Told you it wouldn't be too long.
Though I DID have some internet issues for the better part of last week, so that made things pretty difficult.
Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Atlas Chronicles - Part 1
The RV was making its way down the road once again, for once the Grimm not being an annoyance for the people inside. Which was great for them, as currently most of them were in the computer area, with Penny sitting on a couch with several cables plugged into her.
"Okay, establishing connection…" Weiss mused as she typed on the console.
"The connection here is established as well," Gennai said from the screen. "We can begin searching in 3...2...1."
"Beginning search," Penny said calmly as data was being reflected in her eyes. At the same time several frequencies appeared on one of the monitors with an icon seemingly sifting through them.
"Who'd have thought there were so many signals in the Digital World," Tentomon blinked in surprise. "Then again with what's happening nowadays…" he frowned.
"Yeah, lots of these signals probably belong to the King," Weiss nodded. "It's a good thing we set the system to omit the frequency we got from the Resistance. It'd be stupid of us to assume what we're doing won't be noticed, even if we're taking precautions."
"I can't see the King himself as being the type to attack the Resistance unless they go too far, but then...it's not like everyone under him is on the same page," Jaune frowned.
"That aside, how's finding the Atlas expedition team going?" Salamon asked.
"A bit more and...found it," Penny said, the system locking on to a single frequency, which seemed to be what Atlas was using to send reports and the like back to Remnant.
"Where ARE they in the Digital World?" Keenan asked curiously, to which the view shifted to a global view of the Digital World and started scanning around, till it ended on one of the Continents, and it wasn't Server. "That's…!" he blinked in surprise.
"It's where we grew up! The WWW Continent!" Falcomon finished.
"Oh… so they're right in Olympos 12 territory… let's hope things go well for them… and that they brought Winter along, because Lunamon might be their ticket to safe passage." Ruby realised.
"Whatever the case, I can almost guarantee Mervamon would have sensed them arrive and probably has her followers monitoring them," Keenan mused. "As long as they don't do anything stupid they should be okay. Worst case scenario...Marsmon decides to, and is allowed to deal with them…"
"That...wouldn't end well," Palmon winced. "Where in WWW are they anyway?"
Once again the signal was pinpointed and the map focused. "Huh...seems like they've ended up in Apolomon's territory. We've had to go there a few times to keep an eye on things. The remaining members do what they can to oversee the areas, but they're no substitute for the proper rulers unfortunately," Falcomon sighed.
"That...could be a problem then…" Keenan frowned.
"They could end up running afoul with less than good Digimon?" Monodramon asked.
"More or less that," Falcomon nodded. "Even with the other Olympos 12 doing what they can, those two territories have basically become Mistral in the absence of their leaders."
"Oh dear… that could be a problem yeah." Pierce said with a frown.
"Hopefully things go well for them." Ren said with a worried look "Volume 7 aside, Ironwood likely won't be getting that bad in our reality. And even if he DID, I wouldn't wish evil Digimon on Atlas."
"For now though, let's see what we can get from this information," Weiss said, as they keyed in on the frequency and found… "Huh...at least whoever is heading the expedition keeps a neat log," she said as true enough she was able to find several logs complete with video data, and more were being added in.
"You think we're not the only ones looking into them?" Ruby mused.
"The expedition into the Digital World is big news on Remnant. Assuming he doesn't spend all his time in the Digital World, the King is bound to know about this as well. He almost definitely is looking into them too even if they're not in his territory," Tentomon said.
And as it turns out…
"It's always nice to have a backdoor into the system." the Digimon King chuckled as he easily hacked into the frequencies Atlas was using while they were surveying the Digital World.
"I mean, it's not very HARD for you to hack through the system." Lopmon told him in amusement as he hung off his shoulder.
"Quite." the King chuckled as he went through the logs "Hmm… all ordered neatly and recorded perfectly… I DO believe these were made by a Specialist."
"Makes sense. They'd want someone competent on the job." Lopmon mused. "Well… either that or an Operative."
"Aren't they roughly the same thing?" the King asked.
"From what I know? Yeah, they are." Lopmon nodded, making the King hum at that, before he noticed something.
"Hang on, what's that then?" he frowned in thought as he detected a signal that was keyed to only receive information… a signal he realised he recognised "Wait… that's the same signal that sent the morse code message the other day. So that's the Chosen Children then." he said, before chuckling "It seems they were as curious as we were. Well, this is good I suppose. If I ever need to send them a message I just need to find that frequency."
