[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]

[He hopes he never has to see - or have to do what he did - like that again. Bee has been open and forthcoming with the details of his world, but some matters like the Core and Tyger Pax? It's hard to find his voice for those.]

Don't be, Sora. Not your fault.

[At least Sora will be getting a nice view as the right side road drops off into a sharp incline. It gives him quite the view of the forest below and the green hillsides surrounding it.]

[heartdive]

I know, but still. Some things still kind of hurt to talk about. Aaand I don't really want to make people hurt so I can be sorry for that.

[ there's still a few things he knows he doesn't feel okay talking about immediately. it's not like he's gone into full detail about Xehanort and all of the possession stuff anyway. Might have mentioned it lightly to WJ... but lightly and in passing at best.

and he most certainly hadn't explained everything else that would have happened because of it. ]

[proveyourmetal]

[They all have their secrets. Though truth be told, of all the people Bee has met in the digital world, Sora may be the closest to hearing a few of them. If the day comes he's ready to give them.]

Of course.

[That's just like you Sora. Though, he'll try and lighten the mood with a bit of teasing.]

If we were in a race, you'd probably feel sorry for passing anyone by too.

[heartdive]

Ha ha...

[ oh Bumblebee. ]

Nope. It'd be totally their fault for being slow. I didn't win all those tournaments by feeling sorry for people in a competition.

[proveyourmetal]

[Hmmmm? Competitions? Sora. You haven't told him about this bit yet.]

Oh. So the kid does have some fight in him.

[heartdive]

'Course I do. You don't really think I'm all sunshine and paopu fruit all the time, do you?

[ might be looking a little smug here. ]

[proveyourmetal]

Well no, firstly because I don't know what a paopu fruit is.

Secondly, I haven't had a chance to really see you fight, have I?

[Their digimon insisted on doing the fighting for the two of them.]

[heartdive]

It's a fruit unique to my island - in the shape of a star. Legend says if you eat the same fruit with another person then your destinies will be tied togther forever.

[ he shrugs. it's not important. funny how when he had been little, it had been this super important thing. now? now he knows that destiny and bonds like that are things that you MAKE. they don't just magically happen. ]

And you probably won't see me really fight. I can't use my magic or a lot of my skills here. Can hold my own, mostly, but definitely not up to par with what I normally can do.

[proveyourmetal]

Forever? That's a pretty long time to have your destiny tied to someone...

And of course, Sora. Maybe one day you can show me if the digital world sees fit to give us back powers too.

[Sure, sure. He believes you, but he's just pokin atcha]

[heartdive]

H-hey... I've beaten up on bad guys twice your size. And gods!

[proveyourmetal]

Impressive.

I'm a video game enthusiast, myself. Were those the final bosses?

[poke poke. He'll stop in a minute, Sora, he promises. Let him enjoy the lighter moment.]

[heartdive]

Ha ha, Bee. Ha ha.

[ at least he knows he's being teased, right? ]

[proveyourmetal]

[Aaannd, done. He still sounds amused:]

... You surprise me, Sora.

[heartdive]

[ but now Sora is pretty confused. surprised? ]

What do you mean?

[ it's a good thing, right? ]

[proveyourmetal]

Heart-revived. World saving. Tournaments. Gods and giants.

Quite a bit packed into such a small package.

[heartdive]

Pffft. Just kind of glad mom took it pretty well.

[proveyourmetal]

[oh?]

One of the children who spent time with us on Earth had a mother.

She was... very protective of him.

[heartdive]

A lot of moms are though. Because we're "their babies."

[proveyourmetal]

I wouldn't know.

The closest I had aside from seeing June with Jack... would be my commanding officers. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be keen on calling me that.

[heartdive]

[ Sora kind of laughs. no, commanding officers kind of yeah... it's not really the same. ]

I got a little bit of a lecture when I showed up, oh you know... Well over a year after I disappeared.

But she was just sort of glad I was okay.

[proveyourmetal]

[Woah. What.]

You were gone for a full year?

That's a long time for her not to know what happened to you...

[heartdive]

More than that... There's just a year where I don't know where I was or even what I did. Kinda have this huge blank in my memory and I was asleep for a long time.

[ and it does disturb him, the next part. he had been a little hurt, but Leon and the others forgetting and then remembering is forgivable. his mom though... ]

But everyone forgot I even existed for a while too. So there's that.

[proveyourmetal]

[Bee's pretty alarmed to hear all that.]

That's... kind of terrible, Sora.

Did you ever find out why all that happened?

[heartdive]

It really kind of is. But I mean what can I do? Be mad at everyone?

[ maybe you didn't notice this Bee, but Sora just isn't the type. ]

Even our journal entries were blank, so everything that we did was just gone. No way to figure out what happened. There was one entry and it said to thank Naminé.

...Come to think of it, she didn't explain anything when I met her here either. Totally missed my chance.

[ another pause. ]

Guess I could ask Aiden too, but I'm not sure that's something I want to do.

[proveyourmetal]

I'm not sure who Aiden is.

But all of that sounds too out of the ordinary to be a coincidence.

[Like someone had arranged it all.]

It's bizarre. Even for a world as strange as yours.