Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I didn't update as I was out of town; expect the same thing over Christmas.
I don't know where half this chapter came from. Seriously, this was half as long when I started. Oh, well, enjoy!
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Chapter 25: Legends Come True
By the time Reyn awoke that morning, Salmandmon was already up and gathering some kind of weird fruit from the trees surrounding them. They'd spent the night tucked away in some woods where they were unlikely to be bothered, as per Salmandmon's recommendation - he didn't want to suddenly spring a human on a place where he couldn't gauge the local populace's reaction.
As he got his bearings, Salmandmon jumped down with a bunch of fruit in his arms. "Chow time! Hope you like it, it's pretty much all there is. If you don't, well, force it down anyway."
"What if it's poisonous?"
Salmandmon rolled his eyes. "Do you really think I'd give you food if I didn't know if it was safe? C'mon, I'm not that dumb. I've eaten this stuff before, it's fine."
"Yeah, it's not toxic to you. But it's completely foreign to my body, and who know if it will react differently?"
"Why would it? I ate your food just fine."
Reyn paused a moment. "...Yeah, you did. Don't you find that weird? We're composed of...well, completely different types of matter. That shouldn't work that way."
"Well, whether it should or not, it does. Now quit trying to think on an empty stomach."
Reyn sighed. "Fine, but if I'm on death's door in an hour I'm blaming you." He picked up one of the fruits; it had somewhat bumpy yellow skin, was a little larger than an apple, and appeared more or less innocuous. He took a bite and made a face. "Nngh...kinda sour, don'tcha think?"
"Yeah, I know. Great, isn't it?" the lizard spoke through mouthfuls, having polished off one fruit already and working his way through another.
"I prefer sweet, personally."
"Eh, sweet's fine, but nothing beats sour. It's just got that kick that I love."
Reyn wasn't quite of the same opinion, but all the same, it was the only food around and he was hungry, so he dealt with it. After the two had finished the small pile of fruit, he decided to broach business. "So, what's next for us? You said you knew of a place that had a Catalyst?"
"Yeah, at least I've heard that they do. Oroetem, I think it was called. Yeah, that's it. Dunno if it's a Fire Catalyst, but it's worth checking out, better than just trying to wander around and get lucky."
"Of course, if we're wrong, that's pretty much what we have to do anyway."
"Aw, quit being such a downer. Something has to go our way sometime."
"I'm just saying. I hope you're right, because I'm not so keen on spending another night out in the open."
"It wasn't that bad. You've never roughed it before?"
"A couple of times, but usually we're in tents and sleeping bags and such."
"Tch, that's nothing. I'm gonna have to get you used to sleeping exposed out in the open, nothing between you and the world around you."
"That sounds dangerous even for my world, and we don't have creatures that can kill at 50 paces."
"It's not as dangerous as you think. Few digimon would bother going after a sleeping stranger. For one thing, it's not really worth the trouble to most people. And it's considered cowardly and heinous, and any digimon caught doing so would be treated to extra-rough punishment."
"By who, exactly?"
"Any peacekeeping group, or just random guys who don't like to see that kind of stuff. There's not a lot in the way of organized law out in the open, but there's some unwritten codes of conduct that people are supposed to abide by. There's always those who don't, but they get dealt with swiftly."
"You mean by killing them?"
"Eh, if that's what it takes. Generally a good beating or two is enough to get them to at least take their crap elsewhere. But if you mess with the wrong people, well, you generally get what's coming to you."
"Sounds like a recipe for trouble to me. What's to stop someone from just claiming that the guy they offed was causing trouble when he was actually innocent?"
"The knowledge that if they do do that, they won't be shown any mercy."
"That wouldn't stop some humans."
"Doesn't stop some digimon, either, but it generally works well enough."
"I suppose I'll have to take your word for it. We need to do anything before heading to this Oroetem place?"
"Nah, we should just be able to walk in. Let's go!"
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When Skylar awoke, it took him a moment to realize where he was. He'd been dreaming about being back in his own world, so the unfamiliar bedroom was completely foreign to his brain for a short time. Of course, it all came rushing back pretty quickly...the village, the castle, the weather control machine, and being thought of as a reincarnated king by some digimon who had clearly been stuck inside for far too long.
Huh...I had a pretty busy first day.
"My liege? Are you in need of anything?" The voice nearly startled him, and he looked over to see a Gargoylemon standing expectantly in the doorway. It was so weird to him, being referred to with titles like that, but everyone seemed to insist on it, and he didn't really have the energy to try to keep them from doing so.
"No...I'm good. Uh, tell me, you haven't happened to see any blue dragons nearby, have you? Er, I mean, little blue wind dragons that talk funny, that sort of thing."
"No, my liege, nothing of the sort. I can ask the guards to be on the lookout for such things."
"Please do, thank you." The Gargoylemon bowed and left the room, closing the door behind him. Skylar stretched and rolled himself out of bed, feeling a bit worried; he'd heard nothing from Breezedramon at all since arriving on this world, and it every hour with no word bothered him more and more. He couldn't imagine he wouldn't know if the worst had happened, considering the connection they had, but what if he was in some kind of trouble?
He shook his head hard. Worrying is just gonna screw with my mind...I have to think about something else.
Perhaps fortunately, there was plenty in his immediate vicinity to draw his attention. In fact, the immediate vicinity itself would do. The veritable whirlwind of activity yesterday after his experience with the weather control system had left him no more knowledgeable about what exactly had gone on before he'd arrived. It was fairly clear someone had been up to no good, but the who and why were still unknown.
If I'm gonna figure out how to deal with this situation so that I'm not stuck here for ages, I have to know what happened. Perhaps someone in the village knows the whole story, if I can get them to tell it to me straight. Maybe they can tell me more about the weather control machine, too. That's a pretty cool device.
"My liege?" Skylar nearly jumped again, as Gargoylemon again poked his head in. "They have a grand breakfast served for you in the dining hall. May I escort you?"
"Escort...oh, uh, right, yeah, just give me a minute, I'm just getting ready."
"Very well. Let me know when you are prepared." The door closed again, and Skylar sighed and shook his head. Nice people...a little overbearing, though. He gathered himself and was just about to go to the door when something intruded into his head.
Sky? Are you there?
For Skylar, it was the greatest relief in the world to hear that mental voice. Breezedramon! Thank goodness, I was about to go nuts with worry! Where the hell are you?
Well, that's kinda...the problem at the moment. I don't have any clue.
