Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Lasarius Chronicles ❯ Chapter Seven, here at long last! ( Chapter 7 )

Author notes: Yay! Chapter seven! FINALLY! ^^; Sorry for taking so long on this one. Schoolwork. 2-10, all pivotal classes, far too much homework. Not even time for a good RP anymore. *sobs* Oh, by the way, on a challenge from my RL sister, during this chapter is one of those POV-Centered-on-a-character part I always ask my readers to ask for (but you never doooo..). It's a Terriermon, from Digimon, one. Even if yer not a Digimon fan, it should be a nice read. ^^; Review! Please! Gaah! I don't even know who's reading this anymore..

Chapter Seven: Intricate Chaos! Too Much At Once!

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At the meeting, before we could make our way out of the doorway, Selenity called us back in.

"Donna, Jennifer, Sonic, Knuckles, may I speak to the four of you for a moment?"

Jen and I glanced at each other, as did the respective leaders of the 'Knothole Freedom Fighters' and the 'Choatix'. Never before had Selenity asked any leader to stay behind and talk about something that couldn't be addressed to the collective leaders during the meeting itsef.

The four of us sat in a semi-circle, Selenity standing infront of us. "I'm sure that you four all ready know of Constable Remington's current state."

We four shared a saddened glance, then looked back to the Queen.

"As I'm sure that you four are also aware that the Constable was left back on the planet Mobius, upon the Floating Island, to help protect the Island while Knuckles is here."

"Yeah, but then he was captured.." Knuckles stated, trailing off slightly, a thoughtfull expression undertoning the last few words.

Selenity looked sad. Sad and tired. "Planet Mobius has been thoroughly invaded by Lasarius's forces."

I looked over to the Echidna and Hedgehog, expecting either one to react dramatically, either by a faint or by jumping out of their chair. Instead, both looked as if they already knew.

"Yeah, we figured as much when Mobians started being amongst the rescued." Sonic admitted.

Knuckles frowned, "Everything? What about Robotropolis? Knothole?" He paused for a moment. "Our families?"

Selenity sat down at a chair, still faceing us, still frowning. "The humans.." She blinked once, then quickly corrected herself. "Overlanders remain untouched. However, Haven has been destroyed, it's occupants captured. The same with Knothole and the royal familly." She paused. "I'm sorry."

Jen and I shared another knowing, yet troubled, glance. Knuckles' father, grandfather, and greatgrandfathers for seven generations (except for two) lived in Haven. I could scarcely imagine how Sonic and Knuckles must be feeling.

"However, for reasons unknown, Lasarius's forces have not attacked the Robians. They are already on their way here. The echidnas Spectre and Athair have managed to elude capture as well."

Sonic and Knuckles brightened for a brief moment, the hedgehog more than the echidna. Sonic's parents were both Robians (Metal/Roboticized Mobians), and Athair and Spectre were both Knuckles' grandfathers, the first literelly, the latter seven generations removed.

We were both dismissed then, with orders not to reveal Mobius's invasion to any other teams. I have to admit that, at first, I didn't see why we had to keep it a secret. It was only on my way to the hospital for a few quick visits that it occurred to me just why secrecy was so vital.

The invasion of one world would spark fear in other leaders for their own worlds. They would all want to leave to protect their own world, leaving Knothole2 and our own army at a loss. It would very well change the entire war in our enemy's favor.

We couldn't allow the enemy to gain any further upper hands. That was the foremost thing on my mind, even as I entered Remington's room.

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Remington was, oddly enough, alone. No visitors or nurses. Usually, there's atleast one, with a few nurses. Now, however, he was sitting on his bed, looking out the window next to said bed.

He didn't notice me, even as I walked to a few feet away from his side, peering at him a bit. He looked..sad. Very sad. Depressed, even. Considering what he lived through, not unusual.

"Remington-san?" I whispered, not wanting to startle him.

However, he was startled, and looked to me with surprise evident in his eyes. "Oh. Miss Donna. I hadn't noticed you there."

I frowned a bit. "Are you okay?"

He looked back to the window. "I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

Why didn't that sound believeable? "Remington-san.." I paused for a minute, not sure if I should ask such a question so bluntly. "..How did you loose your leg?"

He blinked once at the unexpected query, looking back to me. "Ah.." His eyes traveled to his legs, and his expression turned a bit sour. "..They took it off."

Well, we already knew that. "..Remington-san.." I sighed. "..We know what happened."

He looked to me sharply, an alarmed expression on his face. "What do you mean?"

