I'm Not That Bad, I Swear! (Asher)

There were a lot of ways that Isaac could have seen his day going. Having the Invisible Woman interrupting his nice, peaceful rest was not one of them. In fact, that was probably the last thing he could have ever expected to hear. Despite this, that was exactly what seemed to happen. The bark next to his ear practically exploded into sound, cracking from the force of the invisible assailant's hit. That sent Isaac's eyes snapping wide-open for sure, the frazzled boy looking around his surroundings to try and see what the hell just hit him. In the time it took his eyes to adjust to the light he missed the yellow, furry Digimon standing before him, even if the air looked a bit more shimmery, so all he had to go off of was the deep cracks in the bark near him. Had he just been shot at?

No. That couldn't have been. Because now a familiar, albeit very feminine voice, was speaking to him.

Isaac liked to think he wasn't paranoid. But when an invisible assailant was suddenly cornering him and speaking in an irritated fashion, it was hard not to come to the obvious conclusion. Unable to put the voice to a face, he decided it was better to play it safe than sorry. And in this case, playing it safe meant playing with fire. He reached into his pocket and put a hand on his Digivice, preparing for the worst. "Depends."

Whereas Asher's process was focused and meditative, Isaac's was still as unrefined and spontaneous as it was the day he acquired his Digivice. No command phrase. No mind paid to fractal code surrounding his hand. No grounding thoughts. He just did what he always did, acting on the urge to transcend his current form. His thoughts and feelings flowed into the Digivice, and once his willpower built up to critical mass it started to glow.

A swirl of leaves and wind started to surround Isaac, gentle at first but soon causing him to practically turn into a blur. Through this breezy cocoon, his silhouette could be seen stretching from his usual height to a much taller one. Horns seemed to be sprouting from his head, two in the back and one in the front. His hair grew longer and wilder, and two blades seemed to materialize in his hands. When that was done he dispelled the winds, the tall and thin Yasyamon now in the exact same position Isaac was before. If there was a hand there still, it would have been about elbow height compared to the ear level that it once occupied.

"Who's asking?"

Isaac looked confused at the voice's response, his unsure frown thankfully hidden behind his mask. "What questions? I don't even know who you are!" he protested, trying to focus his eyes on the direction the voice was coming from. Isaac did not like being toyed around with, especially by a foe he couldn't even visualize. If this stranger was going to keep on being cryptic, especially after waking him out of a perfectly pleasant nap, then Isaac was going to make sure they heavily regretted it. What kind of level of power would they be at, anyway? Champion? Ultimate, even?

Or, just maybe, Rookie. Isaac blinked was the Renamon stepped out of the shadows, a good deal shorter than him yet still looking quite irritable. That was all that was threatening him? The sense of purpose that unlocked his human spirit went away, and Isaac found himself regressing to match the threat's lower power lever. A purple cocoon swallowed him up all of a sudden, the shocked Yasyamon reaching out to try and stop it, but before Isaac could sufficiently protest he was shrunken right back down to Impmon. There were some of the difficulties of basing your transformation on raw instinct and emotion; losing that drive could really suck!

Now reduced to looking up at the taller figure, Isaac sighed. "So wait a second. You come all the way to the forest to track me down, sneak up on me while invisible, and wake me up out of a nice nap. And I'm supposed to be the one wasting your time here?" Isaac asked. The higher voice made his grumpiness sound a lot more silly than Yasyamon's wispy tones would have. Still, Isaac was positive he had never seen this person before! They couldn't have been Kira's Renamon, because there wasn't a Kira with them. And they weren't that weird robot one either, because they weren't nearly as British. Or, you know, covered from head to toe in cybernetics. No, this was a Renamon Isaac had never seen before. Even if her voice was kind of familiar. Almost as if it was . . .

"Wait, Piper? Is that you?" he asked. She did mention having a "pedometer" like Isaac's on her coffee table. Maybe this was her spirit form after all. "Okay, if this is about Elliot's latest story, I'll admit. I may've lied to help him save face when I said he didn't base the dragon off of Asher. But he meant it as a complement, I swear!"

"Because he gets to be super powerful, shapeshift, and own all the gold in the kingdom, obviously," Isaac responded. Jeez, it was like they didn't even read the story Elliot sent in. And after Elliot worked so hard on "The Great and Terrible Ashnard's" big musical number, too. Sure, shortly after "Noble Sir Elias" hit him with lances until he cried uncle, but still! It was better than "Princess Isis' " role of standing there and looking angry. "Trust me. As far as roles in Elliot's stories go, that's a pretty awesome one."

