Hello everyone, Asher here. I know it's been a very long time and yes I've been indulging myself with work (mostly overtime) and been playing PSO2 and Fate Grand Order (Oh just cleared Digimon Cyber Sleuth game, pretty fun though) and some outings/ part time job.
Although there are several chapters drafted, but...you know how life goes.
Ahem, I don't wanna nag/brag so much about life, this is fanfiction not twitter/facebook.
But anyway, looks like there's some critics although I didn't read all reviews as I focus more on views/follow/favourite. For those trying to help with constructive cristics advise thanks, but I'm not changing my ways because it will ruin my future plan and betray any readers who like my style, but I'll take into consideration if I'm facing a wall.
If this story or my style doesn't make sense for you readers, I can't help you with that, it just not your cup of tea and no one to blame for that. Why Digimon cannot appear in Gundam? Why not? Nobody else doing that so why not? Imagination is limitless. If still insist, I just ignore and move on.
Well, that's all, as I'm not naive to change people way of thinking or forcing people to accept my way.
As usual, I didn't own anything except my OC.
Cheers.
Chp 13: The unexpected exposure.
"It's so hot…..of all the places on Earth, why did we have to land in a damn desert?!" Asher whined with his head on the workbench as he still had not yet fully recovered from the atmospheric heat that almost burned him alive after stopping Kuwagamon. The fact that any damage or any effect onto his Gundam will be experienced later on his physical body doesn't help him feel even better with a standing fan with full speed blowing at him. "Couldn't we have landed on a beach or north pole or something?"
"That's what you're worried about? Not that we're smack dab in the middle of ZAFT territory?" Mu deadpanned.
"Well there was that too, but at least we can shoot them till they go away," Asher said. "This heat? Not so much…"
"...the sad part...that's actually a good point…" Mu sighed, his face soon buried in his palm. "By the way, how are the Archangel's repairs coming along?"
"According to the old man, repairs are going smoothly. If nothing goes wrong we can get out of this damn desert in a few hours. But our supplies are getting thin, so it'd be best if we could stock up before heading to Alaska." Asher said.
"Well, that's good news. I heard there's a new weapon or something from the 8th fleet, the Skygrasper was it?" Mu asked
"Ah, it's the new atmospheric battle fighter jet. We already made preparation on one of them and it's combat worthy now since Lieutenant Mu can't use the Moebius Zero on Earth, right?" Asher said.
"Huh," Mu blinked. "Well, good work. With where we are, we'll probably need it real soon."
"I hope not. I prefer not going out to fight under that heat, I still haven't completely cooled down from last fight, sigh." Asher said softly.
"Huh? Last fight?" Mu asked as if he heard correctly.
"Eh? Ah, no it's nothing! Just that it's still hot from that atmospheric entry right? Plus this desert heat as well, isn't it hot, Lieutenant?" Asher said frantically.
"Er….I guess?" Mu replied
"Then, I think I better cool myself for some drink in mess hall or I'll get heatstroke! Excuse me!" Asher said as he quickly runs towards the mess hall leaving the confused Mobile Armour pilot trying to processed what's going on recently.
"And here I thought he won't get any weirder before. That guy really is a handful at times," Mu sighed as he scratched his head.
Asher walked into the mess hall with a sigh. That had been far too close for comfort in his opinion. He was just glad he'd had that slip of tongue around Mu rather than someone else. Taking a drink from the dispenser, he turned around...and noticed Kira's friends were there. "...when did you guys get here?" he blinked.
"Er...you kinda walked past us even when we tried talking to you," Kuzzey said, scratching the back of his head. An awkward silence descended at that before Asher decided to try and break it up.
"So...you guys all decided to stay too?" Asher asked.
"Yeah, we did," Tolle nodded.
"Mind if I ask why?" Asher asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad you guys stayed, but why did you want to stay?"
"Well...to be honest, we were about to leave…" Miriallia started. "But then we started thinking...that Kira has done a lot to keep us safe. So we decided to stay and wanted to help out too. We can't just leave Kira alone if he wanted to stay."
"But in the end, we all together in this ship. Well, not that it's a bad thing." Tolle said
"I hope you guys know that we're practically an official soldier if we decided to stay," Asher said
"And how about you, Asher? I mean, yeah we're friends but we've only just met….um you know what I mean, right?" Sai asked.
"Well, I got my own personal reason to stay. Suffice to say, I'm not one to leave things half done," he said...before adding, "Come to think of it, is Allster here as well?" Asher asked Sai.
