Bird of Prey [closed/toshiro]

GIVE ME TIME AND GIVE ME SPACE

From below, the scene unfolds like something straight out of a kaiju film: a radiant star-shaped being shouting heroically at a piggish-looking figure with a TV-shaped head and gargantuan wings of fire. People screamed and shrieked, both in fear and in excitement, at the supposed novelty and obvious danger of the spectacle.

"[⇀‸↼‶]"

Like his human master, Monitamon could not express himself through speech, but the rather humorous-looking emoticon that flashed across his glass screen of a face openly resonated with the feeling of embarrassment and, interestingly enough, sympathy for Nero's two opponents.

He didn't want this--he was only acting on his Tamer's expectations of him as an agent of espionage and stealth. A cold-blooded assassin, he was not. It makes the little ninja Digimon feel even worse when the Starmon booms out his own idea of a compliment, still slandering Nero's honor as a warrior with that haughty sense of moral superiority.

"[〒﹏〒]"

He prepares to reach into his backpack for a leaf shuriken in self-defense--but is saved at the last possible second by Starmon's human controller, who steals Monitamon's thoughts right from his head by reminding the cocky Champion that a brawl would only attract even more attention and worsen things for everyone currently involved.

Monitamon's screen creates a pair of blinking pixelated eyes, expressive of his realization that the teenager was definitely part of something larger, but also in the awareness that this bigger scheme was something he wanted nothing to do with.

Then, Starmon's light flares, and Monitamon finds himself reflexively curling Birdramon's summoned wings around his tiny body in a whirl of roaring fire. Inside the vortex, the ninja Digimon creates another hand seal as leaves from his backpack orbit him in unison with his fiery cocoon, before it all releases itself in a dynamic explosion of fire and foliage, with Monitamon nowhere to be seen.

As Nero bolts through the crowds looking for a suitable spot to lay low, he grits his teeth in anger, unable to comprehend how the situation went south so damn fast. Dark emotions flood the ninja's mind as he struggles to make sense of things, wondering exactly how much power the teenager had been--

The assassin lurches forward, his eyes glazed over as if he had been struck over the back of the head with a large, blunt object. His vision darkens for a moment, hearing replaced with a low, dull ringing, but both senses are quick to return.

When he readjusts, the first thing he sees is an entire street full of people that are equally as confused as he was.

Nero's brows scrunch as he clutches his head, his thoughts swimming through what felt like a thick fog. He was looking for someone, that much he could remember, but how did he get from the alley to here?

The sound of police sirens make their approach, and it drives Nero into a reflexive sprint away from the scene of an encounter that may or may not have actually taken place, unsure of why there was a gap in his otherwise razor sharp sense of memory but uninterested in getting himself tangled up with the local law enforcement. The Troopers only had so much to work with just to keep Nero's existence a well-guarded secret.

Ducking into a narrow pass between some buildings, the Italian assassin slips away under the cover of night, unknowingly defeated but knowingly perplexed, returning back to the shadows of obscurity from whence he came.