Ooh boy, this is a big one.
Now, a good number of things happen in this chapter, so we'll just get right to it, hope you enjoy!
Counter Measures
The sound of a lecture that had quickly degraded to unintelligible blabbering filled the air in a classroom full of students who by this point couldn't care less of their teacher's regalling them of his glory days.
"Does this happen a lot?" Coronamon groaned, looking ready to join his partner who was already snoring away.
"Every. Single. Time," Veemon let out a long suffering groan as he by some miracle hadn't fallen asleep yet.
At the same time, near the back of the room… "Gonna kill him...slowly…" Mercury groaned under his breath.
"Second dibs," Emerald agreed.
"And I thought having to listen to Tyrian's morbid jokes was bad. This is torture…" Cinder groaned, wanting nothing more than to burn the fat man to ashes, then burn THOSE ashes just for making them listen to this endless bragging that wasn't even interesting.
Thankfully for EVERYONE in the class, it was soon 4, and classes were over for the day.
"I thought that class would never end," Blake sighed as the group were getting ready in their dorms, each of them wearing a different outfit for the occasion, with RWBY having their same outfits from canon. They had to laugh when Gyro mentioned their outfits had 'codenames' for the crew that had worked on the web series.
"The one class I hate I have to attend now that I'm officially Azure's personal student." Ilia said with a groan, still in her new outfit.
"Sad part is, I don't think he ever gets better, even when he's a commentator for the tournament." Gyro said with a sigh as he properly adjusted the green jacket he'd put on for his 'mission outfit'. It consisted of a dark blue shirt under the green jacket, a pair of white gloves on his hands, and a pair of brown cargo pants with a belt around it to carry some equipment, while still keeping his goggles on his forehead.
"Oh boy…" Jaune groaned as he finished putting on his outfit, which consisted of a light brown shirt under a brown sleeveless vest with a pair of jeans held up by a pair of belts at his waist, his armor still present over it to boot along with some added pieces over his shins, Crocea Mors properly sheathed where he needed it.
"Well...at least the excitement of the tournament should counter any of the boredom, right?" Pierce said with a shrug as he adjusted the red jacket he was wearing over a black v-neck shirt. He was wearing a pair of dark blue pants with a belt around his waist and black gloves on his hands.
"Let's worry about that when its actually applicable," Ren sighed, walking in wearing an outfit that...honestly looked a lot like his normal outfit, seeing as it consisted of a green Tangzhuang and separate magenta sleeves on his forearms with a pair of long pants that looked like there were a few bits of armor around the legs.
"Yeah, we've got a big mission of our own to work on," Nora said with a grin, wearing a white shirt with a pink heart printed on the front that had black sleeves, a bit of light armor around her stomach, black shorts, pink thigh highs with her usual boots still in place, and a pair of white gloves.
"We might want to go over everything again to make sure we don't get confused." Pyrrha suggested, wearing a new torso armor that seemed more sturdy, wearing a black halter top underneath that left her stomach exposed, a bronze colored choker around her neck, armlets on her biceps, her forearms had the same gauntlets though, while she had done away with her hip cape and instead wore a red skirt with a bronze armored skirt over it, black tights, and brand new greaves over her legs, her hair now done in a braid with her circlet still present.
"Please, I'm honestly a bit confused about who does what again." Gomamon admitted.
"Well, first of all, we'll need to keep an eye on the White Fang," Blake frowned.
"I'll come too to try and keep myself hidden while I scope out how many Digimon they might have on their side. With how many are coming through, I wouldn't be surprised if they roped a few Digimon into their ranks one way or another," Ilia sighed.
"Naturally the two of us will be coming along," Kotemon said as Patamon nodded.
"Next we'll need to look for information. Aside from info on Dust Shipments, we need to find anymore useful information we can via the CCT, same reason as during the DeathMeramon incident," Weiss said.
"And we'll be taking care of that part again," Ruby nodded.
"Just hope it's more productive than last time," Tentomon sighed. "Well at least we don't have to go in disguises again."
"We also have more to worry about than just the immediate issue. We know they're gonna hit several key points soon, so we should put up some defenses there too," Gyro said. "That's why I'm gonna be going with Ruby and Weiss. Azure already finished the counter virus, so we'll be planting it as well," he explained.
"Not just that, we'll be going to the site of what will be the breach," Jaune said. "We'll be working on reinforcing it so when it DOES happen, well...at least we'll have a smaller hole to go through."
"And we have to help with that...right…" Gomamon groaned.
"Hey, at least it's nothing too hard. Azure worked on that one too," Pierce said.
"With my help!" Nora grinned.
"The shield generators will work like tripwires. When someone is in range of them, they'll project a shield that can stop a good deal of force. We know, we tested it using Nora's best grenade formulas," Pierce continued with a smirk.
"Okay, now I KNOW those will work," Salamon blinked, knowing how destructive the stuff her partner makes is.
"And of course, we give Junior a ring to see if he knows anything about this," Yang nodded.
"Right, so looks like everyone's got their roles clear, so let's go," Jaune nodded.
"Yeah!" came the familiar voice of Sun, causing everyone to turn to see Sun squatting on the windowsill, Coronamon by his side...and Neptune clinging to it for dear life, Betamon clinging to his back as well.
Everyone stared at them for a moment, until Ilia pulled them into the room roughly "Alright, how much did you idiots hear?" she asked dangerously, fingering the hilt of her weapon, until Blake put a hand on her arm that is.
"Uh…" Sun looked around the room, seeing all the serious stares directed at him, he realised this wasn't the time to be joking around "Everything, sorry. But I promise that we can keep our mouths shut."
"Yeah… this is Weird with a capital W, but you all seem so serious about it." Neptune added as he stood up.
Gyro sighed "Right… let me give you guys the short version, and bring your teammates here tomorrow so we can tell them, and make sure they listen to your orders on this Sun, alright?"
"Will do." Sun said, nodding seriously, before Gyro explained all the important details to them, and when he was done…
"Woah…" the four of them uttered in awe.
"It's a LOT to take in at first." Ilia said, understanding where the reaction was coming from.
"Ok, so, let me see if I got the gist of it." Sun started "Three worlds, all connected. You two are from this world called Earth, and you came here because Remnant appeared there as a web series. Then when you arrived, you got sucked into the Digital World, and had this crazy adventure there that lasted 2 months for you, and you're also the ones who took down that huge monster we saw on the news back when the sky ripped open. Now you're using what you know about the future to stop some crazy evil people from destroying Vale. That about sums it up?"
