D-Spirit-R: "New Digimon registered, Miss Rose. Yuramon."
Yang: "Huh, I'll admit this one has a unique design," craddling Nyokimon close to her.
Ruby looked at the fresh Digimon hovering in front of her. She fiddled with her freshly transformed D-Spirit and found Yuramon's entry. "A Seed Digimon whose whole body is covered in a substance with the appearance of long, soft hair. When it hatches from its Digiegg, it seeks an environment suitable for its growth, and drifts lightly through the air, like a dandelion seed. If it finds a place where there will be no intruders and where the environment is good, it will settle to the ground and begin preparations for evolution."
Ozpin: "Like an actual plant would, what a fascinating Digimon." He walked up to it with his hands up, signalling as he meant no harm to the fresh mon.
Blake: "I think that tells us who she's going to evolve into," reminding her team and Winter of their conversation early in the morning.
Weiss: "We still don't know what her evolutions will be," she retorted. "We can only make assumptions."
Ruby sits up from her seat on the couch and approaches her partner Digimon. "Hey there, I'm Ruby. I'm your partner. None of us mean you any harm." She reaches out a hand to pet Yuramon. At first, the fresh mon recoiled itself back as her hand got closer, but after a bit it accepted her touch and allowed her to pet it. "You and I will do a lot of good back home," as she used her other hand to rub the silver rose pendant attached to her outfit.
Ozpin noticed this and frowned. He still wondered what happened to Summer in their timeline, as it seemed like she was still alive in the story. Hedge did mention future events would be provided to their alternate selves down the line, with him giving them the visuals of what occurred. Maybe things would be explained then.
Hedge: "Now that introductions are completed, we have three other birthdays to celebrate, two of which being from you guys." Two present boxes appeared in his outstretched hands, one with white and blue wrapping paper, the other with white and yellow. "We have birthdays for our resident Ice Queen..."
"Hey!"
"...and our dorkable Knight." The two presents floated towards their intended recipients.
Weiss opened up her present and found multiple pieces of paper, which she raised an eyebrow at. However, after closer inspection, she saw that these were song sheets. "Song sheets?"
Hedge: "Yes, specifically of well known songs from Earth, included with instrument notes as well." With a wave of his hand, a new door appears along the wall. "This new door leads to a sound booth, along with a recording studio. You're more than welcome to utilize it to sing those songs, and even add in your own flair to them."
Weiss looked back down to the song sheets, then towards the new door. "I think I might just do that. Thank you."
Jaune opened up his present and found a book inside, specifically that of a training manual for all of the known sword styles in Earth's history. He eyed the book seeing how big it was, no doubt with so many different ones to learn. "Woah, I can tell there are a lot of different styles in here."
Hedge: "More or less. There are a few styles that are blends of multiple ones combined, or just slightly altered from a different one. But I certain you can learn from that book and create your own style."
Pyrrha: "Maybe I'll read it and see if I can change my style a bit when I use Milo in its sword form."
Jaune: "Good idea. Thanks Hedge."
Nora: "Hold on, you said there were 3 birthdays to celebrate, and only two presents were given out."
Blake: "Who's the third?"
Hedge snapped his fingers, birthday hats appearing on Weiss and Jaune's heads...and a third one appearing on his own. "Yours truly, of course." Next, everyone got a piece of chocolate cake in their laps. "I just turned 29 not long ago. Do I feel that old? Heck no."
Everyone: "Happy birthday!"
Winter: "You know, I have wondered about how time truly flows here in your dimension."
Glynda: "As have I. Like, are we aging at an increased or decreased rate?"
Hedge: "Good question. Physically? No. Mentally? Yes. Pretty sure it would be hard to explain to everyone else you know that you are so many months/years older because you were in another dimension rather than trying to explain the existence of the Digimon."
Ironwood: "You make a fair point, so then I'm assuming whenever we celebrate something here, whether that be a birthday or holiday, it's based off your world's time flow?"
"Correct. You'll all stay the same age as you were prior to coming here. Appearance of course may be different if you intend to work out a lot and gain muscle mass, but that's really it, or if you ask for a wardrobe change."
They enjoyed their cake, and the TV booted back up.
Palmon's Angry Evolution!
Well one thing's for sure. They all knew who was evolving, but this title was different from the rest. It didn't specify the name of Palmon's Adult form like the others did, for one. Two, something that was bound to happen, either with her or Ruby, would cause her to get pissed and no doubt evolve.
Qrow and Yang would probably have the same wavelength if something happened to Ruby.
Ozpin: "So whom do we have left after Miss Rose?"
Ren: "Aside from Pierce, we have Jaune, Blake, and myself."
Nora: "I think the order will be Ren, Jauney, then Blake."
Pyrrha: "What about Pierce and Veemon?" She knew her teammate meant with also having their Digieggs hatch, but they too had to unlock their Adult form.
Nora thought about that. "In between Renny and Fearless Leader."
Jaune: "And you're for certain that will be the order?" At this point, he didn't really mind when his Digiegg would hatch. If Hedge and Swift had decided he was worthy of even having one, he would make sure he'd live up to that.
Nora: "When have I not?!"
Ren contemplated on bringing up the countless times she's talked about a dream or a past event and changing up how they occurred every time she retold it, but he decided on keeping his mouth shut.
"How long have we been walking down this way?" Ruby idly asked as the group was making their way through the sewers.
"Not really sure, but I think it's only been an hour at most," Palmon said.
"For a shortcut, this is really taking a long time," Yang groaned, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible.
"Don't complain, you're not the only one suffering through this dump," Weiss deadpanned.
Yang: "Weiss, you know damn well how much I care about my hair. I still have to get you back for freezing it the other day."
Weiss: "And you know how much I care about being spottily clean. So I guess we're at an impasse."
"Feels like this tunnel just keeps going, doesn't it?" Jaune sighed.
"Hey come on guys, don't talk about stuff like that," Pierce said.
"Pierce is right. We should be focused on what's ahead," Pyrrha agreed.
"Easier said than done though since we can't really see anything," Ren sighed.
Ruby: "We could always have Blake in the front?"
Blake: "Recall that none of you guys other than Gyro and Pierce know I'm a Faunus yet," causing Ruby to snap her fingers.
"Then how about we talk a little to pass the time?" Gyro suggested. "So, what do you guys all want to do when we find our way back to Remnant?"
