Digital Strife

[Vn70072]

I’m trying my own hand at a fanfiction. While clearly Digimon-themed, it’s neither based on nor a cross-over of any Digimon RP. Familiar faces may appear, but this story’s setting is its own.

---

No one knows where the Digital World came from, nor the Digital Monsters - Digimon, who inhabit it. For centuries peace reigned and civilization prospered, but as such things happen, it did not last.

Forces of the Dark Lord Vakner have been steadily encroaching on the Kingdom of Chronus, the center of the known Digital World. Where the Dark Legion does not level entire cities, citizen Digimon of the kingdom turn traitor to it, swayed by words of power, wealth, and a greater tomorrow under Vakner's rule.

For the last century the Chronus military has held on against the might of the dark legions, but slowly and inexorably the situation has deteriorated. The preoccupation of the nation's warriors with fighting Vakner's forces have left the homelands open to bandits, thieves, the greedy and the corrupt. Branches of the dark army now lay to the east, south, and north of kingdom, with the vast ocean across the west. Even as the Chronus military, the Excalibur, dwindle in numbers, the number of dark army forces pouring out of the unknown regions to the far east never abates.

Legends speak of a great trial faced by the Digital World long ago, a time when beings from another world, known as Humans, crossed over. Those humans formed bonds of love, friendship, and camaraderie with their Digimon partners, attaining power far beyond what either was capable of alone. History runs in cycles, repeating itself across years, centuries, millennia. Digimon prophets spoke of the day when humans would once again enter their world, rising as champions once more...


That time is now.

Digital Strife

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Eastern Province, near the fort of Arcwater

“C’mon, now,” the four hooves of a Sagittarimon plodded across the moonlit grass. His black skin did not reflect the silvery light from high above, but his red armor mirrored that subtle sheen. Hands clasped around the bow, deep worry stirring within his digital soul. The river gurgled and hissed nearby on one side, a scattered forest on the other.

Striding alongside him were three squat bipedal saurians, notable by orange scales, stubby tails, large heads, and leather gauntlets on their forearms. The Agumon soldiers kept their eyes peeled as they proceeded along the river, for their group had a cargo most precious. Members five and six of the group were being transported on the leader’s back, both wounded and battered from a tangle with Vakner’s army. The first of them a Digimon that was unconscious, the second a human barely awake.

The quietest of sounds, a whisper as pads and claws scraped at the dirt of the riverbank. Rapid steps as the pack advanced, but even as shadow incarnate could not elude Sagittarimon’s notice.

“Incoming!” barked the leader, hooves sliding to a stop in the dirt, readying a single arrow and drawing it back. By the light of the moon he saw the ripples of his quarry, the Agumon likewise turning and arraying themselves for battle. Fists at the ready, fire licking at their fangs.

“You sure about this, Sergeant?” questioned one of the reptilian warriors, though unmistakably ready for the hard battle they’d fought to continue.

The armor-level officer did not reply directly. “Have you forgotten our duty?” the warrior spoke gruffly, drawing his bow back a bit further. “We may have lost some of number protecting these two from Vakner’s minions already, but I’ll be damned if I live with the shame of being the one who surrendered one of the Chosen to Vakner’s hellspawn! General Magnus has given us our orders, it’s time to make good on our oath!” His men nodding, he knew grimly that his pep talk had worked.

Even as the unearthly howls of their stalkers filled the air, the four Chronus warriors steeled themselves. “Attack!” barked the sergeant, releasing his arrow as the shadows emerged from darkness. The fierce, fluid, inky lupine forms of the Sangloupmon charged onward, half a dozen of the beasts with wickedly sharp foreclaws, heads framed by bat wings.

“Judgment Arrow!”
“Baby Flame!”

A shining golden projectile joined the three hot orange fireballs streaking toward the wolves, but the Sangloupmon melted like shadows as the attacks passed through them. As the attack passed, they reconstituted. “Sticker Blade!” Needle-like darts filled the air, launched from the manes of the wolves, peppering the Excaliburs.

Shrugging off the brief barrage, the warriors were more taken aback by the ineffectiveness of their attacks. “Again!” barked Sagittarimon, readying another arrow. The wolves had closed half the distance, and it would be unwise to fight them hand-to-hand.

“We can still,” gasped a weak voice from the phantom beast’s back. “Fight.” Sensing the tamer’s will, and sharing it as a spark of strength passed between them, the partner likewise slid from the quadruped’s back. Side by side, terribly battered by a battle before the Excalibur squad had rescued them, tamer and partner were nonetheless ready to fight valiantly.

“Concentrate your fire,” murmured Sagittarimon.
“Judgment Arrow!”
“Baby Flame!”

This salvo was more successful, striking down one of the Sangloupmon. The wolf disintegrating to dust as his pack charged onward, they suddenly… vanished.

“Ha!” cheered one of the Agumon, suddenly relieved.
“No!” the Sagittarimon and tamer both yelled the warning at once, but it was too late.

The five wolves exploded from the shadows around the Excaliburs, claws glinting in the moonlight. Slash, slash, slash, and the three Agumon were naught but dust in the wind.

A Sangloupmon lunged at Sagittarimon, but an arrow tore deep into the wolf’s chest cavity and a split second later it was gone. A second wolf aimed to sink its fangs into the centaur’s flank, suddenly dazed by a hoof that caught it in the face. A blast of energy from the partner struck the disoriented wolf and felled it, the sudden ferocity causing the remaining three Sangloupmon to draw back even as the odds stood even.

A nervous gasp from the tamer as the stalemate settled. The wolves hovered some ten meters away, spread in a semicircle before the remaining Excalibur and his charges. “Be ready to run,” warned Sagittarimon, earning tense acknowledgements.

The Sangloupmon did not snarl or snap, saliva did not drip from their fangs, and as their red eyes gleemed in the darkness, they seemed to be waiting. Then they parted, a cold laugh heralding the arrival of a humanoid figure clad in black leather. Eyes red like blood but colder than ice stared outward. “Going somewhere?” the voice spoke with a cold, cruel ease as the wolves sidled up alongside.

“Run!” barked Sagittarimon, drawing another arrow. Fear brought hesitation, but desperation returned motion to the tamer and partner under the tenuous care of the Excalibur. As they flew in one direction, the centaur’s arrow flew the other.

“Nice try,” drawled the leather-clad speaker, drawing a small object in one hand while brilliant light shone from the other. With blinding speed one of the Sangloupmon intercepted the attack, snatching the arrow from midair in its jaws and splitting it in two.

“Get them!” the two other Sangloupmon charged onward, rapidly closing the distance with the fleeing quarry. An agreement passed between Tamer and Digimon, for they could never outrun the enemy. As light flared from the wounded human’s palm, the only remaining options were fight,

Or die…

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Primary Village

“Wake up, chosen child!” a cheerful voice pierced the ears of a sleeping youth.

The azure blue eyes of Jeanette Roy cracked open before immediately slamming shut, the harsh midday sun drilling into them. The balmy air was stirred by a cool breeze, with the soft cradle of earth and grass beneath her, the teen felt herself drifting off to sleep again as she rolled over.

Her hair was long and blonde; it would have easily reached down to mid-shoulder if the girl was upright. Her skin was fair, her face framed by slim silver eyeglasses. She was dressed in blue sneakers, knee-high stockings, a blue skirt, and a jean jacket over a pink short-sleeved shirt. The one thing truly noticeable about the young teenage girl’s appearance was a lock of her bangs above her left eye – dyed shocking pink.

“Oi!” the voice came again, a bit perturbed but nonetheless friendly. Following it a split second later was a soft jab at her stomach.

“’ey!” exclaimed the girl, sitting bolt upright. Eyes focusing through the glasses, she set her eyes on what first appeared to be a stuffed animal. Then it smiled and spoke, making it clear this was no bedtime toy.

“’Bout time you woke up, sleepyhead,” the same friendly-yet-boisterous voice that woke her came from the creature’s lips, the thing itself spherical and covered in pink fuzz, two stubby arms, two stubby legs with feet in sandals, bird wings fluttering at its back, and two wide eyes. Almost like a fairy, the whole thing would have been cute if it hadn’t been so alarming.

Another startled exclamation left the girl’s lips, scuttling briefly backward across the grass on her hands and knees, crablike, to get away from the fuzzball. “Wha-what are you?” she gasped, her voice French-accented as her name might suggest.
“C’mon, now,” said the fairy, fluttering to the ground and propping the spear he’d used the blunt end of to wake Jeanette against his shoulder. “I’m Piccolomon, remember?”

“Piccolomon,” the girl echoed, nodding in acknowledgement, but then shaking her head to try and clear it.

It had started out with her fourteenth birthday days away. Her adoptive father told her he was going on a business trip to London, England, and that she was coming along. Disappointed, but hardly surprised, she found herself wandering the streets whilst her father went about running his business. Jeanette had never known the sweet embrace of parents who truly cared about her, only the past twelve years in the businessman’s loveless care. He had never married, only kept Jeanette nearly as much as a groomed future employee to run his business some day than as a daughter.

There was no mistaking she was well-cared for, but academics had been truly rigorous even for someone as naturally intelligent as Jeanette was. But, recently, along with the trials and tribulations of normal puberty, the young French girl was diagnosed as a Narcoleptic. While hers was not as severe as some cases she had read about, her condition left her body prone to falling asleep at inconvenient daytime moments while nights were less restful than those she’d grown used to, as well as some other complications from a body that no longer handled sleeping and waking states properly.

It had probably been just such an episode that left her sleeping before this Piccolomon. “Right,” she mumbled, embarrassed by her actions even if they were out of her control. Her father had been no help on that either, simply chastising her for laziness and a lack of drive and focus. In a way, she’d been glad to have free reign of the London streets while he was cooped up in some meeting.

More than to see the look on her father’s face when she saw him again than anything, she’d had her hair dyed on that one lock. At times she came to fear his reaction, but at the time it seemed like there wasn’t any going back.

At least, not until the strange e-mail on her phone, and a run-in with an even stranger person on the streets.

Greetings, Jeanette Alice Roy,

Do you seek adventure, friendship, a place to belong, travel, and even a chance to discover more about yourself?

YES or NO ?

The odd young man Mikhail had received a similar automated message. Though not inclined to trust the gruff Russian, both replied Yes together.

Jeanette Alice Roy,

The path you have chosen is fraught with many dangers, but holds much great potential as well. When you are certain, reply to this message.

Though not inclined to take advice from a male, led alone a bossy one, she saw the wisdom when Mikhail advised her to not reply yet. Somehow he seemed to know that once they replied to the second message, there was no going back. “Pack what you can, and then accept the message.” How being packed immediately upon replying was necessary defied imagination, but as Jeanette would come to realize, that was just the beginning.

And how right he was. Fortunately, most of Jeanette’s packing was already done; all she had to do was return a few things to her suitcase in the hotel room. With the blocky container in one hand and her backpack hitched up on her back, she’d replied.
A whirlwind of light, sound, and wind followed, as the French youth traveled further than she’d ever thought possible, even after spending her entire life getting dragged along by her father on one business trip after another.

Piccolomon’s initial greeting trickled back into her memory. The e-mail she’d received was an invitation to the Digital World, a dimension filled with fantastic creatures called Digimon. Some lived wild like animals, yet others congregated in villages, cities, and even Kingdoms. Normally humans didn’t cross over, but there were legends of a time long ago when a raging Belphemon (whatever that was, it didn’t sound good) was at last defeated by a combined team of humans and Digimon.

It seemed that humans did not rely on traditional weapons here, but rather on an arcane, intricate, and little-understood subtle bond that existed between Humans and Digimon. “Together, a human and Digimon are far greater than the sum of their parts.”

Humans were few and far between most of the time, for only special individuals for whom destiny had great plans were sent invitations. Was it good or bad when the first thing that crossed her mind upon learning that was that it was a place her father wouldn’t be able to cast his shadow over her?

Hauling herself to her feet, Jeanette found her backpack and suitcase discarded on the ground next to her. Turning her navy gaze to the landscape, she saw lush, gently rolling hills of grass dotted by several small dwellings. In the distance, the snowy caps of mountains loomed.

“You can stay here for a few days while you get your bearings,” Piccolomon explained, still smiling contentedly as his young charge looked around. “Although it just so happens there’s another Tamer staying here as well.”

“Tamer?” Jeanette replied dimly, while brushing some errant blades of grass from her skirt.

“Tamer, Chosen Child, human, they all mean the same things to us Digimon.” Piccolomon explained happily, oblivious to the nerves Jeanette was feeling. Just what had she gotten herself into?

“Konichiwa!” came a cheerful greeting from behind Jeanette. Turning, she found herself looking upon a girl a bit older and a bit taller than she was. The girl’s skin tone and features suggested she was of asian heritage, face framed by short yet also rather messy reddish-brown hair. She wore a gray tank top, a black skirt, a silver-buckled belt, purple tennis shoes, and beaded wristbands. Earrings dangled from her ears, and a close look revealed eyes that sparkled with a manic energy, eyes that did not match, one blue, the other brown.

Most noticeable however was not the girl herself, but rather the creature on her shoulders as she jogged over. The creature vaguely resembled a rabbit with colossally oversized ears, fur the color of chocolate, and 3 little horns on its forehead. Soft pink fur appeared on the wrists and ankles of the main body, as well as the neck, along the ears, and at the tips of the ears that formed into three finger-like protrusions.

“Euh… Hello?” Jeanette managed with no small use of will, between greeting the two strangers and forcing her mouth to put out a letter it wasn’t familiar with.

Before Jeanette knew it, the other girl was before her, taking her junior’s hands in both of her own before bowing slightly. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kyoko!” The Japanese youth said brightly. Though initially struck by the impulse to pull away, Jeanette found something comforting about the girl’s touch. At this range, she noticed several more details about Kyoko, namely that her earrings were tiny spherical shapes, pure white with slight protrusions on the top, the etchings on them clearly made to give them a rabbit motif.

It also appeared that the big-eared rabbit thing draped across her shoulders, while hanging on with its fingers and toes, was fast asleep.

Jeanette realized Kyoko was still staring eagerly at her. “My name is Jeanette,” she said, returning the other’s bow before easing her hands free.

“Oh, and this here’s Lopmon.” The older female poked her partner lightly, but the soft snores continued. “Or Bolter, as I like to call him.”

So these Digimon had names, just like people? “Piccolomon, what’s your name?” asked Jeanette, looking down at the fairy who’d been observing the two humans greet one another with interest.

“Me? Just plain old Piccolomon!” He shifted his spear before looking to Kyoko. “Kyoko, why don’t you show her to her room?”

“Room?” echoed Jeanette as Kyoko nodded her acknowledgement. Passing the newer tamer her backpack, Kyoko picked up the heavier suitcase.

“Sheesh, Net-Chan,” Kyoko complained as she lead the way along a path worn in the grass toward one dwelling. “The heck did you pack in here?”

Flushing a bit, Jeanette looked away as she walked along a bit behind Kyoko. “Well, I was already packed…” her words trailed off in a tumbling, mumbling mess as she tried to explain it. As she walked, she saw that the landscape was dotted not only with the occasional building or tree, but also many egg-like forms, the size consistent but the colors varying from one egg to the next.


“Well, here it is,” Kyoko said breezily, pushing open the door on the simple, cottage-like dwelling. The interior of the two-room building was simple and bare, yet somehow also cozy. Cupboards lined one wall, nearby was a table and several chairs, whilst opposite that were two bunk beds. Three of them were still made, but the top bunk of one had been disturbed. A sack lay at the end of the bed, Kyoko’s own stash.

Stepping aside, Kyoko set the suitcase down near the entrance as Jeanette followed her in. The other door led into a bathroom, which looked surprisingly modern considering the otherwise simple accommodations.

“We can stay here for a few days, and then we can probably head north,” Kyoko walked over to her chosen bed, standing on her tiptoes to transfer her passenger onto the sheets. “What do you think?” she said, turning back to the French teen with a smile.

Jeanette looked around, and then the remarkable happened as she managed a smile. Beneath the gnawing fear of just what she’d gotten herself into, there tingled eagerness at the freedom and infinite possibilities before her. Best of all, she wasn’t alone. While her youth had by no means been isolated, her father had a habit of scaring off most of the people she made friends with.

Peeling off her shoes, Jeanette lightly threw herself down on the bottom of the second bunk bed. The smile turned to laughter, a mirth shared by Kyoko as the older tamer sat down at the table, nearly as glad as Jeanette for some friendly company.

---

[Koenjinn]

Kyoko! :3 I'd like to see where you're going with this...

[Vn70072]

And So it Begins...

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Primary Village

Jeanette lay on her soft bed in the cottage, a day having passed since her arrival in the strange new world. In turn, fast asleep on her abdomen was a yellow-eyed ball of black fluff Kyoko had called a Botamon. He’d hatched from one of the colorful eggs outside, a seeming coincidence as the French youth passed by, but Piccolomon, watching over the girls when his duties didn’t have him elsewhere, told him that such was the greatest sign of fate. They were meant to be together.

