Chapter 7
#7 of Next Generation- The Digivolution Saga
At this point I'm not sure whether this is turning into a harem story or otherwise. Don't worry, you'll see what I mean.
Annalla sighed as she walked along the barely visible path; she would have been completely lost if it had not been for the piece of string someone, most probably that man, Craig, had tied to various trees to show the way through the thick under growth. She was so lost in her thoughts that she barely noticed when she reached the clearing, Namico already waiting for her at the side of the hot spring, her clothes spread out next to her as she lay naked in the grass. Annalla stared in shock as the bare-skinned feline flicked her tail around playfully as she ran her fingers through the grass, apparently fascinated by it.
"Uhm... excuse, excuse me." Annalla squeaked when Namico suddenly sat up and stared at her in surprise, before relaxing and standing up, making the Angel girl look away in embarrassment as she stretched, her naked body on full display.
"Hi, I'm Namico, if you didn't know that already," the Theramon explained, holding out her hand in greeting.
Annalla stared at the white furred hand in surprise, the bright electric blue rings around the wrist seeming to glow slightly with an inner power. Looking up at Namico, Annalla felt a surge of emotion in her as she looked at the caring white face, bursting into tears as she wrapped her arms around the surprised feline's neck and sobbed into her shoulder.
Unsure of what had just happened, Namico decided it was best to just comfort the sobbing child, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and holding her tightly. As the girls sobs began to subside, Namico pulled her away from her shoulder gently, smiling at the crying girl. Sniffing, Annalla wiped her eyes and smiled back, happy to finally have someone to comfort her.
"I am glad that there is someone pure that I can talk to," Annalla said quietly, leaning against the naked feline.
"Oh honey, I'm not exactly "pure"," Namico giggled, a blush forming on her face as she thought of Craig, "And what do you mean by "pure" anyway?"
"Your element, of course, what else would pure mean?" the angel replied, "The elements of the pure are light, energy and wind. Why do you ask? Did you not know this?"
"Well, Craig's element is wind, so we only need to change his colour, but Karen is a whole different story. How do we get her through without having to break into that Citadel place?" Namico muttered to herself, turning to the side as she mused, "We could bleach her fur, though that would take a long time, and I don't think she'll go with it either..."
"What are you talking about?! Trying to get an impure digimon through the Citadel station? Why would you want to do that?!" Annalla shouted, jumping back from Namico in shock.
"Because she's my friend, and Craig can't exactly leave one of his digimon behind, can he?" Namico said, staring at the horrified angel in confusion, "But anyway, we're supposed to be giving you a bath, so lose the clothes."
"What? No! I can bath myself perfectly well on my own thank y..." Namico cut Annalla off as she picked the slight girl up and threw her bodily into the small river pool, before jumping into the frigid water after her.
"Waaah! It's so cold!" the feline cried, latching onto the surprised angel, "I don't care if Craig says it's supposed to be good, it's still not nice!"
"Then why'd you throw us in?!" Annalla shouted at the shivering feline.
"'Cause now we both have an excuse to get into the hot spring, and you don't have one for keeping your clothes on," Namico chimed, jumping out of the pool and pulling Annalla with her. Once she had the shivering angel out of the freezing cold water, Namico grabbed the fabric of her toga like uniform and pulled it straight off her, leaving the girl suddenly naked, "You don't wear underwear? A girl after my own heart, I see!"
Shrieking, Annalla tried to grab the sodden fabric, but was picked up once again by Namico, and thrown into the hot pool, gasping as she surfaced to watch Namico throw the now muddy clothing to one side, before leaping in just next to the angel. As Namico surfaced, her face flushed with the heat, Annalla grappled her around her neck, tightening her hold as the feline struggled, and standing in the thigh high water to get a better grip. A sudden burst of pain in her one arm made her let go of Namico, who stumbled away coughing. Annalla desperately tried to rub the feeling back into her now numb arm as Namico held out her hand, little sparks of electricity jumping between her fingers.
"We're in a pool of water, and I'm an electric element. Do the physics." Namico growled, turning around slowly, "All I wanted to do was to get to know you a little better, and to have a bath. Don't make me delete you."
Annalla stared at the angry feline, then at the sparks jumping around on her palm, before uttering a terrified, "Okay."
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Annalla stared at the long-sleeved shirt and pants she had been given to wear. Both were white, but Annalla was still nervous about wearing them, "What about my wings?"
"There's a hole cut in the back, so they can go through, see? And it'll cover you much better than what you were wearing before." Namico said, picking up the white shirt and showing the angel, before slipping it over her head and helping her get her wings through the hole in the back, "Now put on the panties and pants, then we can go get some food at the village. The panties are the small ones, and they go on the inside."
