I don't own digimon.

Story 45

Just Keep Swimming

Ranamon looked about her surroundings and let out a sigh. As the warrior of water, she had a job to do. Which made it all the more frustrating when she ended up in a place like this. Up to the gills in children, with not an adult in sight. What kind of cruel trick did Homeostasis think they were playing here? Were they still mad at her for helping that strange bird dragon lady thing to punch them? If anything, they needed that punch. Couldn't be going around kidnapping random angewomon in the hopes of turning one 'human'. Probably wasn't possible and instead an excuse to justify doing terrible things to those that helped in preserving the balance between worlds. Something that Ranamon wouldn't put past the entity. That was exactly why she and the other legendary warriors had been put in place to keep them from getting out of hand. A futile effort, not at all helped by everything that had happened as of late. Maybe something resembling peace would come over the digital world and in turn - the human world. But Ranamon doubted it. Something was bound to happen to throw it off-kilter. It always did.

"Miss, I need you to get out of the pool. There are children who wish to learn how to swim, not get splashed by whatever you are." a voice announced and Ranamon rolled her eyes. Leave it to this world to throw a fit about her being in a pool. News flash, this was the ideal place for her if she couldn't get to a lake or ocean. The only problem here was the large amount of land between the various areas. Nor did it explain why they had brightly-colored tunes going down into some of them. Not that she could see any fun in going down them. But the warrior of water washed that thought out of her mind. Once she found whoever was talking to, then she could just ask them about the tubes. They would probably have a good enough answer to why it was like that. If not, she would just have to do it hers-

Ranamon wasn't allowed to finish that thought, a massive wave bringing a swift end to it. Looking about, she searched for whoever thought it was a good idea to attack her. Eventually focusing on a group of young children, they were laughing their asses off. Not that she could see anything to be laughing at right now. No, she was on official business that was of the utmost importance. There was no time for petty pranks like this. Ranamon just needed to set them straight. It was that simple.

Aqua Needle!

Channeling the water around her, Ranamon brought forth a massive wave. Shooting it off in the direction of her target, she watched them get sent off a considerable distance. They would think twice before trying that again. At least, that was what Ranamon hoped.

"Miss, please refrain from doing whatever you just did. We will have to take more drastic measures." a voice called out and Ranamon looked about. Where the heck had that voice come from? If she could find them, maybe they could give her some answers on where this place even was. Secondly, where the heck could her partner be? Work came first, but that could be looked past for the sake of just knowing. Maybe Ranamon could do both in some capacity. It wasn't like Homeostasis had reached the human world and was running around. Probably causing trouble for whatever vessel they had taken hold of. That had become their main gimmick as of late. Not that any of the legendary warriors had gotten to ask her why it was always brunettes or what purpose they had for them. No, their work almost always took them away from base. Heck, running into another warrior was extremely rare. Not unheard of, but Ranamon couldn't remember the last time she had seen one of her companions. Had to be right after the whole Ordinemon mess. But that was necessary for the scale of mess created. Especially with the threat of Yggdrasil on the horizon. Only they could hold the line in the face of the rampant abuse of power that thing had committed just for the sake of destroying everything. And no one wanted that. Not even the royal knights. Especially with the rumors of Alphamon finally proposing to Crusadermon. About time. There was gossip about their relationship ever since she took up this post. How long ago was that? Had to be a number of human years. It was right around the time that guy was terrorizing the digital world. Whatever happened to him?

As she thought about that, the sound of wings echoed about. Looking up, she was met with Kazemon of all digimon. Dressed in a lavender swimsuit, she had actually managed to get her wings through the garment. That would be impressive, if not for the fact that her original outfit was just lingerie with a set of gloves and boots. Half the time, most people were if they got a hooker rather than a legendary warrior.

"What the heck are you doing here? Don't you have stuff that you need to be doing?" Ranamon announced and debated switching forms. But in this small of an area, it would do more harm than good. So she would have to deal with her the old fashioned way.

"I've been down here for a while. I had hoped to find wherever Homeostasis went, but instead found my human. So I've been with them. How about you? Are you looking for your human?" Kazemon announced as she scooped Ranamon out of the pool. Setting the warrior of water on the concrete, the warrior of wind took the time to fly off to grab a towel.