"No, she went with her father. Although I was supposed to follow them, but I decided to stay on the Archangel, same reason as them though." Sai said. "Just leaving after everything...it didn't seem right to me either. So I decided to stay," he said. "To be honest, Flay was even thinking of enlisting too but I managed to talk her out of it."
Everyone looked at him for a moment...before deciding not to say anything about it. "Good call…" Asher couldn't help but say, though he felt a sweat drop at the back of his head. The image of Flay Allster 'serving her country' so to speak...it wasn't working in his head.
"By the way, where's Kira? Isn't he with you?" Asher asked
"Oh, he's in his room resting. That last battle really took a toll on him, so we thought we'd get him some food or something." Tolle said
"I see, is he alright?" Asher asked
"Fatigue I guess, at least he didn't suffer any injuries," Tolle replied.
"At least that monster was taken care of. Without that Omni Gundam, we might all be dead now." Kuzey said
"Yeah, that was scary." Miriallia nodded in agreement
"By the way, did you know that Omni Gundam just called Kira by his name? I wonder if they met before?" Sai asked
Asher back steps a little, 'Oh man, not again...' he mentally groaned at ANOTHER slip of his tongue. If he kept this up, he could kiss his secret identity goodbye real soon. "Ah, hey! Are you taking some food to Kira right? He must be hungry, I'll go pick it up and give it to him!" Asher said as he went to the counter and ordered some food.
"Woah, slow down dude. We can carry his food later besides he's-"
"I insist!" Asher said, giving a glare that stunned the group, to which they wisely decided that it was best not to test their luck when Asher is giving that look. In no time, the food is ready on the tray and Asher quickly took it and headed out for the mess hall.
"What just happened?" Sai asked
"No idea, hahaha." Tolle said as he sheepishly laughs.
Asher continued to walk faster until Kira's room was in sight, his mind still in panic mode until he ended up forgetting his manners, and promptly barged in without knocking on the door. Although he wondered why Kira didn't lock the door.
When he got in, he was treated to the sight of Kira scrambling, no doubt surprised with the sudden intrusion. However, what REALLY caught his attention was something that had fallen. "Yo, Kira," he said, trying to sound normal. "I heard you were resting after that fight so I thought I'd bring your meal," he said. "By the way, what's that you got there?" he asked, pointing at the thing by the bed.
"Oh, ah, this is just a doll I found back in Junius Seven," Kira quickly said, looking strangely nervous for some reason. But when he moved to pick up the 'doll', Asher saw why. It was a dinosaur with bone white scales, a horn on its snout...and a red cape/scarf that looked like it had goggles on it. Most people wouldn't think anything of it.
However, Asher knew exactly what it was, seeing as it was a character made to celebrate an anniversary. It was a Huckmon. Kira had quickly put it on the bed, the Digimon remaining motionless in an attempt to act like a doll. However, when Asher idly looked towards the desk, what he saw next made his inner fanboy nearly have a fangasm. There, on the table was an odd device. While the design wasn't like anything he'd seen before, he could recognize a version of the Digivice when he sees one.
"Doll, huh? Well, it looks nice. Sorry for barging in on you like that, but...here's your food," Asher said, trying VERY hard to maintain his composure, and quickly set the food on the table. "Well, see ya later," he said quickly and left the room.
"Ah! Asher-" Kira started, but the door was already closed. "Wait?" he blinked, wondering what the hell that was about.
Asher on the other hand quickly ran to his room, locked the door, then took his pillow and proceeded to squee into it. "I can't believe it! Kira has a Huckmon! What's more, he has a Digivice, which means he's a Chosen Child! This is AWESOME!" Asher shouted as he threw his pillow up in the air and caught it just to squeeze it tightly.
"That answers how the Strike was able to use that Teen Blade that time, Kira must be placing his Huckmon inside the Strike's system somehow. Speaking of which, how did the Kuwagmon be inside of Duel in the first place?" Asher asked himself as he remembered the conversation with Nanomon before.
[Flashback]
"Hey Nanomon, I've come to visit you!" Asher said as he entered Nanomon's lab called the Nano lab, a lazy example of naming sense in Asher's opinion.
"You mean you're here to check on Kuwagamon's Digicore, right? Get your facts straight!" Nanomon said
"Jeez, just because I'm here regarding Kuwagamon doesn't mean I'm not visiting you." Asher sighed as his shoulders dropped slightly.