"Cookies!/Pancakes!" Ruby and Nora said respectively at the same time.
Both Yang and Ren chuckled at their obvious responses.
Yang smiled at her sister, before tilting her head as she thought about the question "I guess for me… a nice shampoo really." she said with a shrug.
"A nice long bath in an actual bathtub." Weiss sighed out.
"Reading a book in bed." Blake said in her usual tone.
Glynda: "Perhaps a regular book, Miss Belladonna?"
Blake didn't dignify an answer, but her face turned bright red.
"I think I'd rather like to meditate." Ren said, smiling a bit.
"Looks like we all have something to look forward to when we go back," Pyrrha smiled.
Ironwood: "I can't even think what I would want if I was in their position."
Ozpin: "Me neither."
Winter: "I'd probably be the same as Weiss if I'm being honest."
Qrow: "You can probably guess what I would want," shaking his flask in his hand.
"We know," came the response from all the adults.
"What about you though?" Pierce asked the crimson haired girl, earning a thoughtful hum from her.
"I think…" she smiled after a moment "No, I KNOW the first thing I'm doing is calling my sister."
"I'll probably do something like that myself." Jaune said with a sigh "Need to call home and apologize for just leaving like that."
Jaune groaned. "That's something even myself needs to do. Especially coming clean about my transcripts."
"I think for me and Gyro it's pretty dumb though." Pierce said with a laugh.
"We mostly just want to kick back and play some video games for a bit." Gyro said with a smile, Pierce grinning in agreement.
Ruby: "I still think I could beat them in the games they play, especially in Melee." Her and Yang had been playing it a few times in their room, her taking about Marth (mainly because no one wielded a scythe) and Yang taking up Captain Falcon (no extra reasoning required there). When Hedge found out their mains, he told them Marth was in the top 5 of the overall tier list, and Falcon was a tier below. Both characters were good in their own right, but it really depended on the player to know the ins and outs of them to really succeed. (AN: Who do you think would Qrow choose in Melee? Let me know in the reviews.)
Yang scoffed. "You just had to go and pick a top tier character, huh?" She was a little miffed about her sister beating her multiple times in the game, while in Soaring Ninja, she would be the one to win most of the time.
Ruby: "And who's fault was that? You were the one who decided to pick the character that uses fire moves and fights with their fists and kicks."
"Hey, its cool," Yang chuckled. "But you had a good idea. I dunno about you guys, but I'm fired up now," she grinned.
"Okay then, let's race to see which side can reach the end of the tunnel first!" Veemon said.
"You're on partner," Pierce grinned.
Weiss: "How about we not get lost in the sewers? The longer we stay there, the worst the smell will probably get."
Before they could start to race though, they all stopped as they heard a strange sound come from deeper back into the tunnel, making them turn around in a bit of confusion.
"Are… are there Digimon that live in the sewers?" Jaune asked after a moment.
"Honestly? Yes, only one type of Digimon at that." Gomamon replied, suppressing a shudder.
"Is it something strong?" Weiss asked warily.
"Oh no, it's very weak, it's just…" Tentomon trailed off, unable to bring himself to say it as he shuddered with a sound of disgust.
Blake: "I'm not liking the sound of that."
Yang: "Me neither."
"Ok, what has you guys so spooked?" Gyro couldn't help but say, completely confused.
As the Digimon was about to answer, they, well, got their answer, as barreling down the tunnel towards them was a huge group of slug like Digimon with green skin and blue spots, it's eyes standing on stalks and unfocused, its tongue hanging out its mouth stupidly.
"Numemon." all the Digimon said with a groan.
Digimon Analyzer: Numemon
Numemon. Virus Type. An Adult Level Mollusk Digimon. Among the different species in the Digital World, Numemon stands at the bottom of the barrel, truly, it is the weakest Digimon species to exist. However, most other Digimon prefer to avoid it, thanks to its special attack which… uh, which makes it throw its poop… I wish I was kidding.
Everyone was silent at that...disturbing...piece of information of the Numemon. A few turning green in the face.
Glynda: "I'm sorry...did the analyzer just say...they throw their own...feces?" Horror stricken on her face.
Ironwood: "As much as I want to say it said something else, I'm afraid that's not the case, Glynda."
"Let's get going. These guys aren't strong, but they're DISGUSTING," Biyomon said with a shiver.
"I'm afraid to ask, but how bad are we talking here?" Yang asked...and she got her answer when one of the Numemon threw something at her, narrowly missing her, but they could all see what had landed on the ground.
"...they throw their own poop…" was the flat observation by Gyro.
The simple act of it being thrown and nearly hitting Yang had almost made a few of them lose their breakfast, but when the camera actually showed the surprisingly animated poop, buckets appeared in their laps and all hell broke loose...and stomachs were emptied.
Ruby: "Why did it have to focus on it specifically?!" Only to resume releasing into her bucket.
A moment passed, before it was broken by Pierce shouting "Run for your dignity!"
Students: "Please!!"
That set everyone off, as they started double timing it.
Eventually they took a sharp turn into what appeared to be like a side exit from the sewer system, running as fast as they could through the tunnel which slowly started to turn into a simple stone cave like area, until…
"I can see light, keep going!" Agumon shouted as everyone ran as fast as they could, and when they reached the literal light at the end of the tunnel, all basically jumped as they hit the edge of a thankfully low cliff, falling into the marshlands that could be seen for miles.
Weiss: "Thank the Brothers," she muttered as she wiped her mouth with a cloth and everyone's buckets disappeared.
"We should be fine here," Tentomon said once they caught their breath.
"Why is that?" Weiss asked.
"Because Numemon hate the light," Wormmon supplied, and true enough, they found the Numemon cowering at the edge of the tunnel.
Yang: "Good. As long as they stay far enough away from us, we won't have any problems."
"Thank Oum for small mercies," Blake sighed. This was one of the more demeaning moments of her life for sure. A killer monster? They could handle. Being pelted with droppings...that was a line they didn't want to have to cross…
"Yeah...I think I'd have died of embarrassment," Jaune groaned, and that was saying something since him and humiliation were old friends.
Jaune: "Yeah, I feel like it lives in my closet rent free ready to always embarrass me at any given moment," he groaned.
"Let's just keep moving on," Pyrrha sighed, though she also hoped they didn't have to deal with those things anytime soon.
"Agreed," everyone nodded before continuing on their way.
It was after a good 10 or so minutes of walking that the group came upon yet another oddity of the Digital World.