Isaac tensed slightly as the Renamon approached, just in case she was still looking for a fight. It didn't help that Isaac really, really didn't like the tone in this intruder's voice. And then she was gonna stoop down to get right into his face? If the grit teeth, now with cute little fangs, weren't enough indication of how fed up Isaac was, the small fireball that materialized in his right hand would've been more than enough indication. It pulsed gently, small enough for Isaac to snuff out in his glove if the Renamon backed off but large enough to hopefully be intimidating.

It probably helped that this wasn't Piper, which made Isaac fare more comfortable with just flinging a fireball at the Renamon's face if it kept on being so insufferably snide. Especially when it started calling him Little Brother, which earned a little growl of irritation from Isaac. "Just keep pushing your luck," he muttered, the fireball inflating a little bit more in his fingers. His voice had already been weary from the outset, and this Renamon seemed on a mission to push all of his already frayed buttons. He hoped he could at least get some damn breathing room soon.

So, he was close in his guess. Close to Piper, but liked wandering. Now, who the heck could that be? Because Asher, well, wasn't a girl in the slightest. And he also had no interest in wandering anywhere but dream land. So who else could be close to Piper?

Isaac's eyes narrowed as he realized who it had to be. "Look, Mrs. Whiskers, I can't just tell Asher the truth if you're not gonna work with me. I tried to lead into it, but I can't just point at a guy's cat and go "by the way she's a robot alien." Not when that cat's just gonna keep meowing." Sure, Rookie to Rookie was a strange transition, but Renamon were known for their transformation and camouflage abilities. And relative power levels were downright weird in the Digital World. That cat could've been its champion form or something. "I even tried reminding him you're a girl. What else could you want from me?"

The Renamon seemed incredibly frustrated with Isaac missing the point. However, considering the Renamon was also being a real jerk right now, Isaac didn't really care what they thought. In fact, Isaac was thinking of turning up the stupidity even harder to get back at Renamon for ruining his day. However, he also really wanted to get Renamon out of his life as soon as possible, so maybe it would be better to just go along with this line of questioning, shoo it away, and then get back to a nice, relaxing day.

Wait, this sounded familiar.

As the Renamon voiced its frustrations, Isaac sighed. This thing didn't even know how Digimon worked, and it was treating Isaac like the idiot? "Look, do you think any of this bullcrap makes sense? Let me show you something." Too frustrated for glitz and glamour, Isaac raised its hand and surrounded itself in a cocoon of light. When it faded, Yasyamon was back. "I turn from an imp to a swordsman," he explained, only to quickly be surrounded by another cocoon of light. The willpower was back and stronger than ever. In this case, the willpower of shutting this Renamon up. As the next cocoon of light splintered away, Devidramon emerged with a roar of "And then I turn into a freaking dragon!"

Devidramon sighed, turning its back disdainfully on Renamon. As Impmon, it was a worrying enough foe to get Isaac's full attention. As Devimon, it wasn't even worth looking at. "But I guess you made your point, Asher. Glad we could play a game of 20 questions instead of talking it out like adults." Yikes! Isaac's mood just kept getting worse today. Then again, if he was to revert back to human form, the bags under his eyes would be fairly obvious.

"Now, I'm gonna guess you're mad about the Digimon stuff." Well, wasn't that obvious! "You gotta understand. When there's a parallel universe full of monsters, I can't just go around talking about it all the time. Especially not in public like this!" Speaking of public, giant dragon in public. Isaac looked around a slight blush on his snout, before snapping back to human form. The bags on his eyes only seemed aggravated from flashing through, like, 6 Digivolutions in 5 minutes. ". . . Like that. That could really give people the wrong idea.

Okay. Fine. What do you want to know about? And couldn't you have just asked me during shift or something instead of . . . this?"

Isaac turned to look at Asher, alright. He whipped around, snarling, as eyespots started opening up all over his body. Obligingly he lowered his full bulk to the ground, coiling up somewhat like a great serpent, as hundreds of red eyes all focused on Asher at once. "Is this better, master?" he asked, voice positively laced with venom. If Impmon's voice was higher, and Yasyamon's was as hollow as a woodwind instrument, Devidramon's was raspy and sinister. It probably helped that Isaac was deliberately playing up how intimidating he was, too.

It was much less intimidating when Isaac had regressed, at least, a reminder to Asher that for every giant, pissed off dragon there was a small chihuahua of a teenager inside. However, he still tried to hold his focus, refusing to break eye contact with the now-taller Digimon. Even as she growled and snarled at him he refused to back down, staring her dead in the eye no matter how aggressive she threatened to get.

