EL Digital Saviors 28
Ok loyal readers now we may start Lucy's detours into the alternate timelines, the ones where Patamon never appeared, and she developed into her hateful, cruel and sadistic persona. She and Patamon face off against the version of herself from my good friend and loyal fan, LunarSkies2383. Check out his story ''Butterfly Effect'' for a very different take on Elfen Lied. Can our duo stand any chance against this utterly brutal incarnation? Or will a grave be their only fate? Read and find out. Story is still rated the same. Please read and review.
-chapter 28 - Digital Effect Part 1
For once in a long while Etemon's forces had gone quiet and the DigiDestined were using the time to go about normal life, with Kanae, Lucy, Alex, JP, Jason, Neemon, and Bokomon simply going out for a walk. The sun was shining brightly but the temperature wouldn't stay warm forever. The fall season was fast approaching inevitably leading to cooler days & nights. After that was winter.
But events would take a wild turn very quickly, as Patamon slowly flew along his eyes spotted something glittering near some bushes. "Huh? What's this? Hey Luce! Bokomon come here I found something weird." Patamon said flying over to it.
It looked like some whitish crystalline fragment, the air around shimmered almost quivering. Immediately recognizing it Bokomon informed the group just what they'd found. "It appears to be a crystalline coding fragment... From Quartzmon. But he hasn't been seen for over 60 millennia. Then again time doesn't always heal all wounds. It was said an appearance by him could alter the nature of time and space. Words like past or future would lose any meaning as both become the same."
Even after Bokomon finished just who Quartzmon was, the scholar overlooked one fact. Why was he called Quartzmon in the first place? "Quartzmon?" Lucy asked him to cock an eyebrow.
"Quartz? You mean the crystal stuff. Right?" JP asked not getting it. "I don't get it."
"How's some rock crystal relate to time?" Kanae also said not understanding it. "I don't get it either."
Naturally Alex ever the boy with big intelligence explained the meaning about Quartzmon' name. "Kanae how do you think your liquid display works? Quartz, the mineral, is often used to control frequencies in radio transmission, as well as keeping time in clocks. A watch is just a clock you wear on your wrist Kanae. Digital watch. Time. Do you get the connection now?"
"Oh." She said understanding, but still feeling silly.
She really needed to understand how her country's tech worked more, she frankly took it for granted, without a care on how or why it worked. That and tech in general. It might come in handy someday. Just then Kanae noticed bursts of energy started spinning into a circular form as the center shivered like a puddle of water. Soon a strange light blue & silver whirlpool like shaped vortex formed appeared inside.
"Hmm... Appears to be a dimensional rift. A tear in the very fabric of the spacetime-continuum." Alex said noting its many details. "Getting bigger. Now what're we gonna do?"
Suddenly the rift developed an extreme level of localized gravity, in short it was sucking them and everything else around into itself! "WE'RE BEING SUCKED INTO IT!" Jason hollered out trying keep hold of Kanae & Alex.
''ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Then the group were sucked into the strange rift. They quickly vanished into its depths. Then the vortex died down and vanished from sight leaving not one trace it was ever there.
-timeline A (the anime's basic version)
When Lucy came to, she cracked her neck and checked the rest of herself making sure she didn't suffer any broken bones. "Nothing broken that's good I guess…"
"Same here. Anybody get the license plate of that vortex that ate us?" He said shaking off his daze.
But then Patamon had a startling realization. "Luce, it might not even be a matter of where but WHEN we are. This place could a past or some twisted future." The mammal type suggested looking around.
"Well, that went well... Uh where are we? Patamon got any ideas?" There was nothing but white walled hallways everywhere, but for some reason Lucy couldn't shake a bad a feeling she had all of a sudden. Like a chill going down her spine. The DigiVice screen was nothing but static with faint crackling white noise. Contacting the others was a no go. "Nada. Nothing but static. Hope it's not damaged, because fixing tech my cup of tea." She said giving it a few shakes.
