(The following is a Collab between myself, @The Jest and @Mike the Bloodwolf.)
Clutching the Digivice to his paws, Gazimon grumbled under his breath. Why wouldn’t this thing work? Shaking it, he knew it belonged to him, it called to him in someway, yet it refused to work. These devices were said to lend the user great power, yet he couldn’t figure it out. That and he was tiring from his wounds, Dorumon, curse him. Gazimon sighed under his breath, panting, he placed a paw on a rock. This seemed like a nice place to relax for a bit, till he could recover.
He couldn’t relax. They were shouting at each other again, over something benign. Just go away already. If you hate each other that much, then just go. Why are you still here? Rex groaned under his breath, getting up from the bed that he told them he was heading to early, didn’t seem all right when he could hear them screaming about nothing.
“How the hell did you not know!” his father’s voice can be heard from his room, dad’s mad about some corporate dinner, his mom was supposedly supposed to go to, if they hated each other, why did they agree to do so? He recalls his mom saying, that’s fine. When dad proposed the idea. If he said anything, he’d be on dad’s side.
“Oh here we go again, am I not tentative to your needs enough,” she likes to play the victim or bring up old things to hold it over his head. Dad likes making petty arguments. Would they both just go away?
He heads to his computer. Little does she know he snuck one of his games from her closet. He knows where she hides them. Taking out Splatter Rampage 3, at least he can pretend all the ugly demons are the both of them. Booting up his computer, he’d check his messages first, than rip into straight carnage.
---
Lucemon was quick to notice the other human lagging behind the crowd once more. Using his wings, he floated above the others and was ready to essentially tell Mike to hurry it up, but noticed something upon a closer glance. Why, it seemed his Laptop and his digivice merged as one…
“So, the spells finally worked, took them long enough...” Lucemon thought with a sly smirk before descending back down to his Emperor in silence. Ty, however, was quick to notice Lucemon apparently in a brighter mood than usual.
“What’s up with you? You look like you just saw a bunch of Digimon get crushed under an avalanche or something...” Ty said, a joyful smile on his face as he did, seemingly off-setting the disturbing nature of what was said.
“...Oddly specific of you. ...In any case, it seems Mike’s Laptop and Digivice and converted and linked up into one. His digivice is now a administrative database for hacking purposes, serving the same functions as his laptop.” Lucemon responded, his narrowing at first in response to Ty’s simile before quickly reverting to a look of confidence with closed eyes and a smile.
“Whoa...These Digivices can do that?” Ty then asked, looking at his own wrist-mounted Digivice in awe.
“Not normally, no…The Digivice under normal circumstances should not be able to connect so easily to a computer. However, Wizardmon, Witchmon, and myself have been essentially trying to modify the computer to link up and essentially merge with the Digivice. Since the Digivice was designed to harness the numerous codes of data from a crest, a small hard drive like that one should be able to fit into it as well. ...The trouble was trying to create a user interface from scratch, but it seemed Wizardmon managed to finally set the finishing touch to it during that Blossomtown incident. With this, Mike is now capable of essentially casting spells much like us three. In theory, it’s likely possible for any digidestined of advanced technical prowess to do the same, provided they know how to use the Digivice properly.” Lucemon explained.
“Huh...Is that right? ...Say, Lucemon, how long is this trail supposed to go?” Ty asked.
“Well, this is the Tortoise Trail if I’m not mistaken, the main road between the temple and Blossomtown. As the temple is dedicated to patience, naturally they designed the road to be quite long, and filled with harmless but delaying obstacles in the path in respect to Patience.” Lucemon said, causing some irritated groaning to echo across the army as they walked, realizing that this trip to the temple is likely to be very annoying.
“Huh...So, by obstacles, do you mean like that?” Ty asked. Lucemon opened his eyes to see Ty pointing at something, following the finger, he noticed the tired and wounded Gazimon laying on a rock by the path. ...Well this was odd, a Gazimon this far from their territory? Did it stray from a pack perhaps? Well, in any case, it didn’t matter too much; it seemed too tired and wounded to be a threat.
“I more refer to the actual rocks all over. They say they took uneven fragments from a refined mountain and left them on the trail as a junkyard of stone. From what I understand, it was designed to prevent particularly fast digimon from using their speed to quickly make their way through the trail. Speed is punished here, hence, ‘tortoise trail’.” Lucemon said, blatantly ignoring the Gazimon and seemingly encouraging the others of the army to do the same. Ty, however, couldn’t stop looking at the cat-rabbit-thingie that looked like it was having a bad day in more ways than one. Upon closer inspection, he noticed something...familiar in his hands.
“So is that cat...rabbit….thing, a local around here?” Ty asked.
“Hmm…? Ah, no, that would be a Gazimon. You often find these in forest regions, preferably deep ones, but some have been known to travel in packs from one location to another. This one is most likely a straggler who was left behind.” Lucemon responded, looking away from the Gazimon to see if there was any sign of any others like it who could have left him there.
“...So, these...Gazimon, right? ...Do they usually have wrist-mounted -vices on hand?”
“Well, none that I have-....What?” Lucemon asked, answering Ty’s constant questions until it immediately dawned on him what he just said. Lucemon then turned his gaze to the wounded Gazimon, and his eyes went wide in shock.
“...That’s…...That’s impossible!” He said, utterly speechless at what he’s seeing before him. There was no doubt about it, this was definitely a Digivice in Gazimon’s hand. Was another Digivice Stolen after he was gone? But that can’t be right. Mike already confirmed that there were eight Digidestineds in the Snowglobe, and there were eight Digivices when subtracting the two he stole from him. There is no way a Digidestined would be able to come here without a Digivice summoning them here, so the fact that there were eight in the Snowglobe meant eight digivices must have been used. Could one of the Digimon escaped? That can’t be right either, it’s still too early for any of them to exit, and nothing could have went out without Mike’s spies knowing...or maybe they failed in that. Even with that possibility, this just seemed wrong. ...He was led to believe there were ten digivices for ten crests but…
Could it be? An eleventh digivice? An eleventh Crest!?
The others in the army stopped in their tracks to take a look at this odd Digimon with a digivice in its hand. Wizardmon creating a flat square of light, writing on it with his crests and see what comes up from it.
“...He’s wounded, not gravely, but he’s in need of healing.” He said to Ty and Lucemon.
“Get Datamon over here to repair, I want him healed immediately.” Lucemon said to Wizardmon, who nodded and walked into the crowd of digimon with them. Ty meanwhile pushed on his Digivice once again.
“Mike, Get over here, you gotta see this.” Ty said into it, before looking back at Gazimon.
“...Hey, Are you ok little guy? Don’t worry, we’ll get you healed right up...” He said to it.
“I would advised not patronizing him.” Lucemon said, his face giving a hint of nervousness as he looked at Ty and Gazimon.
“Patronizing? He’s hurt and need healing, what’s wrong with comforting him?” Ty asked.
Mike was silence during the long journey trying out the new feature on his laptop/digivice device on his wrist before he noticed everyone starting to slow down and looked at Wolfy as he said “What's happened up there?”.
Wolfy shrugged before Mike’s digivice open on Ty face as he told him to hurry up and get to the front of the line. Which he did after signing annoyed, Mike and Wolfy quickly moved to the front of the line or at least as quick as they could on the tortoise trail.
Soon, they reached the front of the line and inspected the Gazimon and the digivice as he said “Interesting, an eleventh digivice and eleventh digidestined. I guess, we should consider the possibility that this world does not play by whatever rules we’re use to. But if this is the partner of an Eleventh Digidestined, then I’m guess his human partner will show up eventually”
The scent of humans mingled with Digimon. So, is this what Dorumon had planned? Clutching onto his crimson Digivice he wouldn’t give it up to anyone. Registering what the humans was saying to him,Gazimon growled under his breath.
“I might be injured, but don’t underestimate me,” Gazimon tried to swipe at the human with his claws, though he was too tired to “You’re just a human….” Gazimon paused looking at Lucemon. Though that couldn’t have been right? This human with Lucemon? Gazimon collapsed on his knees as he tried to stand up.
Ty was quick to jump away as the Gazimon attempted to swipe at him with rather impressive reflex timing, the army of digimon at his side, ironically excluding Lucemon himself, tensed up and prepared to defend their Emperor even against something as weak and injured as this rookie. Ty however held out his hand towards his subject without saying a word, prompting them to stand down but still be cautious. He then knelt down to the injured Gazimon’s level, almost in a curled up state as it stared blankly towards him.
