Welp, another chapter down.
I've pretty much run out of stuff to say at this point to be honest.
Enjoy.
The Dancing Ghosts, Bakemon!
The mist covered the waters of this area as an eerie tranquility seemed to permeate the waters. Said tranquility was soon broken by the sound of someone losing their lunch.
"Of all the ways he had to separate us, WHY did it have to be flying?" Jaune moaned miserably, having finished throwing up after landing, his tendency to get airsick once again rearing its ugly head.
"It must really suck that you get sick whenever you're in the air," Gomamon said, patting his partner on the back to help relieve the symptoms while they floated on the water on top of Jaune's bed.
"Yeah...my entire family suffers from some form of motion sickness. I'm just glad I'm not my dad. He'd be throwing up every few minutes right now," Jaune sighed, and eventually he felt his stomach settle.
"Now what do we do?" Gomamon asked.
"Well...first things first, let's find dry land," he sighed. "Think you can call the Marching Fishes to help us out?"
"Oh yeah, didn't think of that." Gomamon muttered, about to do so, before both him and Jaune blinked as they noticed something emerge from the foggy waters and drift towards them.
"Is that a crate?" Jaune asked dryly.
"Looks like it yeah." Gomamon shot back, just as dry, before the two looked at each other, sharing the same thought 'Obvious trap is obvious'. "So...what do we do with it?"
"...think you can puncture a hole in it?" Jaune suggested.
A moment after his suggestion, the crate's top was blow off, as a screaming Ogremon came out "Don't you freaking dare you damn kid!"
"Why not? Obviously you were planning on killing us." Jaune said, crossing his arms, feeling rather confident considering Ogremon was a few feet away from him and his club seemed to be just shy of hitting the bed at this distance.
Ogremon looked away nervously, caught red handed, before raising a finger up "Just a moment." he said, before crouching down into the crate and rummaging about.
"He has stuff in there?" Gomamon whispered.
"I'm betting on some weird logic being in play." Jaune whispered back.
"Ah ha!" Ogremon said suddenly as the two focused back on him as he rose back up, holding…
Jaune blinked as he was staring at Milo and Akuo, Pyrrha's weapon and shield. Milo itself seemed pretty banged up, and Akuo looked to have rust over it. "Where the heck did you get those?" he blinked.
"Ah, Devimon kind of wanted me to throw them into the sea, but I forgot." Ogremon answered sheepishly.
The flat stares the two gave him at that were priceless. Eventually Jaune sighed, rubbing his head in mild aggravation. "So...I'm guessing there's a reason you took those out, right?'
"I'll hand them over if you promise not to make me drown." Ogremon said a bit nervously.
"Deal." Jaune said immediately, catching the lance and shield, before watching with a bemused look as Ogremon took out a paddle and started paddling away from him as fast as possible.
The two watched him disappear into the fog, before Gomamon finally broke the silence "You've got a pretty good poker face."
Jaune let out a sigh as his shoulders sagged in relief "Yeah, well, I was afraid he might try to kill us for the whole conversation, glad he was scared of drowning," he nodded, before inspecting the weapons again, seeing that the damage to Milo seemed to make it be stuck in it's javelin mode, while the edge of Akuo was just as rust covered as the front. "Damn...Pyrrha's not gonna be happy when she sees this," he sighed, before shaking his head. "Anyway, about the fishes?"
"Oh, right! Marching Fishes!" Gomamon called out, summoning the school of fish who were soon pushing the bed. "So...where are we going?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. But anywhere's gotta be better than floating in the middle of the ocean, right?" Jaune shrugged.
"That's true," Gomamon nodded.
Meanwhile, a fishing rod flew through the air, and landed in the water.
"Do you really think it'll work that well?" Gabumon asked as he sat on the edge next to his partner.
"Well, a mushroom is better bait than none at all at the least." Pyrrha said after a moment.