She’d been told that Digimon were creatures of data, a cycle existing in the world. When a Digimon was killed, two fates awaited it. One, its data would return to primary village where it would begin its next life, or two, the data would be absorbed by the opponent. In this way, Digimon were in a way immortal, although the rebirthing process was truly a fresh start, with neither the body nor memories of the previous form.

Clutched in Jeanette’s hand was a small, handheld electronic device that was called a D-Vector. It reminded her very much of some sleek cell phone or PDA, about a centimeter thick, the sides at the top angling sharply outward at first for about two centimeters and then gradually tapering back down to the base the same width as the top end. An LCD screen was set into the center of it, with four buttons to the left of it and one to the right. The one on the right caused a control pad to extend from the bottom of the device, giving full access to its functions. The base of hers was a powdery blue, while the buttons were vivid pink just like the dyed part of her hair. The back of it featured a clip, for attaching it to a belt, strap, or the like.

Kyoko carried a similar device, except hers was orange with lavender buttons. Apparently, every chosen child received such a device upon entering the Digital World, and indeed Jeanette’s had mysteriously appeared in her backpack between her toothbrush and comb.

“Net-Chan?” came a voice from outside, the door popping open as Kyoko walked in. “Why’d you take off?” the Japanese youth strolled across the wooden floor, stopping next to the bed and kneeling so she was near-even with Jeanette.

But Jeanette could only flush and turn her face away. She’d lain down for a nap. It was one of the few ways she’d be able to cope with Narcolepsy. Better to take a quick nap now to sate the beast than spontaneously fall asleep at an inopportune time later. It had been one of the few things she could do back home, especially when her father refused to believe there was anything medically wrong with her.

“Awww, c’mon,” said Kyoko, taking Jeanette’s hand gently. “What’s the matter? Homesick?”

“No, no,” Jeanette muttered, still staring at the wall. “It’s just…” Mustering her courage, she turned her head back to face Kyoko and reluctantly faced her heterochromatic gaze. “I ‘ave a condition called Narcolepsy.” She paused briefly, not of nerves, but of trying to sum up Narcolepsy to someone that had never heard of it before. “It makes it ‘ard to sleep at night, and I can be really tired during ze day, even to ze point of just falling asleep any time.”

Jeanette expected rejection for her condition, or a dejected, crestfallen ‘Oh.’ But Kyoko only smiled. “So you need a nap!” she said brightly, having caught on right away. “Should have said something earlier, silly. Meet me outside when you’re ready again, okay?” With the plodding of quick sneakersteps across the room, Kyoko was gone.

Listening to Botamon’s gentle, snuffling snores, Jeanette thought a bit more about Kyoko’s easy reaction. It had been so... easy, to make her understand. Much as she hated the man, there were times she felt her father was right, that it was a personal flaw and she would have to deal with it to get anywhere in life. More to divert that unpleasant train of thought than anything, she thought back to the moment Botamon had hatched.

----

“See these little guys?” Kyoko said, kneeling in the grass before a cluster of three eggs. The morning sun shone brightly on the girls as Jeanette stooped next to her, staring with silent wonder at the eggs. Each was a little bit larger than her head, but each held different pigmentation.

The first egg bore an odd, tie-die like pattern of bright red and navy blue, the swirls arcing intricately across the shell. The second was seafoam green, dotted with violet symbols, resembling Xs with three concentric rings radiating outward upon them. The third was splashed with overlapping triangles of white and green.

“They call ‘em Digitama. They’re the eggs all Digimon are born from, whether their Earth-equivalent would come from an egg or not. “ Kyoko explained.

“What-?” Jeanette began, but the question died on her lips as one of the eggs began to hatch. It was the third Digitama she’d observed, the green and white one. It started out with a slight tremor. Then a tiny crack formed. Then another. As a third crack formed, the entire thing started wobbling back and forth before it broke apart completely.

The Digimon within was a little thing, small enough to fit in Jeanette’s hands, covered in black fur with two ears protruding from its head, but very little beyond that. No legs, no arms, no tail, not even a visible mouth. Shaking itself free of a few egg fragments lodged in its fur, the Botamon bounced forward, coming to a stop before Jeanette.

“Well, well, well,” Piccolomon said happily, startling both humans for neither had heard them behind him. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a partner, Jeanette.”

“M-me?” stammered Jeanette, looking from one Digimon to the other.

“Mmm-hm,” Piccolomon nodded, or rather, rocked his entire body up and down. “The egg hatched for you, it knew its time had come.”

“Don’t worry, Net-chan,” Kyoko said, standing with her younger companion, who now held the ball of fluff in her hands. “They’re not too hard to raise, and they grow up way faster than humans.” She pointed into the distance, where Bolter was playing tag with a few newborn Digimon. “Bolt-kun there was born just two days ago, and he’s already evolved twice.”

----

Suddenly a pale white light flared around the fluffball resting on Jeanette. Fighting the urge to sit bolt upright in surprise, she watched with interest. “Could it be… evolution?” She’d heard of the mysterious process by which Digimon progressed, but had not yet seen it until now.

As the white light faded, Jeanette’s blue eyes took in the new form of her partner. It really did seem like an advancement, the basic features remained the same, but the ears became longer, the eyes larger and brighter, and the fur shifted in color to a mottled mixture of steely blues. A tail sprouted, and a cute, fanged mouth was now visible.

Attracted by a chirp from her D-Vector, Jeanette held it up and found herself staring at the Digimon analyzer readout on the main display.

“So you’re Wanyamon, now?” she asked.

Though a stage higher, her partner seemed no more able to communicate. A rumbling purr came from his throat, tail sliding idly back and forth as he was still content to rest on her stomach. A stomach which soon rumbled. The sound briefly startled Wanyamon, causing him to fall silent and look curiously at the fabric beneath him. But Jeanette scooped him up into her arms, rising. “I’ll bet you’re ‘ungry too.”

----

Half an hour later both were seated happily in one of the chairs, having each gone through a bowl of cereal. She hadn’t been certain at first that such a young creature could eat normal food, but the fully formed teeth and gusto with which he’d eaten dispelled that concern. Jeanette dabbed at Wanyamon’s face where he sat in her lap, cleaning up the milk splattered by the baby Digimon’s messy eating. Compulsively she stroked the Digimon’s fur, finding it soft and smooth as velvet. This once again elicited a purr, tail arcing as his fanged mouth opened in a contented yawn.

“You need a name,” Jeanette mused idly, rubbing her partner behind the ears. But before she could dwell on it any longer, the door of the cottage crashed open. In staggered Kyoko, thoroughly out of breath with Bolter clinging to her back.

“Net-chan, we’ve got trouble!” the older teenager managed between breaths, leaning against the door frame. “There’s a wild Digimon that’s wandered into the village. He’s endangering the eggs.”

“Where’s Piccolomon?” Jeanette said, stopping her petting of Wanyamon. The Digimon squawked a bit, oblivious to the danger and wanting the attention to continue.

“The far side of the village,” Kyoko shook her head. “Stay put, I’ll take care of it.”

“Wait!” said Jeanette, rising to her feet. “H-‘ave you ever fought a battle before?”

But the older tamer ran from the building rather than answer, taking her D-Vector in hand as she went. Her sneakers pounded the grassy landscape, breaths coming fast and heavy as she ran. “Sheesh, Bolt-kun, you gotta lose some weight,” she complained in an offhand way, shooting a look to the Lopmon clinging to her shoulders.

“Battle is as good a way as any to burn calories, eh?” the rabbit Digimon replied mischievously. Truth was, he was itching for a fight, a chance to show off and stomp some heads. Never mind the fact he was newly evolved.


The grating roar from a nearby streambed signaled to Kyoko and Bolter that they’d found their target. Coming up on the depression, Kyoko’s heterochromatic eyes as well as her D-Vector’s analyzer made out the same troublemaker she’d spotted earlier.

A small saurian form, bright crimson scales marked by black, with a white belly, and three sharp claws on each hand and foot. A stout tail for balance, and wild yellow eyes on a head framed by wings that reminded of tiny bat wings. Guilmon

“Fireball!” as the words exited the Child Digimon’s mouth, they were joined by a hot streak of orange, the fireball striking a nearby tree. Flame burst across it, the smoke spiraling into the sky joining other whispers of smoke raised by the little firebug’s ongoing rampage.

“Let’s get him! In you go!” Kyoko said, steadying herself on the hilltop. After all, even newly arrived herself, she knew a human was no match for a Digimon’s attacks.

“Easy for you to say,” grumbled Bolter, not moving just yet. “You’re not the one who…” he trailed off, sensing the futility of arguing. Besides, Guilmon’s destructive track was taking him dangerously close to a batch of eggs. “Blazing Ice!” On the final syllable, a bullet composed of naught but air shot from his mouth, striking Guilmon hard in the shoulder.

With a feral growl the saurian’s yellow eyes snapped to his assailant. “Fireball!” With a split second to spare, Kyoko hit the deck. While tamer went down, Digimon went up, putting his oversized ears to good use and gliding to the ground after the attack had safely passed.

“That was close,” breathed Kyoko, rising back to her feet as Guilmon paused to scrutinize his enemies.
“This will be closer!” barked Bolter “Petit Twister!” Spinning rapidly like a top, the Lopmon shot toward his larger adversary, ready to deliver a punishing barrage of blows with his ears.

“Rock Breaker!” With a punch of iron-dense claws at the oncoming twister, Guilmon sent Bolter slamming backwards.

“Ah!” Kyoko cried out in alarm, wincing as her partner was hurt for the first time. But the Lopmon wasn’t nearly done yet, he wasn’t about to lose his first battle, even if he, newly-born, was at a disadvantage of a Digimon living on its own in the wild.

But another roar split the air, and suddenly it was in question as to whether this one saurian was actually alone.

----

Jeanette paced back and forth in the cottage, wishing she’d managed to pay a bit more attention. Kyoko had taught her plenty about the D-Vector, but was there any communicator built into it? It seemed silly for something to look like a cell phone and not have the functions of one, but it also seemed silly that Jeanette was in another dimension carrying for a cat-head thing that came from an egg.

Wanyamon seemed to sense his tamer’s agitation, making an odd yowling noise as his fur seemed to stand on end. “Oh, I shouldn’t ‘ave let ‘er go alone,” As ever, when Jeanette’s focus lapsed, her accent became more apparent. As she completed another circuit around the table, she felt the ground tremor. Then again. And a third time. Footsteps. Something very large must have been headed this way.

Throwing the door open, Jeanette ran outside. If the mystery wild Digimon Kyoko had mentioned was headed this way, the one she’d gone to stop…

The brunette was nowhere to be found, but what Jeanette saw left her jaw slack and her knees weak as fear tingled across her body. A creature of a lost age stomped toward the cottage, two splayed feet with three white claws, a powerful body sheathed in blue scales, vestigial arms, a broad tail, and a blocky head lined with dozens of teeth like knives. Jeanette’s D-Vector indentified it as an Allomon, but as the creature’s dripping maw opened wide and gave a bone-rattling roar, Jeanette knew it could only be the end. The Allomon fixed its beady eyes on her as it strode toward the cottage, the distance closing as the French youth was paralyzed by fear.

“Kyoko…” the words came from her dry mouth as barely a whisper. “Help…” Her prayer was answered, but not in the way she’d expected. The screen on her D-Vector suddenly glowed with a brilliant white radiance, a light soon matched around Wanyamon.

“Wanyamon evolve to Strabimon!” The little ball of fluff slid from Jeanette’s grasp, the light reshaping him. A wiry bipedal form covered in pale, metallic blue fur, clad in white pants, black gloves, and a number of curiously-placed black belts, a lupine head with two ears not unlike those of his lower state, and two green eyes with a wild intelligence lurking in them.

The Strabimon’s clawed feet dug into the dirt as the newly-evolved Digimon took a defensive stance before his tamer. “Jeanette, please stay back.” The Strabimon’s voice, crisp and totally calm, made one additional thing clear: he was a she.

“Wha, wha,” stammered Jeanette. “What can you do against that thing?” Her terrified blue eyes found the Allomon again, the beast unimpressed by the evolution and still bearing towards his next meal.

“Kill it,” the Strabimon announced simply, making it clear that what confidence the tamer lacked, the partner had. As the saurian approached, the Strabimon readied herself for battle.

[Cleo]

BRAVA! BRAVA!

I like, despite the occasional ambiguity (which I have trouble figuring out, anyway. You work it well.)

^_^

[Vn70072]

Defend Primary Village!

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Primary Village

“Dynamite head!” The Allomon roared, leveling his head and charging. Strabimon tensed up, then swung a kick to the side. The blow was forceful enough to send Jeanette to the ground, but not enough to seriously harm her – only get her out of the way.

The blue-scaled saurian plowed through the edge of the building, having missed Strabimon completely as she jumped onto his head. “Light Nail!” With silvery light flashing from the wicked claws on her hands, she slashed at the Allomon’s eye.

Roaring in pain as his scales were torn, the Digimon swung his head to the side in an attempt to dislodge his adversary. Slamming into the corner of the cottage, his efforts were successful as the battered-but-not-out form of Strabimon landed roughly on the ground.

“Dino Burst!” as fire streamed from Allomon’s maw, Strabimon dashed to the side. Grass crisped, wilted, and burned to ash in her wake as the heat washed across it. Though it seemed like a proverbial match of David versus Goliath, Strabimon a head shorter than Jeanette against Allomon the size of a house, it quickly became apparent that what the saurian had in size and power, he lacked terribly in agility, particularly against such a small target.

“Light Leg!” the same silvery light flared from Strabimon’s boot as it made hard contact with the back of Allomon’s leg. Though the saurian bellowed in pain, he swung his head down and around, teeth glinting dangerously. Pushing off with her hand, Strabimon avoided the fanged attack by inches as she dropped toward the ground.
“Light Nail!” Leaping upward immediately, she again scratched at Allomon’s eyes. But for the second time her claws met only scales, not the softer flesh she was after. Landing again, Strabimon’s eyes passed up across Allomon’s back.

But as she was planning, Allomon was acting. A vicious slash of his tail sent Strabimon tumbling across the grass. “Dino Burst!” The fire breath attack again, and this time Strabimon was in no position to run from it.

Resisting the urge to cry out, she fought her way back to her feet as the attack abated. Casting her eyes to the edge of the battlefield, she saw Jeanette standing where she’d been thrown to by Strabimon herself.

Jeanette was terrified beyond words, the creature she’d been charged with raising had just gone into battle, a battle that wasn’t going well at all. Dusting debris from the damaged house off, she pulled out her D-Vector, but grasping desperately at the straws of knowledge Kyoko had given her on the device’s function, she couldn’t remember anything of use. That it was vital, sure, but not what those vital functions were.

With a deep, grunting sniff, Allomon’s beady eyes settled on the young tamer as well. The scent was sweet, gentle, and unusual, but unmistakably meat.

If such things were possible, the panic in Jeanette intensified as the saurian lumbered toward her. This was it. The end of her ‘grand’ adventure in the Digital World, with fanged death spreading as Allomon’s maw descended toward her. Her knees felt shaky, both directly and indirectly caused by the fear of impending doom.

Brilliant blue light flared from her right hand, resembling nothing so much as faint azure fire coming from her palm. “Digi… Soul,” she whispered, entranced as the fear was suddenly wiped away. Her blue eyes fixed the charging Allomon, when a blur shot in from the side.

“I cannot allow you to harm her,” Strabimon stood dead in the path of Allomon’s assault, holding back the saurian’s wicked maw with her clawed hands. The same flickering blue light around Jeanette’s hand was likewise around the child Digimon’s form, seeming to be the source of the unerring strength allowing her to hold on.

The Allomon roared, pushed, heaved, and jerked, but couldn’t break free of Strabimon’s grip. His beady eyes fixed on Jeanette, he gave another bone-jarring roar. “Light Nail!” her claws flared with energy, tearing into the scaly blue snout.

Worming free at last, Allomon pulled back. With a grunting growl he took a step back, considering his adversary. Strabimon still stood at the ready before Jeanette, the latter looking still quite scared but with the confidence of hope sustaining her.

With a final bellow, Allomon took one, two, three thunderous steps forward, blocky head dropping, dripping maw opening wide to swallow the upstart Digimon whole.

Tssssccchhh!

Strabimon blurred into motion, a blade of pure energy extending from a small handgrip. With liquid grace she ducked under the attack and jammed the sword upward.

Allomon staggered sideways, giving a pathetic sort of groan as he keeled over sideways. A vibration rocked the ground, its fall in death as fearsome as any of its roars in life.

“We,” whispered Jeanette, staring at the fallen reptile. “Did it.” But her world was quickly growing dim, an undeniable urge to sleep so familiar yet also new overtaking her. The DigiSoul flickered and died, and as it did so, Strabimon too felt the full weight of fatigue from her actions.


“Jeanette?”
“Jeanette?”
“Net-chan?”
“Net-chan!”
“Can you hear me?”

