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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 23, 2016 5:32:52 GMT
"Okay. We gave it time to settle. How are you feeling now?" Isaac asked. He worriedly hovered over his brother like a hawk after they disembarked from the Trailmon Terminal. A few hours ago, he couldn't even bear to walk from how bad his battle scarring was. That Myotismon's dark explosion had dealt hefty damage to his stomach and chest, made only worse by him being in a serpentine form. Every second was aggravation as he was forced to press the wound to the ground if he didn't want to end up collapsing onto his back. While Alphamon's medicine had cleared it up slightly, and it was mostly all surface wounding, it still wasn't anywhere close to pretty. It didn't help that the shadowy nature of the attack made the burn an ugly purplish color. What the heck human doctor would treat that without asking questions?
"Better, but not great," Elliot admitted in response. It was still a constant painful feeling, like someone had left his chest pressed up against a row of thin needle. It was worse when he breathed too deeply, or when anything touched the wound directly. The only reason he was still wearing a shirt was because he didn't want anybody seeing the bandaged-up injury and freaking out. "Where are we going, anyway? Home isn't this way."
It's true. While Isaac promised that the group would be going home as soon as possible, he knew that something had to be done about this wound quickly. Who better to turn to than someone he dearly trusted and respected, and who had likely experienced similar wounds in her own spirit form? Alicia was practically a Digital expert in their eyes, even if in reality they had been adventuring for comparable amounts of time. "We're visiting Alicia. I think she might be our best shot for trying to patch you up," Isaac said, voice matter-of-fact. His fingers danced along his phone as he reached the halfway point of his destination, typing out Our last fight didn't end too pretty. Got a minute so we could pop in real quick? Could use a hand He had a feeling they wouldn't be turned aside, but just in case he waited for Alicia's confirmation before continuing to head over to Alicia's house.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 25, 2016 13:42:58 GMT
It was proving to be such a beautiful day. Work went well, her D-Scanner wasn't blaring at her to try and get her attention from discovering a new spirit, and she had some time to herself to play at being a normal person again. Yes, there certainly weren't going to be an interruptions of a Digital sort, right?
That was Alicia's hope as she lounged in bed after a hard day fixing vehicles of all kinds. Unfortunately fate had other plans as her cell started to chime in the unique ringtone she'd set to clue her in to when Isaac or Elliot were calling her. It was honestly something she'd done with regards to all of her Digital World-related friends so she knew right away if it was something she could afford to ignore for a bit or not.
"Oh for..." Alicia groaned, reaching over and grabbing the offending device while leveling an angry glare at it. "I hope you guys just have happy news for me..." Opening it up to the text, it took her a moment to process what she was reading. Then her pupils shrank as panic set in. The redhead was on her feet again in an instant, rushing about to clear some space in the living room while she sent a reply text.
'Wait what? What fight? Ah, nvm, yeah I have some time to spare. Front door's unlocked just now so you can come right in when you get here.' Hitting reply, the Steel Spirit User went over to the front door specifically to flip the lock open so the brothers could come in and get themselves seated right away. Unfortunately Isaac had only said things didn't end well, not how badly they were, which left Alicia fretting a fair bit over just what kind of injuries she'd see on them.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 25, 2016 14:08:21 GMT
Isaac sighed in relief as she responded favorably to the text. Good. It was okay in her books to visit for a bit. The boy felt kind of bad about just popping in like that, but he was far too worried about his brother to beat himself up over it too much. Thankfully, as Alicia promised, the front door was plainly unlocked for them. Isaac opened it up as he arrived, letting Elliot through first before entering. Immediately he walked over to Alicia, hugging her in gratitude. His tone of voice was apologetic as he started to speak. "I'm really sorry about the short notice," he said. "It's a really, really long story, but we ended up bumping into some really strong Digimon today while trying to help a friend. We fought them off together, but the one Elliot and I were fighting did this really nasty attack he took head on." He cast a worried glance to the couch, where Elliot was currently experimenting with finding the least painful position to lie down on. Isaac had a feeling that this would trouble the boy for at least a week or so.