Thus, Lucy walked around, she heard alarms going off everywhere mean something was up but what? She sensed something several hundred feet away an escaping Diclonius? But who though? Figuring it was best to investigate this personally Lucy then heard from a nearby corner Kurama's voice. "Lucy don't do it." Kurama said as Miss Kitaragi looked up as, yet another Lucy stood there with a peculiar helmet covering her face.
"Patamon. Make a distraction, make ton and tons of Boom Bubbles I dunno. Something! Anything!" She hissed to her partner.
Seeing no options left the orange Rookie did have one idea that just might work. ''Got the thing Luce. Breeze Blaster!" Patamon quickly inhaled air and spat out multiple clouds.
Those same clouds filled the hallway obscuring the other Lucy's, Kurama, his gunners, and even Miss Kitaragi's vision, making it near impossible to see anything. A hefty smacking sound was heard along with a low grunt then silence. As the clouds slowly faded the other Lucy was now covered by Kurama's long coat and was apparently out cold.
And there was Lucy rubbing her now sore hand, it hurt a bit. Yep, she knocked her duplicate out cold by hitting the pressure point of the neck. ''Good thing I knocked her out. Never saw it coming."
Readjusting his glasses Mr. Kurama gestured for his gunners to take aim at her. ''Now that that problem's taken care of what do we do with you?"
"Patamon. We need to get outta here." Gulping Lucy flatly told her partner.
The Rookie simply glared at her, sarcastically replying. "Really? Ya don't say?"
"Not the time for the sass." She hissed to him.
And as soon she finished her speech Lucy bolted down the hallways, running as fast as her legs could carry her as her Vectors blocked the worker's gunfire. She ran and ran as fast as she could, sped out the doors before she skidded to a stop. It was the cliff overlooking the churning waves. By then Lucy put two and two together and realized exactly where she. This was an alternate timeline where she never met Patamon and somehow the facility captured her. Apparently, she got loose and went on a bloody warpath to freedom.
But how she wondered was she going to escape from the cliffside? And survive a cold dip in the sea? The institute's gunners led by Kurama were trained on her. Frankly she had few options either give up or get shot. "Any last words Lucy?" The alternate Kurama coldly asked her.
A medium breeze whisked her pink locks gently, which she brushed out of her face. "Oh, I got a few... Execute! Champion Level Digivolve! And see ya."
Just like that she jumps & flipped over the cliff's edge, as Patamon did his usual. "Patamon digivolve to... ANGEMON!" Patamon now the blue robed Angemon shouted.
He then caught his best friend giving the unethical scientist a deathly glare, well as best he could since his face was covered by a helmet. His scowl got the message across though. ''And away we go!" Angemon called out as he swiftly flew away towards the city.
After flying along the two began to ponder just what exactly was happening. "So Angemon just what the heck was that all about?''
Again, while not exactly a genius Patamon studied under Bokomon long enough to know how coding fragments of Quartzmon worked. Years ago, the scholar had a theory something the Angel type recalled. "Seems the Quartzmon fragments somehow tore open a portal between space & time. We must be in a timeline where I never met you or something... In theory I meant."
"Oh no... Looks like more of it is comin' for us." Lucy uttered seeing another swirling vortex just up ahead of them.
The crackling maelstrom tore open the fabric of space & time, swiftly engulfing them both, once again they disappeared from whence, they came.
-timeline B (episode 13 epilogue scene)
Yet again landing square upon her behind as Patamon floated down gently to the ground, earning him a glare from the pink haired girl. As her mind wandered over this indignity, she gave him a few choice words. "Must be nice to have wings... Right?"
Well, she shoved that line of thinking deep into the back of her mind, the two of them should get their bearings back first as they looked around and saw they were some ways from the inn and decided to head back. Frankly they didn't have much choice as their options were limited. But upon her arrival things became a little unexpected...
