I don't own digimon.
Session 60
Unity
Alice opened her eyes.
Gone was the crowded hall of the leaning tower of Pisa. Replacing it though, was some sort of white reflective material. One would think this would make distinguishing the walls nearly impossible. Well, if the walls hadn't been a shade of grey and jutting out at all sorts of angles and directions. In a way, it was the sort of place one could call 'Hell'. Of course, having Elena laying up on her seemed to balance it out.
Yet, something felt off about it. Maybe it was the room they stood in, with all of it mirrors and various other reflective surfaces. Or perhaps it was the fact they were the only two people in the area.
"Time to wake up, Elena." the gambler whispered, giving the corsair a slight tap.
"Ugh…" Elena whispered and turned her attention to Alice. "Good morning?"
Alice took a deep breath, only to crack a smile. While neither girl had any clue where they were or what was even going on, they were willing to roll with the punches and see where it took them. For now though, they would just have to roll with the punches.
"Suiko, are you there as well?" Alice whispered, only to get silence on the other end. "Suiko?"
"Your friend should be here in a moment." a voice explained, forcing both of them to gaze all around the area in order to find the source of the voice. It probably didn't help at all that one could see countless reflections of Elena and Alice throughout the area. Especially with a couple of the reflections seemingly moving on their own.
Gale Strike!
A wave-shaped projectile quickly approached, forcing both of its intended targets to pull their weapons out. Both Alice and Elena gave each other a nod as two split up. The plan was simple. Alice would provide cover fire while Elena approached the reflections.
Full Auto Fire!
Before the corsair even get close to their possible opponents though, she found herself forced to take on a hailstorm of gunfire. Even though the amount of bullets fired didn't match up with the size of the gun's magazine at all.
"Does that really matter when every fucking bullet missed?" the voice announced, suddenly deciding to stop firing her guns and stare up towards the sky. "Do you really think we actually care at all about that?"
The author did not answer, instead choosing to just observe. Why they actually thought this would change, is beyond me.
"Thank you?" a second voice added as their reflection approached the first.
Memory Blast!
A beam of energy shot out and spectacularly missed both of its targets. In response to that, Elena and Alice switched to their digimon forms.
"This feels weird." Alice whispered as her transformation sequence finished. It had been quite some time since she had last used NekoGamblermon, leaving the lucky gambler slightly out of her element. Especially with the change from a pair of pistol to just the one.
Lucky Shot!
Memory Spirits!
Elena then suddenly stopped, shooting out a couple of transparent figures towards their opponent. As that happened, Alice fired off her pistol and watched the projectile slam into the figure, creating a chain reaction of explosions in the process.
'Ahhhh!'
"Suiko?" Alice whispered, only to hear a loud thud from within her body.
'Yeah, I'm here.' Suiko answered and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that."
Alice took a deep breath and meowed by accident. While she was a tiny bit concerned by where Suiko had been, it wasn't anything to really worry about for the time being. The schoolgirl was back now, allowing the use of spiritflare once more.
Spiritflare!
Unsurprisingly, a single bullet shot out and seemed to miss either target. Only to be then followed up by the usual shotgun blast.
Ghostflare!
The attack was pretty much a carbon copy of Spiritflare, with the exception of being louder and more inaccurate. In this case, missing its intended target and managed to hit their ally.
Gale Wing!
A pair of light green wave-shaped projectiles shot out from the second opponent, quickly making their way towards Elena. Midflight though, the projectiles fell to the ground as the corsair switched back to her human form.
"Is it just me, or does something about them seem awfully familiar?" Elena whispered as she took a couple steps closer to the opponent.
"You're right." Alice answered and took a deep breath. "It's as if we're fighting ourselves. Only are opponents are the younger more inexperienced versions of ourselves."
The two girls then turned towards each other, giving each other a look of pure confusion. While not a major earth-shattering revelation, it was the sort of thing that made one stop and wonder what the heck was even going on. Not that they ever really got an adequate explanation or even a reason. At times, this seemed to be how the whole multiverse worked. But by the same token, some things just were better left just that. It was stuff like hope, believing and love. Even within a madhouse like this could one find such things in a pure unchanged form.
With that, Elena and Alice charged towards their respective targets, making sure not be tripped by tricks their past versions somehow knew. This was a lot easier than one would think, since neither girl had really gained any new skills in a while. Not that they really had needed anything else, having had the support of their team and digimon in most encounters.
"Let's change it up then!" Elena suddenly announced and sidestepped over to Alice, grabbing hold of the gambler's left hand. "Ready to do this?"
"Absolutely." Alice whispered back, gripping Elena's hand and reverted back. Their pace quickly increased, with their opponents just seeming to stand in place. It was if they were just accepting their fates, even if their 'deaths' technically meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Gale Strike!
Spiritflare!
And yet, all they managed to do was simply defeat their opponents with the same moves as before. Not that there was anything wrong with that, mind you. It just feels so underwhelming after such a long fight.
"Good work, you useless crap." a voice whispered as a small figure appeared before them. Unlike their past selves, this figure was dressed in just a black hooded cloak decorated with purple symbols. A large scythe was held with both hands, ready to tear up anyone who was stupid enough to take them on.
"Uh… hi?" Elena greeted as she and Alice glanced towards this sudden arrival. "I'm Elena, and that's Alice. What's your name?"
"Death." the figure whispered and pulled their scythe back, swinging it towards them.
Deathbringer X3!
