Ok, this one ended up being a LOT bigger than we expected it would be, but a LOT does happen in it
So strap in and get ready for quite a lot to happen!
Dark Tides! Surge Forth, MetalSealmon!
"And here we go, Silphymon and Destromon," Weiss said, bringing up the data on the two recently evolved Perfects.
"Wow… and I thought OUR Perfects were strong… Destromon blows them all out of the park." Tentomon noted.
"Thanks." said the voice of Bemmon… coming from a small Digimon that looked a LOT like Tsumemon, except purple in color and with a green eye. This was Bugmon. "Blowing that thing up was pretty fun."
"It certainly was exciting to just toss it around like that." said a small pink Digimon with small wings, a tiny beak, and a red feather on the back of his head. Poromon, the Baby level of Hawkmon.
"The only thing though is if she wasn't gunning for us before, she probably will now," Aile mused.
"Hm...that COULD be a little problematic," Gyro mused. Having Grimm after them almost all the time would definitely make moving around Remnant harder.
"Though...seeing as we activated our Crests at the right time...think she'd be aware of them?" Rusty mused.
"Not sure she'll draw the connection, but let's just be safe and assume she at least has SOME idea. HIGHLY doubt she'll have a clue what they are, but it'd be safer for us to assume she connected some dots," Pierce frowned.
"Still, you guys did good defending that town from her Grimm." Ruby praised them "And it's a good thing Caturamon's evolution looks to be a permanent one, he'll be able to defend it on his own now that we're gone."
"Yeah, now the first Primary Village on Remnant can actually have a chance to grow." Jaune added with a smile.
"Thanks guys." Rusty said with a small grin.
"Now then, let's keep going. We'll want to try to make it to Mistral sooner so we can set up some kind of base. Especially the only thing we need to deal with after this, is making sure Adam doesn't off Sienna," Gyro said, earning nods of agreement from everyone on board as they set a course for Mistral. They had a nut job to stop.
"Speaking of stuff to do," Yang mused as they were on the way. "Isn't it about time for Cinder to come looking for the Spring Maiden?"
"Well, she's gonna be finding a whole lot of nothing," Keenan smirked a bit.
"What… happened here?"
That was the first thing Cinder said in confusion when they'd discovered the hideaway of what were apparently the Branwen Bandit tribe… or rather the ruins of said hideaway.
"Looks like a tornado went through it. Or one hell of an angry mob," Mercury commented, picking up a sword that had been snapped cleanly in two before tossing it aside. "My money is on the angry mob though."
"Either way… our best lead on the Spring Maiden is gone without a trace." Watts said, holding up a severed arm that was partially burned "I've identified the finger prints on this hand, they belonged to Raven Branwen. I can't see a charred skeleton near them though, and the bloody footprints fade rather quickly… too quickly honestly."
Cinder rose an interested eyebrow "Should we… be concerned?"
"Maybe." Watts said with a frown "The spot where her footprints, well, I assume hers at least, disappear… there's three other sets of footmarks that just seemed to pop up from nowhere. A pair of boots, some regular shoes, and a pair of high heels."
"So… a man, a kid and a woman suddenly grabbed her and… vanished?" Mercury asked incredulously.
"Apparently so," Watts mused. "Perhaps they made use of her Semblance to escape, or perhaps not…" he frowned as the next thing he found was the broken remains of the sword Raven wielded: Omen.
Cinder narrowed her eyes at the sight "It seems… this place… has nothing for… us." she spoke through her breathing apparatus "Let's make… for Mistral… and quietly."
"Yes… for once we agree." Watts spoke, deep in thought as he wondered just what had happened here.
"Hm…" Gennai frowned, seeing something rather concerning on the computer screen, before speaking into the speaker system "Everyone, you might want to come to the computer room, I found something… that might be trouble."
Moments later, the group had stepped into the computer room, looking at the screen in concern.
"Something wrong?" Palmon asked.
"Yes, I'm picking up another Dark Tower signal," Gennai said.
"Again? Didn't we JUST deal with those?" Gomamon groaned.
"It's in a different location than the ones you dealt with. It seems to be coming from somewhere between Server and File. Where exactly….I can't say for sure, the signal is being interrupted," Gennai said.
"If it's just one this time… that might mean wherever the signal is coming from is being used as a base of operations by whoever's making these." Gyro frowned.
"We should tell Oren about this. BEFORE we do it this time." Weiss suggested.
After the last Dark Towers that popped up, they'd informed Oren after the fact, and while he appreciated them taking them down, he would have liked to be informed sooner so he could try to gather data.
"Good call." Ruby nodded in agreement "Gennai, can you patch him through?"
"Already calling him." Gennai said with a nod, the screen showing a black window that had a ringing phone in the center, before it suddenly shifted to Oren's face, his two partners hanging off his shoulders.
"The fact you all call me so casually…" Oren sighed when he saw their faces, earning a few chuckles from them "But, I assume there's a good reason you did so?"
"Yeah, another Dark Tower popped up, this time it's between Server and File over the open ocean." Agumon said.
"Another one?" he frowned, earning several nods, to which he quickly checked on something. "As I'm sure you're probably aware it's not one of mine. Dammit...whoever leaked the information covered their tracks. I've been combing through my system and my forces, but so far I haven't been able to find anything," he growled. "Well...maybe not nothing. I DID find a few who were abusing their power and quickly got rid of them. If nothing else this has been helping clean up my forces," he sighed wryly.
"Thankfully for that at least," Tentomon chuckled. "But yeah, I'm sure you got an idea why we called."
"Considering they use my system, I'd be the best to dismantle them and hopefully find out who the hell stole my systems," Oren sighed.
"That's the idea yeah," Gyro nodded. "So...you in?"
"I am." Oren said "Where should we meet?"
"I think it's best if you meet up with us once we're on the water, since we need to stop by a town that… might not react well to you." Pierce said with a wince "It's all the way on File, so it's for sure out of your territory, but… yeah, word spreads fast in the Digital World."