“Yeah, and you’re injured. Cheesy as it sounds, everyone’s gotta have some help in life, and this is one of those cases where it’s needed. Fortunately, you’re lucky we came around when we did, cause we do have a good doctor here.” Ty said, a kindly smile now on his face. While it seems genuine and feels genuine for lack of a better word, Gazimon would likely be able to detect something...off, about it, something instinctively…predatory, for lack of a better word. It was as if the boy believed he had an upper hand, yet is pretending not to. A little more subtle than Lucemon’s frankly blank and pondering expression. Ty then immediately looked towards the army, as a Datamon came by
“With respect, my Emperor, I am a scientist, not a doctor.” the Datamon said as he walked towards Gazimon.
“Do you have medical knowledge.”
“Of course I do, I have all sorts of knowledge.”
“Then you’re a doctor, now if you could please…?” Ty asked him, a happy grin on his face as he looked towards an annoyed Datamon. His electrical fingers aimed directly towards the wounds on Gazimon’s body.
“Right...please hold still, this could sting.” He said. As he then seemed to attempt to ‘electrify’ the wounds to heal, Lucemon finally perked up.
“...If I may, when did you get your hands on the Digivice?” Lucemon bluntly asked him.
Gazimon winced through the electric stinging to his wounds. He wouldn’t let Lucemon or this person think he was weak. He wasn’t. He didn’t need to rely on a human for help. He got the device himself, didn’t he? Even if he was weak here. He would have recovered. He could have recovered. Gazimon stood up straight and stubbornly glowered at the both of them with a predatory glare. Curling his lip. Angrily looking at both of them. Where did he get the device?
“I’ve always had it because it’s mine,” Gazimon replies to Lucemon.
Dorumon was the thief. This device belonged to him and he’d use it for himself. Once he figured out how it would work he would crush them both.
Ty blinked in response to what Gazimon said before looking towards Lucemon, who was staring at the metallic red device in Gazimon’s hand, holding up his chin in contemplation.
“...Ey Lucy, is there anyway we could prove what he says.” Ty asked. Renamon, who was staring at the Gazimon this whole time, then stepped up.
“If I may, Emperor, I don’t detect any signs of lying from him. At the very least...he seems to believe in what he says as the truth.” She told him.
“Unfortunately beyond Renamon and others’ abilities to read emotions, it’s quite difficult to prove that a Digimon is indeed connected to a respective digivice. A Digivice cannot work properly without a human to interface with it and cause a digivolution. ...However, A digimon connected to a digivice usually shares a link of some sort that they alone are able to feel. There’s no way of proving this, so it’s something we have no choice but to take at face value, but there is some merit to what he says, I believe. The Digivices were hidden and activated by Dorumon in preparation for the summoning of the digidestines. The only ones who were aware of this, aware of where it was to be, are the File Lords.” Lucemon pondered.
“...File-what?” Ty asked, tilting his head to the side. It was the first he’s heard of anything like that.
“...I’ll explain them later. My point is, only they knew where Dorumon and the Digivices were, and the only ones who could sense their way in, beside myself, were still unhatched eggs by the time the summoning began and possibly still are eggs even now. A normal Gazimon would never have been able to find them, let alone take one for themselves.”
“Hmmm...maybe he found it before Dorumon could, or stole it from the original partner.”
“I can’t deny those possibilities, but...It’s hard to believe that Dorumon would not have found it before anyone else, and it’s even harder to believe that a Gazimon, of all digimon, would be able to steal it from a thief who managed to steal one before me.” Lucemon explained. Ty looked upwards at the sky as he posed having his chin elevated by his hand in contemplation.
Hmm… A lone Gazimon with a Digivice in hand he doesn’t seem to be lying, and everything seems to fit nicely. But how to prove this beyond doubt? …Hmmm...I got it! Mike, analyze and cross-check that Digivice with yours. If that Digivice is legit, it should have the same schematics as yours.” Ty said, talking to himself at first before snapping his fingers and looking towards Mike with a smile.
Mike and Wolfy had been talking and whispering to each other while everyone else was gathered around the Gazimon talking about the digivice and what not before they both jump when Ty snapped his fingers and looked at them.
Mike coughed briefly to compose himself and turned his attention to Gazimon and the metallic red digivice as he said to Gazimon, just to confirm it in his own mind “So you say Dorumon stole this digivice and you took it back or kinda like what Lucy did for mine and Ty digivice.” Mike then activated his digivice to scan Gazimon code and to see if it had the same frequency as the digivice, he would then use the same system for both his and Ty digivice, as well as there respected partners. Just to ensure nothing was wrong with his calculations.
After finishing all that, Mike turned to Gizamon and said “Well, you're certainly not lying, you are indeed a partner to a human". Though when he stood up and walked up to Ty, he whispered to Ty low enough so only he could hear “But I would be vigilant and keep an eye on him and whoever his partner is, my finding seem to indicate that his partner probably going to be an asshole who will try to undermine you Emperor”
“A human partner, I don’t need one,” Gazimon replies quickly.
Now that strength his strength is recovering he shot up and raised the Digivice up. He’d show them. He’d show them that he didn’t need a human to be strong. Maybe this time, maybe finally this thing would work for him.
“Ha! It’s time to level up, give me strength you stupid watch!” Gazimon shouts and waits for a good whole few seconds. Waiting for something to happen, a light, a feeling of strength, him to be bigger. To be tall enough to smoosh Lucemon and his human partner.
“That assumption regarding his potential human partner is asinine, but noted, Michael. Digivices contain various codes of data within, but nothing to completely ascertain the complete personality of the human who wields it. The human mind is not so simple that it could be so easily analyzed and coded by one. If such a thing was the case, I would have been prepared for my own partner to be as...active as he is, and for you to be as hesitant and unassertive as you are. Even so, I won’t deny the possibility.” Lucemon said, reacting towards Mike’s comment with a drop of sweat and a pinch of the top of his nose in irritation.
“Well, at least we now know there’s some degree of credit to what Gazimon here is saying...wait, I thought you just said there’s no way to prove the digivice belongs to Gazimon.” Ty said to Lucemon, interrupting himself as he recalled what Lucemon was just telling him.
“There isn’t. But it does not surprise me in the slightest that Michael found Gazimon’s data within its code. One of the functions of the Digivices is an analyzer, an identifier of the many digimon types in the whole of this world. In order to be able to accomplish this feat, the Digivice’s data feature an archive of trace data, codes that are unique to each and every digimon in the world, including this Gazimon. The fact that he is able to match a code in the Digivice with Gazimon does not automatically infer him to be the one that is linked with it. Only when a digivolution occurs within the partner does it show trace data that proves the digimon’s partnership.” Lucemon explained.
“Huh...But, that seems like pretty important data to just leave out of the Digivice like that, right?” Ty asked, to which Datamon, finished with his healing, turned towards Mike, Ty, and the others and walked over to them.
“It’s a security measure, M’Emperor. The Digivices are vital instruments of the Digidestines, and their ability to harness the Crests makes them some of the most valuable objects in the whole of the Digital World. The Knowledge of who is partnered with a human and linked to a digivice can be a powerful and dangerous thing if it is given to the wrong hands. I’m certain that whoever created the Digivices took that into consideration and kept the means of finding that information as strictly classified as humanly possible until it was too late to do anything about it.” Datamon explained.
“I see...Well, I guess that makes sense. If anyone against the digidestines knew who the digimon were in advance, they’d prepare for any attacks they throw, maybe even try to take them out pre-emptively. ...But wait, you said Dorumon had the partner eggs for the Digivices, including Wolfy over here, right? How did he know?”
“He had help...” Lucemon replied outright.
“Also, if I may just add, as someone interested in the Digivices myself, I believe there’s credence in what General Mike has said regarding the human partner for this one. It’s difficult to believe that a Digimon is chosen for each digivice in simple jest. It seems more likely to assume the digivice automatically connects a digimon with someone as close in nature as possible to the human. This is of course just a theory, and a baseless one at that, but if this Gazimon does have something that connects him to the human that is to be his partner, well...” Datamon said as they all then looked at Gazimon once again, as he said what he did, and attempted to get the Digivice activated and apparently posing in preparation for his supposed digivolution that didn’t seem to be coming.
“...Point taken, Datamon.” Lucemon simply said before walking over to Gazimon. It was still hard to believe that there was an eleventh Digidestined out there. But seeing is believing, and there is no reason to doubt Mike’s diagnosis about this digivice being the genuine article...especially given how Mike doesn’t seem to want it to be the case. Assuming this was the case, then this is a third Digivice that is outside Dorumon hands, another Digidestined, another crest that could belong to them. This could prove to be quite useful for them, but only if he can convince Gazimon to have a human partner to use it properly…and he has an idea for how that could be. He then poked at Ty and whispered in his ear, Ty nodding in approval at whatever Lucemon said, and the two looked at Gazimon once again.
