Phase stepped out from the light, abolishing its glow. He focused solely on Cyclomon, even as he instinctively walked in tandem with Gilt. His Digivice spoke clearly from his pocket.

Its voice was digitized and unisex. "Zubaeagermon! The champion level of Zubamon. It advances without stopping even on flat land or bad roads! It is a Weapon Digimon which can transform into a sword!!"

"Sword Mode, Gilt."

Zubaeagermon dashed off into a sprint before leaping up and taking off into the sky. It vanished beyond the clouds, where loud clinks and the sound of metal sliding off one another roamed. A golden gleam blinked into existence as a large sword impaled the earth.

Phase stepped up to its golden, sleek hilt. Compared to him, it was more like bastard sword, but it would do. He pulled at it and found the weapon to be surprisingly light, as if made for him to wield. He yanked it out the earth and heaved it around to his left side. Its edge was bright with a cool whiteness.

I'll control your arms, Phase. The legs are yours to move.

Phase didn't argue instead he simply moved.

He moved passed the hasty and heated blasts that Cyclomon was spewing. And once he got into range, he leapt onto the massive arm that had crashed down into the railway. His gritted his teeth as he swiftly traversed its length to his neck. The Digimon jerked back, trying to shake him off. But it was too late. Phase yanked his arms back, bringing Gilt's massive blade with him, and hacked its head off with forward arc.

A stream of data slowly spewed from its severed head as it fell to the ground with a THUMMM!

Lost. Yea, he felt lost. Angry mostly but lost too. Even as he held Gilt at his side, his foot planted firmly on the slowly fading corpse of Cyclomon. He had felt totally and completely lost.



Liollmon was broken. The lower portion of his body had no feeling. However, he would convey something to Gabumon. A single wish, mentally told, through his leaking data. Yggdrasil... It came to me. Meld my data with, Nyaromon. A miracle will be set into action. His remaining eye fixed itself on the wailing, burned, Nyaromon. Then onto Gabumon. His mouth faintly smiled. Thank you.

Then Liollmon released his final breath.

"Doru let's finish this."

Doru and Robert landed on the ground with Robert giving the Drilmogemon a raised two finger come at me. Drilmogemon lowered itself grinding it's feet along the ground to charge and impale the Digimon and his human.

{Drill Crusher.}

The Drilmogemon charged at the two, but they held no more reason to fear it. They looked towards it, as their eyes narrowed focusing on the purple body of their foe. Doru opened his mouth and after a slight pause his voice echoed though the area.

{Cannonball!}

A massive iron sphere shot out from Dorugamon's mouth as it met with the charging Digimon's Drill, for a moment they clashed, but spiderweb like cracks formed on Drilmogemon's main weapon. The drill shattered into pieces which scattered shards of metal around. The Cannonball kept moving entering it, the after a moment exiting out the otherside.

The Drilmogemon broke into code revealing it's digicore as the code flowed around it reforming back into a red and white striped Digiegg. Robert stepped off of Doru and picked up the Digiegg. From the silence it seems that the other battle was over.

Hirschmon had to admit that Danny had a point with his suggestion to stick to only use ranged attacks, but he never got an opportunity. He was unable to get a good shot at Cyclomon, due to Liollmon's core and later Zubaeagermon and his Tamer who took their enemy out without issue. Just as he was about to see if he could do anything to help Dorugamon, Drimogemon got hit by a Cannonball and reverted to a Digiegg.

Hirschmon didn't really know how to feel when the battle was over. On the one hand none of the humans got seriously hurt, but he was absolutely useless even Wolfy, who also remained a Rookie did more than he did. As he had finally stopped leaking code he forced himself up and turned to the others. "Good job, guys. Just wish I could have helped."

Kiba looked down at the Core of Liollmon and paused, "Why isn't an egg forming?!" He asked wolfy.

"L-liollmon told me to meld his data with Nyaromons." Wolfy responded as he came back to Kiba with a crying Nyaromon in his hands.

Nyaromon jumped down next to the core "L-Liollmonm, is he, is he really?" He cried as Kiba frowned, his eyes showing the emitomy of gloom.

"Yes I'm ... I'm sorry for your loss." He said as he took out his digivice. "I'll honor his last wish." He whispered as took out his digivice. [Program activating: Meld] The device said as the core, along with the residual data in the air began to fuse with Nyaromon.

Nyaromon began to glow as the lions data entered her. Nyaromon digivolve to ... Wanyamon! An echo said as the small yellow digimon evolved into a whole new digimon.

Kiba, not in the mood to talk, stood up and went back into the train to see Pabumon hiding in an overhead "Pabu?" It asked as it jumped onto his shoulder. Kiba then sat down, crestfallen.

"Good job, guys. Just wish I could have helped." He heard Hischmon say from nearby as his data began to stabalize.

