Digital Inference 6

Chapter 6: Breakdowns
<<<Lisa Wilbourn>>>

It had taken… some doing to get Brian calmed down, and Aegisdramon explaining that time outside the Digital World flowed differently to the real world. Not that Lisa would hold it against him, the situation was rather screwed up honestly.

Long story short? He was an overprotective big brother first, decent person occasionally. If he really wanted to do right by his sister? He probably could’ve joined the Wards, sure he'd spend some time as a PR pony until he aged out, but he’d be getting paid! Plus the PRT had a lot of resources to bring to bear.

Granted, she had manipulated him to shit too, so it wasn’t like it wasn’t her fault. Fuck, she really needed to apologize for that if she was actually going to do the whole ‘hero’ thing.

Maybe, there was a good chance Coil could’ve sunk his claws into him anyway, so who knew? She wasn’t a precog or anything!

“Okay, so let me see if I’m getting this straight.” {Stressed. Barely keeping his temper in check. Worried for his sister. Angry at the entire situation.} “I’ve been basically dragged into another world because of Tattletale, and am now this Digi-whatever and am expected to save the world, huh?” Lisa didn’t even need her powers to tell he was less than impressed and generally didn’t really care.

“Not because of Lisa,” Aegisdramon said, “King Drasil has marked various humans across the multiverse as holders of the Digicrests,” It was the second time she’d said the second part at least, “this makes those humans Digidestined; heroes of the Digital World.”

“Well he can pick a new one, I have a sister to watch over!” Brian retorted angrily, his temper starting to slip, “I sure as hell don’t give a damn! We just survived a goddamn Endbringer turning the Bay into a flooded hellhole!”

“If the Digital World is destroyed, the entire multiverse will be in danger of collapse,” Her voice had turned hard, a far cry from her previous gentle demeanor, “Everyone you know, everyone you love, cast into the abyss; possibly forever.”

“Fucking twisting my goddamn arm, huh? Oh that’s real ‘heroic’ or something. Like the fucking PRT or shit.” Lisa felt now was a good time to get involved.

The dragon’s queen stood, slowly walking towards him.

“Brian stop with your macho-bullshit!” Lisa snapped, “I don’t know if you’ve actually realized this but we are the only humans here. And the goddamn lady you’re bitching at could rip you in half! So fucking think for once in your goddamn life and shut the fuck up! You think I’m happy with this!? And I’m not, but I’ll tell you something at least this is better than being forced to work for a goddamn villain at gunpoint!”

“If she can kill me so easily, why doesn’t do this shit?” He shot back, “I’m scared that my sister is wandering around a damn flooded city, surrounded by fucking criminals, including the racist nazis!”

“Jesus fucking Christ, well if you let her fucking finish instead of throwing a bitchfit maybe, just maybe, you’ll find out that these crest things draw people close to the holder here!” Lisa exclaimed now just done with it, “Meaning your goddamn precious fucking sister will fucking show up eventually!”

Aegisdramon flashed forward, appearing before Brian before he could react. “Your sister is safe,” She whispered, hand on his cheek, “I swear this. There are others that need you right now. I meant what I said, time out there is practically frozen as long as you are inside. The only reason time passed before is that the portals were unstable, they have since stabilized."

Lisa honestly didn’t care anymore and focused on eating her breakfast. Aggressively biting into a biscuit, “We’re all fucking doomed.” Was she being uncharitable? Perhaps, but honestly, that’d been building since she made the team, and damn if letting it all out felt cathartic.

“You swear? This isn’t just another game of Tattletale to make me fall in line?” Honestly, if she wasn’t so pissed she’d be impressed he even noticed that.

Maybe he isn’t as much as a meathead, as she initially assumed.

“I am the divinely appointed dragon guardian of the Dramon Kingdom,” She replied, “I do not lie. I can be mistaken, but I do not lie.”

{King Drasil is considered divine.}

Brian just took a breath, “Fine, fine. I’m still not happy.” He said.

“Besides,” The queen started, stepping away and looking to the sky, “You don’t want to set a poor example for your partner either, she’s due to arrive… about now, I think?”

Lisa looked up, if only to watch what was about to happen. Honestly Vixi just found her, so she didn’t know how digimon got their partners.

A young girl, clad in white and pink, was falling from a sea monster in the hall, laughing and screaming as she did.

Lisa just smiled faintly. “That’s adorable,” She admitted, and even Brian nodded his head.

