[IC] Digimon: Digital Monsters- Pillars of Blood (Digimon d6; Hard Drive Catacomb v1.0)

[tobiax]

___Shafts of dusty light stream through high vaulted windows as a shattering thud rang out. A shadowed figure with glowing red eyes reached out its jagged claws, gripping the sides of an iron container. It snarled, fighting some unseen force which grabbed at its ragged edges and seemed intent on drawing the being within.
___Amidst that same dusty room, a short haggard figure breathed heavily. Dressed in a simple brown rag and orange gloves, the small, hairy headed figure gripped a short staff ornamented with a large round cat’s paw, pointing it towards the looming shadow. With a great step of its large, hairy feet, the short figure took a surprisingly great leap, swinging the staff in a mighty arc, crashing it into the shadow, knocking it into the iron container, shutting with a crash. A bright, twisting flash shot forth as the shadow was locked away, and drove itself into the old one, knocking him to the ground with a crash.
___Knowing the time was dire, the white haired figure released from its hand six shining lights. Slowly, the lights drifted through the high vaulted windows, floating up, higher and higher into the sky, until they broke into small white rings in the sky, seeking help from the Real World.

[Razael]

It was a bright and sunny afternoon and the sun beamed down on the city reflecting off of every piece of metal and leaving a glare on each window casting light in all directions, despite it all the light could not touch most of the alleyways and more seedier parts of town as if these places were meant to be left alone as the young women currently being the victim of armed robbery was just figuring out. It was just the three of them the baggy eyed robber gripping a chefs knife with shaky hands, the somewhat plump, crying woman desperately holding on to her handbag. The other man who remained out of sight for the time being was Remus, watching with bright blue steely eyes taking in as much detail on the two as he could, trying to figure out who had the most money on them and judging by the large red stains along the knife the robber was his best bet for a decent haul.
Just as the mugger brought his arm back to stab the woman Remus caught the mans wrist with the hook end of his cane and spoke to the mugger in mocking manner, with a heavy Germanic accent "Dont you know not to play with knives?" The man snarled at Remus "Back off man! I found her first!" "Now why does everyone assume that just because I'm German-" Remus twisted his cane roughly and a sickening crack reverberated off the walls followed by the mans howls of agony "I'm a bag guy hmm?" The man fell to his knees and Remus put a shiny black boot on the back of the mans head, brushing his Dirty blonde, shoulder length hair out of his eyes he extended his knee causing the robber's face to hit the brick wall hard, leaving him dazed on the ground. Remus smirked and quickly relieved the man of his rather large wallet "To the victors go the spoils!"

He opened it up but instead of a large wad of cash he was almost blinded by shiny metal object, as he withdrew it Remus felt himself slowly falling to the ground, the robber must have threw a punch at him when he was not looking, but that wouldn't explain why Remus was able to rationalize something like that happening since he should be unconscious from such a blow, it was then that the light began to clear and Remus found himself lying on his back gazing up at treetops and a clear sky instead of the skyscrapers and industry choked one he was use to seeing.

[Lugia]

I finally finished. Only moments before the bell rang, which told all of us that it was time to stop working, I finished my final. This was even the last class of the day, too. I wasn't sure if my rushed effort would get me an A, but it probably wasn't going to fail me. I practically flew out of class, and nearly ran over one of my friends, Greg. "Hey, Alan!" He shouts at me, later shouting "Slow down and let me talk!" I slow down after I run out of energy, which honestly was too soon after I started running to be considered anything more than 'embarrassing'. "Okay, good, now that I can talk, I gotta tell you. I finally finished this great new game. It's called 'Chrono Trigger', and it's on that handheld... er... what was it's name, again?" I manage to not facepalm, considering Greg thought of himself as a gamer, and he made a mistake someone like me, who hasn't played a game in years wouldn't have. "Greg... that game's been out for years. What you played was some sort of remake or remastering, or something. My cousin used to play that game, and tell me all about it when he used to come over. It's not new," Greg laughs, and says "Well... I mean, obviously I was joking, right?" Whatever joke he was trying to make, it wasn't a good one, making it even harder to fake a laugh as I continued to head towards my ride home.