"Alright, Elliot. Come on, show her," Isaac goaded.
Naturally, Elliot was very embarrassed to take off the wound, but also so thankful to not have itchy fabric covering it up anymore. He gingerly took off his shirt, a few already-healed cuts, scratches, and bruises revealed beneath, and then began unwinding the bandages around his shirt to reveal the shadow burn underneath. Stretching from his chest to a bit of his upper stomach, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was before Alphamon's treatment. However, it still looked quite unpleasant, and the extent to which it would scar was still quite unclear. Judging by how Elliot winced as he removed the bandages, it was still painful to the touch as well. "Does it look okay now?" he asked, caution in his voice.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 25, 2016 15:24:41 GMT
Alicia flashed a relieved smile as she returned Isaac's hug. Okay, things weren't nearly as bad as she had thought they were. "Its alright. All I ask is a little heads up on what's wrong if you're going to text me. I was worried sick when I first read that text. Still, glad to hear you guys didn't get too badly roughed up... Really I was expecting a lot worse from what you did tell me."
Alicia quirked an eyebrow after that as Isaac goaded his brother into revealing the injury to her. She had half a mind to snap a bit at Isaac for trying to push Elliot to doing something that likely hurt quite a bit given the other's wince. And then she saw the extent of the damage and gulped. "Oh geeze... I take back that 'roughed up' part..." she mused softly.
"For crying out loud, did anybody even try treating that!?" Sol abruptly shouted, causing Alicia to visibly jump in shock and wince. "Uh, I know you guys didn't here that, but Sol isn't liking what he's seeing at all and even rhetorically asked if Elliot's gotten any kind of treatment for that. Hey Sol, mind elaborating a bit? Actually wait, can you-"
Her question was cut off as the dragon spirit appeared in a muted flash of green mostly unbidden, arms folded over his chest once more. "This is why darkness based attacks are excessively frightening. The ability to, for lack of a better word, curse the wound like this is a terrifying possibility. This is a recent thing, yes? It certainly looks fairly new, and I would know. I've been on both the receiving and giving ends of such attacks enough times to have an eye for it." The Steel Spirit looked almost... distressed at the sight of Elliot's wound, and given how much the ancient warrior must have seen in his life time that was likely cause for major concern.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 25, 2016 17:13:42 GMT
Thankfully, Alicia's mediation was far more peaceful than Sol's initial outburst. Had Isaac heard that, he likely would have been pushed onto the defensive for the rest of this conversation. Instead he simply shook his head sadly, a bit of worry shining through in his eyes. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked, equal parts irritation and pleading in his voice. "I can't take him to a human doctor like this. And I don't even know if there's a Digimon doctor who will know about humans enough to treat him. I can't just take risks like that. Not when it's my brother.
I had to come to you guys. You're the only ones I trust with this." The pure defeat in Isaac's voice made it clear just how much this was weighing on him. It sounded like a ten pound weight had just slammed onto the floor.
"It isn't all bad. I mean, the Alphamon we helped gave me some medicine afterwards. That's good, right?" Elliot asked. Immediately Isaac was thankful for at least that saving grace. If Alicia saw how raw and fresh the burn was beforehand, she probably would've locked Elliot in her house just to prevent him from running off and doing anything stupid like that ever again. Still, eating a Digimon's strongest attack dead-on, especially one as powerful as a Myotismon, was almost never a good thing. Frankly, Elliot was lucky to have weathered it so well.
"What do you think, Sol? Is he okay?" the boy asked, stumbling over his words a little in his desperation. He knew spirit injuries could get bad , but this escalated from bad to incredibly worrying. Could this happen to him as well if he wasn't careful? |
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 25, 2016 17:40:26 GMT
"No... no he's not. The worst is yet to come if we don't do anything about this." Sol mused grimly, eyes hardened. The dragon spirit abruptly snapped up to look at Alicia. "Quick, evolve to SolSaberdramon. We need heavily concentrated light to try and break up this curse, and we need it yesterday." he ordered abruptly, drawing a confused squeak from the off guard Steel Spirit User. He ignored it though, moving on. "Kisara?"
