Private/Closed Something Something Digimon RP

[Picnicker Virgil]

Wyatt's mind was flickering from one thing to another as they ran; first he'd feel bad about lying to his new friends, especially Herbert, considering he was the only person who might understand what he was going through right now. And then, he'd remember the reason they were running in the first place and would feel his entire body clamping up at the thought of what Fangmon might be planning for them. As he imagined horrible scenarios where they were caught by Fangmon, he found himself more worried about what might happen to Ginghamon than to himself. Even though he'd only known the Digimon a few hours, he couldn't stand the idea of being trapped in the Digital World without him; as far as friends went, in this world Ginghamon was his closest one.

The group stopped to rest, which seemed like a good idea as everyone was worn out from running. Wyatt figured they must have lost Fangmon by now, and he relaxed a little. Ginghamon still looked tense, but it seemed to Wyatt that he might be like this more often than not.

“So where exactly is this hiding place of yours Wyatt?" Herbert asked. "Is it nearby? And is there any food?”

Ginghamon shot Wyatt an expectant look, as if he was very curious to hear what Wyatt had to say. Wyatt opened his mouth to speak but was saved the trouble of answering when Herbert seemed distracted by something.

“Wyatt? Do ya hear that?”

Wyatt didn't, in fact, hear anything. Aside from his own labored breaths, the woods were calm and peaceful. He could have taken a comfortable nap here, and after all that running he wished he could. Although he didn't much like the idea of being carried out of the woods and dropped on the ground again.

"It's too quiet now." Herbert stated.

Wyatt shrugged, he enjoyed the lack of noise, and especially the absence of those awful howls. Meanwhile Ginghamon wasn't able to enjoy the quiet at all. He listened with a scowl on his face as Otamamon made casual conversation by insulting first his species, and then Wyatt's. He didn't allow the words to get to him though. He was intent on staying alert in case Fangmon was still on their trail, and he couldn't afford to be distracted. He didn't want to imagine what would happen if he wasn't on guard when the Digimon approached. But Ginghamon didn't need his imagination to know what Fangmon would do, because before he knew it the Digimon had jumped out of the trees and landed on Herbert.

“I’m glad I didn’t eat you two earlier. Now I have twice as much prey!” Fangmon cheered. Ginghamon and Otamamon started to rush forward, but before they could do anything they were brushed aside by a powerful Blast Coffin attack.

Wyatt watched the whole thing from slightly farther away than the rest of the group. 'Run.' a voice inside his head told him. 'There's no hope for the rest of them, but you could leave while he's distracted. He'll be so full he won't even go looking for you afterwards.' But as he saw Ginghamon being hit by Fangmon's attack, he ignored the voice and rushed to the Digimon's side.

"Wyatt, get out of here!" Ginghamon grunted, but Wyatt wasn't going anywhere. Ginghamon could obviously sense this and as he got back up on his feet he changed his previous statement. "Stay back here." He said, raising his sharp claws. They were fortunate that Herbert had squirmed around enough to avoid being eaten so far, and Fangmon was so concentrated on taking a bite that he didn't see Ginghamon until it was too late.

"Savage Claw!" Ginghamon boomed, bringing the knife-like claws down on his enemy with tremendous force. Fangmon had time to raise his arm up to block his face, but the attack still staggered him enough to allow Herbert to scramble free. Fangmon was angry now, and stared Ginghamon down menacingly. The matchup did not look to be in Ginghamon's favor, and Wyatt's heart began pounding faster as he feared the worst was coming.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Flaremon listened patiently to Kyle's torrent of questions, a peaceful, contemplative expression on his leonine face. He waited for a little while until he was certain that Kyle has asked all he had to ask and the others were not going to add anything else - and finally, he spoke.

"The Pharos," Flaremon began "Is a Hub - a digital Nexus, of sorts, where streams of data converge and disperse. Hubs like this are places of great power - people, things and information are drawn to them. Some are centers of civilization, others are archives of history and others still are anchors of stability for the world at large. When you were uploaded, your data must have been drawn here - The Digital, I presume, knew that its last hope would need guidance on its journey."

"Sorry for interrupting, but... The Digital?" Meital cocked her head sideways "Last hope? Uploaded?"

"It is perfectly understandable, child." Flaremon nodded "As you've probably already been told, you have entered the Digital World - but what you may not know is its nature. This world is, in a way, a shadow of your own world - born of the data in its global computer networks. What happens there is reflected here and vice versa. As for The Digital itself - its nature is somewhat more complicated. It is... a consciousness that forms this world, dreams this world in an attempt to understand this world - itself."

He paused, regarding all three humans and their Digimon companions with an intense look.

"The Digital is now facing a great crisis - and thus, by extension, your world does as well... a crisis that it cannot face on its own, without help. The Digital reached out into your world and it found you... though whether this be chance or destiny, I do not know. As this is a realm of data, In order for ones from the Outer World to enter the Digital World, they must be converted to data themselves and uploaded. That is part of the purpose of your Digivices - they are links between your world and ours and they can change the way data manifests here, as well. You will learn more about them once you connect with your Partners - for it takes a human and a Digimon fighting for a common goal and a certain degree of emotional synchronization to truly activate the Digivice and allow two to unleash a power greater than the sum of their individual strengths."

"Is this crisis the corruption Isomon told me about?" Meital asked.

"It goes beyond mere corruption, child... It is a thing that should not exist - a creature that should not be possible - a being that shatters the balance of all around it simply by being. Where it goes, The Digital is eaten away, leaving destruction and madness in its wake. A force whose name is its nature - so unpredictable that against which even the Royal Knights, the great guardians of this world, struggle and fall... One that the only way to defeat is to think outside the box... and a change of perspective that only ones from your world could bring."

There was a moment of silence as Flaremon closed its eyes.

"It is called... Chaosmon."

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Before Herbert knew it he was knocked to the ground and had the wind knocked out of him by something heavy dropped on his chest. It took him a few seconds to regain his senses but when he did he found himself staring into the golden eyes of death. Fangmon! Herbert tried calling for help but the pressure of Fangmon’s paw made it hard to breathe. He tried lifting the paw, tried pushing it off, but the Digimon was too strong. His grip was more than Herbert could move. Primal fear took over as the long teeth filled mouth dripping with drool came down for the kill.

“Savage Claw!” shouted a loud voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Herbert saw Ginghamon swinging his long claws at Fangmon. The Big Bad Wolf lifted his paw to block the attack, and lucky for Herbert, it was the very paw that had had him pinned. Not wasting his chance, Herbert scrambled from under the savage Digimon and rushed over to where Wyatt and Otamamon were.

“Thanks Ginghamon!” he called back gratefully. Herbert practically dropped back to the ground once he was with safe company. He was still pretty worn out and that near death experience had left his legs feeling like jelly. His mind was hazy and dizzy from how fast his heart was beating.

“I won’t let my catch get away!” growled Fangmon angrily. “As you seem to be the strongest Ginghamon, I’ll start with you. The other weaklings should be easy prey once you’re out of the way!” The Demon Beast Digimon jumped backwards, then used the momentum to leap over Ginghamon to attack the bear from behind. Fangmon opened his mouth wide preparing to take off his prey’s head.

“Wrapping Bubble!” Otamamon yelled. A large ball of water appeared over Fangmon’s head before dropping leaving the predator stunned long enough to give Ginghamon a chance to move out of the way.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can’t beat this guy alone. I want in!” the tadpole declared waddling over to the battle. Otamamon knew going in that he was entering a world of hurt but that would be nothing compared to the shame and guilt of running away. He may be a snarky prankster, but never a coward!

“You just don’t learn do you Otamamon?” Fangmon snarled. “I have devoured Champions and you think two little Rookies can threaten me? All you’re doing is making me work for my meal! All the more rewarding when I eat you.” he said licking his teeth.

“Sorry, but you’re going to bed without dinner tonight! Lullaby Bubble!”

Fangmon quickly popped the bubble with his claws. He wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice! The Demon Beast Digimon then smacked Otamamon into a tree with that same paw before turning his attention back to Ginghamon. He reared back and leaped at his prey with his mouth wide open.

All the while Herbert could only watch helplessly. He had finally settled down enough to realize that this just wasn’t fair.

“Wyatt, there has to be somethin’ we can do. Them Digimon are givin’ it their all for us. We have to help somehow!” he said to the other human.

 

[Picnicker Virgil]

Wyatt agreed with Herbert, but at the same time he couldn't imagine either of them would be able to help much. He didn't have claws, and he certainly couldn't shoot bubbles at the Digimon. He could feel his heart in his throat every time Fangmon came close to Ginghamon. The two Rookies had put up a good fight so far, but Wyatt knew they were merely delaying the inevitable. Fangmon's taunt had been true, they were just making him work for his meal.

Fangmon dived at Ginghamon, jaws open wide and a menacing blood crazed look on his face. Ginghamon didn't move fast enough, and took the attack right in the stomach. He fell to the ground and Fangmon lunged forward again. This time Ginghamon brought his paws up, holding the Digimon's mouth on either end, forcing it away from his neck as Fangmon pushed his hardest to deliver the kill strike.

Wyatt was sure this was the end of Ginghamon. His efforts to fend off his attacker were growing weaker, and as his arms trembled to keep it back, Fangmon's mouth moved steadily closer. Wyatt was still deciding whether or not to run in and join the fight, but before he had the chance he felt something brush him as it leapt into the action. It ran on all fours and threw itself at Fangmon, who imediately flew backward from the strike. Ginghamon began to stand, but in his exhausted weakened state he could barely manage this. Wyatt sprinted over to his friend, not worried about Fangmon now as he was rolling around on the forest floor, locked in battle with the new Digimon.

He helped Ginghamon to his feet and then carried him just as the Digimon had done to Wyatt earlier. Herbert and Otamamon were staring at them expectantly, obviously hoping to cease this opportunity to make an escape. "C'mon, let's get out of here!" Wyatt said and the three of them took off as quickly as they could manage, which for Wyatt was not very fast considering the extra weight he was carrying. The trees thinned out as they ran, and it looked as if they were nearing the end of the forest. Wyatt felt sure that they were not being followed by Fangmon this time, he had heard the Digimon's cries of pain while they ran that told him the other Digimon was winning the fight. Whether or not they had to fear being followed by that creature, Wyatt decided not to think about.

They burst through the last of the trees, sweaty and out of breath, but alive. "Thank you, Wyatt, I can manage now." Ginghamon said, and Wyatt gently placed him down on the ground.

"Look!" He heard Herbert say, and Wyatt gazed forward, noticing the large city that was now so close. He felt a feeling of elation, before realizing this was where he and Ginghamon would part ways.

"So, is this it then?" He asked, staring down at the Digimon who was now smoothing out the tufts of fur that had been messed up in the fight. He stared back curiously at Wyatt, and then seemed to be remembering the deal himself.

"You won't need me now that you have these two," Ginghamon said calmly, gesturing to Otamamon and Herbert. "If you wish me to go, then we may say goodbye here."

"I don't want you to go, Ginghamon." Wyatt said. "I do need you. Please stay?"

Ginghamon did nothing for a while, then nodded slowly. "I will stay with you as long as you need me."

And with that, they set off once more to the city. This time, the path was clear and free of obstacles; nothing could stop them now.

 

[Tailon]

Despite the weight of Flaremon's words, James had largely spent the short walk up distracted by the sheer audacity of the elevator's impossible workings, then quickly shifted his confusion over to the fact that an enormous lion sat before them and was both speaking and on fire. The creature spoke of the realm in which they found themselves, which he called "The Digital" and the reasons for their arrival there. James wasn't able to bring himself to ask a question until the lighthouse's guardian spoke of something called "Chaosmon".