Gabumon nodded as he ate one of the few mushrooms they had found "That's true I guess, at least their tasty."
Pyrrha hummed lightly in agreement, before noticing her lure suddenly going under, and feeling weight on the line. "I think I got a bite! And it feels like a big one!"
"Really? I'll help!" Gabumon said as he helped her pull the rod. The two struggled for a moment, before they pulled whatever it was out...and it was only an instinctive reaction from Pyrrha activating her semblance on instinct that stopped them from getting metal to the face.
"Oh… Jaune's not going to like this." she said with a grimace as she looked at the weapon that was Crocea Mors, the blade snapped in half, though the shield/sheath seemed to have been ignored.
"Didn't he say his weapon was a family heirloom?" Gabumon added with a frown.
"Hopefully we manage to repair it before going back." Pyrrha added as she realised how much trouble her friend would be in should he come back with the family heirloom in pieces.
Gabumon was about to talk again, before closing his mouth as he turned his head to the water, hearing a peculiar sound "Do you hear that?"
Pyrrha paused as she had been about to cast out her line again after putting Crocea Mors down, trying to hear what her partner could "It sounds like someone swimming." she said after a moment.
Straining their eyes, they looked out to the mist, trying to see if they could see what was making the sound. At first they didn't see anything, but slowly but surely, something was coming into view.
And once it did, they were treated to the sight of Jaune and Gomamon, sitting on a bed, while it was being carried by a huge school of rainbow fishes.
Pyrrha blinked, once, twice, before rubbing her eyes to be sure they weren't playing tricks on her, eventually deciding this was real and setting down her makeshift fishing pole as she waved to the blonde knight, which he returned with a relieved smile.
When Jaune set foot on land, the small group relaxed a bit, glad to have found each other after being split up, before Jaune looked around a bit "Where's your bed?"
"Over there, it fell in the water and we jumped off and landed on the ground here." Pyrrha said and gestured to an upturned bed which kept crashing against the coast a few meters away.
"Well, that would have hurt." Jaune said with a wince "Glad you're alright." he told her with a nod, which made her smile at him.
"Oh, I almost forgot." she started with a grimace, before lifting up Crocea Mors, which she had put back into the sheath, before pulling it out in front of him, seeing his face fall at the broken blade "It was like this when I found it, I'm sorry Jaune." she said as she handed it to him.
He shook his head "It's not your fault, besides, Milo and Akuo were in similar shape when I found them." he said as he nodded at the javelin and shield which he had handed to her after landing.
Pyrrha examined her weapon again, before shaking her head. "Its not so bad. I can still use it more or less, and I can always have it fixed when we get back to Remnant," she said.
"Yeah, same here," Jaune smiled. "Heck, since Crocea Mors isn't a mechashift weapon, it shouldn't be TOO hard," he said.
"Maybe you could ask Leomon for help once he's free from control? He does use a sword after all." Gabumon suggested.
"Using a sword isn't quite the same as making one, but I'll keep that in mind," Jaune nodded. "At any rate, where are we anyway?"
"Not really sure," Gomamon said, looking around. "This mist is way too thick, and with how the island got broken apart, I can't tell any landmarks."
"It would help if we could call any of the others, maybe they could see a fog covered island from where they are." Pyrrha said with a sigh.
"Yeah." Jaune sighed in agreement… before facepalming three seconds later "I knew I forgot something." he said as he pulled out his scroll, going into his contacts and tapping Gyro's number before putting it to his ear and waiting.
He waited for a quite a while, before he got an automated message, but it wasn't Gyro's voicemail.
"We are sorry, but the person you are trying to reach is too far away at the moment, please try again later."
"...well, it was worth a shot," Jaune sighed, not at all surprised things weren't gonna be that easy.
"So now what do we do?" Gomamon asked.
"Either we keep trying fishing...or we explore the area. Maybe we'll find something," Pyrrha said.