You don't? Well, do you see any landmarks or anything that can help guide you?
I wish! I'm stuck in some weird infinitely loopy forest deal! I'm with another guy who's been stuck here for days, neither of us know what's going on with it! And there's not any clues on how to get out, either!
What? Really? Is that, uh, a normal feature of this world?
No way! If it was I'd probably know how to get out of it already! You're a smart guy, do you have any ideas for what I can do?
Well, jeez...this is something pretty new to me, as well. Hm...I guess we can try a few video game strategies. Can you find anything that looks out of place, that might try to tell you which direction you might want to go?
Yeah, I can try. Thanks! I'll keep you updated!
Please do. Skylar exhaled sharply, not realizing he'd been holding his breath for a while. How wonderful. At least he's not injured, but if he's trapped in a place that's even odd for over here, who knows when we're going to be able to get back together?
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"...What in the world were you just doing?"
Breezedramon jumped as Avimon spoke behind him; he'd almost forgotten about the birdling in his eagerness to finally connect with his partner. "Whoa! Hey, don't spook me like that!"
"Sorry, but it seemed like you were just staring off into space or something. Something the matter? I mean, besides the obvious."
"Oh, I wasn't doing anything like that! I was just talking with my buddy Sky!"
"Sky? That's a weird name."
"It's because he's not a digimon! He's a human!"
"A human, huh? Well, I guess it was only a matter of time. But, uh, how exactly are you talking to him?"
"Telempamphletically!"
"...Huh?"
"You know - mind-to-mind-speak!"
"Oh..." Avimon still looked somewhat confused. "Humans can do that?"
"This one can! Just me with me, though. It's kind of a long story."
"I'd kinda like to hear it anyway. But while we're doing whatever we should be doing. Did he have any ideas?"
"He said to look for anything that might be outta place or distinctive! He thinks maybe there are some kind of signposts or something that tell us which direction we should go."
Avimon dropped a bit. "I doubt it. That's one of the first things I tried to look for, and I didn't find anything of the sort."
"Well, maybe you missed something! Come on, it can't hurt to try again!"
"It can if you fly into me again."
"Are you ever gonna let that go? C'mon, that was ages ago!"
"That was yesterday."
"Whatever! Let's just go, I wanna be outta here!"
Avimon couldn't really argue with that, so the two took off and commenced their search for any unusual landmarks. Breezedramon regaled Avimon with stories about the adventures in the human world, which more often than not left the birdling hopelessly confused as he could make little sense of Breezedramon-speak.
Eventually, after a couple hours of searching, the two had to take a break and set down by a large rock. "Well, that was about as futile as it gets," Avimon sighed dejectedly. I'm never gonna get out of this place."
"Hey, ya can't be all down and stuff! That's just gonna make it worse!"
"I really don't see how it could be worse at this point."
"We could be attacked by something nasty, that's how! Some evil digimon who's all 'I'm gonna tear out your anensogaphogus!' and then tries to do that."
"Tear out my what?"
"Anyway, just stay positive! Something's gonna go our way, and if we're moping around we're just gonna miss it!"
"When you've been in here five days, you'll start to understand my position."
"Well, that's not gonna happen because I'm not gonna be in here five days! We'll be out by nightfall, you just watch!"
Avimon shook his head. "Jeez...you and your endless enthusiasm. Are you always like this?"
"I try to be! It's hard sometimes because a lot of bad stuff happens, but if you just try to feel good things get better!"
"Does it always work out that way?"
"Er..." Breezedramon pulled up short. "Well...maybe not always. I guess I've had some people think it just makes things worse. But I don't believe it! If you're just sad all the time, how does that make anything go better?"
"Well, it doesn't get your hopes up, only to have them dashed again."
"Bah, that's no way to live. What's the point of not having hopes? All that does is be stupid. It's like, uh, lemme think, I'm not much good at this analogy thing..." Breezedramon paused as his attention was suddenly caught by something else. "Hey, wait a tick...does this big rock look weird to you?"
"Huh?" Avimon looked up at the rock. "It's a big rock. What's there to look weird about?"
"Yeah, it's a big rock, but it kinda looks like something not-rocky." Breezedramon flew around to look from a different angle. "Yeah, it looks like it's shaped like something! Kinda like a statue or something like that!"
"Statue? You're loopy, it doesn't look like..." Avimon trailed off as he neared where Breezedramon was. His eyes widened in recognition, as the deliberateness of the shape became clearer. "Holy...it does look like a statue! But only if you look at it at the right angle. That's the first thing I've seen that looks like it doesn't belong here!"
"No kidding! Though it's weird, it looks like a statue but, you know, not nice and smooth and all that. Like it wasn't actually carved or anything, but like it was formed out of normal erosion stuff. But with all these trees, no way it could have been that!"
"You're right, not nearly enough wind, and wind doesn't generally shape things deliberately..this is too definite to be wind. But it is weird..."
"So let's check it out! This could be the thing!"
Avimon hesitated. "Well, I guess it could be...but I don't wanna get too excited, maybe there's nothing there to tell us-"
"Aw, come on, brighten up! Don't look like you think you're not gonna find anything, look like you think you're gonna find something!"
Avimon rolled his eyes. "All right, you win. I'll try."
The two scoured the statue. With some guesswork, they concluded that it was shaped like some kind of dragon, though that didn't appear to be a significant clue for anything. Then, on the back of the statue dragon's head, Breezedramon saw something noteworthy. "Hey, it looks like there's something weird here."
"I think there's more than one weird thing here."
"Hey, you've got a sense of humor! But no, seriously, I'm not sure what it is, I think it's writing but it's really small. Trying to read it makes my eyes hurt."
"Let me, my eyes are great." Avimon got down close to the peculiar sighting, eyes darting back and forth all over it. "Yeah, you're right, it is something written down. Let's see...it says, 'These woods are claimed for Dimensidramon, the master of space. All who enter will never leave, except by my will.'" He swallowed hard. "Hoo boy..."
"Dimensidramon? Isn't that one of those dragons that can change space and stuff however they want?"
"Yeah. Yeesh...that explains the infinite forest. He probably made it so it's stuck in some kind of spatial loop...that's why it keeps repeating over and over again. So we can only get out if he lets us out? How are we even supposed to find hum, let alone convince him to let us go?"
"I dunno, but we gotta figure out some way! I can't stay here forever, I need to get back to Sky so we can kick some Emperius butt! C'mon, let's see if there's anything else that tells us how to get in touch with him!"