"Whatever," Nanomon huffed. "The Digicore is stable now. It will take some time to repair and restore its body frame to normal ." Nanomon said
"Won't it revert to a Digitama?" Asher asked
"That only happens if it was deleted and sent to the Datastream to be reborn. The Datastream is a flow of data where we Digimon, or rather, our core data, come from. You could say it is the equivalent of heaven or wherever our souls go to rest in peace and/or to be reborn." Nanomon said.
"Oh? I didn't know there's something like that exist." Asher was surprised at this new information.
"But what puzzles me is that when a Digimon gets deleted, if their Digicore is still intact, normally it will be sent into the Datastream," Nanomon said
"Eh? What do you mean?" Asker asked
"What I mean is that the Kuwagamon's Digicore should be in Datastream by now since its body data was deleted, but it seems there's an unexpected phenomenon happened," Nanomon said as he turned around facing Asher.
"And the main reason is YOU!" Nanomon said as he pointed a finger at the boy.
"Eh? Me?" Asher point himself.
"Of course! Who else would it be?! It seems that light of yours prevented the deletion process, hence why Kuwagamon's Digicore is still here instead of the Datastream. What's more, it's slowly self-repairing its body data to its former form." Nanomon said
"I don't really quite understand," Asher said as he scratched his head,
"Grrr….WHAT I mean is that for some reason YOU, instead of deleting it, somehow managed to reformat Kuwagamon's body data from the Digicore and the Digicore is self-repairing its body data to return to its original form! Get it?! Nanomon said
"I see, so Kuwagamon will be back to normal instead of returning to Datastream to be reborn because it's not dead. You should have said that from the beginning, Nanomon." Asher said
"I HAD stated it very clearly! Get some nutrition to develop more brain cells for Fanglongmon's sake!" Nanomon said
"By the way, did you find anything about that dark chip?" Asher said as he didn't hear Nanomon words about developing brain cell.
"Well, nothing to study since it's being destroyed. But based on the visual image, I had never seen anything like it before but it's without a doubt it was made from Digizoid metal." Nanomon said
"Digizoid metal? Then, it was created by Digimon?" Asker asked
"Yeah, but we don't know who, where or how they made it. Let's just say we're not the only Digimon in this world, boy." Nanomon said
"Then there's a mastermind behind all this…" Asher said
"That's correct, I will investigate the dark chip as much as I can. Maybe when Kuwagamon is fully recovered we can ask if he remembers anything, I think it will be best if you start investigating in your world as well. After all, you seem to have good skills in collecting information and investigation. We won't know when another attack like that will happen again." Nanomon said
[Flashback end]
"If there's really a mastermind behind Kuwagamon case, then this is more serious than I thought. Best I'll find as much information as I can, but the Archangel won't be able to provide much and I need to find clues or I won't able to find anything." Asher said
Suddenly something had hit the Archangel, the ship was shaking from the tremors and the Archangel instantly activated its alarm. 'Sigh, I guess I can get used to this already. Better get back to the hangar quick and be ready myself." Asher said as he hopped off from his bed and quickly headed towards the hangar as the Archangel had entered battle status.
"Where had you been?!" Murdoch said as he saw Asher coming his way.
"Chilling myself from the heat! Is ZAFT attacking us now?" Asher asked
"Yeah, you go to the Strike, I'll handle the Skygrasper check up," Murdoch said
"On it." Asher quickly runs towards where Strike is and saw Kira was ready to enter the cockpit. He also saw Kira was holding something, unintentionally his eyes suddenly glowed with a stream of data on his iris as he zooms in he saw it was the Digivice he saw in Kira's room.
"Sorry for the wait! Feeling better now, Kira?" Asher asked as he stopped on the control panel stationed in front of the Strike.
"Asher? What are you doing here?" Kira asked as Asher noticed Kira quickly placed the Digivice somewhere inside the cockpit.
'Oh? So the cockpit had a slot for inserting the Digivice? Must be that Digivice's work.' Asher thought.
"Oh, you know, the old man is making final preparation & checking on Lt. Mu's Skygrasper, so I'm your so called mechanic now, hehe," Asher said as he got into the control panel that was located in the hangar. Normally controls were handled by the bridge, but just in case, the hangar had a secondary set of controls just in case. Starting up the system, he began his work checking the status of the Strike.
