//------------------------------// // 288. Server City Ransom Pt. 13. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Digital Realm, Server City, Sami- The game cube slammed down and I sighed in relief, no digital being got caught up in it. Canard, Pom, Dolly and Lit would be fine in the game world as long as the user doesn’t have good reason to attack them depending on the game being played. “Well… we’re not going to see them for a few days.” I stated as I turned and blasted a Goblimon in the face with my rifle and saw a Hi-Vision Monitamon hopping away. Was that who threw the knife at Pom? Ugh, darn dark colored champion stealth expert! “Be safe Canard… guys…” “Wait days? Why won’t we be seeing them for days?” Launching a Flame Burst at the last remaining Goblimon, Dazzle turned to the huge shifting wall of the glowing purple energy that made up the game cube. “Time disparity, they are moving in real time now based on reality.” One of the Commandramon answered. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back for them… and our transport if we can swing it. Until then we’ve got issues to deal with and we will have. Trying to breach a cube will have disastrous results.” “Until then we’ve got your backs.” The Commandramon that was the driver added. -Northwest Server City, Beach Bungalow, Hi-Vision Monitamon- “I got her, just like you asked Ultros!” I said proudly as Octomon's second in command. “Great, now where is the darling cutie, heh heh heh.” Ultros grinned his unnatural teeth and waggled his tentacles. “She’s in the game cube as we speak, if it’s not lethal I shall endeavor to try getting her again.” I suddenly found a tentacle threatening to pop my cubed head off my small body. “I think there’s been a miscommunication here… when I said I wanted you to ‘get her’, I meant bring her back to me so I can host her in my beach side palace. I totally mean that in a less than threatening manner.” The large tentacle tightened and I could feel my code threatening to unravel, Ultros was far stronger than any Octomon had right to be and I worked for such a gloriously strong leader! Provided he didn’t kill me for completely misunderstanding his orders… “She would have looked fabulous in a bikini darn it, plus my tentacles would have been all over such a sweet honey. You better hope she survives that game cube and that the user is being relatively harmless!” That meant I had a few weeks left to live… for which I can devote to my master Octomon, praise be Lord Ultros for this blessing! There was just one thing I needed to ask. “Uh, you do realize for all intents and purposes she’s basically covered in wool and doesn’t wear clothing right?” I asked bluntly. “What part of she’ll look good in a bikini do you not seem to understand!” My lord Ultros worked in mysterious ways as he waved all his tentacles at me threateningly while squeezing harder. -Ransei, Valora, ???- My game start screen booted up. “Welcome to Battle Beasts, please select your avatar!” I chose my personally crafted avatar, the one with duel samurai swords and looked somewhat like me! I grinned as I waited for the AI to choose the battle arena and then glorious digital fighting would occur, I might even get a Porygon or a Rotom interested in modifying my game further to be more efficient. “You have selected Maul-wilier!” I wonder if the robotic Pinsir and Heracross will try for me again, they were tough and made for a good fight… also living shields against the other NPCs. -Game Cube, ‘Battle Beasts’ Dome, Ladies Restroom, Pom- I grit my teeth and hissed as I poured the disinfectant over my front right leg and noticed Dolly’s nose wrinkling in confusion at the lack of smell coming from the substance. She also looked to be in pain despite not taking any serious hits, I checked our bond and was immediately upset with what she was doing. “Dolly… are you… stop, stop taking on my pain this instant!” She was taking on a portion of the pain I was in for herself. “No can do Pom, pain shared is pain reduced, don’t ask me to do math since this is giving me a headache!” Paws on her head, Dolly was grunting at the effort to reduce how much pain I was in by shouldering an amount of it. “Can I, can I see the injuries?” I sighed, she was going to be fairly stubborn about this. I might as well show her. The wool receded from my right leg entirely, with the exception of the wool stitching. Dolly looked a little sick at the flesh ruptures from Frizzle’s attack that my wool had been hiding as I douse my left shoulder with more disinfectant. I covered my right leg back up and shifted my wool to look as normal as I possibly could. My fluffmancer