The ride home seemed to take forever considering the fact that finals were out of the way, and I essentially had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted... at least for three months or so, and once I got there, I bolted straight for the door, ignoring an odd package that was apparently addressed to me, and sitting in front of the door. My parents weren't home at the time, so I didn't even have to talk to anyone before entering my room. Ah, my room, the place was a complete mess with my bed that I haven't made in months, as well as the random balled-up and tossed around drawings of dragons that I felt weren't even good enough to keep for one reason or another, and even the cans of soda, one of which was open, the other of which was probably warm and flat by now, which sat next to the chips on my computer desk, which also functioned as an easel if I don't have room to set up the actual easel I had. Considering the random things strewn on the floor, which have been there for who-knows-how-long, I haven't gotten to use it as an actual computer desk for a while, and actually had an unfinished drawing already on it. I didn't finish the shading or the coloring yet, and I didn't put a lot of detail into the mountain in the background, either. I was eager to start, and since nobody else was home, I did just that, making sure to use just the right pencils so I get the right color of grey for the shading, as for detail, I placed a few more trees on the mountain, as well as one that looked as though it was destroyed by the dragon in the foreground. I was in the middle of shading said tree when a very loud and annoying beep, which indicated that I, for some reason or another, have received an E-mail from someone... odd, since my friends didn't usually bother due to the fact that I almost never check my E-mail, despite my computer reminding me every time I got one.

[tobiax]

Pale feet hit the wooden floor with a soft slap as the dull light of morning barely bled through the curtains. After a few moments of shuffling, a slender figure emerges, swaying slightly as she walks, sneaking past the doorframe. Not caring whether or not anyone else was home, she shifted through her home, perpetuating the shifting sway of her movements.
A few moments later, and she was outside. The walk into the more densely populated areas of town towards her school was one she knew well, but that didn't make it any less boring. As she often did, she began looking for ways to make it more exciting. As her gaze grew distant, she began wondering if she could manage to walk along the edge of a fence for as far as she could.

A few moments later, and she was standing, somewhat unsteadily, on the edges of the the fence boards. She continued on this way for quite some time, her ankles occasionally shifting, only to be righted with the next step. However, as she was nearly to her destination, she began to feel faint. Trying to get herself off the fence, she found herself leaning forward, never seeing where she landed as everything went black.

----------

___Moments passed, and the lights faded from the sky. An erie silence was all that was left of the glimmers of hope that had passed. Small creatures who had seen these lights, now lowered their heads, feeling their hope sink into despair.
___However, miles away, several youths now appeared- most huddled against themselves as though having fallen. The forest around them was silent, and tall, straight trees stood all about. However, something was not quite right- the ends of the branches, if they could be seen, seemed to end in bare, exposed coils of copper, and plastic rings seemed affixed to the bases of the trees. On the other side of the stream, laying in ruin with a layer of moss covering it, was a large glass tube of some sort, capped with a bulging dome. The end opposite the dome had a black cylindrical object wedged within, from which two equally separated pin like projections stuck.
___Despite the silence of this scene, the humans were not alone. Amongst the brush surrounding the small clearing in which they had landed, several small creatures now stood, looking on with mixed expression.

[Razael]

His mind was racing after thousands of theories as to what just happened but Remus kept lapping the notion that maybe he should just lay there for awhile and get his barrings, if this question needed to be answered it would do so itself. Sure enough something eventually would happen and Remus would await whatever fate had wanted to try on him, after all he was probably only unconscious.

[Lugia]

[Alan]

I stop drawing, and try to open the E-mail... it was blank for some reason, however, I didn't get much time to look at it, as I somehow fell right into my computer. I ended up passing out from the 'fall', and when I woke up, I was in a forest of some sort, with about two other kids standing next to me. I didn't know these people, so I fell silent, as I usually did around strangers. That wasn't all, however, as a similar number of strange creatures decided to make their way out of the bushes, one of which, a red one to be more specific, jumped right at me, making me jump back, as if the creature was trying to hurt me.