Ironwood: "Oh great. Now what is it?"
"Is… is that a field of vending machines?" Nora asked, blinking, even she couldn't come up with this, and she had the craziest dreams.
Pyrrha: "There has to be some sort of reason for them being there."
Yang: "What, them not actually being vending machines?"
Ozpin: "At this point, that might actually be the case."
"Yeah, I'm not even questioning this world anymore, and it's only been a few days." Gyro said dryly.
"...so...anyone wanna see if we can actually get a drink from one of them?" Ruby asked.
Winter: "Ruby, even I wouldn't trust any drinks that would come out of them."
Ruby shrugged. "Wishful thinking?"
"I don't know…" Blake seemed uncertain.
"I agree. We probably shouldn't fiddle with anything we don't need to," Weiss agreed. "We don't even know what might be in the drinks if you actually got something."
"Good point," Ruby nodded in understanding.
"Yeah...but tell that to her…" Pierce deadpanned, causing them to turn and see Nora having put in a coin into one of the machines.
JPR: "Nora!"
Nora: "Oh come on, you can't tell me you aren't curious what's in them?"
Ren: "That's not the point, Nora," as he facepalms. "It very much could be a trap, or the contents inside the machines could be poisonous, or something obscure."
"Why is she just rolling with it?" Jaune said with a groan.
"Though you have to admit...aren't you all a LITTLE curious as to what's gonna happen?" Gyro chuckled wryly.
"The sad part is we can't deny that…" Ren muttered with a face palm.
Ren facepalms again as his counterpart thinks the exact opposite of what he was thinking.
After a few moments where Salamon had caught up to Nora, climbing up to be on her head again like usual, the carrot headed girl finally pushed one of buttons on the soda machine… only for the front of the machine to fall forward, Nora moving out of the way with a yelp.
And inside the machine was… a Numemon.
Blake groaned. "Oh you've got to be kidding me."
"Oh Oum dammit not another one." Pierce said with a groan.
Numemon blinked, seemingly a bit surprised at suddenly being found, before his eyes landed on Nora, blinking again, and then raising one of his stubby arms "Wanna go on a date with me?"
Nora: "Huh?!"
Ren kept quiet, but internally, he thought up ideas on how to destroy that Numemon.
Yang: "Gotta admit though, he's got better confidence than Vomit Boy," she chuckled.
Jaune: "Oh ha ha, Xiao Long." Pyrrha giggled at his antics.
Back at the group, Ren could be seen with his eyes darkened and about to march forward before Gyro and Pierce held him back.
Nora looked down at the Numemon for a moment, before shaking her head "No thanks, you're not my type."
Nora: "Yeah, Renny's all mine," as she wraps her arms around him.
"Aw." Numemon sighed out, sagging his body down "At least I tried I guess." he then looked towards the group, and then back at Nora "Would any of the other girls be interested in a date?"
The girls in question jumped in shock that Numemon was still willing to try to ask them on a date. In all honesty, they would turn him down too. Though...how they would do it was heavily debatable.
"I… don't really think so." Nora said, shaking her head slowly, she thought it would be best to spare the slug from getting a scalding remark courtesy of Weiss or a very unnerving look from Blake.
Yang: "Or a punch to the face from me."
Weiss: "I can't even deny that." Blake nodding her head in agreement to how she would handle it.
"Awww…" The Numemon sighed, but ultimately accepted the offer. "Well, can't blame a guy for trying. Thanks for actually being nice about it," he said, before picking up the front of the vending machine...and closed his little hiding spot up.
Nora blinked, before shrugging and walking back to the others.
"Huh...for once we settled something peacefully," Weiss blinked. After how their other encounters had gone, this was actually a surprisingly refreshing change.
Ruby: "What would've happened if it didn't go that way?"
Glynda: "Probably not well."
Hedge: "You're actually right. Remember that I mentioned your alternate selves are going through the events of Digimon Adventure?" Took them a bit, but they did remember he had mentioned that before. "Well, in the original events, the human partner of that Palmon was actually the one to be in this Nora's position."
Ruby perked up at that. So there was an alternate universe where another set of kids were in the same position as their alt selves were. She hoped that the Palmon of that universe had a good partnership with her partner.
Ozpin: "And I take it the way she denied was what threw things awry?"
Hedge: "She had called the very same Numemon a 'lowlife,' which in turn had made him and the other Numemon that were hidden in the other vending machines mad and come out and chase them."
They blinked at that, then the students turned to Nora. "Thanks Nora."
Nora: "No problem."
"Let's be thankful for that and just move on then." Gyro said with a relieved sigh.
"I'm surprised the Numemon up top are more hospitable than the ones in the sewers." Gabumon mused.
Qrow: "Given what Hedge just said, I doubt they are that different."
"Maybe it's thanks to just that? Where they live?" Pyrrha wondered.
"I guess it could be something interesting to figure out… when we're back home of course." Weiss said, before adding the last part with a sigh as they started walking through a forest in the marshlands.
They fell into a comfortable silence after that, focused only on moving onwards, until…
"Is… is that a giant teddy bear?" Pierce asked with a raised eyebrow as he and everyone else looked up at the giant yellow teddy bear.
Ruby: "Is it weird to wanting a hug from him?"
Yang: "Admittedly, I wouldn't mind it."
Pyrrha and Nora would too, as they just nodded, and Weiss kept quiet, but she did want to get a hug from the giant teddy bear Digimon.
"That's Monzaemon, he's the mayor of Toy Town and just loves to play games with people." Veemon answered, relaxing.
Digimon Analyzer: Monzaemon
Monzaemon. Vaccine Type. A Perfect Level Puppet Digimon. A Digimon in the shape of a large teddy bear, they aren't much of a fighter, and are usually the kind to look for peaceful solutions to conflict. This is reflect in it's special attack, Lovely Attack, which sends out hearts that trap it's targets and fills them with a feeling of happiness.
Qrow: "Well that's another kind-hearted Digimon you all came across..."
Jaune: "But no doubt he's probably infected by a gear."
"Play games huh? What kind of games would he play if he had a black gear stuck in him?" Jaune couldn't help but ask dryly.
The Digimon all stalled at the question, as the possibility hadn't crossed their minds yet. "That's...a really good point…" Gomamon admitted.
