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Chapter Text

There was little else the Wizardmon could do but run… Run from this creature that outclassed him so thoroughly, lest he inevitably become little more than scattered code for the behemoth to gobble up in an instant. Run to where? He didn’t know, he had no destination in mind, everything up ahead of him was dry rock as far as the eye could see, and behind? Well… turning back wasn’t exactly an option in the midst of this pursuit. If he wasn’t so terrified of getting caught, he’d have felt humiliated at that moment… What kind of Champion-level Digimon worth their salt fled from another of equal level like a terror-stricken child? …The sort that were smart enough to know they couldn’t fight back… that was just the way of it. Mind tricks didn’t work, illusions seemed to be broken as soon as they manifested, lightning seemed to bounce off of the monstrosity like water, and he simply didn’t have the time or energy to attempt a meteor squall, which would’ve been little more than a last-ditch effort in the first place. He simply had no immediate countermeasures for the green flare breath narrowly missing him, his cape continually getting singed from the immense heat. He’d known that green Coredramon were powerful, but to this extent? It seemed ludicrous! It should’ve run out of fire at some point, but it was still going strong.

“This… can’t be how it ends…” Wizardmon breathily thought aloud. “Some kind of spell has to work… something…” But as he racked his brain anxiously, he hadn’t realized that the Coredramon had gained on him, and he felt a searing pain across his back as the dragon’s claws made their mark. He toppled gracelessly to the rocky ground beneath him, where he could do little more than crawl away from the inevitable final blow.

As it happens however… sometimes those in terrible circumstances such as these catch a break or two… At that point the very atmosphere around them seemed to glitch erratically, and it caused the dragon to hesitate… just in time to witness a wormhole appearing before the two. The immense pull of this portal lifted Coredramon off its feet, the dragon growling and gnashing its teeth helplessly as it was flung out of their digital reality. Wizardmon’s sense of relief at this turn of events was quick to shift right back into dread however, when he noticed the wormhole wasn’t simply dissipating.

“…Oh, just lovely…” he muttered before similarly being dragged inside, en route to another world…

--

The Summertime months were always agonizing in this small Podunk midwestern town. With the way the world was going the temperatures only seemed to rise every passing year, and as he sat in a filth-ridden alleyway supplying what little adequate shade there was to go around, stewing in his own sweat, Art MacTavish began to realize just how much he had taken air conditioning for granted.

A couple months in, and the grand experiment of living on his own was in the midst of a colossal nosedive, threatening to make a crash-landing for total failure. The bills were always just a little too high and his paycheck was always just a little too thin… Costs had to be cut; necessities had to be treated like luxuries… It had gotten to the point where his apartment was making a sauna seem like a walk-in freezer. Every day when he wasn’t working, he was lurking around any shady spot outdoors like a vagrant… and his clothing likely wasn’t helping matters. In lieu of sunscreen he was covering himself in a ratty long coat and bucket hat he’d found at a thrift shop, with a simple t-shirt and jeans underneath, with a pair of sandals leaving his feet one of the very few parts of him open to the elements, along with his hands and occasionally his face if he was facing the sun. Sure, it all kept him from getting burnt, perhaps, but it wasn’t doing his body temperature any favors.

Chugging down the last of the water in a canteen he had slung over his shoulder, Art sighed at the thought of going out there in the beating sunlight just to find another public water fountain.

“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t…” he muttered, but only one option had the potential chance of staving off heat stroke, and so, resignedly he braced himself against the brick wall behind him to force his way back up to his feet. No sooner than the moment he pushed away from the wall did he suddenly hear a loud crash echo from the distance, nearly throwing him right back onto the pavement. As he stumbled to steady himself, there came another violent crash, smaller this time, but… from the sound of it, closer as well… coming from deeper within the alleyway. He’d turned in the direction of the sound just in time to see something flash out of sight, which he immediately dismissed as little more than a trick of the mind from the temperature. That being said, he couldn’t so easily use that excuse for the motionless… thing, which was now laying there on its own.

Sure, didn’t look like anything large enough to make such a ruckus, Art had thought, and perhaps not in the best condition to obey common sense, he edged his way closer to get a better view of whatever this thing was. He cringed once he got near enough to recognize the humanoid shape…

“Oh… Oh jeez… Did this guy fall off the roof or something?” he concernedly muttered aloud, looking up at the buildings surrounding him as if to see if there was anyone else up there. No one he could see… This guy was apparently on his own then… but from the looks of it he seemed to be breathing? Maybe the guy wasn’t beyond helping then…

“Hey… Hey buddy… You… you doing okay there?” Art asked, still trying to keep at least a couple meters distance, his arms cautiously outstretched.

He got a pained groan in response, and, putting his worries to the side for a moment, Art got closer to give the guy a hand, helping him sit up against the building. It was now that he was able to get a better look at this stranger who’d stumbled out from nowhere, and… well he certainly had a unique fashion sense. With the pointed hat, the cape, the many zippers in strange places along his jumpsuit, it all looked like he’d set himself up for Halloween about three months too early. Furthermore, he was… strangely small in stature, about the size of a child, but he otherwise looked not the least bit child-like from what he could see, and admittedly from how this man covered his face, that was not all that much.

For a while this mysterious costumed fellow stared weakly at nothing in particular, before forcing his eyes shut and opening them back up again. He looked over to the individual who’d apparently helped him out and attempted to look him over despite the limited lighting.

“…You’re… not a Digimon, are you?” came the first coherent vocal utterance from the man.

Art couldn’t say he’d ever heard himself be addressed as anything of the sort before, but then again, he’d never previously heard such a term whatsoever.

“…I assume I don’t look like one?” he replied, still noticeably dumbfounded.

“Well, simple appearances aren’t the best indicator for such a broad category, I was merely checking to see from your response if you were or not. Judging by that, it is clear that you are not,” he said.

“Uh… okay then, hope that’s not a problem… Look, buddy, I don’t know if you just took a nasty fall or what but, if you want me to get you back to whatever convention you were at, just point out where you need to go, alright?” Surely that was the case… Some con he didn’t know about must’ve sprung up and this guy was just a dedicated cosplayer. That was probably where this ‘Digimon’ nonsense was coming from as well.

“…Convention?” he asked, looking thoroughly puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite follow you.”

Oh… well, there went the rational explanation then… Art was clearly at a loss at this response, but, well… maybe the guy was just delirious and needed help getting back to Earth.

“I mean, you’re in costume and everything, right? This whole getup here? I don’t mean to offend or anything, it’s real good work but, come on, not like you wear that every day for no reason, right?” Such a choice of wardrobe would be even sillier than his own getup.

“…There something wrong with how I dress?” the guy asked, sounding genuinely insecure as if no one had ever made a fuss about it before this moment.

“I… I mean…” Good lord was this awkward now… How was he supposed to respond to that? This guy genuinely wore this wizardly getup all the time? “…It’s just, I can’t say I notice people choosing to dress themselves like this on a daily basis, that’s all.”

“Well I can assure you, this is very much the common attire for my sort, and I’d thank you not to belittle it,” he said in reply, standing up, brushing himself off and inspecting a rather eloquent looking staff with what appeared to be a golden egg-shaped pedometer with sun-like rays at the end of it.

“Right… sorry about that…” Art answered sheepishly. “…Your sort being… these ‘Digimon?’”

“Hmm? Oh, dear me no… Not all Digimon as a whole, definitely not. I mean more so my particular race of Digimon.” At that the mysterious figure seemed to realize he hadn’t formally introduced himself and held out a gloved hand to shake. “You may call me Wizardmon, as my kind are denoted. A pleasure to meet you, despite your curious reservations about my clothing aesthetics.”

“Art… Art MacTavish,” Art replied as he shook Wizardmon’s hand, looking just about ready to assume he had passed out from heat exhaustion quite some time ago and was undergoing one doozy of a fever dream.

“I see by your reactions that I have quite a bit to explain about myself,” Wizardmon said. He proceeded to go more into detail about these ‘Digital Monsters’ that came from the ‘Digital World’ and had a capacity to change forms under various circumstances. As for what insanely advanced technology could have possibly made a virtual world housing such creatures so complex as to walk among organic life in the real world? “Well, that I am sadly in the dark about. Whatever it was though, it likely had some part in bringing me here in the first place.”

“I mean… what were you doing when you got yourself dragged over here anyways?” Art asked, figuring a simple retracing of this digital fellow’s steps would be a good start at the very least.

“Oh, well, I was being pursued by a… Oh… oh dear… I’d nearly forgotten…” Wizardmon’s eyes looked close to bulging as the memory of that prior event hit him hard. “…Art, was it? I’m… afraid your home here might be in considerable danger…”

As if right on cue, a loud roar reverberated through the town at that moment, with the faint sound of police sirens soon accompanying it.

“...The hell was that?!” Art exclaimed as he reactively pinned himself against the wall.

“Another Digimon, and far less benevolent I’m afraid… Come on, we must hurry,” Wizardmon said as he grabbed Art’s hand and dragged him along, with deceptively good strength, out the alleyway into the blaring sun, but the current weather conditions weren’t so much the primary concern any longer. As they ran into the light, Art could get a better glimpse at just what Wizardmon was… and it was a little clearer now that he was indeed not human. If anything, his features made him more akin to a living scarecrow. Furthermore, he appeared to have quite the tear at his outfit from the back, with what looked to be intimidating claw marks.

“Uh… Wizardmon… you said you were running away from this thing? You mean to say you can’t fight it?” Art asked, feeling his stomach churn at the likeliness of a response confirming his suspicion.

“Sadly no… I tried, by all accounts I should have had more of a fighting chance against it, but something is giving its power levels a boost I suspect… probably had a hand in making it go on such an unprovoked rampage as well. That is why I will need your assistance.” Wizardmon’s statement caused Art to stop them both in their tracks in an instant.

“Woah… Okay, heh… buddy, I don’t know what you expect me to do. What is this thing, like, a bear, a wolf, something like that?”

Wizardmon shook his head. “Oh, no, certainly not. Coredramon’s a dragon,” he said as if it were hardly a stunning revelation. He likely realized the reality of the situation as soon as Art looked like he was having heart palpitations.

“…You mean to say there’s a dragon… on the loose… right now… and you expect me to be of any help. I’m thinking you may’ve hit your head a little too hard on the way over,” he said, looking about ready to just rush off on his own, but Wizardmon kept him in place.

“You misunderstand. I don’t expect you to fight it directly, but there is another way you might just be able to help. I’m correct in assuming your kind calls itself ‘human’ right? Well, there have been rumors over the years of your kind having the capability to empower us Digimon beyond our natural processes.”

Though he was still bewildered, and the temptation to flee in a panic wasn’t exactly gone, Art seemed a little less adamant on leaving, at least willing to hear this out.

“I believe the terminology for a human partner is ‘Tamer’, much as the phrase seems thoroughly demeaning on my end of the deal… I don’t know the process beyond that. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s all true or not, but I believe this could be the key to matching the strength of our adversary. If you simply agree to a partnership, something beneficial could very well happen.”

“So, what you’re saying is that we take this agreement as a leap of faith and hope for the best…” Art said in an attempt to summate Wizardmon’s theory. The wizard’s mostly concealed face simply gave a nod. “That’s what I was afraid of… but I take it it’s either we do that or this town becomes a graveyard…”

“If you want to save your home, there is but one path we can take, yes,” Wizardmon affirmed.

So much of this was completely deranged… but as much as Art wanted to doubt his senses and treat this as little more than a most-elaborate mental breakdown, he knew that would ultimately prove more foolish than just accepting this as truth. Hey… life-threatening or not it was more interesting than the initial water fountain quest.

“…Okay… alright I’ll go along with this, much as I’m terrified over where it’s gonna lead me… So… how are we gonna try to make this official?” he asked.

“Well time is short… so… here, put your hand out,” Wizardmon said. As Art did so, he in turn placed the staff in the human’s hand, as if it were the ritual to some more thought-out initiation. “I agree to this partnership, and accept this human as my Tamer… Now… you say your half of the it...”

“Okay… Then… I agree as well, and accept the responsibility as Tamer to this Digimon,” he said, attempting to be eloquent with it. As he finished speaking, there was silence… and then… more silence. Nothing.

“Uh… it didn’t do anything…” Art eventually said after a few minutes of zilch, only broken by the distant sounds of roaring and sirens.

“I can see that, Art…” Wizardmon grumbled in annoyance. “…This might be a little more difficult to manifest than I thought… Come on,” he took back his staff and once more began dragging the human through the streets.

“Where are you taking us now? That thing’s back in the other direction!” Art said, watching as several squads of police cars began to speed past them in said direction. “Those cars are from the next city over… what the hell has it done so far?” he wondered in horror.

“Likely in its confusion it’s started attacking everything around it… If others want to foolishly approach a threat like that unprepared, instead of more wisely running for their lives, it’s their prerogative… but we’re not going to be so idiotic ourselves. At the very least all that ruckus will give us time to figure something out.”

“Hey, dragons aren’t exactly seen as a common fact here, there aren’t exactly special emergency procedures for fire breathing monsters! Think you could be a little more considerate about people being in danger?” Art replied, sounding rather agitated.

“I don’t have time to pity them right now, and neither do you,” Wizardmon answered rather coldly as they came to a stop at a small forest in a public park. “Priority needs to be our figuring out how this tamer business works… All the tales and rumors said something similar, an agreement between human and Digimon… but perhaps it needs to be more than a simple exchange of words… perhaps it must have to resonate at a deeper level,” he surmised, pacing back and forth whilst Art continued to look back at the distant commotion.

“This is crazy… you really can’t do anything about this yourself?” he asked in disbelief.

“I’ve told you, I tried. The last resort I had was just to have it pursue me and keep it from attacking others.”

“Well, what the hell do you think is going on right now?!” Art said in frustration as he motioned over to the distant site of heavy smoke rising from around a street corner.

“Stop with the hysterics! Honestly, at this point I’m beginning to suspect the reason for our failed attempt is you in particular, panicking like that,” Wizardmon said, though this seemed to be the last straw for Art.

“Now you’re blaming me for something you seem to barely understand yourself… Of course… You know, I’ve only known you for a few minutes now, tops, and yet it’s becoming pretty clear how you view anyone who’s not a Digimon like yourself. Apparently, we’re just tools or liabilities… Well if that’s how you wanna view things, be my guest, but I’m not gonna stick around to listen to you anymore. People might be dying over there… I’m not gonna stay put, I’m gonna help them… or at least I’m gonna try,” he said before rushing off towards the smoke as another roar echoed through.

“Art! You’re just going to get yourself killed! Get back here!” Wizardmon shouted, raising his staff, ready to force the human to come to a stop… but then he paused. The human’s words began to resonate, and he realized how he was acting… Cold, uncaring, unsympathetic. Had that lack of relatability to these human creatures really made him so callous? He thought back to what led to this mess in the first place…

The Coredramon had burst its way into the village in which Wizardmon had been taking up residence, deep in his magical studies as his ilk so often were. The village, housing mostly rookie and in-training levels, had no chance of subduing such a rage-induced champion-level, so Wizardmon made it a point to lure the dragon away and take it down as to minimalize the casualties. He’d sent several blasts of fire and lightning its way until it eventually couldn’t ignore him. The chase had been on then… but Coredramon were deceptively fast… and… well… the spells hadn’t done him much good, and it had all devolved into little more than a deadly game of tag. He’d been willing to put himself in harm’s way then, even when it was clear he was outmatched… and now he was pulling a 180 and hiding away? While these helpless creatures were no doubt being tossed around like ragdolls… and one of them, some shabby young man with no weapons or physical skills to his name was still proving more heroic than he was, and his initial response was to attack the guy… He merely closed his eyes and shook his head. “Pathetic…”

Art turned the corner and saw the extent of the destruction… several buildings and structures were ablaze or reduced to rubble, vehicles had been flipped or crushed, and the vast majority of authorities weren’t even pursuing the cause, but instead simply trying to evacuate or rescue the people trapped within the various chunks of debris. It seemed everyone was too distracted to steer him away from the hazardous zone, so he took that chance to press further on to see if anyone had been missed. As he ran, drenched in sweat, dust and debris sticking to his face, he saw the restaurant in which he worked had been wiped out, firefighters still working to contain the flames. Not too far from there, someone had gotten their foot trapped in some rubble, and Art went to help pull them away from it. The man had gotten his foot crushed pretty bad… They’d need to get him to an ambulance. This was surreal… even ignoring the fact that some mythological creature made of digital code had caused all this, he never would’ve imagined the place in such a state. His brief trance was thrown off as another roar nearly shook the very ground he stood on… It was a lot louder this time… As Art turned in the direction of the sound, he saw what he was worried would turn up eventually… It was definitely a dragon, about the height of an average human, yet it looked no less intimidating.

