Ben10 & Digimon Tamers
Heroes and Humanity
Part 02: Humanity and Heroes
Another Myself – Chapter 105
Originally Written: Wednesday, August 01, 2018 200AM; Saturday, August 11, 2018 125PM to ~3PM
Song: Gackt - Flower
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A/N: There will be a one to two week delay in updating Humanity and Heroes after uploading the next chapter. I know what I want and need to write to finish this story off. I just need to write it. Focused a little too much on other stories and tasks. I apologize for the inconvenience. Hopefully the next chapter makes up for it.
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'Error detected.' Juggernaut's voice boomed in Henry's head, sounding crackly and distorted. 'Scanning.'
"Albedo!" Swamps screamed, voice cracking. "Albedo!" He ran forward, circling around the area, fire dying in his hands.
"Where did you go?!" Fridge called, floating nearby the area Albedo once stood while fighting Eon.
Jeri stood next to Paradox, hands on her hips. She dare not let anyone come closer.
"Where is he?" Kenta questioned from his place next to Nega Ben. The only Ben dared to be left conscious, due to MarineAngemon. Kenta could feel the younger male shaking ever so slightly in his arms.
"Did he do what I think he did?" Kazu commented, taking a few shaky, stumbling steps forward.
A myriad of sparkles flowed through the area. Some of them were dark purple, nearly black as night. Others were light and bright like traditional sparkles marking data in the digital world.
A red eyed Kokuwamon stood a little bit behind Kazu, occasionally fizzling, and shooting out small sparks of electricity. "O-oh goodness." He spoke, shaking as a sharp and sudden shiver ran through him. "Can we not do that again?"
"Henry?" Suzie questioned her older brother.
Terriermon smoothly dodged Henry's handguns falling from his hands and hitting the sand below. "I can't..." Terriermon mumbled, his ears drooping. "Where...?"
Gallantmon Crimson Mode stood over a fallen, unconscious Vilgax. Justimon took a knee next to the fallen general, breathing heavily.
Beelzemon circled around, one gun poised on Vilgax's position. "How annoying."
'Albedo Lowenthal not found. Error detected. Scanning.' Juggernaut continued.
Sakuyamon knelt next to a mostly unconscious Hugh, tending to his wounds. Occasionally his tail raised high and then fell to the ground, as though he were trying to move, yet his tail was the only part he could move freely. He looked at Sakuyamon with tired eyes. She patted his side softly, whatever residual energy she had remaining running through her hands.
"Where's Albedo?" Suzie ran up and grabbed Henry's hand. "Where did he go?" She pulled on it. "We have to find him!"
Henry stepped forward, unsure. A terrible headache attacked him, making it hard to think or pay much attention to anything.
'Albedo Lowenthal detected. Albedo Lowenthal not found. Error detected.' Juggernaut informed Henry.
Henry nodded slowly.
Terriermon followed his partner dutifully. "No way. Did he really...?" The small digimon questioned as he took in Juggernaut's words.
"What the hell happened!?" Justimon suddenly called out. He looked at the others with wide eyes, still running on adrenaline.
Paradox gave him a look with a raised eyebrow that said he already knew, why was he asking.
"I believe Albedo used Eradiko." Sakuyamon took a chance to look up from Hugh.
"Isn't that a really dangerous, but badass spell?" Kazu looked at her surprised.
"Why do you know that?" Sakuyamon huffed, shaking her head.
Kenta shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Because when Kazu gets focused on a topic, he really gets focused."
Nega Ben flushed as Kenta gently patted his head and whispered something quietly to the young male.
"I see now." Jeri nodded, wild red hair of her ADR-01 form fluttering in the desert breeze. "Eradiko takes all the energy inside of an entity and turns it into a bomb, making the entity implode. Depending on how you use it."
"What!?" Gallantmon Crimson Mode nearly dropped his sword in surprise. "That's...that's nuts!"
Fridge returned to Hugh, a solemn look on his face.
Kazu whistled, looking back at the cloud of data. "Geeze...Albedo doesn't half ass anything, does he?" He muttered.
"Magic can do some nightmare fuel-ish things..." Sakuyamon fell silent for a few moments, focusing on Hugh before speaking again, "I'm honestly surprised. That's not an easy spell to cast, but he somehow did it right even with all his inexperience..." She looked up and focused on Justimon, "It's not what...killed him."
"Then what the hell did!?" Swamps waved a hand out towards the slew of data and sparkles. "Why are there sparkles where Albedo used to be!?"
Suzie let go of Henry's hand and covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Antylamon sat next to her, set her in her lap, and wrapped her long, large arms around her.
"According to Juggernaut, the instability of his Anodite form did him in." Henry ran a hand down his face. "The transformation timed out, like how Ben's watch does. But at that point there were too many 'errors' for him to change back... Anodites don't have a physical form, technically. So the form just fizzled out when the transformation timed out, because either Albedo or the Digital World itself couldn't figure out how to return Albedo to a physical form."
"I remember you saying that Juggernaut doesn't let you do things that will kill you." Fridge questioned softly. "So why didn't Juggernaut stop him?"
"I-I don't know." Henry shook his head, blinking quickly. "Either the transformation affected Juggernaut as well, or Juggernaut felt Albedo wasn't in danger of dying due to how the...physical form in the digital world works. Juggernaut blocked me from Albedo just as he started to change forms. He didn't have enough time to fully synchronize with me either, to update things on my end."
Jeri clapped her hands together. "Let's not look so down, guys. We can put him and Eon back together so long as nothing absorbs their data. The sparkles." She clarified for Fridge, Swamps and Hugh.
"...This is insane." Swamps muttered. "We're going to save the bad guy who spent who knows how long torturing Albedo and a buncha kids? Why? Just let him rot and make sure he leaves Albedo alone forever."
"We're sorry." Kenta whispered to Nega Ben low enough that no one else could hear as he softly petted his hair.
Nega Ben only shook his head. "I get it. It's still lame though..." He muttered.
"As quiet as the universe currently is without Eon's psychotic laughter filling in its voids, he'll corrupt the digital world if he's allowed to stay like this." Paradox explained. "Among other much worse things..."
"Phoo..." MarineAngemon cooed softly from his perch on Benzarro. A few hearts floated over to Nega Ben and Kenta.
Nega Ben suddenly circled around Kenta, and pressed his back to his. Kenta felt the boy shiver behind him. Kenta ran his hands down his face, mind racing as Nega Ben muttered to himself.
"Right. Let's get started while the squid is down." Jeri nodded, "Henry."
Henry nodded, and took a slow jog forward.
"It is imperative you put them back together exactly as they were." Paradox idly looked at his pocket watch. "Timelines working to fix themselves and all that."
"Justimon to HQ." The digimon sighed softly as he folded his arms waiting until he heard the tell-tale bits of static marking Hypnos' response. "Eon and Vilgax are down."
"Ryo? I'm glad to hear from you, Ryo. Cyberdramon." Hideyoshi Akiyama's soft voice replied in his headset.
Justimon smiled. "I knew you'd be alright there." He replied.
"Get home soon, son."
"...Will do."
"Nicely done you guys. What do you need?" Riley replied, sounding all sorts of tired.
Justimon looked at Paradox who nodded to him in confirmation. "We'll be bringing in one Vilgax when we're done here. Requesting proper preparations be complete by the time we start moving. We'll keep him tied up here as long as we can."
"Got it. And Eon?"
Justimon laughed sharply. "Oh, he's not going anywhere for a long time."