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"Hm...you know, I was expecting something a little different," Reyn said as they started walking through the village of Oroetem. "This is really old-school."
"Oroetem is a simple place, which is what attracts some people to it," Salmandmon explained. "It's hard to get that kind of community feel in a big city, or even a mid-sized town. Not that I find that a selling point...I prefer the cities, definitely. This place is definitely different from how I remember it, though."
"How so?" asked Reyn.
"Well, for starters, it was about 20 below zero and there was snow all over the place."
"...Uh, you mean like it was a different season or something?"
"Northern Tetraquaz doesn't have seasons. We're in what you would call the tropics, more or less."
"And here I had to wonder why you told me not to bother with heavy clothes. Mind telling me why it would be snowing here, then?"
"Because this place has a weather control system. It's unique among the entire world, as far as I know. However, the guy who was running it, Shinduramon, was a bit of a prick and wanted the villagers to pay more tribute to him. They refused, and he got pissed and decided to make life miserable for them until they came around...and then, just like that, he left, out of the blue. I don't know why exactly, but he left things the way they were. Stayed like that for a year...maybe he had a change of heart and came back, and let things go back to normal."
"For nothing? Sounds kind of fishy to me."
"...Yeah, you're probably right. But who else could have done it?"
"Maybe someone else figured out how to control the system?"
"Huh...maybe. I don't know enough about it to really be able to tell. Whatever the case, everyone's certainly happy about it." Indeed, the people seemed more jovial than they would have expected if the old tyrant had returned.
Salmandmon managed to get the attention of a Floramon. "Hey, it looks like there's some kind of celebration around here. What's up?"
"Oh, it's wonderful! Our beloved ancient king as returned!" the Floramon replied cheerily. "I thought this village was finished, that we were all going to freeze to death or starve, but the king has saved us from that long cold!"
"Ancient king?"
"Yeah! There's a prophecy that the king would return in a desperate time to save the lives of his loyal subjects! I never expected him to be a human, though! Maybe it was true that he went off to a different world!"
Reyn and Salmandmon stared at each other, wide-eyed. "A human who can control the weather?" Salmandmon spoke in disbelief.
"No way...it couldn't be!" Reyn responded.
"Who else could it be? Let's go to the castle!" The two sprinted off towards the castle, ignoring the odd looks from other villagers.
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Isaac stared at the contraption in front of him, utterly baffled. It was some kind of machine, simple in appearance but much less so in function if Isaac's readings were to be believed. There was some sort of terminal standing right up from the ground, connected to a metallic spire that was just over Isaac's height.
What in the world is this thing? I'm getting weird energy readings from it, but I can't decipher them! Maybe I should try to interface with it.
He laid his hand on the machine, trying to make a wireless connection to his arm. When he scored a success, he closed his eyes and willed a projection to come up. There seemed to be a map of something - he couldn't tell what it was, but he assumed it was probably the Digital World. One point stood out, and he gathered that was his current location. There were other points that were lighting up; he zoomed in near his own location and saw that they were fairly scattered around.
Can I connect to those? he wondered. He tried to gather some information on them, and came up with a set of numbers. Interesting...maybe those numbers connect to a network these machines are on. I should try entering them in.
He severed the connection to the machine and keyed in the numbers on the keypad. He was then prompted to take hold of the spire on the machine. A bit confused, he did so. Barely a fraction of a second later, he felt a strange sensation and blacked out.
When he came to, he was laying by the machine...or so he thought at first. When he got his bearings, he realized the environment around him was different, greener and more tepid instead of hot and barren. What the hell was that?
He was about to connect again when he felt Datacarnomon contact him. Ike! Hey, can you hear me?
Hear might not be the right word, but I'm getting you loud and clear, Data!
Well, it's about damn time! I've been trying to connect to you for a day!
You have? But I tried to contact you and you didn't respond!
I never once got anything from you-
But that doesn't make sense-
Okay, it doesn't matter right now. What matters is that I'm kind of in a bind. I'm in a city called Mechalopolis, and I'm kinda captured right now.
You too? I woke up in some strange fortress in chains. What the hell is with our luck?
Well, I didn't exactly wake up that way, but that's beside the point. I need you to come to Mechalopolis, but it's going to be very dangerous, because they've gotten really hostile to organic beings. You're not going to be able to get past the guards, they've got detectors that will prove you're not a real robot. You might have to find another way in.
Before finding a way in, I have to find a way there! How the heck am I supposed to get to this Mechalopolis place?
Well, try using a transfer point.
A what?
They're machines that are placed all over, so that people can get around more quickly if they need to. They look like computer terminals with a big spike on a platform connected to them.
Wait...those things are transfer points?
...You already used one, didn't you?
Uh, yeah, just before you contacted me, but I had no idea what it was. Well, now I have absolutely no clue where I am.
Don't worry, I can give you coordinates to the closest one to Mechalopolis. Then it'll be on you to get there.
That's good and all, but I still don't know how I'm supposed to get in, or how I'm supposed to keep from being noticed when I am in there. My cloaking isn't gonna work so well against robots.
Oh, you've already tried that out?
I'll regale you with the story later. Is there any way I can get some kind of disguise or anything? Maybe something to fool sensors?
It took a moment for Datacarnomon to respond. Hm...I don't really know off the top of my head how to deal with any of that. Hang on, I'm gonna give you some coordinates of a good place to hide out. Once you're there, we can discuss how to deal with this without you being out in the open. Best of Emperius doesn't get wind that we're here if we can avoid it.
Gotcha.
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The castle was set well apart from the village, being at least a half-mile away from the actual residences. Thus, by the time Reyn and Salmandmon arrived at a rather imposing stairway, they were both somewhat worn out.
"If we're wrong, I'm gonna be pissed that we ran that whole way," Reyn panted as they ascended the stairs, moving much more slowly now.
"I think we're probably right, though," said Salmandmon. "Who else could it be?"
"Who knows? At this point I'm not sure of anything anymore."
They finally reached the top of the stairs. The castle was quite impressive from the outside - easily the size of a good apartment building, covered in various plants of all colors, and rather ornate in construction to boot. A pair of very fancy doors, several feet taller than Reyn, stood right in front of them, guarded by a pair of digimon, one a Shurimon and the other a Harpymon. As Reyn and Salmandmon approached, they were instantly on alert.
"Hey! You two aren't allowed to enter this sacred place!" The two winced at the loud screeching cry of the Harpymon.
"We're trying to see the, uh, the king!" Reyn tried to explain.
