Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 02: Humanity and Heroes

What Happens in Bellwood... – Chapter 58

Originally Written: Thursday February 2, 2017 258AM to Friday February 3, 2017 621AM

. . . . .

Albedo hadn't thought much of the plumber that guarded his designated apartment that day. As long as they left him alone, he didn't mind what they did. He couldn't deny that they earned themselves points for every time they allowed Jenrya to visit him. Not very many, considering they were plumbers, but they earned enough to rank just a touch above average.

However, this plumber currently had him sitting in a bedroom with no door, looking at his hands. How could a simple question distract him for so long? The barest hints of a pink glow emanated from his fingertips. He didn't even know what he was doing. The fact that he was even in a situation where he couldn't deny not knowing what he was doing boggled his mind. How had that plumber even known?

"Have I been practicing?" He said to himself, unsure if this was what the plumber was even referring to. He couldn't even ask. He spent so much time sitting in this room that by the time he decided to take a break around two PM, they had already switched out with another guard.

He frowned. The first time he had done this, he whacked Beelzemon upside his head. He mildly injured a Mega Digimon. One of the strongest that actually existed in this universe as far as he knew. He shook his head. That didn't sound right. When was the first time? He ignored the glowing dimming completely.

Oh. It was during the Invasion. When everyone not so subtly accused him of working to sabotage the resistance attempts. He scowled. Everyone assumed the worst of him. Even before he was trapped in this shell, even more after the event. Even Jenrya. Granted, he had to work his butt off to make Jenrya wary of him, but the thought lacked any comfort.

He looked down at his hands, curious. 'Was it brighter?' He held in a sigh. 'Why am I even trying? Someone will catch me and then tell me that I've got to be placed in restraints or something equally foolish.' He flopped backwards on his bed. 'Meanwhile that nuisance with a spectacular device he doesn't fully understand gets to wander around like an animal missing its head and no one bats an eye.' He shook his hand. It tingled in a way he wasn't used to and wasn't sure he wanted to get used to.

'Hello Albedo.'

The male jumped. He looked around the room for a bit.

"You have a visitor." The guard called from the apartment doorway.

He could almost pretend he was used to Jenrya's voice in his head. A part of him kept wondering why Juggernaut didn't have the mechanical voice it usually did. Almost.

He shook his head and got off the bed. Jenrya greeted him in the living room, already seated on the couch. He pulled at his jacket sleeves. "Jenrya." He sat next to the male.

"Silly." Jenrya smiled, "Am I going to have to get you for lunch everyday?"

"I won't apologize for not being hungry." He leaned back into the couch.

Jenrya looked at him as though he were the only thing to focus on in the room. 'I know.'

He pulled at his sleeves. Maybe Jenrya wouldn't be able to tell what he had been up to. He had no intention or want to explain that Tennyson's genes somehow added another part of it's coding into his body. A part of it's coding that shouldn't have even been possible to place there. Like a program rewriting over a previously used portion of a harddrive. He wondered if Tennyson would fully rewrite him through Azmuth's manipulation of the watch until he was nothing but a husk of a rotting Galvan inside human flesh. He shuddered.

The guard returned to his post. He wondered how many people here confused them with civilians. That alone would determine how effective whatever Ryo had him involved in was. He couldn't shake the thought of those two fake plumbers coming to get him. He rubbed his arms.

Thus was the issue with knowing how every security system in a place you were at worked. He knew exactly how it could be compromised and how easy it was to compromise it. Too strong security would attract more who would be suspicious of it than weaker security measures would. That's how it would logically work at least, assuming the technology for the security wasn't for obscene levels of stealth purposes. Then again, this was Earth, so who knew what would attract the odd species known as humans.

"Albedo?"

He looked at Jenrya. Was he this close to him before? Jenrya could practically lean on him if he wanted to. "Hm?" He closed his eyes.

"I was thinking that we should talk about the other day?"

He took a deep breath, "Perhaps."

Jenrya took his hand. Was he always so touchy with him? Why would Jenrya even want to touch him? He wasn't touching technically. The thought of Jenrya touching Tennyson made his stomach churn and skin crawl.

"But not right now."

He looked off to the side, "I would rather not."

Jenrya chuckled in his mind, a soft act that touched him with amusement.

"How are you doing that?"

"The mind thing?" Jenrya whispered.

