Have another!

Yeah, it's pretty fun to be pumping these out so much.

Anyway, not much to say today, so let's get started.

Red Hot! Birdramon!

"Fruits are really great for traveling. Easy to eat while we're walking," Yang commented with an apple in her hand as they continued walking through the forest, having left the Kunemon village a little under an hour ago.

"Easy on the supplies guys. We may have a lot, but when I asked for directions, they told me that we should be approaching a savannah soon," Gyro said, tossing aside a banana peel. "We don't know how long it'll take, so try to conserve as much food and water as we can."

"Right," everyone nodded in agreement.

As they walked though, Yang couldn't help but look at their destination in the distance. "...when we reach the mountain, then what?" she couldn't help but ask. "Think we'll really find a way back from there?"

"Honestly? We have no idea," Pierce sighed, walking next to her. "If nothing else though, its better than wandering around aimlessly.

"Though it's still fun," Veemon said with a grin, while Biyomon walked up next to Yang as well.

"I'm perfectly happy anywhere, as long as Yang is there too," she said, rubbing her head affectionately against Yang's leg.

"Heh, guess you're right," Yang chuckled, idly patting Biyomon. She honestly found how clingy the bird could be at times to be rather endearing, and it honestly reminded her of Ruby at times, so it was nothing she wasn't already used to.

Suddenly, everyone stopped, as they all heard a sound like something spinning, coming from the sky, catching sight of what it was for just a moment.

"Another Black Gear." Jaune said with a sigh as his shoulders slumped.

"Guess we're in for some trouble again." Gomamon said with a grimace.

"Considering its flying in the direction we're going, most likely," Ren confirmed.

"Well, look on the bright side," Nora said.

"What bright side?" Wormmon couldn't help but ask.

"If its going the same way we're going, we can beat it up along the way," she said simply.

"I mean… she's not wrong." Ruby said after a rather long pause had passed between the group.

"I guess it is better than just leaving whoever it infects to cause trouble," Palmon nodded.

"That's true. I mean, we're already on our way. The least we could do is lend a hand to anyone who needs it, right?" Gyro agreed. "At any rate, we can only go forward."

With a nod going through the group, they continued on their path. Though Yang was a little behind this time as Biyomon was rubbing against her again. "You're awful clingy today," she couldn't help but chuckle. "Something happen?"

"Nope, I'm just happy that we're all together," Biyomon smiled as the two continued on after their friends.

The group continued on their trek, and unsurprisingly they noticed the heat getting higher and higher until… "There's the end of the forest!" Blake reported as she and Patamon ran ahead a little, and soon winced as the bright sunlight hit them. What met them appeared to be a field of sand with a large number of bizarre poles all over that resembled the telephone poles of old, and some patches of grass standing stubbornly amidst the scorching heat. "Huh, this place almost looks like it could be part of Vacuo," she couldn't help but say.

"Vacuo? Where's that?" Patamon asked.

"It's a place back in Remnant that looks a lot like here… minus the telephone poles." Weiss said as she and Tentomon came up behind Blake, before Weiss idly wiped some sweat off her brow, looking rather uncomfortable in the heat.

"You okay? You're from Atlas, so I'm guessing the heat must be hard to get used to," Ruby asked in concern.

"I'm alright," Weiss reassured, a small smile on her face at the concern. It was nice really. "Thanks to the heatwaves Atlas has been experiencing lately, this isn't a completely new experience for me."

"Either way, we'd better get through here as fast as we can," Pierce said. "Wouldn't want any of us to experience heat stroke."

"Still though, this place sure is surreal with all the telephone poles and all that," Jaune mused, before a thought hit him. "You okay, Gomamon?" he asked, remember his partner was CLEARLY an aquatic Digimon even if he had no issues staying on land.

"I'm fine," Gomamon said with a smile. "I may like the water, but I can handle this kind of heat just fine."

"Still, it's kind of weird to suddenly see sand right after stepping out of a forest." Gyro noted as crouched and grabbed a handful, pausing as he looked closer at it "Nevermind, that's not sand."

"Wait, what?" Weiss said as she crouched down and looked at what he was holding, taking some from his hand to get a better look "You're right… this is powdered iron. Well, at least we know a compass would be useless here."

"Hey… hold on a minute." Ruby said, her face slowly lighting up as she turned to Pyrrha "How good are you with your semblance?"

Pyrrha blinked at the sudden topic "That depends on what you have in mind."

"Can you make a big platform from all the powdered iron for us to stand on so you can just move it around quickly for us to get around?" she asked, a bit excitedly, catching the curiosity of the others.