-Inn
Needless to say, Kouta was thrilled at seeing her return alive and unharmed. "Lucy!" He latched onto her with a hug. "You're alive!"
While Lucy wasn't expecting a hero's welcome back home, she'd be lying if she said she didn't like it. "Uh um good to see you too Kouta. Of course, I'm alive takes more than some Quartzmon shards to take me out." Lucy confessed much to the others shock... it was if they forgot the whole ordeal with the Network.
"Quartzmon? What are you talking about Lucy Kouta saw you head off into some armed soldiers." Mayu added... somethings weren't adding up right she thought. "Who's this Alex, Junpei, Jason, and those Digi... Digiman things you mentioned?"
"Bullets? Who's Alex, Junpei, Jason, and those Digimon! What am I supposed to be? A stuffed animal!? Yuka, Kouta you're all acting like you don't even know me or all we've been through... Remember Devimon? Big guy who looks like a demon? Not ringing any bells? Are we being punk'd because this... all this isn't funny. Calumon? Neemon! Bokomon! Junpei? Alex, Jason, Agumon, Palmon, Salamon, any Digimon can ya hear me? Where are you? Jiro come out! Here boy come on! Kouta this game you're all playing is scaring me... what in the name of Laura Summer, is going on here?" A very flustered bordering on frightened Patamon then demanded answers.
And the quartet was stunned by the fact this flying hamster-looking was talking & asking them that very question. But when Kouta explained what happened in "her" life over the years as something else broke inside her partner Digimon's heart. Grabbing the four into a deep she seemed disgusted with herself. "How could I do such terrible things... I'm a monster... Just like the Network said."
"Lucy! Look at me! Look at me, yeah me. Your best friend Patamon, I told you before you're not a monster. You know why? Because I told you have a brave heart. That's why. Now we need to focus." Patamon sternly said looking her right in the eye. "We gotta focus."
"Yeah, he's right Lucy you're not a monster neither was the one we knew either." Kouta reassured the tearful rosette. "She was a lonely & abused girl who never had the chance to enjoy what life could offer."
"So, you're not the Lucy I know... you're not like her. You're different I know it." Nana putting a friendly hand on the older Diclonius's shoulder.
The kindness of that gesture helped to ease Lucy's worries, but still as far she was concerned this world was a nightmare. A world of death and pain. "Please I have to go see where they passed... maybe somehow some way I can appease their spirit." Lucy requested as the group returned to the spot where Kurama and Mariko finally passed.
-Mariko dual site
Falling to her knees Lucy & Patamon tearfully looked on the ground... as faint thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was brewing high in the sky. She still couldn't believe she was responsible for this grizzly horror. "No… Kanae. No this can't be real." Lucy said falling to her knees disturbed by the information she was told and now seeing for herself. "No… I'm a monster I did all this… To kill the two like that, to rip and tear Nana apart, to kill Kanae, Kouta, to Mariko, to do all this to so many innocent people I... I don't... " The older Diclonius girl cried as her tears fell to the ground.
The group realized this wasn't "their" Lucy… She hated Kurama and everything the man held dear. But now here she was grieving for him. This wasn't the Lucy they knew… she was expressing regret for what she had done despite not being "her" fault. This Lucy was very different from theirs. "Lucy…" Nana said softly to the taller girl helping her off the ground and back on her feet using the vector arms to which she didn't even flinch from.
"How could I have done this horrible slaughter… I'm… I'm… I'm not a killer." She quietly sobbed.
"No… it's impossible how could I do such a thing to the people I hold dear... This world is nothing but a cesspool, full of death caused by me it's too late for this timeline but not for mine… Kouta, Nana, Mayu and to you all out there Bando, Kurama, Mariko, Kanae, Mr. Otomo I am so sorry for what I did here. I'm just so sorry... none of you deserved this." Turning around Lucy gave the group a saddened gaze then gazed up to the heavens.
