"Ugh… That went so poorly…"
Komet opens her eyes and sits down, putting one of her hands on her forehead. She slowly shakes her head.
"Oh, you finally woke up!" says Lua
"Judging by your reaction, it seems you couldn't rest as well as you wished for" says Sonne
"Good morning you two… Third day sleeping in this world, second day waking up in pain… When it's not physical fatigue, it's a mental one" complains Komet
"Well, the soreness was completely your fault" says Lua
Komet giggles. "Are you revoking my right to complain?". She looks at her smartwatch and gets shocked. "WAIT! Is it four in the afternoon already? How did I sleep for so long, and yet I couldn't rest at all?". She looks behind, and realizes that Sonne was still her pillow all that time. "I-I'm sorry! I kept you stuck there, didn't I?"
"You should not worry, as this was not a bother for my person. Your well-being always comes first" says Sonne
"Mommy! Mommy!" says someone from the other room, which sounds to be Gomi. "They are all awake now!"
The team hears something heavy dragging itself closer. Then they see Plesiomon sticking her head in the open window. She stretches her neck, getting close to them. "You were really tired, I see! It's the first time I've seen someone sleeping for so long" she says.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience" the lass says, bowing her head
"There's no inconvenience here, dear! Oh my, what's that cut on your face?"
"Oh, that…" Komet places her hand on the cut. "I was distracted, then this Pipismon flew too close to me and injured me. But it just flew away afterwards"
Plesiomon opens a box that is in the corner of the hut. "A Pipismon, you say? Weird… They are usually not found in this area. Perhaps it was a disoriented traveler…". She grabs a bandage from the box with her mouth and sticks it on the scar. "Whatever happened, hopefully it will heal soon! Now, take a seat, you all! I will bring some food for you"
The plesiosaur leaves the room and drags herself towards the lake. The team heads towards the main room and sits around the table. Goma and Gomi are chatting and playing. Komet looks around and sees no sign of Dr. Dataniu. "It seems that robot Digimon is gone" she says
"Hopefully to never be seen again!" says Lua
"You probably jinxed it" she jokes with a laugh
"Perhaps it would be of great importance if we were aware of the name of his species" Sonne says
"Nah, just call them 'Dataniu-likes' for now" the bunny shrugs off. "And let's hope they aren't actually like him!"
Plesiomon returns holding a net with some fishes in it. They are colorful silly-looking fish. Flashing a sweet smile, she places the net at the front door. "Bon appetit!"
Goma approaches the net and frowns in worry. "Mom, those are not my Marching Fishes, are they?"
"Of course not, sweetie!" She nuzzles Goma. "You know very well I'm always careful about this"
Komet turns at Sonne and whispers. "A-are we eating living Digimons?"
"Worry not, those are not Digimons. They are different lifeforms"
"That doesn't change the fact that they are alive!"
"Allow me to solve this problem". Sonne walks towards the net, politely thanks Plesiomon and brings it to the table. He grabs two fish with his fangs, cloaks one of his paws on fire, places the fish on the table and immediately slaps it with his fiery paw, instantly toasting the fish. All of that done in a stoic face. "It is done. Hopefully this is not an issue anymore"
Komet stares at the roasted fish, perplexed. "I-It does look edible now, I guess"
"Why the surprise?" asks Lua. "It's not like you weren't aware that all meat you eat were living animals before. I know you are a city girl, but you have been to your grandparents' farm before, right?"
"A few times, yes, before they were forced to sell everything…" she sighs as she is reminded of the big scam. "That doesn't mean I saw them killing our food before cooking it. I wasn't even a teenager yet back then. But hey, if I can properly ride Sonne, it is thanks to my grandparents! They had a cute little horse, and I'd always ask them to let me ride it-"
"Komet" interrupts Sonne. "You should consume your food before it dissipates into data"
"What? Why does it expire that quickly?" she says, as she shoves her roasted fish in her mouth.
"And there she goes, swallowing it even without removing the bones. Are you sure you are an adult?". Lua bites half of one of the raw fish, and notices the fish is boneless. "Huh. There are no bones in these things!"
Sonne also starts eating the fish. Since theirs were still raw and alive, they didn't need to rush. They eat and talk, and after some time, they are done with their late lunch. Komet is the first to stand up, and the other two follow after her. She walks towards Plesiomon, who just observes from outside. She bows her head and looks at her. "Thank you so much for the hospitality. What can I do to compensate for the trouble?"
"There's no trouble, dear! We do it cost-free! Just keep the secret about this place, okay?" the plesiosaur says
She nods, then turns at Goma and Gomi and squats down. She pats both on the head. "I wish you two success growing and getting as strong as your mother! I'm sure you will become great guardians!"
"We will!" say both in unison
Plesiomom moves out of the way to give space for the trio to leave. The team gets outside, and Komet and Lua jump on Sonne's back. They wave at the aquatic mons as Sonne walks away from the hut. The mons wave back with their flippers. Sonne opens his wings and takes a low flight over the lake to reach the mainland and resume their journey in the forest.
During the flight, they look around: because of the sunlight, they are able to see how huge the lake actually is. The water is so clear that they can see an explosion of biodiversity: a lot of colorful plants and things that look like corals. They also see a lot of different kinds of aquatic Digimons having a good time. After all, the weather is nice. They seem to have no worry about their surroundings. Komet smiles. "Plesiomon really does an amazing job!" . She even feels like putting her hands in the water like she sees in movies, but she is afraid that a Digimon might bite her hand.
She checks her smartwatch and opens the map, and checks which path they should follow. Thanks to Sonne's evolving to Firamon, their trip is much faster. Combining the flight with Lua's ability to see in the dark, finding a good spot during nighttime is not a problem anymore, which means they wouldn't need to limit their trip to daytime. As soon as the lion reaches the shore, he lands and runs following the length of the giant body of water.
