Hello everyone and welcome to another Digital Story!
This time... we're finally entering the new arc properly.
Hope you enjoy!
Blazing Return! Arise, KajiGreymon!
The ship properly docked and the passengers soon exited out of the ship. "Not saying the ship was cramped, but it feels good to be outside after a while," Veemon sighed, stretching a bit.
"Yeah, it wasn't quite like using the Ocean Destiny. We were only on that thing for a week," Agumon agreed.
"Yeah, felt like we were on there for like a month." Palmon added.
"But we're here. So this is Menagerie?" Patamon asked, looking around.
"Yeah, and everybody remember to stick close. The other Faunus won't give the humans grief as long as you stick close to the group." Blake reminded.
"The non White Fang ones at least." Ilia tacked on.
"Just don't pick any fights if we can help it and if we can't disarm only," Gyro sighed, before adding. "And I mean that metaphorically just to be VERY clear. No idea why I feel the need to say that though."
"We're not stupid bro," Pierce said flatly. "But yeah, disarm only."
"But just to be safe, I vote we go straight to Blake's house," Pyrrha said. "The last thing we need is to risk running into the Fang now."
"Good idea," was the general consensus.
"Kinda wish we could look around, it's my first time being here and all, but I guess we gotta focus on what's important." Sun sighed.
"We can look around AFTER we've got some stable footing," Coco said. "Sides, there'll always be other chances once we stop the world from falling apart, right?" she added with a grin.
"You say that a BIT too casually boss." Waspmon sweatdropped.
"But she's right," Ruby chuckled. "We're already in this together, and we're gonna see it through to the end."
"Yeah, let's get through this together," Jaune agreed.
"As long as we're careful and don't get overconfident...we should be okay," Gyro said with a small smile.
"So don't rush into something half-baked or it might get dangerous basically." Agumon added.
"Avoid being halfboiled either." Pierce snickered, with Gyro snorting at the reference. "But yeah, our info is running out very soon. Once we get the item, that's literally the end of our cheat codes. Whatever happens next, we'll have to deal with them the normal way. Head on."
"And all we know beyond that is that our next destination is Atlas." Weiss muttered with a frown, not liking the idea of going back to her home that much, even though her father was kicked out, it was still heading into possible enemy territory.
"Let's worry about that when we reach that point. For now we should focus on what we DO know is likely to happen," Velvet said with a small sigh.
"Yeah, like actually reaching Blake's house," Neptune said with a snort, and with that the group departed for their destination.
Meanwhile...far away in a dark region of the world, a fortress stood among the desolate lands, Grimm roaming the lands below as up in the tower-like structure, a meeting was taking place.
At that meeting where Salem's… generals would be a suitable term.
Dr. Arthur Watts, a brilliant doctor and callous manipulator, Tyrian Callows, a crazed scorpion faunus assassin, and Hazel Rainart, a beast of a man with a grudge to bear.
And of course, Cinder was there… and she did NOT look good. Where in one timeline she would have been bad...but ultimately recoverable, the damage she'd endure this time was...leagues above. The direct blast from the Silver Eyes had burned up any part of her body that had been fused with a grimm, while the absolute zero temperature ice had caused severe damage to her skin, and thus she was now barely recognizable as a person, instead, she was inside what could only be described as full body armor. It bore a resemblance to a certain Sith Lord what with it covering her body completely, complete with a helmet and mask to help her breath. Her severely damaged body was being protected and kept alive inside of the armor which was colored a mix of black, white, and red, giving it a Grimm-like design, pushed further by her lone right eye visible behind the mask on her face, almost glowing gold with rage. The mask itself was roughly robotic in appearance, completely covering her left eye which was basically gone, while it also protected her right eye with a transparent glass lense. The lower half of her face was covered in a triangular design that held both a device to help her breath AND some microphones to help her damaged voice box speak. The torso armor was fitting on her, and well armored, enough so that it would take decent strength to cut through it, with no obvious weaknesses, while on her head, the mask was secured on with a helmet that had a pair of white horns, pointing ahead downward, seemingly there as an intimidating factor, which when added with her eye...actually worked quite well.
"Well now, I had my doubts, but I must admit, that look suits you quite well," Watts chuckled, earning a glare from Cinder. A slightly garbled sound came out of her suit, the system not QUITE finished learning to properly translate the words coming from her damaged voice box. "I honestly have half a mind to thank those kids who completely bested you for the silence."
"Well if I were you, I'd hunt those kids down and well...well, they left you like that, so eye for an eye," Tyrian said before laughing like the mad man he is.
Cinder would have responded to that, but right then, Salem chose to enter the room, practically gliding across the floor to her throne as the four of them stood at attention. "Watts, do you find such malignancy necessary?" she said, her voice calm, but it held a clear sense of authority, before she waved her hand, beckoning them to sit back down.
"My apologies. I just have little patience with failure," Watts said.
"Then there is still little need for that," Salem said. "True Beacon and Vale wasn't destroyed, but the fact remains young Cinder is the new Fall Maiden, and more importantly she killed dear Ozpin," she acknowledged. "Furthermore, she revealed something we've been overlooking for quite some time now."
"You speak of just how powerful Digimon can get, right?" Hazel asked knowingly.
"Not just that, but also just how powerful the students that keep getting in her way are." Salem added.
"And, at her… request." Watts said, looking at Cinder in annoyance while she growled at him "I looked up every student, and actually found something… interesting."
"Oh?" Salem rose a curious eyebrow "Is that so? Do share Arthur."
"Well, most of the students have obvious backgrounds to them in their profiles, but when I looked into two specific ones, there was barely anything, the same for a teacher." Watts explained "The Vermillion siblings, students Gyro and Pierce, and teacher Azure, all three of them barely have any recorded history, no date of birth, no previous known homes, nothing, the farthest piece of information is them renting an apartment in Downtown Vale after opening an account at the bank, and that was only a year before they all went to Beacon."