"That's the important points yeah." Pierce said with a shrug.
Sun nodded "Right… I still want to help."
"In that case, maybe he should go with Blake and Ilia, more faunus going to the rally together might make it more believable, right?" Ruby suggested.
"It's a sound idea." Blake said with a nod, chuckling when Sun fist pumped about being able to help.
"Ok… so what about me and Betamon?" Neptune asked.
"If I might make a suggestion?" Ren said, earning everyone's attention "Having more people in our group, maybe we should check possible entry points that could be used by our enemies should one become invalid due to our early interference."
"Hadn't thought about that." Gyro admitted. "Think you guys can handle that then?" he asked, looking to Ren and Neptune, both of whom nodded.
"Alright, so now that we're all on the team, let's go!" Ruby cheered, the group giving out varying versions of agreement.
"And here we are in the CCT," Gyro mused. "Gotta admit, they really ARE pretty impressive, though I'm sure the one in Atlas is the best, seeing as it IS the first one."
"It's the most grandiose one if that's what you mean, too much fanfare about it in my opinion." Weiss said with a sigh, bringing a laugh of amusement from the others.
"It feels nice to come back here without a disguise, and without worrying about an evil Digimon being close." Tentomon said.
"Considering how many Digimon there are now, it won't be a problem," Palmon chuckled as true enough, there were plenty of other Digimon nearby as well.
"Well, let's get to it. We got a job to do," Ruby said, taking out her scroll, but when she walked, she wasn't quite looking and accidentally bumped against a young man in a black hoodie who walked by.
"Watch it," the man grumbled, taking out a jelly drink packet and taking a swig, a small dark colored Digimon with a hoodie following him, neither of them paying her much mind.
"Rude much?" Gyro quirked an eyebrow at that. "You okay, Ruby?"
"Yeah I'm fine," Ruby nodded...and realized her scroll wasn't in her hand. "Though I think I just dropped my scroll."
"Yes, you did," came a familiar voice. The group turned to see Penny and Monodramon, Penny holding Ruby's scroll.
"Do be more careful. That's the second time you've bumped into someone," Monodramon huffed.
"Last time it was Weiss though, not Ruby." Agumon pointed out.
Monodramon blinked, looking between the two girls, and blushed. "Ah...right...my mistake…" he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Hi Penny, we were wondering where you went. Glad you're okay," Ruby smiled.
"There...seems to be a misunderstanding," Penny said...and promptly hiccups, causing the scroll in her hand to fly out of it and right into Ruby's.
"Right, and I'm a woman." Gyro muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"You are?!" Penny gasped in shock, while everyone looked at her in deadpan.
"Penny… that was sarcasm." Gyro said slowly.
"Ah…" Penny was taken aback a little.
"I'll deal with her guys, you go do what we came here to do." Ruby told Gyro and Weiss before she and Palmon guided Penny and Monodramon off.
"Right, then we'd better get to work on our end," Gyro said, to which Weiss nodded in agreement, the two and their partners soon going into the CCT. Once inside, the two groups parted ways, Weiss going for the section that dealt with long distance communication, and Gyro went for the section aimed for general use.
"So how do you plan to do it?" Agumon asked.
"Can you say...adding an extra card to a deck?" Gyro smirked, as he placed his scroll, and began working, opening up a few other pages so he could hide his work if anyone came by, such as a few info pages, a few Dustube videos like a blonde kid in a punkish outfit doing a bunch of odd stunts, to a video of a strong willed looking girl with pink hair on some idol show, and several others...but stopped when he noticed something.
"What's wrong?" Agumon blinked, noticing his reaction.
Gyro didn't say anything, instead closed the system, and removed his scroll. "Someone else has been in there," he said simply.
Agumon's eyes widened when he heard that. That didn't just mean someone was using the port recently, it meant that someone had been in the area that Gyro needed to plant the counter virus...and that would put a pause on their plan. "What do we do now?"
"For now, we'll put a hold on this part of the plan. There'll be plenty of other chances in the future," Gyro frowned. "Let's just meet up at the location with Weiss and Tentomon."
Meanwhile, with Ruby and Penny were walking down the street with their partners.
"I was told not to speak with anyone after what happened at the docks. They said that it was for my own good, and that nobody would understand me." Penny explained.
"The general made that last part rather clear." Monodramon added with a frown.
"General? You mean General Ironwood?" Palmon mused, having heard that name before.
"That's him," Monodramon nodded.
"But why are they so intent on keeping you hidden?" Ruby asked, even if she already knew the answer.
Penny seemed...unsure...of what to say, but eventually… "Can I trust you?" she asked.
"Of course," Ruby nodded with a smile.
"I am...not like others…" Penny started slowly. "I… I wasn't born from a mother and a father. I was simply MADE by my father."
"So… you're like the Digimon then, born differently." Ruby said, looking down at Palmon and Monodramon.
Penny paused at that "I… suppose?" she said unsurely "But, even then, I'm not a real girl. I don't have flesh and blood, I have synthetic skin and oil."
"You're still a real person Penny. You have a working aura. And you know what that means? You also have a soul." Ruby told her with a smile.
"Ruby…" Penny said as she looked at her friend, and if she could, she might cry, looking at her with such a happy smile "You're taking this surprisingly well you know?"
Ruby shrugged "I've seen a lot of things you wouldn't believe, like a giant dinosaur fighting a giant parrot."
Penny blinked at that, tilting her head "You saw that too?"
"Wait, what?" Ruby and Palmon both said together.
"It's… very strange, but, about 11 years ago, my program already existed, I was simply confined to cyberspace and lacked a physical body, so I remained in my father's computer for a long time. During that time, I saw some strange data coming in from a location I have yet to determine, and saw an orange dinosaur with a helmet fighting a green parrot with arms." Penny explained.
Ruby didn't know what she expected, but it certainly wasn't that "Have you ever told anyone about it?"
Penny shook her head "No… I don't think anyone would have believed me."
Ruby nodded at that, knowing where she was coming from. Then, an idea came to her, a risky and difficult one, which is why she pulled out her scroll "Can you excuse me for a moment Penny? Gotta make a quick call."
"Of course Ruby." Penny said with a smile, Ruby returning it as she stepped away slightly to make a private call.
