EPISODE 35 - HINDSIGHT
The morning had been particularly slow and peaceful, a nice change of pace from the past few weeks of Ryan’s life. He’d woken up at a reasonable hour in a real bed, didn’t have to immediately get up and ready for the day, and when he finally did decide to, there was human food waiting for him for breakfast. There was no rush to pack up and hit the road, or a lingering sense of anxiety that permeated every conversation; he didn’t have to worry about any Digimon that might be lurking nearby, or that they might encounter later in the day. For the most part, things were calm, possibly even enjoyable. Suffice to say, Ryan had had a good day so far, and he was determined to keep it that way.
With Dare and Quinn and literally everyone else in the group talking about Digimon matters, though, it didn’t seem like he would be having a normal day.
Which was fine. It was whatever. He couldn’t win them all. He’d take this over the Digital World any day.
“Keep an eye and an ear out,” Quinn was saying. “That’s two Digimon who have shown up so far, and one of them was a mega level. I’m sure we’re all real proud of Castor for managing to evolve to mega as well, but it’s not something to be expected. It would be nice, but we need to hedge our bets.” She paused and shook her head, looking down at where Alpha was seated at her feet. “Just… be smart. Stay safe. Don’t get killed.”
She lifted her head to look over at Alex, sat between Ezra and Moxie at one of the other tables and noticeably more withdrawn than he usually was. Ryan couldn’t resist following her gaze, and Alex shrunk into himself under the weight of all the eyes on him.
It didn’t last for long, though. Ryan looked back to Quinn as she sighed and held her arms out, putting a smile on. “That’s it. I’ll send you all on your way now. Remember to call me if anything goes south. Please.”
It was hard not to notice the slight desperation in her tone when she said that last word, but nobody commented on it.
Ryan murmured his agreement and pushed himself up from his chair, picking Dare up as he turned to head back into the motel room. Behind them, some of the others stood up as well, ready to start their days.
Ryan was not.
He practically face-planted into his side of the bed he shared with Miguel. Alex and Ezra had taken the other one, and Damien had elected to sleep in the “cuck chair” (his words) at the other end of the room. Ryan hadn’t had enough goodwill left in him on the day they’d arrived to offer it himself, and Damien seemed to be doing just fine. The same could not be said for Ryan, so it only made sense that he got to sleep in the bed. Maybe in a day or two he’d bring up the idea of switching out, but certainly not right now.
“I thought you said you were having a good day,” Dare said, wriggling out from underneath Ryan’s arm - he had not set her down before throwing himself onto the bed, and had landed half on top of her. He didn’t lift his head to look at her, even as she prodded his scalp with a pathetically minuscule paw. “You’re being dramatic. You told me you slept well last night. You didn’t even have any weird Digimon nightmares like Alex did. Stop being a slab of concrete and get up, I wanna go out.”
“We went out yesterday,” Ryan said into the comforter, his voice muffled, but he didn’t care. “Maybe I just want to stay in today.”
“Well, I don’t. Why are you so moody all of a sudden? You said you were doing okay today.” Dare hopped onto Ryan’s back and began pacing back and forth, her stubby legs pressing into his shirt with all the weight of a hamster. “You said you wanted to have a good day and that you were going to do anything in your power to make sure you did. This seems like doing the opposite to me. Get up and look at me and you’ll instantly feel better, I promise.”
With a groan, Ryan pushed himself up, letting Dare slide down and off his back as he became vertical. She bounced around to sit in front of him on the mattress, mouth wide in a toothy grin - but then again, when was it not in this form?
He looked down at her for a few short seconds, meeting her expectant gaze, and then exhaled slowly, shoving himself off the bed and going to grab his digivice and shoes. He pointedly ignored her self-satisfied victory laugh when she realized that they were, indeed, going to go out.
I don’t feel like arguing with her today, he told himself, even though he knew that wasn’t even half of it.
“Damien said people are talking about the Lilithmon fight,” Dare said as Ryan sat down to pull his shoes on. “It’s all over the news. And the internet, whatever that is.”
Ryan hummed to himself, not looking back at her. “Are they now.” Something struck him, and he frowned, halting his efforts. “…You don’t know what the internet is?”
“Well, I’ve heard you talk about it, but I don’t know what it is,” she replied. “It’s a human thing, how would I know about it?”
“I don’t know, I figured a digital monster would know a bit about the internet,” Ryan mumbled. He finished tying his second shoe and stood up, sticking his digivice in his pocket and crossing back over to Dare, who was peering up at him with something like indignation.
“We’re not omniscient, you know. We don’t know much about humans. We know they exist, and what they look like, but that’s about it.” She paused, and then blinked, her eyes and grin widening. “I actually don’t think there’s ever been a Digimon in the human world before. You’re the first to see this happen!”
Ryan grimaced and scooped her into his arms. “That’s not exactly a cause for celebration.”
“Sure it is,” she said, and Ryan rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Damien told me that people took videos of the fight and they got Alex and Quinn and that other girl in them. Nobody’s really sure what it was or if it was real.”
“Aren’t there entire cars that got totaled during the fight?” Ryan asked, entirely rhetorically. “That whole parking lot is shut down while they investigate. How the hell would it not be real?”
“I don’t know, don’t ask me,” Dare said. Ryan snorted and turned to leave the room, shutting the sliding door behind him. Dare peeked up at him and furrowed her brow, and he returned the expression. “Aren’t you worried about it?”
“I guess,” he said, heading over to the gate leading out of the pool area. “Alex and Quinn being caught on video near Castor and Lilithmon isn’t a good thing. If I get caught and my family sees it, they’re going to freak the fuck out.” He paused, looking out into the middle distance for a moment. “Nevermind. Just my mom. If my dad saw it he wouldn’t give a shit.”
“I meant more about us,” Dare said, and Ryan looked down at her. They weren’t yet deep enough into town for there to be any real risk of someone overhearing, so Ryan let her talk. “I know that most of us are still in our in-training forms, so we’re tiny and mostly harmless, but… when we do evolve, it’s going to be different. What if people think that we’re dangerous? Quinn said that people are already talking about the monsters. That they showed up out of nowhere to fight each other and then disappear. What if they think that we want to hurt people, too?”
Ryan opened his mouth, but shut it just as quickly as the weight of Dare’s words sunk in. He was going to counter with something like “we’re trying to save them”, but he already knew the weakness in that argument.
The general populace wasn’t going to be able to differentiate between the partner Digimon and the emergent Digimon. They were just going to see giant monsters fighting each other and yelling about things they didn’t understand and destroying the areas around them. Those cars that had been totaled? The parking lot that had been shut down? He was willing to bet that at least some of that was Castor’s doing. He hadn’t meant it, of course, but it had still happened.
Ryan hadn’t seen the videos, but Quinn’s description had been enough. Even if - even though - Castor was trying to stop Lilithmon and protect the humans, those humans didn’t know that. All they’d seen were two monsters. That was all the Digimon would ever be to them: monsters.
And was that even really the worst of it? Last night he’d woken up to Alex sobbing into a pillow on the other side of the room. If things like what had happened with Kiki kept happening, who was to say what would ensue?
Ryan shook his head, dislodging those thoughts. It wouldn’t do him any good to go down that path, no matter how much his brain wanted him to. Instead, he sighed, looking down at Dare again. “Who cares if they do?” he said, and she smiled. “Your only job is to fight. I’ll deal with any assholes who want to give you shit for it.”
Dare perked up, looking up at him expectantly. “If you can’t, can I shoot a cannonball at them?”
“I don’t think Quinn would like that very much.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I think getting hit with a Power Metal would do some people a lot of good.”
“What, by killing them?”
“Exactly.”
Ryan shook his head out, falling silent as he noticed someone further ahead walking his way. Dare similarly went quiet, nestling deeper into Ryan’s arms, and he squeezed her gently in return.
As they walked, he kept an ear out for any talk of the previous night’s Lilithmon fight, but didn’t hear anything. He figured it made sense; anyone who’d care enough about it to be talking about it would likely be checking out the scene of the crime - which, he realized, was exactly where he’d absentmindedly been heading.
He wasn’t familiar with the city yet. Today was only the third day they’d been here, and though he and Dare had walked around a bit yesterday, it wasn’t enough for him to recognize which streets he’d been down already. He technically shouldn’t be able to tell where he was going, but the scattered police cars along the streets leading the way were enough to give him an idea.
When they reached the site of the battle after almost an hour of walking, Ryan was not surprised to see a large gaggle of onlookers crowding near the caution tape stretched around the perimeter. There were a few police officers standing just inside the parking lot, warning anyone who got too close to take a few steps back. Ryan avoided them completely, instead pushing his way through the throng of people until he reached the front of the group and was able to observe the scene.
It was just as Quinn had described - huge swathes of concrete torn from the ground and thrown around, deep grooves cut into the asphalt, trees and street lamps bent and snapped. Ryan craned his neck around to look over his shoulder at the cafe just across the street, taking note of the shattered glass and bricks missing from its side.
“Certainly did a number on the place,” he muttered, trying to be careful with his words, but one of the people next to him shot him a strange look anyways.