"Interesting," Salem mused, before turning to Cinder. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe each time you encountered them...everything went awry for your plans...almost as if they knew of them ahead of time, correct?"
Cinder's visible eye seemed to gain a thoughtful look...before it widened when she realized that yes, every single time she'd encountered them, things went badly. In fact, now that she thought about it, they always did seem to keep their distance...almost as if they KNEW she was the enemy, and when taken into that perspective...Mercury's legs being revealed, his win against Xiaolong, Nikos not using her Semblance...it would make sense they'd behave differently...if they already knew what she had planned. "H...how…?" the voice rasped out, her voice now heavily digital in tone, but was finally starting to be able to communicate with the device.
"How indeed? I doubt anybody would leak your plans as the only ones who knew were Emerald and Mercury." Salem said, looking at the mentioned two.
"And we both swear we didn't say anything, especially me, I got fucked over in those failed plans twice." Mercury said "I know Em didn't say anything either, she's like Cinder's number one fan."
"Hey!" Emerald hissed out as she elbowed him.
"You know it's true." he shot back with a wince.
The conversation was cut off as Cinder rasped out "It wasn't them… I trust them." she said, with Salem nodding in acceptance.
"Then the question still remains: How did those children know of Cinder's plans?" Salem asked again.
Watts hummed "Well… one theory is those Foretellers that have started giving us grief. But then that goes into the question of how do THEY know of her plans?" Watts said, before sighing "I won't lie, this is quite the confusing mess you're in, I'm glad I'm not in your shoes." he said, looking at Cinder in deadpan.
Salem had a thoughtful look at that. "For now we continue as planned. Even if Beacon is still standing, it's lost its head, and thus greatly weakened," she said. "Continue searching for the Spring Maiden, and while we're at it...find out more about the Vermillion brothers. I feel they may in fact be the key to this conundrum."
"Well, two of them have gone off the grid, but one is still in Vale, so it should at least be feasible to track his movements there." Watts said, knowing this was going to be his task.
"In that case, I'll continue the hunt for the girl." Tyrian said with a crazed giggle.
"What about me?" Hazel asked.
"Although he's been crippled, Adam Taurus said he can still get us a foot in the door with Sienna Khan, you shall go to him, and try to convince Sienna that we are the ones she will wish to side with." Salem told him.
Cinder's rasping cut in for a moment "What about… the kids?" she asked, the rage evident in her voice.
"What about them? I'm already looking into the Vermillions, and on top of that I'm the one who has to meet with Lionheart now because you still need to recover." Watts asked in annoyance.
Cinder glared at him "I want them… DEAD!" she said, slamming the table with her fist.
"Calm yourself Cinder." Salem warned her "I doubt we can kill all of them swiftly, but… Tyrian, see if you can't try to kill at least one of them, why don't you?"
"As you wish, my goddess," Tyrian said before laughing maniacally.
"Thanks again for having us, Mr. and Mrs. Belladonna," Weiss said with a small smile and nod.
"Well...it was a bit of a surprise, but I guess it's okay. Blake certainly made a lot of friends while she was away," Kali Belladonna said awkwardly...as the room was rather full with her various friends human, faunus, and Digimon, and the fact that a Schnee was among that list...it was a lot of things to take in. She was just glad it wasn't dropping by unannounced.
"As long as nobody does anything stupid, I don't personally mind, heck, this is amazing, she barely had any friends before she left." Ghira Belladonna said, with everyone looking at Sun at the 'anything stupid' comment, before Blake blushed at her father's last words.
"Come on dad." she groaned as Ilia patted her on the back.
"What? It's true." the giant of a man shrugged.
"You'll find that it's every father's job to make his kids feel humiliated." Yang told Blake solemnly.
"Oh boy don't remind me of the stuff dad does." Ruby groaned as she tried to forget.
"Well, now that you mention it…" Yang trailed off with a grin.
"I used this last year but I'm reusing it: Dad's guitar!" Ruby shouted, which made Yang go quiet with a blush.
"You know I'm honestly curious about that," Biyomon couldn't help but say, and promptly got her head pressed down a little.
"That is an incident I'll be taking to my grave," Yang said frantically.
"And now we're REALLY curious," Gomamon laughed.
"This is their world's frog problem huh?" Gyro said, glancing at Pierce.
"You can't prove that happened." his twin said quickly.
"Wow...I'd honestly say you four are made for each other," Scarlet laughed at the irony that two pairs of siblings in love with each other...and they even had a noodle incident they never want to talk about.
"Think we'll ever learn about that?" Agumon snorted to Veemon.
"NEVER!" Pierce shouted...with enough force they actually stumbled back.
"Well Blake, your friends are certainly lively," Kali couldn't help but laugh.
"But we can't help but wonder what brought this visit on," Ghira sighed. He wanted to take this as just a friendly visit. Really, he did. But as it was, things were crazy in the world lately, and he couldn't help but feel this was part of it somehow.
"Well… how fast as news travelled over to here?" Gyro asked.
"Well, we know Beacon and Vale narrowly avoided being destroyed thanks to the efforts of some very power Digimon showing up, but beyond that, we haven't heard much." Kali answered.
"Hmm… Do you think… their controlling the incoming signals?" Pierce muttered.
"Knowing our luck? Yes, yes they are." Jaune sighed.
Oh well that's just great." Nora groaned in annoyance.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Blake sighed.
"Okay...there's no nice way to say this. How in the know are you about the White Fang's recent activities?" Gyro sighed.
"...I'm not going to like where this is going, am I?" Ghira frowned.
"No, no you're not. Really sorry about that honestly," Gyro shook his head sadly. "You started a really good thing, but I'm afraid people who don't want to go peaceful, and some people like that have taken it so far, it's just a glorified revenge quest."