"Ruby? Something up?" Gyro asked as he answered his scroll, and Ruby could hear Weiss talking in the background.
"You could say that. Penny just revealed something to me, and, well… I think we could tell her about THAT." Ruby told him, waiting as Gyro went silent at her words, knowing he understood her meaning.
"... let me talk to her first, could you?" he requested, and Ruby went back to Penny and handed her scroll over "Penny? Did what you reveal to Ruby have to do with Digimon?"
Penny looked a bit worried, but she was glad Ruby didn't seem to have said anything about her mechanical body, before she focused back on the scroll "Yes, I told her I saw the battle between a dinosaur and a parrot 11 years ago."
"I see… so you were one of the ones chosen all the way back then." Gyro muttered.
"Chosen?" Penny repeated in confusion.
"It's not something I can explain over a scroll, the connection isn't secure enough, Ruby will explain everything to you, and I do mean EVERYTHING." Gyro told her.
"Alright…" Penny said, still confused, before she handed the scroll back to Ruby, who hung up after saying goodbye.
"Alright, so… first, Ironwood can't monitor what you hear and say, right?" Ruby asked, just to be on the safe side.
Penny shook her head "No, my father wanted me to have privacy, so there aren't any listening devices in my body."
"Good...well...you might want to sit down, cause this is a doozy…" Ruby chuckled a bit, before she explained. Explained the full story, what happened then, and how it connected to now, including the little secret the twins had.
Once she was done explaining everything, and Penny had taken it all in… Ruby had trouble breathing from how tightly she was being hugged "Penny… too tight…" she gasped out.
"Oh! My apologies!" Penny said, loosening her hug enough that Ruby could breathe, though she was still smiling.
After all, Ruby had known her secret in advance, and yet still wanted to be her friend despite that. How could she NOT be happy to hear that?
"I'm glad you took that well," Ruby breathed in a bit.
"We were worried you might take the whole...other world thing badly," Palmon said.
"You mean the third world existing," Monodramon pointed out, earning a small dope slap.
"You know what I mean," Palmon said in annoyance.
Back with Weiss, she'd just finished getting the information she was looking for. With the data saved, she was about to leave, but before she could go…
"Excuse me, Ms. Schnee," came the voice of the secretary she'd called earlier as she came up on the screen again. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to inform you that I just got off from a call with your father. He insists he'd like to talk to you," she said.
"Oh dear." Weiss said nervously while Gyro groaned in the background, the Digimon trying to get a look at the screen but he held them back.
"I'm really sorry about this." the secretary said apologetically, easily understanding Weiss didn't want to talk to the man, but she had to do her job.
"I understand, please patch him through," Weiss sighed, earning a nod from the secretary, before another screen appeared. On it was her father, an aging man with white hair and a mustache, wearing a clean white suit. "Hello, Father," Weiss said, keeping her voice level and doing her level best to hide the disgust she'd started to truly feel for her father. Ever since she'd learned more and more about her father from the world that the twins had seen, and seeing her own past through unclouded eyes, whatever respect she once had for the man had long since vanished.
"Weiss," Jacques nodded, his expression still rather stern. "Still at Beacon I see."
'And we go right to his grievances, yay.' Weiss thought sarcastically "Yes father, I'm doing well in my studies if you were curious."
Jacques hummed in a rather non committal fashion "I see, that's good at the very least. Though I've heard you aren't the leader of your team, why is that?"
"Because my team leader is better at planning battle strategies than I am." she answered easily, having been bested by Ruby in a few card games that brothers had brought with them, along with seeing her plans in action, Weiss could easily say Ruby had a brain built for battle strategies, especially in live combat. Besides, it's not as if being leader meant it was all on her. She and Gyro did plenty of contributions in pre planned strategies, bringing up possible counters and helping to work out anything Ruby might have missed.
"I see, I suppose that's acceptable, though you're supposed to be better than the others, aren't you?" Jacques asked her with a condescending eyebrow.
"Perhaps, but there will always be someone better at something," Weiss said simply. "I found it more productive to simply focus on being the best I can be. That's what a team is for, covering each other's weaknesses and helping develop our strengths." she saw Gyro giving her a discreet thumbs up at her answer, forcing her to hide a laugh.
Jacques seemed for frown a bit at that. "I see. Well, I hope you're managing well even with the new breed of animals running around," he commented.
"Excuse me?" Weiss blinked. She had a bad feeling about that bit.
"Annoying creatures really. Well, I suppose they're good for something if you know how to put them to use," Jacques said offhandedly.
Weiss wanted to scream at him, because it wasn't hard for her to read the subtext, but before she could Gyro came in "Uh, hey, I know you're talking to your asshole of a dad, but maybe we should hurry up in case the others need help?"
In one second her father's face had shifted to red with fury, but she had quickly ended the call, letting out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding, before looking up at Gyro in deadpan "You did that on purpose."
"Yeahp." was his simple answer.
She sighed at that, pinching the bridge of her nose "Can't you show a little more tact?"
"With your father? Nope, no can do." he said with absolutely no shame.
She put her face in her hands at that, before looking back up "Anyway… you understood what he was implying, right?"
"We all did." Agumon said.
"I want to electrocute him till he can't move!" Tentomon said in anger.
"We'll get the chance in time," Weiss said without missing a beat. "But for now, we need to focus on Cinder."
"That and well...messed up as it sounds, Jacques DEFINITELY can't get away with what he's doing," Gyro said. "You all know what happens if a Digimon piles up too much negative emotion…"
The three of them blinked...then paled a bit. "Oh Oum...as much as I know my father deserves it, that could cause SERIOUS damage to Atlas," Weiss groaned.
"One way or another we'll deal with that when the time comes," Tentomon said.
"Just pray there's something left standing if we do," Agumon said grimly. "Think we should have Summer teach about Dark Evolution next time? You know, hopefully deter anyone who tries to think like Jacques?"
"Probably a good idea yeah," Gyro agreed. "For now, let's see what we can make of this info."
"So this is the spot, huh?" Jaune mused as they arrived at the location that was indicated on their scrolls.
"Hard to believe this place is gonna be a battlefield sometime soon," Gabumon said with a frown as they looked around and noted how...peaceful...the place seemed.
"Well, we can't STOP it per say, but we can at least minimize the damage," Salamon said.