"Sorry everyone, not to sound like jerks, but after the last few times, we'd rather believe EVERY Digimon we see might have a Black Gear stuck in them until proven otherwise," Pyrrha said. "It's kind of part of being Huntsmen. You either stay on guard, or you end up dead."
Ironwood: "Perks of being from Remnant and having some form of training."
Winter: "I wonder how someone like us," referring to the adults, "would handle the Digiworld if we were the ones there in their place?"
Glynda: "Most likely the same way, but with more theoretical thinking."
"Your world is scarier than we thought…" Gabumon shivered slightly.
"You have no idea." all the hunters said together. Same as the ones in the audience said.
Apparently, Monzaemon chose that moment to notice them, as his squinted red eyes moved down to look at them "Welcome to Toy Town children, allow me to welcome you."
"That sounds more ominous than it should." Ren pointed out.
Blake: "Survey says...?"
"Split up and run!" Gyro shouted as everyone quickly did just that, running off in different directions, their Digimon partner at their side.
Apparently them suddenly scattering like that confused Monzaemon enough for a few moments that he didn't know where to go, before walking off after one of the pairs.
As it turned out, the pair he was running after was Ruby and Palmon.
Yang and Qrow gasped.
Qrow: "Shit," he cursed.
Yang: "Ruby, get out of there!"
"Oh come on, seriously?!" Ruby shouted in annoyance, before glancing back ahead, seeing there weren't that many trees in her path, nodding to herself as she grabbed Palmon and picked her up "Hang on tight!"
"Wha-?" was all Palmon had time to say before Ruby suddenly rocketed forwards with her semblance, leaving a trail of rose petals behind… which became useless to follow her when she cleared the forest and started to move around everywhere, scattering the petals all over the place so she'd be untraceable while she quickly tried to find a hiding spot.
Weiss: "That semblance of yours is very useful."
Ruby: "You can pretty much do the same with your glyphs. Plus they're less conspicuous than my petals."
Weiss: "Point."
Thankfully, she found one thanks to some help "Hey! Over here!" whisper shouted a Numemon from his hiding spot in a trench as Ruby zipped into it, quickly covering her mouth when she felt the ground shake under Monzaemon's stomping. A few tense moments passed, before finally they stopped hearing Monzaemon's heavy footsteps. Once they were sure he was gone, they all sighed in relief.
"I guess he really does have a Black Gear in him. Monzaemon don't usually behave that way…" Palmon said, sticking her head out to see the retreating form of Monzaemon in the woods.
"It's a shame though. He sure seems like he'd have been really nice…" Ruby frowned, peeking out as well.
"Oh yeah, he was the best," the Numemon agreed, poking his eye stalks out. "He was always so nice to us whenever we came into Toy Town for some fun, but one day he suddenly changed. Now he goes and catches anyone who so much as comes near the town," the Numemon explained sadly.
Ren: "So don't get caught," he said admusingly
Ozpin chuckled. "A little easier said than done, Mr. Ren. Miss Rose may have been able to outrun him with her semblance, but not all of you have one that could be used to outmaneuver him."
"Don't worry, we'll make sure he's back to being a good Digimon again. All we need to do is remove the Black Gear," Palmon assured.
"You will? Thanks!" the Numemon smiled, before adding, "By the way, wanna go on a date with me?"
Yang's eyes instantly turned red at that question, and Qrow started to move towards Harbinger's case.
Ruby: "Uncle Qrow...?" A little scared of what he was thinking.
Qrow: "I just want to talk to him."
Hedge appeared next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. "I understand, but not worth it."
Qrow grumbled and closed the case and headed back to his seat.
Ruby sweat dropped a little at that. "Uh...thanks, but no thanks. I'm a little busy actually," she declined politely.
"That so? Bummer," the Numemon shrugged.
As long as they turned them down nicely, they wouldn't have to deal with the Numemon and Monzaemon at the same time.
Thankfully, the Numemon was able to show them the way to Toy Town, though he didn't go further than the edge of the town so as to not risk being caught.
Ruby and Palmon didn't stay in the main road for long though, quickly ducking into an alley way as they started to move around through town, hidden behind the houses.
As they were passing a pair of trash cans however, the two stopped when they heard them rattle, getting ready to run in case it was a hostile Digimon, only for their faces to come up blank when the lids were lifted.
Inside the two trash cans, had been Gyro and Agumon. "Yo." the two said together.
Glynda: "I mean, it's a hiding spot, but I wouldn't say it's the best."
Ruby: "Trust me, it's not," she muttered. She remembered when Penny had thrown her into a dumpster in order to hide from the two Atlesian guards that had chased after them.
The two girls continued to stare for a moment, before they sighed out in relief "Oh thank Oum. I was worried for a moment there." Ruby admitted as Gyro and Agumon climbed out of the trash cans.
"Yeah well, sorry for the scare. That was literally the only place we could hide in when fluffy the terrible tried to laser beam us to death," Gyro sighed, brushing off any dirt, thankful that the trash cans were actually very clean.
Pyrrha: "Of course he has laser beams."
"You guys were right, he definitely has a black gear in him. Everything about him is wrong now," Agumon said.
"Tell us about it," came Biyomon's voice as she and Yang poked out from behind one of the nearby roofs.
"Never thought I'd see the day I actually had to dodge giant heart shaped bubbles," Yang added in agreement.
"At least all three of us got away safely," Ruby said as Yang and Biyomon came down to their level.
Nora: "Not sure if that's a good or bad thing for the rest of us."
Weiss: "Best to assume good until proven otherwise."
"Where is everyone else?" Palmon asked.
"We haven't seen them yet, but this town has gotten strange," Agumon said.
"Strange how?" Ruby and Palmon asked.
Instead of answering, the others pointed to a nearby square, where they saw several Digimon playing with toys...or rather, it honestly looked like the roles were in reverse, as they were being chased by a number of toys, going on and on about how happy they were...in voices that honestly sounded more brainwashed than actually happy.
Ironwood: "Going to go out on a limb and say that's not supposed to happen."
Qrow: "No, Jimmy. It's not."
"...that's just disturbing…" Ruby shivered.
"Doesn't help when they just look tired from all the running they've been doing." Gyro pointed out, as the Digimon were very clearly exhausted.
Winter: "Is this the work of Monzaemon?"
Glynda: "Probably not him normally."
"We gotta save them." Ruby said with a firm nod after a few moments.