"We are considerably close to the mountain range now. We should keep going in this direction for some time. After we cross to the other side of the mountains, we follow north and hope we can find another village. If we don't, it's fine" Komet says, while pointing in a direction. "We will take the skies when the ground doesn't seem safe"
"Understood" says Sonne
"I hope I am doing a good job as the navigator, because I've never done this thing before" she nervously smiles
Sonne runs next to the shore for some more time and reaches a place where they hear strong drilling noises.
"What is that sound?" asks Komet
"Possibly drills" said Sonne
"But why?" asks Lua
Komet looks at the direction of the noise. It doesn't come from the route they are taking, but away from it. She looks at the lake, which is weirdly empty and looking not as crystal clean as the other side. "I think I want to check what is going on… If it's something bad, we warn Plesiomon"
Sonne nods and walks towards the drilling noises. As soon as they reach it, they get shocked: wooden planks and metal slabs are blocking a large portion of the lake, which is now a dried big hole. Two Digimons are drilling around the dried out area. One of the Digimon is a four legged mammal-like creature, with white fur and purple back. It has a long drill for its nose. The other is a yellow bug-like creature standing on two legs, with purple markings and drills on its face and for hands. They both wear some kind of weird and technological helmet and look extremely focused on what they are doing. The land and the forest near the shore also seem very full of random holes, as if there was no planning when making them.
"T-they are destroying the lake! We should warn Plesiomon now!" shouts Komet.
Something or someone shouts from the hole. All three look at the direction of the shouting. They see a metallic hand sticking out of the hole, then pulling himself outside of it. It's Dr. Dataniu. He says something to them, but the noise is so loud that none of them could understand what he said.
"What? I can't hear you with all that drilling!" shouts Komet
Dr. Dataniu mutters. Then, he opens a hologram panel projected from his hand, presses some buttons and says more things. The two drilling Digimons stop working and go idle, staring at nothing. "The noise is gone now. I said that Plesiomon is aware that I'm doing something here, so you three don't need to worry about anything"
The girl looks at the mess, then at the static Digimons. She looks back at Dr. Dataniu, feeling uneasy and skeptical. "Does she know exactly what you are doing?"
"Tch, you really have some trust issues, don't you? Well then, go back there and ask her if I asked for permission to do some archeological research here. She will even answer that I asked her to temporarily move some of the residents of this area, so that none of us would be involved in accidents"
Komet squints her eyes. "Did you tell her that you would be destroying what she's been trying so hard to protect? Also, what's the deal with these Digimons? They seem so… Robotic… Lifeless…"
"Have you seen the size of this lake? There's plenty of nice spots around, this will barely make any difference. And don't worry about these two, they are my workers"
"Where were they yesterday? Did you leave them outside freezing while you slept in a nice hut?" yells Lua
"There it goes, the girl with an attitude. Okay. Let's say… Imagine, hypothetically, you have two great friends, each of them from different times. They are everything you have, and you think they reciprocate the feeling. Then, one day, those friends backstab you just because, I don't know, they suddenly got scared of you and never told you exactly why. Would you still trust new companions to be around you when you are the most vulnerable?"
Lua gets more annoyed. "I don't care about your stupid sob stories, just answer my question!"
Komet looks frustrated already, but she tries her best to reason with Dataniu to get more info of the situation. "I understand your feelings. Having a friend turning their back at you really sucks. But how does that relate to these Digimons that… Erm… Seems to lack free will?"
"Oooh, so you are willing to listen to me again!". He walks towards the drill creatures and places his hands on their helmets. "This! This is the secret to good behavior! This is one of my amazing inventions, where it puts monsters in a hyperfocus state. This one I made specifically for them, where it increases the potency of their drilling. Since they are in hyperfocus, they don't care about the weather, temperature or exhaustion! Isn't that amazing?"
Komet shakes her head. "This sounds so wrong…"
"Is it really wrong when you are doing them a favor?"
"What do you mean?"
Dr. Dataniu smiles. "These two weren't the most well liked mons in their town. So I offered a solution that would benefit both the town and these mons"
"What was it?"
"I can assure you that both party accepted my terms"
She gets more annoyed. "Don't dodge my question. I want to know what these terms are"
Dr. Dataniu sighs. "Let's say… You live in a world where a kin is free to choose who they want to be. As a group, that kin wishes to live a happy life, without suffering, betrayal and whatnot. But their natural state always leads them to cruelty towards themselves if they feel like they will gain some kind of advantage. Hypothetically speaking, how would you solve that problem?"
"I don't know where you are trying to get with those unrelated hypothetical scenarios, but I will pull you back to our original subject. Is Plesiomon aware that you are destroying part of the lake for this? Are these Digimons aware that you are controlling them?" she yells in anger
"Woah, woah! Slow down, will you? I am doing that so that I can understand my point of view, and maybe learn about alternatives from you!"
"No, you are just avoiding answering my questions and testing my patience"
Dataniu presses a button, and the two Digimons start drilling again. Then he walks towards the trio. Komet dismounts Sonne and stays at the lion's side, in case a battle happens.
"I gave my terms and they gave their consent. What is so wrong about it?" says Dr. Dataniu feeling smug
Komet clenches her fists and glares at Dr. Dataniu. She is reminded again of the situation that happened around six years ago: her grandparents getting scammed and losing everything in the process. First, criminals had access to her grandparents' confidential data and used it to extort money from them. Later, businesses that were supposed to help them recover used tactics that placed them in an even bigger hole. Those people were nice and sympathetic enough to exploit their desperation. "You omitted important information from your 'terms' while sounding like a nice person, so you can exploit the holes while they believe you are acting in good faith, aren't you, you bastard?"