"Alright, all systems nominal. Status all green, irregular bugs all clear, fixed armaments all functioning normally, Striker packs are ready to deploy. As we're in a desert, I suggest you use the Aile Striker pack for maneuverability." Asher said as he pressed the communicator.
"Eh? I was just planning to use the Launcher pack to hold my ground." Kira said
"Well, it's your choice. But remember, we're pretty much in enemy territory and as far as I know, ZAFT might use ground speciality Mobile Suits that are different from GINN as we're no longer in space and not to mention the gravity here. If the enemy has the advantage on the ground, I'm afraid that Launcher won't do any good." Asher said
Kira went silent for a moment, 'If what Asher said is true that ZAFT will use ground speciality Mobile Suits, Launcher Strike won't be able to cut it!' Kira thought
"Got it! Kira, look at your Strike database! It should have a data library of ZAFT mobile suits the Earth Alliance collected in the past till now! And I had to say it's a tough one, especially in the desert." Asher said
Before Kira wanted to access it, Huckmon had already found the data and displayed it on the monitor. Kira quickly read through all the information and realised that the dog-like Mobile Suits called Bucue are extremely fast while on the ground.
"I see, thank you, Asher! This helps a lot." Kira said as he looked at the monitor showing Asher's face.
"No worries, just do what I can to help out. So I take it you want the Aile Striker?" Asher grin in the monitor.
"You already know the answer after showing me this." Kira pouted
"Who knows if you wanted to play Duck Hunt or was it Dog Hunt on those running dogs or you wanna play catch with your Sword Strike boomer-" Asher was starting to laugh but...
"Asher, just give me the Aile Pack already, please?!" Kira actually shouted. This was NOT the time for one of Asher's jokes.
"Gah! Aye aye, captain!" Asher fumbled in surprise. Fortunately, he managed to input the right commands, and the Aile Strike was quickly assembled. "There you go, with this maybe you can ride on those Bucue if you're lucky?" Asher said as he shrugs his shoulder.
"Ahahahaha…." Kira just laughs sheepishly as the image of Strike riding on Bucue seems…..too unreal to happen.
"Too bad it wasn't a horse though, could make a good ride," Asher said as he nodded himself while his arms crossed on his chest and closed his eyes.
"Erm, Kira Yamato, Launching!" Kira said quickly, the Strike launching as fast as it could, as he...didn't think he could handle Asher's weird moments anymore while the ZAFT are attacking.
"Well, he's helpful but he's weird as usual," Huckmon said
"I think I have to agree on that Huckmon." Kira said as Huckmon set up his position inside the Strike's systems. The Strike soon landed in the sand...and the very first issue immediately presented itself, when the Strike's leg sank into the sand.
"Seriously? We haven't started fighting for 2 minutes and we're already having a problem?" Huckmon asked incredulously.
"Aw man, talk about bad luck," Asher said as he smacks his forehead. "I thought that Kira had done some adjustment on the balancer. I'm so screwed if old man found out about this."
"I have to help him out now, at this rate Kira will be dog food," Asher said as he looked around that nobody is paying attention to him. He raised his right hand on the monitor and jack himself into the system.
Inside the cyberspace somewhere in the Archangel, Asher digitized himself from a beam of light as he landed on the floor. "Now then," Asher said as his Digivice materialised on his right hand. "Let's go, Omni Gundam."
However, instead of the usual, Asher suddenly yelped in pain as he dropped his Digivice and Asher hugged himself while he dropped to his knees as the pain started travelling through his body. His body begins flickered with static and small sparks was formed around him.
'W-What's going on? My body-Argh!" Asher screams in pain as he dropped himself on the floor, rolled to his right side as he still hugged himself from the pain. "It's as if my body is going to split up!"
"Asher? Oh Fanglongmon, what happened to you?" Asher can hear Elecmon's voice.
"I don't know, my body is in pain all of a sudden," Asher said
"Hang on! I'll call Nanomon right now." Elecmon said as he hacked the Archangel's system and contacted Nanomon.
Asher noticed his vision started to gone black as he tried to keep his eyes open, but his body didn't listen to him. 'Crap, this isn't good. Kira, I'm sorry. You're on your own for now.' Asher thought before he passed out, unknowingly that Elecmon screamed his name right after that.
The Strike fired rather wildly, trying to hit the BCUE. Sure it got a few lucky hits, but for the most part, the BCUEs were running circles around them. "Careful on the power levels, Huckmon! If we lose the Phase Shift, they'll bombard us with missiles!" Kira warned.
