paragraphs. "Syntacom huh? Why does that sound so familiar?" Asagi wondered aloud as a flashback of Diedara vividly popped into his head.

'My name is Diedara Syntacom 04 ready to fight and kill.'

His face lit up, as if a realization had struck him. "That's it."

"Huh?" Susumu held his glass of water away from himself and gazed at the spiky-haired man in question. "What's it?"

"I've fought a Syntacom before I came to this high school. Her name was Diedara and she was an 04 model. She tried to kill me but I managed to defeat her," he informed.

"Syntacoms are personal computers, designed by a genius man named Professor Gaiga. They are truly remarkable…I fought a couple of them myself in a competition. The 04's, 08's and 09's, I was actually beaten by an 09 model," Susumu said. While he wasn't a genius who studied robotics, he could tell anyone how the Syntacom's fighting styles were. He definitely had the battle experience with them as his opponents.

"So, have you heard of an EROS-07?" Asagi asked.

"Not in particular," Susumu stated as he gazed out of a nearby window. "I mean, I've heard that EROS stands for Experimental Robotic Operations System but other than that, I have no clue other than a myth."

"I'm worried about Aroura," Hisaka's eyebrows furrowed as he thought about his friend's predicament. He didn't want anything to happen to her and he had to relay the message as fast as he could with as little bad results as he could. This was a very delicate situation and it needed to be approached with extreme caution. One little thing could set Eros' memory back on track and who knows what would happen after that.

"But Eros seems pretty harmless right now," Sonata tried to be as optimistic about the situation as he could. He didn't want to think of anything like that happening to his friend.

"Well, if it's malfunctioning, it may not be aware of what its full potential is," Asagi noted.

"If he regains his data, he may be a problem," Hisaka replied.

"What if the data has been erased?"

"Yeah, come to think of it, Aroura told everyone that he had amnesia. So what if it was malfunctioning data or lost data?" Sonata asked. It seemed like a likely reason to him.

"Damage is eminent. If he was damaged before he met Aroura. She also displays suspicious behavior when confronted with questionable sources pointed at the fact that Eros may not be human," Tetsumaru pointed out.

"Are you saying that she knows?" Chacha asked.

"How can she not, master? She knows about Syntacoms," the robot reasoned.

"Then she's hiding him," the spiky-haired man came to one conclusion. If she knew about him and she was acting suspicious, no doubt she was hiding him but the question was- for what reason?

"There are a lot of people hiding something," Hisaka's sentence seemed to be aimed for Asagi as his icy gaze met with the lime green in his slanted eyes.

"Why the hell are you looking at me with that skeptical glance?" Asagi felt backed into a corner when he was stared at like that. It was as if he were being accused of something he had no idea was going on.

"Don't get bent out of shape, Hisaka. What if she does know about him?" Momo chimed in. She decided that the heated glaring match had gotten a little too intense for her taste. So she changed the subject before things got any worse.

"She always had been interested in robotics," Chacha informed.

"She did say that she wanted a Syntacom back when they first came out. She was actually kind of depressed that she couldn't afford one," the blonde stated.

"The 07 model isn't sold to the public, so how did she get a hold of him?" Asagi wondered aloud.

"Maybe she got him at a cheap price from a second hand vendor," Momo, at this point, was just throwing out answers.

"I doubt Aroura could even afford one of the used Syntacoms. They are still half of a million dollar machines," the lime-green haired one informed.

"Maybe she found him."

"Who'd leave that expensive of a machine in the trash?" Sonata asked.

"Well, she could have inherited him," Chacha stated.

"But no one's died in her family…well that I know of," the wavy-haired girl replied.

"What do we do? I mean, if she knows then she'd obviously trying to keep him a secret," Sonata said. They needed a plan of action but at this point in time, everything was so complicated.

"I knew something was up with him," Asagi confirmed his earlier suspicions.

"How do we go about telling Aroura without upsetting the delicate balance of things?" Tetsumaru asked.

"We have to get them alone."

"Well, we could go to her house," Chacha suggested.

"What if she'd hiding him from her parents?" Sonata asked.

"I've got an idea," the deep-voiced man spoke up. "Let's all meet in the dojo before school. I'll contact Eros and tell him we have a meeting. Aroura will be sure to come along. Then we can tell them about what they need to know."

"Right," Hisaka agreed. "We'll just have to hope that things go according to plan."

To Be Continued…

NOTES:

Nikuman- A Japanese pork bun. In most anime, they are in the shape of an onion and have brown centers; they are a very popular and inexpensive food in Japan.