Back with the Chosen…
"Okay, so we've got all the recordings so far in order," Weiss nodded.
"And we're parked in a place that should be safe AND I've set the auto defenses for if anything comes at us," Gyro said. "So let's see what Atlas has been up to while exploring the Digital world."
With that, Weiss hit play and started the first video, which opened with the shot of someone adjusting a camera, the bits of the background they could see suggested it was still in Atlas, before whoever it was finished adjusting and soon came properly into view, revealing one Clover Ebi. "Alright, beginning Expedition Log 0," he said, sounding professional. "As per General Ironwood's instructions, My team and I will be part of the first expedition into the mysterious world known as the Digital World. Though we won't be part of the science team, the General has requested that I keep documented footage of the expedition to support research purposes on top of our role as bodyguards," he said. "Not much to say beyond preparations being complete, and the entry into the Digital World will begin shortly," he said, before he moved towards the camera and picked it up, carrying it with him as he soon entered what appeared to be an armored truck that had been modified with not just strong reinforced armor but also several weapons that could be unfolded, no doubt for protection. Once he got inside, he went to a section and sat with his team, revealing Vine Zeki, Elm Ederne, Harriet Bree and Marrow Amin.
"Is keeping that thing REALLY necessary boss?" Harriet asked with a raised eyebrow.
"General's Orders," Clover chuckled off screen. "Besides, don't you think us entering another world would be worth recording?"
"He's not wrong," Marrow said. "I mean, this is pretty crazy even for us."
At that the video was paused to allow the group watching to chuckle a bit. "I know we shouldn't laugh, but really...they're just starting to jump down the rabbit hole. This is nothing," Pierce snorted.
"Yeah, but THEY don't know that," Salamon said in amusement before the video was resumed.
"Crazy or not, we can handle it. We ARE the best after all," Elm said with an encouraging grin.
"That's the spirit," Clover said and they could hear the smile in his voice, before he shifted the camera so they could see forward and more or less see the driver seats, right as the gate was activated and the truck moved forward, and soon entered the gate. What followed was well...it honestly felt like something out of a sci-fi as they were suddenly going much faster, with what appeared to be a kaleidoscopic void flying past them up ahead, before they saw what appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel before the light became momentarily blinding and the truck came to a halt.
"We appear to have entered the Digital World without issue," the Driver up ahead said, though they were still rubbing their eyes.
"The only question is where exactly did we end up," Vine frowned. True enough…
"Uh...is the truck tipping over?" Marrow asked...right before the next thing they knew they were being put through a spin cycle as the truck tumbled off of wherever they had been, so much so Clover had to grab the camera so it didn't go flying, and the Chosen were treated to the slightly comical sight of the Ace Ops suddenly knowing what it feels like to be in a washing machine.
"Ok… this I like." Gyro grinned.
"Seeing someone be so confident, yet go through something hilarious like that… yeah, it's fun." Jaune chuckled.
The tumble continued for a good minute, before it finally stopped, with the truck thankfully ending it upright, every piece of equipment back in it's starting place. The Ace Ops looking somewhere between dizzy...to wanting to hurl...and it seemed some of the other soldiers with them did just that, throwing the door open and running out. Clover seemed to have taken a moment to get his bearings, looking around a bit and… "Well...that was pretty lucky," he chuckled weakly.
"How is tumbling down a hill lucky?" Harriet deadpanned, looking a bit sick.
"We could have ended up upside down, right?" Clover pointed out.
"...he's not wrong," Vine said simply, right before the first video cut off.
"Glad to know we're not the only people the Digital World likes to screw with every now and then," Yang snorted in amusement.
"Let's see what other shenanigans they get up to," Gabumon chuckled as Weiss played the next video.
The scene this time opened with what appeared to be a rudimentary camp being set up, albeit one that was made to be easily torn down and set back up if needed. From the looks of it the location was just at the edge of a forest. The scene was shifted to show Clover again. "Expedition Log 1. After our slight...tumble...we've set up a basic camp near this forest. The scientists are planning to venture into the forest to extract some samples to compare with samples brought from Remnant. As such my team and I will be accompanying them to ensure their safety. The remaining troops will remain here to guard the camp, and already have protocols in place to alert us in the event of anything they can't handle happening," Clover said, before the scene was shifted to show the Ace Ops going into the forest, with a few scientists with all their equipment ready coming with them. The scientists wasted no time in taking samples from the nearby trees.
