Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sun sets slowly over the city skyline, the orange sky fading to black as the city quiets down. A young man with short black hair, wearing his school uniform, a white dress shirt and black pants, and a simple red backpack, sits in a nearly empty train car, playing a game on an old and worn handheld. Two young girls share the car with him, both of them wearing similar uniforms, the younger of the two, with long brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a pink sweater and a pale green backpack, sits near the back of the car, asleep with a pink egg-shaped V-pet in her hands, the older girl, with long pale brown hair hanging loose over her shoulder, wearing her shirt more open near the top and carrying a shoulder bag, sits by the doors, typing away at a silver cellphone with a chibi dragon charm hanging from the hinge.

The boy sees the light on his handheld turn red, he saves his game and turns off the device, watching out the window at the setting sun just before it’s blocked by the walls of a tunnel. Whether it was from their fatigue, their lack of attention to their surroundings, or a combination of the two, neither the boy nor the older girl realized the problem with the tunnel the train just entered: there were no tunnels on this line.

The tunnel felt like it went on forever, 10 minutes, 20, 30, it was far too long. An announcement came over the speakers in the car, waking the younger girl from her nap and making her drop the now-beeping V-pet.

“Next stop, Metal Station. End of the line.”

The two lucid passengers noticed the oddity; both of them had taken this train hundreds of times, but they had never heard this voice over the announcements and certainly had never stopped at or heard of “Metal Station”. The voice was slightly garbled and robotic, barely hidden by odd static.

The boy stands up.

“Metal Station?” he questioned as he turned to the windows of the train once more.

As the younger girl gets her bearings, she notices what was just announced, tears welling in her eyes as it clicks for her.

“End of the line? WAH, I missed my stop!”

“Quit crying, will ya!” the older girl shouts. “Besides, you’re whining about the wrong thing, the end of the line isn’t a problem, I’ve never heard of Metal Station.”

The older girl tries to look into the darkness, failing to see anything more than shadowed bricks. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in the tunnel, the three are nearly blinded by bright lights reflecting off of pristine white tiles. They’ve arrived at Metal Station.

As the train slows to a halt, another announcement is broadcast through the car.

“Now arriving at Metal Station, please depart as the train will no longer run. Thank you for traveling, and welcome to the Digital World.”

The three look out at the empty platform and inadvertently speak in unison.

“D-Digital world?”

The three of them are startled as the doors open. They stare in disbelief as they try and piece together what’s happening. Staring at the doors, watching for anything to happen, for something to jump out and scare them, for someone to come out and say they’re on a prank show, but nothing comes. They wait, wondering what to do, where to go, where they even are. The lights flick off in the car, startling everyone and making the younger girl jump in her seat. Tears well up in her eyes once more as she starts to cry loudly.

“WAHH, I WANNA GO HOME!!!”

The young girl's crying startles and annoys the older girl far more than anything that's happened thus far.

“WOULD YOU SHUT UP!”

“B-but, it’s so scary *sniff*, and w-we don’t know where we are, a-and I just wanna go home.”

 The boy walks over and kneels in front of the crying girl.

“Hey, calm down, I’m sure this is some mistake and someone will notice the train didn’t stop at the right stations. For now, let's sit tight and wait, okay? My name’s Satoru, what’s yours?”

The girl dries her eyes and looks at Satoru.

“Satoru?” She smiles at the name, “Hehe, my last name is Sato, Harumi Sato.”

Satoru stands up with his own smile.

“Nice to meet you, Harumi, I’m sure this will all be solved and blow over soon.” He turns to the older girl as she places her phone in her bag. “How ‘bout you?”

The girl glances up and looks at the boy with a grimace, choosing to stay silent as she turns to the window. Satoru lets out a sigh and walks out onto the platform, glancing around at the still empty station. The white tiles were still almost blinding in the bright lights. Trying his best to get his eyes to adjust, Satoru walks further away from the train, moving toward a staircase at one end of the platform. As he walks, it sinks in how empty it is, even though they took a quieter train; there should still be way more people getting off, or even just in the cars, but every last car he can see is dark and empty. Satoru scratches his head as he tries to figure out what’s going on, oblivious to the clicking of gears, the clattering of rocks against the tile, and the rapid flapping of small wings.

The girls noticed the sounds first and ducked down, watching the shadows crawl across the wall as three creatures came into view, vague silhouettes against the bright tiles, two of them were floating off the ground and the third stalked along hunched over like a zombie, none of the creatures were very large, but not knowing what they were made it hard to act. Should they defend themselves? Could they defend themselves? It wasn’t until the creature in the front started to move faster toward Satoru that Harumi called out to the boy.

“Satoru, look out!”

Everyone on the platform was startled and turned toward the train car just as the older girl pulled Harumi back in and covered her mouth. The stalking creature and the other flying creature made their way toward the car as the first creature remained, turning back to Satoru and staring at him with red, mechanical eyes. Gears click as the two stare at each other, studying, waiting to see what the other will do. As the strange creature begins to open its jagged maw, they turn back to the train car, startled by a scream.

“KYAAAA!”

The stalking creature falls backward, its rocky body crashing against the tile floor. It rubs its back as Harumi bolts out of the train towards Satoru, holding something tightly in her arms.

“Satoru-”

“Harumi are you oka-”

The startled boy is interrupted by a ball of pink and white being shoved in his face.

“Look how cute it is!”

Satoru stares in confusion at the thing in her arms, a look of embarrassment and defeat on its small face, having resigned itself to the mercy of an excitable teenage girl. The odd creature was roughly the size of a small dog, its body was white on the underside and pink covering its back and the top half of its face, despite its colors and its size, it resembled a hamster with bat wings instead of ears, black three-toed paws closely resembling a cat’s, and Its grumpy expression is made rather cute by its big piercingly blue eyes.

“Um…well, it is pretty cute, but you probably shouldn't just grab it like that, you don’t know what it is or where it's been.”

“Hey, what’re you tryin’ to say, I’m a perfectly clean and healthy Digimon.”

“I’m sure you are, but we don’t-”

The realization washes over Satoru and Harumi as they stare at the creature in her hands. This thing just spoke. They blinked a few times as if to see if it was a dream, but no, this thing in front of them, this, for lack of a better word, monster just spoke to them.

“Y-You just spoke?”

“Yeah, and water’s wet, so what?” The pink creature retorts and puffs up its cheeks.

Everyone turns toward the source of a sudden thunk, and they see the older girl slumped on her knees, having dropped her bag in disbelief at the situation.

“Oh my god, we’re going crazy already. Empty train stations, weird announcements, a pink flying hamster, I might be going insane.”

The creature made of rock walks up and picks up her bag, holding it out to the unresponsive girl before slinging it over its shoulder.

“Well, I think you’re exaggerating a bit, Futaba, an insane man wishes it could come up with the likes o’ me,” the rock monster commented, pointing a rocky thumb at itself, and speaking with a slight New York accent.

The trio stares at the rock monster. Its whole body was made of grey rock piled up into a humanoid form, its inorganic nature betrayed by its bright, yellow, human-like eyes. The monster is only a few feet tall, perhaps the height of a small child, dwarfed in comparison to the teenagers it was just speaking to.

“H-how do you know my name?” Futaba asked, looking like she had just seen a ghost.

“Because we’re your partners, I guess?” 

The reply was robotic and metallic, this time coming from the creature Satoru was staring down moments before. The last of the creatures resembled three large gear, the center gear, gold in color and roughly half of Satoru’s height, had the creature's metallic face front and center on two grey metal plates joined with rivets down the center, its mouth a jagged line cut into the metal, and the eyeholes mismatching, the left a jagged star shape, and the right was a perfect circle, but both held its red, mechanical eyes. The other two were smaller, silver gears; five of each gear’s teeth were unusually elongated and seemed to bend, functioning as hands for the odd machine.

Satoru stares at the creatures, shifting his attention between them one by one. His brain is trying to figure out a way to register these things, these monsters, and rationalize what they are. He shifts from the floating gears next to him, to the rock monster next to the older girl, whose name he just learned was Futaba, to the big pink hamster gently held in Harumi’s arms.

“Not to be rude, but what are you guys?”

The three creatures share a glance and quickly move a few steps away. The pink creature, gently wiggling from Harumi’s grasp, and the rock creature, still wearing Futaba’s bag over its shoulder, join up with the gears and turn back toward the kids.

“I’m Gottsumon,” introduced the rock creature as it bowed politely.

“I’m Patamon,” greeted the pink creature, puffing out its chest.

“And I’m Hagurumon,” finished the gear creature. “And we’re-”

“Digimon, Digital Monsters!” the three shout in unison, striking mismatched poses.

Satoru, Harumi, and Futaba look at each other in confusion.

“Di-”

“-gi-”

“-mon?”

The three continue to stare at these “digital monsters” in confusion as they congratulate each other on a perfect introduction, Gottsumon taking a bow as the others applaud, Patamon following with a curtsy in the air, making the other two laugh.

Futaba finally stands up but can’t seem to will herself upright, slumped over and letting her arms hang loose from her shoulders.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Not a clue, but these guys seem pretty nice at least, there could have been something way worse than them.”

“Like?”

“I dunno, a giant bug?”

Hagurumon turns toward the confused teens as he overhears their conversation. “Oh! We have those here, a few actually; Snimon, Kuwagamon, Kabuterimon-”

“EEK, Stop stop stop, I do NOT need to hear about giant monster bugs right now.” Futaba covers her ears and grimaces in disgust at the thought of giant bugs the size of the creatures in front of them.

Patamon flutters back to Harumi and leans back, belly up, as it’s cradled in the girl’s arms.

“Relax, most of them stick to the jungle zones, you won’t see many bug Digimon here in the Metal City Zone.

“Oh right, the announcement said something about a Metal Station.” Harumi rubs Patamon’s belly, eliciting a happy squeak from the digimon.

“It also said something about a ‘Digital World’, what's up with that?” Futaba snaps herself out of her slump as she questions Patamon.

In between the happy squeaks and pleasured sighs, Patamon manages to give the older girl a response.

“Well, it's pretty on the box. You guys took that train to the Digital World, the home of the Digimon.” The pink digimon glances at Satoru, “And ‘cause I know you’re gonna ask, the Digital World is somewhat split into different types of Zones: cities, jungles, desserts, oceans, you name an environment, there’s a Zone or Sub-Zone for it. The one we’re in right now is one of the smaller City Zones, the Metal City Zone.”

Harumi chuckles as she pets the digimon, “Don’t you mean deserts?”

“Nope, desserts, like cakes and ice cream. Though that’s not to say we don’t have deserts, Metal City is surrounded by one.”

Harumi’s eyes light up at the thought of a place made of nothing but sweets.

“Can we go there, please!?”

Gottsumon rubs its rocky chin as it considers the distance.

“I mean, the closest Dessert Zone is close enough, I guess, but it’s not like you can take a train there, if you wanna move between zones, you gotta walk. Besides, if you’re so excited to see the Digital World, why not start with where you are now?”

Gottsumon dashes to the stairs behind Satoru and gestures for them to follow. As everyone ascends the stairs, the bright lights of the platform are slowly replaced with the more distant neon lights of a city. As the group reaches the top of the stairs, they’re met with the sight of a massive cityscape, buildings towering overhead, clusters of signs floating through the air, and blue streams of light darting all around. The kids look around in amazement, hundreds of creatures of all shapes and sizes are scattered around the clustered city. They watch as a large humanoid lion digimon walks with one resembling a large spiked Doberman. They see a weird creature with fleshy arms and legs, clad only in boots, gloves, and sunglasses, buy from a large golden bug digimon running a food stand. Looking up, they witness a massive bronze blimp floating overhead, tailed by two serpentine creatures with large metal gauntlets around muscular arms. 

The shock and awe is interrupted by a low growl. Hearing this, Harumi hides her face behind Patamon and looks into the pink fur with an equally pink blush across her face. Everyone holds back a chuckle as both Futaba and Satoru’s stomachs growl as well.

“C’mon, let's grab a bite, my treat.” Gottsumon walks out into the city, leading the group to the golden bug Digimon.

“Mornin’ Gottsumon, what can I getcha?” The bug Digimon shuffles its many hands behind the counter of the stand.

“I’ll have the usual, anything you’d recommend for my friends here?”

The golden bug glances at the group in front of his stand, even without a mouth, it’s easy to tell they gave a slight smile. The group got their food, and Gottsumon led them to a small park to eat. 

As everyone eats, enjoying the surprisingly delicious food, Hagurumon speaks up between bites of a metal hotdog.

“So, where are your digivices?”

Satoru looks at the Gear Digimon in confusion and shrugs.

“What’s a digivice?”

“It’s a… well, it’s… hmm… how do I describe it? See, when a digimon and a human become partners, the human gets a little computery thing that connects them to the digimon, sometimes it's built to purpose, and sometimes it transforms from, like, a phone or a PDA.”

Harumi sits up, having been stroking Patamon’s back while lying on the grass.

“How would that work? I don’t have a phone.”

Taking notice of the conversation, Futaba quickly searches in a panic, finally taking her bag back from Gottsumon and pulling out her phone. When she flips it open, she finds the buttons and screen have changed. She quickly tries to find her contacts but her phone has changed completely, only being able to find menus that she can’t read.

“Well, I only said ‘like’ a phone, it could be just about anything electronic, I think.”

Futaba tries harder and harder to find any semblance of function to call or text anyone, slowly getting more and more frustrated at the lack thereof.

“But the only electronic I have with me is my-”

Harumi and Satoru immediately panic and search their pockets and bags, Harumi pulls out her V-pet, and tears well in her eyes as she sees that it changed, the device is now slightly larger, the floral pattern having changed to reflect Patamon’s fur, and the screen now in full color and shows a small sprite of Patamon. Satoru pulls out his handheld game, his heart skips a beat as he sees the consoles worn and scratched shell replaced with a new pristine one with a gold gear pattern, he opens it and sees that it got the same treatment as Harumi’s V-pet, the screen was larger, almost taking up the entire top half of the device, the buttons were changed and two new ones were added, oddly enough, the buttons had lost all markings except a new X button.

“My phone’s busted!”

“WAH, MY V-PET. I worked so hard to keep it alive.”

As the girls become more and more upset over their devices changing, Gottsumon and Hagurumon start to become panicked.

“Hey, Futaba, calm down, please.”

“You can’t cry here, Harumi, please calm down.”

At first, Satoru just assumes that the two Digimon are just trying to console the girls until he notices the panic on their faces and sees them glance around hurriedly, looking around with them, Satoru sees a few bystanders on the streets stop and look their way, all of them with grave and fearful looks.

“Patamon, what’s up with them?”

Satoru looks to the pink Digimon for answers, only to see them puffing up and staring in the direction of the other side of the park. Looking up, the boy sees a pair of large humanoid machines approaching, parts of their metal bodies broken and peeling away to reveal withered and disheveled flesh interlaced with wires underneath.

“Uh, Guys?!”

Futaba stops shouting and arguing with Gottsumon long enough for the two to look up and see the machines stalking toward them.

“Aw crap! We gotta get Harumi to stop cryin’!”

“What the hell are those?!”

Futaba and Satoru stand up as the Digimon draw closer and closer. All the while, Harumi is still bawling her eyes out.

“They're called Andomon, they’re the peacekeepers of Metal City, if anything, an’ I mean anything, is out of order or causing trouble, they put a stop to it.”

The panic on the Gottsumon's face grows as he and Hagurumon desperately try to calm Harumi down. The Digimon struggle to get through to the inconsolable girl, desperately trying and failing to bargain with her and get her to stop crying.

“I worked for months keeping Maru-chan happy and healthy, now they’re gone. All my hard work, all for it to go away.” 

The two digimon tried everything they could think of, but it was too late.

Chapter Text

Time was up, and the massive android Digimon now towered over the group. One looks down at Satoru while the other slowly pans across the group, its vision landing on Harumi. 

The two peacekeepers approach the girl, and one reaches out to grab her.

[BOOM BUBBLE]

A burst of air fires at the Andromon’s hand, knocking it away from Harumi. With tears in her eyes, she turns around and takes notice of the androids standing over her, staring at something. She follows their vision to see Patamon standing at attention and glaring at the larger Digimon.

{Halt, you are currently in the process of hindering peacekeeping authorities, stand down now or be punished for disturbance.}

The androids return their attention to Harumi and reach for her again as she tries to back away out of fear.

“Hey, stop! What did she do?

Satoru looks up at the android Digimon, fearful of what they may do to Harumi.

{The suspect produced an auditory expression of frustration at an excessive volume for an excessive duration.}

“You’re arresting Harumi for crying?”

Satoru glares at the androids. He can feel his heart beat faster as he stares down at the easily seven-foot-tall Digimon. As his glare becomes more intense, a strange bar appears on the screen of his game.

“What are you going to do?”

{We will detain the criminal, and they will face justice under the strict ruling of the law.}

 “What kinda’ law is that?”

Satoru’s heart beats faster, his anger at the so-called peacekeepers rising, the more his heart rises, so does the bar on his game, two bars, three bars, slowly it grows and pulses between levels.

{Under the law of Metal City Zone, Section 14, subsection 8, the suspect's expression of frustration was of excessive volume and duration; as such, it was a disturbance of peace.}

{It is not your responsibility to argue what is and is not justice; cease your argument, or you will be detained.}

Five bars, six bars, almost reaching the edge of the screen.

Hagurumon speaks up.

“Hold on a second, what do you mean by excessive duration? You came over here the second she started crying.”

The screen flickers between seven and eight bars, just barely enough to touch the top edge.

{ Incorrect, we began our approach when the disturbance exceeded an appropriate duration of 0.05 seconds }

Satoru’s blood boils, the bar on the device is now at eight bars with no flickering.

“A fifth of a second, that's how long people are allowed to cry for here!?”

{ Incorrect, 0.05 seconds is the appropriate duration for all disturbances, vocalizations of excessive volume, expressions of frustration, and recreational audio of excessive volume; all disturbances are subject to the law. }

{ Cease attempt at reason, the individual is uncooperative, classifying as a suspect }

{ Acknowlaged. You are now being detained, do not resist or you will face further prosecution }

The Andromon approach Satoru and Hagurumon, the duo stepping back as the androids close in. 

[ROCK FIST]

A flurry of rocks hit the androids in the back, drawing their attention for a moment.

[DARKNESS GEAR]

Black gears strike the officers, once again turning to the gear digimon. Hagurumon trembles as the attacks have done nothing to the androids; the machine digimon were just too strong.

Satoru looks around for someone to help them, only seeing the stunned and fearful faces of the gathering digimon.

{You are now under arrest. Come peacefully, or you will face further prosecution.}

One of the androids reaches for Hagurumon, stopping as a beam of light suddenly surrounds the gear creature, and a quiet screeching can be heard.