"Already done with the ice prism." the ice maiden's voice came as she projected herself as well, holding a fist sized hunk of ice shaped into the mentioned form. "Just waiting for our dear host here."
"U-Uh R-Right...!" Alicia stuttered, not used to the two spirits taking charge like this. And with how short and too the point the dragon spirit was being, she was honestly completely out of her element and forced to just go with the flow. It was a good thing she always kept her D-Scanner on her person now. Given the sense of urgency Sol was imparting, she evolved in the shortest time span she could manage.
"Elliot, this is going to be very cold and there's nothing we can do about it, but it's what needs to be done post-haste." The dragon spirit mentioned, before turning to the ice maiden once more. "If you'd be so kind as to make the other piece we need with your cryokinesis."
Kisara nodded, eyeing the shadow burnt wound for a second before nodding and using her free hand to craft the appropriately shaped 'hoop' of ice. "Sol, I'm burning a lot of my reserves doing this... If I have to fade away the ice won't last long." the ice maiden warned, looking to the steel dragon spirit. He merely nodded in acknowledgement, and Kisara set the cool construct around the shadow burn on Elliot's chest, adjusting the poor boy as necessary.
"Sol, Kisara, can one of you explain why all this is so urgent? Please?" Alicia asked, having finished her evolution while Kisara worked.
"No time kid, charge a Radiant Slash and hold it up. I'll explain once it starts working, because only then we'll have some breathing room." Sol ordered, actually throwing a glare Alicia's way now. The now-knight dragon squeaked at the glare and followed the order. Kisara then wasted no time in placing the prism in the path of a ray from Alicia's sword, splitting the white light into a rainbow down on the burn, which was then further reflected inward by the extra ice sculpture Kisara had set down.
"Hopefully the extra reflections will compensate for the stage difference I'm expecting is in play here..." Sol muttered to himself, growling a bit. It was rather jarring in Alicia's mind, seeing the dragon spirit be so upset over a single, admittedly bad, injury.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 25, 2016 17:59:52 GMT
Isaac could feel the world blurring around him as everybody started snapping into action. Sol, barking orders like a military general. Kisara, burning practically all of her spirit's energy to try and help Elliot through manifestation. Alicia, creating a brilliant beam of rainbow light through her sword. And then there was him, completely useless in this situation. His powers were for destruction, not for creation. He had no medical knowledge, no understanding of curses, not even supplies he could grab onto in order to help make himself feel more helpful. His brother was sitting here, possibly having his body corroded by some kind of dark curse, and all he could do was stand by and watch. He should've been scared. He was, but he just couldn't find how to express it. There was no hyperventilating or cold sweat breaking out on his brow. Instead there was only a pervasive feeling of numbness, spreading through his body and mind as he realized there wasn't a thing he could do for Elliot.
Elliot shook like a leaf as the intense cold was placed to his chest, only to find himself jolted by the sudden change from cold to very warm. The sudden change in temperature threatened to give him a heat flash, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut to avoid having them dazed by the blinding light currently coming from Alicia. The way the light felt inside of him was frankly indescribable. It seemed to writhe inside of his body, intangible yet feeling distinctly like there was something there. It was warm and comforting, but at the same time felt almost strange and unnatural. Whenever it touched the wound it seemed to sizzle slightly, Elliot forcing himself to clench his teeth to avoid tearing up from the pain. It wasn't working.
He didn't feel too great. He didn't want to keep going. But he trusted Alicia, and knew that she'd always fight for what was best for him. So long as she was here, he figured it would be okay to stay lying down. At least for now, the procedure would continue. |
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 25, 2016 18:56:03 GMT
There was nothing left to do now. Sol took his eyes off Kisara and Alicia's combined efforts to look at Isaac. He could understand the young man's pain. "I know what troubles you, Isaac... but it is times like these that bonds with others shine brightest. Before you chide yourself on being helpless to do anything, realize that you did the most work all things considered. Had you, say, gone home to have Elliot rest, we would not have become aware of this drastic situation. We are only able to act because you sought help and trusted the bonds you have to find the way." the Steel Spirit said to him, hoping to quell his numbed thoughts at least a little bit.
