MPC 28 :: A Meeting With A Time Traveler

    Running across the hills of the Eastern Timberlands, Kudamon paused to catch his breath. The day had been great so far! Maia soon caught up with the pipe fox, not having been running at all. Once she reached the spot that the rookie had waited, he began giggling and scrambled up her clothing to get to her shoulder. "See, this isn't so bad!" Kuu pointed out, as they looked at the relatively calm area. A couple of Digimon were off in the distance, doing who-knows-what, but otherwise the area seemed relatively untouched at the moment.

    Maia had finally been warming up to the idea of exploring the Digital World, but was still pretty hesitant to head to the place by herself. Sure, they hadn't died yet, but who was to say what would happen in the future? To be blunt, the teenager wasn't really interested in cutting her life quite as short as she surely could. "You're going to jinx us, Kuu," the tamer warned, with a huff, but Kudamon wasn't listening. Nope! He was busy trying to get in between her shirt and her jacket, for some unknown reason.

    "You worry too much," the voice of the muffled alien spoke through layers of clothing. Why did he feel the need to burrow? They were in an open area for a reason! He was supposed to be playing! Which, in all fairness, he was. Just not where Maia had planned. Feeling her shoulderblades moving to try to shift the monster out of her jacket, he dropped out of the bottom of it, hitting the grass with a small, "oof!" Soon, he was running circles around the tamer, before trying to convince her to play tag with him. Kuu nipped at her pants before jumping away and trying to run a short distance, only to repeat when the blonde didn't immediately chase him. With a whine, the Rookie began to loudly shout, "c'mon, Maia! Have fun! Chase me! You're it! See? I got you!" Without a proper response, he would repeat himself, trying to convince her.

    Moving across the hills quickly, the Digimon paused to sniff the air. Something was off. What was he smelling? "Er.. Maia?" What threw the girl off, as she finally began to approach the concerned Digimon, is that he didn't even look at her when he spoke. In fact, he was looking in the opposite direction. Black tipped ears suddenly became alert, as Kuu began rapidly backing up. "Nope, nope. You stay back there! What was with the sudden change of heart? And, why was Kudamon backing up like that? "Actually, can you back up, like, three or four mo--"

    "Blazing Spheres" a voice interrupted, from seemingly nowhere. Had they really failed to pay attention long enough for a Digimon to show up? And why was it attacking them? This was supposed to be a relaxing day!

    Dirt kicked into the air where a handful of fireballs had hit, and Maia found herself backing up, covering her nose and mouth from the haze. What in the world was going on? Realizing that she could no longer see Kudamon anywhere, her heart dropped. Oh no. What if that had hit him? "Kuu, are you alright?" Could a rookie even survive being burnt like that?

    But, instead, the girl felt something snaking up her jacket again. "What's up?" the monster questioned, almost nonchalantly. The only thing that gave away his shock was that the little fox was panting a bit and shaking. Good thing he was small, otherwise he'd probably have never gotten out of the way in time! "So, I think you need to invite friends next time," he tried to joke, bringing up an argument from earlier in the day, when Maia tried to convince him that they weren't ready to be here alone. Now that the dust was clearing, both tamer and partner could see a large, purple fox monster. "Also, I smell you. But, it's not you."

    Wait, what? Maia couldn't understand what the Digimon was trying to say this time. Was he saying that she needed a shower? "I'm sorry, I'm..." the tamer shook her head, backing up from the Digimon that, for some reason, hadn't made another move. "I'm not following." Was it just that she was in a daze from the current events? Without answering, Kuu had already leaped off of her shoulder, and was running toward the other Digimon.

    "Maia! Toes! Be on them! I've gotta be tough!" For half a second, the tamer didn't follow, but, luckily, it clicked rather quickly. Oh! Right! Her hand instinctively tapped the digivice that was in her jacket pocket, as it lit up well enough that the screen could be seen through the fabric. "Kudamon, digivolve to..." Light rippled around the monster as its data began to visibly rearrange itself, and he was soon with four paws, instead of only two! "Reppamon!" Boy, did he sound proud about digivolving! Maia was also taking the memory of having a digivice into account, and pulled it from her jacket to point it at the multi-tailed fox. "Youkomon; Champion," the device read out.

    Within that time, the Youkomon had decided it had given enough time for the two to prepare and was on the move. Instead of charging directly at Kuu, it began skirting his side. Before either Digimon or Tamer could question its intent, something jumped off of the creature's back. It had a person on it and it was attacking? Where was the safety in all of this? And, again, why was someone trying to hurt them? Taking a look at the person gave Maia nothing to go on. They had a dark hoodie, pulled up, and was completely unrecognizable! What did they have against her?