Pyrrha frowned in thought at that "I… don't know." she admitted after a moment, before stepping up onto the iron, her hands glowing black as she closed her eyes and focused, her brow scrunching up in concentration.

After a moments, several grains started to rise up, but the more that did, the more shaky they got, until they all fell back down as Pyrrha released her control, panting for breath.

Jaune winced as he went and helped her to her feet "Guess that was too much huh?"

Pyrrha nodded before explaining a bit further "I had to split my attention between all the individual grains of sand, it was giving me a headache."

"Good effort though. Still would have been fun if we basically had our own magic carpet," Yang chuckled lightly, to which they all shared a small chuckle at the mental image.

"Still though…this place is pretty big. It'd be a problem if we tried to go through it in one shot," Biyomon mused.

"Yeah, not to mention there's no cover or anything in case we're attacked," Gabumon nodded in agreement.

"Good thing the mountain is still visible," Nora said. "So we don't have to worry about getting lost...sorta."

"Heh, ya know, us trekking through a sandy area, with only a mountain in the distance as our guide. Its like we're in this game on Earth called 'Journey'," Gyro commented.

"Oh yeah, this DOES feel like that. Now all we need is to dress up in identical red robes, and we're literally reenacting the game," Pierce laughed.

"Oooh. Was it fun?" Ruby asked curiously.

"It was more for visuals than serious gameplay, but yeah," Pierce explained.

"Unfortunately this is a lot more serious than in a game," Weiss sighed as they continued on. "We'd better pick up the pace."

"Right right," the two brothers nodded, before they continued on their path.

A good hour passed after that and by now they were all feeling the effects of the heat.

"Easy there, take a few sips slowly. Wouldn't want to upset your stomach in this heat," Yang said as Ruby took a few sips from the canteen, before passing it on to Palmon, who then passed it along.

"Good thing we packed plenty of water before we came here," Blake commented before taking her sip. Despite the fact that they DID have plenty of water, everyone was only taking a few short sips every few minutes to try and maintain their supply for as long as possible, none of them knowing just how far this area spanned.

"Well, nothing to do but keep walking. We'll find something eventually, right?" Yang said as she walked ahead a little.

"Yeah, let's keep going everyone!" Biyomon said, sounding as energetic as ever as she caught up to her partner.

"Actually, can we all stop for a minute?" Gyro said.

"Hm? What's wrong, Gyro?" Agumon asked as his partner pulled down his goggles over his eyes.

"Just a sec…" he said as he activated the binocular function and looked around. "Aha! I knew I thought I saw something weird. There's this partially sunken ship over there," he said, pointing in a direction that slightly deviated from their current course. "And I see a lake...and a village!"

"Two villages in one day is a pretty good record." Jaune said with some relief.

"Of course, considering the Black Gear from earlier…" Ren trailed off, the others grimacing as they had the same feeling he did.

"We should hurry on over before whatever Digimon gets hit by the Black Gear has a chance to destroy the village." Pyrrha said, everyone agreeing as they picked up the pace.

When they arrived at the village… "Huh...last time it was Kunemon, now its Yokomon," Ren mused, as true enough, the village they'd arrived in was full of Yokomon, the little Digimon all looking up at them curiously.

"Well, at least they have plenty of water." Gyro said as he was refilling the water canteens at the fountain after being informed it was germ free, some of the Yokomon standing around him.

"What kind of Digimon are you?" one of the Yokomon asked up at Yang.

"I'm not a Digimon." the blonde girl said with a slight tone of amusement.

"That's right! Yang and her friends are what's known as a human." Biyomon explained to what was basically a village full of her previous form.

Needless to say, the Yokomon had a field day asking the group a whole bunch of questions.

"Curious little fellas aren't they?" Pierce chuckled as they humored the energetic mon for a bit. Of course, by far the one talking the most was Biyomon as she seemed all too happy to answer their questions.

"But it is a nice change of pace, huh?" Veemon asked.

"Never said it wasn't."

Back with Yokomon, Yang couldn't help but chuckle at seeing her partner interact with the younger Digimon. "Having a lot of fun?"

"Yep!" Biyomon nodded. "The Yokomon even invited us for a feast tonight."

"Really? Well, I'll tell the others then," Yang smiled, leaving her partner to continue talking to the little ones, before relaying the message to her friends.

"Yay! More food!" Ruby cheered.

"Probably not going to be stuff we normally eat though, and I say that even considering what we've been eating these last few days." Blake said idly.

"The Yokomon are small, so the food is probably something small too." Patamon said, throwing in his helpful two cents.

