Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

To say that this day had been a rollercoaster would have been one darn misunderstanding.

Stealing a truck full of maple syrup with his two brothers.
Getting chased by some ragtag group of weirdoes trying to get the syrup back.
Falling through the world.
...finding out that everything you knew and yourself is a lie and without meaning.
...making a friend who seemingly understood that feeling.
And finally, getting blown up.

Yeah, this day sure has been one piece of work.

And now here he was. It was sort of strange to be honest. He knew that he probably shouldn't feel anything after... dying for all intents and purposes, yet somehow he was still concious. Well, his mind was, since his body was gone. If anything, he would compare it to slowly drowning in honey. Slowly sinking to the bottom of the viscous and sticky stuff, unable to hear or see or move. At least his mother had taught him so... Or what memories of his mother had been put in his head.

It was an abrupt end to his tale. One that he certainly would have liked to continue as he had not been able to do a lot aside from stepping through that portal-thingy to that place where his new friend apparently lived. It was quite the shame...

"̸.̴.̴.̵O̷h̵?̸ ̷A̴n̸d̶ ̵w̶h̸a̴t̶ ̸d̸o̶ ̸w̴e̶ ̴h̷a̶v̷e̸ ̸h̵e̸r̴e̷?̴"̷ Immediately, a feeling of unease shot through him. Being alone in the dark with no way to spot any sort of danger, only to suddenly realize that there was indeed something, triggered an immediate flight or fight response, putting him on high alert.

'What? Who is there? Right, I can't move. Or see...' He thought as he could feel whatever was down there with him closing in, moving around him as if to inspect him.

"H̵̹̹̒͑͛o̵̮̝͉͋̄w̶̜̯͇̏͐̍ ̸̞͋̈́̎c̵̜̘̀̚u̵̞͋͝r̸̟̤͐̆̈́i̸̫̓̊ơ̴̡͇̑̒u̶̗̼̻̅̑̀s̶̡̥͌.̴̯͙̌̑͗.̷̧̘̫̃̃͋.̶̬̆͛͂ ̶̤̓͑̅I̷̖̙͙̐ṱ̷̠̂ ̶̧͕̃͋͆ͅǎ̵͕p̸̬̊̕p̵̪̕ë̶̛̦̘́͠a̶̤̤͐r̵̭̘̓̈́s̵̜̑͘ ̸̘̉̇y̸̨̗̆̎̉o̸̡̙̱̿̈u̶̜͊͋͝ȓ̴̫͎͔͗͝ ̸͇̳̖̑̐͂c̶̼͗ö̴̡̞́̎ṟ̵̌̿ē̶̺̣͒͂ ̸̛̻̟͈̾̚c̵͍͎̬̅̏͛ơ̶̛̹͉͙͊d̷̟̉i̴̯̠̿͑͒͜n̴̨͖̳͑g̶͙̉ ̶͕̔̈́͗i̷̧͇̖͛s̷͍̻͇̈̓ ̴̯̠͐̍̅s̴͎̘̈ͅt̴͍̫̆i̶̗̽̃l̵̳̮͂l̷̩̖̱̍ ̴̦̖͐̚ṡ̵̺͇̯o̸̜̓̔m̵̭̳̋͊̅ẽ̶̦̐w̴̳̠̃̓̌h̷̨̟̥͛ä̶̯͜ẗ̴͖͈̤́̓̌ ̶͈̽ȋ̸͍͖̋n̴͉̊̉̈t̸̩͍̖̓̎ǎ̶͉̣͔c̵͓̱͍͐̚t̴̘̕ ̴̥͂d̴̠̘̗̋̆͝e̵͓̾̆s̸̤͑̚p̵̜̜̀̈́̚i̴͙̳̠͛͆t̴̺̎̾̂e̵̹̼̮͛̓ ̵̛͇̇y̶͈̺̤͂o̵̖͙͂̽̈́ͅụ̴̠̞̒̽̚r̶̲̪̦͠ ̸̢̪̈̉͜p̶̜͐h̴̢͌̉̄y̷̢̨̓̓̏š̶͖̜͜ḭ̸̦̘̂̕c̷̞̭͖̏a̷̮̎l̷̮̝̤̓͗ ̵̘͙̚f̷̯̥̅̎õ̷̧̢͘r̶͙̟͒m̴̻̥̤͗͝ ̵̬̉͠ͅh̸̠̾͠a̶̗̝̟͠v̵̀̋͜͜į̴̹̣̃̒̚n̸̛̞͠g̴̫͊͝ ̶̜̮̍̍a̶̪̝͝l̸̹̓r̶̙͊̀̈́e̴̗̎͜a̷̜̳̳̾̚͝d̵͙̳̟̽͊y̶͍͎̐͠ ̷̖̿͂é̷̗̪͊͜x̴̛̛̱͖̞p̸̮͉͗͜i̸͖̞͋̚r̴̤̝̯̉͝è̸̯ḑ̶͖͋͘.̴̛̘͓͗͝ ̵̣͕̅̋T̴̯̗̆͋̂h̸̜̯̖̉͝o̷̮͇͉̕u̵͍̹̓͘g̶̠̈́h̸͖͂͆,̵̡̮̝̌ ̸͖̟͍̆I̸̙͙̔̚'̶͍̘̘̏m̶̝͌̀ ̶̯͉͛͊̌ͅȁ̶̼̯͠f̸͓̗̠̿̈́r̴̘͝a̷̹̽i̴͕͐́d̸̦͚͝ ̸̞̓̚͜͝ḯ̴̻̙͈̈́̚t̵͍̄̚ ̶͕̗͕̇̀͛w̶̡̖͔̄̿i̷͕̎̚l̶͓̑ḷ̷͔͚̃͠ ̸̨̮̉͌ņ̷̰̮͋͝ọ̴̦̖̃t̸͕̟̯͗ ̸̯̈́͂l̴̟͖̾͆ͅa̴̱̦̐s̶̼̣͊̈́͝t̵͈̍͝ ̵̨̺̱́͝͠f̴̧͇̌o̴̹͝r̶͙̎̂̕ ̴̛͎̈́a̶̳̠̬͋̑ ̵̟̈́́́l̷̻͔̉̔̐ó̵̧̠ņ̷̌g̴͓͕̟͛̇̃ ̴̬̈́͗ẗ̷̯́͋i̷̲̰̤̓m̴͎͒͑e̸̻͝.̷̡͓͍͂.̶̮̞̪͋̚.̸̹͆"

He felt hands brush against him, though he no longer had a physical body or shape. It was hard to put into words. Maybe it was as if one was little more than smoke and something moved deliberately through one. It was not a gentle touch either. It was akin to the feeling of someone taking a sharp knife and slowly gliding over the skin with its edge. Even if it was not biting into one's flesh, it was still a cool and sharp feeling that made one stiffen up in discomfort.

'Who are you? What are you doing?' He wanted to push away, but he couldn't. He was completely at the mercy of this thing... whatever it was. For all he knew could understand the words it spoke, even if the language itself was a gibberish mess.

"̴͙͋̓͜M̴̅͝ͅy̶̗̆̈́̕,̵͉̗̀̌ ̵̹̽͐m̸͙͖̀y̴̯͐̑͗.̵̩̭̆ ̷͓̈H̴̨̽o̷͉̺̊ẁ̴̧̧̲̓ ̷̙͚̀͌f̷̠̹̈́̈́̚a̸͔̘̐͠ş̵̅c̵̝͓̺̈́͗͌ḯ̵͆̂ͅn̸̬̥͝a̶͈̹͐t̶̝̥͔̐̿ḯ̷̺̳̲͌̀n̶̦̜͈͊̚͝g̶̟̾.̷̤̩͒̚͝ ̶͎̾Ī̴̢̛̠͍t̷̬͂̀͝ ̶͔͔͌̽͂w̸̥̣͖̃͋o̴̫̖͇͊͗͝ụ̴̊͛l̵̢̮͖̈́͋d̴̹̺̄͆͑ ̶̡͙̪́a̶̫͉͎͑̒̎p̷͔͋p̴̣͆͝é̷̠̺͚̔ḁ̶̪͙̈͝͝ṙ̷͇̳͍ ̶̢̞̓̈́̉a̷̻̒̈́̆s̶̳̆́ ̸͖͖͌̃ĭ̴͎̬͜f̶̻̌̉̋ ̶̛͚̇̕y̷̪̓͝ö̷́͗͜u̸̞̳̒̕ ̴̦̰͛ͅŝ̵̤̲͌t̵̢͋͐ǐ̸͓̗̜ḷ̸̒̍͠l̵̟̖̳̾ ̸̧̘̏͠ḥ̶̹̓̍ä̷̧͕́v̷̜̟͙̏͘ê̵͔̳̒ ̸̯̻̳͒̍s̷̮̤̱̿͋͠o̷̠̩̒ṃ̴̧̧̐ę̶̛̞͇ ̴̗̫̀͠f̶̻͆̃̈ĩ̷̳̝̪̓̓g̵͎̀́h̷̲͒͊͑t̵̗͉̆͒ ̴̲̕l̸̪̰͒́̀e̷̖̩͂̔f̷̱̹̹̽͐ț̶̫͚̍ ̶̡̛̝̼͐͒ī̸͉̓̉n̸̢̰͕͂́̆ ̶̜̑͒y̵̫͌ỏ̸̹u̶͍̗̓͜.̶͇̮̈̒̌.̴̝̏͊.̶̱͉̯̐͆ ̵̧̮́͗͠T̶̫͑e̵̲̼̽̀͆l̴̼̒͜l̷̻͙͇̍̃ ̴̮͝ṁ̶̗e̴̘̤͊̑͝,̴̥̃̿ ̵̢̨̆̀̕ͅw̷̙̱̎h̵̢̳̍͜a̷͖͎͛͝ͅt̴̹́͠ ̷͈̤͗͠w̴̮͙̔̈́ȯ̴̬͕ṳ̸͇͐̃̈́͜ḽ̸͎̘̋̅͝d̸̟̏͝ ̶̖̀̿̔y̵͈̜̥͑͆̌o̸̡̼͗͐͘ǘ̸̟̒ ̶̫͂͑̋ḓ̷̳͑͛̕͜ȍ̴̪̙̘ ̸͈̖͐i̸̮̎̈̿f̸̲͇͝ ̷̬͇̃y̴̲͉̅̎̈ȏ̶̝̥̼̕u̷̼̽ ̴̜̟̹͐̽c̶͕̖̈́ô̶̭ǔ̷͕̩̦̊l̵̝̈́͐d̵͕͛ ̷̢̠͌g̴̨̫̯͆e̸̬̱̺͌͂̐t̵̛̝͇̤̑̆ ̶̩̮̆o̸̗͍̙͛̈́u̶̡̹̓͝t̶̪̭̔̄͝ ̵̠̰̺̔̾o̵̞̓̇͂f̷͍̼̘̚ ̸͉̯̓̓̆t̶̙̮͂̚͝ḩ̶̭̯͗̈́ị̵̈́ṡ̷͇̟̀ ̷͇́͗͌l̴̢͙̰̈̈́́ị̴͕͎̀̀͆t̴̩͇͚̎̀ṭ̷̢̛̦̈́̃l̴͈̈́ě̶͚͛̒ ̴̧͕̒͠p̸̡̻͠ͅr̷̦̐̿̔è̶̼̥d̸̖͑̃î̷̘͔c̵̢͇͆ä̶̧͍̾̌m̵̞̥͗͋̈e̶͓͌n̶͕̄͊t̷̪̺̐͗?̷̧̨̩̀̾́"̶̝͝ ̸̤̩̍̕

That made him pause for a second. There were a lot of things he would do if he could get out of this. Though, one jumped to mind almost immediately.

'I'd like to see my friend again.' He thought and his company reacted to it as if he had spoken out loud.