He nodded slowly. His eyes trailed over to the guards. Just because their backs were turned, in no way did that mean they weren't paying attention.

"You'll go nuts if you call them guards."

"That's what they are."

"And this is a cell?" Jenrya raised an eyebrow.

His body suddenly felt cold and clammy.

Jenrya lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry."

He shook his head, doing his best to ignore the chill and dread filling him out of sheer reflex. "They're Plumbers. Really bored Plumbers." He rested his forearms on his thighs.

'There you go.'

He looked at the materials in front of him. He had managed to work out the prototype to a D-Terminal with some more moderate fixes. Naturally, he wasn't surprised he could. 'So, how are you doing that mind thing?'

"Did you speak to me?" Jenra blinked at him curiously.

"Attempting to."

'You have to focus more than that.' He shifted so he sat Indian style on the couch, facing him. He held out his hands, palms down.

He raised an eyebrow.

'C'mon, I'll teach you.'

He weighed his options. Tennyson kept trying to kill him. Juggernaut just watched Tennyson try to kill him. Though Terriermon didn't complain about it, Albedo got the feeling that the Digimon would stay far away from his mind if he was able. Albedo shifted his seating and took Jenrya's hands into his own. Might as well have someone around who knew how to get out his head, didn't mind being there, and he didn't mind being there.

'It's like meditating, but focus on me instead of your feelings, or drifting away.'

"Hm." He closed his eyes. "Where did you get a chance to even...?"

'Terriermon. He got unusually quiet after everything calmed down a little.'

'You mean he said five sentences in a row instead of ten?'

'More like he said one word sentences. He tried to hide what was wrong, but I already knew. I just wanted him to speak to me about it. Didn't have much else I could do. When I was worrying about you, I drove everyone nuts. So I drove everyone nuts focusing on him. Mainly him. He was very surprised when he heard my voice in his head.'

He took a few deep breaths, tapping his fingers against Jenrya's hands. 'The Invasion?'

"I felt everything." He spoke in a soft voice.

He shuddered.

'At first I thought they were doing it to me. Took too long to realize otherwise.' He felt Jenrya shift, but not pull at his hands. 'But that's neither here nor there. I got a lot of practice with it. It felt like back when the others and I were taking on the Devas.'

The male's thoughts flowed into Albedo's mind almost faster than he could comprehend. He was sure he wouldn't be if he wasn't a Galvan at his core. It wasn't anywhere near like what he expected a mental conversation to be at the moment. Certainly nothing like what would air on television or in movies.

'So, just focus on me. Like you would a good textbook.'

He opened his eyes, "Is that it?"

'It's not easy. If you don't focus on it, I can't hear you. It's like getting distracted while reading. For that moment of distraction, there's no connection. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to do it second nature, but I can't right now. I get too tired.'

"I see." He murmured as he closed his eyes again. Jenrya's hands were warm in his own. His mind seemed to send its own warmth to his as well, leaving Albedo feeling calm and weightless.

'So, ready to try it out?'

He nodded, though he was unsure if Jenrya could even tell.

'I'll drop the connection and then you can try connecting to me.'

'Such phrasing sounds odd coming from you.'

'I'm not sure what else to call it. Besides, people connect with each other all the time. Just not always with programs that connect to a parallel Digital Planet.'

He felt Jenrya smiling in his mind. The feeling lingered, even after it started to fade a few moments later. He took slow breaths and counted. He figured that since they were holding a conversation he could start with focusing on speaking to the male.

'Jenrya?'

The male sat still, leaving Albedo with his too crowded mind. He wasn't sure why he bothered with the method outside of it being something Jenrya did. Sure it served to calm him, but calm never lasted long. Everything always refilled his temporarily quiet mind.

Jenrya squeezed his hands tightly.

He remembered the days his mind was quiet only when he diligently worked on an assignment for his mentor. Back then, when it raced, his mind headed towards bold new technological and genetic ideas. Ideas his foolish mentor would more than likely reject, but ideas nonetheless. He smiled, and nearly wished meditation didn't make him so aware of such things.

Something made him giddy, as though fascinated by something. He tried to pull at it, but quickly stopped. He had no idea what he was doing. The feeling wasn't his anyway. For a few quick milliseconds he felt as though he were falling.

