Back again with yet another chapter!
Yeah, we probably won't stop with this, we're on a roll right now.
This chapter's a bit special though, since, well, it's kinda long for starters compared to the last few.
But also because of what happens in it.
Hope you're ready!
A Page Turned! Compassionate Determination!
The RV was cruising down one of the many roads that ran through Anima, for once not being attacked by Grimm. Maybe Salem had realized the futility of attacking? Yeah right, knowing her she probably figured she'd wait for another chance.
"So where are we now?" Oscar asked.
"If we're reading this right, we should be on the way to the ruins of Kuroyori. It's time for Ren to settle an old score," Gyro said.
Oscar turned to Ren at that, who was sharpening his father's knife, while Wormmon had already evolved into Stingmon and was sharpening his own spikes, both of them wanting to be ready to take down the Grimm, and FINALLY close the book on the tragedy of Ren's hometown.
"Is he gonna be ok?" Aile asked in a bit of concern.
"He will be." Jaune spoke up "Ren just feels that he needs to do this, to finally stop thinking about how that Grimm is still around, and so that his family can rest in peace, knowing they've been avenged."
"And if he needs help, we're right behind him." Nora said with a smile as she sat with Salamon in her lap.
Despite himself Ren smiled a bit at hearing that. Yeah, he had a good feeling things were going to be just fine.
It wasn't long before they reached Kuroyori, the town as dead and deserted as canon...though not quite empty either. After all...there were more than a few...remains…
Ren let out a breath through his nose as he stood in front of his old house, seeing the roof was still collapsed, just like it had all those years ago. "Stingmon." he said simply.
His partner nodded, knowing what he was asking, before silently grabbing the collapse roof and lifting it up, revealing the remains of a body beneath, a skeleton by now, but one that wore familiar clothes to Ren.
"Mother…" he said softly, before picking up her remains and carrying them out, taking them to a grave he had made just for her, while the others were picking up the remains of all the other people from his village and putting them in a single mass grave.
Laying her down gently in the grave he had made for her, he let out a sigh "I'm sorry it took me this long mother… but I'm finally going to make sure everyone can rest in peace."
"WE, are going to make sure of it." Stingmon added, earning a nod from Ren.
The group didn't say anything, but for the next few hours, it was a case of going through the village, looking for remains and giving everyone they could a proper burial. It was the LEAST they could do for them. That and make sure the Grimm that did this wouldn't get away with it.
As they were doing that though, Ren continued to search and eventually found another skeleton, one that he recognized as well. "Father…" he said softly, gathering the remains of his father...though much to his annoyance, he noticed that his father's weapons were missing. His father would have wanted to be buried with his weapon after all. Even so he was still glad he could finally lay both his parents to rest properly and buried him next to his mother. Though he left the grave open for now, as he remembered what Gyro told him about the cave in the nearby mountain.
Returning to the center of the village for now, he saw his friends were all cleaning up the rest of the village a bit, while Qrow stood at the village's rampart to keep a lookout, he could even see Penny helping Oscar with trying to carve headstones for the people of the village.
Letting out another breath, he sat down in seiza in the center of the village, closing his eyes as he simply waited, Stingmon standing silently and watchfully behind him.
Gradually, the others took up ready positions in town, ready to interfere, but willing to leave it to the two of them for now, only jumping in when called upon.
Eventually… the time arrived.
"It's coming kid." Qrow's voice came out from his scroll, before the man turned into his avian form and flew up to sit on a ledge next to Ruby and Palmon.
Ren opened his eyes as he got up, Stingmon by his side. Before long the form that once haunted his nightmares came into view, the Nucklavee Grimm. It was more or less exactly how he remembered it with its bizarre appearance even by Grimm standards. Even so he stepped forward, not afraid, something that clearly...confused...the Grimm as it entered, noticing that there were several humans and even a few of those odd creatures that had started to appear recently...and yet not one of them seemed afraid in the least. Oh well, that would change soon enough. It always changed. With that it screeched a blood curdling screech and charged forward, intending to add these humans to its long list of victims.
Pain. Pain filled its being.
How? How did it come to this?
For Grimm that survived long enough to gain some degree of sentience was an advantage, it helped them learn, helped them become even more deadly, helped them complete their ultimate goal better. But right now, all it was doing for the Nucklavee was making its slow disintegration feel like it was taking an eternity, unlike the younger grimm who had so little of a mind they died almost immediately.
Worse, its mind was replaying the events, a sort of 'life flashing before eyes' situation. As such, it kept trying to figure out where it went wrong. It attacked like it always did, the human fought back, as expected….and when the weapons came it was expecting to simply block the attacks. It was strong enough to take on barrages of attacks before. Why should one simple weapon be any different? Then it just...was different. The weapon cut right through it, and then the creature accompanying the human joined in, moving fast and stabbing it through its other arm. What followed was several minutes of pain and agony as the Grimm had tried to strike at them, but they were fast, and they were taking it apart. Literally. The whole time the other humans just stood by and watched...soon making it clear that they had all somehow been ready for it. The Grimm considered retreat as an option to re-evaluate its strategy, but that was cut off when it promptly lost a leg. Eventually though the human had seemed to have enough...and cut its head off, which was now dissolving on the ground. The final thoughts of the Nucklavee were a final conclusion. Odds of victory: 0. It never once stood a chance.
