angry_friendship_wolf | The Seal Man, and Other Tales, with Barry and Cisco

"When they'll let me. Like I said, none of them are good patients," Jyou says. "Half of them would rather bleed out than sit still for a few minutes, and you have to trick them into staying and getting treatment."

Gennai flashes a quick grin. "You've nothing to worry about, you know. My creators never saw fit to grant me abilities with which to fight. One of many things they denied me," he says.

"I came here to collect data. To siphon off the extraneous data of Digimon as they battle. My plans have been set back slightly, but they remain the same," he continues. "The end of all things. Once everything is dead, the task I was programmed with will be fulfilled. And ..."

He cocks his head at Barry. "I did briefly think I could scan you and make a copy, the better to send after Yamato. He would hate that," he says. "But whatever it is that gives you your speed, I'm not able to reconstruct it. I can't even get a clear scan of it. So I suppose that plan's a bust."

"Geez, no wonder you resort to stabbing them with sedatives," Cisco says.

"Yeah well, I've learned not to underestimate people," Barry replies, hardly about to believe that Gennai isn't dangerous.

"Yamato told me about your plans," Barry says with a frown. "How you're going to destroy everything to bring about peace and I gotta say, I don't think you understand peace."

Barry's frown sets in deeper when he hears Gennai was attempting to make a copy of him to torment Yamato with.

"He doesn't want to be your enemy, you know," Barry says, shaking his head at Gennai. "He wants to help you, if he can. I think all of his team does."

"It's not like I can just cuff them to a wall or something, after all. If I looked away, Yamato would be half way through gnawing off his arm by the time I looked back," Jyou says.

Gennai's smile fades, just a little. "It's the only peace any of us will ever get," he says. "They gave me an impossible task -- they knew I could never succeed. And then they died in front of me, and I waited for twenty-five thousand years for them to come back, to make the world perfect at last. When they did, they'd forgotten me, forgotten the promises they'd made, and all they were interested in was -- protecting the world as it was."

He gives a derisive snort, shaking his head. "I'm sure he never even imagined that I'd be his enemy. I'll always just be a little kid to him," he says.

"That is pretty tricky," Cisco says, mulling it over. "I guess for us, if worse came to worst we could chuck Barry into a pipeline cell. He wouldn't be able to run away, and gnawing off limbs wouldn't get him out of there."

Barry looks Gennai over again. It's unnerving to be speaking to Yamato knowing it's not really him behind the face, but Barry still meets the man's gaze.

"I can't speak to the ones you're talking about, but Yamato and his friends didn't do any of that to you. They didn't forget you or the promises made to you on purpose."

Barry's expression and voice soften with sympathy for Gennai's long plight, and Barry says, "The world will never be perfect. But that doesn't make it not worth fighting for, or protecting."

"You have anti-superpower cells? That's pretty cool," Jyou remarks. "I guess you need something like that if you're taking down supervillains, though, otherwise you're just throwing them into regular, non-super-proofed prisons."

"How charmingly optimistic, aniki," Gennai says, wryly and a little scornfully, hopping down from the car. "I wonder if ..."

He trails off, looking to one side, then the other, furrowing his brow as if for a moment he's honestly confused about where he is and how he got there. As he skims his gaze over the fires and wreckage, he looks entirely bewildered, even alarmed. His veneer flickers for a moment, shifting to Sora, then Koushiro.

Then he seems to rally, snapping his attention back to Barry, and he shifts back into Yamato again: "I wonder how many times you've been betrayed. Or how many times you'll be the betrayer -- vaunted ideas of defending the masses so often lead to betraying one's principles. That's where they led me, more than once."

"Working on that. Right now they're just very secure. As in powered by an 8.3 Tesla superconducting electromagnet secure," Cisco replies.

"I've been working with some tech from a Galaxy Far, Far Away though, and I think I'll have it figured out soon."

Barry doesn't react to the scorn, but when he sees the shift he grows concerned and steps forward, ready to offer a hand out.

"Gennai?"

The shift back is so sudden it leaves Barry worried. He listens to Gennai speak and replies, "I just want to help. I run out to save lives and to protect people, and maybe give them a second chance by being there. I've learned that I can't save everyone, but I can try to do as much good as I can with the gifts that I have."

