Digimon World Online (IC/PG-13/Pending Acceptance)

[Mr. Hyde 196]

"Is everything up and running?"  A voice rang out through a horde computer workers, clad in white. 

"Everything's running at 100% efficiency sir!  The test servers are holding tight!" a worker close by responded.  

"Incredible.  Today is the day we make history!  Activate the Digilizers across the globe!  Digimon World Online will launch in 3...2..."

 

"Today is the day...right?"  Aoki Hideyo cluelessly wandered the streets close to home.  On top of his left shoulder, he held aloft a rather large box.  The letters D, W, and O plastered across it on all sides.  In the other hand, he took his phone out of his pocket, and looked at the home screen.  He had totally forgotten, but it was actually the day this game launched!  And the clock was ticking down to the wire!  Aoki recoiled in shock, before hoofing it back to his place.  He wasn't too far away, but it was far enough that he needed to break a sweat and get there before these servers all filled up!  

"Yo!  It's Hideyo!"  A group of 3 ne'er-do-wells emerged from an alleyway to block Aoki's mad dash.  He stopped in his tracks, almost leaving skid marks on the sidewalks.  His shoes were totally scuffed now.  

"And look at that!"  One of them pointed to the box Aoki had hiked over his shoulder.  "He's got that new game that the Internet's ravin' about!  I bet it would sell for a billion yen right now!"  

"A billion?"  One of the ragamuffins pondered, scratching his chin.  He strode up casually to Aoki, both hands tucked into his pockets.

"Listen guys," Aoki pleaded, "Today's important.  I gotta get home, like right now.  Can we like...maybe get a couple of drinks later?  My treat?"  

"Oh you're treatin' us alright," the middle rapscallion grinned, as he pulled a switch knife out to threaten Aoki with, "Now hand it over."  

Aoki stared at the knife pointed straight towards his chest, and sighed.  He grabbed his DWO box, and held it aloft, out in front of him.  The grunts all looked at each other dumbfounded.  

"I thought they were bullshittin' us about how you turned a new leaf Hideyo."  The three stooges chuckled in harmony.   "Like takin' candy from a ba-"

In one swift motion, Aoki threw the box straight up into the air with as much force as he could muster.  The hooligans all looked up to see that such an expensive item was now airborne, but Aoki was already on the move.  With fluid footwork, Aoki landed a straight dead center in his assailants jaw, knocking him out of his socks and onto the pavement.  The other two's attention was then drawn from the box, down to their fallen comrade.  Aoki made an explosive pivot, landing a spinning backfist with force not unlike that of a sledgehammer.  He exhaled, and turned his attention toward the last goon.  As Aoki began to make a move, the criminal crumbled and ran.  As he sprinted in the opposite direction, the box had already began it's rapid descent, and was now on a direct course with the top of his head.  The game would have crashed into his skull, if Aoki hadn't snatched it right out of the air.  He sighed again, as he placed the box back atop his shoulder.

"Now I'm gonna be late.  If you guys wanna spar again, make sure you give me some notice before you jump me out of the blue."  Hideyo waved to the other two unconscious gang members, before running off at top speed back home.

After five minutes had passed, he had made it home.  He burst through the threshold, back into his empty abode.  No need to say hi or goodbye to anyone...he had been alone for some time now.  He opened the box ferociously, like a starved lion would rip into a zebra's carcass, carelessly throwing all of the packaging aside.  There it sat...a strange looking pile of metal and plastic, and a normal looking headset console.  Alongside it was another, smaller looking box that a regular video game would come in.  It had funky looking creatures on the box art that Aoki got a real kick out of looking at.  Those little dudes looked awesome!  Reading the instruction manual at least a hundred times over by now, Aoki had finally set up the so called, 'Digilizer'.  It kind of looked like a plastic frame in the shape of a human.  Aoki had made sure that he set it up so it took into account his measurements across the board.  

"Now I just have to place myself against it...place the headset at the top...insert the game into the back..." Aoki had subconsciously started all of the movements as he stated the procedure verbatim, "and then say...DWO Login!" 

The screen in front of his face sprung to life, colors and numbers that all rearranged themselves into a specific message.

'Logging in.....User.......OHKO-YO.......DIGILIZING NOW' 

It was the strangest feeling, like the sensation of one's hand falling asleep.  However, it was spread throughout his entire body.  In a flash, he knew he wasn't in the real world anymore.  The console had disappeared from his body entirely, as he found himself among a huge crowd of people.  Hundreds, or maybe even thousands, were corralled in this beautiful looking space.  He looked around, having to blink a couple of times, realizing that he was still in the same clothes he had worn before stepping into the console frame.  His shoes were even still scuffed.  Bummer.  

"Welcome...one and all....to Digimon World Online!"  In the distance, one could see a large platform of wood, where a lone man stood.  Behind him were large digital screens floating in the air to broadcast the speaker's face.  "This is Asuka City!  A haven for humanity in the Digital World!  As some of you who have been following DWO for some time now may already know, I am Kazuki Iwakiri.  I am the CEO of Digital Works...or DigiWorks for short!"  He laughed, as some members of the audience applauded.  Aoki couldn't help but share the permeable enthusiasm, and joined along with those clapping.  "Today marks a turning point in history!  DWO is a miracle of Virtual Reality, and is a giant milestone for humanity!  And it wouldn't be possible without you."  Kazuki began to bow, and clap towards the audience.  "Now I'm sure you don't want to hear me blather on about game mechanics, or the end goal of DWO is supposed to be, but here's a tip from me to you!  A tutorial of sorts!"  The man brought his hand up, and flicked it down to his side, which brought up a screen in front of his body.  "This is your menu.  Anyone familiar with gaming should be familiar with this.  Here, you can see all of your stats, and items!  I figured you should at least learn that!"

Aoki's expression was priceless.    He mimicked the CEO's movements, as did many others, to bring up his own menu.  There, it listed what one would typically see in an MMO.  Even his clothes were labeled as equipment: Nomad's Shirt, Shoes, Pants.  It was all there.  His grin was about to explode straight off of his face.

"Oh!  I almost forgot!  It's time to introduce you to your partners!."  With a flick of his wrist, another menu came up, as he began to press against it with an unpredictable pattern.  A huge shadow formed in the sky.  Aoki looked up to see a mass of black.  However, as it seemed to fall, he noticed that it wasn't just one sphere, but multiple little eggs that began to descend upon them.  Each egg found it's way to everybody, as Aoki held his hands out.  A small, grey-speckled egg found it's way into Aoki's hands, as he gently brought it to his chest.  With a bounce, and a crack, it opened up to reveal a tiny white blob.  

"Pichi!"  It squeaked.  Startled somewhat, Aoki responded with a smile.  He pointed towards himself.

"Aoki!"  

"Let's grow these pipsqueaks up some, shall we!"  Kazuki Iwakiri laughed, as he began to press more buttons on his screen.  The small blob that Aoki held in his hands now began to shine, and glow, as visible strands of binary began to radiate from it.  It's form began to change entirely, as when the light faded, Aoki was holding a different creature.  When it opened its eyes, the creature's face lit up with a smile to mimic Aoki. 

"Aoki!?  Aoki Hideyo!?  Am I right?!"  

Aoki nodded, dumbfounded.

"Awesome!  That's Awesome!  I'm Reef!  Your Pukamon!  You chose me!  You chose me!  I've been waiting forever for you!"  Aoki remembered that upon creating his DWO user account all those months ago, that he had picked a cool looking little dude...or digimon...from a list of hundreds.  He was asked to give it a nickname as well.  So this was actually him.

"Awesome!"  Aoki held Reef high into the air.  "That's awesome!  What's goin' on Reef!  Nice to meet you!"

"And before I go..."  The CEO's voice rang out again.  "The final thing you'll need to traverse the digital world...the bond between digimon and human."  A final touch of his menu, and a device appeared in front of every player.  Something else they had picked when making their account.  It almost looked like a phone, but was way more compact.  Aoki took his device, as both he and Reef looked at it in wonder.  However, when he took his, his device began to glow with a light that was different from those around him.  The same thing would happen to several others in the crowd.  They received looks, but were shrugged off.  Must've been a bug.  "Your Digivice.  With this, you have not just become players of DWO, but you have also become Tamers.  Again, I welcome you to Digimon World Online.  Explore the world to your hearts content!  I bid you farewell."  Behind them, a large gate that read DWO began to open, revealing a vast region of forests.  The crowd erupted, and began to burst out of the city and into the wild.    

"Well...what are we waiting for!  We can't get left behind already!  Let's go Reef!"  

"Aye aye, Captain!"  Reef retorted with vigor, as they both ran with the enormous crowd.  

[yui 483]

About damn time.

When Shion woke up that morning, she had set an alarm for when the Digimon World Online servers were set to finally open up. Her Digilizer had already been set up in advance - something she'd taken care to do ASAP once her pre-order package arrived - and she had watched and re-watched a handful of basic videos from the official Digital Works channel going over things such as controls, menus, and other basics. The general setup, as far as interface and using it went, was pretty average for a VR MMO. That was a relief. With about five minutes until the game was finally live, there was one last thing Shion had to do.

Eat something. Nothing big, but she didn't like the feeling she got when she went into VR on an empty stomach. Actually being transported to the digital world entirely would surely be much worse than simply putting on a headset or strapping into some kind of frame. Luckily, she had prepared some onigiri for precisely this occasion. So, Shion left her room, went downstairs, and into the kitchen. She had hoped to have a brief encounter with her mother along the way, but all she found in that regard was a note on the fridge.

Have an interview. Will be back for dinner. I'll bring pizza!
-Mom

"Figures," Shion scoffed. There was always an interview, or an audition, or a concert, or a guest star cameo. There was always something. Whatever. Not my problem. After procuring the lonely ball of rice from the fridge, Shion took a few minutes to sit down and have it plus a modest glass of water. She made sure to not waste any time, though, and soon had finished her small pre-VR snack, returning back up the stairs shortly after. And looking at the clock, it was just about time to get this show on the road! Well, almost. For the next fifteen minutes or so, Shion sat patiently, doing a few minor things she'd been meaning to get around to in the meantime. The servers had just opened up, after all. There would surely be a huge crowd. Shion didn't want to be packed in with a bunch of children, mouth-breathers, and social media "nice guys" as her first introduction to this game. Especially not for the collector's edition price she'd paid. Once she was confident that the bulk of the crowd would have already dispersed from spawn and be off on some grand adventure or something, then Shion hooked herself up to the Digilizer.

This was what she had paid 11,000 yen for. The game... plus some merch.

"DWO, log in."

Logging in.....

User: Zer0Noise

DIGILIZING NOW

The feeling of being broken down into code was, as Shion imagined, deeply creepy. The sights and sounds of her familiar bedroom faded away into blue hexagonagal grids, progress bars, and of course, subtle ads for a handful of different items in the cash shop. And speaking of cash...

COLLECTOR'S EDITION COSMETIC TOKEN RECEIVED. PLEASE SELECT PRE-ORDER BONUS.

Rather than being sent directly into the game, Shion was dropped in what looked like a clothing store, if the clothing store only hung up its stock on the walls. The more Shion looked, it was more like a clothing museum almost, since every item here had a small pedestal nearby, with a display showing how it looked on some models, as well as what sort of vanity effect the item in question had with it. Simply looking over everything was another ten minutes spent, giving those crowds near spawn even more time to disperse and leave her the hell alone. That wasn't time spent because the pre-order items were good, though.

Quite frankly, everything here ranged from boring to hideous.

Shion didn't need a pair of sunglasses that also caused her body to emit sparkly particles. The skull mask that had flames come out of the eye sockets was a bit too extreme for her taste. It looked more like something her mother would pick out. Everything here was either too tacky to be caught dead in it, or so unbelievably average that there was hardly any point picking it when she knew there were clothing shops in-game and she could probably just get something like it at one of those. But she had to pick something, or else she'd never get to log in for real. So, Shion picked the option she had decided sucked the least.

A long yellow rain poncho. It had a zipper, and two drawstrings to tighten the hood that she'd probably never use, and the texture was... well, it was. And then there was its unique vanity effect; a toggleable rain cloud hovering just over the user, the size and severity of which could be adjusted with a special menu. The devs were even kind enough to add a disclaimer that for most gameplay purposes, the rain didn't do most of the things actual water did. Shion wasn't looking to break something with an unlimited water source, though she had to admit she was a bit disappointed that the option had been so casually crossed out of the list of possibilities.

This was what she had paid 11,000 yen for. The game, plus some merch, plus this stupid poncho.

RAINY COAT SELECTED. EQUIP NOW?

"...yeah sure why not," Shion sighed. As she pressed the "YES" button on the pop-up menu, faster than she could even blink her eyes, her body was now covered by the stupid poncho in question. So that was how MMO characters must have felt when the player changed their equipment. It was actually pretty creepy, to be honest. Shion did not like that. What she did like, however, was that the "shop" around her was disappearing in a very similar manner to how her room did just a few minutes ago. Hexagon grids, progress bars, cash shop ads, the usual, though this time Shion had finally noticed that there were also those completely useless loading screen tips. The kind that are only worth reading if you just learned how to read and want some practice, but then it's gone before you can finish reading it at your beginner pace.

After a bit more waiting, Shion finally loaded into the starting location. Asuka City. With a game of this time period and this kind of theme, she had honestly expected some kind of futuristic low-sci-fi type city. Not classical architecture. She could see a handful of other players, roaming about the city with their new digimon companions, and one guy standing higher up, watching everyone go about. Shion... recognized that guy. That was Kazuki Iwakiri, the CEO! By now, Shion had put in quite a lot of hours into VR MMOs, and while she knew staff was always somewhere in the world, she'd never actually seen a dev in-game until now. So... that was neat. More over, he seemed to be beckoning her over.

