Champions of the Digital World

[Nirvash]

Ooc: Herp derp needs to check his email more often. Someone gimme the posting cycle after this, thankies

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"We're here way too early," the boy mumbled meekly, though the Javits Center was so alive with the din of a thousand conversations that he could barely hear his own scratchy voice. Tucked away in a corner by a back exit, Alex ironically looked vastly out of place among the cosplayers and card game champions at DG Con. His plain style of dress -- a black shirt under a green checkered button up and baggy blue jeans -- made him look like a regular fish out of water and he sure as heck felt like one. Sighing disappointedly, he fished his black D-Arc out of his back pocket and dejectedly stared at the screen.

"Never should have come here," he berated himself. "I thought this would be the best way to find other people with Digimon but all of the Digimon here are fake. And I'm practically invisible here."

"That's cuz you're just standin' around like a wallflower instead of going out and looking, dummy. I smell a ton of Digimon here." The deep, growling bass made Alex jump in shock. That was not the voice he had expected to hear from his partner. He cracked open the back exit door, stuck his head out to look for Gazimon and almost cried out in shock when he found himself staring into a large topaz eye.

"Jesus!" he breathed as he tried to calm himself. He took a quick look around to see if anyone was looking at him suspiciously. When he was sure of his inconspicuousness, he quietly slipped out the door and stared at his partner like a parent would a misbehaving child. Alex shook his head in exasperation as Garurumon attempted to back up, stymied by the fact that his digital bulk took up most of the small alley.

"Garurumon, WHAT the heck?" he asked sternly. "I told you, you can't Digivolve higher than Rookie today!" Garurumon whined like a puppy.

"Why noooot?"

"A giant black wolf-beast isn't exactly something normal people will ignore, y'know," the androgyne deadpanned. Alex looked shiftily around the alley in search of prying eyes. The alleyway opened up to the bustling streets of New York yet, thankfully, nobody seemed to see him or his Digimon.

"Change back," he ordered.

"But -- !" Garurumon began futilely, cut off mid-sentence by what he called Alex's "Mom Stare". The Beast Digimon sighed as a purple glow encased his form and he began to shrink exponentially. When the light died, the proud beast was replaced by a pudgy purple bun with red eyes and long floppy ears.

"Happy?" Pagumon asked, his voice high and squeaky. "Aww, I sound like a chew toy!" he complained. Laughing, Alex picked up the In-Training and placed Pagumon on his head.

"Better a chew toy than a government dissection project," he said, then stopped to think for a moment and asked, "Do Digimon even have organs?" Pagumon shrugged as best as a limbless purple blob could.

"Dude, I don't even know what organs are." The pair re-entered the Javits Center and climbed up to the second floor engrossed in their odd discussion.

"Well, you're alive so you have to have some kind of organ system and -- oof!" Alex's vision flashed as he bumped into something bigger and much sturdier than his frail frame, stumbling back and falling on his behind. Not wanting to fall, Pagumon clenched his ears and grabbed fistfuls of his partner's hair, causing Alex to yelp in pain.

"I-I'm sorry!" the boy hastily apologized to whomever he hit. "I wasn't watching where I was going; this is totally my fault! Sorry, sorry!"

"Alex, he has a Digimon!" Pagumon whispered frantically. Opening his eyes, Alex found his partner was right; the face of the boy he'd crashed into was partially obscured by the fluorescent lighting but there was no mistaking the Digimon cradled in his arms as a Kuramon. The Fresh level digital monster yelled something about a fight, to which Alex stood up and shied away towards an empty wall.

"Don't cower!" Pagumon said encouragingly. "Fight! Just let me digivolve!" The Kuramon's partner frowned deeply.

"How many other Tamers are at this convention," he whispered furiously, "and how many of their partners can digivolve?!"

"You won't be so tough when you see me as Garurumon!" squeaked Pagumon. Alex resisted the urge to sigh for the umpteenth time.

"Well, I wanted to find other Tamers..."

 

[Belle]

Admittedly, the boy - Jesse, he said he name was? - lacked subtlety.
Harley wasn't deaf, and elbowing one's backpack isn't exactly inconspicuous. While she stood musingly before him with a lopsided grin on her face as he stumbled through a greeting, she eyed the hand he offered with mild interest before he turned on his heel and darted off toward a sudden, raucous commotion coming from closer to the entrance of the building.

Her curiosity just as piqued as his had been, she swept the coronamon from the chair and tucked him under her arm before slipping between the crowd to survey the crowd that had gathered from the balcony above the swarm. When she stopped to consider the cause of the commotion, she hesitated for a moment before pulling her digivice out again, grinning when the little arrow appeared once more and began to twitch excitedly as she slid it along the banister before her.
There were more of them.
And that was kind of awesome.


ooc| DERP. I'm sorry you'll get more quality than this when my mind ceases to be a puddle of mush at the end of the semester ; u;

 

[Satoren]

Rui studied the man’s features briefly. He was taller than him, and he could assume he was older as well. He carried with him an oddly large bag which seemed to shuffle with life. He was accompanied by a boy younger than both of them who was looking at him curiously.

The young man glanced at Gaomon, whose nose fidgeted at the two humans before him. But what he was so focused on wasn’t them, but the bag the taller man was carrying. It was quite obvious once you got a closer look, but with so many people moving about in the center, no one would immediately notice that the bag was moving as though it, or its contents were alive.

“Pardon me, sir,” Rui said quietly. “I’m not entirely sure how to say this, but…” He then raised the hand holding his digivice, which continued to blink and ring incessantly. “I believe you possess one of these, correct? And if so, then it’s safe to assume that the thing moving around in your bag can only be a real Digimon.”


ooc: I'm so sorry D': this really isn't worth the two-week writer's block I was on

 

[Shiny Motley]

Diane smiled, somewhat amused by Gummymon’s reaction towards Kokomon. Now that the Digimon mentioned it, Kokomon did seem to share some similarities with Tyson, more so than she did with her yellow, single-horned counterpart. In fact, she quietly thought that perhaps she was more alike to the Gummymon than she was to Tyson, personality-wise; it was almost as if the Digimon and human partners had been switched. It was kind of funny, in a strange way.

“Nah, let him come to us if he wants to,” the girl responded, patting Gummymon’s head as she did spoke. She looked back at the other person, who was quite obviously older than she or Tyson was. Another person had appeared at the edge of her vision, with a fidgeting Pagumon in his arms. Hoping that the new person might be able to keep the other guy company and not ruin her conversation with Tyson, Diane turned back around and finished her sandwich, feeding the last few morsels to Kokomon.

“So how long have you and Gummymon been together?” she asked. “And how did you guys come to meet in the first place?” She was curious as to how her new friend had come to be a Tamer like her, and wanted to know just how similar, or different, their own stories were.

(OOC: Pardon for the crappy post, but school has been bluuuuuuuh :<)

 

[Psycho Monkey]

(OOC: Just a heads up Greyson, it's against PokeCharms rules to auto another person's character. I'm going to continue this interaction but I'm ignoring everything after the initial encounter.)

BIC:
Blake paused. For a moment it felt like someone was watching him. Could it have been one of the other Tamers? He looked back at his Digivice to find out which direction it was pointing. While he was distracted, some idiot decided to bump into him.

"Hey watch where you're going!" spat Blake at the person who turned out to be a boy who was now on the floor apologizing profusely. The teen rolled his eyes and was about to be on his way when he heard his Digivice beeping again.

"It can't be!" he mumbled looking back at the boy, noticing for the first time a Pagumon sitting on the boy's head.

"Can, and is. That Pagumon isn't stuffed." Kuramon pointed out.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Blake shot back. "So what, are you looking for a fight or something?" the teen taunted at the other Tamer. This kid didn't look like much but if the Pagumon could Digivolve like the last one, then they'd both be in trouble. Blake knew he'd have to play his cards right if things did end up getting ugly.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Rufus's eyes nearly popped out of his head when the teen asked that, did he really just say that in public, in front of Gabriel? Oh no, better think fast.

"Rufus, what does he mean by-"

"Oh hey! I didn't recognise you for a moment! It's been a while buddy!" Rufus said, addressing the stranger in front of him. "Hey Gabriel, could you give us a few minutes to catch. Don't worry, you can stick with our master cosplayer here," referring to the unsuspecting Gaomon. "Maybe you can play Tamers for a few minutes. Okay, great! We'll be right back!" Rufus then grabbed the stranger by the hand and dragged him down the aisle, leaving Gabriel and Gaomon alone.

"Um..." Gabriel started, "does your brother ever do that to you?"


Rufus pulled the tanned teenager to the end of the aisle, then pulled him into the next one, and deemed it private enough to have a 'talk'.

