Prompt Post - Part Ten
I am REALLY, REALLY SORRY about taking so long, guys, and about not being around much recently. I've been busier than I have in a while, and it just kept slipping my mind between uni applications and volunteering and all sorts- for some reason I thought we were much further off a new post.
If there is anything I haven't responded to, as of now, I'm ( Read more... )
I'll date each part at least though so everybody knows when stuff is going down
also this is an AU with mostly no superpowers but there's still a Justice League; it'll make sense eventually probably
anyway blah blah wally angst let's digimon love
(by the way, this is tamers)
(of course it's tamers) ]
Damn the League, Wally thought numbly, staring out at the formless red mass that had once been recognizable as Gotham City. Damn the League. Damn the League. Damn the League.
Thinking the words didn't accomplish anything - it didn't even make him feel better - but there was literally nothing else he could do. Wally had grown horribly accustomed to being helpless over the course of the past six months, but this; this was on a whole new level of terror and despair. This situation here, right now, was sitting precariously on the brink of what Wally could and could not handle.
Damn his uncle. Damn them all.
Beside him, Leormon twitched miserably, tail dragging back and forth on the sidewalk. "Kid Flash?" the catlike digimon asked, sounding hesitant and worried.
Wally gritted his teeth. "There is no more 'Kid Flash.' Don't call me that anymore."
Leormon's ears drooped. "But Batman said - "
"I don't care what Batman said!" Wally shouted. "What Batman said doesn't matter! Look where it got him! Look where it got us!" He whirled around furiously to stare down his partner digimon, who uncertainly shrank back a few steps. Wally knew he ought to feel guilty, ought to stop, but just like always his mouth was moving faster than his conscience. He gestured angrily toward the chaos before them. "Do you see that, Leormon? Do you see that? There's no hiding anymore. The world knows. About digimon, about tamers - everyone knows. There's no point deluding ourselves into thinking we can hide any longer!"
Leormon seemed to deflate before his eyes. "Kid Flash," the digimon began, "Kid Flash, I know it's bad now, but we'll make it through this. We always - "
"No!" Wally snapped. "Don't you get it? There's no way. There's no way to beat this thing! We couldn't fight it, we couldn't run from it - I've gone over the data a million and a half times, and there's nothing out there that can help us! The D-Reaper is unstoppable." His voice cracked. "We're - We're going to lose. We're not rescuing anyone. It's really - Leormon, this time, I think it's really over."
"No!" Leormon said, alarmed, springing up on all fours. "Kid Flash, don't think like that! We'll fight to the end, we'll do our best, and we'll win it! We'll save - everyone." He walked forward and pawed earnestly at Wally's pants leg, expression pleading. "Things are bad now, but you've still got me! Us digimon will fight, until we've stopped the chaos once and for all. I promise you!"
Wally drew back, feeling himself shut down. No. He couldn't let himself take comfort from Leormon's words, not when the situation at hand was so terribly real. No more impossible promises. No more false hope. What did Leormon know? He was only a digimon. Bits of data made manifest by a freak accident.
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Leormon paused. "What? Hate what?"
"I hate digimon," Wally said, and suddenly it felt viciously good to say that, to voice that, the terrible thoughts that had been festering in the back of his mind since November. The words were all pouring out at once, finally, and he couldn't stop them now if he tried. "I hate digimon! I hate all of them! I hate being a tamer, I hate the League for letting us do this, making us do this, I hate the Devas and the Digital World and the D-Reaper and Batman and if I could go back in time right now and make it all disappear, just delete all of this, I fucking would!"
He finally broke off, breathing heavily. Leormon's eyes filled with tears.
"You - You don't mean that," the digimon said, trembling all over. "Wally, you don't mean that."
"I mean it!" Wally screamed. He realized, suddenly, that he was crying, and he didn't know when he had started or how to stop. "I mean it! I mean it! I meant every goddamn word!"
