We're on a roll people!
And this is our first completely original episode, because obviously I need to add in events to make Salamon, Veemon and Wormmon evolve.
However, due to all of this being completely original, it's a bit shorter, but we did our best to extend it as much as possible.
As well, Timeless as informed me that coming Monday, we're going to have to slow down a bit due to personal reasons on his side.
At the most, those reasons should last for roughly 2 weeks if not more.
Now that the warning has been given so no one complains about a drop in posting speed, let's start the show!
Flashing Claws! Gatomon!
After the rather stressful night when they'd been attacked by Seadramon, the group was once more on their way to Infinity Mountain. Though it was clear the previous night's sleep wasn't as well rested as they'd like.
Salamon yawned loudly from her spot on Nora's head. "I didn't sleep so well last night…"
"Tell me about it," Patamon yawned as well. "Hopefully nights like that don't become a habit."
"Please don't tempt the universe you two," Blake sighed.
"Well...look on the bright side. Now we got two Digimon who can evolve to...uh…" Ruby started, then paused as she realized she had no idea what those stages were called.
"They're called the Adult Level," Tentomon supplied helpfully.
"Right, now we got two Adult Digimon on our team!" she said, giving him a grateful nod.
"Does it go above Adult Level?" Weiss asked, rather curious about it.
"It does, beyond Adult is the Perfect Level, and there are rumors that there's a level even above that." Tentomon added.
"Let's...hope we don't run into any of those soon," Jaune gulped. Adult Digimon were scary enough. He wasn't in a hurry to run into, and with their luck, fight, a Digimon that was at a level titled 'Perfect' of all names.
"And now we're almost definitely going to run into one of those," Ren deadpanned, causing the blonde to blanche when he realized what he did.
"Ooohh! This is new!" Nora said, getting everyone's attention as she looked at her digivice with raised eyebrows.
"What is it?" Gyro asked, it had to be either extremely mundane it went around to awesome, or just straight up awesome if Nora reacted like that.
"That radar that didn't have anything anymore has a black dot on it now." she said, before the others all pulled out their own digivices and went to the same screen, showing that there was indeed a black dot on it now, moving quickly.
"So… judging by this thing, that black dot should be… over there." Pierce said as he looked west, just in time to see something small, and black, move quickly across the sky.
"What the heck was that?" Veemon wondered, tilting his head in confusion.
"Dunno, but I get the feeling we'll find out," Gyro frowned.
"Why am I not surprised?" Weiss sighed. "With our luck, it'll lead us straight into another life or death situation at the hands of a violent Digimon...no offense to all Digimon in present company," she said, adding the last part quickly.
"None taken," all the Digimon waved off.
"Well, no use worrying too much. We might as well keep going while its still bright," Yang said.
"Then let's go!" Biyomon said enthusiastically.
"She's got a point," Blake nodded. "We've still got a long way to go."
"Hopefully we at least manage to find ONE group of civil Digimon willing to hold a conversation instead of outright attacking us." Pyrrha said with a sigh.
"I'm sure we will. There are lots of friendly Digimon on the island," Gabumon reassured.
"Make that hope we run into them when they AREN'T pissed off at something," Pierce commented.
"This is about the Monochromon isn't it?" Veemon said with a sweatdrop.
"What do you think?" Pierce told him dryly, earning a nervous chuckle from his partner.
Despite that, they continued on. However, after a while of walking, Yang felt the urge to address a growing elephant in the room. "So...anyone else wondering about all the road signs in this forest?"
"Yes," Everyone said. "But we've been trying VERY hard not to think about it," Blake said with a sigh.
"...I'm guessing it goes without saying we all agree they don't actually mean or lead anywhere, right?" the blonde brawler couldn't help but ask.
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Yeah, their kind of all over the place on the island and are just… there." Biyomon said, gesturing with her arms all around her.
"Stuff like this does show up a lot, huh?" Tentomon mused.
"Though I wonder why we never had any of that in the plateau we lived in," Agumon couldn't help but say, causing all the gathered Digimon to frown in thought...but ultimately shook their heads unable to answer that.
"Let's just… focus on moving ahead." Gyro said, rubbing his temples. He never considered himself someone who overly adhered to rules of logic, but the Digital World was just plain confusing some days.
"Hm?" Palmon blinked as they continued walking.
"Something wrong, Palmon?" Ruby asked.
"The soil seems more worn here. I think we're getting close to an actual trail," she reported.
"Ok, that's good. A trail means people walk here regularly, so that means we're close to a lived in area, meaning a place with civilized Digimon. I think we're catching a break today." Weiss said with a relieved sigh.
