I don't own digimon.

Session 22

Confrontation

The walk to the coast passed quickly for Elena and company.

It was mostly spent in silence, with some of the party thinking over what they had learned just minutes before. As they did that, the rest of them chose to keep watch and potentially scout this area. Compared to the forest outskirts, the coast seemed more like a retread of the desert. It was the same wide open area with just some dunes pasted in as an attempt at variety. Out in the distance, one could just barely make out a long forgotten protagonist 'talking' to something. Even if said conversation amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

"Then why are you pointing that out then?" Tsukaimon inquired as a gunshot rang out in the distance and forced the group to duck down. "Wonderful. I'm guessing it's not a ship full of tea then?"

Joey gave his partner a quick glance and sighed. While he didn't blame the purple pig for wanting a cup of earl gray, now probably wasn't the best time to bring it up.

"It appears that you people don't seem to know when to give up." a voice announced and Alice appeared from behind a sand dune. "I just want to be left alone. How hard is that to get it through your skulls?!"

Silence fell upon the group, with everyone staring towards Elena for guidance on this.

"We just want to know why you're running from us." Elena whispered and took a deep breath, staring towards the gambler. "Is that too much to ask of you?"

A scowl formed on Alice's face as she focused her guns on Elena.

"Die."

The gambler fired her guns off and watched the bullets shoot out, letting out a laugh afterwards. Everyone that wasn't Elena focused in on her, possibly attempting to understand why she was even going through with this. Yet, they doubted the answer they could potentially get would be worth the trouble.

Gale Strike!

Elena swung her kris towards the projectiles, just barely managing to slash them out of the air. She took a deep breath afterwards, refocusing her attention on Alice.

*This isn't what we want.*

Just barely, she could make out the ghostly figure of a young girl. She gave it a wave, but got no response.

"I just want to talk with you." the gale corsair continued and ran towards Alice, only for Astamon and Gobblemon to jump out.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gobblemon taunted as he pointed his tommygun towards Elena, who didn't even notice the threat. "You're one of those sort of ladies, aren't you?"

"Uh... sure." Elena finally answered back as she took a couple steps back, only to make a running jump over the turkey. "Now can I talk with you, Alice?"

Maverick!

Before she could get an answer, Astamon jumped into the air and attempted to dive kick the gale corsair. Of course, Elena moved out of the way and made her way up the dune, making a quick glance to her teammates and the digimon.

"We'll handle those two. You focus on Alice." Polly shouted and planted a kiss on Aegiochusmon's cheek. "Sis mea pars!"

Polly infusion digivolve too... Aquiosmon!

Joey infusion digivolve too... ShadowAngemon!

Aqua Torrent!

A large wave of water shot out of Aegioschusmon's hands, turning the sand dune into a pile of mud and forced all three opponents down. Of course, this did nothing to impede either Alice or Elena from reaching each other. Of course, those two decided it was best to just go with their weapons instead of their infusion forms.

Hellfire!

Of course, Astamon preferred method of responding to these sorts of problems was to either shoot or kick at them. This was the former. Which the jackal found to be a shame to some extent. While it was fun and all to gun a couple goons down, sometimes one wanted to change it up. Or at the very least, successfully change it up.

Watery Grave Punch!

Polly dived into the mud pile, ducking under the gunfire and responded with a slimy uppercut to the jackal. Astamon went for a kick, only to Afterwards, she disappeared back into the mud and returned to Aegiochusmon's side. The harem mage gave her a slight pat on the back, only to turn his attention towards their two opponents.

Pylónas tou Ádi (Pillar of Hades)!

Very carefully, Aegiochusmon slammed his hands down into the dirt, watching a pillar grow forth from the mud. He gave it a slight tap and watched it slam down. And while it didn't quite have the desired effect that he had wanted, it would do for the moment.

Shadow Flare!

As that all happened, Joey shot out a fireball towards Gobblemon. It was surprisingly effective, even if it didn't manage to activate the extra effect. Or it could be that turkeys have a natural fire resistance.

"You're not helping." Gobblemon remarked and dug through his 'pockets', finding a variety of papers from a time he would rather forget. He gave it them a couple stomps, burying them into the mud.

Gobble Grenade!

Gobblemon threw a tin can towards the person, which turned out to be Joey in this case. Of course, the shadow scientist took a deep breath and focused in on the explosive. He pulled his staff back as his hands surged with energy. What resulted was a supercharged swing at the grenade, which managed to connect and explode up in the air.

Whirlwind Sting!

Adarnamon began to flap her wings at a rapid pace and watched a tornado form in front of her, which Aaron contributed to in the form of a couple potions. While she was a tiny bit curious to the contents of the vials, something told her it was probably better to not know. She gave one more flap and watch the tornado head off, picking up mud and papers along the way. When did it finally reach the two opponents, they were attempting to run from their lives. Of course, the mud from earlier was managing to slow them down quite a bit.

"This is getting futile." Lily announced as everyone focused in on Elena and Alice. The two were still locked in combat, with neither quite being able to get the advantage on the other.