    Now, the purple fox was charging Reppamon, who decided to do the same! What in the world was her stupid pet doing? He should run away! Instead, the digimon's body left the ground and curled a bit. "Spinning Slash!" he alerted, as the blade on his tail swerved toward the Youkomon. The demon easily avoided Kuu, by bolting to the side and announcing a counter of, "Headbutt," as the champion's fur bristled, head slamming into Kuu's side. Well, that hurt! Being thrown out of his original attack, Kuu hit the ground and slid. If only they had made it to the Server Woods before the battle had started! Trees would have given a Reppamon the upper hand! Instead, the more open space made it easier for the firey monster to avoid him.

    "This is stupid!" Maia panicked, looking to the silent stranger that had their hands in the pockets of their hoodie. Maybe, it was more stupid to take it into her own hands, but she found herself hurrying to the other person. "What are you doing? Call off your Digimon!" For a moment, the other person didn't respond. It looked almost like they were mulling it over!

    Finally, the voice of a teenage boy hummed out a, "why? Not like you can ground me." For some reason, this stopped Maia in her tracks. What? That was an odd way to rationalize attacking someone. "It's fun. Relax, I'm not going to kill him or anything," the other tamer chimed, a smirk falling onto his face. Was this supposed to be funny? Taking a chance to glance at the Digimon, Reppamon was up again and... oh, great. He was wiggling his butt around and being overall obnoxious. Luckily, the opponent seemed to find this equally confused, and began stepping backwards.

    Then, Kuu's giggling began. That was a scary thought, too, since there was absolutely nothing funny about the situation! A breeze began to kick up, and the Youkomon began to look around. "Vacuum Razor Wind!" the vocalization came too late for the other Digimon to react, though, as it suddenly seemed to have invisible blades ripping through its fur. Did Reppamon seriously need to wiggle his butt like that to attack, or was that his own spin on it? Either way, the second he had a chance, the Digimon had rolled onto the ground in hysterics! Bad timing, Kuu! Did he really think that he was being that funny? Because, he gave the other monster an opening! Soon, Youkomon was pinning the Digimon down by his shoulders.

    "Okay, you seriously need to stop. One of them is going to get hurt," Maia warned, but the other tamer only shrugged at her. That seemed like enough consent for the girl to finally give up the requests. Fingers wrapped tightly around the Digivice, giving out a command, "digivolve!"

    On cue, data began flying again, and Youkomon's head reeled back, as if it was afraid to get hit by the particles. "Reppamon, digivolve to... Kyukimon!" Now, the game had changed, as front legs turned to scythed arms, and wrapped up and around the monster that had somehow managed to stay stabile on Kuu's ever-changing body. A few slivers of purple fur shed from the opponent's back, displaying the closeness of Kuu's blades to the body of the already cut-up demon. It was like a threatening hug. Gosh, all the jokes that the pink monster was trying to refrain from! He had to be serious!

    Still, Youkomon opened it's mouth to announce, "Ten--" "Ow!" The screech of the male tamer made both Digimon pause and look toward the two.

    "Yay, Maia!" Kuu lifted one of his scythe arms in the air, waving it about, while his tamer retracted her fist from the stranger's cheek. She had just punched the other tamer! Wow, that had felt really good! The girl needed to do that more often! Youkomon seemed to be in shock, not sure of what to do.

    The boy stared at Maia with a crazy look, only choking out, "you never said you hit me!" What? Of course the girl wasn't going to tell him that she was going to hit him! He probably would have moved, otherwise, and one of the Digimon would have been seriously hurt! Luckily, it seemed that partners held a strong urge to protect their tamers, so anything involving the two would have stopped the fight. At least, that had partially been Maia's logic behind it. The other part was just that the kid was making her mad! "And... what's with the pink guy?!" Now, the strange boy seemed to be offended! "I've never seen him in pink!"

    Maia was completely lost, here. "What? For some reason, the girl felt like she was missing something important. Leaning around the stranger, she tried to examine his face for more ideas of what was going on. Blond hair fell over the the boy's eyes, and overall, looked kind of like... well. A slightly younger, guy version of Maia. That was weird. She tried to just chalk it up to the thought that there were an awful lot of people in the world and that a few would have to look similar, but it struck her as odd that, of all those people, this one was a tamer and felt the need to attack Kuu! "Okay, seriously now," the tamer started, balling her hand into a fist again. She was trying to make it clear that she wasn't in the mood to play about this, "why did you attack us?"