"̵̰̽̏O̷̻͊̓h̸͎̀?̵̗̀ ̸̠̮̓̉A̴̺̘͋̍ ̶̞͠f̶̱̀͜r̵͎͇̓͝i̶̳͌ę̷̒͝ṇ̷͝d̸̺̀,̷͎́ ̸̠̄̏ỳ̶͓o̶͉͆ú̶̳̦ ̴̘͍̓̆s̶̙̹͠a̴͇̾͘y̷̝̟̽̇?̷̞͂̚ ̸̪̎H̸̩̺͝m̵̢͓̏̾.̷͓̮̀̿.̴͍͆̀.̴̗͋̾ ̵̗͑í̴͉͇t̶͇̄ͅ ̴̳̟̒͒h̴͈͆͘ā̸̲͊ṣ̷̞̎̚ ̷̄͜b̸͎̔͜e̴̼͆͆e̵̼̿̕ņ̷̫͑̈ ̴̖͍̅͘ẳ̵͖ ̵͖̾̕w̴͈̓͝h̴̨̳͊̓i̶̹̻͠l̸̥͚̋e̵̠͗.̶̢̪̔̀.̷͈̦͠.̸̟̂ ̸̱̋ͅĪ̶̗̘̉ ̶̥̇w̴̳͠ǒ̸͕͒n̴̡̓d̵̙̂̉ë̶̳̮r̴̜̭̓̚ ̸̭͇͝i̵̧̢̔f̶̱̀̾.̵͙͕͗.̴̘̪̑̽.̴͚̗͑"̶̡̲́͑ The presence withdrew a bit from his code. It didn't leave fully, merely moving some distance as if to just check for something. He had no idea what was going on, but he had an idea that it was nothing good. So he struggled again, yet couldn't. A chuckle rang through the space around him and he knew immediately that the distorted sound of amusement came from the other occupant of this place.

"̸̭̕W̵̥̽e̵͕̋l̷̜̆l̵̫͝,̷̛̹ ̶̥͑y̷̜͝ó̵̗ǘ̶̪ ̷͍̿à̷̲r̷̢̈́e̷̟͘ ̴̯̄į̸̽n̸͙̓ ̵̨̄l̸̝̈u̷̳̽c̵̛̻k̶͍̽ ̶̡̀m̶̧̆ŷ̸̘ ̷̥̈́g̴̰̀e̶̖̍ĺ̶̥ã̶̜t̶͎͊i̷̝̕n̴̦͆ọ̸͊u̶̜͠s̶͒͜ ̸̻̉f̵̧͌ṙ̵̥í̸̠ë̴̯́n̶̹͝ď̷͖.̴͓̆ ̶͕͒Ĩ̸̹ ̷̯̓w̵͉̃i̸̼͘l̶̰̃l̸̟͌ ̴̨͊g̷̭͠ỉ̸̤v̴͉͘è̵̯ ̶͚̿y̷̼̆o̵͘͜ù̵͜ ̷͔̈a̸͈͘ ̸͕̐c̶̱͋h̵̳͂ã̸̗n̶̤͝c̴̬͋ē̶̹.̵̻̒ ̷̪̎T̴̲̏h̵͕̕o̵̼͆ū̸̼ğ̴̬h̸͚̐ ̴͍͑i̴̢͝t̸̡̄ ̸̦̔i̴̹͋s̵̡̔n̶̛̩'̶̞͗t̷̼͂ ̴̧̂o̶̜̎n̴͗͜ć̶̖è̷̗ ̴̜̍f̷̿͜o̵̦̔r̴̬̐ ̶̜͘f̵̝͠r̷̫̍e̴͙̎ë̴̤ ̴̱͋n̴͎͠ô̶̡r̵͍̀ ̶͓͌ȋ̷̼s̴͉͘ ̴̢͠i̸̕ͅt̷̠͂ ̸̱͗c̸̼̿ḧ̸̦e̷͙͝a̷̞͗p̷͔͠.̵̜̒.̸͉̊.̵̪͗"̵̰̐ ̷͕͌ ̵͈͙̰͑
Suddenly he felt as if he was being seized by countless invisible hands, holding him down. Instinctively he tried to wriggle out, but found the hold on him like a vice. Then the being spoke for the first time with clarity that shook him to the very core of his being.
"Believe me when I say this, but this is going to hurt you a lot more than me."

The voice said before unimaginable pain spread through his being, consuming his mind. It felt as if his insides were torn apart, piece by piece only to be remade and put back inside and then the process repeated itself. Pain tore through any coherent thought his mind could have conjured as he completely lost his mind.

He did not notice as his code was given form once more. He did not notice how it was changing as the process continued. He did not even notice when his screams turned from the incoherent sounds of a person into a bestial roar as his mind became a whirlpool of pain and anger, wishing not to simply end whatver was causing it but to destroy it and everything else.

Chapter Text

Prologue Part 2

The Void. A fitting name for a space that consisted of literally nothing. It wasn't a purely white or black void though as far away in the distance one could see massive pixel-like blocks of data appear and disappear in a constantly shifting motion as if they were not truly there. Overall, it was a place with no real up or down as there simply was nothing of consistency. No ground, no sky and no end.

That was until something was there.

Arcs of electricity crackled to life in this seemingly infinite nothingness, concentrated around one area where the pixelated space began to bend, twist and stretch. Finally, the fabric of this reality gave way, revealing a black nothingness beyond as something pushed its body into the Void. Once it was through, the tear it had come out of started to widen and become bigger. More energy poured into this anomaly, seemingly fueling its growth.

In the meantime, the being that had come out of it set its sights around the Void. It could tell that there was more to this place than just empty space. With that, it set out in one direction, determined to reach some place beyond the emptiness.

Inside one particular area of the Amazing Digital Circus' grounds existed a rather fine restaurant.

Outside one could see a picture of a lush green jungle, while decorative lamps hung down from the ceiling over the many tables. The "guests" of that place though were far less lively as they appeared to be nothing but wooden mannequins. They were going through the motions of chatting with one another and sitting on the tables in groups of two to three people and made gestures with their clunky, unmoving stubs they had for hands, but no words were actually spoken aloud.

Of course the fancy place was as fake as its faceless occupants and the still image "outside" its windows, minus two figures standing out like sore thumbs in the middle of it all. calling them real would however also be a bit of a stretch. One was literally a transluscent bubble with two cartoonish looking black beady eyes and a mouth full of sharp triangular teeth, hovering over a chair. Meanwhile actually sitting on a chair opposite to the bubble was a short person dressed like a circus director though their head was literally a set of fake teeth with a pair of heterochromatic eye balls inside. The right eye was blue and the left one green, while a small top hat sat on the jaws.

"Haha! And then Zooble said that my adventures are not fun at all. What a joke! Even if they don't want to admit it, Zooble sure got a lot of humor." Caine said as he leaned on the table with one arm, while Bubbles laughed along.

"They sure do. I think everyone who comes here has that sense of humor." Bubble grinned, making Caine laugh almost falling out of his chair.

"I know right? We sure have a merry band of little stars." He said as he was about to grab his cup of digital coffee, when all of the sudden the cup glitched out of existence. "Huh? I thought I ordered digital coffee without digital caffeine." Caine said when all of the sudden something blared coming from his wrist. Pulling back the sleeve of his red suit, he was met with a whacky gadget with a screen roughly the size of a smartphone with weird trumpet like pieces as well as some buttons attached to its sides. On the upper corner it read 'WHACKY WATCH' in bold dark purple letters on the pale liliac plastic of the gadget.

"WARNING! WARNING!" It read in neon green letters before the screen suddenly began to corrupt and glitch, making it entirely unreadable.

"Uh..." Caine looked in confusion as Bubble floated over to him and took at look at the device herself.

"Looks like you need a new watch." She said when the screen suddenly showed static and the air was filled with static noises. The noise became louder and louder, making Bubbles float away in discomfort while Caine hit and turned each button in an attempt to shut it up.

"Why... you..." He groaned until Bubble finally had enough and pulled it off his arm, before throwing it against the wall. The screen cracked loudly and turned black as it now laid there, leaning against the wall so that both of them could still see the screen. "Oh thanks for that. I was about to pull the hammer out." Caine said and pulled out a large wooden hammer that was bigger than himself.

But then they heard the static again, making them look at the device. The display now showed a neon green background with a single magenta red eye in the middle looking directly at the two of them with a yellow iris, before it disappeared and was replaced once more with pitchblack screen. Then a new line of text appeared on the screen in glitchy neon green letters.

"H̴E̴L̶L̶O̷ ̴C̴A̷I̷N̵E̶ ̵.̵ ̸.̷ ̷.̶" The text read, before the device simply glitched out of existence.

"Oh. This is... mildly concerning... I'm sure it's nothing!" Caine said in a confident tone, while Bubble gave him the flattest look that she was legally allowed to do.

It was then when the entire digital space around them began to shake violently and glitch. Mannequins clipped through walls and ground, tables started distorting and floating alongside decorative fake digital plants and cuttlery and plates spun around their own axises.

"Oh this is not good..." Caine thought out loud.

"You think?" Bubble asked while the cake on her plate glitched out of existence.

"Pomni? Are you alright?" Ragatha's voice woke Pomni up alongside her soft knocking on the door. The girl stuck in the body of a cartoonish jester groaned as she rose out of bed.

"I'm up..." She said still somewhat groggy, despite the fact that they didn't actually need any sleep in this... place. Pomni dragged herself over to the door and opened it, revealing the familiar doll that was Ragatha.

"Hey. Good morning." Ragatha said when she saw Pomni peering out from behind her door. Her smile faded a bit as she looked away with her one eye and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "You know, we are going to start soon."

"Okay..." Pomni replied as she stepped out of her room and walked towards the usual place where the members of the circus usually gathered in the morning. As she trudged over, she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her stop and look up at Ragatha's worried expression.

"Look Pomni. I know the past few days haven't been easy on you. But... if you ever need help, just ask. Okay?" The doll said, causing a small smile on the jester's face as she looked at her.

"Thanks Ragatha. I appreciate it."

"Ugh! Do you need to be this sappy in the morning?" Came the annoyed voice of Jax as he was already there along with Kinger, who had emerged from his pillow fort.

"Jax! You could be a bit nicer for a change." The doll crossed her arms while the cartoon rabbit in orange dungarees merely shrugged with his usual grin.

"I am nicer than usual already. I just am slowly going back to how I usually am, Rags." Jax said when Zooble and Gangle also walked out of their rooms. "Oh hey, Crybaby and Patchwork are also here. Guess we can actually start now." He said.

"F**k you Jax." Zooble said, the automatic censorship of the circus' family friendly space bleeping out the curse word with a cartoonish sound effect. Meanwhile, Gangle walked over to Pomni, her comedy mask looking a bit sheepishly at her as the red ribbon shaped like a humanoid shifted uncomfortably.

"Morning Pomni..." She said in a timid tone, clearly not at all happy with the way Jax had called her crybaby. The jester gave her a sympathetic look, but before she could say something Caine appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning my little superstars! How are you today?" Caine said enthusiastically. No one said a word and for some reason a cricket chirped at the awkward silence. "Wonderful!" Caine added not caring for the lack of a reaction from the actual people he talked to. "I hope you are ready for today."

"Whatever." Zooble said with their arms crossed.

"Well I had an adventure planned for you guys, but..." Caine suddenly froze mid sentence in the air and didn't move at all. Pomni looked a bit uncomfortable as she leaned over to Ragatha.

"Does this happen often?" She whispered to the doll, who shrugged.

"Every now and again."

"Can we go back to doing nothing now?" Zooble asked fed up with the whole thing already as they turned around, only to have Caine be right there.

"Haha! Of course not. Now as I was saying, I had an adventure planned for the day." Caine said before looking slightly uncomfortable as he adjusted his tie. "Unfortunately, it appears that something has gone wrong with the... preparations and I had to scrap that."

"What? Forgot to save your changes?" Jax asked with a cheeky smile. Caine laughed it off.