"I think I already did." Gabumon said as he looked behind everyone as the fog started to slowly lift from the area.
When they all turned around, they followed his eyes to see what looked like a church standing on top of a hill.
"Well… that's ominous." Jaune said after a moment.
"I feel like I should know this place." Gomamon mused.
"That's because I think this is Overdell Graveyard." Gabumon said with a hand on his chin.
"Overdell Graveyard?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah, I heard Digimon called Bakemon live in this area," Gabumon said.
"Let me guess. They're ghost or zombie Digimon, aren't they?" Jaune sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Ghost, yeah," Gomamon nodded.
"...we landed on a horror movie set come to life…" was the groan that came from the blonde.
"Ghosts are usually the kind of beings to try and trick people, right?" Pyrrha asked with a hand on her chin.
"Especially Bakemon, they love their illusions." Gomamon answered.
"Well that's just great." Jaune said with a groan "Alright, the guys said that ghost grimm were a thing, so they had a few ideas that could have worked, and they might for a ghost Digimon as well."
"What are these possible weaknesses?" Gabumon asked.
"They said that a chant, holy water or a cross might work. They didn't know any chants, and don't know how water can qualify as holy, but a cross is pretty easy." Jaune said as he went up to a tree and snapped off two branches before putting them to the correct size "Alright, now I need something to tie it with." he muttered, before blinking as Pyrrha handed him a vine she had used for her fishing pole, taking it with a smile as he tied the two branches together into a makeshift cross.
"...are you sure that's going to work?" Gomamon asked, looking a little skeptical at the makeshift cross.
"Honestly? I don't know. But something's better than nothing, right?" Jaune sighed.
Gomamon tilted his head in thought at that before shrugging "I guess that's fair."
"We should be careful on our way up, we don't know if any traps have been put in place." Pyrrha advised, the others agreeing with her as they started on the trek up the hill towards the top.
What they found at first seemed abandoned, but as they got closer, they saw what appeared to be a festival of some kind...and from the looks of it, there seemed to be humans there.
"Are those humans?" Gabumon asked.
"They sure LOOK like it," Pyrrha said. "Of course, the keyword is 'look'," she added, earning a few nods from them all.
"Yeah, Bakemon are supposed to like illusions, so this would make sense for them to do." Jaune agreed as he held the makeshift cross in his hand. As they got close, one of the humans turned towards them, revealing he was wearing a rather bizarre mask on his face.
"Welcome," he said, his voice...rather off. It was clearly intended to be friendly but...it came across as rather off putting.
Despite that, they maintained their composure. "Uh...thank you," Pyrrha said. "So...are you all having a festival or something?" she asked, referring to how the 'humans' were dancing.
"Why yes. This is a very special carnival," the 'human' said.
"What's the occasion?" Jauned asked.
"It is time for us to give an offering to Lord Bakemon," the 'human' responded.
Jaune looked at the 'man' dryly "Wow, can you make it even more obvious?"
"Whatever do you mean young man?" the 'human' said in confusion.
"For starters, me and my friends are the only humans here, that much has been confirmed by a lot of sources that don't know what a human is. Secondly, Bakemon is a trickster, if anyone actually worships that, their weird."
Elsewhere on a snowy island shard a goggle wearing trickster god worshipper sneezed.
"And finally," Jaune started, before shoving his makeshift cross into the 'human's' face. The effect was instant as the 'human' stiffened, before their face seemed to crack, and with a pop, his form broke, revealing what could best be described as a bedsheet ghost with sharp teeth. "Your disguise sucks."
"That's Bakemon?" Pyrrha blinked. She was honestly expecting something a bit more...menacing than that.
"Yep, that's Bakemon alright," Gabumon and Gomamon nodded in confirmation.
Digimon Analyzer: Bakemon
Bakemon. Virus Type. An Adult Level Ghost Digimon. Known for being a trickster spirit, Bakemon prefers deceit over actually fighting it's opponents. They also have a weakness to religious objects and spiritual chants. Its special attack is Hell's Hand, draining the power of its enemies until they are at death's door.