[Jason]

Three days of traveling, and what did I find? Nothing. I think as I continue to slug slide my way around this odd, new dimension. There wasn't another living soul here, which made me eventually think This is purgatory, isn't it? It SEEMS alright, but then you get hit with crippling loneliness from missing your family... as I search this odd looking forest. Sure, I could count the trees as living... if they weren't made of plastic and copper. Either way, it seemed like the closest thing to another living thing in this strange place, so I entered the forest, thinking that a forest will PROBABLY have maybe one or two other things in it. For a while, I was proven wrong, and then I saw a bunch of people drop down from what appeared to be the sky. Humans! Finally! Some other living thing! I practically shouted to myself as I tried to speed up... of course, failing, as I couldn't really go much faster than a slug's pace. I guess it could be worse, I could be limited to a snail's pace. After losing my way a few times in the forest, I end up in a bush near the... huh, they looked like kids, or teenagers, no older than 20, for sure. What is this place? I ask myself as I notice one of them, the one on the far right with the giant white jacket, and messed-up hair cringe at the sight of the others. I then take a look to the right of myself and notice a few others, they were strange, sluglike creatures like me. I took some time to think about that, and saw the others inching towards the two other kids, leaving me with the cringer, wait, what? Since when did I need to... oh, heck, anyone's company was better than nothing, so I ended up practically jumping towards the kid, only to have him jump back in fear... whoops.

[Razael]

His mind was racing after thousands of theories as to what just happened but Remus kept lapping the notion that maybe he should just lay there for awhile and get his barrings, if this question needed to be answered it would do so itself. Sure enough something eventually happened and Remus saw two other human beings, he quickly got to his feet and leaned against a nearby tree he reached into his pocket and pulled out the strange grey object he found in the ladies purse before this whole ordeal had occurred. He held it close to his face and noticed a strange symbol on it but no other distinct markings on the device. He cleared his throat before speaking to them in a language he could not speak fluently but he knew enough and judging by the surroundings they were probably wondering where they were just as much as Remus was!

Though his accent was practically impossible to eliminate he figured he would just try to be friendly with present company "I vere to guess I vould have to say I received a hard blow from some street ruffian and am having a dream. But you obviously are vell avare that something has indeed gone vrong so if you could be so kind as to tell me your names Id be more than happy to help you figure out vere ve are and vhat has happened to put us here, however you arrived here shortly after I so perhaps if ve vait awhile someone will show up and vith answer ja?" He smiled to his companions but the smile soon turned to shock when a small creature skittered past him and towards one of the children.

As Remus examined the strange device and spoke three drops of what appeared to be tree sap fell on it, he turned around to see more of it oozing along the tree and begin to pool together, this would not be strange if the pool did not sit perfectly still instead of continually oozing down the tree, suddenly the drops that fell on his device began to slither along his hand and leap off it to join the blob on the tree.

Remus stared in wonder as suddenly two red orbs flared within the blob which suddenly blinked at him! Remus stared dumbfounded at the sentient ball of sap as it turned his gaze to the grey object in Remus's hand, it was then that a mouth seemed to form on the creature (or perhaps it was always there and Remus never noticed it) "You don't look like the others, your pretty unique, that means you and I could achieve some great things together." With that the digimon stretched off the tree and congealed on Remus's shoulder, he was about to protest when he noticed that despite his companions form he left no trace or trail of slime on the surface of the tree or on his clothing.

[tobiax]

There was a buzzing sound in her ears when she awoke. Nothing felt quite right. As her eyes opened things looked... wrong. Colors seemed painted to things, as opposed to natural, and tiny dark spots seemed to cover things in the distance. She felt dizzy, raising her hand to see if she was in one piece.

The first thing Nadica could think of was that she had fallen from the fence. It definitely felt like she had fallen, but she couldn't see it nearby. Actually, nothing seemed familiar.
"Am I dreaming..." she murmured to herself.

As soon as her words left her mouth, a series of green bubbles seemed to float from nowhere.

"Well, that answers that," marked she through clenched teeth as she stood.
Deciding no harm could come of it, she began to follow the source of the green bubbles. Despite being within close proximity, she did not seem to notice the other figures in the small clearing.

