I don't own digimon.

Characters: Rei/Haru kinda

Universe: Applimonsters

Series: Rei's Bonds

Notes:

An end. Not quite the one I had in mind at first. That's just how life works out to some extent.

Chapter 95

Rei's Acceptance

One day turned into two, two days turned into four, with those four days making up the end of what could only be described as an insane week for the hacker and his partner. Sure, he had managed to get over those girls bailing on him (mostly on the grounds of how weird it was in retrospect) and Eri's angst. But that still left so many things unanswered. What had come over Eri that he had needed to beat out of her? Why did her cohorts need to leave? Most of all, what was this 'sunshine being your protection' suppose to mean? Out of everything posed to him, this question eluded him. A guardian spirit, maybe? No, that didn't make a lick of sense. Someone with a possible vendetta against him? Unikely. He had made an effort to keep a low profile.

There just had to be a better explanation to this. But for the moment, the hacker turned his attention to the other major problem he seemed to be having at the moment.

Hajime still slept silently. He didn't even stir about. If anything, The writing was on the wall for our hacker. As much as he didn't want to admit it, the odds of his brother waking up were quite slim.

"Darn it." Rei muttered and let out a sigh of his own. The temptation of returning to old habits had passed through his head at least once, maybe twice at this point. He pushed it out, but the idea was becoming awfully tempting as of late.

"Do we want to try watching TV again?" Hackmon suggested. Rei made a glance towards the device and gave a nod. At this point, there was little in the way of things that could make this situation any better or worse in that regard.

So he grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. Once more, the find the news already going. The young couple are gone, a man having taken their place. Compared to them, he looked more suited for manning a camera than being behind the table. Even his attire looked far too casual for such a position - just a t-shirt with some guy on it and a pair of sweatpants of all things.

"This just in." the newscaster announced, looking over the note he had just been given. Judging by the expression plastered on his face now, it wasn't anything good. "Holes have begun to open up in the sky, threatening to pull people in. It is not known if this is in connection to the string of disappearances across this week. Which includes most of the newscasters for this news station."

Rei was tempted to just turn the TV off and hide the remote somewhere that neither hacker or appmon could ever find it. This was one way to make a situation even worse than before. But he set the remote back down and listened. The man looked ready to move to the next story, but was handed one more note.

"For the moment, government officials encourage everyone to bunker down in their abodes and wait this mess out. Only head outside if you're low on supplies or your life depends on it. On top of this, don't wear a suit." the newscaster continued and waited a moment. Just in case even more notes come on through. "Now on-"

Now was when Rei turned the TV off. After, he let his gaze be on his partner. While Hackmon looked mostly indifferent, he had gone through the trouble of bringing Sunshine over to him.

"Thanks." he whispered and picked the plush up.

"So what's our plan now?" Hackmon inquired, watching Ren's gaze reach for the floor. While he would have preferred a less dramatic response, the hacking Appmon understood clearly.

"We group up with everyone else." Rei finally answered and let his focus be back on Hackmon. "There's no use in just moping around here."

Rei made his way over, putting his partner on his shoulder for the moment. A short trip to his room followed. But not before making a phone call.

"Minerva, call Haru Shinkai." Rei announced and waited a second. While the voice commands were cool, having a proper screen to tap and slide options around would be a lot more user friendly.

Calling Haru Shinkai

This time, the system didn't decide to misinterpret who he was trying to call and ring up Astra instead. Not that Rei wouldn't mind having a bit more tea with him. Though, that would mean putting either him or the apptuber at risk. Which was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

"Hi Rei!" Haru announced. For as cheerful as that greeting possibly was, Rei had the feeling that was all he was going to get. "I guess you saw the news?"

Rei brought the band up to his face and took a deep breath.

"Yeah. Not great." the hacker answered back, trying to decide what to ask next. "Do you want me to meet up with the rest of you guys somewhere?"

Initially, there was just silence. It was possible that Haru wasn't expecting him to ask such a question. The hacker didn't blame him. After the week he had, his mind was made up on who he wanted be. A far better person.

"The usual spot, if you can." Haru finally answered.

"Of course." Rei remarked and hung up. His gaze then focused on Hackmon. "You ready to go?"

