Chapter 11: Ambiguity
Ash and Misty quietly followed the thief and this strange man. They tried to listen to their conversation, but they were having difficulty making out what they were saying, because things kept blocking the sound as they ducked behind dumpsters and the distance between themselves and their two enemies kept changing.
"What exactly are these…'ator' things you're talking about?"
"They are made of ternary data. The Linonian Empire has been using them for decades as soldiers."
"What are they doing here? Is this planet one of the Linonian's enemies?"
"Yes and no: it's more like they're a target for our attack."
"There doesn't seem to be all that much destruction to the buildings around here. If you're fighting a war, then why are you leaving the buildings standing?"
"It's not necessarily the buildings that we need to destroy. To be sure, it doesn't matter to the Empire or me what happens to the buildings. The purpose of the ator is to break the spirits of the people and digimon that are native to this world."
"Digimon? What're digimon?"
"I'm surprised that you don't know; most humans on this planet would know what a digimon is. …And weren't those digimon you were using before?"
"Digimon? No, they were pokémon."
"Pokémon? Hmm…are they a type of digimon?"
"Maybe. What're digimon?"
"Subspace-interactive life-forms that have biological bodies in normal space. They follow strict evolution chains that are divided into seven stages: egg, infant, intraining, rookie, champion, ultimate, and mega. All digimon follow that pattern."
"Hmm…pokémon aren't like that. Their evolution chains are a little freer than that. Some don't even evolve at all. And I don't know anything about subspace."
"I doubt you shall need to for the job we have in mind for you."
"What exactly will I be doing?"
"There is an experimental project that one of our scientists has proposed. You see, we have come across an individual who has some sort of subspace link with a digimon. Apparently, he can force the digimon to achieve one of its higher forms with its link. We're not sure how long it will take for our project to be completed, but it is clear that a human agent will be necessary for us to accomplish our project."
"And I'm one of your candidates?"
"Yes."
"What exactly would my salary be?"
The man in the blue shirt gave the question some thought. "I believe that a position as executive of Earth's mining operation would be the first thing I would offer you. Once the Empire has control, that is."
"Power, huh? …It's a start."
"Of course, you would receive all the perks that come with the job. All the salary you need to live in luxury, command over Linonian troops, and maids doing your every bidding…sounds nice to you?"
"I'm in! But one thing: could you have the ator bring in a few of the easier-on-the-eyes girls instead of icing them? I'll want them doing my every bidding."
"I suppose we could arrange something, although ator have not been programmed to judge beauty."
The thief laughed. "You'd think not!"
They stopped. "Here we are," the man in the blue shirt said.
"So…this is your headquarters?"
"No, this is the end of our stroll." Out of nowhere, a smallish spaceship seemed to shimmer into existence. It looked as though it would only hold one passenger.
As the two circled to the other side of the craft, their voices grew more distant. "We're riding in that thing?"
"Yes. It wasn't designed for one of your race; Linonians are actually a lot smaller than you are. I shall have to flood the cargo area with atmosphere and put you in there in place of this robotic body. It will be a tight squeeze, but the ride should be short."
Reluctantly, the thief got into the ship. The spaceship took off and left the man wearing the blue shirt lying on ground as though he were dead. Ash wasn't sure how he should react to this, so he and Misty didn't leave their hiding places. "Could you hear what they were saying?" he asked.
"No, I couldn't."
"Do you think he's dead?" Ash asked, gesturing towards the body.
"I don't think I want to check. It could be a trick. He still has that gun in his pocket."
"Didn't look much like a gun to me, and he might have stuff with him that will help us figure out what's going on."
"Ash, I really don't think that we should check to see."
"I'm willing to risk it."
"Ash, no!!" Misty hissed. Ash didn't listen: he picked up a chunk of brick that was lying next to them. He tossed it in the direction of the man, and he hit him squarely on the face. The man reacted the way a corpse would react: he didn't flinch at all.
"Even if he's not dead, then that would've knocked him out." Ash got up and left the hiding place.
"ASH!!!"
Ash didn't listen Misty's repeated cries. He walked up to the body, knelt next to it, and fished around in its pockets. He only came up with two items: a pencil that had something written on it, and the weapon he'd been carrying. Ash pocketed both items and walked towards Misty, hoping she'd still be there. She had hidden herself so well that Ash didn't even see her until he was next to her. "He sure acted dead," Ash said.