"Yeah, but first we should find where the others are, I think it would be better if we all came up with a plan together so we don't all suddenly launch different plans at the same time and we just end up hurting ourselves." Yang said, earning a nod from Ruby.
"We'd better get moving then. And stay out of the streets. The last thing we want is for Monzaemon to find us," Biyomon said, earning a nod from her friends.
Blake: "Do we want to know what he is going to do if he catches us? Besides the toys chasing us?"
Jaune: "Probably not."
The trip though the town was a tense one, as even though they were in a town that looked like it came out of a fairy tale, the presence of various mon who were being played with by toys served as a reminder of what the black gears could do to even the nicest of Digimon. This was honestly starting to feel less and less like a search through a town, and more and more like some covert spy mission with how they were constantly on guard, and kept checking corners to make sure it was all clear.
Nora: "Blake, teach us your old White Fang ways."
Glynda: "Miss Valkyrie, I don't believe Miss Belladona would feel comfortable doing so."
Blake: "While you're not entirely wrong, Prof. Goodwitch, as long as the methods are used for good, I wouldn't mind doing so."
Qrow: "I could give some tips as well." It was good all the missions he has done for Ozpin to spy on Salem's forces could be taught to them, and it'd be even better if, when their Digimon evolved to the higher stages, maybe they could be brought on to help with the war, despite Qrow not wanting his nieces to be involved.
Unfortunately, they eventually reached a point where they were forced to move out in the open for a little, so they tried to do so as fast as they could. "How is it, Biyomon?" Yang asked as her partner was currently flying up to get a peek.
"I don't see him, so we should be clear," she reported.
"Okay everyone, let's go!" Ruby said, as they all quickly went through the square. Unfortunately, they were only half way through when they heard a familiar stomping coming their way.
Pyrrha: "Not good!"
"Uh oh, he's coming!" Palmon gulped.
"In here, hurry!" came Jaune's voice as they turned to see their friend coming out of a nearby manhole. Deciding not to think too much about it, they dove in after him, closing the lid along the way. Just in time too, as Monzaemon stomped through the square, looking around, and idly scratching his head. He'd sworn he thought he saw something, but ultimately shrugged and moved on.
Yang: "The sewers again, Jaune?"
Jaune: "You got a better idea to hide at besides the trash cans and the roofs?"
A moment passed, Gomamon peeking from the manhole, before lowering it with a sigh "We're in the clear, he didn't notice you guys."
"Oh thank Oum." Gyro breathed in relief, looking around to see who else was present.
There was Jaune and Gomamon obviously, as well as Pyrrha, Gabumon, Blake, and Patamon.
As well as a few Numemon.
Ren: "Well, it is their territory as much as it is Monzaemon's."
"Been hiding in the sewers huh?" Yang asked, wiping some sweat from her brow.
"The Numemon have been rather helpful in staying hidden." Blake said with a simple nod.
"At least they aren't from the same group that threw poop at us earlier." Patamon said from Blake's arms.
"They keep asking for dates though." Pyrrha said with a strained smile.
Now Jaune had gotten a little angry at the Numemon asking Pyrrha, but she grasped his hand, silently telling him she had no one else on her mind.
An awkward pause went through the group at that. "Ah...yeah, that other Numemon did the same for me," Ruby chuckled awkwardly. "At least they take rejection well...as long as you're polite about it…"
"I'm gonna punch him." Yang and Gyro said together darkly before nodding at each other.
Ruby blushed at Gyro saying that. If that didn't cement Gyro had a crush on her, then she really didn't understand romance.
"No punching the annoying, but helpful Digimon," Blake said, though a little half heartedly. Clearly she was also getting tired of the persistent slugs.
Weiss: "I can only imagine how my other is handling them."
Winter: "Probably not well, but you are probably tolerating them as we haven't heard you and Tentomon screaming about them attacking you." Weiss nodded her head at that.
"Well, enough about that. Did you guys happen to find the others?" Agumon asked, quickly defusing the situation.
"Not yet. Fortunately these sewers stretch through the town, so we've been using them to search," Gabumon explained.
"Aside from the smell, this is actually pretty good," Patamon said.
Ruby: "And speaking of Weiss, she has the maps of the sewers on her scroll. While the Numemon can help guide us, it would be best to have her with us so we can see the whole layout."
"Right," Gyro nodded. "So...any places you haven't seen yet?"
"Haven't been on the east side of town yet." Jaune said with a shrug.
"That's probably where the others are then." Palmon voiced her opinion.
Ironwood: "Well, it is a guess at this point."
Ozpin: "But one that is most likely correct."
"Let's go!... Which way's east though?" Ruby said, before pausing and asking more quietly a moment later.
Yang ruffled her sister's hair at that, much to the red reaper's chagrin.
"Follow us," Pyrrha said with a light chuckle, before turning to the Numemon. "Thanks again for all the help."
"No problem. If you can bring Monzaemon to his senses, we're happy to help," they nodded, before scampering off.
"Oh thank Oum they didn't ask again." Blake said with a sigh.
Blake: "I can honestly see my other thinking of strangling them with the ribbon of Gambol Shroud...if she had it."
Nora: "Though you have to admit this is better than them throwing poop at us," and admittedly, this was a better situation.
It ended up taking a few minutes to get to the east side of town, as they had been on the west side when they went under, having to go all the way across to the other end of the place.
After a few checks in various locations, they didn't find anything, having had to quickly retreat when they heard the familiar stomping. However, eventually they came out of a manhole...which was inside of a house for some reason. "Huh...strange place to put a manhole," Biyomon commented.
Glynda: "If I recall, there used to be a few manholes in Vale that had to have their tunnels filled up due to new buildings being built on top of them."
Ozpin most definitely remembered that. He had requested most of them, throughout his time as the King of Vale up till now.
"Tell me about it." Pierce said as he peeked from behind a large treasure chest, relief in his voice that it was them.
"Oh hey, is everyone else here?" Yang asked as she came out of the sewer, helping Ruby up.
In response, the rest of their group either came out of unlocked chests, or moved out from a pile of toys.
Winter: "Why were a few of you in chests?" If her sister was placed in one...?
"Good, everyone's here then." Gyro said, being the last to come out of the manhole.
"Yeah, and Pierce has been busy picking locks." Veemon said with a grin.
"Um… why?" Jaune asked after a moment.
"There are Digimon trapped in some of these chests." Ren said, which earned a few muffled noises from a few chests.
