Light grey clouds hung over the forest, hiding the sun and all trace of color from the sky above. A gentle breeze rustled the bare branches of the forest's trees, setting them in motion against their colorless backdrop, and brushed over the brown grass covering the forest floor. Not a single bird chirped, nor did any woodland creature race along the ground. All in all, it could've been any forest in the middle of winter, were it not for the warmth of the air. Nothing moved but the branches and the grass.

Over a clearing in the forest, white light condensed into an orb that flew above the treetops and dispersed into the sky above, leaving behind the four human forms on the ground. No sound acknowledged the disappearance of the light - the humans all laid face-down on the ground, splayed out. Near each of their hands laid a small ball of light that seemed to burst, leaving behind a small circular device with a screen that blinked its message three times before going blank: 'PARTNER NOT FOUND'. For several minutes, that was how the scene stayed - only the rustling of the branches and the movement of the wind made any noise. Only the branches and the humans' chests moved.

"Hurry, this way! I think it came from over here!"

The small pink form zoomed through the trees, navigating between their trunks with a dexterity hardly reflected by their small, awkward form. Its gentle voice - the one that dared to disrupt the forest's silence - held a distinctly masculine edge that felt at odds with the soft pink color of its body and the red heart emblazoned on its torso. Lagging behind was another pink being - this one, however, had a much harsher hue, with the deeper pink confined to the fur that grew everywhere but its hands, feet, and face. Furthermore, it lacked a visible torso - it was simply a rounded ball of fur in comparison to the first speaker.

"Yeah, yeah - hang on a sec, bro! Yeesh..." The second being spoke, its voice feminine despite the harsh tone of its words and the spear that cut the air as it passed by. Alas, though, the words were in vain - the first being kept moving, his small feathered wings beating only once in a while to keep him aloft as he raced forward. He knew she hadn't seen it, but she trusted him, and he had to keep flying before he lost track of where it had been. Where the light had appeared.

Where, he was sure, something had arrived when it wasn't supposed to.

The end of his torso whipped about in the wind created by his movement, fluttering back and forth like the antennae on his head, as his green eyes kept scanning for a hint of what he had seen. They were close now, he was sure- and much closer than he expected, as she abruptly came to a halt at the edge of the forest clearing. His eyes grew wide, staring at the four figures that laid face-down. Even if they were still some distance away, even if he had never seen one personally... well, he had seen many digimon before. He didn't think these were digimon.

"Ack!" Before he could think further on the topic, he hit the ground as his sister roughly crashed into him, and both tumbled out past the tree line. His sister shook her head - body, really, and focused her black eyes on her brother as she glowered.

"Why the heck did you stop like that! MarineAngemon, you better-"

MarineAngemon pointed, as best as he could without any fingers, at the four forms. He didn't speak a word. His sister looked up, and her pale furless skin managed to lighten a few more shades. She flew up immediately, her long stitched wings buzzing with the speed they beat at, and she hooked her brother on the end of her spear by the Holy Ring around his neck before flying back behind the tree line. Once safely hidden, she unhooked her brother and took a second to confirm he hadn't been hurt by the fall or spear before dropping her voice to a whisper.

"MarineAngemon, are those... humans?"

"I... yes, Piximon." MarineAngemon nodded, with far more confidence than he felt. "They're humans." Piximon looked out at the four.

"What the heck are humans doing here?"

"I don't know. I don't think they're awake though..."

"Are they even alive?"

"...I'm not sure." MarineAngemon chewed on his lower lip, and Piximon's glower returned.

"Oh. Oh no, bro, don't you-"

"I'm going to check on them, sister." Before Piximon could catch MarineAngemon on her spear again, he flew out into the clearing. The humans, he had to admit, were much bigger than expected. He was maybe half a meter long, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, and Piximon was about twenty-five centimeters at most. The humans easily beat that. Then again, so did many digimon. Piximon never seemed to be bothered by it. Just, MarineAngemon didn't really know what to expect. Clockmon had her stories and, as for their other friend...

MarineAngemon wasn't sure what would happen if their other friend found these humans.

He floated down to the closest one. It was hard, turning over the human - they also weighed so much, and MarineAngemon didn't exactly have fingers anymore - but then Piximon flew over and joined her brother, and it became a much simpler task. MarineAngemon looked over the human. He wasn't entirely sure what to look for, but the exterior didn't seem damaged, and they still seemed to breathe. Perhaps they were fine after all.

The other three produced similar results - besides being unconscious, MarineAngemon couldn't find anything wrong with them. Maybe the light was related to all this? This seemed to be about where the light should've been. How did Clockmon's stories go again? Maybe Piximon remembered.

"Sister, about what... what I, uh....." He had turned as he began to speak, and trailed off into an awkward silence as he noted the metallic devices she held - three in the crook of her right arm, nearly obscuring her face entirely, and one in her left hand, turning it over. "What are those?"

"Dunno. Found them next to everyone Maybe digivices? Clockmon mentioned humans have those." She shrugged and then tossed the one she was looking at to MarineAngemon. He caught it more out of reflex than conscious thought, still staring at her. "Not sure they work, but check out the back." MarineAngemon hesitated before turning the device over in his limbs. Etched into the back was a pattern of dots and lines, connected. A constellation. His eyes widened as he realized he recognized it.

"...but... why? And why are they here?" He glanced at the four humans. One for each...

"No idea, bro, but you know what? I bet he'd like them." She pulled one of the three from her arm and waved it around, showing its own unique constellation pattern on the back. "Might be nice showing up with something for once, you know?" MarineAngemon swallowed. He knew that tone, usually adding a silent 'take a hint' to the end of the suggestion.

"Well... you're not wrong..." But what to do...

It was a sweep of cold air across his face that pulled Dante out of his sleep.

The air around him was pleasantly warm; not like the harsh, humid tail-end of July he’d been enjoying for the last few days, nor the deadly dry season he knew would be coming to replace it in a few short weeks. Even with the cool breeze, it was just warm enough that he didn't much feel like moving from where he was. Opening his eyes and lying prone on the ground as strength slowly returned to his body, he wondered where he was; he’d been out of the house for most of the day, but the last thing he could remember before he woke up put him on the way back home, not some strange countryside.

On a better day- one where he wasn’t reliving the time he’d had a few drinks with his parents- that might have been enough to tell him that something was very, very wrong.

Instead, it was the mutterings from off to the side that caused him to turn over that clued him in.

His vision was blurry; but there was no mistaking the three other people lying on the ground nearby him, none of them seeming conscious. His heart nearly skipped a beat as his mind began to warm up and consider possibilities; but it soon enough found itself distracted.

After all, there was no mistaking that- rather than the other three figures- the sounds of conversation were coming from the two nondescript pink blobs hovering above them.

He blinked, his vision clearing and focusing. The blurriness went away, but the pink blobs didn’t. A moment passed, and he stayed silent as the two creatures seemed to bicker amongst themselves.

“... The hell was in that water?” He asked aloud, his voice reasonably quiet even as he pulled himself up, weakly and shakily but strong enough to get into a sitting position. Either he was still asleep and hadn't realized it just yet, or his neighbours hadn’t been kidding about fae living in the local pipeline.

ʀ ʏ ᴀ ɴ ᴍ ᴀ ʏ ᴇ ᴢ :

---

A slight tickle of air brushed against the tip of Ryan’s nose, which caused her to twitch and crinkle it in response. The sensation was akin enough to the gentle touches of an insect’s legs placing lucid kisses against her skin and thus, awakened her from her unconscious state. She blinked with droopy lids sorely drifting over her eyes several times while passive blurs of objects began focusing into her groggy vision. As her mind cleared and started piecing together the skewed scenery around her, it was obvious she was definitely not at home, snuggled underneath the warm protection of bed sheets and a comforter. However, no matter how much she wished to jump into action, the heavy tingling in her legs and soft pattering of her recovering heart reminded her senses of some dream-like familiarity that didn’t warrant any pivoting emotional or physical change. The lack of adrenaline tempting her emotions could also have been attributed to the delusional fog still clouding her motor skills. Whatever the cause may be, Ryan continued lying on her stomach, arms barely spread out and bent, in the midst of the moment allowing her mind to fully process her situation.

Her eyes closed as if she was about to allow herself to slip back in the sleep realm. The weight of her unconscious began slowly taking over her mind, muttering playful thoughts of the emerging sleep-cycle until her hearing began to hone in on the silence of her surroundings in failure. Her nose crinkled as her eyelids squeezed over her eyes in a dazed attempt to drown out the verbal disturbances being made by slightly discorded and chattering voices. However, as her head shifted against the now noticeably hard ground, she began to comprehend that the voices sounds weird and strange — alarmingly so. Her fists clenched at nonexistent bedding, only to scrape her knuckles against the hard ground, “Huh—?” A breath pressed cowardly from her mouth as her eyes shot open. She could feel her heart thumping rapidly in her chest as she struggled to remain calm with tense muscles, trying to gather her senses together the best she could.