Even Patamon saw she was deeply saddened that somehow, she was causing all this pain, suffering and death to a mostly fine upstanding group of people especially a boy whose family he loved more than anything in the world. Lucy could never think of hurting him or even her worst enemies that way… she was not a bloodthirsty sociopath.
"I told you before Neemon I didn't bring money so can't be taking sodas from the machines. You must think I'm made of money." The scholar grumbled.
"Made of money? You don't look it." The dimwitted Rookie said poking his companion, he wasn't metallic like coins.
Of course, Bokomon had one thing to do right now. What was it? Snap Neemon's waistband of course, which had him let out a yelp. However, the two very familiar voices caught the group by surprise especially Lucy who was overjoyed to see them safe and sound. "Bokomon! Neemon! Boy am happy to see you guys! This world is a nightmare."
Their sudden and strange appearance made Kouta & the rest of the Inn's residents do a double take when they saw them. So Bokomon put a kibosh on their possible questioning. "Ahem everyone long story short I am Bokomon. A Digimon as are Neemon & Patamon. We're digital lifeforms were created as a byproduct of your electronic, telecommunications, and computer networks. I am a scholar."
Then suddenly there was a massive boom of thunder as the sky darkened. Powerful bolts of lightning ran along the undersides of the thundercloud, then struck the ground. Hovering up a few feet Patamon narrowed his line of vision, there was something rising into the air, and it wasn't dust. Instead, were Quartzmon shards! The high voltage from the lightning was having an adverse reaction on them, it seemed. What kind? The worst kind! "Oh no! What's happening!?" Neemon panicked as sweat poured down his face like a waterfall.
"Trouble, what else?" Patamon spat at him.
The dark clouds then started to shift and contort themselves, almost into the shape reminiscent of a whirlpool. Or a vortex-like rupture in the fabric of the space-time continuum whose existence began to generate several localized gravitational anomalies, or in simple terms they were sucked into it! And in the blink of an eye Lucy, Bokomon, Patamon, and Neemon vanished without a trace.
-timeline C (LRSS83 alternate/alias The Butterfly Effect timeline)
With a heavy thud Lucy once again landed hard on her back then her chin then on her butt. Looking up into the sky she asked something to the mighty Lord Seraphimon. "Seriously Lord Seraphimon am I being punished? Huh what?! There's that feeling again but there's an extra this time... time I'd best get to it. Story of my life... "
Getting to her feet the Diclonius DigDestined ran yet again to the said battleground. Zooming after his friend Patamon cried out. "Hey! Wait for me!"
But something about this timeline was very strange, for one thing the color of the scenery. Or lack thereof. "Something is very wrong with this world. For one thing, it's black and white with shades of gray. This world is totally devoid of color." Bokomon thought.
This world they'd entered into was bizarre and that was putting it lightly. Whatever this world's issue was and what time the group were now stranded in things had taken a turn nobody would've seen coming. "Why does my life keep making things weird?" Lucy sighed thinking to herself.
-to be continued
This was a pretty hard chapter to write up because of all the dialogue and multiple timelines. The second part of this will be in the LunarSkiesRSS83 story "The Butterfly Effect" and its ensuing timeline. After part two it'll be back to business with Etemon's forces. In fact, chapter 30 will be of a much smaller scale compared to the rest of the Etemon arc. Why is this a two-part story you might ask? Well simple, it was getting a little too long, so I broke it up into a pair of shorter chapters. That's why.
Please read and review this and my other stories which range from: Yokohama Night Monsters, Power Rangers Dimension Legends, ELG The Series, Code Lyoko EL, Loud House: Rise of Akira, Cybertronian Invasion, and Maverick Hunter KLN to satisfy your craving for bizarre crossovers. Ok for references... I'll give 50 points to all the readers, whoever can correctly guess all the references the characters make. Be it anime, manga, comics, books, live-action, animation, or games it doesn't matter. See if you can guess any.