Hackmon nodded and climbed up onto Rei's shoulder. A walk to the bedroom followed, where both Hajime and Sunshine waited. They looked quite nice together. So Rei carefully picked the pair up. If he was lucky, he could do this without disturbing neither his brother or the plus-

Mid-pickup, Sunshine fell to the floor. So much for that plan. So Rei bent back down and picked the plush up.

"There we go." he thought and made the trek back to the living room. "Do you want me to bring any drinks or snacks?"

Hackmon shook his head. While the juice boxes and snacks were delicious, they were in the middle of a possibly world-ending event.

"I'll be alright." the hacking appmon answered as Rei headed for the door. He made sure to lock up and jogged down the hall to the elevator. Most people were taking the warning on the news quite seriously, with our 'trio' being the elevator's only occupants.

"Have a good day." Rei greeted as they passed the receptionist. He made sure to wave. But he didn't take the time to really see if the receptionist waved back. She did.

Outside, the city felt like a ghost town of sorts. No cars whizzed on by, no people crossed the streets and strangers of all, none of the traffic lights looked to be functioning. It was the sort of environment that at one time, Rei probably would have gotten a kick out of. But now, it just frustrated the hacker.

"The work of Leviathan, maybe?" Rei whispered, feeling Hackmon shift his position. He gets a head shake right after.

"We would've seen an Appmon if it was." Hackmon answered back and jumped down. He scurried over to one of the traffic lights and put his hand on it. Purple sparks shoot out, bringing up a video screen of all things. Rei makes his way over, taking a seat right beside his partner.

At first, the feed is garbage. It takes quite a rewind to actually get to any watchable footage.

"There." Rei announced and pointed to a figure on the screen. "Is that a magical girl?"

Hackmon zoomed the image in. Sure enough, a girl dressed in a girly mini-dress came into focus. The color of their garment wasn't as clear though. Which was kind of a shame but understandable. Especially as both Rei and Hackmon had just done a double take.

"So I guess those girls were telling the truth." Rei muttered and let out a chuckle. "Just my luck."

While there was probably a good reason for 'magical girls' to be running around in this general area, Rei couldn't think of anything. Maybe it was the result of the holes appearing all over Japan. Or perhaps that one time that Astra sent out a message to aliens.

"Anything else?" the hacker inquired and watched his partner shake their head. The screen then vanished, with Hackmon scurrying back up onto Rei's shoulder. "To the train station then."

The actual walk to the train station was surreal, to say the least. In between their discovery mere minutes before and the lack of people in general, it was kind of like walking in the middle of an apocalypse. Or one of the app fields.

"If I died, what would you do Hackmon?" Rei inquired, taking the steps down two at a time. There, the train station was happily sharing the silence and emptiness of the streets above. Which made it all the less likely that a train would be showing up any time soon. If at all for that matter. Or running extremely late. But one could never be entirely certain.

"Personally, I would mourn your loss and make a memorial of sorts." the hacking appmon answered as he watched Rei slide his card across the scanner. While the device did its job, there was a level of oddity in them being the only ones in the building. Especially when compared to the last train trip they took. "After, I would head on in my life."

Rei chuckled, taking the time to dig his wallet out. The actual odds of a clerk being at the booth were unlikely, but riding for free 'technically' wasn't quite what the hacker had in mind today. So he took a chance on it. With no lines to be found, he walked up to the kiosk.

"I would like to buy a ticket." he remarked and peeked his head in. From the looks of things, all the clerks went home. But they did leave behind their lunchboxes and other stuff for looters to have. "Or not."

So our hacker walked over to the nearby machine and began the process for real this time. Of course, even that was not so clear cut. Whether it was the result of past reservations or some strange computer glitch, Rei couldn't get a ticket. He was tempted to just ask Hackmon to do his stuff. But then...

"Rei!"

A loud noise erupted further into the station itself. Abandoning their futile attempt at getting a ticket, Rei and company made a beeline for that general direction. But when they reached the actual platform, there was still no one there. Which a certain appmon took as his cue to show up once more.

"I can hel-" Dezipmon announced and quickly found a hand slamming his chip back into the minerva band. After, Rei took a deep breath and carefully extended himself out from the edge of the platform. While he couldn't see anyone, there had to be someone. Why else would someone go through the trouble of shouting his name?

