~*~ Project Moment ~*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
**Chapter 3- Missy**
Some time later, a knock on the door sounded. Sora had been sitting on the edge of the now-empty tub, wrapped in a voluminous white towel and thinking. Standing up, she went to the door and peeked out around it.
An unfamiliar girl of about eighteen with dark blue hair, her bangs cut into a rainbow of colorfully dyed spikes, was standing outside. She was clothed in a gray-blue uniform, similar in cut to the ones Joe and Tai had been wearing, but tighter and without the colored bands. Instead, it had what looked like embroidered whirls up the side seams. *Embroidery? Okay, that's a little out-of-place...* In her arms was a gray-blue bundle of cloth. Sora opened the door.
"Joe sent me to tell a newbie how to get dressed," the girl said frankly as soon as she was inside. "You look pretty old for a newbie."
"Believe me, I didn't intend to be one," Sora said. The girl grinned.
"Oh, a pick-up. I see. I'm Misube, but you can call me Missy." She held out a hand. "And you are?"
"Sora," Sora said, shaking the offered limb. "Takenouchi Sora."
Missy's jaw dropped. "You're Love! Aren't you? You're one of the Left Behind!"
Sora blinked at her, utterly confused. "What? I...had the Crest of Love, yes..." *Newbies? Pick-ups? Left Behind? What language is she speaking?*
Missy's eyes lit up. "Then you're really *the* Takenouchi Sora! I can't believe you're finally here! Are the others coming too? Did they come to their senses?"
"Hold on just a minute," Sora said, holding up her hands. "Would you mind explaining what on earth you're talking about?"
"You're Love," Missy explained impatiently, as if it was all too obvious. "You're one of the Left Behind; the Core group that didn't agree to come in the first Gathering." Noticing the blank look on Sora's face, she winced and tossed her the bundle. "Here. Put this on while I explain a little."
Sora unrolled it and looked at it. The garment was all one piece, and made of an odd, slightly spongy-feeling cloth, a bit thicker than most textiles she'd seen before. It reminded her of nothing so much as a stylishly cut wetsuit. It was the same blue-gray as the other uniforms, and sported yellow bands at the wrists and neck. It also had a slit down the back to help put it on, but Sora couldn't see any way of closing the slit. With it came black ankle boots. She shrugged and began to put it on, deciding to ask about the meaning of the colored bands later.
"Okay. The Gatherings are the times that the Command-that's the guys in charge-recruits new people to come here to the Project headquarters. These new people are called newbies, at least by us veterans," here she grinned ironically, and Sora got the impression that she had been a newbie only recently herself, "and they're usually pretty incompetent until we straighten them out on how everything works here. Even the bathrooms are high-tech..."
She snorted irreverently, and Sora decided that she liked the good-naturedly blunt teenager. She reminded Sora of Cody, who had been so eager to come, but had been only fifteen when they'd gotten the call, too young to leave home... In fact, she was just about the boy's age, too. As if reading Sora's mind, the next topic Missy moved to was ages.
"Most of the newbies are about seventeen or eighteen. I'm eighteen; I've been here for a year now." She grinned proudly at this fact. "Gatherings have happened three times now; they're an annual thing. The rest of the time, everybody who shows up here is what we call a pick-up, cuz they get picked up off the streets, so to speak, usually in ones, twos or threes. They're the ones who missed a Gathering, or the ones who find out about the Project between Gatherings and ask to come, or the ones who need sanctuary and can't wait for the next Gathering."
"Sanctuary? From what?" Sora said. Missy looked evasive.
"Uhm, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that yet. Command'll do that. Anyway, during the first Gathering, there was a Core group that Command really wanted to come. They said it was vital that all twelve of them came to the Project. The twelve people were these folks called the Digidestined, and for some reason we needed them to join us for the Project to work. I don't understand it, but I'm just Textile Team anyway. We don't hear a lot of the important stuff." She scowled at this, and Sora guessed it was a sore spot with her.
"Anyhow, only half of the Core group agreed to come. I think there was a lot of fighting among them about that, and Command felt bad about that, but it had to happen."
"I'm glad Command is so kind and caring," Sora said dryly. Who was this person or people called Command to screw around with peoples' lives like that? Missy didn't catch the sarcasm in her voice, though, and barreled on with her explanation.
"Friendship, Sincerity, Kindness, Love-and-Sincerity, Reliability-and-Knowledge, and you, Love, all refused to come. Command dubbed you six the Left Behind, and the six that did come right off the bat, Courage, Reliability, Knowledge, Courage-and-Friendship, Light, and Hope, were the First Joined."
"Command likes to name things, doesn't it," Sora commented. All the religious-sounding terms were starting to make her nervous. Missy shrugged.