Ironwood: "Wait what? Monzaemon put them in chests?!"
Qrow: "Now hold on. It has to be the Black Gear influencing him. There's no way he did that before it infected him."
"Right, let me give you a hand." Blake said after a moment, reaching into her pocket, and honestly, no one showed any ounce of surprise when she pulled out a simple bobby pin.
"So is it true that every woman has like, hundreds of these?" Gyro asked in amusement.
Weiss: "Ok, that's a bit sexist don't you think, Gyro?" Crossing her arms across her chest. Though, admittedly, she did have a lot of them for her hair, as did a few of the girls, Glynda, and Winter.
"Ruby has none, but she doesn't care a lot about her hair." Yang said with a shrug.
"Yeah, cause I'm not crazy about it like you are miss I-punch-everything-that-touches-it." Ruby shot back.
Yang: "You won't win this argument, little sis."
"This coming from the girl who calls her weapon her baby?" Yang added with a smirk.
It basically ended with Ruby pouting, and Gyro having to try not to pat her head because of how adorable it made her look.
The Ruby in the audience both pouted and blushed while her friends just chuckled in amusement.
"Okay, hair aside," Weiss sighed in mild annoyance. "What are we going to do about Monzaemon? Clearly he's also infected by the Black Gears, but as we've all had close calls with his 'Lovely Attack', a head on attack is inadvisable."
"Well, he has a zipper on his back right? Let's just pull it down and get the gear out." Nora said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Everyone paused at that, until...
Nora: "I have my moments too, thank you very much," crossing her arms and raising her head to the ceiling.
Everyone paused at her words, before groaning as they realised they hadn't thought of that "I still don't get these sudden bouts of wisdom she has." Salamon groaned while shaking her head.
"You get used to it," Ren shrugged.
"Plus they can be pretty helpful," Gyro admitted.
"Thank you, Gyro."
"At any rate, our first priority is to avoid the Lovely Attack," Veemon said, breaking the awkward air. "When me and Pierce happened to find him using it on some Digimon, he said something about their 'emotions being erased', which probably explains the weird behavior of the mon out in town."
Hedge: "That almost sounds like the Apathy Grimm."
"And got it." Pierce muttered, the chest he was working on finally unlocking, opening it as a group of Digimon similar to Palmon popped out of it, only they had purple flowers on their heads.
Ruby: "Wait, what?" Honestly confused on seeing different color Digimon of her partner.
"Thanks for getting us out of there," one of them said. "We were trapped for hours!"
"No problem. But I think you all might want to lay low for a while. At least until Monzaemon is back to normal," Pierce said.
"How come you guys… and girls," Gyro said when some of them shot him a mild glare "Got locked up in here?"
"Monzaemon's Lovely Attack didn't work on us." came a voice from the other chest in the room… which had what looked like a green Kunemon, a purple Patamon and a Gabumon with a pink body instead of yellow.
"What is this, recolor city?" Jaune muttered as he eyed the Digimon that had come out of the treasure chests.
Jaune: "My thoughts exactly."
Ozpin: "Are they named the same as their regular colored ones?"
Hedge: "Negatory, they are actually named differently."
"A lot of Digimon kinda look like each other, only with different colors," Gomamon said.
"Yeah, and I'm probably one of the Digimon with the most versions out there, I know there's a Black variant, a white variant called SnowAgumon, and even one that exists specifically as a teacher at a school somewhere out there." Agumon counted off his fingers.
Hedge: "Trust me, there are a lot of Agumon variants."
They wondered if they'd be able to see a few of those variants down the line.
"Oookay, that last one was weird," Gyro blinked. "Still though, why didn't the Lovely Attack affect them?"
"We honestly don't know. For some reason it just didn't, and when we woke up, we were locked in these chests," some of the Digimon said.
"Strange… I wonder what the difference is between you and the others?" Pyrrha mused, looking at them curiously.
"Well… maybe it has to do with toys?" Ruby said, bringing attention to her "I mean, this place is TOY town, and all the other Digimon were being chased by toys."
Weiss: "What are you getting at, Ruby?"
Qrow: "I think I have a general idea, but it's probably going to be explained."
"I dunno, I mean, I take care of my toys, and some of my friends who didn't are out there… could that be it?" the purple Patamon wondered.
Qrow: "So it was that."
Winter: "Care to explain, Branwen?"
Qrow: "Simple, if you just rough rassle with your toys, the attack will actually affect you and be under its influence, but if you actually take good care of them, then it won't have any effect."
"I suppose it makes sense… if the same is true for the rest of you?" Weiss asked the other trapped Digimon, earning nods from all of them "Then that's the most likely case."
"Okay, so that's one mystery solved," Yang sighed out.
"The problem is it doesn't really help us much," Ruby sighed.
"I think no matter how you look at it...some of us need to be the bait," Pierce groaned in annoyance.
Jaune: "Not a fan of that."
Ren: "But it's something that needs to be done in order to save Monzaemon."
"Oh man this is gonna suck." Gyro said, rubbing his forehead.
"Maybe we should also figure out who pulls down the zipper?" Jaune suggested.
Considering this chapter was focused on Palmon, it was obvious it would be Ruby.
"I can do it. I'm pretty fast, so he won't see me coming." Ruby said, grinning just a bit.
Glynda: "Don't get too overconfident, Miss Rose. I would believe my teachings would enforce that."
Ozpin: "To be fair, Glynda, none of them have had your teachings yet," he said amused.
Glynda blanched at that remark, but then she remembered that was actually the case with these versions of her students. "Ok, I'll let that slide for that version, but for our versions we have here, I would hope you have all have engraved into your brains."
Students: "Yes Professor," they all nodded.
"That's fair. I'll be one of the distractions," Blake volunteered. "My Semblance is quite useful for these kinds of situations."
"I'll do it too, I can probably annoy him a bit by throwing stuff at him from the rooftops." Pierce grinned after a few moments.
"I think I could probably do it as well." Ren said after a moment.
"Okay, so we got our distractions. Now, not saying Ruby won't do her job, but I think we should have some backups for that part too," Jaune said. "You know, just in case something goes wrong."
Ironwood: "Always have a backup plan."
Hedge: "And sometimes have a backup plan to your backup plan." Ironwoodand Winter had nodded their head in agreeance to that.
"I'm almost as fast as she is when I'm in the air, so I think I can have that part covered, even though I can't fly at the moment." Gyro said after thinking about it.