At the last minute, just before she hit the ground, the sea monster caught her; the girl doing a somersault to land in the middle of the group, bowing.

The Queen just chuckled as she watched the scene, “Sistermon Blanc, why don’t you introduce yourself to your partner?” She said with a rueful shake of her head.

“Sistermon Blanc reporting for duty!” She announced, straightening, “Hackmon and Gankoomon send their regards, holder of the Crest of Love!”

Brian just nodded dumbfounded, “Uh… I thought digimon looked well…” He just gestured to the sea monster and the Queen.

“Digital evolution,” Lisa provided, “Vixi looked like a four-legged fluff ball. And now she’s a kung fu fox. Plus they’re digital so appearances widely vary.” She added with a shrug.

“I used to look like this,” the digimon started, pulling out a picture of a wide, round, formless thing with a lot of teeth. “I used to be able to eat entire watermelons in one bite… I’m not able to do that anymore…”

She sounded disappointed at that.

“Well if my opinion matters, you’re cuter for it,” Lisa commented.

“Oh, um… thanks…” Blanc coughed, “A-anyway, if you want proof I can protect myself and you, master, then maybe Renamon and I could spar? I am trained as an escort!”

{Does not know escort has another meaning. Is trained in combat.}

Lisa just snickered. “Not that escort, Brian,” She said, “She meant bodyguard.”

“... Isn’t that the only kind of escort?” Blanc asked, forming a golden trident in her hand, spinning it around her body absentmindedly.

“Well, let’s just say back on Earth escort had another meaning,” She said, “And if Vixi is willing, I don’t see why not… provided she’s awake now.”

“She sounds very lazy, if she’s not awake by now!” She actually seemed insulted by the idea, making the trident start to float under her to act as a seat. “I shall simply wait for her to get up then.”

“Well we did have a helluva day yesterday,” Lisa said, “And I figured she deserved to sleep in a little.”

“She may miss breakfast as a result,” Aegisdramon noted, “I doubt she’d appreciate that… in fact, Brian, why don’t you and Sistermon Blanc have some bacon and eggs? We have some time and we can only take you so far regardless.”

Brian… sighed. “Alright, fine,” He said, roughly sitting down at one of the spare tables, next to an M16 wielding dinosaur that Lisa could have sworn she recognized.

{You rescued them. They recognize you.}

“I’ll get her,” Lisa said as she stood up, “And glad you’re doing better!” She said to the M16 wielding digimon.

“Thanks for saving us all!” He called back, “I’ll petition to make yesterday Lisa Day in your honor!”

Lisa just snorted and shook her head as she took her leave, making her way back to her room. Only having to be corrected by her power a time or two before she found the door and cracked it open. Seeing Vixi sprawled out across the bed lightly snoring.

“God, I feel like such a perv…” Shaking her head she pushed the door open and walked over to wake the sleeping fox, gently shaking her shoulder, “Hey, wake up and come get some breakfast.”

Vixi jerked awake, eyes snapping open as she sat up, “I overslept! I almost missed breakfast!” She cried out before sprinting for the door, moving faster than she had even while fighting.

“Vixi! Chill!” Lisa yelled, blinking wildly, “Just follow me, you silly fox!”

“Can’t hear you, following the smell of food!” She called back.

Lisa just sighed as she shook her head and, instead of running after her, just enjoyed a casual walk.

<<<Brian Laborn>>>

Honestly, last thing he knew he was finally getting a minute to relax, just sitting at their hideout trying to figure out if his sister was alive and where Tattletale and Skitter had gone. To be honest, he thought the Thinker finally took a chance to get out of the city. Sure he may have taken himself too seriously at times, but he had two eyes that worked and even Alec could tell she didn’t want to be there.

Hell if she wasn’t so weirdly invested in Taylor, he figured Tattletale would’ve cut ties completely. Still he could’ve never imagined himself in the situation he was in now.

Digimon? Digital World? Digidestined? Crest of Love? Like something out of those crazy cartoons he used to watch with his sister when she was younger. If anything, he wanted to know why he wasn’t something like Courage? But well, what’s done was done.

He was still pissed at whatsherface and Tattletale, even if the queen said it wasn’t her fault he couldn’t help it. Was he a musclehead? Yeah, he had no problem owning that fact. But he wasn’t stupid, and you didn’t last in the Bay without learning to tell when you’re being played.