"So this is the Digital World, huh?" Marrow mused. "It doesn't seem all that weird. After all we'd heard I was expecting something a bit more…" he started but trailed off as he leaned against a tree without looking at it...and felt his hand vibrate evident by the ringing. Blinking, he turned, and so did the camera the Clover was carrying somehow...and showed that the tree he was leaning against had a payphone growing out of it. In fact, there were a few trees near where they were that had the same phenomena happening.
"And so it begins," Veemon laughed.
Marrow stared at the tree for a long moment, before hesitantly grabbing the phone and answering it "...hello?"
The sound that came out of the phone was loud enough that Marrow had to pull away, allowing even the camera to record the voice. "Hello? Hello? Welcome to Fazbear's Pizzeria, and your first night on the job."
"...but it's the middle of the day," Marrow blinked, looking up to confirm that yes, the sun was very much in the sky.
Another phone rang, and Elm who was nearby hesitantly picked it up...and promptly pulled her head away when an annoyingly loud voice kept repeating "Hey, listen!" again and again until she slammed the receiver back into the payphone. "I don't think I want to know," Elm winced, rubbing her ear.
Another phone rang, this time near Vine who looked at it flatly, before shrugging and picking it up, though learning from his co-workers, he made sure to keep the receiver away from his ear. "You gotta ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well? Do ya punk?" came the voice from the receiver, to which Vine looked at it dryly before looking at Clover. "I believe this one was meant for you," he said, earning a chuckle of amusement from Clover, by now the scientists examining the phones and no doubt trying to figure out how apparently functional phones were growing out of trees.
The video was paused as the Chosen enjoyed another laugh at that one. "So we got weird phones and they got phones that quote lines from Earth fiction. Cool," Gyro chuckled.
"Wonder how long before those scientists start giving Uncle Qrow a run for his money," Yang chuckled as well.
"Probably as soon as they find something REALLY weird," Biyomon laughed.
Back with the video…
"I...this doesn't make any sense!" one of the scientists, with short brown hair atop his head and wearing a white coat… over a yellow shirt with black zigzag lines on them, shouted in confusion "There's no electrical wires visible anyway for these phones to work, and they don't even have a slot to accept money, and pressing the buttons does nothing!" he said, before he groaned and slumped over "Good grief… this world is already so strange."
"Well...it IS another world, I suppose it WOULD make sense if it runs on its own logic, right? Besides, I'm sure we'll be able to understand in time, Dr. Brown," Clover said encouragingly.
At that point the vid was paused by Pierce so he and Gyro could laugh without restraint.
"...is there a joke we're not getting?" Blake blinked.
"He… he…" Gyro tried to explain through his laughs "He's based… on an old character… from a cartoon Azure made us watch… called Charlie Brown."
"Basically he's the character the universe loves to screw with in funny ways...and this guy is a scientist...trying to understand the Digital World. See the screwy joke there?" Pierce managed to say a little more clearly.
The group thought about that...before they couldn't help but laugh at his expense too. "I know I should feel bad, but it really is pretty funny," Pyrrha admitted through chuckles.
"Well, nothing we can do either way, so I guess we might as well enjoy the show," Veemon chuckled as the video continued, showing the group continuing through the forest, which soon showed the crazy collections of signs that some of the forests in Server had as well.
"...anyone else morbidly curious to see if these signs actually lead anywhere?" Elm couldn't help but say as they saw the signs that were pointing in...various directions.
"One way to find out," Harriet smirked a bit. "I'll be right back," she said and before Clover could stop her, she zipped off, aiming to follow, or at least try to follow, the signs.
"...she's not going to actually find anything is she?" Marrow blinked.
"You never know…" Nora chuckled slightly as they waited for Harriet to come back. It wasn't long before she did….but the way she was running made it clear she was running away from something.
"What-?" Clover started but Harriet cut him off.
"Talk later! Run now!" she said frantically as a second later, an entire swarm of FlyBeemon came flying after her.
"Book it!" Elm shouted, and the video cut off at that moment.
"...wow...what did she do to piss them off?" Gomamon blinked.
"Considering what we saw about her from 'Canon'...my guess is she was running too fast and didn't properly see what was ahead of her and well…" Patamon mused.
"She probably quite literally stirred up the hornet's nest by accident," Blake said with a hint of amusement. "Normally I'd be worried, but seeing as they have more videos...they should be fine."
