It took a few moments, but the field covering Novice and Impmon was undone, with Impmon gone.
"...What did you do to him," Taichi asked with an apprehensive look.
"I gave him a spanking with a holy rod," Novice replied with a sigh.
"Where is he then," Daisuke also asked, noting that the imp digimon wasn't there anymore.
"I sent him into the kitchen to get some ice on his butt," the Overseer replied with another sigh. "Now... I'm sorry if I scared you," Novice then said with a deep bow, "I just... I saw the one thing from my childhood that still scares me. And with how many worlds there are out there, I thought it had somehow gotten into my lair."
"...You mean that thing we saw could be real," Koshiro was the first to piece together what their host was afraid of.
"...Essentially, yes," Novice said.
"What was that thing anyway," Veemon then asked.
Novice looked hesitant, before revealing the monster that struck fear into him since he was less than four years old. "It's known by many names. The Norse call it Hufsa. The Swedish call it Mårran. English call it the Groke. And... in my language, it's Mörkö." Novice began explaining, "It appeared in a certain cartoon I liked to watch as a child, but Mörkö was the one thing that always terrified me to the point I was afraid of the dark, outdoors and even sleeping for a time."
"What's so scary about it," Takeru then asked, "I mean, it looked creepy, but I don't think it's that scary." That last part was added hastily because Novice looked highly offended.
"...Well, first off, the music that plays whenever it appears is creepy," Novice started explaining, "Two, it doesn't talk, it moans and groans. Three, it makes areas into frozen wastelands with it's mere existance."
"...Okayyy," Iori said, slowly but surely getting over his fear, "Sooo... does that mean that if it actually touches you, you will be frozen solid?"
"Pretty good guess," Novice said with a small smile, "Unfortunately, I did some research and found out that the world of that cartoon does exist, so I've been a little... paranoid about Mörkö suddenly appearing here."
Now that scared everyone a little. A creature that could freeze you with a touch that could hop between worlds freely.
"...Can it do that," Patamon asked, trembling a little at the thought.
"No," Novice replied simply, "I know for a fact that it doesn't have that kind of power. My fear of it appearing here is practically irrational, but there's just that tiny voice in my head telling me otherwise." After that explanation, Novice flopped down on his seat with a tired sigh. "Maybe I should learn to drink alcohol, I can't take this otherwise."
"NO!" Hikari exclaimed, before covering her mouth in embarrassment.
"I agree with Hikari," Jo said sternly, "I've red about what happens to people who drown their sorrows in alcohol."
"I know, and if I got a gold coin every time I said that and didn't go through with it, I'd be a rich man," Novice added in, smiling again. "Anyway, I think a small break is in order."
"But were not tired," Gabumon said, earning a small nudge from Yamato.
"We'll take it," Yamato said, realizing that it was probably Novice himself who needed a break to pull himself together.
"Great, "Novice said, "I'd say... two hours should be fine."
So for the next two hours, the Children and their digimon did various activities. Some played video games in the game room, others checked the library, and Mimi felt like doing some experimenting in kitchen. Speaking of which, Impmon was indeed there sitting on a block of ice and drinking a smoothie that, according to him, had his name on it.
Also the digimon had fun when they got to eat their fill. Although Gatomon wanted to see the training room, but Novice wouldn't let them use the simulation function without supervision.
As for Novice himself... supposedly Ophanimon and Lotosmon were counceling him to get him over his momentary bout of terror. Whether that was true or not, no one felt like questioning. The only question anyone had was where BlackGatomon's cell was, but they chose not to think about it too much. After all, she did stab Novice in the back.
Whelp, after two hours were up, the Children and the digimon were once again in the reading room with Novice being in a noticeably better mood.
"So then," Novice said as he clapped his hands, "I think I'll read the next chapter."
"What," Patamon called out, "But Takeru hasn't red yet."
At that being pointed out, the Children realized that Takeru was indeed the only one who hasn't red yet.
"That's true, but now is not the time," Novice said as he made the book float back into his hands.
Patamon apparently didn't like the answer, "But-" "It's okay Patamon," Takeru interrupted, "I think I have an idea of what chapter he wants me to read."
Everyone took a glance at Takeru, figuring out what he was talking about.
"Without further ado, let's get cracking," Novice said, wanting to change the subject.
Thankfully it looked like no one was willing to talk about it any further.
The Digging Brothers, Drimogemon!
The title card showed three Drimogemon, which surprised everyone.
"What?" Seven out of eight of the first generation exclaimed.