“Were you here last night?” he asked, and for a moment Ryan froze, completely on the spot and entirely unprepared to have a conversation.
“No,” he said finally, clutching Dare closer to his chest in an attempt to hide the subtle rustling. “I was sleeping. Like a normal person.”
“Well, I was,” the man continued, ignoring him entirely. “I think it was a publicity stunt. All of this damage? It’s not real. They were going to tear this parking lot up anyway, probably put in some stupid community center or something, and they wanted to have some fun with it. Some way to get people excited about it.”
“Really now,” Ryan muttered, entirely uninterested.
“What, don’t believe it?” The man raised an eyebrow down at him, then scoffed. “Of course you don’t. You’re too young to understand these things. Why aren’t you in school right now, kid?”
“It’s Saturday,” Ryan said.
“Whatever. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. Just wait about six months and you’ll see.” Suddenly the man paused and blinked, taking a closer look at Ryan - no, at Dare, in his arms. “Hey, what’s that? Is that also one of those ‘monsters’? Are you in on this? Lord almighty, they’re roping a kid into this…?”
Ryan grit his teeth, reaching the end of his patience. “Obviously not. It’s a toy for my little brother.” He considered adding something like How stupid are you?, but figured that wouldn’t go over very well.
“Strange,” the man said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” He frowned and poked at Dare’s face, mussing her fur up and tugging at an ear, before Ryan snatched her away with a glare.
“It’s rude to touch others’ belongings,” he snapped, and turned and left before the man could say anything else. He chanced one more look over his shoulder at the parking lot as he went, trying to catch sight of anything important. There wasn’t much; just some police cars and other unmarked vans, as well as a couple of workers trying to clean the place up.
This parking lot probably isn’t going to see much use for a while longer, he thought to himself, shifting Dare’s weight to one hand so he could smooth her fur back down with the other.
“Called me a toy,” she mumbled into his arm, and Ryan bopped her on the head to quiet her down. He’d stopped at the edge of the sidewalk across from the cafe, not far enough from the onlookers where it was safe for her to talk.
He didn’t move yet, instead focused his attention behind him, on those same onlookers. He caught snippets of conversation here and there, theories about what exactly had happened here and why people weren’t making a bigger deal out of it. Most of the ones who hadn’t been present for the fight were convinced the videos online were entirely fake, even though the monsters had been filmed from many different angles by many different people. Some were of the same mind as the stranger Ryan had had the pleasure of speaking to, in that it was a publicity stunt; others thought it was an illusion; yet others believed it was aliens.
That last one was actually the closest to the truth, and also the most batshit insane thing to say out loud if you hadn’t just spent three months of your life in a parallel world full of what were basically aliens.
Eventually Ryan had had enough of listening to ten different people saying something along the lines of “it’s a government psyop and no I don’t actually know what that word means but it makes the most sense” and needed to get the hell out of there. It probably also didn’t help that Dare was getting a bit restless, having to sit completely still and silent, and honestly, Ryan was starting to miss her snide comments. He cast a quick glance around to look for any cars that might be speeding his way ready to turn him into a pancake, and then set off in a random direction, having no idea where he was going but not really caring.
As soon as they were out of earshot of the Parking Lot Party, Dare let out a huge sigh, sounding almost too loud to be coming from such a small thing. “Wow, you were right,” she said, peeking up at him. “People really are idiots. How do you live here?”
“Well, I don’t,” Ryan said, and Dare rolled her eyes. “But yeah. I just… try not to let it get to me. It’s probably for the best that they don’t know what’s going on.”
“Yeah, but a publicity stunt? Seriously?” Dare groaned and shuffled around, resting her paws on Ryan’s arm. “There’s cars that got destroyed! Surely if it was a publicity stunt they would've made sure not to damage those!”
“Wow, I wish I had your level of optimism about the way our world works,” Ryan said, but before he or Dare could say anything else, something interrupted them. A very particular beeping sound, coming from his digivice, tucked into his pocket. One which he had heard only once before, on the night Grademon had appeared.
Frowning, and with a deep feeling of dread settling in his gut, Ryan pulled his digivice out to see that the map was already open, and was currently displaying - not far enough away from the purple marker indicating his own position - a small white dot.
“Fuck,” he muttered, pressing down on the dot and bringing up that ever-infuriating box that simply read “???”. “This thing is useless.”
He stared down at it for a second more, growing more frustrated that it wasn’t telling him anything about the Digimon that had appeared, and then it hit him.
“Fuck,” he said again, exiting out of the map and opening the communication menu. He didn’t think twice before pressing down on the black button signifying Quinn’s digivice and calling her.
She picked up on the first ring. “What’s up?”
“There’s a Digimon near me,” he said, switching back to the map on his digivice. “It’s close enough that I can make it. I’m gonna go take care of it.”
“You sure?” Quinn asked. Her voice was stilted in a way Ryan hadn’t heard from her before. “I could head over and deal with it. Shouldn’t take too long -”
“I’m an hour away,” Ryan said, thumbing over the map to see just how far away she was. Everyone else’s dots were scattered around the map, with Damien’s being the closest, just on the other side of the emergent Digimon - and was he heading towards it?
He shook his head out. “I’m the closest one to it. I’ll let you know when we’ve taken care of it.”
“But -” Quinn started, and was subsequently cut off by something Ryan couldn’t figure out. Her side of the call went silent for a few seconds, and then she exhaled. “Alright. Good luck. Call me again if it’s too much to handle.”
“Alright,” Ryan echoed, and ended the call.
He stared down at the map, watching his own purple dot slowly get closer to the white one. Was it further away than he’d originally thought? Surely it couldn’t take more than a minute or two to reach it, right?
…He picked up the pace.
It wasn’t long before the two dots were almost overlapping each other. Ryan had been steadily increasing in speed as he’d approached, worrying that whatever the Digimon was would have hurt people already, and by the time he got close enough to see signs of a Digimon’s attacks, he was running.
They were in a much quieter part of the city, a somewhat suburban area, indicated by the houses lining the roads and the fact there weren’t quite so many people on the street. …Scratch that - there weren’t any people on the street here, but if Ryan strained, he could hear raised voices coming from up ahead, right in the direction of the Digimon.
Great.
“You ready?” he asked Dare, and she nodded, her fur already bristling. “Great. Try not to hit any idiots close enough to get in your way.”
“It’s not going to be my fault if they do,” she said.
Ryan rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth as the sounds of screaming and shouting from up ahead got louder. “I never said it would be, but if you end up killing someone, the police are going to question me, and I’d rather not deal with that.”
“I’m not going to kill anyone,” Dare said, pouting. “Other than maybe this Digimon. We’ll see.”
“
“Shit,” Ryan spat, throwing himself to the ground as he rounded a corner and came practically face to face with the emergent Digimon. Dare tumbled out of his arms, bounding along the sidewalk for a few seconds, before she righted herself and turned on the Digimon, growling.
Its attack had missed its mark, thankfully, though the same couldn’t be said for its previous attacks. Scorchmarks littered the road, with trees snapped in half and cars parked halfway up on the sidewalk as their drivers had come to a screeching halt and exited the vehicle lest they end up the same as those trees. There were still a couple people standing around, some filming the Digimon and others presumably calling 911 or animal control or something (but what the hell could animal control do?).
The Digimon in question was… hard to describe, really. It was quadrupedal, a rich blue color, and covered in what Ryan could only assume was black armor - but that armor seemed to meld seamlessly into skin on its legs and paws, tipped in huge blunt claws. Its face was covered with a similar black mask, decorated with yellow markings and a giant lightning-bolt shaped horn emerging from the forehead, to match the three black “protuberances” sprouting from the armor on its back.
Also, its eyes were white, which really wasn’t reassuring.
The Digimon roared and shook its head out, focusing more on Dare than Ryan, which was honestly the best thing possible at the moment. In a flash of purple light, Dare evolved to rookie, flexing her wings and opening her mouth wide. “
The cannonball hit the Digimon square in the side, and it growled, pulling its head back as its horn began to crackle with electricity. “
The electricity shot forward in a, fittingly, blade-shaped… blade, aimed right for Dare. She jumped out of the way just in time, letting the attack smash into the concrete where she’d just been standing, and shook herself out.
Ryan tightened his fists and pulled his digivice out of his pocket, aiming it at the Digimon as it prepared another attack.
“Raidramon,” the digivice said, much to his confusion, because he could have sworn the Digicode on the screen should translate to something like Lighdramon. “Champion level beast Digimon. It is a Digimon with the attribute of thunder that fights against its enemies with nimble movements like lightning piercing the ground, and defeats them with electric-based techniques.”
Only a champion, huh? he thought, wincing slightly as Lighdra-Raidramon batted Dare away with a toss of its head. Shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with, but the damage it’s done so far isn’t a good sign…
“
“
Dare’s cannonball sailed over Raidramon’s head and hit a tree behind it, snapping off a couple of the branches. She winced, but was quickly distracted by Raidramon unleashing a blast of blue lightning from its entire body in a wide radius, not aimed in any specific direction. She braced herself against the attack, her ears flattening against her skull, but didn’t back down.
