AN: I would like to take this opportunity to mention that Milleniumon will not exist in this time-line.
To GirlFish: I have plans for the main antagonists of the File Island and Eighth Child Arcs. Though I'm not quite sure what you mean with pairing - do you mean human partners? Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy what I have in store for the Digiwarriors.
2nd Adventure: Creaking Wood! Arbormon!
(A group of children found themselves swept away from summer camp to a place called 'File Island' by its inhabitants, the Digimon, of whom there was one for each child. They were soon attacked by another Digimon called Kuwagamon, whose onslaught enticed the friendly Digimon to change into stronger Digimon and best it. At the last moment, the hostile Digimon sent the children and their new friends crashing down a cliff...)
The kids screamed as they and their Digimon fell down the broken cliff to the river below, surrounded by free-fall boulders. "Zoe/J.P.!" Breezemon and Birimon attempted to catch their partners in the air, but they lost to gravity and continued to plummet. Troiamon held onto Teruo and tried to use his Briar Fist to hang onto the cliff wall, however, he ended up breaking off a good part of it, which joined them in their descent.
Lamnimon and Chiaki were the first to land in the water, upon which the water Digimon shouted: "*Shifting Water*!"
Below her, the water tensed into a make-shift raft, pulling Chiaki to the surface and catching all of the others. After the initial shock, Takuya muttered: "Well, could've been worse." Flamon didn't look inclined to agree, but neither was he going to argue.
Looking back, Zoe noticed the rest of the cliff crumbling down along with Kuwagamon: "Look out!"
Soon, the resulting waves caught up to their 'raft', making their ride get very rough before washing the group up on the shore.
Teruo sputtered as he recovered from the recent landing, as did the others. "Is it just me, or did the water just give us a ride?" he asked. "Sure it did!" replied Lamnimon, "I'm friends with the water!"
"Oh, that's kind of cool, um... Roemon?" Chiaki asked.
"Ah, nope. It's Lamnimon now."
"Lamnimon?"
Tommy continued with his partner: "You look different, Flurrimon."
"That's cause I'm Pengimon now!"
Seeing the kid's confused faces, "We all digivolved, is wha' happened," Flamon explained.
"'Digivolved'?"
"Is that along the lines of evolution, like, where you change to adjust to your surroundings?" Teruo asked following up on Takuya's confusion.
"Yes," replied J.P.'s partner, "for instance, I went from Zipmon to Birimon."
The others followed. "I became Breezemon from Erimon."
"I was Chorkimon, now I'm Strabimon."
"An' I digivolved from Pullmon to Troiamon."
"I digivolved from Wikmon inta Flamon."
"Um, okay," said Takuya, who was trying to wrap his head around this, "so, does that make you guys something different, or are you still Digimon?"
"Oh, we're Digimon, alright. 'm pretty sure everythin' here is, aside from you guys."
Now that Teruo thought about it, the Digimon's voices sounded a lot like their own – except with different accents.
"So, how come you guys, uh, digivolved?" asked J.P. curiously.
"We have no idea," responded Birimon with mirth.
"Seriously?" J.P. palmed his face.
Teruo asked his partner: "Do you at least know which way north is? So we can find our way around."
"Sure do! That be the opposite 'a south, aye?"
"Never mind..."
"Should we go back?" asked Chiaki, though it was obvious that she wasn't too sure of that idea herself. Everyone turned to look at the cliff they had been at earlier.
"Long way to go, if you ask me," said Zoe. Tommy replied: "But, wouldn't the adults find us easier that way?"
"That's assuming we're anywhere near the campsite, which I kinda doubt," anwsered J.P. Takuya supplemented: "Our friends say we're on 'File Island', anyone heard of that?"
They all shook their heads. Teruo recalled a lot of island names from around the world, but he'd never heard of that particular name.
"Doesn't sound like we're in Japan," said Chiaki.
"Right! No point in standing here!"
Zoe noticed the speaker heading in a direction: "Hey, where are you going?" Grinning, Takuya just said: "The ocean. I saw it when we first got here."
""The ocean?"" They were all surprised to hear that.
"Who knows? Maybe we'll find a boat or something," said the boy heading onwards, Flamon right behind him.
"More like a sunburn," snarked Kouji. However, none of them had any better ideas, so they and their new friends just followed the goggle-head.
'I hope we'll get back home soon. My parents are going to be soo mad,' though Teruo as he hurried to follow the others.
