I don't own digimon.

Chapter 86

Who's playing who?

Bubbles wasn't completely sure what to make of this grunt's announcement. Yes, there had been a 'dragon' down there. Excluding the body of his mother, he didn't know of any others who took residence there. If there had been, they would've come upon them when they found all of Maddie's relatives floating in the water. Perhaps that was one of the things that his mom's former maids had done in the hopes of keeping his former mother in check. Had that been the case, we would've most definitely have found evidence of a struggle or murder. Unless they pushed their victims far deeper into the sewers and then went through the trouble of flooding it to cover their tracks. No, that's far too complicated of a plan to have not come up before at some point in our journey.

"Other dragons down there?" the little dragons inquired, the grunt scooting back that much more. Muttering a phrase under their breath, I don't think I'm able to put down here for being incredibly crude and somehow worse than the things written in Cassandra's journal. I hope you're very much aware you are a sick fuck for saying that. Especially to a little dragon. If you're trying to get on people's bad side, you need to do more than that. What purpose could you have for doing that?

"That, among many other things." Maddie muttered and looked over to Bubbles. Currently cradling Phusitmon in his lap, he looked to be getting a hug from the plush rabbit digimon. Normally more than enough to soothe him, the only thing accomplished was putting him on further edge. Letting out a deep breath, the little dragon focused back on the grunt. Giving a wave, Bubbles got no response. Considering all the damage done with just a single statement, that's definitely for the best. We can very much toss you back into the hole you worked so hard to create.

"There is a word for people like you, Grunt." Cinemon added, his gaze already on this moron for the moment. Getting an eye roll in return, the feline dog digimon took a step forward. A growl followed. "Quite a number in fact. Regardless of the language, there's alway a way to describe people like you. I don't think you would want to hear any of them."

The grunt rolled his eyes. Worth a shot, even if said shot was well off the mark for this situation. Nonetheless, Rantha made his approach. Melody was right behind, even if the same couldn't quite be said about Lumosmon. No, they were more keen on flying around our group. Not completely sure what they were seeing here that needed to be done. Better than getting flashed because you got on their bad side for one reason or another.

"I get that this is not your ideal situation, you're going to need to work with us without being an absolute dick about this." Rantha explained, Carinamon scurrying his way down the merchant's leg and over to our grunt. Stopping in front of Rantha and Melody, the feathered scorpion digimon flashed a claw in that general direction. A touch unnecessary here. "Can I least ask that of you?"

The grunt looked away from the trio, muttering something to the floor. Thankfully, it's far more appropriate than his previous statement. But that isn't really saying much in this situation.

"You turned your back on us! Why the hell should I take orders from a person who can't even support his own troops?!" the grunt countered and spit on the ground. Yuck. If you need a cup or something, at least ask. Don't go spewing your fluids out on the floor. We've already had to wreck part of it because of you. We don't need anything else done here.

"Yes. I did leave you all behind. It was not my intention by any means, brought about a time difference none of us knew would occur." Rantha answered and found himself treated to a look from the grunt. More an eye roll than anything really substantial. Letting out a deep breath. "But that doesn't change the fact that I need to make strides to fix the problems that I created for these people and my own subordinates. Are you willing to do the same?"

The only response the merchant got was laughter. Doing his best to tune it out, he slapped the grunt. But all that accomplished was making this idiot even louder. Good to know that's possible... for some reason. Wonderful.

Yet, Bubbles made his way over. Pulling Phusitmon along as he went, his gaze was already on the grunt. While the little dragon didn't completely understand what was up here, something about this told him to approach. Try as he might to put his talon on the particular thing that was driving him to this goal, all he got was a sharp twinge of pain across his body. It was different from the pain brought about by touching this spot. No, there was somehow a soothing feeling to it - like an entity trying their hardest to connect with them but failing for one reason or another. Now, it fell to him to pick up the slack and somehow reach out to them.

Tempting as it was to touch the spot on his hand, he paid it no mind. Instead, Bubbles focused on his partner. Choosing to push whatever the grunt was doing currently, that felt like a good idea here. Whether or not this actually was remains to be seen.

"Everything okay, Phusitmon?" the little dragon whispered, the grunt within mere feet of striking distance. Phusitmon shook his head and looked at the grunt. Still laughing, he was also now cracking his knuckles. For someone who's been in the water for a bit, there's not a lot on his hands. But that could be chalked to the general warmth of the cafe.

"Not one bit. You're giving him what he wants and you have nothing in the way of a plan to get out of this." the plush rabbit digimon announced, doing his best to dig his feet into the ground. One small problem. Cloth and similar materials don't quite have the stopping power to prevent someone from actually moving. Heckl, I don't think Bubbles even noticed you trying to stop him from going. He almost looks to be walking faster towards the grunt.

"How nice of you to give me what I want." the grunt announced and scooped our little dragon off the floor. Reaching to his necklace, he grabbed hold of the D-Venture and gripped it tight. "Mine now. I don't think you'll need this anytime soon."