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Town of Fraeno

Jeanette Roy eased back into the world of the living. She was wrapped in something soft, warm, and generally cozy, and for a few moments, she was ready to drift back to sleep. But the last memories she had came trickling back. The Digital World, it wasn’t just a dream. But Kyoko? Allomon? Strabimon? The curious light she’d somehow known was called DigiSoul?

Laying on her back, the girl’s blue eyes flickered back open. Everything was blurry, but she was able to make out the ceiling above her, brightly lit, painted plaster like any she might see at home any day of the week.

“Missing these?” came a voice laced with sweet cheer. The smooth and cool frames of her glasses were slipped onto her face, and with focus returned to her eyes, Jeanette made out the tanned face of Kyoko leaning over her.

The Japanese tamer looked thoroughly relieved to see her friend awake again. “Finally,” she said quietly, sitting back down on a chair perched right beside Jeanette’s bed. Looking around, Jeanette was in a surprisingly modern hospital, nothing like the simple cottage in Primary Village.

Crisp white curtains helped to screen the bright sunlight streaming in through the window into the small room. The room itself was clean while still comfortable, centered around the single bed she lay upon. A hospital recovery room, something the youth was more familiar with than she wanted to be.

“How much sleep do you need? It’s been three days.”

At this, Jeanette felt another flare of shame. But it must have reflected in her face, for Kyoko briefly brushed a hand against her face.
“It’s nothing to do your condition. You remember that light around your hand during the fight?”
“DigiSoul?” Jeanette muttered, still remembering the phenomenon’s name.
“Uh-huh,” Kyoko nodded “It’s…” she struggled to mimic Piccolomon’s explanation. “A manifestation of your body’s energy. And well, you dumped all of it into your partner at once. A newborn Digimon shouldn’t have had any chance at all of winning that battle, but,” Kyoko’s heterochromatic gaze shifted toward the foot of Jeanette’s bed. Visible leaning against the wall was a form that had initially been overlooked for it was still as a statue.

Strabimon stood against the wall, arms folded, head down and eyes closed. She looked as fierce as ever. “You should avoid expending all your energy like that in the future, Jeanette.” Easing herself into a sitting position, the French youth’s first reaction was that it sounded like something her father would say.

“She was worried,” Kyoko said, leaning closer to Jeanette with a smile.

“I was not worried,” Strabimon said, still calm where she stood. “It is only natural for me to advise how to avoid any future complications.”

While Jeanette could only frown, the Strabimon’s words prompted a small giggle from Kyoko. The younger teen began to rise, but met a hand on her shoulder pushing her back down. “The doctor said you were just exhausted, not hurt or anything. But you just kept right on sleeping, and she said to take things easy once you got up.

“’Ow is Bolter?” Jeanette realized she hadn’t seen the little Lopmon. But the question left a little bit of pink visible on Kyoko’s face.

“He had to undergo treatment,” she said, closing her eyes, and covering her embarrassment with laughter. “The battle was a little rough on him, but he’s a weenie, too.”

“Anyways,” Kyoko said rising. “I should go check on him, but I wanted to be here when you woke up.” Stepping back, she cast a sideways glance at Strabimon. “There’s still a lot more to tell you about, but I’ll just leave you two together while you rest, Net-Chan.” The lupine humanoid gave no acknowledgment as the other tamer passed by her and out the door.

“Oh!” said Jeanette, picking herself up a little to look at Strabimon. The Digimon hadn’t move so much as a hair beyond her mouth since Jeanette awoke, but there was something she had to know. “What’s your name?”

“Excuse me?” Strabimon asked with the same statue-esque calm.

“W-well,” Jeanette fumbled. “Kyoko’s partner has a name, and it wouldn’t feel right just calling you by your species name all the time-”

Strabimon held up a clawed palm, something so stationary suddenly moving was in itself enough to leave Jeanette silent. “You may call me… Artemis.” Eyelids slid slowly back to reveal her vibrant green eyes, and at last the Strabimon, now named Artemis, stood and strode gracefully from the room, leaving the tamer to recover from her exertions in peace and quiet.

[GuaranaHolic]

Great stuff This is a nice interpretation of a Digital Dreams-style Digital World - familiar, yet with just enough differences and unique touches to be refreshing - not to mention a just plain great chunk of pure Vn-written goodness. Can't wait to see where you're going with this

[Ryuha]

Mm-hmmm, good work V.

[Vn70072]

Five Drivers

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Town of Fraeno
“C’mon, Net-chan!” Kyoko said playfully, dragging the French teen through the streets by the hand. Panting as she tried to keep up, Jeanette nonetheless observed the city around her. And that’s really what it seemed like, not the quaint grasslands cottages of Primary Village, but it seemed like any city anyone might see on Earth - with the exception of the inhabitants, who ranged in shape, size, and color to dizzying extents. The D-Vector tucked in her jacket pocket hadn’t stopped chiming as it analyzed each Digimon.

Artemis, Jeanette’s self-named Strabimon partner, followed along easily behind her, the frozen cold in her eyes causing even Digimon twice her size to give her plenty of space as she strode easily down the street. There were no cars here, just winding passages of concrete through a low-density urban area.

It had only been a few hours since Jeanette had awoken from her several days’ of slumber that she found the strength to get the Nurse’s approval and leave the hospital. The hospital staff had likewise been Digimon, the nurse calling herself Bitmon.

Just when Jeanette felt like Kyoko’s exuberant pull was the only thing keeping her going, the two teens at last came to a stop. They were in the city park, lush foliage and a vine-covered perimeter wall nearly hiding the fact that they were in a city. A stream trickled through the area, widening in a pond at their feet.

Doubling over, Jeanette heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Guess it’s a good thing I’m not asthmatic was all she thought, looking up at Kyoko, who while sweating a little, seemed like she was just getting warmed up. As it turned out, Kyoko Yumi was fifteen years old, the only daughter and middle child of a middle-class family in Tokyo Japan.

Bubblegum popped and cracked on a continuous circuit amid the girl’s teeth and tongue, standing at the water’s edge and simply enjoying the cool air. “This is Fraeno, a nice little town in the southern province of the Kingdom.”

Catching her breath at last, Jeanette nodded her understanding, whilst out of the corner of her navy gaze she saw Artemis walking slowly up behind them, still lurking in the shadow of a tree. Speckles of the midday sun made it through the trees to the three below, but it seemed for the moment there weren’t any Digimon nearby in the park.

Jeanette couldn’t help but wonder about her chosen partner sometimes. From such an easygoing little ball of fluff to a cold, stoic, and silent warrior. With a huff that left several strands of pink hair dangling across her glasses, Jeanette wondered if it might have just been a Digimon’s growth cycle as opposed to a human. Humans grew gradually, and changed gradually as well. But with a flash of light, Digimon could change in the blink of an eye. Had Artemis simply done all that maturing in the one instant she shed the steely-furred form of Wanyamon?

“Hey, Net-chan,” Kyoko said, wandering back toward the younger tamer. “Pull out your D-Vector, will you?”

Jeanette obliged, holding out the blue and pink device with more than a little confusion evident on her face.

After tapping a few buttons, Kyoko handed it back and pointed at the screen. “See that readout in the upper-left corner?”

“Oui,” she replied reflexively as she looked at the little green bar in the corner.

“That’s your DigiSoul’s charge level,” Kyoko explained, then holding up her own orange and lavender digivice. “That’s mine,” To Jeanette’s surprise, Kyoko’s charge meter was less than half her own in size.

“The nurse pointed it to me while you were sleeping,” the older teen continued quietly, lacking the exuberance she so often had when speaking.

“What are you getting at?”

“Everyone’s DigiSoul varies a little in strength. Some are a bit stronger, others weaker, and some just average. All can grow over time, but that’s the weird thing.” Kyoko settled her heterochromatic gaze on the younger tamer. “My DigiSoul is on the strong side for someone that’s never had a chance to develop. But you, your’s is almost twice as powerful as mine.”

“So iz zat… iz zat why Artemis was able to beat Allomon?”

“I think so. It wasn’t just spending all your energy to help Artemis, it was having so much in the first place.”

“Why?” A logical question, but as Kyoko shook her head and merely shrugged, it was clear it wasn’t one that had an answer. “So what do we do now?”

“Whatever we want!” Kyoko said with a smile, idly flicking at one of the little earrings she wore. “I’ve got a room at one of the city apartments, and from there, really, what we do is up to us. Skip eating our veggies, swim after a big meal, explore the world,” her smile broadened, the first two comments merely jokes, but the third something she very much looked forward to.

As much as the freedom and escape from her father seemed like a dream come true, Jeanette couldn’t help but feel discomfort at the idea of traveling in a Digital World where creatures like Allomon could attack at a moment’s notice.

She gave another glance at Artemis, who was standing near a tree at perfect attention with her eyes closed. As the trees creaked or an odd word flitted their way on the wind, her ears would twitch, but beyond that, it was an almost eerie stillness.

“Take this,” Jeanette jerked as Kyoko’s words, having drifted off into her own little world for a moment. The Japanese tamer was holding what by all appearances was a small sliver of plastic out to her, black with unrecognizable characters etched along it in gray, and a single arrow pointing toward one end of the device. “Load it into your D-Vector,” As Jeanette accepted the chip, Kyoko pulled out another one. “These were supposed to be our next lesson,” she said with a bit of nervous laughter.

Finding a slot along the bottom of her D-Vector, Jeanette did as requested by her mentor. Eyes flicking back up to the screen, she noticed a shift from the flower field background it normally held. It was possible to change them, but she enjoyed the background so she’d never messed with it. But as the D-Vector read the small chip, a menu appeared.

Driver Upload Initiated
…
…
D-AMP
Angel’s Assault
Gemini Effect
Camaraderie
Celsius Tandem
…
Upload Complete
Drivers Installed and Ready For Use

“The D-Vector can absorb chips and read the Drivers stored on them. The chip is destroyed, but the resulting modifications to the D-Vector’s programming allow you to focus your DigiSoul to given effects.” As before, whatever else Kyoko might have been, she was smart and a quick study.

“So it just focuses my DigiSoul’s energy to help Artemis? I already did that.”
“Yeah,” Kyoko said, nodding in a ‘good-point-but-you’re-still-not-correct-kind-of-way.’ “But ‘free handing' with your DigiSoul, unless you’re real good with it, you waste a lot of energy. With the right Drivers you would have been able to beat Allomon without tiring yourself so bad in the process.”

This caused a bit of blush on Jeanette’s cheek for her blunder, however unintentional, but as the menu on her D-Vector shifted again. Blinking, she realized it was in fact a list of the Drivers she’d just been given, but there was one other item present - Second Ken. “Kyoko, what is zhis?”

Leaning a bit closer to read the screen as it was presented, Kyoko read the screen with confusion evident in her eyes. “Wha? Chips are only supposed to come with five Drivers…”

“Was it on zer before?”

“Maybe,” said Kyoko, scratching her temple and looking rather thoughtfully up at the leaves above with her mismatched eyes. “Second Ken… Second Sword, maybe?” She gave a sigh, looking at her D-Vector with a slightly mournful air. “You got all the good ones, Net-Chan…”

But before the discussion could continue, a chirping tone came from the device. Recognizing the signal, Kyoko clicked a button and said “Yes?” Into the device.

“Kyoko,” Bolter’s voice issued from the D-Vector’s speaker, and both teens picked up on the unmistakable tension in his voice. “How many people know Jeanette is staying with you?” A rock formed in the French teen’s stomach at the question, apprehension reflecting in her eyes as she looked back at Kyoko.

When the redhead could only shrug and mutter “Idunno”, the Lopmon went on.

“Well, someone in a cloak just knocked at the door asking if she was around. I couldn’t see his face, I told him to get lost and that if he didn’t I’d give ‘em a fat lip. He left after that, but said he’d stay in touch.”

“Tcheyah,” Kyoko muttered, sighing briefly. She didn’t like the sound of that. “C’mon, we’d better get back there.” With a click, the phone-like component the D-Vector must have contained went dead.

“Is that ze best idea?” Jeanette wondered, plainly nervous with the idea of a cloaked stranger looking specifically for her in this town.

At last Artemis walked closer to the group, words and stance both conveying the utmost calm and confidence within the young warrior. “If anyone seeks to harm you, I will deal with them.”

With that uneasy promise, the trio headed out of the serenity of the park, and toward the apartment complex, Kyoko hoping fervently that Bolter would be okay when they arrived.

[Vn70072]

The Mysterious Stranger

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Outskirts of Fraeno
“Ahhh,” Kyoko breathed a contended sigh, standing in the midst of the grassy field, arms out to her sides as a gentle summer’s breeze played over her. Bolter too seemed to be enjoying himself, the Lopmon’s ears flapping in the breeze behind Kyoko like some scarf as he clung to her back as usual.

The weather could have hardly been more perfect for their trip outside the city, at least in that pair’s opinion. Jeanette did seem to be enjoying herself, but she retained her jacket. Artemis, meanwhile, appeared emotionless as ever, following a half-step behind and a little to the side of her tamer wherever the blonde went.

A picnic, Kyoko had said, in a last ditch attempt to get Jeanette to leave the relative safety of the city. It seemed that the girl’s rather traumatic encounter with the Allomon at Primary Village had addled her a bit, or maybe she was still settling in.

A little bit of combat training hadn’t helped. Though the simulations of the city’s “Dojo” as the Kougamon running things had insisted it be called were rather crude, often nothing more than wooden mannequins that would slide back and forth to test a ranged shooter’s accuracy, or mock enemies that would pop up and ‘attack’ as the trainee wound their way through the maze. Artemis, Bolter, and even Kyoko all managed that course easily, but Jeanette panicked several times when the dummies jumped out at her, and even when her reaction wasn’t that bad, her heart still raced. She just wasn’t used to this. Several times she’d been forced to call it quits when cataplexy, muscle weakness stemming from her narcolepsy, set in.

They’d wandered outside of town into a quiet region of the forest, off the main road and surrounded on all sides by foliage ranging from little shrubs and bushes to towering trees that were easily many decades old. The earthy browns and greens were soothing to the quartet, Jeanette in particular. “H-how about zis place?” Jeanette asked tentatively, attempting as often to overcome an accent that came from years of speaking another language.

“Yeah, how about it?” chimed Bolter. “All this walking is making me hungry.”

“Who are you kidding,” Kyoko said, mock-angry, poking the Lopmon between the eyes. “All you’ve done is hang your fat keister off my shoulder.”

“What do you think, Artemis?” Jeanette turned to the Strabimon at her side. But the steely humanoid wolf turned her jade gaze elsewhere. Far from Bolter’s playful, often flashy demeanor, Artemis was… cold. There were times Jeanette felt like she was a barely-tolerated nuisance to an animated statue, despite the Digimon’s claims that the tamer’s safety was all that mattered.

Both human girls shrugged off the packs they were wearing, packed with food for their midday meal. It wasn’t long before the blanket was sprawled across a patch of a little grassy clearing, with their food organized atop it, mostly Jeanette’s doing as she carefully unpacked it.

Bolter was a little impatient, tearing into a bag of chips the moment Jeanette pulled it out of one of the packs. Undaunted by both her startled exclamation and advice that one was not supposed to eat the packaging, the brown rabbit-like Digimon tore into the bag and was crunching away on the contents before too long, but not before a good-sized piece of foil had been ripped off the bag and consumed to give him access to the contents.

“Kyoko?” Jeanette asked of the other tamer, while her eyes drifted nervously over to Artemis, who stood at the edge of the blanket as though at rigid attention.

“Yeah, Net-chan?” Kyoko called back easily, while pouring herself a cup of juice.

“’Ow did you end up in ze Digital World?” Jeanette asked, plopping down on the blanket next to Kyoko, mimicking her cross-legged sitting stance.

“Me?” Kyoko asked, ruffling a hand through her hair. “I got an e-mail inviting me. After going back and forth a few times, I wound up in the Digital World, about four days before I met you.” She added the last bit as an afterthought, her heterochromatic eyes accurately interpreting the questioning look on Jeanette’s face. “It’s nice to have some company,” she flashed a toothy grin before taking a sip from her juice. “Digimon are nice but sometimes you just gotta have human company.”

Jeanette flushed a bit, but then asked another question. “Why did you decide to come? Why leave behind what you had back in Japan?” She was understandably curious why others had made the same choice she did.

“Well,” Kyoko leaned back, trailing off in thought and buying herself time to think by biting into a muffin. “I’d never heard anything about any of this, I even did a little research on the ‘net,” Bolter interrupted with a laugh at her pun “I figured whoever invited me must have had a real good reason, it’s such a rare opportunity, it would be an insult to turn it down.”

Jeanette had just started on a turkey sandwich, nodding her understanding of Kyoko’s logic.

“And now you’re here with me,” Bolter chuckled mischievously, while eating a pear. “Just what every Digimon needs, a tamer who will carry him everywhere and give him all the food he could ever want.”

