3.6 Hack n' Slash 3.1


As they laid in bed, his arm hugging her delicate body, Peter admired the transformation that Lola has gone through in past few months. She was so much more self-assured than he remembered, and wondered how he have changed. He was grateful for her, for taking him out of the darkest corners of his heart, and bringing him into the light. Her love has erased all the burdens he held within him, and after spilling his inner-most conflicts to her last night, Peter finally felt cleansed. He was suppressing those feelings for the past five years, working around the clock to be able to afford an apartment in Rome, or so he thought. What he was really doing was running away. Running away from his past, from his own feelings. And as he met Lola around here, he continued running. He was too afraid of the notion of hurting any innocent soul again he was willing to let his own soul go down the darkest path of all. The path of loneliness.

Peter looked at the sleeping beauty in front of him, her blue eyes opened wide, staring directly into his. "I love you." He said, dropping the final stone that laid on his heart. Finally free of all setbacks, he felt elated, and smiled at her.

"I know…" She said. "I love you too."


In the following morning, as Peter and Lola went down to the main hall, they found ProtoGreymon, ProtoFloramon, and the now degenerated ProtoWolfmon eating breakfast already.

"Lola, I want you to meet ProtoWolfmon." Peter introduced them. "He's the one who helped us against the Mephistomon back in the island, and helped me rescue you from Hell-Hold."

The blue wolf cub got up from his chair, and shook her hand. "I've been keeping an eye for you." He said. "But it seems like you are far more than capable of holding to your own."

They joined the light meal on the table, catching up on what have happened to all of them in the last six months. Peter noticed ProtoGreymon was all too smug, and knew he must have done something that made him all too proud of himself. ProtoFloramon seemed happier than he have ever seen her. She must have been relieved to have everyone back together again.

"I heard the fair would be stopping at Byteville for the next few days." ProtoWolfmon said. "I thought it would be nice to take some time off and go sight-seeing."

"That sounds lovely…" Lola marveled at the thought. "It was all so enticing last night…"

"Sure, why not…" Peter said. "We can all have a day or two for ourselves now."

The little reptile winked at the two humans on the table, causing Lola to blush. ProtoWolfmon burst into laughter, and ProtoFloramon looked all too confused.

"I love you man… Just love you…" the wolf cub tapped on the yellow dinosaur's shoulder. Lola started laughing as well, and Peter could not help himself but join in. It was nice finally having a small talk after all those months. He really did missed those banters they shared together.


Peter and Lola walked around the city square for a while now. The digimon went to get some ice-cream, but they both wanted some time for themselves. They walked slowly, silently, a small breeze blowing at their faces. Peter looked at Lola's hair moving in the wind, and marveled the sight. He never thought he would enjoy from such trivial details. Colorful flags were hanged all around the main street of Byteville, and street-sellers has set up stalls on every available lot of land. The sight was incredible indeed.

"Oh look and behold travelers!" A deep voice was talking loudly. "I present before you the most priceless item in whole of the four domains!"

Lola stopped and listened, she seemed intrigued, and Peter stood by her, listening in as well. A flying ghostly cactus wearing a sombrero and a poncho was standing on a podium, a small crowd of digimon around him.

"This map I hold," The Ponchomon pointed at a worn piece of old parchment in his other hand. "Is a map to the fabled artifacts of legends!"

"Most of you already know the story, but for those who don't, here's a quick summary! Long before the digital world was created, our creator's spirit drifted upon the endless sea of bits! Over the course of seven cycles, he shaped developed our world into existence. The creator did his best to shield use from the evil viruses in the clouds, but not everything was in his power."

"To help use guard this world, the creator built ancient temples to house incredible powers known as the upgrade chips, to make the chosen guardians of the world capable of digivolution at will. But when those were not enough, he built one last dungeon, to hold the most powerful weapons of all!"

"But what does this have to do with the map you ask? Well my friends, this very map I hold is the last clue given to use by our creator to the location of the weapons of legend! And I'm willing to sell it to the highest bidder!"

Many of the digimon surrounding the podium sighed and left.

"It's just an old fairy-tale!"

"Everyone know the creator does not exist!"

Were some of the calls they were shouting. But Peter was intrigued. "Excuse me! Sir!" he called at the disappointed Ponchomon leaving the podium. The ghostly cactus turned around. "Those upgrade chips you talked about… is there any chance the look like control chips depicting an object rather than a digimon?"

"Why of course, youngling!" The Ponchomon said, his long tongue rolling out of his mouth. "Is it possible that by any chance you have seen one? I have been looking for them for a while now!"