Studying Gennai Barry goes on to say, "I think that was once your goal, too. To help and to do good. Let us try and help you now. Whatever is trying to take you over, you don't have to fight it alone."

"I have no idea what an 8.3 Tesla superconducting electromagnet is," Jyou admits. "Not -- not my field, you'd need Koushiro or Yamato if you want a Chosen who can understand what that means."

For the first time, Gennai actually scowls, pupils narrowing until they're almost dots, peeling back his lips to bare Yamato's fangs at Barry.

"I don't need -- ..."

Then he stops, because suddenly it's night, and the full moon is behind him. He vanishes in a flicker, reappearing next to MadLeomon, just as Yamato lands where he was in a flash of blue fire.

"You took your time," Gennai mutters.

Yamato ignores him, walking over to Barry as the sky buzzes momentarily staticky and then returns to day again.

"You okay?" The question's accompanied by a headbutt to his shoulder that's probably meant to be affectionate, but delivered with somewhat too much force.

"Pretty much it's a super powerful magnet that has 100,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field," Cisco explains. "It's also what we used to zing atomic particles around and how we sort of accidentally gave Barry superpowers."

Barry starts to tense, ready if Gennai decides to lash out. The sky changes and Barry looks up as Yamato arrives.

Seeing Yamato is a relief and Barry gives the guy a smile, although there's concern there because Yamato is definitely roughed up and bleeding.

"Ow," Barry says, rocking with the headbutt. The action does at least tell Barry that this is for sure Yamato this time.

Barry gives a nod, and then his eyes dart over to Gennai.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Barry answers Yamato.

"I'm not sure magnets can give people superpowers in this world," Jyou says thoughtfully. "I just -- feel like that's not a thing here."

Distantly, the blimp Digimon finally falls, hitting the water with a significant splash and floating there in the Bay, dazed and seemingly on fire in several places.

For all that he's certainly roughed up -- there's even a chunk of one of the ears of his hybrid form that he's missing -- Yamato seems to still be wired with adrenaline, eyes bright and perhaps a little more inhuman looking than usual.

He gives a slightly gentler headbutt to the side of Barry's face, then turns his attention on Gennai.

"We'll be opening the Gate back up momentarily, and sending everyone back," he says. "So it's time you took your leave, Gennai."

Gennai narrows his eyes for a moment, then snaps his fingers, a rip in space -- black and rimmed with reddish pink at the edges -- opening next to him. "Until next time, Flash," he calls over his shoulder as he steps inside, his form flickering briefly into a dark-haired, blue-eyed man in black robes before the distortion shuts behind him.

"Oh it wasn't the magnets, it was the big explosion that threw out dark matter across the city and the lightning bolt that struck him while all that was going down," Cisco says.

He watches as the Digi-blimp hits the water then glances at Jyou.

"Should we go and put them out, or something?"

Barry is faring better than Yamato. His clothes are ripped and the burn on his leg has still got some time to fully heal, but at least he still has all the pieces to his ears.

"We'll see you, Gennai," Barry returns.

Barry watches the portal close then sags a bit, tension bleeding out and he's tired now besides.

Turning to face Yamato, Barry gives him a better look over.

"How are you doing?"

"They'll be fine. Probably. So long as their kernel isn't broken, they'll be alright," Jyou says.

"... I also barely know what dark matter is. Except it's dark. And matter."

Yamato casually lifts one of Barry's hands, positioning it on the back of the undamaged wolf ear poking out of his hair, in a silent demand for scritches. He's earned them, he feels.

"I'm okay. Taichi and I had to deal with a DarkKnightmon, it took more than we expected to get through his armour, and he had a sort of drill thing," Yamato says. He nods over at MadLeomon, arching an eyebrow. "-- And meanwhile, I see you were dealing with one of mine. Beast-types all fall under my domain, after all."

"Okay cool," Cisco says, then cups his hands around his mouth to shout out towards the blimp, "THIS IS A GOOD LESSON NOT TO INVADE OTHER WORLDS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU!"

Shaking his head at Jyou, Cisco replies, "That's alright. Most people don't know much about it, even the ones who do."

Yay for science and astrophysics.

Barry gives a chuckle and then obliges, scritching Yamato's ear.