"We can have no threats to the holy one!" the Shurimon shouted back. "Leave, or we shall be forced to fight!"
"Hey, is that any way to treat visitors?" Salmandmon huffed indignantly. "Come on, we're his friends, we should be allowed to see him!"
"We cannot allow that!" As soon as Shurimon said it, a bunch of digimon surrounded the pair, most with some form of weapon brandished at them. For a moment, Reyn thought they were going to be in deep trouble...then another voice called out through the air.
"Stand down, all of you!"
The guards all turned and bowed at the source of the voice. Both Reyn and Salmandmon gasped at the sight. It was definitely Skylar, but he was dressed far differently than he had been when they left. In fact, in a regal suit with a long cloak on his back, he looked positively dapper.
"Thanks for visiting, you two. Come on in."
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"So, they really think you're a king?" Salmandmon asked in disbelief.
Skylar nodded absently. "They believe I am a legendary god-king called Stormdramon that may or may not have existed, re-born in the body of this human. I chalk it up partially to cabin fever and partially to desperation."
"Stormdramon? Never heard of that one."
"You're not the only one. Supposedly, he's the creator of the weather control system in this castle. I haven't been able to actually verify that, though. All I know is from the couple of books I've had time to peruse in the library of this castle."
"Why am I not surprised you'd immediately gravitate towards the library?" Reyn said with a smirk.
"Ha ha. Anyway, the legend goes that the people of the village wanted to know what winter was like, since they'd never experienced anything of the sort. Stormdramon built the weather control system in order to show them what it was like. With the system, he could create a climate pattern of whatever type he or the inhabitants wished. Eventually the land, started to respond to the changes as well - when it was warm and sunny, plants would appear and grow, and when it was cold and snowy, they'd wither and die."
"That's pretty cool, if not a tad weird," Salmandmon remarked. "But what happened to Stormdramon?"
"Search me. Like I said, I'm not even sure yet if he actually existed. I'm hoping that going through some more reading material could help. He wasn't the only one who could use the system - there's been a few people who I'm sure existed who've used it in the past. From what I can gather, Shinduramon was the first one who abused it, and abuse it he did in spades. Talk about a bad guy, he even left so that he couldn't even hear the people's pleas to change it back."
"That's why he left?" Reyn said. "That's despicable!"
"Well, hopefully the new ruler won't abuse it like that," Salmandmon snickered. "By the way, nice duds."
"They're far too nice for my tastes," Skylar remarked, looking down a bit self consciously. "I've always hated formal wear...feels like I'm putting on an act or something. But they were custom-made for me, so they're pretty comfortable, at least."
"So, judging by what we heard in the village, there's a prophecy that Stormdramon would come back in bad times to help the villagers. I'm guessing that when you showed up yesterday, you found this castle and ended up changing the weather, right?"
"Yeah. I wasn't even trying to seriously change anything...I just saw the control mechanism and had a sudden burst of inspiration. I didn't even know what happened until I went back outside, and then everyone found me and figured I was their reincarnated leader."
"There you go again, playing with toys when you don't know what they can do. I'd thought you'd learned your lesson about that after the acetylene torch incident last year."
"Well, at least I didn't get second-degree burns from this one."
"Maybe not, but I dunno that being made a king will be that much less hazardous to your health," Salmandmon cracked.
"Trust me, I tried to argue, but, well, it's hard to reason with myth when you seem to make it come true. Plus, in case you weren't already aware, they're a tad nuts. And it doesn't help that my actions could very well counter my words. After all, if they see that I can create tornadoes and rainstorms without the weather control mechanism, they'll be even more convinced. And if I merged with Breezedramon...well, I might as well just start calling myself Stormdramon right then and there."
Salmandmon looked around a moment. "Speaking of which, I don't see that blue goofball anywhere. They didn't toss him in a dungeon or anything?"
"No, he's...well, he's not here."
Puzzled looks from the others. "Not here?"
"Yeah. Why, were you two together when you came through?"
Salmandmon nodded. "Yeah, I had to rouse this guy to get him going anywhere. Kid can't handle a little transfer for nothin'. How did you two get split up?"
"I can't say without knowing more about what happened to everyone else...but, well, based on your case and mine, I think the fact that you two were in contact with each other means you were transported as one, while Breezedramon and I were separated, so we were sent independently."
Reyn thought on that for a moment. "That actually makes enough sense - if our proximity had mattered instead of contact, the whole group would have come down closer together. The fact that we got so split up...I guess maybe we should have considered that."
"Too late to do anything about it now. Also, did you realize that our, well, internal communications were disrupted?"
They shook their heads. "No, I had no idea!" Salmandmon replied. "We were together the entire time, and we ended up having no reason to use it, so it never occurred to us to try."
"Ah. Well, I found that out. It must have been thrown off by the transfer...I couldn't say for sure, but that's the only thing I can imagine would cause that. Anyway, I couldn't reach Breezedramon until this morning. Thankfully, now that we're connected he can be on his way. Now all I need to do is keep the guards from thinking he's an enemy and shooting him down."
"I guess until then you're stuck here, huh?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Though I did end up getting lucky. I confirmed with Breezedramon, there's a Wind Catalyst in this castle. I found it by the weather control system when I first got here."
Salmandmon's face fell. "Aw, man...it's a Wind Catalyst? We're 0 for 2 now." He quickly explained to Skylar what they had come through before arriving at the castle. Skylar nodded sympathetically as he finished.
"Wish I could help you, but this is clearly the one we're looking for. I could check the library, see if they've got something about other ones here, but the problem is that there's no Dewey Decimal System here - or for that matter, any other system of organization. It might take me days just to figure out what books might have that kind of information in them."
"Then how'd you find the books on Stormdramon?"
"They were kept separate, because these people find him so important. I think by now we've established that we don't have a MENSA society here."
"Well, they're loyal enough, at least. Well, maybe once Breezedramon gets here you guys can help us search for a Fire Catalyst. It would be really helpful to have someone stronger along with...I don't like that look you're giving me right now," Salmandmon added as he saw the grimace on Skylar's face.
"Don't get me wrong, Salmandmon, there's nothing I'd like more than to hightail it out of here. But I'm torn. If I leave now, I leave the village vulnerable to the return of Shinduramon or some other guy who's got it in for others. Heaven forbid someone from Emperius figures out how to work the weather control system. So I'm not sure I should be going anywhere until I can leave this place in capable hands."
"That's a problem, all right," Reyn sighed. "I couldn't ask you to abandon them, either. I guess that means we're on our own again."