“Aaand bail his butt out of trouble when he starts losing a fight against Black Guilmon,” Kyoko needled, but while affectionately poking his belly. They continued back and forth until it evolved into a wrestling match that Bolter was sadly outdone in, but Jeanette had tuned out. Digimon were a lot like people in that they were all different, but Jeanette couldn’t help the rock in her gut that told her Artemis’s coldness had at least something to do with her own shortcomings. Reckless, wasn’t that what the bipedal lupine had called her powering the Digimon up sufficiently to win her first battle?

Jeanette’s blue eyes snapped back to the present just in time to watch Kyoko pry Bolter’s ears from around her neck and playfully slam the Lopmon to the picnic blanket and pin him down at arm’s length. All he could do now was scratch and scrabble at her forearms, even his ears too short to reach anything else.

The observing tamer gave a giggle and a grin before motion caught the corner of her eye, as Artemis suddenly vaulted up into a tree. But it seemed she was not preparing for battle, for instead she stood poised on a branch. “Artemis, will you come back down ‘ere?” Jeanette’s stomach squirmed, for she did not feel comfortable ordering her partner around. “Aren’t you ‘ungry?”

“I am not,” Artemis replied calmly. “Further, the foodstuffs you and Kyoko have selected are of poor nutritional value.”

“The foodstuffs you have selected are of poor nutritional value,” Bolter mimicked with mocking tones. Kyoko released him, ending their wrestling match as a smile was shared between them.

The silence stretched as three of the four settled in to enjoy the picnic, Artemis apparently content to play lookout. Until, to Jeanette’s surprise, the Strabimon spoke. “Did any among you notice the heightened activity in Fraeno as we departed?”

Three heads looked up in surprise, and three heads shook in negative response before Artemis continued. “I noted a messenger passing us into town at that time. He seemed quite tense, and I have noted an increase in activity in the regions around town.”

“Is zat what you’ve been up to?” Jeanette wondered, placing down the water she was drinking.

“Yes,” Artemis nodded deftly. “I have been listening very closely, and although I would have preferred an opportunity to investigate more closely, I could not leave your side.”

Maybe Jeanette had been imagining things, but there seemed to be just a little bit of warmth in her partner’s last few words.

“Hmm,” Bolter crossed his arms, apparently in deep thought.
“Bit for your thoughts?” Kyoko asked, while biting off a chunk of a chocolate bar.
“There have been a lot more reports of activity from the Dark Army lately,” The Lopmon looked up at Kyoko.
“Bandits maybe?” Kyoko scratched her chin while she chewed, oblivious to the bad manners. “I’ve heard crime is a problem these days.”
All the talk of dark things and bandits sent Jeanette’s head spinning, but a quick gulp of cool, clear water helped clear her mind.

“Alert!” called Artemis, suddenly tense. Kyoko and Jeanette were baffled by what had drawn the Strabimon’s attention. But Bolter stood up, at least as much so as a creature so short as he could, facing the same direction as Artemis. His ears were clearly good for something, picking up the sound of someone crashing through the underbrush.

A figure clad in a gray cloak strode toward them, weaving through the underbrush and stepping carefully around roots that might otherwise snare feet. The figure was best described as likely humanoid, but the head was hidden by a hood, and the hands obscured in the folds of the sleeves.

Artemis leapt down from her branch, landing at the edge of the blanket between Jeanette and the stranger with liquid grace. “Stranger, identify yourself!”

Bolter meanwhile looked up at Kyoko, whom nodded. Drawing her D-Vector in preparation for possible battle, the Japanese teen watched as the Lopmon ran up to take a position at Artemis’s side.

The cloaked figure stopped. “I mean you no harm.” The stranger’s voice sounded human enough, but then again many Digimon Jeanette had run across would sound human if she closed her eyes. Young, calm… and male. An immediate frown formed on her face.

Artemis’s nails seemed to glint silver as she settled into a ready stance, apparently distrusting someone who concealed their identity more than she would trust someone who claimed to mean no harm.

“But the same can’t be said for everyone else around here,” the stranger continued, shadows masking his face even as he seemed to look at Jeanette and Kyoko. “Bad things are on the horizon. If I were you, I’d circle around town and head straight west, toward the coastal forests.”

Bolter’s eyes narrowed. “You again!”
“Who?” asked Kyoko, standing close to Jeanette’s side.
“The one who was asking where Jeanette was before.” The young mammal replied, staring at the stranger with strong dislike.

“Trust me,” the cloaked stranger continued. “The sooner you get going, the better. I wouldn’t even recommend stopping off at your apartment –“

“And why,” Jeanette cut him off, the look on her face frightening chiefly in how out of place it was, an anger that seemed to surpass even Bolter’s “Do you say zat, garcon?” she piled as much disdain as possible into the last word, meaning boy, its use on anyone older considered poor manners. “You expect us to leave everyzing except what we ‘ave with us now, why? Because of your word?” Her voice raised, even Kyoko seemed a little alarmed by the normally-meek girl’s reaction, for the Japanese youth had been willing to put at least some credibility into his words.

Artemis’s eyes narrowed a hair, detecting the shiver of discomfort that ran through the cloaked stranger. “T-trust me,” for how calmly he’d spoken earlier, getting yelled at apparently wasn’t in his plan, for now he sounded nervous, stuttering. “I know I’m asking a lot, but I wouldn’t tell you this if it wasn’t so important.”

“Why should we trust you when you don’t trust us, Monsieur ‘ood-over-my-face?” Jeanette replied, anger burning in the blue eyes behind her glasses.

To their surprise, the stranger who hadn’t shown any discomfort as Artemis clearly readied herself for a fight was disturbed the words of the French tamer. A mumble that might have been an apology came from his lips before he spoke again more audibly. “I guess my only right was to try and warn you. What you do is up to you… Good luck.”

With that, the stranger turned about and left the way he’d come. “Jeanette, shall I engage him?” Artemis inquired.

The French youth, still irate, appeared on the verge of saying yes when Kyoko’s hand fell on her shoulder. “No, no,” she said, a little frantically, shaking her head to try and dissuade the younger tamer.

“Mayhaps we should take a look in town?” proposed Bolter, waddling back over onto the blanket. “Between what Artemis has been overhearing and his warning,” he glanced back at the gray-shrouded figure, but he’d since gone. “We should head back to town and take a look around?”

“Oui,” murmured Jeanette while Kyoko nodded. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she suddenly stripped off the jacket as though it were suffocating her, revealing the pink top she wore. She didn’t like feeling this way, but she hated people like that even more, trying to boss her around with “because I said so” and “trust me”. Her expression was as clouded as her thoughts.

“You okay, Net-chan?” Kyoko asked as the quartet busied themselves with cleaning up, it seemed perhaps even Artemis wanted the group to get moving toward town again and see what the fuss was about.

“Que? It’s nothing,” the other tamer replied reflexively, leaving Kyoko feeling a little off-put as they continued tucking the items back into their packs, Jeanette’s now-sloppy style not lost on Kyoko. Something was bothering her, but she wasn’t open to sharing it.

[Vn70072]

Taken East

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Southern Province, Town of Fraeno

Fear built in the four’s imaginations as they drew closer to the city, Artemis moving to the front of the group. But as they drew nearer, beyond an intangible tension in a few of the Digimon passing them and heading out of the city, nothing seemed amiss.

But as the cityscape soon enveloped them, they arrived in the town square, and found things unmistakably amiss. A large crowd of the town’s citizens had gathered, a handful of large Digimon ringing the perimeter. Like three-meter suits of living armor with vivid blue eyes visible beneath their visor, gleaming silver plate, and a massive broadsword and shield. Knightmon, according to Kyoko’s D-Vector, the tamer feeling a bit of anxiety herself. Bolter clung to her back, while Jeanette stood very close at her side and Artemis remained vigilant before them.

Kyoko stood on her tiptoes to try and see what was happening, but the writhing mass of Digimon was too high an obstacle until…

Over the bustling voices, questions of what was going on and wild rumors, ranging from the end of the Digital World to the King decreeing that today was the Kindgom’s wear your undergarments on the outside day, an authoritative male voice rang out.

“I bear news from the Throne,” ascending a platform in the town square, another Knightmon quickly became visible, but unlike the rest of his kin with colored cloth draped only from their belt, he wore a blue and gold mantle from which hung a cape little disturbed by the wind.

“Forces of the Dark Army are gathering to the east, unacceptably close to the Arcwater Fortress.” He paused, and even at the distance it was, Kyoko and Jeanette both got the distinct impression he was glaring at the townspeople as though somehow they weren’t helping the matter.

His words put a stir through the crowd, Bolter grumbling to himself before speaking aloud. “Arcwater is one of two forts standing between us and the Eastern unknown regions.”

“No wonder people are worried it’s in danger,” Jeanette muttered, mouth feeling suddenly dry.

“We are activating this town’s militia unit and heading northeast at first light tomorrow morning to reinforce the fort. “ The lead Knightmon continued. “To those in the militia, rally here at sunrise tomorrow and speak to an Officer for instructions.”

“It appears as though that cloaked figure’s warning was well-intended,” Artemis said quietly, her wary eyes upon the other Knightmon. Even as they stood like statues, something seemed… off.

Jeanette could only make a derisive noise as the lead Knightmon continued speaking. “What do we do, Kyoko?” she asked apprehensively, looking to the older teen for guidance.

“Get out?” Bolter suggested from his usual perch on Kyoko’s back.

Kyoko’s mismatched eyes wandered the group. She wasn’t sure why the army passing through was bothering everybody. They were all much too recent to be in the militia this Knightmon was talking about. So what was the big deal? “Fine, fine,” she said. “We’ll slip back up to the apartment, collect our stuff, and be on our way.”

The lead Knightmon concluded his speech and disappeared back below the head of the crowd. Still lurking at the back, Kyoko, Jeanette, Bolter, and Artemis slipped away.

They wound there way through the streets, toward the apartment complex, until a figure stepped out and blocked their path. “Hey,” Kyoko began, until she looked up and realized it was the towering, cloth-draped figure of the lead Knightmon. “Can we help you?” she asked flatly, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

Artemis reached up and gently wrapped a clawed hand around Jeanette’s forearm, but as the silvery lupine turned to go back the way they’d come, a pair of Knightmon barred the far end of the street.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” Bolter said, glaring with hostility unabashed by the size difference.

The Knightmon’s eyes passed over the Lopmon for a moment, before shifting to the two humans. “I thought I saw the pair of you lurking at the back of the town gathering.” He seemed to smirk despite his face being concealed in armor. “As this moment, humans, you are conscripts in my squad. I expect you to follow orders any of my ‘mon give you to the letter. You will be leaving with us in the morning. Am I clear?” His words were given with all the force one would expect from a hard-line military officer.

Bolter stuck his tongue. “No, you’re Knightmon,” was his sarcastic reply.
Jeanette gulped, not all enamored with the idea of talking back to someone wielding a sword bigger than she.

The lead Knightmon gestured with his arm, and as Artemis looked back, the two Knightmon at the other end of the street began advancing.

“Hey!” interrupted a Psychemon operating a small fruit stand nearby, taking an interest in the display. “You can’t just conscript anyone you feel like, it’s in the Constitution –“

“Indeed you’ll find I am operating perfectly within the law,” Knightmon replied snidely, glaring at the colorful, pelt-wearing reptilian. “Humans have no standing in Chronian Law. If I wish to draft them for the powers they posses to give us an edge to save your sorry skin from the dark army, so be it. If I wish to kill them should they refuse me, I may do that as well.”

“Not good,” breathed Kyoko, looking back and forth. “C’mon!” She grabbed Jeanette by the hand and pulled down conveniently-located a side alley, hopefully too narrow for the cumbersome warriors to fit down. Hopefully by the time smaller soldiers could arrive they could get away.

Sadly, Jeanette had the will to follow Kyoko, but not the means. Not more than a few panicked, running steps, and her ill body got the better of her as her knees gave out. Cataplexy again, often triggered by emotional stress, and her muscles could have hardly picked a worse time to become selectively uncooperative. “Zut!” the blonde exclaimed.

Stumbling, Jeanette pulled Kyoko off balance. Artemis quickly reached down and tried to pull the blonde to her feet again, but it was too late. The lead Knightmon’s blade crashed down, cutting them off from the alley, and eliciting a frightened yelp from Kyoko as sharpened steel missed her by inches. He glared down at them. “Last chance. Your partners will be taken along as insurance of your obedience. Once the battle is won, I might release you.”

Kyoko gritted her teeth as she helped Jeanette to her feet, pulling an arm across her shoulders to help support her. There just didn’t seem to be any way out of this situation… except fight as this Knightmon ordered them to and hope the dark army wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. They’d only just gotten the hang of evolving their own partners, now this warrior wanted to lug them around like just more equipment in an arsenal for the benefit of his army?

“Artemis,” Jeanette whispered frantically to her nearby partner “If I use my Digi-“
But the Strabimon cut her off. “Jeanette, please do as he says.” Her black claws tightened almost uncomfortably around the tamer’s bicep.

Kyoko’s free hand clenched into a fist, her face into a scowl. “Looks like we don’t have a choice,” she said as the two forms of the Knightmon stood behind them, eclipsing the late afternoon sun.

-----
The two tamers had been locked in the back of a wagon, one of roughly a dozen parked in a staggered line. The closed hold had been cleared of any useful material, converting it into a makeshift prison for the commander’s prizes. Their digivices were gone, as were the majority of their belongings. Their partners were detained “elsewhere,” according to one of the guards posted outside the locked door in the back of the wagon.

An attack had Jeanette unconscious as the sun slunk beneath the horizon, while Kyoko knocked, poked, and probed every board composing the eight by six by six compartment. There had to be a weakpoint, some place. Right?

Wrong. “Mo ii-yo!” Kyoko sighed the word in exasperation, flopping back against the side wall of the wagon. She could have hardly imagine Digimon would have such a reaction to tamers – rush to exploit them. Thoroughly exhausted but no closer to finding a way out, she gazed to the corner where she’d propped the younger tamer.

The look of peace on her sleeping face brought a smile to Kyoko’s lips despite her futile exhaustion. Reaching into the only occupant of the room save the two tamers, a box with two bottles of water and a carton of crackers, she grabbed a single wafer and crawled across the room with it in her mouth. Biting of a piece as she reached Jeanette, she took it in one hand while munching on it. Rough and tasteless, but it was food.

This wasn’t the first time Jeanette’s narcolepsy had manifested itself before Kyoko’s eyes, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Chewing on another bite of cracker, she brushed a hand against Jeanette’s hair, not the gold that made up the majority of it, but the vivid pink lock over her currently-closed left eye.

“Mmmnnnn,” Jeanette moaned softly, eyes cracking open. “K-Kyoko?” she murmured, eyes focusing on the face inches from her own.

“Here, Net-chan,” Kyoko, leaning back, crouched on her knees before the other tamer.

Jeanette’s blue eyes tracked around the back of the wagon, and then she gave an exhalation somewhere between a soft wail and a sigh. It hadn’t been just a nightmare. “First Allomon, and now this. Do zey really expect us to be able to ‘elp zem?” The younger tamer sad miserably, knocking her head back once against the wall behind her.

Kyoko crab-walked backward on her hands and feet back across the room, grabbing from the crate what little food the Excalibur had left for them. “And Artemis said our picnic food was bad,” Kyoko murmured, climbing to her feet and walking back over to Jeanette rather than repeating the same awkward if amusing gate.

“Hungry?” the brunette asked, offering the box of crackers and one of the water bottles to Jeanette. The other teen accepted them gratefully. Kyoko plopped down next to Jeanette, back against the wall.

“Well, Kyoko?” After taking a gulp of water, Jeanette turned her timid, bespectacled gaze to Kyoko. “What do we do?” Fear mixed with the hunger clawing at her gut, leaving her stomach feeling numb and making it seem like eating anything was a bad idea. “I barely know ‘ow to use my DigiSoul to ‘elp Artemis, led alone any ozer Digimon, what can we do against –“ But a touch at the shoulder interrupted her.

The lateness of the hour, the exhaustion of a day ended in fear and search for escape, it was Kyoko’s turn to fall asleep, the fifteen-year old’s head plopping gently on Jeanette’s slender shoulder. Though initially disconcerted by the touch, after all, when someone’s agitated anything out of the ordinary can tend to upset them, but after a moment, even though its giver was sound asleep and ignorant of it, the warm, reassuring touch relaxed her.

The minutes ticked by and strung into hours, not that Jeanette had any particular means of telling time with her D-Vector gone, only a shaft of moonlight shining in from a small window at the top of the front wall of the wagon provided a clue to the passage of time as it slowly swept through the vehicle.

Given her recent involuntary nap, Jeanette wasn’t particularly tired, just as well considering the generally unsuitable conditions for sleep of the fitful, voluntary sort she enjoyed. Organizing naps at regular intervals had helped her back home, but in the Digital World things were so shifting and inconsistent it was tough to maintain a fleeting organization even for that.

Curiosity tickled her mind, the French youth raising her hand before her, palm toward her face. Could she do it without her D-Vector? Exhaling deeply, she decided there wasn’t much to lose now. Slowly closing her eyes, she focused. At first, nothing. But a gentle heat like a warm bath soon worked its way up her arm, growing in intensity but losing none of the comfort.

