-Digital Realm, Server City, Night Life District, Kangarumon’s Gym, Pom-
As soon as I walked in I saw Kangarumon, he was a large yellow kangaroo monster that wore boxing gloves, red boots, had a blue helmet and a pouch with a toy sticking out of it. Next to him was the smaller blue bipedal akita we met before, Gaomon.
Gaomon was huffing and looking off to the side and away from Kangarumon.
“Ah you came, thanks for watching out for my little brother’s back in the streets when we got separated… technically all Digimon are related from the very source code that gives us life, virus, vaccine, data or otherwise. Still the concepts of brotherhood and the like exist among us Digimon.” Kangarumon crossed his arms and gave Gaomon an honestly worried look before turning back to us. “I’m Kangarumon and I owe you a free lesson on anything relating to fighting, if you need help to see where you can improve, then I’m the one to do it even if the improvement is marginal… also you can use this as a safe spot to rest this part of the street is my turf and Tempomon doesn’t mind sharing as long as I protect it well enough… and I can. I can even help you with unusual techniques, even if you might not think I could because I can’t do them. I’m fairly smart in that regard, aside from the free lessons do you need anything.”
Dolly looked at my right shoulder and I sighed, this was going to sting… a lot.
“Do you have any effective disinfectant? I was stabbed by a Goblimon on the way here…” I didn’t even need to say anything further as Kangarumon blurred in a hop to somewhere and then came back with several things in his right arm.
“Rubbing alcohol, sanitizer, soap or ointment? Also do you need something to bite onto I have this rubber dog bone you could use, also do you need stitching?” Looking away from Kangarumon my gaze slowly slid over to Gaomon who looked a little embarrassed. “I’m a good trainer who knows the ins and outs of patching up light wounds, even if I’m not a professional or variant specified towards it. Knowledge is power, especially in the realms a Digimon occupies and being intelligent as much as brutally strong can get you by in a lot of ways.”
“Is the bone clean? Also I’ll use the sanitizer.” I get enough alcohol from just watching Shanty imbibe it.
Again I consider it odd that, somehow, Shanty’s not dead nor does alcohol do anything negative to the goat despite having mostly alchohol and possibly vinegar for blood being a negative for just about anyone else as overabundance can kill as not keeping a balance of good health practices. Shanty was, physically enough, stronger than me in some regards of muscle even if I outclassed her in skill.
“Of course it is, I would never give you something that was covered in bacteria, though digital bacteria is not as harmful to biologicals it’s still a good idea to play things safe.” Taking the rubber bone Kangarumon offered me into my mouth, I clenched my teeth and safely undid the wool stitching on my shoulder. “Huh, nifty… hold still this might sting and bubble a bit.”
-A few minutes of wound tending later-
I wool stitched my wound again and Kangarumon appreciated my stitching before nodding and motioning to himself.
“Okay, anything you would like help with as a freebie, a new move for your Digimon friends perhaps? Any techniques that have been giving you a problem that I can improve on or even suggestions on how to better yourself, I can teach or help anyone. Even the seemingly unteachable, like a Gaossmon. For those that don’t know a small blue lizard Digimon that’s basically just a head, legs and a tail that runs away from fights really fast when confronted and tend to be easily found after almost drowning in puddles about an half an inch deep or giving away their hiding spot they run into by barking like Chihuahuas… it’s actually pretty cute of them and they are not truly a threat to anyone unless you corner them.” Kangarumon nodded to Frizzle who tilted her head and gave him a curious look. “Yes, I can teach a Gaossmon to fight better… but no I can’t necessarily teach them to win said fight.”
Frizzle looked at us and shrugged, then reached into the Dazzle’s Digivice and pulled out a cinnamon roll. She broke it in half and offered me the other half. Well I did need the sugar after losing some blood… I took the piece of roll on the proffered napkin and bit into it, I was in heaven for a few seconds.
I wonder what Frizzle would be like if she weren’t addicted to bread or baked goods, probably not as happy to see a smile on my face.