Small, restricted breaths pressed from her nervous lips as thoughts tried to rewind her memory of how she ended up here, but all her mind’s wandering was drawing blanks as if a huge hole in her memory was missing. Her eyes closed and opened as she tried to awaken herself. I’m in a dream; I’m in a dream; Ryan, girl, you’re in a dream… Ryan’s breaths drew heavier in apprehension that this vision of a world in front and around her was going nowhere. It’s just a dream. Just a dream. I-it’s just a lucid dream. A failed attempt to swallow a lump in her throat caused the girl to conceive how thirsty she was. She couldn’t recall ever being so thirsty in a dream. Her eyes shut tightly one more time for courage and reassurance before her arms and abdomen flexed to push herself from the ground and into a sitting position. Olive green eyes gazed down at her boots and then turned their attention towards her hands and arms and the rest of her wardrobe. She was fully clothed, and she didn’t appear to be hurt or harmed in any way, shape, or form aside from that-that mental lapse of how she ended up here. A small moment was taken as her head slowly shifted towards the interrupting sound of a male voice, “… The hell was in that water?” She quickly diverted her attention back to herself, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

There were too many emotions flustering in her, now. He seemed so real, and-and-and—her head automatically turned to the chattering of the nonhuman sounding voices. Her breaths became a bit more rapid as she tried to wrap her head around the images of the weird animals. She couldn’t understand her fear. This wasn’t like her, no, no. She was a big girl or, damn… whatever, and she could handle herself. But, what the hell was going on? Nothing made sense! It was as if she was dreaming, but that hypothesis just wouldn’t fit accurately into the puzzle. No, no, it had to be a lucid dream. It just had to be! God, what had she eaten last night before be—her last memory was of walking to the mall. Yeah, and she was wearing this exact outfit. The jacket, her p-purse, everything. Yeah, and she had taken the back street in her neighborhood because it’s usually calmer and more serene, but what-what happened? Her eyes narrowed as she pieced together fragmented memories. She faintly remembered randomly and out of nowhere a bright light just-just bloody fucking hitting her. Was I hit by a car? It was the only explanation. Am I dead? Oh, God Ryan! Maybe you’re just unconscious, in a coma, something. Her mind was falling into fearful shambles, again. She had to wake up.

With all her mental power she tried to calm her breathing into something normal and steady while she tried to decide what to do. This wasn’t a time to panic, and losing control of herself would only make things worse. Her teeth bit her bottom lip, forcing the inhales and exhales to go through her nose. After several seconds of forceful subsiding, Ryan realized she was rubbing her lips together anxiously and instantly ceased the motion; and a small manic smile crept on her lips while her mind began embracing the insanity of the situation. She was in a strange forest in the middle of nowhere with a random boy, tiny talking monsters, and God, she didn’t even know how she got there. She hated not understanding. It wasn’t fair, and it was frustrating.

Taking in several small breaths to reconstruct herself, she began brainstorming her next move. Ignore the ‘talking things’ and address the bo—, her eyes shot open when it came to her attention that there were two other humans besides the boy, but the other two were past out or worse—, “Oh my God,” she whispered. Her body quickly scrunched together, pushing herself backwards in the dirt of the forest floor and away from the two limp humans. Maybe they were just like her. They aren’t dead. They aren’t dead. Her eyes desperately looked around her until they finally fell back onto the strange, talking monsters. She wanted to be frightened of them, but they seemed too cute. Cute or not though, they-they were monsters. Drawing in a large breath she allowed her body to relax and recompose herself, again. Maybe this is some kind of afterlife or… She didn’t want to think about it. So, she let the stiff attitude she generally wore muster up enough firmness to show itself as she finally spoke formally, “What is going on? Am I dreaming?” Her lips pursed together into a subtle frown. She addressed the situation more than any specific creature, hoping to get some sort of an explanation. It was uncomfortable and awkward and abnormally frightening, but her face showed more signs of hostility and annoyance from being confused, “Or a-are we all dead?” her eyebrows tightened as she braced herself for the answer, miffed that she had stuttered aloud.

It wasn't really a bad dream, as far as dreams go. Despite all her attempts to piece it all together, she couldn't remember how it all began. It was almost as if Rubani's entire life had been one long dream up to this point. The last thing she could remember seeing from this past life was a memory of herself flying through a vortex of color. She couldn't fathom where the tunnel lead her to, and it was only now that she would find herself an opportunity to discover this.

As of now, there was no flying. Her eyes were closed. There were voices nearby where she lay, but she couldn't muster up the focus to figure out what they were saying. She could feel something cool beneath her. A wooden floor, perhaps? she considered for a moment, before considering otherwise. No, she thought, This doesn't feel quite like wood. The cool texture was soothing to her aching body. It made resting there all that more enjoyable, but it did nothing to help her understand where she was or what was going on. Like it or not, she was going to have to get up.

As if in slow motion, her arms braced one by one against the ground, and she was eventually able to pull herself in to a sitting position. Her mouth stretched open in to a yawn, and she was finally able to ooen her eyes. The scene that met her eyes did nothing to aid her confusion.

"<Am I still dreaming?>" She said quietly to herself in farsi. The pink creatures floating in the air seemed to be an indicator that she was. She turned her head and took in the rest of her surroundings. Rays of sunlight shined down through a canopy of treetops. A bed of grass lay beneath her and three others. Everything seemed to be perfectly normal, except for the strange pink creatures. She had to be asleep. There was no other explanation.

"<Are you a dream?>" She asked the pink creatures in her language once more. Whether this was a dream or not, they had to offer some sort of answer.

The howling wind's gentle yet firm caress trickled the boy into a state of confusion. "What?" The thought run as he felt the bristle of fur that was the grass bed beneath him. He pried his eyelids into the thorny blades of the grass and inhaled dust into his nose that was abruptly followed by a coughed exhale as he lifted his face to focus upon the blurry image his eyes had perceived. "Did I...? Passed out...?" His hands clutched a fistful of grass as it pushed his entire body weight to his knees. "My glasses!" His voice sharp, loud and steadfast. On all fours he crept, feeling every inch of grass in front of him until a he could feel his fingers made contact with a hard cold surface and frantically wore them to his own even more bizarre surprise.

The sky was indeed as grey as wolves hungry for prey. Its surroundings were petrifying and unfamiliar to the boy's mind as his jaw hung wide upon the sight that was in front of him. A green forest. It was so stupefying that he forgot about the four other people close to his proximity. "Wha-- Where the...?" The white noise made his ear twitch as he heard sounds. Noises. No-- It was speech. His face turned with a creak of a rusty door hinge as he witnessed with stunned expression the creatures afloat in mid-air. "Ghosts!" He noticed that said creatures were tossing around something that looked akin to devices, among them one that gleamed light in his eyes as the sun's light reflected of its shiny metal plating with leather straps attached between them. His fingers crawled to his wrist and felt anger and frustration rush him almost instantly. "OI!" His voice projected. "That's my watch!"

He didn't know where he had the strength to stand between both of his feet. All he knew was that they've stolen something that they shouldn't have and it was clouding him with rage. His steps quick and steadily transformed into a gallop of a raging bull charging towards the flying creatures ahead of him and broke the wind's stride. "Give that back!" He commanded as their distance began to close.

So much happened at once - but then, Piximon thought, it always did. It was never just one thing to respond to. First was the light which brought humans which brought the strange-shaped digivices, only unified by that constellation pattern on the back. Now it was all the humans awake - the first one just mumbled something the water, which got MarineAngemon's attention with a wan smile. The second - dead, really? Piximon's wings stopped flapping for a second while she took a moment to absorb how stupid that statement was. Ok, sure, there were tales of digimon slipping into the world where humans came from - Clockmon also had dozens of those - but unless humans were dumb enough to think her one of the undead, then where the Dark Area did that come from?

The third, Piximon didn't quite recognize the language. MarineAngemon frowned, though, and there was a moment where his pink heart pulsed visibly behind the digivice he now held clutched to his stomach. His face then lit up in understanding. Piximon assumed it was just one of his abilities. MarineAngemon seemed to have developed tons since he finally digivolved into a Mega (which, of course, she was proud of but at the same time, him, really?). Maybe related to the whole peace move he had. Who knew but him and the Sovereigns, really.

Though before they could start responding-

"OI! That's my watch!"

Piximon glanced at the items visible in front of her, and the device still clutched to MarineAngemon's chest. Watch?

"Give that back!"

And the human was running at them. Great. On the one hand, he was much bigger than them. On the other, Piximon tried to adjust the three items in her arms to one arm to free her other arm to wield her spear. She never heard of humans flying, and she was hardly an incompetent fighter. She was sure she'd catch up to MarineAngemon soon and digivolve. Until then, she was fine showing off her abilities.

To her side, MarineAngemon sighed.

"Ocean Love." He exhaled sharply, and two heart-shaped pink-tinted bubbles floated out from his mouth. One encased him while the other encased Piximon. She huffed. Fine, if MarineAngemon insisted. No violence yet again. She could really use a target eventually though, one she could do something about.

The last human's charge met the bubble and was deflected aside. Made sense. She doubted a human could break her brother's shields. The stories always said they needed a partner to survive in the digital world against larger, hostile digimon (which was going to be her in 3 seconds if they tried that again), and in turn gave the partner immense power. Though, speaking of, where were those fabled partners? She glanced around the clearing. No, MarineAngemon and herself were the only digimon here. Were she and MarineAngemon meant to help these humans? It wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened, but her pride still made her gag at the thought. What about the constellations? Perhaps- No. They were gone. As awful as fate could be at times, surely it would draw the line at giving humans dead partners.

"Um, excuse me." MarineAngemon spoke, his heart on his chest visibly pulsing. She glanced at him. "If I may, to answer some of your questions - uh, no, you're not dreaming, and you're not dead."

"Dumbasses."

"Sister!" His attempt at a glower was far from intimidating, but Piximon rolled her eyes. Fine, time to reel it in a bit.

"Bro checked on you, you're fine, no structure tearing, so you can stop complaining now." She once more shifted her spear, back between her arm and body, to resume her grip on the digivices. Maybe return them? Not worth considering. It was better to give them to him. Maybe they'd keep him amused and distracted for a while. "Seesh, you don't see us screaming at you, and you're pretty weird too." Well, time to try this her brother's way. "Blah blah, digital world, blah blah, adventure. Go find your partners already and, I dunno, have a good time or something. That's how the stories usually go." She looked at her brother, who gave a small shrug. Ok, not bad. Not good either, but she tried. And if they were just going to flip out, not like an explanation would really work, right? They'd just tune her out in favor of flipping out even more. "Go on, then." She waved a hand at them. "We've got other stuff to deal with since you're fine and everything." Mostly, getting back and hoping this little detour had been worth it.