"Almost, but no. Anyway, today's adventure will take place in a familiar place. I'm sure you all still remember the Candy Canyon Kingdom and what fun that was."

At those words, Pomni's mind went blank. She did remember that adventure, but for all the wrong reasons.

"Well you are in luck, because you are going back."

"Ugh. Seriously?" Jax asked annoyed at the prospect of revisiting the place they had been to not too long ago.

"Oh don't worry your head. I made sure to include some things for you as well, since you seemed rather... vocal about your criticism." Caine said as he pulled out a scroll of paper, which then fell to the ground and kept rolling away. "But no reason to worry. I got everything under control." Caine said while putting his hands on his hips and a nonexistent breeze blew the coattails of his suit slightly like the cape of a superhero.

"Yeah, no thanks. I'm gonna..." Zooble was about to ditch the adventure (again) when all of the sudden the whole circus glitched and a pixelated rift opened beneath the digitized humans, causing them to fall down into a black abyss while screaming in fright. Upon closing, Caine was left alone, floating in the air, still striking his superhero pose though his eyes were locked on the spot where the circus members had been standing just moments ago.

"Oh..." He said when Bubble appeared.

"We might have to figure out those technical issues." She said when Caine pulled up a wooden desk out of nowhere.

"Alright!" Caine then literally pulled out a brain out of his head and put it on the table. "Okay, now work your magic, brain."

Naturally the brain did not reply verbally, but instead pulled out a small wooden sign from somewhere.

[No. ಠ╭╮ಠ ]

"What..." Caine simply looked at the sign with wide eyes in for a moment, before his empty head fell face first onto the table.

"Now that was something." Bubble said as the Brain pulled out a wooden sign from somewhere.

[Wanna go to your place, watch Netflix and chill?]

"Oh, I'd be down for that." Bubble said.

[Sweet! ≧◡≦]

Meanwhile

Gummy and licorice bats took off screeching into the night sky from their cave as a pale moon hung over the lands of the Candy Canyon Kingdom. Or rather what was left of it after the Fudge had gotten back inside the castle walls. Now though, the place looked even stranger. For example, until recently, there had not been a moon in the night skies above this place. And the skies certainly didn't have circuit like patterns run all over them.

Sitting around a campfire at the foot of a mountain made out of cookies, which was made of the sugar cane logs of lolipop trees, were two gummy crocodiles. One was orange and yellow with a long body and long arms that reached all the way to his waist, while the other was short and purple and orange with tiny arms and legs. The two brothers sat in silence as they looked out into the landscape, watching the swarms of gummy bats rise into the skies, while elsewhere the sounds of other creatures filled the night.

"You think the boss is okay?" Max, the shorter one of the two asked. It had been a while since Gummigoo had gone with that ragtag group of weirdoes. But Max trusted that his brother knew what he was doing.

"Of course. It would be weird if he didn't. It's the boss after all." Chad replied, before both of their stomachs growled. Both of them looked down at their white foam sugar bellies for a moment.

One would assume that food would not be an issue in a place that is literally made out of candy, but one of the problems that arose with the Fudge going on a murderous spree of eating any candy that crossed his path was that he left nothing behind. That and lately it had become even harder with how drastically the place had changed somehow. Now there suddenly were beings in these lands that were not made out of candy. Yet they seemed to have little problems eating them as well just like the Fudge did.

Suddenly, loud stomping disturbed the silence as they heard loud guttural snarls. Chad and Max turned around to see the mouth of the cave just slightly in the darkness of the night. It was like a pitch-black abyss out of which bats flew out in a frenzied panic. The two gummy crocodiles cowered together, holding one another tightly as a pair of green eyes peered out of the cave. They couldn't really make out the shape that this pair of eyes belonged to, but even these two rather idiotic people could tell that it was massive.

As it drew closer, the footsteps grew louder and shook the ground beneath them. Then it stopped suddenly. The two still couldn't make out what it was, but it was easily towering over anyone or anything they had ever seen, aside from maybe the Fudge. Green unmoving eyes looked down at them as they trembled in fear.

It was then when a large skeletal hand appeared out of the darkness and into the orange glow of the fire as it reached down towards Chad and Max. Each of the five fingers was easily as long as they were tall, tipped with a sharp claw. At that Chad and Max closed their eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable end...

Except it didn't come... Cracking one eye open each, the two saw how the giant skeletal hand put something down in front of them. A bag filled with something. It was not even as long as one of its claws, but rather heavy compared to themselves. Once it had put the bag down gently, the arm withdrew back into the darkness and the being walked past them, its eyes turning away from them.

All the two brothers could make out in the weak glow of their lights was the crude outline of the massive body composed of nothing but bones as it wandered off. The only other thing they saw clearly was when a long bony tail, easily as tall as a gummy elephant or the gummy snakes, that used to live in the kingdom's castle's moat, swayed over their heads as the creature lumbered off.

By the time, the tremors could no longer be felt and the heavy stomping turned into quiet background noise, Chad and Max turned to look at the bag it had put down in front of them. It had tipped to the side due to the ground shaking footsteps, revealing its contents to be food which now laid in the sugar dust.

"Oh, that was nice of them." Max said as Chad nodded in agreement, not even going to question the situation at all.

Neither of them saw a sudden tear in the sky appear in the distance or the people falling down from it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 - Not in (Candy) Kansas Anymore

"AAAAHHHHH!" Pomni screamed as she fell down into a seemingly endless dark void. And she had every right to. One moment she was listening to Caine about his next 'adventure' alongside the other members of the circus. The next moment, the floor beneath her feet disappeared in a glitching frenzy, causing her to fall into what looked like a rift within the very fabric of the digital reality. A malevolent pixelated black hole that swallowed her and the others within split seconds. She flayed her arms around uselessly as she felt herself falling through the air. She tried to steady herself as she hurled down from high above, but her world spun even within this seemingly endless darkness.

All of the sudden, the world around her seemed to glitch once more, but not like it had been a moment ago. The void around her was suddenly filled with the strange patterns of a glitching computer screen. Frantic and rapidly changing colours flashed before her eyes and even on her own digital body. The moment that happened it all felt... more real as a lack of a better word. Still, the sight of her body distorting on the surface like this brought back memories of her first day when Kaufmo abstracted. And when she had tried to touch an afflicted Ragatha.

"No. Nononono!" Pomni found herself saying as she looked at her hands, which now seemed to glitch like a defunct TV screen. It was that moment when she suddenly noticed a light that she was falling towards. It was faint and dim, but it was rapidly growing closer. The jester-like avatar shut her eyes tightly as she raised her arms out of reflex to shield herself from whatever was coming next.

The moment she reached the end of the darkness, it gave way to landscape at nighttime. Pomni squinted her eyes open as the fall wind made it difficult for her to see. What she could make out though were lights in the skies above her. Many small and distant, but also a larger one. Still, she had not time to figure this out as she still fell towards the ground half-blind. The darkness of the ground below grew ever closer and once more Pomni braced herself.

No sooner had she closer her eyes did her face make the acquaintance with long branches, twigs and leaves. She couldn't see at all and barely managed to make a pained noise whenever a branch hit her. And she hit a lot of branched on her way down. A thick one hit her around the midsection, knocking the air out of her lungs before she fell down further and hit her shoulder on another before finally falling face first into soft soil covered with fallen leaves and twigs.

"Ow..." Pomni managed to press out in pain as she slowly rolled onto her side and then her back. She still struggled to breathe as her vision slowly began to clear and adjust to the dim lighting of the night. A shiver ran up her body as she suddenly became aware of how cool the air was now compared to the room temperature in most of the circus. Her body shivered slightly from the cold and the pain, which slowly began to receed, still she could not move immediately. It took her a few deep breathes to calm down the heart hammering in her chest as she tried using her arms to prop herself up in a sitting position. As she did so, she hissed in pain as her arms and body ached in protest.

"Oh god... what was that?" She asked no one in particular as she finally managed to take a look around her. Some light shone down through the hole in the canopy that she had left in her wake with some loose leaves still fluttering down to the forest ground around her. Slowly getting up and brushing the twigs and leaves off her body, the jester looked around to see nothing but large trees, shrubs and fern-like plants as well as the sky above her with a few stars visible.

It was that moment that it dawned on Pomni.

Despite having been right next to her peers when they all fell, she had not heard or seen them ever since she fell into that rift. Frantically she looked around, almost tripping over her own two feet as she tried to find the others around her, but she was all alone with only the plantlife around her.

"Ragatha! Zooble! Gangle!" Pomni called out, cupping her hands togehter before her mouth. Her voice echoed slightly through the trees as it traveled further and further away, leaving her behind only to die off in the distance. "Jax! Kinger! Where are you?" But there was no answer. The forest remained silent. She truly was all alone. A feeling of dread rose up in the jester as her breathing became frantic.

"Alright, don't panic. Don't panic... Now is no time for a panic attack..." She told herself, while leaning with one hand against the bark of a nearby tree. Her cartoonish hand gripped the bark of the tree hard, eliciting a slight cracking sound as her fingers moved over the edges and feeling its rough texture. The sensation made her look at the plant in question. There was something different about it compared to what she had been experiencing in the circus so far.

Even through the gloves, which she wasn't even sure if they were clothing at all and not her actual hands, she could feel the cool and slightly wet surface of the tree. Pulling her hand away, she saw dark particles of algea that coated part of it now clinging to her gloves, while the spots she had touched now lacked them. Rubbing her fingers together, she felt it still there. From what she had witnessed so far from Caine's ability to recreate certain things into this digital reality, she always knew that something wasn't real. Whether it was the nonsensical nature of something or just how something just felt wrong to her human brain. But this... this was something else.

As Pomni's mind calmed down a little, she managed to register a lot more with her senses. The cool temperature of the air on her skin and in her lungs, the slightly earth-like smell mixed with some sweat aroma that she couldn't quite place yet felt familiar, the noises of leaves slightly moving in a breeze. Just like when she fell it all felt more... real.

"AAAAHHHH!" Pomni was given no time to ponder about that when she heard the familiar sound of someone screaming out in fear. Looking up she found herself looking at a vaguely humanoid figure falling down the same hole in the canopy that she had left, only to part of it to become stuck on a branch and unravel like a string. It kept unraveling as it fell down just before Pomni moved to catch a familiar comedy mask before it could fall face first onto the ground like she did.

"G-Gangle?" Pomni asked as she brought the mask up to her eye level. Gangle was still screaming, before it died down to a whimper as she looked Pomni in the face.

"Pomni?" She asked before sniffing despite having no nose. The jester quickly hugged the ribbon-like member of the circus, or rather her head.

"Oh god, I thought I was all alone!" She said, only to quickly pull away and look up at Gangle's still unraveled body hanging from above. "Don't worry, I'll get you down." She sat as she put Gangle's head on a low hanging branch.

"Please do. I feel dizzy from all the blood rushing to my head." Gangle said weakly.

'Does any of us even have blood?' Pomni thought for a moment, before grabbing hold of Gangle's body and trying to yank it down.

"OW! OW! OW!" Gangle said loudly as the branch her body was on bent downward before finally snapping and falling down... right on Pomni's face, making both circus members hiss in pain.

"... ugh... sorry about that Gangle... Are you okay?" Pomni said as she held her head and Gangle readjusted her body to its usual shape again.

"A bit stretched thin, but I'm fine..." Gangle said, rubbing the back of her mask awkwardly. "Thank you..." She added meekly.

Both of them stood there for a moment in awkward silence before Pomni spoke up.

"I presume you also don't know where the others are, right?" She asked, making Gangle shake her head.

"No... I lost them out of sight when we fell down..." Gangle admitted. "Do you think they are going to be alright?" Pomni looked at her for a moment before smiling lightly.

"I'm sure they are going to be fine. Let's just... focus on finding them, okay?" She said trying to reassure Gangle, but also herself. 'I'm more worried whether we are going to be alright.' With that, the two of them began to aimlessly walk between the trees.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest, Ragatha was looking around the forest, but she managed to see nothing but more foliage.