"Okay, you have twenty seconds to explain what the heck that was all about!" Rufus demanded. "Who are you? And how did you know about Dracomon, and-" Rufus paused, as he finally paid attention to the device in the person's hand, which continued to blink and flash, a sort of red marker flashing in the centre, for some reason, it reminded him of some digital compasses that change into a crosshair when you're standing on top of a destination. That wasn't what caught Rufus's eye though, the device itself looked just like the one he had in his backpack, somewhere underneath Dracomon, that explains what was bothering Dracomon so much then. "And where did you get that?"

(I hope you don't mind me doing that RX, but Gabriel doesn't know about Digimon, and I plan to keep it that way for a while. So please make Gaomon play along :3)

 

[Satoren]

[Rui!] Gaomon yelped in surprise. He couldn’t understand what was going on just now. Rui only moments ago was speaking with an older human, who seemed to have a digimon hiding in his bag. No sooner did he mention the word ‘digimon’ did the man begin to panic. To Gaomon, it seemed like he was babbling at Rui, probably in shock for whatever reason. And then suddenly, he grabbed the tamer by the hand and darted off down the aisle, leaving the blue digimon with the young boy he was accompanying.

Gaomon wanted to give chase, but just as he was about to dash off, the younger boy started speaking to him.

"Um, does your brother ever do that to you?" the boy asked.

[Eh…?] Gaomon looked at him puzzled. Is this kid talking to me? Damn it, I can’t understand what he’s saying! the digimon thought to himself. Unsure of what to do, he began shaking his head while waving his arms wildly. [Ugh, I’m really sorry, little one; but I have no idea what you’re saying,” he muttered in Japanese.

Meanwhile, Rui had been dragged several aisles away from Gaomon by the older man. They ducked into an empty stall, away from prying eyes so that the stranger could continue conversing with him in private.

"Okay, you have twenty seconds to explain what the heck that was all about! Who are you? And how did you know about Dracomon, and…and where did you get that?” the man demanded him to explain as he pointed at the blinking digivice in Rui’s hand.

“Ah, so your digimon is Dracomon, then,” Rui said flatly. “Is it alright if I see it?” He was rather interested in the fact that the man had an actual digimon, and didn’t seem to hear the man’s want for an explanation.

Ooc: Rui’s kind of a focuses-on-one-thing-and-ignores-everything-else kind of guy ;D

 

[Blazi]

"Nah, let him come if he wants to," replied Diane, patting Gummymon, to which Tyson nodded and continued his sandwich. Tyson noticed another person bump into the man, holding what looked like a purple beanbag with ears in his arms. "So how long have you and Gummymon been together?" Diane asked, "And how did you guys come to meet in the first place?"

"Ah? Oh, well, about a year ago, one of my cousins went to Japan, and when she came back, she brought this little virtual pet digimon thing. It was really cool! You could feed your digimon, you could play with your digimon, you could even make your digimon fight against other digimon, and use the trading card game cards to help fight. She knew how much I liked them, so she gave it to me.
"I had this little digi-egg inside it, and I raised it into a Zerimon, then a Gummymon, and then to Terriermon. I eventually got him to a high enough level that I could use the digivolve card, and when I did, I got this really cool digimon, called Gargomon.
"Two months ago, when I was training Gargomon up to get to his next stage, I found this weird blue card. I tried swiping it, but then my digimon thing crackled and stopped working. I had school, so I put him away and went off to school. When I came back, I found my digivice and a digiegg. And you know the rest. Digiegg hatched, had a Zerimon, trained him up to Terriermon, yeah." Tyson finished, suddenly realising he was thirsty. "How about you? How did you and Kokomon meet?" He asked, patting Kokomon softly.

OoC: HOLY CARP WALL OF TEXT. I don't mind if you tl;dr, it's basically just a backstory post.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Rufus scowled slightly, it looked like this person was avoiding his question. At the same time, he didn't seem to show any sort of ill will, as if it was like showing off a new toy. Rufus sighed, if he already knew, there wasn't much point in continuing to hide it. Rufus looked both ways, the aisle they were in had just emptied, so they had a more private setting. Rufus reached into his bag and unzipped it. Dracomon quickly poked his head through again.

"Alright, I can't take it. Can't you just take a look please?" Dracomon begged. Finally fed up with Dracomon's constant complaints, Rufus fished into the bag, careful to avoid Dracomon's Gekirin, and felt that something was buzzing in there. He expected to find his phone, but instead got the jade device; an almost perfect match to the one the stranger had.

"Rufus! Who's this guy?" Dracomon asked, upon seeing the young teenager, his pupils shrank to small slits instinctively, ready to attack should he be provoked.

"He's some stranger who got what he wanted and now has answer my questions." Rufus commented, turning back to the teenager.

(I'll come back to Gabriel and Gaomon after this conversation, but if you have other plans RX, feel free to auto him. Gabriel has tried to learn Japanese, but he absolutely sucks at it, though nobody has quite managed to tell him that yet)

 

[Shiny Motley]

Kokomon flinched in surprise when she felt Tyson pet her on the head. She held back the urge to shrink away from his touch, though, knowing that it would be rude and might hurt the human’s feelings. She even smiled a little, though it looked more like a grimace on her face. At least she was trying to make an effort.

Diane, however, completely missed the interaction between the two, already trying to search for similarities and differences between her own retrieval of the Digivice and Tyson’s story of his. At least he’s really starting to open up now, she noted to herself. He hasn’t stuttered one bit throughout that narration.

“Well,” she began after a while, not quite sure how to start, “My mom got me this cute DigiEgg figurine-like thing for me on my last birthday, which included a little virtual Digimon pet. Like yours, I guess. I raised the DigiEgg on that device, but once the electronic one hatched, what I thought was just a figurine also hatched. And thus, Kokomon and I met.” Diane took a breath at this point, and looked down at her partner. The Digimon looked back up at her, and something seemed to pass between them before they resumed their previous stance.

“Ah, I’ll get some water,” Diane said, noticing how Tyson kept swallowing even though nothing was in his mouth, as if he was thirsty or something. She got up and gave a sly look at Kokomon, who shivered in fright of what Diane might do. As she turned around and began walking towards the stands again, she said over her shoulder, “Don’t slip on a banana peel while I’m away.”

“Like I haven’t seen you do that before,” Kokomon muttered as she sank herself lower into the table. Glancing at the Gummymon, she remembered that Tyson had mentioned that, in his virtual pet gaming thing, he had managed to get the creature to evolve into a Gargomon. A strange thought passed through her head, which she quickly dismissed. No, the virtual world and actually becoming real were different, right? He couldn’t possibly have the ability to digivolve further if they’d only known each other for a year or so.

Or... could he?

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Renata threw one glance at the boy's back as he walked away before turning back to the one with the Tsunomon. All this trouble because the boys couldn't make a proper distraction. She felt Yokomon relax in her arms. Not that she'd actually noticed, but Renata shrewdly suspected that the digimon was holding her breath the entire time.

"Well, that was fun!" Renata said to Tsunomon's tamer with a huge smile on her face. "That was really smooth how Tsunomon digivolved and then de-degivolved like that. I'd really say you caught that guy off guard."

Yokomon rolled her eyes at Renata again. It felt like she had been put through the wringer and Renata didn't even care. The human was practically in a bouncey mood.

"By the way. I never got to introduce myself! I'm Renata and this is Yokomon who's a Biyomon most of the time."

 

[Blazi]

Tyson noticed Kokomon flinch when he petted her, and apologised in his head, as Diane started her story. He listened as she told him how she met Kokomon, and noticed the similarity in the story, the virtual pet.

"Ah, I'll get some water," Diane said, getting up and walking to a stand to get some water, saying over her shoulder, "Don't slip on a banana peel while I'm away."

Tyson guessed this was to Kokomon, but smiled all the same. While looking at Kokomon, a strange idea came over him. He pondered on this, and the idea kept growing until he could think of nothing else. "Hey Gummymon," he said the the green creature, "If Diane was here, and so was Noah, maybe there are other Tamers around here?"

Gummymon thought, before nodding vigorously, saying, "Yeah! There would!"

"Well then maybe we should find them!" he said, standing up and scooping Gummymon onto his shoulder. He then proceeded to hold his hand out to Kokomon. "Come on," he said, "We'll get Diane and then we'll start looking." Once he got a reply, he would walk over to Diane and tell her his idea, before hopefully starting their search.

OoC: Slightly pointless, but I needed to move it on a little bit. Shiny is free to auto Tyson a bit.

 

[Nirvash]

(OOC: Got it. Filing that away for later.)

(BIC):

Alex scrambled to his feet and bowed low in apology then flinched when the spiky-haired boy's words registered to him.

"Wait, what? No!" he said immediately. "I don't want to fight! I came here to look for other Tamers and I guess I found one..." The boy and his Kuramon kept glaring at him. The Tamer's gaze was steely and intimidating but Alex had to suppress a chuckle when he locked eyes with Kuramon.

Er... Eyes? Eye? Whatever, he thought to himself.

"I'm really sorry about bumping into you but my Digivice didn't go off," Alex finished.