I couldn't believe I was doing this. Damn those 'Rape victim' books. Damn my old school for making me read them (pfft). "You're girlfriend is going to find out that something's wrong when she sees how sad you've gotten. If you talk to someone about it, then mabye you won't be so sad."

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

He interrupted the silence. "Fiancee. She's my fiancee."

Oh, dear. That was bound to make things even worse.

Another few seconds of silence. This was starting to get disturbing. "Remington-san..?"

"I don't want to talk about it yet, Miss Donna."

I nodded, frowning. "I'll talk to you later, then. I need to visit a few others." I headed to the door, but stopped a moment, glancing back. He didn't move from his seat, looking out the window again.

So, I left. I really hoped he would atleast talk to me about it.

"You care too much." A cold, almost grating voice, resounded through the silence as I came out of Remington's room.

I looked over, only to blink once. "Auron-san." It was a statement, not a question.

"Hn. Why do you worry so much over those you don't even know?"

I looked at the swordsman. "Because if I don't, who will?" I sighed. He didn't say anything. Neither did I, for a moment.

Silence.

I sighed again. "I worry about everyone here, Auron-san. Where I'm from, it's the lack of care that gets people killed."

Neither of us said anything again. I walked off then, deciding that my statement was the final word in our conversation.

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I'm going to start banging my head against a hard surface soon.

While Jen and I were putting the teams together, I tried to write down the status of every warrior who could not go on the mission. It was bad to start off with, and horrendous to finish.

Too..Many..Things happening..At once! Gah!

Physical injuries, psychological damage, favorites..Eesh.

To top it all off, at about eleven P.M., I walked out for a quick breather, only to find myself in an altercation between who I classify (as a whole) as the 'Mobian Furries' and the 'Lylatian Furries'. Both groups were technically anthropomorphic (two-legged) animals, but were different in stature and origin.

The Mobians were from, obviously, the planet Mobius, and were usually about three to five feet tall, depending the species.

The Lylatians were from different planets in the Lylat System, and ranged mainly from four feet to seven feet tall, but usually nearing the six foot range.

I walked in on Falco Lombardi (Lylat) and Vector Crocodile (Mobius) beating each other up, and their respective friends either trying to seperate them or cheering them on.

After balking for a moment, "What the hell is going on here?!"

It all stopped, everyone staring at me. I looked back and forth between the two groups before asking again, "Well?!"

"They started it!" Vector claimed, right off the bat.

"If you weren't all so disgusting, we wouldn't start anything!" Falco replied. Vector tried to lunge at him again, but was held back by Espio Chameleon.

I twitched. "Falco, care to elaborate?" I seethed. I was trying to remain calm. Really, I was.

Falco actually looked afraid of me. Cool. "Th-they don't even wear clothes, like normal people!"

I twitched again. "Normality is in the eye of the beholder, Falco. Besides that, their fur, spines and whatever covers what needs to be covered. They don't need to wear clothing." A few of the Mobians grined. "Now, if that's all, would you all go back to your huts? There's a big mission tomorrow."

They left then, most grumbling. I sighed.

Too many things happening at once.

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It was fairly uneventfull after that, untill I was able to get to bed. I only visited a few other rescued people, including little Lilly/Bubbles. I refuse to call her 'Bubbles'. The 'Powerpuff Girls' cartoon was strange enough when it was fantasy. Now that it's a strange sort of reality..

..Ugh. Migrane.

Anyway, Lilly was completely unhurt. Seems whoever kept her chained in that room kept rather good care of her. Well, as good a care as a kidnapped five year old can have.

I headed to sleep at half past midnight, after delivering the constructed team lists to Selenity that Jen and I argued and labored over for well over five hours.

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Know what? Symbolic dreams seriously suck.

Usually, I have bare half-rememberences of dreams. Perhaps a few images, or a concept. This one, however, was so clear that I recalled every detail in the morning. I wrote everything down in my diary as soon as I woke up, at seven in the morning.

The dream was pitch black at first, although I was aware of myself. I seemed to be radiating my own light, since I was able to see my own hands and body, but nothing else.

After a minute of failed shadow puppets, symbols suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, each identical in shape but different in color. Nine symbols, in a particular order that struck me as important, though for a reason unknown.

It looked something like this: ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^

The first two symbols were a bright, fiery red. The third a light brown. The fourth a dark brown. The fifth and sixth were a shade of purple. Seventh was red, like the first two. And the eighth and ninth were white.

At first, nothing happened, and I spent that time in mild confusion. Then, the fifth quickly changed to an ash-color, before crumbling to dust.

Then, the first rose in the air above the others, hovering a few inches above it's previous spot.