ʀ ʏ ᴀ ɴ ᴍ ᴀ ʏ ᴇ ᴢ :

---

The other bodies arose from their unconscious state; one after the other; and Ryan eased her shoulders inside her jacket upon the knowledge of them not being corpses. Her small breaths quickly submitting in between her lips relinquished their nature with familiarity of confusion in the other humans’ questioning voices. The rest of her body relaxed as the surrealness of the scenario settled in her mind. Fears of this thing—this situation—being a permanent fixture pushed to the back of her mind. She could figure this out, like a puzzle. There was no reason to be so emotional, like a girl. Again, she kicked herself mentality. The trifling reminder of her inborn tendencies hardened her thoughts with lips pressing together, but her body was quick to wince in the sudden jerk of one of the newly awakened as he stretched his muscles and hurdling his feet into a chase after the omen creatures.

After the initial shock, her body shifted, and her hands pressed against the ground, smudging with the dirt and grass while pushing her body firmly, upwards. Her own question had been lost in the moments of action with a boot stepping backwards and digging a heel into the ground upon seeing the small monster turn and blast the male with some sort of ‘bubble blast.’ This thing was getting weirder, and she had to keep it together. She wasn’t some flaky girl who couldn’t handle a little danger nor adventure. It-it just wasn’t fair that she was being put into this position. Like, who else in the world would have to go through this?

Regardless of tendencies, necessity of the moment pulled her forward briskly and towards the boy, now unable to reach the small monsters who were floating away in the ski. While she watched them drift off, her movements slowed as the monsters began to address them. Her stage of bravery halted briefly into a slow jog until she was standing only an arms length away from the boy. She could feel her eyebrows tightening in anticipation, “If I may, to answer some of your questions - uh, no, you’re not dreaming, and you’re not dead.”

“Dumbasses.”

“Sister!”

Ryan swallowed at the sound of their voices. Heat flushed her cheeks in response. The deep seated need for the boy to chase after his stolen belonging was the same desire that caused Ryan to react in anger, “Who are you calling dumbass?” Her voice rose and nipped sharply at the plush, pink creature. Her own green eyes threw daggers into the large, dark eyes of the monster. Rashness taking over her emotions with fists clenched. She was wearing her good boots. One kick to the face an—Ryan cut her thoughts from going so far. There was no way she could kick that high, let alone jump that high. Her eyes narrowed and her stance moved into something less aggressive as the words of the monster’s halfhearted explanation of basically nothing sunk into her mind and the image of her keychain watch dangled in front of her—verily out of her reach.

Her head whipped around to look at the other two humans; eyes scanning the conditions of them as if she had some idea to join forces and take back what belonged to the boy and her. No, was she out of her mind? That was obviously impossible. She turned her attention back to the monsters. An adolescent demand and attempt at sounding authoritative sprang from her mouth as she called to them, “Hey! That stuff doesn’t belong to you! A-and, what do you mean you have other things to do, you thieves?” Her fist flung higher than she had expected, knocking it against the gray atmosphere in an unconscious attempt to show her threatened annoyance.

Swallowing again and biting down on her bottom lip to keep herself contained, Ryan could still feel the tingling sensation of frustration rosying her cheeks. She wanted to chase after them and try to see where they landed, but something held her back. Instead, she concentrated on calming her tightened chest while her once clenched fist, lowers and allowed her fingers to now fiddle at the place on her purse where her locket would have been had it not been stolen. Insecure thoughts of whether she was doing the right thing circled her mind. A lack of control over her bearings was maddening enough. However, She hadn’t the slightest idea what was happening; where she was; how she got here. She wanted answers, but all she was getting was a stupidly vague response about some ‘Digital World.’

At least, she wasn’t dead. Unless, those things were lying. B-but why would they need her watch? And where were they going? She was fuming on the outside but pouting on the inside. She never minded a good puzzle or mystery, but this was even worse than watching her sisters’ piece together which outfits to let their dolls wear. With her sisters, there were hundreds of outfit combinations, but at least, she could see all the pieces and predict some sort of potential combinations. Right now, though, she had nothing but a stolen key chain watch and her fragmented memories of reading The Chronicles of Narnia and the Time Quintet. Bizarreness was clearly not her forte.

As the others present slowly came to, Dante stayed focused on trying to remain sitting up. The warmth of the air seemed to invite him back down to the ground, but after the borderline oppressive heat of the July day he’d woken up in, it didn’t do much to succeed. It did, however, succeed in keeping his senses strained even as his vision remained clear, not unlike he’d woken up with an awful case of dehydration after a night of drinking.

The bickering of the blobs remained inaudible at his range, but the voices of the other people present managed to reach his ears intact. A female voice nervously pounded out a question that managed to slip from Dante’s head like water through his fingers the very moment he heard it. Another female voice, older and deeper-sounding, mumbled something that didn’t even make it that far; if Dante was struggling with English in this state, whatever language was being spoken was an even bigger crapshoot.

The last voice, however-

“OI! That’s my watch!” The sheer volume of the other boy’s shout was enough to startle Dante, and that was enough to make him fall to the ground. His shoulder and arm hitting the hard surface of the ground below, he bit back on a yelp that then became a grunt; and that was enough to force him out of his partial stupor. As he pushed himself back up into a crouching position and then quickly scrambled to his feet, he could hear and see well enough what was going on.

The other boy was still on the ground, knocked flat on his ass after rebounding off the pink forcefield that had formed around the blob he’d charged. The blob in question seemed to be holding a cluster of small objects that he couldn’t make out from behind the pink barrier: on the other hand, both had raised their voices above their earlier bicker, and now Dante could make out what they were actually saying.

“If I may, to answer some of your questions - uh, no, you're not dreaming, and you're not dead.”

That captured his attention entirely, completely distracting him for a few moments as the others began to react. If this wasn’t a hallucination, did this mean he was actually face-to-face with fair folk? His neighbours were always going on about strange phenomena, especially the strange creatures that apparently lived in the local countryside. Had they been right after all? Had he crossed some unseen threshold? Looking down, he could see that his bag was with him: was that evidence enough that he wasn’t dead, dreaming or seeing things like his aunt did after too much wine?

"Blah blah, digital world, blah blah, adventure. Go find your partners already and, I dunno, have a good time or something. That's how the stories usually go." He came out of his thoughts just in time to catch that sarcastic ‘explanation’ from the blob; and as unhelpful as it seemed, at least it confirmed he was somewhere. That was better than nothing, at least.

But anything was better than nothing; and besides that absolute mote of information, the explanation they’d just been given amounted to a big fat pile of nothing. As his brain became more and more free of its stupor, the reality of his situation finally hit Dante like a hammer to the face.

“The hell kind of explanation do you call that?!” As sudden near-panic spurred him to speak up again, Dante’s voice was high and cracked, betraying his fear and age. But a moment later, he swallowed the saliva that had been nervously collecting in his mouth, and spoke again in a more level and calm tone. “We’re not fine. Where are we? How are we supposed to get home from here? What the fuck are ‘partners’ even meant to be?”

The forest was alive with the sound of confused humans. There was too much going on at once for this to be a dream anymore. With no excuse to stay on the ground for any longer, Rubani finally stood up and stretched her arms, as if waking from a long nap. The red headed boy (she assumed, even though he looked a little like a girl) was trying to ask the creatures for more information. English, she realized, Am I still in America? Come to think of it, she had a few more questions of her own to ask the creatures.

Before she could voice her concerns, however, the creatures were turning to leave. "Sabkon! -er I mean wait!" she exclaimed. She stepped forward in front of the fuming red in the hopes of stopping the creatures. "Can you at least tell us where we are?"

It was of no use. His expression was bitter but determined to have his timepiece returned. He felt beneath his feet the urge to muster force and leap above-- but the funky pink-creature projected some kind of pink-stained bubble followed by words spoken by them. The force was hard enough to have pinned Bart on his bottom.
"Oof!" It was followed by a gentle thud-- the searing quickly crawled into his body.
"Bro checked on you, you're fine, no structure tearing, so you can stop complaining now." The creatured continued to blabber its mouth about some kind of digital world gibberish that they are apparently residing-- and were told to 'find our partners' and 'have fun' was a vague send off from these creatures as Bart rose up to his feet, dusting the dirt from his bottom hesitantly but quickly before responding.
"What? We're here to find some kind of soul mate? What stupid dating program is this? I'll choose my own dates thanks!"
"Who're you calling a dumbass?!" A roughed attempt at trying to sound throaty was heard-- but it was too obvious. Bart knew that was the voice of a girl. "That stuff doesn't belong to you! A-and, what do you mean you have other things to do, you thieves?" There wasn't a lot to comment upon. Typical guy clothes, the rough demeanour. Tomboy. Definitely. Despite of the strikingly weird voice; she does have a point in terms of their belongings.
"Y-yeah! What are you two? Some kind of digital world Robin Hood but with no honour?!" The other guys have finally came to their senses and began to also panic. Another girl-- this time with feminine voice-- was still wondering where the hell they are. "If you won't give it back, what can we do to get it back?"

“Who are you calling dumbass?”
"What? We're here to find some kind of soul mate? What stupid dating program is this? I'll choose my own dates thanks!"
“The hell kind of explanation do you call that?! We’re not fine. Where are we? How are we supposed to get home from here? What the fuck are ‘partners’ even meant to be?”
“Hey! That stuff doesn’t belong to you! A-and, what do you mean you have other things to do, you thieves?”
"Y-yeah! What are you two? Some kind of digital world Robin Hood but with no honour?!"
"Sabkon! -er I mean wait! Can you at least tell us where we are?"
"If you won't give it back, what can we do to get it back?"