“You doing okay?” Ryan shouted, cupping one hand around his mouth to help his voice carry over the sound of, oh, just the people yelling and panicking, and Raidramon’s roars and attacks, and the creaking of one of the roofs nearby which looked like it had been struck by lightning. Hmm. “It’s just a champion level! You’ve got this!”
“Yeah, I’m doing alright!” Dare replied, her tail puffing up behind her as she dodged a swipe of Raidramon’s claws. “Would be nice if I could evolve! And if I didn’t have to worry about property damage!”
“Can’t help you in that regard,” Ryan said, more to himself than Dare, but even as he said it, she was consumed with purple light again, revealing her champion form a moment later.
She didn’t waste any time turning the heat up on Raidramon. It was clear that using her Cannonball divebomb was just going to do more damage to the surrounding area, as it typically did, and so she opted for the more controlled attack. “
But the metal sphere she shot Raidramon’s way was not the only attack it had coming. Opposite of the way Ryan and Dare had come, in the direction of the group of people who for some fucking reason were still here even though they were pretty much directly in the line of fire, came a very familiar voice and a very familiar face. “
Or, well, the dozens of familiar energy bullets came before the familiar face, but the point stands.
Raidramon growled as it was assaulted by Dare’s now much larger cannonball and Bumble’s little pellets, and it staggered to the side, shaking its head out. It turned its attention to the newcomer, its horn sparking with electricity once more. “
“
“Awesome,” Ryan mumbled, just as Damien came up beside him. He seemed… much too calm, considering what was going on, with his sunglasses obscuring his eyes and his hands in his pockets. Ryan raised an eyebrow. “We had this under control, you know.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Damien said, dipping his head toward Raidramon as it lunged for Dare and pinned her to the ground. Bumble, still floating in the air above it, fired another round of energy bullets its way, enough to distract it and for Dare to push herself back up. Damien smiled. “This wasn’t on our agenda for the day, but we heard people screaming, and figured we’d check it out just in case. You alone?”
Ryan nodded. “We were the only ones nearby. Us and you. Everyone else was too far away.” He broke off as Raidramon slammed into a nearby car - not the one that had already been damaged, of course, because it was just their luck that they’d end up with two wrecked cars.
“Well, now you have some backup,” Damien said, raising his fist, and it took Ryan a couple seconds to realize he wanted a fist bump. He obliged, and Damien smirked, then turned to where Bumble was hovering above the other two Digimon. “You ready?”
“Now would be a good time,” Bumble called back, and with a burst of yellow light, he took on his champion form. He aimed his stinger at Raidramon as it began to glow orange. “
Raidramon was forced backward by the attack, further down the street, toward the idiots who were still watching and filming the fight. Gritting his teeth, Ryan followed Dare and Bumble as they went after it, hearing Damien’s footsteps behind him just a moment later.
Wow, he should not be running right now. It had been weeks since the Meicrackmon fight, and his injuries were healing, but that was only because he hadn’t been straining himself since then. Right now, though? He winced as he clenched his left hand into a fist, his fingertips running over the too-smooth skin that had grown to cover his burn. He was lucky it hadn’t scarred too badly, but -
But he was going to carry it and all his other scars for the rest of his life, and that was something he hadn’t really considered before.
Your fault.
He shook his head out. That wasn’t important right now. Or ever, really.
“
Ah, so Dare was going to go for the Most Property Damage Any% speedrun world record. Ryan grimaced as she flared her wings out, already going over the explanations and excuses in his head that he’d likely have to give any officer who questioned him - but Dare didn’t jump into the sky. Instead, she ran at Raidramon, and as she moved, wind accumulated around her, much like it did whenever she used this attack the normal way.
That was interesting.
She rammed into Raidramon, the winds slamming into it and throwing it further down the road. It skidded across the ground, and some of the closest bystanders to it scattered with various screams, but none of them were hurt. Ryan figured that was a blessing, even if minor.
…Though, now that he was looking, the attack hadn’t done much damage to the road, either. Huh. That was also a blessing.
As Raidramon pushed itself to its feet, Ryan noticed the tips of its tail and claws beginning to pixelate. It didn’t seem to notice; it set its sights on Bumble, hovering closer after having followed Dare down the road, and bared its teeth.
“
“
“
With one last cannonball to the cranium, Raidramon burst into pixels, the motes of light fluttering down onto the ground. Ryan relaxed somewhat, though he couldn’t ease all of the tension in his body.
Probably because people were still screaming and filming. Right. They didn’t know that Dare and Bumble weren’t going to immediately turn and attack them next - how could they?
Ryan wasn’t really in any mood to explain that, though. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled to catch the Digimon’s attention - when they looked over, he beckoned them over, and with flashes of yellow and purple light, they devolved.
Ryan and Damien shared a look, and then took off running down the way Ryan and Dare had come. They heard their partners following them quickly enough, and they didn’t pay any attention to the people calling out after them, either to warn them about the monsters following them or to ask what the hell had just happened.
It was only as they fled the scene of the crime that they heard the first sirens, coming from what seemed like just ahead of them. They all stopped simultaneously, practically skidding to a halt in the center of the road as they tried to figure out what the hell to do.
“Fuck,” Ryan said, for not the first (nor the last) time that day. He pointed in a random direction, hoping he wasn’t dooming them to a confrontation with the police. “That way. Seems like it should lead out of the neighborhood.”
He didn’t actually know that for certain, but they had to go somewhere, and none of his companions had any better ideas. They took off again, the Digimon doing their best to stay mostly out of sight just in case they came across anyone else.
They kept going until they couldn’t hear the sirens anymore, stopping underneath a freeway overpass near an empty lot. Ryan had been correct about being led out of the neighborhood, but what they’d ended up with wasn’t much better. Fortunately, the shade cast by the overpass was enough cover where the Digimon didn’t have to worry too much about staying hidden, and so it was here that they stopped to catch their breath and wait out the cops.
I feel like a criminal.
After a few minutes of breathing deeply and listening intently for any more sirens, they relaxed somewhat, sitting down and taking the chance to unwind after everything that had just happened. Damien tilted his head back against the wall he was up against and looked over at Ryan.
“Bet you’re glad you had backup now,” he said, smiling somewhat, and Ryan rolled his eyes. “Nah, I’m messing with you. You did pretty good.” He looked over at Dare here, who perked up somewhat. “You could’ve handled that on your own. Sorry to intrude on your fun.”
“I could’ve, but it would’ve taken longer,” she said, curling her tail around her paws. “Which isn’t ideal when fighting a Digimon who’s already done a lot of damage and could hurt people.”
“Weren’t you saying earlier today you wanted to kill someone?” Ryan muttered, mostly to himself, but Damien heard him anyway and laughed. Next to him, Bumble’s antennae twitched, though he didn’t say anything.
“I said I’d shoot a cannonball at them,” Dare shot back. “You’re the one who insinuated that it would kill them.”
“Yeah, no shit it would kill them, it’s a cannonball,” Ryan said. “Pirates used those four hundred years ago to sink ships. Obviously it would kill a human.”
Dare gave him a shit-eating grin. “Technically it’s a Power Metal. Cannonball is the other one.”
“I hate you,” Ryan growled, and Damien laughed again.
“Switching topics,” he said, leaning forward a bit. “Any reason you were in the area? We’re pretty far from the motel.”
“We were checking out the damage from the fight last night,” Dare said, and Ryan nodded. “Just wanted to see if there was anything super bad. There wasn’t. We met a guy who thought it was a publicity stunt.”
“Of course,” Damien groaned, running his hand through his hair. “Bet he was convinced the government was behind it, wasn’t he. Always gotta have idiots like that.” He sighed and bonked his head against the wall once, then looked at Ryan. “What was the damage like?”
“Pretty basic,” Ryan said, feeling a bit put on the spot. “Asphalt got totally torn up. Probably from Castor. Some cars were wrecked. The usual.”
“Well, the usual is actually no damage at all,” Damien said, “but hell, I’ll take it. Can’t ask for much these days, can we.”
“Not with more Digimon coming through soon,” Dare agreed, laying her head down on her paws. “Hopefully most of them will be like Raidramon.”
Ryan frowned. “What, totally out of control?”
“Well, no,” Dare said. “I meant champion level. Easy to deal with. Not too much of a threat. Not like whatever the hell Lilithmon was. You know?” She sighed, flicking an ear toward Damien. “What were you doing around here? It’s pretty coincidental you were nearby.”
“I wasn’t stalking you or anything, if that’s what you’re getting at,” he said, and Dare grinned. “We were just taking a walk. Wanted to get out and about, you know? Because we’re both the pinnacle of social interaction.” He nudged Bumble in the side, and his partner hummed slightly, looking up at him with one arched brow. Damien smirked and pulled his glasses off his face. “Normally I would’ve gone out with Moxie and her bird, but she was busy. Just us two today.”
“What’s she up to?” Dare asked.
Damien shrugged. “Went off with Harmony and Ren,” he said, and Ryan tried to ignore the giant arrow that shot him through the chest at that sentence. “Something about getting coffee together.” Another arrow pierced him. “I wouldn’t know. She didn’t tell me anything. Probably thought I’d make fun of her or something.”
