And we're finally back after a short break people!
Mostly that break happened because Timeless was away for a bit, so we couldn't really work on anything big in that time, but now he's back, and we're back in business with the next chapter of Digital Story!
Let's get to it!
The Dark Guardians! Arukenimon & Mummymon!
"These tests can really burn through spare towers sometimes." Nero said with a sigh as he and his group were once more standing behind a glass… and his Botamon had already evolved into Baby Level, specifically, into a Pagumon.
"Yeah, we've already gone through like, 200 of them. I know you're a genius boss… but I guess even you can't get everything on the first try." Pagumon said with a sweat drop.
"Too many of them and they lose control and blow up. Too few of them and they lose power…and then they still blow up. Why the heck is this stuff so damn VOLATILE?" the man groaned in annoyance.
"The amount of hairs I've had to pluck out isn't a picnic either," the woman said in annoyance too. "Especially since we wanted to make sure the Chosen didn't get too comfortable and I had to go out and make a few now and then." she said, before frowning "I'm pretty sure they've started to notice me by now too… I've noticed them being a lot more vigilant when they reach the Dark Tower Mons I've been deploying. Not to mention they've connected the dots on WHERE our Artificial Digimon are coming from and are sweeping down Dark Towers when they find them."
"Something else to worry about, great." Nero said with an annoyed sigh "Let's just be glad that most of our resources are renewable," Nero said, trying to look on the bright side, before starting up the machine. "Alright test number 56. 10 Dark Towers, a single hair each, and Mutagen at 5 times the normal dose," he said before the machines did the process…and everyone ducked behind the provided barricade in case things got messy. Again. There was a reason he hadn't bothered cleaning up the lab just yet after all.
The process began as the hairs were dipped into the mutagen and administered to the Dark Towers. They all glowed brightly before twisting and mixing, becoming a new form, the light glowing brighter before it eventually died off.
"Hey, nothing exploded this time," the man said after a moment.
"And just for that I say we wait a minute more in case you just invoked Murphy," Pagumon deadpanned.
"I'm with the puffball," the woman said.
Risking a glance up from the barricade, Nero pulled himself up… only to blink several times "Ok… almost wish this was a real one." he said, the others joining him… and they understood why he said that as they looked at what appeared to be a LadyDevimon, wearing a different outfit from normal as her stomach was exposed now… along with several other flashes of skin… and she was a lot curvier than the original LadyDevimon as well, while wearing a hood that looked like it had large ears attached to it, a glowing red X right on the center, with the lower halves of the X going right where her eyes would be. Her leather-like wings looking roughly the same, while her strange scarf was now bigger and more monstrous looking… and her normally monstrous hand looked more normal now… but an extra, mechanical arm seemed to be tethered to it and looked even MORE monstrous than before.
And then the woman blinked "Wait… you mean if she were a real Digimon and not just a Dark Tower-"
"She'd be bent over a table, yes. I'm a pervert, I won't deny that, and there are so many Digimon that just look like hot women." Nero said with a sigh "At least I have Raven to take care of that now."
"I don't blame you." the man said, openly eyeing LadyDevimon X up and down.
"Okay, your personal tastes aside, what are we going to do with it?" Pagumon spoke up. "After all the tests to make sure we got one right, I don't recall what the actual plan was once you got one that worked."
Nero paused at that. "...admittedly I hadn't fully thought that part out," he coughed.
"Considering it took us 56 tries to get this right? Don't really blame you," the man sighed.
"Actually…I may have an idea," the woman said.
"We're listening," Nero nodded.
"Geez…what is Nero up to anyway?" Gyro frowned, as the group were looking over a map of the Digital World. After that battle with the various Dark Tower Digimon, they'd seen sporadic and seemingly random attacks being perpetrated by more Dark Tower Digimon. Granted they were able to defeat these ones more easily as they didn't seem to be X variants this time, but it was still both worrying and strange… especially with these occasional sightings of a woman in red near the towers.
"There doesn't seem to be any clear pattern to the attacks," Weiss frowned.
"But that doesn't make sense. Nero's a lot of things, but dumb isn't one of them," Tentomon said.
"You think he's getting desperate or something?" Agumon suggested.