“You can only do so much, still it’s amazing that you even successfully taught that Gaossmon kickboxing… didn’t know they had legs that were quite that flexible.” Gaomon seemed to be singing praises of his big brother. Said big brother put his gloved hips on his hip and raised his head high with a grin towards Gaomon. “Good student, even if he wasn’t too terribly bright.”
“Well, how about it?” Hmm… could Kangarumon actually help me with that fireball technique I’m working on?
“Well… wouldn’t you have to know our capabilities to know how to help us?” Taking on a thoughtful look at my question, Kangarumon rubbed his chin with his left glove.
“Only as much as you’re willing to give me, I will not ask for anything you’re not willing to tell me.” Kangarumon turned to Gaomon and gestured to him with his right glove. “Still a little information would help me figure out whatever it is you want to learn, because learning…”
“Is how we grow!” Pumping his right fist Gaomon was looking to me in a friendly manner, his tail wagging slightly. “It doesn’t matter if it is physical, mental or even spiritual learning, there’s always something new one can learn and no one can learn everything there is in a lifetime… at least not without being a supercomputer the size of a small planet. Also Digimon, being informational beings and all…”
“Okay… well there is this one technique I’m having problems with…” The one that would allow me to shoot fireballs if I could do it right.
I wanted to show that to Tianhuo when I get back to Ransei as the Arceus device wouldn’t let me connect to Equss and… well… the time disparity here will make it so Tianhuo wouldn’t know she had something to be worried about, much less Shanty and the others.
“Do you have the free time?” Kangarumon asked with worry.
“We do, we might be here to ask Tempomon about something important, but it’s not immediately urgent… yet.” I threw in that ‘yet’ after ten seconds of silence, Dolly didn’t say anything but knew I wanted to calm down after going through a number of Digmon like we did.
“Then be prepared to call me sensei, also everything in the training facility can be used freely!” Kangarumon stated as he brought both his boxing gloves in a defensive stance and threw a few jabs that were almost invisible to the naked eye. “Just don’t abuse my kindness too much or you’ll be kicked out permanently.”
-A few hours later, Dolly-
“Huh… so I can simply improve the strength of my slap shot just like that and angle it so no one knows which direction it’s going to go but me?” Canard has learned a lot about wielding a hockey stick as a staff, a halberd, a scythe and even hockey techniques.
“Yep, you already know how to use a hockey stick expertly in the sport, just remind yourself that high sticking should only be used when not playing the sport and in self-defense of you or others.” After that Kang moved back to Pom, with some hint of concern.
Apparently Kang knew how to fight with sporting equipment and enjoyed sports as much as he did fighting, this included skateboards and I was kind of amazed that the guy was as graceful as he was at his size on one.
Pom made a suggestion of getting Gaomon to play with the Skateboard Scamps at the Skate Park if he had some free time from being a gym assistant and Kang agreed to try sparking a friendship with that Garu guy. We’ve secured a place on the east side of server city to go to in an emergency at least.
It was humbling when a Kangaroo could actually teach me a thing or two about fighting with a skateboard utilizing only my hind legs and maybe keeping one paw free for maneuvering plants. Some of what he taught me was a part of him giving me a few pointers on using the stone bone to pivot and or flip myself about and how to use it close up for more than the oddly mystical boomerang effect it had going on.
Frizzle looked like she respected Kang after a quick lesson on improved her brawling and how to better wield the chain she wrapped around her right arm, this respect went up after Kang helped Dazzle learn to do a few grapple and throws letting himself be tossed about by the smaller lizard. Dazzle wasn’t that great in a close up confrontation, she spent most of a battle trying to keep a distance to hit someone with ridiculously accurate ranged attacks. She would eventually learn to be great in close up encounters, but it would require her to evolve which earned Frizzle’s curiosity… Digimon haven’t interacted with Pokémon much beyond what we were doing here it seems.
Kang was quite amazing, given he somehow taught Lit to spit electrified webs or balls of webbing that would explode into entrapping webs. He apparently figured out the mechanics behind something Lit was trying to learn to do and went from there.
It was when he got to Pom that Kang had a slight issue… it was what we were currently experiencing. At least that exploding Prin guy sat off to the side moderately amused, lazily kicking his wooden legs up and down watching us all exercise.
