When the dawn's light breaks through her window, Ranamon slowly stirs to life, though her movements are those of one who's will to go on has been stripped from her very essence. As she props herself up on her elbows, she looks around the room, realizing the cold, unforgiving hospital venue she's located at will not provide any sort of comfort from the nightmares she had occurred the night before. Weakly she reaches over and hits the call light, and a few moments later a Biyomon walks into her room.
"Good morning," she says solemnly. "Is there something I can get you?" Ranamon returns the question with a slow shake of her head as she begins to shuffle out of the bed gently. "Ma'am?"
"I.. I want to go for a walk.. I need... escape. Something to get my mind of Mikael.. Anything..." Biyomon nods reluctantly and helps Ranamon to her feet, carefully helping her along. Most of the medical equipment that had been attached to her has been removed allowing much more freedom of movement. As the two digimon shuffle through the halls, Ranamon tries to find anything to distract her, but nothing is working.
"Excuse me?" the Biyomon clears her throat, grabbing the imp's attention. "May... may I ask a couple of personal questions?" Ranamon looks a bit surprised by the request but slowly nods her head. "What... what exactly is your relationship with that Renamon? Is he your lover?" Ranamon blushes terribly upon hearing the final part of the question and shakes her head furiously, causing herself to become light headed almost instantly. The nurse helps steady her and seats her in a chair near their location.
"God no!" she manages to finally say after clearing her head. "I honestly haven't even known him for a day!"
"Then..." Biyomon pauses, trying to figure out what exactly to ask. "Then why are you showing such.. concern? Such heartache at the sight of him in his condition?" Again, the terrible red glow returns to Ranamon's face, not truly realizing just how much concern and caring she was showing for one she'd just met not 48 hours ago. As the pink bird digimon and the water imp talked, Starmon made his way to Mikael's room, knocking on the door gently. The black furred fox weakly looks over at his visitor, his eyes lacking the glimmering shine normally in the gaze of a living being. Starmon was sure this was just to weakness and his battle, but the air given off in the room felt as though a shroud of guilt was filling the atmosphere.
"'Scuse me, youngin'..." Starmon begins, almost apologetically, "I know ya'll are needin' yer rest and all that.. but.. I need to ask you a few questions..." The Renamon can only nod a bit for the time being as he forces himself to try and sit up. The sheriff rushes over to try and stop him but the fox refuses to listen and sits up anyway, grabbing the glass of water next to his table and taking a slow sip, wincing heavily at the pain of swallowing. "First an' foremost... How exactly did you arrive here, son? You told me you were a human, didn't ya?" He glances at the ebony beast, who nods.
"Yes," Mikael finally speaks, his voice hoarse and weak from having a tube in it, as well as just the general state of his physical being. "I was one of the digidestined who came to this world. When the time came for us to return after the beings of this world decided who would be the ones to stay and fight for the destiny of the world, I was not one selected. But my... my stubbornness I had picked up in the real world had gotten the best of me, and instead of listening to the voice of reason, I found a way to stay behind." As he finishes his first part of his story, his voice crackles and fades as he whimpers weakly as the horrid scratching in his throat picks up like the feeling of a random object tickling the throat driving one mad. He tries to chase it away with another painful sip of water, but to no avail. As he mentioned before, the stubbornness kicks in and he forces himself to speak through the annoyance and pain anyway. "However.. after a fair time of wandering your world.. I had.. had lost track of how long I had even been here to begin with.. I ran into something. I still am trying to figure out what the digimon was. I have never seen such a beast before, and have yet to see him again. But in an instant, without a second though.. I was dead. He so much as simply looked at me, in that moment decided I needed to die and struck me down so fast I didn't even have time to inhale the final terrified breath before my body was destroyed." Starmon's eyes slowly open wide at the revelation of the events, knowing that some digimon are more than willing to kill without reason. "So.. I floated.. Just waiting in the digital trash bin, awaiting my time for my file to be selected and deleted. I'm guessing someone had other plans though.. and when I was awoken, Primary Village filled my sight. That bright, vibrant almost headache inducing colors surrounded me. Elecmon greeted me, wondering why a black Renamon had suddenly appeared in his village. Even I had no answers."
"My word... that is a very odd tale you've got there youngin'... My next question... what exactly did this digimon look like?" The fox shakes his head again, his gaze fixed on the covers of his bed, one gauntlet covered paw caressing the other tenderly, the claws unconsciously scratching at the area where a tube was being fed into a vein.
