Wild Digidestined
Chapter 3
The face of evil:
Rending Reppamon!
AN: I want to thank everyone for their reviews, their comments, and their Digimon suggestions. In response to them, I am publicly revealing some juicy bits of info to my readers; Ranma's digital adventures won't end with season 2! I'm taking our pigtailed lady killer all the way to season 5 (And a couple of movies as well as oneshots.) so, to replace the guest digimon requests, I'm putting up a poll for Ranma's season 3 partner! Here are the choices:
Kuramon (the in-training digimon who eventually became Diaboromon)
Demidevimon (I always like the way he looked, his attitude sucked but he looked hilarious)
BlackAgumon (I like virus types and holy digimon, so sue me)
BlackRenamon (My own personal muse, he begged me to put him in, so I did.)
BR: Did not!
And lastly:
Tyrannomon (I always like this digimon, never figured out why.)
Now that the poll is up, one rule. Your vote has to be in a review, and you can only vote once. Also, I already have a biomerge form chosen for him, so that's not an issue. Now, to the important part, THE FIC.
It had been several days since the battle between Shellmon and Greymon, each day bringing with it new challenges. The Digidestined were currently camped at the foot of Infinity Mountain, and Ranma was currently on watch with Kudamon, thinking about all the things that had happened since that first fight.
'It's kinda weird finding myself not only back in time, but in another world!' Ranma thought to himself as Kudamon flipped through his Digi-pedia. 'It's even weirder being in a world of digital monsters, with a bunch of other kids!' he continued, his eyes wandering up the path that lead higher up the mountain as he thought. 'But weirdest of all is that we keep having to solve all the problems we come across, from that yokomon village being harassed to that freaky toy village' Ranma shivered, remembering how he and the others had acted after a hit from that nutty teddy bear, he didn't remember the name, that ran the place. 'Still' he thought with a grin 'Mimi really came through for us that time and kicked that bears butt!' Looking down at Kudamon, Ranma bit back a sigh, as the memory of Palmon's evolution brought up a slightly annoying fact. 'Of the 8 of us, TK and I are the only ones whose partners haven't digivolved yet.' Ranma frowned; slightly annoyed that he was behind everyone else but an 8 year old.
Ranma was jolted out of his thoughts when a girl's voice sounded next to him "Penny for your thoughts?" Ranma turned his head and discovered the voice belonged to Sora, who, along with Mimi and Tai, had become the closest things he'd ever had to friends these past few days (Though if you think back to his experiences in Nerima, you realize that this is not exactly a Nobel prize level of achievement here.). The red haired girl quietly sat down beside him as she continued "I was curious as to how you were doing, you've been on watch all night."
Ranma blinked, as if just realizing that he had in fact been up all night. Even Kudamon had gotten more sleep then him "really? It didn't feel that long to me."
Sora frowned "I'm serious Ranma. You need to relax a bit more. The others and I can keep watch too; you don't have to shoulder the whole burden."
Ranma grinned "so am I Sora, I left my mom when I was a toddler to be trained in the martial arts. Staying up all night is nothing to me, and I figure it would be slightly tougher for you or the others." Sora could only nod, as she knew that few others could remain as alert as Ranma all night.
"Still" She said "You need to sleep some time Ranma. Just remember that any of us can take over at any time."
Ranma looked at her and smiled warmly "Don't worry So-chan, I'll be sure to call on you for help if I'm ever in trouble."
Sora started and blushed, quickly averting her eyes. "g-good." She stuttered. 'Why am I blushing? All he did was agree to my request.' She quickly glanced at Ranma, and then looked away even faster as he stared at her with a confused look on his face. 'But he looked so darn cute when he did it!'
"You okay So-chan?" Ranma asked, a look of concern on his face at Sora's actions.
"Huh? Oh, err, yes of course! I'm perfectly fine! Hahahaha!" Sora quickly said, trying to wave away his concern.