"The breach should be around this area, so by setting these barriers up, it won't STOP the breach, but it'll at least make it so there won't be such a big hole, and so less Grimm can get through," Jaune mused.
"Roger, let's set em all up," Nora nodded as they soon went to work, triple checking that they had the right locations and set up the barriers, which hummed a little as they came to life. Once all four were in place, the image on their scrolls showed a square shaped barrier appearing, even if unseen to the other people going around. With this, the surface should be able to withstand a good deal of force.
"Alright, now that this part of the plan is done, we should join up with Ren and Neptune. More hands to look for possible weak points can make it go better after all," Pyrrha said.
"Right," the others all nodded before they went to the next spot.
"So… how'd you deal with the whole revelation about the webshow thing when you first heard it?" Neptune asked Ren curiously as they were walking around at the edge of the city to look for any possible breaches in the wall.
Ren hummed in thought "At first, I guess I didn't really believe it, but the twins showed us those clips, they told us about the future, and, I was rather inclined to believe it. What really drove it in though was when I pulled Gyro aside and asked him if the show had shown my past… all it took was him saying the name of my parents for me to be convinced."
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say their not with us anymore, huh? You have my condolences man." Neptune said with a frown.
"It's fine, I've made peace with their deaths after all these years." Ren said, shaking his head.
"Even though Waspmon reminded you of your dad a lot." Wormmon added from his shoulder.
"Yeah… it's why I was so angry when Puppetmon killed him, it was like seeing my father die all over again." Ren said with a sigh.
Neptune and Betamon glanced at each other, before looking back to Ren "So… less somber note, did they say anything about me and Sun?" the bluenette asked, trying to change the heavy subject.
"Well… they DID tell us that you have an irrational fear of water." Ren answered easily.
"Oh come on! That's the ONE thing that should have stayed in the team dammit!" Neptune complained as he threw his hands up in exasperation, before giving Ren a dry look as he heard a short chuckle "And for your information, it's not irrational, it's perfectly justified."
"Well whatever it was, it was never explained in the show the brothers watched, and considering from what they said, you get freaked out from ankle deep water so...unless I'm picking at something I shouldn't...care to explain?" Ren asked curiously.
"That...well...its kinda personal, but long story short, I got caught up in something years ago. People I knew died at sea cause of a sinking ship and the Grimm and I survived out of sheer dumb luck. I literally can't look at a pool of water without remembering that. Can't even take anything other than a shower cause of that," Neptune sighed. "Though the ankle deep is a new low if I seriously did that," he admitted.
"You're taking therapy though, and you have me to help you get into deeper waters at the beach if you absolutely need to." Betamon said encouragingly.
"Yeah…" Neptune sighed, before smiling down at his partner "Thanks for that Betamon."
"Therapy, huh? Come to think of it we keep forgetting to look for a good one," Wormmon mused.
"Traumatic experiences?" Neptune blinked.
"My childhood aside, let's just say we know we need help when our go to method of fixing a Digimon related problem is to basically murder said Digimon," Ren deadpanned.
"Doesn't help it actually WORKS," Wormmon sighed. "Then there was the time we sprang a trap just so we could get the catharsis of beating up the guy who set the trap…"
"Harsh," Neptune and Betamon winced.
"We're managing for now," the two sighed.
With that, the four of them continued on, making sure to pay close attention to the wall for any possible cracks or openings, until eventually…
"Huh… we seem to come to the docks a lot these days." Ren mused as they started walking near the water, though obviously Neptune was the farthest from it.
"Right, you guys were here when that interview happened, and you said you were here again about a month ago to stop Torchwick from stealing Dust?" Neptune asked for clarification.
"Makes you wonder just what draws bad guys to this place so much." Betamon mused with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, let's just hope we don't have to fight another one again," Wormmon sighed. "Anyway, if they decide to go from here...how would they bring in Grimm from the sea? Aren't most aquatic Grimm kinda...unsuited for land?"
"Not all of them, but most of them, yeah," Neptune said.
"They might try to sneak Grimm in with the cargo of some ships though, like in shipping crates, keep them locked up tight, and then set them loose when the time is right. Even if Grimm don't survive long in captivity, they can survive for SOME amount of time." Ren said as they headed towards the ships.
"Good point. Better get to checking then," Betamon frowned.
The group were about to move to do just that...before something else caught their attention, namely an explosion suddenly happening and with it, one of the ships started to tip over.
"That's not good," Ren frowned, the group going to investigate, right as the ship was starting to sink and a new figure appeared, smashing up part of the port.
It was a turtle shaped Digimon, that much was obvious, with three long spikes on its back, its front flippers made of swords, while the back ones and the tail were covered in yellow scales, just like the head, a pink beak at the front of it, a small mohawk of pink hair on top it's head, and two long green antennae coming out the back of its head.
"Ok… what the hell is that?!" Neptune shouted in worry as he saw the Digimon just trashing about wildly.
Ren quickly took out his scroll and activated the analyzer, searching for the Digimon, before he found it "Archelomon, though this is rather strange, it's supposed to be a carefree Digimon."
Digimon Analyzer: Archelomon
Archelomon. Data Type. An Adult Level Reptile Digimon. Although a rather laid back and carefree Digimon, Archelomon developed blades for front flippers to defend itself from would be attackers. It isn't the fastest swimmer, but its strong shell can stop some rather strong attacks. Its special attack is Ocean Strom, creating a giant whirlpool to drag its adversaries underneath the waves.
"Well...that doesn't look particularly carefree if you ask me," Neptune frowned, as Archelomon crashed into the port, roaring as it did, and revealing a pair of glowing red eyes.
"...that explains it," Ren and Wormmon sighed.
"Yeah...red eyes are always a bad sign...unless they're natural," Betamon agreed. "So how do we fight him?" he asked, as Archelomon soon dove, and surfaced quickly, destroying another ship, right as some of the local Huntsmen arriving and soon trying to stop the out of control Digimon.
"So...how do we stop it? You guys seem to have an idea what's going on," Neptune asked.
"We don't know for sure, but if it's like the last type we had to deal with, look for a Black Gear embedded on its body," Ren frowned.
"There shouldn't be any of those left though." Wormmon grumbled under his breath.
"Yeah… I hope Devimon didn't come back somehow." Ren added.