"Unless you wanted to stay until such time came that I could go with you."
Salmandmon shook his head. "Probably not a good idea...the longer we're here, the more time Emperius gets to search for us and prepare to fight us. I'm surprised they haven't already come after us...we haven't fought a single battle yet. Not that I'm complaining."
"I wouldn't count on that pattern holding for long. Anyway, I'm trying to speed along the process. I've already sent out some people to spread the word that it's nice here again. I said it was to promote tourism, but I'm hoping that I'll find someone suitable to take over my position, preferably someone who can use that Wind Catalyst to good effect. Plus, maybe the attention will alert Shinduramon, and if he doesn't stroke out the moment he hears about it, he'll probably come zooming back to attack us. At the very least, I can keep this place out of his clutches."
"All right, well, I wish you and Breezedramon the best. Reyn and I are going to strike out while we have plenty of daylight left. We're gonna scour around for information on a Fire Catalyst in some of the towns and villages in the middle of the continent."
Skylar nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. Go where you know the least. As long as you're here, though, I suggest you stick around for a meal. The people may be a bit kooky, but the food's good."
"How could I refuse?" Salmandmon cracked. "Let's eat!"
(==========)
After a lot of looking, Breezedramon and Avimon gave up on finding any more clues on the statue. At Breezedramon's behest, though, they started scouring the rest of the forest for more possible peculiarities. It had been a rough couple of hours, with little to show for it.
"We're getting nowhere," Avimon sighed dejectedly after a long while, sitting back down by the creek they'd started the day by. "Maybe it's just hopeless. If Dimensidramon didn't want anyone getting out I doubt he'd put any clues in like that."
"Maybe that's not it, though! Maybe it's like some kind of test or something!"
"Some test!"
"I know, but still, you gotta believe! Now, where haven't we checked?"
"I think we've checked just about everywhere possible."
"Nah, not even close. Now, let's see...Dimensidramon can make space just however he wants it to be...and this guy probably thinks a good lot of himself to put in a statue of himself. So I'm guessing there's probably things that show off his talent that could lead us to him."
"What makes you think any of that's the case?"
"What makes you think it's not?"
"Well, the fact that...uh...look, it's just really unlikely."
"So? Might as well run with it until we figure out something else."
"All right, fine. So he's self-absorbed. How does that help us?"
"Easy! It helps us figure out how we should be looking! If he's got a big ego, then he's gonna want to brag about it! We just gotta figure out how his bragging works!"
"...And how are we possibly supposed to go about that?"
"Well, look for patterns or something. Like in the environment. Yeah, there might be something right around us that's giving us hints we aren't even thinking about!"
"Wouldn't we have noticed them by now if that were true?"
"Not if it's something that's pretty innocuous. Like...hm...like..." Breezedramon looked around, trying to figure out what kind of innocuous object he could use as an example. "Like...the fruit in the trees, maybe."
Avimon looked at him incredulously. "You think the fruit is a clue?"
"Well, that was just kind of an example of something..." Breezedramon trailed off as something started to click. "Hey, wait, maybe it is! I mean, think about it, this is the only spot with fruit trees in it! Why just here?"
"Uh...who knows?"
"That's just it! There's no reason for it!"
"Well, maybe he didn't want people to die right away?"
"But if that's the case, why not put them everywhere? No, there has to be a reason he put them here, and it's probably another clue! Try looking at it, see if there's anything weird about it!"
Avimon sighed. "That's a stretch and you know it."
"Look at the goddamn fruit!"
"Okay, okay!" Avimon and Breezedramon looked over the fruits hanging in the branches. They appeared fairly innocuous, at least at first glance. Presently, Avimon spoke up. "I don't know if it matters, but...I guess some of them have spots and others don't."
"That's probably important! Is there, like, a pattern to the spots or something?"
"No, it appears to be pretty random...I mean, it's not like all the trees have the same number of fruits, or...wait, there does seem to be some kind of break where the path leads into this place. There's fruit all around except for that spot."
"Yeah! And...hey, check it out! The fruit's all handing so it's like kind of a line all around! Don't you think it's weird that it all seems to be right in our line of sight?"
"Maybe you're right. But what does it mean?"
"Well, I'm not sure yet, but..." Breezedramon kept staring around in a circle. "There's gotta be something...hey, I've got a crazy idea!"
"Oh, goody."
"Aw, come on, my crazy ideas have been doing great so far!"
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Well, give."
"Well, don't you think it would be funny if this was Fundamental?"
Avimon blinked. "Fundamental? You think this is a universal binary translation?"
"It could be! Try converting them to Fundamental, see if they make letters and words!"
"...Okay..." Avimon stared at the row of fruit hanging in the trees. After a minute, he closed his eyes and shook his head. "Hang on, I need some kind of tool, there's no way I can just keep track of his in my head."
"Just grab a branch, they're all over the place!"
"Ah, right." Avimon snatched a branch up from the ground and began to scratch the ground, writing in 1's and 0's corresponding to the fruit. It was not a speedy process, as he had to look back up and down frequently and had trouble keeping his place. Eventually, though, he had written down some lines of binary code as such:
10001011 10010111 10011010 11011111 10001011 10001101 10011010 10011010 10001100 11011111 10010111 10010000 10010011 10011011 11011111 10001011 10010111 10011010 11011111 10010100 10011010 10000110
Both digimon stared at the lines of code. "...No, no way. That's just complete gibberish," Avimon finally said, his tone defeated. "Doesn't matter how you look at it, it doesn't make sense."
"You're right," Breezedramon said thoughtfully. "But I'm sure there's some trick...hey, wait, which ones did you use for 1 and which for 0?"
"Why does that...oh! You think it could be the other way around?"
"Yeahyeah! Try that!"
"Okay...hey, keep an eye on this and make sure I transpose it right. It was hard enough the first time..."
Breezedramon watched as Avimon scrawled a new set of binary underneath the first one, occasionally pointing out mistakes as Avimon lapsed into simple replication rather than inversion or just lost track of where he was. After some fits and starts, they had a new set of code:
01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101011 01100101 01111001
"That is totally Fundamental!" Breezedramon exclaimed. "I totally remember the translations from the classes they gave at Libertius! It says...uh, gimme a moment...yeah, it says 'the trees hold the key!'"
"...The trees hold the key? Jeez, that doesn't help us much. There are oodles of trees in this place, how are we gonna figure out which one it is that'll lead us to Dimensidramon?"