"*They* have a lot to keep track of. And they're not an 'it'! If they have a name for a particular group, it's easier to refer to it than if they have to list off a bunch of names. So, you're Love, and you're the first of the Second Joined! Command said you'd come eventually, when you realized the danger-"
"Hold on!" Sora exclaimed, suddenly starting to panic. *Second Joined? I'm not staying here! I can't! Mimi...my mother...my life!* "I'm not an anything-Joined! I'm just here because...I don't know why I'm here! I was brought here! A Snimon attacked me..."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Missy said softly, looking miserably disappointed. "I...I thought..." She took a deep breath, and sighed. Sora felt bad all of a sudden, like she'd let this girl down somehow.
*That's crazy! I'm not letting this 'Command' drag me into some nutso scheme of theirs...if Tai and Joe want to stay here cut off from the world, that's their business, but as for me, no thank you!*
"It's all right," the teenager said, looking a little more cheerful. "My grandma always did say, 'when you assume, you make an ass of u and me.' I didn't make you an ass, but *I* sure look pretty stupid right now..."
"No, you don't," Sora said, now fully dressed except for the baffling fastener-less slit down the back of her jumpsuit. "You sound like a very smart young lady who just made an honest mistake. Now please, tell me how this thing works."
Missy looked up to see Sora's predicament. "Oh! Yeah, that confused me the first time, too. Here, you press this thing here." She pointed at a metal stud in the back of the collar that Sora had noticed earlier, but had dismissed as decoration of some kind.
Sora obliged, and sucked in her breath in a little gasp as the slit seemed to knit in on itself, becoming solid fabric. The jumpsuit also seemed to shrink slightly, fitting as if perfectly tailored to the shape of her body.
"Holy crap! How do I get *out* of this thing?!" she exclaimed, starting to panic. Missy giggled.
"You press the button again. See?" She pressed it for her, and the slit reopened as the suit seemed to relax around her. Sora blinked, then grinned, opening and closing the suit several times with the fascination of a little kid with a new toy.
"That's amazing! Who invented this thing?"
"My boss," Missy said, sounding pleased with the praise. "We're working on an improved version, but for now that's it. The fabric's designed to repair itself if it's torn or frayed, and it has a lightweight version of the fiber-armor that Defensive Technology Team created built into the weave. It wouldn't stop a bullet, but it holds out against most physical attacks."
Sora blinked...repeatedly. "Wow. So, I'm wearing military technology?"
"Project technology," Missy corrected. "But, more or less, yes."
"Wow," Sora said again. Shaking her head in disbelief, she sat down on the edge of the tub and picked up her boots, putting them on. They seemed to be relatively ordinary footwear, if a little more comfortable than most boots she'd worn. Standing up, she shifted from foot to foot, testing them out. They would do nicely. She grinned.
"This is just...wow. Hey, I'm starving. Is there anything to eat around here?"
Missy nodded. "I'll get Joe."
"What, is he going to make food pop out of the walls? Because, at this point, I wouldn't be that surprised. Impressed, yes; but surprised, no."
The teenager giggled. "Naw, we haven't figured that much out yet. Food still 'pops up' the usual way; good old-fashioned cooking. There's a cafeteria run by Nutrition Team, and of course the Quonset, but you'll probably be eating with a couple of the First Joined."
Sora grinned at the thought of seeing her old friends again, whatever weird titles Command had given them. "So, how soon do we eat?"
"Pretty soon," Joe said, stepping through the doorway. Both women jumped, and Missy swore under her breath.
"For someone called Reliability, you sure like to surprise people, don't you?" Missy griped. Joe pulled her ponytail in an older-brotherly way and grinned.
"Anything for you ladies. Sorry to interrupt, Sora, but you have an invitation to breakfast, and the food's nearly ready."
Sora grinned. "Ah, breakfast. You have no idea how good that word sounds right now. I think my stomach is collapsing in on itself."
"I thought your digestive system might be ready for solid food again," Joe said knowledgably. Sora snorted.
"Ready? I'll say it's ready. Let's go before I pass out from hunger!"
"Bye, Sora!" Missy called as Joe steered his patient out the door. "Jya ne!"
"See you around!" Sora called back, and they turned the corner out of sight.
_________________________________________________________________________________
*grins* Yes, Moonlight, I know you reviewed...and I thank you for it most effusively. You have a tendency to keep me going when nobody else will review me, lately...so I might as well dedicate this chapter to your unfailing evaluation, ne? Here, just to make it official...
This chapter is hereby dedicated to Moonlight Star. M_~* Arigatou gozaimasu!
Furthermore, just to let you all know, this happens to be the last post of my sixteenth year. The 19th of February is the illustrious day on which I shall turn seventeen. Here's to hoping for luck in the years to come! And thank you to all who review and support me!