“Hagurumon, what’s happening?”

“I’m not sure?”

Soon after, a similar beam surrounds Gottsumon, surprising the rock monster but giving it the determination to attack the androids once more. Sharing a glance with Hagurumon, the two digimon quickly jump at the androids, hitting them with everything they’ve got, some of their attacks now managing to stagger the larger machines.

Despite the commotion, Patamon suddenly realizes what the light is and acts fast to join the fight, running up to Harumi and putting its paws gently on her cheeks.

“Harumi, listen to me, they came over here because you were crying.”

The girl starts to tear up more as she tries to look Patamon in the eyes.

“We’re getting arrested because of me?”

Patamon quickly realizes the mistake in its words.

“Harumi, no! It’s not your fault the Andromon are jerks, but you can’t cry because of a toy. I’m sure it meant a lot to you, but you can't be sad because it changed. If anything, your tears should be happy ones because you don’t have some stupid fake pet that won’t know you or show you the same love you showed it, you have me now, and I promise I’ll give back every ounce of love you show me a hundredfold.”

Through puffy, tear-filled eyes, Harumi looks at the Digimon in her lap.

“Patamon…”

Patamon wipes the tears from Harumi’s eyes and smiles.

“So promise to stop crying for me, Harumi, and I’ll make sure nothing makes you cry again.”

Harumi smiles back and the screeching becomes louder as Patamon is now surrounded by the same light and the others. The pink creature jumps and flies as fast as it can to help its friends, successfully surprising one of the androids just enough to make it stumble back into its partner.

As the fight continues, the kids look around for where the screeching is coming from, finding it coming from their electronics and seeing them shining with a brilliant light, a single prompt flashing on the screens: “Start Digivolve? Y/N” with barely more than a thought, almost on instinct, each of the kids presses a button on their digivice and select, YES.

The word “Digivolve” flashes on the screen as the three digimon attack the androids once more, Patamon performing a flying kick, Gottsumon throwing the hardest punch it can muster, and Hagurumon attempting to tackle the androids. The light grows brighter, causing everyone to shield their eyes.

[HAGURUMON DIGIVOLVE TO-]

[GOTTSUMON DIGIVOLVE TO-]

[PATAMON DIGIVOLVE TO-]

The three digimon each float over a green wireframe platform in a void of swirling data. As more and more data pour into them, the surface of the digimon becomes a wireframe. Hagurumon’s gears meld into its body as the wireframe warps and stretches into a bulky and boxy humanoid form. Gottsumon's body stretches and elongates, its hands, head, and feet becoming larger as four spikes protrude from the new form's hunched back. Patamon’s body stretches and warps into a lanky humanoid form. 

More data surrounds the digimon, filling in the frames. Hagurumon’s hand forms a cylindrical copper gauntlet atop a square hand with only the index finger and thumb individually articulated. Following quickly after is its foot, a heavy copper boot clanks down onto the platform. Finally, its head, green eyes pierce through the dark slot in the rounded helmet, inset so far that there is almost no space between the helmet and its round, vault-like body. 

[GUARDROMON]

Gottsumon's left hand forms first, slamming down on the platform as coarse, yellow rock covers the frame, wrapped in tightly bound wire cables, each finger made of three massive boulders. Its back forms next, the bottom two spikes are hollow and shoot a plume of red smoke as they form. Last is its head, its brown eyes open in the holes of a metal mask covering the top portion of its head as sparse and jagged teeth of both metal and rock poke out in odd directions. 

[GOLEMON]

Patamon’s pale white hands form and grip the body of a golden staff, its left hand wrapped in a black leather belt stopping at the elbow and a pink sash up to the shoulder, white boots stomp down onto the platform as a golden wing design spirals down its left leg and a pink cloth flows down and hangs loosely around their waist. For a moment, Patamon’s bright blue eyes can be seen before being covered by a metal helmet bearing a cross, and a mane of golden blond hair cascades from under the helm, finally, three pairs of pristine white wings erupt from its back. Completing the transformation.

[ANGEMON]

The light fades, and the kids look to see their partner’s new forms.

A bulky, copper-colored robot standing about as tall as Satoru slams into one of the androids, knocking it off balance and forcing it back. The second is knocked back by a flying kick from a tall and thin angel wearing a white bodysuit and pants, all the while wrapped in a pink sash and wielding a golden staff, and a punch from the massive fist of a towering, yellow stone digimon, easily standing at fifteen feet while hunched over on all fours. The kids and the Digimon in the crowd stand in awe and amazement at the sight while the androids stare in disbelief.

{Error, you have violated the law, digivolution is illegal within city limits.}

{Incorrect, digivolution is not possible within city limits.}

“ The injustice ends here, Andromons, we will not let you keep Metal City under lock and key anymore. ”

The androids turn to Satoru and the copper robot.

{negative. Metal City requires peace and order, we will not allow-}

A can hits the Andromon in the side of the head, and a tall blue and white reptilian digimon with wings and a sharp, sword-like horn on its nose is holding an identical can. Several more digimon are holding cans, drinks, and food ready to throw them at the peacekeepers.

“Leave those kids alone!”

A large lion-man throws a tomato-like fruit.

“Harassing the poor girl for crying, some peacekeepers you are!”

More and more digimon crowd around the park, berating the android Digimon for their actions. The crowd was throwing just about everything at them.

One of the Andromons watches the crowd with a twitching eye, unable to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the disturbance they are causing.

{Cease these actions, you are all under arrest for disturbing the peace. Cease your actions at once or you all will be facing further prosecution.}

The Andromon watches helplessly as its words fall on deaf ears.

{Cease your a-actions or you will be fa-acing further p-prosecution.}

The roar of the crowd only grows louder with each passing second, more and more digimon witness and join the commotion. A crowd of hundreds of digimon block off the small park, forming a wall and blocking out more Andromon that have arrived to quell the disturbance. Black electricity sparks across the twitching Andromon’s body as the crowd grows larger and larger, louder and louder, it holds its head as it lets out a distorted metallic scream finally silencing the crowd. Its limbs go slack as it glares at the sky, with nauseating clicking, its head rotates to glare at the teens and their partners before settling on Harumi.

{You have violated the law. You have lost your right to come peacefully. Your surrender will not be accepted. Prepare to be deleted.}

The enraged machine steps toward Harumi, its movements somehow more robotic and unnatural than before. It raises its right hand to its face, and it retracts into the arm, replaced by a long spike, sparking with the same black electricity. It raises the weapon above its head, and it crackles to life, electricity arching into the air. The machine glares at the girl, before giving a sadistic smile as it swings its arm down.

[HAND OF FATE]

A fist of yellow light strikes the android, causing it to stagger. Both machines look at the origin of the attack with a look of concern, the angelic digimon stands before them, a clenched fist outstretched as it glares at the peacekeepers from beneath the metal helm, the angle making the cross of the helmet resemble a furrowed brow.

The idle Andromon converts its hand into the same spike weapon as it turns to face the angel.

{You have struck a peacekeeping officer with violent force. Prepare to be deleted.}

Both machines take a step to approach the angel digimon.

[DESTRUCTION GRENADE]

A pair of missiles collides with the androids' backs, making them stagger once more, turning to see the culprit, their eyes land on the copper robot next to Satoru, its arms outstretched as a pair of small launchers retract into its gauntlets.

{You have struck a peacekeeping officer with violent force.}

{prepare to be deleted.}

Their steps are once more interrupted by a large, yellow, stone hand blocking their path.

Witnessing the scene unfolding in the park, a wave of silent excitement washes over the crowd of digimon. A black devil-like digimon turns to face one of the peacekeepers with a smile, striking it with claws of dark energy. At the same time, a doberman-like digimon bites the leg of another. The blue reptile digimon and the lion-man digimon glance at each other before nodding and turning to yet another Andromon.

[XV-LASER]

[JUOUKEN]

A riot ensues as the digimon fight back against their oppressors. All the while, the two Andromons in the park witness it all and become more and more enraged at the scene. Without another word, the twitching Andromon raises its spiked hand and slashes down, sending a shockwave of energy into Golemon’s hand, causing the stone digimon to recoil in pain. The second Andromon does the same and fires a wave toward the crowd, striking a large grey dragon digimon and a white lion-man digimon, immediately causing the two to fall to their knees as their bodies glitch. Harumi’s eyes go wide at the sight.

“Patamon! You said you would keep me from crying, right?”

“Hm? Of course, why do you ask?”

Harumi smiles at the angel.

“Nothing makes me cry more than seeing a good person get hurt.”

Angemon smiles at her words, it understands what she wants and quickly flies toward the android digimon, striking them with its staff before landing between them and the crowd.

The Andromon glare at the angel and raise their arms once more, sending two waves of energy at the holy digimon. As Angemon is about to dodge, it glances back and sees the two glitching digimon behind it. Hesitantly, it stands firmly and crosses its arms, taking the full force of the attack. The twitchy Andromon smiles and raises its arm to send another attack at Angemon, hesitating at the concerning sight before it, its eyes go wide as it sees Angemon standing strong, almost unfazed by the attack. The angel digimon smirks as a rocky hand bats away the twitchy Andromon, knocking them away to the other end of the park and isolating the other Andromon. The now lone android sends a wave of energy at Golemon, the stone digimon blocking the attack with its massive hand, smiling as it slaps down on top of the machine. Andromon barely dodges the attack before a missile strikes it on the side. Guardromon lowers one arm and raises the other, a small missile with arms and a siren on top at the ready. In a robotic and monotone voice, the copper robot calls out to its foe.

“ Leave these Digimon alone, Andromon, let them live their lives in real peace. ”

{We offered peace to Metal City and were welcomed by its populace. Their dissatisfaction with a service we offer at no cost is none of our concern. This city has known only peace since we began our patrols; they live their lives without concern, without threat, and without suffering. What we have provided is real peace among Digimon, there is no fighting, there is no argument-}

Golemon slaps the android toward Guardromon, speaking in a low, monstrous voice.

“There is no fun. The people of Metal City are too afraid of you to live a real life, too scared to cheer for their favorite teams, too scared to mourn the loss of a friend, too scared to even cough without fear of being thrown in jail for weeks.”

{There is a price for peace, and that price is punishment.}

Guardromon looks at Golemon and Angemon before narrowing its eyes at the staunch peacekeeper.

“ I agree. ”

Guardromon fires the missile as it blows into a tiny whistle, sending the android sprawling back as it collides with its metal body.

Angemon jumps up and flies to the other end of the park to deal with the twitching Andromon, barely avoiding a wave of energy as the android digimon recovers. As the android glares at the angel with shaking red eyes, it lunges at them, intending to spear Angemon on its spiked hand, quickly putting the angel on the defensive. Each of the androids strikes furiously at their suspects, the isolated Andromon losing ground as it’s assaulted by Guardromon and Golemon, while the twitchy Andromon gains ground from the constant, desperate onslaught against Angemon. Soon, the two androids are reunited, both now on the brink of collapse. Golemon glances at its allies and turns its attention to the weakened androids.

“Angemon, get behind me!”

The angel glances back before gliding behind the stone digimon and joining Guardromon in shielding their partners. Golemon makes a wall with its hands as it reels its head back.

[SULFUR PLUME]

A wave of red gas cascades out of the giant's mouth, overtaking the androids and forcing them to their knees. Even a good distance away and blocked by the stone hands, everyone feels the unbearable heat from the strange gas, the blistering temperature causing them to sweat and making Guardromon hot to the touch. The Andromon doesn’t fair much better, its armor glowing white hot from the superheated gas, slowly sinking to the ground more and more as the twitchy Andromon makes a futile attempt to shield itself from the heat, letting out a metallic scream before it goes limp.

Golemon closes its mouth as the gas stops pouring out, the heat subsiding as the remainder dissipates. The giant lowers its hands as the group looks at the now-glitching androids. Guardromon hesitantly makes its way toward them as the glitching worsens, freezing as the twitchy Andromon suddenly opens its eyes. Slowly and painfully, it raises its hand, reaching out to grasp at the teenagers hiding behind the angel and giant. 

{You- have vi-violated the law. You must-t be punished for-for your crimes. We will hold the peace- peace- peace, in the name of the king.}

The androids fade away into blue energy, and the twitchy Andromon continues to stare with angry eyes that, for a moment, relax as it disappears. The kids watch the energy flow into the air, streaking across the sky in no particular direction. As they watch, more and more streams of energy join in and fill the sky with brilliant blue lights.

Futaba watches with starstruck eyes.

“What’s happening?”

Guardomon watches the streams with no expression in its eyes, leaning back as far as it can to watch the sky.

“ It is their data. This is what happens when a Digimon dies. For us, death is a part of life; we live one and are reborn into another. Likely, I was not always me, I could have been a dragon or a dinosaur at some point. But do not worry, they will return to their hatchery and be given a new life, hopefully one that sees the value in freedom .”

“Hatchery?”

“ Correct. Digimon hatch as Digieggs, most commonly in a form we call Baby I or simply Baby Stage. Their data will be reused and form a new egg to hatch into a new life. If they are lucky, they will retain their memories and personality, although that is not common. ”

Satoru glances at his partner with a sad look in his eye.

“And that’s gonna happen to you guys?”

Golemon leans down and smiles.

“Bold of ya to assume we’re dyin’ anytime soon.”

“ I have also heard that digimon that have received a human partner are more likely to retain their memories as long as their bond is strong enough. ”

Harumi gently clings to Angemon’s leg as she looks up at the sky.

“It’s kinda beautiful actually.”

Futaba leans against Golemon's arm.

“Yeah, it is. But wait, if you guys are just reborn when you die, how come everyone was so scared of the Andromon?”

Golemon glances at its partner with a curious look in its eyes.

“If you knew you would get a new life when you die, but you lost your personality and memories, who you were, would you not still be scared to die?”

“Fair enough… So, is no one gonna point out we just killed someone?

“Believe it or not, totally normal here. Because a’ the whole ‘reborn when you die’ thing, it’s not a crime to kill another digimon.”

“ There are, however, rules. City, Town, and Village zones consider it a crime if it is not in defense of yourself or another, as almost every other zone in the digital world is wilderness; this does not apply. There is technically nothing morally wrong with killing a digimon. ”

Satoru looks at Guardomon quizically.

“Is that why the Andromon got away with it for so long? Because there was nothing wrong with deleting someone?”

“ You misunderstand. Killing and deleting are two different actions. Killing a digimon continues the cycle of life, deleting erases the digimon, and there is no data to reuse if a digimon is deleted. ”

The partner digimon suddenly glows white as data leaves their bodies.

“Hey! What’s happening, Hagurumon?”

“Patamon! Are you okay?”

“Hey Gottsumon, What’s going on?

Angemon glances at the other partners before looking at Harumi.

“I…Don’t know.”

A flash of light blinds the kids for a moment as they look to where their partners were just a moment ago.

“Ha-Hagurumon?”

“Patamon?”

“Gyah!”

Futaba hangs her head with an annoyed expression. As she looks down, she sees a pile of grey rocks in a humanoid shape, checking its hands, startled by its sudden reappearance.

Seeing the rock digimon, Harumi and Satoru look down to see their equally confused partners at their feet.

“Huh. ain’t that somethin’?”

“Aw man, I liked being Angemon.”

“Why are we back in our rookie stage?”

Patamon and Hagurumon's thoughts and confusion are interrupted by the sudden embrace of their partners.

“Hagurumon, I thought something happened to you!”

“I mean, technically, something did happen. We de-digivolved somehow.”

“Patamon! I’m so happy you’re okay.”

“Those better not be tears, Harumi, you promised you’d stop crying for me.”

Gottsumon looks at its partner and smiles.

“What, you not happy I’m alive?”

“Tsk, whatever.”

Futaba pulls out her phone and turns away from the rock digimon, who smiles when it peeks at the screen for a moment, noticing Futaba looking at a status menu with Gottsumon’s picture front and center.

“Hey Hagurumon, why’d we move back to the rookie stage?”

The gear digimon clicks faster as though you were hearing it think harder.

“Frankly, I don’t know.”

“So this isn’t a normal thing for digimon?”

“No, I’ve only ever heard of Digimon growing, never regressing unless they died.”

“But we ain’t dead, and we definitely just turned back, we ain’t different digimon.”

Metallic footsteps approach the group from behind, servos whirring as the figure moves.

{I can provide answers.}

Everyone turns to the voice and turns white with fear, standing over them is a slightly larger Andromon, clad in black armor with no missing parts or damage, it waits, staring at them behind a dark visor.

{But you must come with me first. I am sorry, but you kids are under arrest.}

Chapter Text

The Three teenagers sit with their Digimon in a large office in front of a wide desk, a placard hangs on the wall with a gold police shield hanging proudly alongside the picture of a smiling android in black armor. Papers are stacked high and strewn about the office floor, a clock on the wall behind the desk ticked backward, the ticking matched by the bored clicking of Hagurumon’s gears. They have been sitting here for some time. The worry on their faces slowly subsided to boredom. The large black-armored android had taken them here, to its office in a police station, for what reason, they have yet to know, but all they could do was wait.

Their waiting paid off as the large android entered its office and sat down at the desk, reading a file in its hand. Silently perusing the document and shuffling through stacks of papers.

Satoru recalls the moment the android digimon approached them.

{You must come with me. I am sorry, but you are under arrest.}

“For what? Is this still because Harumi was crying?”

{For inciting a riot that resulted in the deaths of several digimon, including multiple officers.}

The group just blinks as they realize what they've just done.

The android drops the file on its desk. The yellow folder joins several more as it rubs its mouth and chin, the only area of exposed flesh on the figure. It looks at the group and sits up straight, its eyes hidden behind the dark visor. It lets out a sigh as it relaxes its posture.

“A-are these all-”

The android cuts off Hagurumon, raising its hand to silence the gear digimon. The Andromon takes a deep breath.

{No, these are not all from the riot you started. These are months of complaints about the peacekeepers I foolishly hired. You children are not in trouble, no charges will be pressed, and frankly, I’d give you a medal if I could, but I must still follow through with standard protocol for those who commit real crimes. My silence is simply from the headache of having attempted to remove them for so long.}

The machine takes another deep breath before correcting its posture once more, folding its hands neatly on the desk.

{I am HiAndromon, the police chief of Metal City Zone, and unlike those peacekeepers, I am a real officer. And, I am the idiot who hired them in the first place. I cannot thank you enough for removing their scourge from this city, the Digimon will be able to live happily now that most of them are gone, and the police and good samaritans will finish what you kids have started.}

HiAndromon smiles at the group before a small computer rises from its desk.