"Pomni! Zooble!" She called out, but heard no reply, making her sigh and hang her head. "Do you see anything Kinger?"

Said chess piece themed circus member rose up from the foliage of ferns like the periscope of a submarine, turning left and right before turning to Ragatha.

"No. Nothing but more trees." Kinger said in a sad tone. Ragatha facepalmed at this when he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we are going to find them. We just don't have to give up yet." Ragatha gave him a tired smile at this.

"I know but..." Ragatha stopped when she heard rustling coming from above. Kinger too heard it making both of them look up at the canopy of a tree. What little light was there was mostly blocked by the leaves, casting the forest ground mostly in shadow. Still there was the unmistakable noises of something moving over the bark of the tree and pushing aside the branches and twigs. Instinctively, Kinger and Ragatha froze as they tried to follow the source of the noise with her eyes.

After a moment, it stopped and an uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment.

"Do you think it is gone?" Kinger asked in a not hushed tone, making Ragatha want to cover his mouth, if he had one. But no ooner had he spoke, did something emerge from the canopy above. A shadow emerged among the darkened branches of a tree before it seemingly turned towards them and moved closer. Kinger and Ragatha both quickly picked up sticks and backed away a little in case they had to defend themselves. But the unknown being followed them as it moved from the branch to the trunk and began to climb down.

"What do we do?" Ragatha asked Kinger as she took another step back.

"Don't panic. It might just be some harmless critter." Kinger said as the creature now had climbed down from the trunk of the tree and moved closer. In that moment, the light above the trees grew slightly brighter as if a cloud had obstructed the light of a full moon had been blown past it, revealing more of the surroundings at the forest floor.

This included the creature itself as well. Both Kinger and Ragatha froze as they stared at what at best could be described as a yellow caterpillar with a beak-like mouth and two antenna on its head. The segments on its body had a dark lightning like pattern on it as well as a claw on each foot and a large intimidating-looking stinger on the tail. That and it was the size of an average housecat. Kinger almost instantly relaxed at the sight of the abnormally large insect larva, while Ragatha felt her hair stand up.

"Huh..." Kinger said. "See? Nothing to be afraid of." Ragatha was about to retort, when too her horror the caterpillar raised its upper half up as if standing up, tilted its head slightly to the side whilst still looking at them. And then it opened its mouth and spoke.

"Howdy there. How's it going?" It asked with a wave one of its tiny legs.

Kinger said nothing.

Ragatha said nothing.

The caterpillar simply waited for a response.

And that was when Ragatha screamed.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest, the ears of a certain rabbit like member of the circus twitched. Turning his head towards it, Jax felt his mouth twist into its usual smile. For the past few minutes he too had been walking around the forest with no clue where he actually was. At first, he had the suspicion that this was just another one of Caine's whacky ideas to start an adventure. To be fair, starting an island adventure on a sinking cruise ship was not the worst idea. That was unless you were somewhere below deck and the doors got jammed because a certain someone forgot to render them properly.

However, the more he thought about it, the less likely did this seem to be the case. Being an anthropomorphic lagomorph certainly came with a few perks... and a lot of downsides. Namely the hair, but more importantly than that was the ears. And Jax had to admit, if this place really was a recreation of the real deal made by some AI, then it was a pretty good one and far better than what Caine usually made. Unfortunately therein lied the problem... it was simply too good to be something made by the floating dentist mascot character and therefore it left Jax wondering just what was going on.

But alas, hearing a familiar doll scream in fright as if she had found a centipede that he might or might not have put in her room (among many other surprises), certainly was a welcome change in this situation.

"Oh there you are." He thought out loud as he began moving towards the sound... when all of the sudden he noticed that his feet were no longer touching the ground. Looking down, he saw that he had walked all the way over the edge of a steep cliff and what he had just now thought to be bushes, where actually the canopies of trees below. "Oh, you've got to be fu-UUUUUUU!" After a comical pause of not being affected by gravity, Jax fell down the cliff into the trees below, though he found himself landing on a particularly slippery branch that wound deeper into the forest like a massive serpent. "What the fu-WHOA!"

Jax did not get the chance to curse as he was busy keeping his balance on his two paws. Trying as he might, his feet found no solid purchase on the overgrown and slighly slick wood overgrown with algea. Though Jax soon found that rather than stopping, he could keep the balance far more easier if her kept 'surfing' along the branch. "Okay, this is much better." He told himself as he ducked under a low hanging branch, narrowly avoiding his ears getting stuck on them.

His moment of triumph was shattered when Zooble's head suddenly fell down right in his face, causing him to fall on his butt as he kept sliding down.

"Hey what gives?!" Jax said as he pried Zooble off of his face. The triangle like head rolled their eyes at him.

"Oh great its you." Zooble said. Jax was about to threaten to just abandon them or ask where the rest of their body was when the branch suddenly dipped down a big decline, causing both of them to slide down with far more speed and scream in surprise.

The slide continued for a while before going back up, though Jax's face was hit several times in a row by low hanging branches. Eventually the branch came to an abrupt end with a large burl. Unable to stop or slow down, Jax slid straight into the burl with his hips, while Zooble, who had been on his lap was thrown off and into the forest. There was a loud cracking down as Jax's pelvis made contact with the burl, while his body froze in shock, his ears folding and his eyes twitching from the pain. With a weak moan of pain, he then slid off the branch onto the ground.

Just then, Pomni and Gangle emerged from the nearby bushes, looking surprised, worried and relieved at the sight of their fellow circus member.

"Jax! I can't believe I say this, but I'm glad to see you for once." Pomni said, while Gangle and she helped him onto his feet, lifting him up by putting one of his arms around their shoulder each.

"You look horrible. What happened?" Gangle asked, while Jax was trying his best not to move his legs, causing them to drag over the forest ground.

"I ran into a nutcracker..." He said weakly in a far higher pitched tone than usual. Pomni and Gangle looked at each other, before shrugging and deciding to best not pry further. Instead they made their way further just when Zooble emerged... well their head emerged being held up by Kinger.

"Oh, hey guys." The chess piece said cheerfully.

"KINGER!"

"ZOOBLE!"

Both Pomni and Gangle instantly dropped Jax at the sight of their friends and ran over to them, while Jax hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"Zooble, oh goodness, where's your body?" Gangle said, making the abstract disembodied head look softly at their friend.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I just landed a bit unfortunately." They said, before looking away. "Well... that might be a bit of an understatement."

"G-g-guys..." Ragatha stammered as she made it out of the foliage behind Kinger and Zooble, making the others look at her in relief as well... minus, Jax who was still trying to recover from the immense blow to his male pride.

"Raga...tha?" Pomni said only for her voice to die down as she saw the reason for Ragatha stammering. Around her neck was the same yellow caterpillar like creature from before, nuzzling into her red locks like a housecat might into a sofa cushion. "Uhm... please don't flip out. You got a... uhm..." Pomni tried to word it carefully, when the insect larva turned its head to her.

"Hi!" It said in a cheerful tone, waving one of its front legs as a greeting. Once more no one said a word in awkward silence when Zooble spoke up.

"Uh... did that bug just talk?"

"Oh yeah, he sure is." Kinger said in a slightly excited tone, while Ragatha finally snapped.

"I DON'T CARE, PLEASE TAKE IT OFF ALREADY!" She said as she squirmed uncomfortably in place. Everyone else just stared at her for a moment, not quite sure how to respond, except Jax.

"Haha... I don't know. Looks like a good way to get over your fear of centipedes." He laughed weakly with a cheeky grin, causing Ragatha's face to turn to a similar shade of red to the one of her hair.

"JAX! I SWEAR I WILL..."

"Sorry, this is that Jax fellow you were talking about earlier?" The worm-like being cut Ragatha off, sounding a bit confused. "He looks a lot less intimidating than you made him out to be."

"That's not the-" Ragatha was once more interrupted by Jax.

"Oh? Intimidating, am I? What else did she say about me?" The rabbit-like circus member asked as he got up.

That was when the worm spat a string of sticky threads right in Jax's face. Yet before anyone could react, high voltage was suddenly coursing through them, turning them a blueish white and causing sparks to fly as Jax's body convulsed and spasmed as he was electrocuted. The others swore they could see his cartoonish skeleton for a few split seconds before the voltage was cut off and Jax stood there, burnt and black smoke rising from his body, before he raised a hand.

"Yes, I think that's me..." He said absentmindedly, before collapsing. Everyone looked in shock at the worm-like creature, which now settled back down on Ragatha's shoulder with a huff.

"Serves him right." It muttered. The others were still not quite sure what to make of this development, but Zooble didn't mind sharing their thoughts.

"I say we keep them."

"NO!" Ragatha almost instantly shouted, while everyone else just stared at the head in Kinger's hands.

A short while later, the group was sitting together on the forest ground with Jax sitting/being tied up against a tree by the yellow caterpillar's threads. Using some fallen logs as improvised seats, the members of the (AMAZING) digital circus were a bit unsure how to react to this whole situation or the fact that they were talking to some large insect. Unsurprisingly, Ragatha opted to sit the furthest away from it. Still it was still a strange situation to begin with.

"So you all come from some circus and then you all fell down some hole and fell out of the sky here?" The worm said, putting its feet together as if it was trying to cross its arms, while contemplating what the others just told it. "That sure is weird. Then again, you are a pretty odd bunch."

"Says the talking fishing bait." Jax muttered under his breath, only to get a pebble thrown at his head.

"I heard that!"

"So uhm..." Pomni interjected. "Who are you exactly?" The worm looked at her before scratching its cheek sheepishly.

"Oh right, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Kunemon. Nice to meet ya." It said.

Kunemon

Level: Rookie

Insect Digimon

Type: Virus

Attack: Electric Thread

"Okay... and what exactly are you?" Zooble then asked.

"Maybe they are some newly discovered genus of butterfly." Kinger said. "Another piece for my insect collection."

"Hey, I'm not some bug you can put on your wall. I'm a digimon, thank you very much." Kunemon huffed as it crossed its tiny arms again.

"Digi... what now?" Jax asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Digimon. That's short for digital monster." Kunemon said, before slumping down again. "You guys honestly remind me of those other fellows I've met before when I first got here. A bunch of talking candy, but who had no idea what a digimon was." That made the others perk up.

"Wait, talking candy? We were on our way to the Candy Canyon Kingdom." Gangle said. "But then we got lost it seems..."

"What are you talking about? This is the Candy Canyon Kingdom." Kunemon said, before tapping its head's lower side with a claw. "Or it used to be... it's a bit complicated to explain." It mused when the members of the circus looke at one another. Except for Zooble, they had all been to that place and they certainly would have remembered regular forests and not so regular things like digimon walking around.

"What do you mean by that?" Pomni asked as she felt her heart sink a bit.

"This place... It kinda just appeared in the digiworld all of the sudden." Kunemon said. "One day there was nothing and the next suddenly a large island made of candy appeared." It spread its legs as if to make some expression of an explosion.

"Wait a minute. Then how did you get here?" Zooble asked with a raised eyebrow, while Kinger wandered off somewhere. "And what do you mean digiworld?"

"Well that's the world we are in right now, the Digital World." Kunemon said, tilting its head a bit to the side in confusion. "As for me, a lot of digimon were curious about this place, so we came over to explore it a few months ago. Sounded like an interesting adventure. And as we did we found some people living here also being candy." The insect digimon said. "Usually pretty decent guys. Though they said something about a monster having destroyed their kingdom called Fudge. Can you imagine that?" It snickered, unaware of the look that Ragatha and Pomni were giving Jax, who shrugged.

"So you're saying there's a lot... more of you?" Gangle asked, which Kunemon nodded in response to.

"Oh yeah, though there's not a lot of settlements yet. Unlike the main land we are still trying to get used to this place. It sure helps that some plants already started growing on all that sugar dust. Makes the fruits extra sweet." It added.