They were soon walking in order of: Takuya and Flamon, Tommy and Pengimon, Zoe and Breezemon, Kouji and Strabimon, J.P. and Birimon, Teruo and Troiamon, and Chiaki, while Lamnimon swam in the water.
J.P. and Teruo wondered about the plants nearby, while Zoe and Tommy inquired their partners about their ability to fly, or lack thereof. Whereas Pengimon couldn't, Breezemon demonstrated by flying to the front and swiping Takuya's hat (+goggles), causing the boy to jump around in an attempt to get it back, while his partner laughed his tail off. That is, until the fairy-like Digimon gave back the hat, and the goggle-head gave his friend a bop on the head for laughing like that. Kouji and Strabimon simply watched the whole thing, mildly amused, while Chiaki kept asking her partner if the water wasn't too cold for her, only stopping when the Digimon said that it would only bother her if it was boiling hot or on the verge of freezing.
After a while, Strabimon stopped, sniffing the air. "We have arrived."
Indeed, around the next corner, they could see a wide beach.
As one, all kids sans Kouji and Teruo shouted "It's the sea!", earning an eye-roll and a sweat-drop, respectively.
"Does this look like an anime?" (AN: ROFL)
"Sadly enough, that would make more sense," responded the loner to the honor student.
The Digimon didn't know what the commotion was about, but they thought it looked fun.
*Ring-ring-ring*
"...Huh?"
*Ring-ring-ring*
"Telefono?" asked Zoe.
*Ring-ring-ring*
Looking out on beach, they all saw several phone-booths standing in a row.
*Ring-ring-ring*
After a moment, the kids ran over to investigate, with their new friends right behind them.
But the moment Takuya opened the first one, the ringing stopped.
"Is tha' supposed ta happen?" asked Flamon.
"Not 'till ya pick up the phone," answered his partner.
"What are phone-booths even doing here?" asked J.P., "I thought you said that there aren't any other humans around."
"Just because other humans aren't here now," countered Teruo, "doesn't mean they weren't here before."
"Really? Cause these booths look rather new," commented Chiaki.
Takuya turned around and held out his hand. "Ya'll got some loose change or something? Imma make a call home."
Kouji raised his eyebrow. "Now there's an idea. Let's try it out," he said, heading to the next booth over.
The other children agreed and tried out the phones. It was a solid idea, in theory.
Reality was not so kind.
"Mamma mia, what is wrong with these things?!"
"The phone-ladies sound silly."
"Not just silly, kid – they aren't all there!"
"Are they there at all, J.P.?"
After a while, only Teruo kept trying over and over, worried about how his parents would react if they weren't informed.
The others sat a little away, with only Troiamon next to him.
"He's still trying?" Tommy asked, curious.
"Can't he see that it not going to work?" Kouji was, not visibly, irritated.
"Hmm," grunted Takuya, trying to remember something about his classmate that was poking the side of his mind.
"Takuya," he turned at the sound of his partner, "There's no more ta do here, le's keep goin'."
"Wait," interrupted Strabimon.
"Wha? 'Tis a waste a' time ta sit here memorizing those things," replied Flamon, irritated.
"I do not disagree on that, but the others here are still tired. Continuing now would not be wise."
Kouji nodded in agreement with his partner, having wanted to say the same thing. Takuya realized that he, too, had been thinking on his own partner's wavelength, but the other's argument made sense.
"Bud," he grabbed the fiery Digimon's attention, "They've got a point. Let's catch our breath before getting away from all this water," he finished with a teasing grin. It hadn't escaped his notice that Flamon seemed rather uncomfortable with said liquid.
Embarrassed that his real intentions had been exposed, the orange-haired Digimon nodded.
The goggle-head called out: "Alright guys, let's take an hour off!"
Everyone else was visibly relieved, then Zoe perked up.
"Scusi? Does anyone have something to eat? I don't have much," she held up her hands for emphasis.
"Na, I've just got my cell-phone," answered Takuya, turning to J.P., "How about you? You got a big bag there."
"Oh, ah," stammered the older kid, "Let's see."
Emptying his backpack, he recounted the contents: "I've got my laptop, and my cell phone, oh wait, that's in my pant pocket, and, uh...oh."
"Woah!" exclaimed Tommy at the revealed contents, "What is that stuff?"
"Ah, well..."
"C'mon, can't hurt to tell, right?" asked Takuya.
Taking a deep breath, J.P. admitted: "Yeah, ok. It's a magic kit."