{Now then, I’m sure you have questions, as do I, and I will do my best to answer them for you, but first, I need one of your digivices.}

The humans hesitate as the intimidating machine asks for their electronics so casually. The kids and their digimon huddle together. Hagurumon starting the rounds.

“Okay, so we can’t give him your digivices, right?”

“Of course not! I’m not giving that thing my phone.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re what let us digivolve before too.”

“So if we give them our digivice, you can't digivolve?”

“Then if we have to, Futaba should give it her phone.”

“What!?”

“Think about it for a sec, if we need to digivolve to defend ourselves, Gottsumon is too big, the whole station would come down on top of us, Hagurumon and Patamon are at least able to fit.”

“That’s kinda’ fair, Futaba, there’s no way I can become Golemon in here.”

“Golemon?”

“Yeah, the name of that digimon, when a digimon digivolves, its name changes too.”

“I became Angemon.”

“Oh, like an angel.”

“And I became Guardromon.”

{Ahem. I would normally say ‘Take your time’ but I have other responsibilities to attend to, and I only need one of them for just a moment.}

With a look of anger, Futaba approaches the desk of the android digimon, grumpily handing it her phone. The officer takes her phone in its large, sharp fingers and gently places it into a small cylinder of clear blue energy, turning to its computer and typing away, a look of intrigue on its barely visible face.

“What are you doing with it anyway?”

{I’m looking for the origin of the digivice’s program, seeing who called you here. Humans are not a common sight in the digital world, and their appearance is always either a blessing or an omen. The last human that came to our digital world became a self-declared king.}

HiAndromon continues to read the data reflecting in his visor before the 1s and 0s suddenly stop moving. The android leans back in its chair with a puzzled look. They rerun the program three more times before handing Futaba her phone.

{This is both intriguing and concerning. You have been guided to the digital world by an artificial intelligence called Oracle…}

Futaba clicks open her phone and looks at the screen in surprise as she can now read the text of the menus. Satoru looks at the android curiously.

“What’s so weird about it that you’d be concerned? I mean, an AI being basically a god to you guys is normal, right? Uh, not to be rude.”

{It is normal per se, our digital world is occupying a large-scale industrial-level AI, however, the concern comes from the fact that we are within the Yggdrasill servers, not Oracle. If you have been sent here by an outside force, then there is likely a threat to Yggdrasil, and by extension, the Digital Worlds held within.}

Futaba glances back at the android.

“Worlds? Plural?”

{A bit of a misnomer, but yes. The Digital world is a dimension occupying the same space as yours. It has existed for a long time, but a connection between the dimensions was rare and random at best, often resulting in ancient digital lifeforms falling into your world, unable to return. Many of the cryptids and mythical creatures you know are very likely to have been displaced ancestors of modern Digimon. Our worlds would gain a stronger connection when humans invented the internet, and the frequency happened to overlap with the digital world, allowing the digimon of the time to enter your world’s cyberspace and absorb the data humans created, rapidly evolving into the digimon of today. When humans discovered the digital world, they studied it and chose to create large computers to store the data, the first of which was named Yggdrasill, inadvertently creating more spaces for digimon to occupy within the servers. These servers contain smaller, more isolated universes we call Digital Worlds, but all of them are part of the dimension as a whole, which is the true Digital World.}

“So you guys are data, but not computer programs?”

{Yes and no. It is difficult to explain… think of it this way, there are many varieties of creatures on earth, right? Each of them is born and adapted to a different environment, Digimon are not the only life within the Digital World, we are simply the ones adapted to computers, we are indeed programs, we are affected by glitching, bugs, and viruses, and we will cease to be if Yggdrasill shuts down, we are files in the Monster format, .mon, but we are also alive, just as you humans are.}

The humans let the information sink in. There could be a whole other universe hidden in their computers connected to a dimension filled with creatures made of living data. Satoru looks at Hagurumon and considers its existence. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible, but here, it's probably only one of thousands of others.

“So, why did Oracle bring us here?”

“And why us specifically?”

{That, I do not know. I doubt you were chosen simply to liberate a single city, and there must be a larger reason you were chosen. It might be a good idea for you all to travel the digital world and gather as much information as you can, try and figure out the reason Oracle brought you here.}

Satoru looks back at the girls and the digimon.

“Well, if we were brought by a digimon god, then we have to be important to it in some way, right? If it comes to it, we might even be the ones to save the digital world. I for one think we can and should try, you two with me?”

Harumi bounces with excitement, shaking Patamon in her arms, dazing the small digimon. Futaba looks nervously at Gottsumon and sighs when the rock monster gives her a thumbs up.

“I’m guessing we can’t go home until we do what we were brought here for anyway. Let’s save the world or whatever.”

{That’s good to hear, you kids have good hearts. Now then, any more questions for me?}

After a few moments of silence, Hagurumon raises its gear.

“I just have one: why did we go back to our rookie stage after the fight?”

{Hmm, a bit of a complex question, but your digivolution is likely augmented. Unlike natural or artificial digivolution, yours is induced through borrowing data from your partner rather than absorbing it from combat; as such, you regress to the stage you were before digivolving when the data is returned to your partner. I don’t believe this prevents natural digivolution, but I would suspect that you have some sort of time limit before returning to your rookie stage.}

HiAndromon stands, {If that is all, then you should be on your way, we have no way of knowing how much time you have or what you’re meant to be doing. I will take you to the city limits, and from there you can enter Sand Ocean Zone.}

HiAndromon leads them out of the station and out onto the street, where they’re met by a large crowd of digimon, all of them cheering for the kids and thanking them for helping to save the city from the peacekeepers. The six of them are paraded through the city until they reach the edge of the zone, a wall of green code blocking the exit to the city which looks out over vast hills of sand. HiAndromon steps forward and places its hand on the code wall, dissipating the code and allowing the kids to pass.

{I have you whitelisted in every law enforcement database I could reach; you should be able to go without trouble in most cities and towns. Don’t worry about repayment, all I ask is that you help everyone you can. Be careful, the wilderness zones are dangerous places, even at the Champion stage, many wild digimon are stronger than those found in cities.}

The blue reptile digimon and the lion-man step forward.

“You kidding? Their partners took on two Andromons by themselves, I bet they could take on a mega like you.”

“Still, you are not unreasonable in your concern, HiAndromon.” The lion digimon turns to the group, “ExVeemon and I will take you across the desert, a little extra backup never hurts.”

With a smile, Satoru reaches out to the lion-man, who shakes the young man’s hand. With some additional supplies from the citizens and their new guides in tow, the group sets out into the desert before them, looking back as the city fades onto the horizon, the two champions carrying the girls and their partners on their backs.

After a few hours of walking, the sun begins to set on the dunes, and it finally sinks in for Satoru just how tired he is. The party sets up camp for the night, setting up sleeping bags and a fire. After a bit of trouble with some matches, Hagurumon starts the small fire by striking Gottsumon with its hand-like gear, leading to the rock digimon chasing down the floating gears around the campsite. The Lion digimon, Leomon, pulls a small orb of code from its bag, and it erupts into a pile of meat stuck perfectly through the center by bone. The group enjoys a meal as they wind down for the night.

Relaxing on the sand and gazing up at the stars, Satoru wonders what they could see in this world, the wonders they’ll come across, and the digimon they’ll meet. He sits up and glances at the others, Harumi is fast asleep with Patamon nestled in her arms, its legs twitching as it dreams, Futaba is soundly snoring next to the ball of grey rock that Gottsumon curled up into, Hagurumon is rhythmically clicking away as it floats gently in the air next to the curled up ExVeemon, the only one awake is Leomon, who catches Satoru’s glance.

“You know, I don’t know what it is…”

Satoru looks at the lion curiously.

“When I look at you kids, I get this…odd feeling, a great desire to help you. Perhaps it's just instinct, but I feel like we’re meant to be connected somehow. Saving Metal City only made that feeling stronger. ExVeemon feels the same, although he’s not one to believe in fate or destiny being an influence on one's life.”

Leomon turns its attention to the sky, staring at the stars.

“Do you believe in destiny, Satoru?”

Satoru thinks for a moment, thinking about all the things in his life, one event especially.

A younger Satoru sits in the empty halls, hearing adults talking in the room just next to him. He's been in there before, but he can’t bring himself to go back in, that is, until he hears rapid beeping coming from the room.

“Nah, if fate were a thing, then why would it let evil people do evil things?”

“Evil people?”

“Y-yeah, there are tons of people throughout history that have done evil things and got away with it for so long.”

“Mm, the universe works in mysterious ways, perhaps fate only guides the good, knowing evil will fall, or there is a necessity for balance for the world to exist, I mean, you can’t do good without evil, and you can’t define evil without the reference of good.”

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

“Hm?”

“Just something my brother said, I took it to mean that even if what you do is a good deed, others might not see the same way, and punish you for what you did or how you did it, but what you did was still a good deed.”

“Hm, I see.”

Leomon smiles and lies down on the sand.

“Your brother sounds like a wonderful person.”

“He was, he once saved a little girl from a kidnapper. He knew helping her was the right thing to do, even when he…got hurt in the process.”

“Then your brother has my respect, I hope his heroic act was rewarded.”

Satoru watches the sky as he drifts to sleep, a tear rolling down his cheek with a pained smile.

“Yeah, it was.”

The next day, the sun beams down as the party continues on. As she rests on ExVeemon’s shoulder, Futaba scrolls through the menus of her digivice. Her eyebrows perk up as she comes across one menu in particular.

“Hey guys, my GPS got upgraded, I’ve got a map of this whole zone.”

Satoru looks up at her with a curious expression.

“You sure you should be on your phone all the time? What if it runs out of battery and you need to digivolve Gottsumon?”

“Relax, I’ve got plenty of battery. Besides, your game was almost dead when we got here yesterday, what’s the battery on yours?”

Satoru pulls out his handheld and gives Futaba a strange look.

“I don’t think I can digivolve for you if your phone’s… hold up, where’s the light?”

Satoru examines the device in his hands, its appearance hasn’t changed since yesterday, but he’s just now noticing some details, the power indicator light was gone, despite this, the console turned on just fine, booting to a menu showing an idle sprite of Hagurumon, test pressing the buttons, he finds a submenu with a few options: Tamer, Partner, Digivolve, Save, and Load. Going through the menus one by one, he finds different information on each, the Tamer menu shows a sprite of himself and some numbers labeled, Level with the number 1 under it, and Bond with 15 under it. The Partner menu shows a more detailed Hagurumon sprite and some stats: bars for HP and MP, a number for Bond, 15, and Stage, Rookie. The Save menu shows there is no data to save, and the Load menu has a similar message. Last, the Digivolve menu has the blacked-out sprite of what Satoru assumes to be Guardromon.

“Huh, looks like the battery doesn’t matter here.”

Satoru looks up at Futaba, and the smug grin across her face. He turns to Harumi and finds her giggling as Angemon is suddenly flying beside them, an equally smug smile on the angel's face.

“You… both figured that out last night, didn’t you?”

“Actually, I noticed back in HiAndromon’s office.”

“It’s kinda funny you were so worried about Futaba digivolving, even though you hadn’t even looked at your digivice.”

“Did you even know how to digivolve Gear Head over there?”

Satoru blushes and rubs the back of his head as Hagurumon chuckles at his partner’s embarrassment.

Angemon transforms back into Patamon and lands back on Harumi’s head.

“Ah, man, I like being Angemon, I wish I could stay that way for longer.”

Leomon glances in the direction of the pink hamster.

“Hm, Angemon? You were a Pidmon just now. Your sash was pink, not blue.”

ExVeemon chimes in.

“Yeah, but the staff was rounded, Pidmon has a crescent on the ends of its staff. Plush Pidmon only has one pair of wings.”

“Hm, how curious. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a pink Patamon before. If I recall, they’re orange, are they not?”

“Hey yeah. The only other color I know ‘em to be is purple, and that’s a whole new digimon at that point.”

Patamon rests its cheeks on its paws.

“Oh right, I guess I never think to mention it anymore, I’ve just got some glitch that messed with my color pallet, guess it bled over onto Angemon too.”

“I’ve never heard of a glitch like that. How did such a thing occur?”

“Not sure, I was just pink when I digivolved from Tokomon. Confused the heck out ‘a CatchMamemon”

“Hm, interesting.”

The group continues to walk through the sands for what feels like miles, Futaba occasionally pointing out different spots along the way. Along their travels they meet a pair of cactus digimon wandering around who share a quick greeting before continuing on their way. Eventually, a realization crosses Satoru’s mind.

“Hey, how come there are so few digimon here?”

ExVeemon shrugs at the question.

“That’s easy, there’s a ton of digimon in the desert, they’re mostly just underground, it's why we’ve been carrying the girls and Gottsumon this whole time.”

“You see, the wild and predatory digimon stay rather close to the surface compared to the civilized digimon that live in vast tunnel networks that might span entire deserts. Most of them hunt by tracking the slight vibration of footsteps in the sand; they won't attack us because they’ll think we're either too small or too few to be worth the energy.”

“Frankly, talking to those Togamon was a bit risky, but I guess we got lucky there were no predators then.”

“It also depends on how desperate the predator is. I once fought off three Velgrmons who decided not to wait for stray data. That was not a fun day for them.”

Satoru smiles at the digimon bodyguards.

“You’ve been through the desert before?”

“Yep, Leomon and I aren’t from Metal City, Leomon’s from a Jungle Zone village, and I’m from a Mountain Zone way in the north. We’ve had to cross the desert a few times looking for a home.”

“We know these sands like the back of our hands.”

Futaba looks up at the sky and sees a flock of three birds circling above them.

“We never did ask, where are we going?”

ExVeemon stops in its tracks.

“I thought you knew.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Leomon and ExVeemon let out a hearty laugh.

“I’m just kidding, there’s a good-sized Forrest Zone on the other side of the desert, we’ll be there by morning if nothing stops us.”

“Forrest Zones tend to be easier to navigate and with far fewer hostile digimon, it's a much better starting point for you than Metal City ever would have been.”

“Learning how to use your digivices properly and work with your partners has gotta be important somehow, so getting you guys working from square one is probably the best thing you can do. Plus, there’s a Jijimon who I swear knows everything, he’ll have advice for you and can show you stuff you could never expect from your digivice.”

“There is just one thing in the way. But don’t worry, it's nothing you kids can’t handle.”

The humans look at each other and their digimon with curious expressions. What could be in their way that Leomon would mention it so casually? After another hour or so of walking, the kids finally see what Leomon alluded to: patches of green poke out from just over the dunes, a cool breeze wafts in the air, and crystal clear water reflecting sunlight. The group crests over the dune and smiles as they step into an oasis. Crystal clear water, palm trees casting perfect shade in the midday sun, and there are even beach chairs set up at the water’s edge. Satoru immediately makes a break for it, kicking off his shoes and practically ripping off his shirt, the girls cover their eyes as his black trousers come next, only looking back when they hear a splash.

“C’mon in, the water is fine!”

“Satoru you jackass, there are ladies present y’know!”

“What, I’m still wearing my briefs, its no different than a swimsuit.”

“That’s not the point dumbass, you can’t just-” 

Futaba is interrupted by the sight of Harumi running to the oasis and discarding her own uniform, curling into a weak cannonball as she splashes into the cool water.

“Wh-I-you…ugh.”

Futaba hangs her head in defeat as she clings to ExVeemon. Gottsumon, on the other hand, hops down and starts walking to the oasis.

“Don’t worry about it, Futaba, I’m not a fan of water either.”

The group relaxes in the calm of the oasis, Satoru, Harumi, and Patamon swim and splash around in the water, only being interrupted by ExVeemon surfacing and accidentally lifting Harumi out of the water on its head, the four of them laughing at the scenario. Futaba, Gottsumon, and Hagurumon lay in the shade of the palms on the beach chairs, napping away any stress they may have had. Leomon sits at the edge of the water, watching over the rest of the group. They all relax and play, unaware of the eyes peeking over the dunes just above the oasis.

Later that night, as the sun hangs low over the horizon, the oasis blanketed in shadow, Satoru leans back on a beach chair, wrapped in a towel as he waits for his briefs to dry. Harumi and Futaba stepped out from behind ExVeemon, who was asked to act as a privacy shield for the younger girl as she waited for her own underwear to dry, and having just gotten redressed as she got out of the water long before Satoru.

“One thing we might need to do is find some new clothes, we probably shouldn’t go for days on end wearing the same thing.”

Gottsumon looks up at Futaba with a curious look as it finishes drawing the body of a mermaid beneath an annoyed Patamon buried neck-deep in the sand.

“Is that a problem for you guys?”

“Duh, I know you don’t wear anything Gottsumon, but I’m sure Leomon doesn’t wear the same pants every day, right?”

The lion digimon looks away, poorly whistling a tune and twiddling its thumbs.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

ExVeemon turns its attention to Futaba.

“To be fair, not that many digimon wear clothes, and the ones that do get them when they digivolve. Leomon’s pants are more like a part of him rather than a fashion choice.”

“So we're just stuck with whatever clothes we have? What if they get torn, stained, or worse?”

Satoru looks at Futaba with a cheeky grin.

“I’m pretty sure the digimon won’t mind if we’re naked, Futaba.”

His comment is met with one of Futaba’s shoes colliding with his face, knocking him out of the chair and onto the sandy ground. Futaba glares at the boy with a face so red you could mistake it for a tomato.

“Alright, I’m sorry, geez.”

He rubs the reddened shoeprint on his face as he glances over at the girls, who are both looking away and blushing, covering or shielding their eyes from something in Satoru’s direction. The boy looks around confused, looking every which way before noticing a white towel on the ground next to him. Looking down, the boy turns red and he quickly wraps the towel around his waist, nervously laughing as he ties a tight knot in the cloth. The digimon might not care, but the humans certainly do. 

The group winds down for the night, and they set up their sleeping bags again. Futaba chooses to sleep on the beach chair she was using earlier that day, and Gottsumon curls up into a rocky ball in the chair next to her. Harumi slides into her bag as Patamon wanders up and plops down on the sand next to her, the girl pulling the digimon into her arms. Leomon and ExVeemon sleep together, the blue dragon-man propping its head up on the lion’s chest. Satoru wishes Harumi and Hagurumon good night and slowly drifts off to sleep himself, his partner's gears quietly clicking as it rests above him.

Just on the dunes above, five pairs of beady eyes and a set of three yellow eyes watch the group. Their vision shifts between Futaba and Gottsumon, Harumi and Patamon, Satoru and Hagurumon, and finally land on Leomon and ExVeemon, all of them soundly asleep and unaware of the digimon hidden in the sand, as well, all of them are unaware of the two figures watching from afar.

