Sorry this took so long to get out people.
I... kind of forgot to post it, and we've had this finished for a little over a month, and I was helping Timeless out with Pokemon Retold recently because I was in the mood for that.
But, yeah, both this, and the latest chapter of String of Life as well have been finished for a bit and are now being posted, so if you were following that other story, go check it out too.
Anyway, on with what you were waiting for. (and stop asking me to update certain stories, it makes me hold back chapters just to spite the people who ask)
On Shaky Grounds
Biyomon hummed a small tune to herself in the kitchen, a few days after they'd all finally gotten over their worries.
They'd set up some minor surveillance near the area where Nero had obviously built a base of some kind, getting minor reports of him moving equipment into the base.
As such, they were taking it easy for now, but everyone was still staying ready to jump into action.
… well, when it wasn't this early in the morning at least, a point made obvious as Yang walked into the kitchen with a yawn, still in her pajamas before sitting down as Biyomon went over to a pot of coffee she'd started brewing earlier and pouring out a cup, sliding it down the counter to her partner, who caught it easily even as she yawned again.
"Thanks," Yang smiled as she took a sip.
"No problem," Biyomon smiled as well. "It's been pretty quiet the last few days," she mused.
"Considering all Nero's been doing was moving equipment? Yeah, this is probably just the calm before the storm," Yang nodded. "But when he makes his move, we'll be ready," she grinned.
"Though it would be nice if we could figure out what he's up to. You know, before he starts his next evil plan," Biyomon frowned.
"Not like Weiss and Oren aren't TRYING to do that," Yang sighed. "Too bad Nero got smart with this one."
"So now we're stuck just waiting. That's always hard when you know something is going on…" Biyomon sighed.
As the two continued talking, the others slowly woke up one by one, and the house they were staying in was soon abuzz with activity as everyone got ready for the day, and were soon ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. It was during that time that something odd was found.
"Hm?" Oren frowned as when he was working he noticed something.
"What's wrong?" Terriermon asked.
"It seems to be a message," Oren said as he brought up an odd bit of data that he'd found during the morning, carefully scanning it of course for malware first. What he found was well…the digital avatar looked like a letter, but what was interesting was the 'seal' on the letter. "Hey, does anyone recognize this?" he asked, calling the others, to which they were soon gathered around the screen.
"Huh… hey, wait, I remember this, it's the symbol that popped up whenever Azure ran that counter virus we got sent to us!" Gyro said, remembering how often he saw it on his brother's scroll.
"Hey yeah! This is probably the same person then!" Pierce added in realization.
"Alright then, if that's the case, let's see what it is," Oren nodded…but not before setting up firewalls around the message. Can't ever be too safe.
With everything ready, Oren opened up the message. Nothing odd happened, not that they were expecting anything to happen, as the message appeared before them.
'Greetings, it's been a long time since we last made any sort of contact with each other. I felt it was time to rectify that in light of recent events, as I've come into possession of information that I think you'll be interested in hearing. As such, I've included a link that will connect you all to me so we can talk face to face, with a much more secure line.'
Everyone was silent at that one. "...okay, I'm not the only one questioning if we should go for this, right?" Gomamon checked, everyone nodding in agreement.
"I mean…sure whoever this person is, they helped us before, but just because someone helps you once doesn't automatically make them your friend…" Nora frowned.
Emerald cast an aside glance at her "You're a LOT more calm than back at Beacon."
"When you're fighting to save the world a few times…you kinda learn that having a cool head helps," Nora snorted.
"Back on topic, while that worry is valid, at the same time…we probably shouldn't turn down possible allies," Lopmon mused.
"So in the end we probably should respond to this," Pierce mused.
"But not without setting up defenses obviously," Pyrrha added, earning a few chuckles of agreement.
"Alright then, let's set up some firewalls first, THEN we'll plan on how to respond," Weiss said, as she and Oren got to work. They made sure to build up a veritable fortress worth of defenses, mixing multiple different firewalls so that even if someone were to get through one, it wouldn't be as simple as reusing the same code to break through the others.