Oren winced as well "Fair point… I'll wait for you to ping me again then." he said, before the call was ended.
"Wait, why are we going to File?" Rusty asked curiously once he had the chance, now that Oren was gone.
"We're going to need our ship if we want to be able to search and have an easy place to return to in case we get tired." Jaune said "Last we checked, the Ocean Destiny was back on File after Whamon brought it back there, WAY back when we arrived on Server the first time."
"Huh… speaking of Whamon… wonder if he DID revive once Yggdrasil fixed the Primary Villages?" Gomamon wondered.
"I sure hope he did." Nora said with a smile "He kinda felt like a helpful grandpa whenever he was giving us a hand."
"I'm sure he did," Salamon said.
"She's right. When you defeated the Dark Masters, all the data that had been held back was freed and were able to be reborn. Whether or not all of them were reborn with their memories or not I cannot say, but I'm sure everyone who was killed by the Dark Masters is living another life now," Gennai reassured.
Everyone smiled a bit at that, grateful for his words.
"You know… I kinda want to come along for once. Would be nice to see the Digital World for myself." Qrow said with a smirk.
"Huh… don't know if it'll work, but it's sure as heck worth a shot." Gyro said "Can you set some coordinates for us Gennai?"
"Of course, File City actually has a transfer center for just these kinds of occasions." he said as he turned back to the computer.
"Huh… wonder how much the city has changed since last time?" Gabumon mused.
"Guess we're about to find out." Biyomon said as the gate was soon ready.
One transfer later and the group soon found themselves in their destination, and well…
"Oh wow...they've REALLY been busy," Gyro said, as what had once been a sizable town was...well...an actual city.
"Hey, did they relocate?" Yang asked.
"What makes you say that?" Jaune asked, to which she pointed, and they all saw Mount Infinity towering over them, much closer than it had been the last time they were here.
"Oh wow, they DID relocate," Gabumon gasped.
"To the base of Mount Infinity at that," Pyrrha agreed.
"I THINK somebody mentioned that to us before? Can't remember who though, been a while." Veemon muttered, before shrugging, since it wasn't really important in the long run.
"What WAS this place like before?" Qrow asked.
"Sizable town, nothing too big. Now though…" Ruby said, looking at the actual city complete with tall buildings they were in.
"It kinda looks like a mix of Mistral and Vale in terms of architecture." Rusty noted as he looked up.
"Doesn't look like they have any cardboard buildings anymore." Blake said as the group started walking, leaving the transfer point behind as slowly they started to spot Digimon in the city.
"Wait… cardboard buildings? Seriously?" Oscar asked.
"That sounds rather… impossible." Penny said skeptically.
"This is the Digital World." Ren told them as a counter.
"...this world really IS anything goes," Qrow sweatdropped, before shaking his head. "So, where's this ship you kids said you have?"
"Should be around the harbor, but we'd better ask around," Ruby said.
"Yeah, for us it's been a year, but here… it's been CENTURIES since we were last on File. Probably best if we try to find Jijimon first." Yang said.
Weiss hummed, tapping on her scroll a bit "Been a while since I've looked at this map." she said, a fond smile on her face "Looks like it auto-updated… File City has REALLY gotten big since we left. It wraps around Mount Infinity completely. It even looks like the Primary Village has moved to be inside of the city, probably for easier protection."
"Makes sense," Blake nodded. "Primary Village is the most important location on any landmass. It only makes sense that they'd want it to be better protected."
With that said they continued on their search to find Jijimon, assuming he was both still the leader of the city, and if he was even still around. Fortunately as it turned out, he was.
"Well now, it's been quite some time," Jijimon chuckled as they were easily pointed to his home...which had grown into a full on town hall now.
"Surprised you still remember us with how old you are now." Gyro said jokingly, earning him a light bop on the head from Jijimon's cane.
"I'll have you know I've gone through my whole life cycle again since the last time you were here. I just went with being Jijimon again." Jijimon informed them, amusement in his tone showing he wasn't angry at the joke.
"How've you been doing Jijimon?" Agumon asked with a smile.
"Quite well actually. File City has actually absorbed all the other small villages of File Island into itself, so all non-feral Digimon live here now. Certainly makes it easier to keep track of everyone." Jijimon informed them.
"Does that mean the hive is in the city now?" Biyomon asked curiously.
"Well, yes, at least normally. They finally finished construction you see, and it can now flow around, but they always return here to do trade and get some supplies. They usually land at the lake docks." Jijimon explained.
"Glad they were able to finish, especially after what happened with the Dark Masters," Wormmon smiled.
"At any rate, I imagine you coming here is more than just a social visit, what with things being less than peaceful lately," Jijimon said, earning several nods.
"Yeah...we're looking for something but it's out at sea so we're hoping to get our ship again," Agumon said.
"Well then, you'll be quite happy to know we've been taking good care of your vessel. In fact, we've done a few improvements to it over the years. Had a feeling you might need it again," Jijimon chuckled.
"Awesome, let's go and have a look then." Jaune said, all of them eager to see their ship.
"Uh… I think that's more than just a FEW improvements." Gomamon said as he and everyone else stared up with wide eyes.
"I don't think we can even call it the Ocean Destiny anymore," Pierce said, because the ship before them...was nothing like the wooden ship they'd been able to use so long ago. Oh, the basic shape was still there, but what had once been a wooden ship had become a steel ship, painted a dark green color, the deck of the ship had a wooden plating, probably so it didn't feel so cold, a trio of masts with currently rolled up sails, a pair of paddles at the back of the ship, a far larger cabin on the back of the ship… oh, and it's size was now more comparable to a certain lion-headed ship from a fan favorite pirate series.
"I think the figure-head is different too." Veemon noticed, as while it looked a bit like a Mermaimon still, there was several notable differences.