Dataniu shrugs. "Is it my fault now that they don't give a crap about reading the clauses?"
"Did you even state there are clauses to begin with?"
Suddenly, Dataniu fixates on her. "You sure are a smart girl, Komet". The robot slowly approaches her, looking extremely focused on her. "The way you talk… The way you think… It does remind me of someone… Someone that was causing trouble… Could you possibly know what I'm talking about?". He slowly stretches his hand towards her face.
Sonne growls and roars at the creepy robot. Dr. Dataniu, frightened, snaps out of his focus and gives a few steps back while flailing.
"Aaaah! Did I do that again? S-sorry! I didn't mean to be a weirdo! A-ahem. Don't worry, little team, Plesiomon is aware that I am doing excavations, looking for an important fossil! About those two, erm, assistants, I told the townspeople that I would do something with them that would never give them trouble again, while I told the duo that I would enhance their abilities and repurpose them" Dataniu says.
Komet still has her fists clenched, feeling very close to punch the robot. But she just shakes her head instead. "You know very well what you are doing. I wonder if you were actually the reason you were 'backstabbed' by your friends, if you were backstabbed at all!"
"Are you doubting the veracity of my story? That's some bold accusation, you know?"
"No, it's not!" yells Lua. "She has a point. During all the story, you said you were betrayed, but you never told us what you did in these situations! You always made it about you!"
"Oh, so you were actually listening too! Even if you hate me, thank you for at least considering lending your ears for that!"
Lua cringes. "This guy lost some screws, didn't he?"
They suddenly hear some weird drilling noises from the hole, as if the drills reached a different material. Dr. Dataniu smiles and turns around, sprinting towards the hole. He looks surprised and happy by what he sees and commands the two Digimons to stop. "Well, I have work to do right now. If you still want to talk to any of them to confirm my allegations, be my guest. Or you can come and see this marvelous portion of fossil I just found!"
Komet grits her teeth and walks away while rolling her eyes. "Let's go"
Lua floats next to her. "W-will you believe him just like that? What are you gonna do now?"
She shakes her head. "He had too much conviction in what he was saying"
"He is probably gaslighting you!"
She nods and mounts on Sonne. "Which is why we are going back to Plesiomon"
Lua looks relieved and lands on Sonne too. "Phew! For a moment I thought you would just believe that stupid tin can!"
"He is creepy as hell. I'm glad he didn't harm Plesiomon's kids. Also, what were all those hypothetical scenarios? I hate answering hypothetical questions when it has nothing to do with the subject"
"Komet" Sonne finally speaks as he starts running back to Plesiomon's huts. "You might hate it, but you've done that too. Although this happened only once, and you have mentioned that you had taken extreme precaution. That said, I suspect the scenario in question wasn't actually hypothetical. May I ask for further context?"
"Uuh… I can't recall that… What was it exactly?"
"We were having our usual conversation, but suddenly you said… 'Imagine this hypothetical scenario. Someone important trusts you - only you - with a mission. This mission is to break the code of a certain product created by a different company, a product can change the world - for better or for worse - depending on who have their hands on'"
"Ah, that! I asked you both your opinions on that, correct?"
Sonne nods. "As I said, I've assumed this was a real case that involved you, and you weren't sure what to do about it. Is that correct?"
Komet nods. "I guess it's about time I share this with someone… Hopefully it helps me calm down, too"
Six months ago
During that day - or night I guess, since, to no one's surprise, I was at the office until very late in the night - my boss approached me. I was quite surprised that he was still around. I know I shouldn't, since he owns the company. Well, anyway.
"Ms. Bambadi, do you have a second?" asks Gabriel
"O-oh, hi! Sure! But why are you still here? It's very late, isn't it?" asks Komet
"I'm the one that should be asking that, don't you think? Should I create a special rule to make resting mandatory to my collaborators?" he jokes
"It's not like working extra time is bad for the company, right? I'm not the only one here who does it anyway"
He raises an eyebrow. "There's a difference between voluntarily working for more than eight hours a day and working till exhaustion. How would you feel if your colleagues start passing out from overworking?"
Komet pokes her fingers. "Okay… Maybe I promise I'll try to change that, but I cannot promise it will work"
Gabriel sighs.
She starts to panic a bit. "I-I swear it's fine, it's just that I love to get stuff done, and well done on top of that! Please, don't lecture me again…". She puts her hands on her head and slowly faceplants on her desk.
"We can leave that for another day. I have a request for you. It's something of big importance and that needs to be kept a secret" he says, as he puts a stack of papers in front of her, with a little box in the top.
"Huh? What is this…?"
"It's classified information about a new device that InIATeS is developing. Apparently they are creating a device where you can connect your brain to the network and use your thoughts to do any kind of virtual task, without needing any kind of invasive surgery"
"I don't like the sound of it, especially coming from that company"
"Which is why I want to ask you this" Gabriel opens the box and hands her some kind of SD card. "I would like you to crack the software and learn the 'recipe' of it. If we just let them create it and launch it in the market, who knows what would happen to privacy, especially when it's about something as intimate as your own brain. Could you do that for me?"
I read some pages of the documents. The idea there sounded like something out of fiction. Of course, the thought of something like that being available to people sounded awful, especially from InIATeS, which is a company that was involved in shady things before they decided to rebrand themselves, so I wouldn't just say 'no' to his request. But I think what made me grow uncomfortable with the idea is that I was getting that request from my boss himself, not some random person from the Dark Web. Because, you know, you have expectations from companies.
"Is this actually developable?" she asks
He places the SD card in front of her. "You can check by yourself"
I checked it. It had a lot of weird things that I'd never seen in my life. Kinda like a new programming language, but more than just that. A lot of things I couldn't understand. But I could certify it's indeed something that could be developed somehow.