Yup. Flipping out was had. Much flipping out. Piximon groaned and gestured at the humans, even as she looked at MarineAngemon - see how far trying to be nice had gotten them? Not far at all. Zero distance, in fact. And they weren't leaving to go on their adventure already, far away from them. MarineAngemon sighed, though Piximon had a feeling the sigh was at least partially aimed at her. He did look down at the item held in his hands, clearly pondering, and then back at the panicking humans.

"You hope he doesn't want them. That's how you'll get them back."

Piximon froze at MarineAngemon's words. Honestly, she assumed they'd be perfect, no way he'd turn them down. Why wouldn't he want them? And if he didn't, then what? Before Piximon could ask about that awful possibility, MarineAngemon kept going. His focus was entirely on the frightened and angry humans before him.

"It's like my sister said - you are in the digital world. I know it's not part of -" MarineAngemon paused and made a face like he'd bitten into a lemon. "-what you might call the real world, so you cannot just 'go' home. Not to say you never can. Most legends suggest humans are called over to do some epic quest, complete it, and then sent home safely. No legend has ever ended with a human's death. Not really anyways." He shrugged, still keeping his grip on the digivice. "We're not the ones who called you here, so we have no idea what that quest might be, who you should be talking to, or how long you'll be here. We only found you here, unconscious but unharmed. Unfortunately, this is all the help we can honestly give." MarineAngemon pointed in the direction past the humans. "I suggest heading in that direction? There are a few villages closer to the border of the Central Processing Forest. It seems like the best direction to go for sanctuary and any chance of finding your digimon partner. Most digimon will take one look at you and be falling over their feet to join you, so I don't think you'll have anything to worry about-"

It was then that a resounding crack echoed through the forest, from the direction the two small digimon seemed to guard. Their eyes widened as they both looked back toward the sound, and then at each other. Some silent conversation occurred in the moment they stared at each other. Piximon threw her hands up, the digivices clattering to the bottom of her heart-shaped bubble as she did. She dove down to pick them up. MarineAngemon resumed speaking, the gentle tone of his voice replaced by a tremble.

"I - I wish you humans the best of luck. We need to go. Now." The bubbles then popped - Piximon barely grabbed the last digivice before it could hurtle to the ground - and MarineAngemon took off back to the treeline. Piximon was only seconds behind him.

Vagueness. Such a concept was bewitching. The way it nails into the mind with its rustic chain in the far-off distance which blinds Bart by its shining light. The gaze of Bart was such-- scraping for an image from the dark distance. Whatever meaning it had was too bright to see. It invited him to dance closer towards it. A crawling curiosity that sometimes is too irresistible to simply ignore.
The deafening crack he heard had captivated the attention of the two digital beings; a vision of anxiety and worry as it both gazed to each other in a silent symphony. It was broken by the steadfast motion of PixieMon scattering their devices into the air to which set into motion Bart's quick wits as he crouched his legs slightly and launched himself towards the falling objects in an attempt to take hold of them to no avail. His ascent lacked haste as the other digital being hurriedly gathered them and quickly left the scene before the Pixie itself. His momentum met the earth.
"I-I wish you humans the best of luck. We need to go. Now." Were its last words.
"Heeeyy!!" A useless shout.
He faced the group before; face slightly tattered with dirt and eyes flaring with anger and cheeks puffed with enough air to shout a thousand words within seconds.
"We need to run after them! They've stolen our stuff and scramming!" His fists were clenched-- nails digging into his palms that he clearly ignores despite its slightly irritating feel. "Come on, let's go before they get away!" His once nervous steps became furious. He charged towards the direction of the forest-- attempting to dodge and slip beneath debris that arrived in his wake that simply caused more dirt to accumulate his attire. It didn't stop him from continuing his pursuit.
He had an idea of the direction in which the sound had originated. It tugged deeply into the nail that was lodged inside of his mind and the chain visibly becoming tense. The blinding light also slowly began to become larger.

As the seemingly older of the two girls spoke up and placed herself between Dante and the blobs, he paused, before he stepped a little to the side. Whatever the gesture had been meant to achieve, he wanted a clear view of the creatures and what they’d supposedly taken; he still couldn’t make much else other than the shapes of their bodies from within the bubbles they’d summoned.

That, though, was interrupted yet again by the larger of the two blobs raising their- his?- voice.

The first response that they threw back at the group was, as far as he could make sense of it, as much of a nothing as everything else they’d said up until that point. Worse than that, it was a selective nothing. It seemed that the boy who’d charged them was the only one they bothered to grace with their attention.

Dante felt panicked anger spike up again; but thankfully, before he could do or say something he’d regret, the blob decided to finally give something resembling an actual explanation.

"It's like my sister said-” So, he was a he after all? ”- you are in the digital world.” And then came the rest, a bevy of information ranging from helpful to patently absurd, all delivered with a face so straight that a professional poker player would have broken out in a cold sweat at the sight of it.

It wasn’t a perfect explanation. It wasn’t even a particularly good explanation, as far as Dante’s frantically angry mind was concerned. But nonetheless, it was an explanation and that same mind latched onto it like a man at sea clinging to the debris of his wrecked ship. Assuming he could trust their words and judgement, it really did seem like he wasn’t in England anymore: more than that, it seemed he wasn’t even on Earth anymore. He’d never heard of a ‘Digital World’, for one, even from his neighbours. His friends had mentioned similar things, but not in the same kind of possibly-senile, possibly-deluded context as the old couple next door. Those two hardly seemed as out of it as they had before, now that Dante was face-to-face with the exact same kind of situation they’d described countless times to him and his sister during their visits. On the other hand, he decided to push his friends and their own ramblings from his mind. After all, whatever bizarre situation he was in, he doubted it was that he’d been sent to and trapped inside an online game.

The thought was possibly more chilling than anything else his terrified imagination could come up with.

Nonetheless, he had to think conductively. And thankfully, the brother gave him some small reason to do so as he mentioned the villages. So there was somewhere that they could go. It was a start, even if it didn’t completely help them.

The phrase ‘Digimon’, however, almost stopped his thoughts dead in their tracks. It explained the ‘partners’ that he’d been so curious about, but from that answer came another question. What was a Digimon? None of the possibilities that came to mind were particularly illuminating or appealing ones. One or two of them were even unpleasantly close to the same kind of eighth-grader nonsense from his friends that he’d tried to push from his mind.

It wasn’t all that got pushed from his mind, however, as the thundering sound of something cracking split the air and broke his train of thought. More than that, however, it seemed to finally break the nerves of the two blobs; and the moment he pulled himself back from wondering what in any world could have made such a horrible noise, he caught their last words to the group.

“Wait!” But no sooner had he opened his mouth had he realized it was hopeless. The two creatures seemed even more spooked of whatever had made the noise than him, and had absolutely no intention of stopping to further help them as they charged off into the forest with their winnings.

"Come on, let's go before they get away!" And as his mind turned back to the other humans present, it seemed it wasn’t just those two that had no intention of staying. Before Dante or anyone else could get a word in, the boy who’d charged the creatures before took off after them with reckless abandon.

“Hold on!” This time, Dante didn’t bother to address the other boy: by the time he was able to compose his thoughts enough to talk again, he was far gone from his sight. Instead, he looked back and forth between the two girls who were still in the clearing. The other boy had been dead-set on taking his watch back, but what about these two? There were so many questions: but they remained unsaid as he asked the most basic one of all. “What the hell are we going to do?”

ʀ ʏ ᴀ ɴ ᴍ ᴀ ʏ ᴇ ᴢ :

---

Ryan knew her cheeks were flushing. She could feel the burning sensation begin to take over the rounds of her face despite the cool, crisp, forest air. Her lips pursed tightly together as her front tooth nipped angrily on her bottom lip, sucked inwards. There were so many thoughts scrambling through Ryan’s mind, she was having a hard time plucking anything coherent to exude until her narrowed eyes focused on the blonde haired boy, with those popular square framed nerd glasses set over his eyes. His face was still roundish in youth despite his fairly square jawline. She would not have taken much note of his boyish and lithe physique if he was not trying to act like a ‘reckless macho man.’ The boy’s juvenile voice was just as irritating to mind, as well.

“Hey!” Ryan called out at him. She could vaguely hear the replication of her own mother’s nagging vocals as she spoke. A split-second of drawing back from the truth made her wince, but it ticked by so quickly that it was hardly noticeable aside from the automatic fist tug of her jacket's sleeve. She had something more important to do than over-analyze her own biological misfortunes. The stupid kid was going to get himself hurt, again — if he got hurt the first time. What a freaking idiot. The boy was too wound-up in his own immature need to get some toy gadget back into his possession. They were in the middle of some weird-ass place with no idea what they were doing. The last thing they needed to do was chase those fluff-ball monsters further into this maze of a mess!

Her dark boots taking several steps forward, clunked imprints into the ground and began jogging after the boy. As his pace picked up speed, Ryan’s boots started digging more quickly into the dirt, “What the Hell are you thinking?” Her words were a bit huffy from the swift movements against the slightly uneven terrain, but she was still stern. The boy was a lot faster than she had originally thought, which stirred her frustrations further. However, she immediately brushed off the muscular differences by blaming her long hair, caught off-guard in the race… or rather, sudden shift of movement.