"Anyone out there?" he shouted, catching what looked to be a flash of silver. So the hacker pulled his entire body back and watched as what appeared to be a segment of a bullet train come screeching up.

"Need a ride?" a voice called out and the door of the train car opened, revealing the head of Eri of all people. Just barely, he could make out Astra and Musimon. Which was all the more reason to climb aboard.

Inside, the train car wasn't anything special. Just a gray interior with dark blue seats. They didn't look too comfortable. But considering all that happened, Rei didn't blame them for feeling like that. He was still in elementary school of all things. Out of all of them here, he was the one who deserved this the least. His worries should be on the latest action figures and/or cartoons, not having to grapple with the weight of saving the world. But life didn't work that way.

"Sorry about this. I think?" Rei explained and watched his companions give him a look. While this was justifiable in Astra's case, Eri not so much. But then Musimon of all people focused in on him. Which at that point, the hacker just took a seat and chuckled.

"Well, I may have unintentionally released actual magical girls onto our world by freeing Hajime or something." he continued and waited for the laughter to follow. No sound came. All he got was silence. Not that was bad by any means. Just awkward.

"Well, that would explain why my idol teammates were always shouting curera-something or other while waving around sticks and having full-on conversations with a rabbit plush." Eri remarked and caught a look from Astra. "No, that is not why I wouldn't introduce you to them."

Astra looked away, only to be jolted forward in his seat. He turned his attention back to his teammates.

"Magical Girls. Do we like them?" he started, his hands already in their signature pose. "Do we not like them? We're not entirely sure!"

That got him a chuckle from everyone in the car. Right after, Dosukomon shot forward.

"So how have you guys been?" Rei inquired and watched Astra's gaze shift over to him. The apptuber looked alright, even if he probably had to stop what he was doing and book it to the train station. Though considering the kind of stuff usually involved, that might've been for the better.

"Alright, outside of finding out I'm owed a whole bunch of money." Astra answered and dug into his pants. He pulls out what looks to be a phone and does the usual activation sequence. Which in turn, brings up a web page. A bank account to be exact. A quite loaded one to be exact.

"Dang." Rei answered and watched Eri roll her eyes. "Oh right. Any luck on finding a job?"

The initial reaction was that of a sigh, followed by a head shake. Then she pulled out a little pad of paper. Flipping it around, she revealed what looked to be lines of tally marks. Which looked ready to spill off the page and right onto the floor.

"As it would turn it, getting a reference from an AI is actually quite hard." Eri muttered as Astra put his phone away. Then it was back to the idol. "While my odds are probably the same, it would make quite the difference in my chances."

Her gaze shifted to the floor of the train car, getting shaken slightly by the sudden arrival of a curve in the tracks.

"I miss them." she muttered. "Our paths were so different, never quite crossing. But now I want to know more."

Rei sat up slightly.

"It's alright to feel that way." the hacker explained. "Sometimes, things don't work out."

With that, Eri slid the pad back into her pocket and let her attention focus on Rei. Astra did something similar.

"I guess that makes it my turn then." Rei remarked, trying his best to divide his focus between his teammates. "Hajime still slumbers. I'm not entirely sure what my options are at this point."

Carefully, he shifts Hajime slightly into his lap. Now, both he and Sunshine could share it. "Then there was the whole thing with Eri's idol mates."

He took a deep breath. While it had been just a couple days at most. To some extent, that felt like an eternity ago. No, that could really describe the last real block of actual time spent interacting with people who he could call friends. It felt… good. Though, it was probably just the result of hanging around people that he hoped thought the same of him.

The rest of their ride was surprisingly short. Mostly because their 'driver' had decided that he was going for 'ludicrous speed'. Or something close to that sort of pace.

"Slow down, Dosukomon!" Eri screeched as she slowly stepped towards the back door of the car. "We're coming up on the station!"

Dosukomon got the message, slowing his pace in a gradual fashion. They still managed to miss the station by a couple yards. So it wasn't quite perfect. Nonetheless, the trio and their appmon filed out and make their way up onto the platform. But not before making sure they aren't hit by any train passing through.

"Here we are." Dosukomon added and reverted back to plain old Dokamon. He took a deep breath, shaking his hands a bit. Possibly to get any sort of feeling back into his appendages. "Did I do well, Eri-chan?"