“If I may ask, Gazimon...You seem to be under the impression that having a human partner is something to keep you down, something that will hold you back from becoming powerful, something to keep you dependant on them. ...Tell me, what exactly gave you that impression? Is it perhaps a difference in size between yourself and a human? But size means little for creature such as us. Is it perhaps because they exuberate a sense of authority over you? But what is the authority of humans to ones such as us. You know very well who I am, do you not. Do you believe me to submit to the authority of a human, a mortal such as this. What of Michael, you believe he to truly be in control of his digimon, or could it be that he is simply used by the Gabumon as a way to power? That is how this boy is to me, after all, a weapon to use as I please.” Lucemon said, Ty moving back towards Mike, ready to elbow him if he says something against what Lucemon is saying.
“Through this boy, The power to wield and restrain my full might as I see fit, without the need to feed on the data of others or to remove that same data, is within my grasp. Once I take claim of the Crest that his digivice requires, I shall be able to bring order and beauty back to this chaotic and naive world of foolishness and decadence. He is my pawn, My weapon, a means by which I use to gain and achieve all that I desire, be it order, freedom...or the power to rival the God that abandoned us all! That is what these humans are to us, and that is what yours will be to you. Now, ask yourself, is that truly dependance? Is that truly sound slavery to you?” Lucemon asked him, his voice giving off the pleasant tone and an echo worthy of the voice of an Angel.
The Human was his pawn? It didn’t seem like that with the way they were speaking with each other. Still Gazimon put down his device. If he had a Human partner, they might understand his might and do as he said then? A Human he didn’t have to listen to. A Human who would listen to him. He was mighty. He could crush them. If he could get this Human than maybe he could be very powerful and then he could crush those who oppose him.
Gazimon lowers his head, his ears droop a little low looking defeated. He looks a bit disappointed. He wanted to do it all without a human. He had some feeling of power in him, and he thought this meant it meant he was more. But he couldn’t reach that power inside of him. Like he could see the light of it glimmering at the bottom of a deep sea and he kept swimming towards it, thinking he was getting closer, only for it to be deeper than he thought.
Gazimon grumbled.
“Fine, where is my Human pawn?” Gazimon asked.
With a small pleasant smile, grabbed hold of Gazimon’s Digivice.
“Thank you for understanding...Now then...” Lucemon said to him, before then walking towards the other humans.
“Now then, each digivice is linked to a specific human that it deems to fit the criteria necessary to be chosen for whatever crest it connects to. When properly activated it establishes that connection between worlds in order to pull in the respective human. Many measures were made to prevent digimon from using the digivices themselves, even connected ones like you. It was using my celestial sorcery that I was able to bring these two to this world, and even then it was not nearly as smoothly as it could, or should, have been.” He explained the Gazimon as he walked towards Mike and Ty, after which tossing the Digivice towards Mike.
“Therefore, Michael, I would like you to try and open a proper portal to bring the Human here. Ty will then step in and bring the human to this world. Once that happens, Gazimon, you shall have your human, to do with as you please.” Lucemon said to the three.
Mike was about to say something but he noticed Ty stepping closer almost in the way he used to when it came to his parents and someone did not recognise him. He sighed defeated at that before turning his attention to Wolfy who could only shrug at the Two’s plan, though much like Mike, the two of them were not happy with the way Lucemon explained the bond.
Mike grab the digivice as it was thrown to him and listened to Lucemon explain everything to him and then handed him the digivice which Mike inspected taking into the account the metallic Red colour before he said to himself “Now how do I go about this?”
Mike brought up his laptop on his digivice before he placed Gazimon Digivice into the digivice slot where he began to work on opening the portal. He and Wolfy ended up humming a theme together before Mike nodded and said “Alright Ty, The portal should be ready"
Mike then flicked the screens and a portal appeared in front of Ty, the same colour as the digivice Gazimon had. “There you go Ty, let's see you convince another human to join your cult" Mike teased him. Though Mike knew it was not a Cult any more, it was an army.
---
“Wooow...This looks really good. ...Nice work, Mikey! ...Alright, Wish me Luck!” Ty said to them, after which he takes a deep breath and heads inside the portal.
Once inside, goes through a familiar trail of data code, one of which seemed to manifest from the portal he came out of, the same metallic red coloring as the portal and digivice both, and went right past Ty into the distance, manifesting a trail of sorts for him.
“[url=youtu.be/THbY7EL8k5w?t=18s]~Follow the metal brick road, Follow the metal brick road, Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the metal brick road, follow the metal brick, follow the metal brick, follow the metal brick road...~[url]” He starting to sing as he walked the trail of code before him. That walk transitioned to outright skipping as he hummed the rest of the song to himself.
Back in the human world, Rex’s computer would start to glitch up like before, only this time, it wasn’t like a normal glitch, it didn’t seem like it was glitching in a way that it normally would, rather, it looked like a ripple on the screen, that paused whatever processes he was doing, as a person, the purple-haired little boy Ty, popped out of the epicenter, now looking like an actual human as opposed to an 8-bit version of himself.
“Ahhh, That went so much better than last time...” He said, taking a good look at himself as he did.
---
“Fuck you!” Rex shouts at the screen, as his plasma shotgun melts the skull off one of the Raiders, some hybrid alien zombie demon created by some Russian scientist trying to bring back communism. He didn’t care to recall the rest of the story, all he cared about was the cool guns and the way it drowned out his parents still bickering even after they told each other they were done. First it was about the dinner his mother missed, next it was about how there wasn’t any milk and how his father skirts his responsibilities, if he’s out he should go buy milk. Blah. Blah. And it carried on.
He continued to then just allow the screen to be filled with explosions, turning the volume up on his computer speaks to listening to the rattling psycho electro metal pump through the speakers as the Raiders came running through the hallway to ambush him. Taking out his plasma SMG, he began to melt holes through their unearthly bodies until the computer began to act up.
“Piece of shit,” Rex hits his tower with a little force, “Don’t go out. I’m on the final level.” Ironically despite not caring for the story he had completed other games in the series and had become heavily invested in finishing the games. The computer continued to glitch till it the screen went black. Rex growled under his breath and dropped the controller in his hands, prepared to reset his modem. When a person began to come closer to the screen.
He must be going fucking nuts from all the screaming his parents were doing. The individual spoke, something about being better than the last time. What last time?
“Not like I am entertaining this idea or anything, but what do you want?” Rex asked the individual on the screen, “Just so you know I am going to reboot my computer and you’re going to go away. So I can go back to playing my game. Cause I don’t really want to know what your problems are.”
“Yikes, Probably not a good idea, not that I’ve actually tried this before...wait, that’s exactly why it’s not a good idea!” He said waving his hands around in a panic. Indeed the idea of resetting the computer was something the little Ty did not factor into this. He could be safe for all he knows, maybe the screen just turns black and comes back on, but he didn’t want to take a chance and find out for himself. He then gave a quick look towards the guy, he’s fiery eyes leaving something of an impression on him.
“This guy...There’s no doubt about it, he’s the one I’m looking for.” Ty said, remembering what Mike and Datamon both explained about the predicted personality of Gazimon’s human partner, those eyes even reminds him of Gazimon.
“Alright, alright, I’ll be quick. My name is Falcon, Ty Falcon, I’m a kid from Chicago, Illinois who wound becoming Emperor of an entire world of creatures made completely out of computer data-and I just realized how crazy this all sounds… Anyways, I came here to give you an offer. I know this is going to sound about as convenient as a nigerian prince spam, but it seems you’ve been selected to enter this world as well...A world inside the internet...or computers….I still don’t really get it completely myself, but the point is, I need somebody with a sense of brute strength and a willingness to play hard...and you seem just the man for the job.” Ty explained to him.
Rex pauses listening to his parents finally stop arguing. They say nothing. His mother lets out a grumbling scream. Rex stares at his modem. Then back at the kid in the computers. When he gets back to school everything is going to change. He’s going to be with either one. His life decided for him and he wasn’t even allowed to be part of the decision until after they screamed at the top of their lungs. Just once he’d like to make them hurt. Make them worry sick.
Rex shrugs.
“I don’t have anything to do,” Rex tells him, “But I have to get back before my vacation ends, so this better not be long.”
He feigns interest. Despite the storm boiling inside of him. All night he just wanted to yell at the both of them.
---
Ty could also hear the sounds of grumbling outside the door, it seems the computer caught wind of its sounds, though he can’t quite tell the context behind what he was hearing. All he could tell was that someone out there was really, really pissed at something, and by the expression he’s reading off Rex, it’s not hard to figure out it’s something the guy wants no part of.