"Adam lead a section of the White Fang that helped the Grimm attack Beacon," Blake said, her voice hollow not because she cared anymore about Adam, but because she was going to bring this harsh reality to her parents...the last people she wanted to get involved in this...but they NEEDED to know. "He helped them smuggle Grimm into Vale and let them attack everyone, all just so he could 'make humans pay' as he told me while he was trying to kill the three of us. He didn't care at all who got caught in the crossfire, only that he could hurt as many humans as possible."
To say that her parents were shocked would be an understatement, as Ghira's jaw had dropped, while Kali had a horrified look in her eyes.
"We sent the idiot packing though, don't worry. Poor bastard lost more than just an arm back there." Pierce assured them.
"Anyway, another reason we're here, besides telling you Adam went nuts, is-" Gyro started before being interrupted as the doorbell rang "... possibly at your front door right now… possibly… for all I know this is someone else."
"But just in case, quick! Every non-faunus and non-Digimon into a closet, especially Weiss!" Ruby said quickly.
Right after she said that, all the humans just moved so suddenly Ghira and Kali lost track of most of them, save for Gyro who was practically glued to the ceiling… and he then held up a sign that read 'Nobody ever looks up.'
"You know, he's not wrong about that one." Velvet muttered as she glanced up at him.
"Well, let's not keep whoever is there waiting for too long," Blake sighed, before getting the door, opening it fully expecting to see a certain pair of twins. What she got instead was…
"Huh? So that WAS you, Blake." said the faunus at the door. He was dressed in a typical cowboy outfit, wearing a simple white button up shirt underneath a brown sleeveless vest, wearing a pair of jeans and cowboy boots with heel spurs, a handkerchief around his neck, and the obvious cowboy hat sitting atop his head, hiding a short cut head of black hair, his green eyes looking at her in surprise as his rattlesnake tail shook a bit.
Blake blinked at that. "Rusty? Is that you?" she asked in surprise.
"Well slap me silly and call me a donkey, I haven't seen you in forever!" Rusty exclaimed with a grin.
"Yeah...it's...been a long time," Blake said, looking away a bit. The last time she'd seen him...hadn't been on the best of terms. "Look...about the last time we talked…"
"Nah, it's fine. Me and Aile forgive ya," Rusty grinned. "We always knew you wouldn't have gone too far no matter what."
"I'm...glad you all had so much faith in me," Blake said with a small nod. "So...how is Aile doing?"
"She's doin fine, though we did worry when we heard our old friend was in places where all the crazy's been happenin," Rusty grinned.
"Sorry to make you two worry. But I really didn't have a say in things happening where I was," Blake chuckled.
"Sounds like a headache." said a voice from lower down, making Blake look to see a Digimon (obviously) one that was purple in color with a red triangle on his forehead, a single lone green eye behind a visor on his face, his body reptilian in shape with sharp claws and a long tail, though he was bipedal in structure.
"Huh, didn't think you had a partner." Blake blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, he's been with me for… well, a while to say the least." Rusty said, looking away, before grinning "Anyway, let me introduce ya to Bemmon!"
"Howdy." Bemmon said plainly with a small wave.
"Nice to meet you," Blake chukled. "Funny you should have a partner too cause well…" Patamon soon flapped over to her.
"Hi!" he said brightly.
"So you too, huh?" Rusty chuckled. "Shouldn't be surprised though, pretty much everyone has a partner nowadays. So...what ya back for?"
"Well…" Blake tried to think of a way to explain this… before she heard a thud from behind her, turning around to see Nora having fallen out of the closet she had been hiding in.
She then heard muffled laughter coming from a nearby room, which soon exploded into something louder, followed by Yang's voice "Hey Nora, nice of you to finally step out of the closet!"
Nora's response was to flip the bird in Yang's general direction, followed by grinning in satisfaction as she heard the loud THWACK! Of someone slapping Yang upside the head for her terrible joke.
"...was this a bad time?" Rusty blinked.
"Yes and no?" Patamon said unsurely "We thought you were White Fang members, and that might have gone bad with humans here."
"Oh… that makes sense." Rusty admitted after a moment.
"So...you're an old friend of Blake's?" Gyro spoke up, causing Rusty to look up in surprise, Gyro jumping off. "Didn't know she had friends other than Ilia," he added with a chuckle, getting a punch in the arm from Blake.
"Bite me Vermillion." she said with no real heat behind it.
"No thanks, I might catch 'The Angst'." Gyro shot right back, before looking at Rusty, holding out a hand "Nice to meet you, name's Gyro Vermillion."
Rusty looked on in amusement at the byplay, before grabbing Gyro's hand and shaking back "Nice to meet ya pardner, name's Rusty Shores."
As they shook hands, Gyro noticed something glinting beneath his handkerchief, and when he looked closely… "Hey… what's that there?"
"Oh, this? Had it for a while." Rusty said as he moved his handkerchief aside to reveal…
"A CREST?!" Blake and Gyro both exclaimed in shock, as they saw a Tag around his neck, with a moss green Crest inside of it, in the shape of an X with a small diamond in between each line.
"What?!" was the surprised shout from the others who heard it, as they all rushed to the front door, cramming it full of people, much to the confusion from those not in the know.
"That can't be right!" Weiss said in alarm.
"You...know about Crests?" Rusty asked in surprise.
The group looked at him, before looking at each other. "Do we tell him?" Ruby asked uncertainly.
"I mean, we haven't really met him before this…" Jaune trailed off.
"We've been handling it fine on our own so far." Pierce added with an unsure frown.
"Why is this even a question?" Ren wondered.
"Yeah! Come on guys, we tell him!" Nora added.
"She's right." Pyrrha said with a sigh.
