[[Continued from Along for the Ride]]

A Trailmon bearing two and two of Digimon and Tamer wound its way across the rolling hills outside the city. A switch clattered up ahead, directing the locomotive toward the rocky, snow-capped spires up ahead. Open fields were slowly replaced with rockier valleys, and the Trailmon slowly climbed its way through the lower reaches of the peaks.

"Guitar, eh?" Kyoko had memories of playing with music games, but she'd never much messed with a real instrument. It might be kinda fun, and she wondered what instrument might suit her best. "Do you write your own music? Or just cover songs you like?"

"Impressive," Bolter was saying, as Nymph boasted of Wheeler's toughness. He was sure Kyoko had all sorts of stories she could tell about her achievements as a dark tamer, but the brunette wisely kept those to herself. Foes slain and tamers captured would likely make for unsettling stories. No, it was wiser to feign as though she was a relatively new arrival. "Hopefully you won't need to neck-lift anyone while we're... wherever we're going." He frowned momentarily. "Though maybe just letting the Trailmon pick a destination isn't the best idea. It's just all the more chance for it to be facetious in where it sends us..."

The Trailmon gave a shrill, indignant whistle, as though offended by Bolter's statements.

Kyoko's mind likewise thought of some of her past exploits, including a tamer she'd observed the capture of not too far from this location. She gave a wistful sigh and slumped forward, elbows leaning heavily on her knees. It was a sad sight, someone dressed in such a vibrant and lively fashion clearly down on energy, even as her d-ban went to the next song and a lively rock number started up.

"I can never seem to remember anything I make up, so I usually just cover other song I like."

As their ride gave it's retort to bolter's comment, wheeler kinda just blinked. [I]"the heck does facetious mean?"[\I] he'd keep the question to himself. Actually he had once heard the word being used to describe himself, and the way he'd acted in certain situations, so he could assume it had somthing to do with being inappropriate or not taking something seriously. That was how wheeler usually took things, with a slight touch of playfull false ignorance. that wasn't saying that he couldn't read a situation and act accordingly.

    Well, maybe it was actually. Take the scene in front of him for instance. He, could only guess how to act in a situation like this. He could, if he was that kinda person, try to come up with the perfect words to say. He wasn't that kinda person. He, liked impulse, that was where he was comfortable. The more he thought something over before he did it, the more he'd regret doing it and doubt himself. In a way, he had a lot of faith in his instincts, a lot more then he had in his reasoning anyway.   
 
"Well Squirt, I've decided that your worth my time. Hey, haruko, can you catch or what?"

The tamer reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of suckers. He'd gotten a bag of them after picking up his drainer claws, feeling that they were pretty much just as important on an adventure as the weapons themselves. They were soda flavored, tasting like various kinds of pops, he liked the watermelon ones, so he'd keep the lone green one he just happened to pull out. Using his sharp thumb nail, he kinda, coin flip launched a sucker to each of his companions across the aisle, a slow, upward kinda toss that was really hard not to be able to catch.

     His aim was pretty good, seeing as he wasn't really looking at his targets, focusing on using his jagged canines to take off the wrapper of his own sucker. Fangs and claws, he realy did match his hyena like hair. How exactly he managed to play his guitar with those 'talons' of his, god only knew. He'd also keep to himself as to why he kept them, but no one seemed to be asking, so it didn't matter. The plastic stick of his sucker would rest between the angular teeth just behind his canines. the candy not only adding to Wheeler wolfish grin, but forcing him to speak with his natural accent.

"well, we'll get' where we're goin I 'spose, wh'ever that is. I love'a good scrap, but, pointles' vilence 'll jus' getcha into trouble. Jus' leave the neck lift'n t'me 'ight?"

    

Despite her listless state, Kyoko plucked the candy out of the air without trouble. Her hand almost seemed to belong to a different entity as it snaked out, but then it drew back and held up the candy for her inspection. "Ari - ee - Thank you," she said, managing to correct herself mid sentence.

"Giving candy to strangers, eh?" The Lopmon gave Wheeler a teasing wink. Bolter brought his ears up, creating a wide net with which to catch the sucker, as his arms were far too short to pull off something like that. "This one's grape, what did you get Haru?" He pulled the wrapper off.

"Lemon lime," she said, eying the paper's yellow and green pattern. "Trade you...?"

"Sure." Bolter passed his to Kyoko, and was surprised by the soft glow of Kyoko's expression as she took hold of the grape sucker's stem. A dyed, artificially flavored piece of hard candy seemed like about the smallest gift one could give, so her reaction was puzzling to him.

For Kyoko, grape flavored sweets, such an innocuous thing, brought very happy memories mixed with sad ones. She had thought she was doing such a good thing, but it had backfired horribly and inexplicably. Kyoko had learned her lesson, but she still didn't quite understand it. Onee-sama couldn't have been wrong, but... Now, popping the grape sucker in her mouth was her way of being close to someone she couldn't be close to under current circumstances.

"Something tells me Haruko's more of a groin-kicker anyway." Bolter gave Kyoko a playful poke. That said, he had to agree with Wheeler about pointless violence just being a good way to cause problems for them. The pair of them weren't in a position to deal with that kind of trouble, and drawing attention to them could reveal Haruko's identity. Maybe we ought to hit the training fields at some point, I... just can't protect her like this.

As the Trailmon continued to wind his way among the mountain passes, the pressure began to change. The air was thinner at these higher altitudes, and it would be a little harder to exert one's self as well.

If the air was getting thinner, Wheeler wouldn't notice, they'd have to go a whole lot higher for it to hamper him. Last time nymph had one of these sucker things wheeler was always sticking in his mouth, he'd unwrapped it for her. "how do these guys... Open these goofy things..." Narsisia blinked, honestly wishing, again, that she had hands. You ever try unwrapping a sucker when you have flower petals for fingers? Somehow she managed. She got an orange flavor, and was pleasantly surprised by the fizzy flavor.

"Don' know too many stranger look'n then you two. 'sides bra, we ain't strangez no more, give a punk a candy, that makes'm your 'sponsibility." wheeler grinning, his wolfish grin. A Lil saying he had, something about giving a kid a sticker, and getting a friend for life. He picked it up his first year at bible camp. He didn't have any stickers when he first met Tristan, so he substituted with a sucker. He'd called 'tori' his little sister since. "I'll  be sure t'keep ur'pretty Lil tamer safe, groins need not be kicked after all."

   The tamer crossed his legs as a joke, trying to get a laugh out of bolter at least. He was seriously hoping it wouldn't earn him a kick. Flipping the sucker around in his mouth, biting down on the stick slightly with his jagged teeth. His comment was meant as a joke, but, the tamer could pretty much read the look on bolters fuzzy little face. Experience told'm what bolter was probably thinking. Wheeler gave haruko a wink and popped the sucker out of his mouth so he could talk straight.

"I don't like to waist good candy Hun, so when we're done up here, we'll all be able to do this again on the way back. Promise Kay?"

"Just sayin'," Bolter said playfully, returning the joker's grin Wheeler gave him. There were dead serious partners out there, but he wasn't really one of them. Certainly he could deal with dicey situations, but it was much, much more fun to well, have fun. Besides, he had to keep his spirits up somehow when he was trying to straighten out Kyoko's brainwashing.

"Sounds good!" said Kyoko, tucking her sucker in her cheek. She drummed on her thighs as a more metal-like song started up, energized by the beat. Normally this kind of music wasn't her thing, but this song worked for her.

Her heterochromatic gaze drifted out the window, and watched the rocky walls race by the trail line. There was a flicker of shadow, there for only a moment, and Kyoko almost thought she might have imagined it. But her senses were sharp, and she'd learned to trust them when something didn't seem right.

The Trailmon gave a short double-toot of its horn, and began decelerating. Just around the bend, a small platform was visible along a flatter plain on the mountain side.

Figures. People never seemed to take him seriously, unless he was threatening them. Well no, some people took him way to seriously. He wasn't sure which was worse. The trailmon blew its horn, and Wheeler turned his attention too the window behind Haruko. Popping the Green sucker into his mouth, wheeler smirked.

"Guess' we're bout t' see where we're goin', check't out narsi'"

Narsisia, 'Narsi', turned around to look out the window a little too fast. she just needed to hide her face. "'Narsi'!?.. Noooo...~" softly, Nymph bounced her forehead off the glass, before actually looking out the window. Rocks... A bunch of rocks, big ones, smallish ones, rocks... Sure there was some grass in some places, the odd shrubbery, or tree, but it was mostly rocks. Besides rocks, what caught nymph's eyes wasn't the platform wheeler had pointed out, but the great blue sky above it.

"guys, look!" nymph turned to look at Haruko, not meaning to look past bolter, just instinctively looking at the other girl. "...after those big rocks... It just, goes on forever! There's nothing but sky past them!" there was a sparkle in narsisia's eyes, she'd never seen the sky so close, if that makes any sence. wheeler would have found himself smiling. Living for a couple years in northern Saskachewan, he'd almost forgot what mountains looked like.

"ya'know Hun, some 'ne could be looking this way from the other side of those rocks, say'n the same thing. Y'never know what might be b'hind'm till ya'see for yo'self."

The mountains, huh... Kyoko thought to herself, as the Trailmon continued to drop speed. The breaks squealed to life as the train came to a stop beside the platform, and the doors clattered open. A loud, piercing whistle split the air, announcing the arrival of the train to any and all, and hinting that the passengers ought to disembark so the Trailmon could get on with its day.

Kyoko tried to recall the reconnaissance reports from the mountains, but her recollection of it was fuzzy. Why did her brain spend so much time eating itself? A frustrated hand ruffled her hair, though the gel kept it from getting displaced all that much.

At Narsi's cry, Kyoko briefly thought that the Floramon might've spotted the same shadow she had. That turned out to be incorrect however, though it did not soothe Kyoko entirely. She had learned to trust her instincts, to look for that thing that seemed out of place.

She tightened her mouth around the sucker and stood. "Sa iko!" Standing, she casually tossed Bolter onto her shoulder, and he responded by loosely wrapping his ears around her neck. "Hey, cut it out!" protested Kyoko.

"I'm your scarf," he teased. "Since you didn't bring a jacket, might be a bit nippy up here." He wasn't sure what the mountains had in store for them, but as Kyoko strode toward the doors, he doubted it could be any worse than some of the things that had happened to them lately.

"must be nice..."

Giving a glance between the boys, mentally comparing and contrasting bolter with her tamer, narsisia sighed. she copied Haruko, getting up from her seat, and fixing the wrinkles from her dress. A gift from her friend Aqua, a light fabric, blue fading to white, like her flower like arms. She wondered if it really would be too cold for her out there. She liked, more tropical humid environments, the mountains seemed too, barren and chili. Floramon didn't normaly wear cloths, but, would the dress even help?

    Looking down at her flower like hands, nymph almost jumped when she  felt wheelers hands on her shoulders. "'don freak out. Bunny's got'a point squirt, s'cold out n' junk." wheeler gave her a sucker fueled smirk, walking away towards the door, leaving nymph with his shirt over her shoulders. "...you just had to say squirt..." inside, nymph felt like she was stuck somewhere between the warming love of spring, and the lonely cold of winter. On the outside, she nodded and smiled to her tamer sweetly. She'd force her lean towards the spring.

"Wait... Won't you be cold?"

Wheeler chuckled and shrugged, scratching his belly lazily through his tight black muscle shirt. His bare arms showing off his tiger stripe tattoos over his light auburn skin tone as he took the sucker out of his mouth. "Eight months outa the year, I'm up to my knees in snow back home Hun." the muscular tamer looked kind of amused, adjusting his baggy jeans to ride his hips, Aparently, the form fitting 'wife beater' went down past his hips. He figured it was funny that he could brag about somthing as freaking anoying as a Northern Saskachewan winter.