The wind howled against the bed, while Ren and Wormmon clung on for dear life...something that was made a bit easier seeing as Wormmon had used his nets to help them stick to the bed. "I think we're losing altitude!" he said as he felt them start to fall. Craning his head upwards a bit, he saw that they were headed for an area of the island that had a mountain. It was nowhere near as tall as Infinity Mountain, but from where he was looking, it was MUCH wider.
"Oh, right," Ken was the first to comment, "Ren, Nora and Blake are still unaccounted for."
Gatomon let out a small sigh, "Then we will most likely see Ren and Nora reuniting."
"What makes you say that," Hikari asked out of curiosity.
"Because who else could stand her madness," the white feline commented dryly.
Novice wasn't sure if he should sigh at Gatomon still thinking Nora is mildly psychotic, or be impressed at ther guess. Not that he had any room to chastise the cat, seeing as he himself believes Nora to be mildly psychotic. Emphasis on mildly.
"I don't think this is a good speed for landing!" Wormmon said.
"No it isn't." Hawkmon and Biyomon commented in unison.
"Can you slow us down?" Ren asked.
"I'll try! Sticky Nets!" Wormmon called out, creating a number of nets down below. The bed crashed into the first one, breaking through but slowing down a bit, before hitting the second one, this time robbing it of most of its momentum, so even when they broke through, they landed more or less softly on the forest floor below. Once they were at a complete stop, Ren slowly peeled himself off of the bed.
"Good thing they stopped," Miyako commented.
"It seems we've landed safely. Good job, Wormmon," he sighed, before giving his partner a smile.
"No problem, Ren," Wormmon smiled back, before frowning. "But it seems like we've been blown pretty far away...and the others aren't around…"
"Unfortunately there's nothing we can do about that," Ren frowned. "All we can do for now is try and find a way to get back."
"How are they going to do that though," Wormmon commented in worry.
"How do we do that though?" Wormmon asked.
The "echo" earned small laughs out of everyone, which made Wormmon blush in embarrassment.
Ren would have answered...if he didn't suddenly spot another shape coming towards the area they were in, and recognized it as another bed. "Its another of the beds. Looks like someone was blown here with us."
Taichi gave Gatomon a look," Soon we'll see if you were right." The Chosen of Courage smiled cheekily.
"Oh please, I can't be wrong here," Gatomon said back, totally unamused.
"And they're falling too!" Wormmon added in alarm, before acting quickly and spinning more nets, which caught the bed, allowing it to slow down to a safe speed and landing harmlessly on the ground. However, when it landed, something small came rolling out from the sudden stop, revealing Salamon, who looked understandably dizzy.
"See, what I mean," Gatomon commented at the revelation of Salamon.
"Salamon? Then that means…" Ren blinked. He didn't get far as a blur suddenly shot from the bed, and he was promptly tackle hugged by a hyperactive carrot top.
"Ren!" Nora grinned as they tumbled on the ground a little.
"Okay, you were right," Taichi sighed at not getting to laugh at Gatomon's expense.
"I'm glad you're okay too, Nora," Ren said with a wry smile.
"How are you feeling?" Wormmon asked as he went up to Salamon.
"Like I just got off a rollercoaster." the puppy Digimon answered with a groan.
"Sounds like a headache and a half then." Wormmon shot back.
"Just that?" Gatomon found herself asking.
Salamon eventually shook her head to clear it, and got to her feet. "Where are we?"
"Judging by the mountain, I think we're around Mount Panorama," Wormmon said.
"Mount... Panorama," most of the digimon muttered in confusion.
"You guys don't know that place," Koshiro asked their partners.
"I don't think I do," Tentomon replied while looking like he was thinking hard.
Novice chose to help them out this time, "If I remember right, there was a digimon video game with an area named Mount Panorama."
"A video game," Daisuke asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, I believe I mentioned this before," Novice said simply.
"Mount Panorama?" came Nora's voice as she and Ren walked back to them.
"Compared to Mount Infinity being the tallest point on the island, Mount Panorama is the widest mountain on the island, covering a good 1/6th of the island, it's pretty much in between a lot of important areas." Salamon explained.
"So it's an access point to much of the island then? Or was anyway," Ren said.
"Sounds handy," Yamato commented.
Before they could respond, they suddenly heard the sound of rocks falling from nearby. "Think we should check that out?" Nora asked.
"I think so," Wormmon nodded.
It surprisingly took a good amount of walking before they reached an area that had a large sign hanging off a part of the mountain with the words 'DRILL CAVE' on it, completely lit up like a neon sign, below it was what looked like a collapsed cave entrance, and collapsed in front of that was what appeared to be large mole like creature with a purple back and a cream belly and legs, a drill at the front of his face with long whiskers on each side of it.
"So they really met Drimogemon earlier than we did," Palmon commented.