Muted light flickered against her closed eyelids, and as she dared to crack them open, navy blue light glared across her glasses, the luminescence dancing around her right hand just like before. A smile came to her face as she admired it for a few moments. But, with the lingering fear the guards outside would notice something amiss, Jeanette let go of the feeling and clenched her fist, the glow slowly dying out.

As Kyoko softly muttered in her sleep, Jeanette lowered her arm back to her side. Her thoughts drifted back to that lead Knightmon who seemed to be in charge of things around here, the one who viewed humans as mere property. Words couldn’t express what she was feeling right now, a sullen anger toward his typical arrogance, a desire to escape, and a certain degree of remorse for what the French youth perceived as getting everyone else dragged into this mess.

---

“Look at the mess you’ve gotten use into,” Bolter panted, struggling futilely once again at the chains binding him. The brown rabbit’s beady black eyes glared across the small clearing to Artemis, the bipedal wolf equally restrained but utterly calm. Two Gabumon and a Kentarumon stood vigil over them, keeping an eye on the restrained prisoners. After all, Digimon would be far more capable of staging a jailbreak than two humans.

“If you hadn’t told Jeanette to back down –“ The Lopmon began irately.

“We would have wasted energy on a battle we stood little chance of winning,” Artemis cooly interrupted.

“So instead you’ve let your tamer be captured by someone who doesn’t give a damn about her well-being, or Kyoko’s!?” Bolter growled, pulling again at the chains even though they steadfastly held him to a tree.

“All either of us could have done was further endanger their lives,” Artemis said simply, eyes still shut, body like a statue even as her large ears surely warned her of the ominous clinking from the Lopmon throttling at his restraints across from her. “There are times when one must look beyond the immediate future. Jeanette’s safety is my top priority. But that doesn’t mean hovering about her like an overzealous parent. If I wanted to protect her from any harm, I would find an out of the way village and keep her in a fashion many would describe as a prisoner.” She paused, but before Bolter could respond she cut him off again. “But I have determined such an approach is not the way. Selective injuries and hardening are necessary.”

Bolter merely flopped back against the tree behind him and snorted.

[Vn70072]

The Sun and the Moon

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Central Province, Road to Arcwater

The sun’s radiance had taken the place of luna’s light streaming into the impromptu brig, the two captured tamers still riding alone in the back of the large wagon. “Well,” Kyoko began, tapping her foot in thought while she sat opposite Jeanette. “If they’re smart, they’ve kept Artemis and Bolter in the city, so even if we escape we can’t hook up with them.” She sighed.

“But,” Jeanette said “If they keep our partners along for the ride, they can kill them in front of if zey want.” The blonde suppressed a shudder at the implication. They knew the Lopmon and Strabimon had been captured, but beyond that, their fate was unknown as the two tamers were lugged along with the military column like the weapons the Knightmon in charge seemed to view them as.

“We just can’t overpower the guards,” Kyoko muttered, running a hand through her reddish-brown hair. “And the wagon’s solid, we haven’t got anything to break through with.”

“Zere has to be somezing we can do,” Jeanette said. “I guess that stranger was on our side after all,” she said, sighing miserably. If she’d listened to him, maybe they wouldn’t be in this mess…

----
“Commander Rathar!” A slender Digimon of childlike proportions ran up to the towering blue-and-gold caped Knightmon, marching at the head of the column. Purple, scaly hide, a red bandana around the neck, and three-fingered hands, one of his Impmon scouts.

“Yes?” The Knightmon said, his armored boots still plodding along the worn dirt road, loose forests sprawling to either side.

“The path to Arcwater is clear, sir,” the scout reported. “Valdor’s column is also advancing; they will arrive half a day after us. The civilians in the nearby -”

“Dismissed,” Rathar grunted, cutting off the scout’s report, turning his gaze to the distance. The winding path might be shrouded by forest, but he could see his duty lying ahead. So the Dark Army was rallying near Arcwater. Undoubtedly the prelude to an attack. He and his men would be ready to stop them.

Kingdom of Chronus, Eastern Province, Road to Arcwater

How much time had passed, neither Kyoko nor Jeanette were quite certain, as neither had a watch and their D-Vectors were probably tucked in Rathar’s cloak. But now the two stood nervously next to one another, the Knightmon’s shadow cast over them as his soldiers busied themselves around them.

The sprawling grasslands and lush forests near Primary Village and Fraeno had given way to open, prairie-like fields near Arcwater. The fortress itself stood in the distance, gleaming walls of chrome digizoid standing as a barrier between the warriors within and supposed threat.

“So,” Rathar said, folding his arms and glaring down at his two captives imposingly. “Make your choice.”

“Tch,” said Kyoko, gulping but mustering her courage. “What’s that say about you when you have to rely on prisoners to win your battles!?”

Jeanette cringed as though expected Rathar to draw the mighty sword from his back and strike both of them down for insolence, but the armored warrior remained unphased.

“Valdor’s forces are half a day’s march away. They will be here by nightfall, and when they combine with us and Arcwater’s garrison, any battle will be swift and decisive.” One gauntlet slowly clenched into a fist. “That does not mean, however, that I will pass over a potential advantage to ease the fighting my troops face.”

Kyoko bit her tongue Nice to know he cares so much about his ‘mon, but not us!.

“I assure you, my troops will do their best to protect you,” the Knightmon now rested both hands against his belt, settling for a bit of carrot along with all his sticks. “However, in battle there would be no guarantees.”

“Maybe we should,” Jeanette murmured, leaning toward Kyoko’s ear. “Remember, Bolter, Artemis…”

Kyoko glared at Rathar before glancing back down at her blonde companion, her mismatched eyes softening. It wasn’t just herself she had to worry about, she could tell that whatever she decided on Jeanette would follow her.

“Fine,” she said breathlessly, feeling defeated as she did so. Jeanette cringed even though relief bubbled onto her face.

“Good,” Rathar said, arms falling to his sides. “I can trust you then to follow us the rest of the way to the fortress?” he jerked his head into the distance, like they needed help seeing it across the clear landscape.


“Stick close, Net-chan,” Kyoko murmured as the force continued onward. She saw a few vaguely familiar Digimon as part of the roughly two dozen Digimon accompanying Rathar, but others would remain a mystery without the Analyzer in her D-Vector.

Jeanette was also eying the ‘mon around them, it seemed they’d taken advantage of the brief respite to draw weapons and steady themselves for battle. With a gulp, she hoped it didn’t mean they expected attack between here and the fort. It couldn’t be more than a kilometer or two by this point, the midday sun shining brightly, the few clouds in the sky belying the dark intent that lay ahead.

Trying to look without really looking like she was looking, Kyoko eyed the three wooden wagons with the group. One of the large wooden transports had housed them until recently, the two, the contents were a mystery. One could house their imprisoned partners…

The fort of Arcwater was near a stream that wound through the grasslands, mountains looming in the distance to one direction and open, rolling hills in the other. The base itself wasn’t particularly large, but was a six-sided enclosure of gleaming metal, walls at a sharp angle and stretching easily four meters into the air. Gates stood at the north and south ends, the interior dotted with several structures, low, blocklike and made of wood reinforced by metal. Rathar’s forces, voluntary and otherwise, moved within in the protective walls, joining the forces already stationed there as the gate clattered shut behind them.

Rathar began barking orders to his men while Kyoko led Jeanette over to the shadow of a large building near the perimeter. “How ya holdin’ up?” she asked of her younger companion, not familiar with all the ins and outs of Jeanette’s narcolepsy and its effects.

“F-Fine, I guess,” she said quietly, adjusting her glasses as she watched the soldiers under Rathar’s command integrating with those already present. They seemed busy enough to not pay particular notice to either tamer, Rathar himself standing atop one of the ramparts and exchanging words with an odd-looking lean humanoid with wicked claws and spiky, shocking orange hair.

“Hello again,” said a quiet voice from nearby, causing both female tamers to nearly jump from their skins. Turning, they saw the same gray-cloaked figure that had tried to warn them prior emerge from the shadows of a nearby building.

“Y-you!” Jeanette gasped, while Kyoko stepped in front of her, a position interposed between the blonde and the figure still cloaked. The brunette didn’t like the stranger’s sudden reappearance one bit and it showed in a tense, aggressive facial expression, and she assumed a ready stance that looked reminiscent of a martial art.

“Are you two okay?” Though cloaks often associated with calm, lurking wisdom, this stranger’s demeanor did not seem to fit.

“Y-yes,” Jeanette murmured, taken aback, squinting through her glasses and trying to get a look under the hood at the face. “Who are you?”

There was a sigh. Then, sleeved arms reached up and pulled back the hood at last. The figure was indeed human, a young adult male, slender, blue eyes, pale skin, and long black hair pulled into a ponytail. “Call me Cyrus, Cyrus Black,” he gave a nervous grin before tugging awkwardly at the cloak like it was a foreign object clinging to him.

“That’s better,” he said quietly a moment later after pulling it off completely, revealing that he was wearing pair of baggy jean shorts, a striped t-shirt, leather boots, a belt to which a navy blue and rusty red D-Vector was clipped. A pair of blue-tinted goggles were tucked into the collar of his shirt.

“Agreed,” said a voice, female, rather shrill and seeming to also come from the boy himself. But a small form soon scampered into sight on his shoulder, sizing up the two females. Small and slender, pearly white and minklike with golden markings. Strangely, she had two small scars along her shoulder. “Oh, by the way, I TOLD YOU SO!” It was clear now which of the pair had the sass. The mink then contented herself with a light laugh at Jeanette.

“Hang…” Cyrus said in exasperation, sighing as he glanced at what must have been his partner. He dropped the cloak to the ground in one hand while idly scratching Hang’s chin with the index finger of his other hand. “Be nice, we’re here to help them.”

Hang muttered something indecipherable, causing the teen’s cheeks to flush briefly as he alone heard her.

Kyoko lowered her hands to her sides, casting a curious gaze at Cyrus. “You are?”

“Y-yeah,” Cyrus said, turning his eyes back to the group, blush fading from his cheeks. He cast a furtive glance around, but it seemed that the military forces were all too busy preparing for the battle to come to notice a third human in their midst. “Fortunately, I’ve got help.”

“’Elp?” Jeanette echoed, confused. She found her eyes settling on Hang.

“Commander Rathar!” a voice boomed across the compound. A being equal parts Knight and Angel strode boldly through the nearby gate, some fifteen feet tall with eight shining wings, golden armor draped in white cloth, an ornate purple helm, and an odd gauntlet on his right forearm.

“C-Captain Valdor!” Rathar snapped around where he stood, saluting the superior officer, the Strikedramon behind him mimicking the gesture. “With your forces added to those present, we will be fully ready within hours.” He said proudly as the Holy Angemon continued advancing toward him on foot. Kyoko noticed he was alone, what of the forces that supposedly accompanied him? The quartet crept a little closer, sliding up to another building near the conversation.

“Yes, yes,” the Captain said, with the air of someone who while impatient hadn’t totally forgotten his matters. “What of the two humans you’ve detained?”

Rathar’s plated face nonetheless betrayed surprise “They are awaiting orders. We have their partners locked in one of the wagons under guard.”

“Release them at once,” commanded the holy warrior. His words were met with shock.

“E-excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Valdor said, now sounding quite grim. “And if you spout a word about Humans not being in the Constitution, I will have you jailed.” He stood a little straighter, squaring his shoulders. “Just because we’re at war doesn’t mean we can abandon the principles upon which the Kingdom was built!” he said passionately, then releasing his tension with a breath. “What is the point in fighting evil if you only become it?” He said quietly.

“V-Valdor!” Cyrus called out, striding into the open, eyes on the angel with whom he was clearly familiar. “You’re early, aren’t you?”

“Cyrus?” the Angel turned from his troublesome subordinate, settling his helmeted gaze down toward the human. “Did you find them?”

The black-haired boy nodded, then waved Kyoko and Jeanette forward. The two teens tentatively came forward, surprised but reassured by the smile that appeared on the smooth features of the Holy Angemon’s visible chin.

“Are you well?” His first question caught them off guard. Jeanette nodded, but Kyoko interjected.

“What about our partners?”

“Don’t worry about them,” said Valdor gently, making a gesture over his shoulder to Rathar. The Knightmon in turn gave orders to one of his subordinates, who quickly disappeared across the fort. Rathar himself also did not linger, no doubt irked at being dressed down. He failed to note Hang blowing a silent raspberry at his back from her perch on Cyrus’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this…” Valdor said heavily. “This war, it’s almost become a lifestyle the decades it’s lasted. Some are desperate for any edge they can get.” From the way he spoke, it seemed he was a veteran of this war in every sense of the word.

“What’s really going on h-here?” Jeanette asked of the towering warrior. “What’s this attack?”

Cyrus answered her. “This fort, Arcwater, is one of the main strongholds on the eastern edge of the Kingdom’s territory. They’ve been able to keep the dark army out so far, but there was an incursion near here a few days ago. One of our patrols was slain, and scouts are picking up heightened activity…”

Valdor nodded. “All the preludes to an attack. I came in advance of my troops when I heard about the… situation with Rathar.”

“Yeah,” Hang said, catching a strange glance from Kyoko. “Cyrus is working for Valdor, not all Digimon are like Rathar, the –“ she called him something caused her tamer clap his hand over her mouth as delicately as possible and hiss “Hang!”

[Vn70072]

Darkness Approaches

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Eastern, Fort of Arcwater

“I,” Jeanette said slowly “Want to ‘elp!”, hands clenching into brazen fists, eyes finding Valdor’s helmet plate. Her words as well as her enthusiasm were a shock to both Kyoko and Artemis, although the latter was naturally very adept at concealing it. Rathor’s totalitarian orders rescinded, the quartet stood together again, though with the newly-revealed Cyrus and Hang also standing in the courtyard.

“What’s this?” asked Valdor, turning fully to face her, away the ongoing preparations. But before Jeanette could continue, she found a hand over her lips, and Kyoko interrupting her.

“Excuse us a moment, please?” she asked, while Artemis took the French youth by the shoulders and pulled her away. She bowed, giving a nervous giggle to the Captain before bounding off after them, Bolter’s long ears flapping like some sort of travesty of a scarf from her shoulders.

“Are-You-NUTS!?” Kyoko exploded, though not in anger as she stood before Jeanette, the four off to the side so that the soldier Digimon bustling here and there could carry out their work unobstructed.

“Euh…” Jeanette hesitated, but Kyoko gave her barely a second to speak.

“Don’t you remember that they captured us, and were going to force us into this fight!? It’s not going to be much of a dark army if a couple of girls can take it on!” Kyoko pleaded reason, fingers clenching one another nervously “Please, Jeanette.”

“She is correct,” Artemis said, the Strabimon’s arms folded as was so often the case. “Battling here is far too risky. We would do better leave this place and let the soldiers to their jobs.”

But the next speaker surprised them all. “I’m with Jeanette,” Bolter said boldly from his perch. Before any could question his sanity too, the rabbit-like Digimon spoke again from his clinging perch on Kyoko’s back. “They’re afraid,” he said quietly, almost sadly, a contrast to anything even Kyoko had seen out of him prior, as he spoke of the soldiers. “Afraid of losing, like they slowly have along the northern and southern fronts. They know what failure means. We can’t turn our backs on them.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Cyrus said quietly, making his presence known as the boy strode up to the group, still idly stroking Hang’s chin with a finger. The pale, slender Kudamon regarded the group rather haughtily.

“Nose out,” Kyoko said, half-miffed, half-joking. “Your votes don’t count.”

“I haven’t even said anything to you yet!” Hang snapped indignantly, lightning bolts flashing between the eyes of the two.

Jeanette cleared her throat, by no means defusing the situation but at least drawing Kyoko and Hang off from one another for the moment. “I know, Kyoko,” she said quietly, pushing her index finger against the bridge of her glasses to resettle them. “It’s dangerous… but it’s a fight worth fighting!” The fires of courage flickered in her eyes, and Kyoko knew she’d lost this argument.

“Net-chan,” she said quietly. “You know I’m just worried about you, right?” Words of the reaction Jeanette would have to battle, be it loss of muscle control or completely blacking out at a pivotal moment rose toward her lips, but she cut them off and redirected the conversation. “And I think Fluffy over there is too,” she said with a grin, as her mismatched eyes danced toward Artemis.

The Strabimon’s visible fur bristled slightly, and something unreadable flashed in her jade eyes. Were any of the five telepathic, they would have known that it wasn’t beyond the calm warrior’s consideration to haul Jeanette away from this mess by any means necessary. But that wasn’t her only consideration, for her mind never thought just one step ahead, no, it always went beyond that. Just as she’d told Bolter, protecting Jeanette in the here and now wasn’t the only priority, making sure she had everything she needed, her partner, friends, shelter, supplies, and so forth tomorrow and for many days after that was too.

“Very well,” The Strabimon straightened up, muscles coiling as she clearly prepared for action. “I will join Rathar’s scouts and ascertain our strategic situation.” Apparently feeling Jeanette was safe in the current company of friends and allies, the nimble lupine warrior departed.

