"Down, Dorumon." The newcomer said harshly, and the digimon backed away. Bree could sense tension in Lopmon, like she was prepared to fight if need be, but knew she'd be unsuccessful against this enemy. They were both relieved that the new pair had no intention of fighting them.
"I'm Jepha," the guy said, "this is Dorumon, and this is our city. I don't care that you're here, if anything it's nice seeing a human after all these years. But that road is Bakemon territory. And you're clearly not strong enough to go down it."
"Says you," Bree spat, her ego damaged. She was an intelligent girl, but her pride was important to her, and she hated appearing weak to anyone. It was one of her more severe flaws, outside of being sarcastic and blunt.
She gathered Lopmon up in her arms, and the bunny digimon instantly relaxed, "we can take care of ourselves. Regardless of these Bakemon you mentioned."
"Y-yeah!" Lopmon stammered, nervously.
Jepha looked to Dorumon, and they both shared a short laugh with each other, "if you say so. But I can't allow you to go alone, I may be a jerk, but I am also a gentleman."
"That doesn't even make sense," Bree snorted, she turned to walk down the street, ignoring that he was trailing behind her. She didn't care if he followed them, she only care about reaching her goal, which was finding and destroying the demon digimon, and getting the hell home. If anything, maybe she could use his more powerful digimon to her advantage, and get the job done sooner.
They carried on for ten minutes in silence, and she was quickly starting to doubt that any digimon lived in the city at all, let alone these dangerous Bakemon. Nothing was jumping out at them, or bothering them in any way, and she wondered if he'd lied about it from the start just to walk with her. If that were the case, she'd think of him as pathetic.
The awkward quiet must have caught up to him, because Jepha was the first to speak,
"So, I have to ask, where did you come from?"
"Earth."
"Well, I know that. But you're the first human I've seen since I got here. So forgive me for being curious as to why the hell you've shown up now."
"How long exactly have you been here?"
"Five years," the guy said, without a hint of emotion in his voice.
Bree spun around rapidly, causing Lopmon to squeal in surprise and cling tightly to her arms. There was no sign of him fabricating his story, and she knew just by looking at his face that he wasn't lying, he'd in fact, been in the digital world for five years. But the implication of it deeply angered her.
"How is that possible? No, you're an idiot. I know the way to escape here, and you just didn't try hard enough to get the job done."
"Oh yeah? And what exactly is your escape plan princess?"
The fact that he called her princess was like nails on a chalkboard to her. She was no princess, she was boyish. If it weren't for her abnormally violet eyes, she'd have no hint of femininity on her entire being. Even now, her brown hair was only shoulder length, and she wore baggy cargo shorts and a loose t-shirt and vest, her shoes were beat up converse that she'd worn for years. Princess? Even suggesting she was one drove her up the wall, and he must have noticed her face becoming flushed, because he laughed at her once more.
"Seriously, though."
"My plan doesn't conern you," Bree snapped loudly, "I'll leave you here to rot."
Jepha gave an exaggerated sigh, and shrugged, "I think you'd rather have me on your side than against you. You won't make it far with that bunny thing."
"Lopmon!" Bree yelled, "and we'll make it just fine!"
Her voice echoed for what felt like minutes, and they just waited for silence to return, staring at each other. She was growing frustrated with the guy, and he was clearly thinking the same. His face scrunched up, and his dark gray eyes glared at her for a moment, before his face returned to normal.
"Well, now we're fucked," he said matter of factly.
"Wha-" Bree started, but was roughly shoved towards the pavement by something unknown. Her face connected and burned, her knees too. She wasn't sure how to react, so she embraced the feeling of pain for a second before rising to her feet.
"Bree!" Lopmon bounced towards her, but before she could reunite with her partner, something lifted her from the ground and threw her aside. The rabbit was slammed into the side of a nearby building, by something invisible and much more powerful. The building wall crumbled on impact, and Lopmon lingered against it for a moment, before falling back to the ground.
"Bakemon," Jepha stated, he grabbed Bree by the wrist and tried to steer her away, but she forcefully tore herself free from his grip.
"Don't touch me!" she snapped, she could feel blood pouring down her legs from her damaged knees, and felt both embarassed and angry at the same time. She looked like a fool, and her partner was thrown away like a rag doll. They were weak, and this guy was apparently strong, and it was a devastating blow to her pride to accept any help from him.