“Okay, what you’re trying to do Pom is… a bit difficult, but it’ll be a worthwhile technique if you can get it right.” The technique that Kang was talking about was the fireball blasting technique, name pending, which would allow Pom to generate awesome blasts of flames as safely as possibly without lighting herself on fire. “It’s kind of missing something still, give me a minute or two to think of something to help you.”
I think Pom had a thing for fire and after seeing Tian I can think of one reason right off the bat, aside from the whole lambkin lighting themselves on fire while in danger thing. Pom’s people were nuts, but it is pretty hard to catch or attack someone that’s running about and flailing while on fire. While Pom’s wool was resistant to burning down, it didn’t mean it wouldn’t catch fire and eventually do that and she was trying to make this ability absolutely safe to perform.
It was unfortunate for Pom that a number of her techniques tended to have drawbacks on her personal health to use too much in a short period of time, aside from ones that just exhaust magic which she apparently has in abundance compared to me.
I’m just thankful Pom was still alive… not for the lack of almost dying numerous times up to this point. It’d be a pretty sad day if something like a light stab wound actually took her down.
In any case Pom was Kangarumon’s focus right now and he seemed up to the challenge, I’ll practice with my board for a bit while they try to figure out how to do the technique Pom wants.
-Pom-
“Okay… I need you to do something for me, can you do the Buster Wolf thing?” Looking to Kangarumon, I nodded.
“Yes, but I need a target.” A target was promptly set up. “Are you okay?”
I went through the motions of spinning, shooting forward and slamming my right hoof into the target and bracing, then…
“Buster Wolf!” Blew the target into the nearest wall, not against the wall… into it.
“Okay… interesting technique, but why did you ask if I was okay?” Kangarumon asked as he looked at the improbably tough Digimon shaped target stuck in the gyms wall.
“Part of the attack, it’s become a bit of a thing I couldn’t stop saying after asking Dolly, having practiced this with her a lot.” The curious look I got made me nervous. “It’s how I prep the attack, probably shouldn’t use it if a person isn’t okay.”
“You don’t like fighting do you? Understandable that you’re learning incredible techniques to protect those you care about and love, I can tell you’ve been scarred pretty badly in several fights regardless of how your wounds have healed since.” Kangarumon was being quite patient and calm, it made me feel a little bit relieved that he didn’t sound angry about me not liking fighting. “Do you need to sit down and talk about it?”
-Five minutes later, Kangarumon-
I’ve never been to reality, but it’s from where we get information from for all the digital realms. Not that we interpreted that information correctly or perfectly, but I think it built character among Digimon.
“Okay, so you’ve been using techniques created from what your friends can do, the one fighting style you know best has been taught to you by the head of the guard for the place you live… and you recreated the others fighting styles mentally and can do them physically.” I looked up and she seemed to shyly look away, she was adorable. Also I could tell the bell she wore under the pink scarf around her neck was the most important object to her. When she talked about the head guard of Huoshan she wasn’t talking as if she was a person of great respect… she was much closer than that and that person was capable of wielding the element of fire, Pom had some burning passion under that meek exterior. Pom herself was like a sleeping wolf and from what I saw of the Buster Wolf, the wolf part seemed to be powered by intent more than anything. “I would like to spar with you eventually, but if you want to find Tempomon then he should be arriving at his club soon… he usually works his club starting in the early evening. Didn’t think it would take so long to try and work out this technique you’re creating.”
“I’m sorry…” Pom stated with a wilt.
Pom could create the spark, but she couldn’t blast it into a ball of fire big enough to make it a technique worthy of anything more than lighting a candle, there’s also the fact that it’s a technique based on her people lighting themselves on fire. She couldn’t do it with her bark and she wanted to do the fireball without igniting herself first. She told me a single thousand spear created by her wool isn’t enough so… what if… Dolly could do things with air and I would suggest it, if Pom didn’t want to be capable of doing this solo and has probably already thought of that.
“It’s okay, I think I have an idea, but we’re going to do this safely. First can I see a Thousand Spears?” I quickly set up a target for her and her wool shifted around her left leg and she fired off a lance of air with her wool uncoiling, which was quite amazing to see in action and it did some damage to the target. “Is there any other way to do that?”
