I don't own digimon.

Story 60

Answer Me

Joseph 'Joey' Elliot Spence was not expecting to be facing down an actual chosen. At least, not the one that most closely resembled his supposed father. Leave it to Shade to have the last laugh as he tried his hardest to clean up this mess. Though, he would no doubt need to keep that information to himself. Fidgeting with his labcoat and pants, why did Suiko choose now of all times to order food? She had to see this coming. If this was an actual trap, their digimon partners would've probably showed up and helped them save the day.

"Let me guess. You're here to talk about hybrids?" the shadow scientist announced, hands more than ready to reach for his staff and disappear into the dark itself.

"Yes. I assume that you know something?" Koushiro Izumi announced and Joey looked away. Part of him wanted to play dumb and claim ignorance. But considering a chosen child who had saved the word multiple times had gone through the trouble of tracking him down rather than someone like Aaron or even Victoria (god rest their souls if it came down to that), they were obviously desperate for information. Or at least, this particular one was.

"Yes. Where do you want me to start?" Joey announced as Suiko walked over. Dressed in a gray blouse with a surprisingly modest skirt, it reminded Joey of her sister. But he shoved that thought away and forced his gaze back to the person questioning him.

"The point in which you became hybrids." Koushiro announced, Joey's gaze shifting to Suiko. While they had no room to really 'lie', they also had no way of knowing how much they should give to Koushiro.

"Joey, and my sister Alice kind of accidentally lucked into their forms by way of a threat being too powerful for just them and their digimon to defeat." Suiko announced and was met with an eyebrow raise from Koushiro. So much for that simple explanation.

"Why didn't you just… evolve your digimon? You seem more than capable of doing that." Koushiro inquired and Joey let out a deep breath. This was obviously a bad idea to be talking to this guy. Chosen or not, he was obvious-

Cutting himself off, Joey took a moment to calm himself. Koushiro was just trying how they manage to do something that most people with digimon could only dream of. It was only natural that he

"It's kind of hard to evolve anything when you don't have a digivice." Joey continued and pulled a pocketwatch out. Setting it down on the table, Koushiro's gaze shifted to the timekeeping device. Done up ebony black with some light accents, the sound of ticking echoed across the area. Not to be outdone, Suiko dug into her blouse and pulled out a pocketwatch as well. Unlike Joey's, hers had an almost ethereal glow and sounded as if it was ticking only half the time. But that was probably a trick of the ears.

"These were as close as we got to a proper 'digivice'. As you can probably see, they don't quite have all the features that are probably packed into those smartphones." Suiko explained as both members of Delta put their pocketwatches away. Turning back to Koushiro, they were met with a smartphone.

"That doesn't answer why you don't have digivices in the first place." Koushiro answered and Joey looked down at the table. Done up with a blue faux granite finish, it was definitely not designed to be punched. At least, not by someone of his caliber. Why did it matter to him so much? He was the genius here. At some point or another, he had to ponder the possibility of a world without digivices and/or people capable of creating them. But no, he was selling out the information of all the chosen in the world for the sake of one reason or another. Kind of like that whole Eosmon mess.

"Everyone who could give them to us was dead or trying to kill us! That's why!" Joey screeched and leaned forward. Pulled back by Suiko, it took everything in his power to not pull his staff and smash it right into Koushiro's head. Looking over to Suiko, he did his best to communicate the way he was feeling right now. Met with a nod, he felt the spirit scout squeeze his hand.

"Joey, is there anything else that I can do for you?" Suiko whispered and Joey shook his head. Forcing his attention back to Koushiro, the chosen of knowledge looked unfazed by all of this.

"By your hand or someone else's?" Koushiro continued, somehow not quite registering the state that Joey was in. Or perhaps he did, but decided that somehow getting answers was somehow better than not getting a punch to the head or a swing of the staff.