Spheres (that I swear looked like bubbles) then came out of nowhere, surrounding the entire group of symbols, but not covering them from view. Literelly, they looked like bubbles. Little spheres of transparent fluid.

Something strange happened then. What I can only describe as the background music from the 'Sixth Sense' movie filled the area. It represented something, although i'm unsure as to what.

The strange 'music' continued to play, even as the bubbles moved in on the ones remaining in a streight line and caught the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth within. The eighth, before a bubble could catch it, moved into the air in the same way that the first did before.

The ones caught in the bubbles shook slightly, as if struggling, even as the 'music' suddenly got louder. Blue water filled the bubbles with the captured symbols, in a certain order that, again, I found important for an unknown reason: Seventh, second, sixth, third, ninth, fourth.

Those four continued to shake for a few seconds, before stopping all together and standing still.

I woke up, then, confused for a moment. Then I wrote it all down.

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We were set to attack at sunset, right before the 'Starting Ceremony' for Humanity Fair. Mostly for the cover of night, but perhaps drama had something to do with it.

In that time, I double checked who we were taking, making sure no one would come down with a last-minute illness or injury. The last thing we needed at this point was a quick-fix replacement.

Twenty teams. Fifteen to a team. No backups or special incentives, this time; It was every team for themselves. An army of three hundred. My favorites were barred from the mission again. Most understood. Duo Maxwell was still pissed off. I found him later on in the bar, drunk off his ass. For what I was told, he woke up with a hangover after we left. Some were banned from going for injuries, as well. All this, at first, put us at a serious disadvantage. Not enough to fill the spots.

So, we went to extremes. My parents were to see their first real battle, leading two teams of their own. Same with my sister and brother. Same with Jen.

I wasn't too worried about Jen being in the battle. She had seen more battles than I had. She was fine. It was my familly that I was afraid for. Sure, my sister had been in a few battles, but never had lead a team. My brother had been in one battle, but not leader. My parents..

..Oy. I hoped they would be all right. They had been training for only a couple of weeks.

Seeing my parents in the armor was rather odd. Although, I have to admit, my mother does look quite pretty in the armor. And after we suited up, my mother and I looked nearly identical, save for the marks of age. I have a fourth generation face, but I never imagined the similarites were this close.

We headed out for the battle an hour before sunset. I expected horror and pain to be seen that day. I just had no idea of the intensity of it.

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We hid amazingly well, considering we were so many, where we were. Surprisingly, we pulled it off. But I guess the use of Card Captor Sakura's 'Illusion' card had something to do with that.

Jen and I were leading our groups through the field, on a hill overlooking the labor camp. 'Humanity Fair', at first, looked like nothing but a circus. That is, untill you notice the cages, see the shackles, chains, torture and death equipment. Hear the crying.

"Aw, crud." I mumbled under my breath. A few years ago, I would have fainted at a sight like this. Now, I only swear.

I looked to the night sky, and knew that the Card Captor Sakura, along with my fathers' team, was up there, flying atop the 'Fly' card. 'Illusion' disguised it, as well. All I noticed were a few birds flying around.

We weren't ment to attack yet. Not for another half an hour. We were scouting the area first, counting the guards and soldiers. My god, were there alot of guards and soldiers. I guess I should have figured that, though, with an event like this.

<Found a male Ronso in a cage, here. Has the wings on his back, just like the profile. I think it's the Kimahri guy. He's behind the west wing of building four.> I heard Jake's thought-speech voice in my mind.

I sighed once, and then spoke into the MF-THC, "Jake found Kimahri. Behind the west wing of building four."

<"Wait, wait, BEHIND the building? ..Why is he in a cage behind the building, when the other captives are in cages around the main event?"> Lina Inverse's voice rang through.

I blinked once. I hadn't even thought of that.

<"Does it matter, Lina-san? He's unjustly held against his will by evil! We must free him, no matter where he is!"> Amelia, of course.

I sweatdropped heavilly.

With a pair of binoculors, I peered into the main area of the festival, at the cages. I blinked once at the inhabitant of one cage. I actually took the 'culors down for a moment, rubbed at my eyes, and looked again. "..Hrm. Takato, take a look to the left of marked door three. Is that who I think it is?"

After a moment of Takato taking a look, <"..Is that Impmon?"> Another pause. <"..Isn't he suposto be sorta..er..dead?">

I sweatdropped. "Apparently not."

Suddenly, lights flared. The crowd of humans below cheered. The festival was starting.

Early.

"Shitshitshitshit.." I mumbled, like a mantra. I then spoke into the MF-THC, "Guys!"

<"We know, we know! Damn, we weren't prepared for this.."> Falco Lombardi.