talents were working pretty great, but I wondered if I would ever get to independently moving wool like Paprika did? How does one control wool at range when it wasn’t connected to you? “Bow-Whacka-Ouch… just be glad I’m not trying to take on all of your pain Pom.” Dolly closed her eyes and started crying. “Still, I’m helping you regardless and at least the wool stitches have a cute flower look to them. The kind of tattoos I’d expect you to have if you wanted them.” “You are at that, but it’s obviously a bit much for you.” Seriously hoped Dolly knew she could only take so much. “Also the flowers are very much incidental, I assure you.” “Hey, you’re family.” Dolly said with a grin, it just came out being more of a grimace. “You girls okay in there?” Canard asked from beyond the nearby door, he probably finished his business in the male’s bathroom. “Yeah, we’ll be out in a bit.” Things felt weird here, this world felt… small and didn’t have the same thrum of rhythm to it. Basically this entire world existed inside a dome. “Frizzle really got me pretty good. Most damaging injury of the day really, entirely glad that didn’t shattered my bones.” I was reminded of what I almost did to Chu Chulainn and winced. “You’ve taken on a lot of trauma, anybody would be a little worried about you. By the way Lit’s fine.” Yeah, Canard and Lit hadn’t interacted much, but it’s nice to hear they were getting along. “Trauma has been a common occurrence for the most of this current year of my existence, I’ll live.” I was trying to keep the quavering out of my voice. “Well, alright, see you in a few minutes Pom. Metabee and Rokusho are grabbing food for you to help with the lightheadedness.” Even Canard was concerned about my health. “Make sure she’s alright Dolly!” “I’ll do my best of course.” Dolly said looking up to me and pressing a paw gently into my side with a chipper smile and a warm feeling sent through our bond. “Stop thinking of Cuckoo Lame and get your mind off the injury and get you some eats.” -Five minutes later, digital food court- Introductions out of the way and now we move onto business. “Okay, we should probably tell you. While we’re in the game, we’re basically stuck in reality based time while it’s active. So don’t be surprised if some things change when you get back to the digital realm.” That was something I think we needed to know sooner Metabee the white and yellow beetle bot sighed while crossing his arms. “We’re probably missing months due to getting stuck in this game cube, better than being erased from existence. You’ll probably miss a week or two if this takes an hour or less.” “There’s also the chance that we’ll never leave this cube alive if it’s never played again, given the amount of time from when it was last used. We need to win against the user Metabee, this is seriously life or death for us.” Rokusho’s red eyes narrowed on Metabee and he turned to us as I ate some potato chips, dried fruit snacks and drank some water. The food and water here were tasteless, but I was still getting back some energy from eating. “We have to defeat the user at the game soundly or else we might be stuck in here forever, not you… I assure you that as biologicals you will be fine once the game is won or lost. At least we won’t be awake or aware when we perish in the case of this game being deleted.” “Geeze Rokusho, why don’t you scare us into action harder? We’ve got this! Mind you we lost the last time we fought the user and I’m pretty sure it’s the same guy given their avatar.” Metabee saw our curious looks, he gave us an equally curious questioning look. “Oh… right… you wouldn’t know about that. Hey can we use that monitor over there to show them a replay of our previous battle here?” “Ughh… if you weren’t my best friend…” Rokusho stated while putting his left hand on his face, after a moment he removed it and looked to us. “Anyway Battle Beasts is a game built around creatures fighting in duels, free-for-alls, battle royales or tournaments with varying rulesets based on the users whims. In teams, solo, round robin and etcetera, that kind of thing if you know fighting. The user, much to my dismay, did solo the both of us when we fought them. We were the only digital lifeforms caught in this cube the last time it was in use. The user’s avatar is a strange two legged creature with a mouth on the back of their heads and a smaller mouth at their front, it’s hard to describe, but it looks like this.” With a sweep of Rokusho’s left hand, the nearby monitor advertising the sea battlefield and giant toothy waters monsters that didn’t look like Pokémon shifted. The image that came up on the nearby