Pagumon scoffed haughtily. "Us fight you? Please; that'd be a total waste of time. Your Digimon has the smell of a newborn. I can easily take him now and if I become Garurumon, forget it."

The In-Training's Tamer thumped him on the head. "Pagumon, do you have any clue what the concept of humility is?! Your hubris is gonna get me killed one day!"

"Owww...." The younger boy sighed and tentatively offered his hand to Kuramon's Tamer.

"Let's start over. My name's Alex and you've already met Pagumon here. What's your name?"

 

[Tailon]

Jason shook his arm slightly as Renata introduced herself, then in turn said, "My name's Jason, and my little partner over there is Wanyamon, Tsunomon, Bearmon... Well you get what I mean," as he spoke Jason began walking to the motionless Tsunomon and picking him up with his unbruised arm, "I'm surprised there's more than one Tamer, let alone three, and all at one con-" Before Jason could finish speaking, a booming voice flooded the convention center through its P.A. system.

---

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!"

---

"Huh, almost forgot about that..." Jason commented, "C'mon, we'll walk and talk," he offered, beginning to lead the way to the escalator, "I've never talked to someone who's had to deal with a real Digimon before..."

 

[Carmen Lopez]

"Yeah, I can hardly believe it myself," Renata said as she began walking up the escalator. She always felt stupid just standing on an escalator and always tried to walk up them if they weren't too crowded. Luckily they had beat the crowd so far.

"It's so good to be able to talk to another human!" Yokomon chirped happily. This was the first time she had spoken aloud to another human aside from Renata or her father.

The announcement had sent Renata's mind into overdrive. This conference was already turning into the best experinece of her life. She wondered what this could be about. Her head would be totally spinning if it weren't for the fact that she could talk to someone else real life digimon. Aside from Jason there was at least one other person who also had a real Digimon...could there be more. She clutched her Digivice tighter.

"Oh, Jason," Renata said as they got off the escalator. "Does your family know about Tsunomon?"

 

[Shiny Motley]

Kokomon sighed and climbed onto Tyson’s unoccupied shoulder before the human walked over to her partner and explained their idea of finding other Tamers. No duh there should be others like us, the Kokomon thought. Seriously, she had seen Diane fiddle with the Digivice so many times today, she was starting to wonder if there were possibly even more Tamers than non-Tamers at the convention.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen!” a loud voice boomed over the loudspeakers in the area, nearly making Kokomon jump out of her skin. “It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!”

Kokomon’s partner quickly grabbed some water bottles that she had bought from a nearby vending machine as she registered the news. “What, is it two already?” Diane said to nobody in particular as she saw Tyson approach her. Turning to face the boy, she listened to his idea of going to find other Tamers that might be in the convention.

“That’s an idea,” she noted, taking Tyson’s hand again as she absentmindedly began dragging him towards the stairs. “Except, of course, we should be seeing more of them if we’re all gathered in the same place, right?” Kokomon flinched as she noted the slight hint of a demeaning tone in the girl’s voice as she spoke. She knew that Diane probably didn’t mean to sound unpleasant, and the Digimon hoped that both the boy and his partner hadn’t noticed her rudeness.

Diane gently scooped Kokomon off Tyson’s shoulder as they ascended, and placed the pinkish-purple blob on her own shoulder. Kokomon leaned towards her partner’s ear and whispered, “Be nicer to others, okay?”

“I’m very nice,” Diane shot back in an undertone, glancing back at Tyson and Gummymon. “At least I’m not picky about everyone’s small character flaws.”

Kokomon groaned, deciding not to continue on the subject. They might be overheard here; best to take conversations like these back home.

(OOC: Heee, you get to see a little of Diane's, um, I guess darker side, I guess. XD)

 

[Shocari]

Jesse felt a little bad about leaving her so suddenly as he made his way over to the banister, then leaned over to get a good view of what was going on. It was a bit hard to make out what had actually happened, but there were a few people that appeared to bearguing, and they had dropped their somewhat-large Digimon plushies a little ways away.

Wait...no. Stuffed was inaccurate. They too large to be typical stuffed animals, and the way his Digivice was going crazy with the tiny arrow...That's it! Those Digimon were actually real, just like his Candlemon!

The sudden realization caused Jesse to pound his fist on the railing, which nobody noticed as the announcement came on.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!"

Jesse adjusted his backpack(much to Candlemon's disapproval) and made his way over.
______________
OOC: A bit short, but I had to edit it to write Belle out. She wished that I just leave her there amongst all the commotion, so I have.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Blake tried his hardest to suppress his astonishment that the Pagumon was capable of going all the way to the Champion level. 'Why is it that all the Digimon at this convention can digivlove except for mine!' he thought to himself angrily.

"Let's start over. My name's Alex and you've already met Pagumon here. What's your name?" said the other Tamer in a friendly tone. Blake rolled his eyes. For having such a strong Digimon, this kid was quite the softy.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!"

The teen smirked at the announcement. It was just the excuse he needed to get away from Alex.

"Sorry, I have some place to be right now." he said snidely. Blake turned away from the boy and headed to the stairs.

"We need to find me some weak opponents so I can Digivolve! Didn't you promise to have me at the Rookie level by the end of the day?" protested Kuramon anxiously.

"And I will. Somehow. Look, let's just go to the announcement. I'm sure that will give us some answers." responded Blake who was checking his Digivice. As expected, there were several arrows moving towards the Exhibition Hall. With all the con goers heading to the same place, he would soon know just how many Tamers were at the convention.

 

[Rex]

Ryan ran as fast as he possibly could. He had heard of a Digimon convention in the city, and had planned to take a train there. Unluckily for him, he'd left behind his money. Which meant he had had to go back and take a later train, and now was seriously starting to run late. He knew for sure that something important was going to be announced at the convention. He just hoped that that something would relate to him and his current predicament.

"You're going to pull my arm off," a voice muttered.

"Yeah, well, you're digging your claws into my back," he replied.

Clutching on for dear life to Ryan's back was a purple dinosaur like creature. Any Digimon fan would have no problem recognizing the creature as a Dorumon. This particular Digimon was no plush, however. It was the real deal. And very grouchy, for that matter. Ryan had nicknamed it Sammy, though it despised the name.

Finally, the convention center came into view. Ryan put a last bit of effort into that final burst of speed, and ran into the building just in time to hear the speakers finish saying something. He quickly skidded to a halt before he smashed into anyone, and leaned over, dropping Sammy to the floor.

"Fuck. What did he say?" he asked the Digimon, between pants.

"I couldn't hear him over you panting," the Dorumon replied in a quiet voice, weary of all the people.

"Oh great. Just freaking perfect," Ryan said.

There was a small flash of light coming from his pocket. Ryan slowly pulled out the offending device, a Digivice with a Cyan ring. The light faded, and was replaced by a grid, with a number of arrows all pointing in the same general direction. He leaned down and showed it to Sammy.

"What's this, Mr. Digimon?" he said, pointing at the screen.

"The hell should I know, it's your device," Sammy replied.

"Well, it kind of reminds me of that compass thing they tracked Dragon Balls with in, well, Dragon Ball," Ryan said.

"You're such a damn nerd," Sammy muttered.

"But that's why you love me," Ryan smirked, then pointed in the same direction as the arrows, "Well, what ever they mean, all the people around here are going towards them. Let's follow."

Before the Dorumon could protest, Ryan had picked him up and returned him to his spot on the human's back. With that, they were off, mingling with the crowd. Ryan noted with dismay that a lot of the others patrons were either parents or their young children. How stupid he had to look, walking around with what appeared to be a full sized Digimon plush and fake Digivice. The fact that Sammy was once again digging his hind claws into Ryan's back didn't help matters any.

Eventually, two of the arrows turned into points. If this thing meant the same thing it did in Dragon Ball, he was close to what ever they were. The points seemed to specify two other teenagers, a male and a female. Both seemed a little older then he was, which made Ryan feel slightly better about this whole thing. Both of them also seemed to have life sized Digimon plushes. One a pink flower bulb, and the other a... Thing, with a giant horn.

The Digivice flashed for a second, and the displayed a small picture of the horned thing. Apparently it was called Tsunomon. Next came the flower, Yokomon. Then the Dragon Ball screen came back up. The Digivice certainly felt these two were important somehow, and apparently their Digimon were also real enough for it to register them the same way it originally registered Sammy.

"Think we should talk to them?" the Digimon asked.

"I don't see why not, the Digivice is fixated on them," Ryan replied.

The teenager hurried to catch up with the two, the male in a red t-shirt, and the dark skinned girl wearing a cowboy hat, of all things. He reached out, and tried to tap the male on the shoulder. "Uh, not to be rude or anything, but, uh..."

"What my buddy here is trying to say," Sammy cut in, speaking very clearly as if to make sure the two humans knew it indeed was him talking, "Our little gadget here likes you two. Why's that?"