The angel digimon nodded slightly as she tried on the "underwear", surprised at how much more comfortable it felt than she'd thought, pulling on the pants after, still a little uncomfortable with the tightness of the area around her waist and crotch.
"Does it have to be this tight up here?" She asked, holding her but, "It's kind of uncomfortable."
"But you have such a nice ass, Annalla," Namico giggled, making the angel blush, "No; we can get you something looser at the village if you want."
"Thanks," Annalla mumbled, before stepping up beside Namico and grabbing her hand, interweaving their fingers and holding on tightly. Namico started slightly as the girl latched on, but then she just smiled and led the nervous girl back through the woods towards the village.
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Annalla sat quietly watching the three other digimon talk and laugh together as they ate; Namico and the Flame Mitsunemon, Karen, both leaning up against Craig, each trying to feed him and stop the other from doing so at the same time. Eventually, Craig chased them both off, wanting to actually get some food in his mouth instead of on his face. Looking disappointed, Namico and Karen scooted over to where Annalla was sitting, and began talking animatedly to each other.
"Guess what I did today?" Karen giggled, looking over at Craig.
"More like "Who" you did! Congrats girl, but I'm still Alpha." Namico laughed, hugging the taller fox girl before placing a quick kiss on her lips.
"Whatever." Karen said, kissing Namico back and pushing her off before grabbing some food for herself and biting into it.
Annalla stared in horror and fascination as Namico and Karen kissed each other. She knew about kissing, but had never done it, and had never heard of girls kissing each other, let alone a pure and impure. She looked over at Craig again, currently in what he was referring to as 'Citadel mod'. His normally dark grey fur was now pure white; the line markings on his face and body and his thick hair a very pale grey. Annalla couldn't help but admit that she felt that much more comfortable around him once he'd changed to this form, even finding him a little attractive at times, which had shocked her thoroughly. Annalla picked up another piece of bread as she ate, copying Craig as he made a sort of sandwich with meat and vegetables, being careful to not mess on the baggy white pants she'd been given by Craig, which he'd created using his strange watch device.
A loud squawk from said watch surprised them all as a holo-screen popped up, words flashing on it.
"What the hell does "Real-world portal opening" mean?" Namico asked, reading the message.
"I think it's just that, a portal to the real... to my world is opening nearby! Maybe someone else is coming through! Maybe I can get back!" Craig shouted excitedly, jumping up and running out the room, leaving the three girls staring at each other in confusion, before all jumping up and following him.
As they ran outside, they could see the purple light flashing on top of the hill Namico and Craig had appeared on after they went through the Beam on the previous layer. Looking around, Namico spotted Craig running into the workshop, the sound of their Rider soon joining the strange crackling hum of the purple light. Craig suddenly raced out of the workshop, barely stopping long enough to let Karen and Namico, dragging a reluctant Annalla, get onto the Rider before racing towards the light. As they reached the base of the hill, they light suddenly brightened, the strange humming rising in volume accordingly, before dying out completely, leaving the night strangely dark and quiet. Flipping a switch, a beam of light shot out in front of the rider as Craig turned on the headlights he and Karen's grandfather had installed.
Driving slowly, they crested the top of the hill which was marked by a strange circular pattern in the grass. Adjusting the light, Craig shone it onto the small body lying in the middle of the circles. Jumping off the Rider, Craig ran to the person, carefully picking it up and carrying it back to the three girls. Hopping back up onto the driver's seat slightly awkwardly, Craig carefully laid the small person in his lap, before revving the Rider and turning around, and driving quietly back to the village.
As they arrived, many of the villagers came out of their houses, staring at the strange figure on Craig's lap. Quickly getting to their hut, Craig picked the small figure up again and carried it inside; where he lit the small lamp they had been given by the village. Namico, Karen and Annalla all followed him inside as he laid out the small figure, and gasped when they saw what it was.
"A human. A human girl. She doesn't look to be older than twelve!" Craig hissed, "Why the fuck would a twelve year old get thrown into a world like this? Albeit, this is a quiet layer."
Craig mumbled to himself some more, before sighing and getting up off the bed where he had been sitting. "I'll go get some extra bedding from Karen's house, Namico, Annalla, you two can share the bed, and I'll sleep on the floor tonight. I was planning to, anyway." Craig explained, glancing over at the unconscious girl again.
"What about me? What if I don't want to sleep on my own tonight?" Karen suddenly asked; a slight blush on her face.
"If you want to share the bed, go ahead. Though it may be a little cramped with all of you on it," Craig replied, petting Karen slightly, before kissing her forehead, "I'll go get you an extra pillow, then?"