screen was some kind of two legged yellow and black creature with a large bean pod shaped mouth sticking out the back of their head. “The user rarely plays this game and judging by the amount of time that has passed since they’ve last played in digital time… well… we’d greatly appreciate your help on escaping our situation before it’s too later.” Rokusho bowed to us. Metabee raised his left fist into the air. “Yeah, help a couple of guys out and we’ll back you whenever you need it!” Metabee stated jovially. “Please don’t offer my services on things without my permission, but you can do as you please.” Rokusho stated flatly to Metabee. I think I was getting an idea as to what their relationship was normally like, a stoic knight kind of guy and a headstrong explosive ballistic personality. It made for a rather weird, if barely stable, friendship. “So how did you two lose to this thing last time?” This was brought up by Canard. “Yeah, we were in the middle of a Battle Royale, the games NPCs don’t care if we’re just trying to survive they attack everyone equally as long as you aren’t on their team and in the middle of an arena match.” With a motion Metabee made the screen show a replay of what happened to him and Rokusho. They had been doing pretty well against the user. At least up until they got surrounded and were outplayed when the user apparently used their bodies as living shields to not be attacked from all sides while dealing with them at the same time. “We digi-bots are pretty strong, but we’re limited in increasing our combat capabilities without the normal digital evolution pathways that Digimon use. We mostly rely on our parts for our combat strength. Once you’ve seen everything we can do, that’s about all you’ll see truly see aside from unusual tactics.” Quite sure Metabee was talking about himself in reference to ‘unusual tactics’, because he puffed up. “Admittedly, Metabee does have a knack for being ‘stupid lucky’.” Rokusho mumbled. “Ah, we know we’re great Rokusho! It seems the user is making a move on choosing a battlefield, we should get signed up for whatever battlefield they are going to get involved in.” Metabee continued on as if Rokusho wasn’t implying something about his intelligence. “So what do you say, team up and beat that solo act to get us out of this mess Rokusho got us into?” “I’ve already apologized for my part in this issue… you could do well to do the same.” It also seemed Rokusho was pointing out Metabee being a bit of an inflated ego, he personally could stand to have some color like Metabee. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry we both ended up in the same sector where a Game Cube was dropping!” Metabee groaned out. “We don’t have a stake in this… but we’ll certainly try to help!” I said pleasantly. “With that bum leg… are you nuts?!” Metabee stated while pointed a digit on his five fingered hands at me. “She’s actually still quite capable of moving and fighting, but I believe she should be in the back behind Dolly where it’s safe.” Canard was willing to help them, so we’re both okay there. Even Lit looked willing to help. “I’ll be okay for being upfront.” “Woohoo, finally getting out of this place!” Metabee was jumping with excitement. “I’ll go get the match cards for us and set up our team, you entertain them.” Despite his slightly sour demeanor towards Metabee, Rokusho was a nice robot. For once I’m glad to not be trashing my way through robots. “If we’re lucky we’ll be out of here before an hour passes.” -Two minutes later- “Oh boy… the user must be looking for a challenge.” Metabee stated as Rokusho came back and gave us cards that would teleport us in to the battlefield after the user finished selecting details involved. “We’re going to the mountainous battlefield.” Looking over the card I recognized at least some of what we were being called. For one, me being called ‘long legged wooloo’, didn’t quite sit right considering the fact that I wasn’t like a wooloo and I certainly hoped I wasn’t a pervert. Still, a Pokémon apparently made this game. “Why am I being called a ‘Cubone Roller Knight’?” Dolly asked as she looked over her card for a name. “Well the bone you’re using is said to be wielded by Cubone as a popular weapon for them and you do use your skateboard as an effective shield.” I answered, remember what I was told about th0e stone bone being a favored weapon of a particular Pokémon. “Eh I guess that fits.” Dolly nodded, but she glanced at me. “Still want to meet an actual Cubone though!” “I’m ‘Tall Farfetch’d’?” Canard stated as he held his card up looking confused, if I remember right a leek wielding bird Pokémon. That