[Lugia]

The kid that I jumped towards ran off just as I kind of expected him to. "Hey, wait up!" I shout, though my voice sounded a bit weird for whatever reason. Seems like whoever that was, he was shy. The kid also dropped a notebook, with one very detailed sketch of a dragon, some mountain, and some trees Hm... I wonder what's up with this. I think as I try and fail to pick it up, later remembering that I lack the limbs to do so. I then try to pick it up with my mouth, hoping that I don't end up destroying his art that way. I tried to keep up with the kid, but, given that I was some sort of slug thing, it wasn't all too easy. He did need to take a break pretty soon after running, thankfully, and I give him the notebook, to which, he responded by saying "H-how'd you get a hold of that!? Please tell me you didn't see any of my work," I answer, somewhat quickly with "Yeah, I saw it. It was good drawing, too, so, you really shouldn't be ashamed of it," this surprised the kid, and he stayed there for a while, doing what seemed like nothing, until a few minutes later when he finally asked "So... what's your name? What are you?" I then think for a moment, and respond with "The name's Jason, as for what I am, you know as well as I do. Anyways, it's nice to finally see someone else here, but, how come you got to be human, and I have to be this slug thing?" the kid shakes his head, and shrugs, saying "I dunno," he then adds "Um... my name's Alan. Hm... maybe it has something to do with how I got here? I mean, I got here through a computer, how about you?" I then think back to some other time, and simply state "Yeah, that's absolutely NOT how I got here..." I then add "So, why'd you run?" Alan doesn't answer, and just starts walking towards where the others were, leaving me without an answer. I follow, with him being the only person I knew here... but, hey, at least I know someone now, right?

[Razael]

(Alright its time to hire a reverend, say my vows and commit!)
Remus was nervous but oddly intrigued by the strange creature that not only defied its form but also spoke to him. He noticed the other children had creatures with them as well. "This has got to be the most vivid moment of unconsciousness I have ever had! I hope that mook didn't drug me or something." He began walking towards the others not really paying attention to what he just said or even the being that had moved along his shoulder and stretched itself across his neck and rested surprisingly snugly, like a scarf, if a scarf could talk, was yellow with blue eyes and in the form of a blob. He thought mostly on what his scarf had said earlier "You don't look like the others, which means you and I could do great things together." He wondered what it meant by "The others" and why just because he did not look like these aforementioned "Others" that he and the scarf could do great things together. While he was lost in his thoughts Remus had wandered near the other two humans and their creatures and said out loud without knowing "Perhaps we could stick together? I don't see why we should not? Maybe I can learn more about this place while we are here."

[tobiax]

The girl's gaze drifted along the chain of bubbles until it met what seemed to be a pile of green soap and suds on the ground. Curious, she leaned closer, only for a pair of black eyes and a yellow nub to meet her face. A startled, high pitched squeal- which was not very loud- heralded a stream of bubbles from the passifier like object, causing Nadica to swat them away from her eyes.
The squishy creature was about to flee, leaving an effervescent trail behind, when it was startled by a snapping branch. With surprising force, it leapt back, landing against the girl's chest. Instinctively, she clutched it, falling from the force, landing on something hard in her pocket she didn't realize she had. Before she could investigate, she heard a sound beyond the underbrush.

"Oh, well isn't this interesting," an impish voice cackled, as what appeared to be a black mask with red and blue eyes stuck itself into the clearing, a pale, fanged grin planted in the middle of its face, "And what are you doing here?" cackled the voice.

[Lugia]

I started talking Alan's ear off as I followed him back to the clearing where we met everyone else, and, while I thought he'd be annoyed by my incessant chatter, he was somehow intrigued... at least, as far as I could tell. The kid didn't say a single word to me, and once we got back, there seemed to be one more creature than there was child. This one was even stranger than the other two... of course, I didn't really have room to talk, given my own appearance, however, at the risk of sounding rude, I ask the strange, fanged thing "Who... or what are you, exactly?" The other two kids had their own creatures, similar to myself, they were slime, or slug-like in appearance and physical properties, however, the other two kids at least spoke. Alan was stricken even more mute by the two unknown kids, let alone the other strange creature. Oddly, one of the kids was wearing his creature as if it were a scarf, while the other one, more specifically, the girl, was holding the thing close to her chest as if the creature was a precious baby, rather than some odd thing that had some sort of attachment to her. So, I guess I should be a little happier about this, I mean, I finally found other forms of life in this strange place, and I honestly hope that this fourth creature isn't hostile. I then remember that I haven't actually introduced myself to any of the others, but, given the situation, I supposed that could wait until a little later, at least.