“Th-that’s it… That… what is that thing?” the injured man slung around Art’s shoulder proclaimed in bewilderment. Art couldn’t even answer as he found himself in a staredown with the Coredramon. Perhaps it only lasted a few seconds in real time, but from the human’s perspective, the tense moment seemed to last for minutes on end… and then it suddenly began to charge. He was stuck… With an injured fellow and no real place to run or hide, Art was about ready to just close his eyes and prepare for a very painful last few moments on Earth… but before he could do so… a swarth of fireballs suddenly pelted the Coredramon in fierce succession, forcing the dragon’s attention upward. Art similarly looked up to see that Wizardmon had flown into the scene, his staff unrelentingly continuing to shoot out flames as he wobbled downwards before eventually coming to a landing next to him.

“You can fly?” Art asked, that somehow being the first question that surfaced from the chaos of his mind.

“Not too well… but I can if I need to, for short durations…” Wizardmon clarified. “Now… get moving, get that man to safety, I’ll try to keep this beast distracted.”

Art only briefly hesitated, giving the wizard Digimon a thankful nod before carrying the no-doubt baffled man over to the nearest squad of firefighters. “Don’t know what the hell just happened there but… thanks kid,” he managed to say before the squad carried him off.

“You ought’a come with us too,” one of them said to Art, but he shook his head.

“Can’t… not yet…” was all he said before running off before the firefighter could insist.

Just as before, Wizardmon’s attacks did little to slow down his foe. A sphere of thunder seemed to be deflected off the Coredramon’s tail and right back at him, nearly sending him careening backwards. It was then that he noticed Art had come back, looking upon the human with anxious confusion.

“What are you doing? You had an out! You know I can’t hold it off forever,” Wizardmon said, but Art stayed firmly put.

“You proved me wrong… Apparently you’re not so uncaring… I don’t know if there’s anything I can do but I said I would work with you earlier… and I’m gonna make good on that. One way or another that bastard’s gonna have to deal with us both,” Art said. Wizardmon still seemed worried, but, his face seemed to scrunch a little as if he were nonetheless smiling at this.

“You foolish human… Very well, we face it together then… Steel yourself for whatever comes, partner…”

At Wizardmon’s words, a sudden glow seemed to emanate around Art’s hand, and as he looked down, he saw a peculiar electronic device had suddenly manifested itself in his grasp. Distracted by this sudden turn of events, Art didn’t see the green fireball barreling his way, Wizardmon having to hastily push them both out of its range. It was then that he saw the device in the human’s grasp as well.

“A digivice… Then it is possible… and we’ve done it!” he proclaimed with a rejuvenated sense of hope. The screen on the digivice suddenly glowed, as the message of “Digivolution” scrolled across it. “Quick, press the button at the center!” Wizardmon said, and Art complied. As he did so, a beam of light fixated itself on Wizardmon. As he began to levitate, that same light suddenly bathed everything around them for an instant… and where Wizardmon had once been, there now appeared a different entity entirely… A much taller humanoid draped in desert robes floated above a large open book, their facial features almost entirely covered in shadow, minus two glowing yellow eyes. In its open hands were two spheres, one red and one yellow, with rings surrounding them both.

The Coredramon, though no doubt taken aback, let out another roar before letting loose its largest flare breath yet. This new figure didn’t move away from its spot, merely holding out one of its orbs. Suddenly the flames seem to freeze in place before vanishing.

“…Wizardmon?” Art said, unsure if what he was looking at was still the Digimon he’d been speaking to before.

The robed individual seemed to give him a light nod in the affirmative. “In this form, you may address me as Wisemon,” he said in a voice that indeed sounded quite similar, if perhaps more… echoey. Wisemon turned his attention swiftly back to Coredramon, still with the orb at the ready, and the flame reappeared… though this time turned against the creature that first spawned it. The flames knocked the dragon backward… and they were soon accompanied by numerous others, as if this mysterious new form had the capacity to merely copy and paste the attack over and over again. In rapid succession the flames didn’t stop and the Coredramon was eventually forced off its feet, knocked down and helpless to withstand the continual repetition of its own attack. The town itself seemed to be glowing a green light from the sheer amount of fire, and yet when Wisemon had finally finished the attack, it was as if said fire was never there from the start…

As the smoke cleared, in the place of the Coredramon was a much smaller creature that seemed almost like a draconic seahorse. It was unconscious, but appeared to still be breathing as something suddenly manifested itself out of it, some strange object that had a shadowy aura surrounding it. The object merely floated there for a moment before blinking out of sight.

The same light that glowed before suddenly happened again, and where Wisemon once floated… there was now a candle… As Art carefully pocketed the digivice and knelt down to observe the new entity, he saw that both the candle wax and the flame on top had a face, smiling back at him.

“Well… I’d say mission accomplished,” the candle said cheerily.

“Seems like it… but… what happened?” Art asked, naturally quite in need of answers.

“Digital Evolution… or perhaps you might call it Digivolution for short. That digivice of yours was able to transform me into a form with a more powerful level of data… though as you can see such power has its drawbacks afterwards… I’d nearly forgotten how being Candlemon was like… I fret it might take me a while to get back to Wizardmon…”

Candlemon’s explanation was then interrupted as another wormhole appeared from behind the unconscious mini dragon, pulling it in, and threatening to do the same to both the remaining Digimon and the human beside it. Grabbing Candlemon, Art used his freehand to cling to a streetlamp that had miraculously not been knocked over in the chaos that had transpired.

“W-what’s going on now?!” he shouted as any onlookers all ran for cover.

“That’s the same portal that carried us out from the digital world! I can only assume it’s looking to take me back!” Candlemon said.

“Take you back? But we just became a team! All that and it’s just over?” Art asked, clearly not too satisfied with that notion.

“…Perhaps not! You could come with me back to my world,” Candlemon suggested.

“Go with you to… to this Digital World? What, would I even survive in such a place?” Art asked, feeling his grip on both the lamppost and Digimon beginning to slip.

“Yes of course… I mean… I think so!” Candlemon said. Not the most convincing response but… well, he was running out of time to mull it over. “It’s your choice, Art! We could have plenty of exploring ahead of us… or this could be where we part ways… but you have to make that decision!”

Art looked out at the wreckage of the town he’d been struggling to live on his own through the past few months, and at what remained of his former place of employment… What was even left for him here? Sure, he had no idea what was on the other side of that wormhole, but… as terrifying as this debacle was, it had been an adventure… and he couldn’t say he was ready for those to come to an end.

“…Alright… partner… I’m with you,” he finally said. At that, Art released his grasp on the lamppost, giving his world one last glance before he and Candlemon, Tamer and Digimon, vanished into the portal that seemed to close as soon as they went in. As a small town of little notability would likely become the setting of news that would shake a world to its core, Art was about to see a very different world for himself.

Chapter Text

As he found himself laying on his back in the glaring sun, Art initially thought he must have just missed the portal. That brief concern that he was to be stuck in excruciating banality forever didn’t last, as he picked himself up to see that there was not a building in sight, wrecked, pristine or otherwise. The street had been replaced by rocky desert ground, and even the sunlight seemed strangely… different. How to describe it… It was still hot, but, in the faintest sense, something about it felt strangely… artificial.

He looked to see that Candlemon was still in his grasp, the Digimon seemingly just coming back to consciousness himself, using his melty wax-arms to stretch as if emerging from some long slumber. Frankly it was rather difficult to tell how much time passed when the last thing one remembered was warping from one world to another in an instant.

“Oh, good, you’re all in one piece. See, I told you you’d probably be fine,” Candlemon said as he turned his attention over to the human.

“Yeah… guess your vote of confidence wasn’t misplaced…” Art said with a hint of sarcasm as he rose to his feet, his companion leaping out of his grasp as he did so, observing their surroundings in more depth.

“Well… aside from everything looking a bit bigger, I’d say this is the exact same spot I’d been pulled away from,” the Digimon said as both he and Art took notice of the petite dragon creature that had finally regained consciousness, having apparently been pulled back to the same location this time as well. The creature looked to both figures with a semblance of confusion that rather quickly turned apologetic before it floated off on its own.

“Jeez… even looking past the whole change of appearance, you wouldn’t think that little guy was the least bit related to what you were fighting…” Art remarked as he kept his eyes on the retreating Digimon for a while longer.

“It leads me to believe something was forcing its control onto the poor sap. Some kind of nefarious means in which a Digimon is brought into such a destructive rage that can’t easily be quelled,” Candlemon surmised.

Art mulled it over and suddenly his attention shot back entirely to the living taper beside him. “Yeah… wait… I totally saw something floating out of the guy after you took it down… Like some kinda floating shadow ball or something.”

“Did you now? Then that only furthers my suspicions,” Candlemon said, all the more intrigued by this evidence. “I’d approach the little fellow about it, but… they don’t look like they’re quite in the mood for a chat. All the same, call it a hunch, I doubt they’re the only one that got inflicted. We’ll have to keep an eye out.”

Yes… keep an eye out indeed… but then, as Art took another look at this barren landscape, he began to wonder just what one usually had to look out for in a place like this.

“So… This is the Digital World, huh?” he said, still adjusting to the strangeness of the artificial sunlight.

“Well yes… but, don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not all some never-ending desert wasteland, in fact there’s a village just up in this direction,” Candlemon said as he began hopping his way forward, Art following closely behind. “I came to this region to train, you see… Strengthening the body as well as the mind. So often those who use magic find themselves unprepared when their attacks at a range aren’t enough. Have to be prepared for a counterattack to get through every so often.”

“I take it the crazy dragon running amok wasn’t part of the plan?” Art said, tossing the digivice casually in the air a few times.

“No… and for goodness sake be careful with that! That device is the most important thing you could hope to possess in this world!” Candlemon quipped with a stern wag of a finger. It all looked rather silly of course, a living wax stick acting in such a stern fashion, but Art still complied, stowing the device back in his pocket.

“Alright alright, don’t burn yourself out, I’m not gonna lose it…” he said, though something seemed to cross his mind at that moment. “…You know, you seem to somehow know so much about this stuff and yet not much at all at the same time…”

“It’s all rather puzzling, I know… I’m sorry if I come across as flip-floppy with this information, but most of what I’ve learned has come from word of mouth, or speculation. There are legends of your kind having visited the Digital World before, some say they never left, and they were said to possess digivices just like yours,” Candlemon attempted to explain.

“…Other humans have been dragged here before? So… you’re saying that whole portal thing isn’t without precedent?” Art questioned, suddenly taking the device out again at that as if looking to observe it in further detail now.

“That’s what has gone around… The rumors have been coming true so far, I’d say much of it has a basis in fact, though to know how much… well… that might be impossible unless we ran into those humans for ourselves.”

“Well I suppose it can’t hurt to have more folks familiar with my world around,” Art said with a shrug.

“Yeah… sure…” Candlemon muttered quietly, obviously not agreeing entirely to the sentiment for some reason, though before Art could question it, they were already stepping foot into the village. It seemed to pop out of nowhere, though Art’s focus hadn’t entirely been on the trail ahead in the first place. “Ah, good, we’re here!” Candlemon said with a quick surge of glee, though his cheerful smile seemed to ebb on both the flame and candlestick’s faces as they observed the condition of the place.

The village, constructed much like a frontier town out of a theme park, seemed almost as barren as the desert outside of it. The creaking sound of the wooden buildings went uncontested, beyond the occasional whistle of the wind or the swaying of signs hanging out of what Art could assume were shops of some kind. As they neared what appeared to be the center of town, the human decided to speak up after the two had walked mostly in similar silence.

“Hey… Candlemon, is it normal for a town like this to be so… y’know… riddled with bullet holes?” Indeed, the whole town seemed to be awash in the evidence of some massive gunfight, small holes punched into the walls of nearly every building they passed.

“…No… firearms aren’t the weapon of choice for the townsfolk in these parts…” he replied, eyeing the whole place suspiciously. “This isn’t at all how the place looked when I warded that Coredramon off…”

“Hey!” A voice seemed to squawk in their direction from the building to their left, the spitting image of some vintage saloon. Under the swinging doors there appeared to be a pink-feathered aviary creature calling to them. “You two! Get in here before he comes back!”

“Wha…who?” Art asked as he blinked in confusion.

“Perhaps we’d better ask when we’re inside,” Candlemon said, waving Art to follow as he hastily hopped his way towards the Saloon, his Tamer indeed not hesitating to go after him. Inside the tavern, the answer to where many of the villagers went was answered right away. Plenty of Digimon seemed huddled together. Art could see at least several variations of birds, a couple mammals, even a plant-creature or two in the collective, at least amongst the things that took on a semi-complex shape… Aside from them, there seemed to be a number of creatures that looked like little more than blobs of varying colors.

“You two must be visitors… Sorry, you dropped by at a really bad time…” The pink-feathered bird said as she nonetheless gave a sheepish wave in greeting with her wing, which seemed to have scarlet claws at the end.

Candlemon glanced at her for a moment before realization hit him.

“Ah, right, you’re the Biyomon I met before… I’m afraid you don’t recognize me, I’m the Wizardmon that dropped by earlier, though my recent reversion has made my appearance rather unfamiliar,” he said with a light wave of his own.

The bird, ‘Biyomon’ as Candlemon had labeled her, squinted for a moment as if in disbelief, but something seemed to click in her mind after looking at him long enough.

“What in blazes happened to you? And…” it was then that Biyomon shifted her attention to Art. “…Is that… You can’t be serious…”

“He’s a companion of mine, let’s just leave it at that,” Candlemon said, looking to swiftly re-rail the subject. “And what happened to me is a matter I can get into at a less dire time. What could’ve possibly driven you back into hiding so quickly?”

Biyomon continued to look at Art for a bit, still quite wary, but eventually seemed to pull her gaze back to Candlemon at his question. “Well, as soon as you lured away Coredramon, we were all cautiously making to return to our lives. Barely a moment passed when another stranger strolled in and just started opening fire on everyone. We all took cover as best as we could, and now we’re just hoping he’ll leave us be if we don’t draw his attention.”

“Who, may I ask? Did you get a glimpse of his identity?” Candlemon questioned.

“From the looks of it he must be a Deputymon,” replied the Biyomon.

“Are you certain? I know they can be rather cavalier but, such chaotic attacks on a town of innocents seems pretty atypical to say the least,” Candlemon said in slight disbelief.

“We would’ve thought the same, but, as it happens this one is all sorts of trigger-happy! We’ve all seen him with our own eyes!”

“HE’S COMING BACK!” Came a shout from a Digimon that looked more akin to a bald eagle to Art before he swooped for cover along with the rest of the occupants.

“We’d best get a look and see for sure while we have the chance,” Candlemon murmured, hopping towards the door, motioning for Art to follow. The human did so, though he kept low to the floor, crawling on his stomach to look up through the opening of the tavern entrance as a figure came passing by in spurred cowboy boots. From there, moving up to the rest of their bottom-half, he seemed quite normal, with a simple pair of blue jeans to complement the boots, though, once Art got to the figure’s torso… that’s where things took a jarring turn. His upper body seemed to make up a giant gun barrel, with spring-like arms, gloved hands grasping two more handguns. A ragged bandanna and a ten-gallon hat were all that one could make out for the creature’s head, said bandanna flowing back as a gust of wind passed through the village, the light whistle of the breeze only contested by the humanoid revolver’s footsteps.

