Digimon Story: Rainbow Traverse -- Chp 21

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

“What is this..is there a glitch happening again or something? Are we seeing into the real world?”

He didn’t know.. but  it seemed to be leading them towards Malie’s signal. That was unusual, but he wasn’t going to question it at the moment. But when the hologram changed and he saw a kamemon- well his eyes shot wide. “Tutu.. she must be helping us out!” He said as he then wondered. That woman.. could that have been what she looked like as a human? He didn’t get to dwell on it for long, as he then suddenly heard Malie’s voice.

“Malie!”

Relief then flooded him, and he touched the doorframe as he peeked inside . “Are you guys okay?!”

Inside the room, Al saw a room missing its roof. A massive hole opened up to the twisted sky filled the chamber with light, in stark contrast to the ever shifting mass of shadow that hovered inches off the floor. Countless violet-colored eyes then blinked into existence across the dark blob, and in seconds the mass shifted into Eyesmon, revealing Vivi and Malie.

"Al!" said Vivi. "We're fine! Eyesmon cocooned us when Malie axed the power source!"

"Power source?" echoed Karamon.

"Yeah!" said Malie. "Except it wasn't a power source! My digivice said it was Kukuimon!"

"No it didn't!" said Vivi. "You barely looked at it before you threw the axe!"

"What else could it've been?! Kukuimon was in here, and that glowing thing was right in the middle of some freaky science lab!"

"Girls," rasped Eyes. "Maybe not so loud? Head feeling woozy..."

Al wouldn’t ask any questions, instead running to Malie and giving her a bear hug, head resting atop of hers “Thank god you guys are okay!”

Malie blinked, taken by surprise before returning the hug. Karamon and Eyesmon, for that matter, averted their gaze.

"Al," said Malie. "Did... did you find anything? What happened to the Commandramon?"

Karamon coughed. "The Commandramon are MIA. We got separated after whatever wrecked the node."

"We still gotta find Kukui!" said Malie. "I know he's here! My digivice's been acting all weird since the explosion, but--"

“I’m sure those chuckleheads are okay, probably trying to find us.” He said reassuringly as he slowly let go of her before turn trapping Vivi in a hug as well- albeit for a shorter time as he then pet Eyesmon’s snoot.

“But I know where he is. Whatever you did seems to have juiced him up big time! Come on, let’s go to him right now.”

...

Between Kara and Eyes, the group fled the tower's ruins in search of Kamapua'amon. Even from a distance, the battle was easy to make out. In the time it had taken for the group to return to him, a web of roots and tree branches stretched out and burled across cyberspace, breaking and regrowing as the boar-headed giant fought off Gravimon.

"Octogravity!" exclaimed Gravimon, his tendrils arching forward. The yellow metal lures that headed them swatted at ever-expanding branches, and where they hit, craters formed and splintered. Roaring, the ultimate gestured with his elastic hand, sending anything and everything at the boar.

Grunting, Kamapua'amon headbutted the first branch, thick as a tree. With his forearm he broke the next on in half, the giant leaping up a colossal root as he dodged a battle tank. A meteoric fist then came crashing down on Gravimon just for the the ultimate to redirect gravity and send Kamapua'a flying backwards.

"Kukuimon?" asked Malie, staring with a furrowed brow.

"KANAKA KABLAM!!" bellowed the giant, hands slamming together as an olivine aura enveloped the surrounding vegetation. Suddenly, everything green was growing faster than the eye could see, arching, bending to catch Kamapua'a. An improvised platform expanded as it rescued the boar, thrusting him forward like the hand of an arboreal titan. It was too much. Even with all his power, Gravimon couldn't form up a barrier in time. Alemana heard Malie flinch as the boar began hammering blow after blow into his foe. Shrill cries competed against the cracking of bone and branch, Gravimon's white suit streaked with flowing red binary.

"Mercy!" he asked between blows. "M-mercy!"

And once they returned , Al would watch in a bit of stunned silence for a moment before shouting at him “Kamapua’amon! We don’t want to kill him remember?!” He then turned to Malie “Go to him, he’ll listen to you more than me Mal.”

Nodding, Malie flew off from her perch atop Eyesmon. Vivi motioned to speak, reaching a hand out to the longhaired tamer, but resigned herself as Karamon laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't understand," said Eyes, watching as Malie rushed through the debris field. "Kukui's supposed to be a little sweetheart. I know it's his first time ulting, but..."

“Gazimon was really different when he Ult’d too.. but I am sure he will be okay. Malie is here for him now!” He said.. though his eyes never left her as she raced for her partner.

Malie landed several feet behind the giant, Kamapua'a still beating into Gravimon.

"Pua?" she said, taking one step forward. Again she called out to him.