At the same time, Archelomon was being fired at by the Huntsmen, but their bullets were barely hurting it thanks to its shell, and soon, it dove underwater, as a large whirlpool quickly formed and started to break up more of the wooden parts of the port and dragging them into the water.
"Okay, we'd better hurry, but…" Wormmon gulped, realizing a big problem. "I...can't actually fight underwater…"
"But that'd mean…" Betamon trailed off, looking towards Neptune, who paled considerably.
"Well...it IS underwater so…" Betamon trailed off. "Come on Neptune, you know I can't do this without you."
"Well...I…" Neptune gulped, clearly less than enthused.
"If we don't do anything, those huntsmen will die," Ren said urgently, before looking Neptune in the eye. "Are you going to let some good people die just because you couldn't face your fear even when lives are on the line?!"
"You're right," Neptune admitted. "Let's go, Betamon!"
"Right!" Betamon nodded, before they soon relocated towards the waterside, though Neptune still had a few paces back, before he grabbed his Digivice and raised it, to which it started to glow.
(Play Brave Heart)
The signal was sent from the Digivice, and soon called forth the stream of data, which soon flowed into Betamon. "Betamon, Evolution!" Betamon called out before in a flash, he transformed, revealing the familiar serpentine form of a Seadramon in his place. "Seadramon!"
Seadramon didn't waste any time, and soon went into the water, quickly finding the whirlpool that Archelomon had caused, and soon caught up to him and wrapped his body around him, stopping him from creating the whirlpool.
On the surface, the whirlpool soon stopped, to which Ren and Wormmon looked at each other and nodded, Ren pulling out his Digivice.
"Wormmon, Evolution! Stingmon!"
Stingmon soon flew over the water, and grabbed as many Huntsmen as he could, pulling them out of the water and depositing them at the edge where they could climb to dry land. "These guys are safe, now we gotta deal with Archelomon," Stingmon reported.
"We'll get our chance when Seadramon drags him back up," Neptune said, and right on cue, Seadramon resurfaced with the berserk Archelomon.
"I got him, but I'm not seeing any gears on him!" Seadramon reported.
"Okay, so the gears not in there. What do we do?" Neptune frowned.
"It might be inside his body, but we can't say for sure," Ren answered. "We'd need to find a way to force it out of him, but if he's NOT being controlled by something tangible we might end up killing him if we use attacks."
"Well, whatever you do, hurry it up, cause this guy's got a lot of fight for a giant turtle!" Seadramon grimaced as Archelomon kept struggling.
As he said that, a missile flew through the air, striking Archelomon in the face, stunning him.
"Guys! What's going on?!" Jaune shouted as he arrived with the others of his group, standing on Ikkakumon's back, while the others were on Garurumon.
"A berserk Digimon with no sign of those gears you talked about earlier!" Neptune summed up in a slightly panicked tone. It didn't help that at that moment, Archelomon shifted his head, and caught Seadramon in the chin, causing him to let go and the turtle to dive into the water again.
"Explain later, catch him again now!" Seadramon said as he dove in again, to which the other Digimon looked at each other...and shrugged before Ikkakumon dove in as well.
Underwater, the fight was surprisingly heated as Archelomon proved to be quite agile underwater, but with his main attack sealed off due to its predictability, Seadramon and Ikkakumon were quickly gaining ground.
"Stop moving!" Ikkakumon growled. "Harpoon Vulcan!" he fired his missile, which impacted Archelomon, throwing him off course.
"And this time, stop struggling!" Seadramon agreed. "Ice Arrow!" he called out, firing the freezing blast, which caught the still reeling Archelomon and soon his limbs were encased in ice, before Seadramon caught him again, and Ikkakumon helped push the now helpless Digimon up to the surface. Before long they broke through, and Archelomon wasn't running anywhere anytime soon.
(Song end)
"Okay...now what do we do?" Nora asked, since they had a frozen Digimon who was STILL going berserk even if they were helpless right now.
"Something is definitely causing him to behave this way, so we can't just finish him. We have to try and help him," Pyrrha said.
"That part we can all agree," Neptune nodded. "But what do we do?"
The group seemed to think about it for a moment...before Jaune perked up. "How about we use the Digivices? They hold a holy power, right? Maybe if we use that light…"
"We could push influence out!" Ren nodded, understanding what he was going for.
"Well, it's worth a shot I'd say," Gabumon said, with the other Digimon nodding.
"Right then everyone, let's do this," Jaune said as the five of them lined up, and pulled out their Digivices, aiming them at Archelomon.
It took a second, but soon enough, the light shot out of them and into his body, Archelomon's struggling intensifying for a moment, before it calmed as… something, came out of his body, it was vague, but it seemed to have a sort of ring shape to it, before it shattered into data fragments that eroded away.
Once it was gone, Archelomon calmed down, before opening his eyes and… "Dude...what happened? And why am I a popsicle?" Archelomon asked...with a surfer accent at that.
"It's...not really clear on our end either…" Gomamon said awkwardly, right as some of the Huntsmen who'd been caught in the whirlpool finally came up.
"Here we are again," Pierce mused as they all dismounted from Bumblebee. "Wonder if Junior will have more info than what he did in 'canon'."
"Well, only one way to find out," Yang chuckled.
"At least we don't have to pretend to not be Digimon this time," Veemon laughed a bit.
"Though it WAS kinda fun playing that way," Biyomon admitted, before they followed after their partners into the club.
Once they reached the doors, the guards looked almost ready to bolt when they saw Yang, but Pierce rose his hands "Woah there fellas, relax, we're just here to talk to Junior, see if he has anything interesting to tell us."
The two guards calmed down a bit at that, before one of them spoke up "Boss is serving drinks as usual, we'll radio ahead to let him know you're coming."
"Thanks for that guys." Pierce nodded in thanks, before they walked, going through a small corridor, and then entered the club proper.
Yang whistled a bit "Huh, Junior's redecorated a bit. This place is looking better than last time."
"Why thank you," came Junior's voice, causing them to turn to him. "Had to do some redecorating ever since the new arrivals showed up. Plus business has been booming since I got a few of them under my employ."
"Don't forget with the new bouncers you got, we managed to keep the more… unwelcome… guests out," another voice said, as a small figure landed on Junior's shoulder. It was a small imp shaped creature with purple skin, his face white with large green eyes, a grinning smiley on his stomach, and a pair of red gloves along with a red scarf around his neck.