"Uh… what am I missing here?" Rusty asked.
In response, both he and Bemmon were grabbed, before they were pulled into the house, the door closing behind them.
"Okay...Blake? You and your friends are starting to scare me," Rusty gulped.
"Sorry, this is just VERY important. You're basically about to join our group." was her answer, which just confused him more before he and Bemmon were sat on the couch.
"...we don't get it," both of them blinked.
"The best way we can explain is because of these," Jaune said as they held out their D-Crests, their own Crests appearing on the screen.
"There are more Crests?" Rusty blinked in surprise.
"Your wording implies you knew about more than just the Crest around your neck," Pierce said.
"Well, yeah, Aile has one too." Rusty said, causing everyone to stop short and stare at him.
"... call her and tell her to come here, say it's urgent." Blake told him seriously.
"Alright." he said after a small moment, bringing out his scroll and doing just that as they then waited for her to arrive.
Eventually a knock was heard, and Ghira called out "Come on in!" the door being opened and two pairs of footsteps were heard, though one seemed to be scratching on the floor a bit as it walked, and after just a few seconds, two figures came into the living room. One was a young woman (because with a figure like that, she wasn't just a girl) wearing what appeared to be a skin tight black suit with several ports along it as if to attach something to them, though over said suit she wore a simple tank top and short skirt, her dark blue hair falling down her back as her red eyes looked at them curiously, several feathers seemingly being part of her hair, and around her neck was a Tag, bearing a cyan crest that took the shape of a trio of swirls connected together.
Next to her was a Digimon, an avian obviously, with a red plumage on most of his body, his wings sporting black finger like claws at the tip, while his head was white, a leather strap around his forehead and a single feather on the back of his head that pointed up, a few red markings framing his blue eyes, just above his yellow beak.
The moment they saw her, Yang opened her mouth...only for Velvet to clap her hand over Yang's mouth, stopping her. "We all know what you're probably going to say, so save your breath and our ears, and just don't," she said dryly.
"You guys are no fun," Yang actually pouted.
"You're Aile right?" Gyro asked, ignoring his eventual sister-in-law.
"Yeah, Aile Cyclone, this is Hawkmon." Aile introduced herself while her partner took a small bow.
"Good day to all of you, it's a pleasure to meet you." Hawkmon said rather grandly.
"Oh boy we got a theater major." Pierce muttered.
"Be nice," Blake admonished, before turning to Aile. "Sorry to suddenly call you out of nowhere, but this is...very important."
"If you had called us in such a hurry, it HAS to be important, so it's fine," Aile said with a light chuckle. "Still, it's nice to see you again, Blake."
"Likewise," Blake smiled a bit, before frowning. "Anyway, now that you're here, we should start explaining," Blake said.
After that came explaining everything to them, and there was… a lot to say the least.
"Now hold up a bit. Three worlds in total?" Rusty asked after a bit into the explanation.
"Yeahp, Gyro and I are from Earth, which makes up half of the Digital World." Pierce said.
"And Rusty and I are basically supposed to help you protect the worlds?" Aile asked for clarification.
"You have Crests, that LITERALLY means you're supposed to be part of our inner circle." Ruby shrugged.
"It's a bit weird honestly, doesn't help we had no idea there were 2 others." Salamon supplied.
"I must say, I certainly didn't expect to hear that there were more than the two we had in our possession." Hawkmon admitted.
"That and that we're supposed to be saving the world." Bemmon added.
"Come to think of it...Gennai never said anything about there being more than 10 Crests," Jaune mused.
"Do you think he had a good reason not to tell us?" Agumon asked.
"Well...whatever it is, we'll have to ask him next time we can talk to him," Ren frowned.
"I'm sure he had a good reason, like maybe they were emergency Crests or something," Nora said.
"He's never steered us wrong before, so there's no reason to doubt him now," Pyrrha agreed.
"So… what should we do now?" Aile asked after a few moments.
At that… everyone looked unsure "Well…"
"Honestly… we're waiting a bit… just have this feeling that if we start something, another thing will come up." Tentomon admitted.
Right on cue, Gyro's scroll started to ring, but when he checked the caller ID...it was an unknown number. "What the…?" he blinked, wondering who was trying to call him.
"Who is it?" Palm asked.
"Don't know. The caller ID is unknown," Gyro frowned. "Think I should still pick up?"
Before anybody could answer him, the call… answered itself? "I really don't have time for this." came Mirei's voice.
"Mirei? Is something going on?" he asked in confusion as he put her on speaker.
"Long story short, we have a new problem in the Digital World, I'll tell you more once you get here, just hurry." she said, before ending the call.
"Uh…" Sun trailed off, before jumping as his own scroll started ringing, except rather than a call, it looked like he had a new app "The heck is this?" he said, tapping it… and what looked like a window of some kind opened.
"Let me see that." Weiss asked, looking at his screen "This… this is a gate, back in the Digital World, it's closed, but we can probably open it easily."
"How do we do that?" Coco asked.
"The Digivices probably can act as keys, but first let me examine this," Weiss said, going through the data. "Hm...yes, this is a gate, but it looks like it can only send a total of 10 individuals through at one time, so that's 5 people, and 5 Digimon," she said after a few minutes. "There's...also some kind of map," she said, finding a map of the Digital World, but for some reason it was rendered in a grid, with a bunch of black points dotting the map, with one such grid cell pulsing.
"I'm gonna take a guess and say that's where we're going if we use this?" Sun said. "So...who's going?"
"Me for starters." Gyro said "And I think Rusty and Aile ought to come so they can get a first taste of things."
"Sounds good to me." Rusty said as he stood up.
"Guess it's a good thing I bring my weapons with me." Aile said as she pulled a pair of sturdy charkrams from… somewhere.
"I'll be going as well just in case we need to do some hacking." Weiss added.