These were the last thoughts Salem received from one of her best creations as she stood in her currently empty throne room.
She'd already sent out Cinder with that Mercury boy to try and find the Spring Maiden, having sent Watts to accompany her so he could then head on to Mistral and get a personal meeting with Leonardo, as the cowardly headmaster had been unreachable as of late. Finally, she'd sent out Hazel to go and speak with Adam Taurus, so they may try to recruit the White Fang to their side… they would be good cannon fodder after all.
However, this new bit of information soured her once good mood. Once again those children seemed to be proving to be a bigger thorn than she expected. Oh, she didn't actually believe they'd be a real threat. If Ozma couldn't be a real threat to her in all these centuries, how could a few kids and their pet monsters possibly be a threat? Still...she supposed it WOULD be wise to deal with them before they became an actual annoyance. She was already quite close to achieving her goals. She wasn't going to let some children delay her for any longer. With that in mind, she turned to the large Grimm Pool she'd been preparing. She had intended to use this to finish off Mistral and Haven once she got what she wanted, but perhaps a test run was in order. And she had the perfect target in mind too.
"So… feeling better?" Ruby asked Ren as they sat in the RV again once everything was over, including him having gone to the cave the Grimm used to keep its trophies and reclaimed his father's weapons, burying them with him, keeping only a single arrow with himself that he kept in his room in the RV.
"Much better." Ren said, petting Wormmon's back as his partner relaxed in his lap, before Ren looked up at the others, smiling a bit "Thank you for helping me with this everyone."
"Hey, what are friends for?" Jaune grinned, earning several nods of agreement.
"Besides, you get closure and we rid Remnant of one more elder Grimm. Salem can't make THOSE easily," Pierce said. "So its a win-win for everyone, except Salem but who gives a flying fuck about her?"
"You kids are having way too much fun with that," Qrow snorted in amusement.
"Don't get us wrong, we ARE taking her seriously, but well...we're having our fun when we can too," Pyrrha chuckled.
"That and you gotta admit...you feel like most of her plans work because someone is actively making it so things go her way. Her 'fooling the ancient kings' anyone?" Gyro pointed out.
"Yeah...not to speak ill of the dead, but when your 'brilliant' plan to fight a pair of gods is to charge head first like an idiot...they kinda got what they deserved," Blake said dryly.
"Plus, she's just a baby throwing the world's biggest temper tantrum." Patamon shrugged.
"Yeah, a bit hard to really take her seriously with that in mind." Palmon said.
"Not to mention...she's going through all THIS trouble...when she has an easy way out of her immortality, assuming that's what she wants," Gabumon frowned.
"Respect life and death. That's like...common sense," Biyomon agreed.
"Sorry Ozpin, but as far as we're seeing it, she's really little more than a brat who's somehow gotten way more than she should have been able to get away with," Salamon said, remembering that Salem WAS his Ex-Wife...even if by now any feelings they had were probably gone.
"Still though, let's not get TOO ahead of ourselves," Wormmon cautioned.
"We can gloat all we want AFTER we defeat her," Hawkmon chuckled.
"Fair enough," Rusty chuckled.
Ozpin sighed inside of Oscar's head "Honestly… I understand that they've faced bigger threats already, but to see them dismiss her as a threat so easily… it's rather jarring considering how long I've been facing her."
"Well, what can you do? They've literally saved the world twice now already, from enemies a LOT stronger than she is. I can kind of see where they're coming from." Oscar admitted.
"He's still feeling incredulous?" Huckmon asked his partner, having only heard one end of the conversation.
"Among other things." Oscar said with a smile.
"Oh, hey, Oscar, just remembered, we made something for you." Yang said, earning the farm boy's attention before she tossed him a bundle which he managed to catch, letting it unfurl to reveal a light green colored coat with red shoulders "Figured you could use something better than just farm clothes."
"Wow...thanks," Oscar said, not really sure what else to say. He appreciated that they'd made that for him, but he himself was still having...issues...getting used to this new life.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go try it on man!" Huckmon encouraged him.
Oscar nodded, before heading into his room in the RV, coming back out a few minutes later, now wearing the coat, though he'd also changed the rest of his clothes, replacing the old white farm shirt with a more clean one of the same color, a light brown waistband, a belt around his waist over the coat which had a few pouches on it, a pair of black pants to replace his beige ones, and new gloves that looked almost identical to the old ones, save for some extra black straps that covered his wrists and part of his forearms more. "So… how do I look?"
"The ladies will be all over you man." Pierce said teasingly as he clapped the 14 year old on the back, making him blush in embarrassment.
The moment of fun was interrupted when one of the comms in the room blared to life however "Chosen Children, you need to come see this, hurry." Gennai's voice said, making everyone sober up before they went into the computer room, seeing Gennai tapping away at the computer with a concerned look on his face.
"What's going on?" Agumon asked as everyone came into the room, seeing a grid style map on the large screen on the wall.
Most of the map had white squares, with quite a few grey squares scattered about here and there… but there were also a few black squares popping up in areas much farther away than all the others.
"You all know how the last time you went into the Digital World, one of Oren's towers turned from it's pure white crystal color to a dark black, yes?" Gennai asked "Well, I was able to record the frequency this Dark Tower was emitting. Similar to the Crystal Tower, but it seemed to be stronger in some way."
"Alright… does that have anything to do with the black squares we can see?" Bemmon asked.