 

[Tailon]

"Know about him being the real thing? Nah," Jason replied, "Generally if there's anyone home he's a Tsunomon 'plush' on my bed. I let him get to Bearmon if there's no one around though."
Before the conversation could continue, a slightly younger boy approached them, he tried to say something, but the Dorumon latched onto his back cut in, "What my buddy here is trying to say, our little gadget here likes you two. Why's that?"

"Holy jeez another one," Jason said, looking at the Digimon, stunned. "There's a surprising number of Digidestined at this con, and it looks like you're one of them," Jason said, speaking directly to the boy and beginning to walk toward the next escalator, "look, we're heading to the big announcement, pretty much the whole con'll be there. C'mon, walk with us."

 

[Psycho Monkey]

(OOC: Since Greyson has been booted from the RP due to lack of attendance, I have been given the task to write his character out of the story. Witness my villainy! )

BIC:

"Hey wait up! I'm coming too!" called Alex chasing after Blake. The teen sighed. This stupid boy just couldn't take a hint.

"I'll take care of this boy!" Kuramon declared jumping out of Blake's arms. "Glare Eyes!" he shouted. A quick zap shot from the Fresh Digimon's eye knocking Alex's Digivice out of his hand.

"Kuramon! Take care of Pagumon! I have a plan!" shouted Blake deciding to take advantage of this opening. If Alex didn't have his Digivice, then Pagumon couldn't digivolve. At least that's what Blake was counting on. The teen threw himself to the ground snatching up the other Tamer's Digivice.

"How dare you! Give that back right now human!" Pagumon shouted threateningly. The In Training jumped towards Blake but Kuramon hopped between them.

"Your fight is with me Pagumon! Glare Eyes!" Kuramon shouted going on the attack.

"H-Hey! I said we didn't want to fight! Please stop this!" pleaded Alex.

"No way! Digimon are meant to battle!" Blake said with an anticipating grin.

"You really thing you can beat me newborn? Poison Bubbles!" Pagumon spat several purple bubbles at the Fresh Digimon who closed his eye wincing as he took the attack. "Heh. Not so tough are you?" mocked the higher leveled Digimon.

"Don't lose Kuramon!" ordered his Tamer holding out his own Digivice.

"Stop this! Our Digimon could get really hurt!" Alex persisted.

"They'll be fine. It's only a battle. My Digimon needs to get stronger and fighting is the only way." Blake responded coolly despite Alex's worried expression.

"Glare Eyes!" Kuramon yelled zapping Pagumon again. The In Training glared at Kuramon.

"If you keep this up, I will delete you!" he warned before blowing more bubbles at the young Nightmare Soldier. Suddenly, Blake's Digivice started glowing. The teen looked at it with puzzlement but then smirked. It most likely meant Kuramon had leveled up or something.

"Finish this battle now!" ordered the Tamer victoriously. Kuramon gave the strongest Glare Eyes yet. Pagumon screamed in agony as he was completely obliterated. Blake's eyes widened in horror at what had just happened. Stuff like this never happened in the games! The enemy Digimon would usually fall to the ground and fade away. Blake always assumed that was for in game reasons, not because the monster was actually destroyed. In earlier versions they even got back up and ran away for crying out loud!

The particles that had once made up Pagumon's body were draw to Kuramon and absorbed the the Fresh Digimon. Blake's Digivice started glowing again after all the particles were absorbed. Writen across the screen was the word 'DIGIVOLUTION'.

"Kuramon Digivolve to..." he called as his white skin peeled away leaving behind a wire frame. The frame distorted into a new shape as fresh blue skin was applied to Blake's partner. The newly Digivolved In-Training was slightly larger than his previous form and looked like a small blue five fingered hand with ribbon like ears, long white claws on each finger and a bright orange eye on the back of the hand. "Tsumemon!" the new creature announced.

"Congratulations on finally Digivolving Tsumemon." Blake said less enthusiastically as he thought he would be. He was still shellshocked from killing this other Tamer's partner. Which reminded him, he was still holding the other boy's Digivice which now had nothing but static on the screen.

"I believe this is yours." he said dropping the device to the ground. "No hard feelings right? Enjoy the rest of the convention." said Blake emotionlessly. It was an accident so there was no need to apologize. The teen also avoided looking at Alex fearing that doing so would give him regret for his actions andcause him to waver from his chosen path. This is the way the world worked. The strong survive and the weak do not. It was survival of the fittest. They just weren't fit. They were too soft to go on. Yeah that was it.

"Come on Tsumemon, we have an announcement to attend." the Tamer stated in his usual condescending tone. It was a good thing most people had already gone so the area the battle was in was pretty deserted.

"Right! I still need to get stronger! More opponents! More strength!" the In-Training proposed eagerly.

"That's right. I get you stronger and you give me power!" Blake agreed. That was there deal. That was how they would do things from this moment forward. For now Blake would ignore the moral implications of what he had done and focus solely on the path straight ahead.

 

[Power Metal Maiden~]

Irea groaned, staring up at the looming buildings before her. She had a pounding headache, and butterflies in her stomach. The latter embarrassed her, but she just dreaded being around lots of people. She just never had any peace around them. Slight movement from the tapir-like creature that she held close to her chest in her right arm caused her to avert her attention from the city distractions to Irea's digimon partner, Tapirmon. "My dear, would you please stop worrying yourself? I know you're going to end up having some fun here, your parents only wanted you to try and socialize." It said, hardly even moving its mouth when it spoke.

Irea sighed, straightening up the bottom of her blank tank top, then wrapping her left hand around her ankh necklace, as she frequently did when she felt awkward about something. "Yeah, I realize that, Tapirmon.. It's just that, well, I just hate being around people. I'd rather be working right now in the ruins with my parents, or at home with you. And they know that damn well."

"Yes, I understand. But we are here now, why don't you make the most of today and get into that convention? You can complain to me later all you want." Tapirmon held a smile in its eyes, and Irea couldn't help but smile a bit before she made sure her black hair wasn't a mess, and set off into the building where the convention was being held.

Irea was late of course, but she already knew this. In fact, she had made herself late on purpose, procrastinating as much as possible at the hotel. She had even let herself take an hour to slowly lace up her black combat boots. Tapirmon hadn't been able to stop chuckling at her.

Looking around at all of the Digimon fans, Irea felt even worse, but was determined to stick around for Tapirmon's sake. She wanted it to believe she was brave and without a care, and was going to pretend to be alright until they got back to the hotel. Irea held Tapirmon (who was pretending to be stuffed) in front of her chest now, so it could easily see everyone and everything in the convention as well. Suddenly, it spoke again. "Irea!" Tapirmon chimed with a quick whisper. "Didn't you hear that? Your digivice, it's doing something...and I feel...others."

"Yeah they're called people, Tapirmon." Irea blinked, then squinted her eyes as she pulled out her glowing digivice from the largest pocket of her cargo shorts. "Oh..others..Wait. There are others like me? With Digimon?"

"Well, I wasn't quite sure myself, but this clears any doubt, dear." Its eyes crazily darted about the crowd, which was now obviously moving to one spot. "I remember you reading in the pamphlet about an announcement. Judging by the way this crowd is shifting.. Well, I'd say it's just about to happen. Come on, Irea, why don't you just follow them? We're sure to find whomever the digivice is trying to lead us to!"

Irea couldn't deny the logic behind what Tapirmon was saying, so she nodded and set off. She followed slightly behind everyone, trying hard not to get too close to anyone. The last thing she needed was to have to apologize if someone bumped into her.

Once Irea arrived where the crowd had stopped, she again glanced down at her silver and white digivice. It was flashing wildly as it seemed to register several different digimon in the area, and marked multiple points. "What a mess.." Irea muttered under her breath, attempting to spot whomever the digivice was marking. Her eyes fell upon a trio of teens, all with what appeared to be Digimon plushies as well. She watched for a moment, then noticed that the Dorumon was speaking.

"Tapirmon..What should I do?" She asked her partner softly.

"Well, go speak with them, of course."

"I would honestly rather not..This is so damn awkward, they would probably think I'm weird. Though I have to say, that cowboy hat.." Irea said, referring to the female in the group.

"IREA!" Tapirmon growled. "Be nice. At least just get a bit closer."

"Fine...Though it might seem a bit creepy. But eh, whatever." Irea scooted up a bit, until she was about 5 feet away from the trio, and attempted to listen to their conversation between the loud chatter of the excited crowd.

 

[Rex]

"Woah, wait," Ryan said, "Digidestined?"

He looked from the boy to the still silent girl, and then at Sammy, who did his best to shrug.

"You mind clearing that up a bit, before I go anywhere with the two of you?"

Before either of them could say anything else, the Dragon Ball Compass feature of the Digivice lit up again. It showed another dot, right behind them. Ryan turned around, and noticed a girl standing about five feet from him. She looked older then him, and had dark skin and black hair. In her arms was a genie anteater or mini-elephant, with a mask on its face. The screen lit up again, and identified the creature as a Bakumon.