"I wouldn't count on it," Pierce said. "He's still got a base in the Dark Area. Considering we can't get in there he's basically got the perfect place to hole up and plan his next move. Not the kind of situation that would lead to getting desperate."
"Especially considering that in the Digital World, as long as you got the data, you can theoretically produce anything and everything you could ever want or need," Oren added. "So I agree, its more likely he's got something planned. The problem is what exactly it is."
"Also, we still haven't found out anything about that woman either." Veemon frowned "We've caught glimpses of her… but seems she's been more careful recently. Guess she knows we're onto her."
"Anybody else really hate how all we can DO about Nero's schemes these days is REACT to them rather than act before he does them?" Ruby said with a sigh.
"You're not the only one." Palmon agreed with a sigh of her own.
"Well…look on the bright side," Jaune said. "At least WE have an actual reason for why we can only react."
"...he's not wrong," Emerald admitted.
"And at least it's only Nero we really have to deal with right now." Morphomon added with a sigh "I mean, we could have to deal with Salem's goons too on top of it."
"Normally I'd say that's tempting fate, but we just got an update that they're still far enough that we won't need to worry about them yet…but we probably should still be ready for when they inevitably arrive," Blake sighed.
"Preparing is all we can do when there's nothing immediately going on," Wormmon said.
"Like how Qrow took Keenan, Oscar, Penny and their partners over to the school so they could use the training facilities a little bit in case Gankoomon comes back?" Gomamon asked with a snicker.
"Like that, yes." Aile giggled a bit.
"Speaking of preparation, how's gathering data on the Dark Area coming along?" Yang asked, remembering that in light of their brief visit to the Dark Area, they knew there were things in there that could be a serious problem if they ever became enemies.
"Data gathering is going smoothly. We just haven't gone over it yet," Lopmon informed.
"Wait, then how do we know it's relevant data?" Biyomon asked, blinking in confusion.
"Keywords." Oren said "We're making sure it's only grabbing info that contains words like Dark Area, Evil Digimon, Dark Ocean, and other things like that."
Jaune hummed, considering that, before he sighed "We're gonna have to go over all that info aren't we?"
"I think we are yes." Pyrrha said with a sweatdrop.
"Today's gonna be a loooong day." Nora said awkwardly, knowing they weren't going to be moving away from looking at the screens for a while.
Meanwhile…
Things had changed a bit over the last few months for the Staff and Students of Atlas Academy. The big change being the increase in Digimon that were going about the Academy. Ever since Atlas established successful relations with the WWW Continent, or at least with the territory ruled by Mercurymon specifically, there had been an exchange of both personnel, as well as resources.
The alliance so far had been beneficial for both parties, as Atlas enjoyed the benefits of access to resources that would be considered exotic here, while WWW enjoyed the benefits of Atlas's technology, and of course the fact that with the increase of Digimon more people were gaining partners as well. Of course with that said, there were adjustments that needed to be made. Among others with the increasing number of Digimon as well as partner bonds, it was decided that there would need to be a special division created to handle matters related to Digimon, specifically the possibilities of crimes related to Digimon.
This was, of course, the very same division that Ironwood had brought up to Winter before that she would be in charge of. "Command Center's coming along nicely at least," Lunamon said as she and Winter were both standing in a newly built facility that would serve as the base of DATS.
"Indeed, but a base will do us little good if we don't have a team," Winter mused as she was fiddling with her scroll, going over the pool of prospective members that General Ironwood had provided her. Going over them one by one, she kept in mind the goal and function of DATS as she looked through the prospective members. A lot of them were unquestionably of high quality….but that was only the side of skills and achievements. When she looked through their psychological profiles, she frowned. While competent, something about them told her they would be ill-suited for dealing with Digimon. Digimon were a lot of things, and thus they had to be handled differently depending on the individual. Something about these profiles made her think they would only handle them in a single way.
