Corrupted Power [Mission] [5/5]

    Okay, the more Maia listened to Datamon, the more strange this Digimon was sounding! And, not 'strange' in the same sense as Kuu! More like, something was legitimately wrong with this Digimon's programming! Or, he was just trying to be funny and was really bad at it. The tamer didn't dare try to figure it out. She'd learned by now that Digimon were quite the eccentric bunch! Maybe, Datamon's social skills just weren't up to par.

    On the bright side, it seemed that she'd at least made one acquaintance (friend?) out of the group so far! As long as Haru didn't cave in to Kuu's cuteness and try to Diginap him, that is! Not that anyone would legitimately steal Kuu after they realized how much he talked! Or ate. Or... well, existed, really! Kuu's antics were only cute in small bursts! Except those bursts didn't stop very often.

    Right now was the perfect example! For a split second, the rookie debated between tackling his new Mini-Mei friend and properly responding to his acceptance of climbing Amelie. Not that this was really a difficult choice! A squeal of excitement came from the little Kudamon, before he began his ascent. The Digimon whirled around around the brunette, then upward, in over-enthusiastic manner. Yet, paws barely touched her clothing, until he touched down on her shoulder. Provided she didn't lean her face away, the sweetheart of a rookie would attempt to nuzzle her cheek briefly. "I like tall spots! They're nice! Do you like tall spots?" Amelie probably didn't care about the height of most things! She was tall! She didn't need to be taller! "Is there lavender in your sniffs?" Okay, maybe continuing to acknowledge smelling a girl was weird! But, Kuu didn't really know boundaries! "I like lavender sniffs, but Maia's mom gets sneezy if I roll in them!"

    This immediately caught the tamer's attention, as she looked to her partner. "Please don't hug my mom if you come home smelling like lavender," she requested, quickly. Oh, that would be awful!

    "We're going home after this?" It seemed that was another thing that Maia didn't want happening, as she promptly ignored the question, and even went as far as to look away from the Kudamon! Oh well. "I think there's mint, too! Does that help?" Nope. Maia's 'ignore' game was too strong! She was pretending to be focused on Datamon again!

    But, wait! Did someone say fire? "I can help with the fire! Or sharp, stabby stuff!" Maybe talking about stabbing things was a bad idea, when perched on a stranger's shoulder! Good thing his rookie form was lacking in the 'blades' department!

    "No."

    The Kudamon puffed his cheeks. Maia heard that at least! But, it sounded like all the tamers were telling all their Digimon 'no' to doing dangerous stuff! Where was the fun in that? Heroes could blow stuff up, too, darn it! As long as their humans didn't get squished, it should be okay! Either way, his question had been answered to a satisfactory state, and everyone seemed on-board, so he wasn't going to kick up a fuss about anything! Yellow eyes shifted to the Raven Spirit User, to chirp a helpful, "if it gets dangerous, I'll try to help you too! It's what heroes do!" After all, he wasn't intending on letting anyone get hurt! And neither was his tamer!

    On that note...

    "Maia!" Kuu chirped, trying to lean a little away from Amelie's ear, so that he wouldn't hurt her hearing any in his shouting. Why wasn't he that considerate with his own tamer? "Come walk with us! You're too far away!" To further coax his human, the Kudamon added, "Miss Earhart's really nice! She doesn't bite! Promise!" Now, he turned his head to give a skeptical gaze at the spirit user's cheek, "or do you?"

    Maia was stuck on an interesting part of Kuu's rambling: Miss... Who?

    The blonde took a moment, scrunching her nose, before it began to click into place. Had Kuu somehow found out Amelie's surname, or was he confusing her with someone else? Certainly not a famous pilot with a similar first name, or anything! Nope! "Um, right," the teen hummed, awkwardly, before waiting to walk near the spirit user once Datamon took the lead. After all, Kuu was going to whine until she did anyway! May as well make things as quiet as possible, while she could!

    Now, if only she could decide whether the building tension in her chest was nerves or excitement.