Candlemon motioned Art to fall back as the gunman began to scout about for what one could assume was a new target. Art shuffled his way backward, cringing at the splintery wooden floor digging at him with each movement.

“Yes, no doubt about it, that’s a Deputymon…” Candlemon whispered as he similarly moved back with the others.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me with this guy… A gun… carrying more guns… Is that not a little overkill?” Art stated, mouth slightly agape at the sight he’d seen, something that likely could’ve fit right at home with a political cartoon.

“Oh, you’d be surprised. Those of us that use guns… well… they tend to pull out all the stops.”

Candlemon’s words were immediately followed by the sound of rapid gunfire, but the shots didn’t seem to be aimed at anything in particular, going off in different directions. After they ceased, there was a quiet pause… the footsteps emanated once more, and slowly faded.

“He should leave us alone for a few moments more now…” Biyomon said, fluttering over to check on the others, making sure no one had gotten hit by a stray shot.

“Have any of you attempted an escape?” Candlemon asked another nearby Digimon shaped like that of a bright yellow armadillo with fan-like ears.

“A few… but most of us didn’t have enough time. Deputymon’s quick on the draw. Anyone who makes a break for it is guaranteed to have to dodge some heavy firepower.”

“Yet he never bothers to walk into any of the buildings it seems…” Candlemon said, pondering this observation some more.

“Seems almost like he’s just staking a claim to all the territory outside… but what sense would that make?” Art asked.

“Little… But then… if the source of this violent behavior is coming from where I think it is, that might explain the lapse in this fellow’s logic,” Candlemon said with a knowing glance.

“Another one of those orbs then…” Art guessed.

“Precisely.”

Knowing the answer didn’t seem to make the human feel much better. “Then what the hell do we do? You’re stuck in this… lower form, I mean, I don’t know what this digivice I’ve got is capable of, but… I’d say it’s pretty high odds we won’t be able to get you back to Wisemon so easily again.”

“Likely not, but, like you said, you haven’t familiarized yourself with it… There’s no better time to learn,” Candlemon suggested. Art couldn’t necessarily argue with that, pulling out the digivice to observe it more keenly.

It was an egg-shaped device, not unlike the design at the end of Wizardmon’s staff, with a gold exterior to match, and a strange, rune-like language engraved around the upper end. The screen at first glance seemed like nothing more complex than something out of a calculator, with three buttons to access. It was much like the toys from the virtual pet craze decades prior… in fact, scarily accurate to those toys to his recollection, but obviously this wasn’t quite so simple in its function.

As his thumb hovered over the button at the middle, the screen didn’t respond, and indeed, pressing the button brought no response. However, as he moved to press the button on the left, the screen flashed the word ‘BEAM’ at him, and as he moved toward the button on the right, the word changed to ‘ID’. Admittedly ID seemed a little less suspect than BEAM, so, he decided to press the righthand button and the device seemed to briefly shake before a surprisingly visible green laser shot out of it, hitting the bald-eagle Digimon who’d last played sentry to the group, though he didn’t seem to react to the contact in any way. The seemingly simple screen suddenly projected a sort of holographic image, displaying the avian with the designation ‘Hawkmon, Rookie Level, Bird Type, Data Attribute’.

Directing the laser over to Candlemon, the features on screen changed in turn – ‘Candlemon, Rookie Level, Fire Type, Data Attribute’.

“Guess I should’ve guessed ID would be an identifier function… but I can’t make heads or tails out of most of the stuff it’s spewing here…” Art said, compelling Candlemon to take a look at the holographic image for himself.

“Ah… I believe I can help with that. Levels you can probably figure out most easily, essentially how much data we’re composed of, ergo our power and energy levels. We start as Digi-Eggs, then move up to Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, and, for most we stop at Champion, but, with enough time and effort, or, with outside forces involved, there are two more levels, Ultimate and Mega, but Digimon of that caliber are naturally of a rarer ilk.”

“So that would make Wizardmon your Champion form and Wisemon your Ultimate?” Art guessed after seemingly connecting the dots.

“Right you are… Now… regarding type, that’s mostly just what we look like or what we’re associated with… Birds, fire, dragons, wizards, and plenty of which I am still not-too-familiar with myself. Then there’s the matter of attributes… How to put this…” he took a moment, crossing his wax arms as both flame and candlestick gave a pondering look. “Attributes lump us mostly by a sort of… general personality. Data, Vaccine and Virus are the most common. Data tend to keep to their own personal endeavors; Vaccines are rather cavalier ‘greater-good’ sorts most often, and Viruses are typically aggressive and ruthless in their motives… but that is more a basic instinct thing for all three. You’ll find one’s attribute doesn’t speak for their alignment, especially considering it often changes when one digivolves.”

“…You sure know your stuff…” Art remarked. “This uh… common knowledge? How many of you Digimon figure all this stuff out?”

“Some, but not all. You’re lucky to have partnered up with someone so well-read, not that your choices were plentiful,” Candlemon said with a chuckle, but that was quickly broken off by the sound of more gunfire outside, everyone flinching and ducking for cover once again. “That Deputymon’s gonna leave all these poor Digimon cowering for the rest of their lives if we don’t stop him! What does that other button do?”

“I dunno… Just says ‘beam’ when I move toward pushing it,” Art explained.

“Beam…” Candlemon’s eyes narrowed in thought. “…Perhaps that is the key…” He proceeded to hop his way behind the bar, grabbing the first empty glass he saw and holding it out towards Art. “Right… try it on this first.”

Art raised the digivice up to aim at the glass, pressing the lefthand button. The device immediately fired a bright yellow beam of energy that seemed to pass harmlessly through the glass and out the tavern. The device gave a beeping sound and the screen showed a ‘3’ that suddenly changed to a ‘2’ before going blank again.

“Proves my assumption that it isn’t some destructive energy blast… I have a theory, and this might come across as a bit of a strange request, but… I want you to try hitting me with it now,” Candlemon said as he placed the glass down. As he figured, Art looked a little taken aback by such a request.

“…You understand I have reservations regarding shooting my partner with a beam we don’t fully know the capabilities of?” he said.

“Of course, but, I’m serious, you must trust me on this. I’m… mostly positive it won’t bring me any harm,” he said, continually proving that reassurance wasn’t his strong suit. Nonetheless, after some more understandable hesitation, Art merely let out a sigh and pointed the digivice up at Candlemon.

“Sure hope you’re right about that then… Okay… here goes…” Squinting his eyes as if prepared to immediately shut them at the first sign of carnage, Art pressed the left button again, another beam firing, but as it reached Candlemon, the light from which it was constructed came to a halt, surrounding him in its glow for a few moments before dissipating. Candlemon had merely closed his eyes, looking strangely tranquil.

“…So… what’s going on? What’re you feeling?” Art asked, still with some lingering concern.

“Quite calm, relaxed even… it’s as if getting hit with that beam brought any anxieties down quite drastically… which is another point for the theory I’m leaning towards.”

“And this theory… Care to… y’know… share it?” Art asked.

“That beam function could potentially force the orb out of that Deputymon on its own… I’d be willing to bet it’s a sort of clean-up tool, something that could remove such invasive substances from a Digimon without forcing us to overpower them through direct combat,” Candlemon said, running a hand along their face in a mock chin-stroking motion.

“So, we shoot him with the beam… and theoretically, if there’s some mind-controlling orb in him, it’ll just pop right out and, boom, rampage over?” Art said with a sort of look of hope that it would indeed be as simple as that.

“That is my hunch… maybe you can even get him from back here when he passes by… that doorway has a good amount of space to fire under,” Candlemon suggested.

“Okay… it’s worth a shot… Next time he comes around…” Art said in agreement, taking aim under the door, beads of sweat pouring down his face as he listened to the distant footsteps get steadily louder and louder until those spurred boots came back into view. Holding his breath, he fired the beam, the screen going from 1 to 0 as the light made its mark… “Is it… is it working?”

Candlemon looked closely, but, to his horror, he didn’t notice an orb of any kind leaving the Deputymon, who had come to a halt from the impact of the beam… but it hadn’t stopped him for long. Far from it… he had turned away from his near-mechanical pacing trail, heading straight for the tavern.

“He’s coming this way!” Hawkmon shouted.

“Art, shoot him again! Hurry!” Candlemon said as panic began to set in.

“I can’t!” the human shouted back as he continually pressed the button to no avail, the screen flashing a red image of the number 0 and a slowly growing progress bar beneath it. “It must have a limited number of shots before it has to recharge!”

Biyomon flew to the other side of the tavern, flapping her wings as a green, spiraling flame seemed to manifest around her, launching the fire attack into the closest wall, burning a large hole into it leading outside.

“Hawkmon, get the younger ones and make a break for it! The rest of us are gonna try to hold him off!” she said quite commandingly. The red-feathered bald eagle, despite clearly not looking too keen on abandoning his comrades, nonetheless complied, beckoning all the small, blob-like Digimon to evacuate through makeshift exit, looking back at the others for a moment before similarly making his escape while the remaining rookie levels readied themselves for battle.

Guilt-ridden that the scheme only served to place them all at greater risk, Art seemed to be trying to stammer out an apology.

“Candlemon, shut the human up and try to figure something out, ‘cause otherwise we’re all looking at a last stand right here!” Biyomon chirped just as the doors swung open. Without hesitation all the Digimon flung attacks at the Deputymon at once, and though nothing seemed to stagger his step, it was at least enough to keep him from easily firing a clean shot at anyone… for now.

Candlemon, for his part, stood in front of Art and began to rapidly fire globs of hot wax at their opponent, managing to coat one of Deputymon’s pistols just before it could get a shot off in their direction. “Is it ready yet?” he shouted to Art who had frantically kept watch on the Digivice.

“Not yet! We just need a few more seconds!” Art replied, watching the progress bar creep agonizingly closely towards full.

The collective efforts of the rookie Digimon were starting to falter, exhausting themselves with such a vicious assault, though Deputymon, despite being thoroughly distracted, wasn’t looking much worse for wear. To make matters worse, with one less handgun, he had resorted to firing from the barrel that composed of his chest, the large energy blasts knocking the Armadillomon back just as he had curled up and attempted to launch himself at the mutant revolver. Though he had fortunately not been entirely obliterated by the shot, from how he was helplessly wobbling on his back, near unresponsive, it wouldn’t take much to finish the job.

“Art, I hate to alarm you but we’re about to start seeing some casualties here, we’ve got to do something!” Candlemon shouted, having switched from lobbing wax to small embers of flame, likely tiring himself out by this point as well.

Art anxiously stared at his digivice screen. Still not enough time… but time was something they just didn’t have… Internally he pleaded with someone, something, anything, to give them a few more seconds… and as if to answer those prayers, the screen flashed the message “Digivolution” once more.

“Candlemon! Heads up!” Art shouted as he pressed the center button with haste, an intense ray of light hitting his partner and once more bathing the entire vicinity for a moment as Candlemon seemed to twirl about in the air before metamorphizing into a familiar humanoid shape. In an instant, Wizardmon was back on the scene, pulling down his pointy hat and drawing his staff, launching a ball of lightning towards Deputymon, the explosive energy ball finally managing to knock him backward.

“Ah, much better indeed,” Wizardmon said, clearly more comfortable being back in this state and, with some newfound rejuvenation, began to launch more attacks at Deputymon, the other Digimon taking this moment to stand down and recuperate.

As magic and gunfire began to collide over and over, Art knew this was only a temporary reprieve from their inevitable defeats. If this Deputymon was really under the same influence as the Coredramon, he’d take the upper-hand eventually… Fortunately, the digivolution was proving a lengthy enough diversion, and Art’s digivice flashed a blue light as the 0 turned back into a 3. Terrifying as it was to step into the line of fire, Art threw caution to the wind and ran up to get a closer view of Deputymon, firing another beam right at his gun-chest… but aside from flinching once more and getting knocked away by another of Wizardmon’s combustive spells, nothing came of it.

“It’s still not working!” Art cried out in frustration, tumbling backward as a shot narrowly grazed the side of his hat.

“Perhaps… there must be something we’re still neglecting…” Wizardmon muttered, already looking like he was beginning to tire, though his eyes seemed to nearly pop right out of their sockets as an epiphany struck. “Art! Perhaps you need to hit the location where the orb is situated!”

“Where would that be?”

“Look, any Deputymon I’ve ever seen has two yellow eyes peeking out from under their hat… but look at this one!” As Wizardmon spoke, he seemed to harness as much energy as he could conjure into his free hand which began to glow a bright violet, and Deputymon’s movements stiffened, temporarily pausing the chaos long enough for Art to notice that there were, in fact, no eyes at all between his hat and his bandanna. “You have to hit him squarely in the head. Quickly!”

Art took aim for the headshot and fired, but Wizardmon’s spell broke just in time for Deputymon to shift away. One shot left… Art knew if he missed here, they wouldn’t get another chance. He needed to make sure this last shot was point blank. Forcing himself to act on impulse, he ran right up to the Deputymon just as his pistol chest prepared for another devastating blast. Art let out a shaky battle cry as he jabbed the digivice right into the gunman’s blank face and fired the last beam.

All three combatants were blown back and a cloud of dust had kicked up, but through the blinding dust particles, a shadowy orb could be seen rising up into the air and blinking out of existence. As the smoke cleared, Deputymon remained flat on his back, his hat several feet behind him. Wizardmon looked to the other side of the battleground and saw that Art was still knocked prone as well, frantically moving over to his partner, but looking thoroughly relieved when, not only was there no sign of any outstanding injury like, say, a hole in the man’s chest, but he was quickly coming around, propping himself up with his elbows.

“Did it… Did it work?” the human asked, naturally a little delirious.

“Indeed it did… but I swear, you need to stop being such a damn fool! One shot from that barrel and that would’ve been it!” Wizardmon shouted, sounding like some concerned parent scolding their child.

“Hey, you know… I had to make sure that last shot landed. You think I was going to screw this up and doom the rest of you? I’ll take that gamble again if I have to,” Art said with thorough conviction, merely causing Wizardmon to clutch his own face in his gloved hand and shake his head, though Art could detect a faint chuckle rumbling from his concealed lips.

“…Seems I’ve picked quite the self-destructive Tamer indeed… Well, I’m just happy you were quicker on the draw when it counted,” he said, taking the human’s arm in his to pull him back up to his feet. The rest of the Digimon convened around them, but leapt backwards as they heard Deputymon let out a groan as he emerged from his unconscious state.

“Is he… Did you… well… fix him, or whatever?” Biyomon asked cautiously.

“I believe we did… There shouldn’t be anything to fear, but, to be safe, you lot might want to stand back until we make sure,” Wizardmon said, motioning for Art to approach their hopefully ex-foe as he put his hat back on his head and opened his now-fully-visible yellow eyes.

“Ah… what in Sam Hill…” Deputymon muttered in a distinctly movie-western accent, shaking his head to force himself fully back into lucidity. “Reckon that was a horrible nightmare… or… rather… one that came true…” he said upon coming to a steady realization over where he was and what had happened.

“You were under another’s influence, my friend, some invasive parasite that drove you into an uncontrollable rage,” Wizardmon explained. “What is it that you last recall before this ‘nightmare’ began?”

Deputymon’s eyes narrowed as he mulled that question over, doing his best to retrace his own steps. “Well… I’d been moseyin’ along from town to town, an’ I’d heard whispers of a village out in the desert area that was in need of more powerful Digimon to protect it… Reckon it was this very town here, so I’d set out to make my way over an’ offer my services as that protector… but then… somethin’ happened along the way… Ugh… Tarnation, every time I try to think about it everythin’ goes all hazy-like… but… there was someone there… they threw some kinda spherical thing at me and… from there it all turned into a dream I couldn’t wake myself up from…”

“Hmm… They were clever enough to ensure he couldn’t easily recall his attacker in detail…” Wizardmon murmured, subtly nodding as if he expected as much.