Now, Shion was not a people person by any means. But when the CEO of the company that made the game you just logged into for the first time calls you over? You go over. So she did.

"I see you were one of our customers who luckily got to Pre-Order our game's collector's edition. Let me humbly thank you for your patronage, Zer0Noise."

"Oh, that, well the first couple trailers were good enough to get my attention. It was showing off the Digilizer that sold me on going all-in on the pre-order." Fidgeting about with the sides of her poncho, trying to get it angled just right, she commented "Your pre-order cosmetics could use a bit of work, though."

"We'll keep that in mind! Coding in the digital world isn't as easy as it may seem. We still haven't worked out a lot of the kinks."

"And I'll be sure to bombard your people with bug reports whenever I find the kinks." Speaking of, it was probably a good idea to make sure this pre-order bonus wasn't broken. Shion opened up the menu, and in a little corner secluded away from the usual options, was the "RAINY COAT SETTINGS" button. Pressing it opened an impressively simple window. One cloud-shaped button to toggle the thing on and off, two sliders to respectively adjust the cloud's radius and how much rain it produced, and a couple check boxes and dials for miscellaneous settings. Pushing the on/off button did exactly what it was supposed to. Spawned a rain cloud just above Shion's head, pattering her with a steady stream of rain and reminding her to pull up her bonus poncho's hood over her head. Sliders worked. Check boxes worked, dials worked. Very nice! Now to just turn it off, and...

And turn it off and...

And turn it off and...

...it wasn't turning off. No matter how many times Shion pushed that damned power button, the cloud over her head refused to despawn. Taking a deep breath, and not looking up to Iwakiri from her menu, Shion forced out six brief syllables. "I think I found a bug."

"Uhm..." Iwakiri brought up his menu fiddling with the display, as he looked to Shions rain cloud for moments. After a minute, he looked past his display and smiled, a bead of sweat slowly dripping down his brow. "We'll get our best people on it...for now...maybe we can offer you some courtesy bits?"

Courtesy bits...

The in-game currency. It was better than nothing. And, come to think of it... actually, that was exactly what Shion needed right now. Well, exactly what she needed was this bug to get fixed, but as compensation, this would do just fine. "Yeah. That'll work. I'll probably have to visit the clothes shops, after all."

This was what she had paid 11,000 yen for. The game, plus some merch, plus this bugged poncho that wouldn't stop raining on her.

"Bits is not my only gift to you, miss Zer0Noise. Since this is your first time logging in...may I present you with your partner." From the sky, descended an egg that floated in front of Shion. "And, your digivice." Out of the aether, her digivice also appeared alongside the floating egg. "These are more precious than any pre-order bonus. So take care of them well." He smiled at the girl in the buggy rain coat. "I wonder what the digital world will have in store for you."

Bugfixes, I hope. Shion took the egg first, just in time for it to hatch in her hands, into a small and relatively helpless-looking pink bird. Which then within seconds grew into a less helpless-looking but still pretty pathetic pink bird with a feather on its head. Now, admittedly, Shion had chosen her starting partner based on leaks of mega versions, without paying much mind to the rookie levels. But this little thing was supposed to turn into the beast she aspired to tame? Shion found that hard to believe.

Next up was the digivice. Not really caring for the customization, Shion had simply picked the default, went with the default yellow color scheme, and called it a day. Upon taking it, however, the digivice began to emit a powerful and brilliant light. Shion had to avert her eyes, but the light soon faded. How strange.

Iwakiri's eyes sharpened upon seeing the interaction.

"We'll get to work on that bug as well."

Did he say something? Shion wasn't paying enough attention to tell. Digivice, check. Partner, who didn't seem too keen on talking, check. Fine by her; while Shion was looking for someone to talk to, it was a pre-determined someone, and it certainly wasn't a bundle of 0s and 1s. Pre-order bonus? Unfortunately, check. And a decent sum of bits in compensation for bugged pre-order items. All that was left now was to return back to the spawn point, find the nearest chair or bench, sit down, and wait...

This wait would have been much more enjoyable if she could bask in the sun instead of having this stupid cloud raining down on exclusively her. Hopefully she shows up sooner rather than later.

It was then that Shion felt a prodding at her leg. Her still-helpless-looking pet bird. Right. "What?"

"I just want to say it's nice to finally meet you," the bird chirped, keeping some distance from Shion.

"Okay." Shion opened up her menu again, and opened up the interface for her cloud. If she was going to be stuck with this thing, she might as well study up on what exactly she could do with it. There were... quite a few options, actually! Whoever did the programming for this thing must have really had their hands full. Full enough to let some bugs slip through, apparently. Once she was content that she better understood what she was working with, Shion closed the interface, then re-opened her menu. There was a "gestures" menu she wanted to look into. Additional gestures that could go straight to certain windows, skipping the need to go through the menu.

This was one thing she liked about non-VR MMOs. "Keybinds" were a lot simpler than "gestures". But it did cost some immersion.

As she assigned a few gestures to things she considered important - the map, inventory, and cloud settings being foremost among them - Shion off-handedly commented "I'm going to call you Gea from now on."

"Eh? Like... a gear?"

"Like hydrangea. Your color reminds me of them, and if I'm stuck being dressed like this, I may as well give you a nickname to match."

"I see..."

Edited February 6 by yui

[Chaos Sonic 366]

Elton Walker | User: AllUrBase

His alarm ran off, though the young man groggily woke up, looking at the clock. That definitely tracked, seeing as the sun really wasn't out yet. A yawn escaped his mouth as he got himself up and ready, glancing over at the Digilizer he got the night prior at the game shop before getting off the clock. After all this time, his pre-ordered copy of Digimon World Online was here and he was ready to go. With another yawn, Elton finally walked out of his room and made his way down to the kitchen and immediately rummaged through the fridge and grabbed his box of leftover pizza.

Sweet comfort of cold pizza...guess old college habits die hard... Elton thought, grabbing a slice and immediately scarfing it down before receiving a text. While retreating back to his room with the pizza, he looked down: a text from mom.

I'm already at work, have fun with the new game, Elton!

Are you sure you don't mind me playing the game? Sure you don't need me to do anything else for you?

No son, you've done enough for me. It's your day off, just go have fun.

Elton sighed, shaking his head as he put the phone down after simply texting her to have a good day. Still feel like I haven't done enough... he thought, turning his computer on, letting it run the scheduled diagnostic before finally logging into it. He immediately got to the DWO launch site and it was counting down until the servers were open. ...still...I've been waiting for this for a while now. Hopefully the hype for it was well worth it...and maybe I can gleam some ideas and implementations that I can get for developing my own game one day...

While he waited for the countdown to near it's completion, Elton immediately did a search for what he could expect and what he planned on getting throughout the game: Digicards. He planned on going for the Card Master Tamer Class and as such, he had to definitely familiarize himself with what was a single use and what was a permanent Digicard. Oddly enough, while he could've immediately grabbed something like "WarGreymon" to use it's "Gaia Force" technique, or even "MetalGarurumon" to use it's "Cocytus Breath"...but what he decided to go for...was something something strange.

He double-clicked the card link of the one he pretty much selected: Surfimon. Basically he was giving his Digimon and himself a method of travel...at least in theory. Using this card would allow him to use the mecha Digimon's hoverboard, "Dash Silder", while also allowing his partner to use the 'mon's attack technique. Perhaps the weirdest flex anyone would've had with this Card Master thing, but hey...having a mount in a game was always something good. So why not this?

"Hopefully I can find the right cards and get that collection going on." he muttered, sipping some water he had nearby. "Unsure if there's an achievement for the card collecting, but I'm sure it'll all be good." Elton alt-tabbed to the previous screen and saw that the countdown was in the 60 seconds time frame. It was time. The young man prepped himself the best he could, already hooking him up to the Digilizer before smirking. "And one last look at this Massachusetts city before entering VR..." he snickered to himself. "Here goes nothing...DWO, Log in."

Logging in... User: AllUrBase... DIGILIZING NOW!

BGM

Being broke down into code...it was a feeling Elton NEVER thought he'd ever feel and now that he did, it was something so weird. Sure, this was revolutionary in realm of coding and virtual reality as people knew it...but he wondered if there was a method to do this WITHOUT it feeling so funny and weird. But once it was finished, there's where he was brought up to what he was waiting for: Character Customization.  Sure, everyone was pining for the MMORPG and free roaming capabilities and even the ENORMOUS amounts of Digimon to have at their disposal, but what was an RPG game without the character customization? ...alas...what he THOUGHT was Character Customization, it was simply a "Thank You for Pre-Ordering" banner...and then it was nothing more than hints and tips. A little...disappointing, but he didn't mind. Though while logging in, the loading screens seemed...to take longer than originally intended...so that wasn't good. Fucking lag...even with being broken down into code...games still have it...guess some things never change. Damnit, now I'm gonna be late!!

What seemed like forever, Elton finally was released from that hell, and finally was loaded into Asuka City. And upon being loaded in...he simply marveled at what he was seeing. Before anything else, Elton opened up his menu and looked at the options he had. He double checked everything was in working order...so far so good. Upon closing the menu, he looked in the direction of where stood another individual who just ushered a poncho-clad individual off...Kazuki Iwakiri, the studio's CEO. Seeing as he probably missed the initial welcome by the CEO (damn you lag...damn you), Elton figured he'd make his way over towards the CEO...after all, while he didn't pre-order the game's collector's edition due to money, he did at least pre-order the game...so that's probably something to at least assist in the long run! (...it really didn't...)

"A lot of late logins it seems..." the CEO sighed.  "AllUrBase...how retro. I can appreciate someone who enjoys a classical meme."

"Thank you sir. Would've been here sooner, but there was a bit of lag on my end, so that's on me." Elton sheepishly said. "So I'll apologize there. I'm sure the opening ceremonies were something spectacular, as you're known of doing."

"No apologies required. We were expecting some late logins...would you like to meet your partner now? Or should I lag a bit myself?" Iwakiri laughed at his own joke.

"Certainly! ...with the meeting of my partner, not the lag." Elton quickly jabbed back with the joke.

Iwakiri nodded, playing with his menu panel for a moment before an egg descended from the sky. As it hovered in front of Elton, a Digivice would also present itself from out of seemingly nowhere. "I'm sure these will be very useful on your journey in DWO. Be sure you take care of them."

Elton took hold of the Digivice, now seeing it shine with a bright light, so much so that he actually started to be blind by it...to which he sort of shielded his eyes some.

"Hm..." Iwakiri would hum to himself upon seeing the light

Once the light faded, Elton hooked the Digivice to his belt for the moment as the egg began to hatch as it was hopping out of his hand. Soon enough there was a small white creature, almost like a little baby snow creature. Elton was about to kneel down and grab it, but it immediately hopped up and down for a moment before glowing again and changing into something else...

"Hm? Oh it's you!!" the creature with the icy dripped nose said happily. "Elton...Walker?"

"Yeah...that's me." Elton smiled, immediately picking up the creature. "So, we finally meet Berg!"

"You remembered my name! Yes, I'm Berg! I'm a Hiyarimon! Let's go!!"

Elton nodded and was about to just run off, but stopped real quick. He turned back towards Iwakiri and held a hand, remembering something. "Now, with the Card Master class, I assume the DigiCard I selected is already in my inventory?"

"It sure is. One Surfimon board, as selected. Radical choice."

He double-checked, immediately opening his menu and opening his inventory. Sure to form, there it was: "DigiCard - Surfimon". Closing the menu once more, Elton nodded and gave the CEO a small bow. "Thank you, sir! I'm hoping this game ends up being a rousing success in the long run for all involved."

"Hey!! Less talking, Elton...let's goooooo!!" Berg cheered, causing Elton to smile.

"Alright Berg...let's go!" he said, putting Berg down and the two immediately rushing off. "Time to really enjoy this gaming experience!"

[Doggo 182]

"Alright gang, this has been Maya-chan! I've gotta get going. As you all know, Digimon World Online is coming out today and you know who is getting in at launch. I reaaaaaally wish I could I could stream it with you guys but you know how it goes. Game uses your real life appearance and that'd be trouble for me. But who knows, maybe we'll play with each other and not even realize it, that could be so fun! Let me know on my socials what you're planning to do with the game. I'll be talking about my experiences with it in upcoming streams just wont have much footage. Guess I'll have to come up with something. Maybe I can get Doki-kun to stream with me and we'll play the digimon card game while we talk about it! Oh there's so many things to do. You all know my stream times, if not it's down in the description along with my socials. Follow soon for exclusive signed merch, offer ends in two weeks! Keep it real and keep shining!"

Click. Stream ended.

"Uggggghhhhh" Came a moan as the face behind hit Vtuber Maya-Chan slumped back into her chair and planted her face down on her desk in front of her. Jeanne Sakamoto had just gotten done streaming for three hours and her day was only really just beginning. A thought crossed her mind why she was still doing this but the thought of disappointing so many fans seemed like more trouble than it was worth. She could see the social media threads over Maya-Chan leaving drama and the shit she'd have to go through the Vtuber company. Oh right them. A contract seemed like a pretty good reason to keep doing something too now that she thought about it. Before moping too much longer, Jeanne looked up from her den of depression to a clock to see she still had a scant few minutes before the DWO launch.

"Well Jeane, you came this far. Might as well not be late." the woman muttered with a huff as she hauled the box of goods needed to play the game onto her desk. Opening it, deciphering instructions and assembling was easier than she had anticipated but still more complicated than any game had a right to be, at least in her opinion. She was tired enough that if she could have put off logging in for a day or two she would have. But she knew she wouldn't last a half hour of not showing up without Shion blowing her up in every conceivable method of communication. "I can't wait for this super awesome game." She said with as little life as she could muster. "Gonna be the greatest thing ever-" she was cut off the by digitizing process.

