Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 02: Humanity and Heroes

Another Myself – Chapter 81 Part 1

Originally Written: October 01, 2017 300PM to 558PM

. . . . .

"It appears that wifi connections on our devices do not work here," Albedo spoke softly to Jenrya, who sat next to on the couch. He looked at the "message not sent" notification on his D-Terminal. Still they were in Tai's house, practically confined to the living room, trying to form their next plan of action. For Albedo, it was all mostly determined by how quickly he could gain contact with Ryo.

Jenrya didn't look surprised. "Is there any way to fix that? Or are we stuck?" His D-terminal also gave him a 'message not sent' notification.

Some time ago, Tai had quietly pulled Ken off to the side. Davis made a big old fuss, attracting way more attention than what Tai had attracted. In the end he wasn't allowed to go with them, so he stormed outside in what Rika would call 'typical gogglehead fashion'. T.K. followed Davis, a scowl set firmly on his face. The others had gone on their own somewhere, and that left them in a quiet living room with a worried Yolei looking over Izzy's shoulder as he scanned Ken's D-Terminal on a separate device from the computer he was originally using.

"It would depend on why the connection isn't working. If it's a matter of needing to find the right frequency, that could be repaired easily. If it's a matter that the equipment we have is simply unable to find said frequency, it is also of no large consequence, but would take a bit longer to fix. Either way, fixing it isn't necessary." He typed in a few commands on his D-Terminal, then held his hand out for Jenrya's.

Jenrya complied as though he trusted the male with his life.

Albedo typed in a few commands on Jenrya's device just as quickly as he did on his own. "Hello there." He spoke softly.

"Oh my God, what the heck!?"

Jenrya laughed at Rika's sudden and surprised shout.

"Nonaka," Albedo continued. By now Izzy and Yolei were looking at him in curiosity.

"Hey Rika!" Jenrya called, smiling.

"Henry? Gogglehead? How did you do that?"

"Prodigious." Izzy murmured.

"I'll explain later, although it will probably be over your head. The basic gist is Digital World related devices can connect with each other no matter where we are, if you know what you're doing and how they work."

"Right, I'll keep that in mind."

"For now, is Ryo nearby you? I can't seem to contact him."

"Y-yea, he's with me. We're traveling together."She replied in a shaky voice. "Wifi on our devices is on the fritz. Even cellular connections don't work. He turned his D-Terminal off. He..." Rika sighed, "He didn't want to be interrupted."

"I see." He leaned back in the chair.

"Did I hear Izzy Izumi?"

"You did." Albedo closed his eyes.

"Nice to meet you." Izzy replied.

"So I'm not crazy." She spoke softly, "That psycho did send me to an entirely different Earth."

"Eon?" Jenrya asked.

"That's what he said his name was. You ran into him too? When?"

"We didn't run into him, but his lackeys."

"He's. Got. Lackeys!?" Rika sighed again. "Hold on. Let me go outside." A few minutes of mostly silence and then, "This is nuts." She whispered. "The hell's going on here?" They heard her shuffle items around, "Renamon keeps telling me she's seeing Sora Takenouchi and her Biyomon walking around."

"Ryo's digivice signal is appearing on our Digivices. Maybe she saw it and decided to follow it." Yolei commented. She moved to take a seat on the couch next to Izzy's chair.

"This is real? Like really real?" Rika murmured, seemingly in shock.

"Very real." Jenrya confirmed.

"We are not supposed to be able to do this. There's like laws and rules to this kind of thing, right?" She continued. "Ryo and I don't even look like we fit into the time period."

"Which is why Eon and his servants performed the act for you. Us." Albedo pulled at his shirt sleeves, gripping the ends tightly. "Eon is an alternate timeline version of Ben Tennyson. He is easily capable of traversing time and space."

"If that's the case, shouldn't he have attacked our Ben Tennyson and not Ryo?" Rika sighed, "He's not speaking or showing it much, and he thinks I can't tell, but he's freaking out over here. It's...creepy and worrisome."

"He's targeting Albedo."

Yolei, Jenrya and Albedo looked at Izzy.

"And he's doing it through Ryo." Izzy folded his arms. He looked at Albedo, "That's what's got you so concerned, right?"

Albedo frowned and looked away.