"Like this?" Peter showed the digimon the image of the Heavy Metal upgrade in his phone.

"By the creator!" The Ponchomon gasped. "It is you! The savior of Hell-Hold! Only the worthy ones are able to wield those chips, and you must be one of them!"

"He's not the only one." Lola interrupted, showing him her Fairy Dust upgrade chip. "Don't you think the renowned Healmon is worthy of one as well?" She seemed a tad insulted that the digimon did not recognize her the same way as he did Peter.

"Of course! I apologize I did not recognize you, Healmon." The cactus bowed in respect. "You treated my father well when he was sick! Thank you! Listen up! You two seem like a very worthy couple. I'm willing to give you the map for free if you'll do one thing for me."

"Really?" Lola asked. "What for?"

"Will you sign a picture of you two for me? I could sell it easily for a couple of megabits in the forum!" The excited reaction embarrassed Peter a bit. He was still not used to be regarded as an idol. Lola took a selfie of the two of them, and as the camera flashed, she kissed Peter. She sent it to the Ponchomon's memory card, a small chip he held in his poncho that digimon used to keep images. She signed it with a swirly writing, and handed Peter the pencil. He drew a perfectly round circle, and signed it with the letter P. the Ponchomon handed them the map, and took off.

"Thank you very much!" he yelled as walked away. "OMC! Honeybeemon is gonna pay me so much money for this one…"

"Why did you give him the photo?" Peter asked, baffled a bit at the sudden public display of affection. Digimon all around them were beginning to whisper among themselves, starting to understand who the two humans were. "Even if what he said about the upgrade chips was true, this map still seems like a fraud."

"Well if you hated it that much, I can take back that kiss." She said and winked. "Look, the map is a drawing of the city. Let's just have a nice little treasure hunt while we're here. Please?"

3.7 Harvest Moon 3.6


Lola did not wait for Peter to answer her question, and grabbed his arm, leading him to the point where the map pointed was the start of the treasure hunt. Standing in the middle of the city's square, Lola gazed around her, savoring the beautiful sight of the fair in front of her. She recalled the country fair that used to travel next to her town back in her childhood days. Every year when it had arrived, Lola could not wait to go and visit. The colorful fabrics, the magnificent tales, and the enticing smells of spices have always installed her with a sense of wonder and amazement she could not explain.

Peter took the map from her hands, and started navigating the two of them around Byteville, following the path painted on the painted worn parchment. As they crossed what seemed like every street, road and alley in Byteville, the two of them had reached what seemed to be a dead end inside a small, cramped, alleyway.

"Are you sure you didn't mess up?" Lola asked the young man with the purple cape. "The map clearly states we should continue forward from here..."

"I did not mess up." He told her. "They must have built this alleyway after the map was drawn…"

"You said the map was a fraud only half an hour ago…" The sudden change in her lover's mind baffling her.

"I know… But look over here…" He said, pointing at the small compass drawn on the map. On both sides of the ornamented drawing, two small colored symbols were painted. The one on the east was an orange ball surrounded by a thin orange circle. The one on the west was a green outline of a heart. "It's the icons of the control chips' apps."

"You think this might actually be real?" She said, the connection clicking in her mind. "That the map will actually lead us to those legendary artifacts?"

"Perhaps the rest of the way was sealed off, like the temples on the island." Lola remembered how the doors opened only by the use of the strange application in her phone. "Thus making everyone else believe the weapons don't even exist…"

Lola had to admit that sounded plausible. The only problem was there was no stone door in sight. They were standing in a dark, cramped, and yes, quite smelly, back alley.

"Should there be, like, a carved symbol or anything?" She asked, pondering aloud.

"Just because there were carvings and huge stone doors in the temples on the island does not mean there should be some here." He told her. "Back when we approached the temple where you were…"

The man paused for a moment. Lola nodded as a sign she was fine, and he continued.

"I noticed some of the rocks along the road had other carvings on them, all virtually the same. A circle inside a square, inside an octagon." The description sounded extremely vague. "Perhaps there's one of those over here…"

Lola looked at the dirty floor beneath her feet. A faint shine caught her eye. At first, she thought it was just a reflection of light at a drop of smelly liquid of some sort, but then she realized there was not enough light in the alley for that to happen.