"Chaosmon? That just sounds like another Digimon, what's the big problema with this thing existing?" James asked the massive lion, absentmindedly taking the Digivice from his pocket to "check the time", though when he raised it to look he only found the blank, covered screen of the Digivice. "Right..." he mumbled under his breath to himself as he finished the question.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

"A Chaosmon," Flaremon explained "Is hardly just another Digimon. It appears as a Digimon and was born from Digimon, but it is, in a way, its own class of being... a being that, as I've said, threatens the world merely by continuing to exist."

The leonine creature paused, closing his eyes.

"No system is infallible, and a slight miscalculation or corrupted data may cascade into a greater error... and in our world, such glitches may manifest rifts in the fabric of the world itself. The Digital strives to repair itself, of course - these rifts rarely last more than a moment. But sometimes, a moment where The Digital blinks is all it takes to create the great nightmare of our time.

This particular Chaosmon was born when one such rift struck at the moment two eternal rivals - a noble guardian of the balance and a fierce dragon of destruction - were locked in what became their last battle. At the very moment their attacks collided, the rift tore them both apart and crossed their data streams, merging their bodies into one, unstable mass of data - while keeping their Digicores - their root commands... their souls, if you will - intact and separate... Two opposing, strong-willed minds in one volatile shell, far more powerful than that of its individual components in spite of its instability."

the creature opened its eyes again.

"Theoretically, Chaosmon are so unstable that they dissolve mere moments after forming... But the Destroyer's will was strong, and would not give up its newfound shell - its newfound destructive power - so easily... and so, in order to continue existing, Chaosmon stays on the move, assaulting the very mechanisms by which The Digital repairs itself and corrects its glitches and aberrations, leaving a trail of corruption and decay in its wake."

"But wait." Meital suddenly interjected "What about the other component? The Guardian."

"Unwilling to risk the chance the shell will fall entirely under the Destroyer's control should he attempt to break away, the Guardian chose to remain within the Chaosmon shell, his will offering some resistance to that of the Destroyer's. Their battle rages on within their shared shell, but it seems that slowly yet certainly, the Destroyer is gaining the upper hand. Should it truly succeed... that is when the real carnage will begin."

 

[Rex]

"Wait a second," Kyle frowned, "Why can't you deal with this yourself? You look strong. I don't know about these two, but I'm 14 years old, and you're basically asking me to fight Galactus, by the sounds of it. What can we do that you can't?"

"Everythin'," Veemon interjected, "Yer a Tamer! Ye gotta unlock the power of the Digivice, so that yer strong enough ta beat Chaosmon! Digimon can't use the Digivice, only Humans can. An' our world decided that the only thing strong enough ta beat Chaosmon was a group a' Tamers."

Kyle sighed. This really seemed like a bad idea. They had to fight and destroy something that was equal parts the two strongest beings in this world, when the two couldn't even defeat each other. But he had promised Lloyd that he would help, hadn't he?

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Kyle said, though his tone implied that the boy was already defeated.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

"I still don't think this is a good idea."

"Oh, it probably isn't," Meital nodded, turning her eyes to Kyle "But if this 'Digital' had the power to bring us here, it's probably the only thing that has the power to take us back home. Which means that if it gets too damaged, we're stuck here for good - or at least until this 'Chaosmon' finds us and, in all likelihood, ends us."

Determination filled her voice.

"Now, I don't know about you guys, but I don't like the sound of that. If we're stuck in a doomsday scenario, I'd much rather fight to stop it - or at least try to. Yeah, we're all a bunch of teenagers who - frankly - have no idea what they're doing... But you heard what Flaremon said. We're not here for power or wisdom - we're here because The Digital needed a new perspective. We're a wild card and we might just be what this world needs to tip the scales."

She paused for a moment, realizing that her words were beginning to sound a little too much like a cliché-laden inspirational speech. Just because the situation she was in seemed ripped straight out of a Japanese game franchise didn't mean that she had to act the part. "Too late to overthink this, Meital." she thought, shrugged and held up her digivice.

"Or we could just be here because we accidentally picked up a shiny gadget that appeared out of nowhere and this was all a big mistake. Either way, we're here now and we might as well try to make a difference rather than stand around here doing nothing. Least we can do, really."

There was a short moment of silence, broken by a little shy chirp.

"I, um..." Isomon said "I'm not the strongest Digimon around and I don't know all that much about the world away from this area... But... Iwanttogowithyouifthat'sokay." The last few words were blurted out quickly as the crustacean Digimon finally relented to its instincts and curled into a ball. Meital couldn't help but smile a little as she re-pocketed her Digivice, bent down and scooped the plated sphere that was her traveling companion into her arms, holding it.

"Why wouldn't it be? There's always room for awesome arthropods in my life." she grinned (and Isomon uncurled slightly to look at her with a flash in its eyes that she could only interpret as a little, shy smile), then turned her eyes to the leonine creature on the mirror throne. "Now, Flaremon... You said that aside from us there were two more 'uplinks'. I'd say that if this Chaosmon is as strong as you describe we're going to need all the help we can get - is there any way you can detect them and maybe point us in their direction?"

"They appear to be in the nearby forest. My radiance can guide you there once you leave my presence. Be advised, though, that the forest is inhabited by some unfriendly creatures - be wary, in particular, of Fangmon... The red wolf of the woods has been unusually ferocious as of late."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you." Meital smiled, then turned to the other two humans. "Well, we've got our fair share of back story and a lead on where to go next. You guys coming too, or do Isomon and I go and save the world without you?"

 

[Rex]

Kyle blinked. Where did this sudden burst of anime come from? Either way, Meital made it clear that she wasn't going to give up. And, of course, she made a few good points. It wasn't like 'The Digital' would just send them home now that it brought them here. And besides...

"I did promise I'd help," Kyle said, "I'm sorry."

Apparently their soon-to-be allies were alone in the forest. All five of them would have to beware a Digimon known as 'Fangmon' as they proceeded from the Lighthouse. It sucked that they would have to leave the Pharos of Alexandria so soon, Kyle felt that he hadn't fully experienced the ancient wonder's glory. Still, maybe if one of them was here, they all would be.

"I guess we should hurry?" the boy asked.

 

[Tailon]

James stood silently for a moment, contemplating the impossible device in his hand. He sighed, then spoke quietly, mostly to himself. "So I guess that's it then," then a bit louder, "If our ticket home is to fight, we've gotta fight."

Phantmon, who had, in the intervening time, found a small stain on the far wall and begun spraying it with water to see if it would come off, immediately perked up at the sound of James's voice, running and hopping back over to him enthusiastically with a variety of small trumpeting noises.

James knelt to pet the tiny elephant, and said, "I don't know how much use I'll really be, but I want to help too, question now is, how soon can we start moving through that forest?"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Slight auto here since it was mutually agreed that we really need to get out of this lighthouse and get moving.

"Well, if no one has anything else to add, I'd say that it's time we got this show on the road." Meital grinned - and with that, she turned to the flight of stairs that led out of the enclave. She gave Isomon a questioning look and the small crustacean, after contemplating for a few moments, finally decided that it was going to try braving the stairs on its own. She set her traveling companion down with a smile and the two made their way down the stairs, the others in tow.

~*~​

The levitating platform softly clicked back into place at the Lighthouse's foyer and the pillar of light that served as its track faded out, excess energy dispersing through the veins of the marbled rock the lighthouse was composed of, causing them to glow briefly brighter. Meital couldn't help but wonder, again, about the strange lack of inertia - part of her was reminded of a movie she once watched that involved a virtual world where the rules of physics were only there because one expected them to be, but that did not seem to be the case in this world. No, it was more likely that the Digital World had its own fundamental laws of nature - but those were widely variable and localized. There were probably more degrees of freedom when everything, in a sense, was data.

Meital and Isomon stepped off the platform and made their way outside, where a change has taken place. The light at the peak of the lighthouse was glowing brightly - seemingly brighter than it did before they first entered - and rather than a general radiance that served as a beacon to those from far away, there was now a beam of focused light pointed clearly at a patch of the nearby forest - a guiding light that would help them find their would-be allies if they were to follow it.

As the girl and her crustacean companion began to make their way towards the forest, they couldn't help but wonder if the digital nature of the world would make the trail of light visible or easy to trace from within the twisting woods or whether it could only serve as a vague guideline as they made sense of the forest paths themselves. She wondered what manner of creatures may they encounter within - Flaremon's warning about the 'Red Wolf of the Woods' echoed in her mind for a moment - and even without the threat of Fangmon, forests were home to many creatures. Some may be friendly. Others may be downright hostile.

She hoped there were still allies to meet.

 

[Rex]

Kyle and Veemon hurried after Meital to the elevator. He made sure to squish his eyes shut on the journey down so he didn't feel like he had to throw up again. Thankfully, they made it back to the ground level of the lighthouse without incident. Once there, the boy took one last look around the inside of the lighthouse. What he wouldn't give to have a camera with him. Even with the impressive stonework damaged, and four of the proud Knights degraded beyond recognition...

There was always four missing, wasn't there?

"Kyle, ya comin' er what!?" Veemon's call quickly crashed that train of thought.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry Lloyd!"

---

Kyle looked up at the beam of light that had focused in on a patch of the forest a fair distance from the beach. At the moment it seemed helpful, though Kyle did have one pressing concern.

"How are we going to see that once we're in the forest?"

The boy looked at Lloyd, who only shrugged in response. They would just have to enter the forest and see how it went, apparently. Kyle really hoped they wouldn't run into this Fangmon, as silly as the name sounded. On TV, whenever someone mentioned avoiding something said thing was always run into. But this wasn't TV, this was the real world... Right? Kyle was beginning to ponder that question.

"Well, I guess if it's meant to be, we'll run into them," he frowned.

 

[Tailon]

James followed his new companions back to the elevator, Phantmon scurrying quickly behind him to keep up. He didn't say anything on the way down, mostly keeping to one edge of the elevator and allowing Phantmon to amuse himself by walking and jumping around the platform.

As they arrived at the bottom and Phantmon ran off toward the light of the archway leading outside, James stopped to really examine the stonework of what he now knew was the group of Digimon known as "The Royal Knights".

---

James shielded his eyes from the light as he stepped outside, Phantmon running back over to join him.

As he approached the others, the boy, Kyle was saying, "...if it's meant to be, we'll run into them," frowning.

"Well, if we follow to the light, we should be fine, right?" James said as he stepped past the others, then, "...that rhymed," and continued walking toward the forest.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

As Meital stepped into the treeline, several things caught her attention immediately.

The trees, for one. There was no doubt that they were trees, in a sense of having woody trunks and leafy canopies at least, but subtle things about their shape registered as familiar yet unnatural in her head. The lesser trees were rather thin, with primary branches arranged in tiered pairs sticking out to the sides, each pair perpendicular to the one below it, aerial root structures snaking around between the branch-pairs in a cable-like manner. The larger, more impressive trees were even odder - their primary branches were arranged in strange, almost angular forms and supported some structures that resembled pinecones but clearly weren't - and their trunks seemed to broaden the closer one looked to the base, crisscrossing structures of roots - directly following similar patterns of the trees' grayish bark - surrounding them and anchoring the trees to the forest soil. It took her several minutes of thinking to realize that they reminded her of utility poles and electricity pylons.

And speaking of the forest soil - it was strange too. The earth seemed to transition from coarse beach sand to soft, loamy soil along a very clear gradient. The vegetation changed with it, sparse clumps of shore-grass gradually transitioning into something that resembled a lush, verdant mat of over-sized mosses and small ferns, lines between them blurred by several intermediates that almost looked mid-transformation. Leaf-litter was present - but much scarcer than would be expected from a forest of that magnitude, and the leaves themselves were... odd. The leaf litter she remembered from Earth tended to be assorted shades of red, yellow and brown, but here, the dead leaves seemed to have faded into a semi-translucent, faintly-iridescent shade of gray - like a fiber-optic cable. Perhaps that was what they were. Most of the trees seemed to be in contact with each other in some way - be it through leaves and branches directly touching one another or through vines and secondary plants growing along the branches, and the rich green of the leaves seemed to shift lightly as the branches swayed and brushed against each other in the gentle wind.