"Okay, if you're sure." Ranma said as he turned to look up at Infinity Mountain. "You'd better get some sleep So-chan, you'll need all your energy for when we start climbing tomorrow"
Sora nodded and started heading back to the spot she'd been sleeping at, while Ranma's eyes narrowed as he stared up at the Peak of Infinity Mountain. 'And I have a feeling that all of us will need all the strength we can get, especially considering the size of that dark aura I'm sensing.' Ranma shivered unconsciously as he thought about it, and Kudamon briefly looked up, as if sensing his partner's unease. 'Even at this distance, I can feel its power, and the sheer……... Evilness it gives off worries me. Whatever is waiting for us up there is very strong, and very, very bad. I can only hope that we stand a chance when we face him.' Ranma quickly looked over the others as they slept, and a small smile appeared on his face as his eyes reached Sora and Mimi. 'But no matter what comes our way' he thought to himself 'I'll face gladly. I will never regret answering that e-mail and coming here, and meeting Kudamon and the others. I've only been here for about a week and this place feels more like home then Nerima ever did. Everything I lost coming here I can regain through intense training, but coming here gave me something even better.'
With his mental declaration finished, Ranma settled back down and looked up at the stars of the digital world, a warm smile on his face, his blue eyes glinting in the night with concealed determination.
Several hours later found the digidestined all walking along the narrow path up Infinity Mountain. Well, walking wasn't quite accurate for all of them; Biyomon and Tentomon flew above their partners, Gomamon rested on Joe's back, and TK was being given a piggyback ride by his brother while Patamon rested on his head. Kudamon also avoided doing any legwork by riding on Ranma's shoulders. Ranma himself was on edge, as he'd been getting a bad vibe ever since they'd started up. 'I don't know why, but ever since we started on our way up, I've had this strange feeling……… that we're being watched.' Ranma's eyes narrowed as he looked up the mountain, stopping as he did.
Mimi noticed that her friend had stopped and turned to look at him, drawing the attention of the others. "Ranma is everything alright?" she asked.
Ranma didn't move. "We've got company." He announced, causing the digidestined to start looking around nervously.
"Where?" Tai asked, taking charge.
"Above. There's two of them coming, though their taking great care to remain undetected, and from the way their auras read" Ranma turned his eyes from the peak and gave Tai a serious look. "Their really strong."
At that moment a loud roar split the air and two dark shapes landed on the pass, in front of and behind the digidestined. The one in front was a powerful looking humanoid digimon with lion traits, his chest rippling with powerful muscles, and a sheathed sword at his waist. The one behind was a large green ogre, and frankly, no one really wanted to get a closer look at him. Kudamon quickly pulled out his digi-pedia and started flipping through it. Finally he found the correct pages.
"The lion man is called Leomon, and he's a powerful champion level digimon! This jungle warrior fights for honor, and smashes evil with his fist of the beast king attack. The other one is Ogremon, a nasty champion level. This is one mean green bean, and his pummel whack and bone club attacks prove it."
The green bean in question growled in agreement "That's right, now just give up and this won't hurt too much!"
Tai stared defiantly back at the Virus champion. "Ya right! Like we'd ever surrender to guys like you! Ready guys?"
The digimon all nodded as one and 6 in particular began to glow as their partners raised their digivices.
"Agumon digivolve to"
"Biyomon digivolve to"
"Gabumon digivolve to"
"Tentomon digivolve to"
"Palmon digivolve to"
"Gomamon digivolve to"
"Greymon"
"Birdramon"
"Garurumon"
"Kabuterimon"
"Togemon"
"Ikakumon"
Ranma grinned smugly on the outside even as his mind pondered over a small fact on the inside. 'There is something very wrong with Leomon's Aura, as if it's been….' Ranma's eyes widened as he realized the truth. Leomon was infected with another of those nasty Black Gears! He turned to state this when a huge aura called to his attention from above. Looking up, Ranma's eyes bulged. The digidestined were alerted by his rather loud exclamation. "What the digi hell is that!" he yelled, pointing up at a demonic figure standing above them. Kudamon quickly flipped through his digi-pedia, then stopped at a page and gasped.
"According to this, He's Devimon, a powerful Fallen Angel champion level digimon. His power is incredible and is expressed through his Evil Claw and Nightmare Wing attacks. He's an evil digimon who wishes to rule over all of File Island."
Ranma's response to this piece of information accurately summed up the situation. "We are so screwed."
Devimon did not waste time with gloating. (He was saving that for later.) Instead, the powerful fallen angel digimon struck the mountainside with his nightmare claw (A staple attack of all Devimons, with the possible exception of Marinedevimon, who has no claws.) causing a massive avalanche. "Take cover!" Tai yelled out.
"Where?" Ranma yelled back.