"There's no way you had access to that in a legal way!" she says in shock
He sighs. "You are correct"
She gets up in a millisecond. "Mr. Smith! Are you insane? If they find it out, your reputation will be ruined, regardless of doing that in good faith! Isn't there a better way to do that without breaking laws?"
"What would you do if you were in my position?"
If you two are thinking that I'd do the same, congrats, you are correct.
Komet stays silent.
Gabriel looks at the window, specifically at the horizon of the night sky in the city. "Unfortunately, the current state of our world doesn't allow us to trail the most honest path to clean it from all the filth. Dirty tricks are more than necessary when the hands of the corrupt are wrapped in all corners of our society. You know that more than most of the people here"
Yep, he was correct. I'm a criminal too in the eyes of the police after all, regardless of doing so to help people, and I do not intend to stop yet.
"I didn't want to sound like a hypocrite or something… It's just like you have way more to lose than when I was on the shady side. But why me?"
He looks at her. "You know very well about your background. Your skills. I know very well you are more capable of doing this, and I trust you as one of the biggest allies I could have here"
"I… I accept it. I'll show you that no challenge is impossible for me" she flashes a confident smile.
Present day
"Mr. Smith gave me the conditions to work on it. It has to be between us, no one else should know. I could only access the files from the office. I didn't have a deadline, but periodical reports were recommended. Then I went back home. When I arrived, the uncomfortable feeling hit me again, because the thing is so dangerous that I started feeling that absolutely no one should have access to it, at least not until I was done analyzing it. I don't know, maybe I feared that others would eventually catch us red handed if I kept it periodical, or that he would lose his mind if I kept giving the information in parts. I really don't know, I had a gut feeling that I should keep it only to myself until I was done. That's when I asked you both that question" says Komet
"So you kept it even from the one who has requested it?" asks Sonne
"Yes. Don't get me wrong, I trust him. I look up to him even. But since you answered something along the lines 'analyze it thoroughly and listen to your heart', I've decided to restrict the access from Mr. Smith too"
"Whaaaaaat? How did he react to that?" asks Lua in shock
"Well, I asked for his permission, of course. And, obviously, he wanted to know why. I gave some good excuses and he accepted it. But it started to be a problem when I wasn't really giving him proper reports, but fortunately, I could use the other big project I was working on as an excuse for that. The one of the 'Big Day', you know?"
Lua raises one brow while worried. "Sounds more like you were slowly getting yourself in trouble"
"I've promised him that I would give him the full report a month after the Big Day, but I didn't even get to see that day in the end" she sighs.
"If this thing they are developing is so scary for you, how come you felt comfortable enough to take half a year to finish breaking it?"
"It's not comfort, and I didn't get to finish it, either. Understanding and breaking through the codes was really hard. Also, we had intel that InIATeS decided to put the development on hold. Guess what caused that. Yes, the referendum, which was announced not long after that day. If 'allowing the police and the government full access to private information' gets to win, their device will automatically be doomed to fail, since, you know, people don't want randoms or the police to know what is in their heads. So they have decided to save their resources in case the people's choice make them throw everything in the trash can"
"Well, good thing you got some extra time then! Theoretically you still have more than a week before your deadline, right?"
Komet laughs. "If only that was the biggest of my worries… I'm probably already reported missing, so he will either wait for me to reappear or just crack my codes to get access to it, and this is fine. Anything is fine, as long as he doesn't learn that I went back to vigilante hacking"
The team arrives back at Plesiomon's huts, but they only find the two Gomamons around.
"Heey! You are back! I thought you were going to keep traveling! Welcome back!" says Gomi very enthusiastically.
"Oh, we were, but we had… Uuh… Well, it's something that we need to talk to Plesiomon. Where is she?" asks Komet
"Mom is taking a nap in her retreat. I can find her for you!"
Goma walks up to Gomi and stands in front of him. "Nope, you are not going alone. I, as your older brother, need to keep an eye on you and protect you at all times!"
"Ugh" interjects Komet
"Is something the matter?" asks Sonne
"It's just bad timing… I'd hate to disturb Plesiomon if, in the end, Dr. Dataniu was telling the truth all along"
"I understand your fear, but you should not let that influence your final decision. Like what you say quite often: 'better safe than sorry'"
"It's not like she will bite you or something anyway, she looks quite chill when you are not her enemy!" says Lua
"It's decided then" says Komet. She turns to the siblings. "We will follow right behind you!"
"Yeaaah!" say both Gomamons in unison. Goma runs towards the water and Gomi follows behind. They jump in and immediately start moving faster than they are when on land. Even so, their swimming speed is slower than Sonne's flight speed, so the lion has a bit of difficulty following the seals.
A few minutes later, they reach the resting area, and they spot Plesiomon. As soon as they get close, the plesiosaur raises her head and looks at them. She smiles when she notices it's just them. Since there's not enough land around, Sonne flies in place.
"Sorry to disturb you, I have a very important question for you" asks Komet, while looking worried.
"Go ahead, dear" the mom answers.
The lass inhales and then exhales. "Dr. Dataniu told me that he told you that he would be doing archeological research around your lake. Did he tell you exactly what he would be doing?"
"Oh! 'course he did! He would be doing some kind of scanning and excavation to look for some kind of ancient Digimon fossil. He even told me to move some of the residents temporarily so that they won't interfere with the search or get hurt in the process"
"Did that include draining part of the lake, making a lot of holes around and destroying part of the forest in the process?"
"Hm? Why would you think he would do that?"
"We actually saw it! I don't know how that was done fast, but it's a mess now!"