"I'm a Canadian." wheeler popped his sucker back in his mouth. "'sides, I'm so freaking cool, 'might jus' melt out there."

    Nymph roled her eyes, pulling the earth toned shirt over her self and walking past wheeler. He, wheeler, was a dork. The floramon walked over to Haruko and took hand with a playful smile, wanting to get in on bolters goofyness while not meaning to give her much of a choice.

"So long as we aren't to close to mr. Cool, I'm sure we'll be warm."

Why did they all want to get so close to her? Ao and kiiro had most commonly been her transport, instead of the other way around. That, or acting as weapons, either way, kept in the d-ban until she needed them. Yet that wasn't how Bolter acted around her, and the Floramon seemed to be going the same route.

Her sneakers squeaking slightly as she stepped onto the platform, Kyoko felt the first gust of the mountain's cool wind. The sun was shining though, so it wasn't too bad yet. The Trailmon waited a few moments for its passengers to disembark, and then rolled on down the line. The platform lay alongside a path in the mountains, the vegetation scrubby at this altitude.

Bolter thought that Wheeler passing his shirt off to his partner in order to keep her warm was a rather touching gesture. And not one Kyoko would be in the mindset to mimic... Who knew, maybe they'd get lucky and find some mountain hermit that could reset Kyoko to how she used to be. More likely though they'd run into a hungry Tyranomon or something. "So," he said, deciding to voice his thoughts. "Any guesses on what we'll find here?" Were it not for the fact he didn't quite imagine Narsie and Wheeler as the gambling types, he would have started a betting pool on that point.

"Maybe a bar run by a Waru Monzaemon?" Kyoko laughed softly at her own joke, still feeling rather tired even in the warm sun. She'd been feeling exhausted quite a lot lately, without being able to put her finger on why. To be fair though, they were a lot of things she hadn't been able to put her finger on lately.

"maybe, treasure? or.. Oh! a village in trouble, No! a hidden castle under siege by bandits!"

The floramon exclaimed, letting her imagination take the best of her. She couldn't help but imagine the group as characters in some fantasy story. Bolter as an archer with a little hat and bow, Haruko as a thief in all dark clothes, herself as a Mage with a flowery staff, and wheeler, well, it was difficult to imagine wheeler as anything but what he already looked like. She couldn't decide what kinda character he'd be, but enjoyed the thought of how her tamer could already pass off a fantasy character. 

    Nymph smiled cheerfully, looking up to bolter past Haruko. The girl was about as tall as Aqua was, so that ment that nymph came up to about, her shoulders. Haruko's hand was kinda, cold compared to Wheeler's, dispite his claim to coolness he was very warm. Maybe it was just because the girl tamer was so much smaller then the young man. Though tall for her age, Haruko still looked like a child next to wheeler, who was almost two feet taller then nymph, the waist of his over shirt reaching down as far as her dress. If it wasn't for bolter, who was big enough to ride his tamers shoulder, Narsisia would have felt pretty small.

     Wheeler watched as the trailmon rode off, giving it wave, ignorant of weather or not it would notice, or even care. "I... Forgot to give'm a sucker..." the tamer shrugged, turning to see the others backs as they walked ahead of him. His pace was, chill, he didn't really care about walking behind the rest of the group. They weren't that far ahead of him anyway, not three steps full stride, if he had to close the distance he could do it in seconds. Realy, being in the back would be more of a benift for them then anything.

   Here, he could keep an eye on their surroundings, take in the terrain, get a feel for the playing field. The breaze was soft but steady, and dust from the ground would have been blown away. The ground gave a bit under his feet, the soil on the trail was softer then in looked, leaving a shallow but clear size fourteen foot print as he stepped. Wheeler was sure to step where Haruko had stepped, over lapping the girls foot prints in his. He didn't know why, just felt like he should cover the girls tracks.

   It be hard for anything bigger then a minivan to comfortably move around on the trail, though, that probably didn't mean anything. Wheeler was far from the kinda guy who was always on his guard, much to oblivious for that. Really, he was pretty careless when he was only looking out for himself. But he wasn't. He couldn't help but feel like he had to take care of the other three. 

"A bar eh... 'be a bit borin for you guy's would'n it?"

Wheeler cocked an eyebrow to the girls joke. He knew that Kyoko had been trained by the best and darkest, and that the other two just happened to be funny looking monsters with super powers. They were far from helpless, but to wheeler, they were still kids. "you can't be much older then fifteen Hun, I doubt they let younglings into bars." yeah, he knew kyokos real age, but he'd pretty much decided to let her be who ever she wanted to say she was.

   Though he him self didn't act like one, the government of Saskachewan Canada considered him to be a Tax paying adult. Free to vote, smoke, gamble, and enter alcohol serving businesses. Though, he didn't bother doing any of those things. Honestly though, he didn't really care what they ran into here. It be nice to find a way to get stronger, or have a good scrap with a whatevermon, so long as the others weren't In to much trouble.

"maybe I'll find a belt."

"On Earth, yes, they wouldn't let me into bars," said Kyoko. "But here in the Digital World they don't care as much about physical age." In fact, Kyoko had been in bars multiple times in the past, and had once frequented an establishment where alcohol was just part of the deal. Alas, going there now probably wasn't a good idea. It had always been kind of like neutral ground, but that also meant that some bounty hunters operated there. And with Insomnia no longer there to bribe the commission that handled bounty postings, there could well have been a poster advertising a price for one 'Chibi Usagi' up in the city at this very moment.

"Still, you're a bit young to be getting wasted, whether they'll let you or not," said Bolter, giving Kyoko a light pinch on the shoulder. He hoped she wouldn't go on too much about past experiences in this world, as it would stretch the believability of them being relatively new to this world. "I'd rather not have to clean up your vomit when you overdo it," he teased.

Looking back, he noticed Wheeler was following Kyoko in a rather odd way. It was a bit late to be trying to sneak up on her, but then the Lopmon noticed the towering tamer was taking rather short strides given his frame. And covering Haru's footprints, nice... Finding his opinion of Wheeler sliding up a few notches, Bolter spread his ears wide and listened. Something about this place didn't feel right. Maybe it was just the natural chill of the mountain air. He could ask Kyoko if she knew anything of this area, but not with Wheeler and Narsie around.

"Considering the oddness of this world, Wheeler," Bolter said. "I wouldn't be surprised if you found belts growing like vines on a tree or something."

Meanwhile, a cave mouth stood high above the winding trail the quartet walked along. The vaguely figure eight shaped entrance could give the impression that a pair of bottomless black eyes had been carved into the cliff face. Yet there were in fact a pair of red eyes gleaming within the cave, and through the eyes of the scout, others soon became aware of the intrusion within this barren territory.

"give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his ills, and remember his troubles no more."

Wheeler shrugged and popped the sucker back into his mouth. He doubted that Kyoko would care if he said anything about how it was wrong for kids to drink. Of course, she was hardly a child anymore, was she? He'd have to just pass on the words told to king Lemuel by his mother. "Pr'verbs thirty one, verses six 'n seven." The thirty first book of proverbs was wheelers favorite, the wisdom of a queen passed on to her son, something about the thought made it stick in the gypsy boy's mind.

    Really, he couldn't say anything else. He had been drinking back before he was 'Haruko's' age. It was an escape, and seemingly, and efficient one. For a kid with as many personality disorders as wheeler had, forgetting ones troubles was more important then anything. Though, he was never an addict, he didn't drink to get drunk, he drank to get away. Like taking an Advil for a headache.

"junk like that, causes more problems then it solves. I'd rather have a smoothie, or a milkshake anyway. They taste better."

'Narsie', wasn't sure as to a couple things. Like, why a nice girl like Haruko would want to drink in the first place, or why her tamer was quoting things as he walked behind them. Mostly, what confused her was that Haruko seemed kinda, familiar with the concept. Bolter seemed to be, maybe, correcting his tamer when ever she said something a new tamer wouldn't say? It was probably just her, wheeler didn't seem to notice. 

"You think they'd sell milkshakes at a bar bolter?"

    Really, nymph had a hard time deciding weather or not her tamer was as oblivious as he made him self out to be. If he were to comment on his partner's thoughts, he'd a probably said something like, 'huh? Oh sorry, sis, what was you saying?'. His mother and grandmother, had always explained him like this- 'he's a bit less then he seems to think, and a bit more then others seem to think.' you could put it into what ever context you wanted, it either made sense or didn't.

"I hear you there bra. I guess that would explain why like, thirty percent of digimon wear at least one belt."

The tamer rolled his eyes and looked up in a playful manner, though, the eye rolling would go unnoticed under his shades. He had always wondered as to why so many digimon wore belts in random places. Maybe who ever belonged to the eyes in the cave could tell him. He couldn't see anything else up there but the cave, even with the shades on, 'the digital dream' was to bright for his eyes. He saw best in low lit places. Use to freak people out when he would ask them to turn the lights off so he could read.
  
    His eye's aside, wheeler wasn't sure how to react to the sight. Actually, he wasn't even sure if he was looking at anything. The tamer looked right at what ever was in the cave and gave'm a wide grin and an almost obnoxious wave, the kind you could make your character do on monster hunter.

 "hey guys, are they waving back? I can't tell." 

wheeler, still waving up ward, looked over to the others with the same grin. Instead of pointing the eyes out the others, he just played as if it was normal to wave at things that may or may not even be there. That was how wheeler did things, if he didn't know what to do, he went with his instincts. There was no point in trying to hide, if he had seem some mon, it would have a pretty good view of them. Even if it was the violent type, it was better to let it know it's been spotted. on this terrain, wheeler would much rather square off with it, what ever it was, then get ambushed or somthing.

"Probably depends on the bar, Narsie," said Bolter, his ears lowering slightly. "Some cater a lot to the tough 'mon image. They wouldn't serve anything that wasn't either loaded with protein or suitable for removing paint. Actually, I think the ones in town would probably have the best selection..."

"...Nani mono...?" Kyoko blinked in confusion as Wheeler started waving up at the rocks. Had he seen something up there? But as Kyoko stood bewildered, she heard a low, menacing growl. The shadowy form within the cave finally slithered out of the blackness, sunlight glistening of bristly purple fur. Furled bat wings framed the side of its face, and wicked claws ticked on the rocks as the wolfish Digimon stalked forward.

A ping echoed from Kyoko's d-ban, and she skimmed the Digimon's analysis. Kuso! she thought, recognizing the type. The Dread Legion is known to occupy the mountains! Onee-sama always figured someone would stamp them out, but if no one did they would have kept growing. Like weeds!

"Afternoon!" Bolter called, waving up at the Sangloupmon. "I don't suppose you've come to ask if we know a good tailor?" He really shouldn't have been prejudiced against a Digimon just for looking surly, but here they had a snarling wolf coming out of a cave. That always ended so well.

Sangloupmon pulled his lips back, showing teeth as he glared down with utter hatred at the intruders to his realm. His form began to ripple, and then he simply sank into the rocks, out of sight.

There was a high, keening howl that seemed to come from all around them, and it was soon echoed across the mountain range as others more distant joined in.

Kyoko reached into a side pocket on her bag, looking for her cards. She found barely a sliver, less even than she had been used to. A small deck had its advantages, but her current arsenal numbered not even ten cards. No Digimental. No Blue Card. Bolter couldn't evolve. Not being with Insomnia anymore sucked.

Wheeler, having only been able to see the cave mouth it's self, was a bit disheartened that he'd missed the big reveal. He wouldn't have to wait long to see the beast, the chiming of Haruko's d-bad brought his attention back to earth level. The girl's digivice displaying a neat little holographic image of the monster Wheeler had been waving at moments earlier. His initial thoughts we're somewhere between 'omygosh! A puppy!' and, 'ah crap...' sangloupmon, the lupine vampire, aptly named 'the blood wolf'.