"Aw man, I was hoping I'd get to do something fun today." Nora said with a pout, while Salamon looked down at her dryly from her spot on top of her head.
Ultimately deciding to ignore the overly energetic girl, the group continued down the path, Palmon guiding them till they found it. What they soon found was a small village...literally.
"Huh...its a village, but the huts are all so small," Jaune blinked at the sight.
"That probably means whoever lives here isn't very big," Gyro pointed out. "I mean, we HAVE seen some pretty small Digimon so...I guess it makes sense."
"And I know what the villagers are." Wormmon said as he pointed at a hut where one villager was poking his head out his entrance to look at them.
It was roughly the same size as Wormmon, and in the same shape of a caterpillar, but it had a yellow carapace with a red belly, blue claws as legs with a blue beak like mouth and a long dark blue stinger on its rear end, it had a pair of long antennae, and covering its body were lightning bolt shaped black marks.
"Oh, it's Kunemon." Salamon noted in a slight tone of surprise.
Digimon Analyzer: Kunemon
Kunemon. Virus Type. A Child Level Larva Digimon. Kunemon are among the more docile Virus Digimon, and serve as a reminder to never judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, type. While unclear, it's believed the lighting patterns on its face act as it's ocular organs. Its special attack is Electric Thread, spitting a thread of silk charged with electricity, which can knock out most large digimon when wrapped up for long enough.
"Why are you surprised to see it?" Ren asked her.
"Because usually Kunemon make their homes in trees." Gomamon answered for her.
"I'll see if I can convince them we're friendly." Wormmon said as he jumped off of Ren's shoulder.
"Let me help. I'm a bug too after all." Tentomon added as he followed after Wormmon.
With that said the group watched as the two Insectoid Digimon went into the village proper and started talking with the Kunemon who had been brave enough to peek outside.
And, after a minute or so of them talking, the Kunemon took a deep breath "Friendly people!" it shouted into the village.
"Always the quiet ones," Pierce blinked, the group wincing at the small creature's surprisingly loud voice.
It's shout though had the actual intended effect, as more and more Kunemon started coming out of their homes while Wormmon and Tentomon went back to the group.
"They won't be having any issues with us resting here for the day, mostly because this is the first time their meeting humans." Wormmon explained as he reclaimed his spot on Ren's shoulder.
"Glad to hear that," Jaune sighed in relief.
"Guess we finally got a good experience outside of our partners, huh?" Ruby chuckled, something they all shared, glad to finally have an actually good encounter with other Digimon other than their partners.
Everyone was relieved when they were able to relax in the village, even if the many Kunemon stared at them curiously, and some brave ones came up and poked them curiously.
After lunch had passed though, it seemed that their luck had finally caught up to them…
"Hm?" Gyro looked up, looking around confused.
"Something that matter?" Pierce asked him.
"You don't hear that?" Gyro shot back.
At that, Pierce rose an eyebrow, before simply trying to listen to what his brother had seemingly heard.
He could sort of hear… something, but he had no idea what it was supposed to be.
"What the heck is that?" Yang said, starting to hear it too.
"It sounds like… static electricity, or something along those lines." Blake said, obviously making use of her hidden advantage.
"It must be just some of the Kunemon. They do have electric energy charged into their nets," Tentomon said.
"The only problem with that is that none of them are using their threads near us at the moment." Weiss pointed, stumping Tentomon.
"So uh...should we be worried about that?" Jaune asked.
"Considering our track record so far...yeah, I think so," Gyro deadpanned.
"Oh don't worry, it's just Thundermon," a random Kunemon said. "He's kinda like our next door neighbour. He doesn't bother anyone." if the Kunemon could, he would be waving their concerns off by now.
"Wait… isn't that like that the second time we've been told something like that?" Nora noticed, blinking in realisation.
It took a moment for everyone to first process that 1) Nora was right and 2) that electric sound was getting louder and louder.
In fact…
"Hit the deck!" Gyro shouted as everyone dived down as something incredibly fast whizzed past their heads. The blur crashed into and through a few huts before going through a few trees, causing several of them to topple over, leaving a small trail of destruction in its wake. And as if to further hit in the point…
"Big trouble!" came a shout from the direction the blur had come, as several other Kunemon came 'running'. "Thundermon...Thundermon's gone crazy!"
At that, the humans all just shared deadpan stares at each other, while the gathered Digimon had HUGE sweat drops on their heads. "Uh…" they were honestly at a loss for words.
"Right, no point in trying to explain Murphy being a jerk I guess, but this is weird though if he's supposed to be friendly." Gyro said as the humans (and one hidden faunus) all had to stay low.