-bandit tanukionnanoko O_o
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
**Chapter 3- Missy**
Some time later, a knock on the door sounded. Sora had been sitting on the edge of the now-empty tub, wrapped in a voluminous white towel and thinking. Standing up, she went to the door and peeked out around it.
An unfamiliar girl of about eighteen with dark blue hair, her bangs cut into a rainbow of colorfully dyed spikes, was standing outside. She was clothed in a gray-blue uniform, similar in cut to the ones Joe and Tai had been wearing, but tighter and without the colored bands. Instead, it had what looked like embroidered whirls up the side seams. *Embroidery? Okay, that's a little out-of-place...* In her arms was a gray-blue bundle of cloth. Sora opened the door.
"Joe sent me to tell a newbie how to get dressed," the girl said frankly as soon as she was inside. "You look pretty old for a newbie."
"Believe me, I didn't intend to be one," Sora said. The girl grinned.
"Oh, a pick-up. I see. I'm Misube, but you can call me Missy." She held out a hand. "And you are?"
"Sora," Sora said, shaking the offered limb. "Takenouchi Sora."
Missy's jaw dropped. "You're Love! Aren't you? You're one of the Left Behind!"
Sora blinked at her, utterly confused. "What? I...had the Crest of Love, yes..." *Newbies? Pick-ups? Left Behind? What language is she speaking?*
Missy's eyes lit up. "Then you're really *the* Takenouchi Sora! I can't believe you're finally here! Are the others coming too? Did they come to their senses?"
"Hold on just a minute," Sora said, holding up her hands. "Would you mind explaining what on earth you're talking about?"
"You're Love," Missy explained impatiently, as if it was all too obvious. "You're one of the Left Behind; the Core group that didn't agree to come in the first Gathering." Noticing the blank look on Sora's face, she winced and tossed her the bundle. "Here. Put this on while I explain a little."
Sora unrolled it and looked at it. The garment was all one piece, and made of an odd, slightly spongy-feeling cloth, a bit thicker than most textiles she'd seen before. It reminded her of nothing so much as a stylishly cut wetsuit. It was the same blue-gray as the other uniforms, and sported yellow bands at the wrists and neck. It also had a slit down the back to help put it on, but Sora couldn't see any way of closing the slit. With it came black ankle boots. She shrugged and began to put it on, deciding to ask about the meaning of the colored bands later.
"Okay. The Gatherings are the times that the Command-that's the guys in charge-recruits new people to come here to the Project headquarters. These new people are called newbies, at least by us veterans," here she grinned ironically, and Sora got the impression that she had been a newbie only recently herself, "and they're usually pretty incompetent until we straighten them out on how everything works here. Even the bathrooms are high-tech..."
She snorted irreverently, and Sora decided that she liked the good-naturedly blunt teenager. She reminded Sora of Cody, who had been so eager to come, but had been only fifteen when they'd gotten the call, too young to leave home... In fact, she was just about the boy's age, too. As if reading Sora's mind, the next topic Missy moved to was ages.
"Most of the newbies are about seventeen or eighteen. I'm eighteen; I've been here for a year now." She grinned proudly at this fact. "Gatherings have happened three times now; they're an annual thing. The rest of the time, everybody who shows up here is what we call a pick-up, cuz they get picked up off the streets, so to speak, usually in ones, twos or threes. They're the ones who missed a Gathering, or the ones who find out about the Project between Gatherings and ask to come, or the ones who need sanctuary and can't wait for the next Gathering."
"Sanctuary? From what?" Sora said. Missy looked evasive.
"Uhm, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that yet. Command'll do that. Anyway, during the first Gathering, there was a Core group that Command really wanted to come. They said it was vital that all twelve of them came to the Project. The twelve people were these folks called the Digidestined, and for some reason we needed them to join us for the Project to work. I don't understand it, but I'm just Textile Team anyway. We don't hear a lot of the important stuff." She scowled at this, and Sora guessed it was a sore spot with her.
"Anyhow, only half of the Core group agreed to come. I think there was a lot of fighting among them about that, and Command felt bad about that, but it had to happen."
"I'm glad Command is so kind and caring," Sora said dryly. Who was this person or people called Command to screw around with peoples' lives like that? Missy didn't catch the sarcasm in her voice, though, and barreled on with her explanation.
"Friendship, Sincerity, Kindness, Love-and-Sincerity, Reliability-and-Knowledge, and you, Love, all refused to come. Command dubbed you six the Left Behind, and the six that did come right off the bat, Courage, Reliability, Knowledge, Courage-and-Friendship, Light, and Hope, were the First Joined."
"Command likes to name things, doesn't it," Sora commented. All the religious-sounding terms were starting to make her nervous. Missy shrugged.