"I know, but this is the best I can manage so far! How's the recalibration coming along?" Huckmon responded.
"Just a sec. I'll have it done...now!" Kira said, finishing the last adjustments. The balancer on the Strike's legs had been adjusted properly to suit the environment, and Kira moved the Strike accelerator to the max to ascending his machine into the sky, barely dodge BCUE's beam saber on its mouth.
"That was close, Kira. Any longer and we'd have been dog food." Huckmon said
"Yeah, let's counter-attack, Huckmon! We have to protect the Archangel!" Kira said
"Got it! Leave the aiming to me!" Huckmon said as he accessed to the Strike's Firing Control Systems with the said Mobile Suits eyes glowed while take aimed with its beam rifle at the incoming BCUEs
Meanwhile, inside of the Archangel's system. Asher was currently lying on a bed in the Digimon village.
Asher squirmed for a while before he slowly opened his eyes, trying to wake himself.
"Urgh…..Where am I?" Asher said tiredly.
"Oh, Asher? You're awake!" Asher heard a voice as he turns to the source of it and saw Elecmon beside him.
"Huh? Elecmon? What happened to me?" Asher said as he gets up, as he pressed his forehead with his right hand after he felt a throbbing in his head.
"You're in Nanomon's lab right now. By the way, what happen to you? I found you collapsed in cyberspace all of a sudden when I was surveying the area." Elecmon asked
"I don't know, I suddenly felt pain all around my body when I tried to transform into the Omni Gundam as if my limbs were being torn apart," Asher said
"Then I shall answer that question, Elecmon." Both Asher & Elecmon turned to see Nanomon entered the room with a datapad on his hand. "Let me ask a question, did you pass out when you tried transforming into this 'Omni Gundam' of yours?" Nanomon ask
"Yeah…" Asher said
"Hm….then if my hypothesis is correct. I'd say that your body or the 'Omni Gundam' of yours has finally reached its limit. Besides, you still haven't fully recovered from that last battle with Kuwagamon, especially the atmospheric heat you experienced." Nanomon said
"But Asher seems fine," Elecmon said
"Idiot. Even if he looks fine, his body is not. He's lucky that his data was able to stay in one piece. It was reckless for him to turn into particles with that gravitational pull and the heat of re-entry. If anything had happened, his data could have been deleted or in your case, that could have reduced you to an amputee...if he's lucky," Nanomon continued and turned to Asher.
"Well, at least since you're currently made up of data, or at least partial data, it'll be easy to examine you. Though I'm curious how it's even possible for you to enter cyberspace or more importantly how did you get urself a semi data-physical body? From what I know, humans in this world don't have that kind of technology or knowledge about sending the human body into cyberspace yet," Nanomon mused, but before Asher could reply, he continued, "Well, not like it's anything I need to know right now. Get some rest, boy. You won't be any good if you end up deleting yourself." Nanomon said almost flippantly.
"But Kira is fighting outside alone, I have to help him- urgh!" Asher said as he pressed his chest when he felt a sudden ache as his body developed some sparks around him.
"Settle down, boy. Don't make me force you and besides I'm sure they can hold out on their own for now. Not to mention I doubt with the help of a Digimon that friend of yours will be deleted that easily." Nanomon added.
"W-Wait, you knew Kira had a Digimon?!" Asher asked
"Pffft, of course, I did! We've already known that for a while, and of course, I made the first discovery. You're talking to the genius Nanomon here! Although, I can't believe it took you so long to notice." Nanomon said
"You knew this as well?" Asher turns his gaze on Elecmon.
"Yup, I thought you already know before. So yeah…." Elecmon said as he scratches his head
"Okay...then does the Huckmon know about...this?" he asked, gesturing around, referring to the island as a whole.
"Of course not, since all it does is stay in its Digivice, your friend's room or that robotic bird." Nanomon reply. "Besides, it's best that Huckmon doesn't know anything about us seeing that he's not the type to keep a serious matter a secret from his partner. It could make things complicated," Nanomon said
"I guess you're right. If the military acknowledged the existence of Digimon, it would bring more trouble for all sides. Digimon will be either captured for study or eliminated because of Kuwagamon's display." Asher said
"That's right. Although, if that Huckmon knows about us, no doubt that it will be a great help for us. But you know what I mean." Nanomon said
"Ah, for now, we keep watching over them. Well, I think Kira should be able to handle the ZAFT forces one way or another. I'm just worried if another case like Kuwagamon happens again," Asher said with a sigh.