"Let's see how well they did then," Weiss chuckled, playing the next one. This time it opened to a slightly beat up looking Clover, though his Aura was fixing the damage quickly. "Expedition Log 2," he said. "Despite some...mishaps...we've managed to gather some samples with our scientists examining them as we speak. So far they've confirmed that some differences aside, the soil and trees here are fundamentally the same as back home," Clover said. "We have currently relocated our camp to another area, this one appears to be a lake, which wouldn't be strange...if not for well…" he shifted aside and showed an image of the lake which had several large trees growing out of it.
"This is impossible, the aspects of the trees would denote them to be apple trees, and yet they're not only growing larger than an apple tree should, but they're growing out of the water! Not to mention why are the apples SILVER of all colors?!" was the less than pleased sound of Dr. Brown in the background.
"Wait until he eats one of them." Patamon chuckled.
"His brain is gonna go bye-bye soon." Yang snorted.
"He'll be as drunk as Qrow by the 10th log tops," Salamon laughed.
"If every log has him freaking out like this, I can see that happening," Wormmon couldn't help but agree.
Back with the video, the Expedition group was continuing with their work, with a few small Digimon popping up here and there, but quickly ran off whenever any of the Atlesian forces came closer, no doubt cautiously curious about the newcomers.
"Kinda jumpy aren't they?" Elm mused as a Tsukaimon ran off when she'd tried to get close to it.
"They've probably never seen humans before," Vine said. "We were informed that this world is divided into continents based on what Summer Rose revealed through her lessons of the Digital World. It's possible we are in one that she never ventured to."
"Even then she's just one person in an entire world. Even if she did come here there's no guarantee any of these Digimon interacted with her or even saw her for that matter," Clover mused.
"So basically the normal protocol for jumpy civilians," Marrow nodded...before he blinked, and sniffed the air. "Does anyone else smell that?"
"Huh...you're right, something smells good," Harriet said after taking a moment to sniff as true enough, a tasty smell seemed to be wafting through the air.
"...anyone else want to check that out?" Elm asked.
Wordlessly, Clover started walking, following the scent obviously, and footsteps were heard behind him, thus indicating the others were following… until they came up on the source.
"... Is that a restaurant?" Vine's voice was heard from behind Clover, as they looked upon a restaurant of Mistralian design sitting right next to the lake.
"...anyone feel like questioning this?" Harriet blinked.
"I recommend we leave THAT to the people who it's their actual job to do," Vine said simply. Nobody corrected him on that one. "Shall we check it?"
"Well...it DOES smell really good but…" Marrow frowned.
"I'll go in first. If I'm not out in 5 minutes, you know what to do," Clover said, earning nods from his team as they readied their weapons. With that done, Clover walked into the restaurant and…
"Welcome!" came two voices as the inside revealed to be a typical noodle bar, complete with seats around the counter and a few tables at the edges. The voices in question came from the chefs who were busy at work in the kitchen, revealing to be a pair of ogres that were colored red and blue respectively with a few differences such as the blue ogre having a single horn growing out of his head...and ice on his shoulders for some reason.
The two of them turned to see the surprised Clover and smiled...well as well as their less than comforting faces allowed. "Oh, a human. It's been YEARS since we had one of those visit our shop," the red ogre said, before taking a menu and putting it on the counter. "What'll it be?"
"Wow...they found Oni Ramen," Keenan said as he and Falcomon drooled a bit.
Weiss paused the video at that. "I'm going to assume it's popular?" she mused.
"Probably one of the best Ramen restaurants in WWW, though they must have come during an off time," Falcomon said. "Normally it's got way more customers."
"That or the FlyBeemon they riled up might have scared off the Digimon nearby," Keenan added.
"...or that yeah," Falcomon nodded.
"Maybe we should pay that place a visit ourselves too if we ever visit WWW," Ren said with interest.
"We should explore all the continents when we have a chance. We've only ever seen File and Server," Nora added, earning various sounds of agreements as the video was continued.
"Huh…" Clover made a sound of surprise, before looking back outside and motioning for his team to follow as he looked at the menu "If you don't mind me asking, do you take Lien? I don't believe we have any of the currency of the Digital World."
"Lien? Uh… lemme check." the red one said before checking something underneath the counter "Let's see… ah, there's the conversion table… uh… yeahp! 1 Lien is worth 100 DigiCoins, or 1 DigiDollar if you want to say it faster."