“Well, I can’t promise any time limit. But I don’t think you would mind all that much if we just happen to be a little late. ...So…” Ty said, he then placed his hand through the screen, enlarging to a normal size as he extends it towards Rex. As soon as Rex takes his hand, Ty will pull him through the screen. Despite pulling him through a solid object however, he would be able to pass through it as if passing through the surface of water. As he and Ty both then get pulled back into the data stream that transitioned between the two worlds, they’d both exit out of the portal back into the Tortoise Trail where everyone would be waiting.
“And here we are...Welcome to the Digital World!” Ty told Rex.
Rex looks around. Bright skies, and a lot of green. What was this a Nintendo game? He shrugged.
“Okay, so what am I doing?” Rex asked, “Because I am not made out for platforming.”
“He’s taking this...unusually well.” Lucemon pointed out as he looked at the man.
“Oh, this isn’t a platformer, not yet anyways. I would say this is more like….Real-Time Strategy in a conquest style.” Ty responded with a smile.
“...What?” Lucemon blinked for a moment, trying to process what the hell Ty was saying.
“Anyways...Long story short, This here is a Digital World, filled to the brim with Digital Monsters, Digimon for short. I am an Emperor, this army here is my Empire, and we are setting our sights on conquering this world one server at a time! But, in order to do this, me, my Partner here Lucemon, my other partner and his partner, Mike Fertar and...Gabumon I think? We just call him wolfy, anyways, we need one more extra bit of help. You look like the type of guy who’d love to get his hands dirty with stuff, but here you’re gonna need a partner, and luck would have it, we got one for you. ...That is Gazimon, you’re… ahem... partner.” He said to Rex while pointing towards Gazimon.
Gazimon snaps his head, partner. They told him the human was to do his bidding and yet he was introducing him as his partner. The Human looked sloppy, his shirt wrinkly, his hair messy and all over the place. He gave Gazimon a deep stared and Gazimon glared right back. They remained this way for a few seconds.
“He’s got it all wrong,” Gazimon finally mumbles, “You’re doing what I say. I am no one’s partner.”
What the heck was that thing? It seemed to have the ears of a rabbit, the snout of a dog, but the body of a cat. Fuck this was just as weird as Communist and Nazis experimenting on aliens to infuse them with demon, zombie powers.
“Well lucky for you I don’t take orders from talking animals, I am not four,” Rex replies.
The both of them continue to look at each other without a word.
“Yeah well, I know more about this world, so you have to listen to me,” Gazimon smirks as if he won something.
“I’ll just figure it out,” Rex tells him, “This is what like tutorial mode.”
“You will submit to me,” Gazimon demands.
Rex shrugs and waves his hand, “Pass. Why would I submit to a mutant cat rabbit?”
“Are all humans so insufferable?” Gazimon ask.
“You’re a Digimon? could ask the same question,” Rex replies.
“Well I refuse to listen to you,” Gazimon snaps.
“Whatever, I’ll just find someone with a less big mouth,”
Gazimon growls under his breath and Rex pretends not to care. How could this human not see his power? He was being undermined here. Gazimon looks at Lucemon, “You told me he would listen to me.”
“I did say that humans are like pawns, ...But I don’t recall saying anything about him submitting easily. If it was that easy, Michael would be much easier to deal with. This one in particular seems...special. You may have been onto something about this one after all, Michael. ...Unfortunately for you, Gazimon, the Digivice chooses both Digimon and Human for its proper use. It has deemed this boy as its owner just as it deemed you to be the one to use its power. Once a Digivice makes a decision on the matter, there is no changing it.” Lucemon said to Gazimon, then to Mike, then back to Gazimon.
“In other words, Sorry, No refunds!” The purple haired emperor added. He then looked towards Mike.
“Oi, Mikey. Could you hand that device over to...umm….Oi, what’s your name?” Ty said first to Mike, then to Rex.
Gazimon stared back at the human. That’s not what the Lucemon said at all. He spoke about the Human being a Pawn and this human was going to be his pawn. Instead his human wouldn’t obey him and that irritated him. He should take the Digivice and book it, find another way. Yet, this Human there was something. Something that Gazimon couldn’t quite grasp. Like he felt drawn to the Human in some way. He’d just blame Lucemon and Ty for planting something in his head. There was nothing this human could provide him. Though that isn’t the case, in the deeper sense he knew that wasn’t true. So he simply crossed his arms.
“ Yeah give us your name,” Gazimon demanded, just so he could feel like he was on top of things.
“Rex my name is Rex,” he replies.
Rex looks over at Gazimon. So, then this was the tool. Some digital animal. This game is getting lamer and lamer. Looking over at Kid Icarus and the so called Emperor, looked more like a shit clown in a shitter costume or sad mime.
Mike silently watched all these events unfold, keeping his own opinion about Rex to himself though he did recall something his sister had said to him once. “First impression are not everything but the way someone speaks and acts is what you watch", he was clearly an asshole just as Mike said he would be.
Mike disconnected the digivice from his computer and threw it to Rex as he said “Greeting Rex; I’m Michael Fertar but everyone calls me Mike and this is my digimon partner Wolfy". Wolfy bowed as he said “Nice to meet you Human number 3 at least in our little group anyway, I believe 11th human overall though".
“Indeed. ...There are eight other humans in this world, however unlike us, they are our competition. Summoned here by another for the sole purpose of defeating us.” Lucemon said, continuing Mike’s line of thought for Rex.
“Yep-yep, If we’re the villainous protagonists of this game, think of them as the heroic enemies trying to put a stop to us. Our only way of fighting them or any other enemies and NPCs we come across in this world is through these devices. We still...don’t really know how they properly work yet, but apparently yours can empower Gazimon over there to fight stronger digimon in this world than he could in his current state. Just strap it on your wrist like a watch, and the Digivice’ll take care of the rest.” Ty said.
“...I’ll explain the details of the situation to you another time, but for now I shall explain it to you as I did with Michael. With the might of this army, we digimon, and you humans, we aim to locate and capture specific stone tablets known as Crests. Each crest is akin to a magic stone, and are each linked to individual Digivices, meaning there is one crest for one digivice, and eleven crests in total. Simply put, the correct crest linked with the correct digivice, will result in further power granted to the digimon that’s connected to it, Gazimon in your case. We have already obtained one crest, and was on our way to take claim of another before bringing you here.” Lucemon explained to Rex, showing off the Crest of Serenity.
“Uhh, didn’t Mikey have that…? Oh! We should probably check to see if that crest belonged to him as well.” Ty said, tilting his head in confusion; he could’ve sworn Mike took the Crest away for safe-keeping.
“That won’t be necessary. Michael already considered that and tried to test Rex’s digivice with the crest while you were in the portal, bringing Rex here. The results were as you expected. It seemed he was having trouble taking it out despite the rejection though, potentially due to testing it while merging the digivice with his own, so I had helped take out the crest myself, and decided to take back claim of it afterwards.” Lucemon said.
“Ah...Well, ok then. ...Anyways, I know how odd this seems right now, how...not your type of thing this all feels at the moment. But you and Gazimon seem the violent type, and frankly, you two look like the type who can take on the more dirty jobs, the kinds of things me and Mikey don’t have the heart to really touch upon all that much. Needless to say, we’re essentially enemies of this world, anybody who knows us deems us the villains of this story, terrors of the world, agents of chaos and destruction. Truth is, though, I don’t know if either of us could live up to that reputation on our own.” Ty said.
“Reapermon and his men have a sense of honor to them, the minor mischef, wetwork, and destruction without casualty they’ll do without hesitation, as well as preventing any enemies from getting in our way, but there may come a time where that is not enough. Michael is more a chief of espionage than anything, and Ty...well, both of our plans can only go so far with the limitations we have.” Lucemon added.
“So, what do you say? ...I promise we can make this worth both of your wilds.” Ty asked Rex, a sly smile on his face.
How did they figure they’d make it worth his wilds? Did they even know what that was? Rex grabbed the metallic wrist watch. What is this an early prototype smart watch?
“Want to see if this will count how many steps I take,” Rex remarks with a laugh, “Seen something like this in my science fiction games Galactic Extreme War. It monitors heartbeats and your fear levels.” Rex just laughs as he puts it on a joke. At first he feels a bit of a jolt from the thing, oh it’s just one of those lame hand shaker things someone uses as a clich non funny practical joke.
Gazimon stares at the human.
“So?” Gazimon ask, “How does it feel? Can you make me stronger?”
Rex gives Gazimon a raise of his brow.
“Oh, I thought you didn’t need my help or want to hear what I had to say just a minute ago,” Rex replies.
“I don’t,” Gazimon said.
“Good then I’m taking the zapper toy for myself, until it proves actually useful,” Rex smirks, “Kind of a lame fashion accessory for this world.” Rex tells Ty and Pit.