    Youkomon had jumped off of Kuu's stomach now that it had been given the opportunity, and both Digimon made their way to their humans. The boy was still rubbing his face, throwing a glance to his Digimon, who remained silent. "You're no fun at my age, either. What gives?" he huffed, as his partner moved to be touching him. "Ugh. I just wanted to play with Kuu for once, okay?" This still wasn't making sense, and he could tell that nothing was really clicking for Maia. Sure, she had experienced a lot of weird things, but there was nothing logical for the girl to connect, here! She watched the boy get a grip on his Digimon's fur, pulling himself onto its back. "It'll make sense in, like... uh... How old are you?" To this, he shook his head. "I dunno. Give it twenty or thirty years, or something."

    Kyukimon tilted his head sideways, listening to the strange tamer. "Do we find out why you smell like Maia then?" The earlier comments of the rookie began to put themselves into place, now. He had smelled her, but not her. This had to be the connection. If he smelled like her and looked kind of like her, they had to be related or something, right?

    "You also lost your bet," the purple fox finally piped in, with a soft, feminine tone. "Dang it!" the boy groaned, shifting so that he could reach into his pocket. "Why'd you have to remind me? It's not like she knows about it right now, anyway!" Yeah, both Kuu and Maia were still pretty lost about this entire conversation. But, soon the stranger was shoving a small handful of money into her face, making her lean away and open her hands for him to drop it into. This wasn't a video game! She didn't get money for winning, did she?

    "Because it's the proper thing to do," the Champion chimed, looking toward the Server Woods. If they stayed much longer, the two would surely screw something up. But, her tamer didn't seem to care. "Can we leave now?"

    So, wait, that was it? If Maia had known they'd just call off the whole thing if she had hit the boy, she'd have done it sooner! "You're probably going to want that money now, instead of later. Isn't it Grandpa's birthday soon?" This threw off the girl even more, trying to think about what he was talking about. Her grandfather was in America, and his birthday wasn't for a few months! Her dad's birthday, on the other hand, was... in two days, and she still needed to buy him something. Youkomon groaned, trying to make it clear that the boy was talking too much, but it really wasn't working. After all, his mom had already told him that she knew about this event, so he may as well say whatever he wanted! Of course, it had taken her years into having a child to actually realize that the boy that challenged them today had honestly been a relative, and not just some crazy stalker.

    The wheel was still turning in Maia's head, trying to fully process what was going on. If she had any older siblings, she'd probably have just brushed this off as them having a kid or something that she had conveniently never met. But, none of that was the case. "I think you're confused," the tamer tried to rationalize, even though she was the confused one, here. "I, uh, don't know you. And, my grandpa's birthday isn't for a few..." Why was the boy grinning like that? It was so unsettling that Maia was starting to second-guess herself. "Okay, are you trying to imply something here?" Was he hinting that her dad was somehow his grandpa? Did he cheat on her mom, or something? That didn't seem likely! But, it was becoming the only logical option!

    "I'm not implying anything," the stranger's grin only grew to this. He was being kind of creepy. "I'm just saying that you need to buy a present for your dad." This was beginning to make Maia feel nauseated. He was just coming off more and more as a stalker!

    The girl began to back up, until she was touching the pink fur of her Digimon. This was her safety, somehow. A big, pink and blue monster with eight or nine different blades on his body. Sounded totally safe. "I-I'm still not following. I don't have siblings, and you'd be way too old to be their kid, if I did." Still, the boy grinned and nodded, and Maia felt her stomach drop.

    Youkomon let out another groan, finally getting fed up with her tamer. "Stop playing stupid. You know he's trying to call himself your son." Adult-Maia didn't seem this dull. Either she had gained some intelligence over the years, or Current-Maia had been trying to avoid the concept of having children. Not that the purple fox blamed her, considering time travel shenanigans were involved, and that thought had probably never even been in the same room as the tamer.

    Before Maia could have any sort of meltdown, which so far had only come out as a deflated squeak in her throat, the boy began to let out an obnoxious whine, "Ren! You ruin all my fun! I was trying to make this more suspenseful!" The other Digimon, finally acknowledged as 'Ren,' let out a sigh and looked at the clearly panicking girl and her monster. "Someone has to. We'll be here all day, otherwise. I want to go home." At least... someone seemed to be working to keep the boy in line. Even if it was a firey, fox demon-looking thing.

    Looking around, wildly, Maia began to move her hands in rapid motions, mouthing words that didn't have a voice behind them. "Hey, look! She's doing that thing!" the boy pointed out, far too excited. Both of Maia's hands touched her chest, while rapidly shaking her head, then patting the air at waist-height, as if touching something's head, roughly signing: I don't have a child. "Yeah, yeah. That's why this is so much fun! You can't tell me that I can't do stuff when you're not my mom yet!" Yet. But, Maia didn't even have a boyfriend! How was she expected to even consider children without some sort of significant other? And, in fact, the thought of having a kid terrified the girl! She was way too young for this!