Plesiomon tilts her head. "Hmm… Maybe I should check it before the sun sets, but he did say it's a bad idea to stay around, so I don't know what-"
At this moment, they hear a loud explosion followed by a column of dust going up in the direction where Dr. Dataniu is excavating.
"What the hell? What is that tin can doing?" asked Lua
"I'll go check!" says Plesiomon, while moving away from the little piece of land.
"Mom! Wait for me! I'm going too!" says Goma
"No! You two will stay here! No, better, you should go back to the huts!" she says, while looking serious
"But-"
"No buts. Listen to your mom, and everything will be okay"
Goma lowers his head. "Fine…". The Gomamon siblings start swimming back to their house.
"You three, ride me. We need to get there as fast as we can. Hold on tight, because I'll go fast"
Sonne nods and lands on Plesiomon. Lua holds tight on his mane. Komet dismounts Sonne and holds tight on Plesiomon's spine scale. Then the mom starts swimming at a very high speed, so fast that it surpasses the lion's flight speed. They arrive at the place of the explosion in less than 4 minutes, when it took Sonne about 9 minutes to do the inverse route.
What they see shocks them: it's some kind of ancient brown shrimp-like creature full of metal blades at its sides and one larger blade on the tip of the tail. The monster is as big as Plesiomon, and it's on land, eating one of the Mori Shellmons, the shell seeming shattered. The mollusk is screaming in horror and pain. The surroundings are mostly destroyed, as if something brutally emerged from the ground. Plesiomon rushes towards the creature extremely angry.
"Plesiomon, wait! Don't go yet!" shouts Komet after they get close enough to have a better look.
Plesiomon stops approaching. "Huh?!"
"That's…". The lass, whose heart is pounding faster now, points at a purple aura emanating from the shrimp-like mon, with some of it descending from its body like a heavy fog. "That's an Infected! You need to be careful with its attacks, they can infect you and make you go berserk, with no turning back if it reaches your Digicore. We need to put this creature down before it destroys Loch Pless!" she shouts
"Precautions regarding the dark miasma should also be taken. We can't tell for sure how severe the damage will be if a large amount of it contamine the lake" growls Sonne
Komet mounts back on Sonne, who takes off Plesimon's back and flies in place, close to the plesiosaur. Then the group sees the other Mori Shellmon coming out of the woods, screaming. But this one also has a purple aura around it, and the eyes are completely white.
"The other idiot from yesterday got infected!" screams Lua
Komet grits her teeth and points at the giant bladed monster. "Lua, inspect!"
Lua focuses on the monster. "Anomalocarimon. Perfect level. A Digimon that lived in ancient times. It was the apex predator of the food chain and it had a great appetite. As an exceptional underwater hunter, it skillfully used its tentacles to capture the prey and the sharp blade tail to kill it. The projected eye on its head allowed it to see in the dark"
"Lived? Used? Could that be the fossil Dr. Dataniu was looking for? Where is that creepo by the way?"
"Hopefully he became that monster's toothpick," the bunny scoffs. "But now we have two Infecteds to face!"
"To make things worse, Lua is extremely vulnerable to the Corrosion Virus due to her level. She shouldn't get near them" says Sonne
"What? Are you benching me?" yells Lua
"He is right. You are gonna stay near me. You can still attack from a distance at least" says Komet
"Gah! I hate it, but you are right!"
"Worry not, I will make this quick, so you three don't need to fight" says Plesiomon. She swims closer to the two creatures and starts singing in a high-pitched voice. "Sorrow Blue!". But nothing happens. Instead, Anomalocarimon performs a sweeping attack with its tail, but Plesiomon easily dodges it. She looks surprised. "It… It didn't work!"
"What was supposed to happen?" asks Lua
Plesiomon grunts in frustration. "My Sorrow Blue was supposed to make lower willpowered creatures surrender, but nothing actually happened…"
"If I had to guess, their souls are far gone to respond to anything related to feelings…". Komet shakes her head. "We have no choice but to fight…". She looks very worried at Plesiomon, especially because the mom has to deal with the unknown, and the Infected can destroy in instants everything she fought hard to protect.
"I will go after the big one. Anomalocarimon is the name you said, right? I'm grown enough to deal with a Perfect. You three go after Mori Shellmon!" says Plesiomon
"Fight with care. Corrosion Virus amplifies the power of the victim by a lot. Also, you will deal with an underwater apex predator from ancient times, so the level scaling might be different. Don't let it reach the lake" says Sonne
"Okay team, Operation 'Loch Pless Cleansing', begin!" says Komet
Plesiomon nods and swims towards Anomalocarimon, while Sonne flies towards Mori Shellmon. The lion lands on the shore, and Komet and Lua quickly dismount him. The lass summons Ogremon's club from her device just in case, and tells Sonne to advance. At that moment, Mori Shellmon opens its mouth and spews a dense fog, lowering the visibility of their surroundings. A lot of pairs of yellow eyes surround them and start approaching them.
"Don't fret, those are just illusions! Attack the one you had on sight!" yells Komet, although nervous herself.
Sonne clads his claws in flames while running towards the mollusk. He jumps and tries to slash it, but the creature quickly retreats to its shell and spins away from him, escaping from Sonne's sight. "It got out of my sight" growls Sonne, mentally communicating to Komet's smartwatch.
"It's going for a surprise attack, isn't it? Stay alert!" says Komet, nervously looking around
"If this thing comes after us, we are in big trouble!" says Lua
"Wait!" the lass' eyes widen, like she has a brilliant idea. "This is exactly what we are gonna do! Sonne!" she says on her smartwatch. "We are still in the same spot. Take flight, so that we are the only thing Mori Shellmon can target. Intercept it when I give you the signal, which is when it gets close to us!"