"It gets worse," one of the Kunemon said. "He's suddenly started rampaging through our game trails. Our village depends on those for our food supply."
"That's not good," Ren's eyes widened at the news.
"We gotta help them," Nora said suddenly, her voice losing the silliness it usually had.
"In that case, we need to find a way to stop Thundermon." Salamon said, a little part of her glad her partner was taking this seriously.
"But how do we find him?" Pyrrha pointed out. "He was moving almost as fast as Ruby with her semblance."
"Well, finding him is easy, seems like he wants to wreck the place. What we need to do is find a way to stop him." Ruby pointed out.
Everyone started looking around, hoping to get any sort of clue as to what might stop Thundermon, before Nora suddenly grinned as she darted towards the edge of the forest.
"Ok what the… hell?" Pierce started, before his voice turned into a whisper as Nora actually lifted up one of the tree trunks that had fallen down, hefting it over her shoulder.
"Suddenly, the randomness has become worth it." Salamon said with a grin.
Nora gave the tree a few test swings, almost like a baseball bat, pursing her lips in thought "Hey, can someone electrocute me a bit?"
That gave everyone pause as they looked at her, completely thrown for a loop.
Ren merely sighed, before turning to Tentomon "Just zap her a bit, her semblance will absorb it and make her stronger."
"Um… alright then." Tentomon said, still confused, but complying as his wings started buzzing and he gathered a charge between the two halves of his shell "Petit Thunder!"
Nora grinned as the attack hit her, her semblance activating as the electricity arced off her body and she started swinging the tree trunk much faster.
"I'm gonna knock you out of the park." Nora called into the area with a wild grin. "So come on Thundermon, show me what ya got!"
Against all odds….that actually worked, as the sound of static could be heard, and a familiar blur soon came back. Thundermon came at her with all the intent of a seeker missile...only to be met with a whole lot of wood in his face, before he was sent flying back, hitting a rock, finally revealing to them what he looked like.
In all honesty, the group expected something more intimidating, for all he was, was just a black ball with a yellow thunderbolt sticking out the top of his head, a pair of short arms and legs.
Digimon Analyzer: Thundermon
Thundermon. Data Type. An Adult Level Mutant Digimon. Known as the Digimon Dynamo, it's a part of the Mamemon family of Digimon. His body is like a small magnet, constantly clad in electricity generated by his high speed. His special attack is Thunder Ball, discharging several spheres of electricity at it's targets.
Thundermon groaned as he pried himself from the stone, letting out a roar that was probably supposed to be intimidating. However, considering his size…
The humans (and one hidden faunus) couldn't take it anymore...and promptly started laughing. They knew they shouldn't, they knew that they should have been taking this more seriously, but after all the life and death situations they'd been through at the hands of massive Digimon, seeing such a TINY Digimon being their opponent...the novelty was too much.
Apparently, Thundermon took offense to that as he started rushing again…
Only for Nora to just bat him away with the tree again.
"This is almost embarrassing," Yang snickered as they saw the Digimon go flying like a baseball again.
"But it IS pretty funny," Biyomon chuckled.
"Shouldn't we figure out why Thundermon is going crazy?" Ruby asked.
"Sure we will," Gyro said...right as Nora knocked Thundermon back again. "Right after this stops being funny."
"Is it wrong that this is actually pretty fun to watch?" Patamon couldn't help but ask as he snickered at the sight of Thundermon being launched away.
"...maybe a little," Agumon chuckled.
"And here's one for the road!" Nora shouted as she gave one last mighty swing, and Thundermon was sent soaring beyond the trees.
They all waited for a moment for Thundermon to rush back again, that moment stretching on into seconds, and then a full minute.
It was at that minute that Ren deadpanned "We lost him."
"Ah...we...probably shouldn't have been enjoying that ball game too much, huh?" Pierce sweatdropped.
Gyro gave him a look at that "Now really isn't the time for your stupid puns."
"Wasn't even trying to this time," Pierce shot back.
"Okay you two, enough of that," Pyrrha said, breaking up the argument. "We need to find Thundermon first."
"She's right, we'd better hurry and find him before he causes more trouble," Veemon nodded, to which the two brothers did the same and the group immediately set their sights on the direction Nora had launched Thundermon.
Unfortunately for the group, this unsurprisingly, proved a bit harder than expected. "How far DID you launch him?" Weiss couldn't help but ask in annoyance as they trudged through what they assumed to be one of the Village's game trails considering the number of berry bushes and and various other fruit they noticed along the way.
"Uh….whoops?" Nora said sheepishly.
Weiss shook her head in annoyance, before turning to the Digimon who were helping with the search. "Any luck with finding him?"