The Tortoise Trail
Clutching the Digivice to his paws, Gazimon grumbled under his breath. Why wouldn’t this thing work? Shaking it, he knew it belonged to him, it called to him in someway, yet it refused to work. These devices were said to lend the user great power, yet he couldn’t figure it out. That and he was tiring from his wounds, Dorumon, curse him. Gazimon sighed under his breath, panting, he placed a paw on a rock. This seemed like a nice place to relax for a bit, till he could recover.
He couldn’t relax. They were shouting at each other again, over something benign. Just go away already. If you hate each other that much, then just go. Why are you still here? Rex groaned under his breath, getting up from the bed that he told them he was heading to early, didn’t seem all right when he could hear them screaming about nothing.
“How the hell did you not know!” his father’s voice can be heard from his room, dad’s mad about some corporate dinner, his mom was supposedly supposed to go to, if they hated each other, why did they agree to do so? He recalls his mom saying, that’s fine. When dad proposed the idea. If he said anything, he’d be on dad’s side.
“Oh here we go again, am I not tentative to your needs enough,” she likes to play the victim or bring up old things to hold it over his head. Dad likes making petty arguments. Would they both just go away?
He heads to his computer. Little does she know he snuck one of his games from her closet. He knows where she hides them. Taking out Splatter Rampage 3, at least he can pretend all the ugly demons are the both of them. Booting up his computer, he’d check his messages first, than rip into straight carnage.
---
Lucemon was quick to notice the other human lagging behind the crowd once more. Using his wings, he floated above the others and was ready to essentially tell Mike to hurry it up, but noticed something upon a closer glance. Why, it seemed his Laptop and his digivice merged as one…
“So, the spells finally worked, took them long enough...” Lucemon thought with a sly smirk before descending back down to his Emperor in silence. Ty, however, was quick to notice Lucemon apparently in a brighter mood than usual.
“What’s up with you? You look like you just saw a bunch of Digimon get crushed under an avalanche or something...” Ty said, a joyful smile on his face as he did, seemingly off-setting the disturbing nature of what was said.
“...Oddly specific of you. ...In any case, it seems Mike’s Laptop and Digivice and converted and linked up into one. His digivice is now a administrative database for hacking purposes, serving the same functions as his laptop.” Lucemon responded, his narrowing at first in response to Ty’s simile before quickly reverting to a look of confidence with closed eyes and a smile.
“Whoa...These Digivices can do that?” Ty then asked, looking at his own wrist-mounted Digivice in awe.
“Not normally, no…The Digivice under normal circumstances should not be able to connect so easily to a computer. However, Wizardmon, Witchmon, and myself have been essentially trying to modify the computer to link up and essentially merge with the Digivice. Since the Digivice was designed to harness the numerous codes of data from a crest, a small hard drive like that one should be able to fit into it as well. ...The trouble was trying to create a user interface from scratch, but it seemed Wizardmon managed to finally set the finishing touch to it during that Blossomtown incident. With this, Mike is now capable of essentially casting spells much like us three. In theory, it’s likely possible for any digidestined of advanced technical prowess to do the same, provided they know how to use the Digivice properly.” Lucemon explained.
“Huh...Is that right? ...Say, Lucemon, how long is this trail supposed to go?” Ty asked.
“Well, this is the Tortoise Trail if I’m not mistaken, the main road between the temple and Blossomtown. As the temple is dedicated to patience, naturally they designed the road to be quite long, and filled with harmless but delaying obstacles in the path in respect to Patience.” Lucemon said, causing some irritated groaning to echo across the army as they walked, realizing that this trip to the temple is likely to be very annoying.
“Huh...So, by obstacles, do you mean like that?” Ty asked. Lucemon opened his eyes to see Ty pointing at something, following the finger, he noticed the tired and wounded Gazimon laying on a rock by the path. ...Well this was odd, a Gazimon this far from their territory? Did it stray from a pack perhaps? Well, in any case, it didn’t matter too much; it seemed too tired and wounded to be a threat.
“I more refer to the actual rocks all over. They say they took uneven fragments from a refined mountain and left them on the trail as a junkyard of stone. From what I understand, it was designed to prevent particularly fast digimon from using their speed to quickly make their way through the trail. Speed is punished here, hence, ‘tortoise trail’.” Lucemon said, blatantly ignoring the Gazimon and seemingly encouraging the others of the army to do the same. Ty, however, couldn’t stop looking at the cat-rabbit-thingie that looked like it was having a bad day in more ways than one. Upon closer inspection, he noticed something...familiar in his hands.
“So is that cat...rabbit….thing, a local around here?” Ty asked.
“Hmm…? Ah, no, that would be a Gazimon. You often find these in forest regions, preferably deep ones, but some have been known to travel in packs from one location to another. This one is most likely a straggler who was left behind.” Lucemon responded, looking away from the Gazimon to see if there was any sign of any others like it who could have left him there.
“...So, these...Gazimon, right? ...Do they usually have wrist-mounted -vices on hand?”
“Well, none that I have-....What?” Lucemon asked, answering Ty’s constant questions until it immediately dawned on him what he just said. Lucemon then turned his gaze to the wounded Gazimon, and his eyes went wide in shock.
“...That’s…...That’s impossible!” He said, utterly speechless at what he’s seeing before him. There was no doubt about it, this was definitely a Digivice in Gazimon’s hand. Was another Digivice Stolen after he was gone? But that can’t be right. Mike already confirmed that there were eight Digidestineds in the Snowglobe, and there were eight Digivices when subtracting the two he stole from him. There is no way a Digidestined would be able to come here without a Digivice summoning them here, so the fact that there were eight in the Snowglobe meant eight digivices must have been used. Could one of the Digimon escaped? That can’t be right either, it’s still too early for any of them to exit, and nothing could have went out without Mike’s spies knowing...or maybe they failed in that. Even with that possibility, this just seemed wrong. ...He was led to believe there were ten digivices for ten crests but…
Could it be? An eleventh digivice? An eleventh Crest!?
The others in the army stopped in their tracks to take a look at this odd Digimon with a digivice in its hand. Wizardmon creating a flat square of light, writing on it with his crests and see what comes up from it.
“...He’s wounded, not gravely, but he’s in need of healing.” He said to Ty and Lucemon.
“Get Datamon over here to repair, I want him healed immediately.” Lucemon said to Wizardmon, who nodded and walked into the crowd of digimon with them. Ty meanwhile pushed on his Digivice once again.
“Mike, Get over here, you gotta see this.” Ty said into it, before looking back at Gazimon.
“...Hey, Are you ok little guy? Don’t worry, we’ll get you healed right up...” He said to it.
“I would advised not patronizing him.” Lucemon said, his face giving a hint of nervousness as he looked at Ty and Gazimon.
“Patronizing? He’s hurt and need healing, what’s wrong with comforting him?” Ty asked.
Mike was silence during the long journey trying out the new feature on his laptop/digivice device on his wrist before he noticed everyone starting to slow down and looked at Wolfy as he said “What's happened up there?”.
Wolfy shrugged before Mike’s digivice open on Ty face as he told him to hurry up and get to the front of the line. Which he did after signing annoyed, Mike and Wolfy quickly moved to the front of the line or at least as quick as they could on the tortoise trail.
Soon, they reached the front of the line and inspected the Gazimon and the digivice as he said “Interesting, an eleventh digivice and eleventh digidestined. I guess, we should consider the possibility that this world does not play by whatever rules we’re use to. But if this is the partner of an Eleventh Digidestined, then I’m guess his human partner will show up eventually”
The scent of humans mingled with Digimon. So, is this what Dorumon had planned? Clutching onto his crimson Digivice he wouldn’t give it up to anyone. Registering what the humans was saying to him,Gazimon growled under his breath.
“I might be injured, but don’t underestimate me,” Gazimon tried to swipe at the human with his claws, though he was too tired to “You’re just a human….” Gazimon paused looking at Lucemon. Though that couldn’t have been right? This human with Lucemon? Gazimon collapsed on his knees as he tried to stand up.
Ty was quick to jump away as the Gazimon attempted to swipe at him with rather impressive reflex timing, the army of digimon at his side, ironically excluding Lucemon himself, tensed up and prepared to defend their Emperor even against something as weak and injured as this rookie. Ty however held out his hand towards his subject without saying a word, prompting them to stand down but still be cautious. He then knelt down to the injured Gazimon’s level, almost in a curled up state as it stared blankly towards him.