Chapter Text

Patamon’s wing twitches as it stirs from its pleasant rest, it blinks as it focuses on the odd sound that woke it up, a low buzzing sound. The groggy digimon looks around for the possible source as the buzzing gets louder and louder. Leomon awakens from the noise as well, waking ExVeemon up as it pushes the dragon-man’s head off its chest. Patamon sees the large lion digimon stand up and scan the dunes above.

“What’s that buzzing?”

“I don’t know, wake the others, we might have company.”

Patamon quickly nudges Harumi awake, telling the sleepy girl to wake up Futaba and Gottsumon. Harumi gently wakes up the older girl and her partner as Patamon jumps on top of Satoru after having trouble waking the boy, his scream startling Hagurumon awake, who falls out of the air and collides with the boy's back.

“What the heck, Patamon, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

The pink digimon puts its paws over the boy's mouth, shushing him as it listens to the buzzing. The buzzing is now loud enough that everyone can hear it, and they all look around for what’s making the noise, finding nothing in the darkness. The buzzing got louder and quieter intermittently; something was moving around them, they were all sure of it, but there was no movement on the dunes surrounding the oasis. Gottsumon’s eyes travel upward for a moment, and something catches the rock monster's eye. Slowly scanning upward, its eyes go wide as it finally sees what’s making the noise. Five dragonfly-like silhouettes circle the group above the oasis, dipping lower for moments at a time to gauge the situation. The rock digimon tugs at Futaba’s skirt and points to the air. The confused girl looks up at the bugs, just barely outlined by the stars. Leomon takes notice and follows their gaze, scowling at the sight.

“Kehehe, looks like they noticed the SandYanmamon.”

“‘Bout time, they’ve been circling for an hour now.”

“We gonna go help ‘em or what?”

“Not yet, I wanna see what they can do first, see if they even need us.”

Two figures watch from a good distance away, having noticed the bug digimon long before the party had. The larger of the two watches the scene unfold through binoculars as it looks at the image of a grey dragonfly digimon on the screen of a smartphone. The smaller of them looks on, able to see far enough to watch the group, It stands with its arms crossed as its large, green eyes glow faintly in the darkness.

“Still, I’ve got a bad feelin’ about this, the SandYanmamon are annoying enough back home-”

“But they’re scavenger digimon, I know. Damn, there’s something else then, be ready.”

The humans, now all more than awake, pull out their digivices as they watch the sky. As soon as Harumi presses the button on her digivice to open the menu, one of the dragonflies swoops down at the sound and swipes at the girl with a claw, barely missing as it quickly ascends back into the air.

“Harumi!”

As soon as he shouts, another of the bug digimon swipes at Satoru, scratching the boy's shoulder before ascending once more. Leomon and ExVeemon hold a finger to their lips and gesture with their hands. Hagurumon whispers to its partner, doing its best to keep from being too loud.

“Those are SandYanmamon, champion digimon that roam the desert for food, they’re normally scavengers and are too cowardly to attack, even in groups like this.”

Leomon slowly approaches the girls as it watches the bug digimon circling above. As it reaches its hand out to let Harumi climb on, its joints pop, and one of the SandYanmamon slashes across its back, forcing a pained roar out of the lion, before anyone can react, all five SandYanmamon swarm the lion-man, slashing and swiping at it without rest.

“Patamon?”

“Ready!”

Harumi holds her digivice up and presses a button, white bars ascending to the top of the screen and flowing beyond, encircling Patamon as it glows white.

[PATAMON, DIGIVOLVE TO - ANGEMON!]

In a flash of light, the pink digimon is replaced with its white angelic form, its radiance casting a dim light across the oasis.

[HAND OF FATE]

A fist of holy energy flies at the pests surrounding Leomon, striking one of the bugs and dispersing the swarm. Futaba flips open her phone and quickly presses a few buttons. Gottsumon takes a powerful stance as it glows white, becoming encircled by the same bars as Patamon.

[GOTTSUMON, DIGIVOLVE TO - GOLEMON!]

The towering stone digimon quickly swats at the bugs, unable to strike any of them as they deftly dodge and weave through its boulder-esque fingers. Satoru quickly navigates his game to the Digivolve menu and looks at Hagurumon.

“Can’t let them have all the fun, right partner?”

“A few shots from 'Destruction Grenade' should drop ‘em like flies.”

Satoru presses a button and holds up his digivice.

“Then it's time for some pest control!”

“HAGURUMON DIGIVOLVE TO-”

The boy and his digimon blinked in confusion. Hagurumon was still the same and hadn’t been wrapped in the same light as the others. Satoru pressed the rest of the buttons to make sure he didn’t hit the wrong one, but none of them did anything. Hagurumon couldn’t digivolve. Satoru dashes over to the girls as Hagurumon quickly decides to join the fight anyway.

“What happened? Where’s Guardromon?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t work.”

“But Angemon and Golemon digivolved just fine?”

“Maybe you should have actually looked instead of cracking dumb jokes. ‘Pest control’ seriously?”

Futaba snatches the digivice out of Satoru’s hands and looks at the screen.

“Huh? Why’s it blacked out?”

“Was Golemon not blacked out on your phone?”

“No, it was in color.”

“Angemon was colored in too.”

“Then why-”

Satoru is interrupted by Hagurumon falling to the sand, with shallow scratches on its metal body.

“Hey Hagurumon, you feeling okay?”

“Gah, yep, just peachy, thanks for asking.”

“I meant before the Yanmamon started attacking.”

“Same answer, minus the sarcasm.”

As the digimon desperately and futilely defend themselves from the small swarm of insects, the humans think for a moment before Harumi speaks up.

“Maybe something in Metal City let him digivolve early? I know there are a few V-Pet games that let you skip levels with an item.”

“But we didn’t have anything when we fought the Andromon.”

Hagurumon’s gears click faster as it thinks, its eyes go wide as it comes to a realization.

“The hot dog. I ate that metal hotdog before the Andromon came over!”

“So you digivolve based on food?”

“Maybe? Leomon, what do we have to eat!?”

Leomon looks at the gear digimon confused, “All I have with me are meat and Terraroot.”

The lion tosses a glowing ball of code to the humans, which bursts into a pile of meat and potato-like bulbs. Hagurumon quickly scarfs down a piece of meat and glances at Satoru, the boy shakes his head as the image of Guardromon is still blacked out. Hagurumon quickly eats another helping, already feeling rather full. The humans sweat nervously as the image is still black. Desperate for some kind of result, Hagurumon picks up the Terraroot and sticks out its oddly organic tongue.

“Blech, I hate these things raw. Well, down the hatch.”

The gear digimon pops the root in its mouth and chews with a pained expression, swallowing the earthen vegetable with disgust hanging on its face. Feeling bad for his partner, Satoru glances at the device in his hands and immediately perks up. Guardromon’s image is in color. The boy quickly stands up and goes to press the button to digivolve, just as a loud Stoney crash is heard, echoing through the desert. The humans and Hagurumon look up to see Golemon with its hands pressed tightly together, ExVeemon and Angemon hovering in the air around where the bug digimon once were. Hesitantly, Golemon opens its hands and five grey monstrous dragonflies fall to the sand glitching, as the fighting digimon let out a sigh of relief. Angemon and ExVeemon land, the reptile digimon checking on the injured lion.

“Well, that was annoying. Hey Hagurumon, what happened?”

“Sorry, I just… couldn't digivolve.”

Golemon lurks closer to the ground.

“Why not?”

“No clue, we think it might have been the hot dog I ate before fighting the Andromons. Maybe I need to be full before I can digivolve because it looks like Satoru was ready after I ate the Terraroot.”

Leomon picks up what remains of the food and returns it to code.

“I’ve never known of digivolution being based on how full you are, perhaps it's a glitch, like Angemon’s colors.”

“Well then, I guess I just have to-”

The ground shakes and the sand in the oasis shifts wildly. A pair of massive pincers erupt from the ground, and one grips Golemon tightly, slowly lifting the stone digimon as the owner of the claws reveals itself. A massive white insect roughly twice the size of Golemon emerges from the ground, its shell resembling segments of bone, its maw open, revealing sharp teeth, its tail long and scorpion-like, tipped with a sharp, serrated blade. The monster roars as it holds Golemon high in the air. The digimon stance up again, ready to fight the new assailant. 

[HAND OF FATE]

[JUOUKEN]

[XV-LASER]

The three champions fire at the claw holding Golemon. The creature, unfazed by their efforts, slowly moves its struggling captive to its mouth. The monstrous scorpion bites down on the stone Digimon's back, prompting a grave scream from Golemon.

[SULFUR PLUME]

The stone digimon fires red-hot gas from the hollow spikes on its back, directly into the face and mouth of the scorpion digimon, forcing it to drop its would-be meal. As Golemon falls to the ground below, Futaba quickly presses some buttons, and Golemon is enveloped in white light, shrinking back down to the smaller Gottsumon. The grey stone plummets through the air, barely missing another swipe from the scorpion as it’s caught by Angemon and safely returned to the ground.

[GOTTSUMON, DIGIVOLVE TO - GOLEMON]

The yellow stone digimon returns to the fight, quickly sending a boulder-sized fist into the scorpion's jaw, the creature reeling back from the force, but otherwise unharmed. Angemon and ExVeemon take to the skies, circling the scorpion digimon and looking for weak points. Leomon runs around behind and grasps the Digimon’s tail, attempting to prevent it from swinging. 

“Satoru!”

The boy is knocked out of his shock by his partner, gazing at the young man with determination. Nodding to the gear digimon, he presses a button on his digivice, and white bars fill the screen, flowing beyond and circling around Hagurumon, who is now glowing light brown.

[HAGURUMON, DIGIVOLVE TO-]

Hagurumon is once again floating over the wireframe platform, data flows into it as its body fades to match the floor. Its gears phase into its body as it shifts and grows into a boxy, bulky form. His hand forms first, a dark grey gauntlet, trimmed with bronze, metal plates form its hands, its index finger and thumb the only individual digits. A dark grey boot trimmed with bronze clangs down onto the platform, sparks flying as it makes contact. Finally, brown eyes shine from the darkness in its helmet, inset deep into its vault-like body.

[GUARDROMON]

The dark grey machine stands proud as it glares at the scorpion in front of it. It raises its heavy arm as a missile with a sinister smile rises from a trapdoor in the gauntlet. The robot digimon waits patiently for its allies to move away from the gigantic scorpion digimon, carefully aiming at its gaping maw. Futaba, noticing what the machine is planning, shouts to her partner.

“Golemon, move!”

The stone digimon swings a heavy fist into the scorpion's torso, glancing back as it notices Guardromon’s aim, the golem smiles as it ducks under the larger bug, wrapping its arms around the monster's neck and putting it in a chokehold. Angemon and ExVeemon notice the silent plan and do their best to keep the monster’s claws from blocking the way. Guardromon narrows its eyes as it lines up the missile perfectly with the struggling scorpion Digimon’s open mouth.

[DESTRUCTION GRENADE]

The missile laughs as it jumps from the rack, its rocket roars to life, and it speeds to the giant scorpion. Its eyes flash as it disappears into the Digimon’s mouth. The scorpion roars out and reels back, throwing the digimon restraining it away. The monster lashes wildly, swinging its claws and tail every which way, the party just barely dodging the wild attacks as the scorpion panics.

“What's happening!”

“Wait for it.”

Angemon barely avoids the blade on the Digimon’s tail as it leaps back into the sky.

[ANGEL TYPHOON]

Angemon twirls its staff in its hand, slowly picking up speed until a small twister forms around the scorpion, slowly lifting it into the air. In a panic, the scorpion digimon once again grabs Golemon in its gargantuan claws, however, it fails to restrain the giant properly as it reels back a stone fist.

[GOLEM KNUCKLE]

The stone hand collides with the monster's face, forcing it to release the golem as it is left to the mercy of the angel's attack. Guardromon raises its arms and fires another two missiles at the helpless digimon, both exploding on contact with the monster, detonating the missiles in its stomach as it starts to glitch. Angemon stops spinning its staff, releasing the scorpion from the whirlwind. The monster falls as everyone stances up for a final attack.

[SULFUR PLUME]

[HYAKUJUKEN]

[HAND OF FATE]

[XV-LASER]

[DESTRUCTION GRENADE]

Golemon’s gas flows across the oasis, boiling the small pool on contact, as the scorpion falls to the ground. As it screeches from the heat, the scorpion digimon has no time to recover as a flurry of lion-shaped energy keeps it from standing. Just as the flurry subsides, an X-shaped laser and a fist of holy energy strike the monster, holding it in the superheated gas for just a bit longer. The glitching creature is able to gather just enough strength to look up and see a pair of smiling missiles flying at it. The creature screeches as it's engulfed in a massive explosion, finally collapsing as the smoke and gas clear. The scorpion lies sprawled out in the sand, glitching as it teeters on the edge of death, the sun beginning to rise as the group steps forward to put the creature out of its misery. Suddenly, a small dark purple creature leaps over the dunes, a small fireball in its red-gloved hand.

“Kill steal!”

The fireball suddenly erupts to three times the size as the figure launches the attack at the scorpion, a roar erupting from the monster as it finally bursts into a stream of blue data. The creature lands where the scorpion once was, laughing like someone just told the best joke in the world. The mystery digimon calms its laughter for a moment to look around at the confused party.

“You-you shoulda’ seen the look on your face, hahaha. Oh man, that look of confidence as you ‘won’, priceless, hahaha.”

Satoru looks at the short purple creature in confusion.

“What do you mean ‘won’?” he questions, mimicking the new figure's air quotes.

“He means he just save your asses from being scorpion food.” Another figure slides down the dune that the small digimon jumped from.

“Scorpiomon fight until their last breath. It was waiting for you to get too close before hitting you with whatever it had left. And trust me, none of you would have been fast enough to react.”

The other figure walks up to the group, long, dark blond hair frames his face, complementing his almost luminous green eyes. He was wearing a uniform similar to the others, a white shirt and black pants, and shoes, the only difference was that his pants were black jeans compared to Satoru’s dress pants. The figure wore a black jacket draped over his shoulders like a cape, a gold chain hanging from both the collar of the jacket and the pocket and belt loop of his pants. He looks at the group with an annoyed look. The small purple digimon walks up next to him and stands in a relaxed posture with its hands clasped behind its head. The purple digimon was roughly the same height as Gottsumon and looked like a pale kid wearing a demon costume, with big ears sitting on top of its head, drooping from their own weight, and a spear-tipped tail that swayed lazily behind it. Its hands are covered by large, red, three-fingered gloves, matching the handkerchief tied around its neck. Three white claws poke from its round feet, and a smiley face with sharp teeth sits square on its belly.

The group stances up to fight the mysterious figures except for Leomon. Futaba squints her eyes at the human boy, soon going wide as she recognizes the person in front of them, averting her eyes and hoping not to be recognized in return. Even with four champion stage digimon in front of them and ready to fight, neither of the figures drops their confident demeanor, the small devil smiling wider as if to say, “Try me.” Leomon approaches the two and holds out a ball of code to the young man.

“Your kill, your prize.”

The party watches in shock as Leomon hands the boy the ball of code. The young man scoffs, but accepts the orb, placing it over his smartphone and watching the data dissolve into the device. 

“Thank you for your help, even I was unaware of Scorpiomons tactics.”

The boy turns away from the group and clambers back up the dune he and his partner had come from.

“In your defense, they don’t usually work with SandYanmamon, we were taken aback when we saw it jump out at you.”

The boy and his digimon disappear into the desert before anyone could question them or their actions.

A white light flashes from behind the party as Patamon and Gottsumon return to normal.

The pink digimon lands on Harumi’s head as it looks in the direction of the departed figures.

“Man, what’s that guy’s problem?”

Futaba shakes nervously and lets out a relieved sigh.

“Oh my god, I thought I was gonna get beat up.”

The group looks at Futaba confused, and she returns the look to her human companions.

“What? Wait, do you guys not recognize him?”

The pair shakes their head.

“That was the Bully Bully, Tsukasa Kokichi, he’s the biggest delinquent at school, but the thing about him is that he only targets other delinquents and bullies.”

Satoru and Harumi narrow their eyes at the nervous girl.

“Then why are you so scared of him, Futaba?”

“Could it be that you’re a bully too?”

“Bullying is not good, Futaba, you should be kind to your peers.”

“Teachers have drilled that into my head enough, you bucket a’ bolts! Hm? Hey, wait, weren’t you brown before?”

The party looks at Guardromon and finally notices the machine’s colors. Its copper body was replaced with dark grey metal, and its brass trim was replaced with darker bronze rings and rivets. They all take notice of the robot's brown eyes just as it shines white and reverts to its rookie stage.

Curious about the color change, Satoru opens the Digivolve menu again and sees Guardromon once again blacked out on the screen. The group poses a few theories on why Guardromon changed colors, including the change in environment, the food it ate being one they didn’t like, or a glitch like Patamon's pink coloration, there were endless reasons for the odd change in the digimon, but none of them could be tested right now.

Not wanting another predator to show up, the group packed up what was left of their camp and started the final stretch of the desert, trekking their way across the dunes to the Forrest Zone. Some distance away, far enough that the party wouldn’t notice, Tsukasa watches from afar as the little devil rips into a leg of meat.

“So that Futaba girl was a bully at your school?”

“Kinda’, she wasn’t a ‘gimme your lunch money’-type, but she wasn’t exactly nice to the other girls in her classes.”

“And you never went after her, why?”

“Cause I know she’s a good person, just a bit… overzealous?”

“Not what I meant.”

The digimon gives a mischievous smirk as it reaches for another helping of meat that was set over a small fire, only to grab at empty air. The imp looks up to see its partner chomping down on the morsel with a smug grin.

“You’re a brat, ya know that?”

The small digimon shovels a handful of sand onto the embers, snuffing it out as Tsukasa picks up a large, overstuffed backpack.

“There isn’t much farther until the Elder Forrest Zone, we can take a nice long rest when we get there. We ready to go, Impmon?”

The imp stomps out what's left and gives its partner a thumbs up. The pair start walking, following the party close behind, all of them prepared for whatever may come next.

Chapter Text

A young man sits alone in an empty train car, his dark blond hair shining in the setting sun. The boy lets out a tired yawn as he threatens to fall asleep then and there. He was sitting on the last train of the night, barely making it on board as the doors closed, and now, he was on his way home. This young man’s name was Tsukasa, The Bully Bully, a delinquent known across his school as the monster with a heart of gold, not that it helped his reputation with the teachers and staff. The boy would often spend his mornings patrolling the school grounds for anyone trying to take advantage of another student. Just today, he caught a repeat offender trying to take an underclassman’s books, shutting down the hostile interaction with nothing more than a glare. One might think they’d go back to it after he left, but everyone was smart enough to know he’d kick their asses if they did. Despite his status as a delinquent among his peers, he was a straight-A student and top of his class, much to the surprise of anyone who knew him, and would often spend his afternoons volunteering at a nearby soup kitchen, which is where the boy was rushing home from tonight, that fateful night.