'Logging in.....User.......Maya.......DIGILIZING NOW'

Never had Jeanne put much thought into what having her body deconstructed and turned into data would feel like. She figured it was just all overblown VR type stuff. But this was something else. But then all at once she was herself again just somewhere completely new. Somewhere that looked beautiful really. For a fake place in a game anyway. She was almost in awe until she was surrounded by other people all eagerly logging in for the first time. The starry-eyed masses quickly made her gut twist and turn. It wasn't like this was even the best graphics she'd ever seen in a game. Like sure she was actually in it but there were probably missing pixels or something.

The girl's focus was on the CEO of the game company, Kazuki Iwakiri, who welcomed them all to Asuka City. Jeanne took the opportunity to move away from the congested spawn point to take in the bright eyed corporate speak. A game changing the course of history. Like that had ever happened. Still, at least the man wasn't going to take all day to get to what everyone actually wanted. A device, primarily white with dark purple accents, along with a soot black egg appeared before Jeanne as so many similar pairs of objects did for every other player at Iwakiri's word. Without warning the egg began hatching, revealing a bizarre looking black ball of something with yellow eyes. A Botamon it was, which Jeanne would know if she bothered to look it up in the game's information. She definitely didn't already know all about it. Having to lug this thing around was going to be troublesome but it was almost cute enough to justify it. But the CEO wasn't done handing out presents as the creatures all began their first evolution on the spot. Gone was the ball of black fur and in it's place a ball of gray fur with long ears.

"Wait... is mine broken? How come mine didn't get arms or legs?" Jeanne voiced to no one in particular. This didn't seem to deter the creature though, who propped itself upright as much as a spherical creature could and puffed its non-existent chest.

"I'm Pagumon! It's an honor to meet so soon Jeanne." Pagumon said, doing what looked like its best attempt at a bow.

"So soon? Oh yeah didn't sign up all that lo- wait what?! Ah shit, I shoulda known they sold my data. Never use real names even when they ask for them, stupid!" She vented as Pagumon looked on concerned.

"Please don't be upset. I've been waiting eagerly to meet you. This should be a happy time." the digimon offered, its ears drooping.

"Aw c'mon Fido, dont start with that. I'm not mad at you, you didn't do anything." Jeanne responded, softening some. But Pagumon seemed peturbed.

"Fido? I'm Pagumon." it asserted in confusion.

"Yeah well you're like my dog now right, it's a nickname." the human offered in explanation.

"You were given an opportunity when signing up to nickname me, you should have done so there. I am Pagumon and that's that." the furball stated.

"You don't gotta be uptight about it." Jeanne said, clearly annoyed her new parter was such a stickler about these kinds of things. But there was no two ways about it. Jeanne kept calling Pagumon Fido and Pagumon continued to deny that was its name and demanded she address it properly if she wanted a reply. Still, Pagumon seemed overjoyed to be with Jeanne at all. As for Jeanne well, Pagumon was cute so it was lucky. The two left, Pagumon in Jeanne's arms as they talked some more. Jeanne explained she was looking for a friend and Pagumon suggested heading back to the spawn area as most players wouldn't have dispersed from there yet. A solid idea and one which the girl accepted. Now it was just a matter of looking for Shion. In a sea of faces. No problem there.

Actually it ws a lot easier than anticipated as something caught the girl's eye. A raincloud, a tiny one at that, isolated entirely to the space just above a single player's head. That alone required a good laugh but no sooner did the woman look to see the poor soul with their own storm cloud than did Jeanne see her own best friend, Shion. That was too much, the girl burst out laughing as she approached.

"Wow I really missed out on not pre-ordering huh?" she managed to get out when she stopped laughing enough to actually speak.

Shion knew that laugh. It had a distinct vibe of "wow, this sucks, and you probably suck for getting so into it." She'd recognize it anywhere, and while she'd normally turn and greet its owner with a smile, she was already in a bit of a sour mood. And so, sour expression fully intact, Shion turned, and greeted Jeanne back with a "Oh, shut it. This was the most not-terrible pre-order bonus; how was I supposed to know the damn thing would be bugged?"

"Wow, here I thought you were just trying to ruin the vibe for everyone on purpose. Was gonna be offended." Jeanne fired right back. At this point Pagumon interjected.

"You shouldn't be rude to your friend!" it said very earnestly which only got another chuckle out of Jeanne.

"We got every flavor of buzzkill here what'd I even sign in for?"

"To be a better buzzkill than them, obviously," Shion answered. "And maybe to try and find game-breaking exploits so you can kill the devs' good moods too. The CEO didn't seem all that happy that his collector's edition bonuses were bugged when I met him. All I could get to make up for it was some bits, though." Jeanne could only give a typical whistle to fake being impressed.

"CEO talking to nobodies huh? What an in touch and down to earth old guy. Be sure to threaten to refund if your... bonus here doesn't get fixed soon." Jeanne spoke, uncertain if she could call the endless raincloud a bonus with a straight face.

"I'll make sure to do that. Give the devs a week, and if I'm still getting rained on, threaten a refund. 11,000 yen for a bugged poncho I need to wear." Shion finished that thought with one of the driest, most sarcastic "Woohoo"s one would likely hear. "Oh, loosely related, do you want to hit up the shops before we check out what this game's got to offer? I've got a nice chunk of bits, and I'd like to pick up some extra..." Shion pointed up at the raincloud hovering over her. "Equipment." Jeanne feigned shock this time as she reeled backward dramatically placing a hand across her chest.

"Is it my birthday?" she teased. "Well far be it from me to deny charity in any mmo. And I'm not even being told to change my password to something specific must really be my lucky day. We'll get you fixed right up Miss Sunshine." Jeanne added to rub salt in the wound.

"Miss Sunshine, haha," Shion sighed, leaving an obviously fake laugh behind as she got up, and opened her map. A map which, to her great relief, was rather well-made. Everything was clear, labeled, zoom functions worked properly, it was by all means a very nice map. It was surprising how easy it was to botch a map system in these kinds of games, really.

After confirming the location of the nearest clothing store, Shion pointed in its general direction, said "That way," and started in that direction, gesturing for Pomumon and Jeanne to follow. She could feel the funny looks being sent her way. She didn't mind that, mostly. The ones she did mind were the ones from players with what she recognized as being other collector's pre-order bonuses. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn one of them off-handedly commented how glad they were they didn't pick the poncho.

"For all the odds and ends in this thing's settings - it came with its own settings window, by the way - you'd think they would have checked that it can be switched off," Shion sighed. Jeanne for her part had been taking in the sights but more especially the people giving Shion funny looks. It was all she could do to not start laughing about the whole affair again.

"Well for all his happy vibes and bravado for us noobs you know that CEO guy has to be overworking his team to be doing well... this." Jeanne said while motioning with her arms to a vague nothing. "This turning people into data stuff's kinda wild. Dunno if I'd be impressed or worried for the employees health if there weren't some bugs here and there." She paused, an off-handed comment about a way better pre-order bonus getting a snicker from her.

"But hey, there's some positives to it all. Like how I'll never lose you in a crowd, or how I'll always have a conversation starter with everyone we meet 'cuz I can always just be like 'yeah that's me and my localized weather anomaly if you look closely you can see the rain is actually just the tears of all the disappointed pre-orderers". All said, I see this as an absolute win... you know, long as you aren't hugging me or anything." Jeanne added with a playful look of disgust. She did not intend to get wet simply be proximity to her best friend simply because said best friend wouldn't remove a cosmetic she didn't have to keep on. But then again Shion asserted she did have to keep it on and who was Jeanne to argue that? A foolish question really, Jeanne was never going to let it go.

"Well, at least one of us is having a good time with this. And that's exactly what I'm doing here." Ah yes. Here. The clothing shop.

The way Shion heard it, back when MMOs were not run through VR, the shop was generally just an NPC that you talked to, the list of items appeared, you traded in currency, and that was it. What a bore that sounded like, as if the shopkeep just had magical pockets containing their entire stock! Fortunately, those days were gone, and the shops of a VR MMO were at least a little more immersive.

You could interact with the shelves or boxes, or in this case the racks of clothing. You could pull an item out from the lists - organized lists based on what you were interacting with - and examine it before buying, or even try it on in the case of clothes and other equipment. Then, once you were ready to buy, you could just hit the purchase button, trade in your currency, and your better MMO shopping experience was concluded. Immersive, intuitive, ingenious.

"Say, since we're here and all, do us both a favor. Check around the place and try to pick up something for yourself." Pointing up above her head again, Shion added "Buy as if you were dealing with this instead of me. My treat. I'm gonna check the footwear and see about replacing my soaked shoes with something waterproof."

"My whatever do you mean? I can only see the smiling faces of my friends. I don't see glitches." Jeanne teased as she left to look into wet weather gear. As she perused lists of items, Pagumon couldn't help but speak up having been a largely silent listener in the conversation between the two girls.

"Are you two really friends?" it asked with an honesty and earnestness that might have made the woman choke had she been drinking something. Or staring up into her own personal raincloud. Crazy what not having one of those would do.

"That's a silly question." Jeanne asserted. Having a piece of data analyze her relationships seemed like a waste of time. What did robots and algorithms know about any of this?

"But you seem to always be bothering each other." Pagumon added, its ears drooping again.

"It's a girl thing, kinda hard to understand I know but it is what it is. If you wanna think we're friends that works fine. It is the easiest way to put things." Jeanne remarked coldly as she settled on a matching pair of umbrellas, each wildly plastered with the logo for DWO and several of the posterchild digimon.

"My god, they're hideous. Perfect." She said with an evil smirk. The redundancy of needing an umbrella while in a raincoat was going to drive Shion up a wall and Jeanne only wished she had a camera for it. "Let's go find our friends." Jeanne said to Pagumon who agreed happily.

[FourEyesIsAFish 9]

Sammy

 It was a cold, overcast afternoon in the Japantown neighborhood in San Francisco. Despite the inclement weather, the enclave was bustling with activity, as tourists and locals alike wandered the streets and began their shopping trips in the Japan Center. It was in this nexus of ancient traditions, concrete streets, and neon lights that a two-story building adorned with the mural of a shrimp sat slightly off of the neighborhood's center. Kobayashi Sushi is not the most famous of Japantown's restaurants, but it does have a loyal following in the local culinary community, some of whom have made their way to the establishment for a lunch break. But above the soft blue lights and dark pads of the main dining room, the Kobayashi family sat at their short-legged chabudai eating some sushi. Wielding chopsticks with surprising finesse in her thick fingers, Samantha Kobayashi gently dipped piece after piece of sushi from the sea of maki rolls and nigiri that covered her plate in soy sauce before chowing down. Sammy's mom, a raven-haired 5'2 Japanese woman, was savoring on a gyoza, and her dad was sitting in contemplation, his tempura slowly cooling before him. "Musume, are you sure you want to do this? It seems dangerous to participate in such an experimental experience..." "Papa, I'm sure everything's gonna be fine. Don't worry about it!" The tall girl popped another piece of tako nigiri into her mouth, relishing the taste.

After lunch and one final hug with her family, Sammy walked into her room, ducking under her door frame and hooked herself (uncomfortably) to the Digilizer. She takes one last look at her room and the neighborhood visible from her window before saying, "Welp, here goes nothing... DWO, log in"

Logging in... User: san_francisco_giant... DIGILIZING NOW!

Sammy felt like she was falling into a dream before her sandals plopped down on a wooded pathway that reminded her a bit of Japantown. Looking around, she could see a mix of traditional Japanese architecture with a bit of the modern cityscape that she was more familiar with. Suddenly, after she landed, she heard a booming voice nearby. Running towards the noise, Sammy came across a massive crowd of people. Looking at the screens, she recognized Kazuki Iwakiri's face and began to listen to the CEO's speech. 

"Now I'm sure you don't want to hear me blather on about game mechanics, or the end goal of DWO is supposed to be, but here's a tip from me to you!  A tutorial of sorts! This is your menu.  Anyone familiar with gaming should be familiar with this.  Here, you can see all of your stats, and items!  I figured you should at least learn that!" Sammy opened up her own menu and began looking around, seeing a log section. That may come in handy later Sammy thought. Always good to have notes. Sammy continued to look around her menu and surroundings with a sense of wonder when an egg crashed into her, knocking her down. Then she heard a dry, throaty voice begin to talk to her. "Pssst, kid, ya there? Kid?" 

Sammy jumped up and stared at the small, seed-like creature at her feet. "...oh, hello there..."

"I'm looking for someone named Samantha Kobayashi. Have you seen her around?"

Sammy just sat there dumbfounded for a second.

"Answer me kid!" The seed monster seemed oddly intimidating for his size, perhaps because of the large red thorns covering his body.

Sammy slowly pointed down to herself. "I think you're looking for me?"

"...oh. Sorry about that Sammy, I just didn't expect you to be... well..."

"Get that a lot. So, you're Sequoia, right? Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to finally meet in the flesh... well, data... too. Now, let's get explor-WOAH, what do you think you're doing?"

Sammy plopped Sequoia on her shoulder. "That a better view?" Sequoia begrudgingly agreed and then the two set off past the gates of Asuka city, Sammy bounding with limitless enthusiasm.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by FourEyesIsAFish

[Mr. Hyde 196]

 

"So, Aoki, what's first one the agenda?!"  Reef said, as he floated above the ground beside his tamer.  "I'm so excited to finally be out and about in the Digital World!  It felt like an eternity in that egg of mine!"  

"Whoa!  You're one restless little dude, huh?"  Aoki smiled.  He then balled a fist, landing a punch directly into his other hand's palm.  "I was thinking we start out this little adventure of ours by getting into some scraps!  There's gotta be tons of evil digimon for us to get in a fight with, right?!"  They continued their trek alongside each other, finally crossing over the bridges threshold, and into an area that was rather wide open.  Aoki brought up his menu with a flick of the rest, and clicked the map portion of his menu.  It looked like they had made it to the first destination outside of Asuka City, Central Park.  Here, there were tons of tamers in their own fights.  They all looked to be fighting the same type of Digimon, a fairly large yellow caterpillar with a huge stinger.