"Hey, I know that quadrant a bit." Ogremon said as he looked over their shoulders "Yatsu, let's go with them!"
"Alright." Yatsuhashi nodded easily as he stood.
"Okay, let's get somewhere we're not liable to drag someone in by accident," Weiss said as the group of 10 moved position and got in front of Sun's Scroll as he activated the app, forming the gate again and pointed it towards them. The group looked at each other, to which Gyro and Weiss held out their Digivices, light shining from both as the gate shifted from 'closed' to 'open', before the light turned into what appeared to be ropes and attached to the screen.
"I'm gonna guess that we all need to do this?" Rusty said.
"Probably a good idea, yeah," Tentomon remarked, to which the rest of them held out their D-Cores, the same light connecting, while on the screen the Gate said 'Ready'.
"...uh...why isn't anything else happening?" Sun blinked.
"Maybe we need a keyword or something," Agumon said.
"What? Like…Digital Gate, Open?" Gyro hazarded a guess. True enough, the light got brighter as the gate started to shine. "I was kinda joking," Gyro blinked, right as they were sucked in.
The path through the gate was one that was both a roller coaster ride and a beautiful sight as they were flying through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of colors, their destination a bright light in the distance, which they quickly reached, and went through in a blinding light.
The Digital World was oddly unassuming today. To a casual viewer, there wasn't anything of note going on. That was when a small tv-like device suddenly started glowing, before depositing 10 figures in a heap.
"I fucking hate this world sometimes." Gyro said with a groan as he was on the bottom of the pile.
"Meh, it's not so bad." Ogremon commented… on top of everyone else.
"Don't care, now GIT!" Rusty shouted, rising up which made Yatsu and Ogremon fall off, Bemmon and Hawkmon having been between him and Aile, while underneath her were Tentomon, Weiss, Agumon and Gyro in that order.
Once everyone was finally up, Gyro dusted himself off "Alright, now let's find Mirei and- wait, what happened to my coat?" he stopped short, seeing his coat was now orange in color.
"You've got the Crest of Courage on your back." Weiss noted.
"Huh… oh hey your jacket is purple, you've got your own crest too." he noticed as he looked at Weiss.
"Huh, my hat's different too." Rusty noticed, pulling his hat off, seeing it was a moss green color now and sported his own crest right on the front, while Aile's bodysuit was cyan and sported her crest on her chest, right above her breasts.
"My outfit is still the same." Yatsu noticed.
"Maybe it's only for crest users then." Agumon figured.
"Correct, a little something Yggdrasil made for you all." Mirei said as she suddenly appeared out of thin air.
"What in tarnation!?" Rusty shouted as he pulled out two pistols at his hips in his shock.
"Woah! Woah, that's Mirei, she's with us." Weiss told him, getting in front of him.
"Besides, even if you had fired, it wouldn't have done anything," Mirei said with a light chuckle.
"Not helping," Gyro, Tentomon, and Agumon said dryly, earning another chuckle from her. "So what's the emergency?" Gyro asked.
"First of all, try evolving," Mirei started.
They all look at her oddly at that, before Tentomon shrugged and did so.
"Tentomon, Evolution!"... "Wait, nothing's happening." he said after a moment of NOT being Kabuterimon.
"Wait, what? But you ate recently yeah?" Weiss asked in confusion.
"Yeah, had a nice meal before we touched on land and I'm still feeling full from it." Tentomon confirmed, feeling just as confused.
"Hold on, I'll try too." Agumon said "Agumon, Evolution!"... "What the hell, I'm not Greymon?"
"What… the hell? Our Digivices didn't lose power suddenly did they?" Gyro wondered as he looked at his D-Crest.
"No, the culprit is over there actually." Mirei said, pointing off in the distance, and they saw what appeared to be some sort of tower of sorts, Gyro pulling on his goggles to get a better look.
"A white, almost prismatic tower… looks like the one back in Washington." he muttered "That thing's stopping us from evolving?"
"Yes, and it leads me to the reason why I called you all here. The Digital World, or at least Server is dealing with an...uncommon...situation," she worded it carefully.
"...I don't get it," Ogremon blinked. "Did something happen while we were all gone?"
"Yes, something did happen...though how good or bad it is...that depends on who you talk to," Mirei said. "Go to the nearest town and you'll likely find more answers." With her piece said, she promptly vanished, leaving them alone.
"Well...she's weird," was all Aile could say.
"You have no idea. Oh, also, likely chances are she's the one who chose you two to have Crests, since she chose us… so she PROBABLY KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE!" Gyro called out into the area, receiving a rather faint 'I'm not telling them just yet.' from the forest, making him grumble as he started marching on, using his Digivice to find the nearest town.
"Great, if she'd at least tell us we'd know what trait it is you two need to work on." Weiss sighed, before following Gyro "Come on, let's just go find out what the issue is."
"So uh...what's the deal with these Crests actually?" Rusty asked.
"The simple version: They're powerful and a key to saving the world," Weiss said. "The harder version: They're artifacts with immense power that if used, can either save the world or possibly destroy it. Their first function is to allow Digimon to evolve to Perfect and up, but there's a trigger needed to use them."
"And that trigger is…?" Aile asked.
"A virtue of some kind. Though without knowing what they are we don't actually know WHAT to do," Tentomon sighed.
"That...would be problematic," Hawkmon frowned.
"Perhaps for now we should simply reach the town," Yatsu said with a sigh.
"Town isn't too far away. It should be just over that hill," Ogremon said, and true enough, they saw the town...and clearly something was off.
"That flag… looks like… is it supposed to be for some kind of country?" Gyro mused as he saw a flagpole near the center of town, with the crystal tower located right in the middle, the flag flapping in the wind looking like it was split down the middle, the top half white and the bottom half black, with a diamond shape split perfectly between both halves, the top one green and the bottom one purple.