"Mr Izumi, what do you think?" Suiko announced, squeezing her boyfriend's hand one more time for good measure. While they very much needed to play this cool to not get their asses kicked by what digimon these chosen had on hand, it didn't make the actual talking any easier. That was definitely Alice's strong suit. She had a way of words that none of the other members of Delta could match. Aaron and Fatemon could get close, but she had honed her craft far beyond them. Sadly, that proficient tongue had not been passed onto her. No, that was perhaps asking a touch too much of the powers-to-be when she was split off of the spirit gambler. A shame, but a necessary evil for the future. Especially now that things were a lot more stable than they used to be. "Why yes, we were more than capable of turning humans into digimon breeding machines and then forcing them to fuck until there was enough digi-eggs to repopulate the digital world. Oh wait. We were just adventurers trying our to best to figure what the fuck we had gotten ourselves into." Suiko announced and silence fell over the fast food establishment. Letting out a deep breath, she watched Izzy try to sneak some kind of text through. That, or he was writing down notes on this encounter so far. Probably that. If he was really planning something, then he would've had someone with a digimon partner come with him.

"You do realize this is quite a hard pill to swallow?" Koushiro countered as the ambience of the establishment returned to normal. Splitting his attention between Suiko and Joey, a sigh escaped his lips.

"We're very much aware of that. So is stealing a lot of people's personal information and quite possibly fucking them over later down the road." Joey announced and watched Koushiro look away. Gulping at least once, more messing around with the phone followed.

"If I didn't hand it over, I would've been killed." Koushiro answered and looked back up. Why was that they were so hung up on? As far as

"You're going to get a heck of a lot more people killed just by having a list like that." Joey announced and closed his eyes. He remembered walking through a school while searching for Shade. For what should have been a place of knowledge, nothing but the nests of transformed digimon and broken digivices. All because someone had the bright idea to hand out the list of all the chosen in the world. That was the future that awaited Lily, Officer EMT and Blade if they didn't do anything about this. "Both the present and future could be at risk here just leaving something of value on the table."

Koushiro rolled his eyes.

"I assure you that the list is safe. It's locked via the most technologically methods available with more on the way as we speak. The lock within even has a biometric container that only opens to me on all fronts." Koushiro answered and was met

"Great and all, up until someone with the technology to perfectly copy you comes by, kills you and then takes the list." Suiko explained as the food arrived. Taking care to move the food over to her and Joey, they dug in. Looking to be hamburgers, Koushiro would've much rather had something a lot cleaner and faster to eat. But it wasn't his call to make in the slightest. Nor was he hungry at all. He had the most amazing lunch of a superfood shake and a bunch of eggs. So what if he was bound to throw most of it up later. He probably already got all the nutrients anyway. Jyou and his health advice, be damned.

"That tech is so far away that I would've died before they would be able to use my biometrics." Koushiro announced and was met with a sigh from both members of Delta. Did he really not get what they were suggesting here? For a genius of his intellect, this was kind of embarrassing. No matter. They would tell him anyway.

"Dude. You really need to start remembering you're now in a world where time travel, dimensional travel and other similar shit is very much possible. Menoa was a warning. Heck, there's nothing stopping someone just showing up and taking it by force." Suiko announced as the lights were cut out. "Shit."

Almost as if to taunt them even further, the cackling of electricity echoing across the air. Letting out a sigh, out came Joey's staff. Not wanting to be left out here, Suiko brought out ghostflare.

"Let me guess. This one of the people who are capable of stealing my identity?" Koushiro inquired and was met with a nod.

"Dad, I'm not in the mood to play your bullshit games." Joey announced and was met with laughter from Shade. Ignoring that remark, a black outline formed around his body.

Joey infusion digivolve too… ShadowAngemon!

In place of the shadow scientist, now stood a creature of darkness and matter. Not quite human, but not quite a complete beast, Koushiro couldn't quite make heads or tails of it. Tempted as he was to bring up his analyzer app, something told him that he wouldn't find an entry. Turning to Suiko, he was met with a ghostly afterimage. Getting a wave, that brought with it a bolt of electricity heading his way. Ducking just in time, Koushiro found himself staring down himself. The only difference was that Koushiro was taller and not as handsome.

"I have to give it to you, Mr Izumi. You've made my job quite a lot easier." Shade announced, a smile hanging proudly in the darkness. As much as Koushiro wanted to deck him right there for good measure, he let the temptation fade from his mind. Wouldn't do any good here. Especially against someone who had the ability to shoot out concentrated electricity at the push of a button.

Ghostflare!

A spectral shotgun blast rang out, the projectiles making a beeline for Shade. Glowing in the dark, they looked like skulls in Koushiro's vision. Slamming right in the opponent, that did little to actually stop him. Probably made him more aggravated in turn.

Shadow Orb!