"Don't listen to the bunny! He thinks belts grow on trees!

The tamer laughed poking fun at bolter, still not sure if he was ever going to find a belt. Not that it was some big quest or anything, for now his hips would hold his jeans up fine. Lord knows why he was contemplating his pants while he was staring down a sangloupmon, as he couldn't realy see the wolf up there the sangloupmon was doing all the work so far. Wheeler adjusted the sucker in his mouth, he'd been neglecting it. sangloupmon, was a Dog in wheelers eyes, like dash of team daybreak, he couldn't fear it if he wanted to. 

    'narsie' on the other hand... The floramon felt a shiver run down her back and through her tail as the monster disappeared. Nymph gave a sudden flinch as the howling started, letting go of Haruko's arm. She had been told story's of these monsters as a hatchling. The elders of her village told the little ones story's of the vampiric wolves who resided in the mountains close to the forest to scare them from going near the mountains. 

"W-wheeler?"

As the story's went, the wolves stalked their prey, seeming to disappear behind trees and rocks, and appear some where else as if their were more then one of them. They attack with their bladed fore paws, slashing younglings just enough to keep them from getting away, so they can absorb their Data while they were still alive. Her mind racing back to the training match she had mentioned to bolter earlier, Narsisia reached her flower like arm to touch the place on her shoulder and back where her scar was covered but two layers of thin fabric.

      She, had always been uncomfortable around blades, edges, sharp pointy things... But after the fight with Trevor and jojo... Every time she thought of a blade, she remembered what it feel like to get cut. the feeling of rage and desperation coming from trevor, the fear and the pain that followed. It was a common fear for vegetation digimon, but for Narsisia, it was getting worse. It didn't help that her tamer was fascinated with blades.

"No worrys squirt. I got this."

Confidence, alluring and almost hypnotizingly sincere. Wheeler gave his partner a smirk and a playful wink, having taken off his shade, she could see a slight spark of gold in his grey green eyes. The tamer handed her his shades and head phones, putting his hand over hers, and lifting it gently away from the scar. She wasn't afraid anymore.

     Turning away from the floramon, wheeler reached into the right pocket of his jeans. It pained him to no end to admit that he needed the help of cards to keep his friends safe. "stupid... Mystical reflector... Freaking... Homing missile... Vampire... One candled menorah.... Wolves..." wheeler growled under his breath, a legit growl very beastish, picking out all of his most powerful cards, though mentioning only a couple of them. The tamer turned his attention to Haruko and bolter.

"So, I kinda got an plan, Involves me challenging the leader. Beat the alpha, beat the pack. it's a really stupid plan. Any thoughts?" 



    

Baka! thought Kyoko, her lips thinning. She looked around for the incoming wolf even as she thought Wheeler had to be an idiot. These wolves weren't some feral pack, they were scouts, there was no alpha. If they couldn't kill or capture intruders, they would occupy them long enough for big guns to arrive.

The question for Kyoko now was whether she would tell Wheeler what she knew. Telling might save all their lives, but it would put her in the place of having to answer how she knew such things. "Just great," she grumbled.

"Great, there's more than one of those things out there?" Bolter shook his head. "This could get real messy, Haruko." He paused, thinking. "I wonder if we could still catch up to that Trailmon..."

Out in front of Wheeler, the shadow of a scraggly tree rippled. A lithe, fur-covered form emerged from within. Snapping and snarling, the Sangloupmon's claws ticked as it paced back and forth in front of Wheeler, sizing him up.

The seconds dragged on, and the Sangloupmon only slowly sauntered toward Wheeler. "He's sure taking his sweet time..." muttered Bolter, before hearing a soft sound behind him. Ear quivering, Bolter spun around in time to see a second Sangloupmon finish materializing on the rocks behind them.

"Sticker Blade!" the beast called, firing six inch long luminous needles from his mane. Acting on instinct, Kyoko threw herself to the side, rolling through the dirt before coming upright again in a crouch. The darts peppered empty rock, driving deep and breaking off chips.

"That was close," Bolter grumbled, having hung tightly to Kyoko's back. He'd gotten a little squished in her roll, but he hadn't gotten skewered so he wouldn't complain. "Blazing Ice!" Breathing in a cloud of chilled vapor, Bolter than spat out an icy dart at the offending wolf.

Baka indeed. He did say it was a stupid idea after all. How was he supposed to just be able to guess whether or not the digimon was feral or intelligent? The Boundary was pretty thin in this world, You really couldn't tell till you looked a digimon in the eye. Staring down the sangloupmon, sizing it up, and moving towards it slowly, back and forth, growling and cracking the joints in his neck and hands. Mirroring the wolf, Wheeler could tell now his initial assumption was off.

     Wheeler wasn't sure what to do. This was, an intense situation to say the least. One in front waiting, preoccupying their attention, most likely another coming up behind kyoko and bolter, there wasn't really any where else they could pop out from with out notice. Wheeler was pretty happy that he had at least taken in their environment. His guess was pretty good, an attack had been made at Haruko and bolter behind him. It was time to switch back to instinct.

"Narisia, Digimodify! Organic enhancer and snimon's scythes! activate!"

Slashing his modify cards, wheeler pointed towards the other two, telling nymph to back them up, not taking his eyes off of the sangloupmon in front of him. "I'll keep you guys from fighting two at once. Take him down, and back me up." Narsisia wanted to hesitate, but couldn't, Wheeler's voice was still smug, but, serious. Her tamer was strong, but how could he beat this kind of opponent on his own? How long could he even fight it? The floramon nodded and jumped into action to support Haruko and bolter.

     The long green blades formed where the floramon once had petals. The scythes started at the point of her arm where the sleeves of Wheeler's shirt ended, greatly increasing nymph's reach. The effects of the organic enhancer gave her a kind of rush, she liked this extra surge of power. Holding the scythes out to her sides as she ran towards the sangloupmon who'd attacked bolter and his tamer, nymph seemed to have forgotten about how sharp edges made her uncomfortable. When she got to where Haruko and bolter were, nymph reached her right arm back, the scythe charging with a sharp green energy.

"let's see how you like it! Green sickle!"

Nymph cried as she slashed forward, launching a crescent shaped blade of glowing green energy at the wolf. The crescent was noticeably ably larger then it should have been, no doubt on account of wheelers use of the organic enhancer card to double nymphs attack power. Hopefully, it would be enough to help them beat the sangloupmon before one of them got killed. Speaking of wheeler, it wasn't likely that he'd be able to give nymph anymore support, cards or other wise.

"Ight kujo! Let's dance!"

*Snick*

Popping the claws out of the metal base strapped to his gloves, wheeler continued to stare down the beast in front of him. Well, he was done with the stare down, they had to beat these muts quick. Wheeler charged forward faking at it, but lunging to his left. There was a knee high rock between them and what could pass as a solid wall behind it, parallel to sangloupmon. he'd jump off of it, the rock with his right leg, and at the wall. This was where his abilities came into play, par kor, was just kinda his thing. He hit the wall horizontally, absorbing the impact with his left leg like a spring.

 Using his leg like a spring, powering himself at the sangloupmon, the tamer seemed to ricochet off of the wall. He wasn't just using his speed, or force, but also gravity, the rest kinda just increased effect if a direction of the tamers choosing. wheeler swung his left arm down at the wolfs side, slashing with his claws with all the weight and momentum he could muster. He couldn't face sangloupmon head on, but, in this environment the smaller fighter could out agile the larger quadruped, he hoped anyway.

----

Name: Organic Enhancer 
Number: C27
Type: Single Target
Duration: 3 turns
Effect: Doubles the attack power of one Vegetation Digimon.

Name: Snimon's Scythes 
Number: C33
Type: Single Target
Duration: 3 Turns
Effect: Transforms the affected Digimon’s hands into sharp, curved blades like those of a Snimon, allowing use of the attacks Shadow Sickle and Green Sickle Cut (at the user’s own power level), and enabling the Digimon to cut through any physical objects except those created by other cards.

Sangloupmon [A] watched as Wheeler extended his claws and attacked, but the wolf seemed unimpressed by the attack. As Wheeler reached the apex of his pounce, Sangloupmon's form simply melted into its own shadow and vanished.

Several seconds later he appeared nearby on some more open ground, his arrival heralded by a brief flicker of slithering shadow. "Sticker Blade!" He sprayed Wheeler with dozens of thin, sharp, and lethal darts.

Sangloupmon [B] deftly sidestepped icy shot from Bolter, but was less prepared for Narsi's attack. The green energy splashed across his side, leaving some of the fur charred and blackened. Deciding that the little plant may have gained strength but was still smaller and slower, the wolf pounced, his wicked claws slashing at the Floramon.

"Got anything useful in your bag of tricks?" Despite spending plenty of time acting like he pretty much couldn't take even a nuclear bomb seven seconds from going off seriously, Bolter was more than a little on edge. His mind was already working through his limited possibilities, and it seemed like their best shot was to take one of the Sangloupmon out as quickly as possible.

Kyoko gritted her teeth, her cards not really a handfull except to someone with very small hands. That left her knife, as she was loathe to rely on Bolter for her protection. Though it would be so sugoi if Kyra-chan showed up right now...

"Forget your knife," said Bolter. "The blade is too short, and if you use whip without practicing you'll just hurt yourself."

Kyoko was about to bite out a question as to why he would even care when one of Bolter's ears reached down and plucked out a card. "Here, use this one," advised Bolter, making Kyoko bristle even more.

Digimon were supposed to do Kyoko's bidding, not the other way around, but she saw the wisdom this time. "Fine," she growled, slashing one card with a mild, half-hearted flourish. This... just wasn't as fun as it used to be.

Name: Coin Bombers
Number: U49
Type: Weapon
Duration: Until coins are used up
Effect: User can choose from three options: either the affected Digimon acquires ten coins, the Tamer acquires the same, or Tamer and Digimon each acquire five coins. Either way, the coins can be thrown, tossed or flipped at the opponent and will explode on impact to cause five points of damage per coin.

"Thanks," said Bolter, holding up a double handful of coins in his tiny paws. Moving to Kyoko's shoulder, he transferred two coins to the finger-like tips of a long ear. "Hey!" he yelled out to Sangloupmon [B] "You forgot your change, bitch!" Swinging his ear around, he lobbed the explosive coins at the troublesome wolf.

"Really! Really!? Not cool man! I call GodMod! DAMIT! GODMOD!¡!"

Wheeler was almost, heart broken that his attack missed, or well, was completely avoided. As far as he was concerned, there was a like, seventy percent chance that he'd fall on his but or break his leg trying to pull off something like that. Jumping and flipping off stuff to get around was one thing, but doing it with sharp pointy things and trying to attack something was another. 

     It made him especially annoyed that sangloupmon {A} seemed to be able to just, disappear like that. 'shadow melding' like that would make this a very tough fight. How do you fight an opponent who can just, disappear? It was bad enough that he was so terribly out classed in terms of fighting capabilities, but even beyond that, sangloupmon {A} was an intelligent monster with super powers. Basically, the gypsy boy was up a creek without a paddle.

*snick*

     Cringing as the wolf faded into his shadow before His attack could reach it, Wheeler retracted his claws. The sharp blades would make recovering from his predicament rather, painful. The drainer laws retracted, wheeler roled with the momentum of his attack, pretty much killing the impact against the Dence soil. From his left shoulder onto his back, then to his feet, wheeler knew he'd have to get the heck away from there; his opponent was about to counter.

    Keeping low, Wheeler took off towards a patch of open ground he noticed near by, kinda on a hunch. He figured that there were only so many places open enough for the wolf to just appear in. Only way to catch an opponent like this was to do it as they solidify, well no, but that was his first thought anyway. A flicker of shadow confirmed wheelers guess, now he knew that a shadow would proceed these freaks, useful, useful information. 

