It's a little late, and it's been a while, but I feel this chapter is ready to post. It's mostly filler but leads up to some action near the end, and we learn a little more about the Digimon of the team, among other things. A big change is in store for the team in the next few chapters, though it's been a while since I've done any work, so don't expect regular updates.
I'm doing work on other stories when I can, but inspiration has been a little rare lately, and what is there just as rarely is what I was looking for. For the time being, Gallade's Arm and Jack's Journey are on hold for a while, and I'm mostly working on side projects, but have some chapters ready for Changing Tides and one more for Digital Sheriff, along with some stuff for a new story I may post within the next few months, after I get the chapters set right. They're nearly ready, but not exactly how I want them.
That said, I'd like reviews on how I'm doing, and I want to know if anyone has OCs for any of my stories. It might be what sets off the spark that will help the next chapter along. But at the same time, I've stopped taking requests because I don't think I can do them anymore, at least not now. The reason for this is that I only seem to get requests for Pokémon stories, which is causing me to burn out on Pokémon, which is what's slowing me down. After a while, I'll get back to them, but I just need time. So until then, Digimon, One Piece, and maybe something new. Hopefully it will take off, but it's one that I'm positive will be a bit of a sleeper.
Without further ado: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do hereby state that I do not own the rights to Digimon. I just like it enough to create a new line of Digimon and a story about peace keepers. Should the creators of Digimon ask to use my characters and story, all I ask is that I be allowed to see how it's going and maybe give my two cents now and then. Won't happen, but it's my story, and I'd like to see the spirit remain intact.
…
I happily took a bite of the hamburger while the others spoke in the kitchen. Percy and Annabelle were hungry after the fight, and after we gave our report, Arthur suggested they have dinner at our home, something that Percy agreed with due to me mentioning that Mara was the best cook around. Annabelle agreed since she, like Percy, wanted to see if I was telling the truth. There weren't enough chairs for all of us, specifically Scott and Daisy, so we were eating in the front room, carefully.
"Wow, this is really good." Daisy said. I nodded.
"You weren't exaggerating when you said Mara was a great cook." Scott added. I swallowed and smiled.
"I wouldn't kid about her cooking." I said. "The first thing I ate after coming to this world, was a meatball she made. It was the best thing I'd ever tasted… More so because I hadn't eaten in a few days." They laughed I took another bite.
"Well, after that battle, this is a good reward for you two." Daisy said. "I, was useless."
"You were too busy protecting our Tamers." Scott said calmly. I nodded while Daisy looked down, smiling a little. "But if anyone has earned a reward, it would be Mao. Standing up to an Ultimate when he knew full well a single attack could be the end of him. Reckless, but, I am grateful nonetheless."
"Not like you weren't pulling your weight." I said. I looked at him. "You knew just as well as I did that his attacks could have finished you in one shot if he hit the right place." He looked at the plate, now empty. "We all had important jobs. Daisy, you protected our friends while I rode that Garurumon into battle, and Scott, you fought a Devimon, probably to a standstill, even after he Digivolved." He smirked. "And me… I shot down the Demi-Devimon and beat up an Impmon before Myotismon killed him. We saved, uh, the police station… Mostly." Daisy laughed as I put the last of the burger in my mouth.
"Don't forget, I managed to use your revolver to create a new attack." He said. I nodded as I chewed. "Not exactly my first choice of weapon, but I'll admit, Baffle came through, flawlessly." I swallowed.
"That reminds me, I need to get my cleaning kit." I said. "Gotta be at my best, and to do that, Baffle needs to be clean and in top condition." I picked up my drink and took a sip while Daisy slid off of the couch with her empty plate.
"Would Mrs. Rowe mind if I had another?" She asked. I set the cup down and stood up.
"I was thinking the same thing." I said. "She's always got plenty to go around." Before we could walk away, Mara walked in with three plates, which she handed to us.
"I thought you three would still be hungry." She said. "I know Mao well enough to know that after a rough battle, a Digimon is going to be very hungry." I smiled.
"Thank you, Mrs. Rowe." Scott said. "I imagine you must work as a chef at a very nice restaurant from time to time to keep your culinary skills so sharp." Mara smiled as she waved her hand.
"Oh, those days are behind me." She said. "These days it's all to take care of my children, and Mao of course." I sat down as I held up my burger.
"And such great care we are shown." I said happily. They laughed as she walked toward the kitchen.
"Mao, do you know where Arthur's father is?" Scott asked. "It's hardly past noon, but, I don't see any pictures." I shrugged.