Gennai nodded "This is a map of Server. The white squares are free areas, while the grey squares are areas occupied by Oren's forces, but the black squares… they are areas where I've detected Dark Towers appearing. And WITHOUT a previous tower being hacked first, it sprang up in this exact form."
"Looks like we'd better go in and deal with them quickly," Yang frowned.
"Yeah, the sooner we can stop them from spreading the better. Oren's Towers are annoying but at least we know the guy behind the controls can be trusted. Whoever is making these is probably nowhere near that," Jaune agreed.
"There are quite a few of them spread out. It might require a larger party to deal with them fast enough," Gennai said.
Gyro hummed in thought as he looked at the map, before nodding "I think for once, most of us will go. There's three clusters of the things in the different corners, so it would be better to go in teams."
"Who's going then?" Pierce asked his brother.
"Faster answer is who isn't." Gyro said, before turning to the group "Rusty, Aile, I want you two to stay and guard the RV, just as a precaution. Realistically speaking, we've pissed off Salem enough she might try something drastic, but Tornamon and Vanguamon should be able to handle things if she DOES send something our way."
Aile sighed a bit, but she nodded "Makes sense I suppose."
"Even though we'd prefer to help, somebody needs to hold the fort." Rusty sighed as well.
"You won't be alone, Oscar's staying here too." Gyro said, before turning to the younger teen "This mission is a bit more potentially dangerous than the last, so it would be best to not bring you along when you're still going through your training."
Oscar nodded, even though he looked a bit disappointed "Makes sense I guess. Could be something way too big for me."
"Yeah, you shouldn't chance this stuff." Qrow said "Obviously I'm staying here too since I doubt I'd be of much use against any huge Digimon." he said with a smirk.
"Not to mention you and Ozpin have more experience with Salem than us. For all we know, she might try a trick she's used before that you'd be more likely to spot. We might be confident we can beat her, but we're not about to pretend we know every trick she has. The videos only showed us so much," Weiss added.
"Fair point," Ozpin said, having assumed control again. "We'll be sure to keep the RV safe while you are away," he nodded.
With that agreed, the group quickly selected who would go to which area, and before long all of them were in the Digital World, leaving the ones holding down the fort to their own devices.
"And there they go," Bemmon mused.
"The mission shouldn't be too difficult." Gennai said as he continued to man the computer "They may lose the ability to evolve when they get close to the towers, but they can still armor evolve to destroy them if they DO get up close and personal."
"So all we can do is wait then," Qrow mused.
"Well, at least we can start driving I'd say." Huckmon said "Start on heading to Mistral again like everyone was planning."
"Right. We still need to locate the White Fang base after all to stop Adam from pulling anything." Hawkmon said with a frown.
"Speaking of that, Ilia requested to be sent back to Mistral not too long ago. She felt the situation in Vale had finally calmed down enough for her to go cover things in the east." Gennai informed them.
"Blake's gonna be happy to know we'll see her girlfriend soon then." Rusty chuckled, before they headed back to the front of the RV and started driving again.
The drive was fairly peaceful, and mostly undisturbed other than the occasional young grimm rushing them only to get mowed down by turrets, with Rusty whistling a tune as he manned the wheel, Aile sitting near him and just looking out the window, their Digimon playing a game on their scrolls, while Oscar, Huckmon and Qrow were back in the training room to help the younger boy get his skills up to level.
"You know, I know the others are busy protecting the Digital World, but moments like these are really nice," Aile mused with a smile.
"Action is great, but nothing really beats peaceful moments yeah," Rusty agreed.
"Yeahp… especially ones like these." Aile said, before dropping her head on his shoulder, making him stiffen a bit as his face became red.
"Okay...this is nice and all, but I kinda still need to drive," he gulped.
Aile smirked in amusement a bit at that. "You still can," she pointed out with a chuckle.
"You know what I mean…" Rusty groaned, but yes, he was still more or less keeping the drive straight.
Aile laughed but lifted her head off of him. "Alright, I'll save this for the next stop then," she giggled.
Rusty let out a nervous chuckle at that.
Part of him always wondered if Aile did what she did on purpose, if she KNEW about how he felt for her.
He'd… never really been able to work up the courage to tell her, despite feeling like this for years now.
His internal musings were cut short however when he noticed something coming up in front of them "Huh… that's strange… don't think there's supposed to be any other towns until Mistral at this point."
Aile perked up at that, before opening the map of the area, humming "There normally shouldn't be, especially when this area is pretty much Grimm country, so…" she said, before looking back to the approaching village "This is recent… and if they can hold back Grimm enough to build a proper village, then it's…"
"A Digimon Village." Hawkmon and Bemmon said together as they came up to the window.
Going up to the gate of the village, the guard standing in front of it was quite the beast of a Digimon, literally at that, looking like a mix between a dog and a lion with cream colored fur, a fierce set of fangs jutting out of his mouth, a mane made from stone spikes, and golden fur that was style in a cloudy shape around his paws, as well as an almost cloud looking tail in that same color, the look topped off by a horn on his forehead.
"Ah, that's a Siesamon." Bemmon noticed.
Digimon Analyzer: Siesamon
Siesamon. Vaccine Type. An Adult Level Holy Beast Digimon. A Digimon based on data about the holy beast known as the Shisa, it is said to have the power to sweep away calamities and exhibits tremendous power towards evildoers. It is an ally to those that are kind-hearted, and will be willing to sacrifice its life for its friends. Special attack is Tiida Ija, firing off arrows of sunlight from its mane.
