I don't own digimon.

Session 96

Down the rabbit hole

Alone.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Suiko Tanaka had been left to her own devices. It was not something that she preferred to have, having grown quite used to residing in Alice's body.

"Ugh…" the schoolgirl thought and gazed around the area. "I'm guessing that this isn't Joey's dad lab or Odiaba."

At this particular moment, she found herself in the countryside surrounded by abandoned cottages and forgotten roads. A grey sky hovered above as dark clouds slowly made their way over with their gift of rain.

Once she was done with that, her focus shifted to herself and the possibility of her shotgun. Somehow, the weapon had managed to survive the trip and looked to be in about the same condition from her last use.

"Could use some cleaning." she whispered and sat down, digging through her pouch for the necessary tools. If she remembered Alice's instructions correctly, if wouldn't be too hard. She would just need to take the barrels out, clean them out, regrease them and then put her gun back together. While not the most fun she had to do, it was necessary part of survival. A jam or a missed target could potentially tip a fight in either direction. Of course, her role usually involved getting fired out of a gun and unleashing a single blast from her shotgun. Afterwards, some unknown force would pull her back into Alice while she continued to fire her guns. It was a decent trade-off, especially since no one they really faced so far really had anyway of actually either noticing her or destroying the projectile. It was quite a win-win situation, even if did come with its drawbacks. Those being her limited ability to help and the usual feeling of only having a partial understanding of what was even going on.

Her thoughts turned to Alice. She was never entirely certain what her 'sister' had in mind at times, there was usually some reason behind her actions. Of course, the whole fiasco at Despair High seemed to hang with her some reason. Maybe it was the sight of that other Alice and the resulting awakening in a school of dead children. Or it was the sense of deja vu it seemed to bring. If it were the former, maybe she wouldn't have worried as much. But it was latter, much scarier idea seemed to enter her head. For all the schoolgirl knew, she could very well be a copy from the original, created for an unknown reason. No, scratch that. For all they knew, They were just copies created by people to be thrust out into this uncaring multiverse without a second thought.

Though, I'm not sure why one would believe such an idea. If original versions of the characters did exist, why would one need to make copies of them? It's not as if they would need to be smuggled into another type of media without anyone knowing...

Suiko glanced up towards the sky, unsure of how to really respond to this latest narration. She took a deep breath and attached her gun to her back, making her way along the road. Of course, this was the last she got to see of this area, with the schoolgirl now finding herself in a darkened laboratory. The only other occupant seemed to be an older man, who had just recently embraced death with open arms. Of course, that didn't stop Suiko from rifling through a nearby filing cabinet in search of anything of note. Especially since her last 'visit' to this place, resulted in Alice and the rest of the group getting scattered about this multiverse. Of course, she was along for the ride. There, they found themselves in the wonderful place known as St Velodia's. It was the sort of place that seemed like a medical experiment gone wrong, made even wronger by the presence of Jestery. The fact that the jester had managed to get herself a teaching job just seemed to be the icing on the messy cake to be delivered to them. It came in the form of their 'parents' or what appeared to be their parents. Suiko's personal headcanon was she brought was brought forth by a pair of triceratops that were masquerading as her parents. Of course, she never did seem to find proof to validate her theory. It probably wasn't helped by Alice cutting the brakes and put a supposed end to them.

"There has to be to something here." she thought and just grabbed a file out at random, flinging its contents to the floor and focused on that for the moment.

I'm not entirely sure what they need of me at this point.

In between repairs for Chacha, 'fostering' the angels and trying to at least keep Julie in check, the tanaka's want access to all my research related to dimensions? Seriously, I just need a break. Maybe I should go to a bar for once…

Suiko rolled her eyes and folded the paper up into paper airplane, throwing it at the dead man. Afterwards, she focused her attention on the exit and walked through, finding herself on Alternis V2. A ruined home awaited her, burned down by an unknown individual. It was the sole building for quite some distance all around, leaving it to the fate of a hermit's shack for no one. Not that Suiko could really do anything to change that, having just arrived here and all.

"Okay…" she whispered and walked over to the rubble, giving it a quick examination. Suiko followed it up with a sigh and a shrug. "I'm still not certain what this is supposed to show me at all."

Silence filled the area, bringing with it the cold and more loneliness for the schoolgirl. Her gaze shifted away from the house and over to the edge of the area, where the void awaited. She didn't stop her feet from moving towards it, choosing instead to pick up the pace. And then she jumped.