"I THINK that's AncientMermaimon, a Digimon talked about in myths." Tentomon said.
"In short, our ship got a MASSIVE upgrade since we last saw it in just about every way," Biyomon said in awe.
The group then heard a rather loud "WHAT?!" from behind them, turning around to see Gyro looking stunned as he looked at a Numemon with a worker's cap between his eyestalks.
"Yeah, I know, that stuff is pretty rare to come by, but it's true." the Numemon said with a firm nod.
"Freaking…" Gyro said, before sighing "Thanks Numemon. I'll let everyone else know." he said, the slimy Digimon nodding before scurrying away to his next job.
"Something the matter?" Ruby asked Gyro once he got close.
"Well… it's not a problem, but…" he sighed again "Apparently… the metal making up the ship is a combination of Wotz Steel, Wapometal and Chrome Digizoid while the wood inside of it is Adam Wood."
While almost everyone looked confused, Pierce felt his jaw hit the ground "You're shitting me right now…"
"What? What's so good about those materials?" Palmon asked.
"Well, for Adam Wood, remember when we fought Puppetmon's robot? It was made out of Adam Wood for the most part, so that made it SUPER tough. It's wood from a rare tree known as the Jewel Tree Adam, a tree that has had wars fought over it for how durable and indestructible it is." Pierce explained "And… It's from a manga me and Gyro like called One Piece. Same goes for Wotz Steel and Wapometal."
"In short, we probably have the best ship we could ever ask for." Gyro said, before looking up at the ship "Like Pierce said though… at this point it's not even the Ocean Destiny. They even changed the keel."
"What's a keel?" Huckmon asked.
"It's the central part of a ship, running along the hull below the water." Qrow said "It's basically a ship's equivalent to a human spine."
"And to change the keel of a ship is to make a new one from the ground up at that point." Pierce finished.
"So… this ship needs a new name then." Hawkmon said, he and Bemmon having evolved back while the group had been on their way to the docks.
"Pretty much. Can't set off without one." Gyro said as he looked up at their new ship, trying to think of a name for it.
Everyone thought about it, but eventually Ruby was the one to come up with one. "Hm...we're gonna be taking it out to sea, with the sails catching the wind...and we're the ones who bring back the light to the world…" she mused. "How about 'Shining Wind'?" she offered.
"Hey! That sounds pretty good!" Nora said with a grin.
"I like it." Gabumon agreed, with everyone else soon throwing in their own agreement.
"Alright, Shining Wind it is then." Gyro chuckled. "Now all we need is a jolly roger and we'd look like a proper crew." he said jokingly, earning a few laughs from the others.
"I can help with that." came a voice from behind him, making him look back and down to see a Digimon shaped like a pencil, his fingers made of crayons and his toes from sharpened pencil leads of various colors.
"And you are?" Gyro asked with a blink.
"Name's Ekakimon, I'm an artist." the Digimon introduced himself.
Digimon Analyzer: Ekakimon
Ekakimon. Data Type. A Child Level Mutant Digimon. A Digimon created from data of various artists, it has a body made from a special rainbow pencil that can be any color it desires. It's constantly working on improving its art, drawing anything and everything it wants. Special attack is Colorful Change, firing out a splash of color from its hands, the color determining the element the attack has.
"Huh, convenient," Pierce mused.
"I mean… I was joking… but…" Gyro trailed off, before looking back at the others.
"Go for it. Would be fun to have that as a joke." Blake said with a shrug and a small smile, the others agreeing.
Gyro grinned, before turning back to Ekakimon "I think you can help us then. And don't worry, we can pay."
Ekakimon grinned back "Alright, show me what you need me to draw then!"
Minutes later, and Ekakimon had finished, a white flag flapping gently from the main mast, sporting a white skull with a friendly and cartoonish grin, the crossbones behind it a pair of swords, goggles around the skull's forehead, and the 12 Crests of the Chosen all around it in a circle. He'd even drawn it on the main sail, along with another small one on a black flag, just for fun.
"Looks like this ship is officially ours again," Salamon chuckled.
"Kinda feels nice to have it back," Pyrrha smiled.
"Now if only we'd have an easy place to store it whenever we're not using it," Gabumon frowned.
"Eh, I'm sure we'll get something like that eventually. Besides, from what that Numemon worker told Gyro, the sails are actually solar sails that catch solar energy, so it can move pretty fast thanks to the generators it has to power the paddle system." Agumon said.
"A fast ship is a good ship, especially with how much we'll have to search." Wormmon nodded sagely.
"It helps that there's a LOT of space below deck." Aile said as she came up topside from the stairs that led below deck "They were able to use the same tech that they used on the RV from what I can guess, so we have enough room for everyone, with plenty more to spare."
"Wow, we've got a moving bunker for land, and now we got one for sea too," Jaune said.
"And all we need now is one for air and we've got the whole set," Patamon chuckled.
"Let's start with getting used to the sea part first," Weiss said in amusement.
"And without further delay, let's start the Shining Wind's maiden voyage then," Gyro grinned, and making sure everything was set, started the systems of the ship which soon began to leave the harbor, several Digimon waving goodbye, among them Jijimon and Ekakimon.
Once they were far away from the harbor, they started exploring what the ship had to offer fully.
For starters, as stated before, it was as big as a certain lion headed ship, the main deck being fully wooden, but having a large rug placed over it, a set of stairs off to the side of the deck letting people go below deck. The main mast was right in the center of the deck, with the crow's nest being more like an observation platform of tinted glass, looking like a dark bubble stuck at the tip of the mast, the flag fluttering right over it. The front and back halves of the main deck were on a slightly higher level, with stairs to allow to go to them, the front portion having a small cabin with a seat in it and a console with several screens, designed to allow a perfect view of the front of the ship so they could steer it correctly, while the back half held a workout room. Below deck was where the ship really shined, as it was MUCH larger with several floors, everybody having their own room down below that were about the same size as the rooms they had in the RV, a few still empty rooms for any other people who might join them on a journey as well, and each room came with it's own bathroom. The next floor underneath it was pretty much a huge kitchen and dining room that spanned the whole floor, with a table long enough to host a whole party around it. The next floor after that was the final one, having both a library and a forge in it, along, of course, with a computer room. One other feature of the boat was the ship-wide PA system that allowed for easy communication with the rest of the ship.