"Halt! Who goes there?" Siesamon declared, fully ready if things got ugly.
Rusty leaned his head out the window "Just some travelers heading to Mistral. We didn't expect this town on the road there, so we wanted to give it a bit of a look as well."
Siesamon hummed, looking at him with narrowed eyes, as if analyzing Rusty.
Bemmon rolled his single eye, before sticking himself out the window right over his partner's head, earning a "Hey!" of protest as he shoved Rusty's hat down over his eyes "This RV has humans with Digimon partners in it, we both know that means only good things."
Siesamon blinked at that, before letting out a sigh as he nodded "A fair point. Very well, you may proceed." he said, before jumping up to the top of the gate and pulling on a hidden lever using his teeth, which made the gate open for them, allowing them to go through before he let it close behind the RV once it rolled into town.
"Woah…!" Aile breathed in shock at the sight of the town, mostly at how unique and crazy every house looked, some clearly made from material that came straight from the digital world considering she saw one that looked like a giant can of soup.
And then the center of the town had a rather large tree in it, one that not only had some odd looking fruits, but also toys for toddlers hanging down from vines, and surrounding the tree was a fenced off area with several digieggs in it, along with a few cribs with young Digimon in it, the ground around the tree looking as soft as a playmat.
"No way… this is…!" Rusty gasped at the sight.
"Remnant's first Primary Village!" Aile finished, even more shocked now.
"Looks like little by little Digimon really are becoming part of Remnant," Hawkmon couldn't help but smile.
"Considering what we know, that's a good thing," Rusty said as they soon parked the RV, and called the others so that they could see this too.
"You know, I've never really met a partnered pair before." Siesamon spoke to the group after they started looking around town.
His shift had ended shortly after they arrived, and his curiosity had gotten the best of him, leading him to come talk with the Chosen, even if he WAS surprised when he noticed Rusty's very much real rattlesnake tail, almost mistaking him for a Digimon before he had the concept of Faunus explained to him.
Clearly, this village had very little human interaction so far, and was likely still rather recent.
"Yeah, well, me and Aile were probably some of the first on Remnant to have partners, we got them YEARS ago." Rusty spoke with a chuckle.
"Yeah, I know this big guy inside out by now." Bemmon said in amusement as nudged Rusty's leg jokingly.
"...I get the joke, but the mental imagery that one gave was...less than pleasant," Siesamon deadpanned.
"Jokes aside though, it's incredible to think that Digimon are becoming so integrated into Remnant that we've actually developed a Primary Village," Huckmon mused.
"Considering you said that's where you get reborn, that's really something else," Qrow whistled.
"Yes, our village only formed a short while ago. It started as a simple portal that remained open, and one thing led to another," Siesamon nodded. "Remnant isn't an EASY place to live, but we're managing so far."
"Yeah, it's not always easy for us either." Aile said with an awkward laugh.
"But it's certainly the kind of place that never fails to surprise you, just like the Digital World." Hawkmon said with a firm nod.
Siesamon chuckled "Yeah, I guess that's true."
"So...what else does this village have?" Oscar asked curiously.
Siesamon thought about it for a moment. "Well there's the standards. A local restaurant, hospital, the works. There's even a field out back of the village which we were able to keep and cultivate several plants from the Digital World. We're quite proud of our Meal Cabbage too," he grinned.
"Huh, don't think we've had Meal Cabbage yet." Rusty mused, they'd already grown used to most of the strange foods of the Digital World considering they had a greenhouse in the RV where they grew their own meat apple trees and meat vineyards with various other plants from the Digital World.
"What EXACTLY is a Meal Cabbage though?" Oscar asked curiously.
"Basically it's a head of cabbage, but it can have any kind of taste you can imagine, like pizza, spaghetti, shepherd's pie, everything is on the table." Bemmon explained.
"Huh… that actually sounds pretty interesting." Qrow admitted "Should try to get some down to Menagerie, cabbage is one of the easiest crops for them down there after all."
"If you'd like we'd be happy to share some with you," Siesamon smiled.
"We might just take you up on that offer," Huckmon chuckled.
However, before any further conversation could be held, an alarm was heard.
"Great, more of those Grimm again," Siesamon growled.
Hawkmon sighed "Those buffoons just never know when to quit." he said, before flapping up high to get a better view… and his eyes widened as he dropped back down "It seems they're going all out… they have quite the horde approaching."
"How big?" Qrow asked with narrowed eyes as he pulled out Harbinger.
"Big enough I'm actually worried." Hawkmon said with a slight frown on his beak.
"In that case, I think we should do this old school. The Armors are a bit too specialised for a huge horde, and we might risk damaging the town if we use Vanguamon." Rusty said, holding up his D-Core.
"We'd all better chip in," Aile agreed, holding up her D-Core as well, and in a flash of light, Snatchmon and Aquilamon were at the ready.
"Glad we can at least do that too," Oscar said, holding up his Digivice. "Let's go, Huckmon!"
"Ready anytime!" Huckmon grinned as Oscar's digivice started shining.
(Play 'Brave Heart')
The Digivice released a signal that flew to the sky, calling forth a light which brought forth a waterfall of data. The data flowed down and soon entered into Huckmon down below. "Huckmon, Evolution…!" he called out as he started to spin quickly and in a flash he transformed.