"That's Drimogemon!" Salamon said as they got closer.
Digimon Analyzer: Drimogemon
Drimogemon. Data Type. An Adult Level Beast Digimon. Thanks to the drill attached to its snout, it can move around underground at high speed. It usually prefers to stay underground due to being rather shy. Its special attack is Drill Spin, using it's drill to attack it's opponent.
"Is he okay?" Wormmon asked, and was about to inch closer, when Ren picked him up.
"Easy there Wormmon, we don't know if he's infected or not," Ren cautioned, while Nora pulled out her Digivice.
"It really would've made it easier for us if we had that kind of function," Mimi commented, feeling a little bitter at them having a good few things easier than them. She knew that the Remnantians are trained fighters, but still.
"Nope. No black dots. He's clean," she reported, earning a nod from him as they moved closer.
As they got to the mon, they found that he was was unconscious. "So...how should we wake him?" Salamon asked.
"Oh! I know!" Nora said suddenly, before grabbing one of his whiskers, and yanking on it.
"Nora!" Wormmon said in surprise. "Don't yank on unconscious mon's whiskers!"
"Yeah, they might get angry," Daisuke agreed, remembering how he accidentally saw Tortomon peeing and it wasn't happy about it.
"Why does my mustache hurt?" Drimogemon groaned out, cutting off the conversation as he slowly stood, shaking his head.
"Oh uh...no reason," Salamon said quickly. "So...why were you unconscious?" she asked quickly, changing the subject.
"Very smooth," Gatomon commented, whether she was being sarcastic or not was questionable.
"Unconscious? Why…? Wait! One of my brothers, he suddenly started going crazy, he just started thrashing around the tunnels and me and my other brother were trying to stop him." Drimogemon explained.
"So there's three of them, like the title said," Armadimon commented.
"And one of them is infected," Iori added.
"Did he happen to have a Black Gear sticking out somewhere from his body?" Ren asked with narrowed eyes.
Drimogemon nodded "Yeah, a big black one sticking out his back, we've even found some deep underground but they gave us a creepy feeling so we sealed them back up."
"Of course there's more of them," Agumon sighed.
"Called it," Wormmon and Salamon deadpanned at the same time.
That comment earned several chuckles.
"Where is your brother?" Ren asked. "If we can remove the Black Gear, we can get him back to normal."
"Well, last I remember, he should be somewhere in the tunnels. Not sure where exactly, but you can probably tell based on the tremors," Drimogemon said.
"Tremors?" The Children and the digimon asked in unison.
"You'll find out soon enough," Novice said with a mysterious look.
"How are we getting in the tunnel though?" Nora pointed to the sealed cavern entrance.
"You can leave that part to me, considering you're helping me with my brother, I'll help you get to him." Drimogemon said before his drill started to spin and he put it to work against the crumbled entrance into the tunnel.
"This is probably going to take a while so it doesn't just collapse again." Wormmon commented as they saw Drimogemon was doing his work rather precisely.
"Still better than being buried alive," Salamon shrugged.
"Definitely," Gatomon commented, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Salamon's right," Nora nodded. She may have been crazy at times, but she knew when to be serious.
"Well, if Nora's also agreeing, it's definitely a good idea," Wormmon chuckled.
"...Why does it always feel weird that Nora knows when to be serious," Miyako asked, seeing that she felt that she wasn't supposed to be surprised anymore.
"That's because she likes to defy expectations," Novice said simply.
It was as good of an explanation as any.
The trip into the tunnels wasn't the fastest, but all things considered, it was probably for the best, as the alternative was a cave in.
That caused several unwanted shivers, because they've experienced their fair share of cave ins.
Though Drimogemon was very happy to point out some of the machinery he and his brothers had installed as they kept going in deeper, all of it being powered by a few generators scattered about the cave system.
"This system is pretty expansive," Ren mused as they walked. "Have you been working on it for a long time?"
"Oh yeah, my brothers and I have put our hearts and souls into this project. Once it's done, we'll have a shortcut system for all of File Island," Drimogemon said with pride as he continued digging.
"Like a metro system without the metro," Veemon guessed, earning mild laughs. "Hey!"
"Don't worry," Novice said with an amused tone, "That was actually pretty accurate."
"So, where does it connect so far?" Nora asked, a bit curious.
"Oh, we have a path that ends up pretty close to the Misty Forest, one that comes out near the Gear Savannah, another close to the Great Canyon, one near Freezeland, and one not too far from Mount Infinity." Drimogemon continued, obviously very happy about these.
Many of those locations didn't ring a bell with either the Children or the digimon.
"Don't worry, I don't know about those locations either, other than Mount Infinity," Novice piped up.