The final thing that caught her attention was the fact that she could still see the light in the distance - like a beacon calling her. Something seemed different about the canopy in the direction the light was coming from - it was subtle, but she could swear the leaves, or rather, their thick, circuitry-like venation, were softly glowing in an orangy-yellow hue that seemed to get brighter and brighter towards the horizon.

"Well, I guess that answers that question." She turned to the others in the group who were following closely behind her "Flaremon's light is bright enough and different enough from the daylight to carry through these leaves in just the right way."

She gazed at the ground where the faint light seemed at its most concentrated and frowned a little when she noticed that the grass-moss, or whatever it was, remained fairly undisturbed - not even lightly trampled by the feet of forest-dwelling creatures. She took a few experimental steps onto the thick growth and found the ground to be solid enough and the grass-moss springy enough to right itself rather quickly after she moved her foot, her tracks vanishing behind her as she walked a little deeper in. This could work in their advantage - it would be harder for creatures that rely on their eyes to track their footprints. However, it also meant that they would not be able to spot a potential threat by its footprints in a certain area... and treacherous ground - or at least tree roots and rocks to trip on - could still be a threat.

"There's no real path to speak of that way... we should probably watch our step." She said, turning her head back to the rest of the group "Times like this I really wish we had some kind of a map."

~*~​

The forest was relatively quiet as the group moved through it. Branches rustled in the wind against the backdrop of a silent buzzing hum that reminded her of power lines - and perhaps running water in the distance, though she was not entirely sure about that. The quiet ambiance was occasionally disturbed by distorted-sounding alien trills reminiscent of birdsong - or crickets - sampled through an old eight-bit synthesizer. Their own footsteps - though still faintly audible - were largely muffled by the moss-grass, and she wondered if the same would apply for the footsteps of any forest-dwelling Digimon.

Meital breathed in the forest air - pleasantly chilly, a little humid and rich with the scents of wood and moss and the occasional flowers (if flowers was the right term - they smelled like ones, but resembled exotic moss fruiting bodies more). She couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of the area - it was almost hard to believe that such a place could be dangerous - potentially life threatening, even. But then, in nature, many of the most dangerous things were also beautiful - or at the very least striking.

For now, though, it seemed that danger was not immediate. She's seen no local Digimon so far, save for the three that traveled with them. If any were present, they were either keeping to themselves or not inclined to harass their group - or maybe they were simply driven back by the radiance that seemed to fill the trees along their path, sticking to the darker, undisturbed areas of the woods, awaiting less-vigilant prey. She has thought she heard a few shrill howls in the distance - it could have been Fangmon... or was it simply a trick of the wind?

This world is as alien as it comes, she thought to herself, you can't take anything as read. Especially if it involves predatory Digimon.

Speaking of Digimon, Meital turned her gaze downward for a moment to her traveling companion in particular - and couldn't help but notice that Isomon was moving through the moss-grass rather gracefully. And why not, after all - there were multiple species of isopods in her world to which mossy ground was a natural home. The crustacean was quiet as well, seemingly taking in the sights - and she couldn't help but smile when she remembered that this journey was just as much of an adventure to Isomon as it was to her.

She was right about the sound of running water - a babbling brook or two crossed their path as they walked - not deep enough to form an obstacle and often disturbed by large rocks that one could cross over with relative safety - she wondered about their origins and whether they poured into waterfalls or pools. She could spend a while here with Isomon in search of interesting creatures - perhaps some sort of scintillating alien butterflies skipping across the flowers... She shook her head as reality reasserted itself again. This was no leisurely nature hike; they had potential allies to find, and judging by the changing illumination - the leaves of the trees above them were now almost entirely orange and glowing steadily like a candle flame - they were getting closer. She couldn't help but notice along the way that sometimes the light seemed to shift - evidence that their would-be allies were probably on the move. The fact they saw no trace of them yet suggested that her group may have been approaching the light source from a different direction - though the significance of this was, at present, lost on her.

All she noticed was that the light was now getting dimmer faster, forcing the group to pick up the pace to keep up. As the radiant trees started to thin, Meital realized that the edge of the forest was at hand - and that was promising. It meant that it was likely that the two probably made it out of the forest in one piece.

When they finally emerged from the forest, the light was already fading away. What looked like a city was up ahead in the distance - but Meital was less concerned with the city and more with her immediate surroundings on the edge of the forest, where she could see, not too far in the distance, two humanoid figures and two shorter figures that were probably Digimon - all of which looking rather worn, as if they were they were catching their breath, having only recently emerged from the woods themselves.

"That must be them." She thought, signaling to her companions - both human and Digimon - that the targets of their search was found at last. With that, she began walking briskly towards the small group, Isomon closely in tow. They may have been out of the woods, but they were still on its borders... and she couldn't help but have a sneaky suspicion that they got through this forest a little too easily.

 

[Rex]

Kyle's loafers were still a bit damp, but the only other option was to walk barefoot through the forest. He slipped them on and hurried after Meital. It quickly became obvious to Kyle that these were not natural trees. They all seemed mechanical in nature, and seemed to glow slightly orange. The light from these trees brightened and dimmed as they continued along.

Having never really left the urban jungle that was New York City, Kyle had a bit of trouble navigating the forest. Thankfully, Veemon had no such issue, and, with little trouble, was able to lead Kyle back in the right direction if he ever strayed. Several times the boy thought he heard the sound of howling in the distance. It made his blood chill, but, once again, Veemon didn't seem perturbed at all.

"Have you been traveling long?" Kyle had asked at one point.

"Fer a while, yeah," Veemon nodded, "Lots a people travel now, keeps 'em ahead a Chaosmon."

"Have you encountered Chaosmon, Lloyd?"

The Digimon shook his head, "Nah, th' only Digimon that can stand in Chaosmon's presence without losin' it are the Knights. An' the Digimon Partners a Tamers, of course! That's why yer so important, Kyle."

Kyle had only nodded, and continued to focus on keeping up with the others. Eventually, the trees thinned out, and Kyle caught sight of, presumably, two humans and two Digimon. He waved at the figures, happy to have made it out of the woods without any sign of Fangmon. Looks like the TV had been wrong, thankfully.

"Heeeeeeey!" He called.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Herbert’s mind raced as he helplessly watched Otamamon and Ginghamon fend off Fangmon. The two critters were completely out matched by the larger Digimon. Herbert frantically looked around for something he could use as a weapon. A large rock. A log. Anything!

In his search, he turned just in time to see a large blue wolf racing right at him. He could barely form words before the new Digimon leapt right over him and attacked Fangmon. The predator yelped as his fellow wolf sunk its teeth into his shoulder. Herbert wasn’t sure if the Digimon was friend or foe, but in any case now was probably the only shot they had of getting out of there.

“Wyatt!” he called to the other boy. Wyatt had run over to pick up an injured Ginghamon and, now with his partner Digimon resting on his back, was now ready to flee.

“Can you run Otamamon?” he asked the tadpole worried about his injuries as well.

“I’m fine! Let’s just get the hell out of here!” shouted the amphibian waddling as fast as his legs would take him. Any beating was better than being eaten.
----------

All of this running had once again taken its toll on Herbert. Once the boys were out of the woods, he keeled over sweating and panting heavily. He’d never run so much in his life! Not even in gym class! As soon as he caught his breath, the boy turned to his partner Digimon.

“Say Otamamon. That Digimon that was scrapping with Fangmon back there. Do you know who that was?” he inquired. Even though he could see the city on the horizon, they were still far enough away that he still felt vulnerable.

“Do I need to explain everything to you? That was Garurumon, Fangmon’s bitter rival. I’m not sure what Garurumon was doing here though. They don’t usually trespass into each other’s territory without reason.” Otamamon pondered.

“Well I’m sure as heck glad he did or we’d be supper right now.” Herbert said. He put his hand on his stomach. Food wasn’t such a bad idea. Hopefully the city would have something humans could eat. He noticed Ginghamon was now standing on his own two feet which was good.

“Heeeeeeey!” a friendly voice called out. Herbert turned around to see five, no, six silhouettes at the edge of the woods. Three of them were definitely Digimon, but the other three… Herbert couldn’t believe his eyes. More humans! Two boys and a girl. All three seemed to be older than him and Wyatt by the looks of them. After everything he had been through the relief he felt was more like blissful elation. He and Wyatt weren’t alone in this world after all. There was strength in numbers and now his small band of four was ten!

“Great. More Humon. I don’t expect these three morons to be any less dense than you twerps.” Otamamon snarked. Herbert ignored him in favor of waving at the new people.

“Boy are we glad to see you! I’m Herbert and this boy here is Wyatt and them critters are Otamamon and Ginghamon.” he introduced pointing to each Digimon.

 

[Tailon]

"I'm James," James told the boy followed by an enormous tadpole with legs, "This is Meital, Kyle, Veymon, Isomon, and Phantmon." He introduced each of them quickly, indicating each of them in turn, and not noticing that he had mispronounced "Veemon".

Phantmon hopped a couple of times at the mention of his name, and quickly scurried over to the new
arrivals, declaring, "I am Phantmon!"

"I think you two are the ones we're supposed to be looking for, the ones the giant flaming lion told us about," James told them, "It looked like you were running, is something going on?"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Due to lack of activity on Virgil’s part and apparent unwillingness to continue being involved in this RP, it’s been unanimously decided by Tailon, Rex, P_M and myself that he is no longer a part of this RP... which means that, much like LAST time we had a Digimon RP around here, someone’s getting delorted. Tradition, I guess? With that out of the way, it’s about time the DTDs finally activated and some form of action started taking place. I finished my post with the activation of mine - I fully expect the next posts to have similar activation sequences so we can kick this anorexic bondagedoge's arse. Let's roll.

“Oh, something’s going on, alright.” Came a deep bellowing voice from the woods “BLAST COFFIN!”

It happened in a flash – a large, lanky red creature resembling a stylized wolf with an interest in BDSM fashion and long, jagged scars along its body – probably from a recent battle - burst out of the forest, its salivating, razor-fanged muzzle opening and spewing a ray of dark energy that tore screaming through the air, aimed directly at the straggler closest to the edge of the woods – the boy called Wyatt. There was no time to react… for anyone except the Digimon that walked by his side – who managed to tackle him out of the way of the beam in the last second.

The Digimon, however, was not so lucky – the beam pierced directly through its body, and the creature collapsed like a rag doll, the texture of its body slowly disintegrating into pixellated noise gradually drifting away from a shaky, shimmering wireframe wrapped around what looked like a glowing core and drawn towards the red beast – which grinned widely as the particles were absorbed into its own body. With a quick dash, the creature was upon the dissolving Digimon and crunched its fangs around the creature’s core, swallowing it whole. The wireframe shattered into a cloud of pixels that was also drawn into the creature’s body.

“Fangmon never loses sight of its prey… And now it’s your turn!” the beast howled, turning its gaze towards Wyatt and charged, when a sudden flash of light burst from the boy’s Digivice. The words “Emergency Download Commenced” echoed in the air as in a swirl of light and color the boy was gone – drawn into one of the data streams in the sky.

“WHAT?! NO! IT CANNOT BE! ” Fangmon howled in rage, eyes widening, pupils narrowing before it turned its eyes towards the other Humans and Digimon, its body almost seeming to flicker for a second.