"I fucking knew it." Jaune muttered in a bit of anger, no doubt thinking back to Digitamamon's restaurant.
"Well...look at it this way. Nobody is pulling THAT scam on us anymore," Gomamon said, patting his partner on the back as they resumed the video.
The Ace Ops had placed their orders, and it was a few minutes later that their orders came. Several steaming hot bowls of noodles that had the Chosen wishing they could smell that too considering how fast some of the Ace Ops started digging in.
It was also at this point that the scientists had come after them, and saw what they were doing. "What on Remnant are you all doing?!" Dr. Brown gasped. "You can't be sure that's fit for human consumption!"
"Hey, we'll have you know that our Ramen is good enough that even the Olympos XII visit our shop from time to time," Fugamon said indignantly. "Besides, we've had human customers and they could eat it just fine."
"Wait, seriously?" Marrow asked with a blink.
"Yeah, Lord Vulcanusmon REALLY likes his broth scalding hot too." Hyougamon said.
"No, no, the bit about humans." Marrow clarified.
"Oh, that. Yeah, we've had a couple of them from time to time, kids that wander in with Digimon partners, and once Lord Mercurymon came in with his son. A Human kid he adopted." Hyougamon said with a nod.
At that, back in the RV, the Chosen all gave Keenan knowing smiles, while the boy laughed a bit sheepishly.
Back with the Ace Ops…
"Wait, a Digimon adopted a human as their son?" Harriet blinked in surprise.
"Oh yeah, nice kid. Apparently he was found when he was really little and one of Lord Mercurymon's vassals took him in. Haven't seen him or his brother around lately, and when we asked, Lord Mercurymon said he had his own duties to attend to in that Remnant place," Fugamon said.
"I see…" Vine mused, clearly thinking about the bit of info they'd been given. "If you wouldn't mind, might I ask who these 'Olympos XII' you speak of are? We are new here so we are not aware of things that would be 'common knowledge' to your people."
"Eh, it's fine," Hyougamon said. "The Olympos XII are basically the rulers of this Continent. Each member rules over one of the 12 areas of the continent, though right now this area is temporarily under Lord Mercurymon."
"Temporarily? What happened to its original ruler?" Elm blinked.
"Don't know the full story but long story short, Lord Apollomon isn't around anymore. The other members all assure us he's alive, but he's in no position to rule until he comes back, so until then we're part of Lord Mercurymon's territory," Fugamon shrugged.
"Same for Lady Dianamon actually. From what we were told the two had to Jogress together to fight against some big evil Digimon, but chances are they're recovering right now, so until then her territory is under Lady Mervamon." Hyougamon added.
"...those two are acting like informant NPCs…" Agumon sweat dropped from what they were seeing.
"Well...it IS common knowledge over in WWW so they figured it wouldn't hurt. That and they're a popular shop so they hear lots of things from time to time," Keenan sweat dropped as well.
Needless to say, while giving the two Digimon some good business via a few more orders, the Expedition team ended up milking them for quite a bit of 'general' information meaning Atlas walked away with a lot of extra info regarding the Continent they were on. Eventually…
"So anyway, our group is kinda exploring the land here since we only recently entered this world," Clover said. "Any suggestions of where we should go?"
"Hm...well, to be honest, even with Lord Mercurymon and Lady Mervamon taking over, it's hard to manage 2 areas, so this area hasn't been AS safe as it once was," Hyougamon frowned. "But if you go to the mountains you should get close to the borders of Lord Mercurymon's proper territory. Those areas are more or less safer than these areas right now since they're closer to his fortress."
"Though if you do go that way, small advice. DO NOT stop for a place called Dera Soba even if he offers you free food. Trust us, just don't…" Fugamon said, both him and Hyougamon looking...very ill...when they said that.
"...what's wrong with that place?" Ruby blinked, looking at Keenan and Falcomon...who looked like they wanted to throw up.
"Let me put it this way. The Deramon running the place makes his broth with a SOCK of all things." Falcomon said… and everyone looked equally sick at that.
"How is he still in business?" Wormmon asked with a thick gulp to push the bile down.
"Father orders from him from time to time...and mixes the food into stuff we mix into the food of any criminals and trouble makers that are hard to catch," Keenan said dryly.
Gyro paused at that, an idea coming to him "Who wants to make a quick stop there and see if we can't get Cinder to drink the stuff somehow?" he said, and was met with every single hand going up.