"It can't be just one tree! It says 'trees' so it must have something to do with lots of them! C'mon, lets fly around and see if we can notice anything about them!"
(==========)
A good two hours later, Salmandmon and Reyn were approaching the transfer point they'd arrived from earlier that day. "Well, that took longer than I expected," Reyn remarked as Salmandmon began fiddling with the device.
"It's not like we were in any hurry."
"Well, it mighta been nice to get a head start on finding that Catalyst. So, where to now?" asked Reyn.
"I'm gonna look around for a town or something that I'm confident won't mind you, some place that has a hotel or inn or something like that," Salmandmon mumbled as he looked over the display of the machine. "We'll get a room for the night there, and spend some time scouting around for information on the Catalysts. Definitely don't want to start out cold if I can avoid it."
"Yeah, like either of us could even be close to cold."
Salmandmon rolled his eyes at Reyn's lame joke. "You're such a comedian."
"What can I say? I'm on a hot streak."
"That was beyond horrible. You should be arrested for that."
"Getting the heat on me, huh?"
"You're incorrigible. Ah, right, I think I've got something. A little place called Rinikua. It's in the desert kind of east-central of North Tetraquaz, a fairly quiet little place that's welcoming of travelers. I remember being there a couple times over the years I've been with Libertius. They shouldn't have any problem with you."
"Cool. Let's get going."
"All right, all right, keep your skin on." Salmandmon activated the console and the two of them were teleported from outside Oroetem to not far outside Rinikua.
And right smack dab in the middle of a minor calamity.
There was a huge cloud of dust in the area around where they materialized. Both human and digimon were forced to cover their eyes, but they could very well hear the commotion almost right on top of them. "Reyn, run!" Salmandmon shouted through the choking dust.
"Where?"
"Anywhere except where the sounds are coming from!"
The two took off, not really having any idea where they were going to end up. After a few seconds, they were away from the immediate vicinity of the attack, and had a moment to get their bearings. As they opened their eyes, they could finally see what was causing all the chaos. A rather large, skeletal creature with two large pincers and a long, stinging tail was rampaging around, chasing after something smaller that was almost completely obscured in the dust and sand the larger creature was kicking up. Reyn got a brief glimpse of it through the clouds and thought he recognized it. "Salmandmon, it looks like that's a Jagamon that's running away from that huge creature."
"That's a Scorpiomon! There's a bunch of them in this desert, and they're really territorial! Jagamon must have gotten too close and riled it up! We'd better help out, fast, or he'll be killed!"
"Right!" The two glowed briefly and merged into Burnreptimon, then quickly shifted upwards to Blazereptimon. The reformed fire warrior gripped his hands and rushed for Scorpiomon, trying to draw its attention. "Hey! Big ugly! Get over here!"
Scorpiomon wasn't biting, still fixated on the panicking Jagamon. Blazereptimon growled; they could be very single-minded when in a rage, he would have to do more than just shout to get its attention. He pulled back his hand and let loose with a restrained Solar Wave, connecting with Scorpiomon's stinger. That finally got the creature's notice, and it swung around and roared loudly at the interfering attacker.
"Hurry and transfer somewhere!" Blazereptimon yelled to Jagamon before jumping back out of the range of Scorpiomon, just in time as the massive stinger plunged into the sand where he had been standing. He launched another Solar Wave, keeping the creature fixated on him without doing too much damage. Unfortunately, it was still pissing off the Scorpiomon, and it was coming at him more fervently now, forcing him to be more evasive.
The Jagamon was quickly hitting buttons on the Transfer Point, trying to get away as fast as possible. Blazereptimon fired once more, again leaping back just in time to avoid the counter-attack. The dust from the commotion was starting to irritate his eyes, making it a little hard to focus; fortunately, Scorpiomon was pretty much impossible to mistake, and he was still able to keep up with the evasion.
A sudden bright flash from nearby signaled that Jagamon had finally departed for parts unknown. That objective completed, he turned up the heat on Scorpiomon, unleashing a more forceful Solar Wave than before. However, it's enraged state caused it to virtually ignore the attack, lunging right through it at Blazereptimon. The lizard narrowly avoided being crushed by jumping on top of Scorpiomon and then leaping right off its back and landing behind it. He turned around as Scorpiomon tried to right itself. "All right, you asked for it. Incendiary Ring!"
A ring of flames formed around Scorpiomon and closed in on it quickly, meeting at a point in the center and then bursting out in a powerful explosion, nailing Scorpiomon square. With a pained roar is collapsed, heaving on the ground. Blazereptimon waited, watching to see if it was going to get back up and keep fighting. After a minute, Scorpiomon rose again, but it didn't continue to engage; instead, it trudged off, appearing to determine that this prey wasn't worth it.
Blazereptimon relaxed. No point in going after it...Jagamon's safe, so might as well live and let live. With no more danger in the immediate vicinity, he reverted to base form and split back into Reyn and Salmandmon.
"Phew...how's that for making an entrance?" Salmandmon panted, a little tired from all the exertion of their merged body.
"I think I'd rather get held at spearpoint by those guards again," Reyn griped, clearly not happy with the sudden unexpected battle. "Just our luck we ended up here! Could that thing have destroyed the transfer point?"
"Maybe not destroyed...they're designed to withstand a lot of damage. But they can be damaged, and if they are they won't be usable until they're repaired. Fortunately, the network is pretty well monitored by the Kaiser's crew, so any damage gets picked up on pretty quickly. Still, it'd be inconvenient if one got damaged when we needed to get somewhere specific."
"No kidding. If it's a day minimum between points, that'd be a hell of a lot of walking." Reyn shook his head. "Jeez...that thing isn't gonna come around Rinikua, is it? Or its siblings or such?"
"That would be really unlikely, but it's happened before. Before I joined Libertius, I spent time as a guard for various towns and villages to keep stuff like that from happening, as well as to keep unsavory characters out. Larger towns and cities generally have less to worry about, because they're almost always built with some kind of defensive walls. But not everyone likes walls, so the smaller places tend to take their chances. Rinikua should have some guards, so we should at least be forewarned if trouble starts."
"I sure as heck hope so. I don't want to be playing wandering hero if I can help it. More exposure to danger means more risk for us."
"Well, hopefully we'll get to the Catalyst soon, and we won't have to worry so much about that. C'mon, Rinikua's a ways away, and I'd rather not sit out here and wait for another Scorpiomon to come around."