"N-No," Leormon sobbed, trying to paw at Wally's leg again. "You don't mean, you can't - digimon are a good thing. Wally - "
Something in Wally snapped. He didn't want to see Leormon anymore. In fact, he'd be happy if he never saw another digimon again in his life. He hated his uncle for ever helping to create them. He hated the League for ever getting involved with them. He hated himself for insisting on playing a part.
"Look!" Wally screamed at his partner, pointing out at the ruins of Gotham, the expanding D-Reaper. "Look at it, Leormon! Look at it! That thing - " he shouted, jerking his arm out toward the chaos, " - that thing has my best friend in it, and it's going to keep him there until he dies! I hate this! I hate all of this! I wish digimon had never existed at all!"
Leormon wailed and suddenly ran from him, disappearing out into the empty streets behind them. Wally watched him go, abruptly deflated. He would feel guilty about this, feel something about this, soon enough. But not now.
For now, Wally West didn't want to feel anything at all.
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Poor Wally! And whoa D-reaper has Robin? As like a host like it did for Jeri? Or you mean Robin went inside to fight it? The later would kinda make more sense because I don't see Robin as someone who would be a host...it seems kinda more like Zatanna's ally now that I think of it. Of course, if it was the later, I would expect KF to be there to support Robin.
But squeeee, you just made plot bunnies attack me. Would you mind if I wrote another fic somewhat around these lines?
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robin's the host. it was actually a toss-up between him and artemis, but I like writing about artemis fighting with her digimon better, tee-hee.
(remember, in tamers, the d-reaper abducted juri because she was the easiest to lead away from the group, and it wanted to learn more about humans.)
(remember, robin's always going off to do his own thing without telling the others.)
theoretically, any human could function as a host (sorry, M'gann, Kaldur...Conner) with the same basic scenario playing out - juri's mental instability and extreme grief fueled the d-reaper with plenty of raw power and arguably convinced it that humans and digimon were too destructive to live, but then, it was programmed to destroy 'inefficient' data anyway. and all the tamers had plenty of memories of needless violence and fighting, just like all the YJ crew would.
the key factor in what makes a host useful to the plot d-reaper is just how much trauma can be drawn out from them to fuel its rampage, i.e. how powerful it's going to be. zatanna's gone through hard times recently, but from what I've seen so far I don't think she has quite as much sheer pain in her background that the d-reaper could use as most of the other YJ kids. (and if it makes you feel better, robin's a bit more...ah, 'proactive' than juri in his approach to being held captive. as much as anyone can be in that situation, at least.)
anyways. sorry about the tl;dr I AM WAY OVERTHINKING THIS and hell no I don't mind if you write your own fic. write all the fic. I can read digimon crossover fic for days, son, days
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no, I'm not telling you all that for any particular reason, why do you ask ]
After the preliminary introductions, Batman and Martian Manhunter had gone off to assist the other League members and their digimon in the 'rebuilding' of Mount Justice for use as a headquarters again. Obviously, this had left the five teenagers and their digimon alone together in the main hall, presumably so they could all get a little better acquainted with one another. What better way to kick off the Team for real?
For his part, Robin didn't know what to think of "Miss Martian" and her partner just yet. They both seemed friendly enough, sure, and Robin was plenty amused by the pains Kid Flash was taking to win over their new, conspicuously female teammate. But to say that Robin was irritated at having a new team member sprung on them at the last minute was a bit of an understatement - Batman should have told HIM at least what was going on beforehand!
(On the subject of 'irritated,' though - why wasn't anyone ever just regular 'ritated'?)
Still, neither the girl nor her digimon seemed like they were going to cause any problems, and Miss Martian seemed to be going out of her way to try and get along with everyone. Robin decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, joining the others in their conversation and absentmindedly reaching up a hand to pat Tsukaimon, perched on his shoulder like always.