"Good for nothing, Kazemon." Ranamon muttered and stared down at her boots. She knew better than to pull her out of a pool. But considering she had someone shouting at her, it probably was best to air on the side of caution. Looking in the direction of the kids that splashed her, Ranamon shook their fist. Sadly, her targets failed to register her response and instead continued to play with each other. For now, the warrior of water took to looking around for Kazemon. That stupid digimon had to be around here somewhere. Or at least, Ranamon hoped she was. If this was a trick to get her somewhere and then leave her behind, the warrior of wind would be really sorry when she was done. Such trickery was absolutely under both of them. The incident involving Homeostasis being slapped not counting at a time like this. That had been a necessary evil for the sake of the digital world's stability. That, and Homeostasis most definitely needed to be slapped for that shit. People's lives were not something to be thrown around and discarded. Balance of both worlds be damned and all that junk. Which was on top of all that had been lost to begin with. The human world was simply not ready for another major crisis. Let alone one that involved digimon. But Homeostasis didn't listen. Why else would they be in the human world, kidnapping yet another brunette. Because of course she did that. Changing was a touch too hard for the entity. Even with multiple warnings from them to do just that or face the consequences. Not that they could really hit them without getting hurt themselves.

"I'm back!" Kazemon announced and Ranamon stared up. Still dressed in her swimsuit, she was now holding a blue towel. Handing it over to her friend, Ranamon reluctantly got to work drying herself off. She would've preferred to stay wet, but that wasn't looking to be an option currently. Even if it somehow were, the warrior of water suspected she was going to be pulled away in the hopes of connecting up with her human. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"

Ranamon shook her head. The temptation to follow that gesture up with something sarcastic was very much there, but she resisted it for the moment. Wouldn't do any good if she said it, nor would it smooth over what happened with whoever was talking to her.

"Is this your friend?" a voice called out, bringing with it a man. Dressed in a blue t-shirt with a white mermaid logo emblazoned on the center, he had complimented it with a set or orange shorts. A whistle hanging from a silver chain hung around his neck, a set of cerulean eyes splitting their attention between both warriors. The finishing touch was a head of cyan hair with a baseball cap seated within. Said cap had been emblazoned with the same mermaid logo as the shirt.

"Yeah, Hayden!" Kazemon announced and began pumping her arms up and down. Getting a look from her partner, their gazes shifted back to Ranamon.

"Uh… nice to meet you." Ranamon muttered and did her best to meet the lifeguard's gaze. This was absolutely embarrassing. She should be jumping across pools. Not engaging in small talk with people whose name she would never need to remember. At least, she hoped that she wouldn't need too.

"Are you mad at me for asking you to stop splashing the kids?" Hayden inquired and Ranamon looked away. Muttering something to the concrete, she didn't get a response back. Instead, she forced her gaze to meet the pair once more.

"You could say that." Ranamon whispered as she stood up. Throwing the towel in Hayden's direction, she looked about for the best place to continue looking. But the only thing the warrior of water could find was areas filled to the brim with people. Just her rotten luck. What she would give to switch forms to Calmaramon. Not that it would do any good with all these small pools.

"Ranamon, I get that you're mad, but the least you could do is be nice to my human. I could've easily drowned you if I wanted too." Kazemon announced and Ranamon rolled her eyes. Leave it to Kazemon of all digimon to forget that she was the warrior of water. You know, the sort that could easily survive being pushed under the water.

"Kazemon, what have I told you about attempting to drown people?" Hayden announced and watched his partner focus on him. Staring down at the concrete for a couple moment, what sounded like muttering escaped her lips. Then it's right back to her partner.

"Drowning people is bad, even if some of them deserve it for the things they call people?" Kazemon answered and got a nod in return. Afterwards, his gaze shifted to Ranamon. Met with a shrug from the warrior of water, that didn't stop him from folding the towel back. Why he did that, Ranamon wasn't sure. She had just used that towel. Unless he knew a way to get it dry really fast, then the only place it should be going was wherever the bin for used towels was.