"Not really. He's pretty small, and he was sent flying, so there's really not much to track," Tentomon shook his head.
"Hey, hold on… I think I got something." Pierce said, looking at his digivice.
"What is it?" Jaune asked, grabbing for his own just in case.
"Remember that weird black thing in the sky earlier? It's in range of the Digivices again." Pierce pointed out.
The others checked and, sure enough, the black dot was on their radar again, coincidentally, it seemed to line up with the area that Thundermon was knocked into.
"Whatever it is, looks like it may have latched onto Thundermon." Gyro noted.
"Do you think maybe it's the reason he's acting different from how the Kunemon describe him?" Ruby wondered.
"It makes sense, according to them last night he was perfectly fine, and we saw that black thing heading roughly towards the area he makes his home." Palmon agreed with the theory.
"So...what? Did we see some kind of parasite or maybe even a virus that causes Digimon to go berserk or something?" Yang frowned.
"That...might be pretty accurate actually," Blake mused.
"But also really scary," Wormmon shivered. "If there are more of these things, then Digimon all over the island could go berserk at any time."
"Then we'd better try and see what we can do about this before things get worse," Ren said.
"Right," everyone nodded in agreement. Using the radar as a guide, they were able to home in...and found a cliffside...with a small hole in the nearby rocks and the sound of something drilling.
"...wow, either he's trying to get into the rocks, or you REALLY hit him hard," Gomamon blinked at the sight.
"Well, let's see if we can get him out AND figure out what's wrong," Ren said, before turning to Wormmon. "Can you make your nets thicker and stronger than normal?" he asked, earning a nod from his partner. "Alright, we'll need those to try and catch him."
"Okay everyone, nice and easy now unless someone wants to lose a bodypart," Gyro gulped a little as they slowly approached the hole, Wormmon quickly spinning an extra strong net. Getting into position, they were ready to catch the berserk mon when he got out of the hole he was in, and evident by how the sound of spinning and electricity was getting louder, he was about to do very soon.
A moment later, he burst out, getting caught in the net, and everyone was about to cheer, before he continued forward, and everyone was holding on started getting dragged around by him.
The hunters all had a collective thought as they got dragged on the ground.
'Thanks god for aura.'
Although the Digimon… let's just say it was painful, because that was a rather cacophonous series of 'Ow's.
At the very least, the plan was having some sort of effect on him, as with everyone dragging behind him it stopped him from going too quickly or getting up high, and with all the twisting he was doing he was getting tangled up in the net more and more. Unfortunately, at the last minute, he hiked upwards, and the sudden jerk caused the Digimon to let go thanks to the leftover effects from all the dragging. The effects were soon known, as Thundermon started picking up some speed thanks to the lighter load, and was soon pulling them all over the place.
"Okay, this wasn't such a great plan!" Gyro admitted as they were now screaming through a small flight.
"Ya think?!" Everyone else shouted, before a shout happened...and Ruby let go from a sudden turn, the younger girl falling...and landing on top of Palmon who had moved to catch her.
"Sorry Palmon!" Ruby said, quickly getting off.
"...shit…" was all Gyro could say when he realized where this was going. The teens were soon screaming again when Thundermon renewed his attempts to shake them off, and one by one they were forced to let go, all of them thankfully landing safely thanks to their auras, but each time one let go, Thundermon became faster and faster, till finally only Nora was still holding on, the orange head actually biting onto the net to help keep her grip.
"Nora!" Salamon shouted in alarm seeing her partner in a rather precarious position.
Eventually it seemed Thundermon had gotten fed up with the girl's grip, and soon flew straight to the cliffside. Seeing the incoming rocks, Nora's eyes widened, and she immediately let go, falling through some trees, but ultimately landing on the ground, more or less okay, since her aura finally broke. "I'm okay!" she said quickly. Too bad at that moment, Thundermon rammed into the cliff, causing a strong tremor, which caused several rocks to fall...headed right for the girl.
"LOOK OUT!" Salamon shouted running towards her partner to try and save her.
(Play Brave Heart)
At that moment, Nora's Digivice shined bright, sending the signal to the sky, and once more the light emerged releasing the waterfall of data.
"Salamon, Evolution!" Salamon started as the data flowed into her before she transformed. "Gatomon!" She hadn't changed much in terms of height, being just a half foot taller as she stood on her hind legs, but what had changed however was her species, going from a dog to a cat with a white coat of fur, her ears tipped with strands of purple fur, while her tail was very long and striped with purple. Hanging around said tail was a Holy Ring, a smaller one than had been around her neck in her previous form, but still something that showed how strong she was nonetheless. As for her forepaws, there were clad in a pair of yellow cat gloves with red stripes, and sporting large claws on their tips.