"Wow, you guys have done a lot," Nora whistled.
"And we're not nearly done yet," the Digimon grinned. "We still got plenty to do."
"Well then, hope your project works out well," Salamon nodded.
"Thanks!" Drimogemon grinned. The path went deeper, and after a while, it started feel...warmer. "Careful, we're gonna be passing a river of lava, so stick close to the walls," he warned.
"A river of lava," Jo asked in disbelief.
"Pretty common obstacle in some games," Daisuke said with a small shrug.
"Too true," Takeru added in.
They listened to his warning, and when they came up on a thin path next to a flowing river of lava, they stuck very close to the walls of the cavern, making sure to follow him closely.
"Apparently some hot head of a Digimon used to live around these parts a long time ago, might explain the lava honestly." Drimogemon said as he stopped to use his drill on the wall to make the path wider at times.
"I wonder what Digimon it was?" Wormmon mused.
"What digimon was it," Yamato felt like asking their host.
"Don't know." Only to be disappointed by his answer.
Meanwhile, not too far from the current shard of the island, a certain mountain guardian made of flames sneezed.
"Wait, what? It was Meramon?" Came out of everyone.
At that moment Novice seemed to realize something, "Oh, right! There was a digimon game where you fight Meramon in a cave, but I can't remember which one."
"And you remember that now," Gabumon asked in disbelief.
"Hey, I was a kid back then," Novice defended himself.
Fortunately the section of tunnel that passed the river wasn't too long, so they were soon in the caves again...though the two humans were sweating quite a bit now from the heat. "Sorry about that, but no worries, there's gonna be a few underground rivers soon."
"I think we'd all like that." Salamon said, sweating just as bad as the humans thanks to her fur.
"...One of the problems I've had to deal with," Gatomon admitted.
"Was that why you opened the freezer and stood in front of it on one hot day," Agumon asked with a snicker.
"Shut it," Gatomon growled with her ears flattening against her scalp.
Nodding, Drimogemon quickly lead them to a new area. The area was a cavern that had more than one tunnel leading into it, it was decently sized, and was illuminated by what appeared to be crystals, compared to the rest of the tunnels so far that had artificial lighting to keep it illuminated. Furthermore, despite being underground, there was plantlife as well as a few gentle looking streams flowing through the moss covered grounds. All in all, it looked like the perfect place to rest and relax for a while.
"As much as I naturally hate outdoors, I can still appreciate nature," Novice spoke up.
"Don't we all," Sora commented as she marveled at the underground wonder.
"Wow…" Nora blinked at the sight, a sentiment shared by the others as well.
"Yeah, I thought you'd like it. We're thinking of making this place into a 'hub' or at least one of them, so travelers can rest a little before continuing on their way," Drimogemon chuckled.
"I would like to stop in a place like that," Armadimon commented happily.
Right after he said that, the world, or rather just the caverns, shook, and several large stones fell from the ceiling, either crushing a crystal or falling into the water.
"Oh come on!" Drimogemon said with a loud groan "That's it! I'm making him fix all this once he's freed, possessed or not!"
The Children and the digimon couldn't help laughing a little, after all they did understand the Drimogemon's frustration to an extent.
"Well, even more reason to hurry and stop him I guess…" Wormmon blinked with a slight sweat drop.
"Right, well...I guess we'd better keep going then," Drimogemon sighed. "Though if you want, you might as well wash your faces or something first. You all do look pretty sweaty thanks to the previous area."
"I think we will." Ren said with a sigh as he went towards the stream and used the water to clean his face, looking in amusement as Nora just splashed the water up at herself and Salamon dunked herself in the water before coming out and shaking her body.
Once again, Gatomon looked on in slight jealousy. She knew she shouldn't dwell on the what if, but it was just so hard seeing her other so happy while she wasn't at the time. The white feline felt Hikari petting her head, as the Chosen of Light had noticed her partner's discomfort.
"Personally I just need a drink." Wormmon said as he simply did just that.
"Alright, let's see what we find next. Seriously, that brother of mine, he messed up the tunnels so much it's hard to remember where everything is." Drimogemon said with a sigh before starting to dig once again.
A bit of time later, they all blinked in surprise as the section of earth Drimogemon had been drilling with his nose just crumbled away and came out to… a glade full of mushrooms, of all things.
"Lucky them," Agumon grumbled.
"Be happy that Frigimon was kind enough to find us food," Taichi chided his partner, "Besides, those guys haven't eaten yet, right?" The last part was directed to Novice.
"Not that we've seen so far," Novice said with a shrug.
"Well, that's… surprising." Salamon said with a tilt of her head.