"Over there." Lola pointed. Peter looked at it, and started wiping the floor in the vicinity of the shining object. A stone carving was revealed on the floor, consisting of the three encircling shapes Peter has described to her. Both of their phones started beeping, and Lola knew what they needed to do. She looked at Peter, who took out his own phone, and nodded. The caped man nodded back, and they both tapped the control chips' applications. Bright white light white has emerged, and the floor where the carving was faded, clearing the way for a hidden staircase. Peter turned on the flashlight app of his phone, and started leading the way down the dark staircase.

3.8 Hack n' Slash 3.2


"So…" Lola said, stretching the sound of the word. "Where did you get this cape?"

They were descending down the stairs for a while now, and the silence has been awkward. He touched the back of the small purple cape at his back, recalling the sights he saw in Hell-Hold.

"It used to belong to a Wizardmon." He said, not very keen to talk about his own savior, who died in the process. "He freed me from the dungeon in Hell-Hold. When he died next to me, I swore I will never forget his sacrifice."

Lola stayed silent for a few moments, probably lamenting the relation of the Wizardmon to her own rescue from Hell-Hold. Peter hoped it did not bring back any memories she was struggling to forget.

"Hey –" he turned to face her, but was interrupted.

"I think it looks good on you." Lola said, stopping him from talking. "You should keep it to honor him."

Peter smiled, and continued descending, taking Lola's hand. "If you say so." He told her.


After approximately twenty more minutes of climbing down the stairs, they have finally reached the bottom floor of the hidden basement. The floor was paved with huge yellow stones, as well as the walls, which had stone ornaments stretching around them. At the far end of the paved road, a huge altar made out of metal towered across the empty room. Lit torches stood on each of the altar's sides, making it cast a long shadow over the yellow paved floor. Atop the altar, two shining objects laid, glimmering with each passing stroke of the dancing flames behind them.

As the young man and woman got closer to the altar, Peter got a closer look at the two items on it. Two the left, a huge broadsword, with a yellow metallic hilt was jammed into the stone of the altar. The blade of the sword seemed to be split into three smaller blades, all looking as sharp as the blade of a Japanese katana. To the right of the altar, a large staff with two circling ornaments laid against the wall. The ornaments looked like two snakes, one white and the other black, entwined along the entire body of the staff. Two wings sprouted from the staff's head, painted green, in a position reminding the way an angel is usually portrayed.

"Amazing…" Lola said in an owed voice. "The map was actually real…"

"I don't know…" Peter said. "From what the Ponchomon said, I had the notion they would look more like… I don't know… control chips."

"Does it matter?" Lola asked. "For all we know those are still only very expensive and artsy pieces of metal… Do you think we should take them with us?"

"Well, the door was hidden to everyone but us…" Peter said. "And throughout all of those temples we found, they always seemed to be placed carefully there for us to find them… I think those artifacts were meant for us."

Lola reached for the ornamented staff. As she grabbed it, it glowed faintly with a purple light for a brief second. The woman looked at the staff, passing her other hand along it. As Peter witnessed the blonde woman in leaf-woven clothes that stood in front of him, waving her hand across a the large staff, the image of a sensual witch doctor came to his mind. Lola looked extremely attractive like this, and he resisted the urge to kiss her right on that moment.

He reached for the yellow broadsword, pulling it out of the altar's stone foundations. To his surprise, the fit was not too hard, as the sword slid out of it like the stone was actually made out of butter. A faint yellow glow emerged from it as he touched the yellow handle for the first time. Peter swung the sword around to check it, and was marveled at how it fitted perfectly into his hands. Suddenly, the three inner blades of the sword split apart, making it seem much more dangerous.

"Be careful with that…" Lola said, her voice sounding as seductive as the sight of her was to him.

Peter could not resist the urge anymore. He placed the sword on the floor, and moved towards the blonde woman, kissing her, stripping her out of the leaves she were wearing.

3.9 Lone Wolf 4.0


The three digimon sat down at a table next to an ice cream stand at the main street of Byteville, run by a nice Frigimon. The happy face of ProtoFloramon has exerted calm over ProtoWolfmon while sitting there, enjoying their own day off. It's been a while since he had one. For the past four months on Peter's pay-roll, he has been on guard duty, watching Lola, gathering information from shady characters around the digital world, and occasionally helps ProtoGreymon fight some viruses as the more ambitious ones decided they want to try and make everyone else's miserable.

But having this day off allowed him to recharge his batteries a bit, and he had to admit, that felt good, having a day in which he had no burden on his mind, a day where he is not busy investigating the rumors about the armada. As much as the blue wolf wanted to make the killers of his own mother and his would be companion, he just had to rest. So much anger will do no good to him. At times he felt like his chest was about to explode, trying to contain the resentment he felt towards the armada, and it frightened him. He suspected that if let free, this hatred will consume him, making him no better than the armada.

