Ben10 & Digimon Tamers
Heroes and Humanity
Part 02: Humanity and Heroes
What Happens in Bellwood... – Chapter 44
Originally Written: July 7, 2016 1209PM to 244PM
. . . . .
"Albedo." Jenrya's soft voice filtered through his bedroom door. Jenrya knocked again, "They're not here to arrest you."
"Hah!" Swamps spat out, glaring past Albedo and at the door.
Albedo leaned against the door, arms folded. He looked at his trio of odd followers. Fridge sat on the bed. Swamps stood, body stiff, looking at the door. Hugh paced, wringing his hands.
"They just want to ask you some questions."
Outside the room, stood Yamaki Mitsuo himself, along with Rose. Ykcat, Haiphen and Akari were outside the apartment waiting, from what Albedo understood. He thought Takato was around, but wasn't sure. Ryo was with Henry, Yamaki and Rose, sitting on the couch last he saw.
He closed his eyes and sighed. He pushed away from the door. Swamps continued scoffing and laughing at Jenrya's responses.
"Stop that." He scolded in a whisper, "He doesn't know that I'm supposed to be in prison."
The trio looked at him wide eyed.
"I'm confident neither I nor anyone else told him." He looked down at the floor, eyes shifting.
"But we all know what 'bringing someone in for questioning' means." Fridge shook his head. "Maybe we should have skipped town when we had the chance."
"Too many people." He responded automatically.
"Y-you can't go back t-there." Hugh breathed quickly as he looked at Albedo. "I-it's not right."
"Yea," Swamps and Fridge agreed.
He looked around. With Jenrya so close, he wasn't willing to risk fighting to escape. He couldn't take the easier route. Hugh would go partially splat if he jumped from this height. Swamps would go completely splat, and Fridge would survive, if he actually had any sense of self preservation within him. Any other attempts of escape would trigger much more attention on him than he'd like to have.
"Consider it a consolation that he hasn't started shooting at us yet, sir." Rose spoke. He looked at the plumber blaster propped up against a night table, waiting to be used.
"That's not a consolation. What is is that he won't shoot as long as Henry's standing in front of the door." Yamaki responded.
Albedo clenched his fists and snarled. Fridge quickly jumped and grabbed his wrist.
"Albedo doesn't think of me as a meat shield, Yamaki." Jenrya spoke, voice piercing. "I'd appreciate it if you'd not say that again."
"Those nut jobs think you're the bad guy." Swamps spat, "Idiots." He rolled his eyes.
He took a breath. He exhaled. Despite the situation, he remained more calm than he thought he would. His heart wasn't racing too fast, as it had a habit of doing lately. He took another deep breath. The only thing annoying him was Yamaki's comments. He couldn't tell if the male was actually angry at him either, which made the whole thing a bit worse.
A part of him wondered why. He didn't mind that he hadn't turned into a blubbering mess, but it did leave him curious. Still, that calm didn't prevent him from not needing to make an action. The longer he waited, the harder things would become. Word would spread, and the next thing he knew there'd be news helicopters and those dumb plumbers would call in Tennyson to do their dirty work.
He shook his head. He took another breath. "Do not tell them anything. Do not give them anything."
"Course, they know what they're doing." Swamps narrowed his eyes at the door.
"Y-you won't go back there." Hugh clenched his fists.
Fridge let go of his wrists. He nodded to Albedo. "We trust you way more than them."
"We're not going back there." Albedo picked up the blaster, holding it the wrong way. He opened the door.
Jenrya smiled warmly at him. "It's okay. I promise."
Albedo kissed him on his forehead. He glanced at Ryo. The brunette stood behind everyone. "I know."
Fridge, Swamps and Hugh stood behind him, dutiful and faithful.
"I believe this is yours." He held the blaster out to Rose.
She looked at Yamaki, and took it from Albedo after Yamaki nodded in response. "Thanks."
He nodded, "You did ask me to return it." He looked at Yamaki.
"It's good that you're cooperating, Albedo. Things will be a lot easier this way."
He doubted it, but still felt they wouldn't be as bad as he originally thought it would be.
Yamaki looked at the trio behind him, "You three complicate things."
There it was. Albedo glared. "You said just me."
"But you knew that wasn't the case. Don't play dumb, Albedo. It doesn't suit you." Yamaki spoke in a stern voice.
Swamps growled.
Albedo lightly kicked a leg. 'Not a word. Not a word. Not a word.' He repeated in his head.