"Magic?" Kouji raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well, before I got into computers, I'd do some magic tricks in class." He left out the fact that he did so to get friends, but it didn't quite work out.
"Wanna show us sometime?" asked the goggle-head with an inviting smile.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I'd love to see that," said Zoe.
"Me too!" added Tommy excitedly.
For a moment, the large boy looked around, seeing agreement, or at least interest, in the faces around himself.
Smiling crookedly, he said: "Okay...maybe later on today. What've you got Koji?"
"Nothing much. What about him?"
"Who, Teruo? That bag is even bigger than J.P.'s, he's probably got something."
"How do we ask, though? He's, like, totally glued to the booth."
Following J.P.'s comment, they all looked to see that the studious boy was trying again.
"Points for persistence, at least," commented Tommy.
"Hey," said Takuya, "anyone got his number? We could get him off the phone-"
"By calling him on another phone(?)," finished Zoe with a smirk.
Takuya pouted that his line was finished for him, and grabbed for his cell phone-
"Huh?"
That certainly didn't feel like his phone.
Pulling it out, he exclaimed: "What the heck!? What happened to my cell?!" The other kids looked in shock while the Digimon traded confused looks.
The device he held was much bulkier than a regular flip-phone, it filled his entire palm. The main body was black (or just a really dark gray), with a red grip on the side and red coloring around the screen near the top. On the top right was a scanner-like opening with a button on the side, and the screen was framed with a silver irregular hexagon that had spikes on its corners. Finally, beneath the screen was a whole host of buttons that looked a lot like-
"Wait a sec!"
Confused, the others watched him fiddle with the buttons for a moment, stopping only to search for something on his screen, before pressing a final button and holding the device up to his ear like the cell-phone it used to be.
"Takuya-kun, what are you doing?" asked Chiaki.
At that moment, Teruo heard his ring-tone going off. Finally abandoning the booth, he pulled out his cell-phone, not noticing its new bulk, and answered: "Mom?! Dad?!"
"Uh...nope. Just me sorry," came Takuya's voice.
Bewildered, the boy turned to see his classmate wave his way.
"Why do you have my number? And how?"
"Good question. Listen, you got any food in that bag of yours?"
"No, it's a survival kit that my parents put together for me. They worry a lot."
"Oh, is that why you're trying so hard to call them?"
"Mhm. Hey, Takuya-san?"
"Just Takuya's fine."
"Ah, ok. Haven't you asked Chiaki-san? If I recall, she has the emergency rations."
"Seriously?! Thanks bud. Oh, and you might wanna check your phone," with that, Takuya hung up.
Confused (What's wrong with my phone?), Teruo took the device away from his ear, finding one that looked just like Takuya's except that it was dark-brown with a medium-brown grip and screen-side.
"What the heck?!"
The children soon discovered that all of their cell-phones had been similarly changed, Zoe's was purple with dark-pink, J.P.'s was blue with yellow, Tommy's was cyan with dark-green, Kouji's was white with indigo, and Chiaki's was light blue with dark blue.
Takuya explained how he managed to call Teruo: Even with their new shapes, their devices worked mostly like ordinary cell phones, as he ascertained from the phone-buttons beneath the screen. Not only that, but their 'contacts' lists had been edited to include each other's phone-numbers, saved as single kanji for the same elements that their respective partner controlled and had engraved somewhere on their body.
With Teruo now back with the others, Chiaki, who had forgotten that she even had the emergency food, began to say: "So, there's food here for eight people for three days, with three meals per day. What with one person not coming, That leaves us with-"
"Enough food for three days, with one extra meal for each of us, and two more left over," finished Teruo, before realizing what he did. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it," reassured Chiaki.
"But won't the Digimon cut that like, right in half?" interjected J.P. "That would leave us with just five meals per person in total. Plus the two left over."
"Ow!"
The children turned to see Lamnimon slap Flamon's hands away from the food. "Don't you dare! We can't have any until Chiaki gives the ok!"
"Then how come he does?!" complains the fiery Digimon, point at Troiamon, who was munching away at some crackers he swiped.
"Ah! Troiamon!" exclaimed Teruo.
"Hrm?" Said Digimon paused in his eating to see several glares sent his way, most prominently Chiaki's and Lamnimon's.
"Oh, ah, ups, sorry, ehehe."
Out of nowhere, a giant waterspout erupted near the phone-booths, prompting the children and Digimon to back away quickly. It proceeded to wreck the booths one by one, shooting them into the sky before they crashed onto the sandy ground.