We needed something quick. I had to think of something quick.

I turned to look over my team, and spotted an eleven-year-old girl in pink armor. "Duplica!"

She looked over at my call, blinking once, before rushing over. "Donna-san, what do we do?"

"You have your partner?"

Confusion came across her features, but she nodded. "Yes, Ditto is at my side." Literelly, I supposed.

"Morph him..Her..IT.." Geeze. "Into a Stantler. I know that those critters can do a 'stampede illusion' thing."

She blinked again, but nodded, quickly opening the small encasement at her side. "Ditto!"

A small creature, which I honastly thought looked like a lump of moving clay with eyes and a mouth, came out of the 'Pokeball' with a flash, noting it's presence with a call of it's name.

Duplica smiled. "Ditto, change to Stantler and use your Illusion attack!"

This sounds so, so weird. Especially since I was anti-Pokemon before this war.

The little lump of clay called out it's name again, and quickly changed to a deer-like creature. Looked like a male deer (a buck, I think?) with weird antlers. Except for the pinpoint eyes, it was a perfect transformation.

Duplica sighed at the eyes. "Still can't get that right."

I decided not to make a comment, taking a look over at the 'festival'. A scream, and more cheers from the crowd. I felt like throwing up. Instead, I looked over to the young boy at my side. "Ken.." I paused a moment. "What did they just kill?"

He didn't look to good, either. Paler then usual. "A fox-person. Don't know the species. Looked Mobian."

A herde of Stantler suddenly rushed by my side, with no accompasing wind, only the sound of hoves. I looked over to Duplica and Ditto, nodding quickly.

I then spoke into the MF-THC, "I sent out a distraction. Ignore the deer with funky antlers. They're not real."

<"Yeah, I was wondering about that."> I heard my brother chuckle.

Jen giggled stupidly for a moment. <"Teehee. You said 'funky."> Somehow, I figured she would say something odd like that. She then caught on quickly, though. <"Lemme guess. We're gonna attack while the bad guys are distracted?">

I chuckled slightly, "You got it. I'm going to take my team inside building four. If Kimahri is behind the building, than mebbe there are innocents inside it."

<"Let's roll."> I heard my sister say. The significance of that statement was nearly ironic.

I heard human screams this time, noting that panic had indeed sunk into the enemy. Yay for us. I raised a hand, signalling for my group to follow.

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We climbed through the vents, down to the basement. Or subbasement. All I knew was that it was underground.

The sounds of the battle above us could be heard quite clearly. I knew that we were only a few miles above Knothole2.

My entire group paused as soon as we came down, looking around, silent. The place was huge. From the white walls, white doors, white floors, it seemed to either be a hospital or a lab. I wouldn't put either one past these guys.

No enemy troops, or anyone for that matter, were in sight.

"I don't like this." Ken Ichijouji remarked.

"I agree. It's too quiet." Stingmon added.

"Well, it could be that everyone left for the festival." Duplica suggested.

It was silent for another moment. We looked around the hallway we dropped into in that time, trying to see anything that was off.

"All right." I mumbled. "Seperate. Look around. We might find someone alive in here. Remember, anyone could--" A scream of pain filled the room, echoing in the hallways, intrupting my order.

We all gaped and looked around. I had no idea which room or where that particular scream came from.

"..Oo-kay. Mabye everyone didn't leave for the festival." I grumbled.

"Rowf!" A dog-like bark, from Duplica's Ditto, who turned into a striped dog (Growlithe, I think) sometime during all this. Said dog-thing ran off down the hall, barking.

"Ditto! Wait!" Duplica wound up running after it.

I sweatdropped for a moment, before following, raising my arm for a second to signal the rest to follow as well.

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Ditto-Growlithe had stopped barking by the time we caught up to it, a few minutes later, inside a small but dimly-lit room.

Ditto was no longer in the striped canine form, but was rather back into it's origonal lump-of-clay form. It was shaking and whimpering.

Duplica frowned and took the Pokemon into her arms. "Poor little Ditto." She then looked to the rest of us. "Something must have frightened her badly for her to demorph." The lump-of-clay was a girl?

I glanced around the small room. The room was mostly square-shaped, normal, except for the far wall, which seemed to be curved slightly. The curved wall was lined half-way up with blank computers and flashing buttons. I noticed small odd breaks every foot or so on the far wall.

After a short few seconds of silence as we all looked over the room silently with our eyes, Spike was the first to walk over to the computer consoles. The african-american teen looked over the computers, his back turned to us.

After yet another few seconds, "Spike? Know what the comps do?"

"...Not a damn clue."