Meanwhile, Gyro was still busy filling up their canteens, but he could hear Ruby's little exclamation, and chuckled at that. "Heh, guess our luck's finally turned for meeting friendly Digimon," he mused...before he noticed the water had suddenly stopped. "What the…?" he blinked, pulling the canteens away. Good thing too, as a second after he got them away, a massive gout of fire suddenly erupted from the fountain. "HOLY SHIT!" he exclaimed, jumping back a little as everyone's attention was caught by the sudden flames.

"W-what's going on?!" one of the Yokomon shouted in alarm.

"Big trouble!" another one said as it came hopping into the village. "The pond's dried up!"

"But that's impossible," Jaune said as he heard that, before he and Gomamon went to look… and saw that it was now dry as dust.

"...where does water suddenly go in all of 3 minutes?" Gomamon asked in bewilderment.

"The well's on fire too!" Ruby reported, having just pulled a Yokomon away just in time to avoid the flames.

"This is crazy!" Weiss said in alarm...before a thought crossed her mind. "Hey, did something land around here a while ago?" she asked.

"Well...we did see this black thing land on Miharashi Mountain earlier. Its the source of all the village's water," one of the Yokomon said. "But that shouldn't have caused anything. Meramon is always protecting the mountain!"

At those words, all of the hunters and their Digimon shared a glance. "I think we found who the Black Gear infected…" Pyrrha said almost flatly.

"Black Gear?" one of the Yokomon repeated in confusion.

"It's this black wheel thing that makes Digimon go crazy when it touches them." Salamon explained in a simple matter to all the little ones.

"Considering how everything is on fire… and if I know my Japanese well enough." Gyro muttered, pulling his goggles over his eyes and zooming in on a glowing dot coming down the mountain quickly, blinking as he saw what could only be described as a man made of fire "Ok, that's definitely Meramon."

Digimon Analyzer: Meramon

Meramon. Data Type. An Adult Level Flame Digimon. A Digimon shrouded in fire, born from from the hidden Firewall of the net. While it's a violent fighter, it is a peaceful Digimon in all other circumstances. It's special attack is Burning Fist, launching a ball of fire from his hand.

"I'M BURNING UP!" everyone heard Meramon's voice screech all the way from where he was sliding down the mountain.

"...sooo...who's up for getting out of the way before the giant man made of fire hits us?" Jaune said in a surprisingly calm tone. After all the stuff they've been through in the short time they were in this crazy world, he could honestly say this didn't bother him quite as much as it used to. A quick check of their radars confirmed that yes, a black dot was coming their way.

"Evacuate the village!" Gyro shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, as they quickly started on getting all the Yokomon onto the ship where their lake was a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, this in itself presented a slight issue, as the sheer number of Yokomon living in the village made evacuation take notably longer than they'd have liked. With that in mind though, they quickly split up into a few teams.

Jaune, Gomamon, Pyrrha, Gabumon, Blake, Patamon, Ruby, and Palmon were at the ship, helping the Yokomon that entered to get on board. Down by the entrance, Gyro, Agumon, Weiss, Tentomon, Nora, Salamon, Ren, and Wormmon were helping the Yokomon get into the ship. And up at the edge of the lake, Yang, Biyomon, Pierce, and Veemon were ushering the Yokomon out of the village and down into the lake bed.

However, even with this it wasn't enough, as by now Meramon was running through the savannahs at a rate that would have him reaching the village very soon.

Quickly enough, that last Yokomon went down the slope into the lake bed, being ushered onto the ship through the hole in the hull.

"Looks like that's everyone." Pierce said, before he and Veemon slid down the slope, followed by Yang.

Biyomon would have followed as well, but she looked around a bit at the village, before looking back at the ship and doing as quick a headcount as she could, sighing in relief when she saw everyone was indeed there.

Yang was a bit confused when Biyomon wasn't behind her as she neared the ship, before looking back and seeing her still at the edge of the lake.

Her eyes widened however as a tall, flaming figure started walking up behind her partner "Biyomon behind you!"

Biyomon heard her partner's shout, turning just in time to see Meramon start stalking up to her, quickly flapping her wings and taking off to get out of his reach.

"Magical Fire!" she launched her attack at him, hoping to at least stop him a bit, only for her eyes to widen as he just absorbed her flames.

She wasn't going to be stopped just with that though, as she started attack him more, only for her attacks to slow down when she saw him steadily grow taller from each flame.

"That's… bad." she said after a moment, her eyes wide in shock.

The shock proved to be her undoing, as Meramon created a ball of fire in his hand, and threw it at her, just barely missing her and singing her feathers before it blew up behind her, sending her forwards… right into Meramon's backhand.