Misty looked like she was crying.
Ash helped her to her feet. Pikachu jumped into her arms. "Chu, chu!" he tried to reassure her.
"Misty, there never was any danger. I---"
Misty slapped him across the face. "Don't you dare ever scare me like that again, Ash Ketchem! If you die, I don't know what would happen to me!"
Her right hook made Ash speechless. He didn't say anything at all as he led her back to the power plant, but he silently hoped that, from what he'd found and heard, there would be some clue so as to what these menace machines---or "ator"---were…and why they were ravaging planet Earth.
******
Rika had never been whipped for something she'd done before in her life. In fact, she had hardly ever even been punished. She felt very abused. And it gets better: she was no longer on seek patrol. Izzy had demoted her to cleaning maid. That meant everything from cleaning floors to toilets, two things Rika didn't know anything at all about. She felt like Cinderella: mistreated, stepped on, and overworked.
She felt like life wasn't even worth living: she had no friends and a bad job, not to mention nothing but disapproval. That is, she had nothing but disapproval that was backed up with punishment: she'd been an only child, so she was spoiled and was rarely punished. Any disapproval her parents had shown had been empty and unbacked. But Yolei's disapproval was backed with punishment, and Rika was terrified of it and hated it.
Yolei had whispered into Renamon's ear that Rika needed 24-7 supervision. Renamon sort of knew that already. She kept her mouth shut as she and Rika scrubbed floors. There didn't seem to be any dialogue at all, until Davis said, "Don't block the screen!" as she got between him and the television set.
At the end of the day, Rika flopped down on her bed and wept into her pillow. Renamon wasn't sure what was to be done…Rika neither told her to leave nor asked her for help. Renamon looked down out of shame, but moving her eyes had another effect: she noticed that the boxes Tina had brought in were still unopened and lay on the ground. So she began opening the boxes that had clothes in them and putting the clothes in Rika's closet.
Rika only seemed to notice that Renamon was even there because of the noise of her opening boxes and folding clothes. Rika didn't even bother to tell Renamon that she wanted to be alone; that was rhetorical, by now. She just gave Renamon the dirtiest stare she could make her face give.
Renamon ignored Rika's glare and finished folding clothes. She looked up at Rika, and did something she wondered if she wouldn't regret: she walked up to Rika's bunk, nuzzled her face, and licked a few of the tears off from Rika's cheeks. Rika didn't know how to react to this. Still, not one word was said. Their eyes were locked for a minute, as if silently asking each other what was going on between them. Renamon saw Rika's uncertainty, and was satisfied that she'd affected Rika somehow. Renamon walked back to the cushion on the floor that she had been using for a bed, curled up, and tried to get to sleep. She felt a pillow smack her beneath the ribs. She let out a yelp and looked up at Rika. Rika was still sulking, but she was done crying. She was staring off into space with a scowl, not looking at Renamon at all.
POW! Renamon hurled the pillow back at Rika, but she didn't hit her. The pillow landed a few centimeters above Rika's head. Rika threw it back. POW! Rika got it in the face. All the more forcefully, Rika pitched the pillow in Renamon's direction. She waited for the shot to be returned. It wasn't. Rika kept staring off into space and fought her curiosity so as to what Renamon was doing, trying desperately to remain indifferent. Eventually, her curiosity won, and she glanced at Renamon.
Renamon was waiting for Rika to look, and she had the pillow in her hands, ready to attack. The moment she saw that Rika had looked, she slapped Rika across the face with the pillow. Rika began fighting back with her other pillow, and, before they knew it, they were in a pillow fight. Renamon let Rika win this one, and, to her great relief, Renamon heard Rika giggle as she pummeled her with the pillow.
Renamon faked a swoon, took a few steps backwards, and played dead on top of her cushion. She didn't look at Rika for fear of making Rika think she was gloating over having forced Rika to have a good emotion. She didn't even peek to see how Rika was. After the lights had gone out, Renamon knew Rika was going to sleep, so she curled up on her cushion and went to sleep, herself, hoping that this had done more good than harm. But what was it really going to do for Rika…?