Tsukasa wakes up in the dark train, having fallen asleep without realizing it. Groggy and frustrated, he pinches the bridge of his nose as he steps off the train, finding an odd and overgrown station. No, it wasn’t overgrown; upon closer inspection, it looked as though the station was built into and around the roots of a tree. Confused, Tsukasa looks around for a way out, finding a set of stairs on either end of the grassy platform. He’s just about to take a step when he hears a snore behind him. The young man looks back into the train car and finds what looks to be a small child in a purple devil costume. He didn’t remember anyone else being on the train, let alone a kid, and what was with the costume? Were they pajamas, or a Halloween costume, and where were this kid's parents? Cautiously, he approaches the child and gently nudges them.

“Hey, are you alright? Where are your parents?”

The kid in the devil costume stirs, sitting up and rubbing its eyes with bulky, three-fingered, red gloves.

“Wha-?” 

The kid looks at Tsukasa with the biggest, emerald green eyes the boy has ever seen.

“Oh hey, you’re awake. ‘s wonderin’ when you’d get up.”

The kid hops down from the seat and stretches, giving the boy a good look at them. The kid’s face was pale, almost pure white, with a small nose contrasting his large eyes, and they looked like they were wearing a purple devil onesie, two large pointed ears flopping under their own weight, its feet were round and had three small claws, a spear-like tail lazily sways behind them. Around their neck was a red, tattered handkerchief, and just below it, square in the middle of their torso, was a smiley face with sharp teeth.

The kid stands confidently as it looks at Tsukasa with a smirk.

“The name’s Impmon, and I’m your partner Digimon.”

Tsukasa looks dumbfounded as he looks at the kid's hand, the imp having reached out for a handshake. 

“Alright kid, where are your parents? Do you know their phone number or-”

“Oh for the love a’- Come with me”

The imp makes its way over to the stairs and quickly ascends, leaving Tsukasa behind. The surprise of the situation subsides a bit, Tsukasa chases after the kid and finds himself in a forest village surrounded by dense foliage as he exits the station, all manner of strange creatures wander the forest floor, strange pink birds flutter overhead, large living plants walk past having a pleasant conversation, a large, flightless bird with leaf-like feathers around its neck pulls a cart behind it. Tsukasa feels a tap on his leg and looks down to see the imp.

“Welcome to the Digital World, pal, this is Grandroot Village, my bea-utiful home.”

“Did you say, ‘Digital World’?”

“You gonna repeat everything I say? Yeah, the Digital World, the home a’ the Digimon, like yours truly.”

The imp takes a bow as Tsukasa just looks around in confusion. The imp notices and frowns at the boy.

“Jeez, take out whatever electronic you got, it probably got turned into your digivice.”

Tsukasa reached into his pocket and pulled out his smartphone, to his shock and surprise, the phone had changed, the way he remembered it, his phone’s screen was cracked, one corner dented in, the back was scratched up and missing a small piece, and the camera lens had a crack in it as well. But the device he held in his hands was in pristine condition, like it had just been taken out of the box. The screen was slightly larger, almost flush with the edges of the phone, and a brand new, dark purple case protected the phone, sharing the same smiley face as Impmon's chest. Tsukasa quickly opened the phone, finding his password and apps intact with the addition of two new ones, the first had an icon resembling an egg, and the second resembled a pixilated camera lens. He opened the first new app and was met with an Image of Impmon with different stats on the screen as well, HP, MP, and Bond, he minimized the app and opened the second, finding a light blue screen with an interesting pattern moving behind a button with the words “Scan a Digimon”, Curious about the function, Tsukasa points the camera at one of the bird digimon flying past and presses the button. The screen loads for a moment before information about the bird flashes on the screen. Tsukasa studies the information and is surprised by what he reads.

Name: Biyomon

Type(s): Chick

Attribute: Vaccine

Field(s): Nature Spirits. Wind Guardians

Element: Wind

He points the camera at the bird pulling the cart.

Name: Kiwimon

Type(s): Ancient Bird, Plant

Attribute: Data

Field(s): Jungle Troopers. Wind Guardians

Element: Earth

Tsukasa stands in shock and awe at his phone; he knew he didn’t put these apps on here, and he certainly didn’t put this case on or fix the screen. The shocked young man is snapped out of his stupor by Impmon snapping its fingers and gesturing with a mischievous smile for the boy to follow.

“So, like I said before, this is my home, Grandroot Village. I’m the guardian of this place.”

A monstrous yellow plant with tentacle-like vines hops past.

“BAH, you’re as much a guardian as Barbamon. Don’t listen to Impmon kid, that little devil is nothing but trouble.”

Impmon scowls at the plant as it hops away; somehow, Tsukasa can tell the imp is more embarrassed than annoyed or mad. After taking a deep breath, Impmon continues the tour of the village, showing off the market, the homes in the treetops, and the view of a massive field of flowers. Every stop is interrupted by another resident belittling the devil digimon.

“So, whatcha think? Nice place, huh?”

Tsukasa notices another plant digimon glaring at Impmon from afar.

“Yeah, beautiful, just like you said… hey, what’s with everyone treating you like…well…a demon?”

The question hangs heavy on the imp, and it rubs its arm as its ears droop lower.

“Well, it’s ‘cause-”

A scream is heard on the edge of the village, and a large number of digimon flee from the market, running and screaming.

“Run! The Mushroomon are back!”

Impmon smiles devilishly as it dashes in the direction of the commotion, Tsukasa quickly tailing the little devil. Soon, they find themselves amid a small market as it is being ransacked by a large group of seven purple-headed mushroom people all wearing the same dark pink gloves and boots. Impmon jumps up onto the counter of one of the stalls and strikes a heroic pose.

“Well, well, well, if it ain’t the Mushroomon. I thought I told you jerks not to come back.”

The mushrooms look at the imp nervously before joining in a sinister laugh, and one steps forward, much to the demon’s annoyance.

“Impmon, our favorite little devil. We was just havin’ a fun day out at the market, ain’t our fault no one wanted to help us wit’ our purchases.”

The mushrooms laugh as they hold up their stolen goods.

“Well, I don’t care what you’re doin’, clearly it wasn’t too nice if everyone ran away. Now scram before I turn you lot into mushroom paste again.”

The Mushroomon laughed again, their leader crossing its arms, mocking Impmon's pose.

“There’s seven of us this time, freak, there ain’t no way you can beat us.”

“You sure?” Impmon gives a devilish smile as it holds up a finger. “I fought five of you clowns last time and the best you got was a single cheeky hit.”

The lead mushroom scowls at Impmon.

“What’re you tryin’ to say?”

Tsukasa walks up, putting on his tougher persona.

“Those mushroom caps covering your ears? He said he’d beat you easily.”

The Mushroomon raises an eye at the human. 

“And, who are you supposed to be?”

“Oh, how rude of me, Mushroomon, meet my partner Tsukasa.”

The lead mushroom sweats nervously.

“P-partner!?”

Tsukasa holds up his phone, opened to the app that shows Impmon and its stats.

The mushrooms all look nervous as they think about why and how Impmon could have a partner. The leader slowly gets more agitated at the thought, and then it smiles and kicks over a booth, a lantern dropping to the grass.

“Light it up, we’re getting rid of this punk once and for all, hell, we’d be doin’ the world a favor by gettin’ rid of them.”

Each of the Mushroomon laughs as they toss more lanterns and torches onto the grass and dry leaves, setting the market ablaze. Impmon stands in shock at the sudden turn and glares daggers at the Mushrooms. 

The Mushroomon leader laughs harder and harder as the market burns around it, stopping just long enough to taunt Impmon, only to be met with a clawed purple foot to the face. The mushroom digimon flies back, colliding with another Mushroomon. It holds its sore face in surprise as it looks up and sees a livid imp and a human twice its size walking toward them. The imp plants its foot on the Mushroomon’s soft body, a fireball in its hand.

“You jackasses are really something. I’ve let you get away with bullying the people of this village and walking away scot-free, but I am sick and tired of giving you idiots second chances. You want me to burn? Then you’ll burn with me.”

Impmon gets ready to shove the fireball into the mushroom’s face as it hears a cry for help behind it. Tsukasa and Impmon turn to see a pair of the Mushroomon holding a small plant digimon above the flames, struggling to get out of their grasp. The lead Mushroomon takes the chance to pull a small bulb off its shoulder and throw it in the imp's face, the bulb exploding with pink spores. The imp’s eyes water as the spores surround its head. It does its best to get its bearings as the mushrooms surround it.

“*cough* *cough* let Tanemon go, you jerks.”

The mushroom holding the plant digimon chuckles at the imp.

“If you say so,o Impmon.”

The mushrooms laugh as they toss the bulb digimon into the air.

“NO!”

The small bulb screams as it falls back toward the flames, crying out for help as it draws closer. Impmon tries to run and save Tanemon, but it’s tackled and held down by two more Mushroomons, holding its head back and forcing the imp to watch the helpless bulb.

The mushrooms laugh at the imp, pointing and taunting the falling Tanemon. Something jumps on top of the Mushroomon that threw the helpless plant, leaping into the air and catching the poor digimon. The mushrooms stand in surprise as Impmon smiles and breaks free from their grasp. Tsukasa lies in the grass, tightly holding the Tanemon in his arms.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, thank you.”

“Run back to the village, tell them about the fire, and get everyone to evacuate.”

The Tanemon nods and runs off as Tsukasa stands up, glaring at the terrified mushrooms as, from their perspective, he appears cloaked in flames. The human steps back through the fire and cracks his knuckles. Impmon does the same before grabbing the Mushroomon behind it and throwing them into another, instantly knocking both unconscious. Tsukasa joins his partner and grabs the two Mushroomons that terrorized Tanemon, knocking their heads together and tossing them onto the pile, four down, three to go. The remaining mushrooms cower as the duo approach, Impmon with a fireball in its hand. The lead mushroom grits its teeth and grabs its remaining follower; the two mushrooms in its grasp scream as all three glow white. The mushrooms merge, and the light fades., In their place stands a large tree digimon, glaring at the partners and pointing its hollow, tree trunk-like hands at them. Impmon and Tsukasa jump out of the way as a giant acorn fires from the wooden Digimon's hand, crashing into the ground where they were.

Tsukasa pulls out his phone and points it at the tree digimon, opening the new scanner app once more.

Name: Woodmon

Type(s): Plant

Attribute: Virus

Field(s): Nature Spirits. Jungle Troopers

Element: Wood

The Mushroomon in the pile awaken and pair up again, merging into smaller versions of the same tree digimon. Each of the Woodmons focuses on taking out Impmon, firing acorns at the devil as it does its best to dodge.

Knowing Impmons determination to protect the village, Tsukasa jumps up to help fight the wooden monster, stopping in his tracks as he hears a quiet screeching just barely over the flames and tree digimon firing at Impmon, he looks around for the source, believing it to be another threat, but finding that the sound is coming from his phone, he looks at the screen and sees a prompt: Digivolve? Y/N.

Tsukasa looks at the three trees that are beginning to overwhelm Impmon. If they want to win, they need to do what the Mushroomon did. Impmon begins to glow white as Tsukasa’s thumb hovers over “yes”.

“DON’T YOU DARE PRESS THAT BUTTON!”

Tsukasa looks up at the glowing devil as it struggles to avoid the trees, looking desperately for an opening to attack. The look in the devil’s eyes is one of both fear and determination. Tsukasa looks at the screen: Digivolve? Y/N. After a moment of consideration, he chooses his response to the prompt. Impmon stops glowing and smiles, feeling reinvigorated. The little devil finds its opening and jumps at the larger tree digimon with a fireball in its hand. Against his better judgment, Tsukasa chose No.

[NIGHT OF FIRE]

Impmon plunges the fireball into the Woodmon’s mouth, lighting it ablaze and reeling in pain. The little devil jumps from one tree digimon to the other, slamming flame-engulfed fists into them as they try and keep up with the renewed imp. Failing to take note of its surroundings, the larger Woodmon fires at Impmon, its acorn projectile slamming into one of its accomplices as Impmon dodges, sending another fireball directly into its hollow arm. The third Woodmon fires at Impmon in the air, believing the digimon to be in a helpless free-fall, the devil just smiles.

[DA-DA-DA KICK]

The imp twirls in the air as it cloaks its foot in dark energy and kicks the acorn projectile back at the tree, knocking it into the flames and returning it to the two Mushroomons that made it. Just as the imp lands, the larger tree slams down its massive arm, a crooked grin across its wooden face, only for it to be replaced by shock as Impmon lifts the limb with little effort, engulfing the hollow arm in fire once more and tossing it back.

“H-how!?”

“Well, the long and short of it, you pissed me off.”

Impmon throws a fireball into the remaining smaller Woodmon, reverting it to the pair of mushrooms once more. Turning its attention to the larger digimon, a devilish smile creeps across its face as it produces another fireball. The lead Woodmon attempts to retreat, turning around and making a break for it. The fireball in Impmon’s hand doubles in size as the tree scrambles to safety. 

“Impmon, they’re getting away.”

“No, he’s not, gimme a second.”

The fireball doubles again, and Impmon kneels, drawing a small pentagram in the dirt. The tree smiles as it nears the edge of the woods, almost to the safety of the forest that even Impmon won’t follow it through. Waiting for just a moment longer, Impmon bares and evil grin as it taps its drawing, the inverted star glowing with violet energy.

[MAGIC CIRCLE]

The tree stops as it reaches the edge, laughing at its triumph and escape, only to open its eyes and see the edge of the forest much further away. It looks back in fear as it sees Impmon holding a fireball twice the devil’s size.

“Nice try jackass.”

Impmon jumps up and presses the giant ball of fire into the Digimon’s wooden skin, engulfing it in flame and turning it to charcoal. The now ashen tree falls back as it reverts to the three mushrooms that formed it.

All seven mushrooms lie on the burning ground unconscious as Impmon stands over them with a sad look.

“Great job, Impmon, lets get some help to put out the fires.”

Impmon claps its hands and closes its eyes.

“No need, I got this.”

[NIGHT OF BLIZZARD]

Heavy snowfall begins to blanket the burning market, the snow slowly quelling the flames as Impmon looks on with a sad expression.

“Hey, what’s with that look?”

“Nothin’ it’s just… this isn’t the first time I've fought these jerks, but this time… they set the place on fire, my main attack. Everyone will think I set the market on fire, not the Mushroomon.”

“Tsk, so? Tanemon and I both saw them light up the place.”

“You think that’ll make a difference? I’ve been fighting to help these guys for years, but no matter what I do, they hate me. I’ve tried to be good, I want to be good, but no one cares about what I do, just what I am. It’s not just the Mushroomon either, tons of digimon have come to wreak havoc on this place, and I stop ‘em every time. But no matter how hard I fight to save everyone, to protect them from predators, thieves, and gangs, they always think I brought them here just to make myself look good.”

Tears well up in Impmon’s eyes as some of the villagers arrive at the scene.

“It’s all burned up!”

“My stall.”

“Impmon, you did this, didn’t you!”

Impmon turns away as the villagers berate them for a crime they didn’t commit. Tsukasa grabs the imp by the back of the handkerchief around its neck and drags it toward the crowd, glaring at the villagers.

“Impmon just saved your market from those Mushroomon, the ones who really set the market on fire. You should all be ashamed of how you’ve treated Impmon.”

The yellow plant from earlier speaks up.

“Who are you to defend that demon?”

“I have a title back in my world that I wear like a badge of honor, The Bully Bully, and from what I’ve seen, you’ve done nothing but belittle and berate Impmon. I don’t know and I don’t care what the reason is.”

The yellow plant doesn’t back down.

“What? Are you saying you’re gonna beat us all up? You’re no different than Impmon.”

The boy doesn’t respond, his green eyes practically burning a hole in the plant. His eyes shift to a small plant bud, the Tanemon he saved, hiding behind a plant digimon with a large pink flower sprouting from its head.

“Know what? You’re right, Impmon and I are the same. Come on, you’ve been too good for this place for too long.”

“Huh?”

The young man drags the confused imp away from the market and back to the station.

Tsukasa stands the imp up and kneels to look them in the eye. 

“Alright, Impmon, I don’t care why they hate you, but I do care why it affects you so much, and I wanna know why you didn’t wanna digivolve. You saw the Woodmon, they got so much stronger from digivolving, why would you not want that?”

Impmon looks away, thinking before sighing and turning to its new partner.

“I don’t wanna digivolve because I’m afraid of it, I’m not afraid of the power or losing myself or something dumb like that, I’m afraid because… This world is ruled by an evil Demon Lord called Barbamon, and I’m meant to replace them if and when they die. It’s why everyone hates me, it’s why I refuse to digivolve, I don’t wanna be Barbamon.”

Tsukasa thinks for a moment and smiles, holding a hand out to the imp.

“Then I won’t let you. You want to defy fate, now that I’m your partner, we’ll defy it together.”

Impmon tears up as it smiles at Tsukasa, ignoring the young man's hand and jumping at the boy for a hug. The two of them embrace for some time as the sun sets over the trees.

Suddenly, Tsukasa gets a notification, “Your train will be departing shortly.” Tsukasa stands and looks at the overgrown station, wondering why he needs to get on the train again. He glances at Impmon, who nods and walks down the stairs. The two sit in an empty train car, and the train departs the way it came. Tsukasa’s dark blond hair glows in the setting sun, Impmon's green eyes sparkling as it sits opposite the young man. Tsukasa pulls out his phone and points it at the imp.

Name: Impmon

Type(s): Little Devil

Attribute: Virus

Field(s): Nightmare Soldiers, Unknown

Element: Darkness

The boy puts his phone away, and the two share a confident smile as the train disappears into a tunnel.

Chapter Text

The party waves goodbye to their guides across the desert as Leomon and ExVeemon disappear back into the dunes for their return to Metal City, leaving the kids on the edge of a large forest, the dense trees scraping the sky. The climate shifts drastically as they make their way along a twisting path through the foliage; the heat of the desert is replaced by a gentle warmth, and a cool breeze brushes through the leaves. The party walks along, enjoying the calm of the forest around them and the quiet ambiance of birds flying around, normal-sized bugs buzzing, and the leaves shuffling in the wind. A small dark blue dog digimon runs across the path, followed closely by a pack of much larger, spike-furred wolf digimon with muzzles over their faces and massive red claws at the ends of thick forelimbs. One looks their way and stares before following the happy barking of the smaller digimon once more. Hagurumon and Harumi smile as the pack disappears into the trees.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a pack of Loogarmon before.”

“And that little puppy was so cute. But, those digimon looked so similar, does that cute little dog become those massive wolves?”