Datamon was glad that the group of humans and their partners seemed to be fine with the task ahead. It seemed the team had been chosen well, or at least, chose well to be a part of this. Kokabuterimon turned his snicker into a cough at Ravenna's exclamation. Despite his quiet, stoic exterior, the insect digimon was quite enjoying the antics of his company. Indeed, he rather liked Kuu's peppiness, Tawna's enthusiasm, Dio's confidence, Amelie's level-headedness and Ravenna's quirkiness.

So, without further ado, they would make their way toward the maintenance shaft. The fastest way down would be by the service elevator, but even then, the noise it made may attract some unwanted attention. Datamon pondered the options here. They could either take the elevator at normal speed and move slowly down the shaft, requiring alertness to fend off whatever would be attracted to the noise; they could avoid the elevator altogether and take the emergency stairwell, deep down into the bowels of Old Terminus, or, he could attempt to reprogram the elevator to move at a faster speed, but he wasn't sure how effective that would be. In previous times, he had asked Kokabuterimon to fly down himself, he hadn't tested how well either option would go for as a group.

"So then..." Datamon said to the group. "We've got some options here as to how we're going to get down there. Do you want to take the elevator or the stairs?". He indicated the elevator, which was a heavy duty service machine designed for the transport of heavy machinery. It descended via a reinforced slope, rather than suspended over cables and pulleys. "The elevator's faster, but it makes a lot of noise. However, if you want, I can try to reprogram it to go down at a higher speed".

The bottom of the elevator shaft was approximately 500 meters down - quite a long way, and indeed, even longer if they chose to take the stairs, which spiralled around the shaft all the way. Datamon was willing to go with whatever option the humans and their partners chose.

The man gulped loudly after making the mistake of looking down the elevator shaft. It was a pretty long fall, digimon or not it was probably a good idea not to fall down there, even knowing Ravenna’s flying skills could hopefully help anyone unfortunate enough to fall from the elevator. Upon hearing the scientist’s options, he found himself agreeing with Haru on this, walking down such a large amount of stairs would take both a lot of time and energy that would be better used solving the actual problem at hand.

“I second the elevator idea. I’d rather not have everyone feeling tired before we even reach that place, plus if push comes to shove I’m sure the elevator should be relatively easy to defend with such a big group.” Carlos said, turning to face his partner, silently asking him for opinions with his gaze.

Noticing this, the imp seemed to ponder on the answer for a moment, before adding, “I…believe we should leave the elevator’s speed untouched too, the least noise we make, the better.” Dio reasoned, something that frankly caught Carlos a bit off guard. Since when was his partner the type of being sneaky and silent? That’s when it occurred to him that making noise would probably bring more attention to their group. Was Dio really so affected by his past experience in Old Terminus that he’d rather not take his chances and play it safe? Was the Dark Lord really that afraid of what lurked underneath them?

He’d’ have to ask him about that later, but for now he simply kept quiet, waiting to hear the rest of the group’s opinion on this.

    Kuu was quite content with how people seemed to 'appreciate' his antics! If only he could think of a way to up his game! But, head-pats were sufficient enough to keep the rookie in his place, while Amelie answered all of his questions. It was so exciting to have people actually interested in answering him! Or, uh, at least pretending to be interested!

    Yellow eyes widened, innocently, while shaking his head at Amelie's attempt to save Maia's mother from a terrible evening. "Heroes aren't rude! I'd never do rude stuff!" Oh. Right. Because Kuu was never a rude creature, who asked a million questions within a single minute!

    Maia wouldn't interrupt the conversation, though. After all, Kuu was being distracted quite well, and it was a bit of a breather for her! And she was a little preoccupied with processing the strange bird qualities that Ravenna brought to the table. The tamer had to wonder if she was always like that, or if bird spirits brought out a bit of oddness sometimes! She would have to ask Isa-- Elliot. She'd have to ask Elliot if his spirits ever leaked into his personality!