"Impmon… off." Junior said tiredly, as if this was a common occurrence, before the grinning Digimon hopped off his shoulder and onto the counter of the bar as Pierce and Yang got closer.
Digimon Analyzer: Impmon
Impmon. Virus Type. A Child Level Small Devil Digimon. A Digimon with a mischievous streak, enjoying playing pranks on those who least expect it, and the bigger the prank, the better. He never toadies to the strong, and instead stands up to them with a strong attitude. His special attack is Night of Fire, shooting orbs of fire from his hands.
"I'm gonna take a guess and say he's your Partner?" Pierce blinked.
"Considering I got one of these, pretty much," Junior sighed, pulling out a D-Core, before storing it away. "Now then, I imagine you two coming here isn't for a social visit."
"You know us too well," Yang chuckled.
"We're investigating some of the shady stuff going on around town lately, mostly anything related to Torchwick and the White Fang." Pierce clarified.
"Any bit of info helps!" Veemon supplied.
Junior thought about it for a moment, before answering. "Nothing personally. I haven't seen Torchwick since that night he hired some of my boys for a job months ago. Other than that, I've been hearing some rumors here and there from some of the Digimon roaming around town and even the ones I got working for me," he said, before adding. "Speaking of which, Torchwick wasn't happy with my boys after that job, something I can relate to for SOME people, especially when the newbies are ALREADY doing a better job than them," he said leveling a glare to a group of his men who were clearly drunk, while it was a bunch of Digimon who were working diligently and even keeping them out of trouble. "ANYway, about rumors, they said something about some tech being stolen from somewhere. They also said they saw some armed people sneaking in and out of town here and there. Sounded like White Fang to me," Junior shrugged.
"Stolen tech is probably stuff from Atlas." Biyomon commented.
"It adds up with what we know so far." Yang agreed with a nod.
"Thanks for that Junior, you were a big help tonight." Pierce said as he put a few Lien cards on the counter, which Junior accepted easily.
"Pleasure doing business with you, maybe some of these days you can come around for an actual drink though." he said with a laugh.
"If we got some time maybe. Vale's been getting a lot more...busy lately since the Digimon showed up," Pierce chuckled.
"I hear ya, though it's got its benefits," Junior nodded...right before a commotion was heard, to which they all turned to see a patron getting into a rather drunken brawl with another one, and causing a bit of a wreck.
"Yeesh, another one?" Impmon snorted. "I'll deal with it."
"Keep it clean if you can," Junior grunted, pulling out his Digivice which glowed.
"Yeah yeah, I'll keep it clean," Impmon chuckled as he started to glow and jumped forward. "Impmon, evolution! Devimon!"
If Pierce and Yang had been drinking anything, they likely would have spat it out as they saw the familiar form of their first enemy, almost pulling their own Digivices out of instinct, before reminding themselves it wasn't the same one, as Devimon picked up the two patrons that were brawling, and promptly tossed them outside of the club.
Another flash of light later, and Impmon was walking back, dusting off his hands and looking mighty proud of himself.
Blake placed a hand on a trio white lines that were shaped to look like claw marks.
"This is the place," Ilia nodded, recognizing the mark as well.
"You two sure?" Sun asked, earning a pair of deadpan looks. "Yeah, I'll just take your word for it," he raised his arms in surrender.
"You kinda walked into that one," Coronamon snorted, to which Patamon and Kotemon laughed as well as they soon walked in.
"New recruits? Stick to the right," they heard a man say, and looked forward to see a White Fang member ushering some Faunus in.
"You know, I always wondered what's up with the Grimm masks," Kotemon mused.
"Their supposed to be symbols." Ilia said "Humanity made Faunus out to be monsters, so, we decided to wear a monster's face, if that's what scared them."
"Well that's just dumb. Not only is that proving their point, it's only making things worse," Coronamon snorted flatly.
"Trust me, I realised that down the line as well." Blake said with a sigh as she grabbed a mask and put it on.
"Hey… think the Digimon are even allowed here?" Sun wondered as he put his own mask on.
"Entirely new species that the world is iffy on about being good or bad, the species is sentient and can make its own decisions, some MIGHT agree with the ideals of the fang… yeah, I think we're good on that front." Ilia listed off, her own mask on her face.
"It doesn't help with how things are after Myotismon's stunt and the one day siege of Remnant, Digimon are practically the new Faunus," Blake sighed.
"Well, let's just hope things don't get out of hand," Patamon frowned as they all walked in.
When they arrived, they were met with a large crowd of Faunus all wearing masks. "Now THAT'S a depressing sight…" Kotemon sighed.
"It really is...to think things have gone THIS bad," Patamon frowned as well.
"But with how bad some humans treat Faunus...I can't say I'm too surprised…" Coronamon sighed.
"Well, we'll have to do something about that when the Vytal festival is over," Blake said softly, but with determination in her voice. With that, they soon joined the crowd to blend in. Of course, even with their attempts, it didn't change the shock Blake and Ilia felt when they looked to the stage and saw Roman Torchwick come on stage, being referred to as a very special ally. Of course, when they heard his speech…
"He's REALLY good at working a crowd." Sun admitted begrudgingly.
Then came the reveal of the Paladin…
"...so that's a Paladin, huh?" Coronamon mused. "Is it wrong that I kinda wanna try to smash it?"
"Not really," the others shrugged, knowing they'd have to do it anyway.
And then came the part where Torchwick recognized them….in retrospect they probably should have did more to hide themselves...oh well, hindsight was 20-20, so with that in mind, Blake quickly cut the lights.
5 seconds later, and the group had jumped out a window, being chased by a few Digimon, mostly flyers like Saberdramon and Flybeemon, and then the Paladin broke through the wall, being piloted by Roman as he chased them.
"Okay everyone, time to fight a Paladin," Blake said simply into her scroll, knowing everyone else would get it.
"He's also got a few Digimon with him, so be ready for those too!" Patamon added before Blake hung up.
"Of course he got more of them. I hate that he's good at talking to people." Gyro said with a groan as he and Weiss ran down the street towards Ruby's signal on their digivices, catching up to her as she rounded a corner.
"I split from Penny, she said that Ironwood was probably sending troops to look for her by now." Ruby answered quickly when she received curious looks when it was just her and Palmon.
"Alright, now maybe we should hurry along just in case things get worse." Weiss said before her Digivice started to glow, and one evolution later, they were being carried by Kabuterimon towards the highway.