“You do do that a lot,” Bumble said, but Ryan couldn’t even pay attention to it, let alone the fact Bumble was saying something at all, because ow ow ow his chest.
Damien grinned again. “It’s all in good fun. She’d tease me if I ever felt the same way about someone. Sucks for her that I never will.”
Ryan plastered a smile onto his face. Dare gave him a curious look, but he didn’t meet her gaze. Yay, he wanted to say. I’m glad Harmony is having fun. I hope she enjoys her coffee.
He couldn’t really get any words out of his mouth, though, no matter how hard he tried, and he didn’t try very hard. He was glad that Harmony was having fun. Elated! Overjoyed, in fact! But it stung him in a way he hadn’t entirely been expecting that she was having fun with someone who wasn’t him. Someone who he had known for a long time, really, that she had that kind of connection with.
But it was fine. Totally fine. He’d live.
You should have expected this from the very beginning.
Dare frowned at him, then pricked her ears up. “You know,” she said casually, and Ryan knew she was trying to switch the subject for his sake, “I’m glad I’m back to regular form, but it’s going to be hard to get around now that I’m a lot bigger. Think you could still pass me off as a toy for your brother?” She tilted her head at Ryan, who blinked.
…This new dilemma had not occurred to him until now. He groaned, placing his face in his hands as the life practically drained out of his body. How the hell was she going to get around the city now? She couldn’t fly like Bumble or Pop - not as well or as long, at least - and there was no way in hell he could pretend she was a pet or something.
He felt like he was going through all five stages of grief simultaneously.
“Wish there was some function on the digivice that could help with travel,” Damien said, staring down at his own. “Something like… I dunno, turning them invisible or something. That’s too much to ask for, though, isn’t it.” He sighed, leaning back on his hands, his digivice still clutched in one of them. “We’ll figure something out. Travel by night or whatever.”
“I don’t think that’ll always be possible,” Bumble said, his antennae twitching. “Raidramon appeared during the day. Sooner or later, all of us will be rookie again, and we won’t have a choice.”
“Yeah, but for now, maybe the others who are still in-training can be the ones on duty?” Dare suggested. “If something shows up near us, obviously we should go deal with it, but it’ll be a lot easier for the others to travel further without raising suspicion.”
“We still need to get back to the motel today,” Ryan pointed out. “It’s an hour away. Probably more than that, considering we ran in the exact opposite direction we came from.”
Dare waved him off with a sweep of her tail. “We’ll be fiiiiine. I’ll just sneak around in the shadows. Hide behind garbage cans and all that. Like a criminal!” She grinned over at him.
Ryan stared back at her, then exhaled slowly, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “Great. I’m so excited.”
But she was right. They didn’t really have any other options when it came to traveling in the open - they very well couldn’t sit under this freeway forever, and even when they did get back to the motel, they’d still be on duty to take care of any Digimon that emerged nearby. They’d figure something out, hopefully, but it still wasn’t ideal.
And anyone who saw them would think Dare was one of the monsters. Granted, she was, but it wasn't like she was going to be attacking anyone or committing vandalism. People would just see a talking purple dinosaur and instantly assume she was dangerous.
She is, his brain said, ever-helpful. Maybe not to you, but she is dangerous. Take a look at the Raidramon fight today. She destroyed just as much property as it did, and where’s her remorse? Her guilt?
It would’ve done more damage if she hadn’t done anything, he shot back. He was very aware that he was arguing with himself, but he didn’t care. She’s not a danger to the public. She’s trying to protect them.
Four months ago, if you saw something like her, you’d think she was dangerous.
Ryan sighed internally and tuned it out.
Dare was right. Damien was right. They’d figure it out. Cross - or burn - that bridge when they got to it, or whatever.
Somehow, it didn’t help him feel any better.
The four of them stayed and talked for a bit longer, not wanting to risk leaving while it was still light out just yet. Damien had joked that with it being rush hour and them being underneath a freeway, it probably wouldn’t be safe to leave until after dark, and Ryan had pointed out it was a Saturday and most people wouldn’t be working.
He found that Damien was a lot easier to hold a conversation with than he’d imagined - he realized he’d never truly talked to him one-on-one before. Really, he hadn’t talked to a lot of the group one-on-one, save for Harmony, and considering it had been three months since the start of this whole journey…
Well, he’d never claimed to be the “pinnacle of social interaction”, as Damien had put it, so whatever.
But eventually, sitting in the dark and listening to cars go by overhead grew boring, for both Ryan and Dare. They were restless and hungry; they hadn’t had lunch, so busy dealing with Raidramon as they were, and it was coming on 5 PM.
When he and Dare stood up, ready to go, he offered Damien and Bumble an invitation to come get an early dinner with them. Damien declined, saying he wasn’t hungry yet, and that he wanted to stay behind just a little bit longer. Ryan was a little skeptical, but didn’t protest, simply telling the two of them to be safe and make sure not to stay out too late. Damien sent them off and Dare waved at him and Bumble as she and Ryan made to leave. To Ryan’s surprise, Bumble waved back after a moment of deliberation.
After a few minutes of walking, Ryan sighed, pulling his digivice out and staring at it. “Wish I could use my phone to check and see what’s nearby to eat.” From a few feet away, he heard Dare snicker to himself, and he rolled his eyes.
She was doing a pretty good job of staying out of sight, hiding - indeed - in the shadows and behind garbage cans. There weren’t many people out, so she was mostly free to talk to Ryan even as she hid herself, but there was still some element of… danger? That felt like the wrong word to use, after that weird inner argument he’d had with himself, but it was the only one he could think of. Regardless, Ryan was a little antsy every time she moved too quickly or spoke too loudly, and he had the feeling he’d be dealing with this for many days to come. How the hell have Castor and Alpha been dealing with this all day?
“We should get pizza,” Dare said, keeping her voice low. Currently she was sitting practically inside a bush in someone’s front yard, waiting for Ryan to walk a little further before she dashed ahead to the next one. “I want to see if pizza here is as good as it is in our world.”
“Where do you even get cheese from in your world,” Ryan said. Behind him, he heard a rustling of leaves, and then a crack as Dare stepped on a branch as she moved. “Because here, we have cows and milk, but I don’t think you have either of those.”
“Cheese?” Ryan could practically hear the frown on Dare’s face. “Why would you put cheese on pizza?”
Ryan blinked. “Are you for real? You don’t put cheese on your pizzas? What the hell do you think a pizza is?”
“Dough, sauce, and toppings, duh,” Dare said. “But not cheese. That goes on sandwiches and burgers, not pizza.”
“I’m so grateful that we never went to a pizza place there,” Ryan said, shaking his head. He looked up and around; they were getting close to what looked like a small shopping center, just a couple blocks ahead. Surely they’d have something.
Fortunately, they did: a chain pizza place that Ryan had eaten from once or twice before. It was a bit tricky to get Dare close enough to the shopping center that Ryan didn’t have to worry about abandoning her, but they found a big enough bush in the parking lot that she could hide in as he went in to order. Quinn had been giving everyone an “allowance” each day, as she called it, but had said it was only to be used for necessities. Ryan had to hope that food counted as a necessity - it was necessary for his survival, wasn’t it?
…He didn’t really want to ask for a cheeseless pizza, he realized as he stood in line. That honestly might raise more suspicions than if he had invited Dare in. She could either pick all the cheese off of her portion or learn to eat pizza the way it was meant to be eaten. Hopefully the latter.
When his order was done and he stepped outside, small pizza box in hand, there was a group of people walking across the parking lot, so he didn’t immediately head over to where Dare was hidden, instead looking down at his digivice and acting as if it was his phone. As soon as they were gone, he pocketed the digivice and went to rescue Dare, and the two set off, Dare being careful to go unseen.
It was around six o’clock by this point, but the sky was still light, the sun only just beginning to sink. Of course all of this - meaning, the whole Digimon ordeal - was happening in late spring, and not the dead of winter, when it would be dark at 4 PM and easier to smuggle small monsters throughout the city.
But they were making do, weren’t they? Nobody had seen Dare yet, or if they had, they certainly hadn’t reacted to her. If she wasn’t purple and didn’t have wings and didn’t walk on two legs (i.e., if she wasn’t a Dorumon), Ryan would certainly be able to pass her off as some weird sort of dog. Maybe. That was basically what she was anyway. He wondered if he could get some paint from a store and try to disguise her.
Before long, the two of them (or really just Ryan, since Dare was more focused on hiding than heading in a particular direction) came across a park - the same park that Quinn had fought Grademon in, if Ryan had to guess, based off of the caution tape stretching across the entrance.
Hmm.
He stopped at that entrance, looking over as Dare popped her head out of a bush. “Are we going in?” she asked, tipping her head over at the entrance.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “It’s closed off.”
“When’s that ever stopped us?” Dare said. “There won’t be anybody bothering us. I’ll be able to actually sit next to you and talk to you instead of hiding in a tree or something. Do you really want to avoid me that badly?” She raised her paws to put under her chin, giving him big puppy-dog eyes, and Ryan rolled his eyes.