We all sweatdropped. This might take a while.

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I should have seen it. The breaks in the wall were foldable parts. The wall was removeable.

"..Dude." I heard Spike remark as we looked into the strange room behind the computers. Oddly enough, that one word basically summed it all up.

A round room. Why does everything strange have to be in a round room? There were large, liquid-filled sphere-shaped chambers around the room. Eight of them, although two were open and empty. It opened very similer to a Pokeball, the top lifting up at the middle. I noticed Duplica, from the corner of my eye, shiver at the eerie similarity.

I walked over to the closest chamber thing. The liquid inside was a cloudy white, obscuring anything that may be inside. On the side of the chamber, nearly hidden from view, was a red symbol.

^n^

A red symbol within a liquid-filled sphere..

I frowned a bit, before noticing that the liquid had cleared slightly. I narrowed my eyes to get a closer look, and immediently gasped. "Knux!"

Knuckles the Echidna walked up behind me, hearing my gasp. "What is it?"

"Look." Was all that I needed to say.

He peered at the chamber for a minute, before gasping and gaping. "..Dad?"

Everything practically froze. I looked back to my other allies, and I could see the same expression on all their faces. Shock, concern, horror.

Knuckles ran to the side of the sphere and began to press at random buttons hurridly. "We need to get him out of there!"

It seems that we've all forgotten about the other chambers, or why we headed into this room in the first place.

After a few seconds of Knuckles practically pounding at buttons while the rest of us looked on in shocked concern, the chamber opened. The strange fluid spilled out, creating a small one-inch-high flood on the floor. The captive within was released into a rather unceramonious heap on the ground.

Wait. That wasn't Knuckles' father.

"Grandfather Sojourner!" The younger echidna gasped, kneeling down to his ancestor.

..Close enough. Still a relative.

Knuckles pulled at the breathing/feeding mask, which still encased his ancestor's muzzle, still connected by a single thick tube to the sphere. The mask came off after a few harsh tugs, leaving the elder echidna on his side, coughing up the same cloudy liquid which formerly resided in the chamber. I could tell that whoever had been in charge of feeding had done a very bad job of it; Sojourner was at least twenty pounds lighter than he should have been.

Sojourner's eyes widened, quickly flipped to a sit-up position, and threw up. Alot. I felt mildly sick myself at this sight, not wanting to know why sickly yellow and brown 'fluid' came from his stomach.

I heard a surprised cry suddenly, bringing me out of my disturbed reverie, followed by a yell of, "There are more people in these things!"

At first, I thought it had been Duplica who had yelled. However, after turning to see that she had not, I noticed the odd girl standing in front of one of the other chambers. She turned to look at the rest of us for a moment. The disturbing pinpoint eyes revealed the girl to be Ditto.

What do you know? Ditto is a girl.

Knuckles got up from his kneeling position next to Sojourner and ran to the same chamber Ditto was standing in front of. He immediently gasped. "Grandfather Sabre!"

It seemed that the captive Brotherhood of Guardians were beind held right in this room.

I kneeled down to Sojourner, noting that the brace around his waist and privates was still in place, still connected to the sphere by two thick tubes.

I pulled at it a bit, not quite sure how to remove it. The others tried to get the rest of the echidnas out of their own prisons.

A soft 'click' quickly got my attention, but I wasn't able to turn before a woman's voice warned me, "Step away from the chambers. Now."

Looking to the doorway we ourselves entered through, I saw a woman standing there, gun in hand. Said weapon was aimed at my head, as were the weapons of the six uniformed men at her side. I hadn't even noticed them come in.

It actually took me a few precious seconds to recognize the woman. "Mrs. Genereux?" Despite knowing where her loyalties now lied, I couldn't help but continue to refer to her as the teacher who once attempted to teach my class about the tourist cities of America.

She stared at me for a moment, then laughed. A cynic, maniacal laugh, far different from the friendly laugh I had once heard during my Senior Year. "Ah, you've heard of me!" She seemed positivly overjoyed at that.

It was obvious that she did not remember me. "Mrs. Genereux, it's me. Donna Kunz. I was your student at PRHS."

Blinking once, she then raised an eyebrow. "The girl who always slept in my class." Oh, that's how she remembers me. "I'll say it again. Step away from the chambers."

Strange whimpering filled the air. I glanced down to Sojourner, who whimpered and shook. He seemed..afraid. He was afraid of Genereux?

That certainly wasn't normal. He was a former Guardian of the Floating Island, now at a hundred and thirty seven years of age.

Knuckles seemed to be on the same line of thought, bringing a fist up, angry. "What the hell did you do to my familly!?"