*snick*

    Sangloupmon {A} made his counter, a spray of sharp metal things. The tamer wasn't sure about their properties, though, was more interested in avoiding them all together. He still making for the sangloupmon {A} wheeler jumped to the right off of another rock, this place was full of them, to get away from the spray of pointy things. His plan of attack was the same, use the terrain at his advantage, free run at the wolf, get at it as fast and efficiently as possible, and get a hit it. Wheeler kicked off the side of another rock with his right leg, lunging and slashing at the sangloupmon {A} as it finished its attack.

"Dodge this one freak!"

Wheeler might have missed the first time, and would probably miss again the second time. It really wasn't likely that he'd even get a hit on his opponent, and in the end, it was clear that they were being stalled. But that wasn't the point. So far, his plan was working. He had drawn sangloupmon {A}'s fire, and even if the wolf had been unimpressed by the tamer, wheeler was forcing it to focus on him. Sizing up, dodging, countering, if wheeler could just keep the mut dodging and countering his attacks, Narsisia and the others could focus on beating theirs. Who was stalling who?

"Not likely! Shadow scythe!"

Pouncing the floramon was a bad call on the sangloupmon's {B} part.  Pouncing, was for stealth attacks, ambushes, not for use against an opponent who can see it comingSure his sharp claws were all dangerous on his business end, but the wolf left his gut completely exposed. Using the stealth styled attack given to her by Snimon's scythes, nymph passed under the larger digimon and slashed her right blade against its stomach, hoping to use the wolfs own forward motion to increase the power of her attack. Sangloupmon {B} was indeed bigger and faster, but it only takes so much 'fast' to step forward and duck under a bigger opponent.

    Turning around after passing the wolf with her bladed arm raised at the ready to make another attack, Narsi held her ground. She'd wait for Haruko and bolter to make their next move. After failing the pounce at her,  the sangloupmon {B} would have been right open to take bolters coins to the face. She wondered if the lopmon had gotten his tamer to use that card for the simple sake of his punch line. Felt like a wheeler move to her.

   She was worried about her tamer, having heard another attack being made around where he had been. She shook it off. They couldn't do anything to help him until they got rid of their opponent. She only had one more powered up attack left with her borrowed scythes, she was hoping to use it on sangloupmon {A}, but it wasn't likely. Nymph bit her lip, focusing on her opponent. Sangloupmon {B} came first, she had to use every thing in her power to beat it, then, she could help her tamer.
----

Narsisia~
Organic enhancer: x2 attack power turn 2/3
Snimon's scythes: scythe arms, can cut through any physical objects except those created by cards, can use green sickle and shadow scythe attacks at user level, turn 2/3

Sangloupmon [A] slunk to the side, skirting Wheeler's attack. The slash mostly caught fur, but it did leave a trio of small cuts close together along the wolf's ribcage. The stinging pain would have bothered most Digimon, but the will of these creatures was not entirely their own, and distant bosses were seldom sympathetic to cuts and bruises.

Despite the properties of Wheeler's blades, Sangloupmon's... were bigger. Growling and snapping, the creature slashed at Wheeler with a forepaw, happy to gut the human.

Sangloupmon [B] couldn't do much against Narsie's attack, beyond simply accept it and move on. The wounds were deep, but not unendurable. This was not a battle of a single stroke, after all, and the humans simply would not be surviving this trip, at least not in the state they had entered the mountains.

The first coin went slightly high, missing the target and instead exploding with a firecracker's Pop! against a rock face. The second coin hit home, singing fur but otherwise only causing Sangloupmon [B] to snarl and turn away from the weak attack. "Sticker Blade!" he pelted Narsisia with luminous needles.

"Oh, you're gonna regret that," murmured Bolter, seeing the Sangloupmon turn its back on him. Hoping Narsisia wouldn't get caught in the attack, Bolter loaded all eight of his remaining coins into his ears and hurled them all at once.

"You used up all your ammo, baka," grunted Kyoko, deciding to keep her eye out for Legion reinforcements. If they were lucky they could deal with these two Sangloupmon and run for cover. Such a weak party getting caught in a battle of attrition was a sure way for Kyoko to end up on the wrong side of the bars in yet another dungeon, and that assumed the subcommander wasn't just feeling expedient today.

"So do you know anything about these guys?" Bolter asked, his voice lost to anyone but Kyoko thanks to the noise of the battle.

"More than I'd like," said Kyoko, her eyes still high and vigilant. "If we're lucky, they'll kill us."

Bolter raised an eyebrow. "I'd hate to see what happens if we aren't lucky, then."

"They'll try to recruit us."

"Nyeh!"

Wheeler jumped, rolling back into a crouch, holding his chest with his left hand, carful not to cut himself anymore. "I SAID DODGE! Damn...it... That really freaking stings!" wheeler cringed as he looked over the wound. He wasn't sure if he was more shocked that he'd been cut, or that he hadn't been disemboweled. "Time to bring sexy back... It's my only hope!" angrily, wheeler grabbed the part of his shirt that had been slashed open and proceeded to rip his shirt off. the attack had left three light gashes across his chest to go with the wounds he had received in the match against trever and jojo.

   A light trickle of blood ran down his 'flawless' abdomen. the wound stung something fierce, but wasn't quite 'you need stitches to keep your squishy parts from falling out' level. More of a really deep scratch, the flesh was slashed not quite down to the muscle. But god did it sting. The bleeding was light, the scarlet liquid a bit harder to see thanks to his Skintone, past wounds and the dark tiger stripe tattoos coming from his back. He doubted that he could avoid a second attack like that, but, he smirked for some reason. It would take a lot more then that to make him take this seriously.

"You just messed with the wrong dude's flawless body! Feel the full unbridled force of my sex Appeal!"

Narsi, had honestly hoped that last attack would have beat it, or at least done more damage, just like she had hoped with the last one, and would hope with the next one. It was a pretty much a consistent thing in a fight. There is something is trying to kill you, so you throw an attack, hoping it won't work? Sure in some situations, but not this one. That, would be pretty stupid. Probably what the sangloupmon [b] was thinking to, what with having taken a gash in the gut, and shooting off flying glowing bladey things and all.

"Green sickle cut!"

    Charging her right arm with green energy, she tried to avoid the attack by jumping to the right, but nymph couldn't do much to escape the full spread of sangloupmon's [b] needles. Slashing forward and releasing the crescent shaped blade of energy at the wolf, Narsi took a needle to the left scythe, leg, and another to the stomach. The one to the scythe wouldn't really mean much, seeing as it wouldn't be a part of her for much longer. She fell to the side not being able to catch herself with her scythes turning back into petal like hands as she cried out it in pain.

    The needle to her leg was more serious then one to her stomach, which just grazed her, cutting her side and piercing a smooth hole through wheelers shirt. The effects of the cards had warn off, her attack boost was gone after that last attack, and so were the scythes. She didn't think that she could put any weight on her left leg. She held her side and her leg, wincing in pain. Realizing that she had been taken out of the fight, she immediately thought of her tamer. Was he alright? She couldn't help him like this, wheeler was alone.

"No!"

Narsi shook her head violently, atempting to clear the image from her head. "Narsisia wisteria! you are not allowed to think about that! Wheeler is never going to lose to some stupid wolf! Now get your head together! Wheeler trusted you with his promise! You have to back up bolter and Haruko!" As soon as she felt energy comeback to her, she'd use her Gaia healing to fix her leg. The wound to her side was light, nothing she couldn't handle. If she could stand, she could keep fighting. She just needed a second to catch her breath, hopefully bolter and Haruko could cause some kinda distraction. *insert explosive sound, like kerpowzles or somthing* Narsi was wide eyed at the explosion caused by bolter, it had to be like, eight times bigger then the last ones! "that could work..."

"This is for making me think about using an obligatory Twilight reference!!"

Smirking, wheeler lunged forward. His claws had grown abit, meaning they had an little increase in power, but, moslty meaning that he'd managed to cut the wolf. If he could make it bleed, well, He could injure it at least. Pulling his right arm back as he lunged, the movement into the punch started with footing, slamming his right foot down, shifting weight forward, then rolling his hip. breathing out hard as he spoke, biting down on his sucker, he threw the punch with a twist from his shoulder. Every muscle in his body that was nessisary in the movement flexed, the rest relaxed, he was trying to draw out every ounce of 'chi' he had in him. A straight punch, thrusting the claws forward at sangloupmon's [a] face with as much force as wheeler was physically capable of producing.

"Right Magnum!"

   Wheeler, had a lot of confidence in the punch, He'd even named it. really, it was his signature move back home. He didn't need to call it out like he was in some kind of anime or anything, it was just a normal punch after all. All 'chi' really added up to, was potential speed, force, and intent, it wasn't some magical energy. It was just a normal punch, which he was capable of using to produce enough force in less time then it took to say it, to break through three inches of solid wood with out damaging his fist, and had litteraly knocked grown men off of their feet and flying to the ground with it. He wasn't sure how the claws would impact the attacks effectiveness, or how well it would work against an adult level digimon in the first place. 

  He knew he was going to lose, and probably die. If he really was a character inside of that Role play site, the mods would most likly take away his weapon privledges. Humor aside, He was definitely going to die, but, he had literally been waiting to die since he was seventeen. Getting killed as he 'right magnum'd' a vampiric werewolf thing, was a way cooler way to go then lung cancer.

 "Wait a second... Didn't dragon tamer have her character Amanda kill a myotismon, with a Katana!? Dude! I Can totally beat this thing!" wheeler laughed in his head as he threw his punch. If a sixteen year old girl with the average physical attributes of a sixteen year old girl with out any real training could beat an ultimate level with a katana... Well, he was a pretty amazing nineteen year old fighting a champion level. "I'm so Not going to die!"

Being able to maximize muscle usage for full force behind an attack was a good start, and against a human opponent probably could have won outright. But it was a sad Adult-level Digimon that would fall to such a blow. Fortunately for Sangloupmon [A], he wasn't really sad, or any other emotion for that matter, except perhaps hungry.

The minute motions that built power also foreshadowed the incoming attack. Light and nimble on his paws, Sangloupmon [A] skittered backwards. Though he stumbled slightly on the rocks, he managed to avoid the reach of the claws by a margin of several inches.

"Sticker Blade!" he hissed, firing a salvo of darts in retaliation.

Sangloupmon [B] had been prepared to press his attack on the Floramon when the first coin hit his flank. At first he'd been little more than puzzled at the tiny impact, not even distracted enough to turn and look at it. That changed when it exploded with a crack! Several more followed it, blasting at Sangloupmon [B]'s sides and flanks. Only about half the coins hit because tossing so many at once had negatively effected Bolter's ability to aim them.

Still it left Sangloupmon [B] singed and smoking, and left him scant seconds to try and dodge the sickle attack. He partially succeeded, receiving a cut along his side for his effort.

"Blazing Ice!" Bolter fired another shot at Sangloupmon [B] before turning his attention back to Kyoko's cards. They were making good progress against this Sangloupmon, but there was no way Wheeler could do more than stall the other and hope to survive. "That one would be good, but I don't think we want to use it yet if there are more on the way," he said, eying isolate. "Hmm, fancy yourself a cowgirl? Maybe we could kill this one and just lasso the other one?"

Kyoko tried not to get distracted by the mental image of a certain someone in chaps and a cowboy hat. "Even if we beat these two, more will come." She gritted her teeth. Insomnia was gone, and that sense of emptiness had made Kyoko wish for death more than once. The center of her world, the ground beneath her feet, it had simply gone in one afternoon. But there was still one longshot hope her heart was clinging to, and she didn't want the shadows to take her. There would be no onee-sama in the ranks of the Dread Legion, just a bunch of stuffy Digimon bossing her around.

