Another sunny day was given to them by the Moderators and Sam intended to use it well. The second the boy had loaded into File City, he made his way out through the west gate, into the Home Forest. Here he hit a couple of buttons on his D-1, before Betamon appeared in front of him.
"Today we are going to train you Nappy." he explained his partner. "So get ready to fight!"
The Digimon nodded and seemingly grinned. Soon enough Sam had spotted a ModikBetamon hopping along the clearing and ordered Nappy to fight it. His Digimon immediately caught on, ramming his different colored brother, pushing it over and causing it to cry out in pain.
"Good job!" Sam praised it.
Motivated, Nappy charged the saw on his back with Electricity, and fired it towards the tumbling enemy. Engulfed in a blinding light, the ModikBetamon eventually fell over and vanished, leaving EXP which quickly entered Nappy, helping him grow.
"Nice work little guy." Sam said, as he bent down to pet Nappy on the back.
The Digimon let out a small joyful roar, before picking its next target and running at it. Sam certainly was impressed by its energy and willingness to fight.
Soon enough they had beaten about a dozen of the little guys, with Betamon visibly becoming stronger each time his foes fell. After it had defeated the fifteenth enemy, it hopped on back to Sam, signaling him that it was hungry.
He nodded and went to work on his D-1 Digivice for a couple of seconds, before pointing it at Nappy and hitting the main button. A small, quick beam hit Betamon, and instantly its stomach felt full and its hunger vanished. It smiled gratefully and went back to work.
The sun was slowly sinking when Sam and Nappy made their way back to File City. Walking side by side, with Betamon occasionally having to make a big hop to catch up with its Tamer, the two already had seemed to form a bond.
Sam looked down at his D-1, showing him that within the Digiworld there were only twenty minutes left of the day. Even though he had felt and experienced every minute of it, he knew that once he logged out, it would have only been a couple of hours at most. Time just worked differently within the realms of the MMO.
He was a little sad and confused as to why Eneris hadn't showed up today, but his guess was that she decided to focus on her art today, and hoped she would be here with him tomorrow.
He looked down at Nappy, who had been studying him, worried this entire time, though upon seeing its Tamers eyes resting on it , the Betamon let out a tiny laugh.
"I hope you had a great day buddy." he said, reaching down to pet his partner's back, making sure to avoid cutting himself on the red saw. "Tomorrow we'll explore more of the forest, alright?"
The Digimon nodded, appearing to understand, before hopping past Sam towards the City. Sam followed it, watching as a few other Tamers were lying down together with their Digimons, probably intent on pulling an all nighter within the game. He smiled at the idea of doing the same, however he had to check on his girlfriend, and he was getting pretty hungry.
Once they had reached the City, Betamon turned towards Sam, looking at his with expecting eyes. The boy felt a sting in his heart, the thought of leaving the small creature deeply saddening him, before he shrugged it off and waved it goodbye.
Looking a bit confused, Nappy didn't have the chance to make any sounds before Sam zapped it with another beam from his Digivice, which enveloped the Digimon in a blinding light before sucking it into itself, storing its data safely inside.
On his own now, Sam looked up at the night sky, the stars glimmering in the distance. It was such a beautiful sight, especially compared to the view they had within the city they were living in. Only one more year and they'd be able to move out onto the Land. His excitement was almost unbearable.
He looked back down at his D-1, the sprite of Botamon moving back and forth on its display, and worked his way through the menu to the log out button.
Eneris logged in quite early the next morning and wasted no time at all with summoning her DemiVeemon. The little blue, bunny look alike ran circles around her, occasionally rubbing its head against her legs. She reached down to pet it's head, scratching it lovingly behind the ears, before making her way out of the City towards the forest. Almost no other people seemed to occupy the streets alongside her, allowing the sounds of nature to reach her before she had even made it to the gate.
As she passed it she could see an unusually large amount of Digimon running around on a clearing. She paid it no mind and continued her way to the north shore of the Dragon Eye Lake, Lizzie, her DemiVeemon right behind her. Eneris sat down at the shoreline, took off her shoes and socks, and put her feet into the water. It was one of the many things that the virtual reality allowed them to feel, and she enjoyed every moment of it. The closest beach to their house was about six hours by car, and they didn't have the time or money for such a trip at the current time.
Her eyes wandered across the surface of the water, watching schools of fish swimming from one side of the lake to the other. It was a peaceful image, the light breeze blowing through her hair only adding to it.
