//------------------------------// // Slowly Sliding // Story: Digital Harmony // by Zennistrad //------------------------------// “So what exactly do y’all think Izzy asked us to come to the field for, anyhow?” Armadillomon’s inquiry was met with a series of noncommittal gestures, shrugs, and variations of ‘I don’t know.’ The cloudy weather left surprisingly little light over the school’s sports field, and the grass was muddy and wet with the rain that had fallen earlier that morning. The damp and dreary atmosphere seemed to carry itself over to the mood every human, pony, and digimon present. “Something about a project he’s been working on,” said Davis. “Twilight should be out with him in a second.” Rainbow Dash let out a groan. “Couldn’t you guys at least have given us better weather for this?” “Didn’t I already tell you that we can’t control the weather?” said Yolei. “Oh, come on! You can’t just invent something to deal with it?” Rainbow replied. “You humans can already do all kinds of crazy impossible things with your technology, and you can’t even make a few rain clouds go away?” “Well, don’t ask me! I don’t even know anything about weather!” “A-hem.” Yolei abruptly turned around to see Izzy standing behind the group, his laptop carried beneath his shoulder. Standing next to him was Twilight, sporting a grin that seemed to brighten the field just by existing. Between the two of them, Tentomon buzzed excitedly. “Sorry for interrupting,” said Izzy. “We’re just about ready to show you what we’ve been working on.” “About time, too,” Rainbow muttered. “You guys are going to love this, I’m sure,” said Twilight, not seeming to hear the remark. “I’m very proud to have worked on it, and I couldn’t have done it without Izzy’s help.” “Glad to hear it!” said Davis. “So what is it, exactly?” Twilight giggled eagerly. “Oh, you’ll see. Ready, Izzy?” “Just a sec, let me set it up first.” Izzy carefully kneeled onto the ground, awkwardly folding his body into a position very close to sitting, but so that no part of his body save his feet touched the muddy ground. He slowly pulled his laptop from beneath his arm and set it on his shins, unfolding it into its upright position. The screen flickered on as the machine exited its sleep mode. His fingers rapidly ran across the keyboard as he entered a complex series of commands. “There we go” said Izzy. “Twilight, if you please?” Twilight nodded. “Right. Davis, I need you and your friends to show me your D-3s for a moment.” “Alright, sure,” said Davis. He took out his digivice and held it into his hand, and the other human Digi-Destined followed suit. Twilight’s horn suddenly glowed, and each of the digivices was levitated into the air. Izzy’s laptop soon followed, and it too became airborne. The computer rotated so that its screen faced the floating assortment of digivices. Izzy bit his lower lip, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. Twilight let out a pained grunt, and her horn’s glow grew almost blindingly bright. With a shrill noise, a beam of amethyst-colored light erupted from the laptop screen, blasting each of the digivices with an intense magical aura. When the beam of light subsided, the digivices then flew outwards, into the hands of the astonished Digi-Destined. Izzy’s computer wobbled precariously, before abruptly dropping from the air. “Bzzt! I’ve got it!” said Tentomon. He quickly swooped down and snatched the laptop in his front claws, before carrying it over to his partner. “Thanks, Tentomon.” Izzy exhaled deeply. “Jeez Twilight, you had me worried a second there. This computer’s expensive, you know.” “I... I... know...” Twilight panted heavily, struggling to speak between breaths. “I... I knew that would take a lot out of me, but...” Izzy shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s test it out and see if it works.” “If what works?” said T.K. “You still haven’t told us what this is all about.” Twilight beamed, her exhaustion all but forgotten. “How about we show you instead? Davis, try having Veemon digivolve.” “Alright!” said Veemon. “Now’s my chance to shine! Come on, Davis!” “You got it! Go long, Veemon!” Veemon ran out further into the field, and jumped into the air, soaring almost ten feet upwards. Davis held out his digivice, and the familiar shriek of power sounded as Veemon bathed in the digivice’s light, his body rapidly transforming. “Veemon, Digivolve to: ExVeemon!” With a flap of his wings, ExVeemon descended back to the ground, kicking up a gust of wind in the process. With a fang-filled grin, he struck a pose and flexed his biceps. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Anyway... Davis, now try activating an armor digivolution." Davis’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what?” “You heard me,” said Twilight. “Try it.” “Alright, if you say so...” Slowly, Davis held out his digivice again. For a brief moment he said nothing, uncertainty flashing in his eyes. Then, finally, he shouted the command. “Digi-Armor Energize!” The digivice glowed once again, and the egg-shaped artifact materialized from the light that it emitted. ExVeemon’s body glowed again, and both he and the digi-egg were wreathed in flames as they merged together and transformed. “ExVeemon, Slide Digivolve to: Flamedramon! The Fire of Courage!” The fire fizzled out as the transformation completed, leaving a burning scent hanging in the air. Standing atop the patch of charred grass was Flamedramon. He stared at his claw, tentatively rotating his wrist. “Huh,” he said. “that’s interesting.” Twilight let out a gleeful squeal. “Yes! It worked! It really worked! Just think of how much this could help us!” “Um... not to be rude, but how exactly would this help us?” said Kari. “Flamedramon isn’t really new to us, and it doesn’t look like you’ve made him any stronger.” “No, hold on. I think they’re onto something here,” T.K. chimed in. “All of our partners have at least two different forms, each with different strengths. Some are more suited for transportation, others for combat. Sometimes we’d need to switch between them quickly.” “That’s exactly the point,” said Izzy. “Under normal circumstances, you’d need to have your partners revert to their base form before digivolving again. The amount of time it would take to do to do so in a dangerous situation is a matter of life and death. Using slide digivolution, you’ll instead be able to switch between any two forms of equivalent power immediately. By my own estimate, this should make switching forms at least one thousand percent faster.” “Wowie, that’s super!” Pinkie cheered. “I was expecting something a lot cooler, but still!” “Cooler?” said Twilight, a hint of defensiveness in her voice. “Pinkie, what are you even talking about?” “I dunno! From the way you were talking, it seemed like you were going to show us some entirely new transformation or something. And I kinda feel like a bunch of other people probably felt the same way.” As Pinkie spoke, she turned briefly turned to the side, glancing at nobody in particular. “Pinkie dear, don’t be rude,” Rarity chided. “I’m sure Twilight worked very hard on this, the least you could do is be grateful.” Pinkie laughed nervously. “Oh... right. Sorry, Twilight.” Twilight gave a friendly smile. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Anyway... now that we’ve got this over with, we should take a short break before planning our next move. We need to make sure we have enough energy before we head to the Digital World again.” “Back to the Digital World, huh?” said T.K. “Does this mean that you’ve found the signal we’ve been looking for?” “Almost,” said Izzy. “I’ve been getting a stronger reading on it recently, but it’ll be another hour or two before I can discern its exact location. I’ve set up a program to search for it in the meantime.” “It certainly took you long enough,” Ken muttered darkly. “Come on, we need to start preparing now. Our top priority is destroying Vespimon. Everything else is a waste of our time.” Without even pausing to look at the others, Ken suddenly turned around, briskly striding towards the school building. Wormmon cried out for Ken to wait for him as he quickly scurried after his partner. The remaining Digi-Destined shared with each other a series of uncomfortable looks. As Ken walked away, a cold fog began to roll in, further obstructing the little sunlight that made it past the clouds. Before he even reached the building, Ken's form was entirely obscured in the haze.