The Bakemon recoiled, but it seems in the commotion, they'd attracted the attention of the other 'humans'...before all of them shattered to reveal more Bakemon. "...in retrospect maybe we should have waited till we were alone with him or something," Jaune sweatdropped.
"Probably would have been a good idea yeah." Gomamon agreed nervously as he looked at the overwhelming numbers.
"Well, they can't get too close at least." Pyrrha noted as Jaune kept aiming the cross everywhere, the Bakemon recoiling away when it was aimed at them.
"But we can't fight these many at once," Gabumon added.
"Into the church! If they're weak to holy things, we should be safe in there!" Jaune said quickly, earning nods from all of them as they ran into the church, closing the door behind them. However, the Bakemon soon got in.
"In retrospect, this IS their home…" Gomamon gulped as they soon backed away to the altar.
"Guess no choice then...guys, get ready to evolve," Jaune said.
"Right," Gabumon and Gomamon nodded. However, before they could even try, one of the Bakemon flipped a hidden switch, and a trap door opened underneath them.
It seemed gravity was being slow to respond, as they all had time to look down, before soon falling down into the hole, hearing the cackling of the Bakemon as they fell.
Several minutes later, the group groaned as they got up, looking around the area to see they were in a dungeon of some sort… though the Bakemon didn't seem to be too bright, as the door to their cell was wide open instead of closed.
"...really?" Pyrrha couldn't help but deadpan at the sight of the wide open cell door.
"Yeaah...Bakemon aren't the brightest," Gabumon sweatdropped.
"Strange, but not really a bad thing," Jaune sighed. "At least we don't have to bust our way out...though we still have to find our way out."
"At least the cross is still ok." Gomamon said as he picked it up between his claws and threw it up at Jaune who caught it.
"It has been surprisingly helpful." Pyrrha noted.
"Thank Gyro and Pierce. I wouldn't have thought about it if they hadn't told me about this idea," Jaune shrugged. "At any rate, we should get out of here as fast as we can."
"Right, but we should keep our guard up. The Bakemon may not be the brightest Digimon we've met, but you never know what might be in this area," Pyrrha nodded.
"Yeah, it'd be pretty dumb if we got caught by some cheap trap," Gabumon nodded with a chuckle.
The group soon began making their way through the underground dungeon. So far it seemed the place was empty, as while there were a lot of cells, nobody was actually in any of them. In fact, they were starting to wonder if there even WAS anyone here...if they didn't accidentally come across a room that had a sleeping Bakemon in it. They could tell he was asleep by the literal snot bubble he had, and it was huge.
"...really?" was the dry observation from both Jaune and Pyrrha.
"Wow, this one must be a real idiot," Gomamon chuckled.
"How can you tell?" Gabumon asked.
"They say you can tell an idiot by the size of their snot bubbles."
"...that sounds like some kind of wive's tale, but somehow I'm inclined to believe it," Jaune sighed.
"How about we just take his food and avoid waking him up?" Pyrrha said with an amused smile.
"Yeah, would be good if we ate a bit more, we only had mushrooms earlier, and we don't want Gomamon and Gabumon to run out of energy if they have to evolve." Jaune said with a nod as they silently took the many bananas the Bakemon was guarding in the crate he was leaning against, the two Digimon quickly digging in once they were a safe distance away.
"Oh man these are good." Gomamon said with a relieved sigh as he ate through a few purple bananas.
"Surprisingly yeah, I never thought food that looks so weird would taste good." Jaune said as he ate one as well. Once upon a time he wouldn't think to touch something like a banana that was purple colored...but as with a lot of things, the last week in the Digital World broke him of any notions of normalcy...and crazy as it sounded, he would do it again in a heartbeat.