sounds like a decent comparison what with Canard wielding a hockey stick. “If you’re interested I apparently come up as Metal Pinsir and Metabee comes up as Metal Heracross.” Rokusho stated. “Heracross is definitely better than Pinsir, everyone knows that.” Well that wasn’t a very subtle ego boost Metabee. Rokusho glared his way. “So how long until the battle begins?” I asked as I looked over the details the user chose. A battlefield with a lot of verticality kind of favored anyone with long range and the user was using a sword wielding character. Joltik held the card and his mouth and whined at me. “Oh you want to know what yours says? Let’s see, Average Joltik Swarmling?” Lit seemed somewhat upset by that and glared at his card as he hopped onto Dolly’s back. “Oh we’re fighting right this instant.” Metabee stated jovially before a flash went off. -Battle Beasts, Mountain Battlefield- I blinked and found myself standing on a portion of a mountain around the base with the others. “This battlefield doesn’t favor the user, but they didn’t choose many ranged teams and none of them are flyers. Conditions say the first team member of any team to reach the flag at the top to hold it for a specific amount of time or the first team to defeat every member of all the other teams wins. King of the mountain style.” Rokusho blinked at me when I gave him a look of disbelief when he saw the corners of my mouth turn upwards. “What… what is it?” “Is that specifically ‘any’ team member that reaches the top and holds the flag for an amount of time?” I said while slowly turning my gaze to Dolly, whose grin was equally becoming bigger by the second. Lit raised his front legs and started rubbing them together with a wicked tiny smile in his eyes as he clamped down and nuzzled into Dolly’s fur. “Well this game is going be a really quick one then, the logistics are entirely in our favor at the very least.” “How so? It’ll take a bit of time to climb up to the top, I think the user intends to fight all the teams on the way up and they are quite good at this game and tactics.” It seemed Metabee didn’t quite get why I was smiling, even Canard was starting to smile as he remembered what we were capable of. If it were just Lit and not Dolly we’d still win as Lit can get up there pretty darn fast. “The pathways are quite treacherous on this mountain unless you can circumnavigate them. It’d take at least twenty minutes for the fastest team to get up there and even then you’d have to hold the flag at the top of the tower for five minutes.” “So are all the teams starting near the base of the mountain with what I assume to be pathways that connect to other teams paths leading up and it’d take them all longer than five minutes to get up there?” My grin was definitely like a lightbulb right now. “It’ll take that specific twenty minute amount of time for all of them to make it up there right? Well… provided they aren’t all bogged down in fighting each other which would make it take much longer.” “Yeah, but it’d take us a lot of time too, unless you can go straight up a ninety degree wall. We should get…” Rokusho paused when he noticed that Dolly, Canard, Lit and I were grinning. “Moving?” “Well most of us don’t need to move at all.” I looked to Dolly who was waiting with Lit on her back for me to tell her to get moving. “The other teams can’t do a single thing about our victory. So today seems to be your guys lucky day. Dolly… GO, full tilt, enjoy yourself even, but have Lit grab the flag immediately!” Rokusho and Metabee looked at one another. They didn’t know what we were capable of quite yet, but they were about to see how fast Dolly was. “Bow-Whacka-Wow!” Dolly shouted as she popped her board at the mountain wall and then shot up the steep stone incline with momentum powering her board at a decent speed. I could barely hear Lit’s joyfully squeaking as he rode with Dolly straight up the mountainside. “I could follow them, but I’d rather rest and let my leg heal than climb all of that.” I sat down on a rock and waited, Canard idly checked over his hockey stick and puck pistol while also taking a seat to enjoy the fresh mountain air. Both Rokusho and Metabee still looked a bit stunned as they stood their staring at us blankly, eventually Rokusho shook himself out of it. “You’re luck is quite appalling Metabee.” Rokusho stated angrily to his friend. “In any case, want to spar while we have the free time?” “Let’s do it, ro-battle!” Metabee stated while hopping into a position to face down his friend. Our impending victory would be announced twenty seconds later and Dolly would spend the next five minutes doing incredible skateboard tricks on the tower at the top and the surrounding mountainous slopes. I was watching her from the backseat of her mind to make sure she wasn’t doing anything too dangerous or stupid, which was hard to tell at times given her gliding capabilities and the stunts she liked to pull. -Ransei, Valora, ???