Meital Klein was experiencing some of the most severe tunnel vision she has ever experienced in her life as all her thoughts shifted into a haze of primal fight-or-flight instincts. Her eyes were locked on the beast, her mind struggling to process what she just witnessed as her breath and heart rate attempted to keep themselves from flipping into overdrive. A part of her mind yelled at her that this was no time to panic…. But how could one NOT panic when this… thing… just killed another Digimon with just one shot and ate it? And had The Digital not intervened, it would have gone for the human as well? Clearly the Digimon’s final act for the human must have activated his Digivice and pulled him away – probably back to the real world. Hopefully back to the real world. Was that it, then? Was their only way home the sacrifice of a Digimon? Did The Digital even have the power to intervene again on such a short notice? Focus, Meital, FOCUS!

“Look at him!” Isomon’s voice snapped the girl back into reality “There’s something wrong with Fangmon.”

Isomon was right – something was amiss – The beast’s paws seemed to clench into the ground, the gigantic purple claws at their tips embedding themselves into the ground – and the scars that ran along its body… they were no ordinary scars. Polygonal pieces seemed to be in a state of decay, black spots manifesting along them like burned pixels on an LCD screen – no, not black per se, there was something underneath them – something indefinable that made her think of the blackened areas on the mural in the lighthouse. With every flicker, the spots spread – and the slavering beast grew more and more erratic… rabid, almost.

The Corruption. Flaremon said that it could drive lesser Digimon to madness… And it was becoming clear that this Fangmon was affected by it.

“No matter…” Fangmon growled, flickering again, an almost hysteric quality creeping into its voice with every flicker as its eyes shifted erratically. “What’s one scrawny creature compared to all that I’ve got now? That Garurumon… You really thought he saved you there, didn’t you? No… All the ‘noble’ fool did was delay the inevitable! This is MY forest! Anything that passes through it is MY kill! MINE! NO ONE ELSE’S! And so much new prey he led me to… Yes… So much… I don’t know which of you delicious morsels to start with!“

Another piercing howl – though Meital could not tell if it was meant to terrify and demoralize Fangmon’s would-be prey or a response to the uncontrolled changes that seemed to manifest along the creature’s sides – unraveling polygons fissioning and fusing together in an almost cancerous way. The Red Wolf of the Woods was frothing at the mouth now, his rapidly shifting eyes darting between the humans and their Digimon, almost as if trying to determine which one to attack first.

“We have to do something, Isomon.” Meital whispered as the beast ranted and raved “There’s no way out. We have to fight – and if we’re not ready to do so before that thing stops gabbing, we’re done for.”

“I don’t know if there’s much I can do!” Isomon chirped “I’m not much of a fighter… All I can do is roll into a ball and generate a charge as I do but I don’t know if that’s going to do much good against a Champion. You’ve seen that attack, he can take a Rookie-level out in a single shot, and I don’t know what that corruption is doing to him! I may be a little better armored than that Ginghamon was, but-”

“I don’t think he knows either.” The girl replied, reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small pocket knife “And that might give us an advantage. We need to put our heads together. Our lives are on the line here. Both of us. I don’t think this knife can do much against a Digimon, but if bad comes to worse, I’m going to give it one hell of a fight. ”

“Think we have a chance?” Isomon turned its eyes towards Meital – an unspoken question in them – one that was answered by the girl turning her eyes towards her crustacean companion and grinning.

“I have no idea,” she said “But I’ll fight by your side if you’ll fight by mine. Nothing to lose but our lives!”

There was a flash of light from somewhere – and Meital was vaguely aware that it came from her Digivice. The world seemed to freeze for a beat as she felt something change in her awareness – a moment where her mind touched with that of her companion… no. Not her companion anymore.

Her partner. Isomon was her partner, and the Digivice has acknowledged their bond and awakened. As the light faded –she was aware of more lights – perhaps the others? She hoped it was the others. Isomon was right – they would need some help.

Meital drew the device out of her pocket and gazed into its screen – no longer protected by its cover and displaying a menu carousel of sorts instead – one of the icons upon it already flashing – a stylized wireframe dinosaur emerging from within a blue, circuitry-patterned D. She pressed the button, and the screen changed into what the device called the Data Matrix. She barely had time to study the screen – a holographic display showing a wireframe of Isomon with some vital stats and some menus concerning modification slots – before another piercing howl interrupted her. Fangmon has made its choice – and it was going straight for her.

The next thing she heard was a cry of “Morph Ball!” and a high-pitched whine like that of a generator as Isomon bolted forward, curled up into a ball and hurtling towards the charging wolf, its body mantled by an electric crackle, smacking into the wolf-like beast’s lower jaw and discharging its electric field, dropping down and rolling back towards Meital. The beast paused, shaking its head a little and growling fiercely, Isomon emitting a series of clicks in response and preparing for another roll.

Now could be a great time for some backup. She thought as the creature prepared to charge again.

 

[Tailon]

“Oh, something’s going on, alright," came the reply to James's question in a voice much more menacing and powerful than that of the boy he had asked it of, followed shortly by an echoing "BLAST COFFIN!”


What came after happened almost too fast to process. James had followed Phantmon and was standing nearest Herbert and Wyatt when the enormous wolf creature burst from the woods and launched its attack. Even from several feet away, he felt the sheer force of the energy, and he instinctively scooped up Phantmon, attempting to dive away, though he only really ended up another foot or two away from where he had been.


When James had scrambled back into a crouching position and turned to look at the scene, it was already over, and the group in front of him was now short one Digimon. The wolf monster was now jabbering madly about the forest and something, another Digimon presumably, called "Garurumon". James slowly backed away, still holding Phantmon as the creature grew more and more erratic, clearly under the effects of the Corruption Flaremon had described to them, it seemed to be falling apart at the seams, like a graphical glitch in a video game.


After a moment, James realized he was still holding Phantmon, who was now wriggling irritatedly in his arms. James let the little elephant drop to the ground, where he shook himself and made a sudden about face to look at James.

"Fight." Was all Phantmon said.

"Fight?"

"You said if we haveta fight we gotta fight so fight!" This was possibly the most complete sentence the little creature had spoken all day, and it came out quickly and with an intensity not befitting his cutesy voice.

"How do you expect me to fight that thing!?"

"With me!"

With these words James noticed a sudden glow in the corner of his eye, emanating from the pocket where he had stored the Digivice. He took it from his pocket and looked at it, the screen protector and time gone to show a single flashing icon, he tapped it, and near instantly heard Phantmon cry out.

"Fireball Charge!" came the echoing call as the tiny elephant lowered his head and barreled toward the large red wolf's legs, a small plume of fire appearing in front of the tiny gem on his head.

The impact seemed to force the leg slightly off balance, leaving a comically small singe mark for such a large creature as Phantmon seemed to ricochet off and skidded back to where James stood.

"Fight, huh? Yeah, I guess that's where we are now." James said to himself as the elephant arrived.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

The boy named James introduced himself and his companions one by one then asked what was going on. He must have seen the fatigue in Herbert’s and Wyatt’s faces from running. Herbert opened his mouth to speak, but before the words could come out someone else answered.

“Oh, something’s going on, alright.” replied a familiar growl. “BLAST COFFIN!” A beam of dark energy shot from the edge of the forest just narrowly missing Herbert. The boy was momentarily paralyzed with fear as the Demon Beast Digimon leapt out of the woods. In a red blur he ran right past Herbert towards where his Blast Coffin had struck. Herbert turned around not daring to let Fangmon out of his sights only to see the wolf tearing the insides out of Ginghamon!

Instead of blood and guts like one would expect, Ginghamon was breaking up into a wire frame and small pixilated shards that were being absorbed into Fangmon. There was something glowing inside the Rookie’s body, but the Demon Beast devoured it before Herbert could get a good look at it. The Big Bad Wolf then turned his attention towards Wyatt, but before he could attack, the boy was swallowed up by a glowing pillar of light. At Wyatt’s disappearance Fangmon gave a furious howl.

When Herbert finally regained his senses his face was covered in tears. There was a maelstrom of emotions mixing together inside of him. He was mourning the loss of Ginghamon, he was confused by what had happened to Wyatt, and he was scared out of his wits. He had been fleeing from Fangmon all day and no matter how far he went, how much distance he thought he put between himself and the predator, Fangmon always managed to show up again and again. This was it then. There was no hope of getting away. There was no hope of winning. Not even that Garurumon was a match for Fangmon so what chance did Herbert have?

That’s when he noticed something different about Fangmon. He looked mangier. He was missing fur in places and had scars resembling rust on his body. He must have had one heck of a fight with Garurumon. Fangmon was also foaming at the mouth almost like he had rabies or something. What’s more, his body seemed to be flickering like an old TV if the rabbit ears weren’t set just right. His whole appearance seemed unnatural.

“So the rumors were true after all.” Otamamon said somberly.

“Rumors? What rumors?” asked Herbert.

“The Corruption. As you can probably guess, news doesn’t exactly travel out here with Fangmon prowling about but I’ve heard rumors that the Digital World is falling apart due to data malfunctions causing Digimon and places to glitch up and spaz out. I just thought it was a bunch of morons making stuff up to scare us backwater Digimon but Fangmon is proof that the Corruption is real.” Otamamon then began to waddle towards the Demon Beast.

“Wait! Otamamon! What are you doing?” Herbert cried out.

“I’m not going to stand around and wait to get eaten! I’m going to fight! You can do whatever you want, but I’m no coward!” the tadpole said bravely. He knew Fangmon would never stop pursuing them and he wasn’t going to spend the rest of his life living in fear and paranoia always looking behind his back.

“I ain’t a coward either, but what can we do? He got Garurumon and Ginghamon! How can we win?” questioned Herbert.

“Look at him! The cunning predator we’ve been running from is gone and has been replaced by this spastic schizo. He’s probably weaker now in this stage!” With that Otamamon turned back towards Fangmon with a look of determination in his eyes. The Demon Beast was already engaging in battle with Isomon and Phantmon. If it was like this, then there was no way Otamamon was backing down now! He was not about to let those jerks show him up! “This is for Ginghamon you bastard! Wrapping Bubble!” The amphibian opened his mouth towards the sky dropping a large bubble on Fangmon’s back.

Herbert couldn’t believe what he heard! Otamamon wasn’t just fighting for his own survival; he was fighting for the honor of their fallen friend. Herbert was so moved that it took the buzzing and glowing of his Digimon phone thing to snap him back to reality. He fished it out of his pocket to find that not only was it fully functional and activated, but had Otamamon on the screen. Well it certainly wasn’t one of those smart phones unless the Digital World had Digimon aps. In any case, Herbert had made up his mind too. He wasn’t sure how he was going to fight, but he was going to get Fangmon back for what he did to Wyatt and Ginghamon.

 

[Rex]

Kyle couldn't believe his eyes. A Digimon had just died, right in front of him. And its killer was about to turn on them, enraged at losing the other creature's partner to... Whatever had just happened. They were going to die here. The boy wanted to run, but his legs felt like iron. He could only stare ahead at the feral creature, which appeared to be falling apart at the seams.

People were talking. It all seemed so far away. They were fighting. Couldn't be more then a couple yards away from him. Everything was going so very slowly.

"Kyle!" Veemon was talking to him. "Yo, Kyle!? Come on, man, we gotta act!"

"I'm scared, Lloyd," the boy replied meekly.

"Scared!? Oh fer the love a-" The Digimon paused, and seemed to compose himself, "Nothin' te be scared of, we're all 'ere, right?"

"Lloyd, I can't do it."

"Fine, then I'll do it for you!" Veemon turned, and rushed towards Fangmon. "Vee Punch!" Arms swinging, the small Digimon attempted to strike the Corrupted Champion in the opposite leg from Phantmon's attack, hoping that the combined force of all their attacks would be enough to knock the wolf down.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

It was the others. As if in response to Meital's thoughts the three other Digimon attacked Fangmon in sequence - Phantmon striking one leg in a flaming rush while the Veemon charged ahead with a punch to strike the other. The beast snarled fiercely, attempting to right itself when a large bubble of water crashed onto the wolf's back from above - Otamamon's attack, no doubt - making it lose its footing and crash to the ground.