    But, Kuu? Intelligent? If only Maia knew that Amelie was debating on that one! Someone who got stuck on a ceiling fan, had his head trapped in a toilet, and frequently was tormented by neighborhood cats couldn't be a smart creature! Right? Even if he did occasionally do things that could imply otherwise! Just one look in those big, spaced-out eyes should have been a good indicator of the fox's wit! Unless, maybe the brunette was onto something!

    "Best name! Good person!" How Kuu would know if Amelia Earhart was a good person was surely beyond anyone! But, he was going to stick to that story no matter what! The question was, did he know Amelie wasn't actually the same person? But, with her next statement, the Digimon made a dramatic gasp, leaning away. And then, he quickly returned to his prior position, clearly keen on making himself comfortable. "Knew it! Nothin' to be scared of then!" Considering how chatty the Digimon was, it was questionable on if he was truly safe!

    Once everyone was presented with the options of elevator or stairs, Maia resisted interrupting the others as they voiced her opinion. After one of her first journeys, in the Digital World, involving an unpleasant amount of time in an elevator, she hadn't really regained fondness to any sort of the device! And speeding it up sounded even worse! So, as two votes pressed toward the elevator, she could feel herself tensing up. Until a vote was finally put toward the stairs. Not all hope was lost! "I think the stairs are the best choice, too," she admitted, not really wanting to go into the details of prior traumas. "The less noise, the better."

    "We can just roll down the stairs!" Kuu suggested, with far too much enthusiasm. The idea of anyone rolling down any number of stairs was just plain uncomfortable! Painful, even! But for a noodle fox, it was apparently a fun time!

    It looked like Ravenna would need to make the final decision, for a tie-breaker-of-sorts! Unless the fact that two partners were siding with their tamers, which technically outweighed a spirit user and a tamer's judgement, already made them win the majority of votes!

Well then, it seemed that the vote was to use the elevator 3-2. This was Datamon's preferred option. While the noise did hold some risk, well, descending 500 yards via a stairwell didn't seem that attractive as an option. While it was better than ascending them, still, a simple ride on a large sturdy platform that he had used before would do just fine.

"Alright. We'll use the elevator as is" Datamon said. "While I think it could do with an efficient tune-up, yes, perhaps it's for the best that we leave it be. However, if you truly want to use the stairs, we'll wait for you at the bottom", he didn't want to make Maia and Amelia feel forced to go with the rest if they were dead-set on using the stairs. While Amelie's point about attracting attention they might not otherwise have gotten holding them up, well, as long as the elevator kept moving, hopefully that wouldn't be the case.

In the meantime, there was light clanking as Datamon and Kokabuterimon stepped onto the platform. Once everyone had embarked that wanted to accompany them, Datamon would be prepared to pull the lever that would bring them down into the depths of Old Terminus.

"Aand off we go" he said, pulling the lever. There was a loud clanking noise that echoed through the shaft as the mechanisms activated, then a shudder, and finally, the elevator descended. Not too fast that would cause discomfort, but fast enough that steady progress was being made.

Datamon looked around warily for possible enemy digimon, but because of the elevator's gentle working speed, none attacked just yet... at least at the halfway mark 250 yards down.

Despite the voting being evenly split for a moment, eventually it was decided to use the elevator. While Carlos had to agree with most of the points brought up in favor of the stairs (obviously excluding the idea of rolling down the stairs), in the end using the elevator seemed like the most time efficient way of doing things. Though he found it interesting how the one member that was clearly capable of flight would prefer the elevator.

As they stepped into the large metallic platform, the Impmon took a quick peek over the edge, looking down at the deep dark hole of darkness below them, before rolling his eyes and turning to the cat.

“Well gee, thanks Furball, you’re insightful as always.” Dio commented sarcastically towards Tawna, unimpressed with her logic, though if her exchange with Haru was of any indication, she would probably not understand his sarcasm either. Why, it was clearly a lot more than just a lot. They could barely see the bottom. The imp was not about to give a better estimate however, as facing at the abyss below was making him slightly uncomfortable, so he quietly stood away from the edge, standing close to Carlos’ leg just in case they had to grab on to dear life make the elevator go faster. Luckily however, it seemed the group decided against it, much to his relief. Now it was only a matter of waiting until they reached the bottom.