"It just so happens that while he's targeting you, because you look like Ben Tennyson, he's looking for a Ben Tennyson on this world and he can't find him." Izzy pressed a finger to his chin. "I'm glad to see Ryo made dear friends on his new home." He smiled a small smile.

Albedo hunched his shoulders. His mind raced as tears lined the brim of his eyes. Ryo had been through enough, hadn't he? 'Juggernaut. A list of available speed aliens in my arsenal.'

Jenrya reached for his hand, and held it tightly. "Shhh." He spoke in his ear. "This isn't your fault."

He shook his head. Juggernaut ran a list of alien species in his mind, voice dull and robotic.

"Course it's not," Yolei agreed, "You can't help that you look like the guy this Eon likes enslaving. Don't place such a ridiculous blame on yourself."

He sighed and shook his head again. He stood up, as Jenrya dropped his hand. Jenrya stood with him. "Don't you-!" The room flashed red. "-Dammit!"

Albedo, as Negative Fasttrack, heard Jenrya yell. He honestly didn't think he'd be able to hear them still while under his transformation. As it stood all of his electronic equipment was not working to desired parameters as it was.

"Whoa! Where's the fire!?" Terriermon shouted.

"What? What was that?" Ken Ichijouji.

"That was Albedo." Jenrya again.

He raced down a street, zooming between cars, bikes and pedestrians. Nothing more than a mostly blue blur to those around him.

"Where's he off to?" Tai sounded quite displeased.

"To find and help Ryo."

Tai groaned, fully annoyed. His mind raced, full of various negative outcomes. Various Ben Tennyson's attacking and killing Ryo, just to get to him.

"His mind...it's much faster than your average human's. He's days ahead in strategies and thoughts." Jenrya explained. Their voices sounded as though they were right next to his ears. "Something about what you said, led him to a conclusion. And he's acting upon that."

"I see. He seemed like he was a genius." Izzy somehow managed to sound cheerful and serious at the same time.

He circled around a pedestrian, and stumbled on his own two feet as his transformation cut off. He looked around, gathering his bearings. He shut up the pedestrian shouting at him with his patented glare. They shied back in response to seeing his red eyes. He continued running down the street, as Juggernaut notified him of his energy and health.

"Kari?" Tai sounded confused.

"No one else saw the doctor walking around the backyard?" She asked, sounding equally confused.

"I'm a Professor, not a Doctor. Much more distinguished."

He imagined the Time Walker brushing his white coat off without much care. He thought he heard T.K. and Patamon say they could hear, but not see him.

"What doctor?"

"Professor," Kari quickly corrected her older brother. "A white European or American man, with brown hair, wearing a white labcoat."

"Dudes, he's right there." Davis sounded tired. "Next to the lamp."

"Nope. Don't see anything," Yolei disagreed.

He barely missed a car as he sped across the street. He looked down at his D-Terminal. 'Attack me all you want...' He thought to himself in a mantra.

"He gave me this odd device." Kari continued, among the other chosen stating they didn't see anyone who resembled who Kari and Davis described. "And he said to press, here, here, and here. While inside the house."

Albedo imagined the shit eating grin on her face as Tai scolded her, "Is he even trustworthy!?" Paradox was easily one of the most trustworthy beings in the universe, even with how annoying many of his quirks were. He stopped at a street corner, and leaned up against a building to catch his breath.

"Oh," Jenrya spoke, "I think this is level 5 shielding."

"Correct indeed," The time walker agreed. "Theoretically Eon should have a hard time getting through this barrier. The Bens shouldn't be able to at all. They lack the teamwork to do so. If I'm right about them."

"Whoa, looks trippy." He heard an odd buzzing spark sound as Matt voiced his fascination. "Like something Gennai would come up with."

"This is the last time we meet up at my house," Tai sighed heavily. "So, what do we do about Albedo?"

"Nothing. He'll be too fast for us to catch up with him." Jenrya explained.

'30 second transformations available.'

Albedo resumed his trek as Negative Fasttrack, rightfully earning the ire of all those he sped past. He swore he heard someone shout about Digimon negatively, but couldn't be sure.

"We know where he's going, so it's best to meet him there." Jenrya continued.

"We'll let you know when he shows up," Rika chimed in.

'Please don't attack Ryo.' Albedo thought as he ran, 'Just leave him alone.'