- Aw, yeah, now this is a challenge, I’ll beat each team on the way up and then take the flag from any team that captures it. It’ll take everyone about the same amount of time to climb up there so… “Flag captured, by Average Joltik Swarmling of Team Beetle.” The game announced and I just froze. “… What? No seriously, WHAT?!” It was barely like a few minutes into the game and the flag had already been captured, there was no way to get up there in time or defeat all the teams in time before I could make it. My character had only just crossed the first team, how in Magearna did an average Joltik go that fast?! Wait… agility… duh! … I was still going to try to see how far I could get! Note to self, worry about mountain climbing Joltik in the future when choosing ‘king of the mountain’ for the mountain battlefield. I’ll also take Joltik more seriously from now on. Next time I was going for ‘team elimination’ and then a three team free-for-all after enough teams are eliminated. Also need to work on making a unite ball game… -Game Cube, Battle Beasts Mountain Battlefield, four minutes after taking the flag, Pom- Still the time that passed in here being real time wasn’t too bad, but it was going to be bad for Dazzle who would be missing us for weeks and stuck doing who knows what in the meantime. The time disparity would be awful, but there was nothing I could do about it. “I did not expect this to go so well.” Rokusho stated as he dodged around Metabee’s rapid fire bullets and tried to strike him in close range only for him to leap back and blast fire from his split horn. Metabee was poor in a close up fight, but mid to long range he’s already gotten Rokusho quite good a few times. The two sparring was interesting to watch as they displayed their personal capabilities. Close up, Rokusho was blazingly fast and Metabee could hardly handle him being a ranged fighter and spent a bit of time trying to put distance between Rokusho and himself while taking numerous cuts to his metal body. Wait… what would be waiting for us when the game was over? They said the game cube would disappear as soon as we won and leave us right where we were. Don’t know about the two digi-bots, but hopefully they would be next to us as we exited it. Still, it was worrying what might be waiting for us. The Goblimon are probably going to be there in force as they’ll want to go back into their territory. I silently sent the word to Dolly who had been experiencing some extreme mountain skateboarding. She sent me back a happy dog face and to not worry so hard, she’d apparently tell Lit to be ready if we were in trouble when we got back. Who knows how the state of Server City has changed in the time we’ve been gone. “Canard, I just realized as soon as this last minute is up, we might need to be ready to fight.” I guess he realized what I had and he nodded. “Guys, your sparring time is up, get ready for a fight in case we end up coming out of the cube directly into a hot zone.” Canard’s words made Rokusho and Metabee immediately stop, also it appears that he said that just in time too it seems. Rokusho’s right arm bladed pincer sword an inch from Metabee’s neck and Metabee’s single barrel right arm weapon was point blank to Rokusho’s forehead. “Of course.” Rokusho said as if they weren’t seriously about to kill one another. “Something always interrupts us before we really get going.” “Right, we’ve got your back, just tell me who to shoot!” Metabee’s green glowing eyes grinned at us. “Look at it this way Rokusho, I can always kick your butt later. We’ve got way bigger things to worry about!” “Winner, Team Beetle!” This was announced ten seconds later and the user lost the game. “Game Over!” -Server City, approximately several weeks into the future, Pom- “Game Over!” With a blink I looked up and watched as the cube raised back into the sky, when I looked in front of me I saw a lot of Goblimon hefting their weapons and slapping them into their hands. “Goblimon?” Rokusho asked as his pincer sword opened and close and he stared them down, the Goblimon looked a little worried when they noticed him. “Uh… one… uhh… one… Digi-Bots, where did they come from?” The numerous Goblimon started to back away from their speaker, a few started running when Rokusho and Metabee took offensive stances. “Yep, the Goblimon, are most certainly not our