*Snick*

"Damn...how'm I s'pose t' beat this guy?" the second his attack had been avoided, wheeler's heart started to race. Feeling the coming tumble, the tamer retracted his drainer claws. "I can't even hit'm! 's too fast,and even'f I did, it'd only be'a scratch..." he had counted on the sangloupmon{A} taking the full force of the attack. A man his size would have been knocked off his feet, only taking as much of the force as it took to knock him over. A beast like sangloupmon, something that big would have been forced to take all of the power head on. "I was miles off! My claws almost add'a full foot t'my reach, I still couldn't hit'm..."

   With nothing to get in the way of that kind of force, wheeler would have a rather difficult time recovering. His heart beat continued to pick up, pounding in his head. "I'm take'n to much time! I'm talking to much... I'm waste'n to much movem'nt..." his vision was coming out of focus around the outside edges, but he barely noticed, his attention on the wolf. "No... Quit try'n t' convince your self that you can actually beat this guy. He's a digimon Deej... Your not sitting in the dark, trying to figure out how to beat some one in the RP any more." stopping his breath, wheeler dove after the wolf, rolling with the momentum of his failed attack. "you can't just cite somthing from another thread to justify what your doing... And theres no pushing the rules, or god modding your way out of this."

   The movement took less then seconds, as if one could have blinked and missed the transition between the punch and the role, but to wheeler felt like it took minutes. "You can't beat it. Two digimon and a tamer, much more skilled and experienced then you, are struggling against one of these things. But, you can't lose either. The others can't face two of them at once." wheeler closed his eyes, gritting his teeth, and reached for his right ankle as he finished the role square on his feet, crouching. "you can't win, but you can't let your self lose... I'm no closer to figuring this out then I was a minute ago..."

   His violent movements, coupled by the rapid quickening of his heart rate, opened the wounds on his chest a little more, and increased the blood. To much more, and the scratches wound start tearing. "so where the hell does that leave me!? Why the hell can't I just freaking decide whether or not I can win!?" at his ankle, wheeler grabbed and unsheathed his rogue's blade. "Can I win? Yes? No? DAMIT!" gripping the blade in his right hand, he could feel its power take effect. He let out his breath, opening his eyes. It feel like it took forever for his vision to comeback, but when it did, it wasn't out of focus anymore.

"Screw it!"

This close, and glaring a hole through the sangloupmon{A}, the digimon wouldn't have time enough to notice a golden glow in the young man's eyes fade. Something Inside of him had shifted, come up to the surface only to be forced back down. It had barely lasted a second, but the peak in his heart rate evened out. Wheeler was fully aware of what had almost taken place, but he refused to acknowledge it. He wasn't ready for it yet, if he managed to survive this, then he would face it.

*snick*

 In his dive, he had avoided sangloupmon's rushed counter attack, noting to himself as the squall of glowing needles flew over head that the wolf had stumbled. Of course he had, he was to big to move freely here. Wheeler was not. the drainer claws shot out of the base. They were close, if wheeler hadn't some how managed to force the wolf into retreating back, he would have been the one trying to make distance.

    Wheeler shot forward, seeing the opening in sangloupmon{a}'s stance. With his left hand, readying his hooked claws wheeler attempted to stab into the monster, and anchor into it's flesh. Face, ear, neck, hell, If the wolf decided to bite him, perfect. The tamer threw his right hand in an uppercut motion, towards his own body under the wolf, aiming for it's neck. The claws added about ten inches to wheeler's reach, making the punch which he could have made, with out the rouges dagger, in the time it took to blink bare handed, capable of hitting a whole ten inches faster. The motion was to make sure that he'd hit, even if it was capable of jumping back again, the claws were coming at the wolf at the angle he'd be moving in. 

"Gaia healing!"

Narsi's wounds started to glow with a pinkish light. The light had a soothing sensation, erasing that pain from the floramon's mind. Standing up, she had to take advantage of time bolter had bought her to recover. She couldn't use another attack until the energy came back to her, so she was just trying to keep her self from being a sitting duck. 

"you guys! I don't have much attack power on my own! And I don't know if my status effect attacks will work on it." the floramon called to Haruko and bolter. "If you guys can think of anything, i'm ok if you use cards on me!"

Narsi was kinda, Sweatdropped. She had all all this will to beat the wolf and go help her tamer, but, she wasn't really in the position to do either. She knew full well that her abilities were made a very different style of fighting. The way they brought up little ones in her village, she could defend her self on the fly like she'd done so far in this fight, but, her forte was something far from being a damage dealer. She was a support fighter, weakening opponents with status effects, healing allies, providing the rare degree of back up... If the the shadow sickle and green sickle cut attacks did so little to the sangloupmon{B} she doubted that her stun whipping would have any effect.

Snarling, Sangloupmon [B] rounded toward the offending Lopmon. The wolf seemed to decide him a greater threat, and easily dodged the incoming ice bolt once it was seen coming. Saliva dripping from his fangs, he sauntered toward Kyoko and Bolter, his pace lazy as though he did not expect them able to escape.

Sangloupmon [A] swatted aside the first blow with idle ease, but the second blow from another direction had been unexpected. The claws cut into his shoulder, a mounting inconvenience. The wolf moved with a subtle limp as it stepped sideways and sank out of sight. The shadow bubbled and slithered, then zipped away.

Sangloupmon [A] emerged once again near the rocky wall off to Wheeler's flank. Needles flashed from his mane, and Kyoko reflexively yelled out a warning.

Kyoko wasn't even entirely sure why she had just warned him. If she had a means of quick escape, she could probably just leave Wheeler and Narsie and take off. Unfortunately, gone were the days that escape was a quick Cannon Beemon away. Might still need 'em Kyoko decided, sighing melodramatically.

"Ute!" Kyoko cried, swiping a card. There was a faint whistling sound, and a ray of sunlight dazzled across the battlefield. A trio of transparent diamonds dropped from the sky like bombs, exploding around Sangloupmon [B].

Name: Tri-Crystal
Number: R25
Type: Single Target
Duration: N/A
Effect: Three large, clear, sharp crystals fall from the skies above your opponent, and cause thirty points of damage each if they hit (at least one hit is guaranteed).

Kyoko didn't finish there, drawing another card. This one was weaker, more utilitarian but hopefully it would at least be useful in distracting Sangloupmon [A]. Maybe if I grab onto it, it won't be able to teleport away like that!

Name: Icicle Lasso
Number: C54
Type: Weapon
Duration: 3 Turns
Effect: Either the user or his/her Digimon acquires a noose made of exceptionally flexible ice like a rope, and can use it has s/he wishes.

As Kyoko's hands wrapped around the length of rope, Bolter felt a chill of his own. The wooziness and shortness of breath was due to the sudden and significant drain on his energy, leaving him feeling like he was mildly ill. "Hey, take it easy!" he grumbled into Kyoko's ear. "I don't have the power that -" He trailed off, figuring that mentioning Kyoko's previous not-partners wasn't particularly helpful at the moment. Though if I had their power, I could protect her...

Swinging the lasso high over her head, Kyoko lobbed it at Sangloupmon [A]. Even if she couldn't ensnare it, maybe she could distract it long enough for Wheeler to behead it.

Wheeler smirked, shaking his left hand like he had figured the Sangloupmon {A} had cut it off. Thankfully, it had only made contact with Wheeler's nearly foot long claws, scared him for a second though. The tamer would notice that the claws had grown another couple inches in length, and he got an empowered feeling from the fact that he had actual managed to wound the monster. That was why the drainer claws were such good weapons for the gypsy boy, he could use them, while still relying on his own strength.

   The monster shadow melted again, severely annoying the tamer, but he kept his calmed stated, prepared to react. By now the Sangloupmon {A} would have probably realized that close range fighting might actually be dangerous against this Tamer, seeing as he seemed to be scoring more hits on the monster then vice versa. The more hits wheeler made, the stronger his drainer claws got, so he was happy even if they weren't significant blows. The slowly trickling blood from the wound on Wheeler's chest had made it to his waist by now, With some dirt stuck to it from the tamers role.

  "Sticker blade..." Wheeler thought to himself. "he's trying to put some distance between us so he can get my with those glowing spikes..." the tamer looked around, focusing on the terrain, at least he looked like he was. Really, in his head wheeler was putting together the environment around him from memory, trying to figure out where the Sangloupmon was most likely to appear. they had come up from the direction he was looking, and that was downward, Sangloupmon {A} would want to be higher then the tamer. Directly in Front was out cause of obvious reasons, and behind him, where he had only just need was a rock face, no footing. He caught a flicker of shadow out of the corner of his eye, between where he was and where the others were fighting.

 In his head, Wheeler saw all of the rocks between him and Sangloupmon {A}, they would be his stepping stones. Kyoko's warning, was, kinda un needed, but it was the thought that counted. As the girl yelled out of reflex, Wheeler shot to his left, kicking off of one stone, onto another, at first straight at the wolf, but he jumped again to his left to avoid the glowing Needles shot by his opponent. He took on to the shoulder, gritting his teeth and squeezing had on the handle of his rouges Dagger. It felt a lot deeper then the scratches across his chest, but he didn't have time to check out the wound.

  "Wheeler!?"

Narsi flinched when she heard Haruko shout her warning, looking up to barely catch her tamer avoiding Sangloupmon {a}'s attack. The floramon cringed as she saw one of the needles seeming to pass through wheeler's shoulder. There was more blood running from the young gash on his arm, then there was from the slashes across his chest. It looked bad, but it didn't seem to slow him down. In the back of her mind, Narsisia was trying to figure out why her tamer was shirtless.

  A flash of light and a loud whistling sound caught her attention, and Narsi looked away from her tamer's fight to see something shiny falling towards The Sangloupmon {B} that they were fighting. It had taken its attention away from her, and she figured that the crystals were meant to fall on the wolf. Maybe she could actually help!

"Stun whipping!"

The floramon cried, lashing out at the Sangloupmon {B} with her both of her Stamen. She wasn't sure if her paralysis attack would actually effect it, but if she could even slow the wolf down a little, maybe it would help?

"I got you."

Blood ran down the side of wheelers arm, mixing with his red tiger stripe tattoos, but he wasn't going to let it effect him. He didn't even notice anything around him except his stepping stones, and Sangloupmon {A}. As the lasso flew at the wolf, wheeler smirked, preparing a lariat of his own. He held his bloody right arm out at full length, locking its muscles. As wheeler kicked off the last stepping stone, he twisted his body, slamming is right arm down ward, the twelve inch long drainer claws cleaving at the wolf's neck, as if he was doing some kind of vertical close line. 

He couldn't leave it at that, whether or not the attack hit, wheeler slammed his left foot down, bringing the claws on his left had in a diagonal upward slash aimed at the monsters neck. If the first failed, maybe the second would hit. Really, He was hoping, that the second attack would either finish it off, or pass harmlessly through Data. He was pretty optimistic for a bleeding man fighting a vampire. 

Sangloupmon [B] was caught trying to dodge attacks from above and ground level at the same time. The split of his focus meant he didn't particularly succeed in either. He tried to angle his lanky form sideways and bolt away from the attacks, but a numbing stamen struck a foreleg, briefly hobbling him. The first of the crystaline bombs impaled into the rocks two meters to Sangloupmon [B]'s left, driving deep furrows and spitting a shower of splinters into the air. The second and third crystals scored hits, with number two slicing into the wolf's left hind leg, and the third coming squarely down into his back. A high-pitched squeal escaped the beast as its back arched, and then it was no more. Sanloupmon [B]'s body flopped toward the ground, but never made it, rising instead as a dark rainbow cloud of data particles. They drifted deeper into the mountains...

Sangloupmon [A]'s ear twitched, hearing the incoming projectile, the odd crackling and popping noises coming from the icy fibers as they reached out. That left him in the same nasty position as his late comrade.