"But helpful, most of these are edible." Drimogemon said with a bit of a laugh.
"Right, some of those could be poisonous," Wormmon commented.
"Maybe you guys should eat up then, since the food earlier was fake and all." Nora said to the two Child level Digimon who nodded in agreement and, with a bit of help from Drimogemon telling them which were edible, ate their fill of mushrooms, the humans doing the same.
"These are delicious!" Wormmon smiled.
"I bet they'd taste even better in soup!" Salamon agreed.
"I personally don't like mushrooms," Novice commented, earning weirded out looks from the digimon.
"Why not," Gomamon asked out of curiosity.
"Because I don't." Was the simple reply.
"It's a shame we don't have the twins' pouches. It'd be great if we could carry some of these with us," Nora said.
"Well, it can't be helped I suppose. We should be glad we could find these at all," Ren said.
"That's true," Wormmon nodded as they soon finished eating. "Thanks for showing these to us. They were delicious," he said to Drimogemon.
"Hey, no problem. You guys are trying to help me get my brother back, so it's the least I could do to help," Drimogemon grinned.
The Children smiled at the Drimogemon's kindness.
After eating their fill, the group continued on exploring the cave system, and while they somehow never ended up finding Drimogemon's brother, they did reopen some of the paths that had been closed due to landslides caused by the various tremors, and, eventually.
"Booyah! We found our stuff!" Nora cheered after Drimogemon opened a hole back up which apparently was the quick path towards the Freezelands, which they could see in the distance, and hidden underneath some earth were Magnhild and Storm Flower.
Nora's grenade launcher/hammer combo was one of the weapons to have received the least damage, as while the barrels were all warped on the inside, she could very much still use it as a hammer
"...Why do I suddenly feel sorry for the infected Drimogemon," Veemon questioned as he rubbed his head.
"Probably because he's few minutes away from hammer time," Novice decided to pun a little, earning some chuckles.
As for Ren's dual guns, well, they were still functional guns, and with new clips in place, functioned properly, but the blades on the front were completely destroyed for both of them.
"...That's bad," Jo commented on Ren not having a melee option anymore.
"Ren's good at martial arts, he'll manage," Novice said reassuringly, before smiling, "Besides, Nora will brutally murder anyone who so much as looks at him the wrong way." The fact that the Overseer said it so happily did not ease anyone.
"Are you trying to scare us," Gabumon asked with a mild glare.
"...Maybe a little," Novice admitted sheepishly.
"Hm...this seems deliberate," Ren mused. "Perhaps that Digimon we saw did this," he frowned.
"Well if so then we got even more reason to break his legs!" Nora said.
Maybe it was the screen, but Nora looked far too eager to break someone's legs to the Children.
"Wow, remind me not to get on your bad sides," Drimogemon sweatdropped as they continued on through another tunnel. It wasn't long before the walls became brick-like, with characters written all over the walls.
"These are…?" Ren blinked.
"Digicode? What's all this doing here?" Salamon blinked.
"Oh that? Yeah, we found these old ruins recently. They were pretty well preserved all things considered, so we decided to leave it be," Drimogemon explained.
"More ruins," Koshiro commented with a curious look, "What does it say?"
Novice looked thoughtful for a moment,"Either it's revealed here, or I'll have to ask Swift."
Koshiro looked satisfied with the answer.
"Weiss will probably want to see these." Wormmon commented idly.
"Oh yeah, good point." Nora realised, and pulled out her scroll to start taking pictures.
"Good idea, we can show it to her later," Salamon nodded.
Once again, the Children were a little jealous of how these guys had working devices, other than digivice.
"Wait a second! Why aren't they calling the others," Daisuke asked, remembering that those things are also phones.
"Probably the same reason Jaune and Pyrrha couldn't," Iori commented, "Even if they could, would the signal get through the underground?"
"Good question," Novice said with a smile.
Ren had a small smile on his face as he watched the three for a moment, before turning to where Drimogemon was going. What he found was that the tunnel lead to what appeared to be an underground temple of some kind. "Is this the ruins you were talking about?"
"Yeah, this is the one. We figured we'd keep it preserved, since its history. You can't just knock over that," Drimogemon nodded.
"Huh, that's weird, there's some lion carvings on some of these walls." Nora noticed.
"Maybe it's related to Leomon?" Wormmon mused.
That got everyone's interest. If it was related to Leomon, then they had to wonder how.
"Well I can see something that's not related to him." Salamon said a bit urgently as she went a bit further up ahead, the others picking up the pace a bit and soon seeing the sight of another unconscious Drimogemon.
"Aw shoot, he got knocked out too." Drimogemon said with a growl as he inspected his brother. "This guy's my middle brother, and the one hit with that gear thing is the youngest of us three."