"Now see here, missy, we don't like getting sneaked up on," Sammy growled, "You got somethin' ta say?"

"Sam, can it," Ryan frowned. He looked at the girl, then back at the two he'd been talking to. He held up the Digivice for the new girl to see. "This thing means that you can't exactly sneak up on me. I'm just as confused as you might be as to how this whole thing works, but these two..." He took a moment to pause, nodding his head back to indicate the boy and girl he'd been talking to, "Seem to know something, now if only one of them would say it in plain English."

 

[Blazi]

OoC: *Bursts through six feet of dirt and a tombstone*

As Tyson talked to Diane, a voice came out of the loudspeakers, telling everyone to go to an exhibition hall for the 'big announcement' Tyson registered this, and nodded inwardly. "That's an idea," Diane said, grabbing tyson and dragging him towards the stairs, "Except, of course, we should be seeing more of them if we're all gathered in the same place, right?" The was a tone in Diane's voice that Tyson couldn't place, but still gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach, as if he had said the wrong thing.

Gummymon noticed Tyson shrink a little bit, and recognised the fact that Tyson was feeling uneasy. He leaned in close and whispered, "Hey, don't worry. If you said anything wrong, I'm sure she doesn't mind. Besides, we'll be meeting more people like her and Noah soon, so cheer up!" This seemed to do the trick, so Gummymon sat still and smiled brightly.

Tyson and Diane finally reached the Exhibition roomed, which had quite a few people in it already. Tyson looked at Diane and said, "So, where should we look first?" Even as he said it he knew the answer, and so he took out his digivice, and looked at the screen, waiting for the arrow to appear.

OoC: It's so bluuuuuuh, but oh well, here it is. Sorry about lateness!

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Digidestined...

Yokomon felt herself stiffen involuntarily. Jason and Tsunomon and the mystery boy and his Kuramon were one thing (err, four things), but the sudden appearance of more digimon was making her suspicious. She eyed the newcomers with apprehension not caring if she was rude. For all they know these new kids could be trouble. The Dorumon was especially irksome.

Try telling that to Renata, thought Yokomon darkly. It looked as though she might literally explode with excitement.

"OMG!" Renata squealed. She was oblivious to the the Dorumon's rudeness. Once again, she grabbed the two humans, a boy and a girl, and their Digimon into a group hug which effectively squashed Yokomon among them. Thankfully the hug was short or else she would've been suffocated. "Normally I'd totally be all for a better introduction, but we gotta go get a good view in the exhibition hall!"

With that, Renata sprinted off toward the exhibition hall with the occasional backward glance to see if the group was following her.

"Aren't you the least bit concerned with the fact that these digimon keep showing up?" asked Yokomon in a voice as loud as she dared.

"No, not really," Renata answered honestly. "Don't tell me you're suspicious. You're worst than Dad! Speaking of, I should send him a text message letting him know I'm all right..."

"You don't exactly inspire confidence," Yokomon said. "And besides, don't forget that you're--

"All Dad has," Renata finished. "Yes, I know, but you both should learn to relax. You'll worry yourselves into an early grave..."

Renata trailed off and her smiled faded. She regretted those words as soon as she said them. She would be devastated if something did happen to her father. She'd virtually have no one left. Well, no one human anyway. She squeezed Yokomon tighter.

"We're almost there," Renata said as she forced a smile. She didn't want to worry Yokomon with her sudden change in mood.

Of course she didn't fool the digimon, but Yokomon decided to humor her anyway. Renata tried to remain carefree and cheerful, but Yokomon knew how deeply she (Renata) feared being left all alone. Yet and still it was difficult to watch her mood falter like that. "I hope so...this place is too big!"

The exhibition hall itself was pretty big as well. Renata glanced at the posters advertising the convention and the center itself. The stage was the most impressive thing however; it took up a third of the entire room. Renata had a feeling that whatever they were about to announce was going to be huge. Since the place was already pretty crowded, she decided to wait by the door for the rest of the group to show up.

 

[Satoren]

“It really is a Dracomon,” Rui remarked as a small, aqua, dragon-like creature poked its head out of the man’s bag. He almost wanted to pet the little digimon, but seeing it glare at him with crimson eyes was reason enough for him to discard that thought. The boy’s gaze wandered over to the man’s hand, now grasping a device of a similar shape to the one he was holding, only jade in color.

“So I take it you’re this little one’s tamer then?” Not waiting for an answer, Rui then recalled that he had not yet introduced himself. “Ah, my apologies; my name is Rui by the way. So as I was saying, if you are indeed Dracomon’s tamer, I’m curious to know how it is exactly you got him? Did you perhaps receive him as a digiegg? What about that device in your hand; did it appear to you before you met your partner?” As Rui bombarded the two strangers with questions, he suddenly remembered that his own Digimon was left to fend for himself several booths away. Unable to neither speak nor understand English, he ascertained that it would quickly become a problem. As he realized this, he had also noticed that he was leaning rather closely towards his two companions as he interrogated them. Blushing slightly, he hastily stepped backward and turned his head to hide the redness of his cheeks.

“I-I apologize, I was just rather excited about seeing someone else with a Digimon,” Rui said, his face still turned away. “I mean, I always sort of figured I couldn’t be the only one who had a Digimon. There were rumours about it all over the internet. But that’s what they were as far as I knew: rumours.” At that moment, an image of Gaomon with large, hopeful eyes appeared in his head. “A-anyway, we should probably continue this conversation later,” he quickly told the man. “Let’s head back. My own digimon is back there with that young boy you were with. Did you by any chance notice that he was a real digimon, and not a cosplayer?” Still without waiting for an answer, Rui quickly turned on his heel and walked out of the booth.

Just then, a loud voice emanated from somewhere in the hall. It was only somewhat audible amidst the noise, but by the sound of it, it was definitely coming from the PA system.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!"


ooc: ohgods I'm so sorry this took so long, Brendan and Tai D': I should also apologize to Brendan for the way Rui acts xD It's not only me that was being hasty, but I suppose that's also part of Rui's character.

 

[Chadwyck]

Aiko was laughing at Lunamon and Soo-Min's recollection of their first meeting. It had happened very much the same way with Aiko and BlackGatomon - the girl never would have imagined a real life Digimon being dumped into her life like that. She glanced over at BlackGatomon, who she was surprised to see was chuckling slightly before composing herself again.

Aiko had been so caught up in her thoughts that she had missed Lunamon's question entirely, but some part of her subconscious had caught it and played it back to her after a second or two of her staring stupidly at the Digimon.

"E-ehehe," Aiko scratched her head, not really knowing how to answer that question. "I suppose it is a bit strange, do you suppose that we are the only ones?" For a second, Aiko's ego inflated exponentially, imagining herself as some great chosen one, "is that likely?" Then a thought struck her, and her sense of subtlety entirely vanished as she stood abruptly, holding her D-Arc above her head. "If there are others we can find th--" BlackGatomon smacked her hard in the side, causing Aiko to crumble back into her seat.

"Ow-ow-ow! What the heck?" She whispered, keeping her voice down, BlackGatomon shrugged.

"You need to stay quiet about this stuff," the Digimon said with a wicked grin.

"We can find them with this." Aiko finished her sentence, ignoring the BlackGatomon entirely, "it worked once right? We can't be the only people. What if there are others? You think they'll be friendly? What if they wanna fight?" She gasped. "I don't wanna fight any other people with Digimon, that'd be so mean!" She kept spewing her sentences out so fast that she hadn't given the others a chance to say anything at all. BlackGatomon prepared to smack her human partner again, but an announcement over the loudspeaker interrupted their conversation.

Suddenly, Bappu-san came back to her mind. She was still supposed to meet him, and this announcement was sure to draw a crowd; surely they could just meet up at this ceremony thing and she wouldn't have to ditch Soo-Min. "Come on! We should head to whatever that thing said!" She said, grabbing Soo-Min by the hand and dragging her away from the table. "There may be some others there too," she whispered, winking at her companion conspiratorially.

OoC: Oh gods, this took forever to post. My apologies to Jen for the wait and the sub par post. Though, I'm sorta getting this character back, so that's some good news.

 

[Brendan Savem]

“So I take it you’re this little one’s tamer then?” the younger teenager asked,

“Tamer?” Rufus repeated, “What do you mea-”

“Ah, my apologies; my name is Rui by the way.” He continued, disregarding Rufus’s question entirely. “So as I was saying, if you are indeed Dracomon’s tamer, I’m curious to know how it is exactly you got him? Did you perhaps receive him as a digiegg? What about that device in your hand; did it appear to you before you met your partner?” The boy leaned closer and closer, a simple curiosity starting to look more like a stalker. Suddenly, he pulled backwards sharply and averted his face, as if he realized what he was doing.
“I-I apologize, I was just rather excited about seeing someone else with a Digimon. I mean, I always sort of figured I couldn’t be the only one who had a Digimon. There were rumors about it all over the Internet. But that’s what they were as far as I knew: rumors… A-anyway, we should probably continue this conversation later. Let’s head back. My own digimon is back there with that young boy you were with. Did you by any chance notice that he was a real digimon, and not a cosplayer?” he then quickly pushed his way and returned to where he and Rufus left partner and brother respectively.