“Yeah, and you’re injured. Cheesy as it sounds, everyone’s gotta have some help in life, and this is one of those cases where it’s needed. Fortunately, you’re lucky we came around when we did, cause we do have a good doctor here.” Ty said, a kindly smile now on his face. While it seems genuine and feels genuine for lack of a better word, Gazimon would likely be able to detect something...off, about it, something instinctively…predatory, for lack of a better word. It was as if the boy believed he had an upper hand, yet is pretending not to. A little more subtle than Lucemon’s frankly blank and pondering expression. Ty then immediately looked towards the army, as a Datamon came by
“With respect, my Emperor, I am a scientist, not a doctor.” the Datamon said as he walked towards Gazimon.
“Do you have medical knowledge.”
“Of course I do, I have all sorts of knowledge.”
“Then you’re a doctor, now if you could please…?” Ty asked him, a happy grin on his face as he looked towards an annoyed Datamon. His electrical fingers aimed directly towards the wounds on Gazimon’s body.
“Right...please hold still, this could sting.” He said. As he then seemed to attempt to ‘electrify’ the wounds to heal, Lucemon finally perked up.
“...If I may, when did you get your hands on the Digivice?” Lucemon bluntly asked him.
Gazimon winced through the electric stinging to his wounds. He wouldn’t let Lucemon or this person think he was weak. He wasn’t. He didn’t need to rely on a human for help. He got the device himself, didn’t he? Even if he was weak here. He would have recovered. He could have recovered. Gazimon stood up straight and stubbornly glowered at the both of them with a predatory glare. Curling his lip. Angrily looking at both of them. Where did he get the device?
“I’ve always had it because it’s mine,” Gazimon replies to Lucemon.
Dorumon was the thief. This device belonged to him and he’d use it for himself. Once he figured out how it would work he would crush them both.
Ty blinked in response to what Gazimon said before looking towards Lucemon, who was staring at the metallic red device in Gazimon’s hand, holding up his chin in contemplation.
“...Ey Lucy, is there anyway we could prove what he says.” Ty asked. Renamon, who was staring at the Gazimon this whole time, then stepped up.
“If I may, Emperor, I don’t detect any signs of lying from him. At the very least...he seems to believe in what he says as the truth.” She told him.
“Unfortunately beyond Renamon and others’ abilities to read emotions, it’s quite difficult to prove that a Digimon is indeed connected to a respective digivice. A Digivice cannot work properly without a human to interface with it and cause a digivolution. ...However, A digimon connected to a digivice usually shares a link of some sort that they alone are able to feel. There’s no way of proving this, so it’s something we have no choice but to take at face value, but there is some merit to what he says, I believe. The Digivices were hidden and activated by Dorumon in preparation for the summoning of the digidestines. The only ones who were aware of this, aware of where it was to be, are the File Lords.” Lucemon pondered.
“...File-what?” Ty asked, tilting his head to the side. It was the first he’s heard of anything like that.
“...I’ll explain them later. My point is, only they knew where Dorumon and the Digivices were, and the only ones who could sense their way in, beside myself, were still unhatched eggs by the time the summoning began and possibly still are eggs even now. A normal Gazimon would never have been able to find them, let alone take one for themselves.”
“Hmmm...maybe he found it before Dorumon could, or stole it from the original partner.”
“I can’t deny those possibilities, but...It’s hard to believe that Dorumon would not have found it before anyone else, and it’s even harder to believe that a Gazimon, of all digimon, would be able to steal it from a thief who managed to steal one before me.” Lucemon explained. Ty looked upwards at the sky as he posed having his chin elevated by his hand in contemplation.
Hmm… A lone Gazimon with a Digivice in hand he doesn’t seem to be lying, and everything seems to fit nicely. But how to prove this beyond doubt? …Hmmm...I got it! Mike, analyze and cross-check that Digivice with yours. If that Digivice is legit, it should have the same schematics as yours.” Ty said, talking to himself at first before snapping his fingers and looking towards Mike with a smile.
Mike and Wolfy had been talking and whispering to each other while everyone else was gathered around the Gazimon talking about the digivice and what not before they both jump when Ty snapped his fingers and looked at them.
Mike coughed briefly to compose himself and turned his attention to Gazimon and the metallic red digivice as he said to Gazimon, just to confirm it in his own mind “So you say Dorumon stole this digivice and you took it back or kinda like what Lucy did for mine and Ty digivice.” Mike then activated his digivice to scan Gazimon code and to see if it had the same frequency as the digivice, he would then use the same system for both his and Ty digivice, as well as there respected partners. Just to ensure nothing was wrong with his calculations.
After finishing all that, Mike turned to Gizamon and said “Well, you're certainly not lying, you are indeed a partner to a human". Though when he stood up and walked up to Ty, he whispered to Ty low enough so only he could hear “But I would be vigilant and keep an eye on him and whoever his partner is, my finding seem to indicate that his partner probably going to be an asshole who will try to undermine you Emperor”
“A human partner, I don’t need one,” Gazimon replies quickly.
Now that strength his strength is recovering he shot up and raised the Digivice up. He’d show them. He’d show them that he didn’t need a human to be strong. Maybe this time, maybe finally this thing would work for him.
“Ha! It’s time to level up, give me strength you stupid watch!” Gazimon shouts and waits for a good whole few seconds. Waiting for something to happen, a light, a feeling of strength, him to be bigger. To be tall enough to smoosh Lucemon and his human partner.
“That assumption regarding his potential human partner is asinine, but noted, Michael. Digivices contain various codes of data within, but nothing to completely ascertain the complete personality of the human who wields it. The human mind is not so simple that it could be so easily analyzed and coded by one. If such a thing was the case, I would have been prepared for my own partner to be as...active as he is, and for you to be as hesitant and unassertive as you are. Even so, I won’t deny the possibility.” Lucemon said, reacting towards Mike’s comment with a drop of sweat and a pinch of the top of his nose in irritation.
“Well, at least we now know there’s some degree of credit to what Gazimon here is saying...wait, I thought you just said there’s no way to prove the digivice belongs to Gazimon.” Ty said to Lucemon, interrupting himself as he recalled what Lucemon was just telling him.
“There isn’t. But it does not surprise me in the slightest that Michael found Gazimon’s data within its code. One of the functions of the Digivices is an analyzer, an identifier of the many digimon types in the whole of this world. In order to be able to accomplish this feat, the Digivice’s data feature an archive of trace data, codes that are unique to each and every digimon in the world, including this Gazimon. The fact that he is able to match a code in the Digivice with Gazimon does not automatically infer him to be the one that is linked with it. Only when a digivolution occurs within the partner does it show trace data that proves the digimon’s partnership.” Lucemon explained.
“Huh...But, that seems like pretty important data to just leave out of the Digivice like that, right?” Ty asked, to which Datamon, finished with his healing, turned towards Mike, Ty, and the others and walked over to them.
“It’s a security measure, M’Emperor. The Digivices are vital instruments of the Digidestines, and their ability to harness the Crests makes them some of the most valuable objects in the whole of the Digital World. The Knowledge of who is partnered with a human and linked to a digivice can be a powerful and dangerous thing if it is given to the wrong hands. I’m certain that whoever created the Digivices took that into consideration and kept the means of finding that information as strictly classified as humanly possible until it was too late to do anything about it.” Datamon explained.
“I see...Well, I guess that makes sense. If anyone against the digidestines knew who the digimon were in advance, they’d prepare for any attacks they throw, maybe even try to take them out pre-emptively. ...But wait, you said Dorumon had the partner eggs for the Digivices, including Wolfy over here, right? How did he know?”
“He had help...” Lucemon replied outright.
“Also, if I may just add, as someone interested in the Digivices myself, I believe there’s credence in what General Mike has said regarding the human partner for this one. It’s difficult to believe that a Digimon is chosen for each digivice in simple jest. It seems more likely to assume the digivice automatically connects a digimon with someone as close in nature as possible to the human. This is of course just a theory, and a baseless one at that, but if this Gazimon does have something that connects him to the human that is to be his partner, well...” Datamon said as they all then looked at Gazimon once again, as he said what he did, and attempted to get the Digivice activated and apparently posing in preparation for his supposed digivolution that didn’t seem to be coming.
“...Point taken, Datamon.” Lucemon simply said before walking over to Gazimon. It was still hard to believe that there was an eleventh Digidestined out there. But seeing is believing, and there is no reason to doubt Mike’s diagnosis about this digivice being the genuine article...especially given how Mike doesn’t seem to want it to be the case. Assuming this was the case, then this is a third Digivice that is outside Dorumon hands, another Digidestined, another crest that could belong to them. This could prove to be quite useful for them, but only if he can convince Gazimon to have a human partner to use it properly…and he has an idea for how that could be. He then poked at Ty and whispered in his ear, Ty nodding in approval at whatever Lucemon said, and the two looked at Gazimon once again.