"Biyomon!" Yang shouted in worry as she ran, diving to catch her falling partner as she hit the ground. She managed to do so just in time, Biyomon landing in her arms rather than on the hard rock. "Are you okay?!" she asked frantically.

Biyomon groaned slightly before looking up at her. "Yang, you came to save me…" she said.

"Of course I did! I don't leave my friends hanging!" Yang said before hugging Biyomon.

"Thank you, Yang!" Biyomon smiled as she hugged the girl back.

However, it seemed Meramon wasn't in the mood to leave them be, as up above, he created another fireball and looked ready to throw it again.

"Oh no you don't!" Gyro shouted as he used his semblance and concentrated it around Meramon's hand, making a tornado that sucked all the oxygen from his fireball.

"How'd you know that would work?" Agumon asked him in a bit of surprise.

"Honestly, I didn't. I was just banking on physics being normal." Gyro said with a sigh of relief.

"This is the time where a water attack would be really helpful." Pierce said, shaking his head in resignation at the lack of a quick fix.

Weiss slapped her forehead at his words "I have something that could possibly work, I still have a vial of ice dust on me."

"Give it here!" Pierce said urgently, Weiss throwing it to him as he caught it in his hand, winding his arm up just a bit before pitching it straight at Meramon.

When it sank into his chest, it didn't seem to do anything at first, before Meramon started coughing up a pale blue mist, his form shrinking just a bit.

"Well… better than nothing, right?" Veemon told his partner.

"I guess so yeah." Pierce muttered, glad at least THAT part went well.

"Come on, we gotta help them!" Agumon said, before rushing forward, Gabumon, Patamon, and Tentomon going after him.

"Try to avoid fire as much as you can!" Gyro told them quickly, just so they didn't make him big again.

"Right!" Agumon nodded, before they dashed into the fight.

"Air Shot!"

"Petit Thunder!"

Both attacks connected, distracting Meramon, while Agumon jumped forward. "Sharp Claw!" he called out, striking Meramon with his claws...though it didn't seem to be doing much damage.

"We gotta regroup," Gabumon said to Yang and Biyomon.

"But if we do that, the Yokomon will be in danger!" Biyomon protested.

"She's right. We gotta take this big guy down now!" Yang agreed, right as Biyomon got out of her arms and flew up.

"Hard Beak!" Biyomon called out as she started rapidly striking Meramon with her beak.

"Why don't we bring you down to earth a little," Yang said as she jumped to the top of the slope, and landed a strong punch to Meramon's leg, the force enough to make the Digimon reel a little, while the child digimon continued their attacks, Meramon roaring angrily as he tried to swat them.

"Keep up the pressure!" Agumon said, while Gyro was using his semblance to rob the oxygen whenever Meramon seemed to try to create a fireball.

Meramon growled as he lashed out almost randomly. Since his fireballs weren't working, he focused his flames to his fists. During one such lash, he got a lucky hit, knocking Biyomon out of the air.

Yang's eyes went wide as she saw her friend falling out of the sky, before they bled into red as she turned back to Meramon, roaring as she punched him straight in the chest, though she was surprised as she had to wince from punching something hard and metallic.

Meramon was just as pissed as she was though, as he grabbed her extended arm, lifting her up before driving his fist into her gut, knocking the air out of her, her aura thankfully keeping her from being burned by his fire, but he just kept punching her, ending it with a knee to her gut, and finally just throwing her away, right into the dried up lake, and from this height, with her aura in the weakened state it was…

Biyomon got up from her fall...just in time to see Yang being thrown off the slope. "YANG!" she shouted in alarm.

(Play Brave Heart)

Yang's Digivice glowed bright like it did with the others, sending the signal into the sky, calling forth the light that released the waterfall of data.

"Biyomon, Evolution!" Biyomon called out as the data was absorbed into her before her body transformed. "Birdramon!" whereas before she was a small pink bird, she had now turned into a huge bird with feathers of flame, not quite a phoenix though as some parts of her were still normal. What made her different from normal birds however was that her beak was lined with razor sharp teeth, and she had 5 talons as opposed to the usual 4 on each of her feet.

Yang let out a small ooff as she felt herself land, but instead of the hard rocks, she found herself landing on something surprisingly...warm and rather feathery. When she got her bearings, she looked at what could only be her partner's Adult form, and boy was she surprised to see what Biyomon had become. "Damn, Biyomon, you look badass," was all she could say.

"Its Birdramon now, Yang," Birdramon chuckled.

Digimon Analyzer: Birdramon

Birdramon. Vaccine Type. An Adult Level Bird Digimon. Sporting feathers made of a blazing flame, just like Meramon, she was born from the hidden Firewall. While Birdramon is a more peaceful Digimon, she doesn't hold anything back should she ever enter battle. Her special attack is Meteor Wing.