With that in mind, she moved them to the declined list. As she continued though, her eyes landed on two particular profiles. "Hm…Yoshino Nikos and Thomas Northstein," she mused, familiar with the two. They were part of the team Penny had been assigned to, and from what the profiles said, they were both strong Hunters in Training, and they showed a certain open mindedness, enough so that they didn't seem particularly perturbed when Penny's secret was revealed. Furthermore while neither of them had a Partner, they'd shown to work well enough with the Digimon who'd taken up residence in Atlas. In short, they definitely seemed like the type of people she'd want on DATS. With that in mind, she added their names to the list she approved of.
The process continued for several more minutes, and eventually she'd gone through the entire list, forwarding the members she'd selected to General Ironwood for further consideration. Yes, it seemed DATS was well on its way to formation.
Back with the Chosen…
"At least the data has definitely been…informative," Oren frowned.
"Yeah, considering we were basically doing research on a frikkin Prison Dimension," Gyro said.
"No wonder the Digimon that come from there are bad news. They're basically escaped prisoners from a maximum security prison," Pyrrha said apprehensively.
"And the worst of the worst have their own Prison Block too," Jaune gulped, looking at the data on the so-called Gate of Sins which locked up the second layer of the Dark Area which was supposed to contain one of if not the worst group of Digimon ever. The Seven Great Demon Lords.
They…really didn't need to think too hard about how bad they were considering the group name and the fact that they apparently represented the 7 Deadly Sins. Oh and the head guy was named after Lucifer so…yeah…
The group was silent a bit at that… before Pierce spoke up "Betcha-"
"No bet." everyone else cut him off in deadpan, already knowing what he was gonna say, making him actually pout.
"Well you guys are no fun." he said with a frown.
"Well, until we've at least dealt with Nero, hopefully the Dark Area does its job," Ren said.
"No arguments here," Nora said and everyone else agreed as well.
"Speaking of that nut case, anything going on in the Digital World?" Terriermon asked, to which Morphomon checked the monitors again.
"Nope, everything's peaceful for now," she said.
"Strange. Not that I'm complaining, but you'd think he'd have done something by now," Lopmon mused…right before they heard alarms…coming from outside the house.
"And those would be the city alarms." Norn said, blinking a few times "This… can't be a coincidence, right?"
"It's definitely not from Salem, Cinder's group shouldn't be here for a long while still." Agumon frowned.
"We should go check it out then." Gabumon said as everyone got up, heading out of the house to see what was going on.
They soon found the source of the disturbance, namely a whole block that was on fire and/or partially destroyed. "The hell happened here?!" Rusty gasped as they saw the firefighters trying to put out the fire and rescue anyone still trapped inside, while police officers were keeping the crowds of onlookers away…and there were a few who were filming the scene. All in all it looked like a terrible but normal accident, which would have led to the group trying to help however they could…if not for something suddenly flying through the air, striking one of the fire trucks, causing it to explode.
The moment that happened, the already chaotic situation turned even more pear shaped as the crowds panicked from the sudden explosion. Most tried to get away, and in the process started to push and shove while the police struggled to maintain control of the situation, the firefighters now forced to continue rescue efforts but now even worry about their own that were injured in the explosion.
"What was that?!" Aile gasped as the group was forced to try and push their way through the escaping crowd. Eventually they managed to find a spot they could avoid the crowds and quickly tried to find whatever had attacked the fire trucks before their eyes landed on two figures floating in the air.
The first was LadyDevimon X, and the second… it looked a lot like Angewomon, save for wearing something that looked more like a revealing nun outfit, her bow for the celestial arrow deployed from a golden bracelet on her left wrist, as four golden wings came out from her back to the front, and she wore… well, it looked like the pope's hat, and it covered her eyes.
"That is a WEIRD outfit." Ruby muttered in confusion as they looked at what they assumed to be Angewomon X.
"More importantly, why the hell are these Dark Tower mon, at least I'm assuming that's what they are judging by them just… staring at us blankly, suddenly here on Remnant?" Bemmon asked in confusion.
"That's easy when you have access to a gate as well," came a voice as they all turned again, this time seeing a nearby building where the man and the woman stood, both of them looking quite pleased.
"Hey, isn't that the woman we've been seeing around the Dark Towers?" Veemon gasped.
"And she's got a friend too," Hawkmon frowned.
"Guess this is the first time I've been out and about. Been looking to throw down with you twerps eventually," the man smirked.