“If I may ask, Gazimon...You seem to be under the impression that having a human partner is something to keep you down, something that will hold you back from becoming powerful, something to keep you dependant on them. ...Tell me, what exactly gave you that impression? Is it perhaps a difference in size between yourself and a human? But size means little for creature such as us. Is it perhaps because they exuberate a sense of authority over you? But what is the authority of humans to ones such as us. You know very well who I am, do you not. Do you believe me to submit to the authority of a human, a mortal such as this. What of Michael, you believe he to truly be in control of his digimon, or could it be that he is simply used by the Gabumon as a way to power? That is how this boy is to me, after all, a weapon to use as I please.” Lucemon said, Ty moving back towards Mike, ready to elbow him if he says something against what Lucemon is saying.
“Through this boy, The power to wield and restrain my full might as I see fit, without the need to feed on the data of others or to remove that same data, is within my grasp. Once I take claim of the Crest that his digivice requires, I shall be able to bring order and beauty back to this chaotic and naive world of foolishness and decadence. He is my pawn, My weapon, a means by which I use to gain and achieve all that I desire, be it order, freedom...or the power to rival the God that abandoned us all! That is what these humans are to us, and that is what yours will be to you. Now, ask yourself, is that truly dependance? Is that truly sound slavery to you?” Lucemon asked him, his voice giving off the pleasant tone and an echo worthy of the voice of an Angel.
The Human was his pawn? It didn’t seem like that with the way they were speaking with each other. Still Gazimon put down his device. If he had a Human partner, they might understand his might and do as he said then? A Human he didn’t have to listen to. A Human who would listen to him. He was mighty. He could crush them. If he could get this Human than maybe he could be very powerful and then he could crush those who oppose him.
Gazimon lowers his head, his ears droop a little low looking defeated. He looks a bit disappointed. He wanted to do it all without a human. He had some feeling of power in him, and he thought this meant it meant he was more. But he couldn’t reach that power inside of him. Like he could see the light of it glimmering at the bottom of a deep sea and he kept swimming towards it, thinking he was getting closer, only for it to be deeper than he thought.
Gazimon grumbled.
“Fine, where is my Human pawn?” Gazimon asked.
With a small pleasant smile, grabbed hold of Gazimon’s Digivice.
“Thank you for understanding...Now then...” Lucemon said to him, before then walking towards the other humans.
“Now then, each digivice is linked to a specific human that it deems to fit the criteria necessary to be chosen for whatever crest it connects to. When properly activated it establishes that connection between worlds in order to pull in the respective human. Many measures were made to prevent digimon from using the digivices themselves, even connected ones like you. It was using my celestial sorcery that I was able to bring these two to this world, and even then it was not nearly as smoothly as it could, or should, have been.” He explained the Gazimon as he walked towards Mike and Ty, after which tossing the Digivice towards Mike.
“Therefore, Michael, I would like you to try and open a proper portal to bring the Human here. Ty will then step in and bring the human to this world. Once that happens, Gazimon, you shall have your human, to do with as you please.” Lucemon said to the three.
Mike was about to say something but he noticed Ty stepping closer almost in the way he used to when it came to his parents and someone did not recognise him. He sighed defeated at that before turning his attention to Wolfy who could only shrug at the Two’s plan, though much like Mike, the two of them were not happy with the way Lucemon explained the bond.
Mike grab the digivice as it was thrown to him and listened to Lucemon explain everything to him and then handed him the digivice which Mike inspected taking into the account the metallic Red colour before he said to himself “Now how do I go about this?”
Mike brought up his laptop on his digivice before he placed Gazimon Digivice into the digivice slot where he began to work on opening the portal. He and Wolfy ended up humming a theme together before Mike nodded and said “Alright Ty, The portal should be ready"
Mike then flicked the screens and a portal appeared in front of Ty, the same colour as the digivice Gazimon had. “There you go Ty, let's see you convince another human to join your cult" Mike teased him. Though Mike knew it was not a Cult any more, it was an army.
---
“Wooow...This looks really good. ...Nice work, Mikey! ...Alright, Wish me Luck!” Ty said to them, after which he takes a deep breath and heads inside the portal.
Once inside, goes through a familiar trail of data code, one of which seemed to manifest from the portal he came out of, the same metallic red coloring as the portal and digivice both, and went right past Ty into the distance, manifesting a trail of sorts for him.
“[url=youtu.be/THbY7EL8k5w?t=18s]~Follow the metal brick road, Follow the metal brick road, Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the metal brick road, follow the metal brick, follow the metal brick, follow the metal brick road...~[url]” He starting to sing as he walked the trail of code before him. That walk transitioned to outright skipping as he hummed the rest of the song to himself.
Back in the human world, Rex’s computer would start to glitch up like before, only this time, it wasn’t like a normal glitch, it didn’t seem like it was glitching in a way that it normally would, rather, it looked like a ripple on the screen, that paused whatever processes he was doing, as a person, the purple-haired little boy Ty, popped out of the epicenter, now looking like an actual human as opposed to an 8-bit version of himself.
“Ahhh, That went so much better than last time...” He said, taking a good look at himself as he did.
---
“Fuck you!” Rex shouts at the screen, as his plasma shotgun melts the skull off one of the Raiders, some hybrid alien zombie demon created by some Russian scientist trying to bring back communism. He didn’t care to recall the rest of the story, all he cared about was the cool guns and the way it drowned out his parents still bickering even after they told each other they were done. First it was about the dinner his mother missed, next it was about how there wasn’t any milk and how his father skirts his responsibilities, if he’s out he should go buy milk. Blah. Blah. And it carried on.
He continued to then just allow the screen to be filled with explosions, turning the volume up on his computer speaks to listening to the rattling psycho electro metal pump through the speakers as the Raiders came running through the hallway to ambush him. Taking out his plasma SMG, he began to melt holes through their unearthly bodies until the computer began to act up.
“Piece of shit,” Rex hits his tower with a little force, “Don’t go out. I’m on the final level.” Ironically despite not caring for the story he had completed other games in the series and had become heavily invested in finishing the games. The computer continued to glitch till it the screen went black. Rex growled under his breath and dropped the controller in his hands, prepared to reset his modem. When a person began to come closer to the screen.
He must be going fucking nuts from all the screaming his parents were doing. The individual spoke, something about being better than the last time. What last time?
“Not like I am entertaining this idea or anything, but what do you want?” Rex asked the individual on the screen, “Just so you know I am going to reboot my computer and you’re going to go away. So I can go back to playing my game. Cause I don’t really want to know what your problems are.”
“Yikes, Probably not a good idea, not that I’ve actually tried this before...wait, that’s exactly why it’s not a good idea!” He said waving his hands around in a panic. Indeed the idea of resetting the computer was something the little Ty did not factor into this. He could be safe for all he knows, maybe the screen just turns black and comes back on, but he didn’t want to take a chance and find out for himself. He then gave a quick look towards the guy, he’s fiery eyes leaving something of an impression on him.
“This guy...There’s no doubt about it, he’s the one I’m looking for.” Ty said, remembering what Mike and Datamon both explained about the predicted personality of Gazimon’s human partner, those eyes even reminds him of Gazimon.
“Alright, alright, I’ll be quick. My name is Falcon, Ty Falcon, I’m a kid from Chicago, Illinois who wound becoming Emperor of an entire world of creatures made completely out of computer data-and I just realized how crazy this all sounds… Anyways, I came here to give you an offer. I know this is going to sound about as convenient as a nigerian prince spam, but it seems you’ve been selected to enter this world as well...A world inside the internet...or computers….I still don’t really get it completely myself, but the point is, I need somebody with a sense of brute strength and a willingness to play hard...and you seem just the man for the job.” Ty explained to him.
Rex pauses listening to his parents finally stop arguing. They say nothing. His mother lets out a grumbling scream. Rex stares at his modem. Then back at the kid in the computers. When he gets back to school everything is going to change. He’s going to be with either one. His life decided for him and he wasn’t even allowed to be part of the decision until after they screamed at the top of their lungs. Just once he’d like to make them hurt. Make them worry sick.
Rex shrugs.
“I don’t have anything to do,” Rex tells him, “But I have to get back before my vacation ends, so this better not be long.”
He feigns interest. Despite the storm boiling inside of him. All night he just wanted to yell at the both of them.
---
Ty could also hear the sounds of grumbling outside the door, it seems the computer caught wind of its sounds, though he can’t quite tell the context behind what he was hearing. All he could tell was that someone out there was really, really pissed at something, and by the expression he’s reading off Rex, it’s not hard to figure out it’s something the guy wants no part of.