It took a while, but eventually they set up the defenses, and as an added precaution, they sent half of their Digimon into cyberspace to act as a final line of defense in the event that something managed to break through the Firewalls…and they made sure to have everyone in Ultimate Form as well. And yes, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were among the group, with Gyro and Pyrrha ready to bring out Omegamon JUUUUST in case.
"Okay, go ahead and press the link," Ruby said cheerfully.
"Is it wrong I ALMOST want to see someone try to get through THIS defense?" Emerald snorted.
"Nope," was the general response as Oren clicked on the link with a chuckle.
The screen began to load as a connection was being made, and after a moment a screen appeared, revealing a dimly lit room, and what appeared to be two people on the other end. One of them appeared to be human, even if they couldn't see their features clearly due to the hoodie they wore which was pulled up over their eyes. The second was very clearly a Digimon, the shape looking… generally like Huckmon actually, but with a black body and purple hoodie, red eyes being visible in the hood.
"Greetings. We are pleased to see that you took up our offer," the human said, revealing a young masculine voice, so they at least knew it was a young man, probably about their age if not younger.
"Though we can also see why you opted to wait a bit before responding," the Digimon said with a masculine voice as well, so odds are this one identified as male. "Impressive. VERY impressive. The defenses you've put in place, even had I evolved, it would take me at earliest a full day to break through these Firewalls you've set up, and that's not including the nasty surprise you set up as a last line of defense," he whistled in approval "I think this is just further proof that you're the side we want to be on."
"Thanks… I think." Morphomon said with a confused blink as she shared a shrug with her partner.
"So… I guess asking who exactly you are won't really give us a proper answer?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not yet. At least not until I'm positive I can trust you all." the young man said with a nod.
"I however can identify myself with no such issue." his Digimon partner chuckled "You may call me Hackmon, I am, essentially, a subspecies of Huckmon."
…data recovery at 95% ….data recovery completed. All systems normal. Warning: In order to avoid continued damage, cause of previous system failure has been purged from database. Rebooting in 3…2…1…
Digimon Analyzer: Hackmon
Hackmon. Virus Type. A Child Level Application Digimon. A special type of Digimon created out of application data, as opposed to full programs like most other Digimon, specifically, he was created from a hacking application, granting him the proper skills of a hacker. As well, due to being a subspecies of a [REDACTED] it holds a lot of power inside of itself, with the potential to evolve into an amazing Digimon. Special attack is Vanquish Claw, charging his claw with energy and using it to tear down firewalls and defenses on both programs and Digimon.
The group frowned a little at the response they got, but ultimately nodded. "Fair enough. We can work with this for now," Gyro said.
"Good," the human nodded. "Of course for ease of communication you will need to refer to me as something," he mused. "Zero. Call me Zero."
Gyro and Pierce shared a look at that, both of them thinking the same thing 'Is this Lelouch all of a sudden?'
"Alright then, Zero," Emerald spoke up, breaking them from the thought. "Not to be abrupt, but mind us asking what it is you wanted to talk about?"
"Of course. It is to do with the enemy you currently face in the Digital World," Zero said, before Hackmon brought up images, revealing that Nero had apparently been out and about at times they weren't aware of.
"Guess we shouldn't be surprised he had a backdoor or two," Weiss frowned. "Are you intending to reveal the locations of said exits?"
"No, because while we were able to notice him moving around, we weren't able to pinpoint his secret entrances," Hackmon shook his head. "What we DID want to discuss was the reasons for the excursions."
At that, more screens popped up, revealing several Digimon being attacked and deleted by Dark Ring Digimon, before Nero seemed to suck up their data into containers of some kind. What more, they noticed the targeted Digimon included Greymon, Garurumon, Kabuterimon, and several others. Heck, there was even a shot of several controlled Digimon attacking a SkullGreymon somewhere, and managing to rip its arm off before retreating.
"The hell is he doing?" Pierce frowned.
"If we had to guess? Data collection," Zero said. "He seems to be hunting down Digimon for one reason or another and harvesting their data…or parts in the case of that SkullGreymon."
"Naturally though even if we're accurate, it begs the question what he wants the data for," Hackmon frowned.