"We're getting a reaction Sol! It's working like a charm!" Kisara called, drawing the dragon spirit's attention back. The unnatural purple coloration seemed to writhe and twist like and angry beast over the boy's wound, a seperate entity from Elliot's own body. Furthermore, that coloration was starting to break up, letting a more normal red of rawness and burn show through. "Just... in time too... wow I'm getting sleepy already." The ice maiden mentioned, blinking blearily as her projection already started to flicker from lack of energy.
"Sleep then, Kisa... your contructs will last long enough from what I'm seeing." Sol said to her, taking hold of the prism from her hand. The ice maiden offered a smile in thanks before chuckling.
"I miss the days when we pulled insane and crazy stunts with our powers like it was just another walk in the park on Tuesday..." she muttered before closing her eyes and fading away again, already spent after making so much ice. True to her word earlier though, the ice she'd made already started to melt as soon as she was gone.
Not a few seconds after that though, the four that remained heard a piercing screech from the shadow of the burn, a large bat like figure pulling away and flapping as if to make an escape. Sol just adjusted the prism's angle, catching the animated curse in the hot rainbow light and burning it the rest of the way into nothingness. "How fortunate, the curse wasn't allowed to fester long enough to really dig itself in..." the dragon spirit muttered, brushing the ice off of Elliot as Alicia let the charge on her blade fade.
With a quick clench of his fist, Sol crushed the prism, "And that, as they say, is that. Now everyone can breathe a blasted sigh of relief. And tomorrow if you need to, you can get Elliot in to a doctor to get it looked at better if you can." Gesturing to the burn area, with the curse destroyed the entirety of the inhuman purple coloration had been cleansed, leaving normal human tones behind. Sure, it was a bit more red then before from the thermal shock-like mess, but better that then whatever was in store had they not acted.
"Talk about high stress situations..." Alicia muttered to herself, sheathing her sword and reverting back to human form now that she was done. This was way too much for her average day to handle!
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 25, 2016 19:34:00 GMT
Sol was right. That was then, though, and this was now. The fact that his quick thinking helped save the situation didn't change how incapable he was of actually impacting it. He was just supposed to stand back and let the talent do their job. Still, he answered Sol's reassurance with a weak smile, hoping to reassure the spirit in return. The dragon was just trying his best to lift Isaac's spirits a little. "I guess," he settled on saying, letting himself find some comfort in Sol's words but refusing to drop his guard until the deed was well and truly done.
The brothers both watched with wide eyes as Elliot's "wound" came to life, the darkness more of a plaster that settled over it than an actual injury in its own right. Elliot found himself mouthing the words "what the heck" as he watched, only to become even more startled when it took batlike shape and tried to escape. Thankfully, soon it was fully bathed in cleansing light, leaving Elliot wide-eyed with fear but thankfully unharmed. Well, mostly. The burn on his chest was still looking quite troublesome, but it was just a burn. That was human world stuff, whereas shadowflame and felfire were more the concerns of beings like Sol.
The brothers were silent as the curse was dispelled. They couldn't think of anything to say, whether to their saviors or to each other. Elliot simply settled for clinging to his brother, as if afraid the second he let go something awful would happen again. Isaac returned the hug in kind. What kind of person would he be if he didn't? They sat in silence on Alicia's couch, taking an impossible to define amount of comfort in the fact that they were okay. |
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 26, 2016 0:52:14 GMT
The dragon spirit heaved a sigh as he began to loosen up visibly. It wasn't much and yet it was a huge thing, as if him starting to relax bled a majority of the tension from the room while the brothers turned to one another and understandably hugged one another as if the world would end if they were seperated. Depending on what kind of curse it was, Sol was much too aware of just how close it had been to ending the world for one of them.