"I haven't seen him." I said, turning as Daisy climbed back on the couch. "To be completely honest, Arthur's only mentioned him once since I've been here, and Mara doesn't talk about him that much, to me at least. All I know is that he's a Marine on tour, but Arthur and I don't know where." I looked at my plate. "But, a year ago, Arthur said there were fourteen months left for his tour, so, he'll be back in about a month and a half, give or take." I shrugged when Scott suddenly set his burger down and began drinking his water quickly. I fought a laugh as Daisy stood up.
"Are you okay, Scott?" She asked quickly. I held my hand out and raised my thumb toward the kitchen, and I saw Mara smiling and returning the gesture while Scott shook his head.
"This is, intensely spicy." He said. "Far more than the first one." I laughed quietly.
"Yeah, about that." I said. "I asked Mara give you a super spicy burger for seconds." He looked at me as I winked. "Mischief happens when you least expect it." He leaned forward and took my burger, setting his down. "Hey, Scott, I wouldn't do that." He took a bite and I smirked. "I asked that mine be even spicier than the one you had." He was silent before swallowing and jumping up, and I just barely caught the plate and burger as he walked quickly to the kitchen, his mouth wide open as he opened the fridge.
"Scott, what's wrong?" Percy asked.
"He took a bite of my burger after he found out Mara and I pranked him!" I called.
"Scott, milk won't do much for that." Mara said. "Here, drink this."
"Dare I?" He asked. Arthur laughed.
"Trust her this time." He said. "I accidentally ate one of Mao's burgers one time, and that was the only thing that made it bearable." Scott quickly drank a dark liquid and sighed after he set the glass down, shivering. "Milk, molasses, and honey, a blanket against the spices." Daisy giggled into her hands as I took a bite of my burger while Mara gave him a regular one.
"I'm sorry, but sometimes Mao can be persuasive." Mara said. "And I must admit, sometimes I give in because I think it's funny."
"Imps will be Imps." I called. Our Tamers laughed while Scott thanked Mara and walked back in with a fresh cup of water, sitting down and looking at me. "Better to get it out of my system while I can. If not, watch where you step. There might be a tripwire leading to a bucket of soap and a fan in front of a pile of feathers."
"I can forgive you, this time." He said. "Next time, I'll stop at the first hamburger of fire." I laughed.
"Yeah, mine's the Napalm Special." I said. I took another bite as Daisy drank her water. "But hey, dessert's right after this, and if my nose is right, you'll forgive me."
"If you've not tampered with it." He said. I put my hand to my chest.
"I'm not about to mess with dessert." I said honestly. "Mara's made Arthur's and my favorite. Cherry cheesecake."
"Yet, it won't be spicy." He said.
"Smooth, delicious, moist, with a perfect balance of flavor." I said, closing my eyes. "You won't find better anywhere, I promise you that." I opened my eyes. "Now, I have to stop myself before I get the urge to run into the kitchen and take a huge bite out of it."
…
"So, you can use other Digimon's attacks…" Daisy said. "That's, awesome." I nodded as I adjusted my hammock. We'd set up in the living room and Scott had de-Digivolved back to a Patamon after the cheesecake, which about made Percy propose to Mara, had she not already been married. "That fireball?"
"Pepper Breath." I said. "I call it Imp Breath. Spicy. More than my hamburger."
"I'm thankful, then." Scott said. I laughed as I climbed into the hammock.
"Well, when I used your Boom Bubble, Dark Bubble as I call it, I tasted, grape." I said. "Not sure why."
"I don't taste anything when I use it." He said.
"Differences in data." I said. "It's the way the ball rolls. You don't taste it, I taste grape, and maybe some other Patamon tastes, I don't know, watermelon… In which case I'd be jealous, because I like watermelon more than I like grape." Daisy laughed as I rolled to look at them.
"So, what do we do now?" Daisy asked. "I'm not tired."
"Same here." Scott said.
"Well, we could, talk, get to know each other." She suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Scott said, looking at me.
"What?" I asked after a second. Daisy looked at me as well. "I think I've shared more than you two." They laughed.
"Yeah, that's true." Daisy said. "I guess, since I'm the new Digimon here…" She sat down as Scott settled onto a pillow under a small blanket. "Uh, I don't know where to start."
"How about when you got to the human world?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, that was a fun day." She said. "I came here about, three months ago. I landed in the computer room of a greenhouse in the morning, where Ann worked part time. When I got there, I saw, all kinds of things in the dirt all around after walking out. Pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, but I thought they were other Digimon. I tried talking to them, but obviously they didn't answer." I put my hands behind my head as Scott moved the blanket with his ears. "Ann heard me and came in, thinking I was someone else. She wasn't even scared of me at first. She just, walked over and put her hand on my head near my flower, and we started talking. She explained where I was, and while we were talking, she just, found a Digivice in her pocket." Her Digivice was a D-arc, like Scott's. "Since then, we've been really good friends. But, she decided to quit her job, to join the DGA."