“Yep, the smaller one was a Loogamon. As far as I know, their only path is to digivolve into the vicious-looking Loogarmon, but looks can be deceiving; their threatening appearance is contrary to their more neutral defensive nature, don’t bother it and it won’t bother you.”

The Gear Digimon pokes the girl in the side.

“But honestly, are you surprised at that? I mean, I change from gears to a big robot, Gottsumon becomes a giant, and Patamon goes from a pink ball of cuteness to an angel.”

Hearing the Digimon’s name, Satoru looks around and notices the lack of a pink flying creature near them.

“Hey, wait, where is Patamon?”

“Oh right!”

Harumi holds up her digivice and shows everyone the screen, a sprite of Patamon bounces up and down on the screen as the group looks at the V-pet, confused as to what the younger girl was showing them.

Just as Satoru was going to ask what this had to do with Patamon’s disappearance, the screen of the device began to glow and a pink and white ball jumped out, stretching its small legs as it fluttered in the air.

“MMM, man that was a good nap, I needed that after last night.”

“So Patamon, what did’ja think of it?”

Patamon hovers infront of its partner and smiles contentedly.

“Super cozy, there was a surprising amount in there, a bed, a bathroom, it’s like a little apartment in your pocket.”

Futaba looks at the two with interest and remembers the ball of code Tsukasa had put in his phone that morning.

“Hey, how’d you do that? I wanna see if I can do the same thing as Tsukasa.”

“Show me too, the ability to put stuff in our digivices is gonna be super useful.”

Not far away, a young man with dark blonde hair sneezes, looking around for something before turning back to the conflict in front of him. His partner, Impmon, stands facing the pack of Loogarmon that just crossed paths with the party. The imp stands firm and ready against the largest of the wolf-like digimon, ready to strike at the first opportunity. Loogarmon stares its opponent down with deep red eyes, and the creature nods, and the imp returns the gesture. Without warning, Loogarmon dashes forward, lunging at the imp as fire erupts from the gaps in the muzzle, returning the favor. Impmon dashes forward and leaps at the wolf with a fireball in hand.

As the group continues their trek, Harumi shows the others how Patamon went into the V-Pet, and Patamon shows that it brought some food in with it. Futaba and Satoru attempt the same but find that Satoru can only store digimon in his game, as well as discover that Satoru and Harumi can only store two digimon at a time, sprites of Hagurumon and Gottsumon wander the screen for a bit before jumping back out, and in contrast, Futaba can only store items, her phone absorbing a ball of code that was previously a shank of meat.

Satoru rubs his chin as he thinks.

“Okay, so the D-Pet and the DigiBoy can hold two digimon, and the D-Pet and D-Cell can hold items. This is pretty cool, I wonder what else we can do with these.”

The girls look at Satoru, confused about what he’s referring to.

“D-Pet?”

“DigiBoy?”

The young man holds up his game proudly as Hagurumon bounces on the screen.

“Yep, I figured I’d give the digivices a name, not any particular reason, I just wanted to. Mine is the DigiBoy since it transformed from by handheld, Harumi’s is the D-Pet because it was a V-Pet before, and yours is the D-Cell because it was your phone.”

The older girl cringes at the name, her partner mimicking her expression, Harumi giggles and smiles at the new name for her device.

“That’s so lame, and why is yours different?”

“Well, D-Boy just doesn’t sound right to me, and I wanna hear you try and come up with something better.”

“I will, how about, not giving them dumb names in the first place.”

“Now that’s lame, you just gonna keep calling it your phone? So boring.”

The two of them continue to bicker as they walk, their argument the only notable sound for miles. After an hour, everything quiets down again, except for the rumble of giant footsteps, the flapping of large wings, and howls from deep in the woods. Exhausted from walking so far for so long, the kids are carried by their digimon. Golemon shambles through the woods with Futaba and Satoru on its shoulders while Angemon and Harumi fly high up in the canopy, Hagurumon still resting in the now agreed-upon DigiBoy. The angel descends as it spots a clearing ahead, informing the giant and lifting the two teens off of its shoulders. The group walks forward as Golemon glows white and shrinks back to the familiar grey rocks, entering the clearing and seeing a cluster of small huts. Digimon of all shapes and sizes run or rather bounce, around the village, a small black blob with tiny round nubs on its head chases around a red blob with three points on its head, a small pale pink creature, a similar shape to Patamon, with ribbon-like antenna marches a group of tiny jellyfish-like digimon, a large, thick-bodied, pale green rabbit wearing blue baggy jeans, a bandolier, and gauntlets that resemble revolver cylinders, holds up a similar digimon with ears twice the size of its boy in its scoop-like claws, seemingly scolding the smaller digimon. 

“There you young’ns are! I’ve been waiting for hours, and where’s that big pussy cat and the wannabe dragon?”

From across the village, garnering the attention of some of the older villagers, stomps a short digimon in a tattered burlap tunic, its white hair and beard covering every inch of its face with large patches on its oversized feet, in its gloved hands is a wooden walking stick topped with a large yellow cat paw. The digimon approaches the group before stopping halfway and walking back the way it came.

“Well? Hurry up, you aren’t going to make an old man walk all that way, are you?”

The party follows behind the elderly digimon and find themselves in a nearly barren hut, a cot sits on the opposite wall to the door, to their left is a simple wood stove with a dirty pot on the burner, and to their right is a bookshelf filled to the brim and a pair of rocking chairs.

“So, let's get started, shall we?”

The elderly digimon hops into one of the rocking chairs and slowly rocks using its cane. The room is silent except for the creaking of the chair, waiting for something to happen as the elder just rocks in the chair.

“Well? Weren’t you kids going to ask me something?”

Everyone looks at each other in confusion until Satoru speaks up.

“Oh right! I needed to ask about Hagurumon’s digivolution.”

SMACK! A paw print appears on the boy's face as he falls back, dazed and confused. His DigiBoy clatters to the ground, and Hagurumon pops out to see what’s going on.

“Dumbass.” Futaba turns to the old man, “We were supposed to ask why we’re here, right?”

The digimon strokes its grey beard and chuckles to itself.

“You’re here because I invited you into my house.”

“You know what I meant, you senile-”

SMACK! Futaba joins Satoru on the floor of the hut, a large paw print on her cheek. Gottsumon stomps toward the digimon in the chair, ready to defend its partner.

“Hey, you geezer, you can’t just-”

SMACK! A paw print-shaped indent digs into the rock's forehead, adding to the pile.

“That’s Geezermon to you…no wait, that’s not right.”

Catching on to what was happening, Harumi politely bowed to Geezermon and spoke in her sweetest tone.

“We were told by ExVeemon that you know everything, we were wondering if you knew why we were all brought to the Digital World?”

Geezermon strokes its beard again and chuckles.

“At least one of you knows how to respect your elders. Lucky for you, I do know why you’re here, and the young man peeking through my windows should probably be a part of this conversation too.”

With an exasperated sigh, Tsukasa and Impmon walk around and enter the hut.

“Figures you’d notice us old man.”

SMACK! Despite the distance, a paw print shows up on the delinquent's forehead, although he doesn’t join the others on the floor of the hut.

“That’s OldManmon to you wippersnapper… Wait no, I mean that’s Jijimon to you. Now listen up, the lot of you, I have a troubling tale to tell: our beautiful digital world is currently under siege, but this is no physical threat we can combat, no, this is much worse, as even the strongest digimon will fall to it soon enough. There is a plague, a virus, swarming the digital world, infecting all it can and soon will be spreading like wildfire. The virus corrupts and damages data, putting the infected into a berserk and uncontrollable state, destabilizing the data more and more until the digimon is lost for good, becoming an empty shell of its former self, or dying in the process. You all have been brought here to find a cure and stop the virus before it can destroy the digital world and spread beyond this server into the rest of Yggdrasill. Oracle chose you with the worry that the virus could spread beyond, into Oracle and Homeostasis,  perhaps even to the real world. As such, it chose you because you can stave off the corruption and fight the influence of the virus, should you be infected.”

Satoru stands up.

“How do we find the cure?”

Jijimon gazes at the boy from beneath its curtain of grey hair and takes a deep breath.

“I dunno.”

Everyone falls to the ground at the response.

“But ExVeemon said you know everything?”

“While a broken clock can be right twice a day, an idiot sees that clock and thinks that's what time it is. I’m educated and wise, not omnipotent. Although I do see quite a bit, for example, you already faced someone infected by the corruption virus.”

The humans look at each other confused. Hagurumon clicks faster as it thinks, remembering everything it can about the two fights they’ve had thus far.

“OH! The peacekeeper. One of the Andromon was sparking with black electricity, that must have been this corruption virus affecting it. Then the Scorpiomon we fought this morning was also infected.”

Impmon chuckles at the gear creature.

“Nah, Scorpiomon was just a predator, I doubt it was infected, right old man?”

Impmon holds up its hands to catch the cane, but the strike never comes. Confused Impmon looks at Jijimon. SMACK! Impmon sails back and slams into the opposite wall, its eyes swirling as it slumps over, a paw print square on its pale face.

“Could have been a bit nicer, but the imp is right, only the Andromon you faced was infected with the virus to my knowledge. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the wild digimon also got infected. I wouldn’t worry too much yet, though, the virus is still in its early stages with very few infected, still a problem, but not one that needs all the attention in the world. You’ll be able to take your time and train, travel around, and learn more about the virus and its origins. Now then, about your little digivolution problem.”

The elderly digimon raises its cane to the top lip of the bookshelf and pulls down a diagram depicting ten circles of different colors and symbols with lines connecting them.

“Ahem. Many different aspects dictate the digital world and the digimon within it. First are the attributes, the code the digimon are born from: Data, Virus, Vaccine, and Free. Technically speaking, there is also undefined, but no one cares and just calls it Free. Second is Fields, the families the digimon belongs to: Nature Spirits; generally monstrous digimon, Deep Savers; generally aquatic digimon, Nightmare Soldiers; demonic or devilish digimon, Wind Guardians; mostly birds and flying digimon, Metal Empire: Machine digimon, Virus Busters; generally holy or righteous digimon, Dragon's Roar; dragons and dinosaurs, and Jungle Troopers; plants and bugs, there is also Unknown and Dark Area, but both of these overlap quite a bit with some other Fields. And last, Elements-”

Jijimon taps the diagram and points to a pale yellow circle at the top.

“Elements are the building blocks of almost everything, from the air you breathe to the food you eat, the latter being more applicable to this particular conversation. In clockwise order: Light, Wood, Wind, Ice, Water, Dark, Metal, Earth, Fire, and Thunder. These elements are integral to digital life, but not required to sustain it, and that is Hagurumon’s problem.”

The party looks at Jijimon in confusion, not even the digimon are sure what the old man means.

Jijimon sighs and shakes its head. “Kids these days. Lad, your phone can scan others, please scan their digimon, start with Patamon and finish with Hagurumon.”

Tsukasa raises his eyebrow at the command. He pulls out his phone and points the camera at the flying digimon, sweeping across the other two, and stopping as he examines the error with Hagurumon’s information.

Name: Patamon

Type(s): Mammal

Attribute: Data

Field(s): Virus Busters, Wind Guardians

Element: Wind

Name: Gottsumon

Type(s): Ore, Mineral

Attribute: Data

Field(s): Metal Empire, Nature Spirits

Element: Earth

Name: Hagurumon

Type(s): Machine

Attribute: Virus

Field(s): Metal Empire

Element: -

Tsukasa scans the party again, adding Impmon and Jijimon to make sure there isn’t a problem, but finds the same error in Hagurumon’s data, it didn’t have an element. He shows the info to the party and they all stare at the gear digimon in confusion. Jijimon taps its cane, regaining the attention of the concerned teens.

“As you have just seen, Hagurumon lacks a part of its code, and that code, while not vital to living, is vital to furthering oneself. The reason Hagurumon has a problem with digivolving is that it lacks the elemental data required to determine digivolution.”

Hagurumon clicks as it thinks.

“But I still managed to digivolve gra-”

“Hmm?”

“JIJIMON SIR!”

“Hehe, it's fun messing with young people. Yes, you did digivolve back in Metal City, seemingly without issue, but there was a factor present that you didn’t have in the desert, nor here.”

“Right, I was full because I ate the metal hotdog.”

Jijimon shakes its head and gently smacks Hagurumon with its cane.

“I said a factor NOT present in the desert, you were full there too.”

Hagurumon’s clicking speeds up, trying to think of everything different between the fights. The number of enemies, probably not, the fear and stress, maybe, the food it ate? The food Hagurumon ate!

“Oh! Guardromon changed because of what food I ate!”

Jijimon nods. Hagurumon turns to its partner with satisfaction.

“The reason I was darker colors was because it was a food I didn’t like.”

CLANG! The gear is face down on the floor, a paw print-shaped dent in its back.

“Were you paying attention to anything I said? It has to do with your element data, not your tastes. The foods you ate filled in your elemental data; the metal hotdog filled in Metal, and the Terraroot filled in Earth. Your form and colors as Guardromon are dependent on the element you consume. It seems to me, however, that you became Guardromon by chance; it was lucky that you consumed Metal data before digivolving. Who knows what you would have become otherwise and if those other hypothetical forms would be compatible with other elements.”

Tsukasa turns to the elder digimon.

“Here's a good question: why is Guardromon compatible with Earth?”

Jigimon strokes its beard and turns back to the diagram. The elderly digimon points its cane at the Metal element.

“I have theories. Elements are the most complex topic of the Digital World's basics, and I do use the term ‘basics’ loosely. Elements work divided but in unison, each element has a complement and an antithesis.”

Jijimon taps the element of Fire and swipes down to Earth.

“Fire, for example, has the complementing elements of Thunder and Earth, and is the opposite of Ice. Metal, the element that Hagurumon and Guardromon are supposed to be, has the complements of Earth and Dark. My working theory is that the reason Guardromon could become an Earth element digimon is because Earth and Metal are complementary elements. If Hagurumon had eaten a bamboo shoot, for example, it likely wouldn't have let Hagurumon digivolve due to Wood being the antithesis of Metal.”

Hagurumon floats back up, having fully recovered from Jijimon’s discipline.

“So I need to eat an element before I can digivolve? That doesn’t sound too hard, just need to stay stocked up.”

“Yes, that sounds about right. Although I would recommend you stick to the complementary elements of Metal and Earth, I have no way of confirming it, but I have a bad feeling there may be complications if you eat something of the opposite element to what you already have.”

“But… the data is gone when I revert back. Why would I need to worry about eating Wood food when I wouldn’t have any Metal data?”

Jijimon strokes its beard.

“That’s a good question.”

The party stands anxiously for the answer, waiting for Jijimon to give them a reason not to give Hagurumon the wrong food.

“I haven't a clue.”

The party falls over in shock from the response.

“It’s just a hunch, but I’d still heed it if I were you, my hunches have yet to be wrong, just ask my wife. I told her that her curry would be the death of me, and sure enough, a Meramon nearly snuffed itself out from the heat. Speaking of, if you kids want to experiment with what elements Guardromon can be, you should go visit Babamon up on the hills, she’d love to cook you a good meal, just make sure to say you don’t like curry.”

The elderly digimon laughs at its own joke, and everyone else stays silent.

“Hm? What, that not good enough for you? Bah, everyone’s a critic. Like I said, it’s only a hunch, but one with a decent basis. You still became Guardromon when you digivolved with the element of Earth, meaning there is a good chance that data did stay within you. Even if you aren’t actively able to digivolve, Guardromon is still registered as your champion stage digivolution; eating the Terraroot didn’t change that.”

Jijimon taps its cane as it jumps out of the rocking chair, ushering the group out.

“Well, this was a lovely chat, but there is more you should do before you go see Babamon, including how to properly use your digivices. We’ll do that through a few trials that I can set up, and we’ll get started in a few hours. In the meantime, have a walk around the village, get some supplies from Gargomon, do some training in Falcomon’s gym, just make sure you rest well because you’re gonna need it.”

Satoru quickly turns as they’re all shoved out the door by the shockingly strong old man.

“Wait, we still have more questions.”

“I know, the trials will answer some of them.”

Jijimon shuts the door, leaving the group more confused than when they entered.

Futaba stiffens as she recalls who the young man next to her is, and Tsukasa takes notice.

“Relax, would you, if you were on my list, I’d have done something a long time ago, Metsugi.”

The young man and the imp walk back into the forest, once again leaving the trio questioning his intentions and actions.

“I’m not sure if that was reassuring or threatening. At least I wasn’t on his shit list.”

Futaba looks around the small village for anything interesting to do while they wait. Her eyes wander to a small wooden archway leading to a small field, the text on the archway is unreadable, at least to her, her gaze then moves to a building with a green bird digimon standing near the door, last, she looks at the small stall they saw the rabbit digimon at before, it stands behind the counter looking rather grumpy, its bulk, mechanical arms crossed, then the older girl notices something behind the large rabbit, she sees the smaller rabbit digimon hanging from a clothesline by the base of its ears, the creature looks embarrassed but satisfied, next to it however, was something that made Futaba do a double take, her eyes quickly switching between the larger rabbit and the item on the clothesline. The rabbit was no longer wearing the blue jeans it was before, instead wearing a plaid red kilt, even replacing the bandolier with a similar plaid sash; hanging on the clothesline was a pair of blue jeans, the same as it wore before. Futaba quickly grabs her two human companions and drags them to the stall, their partners in tow.

“Excuse me!”

The rabbit’s expression changes as it suddenly has customers. It smiles and greets the party in a rather high and cutesy voice.

“Hello, I’m Gargomon. How can I help you, stranger?”

Futaba points to the cloth around the Digimon’s waist.

“I couldn’t help but notice the kilt you’re wearing, you wouldn’t happen to sell clothes, would you?”

Gargomon blinks for a second before beaming at the question.

“Yes, absolutely I do! Come right this way, we have just about anything you desire!”

Chapter Text

Gargomon walks a couple of steps away from behind the stall, staring off into the trees before suddenly reaching to its side and yanking the smaller rabbit from its hanging confinement and throwing it towards the wood. Instead of sailing off into the trees, the small green rabbit collides with an invisible force, and a hidden door slowly opens. Gargomon picks the dazed rabbit up by its long ears and gestures for the party to enter with a contented smile on its face. Surprised by the violent display, the party enters the glowing doorway hesitantly, finding a large fashion studio on the other side. Satoru, Harumi, and the digimon stand in awe of the scale of the room, racks of clothes line the walls, from casual shirts and pants to elegant and ornate dresses, and mannequins stand around the gallery as well, donning beautiful gowns and suits, posed in the perfect way to accentuate the garments features. Futaba’s eyes shine as she looks around the room, shedding a tear at the sight.