The rest of the circus was trying their best to digest all of those information when all of the sudden Zooble spoke up.

"Ow! Hey! Okay, who is having my arm?" Zooble asked as they glared at the rabbit, who was still tied up against the tree..

"What? Why do you think I'd have it?" Jax asked.

"Maybe because that's something you'd do?"

"I'm literally stuck here!"

"Hey guys! I found Zooble's Zoobles!" Kinger shouted as he came out of the bushes holding Zooble's arms and legs in his hands. Everyone just stared at him.

"Huh- but- how- when- wha- You know what? Never mind. Just help me put my body back together." They sighed in defeat, not even going to questipon how Kinger even found their limbs laying around.

"Uhm, that might be a bit of a problem. I got your arms and legs, but no body." Kinger admitted as he scratched his head with one of Zooble's hands.

"WHAT?!" Zooble shouted.

"Well I tried getting it, but its up in that massive spider web." Kinger said pointing behind his shoulder with one of Zooble's arms again, making everyone look at one another.

Shortly after, Pomni, Gangle, Ragatha, Jax, Kinger and Zooble alongside Kunemon ventured deeper into the direction Kinger had pointed to until they came to a large clearing where a large spiderweb was spun between the branches of the trees on one side and extended over the canopies as well. Out in the clearing the group could also see the night sky un obstructed for the first time as they saw circuit-like patterns in the sky above along with many distant stars and most dominantely a trio of moons handing above. The largest was a pale yellow, the next smaller one was a turquois-like blue and smallest was a rose coloured marble.

"Looks like we really are not in Kansas anymore." Kinger said as he scratched his head with one of Zooble's hand again, which then punched him.

"Stop doing that! Now where is my torso?" Zooble said as everyone looked around until Ragatha pointed towards an oddly shaped toy-like object that was yellow in colour with orange dots on it as well as sockets for the other body parts to be inserted.

"Okay, so who is going up there and getting it?" Jax asked before putting a hand to his face. "Not me!"

"We shouldn't be here." Kunemon suddenly spoke up. The worm-like digmon's body tensed up as it looked around from side to side, anxiously eyeing the trees, which under the yellow moon's light gained a silvery shimmer to themselves as their branches and leaves were also engulfed in the threads. "This is bad. We need to go. Now!" It said pleadingly. Something about its tone conveyed danger and desperation.

But before they could ask, something emerged from within the web's depths. Something that made Ragatha's hair stand up on all ends just like it had earlier. Stomping its way over the web was a massive black spider with a skull shaped mark on its bulbous abdomen. Its head was covered in a yellow metal helmet with two long horns while 9 unmoving green eyes sat on its head and reddish orange hair grew out from under the helmet. Below the eyes was an enormous mouth with sharp fangs.

"What... is that?" Gangle asked as a shudder ran through her ribbon-like body.

"An ogre-faced spider." Kinger said absent-mindedly.

"That's Dokugumon. A really nasty guy who eats other digimon just for fun." Kunemon said as the spider-like digimon turned its body towards them with a gutteral growl.

Dokugumon

Level: Champion

Insect Digimon

Type: Virus

Attack: Venom Blast

Pomni and the other members of the circus felt something in that moment they had not in a long time. The sort of feeling one would get when faced with a wild predatory animal that could and would easily kill a person to devour them. Until now, all of the adventurers of Caine were harmless, even if painful, because their main goal was to entertain them. But this was not the case. This was not one of Caine's weird experiments.

This was an actual predator and one that would hunt them down and kill them.

The Dokugumon then moved closer to Zooble's torso until it grabbed it with its two front legs, which ended in hands and bit down. Zooble felt sick as she watched the spider-like creature rip and tear her digital body apart as it devoured it with gusto. As it aid, drops of saliva hit the ground where it sizzled and bubbled like acid.

"Don't get hit by its poison." Kunemon warned. "That stuff corrodes even the data of other digimon. If they get you its over." It said, when Dokugumon turned its attention back to the group. Then it spoke in a deep and gutteral voice.

"Second serving." With that it leapt at the group, which could do little but stood there rooted in fear.

"[Electric Threat]!" Kunemon shot a blast of electrically charged webbing at the spider digimon's face, causing it to howl in pain and anger even if it was not too hurt. It was enough for the digimon to tumble to the ground and thrash around to get Kunemon's webbing off their face. "That's not goona stop them for long! Move it!" Kunemon then hopped on Ragatha's head as Pomni, Gangle with Zooble in her hands, Jax and Kinger ran for their lives. Behind them, Dokugumon finally tore the sparking threads off their face, before roaring in fury as it gave chase.

Behind them, the group could hear wood splintering and leaves rustling as Dokugumon's bulk plowed through the forest and after the group. The others didn't dare to look back as they didn't want to know how close Dokugumon was to them. All they needed to know was that the stomping of its 6 legs was way too loud for comfort.

"What are we going to do?!" Pomni shouted.

"Dokugumon is not going to leave this forest. We need to get out of the trees and we should be safe." Kunemon replied.

"WHY ARE YOU ON MY HEAD?!" Ragatha screamed as she was very freaked out by the whole situation.

"I'm making sure you guys survive... that and your hair is really soft." Kunemon said, hugging some of the curly red strands with his tiny legs. "Just keep running in this direction. we are almost there."

"Hey, guys. I can't hear that spider anymore. I think we are save already." Kinger said as he looked behind him while running, only to come face to face with Dokugumon now rushing over the branches of the trees as it was about to bite Kinger's cross off his head. "AAAHHH!"

"We have to throw that thing off somehow." Jax shouted as the spider-like digimon spat out a cloud of pale purple gas.

"[Venom Blast]!" It shouted as it fired, but the shot flew far off, where it hit a tree and instantly started to corrode the tree and the plantlife around it.

"Wait, I got an idea." Kinger said as he looked behind him. "RANDOM ZOOBLES, GO!" Kinger shouted as he threw the body parts into the air behind him and kept running.

"HEY, WAIT NO! KINGER, YOU BASTARD!" Zooble protested, but unfortunately for them it was too late. It was as if they were watching in slow motion as Dokugomon instantly tried to change directions, taking bait and beginning to go after the limbs instead of the group. Gangle quickly turned Zooble's head away from the scene as Dokugumon began eating the limbs one by one. It didn't stop he sounds of flesh tearing and the creature eating from reaching them.

Before long, the group came to the edge of the woods, which came down in a large slope on the desolate candy desert biome of the Candy Canyon Kingdom the others knew. Gangle and Pomni tripped as they tumbled down the slope of pinkish sugar dust, while Ragatha, Jax and Kinger kept running until they reached the bottom. Once down, Pomni and Gangle slowly began to pick themselves back up as they joined the others in their wheezing and panting. Ragatha sat down on the ground next to Pomni and Gangle, while Zooble was now as a head in Gangle's lap still somewhat in disbelief about what had just happened.

"Alright, who's not dead yet?" Jax asked as he rested his hands on his knees, still out of breath. A chorus of pained groans answered as Ragatha, Pomni, Gangle and Kinger answered. A loud roar made the group look up the hill in worry though. There at the top of the slope Dokugumon was glaring down at them with its unmoving green eyes, growling and hissing like a wild animal. It took one step on the slope of loose sugar sand, before the leg almost slipped under the ground it couldn't find purchase on. Hissing even louder in anger, Dokugumon then slowly retreated backwards, until it vanished from sight behind the trees.

A deafening silence spread over the group like heavy fog as their minds processed all that had happened.

"So..." Kunemon tried to break the ice. "Wanna go to the next town to get some rest? It is not that far from here."

No one said anything in response, but they all silently agreed that they could use a break after all that had happened that day.

Looking out from a high balcony over the realm that had once been the Candy Canyon Kingdom, her eyes moved over the wide expanse.

How long had it truly been since that kingdom fell? How long since these new beings arrived in these lands or rather their lands had arrived in their world? She couldn't truly say so confidently anymore. Not just because of the events, that had transpired since that fateful day, but also due to the effects on the land it had and on its people.

She welcomed the change. It was better than to cry after a past that most likely will never return. Better make to make peace with the past and move forward.

But she couldn't. How could she? Not when it all was-

"Mistress..." A voice came from behind her as a servant bowed its head towards her. This snapped her out of her thoughts as she turned to face the servant, gesturing to them to speak. "Your sister wishes to see you." The servant added.

"Thank you... I'll be with her in a moment." She said with a solemn smile, before making her way immediately back inside. She heard the servant close the window to the balcony behind her, but she kept her eyes trained forward. Carrying herself deeper into the halls of this place, she came to see various servants still busy at such a late hour. Both former denizens of the kingdom that once was and the newcomers that had come here.

She still gave the servants a smile and short nod as to express gratitude for their services. Services that she felt undeserving for. The newcomers were so vastly different and diverse, but some were so much alike the people called these lands their home. And they still reached out a helping hand when digging through the rubble of the destroyed kingdom, finding survivors... finding her.

Before long she stood before a large double door made from milk chocolate and decorated with various sweet ornaments. The door itself gave off a welcoming scent like hot chocolate on a cold winter afternoon. At least, thats how her 'sister' worded it when she was done making it. Many things in this place had been the creation of this person. The word still sounded foreign to her, but it long since had lost the strange taste it had initially left in her mouth and traded it for a warm and pleasant aroma. Gently, she pushed the door open and entered.

Before her was a throne room, a wide-open space for gatherings to be held in front of the one ruling this land. Now it was deserted and even the throne was cast into shadow, making it impossible for her to see. The dim light of the moons shone through a stained sugar glass window at the middle of the room, right before the seat of power as it broke in a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours even now yet casting the throne and its occupant into shadows. Still she walked in with confident steps. She knew that her 'sister' was here, feeling her very presence in the air. It was something else she had to get used to, but she adapted quickly.

Wordlessly, she approached the middle of the room, only stopping at the edge of the light cast down from high above before bowing down and lowering her gaze to the floor.

"Sister, I heard you tried to sneak out again." A soft voice spoke from where the throne stood. She said nothing, only bowing her head deeper. A sigh could be heard from the other end of the room.

"My dear, you know why you can't do that. Not yet at least. Soon, I promise."

"I am... I am worried about something else." Finally, she spoke. "It is not about this... matter." She continued. "Rumours have started to circulate. Things could get out of control and-"

"This and that are two different matters entirely, dear sister." She was cut off. "I too have heard those rumours and as concerning as they might be at the moment, do not lose your head over them. Am I understood?" The voice took a sterner tone at the end that left no room for arguments. Therefore, she could only nod. "Speaking of which, I had a chat with the others. It would appear that our little problem has not yet been resolved."

This made her stiffen up. Memories rising up, but as soon as her body reacted to those unpleasant thoughts, her 'sister' spoke up once more.

"Be at ease my dear. The wilderness of this place is still very foreign to us all. There is many places it could hide in. But worry not, dearest sister. Once it is found we will make sure to dispose of it once and for all. I promise you that."

"Are you sure... are you certain you can?" She asked, looking down at the floor.

Then she heard it. Footsteps. Sharp. Deliberate. Steady. Her 'sister' was approaching and before she knew it her arms had wrapped around her in a gentle, yet firm hug. She wanted to say something as her mouth was sputtering incoherent nonsense, just when she heard the dreadful sound of her 'sister' making a high-pitched noise of delight.

"Oh you are so cute. I wanna eat you up. Cute, adorable, sweet sister of mine." She squealed, nuzzling against her in a completely informal manner. That was something she really could not get used to at all: her 'sister's' overbearingly absurd affection.

"Sister, please stop!" She begged but she knew she had lost the fight already.

"Nope, don't wanna. Not gonna. Now let's get you some nice and fresh parfait!" And with that she was dragged off.

Thundering footsteps echoed across the mostly empty expanse of the sugar desert.

He wandered for so long.

Then all of the sudden there was something.

His movements stilled.

There it was.

A scent.

A familiar scent.