In short, it was everything they could want or need for a voyage. "Damn...they did a REALLY good job with this," Pierce whistled, summing up the overall thoughts of everyone on board.
"It really is like we've got a nautical version of the RV," Rusty said.
"And its gonna help us out a LOT," Agumon agreed.
"Welp, now that we've scouted out the ship, time for the mission to begin," Gyro said earning several nods of agreement.
"First things first, let's make sure Oren knows where to find us," Weiss said, as they soon sent the message, giving Oren their coordinates and confirmation that they could meet up. They quickly got a response...and shortly after they saw something flying towards them, revealing to be an Airdramon...with a familiar trio riding on its back.
"That's one way to show up," Qrow said in surprise. Not everyday you see a teenager and what looked like a couple of rabbits flying in on the back of a flying serpent.
Digimon Analyzer: Airdramon
Airdramon. Vaccine Type. An Adult Level Mythical Beast Digimon. A flying serpent Digimon that carries the power of a dragon in its body, said to have once been a regular serpent before it grew wings. Its roar is said to be able to call forth storms, and the beating of its wings capable of creating tornados, though how much of this is true is yet to be determined. Special attack is God Tornado, breathing out a tornado of flame and wind from its mouth.
Airdramon swooped low over the ship, with Oren and his partners jumping off and sliding down the main mast until they touched the floor.
"Leave it to you to show up in style," Hawkmon chuckled.
"Jokes aside though, welcome to the Shining Wind. It USED to be called the Ocean Destiny, but after the Digimon reworked it like crazy...we decided a rename was necessary," Veemon said.
"Thank you." Oren said with a smile "It's certainly an impressive ship."
"And it's gonna help us find the Dark Towers too," Ruby nodded.
"All we need now is to play a game of hot and cold with the signal," Weiss said.
"Well then, let's not waste any time then," Oren chuckled.
With that the group set out. Connecting to the computer room, they were able to send out a radar to help them track the Dark Tower signals. "Really glad this ship isn't wind powered only anymore. Or this would take us weeks," Blake sighed.
"Still nice riding on this ship again though," Patamon chuckled.
"It IS a very nice ship," Huckmon agreed.
"Though...are we actually gonna use it much?" Oscar mused.
"Eh, we'll use it when we need to, however often or rare that is," Gomamon shrugged.
Eventually they started to get closer to the signal, and they saw the apparent source of it.
"Is that...an oil rig?" Gyro blinked.
"It's a bit strange to have it be all the way in the middle of the ocean." Weiss said with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah… still, if this is the source, we should check it out." Jaune said.
With that said, the group soon docked the Shining Wind at a section to the side of the oil rig.
"This place looks pretty big," Pierce mused. "Gonna take a while if we search the outside and inside one by one."
"Think we should split up to cover both quickly?" Jaune suggested. "If anyone finds anything they can call the others immediately."
"In that case, we'll split in half. Since you got the idea Jaune, you can lead one of the two groups." Gyro said in amusement.
"That's fine." Jaune said with a smile.
"Alright, so for outside… Team RWBY volunteers!" Ruby said with a grin, her teammates chuckling a bit but not disagreeing.
Gyro hummed, looking at a few of the others "Speaking of Teams actually… I know we aren't in Beacon, but how about we make another Team to help us more easily split into groups?"
"Who'd you have in mind?" Pierce asked him.
"Me, you, Rusty and Aile, Team GRAP (Grape). It keeps with the color naming rule, and in our practice sessions we've already got basic synergy down, we'd just need to work on actual team tactics." Gyro said.
"Oh WOW we haven't done those in a while." Ruby blinked in surprise as she thought back to the last time they had made tactics exclusive to just their own team.
"I'm fine with this." Rusty said.
"Same here." Aile added with a smile "Guess we're Team GRAP now."
Gyro nodded, his brother grinning and giving him a thumbs up, before he turned back to the rest "In that case, Team GRAP also volunteers for the outside."
"And that leaves Team JNPR and…" Jaune mused, looking at the remaining members…
"We get what you're thinking, but let's save the possible team naming for another time," Oren said in amusement.
"Right, so we'll be joining on the interior exploration," Falcomon nodded.
"Let's report back here in an hour if we don't find anything," Penny said, earning several nods.
With that the party split up and began the exploration.
"So...what exactly are we looking for?" Oscar asked. "You called it a 'Dark Tower', right?"
"Basically we're looking for an obelisk of sorts, only colored jet black," Oren said. "I should know, they're a rip off of the Crystal Towers I made and programmed," he said in annoyance.
"He may not look it, but he can get pretty salty when people make knock offs of what he makes, and don't even ask for permission first," Terriermon supplied.
"I think we can all understand that one," Gabumon nodded.
"And the sooner we find out who did it the better," Ren nodded.
"And hopefully we can find out just what exactly their hoping to do with these knock-offs. It can't be anything good." Lopmon added with a frown of concern. With that the group soon found a way into the interior via what appeared to be a hatch of some kind, allowing them to enter. The interior was cold and dark, but they could see some light which they moved towards. When they reached it they found….
"Is this...some kind of laboratory?" Monodramon asked.
"It has to be. Whoever's lab this is…" Pyrrha trailed off.
"It's gotta be the same person making those Dark Towers." Nora said with a frown.
"Then we need to get as much information as we can from this lab." Oren said "Hopefully, we'll get a clue about what they're doing."