"Easy you two. I know you're hungry, but don't give yourselves stomachaches now," Pyrrha chided lightly as she too ate one of the fruits. Despite the less than ideal situation, she couldn't help but smile at the moment. Ever since they'd been thrown into the Digital World, she'd been met with more and more unfamiliar situations, yet she couldn't help but feel happy. For the first time in a long time, ironic as it sounded, she felt like she was just a normal girl, among friends she could be herself around. In this Digital World, she wasn't the Invincible Girl. She was just Pyrrha Nikos.
"Don't worry about us. We're fine," Gabumon said as he polished off another banana. By now they'd walked a good distance away from where they'd found the sleeping Bakemon, and so far nothing had really happened.
Apparently Murphy was bored, as even the thought of how uneventful it had been so far was enough to invoke him, evident by them having to quickly duck back into a corner when they found a few Bakemon floating around a room.
"That's quite a lot of them," Gabumon frowned as they peeked out of the corner.
"Hey, I think I see the way out on the other side of the room," Gomamon added.
"So they're literally floating between us and the way out, huh?" Jaune mused. "Any ideas?"
"Why not go all out?" Pyrrha suggested.
"...that works," the three of them nodded. Sometimes simple was the best.
(Play Brave Heart)
"Gomamon, Evolution! Ikkakumon!"
"Gabumon, Evolution! Garurumon!"
The Bakemon floating around the room heard the calls and turned to where the voices came from...and were promptly met with a face full of blue flames, courtesy of Garurumon's Fox Fire. The few that managed to evade didn't even get a chance to get their wits together as they were met with Ikkakumon's horn, throwing several of them aside.
"Let's get out of here!" Jaune quickly said as he and Pyrrha ran to the exit, and soon found open air as the entrance seemed to lead to the graveyard behind the cathedral...before their partners burst out of the ground behind them, seeing as they were too big for the door.
"I feel like this should be disrespectful, but I can't really bring myself to care after what happened," Pyrrha commented with a sweat drop as she noticed their partners had destroyed several gravestones when they got out.
"Yeah...let's hope we don't come to regret that anytime soon," Jaune nodded awkwardly.
"How dare you disrupt Lord Bakemon's domain!" came an eerie voice, as several Bakemon appeared from the cathedral.
"Yeah well, we didn't feel like playing along with the whole offering thing," Jaune said.
"For this transgression, you will all pay dearly," the Bakemon said in unison.
"Oh yeah? What are you guys gonna do about it?" Ikkakumon shot back.
"Uh...I don't think you should be provoking them," Jaune groaned.
"Relax, they're weak as heck, and we're at full power. What's the worst that could happen?" Ikkakumon waved off.
"...you DO realize you just provoked Murphy, right?" Garurumon and Pyrrha deadpanned at that.
True enough… "You have all earned the wrath of Lord Bakemon!" the Bakemon called out, as they, and several of the ones that were in the tunnels, soon gathered together in the air, seemingly circling around, before they seemed to merge together, revealing another Bakemon...only this one was easily 10 times larger than a normal Bakemon.
"I'm guessing THAT is Lord Bakemon. You HAD to ask, didn't you, Ikkakumon?" Jaune said dryly.
"Yeah...that may not have been so smart," Ikkakumon admitted with a sweatdrop as the giant Bakemon descended.
"Hell's Hand!" he called out as from the 'sleeves' of his form, a pair of demonic blue hands shot out, grabbing hold of both Ikkakumon and Garurumon and throwing them both aside.
"Looks like his size isn't just for show!" Pyrrha said in alarm as she and Jaune got out of the way, avoiding a swing from the giant ghost.
Ikkakumon and Garurumon quickly got back on their feet and began counter attacking. "Harpoon Vulcan!" Ikkakumon called out, firing his horn, but Lord Bakemon grabbed it with his Hell's Hand, and threw it aside, causing it to explode in the distance.