A white blur zipped between Nora and the incoming boulders, before those were promptly sliced apart, falling harmlessly around the girl, Gatomon landing defensively between Nora and where Thundermon was.
"Salamon, you evolved!" Nora said, her eyes widening a little in wonder.
Digimon Analyzer: Gatomon
Gatomon. Vaccine Type. An Adult Level Holy Beast Digimon. Although small, Gatomon is the true definition of not judging a book by it's cover, as her small body holds a lot of power, most of which is concentrated to her legs, making her not only an excellent jumper, but also an extremely fast Digimon. The Holy Ring on her tail serves as the source of most of her power. Her special attack is Neko Punch, striking the opponent at high speeds with her sharp claws.
"Its Gatomon in this form, Nora," Gatomon chuckled lightly, before turning and glaring at Thundermon who'd just broken free of the rocks again. "Enough games, this ends now," she said.
Thundermon seemed to think the same, before he started zipping around the two, looking for an angle to attack...or he WOULD have if Gatomon didn't suddenly appear in front of him and promptly batted him away with a strike from the Holy Ring on her tail, causing Thundermon to dig a small trench on the nearby ground.
"Damn! She's fast!" Yang whistled at the sight.
"I've heard Gatomon are among the fastests Adult level Digimon, but this is something else," Biyomon said in agreement.
Back at the fight, Thundermon charged forward again, but Gatomon met his attacks blow for blow, and several times, landed her own strikes with punches and kicks. Eventually Thundermon got fed up of fighting the feline, and charged up his special attack, before throwing it at Gatomon, who smirked at the sight. "This one's for you, Nora," she chuckled before spinning in mid-air...and knocking the attack right back with her Holy Ring, causing Thundermon to shout in pain as his internal electricity was overloaded. Taking her chance, Gatomon jumped forward, fist reared back. "Neko Punch!" she called out as she landed a haymaker right in Thundermon's face, the impact launching the small mon back and through several trees, before finally slamming into a nearby boulder where he slowly slid down, and fell flat on his face out cold. When they all went to check, they arrived just in time to see something small emerge from his back, before flying into the sky and shattering to pieces, the signal on their radars going dead when it did.
(Song end)
With the fight over, Gatomon glowed and reverted to Salamon, while Gyro was staring at the sky a little.
"Was that… a black gear of some sorts?" Gyro mused as he looked at where the gear at burst apart.
A groan alerted them all to Thundermon, slowly getting back up as he rubbed his cranium "Owww, what the heck hit me?" he whined at the pain he was still reeling from, before opening his eyes and looking at everyone in confusion "Uh… who are you guys?"
Minutes later, everyone had returned to the Kunemon village, where Thundermon explained what had happened this morning.
"I was just minding my own business, zipping around the trees like I usually do, then all of a sudden, this weird black gear thingy comes out of nowhere! I dodged it of course because, hey, I'm faster than it was, and I was able to keep on doing that for a good while, but then I suddenly felt something hit me in the back and the next thing I know, I'm waking up with a massive headache." Thundermon recounted, sitting on top of one of the huts so he was eye level with the hunters.
"So, it made you go berserk then? That's troubling, since there's likely more of those out there." Weiss said with a frown.
"Betcha we're going to have to deal with those more often now." Gyro said with a groan.
"Even I think that would be exhausting, and I ALWAYS have energy to spare." Nora said, having spent a lot of energy earlier, thus why she was remaining so still.
As the sun shone high in the sky, the Kunemon thanked the group, giving them a few bag fulls of supplies for saving both their village and Thundermon.
"Don't be a stranger if you come around these parts again," Thundermon said. "And if you ever need a hand, I'm your mon. I owe you guys one."
"We were happy to help Thundermon, hope we see you again soon." Pierce answered, the others nodding in agreement.
The little Digimon grinned at that, before floating off the ground "Well, see you guys some other time then!" he said, before turning to one of the trails "Beep beep!" and shooting off.
Gyro and Pierce both adopted deadpan looks as they saw him rocket off.
'Freaking Road Runner expy.' they thought in unison, as the group continued onwards, the heat of the sun blaring down at them. Despite it all, if one looked closely, Nora could be seen with Salamon sitting on her head, enthusiastically talking about the fight before, the little Digimon smiling the whole way.
And voila!
Yeah, I took a few liberties with Kunemon, making them more docile then they actually are.
But, yeah, this is the Gatomon episode, even though everyone was expecting the Birdramon episode.
And she's REALLY fast here.
Basically, if we were to use a video game, she has the highest speed stat amongst the Adult Levels.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, because...
The Adventure Evolves.