[Digizel]

Hideaki looked around him, observing the school life of the students that attended this school. He was currently standing in the hallway of a new school, one that he had found the night before while looking at maps of the city again. After all, today was one of the few chances he had to explore the town a little bit more, since he did not have any particularly difficult school work to do back at the house unlike usual. Although in all honesty, he didn't particularly mind all of the busy work he was getting. After all, he was going to be something great when he grew up, and he'd be used to putting forth a lot of effort in what he was doing. So doing a real job would seem even easier than usual. Or at least, that's what his mother would tell him, though he wasn't sure how accurate that was.

He shifted his footing and adjusted the bag that was resting on his back. He hadn't wanted to look out of place to the other students, so he'd brought his book bag with him. In it, he carried a decent amount of supplies that either his parents forced him to bring with him whenever he left the house or simply random items to give it some additional weight. It also contained a few books for him to read when he was done looking in on classrooms. As he took another look around while a kid pushed past him in a hurry to make it to his next classroom, a loud ringing sounded throughout the hallway, and the leftover kids were now quickly pushing their way through open doorways into the classrooms that they were supposed to be in. He always found it rather amusing to watch the students hanging out in front of the lockers for a while until the bell rang, which would inevitably result in them hurrying the conversation to an end and rushing to their class to avoid being tardy.

Before long, the young man found himself in an empty hallway, with every classroom door closing, likely to make it obvious when a tardy student would make his way inside. He peeked through the nearest classroom door window and saw a familiar sight. According to the list of classes posted on the doorframe, the class being taught here right now was a Statistics class. An older woman was standing near the front of the class, preparing to turn a projector on. He let out a small sigh. He had seen enough of Statistics studies to last him until law school. And so, he decided to step away from the door and see what he could do next.

As the boy moved through the hallway, he ended up passing in front of a restroom. He decided to make a quick stop here before looking for a different classroom. He stepped into the bathroom and was finished with his break quickly enough. He fastened his belt back into place and stepped up to the sink. He reached to twist the faucet and let out the water, but he was suddenly alerted by a beeping sound at his waist. He looked down and grabbed hold of the cell phone his parents had given him. He looked at the screen and noticed that he had a text message from an unknown number.