An orb of dark energy formed around Joey's 'claw'. Throwing it at Shade, he weathered through that as well. Responding back with yet another bolt of electricity, that forced everyone to duck down. Arcing right over, it didn't make it any less scarier than it already was.

"I expected more from you, my son." Shade announced and Joey rolled his eyes. Leave it to his father to try and rub even more salt into the wound. Not that there was anything in the way of a wound to salt in the first place. The damage had already been done and now they would have to deal with the consequences of all that had come before with the grace of a toddler rather than an adult.

"I expected you to be a parent. But we don't always get what we want. Now, do we?" Joey announced and flipped Shade off. Met with an eye roll, another bolt of lightning followed. Dodging out of the way in time, that was the other patrons' cue to finally leave before someone got seriously hurt and/or killed.

"Exactly my point." Shade announced as he stepped forward. Throwing something in the direction of Koushiro, the chosen of knowledge was pulled over by Suiko. Not even trying to fight it, he felt himself get pushed under a table. "All you had to do was hand over Koushiro and we wouldn't need to go through this whole stupid song and dance."

Silence fell over the restaurant, Suiko and Joey choosing instead to close the distance. A mix of staff strikes and shotgun blasts ring out, their opponent budging mere inches. Responding with yet more electricity, the bolt managed to hit a booth. Coming awfully close to arcing across the metal parts and into Koushiro, the attack missed by mere inches. Letting out a sigh, he carefully poked his head. This whole meeting was supposed to be a way to figure out this whole mess with hybrids and Mr Mochizuki. Instead, he was getting called out for having a list of all the known chosen in the world and getting attacked for said list. The nerve of these people.

"Can one of you please explain what the hell is going on?" Koushiro announced and found all eyes on him. Staring for a couple seconds, their gazes returned back to each other. Some whispering followed, but the chosen of knowledge was unable to really catch what was said and the context of said statements.

"A mess. How does that sound to you?" Shade announced and Koushiro shook his head. To simplify this to a single word felt like a slap in the face from someone who was going to attempt to take his body as their own. If anything, they should be ashamed.

"Like a bad answer." Koushiro responded and stood up. Heading right for Shade, he ignored the attempts by Suiko and Joey to prevent him from getting close. "It is my job to understand and decipher the mysteries of the Digital World. I will not let people like you to get in the way of my goals!"

Smashing his fist into Shade's face, Koushiro watched his doppelganger scurry back. Getting ready for another punch, Shade countered with a punch of his own. Knocking the chosen of knowledge to the ground, his focus shifted back to Joey and Suiko.

"Let me guess. This is the moment that your digimon partners appear and then you royally kick my ass?" Shade announced and Joey raised an eyebrow. Nice as that would be, he couldn't really see a need for Issacmon and Gentlemon respectively. Probably in the Digital World, having a cup of tea.

"No, I think we got this in the bag." Suiko countered and looked over to Joey. Whispering something his way, the spirit scout got a nod back.

Unity: Spirit Shade!

Upon announcing their attack, the room around the couple grew darker. Suiko jumped into the air, pumping the handle of her weapon. Pointing it in the direction of Shade, she fired of a continuous stream of bullets. Shade tried his hardest to get out of the way, but there was no escape. Engulfed by the bullets, he lost that fight.

"That was fun. Glad to keep you busy so you wouldn't be looking elsewhere." Shade announced as his body turned into data. Didn't stop laughter from echoing out as the lights turned on. Helping Koushiro back up, a sigh escaped Joey's lips. Reverting back, that was Suiko's cue to become solid once more.

"I'm sorry about that." Joey muttered and opened his mouth, only for Koushiro's phone to go off. Wasting little time in pulling it out, the chosen of knowledge unlocked the device and raised it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he announced, only for the sounds of a struggle to echo forth from the phone. Falling from his hands, Koushiro stared down at the device. Looking at his subjects, the interview would have to wait for now. No, there was something far more crucial that needed to be rectified.

"What happened?" Joey inquired, his remark falling on deaf ears as Koushiro exited the restaurant. Turning back to Suiko, he felt the spirit scout reach out to his hand. Giving it a squeeze, it felt good. Even if it did little to soothe the anxiety swirling within. "Let's follow him."

Suiko nodded and the pair headed to the exit…

Notes:

Happy (early at the time of writing this part) Seventh Anniversary Digital Adventures Online!