All The Power In The World Can't Help You Now (Elsie + Evie)

Goro stopped short as he noticed Evie's approach. Frankly, she wasn't exactly the most intimidating cavalry. Foreign girls may've been taller, but she was such a quiet and unassuming looking thing that she didn't seem even remotely like a threat. Goro let out a slight scoff as she approached. "That's Morita-sama to you . . . uh . . ." He squinted his eyes somewhat, looking Evie up and down. Come to think of it, she was such a background presence that Goro didn't even know who he was. His nose wrinkled in frustration as he realized that fact. How the hell was he supposed to come up with a mocking name if he didn't even know who he was talking to? Finally he let out a huff of surrender. "Ghost!" he decided, sounding somewhat exasperated by all of this.

Maybe Elliot could've taken advantage of this time to speed up while Goro's back was turned, but first he had to see who the new presence was. Two girls that looked a lot alike, barring hair and eye color. Twins? Maybe. He actually recognized them somewhat from whenever Isaac left his classes, but sadly he didn't know them well enough to get a sense of their names. Maybe then he could thank them properly for their help. The green-eyed one (tentative name: Luigi) was approaching the bully, while the red-eyed one (tentative name: Mario) was surveying the situation. She almost seemed to be looking for something in the bushes . . . his walking stick?

Elliot looked towards "Mario," then towards the bushes, then shook his head. He mouthed a quick 'I'm okay, thank you' to her, but the smile on his face was nothing short of grateful.

Unfortunately, while his gratitude shined clearly through, his actual ability to help himself didn't exactly. His foot slipped a little as he moved towards the bushes, causing him to stumble slightly. He forced himself to grab onto a light pole to keep upright, leaving a small, red hand print behind. At least he had managed to avoid falling, even with his foot currently positioned very gingerly.

Goro didn't even hesitate on the chance, walking to Elliot and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. The tight squeeze was almost an implicit threat of its own. "Don't mind us, Spooky," he said, the nickname in obnoxiously stressed English as it almost always was. "I'm just teaching my friend here how to walk. The poor kid just doesn't know how to do it! Heartbreaking, ain't it?" Goro's smile was so plastic that a wax museum would have rejected him for lacking authenticity. It was almost impressive how slimy his effort at playing this off felt. Then again, was he even playing it off? From the way he angled his smile at Evie, he seemed to almost be expecting that she'd be in on the "joke."

A genuine compliment? Well that made Goro's day! The otherwise painfully unremarkable looking boy beamed, revealing that one of his front teeth was completely missing. It seemed that he had missed the sarcasm of Evie's words by a country mile. "Thank ya! Been thinkin' on that one for at least a good five minutes," he said, as if that was an accolade and not absolutely shameful. How was this guy a bully, again? He had to be the lowest bottom feeder to mark that as a success.

Of course, if Goro's dirt was low effort bottom feeding, Evie's was Pentagon-level classified information by comparison. Evie slowly, almost torturously dragged out the information on Goro's bedmate, even Elliot finding it hard to stifle a slight smile at the information. Goro himself had his eyes wide with shock as he found out the news, biting down on his lower lip to avoid visibly seething. His fists were wadded up into little balls as he looked back and forth between Elsie, Evie, and Elliot, wondering which of these Es he was going to pound over it first.

Then Elliot decided to chime in. "Don't worry," he said, smiling softly at Goro. "Sleep can be hard sometimes. So I'm glad it makes you feel better."

Pity. Pity from the kid that he was bullying. Or was it understanding from the lowest of the low? Goro looked downright baffled, trying to figure out what the hell Elliot's game was. With how his eyes crossed and his jaw gaped, he almost looked like a cartoon. Nevertheless, he quickly shook his head to regroup himself, a "cool" smirk replacing the previous dumbfounded expression. "Yeah, see? My boy here gets me," Goro said, painfully wrenching his grip around Elliot's shoulders at the word 'boy.' "So what if I sleep with a bunny? It's comfy. I'm secure." It was. He wasn't. "So why don't you bunnies just hop away and let me and my friend here finish our lesson, eh?" Dear god, what a terrible comeback. Goro really was in trouble here.

Evie served that ball, and Elliot had set it. Just which of the three would spike it in the face of this clearly shaken up bully?

Wait, was Elsie just taking his target away? That was so unfair! The others were always taking the good targets on him. He finally finds the easiest prey in the school, and now these older foreign girls just made him theirs? "Hey, I saw him first," Goro huffed, his cheeks puffing out rather obviously. "You two gotta get your own. Or at least wait your turn!"

Then Evie mentioned Elliot's older brother. Immediately Goro looked to the bushes, as if afraid Isaac would come careening out and bash him upside the head with a book. Part of why the bros had remained so bully-free was because an onlooker at the Shibuya River mentioned Isaac taking out someone twice his weight with nothing but a Monster Manual. Every few months the story took another evolution, and Goro was now expecting a kid who took down an entire gang just because he had a bad day. Needless to say, Elliot looked quite grateful at the distraction, sliding out from Goro's shoulders and stumbling a bit closer to Elsie. She wasn't a bully. She couldn't have been!

Of course, any innocence that Elliot's new heroes had was slowly starting to melt away as they began making threats of their own. Evie knew an oddly in-depth amount about home invasion, and Elsie seemed prepared to disembowel all of Goro's stuffed animals after being let in. That was a little harsh. Sure, it was being done to a bully that had caused Elliot so much flak, but it was also really harsh. Had Elliot been more aware about word choice, Evie wanting to "play with" him might have also caught his eye, but thankfully he was far too busy focusing on not being clobbered.