"Understood" says Sonne, while discontent. He readies his wings and takes off, flying over the tumbled trees.
"Is that your idea? Putting yourself in danger again? You know what? I'll take what I said yesterday back. Your improvised plan sucks!" says Lua
"Shhh". Komet covers Lua's mouth. The fight between Plesiomon and Anomalocarimon can be easily heard. "You have the best hearing among us, so give the signal when Mori Shellmon approaches"
Lua frowns in worry, but she nods. The few seconds that pass are very tense, especially because the yellow eyes are still around, staring at them. Then Lua hears spinning noises going in their direction. "It's coming from the left! Jump out of the way!" yells Lua
Komet launches herself with Lua to the floor without thinking twice. At the same time, Sonne clads his whole body on fire and dives like a meteor towards the direction where the girls were. "Flame Dive!". The lion strikes right in the shell, making it crack and crumble. Mori Shellmon still tries to fight back, but it's basically powerless without a shell. Sonne leaps back, cladding his limbs in flames again. "Fira Claw!". He slashes through the mollusk's body, burning it. Mori Shellmon screeches in pain and collapses on the floor. Its body glitches and bursts into data, while infected data starts to fly away. Komet quickly gets up and accesses the 'Pyramid: Collect' function of her device. She walks towards the corrupted data-moths and raises her arm, pointing the smartwatch at them. The smartwatch emits a golden light and encloses the data in a pyramid-shaped case, and sucks all of it into the smartwatch. She looks at the screen, which now shows 'Sending…' on it. Then it changes to 'Sending complete' and goes back to its default interface. Sonne and Lua absorb the experience data left.
Komet proudly nods to herself. "We did it! We collected our first batch of infected data!"
Lua looks at Komet, impressed. "Did you actually know how Mori Shellmon would attack us or was that just a wild guess?"
"Perhaps I should remind you that Plesiomon provided us information on these Digimon's battle style" says Sonne to Lua
Komet nods. "You know I would never make a plan based on nothing"
"You know what? I take back what I took back. You are an amazing improviser!" says Lua while hugging Komet.
Per usual, Komet doesn't take this as a compliment and sighs. "Alright team, it's not over yet. We still have one more Infected to take down"
The fog dissipates as Mori Shellmon is completely gone, with only the pieces of its shell left on the floor as a reminder that it once existed.
"Shaking Pulse!"
The sun ends its course and the moon rises while Plesiomon launches a series of supersonic sound waves at Anomalocarimon, preventing it from entering the lake. The arthropod keeps dodging some of them while getting hit by some others on its sturdy carapace, while trying to hit Plesiomon with shockwaves created by its limbs, but she easily dodges them by moving around in the water. Both keep launching attacks at each other, most of them with little success, since they are fighting from different terrains. Even so, Plesiomon still has the upper hand, since she is swimming.
She notices that the fog on her right side is starting to dissipate, which she assumes it's a sign that Mori Shellmon has been defeated. "Thanks, goodness! A little support here is more than appreciated!". Then she sees Team Twilight flying in her direction.
"We are coming for the rescue!" shouts Lua, while waving at the mom
"I'm here to help too!" says someone
The four of them look at the direction of the voice, surprised and shocked. It's Goma, jumping out of the bushes, using water to slide through the land area. "I'll show I am also a guardian of this place! Marching Fishes!".
Goma summons a school of colorful flying fish at the arthropod, but all it does is catch its attention. It quickly turns at him and rushes towards him.
"GOMA, LEAVE!" yells Plesiomon. She charges and launches another Shaking Pulse at the monster, who takes the hit. But it doesn't stop the creature from launching an attack at Goma: it stretches its bladed tail at the seal to strike a direct hit. The blade cuts through the flesh of the sea mammal. But not the small one. It is Plesiomon's flippers, which she instinctively put in front of Goma. She shrieks in pain and uses her fins to push Anomalocarimon away.
"MOM!" screams Goma in horror, as he approaches her
"D-don't come! J-just run away!" yells Plesiomon
Sonne flies towards Plesiomon. The mother growls in pain. The injury contains a purple aura that starts spreading through her flipper.
Komet looks even more shocked and dismounts the lion. "S-shit! She… She is getting infected!"
"N-no… I… I will not let that happen!". Plesimon's eyes slit while she grits her teeth. She opens her mouth wide and bites the beginning of her own flipper with brute force, and rips it out of her body, throwing it away. She presses her eyes in deep pain, while the amputated part starts to bleed a lot.
The lass instantly moves her hands towards her mouth in horror. "Holy shit!"
Lua starts to panic. "She is bleeding a lot! W-we need to do something! Wait! I heard that fire can be used to stop it! Sonne, do it! Do it! Just do it please!"
"It's called cauterization, but I'm afraid we should focus-"
"Shaking Pulse!". Plesiomon launches another attack to keep Anomalocarimon on the floor
Sonne doesn't think twice and uses this as an opportunity to cover his paws on flame and use it to cauterize Plesiomon's wounds. She grunts and groans in pain while squeezing her eyes shut, but still using her attacks to keep Anomalocarimon away. After the cauterization is done, she rests her head on the shore, closing her eyes while feeling weakened by the pain and loss of blood.
Goma starts to shake and his eyes start to tear. "M-mom… No… I… I'm sorry… I should have listened to you…". He starts to cry aggressively, feeling extremely guilty. "I-it's my fault! It's my fault! S-she is crippled because of me!"
Komet looks towards the Gomamon. Sonne flies in front of the group after noticing that Anomalocarimon is recovering from the last attack.
Goma continues, while crying louder. "I… I made… I made a huge mistake… I… I don't deserve to be a guardian… Mom can't protect this place anymore, a-and it's my fault!"