The three girls watched him leave the hut, then immediately turned their attention to the strange human girl.
"Where's her 'vice?" Karen asked, looking at the girl's bare wrists.
"It's probably in her bag," Namico explained, "That's where Craig found his."
"His bag? But he doesn't have a bag," Annalla said, confused by what they were saying.
"Store function of the 'vice, means he doesn't have to carry anything around with him." Namico explained again, picking up the girl's small pink backpack, various pictures of flowers hand-sewn into the fabric.
"Leave that alone!" a voice shouted, causing all three to jump in surprise and stare at the girl, who stared back defiantly, "I said leave my bag alone! I spent way to long sowing those pictures on to have some animal break it!"
"Animal?!" Karen and Namico growled, each gripping the small back-pack tightly, "We are not animals!"
"Then don't break the bag," Namico and Karen jumped in fright again as Craig appeared behind them, this time in his full human form, though it was still altered from his original, dropping several blankets and pillows onto the floor before taking the bag from them and up ending it on the bed, much to the young girl's dismay.
"What are you doing?!" she shouted as Craig grabbed a strange pink and white watch from the contents of her backpack, before slipping it onto her wrist, where it squawked, a screen popping up as writing scrolled up it.
"Read what it says, it's useful." Craig told the young girl, "And if you're hungry, I can get you some food."
The girl nodded her head in surprise at this strange boy who seemed to know a lot about what was going on. And judging by the way he looked at those strange animal people, and the way they looked at him, they really liked each other. She looked at the words on the screen and quickly scanned over them, surprised by what they said. By the time she had finished reading, the tall boy had returned, a bowl of stew, piece bread, and a large mug of water in his hands. When he gave them to her, she thanked him, before falling onto the food, eating all of it in under a minute. Sighing contentedly, she smiled up at him and introduced herself.
"My name's Mary, what's yours?"
"Craig, pleasure to meet you, Mary," he replied, sitting opposite her on the bed, "Mary, do you understand what's going on here? With the Digital world and such?"
"Well, yeah." The small girl replied, "I already know a whole bunch on it anyway. My dad is one of the leading scientists studying the effects the Reset had on the Digiverse. Troy Ammerson."
"What?!"
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"There are people in your world studying ours?" Annalla asked, staring at Craig. After they had found out all they could from Mary, Craig had taken the three digimon outside to talk, leaving Mary to explore some of the other functions of her digivice.
"Yeah, and Ammerson is about the biggest name in the business." Craig sighed, "So basically, we now have the child of my world's leading Digimon expert. A situation that is both good and bad."
"Why?" Annalla stared in confusion, not understanding what Craig was talking about.
"We could use it to get free info off of Ammerson, if we can make contact with the outside world, but he can watch us constantly, and maybe even affect the digital world in minor ways." Craig explained, elaborating when he saw the three girls were completely lost, "The scientists in my world have been working on ways to manipulate the digital world, so far all they can do is change the weather, which isn't too much of a problem, except it may make it difficult to move around easily, not to mention they'd probably be able to track mine and Mary's digivice's anywhere on the layers, once they have a lock on them."
"So you're saying that there could even be a person watching us right now?" Karen giggled, play-hiding behind Craig's shoulder, "That would be creepy, especially when you go to bathe."
"Yeah, but I..." Craig was cut off by a loud squawk just behind him, as Mary opened the door to the hut, a radar-like holo-screen up on her 'vice.
"Uhm, it started doing this and I don't know what it means," the young girl stammered as the four older people stared at her, before turning to Craig and jumping onto him, "Craig! Make it stop! It's starting to freak me out!"
As she leapt into his arms, Craig was forced to step back, bumping into Annalla, as the 'vice came close to the angel digimon, it chimed, a data screen replacing that of the radar. The three female digimon stared at the rotating image of Annalla on the screen as various facts about her were displayed next to it. Both Mary and Annalla gave surprised gasps as they stared at each other, a blush across Mary's face as she dropped out of Craig's arms.
"Does this mean what I think it means?" She asked, pointing at the shocked angel.
"You two are now partners." Craig laughed, patting Mary's head lightly, "Congratulations!"
"I have my very own angel," Mary said quietly, her eyes growing wider as she stared at the worried looking Annalla.
"But," she stammered, "But what about my post at the Citadel Station?!"
"Ah, yes, that... we'll set out tomorrow and wing it from there." Craig said, turning to the surprised group, "It's the only thing we really can do now, anyway."
"Uhm," Mary stuttered as she was stared at again as she spoke, "W...what's a Citadel Station?"