In some alternate universe, there would probably be a bird of sorts to help catch her fall and deliver Suiko to safety. This was not such a universe. So she continued to fall through the dark, confident that this stunt wouldn't kill her.

"Uh… sure?" Suiko whispered and stared down, just seeming to make out the outline of metal bars within the gradually changing sky. She tried to aim herself towards it, only to pass right on by and land in a hallway pulled right out of a school. Yet, the cold and loneliness were replaced with stale air and unease. Yet Suiko walked onwards, not even willing to give the author time to even describe the area. Not that he blamed her, especially when all the school areas seemed to blend together at times. She eventually reached a door, which deposited her out of the hall and into a wooded area. A small town awaited out in the distance, but didn't really get anything out of the schoolgirl. Suiko just rolled her eyes and headed onwards, searching for the next 'portal' to take her onwards. She wasn't against this sort of thing, especially after how rarely she got to be an active part on this adventure. But in her book, this was quite excessive. They could've done something similar, without stringing along all these random places.

"I'm probably the only one who this is for." she muttered and pulled her shotgun out, firing it at a nearby tree. The mighty plant slammed into the earth, seeming not that sorry for being a pain. It was probably unaware of its crimes too. "What the hell are you even talking about?"

She got no answer as she approached the trunk, which seemed to have a metallic sort of sound to it. A slight stomp later, the schoolgirl was falling once more. Suiko was content with it for the moment, hoping for at least some sort of noise to break it up.

Yet the subterranean area she landed in did not seem to come with that feature. Heck, one could argue that such a place added to the lack of noise, rather than appease it.

But that wasn't what the schoolgirl was focusing on, having chosen instead to look towards the set of stairs and make her way over. The only time she took to even look at the little buildings was at her destination, which was mostly to make sure that she didn't miss anything somehow.

At the top, Suiko repeated the process. Only this time, she found herself fixated on the little huts and roads. Her feet acted without thought, pulling her in without a struggle. In the middle of all of it was a trapdoor of sorts. It was an obvious trap, but no clear enough for Suiko to prevent herself from falling into.

Only to find herself standing back in the halls of the classroom once more.

"Despair Suiko, are you there?" she shouted, but got no response. "I want too see you! I'm serious!"

Still no response, not that there were really any signs of life to be found within here. She made her way through the halls, only stopping to check out a dark room. Of course, the smell from said room were more than enough to keep her at bay. So she made her way back to the initial classroom, checking each room along the way for anything significant. Sadly, such a search resulted in nothing. Once that was done, she opened the door and found herself tossed into some sort of unlocked prison cell.

"Is this supposed to be a metaphor or something?" she whispered and pushed onwards, pulling the cell door open and headed to the far end of the room, pulling open another door. This time, it was a white abyss with a glass elevator. A blob of flesh seemed to be operating, with it currently beckoning for her to come over.

"Uh… hi?" Suiko greeted and watched the blob 'perk' up.

"Hi…" the blob answered back and started to operate the elevator. A few seconds later, the elevator came on down. "Go."

"You're just going to stay here?" the schoolgirl inquired and watched the blob shrug.

"Soon." was its final words as the elevator drifted upwards, delivering her to some apartment building. Yet, she could feel something calling to her. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, but it seemed to quite intent on reaching her. It guided her down the stairs, leading her through the open graves. A bit of falling later, she found herself standing in the rubble of the broken building. A red sky hung overhead, a sign of a world long gone. A single entrance was all that remained of any signs of life. Yet, Suiko walked onwards, finding not a large tubular room but a transition into a large ruined office building. But Suiko continued to walk, paying no attention to the halls that currently held her in or what little light she was given. But such things seemed to mean little in the face of the circular room she now found herself in. A single door called out to her, taunting her to pull it open and reveal it's secrets for all the world. It was probably a trap, not that knowing such a fact even stopped the schoolgirl from opening the dang thing.

On the other side, she found herself in a large white room. Large glass tubes lined the walls, having been emptied recently. Yet, there was a sense of familiarity to it. The tubes tempted her, motioning for her to return here and begin again.

A shotgun blast brought a swift end to that desire. Afterwards, she holstered her shotgun and headed through the door,

This time, the door led her into a holding area of sorts. It was quite a plain room with tan walls and a matching floor. A couple of beds had been set up, though they seemed to be more for waiting than a good night's rest. The only thing of real interest were the seven other doors. While faint, she could just make out the voices of her teammates.

For the moment, she would have to wait and hope for the best...

Notes:

This was a blast to write. Even if it means that we're still not done with the Tanaka's quite yet.

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Next time: Birds and Robots, anyone?