"Great…collecting Digimon data when he's involved…it was bad last time, what is he trying to do THIS time?"
"Nothing good we imagine," Hackmon said. "We've tried getting into his secret base, but the defenses there are top notch, so trying to hack our way in is proving to be very difficult, especially as we are exercising the necessary caution."
"Fair enough, would be trouble if he found you two out," Aile nodded.
"Though come to think of it, why ARE you two offering to help us? Not that we're complaining," Rusty asked.
"For one, you were trying to protect Vale," Zero said. "That in itself is all the reason I need to want to help."
"There's another reason though, isn't there?" WarGreymon spoke up finally "... your room isn't as dim as you thought… who's that in the bed behind you?"
Zero stilled suddenly at that, while Hackmon glanced behind "Well… ok, before anything else happens, we have an ace ourselves." he said, before tapping a key… and revealing an audio file that started playing, which the group quickly recognized as their own voices… talking about the original RWBY series and Earth "There… all cards on the table… well, almost." he said as he looked to his partner.
Zero slowly sunk back into his chair with a sigh, clearly looking at them… and not surprised at the suspicious looks being thrown at them "In all fairness, you have to admit that your activities were suspicious after you suddenly left Beacon with the seemingly random way you moved around."
Gyro sighed at that "I'll give you that… so you planted a bug to listen to us then?"
"Yes, it's why I took a more proactive role as of late." Zero said with a nod, looking down a bit in thought, before he looked up "If it might serve as a vote of confidence… I've been listening in on some of the people you mention frequently, such as Arthur Watts, I'll make sure to put extra defences in his way when he attempts to hack through the firewalls YOU made." he said directly to Oren "Not that he's managed to yet, but, well, any trap in his path is good if you ask me."
"That's certainly SOMETHING in your favor." Rusty admitted, still looking a little uncertain.
Gyro frowned in thought, looking at Zero "Alright… how about this? We're clearly unsure of each other… so you tell us who the person you're clearly protecting is… and we tell you something in return that will make you trust us… how's that sound?"
Zero and Hackmon were silent for a moment…before nodding. "That is fair," Zero said. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to ask my question first."
The Chosen paused at that, before they nodded. "Fair enough. What do you want to know?" Weiss asked.
"What is the end game here?" Zero asked. "Though your immediate enemy is this Digimon Emperor, as well as the mistake of existence that is Salem, assuming this data is accurate. However, it also seems you have your eyes set on something greater further down the line. I want to know what it is that awaits after this point."
"We don't have a name for it. All we know is that its literally the source of the Evil Digimon that have been causing so many problems. Once we've dealt with Nero and hopefully Salem too, once Yggdrasil has stabilized it enough for us to fight, then we finish the job, hopefully for good," Gyro answered. "Is that a satisfying answer?"
Zero paused for a moment, before nodding. "That is satisfying yes," he said, before he pulled back his hood, revealing the face of a teen younger than them with dark green hair on top of his head "My name is Rei, and the person in bed is my little brother, currently sleeping off a fever." he said with a sigh "My goal is simply to keep him safe and out of danger… something that I feel I have a better chance of doing if we are on the same side."
"Glad to know you feel that way," Jaune said, smiling a bit.
"If you really want to help, then we'd be glad to have you," Ren nodded as well.
Rei actually had a small smile at that. "Then I look forward to working with you all."
"For now though, that's all the information we have regarding Nero for now," Hackmon said. "We'll contact all of you when we have more information."
"Alright then, we'll keep looking on our end too. We can share information whenever we find it," Oren nodded.
Rei moved to cut the connection, but right as he was about to, he stopped. "...it seems we're picking up a signal. Nero is on the move again," he frowned.
"Wow… he doesn't waste time." Gyro blinked, before he got serious "Alright, gonna assume he used one of those secret exits, know where he's headed?"
Rei hummed, tapping away at his computer "Seems he's heading through a canyon not far from where he set up his main base." he said, before typing further "Let's see here… ah… I found his target I believe. There's a small village exclusively of Monochromon that live next to the river that goes through the bottom of the canyon."