Jepha scoffed, and firmly put his hands on her arms for a second time, "Listen, your digimon is over there in a heap, you're bleeding, and as adorable as I find your whole bravery act, I'm not buying it."
She took a quick look at Lopmon, who still hadn't moved from where she fell, and nodded back at him cautiously. He steered her over to her fallen digimon, whom she scooped up in her arms without hesitation, and said, "stay over here."
He leaped towards the center of the street, where the apparent enemy was, although it remained invisible. Dorumon was sniffing the air all around him, flicking his fox-like tail as he went, growling deeply. "Bakemon, show yourself."
As if on cue, the attacked appeared, and it was a horrible sight to see. It was ghostly, but also had a solid form. It had huge grotesque teeth and lifeless beady black eyes, that pierced into Bree's soul as she stared at it. It was so uncomfortable for her, she had to look away and held Lopmon even closer to her body.
Jepha meanwhile looked unphased by the ghost digimon, and Dorumon readied itself on it's hunches, "leave us alone, or we're going to have to fight you."
The ghost shook it's head and opened it's mouth wide, flying towards Jepha's body. The boy remained standing in the same position, and Dorumon lept in to counter attack the evil digimon that was threatening it's partner.
The two monsters fell to the ground , clawing at each other roughly. Dorumon seemed to have the upper hand, but only moments later, Bakemon chomped onto his tail and dragged him across the cement street. The lizard-dog yelped in pain, striking back with it's long hind legs, kicking the enemy square in what must have been the chest area. (If ghosts had chests)
Dorumon rolled free of the other digimon, it's breathing was now loud and it's body shaking slightly. Bree was starting to grow worried, only to notice Lopmon reviving herself in her arms. The bunny gave her a tight squeeze, before weaseling out of her arms, and jumping towards the fight. The digimon Bree had seen in the fight with Leviamon had returned, ready and willing to battle to the death for her. Her heart warmed slightly at the thought, but there was no time to cherish the moment.
Bree rose to her feet and darted to where Jepha was, both their digimon were now locked in combat with the ghost, and they could do little but watch together.
"That bunny is pretty determined," Jepha noted to her, as if complimenting them to make up for doubting them earlier.
"Yeah, well so am I" Bree said bitterly.
Both Lopmon and Dorumon suddenly flew, skidding on the ground towards them. They both looked battered and defeated, despite the Bakemon looking as menacing and fine as ever. Things were certainly looking grim.
"This won't do."
"I thought you were supposed to be stronger than me?" Bree demanded, "why are you getting your ass kicked as much as we are then?"
She was irritated and about to continue yelling at him, when it came to her attention that there was a familiar glow surrounding both him and his digimon partner, she'd seen this before. It wasn't orange, like Terra's, or lavender, like the one Amok claimed to have see around Bree herself, it was a deep black. It looked almost sinister.
"What are you doing?" Bree asked, she was unsure of what the glow meant even still. For Terra, it meant her digimon grew and changed, but when she had the glow, nothing happened to Lopmon.
"Digivolve," Jepha said, and didn't further explain.
Dorumon was soon completely engulfed in the black aura, and his figure was melting and molding, and expanding rapidly. Bree could only watch as he morphed into a completely different being altogether, and grew several feet taller. It was terrifying, if Dorumon was scary, this thing would make children wet their beds and adults want to kill themselves. It had giant, razor blade wings, and long blood red claws, and the purple fur of Dorumon was replaced with jet black fur, no longer giving him a barney-like look. Any amount of cuteness that the previous form may have had was now gone.
"What is that?"
"Dorugamon,"Jepha explained. He looked at her smugly, as if her confusion or ignorance pleased him, "what? Your digimon hasn't digivolved yet?"
"No," Bree said, "and I'm not sure I want her to now."
The beast-dragon type digimon jumped back into the fight, leaving Lopmon behind, still recovering. The two scarier digimon fought even rougher, and louder, and Bree had to jump out of their way more than once to avoid certain death. Her own partner just watched in awe, an almost jealous look on her face.
"He's so strong now, he can keep up with Bakemon," the bunny stammered, looking at Bree hopefully, "maybe I can do that too?"