With that said, Oren immediately went over to one of the nearby consoles and started seeing if he could hack into it. "Yep, it's definitely our target. These systems are all based on mine. How long have I had that spy in our ranks and how much information have they been leaking?" he growled.
"Perhaps I could be of assistance," Penny said as she worked on another console.
"Since you're from Atlas, I imagine you've got a decent idea of how my system works, so sure. Any help is appreciated. Just...leave the sensitive stuff to me. Since this is working similar to my own systems there's gonna be a booby trap or two set up in the important files," Oren said.
As they were working, the others were looking around the laboratory. "Whoever was working here is one nasty piece of work," Jaune frowned as he read some of the notes left behind. He wasn't exactly a science wiz, but he could tell an immoral experiment when he saw one. And what was this about 'controlling Digimon'? It sounded too much like the Black Gears for his liking, a sentiment everyone who'd been to File during Devimon's reign could agree with.
As they continued searching, Oscar found something when he moved a few things around. "Hey, there's a secret entrance here!" he said, catching everyone's attention.
"Heh, well what do you know? Not bad, kid," Qrow chuckled.
"Just give us a moment," Oren said as he and Penny continued to work. Eventually…
"Ah!" Penny jumped back from the console as it suddenly sparked before the screen turned off on it's own, Oren's own console doing the same as he moved his hands away just in time to avoid being shocked.
"Dammit… they bricked themselves. Right when we were about to get something too." he frowned.
"Whoever owns this lab isn't someone we should take lightly," Penny frowned in agreement.
"Hopefully we'll find something down here," Nora said, pointing at the secret passage.
"But let's be on guard. There's no telling what other traps they might have in store," Pyrrha added, earning nods of agreement from everyone.
"But just to be safe…" Jaune frowned before quickly updating the others on what they found. This way if anything happened, they'd know where to find them. With that done, they soon descended into the passage. They got about halfway through...when the door they used suddenly sealed itself shut. "What the?!" Jaune gasped, before everyone ran to the door.
"Shut tight," Lopmon frowned.
"Hang on, I'll try and open it," Pyrrha said as she went over to the door and applied her Semblance. However….it didn't budge.
"What? How is your Semblance not working?!" Wormmon gasped.
"Whoever made this place was expecting us," Gabumon frowned.
"He's right. How else can they know to use metals that can't be magnetised," Jaune growled.
"It seems we might have underestimated our opponent," Oren frowned.
"What should we do then?" Keenan asked.
Jaune frowned, thinking about it "I think… for now we should head deeper in, see if there's anything else around here. Who knows, we might even find a way to escape."
"Hey wait, why can't Keenan use his Semblance to get us out?" Nora pointed out.
"Uh...not a good idea. I have no idea what's here, and seeing as this is a place with lots of moving components…" Keenan said...before he and Falcomon shivered violently.
"Yeah...let's not have a repeat of that clockwork castle…" Falcomon gulped.
"Right...normal way it is then," Gomamon said as they all sweat dropped, deciding not to ask the two to elaborate.
The group continued onward, only barely able to see using the light from their Scrolls. Due to that none of them noticed when one of them stepped on a pressure plate on the steps. Eventually they did find a light switch and with that they could actually see where they were, revealing that they were at an opening which led into a large circular room.
"This...looks almost like an arena," Terriermon frowned...right before the path they'd come in from closed. "...I hit this one on the head, didn't I?" he groaned.
"I believe you did dear brother." Lopmon sighed as one of the other gates started to slowly slide up.
"Be ready for anything." Huckmon said, getting ready to fight.
"Somehow I doubt we'll be able to evolve to fight whatever's being thrown at us either." Falcomon said with a frown as he narrowed his eyes.
"Eh, we've gotten some practice against Adult levels plenty at least." Monodramon said as he rotated his shoulders a bit.
At that the gate finished rising up and they saw a Digimon that was about the same size as an adult human, with grey fur over its body, long, red claw-like fingers on its hands, with bandages around the palm area, several golden colored spikes both on top of its head, on the back of it in the shape of long hair, and on its lower back like it was several sharp tails, a few more on its shoulders and feet, a small yellow mark on its chest, and a tiny yellow horn on its nose. Though one odd thing was the black ring around its waist, and the glowing red eyes.
"Huh… don't think I've ever met this Digimon before." Gomamon said warily.
"Just a second." Penny said, her eyes flashing as data streamed across them, surprising Oren next to her, before her eyes blinked a bit as she found the data she was looking for "That's Filmon. He's a strong fighter."
Digimon Analyzer: Filmon
Filmon. Data Type. An Adult Level Beast Man Digimon. A Digimon with many large spikes coming out of its body, born from biology data related to porcupines and hedgehogs. It has a carefree personality, the kind that leads to it to spend its days hunting for soft materials it'll use to make its bed and hunt for its favorite fruit. Special attack is Crimson Slash, whirling in a continuous slash attack with both sets of claws.
"Did… did you just access the Analyzer with your own mind?" Jaune asked in surprise.
"I asked Weiss to download it into my central CPU in case I ever needed." Penny said with a shrug.
"You have a central CPU?" Oren said in utter confusion.
"You sent an SOS through me once." Penny informed him with a raised eyebrow, making her eyes flash in a familiar morse code.
"I thought that was just a random comms line the Chosen used!" Oren exclaimed as he actually stepped back in surprise at that.
"Uh...guys? Probably brainwashed Digimon?" Pyrrha spoke up awkwardly, pointing at the Filmon...who actually had stopped to watch the exchange...oh wow, was it also finding this amusing judging by the quirk of its muzzle?
"Ah, right!" both of them said, the attention now fully back on Filmon...though Oren was clearly still trying to get his bearings back together from the little surprise with Penny.
Filmon quickly turned serious as well as they growled and glared at them, going into a ready stance before suddenly charging forward.
"Whoa!" Jaune gasped as they quickly evaded, but Filmon rebounded and came back only to be blocked by Falcomon and Keenan.