Then the beast jerked its head up and to the side, a fierce howl and another beam of darkness bursting out of its maw in a searing arc above the humans and rending the treetops behind them, triggering a series of dark explosions.

"You think that's enough to stop me?!" it barked, distorted voice crackling, the texture of its body shifting up and down in definition - it reminded Meital of what happened to streamed videos when they shift their quality due to a laggy connection. A shadowy aura flowed to its forepaws, dangerously emphasizing its claws - they seemed sharper now. Much sharper. Longer too.

"I WILL EAT YOU ALL!"

Springing to its feet, the beast lunged ahead, teeth bared, a shadowy aura flowing to its foreclaws.

"Isomon, now would be a great time for another attack!" Meital called out - but the small crustacean was already one step ahead, the dynamo-whine of its Morph Ball attack tearing ahead as it charged, attempting to knock the beast off course again.

"Not THIS time, louse. Snipe Steal!" Fangmon growled, swatting the rolling balled-up creature away with a swipe of its claws. The small crustacean grunted as it was sent flying, body uncurling, the energy stored in its plating releasing in a bright flash. The wolf skidded to a halt, blinded momentarily, howling in rage again.

"Now's your chance, guys!" Meital yelled towards the others and rushed over to Isomon's side. Wicked clawmarks marred her partner's outer carapace - but it was otherwise unharmed. Good.

"I don't think this rolling tackle is going to help us that much in this fight." She said "Any other ideas?"

"There is another thing I can do... but I'm going to need time to build up THAT much energy." Isomon gazed at Meital "I don't know if we have enough of it!"

"Try it anyway. If the others can keep it distracted we might just. Meanwhile, I'm going to take a look at this Digivice. If it's supposed to be able to help us fight, I want to see just how."

"Okay, here goes!" the crustacean nodded, rolling up again and initiating another charge roll - but not in the wolf's direction. It wasn't building up to unleash a charge at the assailant - it was building up a charge and hanging on to it, rolling to allow its internal dynamo generate enough power for something... Something -BIG-.

But wouldn't this leave us one combatant short?

... And furthermore, what was wrong with Kyle? Herbert and James were there, Digivice in hand, presumably attempting to direct their partners - but Kyle... was just standing there while his partner was fighting.

Did their partnership even form at all?

Oh well. No time to over-think this, Meital. she thought, gazing at the Digivice in her hand in an attempt to figure out if there was anything it could do.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

The four Digimon attacked Fangmon one after the other temporarily knocking the Demon Beast to the ground. Unfortunately, he quickly recovered looking bigger and badder than ever. Fangmon was becoming more and more unstable as the corruption continued to rip him apart from the inside out. With a murderous howl, the wolf charged at the group once more. Herbert watched as the little Insectoid Digimon called Isomon curled into a ball and rolled towards the predator only to get effortlessly smacked away. Obviously determined to do his part, Isomon uncurled himself releasing a bright light that blinded Fangmon, stopping him in his tracks.

“Now’s your chance guys!” Meital called out.

Herbert wanted to act, he wanted to help in some way, but he wasn’t sure what he could do. Ever since coming to this world, everything Herbert had tried against Fangmon was useless. He tried attacking the wolf himself but that only annoyed him, he tried running but Fangmon always caught up. If only he had a gun or something. In the end Herbert determined that this was a Digimon fight and the only way he was of use was to support Otamamon anyway he could.

“Give him everything you’ve got Otamamon! Teach that bully a lesson!” he cheered on keeping a firm grip on his Digimon gizmo.

“With pleasure! Slamming Attack!” the tadpole shouted tackling Fangmon in his left flank. When he landed back on his feet, he noticed Isomon was charging up some sort of attack. “Hey dumbass! Over here!” he taunted shaking his tail at Fangmon hoping to draw the Demon Beast’s attention away from the other Digimon.

“OTAMAMOOOOOOON!” roared Fangmon furiously. He chomped his maw just barely missing the amphibian who was now scurrying towards Phantmon and Veemon.

“Don’t just stand there you jerks! Get him!” Otamamon yelled.

Herbert looked around to see what the other humans were doing while the Digimon fought. Meital was by Isomon’s side looking at her Digimon phone- wait, she had one too? He turned towards James who also had one. It seemed like everyone did. Herbert then wondered if Wyatt had one too. They were always too busy running so the situation never came up for him to ask. But if he did have one, then that meant every human in this world did. Herbert was beginning to suspect that these devices held some sort of significance. He wanted to ask the others if they knew anything but now was not the time. If he thought about it again, he would ask once Fangmon was beaten.

In the meantime, he noticed one of the other boys was practically shaking with fear. Herbert walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Your name’s Kyle right? I know Fangmon’s scary, I’ve been runnin’ from him all day. But we can’t just give up! Them Digimon are givin’ it everything they’ve got, so as long as everyone works together, we should be able to beat that monster.” he encouraged optimistically.

 

[Tailon]

"Water Spray!" Phantmon's voice echoed out, louder than his tiny body should have been capable of, as orbs of water shot from his trunk toward Fangmon, a few of them striking the wolf square in the face. The Demon Beast shook his head, turning maddened eyes toward the Rookies.

The words seemed to come to him slower than before, an apparent glitch causing him to stutter once, but the mad wolf was able to get out a "B-Blast Coffin!", opening hiss disproportionate maw to launch the dark laser at his attackers.

Phantmon fell to the side as the blast was unleashed, rolling awkwardly away from the attack, as he regained his footing he let loose another "Fireball Charge!" barreling toward the mad wolf again, tiny flame ahead of him.

 

[Rex]

"But... I..." Kyle stuttered.

The remaining new boy, Herbert, had run up to Kyle and was attempting to encourage him. Inwardly, he knew the logic in the other boy's statements. Everyone was fighting so hard, especially the Digimon. And if they failed, Fangmon would kill them for sure. And despite all odds, their efforts seemed to be working! So why couldn't he make his legs work?

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Try!" Veemon called, dodging back towards the two boys, away from Fangmon's latest Blast Coffin attack. "Yer gonna have te grow a backbone 'ventually anyway." The Digimon paused for a moment, looking back at Kyle. "Listen," he said, "Ah'm here te help ya, but ya gotta work wit' me. We can accomplish great things t'gether, but ye gotta pick yerself up and work for it!"

Kyle dug his crimson digivice out of his pocket. The screen was open, but blank. Almost as if it was expecting something. He looked back to Herbert, then at Lloyd. "Thank you, both of you," he said, "and, you're right. We have to at least try." He looked up at Veemon, before calling out, "Are you ready, Lloyd?" The Digivice's screen lit up, just like everyone else's had. The light quickly dimmed, replaced by a menu carousel of a sort.

"More than I ever have been," Veemon replied, a slight smirk on his face, he looked back towards Fangmon, "Let's go, Kyle!"

"Hit him hard!" Came the reply.

"I plan to!"

Veemon rushed the corrupted Champion after Phantmon, hoping that the elephant would provide him some sort of distraction. He scrambled as close to the underside of Fangmon's head as he could, before launching himself up at the bottom of the wolf's lower jaw. "Vee headbutt!"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Meital was only paying the slightest bit of attention to the ongoing battle - her thoughts were focused on the Digivice. The Data Matrix screen was still on display, hologram and health bar updated in real time to reflect the damage Fangmon's claws did, but nothing on it seemed particularly helpful at that moment. She turned her eyes to the row of icons at the bottom of her screen - the same ones that appeared on the menu carousel when the digivice first activated, sorted in a convenient row.

Two of the icons were greyed out - the Data Matrix's icon and another, styled like the letters 'DV' - leaving three selectable options - a Koromon atop a book, a globe surrounded by rings of data and a wavy, segmented shape surrounded by brackets that reminded her of wi-fi symbol. Presumably the first led to some kind of Digimon Analyzer whereas the second led to a map screen of some sort - but what was the third?

As if in response to her wondering the icon began flashing. She tapped it, the Data Matrix screen minimizing and being replaced by something else - a large rectangular button, seemingly composed of two halves, the word 'SCAN' appearing in a hexagonal negative space between them.

Scan? Scan what exactly?

She turned her eyes to the battle for a moment - the wolf was just hit by some kind of a slamming attack from Otamamon - clearly meant to draw its attention more than actually damage it. Maybe this scanner could detect a weak point in their opponent? Was worth a try.

Meital Klein pointed her Digivice at the marauding beast and tapped the Scan button - and the scanner on the back of the device whirred to life, sweeping over the wolf with a flash of brilliant blue light - no, not the wolf, the entire area it stood in. Something was being drawn into the device, suspended in the light beam - fine particles of data, only vaguely visible - particles that began forming into images on the device as the two halves of the scan button parted, the words 'Save All' appearing on the top half of the button while 'Discard All' appearing on its bottom half as two options appeared between them, represented by two stylized letters with an upward-facing arrow next to them - Speed and Power Boosts, each taking one 'Modification Slot' and having the same duration and cooldown periods...

Modifications. Where did she see that written?

She hit the Save All button and the modifications minimized into the Data Matrix's icon while the menu folded back into the scan button. A quick tap and she was in the Data Matrix window again, where the stylized icons took their place in what she assumed was an inventory menu of some sort. A quick glance to the battlefield revealed the wolf was now locked in combat with Phantmon - alternating between fire and water attacks while evading the beast's glitching attacks, while Herbert was probably attempting to get Kyle to snap out of panic. Something had to be done, and quickly.

"Isomon, what's your status?" she called out, turning her eyes to her partner - who was circling around the battlefield, curled up into a ball, an aura of electricity surrounding its plating and drawn inward into the center of the orb where it was condensing and coalescing.

"No good, I still need more power!" it called out in response.

Meital shot a glance down to the device. More power. Might as well apply both of these - We need all the power boost we can and if Isomon charges energy by rolling... the faster it rolls the more energy we get.

"I'm going to try something!" she called out - both to her partner and her allies, as she dragged the icons onto her partner's wireframe - causing them to appear in a list of equipped modifications to the right of the wire-frame, deactivated - but flashing, waiting for a tap to deploy.

Meital grinned with determination.

"Digimodify! Speed Boost and Power Boost, Activate!"

There was another flash as a surge of code swooped across Isomon's plating... and suddenly, the small creature's rolling dramatically accelerated, electric aura intensifying as the glowing mass at the core of the plated sphere grew larger and brighter.

"Thanks, that's exactly what I needed!" it called out right as Veemon's headbutt connected with the Fangmon's lower jaw, sending the corrupted champion flying.

The wolf - still in midair - suddenly twisted its body, mouth opening, dark sparks within suggesting it was readying another attack - when the crustacean Digimon broke its circling and dashed forwards, its many legs moving around the glowing mass and encasing it in a biomechanical casing like a spider wraps its prey - and uncurled, launching the newly formed casing - and its deadly payload of energy - straight into the wolf's mouth with a flick of its tail and a cry of "Power Bomb!"

Fangmon did not even have the time to react as the capsule rolled down its throat. Rays of light seared through its corrupted "scar tissue" as a bright explosion tore the beast apart from within, its skin shattering into polygons and its wireframe dissolving into a rapidly-dispersing cloud of pixels. Nothing remained of the wolf but a singular core - but unlike the one that Ginghamon left behind, this one was riddled with holes and corruption artifacts - and upon exposure, what few non-corrupted areas that remained were rapidly consumed, the remains crumbling to a dark, inert dust.

The Charge Remaining indicator for the Speed and Power boosts ran out, shifting to orange as a cooldown indicator started counting down.

We survived this.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked, as she rushed over to her partner's side. The small crustacean - clearly recovering from a Digimon equivalent of an adrenaline rush - was visibly exhausted, but emitted a little chirping noise in confirmation as she picked it up and turned to her human companions.