(==========)
It was getting pretty dark, and Breezedrmaon and Avimon knew they had only a limited time before the light dimmed enough that they wouldn't be able to see anything that wasn't glaringly obvious.
"Have you noticed anything about the trees?" Avimon asked breathlessly as they set down for a breather. "I haven't seen a thing."
"Yeah, I've seen that some of them are a different color than the others! But I've been trying to see if there's a pattern to them, and haven't been able to tell."
"Well, you've been right about everything else so far. I think by now I'm game to go with your instinct."
"Okay...we just need to figure out how they matter. And fast, if we don't wanna spend another night in this place!"
"How, though? Do we just walk along and try to count them? That'll take well more than a day."
"Yeah, that'd be too long. Man, if only we could see all of the trees at once..."
It hit them both at exactly the same time. "Hey, we can!"
Avimon smacked his forehead. "I can't believe we didn't think of trying to fly above them in the first place!"
"Well, all the other clues have been kinda needed us to be close to see them. Beside,s we might not have known what we were looking for before!"
"Yeah, I think you're right. C'mon, let's get up there while we've still got enough light to tell which ones are which!"
"That's the spirit!"
The two took off again and quickly shot up above the canopy, flying high into the air. Though the light was starting to dim, they could still make out the color differences in the trees. "I see them...it looks like...they're in kind of a pattern, but I'm not sure from here what it's indicating," Breezedramon said, flying in a tight circle and keeping his eyes trailing on the oddly-colored trees. "The line extends a long way...kinda loops around a lot."
"Maybe it'll be easier to see from higher up?" Avimon suggested.
"Maybe!" The two rose even higher, working to beat the setting sun.
"I can see a lot of these weird trees now...it looks like..." Avimon narrowed his eyes down at the sea of green below them. "Wait a sec...it looks like writing!"
"Writing? You mean like letters and words?"
"Yeah! I see...well, hold on, it's at least one word, and parts of others are...yeah, just look off to the side a little, you can see a couple others! You were right, this guy does like to show off!"
"We'd better hurry and figure out what it says before the light fades! It might be our ticket to getting to Dimensidramon!"
"Right!" Avimon and Breezedramon rose up again, giving them an even larger view of the forest below. Though they were surrounded by a seemingly infinite ocean of trees, they were finally able to see from well up high that there was a definite repetition. With eyes set on only one iteration, they could make out what was fairly clear script in the woods below:
an offering
for the dragon
As they sank back to the ground, the forest before them was getting very hard to see. As before, they ended up in one particular spot, but by now they had no trouble figuring out where they had to go, and quickly returned to their resting spot.
"An offering for the dragon, huh? Whaddaya wanna bet that the dragon is that statue?" Breezedramon said after they had settled down.
"It has to be...but what kind of offering?"
"It has to be the fruit! It's the only thing here that's unusual compared to the rest of this place. So we take a bunch of it down and put it by the statue, then we should be able to see Dimensidramon!"
"Um, okay..." Avimon shook his head. "I'm not sure I get it. Why go to all this trouble? It seems like there's not really even any point to it. What does he get out of this?"
"Who knows? It's probably some ego thing. Maybe he likes to think people are revering him or something. Anyway, let's go! I don't wanna be trapped here too much longer!"
"Hey, you gotta do the carrying. I can't hold stuff and fly at the same time."
"Yeah, yeah. At least help me gather it up!"
Soon enough, they had a fair amount of the fruit and were on their way to the dragon statue. Despite a couple of stops to pick up some dropped bounty, they were there in a flash, and wasted no time getting everything set up; neither one wanted anything more than to get this done with as soon as possible.
The fruit was strewn somewhat haphazardly at the base of the dragon statue. The two digimon waited with bated breath, hoping that something was going to happen. It was a long period of tense silence.
"...Nothing's happening."
"We can't just leave yet, though."
"Maybe we need more."
"Let's give it a couple more minutes."
"Do you think we could be in any danger from this?"
"Eh, probably. What isn't dangerous around here?"
Avimon was about to respond when there was a rumbling at the statue. "Whoa! What's going on?"
"I dunno...wait, look!" What could only be described as a hole was opening up in midair in front of the statue, revealing a darkness behind it that twinkled with some kind of eerie aura. "That must be a portal of some kind that could take us out of here!"
"Uh, I dunno about you, but I don't know of any places on the outside that dark that aren't also instantly deadly."
"Well, okay, maybe it's not a direct path. Come on, it's not like we're gonna do any better just sitting around here!"
"Okay, okay. You first, though."
Breezedramon took a breath and jumped through the hole. He suddenly had a very strange experience of everything swirling around him. This lasted for several seconds, after which, once everything had righted itself, he found himself sitting in a very dark area, glimmering with that same faint aura. He looked back behind himself to see a similar hole in this environment, showing the forest he had come through.
"Huh, where am I? This is a weird place."
A few seconds later, Avimon appeared behind him, reeling a bit from the effect of the portal. "Whoa...that was about as dizzy as I've ever been. What the heck is that?"
"That's a portal to my realm, you little midgets." Both jumped from the voice which came from right above them. They looked up to see the glowering head of a large dragon bearing down on them. Its long, sickly-orange-colored serpentine body coiled behind, supported only by the gigantic wings on its back. "Now do you want to explain why you are interrupting my repast?"
"Wh-hey, we were just trying to get out of that forest! We weren't trying to bug you or anything!"
"Well, I'm not interested in dealing with pipsqueaks right now. So scram."
"Okay, okay! Um, can you point us in the direction of the nearest portal leading out?"
"Right in front of you."
Breezedramon gulped. "Uh, we were looking for a different kind of out, er, that is, out of that forest place."
Dimensidramon's eyes narrowed at the pair. "Excuse me? You're telling me you don't like my forest? A masterpiece of creation and spatial distortion that I spent ages devising?"
"N-no, your...your forest was...absolutely brilliant, Mr. Dimensidramon?" Avimon stammered out, completely cowed.
"Hah! Merely absolutely brilliant? You runts wouldn't know absolutely brilliant if it smacked you in the face! This is beyond the words of mortals to describe!"
"Er, yes, you're absolutely right! If you could let us go other places, we could tell everyone about it!"
"I don't feel like it. Not gitout."
"What? But...but we can't just stay there!"
"Sure you can. Come back when I'm in a better mood. A couple years or so. Maybe a decade."
"But-"
"I said get!" Dimensidramon turned his back on the duo, leaving them more than a little stunned. Neither one knew exactly what he was trying to attend to - there didn't seem to be anything else in the entire realm to draw his attention.