"Hurry and evolve!" they shouted, fighting against Filmon.
"Right!" Pyrrha said as she, Nora, Ren, and Oren quickly pulled out their Scrolls and Digivices. "Digimental Up!"
(Play 'Break Up!')
Their respective partners quickly Armor Evolved, standing at the ready while Filmon was still moving around erratically. "Careful, this thing is pretty fast!" Qrow warned, blocking an attack and just barely able to counter attack.
"Try not to hurt it too much guys!" Jaune said "I don't think it's in control of its actions!"
"Considering a lot of things are based on my design, I recommend destroying the...Dark Ring!" Oren shouted.
"Good as any place to start," Nefertimon nodded as they charged forward.
"First things first, stop its movements!" Raimon growled, before blitzing towards Filmon, who tried to match his speed...but couldn't do it, and ended up slammed into a wall, pinned by Raimon. "Okay...did this one a bit too well," he sweat dropped.
"But it saves us the trouble of too many problems, and saves them the pain," Tetermon said, before quickly shooting a stinger onto the ring, causing it to crack from the impact, while Speedermon L and T came over and hit it with an attack as well, causing the cracks to increase before eventually the ring broke off. The moment it did, Filmon's eyes went back to normal, and they looked around in confusion.
(Song end)
"Well...that was pretty easy," Qrow blinked.
"Considering there were 5 of them? I'm not so surprised," Huckmon sweat dropped.
"Honestly… this was kind of TOO easy." Jaune frowned.
"Yeah… I feel like we're probably missing something." Gomamon added, before they felt the room shake "Yeah, there it is."
Back outside…
"WHY are there so many Seadramon all of a sudden?!" Gyro asked incredulously as the platform was being bombarded in ice attacks from the literal army of Seadramon attacking them.
"I really don't know but hitting them is REALLY annoying!" KajiGreymon said as the Seadramon dived underwater constantly to avoid his attacks, and none of the others were faring any better.
"At least we don't have to worry about the ship," Blake mused, looking at where a Seadramon was floating away...with a large goose egg on its head from where it tried to ram into the Shining Wind. Turns out the materials used on the ship were a bit too hard for its head.
"And we still can't contact the others ever since they sent the last message," Weiss frowned.
"For now we'll have to hold them off as much as we can!" Pegasmon said.
"Easier said than done." Ruby said, trying to snipe the Seadramon while Palmon clung to her back.
"I really hope we find your Digimental soon." Palmon said with a wince as they narrowly avoided being frozen solid.
Gradually, the Seadramon were freezing more and more of the platform, the two teams getting less and less space to move as they were getting boxed in by the ice.
"This is getting bad!" Robinmon shouted, since they weren't taking out the Seadramon nearly fast enough thanks to them having the home field advantage.
"Running out of room here! Anyone got any ideas?!" Yang shouted.
Before anyone could think of a plan though, several Seadramon went flying out of the water, only to land back in albeit a little dazed.
"Uh...is it just me, or is an island coming out of the ocean?" Blake blinked when they turned to see what had rammed into the Seadramon.
"...what does it say that we're not surprised anymore?" Pierce asked dryly.
"That you're WAY too used to this crazy world?" Aile guessed.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Gyro shrugged.
The weirdness soon intensified when the island continued to rise revealing…
"...it's a giant Whamon," everyone who knew about Whamon blinked.
"A giant WHITE Whamon… bigger than the one we knew." KajiGreymon noticed.
Pierce snorted, before looking at his brother "Can I?"
"No." Gyro said in deadpan, knowing what Pierce was talking about.
"It's literally carrying an island about the size of File on its back." Pegasmon noted.
The overgrown Whamon circled around the platform a bit, making sure the Seadramon had all been knocked away enough, before stopping in front of them "It's been quite a long time, Chosen Children."
Several eyes went wide at the familiar voice and the tone of recognition it had spoken in "Whamon?!" everyone who knew him gasped in surprise.
"Well, it's KingWhamon now, but yes it's me," KingWhamon chuckled.
Digimon Analyzer: KingWhamon
KingWhamon. Vaccine Type. An Ultimate Level Aquatic Digimon. A mythical Digimon that is rarely seen by many people, normally said to soar in the skies above the Digital World, yet is capable of going underwater and coating the island on his back in a bubble to protect it. His island is said to be a safe haven for Digimon that simply want to live in peace, as he will do anything to remain hidden. Special Attacks are Giganto Press, body slamming the enemy with his gigantic body, and Ocean King's Roar, firing a massive high pressure wave of water from his maw at the enemy.
The next thing that happened was that Ruby (with Palmon still on her back) turned into rose petals and basically tackled into KingWhamon. "You're okay!" she cried.
"Well...yes," KingWhamon chuckled. "I apologize for causing you all distress the last time we met, but thanks to you I and everyone who died during the Dark Masters' reign have been able to be reborn," he smiled...well they assumed it was a smile based on his tone.
"Piximon's probably back too then." Gyro said "Annoying as his training methods were, it would be nice to see him again."
"Well, as nice as it is to see you again KingWhamon, we're actually in a bit of trouble right now." Blake said.
"Everyone else is inside the oil rig, but we can't contact them, and as you can see, we're having a bit of a problem with these Seadramon," Weiss said.
"In that case, climb on my back. I can take you all underwater to try and find what's wrong," KingWhamon said.
"Uh… don't you mean in your mouth?" Veemon asked curiously.
KingWhamon chuckled "It's fine, trust me, this will work."
"Well… if you say so." ForceBeemon said.
"I think this would be a good time to mention I'm not the BEST swimmer." Rusty noted dryly even as he got on with Vanguamon.
"You won't drown, I promise." KingWhamon said.
As soon as KajiGreymon landed on him, Gyro hoped off, only to pause when his feet splashed a bit, making him crouch down and touch the ground "Huh… spongy and… soapy?" he said, pulling his hand back and making a ring, seeing what looked like a soapy resin between his fingers, before blowing into it and pushing a bubble out, one that actually looked rather thick. He paused for a moment, thinking, before blinking "...Oh!"