The giant's ears twitched. Huffing, he slowed his strikes, shoulders rising and falling as he turned around.

"Malie?" he said, his voice softening. The moment of calm stood between the two, eyes fixed, unblinking. Then, startling the girl, the giant threw his arms wide open "MALIE!!" he cheered, laughing as he approached his tamer. "Hey! It's me! Like the new look?! HAH! Check out the guns on me~!" Malie stared, watching as Kamapua'amon began flexing for her, the boar winking as he got more suggestive with every pose. The amount of silence Malie gave him was only matched by her attention. Raising his brow, the boar chortled, "Ah, right," he said, shrugging it off. "Sorry about running away. Pretty lame, I know, but look! See? I took out a bad guy! And now I get to tell you about my feelings--"

"Kukui!" Malie raised her hand. "What... the hell? You ran away from home! From me! I thought you'd been kidnapped!"

The giant's ears folded back. "I was!" he said. "Kinda! It's hard to explain!"

"Hard to EXPLAIN?!! I've been worried sick! We almost died looking for you!"

Kamapua'amon balled his fists, glowering. "Well I wouldn't have run if Alemana hadn't stabbed me in the back!"

"Stabbed you in the back?! In what way?!"

"No! It's between ME and HIM!!"

As the arguing boiled over, Gravimon stirred where he lay, hand trembling as it tapped on a lone holoscreen.

"Emergency export," he rasped. "Code delta...!"

Kamapua'amon must have heard him, but by the time the giant turned around, Gravimon fell through a hole in reality, one that resealed itself a second later.

"Gahh--KUKAE!!" he swore. "Bastard got away!"

Al at first was somewhat embarrassed and mildly amused by the initial reaction from the Digimon- he had been so emotionally drained by this point that he couldn’t help it. But when Malie started to chastise him, demanding that he explain himself.. well that was when he began to get a little alarmed. “Hey, hey guys? Maybe this could wait until we got home? When we DONT have guys trying to shoot us—“

He then looked at him in shock when Kama accused Alemana of stabbing him the back “What?!”

He was so stupefied by what he heard that he almost missed that Gravimon escaped. That part he was okay with.. but he would then without thinking would shout

“I didn’t do anything like that to you! I was trying to help you feel better brah!”

"Feel better my okole!" scoffed the giant, turning towards the distant tamer. "What kinda brah steals the love of your life after you tell him you already called dibs!"

Malie darted her attention between the two. "You WHAT?!!" she said, jaw tightening by the second. Such was her aura that even the enraged boar flinched in her presence.

"M-Malie," he said. "Please, listen to me! I wanted to tell you--"

Al felt his cheeks redden to a cinnamon color “I didn’t know you felt that way! I thought.. I thought-“ he didn’t know what to think. That wasn’t true.. he just didn’t realize that was how he felt. It made sense.. Renamon and Eyesmon felt romantic attraction .. why couldn’t Kukuimon? Was it because he was such a benign form as a rookie that the thought never even crossed Al’s mind? A deep shame fell over him at that moment. Shame.. and anger at the realization that all this death today.. the hours of worry and fear over what happened to him.. was because Kukuimon couldn’t just tell Malie how he felt?

“I didn’t know that was you meant.. I really didn’t!” He then would find his voice growing stronger. “But even so.. do you have any idea what Malie went through? Never mind us— You’re her partner! You two are connected to each other.. she thinks the world of you! We practically gave away our existence to save you and bring you home safe.. and you tell us you ran away because you were jealous of me? You have nothing to be goddamn jealous of.. I’m a fucking dumbass! I love Malie as much as I love Ike or Renamon.. Eyes and Vivi..! but nobody can take your place Kama.. nobody!”

The boar-headed giant looked away, grumbling something under his breath as he folded his arms.

"Can we just go home already?" asked Vivi. "We got what we came for, let's get going while we're in the clear!"

Kama glanced at Malie, the girl still staring at him. Neither said a word, the boar bobbing his head as he stood up straight. Grabbing either side of his leather belt, Kama adjusted his loincloth before offering a hand out to his tamer. That she allowed him to sweep her off her feet did little to lift the frown on her face.

"How do we get out of here?" asked Karamon.

Eyesmon sighed. "Leave it to me. I'll show you the way."

With everyone partnered, the group took flight, following the dark dragon out and away from the heart of the ruined node.

CHAPTER COMPLETED

Black Ops Rescue! +3 EXP +2 DP
Death on the Wind! +1 EXP +1 DP +2 Inspiration
Command & Conquer! +2 EXP +1 Inspiration
Machines of War! +1 EXP +1 DP
Event Horizon! +1 EXP +1 DP
Hog Wild! +2 EXP +1 DP +3 Inspiration

Total: 10 EXP, +6 DP, + 6 Inspiration!