After almost an hour of strolling through the heavily urbanised city of section of Genaisa, the trio of channelers finally reached the Taito recreation park, where youngsters tended to gather for skating and other similar activities.

“There’s Alex.” Seth announced as the venue neared, before rushing ahead towards a teenaged boy with tanned skin and jet black hair.

Roun and Zadavia smirked at his excitement, before they each broke into a slow jog so that they could catch up with the youngest member of their group. As they approached his location, they found his friend laid-on the snowy pavement on his chest, reaching under a parked hovercar in an attempt to pull something out from underneath it. Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the sight as he finally arrived at the powered down vehicle.

“Need some help kid?” He inquired, but his voice just seemed to startle the youngster.

As he did this, the young boy who appeared no older than his brother turned and looked up to see the three channelers standing over him. His eyes widened slightly as he scampered to his feet, dusting the snow off his thick winter coat and greeting them.

“Konnichiwa!” He blurted out, somewhat abruptly, much to the amusement of the group.

Zadavia just smiled at the awkward greeting, before reaching up to her earpiece and activating the automatic translation function of her data comm. As expected, the other participants of the conversation all switched to speaking in Japanese, a language in which both Roun and Seth were particularly fluent.

“Whoa, chill out man.” Seth’s translated reply sounded from her earpiece as he addressed Alex in response to his somewhat tense greeting. “This is my brother Roun and his friend Zadavia.”

“Hey kid.” Roun nodded in reply.

“Nice to me you, Alex.” Zadavia replied as well.

“What’s under the car, kid?” Roun pressed as his attention returned to the parked vehicle that Alex had been trying to get under just moments prior.

“Uh… oh, my board slid under there just before you got here.” The youngster replied with a light sigh.

“Where’s the owner?” Zadavia inquired.

“I dunno, it’s been here all day – so at work maybe.” Alex replied with a slight shrug, causing Roun to check his watch.

“Well it’s just after three, so if you wanna wait until they get back you’re looking at… at least an hour and a half.” He explained, before turning his attention to Seth. “I don’t suppose your friend’s a channeler?” He inquired, but Seth just shook his head.

“Why?” Seth’s eyebrow tipped upwards.

“The four of us could probably lift the car and get his board back if he was.” Roun explained, but at the moment Synchros’ voice sounded in his mind once more.

“We do not require their assistance.” She stated, causing Roun’s eyebrow to tip upwards. “You and I could achieve such a task on our own.”

Seth’s eyebrow tipped upwards as his brother seemed to ‘space out’ once again, an occurrence that had become rather common since the awakening of the legendary Guadian within him.

“You do know that this thing weighs well over two tons, Synchros… last time I checked I couldn’t lift half of one.” Roun mumbled, but Synchros simply reassured him that the task was manageable with her power.

Seth continued to watch as his brother’s expression moved from curious to incredulous, then finally to acceptance before he turned back towards the group.

“Alright, nevermind that. I’ll lift the car, you get your board.” He stated to Alex, causing Seth’s eyes widen at the seemingly ridiculous assertion.

“Dude, I’m not even sure Kairi could lift that thing.” He stated, causing Roun to chuckle lightly.

“You haven’t seen Kai in a while.” Roun smirked. “He could lift this easy – as for me… well we’ll see how it goes.”

Seth just smiled. “Right… well in that case I’ll grab the board Lex. I don’t want to have to explain to Maximillian how my brother managed to drop a car on your head.”

Alex just laughed. “You won’t get any complaints from me.”

“Alright Roun, take it away.” Seth prompted, signalling for Roun to make his way up to the vehicle and try to lift it.

The trio watched as Roun walked up to the vehicle and allowed his body to draw in atmospheric zeta, powering up into his braver form and charging its energy to the max. Next, he exhaled slowly and began channel this energy into his muscles to amplify his strength. As he did this, the gold spiralling energy of aesis, which now leaked from his body, found itself augmented by Synchros’ flames, producing a palpable surge of energy through his body. This surge was accompanied by the pulsation that he had felt an hour earlier in the park, as his mind was attuning itself to the core of his channeling abilities. This attunement, now coupled with the ability to channel, seemed to amplify his abilities several times over; drastically increasing his physical strength in the process. With a roar he dropped into a squat and reached under the vehicle, before flexing the muscles in his legs and beginning to lift the vehicle. As he did – and much to his own surprise – he actually found the task to be significantly easier than he’d imagined. Oddly enough, even as he’d manage to lift the vehicle off of the small, hexagonal plate that he could only assume was Alex’s ‘board’, Seth had not yet grabbed the device.

“Bro, what are you waiting for?” Roun inquired, looking over his shoulder to see Seth with the most incredulous of looks.

Thankfully, Roun’s voice snapped the younger channeler out of his daze, prompting him to rush up and grab the small plate before running back out and allowing Roun to set the car back down. This he did as gently as possible, before allowing the energy coursing through his body to dissipate back into the environment and bring his form back down to a low powered state.