"Right, let's drop in as close as we can there." Gyro said "Chances are good he's gonna bring a mobile tower to stop us from evolving, so we're gonna need flyers. Blake, Nora, Yang, Aile, Oren, you're up, you've got the fastest flyers in terms of armor… and the ones that are easily the most rideable for that too." he added idly, since the other flyers… they had to cling to the backs of them, so not the most viable for speed.
"Got it. We'll deploy now," Blake nodded, the chosen group quickly gathering together, and one Digital Gate later, immediately aimed straight for the area in which Nero was attacking.
"We should send in a second team too," Keenan said.
"My thoughts exactly. We'll want backup and a potential surprise attack on Nero. We're gonna aim to capture him before he can put that data to use," Gyro nodded.
"If you'll allow me, I can monitor the situation closely to get a better sense of the timing needed." Rei offered.
"Go ahead, we'll trust your eyes on this." Gyro said with a small smirk.
Minutes later, the advance group arrived in the Digital World, and after a quick Armor Evolution, they were flying at high speeds towards the canyon.
"How far is he right now?" Nora asked into her scroll.
"Still pretty far from the look of things, you might just beat him to it if nothing halts you." Rei answered her as he and Hackmon multitasked several video feeds at the same time.
"Then let's make sure he can't get a single Monochromon." Blake said with a frown.
"He'll have to go through us to get at them, not to mention the little surprise we've got for him." Pegasmon added.
"It's FUN to be the ones pulling a surprise attack on the bad guys sometimes." Robinmon grinned.
"Can't wait to see the look on his face." Yang said with a grin that matched her partner's own.
"First things first, we'd better focus on securing the area where the Monochromon are," Oren said. "From there we'll work on defenses."
"So a game of Tower Defense, then," Pegasmon chuckled a bit, earning a few snorts of amusement.
"Then let's aim for a Perfect Score," Speedermon T chuckled.
It didn't take long for the group to arrive at the canyon, and saw the Monochromon herd gathered together. Seeing the herd, the group flew lower and gently landed not too far away, but far enough that they didn't risk spooking the Monochromon.
"Excuse us?" Aile started, drawing their attention as they got closer.
The Monochromon seemed surprised to see them, but one of them, one that looked a bit older than the others (don't ask how or why some Digimon randomly looked older than others of the same species), stepped closer. "Greetings, I do believe you are the Chosen Children, yes?" the Monochromon asked pleasantly.
"That's us, yeah," Yang chuckled. "Sorry to bother you all so suddenly, but we're not really on a social visit."
"...this is to do with the 'Digimon Emperor' that's been causing so much trouble recently, isn't it?" the Monochromon frowned.
"Yes, and unfortunately we've learned from a reliable source that he seems to be targeting this herd. For what exactly we're not sure, only that he wants to harvest data," Tornamon said.
There were a few murmurs of worry from the Monochromon herd which had come closer at this point.
"But don't worry, we're here to make sure he doesn't get his hands on any of you," Nora quickly said.
"That is reassuring," the lead Monochromon nodded. "What do you need us to do?"
"For now, please gather your entire herd together. It might make you a bigger target, but at least we can more easily defend you," Oren started. "Next we'll want to know likely entrances to the canyon and how to better defend it," he explained.
"There are two ways into the canyon. A front and back if you will," the Monochromon explained. "Those are the only safe land routes, though I imagine that would mean little to flying enemies."
"Don't worry about that one, we've got some things that can help there," Oren chuckled.
"So, what should we do about the land routes? If we leave them be, we'll be likely in for a pincer attack," Nefertimon frowned.
"What if we block one?" Nora suggested.
The others blinked at that, before looking at the way that they knew Nero WASN'T arriving from, then looked back at each other before nodding in agreement.
"Alright then, I'll set up a shield so that we'll have some protection in case fliers come en mass. Everyone else work on blocking off the back area," Oren said, earning nods of agreement.
While he worked, the others quickly flew to the back area, and using a mix of explosives and attacks, caused a cave in, blocking the entrance in a pile of rocks and rubble, while allowing the river to continue flowing through lest they accidentally make a dam.