For some reason that caused a twitch in Gyro and Pierce, with one of them muttering something about 'preparing for trouble'.
"We could have guessed it before, but you two work for Nero, don't you?" Yang glared a bit.
"I wouldn't say we work for him per say, but yes," the woman chuckled. "Before we introduce ourselves, how about we slip into something a bit more…comfortable."
The moment she said that both her and the man started to shift. Their appearances became far more monstrous, as the woman turned into what was basically a monstrous jorogumo with horns coming out of her head, her white hair looking more frazzled somehow, as the man turned into a literal mummy with a bandana on top of his head… and a huge gun in his hand that used to be a cane.
"They're Digimon?!" Ruby said in surprise.
"I guess we shouldn't too surprised some Digimon would be able to do that, but this isn't something these two Digimon should be able to do," Weiss frowned. "These two are an Arukenimon and a Mummymon."
Digimon Analyzer: Arukenimon
Arukenimon. Virus Type. A Perfect Level Demon Beast Digimon. Her appearance is said to be based on the queen of all spiders in Greek myth, and fitting such a comparison, she exists to rule over all Dokugumon. It is said to be quite capable at disguising itself, so as to approach it's prey, and devour it whole, apparently having a liking for devouring young men. Special attacks are Spider Thread, firing webbing from her hands to wrap up her opponents, and Acid Mist, breathing out an acidic green mist to melt the opponent down.
Digimon Analyzer: Mummymon
Mummymon. Virus Type. A Perfect Level Undead Digimon. He is known as the Necromancer, thanks to his ability of being able to manipulate the residual data of deleted Digimon, allowing him to use them as his slaves. It's difficult to read his expression, making figuring out what he's thinking a hard task, especially as if he feels threatened, he will brandish his gun, the Obelisk, and fire wildly at the enemy. Special attacks are Snake Bandage, firing the bandages from his arms to wrap up his opponents, and Necrophobia, summoning data ghosts to attack his opponents.
"Guess we shouldn't be surprised you would have some data on us, but just so you know we're no ordinary pair," Mummymon smirked.
"As for how that is, well…we'll be sure to give you a demonstration," Arukenimon said, before pointing at them. "Destroy them!"
The moment she gave the command, Angewomon X and LadyDevimon X moved. Both zipped right at the chosen, the group immediately dodged out of the way. However as they'd soon find out, the two Dark Tower Digimon cared nothing for bystanders, smashing through nearby buildings in the attack, and causing an even greater panic to erupt while the police present futilely tried to maintain some semblance of order, something that became increasingly impossible as the two Dark Tower Digimon were continuing their assaults.
Adding to that Arukenimon and Mummymon weren't idle either. The two were joining in on the attack as well.
"Acid Mist!" Arukenimon called out, spitting acid which the group were quick to evade as well, but the bits that hit some of the buildings were quickly eating away at it.
"Necrophobia!" Mummymon called out, as a glowing sphere appeared in his hand, before actual ghosts started to emerge from it, rushing towards them.
"Incoming ghosts!" Jaune shouted, everyone dodging out of the way quickly. The ghosts flew past them and impacted the nearby buildings, exploding on contact. The damage was proving too much for the buildings as they shook violently, forcing everyone to get out of the way as they seemed dangerously close to crumbling, though fortunately it seemed they were empty on account of the people living there evacuating since the fires broke out.
"Ghosts that explode…that's a thing," Gomamon gulped a bit.
"Forget the ghosts, we need to get somewhere away from the city, or at least bystanders! They'll trash Mistral at this rate!" Oren said urgently.
"Like we're gonna let you go!" Mummymon laughed as he ordered the two Dark Tower Digimon to attack. The two flew towards the group, LadyDevimon X releasing a Darkness Wave while Angewomon X created a Holy Arrow, both attacks flying through the air…and somehow the two flying alongside each other caused a strange reaction that seemed…more dangerous than normal.