"Try scanning that particle cloud with your digivice before it evaporates, you might be able to salvage something from Fangmon. It's the icon that looks like a wavy thing."

 

[Rex]

Veemon's headbutt connected, sending the wolf skywards. Shortly afterwards, Isomon released its own souped up attack. Fangmon was caught unaware, literally swallowing the blast whole and exploding into a mess of pixels. Generally, this would be where the hero would deliver a one liner. Meital, however, seemed much more concerned with everyone's well being.

Kyle collapse backwards, sighing in relief. They'd done it, they'd achieved the seemingly impossible task of destroying the corrupted Digimon. Veemon gave an energetic fist pump, still on a bit of a combat high.

"Still in one piece," the boy confirmed, waving.

"Don't be so humble, we did great!" Veemon smirked, "Now that we're partners, there's nothin' we can't do!"

The boy grinned in acknowledgement, before Meital's comment brought him back to the task at hand.

"Scan? Uh..."

Kyle took another look at the main menu of the Digivice. Indeed, there was a wavy sigil looking thing among the icons. Tapping on it brought up an icon of a bar with wi-fi looking lines coming out from either side. He pointed the device in the direction of the dissipating cloud and tapped the bar. A blue light beamed out of the device, going over the cloud twice before disappearing.

Looking back at the device, Kyle noticed that the screen had changed. It now showed a scrollable list, with icons on the top and bottom marked "save all" and "discard all" respectively. Most of what was listed was marked "Corrupted File." Probably not something he'd want to save. However, one of the modifications seemed good. It was marked "Energy Boost," and had an icon that looked like a stylized E with an arrow next to it. It had a description - "Boosts Energy," how useful! - and a cooldown timer.

He tapped one of the files, noticing that the tabs changed from all to selected as he did so. After making sure that only the Energy Boost was selected, he hit save. After a moment, the scan bar came back up. Kyle closed out of that, and clicked on the now flashing D with a dinosaur looking icon. This brought up a tab called Data Matrix, which, among other things, showed off a wire frame representation of Veemon, as well as his Health, still full, and Energy, which was about a quarter empty and slowly refilling.

Below that was a tab of sorts with a bunch of places for icons. The only one there right now was the one for the Energy Boost. Tapping it did nothing, but he was able to drag it and place it on Veemon's outline. This moved it from the tab to a list next to the wire frame, where it once again displayed the name of the item. It was marked deactivated at the moment, and had an empty bar sitting underneath.

"I suppose I just tap it to turn it on, then?" Kyle muttered.

"Uh, Kyle? What'cha doin'?"

Kyle looked up to see Veemon standing over him. The digimon was looking down at the digivice screen.

"Oh, uh, nothing!" Kyle replied, closing out of the tab and pocketing the device. "It looks like most of the data is corrupted, you guys should be able to find something, though!"

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Herbert collapsed to the ground. He couldn’t believe it. It was finally over. Isomon had shot some sort of electric ball into Fangmon’s mouth that ripped the wolf apart from the inside out until all that remained was a darkened and busted up sphere surrounded by particles of Fangmon’s body.

“Is everyone okay?” Meital asked everyone.

“Tired.” said Herbert panting. Exhausted was more like it. His whole body ached but is feet and legs were most sore. He hadn’t eaten since before he came to this world and he had spent most of the day running for his life. And even though Herbert had only know them a few hours at most, he was also grieving the loss of Ginghamon and prayed Wyatt had been sent somewhere safe. With any luck he had been transported back home somehow.

“How ya doin’ Otamamon?” he asked his partner. They may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but after everything that happened, Herbert truly felt like Otamamon was someone he could rely on. Even if the tadpole still was a conceited jerk.

“Peachy.” the amphibian replied dryly.

“Try scanning that particle cloud with your digivice before it evaporates, you might be able to salvage something from Fangmon. It's the icon that looks like a wavy thing.” Meital called out again. Herbert looked the device in his hand. Digivice? Was that what these things were called?

On the screen were five icons: a pink head with two long thin ears and big red eyes sitting on top of a book, a globe with two rings wrapped around it, the letters DV which were greyed out such that they blended in with the background, a D with a dinosaur coming out of it which was also greyed out, and lastly the icon Meital had mentioned.

When Herbert did as told the screen changed to a green box with the word scan in it and the waves coming out of the top and bottom of the box. Then lines of the waves grew and shrunk as a blue beam went over the predator’s remains. The screen changed again to a list with “Save All” at the top and “Discard All” at the bottom both in green boxes. Most of the items on the list were labeled “Corrupted File”, but one thing in particular that caught Herbert’s eye was a stylized ‘P’ with and arrow pointing up next to it. This item was labeled “Power Boost” and had the redundant description “Boosts Power for a short period of time.” Since it was the only thing on the screen that wasn’t complete garbage Herbert tapped the Power Boost which promptly changed the tabs to “Save Selected” and “Discard Selected”.

“I don’t know! I have no idea how these newfangled devices are supposed to work!” yelled the boy in frustration. Herbert then felt something heavy crawling up his back. “What the?” he said turning his head only to find Otamamon on his shoulder.

“Whacha doin’?” he asked mischievously.

“Trying to figure out how this thing works.” Herbert answered cautiously. Even if he now trusted Otamamon to do the right thing when it counted, he didn’t trust the Digimon not to pull a fast one if given the chance.

“Looks dumb. Just push that button there!” Otamamon said tapping “Save Selected” causing the screen to go back to Scan mode.

“Woah! How’d you do that?” asked Herbert in wonder.

“No clue. I just hit a random button.” laughed the tadpole.

“Yer no help!” scolded the boy rolling his arm back to throw Otamamon off his shoulder. That critter was too heavy to stay up there if he was just going to cause trouble.

Now that the Power Boost was saved, the dinosaur tab below lit up practically begging to be touched. When he did the screen changed yet again to one labeled as “Data Matrix” that had a wire frame picture of Otamamon complete with his name and the subheadings of Amphibian Digimon, Attribute: Virus, and Level: Rookie. Below them were two bars. The one labeled Health was less than half full and colored yellow. The bar labeled Energy was very low and colored red. To the right of the wire frame was a blank space titled “Modifications Equipment” and at the bottom were twelve squares. In the first was the Power Boost but the other eleven were all blank. He tried tapping the Power Boost but nothing happened.

Alright, that’s it! Herbert thought to himself. This Digivice or whatever it was called didn’t come with an instruction manual and even though he believed he could figure this particular problem out on his own, he had so many more questions that wouldn’t be answered just by playing with it. He tried to stand back up but couldn’t seem to muster the energy to get off the ground.

“Kyle.” he called to the boy who was sitting next to him to get his attention. Herbert held up his Digivice. “Do you by chance know what these things are an’ how they work?” he asked. “I was just sitting in my backyard doin’ my homework when suddenly this thing falls out of the sky and next thing I know I’m waking up in a forest full of giant talking polliwogs and a real life Big Bad Wolf chasing me.” he further explained hoping to finally get some answers to how he ended up in the Digital World.

 

[Rex]

Kyle stood up and looked over Herbert's Digivice. This kid hadn't been with them when they went to visit Flaremon at the Pharos, so he probably needed an update. Where to begin though? The boy supposed a practical on what Kyle knew about the Digivice was as good a place as any, as it seemed to be frustrating the younger boy.

"Well, uh, this is your Digivice," he said, pointing to the smartphone resembling device, "It's how you interact with your Digimon in battle, by the looks of it." Kyle pulled out his own digivice, and brought up the data matrix, the screen Herbert was presently on. "So on this tap, we have a wire frame model of our partners- my Lloyd, er, Veemon, and your, uh... Otamamon I think you said? Above the model you have two bars, Health and Energy. Based on the difference between the two bars, I'm guessing Health is comparable to Hit Points, like in a video game."

"'cept this ain't a video game," Veemon added.

"I know, I'm just," Kyle frowned, "Trying to explain this in simpler terms. HP is how many hits you can take before, well.. I'm guessing what happened to Fangmon and that other boy's Digimon happens to your Digimon too. Energy seems to be like, Stamina, how much your Digimon can act before he gets tired. Since I was sort of... Out of it, Lloyd didn't do much compared to Otamamon. So his bar isn't as empty. It seems like both bars regenerate automatically over time, but it's slow going."

Kyle pointed at the stylized P on Herbert's Digivice, "Looks like you got a power up out of Fangmon as well. These Digivices are touch based, like a smartphone. You can equip the power up by putting your finger on it and sliding it up to the wire frame model. Kind of like clicking and dragging on a computer, if that helps." Next, Kyle pointed at the list next to the Digimon's model. "When you equip a power up, it appears here. Then, I'm guessing you just tap it to activate it."

Kyle showed the younger boy his own Digivice. The Energy Boost was sitting in the listing where he left it, still grayed out. He tapped the icon, and it lit up. A surge of light swept from the Digivice, surrounding Veemon momentarily before disappearing.

"Woah, that felt weird!" the Digimon exclaimed.

On the screen, the bar had turned orange and was slowly ticking down. Likewise, the empty part of Veemon's Energy bar filled up orange. As Kyle watched, the orange started to tick over, forming a secondary layer over the white as that part of the bar continued to refill.

"Okay, so if I had to guess, I'd say that when the bar on the right empties, the orange will disappear from Lloyd's energy bar," Kyle nodded, "That's how these things tend to work in games, which is, again, the best comparison I can think of, no offense meant to any Digimon." He closed out of the Data Matrix, and pocketed the Digivice, "As for scanning, did you notice when you tapped things in the list, they sort of grayed out? It looks like everything in the list starts out selected, and as you deselect them, they gray out. You can look through the list of files the scan found by swiping your finger over it. I don't think you'll want to save any of the corrupted files, so make sure you go through everything and deselect them all before you hit save. Once you've saved the files you want, the rest an be discarded."

Kyle looked back in the direction they had come from. The Pharos had long since disappeared behind the trees. Looks like it was down to Kyle to explain why they were here to Herbert. He looked back at the younger boy, frowning slightly again. "James, Meital, and I met up at a Lighthouse on the other side of the forest- the Great Pharos of Alexandria, to be exact. We met a Digimon there, called Flaremon. According to it, this world is becoming corrupted, like how Fangmon was. And this thing called 'The Digital' brought us in to fix the corruption."

The boy crossed his arms, thinking back to Flaremon's speech, "Essentially, what happened was, there was a glitch in the matrix in an area where two really powerful Digimon were fighting. They got combined by the glitch into a being called Chaosmon. Apparently Chaosmon aren't all that uncommon as a result of Glitches, but 'The Digital's' anti-virus or something usually kills them before the glitch can spread. But this Chaosmon was really strong, and the anti-virus alone can't kill it to easily."

"So Chaosmon is constantly on the move, trying to stay one step ahead of the anti-virus. And in its wake, it leaves more Glitches- corrupted data, like those files we scanned. If this Chaosmon isn't stopped, eventually the entire Digital World will become Corrupted, and that'll make for huge problems with the internet in the real world, in our world. So we were five, now four, Tamers, brought in to partner with a Digimon and fight the corruption and Chaosmon in a way the Anti-Virus can't."

"Digimon wit' Tamers can't be corrupted," Veemon added, "'Least, not so easily as Digimon wit'out 'em."

Kyle nodded, "So it's up to us to save this world from Chaosmon, because no one else can do it. That's uh... Pretty much all we know." The boy looked to James and Meital, "I'm not forgetting anything important, am I?"

 

[Tailon]

As the others talked among themselves, James was quietly looking through the menus of his Digivice as well. He stopped at the scanner, scanning the remains of Fangmon for a Power Boost and something he didn't recognize while Kyle explained the device and the events up to that point to the remaining new boy.