"Okay... so now that panic attacks are all said and done, can we finally get an explanation of what the heck was so urgent about things?" Alicia asked, having gone to grab an empty chair and sit down on it and heaving in exhaustion. While channeling a Radiant Slash in and of itself was an easy act, the situation made every second its light shined drag on into eternity. She was wiped out for the time being, more or less.
"I mentioned that the curse hadn't had time to fester, yes?" Sol asked in return, and Alicia nodded. "Well, regardless of the actual effects it would've had, a curse that isn't broken as soon as possible, it starts to root into the victim, becoming exponentially more difficult to burn off with 'average' concentrations of light. In the worst case scenario we would've had to rush to acquire Alicia's next light-aligned Steel Spirit in the hopes that it would be strong enough while Elliot suffered from the darkness. Either that or find a strong enough Digimon aligned to light that would be agreeable to aiding us."
Sol shook his head and sighed. "Fortunately, that's not the case, we were able to compensate for the difference in levels of power. Anyways, once it's burrowed in enough, what happens next is either random chance or up to the original layer of the curse. Effects range from recurring nightmares of the injury reopening treated wounds endlessly to slowly growing in size, creeping along until it covered the victim's entire body. I'll save everybody their last meal an not elaborate further then that, it gets rather grisly."
Alicia could only gulp at that ending, shivering. "Ugh... thanks but I think you've already said enough... I'm sorry I asked..." Taking a look at the two brothers, the Steel Spirit User smiled and hugged the both of them while they were holding each other. "All's well that ends well though, eh?"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 26, 2016 4:35:13 GMT
Isaac blinked as Sol started getting into the nitty-gritty about the side effects of being cursed. Elliot's eyes started widening to the size of dinner plates, Isaac thankfully thinking to cover the boy's ears before it started getting too bad. Part of Elliot wanted to bristle at this important info being covered up, but overall he was just incredibly thankful to not have to be subjected to any more of the disgusting descriptions. And that could've all happened to him, if he wasn't careful? Why? Why him? It seemed almost unfair that for all his attempts to try and help people, the world would repay him by almost putting some dark, festering curse on him. It really would be safer to just escape and go home, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, so long as they were stuck in Japan, they were stuck in the Digital World. They were two sides of the same coin, intimately connected, and with that connection came the risk of injury and even death. The most they could do was try and get stronger, and make sure nothing like this happened to either them or anyone.
They held Alicia tight as she joined the hug, smiling slightly despite themselves. Maybe she was right. Maybe this was over and done with, and they'd be okay. With how constant their rate of adventuring was, though, the brothers feared this would be far from the last time they would have to deal with suffering and pain. Injuries would come constantly, some sticking around far longer and more painfully than others. Gone were the days when the scariest thing an enemy could do was fire small balls of fire at them. Now they were dealing with huge explosions, razor-sharp blades, and attacks that caused more pain than they had ever felt in their short lives. The fighting would get increasingly risky on their human bodies, not even counting the severe damage that could be done to their Digimon ones. What if they lost limbs? Would that be a lost limb for good, or would they have a chance of protecting themselves?
For now, though, Alicia was right. They were okay. Wasn't that what mattered worst of all? "Sorry for stressing you out a bunch today," Isaac said, offering a weak smile to the girl. What else could he say when she did so much to help save them? |
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 28, 2016 21:55:05 GMT
Alicia chuckled softly, sighing to herself and snuggling close. "Hey, what's family for, anyways?" She quipped to Isaac's apology. "You had a problem, and it turns out there was something that could be done about it here. I can deal with a little stress if it means bailing you guys out of trouble." The Steel Spirit user laughed a bit, smiling and closing her eyes. "I'll always do whatever I can to help, you both know that..."
"Alicia's right, to be honest. All is well now. I can't really see it coming back after that. Still, do try to be more careful. We can only do so much, you know." The dragon spirit sighed to himself, shaking his head. "I'm afraid I should be on my way now. I should check on Kisara and make sure she's alright after all that."