"DarkKnightmon, cool name," he comments, feeling like even Cisco would like that one. "Glad you guys are okay."

Looking over at MadLeomon, Barry nods.

"Yeah. He was headed for the broadcast station. Poor guy, I feel kind of bad knocking him out like that." MadLeomon doesn't look so threatening now that he's lying unconscious in the street and no longer trying to chew Barry's face off.

Shifting his focus back to Yamato, Barry says, "I ran into your father while I was clearing people out. I got him and his crew to a safer spot."

"-- Ah, we have company," Jyou says. "The good kind."

'The good kind' here means a big, orange cyborg dinosaur, somehow flying despite not being aerodynamic and its purple, fabric-y wings not looking like they should hold up its weight. But if there's any doubt about whose Digimon it is, Taichi's sat on the dinosaur's helmet, waving over at Cisco.

"MetalGreymon Express," Taichi says, as the dinosaur settles into hovering next to them. "Here to take you to Barry and Yamato, Cisco-chan."

"Speaking of, Taichi's on his way to pick up Cisco. Better to have him here before we open the Gate again."

He glances over at MadLeomon, before reaching over to pat Barry on the shoulder. "He'll be fine. He'll wake up confused and with a sore head, but he got a good fight out of it, so there's nothing to complain about. You did good."

His eyes flick over to Barry at the mention of his father, before he shrugs. "Yeah, I figured he'd be here. I knew you'd make sure he and everyone else here stayed safe."

Cisco's eyes widen and he stares at the impossibility before him.

"Okay, that's awesome," he declares of the flying cyborg dino.

Turning to Jyou, Cisco says, "Thanks you guys for the ride, and for not letting me become fish food."

"Him and Jyou alright?" Barry asks.

Barry's smile turns shades of proud and embarrassed and he ducks his head a moment before looking back at Yamato.

"Thanks. Glad I could help."

Barry starts to examine his ripped up clothes as a kind of distraction to Yamato's reaction to the mention of Yamato's father, though Barry still glances back at Yamato when he says, "He seems... pretty dedicated to his job. He wasn't too keen to leave at first."

"No problem!" Zudomon chirps.

"It was our pleasure," Jyou adds.

MetalGreymon lowers his head, with some difficulty, just enough to align the flat top of his helmet with Zudomon's shell. "Hop on. You can hold onto the horn if you need to."

The horn in question is about as wide as a man, but it looks sturdy, at least.

"Yeah, they were doing fine the last time Garurumon sent out a scanning pulse," Yamato says.

He does grimace a little when Barry mentions Hiroaki's lack of eagerness to leave, but he shrugs a shoulder a moment later. "Well, that's to be expected. He's committed to his work, and he isn't great about acknowledging danger."

Cisco's expression turns nervous as he looks over at Taichi and MetalGreymon.

"Right. Sure. I'll just... hop on over there," he says, trying to act cool about it, but definitely nervous.

Taking a deep breath, Cisco leaves his perch on Zudomon and hurries across to MetalGreymon's helmet, keeping his eyes up and not on the water below.

As soon as he's aboard, Cisco moves for to cling onto the horn.

"Okay, I'm here, it's cool," he says, waiting to make sure everything is actually cool before he'll let go.

"Good. Knew Cisco was in good hands with Jyou."

With a sort of resigned sound over another pair of ruined shoes, Barry forgets about his wardrobe to focus on Yamato.

"He must be a pretty good reporter," Barry comments, then adds, "Once things got serious with MadLeomon showing up your dad was quick to let me get him and his people out of there."

"Don't worry, I promise not to tip you into the water," Taichi says cheerfully.

Once on the helmet, it's possible to notice that while MetalGreymon's metal parts are quite cool, even cold, Taichi himself is radiating heat the same way Yamato radiates cold when using his powers, giving off wave after wave of it.

MetalGreymon lifts his head again, carefully keeping it level, and sets off back towards the shore, flying close to the water with the very tips of his claws skimming it.

Yamato gives a faint chuckle at that noise, knocking one foot-claw against Barry's shoes in what might be meant as a wordless apology.

"I'll chalk that one up to him realising that you could just speed him away to a shelter quicker than he could react," he says, a little dryly.

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