Due to Kyoko's ineptitude with the lasso, the loop simply flopped against the Sangloupmon [A]'s side. Reaching up, he hooked it with a claw and pulled hard, hoping to yank Kyoko right off her feet.

Sangloupmon [A] slithered to the side of the first, vertical blow, getting little more than a crude haircut down one leg. As loose indigo strands fluttered in the air, Sangloupmon [A] was momentarily crouched, watching as Wheeler tried another follow-up move. Snapping and snarling, it simply pounced, intending to headbutt him with its full weight. Though the claws inflicted a shallow wound along its shoulder, the impact of several hundred pounds of vampiric wolf would be damaging as well.


"Itaaaiii," groaned Kyoko, fiercely rubbing her elbow where it had landed hard on the rocks. Her face was streaked with dirt and dust now, and she'd gotten the grimy taste in her mouth too. The lasso was loose in front of her, the cause of her tumble. "Boru-kun...?" Though her head danced and swayed with sparks, she became aware Bolter wasn't latched onto her shoulder anymore.

"Haruko!" The Lopmon floated to the ground several meters away, using his broad ears to slow his descent. He scampered toward her as best he could on such short limbs. "Are you okay? Haruko!" With her, it could be hard to tell whether she was ignoring him due to a concussion, or just because.

But someone else beat him to Kyoko. There was a flash of motion further up the winding mountain trail, and a pair of white tendrils lashed out. They wrapped tightly around Kyoko's ankles, and then a spindly form jumped casually down from a tree, reeling Kyoko in. She screamed and pawed at the rough terrain for some kind of handhold, but found no purchase to secure herself. The dirty linen bindings were drawn in, dragging a panicked Kyoko roughly across the rocks and then finally up the tree.

A pair of leering eyes fixed on Kyoko, set into a pale, deathly gray face covered in bandages. This stranger's whole form seemed to be likewise wrapped, save for a purple bandana and some other effects such as leather straps and metal leg braces. One arm was stretched high, holding onto the bandages that dangled Kyoko from the tree like the catch of the day.

His other hand held a large, heavy rifle, his clawed hands wrapped around a beefy foregrip. "It's been awhile since we had one tamer in our midst." The Mummymon's voice was slow and calm, possessing a certain formality as though his words were spoken over drinks. "Let alone two. And yet," his gaze flickered over the two squat Digimon present. "Surely you did not bring such weak specimens as these?" He made a tisking noise and slowly shook his head. "Ah, where are my manners? I am Adgaia." He gave a small bow, causing a tremble to go through the bandages holding Kyoko upside-down in the tree.

Kyoko squirmed, trying to reach up and undo the bandages even as blood rushed to her head, squeezing her brain and making it hard to think straight.

Bolter let out a low growl, stalking toward the Mummymon with a bearing more like that of a Metal Greymon on the attack. "Let her go!" He hadn't gone through all the trouble of remaining loyal to Kyoko during his plush time, protecting her from those villagers, and trying to keep her spirits up all this while just to have some corpse inconsiderate enough to keep walking post-mortem take her away.

Wheeler, stood his ground. This whole fight, he'd been jumping, and slashing, and, nothing was working. Some how, he'd been pushing the wolf back, it didn't make sense to him at all. Every thing about the sangloupmon {the other one went poof} said that he was pretty much feral. Everything but his eyes, and the fact that it hadn't just, pounced on him with out caring wether or not it got hurt. The vampire had been, kinda, forced to counter the gypsy boy this whole fight, and wheeler didn't get it.

   Was it, instinct, or intelligence that had told had been guiding the sangloupmon's actions? When he made his own attacks, it seemed, thought out, when he avoided or countered, it seemed like an animal. Maybe it was just blood loss messing with the tamers head, he wasn't even sure why he was thinking about it. Was it, instinct, or intelligence that made Wheeler stand his ground?

   It, didn't seem all that intelligent. Something told him to keep fighting. Not to try and avoid before countering, it didn't feel like he was countering at all. It was more like, he hadn't quit attacking yet. Sangloupmon just avoiding the first attack, but, took the second. The drainer claws would grow again, increasing their attack power. Wheeler found it kind of ironic that he was using a vampiric weapon like the drainer claws to fight sangloupmon.

   The impact of several hundred pounds of wolf smashing into him... Would have probably finished him off at that point. The cuts across his chest had torn a bit, still new and bleeding though wheeler had already gotten used to the pain. The gash in his shoulder was most likely why he had failed to hit sangloupmon with his first attack. it was... Bad. Blood dripped off of the claws attached to wheeler right hand. his arm was kind of, twitching, and he was having trouble moving his fingers the way he wanted them to move. Hurt like, no, he could barely feel it, but it wasn't dead yet, his arm was still his, still move able, still strong enough to use.

  Wheeler smirked, the score was still, two to three? Yeah... Sangloupmon had hit him twice... He'd hit the sangloupmon three times? Maybe. He wasn't sure exactly, he just knew that he was winning. If he could call this winning. He hadn't realized till now that, even when is was RPing David, the Daybreak tamer had been soo much stronger then he was on his first adventure out of the digital city. Maybe it was a good this that his first attempt at adventuring with Laiko modding hadn't worked out. He'd tried to have David fight against champion levels that time too. By the time he'd tried again, David already had two partners, one of which could reach the perfect level if he had to.

   Maybe, he should have waited. But, then, most tamers start with adventures, and they ended up alright. Then again, most tamers didn't attempt to do something like fight an adult level on their own. He was his own special kind of idiot. When he had first ordered Narsi to back up the bunnies, he'd kinda expected to be the first one to beat their opponent, even before then, it was his plan to challenge the 'pack leader'. Why the hell did he feel this need to fight a digimon?

   In the back of his mind he thought that maybe, if he could defeat something as strong as a digimon, then he'd be strong enough to beat the thing he'd been losing to for so long in the his world. even now he was waiting for his breath to leave him, waiting to start coughing up that... It was always pink at first, and before he caught his breath, his hands would be red. He'd claimed that he had accepted his fate, but, the fact that he still had that stupid pony tail was proof enough that he hadn't. The tamer took a deep breath, almost as if he was checking as to whether or not he still could.

"Right Magnum!"

Wheelers head was kinda, blank. his left foot slid back, and his right took a step towards sangloupmon as the wolf moved to headbut him. Not even a second had passed since the claws on his left hand had made contact with the monsters shoulder. Wheeler slammed his right foot as he stepped down, throwing his punch as his foot connected with the ground. It was like he'd triggered a gun with that step. He shifted his weight up from his foot, to his hips, to his back, into his shoulder, and by the time he had gotten all of the physical force he could muster twisting into his fist, It would have met Sangloupmon's face, claws and all.

  The tamer, was using all of the physical force he could, as well as the few hundred pounds of force behind the sangloupmon. As quick as the wolf was, he wasn't likely to be able to avoid an attack that he was literally moving into like that. It was kinda like, holding up a spear against a charging bear, wheeler probably didn't even need to use the punch, but, every thing inside of him was screaming to keep attacking.

"We got him! Now we can go help wheeler!"

Narsisia cheered, looking over to bolter and Haruko with a congratulatory thumbs up. It was a tough fight, but not as tough as what wheeler must have been going through. Narsi started to sprint towards her tamer before she looked up to see that Haruko had been pulled over. She went to go help the girl up, being quicker on her feet then bolter. She heard somthing from behind her, turned around to see somthing shoot past knocking the floramon over and wrap around the tamer girl's legs. 

"Uh,,huh!?"

Narsi tried to get to her feet fast enough to help Haruko, but she wasn't fast enough. The flower girl was helpless as her new friend was so violently dragged past her across the dirt. Still not understanding what was going on, the floramon looked down the mountain trail, watching as Haruko was hung up in a tree. She stood up, but was too afraid to move when she saw who it was that had kidnapped Haruko. 

   An perfect level digimon, mummymon. They had worked so hard just to beat a single adult level, wheeler was still fighting his, but now they had to face a perfect level? "H-how can I help wheeler now...?" Narsisia was almost brought to tears, the floramon caught somewhere between fear and frustration. The mummymons words blew past her, but, a low growling from bolter woke her up. He was so brave... He had to be didn't he? Haruko relied on him...

   Wheeler... Didn't rely on... Anyone. Not even her. He was fighting all on his own, and he'd chosen to. Was that why he told her to help Haruko and bolter? Because he couldn't rely on her enough to help him? because he was better off fighting alone? The floramon shook her head. "No! No! Nooo! Wheeler wanted to fight alone so that I could help bolter and haruko just incase somthing just like this happened!" Narsi let her stamen ropes grow long and whipped them at the ground infront of her before retracting them completely, pointing her petal like finger at 'Adgaia' with a glare.

"YOU... LET HER GO...Y-you Coward!" Narsi growled stepping forward, wiping away her tears and readying an attack. "Who attacks a little girl! Fight us instead you creep!"

"Savory nectar! Bolter, back me up! Ill catch her!"

Narsisia shot a glob of pinkish liquid aimed at haruko out of her right flower. He savory nectar was, for healing energy and health in others, so it wouldn't to anything to hurt the girl, besides making her smell like a bouquet of flowers add getting her wet, wet and very slippery. The floramon's plan was to use the nectar to make the mummymon's bandaged slippery enough for Haruko to slip out of them. Of course, if they didn't catch her she'd fall on her face.

  After shooting off her slimy attack, Narsi attempted to dash under Haruko and catch her before she hit the ground. She wasn't sure if the lopmon could keep up with her, or get there fast enough, so she was ok with catching the girl herself, though, Haruko was kinda bigger then her. it also kinda, just occurred to her that she'd be, right infront of the mummymon, even if she could save Haruko, she was only a little bit better off. She could do more if wheeler was with her... She shook her head again, focusing on Adgaia with a glare.

"Please hurry wheeler..."

Seeing the oncoming punch, Sangloupmon [A] exercised its shadow powers once again, aborting the ramming attack. Wheeler's claws bit nothing, and blackness slithered away across the ground. Moments ticked by and its form did not reconstitute. Still it circled like a hungry shark, waiting for the right moment to strike. Perhaps it would in another moment, or perhaps it would simply wait until Wheeler turned his focus to the Mummymon...

Kyoko yelped and squirmed as Narsie sprayed her with the flowery concoction. It was slick yet slightly syrupy, clinging to her and soaking into her clothing. Some of it got in her mouth, mixing sickeningly with the taste of blood from a cut on her lip. "Kuso," she growled, still struggling against the bindings on her legs. Though the spray even soaked the bandages, their grip was tight enough they couldn't be so easily loosened. The smell assaulted Kyoko's nose, and she coughed, sending her head further spinning. "Itai..." It felt like a giant was squeezing her head between his fingers, and she was sure it would burst at any moment.

"Blazing Ice!" Bolter fired a crystalline dart straight at Adgaia's face, hoping it would distract him into dropping Kyoko.

"Necrophobia!" The Mummymon swept his gun through the air, a snakelike tendril of energy sweeping from the barrel. Bright red was tinged with blue along the edges, effortlessly incinerating Bolter's attack and blasting along the rocks in front of Bolter and Narsie, to force them back.

He thumbed a lever on the side of his rifle to a lower setting. "Make another move, and she's my next target." The barrel of his weapon edged up, sighting on Kyoko.

Bolter growled, the feral, beastly sound out of place on such diminutive Digimon. If one did not know any better, it could have been the sound of a Leomon. He had to figure out a way through this, and then get stronger, so no one could ever hurt her again.

"Tch." Kyoko wasn't about to be treated like some kind of hostage. Even as red pulsed at the edges of her vision and her hearing grew dim, driven thought formed in her mind. I - won't let you get me. Let anyone get me. Not until I see her again! She winked down at the two Digimon desperate to free her, and then continued to squirm. Kyoko was nothing if not a good actor, after all, and in the midst of her squawking and flailing, she popped open the top of her pouch. Inside was her knife, and once again disguising her motions, she reached for it.