His new form looked VERY similar to his previous one, and could be easily described as a literal grown up version that had sharper and sturdier armor, his tail ending in a red sword while he had a yellow gem sticking out of his chest "BaoHuckmon!"
Digimon Analyzer: BaoHuckmon
BaoHuckmon. Data Type. An Adult Level Dinosaur Digimon. A Huckmon that underwent bouts of harsh training, honing his battle instincts before evolving into this form as he grew his spirit, technique and physical strength. It continues to train even more to aim for even higher goals, so that he can one day become a Royal Knight. Special attack is Burn Flame, a flame attack that intercepts the enemy with pinpoint accuracy.
Compared to the other Digimon, BaoHuckmon wasn't that much bigger, his head only reaching up to Oscar's shoulder, but he looked just as ready as the rest to defend this village.
"Don't let them even come CLOSE to the village!" Rusty ordered as he got up to the look-out.
"Right!" everyone agreed, as the Digimon were the first to attack. As expected, the attacks broke through the waves of Grimm.
Breaking through it was simple enough, but… Rusty frowned as he looked at the back of the wave, seeing a lanky humanoid figure approaching slowly "She… she didn't come herself… did she?" he asked in worry, as this would be the WORST time for Salem to appear.
Thankfully, his fears were unfounded, as he could soon make out the figure, which clearly wasn't Salem. It was a lanky humanoid grimm with hands and feet that bore five clawed digits on each limb, its face covered by the usual bony faceplate of the creatures of grimm, with three red eye shaped markings on it, meaning it had no ACTUAL eyes, but it probably made use of other senses.
The grimm's eye markings glowed at that moment, and the other grimm in front of it suddenly started attacking in a different pattern than before.
"Is it… controlling them?" Rusty gasped in shock, before frowning as he pulled out his weapons, the mechanisms shifting as he put them together, turning them into a single rifle as he then aimed at the grimm, taking a moment to steady himself before he squeezed the trigger.
The bullet flew quickly, but rather than impact the grimm, a smaller Nevermore flew in the way, catching the bullet with its body, sacrificing itself for the strange grimm.
"...she actually made a general to lead the Grimm. Well that's just peachy," Aile groaned.
"You're telling me. The Grimm are annoying enough when they're just charging at us. Them being actually organized? This could be a serious problem," Qrow frowned.
"Think we should call back the others?" Oscar asked with a frown of worry.
Rusty shook his head "No, the Dark Towers are too important right now, we can handle this, we just need to be smart about it."
"Right then, I think our first order of business is making sure they don't get to the village," Oscar said.
"So we'd better try to establish a line of defense," BaoHuckmon agreed.
"I will coordinate with the village militia," Siesamon said.
"We'll try to hold them off for now, but hurry," Aquilamon said as he fired Blast Laser again, taking out several more Grimm.
"Still, there's way too many of them." Snatchmon said as he drove his clawed hand through the chest of one grimm, the tail on the back of his head swiping at the necks of two others at the same time, beheading them before he backflipped off the first and smashed the skull of a fourth in with his feet as he landed.
"We have to handle them all!" BaoHuckmon said as he blasted his flames at a group of grimm.
They aimed to take out as many Grimm as they could, even taking shots at the general whenever they could….however the general clearly had no issues with sacrificing its followers, and used them as shields without hesitation. Even so it seemed like more Grimm moved to replace the ones that they took down.
At the same time the village's defenses were able to organize a rough defensive line, taking the brunt of keeping the Grimm from getting too close off of them and thus allowing them to focus on a more offensive strategy.
"Allow me to help as well!" Siesamon roared. "Tiida Ija!" he called out, firing his special attack and skewering several Grimm.
"Alright… we might have a better chance now." Snatchmon said, readying his claws "Let's go for the general!"
"Right! Blast Laser!" Aquilamon shouted as he fired out his attack in an upward motion, clearing a path through the grimm up to the general.
"Let's thin 'em out more!" BaoHuckmon said as he and Siesamon fired their attacks through the horde, widening the path enough that the general didn't have any other grimm near it.
"Time for your head to roll!" Snatchmon said, before he blurred towards the grimm general, aiming to slice his head off with his claws.
(End song)
Except all of a sudden a stinger got in the way, coming from the grimm's back somehow "What?!" Snatchmon exclaimed in shock, before jumping back as the stinger almost hit.
The grimm continued to stand there, almost motionlessly, before his eye markings started to glow even brighter.
"Careful, it's trying something!" Snatchmon warned.
Several of the other grimm moved back towards the general from its commands, before it held its arms out, and something moved up from its back, revealing to be a miniature Deathstalker that started to meld into its arm, right as his fingers shot out and stabbed into the other grimm that came closed, and it started pulling them into itself.
"What… the hell?" Aquilamon gasped in shock as they watched, the general grimm slowly absorbing the others, its fingers shooting out further and stabbing into more and more grimm, pulling all of them gradually towards it as it started to grow.
Oscar flashed for a brief moment as he was replaced with Ozpin "No… I had my suspicions but… she really created another one?" he said in shock.
"Oz! What is that thing?!" Qrow asked as they watched the grimm grow as it absorbed more of its kind.