While they'd finished up properly blocking off the exit for now, Oren had set up a shield that covered the Monochromon herd comfortably, thereby ensuring that there wouldn't be any sudden sneak attacks. He also made sure that it would allow things from inside to go out, but nothing from outside to come in. And that was more than just attacks.
With that done, everything was set up more or less as well as they could manage for now. Now all that was left was to wait for the attack to come. As they waited, they also got a confirmation from the others that they had set up ambush points and were ready to jump in at any time, even if they had a plan, which if successful, may well have a high chance of finally putting an end to Nero's little game.
Everything was in place, and before long, they heard the sound of wingbeats and footsteps, as over the edge of the canyon, the telltale form of a trio of Dark Towers appeared, being towed by a squad of Airdramon and Devidramon, all of which had Dark Rings on them, many more flying around as well, no doubt as the main aerial force. Following below were an army of Fugamon, and what appeared to be green colored Veggiemon. An army of Weedmon.
And last but not least was Nero himself, flying into battle riding on a throne with small dark towers coming out of it, his usual ego obvious. Using a few screens, he saw the small group already waiting with the Monochromon within a protective barrier.
"What the hell?!" he said in obvious surprise "How did you nuisances get here?! And before me?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Speedermon L smirked a bit, earning a glare from Nero.
"No matter, a few of you won't stop me from getting what I want! Destroy them!" he ordered as the army he brought along charged forward.
The gathered group immediately went into action. They split into two groups, the humans and faunus defending on the ground, while the Digimon took to the air. Their initial counter attack immediately focused on taking out as many of the enemy forces as they could while the enemy forces were grouped together, which succeeded in breaking a number of Rings. As the aerial forces tried to spread out, Pegasmon and Nefertimon quickly used Sanctuary Bind to try and catch as many of the enemy forces as possible, allowing the others to concentrate fire again, breaking more and more Dark Rings, but as always…Nero brought PLENTY.
Down on the ground, the Chosen were using a similar strategy, aiming to take full use of the bottleneck that the canyon entrance created, but the Weedmon soon took the lead and their large numbers made the numbers lost negligible, while protecting the stronger Fugamon from their attacks. As such, it allowed the Fugamon to enter the canyon and quickly start spreading out, forcing the Chosen to divide their attention, trying to keep the numbers in check.
Seeing the trouble starting, Robinmon quickly broke away from the others and moved to help their partners on the ground. "Tempest Beat!" she called out, sending forth the tornado which sucked up a few Fugamon and many of the Weedmon, lightening the load for the ground team.
"Thanks, Partner!" Yang grinned, flashing Robinmon a thumbs up, earning a nod from her before she immediately returned to helping the aerial team. As it was, even they were having issues, as some of the Airdramon and Devidramon were now spreading out, forcing them to focus on multiple targets, and were glad the barrier was holding as a few of the enemy forces had managed to reach it, clawing away at the barrier, but it held, and thus gave them time to take out the enemy forces.
Fortunately the Monochromon weren't choosing to be bystanders, and took the initiative to fire their Volcano Strikes whenever any enemy forces got too close, the attacks passing through the barrier, and striking the enemy forces, knocking several of them down. Even so, the numbers were proving problematic for the defending parties, as the ground team was forced to fight closer and closer to the barrier as well.
Several of the Monochromon looked ready to charge out to help, but the more level-headed ones of their herd were able to stop them, reminding them the entire point of this was to ensure the Emperor DIDN'T get any of them for whatever he had planned. Either way though, it was quickly becoming harder and harder as the defending team was being pushed back by sheer force of numbers.
"Is this all the power you pathetic mongrels can muster?!" Nero taunted them with a grin "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as clearly your other 'friends' have abandoned you!" he said with a laugh.
"You sure about that?!" came Pierce's voice as the others jumped out of their hiding spots at the top of the canyon, with Pierce and Veemon landing on Nero's platform, and without any hesitation whatsoever, they hit him with a double whammy, Pierce socking him in the face, while Veemon went…lower.
"Huh, didn't know your brother had a talent for opera," Yang said to Oren with a grin that would have looked perfect on a shark as they heard Nero shouting in tenor while Pierce and Veemon jumped off the platform to join the rest properly.