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon called out, sending the torrent of flames, but Lord Bakemon shielded himself with his arms, and quickly dispersed the attack save for a few singes.
"Okay, he's holding his own against them. Not a good sign," Jaune frowned. "Well, in that case we'd better lend them a hand," he said, looking at his makeshift cross, and then to the advancing ghost. "And I think I know just how to make him stop."
"What do you have in mind?" Pyrrha asked.
"Something crazy and stupid, I must really be out of my mind to even try it," he sighed, before running towards Lord Bakemon. "I've been spending too much time with Pierce…" the blonde muttered before saying, "Hey you! Halloween reject!"
Lord Bakemon turned to face the human, not impressed by the insult.
"Open wide!" Jaune shouted, before rearing back...and throwing his makeshift cross at Lord Bakemon. The large ghost blinked...before gasping when he realized what it was...big mistake, as when he opened his mouth, the cross went right in, to which he swallowed. Immediately he was grasping at his throat, or whatever passed as it, as he looked like he'd swallowed something VERY hot.
"Thanks Jaune!" Ikkakumon grinned. "Harpoon Vulcan!" the attack struck true, exploding in Lord Bakemon's face and causing the ghost to cry out in pain, but through the smoke, a pair of Hell's Hand shot out, grabbing both the adult Digimon and began hitting them against each other, Lord Bakemon flailing around in pain, and dragging them for the ride.
"Okay...that's not what I had in mind," Jaune gulped.
"He's definitely weakened, but not enough," Pyrrha said, looking around frantically for something to help their partners. She soon found her answer when she eyed the large X on top of the cathedral. The METAL X at that. "I've got an idea."
"If you've got something, better make it quick. I think my plan may have backfired," Jaune gulped as both their partners were bodily thrown into a heap.
Pyrrha nodded quickly before reaching out with her semblance, plucking the X off the cathedral. Straining a little, she willed the metal to warp, changing its shape, adjusting a few things...and before long she'd made a crudely shaped metal cross. "Take this!" she shouted, Lord Bakemon turning to see her...before the large makeshift cross was rammed into him, causing him to shout in pain.
"Great idea, Pyrrha!" Jaune grinned, before turning to their partners. "Do it now!"
"You got it!" they both nodded.
"Fox Fire!"
"Harpoon Vulcan!"
The two attacks flew through the air, Lord Bakemon barely able to turn to see it, and with his powers so severely weakened, he could do nothing as the attacks hit, and he burst into scraps of torn cloth and data.
(End Song)
The two humans sighed in relief as the fight was finally over, while their partners surprisingly stayed in Adult level for once.
Before any proper cheering could commence though, the ground cracked open, a portion of it collapsing away, allowing everyone to peer down into it.
"I really shouldn't be surprised." Pyrrha said with a frown as they looked at the large amount of Black Gears in the earth, all spinning about for some sort of mechanism.
And then they suddenly stopped, before breaking down into pieces, and the island jerked to a stop, sending them to the ground. "What now?" Jaune groaned.
"Look over there!" Ikkakumon pointed into the fog, which they could see was starting to lift, and finally, gave them a view of Mount Infinity.
"Maybe we'll be able to get back now." Garurumon said.
"The others will most likely be making their way towards the mountain." Pyrrha realised.
"Then that's where we're going as well." Jaune said with a nod, before he climbed up on Ikkakumon and Pyrrha got on Garurumon's back while the two Digimon ran out of the graveyard and jumped into the water, Garurumon surprisingly being able to keep up with Ikkakumon.
They had to hurry, as there was no telling the kind of situations their friends were in.
Done
Yeah, chapter's just a bit shorter than others.
I mean, Jaune and Pyrrha are a bit more wiser than Jyou and Sora were at this point in time, and Jaune has something a bit better than a sutra.
So, yeah, everything went pretty differently from canon.
Anyway, see you next time, because...
The Adventure Evolves.