“Fine,” he said, lifting the tape up and stepping underneath. Dare clapped and disappeared back into the brush, then reappeared a moment later next to Ryan, on the path properly. She grinned up at him and gestured for him to lead the way; he did, and she was hot on his heels.
They emerged into the open clearing a few moments later, and Ryan bit his lip as he took in the damage - or rather, aftermath of the damage? There had definitely been a cleaning crew here, evidenced by the absence of any rubble or debris, and that the benches that had been torn from the ground were removed entirely. Any trees that had been damaged had been reduced to stumps, and a pile of logs sat on one side of the clearing. Ryan tapped his foot against one of the slashes torn in the brick beneath him - one of the only things that hadn’t been cleaned up yet.
“Well, you were right about nobody bothering us,” he said, and Dare beamed. Sighing, he sat down, setting the pizza box on the ground in front of him and opening it up.
Dare was quick to grab a slice - quicker than she even realized what it was. She held it up to her nose, peering down at it, and gave it a sniff. “What is this?”
“It’s cheese,” Ryan said, grabbing a slice of his own. He realized, all too belatedly, that he’d forgotten to get napkins. Shit. “I told you this. We always put cheese on our pizzas. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“Maybe,” she said, looking at it again. She finally shrugged and popped the entire thing - yes, the whole slice - into her mouth and began to chew, looking doubtful for a few seconds, before her eyes went wide and she began to drum her claws on the pavement. “Ish good!”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Ryan said, taking another bite of his pizza. “Do you like it?”
Dare nodded emphatically, reaching forward to grab two more slices before she had even finished her current one. She swallowed and put one into her mouth, then tried to eat the other as well, but Ryan reached over and took it out of her hands before she could.
“You’re going to choke and die,” he said. “I don’t think the Heimlich maneuver would work on Digimon.”
“I’d jush defolf,” she argued, ignoring his advice entirely, and Ryan tipped his head back, since he couldn’t really put his head in his hands at the moment.
At least she’s enjoying it…?
When she was done with that slice, she held her paws out to Ryan, and he gave her the one he’d taken away. This time, fortunately, she took smaller bites. They weren’t small, just smaller than before. She was finished with it in three and a half bites, and she grabbed another one immediately.
“Do you see now why we put cheese on our pizza?” Ryan said to her, half-sarcastically, in the middle of his second slice. “Pizza without cheese isn’t really pizza. It’s just bread with tomato sauce. Sounds fancier, but substantially worse.”
“I do,” she said, nodding again. “Wow, when I go back, I am going to have to visit every restaurant and tell them to start putting cheese on their pizzas. This will change the game. Do you think they’ll give me free pizza for life as a thank you?”
“Wouldn’t hurt to ask,” he said, and Dare grinned.
Dare ended up eating more than her allotted share of pizza, but Ryan didn’t mind. She’d evolved and fought earlier, after all; it made sense she’d be hungrier than him. He was just glad that she had finally learned how to properly enjoy pizza. That was a price he was willing to pay.
They started getting ready to leave a while later, but were interrupted by a call on Ryan’s digivice. He fished it out of his pocket to see it was from Quinn, and he picked up.
“Hey,” she said, sounding a lot more like herself than she had earlier. “Damien called earlier and said you dealt with the Raidramon. Good job.”
“It was nothing,” Dare said. “Been a while since we’ve fought a good ol’ champion level. Honestly, I kinda missed being Dorugamon.”
“You were Dorugamon two days ago when we were running to and from Plutomon,” Ryan said, even though he knew what she really meant. Dare seemed to think so too, simply smiling over at him rather than arguing.
“Well, I’m grateful for it anyway,” Quinn said. “Are you coming back for dinner?”
“We just ate,” Ryan said. “Hope that’s okay.”
“Ryan showed me cheese pizza!” Dare piped up, wagging her tail. “I’m gonna start a cheese pizza business in the Digital World and make millions. I’ll change lives.”
Quinn huffed a laugh. “Good luck in your entrepreneurship. That’s fine, Ryan. I’m glad you ate something. When do you think you’ll be back?”
Ryan looked down at Dare, who shrugged. “Probably within the hour. We just finished eating, but I think we might stay out a bit longer. Been feeling a bit cooped up. We’ll be back before curfew.”
“Noted,” Quinn said. “See you then. Be safe.”
“We will!” Dare called, and Ryan bid his own farewell to Quinn before ending the call. The digivice went silent, and Ryan exhaled through his nose, leaning back where he sat somewhat.
Dare tilted her head at him, her tail curling around her feet. “Change of heart from earlier this morning, huh?”
Ryan looked over at her. “What?”
“About not wanting to do anything today. You were sooooo opposed to going out that I practically had to force you to even leave the room. Now you’re saying you’ve been feeling cooped up. What’s the truth?”
Ah, right. He’d almost forgotten about that. He felt he could be forgiven, considering what his day had been like. Even this morning, he’d admitted to himself that he hadn’t gone out only because he didn’t want to argue with her. He hadn’t wanted to stay in; he’d just been looking for an excuse to. But he hadn’t found one.
Now, he was glad they’d gone out, because they’d dealt with Raidramon, and they’d gotten pizza, but that was only half of it.
“I’ve just noticed it over the past few weeks,” Dare went on when Ryan didn’t reply. “You don’t like staying in just one place. I’ve never figured out why. What was different about this morning?”
“Nothing,” Ryan said, completely honestly, but Dare didn’t seem to understand that. “Really. There wasn’t anything different. I just…” He looked down at the ground for a second. “It’s easier to wallow in my own self-pity than do anything to help myself feel better. You know that about me already.”
“I sure do,” Dare said, her tone dry, and Ryan smiled faintly. “You sure are lucky you have me, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said. He sighed, then averted his gaze, not wanting to meet Dare’s eyes. “I think… I just feel trapped. If I’m in one place for too long, it’s because I don’t have anywhere else to go. Or because it’s the only place I have. I thought I was getting better in the Digital World, but I guess that’s just because I couldn’t go anywhere else. So much for that.”
“Well, now you can go anywhere you want,” Dare said. “Mostly. Maybe don’t go anywhere with a lot of people. I won’t be able to follow you.”
“Why would you even want to?” he said. He meant it as a joke - he knew why Dare would follow him, she was his partner - but she didn’t seem to find it very funny, evidenced by the frown that instantly grew on her face.
“Because you’re my friend,” she said, and Ryan bit his lip. “You’re the only friend I’ve ever had, you know. At least, I think so. My mind’s kinda muddy.” She tapped her interface, and it flickered gently. “I’ve told you before that I never really had anyone else until I found you. Sometimes I get really angry because of that. You know that. But I’m trying to get better, and I think meeting you has helped a lot.” She grinned up at Ryan, her tail puffing out, and he blinked, then dipped his head.
“I don’t know how the hell meeting me could have helped you with anything.”
“Ryan, for fuck’s sake,” she groaned, reaching forward to hold his face in her paws. “You’re my best friend. Sometimes you’re an asshole and sometimes you get too worked up about things and sometimes you yell a bit too loud, but you’re still my best friend. That’s why we’re partners. You make me into the best version of myself possible. I’d like to think I do the same for you.” Suddenly she trailed off, letting go of him and looking down at her feet. “…I don’t think I’d still be here if it wasn’t for you.”
Ryan just stared at her. He didn’t know what to say. He never knew what to say or do in situations like these, when someone was tearing open their chest to show him their heart. What could he do to make it better? To show them that he cared? That he was listening, that he’d always be there for them?
…Without another word, he leaned forward to pull Dare into a hug, just like he’d done all that time ago, the night he’d met her, when they’d learned they were partners. Dare folded into his grasp, curling her tail and wings around his back.
She’ll always have me. And I’ll always have her. Fuck everything Plutomon said.
“I need to breathe,” Dare squeaked, and Ryan let go, unaware that he’d tightened his hold. She took a deep breath in, then smiled up at him. “That’s all. Good talk, yeah? We should probably head back now, it’s getting dark.” She lifted her head to sniff at the air, and Ryan knew she was affecting nonchalance, but he didn’t call her out.
It was actually getting dark - a quick glance at the clock on the digivice revealed it to be a quarter to eight. If they were about an hour away from the motel, and curfew was at nine… yeah, they should get going.
So they did, returning to their sneaky travel methods - or Dare did, at least. Ryan dropped the empty pizza box off in a trash can at the entrance to the park, then cast a glance down at his digivice to figure out where they were in relation to the motel. A small cluster of colored dots indicated it, though he noticed Damien’s yellow marker wasn’t there, nor were Moxie or Harmony’s.
…He tried not to let that bother him.
Orienting himself properly, he set off, looking around quickly to see if there was anyone around. There wasn’t, just a couple of cars going past as the lights changed, and Ryan hurried to continue across the crosswalk lest he get hit and die. He could hear (and vaguely sense, somehow) Dare following him behind; the darker sky made it easier for her to pass unnoticed, though it was pretty easy to spot her if you knew what to look for, and Ryan did.
He kept an eye out for any passerby who might be getting too close for comfort, or any cars that might speed around the corner and smack right into Dare as she tried crossing the street. For the most part, there were few people out, though the roads were full as ever. If anything, the late hour seemed to make them busier; perhaps the fact it was a Saturday evening had something to do with that.