“Um… did you get anything from that?” Dracomon asked,

“All I got was that his name was Rui, he and I both have digimon, and I left Gabriel with his Gaomon.” Rufus dashed after Rui, realizing himself that he abandoned Gabriel just as Rui abandoned Gaomon.

“Hold on, was that Japanese?” Gabriel asked, immediately recognizing the language as the dog digimon finished speaking. Mustering his limited vocabulary, Gabriel tried to communicate, “[Japanese, yes? Your… brother do this for you?]”

(The above sentence is based on my own failings in the Spanish Language)

 

[Satoren]

Gaomon perked his ears at the child attempting to converse with him. His Japanese was a bit strange, but he was very happy to find that he was able to speak it. Ever since they arrived in the country, he couldn’t understand a thing anyone said and it bothered him greatly. The only two people he could talk to were Rui and his mother, who were also the only ones who knew he was a digimon.

[You can understand me? Awesome!] He exclaimed. As he was about to ask the boy more about what was going on, Rui and the man that accompanied him returned.

[You alright, Gaomon?] Rui asked. The blue digimon nodded, wagging his tail with glee.

[Rui! This boy, I can understand what he’s saying! He talks like you and me,] he said excitedly. Rui turned his attention to the boy, the man with a Dracomon in his bag joining them.

[I see. Thanks for keeping my friend company,] he told him.

“Anyway, now that we’re all together I suppose I should introduce you to my partner.” Rui then gestured towards Gaomon, who was looking back and for the between the two strangers, and at the taller one’s backpack.

“This is...” At that point, Rui recalled his first meeting with the man moments ago. He was clearly alarmed at something Rui had said; enough to tell his younger companion that they were ‘old friends,’ despite that clearly not being the case. Could it be that the boy did not know that his older accomplice was carrying around a real, live digimon? Hm, I never really thought of that, Rui thought to himself. If it would alarm him, and for that matter, everyone else here, perhaps it’s best we maintain this ruse.

“So, as I was saying; this little one is my…little brother,” Rui said flatly. Gaomon looked at him with puzzled eyes. “I’m afraid he doesn’t speak nor understand English. He..uh… grew up speaking Japanese so that’s all he knows,“ he said, emphasizing the phrase ‘grew up.’ Rui then winked at the man, hoping he would notice that he was playing along.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Rufus turned the corner to see Rui with Gaomon and Gabriel, as if nothing happened. Rui and Gaomon started to talk in a different language. Gabriel was beaming with delight, though Rufus didn’t quite know why.

“Anyway, now that we’re all together I suppose I should introduce you to my partner.” Rui said, gesturing towards Gaomon. The digimon was looking at Rufus intently, or more, at Dracomon. The dragon digimon stared back. No doubt, he had a lot to say the moment Gabriel went out of earshot.
“This is...” Rufus’s heart sank; realizing what direction this was about to go down. Gabriel would bombard him with questions that would pull the secret of Dracomon for weeks if he didn’t succeed at the convention. Fortunately for Rufus though, Rui saw the flash of panic in his eyes.

“So, as I was saying; this little one is my…little brother,” Rui said flatly. Rufus let out a sigh of relief. “I’m afraid he doesn’t speak nor understand English. He grew up speaking Japanese so that’s all he knows,“ Rui looked up at Rufus and gave him a short wink. Rufus continued to add to the story,

“Ah yeah. Gabriel, did I mention Rui before? He’s a friend of Cody, he visited in school once a year ago.” Rufus explained. If there was one thing that Rufus could do, it was how to cook up a good lie. That was thanks to Gabriel’s interrogative ways.

“Rui? And Rufus? You guys have similar names!” Gabriel pointed out.

“Let’s not go there…”

"Alright ladies and gentlemen!” A voice echoed throughout the mall, only barely climbing over the voices of its occupants. “It's finally come time for the big announcement! Everyone make your way to Exhibition Hall 3B so we can get started!"

“Rufus can we go with Rui and his brother? Please?” Gabriel asked, Rufus looked up at Rui for confirmation, he already knew the answer to that though.

“Of course.” Rufus decided, “Now you have someone to test your Japanese.”

“Yes!” Gabriel cheered, then turned back to Gaomon. “[So, how is your name? Or you choose Gaomon?]” Rufus instead walked over to Rui.

“I hope you won’t mind,” Rufus whispered, “but you probably won’t be able to get a word to Gaomon now.”

 

[Shiny Motley]

Diane and Tyson somehow made it to the announcement amidst the crowd, and managed to not lose each other. The boy had already taken out his Digivice in hopes of finding others like the. Shrugging, Diane replied, "Sure, better now than later I guess," and fished around in her purse to find her own Digivice. When she found it and took it out, she saw how much the two objects resembled each other; the only difference was the color of their buttons and the ring around their screens.

Kokomon leaned over the girl's shoulder and watched as the Digivice's screen blinked into life. Several arrows popped up on the screen; the sheer number she saw made the girl's eyes widen in surprise. "I-I didn't think there would be so many of us here," Kokomon whispered in awe.

"Shouldn't be too hard for us to find them then," Diane said happily. Still clutching onto Tyson's hand, she dragged him towards the direction one of the arrows were pointing and spied an older boy with a backpack slung over his shoulder. She saw the bag wriggle a few times, and guessed that his Digimon was probably stowed away in the bag. Poor thing.

As she approached him, she noticed, a little further off, a group of teenagers milling about, also with what looked like Digimon stuffed animals in their arms. Well, she would've just thought they were such if he Digivice wasn't pointing at them like it was pointing at the spikey-haired boy she was approaching. Oh gosh, just how many Tamers are in this convention? she thought with a sigh.

((OOC: Yes Sho, I am approaching your character. Hope you don't mind, Blazi, but poor Sho is lonely now that Belle is gone :<))

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

"You know, perhaps this wasn't the brightest of our ideas, m'dear."
"You can say that again. I've expected more people than we usually run into but this... is like being caught in a Jagamon stampede, only without the mashed potato aftertaste."
"... Mashed potato aftertaste?"
"That taste in your mouth after you realize you've been mashed by a herd of sentient, walking potatoes."

It was not, on the whole, that far from the truth. The swarms of people in this convention reminded Reid Arden of a thick ocean of gelatinous, primordial substance - chaotically swirling with its own slow moving currents, eddies and vortices as people came and went, gathering around merchandise stalls and food courts, slowly flowing from one to another. He slowly followed the currents, navigating the convention grounds by following whatever paths became clear for what precious brief moments before they were closed up again by another group of fans.

It occurred to him, briefly, that if the plural of "man" was "men", the plural of "fan" should be "fen" - which, not so coincidentally, could also be taken to mean "swamp". It was pretty much the most apt description for this convention he could think of.

Admittedly, the mass of humans of all shapes, sizes and outfits did work in their favor in some way: few questions were asked about his partner. His father often quoted the adage about how to hide a tree, one should use a forest - and the pair discovered it also worked as far as hiding a digimon by using swarms of cosplayers. Of course, on occasion this forced them to have to talk to a random or two that wondered about the Floramon's realistic costume ("... So what's this suit made of?" "Oh, all sorts of bits. I definitely suggest using more than eight of them, though. Nothing personal, but no self-respecting lady will be seen wearing something that looked like it stepped out of a game where everything is made of blocks. Besides, it makes your combat maneuverability suck.") - but these incidents were few and far between. Thankfully.

Nevertheless - much as they would have preferred to be anywhere but in this building at the moment - the pair knew that this was one event they had to attend... Because, if the rumors were true, this great con was the beginning of a greater, shall we say... con-spiracy.

And judging by the way his digivice was acting up ever since they got to the building, something was definitely going on. Floramon and he were not alone - there were other Digimon somewhere in this crowd, and there was something else, just on the edge of the Floramon's consciousness, that kept nagging her - beyond her general aversion to large cities. Something was going to happen and she could feel it. It worried him - and though he wouldn't admit it to her, she knew it worried him. When you spend two years in close proximity to someone, you get to know them well.

It wasn't long, though, before the PA system blared something that Reid's mind parsed as "Attention Duelists! DG Corp's hair has an announcement to make!". A ripple seemed to go through the crowd for a moment... and suddenly, the currents of motion converged in one direction - presumably towards Exhibition Hall 3B, where the announcement would be made. This was it - the big show-stopper of this event - and probably the answer they flew all the way to New York to find.