With that, the Steel Spirit faded from sight, leaving the trio of humans alone to collect themselves after the mess that was just recently fixed up. Alicia just rolled her eyes and sighed in response. "I don't think I'll ever get those two..."
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 29, 2016 0:09:07 GMT
"Sadly, here at the Digital World 'careful' hasn't worked so well for us," Isaac said, laughing nervously. Despite the brothers' best efforts, time after time they were hurled into all sorts of chaotic adventures. How the heck were they supposed to know that Shi was in the frozen wastes? How were they supposed to know that he was being tailed by vampire impersonators from another world? They were just going on a nice, pleasant walk, and in response the day turned into a nightmare. It seemed like careful just didn't mean enough when there were people who wanted them seriously hurt. "But thanks. It really means a lot knowing we can count on you."
"Uh, guys? Can I put my shirt back on?"
Now that the relief had faded, bashfulness was the only thing on Elliot's mind. The boy pulled away from the hug and covered himself up, blushing furiously. Thankfully his shirt was just right there on the couch, allowing Elliot to quickly reach it and pull it on. He winced a little as it grazed against the wound, but he found if he hunched forward slightly it wouldn't be touching the burn nearly as much. Even after all of the bad blood between them, sometimes he and gravity were on okay terms.
"So what were you doing before we just kinda barged in?" Elliot asked. |
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 30, 2016 4:00:11 GMT
Alicia chuckled softly at Isaac's retort to the now vanished dragon spirit, shaking her head. "True, we always seem to get dragged into dangerous situations one way or another." She smiled to herself, sighing after that and recounted the zany things she'd already gone through. And so soon after getting her D-Scanner too... This was a hectic world to be sure.
And then Elliot spoke up about his lack of a shirt, causing Alicia to blink as the fact firmly reasserted itself in her mind. "Ack! S-Sorry!" the Steel Spirit User yelped, hopping back a bit to give Elliot the room he needed with a nervous giggle. She'd totally forgotten about that! "Still a little tender, huh?" she asked as Elliot winced from the fabric grazing his wound. It made sense, they hadn't really been able to do too much for the burn itself.
Obvious answers out of the way, Alicia glanced away as the younger brother asked about her. "Well, my plan was to just have a day of trying to be a normal woman in a normal world for a day to kind of pull myself back together from all this Digimon madness. So I was kind of lounging around after work. But I'd never live with myself if I turned away my surrogate little brothers when they needed me most. So don't worry about it, okay?"
They probably would anyways, because that's who they were from what she knew of them. Oh well...
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 30, 2016 4:13:27 GMT
Elliot nodded somewhat sadly at Alicia's comment. "I think it'll be like this for a while," Elliot complained sadly. He always bruised somewhat easily, and it was a major relief that his solid scales as Strikedramon protected him against the worst of his battle wounds. Against major wounds like this, he knew he'd be tender for a good while and left with a permanent scar afterwards. The idea left Elliot quite worried, too. Isaac's Digimon forms were way less heavily armored than his was. What if his poor squishy brother took a bad hit and ended up in a really bad way? He'd never be able to forgive himself for it!
"Heh. We did kinda drop that on you outta nowhere, didn't we? But it means a lot knowing we can always count on you," Isaac said, trying to keep the atmosphere in the room light. "But hey, it's not like we're all Digimon all the time, right? We can help you do some normal humaning, if you'd like." It was an offer that all three of them needed desperately, really. Alicia had her day pulled out from beneath her feet far too soon. Elliot needed a reprieve from the constant horrors that seemed out to murder his face. And Isaac? Isaac just wanted to get some freaking sleep for once. He was amazed he hadn't been showing any bags under his eyes yet, with how his sleep schedule was slowly decaying piece by piece.
At least he was helping. Being able to tell himself that was essential for forcing his way through the day. Staying in the tundra was all for Shi. Running here was all for Elliot. And now he was going to help with everyday life, loopholing his way into some badly-needed rest and relaxation.
Hopefully he was still on his feet by the end of the day, at least. It would be embarrassing as heck if Alicia had to end up carrying him home. |
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