"What is that?!" cried J.P.
As the last booth made its landing, the spout receded, only for a stationary sand twister to take its place, as something big rose inside of it.
"Oh dear. A Shellmon!" replied Birimon.
"Shellmon?" asked his partner.
"We must be in its territory!"
The sand twister died down to reveal a gray seashell as tall as a house, with an opening in front with something pink inside, the tip of which had been spinning rapidly.
What came out looked less like a shellfish and more like a pink kaijuu with glowing orange eyes, sucker-tipped fingers and yellow-green seaweed for hair.
The monster gave a roar for good measure, and glared at the large group in front of itself.
"Quick! It's going to attack!" cried Strabimon, whereupon the Digimon leapt into action.
Unfortunately, all but Troiamon's attacks failed, less so because of Shellmon's strength than because the attacks didn't activate properly.
Shellmon easily swept the Digimon aside with its water, and only Troiamon, though battered, got back up to fight.
"Troiamon? But what about the others-" wondered Teruo.
"Hungry," groaned Flamon, who was badly hurt, getting Takuya's attention.
"Need food," agreed Birimon, not as hurt, as he laid by J.P.
"Ovviamente! Troiamon's the only one who got to eat anything!" Zoe realized, holding up Breezemon.
"Then the others can't fight right now," concluded Koji with his hand on Strabimon.
'Wait, so it's just us – against that thing?!' worried Teruo, gazing at Shellmon fearfully.
"Doncha worry, partner!"
He looked at Troiamon, who continued.
"I'll make sure you're safe!"
Takuya laid Flamon over by Zoe and Tommy, before running up to the fight.
"Takuya?!" exclaimed the girl.
Teruo watched as his classmate went to the broken phone booths and grabbed a bar.
"Wha-what are you doing!?" he exclaimed.
Troiamon fired a fist into Shellmon's nose, irritating the larger Digimon, who retreated into his shell, which dug itself back into the sand.
"I ain't letting my friends fight by themselves!" the athletic boy declared.
That caught even Troiamon's and the other Digimon's attention, though Flamon looked more proud than confused like everyone else, including the kids.
'Friends?' Aside from the goggle-head, all of them had no friends for one reason or another. And here was this (stupidly) courageous boy calling them that after not even a few hours of meeting each other, barring Teruo.
The Digimon were confused because it was easier for them to see each other and their own partners as 'friends' than each other's partner. If you asked them, you'd find that there was no logical explanation for them, it just felt right.
With that distraction in mind, Troiamon has hit by Shellmon's drill as it emerged from beneath him, knocking him to the side.
"Hey, Troiamon!" shouted Takuya.
Gaining the Digimon's attention, he said: "I'll distract him. You go for it!"
Troiamon hesitated for a moment. If Teruo had said that, he would've fallen in line immediately. Then again, he knew that his partner, as he was, wouldn't do something so brave just yet.
"Hey Shellmon! Over here!"
"Takuya! Don't!" shouted Zoe.
With the large beast's attention on the child, Troiamon launched his Briar Fist right into its left eye and cheek, making it flinch before turning back to him.
Takuya tried to get it attention again by whacking its shell with the metal pole. His surprise that his attack made visible damage gave the monster an opening to snag him with a seaweed tentacle.
"Takuya-san!" exclaimed Teruo.
"Imma commin'" shouted Troiamon, before noticing how Shellmon was glaring at him.
"Now, wait a moment, there's no need to be – Imma need to be very hasty-!"
The larger Digimon ignored his words as it slammed its hand down on the wooden centaur, pinning him to the ground before launching water at everyone else, while Takuya struggled to get out of his trap.
Teruo lamented his own powerlessness, wishing desperately that there was something he could do to help. He didn't notice his device's screen glowing, but he and everyone else did notice Troiamon doing the same.
(Insert song: Brave Heart)
"Troiamon...digivolve to..."
Just as when Pullmon became Troiamon, he was covered in thick roots spouting from the ground. Then, however, the sphere it formed elongated upwards, pushing off Shellmon's hand, which threw the larger Digimon off balance. It also became bigger around. Finally, the roots retracted again, revealing a wooden, mechanical doll so large that a full grown man could have been hiding inside.
"Arbormon!"
The larger Digimon found its bearings again, and growled at the newly digivolved Adult. Teruo stared in awe of his enlarged partner, as did everyone else.
The first to act was Flamon: "Kick tha' oversized mollusk to the foams!"