"A Diaguise… a rare type of grimm that Salem created to lead her armies. But creating it takes so much power and dark grimm ichor that she can't just make hundreds of them. Its strength lies in its ability to absorb other grimm and grow stronger. It seems this one… she intended to cause a LOT of destruction with it." Ozpin finished just as the grimm finished absorbing its kin... and it now stood like a giant, taller than the likes of MetalGreymon and Garudamon, bone plates scattered around its body while various grimm pieces stuck out, such as a stinger on its right arm, sharp claws on its left hand, wings on its back, and much more, before the creature let out a loud roar.
"So basically this is one of the witch's trump cards?" Aile gasped.
"Even if its some kind of super Grimm, it won't change that we shall NOT let it destroy our home!" Siesamon roared, to which Aquilamon, Snatchmon, and BaoHuckmon joined him in a charge forward, the four of them firing their attacks, but unlike before the attacks didn't cause any lasting damage. Heck, what damage they DID do was quickly repaired.
"Okay...this could be a problem," Snatchmon gulped.
"Doesn't matter, we will protect this village!" Siesamon declared.
"Good answer," BaoHuckmon nodded.
The Digimon quickly started trying to chip away at the Grimm, the Hunters joining in too. However, they weren't doing any notable damage, and even the village militia was starting to become unable to hold the line.
"You've dealt with one of these things before, Oz! How do we stop it?!" Qrow gasped.
Ozpin briefly took control again, but the news he had was...less than good. "It has a limit to how much it can regenerate, but the amount that requires is quite beyond what we can muster right now! Its one of the reasons I agreed with James's suggestions for more variety to his machines. A giant robot actually WOULD be helpful right now!"
"Gyro would love to hear that." Rusty muttered even as he grit his teeth and continued firing.
Unfortunately Ozpin's words proved true, as they weren't slowing the Diaguise down nearly enough, and before long the defense line crumbled and shortly after the Grimm went for the gate, forcing everyone there to scatter, to which the gate was destroyed.
"Protect the village!" Siesamon roared...only to get knocked aside when he tried to attack the Grimm directly. Even the others while they were a bit smarter about this, were barely able to annoy the Grimm.
"Dammit, this thing's annoyingly strong!" Qrow said in frustration as he fired on the grimm with Harbinger.
"I never thought I'd actually start to worry about losing against a grimm these days." Aile said with a frown of worry.
Everyone was understandably worried. This thing was unstoppable as far as things were for them, and even if they went for the RV, they wouldn't be able to protect the village. However, before any such feelings of giving up could take hold, Rusty clenched his fist. "So what?" he said, catching everyone's attention, before he looked straight at the Grimm...who for a moment seemed to look back at him. "We're still the ones who are protecting this village!" he said before glaring at the Grimm. "After everything we've learned, everything we know we can accomplish, there's no way we're just going to give up!" he said, before his gaze hardened, and a part of him HOPED Salem was watching. "So come on, you don't scare us!"
At the same time Digimon were moving away from the gate, but rather than run away, they'd formed another defensive line...around the Primary Village. Seeing that, Aile also felt her resolve harden, as well as her desire to protect them. "That's right! We're not going to lose, because there's something we HAVE to protect! And its something we won't let you take away!" she added, standing by his side as she grasped his hand, both of them standing together, while their partners continued to try and slow down the Grimm.
As it turns out, Salem WAS watching...and she wasn't impressed as she scoffed. "Pointless sentiments… that's all you're spouting." she said, before directing the grimm to raise its hand, ready to smash it down upon them "It's time for you children to learn that nothing can stand in my way. The moment you do, you lose everything."
However, right as the Diaguise moved to do just that, a bright light shone forth, and actually pushed the Diaguise back, while forcing her to shield her eyes in surprise. "What?!"
The Crests around their necks glowed brightly, before a powerful light appeared, actually causing the Grimm to recoil, while at the same time their D-Cores glowed brightly. Looking at them for a moment, the two soon turned to each other and nodded firmly. They knew what they had to do.
(Play 'Brave Heart')
The two D-Cores vibrated before Rusty's turned dark green with purple buttons, while Aile's turned sky blue with pink buttons. A powerful beam of light shot out of both of them, and entered into the Tags before continuing through, and releasing the Crests from within. The Crests flew through the air, going past the clouds before spinning in the air as they gathered power, released into a powerful beam of light downward straight into both Snatchmon and Aquilamon.
"Snatchmon…!"
"Aquilamon…!"
"Super Evolution!"
Snatchmon's body began to grow and shift while armor started to build up around him and equip on his body, taking on the form of a dinosaur-like shape as weapons began to form as well. In contrast, Aquilamon's body glowed and started to shrink, taking on a more humanoid form as it did. Eventually both transformations concluded, revealing the two new forms.
Snatchmon's new body was, in a word, gigantic, twice the size of MetalGreymon at least, looking like a large purple dinosaur covered in mostly red armor with a few gold and silver highlights, the armor actually looking like it was formed from parts of a battleship, the claws on his hands and feet quite large and gold in color, while his forearm armor had several turrets on them and a pair of large claws each, his waist covered in red armor like the rest of his body, while his tail ended in a large golden blade, his chest was jutting out forward with a massive cannon right in the center, framed by a pair of launch platforms for planes while he had a trio of cannons resting on each huge shoulder pad, his helmet in the shape of a command station on a battleship with a horn jutting out the front, and rather than his eye be in the center of his face, it was visible on his left side through an eye hole in the armor, while the right side had a golden plate over the matching spot "Destromon!"