“Well, I can’t promise any time limit. But I don’t think you would mind all that much if we just happen to be a little late. ...So…” Ty said, he then placed his hand through the screen, enlarging to a normal size as he extends it towards Rex. As soon as Rex takes his hand, Ty will pull him through the screen. Despite pulling him through a solid object however, he would be able to pass through it as if passing through the surface of water. As he and Ty both then get pulled back into the data stream that transitioned between the two worlds, they’d both exit out of the portal back into the Tortoise Trail where everyone would be waiting.
“And here we are...Welcome to the Digital World!” Ty told Rex.
Rex looks around. Bright skies, and a lot of green. What was this a Nintendo game? He shrugged.
“Okay, so what am I doing?” Rex asked, “Because I am not made out for platforming.”
“He’s taking this...unusually well.” Lucemon pointed out as he looked at the man.
“Oh, this isn’t a platformer, not yet anyways. I would say this is more like….Real-Time Strategy in a conquest style.” Ty responded with a smile.
“...What?” Lucemon blinked for a moment, trying to process what the hell Ty was saying.
“Anyways...Long story short, This here is a Digital World, filled to the brim with Digital Monsters, Digimon for short. I am an Emperor, this army here is my Empire, and we are setting our sights on conquering this world one server at a time! But, in order to do this, me, my Partner here Lucemon, my other partner and his partner, Mike Fertar and...Gabumon I think? We just call him wolfy, anyways, we need one more extra bit of help. You look like the type of guy who’d love to get his hands dirty with stuff, but here you’re gonna need a partner, and luck would have it, we got one for you. ...That is Gazimon, you’re… ahem... partner.” He said to Rex while pointing towards Gazimon.
Gazimon snaps his head, partner. They told him the human was to do his bidding and yet he was introducing him as his partner. The Human looked sloppy, his shirt wrinkly, his hair messy and all over the place. He gave Gazimon a deep stared and Gazimon glared right back. They remained this way for a few seconds.
“He’s got it all wrong,” Gazimon finally mumbles, “You’re doing what I say. I am no one’s partner.”
What the heck was that thing? It seemed to have the ears of a rabbit, the snout of a dog, but the body of a cat. Fuck this was just as weird as Communist and Nazis experimenting on aliens to infuse them with demon, zombie powers.
“Well lucky for you I don’t take orders from talking animals, I am not four,” Rex replies.
The both of them continue to look at each other without a word.
“Yeah well, I know more about this world, so you have to listen to me,” Gazimon smirks as if he won something.
“I’ll just figure it out,” Rex tells him, “This is what like tutorial mode.”
“You will submit to me,” Gazimon demands.
Rex shrugs and waves his hand, “Pass. Why would I submit to a mutant cat rabbit?”
“Are all humans so insufferable?” Gazimon ask.
“You’re a Digimon? could ask the same question,” Rex replies.
“Well I refuse to listen to you,” Gazimon snaps.
“Whatever, I’ll just find someone with a less big mouth,”
Gazimon growls under his breath and Rex pretends not to care. How could this human not see his power? He was being undermined here. Gazimon looks at Lucemon, “You told me he would listen to me.”
“I did say that humans are like pawns, ...But I don’t recall saying anything about him submitting easily. If it was that easy, Michael would be much easier to deal with. This one in particular seems...special. You may have been onto something about this one after all, Michael. ...Unfortunately for you, Gazimon, the Digivice chooses both Digimon and Human for its proper use. It has deemed this boy as its owner just as it deemed you to be the one to use its power. Once a Digivice makes a decision on the matter, there is no changing it.” Lucemon said to Gazimon, then to Mike, then back to Gazimon.
“In other words, Sorry, No refunds!” The purple haired emperor added. He then looked towards Mike.
“Oi, Mikey. Could you hand that device over to...umm….Oi, what’s your name?” Ty said first to Mike, then to Rex.
Gazimon stared back at the human. That’s not what the Lucemon said at all. He spoke about the Human being a Pawn and this human was going to be his pawn. Instead his human wouldn’t obey him and that irritated him. He should take the Digivice and book it, find another way. Yet, this Human there was something. Something that Gazimon couldn’t quite grasp. Like he felt drawn to the Human in some way. He’d just blame Lucemon and Ty for planting something in his head. There was nothing this human could provide him. Though that isn’t the case, in the deeper sense he knew that wasn’t true. So he simply crossed his arms.
“ Yeah give us your name,” Gazimon demanded, just so he could feel like he was on top of things.
“Rex my name is Rex,” he replies.
Rex looks over at Gazimon. So, then this was the tool. Some digital animal. This game is getting lamer and lamer. Looking over at Kid Icarus and the so called Emperor, looked more like a shit clown in a shitter costume or sad mime.
Mike silently watched all these events unfold, keeping his own opinion about Rex to himself though he did recall something his sister had said to him once. “First impression are not everything but the way someone speaks and acts is what you watch", he was clearly an asshole just as Mike said he would be.
Mike disconnected the digivice from his computer and threw it to Rex as he said “Greeting Rex; I’m Michael Fertar but everyone calls me Mike and this is my digimon partner Wolfy". Wolfy bowed as he said “Nice to meet you Human number 3 at least in our little group anyway, I believe 11th human overall though".
“Indeed. ...There are eight other humans in this world, however unlike us, they are our competition. Summoned here by another for the sole purpose of defeating us.” Lucemon said, continuing Mike’s line of thought for Rex.
“Yep-yep, If we’re the villainous protagonists of this game, think of them as the heroic enemies trying to put a stop to us. Our only way of fighting them or any other enemies and NPCs we come across in this world is through these devices. We still...don’t really know how they properly work yet, but apparently yours can empower Gazimon over there to fight stronger digimon in this world than he could in his current state. Just strap it on your wrist like a watch, and the Digivice’ll take care of the rest.” Ty said.
“...I’ll explain the details of the situation to you another time, but for now I shall explain it to you as I did with Michael. With the might of this army, we digimon, and you humans, we aim to locate and capture specific stone tablets known as Crests. Each crest is akin to a magic stone, and are each linked to individual Digivices, meaning there is one crest for one digivice, and eleven crests in total. Simply put, the correct crest linked with the correct digivice, will result in further power granted to the digimon that’s connected to it, Gazimon in your case. We have already obtained one crest, and was on our way to take claim of another before bringing you here.” Lucemon explained to Rex, showing off the Crest of Serenity.
“Uhh, didn’t Mikey have that…? Oh! We should probably check to see if that crest belonged to him as well.” Ty said, tilting his head in confusion; he could’ve sworn Mike took the Crest away for safe-keeping.
“That won’t be necessary. Michael already considered that and tried to test Rex’s digivice with the crest while you were in the portal, bringing Rex here. The results were as you expected. It seemed he was having trouble taking it out despite the rejection though, potentially due to testing it while merging the digivice with his own, so I had helped take out the crest myself, and decided to take back claim of it afterwards.” Lucemon said.
“Ah...Well, ok then. ...Anyways, I know how odd this seems right now, how...not your type of thing this all feels at the moment. But you and Gazimon seem the violent type, and frankly, you two look like the type who can take on the more dirty jobs, the kinds of things me and Mikey don’t have the heart to really touch upon all that much. Needless to say, we’re essentially enemies of this world, anybody who knows us deems us the villains of this story, terrors of the world, agents of chaos and destruction. Truth is, though, I don’t know if either of us could live up to that reputation on our own.” Ty said.
“Reapermon and his men have a sense of honor to them, the minor mischef, wetwork, and destruction without casualty they’ll do without hesitation, as well as preventing any enemies from getting in our way, but there may come a time where that is not enough. Michael is more a chief of espionage than anything, and Ty...well, both of our plans can only go so far with the limitations we have.” Lucemon added.
“So, what do you say? ...I promise we can make this worth both of your wilds.” Ty asked Rex, a sly smile on his face.
How did they figure they’d make it worth his wilds? Did they even know what that was? Rex grabbed the metallic wrist watch. What is this an early prototype smart watch?
“Want to see if this will count how many steps I take,” Rex remarks with a laugh, “Seen something like this in my science fiction games Galactic Extreme War. It monitors heartbeats and your fear levels.” Rex just laughs as he puts it on a joke. At first he feels a bit of a jolt from the thing, oh it’s just one of those lame hand shaker things someone uses as a clich non funny practical joke.
Gazimon stares at the human.
“So?” Gazimon ask, “How does it feel? Can you make me stronger?”
Rex gives Gazimon a raise of his brow.
“Oh, I thought you didn’t need my help or want to hear what I had to say just a minute ago,” Rex replies.
“I don’t,” Gazimon said.
“Good then I’m taking the zapper toy for myself, until it proves actually useful,” Rex smirks, “Kind of a lame fashion accessory for this world.” Rex tells Ty and Pit.
