Chapter 47: Horse & Rider Thrown Into The Sea Air!

This wasn't the best situation, but it was obvious what needed to be done. An icy, freezing rain fell out of the sky, and there was a woman wandering about in it with no clue what she ought to be doing. Tina had a pretty good guess what this was: this woman wasn't really an adult---not in her mind, at least: she was a little girl that time had hurled into adulthood long before she was ready.

Tina told Charybdis to land and whistled loudly. "Hey!"

"H-hey!" she answered.

Tina fished around in her duffel bag, and found a trench coat inside that would be big enough to fit this woman. The woman was walking---or, more to the point, stumbling---towards them. She obviously had hypothermia. Tina ran up to her and set the coat over her shoulders. She would've put her arms through the sleeves, but her arms were folded.

Even though Tina already knew the answer to the question, she asked, "Are you okay?"

The woman was half-gasping and half-sobbing, so she didn't have breath to answer Tina's question. She shook her head.

"You're freezing cold. You need to get to someplace warm. I think we can find you a place."

The woman didn't answer.

Tina sighed. She pulled the carrot-umbrella out of her backpack. Rika rolled her eyes. Tina looked at Rika and asked, "What is it with you and 'cute', Rika?"

"Nothing…nothing at all."

"Good." Tina opened the carrot over the woman's head and decided that she'd need a little more warmth to stay comfortable. Knowing her own skin was warm to the touch, she embraced the woman. "Maybe this will help keep you warm."

The woman nodded.

Tina decided to stop breathing through her nose, at this point: she hadn't noticed before, but the woman had a terrible BO buildup---probably another result of time being torn to shreds. As unbearable as the stench was, Tina kept hugging until the woman's arms unfolded. Tina put her arms through the coat sleeves and tied up the coat.

The woman was obviously feeling better, now…she stared at Tina with a bewildered look on her face: this girl was more than twice her age, so why was she shorter? Her feet seemed so far away from her head…and she wasn't wearing the clothes she had remembered wearing… "What---what's going on?"

"Time is messed up."

"Somebody broke a watch?"

"No-no…watches only tell time; they don't change it. Time is what's messed up. It turned my parents into kids my age."

"That must've been fun."

Tina shook her head. "It's not… How old are you?"

"I'm five…"

"It looks to me like you're thirty-five…time changed you from a kid to an adult."

The woman stood perplexed for a minute…then she started to cry… "I don't wanna be a grown-up…!"

Tina wiped the tears off her face. "It's too late…it doesn't matter how much you cry; you're still going to be grown up."

The woman couldn't stop crying, however: she hadn't learned to take control of her own emotions. "I d-don't wanna be grown up!!"

Tina motioned for the others to keep going. She led the woman with them, hoping her loud sobs wouldn't attract menace machines. She made her sit down on Charybdis's back and they took off again. Tina whispered another prayer for power, and began singing again:

"♫♪When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,

My grace all-sufficient shall be your supply,

The flame shall not hurt you: I only design

Your dross to consume and your gold to refine."

The woman slowly calmed down. She hadn't understood half the words in Tina's song, but the emotion of hope and love had filtered through. The rain also slowly came to a stop as Tina wiped the tears off her face. "I know you're scared…so is everyone else. Don't worry…there's a light at the end of the tunnel." There was a short pause… "What's your name?"

"Claire."

"Claire…don't worry. You're gonna be okay."

A voice interrupted: "Don't bet on it!" Tina knew that voice. It was The Unnamed Figure, again…but, this time, he was riding a hover-scooter of some kind, and his digi-clones were riding shotgun.

GAZRIITOR:

Nickname: Trojan Hearse (Torōjān)
Real Name: Orii-tor-devohl
Caste: Khnere
Modes: One
Special Attacks:
Ota Telo
Comments:
The Trojan Hearse is an experimental menace machine, designed to facilitate faster movement for the Linonian Empire's top human operative. It is armed with three beam cannons and is very mobile and fast. It can be equipped with sidecars that will hold four rookie-level digi-clones.

Tina sighed. "Didn't we just beat you?"

"That was two days ago!"

"That was two hours ago!"

"Well, it looks like time is on my side then, isn't it? Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"

"Ewemon, digivolve to…Impostrogarurumon!"

"Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!"

"Maggotmon, digivolve to…Pestilimon!"

Tina shouted, "Ash! Have Charybdis finish off these things before they evolve any higher!"

"Charybdis, Fire Spin!" The tornado of flame blew at the digi-clones and knocked them off their feet. They landed with heavy damage.

The Unnamed Figure snarled. "Then I'll fight you myself!"

"Please…no fighting…!" Claire whispered.