"Why is it always the youngest sibling that becomes a little... rascal," Novice commented. Despite Iori's plugs censoring no matter what he says, it doesn't mean he's exactly comfortable using such language in the presence of little ones.
"We'd better wake him up then," Ren said. "He might know where your youngest brother is."
"Good idea," Drimogemon said, before turning to his brother. "WAKE UP!" he shouted...and knocked his younger brother upside the head.
"Really?" Sora and Hikari commented in unison.
"Hey, if it works it works," Taichi retorted.
"But it's not nice," Hikari said, giving her brother a disappointed look.
"I'm up!" the younger Drimogemon said, bolting up. The two humans and two child level Digimon had flat stares at the waking method used. "Huh? Why was I asleep?"
"You tell us," the older Drimogemon said. "Did you happen to see where our little brother went? These guys say they know how to get him back to normal."
"Our little...wait, I remember now! Yeah, he was going to the ruins, and I tried to stop him, but he was fighting like a mad Digimon, and knocked me out!"
"He kind of is right now," Veemon commented.
"Then is he still in the ruins?" Ren asked.
"Not sure, but I think so," the middle Drimogemon nodded.
"Alright! Time to go and break that gear!" Nora whooped before running ahead, Salamon groaning as she went after her.
"One of these days," Gatomon sighed as she snuggled against Hikari. Compared to her other, Gatomon was the luckiest mon alive when it comes to human partners.
"She's right though. We should hurry," Wormmon admitted, earning a nod from Ren.
"We'll take care of your brother. You both stay out here first, alright?" Ren said to the two Drimogemon.
"Well...alright, but be careful in there. You don't want to cause a cave in if you're not careful," the older Drimogemon warned.
"Tell that to Nora," Hawkmon commented.
Despite it being said multiple times that Nora can be sensible, there's still some lingering doubts in everyone's minds.
Just about a minute of running later, and they finally reached the deepest area of the ruins, and standing right in the middle of it, was a large statue of a lion, with large saber like teeth.
"That's SaberLeomon," Mimi commented at the sight of Leomon's Ultimate form.
"Yeah, it is," Jo confirmed.
"Woah! Now THAT'S an awesome lion." Nora said with a grin as she looked at it.
"There's a tablet here." Ren noticed as he walked up to the statue, seeing a tablet sticking out of the pedestal a bit and pulled it out "It seems rather important, maybe this could be something Leomon would like to see if he can be brought back to normal."
"He will be brought back to normal," Takeru said firmly.
Everyone found themselves agreeing to it. Things can still go differently, but they had faith in several of the Remnantians who knew that Leomon can be saved.
Any further conversation was cut off when they felt a strong tremor hit the ruins.
"He must be nearby!" Wormmon said. "This way!"
After somehow managing to hide the tablet away like he does with his weapons, Ren quickly caught up as they soon entered a larger room in the ruins, and seemed to contain the reason why tremors kept happening.
"Okay, how does he do that," Koshiro asked about Ren putting the tablet away.
"Really deep pockets," Novice said with a shrug.
"In other words, you don't know," Iori translated, earning laughs out of people at the unimpressed look their host was giving the youngest Child.
Standing in the middle of the room was a very large, and rather banged up pillar, with a third Drimogemon using his drill to, well, try and drill it, a Black Gear sticking out of his back.
"That pillar looks very important. Something tells me we don't want him to bring it down," Salamon frowned.
"Either that, or he's just doing random things," Biyomon commented.
"Evolution time?" Wormmon asked.
"I think that would be best, yes," Ren nodded.
"Let's break that gear!" Nora grinned.
(Play Brave Heart)
"Wormmon, Evolution! Stingmon!"
"Salamon, Evolution! Gatomon!"
"I'm still not used to seeing Nora's Salamon needing to evolve into Gatomon," Patamon commented.
"You're telling me," Gabumon commented. In fact, everyone was used to Gatomon always being Gatomon. Meaning that they too needed to get used to this.
Drimogemon was busy drilling into the pillar, before he was suddenly knocked aside by a double kick courtesy of Stingmon and Gatomon. "There's no doubt about it, this pillar is a key support for the ruins. We must protect it at all costs!" Stingmon said.
"Right, we need to do that while dealing with this guy. No pressure, right?" Gatomon said with a light hint of snark. Drimogemon didn't seem to appreciate being kicked as he soon got back on his feet, with the two Digimon nodding to each other and getting between Drimogemon and the pillar.
"Now that sounds more like our Gatomon," Agumon commented, earning a mild glare from the white feline.