Gargomon walks past them and tosses the smaller digimon to a higher balcony.

“Terriermon, go grab ShoeShoemon and tell them we have guests.”

The smaller digimon squeaks like a dog toy as it lands on the platform, laughing as it gets up and runs off into a nearby door.

‘Come with me, please.”

Gargomon leads the group to the back of the studio to a smaller offshoot room, on one side is a red couch, covering the opposite wall are five curtained changing rooms, and in the middle of the room is a round platform surrounded by mirrors. Laying on the expensive-looking red couch with a magazine over her face is a girl with long blond hair in a ponytail, wearing a short green tanktop and darker green high-cut shorts, a gold bell around her neck, brown boots with a pink spike in the toe, and brown gloves with the same pink spike on each of her fingers, the girl on the couch almost looked human, if it weren’t for her small size and insect-like wings.

Gargomon picks up the magazine and rolls it into a tube.

“Tinkermon, wake up, we have guests.”

The fairy-like digimon stirs from its nap and stretches itself awake.

“About time. Are we waiting for ShoeShoemon or am I good to get their measurements?”

Gargomon tosses the magazine on the couch and walks out of the room.

“Go right ahead, it’ll make her job a bit easier, at least sizing-wise. And I’m sure I’ve asked you to stop reading those magazines back here.”

Tinkermon looks at the magazine and quickly hides it with a blush, composing themself and narrowing their eyes at the humans.

“161.9cm, 157.4cm, 172.1cm. 48kg, 43kg, 50kg. Turn to the side for me, please.”

The three turn so their left side faces the fairy, her eyes narrow further as she stares at Futaba.

“Mmm, 91cm, 87cm, 94cm. 92cm, 87cm, 93cm. 38cm, 33cm, 36cm. D, C, not applicable.”

Satoru looks at the fairy digimon confused.

“I’m sorry, what are you doing?”

“Getting your measurements so we can tailor the clothes for you as best we can with what we have in stock. In order: height, weight, chest, waist, leg, and cup size.”

Futaba blushes and puffs out her chest.

“W-well, you need to get your eyes checked, I am not a D cup.”

Tinkermon chuckles as it writes down the numbers on a piece of paper.

“Girl, I know a stuffed bra when I see one.”

A short squirrel that looks like a hand-sewn plushy glides into the room on a pair of rollerskates and gives the fairy a thumbs up before skating back out. The party waits for a while before the squirrel digimon, Gargomon, and the smaller rabbit come in carrying several different articles.

The squirrel tosses its armful into one of the dressing rooms and pulls Futaba in with a smile. Gargomon and Terriermon do the same and gesture for the others to try on their selections. Gargomon pulls a few chairs into the room for the partner digimon and joins Tinkermon and Terriermon on the couch. After some time and shuffling, the squirrel digimon jumps out from the curtain and twirls as it lands on the center platform.

“Who’s ready for a fashion show? First up is this lovely lass sporting my favorite piece from my ‘Adventure collection’.”

Futaba steps out of the dressing room wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt, blue skinny jeans, black sneakers with a red bird design wrapping around the heel, and dark red canvas gloves. She stands on the platform and examines her appearance before turning to the squirrel and shaking her head. The digimon gestures for her to try the next outfit before calling Harumi out next.

“This sweetheart is wearing another work of mine from the ‘Adventure collection’, a sort of reimagining meant to convey light and hope.”

Harumi steps onto the platform in a long pale yellow shirt with a light pink sun on the back, dark pink track shorts, a light pink handkerchief on her neck, and red and white versions of Futaba’s shoes. The girl smiles at herself in the mirror, giving the audience a curtsy before retreating to the dressing room.

“For this next piece, I took some inspiration from his partner Hagurumon.”

Satoru steps out onto the platform with a metallic clang as he adjusts a slim silver gauntlet, trying his best to look cool. The outfit consists of a grey dress shirt with brass gear-shaped buttons, dark grey cargo pants with metal knee guards, steel-toe boots, and a long black jacket.

“Kinda steampunk, I like it.”

The squirrel digimon smiles at the boy.

“Gearpunk actually, similar style, different expression.”

Satoru steps back into the dressing room as Futaba comes out in her next outfit. Each of them tries on a variety of clothes, A blue tank top, a purple sundress, tan shorts, even trying on more formal attire, a green slit dress, a blue frilled gown, and a black tuxedo. Eventually, they all step out of the dressing room. Futaba is wearing grey high-tops, high-cuff blue jeans, a white sleeveless shirt with a meteor on the front, and a pale yellow hoodie, accessorizing with a pair of small star earrings and a crown necklace. 

Harumi steps out in white and gold shoes resembling Angemon’s, black leggings, a violet skirt, a red and white long-sleeve shirt, and a blue vest, clipped to her waist, is a pink strap attached to the D-Pet. 

Satoru snaps together the buttons of a pair of black fingerless gloves, his outfit is a pair of black shoes with mismatching red and blue trim and laces, the dark grey pants with metal knee pads from the gearpunk outfit, a light grey t-shirt with a sprite of a red dinosaur on the front, a dark grey jacket, and topping the outfit off with a pair of gold goggles.

They look in the mirror, happy with the outfits they chose.

Futaba yanks at the strap of Satoru’s goggles.

“Goggles, really?”

“What? They just felt right.”

The squirrel digimon skates up to them and smiles.

“Sometimes, that’s what fashion is, the satisfaction when something just feels right.”

Gottsumon steps out of a changing room wearing a blue and pink Hawaiian shirt and large palm tree sunglasses.

“Right you are, ShoeShoemon, this is what real fashion is.”

Everyone in the room cringes at the rock digimon as they pose and try to hula dance. ShoeShoemon turns back to the humans.

“Well, like many things in this world, fashion isn’t for everyone.”

Wanting the embarrassment to end, Futaba kneels down to the plush squirrel.

“So, how much do we owe you?”

“Free of charge this time, there are so few digimon that ever wear anything more than what they have when they digivolve, we never get any customers, but the three of us have such a passion for this that even if no one else enjoys, we won’t stop making clothes and enjoying fashion. Just do us a favor and send anyone else with an interest our way.”

Futaba smiles and stands up.

“Will do!”

The party leaves the studio and returns to the village, feeling reinvigorated by their new outfits. As soon as they step outside, they see Tsukasa and Impmon come back from the woods, looking worse for wear and exhausted, the young man’s uniform torn and burned. Gargomon sees the two and happily guides them in, grabbing a first aid kit from under the counter of his stand, telling the group to grab whatever they need for supplies from his stand, and ducking back into the fashion studio.

The next few hours are quiet and boring. Satoru and Hagurumon try to get some training done but are forced to sit through an hour-long lecture about the history of training from Falcomon. Harumi decides to explore past the wooden archway and finds Elder Forest’s Hatchery, where she and Patamon help the two caretakers of the newborn digimon, Elecmon and Tokomon. Futaba’s time is a bit better spent, as she chose to ask around and learn more about the digital world, discovering more about digimon physiology and the differences between civil digimon and wild digimon. The quiet is only interrupted once by an explosion that sounded deep in the forest. Finally, Jijimon exits its hut and calls the party over, waiting patiently for Tsukasa to join them from the fashion studio. After another few minutes, the young man joins the group wearing a fancy tuxedo.

Futaba is the first to comment on his appearance.

“A tux? Never thought you’d be one for fancy dress.”

“Shut up, they didn’t have anything in stock that was my size and style, so ShoeShoemon is custom-tailoring my outfit. Frankly, I always took you for the high-fashion type, t-shirts that cost ¥10,000  and a shitty purse to match.”

Futaba turns red at the remark.

“Hey, I didn’t say it looked bad on you, jerk.”

Jijimon taps its cane on the ground, drawing the attention of the party.

“Alright, alright, settle down, you can bicker about your poor tastes later, we have more pressing matters. Let me say this in a way you kids will understand; I’ma learn ya how to punch what good.”

The party just stares at the elderly digimon, unable to even cringe at its words.

“I’m going to train you. We’ll be performing three trials, putting each of you in situations that you will likely face in the upcoming days, and first and foremost, a situation that would be detrimental to you all because of the two battles you’ve been in thus far. Your first trial will be to fight alone, you will face off against three digimon: one Rookie, one Champion, and one Ultimate. It's like a boss rush of sorts, face all three in a row, and no redos if you fail. This doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified; who am I to judge that? It just means some issues need to be worked on. Now for the elephant in the room, Impmon, I know you’re used to fighting alone, so your trial is to fight all three ultimates instead of ramping up, and that HelLorgarmon is very much looking forward to a rematch.”

Impmon’s face lights up as it hears that name.

“Hell yeah, that howling jerk digivolved! This’ll be fun.”

Jijimon chuckles at the imp reaction and turns back to the rest of the group.

“So, any volunteers?”

Harumi steps up first, a confident smile on her and Patamon’s faces.

“I’ll go first, Patamon and I already have a pretty strong bond, I’m sure he can fight anyone who comes our way.”

Jijimon taps its cane, and a spell circle appears beneath Hurumi and the spell drags the girl into the ground. From behind it, Jijimon drags over a crystal ball and waves everyone over to watch Harumi’s trial.

Harumi and Patamon opened their eyes and looked out over a strange room, the entire room was pitch black, and the floor was a green wireframe, but despite standing on what appeared to be large gaps in the floor, the girl didn’t fall through, surrounding what the duo assumed was the walls were lines of green code raising and fading into the air. The odd room extended as far as the eye could see, seeming almost endless.

“Ahem, if you can hear this, then I didn’t mess up the spell. If you remember, before, I mentioned what makes a digimon a digimon: Attributes, Fields, and Elements. I showed you all the relationships between the elements, but one more factor determines power in the digital world: the relationship between Attributes. Attributes work like Rock-Paper-Scissors; Virus beats Data, Data beats Vaccine, Vaccine beats Virus, and Free is somewhere in the middle. You want to take your partner's Attribute into account when in a fight, so I have set up this trial so you will face each attribute in sequence, your weakness, your equal, and your advantage.”

A pillar of code flows down on the opposite side of the room, and their first opponent materializes and smiles. Standing before them was Tinkermon. The fairy digimon twirls a red stinger-like spear as it slowly approaches.

“Hey, isn’t that the fairy from the fashion studio?”

Tsukasa gazes into the orb with the others outside, confused by the choice of opponent.

Jijimon strokes its beard.

“Sadly yes, only three virus attribute rookies in the whole village, and she’s the only one that can fly.”

Satoru watches the fairy slowly close the distance with the hesitant duo.

“Kinda surprising she’s a virus though.”

Jijimon points its cane at Satoru.

“A Digimon’s attribute has no bearing on its appearance or personality, and Digimon change attributes often enough, for example, what attribute do you think the protective Guardromon is?”

Satoru thinks for a second.

“Data, maybe?”

“Nope, Guardromon is a Virus digimon. The fearsome bone-covered digimon Scorpiomon, a terrifying monster like that would surely be a virus, but no, it’s Data, it’s the reason Golemon and Guardromon did so much against it.”

Meanwhile, in the strange space, Tinkermon steps closer and closer to the increasingly scared girl and her digimon, raising its spear to throw at Patamon. Harumi cowers at the fairy’s spear alongside Patamon, and then the two smile, their tearful expressions changing instantly to confidence.

[BOOM BUBBLE]

A blast of air shoots from Patamon’s mouth, easily knocking the spear out of Tinkermon’s hand, startling the fairy as it watches the spear clatter to the ground some distance away.

“What!?” The fairy regains its composure and turns to the duo, “Not bad kid, but you just let a close-quarters digimon get on top of you.”

The pink spikes on Tinkermon's fingers shine, and it thrusts its sharp nails at the confident girl. With a villainous smile, the fairy drives its nails forward, its smile dropping as they pierce into the black floor. The fairy looks around in confusion and finally sees Harumi and Patamon a shocking distance away, standing tall and giggling at Tinkermon. While Tinkermon was confused about how Harumi had managed to get that much distance, the others on the outside witnessed exactly what happened, having just watched the girl perform three perfect backflips in a row, all while holding on to Patamon.

“What!? How did Harumi do that!?”

Tsukasa quickly taps on his phone and shows the article to the others.

“Because she’s a gymnast. Take a look.”

Satoru and Futaba scroll through the article, showing a competition that Harumi had won a couple of years ago after nearly being disqualified for showboating. A short clip in the article showed the girl performing four perfect flips in a row and grabbing the bar from the same direction she had dismounted.

“Whoa, that’s incredible! But how did she end up winning if she was gonna be disqualified?”

Futaba shakes her head as she hands back Tsukasa’s phone.

“Take a guess, she started… crying. Wait, then she knows she’s a crybaby and uses it to her advantage for sympathy.”

Satoru watches the crystal ball and furrows his brow.

“No, this is different, I mean, compared to the train and back in Metal City. Both of those times seemed honest, this was a trick for Tinkermon.”

Jijimon strokes its beard and laughs.

“That girl is smarter than we give her credit for.”

Tinkermon glares at the girl and chuckles.

“Not bad kid, but you can’t win just by dodging. You need to actually attack me.”

“We know.”

“Just waiting for you.”

“What, you gonna let me get close agai-”

Tinkermon attempts to stand but is unable to, nearly yanking its shoulder out. They looked to see the pink nail-like spikes plunged into the ground, it was stuck.

“There it is.”

The pink digimon giggles as it sits on Harumi’s head. 

[BOOM BUBBLE]

A burst of air rockets at the fairy, knocking it off balance and forcing it to its knees. A second burst fails to connect as it's sliced by the fairy’s other hand. With some extra force and fueled by frustration, the fairy frees itself from the floor and steps toward the two.

“I wouldn’t take another step, Tinkermon. You let a long-range digimon get too far away.”

Tinkermon ignores Patamon's warning and jumps into the air, making a beeline for the duo as they stand in one place, more than confident of what’s going to happen next. As the fairy digimon draws closer, Harumi holds up the D-Pet, and the screen glows with a brilliant white light, a similar aura surrounding Patamon as it puffs up, ready to fire another burst of air. But something different happens, Patamon grows significantly larger than normal, inflating to nearly three times its size before launching its attack.

[BOOM BUBBLE+]

Tinkermon smiles as the burst of air flies towards it. Reeling back to slash the air bubble with its claws once more, it swipes the pink spikes through the air, causing an unexpected reaction; the air bubble explodes with incredible force, throwing the fairy out of the air. Tinkermon winces in pain as it drops to the floor, glaring at the pink digimon on Harumi’s head and jumping back into the air. The fairy repeats its strike, flying as fast as it can for the duo. Patamon puffs up and fires the larger burst of air once more, the fairy avoiding the attack easily as it quickly draws closer. The brilliant light shines from the D-Pet once more as Patamon inflates, Tinkermon smirks as it’s more than ready to dodge the large burst of air.

[BUBBLE MINE]

Patamon rapidly fires bubble after bubble of air, some just barely missing Tinkermon as the fairy descends. As one of the smaller bubbles flies toward the fairy, it stops in its tracks to defend itself from the attack, only for no contact to be made. Tinkermon looks in confusion at the bubble of air that stopped short of hitting it. The fairy moves to one side but stops quickly when it almost bumps another bubble with its shoulder. Moving to the other side meets the same result, quickly realizing the problem, Tinkermon quickly looks around to see hundreds of small bubbles surrounding it, each of them glowing with a dim light. Tinkermon was floating in a minefield. The fairy reaches for the spear it normally stores on its back, hoping to still get a good shot at Patamon, only grasping at empty space. Confused, Tinkermon quickly looks around the area for the weapon, finally seeing it on the ground behind Harumi and Patamon. The fairy shudders in shock and confusion, wondering when they had the chance to plan this out and how to get past Patamon’s attacks without its spear. Its confusion and planning are cut short as Harumi picks up the stinger-like weapon.

“Sorry, Tinkermon, no hard feelings, right?”

With near-perfect form, the girl throws the spear into the air, piercing one of the idle bubbles and popping it. The shockwave of the bubble explosion popped the others next to it, leading to a chain reaction that burst the entire minefield of bubbles. Tinkermon falls from the smoke and hits the ground, glitching. After a while, the fairy manages to stand up and sheepishly raises its hands. Tinkermon surrendered.

Everyone celebrates the first victory of the trials, cheering on Harumi and Patamon as the duo bounces happily infront of a somewhat proud Tinkermon.

In a flash of light, the smiling pair are suddenly face-to-face with a large red dinosaur resembling older depictions of a T. rex with a line of green diamond-shaped plates running down its back and tail. The dinosaur stands in Tinkermon’s place and straightens its posture. 

Impmon smiles at the image in the crystal ball.

“Whoa, a Tyrannomon! I’ve always wanted to fight one of those. I’m almost jealous of the bubble blower.”

“Hehehe, that one was hard to find but easy to convince. If you would believe me, Tyrannomon was actually the backup option.”

The party looks at the old man in confusion.

“See, I didn’t think Patamon and Harumi would be able to beat Tinkermon without digivolving, so they were meant to face a Vaccine digimon to match Angemon, but just in case, I did find backup champions for you to face if you managed to win in rookie form despite the disadvantage.”

Tyrannomon stares at the duo, and a sinister smile crosses its face. The dinosaur roars and charges at the pair, its jaws wide.

Chapter Text

The Dinosaur digimon charged toward Patamon and Harumi, its jaws open wide and ready to make a snack out of the two. Harumi quickly grabs Patamon and throws the pink digimon into the air, Tyrannomon’s jaws just barely missing as she dodges, rolling under the digital dino. A brilliant light shines from the D-Pet, and Patamon glows with the same light as it inflates more and more.

[BOOM BUBBLE+]

The explosive burst of air strikes Tyrannomon on the side. The smoke clears, revealing that the attack had barely phased it as it charges again, jumping as high as it can to snap at Patamon. Even with the minimal struggle against Tinkermon, Patamon grew tired, the use of the powered-up attacks taking a toll on the small Digimon’s body. Each dodge slowly became a near miss, each near miss became a narrow evasion, and each movement slowly lowered Patamon closer to the jaws of the beast. The group on the outside watches in suspense as the pink digimon grows closer and closer to being eaten by the dinosaur.

“PATAMON!”

Harumi holds the D-Pet as it glows brightly, bars of light erupt from the screen, Patamon glows white as the bars circle it, right as Tyrannomon snaps its jaws shut around its opponent. Tyrannomon smiles at its victory, growling as it stands upright to gloat at the girl for losing the fight, only to see a look of determination on Harumi’s face and a glowing digivice in her hand.  Tyrannomon gazes in a random direction, as though it is looking for Jijimon to pull it out of the arena, it shudders as it can almost feel Jijimon’s gaze, ‘Wait for it.’