"I'M BURNING UP!" Meramon roared as he jumped down from the slope...or would have if Birdramon didn't grab him with her talons and lifted him up, before throwing him back to the ground with a thud. Getting up with a growl, he created another fireball and threw it at Birdramon's retreating form.

"Duck!" Yang said, allowing Birdramon to descend, evading the fireball, before going around, and managing to smash into Meramon, knocking him back a little.

Angrily getting up, Meramon created more fireballs and launched them at the large bird.

"Oh no you don't!" Yang frowned, pulling out one of her spare Ammo straps that she still had on her, and threw it into the air. The ammo hit the flames, and the ensuing explosions canceled out the fire.

Seeing the opening that her partner made for her, Birdramon got a bit of distance, and spread her wings in preparation.

"Birdramon, aim for his chest! The gear is in his chest!" Yang told her partner, remembering the feel of punching metal before.

Birdramon nodded and aimed. "Meteor Wing!" she called out, before flapping her wings forward, launching a volley of meteor-like fireballs at Meramon.

Meramon grinned maniacally as he puffed his chest out, expecting to be just fine. But when the attack hit, they went into his chest, and he gasped as something was wrong. Pain suddenly blossomed in his chest, forcing him to double over and shrink, before something emerged from his back and was launched out. The Black Gear flew into the sky for a moment before soon shattering from the force of the attack.

(Song end)

"Awesome!" Yang cheered as Birdramon went in to land, and sliding down her back when they touched on the ground, as she reverted back to Biyomon just as Yang's feet touched the ground.

"Yang!" Biyomon said happily, before landing in a hug from her partner.

Minutes later, the sun had started to set, and thankfully, the water had returned to the village, as Meramon sat on the ground, rubbing the middle of his chest.

"It struck me right here, hurt like hell when it did, after that I kind of just blanked out on everything and the next thing I know I wake up and my back is killing me." he explained, wincing as he reached behind to rub the spot on his back where the gear had burst out.

"This is starting to get worrisome. First Thundermon and now you. These Black Gears are nothing but trouble." Gyro said with a frown.

Meramon grimaced in thought "You probably won't like this then, but a few days ago I saw one heading towards the factory, which is run by Andromon."

"Oh no." Gomamon said with a groan.

"What is it?" Jaune asked him in confusion.

"Andromon is a Perfect Level Digimon." Gomamon explained, and Jaune paled.

"Dammit Jaune! This one's your fault!" Pierce groaned in irritation.

"So just to be clear, if we had to fight him...he's gonna kick our butts at our current level, isn't he?" Ruby groaned.

"Pretty much, yeah," Palmon said with a sigh. "I've heard one Perfect is supposed to be as strong as at least 5 Adults."

"Well, we have 4… maybe something'll happen to even the odds, who knows, or we might get lucky and just hit the gear itself." Pyrrha said, trying to think positive.

"We can only hope." Blake said with a sigh.

"For now though, I think we'll stay around the village for the night and tackle the factory in the morning." Gyro said, sighing as he hung his head, he really wasn't looking forward to tomorrow.

"Hey, it's not all bad, there's still that feast the Yokomon promised us." Biyomon said, trying to cheer everyone up.

"Yeah… yeah, that's true, at least we get to end the day nicely for once." Gyro said with a smile.

Though a minute later, his face had turned into a dry stare as he looked down at the bowl in his hands.

"I feel like I should make a joke about birds...but I feel like it'd be in bad taste," Pierce sweat dropped, as considering Yokomon evolved into basically birds...it made the fact they'd been served SEEDS, akin to them being asked to eat bird feed...though the Digimon sure seemed to be just fine, and seemed to enjoy it.

"Honestly for once I'm trying, and I'm coming up blank on puns myself." Yang admitted as she looked at her bowl, glancing at Biyomon from time to time to see her really digging into it.

"Well… at least the color is normal." Ren said with a sigh.

"Hey! This is actually good!" Nora shouted around a mouthful of seeds.

"I know this is going to make me sound like a spoiled brat, but I could really go for something made by Klein right now." Weiss said with a resigned sigh as she started to eat.

"Who's Klein?" Ruby asked after swallowing her mouthful.

"The family butler." Weiss said as she kept on eating.

"Yeah, why don't you rub it in our faces that you're rich." Gyro muttered while rolling his eyes, reluctantly eating the seeds.

He REALLY wasn't looking forward to tomorrow.

And done!

Yeah, now we're back on canon course, for now that is.

Who knows when I'll deviate again?

Oh wait, I do.

Jokes aside though, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, because...

The Adventure Evolves.