"There appear to be armed forces at the town as well." Yatsuhashi noted, seeing various Digimon, some seeming like they were naturally equipped with soldier gear.
"Sealsdramon, and some other Digimon too." Gyro said as he looked through his goggles to get a clear look.
"What about the Digimon in town?" Aile asked in concern.
Gyro looking at the houses in the town, seeing Digimon looking fearfully out their windows, some were even inside cages near the central tower "Not good, looks like this was a forceful takeover of some kind."
"Seems pretty open and shut," Agumon blinked. "Wonder why Mirei made it sound like it was some super complicated problem."
"Something we can figure out after we free the town," Tentomon said. Sharing a nod, the group moved closer to the town, being careful to stay out of sight.
"So what's the plan?" Bemmon asked as they were currently on a smaller hill, using it to stay out of sight. Some woodlands were nearby so they could duck in there for cover, or they could attack head on.
"Looks like they've mainly got Adult levels guarding," Weiss frowned.
"I think we can go for a head on attack," Gyro said. "Our partners are strong enough to fight the average Adult, and we have our weapons with us."
"What should we do then?" Rusty asked.
"Hang back a bit and attack from further away, we don't want the new kids getting hurt too bad." Gyro said with a joking grin.
"We DO have combat training you know," Aile frowned, a little insulted by that.
"Yes, but one, we're used to these kinds of situation, and two, you guys are the backup in case something unexpected happens," Gyro clarified.
"...fair enough," the two of them and their partners shrugged.
"Okay, Yatsu, you and Ogremon will be taking the lead on this attack. Hit them hard to surprise them, and we'll capitalize on the surprise," Gyro said, earning a nod from the two of them.
The guards of the town were nothing too of note, just a pair of Tyrannomon. As such, they were taken by surprise when an Ogremon suddenly came charging forward, with a human by his side holding a large sword, and as such the two plowed right through them, causing them to land on a group of Commandramon. The moment that happened, several more Commandramon and a few Sealsdramon moved to intercept, but two blurs shot into the town, before separating into four, revealing two more humans alongside an Agumon and a Tentomon. That's when all hell broke loose as the four began attack, taking out the group with fast movements to the point they barely had time to fully register, and the ones that did soon found themselves under more fire from another pair of humans and Digimon. The attack was aggressive and effective, causing the combatants stationed near the front to be wiped out fairly quickly.
"We've taken out the gate, keep going!" Weiss shouted, earning nods as they continued advancing, while Rusty and co took control of the gate.
A couple more platoons tried to intercept them, but were quickly beaten down, allowing them to reach the center of the town which had the tower (the local residents shut their windows when the chaos started. "There's the tower! Time to bring it down!" Ogremon smirked, readying his club, but before he could…
"Volcano Strike!" a voice called out, a fireball shooting towards them and forcing them to dodge. When the smoke cleared, they saw...a Monochromon.
"...anyone else feeling a little underwhelmed suddenly?" Gyro couldn't help but say considering most if not all Monochromon they'd seen so far were either passive or being used as grunts...and this one for some reason had the air of being the 'boss' of this town.
"Yeah… but… something's off." Agumon frowned, before squinting his eyes "What's that he's wearing?" he pointed out, making them look to see a crystal like ring around the Digimon's waist.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm breaking it." Ogremon smirked, raising his fist "Fist of the Conquering King!" he shouted, aiming right at Monochromon, and everyone expected for the Digimon to get blown back… but Monochromon decided to prove them wrong, using his horn to block the attack as he grinned.
"Too bad for you. You Chosen Children are obsolete and useless now, especially against the Crystal Rings and Crystal Towers." Monochromon laughed.
"Crystal Rings? And this thing that blocks out Evolution is a Crystal Tower?" Tentomon blinked, looking up at the tower. "What the heck are they?"
"Do you think he's going to-?" Weiss started, but…
"They're incredible right? With these babies, even weak mon can become strong as heck, and without that annoying random Evolution, we keep the advantage!" Monochromon laughed. "The King's army will rule the land soon enough!"
"...glad to know those things don't do anything for intelligence," Gyro and Weiss snorted. By now they'd gotten used to dumb henchmen.
"Glad I was never that dumb." Ogremon muttered in deadpan.
"Jokes aside, I do believe we're in trouble now." Yatsu said as he glanced around, seeing some of the troops they had beaten getting back up.
"Yeah… time for the Joestar secret technique." Gyro muttered.
"I'm not even mad at you for mentioning that again, just make us some cover." Weiss shot back.
Gyro nodded, before using his Semblance to push the wind into the ground, kicking up a dust cloud which the group used to escape, heading back out of town.
"We gotta regroup! They have an advantage!" Agumon said to the new chosen that had been keeping a watch on the gate, earning nods as they started retreating as well.
"So...is running away from the enemy a normal part of the plan?" Rusty asked.
"When we find out they have an advantage and nothing is IMMEDIATELY at stake, yeah," Gyro nodded. "Normally we'd just evolve and beat them, but those Crystal Towers and Rings are a game changer."
"It's a strategically clever strategy though," Yatsuhashi mused. "Power up your own troops while locking down your enemies. Whoever this 'King' is, has made a simple but effective combat strategy."
"Unfortunately WE'RE the ones who need to figure out how to break that strategy," Weiss frowned.
"I see you all were given a taste of the changes that took place while you were away," Mirei said, suddenly appearing next to them.
"You're shopping for a clobbering, I hope you know that." Gyro told her in annoyance.
"There is more to this story than meets the eye," Mirei said with her usual enigmatic smile. "But that is for you all to find out. For now, know that you will have the tools to uncover it," she said, before she walked over to Gyro and Weiss, and tapped their Scrolls, a new App suddenly downloading into them, before self activating, revealing some kind of tracker...and it was pointing towards a nearby location.