Cyrus, meanwhile, had a grin on his face. “Thanks, y-you two,” He blushed a bit as the female duo smiled back at him. “C’mon,” he jerked his head toward the far end of the camp. “Let’s get your stuff back.”

----

D-Vectors and backpacks in hand, Kyoko and Jeanette stood atop the central tower of Arcwater, with them Bolter, Cyrus, Hang, and Captain Valdor. Artemis was still out scouting as the sun sank lower on the horizon, while in the remaining illumination of the late-day sun Valdor’s forces, easily a few dozen strong, arrived at the fort. Just like Rathar’s forces before them, they wasted no time integrating themselves into the fort’s defensive set-up.

“I must thank you for volunteering,” The Holy Angemon was saying, his eight shining wings drawn close to his back, hands loosely draped from the golden sash at his waist. “If all tamers were willing to take the risk and aid us…” he trailed off, but Jeanette raised a question in the gap of conversation.

“Captain V-Valdor?” she asked “Are there any tamers that serve the dark army?”

The holy warrior didn’t immediately answer, nor give any outward sign as to what might have been going through his head. “They…” he said deliberately “Are rare, but not unheard of.”

Jeanette felt herself give a mild shudder. The idea of running into some tamer, experience far above her own, making a mockery of the girl’s novice skill and endangering Artemis, it wasn’t pleasant at all. She felt that same cursed feeling in her legs, knees suddenly going weak and threatening to dump her on the ground.

But even as the startled curse came from her lips, a slender yet strong arm caught her. Looking over, she found the arm belonged to Cyrus. With his help, she gently lowered into a kneeling position on the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked. With a flush of embarrassment, the blond-haired girl realized he probably didn’t know about her narcolepsy.

Startled by the reddening of Jeanette’s cheeks, the young man quickly pulled his arm away.

However, at that moment, Valdor’s voice drew the attention of all present. “The scouts, and your partner, Lady Jeanette, should be returning at any moment. I must tell you, however, that this is very dangerous. I want you stay out of the fighting as much as possible, support my men but don’t engage the dark army on your own. That goes double for Kyoko and Jeanette.” He said, looking down.

This doesn’t feel right Kyoko couldn’t help but think. We just arrived in this world a few days ago, why are we getting into a battle of life and death? That e-mail sure didn’t look like military papers. But even if she could change Jeanette’s mind, it was probably too late now. She’d just have to make sure to find some place nice and quiet, out of the way, for them to go when this was over. If there was such a thing in this Digital World… maybe Bolter would know something, or Cyrus and Hang would be interested in travelling with them.

Night had fallen, and with it, stifling blankets called darkness, fear. Numerous torches lit the fort’s walls, the fortifications ringed by numerous digital defenders. While Valdor stood atop the central tower, Rathor had stationed himself with the soldiers on the eastern rampart, straight in the path of any direct enemy assault.

Kyoko, Jeanette, Bolter, and Artemis stood atop one of the nearby parapets, the two humans close to one another as agitation and doubt flickered in both their souls. Both had fallen to more or less the same mind: it was dangerous, terribly so, but it was worth it to try and protect the tens of thousands calling the kingdom home.

Cyrus meanwhile rode the back of a pale and lean feline Digimon, one they could hardly believe was in fact Hang’s next evolution, her Adult form. The more experienced duo had promised to relay the tale after the battle. Her face masked, a bladed tail with eyes set into it, and thick fur, she looked nothing like the small and frail creature that had ridden the boy’s shoulders the day before.

”This has gone on too long” Rathar had told them earlier, apparently mellowed by his superior’s arrival ”Losing lives, losing territories. For the sake of our morale, this has got to be a win, no matter the cost.”
Valdor’s words also hung with them ”Regardless, you are young and inexperienced. The front lines and outer walls are much too dangerous for you. Please stick as close to the bulk of our forces, near the base of the central tower, as possible. Assist in damage control and fight where necessary, but don’t draw attention to yourselves.”

“They’re coming,” Artemis whispered, standing to Jeanette’s side like a furry shadow. Her jade eyes opened, reflecting the light of a nearby torch.

“Huh?” asked Bolter, his enormous ears twitching batlike as he struggled to listen for the sound of anything approaching in the gloom beyond the fortress’s outer wall. “I don’t hear anything.”

“You ready, Hang?” Cyrus asked, one hand clenching his D-Vector, the other clenched against the back of the Leppamon’s fur, a pale blue light flickering around his hands.

“Always,” she said confidently, waving her bladed tail at a Gabumon who was getting to close for the agitated Digimon’s comfort. This wasn’t her first time in battle by any means, but it was her first in one of this scale. She was edgy and someone getting in her personal space wasn’t smart. “And we’ll show the kiddies how it’s done.”

“’Ow did ‘ang do that?” Jeanette murmured, her bespectacled eyes on the mammal the young man was atop. “Iz it evolution too?”

“Yep,” said Bolter, still on Kyoko’s shoulders for the moment. “Hey, you,” he said suddenly, turning to Artemis “I can’t very well fight like this, how’s about I hitch a ride with you?”

Jeanette cast a cautious glance over to Artemis, who gave a clear growl of irritation.

“Heads up!” Kyoko yelled, pointing dramatically toward the horizon. Even in the darkness, it could be seen that something was coming. Hoping to gain an edge, she pointed her orange and lavender D-Vector into the distance. What she saw on the screen… wasn’t pleasant. Grotesque demon-children called Dracmon. Little bat things called Pico Devimon. Dark, spindly dragons called Devidramon. And others too. Too bad this thing doesn’t give numbers… Kyoko thought, squinting her heterochromatic eyes to see more clearly without much luck.

“Prepare for battle!” Valdor’s voice, bold and strong, rang over the fortress’s walls.

---

((Nothing like worth the wait, but here it is. Much as I like the direction I have for this project, I just can't guarantee steady progress with everything else I have on my plate...))

[Vn70072]

The Battle of Arcwater

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Eastern Province, Fort of Arcwater

The battle had started. In an offhand kind of way, it reminded Jeanette of a fireworks display. It had all the flashing lights of different colors, flashes, noise and explosions, too. But in a fireworks display, Digimon weren’t dying. The dark forces relentlessly hammered the Excalibur’s defenses, breaking around the fort’s walls like water on rocks. Yet where they met resistance, they attempted to slide around, probing for that weakness to worm into and exploit, again like water.

Yet unlike that rock, this malevolent force would not be content to wait centuries to wear itself an opening. The first waves of Dracmon to try and scramble the walls were beat back by the stalwart forces of the Chronian military, and the tamers watched anxiously. Jeanette’s hands clenched around her D-vector, eying the short list of Drivers as she tried to divine how best to put them to use as the battle raged on before them.

“Let’s get out there,” Hang said, voice ringing with impatience. She had paced back and forth as the battle began, paying only vague attention to where her tail swung and forcing Kyoko to duck several times. She craned her neck over her shoulder and looked at Cyrus. “I can handle it on the front lines.”

“That’s not the plan,” Cyrus murmured into the Leppamon’s ear. “We need to keep the girls safe for Valdor. Save your energy in case any of them try to make a run at us.”

Bolter scrabbled up onto Artemis’s shoulder. “I’d say you look stiffer,” the Lopmon said teasingly. “But I don’t know that that would be possible.” He wrapped his ears around her neck like an awkward scarf to brace himself.

“Watch yourselves!” Valdor called out, a sweeping wind buffeting the tamers as the Captain took to the skies. His wings beat a strong rhythm, the sword on his wrist igniting as he soared in to join several other angelic warriors in battling the Devidramon descending toward the fort. More flashes of light erupted across the night sky as the air battle was joined.

“It’s okay,” Kyoko said, laying a hand across one of Jeanette’s as the two stood side by side on the tower. The others were keeping alert for anyone making a run on the central tower, leaving the two girls to watch the battle. “Breathe, Net-chan.” She gave a nervous smile to her blond-haired friend.

“I appreciate it,” Jeanette murmured, trying to follow the advice. “But… a battle like zis, it is nuzzing to take easy, is it?”

“I’m just saying,” Kyoko gripped Jeanette’s hand with her own. “Getting too worked up isn’t good for you… Just stay focused and stay alive, ne?” As she spoke, something odd seemed to glint in Kyoko’s mismatched eyes.

“Oui,” Jeanette acknowledged with a nod. “Look out!” she yelled suddenly, pointing to a Devidramon that had squeaked through the aerial defensive line even as several of its kin were felled. The massive dark dragon folded its wings and dropped like a bomb straight at the central tower.

“Blazing Ice!”
“Razor Wind!”

The twin air attacks were joined by a few streams of azure fire coming from the tops of some of the inner buildings. The Devidramon shuddered and shrieked as the attacks tore at its leathery hide, but its four crimson eyes seemed fixed the observation level of the tower. It hurtled onward, and it seemed it would strike until a shining golden rod plunged through its back. The angelic Pidmon was surrounded in a halo of dark data particles before it returned to the battle above, no doubt with the hope to prevent any other Digimon from making a similar attempt.

Kyoko waved thanks to the angel, then looked over to Jeanette. “You okay?”

The younger tamer nodded. Inside, she was less confident. It had been her idea to stick around and help even though they’d initially been coerced into coming, but now she wasn’t so sure. All these Digimon, even with the Excalibur protecting them on all sides, seemed just beyond their league. Maybe Cyrus was okay, but Jeanette and Kyoko had only been here for a few days. What was I thinking?

“I think,” she heard Cyrus murmur. “I think we might be okay.” Jeanette and Kyoko looked up to see what he did. While they saw a few Excalibur fall in battle, the overwhelming majority of the data clouds starting to shroud the already dark night before they dispersed, were coming from the dark enemies.

“Hey, wait,” said Kyoko, squinting into the distance and pointing. “What’s that?”

Jeanette and Cyrus followed her gaze, and their partners save Artemis followed suit. But before any could figure out just what they’d seen standing amid the ranks of Digimon advancing along the plains, a flash of light erupted from it and whatever it was had become something else altogether.

It stood above any of the dark army warriors, equaled in size perhaps by only the Devidramon above. Glossy black armor encased a stout, quadruped form, decorated in golden highlights to create a distinctly leonine Digimon. Rubies were set into its forehead and in both its rear hips, while small guns protruded from its shoulders.

“Kaiser Leomon,” Jeanette murmured, reading from her d-ban’s display. Somehow, the image on the screen seemed a whole lot less frightening than the one that was now lumbering slowly toward the eastern wall of the fort.

Down on the outer rampart, the large and silver-armored form of Commander Rathar was visible, gesturing at the advancing Kaiser Leomon. The other dark army forces gave it a wide berth, and Jeanette couldn’t help a slightly ominous feeling as she watched the Digimon approach.

Several Digimon opened fire, yet the fireballs they launched skated right off the obsidian armor. The attacks only seemed to incense it, and with a loud roar increased from a lumbering trot to an all-out charge.

“Ohh, crap,” muttered Bolter.

“BLACK!”

“THUNDER!”

There was a flash of dark energy from the beast’s maw as it opened wide, and a shockwave rippled outward from the force of the fire alone. The Kaiser Leomon was rocked back on its heels, but that was nothing compared to the force that was unleashed as the destructive bolt hit its target.

A blinding flash erupted, and the entire fort shook as the thunderous explosion ripped outward. The intense light and sound dazed the defenders, buying an opening as the attackers pressed on with gruesome diligence despite the distraction. Even just as the embers of flame died down, they were already pressing into the clear ten-foot gap in the wall the attack had blasted.

An Angemon swooped down on the mobile battering ram from above, driving its holy rod straight between the Kaiser Leomon’s eyes. For a moment the white-clad Adult smiled in victory, but then his expression changed to one of horror as the Kaiser Leomon’s head jerked up and snatched his staff. It bit the rod clean in two, and then the armored beast leapt up and tackled the low-flying angel to the ground.

The angel cried out, but even as several Fladramon knights rushed to assist him, launching fiery rockets all the way, he was silenced as the black lion plunged its head down and sunk its massive fangs into his neck.

The Angemon exploded in a shower of data particles, a shower that was quickly soaked up by the Kaiser Leomon. It was as it if it has absorbed its foe’s data, denying the natural cycle of the Digital World. The lion then threw back its head, giving a self-satisfied roar as it then prepared to face down the Fladramon still advancing on it.

“He didn’t!” gasped Cyrus, nearly falling off Hang’s back from shock.

“Easy, partner!” the Leppamon said, stepping sideways to help keep her partner in place. She too seemed upset, an emotion mimicked by Bolter and, to what little extent it was visible, Artemis.

“Uh, excuse me,” Kyoko said as though realizing she was about to ask a very dumb question. “What’s the big deal with that?”

Cyrus looked to her, then paused and took a deep breath, obviously rattled. “Absorbing an opponent’s data, instead of allowing it to return to Primary Village to reformat for its next life… it’s like the Digital equivalent of cannibalism.” The boy shuddered with disgust.

“Zat’s ‘orrible!” Jeanette’s hands covered her mouth in shock and revulsion.

“Goes to show you the types we’re up against,” Bolter said, scowling angrily as though he very much wanted to go destroy the Kaiser Leomon, level difference or not, for what it had just done.

As the Excalibur recovered, the fighting only intensified. The dark army pressed on the breach opened in the wall, concentrating their greatest force there. The defenders scrambled to reinforce it, while the three Fladramon dueled desperately against the Kaiser Leomon to prevent it from attacking the walls again.

The great lion seized one of the armored bipedal dragons in its jaws and sent it careening into the second. The third it attempted to swat with a paw, but the warrior nimbly dodged and leapt onto the Kaiser Leomon’s shoulder. He fired a rapid volley of fireballs into the beast’s head, causing it to bellow in agony before it tried to shake him off. The Fladramon leapt instead onto his foe’s armored back, driving three claws of one gauntlet against the Kaiser Leomon’s back. The lion shook this way and that, head jerking this way and that, jaws snapping as it tried to dislodge the Fladramon.

Valdor swooped down to help, but the heavenly warrior was intercepted by a trio of Devidramon before he could lend aid. His sword and shield flashed in rapid succession against their claws, holding off his three attackers, but the dark army’s goal was served.

The Kaiser Leomon finally snagged the persistent Fladramon by the foot with its jaws, and tossed it into his two recovering companions. The guns its shoulders flared to life, peppering the three armor-level warriors with bolts of purple energy until they were no more.

Jeanette’s hands tightened more and more on the railing as the white-knuckle battle progressed, and she couldn’t help the feeling that it wasn’t going well at all. The dark army pressed and pressed, and for every one that fell, another seemed eager to step up and continue the fight in his place. She edged closer and closer to Kyoko as Devidramon started wheeling over the base, like vultures waiting to strike as they evaded sporadic attacks aimed to scatter them.

“Now?” Hang asked impatiently, bladed tail still swishing back and forth.

Cyrus bit his lip, clearly conflicted. But then his face set, and he tugged his goggles out and slipped them over his face. D-Vector in one hand, he hunched down and wrapped the other arm around Hang’s neck. “Let’s go. Stay mobile and keep an eye on any Digimon nearing the tower!” The youth’s voice trailed off, for no sooner than the first two words had left his mouth than did the Leppamon leap down from the tower.

With powerful legs she bounded across the low rooftops of the building, dancing amid the reserves and those who focused on trying to scatter the Devidramon and heading for the breach in the wall.

---

“This is more like it!” Hang cried, using her tail to swat aside a Pico Devimon that had been trying to sneak up on them. She landed quite deliberately atop another one of the scruffy winged bats, crushing it with the blunter claws of her forelegs.

With a final leap she crested the tattered edge of the eastern wall. Cyrus had hung on for dear life as his partner plunged headlong into battle, adding one more to the good fight. There was barely time to survey the battle firsthand, as the chaos swirled all around them. To the boy, it was almost surreal. There were no bodies, no blood either, yet that somehow made it all the more disturbing to him.

“There it is!” Hang found the Kaiser Leomon again. Rathar had engaged it alone, shield and sword in hand. The Knightmon’s tree-sized sword missed and cleaved through an errant Sangloupmon by fortuitous mistake, and his shield rose as the lion’s guns blazed away.

“For the Kingdom!” Rathar roared, his massive armored form pressing forward. He kept his shield between himself and his foe, his sword ready to strike the moment he got in range. Yet the instant he swung, the Kaiser Leomon nimbly leapt back.

With the Knightmon’s attention so focused on his single adversary, a Sangloupmon crept up behind him and prepared a sneak attack.

“No you don’t, doggy!” yelled Hang, leaping into battle and tackling aside the wolfish enemy. Saliva flew from its jaws as they snarled and snapped at the Leppamon, but she bashed his head with the blunt side of her blade.

It squealed with discomfort, but then the fur around its neck suddenly became rigid. “Sticker Blade!” the Sangloupmon hissed, a barrage of slender, dart-like hairs lancing at the Leppamon.