Carlos meanwhile, seemingly not noticing the way his partner nervously gripped his leg with one hand, glanced at the scientist. “So, once we get down, how far is the power plant again?”

    Amber eyes shot a glance toward the stairs, at the offer to split up. Though, it didn't necessarily seem to be in contemplation. Maia waited until Amelie placed her own judgement, and then nodded in agreement. "It's probably best to stay together." If anyone were to interpret this as Maia not wanting to go alone, they would be horribly mistaken. The teen wouldn't have let Amelie take the stairs alone, if the brunette was adamantly against the elevator, after all! That would be terrible!

    A small purr-like chortle came from the Kudamon, who was receiving attention from Amelie. It seemed like people liked him! That was nice! Everyone needed to like Kuu! Everyone! As non-negotiable as Kuda-friendship was, some people thought they could opt-out or something! And, Kuu just wasn't going to have any of that! So far, this mission was a success at willing friendliness! Soon, he'd have to find a way into Dio's heart. Once that was done, he'd be all set!

    Maia would soon step into the elevator, after Amelie, while her partner adjusted his positioning on the spirit user's shoulder in the case that he needed to move quickly. But, he had a more important question to ponder! How many stairs were there? Kuu certainly didn't know. But, he was a noodle. And rolling down stairs didn't hurt too badly for noodles! "I 'unno," the fox admitted, lifting his paws in a dramatic shrug, "prob'ly like a billion stories or something. We should have brought a sled! Stair sledding sounds fun!" Videos on the internet should have been enough to tell Kuu that, no, riding sleds down a staircase was not fun. And, it usually looked more painful than if he would just roll down them! If only the Digital World had access to the internet. Kuu would try to make Haru watch stair-sledding videos with him, to demonstrate the greatness of his idea!

    Except, Amelie actually knew the answer. Maybe. The rookie's tamer shot a quizzical stare at her, wondering how in the world anyone could even get a rough estimate that quickly. Not that she could ask, because that spirit user had just opened up a whole new can of worms for Kuu to flail around about!

    Yellow eyes widened, and sparkled, with mass amounts of enthusiasm. Friendship! Yes! Perfect! The thing Kuu was best at! Amelie was the best at picking someone to agree with her on this subject! Lifting both paws, he began flailing them up and down, "yes! You gotta! Everyone's gotta hug, and everyone's gotta be best friends! You know what, we all gotta be best friends! Can we all be best friends? I know I'm the best at being best friends! Ask anyone!" No. Please. Don't ask anyone!

    But! The pipefox wasn't done yet! "We need to all be super good friends! I know the best way! We gotta do bonding exercises and stuff! Do you all know the best bonding exercise?" Surely, they didn't! "Fun facts! Or scary facts. Or, uh! Something! Facty!" Kuu was so excited that he was losing focus on his sentences! Backtrack! Where was he going with this? "We all gotta go around the elevator, one at a time! And say a fact about ourselves! It'll be fun, and it makes good friend things! Let's do this!" Was anyone actually going to follow the dumb rookie's request?

    Hopefully others would comply. Maia knew this game all too well. If there was silence instead of 'bonding,' Kuu was just going to fill it with sound effects. And nobody wanted to hear the volume at which those sound effects would take place! Especially for however long it was going to take for the elevator to reach its destination!

    "I'll go first, for an example!" Optimistic as ever, it seemed! "I ate a whole puzzle once! In one sitting!" Oh, yes, this was the best fun-fact that Kuu could share! "It was a thousand pieces!" Judging by the frown the Maia was making, there was no way he was making it up! Not that anyone would make up eating a jigsaw puzzle. That would just be weird.

    Pretending that his tamer wasn't making disapproving faces at him, the Digimon completely skipped her turn, and threw his attention to Ravenna. "Birdy Spirit Girl! Your turn! One fact about you! Go!" Was she actually going to play the Kudamon's game? After all, she thought he was cute or something! Maybe he had picked a good first target! And, maybe, it would help to make her seem a bit less shy to the group!