Memories flashed before its mind.

Emotions began to rise within it soon after.

First, warm and harmonious. Then suddenly it shifted to pain and anger. To sadness and hate.

It clutched its head, not truly knowing what to make of this.

It only knew that it was a scent it had once longed for. And one that brought with it such fury that it could not think of much else.

Letting loose a shrill cry of anger and fury, it began to move at a faster pace.

Towards where the scent came from.

Chapter Text

Hello again dear readers.

As you might have noticed, I have been updating my Murder Drones projects a bit these past few weeks. But I also still have to update my other projects concerning GLITCH's other animated series I follow. Do not worry, I have not forgotten it. Things are... escalating over here a bit and I really am trying my best. So, I hope my story can take your minds off of that for a little while at least.

Chapter 2 - Freedom at last, but now what?

If the map of the The Amazing Digital Circus was anything, it was extensive. And it needed to be in order to house all the fun activities for the members of the circus to enjoy. From the digital lake with its waterslide to the digital amusement park, the circus had pretty much everything that a human that found itself in this place could ever dream of. As long as it was within the guidelines of the circus of course and suited for all ages. But beyond its flying island and firmament, the sun and moon as well as the hundreds of Caine's all-seeing eyes laid a place even more vast.

Just behind the curtain of this pocket of digital reality laid a realm of seemingly endlessness. A place that had neither up or down where unused proto-matter of such a reality laid stretching as far as the eye could see in massive ever shifting cubes. The void.

Essentially, it was the raw material of the Digital Circus from which the AI in charge of the Digital Circus known as Caine crafted everything from. From the maps of the adventures and the countless NPCs that would be needed to populate such maps for the enjoyment of the humans to mundane things found within the tent and whatever Caine made on a whim with as little as a snap of his fingers, everything tied back and originated from this digital primordial soup.

And because the void was pretty much just raw nothingness, the superstars were also not exactly allowed to go there to avoid certain unpleasant situations like in the past. One more reason why the void was shielded from the outside by an impenetrable firewall from both curious circus guests and external threats. No one got in or out without a certain flying set of teeth in a circus director's uniform or his bubble assistant knowing.

But something had managed to force its way through its otherwise absolute defense. It was just a tiny gap in its border, little more than a needle prick that would self-repair itself in no time at all. But it was a gap nonetheless and by drifting through it something had entered the void. At first glance, it was no more than a particle of magenta dust, so small that in the bright environment of the void one could easily mistake it for a trick of the eye if seeing it at all. But it was not and the moment this tiny particle of data and code made contact with a block of raw digital proto matter, it began to infect its surroundings. Within seconds, a magenta growth grew like a tumour on the surface of the block, pixelated tendrils creeping over it to fully engulf and devour its host. The cube slowly shrank in size until finally breaking apart, though the virus-like growth lashed out with its limbs at the fragments, greedily devouring them too. It continued to grow and with it grew its strength and appetite. Its limbs retracted back into it before fanning out to latch onto more blocks of data, absorbing more and more digital matter into itself. As it did so, its growth continued, prodding the newfound absence of food for more like the tendrils of an anemone.

Soon enough, the void would not be so empty anymore.

Pale yellow moonlight bathed the colourful sugary deserts and canyons in a silvery hue as the group from The Amazing Digital Circus wandered away from the forest they had initially landed in and following what appeared to be an old riverbed. Though, calling it old was perhaps not the right word since the map had been created by Caine not too long ago, which caused Pomni in particular to question just how big the map of that adventure actually was. She vaguely recalled him saying he tested out a new AI to make it, but she was not a computer expert and therefore couldn't quite say what that meant for the actual size of that candy themed land. Though, what was even more bizarre was the not-candy themed vegetation that had taken root in this place despite it all. Here and there an ordinary looking shrub or tree had grown from the ground or from the side of a canyon or a patch of mushrooms had grown in the shade of a boulder or another piece of plantlife. Somehow the familiarity with this place having changed like this only made it less familiar.

As she walked next to Kinger, who was now carrying Kunemon on his head with the digimon holding onto the cross on his head, she couldn't help but look at the other members of their group with worry. Ragatha looked unsure and still a bit shaken from Kunemon earlier with her fear of worms showing through. Jax had his hands buried in his pockets and looked around the place with some genuine interest. And Gangle was carrying Zooble's head, who looked rather annoyed at the fact that their body was now completely gone. Still Pomni did catch her glaring at Kinger's back for a moment before she looked back at Pomni.

That was not the worst part though. Despite the forest now being rather far away from them and little more than a dark strip of trees far away from where they had started, the group could still hear the distant sounds of creatures moving in the night, screeching, roaring and occasionally what sounded like a fight in the distance. Every now and again one or more members of the group found themselves look in the general direction of those noises. It was like a constant reminder that they were in a completely alien place despite the familiarity that they all had with it, minus Zooble, and that they didn't belong in it. Here and there, she swore she could see shadows and eyes looking back at her and the others with the group sometimes staring right back as if expecting whatever was watching to jump them like Dokugumon did only for them to disappear and show no interest in them.

"I'm sure they don't see much reason to come after us." Kinger said as if she was hearing her thoughts. Pomni turned to him as he looked down at her, while Kunemon kept his face looking forward. "They probably are more afraid of us than we are of them." He offered in an effort to ease the obvious worries of his companion. And Pomni might have believed her if the caterpillar on Kinger's head didn't speak up.

"Not true at all." Kunemon interjected. "They just don't know what to do with you guys. If they wanted to harm us, they would have done so already. So be glad that we are not worth their time and energy." The larva-like digimon said before looking forward again. "Good either way really. We don't need to make more enemies right now. Or ever."

"That is not very helpful." Gangle said in a dejected tone while Zooble shot her a sympathetic look.

"Hey, don't worry. Everything's going to be alright." She said when Jax stiffened a laugh. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing. Just you trying to be optimistic when called a literal waste of time is quite hilarious." The purple cartoon rabbit said. "But look at the bright side. At least this time, we might die in something that is more interesting than the usual stuff." He added, causing Gangle to let out a quiet whimper.

"Fuck you." Zooble said when everyone stopped and looked at her. "What? I just-" That was when Zooble's eyes widened. "Wait, did I just?"

"Curse? Yes, I think you did." Kunemon said before crossing their stubby legs. "Seriously, someone needs to grab some soap and wash out that mouth... wait, do you even have a mouth?" The other circus members just looked at one another for a moment. For a moment there was just silence as all of them felt a relief and uncertainty well up in them. That was when Jax pumped his arms into the air in what could only be described as an outburst of jubilation.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT, YES!" He shouted out, listening to his words echo for a moment as his grin seemed to widen even more. Then he made multiple rude gestures with his hands such as flipping the bird to no one in particular. "HELL YEAH! HAHAHA! Hey guys, we can talk and act normally again. No more of that family friendly bullshit ever again!" He practically jumped around and started running around in circles and doing cartwheels. All while cursing like a sailor. In fact, multiple digimon in the surrounding area looked in the direction of the group as this went on in quiet bewilderment. At the same time, the others watched Jax in equal shock.

"I don't think I've ever seen Jax this happy." Ragatha muttered to herself. "Which is rather concerning given the situation."

"Uhm... what's up with him? Did he lose his marbles or something?" Kunemon asked no one in particular.

"We kinda were under censorship, so we couldn't use... foul language." Pomni replied. The digimon looked at her with his head tilted to the side. "As in literally censored."

"Like one of those beep sounds?" Kunemon scratched his head with one claw at that, trying to wrap his mind around what Pomni was saying.

"More like cartoonish ones, but yes." Ragatha added, slightly taken aback as Jax was making snow angels in the sugar sand. Now she really started to worry.

"Huh... Sounds like a non-issue to me." Kunemon replied after a pause to think about it.

"Oh, you haven't lived through years of not being able to speak freely. Sure feels damn great to be able to do that again." Zooble said.

"Well, I'm sure that's frustrating, but not what I meant. It sure sounds annoying, but why would you swear in the first place?" Kunemon replied. Ragatha, Pomni and Gangle all raised their hand to reply only to realise that the digimon had a point. As much as their situation in the circus was far from ideal, the ones with a tendency to curse were Jax and Zooble. Still, they'd lie if they said that it didn't feel like a shackle had been taken off of them. Just then Jax picked himself up from the ground, still chuckling lightly and feeling giddy when he brushed the sugar off of his skin and clothes.

"Oh, that was great. Imagine what would have happened if that sac of crap Caine had heard that." He said before turning to Kinger and Kunemon. "So, where's that town you were talking about earlier? Didn't you say it wasn't far away?"

"It's not. We are almost there. Just need to follow the riverbed into the canyon a bit." Kunemon said before pointing ahead where they could indeed see a wall of rocks rise up from the ground and tower over the landscape. Gangle and Pomni both found themselves swallow a lump in their throats as they looked up and felt rather small all of the sudden. "No need to be shy. The people living in that place are usually welcoming to strangers. One of the perks of being out in uncharted territory, I guess. But should also help you guys to figure out where to go from here on out." The digimon added as he crawled down from Kinger's head and onto the chess piece's shoulders.

That actually gave them all a lot to think about. They clearly were not inside one of Caine's adventures and most definitely were no longer restricted by the circus' rules as Jax so elonquently demonstrated. However, they pretty much ended up from the frying pan into the open fire with their current predicament. If what Kunemon had said earlier was true and the evidence of that was slowly piling up, then the six of them had found themselves in a completely different digital reality. One that was inhabited by a plethora of digital lifeforms other than the NPCs of the circus or the ones Caine created that they had known so far. Not to mention that not all of them were exactly friendly. While they sure were glad not to be tied to those rules anymore, they were still stuck in another realm in their cartoonish circus avatars and not back in the real world as humans.

For now, though, all that mattered was to get somewhere they wouldn't get jumped by someone or something. They could figure the details of the other pressing matter later.

"Please tell me there are not more of... your kind in that town." Ragatha said quietly, finding herself shuddering at the thought of a whole town inhabited by bugs at least the size of a housecat or worse. Kunemon, however, waved her off.

"Yeah, no. Most insect digimon on this island stick to the Honey Kingdom, so I don't think there would be a lot of us there unless they are passing through the area." He said as the group continued their journey deeper into the canyon. Their feet kicked up fine sugar dust with each step before the former riverbed while at the sides of the canyon the ground was littered by chunks of sugar debris.

"Honey Kingdom? Didn't you say you were still exploring this place earlier?" Zooble asked as Gangle raised her head a bit higher for her to address Kunemon better.

"Oh, we most definitely are. But some digimon already laid claim to the areas around here. Oh, there is the town." He said before pointing forward. It took them a moment to see it, but they saw a dim light shine ahead from deeper within the canyon's valley. While moving closer they were soon greeted by a high fence seemingly made from the logs of sugar cane and lollipop trees with a big gate in the middle. It didn't look too different from a fort from an old Western movie, if it wasn't for the candy theme to it. And beyond the gate, they could indeed see what looked like a town from such a movie made from the same candy themed materials along the road that ran through the town. Above the open gate hung a sign, but it was written with symbols none of them could understand.

"So... do we just walk through the front door or are we going to break in?" Jax asked with his usual smirk while raising his hands wriggling his fingers like some cartoonish villain.

"Jax, can't you behave for like 5 minutes or so?" Pomni sighed while facepalming.

"What, I'm always at my best behaviour." He said with a shrug, while everyone just gave him a flat look for a moment.

"That is not very reassuring." Kunemon said as the larva-like digimon climbed down from Kinger's shoulder.

"Well, it can't be that bad." Kinger said as he took a step towards it the gate just as someone stepped into the gateway from the other side and the familiar sound of a gun being loaded could be heard.