Ryan was lost in his own head as they walked. He’d had a good day, all things considered. Even the Raidramon fight hadn’t been that bad. Sure, there’d been property damage up and down the street, and there was a nonzero chance he and Damien had been caught on camera next to their Digimon, but nobody had gotten hurt. That was the best case scenario, right?
Other than there not being any Digimon at all, of course, but that wasn’t an option.
But… even with having had a good day, dealing with an emergent and talking with Dare and showing her pizza… he still felt a little off. He couldn’t place it, exactly. He didn’t know what it was or where it came from, only where it lay and how it felt - that is, in the pit of his stomach and like something was hollowing him out from the inside.
Maybe it’s the pizza making me sick. Or the fact I haven’t had water in six hours. Or that my leg is flaring up. Or that I can’t talk to Dare right now.
Whatever it was, he tried not to focus on it too much. It wouldn’t do him any good to ruminate over what had left him feeling like this. He just had to get back to the motel and then everything would be fine. He’d be fine.
But that empty feeling in his core was only exacerbated when he heard a set of very heavy footsteps from behind him.
“Found you.”
For a moment, Ryan froze, terrified that someone had seen Dare. He was already preparing explanations and excuses, something to tell them that it was fine, she wasn’t dangerous, please don’t tell anyone you saw her - but when he turned around, raising his hands to try to calm whoever it was down, he saw that it was not a human.
Instead, it was a very, very familiar Digimon, though as always, she was not the same as she had been when he had last seen her.
Meicoomon. Meicrackmon. Whatever she was now.
Dare was at his side in an instant, fur bristling and teeth bared. “What do you want?” she snapped; she clearly also knew who this was, if her reaction was any indication.
The Digimon laughed to herself, loud and hoarse, and then grinned, her white eyes reflecting the streetlamps. “I think you already know.”
She was much larger now; if Meicrackmon had been tall, this new form of hers was twice as much, easily the height of a two-story building. Her chest, forearms, and legs were entirely covered in golden armor, studded here and there with purple gems and accented with black sections. These gems seemed to glow faintly in the darkness, pulsing almost like an incredibly slow heartbeat, and they matched the long floating spines that hovered just above her actual claws, which were likewise made of the same purple gemstone. Her tail and the ruff of fur around her neck had grown, her tail still ending in that wickedly sharp barb, and a pair of fluffy white wings trailed down from her back.
She looked down at the two of them, still grinning, and then held her arms out to the side. “Do you like the new look?” she asked, her voice raspier than ever before. “This is my final form! I never thought I would ever make it to Raguelmon, but he finally helped me reach this stage! Just as he promised!” She cackled again, curling her claws inward. “And now I’m finally going to kill you! Both of you. Sure, I really only need to kill you -” she pointed down at Ryan “- but your partner has been such a pain in my side for so long that I may as well kill two birds with one -”
“
Dare spit her attack at Raguelmon, hitting her square in the abdomen. The metal sphere bounced off with a clang before dissolving, and it obviously didn’t do any damage, but it was enough to stun Raguelmon for just a second - and that was all they needed. Without a word, Ryan and Dare spun on their heels and took off running, not even bothering with subtlety anymore.
Ryan heard Raguelmon yowl behind them, followed by a scraping sound that he could only assume was her claws digging into the road to find purchase as she followed them.
He hissed, looking down at Dare, running beside him. “Tell me why the hell we’re leading a twenty-foot-tall rampaging cat monster through a city full of people?”
“It wasn’t my idea!”
“You provoked her!”
“
There was a crack behind them, and then the sound of asphalt being torn up and thrown around. Maybe. Ryan couldn’t say he’d ever heard what that sounded like, so he could be wrong.
“Goddamnit,” Dare muttered. Ryan was about to ask where the hell she’d learned that expression, but his train of thought was cut off when she halted in her tracks and began to glow purple, leaving Dorugamon in her wake a moment later. “
“That should slow her down,” Dare said as Raguelmon glowered at the two of them, beginning to run after them again. “Hop on.”
Dare didn’t wait for Ryan’s response before bundling him onto her back, and he settled in with a thump, clutching Dare’s mane as she lifted into the air. He chanced a look over his shoulder down at Raguelmon, who looked downright furious at the new development, but had not ceased her pursuit.
“I don’t think it slowed her down at all,” he mumbled, grimacing.
“Better than nothing.” Dare shook her head out, and Ryan dug his fingers deeper into her mane. “I’m going to try to lead her somewhere open so we can fight. We’ll add another parking lot onto our ongoing list of ‘public areas destroyed by Digimon fights’.”
Ryan sighed. “I think our goal should be to avoid adding anything onto that list, but what the hell do I know.”
“Better than any buildings getting destroyed.”
“
“Shit!” Dare spat, and it was quickly apparent why. Shards of purple crystal flew by them, some of them striking Dare and only marginally fewer hitting Ryan. They cut through the back of his shirt and sank into his skin like glass, and he hissed, reaching a hand around to try to pull them out. As soon as he did, they dissipated, leaving a slight burning sensation as they went.
More burn scars, huh, he couldn’t help but think forlornly. It was far from his biggest concern at the moment, but he still wasn’t pleased with it, and he felt he had a right to not be.
Dare suddenly took a sharp turn left, heading down a new street. They were in some sort of commercial district now, but it was difficult to appreciate(?) that due to the fact Raguelmon was still chasing them, still attacking them, and didn’t really care about preserving the surrounding area.
“
Case in point. Dare swooped low to dodge the attack, but a few of the crystals still hit her and Ryan, and they didn’t disappear as quickly as before. Dare growled under her breath, her mane puffing up slightly, and Ryan frowned in concern.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, doing just fine,” Dare said, voice dripping with liquid irony, “absolutely love running from - what was it - a twenty-foot-tall rampaging cat monster while she attacks me and I can’t fight back. Super fun.”
“Again, you provoked her.”
“I’m allowed to complain that she’s attacking me!”
“You can’t run from me forever!” Raguelmon shouted from behind them, sounding much closer than Ryan would have liked. “I’m going to catch you and I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to eat your filthy little human!
There was another possibly-ripping-of-asphalt sound, and Ryan looked back over his shoulder to see that that was exactly what was happening. Raguelmon’s claws - both the natural ones and the longer, floating ones - glowed purple as she tore into the ground, sending chunks of the concrete flying. It looked as if she had been trying to leap up and catch Dare with the attack but had missed, and Ryan was immediately grateful that she was able to fly.
Raguelmon was the opposite of grateful. She cried out in rage as her attack missed, running along practically on all fours in pursuit of them. She couldn’t fly, no, but she did have a ranged attack - and as the gems along her body began to glow brighter, Ryan realized she was about to use it.
“
“Watch out!” he said to Dare, and she didn’t need telling twice. She kept along her current altitude for a few seconds, and as the first crystal shard hit her, she suddenly dove low, soaring just a few feet off the ground. This had two advantages: one, the rest of the attack sailed high above their heads, missing their mark completely, and two, Ryan finally saw the people they were passing by. Dare and Raguelmon were moving too quickly for him to get a good look at any of them or for any of them to react any further than surprise and vague fear.
These two advantages, however, were far outweighed by the disadvantage that quickly became very obvious: they were low enough for Raguelmon to lunge at and grab them, which was exactly what she did.
“Got you!” she giggled as she, Dare, and Ryan tumbled to the ground in the middle of an intersection. Dare yelped and spread her wings wider to slow her fall, and Ryan dug deeper into the fur around her neck, but the impact of Raguelmon grabbing and skidding along the road with them was enough to dislodge him from her back. He fell to the ground unceremoniously; fortunately, Dare had been low enough that he didn’t break any bones as he hit the pavement, though he certainly felt as if he had.
He groaned and pushed himself up, not having the luxury of wasting any time, and turned to face Dare and Raguelmon. Raguelmon had pinned Dare to the ground and was raising one claw above her face, as if preparing to attack, but with a burst of white light, Dare evolved and shoved Raguelmon off.
“
Raguelmon was forced backward a few feet, but seemed no worse for the wear. “Fun!” she shouted, holding her paws together as if she were about to bow. She didn’t. “It’s been a while since it’s been just you and me, one-on-one! Last time you had that Renamon with you, and she wasn’t any fun!”
“I’m not going to be any more fun than her,” Dare growled, creeping backward to get closer to Ryan, likely in case she had to protect him from Raguelmon. Ryan, for his part, dug his digivice out of his pocket and clasped it tightly, as if that would do something. Obviously, it didn’t.
Raguelmon grinned, showing off needle-like teeth. “Oh, I think you’ll be a little more fun! You’re so attached to your partner that I just need to act like I’m going to do something to him and you’ll fight me!
She leapt, claws gleaming, toward Ryan, and he instinctively threw his arms up, as if that would do something. Her eyes were wide, her mouth seemingly perpetually curled into a smile, and even though her words had just implied she wasn’t actually going to attack him, it wasn’t a risk he wanted to take.