Avimon turned to Breezedramon, distraught. "What now?"
"Don't worry, I think I've got an idea!"
"I'm not sure I want to know. Please tell me this won't get us killed."
"Of course not! Maybe." Before Avimon could protest, Breezedramon hopped forward. "Hey, Dimensidramon? Do you know how wind works?"
"No, and I don't particularly care-"
"Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On land, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases of charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed, the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect."
"That's nice. Now go aw-"
"Winds are often referred to according to their strength, and the direction from which the wind is blowing. Short bursts of high speed wind are termed gusts. Strong winds of eninterminanidimeate duration are termed squalls. Long-duration winds have various names associated with their average strength, such as breeze, gale, storm, hurricane, and typhoon. Wind occurs on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between climate zones."
"I don't care."
"The two main causes of large scale atemanosparpheriac concirclocamution are the differential heating between the equator and the poles and the rotation of the planet. Within the tropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations. In coastal areas, the sea breeze/land breeze cycle can define local winds; in areas that have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes can dominate local winds."
"Would you be quiet already?"
"Wind can shape landforms via a variety of Aeolian processes such as the formation of fertile soils, such as loess, and by erosion. Dust from large deserts can be moved great distances from its source region b the prevailing winds; winds that are accelerated by rough tomopromogramaphy and associated with dust outbreaks have been assigned regional names in various pats of the world because of their significant effects on those regions."
"Shut up!"
"Wind is caused by differences in pressure. When a difference in pressure exists, the air is accelerated from higher to lower pressure. On a rotating planet the air will be deflected by the rotational reference effect, except exactly on the equator. Outside the tropics and aloft from frictional effects of the surface, the large-scale wins tend to approach geomistrphiralic balance. Near the planet's surface, friction causes the wind to be slower than it would be otherwise. Surface friction also causes winds to blow more inward into low pressure areas."
"I said shut up!"
"Winds defined by an equiliminaribrarium of physical forces are used in the dimcomenpostation and analysis of wind profiles. They were useful for simplifying the amatnostorpharac equations of motion and for making qualminentantivic arguments about the horizontal and vertical distribution of winds. The gameostraiforic wind component is the result of the balance between rotational reference force and pressure gradient force. It flows parallel to isobars and apprimtofoxitates the flow above the atmospheric boundary layer in the medilaminatitutes. The thermal wind is the differene in the grameostrophartic wind between two levels in the atmosphere. It exists only in an amantostophere with homerizcontical tampincticture gramintudes. The aglomonstrotic wind component is the difference between actual and greenostiphoric wind, which is responsible for air filling up cyclones over time. The gradient wind is similar to the grimeristrophotic winds but also includes centropificalfurical force or centactipalartical assimicarelation-"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Dimensidramon roared so loudly that it bowled over Breezedramon backwards. He tumbled backwards, landing in a heap about thirty feet away.
"Never in my life have I heard someone so mindlessly, infuriatingly ANNOYING! How anyone can stand to be around you without going absolutely insane is beyond my ability to comprehend! Are you trying to drive me insane?"
"Um...I just wanted to talk-"
"If that's your idea of talking, I'd sooner erase my ears from existence!"
"B-but I've got so much more!"
"Gah! Not another word! If I have to listen to that again I'll go berserk!"
"But there's no one else to talk to besides you and Avimon, and he already knows all this! C'mon, I wanna talk!"
"I said SHUT UP! What is it going to take to sink that into your thick skull?"
"Um...well, if you'd let us just go out and talk with someone else instead?"
"Fine! Go! Anything to get some peace and quiet again!" Dimensidramon opened up another portal in the dark space, which led out to a much more open area. "And don't let me catch you in my forest again!"
"Okaythankswe'regoingcmonAvimon!" Breezedramon and Avimon wasted no time zipping through the portal, not wanting to risk drawing the dragon's ire further. No sooner were they out under the starry sky than the portal closed behind them, shutting them off from the irritable dragon. Not far away, the forest stood innocently, looking just like an ordinary little patch of trees.
"That was...amazing..." Avimon panted, still not quite over the fright from Dimensidramon's roar. "How the heck did you come up with something like that?"
"Oh, I memorized a whole part of a book on wind a long time ago. I figured out that I could get a lot of people to do stuff I wanted just to keep me from bugging them constantly! It was a lot of fun until they caught on to my game, but me and my friends had a lot of fun with it!"
"Wow. You're...actually kinda smarter than I thought you were."
Breezedramon chuckled. "I get that sometimes. Actually, I can be kinda clueless about a lot of things, but I've learned stuff over the years! And I guess Sky's probably helped out, too."
"Man, if that's what humans are good for, then sign me up."
"Oh, they're good for lots more stuff than that! That's why I'm trying to make sure Emperius doesn't blow them all up!"
"That sounds like a cause I can get behind. Well, you wanna find some place to rest for the night?"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
(==========)
(==========)
Ah, setting exposition, how I love thee. For some reason, my conception of the digital world in this particular incarnation came out very much along the lines of a libertarian's paradise (you will see further examples of this down the line). I'm not sure why that is, since I'm hardly a libertarian, but I decided to run with it anyway.
Here's a fun game (drinking game if you're feeling bold): try to find all the segments in this fic that clearly only exist because I was reading a page on TV Tropes. I probably shouldn't be reading that site at all while this thing is still in production, it's too much inspiration.
Points to anyone who knows where I borrowed my "know-it-all" annoyance technique for Breezedramon from. There's a couple different sources, actually, so you can be right in lots of ways. The text was copied nearly verbatim from Wikipedia; the only editing was removing references to Earth and then Breezedramoning the big words. I especially love that last paragraph, which had a bunch of them. That whole part was fun to write.
Anyway, like I briefly alluded to up above, this chapter was originally a lot shorter. Then I got some inspiration and just started writing. Good thing, too, because before it stank, and now it's pretty good, at least in my eyes. You're the final judge, of course. I hope things made sense, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to go about everything and I hope nothing got lost in the shuffle.
Thanks to The Silent Insomniac for his recent review. It brought to mind a good point: not working with multiple viewpoints did contribute to the difficulty, and I think overall it is more challenging for me. That gives me something to work on, though, and maybe I'll be getting better by the time I'm through with this separation section. I'm already conceiving the next chapter focusing on Iris and Shockavimon, and already I think it's going more smoothly. Practice makes perfect, or something close to it, I guess.