A faint sound has interrupted his thoughts. ProtoWolfmon looked up, using his enhanced ears to pick up any strange sounds that might follow, and indeed the sounds came. It sounded all too familiar, the constant loud drumming that came out of the mouth of the mightiest machine in the world. He realized that the rumors has caught up with them. The armada is invading Byteville. For six whole months he has been trying to catch up to them, and now they sneaked on him from behind.

"ProtoGreymon!" He called at the yellow dinosaur who, along with the small plant, still seemed unaware of the approaching doom. "Take ProtoFloramon and find Peter and Lola! The armada is invading!"

The reptile stopped licking his ice cream cone and listened carefully. The sounds of the machineguns, the tanks, and the sniper rifles were now closer than before. Even ProtoFloramon was starting to hear them, and a fearful expression was all over her face.

"Don't waste any time! You cannot digivolve without them!" He shouted again, starting to glow in a blue light. "I'll hold them off as much as I can!" WereGarurumon roared in his place.

As the yellow reptile grabbed ProtoFloramon and started running, WereGarurumon turned around, looking at the city's gate. "It's payback time!" He growled.

The punk werewolf started dashing towards the gate, directing the fleeing digimon to hide wherever they can. A few Knightmon and Guardromon had joined him, led by a wandering Flamedramon fighter. The entire group of warriors shouted their battle-cries, and clashed with the incoming wave of Commandramon. The horde of pixelated purple dragon infantry was weak when fought one on one, but when they grouped in such masses like this… WereGarurumon was not sure that Byteville's ragtag group of defenders was up to the challenge.

The fighting was harsh. At first, they slayed the Commandramon without too much effort, holding the line at the gates of Byteville, though slowly, but surely, they were starting to lose ground. WereGarurumon saw one of the Knightmon at his side disintegrating into data, when a bullet from the sniping rifle of a Sealsdramon caught him. The werewolf jumped atop the wave of pixelated infantry, rushing towards the sniper.

"KAISER NAIL!" He yelled, thrashing his sharp claws into the flesh of the Sealsdramon, which disintegrated into data the moment he was hit. WereGarurumon turned to check on the defenders of Byteville, and to his shock, saw that all but the Flamedramon commander were already dead. The Commandramon army was swarming the city.

'Byteville is lost…' he thought. 'I must get my friends and get out of here. Hopefully…' he did not want to finish that last thought, and started running through the horde of purple small infantry, slashing at them as he ran through.

After a few minutes of searching amidst the intense massacre around the city, WereGarurumon stumbled upon the two wandering digimon he was seeking. They were hiding beneath a turned over stall. The minute he saw them, he heard the sound of a running Tankdramon entering the city. Those were the most elite troops of the armada, and that meant their target was total annihilation of the city. The image of his dying would be friend crossed his mind, and WereGarurumon decided he will not let that happen again. Deep blue light surrounded him that instance. The images of the life of a human soldier started flashing through his eyes, images in which he saw the same human he witnessed dying a few months ago.

"I swear to serve and protect the innocent civilians of each country I will serve at!"

He heard the human soldier swearing at some sort of ceremony. 'And so do I.' he thought. The blue light faded, and in the place of WereGarurumon, a new blue wolf was standing. It was clad of blue metallic armor, and a huge cannon was mounted on its back.

"ZEED CANNON!" The armored wolf called. The back-mounted cannon accumulated light at its muzzle, and fired it at the wandering Tankdramon, wiping it from existence. But all was not done yet. A battalion of addition Tankdramon was entering though the city's gates.

"Come on! Run!" The wolf, known now as ZeedGarurumon cried. "Find Peter and Lola!"

A few more shots of the wolf's cannon disintegrated three more Tankdramon, as the two rookie digimon emerged from the turned over stall, and started running away. ZeedGarurumon turned to face the attackers, intending to hold them off, but he heard a blast from behind him. To his shock and horror, he missed one of the Tankdramon that stood in his friends' path of escape. The shot from the tank's cannon was immense in power, and dust was floating all around the air where the two digimon were last seen by ZeedGarurumon, blocking him from seeing them.

3.10 Hack n' Slash 3.3


The two lovers were climbing up the stairs back towards the streets of Byteville. Each of them was now carrying a large artifact, and their ascent was significantly slower. A weird smell reached Peter's nostrils about halfway through the long staircase. Peter tried to discern it, and was worried by the results. It was a smell he was all too familiar with, the smell of war, comprised of smoke, sulfur, gunpowder, and the most sickening ingredient of all, blood.