He didn’t feel like he was being played, not with how ‘Sistermon Blanc’ was acting, but he was still concerned… and admittedly slightly impressed with her appetite, alongside ‘Vixi the Renamon’. They seemed to be competing on how much they could eat and he was pretty sure they’d passed normal human stomach capacity at least three pancake stacks previous.

… It actually reminded him of Aisha in a faint way.

A part of him still hoped he just fell asleep and it was all just a fucked up dream.

Still as he sipped at his coffee, he thought over what Lisa had said. That it wasn’t an attempt to play him, or twist him around her finger. He’d seen outbursts like that before, that was pure cathartic venting. He knew they weren’t on the best of terms all the time, but they got along well enough; the smartass Thinker just rubbed him the wrong way sometimes, particularly when she put on that damn smug mask of hers. So, if anything, seeing her blow up made her more relatable.

She still pissed him off, but between the venting and her saying she was forced to be a villain? Well, it put a lot of things about her in perspective.

“What’d Tat- Lisa mean?” He asked the boss woman, “About being forced to be a villain?” 

“Exactly as she said,” The boss lady said, “She was forced at gunpoint to work for a villain named Coil.”

Coil? They were being funded by the third biggest faction in the Bay? Well, he had to have money to burn, seeing as he only used mercs with tinkertech lasers and that shit ain’t cheap! Still, why would a guy like that want a small-time gang of teenage parahumans doing petty crime and shit?

It didn’t make sense, but then he didn’t have all of the information either. He knew the bastard had kidnapped the mayor’s niece, and that Taylor was planning on stabbing him in the back over it, but…

“Lisa’s got a lot of explaining to do…” He grumbled. What sort of shitshow did that Thinker drag him into now? And would Aisha be dragged into it?

“If you have any questions,” Aegisdramon started, sitting down in front of him, “I am willing to answer. I don’t have all of the answers, but I do have many. Lisa saved my soul and my kingdom, and you are a friend of hers. Information is an easy gift to give, in that light.”

“I just… I don’t know…” Brian just rubbed his face, “The problem is Thinkers are well… they have very justified stereotypes. They either have to prove they’re the smartest in the room, or they like manipulating and controlling everything. So I hope you can see the problem, I like LIsa despite how smartass she is… but sometimes I don’t know,” He admitted.

“Mm, do you want to know what Crest I believe she has?” The gold skinned woman asked, leaning back in her… throne. Which had been moved to the other side of the table he was sitting at for some reason.

She was either very vain or had very dedicated servants. Possibly both. Still more pleasant than any boss he’d ever had.

“Knowledge?” Brian guessed, it’d certainly fit her power in his mind.

“Oh no,” She replied, “Friendship. Do you know how quickly she became attached to Vixi? Extremely so. Think not of powers or supernatural abilities, but of what defines you as a person. What do you care about above all else? What are you willing to sacrifice yourself for?”

“Friendship, huh?” Honestly, did she even have any friends outside of the gang? “I care about my sister, I’d do anything to get her away from our bitch of a mom and our bastard of a father,” He said without a bit of hesitation.

The queen’s hand waved, gesturing to him, “You were insulted by having the Crest of Love, and yet you hold that position?” Her eyes actually twinkled a bit, “Your love for your sister, your friends, trumps all else. Yes, you can be brave, but you are brave for a reason. You can be knowledgeable, but you gain that knowledge to protect what you love. That is what having the Crest of Love means. It isn’t that you lack the other traits, it’s that they are subservient to it.”

Brian just grumbled and ate his breakfast, not really knowing what to say to that without coming off as a jackass… or a bigger one than he already did.

“If Taylor is the holder of Courage, as you and Lisa seem to think, then she is likely one that leaps before looking; that acts to defend others without preparing herself first,” The queen continued, “She doesn’t consider the consequences of an action before doing what she thinks is the right thing, and getting herself hurt in the doing is just the cost of it.”

“Goddamn, that fits perfectly…” Brian groaned, “Before all this happened she was planning to stab Coil in the back for kidnapping the mayor’s neice…” He figured it’d be best not to mention his own general apathy towards what happened.

“Now, I want you to consider what having the Crest of Friendship means for Lisa as she walks over…” The queen stood then and walked away… as multiple small dinosaur digimon picked up her throne and carried it back to its place.

Brian just hummed, he had quite a bit to think about…

Life was so much easier when he was just hired muscle…

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