"Huh, at least you didn't mess up." Kiba whispered to himself. The only thing he was good for was strategy. The only thing he's ever been good at was his ability to out do others. "If I had just made a better strategy, maybe ..." He whispered again.

Outside the train, the train tracks had begun to repair.

Doru still in Champion form, walked up to the rest with Robert right next to him, which was quite the size comparison as Doru was currently the size of a hummer. Robert had a digi egg under his arm as he walked up to them. Looking to the left he walked to pick up Cyclonemon's egg. Doru told the group. Both of them were not showing any sense of emotion or their trademark sarcasm.

"I don't exactly know if this guys were part of the army, but if they were that means that the army knows that we're going by train."

Robert picked up the Digiegg.

"If they were then they would be preparing more ambushes down the line, worst case scenario, is that we run into a field of anti Digimon mines along the track, but the only other alternative is going by foot, which would take more time."

Robert walked over next to Doru and continued for him.

"So, the million dollar question is do we go by foot or keep going on Locomon gambling that these guys were independent?"

As Kiba sat inside the train cart, Wolfy had walked out to the two areas that the battles took place to look around at the damage. As Wolfy examined the holes that drimogemon had made he found something in the spot that he was deleted. “What the hell is this?” He asked as he picked up what seemed to be some strange black ring.

Just then, he felt himself lose himself. His conscious thought began to fade as his instinct to battle began to kick in. Everything around him looked like an enemy as a rush of power began to flow through the arm that held the ring. “W-what the hell?!” He yelled as a weird sense of paranoia washed over him before flooding all of his senses. He drops the ring in shock as the world around him came back to normal.

“Wolfy!!!” Kibas voice called to him as Kiba ran towards his partner. “Wolfy you ok? You screamed all of a sudden and then nothing.” He told the wolf like digimon.

".. Kiba, this ring thing. I-I don't know what the hell it does but it's extremely dangerous."

Kibas eyebrow raised. “What, this thing?” He asked as he picked it up. A wave of nausea washed over him before he dropped it. “Woah, that was … weird.”

“Yeah. When I picked it up my senses perked and my battle instinct went up to 11. If I hadn't dropped it … I probably would have attacked you.” He said as he glared at the ring on the ground.

Kiba looked at the black ring, “Didn't that one eyed ogre have one of these around his neck?”

“Yeah but I think Phase cut it at the same time.” Kiba and Wolfy both shared a look.

“Wolfy … You don't think-”

“Yeah, I do. Those guys probably began attacking whatever was the closest thing to them when they put on those collars.”

“Why?”

“I don't know, but I don't think they knew we were here.” Wolfy said as Kiba took off his hoody and used it to grab the ring.

Kiba stood up and walked to the others, minus Phase who seemed to be asleep, “Guys, big news.” He said as he began to tell everyone of the black ring. “What do you guys think we should do?”

Robert listen to Kiba's explain, before answering his question.

"Let's just ignore this thing and let catastrophic damage rain on the digital world as it spreads! If you haven't gotten it that was sarcasm, we should destroy every last one."

Robert pulled out a pair of gloves that he asked Norn to get for him and took the ring off Kiba's hands and inspected it, as in he just swiped it. Robert looked at it for a moment before sharing out his thoughts.

"I can inspect the code on this and use it to track where this thing came from, but I'll need to have a wireless access in order to do the latter, but I'm pretty sure one of the army bases have one of those, though it might take some effort to get to."

Danny's first though was that going by foot might be safer but when Wolfy found the ring and it turned out that Drimogemon and Cyclomon might not be part of the army he changed his mind. "I say that for now we stick with Locomon, not only is it faster and less tiring it decreases the chance that any army members see that there are humans. But if we're attacked again we should leave the tracks."

The white haired kid's comment about dealing with the rings made sense but there was a potentially much easier way to learn about them. "Yeah, I agree but if anyone knows how to contact Norn maybe we can ask her what she knows first."

Hirschmon was relieved that no one blamed for not helping, though he still thought he should have helped more, that way maybe that Liollmon might have survived. "Next time though I'll definitely make up for this."

"I can see you got the gold star for listening."

Once again, Robert being the sarcastic twit that he is responded quite rudely to Danny's innocent question. Robert pulled out his D-terminal and contacted someone.

"Yo, cosplay girl. How have you been? We need to ask Norn something important we need her on the other line."

The person Robert had contacted was Ryuko, who had stayed behind with her Digimon, an orange and blue lizard named Agumon to protect the castle until better security measures could be taken. Ryuko seemed to have grumbled seemingly not liking Robert. The other side went silent until Norn appeared on the screen.

"So Norn, we decided to take a quick detour. I say quick, as in it may take the time of raiding a military outpost, figuring out where a most likely secret facility is located, and blowing it up quick."

Before Norn could ask what was that all about, Robert continued.