"It's really great to be a part of the Team," Miss Martian was saying brightly, her hand on her partner's back. The black, lizard-like digimon was nearly as tall as she was, but far quieter, seemingly content to listen rather than talk. Miss Martian smiled down at him a bit before looking back at them. "Guilmon and I are kind of new to this, but I promise you we're going to do our very best."
'Guilmon' grunted in the affirmative, large yellow eyes watching them owlishly.
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Tsukaimon, still perched on Robin's shoulder, leaned in to breathe into Robin's ear: "I've never seen a Guilmon before. Looks a bit strange."
"Yeah," Robin muttered quietly. "I thought so, too."
Just then, Miss Martian looked up and caught his eye, still smiling widely. "What are you two talking about?" she asked cheerfully.
"Just curious about your digimon," Robin said, opting for honesty. "Is it the pre-evolution of Growlmon? Like Martian Manhunter has?"
Miss Martian looked a little taken aback by the question, but then she smiled again, glancing down at her digimon fondly. "Yes," she said firmly. "Guilmon digivolves into Growlmon. At least - he should, once I get enough experience."
Guilmon nodded.
Beside Robin, Kid Flash grinned, probably just eager for any excuse to keep talking to the newfound target of his infatuation. "That's really cool, Miss M!" the speedster said, turning up the charm full blast, or so he probably believed. "So does Guilmon change colors after digivolving?"
Miss Martian froze, more noticeably than before. Robin's eyes narrowed a bit behind his sunglasses.
She managed to collect herself after a few seconds, though, and smiled again. Maybe her expression was a bit more strained than before, but she seemed to be fine. "Yes," she said quickly, with a high, nervous laugh. "When Guilmon evolves into Growlmon, he'll be red - just like my Uncle J'onn's!"
The rest of the team nodded, satisfied. Robin, deciding that Miss Martian's momentary slip was probably nothing, filed it away in the back of his mind. He had plenty of other, bigger things to think about, especially on today of all days.
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On the one hand, it had been actually been fun, working with the Team, WAY fun, which was something that almost never happened when he was on missions with the Justice League. Not that he'd become a hero to have fun, of course - he wanted to help people, and to do the right thing. (At least, one part of him did.) But that didn't mean it hadn't been cool while it lasted.
So cool!
On the other hand, the encounter with the Brain had raised a lot of disturbing questions, and in the end the Team hadn't been able to stop the villain from getting away with his Gorillamon. Justimon frowned, alighting on the ground of an empty park near the center of Fawcett City. He stood thinking silently for a moment, pondering the ramifications of what they had discovered in India - namely, the dozens of captive digimon, enhanced with what could only be a variation on Kobra's D-Venom and forced to wear inhibitor collars. Where had the Brain acquired so many digimon? Or even the venom, for that matter? They'd freed the digimon in the end, but that didn't explain what had happened in the first place. Something wasn't adding up.
But there was nothing more Justimon could do, not tonight at least. "SHINKA!" he shouted, lifting his cybernetic right arm to the sky.
The Zero Unit symbol on the back of his fist lit up, shining brilliantly in a flash of red light, and then suddenly Justimon was gone. In his place stood 10-year-old Billy Batson, utterly normal in his plain red hoodie, T-shirt and jeans.
Billy smiled as the last of the light faded, and then turned around to look behind him. There was nobody there that he could see, but Billy knew from the shimmering in the air around him that Wendigomon hadn't left yet.
"Wait," he called, reaching out a hand. "I didn't get a chance to thank you."
For a moment, there was nothing, and then came the whispering, ethereal voice of the wind: I serve.
Billy shook his head, his smile a bit sadder than usual.
"No, I mean it. Really. It's not like you have to keep hanging around with me," he said. Slowly he lowered his arm, staring contemplatively down at the Zero Unit still marking the back of his right hand, the pattern of red and black triangles on his skin. "I mean, you could leave. You could go find a real tamer."