Hang cursed and jumped away, keeping her bulk between Cyrus and the oncoming darts. Nonetheless, the stickers digging into her hurt. “Got anything to help?” Hang asked, hunkering in a ready position and staring down their adversary.

“Hold on,” said Cyrus, trying to follow his own advice more literally while scanning his short list of drivers. “Got it,” he said, taking a deep breath. He pushed the button with his thumb, and saw that reassuring flare of bright blue light coming from his palm. A streamer of that little energy cloud broke away, twining itself around Hang’s form.

In the light’s wake was plate of glittering gold, with armor appearing around Hang’s chest, head, and lower legs. It shone brightly even in the dead of night, a holy defense against the pressing evil darkness. “Now we’re talking! Hold tight!” Cyrus had a fraction of a second to oblige before Hang launched herself at the Sangloupmon. The beast’s massive foreclaws rose to meet her, but even as they painfully dug into her fur, she tackled the purple wolf to the ground.

As they slid together through the dirt, the wolf’s jaws snapped again and again. As Hang heard a startled yelp from her tamer, she decided enough was enough. Wielding it like a massive sword, the Leppamon struck Sangloupmon again and again with her tail until its body broke and she was left crouching in the grassy dirt.

“You okay?” she asked, straightening up and looking over her shoulder at Cyrus.

“It’s just a scratch,” the young man said, rubbing part of his leg against Hang’s side. A small gash was visible in the fabric of his pants, and a matching one visible in his calf.

“Good,” said Hang, setting her sights back on Rathar and his battle against the Kaiser Leomon. “Hey –“ There was that word again.

“Hang!” Cyrus hissed in reprimand.

“We’ll watch your back!” Hang finished, striding near the Knightmon. Either Rathar had no objections, or was too preoccupied to voice them.

“Have at you, Anathema!” The Knightmon roared, suddenly charging with his massive sword leveled like a lance. The Kaiser Leomon tried to leap aside again, but it wasn’t fast enough and the blade’s massive tip cut deep into its shoulder. A massive paw was swung in retaliation, but it was blocked upon Rathar’s shield.

“Maybe we can win this after all,” murmured Cyrus, swinging his gaze this way and that while Hang remained crouched and doing likewise, seeking to make sure Rathar remained undisturbed. “If we can just –“

“Heads down!” yelled Hang, and Cyrus avoided catching a needle in the neck by millimeters. He could have sworn he saw a couple strands of black hair shorn away by the projectile before it vanished into the blackness.

Hang wheeled around, but as she faced the Pico Devimon, an odd glow resonated from its eyes. The Leppamon stumbled sideways, and Cyrus himself was also starting to feel curiously dazed. But he blinked, and the feeling ebbed. “Don’t look at it, Hang!” he warned, shielding his eyes.

“That’s easy for you to say,” Hang grunted, doing so but then quickly opening them again. “I have to stay alert. Got any ideas with your Digisoul?”

“Not many,” said Cyrus, shielding his eyes and peering at the screen of his D-Vector. “I used most of my power giving you this armor.”

There was a flash of multicolored light, and as Cyrus dared to look up again, he saw the Pico Devimon assailing them washed away in a flash of multicolored sparks.

The Psychemon that saved them was entirely too busy to chat, however, immediately re-engaged elsewhere in the battle as the fight for Arcwater raged on.

---

“I hope Cy-kun will be okay,” Kyoko said, still watching the battle at Jeanette’s side on the tower above.

“’Ang seems strong,” said Jeanette. “Zey will be okay.”

“That’s the spirit,” Kyoko said, managing to give her companion a nervous smile. “Hey, I don’t suppose you’ve got any drivers that work on a large scale, do you?”

Jeanette shook her head, then distractedly blushed her pink bangs out of her eyes. She cast a look at Artemis, the Strabimon looked as unfazed as ever, considering that as wound up as Bolter was becoming, he ought to have been choking her by now.

The Japanese youth bounced from foot to foot. “I don’t like this,” she said. “I’d rather be down there rather than just watching, this is the worst…”

“Incoming!” barked Artemis, breaking from her calm ready stance at long last as another Devidramon broke away from the battle and swooped toward them. Bolter immediately fired at it with a short salvo of air bullets, but the attacker seemed undaunted. A particularly hard beat of its wings blasted the four, sending the two tamers tumbling across the deck. Artemis stood strong against the gale, and Bolter clung to her neck for dear life.

The Devidramon dropped lower and lower, and it seemed most of the fort’s defenders were too preoccupied to help them out this time. “Care to give us a hand, you two?” Bolter said, looking over his shoulder as Jeanette and Kyoko picked themselves back up.

The Devidramon roared, revealing rows of needle-like teeth as it hovered just out of reach off the tower. Its four crimson glinted evily as it seemed to wait for something.

“K-kyoko,” gasped Jeanette, feeling her muscles grow unresponsive as she straightened up. “’elp me –“ As far as she realized, it was just her Narcolepsy picking a bad time to act up.

“It’s not,” Kyoko said stiffly, also apparently frozen. “Just you, Net-chan.” Her body shuddered as though she was giving great effort, but she was also immobilized by the Devidramon’s red eye attack. “Any… time, guys!” she managed.

“Hey!” yelled Bolter. “Knock that off! Petit Twister!” The Lopmon blurred brown as he spun up into the air, shooting at the Devidramon like a miniaturized tornado. The dragon hissed as he collided with its jaw, yet its spell over the tamers remained.

As his attack slowed, Bolter latched onto the sides of Devidramon’s face with his ears, grinning widely. He planted a kiss on the dragon’s scaly snout, then let go as he saw one of its spindly arms swing around. He extended his ears to slow his descent and glide, but was still treated to the sight of the Devidramon hitting itself in the face.

Artemis cast a wary glance over her shoulder, eying the two paralyzed tamers and then sweeping over the rest of the area. She seemed satisfied, and then leapt headlong at the Devidramon, still howling from its self-inflicted injury.

“Light Leg!” She yelled, silvery light flickering around her boot as it slammed hard into the side of Devidramon’s head. The Strabimon then pushed off, launching herself up into the air and slicing into one of the demon’s leathery wings on the way down.

She landed atop a building near the main tower, in time to see Bolter glide down next to her upon his oversized ears. The Devidramon shuddered in the air, apparently no longer capable of proper flight with part of one of its wings lacerated, surged forward and grabbed onto the tower with its long forearms. It caught itself before it fell from the sky, tucking its wings and heaving itself up onto the tower.

“Uh-oh,” muttered the Lopmon.

“Bolter-no-baka!” came the shriek of a familiar voice.

“C’mon!” said Bolter to Artemis. “Toss me!” he said, offering one of his ears to the Strabimon. The silver-furred warrior stopped briefly to consider it, then obliged. “Hey, gentle!” he said as her claws dug into his ear.

“You asked for it,” she said plainly, winding up, spinning around, and letting fly with the Lopmon turned projectile.

“Petit Twister!” Bolter’s form again become a brownish blur as it spun around and around, shooting up the height of the tower.

Artemis wasn’t far behind, leaping, clawing, and climbing her way up the tower at an all out run. Her boots found purchase on support beams and outcroppings, while her claws pulled her along where there was no other purchase to be found. In seconds the Strabimon had scaled the tower.

“Crimson Nail!” roared the Devidramon, slashing its claws at Bolter as though it sought to swat an irksome fly. The Lopmon danced aside, then breathed deep before pelting the demon with a sharp salvo of air bullets.

The demon shuddered with each impact, but still pressed on. It seemed to forget the two still in the grip of its spell, instead rounding on the active and incessant Lopmon.

“Dash Twister!” yelled Bolter, spinning and shooting between Devidramon’s legs even as it tail bashed down on the spot of floor he’d just vacated. He slowed to a stop, firing another air bullet into Devidramon’s back. It exploded painfully, and the Devidramon rounded on him again.

Artemis’s green eyes passed from Jeanette’s frozen form, to the back of Devidramon as it tried repeatedly to gouge the nimble Bolter. The Strabimon’s face set into a look even more masklike than usual, and she sprinted in.

She ducked an incidental swing of the Devidramon’s tail, and then leapt up onto its back. Before the demon could work out what had happened or turn its attention away from Bolter, Artemis dashed the rest of the way up its back. “Light!” she yelled, leaping straight up as she reached its shoulders.

“NAIL!” Her claws flared silver as they drove deep into Devidramon’s neck. Its scaly flesh and hard interior suddenly wavered and softened, and Artemis dropped to the ground amid its black data particles.

Simultaneously gasps of relief came from Jeanette and Kyoko, and it seemed the demon’s spell had passed with it. “You okay, Net-chan?” Kyoko asked, helping her junior stand upright as the two breathed heavily despite having been capable of little exertion.

“Y-yes,” said Jeanette, grateful for the support. “T-thank you, Artemis.”

The Strabimon gave only a stoic nod as Bolter scrambled back up her neck. The Lopmon was breathing heavily from the exertions of keeping his little body moving against such a large opponent. “I think I like this better,” he said breathless, but never witless.

“Lady Kyoko! Lady Jeanette!” Captain Valdor descended from above, hovering over the lookout tower. “I must insist your group retreat immediately. Head west.”

“But,” Jeanette protested. “Why now? We’re ‘olding on…”

“I can’t risk it,” Valdor spun in place, waved his sword, and caused the Devidramon trying to attack him from behind to simply vanish into a gate that swiftly closed. He turned back. “It’s clear they know you’re here, and seek to capture you along with this fort. I cannot let that happen.”

“We’d never turn!” Kyoko insisted stubbornly, drawing her D-vector to show her willingness to fight.

Valdor shook his helmeted head. “They have… ways,” he said. “You must go. My men cannot fight when they must always keep one eye on you. There will be a day for you to join our struggle, but that day is not today.”

There was a flash of motion to their side, causing Kyoko to jump and Artemis to wheel around, claws raised. But it was just Hang, Cyrus clinging to her back as ever. “He told us.” Cyrus explained. “He’s sending his two fastest ShimaUnimon for you,” he looked at Jeanette and Kyoko.

“Even you?” Kyoko asked, surprised. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Valdor depart and rejoin the ongoing, frantic battle. “I thought you worked for him?”

Cyrus shrugged a bit, looking uncomfortable. “The ShimaUnimon are more scouts than fighters, he wants me to cover you.” He reflexively ducked as an explosion rang out particularly close to the tower. “C’mon!” he yelled.

---

Eight hooves and four paws frantically pounded the ground along the road to the west. Cyrus rode upon Hang’s back, his partner still holding her Leppamon form. Jeanette with Artemis, and Kyoko with Bolter, rode on the backs of two of Valdor’s scouts.

The ShimaUnimon were beautiful, looking very much like large and powerful Zebras of Earth, only their heads were encased in black helmets. Red visors glinted in the darkness, and a single horn protruded from it.

“Just hang tight, deary,” Jeanette’s ‘steed’ said with a slight, soft southern drawl. She pounded along the road and leapt around obstacles, all with the goal of putting as much distance between them and the fort as possible.

At this distance, the shouts and sounds of battle died down, but the flashes of light and fire still showed as brightly as ever. “Indeed,” said the ShimaUnimon Kyoko rode, with the impeccable air of a British gentleman. “We’ll have you out of here in no time!”

“Oh, just shut up and keep up!” Hang said impatiently, the Leppamon growing cross as her bounding stride started pulling her ahead of the other two runners.

---

That has certainly been awhile, but I was finally able to get the planning work done that I needed without school in the way. Getting settled back in will be difficult, but I'm looking forward to the things I have planned, and a fic like this affords opportunities normal RPing doesn't.

[Vn70072]

Desperate Flight

---

Kingdom of Chronus, Eastern Province, West of Arcwater

“Why aren’t we sticking to the road?” Kyoko complained, rubbing where a branch had cut her cheek. The Shima Unimon were leading the way, Hang now following behind them as she wasn’t familiar with the territory. The trees raced by them in the darkness, the three running Digimon pounding through the forest as they fled the ongoing battle at Arcwater.

It seemed the dark army knew of the tamers defending the fort, and sought to capture them during the midst of the battle. Add to that the juggernaut leading the charge, a massive armored leonine that seemed to have emerged from nowhere to join the battle for the dark side, and it was no surprise that Valdor had ordered them out.

“Apologies for the rough ride,” said the British-accented ShimaUnimon that Kyoko rode, while Bolter flopped from her neck like a living scarf. “But we need to stay out of sight, otherwise we’ll be even worse off than before.”

“He’s right,” said Cyrus, hunkering down and holding on tight to protect himself against the onrushing foliage as Hang pushed onward as Leppamon. “I think there’s a small village about twenty miles northwest of here, if we can make it there while the Excalibur finish driving off the assault.” The other tamers were aware of his optimistic phrasing, but none of them commented on it.

“Hey now, those claws hurt!” protested the ShimaUnimon on which Artemis and Jeanette sat, for while Jeanette sat behind the Strabimon with her arms wrapped around her partner’s waist, Artemis’s claws were digging into the beast’s striped neck.

“My apologies,” said Artemis, loosening her grip while her green eyes glinted in the darkness. The way ahead was clear, yet the Strabimon’s fur bristled as though she sensed a foe approaching.

“What is wrong?” asked Jeanette, leaning closer and peering around through her glasses. She didn’t see anything, but of course, she was no predatory Digimon. All she could hear was the sounds of the forest rushing past, with snapping branches, rustled leaves, and howling air.

“I sense it too!” said Hang, sweeping her blade back and forth as best she could to clear the foliage from around her as she ran with the others. “Dead ahead!”

A shriek like metal grating against metal sounded through the trees, and a massive shadow appeared before the group. It was almost hard to see, so massive and blending into the darkness of the night. Not so hard to miss however, was the shriek and ensuing collapse of several trees.

“Guilty Claw!”

“Scatter!” yelled the female Shima Unimon as three trees were sliced open across their bases. The two Shima Unimon broke to their respective sides, hooves pounding the ground as they moved. The trees creaked and broke against one another, crashing to the ground.

Hang leapt over the fallen trunks, and Cyrus’s jaw went slack as his eyes fell upon their assailant. A massive form stood as tall as many of the trees, a snakelike body just as thick was covered in sickly purple scales. The upper body looked reptilian, though it had the muscular arms and chest of a human. The forearms of the creature were encased in metal, the tips splitting into separated claws. Large metallic wings sprouted from the creature’s back, and its lizardlike head was also covered in a metallic plate decorated with teeth and backswept horns. Blue scales ran down along its abdomen, trailing down onto the tail upon which it perched snakelike.

“Gigadramon!” yelled Kyoko. The trees settled to the ground, and for a moment it seemed there might be a moment of peace. But it wasn’t meant to be. There was just enough time to see her companions emerge from the dust and try to continue onward when the Gigadramon opened fire.

A pair of rockets screamed from launchers concealed in its wrists, the fiery explosions ripping outward. Leaves were set ablaze, trees and branches snapped and pummeled by the detonation shockwaves.

“Bloody hell! What are you playing at, tosser?” protested ‘Kyoko’s’ ShimaUnimon, his legs flailing under him as he sought to regain his balance.

“Keep going!” yelled Cyrus. He was hanging onto Hang for dear life at this point, when suddenly the Leppamon ran forward. In a gut-wrenching start they were vertical, Hang raced up the tree, then pushed off and launched herself off the tree at the Gigadramon. “Haaaaaang!” He ducked his head and braced himself against his partner.

There was the sound of a blade cleaving through scale and flesh, and upon hearing Gigadramon’s roar of agony, Cyrus reopened his eyes as the world righted and Hang landed lightly. A chunk had been carved out of the beast’s scaly neck by Hang’s tail blade, but they all knew the beast was far from down yet.

“Does anyone ‘ave a driver?” Jeanette called out, gripping Artemis with strength she didn’t have even as the girl gave a shiver nothing to do with the nighttime cold. She was the first to pull out her D-vector, followed suit by the others.

“Guilty Claw!” roared the Gigadramon. Its claws flipped shut, forming a driving point as it descended down upon the English ShimaUnimon.

“Dejisooru Chaaji!” Kyoko cried. The corona of pink light flared brilliantly through the night as her power activated, and she thumbed the main button her D-Vector. “Reflector!” There was a flash of light, and suddenly the massive claw bearing down on them stopped and suddenly rebounded on itself.

Gigadramon was thrown backward by the force of its own rebounded attack, throwing it against a tree which promptly splintered. But it didn’t stop there, continuing onward to where the southern ShimaUnimon and its passengers had attempted to take modest cover.

“Hold tight, kids!” The ShimaUnimon warned. Artemis tensed, and Jeanette’s couldn’t-be-helped scream cut the night air. The sound was blood-chilling, and Kyoko flinched, but that ShimaUnimon knew what she was doing.

The Gigadramon tumbled toward her until it filled the beast’s field of vision, and as it hit the top of one of its bounces, ShimaUnimon made her move. She put on an extra bit of speed to close that infinitesimal gap, and dove under the cyborg serpent. She dropped to her knees to fit, and even then, Jeanette could have reached up to brush her fingers across its scaly side. The Gigadramon’s momentum carried it onward, and it crashed headlong into another tree where it then slumped to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Kyoko called as the brazen ShimaUnimon climbed back to her feet.