"Alright partner, hold it right there." A masculine voice said making everyone turn around to see what looked like a cowboy at first glance. That was until it stepped out of the town's gate and revealed itself to be something that looked like it came from a children's (or Caine's) drawing. It had an overall humanoid body shape and was roughly the size of Pomni, but its entire torso was the barrel and chamber of a revolver. Two tubular arms ended in hand clad in leather gloves holding a revolver each. Around the waist was a belt full with bullets and it wore blue pants and brown cowboy boots with golden spurs. The face appeared to be little more than a mass of black with two large cartoonish yellow eyes hidden behind a red bandana around the neck or where a neck would be. On top of its head rested a large brown cowboy hat.

Instinctively all of them, minus Jax and Zooble, raised their hands in surrender at the fact of having three guns pointed right at them and froze.

"Seriously, you said digimon come in all shapes and sizes, but I didn't see this coming." Zooble told Kunemon, while they were held over Gangle's head. The larva-like digimon shot them a look, though without eyes or anything other than his antennae and beak, it was hard to read his face. Meanwhile, the humanoid pistol in cowboy boots stepped closer to look at them. Memories of the attack from Dokugumon still lingered fresh in their mind and all of them felt an urge to run, but knew they likely couldn't outrun a bullet. It gave them a quick glance over before twirling its pistols in its hands for a moment and put them back in their holsters.

"Now you certainly are some ragtag group of folks." The cowboy said looking them over. "And you certainly don't look like any digimon I know of, but you also don't strike me as troublemakers when you are traveling with that worm."

'Oh, if you knew...' Pomni, Zooble and Ragatha looked at Jax, who couldn't help but grin at this. That's when their guide spoke up again, crawling a bit closer to the walking gun.

"They are not. They said they're human, though they sure don't look the part." Kunemon said as the cowboy digimon scratched the side of his head with a gloved finger.

"Human? Those guys?" It looked with squinted eyes at the group, namely Pomni, who felt a bit uncomfortable."Well, that one looks a bit like one. Other than that, I'd have thought they are some experiment of the Machine Empire on the mainland. Then again, I haven't really seen one myself." The cowboy shrugged. "Well then introductions are in order. I'm the deputy of this little town, Revolvermon." The digimon introduced himself and tipped his hat.

Revolvermon

Level: Champion

Mutant Digimon

Type: Vaccine

Attack: Justice Bullet & Quick Shot

The group looked at one another as if wondering who should introduce themselves first when Kunemon took over.

"Those are Pomni, Kinger, Jax, Ragatha and Gangle. Oh, and the head is Zooble." The digimon introduced them to Revolvermon, when Jax had to stiffen another laugh over how Zooble was mentioned like an afterthought. "They were in the forest and are a bit lost." Revolvermon chuckled a bit.

"Aren't we all out here?" He said before looking at the circus members. "We don't get strangers here very often. This place isn't exactly all that well explored, but we are working on that. The railway hasn't exactly been finished this far into this place yet. But first come on in before something snatches you up in the night." With that Revolvermon walked through the gate and beckoned the others to follow. With a shrug Jax just walked after Revolvermon in first followed by the others.

Once inside, the gang found a pretty normal Western Town with the houses being built from weathered wood and stone as well as some newer looking buildings that looked like they had been made from the candy-themed materials of the place. It all appeared rather normal on the first glance while the group was following Revolvermon down the main street, except for the fact that the few residents that were still awake and roamed the streets were not exactly normal themselves. A small humanoid creature made of dark rock walked down the street with a bag in hand, while a plant-like creature with a violet flower on its head was talking to a red penguin-like bird. A lizard-like being with a body made out of sand minus a rocky head skittered across the streets and over the houses an owl-like bird took off from a rooftop and flew into another part of town. the bizarreness of the situation wasn't helped by the fact that the digimon looked at them with curiosity as they passed them by, often halting whatever they were doing as if the circus members were some newly discovered species of animal. Even some of the mannequins that they were used to see in Caine's adventures by now stopped what they did and looked at them.

Before long though, the group arrived at a wooden building with a sheriff's star mounted above the door.

"This is my office. If anything's the matter, I'm usually either here or guarding the gate." Revolvermon said before turning around. "Now, I'd gladly offer you a place to stay, but unfortunately I only got a prison cell and that one's occupied already. For now, you better head to the inn at the end of that road. Shouldn't be able to miss it with the huge tuba-like sign. That forest is no joke and if you got outta there you probably have seen some stuff." He said to which the group of digitized humans agreed.

"Uhm... thanks..." Gangle said as she hugged Zooble's head closer to her chest.

"Yeah, thanks for not shooting us." Pomni said.

"Careful lass. I still might if you cause trouble around here." Revolvermon replied, pulling out a gun. "Now you better get some rest. You look like you need it. And don't like the Pipismon bite you." He said shooting at the rafter of his office, causing a multitude of bat like digimon with sickle-like limbs to take flight, screeching in anger over being disturbed. The circus members looked in surprise, not even having seen the tiny creatures despite being so close. Revolvermon though just twirled his gun once before turning back to the group one last time. "Welcome to Peppermint Valley. Gentlemen, ladies." He added with a tip of his head once more before walking into his office.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Zooble said, before looking down the street and indeed sporting a house with a large sign that kinda looked like a tuba.

"Pfff... He said piss." Jax snickered a bit, making Zooble roll her mismatched eyes.

"Real mature Jax."

"Now let's calm down and get some rest. We all had a long night..." Kinger said when a glare from Zooble shut him up and away in shame.

"Come on guys. We wouldn't want to make a scene right now." Ragatha said as she noticed people still staring at their strange group from the corners of the street. Noticing that the group silently decided that going to that inn was perhaps the best choice at the moment. With that they started walking down the street, doing their best to ignore the stares some of the residents gave them. Meanwhile Pomni stayed by Kinger's side who looked rather disheartened about the whole situation with Zooble.

"Hey, it's going to be alright." She offered him a weak smile. Kinger seemed to smile back, though it was hard to tell without a mouth. Still, he looked grateful for her words. Meanwhile Ragatha couldn't help but overhear some of the digimon talking to each other in hushed tones.

"What are those guys?"

"Maybe they are natives."

"They don't look like candy though?"

"Or perhaps they just came from the mainland."

"Is that an in-training level digimon?"

"They don't sound like one."

"That doll could be a puppet digimon though."

'I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad one. Then again, we are probably just as weird to them as they are to us.' She thought. On one hand it was a good thing that they might be able to blend a bit better with the people here, but on the other it was a bit unnerving how easily they could tell them apart from digimon. It was also not helping that she was walking behind the rest of the group and no one seemed to notice her troubles. Jax was busy looking around, clearly cooking up some plot to stir up trouble, Pomni was walking besides Kinger and Gangle was still carried Zooble, trying her best to calm her friend down.

Just then she felt something tug at the skirt of her dress, making her look down.

"Are you okay there? You zoned out a bit" Kunemon asked as he crawled next to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" The doll-like circus member quickly said, trying not to jump in fright of the caterpillar. The insect digimon looked at her for a moment longer, before dropping the matter with a shrug. "The sheriff seemed to know you. Do you come here often?" Ragatha then awkwardly tried to make conversation.

"Yup. Explorers like yours truly in the general area sometimes come and go through this place." Kunemon replied as he crawled besides Ragatha. "It's a good thing to have a place to fall back on when things get though out there. Plus, you got to trade the things you find somewhere. Gotta eat, ya know?"

"What exactly do you even hope to find in this place?" Ragatha almost jumped a little when she heard Zooble ask. Gangle had slowed down do that she and Zooble were now walking besides the doll and the catterpillar.

"All sorts of stuff. This is literally new territory for all of us, so information about where what is can be crucial. Plus, if the natives from the former Candy Canyon Kingdom are always rather grateful when we get something from their former home back to them." The digimon replied. "It's just a bit difficult to dig through all that fudge sometimes. I mean, I like the icing on a cake, but you can only eat so much before your teeth ache and you feel sick."

"You don't have teeth though." Gangle said somewhat amused as she gave Kunemon a look.

"Neither do you three." He shot back, causing all four of them to chuckle a bit. Neither of them noticed how Pomni and Kinger looked back at them, smiling a bit at their good mood, while Jax just rolled his eyes.

Soon enough, the group found itself in front of the inn. It was a bit of a larger building, but with the aesthetic of the Western town it almost looked rustic. The sign mounted on the roof was written in the same language as the one at the town's gate, making it completely unreadable for the digitized humans.

"To the Trumpet Pond..." Kunemon read aloud. "The name's a bit on the nose."

"How so? I see no pond." Gangle looked around and found nothing that would even suggest a body of water.

"Well, a bit further intown is a place, but we can go there tomorrow. Plus, it isn't about the actual pond but the owner." Kunemon said as he climbed up the stairs of the entrance and pushed the door open, followed by the others. Inside it looked like a saloon from a Western movie, albeit one that was already closed. The tables were clean and the chairs tugged under them for the next day's business. A case of stairs further in the back led to the upper floors, while behind the counter multiple bottles with different contents sat on a shelf.

"Do you think they actually got alcohol here?" Pomni asked Jax, who shrugged.

"Who cares? It's probably better than drinking nothing but the sugar and chocolate in this place." The rabbit smirked as he approached the counter and rang the bell on it. The ringing sound cut through the silence of the room and almost seemed to echo for just a moment, before they heard someone come down the stairs.

"I'll be right there! Just wait a moment!" Someone called from above as hurried footsteps moved across the ceiling above towards the stairs, when all the sudden there was a loud crash. "OUCH! OW! DAMMIT!" Someone fell over and grumbled as they got up again and continued their descend down the stairs. Ragatha and Gangle winced a little in phantom pain while Jax's grin grew somehow even wider.

"Oh this is going to be good." He thought aloud with a grin. But his smile vanished the instance the person who had called earlier made their way down the stairs. It looked like a humanoid green frog with a white belly. Both of its eyes were bulging out of their sockets, almost making it look cartoonishly crazy at first glance while small sharp teeth sat within its jaws. Attached its neck and winding around it was a yellow metal tube akin to that of a brass music instrument like a horn or a trumpet. The digimon was short, shorter than Pomni in fact as it only reached about waist high compared to Jax, Ragatha or Kinger with its head.

"Apologies to have kept you waiting." The frog digimon said before climbing on a stool behind the counter to bring itself on the eye level with most of the circus members and leaning in the counter with its webbed hands. "Good evening and welcome to the Trumpet Pond Inn. How may I be of service?" It said on an attempt to sound adequate.

Gekomon

Level: Champion

Amphibian Digimon

Type: Virus

Attack: Symphony Crusher

"Hi, uhm...We would need a place to stay for the night. Would you have room for the six of us?" Pomni said when Kunemon rather loudly cleared his throat. "Sorry, seven of us." Gekomon eyed the jester suspiciously for a moment as if there might be more of them hiding behind her or something and then looked at the group of people before leaning back.

"I'm afraid the best we can do is a room for 4 people at best." The amphibian grabbed something behind the counter and put it in front of them, revealing it to be a guest book. "We do have rooms for 3 and 2 people as well if you do not mind sharing a bed with one of your companions."

"I guess that would be doable... what do you say?" Ragatha asked the others, who looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and nodding in agreement as they figured out who would share a room with who as well as sleeping arangements.
Except for Jax, who was for staring at Gekomon. For a moment he did not see some weird frog/lizard with a trumpet, but rather someone he knew from the circus with a likeness to a frog and wearing a red bow.

"Jax? Jax, are you there?" Ragatha's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and made him jump a bit and flinch away when she touched his arm.

"What? Yeah, yeah, whatever." He said, waving the others off. They looked confused at him as did Gekomon, before the digimon turned back to adress the rest of the group, choosing not to adress the lagomorph's strange behaviour.

"Alright... one room for 2 and one for 3 for one night. That'll be..." Gekomon was cut off when Kunemon climbed on the counter.

"I'll cover the bill for us." He said.

"Kunemon, you don't need to..." Ragatha started but the Jax cut her off.