"I can't even tell you. I only saw his back.. And the moment he spun, his attack was already being launched. I saw nothing.. Not a single thing of him. Just only my demise." Starmon shook his head a bit, slightly in disbelief even though he knew many a digimon who would do such a thing, but also because part of him didn't believe what was being said. "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Mikael asks, still clawing slightly at the slightly raised piece of exposed flesh on his paw where the IV tube has punctured his flesh, the continual agitation beginning to draw a bit of blood. Starmon notes this, and shakes his head again. The next time he speaks, something in his voice has changed, a new tone, much more serious. "If there is nothing else..." he begins, a dagger point to his speech, as though wanting the intrusive star to leave, "then please be gone.. I need my rest.."
"Son, you best stop pickin' at that. It ain't gonna help none, and it'll probably make a nurse or two mighty angry." Mikael's eyes suddenly snap open, and his entire personality seems to change as he looks down, realizing he's drawing blood from the spot, actually having torn the hole open some so the tube has become loose in it's resting spot.
"Oh... yes, I.. I mustn't do that. You're right, sir. Thank... thank you. I do need to lay down for a bit though, if you don't mind. I am feeling a bit light-headed." After a once over, the sheriff digmon nods his head and stands up, walking away a few paces facing Mikael, as though afraid to turn his back to him. When he felt a comfortable range away, he turned and walked out of the room briskly. Traversing the halls, he runs into Ranamon and stops.
"I don't know about that kid anymore..." he begins, staring at her through half glared eyes, though a fire lit in his soul, a ping on an instictual radar having gone off, "But I don't like him as much as I did before. There's something wrong with him. Like he's got a second person in that head of his. I want you keeping your distance from him for now, little lady, you got that?" Ranamon looks up at him, a bit shocked and taken aback by his orders. She watches as Starmon points a finger rigidly towards the Biyomon with her. "If she makes so much as an attempt to see that thing, I want her stopped, got it?" The pink bird digimon is also surprised by the sudden turn in the town's law official. She halfheartedly nods, unsure of how to answer otherwise. "And if she does, you had better tell me, is that clear? If I have to, I will come and take that fox out of here myself and put him where he can't get to her!"
"Now wait just a darn minute!" Ranamon proclaims, though her head rush returns from the sudden rise in her own aggression. "How can you say such a thing about a mon who just threw his life on the line for a complete and total stranger he hadn't met not even 24 hours ago?!" As she barks out, her hands clench into tight balled fists, her own nails almost digging into her flesh and drawing blood as her face flushes in anger. "And how can you insinuate that he would be something evil or that he's hiding something from us?!" In an instant, her cheek burns from the fiery sensation of being struck, and she falls to the floor as a loud yelp of pain escapes her lips. Biyomon looks at Starmon, who's hand is following through from slapping the water imp off the bench she was perched on.
"Sir! Leave the grounds immediately! That was uncalled for and if you do not remove yourself right now, I wll have someone come and escort you out!"
"Shut it!" Starmon barks. "Don't give me that nonsense! I'm the law of this here town and I'll see myself out thank you very much! Don't think you can order me around like that!" As he turns to leave, he spins into a large body of fur. Looking up as he backs away a couple of short bursted steps, he looks up to see Mikael's eyes glaring directly at him. His pupils are absent, a low, violent, primordial growl emitting from the depths of his throat as the paw that he was scratching at lashes out, gripping to the top point of Starmon, the equivalent of gripping the top of a normal being's head. "LET GOA ME THIS INSTANT!" As he reaches up to grip the forearm of the fox beast, he's slung hard over Mikael's shoulder, and into a wall. The crash knocks a reception's desk on the other side, sending files and binders shaking, some dropping to the floor and scattering forms and paperwork everywhere.
"If you ever... EVER strike the lady again," Mikael begins, the growl continuing as he speaks making his voice seem almost demonic in nature to match the entire shift in his personality, "I swear, I will find you. Even if takes me hunting you to the ends of the digital world... I WILL find you, and you will die.. a slow.. horrible.. painful... terrible death.. and I will scatter pieces of you for others to find across all the continents of this plain! Have I made myself clear?!" His chest heaves back and forth heavily as his claws clench and release, veins showing on the spots of exposed flesh as his adrenaline races. Ranamon looks at Mikael in a terrified shock, unaware he was capable of such a display as Starmon picks himself up off the floor slowly, the shock of the hit having knocked him senseless for a moment.
"Son...!" he begins but begins to back away as he does, "You just chose the wrong battle to fight!" Starmon quickly retreats into the lobby and exits quickly. As he vanishes from sight, Mikael's entire body heaves forth a bit as his upper body sulks towards the floor. Falling forward more, he lands on his knees, his strength suddenly sapped from him, a loud groan comes forth as he looks up slowly to a blurred and fading world before passing out once again. His face plants heavily into the tiled floor, leaving him with Ranamon, Biyomon, and various other visitors, patients and staff staring at him in disbelief.