"Move!" Gyro shouted, as several Digivices started to glow just before the attacks hit the ground, causing a large explosion that tore up the street… but several large figures quickly flew up from the explosion, revealing MetalGreymon, Garudamon, AtlurKabuterimon and AeroVeedramon carrying as many of the Hunters as they could, WereGarurumon standing next to Sylphimon and Andiramon on AtlurKabuterimon's back, while Rapidmon, HolyAngemon, Angewomon, Lillymon, JewelBeemon and Papillonmon floated in the air around them.
"Yeah, that would have wrecked us I think." Gomamon said in deadpan as he and Bemmon looked down as the explosion cleared.
"Yeah… still, we can help too. I even managed to figure out how to restrict my size now when I hit Perfect." Bemmon said "Now I'm not just gonna crush a whole city block by appearing."
"Smart." Gomamon chuckled, before the two looked to their partners, earning nods as he and Bemmon jumped down, right as Jaune and Rusty's Digivices started to glow, and they hit the ground as Zudomon and Destromon, who was now the same size as Zudomon.
"Tch! Persistent little brats," Arukenimon growled. "Even so we still have the advantage!" she shouted as she used Spider Thread to create a number of webs using the buildings that were still standing. At the same time Mummymon ordered the Dark Tower Digimon to go after the flyers.
"Keep them busy! We'll deal with the ones on the ground!" he ordered and the Dark Tower Digimon obeyed, while he and Arukenimon set their sights on said group.
"Don't think its gonna be that easy!" WereGarurumon growled as he, Silphymon, and Andiramon jumped down as well.
"Whatever you got, we can take it!" Zudomon challenged.
"Be careful what you wish for," Mummymon smirked as he aimed his Obelisk at them, and opened fire.
Destromon was quick to move, getting in front of the attack and raising his arms, the shots splashing harmlessly off of his armor. However, Arukenimon quickly followed up by shooting Acid Mist at Destromon, the attack hitting his armor and causing him to shout in pain as his armor started to melt a bit.
Silphymon didn't let that stand though as he quickly used jumped on Destromon's shoulder with a Top Gun prepared, which he hurled at Arukenimon, forcing the spider to stop her attack and evade, the Top Gun hitting the ground kicking up a dust cloud.
WereGarurumon took advantage of the dust cloud and dashed forward from behind the smoke, aiming to strike her with a Kaiser Nail…or he would have if Mummymon didn't see him first. "Snake Bandage!" he called out, the bandages flying and catching WereGarurumon by the arm, leaving him open to a shot from Arukenimon…
But Andiramon was faster, and quickly came to WereGarurumon's aid using Bao Fu to cut through the bandages in one swing, with the follow up being used to keep Arukenimon away.
The two enemy Digimon growled and were ready to attack again, but Zudomon acted quickly. "Hammer Spark!" he called out, sending the attack flying towards the two, and though the aim was a little off, it was close enough, creating an explosion that pushed the two back.
"Hate to admit it, but I can see why these twerps are the heroes of the Digital World," Mummymon growled.
"Indeed. All the more satisfying when they fall," Arukenimon smirked.
"Not happening," Silphymon said simply as the battle continued.
Up in the air it was also a flurry of movement. The flyers of the group were engaging the two Dark Tower Digimon who proved to be quite a tag team.
"You'd think angel and demon Digimon wouldn't work together this well," Papillonmon said in annoyance as she narrowly evaded a Holy Arrow, before defending from a Darkness Wave. They'd already dropped their partners onto a nearby building shortly before the fight broke out, and with how fast paced it was, it was for the best. Even so they were being vigilant and ready to fight at any time when needed.
"Normally yes, but these things don't have enough of a mind or will to care about that stuff!" Lillymon said as she fired Flower Cannons at the two enemy Digimon who were moving fast enough to evade. Even Rapidmon and AeroVeedramon were finding that the two were able to keep up with them.
"Add in the fact what those two can make together…I think we can all agree we'd want them gone sooner than later," HolyAngemon frowned, trying to find an opening to strike, but so far nothing.
"Way ahead of you!" Angewomon said, firing Holy Arrow after Holy Arrow, but once again the two Dark Tower Digimon were moving quickly. "If only we could stop one of them from moving!"
"Not gonna be an easy task!" AtlurKabuterimon growled as his Horn Blaster failed to land.