"At this point I'd pay to listen to that again," Oren snorted in amusement.
"I'll pay double!" Speedermon T added with a cackle.
"Especially seeing as his forces have paused, probably in confusion from their 'master's' sudden musical career," Speedermon L noted.
"Then let's take full advantage of this!" Ruby shouted, as the counter attack began. With their forces now fully gathered, Nero's forces found themselves now on the receiving end of a pincer attack, as attacks came from both ends, shattering Dark Rings from both sides.
Vanguamon even took the opportunity to aim for the Dark Towers, and one Final Salvo later, the towers were falling apart and with it, Nero's control, which finally allowed Veemon, Monodramon and Falcomon to properly get in on the attack by evolving into Veedramon, Strikedramon and Peckmon.
Nero growled in anger, still clutching down below "You… goddamned… rats!" he snarled out "I'll get you all for this, I swear!" he said, before turning his platform around and, to their surprise, activating a booster rocket beneath it to fly away quickly.
"...huh, somehow I thought he would stay and fight more," Penny blinked.
"Guess its clean up then," Jaune shrugged, as the remaining Dark Ring Digimon that hadn't been freed when the Dark Towers were destroyed still remained, and were trying to retreat as well.
One curb stomp later, and all the Dark Rings in the area were destroyed, and the Digimon freed.
"That's the last of them," Ren confirmed as the last Dark Ring was broken, to which Oren soon took down the shield with the Digimon reverting to Child.
"Thank you for protecting us," the lead Monochromon said with a smile.
"Don't get too happy yet," Gyro said. "We might have repelled him, but there's no guarantee he won't try again."
"With how things are, it might be best if you find a new place to live," Pyrrha frowned.
"You…may be right," the Monochromon sighed. "Fortunately we do know of other places. Though this valley will be missed, it would certainly not do if we stayed and got attacked again."
"We'll escort you to your next location then, just to be safe, and to make sure it's far away enough from him." Agumon said, while Weiss brought up her scroll.
"Rei? Got any input to add to that?" she asked their… possible new ally.
Rei hummed in thought "I'd say… at least on the other side of the forest at the end of the canyon. From what I can see, he hasn't touched that area."
"Any exit points around there Norn?" Emerald asked her friend through her own scroll.
"Yes, you shouldn't have any issue getting back quickly after guiding them there." Norn answered.
"Alright then, looks like we've got our heading," Gabumon said, before the group guided the Monochromon through the rest of the canyon, and then through the forest, with Rei making sure they weren't being watched as they moved, until finally, once the forest was clear, the Monochromon went on their way.
"Great… glad we were able to stop him completely for once." Gyro said in relief, before holding up his scroll "Hey Rei? What would you say to a commission?"
Rei paused at that, before clearly becoming interested "Go on…"
"We'll hire you to spy on Nero for us, discreetly of course, and report on what he's doing, and, since you're clearly good at it… we'll also pay you to hack Arthur Watts and mess with him as much as you can."
Rei thought about it for a moment before nodding. "I look forward to working with all of you," he said.
"Speaking of Watts though, we have a few interesting ideas on how to make his life as difficult as possible," Hackmon added with a smirk.
"I think we're definitely going to get along just fine," Agumon snorted.
"Something I'm sure we'll enjoy discussing greatly," Rei chuckled as the Chosen soon went on their way back to the Digital Gate.
However, as they left, nobody noticed a single Monochromon yelping a bit, before crushing something, grumbling about bugs before walking off…nobody noticing that 'bug' apparently being made of metal.
"Tch!" Nero growled as he received the data transfer from the one Drone that had survived his emergency deploy and sent back some data. "Only 0.0000001% data," he growled. "So little…it'll take time, but this WILL be enough. I'll make sure of it."
And there we go!
Yeahp, Rei from Appmon, and his partner too!
We're going all out with this story on character cameos from past seasons.
And yeah, he's the one who made their counter-virus to Cinder a while back.
As for Nero... I think some of you can take a guess as to what he's planning with that data.
Look forward to that, because...
The Adventure Evolves