Weiss sighed "And of course, you aren't going to tell us what these are pointing at." she said, Mirei simply giving her usual smile before disappearing.
"...welp, let's go find out what it is she wants us to find," Agumon said with a sigh.
"If that's the help you usually got, then this sounds like its gonna be a pain in the butt," Rusty said dryly.
"Welcome to your new life as Chosen Children." Tentomon said flatly as they started following the tracker.
"Is it too late to go home?" Aile asked dryly.
"Somehow I think it is," Hawkmon shrugged helplessly, while Bemmon snickered.
Following the tracker led them through the forest a bit, coming across what they were rather sure was a vending machine that Numemon were hiding in (Aile felt grossed out at hearing Weiss describe them… especially the part about them being VERY likely to try and ask her on a date), which they passed without being noticed thankfully, eventually reaching a cave of some kind.
"Looks like the signal is coming from in here." Gyro said as he looked at his scroll, before he and the others went into the cave, following the path within to the deepest point, and finding…
"What… this… my Crest?" Gyro said in utter confusion when they found an egg shaped object sporting a flame pattern on it, along with a horn, and the Crest of Courage.
"Correct." Mirei said as she appeared "This is a Digimental, a sort of extra security measure Yggdrasil made in the years you were gone. There is one for each Crest."
"What does it do?" Rusty wondered as Gyro looked at the Digimental from various angles.
Mirei simply smiled mysteriously "You'll find out, just remember the activation code 'Digimental Up' and everything will be fine."
"Well… no time like the present then." Gyro said, taking a deep breath, before grabbing hold of the Digimental, and pulling on it… and it just popped off the pedestal easily.
He blinked at that, looking down at the object in his hands "Huh… for some reason I had this weird feeling it was going to be difficult." he said, Mirei laughing mysteriously at that.
"It would be natural you could remove it. Caliburn only allowed King Arthur to pull it from its stone after all," she said, adjusting her glasses. "Well then, I leave the rest in your capable hands." And with that, she vanished.
"And there she goes," Weiss sighed. "Well, at least she gave us the tools again. Judging by her wording, I'd assume whatever this does can let us get around those Towers."
"Let's find out what this does then," Gyro grinned, before adding, "...after we get out of this cave. If this thing causes another Evolution, I don't think any of us want to find out the hard way how big or small it'll make Agumon."
"Good call," everyone nodded in agreement.
The group soon made their way out of the cave...and were met with a less than pleasant sight.
"Heh! Did you think I'd just let you all go so easily after you caused that disturbance in my town?" Monochromon said with a smirk as he and several Sealsdramon were present, the Crystal Ring glowing brightly on his body. "For the crime of public disruption, you lot are going into the slammer...AFTER we rough you all up a bit."
"Yeah...how about WE kick your butt and then free the town you're enslaving," Gyro said flatly. "Let's go, Agumon!"
(Play 'Break Up!')
"Right!" Agumon grinned as Gyro raised up the Digimental.
"Digimental Up!" he called out, and in response, the Digimental began to glow, followed by his D-Crest and Agumon.
The Crest of Courage appeared in a void, spinning, before Agumon and the Digimental started floating around it "Agumon, Armor Evolution!" he called before the Digimental moved towards him and seemed to turn into flames that rose up around him, slowly taking shape while faded images of Greymon, MetalGreymon and WarGreymon appeared over him, his body changing within the flames, before he burst out, his body having changed into a more raptor-like shape with Greymon's colors, which included several blue stripes on his body, while his torso, knees, hands and head were covered in red armor with a flame pattern, his long fingers shaped like claws coming out of the hand armor, and his helmet sporting a bladed horn on the nose "Blazing Courage! KajiGreymon!"
Digimon Analyzer: KajiGreymon
KajiGreymon. Vaccine Type. An Armor Level Reptile Digimon. An Agumon that evolved through the power of the Digimental of Courage, his power over flames has been enhanced due to the Digimental bearing the same element. Digimon that don the power of this Digimental find their fighting abilities rising like a blaze, being able to fight enemies with powerful abilities. His special attacks are Heat Shooter, firing a lob of nitro spit from his mouth that ignited upon contact with the enemy, and Fire Missile, encasing his body in fire before rushing at his opponent.
"What?!" Monochromon gasped in shock. "That's impossible! You can't Evolve inside the Crystal Tower's field!" he said, backing up a little.
"Yeah well, you should have thought about that before picking a fight with us. This isn't the first thing everyone said was impossible that we pulled off," Gyro said, before turning to KajiGreymon. "How's the new Evolution feel?"
"Different from our usual, but definitely feels good," KajiGreymon said, before turning to look at Monochromon and his men. "Hope you're ready, cause it's time for round 2!"
"D-don't think you can win THAT easily! I still have the Crystal Ring AND my men!" Monochromon glared, before the Sealsdramon started moving forward.
In response, KajiGreymon suddenly moved in a near blur, taking out the Sealsdramon before they barely had a chance to react, knocking several aside, before aiming at the remainders and opening his mouth. "Heat Shooter!" he called out, firing globs of...spit...at them, which hit them. They only had a moment to register the part where they just got spat on...before the liquid ignited, causing them a lot of damage, and making them fall over, unconscious. As such, it wasn't long before the only one left was Monochromon. "Feel like giving up?" KajiGreymon smirked.
Monochromon...gulped thickly. This...was going bad very fast for him, but whatever it was, be it over confidence in the Crystal Ring...or just plain not wanting to lose, he stood his ground...and charged blindly. His charge however was stopped short, easily, by KajiGreymon catching him...before lifting him up over his head and tossing him aside.
"I ain't gonna lose! I CAN'T lose! Not after I finally got power!" Monochromon shouted in anger, before firing his attacks, which KajiGreymon easily blocked.