Yet, Bubbles stayed perfectly still. Even with everyone's weapons pointed at our idiot and their digimon more than ready to unleash some kind of attack to knock him out from the captor's hands, he looked oddly at ease. Would very likely make things worse by way of putting the little dragon directly in harm's way or attempting an infusion without any idea of what he's doing. Possibly both at the same time.

"I would call you a moron for suggesting that, but that was what I was already thinking." our idiot grunt announced and looked directly at Rantha. Scimitar pointed right towards the grunt, an open invitation to put Bubbles in harm's way. "I have to thank you, Rantha. You really are an inspiration. A shame that you've lost your edge and jumped ship to our enemies right after getting going. I wonder what Polias would think about that."

Rantha rolled his eyes and found Bubbles's gaze now on him. Remaining silent, the only thing he got from the little dragon was a nod. Not completely sure what to make of this strange plan, something about it told him to trust Bubbles. Odd as that probably sounded.

"If you say so." Rantha muttered and made a beeline right for the grunt. Everything about this felt wrong. Should he fail, it was very likely that Bubbles would die a very painful death. All blame would fall on him. There would be no coming back from that. Any attempt at building back the bridges he burned turned to dust in an instant. Swinging his weapon forward, Rantha did his best to aim for the legs. A clean hit, nowhere close to the power necessary to slice cleanly through. No, this kind of wound would require serious medical attention and might be fatal if left alone for too long. "Personally, I don't give a fu-"

Rantha didn't get a chance to finish that sentence, electricity coursing through his blade and into his body. Dropping to the floor, his opponent bent down and began rummaging through the merchant's pockets. Even as everyone else took a couple steps closer - even more intent on defending him in the face of this ruthless cruelty.

"Get away from him!" Carinamon screeched and stabbed his pincer into one of the leg wounds. Injecting whatever poison contained within his body, it doesn't look to have the kind of effect that Carinamon wanted it too. Especially as our idiot grunt knocked him away and pulled Rantha's digivice out from its hiding spot. Clasping it tight, he made sure to tighten his grip on Bubbles for good measure. Just in case we somehow didn't get the message you're trying to send here already. Assfuck.

"News flash! We most certainly do." Melody announced and watched the grunt mess with the digivice. I don't think he really cares at this point.

"Goodbye for now." Idiot announced and teleported away. No big flash of light. No stream of particles. The only sign that it had actually happened was a small puddle of water

Now that this idiot, Rantha carefully pulled himself up. Waiting a moment, he brought his fist down into the floor. Pain echoed about his body, a reminder of one more failure on his part. The worst part being he was starting to feel like he was taking the right steps in order to make amends to the people of Aldia. Now, he had fucked this up majorly. Try as he might, he couldn't escape this cycle he found himself. No matter what he did, something always went wrong. Better to just let him drown in the waters below than to actually keep trying to do this. For starters, no it wouldn't. You're just stuck in your own head for perfectly valid reasons. I promise you that those feelings will eventually subside. You just need to give it time.

"He's right, Rantha." Melody announced and reached out to her teammate's hand. Grabbing hold, effort was made to make sure that he was unable to engage in any form of self-harm. Even if our merchant could just use his other hand or foot to continue his self-destructive spiral of pain and frustration on himself and perhaps others. Yet, our merchant's gaze turned to the ground. There wasn't any use in dwelling on questionable things that he had agreed to do. No, they needed to come up with a plan and act on it.

"Yeah. Just got stuck in my head for a moment there." Rantha remarked and let out a sigh. Doing his best to push all these negative thoughts from his head, the merchant was more than certain that quite a number remained. Taunting him at every turn, making sure that he remembered this failure. On the bright side (if you can call it that), that frustration had to push out some number of false memories still in there after the whole Malibu mess. "I guess you could say that was one side effect."

Waiting a moment for Carinamon to climb back up to his perch, his attention returned to Melody. Still holding onto his hand, care was taken to make sure our merchant was going to be okay. Once she was certain that he was, the mystic let go of the hand and waited a moment. For now, Rantha just let it fall to his side.

"Should we head to the sewers then?" Melody suggested and watched all eyes hone in on her. Silence hung over the cafe, no one really wishing to say anything here. The whole situation was absolutely bizarre and confusing. Was this the plan of the Hathran and her partner? Distant Harmony itself? Or was there something else going on that none of us are quite aware of yet and is making their approach - like a deity or similar entity?

"I highly doubt it's the last one." Maddie announced and smoothed their pants out. Taking the time to holster their weapon, they looked up to the ceiling. "If this other entity does exist, why haven't they tried to contact us?"

Silence fell over the cafe. While the topic of deities has come up a handful of times and my knowledge on the subject is pretty good for what we have to go off of, I don't really have a good way of answering that question. We know of 'Crimson', but it's very likely that there are others out there who might have been eying up the little dragon. Unaware of whatever hold that his former employer had on the town, they were probably going to come and kill her anyway.