Billy waited, but there was no answer. Sighing, he dropped his arm back down to his side and continued. "I just don't understand it, Wendigomon. That's all. Why help me? I wanted to join the League to help protect the world we live in. But that's me. What are you getting out of it?" He swallowed, feeling suddenly guilty, because even though he meant what he said, Billy still didn't like to think about what would happen if Wendigomon actually took his words to heart.
"I don't want to keep you here, not if you don't want to be. I can - " Billy paused, torn, but then forced himself to say the rest. "I can always find another digimon. If …If I really need to."
For a long moment there was nothing, and Billy's stomach plummeted, but then Wendigomon spoke again: I serve the Sovereign.
"Will you at least tell me who that is, then?" Billy demanded, but he knew the conversation was already over. Wendigomon had left. Sighing, the boy shoved his hands into his pockets moodily and began to walk, heading for a familiar apartment complex a few streets over. He didn't technically need to come back to Fawcett City like this anymore, not when he could have just returned to the Cave; but there was someone here that Billy wanted to see.
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Shoulders slumping, the boy turned away and began to walk back down the hall toward the stairs. He heard shuffling sounds as he got closer, footsteps; someone else was coming up. Not really registering it as anything more than background noise, Billy kept his eyes on the ground, but he did look up when he heard a familiar gasp.
It was Dudley. The man looked a little older, somehow, than when Billy had last seen him - his clothes and hair were in a state of disarray, like he had somehow forgotten how to take care of himself in the past few months. He was holding a few bags of groceries; Billy recognized the logo of the local convenience store on them. Bachelor groceries. And Dudley's expression was so plainly shocked at seeing him there that Billy felt his heart ache a little in his chest.
Still, Billy smiled, and he meant it. "Hi, Uncle Dudley," he said warmly, walking forward to embrace the man who had, however briefly, given him a place to call home. "Did you miss me?"
Dudley dropped his bags. They tumbled, unheeded, to the ground, and the man slowly wrapped his arms around Billy like he couldn't believe he was there. "What are you doing here, son?" he asked in a shaking voice.
Billy let the hug last a few seconds longer, than reluctantly drew back. He and Uncle Dudley weren't really blood relatives - Billy didn't have any - but the man was the closest thing he had to family. And giving that up had been hard.
But Billy smiled wider, staring up at Dudley brightly, because if this was going to be it, then he wanted it to be happy. And he was happy. "I came to see you one last time, Uncle Dudley," he said, kindly. "The bad guys are getting a lot more powerful now, so I'm going to have a lot more work to do soon. I don't think I'll be able to come by here anymore. But I'll be fine, okay? You don't need to worry about me."
Dudley knelt down to his level, grabbing Billy by the shoulders. "If you want to go, I can't stop you, scout," the man said, desperately. "But please - please. Think about this. You can always stay. I'm not your folks, I can't replace them, but - you're like a son to me." He swallowed. "I mean that. It's not about your weird space-computer-whatever powers or any of that nonsense, not anymore. I don't want you to get hurt."
Touched, Billy almost couldn't say what had to come next. But then he steeled himself, and it suddenly wasn't that hard anymore, because above all else he was determined to do the right thing no matter what. He wasn't as strong as Justimon, not in this form, but nobody could ever say that Billy Batson was weak.
"It's okay, Uncle Dudley," he said, cheerfully. "I kind of attract a lot of digimon, see, and I don't want anything bad to happen if I hang around here too long. Besides, I've got plenty of stuff to do on my own - I got to have a really cool adventure with the Team today! Remember when I told you about them? I got to see a big ol' Gorillamon and everything!"
Dudley's hands tightened painfully on his shoulders, but then, suddenly, he let go. "Yeah, I remember, squirt," the man said tiredly. He stood up and moved aside so Billy could reach the stairs. "You go do what you've gotta do, kid. Give it all you got."
Billy nodded, beaming, and then walked out of the building without turning back.
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