"I'll see if Father has some still of the...ripe...stuff in stock still," Keenan grinned a bit.
Back on the video…
"We'll keep that in mind…" Marrow said, looking a little disturbed at how sick the two Digimon seemed from just talking about the place. "Thanks for the food, we'll definitely have to come back some time."
"Everyone is welcome in our shop...as long as you don't cause trouble," Fugamon said with a grin as they paid for their meals and soon left. Once outside…
"Huh...who'd have thought a lunch break would be so productive," Harriet blinked.
"Well...we DID ask things that were 'common knowledge' to the Digimon here, so while we learned a lot it's not as if it was a secret," Vine mused.
"Still, that's plenty of information that General Ironwood will be happy to know," Clover said. "So I'd say yes, it was quite productive," he said as the log ended.
"If it weren't for the fact it's both common knowledge AND this is supposed to be a peaceful expedition, I'd be a little worried, not gonna lie," Pierce frowned.
"If this was General Ironwood from 'Canon', I can't blame you," Penny frowned.
"Yeah...based on what we saw, he'd probably be pretty desperate to get ANY advantage he could, however he could," Blake frowned.
"Let's just agree to keep it at 'being thankful there shouldn't be a reason to feel that way now'," Ruby sighed.
"Let's take a look at one more video for now. We can always watch more later at our own leisure," Weiss suggested, earning nods of agreement before she played the next log.
The next feed showed a mountain trail...with a few vending machines randomly sitting there. "Expedition Log 3," Clover started. "We've decided to follow the directions the locals suggested and have found more odd phenomena."
"And by odd phenomena he means we've found working vending machines, complete with accepting cash and giving out change AND they have brands that should have been only in Remnant," Elm said, looking rather bewildered as she'd tested one and got a brand of soda that was being sold in Remnant. "Though there are brands we've never heard of either," she added as the scene shifted to show one of the scientists on the expedition drinking a can labeled Coca-Cola.
"Good grief, why is it everywhere we look there's something that really shouldn't be possible waiting around the corner?!" Dr. Brown groaned, frazzling his hair in frustration.
"I really think you should just roll with it, Doc," Harriet said as she was munching on a chocolate bar she'd gotten from one of the vending machines. "I think the telephones were enough to tell us that this world doesn't work on the same logic ours does."
Gomamon snorted "Wait until they find a place with screwy gravity." he said with a laugh.
"Is it wrong watching his misery is honestly amusing?" Jaune couldn't help but ask.
"It's Charlie Brown. If he's anything like the one in the comic, he exists to be screwed with by the universe," Gyro snorted.
"So basically we get our laughs where we can," Gabumon chuckled.
"Basically yeah," Pierce nodded. By now the group on the video had continued onward, going along the path until they reached a fork in the road.
"Looks like we'll have to pick a path," Marrow mused, before noticing a sign. "What's this?" he blinked as he looked closer...and looked confused. "Danger: Man Eating Crap ahead."
"...what?" was the flat question he got from everyone really.
"If we hadn't deleted Vademon I'd think it was him up to his old tricks again," Weiss growled remembering that incident.
"Though in this case it's not a lie. There really are some that way. Nobody knows HOW those came about and nobody cares to find out," Keenan said.
"...think someone will be stupid enough to not follow the warning?" Yang couldn't help but ask.
"...almost definitely," Veemon chuckled. True enough…
"You CANNOT tell me you actually believe such an outlandishly stupid prank," Dr. Brown said, in annoyance.
"I mean… not really… but I also don't want to risk it." Harriet said with a shiver of disgust.
Dr. Brown rolled his eyes before he went down the path, obviously intent on proving them wrong… and right after the first few steps a giant pile of crap with razor sharp teeth fell down in front of him and roared.
Everyone was too stunned by the fact the sign was ACTUALLY SERIOUS that even Dr. Brown paused in bewilderment, his brain trying and failing to process the insanity he was seeing in front of him. Fortunately…
"Holy Shoot!" a voice called out and the carnivorous poop was sent flying back by an explosion. Once the dust settled though… "Honestly, didn't anyone teach you to read signs," came a half amused, half annoyed voice.
"Who said that?" Elm asked, as the Ace Ops looked around until…
"Down here," the voice said again, and everyone looked down and saw a small white ferret looking Digimon with golden lines in his fur… he also only had his front paws, oh, and a Holy Ring around his neck… and for some reason a bullet shell hanged off the tip of his tail.