Jenrya shouted. His eyes snapped open. He flopped down onto the couch awkwardly, legs folded in a terrible, muscle straining position. Jenrya's knees dug into his chest. Jenrya tipped off the side of the couch pulling him with him. He instinctively shut his eyes as a loud thud sounded out.

"Ouch!" Jenrya pulled his hands away from him.

He opened his eyes as he heard quick footsteps.

"Are you alright?"

Jenrya's hands cradled his head, where he had apparently hit the table. He and Jenrya awkwardly laid halfway on the couch and halfway on the table, D-Terminals and Digivice digging into their bodies. "Yea." He breathed, stretching his legs out under him. "Just hit my head.

"Anodite." A plumber spoke.

Albedo refused to look away from Jenrya.

Silver eyes shined up at him. Jenrya grinned. "That was cool."

"What was?" He had a pretty good idea what, but he determined long ago that for situations like these, he was a glutton for punishment.

"You were all glowing dark purply bluishy pink. And floating!" Jenrya laughed, "That's some concentration you have. You tried pulling me up with you!"

The plumber pulled him off Jenrya. He probably would have fallen if they hadn't had a firm grip on him. "Anodite."

Albedo looked down at his shaking hands.

"Ano-what?" Jenrya stood with the help of another guard. The guard checked his physical condition.

"A mana based alien. Gwen and Tennyson are descendants of one. It's why she is so good at magic." Albedo didn't want to give her more praise than what was due, but she certainly was better than him at whatever it was he could suddenly do.

He had half a mind to smack that guard upside his head. He imagined him chuckling. He dared him to say 'I told you so' in his head. "I suppose I can't be surprised. The Omnitrix does temporarily overwrite and shift DNA." He refrained from mentioning that Anodites in particular don't even have DNA to shift. That would just complicate things.

"Albedo." A guard spoke sternly.

He rolled his eyes, "I've taken this man to bed more times than you've shot a blaster. He knows about the Omnitrix and myself."

The plumber coughed looking away, while Jenrya flushed and the second plumber laughed.

He sat down on the couch. Jenrya quickly joined him. Albedo tugged at his jacket sleeves a few times. Jenrya took his hands into his own.

"Give us a moment." Jenrya's eyes were stern. The plumbers walked off with hesitation in their steps. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I knew I could do it, just not to that extent. Maybe I've done it before and not realized." He shrugged his shoulders. He supposed there was one good thing about slowly turning into a monster. Could anyone blame him, if he beat the shit out of his creator using his 'inherited' powers? He scoffed.

Jenrya hugged him tightly.

Those idiots would blame him for getting stuck this way in the first place.

Jenrya let him go, "You should practice a bit more. I wouldn't want to see you hurt anyone with it."

He looked at Jenrya, narrowing his eyes.

"It's safer that way, right?" The tamer assured him. "They can't accuse you of anything." He pressed his forehead against his. "I don't want to see you punished."

He blinked confused.

Jenrya spoke, voice just above a whisper. "You can't whack a law figure upside the head, even accidentally."

He sighed. That was true. It certainly wasn't a good idea to do when he couldn't even gather his bearings of where he was on this backwater planet. No reason for that particular recommended guideline of life to have changed.

Jenrya smiled and kissed him.

He pulled away and looked at the male. then it hit him. Jenrya's words from when he first arrived at this makeshift prison. He looked at the guards. Just a quick glance they wouldn't be diligent enough to notice. "You don't-"

Jenrya covered his lips with a finger. "You said they use mana, right? So that means magic? These anodites?"

He nodded numbly. After all he did. All that he hurt and manipulated and used Jenrya, the man remained determined on his behalf. It numbed him worse, for he knew why Jenrya's actions affected him so. Anyone else he wouldn't care, he would expect them to feel this way, react this way. It looked so off on Jenrya.

"Rika's our resident magic user. Kenta and MarineAngemon understand it too."

He shook his head, slowly processing the information. "Don't you dare." He murmured.

"I won't call them." Jenrya replied after some time, "but I told you. You won't ever hurt that way again."

Albedo looked at him. Red eyes studying the determined frown on his lips, and the glare at nothing in particular in Jenrya's eyes. He nodded slowly as he pulled at his sleeves. He almost felt giddy, or was that Jenrya? He had his answer with the male leaned up against him.

"Wanna try it again?"