'That's...strange,' he thought. 'Nobody ever gets a hold of me through texts. They all know that they're supposed to call me....' Curious, he unlocked the phone and selected the text message icon. Stranger still, there did not seem to even be a message with the text. After all, the spot where it would usually give you a preview of the text beneath the number was completely empty. He selected the message...and then suddenly everything went black.

~~~~~

"Hey, you!" a voice suddenly shouted. "What d'you think you're doing, still sleeping like that? Great, of all the humans I could have gotten stuck with, I guess I must've gotten the lazy one."

Suddenly, a thud to his side jolted the human awake. Hide's eyes finally opened and he let out a low groan as he sat himself upright. He reached up and rubbed his skull with an open palm. "What...?" he murmured, looking around him to try to figure out what had just happened. "Where...?" A moment later, he was silenced by his surroundings. No longer was he in the school he had been exploring just a short while ago. Instead, he found himself in a small field...no, rather a clearing in perhaps one of the strangest forests he'd ever seen. If he had to make a snap judgment, it would be that he had somehow ended up in some kind of industrial forest, created by someone with a strange hobby and too much time on their hands.

As he began to stand up, though, the voice spoke up again.

"Geez, it's about time. C'mon already, everybody's already awake and doing stuff!"

"Huh...?" Hide murmured, looking down to find the source of the voice. At his feet, staring up at him, was a small, black creature of some kind. The appearance of the creature startled him for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "W...wait. Are you talking to me...?" he asked it.

"No, I'm talking to the OTHER human still passed out on the floor." the black creature replied. Hide had a feeling that if he could have, he would have rolled his eyes.

Hide was stunned. What was this thing? And how was it talking...? "Erm...s-sorry...?" he murmured, pushing himself back up again.

"Well whatever," the thing said. "I guess we should probably introduce ourselves or something. The name's Botamon." He then hopped in place for a moment. "And you sure are a lucky one, 'cause I'm gonna be the strongest Digimon in the world one day."

"...Erm..." Hide mumbled, clearly still not quite comfortable with talking to a weird black blob with goldenrod eyes. "H-Hideaki Saitou." he finished uncomfortably. He currently had roughly twenty questions swimming around in his mind right now, but he could voice them later. Right now, he needed to gather his bearings....

"Well c'mon, the other guys are doing stuff already, so hurry up!" With that, he immediately turned around and started bouncing forward, making his way toward where most of the action was going on, in Nadica's direction. Or at least, from what he could tell after hearing that somewhat higher-pitched squealing sound. It was too quiet for Hide to pick up, but Botamon was just able to pick it up.

Hide was still just as stunned as before. But it seemed like this strange creature, or Botamon as he called himself, seemed to know a bit more than he did. And, at least on the surface, he didn't seem to be hostile. So for now, he decided to just accept what he was looking at. After all, this little guy was definitely real. He had hit him in the side in order to wake him, if the bruise he had on his side was any indication. So he had no real reason to doubt the reality of what was going on. At least, not yet. So if he wanted to learn more, he would undoubtedly need to stay with him. After coming to this conclusion, he nodded to himself and began to step forward, following Botamon toward where Nadica was currently located. He quickly took note of the other humans and creatures that were also nearby, but decided to approach them later. Right now, he wanted to stick close to Botamon.

"Hey, what's happening over here?" Botamon suddenly called out with a particular lack of subtlety toward the girl and the Pabumon he found over there.

Hide remained silent, content with simply observing from behind for now. He always thought it was too risky to make any moves without any information, unless he was otherwise forced to.

[tobiax]

"Wh-what the..." Nadica mumbled, rather startled by the strange visage which had appeared mere inches from her face.
The creature simply continued grinning, stepping out of the bushes with purple leather boots, which seemed to have claws or spikes of some kind, in a regal red, affixed to or sliced through the face of them. While the being in question seemed to wear pants, in lieu of a shirt, its small, bat like wings were simply crossed over its chest, and a blue gem was suspended between on golden chain, with several belts strapped around its pale arms. The creature's large hands with sharp, regal-red claws were placed on his hips in a rather comically authoritative manner, and its diminutive tail swished around behind it.

It was then that Nadica's thoughts finally clicked, and she looked down at the bubbly creature that was clinging to her chest. The other small creatures seemed able to talk- she had heard the muted murmurs of conversation from both sides, and the two boys which seemed to be around weren't talking to each other. Slowly, her gaze dropped from the bizarre visitor to the creature at her chest, whose constantly effervescing surface was starting to feel strange against her lace hemmed blouse.
"Um, hey little guy..." she began, rather nervously, before her voice seemed to calm significantly, "Don't worry, I gottcha."