"...still hard to believe how small some of these guys are they're still strong enough to do stuff like that," Harriet couldn't help but say.
"Your welcome for saving your companion from being eaten alive," the Digimon said with an amused chuckle. "You must be new to the area if you weren't aware of one of the more...well known...dangers in this area of WWW."
"That's….not inaccurate…" Clover admitted, earning another chuckle from the small Digimon, and before he could react, the Digimon darted towards him and...well...the video couldn't actually show what was happening, but it seemed the other Ace Ops found it amusing.
"Cool new scarf you got there," Marrow couldn't help but say.
"Why thank you, I take good care of my fur," the Digimon said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kudamon, and I'm a bit of a wanderer around WWW. Who are all of you and where might you be headed?"
"We're from Atlas, on Remnant." Clover answered "As for where we're going, we're mostly just trying to explore. We finally opened a way into the Digital World and we're venturing into it to see just how it is."
"I see…" Kudamon said with a hum "Might you take me to your commanding officer then? I assume you are all military with the similar uniforms, and I would like to speak with the one in charge."
"Well, that would be the boss here. He's acting CO… unless of course you mean the BIG boss." Marrow explained.
"That is what I meant, yes." Kudamon clarified.
"That...shouldn't be too difficult, though I do wonder why you'd want to meet our leader," Vine said.
"Honestly? I've always wanted to go to the human world," Kudamon said. "But unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask, Digital Gates are rare on WWW. The majority of the gates occur on the Server Continent, no doubt due to the damages the Dark Masters did a long time ago," he explained.
"Dark Masters?" Elm repeated in confusion.
"Yes, four great evil Digimon that caused countless damage to the Digital World to the point the barriers between our two worlds became so thin they could be seen in the sky of the other." Kudamon clarified.
"Oh… so THAT'S what happened a year ago." Marrow said with a noise of understanding.
Kudamon nodded "Indeed. It was only through the valiant efforts of the Chosen Children that we were saved, before they returned to their world and the Digital World disconnected from yours for quite some time. The Great Server expanded the time difference between our two worlds, and it has been centuries since that great battle."
Back in the RV, the video log was paused, and the Chosen shared a worried look between each other "That… probably won't end well." Gyro said with a frown "We're lucky that Winter has enough honor to keep her word to us and not say a thing… but now Kudamon over there apparently blew that secret out of the water."
"To be fair, I don't think anyone who isn't in the know actually knows our situation…" Agumon sweat dropped.
"The Digimon they've been encountering have REALLY been like NPCs in a video game. The ones that give all the information exposition…" Veemon sweat dropped as well.
"Let's just...watch as we go and do damage control after that," Jaune sighed as they continued the log.
"Chosen Children?" Elm blinked at the term.
"I suppose it's not surprising that you don't know. It's an important legend that exists throughout the Digital World," Kudamon said. "It is said during times of great need, children from the human world would be called to this world. Wielding great holy power alongside their Digimon Partners, they would be the ones to beat back the darkness and restore peace to the Digital World," he explained. "I have never met or seen them, but I do know that the fall of the Dark Masters could only be because of them."
"That's quite a story," Clover mused. "Well, I think we could bring you with us once the Expedition is over. We DID come here to learn more about this world and you seem to know quite a lot."
"It comes with being a wanderer," Kudamon chuckled, as the log soon came to an end.
"...well...guess the cat's out of the bag regarding who we are, even if only two of us are probably known," Pyrrha sighed.
"Thankfully in the event things go south, we're far away from them both in the real world and the Digital World." Monodramon sighed.
"Don't forget the part where trying to arrest the heroes who saved the world...probably would be VERY badly received," Biyomon added.
"So if things really go south, we're holding up in the Digital World," Ren nodded. "They can't find us in a place MUCH larger than Remnant."
"Especially since they'll probably start by looking for us on the continent they landed on, while we're all the way over in Server on the other side of the world." Aile added with a relaxed sigh as they all realised they could get through it if things got THAT bad.
"For now though we should probably continue moving. We can see more logs as we go...and we should probably update everyone else on what we've found out," Gyro mused.
Bet none of you quite expected THIS now did you?
Yeah, we see what Atlas had been up to recently, and yes, the title IS Part 1, because we'll show more of this later on, there IS going to be some interesting moments in store.
Hope you're looking forward to it, because...
The Adventure Evolves.