James looked up when Kyle asked him and Meital about any other information. He simply shrugged at first, what he had heard of the explanation seemed right, then he remembered why they had stumbled upon the other boy in the first place. "Oh, right, we're supposed to follow the lights in the forest somewhere, that's why we ran into you in the first place." James told Herbert, keeping an eye on Phantmon as he went over to investigate the new person in his usual, leg-circling fashion, "I guess they'll lead us somewhere safe? Or possibly somewhere we're needed."

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

As Kyle filled Herbert in on the details, Meital examined her digivice again, noting the gradual recovery of Isomon's health and energy before tapping the globe-like icon - shifting the screen that the device called a "Location Monitor". A hah! A map! was her first thought - complete with an indicator pointing out her location and some form of a radar that seemed to, at the moment, be tracking the other DIgivices in the vicinity. The rest of the screen suggested an option for tracking Digimon on the radar and something about setting map markers, but she couldn't think of a particular reason to set those. At least what she assumed to be a city in the distance was marked as exactly that - a city.

"Oh, right, we're supposed to follow the lights in the forest somewhere, that's why we ran into you in the first place. I guess they'll lead us somewhere safe? Or possibly somewhere we're needed."

Meital tilted her head to the side. Someone has been dozing off while the giant lion was explaining things.

"The light was Flaremon's, James." she explained "He used his light to guide us to where the other two signatures he detected were. The leaves in this forest are clearly some sort of fiber-optic material, so we could follow the beacon by how the light traveled through them. Now that we found the other tamers... well, tamer, now... the way isn't going to be so clear-cut."

She stretched, looking to the horizon.

"I think our best bet is to make for that city over there. If anything strange has been happening in the area, someone there might know."

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Kyle explained how these Digivices as they were called worked using his own as a demonstration for Herbert to follow along on. The analogy Kyle seemed most fond of was comparing the device’s functions to a videogame. He then showed Herbert that using the Power Boost was as simple as swiping it to Otamamon’s model and then tapping it.

“Woah, that felt weird!” Veemon said suddenly once Kyle activated the Energy Boost he had gotten.

“Let me try!” said Herbert enthusiastically. He tapped the Power Boost he equipped to Otamamon. Just as with Veemon, a beam of light shot from the Digivice giving the oversized tadpole a slight glow.

“Now that’s the stuff! I feel so much stronger now!” said Otamamon rearing back of his hind legs and waving his front legs in the air. “Perhaps having you Humon around isn’t such a bad thing after all.” he snarked.

Kyle then went on about how he and the others had arrived in the Digital World around the same time Herbert did only they had appeared at a lighthouse. Herbert thought he recognized the name ‘The Great Pharos of Alexandria’ from his social studies class last year, but why would that be in this world? Before he could ask, Kyle was already talking about a Digimon called Flaremon who had told the other group about Chaosmon and the Corruption and how the four of them were supposed to stop it with their Digimon partners.

The boy glanced over at Otamamon. He was supposed to tame that? Sure the two had warmed up to each other after battling Fangmon, but Herbert was skeptical about actually getting Otamamon to behave. Maybe the Digital World’s meaning of the word tamer wasn’t the same as being a lion tamer in a circus.

“Oh, right, we're supposed to follow the lights in the forest somewhere, that's why we ran into you in the first place. I guess they'll lead us somewhere safe? Or possibly somewhere we're needed.” James added while his partner, Phantmon, circled Herbert.

“Well hello there little fella.” Herbert greeted petting the miniature elephant. It would seem Digimon came in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Meital quickly corrected James by reminding him the light was supposed to lead to Herbert and Wyatt. After everything he heard, Herbert was sure that the Digital had sent Wyatt home for losing Ginghamon. If they had really been chosen to help, the least the Digital could do was save their lives if they lost their partners right?

“I think our best bet is to make for that city over there. If anything strange has been happening in the area, someone there might know.” Meital continued.

“That’s where Wyatt and I had been heading previously before we started getting attacked by Fangmon.” Herbert said. “I guess if y’all are in agreement we can keep going that way.”

 

[Rex]

Kyle hoped he hadn't gone too fast for the boy. Once he'd gotten going, it was hard to stop talking. If Herbert had any other questions, Kyle hoped he would voice them. For now, Herbert seemed to be following along well enough. Really, that was all anyone could ask for in this world.

According to Meital, there was a city nearby. Kyle fiddled with his Digivice until he managed to bring up the location tracker. The city was the only notable thing on the map, to be sure. And with the ocean at their backs, forward was the only way they could really go. Apparently, it was also the direction Herbert had been traveling with the other boy before Fangmon ambushed them. Hopefully nothing like that happened again.

"Don't jinx it again," Kyle muttered to himself, remembering the last time his thought process had gone that direction.

"Ya say somethin'?" Veemon asked.

"Oh! Uh..." the boy stuttered, pocketing his digivice, "The city nearby. Do you know anything about it?"

"Not a thing," the Digimon grinned, "Ah'm from further south, jus' wandered up here. Didn't even know the lighthouse was there, 'til we found it."

Looks like they were going in blind. No time like the present, Kyle supposed. He looked at Meital, "Lead on!"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Well, since our resident three-headed doge can't figure out even the most meager of posts and this RP needs to move its digital derriere, I guess I should break sequence and get some forme of a post running. Here we go!

With all in agreement, the four Tamers and their partners set off. They were obviously deeper inland now, where the forest gave way to plains stretching out towards some distant mountains, at the foot of which stood the city that they were making their way to. It appeared to be a reasonably large one, and Meital couldn't help but wonder how many Digimon congregate there and what form they took, not to mention how a city like this actually supported itself. More questions that hopefully the city itself would answer.

Occasionally glancing towards the map on her Digivice, Meital continued taking notes of her surroundings. The forest behind them and the mountains ahead of them appeared to be the most distinctive features of the area. The plains around them were, for the most part, covered in deep green grass of varying heights, interrupted in places by seemingly-random pale paths and patches of flowers, golden grasses and the occasional shrubs and small trees. Isomon appeared to take some interest in the plains as well - the crustacean Digimon kept its antennae close to the ground, occasionally dashing a short distance away to scan a patch of golden grass or a tree. Meital tilted her head to the side as her partner came back to her, giving it a quizzical look.

"Currents." it chirped.

"Currents?" Meital repeated.

"Energy currents. All over, but particularly strong around the golden patches. They flow all the way to the mountains... or is it from the mountains? Hard to tell, there are a lot of them." Isomon explained "I think it might go both ways, though."

"Hmm." Meital nodded, pausing for a minute to check her map. Much like a typical smartphone map, spreading and pinching gestures on the screen resulted in zooming in and out, respectively - and from a distant enough zoom, Meital could see that there was definitely more to the area than met the eye. Many of the golden patches and paths seemed to form nearly continuous lines, connecting and diverging - like an enormous printed circuit-board. That seemed to keep in line with what she saw of the Digital World so far - save for the alien sky, the environments they've been to always felt very natural, with only subtle hints and cues of the world's digital-composite nature.

As they traveled further from the forest and closer to the mountains, the land very gently sloped upwards and the terrain appeared to become rockier. Meital couldn't help but notice that some of the rocks had their own faint circuit-patterns - reflective inlets within the rocky matrix, micro-circuitry within the macro-circuit that was the plain itself. The faint path-segments they occasionally came across were steadily converging to a fairly distinct road, climbing towards the city. They were close enough to make out some detail of the nearest buildings by then - smaller dwellings seemingly half-formed from larger rocks. Another gradual transition, perhaps. And speaking of transitions - the sky was changing as well. Slowly, more and more streams of data joined the ones already ringing the sky, tinting the sky and the lands below it a vibrant orange as the circuit-clouds commenced a gradual shift towards a spectrum of more violet hues. The shifts and changes in the sky's internal patterns appeared to intensify as well - and Meital figured out that it might be a sign of increased activity. Was this a digital equivalent of a sunset? And if so, was there a digital equivalent of nightfall? The time setting on her Digivice seemed to support that idea, which meant that perhaps it would be prudent to pick up the pace a little more, if they wished to hit the city before sundown… Or whatever equivalent thereof existed here.

~*~​

As the density of rock-carved structures increased along the sides of the road, a great natural archway passing over it and connecting several uncarved rock-faces greeted the travelers to the city proper – at least Meital assumed that was what the alien runes carved upon its surface said. This was no language that she was aware of, though the markings certainly bore a resemblance to the ring of runes that served as a base for her partner’s hologram on the Digivice. A universal language of the Digital World, she assumed – and perhaps a new obstacle if they were to find some form of answers here. They would probably have to ask the locals – wherever they were.

For a city this size Meital expected more life – but as the group walked the streets, there was no sign of Digimon. No, that was not accurate – every once in a while she could swear she saw eyes watching them from within the buildings, perhaps warily. She assumed that these Digimon, if that is what they were, have never seen a human before and may have only heard of them. Something about the city seemed off and she couldn’t quite place it.

That is until the sharpened feathers struck the ground all around them.

“Stay where you are, strangers here unknown!” barked a voice followed by the sound of flapping wings as a small group of Digimon descended from the sky, surrounding the group.

They superficially resembled russet-and-white feathered birds of prey, as tall as a human child - though their proportions were not quite birdlike and their wing-arms were tipped with three long, sharp-looking black claws, like obsidian knives. A dark blue belt bearing a buckler shaped like a star set in a circle shape adorned the creatures’ heads, and in spite of their diminutive stature, the creatures seemed rather threatening – especially with their numeric advantage and the razor-sharp feathers which they proceeded to remove from the ground and wield at the ready, prepared to cast them again at the slightest provocation.

One of the avians – clearly the leader of the group, a more elaborate shield-shaped buckler on its belt and another feather set within it – surveyed the tamers and their partners with the kind of look of suspicion and disdain that seemed to be the universal mark of law enforcement.

“Well, then.” The creature spoke, in the tone of voice of one who was absolutely certain you were guilty of something, but have not yet figured out what it was and was somewhat bothered by it “Who might you be, and what’s your business in Wire?”

Isomon scuttled closer to its partner’s leg, hiding against it – these creatures were certainly making it nervous, a fact not lost on the leader. It was clear that unless the creature got its answer immediately, things could become volatile – and Meital was more than happy to provide one.

“My name is Meital Klein. I’m a Tamer, and so are the other humans in this group.” She responded “The Digimon with us are our partners.”

“Tamers? Here?!” the avian leader squawked in surprise, before regaining its composure “No offense, ma’am, but a claim this outlandish demands some sort of proof.”

“That sounds reasonable enough.” Meital nodded, holding up her Digivice for the bird-creature to see “This is my Digivice. The others have ones too.”

There was a moment of silence as the Digimon inspected the device and processed hand-signals from some of the other ones indicating the others had similar devices – at the end of which it appeared quite incredulous indeed.

“… Well, bust my beak and call me a Biyomon. This changes everything.” Said the creature, then turning to the other avians, lifted one hand and barked the order “At ease, ‘mon.”

Instantly, the rest of the flock relaxed, placing their sharpened feathers in their headbands. Noting the stand-down order has been followed, the leader placed its own weapon-feather by the side of the one already in its headband and let its raised hand drop to its side, nodding curtly.

“Welcome to our city, Tamers. We are Wire’s Hawkmon Police Force. Apologies for the cold reception - this city is not as safe as it used to be. So, what brings you here?”

“We’ve recently arrived in this world.” Meital nodded in return “This was the closest city to where we materialized, seemed as good a place to go in search of further directions - and considering the time, probably some food and shelter for the night - as any. But if you don’t mind me asking… why is this city not as safe as it used to be?”

The Hawkmon commander bowed its head down.