"These guys don't look so tough!"  The Pukamon snarked, raising up his flippers as if they were a pair of boxing gloves.  "I'll just give 'em the ol' one two!"  Aoki laughed, as his digimon began to shadowbox the air in front of him.  

"That's what I like to hear!  What are these guys anyway?"  Aoki brought up his menu once more.  This thing sure was handy.  On it, there was an option that was labeled 'Scan'.  Aoki lined up his screen so that the enemy digimon would be encapsulated by the scanning box, much like one would scan a QR code with a phone.  After a couple of seconds, the scan was complete, and a new text box appeared in his menu.

"Kunemon.  Level: Rookie.  Type: Larva.  A Larva Digimon which has lightning-patterns all over its body. Although it is uncertain whether the lightning-patterns on the portion considered its face can are organs equivalent to eyes, because they change shape in in accordance with its emotions, it is said that they probably are eyes. Its personality is fairly malicious. Its Special Move is an electrically-charged thread of silk spewed from its hard beak (Electric Thread). If you get entangled in this thread you can get knocked out by the intense electric shock."

"A rookie level huh?"  Aoki said, stroking his chin.  "What level are you, Reef?"  

"In-Training!"  That sounded a little weaker than Rookie...but with the two of them, these fights would be a piece of cake.  BORING!

"Well...let's say we find something stronger to fight?  I don't wanna deal with the small fry!  Let's go for a high score, unlike the rest of these guys!"  

"Aye aye, captain!"  The Pukamon retorted with a salute! 

"We can totally find a stronger digimon deeper in the woods, I bet!  Let's go!"  The two nodded at each other, as they ran past all of the fledgling tamer's in the park, and into the entrance of the Wire Forest.

 

As Elton would make it over the bridge, he would see the same scene seen by many of the other players who rushed towards Central Park.  The area was littered with an over abundance of Kunemon.  If he stepped foot into the area, he would feel the burning sensation of agro being built upon him.

"Anotha human!  Where do all these suckers keep comin' from!  I'll get rid a you myself!  This is Kunemon territory!"  Without hesitation, a Kunemon launched itself in a rolling wheel straight towards the tamer and his Digimon.

 

 

As the two continued to shop, and Jeanne brought the umbrellas to Shion, a low voice could be heard yelling through the store.

"Where the hell did all this water come from?!"  The two would notice a woman, walking up to them  "Oh...I see..."  The girl looked at Shion specifically, and up to the raincloud that continuously rained on her.  "You know...you have got to have the worst taste in fashion.  You know how many other preorder bonuses you could have chose...other than that hideous thing?"  She looked to the back of the store, and hollered once more.  "Yo!  Mojo!  Get out here!"  

Without hesitation, a small, frog-like creature appeared from the racks and shelves.  

"On it ma'am!"  With some sort of ability, the Digimon pointed it's sharp orange horn towards the gathering water under Shion.  It balled itself up, hovering it in the air, as the lady continued to talk.

"My boss must've given you some Bits if you're already able to buy something huh?  Must've been compensation for a bug that came with that raincoat, I'm guessing."  The girl raised an eyebrow.  "I'm Mihara Marise.  Lead Fashion Designer for all of the apparel and accessories available for DWO.  Can't help you with that bug, by the by.  I can't code or anything like that....I'm just the art girl.  But I do have a simple solution to all of this."  She paused, as she lowered her glasses down her nose.  "Why don't you just take the damn thing off?"

 

 

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"  The boy screamed, as the tingling sensation washed over him once more.  He opened his eyes, and realized he had been transported back to Asuka City.  He blinked, once...twice...three times, seeing that he was standing near the area where the previous opening speech had taken place.  He turned around, only to see a building called the Digi-Inn behind him.  "I....I thought I was a goner..."  He said, patting himself down.  He then looked around, as if he had almost forgotten something.  "REEF!"  Aoki looked around, to see that Reef had materialized right along side him.  However, he now laid on the ground, taking a little snooze.  "Thank goodness..."  Aoki said, his heart beat slowing down a bit.  

"It seems you were the first to meet an unfortunate fate."  Aoki turned around again to notice Iwakiri, the CEO, was in his personal space.  "Congratulations on making it back alive!"  

"What...what just happened?"  Aoki asked, with a tremor in his voice.  

"It seems you took on a bit more than you could chew.  In DWO, a tamer and digimon whose health drops down to 0 are disassembled into data, and reassembled at a spawn point.  The Digi-Inn is the initial spawn point, so you were rematerialized here."  Iwakiri smiled at Aoki.  "OHKO-YO, eh?  Seems like you got OHKO'd yourself!  Do try to be more careful when exploring DWO.  I know it's a game, but you will still feel every bit of pain that comes with being alive in the Digital World."

"You don't have to remind me..."  Aoki said, picking up Reef, and hiking him over his shoulder like a little baby.  "But...I don't back down very easily.  I think he feels the same way..."  Aoki motioned his head towards the Pukamon with the statement.  Iwakiri sighed with a smile.

"Oh, the youthful leaf remains firm atop the tree.  I wish you luck in your battle, OHKO-YO."

"Thanks boss!  But luck isn't necessary!"  Aoki held out his fist towards the CEO.  "You probably know that just as much as me."  Iwakiri chuckled, returning Aoki's gesture with his own fist.  Aoki then turned back towards the bridge that lead to Central Park.  "Round 2!"  He said, as he bolted off.  He turned around to wave at Iwakiri, but found himself flat on his ass.  He had run into a large object.  "Hey!  Let's watch where we're goin' alright!"  He said, as he held tightly to his Pukamon.  

"Mmmm...rough waters...."  Reef sleepily moaned.  

"You got that rig-"  Aoki noticed that what he had run into was a huge girl, towering above him by a whole foot at least.  "WHAT THE HELL!  YOU'RE WAY TOO TALL!  IS THERE AN OPTION FOR THAT IN THE MENU OR WHAT!?"  

Edited September 20, 2021 by Mr. Hyde

[FourEyesIsAFish 9]

Sammy

 Sammy and Sequoia were rushing towards the bridge out of Asuka City when Sammy heard someone say, "Round 2!"  Sammy turned to the side to see wh-

SLAM!

Sammy was knocked to the ground prone and Sequoia was sent flying. As Sammy sat up, she saw who had collided with her: a decently tall boy with blue hair holding is partner digimon, a Pukamon

"Hey!  Let's watch where we're goin' alright!"  

"Mmmm...rough waters...."   

"You got that rig-" Sammy watched as the boy’s eyes grew wide upon internalizing her actual size. Sammy’s body stiffened.

"WHAT THE HELL!  YOU'RE WAY TOO TALL!  IS THERE AN OPTION FOR THAT IN THE MENU OR WHAT!?" 

 Sammy was mentally preparing herself to respond when Sequoia leaped out from behind her, his ire clearly drawn by the boy’s comment. “Hey, watch it! Her height is something she’s sensitive about!” As Sequoia gets madder and madder, Sammy tries to signal him to quiet down to no avail.

“Sequoia, please?” Sammy finally blurted out, and the seed stopped its verbal assault with “alright then.” She sat up, her height clearly on display. “Sorry about my friend Sequoia there. He can be a bit overprotective at times…”

"I can see that..."  the boy said, rubbing the back of his neck.  "Sorry for blowing up on ya.  It's an old habit of mine..."  The boy crossed his legs, putting his digimon in the small gap that formed.  "Just had a rough experience...kinda died, kinda came back to life."

“I get the feeling…” Sammy sat there awkwardly for a second before standing upright and extending an arm down to the boy. He took her hand, and stood up with her support.  

"The name's Aoki.  Aoki Hideyo!  What's your name?"

“I’m Sammy! Nice to meet you!” Sammy’s nervousness faded away and a large grin crossed her face. 

"Likewise!  Sorry for blurting it out earlier, but you’re really tall!  What are you doin' in DWO?"

Sammy stretched out her shoulders a bit, reaching her arms around her neck. “Honestly, at the moment, all I want to do is walk around! The landscapes are breathtaking…” Sequoia’s quiet chants “fight fight fight” could be heard in the background.

"Yeah, they are!  You think you'd only see this stuff in an anime or something, right?!  Pretty rad!"  Aoki then flashed her a smile, and pointed a thumb to his chest.  "Im here to kick ass, and become the number one tamer alongside my pal Reef here!"  Aoki said, petting the top of his partners head, who began to groggily open his eyes.

Sammy smiled. “Mind if I tag along? Sequoia’s been itching for combat ever since I got ‘em” Sequoia flashes a wide grin and fidgets in excitement.

"Hell yeah!  I'm a brawler, so I'm gonna help these two out!"  Aoki said, pumping a fist

Sammy pumps her fist. “Well, I may not know how to fight, but I am strong… let’s go!”

"Now that we're a team, I think we have enough grit to beat that guy!  Wanna come with?"

Before Sammy could respond, Sequoia jumped forward. “I’ll take any chance to stop being a seed for once!” Sammy let out a hearty chuckle  and gave a thumbs up, and with that, the four of them walked back to Central Park

[yui 483]

The footwear selection was... well, it was shoes alright. Some people cared about their shoes of all things being fashionable, and Shion for one never got it. As long as they served their purpose, who cared how pretty they looked? This sentiment was in no way related to the first and only instance in which Shion had been convinced to try on high heels, and fell flat on her face within five steps.

Luckily, she wasn't here looking for high heels. No, Shion's target was rain boots. And, much to her relief, she was able to find a few pairs. They were really just the same pair in different colors, but Shion wasn't about to split hairs about something so trivial. In the end she picked a blue pair, pulling them from the shop menu to inspect them a bit closer. As Shion checked them out, and compared with a yellow pair that matched her raincoat, Gea prodded at Shion with her wing, pointing just behind the girl before hurriedly hopping back out of her cloud's radius. Jeanne and her own digimon. With...

"Were umbrellas all they had?" Shion asked, with only the slightest hint of defeat in her voice.

"Well," Jeanne started, lingering on the word to draw out the discomfort. "If by all they had you mean all I looked for 'cuz they make the most sense, yes." She finished her statement while opening one to display the full advertising glory. "But hey, now we get to remind people what game they're playing while they're playing it and we stay dry. True servants of the public the two of us."

"My god, they're hideous," Shion cringed, earning a stifled giggle from Jeanne. After some hesitation, Shion reluctantly took the second of the two umbrellas Jeanne had brought with her. The look of frustration she gave the disgustingly tacky object was clear. She didn't want to have to actually use this thing, but... tragically, it was probably more convenient if she did. "I was kind of hoping you could find some sort of raincoat for yourself - especially if these are the alternative - but... they'll have to do." Oh, right, the other thing. Although it was a low enough bar that you'd need a shovel to go beneath it, Jeanne was at least more fahsion-savvy than Shion was. And if she had to dress like this and carry this horrendous umbrella around, Shion at least wanted to salvage what little good looks she could manage in this scenario.

"So, uh..." Gesturing at the pairs of boots she had been checking out just a moment ago, Shion asked "You're the fashionable one here. What color are you thinking to go with all this?"

"Oh Shion, sweety, you gotta know by now that you can't teach fashion. Some people just have it and others don't." Jeanne teased as though she were speaking to a child. To accent the point she dramatically flicked her hair back then cleared her throat before dropping some of the condescension in her tone. Upon closer inspection the woman noticed her friend already debating between two colors. "Well you're on the right track. You have to ask yourself if you want your little bug here to pop or not." she said affectionately referring to the glitched pre-order bonus.

"Ugh..." Sure. Why not? Everyone's already staring at it anyway; might as well highlight it. Shion got where Jeanne was going. Blue for making it pop, yellow for not. So, with that logic, Shion put the yellow boots back where they belonged, picking up the blue ones and adding them plus the two umbrellas to her transaction. Which brought the total to... most of her bits. After hitting the purchase button, Shion was left with a measly three bits in her pocket. Shion then wasted no time equipping her new boots, getting that creepy clothes-are-instantly-changed feeling again. As convenient as it was, Shion did not want to get used to that.

"Look at that, she's learning." Jeanne sneered as she watched Shion empty her wallet.

"Where the hell did all this water come from?!" Shion turned her attention to a woman's voice. A woman who was approaching the pair. "Oh...I see..."

And just who the hell are you?

"You know...you have got to have the worst taste in fashion. You know how many other preorder bonuses you could have chose...other than that hideous thing?"

And do you know how extra they all were? I was trying not to draw attention to myself... clearly failed at that, though.

"I'm Mihara Marise. Lead Fashion Designer for all of the apparel and accessories available for DWO. Can't help you with that bug, by the by. I can't code or anything like that....I'm just the art girl. But I do have a simple solution to all of this."

"Please, tell me." The elusive Shion "please" had even come out for display.

"Why don't you just take the damn thing off?"

"..." That... did make enough sense. Frankly, Shion felt stupid for not considering that in the first place. Shion opened up the menu, went to her equipment page, and removed the raincoat from her inventory. A simple solution! Which did nothing at all to help! Even with its associated item removed, the cloud above Shion's head continued raining down water on her. In a rush, Shion opened the cloud settings again, and tried to disable it there. No dice. "...fan-fucking-tastic," Shion groaned, re-equipping the raincoat to avoid getting any wetter than she'd already gotten.

"A real shame that. We get some sensible advice but glitches do what they want." Jeanne spoke with little apparent care for the situation. For her part, Jeanne was doing her best to stay quiet and composed. Giving in to the I told you so sentiment too soon into things was a rookie mistake. That card was to be held in reserve so it could strike with maximum impact. "Guess I'll have to handle all the clothes shopping so you don't drench Marise-san's store every time."