"That's right. It's your fault. She got hurt because you didn't listen to her" says Komet
"Komet?" Lua turns around, looking at the lass very shocked. "What the heck is wrong with you, rubbing salt in the wound of a kid like that?"
"...and you finally understood why you should have listened to her." Komet continues. "But now that shit is done, are you going to just step down and leave everything to be destroyed? Or will you man up and accept your mistakes, and make you a better version of yourself?"
Goma swallows hard and holds his cry.
"Your mother is still alive. The lake still cries for help. If you just give up now, then everything your mother did for you will be in vain"
Goma's eyes start to get very full of tears while he still tries to hold it.
Komet gets closer to Goma, squats down and places her hand on his head. "Look, I know how horrible it is to make a mistake so big that it makes you want to forfeit everything. It hurts like hell… But it's not over yet. You might be too weak to take on a fight against things like Anomalocarimon, but there's still things you can do to help. Don't let your fear get the best of you. Make your mother proud. Make your little brother proud. And show the world that you learned from your mistakes and become the best guardian this lake has even seen"
Goma bursts into tears and hugs Plesiomon's neck. He keeps repeating "I'm sorry" and promising that he will be better than that. Komet gives a brief smile. Suddenly, a heavy rainstorm starts to fall, making the skies darker than it already is.
Lua whips her head towards the arthropod. "What the hell is happening now?"
Anomalocarimon sits on its tail rising his body straight up, and uses the rain it created to blast them with water. The rain hits them very hard, pushing all of them towards the lake. Lua and Komet put their hands in front of their eyes trying to see around, but the rain makes the visibility very low. Sonne lands after noticing that it's too dangerous to keep flying. Plesiomon, which was already at the shore, immediately gets pushed to the lake. Goma panics, afraid that she is gonna sink for being very weakened. "N-no! There's still things I can do! Marching Fishes!". He summons the colorful fishes again and guides them to move Plesiomon to calmer waters. The rain suddenly stops, and before the group can do anything, they see Anomalocarimon plunging towards the lake, knocking Komet and Lua into the water in the process. The dive is so strong that it drags the two girls to the bottom of the lake.
"NO!" cries Sonne. He flies over the lake to try to locate them, but the twilight sky doesn't seem to be in his favor in making it clear to see. All he sees is a large figure swimming in circles underwater. Sonne launches himself into the water, but he immediately floats back to the surface. He tries again, tries to use his wings to help, but all he gets from that are his flames getting weaker. "I'm unable to dive…". He looks down, growls in frustration and shakes in anger and hopes for a miracle while still trying to dive.
Goma also looks terrified and shaken. "E-everything is going wrong… If only… If only…"
"Show the world that you learned from your mistakes and become the best guardian this lake has even seen"
"N-no! I will become the next guardian! I will follow my mom's footsteps and make her proud!". Goma guides his Marching Fishes to place Plesiomon on the shore. "Mr. Sonne! Get back to the shore and take care of my mom! I will show this thing why bad guys should always fear the monsters of Loch Pless"
Sonne looks towards Goma and sees him looking serious and determined, then suddenly starts to get enveloped in bright light, mixed with 0s and 1s.
If there's something Komet is grateful for the first and only time in her life, is that she is just a small fry compared to the gigantic arthropod that's swimming around her. The size difference makes it hard for Anomalocarimon to prey on her, but it doesn't look like it plans to stop trying anytime soon. Or maybe the creature is just playing with its food. Fortunately, the predator was weakened by Plesiomon, but still doesn't seem to plan to stop moving anytime soon. She hugs Lua very tightly - who was knocked out, since she took a more direct hit - to prevent any bits of the infection from touching her, since the bunny is just a Child, and it could quickly kill her.
She tries to swim up, but the predator swerves to prevent her from doing so. Each time she dodges one of the creature's lunges, she gets a new cut from the blades from the side of its body, dying the water around her in red, while other parts of the blood transform into bits of data. The Infected on the other hand, in its hunt dance, paints the water with purple. She looks up, hoping she sees someone, or that someone sees her, but only the full moon watches her at the moment. She starts running out of oxygen while the creature still circles around her, getting ready for another attack. All Komet can do is mentally grunt while panicking even more, as she doesn't have much time left. She may have more endurance against the Corrosion Virus for being mostly human, but the water is getting too contaminated with it. She tries to not feel hopeless, so she looks at Lua again, who finally opens her eyes.
Before she tries to use her last effort to save themselves somehow, she sees a dark conic propelled projectile going in their direction. The projectile hits Anomalocarimon, blowing up and pushing it away. The pressure of the explosion also pushes the girls away, closer to the bottom of the lake. Anomalocarimon screeches, while something else swims in their direction: a four meters long walrus, with long white fur, black paws with red claws for its flippers and a long black horn in the middle of its head. The walrus keeps hitting the Infected with the projectiles, which is apparently shot from the horn. Anomalocarimon screeches once again, but now has its attention towards the white Digimon.
The new Digimon tries to take the fight away from them, but the arthropod refuses to leave its current prey alone. The walrus keeps attacking from a distance, being very careful. Komet feels scared at first, but the walrus feels… Familiar. There's still hope. They can be saved. Loch Pless can be saved. She looks at Lua in the eyes, who looks back at her, very worried. With her last strength, she uses the data from the blood that she's been losing, converting it into aura, and passes on to Lua in a flow of 0s and 1s. The lass smiles confidently at her before suffocating. Then she passes out by drowning.