"Even if you've got a nice power boost, that's not going to help if all you're doing is relying on it," KajiGreymon said, before charging forward and landing several kicks on Monochromon, pushing him back, before he got behind him and grabbed his tail. Monochromon didn't even have time to register that before he was being lifted up and spun around, and finally thrown...in the direction of the town. "Time for you and that tower to go down! Fire Missile!" KajiGreymon's body ignited with fire, before he surged forward towards the still airborne Monochromon, hitting him right in the Crystal Ring, the force causing it to break, while Monochromon was launched towards the town...right towards the Crystal Tower, smashing into it and breaking it in half before he landed on the ground in a heap, eyes swirly.
"Oh, wait, I didn't-" KajiGreymon started with wide eyes, about to rush at the tower to kick it away, only for it to break away into data particles before it even got close to landing "Huh… well that's convenient."
"Almost a bit too convenient," Gyro frowned. "I mean...we've smashed a LOT of things, and they didn't just break down immediately after we smashed them. It's almost like that thing was designed to break when it took heavy damage," he mused.
"Well...how about we check on the town first then worry about that?" Rusty suggested.
"Probably a good idea," Aile agreed, while the rest nodded. At the same time, KajiGreymon started to glow and soon reverted into Agumon, while the Digimental flew into Gyro's D-Crest, before transferring over to his Scroll, the radar app now having an image of the Digimental in it.
When they got to the town…
"Thank you for beating down Monochromon," the villagers said with grateful smiles.
"It was no problem. Dealing with Mon like him is part of our job," Agumon chuckled.
"Though…" one of the villagers, a Floramon, frowned. "Did you HAVE to destroy the Tower in the process?"
Gyro just gave that Digimon an odd look "Yes? It was preventing evolution, why would I NOT destroy it?"
"We could have just asked the King to turn it off." another random Digimon in the crowd said.
Gyro put on a serene smile that was anything but nice at that "Is it just me, or do I hear complaining?"
"N-No! Nobody's complaining!" the Digimon all said together, rather fearfully.
"Good to hear," Gyro nodded. "Now…" he started, smile still there. "What's this about the King?"
The Digimon gave them a...rough gist of who this 'Digimon King' was. To say he was not what they expected was...an understatement.
"Alright… so another human in the Digital World. That's surprising, have to admit. He's apparently trying to make the Digital World peaceful… obviously, that didn't work so well here. His Crystal Rings are supposed to denote the leader of a squadron on top of boosting power, and the towers are so people know from a distance this area is under his control, while also stopping Digimon from suddenly evolving, except that had the backlash of preventing them from evolving to defend themselves. Basically, we have a well intentioned extremist to deal with, one who's messing with the natural order of the Digital World." Gyro summed up everything they had learned from the village.
"Is it really all that bad though?" Rusty asked in confusion.
Gyro sighed "Think about it this way, if he succeeds, then he'll literally grind the Digital World to a halt. No single Digimon will be able to evolve without his permission, and it's not like he can know when exactly he needs to turn off the towers to let Baby levels evolve and actually become able to take care of themselves. It's like turning the world into a Zoo and he has all the controls."
"Well this is certainly a unique conflict we're in." Weiss said with an unsure look.
"Yeah, we fought to bring order to the world before… but now he's basically pushing it so there's no chaos at all. You can't have one without the other after all." Tentomon summed up.
"And I can see why this would be difficult," Yatsuhashi frowned. "With the enemies you've faced up till now, who was right and who was wrong was obvious. But with this 'Digimon King'..."
"Yeah, I can see a LOT of Digimon I've met in the past throwing their lot in with this guy," Ogremon scratched the back of his head. "Years upon years of having to live through maniacs like Devimon would do that to lots of Mon."
"This is really complicated…" Agumon sighed.
"Perhaps we should return to Remnant for today," Hawkmon suggested. "Confer with the others over what we've learned and discuss further strategies."
"Agreed. I think we'd all need to sleep on this too," Bemmon added.
"Right. Time to go home," Gyro agreed as the group went back to the television they came in from, and using their Digivices, opened the Gate once more and left the Digital World.
Meanwhile…
A grand castle stood overlooking a sizeable city, walls surrounding the entire city while the castle was separated from the rest of the city by a moat and bridge. The city looked nothing short of prosperous while the castle was a large building with a mainly circular design for the main body with a few additional circular towers around it its body. The structure stood easily 5 stories tall, with majestic white walls and a golden roof (all of them just paint), overall giving the image of a great and prosperous kingdom. The city before the castle was also great and prosperous, with several rivers running through it and lush trees growing in various parts of the town. The main sections showed a large number of facilities and housing areas for the citizens, with a few research facilities and agricultural areas set up, all of which protected by strong walls with various defenses and guards patrolling it, and a gate with a door that could be raised to keep intruders out.
Inside the castle was no less majestic than the outside. With several floors going up, until the throne room which almost felt open air, with sunlight streaming in from the glass ceiling and grass on the edges of a small path from the entrance to the throne itself. On the throne was the one who called himself the Digimon King, with several holographic screens around him. "I see...so the Tower in one of the fringe territories was destroyed," he frowned. "Investigate what happened, and report back to me," he instructed to the Digimon on the other end of the communication. With that done, he leaned back and sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised that there would be resistance, but...to actually defeat a Digimon with a Crystal Ring...who could be rebelling?" he frowned. "No matter. Things are progressing well. I won't let the Digital World fall into chaos. Not again," he said with determination.
And there you go!
Yeahp, new Chosen Children, and one of them has a pretty irregular Digimon.
For those who don't know, Bemmon is from Digimon World 3 on the PS1.
As well, things in the Digital World aren't so black and white anymore.
It certainly promises to be interesting, but for now...
The Adventure Evolves.