Devimon sneered as the digidestined were knocked off the edge and down the mountain. The evil digimon gently landed on the ledge as Ogremon and the geared Leomon walked up to him. "My lord" Leomon began "Why did you interfere? Ogremon and I could have"
"Silence Leomon!" Devimon commanded. Leomon stopped, confusion clear in his pupil less eyes. "Despite what you think, three champions against one is not a fight either you or Ogremon would win." The Devil digimon stated. "I have every intention of letting you sink your fangs into them, after they have fallen for my trap."
You could feel the depression in the air around the Digidestined as they trudged along a path away from Infinity Mountain. Everyone seemed a little more despondent, even the energetic Tai seemed upset. The only one who didn't seemed so concerned over their loss to Devimon was….
"Hey Kudamon, what's this Digimon called?"
Ranma. The martial artist was flipping through his partner's Digi-pedia, looking up different types of digimon incase they ever encountered one. Kudamon got up on his shoulders and looked down at the book as the others stared in surprise. The holy fox digimon grinned as he saw the picture on the page. "That's Knightmon, a holy knight digimon who defends the weak and fights evil. Their powerful, but very rare, especially in recent times."
Ranma nodded and grinned. "I hope I get to meet one someday, they look like they'd be a good match."
Matt finally erupted. "What is wrong with you? We just had our Digibutts handed to us, and you're walking along like nothing has happened! Don't you care that there's an evil monster out there who could take us down at any moment?"
Ranma looked at Matt, then snorted and grinned. "As the only one here who actually knows how to fight above the level of a street gangster, I'll be the one who decides weather we've won or lost. That back was not a win, but not a loss either. Devimon didn't attack us, he caused a rockslide which knocked our partners back to rookie. Devimon knew that he couldn't face the combined might of 6 champions with only Leomon and Ogremon to back him up, so he bought time." The digidestined listened attentively, nodding as his words made sense. "His only options right now are to either separate us and deal with us one at a time or gather more power so he can take us on when we're together."
Izzy straightened as he got the implication. "So as long as we stay together, Devimon won't come after us himself, he'll have to rely on his servants, who may not be as smart or as thorough as he would."
Ranma smirked. "Exactly."
Tai grinned wildly. "So all we need to do is stick together, and eventually Devimon will have no choice but to fight us on our terms!"
Ranma nodded at the goggle wearing boy, but then frowned. "There's not all good news however."
Mimi sighed "There never is."
Ranma nodded resignedly at the brown haired girl before continuing. "The problem is, Devimon's smarter then his black geared slaves and Ogremon, and likely is as aware of his options as we are. Since none of us are evil fallen angels, we can only guess at what he will do from what we would do if we were him."
Izzi nodded "we don't know how he thinks, so we can only discern his tactics by listing what ones we come up with and choosing the ones that seem to fit him best, correct?" The future holder of knowledge asked.
Ranma grinned at the computer whiz. "Correct." He said "But I've already got a pretty good idea of what he's going to do. I may not have your smarts Izzi, but if there's one thing I do know, it's how to fight strong opponents. Devimon will probably set traps all over the island with the intent to split us up, while he begins gathering as much power as he can as a backup plan. That way, by the time we finish going through his gauntlet of traps, he'll have enough strength to face us all."
The other digidestined looked nervously around as they walked, T.K in particular was shaking like a leaf, and Joe wasn't far from peeing himself. Then a voice piped up. "Well then, what shall our counter be?" Turning his head, Ranma was surprised to see that the speaker was Tentomon. The large red beetle digimon quirked its head to the side as it waited for an answer. "Well?"
Ranma chuckled "luckily, I do have an idea of how to counter Devimon's tactics, or rather, how to use them in our favour." The chosen children and their partners all listened close; even Matt was interested, although he tried to hide it. "Most of Devimon's traps will likely involve other digimon, likely black gear controlled digimon of the champion and rookie level. The ones that don't we will have to be especially careful with, but the ones involving black gear digimon will enable us to train and grow stronger, all the while releasing more digimon from the winged freaks control. If we train hard, we'll still be out on top when we face Devimon."
Matt raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "That's your plan? Let's wander around and fight any digimon that attacks us? Seems a little sparse if you ask me."
Ranma swatted away the scorn. "Firstly; I've found through experience that any plan involving me has a much better chance of success when it is easily adjustable to fit the situation one finds oneself in. Secondly; do you have a better idea of what we could do after getting knocked around in an avalanche?"