"Oh no, let him. Why decline such a generous offer?" He said with a cheeky grin, being right back to his usual antics.

"Plus, y'all don't have any money." Kunemon added nonchalantly. Instantly Jax's face fell alongside his ears as that statement made all of the circus members shut up and Kinger swore he just heard glass shatter somewhere. Though that might as well have been the collective pride of his companions at the realization that they were, in fact, pennyless.

A short while later, the group had written their name into the guest book and been given the keys to their room. Still, Gekomon insisted in a gentleman-like manner to guide the group to their rooms upstairs. Soon enough they found themselves climbing up the stairs and looking into a hallway with three doors at both sides as well a staircase at the end, leading to the 2nd floor. The innkeeper guided them down the hallway to the far end before stopping at the doors to the right at the side facing the street.

"This would be the suite for the three gentlemen." He gestured before Kinger unlocked the door and the group looked inside. The was a bit barren with a small table and a number of chairs depending on how many occupants the rooms were meant to house being the only other furniture. A window at the far end of the room overlooked the street below while two beds sat on next to it against the wall of the room. It all gave off a rather rustic atmosphere, though not unpleasant. "The bathroom is on the second floor the first door to the right." Gekomon added.

"Thanks Gekomon." Kunemon said before looking at the rest of the group while Kinger and Jax walked into the room. "I'll guess we'll see each other tomorrow then."

"Right... night guys." Pomni said as Gekomon lead her, Gangle, Zooble and Ragatha to their room next door and the door slowly fell shut, leaving Jax, Kinger and Kunemon in the room.

"Well, that sure was something." Kunemon said, before turning to Jax. "What was that earlier about?"

"I just zoned out for a second. Doesn't happen every day that you see a talking frog." He shrugged before sitting down on his bed. That was when he noticed his pillow was missing and how Kinger had already slipped under his blanket holding both pillows. "Seriously?"

"I need to build a fort and an insect collection!" Kinger said rather loudly as Jax and Kunemon exchanged a look, before Jax picked the digimon up.

"If you try and use me as a pillow, I'll bite your ears off." The caterpillar warned.

"As if I want that squishy body or that stinger anywhere near my face." He said before holding out Kunemon to Kinger. "Hey wanna trade that pillow for this bug for your insect collection?"

"Jax! You can't just trade m-"

"DEAL!" Kinger immediately switched Jax's pillow for the digimon so fast Jax almost didn't realize Kinger had snatched Kunemon from his hands until the digimon squirmed and complained.

"I'M NOT SOME COLLECTIBLE! [Electric Thread]." Kunemon spat his charged silk at Kinger's face and electrocuted him, only for the chess piece to be completely unfazed. "What?"

"Sorry about that. But Kinger already is so messed in the head, that he is immune to that sort of stuff. Night losers." Jax said as he laid down and crossed his legs lazily, watching amused at their situation.

"I'LL BITE YOUR FOOT OFF AND TURN IT INTO A LUCKY CHARM! LET ME AT HIM!" Kunemon shouted as he squirmed and wriggled in Kinger's grasp who instead just pulled the blanket over them, which was occasionally lit up by the electric discharge of his attack.

Meanwhile, the others of the group settled into their own room, which looked the same as Jax and Kinger's, minus the additional bed and chair.

"Thanks for letting us stay at such a short notice." Ragatha told Gekomon who stood outside their door.

"It is no problem, ladies. Enjoy your stay." The frog said before closing the door and going upstairs. Meanwhile Pomni could hear the chaos in Jax and Kinger's room unfold as she and Zooble pressed their heads against the wall to hear Kunemon rant about how he was going to eat Jax alive.

"Oof, I'd not want to trade places with that bug." Pomni said, making Zooble chuckle.

"I say we do let him eat Jax. Maybe, he'll be more tolerable with an ear less." The toybox character said, causing the others to chuckle a bit before Pomni gave Zooble back to Gangle.

"Okay, but we really could do with some sleep now. I think we are all a bit exhausted from this whole ordeal." Ragatha said. No one argued against that as the three ablebodied circus members laid down on their beds to rest. Still as they were looking at the ceiling, they found themselves staring at the wooden boards above in disbelief. "I still cannot really believe we are not in the circus anymore." The doll said, sounding rather uncertain what to make of the situation. A sentiment that the others also mirrored.

"Yeah, it almost feels like this is all just an elaborate prank of Caine. But he's not exactly that good in making things up to pull something like this of. Would still be nice to have a body though." Zooble said as Gangle looked at them.

"Zooble..."

"I know. I know. He did it to distract that ugly ass spider freak. But he didn't have to throw all of them at once." They said rolling their eyes.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out." Gangle said. "Even if we might have to figure out what to do now first." She said what everyone else dreaded to think about. The uncertainty of their future. The circus was a purgatory that slowly broke them down, but being given freedom like this also meant not really knowing what to do with said freedom.

"That... can wait until tomorrow." Pomni offered. "For now, let's just sleep a bit and hope we don't wake up to Caine randomly appearing in our room." She said, making Ragatha, Gangle and Zooble look at her.

"He did what now?"

"Uhm..."

"Fucking creep."

"Am I the only one he has ever done that to? What the fuck?!" Pomni sat up on her bed to look back at them. Silence stretched between the four of them, just before Pomni groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Ugh! Why me..."

"You're the youngest?" Gangle offered.

"Maybe because you are the only other circus-themed character?" Ragatha mused.

"He probably just wants to make sure you don't try and avoid him like I do." Zooble deadpanned.

"You guys are not helping!" Pomni then grabbed her pillow and covered her face with it, before slumping down. "Night guys."

"Night." Gangle said before Zooble, Ragatha and her laid back down and closed their eyes and shortly after fell asleep, except for Zooble who looked up at the ceiling for a while longer, lost in her thoughts.

'I wonder what that bastard Caine is up to now that we are gone? Oh well, if we are no longer under his thumb for good, he can go fuck himself.' Zooble thought as their consciousness began to slip away and they fell asleep shortly after as well.

Meanwhile back in The Amazing Digital Circus, Caine looking high and low for his missing 'superstars'. Clipping through walls, lifting enormous furniture with a snap of his fingers only to drop it in an instance without a care and surveying the entire circus with his eyes with almost military like precision. Bubble was watching Caine turn the circus into something akin to a quarantine zone without a care in the world as units of eyes floating around in the air in V-formations or patrolling the ground like soldiers. Instead she simply ate popcorn from a popcorn machine by literally sitting inside the machine with her mouth open.

"This doesn't make any sense at all." Caine muttered to himself as he took a sip of digital coffee. "I've looked everywhere in the tent and they are nowhere to be found. I looked in their room and in the tubes and in the cellar and under their beds and in the cellar and at the bottom of the digital lake and in their rooms..." Caine continued to list all the places he had looked already, either not noticing or not caring for all the places he mentioned multiple times. Bubble said nothing as she continued to let the machine rain warm and sweet corn pour into her mouth when Caine noticed her not listening at all. "Why am I even talking to you? You never listen."

"Because you got no one else to talk to." Bubble said in her cheerful tone, but there was no warmth in it. Just a mocking coldness that showed Caine either that she didn't care or she enjoyed his distress. In either case, he felt frustration well up in him at his coworkers indifference to their situation and the absence of their human guests.

"What if they are cold and alone and scared and without me? We cannot have that Bubble. We can absolutely not!" Caine said as he put his hands on his hips and puffed his chest out. Bubble just responded by eating the whole popcorn machine whole, not caring what her boss had to say at all.

Just then Caine's whacky watch started to make a bunch of cartoonish noises, making Caine's eyes in the general area of the tent instantly float over to look, blocking his view.

"AHA! Found you racing rascals!" Caine said as he tried looking at his watch only to find all the eyeballs blocking his view. "Ahem. Excuse me." The eyes shifted away like a curtain to let their master look at the wrist-mounted gadget. Almost instantly, his posture slumped down as the screen read a line of text.

[Humans found: 0]

[Virus detected! Firewall engaging. Neutralizing threat...]

"Pff, just some busybody trying to look what's in here." Caine waved it off before crossing his arms and looking away as if the whacky watch had wronged him personally by not telling him what he wanted to hear.

"Oh ho! We haven't had a hacker in quite a while." Bubble said with glee in her voice. "Mind if I eat their scrap code?" Caine was about to reprimand Bubble's gluttonous behaviour just as the watch gave off another alarm, this time sounding like a shrill school bell. This caught both of their attention as the line of text had changed colour from neon green to red.

[Firewall compromised. Threat could not be neutralized.]

"Huh..." Was all Caine could say when the screen shifted to a radar, displaying him and Bubble in the middle when a red dot appeared at the edge of the radar, coming closer to them. With each ping of the radar, the red dot drew closer and closer, causing Caine's eyes to widen to the size of saucers. And when the dot finally reached them... nothing happened.

"Hm... maybe a false alarm." Bubble said somewhat disappointed. Just then a rift in midair opened up and a small bulb-like object floated out. It was bright green with a purple pattern of lines stretching across its body. The centre though was dominated by a single yellow eye with a magenta iris. At the ends of its body, it was pink and its bottom had a small tail akin to a flagellum. Caine said nothing as he stared back at the strange thing that had just appeared in the circus. Bubble, however, was as blunt as brick.

"Looks like a b*****ug." She said, making Caine turn his eyes to her and scoot a bit away from her. Then he turned his attention to the thing that was now seemingly staring back at them.

"Well, nothing a little snap cannot fix. I may be obligated to say this, but I'm really sorry little intruder. This is the end of the line for you." The ringmaster of the circus said before snapping his finger.

... but nothing happened.

"Uhm..." Caine snapped his fingers multiple times in a row, but each time the bulb-like creature remained completely unfazed. "Now this is weird." Caine said as he looked at his hands as if trying to figure out if something was wrong with them, when the newcomer hovered closer to one of Caine's many floating eyeballs acting as surveillance cameras before.

For a moment both eyeballs just looked right at each other before the spiked end of the green creature's flagellum sliced the eyeball straight in half and caused it to explode into particles of data. "My eye!" Caine shouted as he grabbed his own eyes and pulled at them like some cartoon character might pull at their face in shock. Meanwhile the green invader sucked up the data of the destroyed eyeball and turned its body to the next closest ones.

"Alright, that's it! I'm gonna delete that thing." Bubble said as she rushed forward with her mouth wide open to consume the green being. Just then more rifts opened all around the tent as hundreds of these creatures swarmed inside of the digital circus, halting Bubble's murderous advance, and started breaking down their surroundings. Not just the floating eyeballs, but also the walls, furniture and random items around the tent were slowly being covered and devoured by these beings like a swarm of locusts descending on a crop field.

"My circus! My stage! My cabbages!" Caine watched in horror as the foundation of his existence was slowly being devoured by a what looked like vegetables with eyes. Worse even still was some of these creatures began to change. Suddenly their forms swelled into something more akin to a jellyfish or an octopus with two antennae on their heads and two purple appendages emeged from their sides. Their eyes remained the same though and on their underside were now circular maws with sharp teeth akin to those of a sea urchin or a leech, which they quickly put to use by consuming more of the circus' data.

"I'm so done with the ******** ******!" Bubble said as she tried eating the closest one of the creatures. It turned towards her and smacked her across the face with its new arms with such force, it sent her crashing into the ground and actually knocked one of her teeth out. "Ouch... you hit like a p****..." She croaked out as Caine rushed over and picked her up.

"Don't worry Bubble. Just don't go into the light. Not into recycle bin." He said, just as the ground beneath him erupted and a cluster of throny green vines shot towards him and Bubble. The last thing Caine saw before entire field of vision went dark were those same yellow and purple eyes staring back at him in the thousands from the darkness beyond the rift and the vines ensnaring him and Bubble.

And with that the curtain falls for this chapter. The cast sure has a lot of stuff to do and next time we'll get a closer look at digital world as the gang gets to explore this first town and figure out where to go from there in hopes of making it back to the real world.