"We're not going to catch them if we keep shooting at them at this rate!" AeroVeedramon snarled, right as he was pushed back from a kick LadyDevimon X landed as a counter attack.
As they were fighting, Garudamon who had been shooting her own attacks futilely had an idea cross her mind. "Wait, we can't catch them…but what if we corral them?"
THAT caused everyone to pause a bit in their attacks. Granted the two Dark Tower Digimon used that small lul to counter with their own attacks, forcing them to evade or defend.
"That…could work," Rapidmon mused.
"So rather than trying to hit them per say, we shoot around them. Surround them!" Garudamon nodded.
"Small problem there. How are we going to stop them from moving once we corral them? We'll need them to hold still to actually hit them still," Papillonmon said.
"That's easy. You're the one with a move that can stop things with Dark powers…like two Digimon MADE from Dark Towers," HolyAngemon chuckled.
"I'll help too. I should be able to stop them as well," Angewomon added.
"Then let's do it!" MetalGreymon said, as the ones not in charge of the eventual restraining spread out. They tried to roughly surround the two Dark Tower Digimon before opening fire with their attacks. As expected, the two of them evaded, but with the attacks aimed in a particular way, slowly but surely they were being herded into a particular spot. Once they were in position…
"Now!" MetalGreymon shouted as they opened fire again, and the two Dark Tower Digimon found themselves literally surrounded by attacks, yet none of them actually hit. Even so they were effectively unable to move. That was when the trap was sprung.
"Avalon Dust!"
"Saint Air!"
The two attacks flew and hit the Dark Tower Digimon. Immediately their bodies seized up and they were completely unable to move. And once it was clear they weren't going anywhere…
"Let them have it!" Jewelbeemon shouted, and they all opened fire on the Dark Tower Digimon and well…game over.
Down below the explosion could be seen, right as Mummymon and Arukenimon were sent skidding back from a combined attack from their opponents. "Damn…so those two couldn't hold on long enough," Mummymon growled.
"It seems we'll have to cut things short for now," Arukenimon agreed.
"Running away?" WereGarurumon challenged.
"A tactical retreat. Next time you won't be so lucky," Arukenimon glared, before a portal appeared behind her and Mummymon, allowing both of them to vanish through it.
"Get back here!" Destromon growled, but they were already gone.
"Damn… got away." Zudomon said with a frown.
"That portal… that was definitely to the Dark Area though." Andiramon said.
"That just makes it 100% confirmed that they're on Nero's side." Silphymon added.
"So we can expect to see them again soon enough," HolyAngemon said as the group on the ground looked up to see the group that had been fighting in the air descend, their partners all with them. Once they hit the ground, all the Digimon reverted back to Child level.
"At least we managed to keep the damage to…just this much," Jaune sighed.
"But still…what was Nero aiming to accomplish with all this? What was the point of all that beyond showing off that he's got Perfect level Dark Tower Digimon now?" Oren frowned.
"I don't know…but whatever it is, it can't be good…" Ruby said as they all shared apprehensive looks.
Back in the Dark Ocean Base, Pagumon was busy inhaling what appeared to be a cloud of dark energy, looking like another Puffball, only much more sinister. Once he'd inhaled all of it he started munching and looked like he was enjoying the meal.
"Eat up Partner, I need you to grow big and strong," Nero smirked a bit.
Pagumon swallowed his meal. "Don't need to tell me twice. Once I get strong enough AND learn all their fancy moves the next time we fight them for real I'M winning," Pagumon smirked a bit.
"Indeed," Nero chuckled. "And the best part? There's really nothing they can do to stop us. Its just not in their nature to ignore any of the incidents I cause, so no matter what, they'll always provide us with what we need," he said before chuckling…a chuckle that turned into full blown laughter that echoed through the base…
And there!
Yeah, we went a bit original there for Arukenimon and Mummymon's introduction... because Nero is scarily cunning with his plans as you can all see, playing the Chosen and making them unknowingly empower his partner Pagumon.
We wanted a villain who was actually smart and didn't just toss power around (Salem) or act high and mighty when they're really an idiot (Cinder), so that's what we did... and I think we can all agree if Nero existed in the real world, we'd all be screwed.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this, because...
The Adventure Evolves