At the end of its arc, three scythe heads shot out of the weapon and towards Elena and Alice. For some reason, the projectiles had chains attached to them. Which only seemed to serve the purpose of allowing one to swing their weapon around in a deadly version of jump rope.
Gale Strike!
Elena slammed both of her blades into one of the swinging projectiles, only managing to just knock it back in the opposite direction. While not the desired outcome that the corsair had wanted, she was willing to deal with it.
Spiritflare!
Unlike Elena, Alice found a tiny bit more success with her attack. While the shotgun blast had managed to knock two scythe heads back, they were now heading towards them at a much faster pace than before.
"I have an idea." Elena whispered, quickly making her way towards Alice. "Do you want to hear it?"
"Sure." the gambler answered back as the scythe heads made their way towards them once more. What followed, was a mix of whispering and fending off deadly scythe heads. Once they were done, Alice holstered her left gun and Elena sheathed her left. They then turned their attention to Death as a grin formed on their faces.
Unity: Gale Revolver!
Both girls suddenly found themselves outlined in a mix of green and grey energy, which seemed to blind their opponent. Elena and Alice then charged forth, letting go as they reached the opponent. The corsair then grabbed hold of Death, knocking the cloaked figure up into the air with a large whirlwind created via her kris. Alice then followed her lover's attack up by unloading both of her magazines for her pistols along with a good chunk of Suiko's shotgun shells in the process. Once that was all said and done, the two jumped into the air and finished the combo off with a spining drill kick to the head
'That was awesome!' Suiko shouted. 'But aren't we supposed to wait till EMT get his infusion form before we introduce a new mechanic?"
The author chose to not answer the question, possibly deciding that answering would just make things even more confusing.
"Heh." Death answered and got back up. "Did you really think that attack would even destroy me? That attack barely even damaged me!"
Neither girl responded, instead letting the silence do it for them. It didn't help that both of them were nearly drained from that last attack.
"Thanks for you giving me so much fun, useless crap. But all good things have to end eventually. Isn't that right, master?"
With that, Death swung its scythe, only for nothing to happen. The cloaked figure took a deep breath and swung the weapon a second time. Only to get the same outcome as her previous attempt. She then repeated this action a few more times, only to receive the same result. It was as if the universe was attempting to tell her something and she wasn't listening.
"Go fuck yourself, author." Death announced and teleported away in a puff of smoke, leaving Alice and Elena behind.
"I guess we won?" Elena whispered as everything suddenly began to spin around and getting increasingly darker. Alice was right behind, finding herself under similar symptoms.
.
Elena and Alice opened their eyes.
The reflective enclosure was long gone, having been replaced with a bedroom. Unlike the hallway they had seen before blacking out though, the whole room looked ruined. The walls that surrounded them looked ready to fall down, with the holey carpet and bare spots they were calling a 'floor'.
"You're awake!" a voice announced and both girls perked up, watching their digimon flood in.
"Yeah…" Alice whispered as she and Elena got up, dusting themselves off as their partners looked them over. "Let's get out of here."
"Agreed." Elena added and took a deep breath, only to turn her towards Adarnamon. "So what happened with you guys?"
The digimon all took a deep breath, debating among them whether or not to tell their owners what had happened. Like Alice and Elena, it seemed they too had gotten caught up in mysterious events.
"Some cloaked figure showed up and things got weird." the bird finally explained as Elena took a deep breath.
"What do you mean by weird?" Elena added. "That could mean a whole lot of things, especially within this madhouse."
Adarnamon took a deep breath, only for Lily to suddenly decide to speak up.
"The figure attempted to kill us and was shouting all sorts of stuff." Lily added as she took a deep breath. "It mostly a mix of telling the author to fuck off in the name of the angels and criticizes all the stuff related to the digitalverse."
"By any chance did they give their name?' Alice responded as she turned her attention towards Yokozamon and Consligmon.
"She said her name was Hera, Miss Alice and Suiko." Yokozamon added. "She also claimed to be working somebody known as 'The Timekeeper'."
Elena took a deep breath and made a quick glance towards the floor. When her face finally sprung back up, Alice was now staring right at her.
"What's wrong?" Alice inquired, only to get no response from Elena. "Hey, I can't help you if you're not willing to tell me."
The corsair took a deep breath, allowing her gaze to meet her lover's once more.
"It's about that timekeeper dude." Elena finally whispered. "I kind of defied him."
Kind of is an understatement. Chose to would probably be a better way to describe it. But what do I know?
"Please shut up." Alice shouted and wrapped Elena in a hug. "Thank you."
"No problem." Elena whispered back as the two kissed while their digimon looked on, giving them both an 'awwww'.
Once that was all said and done, the two broke free and exited the room. Their digimon followed right behind, quickly making their way towards the now open door at the far end of the hall. What followed, was a short elevator ride down.
Notes:
Last chapter for 2016. What better way to celebrate than to kick the asses of your prior versions. More specifically, the Alice and Elena from the end of 2015. Because why not? That doesn't mean this chapter isn't canon. It's complicated.
And yes, I realize the end of this chapter is a mess. While I have gone back and improved it, let know what you think.
What happened with the digimon in The Classroom will be its own chapter, its mostly so I don't have to write five - six little chapters to go with the big chapter. That, and I suspect how much time I'll have to work on this and everything else is going to 'shrink' in the future.
This is also your heads-up for the timeline getting a little bit confusing in an upcoming chapter. While it won't be the next chapter, it's on the horizon. You have been warned!
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Next Time: Storytime with Aegiochusmon pt 1?