Genereux laughed again. Malicious once again. "Nothing much. Simply used their chaos-enriched bodies to our advantage." What did she mean by that?

She stepped aside, revealing two more soldiers behind her. The two new soldiers were holding yet another echidna, who was practically coated with red blood. The purple shade of his fur told me which of Knuckles' ancestors it was right away. Only one member of the Brotherhood of Guardians had purple fur.

Knuckles gasped, as well as everyone else. They were all horrified by all the blood on one creature. "Grandfather Thunderhawk.."

The numbers did not add up. That thought came to me then, but I paid it no mind. I didn't know what it ment, but I could not spare time to think about it.

Both soldiers holding the blood-coated echidna pointed their own guns at Thunderhawk's head. Thunderhawk's head was bowed, feather-like bangs hiding his face from view. For a moment, I wasn't aware if he was conscious or not.

Clear droplets trickled from his face. Silent tears. He was crying. This was also not normal for any member of the Brotherhood. This was wrong on so many levels.

Genereux grinned. "This is my final warning. Step away from th-" She never got to finish that sentence.

I'm sure that we had all been hoping for a miracle, for something or someone to help us along in such a situation. Personally, I hadn't expected one to come along, and certainly not in the form of a giant cactus.

Said twenty-foot-tall cactus crashed down from the battle above. It took out half of the room we were in, adjacent rooms, and the hallway. It probably took out more, but I couldn't tell from where I was. It also landed atop our enemies, and then crashed another level down.

We were all left gaping for a moment, wondering exactly what just happened. It was quite unexpected and utterly strange. A giant gloved cactus crashing from the top level.

Wait, gloved?

"...Oooww.." A deep yet female voice came from below. I peered down.

"Togemon?"

The cactus looked up at me, blinking large dark orb eyes. She (for she was, indeed, female) then glowed brightly. I had to shield by eyes with my forearm for the duration of the glow, about two seconds. I looked back down. The much smaller form of Palmon lied where Togeman had the moment before.

I turned my MF-THC back on to recieve all transmissions, not too surprised to be suddenly bombarded with orders and warnings from other fighters. I yelled into the MF-THC, "We found a whole buncha injured echinda here! Palmon is also hurt! We need flyers!"

As if on cue, a large bird soared past me and down the crushed level. Duplica was riding atop what I recalled to be a Fearow with pinpoint eyes.

I assumed that Duplica and Ditto would take care of everything below, so I turned back to what was left of this floor. The chambers hadn't been pulled down, a miracle in itself, but had been hit by debri from above.

The captive echidnas had been taken out, either by my allies figuring out the controls, or by smashing the chamber open by force. Two of the chambers had been open by force, it seems, judging by the broken glass. Each had gone through the same as Sojourner had upon awakening, releasing the contents of their stomachs.

The numbers did not add up. Again, the thought.

I walked over to Sojourner. I kneeled down, trying to open the still-encased metal around his pelvic area. I then noticed that there was a simple little hatch on the brace's side.

A simple little hatch. I am such an idiot.

I let out a small 'oy' before talking into the MF-THC again. "Those helping the freed echidna, flip the hatch on the left side on the lower brace to get it off."

There was no response to my words, but I noticed Ken and Spike getting a brown-furred echidna out of the lower brace.

Ditto-Fearow sqwaked from behind me, and I turned to see Duplica and Palmon riding atop. A bloodied, purple echidna was in their arms. Palmon looked mildly ill.

I spoke into the MF-THC again, "Okay, let's move out! We got what we came for!"

Knuckles' voice came over the MF-THC, <"Donna, come over here. I'll climb us to the top.">

Looking around for a moment, I saw the red echidna waving a hand to get my attention. I ran over quickly, and wrapped my arms around his waist. He only smiled at that, obviously used to it from carrying others, and only warned me to hang on.

Using his sharply-knuckled fists to climb, Knuckles and I got halfway up with no altercation. I looked to the side then, my intent on seeing the chaos below from a better vintage point. Instead, I noticed a smaller level between the one we were on and the battle atop. It looked like..a nursery. Cribs were slightly scattered on the floor of that level.

"Hey, Knux, head over there." Knuckled looked over to where I was faced towards, and paused for a moment. He seemed surprised that a nursery was there. "Uh, sure." Was his response, now climbing sideways.

The sounds of a couple dozen crying babies could be heard after a second, as we climbed towards the nursery. Knuckles made a small, disturbed sound. I looked to his face to see him frowning.