He took a deep breath as Asher tried to get out of his form. Okay. Help the stupid idiot first. Then they can get back to screaming at each other. "Okay. Truce while we sort this out. But we're settling this once the fur's off.

Now, Its about willpower. Its about control," he explained, taking out his D-Tector. "I know you don't have it with you right now, but the code's in your core right now. And its up to you to just dig down deep and make it work for you." He tried to consider how he went through the steps, when it was always such an autonomous process.

With a deep breath, he pushed the button and forced himself to Impmon for the third time today. Judging by the way he stumbled slightly, this was really starting to wear him out. "I'm gonna go through this with you. So look closely, okay?" he said, facing Asher and then clenching his fist. "Breathe. Focus. As if you were still holding your Digivice. It might help if you pretend to hold it, like this." He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing all of his urges and wants into one place. "Now, once you see it, grab hold of it. You wanna be human so bad? Prove it! Show you want it! Take all your frustrations, all your fatigue, everything driving you, and just shove it out your body along with this form!"

In a small explosion of light, Impmon was gone and Isaac was back. He was on his hands and knees now, but he still forced himself to look up at Asher. "It gets easier when you've had more experience, he explained, panting. "Early on, you're either too beat up to hold form and degenerate to save your own butt, or you're just fed up and push it out. Take that whole process, do it way less violently, and you'll gently release the form. But that takes a bit more time. Same thing goes for reaching your forms. Maybe its because you want to protect someone you care about. Maybe its because you're sick of being weak. Maybe its because you just want to show off. But its all about taking your willpower and making it manifest those spirits."

He slowly pulled himself to his feet, positive he wouldn't be doing any more transformations today. At the very least, he'd wait until he had an hour or so to catch his breath. "Now, you wanna know something about danger? You wanna know about feeling out of the loop?" he asked, the exhaustion making his voice sound a little crazed.

"Try diving into the nasty-ass Shibuya River because some punks threw your little brother into it. Try waking up not in a hospital bed, but in an endless plain of grass with some giant tank man looming over you and taking you prisoner. Imagine stealing the artifacts he was hunting just to get away from him, finding out they resonate, and being stuck fused with your own little brother for god-knows-how-long because you can't figure out how to undo it! You think you're confused? Because that was my first day in the Digital World, and it was godawful!" he exclaimed, exasperated. "You've at least got a Digimon on hand that can help guide you. You at least weren't trapped in another world running for your life. And hell, at least you have people to talk to about this! I had none of that. Just fear for my little brother's life, because for all I know he was drowning in raw sewage."

He stepped back, taking a few breaths. "So yeah. It is madness. And it does make you feel crazy," he said. "And sometimes it can be terrifying. But you said it yourself. This is not the right kind of thing to talk about in public. And what the hell was I supposed to tell you? Aliens robot are real and one's your cat? She'd meow, you'd call me crazy, and we'd be right back to square one." At the same time, he understood Asher's worries. If a strange Digimon tried to hurt him or Elliot and infiltrate their home . . .

"Its a huge secret. We can't risk anyone who can't defend themselves finding out about the Digital World, getting lost there, and getting killed," he finally decided. "Hell, I had no idea whose Digivice that even was! It could've been yours. It could've been Piper's. It could've been your dad's, for crying out loud! I make the wrong guess, and if something goes wrong that blood's on my hands." Even if he made the right guess, it would be. But it seemed Isaac had finally grown too exhausted to keep prattling on. Now's your chance, Asher!

Wait, what the hell did Asher say? Isaac wanted to press the issue, but the conversation had moved past that by the time he fully processed what Asher had said. Still, as Isaac listened to Asher speak, he was quite troubled. Sure, the out of body experience was rough, but did Asher really feel that badly about becoming a Digimon? No. It couldn't have been that simple. Then Asher would've just admitted that. But what else could Asher have possibly meant? Isaac was only half-focusing on what Asher ranted about next, still trying to unpack that feels like a human segment.

It didn't help that everything Asher had to say was one gut punch to the next. Part of why Isaac had always tried with Asher because of his tone. It was too light. Too cheerful. It always made Isaac feel kind of shitty to be too mad at him because of that, even when his happy tone was half of why. Hostile, venomous Renamon? Oh, Isaac had no qualms about going right for the jugular there. Hell, if Asher wanted a fight in that state, his blows would've probably been backed by weeks of pent-up frustration and stress. But now? He was back to normal, and all of these statements Isaac would've wanted to slap Renamon for were now taking on a far more sorrowful tone. He looked down at his feet, almost ashamed of himself.