Jepha shook his head, "you need one of these, I think." He waved at them a device, exactly like Bree's, only black instead of purple. She smirked, and reached around her belt to unhook her own device, holding it out to him proudly.
"One step ahead of you."
The ghost somehow had a hold on Dorugamon, pushing it's snout into the pavement below, while it's wings and tail flailed around it hopelessly. It's front arms were too short to reach around and free itself, and it was stuck enduring the Bakemon's taunts.
Again it seemed that they were losing, and Bree felt a sense of desperation occurr within her. Terra alone had defeated a digimon ten times the size of this one, and probably ten times as strong as this one, and she was fucked even with the help of a guy that was capable of digivolving his partner. This wasn't right, she was a strong person too, she knew that.
She examined the device with the time she had left, before Dorugamon would ultimately be defeated, and the ghost monster would come for them next. It was only a matter of minutes, she guessed, so she played with the buttons and tapped the screen to no avail. There had to be some secret to turning it on, if this Jepha guy could do it, so could she. If Terra could do it, so could she.
Lopmon peered at her doubtfully, "I believe in you Bree," she whimpered, although it didn't sound as though she did. She was covered in scratches and dirt from her short time fighting, and looked somewhat pitiful.
"I don't understand," Bree insisted, "I don't get it. There's no way to turn this stupid thing on, it does nothing!" Her frustration built up to an unbearable point, and she whipped the device at the ground.
Jepha's face was horrified, watching it fall, but she had nothing to say to him, and could do nothing but react the only way she knew how, with anger. The purple device landed near her feet, still somehow intact, although it made a huge noise on impact, much louder than a thing it's size should have made. The cement below cracked.
"You're glowing purple," Jepha pointed out, "really purple."
Bree looked down in disbelief, as if in shock that the digiworld reconized her childish behaviour and decided to reward it, but saw no glow, no purple.
"No I'm not."
"No, you really are!" Jepha insisted, coming near to her, and taking her hand in his, "I can see it," he pointed to her partner, who was being absorbed by a giant lavender light, and she knew he was telling the truth, "Look at her, she's digivolving."
The tiny rabbit was mutating into something much more, and shifting in size, back and forth between small and large, until finally it settled in between. The glow dissipated, leaving behind a brand new digimon in Lopmon's place. It was standing erect, with light violet fur, unreasonably long ears, and it wore clothes that reminded Bree of an old samurai movie she'd seen once. On it's paws, it wore gloves that ended in triangle shaped blades. She wondered how something as innocent looking as Lopmon could turn into a samurai warrior rabbit, but liked the improvement.
"Lopmon," she said below her breath.
The rabbit digimon turned to her and winked descreetly, "actually, in this form, you can call me Turuiemon," it then leaped at the struggle still ongoing between Dorugamon and Bakemon, calling out, "hey, Bakemon, you lame bully, how about picking on me instead?"
The ghost threw Dorugamon aside, and snapped it's teeth at Turuiemon, who didn't seem worried at all about the digimon that had previously kicked her ass as a Lopmon. She smirked, and lunged forward with her triangle blades outstretched, "Gauntlet claw!" she bellowed, and the weapons were enveloped in a seering red light. They made contact with the ghost, shredding a hole in his body as if he were made of paper, and the stench of burnt flesh sifted through the entire area.
Bree coughed, and covered her mouth and nose, ducking to avoid the smell of the wound her partner had just caused in another living being. Jepha kneeled beside her, now joined by a beaten up looking, de-evolved Dorumon, who was whimpering softly.
The evil digimon took one look at it's torn apart body, and flailed about, before fleeing the scene completely by turning invisible. Turuiemon batted around the air in an attempt to find it again, but it'd already decided that leaving them alone would be the best option if it wanted to survive. The smell left with it, and Bree breathed freely again, and raced over to congratulate her digimon, who was already shrinking back to Lopmon size.
The little bunny happily jumped into her arms, now free of any and all marks she'd had before digivolving. They squeezed each other, and Bree made sure to mention how proud she was of her little partner. It was the first moment since arriving in the digiworld that she'd felt any sort of happiness, or any emotion outside of frustration, and she was confident now that tracking down and destroying the demon digimon was within their reach.
Jepha simply turned to Dorumon, unimpressed, "For the record, it took a lot more than throwing something at the ground to make you digivolve."