Flustered by his stubborn, unyielding attitude -- admittedly relentless to her demands -- Ryan’s usual athletic nature seemed build up momentum in her pursuit, and she called after him, again, “You’re going to get fucking hurt, you idiot!” Glancing at the taunting creatures floating further and further away, Ryan thought of slowing herself, but she became certain that the stupid boy was going to get himself lost. The last thing he needed was to be lost all by himself alongside his dumbass recklessness. Although, she did have a small pain in her chest that made her want to retrieve her own watch, not that she needed to be controlled by such trivial things like some other person she knew.

Things were spiraling out of control before Rubani could even be sure of what exactly was going on. What she could be sure of was that the monsters had stolen their things, and the children that were here decided that it was a good idea to to chase after them. "No, wait!" she cried out in vain. "Don't just go after them! Don't..." Her words were lost to them. One by one, they left after the creatures. Soon, Rubani was the only one left standing in the clearing.

That is, except for one other. The red headed girl (boy?) was still here, fortunately.

His question seeming to fall on deaf ears, Dante once again found himself left behind as one of the two girls dashed off after the older boy, shouting angrily after him all the way until she disappeared into the trees. Now it was just him and the last, and by the looks of it, oldest girl remaining, and her futile shout after the other girl only helped to drive in what a hopeless situation they'd found themselved in.

He did his best to expel that anxiety with a deep, heavy sigh. "What the hell are we going to do?" She seemed to have a more stable head on her shoulders than the other two: if anyone could help figure out an actual plan of action, it was likely her.

"You're asking me?" Rubani exclaimed, surprised that someone thought she actually knew what was going on. Then she realized: they were only a kid! Of course they'd look up to someone older when he needed help! She couldn't let them down! Her posture straightened as she tried to make herself look a tiny bit taller and cleared her throat. "You don't have to worry!" she said in the most confident voice she could think of. "I can catch up to them and bring them back here safely, so don't worry" Hopefully it would be enough to keep him from chasing them himself.

Dante was quiet for a moment as she replied, his expression anxious but otherwise difficult to read. Had Rubani's words been as futile as those directed at the other two? Had they fallen on similarly deaf ears, or could he just not comprehend a state where he wasn't scared out of his head?

"... Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Fortunately, it seemed neither were the case. Dante let out another heavy sigh, but otherwise his posture and expression seemed to lose a significant amount of tension. The situation wasn't completely hopeless: it was still possible that they could catch them up before they got themselves hurt, and talk enough sense into them.

His mind told him it wasn't likely, but as far as coping mechanisms and courses of action went, it was a fairly solid one.

Meanwhile, with everyone running off, Rubani was starting to feel as if she hadn't been doing enough here. They were children! What could these monsters expect them to do?! What did these kids think they could do on their own?! If anything, she had more of a reason to go after, in order to keep them from getting themselves hurt, or worse. Who knew what these things were capable of?

Rubani turned to the chid. "Tell me, what is your name?"

"Dante. You?" It was a little brusque, but politeness tended to take a hit when one's mind was moving a hundred miles an hour. Though he'd moved from anxiety to a near-calm, his mind had flared back up: this time with an actual further course of action.

"What did they take from you?" At first, his next line might have seemed like a non-sequiter. He paused, seemed to realize that, and then continued. "The first one who went off said that they took his watch- maybe he'll see sense if we tell him what we've lost." It was a bit of a long shot, but still better than nothing.

"My name is Rubani", she replied. "They took my phone, but as far as I'm concerned, that 'digimon' can do whatever he wants with it. I'm more concerned about the other two that went after them."

Realizing he may have been a bit blunt at first, Dante offered Rubani an uneasy smile: after all, it was reassuring to finally have someone to talk to who wasn't a morose pink blob. Though as she confirmed what had been taken from her, his mind quickly reeled back to the topic. "I don't know what they took just yet." Nothing on his person seemed obviously missing; his pockets seemed as full as they normally did, so he crouched down and opened up his bag. "Didn't get the chance to take a good look, but right now I'm thinking the same thing. Whatever they took, it isn't worth running into whatever's out there."

Rubani was starting to get anxious herself. If she stood there any longer, she might never be able to catch them. "Dante" she said, "I'm going to need you to stay here and wait for me, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can, so please be patient."

"Alright." Dante nodded, closing his bag back up. His face seemed a little grim, but whatever he'd discovered missing didn't seem to have changed his mind on the plan. There were no more words after that: their minds were made up, and both were set on the course of action.

There was no more time to think about things. Rubani gave the boy a quick pat on the head before running off after the other children. If anyone was going to try and be an adult here, it might as well be an actual adult. If she wanted to prove herself as worthy of the title, now was the time.

The forest was dense with foliage. Every few seconds, her shoe would catch on to a thick plant or tree root, and she would stumble. Once, she tripped over what was some sort of thorny vine, and she landed on her arms hard enough to bruise them. However, footsteps still echoed off of the trees not too far away. She was catching up to them, they had to be close! Ignoring whatever pain there was, she stood up and kept running. Rubani was going to catch those kids if it was the last thing she ever did.
---
Back in the clearing, Dante rose to his feet and dived back into his thoughts as Rubani left.

This time, there wasn't quite the same sense of hopelessness. With any luck, the older girl could catch up to the others before they got themselves hurt, or worse, and they could figure out a plan of action that wasn't just charging off blindly into the unknown.

Closing his bag back up, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. Sometimes he forgot what was and wasn't in there from day to day, but today he'd packed light: there were few things in his bag to begin with, and none of those were anything he'd miss enough to risk his life for.

His 3DS was no different. He couldn't deny that his heart had sunk a little when he realized it was missing: it had been a gift, and was definitely one that he'd deeply appreciated and enjoyed.

But compared to the prospect of getting everyone back together and hopefully finding some way out of this strange place, the feeling of loss was nothing. He just hoped that his mum and dad wouldn't be too worried, or his sister-

... Wait.

Dante's thoughts and facial expression froze. Then, as the seconds ticked by and his mind joined the dots, his mind set off into overdrive as his left eye and the side of his mouth began to twitch.

He remembered, now. He'd left his 3DS at home that day, even though he'd been going to a friend's. The reason he'd left it at home was because he was letting his sister use it to catch up on her game whilst hers was at the friend's house she'd left it at. He'd swung by on the day's walk to pick it up. And then whatever had got him sent to this place had happened.

For all his spikes of anxiety and reversions to the frightened child he was beneath it all, Dante had stayed relatively calm up until that point. But now, as his hundred-miles-a-minute mind ran headfirst into a brick wall, that changed.

It wasn't something of his that had been taken.

"Get back here with my sister's stuff, you little shits!" And with an impressive glower on his face and a impassioned near-roar of fury, Dante lost all semblance of calm and all consciousness of the plan, and tore into the forest like a wildfire after the creatures that had taken his sister's 3DS.

The trees hardly posed any obstacle for the two small digimon. The two pink ‘blobs’, as certain humans had taken to calling them, zipped around the trunks and under branches with ease, their small forms making it easy to avoid harm without needing to slow down. Piximon went over the possibilities in her head. He had broken the Server Tree at last. He had hurt Clockmon. He had hurt himself. No matter how she viewed it, it was worth going back to check, and it wasn’t like the humans - the digidestined - had anything left to offer. Piximon left her train of thought, content with that idea, before she heard it.

The yelling.

The swearing.

The crushing of dead leaves and grass underfoot.

Piximon made the mistake of looking back at the commotion and swore, violently, before calling ahead, "I think they're following!" What were they supposed to do about this? Why were these humans so dead set on chasing them? They hadn't even known what a digimon was - no way they were angry over the digivice! Whatever these items had been before, it didn't even matter, so no point getting mad. They were digivices now.

"I'm not sure we have time to lose them!" Marineangemon called back. "Speed up!" He began flapping his wings, already leaving Piximon behind in the dust. Piximon adjusted the digivices in her hands.

"Bro, wait!" Her wings beat faster - buzzing loudly, a sound that might make a Kuwagamon feel inferior. Even if the humans were following, she couldn't hear them over the buzzing of her own wings, trying to deafen her. Even with the way her wings beat, almost invisible to the normal eye, Marineangemon was still trailing far ahead of her. She just had to push a little harder before Marineangemon left her behind. It would be impossible to get lost - all she'd have to was fly above the tree line, head for the largest tree in the forest, and they would always be able to meet there sooner or later - but she did not want to go alone. She did not want Marineangemon to arrive alone. Nothing good had boded from that terrible cracking noise and going alone was... worrying.

Piximon was not scared. She refused to let herself be scared by him of all digimon.

She called out to Marineangemon again, but the air in her lungs deserted her. She could hardly breathe, her wings straining to try to catch up and every muscle in her body pulled taut from the effort. It wasn't bad that Marineangemon had digivolved, but by Yggdrasil, it made him hard to keep up with! If he could just stop for a moment so they could go together - why was he so worried anyways? Why not bother trying to lose the humans? They both knew what could happen. Oh, but she knew: he worried over that digimon. She tried to swallow some air to refill her rapidly-draining reserves. The trees were beginning to thin ahead. Marineangemon had about reached the tree line, and Piximon then maybe could catch up-

Piximon could not hear over the sound of her wings. The sharp wet sound of skin - texture data - being pierced had to be imaginary, as was the distant gurgling sound. Her brother, still so far ahead, could not possibly be heard over her wings. It had all happened so fast too, before she could bring herself to a painful halt. He had left the forest line, and then the jagged violet crystalline shard shot down through his chest. He dropped to the ground unceremoniously, the shard still protruding from the heart on his chest as greenish foam oozed from the edges of the wound. There was no noise now. Piximon, starved for air, held her breath before she dropped to the forest floor, wings still. Try to attract as little attention as possible, and maybe he'd get bored. Then she could go to Marineangemon, heal him with no fuss, and together they would find out-

"Boo!"