"What?" Jenrya looked at Yamaki, "What did they do?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he looked from Yamaki to them.
"That's classified, Henry." He looked at the teen with a hard stare.
Albedo imagined that Swamps' glare was way more intense. As it was, Yamaki's blue eyes were barely intimidating to him.
"My hands are tied with this one. They may be in custody for a while." He continued.
"What! But-!?" Jenrya clenched his fists.
"Henry." Ryo spoke
Jenrya looked back at Ryo. Ryo shook his head.
"Momentai Henry." Terriermon tapped his head with an ear.
Swamps scoffed, Albedo wondered if a Methanosian could give a single finger salute. If they could, Swamps probably saluted multiple times by now he assumed. He wasn't holding the salute, if he was even doing so though. Fridge had yet to scold him.
"Henry. You knew we were looking for him. You knew he was here since we started searching. Yet you didn't say anything. In this case and reasoning, higher ups may consider your actions criminal."
He watched Jenrya lower his head. He wondered if he should have told Jenrya all of what he had done back in America. Still, he remained calm somehow.
"I'd tread very carefully for now." Yamaki continued.
"They helped so much during the invasion though..." Jenrya shook his head. "They're nice people." He continued. He smiled at all of them.
Albedo kissed his forehead, "Shh." He smiled back.
"Good deeds only absolve someone of something so much, Henry. You know that."
Albedo ran a hand through Jenrya's hair.
Tears lined the brim of Jenrya's eyes, "They said..."
"Shh, I'll be back." Albedo glanced at Ryo, shifting only his eyes. Ryo nodded.
"Can we go?" Swamps spat, "Making Henry cry when he's been so nice to us. Pissing me off." He folded his arms.
"Swamps." Fridge scolded.
Terriermon patted Albedo's head with an ear, "You have an odd style of crazy."
"Do you like it?" Albedo smirked. Rose shivered.
"Very well," Yamaki said, "Rose. Play nice and this won't become a scene."
"Against protocols and everything, Yamaki?" Albedo circled around Jenrya.
"Don't you think your luck is low enough?"
"I would need to function via luck first." He waved a hand. Somehow, even though his stomach was performing back flips, and his limbs shook just enough someone would notice if they looked hard enough or touched him, he wasn't assaulted by images of green eyes and Mr. Smoothy shops. Dare he say, despite his wariness of the entire situation, he felt giddy. Excited.
Yamaki scoffed, "Cocky Galvan."
He glanced once more at Ryo as he passed Monodramon. Ryo shook his head, smiling and holding in a chuckle.
His trio followed him, followed by Yamaki and Rose. He placed his hands in his pockets as Yamaki spoke.
"I apologize for this level of intrusion, Henry."
"N-no...I-I understand."
He rocked on the balls of his feet.
"We need to be sure he had no time to run."
He tapped his fingers to the beat of a song he once heard Fridge sing.
"Albedo can be a pleasant individual, but he is still quite dangerous."
"He's..."
"I wish I had the chance to tell you sooner that you need to keep your guard up around him. I'll need to reiterate the point it seems."
"H-he is not-!"
"It's fine Hugh." Albedo spoke. "Let them think what they will."
"Please turn back around." Rose requested.
"B-but it's not-!"
"I know." He looked at Haiphen and Akari.
Hugh sighed, frustrated.
"Shall we go?"
Both plumbers looked at him with caution as they held their weapons. Smaller, easier to conceal white guns, still fashioned in the traditional plumber style. Albedo felt more unconcerned than concerned, as he resumed tapping his fingers. Monodramon stood next to him, head tilted as the Digimon looked at him. Yamaki and Henry continued speaking for a short time, but soon they were off again.
Albedo did have to hand it to Yamaki. None of the apartment dwellers who saw them were reacting in any way save for curiosity. With the plumbers dressed in sleek black suits and Ryo dressed casually, he supposed the whole thing looked quite important, but not as serious as it would have if the plumbers were wearing the more traditional high tech suits and Ryo was Justimon. Maybe the whole thing was Ryo's idea, he wondered.
He slipped into a vehicle and sat next to Hugh in the back seat. Fridge and Swamps were in another unmarked plumber vehicle. Albedo folded his arms and leaned back into the seat. Hugh sat wringing his hands. Albedo took in a deep breath.
The shining sun and the cool breeze reminded him of much less annoying times. He hoped to return to such times as soon as he could.