"And so it begins.... But how will it end?" the Floramon murmured darkly.
"... In fire." her partner retorted - and the two shot each other a private little smile. With so many flammable costumes around the place, it wouldn't be too surprising.

Reid and Floramon followed the wave of motion. The time has come.

 

[Tailon]

Jason was fidgeting slightly as he entered the tremendous room, partly covered by a huge stage, but he couldn't quite place why. Not a moment later his digivice brought an answer, going absolutely bonkers as at least eight compasses appeared, overlapping each other or pointing in various directions. Awestruck, Jason immediately began moving through the crowd at the largest overlaps.

On stage, a single representative had stepped out from behind the red curtain, and huge spotlight on him. A hush fell over the audience as he began to speak, "It has been ten years since we here at DG Corp introduced the first incarnation of what would become a sprawling franchise," the man held up an old Digimon virtual pet as he spoke, eliciting some mild murmurs from the crowd about its rarity, "since then, we have produced works for television, card games, toys, video games..."

The man continued to ramble on about the myriad of Digimon products, including those available exclusively at the convention, as Jason neared the largest group besides his own, two smaller children carrying Gummymon and Kokomon, and a boy closer to his age, who had a Candlemon with him, Jason kept quiet however, as the man onstage began the meat of his announcement.

"...Today, however, is the dawning of a new era, for DG Corp, and for the world at large. Today we bring you this!" the man shouted, turning as the curtains were flung open to reveal and enormous machine, the end facing the crowd containing an enormous porthole with a conveyor attached to the floor in front. The announcer stepped up to the machine without a word, taking a Digivice based on the latest TV series, and plugged it into a slot on the machine, then flipped a large switch. The enormous thing hummed to life, and the porthole exploded into a swriling vortex of color. The conveyor began to move, and after a moment, a large humanoid that appeared to be made of flame itself stood on it, its eyes blank as it stepped onto a small platform. It was a Meramon. "Today! We at DG Corp bring you the ultimate in the Digimon line! Real, live Digimon!"

An enormous cheer broke out through the crowd as the announcer and Meramon took a bow, but Jason merely stood where he was, rooted to the spot and utterly dumbfounded. It couldn't be possible, could it? To summon a Digimon, to tame it, one had to be destined, didn't they?

 

[Satoren]

“Ah yeah. Gabriel, did I mention Rui before? He’s a friend of Cody, he visited in school once a year ago.” Rufus explained. If there was one thing that Rufus could do, it was how to cook up a good lie. That was thanks to Gabriel’s interrogative ways.


“Rui? And Rufus? You guys have similar names!” Gabriel pointed out.

Rufus and Gabriel, Rui thought to himself. Good, now I don’t have to somehow ask him about their names. He then turned to his Digimon.

[Gaomon, these are Rufus,] Rui translated while pointing at the tall man. [… and Gabriel. Rufus is an old friend of mine.] he said with a notable emphasis on the latter part.

[Really? You’ve never mentioned him to me,] Gaomon responded thoughtfully. Rui hung his head in disappointment. Gaomon was way too naïve for his own good. If it weren’t for his fists, he probably wouldn’t survive day to day life.

[Whatever; Anyway, they’re friends. That includes the little one hiding in his bag, too,] Rui whispered to the blue digimon. Gaomon nodded at this. [Just play nice, alright? And uh, by the way, Gabriel thinks you’re my little brother,] he quickly added.

[Eh?]

“Rufus can we go with Rui and his brother? Please?” Gabriel asked, Rufus looked up at Rui for confirmation, he already knew the answer to that though.


“Of course.” Rufus decided, “Now you have someone to test your Japanese.”


“Yes!” Gabriel cheered, then turned back to Gaomon. “[So, how is your name? Or you choose Gaomon?]”

[Ehhhh?] Gaomon repeated, this time towards Gabriel’s query. [My…name?] Gaomon paused and tried to piece together the boy’s rather fragmented speech.

[My name….Oh! You mean my human name? Of course I have one!] Gaomon then chuckled weakly. [Actually my real name is…uh…] He paused again, trying to think of a name he could use. Gaomon had always been referred to by his one name, and never really thought about being referred to as anything else. It didn’t help that he was also fairly slow, mentally speaking. [My name is…]

[Hachiko,] said Rui.

[Hachiko,] blurted Gaomon. [Wait a second!] he then yelled, having realized that he’d been tricked. Hachiko, from what he learned, was a name one would normally give to a dog. Even though he bore a strong resemblance to a canine, the digimon never much cared for the comparison. The constant ridicule and offering of treats from Rui certainly did not help. [No; that’s not my name,] he said defiantly.

[But sometimes we just call him ‘Hachi’ for short,] Rui added, completely ignoring his partner’s rant. This only caused Gaomon to fuss even more, much to his delight. As he chuckled at his digimon’s expense, Rufus approached him and gave him a tap on his shoulder.

“I hope you won’t mind,” Rufus whispered, “but you probably won’t be able to get a word to Gaomon now.”

“Well, not really,” Rui responded. He was sort of lying. He was very curious to see how Gaomon and Gabriel would get along. “Besides, this gives us a chance to talk, now that your brother’s distracted. Although we are a bit short on time with the conference now starting and all,” he reminded him. “Guess we’ll just have to walk while we talk.”


OOC: Seems we're running late. If Brendan doesn't mind, I can work on an additional post that deals with Tailon's latest entry (the conference proper) Or, we can just continue at our own pace and be late for the conference.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: I've checked out these concepts with Tailon before posting them - so I'd assume it's okay to do so.

"...Today, however, is the dawning of a new era, for DG Corp, and for the world at large. Today we bring you this!"

That was it. It did not take more than a quick look at the machine for Reid to hazard a guess what it was - he's watched enough sci-fi to know where this was going. As the portal burst into swirls of color, the look he recieved from Floramon indicated that this was what she was afraid of. This was no idle light show - this was an actual contained digital gate... And from their experience, digital gates rarely opened with no reason.

He noticed Floramon tensing, perhaps preparing for a coming confrontation. He nodded at her, then shifted his gaze to his digivice, fiddling with its controls for a moment to hide the location indicators of the other digivices in the area, focusing its scanners on the vortex.

Something was off. Bio-emergences as he knew them had a rather distinctive blue shift pattern as the emerging Digimon rushed through a portal, its data gradually encoding into a physical body, a process which seemed to cause the appearance of luminous fog in the area. This gate was different - there was no fog, and the readings on his digivice... They made no sense. They indicated red shift - something was being sent IN, not out.

At least, for the first few moments. Soon, the gate's polarity reversed and something was drawn out as the machine's conveyor belt began moving. There was no luminous fog (was it drawn in by the machine containing the gateway?) - but something was pulled out from the other side, almost in spite of itself. He recognized the creature drawn from the gate as a Meramon. Champion level.

"Today! We at DG Corp bring you the ultimate in the Digimon line! Real, live Digimon!"

The Meramon took a bow as the audience cheered, but Reid could tell that something was off there too - the Digimon's movement was somewhat choppy and though it was not obvious to most observers, he could certainly notice that the Digimon's bow was instigated by something the representative did with the digivice he held. Reid fiddled with the controls of his Digivice again - there were all the other signals from before, but none from the device the representative used. This was no true digivice - or at least, not one his could detect. He thought it was little more than a toy - a cheap piece of merchandise - at first, but if this thing could command a Digimon...

"How do you think this is possible?" he shot a nervous glare to Floramon.
"Look at its eyes, Reid..." she murmured in return, giving him a meaningful look "The lights are on, but nobody's home."

He turned his eyes to the Meramon again - sure enough, its eyes were blank. Inert. It was as if the creature was a walking corpse.

"You don't suppose..." he said, a small smirk coming to his face "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mister Digicore has long since departed, m'dear?"

"No, there IS a digicore in there... it just... feels different. Like it's wearing the shell program rather than integrated into it."

"And apparently it feels like dressing up as a fireman." Reid muttered "See, I told you it'll end in fire."

Soon the representative began prattling on what appeared to be a sales rep of what was apparently DG Corp's newest piece of merchandise and the details of the early release promotions. His description seemed to make it all feel like some kind of augmented reality game than like the sort of partnership he had with Floramon - and the more he heard, the more it seemed... artificial. Artificial Digicores, artificial digivices, artificial tamers... all for, naturally, real cash. Corporate America Marches On.

He could think of many ways in which this could end badly, even with the safety features that the representative mentioned. But then, maybe he did watch too much sci-fi. Best not to concern himself with these imitations until something DOES go wrong. In the meantime, perhaps it was time that Floramon and he looked into the other digivice signals...