"Yeah, it just hit you too huh?" Pierce said, blinking a few times.
"What are you guys talking about?" Yang asked, even as her feet splashed on the ground and she rose an eyebrow.
"You'll see in a second." Gyro said, watching as Blake, Ruby and Palmon got off Pegasmon "Everyone's on KingWhamon."
"Right, this might feel a bit strange then." the massive Digimon said, before suddenly the soapy liquid at their feet started to inflate upwards from several areas on the island, until it all melded together into one MASSIVE bubble covering his back.
"What just happened?" Tornamon asked.
"That would be a similar effect to when a coated ship releases its air ballast and inflates the bubble coating around its body, covering it in a bubble like this, except we just experienced something more similar to what happens directly on the grounds of what is known as the Sabaody Archipelago." Gyro said with a grin.
"It's from the series we talked about earlier, One Piece, it's basically a story that takes place on the high seas, and the main crew at one point reaches an island where they need to coat their ship in a special resin found on the island because that resin is what makes up the protective bubbles on the island, they need it so they can go down to an undersea island." Pierce explained.
"The bubble is basically the only way they can have air underwater, and it also makes their ship sink, but slowly, and it follows the undersea currents to go to the undersea island." Gyro tacked on.
"That's...REALLY helpful," Rusty blinked.
"I'll be diving now, so brace yourselves," KingWhamon said, to which everyone did just that.
It wasn't long before they could now see the ocean...with the bubble keeping them perfectly protected.
"Wow...this is really something else," Aile blinked as they looked around in wonder at the sight around them...which would be better if the Seadramon weren't circling around like something out of a sea monster movie. Fortunately they were Adults and KingWhamon was an Ultimate. Their attacks probably were like mosquito bites to him.
For now though they had to focus on finding their friends.
Meanwhile…
"How deep are we right now?" Qrow groused as they kept going down the stairs of the structure that was more like a winding tower at this point.
"By my estimate, we're probably getting close to the ocean floor at the rate we're going," Oren said.
"In short, we're very deep," Terriermon deadpanned.
"Any idea what's down here?" Ren asked Filmon who'd woken up a while ago.
"Sorry, being controlled by that Dark Ring makes my mind a bit hazy. That and I'm PRETTY sure I was never brought down here so I don't know," Filmon apologized.
"It's fine. We're just glad you're ok after that ring was broken off of you." Jaune told him, earning a smile from Filmon.
"Still… speaking of that ring… doesn't it remind you of something?" Nora said, scratching her head thoughtfully.
"Now that you mention it…" Pyrrha hummed in thought, before she snapped her fingers "Archelomon!"
"That's right! He was going crazy and trashing about and when we used the light of the Digivices, this weird ring thing was pushed out of him." Gabumon remembered.
Oren frowned at that "Did something try to manipulate my data before? When was this exactly?"
"About a year ago, back when Roman Torchwick was arrested the first time, you've probably heard about that, yeah?" Wormmon told him.
Oren nodded "I have yes. Some Beacon students, I'm assuming you, helping in apprehending him and stopping an attacking force of Grimm from getting into the city. I actually had a front row seat to one of the Hell Marches being destroyed by MetalGreymon." he said, before frowning "Still… back then I had only recently started work on my Crystal Rings and only had a small base in the Digital World with a handful of followers who liked my idea of stopping any conflict from possibly breaking out… to think I've been compromised since the start." he said, clenching his fists in anger at someone apparently double crossing him from the start.
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Gomamon said.
"He's right, you had good intentions. It's not your fault someone decided to twist them to their own ends," Keenan agreed. "What's important now is we gotta find out who's behind this and stop them."
"Right," Oren nodded, smiling a little. "Still though...I'm starting to feel like we're just going down to foundation at this rate…"
"Well wherever we're going, I think I can see the bottom," Jaune said.
"Guess we might as well see this to the end then," Oscar shrugged as they neared the bottom, and as they did Jaune suddenly got a signal.
"There's a Digimental down here?" he blinked.
"That could help a lot," Ren nodded as they moved down faster. When they reached the bottom, they found what looked to be another lab, this one looking to be analyzing several materials that were floating in pods, and in one pod in the center was a piece of stone with something sticking out of it.
"There it is!" Gomamon cheered as they went up to it, seeing that it was rather pear shaped, being half grey and purple with a class piece on the back, the Crest of Reliability right on the purple side.
"Looks like it's yours, fearless leader." Nora said with a grin, elbowing Jaune a bit.
"Yeah. Hopefully this'll be an aquatic evolution." Jaune said, before taking out his sword and smashing the pod, water rushing out of it and at their feet while he grabbed the Digimental of Reliability and pulled it off the stone.
"Hard to tell with these things sometimes. I mostly have ice based abilities in my evolutions, but the Digimental of Friendship gives me thunder powers." Gabumon said.
Jaune frowned at that, before Gomamon nudged him "Come on man, this isn't the time for doubt. Just believe in the power that belongs to you, yeah?"
Jaune chuckled a bit at that. "Right. Let's do this," he said, before holding up the Digimental. "Digimental Up!"
(Play 'Break Up!')
The void appeared as the Crest of Reliability spun in the middle, followed by Gomamon and the Digimental entered the scene and they settled in a triangular formation. "Gomamon, Armor Evolution!" Gomamon called out as he made contact with the Digimental. A burst of water emerged forth from him as it cocooned him in a sphere of water, behind him faded images of Ikkakumon followed by Zudomon and ending with Vikemon while within the sphere his form changed, before the new form burst forth from the sphere of water.