“Alls I know for sure is… it’s lookin’ like I’ve got a heckuva lot to make right with this here town…” Deputymon stated guiltily, looking over to Biyomon and the others. “If you’re fixin’ to lock me up an’ eat the key, I won’t be puttin’ up a fight. Just promise you’ll lend me a deck’a cards is all…”

Biyomon looked to Deputymon at that, but was quiet for at least a good minute.

“…If you were really under something else’s control, I think we can come to forgive you for this… Perhaps if you prove yourself trustworthy enough, we’ll be able to accept you in full as a citizen,” she said, seemingly lightening up her expressions at that. “After all it does seem that at least one person here has already proven they’re more trustworthy than we’d have expected,” she said, looking to Art specifically. “I think it’s best to warn you that you humans are much more known through rumors than any direct encounters… and I’m afraid those rumors don’t paint you in the friendliest of lights… You might not get the warmest reception wherever you travel… but I certainly hope you can convince them that you’re much more well-meaning… Thank you… Wizardmon’s judgement in companions seems sound.”

“Well ah… it’s no problem, don’t mention it,” Art replied with a humble chuckle.

From there, Wizardmon proceeded to use his magic to help repair the parts of the town that had been most thoroughly damaged, and soon after, he and Art were preparing to set off.

“Wait… Reckon there’s one more thing I ought’a tell ya… It’s kinda itchin’ at the back’a my head…” Deputymon said, halting them before they left. “Don’t know if it’s just lingerin’ stuff from that earlier mind-controllin’ fiasco, but… I keep seein’ this big ol’ estate standin’ on its own in some kinda big, dark forest northways,” he said as he pointed northward. “If you fellas need some kinda direction, maybe you can ride off an’ look for it yourself.”

“A suspicious mansion in the woods you say… I will admit that is certainly more my sort of forte,” Wizardmon quipped. “Thank you for that, Deputymon… and good luck, I certainly hope you and these people can move past this misunderstanding in time.”

“Reckon we’ll see. Thank ya kindly, Wizardmon… an’… Art, was it? Good luck to ya both as well,” he said with a wave of his hat, as the rest of the townsfolk, finally free to step outside, waved their collective goodbyes and well-wishes before Art and Wizardmon were out of sight.

“So we’re heading towards a haunted house… I mean, hey, it’s still more lively than a desert,” Art said humorously, though Wizardmon didn’t say anything in reply. Art looked over and saw that the Wizard Digimon had been clutching his chest with a clear look of discomfort in his eyes. “Hey… Everything okay over there?” Art asked with a growing sense of worry.