"He's not giving us much choice," Tina said.

"You'll do what?!" Tiger asked.

"Don't underestimate him, Tiger…he's dumb, but he's not that dumb."

"He won't have much along the line of brains when I'm through with him! Or any other body part, for that matter---Blizzard!"

He was quick with the stick: he steered the Trojan away from the icy blast before the ice hit him.

"See what I mean?" Tina asked.

Knowing Renamon was watching, Tiger spat, "I'm not giving up! Lightning!" The bolts hit the Trojan, but they didn't do as much damage as he had hoped.

"Fire Bomb!" Hare shouted, joining in the fight. The fireball narrowly missed.

"My turn!" The Unnamed Figure squeezed the trigger on his control stick, and a trio of purple laser beams flew out and hit Hare and Tiger.

"Hare, Tiger, are you two all right?" Renamon asked.

"Never felt better!"

"Those laser beams are great for your complexion." (In reality, the lasers had burned their fur where they had hit.)

"You've had your turn, and now it's mine!" Charybdis spat. "Whirlwind!"

The Unnamed Figure pressed a few buttons on his Trojan's control panel, and his lowest cannon aimed at the ground and shot an anchoring harpoon at the pavement. He held on to the Trojan for dear life, and the Trojan managed to weather the attack without being blown away. Gasping for breath, The Unnamed Figure said, "I don't know why I bother---"

"Neither do we!" Ash spat.

"---fighting you this way when there's a much easier way to go about things!" He pressed some more buttons on his D-Gauntlet, and more giantors came lumbering in.

"Yon YoNon Gazrii!"

Charybdis took off into the air to dodge the attacks. "There are too many to take, this way!" Charybdis shouted. "We're going to have to retreat!"

"Where to? We can't just lead them back to base!" Hare shouted.

Ash shouted to Charybdis as they got out of hearing range, "If you circle around the base enough, everyone will see that we're being followed, and they'll send somebody to counterattack!"

"Who would have the kind of strength it takes to fight all these giantors, Ash?" Charybdis asked.

"I don't know…"

******

It was a strange thing that they had done to conceal their presence, but it was effective: they had set up a wall of two-way mirrors that looked like windows from the back and like mirrors from the front. The entire atrium of the college hall was covered in these mirrors, and so anyone who looked in wouldn't see their guards looking out.

Willis was one of these guards, and he saw that Charybdis was being chased by the giantors. "Whoa, boy!" he muttered as he saw that there were about eighteen giantors in the group. "This is not good!" He raced through the passageways and halls of the college to Yolei's office. "One of ours is being chased by umpteen giantors!"

"Why would they be putting that much effort into getting one of ours? Which one is it?"

"I don't know, but it was a huge, red dragon with a tornado of fire for a head!"

"Sounds like Charybdis…a new one for us. She's a super pokémon."

"Well, even a super pokémon isn't going to last with those odds. What can we do?"

"I have an idea…"

******

"Hawkmon, digivolve to…Altairmon!"

"Altairmon!"

"Gatomon!"

"DNA digivolve to…Swampangemon!"

"Swampangemon, mega-digivolve to…Abyssangemon!"

Abyssangemon stood with her back to the wall, hiding in an alleyway until the giantors had passed. Fortunately for Charybdis, the super pokémon was much faster than the giantors. Unfortunately, the giantors weren't giving up.

Charybdis flew past the alleyway.

"Get ready," Yolei whispered. They could hear and feel the footsteps of the huge menace machines as they followed their friend. But they knew what to do: as soon as the giantors passed, Abyssangemon jumped out of the alleyway.

"Justice Portal!" she shouted, making a huge, red vortex that was big enough to suck in the giantors. The giantors weren't about to be sucked in, though: they ran away from the vortex and towards Charybdis. "All right then…Manacle Blaster!" Abyssangemon swung her chain at the giantors, and bolts of lightning tangled the robots together with chains. The whole mess of them was immobilized, and they slowly were dragged backwards into the vortex. The vortex sealed itself with the giantors inside, and that was the end of that gaggle of menace machines.

The Unnamed Figure hastily broke off his attack and headed back for base.

Tina jumped off Charybdis's back and hugged her mom. "Thank, mom…I didn't know Abyssangemon had those kinds of moves, but---"

"Hey, I wouldn't let you down," Abyssangemon said. Tina couldn't tell through her vapor mask, but it looked like Abyssangemon was smiling.

Charybdis regressed back to a tired Charizard and Youngdramon. "Remind me not to do that for three solid hours," Youngdramon moaned.

"Youngdramon, are you okay?" Tina asked.

"I've been better…but I could really use some R & R…"