“Yes, but it requires using Dancing Flame to speed up my movements.” The technique Pom said causes issues as it causes her physical health problems various times in life. “Maybe I can do it with Sheep’s Clothing supporting my muscles…”
Pom became quiet and looked at the ground.
“Sheep’s Clothing?” Looking to me I saw her close her eyes and the wool across her body… subtly rippled like water before changing.
The wool shaped around her ears into a more triangular manner, her hairstyle flipped to lengthening out around her neck into a wolf like scruff, the wool around her tail elongated into a thick wolf like tail and her hooves were surrounded with wool shaped paws that had claws. Those were the most notable changes, the other changes was the fact that the wool around her body was no longer protecting her and seemed to be thinner and more integrated with her limbs.
She raised her right paw and curled it to start rapidly punching it forward rapidly, I could feel several strong gusts of air, but not the same strength of her launching a Thousand Spear with her wool. Still her physical strength and personal speed notably went up by quite a bit.
“No… don’t think I can do it that way, also being in this form while doing Dancing Flame pulled all the muscles in my body painfully even if it gave me incredible speed. Almost as much as Sho-…” She trailed off and quickly shifted her wool back to normal and she no longer looked wolf like, I glanced to Gaomon who was staring at Pom slightly. Gaomon noticed me looking at him staring and he looked away blushing to continue helping Dazzle with opening distance in close up fighting. “In any case it’s not safe for me to use Dancing Flame in Sheep’s Clothing shift.”
She sharply inhaled and I noticed something in her eyes, I could almost see her brain activity skyrocketing beyond her normal capabilities and then she exhaled. I could keep up with an ultimate in a fight… but the speed her leg moved when she jabbed out a spear of air like she had previously done was quite impressive.
“Slightly more powerful, because you are congealing the air and that you do that without make noise from breaking the sound barrier is… odd.” Very odd, but I had an idea for how to work her technique and how she had been trying to do it before was ultimately wrong. “I have an idea, but let me try something first.”
After setting up my target, I moved back to being next to Pom and the target was several feet away. I brought my gloves up to one side together and cupped them, Pom and the others looked toward me curiously.
I remember this being a technique in some martial arts that I never really tried to use, but as a Digimon it should be feasible for me to teach Pom if I can replicate the move in full. It’ll also give me a new move to eventually teach Gaomon.
Having gathered energy usually used for my flaming fist attacks, I surged my arms forward and twisted them.
“Hadoken!” A massive fireball of energy ripped with my gloves and blasted the target to smithereens and ash in a blink. My gloves were slightly smoking, but the release of that attack had been an amazing feeling. The martial arts archives box my data comes from were done proud today. “Now you see Gaomon, information can teach you to do many things you didn’t know you could before. I believe I know how you will perform your technique Pom, it’ll be similar in execution but it’ll still be yours alone.”
-Pom-
I was almost hoping he wouldn’t be able to help me with that, but the smile on his face meant I couldn’t back out now. I was set in learning to do this technique.
“Okay…” I muttered, Kang crouched down and gently hugged me.
“It’s okay to be a bit afraid of yourself, for others or of the possible futures where you do or do not learn this, but you’re doing this so you’ll have another move to use in a fight and learning it now will be better than learning it later. Remember to figure out when to take action and when not to.” Kangarumon was still so patient with me, like Tianhuo. “Also I think you can take your Buster Wolf a little bit further, but that’s up to you to figure out. As for how you’ll do your technique, it won’t be the Hadoken I just used. It’ll be your own technique to name and your design, I’m just helping you finalize it and here’s how you’re going to do it…”
-Ten minutes later-
Okay, having gangly legs was making this a little awkward, but I could do this. The Hadoken focuses energy before being fired and requires a twisting motion to spin the energy into spiraling a straight path through the air; my technique was, as Kangarumon said, different.
Well my wife’s name technically means ‘Sky Fire’ and she’s definitely the embodiment of a living firework, bright and beautiful. So Huo was always going to be a part of the attacks name… Huo Qiang? Fire Spear, fits the theme of my Huoshan training and it’ll certainly surprise the longma back home. Maybe I should mix in my own theme and call it Thousand Spears: Huo.