“…It’s… It’s fine, don’t fret…” Wizardmon answered, pausing to take a deep breath before continuing to walk in a more upright position. “Just a strange feeling for a moment there, but it’s passed.”
~~~
‘Good move, very good move,’ a message appeared on a monitor, its sender anonymous, its source seemingly untraceable.

‘I figured it was only a matter of time before you noticed,’ came the reply, popping up in a similar undisclosed fashion.

‘Oh, we’ve noticed we’ve had someone new to play with right from the start, don’t you fret about that. We just wanted to see if you were worth our time. You’ve certainly proven more than capable, in spite of having so few pieces on the board… yet your pieces attract reinforcements quite admirably, eh?’

‘Who are you?’

‘We could be any number of things, stranger, but we think we’ll leave you to figure that one out for yourself. After all, we’re much more interested in finding out who you are.’

A pause… no reply came for a moment. Whoever this was, they were evidently looking to be cautious about this.

‘I believe it would be for my best interests not to clue you in on that information.’

‘Oh, most definitely, but it will be so much fun when we finally get it out of you… and then we can have a nice chat face-to-face. We would enjoy that quite a bit.’

‘Whatever reason you have for all this corruption, I will not let you tarnish what we’ve worked so hard to maintain.’

‘Do you not consider what you’ve done to be a corruption in its own right? Sending yet another human into the Digital World, sending Digimon into the real world… toying with realities like that. You can point your finger at us all you want, but we think you’ve been plenty naughty yourself.’

‘Whatever measures I must take to stop you I will, don’t think you can guilt me into thinking otherwise.’

‘We’re happy to hear that, you wouldn’t be such a fun playmate if you broke so soon. Now, you’ve moved your pieces, and like we said, it was quite a good move indeed, but now it’s our turn again.’

‘Make your move. I’ll stop you each time, don’t think I can’t keep this up.’

‘Let’s put that to the test then, shall we? So exciting, and such high stakes too. Playing for the fate of two worlds is such a thrill. Don’t let us down, friend.’

The connection was severed in an instant, the messages seemed to blink out of sight, and the players set to continue their game.

Chapter Text

“This is insanity… You can’t contact him at all? Whatsoever?”

The entirety of the workers situated in the underground office space briefly turned their attention to the sound of growing irritation in their acting administrator’s voice before swiftly returning to their work, the vast majority of light in the room coming from their various flashing monitors reflecting off their eyewear of varying functionalities.

“It’s like I told you… He said he’d be occupied for an indefinite amount of time. Top-level confidentiality, couldn’t tell me, you or anyone else. There’s nothing we can do right now,” came the response from the man who’d actually been asked the question, sitting beside an unoccupied table with the only computer in the room that wasn’t presently up and running.

“Helluva time for the boss to isolate himself…” Yet, it wasn’t the first time Cara’s superior stowed himself away, and from how her colleague merely shrugged his shoulders resignedly, it was clear he just expected this to happen on occasion as well. Still, the circumstances were different this time, compared to all the others. “You’re seeing just how many news outlets are picking this little story up, aren’t you?” Cara asked, getting another shrug. “It’s not just fluff for the local papers, Mateo, they’ve got this plastered all over the evening news reports!”

She took out her smartphone and rapidly tapped at the screen before shoving it in front of Mateo’s face to make sure he couldn’t ignore it. On screen the news article read ‘Dragon Attacks Midwestern Town (No, we’re serious)’ with a shaky video covering a distant shot of a particular green dragon laying waste to the unfortunate city structures around it. Mateo lightly batted it away.

“I’ve seen it, almost as many times as you have, Cara, believe me,” Mateo said.

“Then why aren’t you taking this more seriously? You understand what our job is, right?”

“Yes, I understand our job.” Mateo sounded much more irritated himself at this remark.

“Then what the hell is a Digimon doing out here in our world, setting fire to buildings and getting caught on camera?” Cara asked with more exasperation than ever. “Don’t even get me started about that poor bastard that got dragged into the portal, like we needed another one of those on our consciences.”

This all seemed enough to motivate Mateo out of his chair. “Cara, for starters, let me remind you what your own species is like. Even the most superstitious conspiracy nut can only buy into so much. See, we’ve got this whole idea of rationality that can very quickly turn into little more than blatant denial, especially in the face of something so unbelievable. All anyone can muster up for evidence are distant shots obscured in dust clouds and amateur smartphone recordings. We’ve already got people moving around the clock to stifle the spread of it, sooner or later the doubt will start creeping in if it hasn’t already, and people will pass the whole thing off as just a bunch of delirium after a tragic but explainable incident.”

“But that young man isn’t gonna be ‘rationalizing’ himself back anytime soon…” Cara retorted, clearly showing more concern about that than she may have let on before.

“…I feel bad about it, don’t get me wrong… but it’s not gonna be like before, it can’t be, Alvi wouldn’t let another muck-up like that happen,” Mateo said, his irritation having faded off into a curious degree of optimism.

Cara sighed and steadied herself against her cohort’s table as she shook her head. “Yet another difference between us… I still think you trust our employer just a little too much.”

“And I still think you ought to trust him a bit more. The guy’s a bit kooky, no doubt, but he’s the head Programmer for a reason. Whatever it is that he’s doing almost certainly has to do with all that’s been going down. We just have to stay the course until something else happens. Trust me Cara, this isn’t the end of the world quite yet.”

Cara didn’t say anything after that, merely letting out a quiet sigh as she went back to her own desk and resituated herself back to her workspace. Her computer monitor, like all the others in the isolated office, projected numerous visuals of landscapes and towns, some more populated than others. A variety of Digimon were going about their days however they pleased, unbeknownst of the monitoring eyes that watched over so many of them from another world.

Then… there came a sudden shout from the midst of the room as one of the office workers rose from his chair with a jolt, nearly knocking over his peers from the unexpected exclamation.

“I found them!”

“Found them? Who?” Cara asked as she and Mateo scurried over to their subordinate’s workstation. His monitor had caught sight of a certain human and his cloaked digital companion, having just crossed over from a desert region to a much grassier terrain giving way to a lush forest just up ahead.

“I’ll be damned, that’s him!” Mateo said after leaning closer to the screen. The young man they had just been fretting about… by sheer luck this small collective of monitors had been observing their location, not an easy task with the Digital World as massive as it was, and continually expanding to boot. “Ah… he’s still with the Wizardmon…” Mateo stated with a sense of unease. He looked to Cara who seemed to share that sense of internal conflict.

“We can’t jump to the conclusion that this is exactly the same scenario…” she nonetheless murmured in reply.

“No… but we only have one instance of Tamer experience to go by… multiple examples in that one instance, and now they’ve all been deemed a lost cause…” A short silence followed before he turned his focus back to the man who had spotted the duo in the first place. “Link this camera over to Cara and me… We’re gonna need to make sure these two keep within our sights at all times. Soon as Mr. Alvi is available, he’ll need to be informed of this, but until then we can at least make note of what’s going on.”

“They seem to have some idea over where they’re headed…” Cara said as she observed the way the two were walking with the sort of determined pace that inferred they were hardly just wandering aimlessly. “Let’s see if we can get a grasp on their destination.”

The co-admins both split off back to their own workstations as the link was sent to them, Mateo staying the course and keeping a close eye on the duo, while Cara attempted to predict their course of travel. For a moment everything seemed to return to its usual level of quiet in the room, though the silence couldn’t last for long.

“…Oh, shit…” Cara suddenly remarked.

“What’d you find?” Mateo asked her.

“Well for starters, there’s a strong reading similar to what was emanating from that Coredramon… It’s coming from a large mansion up ahead of them.”

“They must be on some kind of virus purge… You think it’s gonna be too much for them?”

Cara shook her head. “That’s not what I’m worried about. I did a scan on the house. They’re not going to be the first to converge on this place… we’ve got at least six others waiting for them, and if the scanner’s accurate, half of them aren’t necessarily Digimon…”

Mateo’s eyes widened, suddenly sharing a very similar feeling of dread. “You’ve gotta be kidding me… We didn’t just find them too…”

--

“Finally, some green… Thought we were never gonna see another tree or a blade of grass again, that desert just kept going…” Art said, feeling a great sense of relief as he and Wizardmon walked along a meadow, making their way towards the forest up ahead of them.

“I cannot deny there’s a calming feeling to be had here… In a way this reminds me of my old home of Witchelny,” Wizardmon quipped, immediately catching his tamer’s attention with that remark.

“Witchelny?” he asked. “Where’s that?”

“Quite literally a world apart… In that way you and I are rather alike in that regard. I am not native to what a great many would call ‘the Digital World’,” Wizardmon began to explain as the light around them began to dim from the increasing shade of the trees their path led through. “My homeworld specialized in magical teachings. Those who had the capacity to learn and harness such a power were sent to study in a school specifically designed for such. The ambitious and hardworking were naturally the most favored in such an environment, led to some real rigorous study sessions, I can tell you... but those days are but a distant memory for me now.”

As the dry, arid heat gave way to a much more humid air, Art took a moment to let these new facts sink in.

“An entirely different world… but… you’re still a Digimon, yeah?”

“Yes… That is, admittedly, one major difference between our origin points… Alternate world or not, Witchelny was still very much a digital world in its own right. Very closely connected in its own way as well… hence why we had a capacity to travel to this world in the first place. A very powerful form of portal magic, that. I must say that Witchelny was much more peaceful as a whole, but that’s why those like myself travel to this world in the first place. Greater sense of danger, ideal for testing one’s knowledge and resolve… and a good mage needs both in spades.”

Art nodded as they continued walking, the limited light around them starting to get dimmer whilst the air cooled substantially. Moments later, they could both feel tiny droplets of rain breach the leafy barricade and patter along the ground.

“Huh… could’ve sworn there wasn’t a cloud in the sky…” the human said in mild surprise as he held a hand out to catch the digital water droplets, feeling very much like the real thing.

“Weather’s not always so consistent when you move about from place to place… If our destination’s truly some kind of haunted abode, then it would make sense for it to be stuck in some kind of perpetually gloomy condition,” Wizardmon commented, a clap of distant thunder echoing through the trees to affirm his presumption.

Art felt increasingly thankful for his coat as the rain grew heavier with each pace. By the time the forest had cleared and the manor that they were seeking came into view, they were being drenched in a vicious downpour, lightning decorating the sky, illuminating a mansion that did indeed check off many a box for a spooky venue from the exterior site alone. Hastily both Art and Wizardmon rushed to the front door, the entrance unlocked, the double-doors swinging open, much more easily than one would expect from the size of the ornate-looking entryway.

This first room appeared to be a massive foyer, dimly lit by candles lining the two flights of stairs from both sides of the house, black carpeting creeping up the steps and down the halls that seemed to have nary a door to another room in sight, unless, perhaps, one were to venture further, beyond what they could see from such a vantage point. There was merely one set of doors visible where the two stood, straight ahead. The intense rattling of the inclement weather outside could be heard at a hushed, yet still plainly audible volume.

“So… That back there… that’s nothing out of the ordinary?” Art asked incredulously as he rapidly fanned his waterlogged hat in the air.

“Perhaps I… wouldn’t quite go that far in this case…” Wizardmon admitted, pointing his staff at himself, a gust of wind blowing in his own attempt at drying himself off somewhat. “I can only assume that something is disturbing the overall balance of this place, more than likely connected to what that Deputymon was having so much trouble remembering about it. I fret this house might not be able to weather through such a storm if it continues to go on so relentlessly.” As he spoke, a particularly loud crackle of thunder blasted from outside. The sound of the rafters above them, creaking and clattering, only served as greater evidence that the mansion was taking quite the beating.

“Well then… we’d better get to the investigating, huh?” Art suggested, though Wizardmon didn’t respond. Looking over to him, Art saw the Digimon clutching at his chest again, dropping down to a knee as he tried to steady himself with his staff. “Crap… This again… Wizardmon, what’s going on here? What’s wrong?” Art asked concernedly as he similarly knelt down, looking to try and find some kind of noticeable cause, but considering his obvious lack of experience with Digimon anatomy, if they even had such a thing, there was little he could do and he unfortunately knew it.

“I… Don’t know…” Wizardmon could barely manage to get out before collapsing to the floor, just as Art’s digivice began to beep loudly, the human looking to it as the screen glowed with the message:

DATA ERROR: DEVOLUTION MANDATORY

Sure enough, a familiar light surrounded the near-unresponsive Wizardmon, and Candlemon reappeared in his place, pushing himself back up from the ground, looking terribly dazed and confused.

“…I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume this doesn’t happen to you on the regular…” Art said as he showed his partner the screen, still flashing the message for a few moments more.

“You’d be right… I don’t know what’s causing this… A ‘data error’…” He paused, contemplative, before letting out a sigh. “I suppose in a way that’s what it felt like… Like there was too much of me, too little energy to go around… I felt strained… and now we are most certainly in a pickle…”

To that, Art couldn’t agree more. If there was another one of those possessed Digimon roaming these halls, it was a good bet it would be a creature of great power and ruthlessness like the previous two. Wizardmon had enough trouble facing such a foe down… With Candlemon they’d be lucky to prolong a massacre beyond a couple minutes.

“I’d suggest for us a quick retreat, but that heavy rain’s a death sentence for me in this form,” the rookie-level Digimon lamented.

“Yeah…” Art muttered, a little delayed on the uptake, though he eventually processed what that meant, looking a little paler at the notion. “Wait… are you talking literally?”

“Yes, quite literally, Art… See… that’s something of a drawback to this particular stage. If the flame goes out, so do I, and there’s no relighting that mistake. Then you’re stuck on your own until I’m reborn somewhere, and I doubt you have the time or patience to wait for me to get all my memories back from such a journey.”

“Point made…” Art said as they cautiously crept their way towards the waiting doors up ahead. “Still… for what it’s worth, it’s kinda nice to know death isn’t so final for you, y’know, in that worst-case-scenario.”

“Hate to break it to you but that’s not the worst-case-scenario at all…” Candlemon said, quick to correct his tamer, sounding plentifully grim as he did so. “Sometimes the code that we’re made of doesn’t make it back to an egg to get reincarnated in the first place… Sometimes the very cause of one’s demise seals the deal… Doesn’t take much effort to absorb a fallen Digimon’s code before it can fly off…”

At that they heard another loud noise emanate through the manor, sounding nothing like thunder… More like the anguished roar of a beast, though one that Art couldn’t hope to compare to any singular creature hailing from his reality.

“…You’re going to have to play the crack shot again, I hope you realize,” Candlemon said as Art shakily reached for the door.

“Yeah… I kinda figured that out for myself…” Art replied, clearly not too thankful for the reminder.

--

“Thought we had this place to ourselves, Knox…”

“We did… You can’t expect me to predict when others decide to play trespasser the same time we do. I’m not psychic, Raka, by now I’d think you’d have figured out something as simple as that.”

Huddled in a dark corner of the storm-ridden mansion, two figures draped in plain, dark fabrics, covering almost the entirety of their bodies, stayed as perfectly still as possible, though whilst they were struggling to hold back any movement, they apparently still had plenty of time to bicker in hushed tones. Their respective companions were reacting to this in contrasting fashion.

“Please… now is not the time for you two to go on another of these pointless quibbles…” The voice of disapproval came from a large humanoid fox with greyish fur, clothed in an ornate outfit one might expect to see from one well-versed in a traditional spiritual or occultist philosophy, especially with the taijitu symbol so plainly evident at the chest and the two plates attached to its shoulders.

“Ah, come on now, don’t go spoilin’ the fun, you killjoy.” This difference in opinion stemmed from a tall fellow in a purple pinstripe suit, underneath a flowing grey jacket with a red scarf. Their face looked as if a human head with long white locks of hair had been halfway-devoured by an expertly crafted demon mask, their mouth region being all that remained, smiling a particularly toothy grin. “Let ‘em squabble, beats doin’ nothin’.”

“We’re trying to avoid being so easily detected… do you not see how a petty argument could get in the way of that?” the fox creature asked, their tone particularly condescending.

“You say… as you carry out one of those ‘petty arguments’ yourself,” the pinstriped demon countered with a smirk.

“Alright, just shut up, all of you,” spat out the cloaked figure who had been addressed simply as ‘Knox’ by their counterpart. “Obviously we ran into a hitch… but we’ll deal with it, like always. So it’s not just a simple small-time specter cleanup… So what? This crap’s still well below our league, we just can’t afford to be careless is all…”

“Yeah, maybe… but Knox, look at the damn thing…” The one addressed as ‘Raka’ retorted. Standing in the midst of the spacious, yet poorly lit, ballroom was a fierce sort of creature that seemed to be some kind of dragon or reptilian, though it was covered almost entirely in a blood red inferno that seemed to burn perpetually all around it. The only parts not completely set ablaze were the creature’s sharp claws, three to a hand, and the metallic plating fastened to its skull. It paced the center of the ballroom, though it seemed entirely unaware of its present onlookers, who mostly seemed adamant on keeping it that way for now. “It ain’t ever exactly a picnic, dealing with a Darklizardmon, but… I dunno, something’s real fishy here... I can just kinda tell something’s up with this one.”

“Yeah well… so long as it doesn’t find us or Viteri, we’ll have time to work something out. You know he’s not the type to act until we do,” Knox said. “Now… keep quiet… Soon as it turns around and passes us by, we’ll take it by surprise.”

The Darklizardmon was walking towards the door at the end of the room. If its previous pattern of momentum was anything to go by, Knox knew it would sooner or later stop, turn around and go right back to its pacing like a guard at their post.

“Alright… We’ll go with the usual scheme here… Doumon will do the trapping…” They looked to the fox creature, who gave a subtle nod. “…Once it’s detained, Raka, send Astamon in to blow the bastard away.” The pinstriped demon-man looked delighted as a giant Thompson-like machine gun materialized in his hands. “If all goes well, Yatakaramon will swoop in and finish the job… Now… places… Any minute now…”

Footstep after footstep, the flame-covered lizard continued to move closer to the door… then it finally came to a halt. Turning around, it began its pace back to the other end of the room, Knox holding a hand up, waiting for just the right moment, when it would just pass their hidden vicinity. Closer… closer…

A creak at the door…

The monstrous entity paused.

Mere inches away…

It turned back around, its focus entirely drawn to those who had called such attention to their entrance.

Knox cursed under their breath. What nosy little critter was being so idiotic? Some foolish Digimon using a Candlemon for a light source? And wearing ratty clothes like that… with... Wait…

Knox’s eyes widened. Beside them, Raka looked about ready to pass out, holding their breath to keep from shouting. From an indecipherable corner of the room a faint gasp echoed, no doubt the one they called ‘Viteri.’ The Darklizardmon paid no heed though, its eyes were squarely focused on the human and Candlemon that were right in its line of sight, letting out another hideous roar, causing the entire ballroom to rattle.

“Raka… You’re seeing this, right? That’s... that’s a human right there?” Knox asked in a near-breathless whisper. They didn’t expect an actual response, and Raka was still too thrown off to give one.

“Heh… now this… This is interestin’…” Astamon quipped.

--

He’d opened the door, and immediately Art regretted doing so, as a giant Digimon, awash in deep red fire, was right there to greet them with another roar, now entirely audible, nearly knocking the human right onto the floor from the sheer force of it emanating directly at him.

“Art… RUN!” Candlemon anxiously shouted.

“Where?!” Art heard himself ask, though the fear that had stricken him made it feel like he’d only half-consciously said it.

“Anywhere! Just get out of the way!” Candlemon replied, slapping Art across the head a couple of times to get the point across.

Fortunately, Art was able to get his legs moving in time to narrowly avoid a blast of what appeared to be, contradictory as it seemed, dark fire, shot from the creature’s mouth, hitting the spot where he’d just stood and quickly spreading from impact. Art stumbled but kept his footing, scrambling to a nearby pillar and hiding behind it.

“Darklizardmon… of all the beasts we had to deal with…” Candlemon said, immensely dissatisfied by this revelation. Art moved him just enough to peer around to see what it was doing next. “…Get down!”

Art ducked down just in time to avoid the Darklizardmon’s jaws bursting through the pillar, gnashing at what it had hoped would be the human’s head. Art made sure to scramble further away as the fiery Digimon struggled to pull itself back out, causing much of the room to shake, plaster from the ceiling beginning to shower down.

Art let out a steady stream of terror-filled expletives as he ran to the far end of the ballroom, knocking aside tables and chairs, though finding no sign of another entrance or exit at the far end.

“Oh god… What do we do here?!” he asked in a panic as he saw their foe finally pull away from its brief structural hinderance and resume its pursuit.

“Good chance it’s got one of those orbs in it… We’re just going to have to get it out. It’s the only option we’ve got right now!” Candlemon said.

Art fished through his pockets for his digivice.

Darklizardmon was halfway across the room by then.

He felt the digivice in his hands, but in his panic, it slipped from his grasp.

The creature was getting closer by the second.

Art pressed his back against the wall. Finally, he had a grip on the digivice. He aimed… but…

“Shit… Where do I shoot?!” He couldn’t spot any glaring irregularity… No, too late, he needed to get out of the way again, but it was already lunging at him… Reflexively all he could do was flinch and cover his face. Candlemon helplessly aimed to strike what would almost certainly be a futile glancing blow of an attack on the beast, not expecting much to come out of it, but having little more he could do to help his cornered tamer.

They both braced for oblivion… only for another party to make their move at that exact moment.

Suddenly the Darklizardmon was stuck in a strange sort of haze, wandering about in a sort of confusion as if it no longer had any idea where it was.

“…Candlemon… What just happened?” Art asked as he shuffled further away from the Digimon now aimlessly wandering about.

“Some kind of barrier must have been placed…” Candlemon answered, eyeing the situation contemplatively. “Must be messing with our foe’s mind in a way. Could be any number of illusionary or mind-controlling abilities frankly… but more importantly, it appears we’re not quite so alone in this skirmish…”

They didn’t have to wait to see the truth in this observation, as a Digimon wielding a machine gun leapt his way onto the scene and opened fire on the Darklizardmon, causing it to howl in pain, and leaving Candlemon to notice something most definitely out of the ordinary as the dark fire dragon opened its mouth.

“Art, look… its mouth is a complete abyss… No tongue, no back teeth, just a void. That must be where the orb is!”

Art managed to see what Candlemon was talking about before the Darklizardmon clamped its mouth back shut, and though he was understandably still quite shaken up, he nodded his understanding of what he had to do, preparing to aim his digivice once more. Whoever was assisting them, he figured, would surely continue their assault. He was, of course, correct in this assumption, as an eldritch, raven-like Digimon with three legs suddenly swooped from above, blasting its target with beams coming from the gold-covered weapons attached to its wings. The blasted section of the helpless creature seemed to break down into nothingness as if its very cells were being disassembled. It let out another anguished scream and Art took the shot, the beam hitting the Darklizardmon squarely in its mouth.

