[3rd Transformation // Anon Text // Optional Action with Bumblebee]

[proveyourmetal]

[When Bumblebee first emerges from the damaged apartment of 010 in his robot form, 16 feet of towering metal and living machine, Vanguard is filled with immeasurable awe an wonder.

In an hour, when he finds himself sitting in the car form of his partner, playing session after session of video game inside his cabin, that wonder becomes joy. In three hours, when Vanguard goes to tell off some insolent digimon on Bee's behalf but Bumblebee speaks up on his own first, gently resolving the situation with his own voicebox. All he feels is confusion. Six hours later, when Vanguard has to step outside and get his feet on steady ground after one of Bumblebee's races, it's irritation. The final straw happens when Vanguard finds himself held in the giant, protective metal hand of his robot partner, narrowly injured from a reckless Chosen. Saved. Protected. Lovingly guarded.

Then... it's just anger and resentment.

He leaves Bumblebee to talk with companions just beyond the hole in their apartment (hastily covered by the staff with a sheet of plastic). Bee doesn't need Vanguard to help translate his feelings to the friends he encounters outside. He laughs, and dances and transforms just fine on his own.

So the digimon retreats to their room just a few paces away. It takes ten minutes for it all to boil over. In the back of his mind, he knows he's going to calm down and regret this later but... he's not thinking about that at the time. He angrily jabs an anonymous message into the D-terminal.]

+ [Anonymous Text] +

All you Chosen. You think you're so impressive.

You could hardly take care of yourselves when you got here. You couldn't figure out how to eat, sleep or walk. Some of you couldn't even speak. We chased off digimon three times our size to keep you alive. We kept you safe on the journey down to HospiTown.

We did everything we were supposed to. We're your digimon. We were made to meet you and fix this world together.

So much for partners.

You can take your real forms and just

Just go home. We didn't need you either.

[The moment he presses send, he experiences a moment of hesitation. Of something beyond anger. Regret? He crosses his arms and tries not to think about it.]

[ooc: Vanguard (Coronamon) will respond to text anonymously while Bumblebee will react to action outside the hospital.]

Comments

[proveyourmetal]

[Vanguard's indignation is fierce when he receives the long text message. A part of himself even braces himself, gets his hackles up to rebuttal anything this long-winded digimon or Chosen has to say.

But as he reads oh, the fire cools into confusion. Then to awkwardness. And then to a cloying guilt. Vanguard is terrible at coping with that last one, and he rereads the message three times with the intention of nitpicking it until he has something sarcastic or just as potent to say.

He comes up with nothing. He doesn't reply for another ten minutes. When he does, it's woefully short.

But stripped away of all he believed slighted him, it's open and honest in more ways than one.]

What am I supposed to do?

[brokenground]

[There's a lengthy delay in the response; when there isn't fury in return, some of Dorumon's own anger leeches away. Being worried about change is okay. ... Wanting a partner to leave wasn't.]

Adapt. Be the partner you were meant to be. An equal partnership, if that's what it takes now.

Remember. Even if right now, your partner doesn't 'need' you in town or near town, even if he or she is one of the robot people the size of a Champion, their weapons don't work on a Digmon the way a Digimon's own do. What will happen to them, if they take on a real Champion without their partner to help them?

Or a mega-evolved?

You are still needed. I am certain you're still their friend. Don't throw that away over the heat of the moment. Change can be hard, it can even hurt, but what comes from it can be something wonderful all the same, if you let it.

1/2

[proveyourmetal]

Easy for you to say. Even if my partner couldn't face a Champion on his own, I woudn't be able to do much either. I could try and try, and all I'd do was make it angrier.

A friend is a friend. But friendship can't defeat a Wargreymon if you're a Rookie.

2/2

[proveyourmetal]

[There's another long pause from Vanguard this time. But this text follows after:]

I don't really want him to go.

[brokenground]

There's a lot to be said for trying, and not just giving up. If you have to work on your own personal strength, don't blame your partner's new species. Work together on becoming a better team, and find what it takes to lead to your own evolution.

Friendship alone won't stop a Wargreymon. But maybe friendship and your partner, and the determination you share, will.

[... Did any of them want their partners to go?

Dorumon was worried Terra would, as soon as an opportunity presented itself and the job here was finished. Did others have that problem as well?]

Good. Then don't do things that might drive him away. Impulsive anger can make you lash out at people who don't deserve it, I see it all the time.

Take a little bit if you have to. But then get back out there and find your partner and have fun. He may not ever know you were hurt, but what he will remember is that you were there.

[proveyourmetal]

[Vanguard may be scratching the back of his head rather bashfully during all this. He's glad he's anonymous or this might just get hideously embarrassing.]

[He stares at the screen for a long time. Dorumon is a straight shot- hitting points that Vanguard hasn't even thought of yet. Particularly the bit about driving his partner away. He had purposely used an anonymous text to send out an inflammatory message without repercussions, but the idea that Bee might be driven away somehow by his behavior is... possibly a little scary.]

[And on cue, the plastic sheet that hangs over the hole in the wall lifts to reveal Bumblebee's face peering in curiously. Checking on Vanguard. The digimon mutters that he's fine. But a hushed conversation ensues, Bumblebee unaware of the message but certainly aware of Vangard's dark mood.

He sits there on the bed. Caught between staying here to sulk and... going out with Bumblebee.]

Um. My partner wants to go somewhere. With me.

[Wants to take him out driving. Vanguard doesn't even know why he's telling Dorumon this. It almost feels like he's asking permission to go with his partner, which is dumb, dumb, dumb.]

[brokenground]

[Maybe things will be alright after all. If this is just a temporary temper tantrum..

But digimon belonged with their partner. Even if this one's partner was now a really big machine of some kind, or a pony, or something else. Eventually, Dorumon's sure, this other digimon will realize that too.]

You better get going then. And have some fun!

[proveyourmetal]

[Vanguard reads the message. It's the catalyst he needs to get him moving and hopping off the bed. He almost leaves Dorumon like that, heading out with Bumblebee without so much as a reply or a finished conversation.]

[It's only when he's out on the open road, just him and Bumblebee and the scenery flying by that he takes the D-terminal out again.]

Don't get a big head over this but

thanks I guess.

[brokenground]

[And Dorumon's fine with it. It's better that the mystery 'mon be with his partner than probably sitting alone feeling horrible. It's ... just better. It felt right.

Some time later, when there is another response that stirs Dorumon out of a comfortable nap, he's afraid at first something went wrong. But no.. maybe something went right.]

You're welcome.

Never give up. Not on yourself or your partner. Good luck.