A Different Kind of Healing

Flying in on a roaring flame!

Suddenly, a bright light filled Taiki's room as the Xros loader's screen sparked to life. "HEY TAIKI!! RELOAD ME ALREADY WOULD YA?" The familiar scratchy tone of his once overly energetic friend filled the room. Taiki's eyes burst open upon recognizing who it was. "Shoutmon!" Taiki's voice was nothing more than a grating whisper. With a gasp, he leapt to his feet snatching the fusion loader at the other end of the room. Shoutmon smiled slightly letting out a small barely audible sigh in relief as Taiki shouted as loud as his voice would let him "Reload, Shoutmon!" Shoutmon chuckled feeling the familiar pull of the Xros loader quickly eject him into reality. Shoutmon's expression faded upon seeing Taiki's deplorable state. "It's good to see you again, Shoutmon!" Taiki strained with a half smile! His expression quickly faded upon remembering why he'd summoned Shoutmon all the way to the human world. He quickly slid the loader into his back pocket and took a deep, shaky breath as Shoutmon mentally braced himself.

"It's... Akari... I-I just thought you'd want to say goodbye..." His voice tapering off at the end. Shoutmon let out a frustrated growl, stomped over to the spiky brown headed boy and looked him straight in the eyes. "SO... You called me ALL THE WAY from the digital world, HAD ME WORRIED SICK FOR DAYS, only to send me back??" Taiki jumped back surprised at his friend's actions throwing up his arms in front of himself expecting to get punched. "N-No! Shoutmon, it isn't like that at all! Aka-" Shoutmon's nostrils flared, letting off streams of small smokey trails. "No, YOU listen to ME... Do you have ANY idea how important my job is back in the digital world or have you completely gone insane?!? I THOUGHT YOU'D BEEN MAULED BY A ROGUE DIGIMON OR SOMETHING AND ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS SEND ME BACK???" Shoutmon's grating voice now shook the room with each thunderous bellow forbidding taiki from getting a word in.

'Damn! If he's going to be like this, I won't get my point across... Well, I guess showing him is easier than telling him at this point...'

"GAH!" Taiki huffed through grated whispers. He threw his hands in the air and opened his mouth as if to make a strong rebuttal but instead dashed out of the house snagging his bike on the way. Shoutmon blinked out of confusion, it definitely wasn't like Taiki to run. The ruby dragon Digimon snarled and literally rocketed after him quickly gaining ground up until the boy reached his bike! "GET BACK HERE OR I'LL GRILL YOU ALIVE!!" Taiki peddled as fast as he could to avoid Shoutmon to no avail. Shoutmon then jumped, flipping over the bike and landing with a harsh thud right in front of him. "WHOA!" Taiki whispered loudly as he swerved to avoid hitting him only to have Shoutmon catch the back tire! Taiki lurched forwards painfully colliding with the handle bars with a semi-loud "GAK"! Shoutmon's eyes widened as he let out a sharp gasp upon realization. He released the bike in an instant letting it clatter noisily to the ground and grasped the back of Taiki's shirt before he had a painful encounter with the cement below!

Shoutmon let out a small sigh upon setting Taiki upon the ground only to have him double over in pain. "Taiki! Are you ok?" The anger within him quickly shifted to concern as Taiki gave him a shaky thumbs up. He took a minute to recover before noticing the attention his ruby lizard friend was drawing. "Uh..." He panicked, rapidly digging through his mind trying to think of a solution that would either draw attention away or fix the situation somehow... 'I've got it!' He thought, quickly flicking his goggles and withdrew the Xros loader he'd earlier stashed in his pocket. He then turned to Shoutmon and pointed at it hoping he'd get the message and with a heavy sigh, Shoutmon vanished into it. Taiki then turned to the staring neighbors wearing a feigned smile.

"Thank you, thank you! I hope you've all enjoyed my little magic act! I'm training to be an amateur magician, heh... What you saw was no more than a mere illusion created by this holographic device!" A small bead of sweat began to slowly trickle down his brow as he showed off the loader silently hoping they'd believe it. A second later, thunderous applause filled the air as Taiki picked up his bike and remounted it. When they were far enough away, Shoutmon chuckled and said, "Nice save, Taiki... now, are you really going to tell me why you summoned me to the human world instead of just running away?" Taiki gritted his teeth as if he were holding back yet another wave of sadness. Even Shoutmon could sense the stress from deep within the loader. He decided to press his luck anyways,

"You said it had something to do with Akari? Is she ok? Is... she hurt?" He asked, his voice taking on a serious tone as it echoed out of the loader. Taiki only gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the loader, his voice less than a raspy whisper. "You need to prepare yourself for what you're about to see..." With a heavy sigh, Shoutmon sat back against a far wall of the void as memories of her filled his mind. Memories of the sweet zone where he and Balistamon had accidentally eaten all of the bananas leaving nothing but the peels and a furious Akari! The time she'd been tricked by Laylamon's mirror reminding him of just how much she really did mean to his mission! The time when she and Zenjirou had to wear those ridiculous outfits and preform some love dance in the forest zone!

He closed his eyes as a smile played across his jagged jaw. He was suddenly ripped from his memories as Taiki's voice once again filled the loader along with the outside chatter of the hospital patients waiting to be seen. Among them was the sleeping Zenjirou, snoring away peacefully! "Which way is Akari Hinomoto's room?" There was a slight pause before an older woman with a very soothing mother-like tone answered. "Ah yes, she's in room 12B! Just make your way down the hall to the left, go up the stairs, and turn to your right. It should be right there!" Taiki nodded taking a deep breath before continuing forwards. Inside the loader, Shoutmon gritted his teeth as he slightly began to shake once more, mentally and physically preparing himself for what he was about to see.

His mind was engulfed in horrifically gruesome images surrounding Akari, this also made him angry on a low key scale as Shoutmon valued friendship over all. Suddenly, a bright blinding light engulfed the area within the loader temporarily blinding Shoutmon. He jumped up and away from the light snarling fiercely only to have the light dissipate into the void. "What the..." Shoutmon blinked slightly confused as to what he had just witnessed. Usually a brilliant light carried the soul of a fallen comrade to heal in the loader's warmth but it was just him this time... right? Without hesitation, he summoned his mic out of thin air and shouted. "HEY YOU, COME OUT WHERE I CAN SEE YOU!" Shoutmon's jagged lips peeled away from his bright white daggers as a low, defensive growl rolled from the back of his throat. He was ready to pounce on whatever appeared until a loud, shrill tone filled the air as if an old computer was dialing up the internet. "GAHH!" Shoutmon roared clasping the headphones on the sides of his head as the tone grew louder and louder until it suddenly stopped!