The now-familiar-looking shadowy orb was ejected from the draconic creature’s jaw, vanishing in an instant as the others had. Their foe collapsed to the floor with a great thud. The dark flames around them died down, and the storm outside seemed to be calming significantly as well.

“Quite an oddity… It’s as if these orbs can be so influential as to affect the very environment of those afflicted long enough…” Candlemon commented with intrigue. “…Though that’s something we can likely ponder later… Presently, there’s the matter of our unexpected rescuers.”

Three Digimon of fairly towering proportions stood nearby, the poor lighting draping them all in slight obscurity. Art quickly pointed his digivice at them, letting the ID application do its job:

‘Doumon, Ultimate Level, Wizard Type, Data Attribute’

‘Astamon, Ultimate Level, Demon Man Type, Virus Attribute’

‘Yatakaramon, Ultimate Level, Bewitching Bird Type, Vaccine Attribute’

“Three Ultimates in one place… Are we to be so privileged?” Candlemon stated with awe. “Surely they must be here on a matter of great importance. Perhaps their goals align with ours, if we’re fortunate.”

Art nodded and went to see if he could get their attention, but before he could get a word out, he saw the three all looking as if they were about to prepare another attack on the still-unresponsive Darklizardmon. Just as abruptly as he noticed this, they were suddenly opening fire on the creature en masse.

“Good lord, they’re annihilating the thing!” Art exclaimed as they both watched the fallen Digimon suddenly explode into little more than what Art could only assume were digital fragments, code that had once been a living creature… and it was now splitting off towards the three Digimon that had done the deed.

“Absorbing its data…” Candlemon said, his initial awe now starting to shift back into terror. “Art… perhaps we should leave them be… Let’s… just be on our way,” he advised, pointing a wax-finger toward the door, which Art seemed more than willing to try inconspicuously moving toward…

“Human… Stay put…” The Doumon suddenly spoke, and Art immediately froze in place. “Our associates wish to speak with you. We must insist you give them the chance to do so.”

“Wouldn’t be so fun for you if you try to make a break for it by the way. Trust me, I’d rather not waste the ammo,” Astamon quipped.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire then… Just dandy…” Art muttered as three masked humanoids emerged. Upon closer inspection, both Art and Candlemon could see they each had what could only be digivices of their own, strapped to their sides.

“…Oh no… By Yggdrasil, it’s them…” Candlemon gasped in dismay.

“You… you know them? Who the hell are they?” Art asked between clenched teeth.

“…You know what I’ve been saying about rumors and stories of your kind… We’re looking at the source right here…”

The three figures surrounded the duo, their Digimon similarly moving to stand closely behind them.

“All these years… all this time… and suddenly we’ve got ourselves another human in the Digital World,” one of them spoke. It was hard to say if they sounded delighted, angered, or unsettled by this, perhaps some peculiar mixture of the three. “Who sent you?”

“Sent? N-no, I… There was a portal…”

“Goddammit… The portal story again…” another growled in annoyance.

“Quiet.” The first ordered sternly before looking back to Art. “We can’t tell for sure if you’re telling us the whole truth of the matter, but we have ways of finding out. You and the wax stick are coming with us. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

Chapter Text

Art wasn’t sure just how far they’d gone. Having been blindfolded before leaving the mansion, his perception was obviously more than a little muddled, but after enough time had passed, feeling his feet get sore while the climate around him felt as if it had changed several times over, he had to guess they’d gone quite a ways off. By the time they stopped, he could feel all the allotted strain from the prior incidents catch up to him, unable to keep standing as he dropped to his knees, hunched forward, doing his best to simply get some of his breath back. Despite the exhausting blind march, he still felt a bit thankful that his apparent captors weren’t forcing him to stand back up.

“Right, give them a chance to look around,” one of the voices, presumably the leader, commanded. The cloth around Art’s eyes was removed as ordered and he got the chance to see just where this posse of fellow humans had brought him and Candlemon, who was likewise being unshrouded by what appeared to be something akin to a burlap sack, likely since a candle with a lick of fire for one of its faces wasn’t the easiest thing to conventionally blindfold.

Where they found themselves was a hideout that looked rather… decently established, and quite well lived-in. The interior reminded him of a beach house, with pale white wood-planks composing the structure, the floorboard and the ceiling. A smattering of technological devices, ranging from makeshift little gadgets to those of a more meticulously designed appearance, were situated on tables. The limited furniture all appeared to have been made by whatever they had on hand at the time… one chair looked to be nicely crafted from softwood, while another was little more than a glorified tree stump. It was all as if the place had once been some abandoned domicile that this trio had found and claimed for themselves.

Speaking of said trio… It was only now that Art could get a good look at their appearances, as they were no longer concealing their faces behind their hooded garments. Standing in front of him with a clear air of authority was a young woman with deep red hair, the likes of which seemed quite short yet unkempt. Said hair color seemed… unnatural in a way. Not dyed, no… rather, it almost looked like when someone messed around with the color setting on a monitor, really cranking the red up… but specifically for her hair alone. Beside her were two men appearing to be of a similar age; One, looking the closest to being sympathetic, if such an expression was genuine, had dark blonde hair and jarringly grey eyes… In this case, it was as if said eyes were two oval-shaped screens with the color setting disabled. The other, whose expression seemed all-but-unreadable, had hair so bright white that the smallest light reflection gave off an irritating glimmer if one stared directly at it. It reminded Art of a bright white screen on a television, a head of burn-in reduction for hair.

“Didn’t detect anyone tracking us, at least not for very long,” the white-haired man said in a calm, near-monotonous voice. Art couldn’t recall hearing such a voice before, neither in the mansion nor the excruciating trip afterwards. It gave him an impression that this man in particular wasn’t necessarily chatty.

“Just a few curious onlookers, I saw some of them too,” the woman replied, not taking her eyes off Art. “No one stupid enough to investigate further, ‘least not from the Digimon side of things. That’s not to say we don’t have someone listening in right this very moment.” At that she grabbed Art and forced him back up to his feet, dragging him over to a chair and having him sit down before taking a seat across from him. Placed beside him on a table was Candlemon. Neither of them was restrained, though the mutual thought between them seemed to be that making a break for it would prove unwise. Aside from Art’s exhausted condition and Candlemon being in a weakened evolutionary stage, they were not the least bit aware of their current surroundings… and those three highly powerful Digimon were likely not far away.

“What do you intend to do with us?” Candlemon spoke after an uncomfortable silence had followed their being seated.

“Right now, you don’t get to ask any questions, candlestick,” the woman shot back, glaring at the fire Digimon fiercely before turning back to Art. “Another human hasn’t shown their face in the Digital World since we landed here. Might be a big world out there, but we’ve done our fair share of looking… We’ve had a lot of time to get acquainted with this world, I can tell you, so you can probably understand why we’re making a big deal out of you suddenly turning up.”

Art, slouched in his chair, didn’t say a word. He’d heard about how interrogations tended to go down, how speaking while you were the subject of one tended to only make your case worse… but then, that was for police procedures and these three were a far cry from cops. That right to remain silent probably wouldn’t be exercised in this circumstance.

“I’m gonna ask you a few questions. You’re gonna say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or you’re not gonna say a damn thing. That clear?” she asked him.

“Wh-...Yes,” Art replied, having bit his tongue before he could accidentally slip up and ask why.

“Good. First question - You mentioned a portal earlier. Did you have anything to do with it showing up?”

“N-no,” Art answered, stammering despite himself, and the woman seemed to catch this.

“Don’t go BS-ing us, kid. If we find out you’re lying, we won’t hesitate to treat you like any hostile Digimon.” They’d already seen what that entailed from the Darklizardmon fiasco, so that was hardly an empty threat. “So… You didn’t have anything to do with the portal… Or, maybe you just don’t know, fine. Question two – That digivice there. I’m assuming it popped up when you first arrived. That correct?”

“…No.” This time, despite the pause, Art made sure his response was more audibly overt.

His interrogator seemed taken aback for a moment, but her expression quickly reverted from the brief surprise as she crossed her arms.

“So, already we’re looking at divergence here. You got that digivice in the real world then?”

Art nodded as he answered “Yes”.

“Did someone give it to you?”

“No.”

“Manifested out of the clear blue sky then?”

“Yes.”

She looked disappointed for a second. Art could only assume she was hoping he’d truly have some kind of new information that they hadn’t scraped together on their own.

“Knox, little differences aside, I’m telling you it sounds like he’s just another poor bastard who got roped into this nonsense,” the grey-eyed man commented.

“We can’t afford to jump to that conclusion until we’re sure!” she replied sternly. “You see this as a chance to get out, or at least get ourselves another ally. I get that, I understand wanting to have hope, but I’m not gonna just get all instantly chummy with someone just because they’re another human with a digivice. For all we know, we could be dealing with a spy, sent by the jerkasses who got us trapped in the first place.

“If he is, the question would be why they’d send him now, of all times,” the white-haired man chimed in. “Furthermore, unless this man’s a brilliant actor, his overall confusion seems to infer a lack of understanding regarding his current predicament. That being said… It’s worth noting his digivice is not the same as ours.”

Art had presumed they were each carrying digivices, but it did only just dawn on him as well that they were not of the same sort of design as his. Theirs were each more of a rectangular shape, less like eggs and more like horizontal-oriented handheld radios with screens.

“He’s got some kind of light beam trick. Never seen that one before,” grey-eyes added.

“Neither have I…” the woman, Knox, answered, looking down contemplatively before turning back again to Art. “Alright, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ time’s over. You clearly knew how to use that beam function, what does it do?”

Art looked at Candlemon, who merely motioned for him to go ahead, seeing no point in holding out when these three would likely be very insistent on getting an answer.

“Alright… from what I gather, it’s like a sort of antiviral software or something. Apparently some Digimon are getting possessed by some kind of mind-warping program. It’s like an orb of some kind… and this, if aimed at the spot where that orb’s lodged, forces it out of them.”

“And this came with the device from the get-go?”

“Yeah…”

At that the three seemed to convene for a moment, murmuring this amongst themselves for a time before the interrogation continued. Art, still quite tired, had nearly drifted off before Knox snapped him back to attention.

“So that’s what you were doing back at the haunted house then. How’re you figuring out where these afflicted Digimon are supposed to be?”

“Ah… Well… the first two we basically just kinda stumbled upon, but… we got the third’s location from the last Digimon we saved. He said he had a vision of the mansion that he couldn’t get out of his head… Seemed almost like a clue left behind…”

“Not a bad clue then,” Knox remarked, pacing about lightly in thought. “So this is the journey forced on you, this is the job you’ve been stuck with. The janitor of the Digital World with his glorified mop and talking candle. Seems when those idiots aren’t leaving us completely for dead, they’re giving us the task of being their goddamn clean-up crew.”

“You keep bringing up some outside party. Do you know something about the ones responsible for these portals between our worlds?” Candlemon asked, his curiosity on the matter getting the better of him.

Knox didn’t say anything, but the grey-eyed man stepped up to answer. “We haven’t found much regarding proof, but we’ve had plenty of time to make a few educated guesses. Best we can surmise is that this has gotta be the work of someone from our world’s side of things if this world’s all supposed to be one big digital network. Someone had to have programmed it, and by that logic, someone must be operating it. Frankly we’re not the biggest fans of their work.”

“You never met them yourselves?” Art asked.

“As a matter of fact, no. Pretty sure we never once met whoever whisked us away into this whole nightmare.”

“That’s enough, we’re not here to answer your questions, you’re here to answer ours,” Knox said, swiftly jumping back into the conversation.

“Knox, what else is there for them to tell us? Sounds like they couldn’t have been here for too long.”

“That right there is one more question worth asking in itself. How long have you been stuck here?”

Art was going to say he’d only been here for a day’s time, but, he hesitated. Just how long had it really been? Did the Digital World even go about time in the same way?

“It appears he is only now realizing the difficulty in time perception,” the white-haired man commented. “It seems to me he cannot have been here for more than a few days at most, bearing in mind everything we have observed so far.”

“Not that it’s ever been the easiest thing to keep track of,” grey-eyes added with a shrug.

“Well, he’ll have to adjust soon enough if he’s going to survive… but I suppose we’ve heard everything we’re likely going to get out of him.” At that, Knox gave a loud whistle, and a section of the ceiling seemed to pull itself away as their three Digimon companions made their presence known. From the opening in the roof they stepped inside of the house that only seemed to barely accommodate their collectively large sizes. “Since you cooperated with us, and since you don’t seem to be a spy, or at least, certainly not a very competent one, we’ll go ahead and give you the courtesy of knowing our names. Listen up, I’m not repeating anything here…” From that, she first pointed to herself, stating her name was Violet Knox, moving on to introduce Doumon as her companion. Next was grey-eyes, Cory Raka, and his partner Astamon. Lastly there was white-hair, Isaac Viteri and his Digimon, Yatakaramon. “Now, tell us what we’re supposed to call you.”

“Art MacTavish… This is Candlemon… though he’s been jumping around from this to Wizardmon a lot lately,” Art explained.

“Fluctuations from Rookie to Champion level… that cannot be an ideal situation,” Viteri quipped, his tone actually shifting slightly away from monotony and sounding a bit grim.

“It’s not our issue. If MacTavish here wants to survive, he’s gotta figure that out himself,” Knox said, rousing Raka’s protests.

“You’re really just gonna toss him out there back into the wild? He’s just one guy, Knox! Show at least a little mercy for Christ sake!”

“Calm down and shut up!” Knox shot back. “I’m not saying we’re abandoning him entirely. We’ll keep a close eye, make sure he doesn’t do anything too stupid, but we’re not just bringing him along into our fold. These two have their own problems to deal with. This whole virus situation doesn’t sound so good, obviously it’s gotta be dealt with, but that’s his concern. We have our own matters we need to get back to. We can’t stretch ourselves too thin here.” She walked up to Candlemon and pressed a button on her digivice, hovering it over him for a moment before it let out a distinct beeping noise.

“There we go. We can monitor his Digimon wherever he’s headed. No way in hell are these two gonna split apart if they value their present existence any. Not out there. We’ll keep in touch.”

“So, what, you’ve got a bug on him now? What does that entail?” Art asked, just a little anxious at the thought of someone keeping tabs on him constantly.

“Don’t go having a heart-attack about it. It just means we’ll know where you are and how many other Digimon are around you at any present time. Not like we’ve got a surveillance camera on you here, but if you get yourself in too deep, we’ll at least have a chance to realize it and bail you out before you get your ass handed to you,” Knox explained. She looked ready to say something else when Astamon suddenly interjected.

“Hate to cut in on your little chat, y’know I do love a good bit of drama, but I’ve got somethin’ you fellas might wanna know about, regardin’ that whole ‘virus’ thing.”

At that, everyone immediately turned their attention over to the demon-man, who smiled another toothy grin. He did always enjoy the little chances to be in the spotlight.

“I think I might’a picked up somethin’ from the Darklizardmon we absorbed. Probably some kind’a memory I’ll bet, sounds a lot like what you were talkin’ about earlier.”

“You think it might be where the next one of these viruses is gonna spring up?” Raka asked his partner, getting a scoff in response.

“Hell if I know, kid. ‘Virus’ might be my attribute but I’ve never heard’a this thing before in my life. All I know is I’m gettin’ some real vivid thoughts of that meadow near the City.”

“That’s almost certainly where the next threat will spawn… if it hasn’t already,” Candlemon said, looking to the others with a dire expression. “If you do not intend to assist us directly, then, please, you must let us go so we may deal with this threat!”

“You’re in no position to make any kind of demand, Wax,” Knox retorted. Even though he was fighting off the urge to nod off, this still caused Art to flinch slightly, just from how suddenly defensive she had gotten from that one request. “Count yourself lucky that we were already planning on doing just that.”

Knox looked over to Raka, who walked up to Art and handed him a rolled-up piece of parchment. “That’s a map of the Digital World, or at least, what we’ve managed to scope out. Should help you get around a little more conveniently.”

“I… ah… I appreciate that,” Art said as he looked over some of the map’s details, though he realized one particular bit of info was absent. “This doesn’t say where we are now though…”

“You don’t have to concern yourself with that,” Knox said, motioning to Doumon. The ornately-dressed grey fox approached both Art and Candlemon at the signal, two paper talismans materializing from their paws. Art watched the talismans float in the air for a moment, watching as they held themselves up, motionless, static… before suddenly flinging themselves in his and Candlemon’s direction in a blink of an instant. Before he could even react to it, one of them had attached itself to his head and his surroundings seemed to evaporate away, leaving him drifting in darkness, his consciousness finally succumbing.

Candlemon had found himself in a similar void for a time. It felt as if an invisible hand was carrying him off, but there was no distinct place to be brought to. For a moment it puzzled him, though he was gradually starting to understand what must have happened… just as he felt himself being dropped, and the void was replaced by a much less abstract riverside trail, sheltered by a forest of cherry-blossom trees that seemed to be eternally in bloom. Even in the dark of the night, he could see the vast clusters of vibrant pink petals, so numerous that the ones at a distance seemed like pink clouds. Beside him, Doumon was placing a sleeping Art on the ground as the talismans floated back to them and disappeared.

“A peculiar variation of your Hidden Gate Divination indeed,” Candlemon commented, though Doumon hardly acknowledged the remark. Only Knox seemed to have similarly accompanied them to this spot, and Candlemon turned a wary gaze over in her direction.

“You seem to have a rather negative viewpoint on most Digimon, Miss Knox,” he said. She stared at him for a moment in silence before responding.

“You know who we are, right? I can see from your reactions that you aren’t so keen on my team either. I keep most of you Digimon at a distance because I know what even the cutesiest and harmless-looking of you are capable of, and so many of you look upon us with vitriol.

“Do you truly think that’s unjustified?” Candlemon asked, looking rather distressed. “There are countless horror stories about the hundreds of Digimon whose code you’ve absorbed without remorse. You’re likened as bringers of death. Most of us choose not to believe such a malicious force could possibly exist. Is it truly so difficult for you to understand why so many would at least show some anxiety at the realization that you’re not just some myth?”

Knox let out a particularly loud scoff at this. “That’s cute… The Digi-rumour mill chugs along and now you think that we’re just running around on a murderous spree, like big game hunters… Well, newsflash, Lumiere, all those dead Digimon came after us. Beyond anything else, we’re out here to survive, that’s what it all comes down to. If you come after us, if you put any of us in danger, we end you, we guarantee you can’t make that mistake again. You’re the Digital Monsters here, it’s what you willingly call yourselves, and guess what? When monsters attack, you don’t reason with them, you slay them. It’s how it goes.”

“But you must realize this method of yours has just earned more scorn and hostility?” Candlemon attempted to argue, but it was clear Knox wasn’t hearing any of it.

“We’re giving your kind the same treatment that so many of ‘em would love to give us. It’s not exclusive to Digimon either, believe it or not. We’re not averse to bringing your Tamer down if he crosses us.”

Candlemon swiftly hopped over to Art’s side protectively. “You’re not laying a hand on him, not on my life you aren’t.”

“Hah… Look at that, couldn’t be more than a few days in this working relationship and you’re already laying your life on the line… Either you swear your loyalties far too quickly, or you’re way too protective for your own good, you little candlestick.” She motioned for Doumon to follow her as she turned away and threw her hood over her head. “You might not like it, but the reality is that we already played our hand, and we’re going all in with it until we win-out and get back home. The only ones who get hurt are the idiots who get in the way of that. Don’t be one of them.” She stopped for a moment, looking up to the night sky. Nothing was there but the digital stars above, but, it was clear she was assuming something more was looking over them. “By the way, if you bastards are watching… This little game of yours is gonna end soon, and then we’re gonna have a nice discussion of our own.” Doumon then proceeded to materialize a circle of talismans, uttered what sounded like a ritualistic chant, and the duo vanished in a shadowy haze, leaving only Candlemon and his unconscious human companion.

Preparing to keep watch until Art had some time to rest up, the fire Digimon saw a glowing light in the human’s coat pocket. His digivice seemed to be alerting them of something… Not wanting to awaken Art until he knew for sure it was an emergency, Candlemon carefully took the digivice out to see what the issue was, only to see that the digivolution function had reactivated itself.

‘Strange…’ Candlemon thought…The last couple times that happened, the two were in dire straits. Right now, try as he might, he couldn’t spot any immediate danger at all. Still, any chance to get back to his normal power level was okay by him. He attempted to press the button as he pointed the device at himself, but it didn’t seem to trigger anything.

“Must be interfaced directly to a Tamer then…” he surmised, carefully placing it on the ground beside Art’s hand, lifting his index finger and dropping it on the button. A bit unconventional a method, but, it proved to work nonetheless. Digivolution commenced, and he was once again back to being Wizardmon.

“I must say if this whole debacle taught me anything, it’s not to take having feet for granted…” he quietly murmured to himself, understandably pleased to no longer be restrained to hopping about to get around on his own. He went to put the digivice back in Art’s pocket before he was halted by the presence of a message beginning to scroll along the screen. Unlike the prior ones, this seemed a lot more… communicative.

YOUR DATA LIMITS HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED. HOWEVER, I HAVE INCORPORATED A TEMPORARY FIX. DEVOLUTION SHOULD ONLY OCCUR IF YOU OVEREXERT YOURSELF. DO NOT ENGAGE IN COMBAT FOR MORE THAN THREE MINUTES.

A message in the first-person… which meant, more than likely, that someone was using the digivice to speak to him… and someone with quite a bit of programming clout, no doubt. There wasn’t exactly any way to text out a reply, leaving it a rather one-sided conversation, but, he had to admit this was still some encouraging assistance. Unfortunately, the next part of the message wasn’t quite so pleasing to read.

I KNOW WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. TREAD CAREFULLY. HE HASN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU.

A shiver ran through the wizard Digimon’s spine. Of all the potential reasons for his digivolution to go haywire… He thought that chapter of his life was over and done with.

“I was naïve to think otherwise…” he muttered grimly, looking back at Art with growing concern. He barely got out of that prior arrangement alive, but at least he was alone in the suffering, and at least he escaped… To have to face such anguish again… and to subject another to that kind of torment? It’d be unbearable…

“I roped you into this… Foolish of me to think this would all turn out to just be a spirited little adventure at most… Yggdrasil forbid I have you face that devil…”