Goro's eye twitched a little as he folded his arms, trying to make his 5'2" frame look the least bit imposing. "Go ahead, try it!" he said, voice quivering slightly. "See if I care." How obviously he did.

Elsie seemed to have other ideas in mind, though. Elliot shot her a somewhat concerned look as she asked about "accidentally" breaking his walking stick. "I'd really prefer if you didn't," he quickly whispered, not wanting to be stuck far less mobile until he got a new one. "But . . . thank you for showing up. I really appreciate it."

Yep. These two were staking their claim really hard, claiming Elliot as their new "toy" like that. Judging by what they had to say about disliking Goro, it sounded like if a toy displeased them things tended to get a bit rough. A bit of nervous sweat started to form on Goro's brow, and even Elliot looked a little bit worried. Did Goro really deserve this? Sure, he picked on Elliot despite Elliot's attempts at showing sympathy, and whined whenever he didn't get his way, and tended to leech off of anyone who would even give him an inch, and - okay, yeah, maybe Goro deserved this. "Y . . . you two are real Freaks, you know that?" he stammered out, his insult in English just like all of his other ones were. Was he that kind of guy who thought "cursing" an English made him cooler?

The "freaks" didn't seem to stop there. They were already corralling Elliot away as they spoke, and Evie seemed quite intent on making off with Usa the first chance she got. How the hell did a cute smile and sweet voice like that terrify Goro so badly? He took a few, shaky steps back, not wanting Evie out of his vision but almost scared to make proper eye contact with her. His fingers rolled around his palm, balling into a fist and un-balling, as if debating whether he should give her a proper pounding or not. Ah, forget it! There were three of them to his one, even if one of them was Idiot. Worst case scenario they could always take the useful part of him (his walking stick) and use it to hurt him.

Goro turned tail and ran, calling over his shoulder. "Fine! Take him! Enjoy your new boyfriend, Freaks!" he called. When someone had to play the "lol you're dating" card as a sad attempt a bon mot, it was clear that they had lost the war along with the battle.

Elliot let out an audible sigh of relief as Goro was gone, now having been shepherded to Evie by Elsie. Before even having the chance to ponder how to best thank the girl instinct took over. He gave her a quick, gentle hug, surprisingly warm for being over in a flash. What? You told him to properly thank her, Elsie! "Thank you so much," he said, immediately looking more normal now that all of the tension in his stance had melted out. "I was starting to get worried that with how close we lived to each other, he'd get . . . bolder.

It's really nice to meet you guys, by the way."

Between the blush on her face, the way she froze up, and the way her "your welcome" almost shifted into a question, Evie honestly looked really adorable right now. The faintest hint of pink lit up Elliot's face as well as the thought came and went, otherwise unacknowledged. He looked curiously towards Elsie as she started laughing, smiling shyly in return. He figured if he was in Evie's shoes right now, Isaac would've been right here laughing at him in return.

Oh, wait. Right now he couldn't be.

A bit of sorrow flickered in his eyes as Goro was brought up. "He's lonely," was the first thing that Elliot said, kicking at a pebble near his feet and watching it bounce down the road. "He's not usually the one doing this, but he's always been trying to get involved whenever others try. I think he's hoping it'll make more people like him, because whenever he says something he starts looking at the others. Like, trying to see if they approve." That was oddly attentive for someone usually so carefree! "I tried to be his friend. But I don't think that's what he's looking for."

At least in spite of that, he had made not one but two new friends today. Even if some of the stuff that they said still confused Elliot a little, they were also nice to him and really helpful. Maybe this would all end up okay in the end. However, there was just one thing he had to ask. "So . . . what does all this new toy stuff mean?" he asked, having apparently done a stellar job of listening thus far.

Elliot looked down at the ground somewhat as Elsie huffed. Maybe it was just the shadow cast from his hair, but there seemed to be a sort of regret hanging over his eyes. "It's no excuse at all," he said, voice strangely serious. "I've seen a lot of people try to hurt others like that. And it isn't okay. Whenever I see it happen to someone else I'm always sure to step in, at least." Maybe it would also be important to mention that in those cases Elliot was usually a badass shark-dragon with a tail that spit fire, or maybe a guardian snake who wielded a holy lance like an expert duelist. Elliot-as-Elliot, on the other hand, was more capable of gently bumping someone's ankle with his walking stick until the stopped. Against most bullies, it was not very effective.

If push came to shove, would Elliot have Digivolved to protect someone he cared about in the human world? The issue had thankfully never come up.

Elliot seemed confused, yet somewhat reassured, by the toy business being settled. At least, of course, until Elsie dug it back up. What kind of thing would that be? Unless, of course, she meant in the sense that Karin and Jeanne thought of. Welp. That contextualization got Elliot blushing a bright red as he shyly looked down at his feet, murmuring a soft "No thanks." If the senior tamer had accomplished something during her day of cheering Elliot up, it was also leaving him forever ruined by the idea of anything suggestive. Good job, Karin!

At least he fought the sudden embarrassment enough to look back up at Elsie, tilting his head curiously. Didn't the two already know? After all, they had been the ones who stepped in to save him. They had also used his name quite a few times today. Or, at least, Evie did. Maybe her sister just didn't pay much attention, if her already forgetting about the toy comment was any indication. Nevertheless, he figured it'd at least be polite to answer. "My name's Elliot," he said, a bit more confidence returning to his voice. Thankfully, unless actively teased Elliot had a tendency to bounce back really fast. "And I think . . . Essa and Elvie?" he added, looking at Elsie with the first name and Evie for the second.

Well, he almost had it, at least.  Maybe he'd be paying more attention now that he wasn't literally in the death grip of a bully.