"Let's end this quickly!" Stingmon declared. "Moon Shooter!" he called out, firing a large needle from his hand. Drimogemon saw the attack coming and managed to move to the side. However…
"Neko Kick!" He found himself right in the way of Gatomon's attack, before being kicked aside by the deceptively strong feline.
That line caused everyone to remember the time Gatomon was giving them a hard time while still working for Myotismon. They all knew they shouldn't have judged a book by it's cover, but getting tossed around by a pipsqueak was still highly humiliating.
Drimogemon growled as he skidded to a halt, before using his drill and digging into the ground, disappearing from sight.
"Not good!" Ren's eyes widened. True enough, Drimogemon suddenly emerged behind Stingmon and hit him with his drill nose, knocking him away. He soon tried the same with Gatomon, but the smaller Digimon was able to avoid the attacks, albeit narrowly.
"Okay, well that's just cheating," Daisuke commented on Drimogemon's tactics.
"It's called being a sneaky...," Novice trailed off in his comment, not sure what word to use to replace "bastard".
"...Yes?" Daisuke sounded out.
"...Never mind." Novice gave up with an embarrassed look.
"We can't hit him if he keeps going in and out of the ground like this," Stingmon grimaced as he and Gatomon stood back to back, Drimogemon soon making what appeared to be a demented game of Whack-a-Mole due to how fast he was going in and out of his holes.
The Children and digimon knew they shouldn't laugh, but the visual aid of the screen was too much for them to not laugh at the very apt description of what was going on.
"Uh oh. We gotta help them!" Nora said, seeing their partners in a bind.
"If we can slow down Drimogemon even a little, that should give them the opening they need," Ren frowned, his mind racing to think of a way to help...before he remembered that they'd gotten their weapons back, particularly Nora's Magnhild. "Nora, shake him up a little!"
"Is he serious," Gomamon commented as he had an idea of what Ren had in mind, "Wouldn't that bring the whole cave down?"
"...Maybe the cave isn't that unstable yet," Jo said unsurely, after all, he wasn't an expert.
Nora blinked, before realizing he was looking at her hammer...and the plan clicked in her mind. "Got it!" she grinned. Hefting her hammer, she ran into the fight, and slammed it into the ground. HARD. The entire room shook, Stingmon and Gatomon actually needing to regain their balance, while Drimogemon was suddenly shaken about in his hole, forcing him to resurface...and was soon met with a hammer to the face, knocking him away. "All yours!" she said, giving the Digimon a salute. "Knock him into the ground!"
"...Well... it worked," Mimi commented feeling a little sorry for the poor Drimogemon.
"R-right!" Gatomon said, needing to take a moment to process that yes, her partner WAS that strong...even if she acted so ditzy most of the time. By now Drimogemon was regaining his balance and was making a way for a tunnel.
"Not this time! Spiking Finish!" Stingmon said, before he surged forward, spike extended and coated with energy, before catching Drimogemon by the gear, causing the mon to thrash around.
"Bull's eye!" Most of the guys shouted in unison.
"The finishing blow!" Gatomon said.
"Use this to help!" Nora added, before throwing Magnhild at her partner, the feline taking a moment to adjust to the weight.
Gatomon perked up at her other wielding the supposedly heavy hammer.
"Take this!" Gatomon shouted as she hefted Magnhild over her head, and with a mighty shout, bright it down on Drimogemon's back, causing him to plow into the ground, while Stingmon ended up ripping the Black Gear out of Drimogemon's back. Down in the soil, Drimogemon was swirly eyed, while back in the chamber, the black gear shattered while it was still skewered.
The girls winced at the gruesome sight, while most of the guys and digimon weren't sure how to feel about Gatomon wielding a hammer.
"And that's that," Stingmon nodded at the sight.
(Song end)
"Ok, this is thing is actually pretty heavy." Gatomon said with a grunt as she tried to balance it after swinging it down, before feeling her feet lift off the ground as Nora lifted her hammer up, while Gatomon was still holding on "I think I'm a bit jealous." the feline said with an amused smile before letting go and reverting back to Salamon, while Stingmon turned back into Wormmon after pulling Drimogemon out of the hole he was in.
After obligatory laughs out of most people at Gatomon being lifted, their Gatomon had a thoughtful look, "Is the hammer really that heavy?"
In response, Novice flicked his wrist and a copy of Magnhild appeared on the floor, "You tell me." That statement was accompanied by a mysterious smile.
Not needing further encouragement, Gatomon walked towards the hammer and tried to lift it. Only to be surprised as she had to put in some serious effort, just to lift it off the ground. But then she fell backwards as she tried to heft it on her shoulder. "Okay, it's heavy," Gatomon admitted, now worried for her other for other reasons.