Matt stared back at Ranma, who stood defiantly in front of him. The sandy blonde haired youth opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by Joe's exclamation. "Look over there! I can see a building!"
The 8 adventurers and their digital friends ran down the path towards the building. Upon arrival, most of the destined and their partners were in awe at the size of the building, and that it was here at all. Only Ranma and Kudamon were on edge, warily glancing around as they followed the others inside. "You feel it, don't you." Ranma whispered to his partner.
Kudamon nodded, his eyes narrowed. "This whole place, it reeks of evil."
Ranma glanced at the table where the other digimon and destined had started to chow down. Normally Ranma would have been eating away with them, but the food emitted the same dark aura he rest of the house had, and made the pig tailed destined nervous. As Ranma and Kudamon waited at the door of the dinning room, Sora looked up from her plate. "Try some Ranma, this food is really good" the helmeted red head stated after swallowing her last bite.
"No thanks, I'm not really hungry right now." Ranma replied
"How about you Kudamon? Do you want some?" Asked Biyomon, the digimon's beak buried to the feathers in a pie of some kind.
"No thanks, Sempai and I were going to look around the house, make sure that no one else is home." The snow white ferret digimon snickered quietly as the destined froze, some literally in mid-bite. The two turned and were about to leave the dining room when Mimi and Palmon raced up behind them.
"Wait for us!" the two exclaimed. Kudamon looked at Ranma, who shrugged and held open the door for the ladies. Mimi nodded at the pig tailed martial artist. "Thank you."
Ranma waved it away. "No problem, but aren't you hungry? You and Pal-chan were digging in as much as the others."
Mimi blushed, embarrassed at how she'd behaved at the table. "It's alright, I'm full now, and so is Palmon, right?"
The plant digimon nodded, brushing one of her hair petals off of her forehead. "Yep, I'm stuffed to my roots." She exclaimed contentedly, patting her stomach to reinforce the message." I couldn't eat another bite."
"And we're also very curious about this place too, we want to see what else is here." Mimi added in.
"Really Mimi? You said that this was a good chance to get close to Ranmmmmmgh!" Went Palmon, as Mimi quickly covered her mouth.
"D-don't be silly! I'm just curious, that's all!" Mimi said quickly.
Ranma and Kudamon watched this brief interaction between destined and digimon, confusion clear on their faces. Finally Ranma shrugged and headed off, Kudamon on his shoulders, Mimi and Palmon following behind. The foursome visited all over the house, then went out the backdoor too look at the garden. Mimi was amazed at the endless rows of flowers that filled the garden. Everything there was vibrant and full of colour, except for one lone tree. Its trunk was huge, but there were only two branches on it, and there were no leaves anywhere. All in all, it seemed dead. So Ranma was surprised to detect an aura from the tree. "That's very odd." He muttered.
"What's odd Ranma?" Mimi asked.
"This tree. It looks dead, but it has an aura, which means it's a living creature." Ranma answered, then turned when a familiar sound reached his ears, and his chi senses detected an all too well known darkness. "A black gear!" he yelled out, grabbing Mimi and jumping out of the spinning gears path, Kudamon holding on tight while Palmon ducked behind another tree. The gear embedded itself in the 'dead' tree, which began to rumble and shake. Ranma's eye's widened as he realized the truth. "That's no tree" he said as he landed, Palmon racing from her hiding spot and Kudamon leaping off his shoulder's "That's a digimon!"
The gigantic tree digimon turned around, and the two chosen children saw the face of their foe. The eyes and mouth appeared to have been carved out of the tree like a jack-o-lantern, but instead of a normal eye, the digimon's eyes were glowing red, indicating that the gear had fully possessed its unfortunate victim. As the tree pulled its legs out of the soil, Ranma quickly pulled out the digi-pedia. "This guy is called Woodmon" he read aloud. "He's a plant type of the champion level and his woody smasher and bark barrage attacks would even make an environmentalist hate nature."
Mimi grimaced as she pulled out her digivice. "Time to pull out this weed Palmon!" she called as the digivice began to glow.
Palmon nodded and leapt toward Woodmon. "Palmon Digivolve to…."
"Woody smasher!" With a single powerful blow, Woodmon knocked Palmon out of her evolution, out cold, and into Mimi, knocking her over as well. Woodmon grinned evilly as it stomped towards the two, only to stop as Ranma and Kudamon appeared in between him and his targets.