"Well, so far there's no reading like before. So take this time to relax. Besides, the crew thinks that you're dead anyway." Nanomon said
"Huh?! What the hell?" Asher said
"Well, Nanomon is correct. I mean, in that devastating moment and the way you talked to your friend as if it were some kind of last will. You really painted the image of someone about to die," Elecmon said
"I'm-I'm so speechless that I don't know what to say," Asher said as he covered his face with his palm.
"Then take a rest or whatever, I need to check on Kuwagamon's Digicore. Make sure he stays in bed, Elecmon. If he tries anything, shock him up." Nanomon said as he exited.
"Scary…" Asher sweat dropped. "Is Nanomon a ruthless doctor or what?" Asher asked Elecmon
"Hm, well he's always grumpy like that. But when I contacted him about you being unconscious, he quickly rushed to the scene and examined you without delay. I say he's worried about you but not showing it openly." Elecmon said
"So a tsundere Nanomon? That's a first." Asher said
"What's that supposed to mean?" Elecmon asked
"Nah, best you don't know. And don't you ever tell him about this." Asher chuckled...right as he remembered what last happened. "The fight! What happened to the fight?!" Asher gasped.
"It's still going on," Elecmon said. As if on cue, the room shook, no doubt thanks to some damage the Archangel sustained.
"Dammit!" Asher grunted, getting out of bed.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Elecmon asked
"Trying to gain access to see what's going on outside," Asher said as he raised his right hand, accessing the Archangel system.
"Didn't you hear what Nanomon said? You need to rest or I have to shock you!" Elecmon said
"Calm down, I'm not leaving the room yet," Asher said as the monitor displayed had shown the battle feed from the Archangel's camera.
"Seems like Kira and Huckmon are managing to hold their own against the BCUEs," he sighed. But that didn't fill him with much confidence. He may act silly, but he'd read up on files concerning ZAFT, and he knew full well who was in charge of this area. And he didn't like knowing his friend was going up against them practically alone.
"If only there was a way to help against that BCUE and those missiles bombardments….huh?" Asher saw in the live battle feed that some of the missiles had been destroyed before making contact. However, he noticed that it was not shot down by the Strike or the Archangel.
"Am I seeing things or did those missiles exploded on their own?" Asher asked himself as his eyes started to glow knowing that his enhanced sight had been activated until he saw a blur with a humanoid frame seemingly attacking the missiles. "Whatever it is, it's too fast for my eyes to catch up."
"Then why not slow it down?" Elecmon suggested. Ever since meeting Asher and learning about what he could do, he'd started paying more attention whenever Nanomon went off on his tech explanations, so he understood how machinery like this worked a bit better.
"Hm, hang on. First of all, replay the footage and right…...here. Now then capture that blurred image and begin to appraise the image." Asher said as he moves his hands on the hologram panel.
"And finally getting rid of the pixels and we should be able to get a clearer picture," Asher said as the image begin to show clearly, Elecmon was watching with anticipation as well, curious about what the image reveal is making both of their jaws dropped.
"Eh?!" Both Asher and Elecmon screamed.
"Kira, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Strike's getting low on power!" Huckmon warned. He was doing everything he could to optimize the power usage, but even that can only stretch the power source for so long...
"Tch! And these guys aren't letting up!" Kira growled as the BCUE continued to run circles around them, all the while pelting them with missiles every now and then. At the same time, they were attacking the Archangel too. But fortunately, it seemed they were able to defend themselves well enough for the most part, especially after Mu launched with the Skygrasper. However, slowly but surely they were being worn down. They all were. As if to emphasize that point, several missiles broke through their guard, and hit the Strike, sending it to its knees.
"We can't take much more of this!" Huckmon warned. He really wished he could evolve, but as it was, he really had no idea how he did it the first time. "Dammit…!" he growled under his breath, hating the fact that as a Child-level Digimon, this was all he could do.
Fortunately, the situation soon took a turn when a new voice suddenly entered the fray, signalled by a missile destroying one of the helicopters flying around and peppering them with shots.
"What the-?!" Kira and Huckmon gasped, turning to the source of the missile, and saw what looked like several Jeeps headed their way. At the same time, while all attention was focused on the jeeps, the remaining helicopters suddenly exploded, creating a great deal of confusion in the battle field. At the same time, the jeeps began opening fire on the BCUE, launching bullets and missiles. Along the way, one jeep had used the confusion to get close to the strike, one of the passengers shooting a communication cable at the Strike.