At the highway itself….it was chaos. Plain and simple, which wasn't surprising when a gang of Digimon and a mech suit were chasing after a group of three teens and their Digimon through the traffic, knocking plenty of cars out of the way in the process (how apparently nobody was killed by this in canon was completely beyond them).
Aside from the Paladin going on a rampage, the Digimon were also peppering the area with their attacks, making evading...harder than it should be. Fortunately, before they could make TOO much progress…
"Meteor Wing!" came Birdramon's voice as the rain of fireballs fell on the Digimon, knocking them off course, and some into the Paladin (which swatted them away when they did).
"Cavalry, or at least part of it, is here!" Pierce grinned as Veemon jumped off, evolved mid-fall, and landed on some of the smaller mon, crushing them under his weight. "Cannon ball!" he grinned when he landed.
Several more mon saw that and tried to fight back but…. "Mega Blaster!" Kabuterimon's voice called out, deleting several of them in the attack, to which Palmon and Agumon jumped off and evolved, crushing a few more pursuing Digimon when they landed.
"Are we late to the party?" Togemon laughed.
"Nope, looks like you all got here just in time," Sun grinned. At the same time, Torchwick saw the increasing number of Digimon...and the ones he hired being squished, so with that in mind, he turned to the side and jumped off an edge with the stolen Paladin.
However, when he was about to hit the ground, he was met with a horn which pushed the Paladin aside.
"Thanks for dropping by," Ikkakumon snorted, as he, Garurumon, Stingmon, and Gatomon were at the ready, and before long, the rest of the group joined in, Torchwick finding his Paladin now in the middle of a group of Digimon who looked like they were ready to open his Paladin up like a tin can.
"Well, this is rather...problematic," Torchwick frowned, before pulling out his scroll. "Neo, I think I'm gonna need a pick up sooner than expected," he said.
"Betcha 5 Lien he's calling in backup." Pierce said in annoyance, before they heard glass shatter and suddenly ANOTHER Paladin seemingly popped out of nowhere, followed by two Digimon that looked like black variants of Greymon and Garurumon. "Called it," he groaned.
"And where did they get that other Paladin?! That wasn't in the info!" Gyro said...just loud enough for Torchwick and Neo to hear him over their speakers.
"So we DO have a mole," Torchwick frowned from inside his cockpit. "Well, we'll just have to find out who it is AFTER we've dealt with these meddling kids."
Neo nodded, and leveled the weapons, while gesturing for the two Digimon with her to charge forward but….
"Fist of the Beast King!" a familiar voice called out, before her Paladin was knocked to the side, and slammed into the BlackGarurumon, knocking him over as well.
"Wait what?" was the response from the Chosen, caught flat footed, as they turned to the source and saw…
"Leomon?! When did you get here?!" Gyro asked in surprise as he saw their friend standing there.
"It's been a long time children." Leomon said with a smile "I arrived just an hour ago, those erratic portals being the cause of my appearance here."
"They grabbed you too huh? Man, lot of Digimon falling into those these days." Ruby noted with a frown. They were at least lucky that nothing higher than Adult had gotten through so far.
"I don't fully understand what's going on, but I assume these are enemies you're all fighting, correct?" Leomon checked.
"Pretty much yeah. Any help is appreciated," Jaune nodded.
"Then allow me to assist," Leomon smirked, as the group turned to face their four opponents, both sides tense and ready to fight but…
A loud crash interrupted everyone, as they turned to a dust cloud that had been kicked up, clearing away to reveal…
"Is… that Growlmon fighting against a BlackGrowlmon?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow as they saw the two Digimon struggling against each other.
"Yes, yes it is." Birdramon confirmed with a surprised blink.
"And is that Growlmon…?" Sun started.
"Yep, it's the same one," Firamon nodded. Right on cue a certain faunus boy lost his grip, and was sent sliding down his partner's back, the tail actually acting like a slide which caused him to skid on the ground.
"What is it with you and ending up in the middle of fights like this?" Weiss couldn't help but ask incredulously.
"I wish I knew." Takato said with an embarrassed laugh.
"Come on, up you go." Gyro said as he pulled the boy onto Greymon.
"Thanks. What's going on down here anyway?" Takato asked curiously.
"Criminals stealing Atlas tech, trying to beat them. You?" Gyro summed up.
"Random bad Digimon running down the highway and throwing cars around, Guilmon challenged it because that's how he is." Takato summed up with a sweatdrop as he looked at his partner fighting against his dark double.
"Well...guess we'll just have to fight ALL of them," Pierce pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Well, nothing else to but fight I guess," Ruby said, before the group nodded and charged forward, to which the opposing group met them.
"Not even going to try 'playing fair'," Ren said simply, as the group began ganging up on their opponents, with the focus being on the black Digimon, while the hunters went after the Paladins (Takato staying well behind).
Greymon rammed horns first into the BlackGreymon's own horns, holding him in place...for Togemon to come from the side and punch him in the side, knocking him aside, to where Kabuterimon caught and tossed him upward, right into a double attack from Angemon and Birdramon, causing him to hit the ground and was clearly down for the count. "That's one down," Greymon snorted.
Nearby, Garurumon was fighting against his own double, the two wolves darting around. Of course, this made helping a bit harder for the slower mon like Ikkakumon or Veedramon...so that left mainly Gatomon and Stingmon.
"Neko Punch!" Gatomon called out, catching BlackGarurumon in the head, knocking him off course, to which Garurumon managed to tackle him, knocking him into Stingmon who used a sharp kick to send him flying towards Ikkakumon and Veedramon, who fired their attacks, which impacted and ended with an outcold Digimon on the ground.
"Stay down!" Garurumon growled.
While the Digimon were making short work of their enemies, their partners were doing the same with the Paladins, having managed to split them away from each other so that one team could focus on one Paladin. "Okay, let's work on some of those team moves we were working on," Ruby said as they evaded another attack from the Paladin.
"Well, if want to do that, we'd probably want to go for something fast," Gyro said.
"Yeah...we're kinda doing a lot of damage to the road," Blake admitted as she looked at the support pillars for the highway, many of them damaged.
"We...might not have a choice," Weiss admitted as well, seeing as the Paladin they were fighting was advancing again.
"Quick, Freezer Burn!" Ruby shouted. In response Weiss and Yang moved forward, Weiss striking the ground and freezing it, while Yang jumped and came down with a strong strike, soon obscuring the view in a fog made from the ice.