"I guess so," Shion sighed. Not that Shion would likely be doing a lot of shopping in this sorry state anyway. "...sorry about the rain," Shion commented to Marise, almost as if it were an afterthought, before heading outside, the rest of the party and the glitched cloud in tow. Once outside, with another pang of hesitation, Shion opened her horrendous umbrella, holding it up over her head. Well... it was an improvement. And it afforded Shion the chance to let down the hood of her raincoat for the first time since pulling it up. All the better now, after getting her hair wet in the brief un-equip incident.

And immediately Shion could feel people staring at her again, like she was some circus freak. She could see the creepy posters now. "The Rain Girl! An absolutely nature-defying woman who causes it to always rain around her! Thursday at 10PM!"

"Jeanne..." Shion wasn't even sure what she wanted to say right now. She just wanted to not think about these stares she was getting. At least half of them were just in her mind, surely, but that didn't mean she wasn't feeling them. "Wouldn't it be cool if this thing had unlimited range?"

"Oh, you mean like a normal storm cloud?" Jeanne taunted with a look in her eyes that was clearly challenging her friend.

After a brief bit of eyebrow twitching, an idea popped into Shion's mind. With her free hand, taking care that Jeanne wouldn't see, Shion opened up the cloud settings again. "Yes, like a normal storm cloud. Crazy how they just do THIS!" Shion punctuated her statement by moving the sliders for the size of the cloud and how much it would rain up by quite a bit, capturing Jeanne in its gloomy, now-torrential presence. "But that's how it is with weather I suppose!"

"Look at that!" Jeanne started, clearly annoyed she was suddenly getting rained on. She opened her own umbrella to minimize the effects of Shion's display. "Your money actually did something!" She shouted over the raindrops and looked to be preparing to push Shion and her accompanying storm off of her.

"P-please don't fight! There are other digimon around for that!" Pagumon tried to interject.

"Not now, Fido!" Jeanne called back as a near demonic sense of enjoyment crept across her face. The cause was soon clear as she tackled Shion, determined to get them both drenched for the childish display.

As Shion fell to the ground, grinning right back at Jeanne, she discarded her umbrella and used the now-empty hand to grab at Jeanne's, wrestling it to the side as best she could. If this was a battle of keeping dry, Shion would win, no questions asked. But she was going to make it the biggest, meanest victory she could. "It'd do a hell of a lot more if you bought proper gear instead of these hideous umbrellas!"

Edited February 6 by yui

[Chaos Sonic 366]

"Anotha human! Where do all these suckers keep comin' from! I'll get rid a you myself! This is Kunemon territory!"

Elton made the effort to dodge with Berg, doing a dodge roll the moment he felt the sensation of the agro. Lovely... He put Berg down and accessed his menu in a quick manner. There was the option he sought: Scan. "Hmmm, best figure out what this thing is and figure out what we can do." he said, already lining his HUD with the Kunemon in front of him. After a few seconds, the information he sought was in view.

Kunemon. Level: Rookie. Type: Larva. A Larva Digimon which has lightning-patterns all over its body. Although it is uncertain whether the lightning-patterns on the portion considered its face can are organs equivalent to eyes, because they change shape in in accordance with its emotions, it is said that they probably are eyes. Its personality is fairly malicious. Its Special Move is an electrically-charged thread of silk spewed from its hard beak (Electric Thread). If you get entangled in this thread you can get knocked out by the intense electric shock.

"Rookie level...hmmm, if memory serves, you aren't that yet." Elton looked at Berg, who acknowledged this. "Well, looks like this will be what we do then. Honestly, only someone not thinking clearly would rush into a higher leveled Digimon when it's clear you'll need to grind to get to Rookie."

"Less talking! C'mon Elton!!" Berg chimed in protest, bouncing up and down.

Downside...I don't think I can access my DigiCards until he reaches Rookie level...so I guess we're just doing this the old fashioned way. Elton thought, before nodding. "Alright Berg, let's do it!"

Battle On!

Elton looked at his Hiyarimon and the stats it had. Unfortunately, it only had one move to utilize: Diamond Dust. He quickly selected it and took a look at the information it presented: spews cold breath. Well that was helpful... he thought, before looking down at the Kunemon who seemed poised, ready to strike again. "All we need to do is avoid getting struck by the Electric Thread attack and we should be good. Ready for it, Berg!"

"Born ready, Elton!"

"Alright, let em have it!" Elton declared, extending his arm in the direction of the Kunemon.

"Diamond Dust!!" Berg shouted, blasting a series of cold breath at the now rushing Kunemon. It was making a beeline straight for the Hiyarimon, and while it was slowed down, it still arrived and knocked Berg back quite a bit. "Ow ow ow...!"

Elton now saw that the Kunemon was moving towards him and about to strike at him. He dodged out of the way, but needless to say his leg got hit and he immediately felt the shocking sensation from the attack. "N-N-Not...cool..." Could really feel that...damn, you really can feel the pain in this...impressive. he thought, getting back and looking at Berg. "You good, buddy?"

"Y-Yeah...never better!" Berg said proudly before unleashing another Diamond Dust towards the Kunemon. Elton hoped they'd be able to last a while, but if his theory was correct, this was the first place to grind and get your partner up to Rookie. Once that happened, things could progress with no problems.

[Mr. Hyde 196]

As he entered Central Park for the second time, Aoki noticed that a lot of players had begun to struggle with fighting off the horde of Kunemon that littered the place.  Joined with Sammy now, he knew these guys wouldn't be a problem.  It'd be a 4v1, a little stacked against the small fry.  However, after his first encounter with that thing from before, now was as good a time as any to warm up and get a feel for how fighting was like in the digital world.  

"Yo Sammy, why don't we help thin out the pests before we shove off into the forest?"  He wiped the bottom side of his nose with a single thumb, and smiled at her.   "You haven't been in a fight yet, so show me what you got!"  Aoki flashed her a thumbs up.  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a boy get his leg zapped by some of Kunemon's thread.  He flinched a little in recoil, but the tamer seemed to be fine.  "Yo dude!  You got this!  Show the sunny centipede what Tamers can do!"  He cheered, hollering some more, before he heard a shout from Reef.

"Captain!  Look out!"  Aoki turned around to notice that a Kunemon was barreling towards him.  He had no time to avoid the spinning attack, so Aoki instead went on his own offense.  He brought back his leg, and thrusted it forward with force.  Catching the Kunemon on the tip of his foot, Aoki followed his kick through, flinging the Larva digimon high into the air, as if it were a soccer ball.  

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEE!"  The Kunemon yelled, as it flailed around helplessly in the air. 

"Reef, do your bubble blowin' thing!"  Aoki shouted, pointing to the airborne target.  

"Aye Aye, Captain!  Bubbles!!"  The Pukamon took a deep breath in, and let out an array of bubbles that collided with the Kunemon midair.  The Bubbles looked harmless, but they were rather quite explosive.  As the bug fell out of the sky, a smoky mess, it's body began to scatter into code.  Aoki kinda felt bad for the thing, as it's data started to disperse into the aether. 

"Curses...the Kunemon Clan will take back our turf!"  It managed to get out, before evaporating entirely.  

"Not if Aoki Hideyo has anything to say about it."  Aoki cheekily referred to himself.  In the meantime, a Kunemon was now also on the attack towards Sammy.  "Yo, Sammy!  You got this!  These guys are easy!"  He turned back towards the other boy, and his ice cube looking digimon.  "You too!  Get the lead out and beat that thing would ya!"  Aoki stood there to watch the two, but was quickly caught off guard by two electric nets that wrapped around his whole body.  "Ah damni-," was all he was able to muster before the small current of electricity began to run through his body.  

"You didn't think we wouldn't gang up on you Humans, now do you?  Kekekeke!"  In the corner of his eye, he saw two Kunemon approach him with malice.  

"Of c-c-c-course you evil digimon would p-p-p-play dirty!"  Aoki stammered, as the electricity continued to surge in his nerves.  He struggled to untangle himself from the net, but it was proving to be a tall task for him to do with all this pain.  Damn...was he gonna have to restart in Asuka City again?  Because of these twerps?  "Hell no!!"  With a battle cry, and swelling emotion, Aoki grabbed his Digivice.  It shined with a dazzling radiance, as he pushed it through a hole in the net.  "Reef!  This time, for sure!!!"

"RIGHT!"  Reef spouted, before glowing in his own light.  "Pukamon Digivolve to," It seemed as if Reef's body disassembled and reassembled into a new shape entirely, "Sangomon!"  Reef landed back on the ground, sticking it's long wiggly arms out towards the two Kunemon.  "Coral Pressure!"  The digimon cried, as the end of it's arms released two rapid torrents of water.  Each torrent collided with a Kunemon drenching them in water and shoving them far and away.  With the two worms dispatched, Reef made a move towards Aoki.  With a small jet, he was able to rip through the electric net.  

"Sheesh!  Thanks Reef.  I owe you one."

"Don't thank me Cap'!  You're the one who gave me the strength to Digivolve!"  

"So we're even then?  Right on!"  Aoki stuck his fist out, which was then bumped by Reef's arm.  

"Right on!"  The digimon said with a toothy smile.

 

Spoiler

OOC: Continue your fights with Kunemon.  Yui and Doggo, let me know if you want to continue doing anything around the city.  

 

[Chaos Sonic 366]

Elton and Berg were doing their best to grind up the levels they needed...though these Kunemon showed more and more that they weren't going to give up without a fight. And with the Diamond Dusts Berg was spewing out, it seemed like this would be more and more of a difficult situation.

"Yo dude! You got this! Show the sunny centipede what Tamers can do!"

Elton glanced up in the direction of where the voice came from, a young man with blue hair. Utilizing his hub, he saw the Username of said Tamer: OHKO-YO. Judging by the type of fighting style...generally the fact that he literally kicked the Kunemon like a soccer ball, he had a good reason to figure he was a Brawler Class. Guess more and more people wanted to fight physically with their Digimon rather than go the strategy route...oh well. he thought, watching Berg shoot out a few more Diamond Dust at the Kunemon, almost finally being rid of it...when OHKO-YO spoke again.

"You too! Get the lead out and beat that thing would ya!"

"We all aren't Brawler Class, my guy!" Elton shouted back, watching Berg finally take care of the Kunemon they were fighting against. "Alright...now we should mo-...BERG WATCH OUT!!" he shouted, watching another Kunemon rushing Berg. Elton quickly moved, grabbing his partner and diving out of the way, but once again he got shocked in the leg. "D-D-Damnit..."

"Are you okay, Elton?" Berg asked in a worried tone.

"D-Dandy..." he groaned, sitting up a bit. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw OHKO-YO's partner Digivolve into a Sangomon. Seeing this, Elton in response grabbed his own Digivice, starting to stand back up. "I think it's about time we evened the playing field, Berg."

"Is it time??"

Elton looked at his Digivice, seeing it beginning to slowly shine in a dazzling brilliance. "Looks like it...let's do it, Berg!" he said, holding his Digivice towards the Hiyarimon.

The Hiyarimon seemed to have a happy look on his face as he began to glow in tandem with Elton's Digivice, beginning to warp and disassemble his body into a new shape...a new form. "Hiyarimon Digivolve to...." The light dispersed and the new version of Berg stood where the old one stood, the now ice dinosaur making a pose to show off. "BULUCOMON!!!" he said, flashing a grin.

"Now we're talking!" Elton said, now pulling up Bulucomon's attacks: Baby Hail and Ice Mash. One was a ranged attack and the other was a close quarters one...this was ten times better than the Hiyarimon load out. "Alright...show em who's boss, Berg!"

"My genuine pleasure!" Berg smirked, rushing towards the Kunemon. "Ice Mash!!" The blue dinosaur began to lay an assault down the centipede monster, using the icy claws on both it's arms, delivering an uppercut to launch it in the air. "And then...Baby Hail!" he roared, launching countless icicles towards the airborne Kunemon, basically juggling it in the air. "Hey Elton! How about you do that card thing now?"

"Right, you hit Rookie...so meaning..." Elton held his Digivice and immediately entered his inventory, watching as the DigiCard he selected materialized in his hand. Having the card spin around in his hand for a moment, he grabbed it tight and slashed the card into the card reader portion of the Digivice. "DigiCard Activate! Surfimon!" he said proudly, watching Berg glow for a moment and then watched as the little blue dinosaur materialized a hover board before the two of them. "Alright! We got the Dash Slider!"

"Less talking, hop on!" Berg said, already hopping onto the hover board with Elton following right behind. The hover board began to rise up as the duo locked onto the now falling Kunemon. "LET'S GO! LIGHTNING CUTTER!!!" Berg shouted as the Dash Slider began to accelerate at lightspeed towards the unsuspecting Kunemon and immediately hit...to which the latter immediately evaporated into it's data.

"Yeah, that's it!" Elton cheered as he and Berg began to high-five each other whilst the Dash Slider began to slowly descend. "We got you to Rookie and we got access to the mode of transportation with my DigiCard too."

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Can't wait to take on more of these guys now!" Berg flashed a cold grin, but was happy nonetheless.

[Doggo 182]

Here they were in the thick of it. Ugly umbrellas disarmed and both on the ground under a downpour of bugged out wasted pre-order dollars. Only at this point as the initial assailant only Jeanne was really getting wet here. That couldn't last. And yet she didn't so vastly overpower her friend that she felt she could get shion to take the brunt of the rain. Somehow grabbing the girl's arms and getting them behind her back, flipping her around and shoving her on top all while not losing control of her seemed a little bit out of the unathletic Jeanne's reach. Holding her down for the moment though, that was easy enough even if it meant taking the brunt of the rain. Still she could get her friend's face wet well enough. Jeanne began tugging at the hood and then the sleeve but quickly found it wasn't so easy to remove an equipped item from off another player. One might call it impossible even if one wanted to commit to absolutes like that. In the current state of affairs Jeanne was confident given enough time she could indeed force the jacket off her friend but she wouldn't be given the chance.