"Attention, the pilot of this mobile suit. Listen to me!" the voice said, catching Kira and Huckmon's attention. "If you don't want to die, do exactly as I say!" at the words, a map appeared on their screen, marking an area not too far away. "There is a trap set at the indicated area. Lure the BCUEs there!"
"Are these...a Resistance?" Murrue asked in surprise, as the voice's commands had been transferred to their comms as well.
Back in the Strike, Kira looked at the situation, not fully sure what to do. "What do you think, Huckmon?"
"Could be a trap, but as it is, we stand a much better chance going for this!" Huckmon said, before the two of them nodded in agreement, the Strike quickly flying towards the designated area. Seeing the mobile suit fly, the BCUEs quickly chased after it. They soon made it to the area, landing on the ground. The BCUE wasted no time, and like the wolves they seemed to be based on, were ready to pounce on the Strike...only for the Strike to dodge at the last minute, the BCUE landing in the designated area... and were promptly destroyed when a set of explosives created a quick sand like effect, followed by a second massive explosion that ensured they wouldn't be walking away from this.
Kira and Huckmon watched the explosion as they flew away, slightly slack jawed. "Huckmon?"
"Yeah?"
"Good call."
"Anytime buddy."
Likewise, the crew of the Archangel were looking at the carnage in shocked surprise. Same with the 'residents'
"Well, I did NOT expect THAT would happen," Elecmon said
"Ahahaha, I guess so," Asher said as he can't find a right word to described what just happened. As he's still troubled about the identity of the mysterious shadow. "I better get back soon, since the battle is over, the old man is going to notice I'm not around anytime soon. Tell Nanomon that I say 'thanks for saving'." Asher said as he gets out of the bed, leaving Elecmon protest that he still needs some rest and headed to the exit so that he could return to the real world.
As Asher had logged out from the cyberspace, thankfully he's in his own room this time. He mentally notes that he needs to find a proper path when returning back from cyberspace. Before he left the room, he accessed the Archangel camera footage and hack it so edit some footage he secretly 'Connect Jump' or 'Logged out'. Thankfully, the corridor towards his room is a blindspot for the camera and he thanked whoever architecture it by unnoticed mistake.
"And now that's done, better head to the hangar quick. I got around 30 seconds before the decoy program I created to show empty hallway runs out." Asher said as he quickly dashed out of his room and headed towards the hangar.
Luckily, that his room was nearby the hangar area that he reached in time. Sometimes he arrived early before the timer runs out, so he manually turned it off from one of the consoles. 'I'm so lucky that I learn some hacking skills secretly, really comes in handy for me in this situation. Gonna thank mom & dad's secret notebook and the internet,' Asher thought.
As he finished, he heard the humming sound of a jet approaching and saw the Skygrasper return to the hangar. He saw his fellow maintenance crew quickly going over to it and do their thing, then Asher noticed that the Strike hadn't returned yet.
"Welcome back, Lt. Mu. Where's Kira?" Asher asked Mu after he got off the Skygrasper and took a drink to rehydrate.
"I saw the Strike was with the local resistance, doesn't seem like the Strike has enough power left to move around after that battle. I'm planning to head out to pick him up and have a meeting with the local resistance, I doubt they'd help us without any reason." Mu said
"Can I come as well? I mean I can look at the Strike's status if Kira is tired or something like that." Asher said
"Well, I don't mind. We're going by jeep anyway, you're really worried about Kira aren't you?" Mu asked
"That's what friends are for." Asher replied, 'True, I'm worried about Kira as I can't help him before. Although, I'm more curious about our mysterious shadow. I wonder if it's working with someone or acting alone?' Asher thought.
"The jeeps ready. I got a call that we're waiting for Captain Murrue and Ensign Badriguel. We probably might need to make some deal with the local resistance for supplies if it goes right." Mu said
"I see, a joy ride with the ship captain, a fighter pilot and the death glare Ensign whenever she looks at me. This is going to be a fun ride." Asher said
"Come on, I don't think Ensign Badgiruel hates you or anything," Mu said
"I bet 10 dollars that her first expression is a scowl when she sees me. You on?" Asher asked
"Deal," Mu said
And in the right moment, they saw both Captain Murrue and Ensign Badriguel arrived together and as Asher expected, the Ensign expression turn scowl when she saw him.