He was still very frustrated, mind you. After all, Asher had threatened him! But it was in a much more guilty way.

"I . . . I mean . . ." He couldn't bring himself to just say he liked Asher. It was far more complicated than that. And he had the feeling trying to lie to Asher in this state would just get him laughed at, rather than actually making anything better. "Okay. It's complicated. I mean, there's a lot of stuff you do that just plain ticks me off or weirds me out. And sometimes I get kinda scared bringing it up because you then get all heavy-breathy and freaked out, and damnit, that just feels awful. But you've still done a ton to help me. And you're really friendly. And damnit, I wish I was as charming as you. I know especially when I'm pissed off I'm no barrel of sunshine either, and I bet you could go on and on about all the things you hate about me.

But damnit, that doesn't mean I would want to see you suffer like this! Just because we're not besties, hell, just because we don't like each other that much, doesn't mean I'd leave you hanging. Do I really seem like that much of a dick?" He did sometimes, didn't he? He gave himself a light kick to the ankle out of frustration. "And Elliot. I mean, I know he's kind of a goofball sometimes, but he really thinks highly of you. And trust me, he knows his stuff. He would've loved to help you, too. And I'm sorry the people you met haven't been too friendly to you, either."

He sighed. Was he really going to do this? It seemed like he does. "You wanna know where I met the first person I could actually rely on?" he asked. "I came out of the Shibuya terminal, terrified 'cause I couldn't unfuse with my brother. By the way, that's how we get around. The trains talk. You'll get used to it. Anyway, we had no clue what we were doing. We couldn't degenerate. We couldn't unfuse. It was a nightmare. So I figure maybe getting home's the key. Home's where the heart is, right? So we flip over a trash can and try to raccoon our way back home, sneaking through alleys so nobody would see us. Well, somebody saw us. And as she popped the lid off, we were so shocked and our reactions were so split we unfused right there. She didn't judge us. Hell, she gave us a hand, showed us the way back home, and even let us crash at her house for a while."

He wasn't saying it was Maia. Sure, the dreamy tone in his voice completely gave it away. But he was not throwing Maia under the bus like that intentionally! "It might take a few tries. Guy we met before that turned into a dark knight and tried to stab us for saying hi. But you'll find someone you can rely on. I'm sure of it. And if not? Well, Elliot and I are here, as much help as that means."

He sighed at the idea of Piper getting hurt. "Its a gamble. Do I tell someone unprepared and get them hurt, or do I not tell them and let them get hurt?" Isaac asked. "I'm pretty sure there's an organization that's supposed to be doing this, but hell if I've seen heads or tails of them since getting to the Digital World. They're probably staffed by, like, three people nowadays. Who's gonna fund monster chasing when there's so much going on in Japan, anyway? But you're right. No matter what, it's a dangerous situation. I made a judgment call, it might have been the wrong one or it might have been the right one. Thankfully, we didn't have to see how it turned out. But I'm sorry."

Nightmares. That was always a struggle. But possession was one Isaac hadn't even heard of before. "Possession? Who the heck told you that one?" Isaac asked, confused. "My bro and I have had these things for months and we haven't heard a peep. Heck, we're up to . . . four each, at this point? Pretty sure if these things drove you mad I'd be clocking into the asylum, not tomorrow's evening shift. Sure, they can make you act kinda funny sometimes. God knows I get testy when I'm a giant dragon, and Elliot's dragon gets scarily stoic. But possession?" However, that made Isaac think.

"The only person I've seen with active spirits like that is my surrogate big sis, Alicia. Hers seem a lot less dead than ours do, considering they talk to her and even manifest sometimes," Isaac explained. "Hey, come on, don't worry about it! Hers started doing that, like, right away, so if you haven't had yours act up on you you're probably fine. But if you're looking for worries about spirits, might as well hear about it from the source. I could hook you two up, if you want." It was probably good for Isaac to offer that now. Especially when Elliot was planning to hook them up in a far more literal manner!

"But you're right. I have no idea how that feels. Trust me, I've tried. If I keep a secret for more than a day, Elliot practically begs it out of me," Isaac explained. Normally he'd laugh a little, but he was finding laughs kind of hard to come by today. "I wish I knew how terrified you are. If only so I wouldn't be such a dingus about trying to help. But I can't, and I need you to understand that. Maybe we just both need to understand we can't understand each other." Like how Isaac couldn't understand why the hell Asher ambushed him!

Okay. Not dwelling. Not dwelling. "Can we start over? Like, try this again on a bit of a better foot?" Isaac asked, after punching some numbers into his phone.