I brought my hooves together, about as well as I could, and didn’t charge any energy like Kangarumon. I didn't know how to do that through my hooves with magic.
The Hadoken seemed to be straight forward attack and only straight forward give the swirling motion needed. My attack, I can aim it in any direction and possibly have the same results every time.
If Kangarumon was right, and he probably was given how talented he was, my technique required quickly making my legs parallel to one another before firing it, otherwise I’d get caught in the back blast if the flames compress inwards and then explodes in my face.
I quickly clacked my hooves together and a spark formed, I started to slowly swirl the sparked fire forward and the gentle air from my hooves gave it strength as the fire started to spiral into the shape of a magatama.
Too strong and it would burn out before properly fired, too weak and it wouldn’t last long enough to fire… same principle as Dancing Flame, different use of balance.
Having sparked the flame, I nurtured it with my swirling hooves slowly and gave it life and then I’d coax it into position with movements of my hooves creating the airflow to guide it. I made the flame act like it was breathing in and out, matching the tempo of my breathing and it pulsed between my hooves like a happy little child. It wasn’t bloated and it wasn’t starved, it was a flame that danced happily in the air reminding me of better times.
Once the fireball slowed its swirling and was between my hooves pointing at the target. Like a baby grown to adulthood, I released it into the world with the rippling of the coiled wool down to my hooves and the results… were not what I expected.
“Thousand Spears: Huo.” I whispered in awe and… complete and utter terror at what I just did. My friends said I had potential, I think I should stop pushing said potential. If anyone were curious as to the true meaning of Dancing Flame… I just made fire literally dance in the air and unlike the fire immune longma, I had to be quite careful when sparking a fire like that.
Thankfully, I doubt anyone would even let me do the slow set up for that attack before they were on top of me.
Despite how slow the attack was, the results could not be denied.
Everyone was staring at me, even Frizzle. They slowly looked to the target, the top half of it was missing. Left behind was a cauterized stump in the shape of a half circle and the bottom half was ablaze. The hole also lead to the bathroom behind the target where I could see burning bits of several sinks before my attack finally stopped.
“Anyone that lets you set that up on purpose… would have to be a complete and utter idiot beyond all measure or completely immune to fire. It took you more than five minutes to do that, but I think the results speak for themselves given you melted through a training dummy… a brick wall… and several of the bathroom sinks… going to need the one from the kitchen and a contractor for copy and pasting. Anyway, I’d average that was ten times the strength of an average oven from what was once a little candle flame, putting about one thousand degrees and the physics behind that attack alone…” Kangarumon stated with clear awe. “Please come again sometime soon and thank you for showing me the excellence of your understanding of what you have been taught and how you went about interpreting it. It’s about time you went to talk with Tempomon, also be aware that any interruption to that or even an errant breeze could ruin that attack if not kept under control properly.”
“Yeah…. no problem… thank you for finding the solution to my issue so quickly Sensei Kang.” That being, start the fire off to the side, build it up and then squeeze it between two thousand spears making a three pronged blazing pressure spear that drilled through a lot because the fireball was still carrying the spiraling motion I initially put into it. “Please carry me to the club guys… because I’m going to pass out now…”
Eyes rolling up in the back of my head, I felt my back slap against the ground before everything went black.
-A short time later, Dolly-
Okay, Pom was definitely freaking out about that, would probably go into denial mode upon waking up too.
Frizzle seemed to be intrigued by the raw power of it.
Dazzle seemed more amused than anything, except when Pom passed out in shock.
Lit started trying to shoot spiraling electric webs… yeah the little guy had a competitive streak and I liked that about him, though I don’t understand why a tick would have the ability of a spider to make webs. Maybe it’s an evolutionary thing, I’ll have Pom ask Dazzle about that later.
Canard was staring at Pom trying to imagine that someone smaller than him could so easily lay waste to her enemies if she wasn’t a mental mess at times, that fire lance thing pushed it a bit too far for her mind to comprehend that, yes, it had in fact been her that did that.
Prinnymon, he just started roasting a marshmallow over the burning lower half of the training dummy and took the whole thing with a lackadaisical attitude and simply said ‘Awesome Dood’.