"What is he doing here, Lieutenant?" Natarle asked with scowl on her face
"Pay up, Lieutenant." Asher grinned after he saw the expression of Mu knowing the fact that he had lost the bet.
"Erm, well he's going to check up on the Strike in advance so that they can fix whatever is broken straight away when it's docked back into the Archangel," Mu said
"And why did he say you had to pay him?" Murrue asked
"Erm...well…." Mu wasn't sure if it's a good idea to answer that. After they heard the jeeps engine roaring and they saw Asher on the driver seat.
"Better hop on, who knows what they're doing with Kira and the Strike out there!" Asher said the three officer decided that they leave the topic and get on the jeep. Unknowingly, right after they had taken their seats, the Jeep suddenly accelerate in full speed without warning and drove out to the desert towards where the Strike is.
[Insert Benny Hill theme]
"Hey, kid! Do you have a driving license?! Ouch!" Mu asked as he accidentally bit his tongue because of the bumpy ride.
"Nope!" Asher replied.
"What?! Stop this jeep right now! Ouch!" Natarle bit her tongue as well.
"Better not speak or you'll bite your tongue-Ouch!" Asher bit his own tongue as well.
'I wonder which is worse, the battle just now or this boy driving!' Murrue thought as held on to the Jeep's frame like her life depended on it...and considering how badly Asher was driving, it could very well be, as the jeep continued to jump and shake as the passengers screamed for their lives when it jumped from a sand dune.
The ride felt like an eternity, but when it was finally over with a sharp break, the three seasoned soldiers were all but ready to start kissing the sandy ground after that death trap. That and they were seriously wondering if they could kill Asher in his sleep for making them go through that in the first place.
"Hey, you guys okay? You don't look too good," Asher said.
"It's your fault!" The three officer yell at Asher as they point their finger with their angry vein popped on their head.
"Aw, come on. It's not that bad, right?" Asher asked
"Never take the wheels again, understood?" The three officers said the same thing at the same time with their death glare on him, Asher gulped himself as he nodded his head.
Nearby, the other new recruits watched the whole exchange. "Wow, glad we didn't hop on that jeep," was all Tolle could say.
"Agreed," were his friends response, all of them glad they weren't anywhere near that death trap.
"Hey, there's Kira!" Asher quickly said, snapping all their attention to where he was pointing...and away from him at the same time (much to his relief). Looking at Kira, they were about to call out to him...when they saw a blonde haired girl (although, it was hard to tell cause she sure looked like she could pass for a guy with the right clothes) walk right up to him, and to their surprise, she tried to slap him, to which he caught the hand. However, she struggled to get free, and in the ensuing struggle, backhanded Kira in the cheek with her fist.
Everyone gasped at that but were soon even more surprised when… "Okay, that's it!" a new voice called out from seemingly nowhere. "Nobody does that to my partner!" the voice growled as, before their very eyes, something materialized from Kira's pocket, and lunged at the girl, revealing to be a small white dinosaur like creature, and one that looked ready to bite a chunk out of the girl. The sight was already enough to have everyone shocked. What followed...was just pushing it.
"You shall not touch Cagalli-sama!" a new voice called out before the Dinosaur was promptly slammed into the ground, the impact kicking up a dust cloud. When it cleared, it revealed the dinosaur on the ground, a white paw holding it down. A white paw belonging to a bipedal fox that looked as big as a person with purple gloves on its arms.
The entire group was stunned silent at the sight, with Asher only managing to say one thing to sum up the situation and what it no doubt meant. "Well shit…" he muttered under his breath.
Well thats that huh? It's about time Huckmon is revealed to the Archangel crew at least. Although, I'm kind of sad I can't include IceDevimon with is cold puns in this chapter, I really enjoyed writing that in previous chapter.
But I decided to use benny hills theme for the Jeep ride, seeing as it is tempting to do so.
Now I wonder, how these people deal with the Huckmon and you know who hm... oh well I deal with that later.
Thank you for reading and if you're enjoying it that's good to hear, if not sorry to hear that.
As I'll be very busy, expected next chapter might be 3 months or more, depends on my workload. Welp, I can't wait for Cagalli and her digimon appear in spotlight, of course I think anyone know which digimon was it from last chapter as it is so obvious, although I'm trying with Ninjamon but nah.
PS: I'm having hard time naming the title of this chapter, so maybe it's unrelated/stupid or anything.