~~~

“Cara, What’s it look like over there?”

“We just got another Digivolution. Hopefully it’ll stick this time. Still have a camera monitoring that little base of our lost souls?”

“It’s set. We’ve got 24-hour surveillance on the outside domicile. ‘Fraid we aren’t able to get any visual indoors however.”

“That’s fine… It’s still something. Better than years of nothing.”

Cara and Mateo had been plastered to their monitors, typing commands out with furious speed as they attempted to keep all the known humans in the Digital World in their sights. They’d informed many of their fellow Programmers stationed elsewhere about the development, by now realizing that this wasn’t an issue they could keep quiet. This would need to involve everyone to some extent. At the very least they would have to be in the know.

“Can we get any kind of read on who activated that Digivolving sequence by the way?” Cara asked.

“Seems to be coming from a concealed system… outside of any of our networks. It’s gotta still be one of ours though, no one else even knows of the world’s existence,” Mateo answered.

“No one we’re aware of…” Cara replied worryingly. “Still, whoever it is, they’re being helpful, and that kid needs all the help he can get.”

Mateo merely nodded an acknowledgement of that before turning to one of the workers assigned to handle the ongoing debacle that was the Coredramon aftermath. “What’s the situation looking like?”

“Not great… Every time we manage to get a video taken down, at least a dozen more copies of it seem to be getting out. It’s turning into a textbook Streisand effect,” the worker admitted.

Mateo cursed under his breath. Perhaps Cara was right about this getting out of hand. Was this going to be it, the rip in the façade that inevitably exposed everything? It had been so easy for their organization to keep things under wraps before… but that was because there’d never been something as difficult to suppress as the near-irrefutable video-evidence of a dragon on a rampage. At the very least they could keep people from finding out too much, let them ponder it, spout baseless theories, keep them in the dark about it, maybe that would be enough to keep things manageably still confidential…

The fact that this conjecture was supposed to be a good potential outcome ended up rubbing him the wrong way. There really wasn’t much honor or moral high-ground to be had in hoping for people to stay confused and uninformed, really pushed the cynicism to light… but said cynical take still had its merits. Far as he was concerned, the lesser of the two evils still was to keep the public ignorant. Millions of people could barely keep an MMO running without chaos ensuing, just what would they do if they had access to a world of free-thinking, living beings that just happened to be in a digital reality? He was positive the results of that outcome would make the Coredramon affair look like a noise-complaint in comparison.

On her side of things, Cara couldn’t shake off the threat Knox had made. It didn’t matter that she was unaware of who she was actually addressing, nor the fact that her circumstances of being trapped in that world were accidental… By all accounts this mess was still their fault, and the rage she felt was plentifully justified. One way or another this was just proof of how much of their own garbage they needed to get to cleaning up.

“Goddammit Alvi, whatever you’re doing it’d sure as hell better be important if you’re leaving us to deal with this alone.”

~~~

‘You are a clever sort, aren’t you?’

‘I’ll admit I was hoping you might allow my moment’s peace to last a bit longer.’

Once again the two anonymous players began a conversation, to the amusement of one, and the chagrin of the other.

‘Now now, we only wish to give credit where it’s due, you should be more grateful.’

‘Forgive me if I’m not appropriately grateful to you for causing me and my team so much trouble.’

‘Ah yes, all your pieces have been moving about at a relentless pace. We especially like how one of them sent out a message just recently to try and get more of you informed. Communication is such an important factor when working in teams, wouldn’t you agree?’

A message? A quick check in a private board… revealing a recently posted wall of text, discussing the Coredramon incident, including the information about the latest human who’d crossed into the Digital World and the location of the previous visitors thought long lost. Information posted like this was supposed to be Programmer knowledge only…

‘How are you aware of this?’

‘One clue at a time, friend. You’ll have to make the most of it. Believe us, we intend to do the same with what we've uncovered. Do your best to keep pace, this has been quite the fun little game, we’d rather it not end so soon. Won’t feel like much of a satisfying victory if you cave too quickly.’

‘Are you one of us? Why are you doing this?’

No further replies. Only speculation remained. This… person… or perhaps these people... they knew far too much, and they were getting it from a source that shouldn’t have been available to them… No doubt, either someone was secretly playing for the other side, or they were putting too much trust in the wrong sort. Either way, the game was proving itself to be much more complicated.

Chapter Text

“Your potential is great. You must understand just how much of a tragedy it would be for you to waste it…”

“Why do you insist on doing these things that you just lack the necessary competency for?”

“See, that’s why you’re not gonna get anywhere. You’re stupid enough to complain about what you want to do, instead of just doing what you ought to do! It’s all a game. Wise up and play it right for once!”

“No more of this nonsense! You will focus on your specialties, or you will no longer have a place in these halls!”

“Say what you will, but I expected more from you… but you’ve let yourself become a washout! You’ve rendered everything you’ve done into a complete waste of time! If you walk away, you know what you’ll be? A failure! You will always be a failure!”

“Work with me… and I promise, no one will ever see you as a failure again…”

Voices of the past echoed in Wizardmon’s mind, visions of these moments passing by in flashing images, frozen in time, like a traumatic slide-show. It was only the realization that he was dreaming that broke the stream of subconsciousness, launching him out of his sleeping state, his pointed hat nearly flying right off his head as he sat up with a jolt. Reflexively, he managed to keep his precious headwear firmly fastened, though he otherwise merely seemed to stare at the dirt path before him, the sunlight of a new day shining through the shade of the cherry blossom trees as he took a moment to let his dreams escape his conscious mind and recount just where he currently was.

The previous events from the day before came back to him, lastly that meeting with those infamous Tamers, particularly that brief argument with their leader before she cleared off with her Doumon in tow. That left him and his own newfound Tamer alone out here on this riverside trail. He’d pulled Art away from the actual pathway while he rested, as to not have his sleeping form getting in the way of any passers-by, and he had intended to keep watch all through the night… but clearly he hadn’t been so full of energy himself if he’d managed to pass out somewhere along that span of time. He quickly checked over both himself and his human companion, but thankfully it appeared no one had taken anything from either of them while they were out of it.

‘Still… I’m only asking for trouble if I make such a careless mistake again…’ Wizardmon thought to himself somewhat shamefully. He gave one more glance towards Art, the young man still being fast asleep. He couldn’t help but ponder just what he had to have been doing when the wizard Digimon dropped into his world so suddenly and got him involved in his rather chaotic affairs just as swiftly. Surely he must have had a life back there… and while much of his outer condition didn’t necessarily infer a life of luxury, it was, nonetheless, a life; One with ambitions, goals, troubles, everyday matters… all of which he’d coaxed him into abandoning… and he couldn’t help but question now, in this moment of calmness, if he’d had the right to do so. Perhaps those dreams of his were merely guilt-tripping him… Art had made his choice after all, he could have refused… probably… if the portal was actually going to close before he could get dragged in one way or another… Oh dear, now that would certainly be a thought that would kick around in his mind for a while…

Needing something to distract him from such worrisome ponderings, Wizardmon got up to his feet and began picking at the petals of the lowest hanging branches sheltering them. Rather quaintly, every picked blossom seemed to get replaced by a new one, rapidly growing from the space left behind by the previous petal as soon as he plucked it. It left him with quite the handful of petals in a matter of moments, with nary a sign that any of the branches had been picked. Leaning against the tree trunk, he cupped the petals with both hands, quietly muttering a chant, closing his eyes in deep concentration before opening both them and his hands at once… Released from his grasp, out came, not the petals, but a small flock of pink birds that flew out towards the river. Wizardmon watched with a small grin of triumph, though that faded as he saw the ‘birds’ abruptly revert back to petals and scatter along the slow-moving stream of water below. He looked down with a sense of disappointment, only for his moping to be interrupted by the sound of pure astonishment…

“Oh my god, that was badass, man!” Art had apparently woken up by this point, and he’d managed to witness the little attempt of prestidigitation. Wizardmon looked genuinely baffled that the human would be impressed by what he’d deemed only a half-successful conjuration. Had the boy never seen such simple parlor trickery before?

“I’m glad you found it entertaining… but it’s hardly anything special,” he quipped with a shrug, moving to hide his half-concealed face further with his hat out of sheepishness.

“Hey, maybe that’s ordinary stuff to magicians like yourself, but, dude… that was legit magic, wasn’t it? Can’t say we get a lot of that happening where I come from.” He truly was impressed… Wizardmon had to admit he wasn’t sure how to take this flattery… such feedback was about as rare for him as this display of magic apparently was for Art.

“Ah… Well… Thank you…” he finally resorted to saying, looking thoroughly bashful, and this just seemed to end up puzzling his Tamer.

“Hey, you okay?” Art asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re taking this like you’ve never heard someone compliment you before in your life.”

“Not… often,” Wizardmon muttered. “But, that’s hardly a matter of importance now, is it? Back to the task at hand, you ought to take a look at that map they gave you.”

Art took a moment to, presumably, recollect his own memories at this suggestion before it appeared the lightbulb in his head finally flickered back on. He realized he was presently still holding on to the very map Wizardmon had spoken of. Unfurling it, they were presented with the features of what seemed to be an archipelago of sorts. It was impressively detailed for a map of its size. Those Tamers certainly did a lot of scout work if all this was accurate… Still, it would only do the two of them so much good if they didn’t know where they currently were. Thankfully, Knox’s gang had them covered on that front as well, in the form of a small red sticky-note placed in a corner of one of the larger islands, simply labeled ‘YOU’. Removing the note revealed a spot labeled ‘Sakura trail,’ which, moving northward, eventually ended at a somewhat large chunk of the island leading up to the shoreline, titled ‘City++’.

“Somewhere around there is a pasture of sorts… and that’s where we’ll supposedly find our next mark,” Art surmised, looking from left to right along the trail, suddenly hitting another obstacle before setting out. “…Question is… which way’s supposed to be north?”

The two proceeded to spend the next few minutes reacquainting themselves with the cardinal directions, Wizardmon eventually coming to the conclusion and pointing where he believed the northward portion of the path was. “That way, yes… I’m near-positive.”

“Near?” Art repeated that particular word concernedly.

“I’m pretty certain, don’t fret… It’s just we cannot confirm the truth of the matter until we actually get to moving…” Despite the lingering hint of doubt, Wizardmon pressed forward, and he could hear Art quickly following behind.

“If I’m being completely honest here, I’m really hoping you calculated this right, it’ll save us a lot of time…” Art said, immediately sounding as if he regretted the way he worded it. Likely he feared he was coming across as ungrateful or simply childish, but, to this, Wizardmon felt it would be rather hypocritical of him to condemn such behavior with any degree of harshness. Even beyond any personal understanding, he did make a point that it would be rather terribly inconvenient to backtrack.

“Let’s not forget, Art, that I’m only marginally more familiar with this world than you are. I am an outsider to these lands as well, as you know,” he said, and the human seemed to resignedly nod his understanding.

“Right, right… Nearly forgot… You’re from another world originally… Witchally… or like… Witcherthee?”

“Witchelny,” Wizardmon clarified, lightly amused. “For all the little similarities that world and this one share, geography is not on that list. It will take some time for me to acquire an adequate sense of direction, but, developing such skills was partly the reason for my coming here in the first place, I suppose.”

“I’ll admit I’m still pretty curious about how that all went down for you. What was it you said… People from your world visit this one to test themselves? Something like that?”

“Not simply to test, but to learn. This Digital World is vast and diverse. Compared to what my people are more familiar with, it’s quite the breath of fresh air. Our mentors in Witchelny were far more conservative in their methods… much to the misfortune of students like myself.”

“You serious?” Art asked, nearly stopping in his tracks.

“Well, yes…” Wizardmon said in affirmation, puzzled that such a simple statement surprised the human to that extent. “Is it… strange that I may have been something of a problem student?”

“I uh… Hey, I don’t mean any harm by it, it’s just… y’know…You don’t really strike me as the type to play the class clown is all.”

Wizardmon chuckled despite himself at this. “Well, perhaps I wasn’t that sort of rebel… No doubt I would’ve been easily outmatched by the Impmons and the like in that particular line of thinking… and in fact that was exactly the case, but, that’s another tale in itself… Surely you’ve had some sort of schooling in your own world?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely… Only just got out of it recently.”

“Then you’re familiar with mentors who strive to teach you a very specific sort of way, I presume? The way they want you to learn?”

Art’s face seemed to scrunch up a little. It looked as if he was recollecting more than one of those moments. “Oh, yeah… Not the most enjoyable teachers usually.”

“No… not at all…” Wizardmon muttered in agreement. “Worse off when your peers consist of smug overachievers and kiss-ups…”

“Hey, I hear you… Had the same kind of crap when I was in high school especially… Someone’s always better than you at something, or a teacher’s always got a favorite student over you… story of my life. But, look at it this way, it’s over now, right? You’re out here, learning and doing stuff your own way, that mess is behind you,” Art said. Wizardmon nodded quietly to acknowledge that point, though his recent dream of those days still left him to question if that was truly the case… to say nothing of the mistakes he’d made almost immediately after…

For a while the two walked in general silence, observing the tranquil nature of the path they trod. Art seemed especially impressed, pointing out all sorts of things that were apparently anomalies to his world, like the perpetual-blooming cherry blossoms, the way the sky occasionally flickered like something he called a “CRT”, and perhaps most strangely to Wizardmon, such banal things like a couple of ducks swimming along the stream.

“They look just like the ones back home… What do you call ‘em? Duckmon or something like that?” He’d asked.

“No… I’m rather certain even the natives would still call them ducks…” Wizardmon replied.

“But… they’re digital ducks?”

“Yes… since they are, in fact, ducks in a digital world, they are, more than likely, digital ducks, Art…” He had to remind himself that the human was still quite new to the entire concept of this world… The occasional silly question was to be expected. Still… while they were on the topic of other worlds… “I must say your reactions certainly pique my own curiosity... Regarding the nature of your homeworld… I didn’t exactly have much time to sight-see while I was there after all. Perhaps you could enlighten me a little bit regarding just what your world is like? I’m not mistaken in the notion that it is not entirely digital itself? It had a rather peculiar feeling to it… difficult to put it to words exactly how.”

“I get what you mean, that’s pretty much how I felt when we first landed back in that desert,” Art said, thinking back to how he’d indeed felt that strange artificiality to the world upon his arrival. Even now he could still feel it, that strange sensation that just clicked in his mind that this world… this reality rather… wasn’t the one he was familiar with. “It’s like the very air’s got a different feeling to it… but yeah, you’d be right in your assumptions there. ‘Digital’ kinda just refers to things on a technological level… Y’know, electricity, computers, binary, that sort of thing. What’s it mean to all of you guys? Just like… a complete state of being?”

“Essentially… Few remember why we’re called Digital Monsters… Nor does anyone likely still understand the etymology of the Digital World. For the vast majority of us, it’s just the way it is, the way it’s always been. So in that sense, yes… the word ‘Digital’ might as well infer reality itself to us… All the more extraordinary that a realm exists where it can be merely an application and not quite so all-encompassing.”

The two continued to chat about these contrasts to their understanding of existence for a time. Wizardmon explained how the magic he wielded was hardly unique to his own kind, that it was merely a more advanced version of the elemental energy almost every Digimon had at their disposal in some form or another. Art tried comparing it to various kinds of ‘code’, as he called it, but, he admitted he wasn’t well versed in the subject enough to know if the analogy was accurate. Either way though, it did manage to strike up another sort of thought for the wizard Digimon.

“Art, you mentioned something about computers, yes? That they were… one of the objects you associate with things considered digital… You and other humans… who are the only lifeforms we know of that can actually be Tamers and tinker about with our ability to digivolve…” A few gears were clearly starting to shift into place, rumors and myths and… perhaps even certain past events he’d tried to blank out… They were all starting to come together and bring about a rather existential feeling in the pit of his stomach. “You… wouldn’t perhaps suspect that maybe your world had something to do with…”

Before Wizardmon could finish his thought, he was interrupted by the sound of rapid gunfire echoing loudly through the trees. Most alarmingly, he heard at least one shot fly past them, a near miss… or perhaps a warning. Swiftly he went to stand in front of Art, who’d instinctively ducked for cover, as he looked about for the source.

“Oh goddammit, more of this…” Art remarked just loudly enough for Wizardmon to hear. Likely he’d been hoping the incident with the Deputymon would be relatively uncommon. Still, they couldn’t have been near enough to their destination for this to be coming from the latest orb victim. The city landscape wasn’t even in view yet. No, Wizardmon was certain this was another matter… and perhaps one that involved a better chance of talking things out.

“Please, whoever you are… we don’t mean any harm, we’re merely travelers passing through,” he called out, though he didn’t lower his guard, his staff at the ready.

“‘Mean no harm’… Good joke, traitor. Really makin’ me laugh. Let’s hear another,” came a gruff, militaristic sort of voice in return from within the trees. Not long after, a visual came to accompany the sound… It had apparently camouflaged itself quite nicely within the pinks, greens and browns of the forest, though as it stepped onto the path, the creature reverted to what was likely its default, a sort of greenish-blue pattern. Standing before them with an M16 in its massively-clawed grasp was a bipedal reptilian in a ballistics vest with a helmet and rucksack to match. A Commandramon, Wizardmon knew from the distinct image alone… but on his own? Their place was generally with a platoon of their evolutionary line, they weren’t the sort to take solo missions. Sure enough, his suspicions were proven accurate as another Digimon soon glided onto the scene, though not one he’d expected… This one was a small black-scaled wyvern with bright scarlet horns, claws and teeth, amongst other sharp spikes jutting from its knees and tail, all matching the color of the gem embedded in its chest. A Vorvomon, in the company of a Commandramon… A fairly unlikely duo indeed…

“What, that all the material you’ve got? Guess you’re too busy mowin’ us down to hone your standup routine,” Commandramon growled as he approached, his gun not aiming directly at the two for the moment, but he was making certain to keep a claw on the trigger.

“I’m afraid you’re confusing us with someone else… We haven’t ‘mowed down’ anyone,” Wizardmon attempted to reason, though the glaring look from both of the draconic new arrivals inferred they were hardly convinced.

“Cut the crap, magic-boy. You expect me to believe that when you’ve got one’a them with you?” Commandramon said as he pointed accusingly at Art.

“So you see a human and you assume he’s automatically aligned with the actions and motives of another of his kind? Come now, is that truly reasonable?” Wizardmon retorted. All the while, he didn’t want to admit that was a question he may have had a very different answer to himself only a few days ago…

“Considerin’ what they’ve done to my platoon… what they did to my comrade’s friends… That’s all the evidence I need. Ain’t met a good one yet, an’ I’m done givin’ ‘em the benefit of the doubt. Whether or not I recognize ‘em ain’t a factor. Probably just a new recruit for those killers to train up, sendin’ him in to get his first taste of the action. Well we ain’t gonna stand by… but I’ll tell ya what, you renounce whatever repugnant little bond you’ve got, an’ we’ll at least let you walk, but one way or another you’re gonna stand aside so we can rid the world of that bloodthirsty garbage cowerin’ behind you.”

Ah… so here they had two rare surviving witnesses of that infamous Tamer-trio’s notorious onslaughts… Suddenly words didn’t seem as likely to work out…

“I’m sorry, good sir, both for your loss and the present inconvenience, but I am not letting you bring harm to this man. He’s under my charge, and we merely wish to continue on our way. It would be in everyone’s best interests if you let us do so… I would very much hate for this to have to get violent,” Wizardmon said, sternly holding his ground.

“I’m only lookin’ to get rid of a danger too many of us refuse to even believe in before it can come back up and bite us all in the collective posterior, magic-boy… But don’t think I don’t have the brass to go through any idiots who get in my way’a that. My comrade an’ I, we’re more than a match for one Champion-level.” As he aimed his firearm at Wizardmon, and the accompanying Vorvomon seemed to be generating a bright flame within its mouth, the Wizard Digimon merely let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.

“Kids these days… so uppity… You don’t seem to understand just what the power-gap between us really amounts to… You risk getting yourself hurt with that level of ignorance, soldier. How many ‘champion-levels’ have you successfully hunted down between the two of you so far?”

Commandramon didn’t answer… Judging by the sudden, insecure twitch in his eyes, it wasn’t likely that he’d simply lost count.

“…Just as I thought. All talk. I’m willing to forgive a mistake in judgement and let you pass this off as a learning exercise… but that will require you putting your gun down and letting us pass.”

The armored reptile’s stoicism seemed to be fading by the second, his rifle audibly shaking in his grasp. Vorvomon was right beside him at this point, constantly shifting his glance from his comrade to Wizardmon.

“Don’t let him get in your head! He’s bluffing! He’s gotta be!” the wyvern growled. “Come on, we can’t just let them walk all over us!”

“Don’t you think I know that!?” Commandramon shot back irritably as he, in a stressed lapse of logic, turning to look at Vorvomon… giving Wizardmon just the opening he was looking for. Without missing a beat, he aimed his staff at the distracted targets, shooting a vicious gust of wind, launching them both into the trees behind them. Nothing like a Blink Breeze spell to catch a close-ranged enemy off guard and earn some needed distance. Now it was time to prove just how out-of-depth these two truly were…

A beeping noise came from where Art was still ducking, more than likely his Digivice going off, but Wizardmon couldn’t stop to check, he already knew he had a limited time to get this fight finished. Quickly looking back just to make sure the human was still okay, he then proceeded to rush toward the spot where Commandramon had been flung. His rifle was on the ground, blown away from his grasp from the sudden wind attack. He used another gust to toss it further aside, away from the cyborg Digimon as his camouflage skin started to turn back into the pinkish variant, but by now it wasn’t going to do him much good. As soon as Commandramon got up to his feet, Wizardmon hit him with a fireball, having him tumble right back to the ground.

Vorvomon had recovered by this point, attempting a charge to assist his comrade, who, looking terribly frustrated, pulled out what appeared to be grenades of some kind, throwing them in Wizardmon’s direction.

“You’re making this far too easy for me, you know,” Wizardmon said with a tsk as he used some more wind magic to redirect the explosives toward the approaching Wyvern just as they were set to go off, the resulting explosion launching the rock-dragon back before he could even fire off a retaliating fireball of his own. The ensuing impact seemed to render the hapless creature unconscious, as he didn’t appear to be getting up this time.

“Your friend’s clearly not an experienced fighter. What did you hope to accomplish here? Really?” Wizardmon said to Commandramon, who’d watched in horror as his own attack incapacitated his ally. Still, the remaining rookie didn’t look ready to quit, letting out as vengeful a battlecry he could muster as he began to swing at Wizardmon with his claws. A little more durable, this one… Not too surprising since he was quite literally born to be a soldier… Still, those attacks weren’t anything like the relentless strikes of a Coredramon, and Wizardmon was generating small barriers to parry each lunge and slash without much trouble. Yet, even then, he knew the clock was ticking… No more toying around.

“Let’s just establish you’ve brought this on yourself…” he muttered, pushing Commandramon back with one more Blink Breeze to give himself just enough time to concentrate. Not surprisingly the reptilian fighter sprinted to close the gap again, but as he did so, he would see a great build-up of what appeared to be electrical energy gathering at the end of his opponent’s staff. He wouldn’t have enough time to realize the mistake of being in such close-range before it was too late… as the surrounding area became something akin to a plasma ball, lightning bolts flying in all directions, a great many of them hitting Commandramon. The resulting electric shock proved to be the breaking point, sending him to his knees, unable to get back up, though not for a lack of trying as he struggled to move, cursing himself as he failed to do so.

Wizardmon grabbed his fallen foe and forcibly pulled him up to his eye-level. “See to it that your comrade gets proper healing… and then I urge you both to rethink this misguided path of vengeance. I know exactly where such spite will take you. I went down that very road myself once… You’d best walk away from it while you still can, before you reach that threshold… before you no longer have the choice anymore.”

Commandramon’s eyes were reddened, and even behind his mask it was clear a few tears had managed to escape him. “Those humans…” he tried to protest, but his strength just wasn’t there for it.

“They are not all the same as the ones you were unfortunate enough to run into… Think about it, you would not still be able to speak to me right now if my Tamer were truly in-line with their ways of thinking. We’re letting you go… I won’t stop you from finding your weapon either if you can seek it out… but I urge you to reconsider before you make a mistake like this again.” At that, he let the militant reptile go, the defeated soldier falling right back to his knees as he silently crawled over to where Vorvomon was still laying prone. Wizardmon suspected it would be a long while before they’d have the strength for retaliation. He truly did hope they would reconsider such a thing.

Passing through the forest, watching as the splintered and damaged trees seemed to gradually repair themselves from all the environmental destruction, he was soon back to where Art was, the human having braved some of the risk to get closer to witness the utter thrashing for himself.

“That feels like it all happened so quickly…” Art commented, clutching at his forehead as if to let everything sink in somehow. “I mean, nicely done, glad you had that situation under control but… like… damn…”

“The power gap between levels is nothing to scoff at… By the way… I heard a noise coming from your Digivice earlier… Did you see what that was about?” Wizardmon had made sure not to forget that little detail.

“Oh, yeah… It was a timer I think… Don’t know what set it off, but whatever it was, you had about 30 seconds or so left on it,” Art said.

“Ah… thought so…” Wizardmon remarked. He proceeded to tell Art about the message he’d received the night before, how he managed to get Art to unconsciously digivolve him back to his Wizardmon state and the time limit he would apparently have for an indefinite period whenever it came to engaging in combat. “Sorry I didn’t tell you immediately about it. I’ll admit my mind was… a bit muddled this morning.”

“Hey, that’s fine, I’m the last person to pass blame on that subject, never been a morning person,” Art quipped, a brief humorous moment before he seemed to let himself refocus back on the current situation and what had most recently transpired. “Man… Can’t believe the mere sight of me just sent those guys into rage-mode like that…”

“Ideally we will not have to worry about those two again… but I’m afraid this hostile sentiment of theirs will only become more and more common as we near the city…” Wizardmon said, dusting himself off before patting at the human’s back and pointing back at the trail. “All the same we must continue…”

At that they both got back to their trek along the path, albeit looking much more alert.

“You think it might be… I dunno… wishful thinking that we might be able to turn this negative viewpoint on my kind around?” Art asked as they walked, and Wizardmon gave a shrug.

“Nothing’s impossible… It’ll have to be little by little, influencing individuals through our actions… But the public at large… well… It took years for that trio to give humans such a notorious reputation, Art… That’s not the sort of damage one can remedy in an instant.”

“I’ll admit… now that I’m starting to witness more of this first-hand, and with all you know about it… I’m surprised you didn’t attack me yourself when we first met,” Art said.

“I’m… not one to be picky in the face of a conundrum. Stories about humans certainly made you out to be a tad terrifying, I won’t lie, but… those were stories, and that Coredramon was an indisputable, objective threat… At the very least those tales meant I knew about how to get you to become a Tamer… more or less… and I can safely say that our brief time working together so far has definitely revised whatever views I may have had before,” Wizardmon explained

“Aw, how flattering,” Art quipped with a chuckle, though even in jest he did seem happy to hear that. Perhaps it just reinforced that hope that others would be able to have their minds changed as well…