The creature simply whimpered, causing the girl's lips to furrow in concern.

"Say, what's your name? And like... what even are you?" she asked as she began to catch stride with the situation.

"P-Pabumon," the little creature's tiny voice barely sighed.

Further conversation was halted by the rapid approach and rather loud exclamation by what Nadica could only process as a fat little land tadpole with ears or something. The fanged creature took notice rather quickly of the red creature's approach, his eyes seeming to sharpen for a fraction of an instant, as if something was wrong with this creature. However, the exclamation returned the comically self assured expression for which it would appear the creature was known. In a rather silly gesture, it lowered its large, clawed hand to the red creature's level.
"Don't be dense toddler," scoffed the imp demon, as he swatted the other on the head, before crossing his arms before his chest and laughing loudly.

However, the laughing soon stopped, as his gaze turned to the sky. A flash appeared, and a bright streak flowed with a strange, vectored pace, crashing to the ground. As the flash evaporated, another human appeared, soon accompanied by a small black fuzzy creature with tiny ears and yellow eyes.

"Well meatures, welcome to Digiworld!" the pale, masked Digimon announced.

[Lugia]

The implike creature decided it was best to annoy, or otherwise taunt me, and to be honest, it worked "Who the heck are you calling 'toddler'!? I'll have you know that I-" I was cut off by Alan, of all people, saying "Don't do that. He looks quite a bit stronger than you are," I then made my way back to Alan, who might have just saved my skin back there, and overhear him calling something, or likely someone 'meatures'... he also welcomed us to something he called the 'Digiworld'. Digiworld? What in the world is that? Wait... obviously digi is short for digital... the term 'meatures'... does that mean that the imp guy's a robot!? Well, then, I guess I'd really be outmatched if I tried to fight him, then. I don't think I'm ready to fight a robot... not in this weird state I'm in after... well, that. I think, trying to make sense of everything the imp robot said to me, at this point blissfully unaware of the fact that I wasn't actually included in the term 'meatures', as he probably indicated that he was talking about the children, and not the... other things, like myself. This place being some sort of a digital world made a few things, such as the trees, and general lack of life up until now make a lot more sense... well, that was only relatively speaking, of course copper and plastic trees just growing out of the ground didn't make much sense in any context, but it made just a little bit more sense in this exact one, at least in that circuits usually used copper wiring due to its electrical properties, and plastic was a material commonly used to cover said electronics.

[Digizel]

The two individuals made their way over to where Nadica, Pabumon and this strange, masked creature was also standing. Hide felt almost as if he had accidentally walked into some stranger's conversation and was momentarily tempted to leave. However, he was stopped when the short creature mentioned the term "meatures." He immediately realized what he meant by the portmanteau of "meat" and "creatures." Did that then mean that these strange critters were not made of flesh and bone like humans were? But then, what were they exactly?

Well, the next thing the creature said definitely held some potential answers to that question. "Erm...excuse me, but...what do you mean by 'Digiworld?'" Hide asked, speaking up again. "Surely you don't mean that it's some kind of digital universe or something, do you? Because...I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that I'm not digital." At this point, he had completely accepted the fact that these weird creatures were even present in the first place and that they could speak in plain English. He still wasn't sure what they were, but if there was any kind of credence to this "Digiworld" thing, then perhaps these strange non-"meatures" were actually made up of some form of physical data? But how could something like that be? He had felt Botamon himself. He was certainly no hologram or anything....

"Huh?" Botamn said, looking back at Hide questioningly. "Pft. Geez, I guess you can be a bit dense. Everything in the Digital World is digital. Why else would we call it that?"

"D-dense...?" Hide repeated, a little surprised that the single-minded creature would call him dense. "And...what do you mean, everything?"

But Botamon wasn't paying attention anymore. He was now looking at the larger, masked creature. "So who are you supposed to be, anyway?"

[tobiax]

A playful smirk caught the young girl's face as her posture righted. She saw the somewhat plain looking boy some closer-the reason for the expression, and toyingly popped her hip out in his direction.
"Hey boy, I'm not in for that now, m'kay?" she teased, pausing a moment before bursting out into laughter, shaking her head at her own joke.

The clawed creature was making her uneasy. Something about him seemed... wrong, and his speech pattern was just... bizarre. A quizical glare locked on the scene as the one with the claws and gnarly looking wing vest back handed the ground-tadpole. Nadica wasn't sure what to make of this.

Pabumon sat, relatively quiet, a slow mist of bubbles emanating from the outer layer of the soft digital body. There was little to be done at the moment, so the Digimon's eyes closed, thinking about what would come next. For the time being, safety from larger Digimon had been attained, and thoughts soon drifted off in a somnant manner.