Piximon screamed at the voice behind her, dropping the digivices. Before she could take off, a violet shard fired and pierced her right wing. She spiraled to the ground with a heavy thump, dirt pressing into her eyes. An invisible grip locked around her body, pinning her wings and arms, and turned her around. She stared into the unblinking eye of the white shell mask, hiding the face of her assailant.

Her friend. Necrowisemon.

"Found you, Piximon!" He giggled, the horned angular mask remaining as impassive as ever. Its white color was marred by small pockmarks made by the shell-like material, and by the various purple lines and dots painted on its surface; its eye, with its yellow sclera and red pupil, stared into her soul. It stood as a stark contrast to the colorful clothing he wore, the yellow felt wings that stretched out behind him from the cloth that covered his shoulders and hooded his head; the leaf-green ragged scarf and fingerless gloves; the orchid tunic that poked out under the belt at his waist and flowed when he flew; the dark green capris that barely covered his knees; the orange cloth boots held in place by violet straps; and the black, black skin that connected all the color together. The digicores encircling his head like a gory halo orbited much more rapidly than normal, and Piximon noticed the holes in his clothing and limbs sealing shut. So it was a fight? With what? With a flick of his wrist, the three digivices lifted off the ground as if suspended by invisible strings. "What're you doing hiding out here anyways, huh? I thought you hated hide and seek!" The meter-tall digimon was gliding back to the clearing, taking Piximon with him. Piximon was starting to feel woozy, the grip far too tight for her to try to breathe, Marineangemon remaining still on the approaching ground below, the smell of something in the air like blood and smoke and charred flesh.

Then he brought her outside the tree line, to the clearing surrounding the largest tree in the Central Processing Forest.

And Piximon understood.

The largest tree in the forest, the Server Tree, bore obvious signs of battle, its bark riddled with vicious claw marks, bullet holes, crystal shards, and scorch marks. Near the base of the tree, a massive impact had caused the trunk to splinter. Impaled on one of those massive splinters was a humanoid digimon, his outline fuzzing and red blood staining the purple pinstripe suit he wore. While he bore a mask, unlike Necrowisemon, Piximon knew the digimon's species well enough to know Astamon's mask was simply a part of his face. Perhaps Necrowisemon hadn’t known, as it looked like his face had been split in uneven halves from someone trying to yank off the ‘mask’. Astamon's gun laid between the gnarled roots of the Server Tree, broken in two beneath where he now hung. The grass around the roots was burnt to ash and laying in that ash was a cloaked digimon, its long arms severed and charred. Baalmon, Piximon dimly realized, was missing the blue hat usually covering his blond hair. Tattered pieces of his amulets laid scattered about, an inadequate defense against a powerful unholy foe. On the edge of the new ash-field was a lion-like digimon, laying face down and claws digging into the dirt. Piximon took a moment to realize what had happened - what Necrowisemon had done - to him; the blond mane he had covered the damage, soaked in his own blood as it was, but Piximon could see blood and edges of data strands oozing out from under Flaremon. Eviscerated. Right behind him was a narrower, more lynx-like digimon, and Piximon could tell right away, her spine had been snapped in two. It wasn't even like Meicrackmon was a fragile digimon and yet, with her shallow panting and desperate attempts to right her body even with her long claws ripped off, she looked almost vulnerable.

Piximon had a feeling she knew what the cracking sound was now.

"I can't believe you guys just came back now, though. You missed all the fun with my new playmates!" He lifted Marineangemon off the ground, leaving the digivice behind. Piximon struggled - her brother so close, and yet out of her reach. The other four digimon were forgotten. Not like she could save them, not now that they'd been designated 'playmates'. The fact they seemed to still be breathing was miracle enough. "It was fun playing some more, but it might've been more fun with you guys here. Maybe you could've helped? I'm not sure these guys are up for a second game themselves." He giggled again, ignoring Piximon's attempts to pull herself free to reach her unresponsive brother. "Where did you guys go? Clockmon didn't seem to know." He waited a moment, looking between the two fairy digimon.

"Why did you leave me?" With a roar, he flung his hand down, and the telekinetic force followed suit. Piximon crashed into the ground, tearing up grass with her landing. Marineangemon tumbled tail over head, the shard in his chest twisting and the foam splattering under him. The grass hissed at the contact and began to wither. The three digivices scattered across the ground, unyielding to the force pushed upon them. It was then Necrowisemon finally seemed to notice their presence.

"Hey, what's this?" The telekinetic force reached out and plucked the three digivices from the ground. Piximon ceased her attention to him, first taking in a much-needed breath of air before stumbling over to Marineangemon. The impact had forced the wound wider. She grimaced and grabbed the poisonous crystal, wincing as she yanked it out. Red and green mixed together as they oozed from the wound. Her magic was not made for healing, but she contorted it, trying to force it to harmlessly expel the poison from her brother's body, force it to seal the wound shut.

Praise to Yggdrasil, he still breathed.

Necrowisemon examined the three digivices, at first with disinterest. They spun lazily in the air - once their backs faced Necrowisemon, his whole frame tensed.

"No way..." He studied the three devices. "But it's missing-" His gaze tore away from the digivices, searching around the clearing from his position in the air. He then spied the one Marineangemon dropped and, with a whoop, he pulled it up with the other three. Turning it around revealed the same constellation pattern etched in - rather, the same kind. All four varied, but it was clear by Necrowisemon's laughter that something about the four together appealed to him.

"Well, glad to have you back. Thanks, guys!" He plucked the digivices out of the air and hugged them to his chest, otherwise ignoring the still-unconscious Marineangemon and still-panicking Piximon on the ground below.

ʙ ᴀ ʀ ᴛ ᴍ ᴀ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ ʀ s + ʀ ʏ ᴀ ɴ ᴍ ᴀ ʏ ᴇ ᴢ :

---

Determined, ticked breaths pressed in and out of Ryan’s open lips as her legs stretched outwards and flexed, trying to catch the stupid, reckless boy. There was a tightness gripping at her chest that she was trying to ignore, like she hadn’t really spent much time running around outside, but she was so close to catching him -- she could see herself doing it in just several more steps -- if only she made her limbs work a little harder. He was just an arm’s length away.

How old was this fucktard, anyways? Twelve? Eleven? Had his balls even dropped? He sounded so elementary and acted like it, too. His ignorance towards her was impeding and for all they knew, those monster things could turn around attack, again, and--and, maybe do some real damage this time. So dense! The thought to take a leap and tackle him shot through her mind, and before she could scrutinize the decision, her body was already positioning herself to leap forward as her calves and thighs felt pressure in the midst of her boots digging tension into the ground, and shortly after this, her nimble body sprung forward with her arms extended.

Apparently, she had been closer to him than her mind had calculated, and her cheek crashed into the small of his back when her arms wrapped around his lower torso. Ryan tried to hold back a small, disgruntled yelp as their bodies tumbled to the hard dirt surface. The landing was anything but genteel or gentle, and Ryan could feel the heavy weight on top of her arms being smothered into the solid, rough forest floor. There was more parts of her that felt the abrasion of the momentum, but she wasn’t about to let a little scratch and bruised wrist or arm or… upper body bother her, “God, you are such an insolent son of an idiot,” Ryan scoffed as sharp as she could through the haziness that was disorienting her head from the fall. Her breaths were still weak, but the need to catch them only caused Ryan to keep her arms tightly around the stupid boy.

If anything Rugby had ever taught him; it was to keep his focus within his sights. Keep his face and continue pursuit ‘til the sounds of victory is loud enough to be heard by the crazed quarterback holding the Gilbert across the line. With the exception; he heard none nor experienced any of the above. Amongst the crunches of dried leaves -- the cracks of twigs beneath the heel of his feet and the bristle of the forest’s shrubs… A heavy weight encroached his waist; locking tightly as Bart lost his momentum in a staggered motion and kissed dirt in less than a second with a thud. Tackled.

“Oof!”

“God, you are such an insolent son of an idiot.” That try-hardish tone.

Given, it aggravated his anger -- such words slung over the shoulder as though they’ve known its importance and worth... Bart’s palms grasped the dirt furiously and attempted to struggle out of the girl’s grip, “... Get… Off… Me! You angry and good-for-nothing woman…!” His legs had begun to move erratically trying to loosen and perhaps escape from her. A few moments of struggle ensued until he managed to wrap his leg around her neck and contort his body and caught the girl in a chokehold.

“Mmph!” The boy’s body twisted and turned abruptly, and after her vain attempt to keep him still, her eyes closed in reflexive fear as his strength overpowered her. Ryan tried to make a sound, another sardonic remark. However, with her chin tilted downwards and her neck slightly contorted in the boy’s legs, her words choked back into her throat. Her green eyes opened at the silence of their two wrestling match with her the loser -- so far, anyways. Clenching her teeth, Ryan squirmed, attempting to bring her hands to the rescue, but the awkwardness was only making things worse. This caused the burning sensation in her cheeks she had been feeling off-and-on ever since awakening in this bloody nightmare quickly worked itself as embarrassment took over her, “L-l-let g-go of me!” her voice muffled into him, attempting to offset the faint muteness of her position -- becoming more aware of her now damp, stringy long hair, smothered against her burning cheeks. Her body shifted to-and-fro, but it appeared to be of no use. She wasn’t about to give up just yet, though. And, who was calling her a woma-- The boy’s irritating, juvenile voice started, again, but this time it was tooting his tricycle horn over this not yet complete battle.