Lizzy had made itself comfortable in Eneris' lap, curled up like a cat, and was snoring quietly. The girl began running her hand over the Digimon's back, which seemed to please it as it wriggled against her.
Two hours later, Sam had joined Eneris and the two had decided to take a hike up Mt. Panorama, hoping to make it to the Factory Town that lay at the furthest point North-west. Initially it was a simply undertaking, with Betamon able to take care of most Digimon that would cross their path, occasionally assisted by MetalGreymon if need be. DemiVeemon on the other hand, still too small to fight, was riding on Eneris' shoulder, absorbing as much of the left over experience as possible. It took them the better half of an hour before they had made it to the end of the Mountain, at which they decided to take a small break to feed their Digimon.
Nappy had clearly grown quite a bit thanks to the experience he had gained. Lizzy also seemed to have gained some more energy; as it hopped of off its Tamer and was running circles around them. The Digimon began chasing each other for fun, while Sam and Eneris checked their inventories for supply.
"Slowly running out of Floppies," Eneris told Sam, her eyes fixed on the display of her D-Power. "We could take the shortcut through the mountain and go restock in the City."
She looked over to Sam who was checking his own Digivice, chewing on his lower lip while doing so, before he let his arm fall down, swaying it back and forth and met her glance. "I think we can make it to the Factory Town." he replied, his eyes wandering to their Digimons, "They'll do fine until we get there. I also got Ruby if we get into trouble." Sam added, pointing down at his D-1. "We can restock once we get there."
With that the boy walked over to his Betamon and pat it on the back "I can count on you, right?" he asked, gaining a big smile from it as a response. "Then it's settled."
And with that they began walking north, towards the entrance of the Gear Savannah. Eneris shook her head as she gestured for Lizzy to follow them, then did so herself.
Gear Savannah was quite different from the Mountain they had just climbed. It was a wide open area, having the ocean to the west of it, with nothing but flat grassland as far as they eye could see to the north. East of the entrance were a couple of trees, reaching high into the sky, a few more, much smaller mountains, and a hill made out of digital garbage that could be spotted from miles away. The biggest eye catcher however was the huge City, completely built out of metal that was erected at the northern edge of the Savannah an enormous steel gate dividing the two areas.
Within the Gear Savannah was quite an abundance of different Digimon Species. From Psychemons, a strange reptile that looked like a pink Dinosaur covered with a fur pelt, ShimaUnimons, a zebra like Digimon, with a metal plating, similar to Ruby on its head, to Sukamon a Digimon that literally looked like poop, or at least the way japanese animes liked to represent it.
The heat hit Sam like a hammer the second he took a step out into the open wilderness. The air was hot and dry, two things the boy absolutely hated. Eneris soon caught up to him and she too paused for a moment to adapt to the changed atmosphere. While Lizzy seemed to be doing alright, Nappy, considering that he was an amphibian Digimon that required water or at least wet environments, was sweating and panting heavily. It began tugging on Sam's pants with its beak, gesturing to put it back into his Digivice. He obliged and hit a couple of buttons before the familiar blue beam appeared and replaced Betamon with MetalGreymon.
Sam pat Ruby's knee and the Digimon responded by sinking its head for him to pet, which he quickly did. Pleased, the giant Digimon took the lead and guided them towards their goal. Most Digimon that attempted to get between them and their destination simply got swatted aside by Ruby's giant Metal Claw. One of them however, required the team's full attention. After they had just made it out of the open plains, and into a valley, trying to take a quick break within the shadows of the mountains to their sides, a loud noise caught their attention.
It was the sound of a drill being started repeatedly, before finally arriving at a stable, high pitched level. Covering their ears, the two humans tried to locate the source, to no avail. Falling to their knees as the pain got too much to bear; the two didn't see the silhouette of a Lion pouncing at them from atop the mountain. It had almost reached Eneris, its enormous needle-like claws ready to impale her, when Ruby rammed it with it's metal arm, throwing it to the ground. Its mane, which looked and functioned like a drill, got stuck in the sandy ground, instantly stopping the ear grating sound, giving the two Tamers a chance to recover.