"Anyone else want to try," Novice offered as Gatomon returned to Hikari.
Everyone shook their heads in reply.
At that moment, the other two Drimogemon brothers ran in "We got a bit worried with all the comotion, everything alright?" the eldest (the only way the could tell was because one of his whiskers was still a bit off after Nora had pulled it) asked, looking around the room.
"More or less," Ren said. "We managed to get the gear out, so he SHOULD be okay...aside from a bruise and maybe a slight bump on the head at least…"
"Well, in that case he should be fine," the middle brother said. "Trust us, we get hit in the head by rocks all the time. We're used to it. Thanks for getting rid of the gear though."
"...Okay." Was the universal comment about the Drimogemon getting hit in the head all the time.
"They must have very hard skulls," Novice said in amusement.
"About that, your older brother said you all found some more black gears. Where are they?" Wormmon asked.
"Why do you want to know?" the elder brother asked.
"Well, it would probably be a good idea to break them, you know?" Nora said with a shrug.
"Definitely," Yamato commented.
Minutes later, the group, now with the youngest Drimogemon awake, stood in a section of the caves that was higher in the whole complex "It was around here, I think… yeah, behind this wall." the middle brother said as he used his drill to move away the dirt and stone on the wall, revealing a whole system of Black Gears spinning constantly.
"Man I wish I had fire like some of the others right now." Salamon muttered as she glared at the gears.
"Leave this part to us," Nora grinned, hefting Magnhild again...only for Ren to stop her.
"We may want to be a little more careful with how we approach these," he cautioned. "Do you still have some of your grenades?" She gave him a roll of them in response. "Right," Ren nodded, before taking out a pair of his spare ammo cartridges, and loading them into Storm Flower. "Everyone, stand back."
"They're going to blow them up, aren't they," Wormmon commented.
The Digimon did as they were told, before Ren got some distance too...and threw a pair of grenades towards the gears, and in a quick motion, shooting them as they were upon the gears. The explosion was a little deafening, but when it was done, the intended result had happened, with the gears either destroyed or broken beyond repair.
And then, much to their surprise, they started to spin the opposite way, the ground shifting underneath their feet.
"It feels like we're moving." Wormmon said.
"In the opposite direction, most likely," Tentomon commented.
"We are, a bit faster than before, I can feel that much." the youngest Drimogemon said, before they all headed out to one of the many exits of the cave system.
"Well look at that, we're heading back to Mount Infinity, and it's morning now." the eldest of the three brothers said as the sun shone down on them.
"Looks like a few other island pieces are moving back as well." the middle brother pointed out.
"I bet that's where some of the others landed." Nora said, grinning a bit.
"Good guess," Palmon commented.
"Then it's very likely we'll meet back up with them soon, let's hope their all safe." Ren said, looking towards the tallest mountain of File Island.
With that, the book shut itself.
"Whelp, that's that chapter, the next one is..." Novice trailed off as what sounded like a trumpet playing a certain tune, which made the Overseer's eye twitch.
"Is this some kind of trumpet solo," Takeru asked in curiosity, while Novice made a holographic screen appear. Although during this, more tunes were added, and it started to sound a little... creepy.
Activating the loudspeaker system, Novice spoke into it, "Impmon, if the music doesn't stop in five seconds, I can promise you a dip in Purification Water!" Was the threat he announced throughout his lair. As if on command, the music stopped, which allowed the man to relax. "Miksi Mörön teema edes on musiikkilistallani(Why is the Groke's theme even in my music list)?" the man grumbled, as he planned to make a sweep of his music list later. Or better yet, take away 90 % of Impmon's household authorizations, which includes all of forms of digital entertainment and most of the foods available to him. Okay, maybe that last part is too cruel.
"Umm... was that music something you don't like," Miyako asked carefully.
"Try, 'something with bad memories attached to it'," Novice spoke up, before sighing and deciding to answer the unasked question, "It was Mörkö's theme."
"Oh." Was the universal reply from the Children. That theme combined with that creature did creep them out a little, but they still weren't sure why it induced a PTSD reaction out of Novice.
Impmon: Sheesh, I didn't think he was that scared of the thing.
Minervamon: How did you even know he was afraid of that thing.
Impmon: I stumbled upon a data font about humans complaining about that monster giving them nightmares. Even contained a picture of it and some description of the dreams they had about it. And how I knew was just a lucky guess.
Minervamon: *tilts head* Sounds like some monster.
Impmon: Yeah... Say... does Novice actually have Purification Water around?
MInervamon: Yes he does.
Impmon: *shivers* Ok, good thing I turned the music off when I did.