~~~

“Cara?”

“Yeah?”

“We’ve got a problem over here…”

“Let me guess, your feed is going all haywire?”

“…So you’re having the same issue?”

“Bingo…”

Just when they’d thought they’d had everything as under control as possible within their limits, another setback just had to rear its ugly head in the form of camera trouble… For both Mateo and Cara’s computers, the feed of the monitors keeping an eye on the humans in the Digital World seemed to be glitching out. Consistently the footage would get interrupted by all sorts of nonsense, choppy framerates, other feed footage, and white noise to name a few examples. The fact that it was only happening to their two cameras definitely made it seem a far cry from coincidence.

“Someone’s messing with us… Gotta be…” Cara muttered, and Mateo had to agree this time around.

“The question is who… There’s no evidence anyone within the Digital World can do anything… They shouldn’t even be able to see us whatsoever… but that just means that someone in our world’s involved,” he surmised.

“Yeah… and it doesn’t strike you as a bit peculiar that this all happened just after we started notifying everyone about this?” Cara asked worriedly.

“All signs point to someone on the inside…” Mateo muttered, resting his chin on his hand in concern. “But it could be anyone… Anyone who’d have any reason to sabotage our attempts at keeping watch on these guys… but… why that in particular?”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a plan to keep things hidden away before anyone can get the chance to leak it…” Cara presumed.

“That or someone is messing with us just to let us know they can…” Mateo replied, throwing yet another potential motive into the assumption pile, but all of it was speculative at best.

“We’d have to run an investigation on everyone… How else are we gonna get any more info on this?” Cara asked.

Little did she know someone would enter the room at that very moment to answer her rhetorical question.

“I might be able to assist with that, Ms. Hurst.”

Every Programmer in the room immediately looked up at the recognizable voice of their region’s leader as he arrived on the scene, the somewhat lanky fellow with the unmistakable facial combination of a bald head, trimmed beard, tired eyes, and those bizarre goggle-shaped sunglasses he seemed insistent to keep on his person at all times.

“Mr. Alvi, sir! Oh, thank God…” Mateo proclaimed in relief.

“About time you got back to us, boss,” Cara quipped, earning a brief glare from her peer, though the Head-Programmer didn’t seem irked, and in fact appeared rather understanding regarding his subordinate’s tone.

“I do apologize that my solitary work ended up… prolonged, but I assure you it’s not without reason… And in fact, this is less a matter of my return and more a need for you two to come with me… There are certain things I need to update you on.”

“Well that’s all fine and dandy, Payam, but… we’ve kinda got an incident on our hands right now…” Cara said as she pointed to the hectic footage on her monitor.

“This ultimately involves that, among other things… Have Clarke take charge here for now, what I need to tell you is top priority.” Payam’s voice was as serious as ever, but there was a certain hint of anxiety in his tone this time… Without hesitation Mateo called for the aforementioned next man up to look into the current debacle as he and Cara followed Payam out.

The headquarters from which they worked was in itself located within an underground labyrinth of sorts, designed to look like it was apart of an intricate sewage system, and with enough security along the way to make sure no one could accidentally stumble deep enough in to get the impression that it was anything more. They navigated the tunnels briefly before Payam stopped them at a spot with a supposedly featureless concrete wall. Cara and Mateo merely watched perplexed as Payam stared intently at said wall and began tapping various intricate marks along it. After a good minute of this the wall immediately sunk into the floor, revealing the room inside… A private computer room with only one system situated in the back… or rather… one monitor… and a multitude of towers surrounding it. Unmistakably this was some kind of supercomputer, and almost no one had been the least bit aware of it.

“This is where you’ve been cooped up all this time?” Mateo asked once words returned to him, understandably quite baffled.

“Yep… Probably shouldn’t be too surprising that the secret organization has extra secrets for the higher-ups to know, wouldn’t you think?” Payam said with a chuckle, clearly getting a kick out of the reactions… for a good second or two at least... then stoicism was back in its rightful place. “This matter is well beyond anything we’ve had to deal with… and my present tactics haven’t proven effective enough. That’s why I need you two by my side. I’ve got a new plan I need to put in motion… but first I need to get you up to speed…” At that he pulled out a portable hard drive and placed it on the table holding the monitor. “See that?”

Both Mateo and Cara cautiously nodded.

“In that little box is an entire life in suspended animation… One that I’ve been slowly trying to fix for a long time.”

“…Boss… Are you saying you’ve got a Digimon in there?” Cara asked in disbelief.

“…Not just any Digimon…” he began to reply as he reached into one of his pockets and placed a brick-shaped device with a small screen on the table right beside the hard drive… “It’s my Digimon.”