As soon as he could, Sam pointed his D-1 at the Digimon, scanning it for its data. The Digivice soon informed him that it was LoaderLiomon, a perfect level Digimon, just like MetalGreymon. As the name would have suggested it had the shape of a slim lion, almost resembling a tiger. Its entire body had been formed out of metal, which the Digivice identified as Chrome Digizoid, the same one Ruby had been equipped with. On its end, where a normal tail would be found on an actual lion, a huge morning star was attached to it by a wire.
Liomon got up onto its paws, the three razor sharp claws digging through the dirt it was standing on. It was getting ready to pounce again.
"Ruby, take it down!" Sam commanded. His Digimon nodded and with a strong flap of its wings, Ruby dashed forward, swinging at LoaderLiomon with its metal claw. The lion was quicker however and dodged to the side with jump, bouncing off of the side of the mountain and hitting MetalGreymon on its unguarded shoulder with the maze like weapon it possessed. Eneris began summoning Antylamon in order to help, but Sam gestured her to stop. He had faith in his Digimon.
Ruby cried out in pain and whirled around, smacking the opponent against the mountain with the help of its tail. Once more LoaderLiomon hit the ground, this time requiring visibly more energy to get itself back up. These few seconds of vunerability was all Ruby needed. The MetalGreymon shot its huge claw out like a weapon, still connected to the arm through tough fiber wires, impaling the lion, keeping it on the ground. With a loud roar it then exposed its metallic chest, the two hatches screwed onto it opening, releasing a nuclear missile each. These shot out of Ruby at high speed, flying directly at its foe, before exploding on impact.
Once the dust it created had settled, the LoaderLiomon had vanished; in its place was data, floating through the air, just waiting to be absorbed by a Digimon. Despite Sam's knowledge of how much of a boost this would be for Nappy, he smiled at Ruby, which had turned its head to listen for the Tamers next command.
"Take it. You deserve it." he encouraged his Digimon, which nodded happily and moved towards the pool of data, which was slowly moving toward it, into it and then merged with its own.
Sam scanned Ruby with his Digivice and analyzed the data it spit out, with slight worry on his face. Eneris on the other hand was busy calming down her scared DemiVeemon which had hid in her bag, lacking the courage to face other violent Digimons itself. MetalGreymon returned to Sam's side, ready to strike again if it had to.
After clearing the display of his Digivice, Sam poked Eneris in the back, signing her to get up. She did so after reassuring her Digimon one last time and the two began marching again in silence, until they had reached the giant Gate locking them out of the Factory Town. Sam knocked on it, hoping for easy access, however, no response came. The gate was usually guarded by two Mekanorimon who would let Tamers pass if they had reached a certain level limit or had finished some quests that allowed them to enter. The two Tamers standing in front of it this time had achieved both of those feats, yet weren't granted entrance it seemed.
"Alright, this sucks," Eneris said breaking the silence after Sam had begun banging against the metal. "Why is nobody here?"
"Not sure," the boy replied, trying to find a whole or slit he could peek through. "But maybe the patch bugged out this area?" He then took two steps back and put his foot up against the gate, seeing if he could force it open. Of course he couldn't.
Eneris lent him a hand and the two began pushing together, but the solid metal wouldn't budge an inch. The two gave up after a couple of tries and sat down, their backs leaning against the very gate that seemed to hate them. Sweat was running down their faces as the incredibly hot son and the work they had put into their fruitless operation were taking their toll.
"I wonder what they screwed up now." Eneris eventually groaned angrily, wiping her forehead clean, before reaching into her bag and pulling out water to drink. Though not actually thirst quenching, but it did help her body cool down after the Virtual reality had been able to manipulate it into believe it had begun heating up. She handed it over to Sam who took one sip as well, enjoying the cooling effect it had throughout him, before placing it back inside of Eneris' bag.
"So what do we do now?" the girl wanted to know. Sam simply shrugged, looking off into the distance towards the trash mountain, behind which laid the Geko Swamp.
"We could move on through the forest and into Toy Town," he suggested dry as he ran his hand through his sticky hair. "But I know how much that place freaks you out."
"Yeah, no thanks." she replied, before pushing herself back up from the ground and landing Sam a hand. While being pulled up by her, which he made much harder than it had to be just to annoy her, something popped into his head and for a second he wanted to beat himself up for his stupidity.