[PATAMON DIGIVOLVE TO-]

The t-rex Digimon’s jaws are slowly forced open, light pouring from its mouth as the creature inside grows larger and larger, freeing itself from the dinosaur's jaws.

[ANGEMON]

Angemon rears back its fist and fires a burst of holy energy at the T-Rex, making it flinch before continuing its pursuit of the angel. Angemon fires a few more punches at the dinosaur charging at it, none of them making it flinch like before. Tyrannomon snaps its jaws at the angel as it just barely dodges the massive teeth, retaliating with a strike from its holy rod.

“How durable is this guy? Harumi, let's try powering up ‘Hand of Fate’.”

The girl holds the digivice in her hands and closes her eyes.

[HAND OF FATE]

A burst of holy energy erupts from Angemon’s fist, striking Tyrannomon as it glares at the confused angel.

“What!? Why didn’t it work?”

Angemon quickly goes back on the defensive as Tyrannomon charges once more. On the outside, Satoru asks the same question as Angemon as they watch through the crystal ball. Jijimon strokes its beard as it looks at the boy beneath grey locks.

“Are you asking about the power-up or the attacks in general?”

“Both?”

“I can’t answer the power-up, though I do have a theory, but the attacks have a simple reason they aren’t working too well. Would anyone like to take a guess?”

The group on the outside thinks, looking at every aspect of the fight in front of them. Futaba perks up and raises her hand.

“You said the champion was the same Attribute as our partner, then you said there was one for if they digivolved and another for if they didn’t.”

Jijimon nods in approval as the older girl pieces it together.

“That means Tyrannomon is Data like Patamon, not a Vaccine like Angemon.”

“Meaning Angemon is at a disadvantage in this fight too.”

Hagurumon clicks as it looks at the old man.

“Then our champion opponents will always be stronger if we don’t digivolve?”

Jijimon chuckles at the gears and pats it with the cat paw on its cane.

“Not quite. I guess I’ll let the cat outta the bag; this trial isn’t just meant to teach you the Roshambo relation between the Attributes, it's also meant to teach strategy. Jumping straight to digivolveing isn’t always going to be the best choice, it may be too cramped for Golemon, too hard to move for Guardromon, or too dark and evil for Angemon, if and when this happens, you’d be sitting ducks for an attack, and the most common situation you may find yourselves in is fighting a digimon of the same Attribute.”

Gottsumon thinks for a moment about the match-ups and the way the fights work.

“Hold up, that would mean if I beat my Virus rookie without digivolving, I’d fight another Data digimon like Patamon did, but… if I digivolve to Golemon for that fight, I’d have the advantage, because it’d be Virus versus Data.”

Futaba follows her partner’s train of thought.

“But if you did, you’d face another Virus putting us on either equal ground or the back foot if you’re forced to turn back at any point.”

“Precisely! My anticipation for the two of them choosing to digivolve to fight Tinkermon was also to tell you what the best choice was for their fight. If they had digivolved, they would face a Vaccine, and either be equals in a stronger form or have the advantage in a weaker form. The point of this trial isn’t just to test how well your partners can do in single combat, it's also to test the strategic knowledge of you kids. You control the digivolution of your partners, so you control the battle.”

The group watches as Angemon weaves left and right, dodging the snapping jaws of Tyrannomon as best it can while it thinks of what to do. Hagurumon clicks as it thinks about the powered-up attacks Patamon had used.

“What’s the theory for the power-up then?”

Jijimon walks up to the gear digimon and effortlessly slides open its face plates, reaching in and pulling out one of the Darkness Gears. Hagurumon blinks in surprise as its face plates slam shut again.

“This gear is one from your attack, just like Patamon’s air bubbles. Now, Patamon’s bubbles aren’t supposed to explode, they’re meant to burst. These gears are the same; they collide, not shatter. My theory comes from the light that enveloped Patamon as it fired the attack, a light shared with one other phenomenon you know.”

“Digivolving!”

“Hehe, didn’t need to think much on that did you. Correct, I think the light that surrounded Patamon was the light of digivolution, but instead of evolving the form, they evolved the attack, filling the bubbles with holy energy like Angemon’s attacks. Thus, why Tinkermon fell so easily, but Tyrannomon is barely phased.”

Growing tired of the angel's constant dodging, Tyrannomon snaps its jaws shut. A dim orange light flickers from behind its sharp teeth, growing brighter and brighter. Angemon prepared itself to dodge the incoming attack, freezing in shock and bracing as the dinosaur opened its mouth, a massive fireball erupting from its jaws. The angelic digimon is caught in the fiery explosion and falls to the ground as Patamon. Tyrannomon stomps closer as Harumi picks up her partner, before the dinosaur can finish its foe, Harumi finds herself back outside with Patamon.

“Good first lesson, sadly, you failed.”

Jijimon lifts the girl to her feet with its cane and uses the paw to pat her head.

“I think before I send Futaba in, this is a good chance to teach each other. Harumi, if you would please explain how you powered up Patamon’s ‘Boom Bubble’.”

Harumi stands infront of everyone with her head hung low, cradling the unconscious Patamon in her arms. Tears well up in her eyes as she looks at the digimon, wiping them away and looking back up at the group.

“Well, we discovered it while we were helping Elecmon with the baby digimon.”

Harumi and Patamon sit on soft grass as the small jellyfish-like blobs, called Poyomon, float around them in a march. Sitting next to them is a red quadruped digimon with a spiky fan-like tail, Elecmon. As the three sat and watched the small digimon circle them, Patamon saw one of the red blob digimon, a Punimon, wander off just past the border of the hatchery and followed after it. As it crested over the small hill, Patamon watched as the red blob followed after a shiny red fruit connected to a chain that was slowly inching toward the edge of the forest.

Knowing something was wrong, Patamon swooped down and picked up the small red blob, carrying it back to the others. Just as Patamon is about to go back over the hill, the red fruit strikes it in the back, causing it to drop Puni and fall to the ground. Hearing the commotion Harumi and Elecmon run to the hill as the red blob rolls uncontrollably to the treeline. Harumi stays back to keep the other baby digimon away while Elecmon and Patamon chase after the runaway baby. As they get closer to the rolling digimon, the red fruit once again strikes, sending Patamon and Elecmon off to the side as a pale blue clawed hand reaches from just beyond the trees, the chain held loosely in it. 

Elecmon finally sees the culprit and assailant as they slowly pull themself from the shadows of the forest. A bloodshot yellow eye peeks out from the darkness of a small cage, its right arm was the pale blue claw reaching for Punimon, its other hand looks to have been replaced with a flamethrower. The chain in its hand extended from the bottom of its cage and was connected to an iron ball, painted red to resemble a fruit to the young and naive digimon of the hatchery.

“Mimicmon! We have to grab Punimon, there’s no way the two of us can fight a champion digimon.”

Patamon shakes off the hit from before and flies off of Elecmon, smiling at the caretaker.

“Of course we can. Harumi!”

Harumi holds up the D-Pet as the light shines from the screen, a high screeching emanating from the device as Patamon glows the same.

Elecmon quickly pieces together what’s happening and panics.

“Stop! There’s a reason Mimicmon is still in the forest. The Hatchery is surrounded by a barrier that hurts Champion digimon. If you digivolve here, you’ll die before you can do anything to Mimicmon!”

The light quickly fades as Harumi cancels the evolution.

As Patamon and Elecmon race for the run away Punimon once more, a single thought is shared between Harumi and her partner, “There has to be a way to save Punimon.”

Patamon shines with the brilliant light of digivolution. Seeing the two caretakers catching up with their snack, Mimicmon swings the iron ball again, smashing it into Patamon’s side. However, the iron ball fails to knock the pink digimon out of the air, instead bouncing off. Patamon fails to notice its new elasticity and puffs up to fire a burst of air as normal.

[BOOM BUBBLE]

Patamon fires a burst of air, but it’s much larger than before and shoots out with far more force. The impact with the ground just infront of Mimicmon is almost explosive as it tears up the grass and dirt, throwing Punimon back toward the main hatchery and right into Elecmon’s arms. Still not wanting to go hungry, Mimicmon swings the iron ball at Elecmon, attempting to force the caretaker to release Punimon. Patamon feels the light grow stronger and jumps in the way. The iron ball slams into Patamon’s side, caving in the belly of the poor creature, the sickening sound of the pink digimon’s flesh stretching…sounding like rubber? Six wings of pure light burst from Patamon’s back as the iron ball launched from its now elastic body, shocking everyone as the rubbery guardian puffs up larger and larger, twice the size, triple the size, Patamon strains and struggles to hold in any more air as they expand to five-times their normal size. The angelic wings of light point forward at Mimicmon, almost acting as a crosshair for Patamon.

[BOOM BUBBLE+]

All at once, the air trapped in Patamon fires out in a massive burst. The center of the bubble is glowing with holy light as it speeds toward the shocked and terrified mimic, the burst of air exploding as it strikes, releasing a shockwave that instantly destroys Mimicmon. As the dust settles, a stream of blue data flows from the tree line and into the hatchery, forming a white egg with horizontal orange stripes. Everyone watches as the egg glows white and quickly transforms into another Poyomon. The small jellyfish blinks in confusion but smiles and quickly joins the others in their march, happy and none the wiser of its previous form.

Returning to the present, Harumi is stroking Patamon’s back as she finishes the story.

“When that happened, we figured it’d be pretty useful, a powered-up attack like that could beat anyone, so Patamon and I spent the rest of our time on training and figuring out how to use that attack again. We even made another one inspired by the Poyomon and got some help from Elecmon so I could learn how to dodge digimon attacks.”

Futaba taps her foot impatiently.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were a gymnast crybaby?”

Harumi looks at the older girl in confusion, wondering why that mattered at all.

“It isn’t something I bring up a lot. I don’t like bragging, and mentioning that I do gymnastics feels mean because others might not be interested in my accomplishments.”

“Shut up. We know what you did to the judges crybaby, I know you take pride in that.”

Harumi looks confused as Futaba continues.

“Your crocodile tears for sympathy, you’re a loser who gets what she wants because she cries about it.”

Gottsumon steps forward with concern on its face.

“Futaba, calm down, let her explain.”

“Shut up! I’m not gonna listen to some sob story after she came up with that power-up on the fly! On top of that, we saw your little trick on Tinkermon. You’ve been trying for sympathy points from the start, you’re a manipulative little brat!”

Tsukasa grabs Futaba and holds her by the collar of her shirt, a good two inches off the ground, glaring at the older girl.

“I suggest you shut the hell up before I remind you who I am, Metsugi.”

More than frustrated with the situation, Futaba pulls out her phone.

“Rock Head, it’s your job to protect me, hurry up and throw this jackass away.”

Futaba presses the button for Gottsumon to digivolve, but nothing happens, much to her fear and Tsukasa’s anger. Futaba glares at Gottsumon before turning her gaze upward and seeing Harumi with tears in her eyes, but a determined expression.

“I know I’m a crybaby, but I don’t want to be. I don’t want to cry all the time. I don’t want sympathy all the time.”

Harumi gently hands Patamon to Satoru and walks up to Futaba. SLAP! To the surprise of everyone, Harumi slaps the older girl across the face.

“I don’t want the universe to revolve around me, and I’m sorry you need it to revolve around you.”

Tsukasa puts the shocked girl down as she holds her cheek in surprise, not moving even an inch as she and Gottsumon sink into the spell circle and stand in the wireframe arena. Gottsumon watches its partner with concern, even if they’ve only known each other for barely three days, it can tell she’s not okay. It takes a step to talk to and comfort the girl, but is interrupted by a small ball of fire hitting the floor next to it. Standing at the opposite end of the arena is a small black dinosaur, which smiles as it crosses its arms and chuckles. Gottsumon tries to hold off the fight as it backs toward Futaba.

“A black Agumon? Listen, can this wait a sec? We have to talk real quick.”

Gottsumon is halted again as the small reptile shoots another fireball from its mouth.

“Tsk, you think you can just talk about your problems and feelings in a real fight? This whole trial thing Jijimon came up with was to teach you cowards how to fight alone, and when you’re alone, your opponent won’t give you the chance to talk.”

Gottsumon steps out of the way as another small fireball lands next to it.

“Come on, it’ll just be a second. I just need to-”

The black dinosaur scowls.

“What you need to do is fight! Your priority is to survive! You chumps are supposed to save the digital world, and right now, you can’t even get over something stupid like an argument? It's pitiful, get over yourself.”

The rock digimon glances back to its partner, still holding her cheek with a blank but fearful expression. Gottsumon furrows its brow and cracks its rocky knuckles, stepping toward the black dinosaur as it smiles at the change in the rock digimon’s mood. Gottsumon charges at Agumon and takes a swing at it, its rocky fist missing the smiling foe by mere inches, continuing the assault as the dinosaur backs away, dodging every punch Gottsumon throws.

Meanwhile, Futaba is stuck in her own head, her mind racing with hundreds of thoughts, still in shock from Harumi’s slap. The thoughts running through her head were ones she’d had before, but never to this degree, before she’d been able to shrug off the concern that she’d gone too far, She could ignore the fact she was hurting people with insults, she could ignore the harm she was doing, and she could ignore when someone did retaliate, but this time felt different. There was something about Harumi standing up to her that made her stomach turn, put her at a loss for words, and made her feel alone.

Gottsumon clocks the dinosaur in the jaw, managing to stagger Agumon enough to pick it up. With a wild roaring, Gottsumon lifts the black reptile off its feet and bends back, suplexing the creature and bashing its head into the floor. As it recovers, the black reptile responds by sweeping Gottsumon’s leg and dropping the rock digimon to its back. The pile of rocks rolls out of the way as Agumon jabs at it with sharp claws. Agumon swings its claws wildly at the rock digimon, chipping away some of its rocky flesh with a couple of strikes. The stone digimon grows tired of the attacks and quickly grabs the reptile’s arms, holding them as hard as it can to Agumon’s sides. The two headbutt each other as hard as they can, each struggling against the other for dominance, pushing more and more, gritting their teeth as they press harder. Without warning, Agumon drops down, letting its feet slip from underneath it, tripping up Gottsumon, who tumbles over the reptile and lands on its back. Gottsumon struggles as Agumon jumps on top of it, the stone digimon gripping the dinosaur’s claws and trying to keep them from piercing its stone flesh.

Gottsumon struggles against the black Agumon. The stone digimon was holding its own, but it was at a clear disadvantage. If it hoped to win, it needed to even the playing field, it needed the same power-up Patamon got.

Futaba, on the other hand, is still in her stupor, still reeling from the thoughts. So entranced that she still has yet to realize that she’s in the arena, or notice the fight between the digimon just a few feet away. The digimon are, however, on her mind; she thinks about their self-proclaimed partners. Patamon was cute and turned into a literal angel, Hagurumon was intelligent and became a guardian robot, even Impmon seemed perfect for Tsukasa, a cool-headed bad boy, then there was her partner, Gottsumon, a pile of rocks, they weren’t smart, they weren’t cool, they were ugly, just like-

“FUTABA!”

The disoriented girl snaps back to reality and finally sees the rock digimon struggling on the ground.

“I need that power-up!”

The girl shudders and backs away, pressing her back against the invisible wall of the arena.

“I-I don’t-”

“Yes, you can! We can! I trust you, Futaba. I know you can do whatever Harumi and Patamon did. So snap out of it and fight!”

Just hearing the girl’s name made Futaba feel sick; she clutched her stomach as she watched Gottsumon throw the black reptile off itself. What Harumi had accomplished, the things she discovered in just the few days they had been in the digital world. Just an hour ago, she found out how to power up Patamon, and even before that, she found out how to put things in that stupid toy.

Futaba’s eyes snap open, and she quickly pulls out her phone, and one thought runs through her head, "we don't need to do what that crybaby did". A ball of code pops out from the screen, Futaba quickly grabs it and throws the code to Gottsumon. The stone digimon catches the ball as it bursts into its original form, a red strip of fabric.

Futaba wanders around the small village, speaking to a few of the digimon that call it home, trying to learn what she can about the digital world. She told herself it was just so she could figure out how to get home faster, but something compelled her to keep talking and learning. Gargomon had stepped out of the fashion studio at some point and called the girl over.

“Hey, listen to this! I've got a little present for you from ShoeShoemon. It's not much as far as I'm aware, but she said these were a bit of a pet project of hers.”

The larger rabbit hands Futaba a small white box, and inside are 5 strips of fabric, red, blue, yellow, white, and black. Futaba pulled out the red strip and looked at it curiously. The strip was about 3 feet long and the ends were cut perfectly square, but there was nothing to note about the appearance otherwise. Figuring they were just a nice accessory, Futaba puts the box in her bag and ties her hair into a ponytail with the fabric. As soon as she finished tying a small bow, all of the fatigue and tiredness disappeared from her body. Almost by instinct, she clenched her fist and felt the raw power suddenly coursing through her body. She quickly undoes the ribbon and pulls out her phone, transforming the fabric into code and inserting it into the device. Now on screen was the red strip with a name displayed above it, Ties of Power. Futaba quickly transforms the other strips and reads the names: Ties of Guardian, Ties of Speed, Ties of Energy, and Ties of Envy. The excited girl reads the effects of the ribbons and smiles.

Back in the present, Gottsumon holds the red strip in its hands, glancing at Futaba and turning to see Agumon charging at it once more. The rock digimon furrows its brow and ties the strip into a headband, readying its fist for the charging reptile. In an instant, Gottsumon feels all the weakness and fatigue leave its rocky body. Agumon jumps at the stone digimon, a fireball ready in its mouth. With a fierce cry, Gottsumon swings at the leaping dinosaur, clocking it in the jaw and sending the reptile careening across the arena. With renewed confidence, Gottsumon walks up to Futaba and holds out its hand. Futaba pulls out another ball of code and places it into her partner’s hands, bursting into the blue and yellow ribbons. Before Agumon can recover, Gottsumon replaces the red headband with the yellow ribbon and drops to a runner's stance. Gottsumon's body feels as light as a feather as they charge at the black reptile with shocking speed, taking only a few seconds to reach the digimon. Agumon rights itself and readies a fireball, only to misjudge the rock digimon’s speed and get its legs swept out from under it. The black reptile bounces slightly as its back hits the ground, fighting through the pain and readying another fireball.

As the small spark grows in the mouth of the reptile, Gottsumon swipes off the yellow headband and ties the blue one on next, standing above Agumon with its arms firmly crossed.

[SPITFIRE]

Three bursts of fire shoot from the dinosaur's mouth, hitting Gottsumon at point-blank range. Agumon smugly smiles as it drops back to the floor, only for its eyes to go wide in shock as it sees Gottsumon unfazed by the attack. The stone digimon returns the smug grin.