Eri picked her partner up, holding him right near her face. At first, it would seem she was kind of proud of him. Then a punch to the face followed. It wasn't quite a 'normal' dokkan punch, but this would work in their situation.

"Sorry." she whispered and turned her attention to her teammates. A deep breath follows. "Onto the bookstore then."

Rei and Astra nodded. They followed their teammate away from the platform and into the rest of the train station. Well, one of them at least. For at the moment, Rei was hard at work searching for the elusive wonderland station. But try as he might, there was no tangible signs of this station.

"Darn it." he muttered.

"They could've been referring to a different station entirely." Hackmon whispered and watched Rei shake his head. The hacker then took a deep breath, finding his gaze focusing in on a nearby vending machine. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but something about the device was calling out to him. Though, that could be chalked up to the slight rattling going on at the moment. "Something wrong, Rei?"

Rei didn't answer. Instead, the hacker slowly made his way over to the machine. While nothing looked to be out of place or tampered with, something in the back of his mind said otherwise. So Rei did the natural thing in this situation, shake the machine. But instead of the unlikely outcome of a soda on out, Haru of all people fell out from behind the machine. While mostly uninjured, he looked to have been shoved behind there for quite a bit.

"Uh… hi guys?" the gogglehead greeted and dusted himself up. He then glanced behind the machine. His teammates did much the same, only to find Gatchmon back there. Which probably would've made this even more awkward than it already would be at the moment.

"Something wrong?" Rei inquired, helping Haru up to the best of his abilities. "Where's Yuujin?"

Haru looked away, following it up with a chuckle.

"For some reason, Yuujin wanted to bring me here. "Then we got here, he kissed my cheek and ordered me to turn into a cat-phone thing." Haru continued, letting his focus be on a mix of Hajime and Rei at the moment. "When I told him I didn't know how, he said something about punching people and shoved Gatchmon and I behind the vending machine."

As the gogglehead finished his sentence, a loud crash erupted from outside the station. The sound of blades clashing echoed through, with grunts of some kind coming with each swing.

"Now what?" Astra remarked as a blast of chocolate pierced through the walls,

"Hello?" Rei called out, gazing upwards towards the hole above. A pair of dog ears along with a little stovetop hat could just be made out above our heroes.

"I'm sorry about this." a voice announced in return, letting out a sigh after her remark. While no blast of blast of chocolate follows, Rei could just make out a face. "I need your sheep friend and then my business here will be complete."

The person gets no response. Instead, Rei raises his applidrive up.

"I can't let you do that." the hacker whispered and began fiddling with his minerva band. His teammates got the message and began to do the same. "Appmon chip, ready."

There's no fancy moves or real flourish to any of their motions. A short drop is all that it takes. Just in case the applidrive was powered by energy used in the summoning process. The jaws of device clamp down onto the selected chip, needing just one more step in the process.

"Touch. Touch."

Rei tapped the applidrive and watched the energy provided surge through to the chip. It was kind of pretty, if not for the fact that the hacker just had a tiny part of something pulled out of him.

"Apprealise!" Haru's grandfather shouted, trying to sound as excited as one his age could even manage. Which was quite a bit currently. Even if such a reaction wasn't quite warranted for their current predicament. "Revivemon!"

In place of Hackmon, now stood a large black dragon with a face of their chest for some reason. Right beside him was a cyan four-armed lion, a yellow ninja dj thing and a knight dressed in red. Or in other words, about a third of the available ultimate level appmon.

"Need some help, Yuujin?" Haru called out as they got onto their partners and made a beeline for the surface. "Yuu-"

Before Haru could utter out his friend's name, Yuujin's torso smacked right into the gogglehead's head.

"I'm sorry, Haru." Yuujin answered and focused in on his friend. While wires were whirling about and oil was leaking out, he at least was in a good mood. It looked like that at least. "Go save the world or something."

He closed his eyes right after, which forced our heroes gaze's over to the weird woman before them. Well, they looked kinda like a woman. But with that messy brown hair and androgynous frame, you could just as easily mistake them for a man.

She was currently dressed in what looked to be a very short red and brown dress with puffed up sleeves. The stovetop hat still hung to their head, with what looked to be a layer of 'chocolate' covering over part of the brown fabric. In their hands, was a chocolate bar 'sword'. Stained in red, the weapon had looked to have taken quite a beating.