Wheeler dropped to his knee. He wasn't prepared to roll with the punch, not this time. The tamer slid his rouges dagger back into it's sheath at his ankle, which was sorta awkward what with his injuries and the criss crossing of his left had to his right ankle. He was wide open, almost waiting for sangloupmon {we're still doing the alphabet thing? ^^;;} to strike. He couldn't do much, cept maybe fall over at this point. He was injured, and out of breath. He was have trouble breathing. For the first time since he woke up in the team daybreak apartment, he couldn't catch his breath. It scared the hell out of him.

"Not now... Don't you f'ing do this to me now... I have to..."

The young man winced as he held his bloody chest. He had gotten so use to not being able to breathe that he'd forgotten what it was like to loose his breath. "Damn it." what the hell could he do? He was weaker in this world then he was in his own. He almost expected to start coughing, and spitting up that sick iron tasting pink. No. That irony taste in his mouth was from when he bit down on his sucker and cut his cheek. He hadn't noticed until now. He hadn't really had the time to. Wheeler's ears twicted, and he looked up.

A crackling sound, like energy crashing into something in an anime. An something made an attack. Wheeler turned to see the scene that was being played out at the other side of this fight. "Ah come on..." wheeler stood up calmly and slowly. He caught his breath there and then, his body had little say in the matter.  He reached for his deck, he was pretty sure the card he wanted was eight from the bottom, but he checked to make sure after pulling it out and then grabbed a second.

"Oi! Narsi! Don't make any attacks! Peace on earth Activate!"

Wheeler called to the others in a powerful voice before he slashed his modify card. Peace on earth. In the real world, he knew that it meant Five turns with out violence. The tamer wondered if there was any way for him to measure how long a 'turn' was in this world. He shook his he'd, deciding that it didn't really matter. Still holding what was left of his shirt in his right hand, wheeler took half of the rag in his left so that he could wipe the dust coated blood off of his chest. Calmly as he stepped across the battle field to where the others were, he wrapped the other half of what was his shirt around the bleeding gash just below his right shoulder, tying it tight with his left hand and teeth.

"Hey Hun, hang in there, I'm bout to do something really stupid. My arms shot, so I'll leave the pretty girl to you Bolter, bandage boy can't stop you."

The tamer walked past the point where the mummymon had drawn a line in the ground. Adgaia's threat would be mute with peace on earth in play. He considered cutting the bandages, but figured that they might be part of the mummymon, and thus would open them up for an attack. Instead he slashed his second card. "Digimodify, garden of eden! Activate." probably something really stupid. The world around them would start to change. It was, to bright for him, and it reminded him that Lil narsie still had his effects. His eyes would adapt, and he would take in the world around him.

"'pretty ain't it? 'cept, it's not realy your taste Nyeh~? This place of full of light Digimon who attack at random. My guess is that they're more likely to go after the scary demonic guys then a couple of injured tamers. So long as my adorable partner or I don't attack you, you and your pals, are pretty defenseless. And, that's after the girl and the bunny have there way with you, seeing as they can pretty much use you as a punching bag..."

Wheeler's voice was clam, and steady despite the fact that he was wincing. his arm was really killing him. Narsisia ran over to his side, but he didn't look at her. He didn't want to see how she was reacting to him all bloody. The tamer rose his left hand and shook his figure at the girl, he knew that she was about the use her Gaia heal on him, but, after using two powerful cards one after the other like that, she was going to need to reserve her energy. This move was, something of a gambit. Chances were, that they were going to have to deal with angry holy digimon. either way, the tamer looked at adgaia with a wild grin. The danger would pass when the fight ended, if the mummymon and his pals died, the battle would end, if they took off, the battle would end. 

   A fair fight, hah!, didn't work out. And he was nooo good at diplomacy, like at all. He, wasn't about to play games with the mummymon, cause he knew pretty well that no matter what scripted out come that would bring, it would really suck for him and his Lil party. So he'd do something, reckless, and impulsive, and probably really stupid. Chances were that it would only make things worse, but, so long as the 'bad guy' wasn't in control, then they could deal with it.
 
"They call me Wheeler, remember that shit."

---
Name: The Garden of Eden
Number: R44
Type: State
Duration: Remainder of the battle
Effect: Brings all participants in the current battle to a heart-touchingly beautiful and peaceful holographic field called the Garden of Eden, which is protected by many angelic Digimon – these Digimon will randomly attack any Tamer or Digimon present (they are mod-controlled, and vary in level depending on the power of the user). Dark Tamers are not allowed to use this card, because if they do, they may die...

Name: Peace On Earth
Number: P49
Type: State
Duration: Up to Five Turns
Effect: Prevents all members of the opponent party from using offensive skills or weapons for up to five turns, but if the user or his/her Digimon attack an opponent in any way before then, that opponent will be freed from the card’s effect. Any additional opponents will remain under the card’s effect, however.

((Seeing as [B] is dead, marking [A] as such is optional XD There's only one Sangloupmon... And if you're headed out of town, shall we wrap this up?))

Kyoko's fingers closed around the handle of her knife and pulled it free. With surprising strength, she pulled herself up double to reach the bandages with her short blade. Grabbing onto them with one hand, she sliced below her grip with the other. The bandages were thick, not the easiest to cut, but her knife was still factory sharp. The thousands of threads making up the binding bandages gave way as Kyoko pushed the blade.

Her legs suddenly dropped out from under her, freed. Kyoko held onto the bandages still trailing from the tree branch with her other hand, knife lowering to her side. "Kyoko, be careful!" Looking down, she saw Bolter moving up below her. With the Mummymon's offenses neutered, he could move with freedom. Kyoko snorted mentally, wondering why such a small Digimon now stood below her, arms wide, ready to catch her.

Letting go, Kyoko dropped to the rocky ground. Grunts in stereo came in her ears, one being her own, the other coming from Bolter as her foot struck him on the way down. Kyoko might have meant to do that to Sunburst or Bolt, but this time it was more of an accident. Rolling as she had learned, Kyoko spread the impact force along the side of her body before coming to her feet again.

"Haruko! Are you okay?" Bolter grimaced slightly, but the bruising and swelling along his chest did not seem to bother him.

"Fine," he heard her grunt, panting slightly as she held her knife in a white-knuckle grip. He heard her mutter something else, probably in Japanese.

Kyoko shook her head, letting her anger bubble now that their enemy couldn't strike back. Yet the spectacle around her made her hesitate, seeing not a barren mountain ravine, but instead an impossibly lush garden, the grass thick, the trees broad, the flowers every color imaginable and strong enough to almost override the flower smell clinging to Kyoko.

In a way, she found the place beautiful, that was until she saw other things begin to prowl about. A winged humanoid drifted toward them on the air, his form trailing pink cloth. A metal helm covered his face, and he held a staff in his hands. "Vos delicto super sanctificetur terram. Per ignem purgari." The angel's words were not English, but their steeled intent was clear.

A tendril of fear squirmed in Kyoko's stomach. She had an almost instinctive fear of holy creatures to begin with, and she had bad memories of a certain Tenshi-san. She was filled with an overwhelming desire to flee, but as Mummymon caught in her gaze again, anger bubbled up. A stream of obscenities in both English and Japanese poured from her mouth, her language coarse enough to wilt grass and peel paint. "Asshole! Kisama! Die in a fire!"

Teeth clenched, Bolter found his thoughts in perfect alignment with Kyoko's. Seeing her put directly in danger like that awoke in him a near-blinding fury, and he inhaled deeply. His intent was not to calm himself, but to make ready. "Blazing Ice!" He spat an icy projectile at Adgaia, forcing the Mummymon to shield himself with a forearm. "Blazing Ice! Blazing Ice! Blazing Ice!" Dart after frigid dart hit the Dread Legion officer, forcing him back even as the Pidmon from earlier swooped toward him.

Kyoko had to privately admit that Bolter had the right idea. Thumbing the control on her knife, Kyoko swept the implement around. She watched as it split and segmented, the chain letting the weapon spool out and lash with the tip of its blade at Adgaia's shoulder.

Adgaia growled in frustration, reduced by Wheeler's card to a punching bag for the maggots who ought to be forced to their knees before the Legion. This encounter souring only highlighted the Legion's need to recruit a tamer, but that was made difficult when such had been the very point of this.

The pain of his wounds mounting, the Mummymon jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a staff swipe from Pidmon in the process. The angel swooped around to attack again, and Adgaia opted to disengage.

Mentally signaling the remaining Sangloupmon to follow suit, Adgaia turned and ran into the depths of the garden, intent on reaching the edge of its effects and escaping.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" shrieked Kyoko at the monster's retreating back. Panting heavily, her shoulders drawn tight and her eyes alive with fire, it took Kyoko a moment to steady her hand enough to draw the knife back in.

Turning around, she saw Bolter on the ground at her feet. Acting without knowing why, Kyoko scooped the Lopmon into her arms. His fur felt nice and soft against her bare forearms, and she gave him a little squeeze. Then she loosened her grip a little, hoping he hadn't noticed.

"Are you two okay?" asked Bolter, looking over Narsie and Wheeler. The Floramon didn't really look to badly off, but it was much harder to tell with Wheeler. I don't think that red stuff is supposed to come out of them... he thought dryly, smirking.

He too was coming off the digital equivalent of an adrenaline rush, though his protective instinct remained strong. Kyoko was okay. If he could keep at least that much, some day he was sure he could fix her and make her better than just 'okay'.

((Probably for the best bra.))

"I love it when my plans work out."

Wheeler smiled, watching adgaia book it deeper into the garden of Eden. Bad guys were running away, pretty little girl was free, and no body was hurt! The tamer pretty much fell back into a flopping position. Something about telling off the mummymon gave him enough of a rush to make him forget about the pain his arm for just a second. Sitting in the lush soft grass though, it became clear to wheeler that he was just a bit more worse of then he'd previously thought. Adrenaline was a pretty funny thing. His legs throbbed from all of the running and jumping, and rolling around that he'd done while facing the sangloupmon {For giggles}. 

"Meh, I lost me a darn good shirt, how you doing Narsi?"

The tamer laughed, Narsisia, did not. The floramon knelt down beside her tamer wrapping her left stamen tightly around his right arm. "Nyeh!? H,hey! not so tight!" when the flowery rope had completely claimed her tamers upper arm below the place he had tied his shirt rag over, Narsi squeezed a little harder. She studied the cheap knot wheeler had tied the rag with for a second before she decided with part she could pull on to untie it. She bit down on part of the knot with her teeth and pulled her head back, taking an untied rag with it. 

  The gash, was thicker then it was deep, the skin around the edges of the wound were more torn then cut. Narsi held wheeler in place with a strength that surprised the tamer, keeping his arm in position so that she could examine it with out him moving it around. It was, dirty, and swollen, bloody and... And at least it had quit bleeding. Even with her help, wheeler was going to have to get it looked at by a doctor, and, it was going to leave a really bad scar.

"You tried to use it while it was like this, didn't you!? And you were rolling around in the dirt! Do you know how close you were to losing your arm wheeler!?"

Narsisia shook her head growling. the floramon held her right hand up to the wound and closed it into a bulb like fist. As she opened her petals, a strong flowery scent started to fill the air. The savory nectar she was producing from her flower was running to the tips of her petals. Part of her wanted to just blast wheeler with the liquid like she had done with Haruko. Instead, Narsi took her for petal and gently wiped her tamer's wound clean with the soothing nectar.

"You didn't even beat it did you? Stupid! Weak! Idiot!"