This attempt at de-coating her friend gave Shion the opportunity to fight back and soon Jeanne found herself on the bottom of things. A plus in a way that now Shion was taking the rain but she still had the coat so that wasn't effective. And also Jeanne couldn't well stay on bottom, that would like admitting defeat. A series of rolls proceeded as each girl fought for dominance before Jeanne shifted tactics. She let go of Shion's arms and tried to wrap her own around her friend's neck to get her down into a headlock where she could make her submit. Or maybe at least in that position Jeanne could mess with her cloud UI. It was somewhere in the midst of this that Jeanne realized something.

"You know..." she started, the excitement in her voice and tension in her arms draining. "Kicking your ass is a pretty normal thing to be doing in the most expensive video game ever. Should probably get to doing something we can't do at home huh? Something... digimon-y." She said, the now very concerned Pagumon watching from the sidelines rapidly shaking his head in agreement of the proposal.

Shion likewise paused in her struggle to keep herself on the bottom half of this impromptu bout of wrestling. "Come to think of it..." Glancing over to her own Pomumon, Shion commented "I guess so."

The raincoated girl got back up to her feet, dragging the sliders for the size and intensity of her rain cloud back down to the minimum. If she was going to be perpetually bothered by this thing, it would have been best to have minimized the bother it would be to her. "Something like heading out of town and beating up some starting monsters, yeah?"

"Well sure, if you wanna be a normie about it." Jeanne started as she picked herself up and started wringing herself out. "Could probably skip a lot of the grind and just pvp some nerds don't ya think? I gotta tell someone if they die in the game they die in real life eventually."

"Ah yes, the pinnacle of MMO gameplay," Shion sarcastically quipped. "Low-level pvp. Nothing beats watching the gaming equivalent of two toddlers that can barely stand trying to hit one another."

"Well to be fair to the toddlers," Jeanne started as she placed a hand light on one of her friend's shoulders. "They'd put up more of a fight than you!" She sneered as she began laughing and ran a bit ahead. "But fine fine, let's go beat up the starter mobs cash in a few levels actually get to some content." she called back.

"Let's!" Hopefully, the first impression of the actual gameplay would be better to Shion than the first impression of the game itself. Word of mouth from other players quickly led the group toward the plaza where the first real action of the game was said to be taking place. Pagumon seemed to be relaxing some at the idea of the girls no longer fighting each other and so Jeanne had her little fuzzball lead the way.

[FourEyesIsAFish 9]

Sammy

Sammy followed Aoki over the bridge into the wide, verdant plains of Central Park. The tall girl looked around, seeing a horde of yellow, caterpillar-like digimon attacking a mass of other players. Sequoia looked to the hoard, a feral grin crossing his seed-face.

"Yo Sammy, why don't we help thin out the pests before we shove off into the forest?""

Sammy looked out to the horde. "Well, we don't have much of a choice, don't we?" 

Aoki got into a battle-ready stance, smiled at Sammy, and said,  "You haven't been in a fight yet, so show me what you got!". 

Sammy readied herself and winked at Aoki before Sequoia jumped out from behind her. "Come at me you spineless cowards!"

Soon, one of the lightning-scarred larvae rolled straight up to Sammy, and Aoki was giving her words of encouragement, saying "Yo, Sammy!  You got this!  These guys are easy!"  Sammy arced her leg back right as the caterpillar was about to slam into her before kicking it, causing it to fly quite high in the air before slamming back in the ground. Sammy began to scan the digimon... before Sequoia slammed into it, his thorns dealing the final blow. "Huh, so these guys are called Kunemon?" "Those hotheads think they run the place." Sequoia turned to face Sammy "You really put that one in its place. Keep it up, will ya kid?"

Suddenly, she heard Aoki yell "Ah damni-" 

Quickly turning around, she saw Aoki wrapped in electric webbing as two of the Kunemon, now right next to Aoki, chuckled manically. "You didn't think we wouldn't gang up on you Humans, now do you?  Kekekeke!" Then, Sammy was flung around, electricity coursing through her veins. Another larvae slowly began to crawl over before swiping at the ground and curling up. "Look's like your time is up, human. KEKEKEKEKEKE!" Stressed clouded Sammy's mind. ...I'm sorry Aoki, I'm not strong enough... she thought to herself, her mind slowly fading into the dark...

...but she refused to stop. Slowly standing up, digital leaves flitting around her, digital thread snapping, Sammy loomed over the caterpillar, her blank face staring straight at the creature's data. The Kunemon was startled by this development, falling back... right as Sammy wordlessly pulled out her digivice and pointed it at Sequoia, the screen drastically brightening along with the seed-like digimon. "Heh, finally. Budmon digivolve into..." Sequoia's seed-like body dissolved before colliding with the ground, glowing flowers and vines erupting before uprooting themselves to reveal a humanoid form beneath. The light burst, revealing... "PALMON, YOU SPINELESS ASS!" The Kunemon looked UP to the now towering Sequoia, who went to all fours and POUNCED onto the Kunemon, leaf-like data flying everywhere. This gory display led Sammy to snap out of her menacing pose. "Sequoia, stop! That was..." "Deserved it. You mess with my forest and you pay for it" As Sammy thought about the meaning of that comment Sequoia turned, seeing that Reef, Aoki's companion, had also digivolved himself. When Sequoia's attention was elsewhere, Sammy spotted the boy who Aoki had yelled at earlier... and a glimmer of recognition hit her eye. AllUrBase seemed like a familiar username...

After Elton had finished battling some Kunemon, he noticed a shadow growing over him.

Edited October 10, 2021 by FourEyesIsAFish

[Mr. Hyde 196]

Aoki watched on as Sammy was able to have her Digimon partner Digivolve, and quickly dispatch of the Kunemon.  Looking towards the other boy, his Digimon also had undergone Digivolution, into a far and away stronger form than it's prior one.  Aoki had to admit, that little lizard could sure shred a surfboard.  As Sammy approached Elton, Aoki did the same, waving his hand towards the boy.    Aoki looked at the guys username, AllUrBase.  He couldn't help but laugh upon seeing it.  

"Yo!  You and your little dude handled yourself pretty well out there!"  Aoki flashed the guy a thumbs up and nudged a thumb over in Sammy's direction.  "This is Sammy, and I'm Aoki!  We're both Brawler-Type Tamers!  I saw you using a card while fighting, so you gotta be some strategist right?  We could sure use a guy like you on our team!"  Sangomon hopped over to join them, his long arms trailing behind him with a comedic wiggling.  

"Don't forget about me, Captain!"  

"This is my partner, Reef!"

"Ahoy!  Nice to meet ya!"  Reef said, saluting the pair.  

"We're gonna be the strongest Tamers ever, and explore every inch of the Digital World!  I think having a guy like you on our team would be pretty cool, don't you think?"  

Just then, everyone in the area would be able to feel a low rumble coming from the ground.  Aoki's knees felt the shock, as his legs shook a bit.  Not from nervousness, but from the sheer force.  He thought it might have been an earthquake of sorts, but they happened in a sequential pattern.  In the distance, trees were beginning to be knocked down from the forest, clearing a path for something big.  Then, the small quakes stopped altogether.  That's when a loud buzzing hummed from beyond the tree line.  All of the tamers that were in Central Park looked to the rattling trees, stopped in their battles with the Kunemon, who all cackled together in a chorus of laughter.

"Now you've done it, humans!  The boss is comin'!"  

A huge presence shot out of the top of the trees, blotting out the sun as it flew across the sky of Central Park, followed by slightly smaller shadows.  Before long, it landed on the ground with a thud.  A gigantic, red beetle placed itself in the center of the park.  It's giant pincers clacked together, as it opened it's mouth wide to give off a huge shout.  Two other winged insect Digimon appeared at each side of the gargantuan Digimon, their faces resembling Kunemon to an uncanny degree, flying above the ground with a buzzing hover.  Aoki's stance wavered for a second, as he took a step back.  

"T-that's the guy...I ran into that Beetle in the forest the first time I die-,"  Had he really died in that moment?  If it weren't for the rules of the game, he wouldn't be here.  Maybe gamer lingo would be best to describe what had happened, so he wouldn't have to go through another existential crisis, "-before I blacked out."  Aoki brought up his Scanner again, this time analyzing his foe.  

'Kuwagamon.  Type: Insect.  Level: Champion.  An Insect Digimon armed with gigantic pincers on its head. It has combat abilities that far exceed those of similar species that inhabit Wire Forest. It is protected by its tenacious power and sturdy shell, and in particular, as the power of its pincers is super-powerful, once it clamps an enemy it will squeeze until the opponent's life is extinguished.  Its Special Move is able to easily cut hard substances to pieces.'

Next to be analyzed were it's two goons.

'Flymon.  Type: Insect.  Level: Champion.  An Insect Digimon that possesses gigantic, baleful wings. With its gigantic wings it is able to fly about at extremely high speed, and it generates a great Howling Noise called buzzing while in flight, completely numbing the sense of hearing of those who hear it. Its body is protected by a hard shell, and it pinches the opponent between its large talons and brings death with the super-powerful stinger on its tail. Although the evolutionary processes of Insect Digimon are still unclear, it is thought that it evolved from a Kunemon-species, guessing by the appearance of its face. Its Special Move is firing the stinger on its tail.  It is said that Digimon who are stung with this stinger have their whole body paralyzed, then their body turns violet and they die. Incidentally, this isn't a problem for it because it is said the stinger grows back indefinitely'

Aoki took another step back.  Three Champion-Level Digimon had appeared, and he wasn't even to fight off one by himself.  He almost took another step backwards, when his calf ran into Reef's coral-spouting shell.  

"Aoki!  We can do it!  We're stronger now!  And we've got friends!"  The Sangomon turned around to motion towards the other Tamers who were in Central Park.  It was like a small army of sorts.  Some had already decided to run away, and book it straight back into Asuka City.  Aoki might've done the same, but Reef's resolve was palpable.  Aoki took a step forward toward the towering bug, and curled his fists.

"You're right.  This time we can take down this no-eyed freakazoid!"  

The Kuwagamon let out another intense bellow. 

"HISHAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  You humans really are pests!  We'll make sure none of you get past this damn park!  We're taking back the forest!  HISHAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"  

Suddenly, a Notification text box would appear in everyone's vision in the immediate vicinity of Central Park.  It read, 'Emergency Mission: Defeat Kuwagamon and his Army'.  Two options were beneath the Mission.  Accept, or Deny (Teleport to Inn).  Aoki, without a second thought, pressed the 'Accept' button.  A cute voice then talked to him directly. 

"Mission!  Start!" 

"You heard it Reef!  Let's get to work!"  Aoki said, making a head start towards Kuwagamon.

"Aye Sir!!"  Reef joined in Aoki's pursuit, albeit a bit slower.

"HISHAAAAAH!"  The Kuwagamon roared, causing the rest of the Kunemon in the Park to go into a full on assault against all the Tamers in the Park.   Some Tamers nervously commanded their digimon, as most of them hadn't had their partners Digivolve yet, but they were sure to do it given how boldly they stayed against such a threat.  Aoki flung a hand  back to Reef, who took it without hesitation.  

"Combo Move!  Aoki Cannon!"  Aoki shouted, as he swung Reef in a circle, ultimately launching his partner towards Kuwagamon himself.  

"Combo Move!  Coral Cannonball!"  Reef said, in sequence as he rocketed towards Kuwagamon in a full frontal assault.  Kuwagamon didn't have much time to react, as Reef collided with the Insect Boss' noggin, causing him to stumble back a bit.  Reef ricocheted back towards Aoki, who caught the little Digimon in his arms.  "Owwww!"  Reef whined, rubbing where his coral made contact with carapace.  

"This is just the start!"  Aoki said, flashing his partner a smile.

"YOU TWERPS!  GET THEM!"  Kuwagamon pointed to the group of three in particular.  The Flymon at Kuwagamon side then made an attack on the trio.  

 

Spoiler

OOC: Jeanne and Shion will be under attack by Kunemon by the bridge, so feel free to combat them for a round or two to digivolve.  As for the rest of the gang, we're under attack by Flymon, so let's do our best!

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Mr. Hyde

[Chaos Sonic 366]

Once Elton and Berg finally descended with the Dash Slider, it then vanishing under their feet once they were at a distance to where they could just step off safely, the young man immediately noticed the towering individual near them...quite terrifying to say the least. But the towering woman and her plant Digimon along with OHKO-YO and his coral Digimon seemed to both be in the vicinity...that is...right near him. OHKO-YO seemed to notice his username and actually start laughing at it...ah, that's the reactions he hoped to see with this username.

"Yo! You and your little dude handled yourself pretty well out there! This is Sammy, and I'm Aoki!  We're both Brawler-Type Tamers!  I saw you using a card while fighting, so you gotta be some strategist right?  We could sure use a guy like you on our team!"
"Don't forget about me, Captain!"
"This is my partner, Reef!"
"Ahoy! Nice to meet ya!"
"We're gonna be the strongest Tamers ever, and explore every inch of the Digital World!  I think having a guy like you on our team would be pretty cool, don't you think?"

"Sammy and Aoki...well nice to meet you." Elton nodded, chuckling as he looked at the two. "AllUrBase, or Elton if you wish. And this is Berg."

"A pleasure!" Berg gave a thumbs up with his now signature cold smile.

Aside from Elton doing this, Sammy seemed to be in a bit of a...different mindset about this meeting. The username was a bit familiar...almost to the point it made her smile. He does seem kind of familiar… as does his voice…

"Now you asked if I wanted to join you." he paused, putting a hand to his chin, humming slightly to himself. "Hmmm seeing as you'll need some assistance given both of you being Brawler class...hmmm yeah, you'll need at least a strategist to assist you."