"Kiba found these black rings that basically gives you rabies and forces you to attack everyone on sight, know what that's about?"

Robert put up the ring next to his face, so Norn could see it.

---

A gloomy looks washed over Norns face as she looked at the black ring. "The Debug Ring, or at least that's what we've been calling them. They actually started showing up about a month ago when a Golemon in a nearby area started going crazy and attacked one of Gravimons military bases. Nobody actually knows where they are coming from but they aren't with the armies. In fact, most of the digimon with the Debug Rings have been attacking Big Star bases, with almost half of the sighting being digimon attacking Dorbickmons bases in the Volcanic Zone." Norn paused for a bit before continuing, "The Debug rings causes the identification program in digimon to go haywire and make them see everything around them, except other rings, as an enemy."

"Damn that's brutal." Kiba muttered as he and Wolfy finished checking the train rails. "Effective but brutal."

"Yes, nobody has any idea where they're coming from. It's been a growing concern for us since they've also been attacking innocents."

Kiba chuckled "Yes, thats not ominous." He said jokingly before looking for Robert "Welp White hair, hope you figure out what the hell's going on with these freak things." he said as he poked the black ring in Roberts hand. As they continued to chat, the whole train shook slightly as they began to move again. "Oh, seems like the tracks are done."

"If theres anything else you need to ask I suggest asking now. Once you enter the Mountain zone it will be hard to call outside the zone again without a terminal." Norn told the group.

"Well I haven't got anything to ask."

Robert says as he was about to enter the carriage before looking at Doru he was still a size of a Hummer there was no way that he could fit into the train now! Doru looked at Robert flatly, silently saying to fix this. Robert scratched his head he doesn't really have an idea of how to do so, well looks like Doru will have to go on foot... Or he could ask Norn how to undo this, undigivolve, no dedigivolve him that sounded better. Robert swallowed his pride then asked Norn.

"Hey Norn, on second thought. How do I dedigivolve Doru?"

Doru looked at Norn silently asking the same question. After all that walking to get to Norn's castle he did not feel like having to walk to his destination. He looked at Norn put his head over Robert's shoulder as he stared into the screen with a look that said fix this...

"Yes please help Doru quickly lose a few pounds."

Robert said as revenge for Doru's earlier jab at his weight. To which Doru rolled his eyes. That was Robert 2, Doru 1!

Phase was placed on the hard cushions of the Locomon. Resting or recovering. He wasn't quite sure which yet, all he knew was that warm, hard surface was close to him. A bushel of prickling fur near his head. Those sensations had found him in the darkness of unconsciousness. What was the last thing he had done? Why did his muscles feel heavy and hard, like a tire. They moaned and groaned at the slightest thought of movement.

For now, I'll just rest. he told himself before fading.

Gilt was sulking in his despair. It was his fault that Phase had been thrown into his current state. What kind of partner does this!

The comment made by Dorumon's partner convinced Danny to at the next opportunity play around with his Digivice and learn how to use all it's functions. He hadn't even figured out that they could be used to contact Norn instead thinking they were only connected to each other. For now though Hirschmon required his attention even though he seemed to have stabilized.

"Don't beat yourself up over what happened, I'm sure if you had Digivolved..." "Gabumon X didn't Digivolve either and he at least managed to prevent Liollmon's Digicore from getting absorbed, while I went down after one attack." Danny didn't know how to respond too that and as such just placed his hand on what he thought was Hirschmon's shoulder.

“Oh, well there are two ways for a digimon to dedigivolve that has a tamer. The first is time, to just let the digimon waste the energy you've given them. The second is forced, where you use the digivice to take back the energy. But be warned that the forced way is said to feel … strange. Like a rush of emotions flooding you. Although these are all records that past tamers made so I'm not 100% certain.” Norn explained to the group as she hung up, ending the call.

---

Pabumon was confused as to why the rest of the train ride was so quiet. No one really talked to each other as the sound of the train moving echoed outside. Even Kiba, who would usually be talking to him was silent.

“Passengers please get ready, we are about to reach our destination.” A voice on the PA system said, probably Locomons. Kiba looked up and opened one of the windows, sticking his head out to see light from the end of the tunnel.

The train slowed to a stop as they reached the end, the smell of nature filled the air as the doors opened and everyone exited, with Phase being carried(?) out of the train. They were treated to the sight of a small lake at the base of a mountain chain, telephone poles scattered around the area and random wires ran through the ground. “Welcome to the Mountain Zone.” Locomon said before he began to run backwards into the cave they had just come through. “Stay safe!!!!!”

"Let's try it. We don't have enough time to wait."