“We are well,” Artemis said, with the merest green-eyed glance back at her tamer. “Attack now! Aim for its wings. Then we may flee!”

“Sure thing, boss,” Hang said with biting sarcasm, but they all saw the wisdom in her words.

“Wild Thunder!
“Blazing Ice!”
“Razor Wind!”

The four attacks pummeled the dazed serpent, metal shrieking as it was rent. Red-hot flakes broke off into the night, and some were vaporized outright by the heat of the attacks.

“Come on!” said Cyrus, tapping his hand against the back of Hang’s neck. But none of them needed to be told twice, and the three were galloping onward once again. They could only hope the Gigadramon was sufficiently crippled to prevent it from coming after them again.

“W-why?” Jeanette murmured. “Are zhey after us like zis?”

“No doubt they desire the power of tamers’ Digisouls,” Artemis said, as unflappable and stoic as ever. “Please hold on tightly.”


The sounds of the battle at Arcwater had faded almost completely now as the two ShimaUnimon along with Hang ran in silence through the night.

“Doin’ okay, Net-chan?” Kyoko called out, fiddling nervously with her D-vector as she leaned close and squinted through the wind at the other ShimaUnimon’s passengers.

“F-fine,” was Jeanette’s faint reply. Inside, Jeanette was quite glad that she was riding on ShimaUnimon. It was vaguely like the horses she’d been on at a few points in the past, but this one required no guidance. As it was, her knees and lower legs felt like jelly even as she sought to remain in control of her condition. She couldn’t let it interfere, she just couldn’t. Not if it meant trouble for her, or worse, for Cyrus, Kyoko, or any of their partners.

They made their way onto a road heading west, though the path was still framed by the darkened woods. The trees soon however thinned, and a wood and rope bridge was visible in the distance across a small chasm.

“Incoming!” yelled Bolter, watching their backs as the group ran onward. His warning was followed several seconds later by a grating shriek and a massive shadow visible in the night sky above them. Gigadramon was back, though his flight was slower than usual and seemed almost drunken as he wavered back and forth with his damaged wings.

“Genocide Gear!” A pair of missiles screamed toward them, and the three had to increase their pace even further. The explosions rang out behind them, two explosions ripping smoking craters into the landscape behind the group.

“Make for the bridge!” yelled the male ShimaUnimon, his hooves pounding a frantic rhythm against the ground. His partner nodded and seemed to understand, but the others didn’t realize the plan.

Branches were torn apart as Gigadramon accidentally collided with them, giving a roar of frustration at the damage that was preventing it from completing its mission. “Guilty Claw!” it yelled, cutting through a thick branch that blocked its path as it hovered lower and lower above the tamers, drawing closer.

“Blazing Ice!” yelled Bolter, firing several energy projectiles at the aggressive cyborg. The small explosions flashed against its scaly hide, but seemed to have little stopping power. He fired another short volley, with more explosions ringing out, but again the real damage seemed minimal.

“Hey,” said Hang, turning her head to look at the ShimaUnimon running beside her, only to see it wasn’t there as she reached the bridge. “What gives?” she asked, turning sideways and skidding to a stop.

Both ShimaUnimon had stopped several yards behind her, also turning sideways and glaring toward the oncoming Gigadramon. “Go,” said the Male ShimaUnimon, bending down and looking at Kyoko. “We’ll hold it off. Get across the bridge. The town isn’t much further now. Go!”

Kyoko quickly dismounted, but Jeanette was less willing to part with her steed. “B-but! Don’t we ‘ave a better chance together?”

“Now, Jeanette!” Artemis said impatiently, elbowing her tamer quite forcefully in the stomach. The French youth protested, but her balance was already gone. With a yelp she pitched off to the side, but a pair of strong hands was there to catch her and gently lower her to the ground.

“Merci,” Jeanette said, straightening as her sneakers met the ground.

“No problem,” Kyoko grinned. “Now come on!” she said, breaking into a run. Bolter still clung to her neck, and Artemis leapt down to the ground. The two ShimaUnimon stood fast against the relentless Gigadramon, their red visors now glowing brilliant green.

The sneakers of the two girls pounded the bridge as they ran across its wooden planks. Artemis’s boots joined them, the Child Digimon following up the rear with Kyoko in the lead and Jeanette between them.

“Raster Shot!” Lances of green light leapt from the ShimaUnimons’ visors, blasting fiercely at the Gigadramon. Yet even as the attacks pummeled it, the massive serpent twisted as it flew through the air and simply flew right over them. It shuddered with repeated shots and bellowed with agony, but would not, or could not, deviate from its mission.

The wooden bridge swayed, but with the greater fear of the dark Digimon pursuing them, they ran for where Cyrus and Hang had already taken up position on the far end of the bridge after the Leppamon had crossed the bridge in just a few light leaps.

Air curled and twisted around Hang’s bladed tale as her fierce eyes fixed on the Gigadramon. “Razor!” she drew it back. “Wind!” she cried, swinging her tail like a homerun swing of a baseball bat. The blade of wind lashed out through the air, and hit its mark.

Unfortunately, they didn’t foresee the consequences of the attack. After all it had weathered, the attack was finally too much for the Gigadramon’s failing body. It gave a bellowing gasp as it swings shuddered, and the beast succumbed to gravity. The creature had passed over the two girls and their partners, but as the Gigadramon plunged downward, it tore through the planks and rope of the bridge like a hot knife through butter.

“Kuso!” yelled Kyoko, as both she and Artemis closed ranks around Jeanette even as the bridge collapsed around them. It almost seemed to happen in slow motion, with planks breaking or tumbling away, rope snapping and twisting through the air as the bridge disintegrated.

“Hang on!” yelled Bolter, as the four formed into an interwoven tangle of limbs, all clinging to one another as the bridge gave way and gravity took its hold and drew them downward. The sloped rock walls raced past them, and the gurgling water below was waiting to meet them.

“Kyoko! Bolter! Artemis!” Cyrus yelled frantically, his blue eyes wide, numbly gripping Hang. “Go!” He urged her. The Leppamon was off, racing downstream as four splashes were heard. Her eyes frantically roved the landscape, looking for a path down, a long branch, anything to either get her down to the yelling, splashing, thrashing mass of tangled limbs below, or get them up and out. But the current was fast, and there was little purchase on the rock riverbanks.

The twin ShimaUnimon had disappeared, lost in the chaos, destroyed by the Gigadramon’s last breath, or summoned back to the battle.

Out of one peril, and into another. Emboldened by the desperate cries of those below, Hang increased her already frantic pace in a search for some way to get aid to the four in the river.

---

“Mmmnn,” Kyoko moaned, her heterochromatic eyes slowly flickering open. The light of the dawn filtered in through the branches and leaves of the canopy above her, dancing in a soothing pattern across her.

Beyond the gentle heat of the sun, she could feel that her clothes were soaking wet. Blinking, she could feel her head resting against something wet. Her head tipped back, and she saw a reassuring sight: The glint of glasses, blond and pink, and a relieved smile.

“Net-chan?” Kyoko asked, trying to sit up. But above and beyond the moisture sill soaking her, her body felt like lead.

“I’m ‘ere,” Jeanette said, kneeling fully beside a tree with Kyoko’s head in her lap. “I-I’m glad you’re awake.”

“What happened?”

“After we fell in the river, you and Artemis kept me afloat… but by the time the current died down, you were exhausted… we were able to pull you on shore.”

Kyoko gave an easy sigh and exhaled. Under any other circumstances she could have just fallen asleep for a little nap right now, still tired and so comfortable with the gentle warmth of the sun but the reassuring chill of the water soaking her.

But things weren’t that simple, and some of her adrenaline remained. “Bolter? Artemis? Cyrus? Hang?” She groaned, trying to push herself upright but failing.

“I’m here, sleepyhead,” said Bolter, giving Kyoko a hard pinch in the side before he clambered up on her belly. “I might make a good parachute, but I’m not much of a floatation device. You okay?”

“’m okay,” muttered Kyoko, petting the Lopmon’s horned head and smiling. “And I bet the Queen of Cheer is here to?” Her eyes flickered to the sides, but saw nothing.

“She’s looking for Cyrus and ‘ang,” Jeanette said. “We got separated…”

Kyoko nodded lightly, and it was only with great reluctance that she sat up and ruffled her auburn hair. She pushed herself upright, her muscles slow and uncooperative as she moved. Now she imagined she knew what Jeanette felt like when her cataplexy flared up.

---

Mustav Village, Northern Province, Kingdom of Chronus

Coniferous trees sprawled in a wide blanket across the rolling plains of the Northern Province. Through the evening gloom a small cluster of buildings sat near the river, bright light shining from the windows of the dwellings.

One such building stood as the largest, the local inn and tavern, at the center of the village. It was the usual sort of gathering place, yet the crowd seemed swollen above normal. Some whispered quietly, some only watched in silence.

“Why are they starin’ at us?” wondered Colin, a brown-haired human boy. His skin was naturally fair but tanned by the sun, just as his short and unstyled, messy hair had been bleached lighter. His clothes were simple and utilitarian, a t-shirt, blue jeans, jacket, and workboots. Coupled with his lean and strong build, it was clear that he spent many a day working under the sun. Clipped to his belt was a white, red-marked D-Vector.

“I guess they haven’t seen humans around here before…” said Zander, another, slightly older boy was seated across from the first in a table nestled in the corner. This one was leaner than the first and notably more pale, his hair shorter, spiky, and silver, his eyes the same color and home to a cool intensity. He was dressed largely in black and gray, a t-shirt and pants covered by a dark trench coat. He fiddled with a black, silver-marked D-Vector in one hand.

“Yeah, humans are pretty rare,” said the gearlike Koro sitting, or rather hovering, beside the silver-haired boy. His main body was a black metal disc ringed in a golden, toothed pattern like the rim of a gear, a theme that was echoed in the two small silver discs that served him as hands.

“About what I figured,” Zander said, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back. “What intrigues me Colin is the fact you don’t have a partner…”

Colin frowned a bit, nervously fiddling with his fork. “Koro was an egg when you arrived, right?” he said, picking up a glass of water and drinking from it. “Well, I didn’t have an egg. It was just me, and this,” he tapped his D-Vector.

“Maybe that’s all you need?” Koro wondered, drinking from a bottle of 5W-30 motor oil. It should help keep his systems lubricated, with all the parts moving smoothly even in the heat of battle or the bitter cold further north.

“So,” said the fiery red, Penguin-like creature that marched up to the table, server’s notepad protruding from his apron pocket. “How’ll you human-types be payin’ today?”

“Uh…” The sound of uncertainty was echoed across the booth. Colin spoke up first, reaching for his wallet. “I don’t suppose United States Dollars are valid currency here?”

“You-a-whooza-whatsa?” the Muchomon said, then shook his head. “We take bits, bits, bits, and uh, bits.”

Zander and Koro exchanged shady glances. There were always ways besides paying up when one didn’t remain confined to the straight and narrow of morality.

“I think that’s gonna be a problem,” said Colin. He’d grown up on a farm after all, there was always something to be said for hard work and a respectful tongue.

“You’re joking, right?” said a sharp, sardonic female voice. Swift footsteps approached from the side, coming up behind Zander and a female human stepped up beside him. One of rather eccentric appearance at that, she would have stood out from a crowd even on Earth.

She was slightly above average in height, nearly as tall as the boys, with notably pale skin. Almost almond-shaped eyes were framed by heavy makeup, and the eyes themselves did not match. The left was a steely blue, the right was dark brown. Her hair’s base color was a light brown, but on top of being gelled straight and out in a shape vaguely reminiscent of a umbrella, was riddled with a variety of gold, blue, pink, and purple streaks.

Her form seemed quite defined for her early teen age, though at a healthy rather than Hollywood weight besides. Her top was covered by a lavender hooded sweatshirt no doubt intended to ward off the northern cold, her bottom and feet by a pair of blue jeans and pink sneakers respectively. A blue and purple D-Vector dangled from under a long sleeve on a wrist strap.

“Give me that.” She snapped. Visible clinging to the girl’s shoulder was a slender, insectoid Digimon. Its bulbous head and posterior where connected by a more slender section, both pale green with violet legs and a stinger. Scraggly feelers trailed from the Wormmon’s head, its eyes were heterochromatic, the same blue and brown as the tamer, but reversed.

“Here,” she said forcefully, picking up Zander’s D-Vector and ignoring his protest. It extended at her touch, and then her thumbs quickly worked the buttons, naturally navigating the screens and menus until she found the one she was after. “There’s the money feature,” she placed the D-Vector down on the table. “So you can pay for your meal,” her mismatched eyes flickered over the cleaned plates, and her tone suggested she had just explained to them how to tie their shoes.

Colin leaned over the D-Vector, looking over the screen the stranger had activated. “Uh, thanks, Miss…?”

The girl glanced at him but did not even give a reply, speaking instead to her partner. “C’mon, Arcsinh.” she said, slowly stroking the head of the Wormmon perched on her shoulder before striding onward. The girl in her dark clothing melted into the crowd, and it wasn’t long before she had vanished altogether.

“Wow,” muttered Colin, sullen. “What did I say?”

“Nothing,” muttered Zander. “She’s probably like that anyways.” With the payment rendered, Muchomon skipped off on his way. “Why did I get stuck with the bill…?”

“Should we follow her?” Koro suggested, floating a little higher and using his cogs to set the empty carton of oil down on the table.

“Maybe we should?” said Colin, raising an eyebrow at Zander. “I mean, she seems to know a lot… maybe she can help us?”

“Well said,” stated Koro.

“Then let’s follow her,” Zander tucked his D-Vector into an inside pocket in his long coat, perhaps wary of others snatching it up. As he started to rise, someone else jostled past him. “Oh, come on!” he said in frustration.

The figure stopped, turning to glance back at him over her shoulder. The girl was small and slender, barely five feet tall and perhaps 115 pounds soaking wet. Her hair was long and brown, parted in a silky curtain along her ears, and her eyes were a striking shade of purple. Her features were certainly what many would call pretty, suggesting a mixed Asian heritage, and her skin was rather fair.

A polearm tipped in a single-edged, slightly curved blade was strapped to her back. Its shaft was burnished blue, the head a curiously vivid orange. Most of her form was covered in a mixture of black leather and what appeared to be chainmail armor. An underlayer of leather was covered by a full suit of chain mail from ankles to wrists to neck. On top of that were leather boots, gloves, a belt, and torso armor made of leather. A black and orange D-Vector appeared to be strapped sideways to her wrist with a velcro band like a watch.

“Hey,” she said in a friendly, yet cool tone as though she knew something they didn’t. Her eyes glinted as they passed over Zander, Colin, and finally the single Digimon between them. A smile curled her full lips, and then turned decidedly smirklike before she marched onward.

“The girls around here sure are weird,” Colin said once the girl was out of earshot, thoroughly bemused.

Zander however, seemed more intrigued than anything else, with the girl’s confidence and indefinable air of power.

---

Lexi Tashimi swept out of the tavern. Fair-skinned fingers that broke free of their leather sheathes brushed across the chainmail wreathing her abdomen. The cold evening air settled around her, but it didn’t seem to daunt her. After all, the icy bite of the rural air was nothing compared to the power lurking inside her.

It came at a high price, and the days were many that she wished she could just break down and cry. But such displays of weakness were not tolerated, and she was never alone. Purple eyes gleamed red, and she reached for the D-Vector at her wrist.

Her thumb clicked across the controls, and after a hiss of static, the device chimed. “Report” a voice, so hisslike itself, was nearly lost in the underlying static. Lexi held the device near her mouth and spoke.

“It’s more of the same,” the girl said quietly, walking briskly beyond the edge of the village and keeping her eyes alert for any signs of pursuit or even overly curious locals she’d have to do in. “More tamers arrive every day, but none of them have the power,” she hesitated “His Highness needs. Even I don’t have a fraction of what’s necessary.”

There was a pause as the being on the other end seemed to digest her words. ”Continue working on your own strength, and be fortunate that another tamer has been located, one that may have what is necessary.”

“Another tamer?” Lexi’s face registered obvious surprise, and she stopped in place. “One tamer could be enough?”

”Yes.” Another pause. “Continue working on your own strength. There may come a time when quantity is our only option.”

“I will,” Lexi replied, arm shivering slightly. She was curious and perhaps even a little afraid of a tamer that powerful, but she knew better than to push for details that weren’t given.

”See that you do. You know the consequences of failure. You don’t want to get punished again, do you?” The voice faded in a wash of static.

Lexi gave a nervous shudder, the night feeling colder than it had before. The D-Vector fell back to her side, the crimson gleam passing from her eyes.

[Ryuha]

Yummy chapter Veee. I was a bit slow in the process of reading it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The growing cast is of course interesting, and the directions that certain among their numbers seem to be going is quite unexpected. I really wish I had a better comment, but the writing problems I've been heaving today seem quite insistent on striking here as well. Either way, good luck on this project in the future ^^