"Just gonna agree like that, Elton?"

Elton smiled, patting Berg's head some to the latter's protests. "At least joining a party at the beginning isn't a bad idea, Berg. Besides, like I said, these are two Brawler class, meaning they need at least some type of strategist on their side to make sure they don't get 'de-rezzed' or whatever...ya know, go back to square one. So if anything..." he nodded towards Aoki. "I don't see why not. Just one condition: any card that's presented, I automatically get...unless we get another Card Master class in the party, then we'll negotiate."

It was at this moment a thought rose in Sammy’s mind and she barely held in her laughter. As she dipped down to regain her composure, Elton saw Sammy’s username: san_francisco_giant.

"Hm?" Elton now noticed the username, squinting slightly. "San...Francisco...Giant. Hmmmm that sounds familiar...MOBA player?"

With that, Sammy just burst out laughing. “So it is you!”

It was about this time, however, that the grounds began to rumble and the other Tamers were beginning to freak out...while the Kunemon seemed to be rejoicing. This proved true, especially when a giant red beetle creature. Oh this was simply the toppest of funs here...

"That's some major stroke of luck and star alignment to see a friendly username around here!" Elton laughed lightly, returning his attention towards Sammy for a moment. "...if only on better circumstances..." he pointed towards the menacing looking Digimon.

Sammy looked over at Elton, and back at the beetle. “I remember the last time we had to deal with giant insects…”

"Ugh...don't remind me. Poison beetles in a pit...that was bad time for all."

“Hopefully this isn’t as bad as the o-“ She sees the two flying bugs emerge from behind the beetle. “…since when was this the first boss?”

"Perhaps they changed things up from the Beta??" Elton suggested, though he too was curious on why this was the case. It was unexpected to say the least.

Sequoia looks up at the bugs and grins a sharp, toothy grin. “…they’re gonna regret ever talking trash about my woods…”

Berg glanced over at Sequoia and smirked slightly. "Oh your gonna be a treat to work with, I can just tell!" he chuckled.

'Emergency Mission: Defeat Kuwagamon and his Army'
Accept or Deny (Teleport to Inn)?

Elton looked at Aoki and Reef who already accepted the mission, before glancing at Berg who looked at him. The two nodded before he too pressed Accept, the words "Mission! Start!" appearing after. "You and your Digimon may want to hurry up and accept it, Sammy!" he flashed a smirk, already seeing Aoki and Reef go into action. Elton took his Digivice in hand and immediately called his DigiCard to his opposite hand (thank god for the Quick Inventory function) and slashed the card into the card reader. "DigiCard Activate! Surfimon!"

Once more the Dash Slider hoverboard manifested itself from Berg as the Tamer hopped on it. "I'm going to try and get an aerial view on how we can deal with these. Berg, do your thing!"

"With pleasure!!" Berg nodded, watching Elton ascend with the Dash Slider. He rushed forward and roared, aiming at one of the Flymon. "Baby Hail!!!"

[Mr. Hyde 196]

 

Elton and Berg joined the mission alongside Aoki, prompting him to flash the two a thumbs-up!  

"That's what I like to see!  Let's send these punks back to the beehive they came from!"  Aoki, with Reef tucked close to his chest, made a beeline for the Flymon that Berg had started an assault on.  The Baby Hail had distracted the Flymon for a brief moment, as it tried to deflect the ice attack with it's arms.  This made a great opening for Aoki and Reef to rush in with a solid tackle.  Aoki extended his arms, having Reef's incredibly hard coral helmet shoot into the Flymon's abdomen.  "Combo Move!  Coral Crash!"  With their combined efforts, the Flymon had taken visible damage, and was pushed back.  The intense flapping of it's wings weakened for a mere moment, before intensifying in speed.  The Flymon let out a high pitched cry, before diving it's stinger towards Aoki.  

"Ah Geez!  I hope I'm not allergic or nothin'!"  He said, looking around for help.  Noticing Berg and Elton were barreling in his direction, he flagged the Blue Digimon and his partner down.  "Hey, got room for one more?!"  

Reef dashed in between Flymon and Aoki, before releasing a purple mist from it's shell.  

"Refuge Mist!"  The Flymon flew into the poisonous mist, it's vision obscured for a moment as it flew through the cloud.  Reef narrowly was able to escape, but the intense flapping of Flymon sent him back to the ground.

Meanwhile, the other Flymon at Kuwagamon's side had began to attack Sammy and Sequoia.  It fired a huge stinger.  The girl and her digimon, in some sort of stupor, watched as the stinger planted itself into the ground, and exploded.  It caused the two to fly back, causing a large amount of damage to both of them.  The Flymon's stinger quickly reloaded, as it launched another that looked to skewer Sequoia.  

"SHASHASHA!  You're no match for us Champion Digimon of Wire Forest!  We'll cut you tamers down to size!"  Kuwagamon cackled from the back, as he watched his soldiers seemingly winning their various battles across Central Park.  

"Speed Nightmare!"  A feminine voice cried out.  In a flash, a Digimon's spear had collided with Kuwagamon's shell.  Although it deflected the spear attack rather easily, Kuwagamon was still pushed back somewhat.  "Hmph.  So you Champion Digimon aren't all talk are you?"  

"WHY YOU LITT-"  

"Petit Impulse!"  Another yellow Digimon had joined the fray, interrupting the Kuwagamon's anger, and shocking the Insect with a blast of electricity from it's body.  Kuwagamon merely lifted an arm to deflect the blow, but it seemed to have somewhat of an effect.  "They sure don't go down as easy as those Kunemon do they, Seichi?"  Behind the Yellow digimon was an extremely fit man, tightening his fighting glove.  

"This should be over soon.  Follow my lead, Amp."  He said, as he slowly approached Kuwagamon with quite the swagger about him.  Kuwagamon began to tremble out of anger.  

"A DAMN HUMAN HAS THE GUTS TO CHALLENGE ME!  SO BE IT!  I'LL MAKE SHORT WORK OF YOU, JUST LIKE I'VE DONE TO OTHERS!"  Kuwagamon began a fast charge, lunging his large, scissor-like fangs at the boy named Seichi.  However, the boy merely weaved to the side, and landed a solid haymaker right into the Kuwagamon's abdomen.  

"Blast away."  Seichi coldly said, as the Kuwagamon made a gasp for air.  It flew off of Seichi's fist, only to stumble back a bit.  "Hm?  So it's not over yet?  That's a first."  

"GAH!"  Was all that managed to come from Kuwagamon, before he made a second lunge at Seichi.  

 

Spoiler

OOC:  Sammy and Sequoia have sustained major damage.  IC penalties have not been distributed to Doggo and Yui as they have not entered combat yet.  Two strong new players have joined combat against the savage Kuwagamon.  Keep up combat with the Flymon so you can join the fight against the boss as well!

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Mr. Hyde

[Chaos Sonic 366]

"Hey, got room for one more?!"

Elton nodded, moving forward with the hoverboard and immediately grabbed Aoki's hand, pulling him aboard the Dash Slider, both of them elevating a bit higher now to get the better view of the situation. He didn't have time to immediately help Sammy and Sequoia, but he knew those two would be perfectly fine...least he hoped. "Okay...a higher view will yield a better result of action...bear with me." he said to Aoki, watching Berg and Reef working quite well together...the former continually letting loose Baby Hail at the Flymon. "Hmmm..."

About this time, something else caught his eye...two new allies. According to his scanner, it was a Tinkermon and a Pulsemon...and of course, Pulsemon's Brawler Tamer. ...so many damn Brawlers... he thought, before glancing at the Tinkermon. "Hmmm, I don't see a Tamer with that Tinkermon...if I had to guess, that may be a Digi-Druid...maybe aligned under the Wind? Too early to tell..."

Given the situation, Elton pondered this for a while longer. Finally, he glanced over at Aoki. "I may have something. If I'm correct, aside from the other punchy boy down there just demonstrated..." he motioned towards Seich. "...the Kuwagamon won't be able to be dealt as much damage as we want. However, I believe we can fix that. The Flymon came up soon after the Kuwagamon appeared. It's a long shot, but if we focus on the Flymon first, we can defeat them and then once they're out of the way, we should be able to damage the beetle more. Simple RPG boss tactics...remove the aggro ads here...then more damage is done to the boss." With that, Elton looked at his Digivice, already contacting Berg. "Berg, you copy?"

"Loud and clear, boss. BABY HAIL!!!"

"Good, focus on the Flymon. Once they're taking care of, we'll deal with red and scary over there."

"Heh, sounds like a plan!"

Elton glanced at Aoki and nodded. "I can only attack, generally speaking, via the Dash Slider. However...since you hopped on here...we can deal with a double attack. You game?"

[yui 483]

With the fight outside the clothing store put to a rest, it was time to actually play the game. No more delaying the early-game, or shopping for rain boots, or trying to make Jeanne pay for being such a smartass. Just the actual gameplay itself was left now. And so, the pair and their respective partners went to the nearest place with starter-level trash mobs. The local park. That "unlimited range" comment from earlier came back to mind. Somehow, some small part of Shion liked to imagine Jeanne - if only briefly - also thought that an unlimited-range cloud would also be great right now, if not at least one with a significantly larger radius than Shion's could actually accomplish. This place was - unsurprisingly - chock-full of new players. Oh, the amount of parades she could rain on here.

At the same time, making a scene day one when the entire brand-spanking-new playerbase was in this one area didn't sound very smart. That's how you get negative dev attention. Setting aside her mildly malicious ideas, Shion turned her attention to the other thing that stood out here. That big-ass beetle. Scanning it showed it was called Kuwagamon, and further personal investigation showed it was the target of what was effectively a world quest. Normally, world quests were a giant load of Not Shion's Problem™, but she wanted to get those levels in, and fast.

Emergency Mission: Defeat Kuwagamon and his Army
ACCEPT

"Alright, Gea," Shion started, fiddling with her cloud settings. Nothing serious; just making the cloud itself bigger to incentivize people to keep an arm's length away from her. "Ten words or less, what can you do in a fight?"

"Pororo Breeze whips up sand and then I run away."

The palm of Shion's hand firmly connected to her face upon hearing that description. The game, some merch, this bugged poncho that wouldn't stop raining on her, and a digimon that doesn't even have any actual attacking moves. Shion was beginning to question if that money was better off spent on idol merch or something. "Then we'll have to get creative and not do that," she said. reaching down and picking up her faithful Poromon as she entered the area of the quest.

"Shion?"

"Let's call this Pororo Fastball or something!" With no further warning, Shion reared back, and with the form and strength of a baseball pitcher, flung her digimon partner directly at Kuwagamon, sending the small round bird on a rapid collision course with the enemy. Shion, for her part, looked at the speed at which Poromon had been shot forward, and gave herself a small smile of contentment.

"Still got it."

Edited February 6 by yui

[FourEyesIsAFish 9]

Sammy

Sammy and Sequoia recoiled back as the Flymon's stinger blasted the ground away. The giant insectoid digimon raised its abdomen again and launched another missile-stinger at Sequoia. In a flash of light, the stinger exploded and Sequoia was gone. The oversized fly laughed as Sammy screamed for her plant companion. "HA HA! So much for that pla-" Mid-boast, vines wrapped around the Flymon as Sequoia emerged from the earth. "Think I can't dodge, punk!" He summoned all of his strength and slammed the insect into the earth. "You mess with me, you get poison ivy. YOU GOT IT NOW?" The Flymon, now paralyzed on the ground barely stuttered out a "ye.. yes..." before Sammy began to wail on it. "Take THIS!" Sammy began to just kick at the Flymon, denting its arthropoid shell bit by bit. Leaves began to fly around Sammy's fists as she continued to hammer at the bug while Sequoia continued his onslaught. 

[Doggo 182]

With nothing left to do but actually play the game they had spent so much money and time on, Jeanne was content to hold off on giving her friend too much more trouble along the way to the first battles they would encounter. With the sheer number of players present fighting the various digimon that had spawned the woman wasn't sure she'd able to hear herself think let alone continue jabbing at Shion effectively. And while many were giving their all to this base encounter, that simply wasn't cool enough and so Jeanne sat back for a moment despite Pagumon's eagerness to participate.

"Shouldn't we help everyone?" Pagumon offered, practically vibrating in place on the ground by Jeanne's side.

"Don't worry Fido, we're just gonna watch the master at work first, see how it's done." Jeanne sneered back.

"My name is Pagumon!" the orb-cat protested a moment before regaining its composure. "Ahem... is your friend Shion that good?" it asked curiously as it looked at the pair of Shion and Gea getting into action.

"Well she paid more money than me and got a broken perk so yeah she's gotta be better than me." Jeanne chuckled. The chuckle transitioned into something more of a cackle as she watched Shion launch her digimon at the large bug like she was playing dodgeball in school. It took Jeanne a moment to settle enough to turn to face her partner. Eyes locked, Jeannes in deadpan betrayed by a wicked smile creeping onto her face, and Pagumon's in terror.

"Y-you're not going to- you can't- i-i-i'm not good at flying!" Pagumon screamed in fear of a similar fate.

"Relaaaax Fido. I ain't even asked you what you can do yet." Jeanne teased. Pagumon propped itself up, a false bravado taking over ever so slightly.

"R-right! I have a really helpful attack! I've got Poison Bubbles!" the digimon proclaimed. A whistle feigning being impressed escaped the digimon's partner.

"You sly dog. Here I thought you were way too uptight but you're packing poison? Now this, this we can work with. Fire away."  Jeanne gave the gleeful command. Pagumon wanted to protest and defend its honor despite the attack but feared further argument would have it similarly flying through the air. Instead it hopped into battle and unleashed a stream of poisonous bubbles at the Kuwagamon.