"Oh, hell yeah!"
Just after its opponent replied, Shellmon fired water at him, but Arbormon took it like a champ.
"First off, let's get ya outta there, aye? *Machine Gun Dance*"
Similarly to his child-form's attack, his hands shot out of his arms with wires connecting the separated body parts, his right grabbing hold of the tentacle holding Takuya, and his left grabbing the boy himself.
Then he lifted his right leg, and his foot shot out just like his hands, nailing Shellmon in the eye.
The larger Digimon reared back in pain, loosening its grip on Takuya enough so that the wood Digimon could pull him out and set him next to the other children.
Shellmon recovered and charged at the wooden Digimon, who used his remaining leg to jump into the air and spin mid-air with all four limbs flying out like flails, hitting the mollusk Digimon repeatedly on the head, stopping its advance.
As Shellmon gave a defiant roar, Arbormon retracted his limbs and landed on the ground, facing his opponent.
"*Blockade Seed*"
The mouth in his chest/head opened and released wood projectiles as large as the children's heads. They exploded upon contact, causing the larger Digimon a lot of pain.
Suddenly, the beast's form faded to black, and a ring of sorts formed around it, its composition reminding the children of the scan bars on products from the store.
(end song)
Teruo felt a sudden urge, almost like an instinct. He took back out what used to be his cell-phone, pointed it towards the monster and pressed the button on the side. A red light shot towards the ring, causing some sort of friction upon contact, making it spark. Then the light retracted, drawing the ring along with it into the device. When it was done, his screen showed a picture of the beast, except with blue eyes, and a table of information.
Shellmon:
Level: Adult
Attribute: Virus
Element: Water/Earth
Special Attack: Hydro Gun (Water), Shell Drill (Earth), Seaweed Whip
Shellmon's black silhouette faded away, an egg-shaped light flying out inland bound.
Teruo wanted to ask about that, when a grumble erupted from Arbormon.
"Eh?"
All at once, vines and roots grew out of his joints and openings, enveloping the Digimon completely. Then they seemed to squeeze him back down to his previous size before, indeed, they retracted to reveal a somewhat battered Troiamon, who fell like a tree after one phrase.
"An'one got sum' munchies?"
*Fwump*
Seeing this, Teruo let out a chuckle, relieved that everything went well. The others shared in on his joy.
While Zoe, Chiaki and Tommy oversaw the Digimon eating their fill, the others discussed their next course of action.
"Birimon said this was Shellmon's territory. We'd better get moving then," suggested J.P.
"Why? The tenant's gone, right?" interjected Takuya.
"Exactly," said Kouji, "so we need to get out of here before the neighbors find out that this place is 'for sale'."
"Oh."
"Fine by me," said Flamon as he finished his meal, happy to hear that they'd be putting some distance between them and that mass of water, "Point the way, Takuya! I'll follow ye!"
Teruo made a head count, and finding that everyone was there and ready to leave, turned to Takuya expectantly.
Excitedly, the fire Digimon's partner headed out with a shout: "Alright everyone, let's get going!"
And there was much rejoicing.
AN: The designs of all the OCs in this chapter and the majority of their names belong to Deviantart's aki_ta-d8s5onn. R&R, please!
Digimon Analysis activate.
Today's subjects: the Wood Warrior line.
Pullmon:
Level: Baby
Attribute: N/A
Element: Wood
Special Attack: Wood Chips
This Digimon is peaceful, clumsy and a little dense. It is always ready to support its friends and family.
Troiamon:
Level: Child
Attribute: Data
Element: Wood
Special Attack: Briar Fist
Troiamon will regularly patrol the forests he lives in, scaring off trespassers and assisting fellow inhabitants when needed. There are fights where he recognizes his disadvantage, but usually he needs to accumulate a few bruises before he gets the hint.
Arbormon:
Level: Adult
Attribute: Data
Element: Wood
Special Attack: Machine Gun Dance, Blockade Seed
This Digimon isn't the brightest, but when he is asked to get a job done, chances are, he'll get it done. He is surprisingly insightful, and is not afraid to use his full power to take care of those who interrupt or manage to upset him.
I am going to add a semi-canon damage variable for the Digimon attributes as follows:
Virus beats Data beats Vaccine beats Virus
-33% beats +50%
Again, this is assuming that both Digimon are of the same element as the attack hitting them and on the same level.
Next time: Crashing Thunder! Blitzmon!
Read & Review, Please! Until next time!