"*They* have a lot to keep track of. And they're not an 'it'! If they have a name for a particular group, it's easier to refer to it than if they have to list off a bunch of names. So, you're Love, and you're the first of the Second Joined! Command said you'd come eventually, when you realized the danger-"
"Hold on!" Sora exclaimed, suddenly starting to panic. *Second Joined? I'm not staying here! I can't! Mimi...my mother...my life!* "I'm not an anything-Joined! I'm just here because...I don't know why I'm here! I was brought here! A Snimon attacked me..."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Missy said softly, looking miserably disappointed. "I...I thought..." She took a deep breath, and sighed. Sora felt bad all of a sudden, like she'd let this girl down somehow.
*That's crazy! I'm not letting this 'Command' drag me into some nutso scheme of theirs...if Tai and Joe want to stay here cut off from the world, that's their business, but as for me, no thank you!*
"It's all right," the teenager said, looking a little more cheerful. "My grandma always did say, 'when you assume, you make an ass of u and me.' I didn't make you an ass, but *I* sure look pretty stupid right now..."
"No, you don't," Sora said, now fully dressed except for the baffling fastener-less slit down the back of her jumpsuit. "You sound like a very smart young lady who just made an honest mistake. Now please, tell me how this thing works."
Missy looked up to see Sora's predicament. "Oh! Yeah, that confused me the first time, too. Here, you press this thing here." She pointed at a metal stud in the back of the collar that Sora had noticed earlier, but had dismissed as decoration of some kind.
Sora obliged, and sucked in her breath in a little gasp as the slit seemed to knit in on itself, becoming solid fabric. The jumpsuit also seemed to shrink slightly, fitting as if perfectly tailored to the shape of her body.
"Holy crap! How do I get *out* of this thing?!" she exclaimed, starting to panic. Missy giggled.
"You press the button again. See?" She pressed it for her, and the slit reopened as the suit seemed to relax around her. Sora blinked, then grinned, opening and closing the suit several times with the fascination of a little kid with a new toy.
"That's amazing! Who invented this thing?"
"My boss," Missy said, sounding pleased with the praise. "We're working on an improved version, but for now that's it. The fabric's designed to repair itself if it's torn or frayed, and it has a lightweight version of the fiber-armor that Defensive Technology Team created built into the weave. It wouldn't stop a bullet, but it holds out against most physical attacks."
Sora blinked...repeatedly. "Wow. So, I'm wearing military technology?"
"Project technology," Missy corrected. "But, more or less, yes."
"Wow," Sora said again. Shaking her head in disbelief, she sat down on the edge of the tub and picked up her boots, putting them on. They seemed to be relatively ordinary footwear, if a little more comfortable than most boots she'd worn. Standing up, she shifted from foot to foot, testing them out. They would do nicely. She grinned.
"This is just...wow. Hey, I'm starving. Is there anything to eat around here?"
Missy nodded. "I'll get Joe."
"What, is he going to make food pop out of the walls? Because, at this point, I wouldn't be that surprised. Impressed, yes; but surprised, no."
The teenager giggled. "Naw, we haven't figured that much out yet. Food still 'pops up' the usual way; good old-fashioned cooking. There's a cafeteria run by Nutrition Team, and of course the Quonset, but you'll probably be eating with a couple of the First Joined."
Sora grinned at the thought of seeing her old friends again, whatever weird titles Command had given them. "So, how soon do we eat?"
"Pretty soon," Joe said, stepping through the doorway. Both women jumped, and Missy swore under her breath.
"For someone called Reliability, you sure like to surprise people, don't you?" Missy griped. Joe pulled her ponytail in an older-brotherly way and grinned.
"Anything for you ladies. Sorry to interrupt, Sora, but you have an invitation to breakfast, and the food's nearly ready."
Sora grinned. "Ah, breakfast. You have no idea how good that word sounds right now. I think my stomach is collapsing in on itself."
"I thought your digestive system might be ready for solid food again," Joe said knowledgably. Sora snorted.
"Ready? I'll say it's ready. Let's go before I pass out from hunger!"
"Bye, Sora!" Missy called as Joe steered his patient out the door. "Jya ne!"
"See you around!" Sora called back, and they turned the corner out of sight.
_________________________________________________________________________________
*grins* Yes, Moonlight, I know you reviewed...and I thank you for it most effusively. You have a tendency to keep me going when nobody else will review me, lately...so I might as well dedicate this chapter to your unfailing evaluation, ne? Here, just to make it official...
This chapter is hereby dedicated to Moonlight Star. M_~* Arigatou gozaimasu!
Furthermore, just to let you all know, this happens to be the last post of my sixteenth year. The 19th of February is the illustrious day on which I shall turn seventeen. Here's to hoping for luck in the years to come! And thank you to all who review and support me!
-bandit tanukionnanoko O_o