“Heh, I guess all this training really is paying off.” Roun smirked as he turned back towards Alex, Seth and Zadavia.

“I’d say.” Zadavia nodded. “That was pretty impressive.”

“Yeah.” Alex affirmed. “That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” He added, barely able to contain his excitement.

“I don’t know what the hell that was—but I’ll give you that—it was impressive.” Seth finally managed, having been left almost speechless by the feat.

“Thanks.” Roun smirked. “Truth be told, I don’t know what the hell that was myself…”

“That was the power of synchros – a mere tip of the iceberg with regard to what you can expect when you fully master its gifts.” Synchros asserted with pride, her voice echoing in Roun’s mind as she did.

All Roun could do was smile in reply before turning his attention back towards Seth’s young friend.

“So Alex, that’s a pretty weird looking board you’ve got there.” He stated, noting that most hover-boards of the time more closely resembled that of surfboards of the past but with much more bulk to house their thrust technology.

“Ah, yeah.” He nodded. “This is the X-3… a prototype hover-board I’m working on.” He explained.

“Yeah, Lex’s board doesn’t rely on regular thrust technology.” Seth chimed it. “It’s supposed to generate some kind of anti-gravity field or something.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards. “That sounds a lot like science fiction.” He smirked.

“Well it’s not quite anti-gravity.” He smirked. “It’s a zeta field, coded to respond to downwards forces with lift—” He started, before Seth cut him off.

“Yeah, lots of boring science stuff.” He interjectd. “Anti-gravity.”

Alex just laughed. “Well… it’s close enough in effect, at least.”

“And you’re working on this? What are you… fifteen?” Roun questioned incredulously.

“Fourteen.” He replied casually, while Seth laughed loudly.

“I guess I should introduce you guys formally.” He smiled. “Alex’s full name is Alexander Drago, he’s the CEO of the Drago Zaibatsu.”

“Acting CEO.” Alex corrected him. “Drago Zaibatsu was my dad’s company. He died a couple years ago in a cataclysm and the company passed to me, but the board hasn’t been able to agree on his successor as either chairman or CEO… so I’m stuck with those jobs.”

“That sounds like a lot of responsibility.” Zadavia suggested, but Alex just shrugged.

“It would be if I did much, but really I just make everyone else’s lives difficult.” He shook his head. “I’m more of a figure head than anything else.”

“Says the kid who’s designing an anti-gravity hoverboard—” Roun smirked. “That’d pretty much revolutionise the industry.”

Alex just smiled. “Well prototyping I’m actually good at. Being friends with Seth has given me a bit of insight into how zeta works, and I’m naturally good with code so designing tehnology is kind of my thing. Making it commercially viable—”

“—and making sure it won’t kill people.” Seth cut him off.

Alex just laughed lightly. “Yeah, that’s someone else’s job.”

“I guess it helps to have a multi-billion dollar company working out the kinks.” Roun smirked, causing Alex to laugh.

“Well, you guys should know.” He rebuffed. “Your dad’s company is one of our biggest competitors, along with Elixer. Last I checked, you guys are on the board of directors.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards.

“Yeah… on paper.” Seth scoffed lightly. “I honestly have no idea what goes on in the company.”

“Same here.” Roun shrugged. “I see stuff when they hit the shelves, just like everyone else.”

“Wow.” Zadavia’s voice drew all of their attention away from each other and towards her. “I honestly only just realised that you are all ridiculously rich.”

Her statement just caused the three of them to laugh loudly.

“Alex is stupid-rich.” Seth affirmed. “Roun and I are… technically rich?”

“Rich-adjacent, I’d say.” Roun nodded. “My parents are rich. I’ve got about six-hundred dollars in my savings account right now.”

“Seriously?” Seth exclaimed. “Can I borrow like fifty bucks?” He inquired, much to Zadavia’s amusement.

“What?” Alex exclaimed now. “I offer to lend you money all the time!”

“Yeah, but you’re my friend… I don’t want to take your money.” Seth waved off Alex’s statement. “Roun’s my big brother, he’s supposed to lend me money.”

“I’m your big, unemployed brother.” Roun scoffed.

“Hey, I can get you a job if you want.” Alex jested now. “I’ve got some pull at Drago.” He added, causing Zadavia to burst out laughing.

“Actually, I could do with a job.” She stated. “Since someone and their friend pretty much kidnapped me, I’m pretty sure I’m fired from the diner.”

Roun’s guilt was written all over his face, much to Alex’s continued amusement.

“I could totally get you a job!” He affirmed, before pausing slightly and turning to Seth. “I can do that right? CEO’s can do whatever they want, right?” He paused. “I’m pretty sure I can do that…” His words just caused the entire group to laugh loudly.