“Ha! Five years of watching wrestling matches paid off! Take that! None can stop Bart Mathers in a wrestling match!” He had achieved his victory and gandered about his female opponent. A moment of silence... “Shit! What the fuck am I doing!” He released his iron chokehold grip from the lady and began to scuttle away hurriedly in realisation of what the fuck would transpire had he kept up his act. Garroting a person -- a girl to her death. The thought had weakened his resolve. As he did; he looked forward upon the clearing to anticipate a path that followed the pink blobs and saw them with several… More… Terrifying beings. Half dead? One of them was still standing. Humanoid in appearance although it appeared to be wearing some kind of mask. Judging from the bloodied the greenery around, that thing had slaughtered four other creatures with very little effort. He hid and tucked himself behind a fallen wooden log nearby, dragging the girl along, “Shut your hole!” He whimpered quickly and pointed at the direction of the being.

When Bart Mathers, withdrew his hold from around Ryan, she paused for a moment, shocked by having been so helplessly pinned by another human being, and the suddenness of his seceding. Several quick breaths escaped Ryan’s open mouth as her thoughts regathered. There was some thought that floated by her, telling her to get up and swing her messenger bag at him -- she had tackled him, trying to stop him from getting into any trouble, yet he clearly had just choked her. God, how was she even able to weasel out those four words? Small black specks sparkled in front of her vision, and the fight in her was coming to an end even if her adrenaline was not about to drop. Her body sorely straightened itself from the ground, and her vision began to focus. Her eyes widened while her mind tried to take in everything that she was seeing.

Blood. That was the only word registering or making coherent sense as she stood dumbly, staring weakly and in horror when the Bart-boy grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her firmly and swiftly behind some dark, brown log. The words, ‘Oh my God’ mouthed silently from her as she huddled, trying to forget Bart even existed. This was Hell, wasn’t it? She was dead. God, fuck. No, no. She couldn’t resort to worse case scenarios like a stupid, good-for-nothing… Her eyes cautiously shifted to look at Bart. Her bottom lip was comfortingly nipped by her front teeth as she tried to make herself feel strong next to him. Narnia is dangerous. You’re just--just, you’re just inside some old wardrobe, her eyes looked away from the boy and focused on the wood in front of her as she calmed her breaths, once again. Be brave like Peter, s-so don’t fucking die.

“Y-you think that guy would vouch for us to return our stuff?” Yep, he was damn serious. Face turning to the girl hopeful that it wasn’t some fucked up psychopath beyond the log.

Ryan’s head slowly turned to face Bart as his words registered through her pacing mind. Her eyes carefully narrowed as she re-sized him up. Was he serious? What a fucking idiot! Her lips parted to say something, but between everything that was happening, his idiocy included, all she could do was make a horrible hesitation towards responding and ended up opting for a hushed, “Shhhh,” her head tucked away from him, to hide her pouting and grumbling thoughts silently coaxing her emotions. She wanted to cry, but that was against her principle.

“You girls are always confusing.”

Plus, Ryan thought, crying in front of this stupid loser is the last thing I want to do, her eyes narrowed, and her pouting turned into a small bitter frown. He was lucky there was some crazy looking monster, or she would have clocked him with her fist by now.

Everything was falling apart around the poor girl. She had an idea of what kind of place she was currently dashing through (she hoped), but that was all she knew. She still wanted to know what those creatures were up to and what they wanted with her cell phone. The two teenagers she was chasing after were on her mind, too. The aay they ran off after the creatures was, she'd have to admit, incredibly silly. What did they plan to do, annoy the creatures in to submission? At least Dante knew not to run off to follow monsters in the middle of who-knows-where.

*Wait*, she wondered,*What's that up ahead?* Rubani could see she was approaching something of a vaguely familiar shape. As she grew closer, she quickly recognized what she was seeing. It was the kids! Thank god, it looked like they gave up on chasing the creatures around, but why were they sitting down behind a log? Did one of them get hurt?

Now that she was a little bit closer, she could see something else on ground near where they hid. It seemed to be more of these creatures and they were covered in... blood!?

Rubani skidded to a halt and hid herself behind a tree. She had the vague sense that she was starting to panic just a little bit, but her fear kept her frozen to where she hid. She had to push herself mentally to look around the tree and be sure of what she was seeing. Sure enough, the new creatures were lying on the ground were covered in blood. She still wasn't close enough to see if they were still alive, Now that she was looking a bit more carefully, it seemed that the kids were hiding from something, but what? She couldn't see from the tree she was hiding behind, and getting any closer seemed like a bad idea. There wasn't much else to do but to try and get their attention.

"Psssst" she whispered while peeking out from behind the tree. "Over here" she could only hope that the way she flicked her head back and forth trying to keep a look out didn't attract the wrong kind of attention.

At first, anger had carried Dante forward like a gale, tireless and unstoppable. His little epiphany had hit him and his sense of reason hard, and all he could think of as he plunged deeper and deeper into the woods was getting back what they’d taken from him- what they’d taken from his sister- and giving those two pink sons of bitches every piece of his mind.

That had been the case at first, at least. But whilst Dante was in good shape, he was not a storm crashing through the trees: and whilst he was certainly furious, as people tend to be when their one line in the sand is crossed, he couldn’t sustain that fury indefinitely. After a few fruitless minutes of moving deeper and deeper into the woods after the two retreating Digimon, he found his breath getting shorter and shorter, a stitch etching through his side as he became conscious of how dehydrated and disoriented he had felt just moments before. And as he became conscious of that, he became conscious of his whole situation once more.

He would have swore, but words didn’t come easily as he grabbed a nearby tree branch to stop himself from falling over. Anger throbbed in and out of his head, refusing to give up just yet, but soon found itself beaten back into an emotional coalition between anxiety, fear and self-frustration.

He’d fucked up. He’d really fucked up. He’d lost his cool, lost his sister’s belongings to those things, and gotten himself lost altogether in this godforsaken place. Only the remaining fragments of his anger stopped him from crying out of sheer frustration. Not that it helped him clear his mind at all, as he sat there with his mind going a mile a minute trying to figure out what the hell to do.

The clearing couldn’t have been too far back: maybe he could make his way back there before it was too late. He hadn’t seen anything on the way over, and with the head start the blobs had gotten, it didn’t seem likely he’d catch up to them now anyway.

“God damn it.” That very fact rankled at him, feeding back into his guilt and frustration. Only the gritting of his teeth and series of deep, angry breaths beat back the moisture collecting at the corner of his eyes. He’d get the 3DS back soon as he could. He’d be sure of that.

So, sighing and shaking his head, he turned to look back the way he came-

And the soft breeze drifting along through the woods carried a repulsive smell of burning matter straight into his face.

Moisture began to collect in his eyes again, this time his body’s instant reaction to the acrid smell being swept into it. Blinking them quickly shut, he quickly covered his nose: he wasn’t a stranger to the smell of burning wood, not by any stretch of the imagination. But there was another smell mixed in with it, one that almost turned his already-agitated stomach.

Countless horrible thoughts sprung into his head in an attempt to figure out the origin of this smell: and for a few moments, he stayed where he was, letting them envelop him. But a moment later, he shooed them away. He could still get back. He just had to be quick, and take a different route.

And so he decided to head further into the side of the path he’d came, going slowly and carefully with his hand still over his mouth and nose. If he was lucky, he’d miss whatever the hell was causing that smell entirely.

The smell, however, only intensified as Dante walked. No smoke seemed to rise anywhere over the treetops to warn Dante from where the smoke came, only the increasing stench of charred grass, burnt wood, and scorched meat (hopefully just meat). The bare trees began to thin, and Dante passed a fallen trunk - separated from its base by a peculiar round gap with charcoal edges. Ahead was a glimpse of a tree trunk, far more massive than anything seen in the forest; perhaps far more massive than any tree back on Earth. There seemed to be some colors strewn about, barely visible between the trees ahead. A bit of black, some red, a touch of violet-

Pink.

He froze. Thoughts of self-preservation and safe return found themselves challenged by a renewed desire to catch up to the creatures that had stolen from him and his sister: but as he removed his hand from his mouth-

“...!” No words came as the stench of scorched earth, wood and flesh came full-on into his face, and instead he quickly returned his mouth to his hand and nose. His mind reeled, but one thought now managed to beat all the others out.

Whatever was up ahead, it had to be the source of the awful smell. And with the awful sensation lingering in his mind and nose, that fact was enough to tip the balance. Self-preservation won this round. The thought of the two Digimon up ahead with his sister’s 3DS made him feel almost as sick as the stench did: but after the horror and soul-searching frustration of the last few minutes, this time Dante thought better of it.

It was time to get out of here.

The atmosphere changed once Dante retched. There was still something barely audible, incoherent coming from the new clearing, but it was as if Dante had pierced some invisible balloon, and it was the second before the air rushed out with a loud bang.
Indeed, it seemed like his involuntary reaction to the foul stench in the air had disturbed the very world around him. With the exception of the bizarre noise from up ahead, all other sounds began to slowly fade out to nothing: like the chords of the last song on the album declining into a faint mumble before being replaced with the whirring of the stereo’s mechanisms. Dante didn’t make much of this at first, the way the beating of his blood through his ears already drowned out much of the sound around him. But as the eerie quiet grew to an oppressive silence, he picked up his pace.

And then he stopped entirely.

In his attempt to move away from the clearing that the smell was emerging from, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Though they were a distance away, as was the mouth of that clearing that ominously sat amidst the thick trees it served as a breach into, he could see a collection of figures. At his present range of vision, he could barely make anything out about them: but in this bizarre situation, those minute, irrelevant details and their familiarity was all he needed.

Dante didn’t dare call out to the others. Cautious uncertainty tempered any sense of relief he felt at the thought of catching back up to them: but more than that, he didn’t dare break the silence that had crept up on him. So instead, he began to approach, beginning to angle around carefully in an arc-

His caution was wise, but came too late. Though it had taken its time, the consequence of his involuntary actions chose that moment to strike.