Aquilamon's new body was, in contrast, a lot smaller, about the same size as an adult human, his legs mostly red, save for his yellow bird feet with black talons, while he had tail feathers on the back of his waist, just below a belt that looked like it had jumped out of an 80s live action hero show, his upper body white in color, with a silver chest plate and shoulder pads, his forearms a bit on the larger side with red markings going around the wrists and black claws on his finger tips, a pair of small wings jutting out the sides of his forearms while his head was very much humanoid, his mouth visible with dark brown hair visible at the back, but the upper half of his face was covered with a helmeted visor that was red on the top, the part covering his eyes silver, and a pair of white, red-tipped feathers attached to the parts that went over his ears. "Silphymon!"
"Holy shit…!" Rusty breathed in awe as he looked up at his titanic partner, now easily towering over the grimm that craned its head up to look at him.
"They're… amazing…!" Aile gasped as she looked at her own partner, standing on Destromon's left shoulder with a smirk.
Digimon Analyzer: Destromon
Destromon. Virus Type. A Perfect Level Unknown Digimon. A Trojan Horse Virus that has taken over the mainframe of an automated battleship, turning it into a sentient weapons platform. Depending on the heart of the Digimon raised into this form, it can cause either untold destruction, or save millions of lives. Special attacks are Juggernaut Cannon, firing the mighty cannon on his chest, and Armaments Blazing, unloading missiles and bullets from every single turret on his body.
Digimon Analyzer: Silphymon
Silphymon. Data Type. A Perfect Level Beast Man Digimon. He possesses tenacious leg strength, able to jump high into the sky, and then soar through the air by spreading his arms and using the wings on them like a glider. The helmet over his head possesses a radar function that allows him to accurately track his target, no matter the time of day. Special attacks are Top Gun, creating an energy ball within his hands before firing it at the target, and Dual Sonic, creating an energy duplicate of himself while flying at high speeds and then firing it off towards the target.
"Holy…! You're ginormous man!" BaoHuckmon exclaimed from the right shoulder.
That was a sentiment everyone shared, as from where she was watching, Salem took an involuntary step back at the sudden reversal of the situation.
Snarling a moment later, she stood back straight, glaring through the eyes of her Diaguise. That Digimon may be big, but that by no means meant it was also stronger. As such, she willed her grimm to attack it without a second thought.
Back at the fight, the Diaguise obeyed, even as its own instincts told it retreat was a better option. As such, it charged forward, jumped up and even bulked up its limb before delivering a blow that would have not only shattered a fully trained Hunter's Aura, but also probably make them pop like a balloon too.
All that force hit Destromon...and did absolutely nothing beyond making a loud 'clang' sound.
Destromon looked down, absolutely not impressed "Cute." his voice rumbled out.
Before he could say anything else, he noticed something starting to glow on his right shoulder, turning his head to see Siesamon standing next to BaoHuckmon, his body glowing brightly.
"Uh, hey, you alright there?" BaoHuckmon asked in concern.
"Yes, it's just…" Siesamon grit his teeth "I can feel it… the holy power… it's overflowing…!" he suddenly roared out to the sky as his body glowed brighter "Siesamon, Evolution!" he called out, his body staying in the same shape but growing a bit larger, his fur becoming a pure white while he was covered in light blue armor, a purple scarf around his neck along with large beads, his tail becoming a lavender-ish blue, while his single horn turned into three smaller ones. "Caturamon!"
Digimon Analyzer: Caturamon
Caturamon. Data Type. A Perfect Level Holy Beast Digimon. One of the 12 Deva, it is a holy beast that took on the form of a dog, carrying out the will of the Great Server. It has a strong sense of justice, though has an issue of dealing in black-and-white with little room for grey. Special attacks are Bǎo Chuí, turning its entire body into a mallet to strike the enemy, and Śwabhojana, striking the ground hard to generate an earthquake after transforming itself.
"Woah!" BaoHuckmon gasped, backpedalling a bit in surprise.
"How did that happen?" Destromon said in confusion, not even noticing as the Diaguise continued to try punching him.
Silphymon hummed in thought, looking at Caturamon "Maybe… because he was so near to us when the holy energy of the Crests struck us, the residual energies actually washed over him and gave him the boost he needed to evolve as well? He was probably almost strong enough to do it on his own, us being right next to him as we hit Perfect just gave him the last push he needed."
"Huh… well, I guess that makes sense." Destromon said, nodding a bit "Certainly does to me at least." he said with a shrug, shaking his occupants a bit, making him sweatdrop "Uh, sorry, not used to having people so small riding me."
"Speaking of which," Silphymon said, turning to the sound of clanging. "Are you gonna do something about that, or…?" he asked, referring to the Diaguise who was still punching away at Destromon like an idiot. To its credit, after all that punching it actually managed to scratch the paint.
"Oh right, you're still here," Destromon said dryly, before casually bitch slapping the Diaguise...sending it flying away from the village.
"Whelp, looks like that thing isn't a problem anymore," Qrow deadpanned with a sweat drop.
"...yes, watching the Digimon in action truly makes me believe that Salem...will soon meet her match," Ozpin sweat dropped, having actually taken over out of sheer incredulousness of what just happened.
"And that's only his Perfect form too…" Rusty blinked.