"Okay, and everyone else be ready to attack if things go pear shaped then," Jaune nodded.
"Look at you, taking charge like that." Gomamon said as he nudged Jaune with a grin.
Nora slugged him on the arm. "That's why he's our Fearless Leader."
Jaune smiled bashfully as his partner said that "Well, I wouldn't go that far, I'm just giving suggestions really."
"Jaune, it's fine, every group needs a leader, and honestly, I think ours has a few in it." Pyrrha told him with a smile as she put her hand on his shoulder.
The Arkos pair blushed at that while giggles were heard from their friends.
The brothers shared a quick knowing look at the sight, but the situation made it so they had to hurry. "Okay everyone, we'd better get ready. We'll likely only get one shot at this," Gyro said with a nod.
"Right," everyone nodded.
"You guys might want to lay low for now. If this doesn't work, we may need to come up with a new plan," Nora said to the freed Digimon, none of them objecting to that idea.
Weiss: "Yeah, no offense to them, but we don't want to have another group to have to worry about if we can help it."
Minutes later, everyone was moving through town discreetly, this time to try and find Monzaemon so they could start the plan.
"Do you see him Wormmon?" Ren asked his partner who was hidden on the roof of the house they were hiding behind, having drapped a cocoon over himself which could hide him well enough due to the roof being white.
Yang: "He can't be that hard to miss. He's a giant, yellow teddy bear."
Wormmon looked over the area silently, narrowing his eyes when he saw a pair of yellow ears peeking from the top of a house a few streets over, before he crawled back down to Ren "I found him."
"Alright, let's do this." Pierce said, holding a few things he was ready to throw while Veemon held two trash can lids in his hands. Once Monzaemon was nearby… "Hey you! Build-a-Bear knockoff! Is that fur supposed to be corny or are you just that cheap?!"
Glynda raised an eyebrow. "Build-a-Bear?"
Hedge chuckled, and had a look of nostalgia on his face. "A very common stuffed toy for children. Commonly, at least for me when I was younger, there's this amusement park near me known as Disneyland, or commonly known as 'The Happiest Place on Earth.' In the area between the two parks, Disneyland and California Adventure, is known as Downtown Disney, and in there was a shop for Build-a-Bear, where families could go in, and create their own stuffed animal, even picking out their outfits too. I had my own for most of my childhood until I outgrew it of course. To my knowledge, the shop itself isn't there anymore, as they most likely put in new shops in its place. But there are still shops around the world for kids to go and build their own stuffed animal."
Monzaemon promptly whirled towards them at the words, and his eyes started to twitch as he received an old banana peel on his nose while two trash can lids were being clanged together.
Pierce and Veemon grinned at him, before quickly running and turning down a street as Monzaemon started chasing them. "Pooh Bear is after the honey!" Pierce shouted.
Now it was Winter. "Another reference, I assume?"
A picture of a yellow bear with only a shirt on was shown on screen, with a jar of honey in his hands. "May I present Winnie the Pooh, an animated character created by Disney with a knack for honey. And I mean a knack for honey. Think Ruby with her cookies or Nora with pancakes, but with Pooh Bear it's honey. Even his friends where they live have to have some honey in their homes just in case Pooh comes over since he himself runs out."
They could only imagine just how much this Pooh character could eat. If he was like Ruby and Nora, they actually felt sorry for his friends.
On cue, Ren and Blake darted out of their hiding spots, Wormmon and Patamon peppering Monzaemon with their moves, Ren using the terrain to confuse the large Digimon, and when he tried to strike at Blake who was seemingly moving less, his paw met empty air as Blake seemingly vanished, the thing actually being one of her clones.
Thankfully, because of how much he had to bring his attention somewhere else, he didn't have time to use his Lovely Attack, so the group was able to lead him along while only having to worry about his laser eyes.
As for Monzaemon himself, he didn't realise he was being moved along towards the center of town, he was too focused on trying to get everyone to just stop moving and for the noise to cease. However, before he could make any headway, Biyomon, Tentomon, and Patamon were soon in his face, firing their attacks from various angles, forcing him to start swatting almost blindly at the fliers. Little did he know, he was leaving himself wide open, as Ruby dashed and jumped off a building, aiming for his zipper like a guided missile, and grabbed hold.
"I got it!" she called out victoriously, pulling it down….only for it to get stuck a third of the way down. Her eyes soon shrank till they were pin pricks at this snag in the plan...and it seemed Monzaemon had finally realized what was going and he wasn't impressed. "THE ZIPPER GOT STUCK!"
Ruby: "Uh oh," she meekly said.
Qrow: "You might want to let go, Pipsqueak..." Not looking forward to what inevitably was about to happen. Yang herself wasn't looking forward to it either, biting her nails anxiously.
"I'm not going to just leave it so easy to pull down." Monzaemon said, before he started shaking his body from left to right, Ruby getting swung around as she was still hanging onto the zipper.
Yang: "Ruby, just let go!!"
Ruby: "But we need to get his zipper opened!"
Yang: "That's not important!"
Weiss: "We can always try again, Ruby."
Blake: "I don't think he'd let us have a second chance."
"Ruby!" Palmon said in worry, before her eyes turned up to Monzaemon's head, her mouth forming into a snarl "You… you… let her go!"
(Play Brave Heart)
At that moment, Ruby's Digivice glowed bright, sending the signal and calling for the light that released the stream of data.
"Palmon, Evolution!" Palmon called out as the data flowed into her, before her form changed. "Togemon!" instead of the small humanoid plant she was, she now stood as, quite literally, a giant cactus on two legs, boxing gloves on her arms as three holes where on her face, two to represent her eyes, and one for her mouth, a tuft of orange colored grass on top of her head.
They expected a unique evolution from Palmon, but a giant cactus with boxing gloves was not something they expected to see.
Yang: "A fighting cactus with boxing gloves? Ok, I like this evolution."
Ozpin: "It certainly is unique."
Ruby: "Kick his butt, Togemon!"
Ruby felt her finger slip as she was forced to let go, and was soon flying in the air, but instead of landing on the hard ground, she felt herself being caught in an oddly soft pair of hands. Blinking, she looked up and saw the form her partner had taken. "P-Palmon?" she blinked in surprise, partly at seeing her partner evolve...and also due to the form itself. A cactus wasn't quite what she was expecting.