Robert pointed his digivice to Doru and then... streams of data came from Doru's body as it flowed into the Digivice's screen heating it up just like it did when he digivolve down him. A flow of emotions flowed into Robert, however, for a moment he could see the inside of a building, which the exploded into flames causing a person wearing what appeared to be samurai armor step out from the flames, however before he could think what that was about a sharp pain could be felt from the side of Robert's ribcage. Robert grasped at his side just as Doru was back to normal. Doru ran to Robert's side only for him to remove his arm and reveal that he wasn't injured.

Robert and Doru stepped onto the train and Robert started to look though the code of the Decode Ring. Of course there was security so it would take him sometime to crack it, he'd give it about the end of the train ride to finish his preparations. Doru was tired and decided to sleep. He layed his head on Robert's lap while he worked. That was their hours on the train. When they reached their destination Robert awoke Doru and put his supplies away. They stepped out first due to the fact that they were the only ones who could Digivolve at the moment. Mountain Zone the first step of their journey was beginning now.

Nami wondered through this strange digital world with her injured partner on her back. The girl had no idea why was here, something about evil gods or whatever Hawkmon explained to her. Nami wasn't sure about this and kinda wanted to go home. She was tired , hungry and almost out of energy, but she didn't want to leave just yet. How could she just leave Hawkmon like this..all alone so those bigger digimon could tear him to shreds. He just protected her...there was no way Nami could leave him. Besides, she started to get attach to the know it all mon. She would most definitely be dead without his help

"Hawkmon, thank you for protecting me..I'm grateful. Don't worry, I'll do everything in my power to make sure you get help." Nami noticed that a train went past them."You guys have trains? Well..that would had be very helpful." Hawkmon watched the locomon pass."I have to protect you..it's my job. Also, That's a digimon call Locomon, it's very useful indeed." He said in a weak voice. " Locomon huh? Well, we may need to catch. Also, don't over do your self ok?" Nami smiled as she continued to match forward

The Locomon stopped shortly after, with Robert stepping out, they were the first ones to be the ones to secure the area and to be honest Robert felt a child like glee from the new area. They opened the doors of the carriage and slowly stepped out, the train ride had been nearly dead silent and he himself didn't have time to walk around so his legs had a dull numbness to them. They stepped onto the ground of the mountain zone, but before he could admire the view Doru's ears spiked up. Both of them turned to general direction of Nami, with the Doru getting low to the ground growling at them, before he realized what he was seeing. For a moment Robert's eyes widened and Doru shouted loud enough for the rest of the passengers to hear.

"What's a human doing out here!?"

Danny, not knowing what else to say to Hirschmon, wondered if he should spend the rest of the trainride fiddling with this Digivice or try and comfort his partner. Unable to choose he tried to do both. "If you wanna talk or something let me know, for now if you don't mind I'm gonna play around with this thing." He said holding the small device. Hirschmon didn't answer so he guessed the bug didn't mind.

By the time the P.A system mentioned they were close to their destination Danny believed he had the basics at least figured out, though he knew from the start he wasn't gonna become a Robert-level hacker.

Having have had some time to think Hirschmon calmed down a bit. It was only his second fight after all, and as terrible as he felt about Liollmon at least none of the party members was seriously hurt.

Danny was just about to leave his seat and head for the exit when he heard that there was another human outside. Curious he rushed to the door and only just barely prevented himself from crashing into Robert.

Kiba jumped to the window and stocked his head out to see the girl “Waaahhh! New people!” He yelled in joy as he looked at the two before looking above them to seem what looked like a weird swivel shape in the air. “Wait, what is that?” He asked as he took out his digivice and used what seemed to be a camera app to get a zoom up of the swivel. What he saw was 2 things, one looked like some weird hybrid between a dragon and a serpent flying through the sky the other was what seemed to be a mix between a human and bird. A different program began to activate and a name appeared on the screen. “Airdramon and Harpymon?” Kiba said which immediately caught Wolfys attention.

“An Airdramon and Harpymon? Here?!” He yelled as he pushed the two humans at the door out of the way. “Haha, this time it'll be MY turn to digivolve.” Little did Wolfy now. It wasn't.

Kiba ran outside and to the girl with a digimons side. “Hurry! You'll both be safe inside the Locomon.” He said as he led the two inside to where Phase was sleeping and Gilt was standing guard. “Gilt, protect everyone in the cart. And you,” he said looking to hawkmon. “Eat this and come fight if you have enough energy.” He said as he input a command into the digivice and a huge comically big piece of meat appeared.

Outside the train, the two flying digimon hovered above the ground as Wolfy did a staring contest with the two. “Intruders, come quietly and we might just spare you.” The Harpymon yelled.

“Hehe, to think we'd find such … delicious looking prey out here in the middle of nowhere.” The airdramon said. “Lord Gravimon will be pleased when we bring you in.

“Then we’all just have to make sure not to be caught by you.” Wolfy replied.

(For this battle I kinda want Hawkmon and Hirchmon to digivole since they can fly when digivolved.)

( give me a moment to edit)