"You ended up in a pretty appropriate place." I said. Scott nodded. "First place you see, a place where plants are grown to be the best." She giggled. "Me, hardly appropriate. I show up at a computer classroom in the afternoon, Arthur's helping his teacher, and he gets the Optimizer on his hand. Then we go home, I help set the table and test the food, and, I'm the Rowe family Digimon." She smiled.
"What about you, Scott?" She asked. "When did you get here?"
"About six years ago." He said. "Percy was working on a thesis paper and I appeared in the room as he went to get a drink. When he came back, he was surprised, but he was really nice to me. He told me where I was, and offered to take care of me until I figured out what I'd do. When the Digivice appeared, well… We worked hard to be a good team, and we're great friends."
"Sounds like we all showed up at the right time in the right places." I said. "I mean, knowing me as well as I do, if I had shown up a few hours later, I would have probably raided the fridge in the cafeteria and set up where I could do a few pranks before meeting a Tamer that might not have been Arthur."
"I think the same would have happened to me, had I appeared, the day before, or after." Daisy said. "I mean, having a different Tamer. Ann's been a really good friend to me." Scott yawned quietly but shook his head. "I wonder, what we'll be like, when we're all Champions… Will we really be a better team?"
"I think we will." I said. "A Togemon and Angemon, and whatever I'll turn into, and… Whoever else joins the squad and whatever their Digimon turns into, I think by then, we'll be a great team."
"I agree." Scott said. "The next emergency they call on us for, we'll see just how well we really can work together." I nodded as Daisy moved to a spot near the window. "So, Mao, your turn."
"I've already told you both how I got here." I said.
"How about, where you're from, in the Digital World?" Daisy suggested. I thought for a moment. "Mao?"
"It's been a while." I said. "I left my home when I became a Rookie. I don't know if I have parents or, if I was reborn after being deleted. All I know for sure is that I lived in a ghost town for a few months after hatching, and luckily there was some food so I could become a Rookie." They were silent but I shrugged. "So, Scott, what about you?"
"Oh, I'm from a little village on File Island." He said. "It's full of mostly Patamon and Gatomon waiting to Digivolve into Angemon and Angewomon to go to a monastery on a nearby mountain. I hear it's a nice place, but I don't think I could live there."
"What do they do?" Daisy asked. Scott shrugged his wings.
"No idea." He said. "I left because I wanted to do some good in the human world. I knew that things were different, so I thought it'd be a better life." I nodded.
"Kind of, like me." She said. "I was born in, a little nameless forest, and I had a pretty small family, but my parents just, wanted a lot from me. So, one day, I spotted this portal to this world and figured, it has to be better than what my parents wanted for me. I took my chance. And, so far, I'm having a lot of fun." She smiled as she looked at me, so I smiled as Scott settled into the blanket and pillow.
"You know, I've heard that they're planning on making teams about four or five Tamers strong." He said. We looked at him. "That means, we'll have another couple of friends, maybe four."
"That'll make Mara happier." I said. "Arthur has new friends, and that's going to make it a lot easier for him to get his mother to leave him alone." They laughed as I smiled. "That also means I'll have new friends. I couldn't ask for much better."
"I know how you feel." Daisy said. "It's nice to have friends."
…
"Mao, wake up, we're on!" Arthur called. I shot up and promptly fell out of my hammock, landing on the floor, but I scrambled up as Scott, in his Angemon form, ran out through the door while Annabelle carried Daisy out. I quickly got my belt on and holstered Baffle as Arthur ran out. As I got to the door, Percy picked me up and we ran toward the van. "Sorry buddy, but they just called us." I looked around and saw that it was early morning, the sun just starting to rise. "We're the closest to this one." Percy set me down and clipped me into the child seat as I let out a wide mouthed yawn, my eyes closed as he shut the door. While my mouth was open, I suddenly had something placed in my mouth. As I opened my eyes, I tasted that it was sweet, and I looked to see Ann moving back to her seat.
"Breakfast muffin." She said. I closed my mouth as Percy got in.
"What about me?" Arthur asked. The others laughed as I began chewing the muffin, and I saw Daisy was eating one as well.
"You had yours." Percy said. "And you're driving. Allons, hurry, we must get to the park." I continued chewing, trying to get the muffin down, but my mouth was dry. As if she knew, Ann handed me a small plastic bottle with milk. I bowed my head as she laughed.
"You're welcome." She said. I drank most of it and swallowed the muffin before drinking the rest.
"What's the Digimon this time?" I asked.
"A few." Percy said as Arthur started driving. "A Champion, a Devimon to be exact. Hopefully this time it won't surprise us and Digivolve. What is truly strange, is that there is a Dorumon with him. A handful of DemiDevimon, the Dorumon, and a Devimon… A lot of Viruses. It's strange."
"Any backup?" I asked.