 

[Brendan Savem]

"[Haichiko? Good name.]" Gabriel smiled, oblivious to the cruel joke Rui played on Gaomon.
"Let's get going, can't wait!" he said, if it wasn't for the crowds, he would have just grabbed everybody and dragged them over. Gabriel fell in with Gaomon, and attempted to communicate further with 'Haichi'. Although it was rather slow pace due to the language barrier. Rufus walked alongside Rui, opposite of his brother. Keeping his voice toned down so that Gabriel wouldn't pick up, although the crowds of people they passed by made sure that wouldn't happen.

"So yeah, just one person left out of the loop now." Rufus pointed to Dracomon in his backpack. "This is Dracomon, I met him when he jumped out of my computer about seven months ago."

"Konnichiwa" Dracomon greeted. "Name's Dracomon: pure dragon-type Digital Monster."

"So yeah," Rufus pointed to the digivice in his hand. "This appeared just before Dracomon did, do you know what it does? And back then, did you say there were more people with real digimon?" he asked, as they drew closer to the double doors that led into Exhibition Hall 3B.

(don't lock us out for being late D

 

[Power Metal Maiden~]

Irea was quite angry with herself and with Tapirmon's suggestion as soon as one of the Digimon in the group she was watching caught her. “"Now see here, missy, we don't like getting sneaked up on. You got somethin' ta say?"

Irea glared down at Tapirmon, and he only nodded to her, frustrating the girl further. Then the Digimon's tamer spoke. "Sam, can it. This thing means that you can't exactly sneak up on me. I'm just as confused as you might be as to how this whole thing works, but these two...” She watched him curiously as he paused before finishing. “Seem to know something, now if only one of them would say it in plain English."

“Well actually, sneaking up on people isn't exactly my thing. In fact, I would rather not be here. I'm only stuck conversing with you because of this derp.” Irea replied, lightly flicking Tapirmon's ear. He only chuckled in response.

Suddenly noticing that the crowd had become silent and that a loud voice was now speaking, Irea looked up towards the stage. She watched intently as the man on stage revealed a strange machine. "...Today, however, is the dawning of a new era, for DG Corp, and for the world at large. Today we bring you this!"

“What, Digimon coffee mugs?” The girl muttered lightly before listening further, and watching as the man stuck a Digivice into the machine, and what appeared to be a Meramon emerged from the weird portal. "Today! We at DG Corp bring you the ultimate in the Digimon line! Real, live Digimon!"

“Well I already have one, and he's being a pain.” This produced a look of slight annoyance from Tapirmon. Irea grinned slightly. “But really, nice special effects.”

"Shh." Tapirmon nodded towards the crowd. Irea blocked out the sound of the voice of the man on stage, and heard that someone a bit behind her was talking. She glanced behind her, thinking something along the lines of 'quiet in the peanut gallery', but kept her mouth shut as she noticed the source of the hushed voices were another tamer and his Floramon.

"That one must have just arrived, I didn't see him on the 'vice earlier.." Irea said softly.

Tapirmon nodded. "You are correct, but listen, Irea... That Digimon is not a special effect. It is real. There is something very wrong going on."

 

[Rex]

Before the girl could respond, the one in the cowboy hat grabbed Ryan and pulled him into a hug, squishing the pair's Digimon between them. After that, she suddenly ran off. He listened to the new girl, before the announcement started, cutting off both her and the grumbling coming from the Dorumon holding onto his back. Turning around, he noted to his dismay that the other boy had gone as well, leaving Ryan alone with the would be spy.

Ryan didn't really listen to the announcer, too busy trying to figure out which of the Dragon Balls on his compass was the boy. However, the cheering of the crowd, and Sammy hissing in his ear, brought Ryan around. A humanoid fireball was on the stage.

"The hell is that thing?" Ryan asked. His Digivice quickly answered him, calling the thing a Meramon, before switching back to Dragon Ball mode.

"I don't care what that toy of yours says," Sammy growled, "That thing ain't natural."

"It's real enough for the Digivice to register it, and it's only done that to real Digimon," Ryan replied.

"Oh, it's real alright," Sammy nodded, "But it's fake, that ain't a natural Digimon. It doesn't smell right, and it's eyes are vacant. Trust me, I've been around long enough to tell."

"You're the expert," Ryan shrugged. Unfortunately, the sudden movement caused the Dorumon to dig his claws even deeper into the human's back. The human let out a pained grunt, before dropping the Digimon to the ground. Thankfully, it seemed no one was paying attention to the purple fuzzy dinosaur to see it get up on its own and glare at the offending teenager. Ryan quickly bent down and picked him up again, this time holding Sammy in front of him.

"I wonder what they did to get that thing, then..." Ryan muttered.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Blake stood in the crowd listening to the DG Corp representative go through his speech of Digimon with vague interest. He already knew most of what the franchise had done and accomplished in the past, it was this new development, this big reveal that mattered.

"This better not have been a waste of time." muttered Blake pushing up on his sunglasses.

"Waste of time? I digivolved today! I call that an accomplishment." Tsumemon said proudly. The teen smirked and nodded. That was certainly a good thing. Without coming to this convention, the two probably wouldn't have encountered other Digimon so readily.

"...Today, however, is the dawning of a new era, for DG Corp, and for the world at large." Blake looked up at the stage. It was about time they got to the main event. "Today we bring you this!" the man announced. The curtains that lined the stage opened revealing some sort of machine that looked like it came straight from some science fiction novel. The announcer put what looked like a Digivice into the machine and withing a few moments a human shaped Digimon covered in fire emerged ."Today! We at DG Corp bring you the ultimate in the Digimon line! Real, live Digimon!"

Blake took off his sunglasses to make sure he wasn't imagining things. Sure enough there was a Meramon standing on stage bowing for the audience. The representative looked pretty pleased with himself too.

"Well this is interesting." said Blake. He was both impressed that they actually summoned Digimon and slightly annoyed that having Tsumemon was no longer a novelty. This meant he had to make his partner even stronger if he was to stay on top. Which reminded him...

"I wonder how many other Tamers there are around here." Blake mused pulling out his Digivice. His eyes got wide as almost a dozen blips appeared on his radar.

"Look at all of those opponents. Shall we get started?" asked Tsumemon.

"Not in this crowd. There are too many people and Digimon around to start attacking indiscriminately. We'll make our move after the convention." advised the Tamer putting away his Digivice.

 

[Satoren]

"So yeah, just one person left out of the loop now." Rufus pointed to Dracomon in his backpack. "This is Dracomon, I met him when he jumped out of my computer about seven months ago."

<Hi,> Dracomon greeted. "Name's Dracomon: pure dragon-type Digital Monster." Having been formally introduced, Rui’s immediate action was to extend his hand towards the small Digimon and pet his forehead.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” he said with a smile.

"So yeah," Rufus pointed to the digivice in his hand. "This appeared just before Dracomon did, do you know what it does? And back then, did you say there were more people with real digimon?" he asked, as they drew closer to the double doors that led into Exhibition Hall 3B.

“Ah, yes; your digivice.” Rui then produced his own model and held it next to Rufus’. “I also got this when I first met Gaomon. I asked him what he knew of it, if it was something that came with all Digimon, but he doesn’t know any more about it than I do,” he explained.

“Well, I may not know the origin of where my digivice or Digimon came from, but I was able to figure out what it could do. Firstly, if you press the button below the screen here,” he then did so on his digivice, prompting a circular hologram to appear in front of the screen. “You can obtain information concerning a nearby digimon.” The hologram then showed a picture of Dracomon, with several details written in Japanese lined up next to it.

“And then, there’s this other significant function as well,” he said. Rui then reached for the leather pouch he wore on his hip. Opening it, he took out a thin deck of cards and then shuffled through them, looking for something. Pulling one from his hand, he then returned the rest. He placed the card face up next to his digivice. It appeared to be a Digimon Trading Card, much like the ones being displayed in the stalls earlier. Unlike most of them however, Rui’s card was in Japanese.

“See this small slot on the left side here? You can swipe Trading Cards through here; once you do, the effects of the Trading Card are transferred over to your Digimon partner,” Rui explained. “It’s kind of hard to explain just how it works. I’ve only used a couple of cards thus far, too. Actually, I wonder if cards in a different language will work.”
As the two continued talking, they could suddenly hear applause erupting from the Exhibition hall. Noticing that they were now in front of the hall’s entrance, Rui decided to cut his lecture short and opened the doors, the cheering from behind it growing louder.

“What could be so exciting, I wo-“ but before he could say anymore, he saw what the crowd was cheering for. His eyes widened and his jaw hung from his mouth, unable to finish his sentence. At the end of the hall, on-stage, stood a man with what appeared to be a taller, red creature; its body completely engulfed in flames. Behind them, a large device hummed noisily, producing from its door-like portal a mass of swirling colors.

Instinctively, Rui raised his digivice towards the stage. The hologram that appeared on the screen revealed the same fiery creature: Meramon.

“Meramon," Rui whispered as he looked down at the screen. "Then this confirms it; that digimon over there is real," he exclaimed towards Rufus. <What's going on? Why's a Digimon on stage inf ront of all these people?>