Instead, he simply shook his head in disbelieve before pointing at the gate and commanding: "Ruby, Giga Destroyer." and for that second time that day, MetalGreymon roared out loud and fired two Missiles out of it's chest plates, causing debris to fly through the air, some of which had to be dodge by the two Tamers who weren't inclined to be impaled by metal beams. Once the dust had settled Sam could spot a hole within the gate created by the impact. He was quite impressed that the construct was able to withstand his Digimon's blast to such an extent, but the hole was still big enough for both of them to crawl through. They gave each other a high five, before Sam temporarily stored Ruby back in his Digivice in order to fit through.
Standing on the other side of the hole, the two recognized the large landing space they were standing on, which had been built for huge, flying Digimon that might require it, in case they were too big to fit through the gate like Ruby. Ruby's wings, sadly, were not strong enough to carry the giant metallic body through the air.
It was a plain area, surrounded by more metal beams that were piled up to create a wall, with some space on top for guards to patrol. The only two exits of this area were back the way they came, or an automatic bridge that had been lowered over a body of water that lead into the ocean, which the entire factory had been built over. Deciding that they weren't going to just leave again, the tag team made their way over the bridge leading to a bigger area. To the right of them they could see another bridge, leading to the front of the great Factory itself, a giant plaza where a lot of busy Digimon were usually gathered to exchange machine parts or products they were to ship to the city. However, it was completely empty today. Not a single sound came from it, or the inside of the factory.
In front of them was a small building, the administration building, the work place of Andromon, a friendly Perfect Digimon who's intelligent and knowledge surpassed that of both humans. The usual green lights that would keep it bright and friendly to look at were off and Sam was unable to spot anything within.
To their left, was a ladder that led to the sewers, where neither of them was interested of going, as well as a third bridge, which would lead them to the docks of the town. There, lots of water loving Digimon or Tamers who owned them would arrive to ask for custom made items, or trade them for material that they needed. Sam himself was hoping to one day be able to make good use of those docks by riding Seadramon to them, avoiding all the hassle of walking here.
The big theme that seemed to follow Sam's attempt of scanning the area was the emptiness of it all. Not a single Digimon seemed to be present in the usually loud and busy town. The two Tamers soon decided to check out the administration building, seeing how it was right in front of them. Together they shoved the door, which would have done it automatically on any other, to the side, and stepped in.
Sam had been right with his observation. The inside was pitch black, forcing the two to use their Digivices as flashlights as they continued moving deeper through the building. Luckily it was the smallest one within the town, so they quickly enough reached the control room, and the empty space Andromon usually occupied. Sam walked towards the consoles and hit a few buttons he assumed would activate the system, but was left with no feedback from the monitors.
"What is going on here," Eneris asked, as she walked up next to him. "Bugs usually don't erase every Digimon in an entire area like this, do they?"
"And erase all energy and power within it, yet leave the area itself standing? Not any bug I ever heard of." Sam replied, checking the controls once again.
A sudden buzzing sounded behind them, quickly gaining in volume, causing the two to flip around. In time, they jumped to the side, before the laser beam in front of them cut straight through the machines behind them. Sam quickly attempted to call out Ruby, but something long and rough struck him in the face, bashing his head against the consoles next to him. He lost his consciousness and slid to the floor.
On the other side of the room Eneris began shining her Digivice into the darkness, trying to spot the assaulter. Another buzzing started up and the girl reacted fast, rolling to the side and dodging another deadly beam which cut up more machinery, causing sparks to fly through the air, lighting up the room. This was what finally allowed her to see their foe: In the middle of the room, floating a couple of feet above the ground, was a giant, serpent shaped, orange dragon, with yellow scales adorning its underside. It had messy, purple fur covering its entire back, flowing out of the black metal plating it had on the top of its head, similar to MetalGreymon. Also much like it, this dragon possessed a pair of tattered, purple wings which, unlike Ruby's, allowed it to fly. It had two bulky black metal attachments at the end of its arms, one of which had split into three parts resembling a huge claw, revealing that the inside of the contraption was loaded with something, and it was pointed directly at Eneris. With a loud sizzling, swarms of small fish like creatures were released from it, all flying towards the girl. Getting caught up a little too long in the ridiculousness of the moment, the girl was lucky enough to be missed by the first flock, as they hit the wall behind her, causing a huge explosion on impact, which sent her flying forward, slamming to the ground exactly in front of the enemy.
Alarmed and shaken Eneris crawled away from the dragon and hurried to her feet. She couldn't put her finger on why her mind was screaming in fear right away, but as she jumped out of the way of another school of flying fish like her life depended on it, she realized it: The explosions felt real. She could feel the heat, pressure and even pain from being knocked around.