"I'm sorry about this." the woman remarked as she pointed her blade towards Revivemon. "If there was somehow a better way to get her and the rest of you out, we would've done it."

Rei doesn't answer. Instead, the hacker chose to look towards what remained of his little brother. While this was possibly the end for all of them, was there really nothing they can do?

He took a deep breath and shifted his focus to his partner.

"Revivemon, revive Hajime." he whispered and watched his partner initially give him a look. "This might be our only way."

Revivemon let out a sigh. Which in turn, caught the attention of his fellow appmon. That got all their riders to look right at Rei. Not that he was really paying attention to any of them currently.

"Are you sure, Rei? After all the work we put in to get your brother back, you're just going to hand him over?"

Rei shook his head. After, he pulled both Sunshine and his brother in.

"I'm sorry, Hajime. All of this could've gone a whole lot better if I hadn't been so fixated on that treasure hunt. I understand where I went wrong and with my friends help, I will make sure this doesn't happen again."

Carefully, Rei climbed up his partner's neck and held his brother out for all to see. Then, he let go.

Wunder Genesis!

A beam of healing light shot forth from Revivemon's second face as Hajime tumbled through the air. While a clean hit, that didn't explain why a cocoon of energy now surrounded Hajime.

It was also the least of our heroes worries. No, they were keeping an eye on the general area around them. While nothing look to be happening, the ground was beginning to rumble.

"Thank you… Rei." what remained of 'Hajime' announced as the cocoon shattered. From it, came a woman dressed in a mix of white and purple. Just barely, a pair of cat ears poked out from their head. They still had their regular ears, thankfully. A rod similar to the one held by the woman with the stovepipe hat hangs in their hands. Though, time is taken to blow a kiss. "I'm very sorry that you had to be dragged in-"

Before she had a chance to finish that sentence, Yuujin's legs managed to reach the rest of him and somehow sew itself back together. Except now, he was adorned in a stupid set of black armor.

"Do you really think this is truly over, Appli Drivers? Precure?" 'Yuujin' announced and made a weapon of his own appear. While it appeared to be a strangely decorated metal rectangle, the blast that shot out gave all the info they could ever need.

But all that got him was a very confused look from Haru.

"Overdrive!" the gogglehead announced and pointed a fist towards Yuujin. "I'm not sure who you are, but you better give my Yuujin back!"

'Yuujin' rolls his eyes and fired the weapon. The bullet shoots out of the firearm and time just slows down in the general area.

When the bullet reaches it target, the result is not that of a dead gogglehead. Quite the opposite in fact. Mostly because Haru had turned into the catphone thing. Somehow. Which didn't explain why Astra was currently holding what remained of him and doing… something. Heck, time was still being insistent that it must be slow. Not normal pace or something.

Another cocoon of light formed - this one on Astra. What followed, was the apptuber sliding his finger across the screen.

"L! O! V! E!" 'Astra announced, his two remaining teammates watching on in complete disbelief as he approached the two woman from just mere minutes before. "Cure Rosetta!"

Both the dog and cat lady took a deep breath, letting their focus be on 'Rosetta' over Yuujin at the moment. Not that the recently revived android was really paying attention. He was currently firing his gun at the nearby buildings. He wasn't that good of a shot, missing all of them in the process.

"Just get it over with." the robot announced, letting his focus be on his opponents. Or would've, if they hadn't just teleported away to god knows where in this very moment. As for yellow ninja guy, he was just beatboxing. It wasn't even good. "Fine then. I'll just murder y-"

Before he had a chance to fire his gun one more time, Rei flung Sunshine at him. A direct hit, which allowed for Eri to jump into the air.

"Dokkan Kick!"

The idol's foot connected with their opponent, knocking him to the ground and shattering any form of protection that he might of had. Especially since he shattered right after.

"We did it…" Rei whispered and took a deep breath, turning his attention to Eri. "Sorry about this."

Eri just shakes her head.

"It's alright." Eri muttered as their partners reverted back. "We just need to head onward, right?"

A nod, followed by a reluctant smile.

"Yep."

Notes:

This was a wild ride.

For my next project, it's time to return to something old. Half a decade old.