Lua looks shocked at Komet. As she is receiving the flow of data, she looks around. The lake is getting infected. The fluffy walrus is having trouble dealing with the apex predator. Sonne is nowhere to be seen, most likely because water is a big weakness for a fire lion. Komet drowned, giving all her trust to the bunny. Upon receiving all the data, Lua frowns. "I'll not be left behind! I'll not be the one needing to be helped again! I'll not let my friends fall!". She starts shining brighter, as bright as the full moon that illuminates the sky. The energy flows into her, and she feels her form changing. She knows very well what she is becoming: Lekismon, a tall pink bunny that stands on two long and muscular legs, with sharp purple claws on her toes. She is taller than Komet, wears black gloves and still has her moon necklace around her neck. She wears a metal mask tied with a long dark pink ribbon, and six long purple protrusions grow from her back. Funny enough, Lua still has the bandages on her ear.
The evolved Lua hugs Komet tight. "It's my turn now". She looks at the walrus and recognizes him: it's Goma, who also evolved. She catches Goma's attention, and signals at him to bring Anomalocarimon closer to her.
Goma, being an aquatic creature, can speak underwater. "Are you telling me to bring the Infected closer to you?"
Lua nods
Goma swims over Anomalocarimon. "Harpoon Vulcan!". He shoots a series of torpedos at the creature, pushing it down. Lua lands at the lakebed, squats down and propels herself up at a high speed. She flips around and uses her strong legs to perform a powerful kick on the Infected's underbelly. "Moon Night Kick!" . The Infected is launched up at a high speed. Goma swims in her direction. Lua holds on to his fur, and the walrus quickly swims up and away from the infected waters. Goma shoots some more times at the monster, finally launching it out of the water. He then surfaces, and Lua immediately jumps out of Goma, going towards the shore and placing Komet next to Sonne as soon as she sees him with Plesiomon.
Sonne opens a big smile. "Thank goodness, you have returned! You also have evolved!"
"I have no time now. Komet drowned, go resuscitate her, now!" orders Lua. She jumps away from them and lands next to Anomalocarimon, who's now back on land, turning itself around. "Nope, you are not getting up, piece of shit! Tear Arrow!". She jumps up and launches six icicle arrows at the creature, which all hit the carapace, not dealing enough damage to injure it. The creature, in retaliation, tries to stab her with its tail, but she quickly dodges it.
"The belly! We need to hit the belly!" shouts Goma
"Right, but how am I going to flip that crap around?" asks Lua
"Leave it to me! Harpoon Vulcan!". Goma launches two horn missiles at the side of Anomalocarimon, making it fall on its belly. "It's our chance! Quickly!"
Lua smirks, jumps up and launches the icicles again. "Suffer and die, motherfucker!" she yells while giving it the middle finger. Goma also attacks with his projectiles. All of them hit right on its belly, making the body glitch. The Infected shrieks one last time before bursting into bits of data and infected data-moths. Upon dying, the carapace is left behind, as a memento of the hard battle that was fought there. Lua rushes back to where Sonne and the others are, takes the smartwatch from Komet's wrist and uses it to capture the infected data before it flies away. After capturing it and sending it to Anpu, she places the device back to Komet's wrist, while Sonne keeps trying to resuscitate Komet.
"W-we did it! W-we protected the lake!" says Goma, very emotional, while approaching the group. He notices that Komet is still unconscious. He looks very worried about the lady. "She… She is going to be okay, right?"
"She will. She wouldn't dare die like that when she had much worse" says Lua, while clenching her fists
At that moment, Komet opens her eyes wide, wheezes and coughs a lot, expelling bits of water that was still on her lungs.
"Thank gods!" Lua hugs Komet very tight and starts to calm down. The lass looks around, very confused.
"Be gentle, Lua. She just came back to us" growls Sonne
Goma smiles relieved. Then he walks towards Plesiomon. He looks at her, then at her amputated flipper, and then looks down. "Mom…"
Plesiomon gives him a sweet smile. "Look at my son. He is growing up! I'm so proud of him"
"Proud…? But I-"
Plesiomon interrupts him with a nuzzle. "Yes, proud"
Goma sighs and smiles back. "T-thanks!"
Some time passes. Komet comments positively on Lua's new form, making her feel flattered. She does the same for Goma, in which he gets embarrassed and timidly tells her that he is an Ikkakumon now. Team Twilight decides they will spend one more night in Loch Pless before heading back to their journey after all the stress. Goma helps Plesiomon swim back to the hut. Komet, still recovering from the drowning, looks around.
"A fossil came back to life, and we sent it back to fossil. I wonder how it got resurrected…" says Komet
"Maybe this happens when someone goes fossil hunting. But I think it's more likely that that creepy tin can did something that went wrong" says Lua
"Talking about Dr. Dataniu, no signs of him in the end, huh…?"
"Who cares? Like I said, hopefully he just got killed for messing with this place" says Lua
"Feeling aggressive right now, huh?"
"Get used to it," says Sonne. "As Lekismon, her mood changes like the phases of the moon"
"Talking about the moon, look at this amazing full moon! Today really meant to be my day, huh?" says Lua, as she opens her arms.
Sonne rolls his eyes. "Come on, mount on me already. They are already heading back to their place"
Komet nods and walks towards Sonne, ready to mount him, but she hears bushes rustling and a small yellow light peeking from it. She runs towards it and shouts. "Stop right there!"
"What is it?" asks Lua, going after her
Komet opens the bushes and sees nothing. She looks around and still sees nothing. "I heard it rustling. I'm sure I saw familiar eyes looking through it. It was probably him!"
Lua looks around too. "I don't see anything, nor feel that idiot around. You are probably hallucinating as a side effect of your drowning". She picks Komet up and takes her back to Sonne. She pats the lass on the head. "Let's go, you need to rest well"
Komet mounts first, then Lua mounts behind her. Since the lass is still recovering, the big bunny holds tight on Sonne's mane while also holding her. Sonne flaps his wings and follows Goma and Plesiomon, to finally get a well deserved rest.