Ranma narrowed his eyes and pointed at Woodmon. "If you want ta get at the girls, then you gotta get by us first you walking piece of firewood!"
Kudamon nodded. "Yah!"
Ranma calmed himself as he slipped into a combat stance. 'No one is going to hurt Mi-chan, Pal-chan, or any of my friends while I'm here! So long as I've got Kudamon with me, I'll take on any challenge that this digital world has to offer, starting with this walking driftwood pile!' Ranma unleashed his aura in preparation for battle, but paused when his digivice started screeching. Grabbing it from where it hung on his belt, Ranma's eye's widened when he realized that the device was actually absorbing his aura! Ranma's eye's widened to the size of dinner plates when he figured out what was happening. 'The digivice is actually absorbing my energy, and storing it until enough has been absorbed to cause digivolution in the partner digimon!' With that thought, Ranma started concentrating his aura around the digivice. The screeching grew louder and louder until a burst of light erupted, blinding all briefly.
DIGIVOLUTION
"Kudamon Digivolve to……."
"Reppamon!"
As the light faded all eyes turned to look upon Kudamon's new form. Reppamon's appearance was basically fox like. His fur was off white, like a polar bears, save for the tips of his ears, which were brown, along with two jagged lightning marks on his face, around the cheek area, and three lines on his forehead. His eyes were covered by his fur, and two strange cloudy objects emerged from either side of the front of his neck, looking very much like a scarf made of thunderclouds, while the back of his neck was blocked from view by a thick mane of pure white hair. Reppamon's chest was wrapped up by a large white and brown rope, whose ends seemed to defy gravity as they shot up over the shoulders and into the air. On his flanks was the yin-yang symbol, and in place of a tail, Reppamon had a tail-blade, which was blue except for the edge, which was silver.
Ranma's first words were "That is so cool."
Woodmon growled angrily and charged forward, aiming to crush the newly evolved Reppamon, only to be painfully repulsed when Reppamon dodged his attack and leapt into the air.
"Time to clear out the deadwood! Flip blade!" Reppamon's blade glowed blue as he did a back flip in midair, uppercutting the immense Woodmon and throwing him back several feet. As the large tree creature slowly got back up, Ranma had an idea.
"Reppamon!" He called. Once he was sure he had his partner's attention, he called out. "You keep Woodmon busy, I'll get behind him and see if I can bust that black gear!" Seeing Reppamon nod, Ranma raced forward, hoping to get close before Woodmon got up.
Reppamon charged forward as Woodmon got up, his claws glowing with energy. Just as Woodmon finished returning to its feet, Reppamon was upon it. "Wild claw!" The spirit fox digimon was able to inflict moderate damage to his barky foe before he was thrown off by the stronger digimon.
"Bark barrage!" Woodmon launched countless small sharp pieces of bark from his two branch arms.
"Wind scythe!" Reppamon responded by back flipping again, this time launching a curved wind blade, which smashed through the bark pieces, and forced Woodmon back.
Where Ranma was waiting. The young martial artist leapt up and struck the black gear in Woodmon's back with a ki charged fist. The gear shattered, and the Woodmon collapsed, out cold. Ranma walked over to his partner, grinning and rubbing his hand. "Guess that's enough gardening for today huh?" Reppamon laughed, and even Mimi and a recovering Palmon giggled.
Ranma quickly helped the girls to their feet, and no sooner were they standing then Mimi hugged him. "Congratulations Ranma! You managed to get Kudamon to digivolve, and you even saved me and Palmon!"
"Yeah." Palmon said as she felt Reppamon's fur. "And as Reppamon his fur is incredibly soft, it feels great." The fox digimon in question blushed at the discovery, however it quickly vanished when the backdoor of the mansion flew open and the rest of the digidestined raced through, digivices at the ready.
Tai blinked at the condition of the backyard. "What happened here?"
Looking around at the damage done during the battle, Ranma could only put his hand behind his head sheepishly and say. "Renovations, I guess."
AN: I am sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I truthfully have no idea what took me so long. I apologize to those readers who have been waiting, but at last, it is here.
Next chapter: Heading to bed after a long day, the digidestined awaken to find themselves caught in Devimon's trap and separated from each other. Ranma finds himself stuck with Kudamon on a piece of the separated File Island, in the dead of night against a pair of dangerous horsemen. Next time; Devimon's trap: The night of the Knightchessmon brothers.