"Something's wrong." He told Lola. She looked as if this was her first time smelling war, which was probably true. "We have to hurry and find our partners. I fear they might need to evolve right now…"

"What is it?" Lola asked him while they started running up the stairs. "The smell… it's awful…"

"It's a massacre." Peter said. The laconic answer seemed to have motivated Lola to run faster, her concern for ProtoFloramon probably overflowing by now.

Peter felt scared, truly scared, for the first time in the last six months. He remembered what it was like to fight a war in an urban territory, and it was disgusting. Corpses, blood, and body parts were everywhere. No place was left untouched, every good property of the city would be decimated. He strongly wished their partners were still OK.

'ProtoWolfmon should be able to hold the attackers off… for a while.' He thought. 'Such a strong smell… it must be the armada I keep hearing about…'

The day light started shining through the top of the stairs, and Peter hastened to reach it. When he emerged into the sun, he found himself surrounded by smoke. Shots were firing at all directions around him, and he could discern small infantry troops marching in the general direction of the city's square. One of the troops strayed towards the alley in which he was standing, just as Lola reached the surface as well. The small pixelated purple soldier raised its machine gun to fire, but Peter quickly rushed towards him, unsheathing the huge broadsword for the first time, slashing at it, out of pure instinct to defend Lola. The small trooper disintegrated as the blade touched it.

"Lola, stay behind me, I'll clear us a path." He started ordering her, gathering as much as he could from his own war experience. "If any of them shows up from behind, protect yourself using the staff and call me. Try to hold on as much as you can. Understood?"

The terrified blonde woman nodded, and he started advancing slowly towards the ice cream stall where the two of them left the three digimon.

Slowly sneaking from alleyway to alleyway, they made their way across the main street. Occasionally, Peter had to slash at a random Commandramon trooper that noticed them, but no notable mishaps has occurred so far. Peter turned to check on Lola. Just he saw she was fine right behind him, a shot from a sniper rifle pierced his hand. The two of them immediately backed into the alley they were at, as Peter moaned in pain.

"Damn it…" He said, holding the smashed hand, the blood flowing from it in an alarming rate. "I need both hands to wield this stupid-ass giant sword…"

Lola let a small cry as the Sealsdramon who fired the shot neared them, and her staff began to glow brilliantly. The light emanating from it glowed around Peter's shot hand, and healed it in a brief moment, just as the sniper was entering into the alley. Peter threw the giant blade at the special ops digimon, disintegrating it.

"How did you do that?" he asked Lola, but as he saw the amazed look at her face, he knew she had no idea either. "Never mind that, let's go one."

At last they reached the place where the ice cream stall used to be. Even from a few hundred meters away, they could here there was an intense battle going over there. They both peeked into the street, and were shocked. In front of them, surrounded by a dozen Tankdramon, was standing a blue armored wolf, desperately trying to fend off its attackers. Peter looked for the other two digimon, but was terrified by what he saw. Scattered around the entire battle-ground, where the yellow and green body parts of their digimon, slowly disintegrating.

Peter heard Lola screaming behind him, as he started crying as well. Standing over there, crying, Peter knew he should take Lola and run away, but he did not care about it. All he wanted was to avenge his fallen comrade. Just before the final pieces of yellow body parts disappeared, Peter could swear he heard the faintest whisper calling his name.

"FULL METAL BREATH!" A roar was heard from the surrounded cyborg wolf. The cannon mounted on its back fired, accompanied by missiles and bullets from practically every available hidden slot in the wolf's metallic armor. The entire horse of Tankdramon dissipated into the smoke, and the metallic wolf ran towards the two humans.

"Come on! Climb on my back! We must get out of here!" Peter did not want to listen to it. Lola looked up to the wolf, her eyes red and swollen from crying. But he knew the wolf was right. Their partners and friends were gone now, and there was nothing more they could do for them. They better run away before they will be overrun by the advancing armada.

After making up his mind, Peter grabbed the frozen woman who stared at him, and climbed on top of the blue metallic wolf. As his hands cling to the various pins on the blue armor, the wolf began running, jumping across the roofs of the town once known as Byteville. For some odd reason, as they left the smoldering ruins of the town, Peter felt his phone warming up. For the slightest moment, he thought hope still exists to rescue their friends, but the warmth faded, leaving him with nothing but grief and despair.

End of Part 3