"Yes, this time, we are getting help from a Tamer with a MetalGreymon." Percy said. "They're already on the way."
"If this Devimon does suddenly Digivolve, we'll have a trump card." Arthur said. "No way we'll be caught off guard this time."
"I can handle the DemiDevimon." Daisy said. "I'll catch them with my Poison Ivy. You, handle the Dorumon."
"And I'll work on the Devimon until the MetalGreymon arrives." Scott said over the radio. "Mao, no heroics, got it?"
"Got it." I said. "Same goes for you though."
…
I slowly stepped to the right as the Dorumon stared me down. Arthur had already scanned him, and something was off. Something, strange. The attack gained, Metal Cannon. It let me spit a metal ball about as big as a thirty two caliber bullet, but I knew my bullets were more effective… If I hadn't have had Baffle knocked out of my hand by a Metal Cannon shot. Something else was off. I felt, different, strange. It was, like some new data had taken root in my body, and it wasn't harmful, but it certainly wasn't familiar enough for me to work with.
"You won't win this, furball." I said. "Go back to the Digital World or I'm going to send your code there." It just growled as we circled. Daisy had the DemiDevimon caught in a lot of her Poison Ivy, but she couldn't hold them forever. Eventually, they would be able to break free and attack her, and enough Demi Darts were potentially lethal.
"Freak." The Dorumon said.
"Nothing I haven't been called before." I said.
"You shouldn't be with these humans." He said.
"Stop." I said. "I'm not about to go through this, not two days in a row. Save your speech, and just get out of here, or I'm going to put a hole in that gem on your head." He suddenly rushed me, hitting me in the chest with a hard kick. I was so surprised I was pushed back repeatedly until I managed to grab his mouth, closing it as he tried to use his Metal Cannon again. He growled and tried to talk, but I just punched him in the gut. "Take, this!" I hit him repeatedly before throwing him back and opening my mouth. "Spirit Blaze!" I exhaled a stream of fire at him but he jumped away. As I panted from the heat burning my tongue, I looked at him. "Imp Steel Spit!" I formed the ball of metal in my mouth to mimic his attack.
"Metal Cannon!" He called. I fired the ball just as he fired his, and his shot missed me, while mine caught him in the leg, pushing him down, but to my surprise he got up and rushed me. Before I could react, he slammed into me, slashing my torso with his claws until I kicked him off.
"Nuts to this." I said angrily. I grabbed a red tipped bullet and put it between my fingers, pointing it at him before forming a ball of fire behind it. "Red Tip!" The bullet fired with a lot less force than usual, but the burning bullet hit his shoulder with a pop. Since it didn't burrow in, though, it just burned some of his fur and maybe put some small shrapnel a little into his skin, but not enough to be dangerous.
"Metal Cannon!" He called. He shot the ball at me, and this time it hit me in the shoulder, and I felt it go through. I fell back, breathing hard, and all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. "You'll, die soon. For now, I'll get that, stupid plant." He started walking away as my vision blurred. It had been some time since I'd actually had such a bad injury. Myotismon hadn't done so much to me, but then, he only had to hit me once to injure me. This, was worse.
"Mao, M-Mao, can you move?" Arthur asked quickly. "Mao!" For a moment, everything went dark, but just as fast as I had been shot, I suddenly felt a surge of energy, and the pain just, vanished. I got up slowly, and I took a step as Dorumon turned. "Mao, wh-what's going on?"
"Hey!" I called. "Get over here you fur covered wuss! I've got a bone to pick with you!" He stared for a moment as I walked forward. I felt, taller, and I could tell my legs and arms were a little longer. Whatever was going on, I felt, different. "Come on!" He opened his mouth.
"Metal Cannon!" He called. I turned slightly and dodged the shot, and I heard a thud. "D-damn it." Daisy ran into the bushes as the DemiDevimon took to the air, but I grabbed Baffle as I walked past it, and I felt it change. The barrel felt heavier. I raised it calmly.
"Dark Rounds!" I called. I fired five shots, hitting all but Dorumon. The DemiDevimon dropped, their code flowing to me while a bit went to Arthur, the rest to the Digital World, hopefully. As Dorumon went to speak, I simply pointed at him and drew the hammer back.
"Y-you!" He started to yell. I pulled the trigger and the bullet hit the gem in his forehead, but it continued through his skull. As his code formed from his body, some of it seemed different, but it flowed into my body nonetheless. I lowered Baffle and looked to see Devimon being finished by a single hit from the MetalGreymon, but, just as suddenly as my rush of power came, I felt it go away, and I just, fell over, hard, onto my back.
"Mao!" Arthur called. "Mao!"
"Sleepy…" I said tiredly. "Nighty, night, Arty, boy…" My head rolled to the side as my eyes closed. I just, blacked out.