 Realizing that she might have been hurting him, Narsisia loosened the grip on wheelers arm. She was angry, and she was worried, and... Wheeler was hurt and it scared her. The idiot thought he was superman or somthing. He might have been fine with that level of injury, but she was not ok with that. she hadn't been brave enough to try and heal the wounds wheeler got form their fight with trevor and jojo, she felt guilty that wheeler had to get hurt over her. 

"Narsi I'm sorry... I didn't..."

The floramon looked up at her tamer with worried anger, she had quit crying before she had even seen the wound and was fighting hard to be tough. "No! No you didn't! Now Shut up! I'm mad at you! You don't get to talk!" wheeler looked down Sweatdropped, he had never seen Narsi like this, but, he knew when to keep his mouth shut. When she finished cleaning the gash, Narsi wiped her hand on the side of her dress, careful not to wipe it on wheelers shirt. As soon as she was done doing what she could for the wound, she was going to make him put his shirt back on, and she didn't want her human crush smelling like lilacs and tiger lillys. Wheeler tryed to look over to Haruko and bolter for support, but didn't expect to get much more then a snicker from the bunny. Which one, he wasn't sure.

"I bet you didn't even know that I could heal you..."

Narsisia sighed, leaning her head to touch just above his shoulder, her right flower on top of the wound. "Gaia healing." a warm and soothing shiver would crawl up wheelers arm, and it was like the pain was being washed away by the pink light emitted by Narsi's flower. The soothing glow tickled across wheeler's chest, as the scratches across it began to mend themselves. The garden of Eden had faded away by now, but under Narsi's Gaia healing, wheeler still had a heavenly feeling about him. 

"idiot."

The glowing went away and Narsi brought her hand up to the top of wheelers shoulder. With her face blocked so the motion wouldn't be seen, and wheeler's arm still tingling so he wouldn't feel it, she kissed his shoulder before she stood up, unwrapping her stamen from his arm. Wheeler would look up to see his shirt being thrown at his face. The floramon crossed her arms in her dress looking around before looking back to her tamer.

"Put it on, mix'd company wheeler!"

The tamer blinked looking down at his shirt before looking to Narsi and then to Haruko, at which point he understood. "ooh...yeah, sorry..." He put the shirt over his shoulders, Sweatdropped, though he could really careless if a 13, no '15' year old girl saw him shirtless. He was surprised that he'd gotten the range of motion back in his arm, but, he still couldn't move his figures the way he wanted, so buttoning up the shirt wasn't happening. Standing up with the shirt still open, he ran his fingers over the three thin lines across his chest. Just, three light scars remained of the slash marks given to him by sangloupmon. 

"I can't fully heal your arm like I did your chest wheeler. All I could do was clean it, help it close it's self, and take the pain away. We're going to have to see someone with a lot more experience at healing humans, like Aqua."

Narsi didn't look at her tamer, and her voice sounded annoyed. She was mostly annoyed that she couldn't do more for her tamer. Wheeler wouldn't be able to fight for awhile, but, she actually liked that. She, was exhausted. This experience had taken a lot out of her. Between the cards, and the fighting, and healing, she'd reached her limit. Wheeler scratched the his still visible stomach and sighed, standing up.

"Yeah. Well you guys, I vote that we call it a day Nyeh? Any idea as to how long we'll have to wait to hop on a trailmon home?" 

Kyoko couldn't help but grimace at the sight of Wheeler and Narsie together. She would never let a Digimon touch her that way, not even if she got her wounds healed in the bargain. It just wasn't right, the way they bickered made them seem like an item. Jumping species was beyond her, let alone jumping molecular makeup from carbon to ones and zeroes. Not that she was interested in Wheeler either, her glances at him little more than brief curiosity.

Sighing, she turned her gaze to sweeping the surrounding rocks. The possibility that the legion would strike again was quite real. Defeat could hurt the most when one had just started to chalk down a victory. Much as she hated to admit it, she should probably stick with Wheeler until they were out of the area.

Bolter inhaled deeply and gave a sound of satisfaction. "You smell nice, Haruko," he said teasingly, before gently licking the front of her shirt. The flavor was syrupy and sweet.

"Urusai!" grunted Kyoko, though she refrained from squeezing him. "It was Narsie-san's nectar, what she used to try and make bandage breath drop me." Instead, it left her feeling like she'd gone for a swim in a really runny syrup. "I so need a shower..." Her shoulders slumped and her head hung, finding the prospect oddly depressing.

"We can head home," Bolter assured her, before turning to Wheeler. "Well, knowing Trailmon and their sense of humor there's probably one waiting at the station for us right now. I wouldn't count us safe until we're onboard on though, not with those goons probably still lurking around. Shall we?"

"C'mon!" Kyoko took off at a light, youthful jog back the way they had come. Occasionally a hop and a skip entered her step, and she gave a little giggle. Bouncing in her arms, Bolter wasn't sure whether to smile with her, or cry. Sometimes he was afraid Kyoko was little more than a dead husk simply waiting to expire, but every once in awhile that happy girl would come out to play.

Pausing partway, Kyoko Trailmon line below through a wide gap in the rocks. "Ooh!" After a moment, her mind clicked, remembering that spot. It was one they had passed on the way up, and a Trailmon rattled along it now, whistle blaring and engine pressing hard against the incline.

Wheeler, would seem unaware of any miss placed disgust or affection among their little party. He could be entirely oblivious like that. he figured that Narsisia was just a touchy feely type, and seeing as they were 'destined' partners, he really didn't mind her hanging off of him. As his digimon, she was something like a best friend, so regardless of her species or genetic make up, he loved her like a clingy little sister. 

  Romantically, he had about as much interest in the flowery lizard monster as he did with the little girl who kept glancing at him. He wouldn't hold it against her though, he was kinda just standing there looking all smexy with his shirt open and his jeans hanging below the waist band of his boxers.

  This of course, was a sight Narsisia was still getting used to. She had a hard time looking at him with out blushing, when he had his shirt of like that, so she looked at his earrings when she looked at him. To those paying more attention then wheeler seemed to, Narsi was like a girl with a crush. For her, she adored her tamer. He was brave, and kind, smart though he had the attention span of a child. 

  That said, she could hardly ever understand his jokes, could swear sometimes that he was bonkers, and really hated his habit of getting into fights with things bigger then him. Wheeler was her 'destined' partner, which didn't help the fact that she was  a hopeless romantic. Despite all of this, Narsi was fully aware that wheeler and her were fundamentally different, and realy, she hated it.

   Even if she could sum up the courage to tell wheeler how she felt, she was still a lizardy plant monster. Narsi had seen the kinda girls that wheeler noticed, and the young man had stated before that this world was full of cute girls. In the end, she wasn't a 'cute girl' she was a floramon. She didn't even have hands. In respect to appearance, Haruko was miles ahead of her when it came to someone wheeler would find attractive. 

   The floramon sighed, deciding that haruko was too young, and too cold for wheeler. Haruko felt, kinda fake, and even if the human girl seemed to act closer to wheelers age then he did, he was still a young man. He needed a girl who was sweet, and bubbly, to let him have his fun and freedom, and smarter then him to keep him in line, but caring and mature enough to deal with his juvenile nature, and tough enough to kick his but if he needed it.

Narsisia sighed, coming back to reality to hear bolter comment on Haruko's scent, the floramon looking down trying to look casual. When Haruko reacted Narsi was sweat dropped, rubbing the back of her neck the way she saw wheeler do when he was in this kinda position. Wheeler cocked his eye brow, he'd completely missed it, then again, he didn't even know Narsi could do that kinda stuff in the first place.

"You can shoot slime at people Narsi? Ball'n."

Narsi blushed, though she was pretty sure that wheeler was poking fun at her. "It's not slime it's Nectar! You dork. Maybe I should blast you, you'd smell better." Narsisia spoke with a false flatness, she was borrowing from the other girl in the group. She was bluffing of course, she liked the way wheeler smelled, and didn't think she had the energy for it.

"I'm sorry Haruko, I really thought it would work."

Wheeler put his left hand hand on Narsi's head, messing up her petals with a grin. "Come on sis, I think I hear our ride." The floramon squirmed, last thing she needed was her crush calling he sis and bullying her, but she followed he tamer with a cute pout.

"you think these things have a dining cart? I'm starving."

"If they do, I want ice cream~" Kyoko's tone was light and cheery, her face smiling, just like a teenage girl ought to be when expecting dessert. Ironically enough, it had been easier to enjoy the little things in life before as a dark tamer. Her life had had structure and direction, but she had still had plenty of time to frolic, play games, shop, and snuggle her large collection of plush animals. Or at least, that was how it felt. The job wasn't always easy, but when it was for Insomnia it didn't feel like so much of a chore. It made Kyoko happy, even though she didn't have much of a comparison in her life.

"I wouldn't mind something to nibble on either," Bolter stretched and yawned, seeming to relax in Kyoko's arms. Even if he sensed it was sometimes habit of thinking him a plush, it was nice for Kyoko to want him close. If he pointed it out he would probably get to that Trailmon much sooner than the rest of them, but it was nice to see.

The Lopmon turned to face Wheeler. "Quick thinking back there, kid," he said, thinking of Wheeler's well-timed cards to drive off the undead raiders. He gave Kyoko another lick, eliciting a squawk from the girl. "And you gave me something sweet to nibble on, Narsie." He winked playfully at the Floramon.

They followed the winding mountain pass back down to the Trailmon platform. The train had just arrived at the station, and with a loud squeal the doors slid open. Kyoko trotted up the steps, pirouetting once when she reached the top step. As she spun, her eyes rose to the sky, pale blue with a spattering of puffy white clouds, and the sun high over everything...

The sight was oddly pleasing to her, and Kyoko then trotted aboard the Trailmon, ignoring Bolter's protests about his dizzied state.

"It'a been quick 'f I'd done it off the bat bra."

Wheeler sighed rubbing his right shoulder. "It was a combination I thought of Ages ago..." the tamer shrugged. Ages ago... How long had it been since the siege on the digital city? He needed a combo that would let David and his partners escape from ogre in case he ever faced him. Course, back then he never had the cards at his disposal nor the opportunity to attempt it. The young man shook his head, shaking his wild hair at the irony. He'd used a combo meant to save him self from insomnia's strongest to save her 'little sister'.

"Not the quickest thinker my tamer..."

Narsi stuck her tougne out at wheeler and smiled playfully at bolter. It was, nice to just be able to be playful like this, and honestly, the floramon was happy enough that they were all ok. Looking up, she noticed the the sun had barely moved at all since they'd arrived. Sure was a short adventure, though she was dead tired and wouldn't complain. 

"hmm... Normally Hun, I'd be with you for the icecream, but, icecream tastes better after I actually win a fight."

Wheeler scratched his stomach, as if he'd said something totally normal. He'd got into a habit of having ice cream as a treat after winning a fight. It wouldn't feel right having a treat like that after loosing. Fallowing the girl on to the train, wheeler whipped out a sucker, seemingly out of thin air. Black cherry flavored, ball'n. He had three more, one for each of the others.

"Arigato gozaimas," Kyoko accepted the sucker with a bow, tucking it behind her ear for later. Bolter wriggled free from her arms and settled himself on a bench, then stretching his arms and ears as though they had just come back from a mild jog.

"At least we survived," said Bolter on the subject of the battle. Winning was generally preferable to losing, but sometimes middle ground was easy enough to find. "I doubt we would have enjoyed their hospitality very much."

Kyoko milled about the back of the train car, and gave a cry of jubilation. There was no food card to be had, but there was a cluster of small vending machines, including one that had ice cream. A bit clattered down the machine's chute, and out dropped a chocolate eclair.

The wrapper was torn away with eager excitement, barely making it to the garbage can below before Kyoko bit off a chunk of the cool treat. The ice cream's chill helped relax her a little as she settled on the bench beside Bolter, and chocolate on the tongue was always a wonderful taste.

((Shall we call it? :^,^: One of us can go request the grade))