There was my thoughts on how to react to it… I didn’t know how to.
On the one paw Pom was always awesome like that, on the other that was terrifyingly slow so someone would have to run interference for Pom to set that up. It was equally terrifyingly devastating to watch in action and if you weren’t immune to fire… then you’d sure be hoping you had a ridiculous resistance to it.
Pom literally put the Dancing Flame into making that small bit of fire dance and grow before doing what she did with herself. The spiraling ball of fire shrunk before she exploded it into motion. If she was ever going to do that attack, then she would certainly make sure she doesn’t want her target moving again if it wasn’t outright immune to fire before doing that.
The most worrying thing was how Pom was going to take creating such a lethal technique like that. She probably should have just asked for an improvement on her Wolf Fang Hoof movements, as that technique is going to haunt the back of her mind for quite a while.
Reminded me of that combo move we pulled at the volcano that took out those robotic birds, Pom never mentions it and we almost lost Dodo that day, so… yeah… definitely burying this technique in her head until we needed it.
-Outside Tempomon’s Club, Frizzle-
Never discount the little guy, especially not a Cutemon or a Marineangemon, Pom definitely is not someone to discount despite how weak she looked to be. I knew that Pom was a wolf that would rather sleep than fight, but pick on her friends and if that wolf wakes up...
I looked at Pom hanging limply from my shoulder and the slightly worried looks from Dazzle. I would talk to her, but I’m quite exceedingly embarrassed about my voice. It was a fact that all Guilmon have an awful addiction to bread and making it, ridiculously weird high pitched voices and battle instincts that most Digimon on our level can’t match easily. It’s definitely that second thing I’d rather not talk about, because I'd rather not say anything at all.
“Business or pleasure, if it’s business, it’ll lead to Tempomon’s pleasure anyway and I mean he might challenge you to dance fighting if he thinks you got the groove or the moves to give him a challenge.” The bouncer at the door was a, relatively small, Daipenmon. Etymology ‘big penguin monster’, appearance was a mechanical penguin with a crank sticking out of his head and w ielding two large popsicles, which would never melt, as weapons. His data obviously came from a snow cone maker.
I could tell that this Daipenmon was a champion level version, almost bordering on ultimate.
There were a lot of Muchomon and Penmon around, so the robotic penguin Digimon wasn’t likely an unusual sight around here. There were two reasons it would be odd though, one it was a bouncer and not acting like a general soulless mechanical Digimon as it blocked the door we had been waiting in line for and two it was smaller than a regular Daipenmon, so was it still worthy of the ‘Dai’ part of its name since it wasn’t a mountain sized threat?
“They’re here to talk with the boss and possibly have a good time dood!” Prinnymon answered, I hadn’t really seen a Prinnymon before him, must not be a common species of Digimon.
I blinked as I looked beyond Daipenmon and saw another Prinnymon, but red, huh… neat. It was carrying a tray and was smiling as it went about its business.
“Then welcome to Music Maestros headquarters, don’t start any fights without Tempomon’s say so… unless it’s a dance fighting, a pure dance off or basically light sparring. If you’re seriously trying to kill someone, take it outside the night life district. We don’t try to kill and load Digimon data around here.” With the number of penguin Digimon protecting the other Digimon around here, the Daipenmon would think anyone an idiot to try. I pointed at Dazzle’s hip and Daipenmon silently acknowledged the Digivice with a slight tilt of his head and motioned us through with his Popsicle. “Go on through.”
Daipenmon was looking at me suspiciously, maybe because I was a digital hazard marked Digimon and capable of ending this world if I went entirely rogue. I'd rather not do that thank you very much, I like living and not being destroyed by other Digi-destined. It was weird enough how I even ended up with a Digivice in the first place without a partner connected to it until now.
Upon entering I saw a Frigimon and they wouldn’t associate with bad people under normal or extenuating circumstances, the snow bear Digimon were good judges of character and always safe to approach. So this wasn’t an ambush and we weren’t walking into a trap with one of ours unconscious from the mental stress of being incredible.
Good, we should be fine until we meet Tempomon personally.