Becoming the center of attention, the masked creature leaned to the side, only to slowly rotate, placing a clawed hand to his face, as if lounging mid air. The eternal grin within the mask seemed to grow wider as he let out an almost giggling laugh.
"Close, meature, but you're wrong on the not part," he replied.
A slow, almost hearty chuckle left his throat as the small fuzzy Digimon approached. Slowly, he drifted down, then patted the other rather belittlingly on the head. Perhaps in a more disorienting way than before, the Digimon spread out his hands, rotating to stand once again on his feet before them.
"Yes, everything," he answered, sounding rather annoyed, almost drained, before perking up once more, "I, am Dracmon," he announced rather enthusiastically.
Punctuating his annunciation, his hands opened, claws tensing upwards, revealing two reeling eyes set within his palms, each iris matching the color of the corresponding eye in the mask.

A soft yelp left Nadica's lips at the exclamation, and specifically the gesture. A soft line of sweat gathered along her brow, and she seemed to be making a point of brushing her hair rather excessively over her left eye, which had been covered by this point. Her hands shook slightly, and, were it not for the conscious clinging of Pabumon, the small Digimon would have tumbled to the ground.
"C'mon... keep it together Nadica," she muttered to herself, posture seeming rather pensive.

[Lugia]

Not really surprised by anything due to him just saying that this place was some sort of literal digital realm, or something, I almost expected him to have an extra set of eyes in his hands, after all, given everything up to this point, it was oddly normal, and as such, I had an 'unimpressed' face, or some sort of equivilant. He then told me his name, and was probably hoping I was too scared to continue talking, but I just asked, starting to get a little bored, honestly "So, Mr. Dracmon, any ideas on where some sort of civilization might be... or, anywhere where I won't get killed?" Alan backed away from what's-her-face, who was talking to that new guy. I would have told Alan to introduce himself, but I had a feeling that he was kinda, well, shy. I then start thinking, even if we found some sort of civilization, what kind of money would they have? Do they just let what they consider toddlers to roam around? Do these so-called toddlers have to pay for anything, or is there any sort of guardianship from the supposedly older, and most likely more powerful creatures? I assumed that even if I asked that, our guide here wouldn't even answer, heck, I'd be surprised if he answered the question I already asked him. I then overhear the girl muttering, and finally catch her name, though, if I just addressed her by name immediately, she'd think, or, rather, know that I was eavesdropping, and she was one of the few normal people here, I'd rather not lose her help... or, at least, whatever help a second, and now third, as someone else just ran into the scene, forgot to notice that earlier, person could provide.

[Razael]

Remus was enchanted by the strange creature that lounged on his shoulders, perplexed by its form but also what it was telling him "Look around you, out of all these other humans I chose you. They each seem capable people but I can tell you have a eye as discerning as mine, a cunning and wit to match those eyes and above all a spirit to hold on tight to what you want and this Zurumon wants to be your partner in crime! Your Femme Fatal!"

He looked into the creatures beady little eyes and grinned on part of its talk of his character but also that such a amorphous being was considering itself a female, this in turn caused Remus to take in more of the wonder of where he was and break free from his stupor, his mind no longer foggy he was able to not only see the being calling itself "Dracmon" but understand what it was saying, more importantly he understood that Dracmon was not only insulting him and the others but also unnerving one of his companions.

Despite the possible danger Remus made his way over to the imposing digimon, he stood in front of the girl and her bubbly digimon "Well Dracmon was it? You certainly seem to know a awful lot or is it you are simply hiding behind that mask? I think it would be easy to feel like a person of importance when surrounded by toddlers, after all "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. So enlighten me if you please, what do you want from us?"

[tobiax]

The Digimon's clawed fingers turned up, wiggling for some strange reason, as though they were playing something like a piano.
"For you," the Digimon replied, pointing to the small red slime Digimon, "There can be no sanctuary. Not with that mark you bear," his tone exhibiting a childish mocking, if not a hint of knowing something behind his words.
He then rotated in the air, facing the boy in the large coat with the white hair, upon whose neck a Zurumon roosted.
"It is not the question of toddlers, only this one," he retorted, before laughing as one laughs when hearing something wholly ignorant, and finding it amusing, "It is best for those not to question that which they do not know, until the time is right. And for you, that's me."

"So," she began, taking a moment to clear her throat, the unease still in her voice as she ignored some of those around her, focusing on the matter at hand, "What... exactly, do you want from us?"

"Me? Oh, nothing," Dracmon retorted.