"That, and I can't really drown to begin with." Ranamon muttered and took a moment to look around one more time. There had to be somewhere she could go that was far away from these people. But all she found was even more people in the various pools. Why did whatever forces to be needed to send her down at the one time when the amount of people was so high? Wouldn't it have been better to send her down when it was nearly empty? That would've worked far better for her and maybe her partner. Unless this was the only time that they would be here? But the warrior of water pushed that thought back and let out a sigh. "Are we done here? I have an entity to track down."

Heading forward, Ranamon tried her best to make some distance between herself and the pair. Considering that Kazemon was able to fly, the actual distance between them was pretty much nonexistent by her third step. While she could jump into a pool, that meant having to deal with all the people in said pool.

"Did something happen between you and your human?" Kazemon inquired and Ranamon gritted her teeth. Per usual, Kazemon was refusing to drop the subject. That was perhaps the worst part about her in Ranamon's book. She could easily look past her airhead nature and happy-go-lucky attitude… if she wasn't peppering her or one of the other warriors with a gazillion questions. Questions that were either far more personal than Kazemon realized or were designed to pierce right through their defenses. This was somehow a mix of both. Because of course it was.

"No, I just have a job to do. A job that should come before any reunions with my 'human'." Ranamon countered and puffed her chest out. She just had to weather through this and whatever other questions that Ranamon had decided were so important to ask now of all times. Rather than whenever they got out of this situation. That would make too much sense for the warrior of wind. "You have a job as well, but you've chosen to discard that by acting as your partner's toy."

Her words rang out and she found Kazemon's gaze right on her. Landing on the concrete, she entered Ranamon's personal bubble.

"At least I wasn't the one who let an intruder into Homeostasis's home so that she could slap our master repeatedly." Kazemon countered and pushed Ranamon back. Getting a growl from her opponent, she was then met with a small beam of water.

"We can't be standing by as she possesses random brunettes without their permission. We could very easily be charged as accomplices in kidnapping." Ranamon countered and leaned forward at Kazemon's head. For a few fleeting moments, sparks shot forth to each other's faces. Thankfully, Hayden put himself between the pair and brought a swift end to that.

"Enough, both of you! I get that you're mad and all, but that is not a reason to be putting random people in danger." Hayden barked and watched both warriors take a couple steps back. Ranamon turned away from

"But Homeostasis was putting random people in danger! If she had been allowed to continue with that behavior, we were more than likely looking at kidnappings and possible instabilities across both worlds! Isn't the whole point of the legendary warriors?" Ranamon countered and leaned forward towards the pair. Why couldn't either of them see it from her perspective? She had helped that person for the sake of both worlds. But no, she was branded a heretic for daring to question what was right for an entity to do all willy-nilly. The nerve of them.

"Yes, but…" Kazemon started, the rest of the words refusing to come to her mouth. Staring back down at the concrete, she reached out to Hayden's hand. "You should have at least told the rest of us before you just let her in."

Ranamon rolled her eyes. If only it was really that simple. Coordinating with another warrior's schedule was bad enough, but to do it with all of them? That was just asking for things to go completely wrong for everyone. No, better to keep it on the low end of people that knew… regardless of the fact that her teammates did all find out once it happened.

"I was the only one at base. By the time that the rest of you would've gotten there, my 'friend' would've been long gone and the opportunity would be out of reach." Ranamon answered and looked about once more. Even with nothing in the way of anywhere to actually escape too, her partner had to have noticed this whole commotion and at least decided to check it out. Just to be on the same si-

"There you are! Do you know how worried I was about you?" a voice called out, bringing with it a tall woman dressed in a blue bathing suit. Picking Ranamon up, the warrior of water found herself spun around to meet their face. Brunette locks on full display, a set of cyan eyes stared back at her. Twinkling in the light, they put Ranamon at ease.

"Very?" Ranamon whispered and felt her body get set down. Looking over to Hayden and Kazemon, she was met with a smile. Part of her wanted to believe that this was all a coincidence, but she wouldn't put it past them.

"Morning Hayden, I trust that you haven't any troubles with people trying to set you off by calling you the wrong name?" the woman inquired and was met with a nod from Hayden. Ranamon shot him a look, not sure what to make of her partner's statement. That was something she could discern during the time spent with her partner. Quite a bit of time to catch up on, after all.