The air rushed out with a silent bang - or, rather, a shaky gasp of air that seemed to come from somewhere behind Dante’s head despite nobody being there. Everything had at last gone deadly silent, and the minute twitches of the figures stopped entirely. Then, the gap to the clearing was filled by a mix of colors, concentrated into the form of a small humanoid. Its blank - face? Whatever was in the head area, a stark white compared to the vivid colors covering the rest of its form - stared at Dante, pinning him with a gaze. Dante didn’t even have to blink before the humanoid closed the gap without movement, not even a meter away now. The face looked like a mask, unable to show emotion or react, but Dante could get the impression this creature was grinning at him.

There was no extended thought process this time. Like Dante’s moment of epiphany in the clearing, the sudden appearance of the figure in front of him brought his thoughts to a crashing halt: only, this time, his movement came to a halt too as he flinched and wordlessly jumped back.

A few moments passed in silence. Dante stared at the figure, blinking once or twice as colour slowly returned to his face and ice-cold tension left his body. Though the creature was too close for comfort, it didn’t seem horribly intimidating at first: second impressions, however, made short work of that. Though it was so much shorter than him- bigger than the other two, certainly, but that wasn’t saying much- whatever comfort his height might have afforded him dwindled to just about nothing with how it floated over half a meter off the ground to stare into his face.

The face, in fact, was just the other thing. Their clothes were unassuming, if strange. The mask, on the other hand, and the demeanour that crept out from behind it, was deeply disconcerting.

“... Hello there?” It was a long shot among long shots, but as Dante finally found his voice, he just hoped this one was more friendly than the other two had been. With how it was floating before him, the view of the others a (now much shorter) distance away disappeared behind it: and the presence of mind remained to suggest trying to sneak a peek around it would not be a good idea.

“Hi there!” The humanoid was shorter than Dante, and he - judging by the voice - sounded just like a child. “It’s our turn to play, right?” The head tilted. It was if this being hadn’t just left a scene of potential carnage, scaring Dante with a sudden teleportation trick, and now was uncomfortably close in his personal space. But, on the other hand, he didn’t sound quite as rude as the little round pink creature, nor as evasive as the more willowy pink creature. Just, very interested.

Dante didn’t respond right away. The creature sounded friendly, but he knew full well how little that could actually mean. Pre-emptively, he took another step back: going carefully to not offend him. “Sure, I guess?” Maybe the ‘child’ was from one of the villages the blobs had mentioned? Maybe this was just normal behaviour for this place. “Do you think you could help me?” As he watched the figure at their new distance, his eyes darted about, scanning the forest around them for any possible escape route. “I’m-”

He didn’t finish. Dante realized only too late that he’d slipped up: his eyes had wandered to behind the ‘child’ as he looked around for an exit. First, creeping horror filled him as he realized what he’d done.

Then another kind of horror filled him as he felt pressure fill the air around him.

“We’re gonna play!” Dante’s movement was abruptly arrested by something he couldn’t see, yet it grasped him around the upper arms and chest like a vice. The ‘child’ giggled. “Us and your friends!” He glanced behind Dante. “Where are they anyways?” He knew. He knew Dante wasn’t alone. “I dunno if I’m up for another game of hide and seek.” The pout was almost audible. “And I don’t wanna keep playing that. Gets boring. But I think I know how to find them.”

The child digimon giggled as he hoisted Dante higher into the air. Right below the human’s chest, a long, jagged, violet crystal materialized, its point aimed at his chest. Colour drained back out of the boy’s face as he watched it hover mere inches before him: his wide eyes, meanwhile, fell upon the others that he could now clearly see, and his expression was blank with the trauma of realization.

“Oh guuuys! I know you’re here too, I know he didn’t come here alone! So why you don’t come out and play before he slips?”

ʀ ᴜ ʙ ᴀ ɴ ɪ ʟ ɪ ᴇ ɴ ᴇ s + ʙ ᴀ ʀ ᴛ ᴍ ᴀ ᴛ ʜ ᴇ ʀ s + ʀ ʏ ᴀ ɴ ᴍ ᴀ ʏ ᴇ ᴢ :

---

A slight hiss knitted itself through the path of the forest, catching Ryan’s angry yet pathetically scared attention. Her eyes shifted quickly towards the sound, catching the briefness of Rubani. Her body cradled itself into Bart’s shadow for safety as the chill in the air crept up her spine. There was no way she was going to make any sound. Bart, on the other hand, God -- he was such a buffoon. Bart the Buffoon. The nickname barely crossed her mind noticeably, but perhaps, if the two of them did live to pick a bone with each other, again, the insult would be hurled from her lips.

Rubani was desperate for either of them to hear her calls. Any louder would mean that they all could be seen by the one who was responsible for the carnage. The boy; however was wholly convinced that the floating creature that presented itself looking like a toy marionette was of the good affinity, “He’s good!” The whisper was silent but vigourous enough for others to hear by an earshot, “I’m not about to lose to somebody who’ll use scare tactics though.”

Rubani was stunned. Was this boy actually planning on antagonizing that thing? Did he not see everything that was going on!? The poor girl almost sighed out loud at his stupidity. She tried signaling again, hoping that at least the girl with him would respond. Maybe she could drag that other kid with her.

Hearing the monstrous thing’s voice had terror-stricken Ryan, and in her poor and vain attempt to protect herself behind Bart had fallen apart all too quickly. Her lower lip quivered beneath her teeth as her eyes slowly met the violet eyes of Rubani. The only comfort she could find in the mist of the situation was a mutual acknowledgement of Bart’s overtly macho behavior, and upon making any such recognition, she quickly shut her eyes tightly and began taking in slow breaths, trying her best not to let them oscillate her body. Maybe the thing would not notice her and just Bart.

No, it clearly knew there were more of them.

In a sudden swift motion, Ryan reached for Bart, pulling him downward, “Shhh…” her eyes narrowed at him in pitiful fear, “Stop being such a boy! This is not a game,” she whispered sharply, pity turning more into a glaring antagonism at the buffoon.

The force had weighed him down -- fingers that pulled his hoodie was followed by Ryan’s terrified and emaciated appearance. It hounded him with her words. As he nervously threw his gaze at the girl he said, “And have me be what? A damsel in distress princess? You’re the one who’s trying to sound like a man! Guy’s inviting us to play games! No good man would deny him that opportunity,” Completely unaware of the death that is surrounding them. Ryan’s lips parted to say or rather, yell something in a bitter retort. However, after a moment of hesitation raced through her mind, her body inclined forward slightly, and her hands pushed against Bart’s chest, shoving him onto his back, “Oof!” Dirt skirted into the air at the thud of the teenager’s body collapsing against the forest’s floor.

A leer escaped his eyes as he landed square on the ground. Anger and frustration enticed him into leaping up from his back and proceed to fight the enemy that he sees in front of him. “What is your goddamn major malfunction?!” He too shoved Ryan as hard as he could.

The fight starting before her eyes dashed any hope of either of them remembering where they were. Rubani could only watch in confusion and frustration. She looked towards the floating mask child in anticipation. There was no possible way that it didn't hear the two of them fighting. Indeed, Rubani seemed to be correct. The masked being was staring at the group, arms crossed and expression unchanged. For a second, it almost seemed like it had forgotten entirely about Dante, still squeezed in an invisible hand and a purple crystal to his chest.

“....that doesn’t really count as coming out to play. What do you think?” The masked being finally spoke up over the fighting, apparently addressing the one person paying him any mind. “Well, I think I gave you guys a fair chance.” The crystal pulled back a few inches, the being raising a hand.

He flicked his wrist.

The crystal shot forward-

And dissolved upon contact with Dante’s chest.

A scream rang out from the trees. “NOOOO!” Rubani shouted.

The being laughed, gentle and sincere and almost reassuring were it not for the scent of charred flesh still lingering in the air. “Oh, that reaction never gets old...” And now he was in the middle of the three, Dante dropped to earth like a discarded doll. The child digimon reclined, still floating in midair as he apparently surveyed the group. “That bit though? Missing the crystal? That’s starting to get a bit old. Cheating, I tell you.”

Ryan had her fist cocked, ready to twist it harshly into the soft, round cheek of Bart. If she aimed it right, his dumb hipster glasses might fall off, too, but before her muscles released her senses came back to her as the slow echo of Rubani’s shriek began replaying in her memory. Her hand arm weakened, fingers tugging at the sleeve of her jacket. Her body moved from the younger boy’s frame. Her eyes heavily scanned the area in terrified lament before finally falling upon Rubani who stricken with grief. They were about to fucking die.
He saw the punch coming and raised his arm in anticipation for it. The pain that he had expected was to sear his muscle did not come, rather his ears were vibrating from Rubani’s screaming plead that reflexively caught his attention in an instant. His gaze pointed towards a horrified Rubani followed instantly to the marionette and his puppet laying lifelessly that was… The other human. “H-He died?”

“H… h…” Ryan stuttered, attempting to repeat verbatim what the boy had just said as a means to articulately register what had just happened. Immediately, Ryan flung herself on top of Bart to hide behind the log. Her right arm writhed against him protectively, “Stay down,” she whispered -- seriousness kneaded in her tone.

She couldn't handle what was happening. That thing had actually killed someone. Rubani been nervous about what might happen, but to have her worse fears come true was absolutely terrifying. Her blood ran cold, and her legs grew weak beneath her. This is where she dies; in a strange forest by a sadistic monster who wanted to see her suffer. Did it even care? It floated in mid air as if they were only boring it. Soon enough, it would grow tired of them completely and kill them all. First her, then Ryan, then Dante…

If she didn't do anything, they were going to be next.

Rubani threw herself forward in a blind panic. If she could reach them and drag them away from that thing, maybe they could somehow survive this. I can reach them in time, I have to! She mumbled this to herself as she reached out to grab the quarreling children.