"I highly doubt they would just be willing to hand over their digivive to help us."

Probably a limit to the number of people who can be sent back by way of a digivice. Can't have all of us just teleporting in and getting to work fighting all the grunts and the other department heads. Which isn't even getting into whatever experiments they might be cooking up in the background that were aren't privy to know

"Wouldn't surprise me." Rantha announced and gave his partner a pet. Gazing up to the ceiling, I'm going to assume you have a question about whether or not I can talk to DM currently. The answer is no, sadly. If I actually could, they would probably be shouting something along the lines of what the heck is Bubbles doing up there. I assume at least. Probably one or two comments about someone chewing on cables. Getting a nod from the merchant, his attention turned to Yvonne. Whispering something to the knight, he got a look.

"If nothing else, we kind of need to check out his claim. Even if it somehow doesn't turn out to be true, we can at least get to work moving all the bodies out of there." Yvonne announced, Mari Gold taking this to be the perfect opportunity to bring out their food. Great and all, even if that does feel like you're ignoring the massive hole we've just created in your floor getting that idiot and the 'kidnapping' that followed.

"I'm aware. But there isn't much that I can do until you all go and I talk to my wife." Mari answered and placed the food on the table. Turning to Yvonne and company, a deep breath followed. "Eat up. I suspect you're going to need your strength. Especially if there are… other dragons down there."

The words roll out, the waitress's gaze turning to the hole. Try as she might to remember something more related to this mess and it's construction, the only thing that the waitress could find was nothing. No memory of the construction of these sewers and why they had even created them in the first place. It had to have happened sometime after she and her beloved had been swept up into Mademoiselle's grasp for her twisted whims. Had they been something meant to go under the fortress? Or was there some other intention that had been filed down and left forgotten, only to come to the forefront of a developing situation at the worst possible time.

"If we find something while down there, you'll be the first we'll tell." Maddie explained and got a nod from Mari Gold. A head pat followed. While not what the thief expected to be treated to here, they accepted the gesture and gave the waitress's leg a hug.

"You could call me mom too, if you want." Mari added, getting a look from Kollmon and Ella currently. Hey. It was worth a shot, regardless of the odds of them actually getting that privilege were slim to begin with. "If there's anything else you need, just come to the kitchen."

Maddie nodded and watched Mari Gold head back to the kitchen. Letting out a sigh, their attention turned to the table. Taking a seat, their gaze turned to the spot where Bubbles would've been sitting. His meal was wonderfully prepared and was most definitely tasty, but the person who ordered was currently somewhere in another world without any real way to get back to us in one piece.

"Or we could just like share it." Kollmon announced and took a seat at the table. Grabbing a sandwich from the plate, she took a bite. I'm in no way jealous of you at all. Though, Salamon and I will probably eat a bit after you guys. Not completely sure what yet, but we'll figure something out. Hopefully. But that's beyond the point. You all need to eat.

Nods all around. Making their way to the table, care is taken to sit down and dig in. Silence fell over the cafe once more… in a good way. Not in the bad, awful way it has the last couple times. I would say this is a step up, but I think that's stretching the truth a bit much here. Yes, this is a step up. But that isn't really saying much in the grand scheme of thi-

Connection Lost.

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Astral Academy, Somewhere

Huh. That actually worked. I'm actually doing this. Okay, deep breaths. Well, not really. Since I'm an AI and all. Doesn't ma- No, I will not let you play with electricity. The last thing I need is having to explain to Ruru why the hell there's a dog purposefully electrocuting itself.

Right. Looking about the grounds of the Astral Academy (or what remains of it at least), we come upon the sole inhabitant. Okay, inhabitants in this case - Mister Lore Mage and his Salamon. Currently stationed in what looks to be what remains of a building, it's definitely seen better days. Maybe once this all over time

Looking up to the sky, I watch him stare up at me. Something something tables. How exactly did that quote go? Whatever. Hi. I am finally in a good enough state to transmit data and 'hijack' your stream. Or whatever the heck you call that you use to look at your heroes.

"Uh… couldn't I just do that beforehand?" Mister called out and uh… kinda? It was more a case of me having to confirm that I want another entity spying on me. Weird Criasu backwards logic. Not completely sure what that's about. But now that I'm back in control, you should have full access. Even to places where there isn't anyone to begin with. Quite handy with the drow fleet.

A nod, Mister shifting slightly. Did something happen?

"Bubbles let himself get kidnapped… for some reason." Mister explained and looked back to his orb. Salamon joined him, confused by what had even gone down. Uh… Understood. I'll keep an eye on him and make sure that he doesn't get himself killed.

Notes:

Yep. DM is stepping up to narration duties for the next chapter. Makes for a nice change of pace.

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Next Time: Conversations are hard.