It took us another couple of seconds to get there at his pace. I hopped down from his waist, landing on the slightly slanted floor. Togemon must have crashed through this nursery. A few cribs were sideways, some toppled over completely, and one was even teetering on the edge of the broken floor. A few must have fallen down, as well. That last thought disturbed me slightly.

I called into the MF-THC again, "We found babies here! Lots of young babies! We need more help here!"

<"Children?!"> A startled, deep voice rang through. <"These foul creatures have innocent children captive?!"> Must be Silverbolt. Not many others use 'foul' in a sentence.

I sighed slightly, "Just, get here! We need to airlift these kids out!"

"Donna! These kids aren't normal!" Knuckles called out, holding one still-crying baby in his arms.

I looked over to him, blinking in confusion, before running over to the closest crib. I looked down at the baby, who seemed human to my eyes. Then, I noticed that it had a lizard-like tail, tanned golden in color. Elven-like ears, as well, under a small bit of golden hair. The baby was a Ryuuzoku.

Filia is going to have another nervous breakdown, I knew right then and there. Fluttering of wings and the decleration of, "Got you!" caused me to look over. Silverbolt, in robot form, had caught the child who was in the teetering crib from below, and held what looked like a baby Mobian armadillo in his arms.

Fluttering of more wings, and the occasional sound of someone hovering, further disguised the sounds of the crying children. More allies had arrived, using their own methods to save these children in the middle of the still ongoing battle. A few of the babies were hovering on their own. One of my telekenetic allies must've been helping out.

I was suddenly startled to find that my feet were no longer touching solid ground. Looking downward, I realised I was slowly rising upwards. I grabbed a baby from the closest crib before I was out of range, and was then lifted quickly on to the level above. "Whoever did that, thanks." Was all I could think of saying into the MF-THC.

<"You're welcome, Miss Donna."> Came the response from what sounded like a strained teenage girl. Must have been Jean Grey. Hey, just because they've joined the large army, doesn't necessarilly mean I know everyone by voice.

<"Waah! Digimon down, Digimon down! Help!"> A terrified cry rung through the MF-THC. I looked around the chaotic battlezone, attention not yet drawn to myself from Lasarius's soldiers. I spotted a small, white rabbit-like creature trying to fend off two soldiers.

<"Terriermon?! Why are you in that form?!"> I recognized that young voice to be Michael, one of the Digidestined.

I still held a baby in my arms. I knew that the downed Digimon needed aid, but the baby might get hurt if I tried to make my way through.

<"Well, how would you react to a bunch of bullets?!"> Terriermon responded, sarcasm thick. <"Jenrya! Hel--GAAH!"> Terriermon went flying, the Digimon's MF-THC cracking off, broken, as he was hit in the back of the head by a soldiers' fist.

"Crap. Someone, help him! I'm carrying a young child, I can't risk getting through!" I called in, looking to my side. Depth Charge stood, firing both laser and his ion disk weapons. I headed to him, running at top speed. If anyone can offer shelter, it would be the giant manta-bot. "Depthie! I need to get this kid to shelter!"

He looked down and nodded. "Get behind me, then."

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Secondary Point of View: Terriermon

My name is Terriermon. I'm a Digimon, and partner to Jenrya Lee.

I am in really, really deep shit.

The rescue battle wound up in a sort of a mess. The teams wound up seperated and scattered, fighting for their lives. I had been seperated from my own group while in Rapidmon form. I guess the bad guys figured to take out the big flyer first. They all rushed over as if I was target practice!

Even an Ultimate level Digimon, as I was at the time, can't stand up against several dozen bullets from all directions. I tried to fly off, but they kept shooting! I went down two levels -- TWO! -- to my Rookie level stage.

Most of those creeps that attacked me decided to leave me alone. I guess a Rookie didn't seem like much of a danger then. Boy, were they wrong!

Only one of those bozos remained. I guess he wanted to finish me off.

Hey, I may look liked a horned bunny, but I can still pack a punch! One Terrier Tornado later, and he went down!

Of course, then two others showed up. Jerks. I tried to Tornado at 'em, too. One kicked me mid-Tornado. He kicked me!

I fell on my back with one heck of a stomach ache. Despite all the fighting going on around us, the two humans were walking up to me as if nothing was going on.

I rolled onto my stomach, narrowly missing a bullet, and hopped to my stubby feet. I risked a glance around to look for Jenrya, but couldn't see him. My MF-THC was still on my head, tho'. Must have changed forms right along with me.

"Waa! Digimon down, Digimon down! Help!"

<"Terriermon?! Why are you in that form?!"> Michael, a Tamer I knew nothing about, responded.