With this new found knowledge in mind, her brain told her to run away as fast as she could and get herself to safety and she was about to follow its order, until she remembered Sam. He was still somewhere in this room. She had not seen him go down, but definitely heard the loud banging sound before. Now with another fear rising up inside the girl's body, adrenaline was rushing through her at an alarming rate, her heartbeat racing like it had never done before. The fight or flight feeling within her was wrestling for a second, trying to tell her that it was just a game, he'd be fine without her. In the end however, she raised her D-Power and summoned Cloe.
Out of the Digivice came Antylamon, a Digimon with a tall, slender humanoid body, despite its extremely long arms with claws at the end of it, as well as the huge bunny ears it had. It's legs and feet were covered by light pink pants, with its torso hidden underneath red scales and what appeared to be a sailor uniform, with a scarf wrapped around its neck. Despite the somewhat silly outfit it wore, the red, stinging eyes staring directly at the rampaging dragon demanded respect and attention.
Feeling challenged by its sudden appearance, the monster in the middle of the room opened the claw like contraption on its other arm and aimed at the two. Another school of fish began racing at them, this time recognized as tiny sharks by Eneris, with huge, intimidating grins on their faces.
Cloe pushed her Tamer to the side and took a deep breath, before reeling back and slamming its fist into the group of microscopic sharks. The explosion following their impact barely scratched Antylamon. Thanks to its inner Mantra Chant it had turned its body into material as strong as the steel MetalGreymons body was made out of. With what appeared to be a smirk on its face, Cloe dashed towards its Enemy, using its still hardened body to throw another punch, landing directly in the dragons jaw. One loud, metallic cry later, the Digimon had seemingly recovered, now more enraged than before. Losing whatever temper it had possessed before, it now began randomly shooting out lasers and the tiny shark rockets, forcing Eneris to quickly find cover as the place began crumbling, with metal beams and steel pipes falling from the ceilings and out of the walls. She looked back into the room once she had reached the exit, her Digivice still acting as a spotlight for her to find Sam with, but the constant explosions and shaking of the building made it hardfor her to spot anything.
Meanwhile Antylamon had managed to create distance between itself and the blood hungry Digimon in front of it. Cloe began growling at the dragon, itself aware that something wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Antylamon began spinning its arms, causing its hands to lose their claw like shape and instead turn into axes. This transformation was referred to as Treasure Axes by the Tamers, though to Cloe it was simply a natural skill. Once more, Antylamon rushed its Enemy, swinging both axes at it in a cross formation. The dragon swung his metal hands up in the air, barely stopping Cloe's axes only inches away from its eye, the one thing left exposed underneath its metal plating. Desperately it attempted to push Antylamon away from itself, but Cloe had the upper hand, having its feet planted directly on solid ground. Unable to find another way to free itself, the dragon fired rockets out of both of its arms, which exploded on the ceiling, causing more steel and metal to crash down on them, burying both. Now it had become a race to see which of the two would get up first and gain the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Eneris had found Sam and dragged his unconscious body out of the room and into safety. She called out to him, tried to shake him awake, but no response came from the boy. At first this was all her mind could think of. Wake him, make sure he is alive. It wasn't until she listened for a pulse that she realized they were in a computer game. She quickly worked the buttons of her D-Power and made her way to the log out function. To her shock, it had been grayed out, and trying to use it only resulted in an error message and the sound of a disapproving machine resonating in her skull, "What is going on!?"
Antylamon was standing on its feet, albeit with shaking knees, trying to spot its enemy underneath the rubble. It wasn't dead. It wouldn't do such a foolish thing if it would mean the dragons demise. Once again it channeled its energy into every fiber of its body, causing it to turn into metal, before quickly digging through the beams on the floor. As it pushed a fifth one to the side, it finally spotted the orange tail stuck underneath some more rubble, before being hit in the back of its head, being smashed face first into the metal beams it had just cleared. Something else had found its way onto the battlefield.
"INTRUDERS ARE NOT TOLERATED. DELETION WILL COMMENCE."
After checking Sam's Digivice as well, confirming his log out function had been disabled as well; Eneris got up and rushed back into the room she had left her Digimon in. However, the second she made it into the room, she saw a tall figure standing above Antylamon, aiming something at its head. The next thing she remembered was a huge, blinding light burning in her eyes, before she was kicked out of the game.