"Its Togemon now," Togemon smiled before putting her down gently on the ground, then turning her gaze to Monzaemon with an angry glare. "You're gonna pay for what you tried to do to Ruby," she said as she lumbered towards Monzaemon. Despite the situation, any onlooker might have found this scene to be almost comical though, considering it was about to be a fight between a giant teddy bear and a giant cactus with boxing gloves.
Jaune: "Since when was this a cage match?" He asked jokingly, getting some chuckles.
Digimon Analyzer: Togemon
Togemon. Data Type. An Adult Level Plant Digimon. She can store nutrient data in her body just like a regular plant, capable of using it to survive for long periods of time in a desert. It's impossible to discern what she's thinking from simply looking at her face, but once angered, her intent is very clear. Her special attack is Needle Spray, launching hundreds of prickly needles from her body in whatever direction she desires.
"Okay, this is probably one of the stranger matchups we're gonna see," Gyro blinked at the fight that soon unfolded. Togemon showed that her boxing gloves weren't for show as she landed a few strong jabs and hooks on Monzaemon's face, but the large teddy bear showed he was no slouch in a fight either, managing to pull off some strong counters. The exchange soon became rather back and forth.
Yang: "Aside from any needle attacks, I may learn some of Togemon's moves," referring to her punching attacks.
"Uh...shouldn't we help?" Agumon blinked as he walked up next to Gyro.
"Not sure if we wanna get in the middle of that…" Gyro sweat dropped as Togemon landed a particularly savage strike. He knew a grudge fight when he saw one.
"So...we just sit here and do nothing?" Yang asked, sounding a little skeptical.
"Of course not," Pierce said, before taking off his jacket. "Go Togemon go! Punch that bear's stuffing out!" he cheered while waving his jacket.
Ruby sweat dropped. "You know, it's better than nothing."
"...that's one way to help I guess…" Ruby sweat dropped.
Whether Togemon heard them was debatable, but either way, she was all too happy to oblige as she landed a rapid fire punch on Monzaemon, forcing the bear back, and even when he tried to use his eye beams, she punched him with an uppercut, forcing the beams into the air.
Finally getting fed up of this, Monzaemon got some range, and jumped up. "Lovely Attack!" he called out, releasing a flurry of blue heart shaped bubbles. However, Togemon smirked as she saw the opening she wanted, and bringing her arms together, called out, "Needle Spray!" before throwing them to the sides, as a barrage of needles was launched from her body, aimed at Monzaemon while popping all the bubbles in the middle of the way. Monzaemon had only a moment to widen his eyes, before he was soon turned into the world's largest pincushion, crying out in pain, while his zipper was forced open and the Black Gear inside was violently thrown out, before he finally collapsed on the ground unconscious.
Ironwood: "Okay, I can only imagine how much pain he truly was in with all those needles."
Glynda: "At least with needle therapy, they don't go as deep in your body."
(Song end)
After a moment of making sure he wasn't getting back up, Togemon's body glowed as she reverted back down to Palmon, sighing in relief that it was over.
She didn't have much time to relax though, as Ruby quickly had her arms around her in a tight hug "That was so awesome Palmon!"
"Ruby… can't breathe…" Palmon gasped out as her legs flailed.
Weiss giggled. "She probably was hugging just like Yang does."
Ruby blushed. "But I'm not as strong as her."
Pyrrha: "Ruby, you wield a giant scythe around as your weapon. If you're not as strong as Yang just from that, then I have questions."
Hedge: "Aura is one heck of a drug."
Several minutes later, the sun was starting to set, as Monzaemon had woken up, his body shrunken down slightly as now that he was sitting down he was roughly the same height as the hunters. All around them the Digimon that had been captured or manipulated were gathered.
"I'm terribly sorry for what I did," Monzaemon apologized. "As the mayor of Toy Town I had only wanted to increase the standing of toys. Toys are to be played with, not toyed with after all, so its important to take good care of them. I only wanted to teach that lesson," he said, bowing deeply. "However what I did was going too far, and even if the Black Gear pushed me to that extent, it was still wrong of me."
Winter: "So they can even enhance certain emotions or ideals you have."
Ozpin: "Depending on the person, that could end up a lot worse than what we saw here."
"Don't worry too much about it, you weren't fully in control of your actions. Trust us, we've seen a few cases already so we have an idea of how it works." Gyro said reassuringly.
Monzaemon smiled, a warm and kind smile this time. "Thank you. I truly appreciate that," he said, before a thought crossed his mind. "Ah, while it's not much, I'd like to at least offer you all a reward for all you've done for Toy Town," he said as he stood up.
Nora: "What kind of reward?!"
"What kind of reward?" Ruby asked curiously.
Blake: "That's an echo," laughter ensued from that.
Monzaemon laughed, a jolly one as opposed to the more sinister ones the others had heard from him earlier in the day "The REAL Lovely Attack." he said, before he released hearts from his body, pink this time as opposed to the previously blue ones.
Everyone was a bit surprised, but when the hearts wrapped around them and started floating up, they couldn't keep the smiles off their faces as a sense of joy filled them all.
Qrow: "Well that's a happy ending to it all."
As everyone floated around in the heart bubbles, one of the manhole covers was lifted up, a Numemon poking his head out "Hey! One of your girls interested in a date?"
"No thanks!" was the resounding answer from all the girls, even as they were still smiling.
Numemon sighed as he slumped forward "Some things never change."
Laughter broke out even more after that as the TV shut off.
Yang: "Learn to take a hint, buddy. If we turned down the rest of your kind, what makes you think we would change our mind the upteenth time?"
Jaune: "Why do I get the feeling that's a jab at me?"
Weiss: "Oh, maybe because it probably is?"
Winter: "Weiss..."
Weiss realized she was a little too hard on him, and sighed. "Sorry Jaune."
Jaune: "No, no it's fine. I deserved it considering how often I was infatuated with you instead of realizing Pyrrha had the looks for me." Said redhead blushed at that.
Ironwood: "Outside of that, the group now has 6 Adult level Digimon in their arsenal now."
Glynda: "Meaning they should be getting closer to finding out who is creating these Black Gears."
Nora: "Now for the real question: who's Digiegg is hatching next?!"
They eyed the remaining 3 eggs to see if one would start to crack.
And one actually did.
AN: Chapter done!
Not much to state here this time around.
Leave reviews, share with friends, etc.
Until next time, this is Shadow Drivver, signing out. Peace.