    Kuu tilted his head in the opposite direction that it had been before. "Does that mean you're my child?" Kyukimon actually sounded a little excited while addressing Ren, who gave him an incredulous look.

    "Oh," the fox stated, flatly, "I suppose it was wrong of me to assume you'd suffered some sort of brain damage over the years." Nope, that went over Kuu's head, too, so the Champion had to add in a, "no, I do not believe we are related." Then again, it was hard to tell with Digimon. It was also hard to identify why a mother and child both had fox-esque Digimon, with potential overlapping evolutions. Maybe coincidence, or human genetics for possessing a certain kind of partner. Nobody really understood that junk, anyway.

    Finding it a good point to settle down, Maia worked on a few deep breaths, while her not-son stared at her. "Okay, no. This isn't okay. You're not okay. Get out," the girl began insisting, almost sounding irritated. Yeah, she had every right to be! What was with this guy and his dumb mind-games, and why was Kuu so accepting of all of this? "I don't have a kid, you attacked my Digimon for no reason, and I just want to hit you again, but you're a freaking creep so I don't want to touch you." Those seemed like legitimate enough reasons to want someone to leave.

    Creepy-Stalker grimaced at the girl's words, looking around. Should he make a joke about the situation? Heck, if he wanted, he could probably really screw with her and just tell her who she would eventually have a kid with! But, the timeline didn't seem to call for that, so he kept to what he knew about this event. What if he somehow screwed up the future? It'd suck if he was never born because he scared his parents away! "Woah, settle down. I haven't called you 'Mom' or anything, so just chill. I just wanted Ren and Kuu to get a chance to battle!"

    It was no surprise that Future-Maia wouldn't let the two Digimon just fight for the sake of fighting. Current-Maia, though, would do what it took to keep the two of them alive, since she didn't know that the opponents held any relation to them. Plus, it was really the boy's mom's fault, anyway! She told him about some weird kid claiming to be her future son spontaneously attacking Kuu when she was younger. Of course, this was along the lines of, 'you look just like him, and if I find out that you actually go back in time for something this stupid, I'm going to ground you.' But, that was irrelevant, really! It was fated to happen! ...Maybe that's why she left out the part where she punched him in the face. A good surprise for him when he inevitably did it!

    Luckily, at least the Youkomon seemed to know when they really needed to leave, and began to turn toward the forest. "Time is almost up," she pointed out, as the two of them seemed to flicker in existence, briefly. "We should return to our starting point."

    Seeing that he wasn't going to get through to his not-mother, the boy let out a huff. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. I mean, I'm kind of not, but I am," he added the final part rather quietly, getting a grumbled sound from his partner. "But, you know if I'd have asked you for a battle, you'd have said no." The strange kid did have a point. Maia tried to keep Kuu from getting hurt to the best of her ability, and if she had known their relations prior, she would have especially refused to risk hurting a family member's partner. "But! You are going to love the future!" the boy grinned again, making Maia become even more worried. What, exactly, did that mean? Before she could ask, Ren had already begun to quickly walk away with the boy on her back. "See you someday!"

    As the two made it to the forest, Ren let out a small huff, "you know you will be caught when we return home." Her tamer nodded, grinning still, so the Digimon continued, "and that this entire event was a waste of time and money?" Still, the boy nodded happily. "Then, why do all of this?"

    "I think she wanted me to," the boy pointed out, as the two of them flickered in time again. "I mean, you don't just tell your kid not to go back into the past and fight you if you actually don't want them to." This... seemed like a good enough reason for the Digimon, as it just made a small humming sound. Ren would add, "in that case, I think she just wanted to be able to punch you in the face without repercussion," before whatever device the two had used to head to the past had collected them and thrown them back to their appropriate time.

    Maia still stood where she had been, pressed against the fur of her Digimon until it was pretty clear that the weird company had no intent on turning around. Kyukimon had been waving the whole time to the two of them, before looking down at his tamer, "They seemed nice!" Within moments, the monster quickly regressed to Kudamon, already wrapped around his tamer's neck. "What should we do now, Maia?"

    Taking another deep breath, the tamer blinked a few time, before looking to her shoulder, where the head of the monster was resting. "Let's not talk about them again. Ever," the girl suggested, trying to fix her hair. This entire ordeal was far too much stress for her. "You know, how about we go on an adventure? I need to forget about this." Yes, let's pile some new stress on top of the old. A good way to bury the problem!

    "Yay! Adventures!"



(Bits if possible, please and thank you~)