The new form was, for starters, HUGE, just a bit bigger than Zudomon, and in the same general shape that Gomamon usually had… but with a now much longer neck like a plesiosaurus, covered in purple armor plating, his main body covered in silver armor that had several ports on the front of the chest, just below the neck, with a glass dome on his back actually looking like the inside of a submarine almost, with several seats in it to allow for people to sit inside. His back legs were gone, and instead he had a pair of underwater thrusters, his front flippers now armored a bit and longer, with sharper looking claws, his head sporting an armored helmet that covered the top of half of it, large fin like protrusions on the back, a harpoon shaped horn on the top of the head, with his orange hair coming out the back of the helmet, his tail now much longer and looking like a mix of a rudder, the tail of a submarine, and another thruster "Undersea Responsibility! MetalSealmon!"
Digimon Analyzer: MetalSealmon
MetalSealmon. Vaccine Type. An Armor Level Aquatic Digimon. A Gomamon that evolved through the power of the Digimental of Reliability, gaining enhanced power over water thanks to it. Digimon that don the power of this Digimental will all become an aquatic type and gain weaponry and abilities fitting of underwater creatures. Special attacks are Harpoon Grapple, firing off the horn on his head while attached to a chrome digizoid chain and wrapping it around the enemy, before proceeding to either swing the enemy around or pull them towards him, and Iron Torpedo, firing off several torpedoes from the many ports on chest that home in on the enemy. (Note: the Torpedoes DO work in the air, don't ask how)
"Okay...getting a bit cramped in here…" Huckmon gulped as they just BARELY had enough room to fit in the now very cramped floor, with MetalSealmon's evolution having broken pretty much all the other pods in the lab.
"Uh… sorry guys." MetalSealmon said with a nervous laugh, before the dome on his back slid open with a hiss "Climb in, I'll get us out of here."
"So now we got a living submarine? Cool," Nora grinned as the chosen didn't even hesitate to go in, with Penny and Keenan joining in shortly after.
"...we're going into a living submarine. Yeah, I don't think it's possible to be drunk enough for this," Qrow sighed, but soon got in anyway along with Oscar and Huckmon.
Inside they found several rows of seats as well as one at the front, which Jaune got on, to which a visor appeared over his eyes. "Wow, I can see everything you see," Jaune said.
"Yep, get ready everyone, cause we are out of here," MetalSealmon grinned as the door shut tight and he rammed through the nearest wall, letting the seawater flood in before he soon exited the room, and out into the ocean….and then the first thing they saw was a GIGANTIC Whamon.
"...out of the frying pan and into the frikkin fire," Qrow said dryly.
"Not exactly," KingWhamon said in amusement (don't ask how he heard that).
"Wait...Whamon?!" the chosen inside and MetalSealmon gasped, eyes wide.
"Hey, looks like you guys found a Digimental, glad something good came out of this trip," came Gyro's voice...to which they all noticed the rest of their party was on KingWhamon's back inside what looked like a big bubble, and he was holding a megaphone. (Seriously, don't ask how it works in the water)
"Okay...I'm guessing a LOT of things happened while we were separated," Jaune sweat dropped.
"Pretty much yeah," Yang grinned a bit as she stole the megaphone off of Gyro, before passing it to Blake.
"But let's save catching up for later, the Seadramon are back," Blake said, to which everyone noticed that yes, a swarm of Seadramon, all with Dark Rings, were coming at them.
"I'd like to help, but in this form I can't do anything more than knock them back without risking serious damage," KingWhamon said.
"Right, makes sense," MetalSealmon nodded, because well...KingWhamon was way too big to do anything without causing serious harm. "Leave it to me then," he said before jetting forward, aiming straight for the Seadramon. "Harpoon Grapple!" he called out, firing the attack and wrapping it around one of the Seadramon, to which he increased his speed and suddenly he pulled the Seadramon along and used it to hit the others. The others didn't take kindly to that, and fired their attacks, but MetalSealmon evaded, and using the chain, soon wrapped around them, holding them in place.
"Now we've got them in place, aim for the Rings!" Jaune said, the HUD he had on him showed targeting crosshairs which aimed right for the Rings. "Now!"
"Iron Torpedo!" MetalSealmon called out, firing the attack, the torpedos flying and hitting the rings perfectly, causing all of them to break and with that, the Seadramon were freed from the control. Retracting the chain, they immediately broke off and scattered, no longer under the Dark Rings' control.
(Song end)
"Now then… we just need to find that Dark Tower signal." Jaune said as they headed back up to the surface, seeing the still frozen rig and looking around "Hard to figure out just what the tower is in all of those things." he said, as the rig was covered in smoke stacks and radio towers.
"If I may, I think I can solve this problem easily." KingWhamon said, before swimming around the rig a bit until his tail was facing it, before he lifted it up… and just brought it down on the whole structure, utterly crushing everything beneath his tail.
"Looks like that worked." Oren said, looking on his scroll to see that the signal of the Dark Tower faded away just as KingWhamon crushed the platform.
"So now that that's taken care of, we'd better go over what we've found so far," Pierce frowned.
"And we've got quite a few things to go over," Oren said. He was NOT happy knowing his technology was being abused like this...
Ta-da!
Bet this chapter was pretty surprising huh?
So, yeah, first, the Ocean Destiny makes it's return, but as the Shining Wind, a brand new ship that's about the same size as the Thousand Sunny from One Piece... yeah this chapter was us having fun by grabbing stuff from One Piece and throwing it in there in regards to the ship.
But! The next important bit, Oren joining up again.
Trust me, he's the furthest thing from the Kaiser you'll ever see.
And of course, the return of Whamon, done in a far better way than when 02 did since this time there was actual emotion. Seriously, as much as I like 02 and the things it introduced, it had horrible pacing and little in the way of explanation during it's first half.
And, of course, our next Digimental, and the debut of MetalSealmon. Once again, credit for the original design goes to neoarchangemon on DeviantArt, I just did some tweaks and mods on it to make it more streamlined into the story.
But, anyway, hope you'll stick around for the next chapter, because...
The Adventure Evolves