"So...I think we can all agree that Grimm is toast," Aile said, earning a few nods of agreement...before they got their weapons ready. "Wanna help them out anyway?"
"Can't hurt yeah," Rusty chuckled before they went after the Digimon who by now had decided to NOT let the Diaguise escape.
"Can't believe we've hit the day I'm looking forward to looking at a Grimm, just to see it get utterly destroyed." Qrow said with a smirk.
"I think that's a sentiment you'll find a lot of people share," Ozpin couldn't help but join in the mirth. A small part of him wondered in amusement how Salem would look when she found out the fate of her Grimm.
Unsurprisingly when they DID reach the fight...well...calling it a 'fight' was being VERY generous. The Diaguise, once a Grimm that took so much to make, for it was so powerful that it could command armies, and destroy entire towns in a night...was little more than a rag doll as the Digimon tossed it around, only its regenerative power keeping it still alive.
"Top Gun!" Silphymon called out.
"Armament Blazing!" Destromon called out. The ensuing mix of an energy ball and a barrage of missiles passed, and the Diaguise was visible again, albeit requiring a lot of regeneration. Even so it was clear the beating was starting to take its toll.
"You REALLY don't know when to quit! Bao Chui!" Caturamon declared, transforming into a mallet...which BaoHuckmon promptly grabbed and used to smash the Diaguise's head in. Literally.
"As funny as watching this thing keep regenerating is now, I think we should get rid of it BEFORE it figures out some kind of other plan," BaoHuckmon said in annoyance.
"Good point. Let's at least do it in style though." Silphymon smirked before blurring towards the grimm, appearing right beneath it as he glowed with energy a bit "Dual Sonic!" he called out before releasing an energy double that lifted the grimm up into the air as it exploded against it.
"Toss me!" Caturamon said to BaoHuckmon, who nodded before throwing him with all his might at the grimm, Caturamon striking it as hard as possible to send it flying even higher.
"All yours big guy!" Silphymon shouted up at Destromon "Let him have it!"
"Gladly." Destromon said as the cannon in his chest started charging as the grimm continued to rise up "Juggernaut…" he started, before the grimm reached the apex of it's flight, high above any mountain ranges "Cannon!" he roared out, before the cannon flashed and fired a massive particle beam at it, drowning it in the light of his weapon as it was literally erased from existence.
"Whelp, that's definitely not coming back," Rusty said simply.
"Sure glad about that." Qrow said with a sigh.
"We did well... well, as best as we could since the Digimon did most of the work." Oscar chuckled.
"Yeah... we did good." Aile said, before looking at Rusty and smiling, leaning closer to him to get his attention, making him turn his head to her just as she leaned in quickly, stealing a kiss from him, pulling back after a moment as she giggled while his face was completely red.
"Kids these days..." Qrow said with a chuckle of amusement at the scene.
Meanwhile…
Salem had felt a LOT of things in her long life. However, the sheer force and abruptness of the death of the Diaguise, a Grimm that once took entire armies to stop, yet took so much to create that she rarely if ever made one, was enough to knock her clear off her feet. Growling, she got back up, inwardly glad that none of her followers were in the castle. Even so, that did little to change the fact that what should have been an easy victory had turned into a complete loss. All that effort and resources put into creating the Diaguise...gone in a moment. What more, that power the two children showed before the Digimon suddenly grew...it was like nothing she had ever seen before. Not to mention how easily the Digimon…
"No," she growled. "I've come too far to let some children get in my way!" she growled, Grimm arms manifesting under her. "Perhaps luck favors them for now, but luck runs out. And when all is said and done, I will PERSONALLY show them how meaningless their struggles are," she smirked evilly. Yes, nothing has changed. Just because they had some power would mean nothing against her. There would be no victory in strength, and when she made them see that, they would fall like all the others before them.
Ta-da!
So, yeah, first, we took care of Kuroyuri, and it was a quick clean up since... seriously, the damn thing's not much of a match against the Chosen.
Secondly, a Digimon village, another one, but this one is VERY special since it has the first Primary Village native to Remnant in it.
Third, the Diaguise, you can thank Novice for that. Can't remember if he's used it in his Xenoblade story yet, but it's a Grimm of his creation and he let me use it in here since I needed something BIG.
Fourth, the reason we needed something big, we needed to trigger two more Crests, and thus obtain Destromon and Silphymon.
Now, first, I want to thank Atlas-Divide on DeviantArt. He made a DAMN good piece of art for Destromon that was perfect as a reference, much better than the official artwork we have of him, so, once again, thanks man.
Second to that, Silphymon received a SLIGHT redesign here, because this is a variant of him WITHOUT the Gatomon parts, thus we took them out and just used bird parts, though his colors are mostly the same. Basically I just wanted to make it a slight variation.
Next up, Caturamon! Yeah, he was a bit of a surprise addition to the chapter, but we realised, we first needed to not give ANY Perfects to this village, so the Diaguise would be an actual challenge. But then that meant they needed a Perfect afterwards in case Salem tried to attack the place again, thus, we made Siesamon evolve. As for the other Devas... don't really expect them to be a major plot point outside of the other obvious one that'll appear, but beyond Caturamon and him, I don't think any others will show up unless needed.
Last, but certainly not least... can you tell we're making fun of Salem a bit with how overconfident she is?
Yeah, she's gonna fall hard.
But for now...
The Adventure Evolves.