Neither did Dare. “
Ryan was almost knocked over from the shockwave generated, only remaining standing by clutching to Dare’s foreleg. She looked down at him to make sure he was okay, then resumed her attention on Raguelmon, eyes narrowing. “I’ve told you before. Don’t you fucking dare hurt my partner.”
Raguelmon giggled, almost like a young child. “Aww, you’re still using that silly word! How cute! Too bad it doesn’t MEAN ANYTHING to me!
It was like a switch had been flipped, just like that. The smile slipped off Raguelmon’s voice, and all the amusement disappeared from her tone, replaced by nothing but pure hatred. Her wings flared wide, beginning to swirl with dark, smoky energy, and then her paws followed suit. She slashed her claws and wings through the air, releasing the smoke almost like a projectile; as it moved, it began to grow and darken, until it surrounded Ryan and Dare entirely and the world around them went pitch black.
Ryan gritted his teeth and pressed himself up against Dare’s side. He heard her growl, tail lashing, and then -
And then it was like a bomb went off, just without it being an actual bomb, because if it had been an actual bomb Ryan would have fucking died. What happened instead was that the dark energy around them seemed to explode, clogging their senses with even more smoke and darkness and washing over their bodies in a rush of heat and pain. Ryan just barely bit back a shout, but Dare didn’t, roaring out in pain even as the smoke faded and they were exposed to the world around them again.
Raguelmon stared at them, still not smiling. She wasn’t emoting much, actually; she just looked down at them with blank eyes, as if waiting for a reaction.
“
Speaking of. There were people nearby watching; a couple cars had stopped in the intersection, none of them moving, even when their lights were green, because the two giant fighting monsters in the middle of the road would make crossing just a bit difficult. A few of the bystanders had clearly emerged from some of those cars, evidenced by how close they were standing to them, as if not wanting to lose their easiest mode of escape.
Most of them were either shouting, running, or filming the events occurring before them, and Ryan cursed under his breath as he realized this.
With Dare still pushing herself back up to her feet, Raguelmon set her sights on Ryan, and he instinctively took a step (or two or five) backward. She made no move to follow him, though she tilted her head at him.
“You know,” she said, voice worryingly neutral, “there have been a couple times I’ve thought I wouldn’t ever fulfill my mission. Not because of you or your ‘partner’, of course. But just because I couldn’t find you. After that fire debacle, I spent days scouring the plains for you, only to then find out you’d moved on to the jungle. So I went there. And then I found out you’d moved on again. Over and over, the process repeating.” She twirled her claw in a circle here, as if to indicate a literal cycle. “And then you came here. To this world. Full of so many humans and so many more lives than in the Digital World. Did you know there’s only around three hundred million Digimon alive right now? And you have seven billion humans. I don’t think that’s fair.”
“What are you even going on about?” Dare grumbled, coming to stand slightly in front of Raguelmon. The cat demon looked at her for a second, then back at Ryan.
“I didn’t think it would be this easy to find you here. But then again, you’ve always been predictable.” She sighed, shaking her head out, and her wings drooped. “I’ve let you slip out of my claws too many times already. But that ends here and now. This is, after all, my final mission.”
Ryan frowned, his fingers tensing around his digivice. Her mission - hadn’t Grademon mentioned something about a mission of her own? Something about crossing over… he was struggling to remember the details, but he was sure there was something there. There had to be.
“What exactly is your mission?” he said to Raguelmon. It was a shot in the dark, for sure, but he had to try something. “It can’t be as simple as just killing us.”
Raguelmon rolled her eyes. “Why not? That’s all he needs from me. You know well I’m going to kill you. Well, all of you, really, but I may as well start here.”
“You’ve failed to kill us every single time you’ve come across us,” Dare said, fur beginning to crackle with an attack, but she didn’t move. “I don’t think this’ll be any different. How hasn’t Plutomon gotten tired of you yet?”
For a moment, Raguelmon frowned, her lip curling slightly, but then she smoothed back down. “It doesn’t matter. He trusts me enough to let me come through and kill you, and that’s all that matters to me. Getting to kill you is just a bonus! Adding some vengeance onto my mission!”
“I don’t think he does,” Dare continued, and Raguelmon frowned again. Ryan had no idea why the hell she hadn’t attacked them yet, but he was grateful for it. “He doesn’t trust you. That’s why he sent you here. You don’t know anything about this world. You’re entirely unprepared for whatever your mission is. We have two mega levels on our side, anyway, so it’s not even a matter of you overpowering us.”
Raguelmon blinked, but Dare wasn’t finished. She lowered her head, her ears flattening against her skull, and spread her wings. “He sent you out here to die because he has no use for you anymore.”
This was complete bullshit. Ryan knew it, and he knew Dare knew it. Obviously Plutomon wasn’t going to send Digimon to their world just for them to die; he wasn’t stupid. Dare was stalling for time, or trying to trip Raguelmon up, or something, but none of what she was saying was true.
But even so, Raguelmon hesitated.
It was only for a second or two, barely enough time to count as a true moment of doubt, but it was something. Raguelmon shook herself out, a smile spreading across her face again. “If that’s so, then it seems like all I have to do to earn his trust back is to complete my mission.
She ignored Dare entirely, aiming instead for Ryan, and though Dare moved to intercept her, she wasn’t quick enough. Raguelmon launched herself at Ryan, her claws slashing through the asphalt so quickly and easily that there was no chance he’d survive if she hit her mark. Fortunately, she didn’t - not entirely. Her attack faded just seconds before she reached him, but she still reached him, and pinned him to the ground with ease.
She raised a paw above his face and grinned. “Well, this feels a little familiar, doesn’t it, Ryan?”
It did. The first time Raguelmon - Meicoomon - had pinned him down like this, all those months ago, had been the first time he’d thought he was going to die since starting this journey.
It hadn’t been the last.
Even now, he still felt like he was going to die. All Raguelmon had to do was slit his neck or stab his heart or hit him with an actual attack for good measure. And sure, some part of him was doubtful that he was going to die here, but wasn’t that exactly what Plutomon had said had gotten the other humans killed? He was their enemy, but Ryan didn’t think he was a liar.
I wonder if I’d be happy if I died right now, he thought, in the split seconds he had left until Raguelmon brought her claws down. I wonder if I’d feel like I’d accomplished anything with my life. If I’d left enough of an impact on the world.
Ryan hadn’t ever been concerned with things like that. He’d never cared about doing anything important enough to give him a sense of peace and relief. It just wasn’t what he spent his time thinking about. But right now, he was.
He didn’t know why. He didn’t know if it mattered or not. He just was.
And then Dare slammed into Raguelmon and shoved her off of Ryan so quickly he felt the wind blow by. He blinked, sitting up properly, to see Dare begin to glow red as she rushed at Raguelmon again. “
“
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done,” Dare seethed, nostrils flaring. “You’ve had so many chances to give up but you just keep going, and you’re going to suffer the consequences for that. No one hurts Ryan. Not on my watch.”
“You are fun,” Raguelmon purred, suddenly unperturbed by her current position. “But you’re in over your head. Not only are you outmatched in level, I’m stronger than I would be naturally. That’s the power he gives us. You’re the one who should have given up and accepted your fate a long time ago. You’re no match for me.”
Ryan got to his feet and strode toward the two Digimon, stopping a safe distance away. “Yes she is,” he said, and Raguelmon’s eyes flicked over to him. One of Dare’s ears twitched, but she didn’t take her gaze off of Raguelmon.
“And pray tell,” Raguelmon said, arching a brow, “why is that?”
Ryan didn’t answer immediately. He looked down at his feet, then at his digivice, and then up at Dare. She still wasn’t looking at him, but she inclined her head ever so slightly in his direction.
He closed his eyes. In his hand, his digivice grew warmer. “Because she has me on her side. Even if you don’t think we’re partners, we are. That’s why we’re going to win.”
His eyes snapped open, and his digivice began to burn against his palm, but he didn’t let go. If anything, he gripped it tighter, feeling the heat wash over his hands and sink into his skin.
“And because this time, I’m going to let her kick your fucking ass.”
Raguelmon smiled. “That’s cute.
She shoved Dare off with a swipe of her claws, sending her skidding down the street, and she was quick to follow her, slashing out and digging her claws deep into her fur. Dare growled, rearing onto her hind legs, but Raguelmon pounced at her and pinned her down to the ground.
“See!” she cried, holding one arm out and keeping the other firmly planted on Dare’s chest. “I told you you have no chance of defeating me!
The smoky energy swirled around Dare, obscuring her from Ryan’s vision, and it exploded and vaporized quicker than it had last time. Dare roared in pain and flared her wings out, and Raguelmon shoved her back down again, placing both paws on her wings to keep them locked on the ground.
But throughout all of this, all of Raguelmon’s attacks on Dare, Ryan’s digivice kept burning. It was like he was holding the sun in his hand. He pushed through the pain, clenched his hands into tighter fists, and yelled out at Dare.
“You’ve got this! Keep going! Show her no mercy!”
And, just like the sun, his digivice began to shine with an otherworldly light - and then it spoke. Ryan faltered for a second, staring down at his digivice with half-lidded eyes as it continued to glow - but it was only a second.
“Final evolution pending. Do you want to proceed?”