"Well, how would you react to a bunch of bullets?!" Sarcastic, of course. I turned back to face the two humans, only to see them gone. I gaped for a moment. "Jenrya, something is seriously wrong here! Hel--GAH!" I let out a cry as something hard hit the back of my head.

I tumbled forward, getting slightly bruised along the way. I stopped tumbling a few feet away, on my back. I barely had time to even moan before some big galoot put his foot on my cheast and held me down.

I opened my eyes to see a gun pointed at my face; Not the best thing you want to see. Said gun was being held by one of the bozo soldiers I was up against, who smiled down at me.

I gotta admit, I was really afraid. Terrified! If I was deleted now, I wouldn't be reborn as an egg! Everything slowed down, making two seconds seem like an hour. The whole 'life flashes before eyes' thing went into effect. Hatching, my first evolution, meeting Jenrya, our advantures..

The gun fired. A loud boom was all I heard for a moment. Then, pain. Lots of pain.

..Wait. I wasn't dead?

My left ear had been shot. My stubby arms clutched at the floppy ear, and I yelped as my fingers touched the wound. How the heck had that bozo missed at point blank range? ..Er, not that I was complaining.

I looked away from my wound to see..a dwarf? Yeah, a dwarf guy with a braided beard, fighting the guy that tried to delete me. With an axe. I then fell back on the ground with a moan, realising how close I had just come to permanent deletion.

Something then gripped at my fresh wound, and I yelped in pain. Looking over my left soldier, I felt another wave of fear as the second human clutched at my ear with one huge hand. His other hand held a gun, pointed right at my face.

This was so not my day.

"Fire Rocket!" A battle cry later, and the guy holding me had been knocked away. Flamedramon stood a foot or so away from me, growling at my attacker. Flamey then raced over, grabbed me quickly into his armored arms, and leaped away. "Hang on, Terriermon. We've been called into retreat."

I blinked once. "Huh? We have?" Uh.. "How come I didn't know?"

Flamedramon actually laughed. "You're communicator went flying off." Huh. I hadn't even noticed. "Let's get out of here. You need a medic."

End Secondary Point of View

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I brought the baby to the hospital. I didn't check on the child past what was necessary, didn't make any visits, nothing. I decided to simply bypass it off. What I needed right then was a nap and half a dozen asperin tablets.

That was far too close. Too much chaos in that battle. I wasn't even quite sure yet if we had lost anyone. Not untill a few hours later, anyway.

One nap later, and I went back to my duties.

The escaped Mobians and Robians had arrived while we were away. Lilly/Bubbles was fine; She and "Dr. Fishy" (where had she gotten that name from, anyway?) were still spending time together. She refused to leave his side. Remington's fiancee' had arrived along with the Mobians, but he refused to see her. I would have to check on that later.

After checking that bit off, I headed to the park. On the way, I saw a Transmetal2 feline robot sulking, being lectured by Optimal Optimus Primal. If you ever need to see a weird scene, just think about a 22-foot-tall robot (and we measured that!) pointing a finger and leacturing a cybernetic sabertooth cat.

"What were you thinking, Cheetor? You know better than that!" I heard Primal say.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! I swear, someone must have spiked my drink!" Cheetor was obviously trying to defend himself from whatever he did.

I walked closer, neither noticing me.

"Cheetor, we're Cybertronians. Unless someone knew exactly what to put in your drink, it couldn't have been spiked."

Cheetor was silent for a minute, a blank expression on his face. It seems that his defense was not working. "..But.."

"No 'but's. Did you even appologize to that poor Renamon?" Renamon?

"Um..Did something happen?" I finally asked, bringing the attention of both robots to myself.

Cheetor looked at me with a pleading expression. I swear, this situation was almost like a child being punished.

Someone let out an angry scream from behind me. I turned around, only to see Ruki, one of the Digidestined, and Renamon's partner. She seemed very, very angry.

Huh. Cheetor got drunk (as odd as that sounds). I got that much. Optimus said that he did something to Renamon.

...Oh, dear.

I looked back to a very worried-looking feline. "What did you do, Cheets?"

Ruki ran forward and actually tackled Cheetor, "You're dead!!"

I simply gaped for a moment. Cheetor wasn't even fighting back, and only huddled. The 11-year-old was not doing much damage, if any at all, considering that it was a human-on-robot fight. If only a one-sided one, at that.

Looking to Optimus, I got as much of an answer as anyone can give me: "He tried to flirt with her."

..Ah. I looked back to the 'fight'. "..He must have been very drunk."

Optimus let out a sigh, and walked off. Loud footsteps.

I decided to stick around for a few minutes more, amused, before walking off on my own. Strange situations keep happening around here.

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