“Recently, Wire has been under constant attacks by a gang of bandits from somewhere in the mountains. We’ve sent a few squads to try to deal with them – but they were all overwhelmed. I lost a few good ‘Mon out there.” The avian sighed “They’ve been getting bolder and bolder lately… And their last attack put us all in even greater danger. But I think that you’d better hear the rest of the story from Buraimon, our mayor - he knows everything there is to know about this area. Perhaps he can help you in other ways, as well? I will take you to him, if you wish.”

"What do you think, guys?" Meital turned to her fellow Tamers "I'd say it's probably best we went with them and see what their mayor has to say, at least."

 

[Tailon]

James began to speak rather suddenly, "So, ok, we're going to go meet the mayor of a digital town populated by sentient data packets, who are now our friends and allies. Let's follow the nice hawk folks, because at this point I've processed all the information and the only conclusion is that we're actually in a place where that's a thing right now, and I have a tiny elephant friend..."

"Phantmon!" Phantmon interjected.

"Phantmon, yes, and also we barely know each other? I mean but yeah, ok, let's follow the nice hawk people," James concluded and then began walking in a direction, which, luckily for him, was the correct one, and the little group of Hawkmon quickly jumped into step and walked ahead of James so they could lead the group properly. Despite his outburst and semi-sarcastic tone, James didn't actually seem angry or annoyed, mostly just a bit twitchy. Perhaps he just needed some sleep.

 

[Rex]

The trek out of the forest was long and difficult. Kyle was in fairly good shape, his parents had assured that, but his loafers were seriously starting to hurt his feet. Finding better shoes would have to be a priority... If such a thing was even possible on this world. Humans weren't that common a thing, so finding footwear designed for human feet wasn't all that likely.

As they exited the forest into more of an open plain, Kyle got a good look at the mountains in the distance for the first time. They stretched as far as the eye could see. The relative silence of their walk allowed for Kyle's mind to wander. He wondered about the curvature of this world, and how that affected the horizon? This was a digital world after all. Was everything rendered at once in the form of a sphere? Or was the horizon Kyle could see the effect of a 'draw distance?' He was probably thinking too much like a video game again. Digimon were living creatures, and dangerous ones at that. There was no reason that the world would be any less real.

As they made their way into the foothills, the strange golden circuit board lines Isomon had been examining converged onto one road. Though it was something of a defined path, the trek uphill was no easier thanks to it. At least it meant they were going in the right direction, Kyle thought. They had been walking most of the day now, and it appeared whatever passed for a light source here was starting to go down. He was tired, and his stomach growled intermittently.

The city, when they finally reached it, appeared almost to be a ghost town. There was no one in the streets. Out of the corner of his eye, Kyle was almost sure he caught movement in the windows, but they were gone by the time he looked. Creepy.

"They're watchin' us," Veemon frowned.

"Huh?" Kyle frowned, "What do you mean?"

As if on cue, they were surrounded by a line of feathers. The owners of said feathers soon revealed themselves to be a bunch of avian Digimon. They all seemed to be the same species.

"Ah ain't done nothin'!" Veemon exclaimed, raising his hands.

These Digimon certainly seemed to be hostile to them. Thankfully, Meital took over introductions for them. She introduced them as Tamers, and showed her Digivice as proof of that. Kyle fumbled for his for a minute, before holding it up for the birds to see. That seemed to be proof enough for the Digimon, who relaxed. Veemon lowered his arms, breathing a sigh of relief. Kyle, meanwhile, pocketed his Digivice and listened intently to what the head of the birds - whom were all Hawkmon, as said sheriff introduced - had to say.

Apparently the city wasn't safe anymore. There was a bandit gang further into the mountains, and they had been attacking the city. The head Hawkmon had apparently lost a number of his troops to them. He wanted them to hear the full story from the mayor, though, who was a Digimon named Buraimon.

Meital posed the question to them. Did they want to meet the mayor? James answered first. He seemed... Rather jumpy, all of a sudden. Then he took off, apparently deciding for the rest of them. What was the matter with him all of a sudden?

"I guess we don't have much of a choice," Kyle replied to Meital, motioning towards James. "But it IS getting too late for us to keep moving. I'm getting kind of tired of walking. Not to mention hungry. The least we can do is hear this Buraimon out."

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Herbert continued to trudge along with what could only be called a Digimon World sunset occurred above him. It was so unnatural and alien yet familiar and beautiful like any sunset on Earth would be. It had almost been a day now. Surely his parents must be worried sick about him. They must have noticed his disappearance the night before. Or was it the night before? The Digivice had a different time on it when he first got it which was probably the correct time here. At any rate it had been several hours.

“Don’t fall behind slowpoke.” Otamamon taunted waddling ahead of the boy. Herbert took a deep breath as he continued to press on. Even though he was hungry and exhausted, he wasn’t going to let himself slow down the group. If an aquatic critter like Otamamon could continue along this far on land, then by golly he could keep going too. Besides, it looked like Kyle was as uncomfortable too, even if it seemed to be for a different reason.

At long last, after trekking through the forest travelling across vast plains, the group finally made it to the city. It certainly wasn’t what Herbert had been expecting. While he hadn’t really expected something on the scale of New York, he was at least expecting there to be people… er, Digimon around. Instead it was like a ghost town without any sign of life. Even so, Herbert couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.

As if answering his senses, several sharp feathers were thrown at their feet with a group of human-like bald eagles surrounding them seconds later. By the looks of them and the way they spoke they seemed like police.

“What? You looking for a fight birdbrains? C’mon I’ll take ya!” challenged Otamamon shaking his fist at them.

“Knock it off!” warned Herbert in a hushed agitated tone. Veemon also seemed to be over reacting, practically surrendering to them on the spot. At least Meital kept a cool head to negotiate with the bird Digimon police. Upon introducing the group as Tamers and showing her Digivice, Herbert pulled his out of his pocket for the nearest Digimon, Hawkmon as they were apparently called, to inspect.

“Wait. All y’all are named Hawkmon?” Herbert asked in confusion.

“Duh dumbass! All Digimon have their own name. Only you Humon insist on those weird nicknames.” Otamamon chided.

Rather than retort the amphibian’s jab, Herbert instead listened to what the Hawkmon sheriff had to say. Apparently the city of Wire was so quiet because of recent bandit attacks from the nearby mountains. That also explained why the Hawkmon were on patrol and so abrasive at first. They offered to take the Tamers to see the mayor, Buraimon, for the full story. Meital seemed interested in pursuing the full story but asked everyone else’s opinion first. James was quick to answer but in a rather spastic rant before taking the lead.

“Well he’s snapped.” Otamamon quipped snarkily.

“Quiet! He’s probably just tired like the rest of us.” Herbert said in defense of his new friend. At least he was hoping that was the case. Kyle answered next trying to negotiate food and shelter out of the deal.

“I’m with Kyle on that one.” Herbert agreed. Since the decision was unanimous it looked like they’d hopefully be having supper with the mayor. Maybe even spend the night. The boy wondered what this Buraimon was like.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Meital couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at James' sudden outburst - but she couldn't really blame him. The guy hasn't said much since the start of this crazy adventure and the reality of it seemed to only be sinking in for him now. Fortunately, it seemed that he was, at least, being reasonable about speaking to Buraimon, and so were the others.

So, for now, they followed the birds.

~*~

The Hawkmon Police lead the Tamers and their partners to a building at the center of the city which Meital could only assume was Wire's equivalent of a city hall - though it resembled some kind of an old-styled martial arts dojo or Japanese temple moreso than any city hall that she could think of - complete with the distinctive looking gate above the path leading into it. The building was surrounded by a large sandy courtyard styled like a minimalistic zen garden - rippling patterns of sand surrounding the occasional rock and plant formations. Here, too, was the digital element present - the patterns in the sand skirted the edge of organic flow and branching circuitry.

But what immediately drew Meital's eye was a large stone statue placed at the center of the courtyard - set in a plant-filled circular clearing in the stone path between the gate and the Dojo itself. If one could synthesize all the common elements one would expect to see in a temple garden into one object - this would be it. Surrounded by four, roughly diamond-shaped slabs of polished rock engraved with more digital symbols and the stylized images of what she recognized as the Four Sacred Beast Digimon stood a tall, branched structure that resembled a cross between a lantern and a cellular tower. Something about the material it was carved of seemed familiar - it resembled the marble that the interior of the Lighthouse was made of moreso than any rock that was native to this area. Unlike the lighthouse though, this structure felt inert somehow - and the moss that seemed to cover it did not help. Was this just an elaborate decoration? Or was there more to it?

The Hawkmon took position by the sides of the city hall's entrance as the leader gently knocked on the shōji door of the structure.

"Mayor Buraimon? A group of Tamers and their partners are here to see you."

There was a moment of silence as the screen doors were parted by a gust of wind from within.

"Enter, honored guests." said a gravelly voice from within.

The interior was as minimalist as the outside - tatami flooring, shelves bearing various ceremonial objects and stacks of paper, scrolls written in the same alien code hanging from support pillars, a variety of swords - And at the center of it all, seated in meditation, was a winged humanoid. Unlike the Hawkmon, this being was the height of a tall adult and had a more humanlike-physique, with a pair of muscular arms entirely separate to its wings. Its body, with the exception of its arms and feet, was covered in deep golden feathers and clad in loose red-and-gold clothing resembling those of a samurai, its eagle-like face covered by a tilted conical bamboo hat. A pair of sheathed katana rested by the meditating creature's sides, and it radiated an air of authority and detachment - like an old martial arts master, almost.

"I am Buraimon." said the creature "Chosen Mayor and Protector of this city of Wire. Please, be seated and introduce yourselves, if you may - I can tell you have traveled long, and we have much to discuss."

"I suppose I shall start." Meital responded and proceeded to sit cross-legged on the tatami mat in front of Buraimon. "My name is Meital Klein and my partner -" She gestured over to Isomon and the crustacean Digimon scuttled up to her lap and curled up on it like a strange plated cat, "Is Isomon."

 

[Tailon]

"Me next then, I guess," James said, sitting to Meital's right and pulling his knees up to his chest, "My name's Jaime Alvarado, most people call me James."

As James spoke, Phantmon had left his side, wandering cautiously toward Buraimon, and was now looking up at the large, eagle samurai Digimon from the spot where he sat.

"That little guy is Phantmon, apparently my partner, roughly puppy-sized, is an elephant," James told Buraimon, "Hope he's not bothering you."

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Herbert and the others were led to what could only be described as a Japanese palace. The building and the garden surrounding it were nothing like Herbert had ever seen before. It was all so breathtakingly beautiful. One structure that caught his attention seemed to be the centerpiece of the garden. It was a tall marble tower covered in moss that was surrounded by four smaller diamond shaped rocks. On each of the slabs were a dragon, a phoenix, a two headed turtle, and a tiger. Herbert wasn’t sure why, but the four beasts, as well as the centerpiece itself, seemed very important.

The Hawkmon took them inside the building where a huge humanoid eagle covered in gold feathers and wearing a red martial arts outfit and a straw hat with two swords by his side sat waiting for them.

“I am Buraimon, chosen Mayor and Protector of this city of Wire.” the Bird Digimon introduced in an authoritative voice. “Please, be seated and introduce yourselves, if you may - I can tell you have traveled long, and we have much to discuss.” he instructed.

Herbert took his seat on one of the mats on the floor as he was told. It felt so good to finally have a chance to rest again. Meital went first introducing herself and Isomon followed by James and Phantmon. James was still acting fidgety while the ever curious Phantmon was cautiously approaching Buraimon.

“My name is Herbert Zane and this is--”

“Otamamon!” interrupted the tadpole throwing up his arm to silence his partner. “I don’t need no Humon introducing me! So what do you have to say for yourself big guy?” he questioned completely ignoring the fact that Kyle and Veemon hadn’t spoken yet.

“Stop being so rude to people!” scolded Herbert. “I’m sorry for his behavior everyone.” he apologized to the others. Otamamon only stuck his tongue out in defiance.