I don't own digimon.

Session 104

Hirari

Alice Zwingli took a deep breath.

Currently, the lucky gambler and her fiancee had chosen to spend the last hour or two recuperating from the mess that was watching Suiko disappearing on them. Which meant spending in that very room the schoolgirl had disappeared from. An odd choice, but it would be hypocritical of me to judge them on that. I have more than enough problems to add that sort of thing to my plate.

"Alice, is there anything I can do to make this better?" Elena inquired and flashed a smile towards her. Even if it was a partial facade to keep Alice's mood out of sadness and melancholy.

"Yeah." Alice answered back, letting out a sigh in the process. "Another hug would be nice."

She got her wish, with the gale corsair pulling her in as tight as she could.

"Better?"

"A tiny bit." Alice whispered as they broke away, the two making their way back into the main 'holding area'. Their teammates were waiting there, awaiting the plan for what their next move was exactly.

"What's the plan?" Aaron remarked as their gazes focused on the door. Compared to those they had walked through earlier, this one looked like someone had put a lot of time it. The oak had been exquisitely carved out, with not a single imperfection. Each groove had been given a similar treatment, with the installation tying it all together.

"Are we sure he's talking about a door?" Issacmon remarked, only for Aaron to just shrug.

"Who knows." the mending detective remarked as the low rumble of Officer EMT's armored vehicle filled the air, only to be followed up by said vehicle crashing right through the door. "I guess that's one way to solve it?"

One by one, the group cautiously made their way through the hole in the wall. They had their weapons at the ready, just in case this did turn out to be a trap of some sort.

The room in question was one of a white tile floor and tan wallpaper walls. A pair of hospital beds hugged the back wall, their passengers an elderly man and woman respectively. They seemed to have been expecting the group's arrival, having put up a 'congratulations' banner and a chart with all their names on it.

"Oh my." the elderly couple announced and focused in on Alice and Elena. "Good work!"

A mix of confused glances and double takes seemed to take over the group, unsure of what to really make of this. Yes, it was nice to be complimented for making it through this mess. But, that didn't excuse the mess that all fifteen of them had to trudge through to reach that point.

"So I am guessing your Gabe and Verena then?" Fatemon remarked as he and Chacha made their way over. "I don't think we've properly met yet. I'm Fatemon and that's Chacha."

"So I'm guessing you two fell out of Julie's graces then." Gabe remarked as his colleagues made their way back over to the group. "Though, I guess some things never do change."

Their gazes returned to Alice, motioning for the recently engaged couple to come over.

"Out of all those we created, it was you who made it to us." Verena remarked and sat herself. "Can I at least get one hug?"

Alice reluctantly complied, letting the arms of her 'mother' pull her in tight as Elena watched on. "Oh my a ring. Who's the lucky guy?"

Elena raised her hand, only to watch Verena's expression to shift slightly as laughter erupted from it.

"Is there something funny?" the gale corsair inquired and took a deep breath. "Or is this something else?"

Both parents then pointed to the poster, which the group decided to spend a minute or two taking in. I'm not entirely sure why though. The poster in question consisted of just words, no pictures. Even the words were at a bare minimum, being just three pairs of people: Elena x Lily, Alice x Joey and Polly x Aegiochusmon/Fatemon of all things

"Why am I paired with Lily of all people?"

The gale corsair then turned her attention to the korakawamon, who looked just about ready to make an advance of some sort. Elena gave her a harsh glance, which seemed to put an end to that notion.

"At least someone thinks I'm hot… I think?" Joey added and got a similar glare from Alice.

"Why him?" the gambler remarked and got snickering from her parents. "I realize that you didn't see the whole thing with Elena, but I've only interacted with him only a couple times."

"Hey!"

In Alice's defense, you guys have a habit of getting seperated and taking long periods of time to get back together.

"Fine." Joey remarked and let out a sigh, returning his attention to Alice's parents. "If you don't mind me asking, but did something happen to you guys?"

Silence fell over the tanakas as the sound of glass breaking filled the air.

"Crap." Gabe whispered and mumbled something to themselves. "I'm sorry, but I need to cut your visit short."

"Does it have anything to do with that stupid girl and her sock puppet?" Consligmon blurted out as he slipped his usual jar of moonshine out. "Because if it is, I have more than a few choice words for her."

"Yeah, those are the one's." Gabe responded, letting out a sigh. "That 'thing' is just a creature possessing a body. Not that big of a deal."

He got a bunch of confused glances for that, especially from the author.

"Yeah. What's the story behind that?"

The members of Delta turned around, finding a boy and girl pair standing at the door.

The 'boy' was a blackgatomon, similar to the one that graced DigiConjurer's profile. Except he seemed to bobble back and forth and looked 2D. The girl on the other hand looked a bit like a blond version of Elena, with the only other real difference being the inclusion of green overalls in her sundress.

"And you people are?" Elena inquired and watched Officer EMT casually walk on over.

"Been a while." the troll police officer remarked and shook the blackgatomon's hand. "I heard about what happened. While I should I arrest you, I'll let it slide for now."

EMT shot the girl a cautious glance, who gave a nod in return. Afterwards, he made his way back over to Aaron.

"So outside of that, is there any other reason why you two want to see us?"

"Not really." the blackgatomon explained. "We just wanted to know who was running the show. And its most certainly not you people."

Both Gabe and Verena flipped the duo the bird as they walked away.

"The nerve of those people…" Gabe muttered as he sat himself. "First, their stupid angel kills Prickle. Then one of our parallel scientists decided it was a wonderful idea to just snatch two of their team members and now they're tearing up the place without a care in the world."

Alice took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. The building then shook a tiny bit, bringing with it a sense of dread and anxiety for the group.

"Okay. Let's just get this over with then." she whispered and fired her gun off at the wall. A few small pieces of the wall fell to the floor, which the gambler cautiously threw at her parents. "Thanks for everything."

"Our pleasure." the tanaka's whispered. "We wish you and your friends the best of luck with the Gostelow's."

The projectiles reached the pair as Delta made their way back into the armored vehicle. The bell began to ring right after, ringing nine times.

"You're almost there…" a voice announced to the world. "To me crushing you!"

Laughter then filled the air, but they just blocked it out.

"Where too?" Officer EMT inquired and turned to focus on Polly and her partners.

"Earth." the monk magi whispered and sighed. "To my 'parents'."

EMT gave a nodded and started the vehicle off, smashing his way through the halls with little thought to it. While the trip back would be a short one, it was just long enough for our heroes to have a bite to eat, get some sleep and relax. It was possibly the last chance they would get to do those sort of things.

Notes:

I did it. That's the end of the Alice arc. Yes, the original plan for this particular portion of the story was meant to be far shorter.

The list of pairings that Alice parents would thought would happen is based off the original plan for who ended up with who. Not that it really matters now.

Finally, at the time of this chapter going out, I'm going on a hiatus from DAO. Mostly so I can finish writing the last couple chapters along with giving all my side projects some love. Oh yeah. And write up a lot of character sheets... for reasons.

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Next Time: Just cut to the chase.