[Mr. Hyde 196]

Both Aoki and Elton were now soaring through the air, the breeze reminding him of a brisk walk along the beach.  His stomach got a little queasy, but he felt like he was getting his sea legs back.  

"I may have something. If I'm correct, aside from the other punchy boy down there just demonstrated..." he motioned towards Seich. "...the Kuwagamon won't be able to be dealt as much damage as we want. However, I believe we can fix that. The Flymon came up soon after the Kuwagamon appeared. It's a long shot, but if we focus on the Flymon first, we can defeat them and then once they're out of the way, we should be able to damage the beetle more. Simple RPG boss tactics...remove the aggro ads here...then more damage is done to the boss."

"That makes sense to me!"  Aoki said, nodding behind Elton's shoulder.  

"Loud and clear, boss. BABY HAIL!!!"

"Good, focus on the Flymon. Once they're taking care of, we'll deal with red and scary over there."  Elton glanced back at Aoki and nodded. "I can only attack, generally speaking, via the Dash Slider. However...since you hopped on here...we can deal with a double attack. You game?"

"For sure!"  Aoki replied, flexing his bicep.  "I'll come in with a nasty clothesli-"  Aoki's attention was drawn away from Elton, towards a small pink meteor that flew across the sky.  A tiny thing, not much bigger than a pomegranate in shape.  Momentarily, every tamer in the park's attention was drawn to it, as it careened towards Kuwagamon.

A collective 'What the...' of confusion filled the air, even coming from Kuwagamon himself.  The beetle did little too avoid it, if at all, as Gea landed with a thump against his shiny shell.  For a brief moment, Kuwagamon stood there bewildered.  

"WHO HAS THROWN THIS CHILD AT ME!?"  He roared, shaking the ground for those near enough the booming voice.  Looking across the park, and at the bridge, he saw a Tamer following through with her pitching motion.  "YOU HUMANS DISGUST ME!"  Kuwagamon let out another roar, as Gea began to slide off his head and towards his mighty pincers.  Gea soon fell off, and fell towards the scissoring appendages, but was quickly intercepted by Tinkermon, who flew in between the small gap of the intersecting mandibles.

"I got ya!"  Tinkermon smiled, winking at Gea, before swiftly dodging a swipe from one of Kuwagamon's claws.

"GET BACK HER-"  Kuwagamon began to buzz it's wings, as it prepare to launch into the air, but was stopped suddenly when unnoticed bubbles had landed in it's open maw.  "BLEH!  WHAT THE-"  Kuwagamon tried to spit out the nasty, poison like substance that he nearly ingested from those bubbles.

"Combo Move..."  

"HUH!?"  Kuwagamon looked down to see Amp and Seichi low to the ground, their fists almost touching the park grass beneath them.  

"Soaring Static Uppercut!"  Amp cried, before the two of them launched into the air with a flash of electricity shining between their parallel fists.  They both collided with Kuwagamon's lower jaw, forcing his huge head upwards, and causing him to stumble back. 

Where Shion and Jeanne were standing, a group of Kunemon began to converge on them.  

"Tinker Twister!"  Tinkermon had quickly arrived near the two girls, and began to spin rapidly, forcing the Kunemon away momentarily.  Tinkermon then sharply twisted towards Shion, a look of pure contempt on her face.  She held the Poromon with one single hand, pointing at Shion with a huge, needle-like fingernail.  "Is this your Digimon that you just threw to get totally owned!?  In this form, you know it's only a baby, right!?"  Tinkermon smacked her face.  "I mean, they haven't even Digivolved, and you're pitting them up against that thing!  DO YOU SEE THAT THING!?  WHAT WAS THIS POOR POROMON GONNA DO!?  HUH!?"  Tinkermon then finally descended onto the ground, sighing briefly, before handing Poromon back to Shion.  "You shouldn't treat your partner like that...they deserve love and care...even if they are just a bunch of code."  A thread of silk then attached to one of Tinkermon's wings.  When she turned around to see, even more threads had made their way to her, binding her with the force of ten Kunemon.  They all cackled, as electricity was sent coursing through the string, flashing as it reached Tinkermon who grunted in pain.  

Meanwhile, the Flymon on the ground receiving a beating from Sammy began to laugh.  

"Your punches hit like a Tokomon!"  It's wings began to vibrate, shaking the vines of Sequoia loose.  "WINGBEAT BUZZ!"  A loud noise began to vibrate the air around Flymon, likely causing Sammy to experience strange feelings in her chest cavity, as well as making her ears hurt.  The beating of Flymon's wings stopped momentarily, only for him to give the order of the lackeys nearby.  "SICK EM BOYS!"  Flymon screeched, as a large swarm of Kunemon began to sack them.  

"SUMMON!"  Was heard close by, as large balls of Fire and Ice began to tear through the wave of Kunemon.  Next to Sammy stepped a boy with long dark hair.  Arriving next to his side was a small little devil Digimon.

"Need a hand?"  The guy asked.  

Aoki and Elton, in the meantime, were still looking for an opening on this Flymon.  As it was getting pelted with Baby Hail, it began to counterattack with it's own stinger attack.  It launched two in a row, straight towards Berg.  A blast of Coral Pressure from Reef was enough to blow them off course, but then gained the attention of Flymon.  The fly Digimon then began another pursuit of Reef, who let out another burst of Refuge Mist.

"I think now's our shot Elt!  Fly us in at full speed, and I'll clean this guy's Digi-Clock!"  

[yui 483]

"WHO HAS THROWN THIS CHILD AT ME!?"

"Me." Shion answered, stepping forward but making sure to keep her distance.

"YOU HUMANS DISGUST ME!"

"Is this your Digimon that you just threw to get totally owned!? In this form, you know it's only a baby, right!? I mean, they haven't even Digivolved, and you're pitting them up against that thing! DO YOU SEE THAT THING!? WHAT WAS THIS POOR POROMON GONNA DO!? HUH!?"

"Hah!?" Taking her partner back from Tinkermon, Shion retorted, also pointing at Kuwagamon, "That thing is an enemy in a starting area! Start-of-game mobs like that are meant to be killed while you're a baby, so you can get exp and level up, world quest boss or no! That's basic game design 101! Sure we're a bit underleveled, but that's why we've got all these other players around! It's not like I'm trying to have Gea solo the damn thing!" Now directing her finger at Tinkermon, Shion continued "Furthermore, even if Gea fought and lost, we're literally still in Asuka City! I could run to the nearest point to respawn or heal or whatever, top him off, run back here, and that big-ass beetle would still be there!"

Before Shion could continue drilling into Tinkermon's case, however, the digimon was felled by a group of ugly little worms. A group it had warded off just a bit ago, but now they were reconvening. Well, it certainly wouldn't do to throw Gea at the boss again in this scenario. That would leave Jeanne to do all the defending for the both of them, and Shion didn't doubt for a second she'd hold it over her head for as long as the two played this game. Picking up Gea again, Shion looked around at the Kunemon surrounding the pair.

"You said your Pororo Breeze made you retreat, right?"

"Yes."

"Fantastic! Get ready to start using it a lot, then!" Once again, Shion reared back, and threw her partner, this time at the nearest Kunemon. Beak-first, the little bird-like digimon slammed into the enemy, and once he did...

"Pororo Breeze!" With a powerful flap of his little wings, Gea kicked up dirt and sand around him into Kunemon's face, while also propelling himself back into Shion's arms. Only for the process to immediately be repeated.

"How's that for teamwork?"

Edited February 6 by yui

[Doggo 182]

Jeanne felt some sense of pride that Pagumon's attack had actually landed to some effect compared to Shion's game of dodgeball with her own partner. As far as she was concerned she'd tagged the boss and if the other's killed it she'd get a bunch of experience anyway. A win however you sliced it if she didn't have to do any more work than that. Granted that was until a host of small bug digimon were making their way towards the pair. A fairy digimon had run into assist and began lecturing them, Shion most especially, about how they were treating their partners. Being lectured about code on how to treat code was an irony Jeanne appreciated almost as much as her friend trying to explain how little brain power early mmo gameplay required prior to Tinkermon being downed by the bugs. With Shion throwing her partner again that left Pagumon to defend their position from the encroaching bugs not getting pelted.

"Aight, Fido, gonna need a lot more poison where that came from." Jeanne said dryly pointing to the enemies at hand. Pagumon took stock of the number and thought of how best to spread the attack out before responding.

"I keep telling you my name's Pag-" it tried to say.

"Yeah yeah I know your name but if that fairy wasn't full of shit you're gonna be changing soon anyway so hold that bit 'til we get there." Jeanne interrupted as she picked up her partner to get him a better angle before teasing it by pushing its cheeks together as if she could force the bubbles at. Pagumon wriggled at the gesture and asserted itself and began laying down a spray of poison bubbles to halt the advancing kunemon.

[Chaos Sonic 366]

"I think now's our shot Elt! Fly us in at full speed, and I'll clean this guy's Digi-Clock!"

"Elt? Eh I guess it's better than some nicknames…" Elton shrugged before nodding, even noticing the other Tamers that were joining the fray. "Looks like more and more are finally joining in...good. Power and strength in numbers will definitely help in this little boss battle."

He stepped a bit on the Dash Slider and soon he and Aoki were accelerating further towards the Flymon whilst Berg was continually pelting it with Baby Hail. Looking back at Aoki, Elton nodded. "You only get one shot at making it count, Aoki. With the combination of you striking it and the acceleration we have here...you should be good...so HIT IT!!"

Aoki tightened his fist, slamming it into his palm, as he looked to pitch it like a professional baseball player.  "Closer..." he said, as they dashed across the field.  Once Flymon was in reach, Aoki exploded.  "Now!" letting his arm fly out with force, Aoki put as much strength as he could muster into his arm.  The clothesline caught the Flymon off guard, distracted by the poison cloud, as his neck caught the full force of Aokis and Eltons combined move.  

"GAK!" it explained, as it tried to force the two away, but was no match.  It spun vertically in the air as the boys passed by, and eventually crashed to the ground.

"Hell of a punch!" Elton gave Aoki a thumbs up before turning his attention towards his Digivice. "Berg, the wasp is down...so let him have it!"

From the Digivice, both Elton and Aoki could hear a delighted and jovial laughter coming from the icy dino. "10-4 on that, Elton! Ice Mash!!!!" From the position they were in, Berg was seen striking in close quarters with his ice against the downed Flymon. "There were go. Make sure to give Reef your orders to assist...with these combined efforts, we'll be able to strike at the Kuwagamon full force and for full damage without a problem." Elton nodded firmly.

[Mr. Hyde 196]

Shion's tactic was surprisingly effective, as Gea continued to pummel the insect digimon with his hard beak.  During his retreats, it would also knock the small worm digimon onto their backs.  They hissed at the Poromon, before 3 began rolling themselves into spinning wheels of terror.  However, the wind knocked around by Gea caught the bubbles being blown out of Fido's mouth, making them swirl around in the air around the tamers and Tinkermon.  They burst upon contact with the horde of Kunemon, even intercepting the rollers, exploding with force and releasing their foul toxins into the air.  

The Kunemon holding Tinkermon began to cough, giving Tinkermon enough time to slice through the silk net with her sharp claws. 

"Tinker Twister!"  She shouted, as she spun rapidly in the air, blowing the remaining silk off of her and the Kunemon away.  "Thanks for the save, I suppose...guess we're square now."  Tinkermon held her staff in front of her, facing the large wave of Kunemon.  "I'll back you all up!  We gotta get to the real fight, before Seichi gets hurt!"  She spun her staff in the air, before swiping at a Kunemon who lunged at the group.  "You four might not have grace, but you have some fun style!"

Aoki watched on as Berg began a solid ice assault on the downed Flymon.  

"Hell yeah!  Your partner's got some Guts Elt!  Wam!  Bam!  Give 'em the ol' one, two!"  He began to shadow box, almost throwing the board off balance.  Aoki looked behind him to see Reef still running away.  "Hey dude, the fight's thatta way!"  Aoki said, pointing his thumb towards the in-the-process-of-being-iced Flymon.  Reef stopped in his tracks to notice he wasn't being chased by that accursed humming anymore, and turned heel to join Berg as fast as his little wobbly feet would let him.  "Yo, Elt, what are the chances we can incase this sucker in ice?  I bet with Reef's water stream, and Berg's baby hail, we could put this Flymon on the rocks!"  Without hesitation, Aoki turned back to Reef.  "Reef!  Use that water of yours to hose down this housefly!"  

"Aye aye, Captain Aoki!"  The Sangomon stuck out his tentacles, unleashing a torrent of high pressured water from the tips.  "Coral Pressure!"  The jets were easily able to hit the downed Flymon, as Reef made sure to avoid Berg as best as he could.  

"M-16 Assassin!"  A voice could be heard, as a Digimon from outside of the group began it's own assault on the downed Flymon as well.  

Meanwhile, on another side of the battle, Sammy seemed to be dumbfounded at this new guy's arrival.  He shook his head, as his digimon summoned a ball of fire and ice in each hand.

"Not much of a talker?  Me either."  The guy turned around to face the encroaching gang of Kunemon and their section leader, Flymon.  "This might get ugly..." 

"Aw c'mon!  This is where the fun starts!  Summon!"  The small devil threw both orbs into the crowd, as the twirled on their path, and eventually converged into a huge explosion.  Most of the Kunemon were wiped out with the attack, but Flymon buzzed through the debris, on a crash course towards Sammy.   

 

OOC:

Spoiler

Pitch Perfect on Shion and Jeanne's side.  You'll both be able to Digivolve now!  

Elton and Aoki are both hanging in there.  Commandramon is just a random player's digimon who decided to lend a hand.

Sammy will be knocked out if this next attack hits, and will be sent back to the inn.  Also, FourEyesIsaFish will receive one strike for inactivity.  

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Mr. Hyde