Incense Burn!

Very carefully, the plush succubus ran towards her master while carrying what appeared to be an incense tray.

"Elena, catch!" she announced and grabbed an incense stick out of the tray and flung it towards the gale corsair. Somehow, Elena managed to make just enough time and distance to get away from her opponent, still somehow managing to miss the grab. Though, she did manage to activate it after unintentionally stepping over it. Grey smoke filled air, bringing forth memories of a different time.

The two girls found themselves in a large open room, enclosed by stained pine walls and a plain white carpet floor. A young girl, possibly no more than five or six, was currently coloring in a picture. She was dressed in a dark blue sundress, with the only defining feature being her purplish brown hair and a pair of amber eyes. A pair of individuals stood at the edge of the room, a couple by the looks of things. The woman was dressed in a red cocktail dress, going quite well with her long hazel hair and blue eyes. The man on the other hand, preferred a tux and pants combo, which complimented his jet black hair and dark brown eyes. A second girl stood in front of them, possibly being no older than the girl coloring. Unlike that girl though, she had chosen to go for a shirt and overall combo that seemed to contrast with her possibly dyed long black hair and dark brown eyes.

"Elena, we would like you to meet somebody." the woman greeted and watched the girl coloring perk up. "This is Alice. She's be your new friend."

The woman then gave 'Alice' a tiny kick, pushing her towards the girl.

"Hello." 'Alice' greeted and watched the girl get up. "Do you want to play with me?"

"Uh... sure?" 'Elena' greeted as she approached. "What do you want to do?"

After that was said, they found themselves back in the mud. The smoke had long since dissipated, with a faint nostalgic scent seeming to hang over the area.

"Uh... what just happened?!" Alice shouted and gave Elena a scowl. "This is just some trick you pulled in order to gain sympathy isn't it? Well it didn't work! I still won't join back up with you!"

*Calm down, Alice."* Suiko whispered as Alice reloaded her pistols.

"Trick?" Elena asked, confused by what the gambler or her spirit was even talking about. "It was probably the result of the ince-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud roar pierced the area. Everyone then turned around, finding a Kimeramon standing in front of something at the edge of the water. Unlike the usual mangled fusion digimon one would possibly expect, this one appeared to be wearing a quite stylish top hat and a monocle over it's left eye. In each arm, a cane sword was gripped tightly. Strangely, he was more focused on Alice than the others.

The ultimate dashed over to the gambler, somehow unsheathing all four swords in the process.

"Normally, I wouldn't raise my blades to such a lady. But it seems that you are creating quite a ruckus in my friends sandpit." the kimeramon explained as he reached Alice.

Kimera Sword!

But before he could even get a chance to even strike Alice, Elena ran up and pushed her out of the way. She could only watch as the gambler and her digimon made their way over to one of two now exposed boats as she was slashed a dozen times.

"Bye, suckers!" Alice announced and threw something against the ground. Thick black smoke filled the area, robbing most of the group's vision. When it did finally clear up, their opponents had escaped with a boat.

"Crap." Elena whispered as her body forced itself in her hybrid form. She spent the next couple minutes licking her wounds.

"Do you need some healing?" Cutemon inquired and watched the gale corsair give a nod. "Sounds good."

Healing Glow!

Bright light was then cast forth from the rabbit's hands, making short work of the slash wounds. Afterwards, Elena switched back to her human form and made her way back over to the group.

"Sorry about that." the kimeramon explained and turned his attention to the group. "I'm am Gentleman, your new bodyguard."

"Bodyguard?" Polly inquired as Elena joined them in the group glare. "I'm fairly certain that most of us can handle things should a fight breakout."

The digimon motioned for them to come over, with Elena's group reluctantly heading towards him. Once they were close enough, Gentleman led them to over to a large metal boat.

"I've been asked by Lord Keiserine to follow you." Gentleman added, giving the group a slight bow. "A majority of you are considered... high value targets. Especially with the boy with the staff."

The group looked among each other, not quite sure what he was talking about.

"Welcome to the team." Joey remarked and gave the 'swordsman' a nod.

"Wonderful." Gentleman answered and made his way to the boat.

Elena and co. immediately headed aboard, ready for whatever awaited at their possible destination.

And with that, the fifteenth cycle came to the end. Unlike the end of the previous cycle, there was no big explosion and resetting of the slate. Instead, all they got was a second-long flash of light, which quickly faded away. In a way, everything was the same. And yet, things would soon change for them.

After all, visitors were right at their door and new opportunities awaited...

Notes:

A cycle is a variable unit of time to denote when a major 'change' is introduced to the digimon multiverse. In this case, this particular cycle was the lead-up to Tri Part 1: Saikai all those years ago. Yeah, it was kind of a weird yet awesome sort of time. Now, we just want Tri to kind 'end'.

Overall, this chapter changed a lot. Mostly in the form of added context and the removal of Rantha and Hilda.

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Next Time: To Ka'yona we go!