“No,” Raguelmon hissed, whipping her head around to stare deep into Ryan’s soul. “No, no, NO! SAY NO!”
Ryan closed his eyes, his hands shaking as he gripped his digivice tighter. For a split second, there was only the sound of sirens in the distance, Raguelmon’s shouting, and Dare’s haggard breathing.
He lifted his chin and met Dare’s gaze. Despite how tired she was, how exhausted she must be from this never-ending nightmare, there was nothing but determination in her eyes.
She blinked once and cracked a smile.
Ryan felt the ghost of a smile forming on his lips too.
“Yes.”
“NO!” Raguelmon roared, abandoning Dare and lunging for Ryan as the light began to die down. “YOU CAN’T!”
“Final evolution engaged,” the digivice said, unfettered by Raguelmon’s protests. “Please do not turn off the digivice while evolution is in progress.”
The digivice began to glow again. Everything fell silent. The world went white.
No mercy.
When Ryan opened his eyes, he was not expecting to find himself in an empty void. That is exactly what he found himself in.
But it wasn’t entirely empty. Aside from the shining glow that seemed to be emanating from a distant horizon, and the small pixelated particles of light that floated around, there was a small puff of fur on the ground in front of him.
Dare - small, in her baby form, he knew, but still Dare - blinked up at him, and he practically fell to his knees, scooping her into his hands.
Neither of them said anything for a long few moments. Ryan was still trying to get his heart rate back under control, and he could faintly feel the pain from the digivice’s heat in his palms. He also didn’t know where they were. Was this always what happened when Digimon evolved to mega? Alex hadn’t said anything about it.
“You know,” he finally said, to break the deepening silence, “maybe I’ve been wrong all my life. Maybe heaven really does exist and this is it.” He snorted and shook his head. “…Who am I kidding. If it was, I certainly wouldn’t end up in it.”
Dare giggled, light and bubbly, and then flicked one of her ears. “I dunno where we are, really. But I think you’d end up in heaven.”
“Thanks,” Ryan said, smiling dryly, and Dare smiled. He sighed, leaning back somewhat and looking around. “…I never imagined this would be possible.”
“What would?”
“This. Us being here. You evolving to mega.” He shook his head. “Not because I don’t think you’re strong enough or whatever. You absolutely are. It’s… I thought it would be me that was the problem.”
“You’re strong too,” Dare said, but Ryan shook his head.
“That’s not it,” he said, his voice painfully hollow. “…Back when we fought Phelesmon, I was still convinced that… that I wouldn’t be able to do this. Any of this. Saving the world and whatever. Even when you evolved to ultimate, that feeling didn’t really go away.” He trailed off, raising a hand to his mouth to bite at his knuckle, and then he sighed. “I guess it’s still here, huh.”
“Well,” Dare said, and he looked back down at her, “that’s okay. It’s a kinda hard thing to believe, but don’t worry. I’ve believed in both of us enough to make up for it.” She grinned again, showing off tiny canine teeth. “You’ve been through so much but you always come out the other side victorious. Just like me. And I think that we always will. Cause we have each other.”
For not the first time that day, Ryan didn’t know what to say. He didn’t think he’d be able to say anything without crying, and he really didn’t want to do that. Dare had believed in him throughout all of this, just as he’d always believed in her. There was something to be said for that, wasn’t there?
She was right. They’d always be okay because they’d always have each other. No matter what Plutomon or Raguelmon or anyone else said.
He smiled down at Dare, a real, genuine smile, not a fake one like he was so used to plastering on his face whenever it was expected of him. He smiled at her and he lifted her higher to hug her closer to his chest and she purred and nestled into his hold, and then he took a deep breath and brought her back down to look at her again.
“You ready to finally show Meicoomon who’s boss?” he asked, and she grinned.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’ve learned mercy. But right now, it’s time to finish this.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Around them, a purple glow began to spread and take over the space. Ryan closed his eyes as it grew toward them, letting it wash over him and Dare and everything else in this strange place.
He smiled again.
“
Ryan blinked, startled by the sudden rush of noise to his ears and darkness to his eyes. He looked over at where Dare was - had been - still was? - shielding his face with a hand as purple light faded away from her and her new form.
She had already evolved, presumably while the two of them had been in that… plane of existence. Raguelmon had backed off, lowering herself to the ground as if preparing to attack or flee, but she didn’t do either.
“Dorugoramon,” his digivice read out, still held in his hand. At least it wasn’t burning him anymore. “Mega level beast dragon Digimon. Because it possesses the potent life force of a legendary beast, it is a mighty avatar of destruction, and is an incarnation of the ‘ultimate enemy’.”
Dare towered high above Raguelmon now, easily forty feet tall. She’d changed significantly; her height was only the beginning of it. For starters, she was fully metalized now, made of silver and purple armor, and was mostly bipedal. Giant clawed feet and hands grasped at the concrete and air, much like the two large wings that erupted from her back and slowly beat the air to keep her aloft. Her typical red interface still sat on her forehead, in between two curved and indented horns. A long, whip-like tail, ending in a classic dragon’s spade, lashed back and forth, and as she exhaled harshly, smoke poured from her nostrils, as if she were burning from the inside out.
In simpler terms, she was tall, spiky, and dangerous, and Ryan was beyond speechless.
She lifted into the air with barely a flap of her wings, and Raguelmon hissed, recoiling. Dare cocked her head, saying nothing - until she did. “
Apparently she didn’t want to waste any time. She lunged down for Raguelmon, claws extended, and though the cat demon tried to jump backward out of the way, she wasn’t able to. Dare slashed out in a frenzy of melee moves, and Raguelmon cried out, shoving her away with a sweep of her tail and wings. The size difference between them made this seem almost comical, but Dare wasn’t deterred, and ended her attack with a blast of red-hot energy from her mouth. It hit Raguelmon square in the face, and she howled, trying to wipe it away with her paws.
“This doesn’t change ANYTHING!” she shouted, flexing her claws. “
As the crystals hit Dare, Ryan winced, feeling… something strike him. He frowned, looking down at his arms and legs and holding a hand to his chest. Small pinpricks of pain went up from his body whenever the shards hit Dare. …Went up from his body in the exact same spots that Dare was getting hit.
Hmm. Interesting. Wasn’t expecting to share pain with my soulmate from another world, but whatever.
“
Raguelmon wasn’t done. She whirled around, staring directly at Dare, and growled low in her throat. “I’m getting SICK of you! Every time I find you you’re somehow evenly matched against me! This isn’t what he said it would be like! Why can’t this just be EASY?!
Raguelmon flung herself into the air at Dare, claws glowing, and she dug them into one of her legs. (Ryan felt a pang in his own leg.) Dare shook her off and glowered down at her, spreading her wings wide.
“Nothing in this life is ever easy,” she said, voice steady. “Expecting it to be just makes it harder. And you’ve always thought things should be easy. That’s why you keep failing.”
One of Raguelmon’s eyes twitched, but she didn’t get the chance to retaliate, either verbally or physically. Dare crossed her arms across her chest, curling into herself slightly, and in the air around her, fiery energy began to spark. She opened her mouth and roared, the sound hollow with nothing to echo off of, and then she looked back down at Raguelmon.
“
She dove downward, arms and wings spread wide, and crashed directly into Raguelmon. The energy surrounding her exploded, sending wind and a heavy shockwave in all directions. Ryan’s legs were knocked out from under him from the force of it, and he fell over, bracing himself with one hand (the one holding his digivice, oops) as it subsided.
When it was over, he looked up at the two Digimon. Dare stood tall over Raguelmon, breathing heavily and primed to attack again if need be; Raguelmon lay on the ground, unmoving save for the faint twitching of her tail.
She looked up at Dare with a grin. “Congratulations,” she said, her voice haggard. “You’ve come a long way. Your strength is something to be admired. But even though you may have won this battle, you won’t win the war.”
“I don’t care,” Dare growled, venting more smoke through her nostrils. “I’m not going to listen to someone I’ve defeated time and time again.”
Raguelmon rolled her head back, resting it on the concrete beneath her. “That’s your prerogative.” She sighed, clenching her claws into fists. “Whether you believe it or not, it’s true.”
She didn’t make any move to get up. Ryan glanced up at Dare, and she finally met his gaze, her golden eyes softening as they locked onto his. Wordlessly, he nodded, and Dare returned the gesture before resuming her focus on Raguelmon.
“
Dare devolved immediately, consumed by a purple glow and shrinking until she was Dorumon again. She shook herself out and blinked up at Ryan, crossing over to him, and -
And then the sirens that had been so distant throughout everything suddenly got so much louder, and Ryan flinched, looking around to see that the first police cars had arrived on the scene. He rolled his eyes. Just in time.
Regardless. Ryan and Dare shared a look, and then took off running before any of the officers could notice them. Even though his body ached and his ears were still ringing, Ryan didn’t slow until they were safely far enough away, and he didn’t look back.
He and Dare were both silent as they headed back to the motel, but they didn’t need to say anything to know exactly what was on each other’s minds.
…Mostly.
“Think you could evolve again to give me a ride back? My legs hurt like a bitch.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine.”