"Tch!" Torchwick growled inside his Paladin, before activating the laser crosshairs to try and find them, but…
"Ice Flower and Blackwing!" Ruby called out, to which several shots were fired, and where they hit, parts of the Paladin froze over, causing it to have a harder time moving, and at the same time, something came out of the fog, revealing to be Gyro and Blake, to which Torchwick tried to open fire...only to find them seemingly vanish, Blake's clone in a burst of shadows, and Gyro's copy just fading away, revealing that the real ones had shifted around the air, while Blake was leaving Shadow Clones to confuse him, the real ones soon coming down, and striking at the Paladin, leaving gashes in the armor, and around the legs, forcing him to stumble back.
"Hold still dammit!" Torchwick growled, but…
"Rose Storm and Checkmate!" Gyro shouted, and suddenly the view was covered in petals as Ruby was spreading her petals and Gyro used his wind to create a veritable storm of them, making it impossible to see. While that was keeping the Paladin off balance, Weiss and Blake went to strike at the legs, damaging the delicate mechanisms and causing the Paladin to start to teeter.
"One more time! Blizzard and Solar Wind!" Ruby called out, to which Weiss and Gyro soon converged, and using a mix of strong winds and ice dust, sent a freezing burst towards the Paladin which was soon frozen from the waist down, stopping its movements almost completely. At the same time, Yang jumped over to their partners who needed no prompting as Greymon spun and hit her with his tail, sending her right back into a vortex of wind that Gyro had prepared, aiming her right for the Paladin, before she glowed with her semblance and he launched her forward, aiming STRAIGHT for the cockpit.
"Oh crap!" Torchwick managed to gasp, before hitting the ejector switch. Good thing too, as he got out right before Yang plowed into the Paladin, blowing a hole clean through where Torchwick had been, leaving him to land on the ground with a tumble. "And I just had this cleaned," he groaned, dusting off his suit.
At the same time….
"Bladestrike!" Jaune ordered as he and Pierce landed a flurry of blows on the Paladin's back while it was preoccupied with the seemingly vanishing and reappearing Ren, with Pyrrha using her semblance to stop it from moving as much as it normally would.
Neo frowned in her cockpit before trying to strike at the ones attacking, but by then they'd disengaged, followed with…
"Flower Power!" Jaune called out, to which several shots suddenly impacted the Paladin, all aimed at the joints and the like courtesy of Ren, causing Neo to growl as she tried to go for him again...only to be met with Nora slamming her hammer into the armor of the Paladin, rattling the entire mech.
"Let's not prolong this more than we need to," Pierce frowned.
"Right," Jaune nodded, before putting a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, and boosted her. "Ready?"
"Anytime," Pyrrha nodded.
"Magneto!" Jaune said, to which Pyrrha reached out, grabbed the damaged Paladin with her Semblance and...pulled. The Paladin was promptly ripped clean in half, leaving Neo seemingly suspended in the air looking VERY confused at what the FUCK suddenly happened, before gravity reasserted itself as she fell to the ground.
"Okay, looks like this is as far as we go for now," Torchwick said as he managed to get to Neo. "Neo, if you'd please?"
Neo nodded, opening her parasol and curtsied a little before both of them seemingly shattered into glass, disappearing.
"Of course they got away again." Ren sighed.
"No worries guys, we'll get them next time, right?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, we will, and we'll try to get Neo as well… no clue how that'll go though." Gyro said with a frown.
"We'd need some sort of aura restraint to stop her." Pyrrha mused.
Weiss tapped her chin in thought "I'll see if anything like that is being made in Atlas." she said… before they heard a pillar falling "... once this is dealt with of course." she said as she turned to the last battle that was going on.
Leomon jumped back after blocking a Plasma Blade from BlackGrowlmon, while Firamon was raining fireballs on the dragon...with limited effect.
"This guy's got some tough skin…!" Sun growled as he and Neptune were shooting from afar.
"Well that IS a dragon," Neptune frowned, while Betamon was by his side. His partner WANTED to join in, but they'd learned (from experience) that Seadramon was a sitting duck on dry land, and with the power this mon was packing, he did NOT want to risk his partner.
"He's just like Growlmon, his skin isn't easy to break through," Takato said, even if it was probably pretty obvious.
"Well the big guy seems to be more or less evenly matched," Sun said as Growlmon grappled with his black counterpart. "Any ideas on how to tip it into our favor?"
"For now, we'll just have to keep fighting!" Ilia said as she just evaded a tail strike, while Gladimon was slashing away at the hide...but not doing much damage.
"I've got one idea," Leomon frowned. "But try to move him somewhere we're less likely to destroy more pillars."
"If you're thinking what we think you are, put a hold on that," came Gyro's voice as the chosen and their partners arrived to help. "We just need to get past that skin, right?"
"Well...how do you plan on doing that?" Gladimon asked.
"You DO remember what our weapons are coated with, right?" Pierce said with a chuckle.
"Oh yeah, that Chrome Digi-stuff," Sun said, remembering the story.
"These were made to fight Perfects, so we can definitely use them to fight an adult," Ren nodded.
"We'll soften him up, you guys worry about hitting him hard," Ruby said, before looking at BlackGrowlmon. "Rose Storm!" she ordered, to which she and Gyro soon filled the area with petals that confused BlackGrowlmon, but unlike with the Paladin, BlackGrowlmon roared and started breathing fire, forcing Ruby to be careful, but in the midst of the storm, several attacks rained down on him, while the chosen blitzed into the storm, slashing and hitting him with their weapons, the Chrome Digizoid coating easily bypassing his skin's defenses, leaving data to leak out from the wounds.
"Go for it now!" Yang shouted after she jumped away from landing a solid blow to his snout, and that was all the prompting the Digimon needed to let loose their attacks, BlackGrowlmon taking them head on, pushing him back before he hit another pillar which stopped his movement, till finally they ended, and he fell forward, knocked out.
"And that's that," Sun sighed in relief...until they all heard the police sirens.
"...what took them so long?" Jaune groaned.
"Whatever it was, we should get out of here first," Gyro said, to which they all ran away.
And there!
A lot of shit happened, and I'm honestly too tired to explain it all, because it's late when I'm posting this.
So, yeah, hope you enjoyed this, and...
The Adventure Evolves.