friends.” I nodded to the two, who thankfully were here with us at the end of the bridge when the cube lifted. I looked see that the Commandramon’s vehicle had also reappeared with us, right where we left off. Though the barricade seemed to be mostly gone thanks to the Goblimon having taken it down. “Don’t damage the vehicle, it might still be useable by my friends who will hopefully show up soon.” A mass of missiles immediately loosed from Metabee’s split horn and he was on the Goblimon firing round after rapid fire round into the confused mass that was becoming smaller by the second after a violent series of explosions. Rokusho got moving a second afterwards to also start tearing through the Goblimon at blurring speeds far faster than what Metabee and he were moving at when they were just sparring. I saw the flashing crescents of his pincer blades swinging as he moved through the Goblimon that were disappearing into vortexes at a pretty good rate. Canard wasn’t idle as he fired his puck pistol into the crowd of goblimon gathered for our return, the Goblimon were so caught entirely off guard by our two new friends that they faltered immediately. What was once twenty or more Goblimon became more like five in a matter of seconds and they were trying to escape Metabee’s maniacal laughter that would certainly haunt their nightmares as much as mine. “Is that all you got punks, you Goblimon got nothing on us Digi-bots!” Metabee gleefully exclaimed as he leapt up and fired an incredible volume of projectiles downwards into them. “Why are Digi-credits falling everywhere and what is up with the vortexes?” Rokusho seemed to be paying more attention to the carnage they were unleashing as they worked together in tandem with alarming efficiency. The five remaining Goblimon tried to run, but they went down when five figures charged forward from that direction and started firing on them. It was the Commandramon team we met before we ended up in the cube. The goblimon went down and the Commandramon seemed wary of the bots as they were of them. “We can answer that, it’s been a while for us even if it hasn’t been so long for you… sorry we weren’t in position to help sooner! Kind of hard to tell how long a Game Cube will last.” A Commandramon apologized as he came forward. “As you may have well guessed… we’ve been kept quite bit busy since you were gone. Guys secure the vehicle, we’ll drive it back to Uver’s territory.” “What’s happened since we were gone?” That’s the first question that comes to mind that seemed most relevant to me and I wasn’t wrong. “Quite a bit, Octomon took over the Ferris wheel and Karaoke bar, he’s kind of wedged himself between the Skatepark Scamps and Jijimon slightly. It’s actually a pretty tentative hold, but he’s somehow managing it. Those Monitamon are not very strong, but they are highly versatile with all the elements they can use and are working together quite well. We think it’s the Hi-Vision Monitamon that Sami spotted who’s keeping their act in gear.” The commandramon stopped talking when we heard a rev and looked over to see the Driver Commandramon hugging the wheel and wagging his tail, we turned back to each other. “Tempomon holds his territory, but is remaining neutral to most people as long as they don’t cause trouble for him. We’ve heard nothing from Ogremon over these last few weeks after his defeat except that his Goblimon know he’s still around. Hea-Gatmon was captured, but don’t worry about that. Dazzle, Sami and Frizzle rescued her from the Pink Troopers… incidentally, never go into the sewers, they were almost stuck down there for almost an entire week after getting a bit lost after a week of just trying to find where Hea-Gatomon was. The Pink Troopers still hold that territory with an iron fist and nobody even wants the sewers to begin with, but they’ve been rumbling with the Basher Bullies since their only surface territory, the junkyard, to the west of Jijimon’s territory was taken. Pink Troopers… more like Pink Poopers… anyway way Uver’s taken up the southwestern slums and had us check to see if Etemon is in the area over the last few weeks. Aside from some nasty Falcomon attacks, we’re sure that the southwestern slums are clear and are slowly being built up into a more habitable area thanks to Uver’s help. Also the plantation is neutral zone as well, Veggiemon and Palmon are making sure the city gets food under Togemon’s watch.” “Did you find out anything new about the Backspace System?” It’s been on my mind since I just watched a lot of Goblimon get gunned down by an overzealous Metabee that seemed to be enjoying it a little too much for my taste. “Yeah, a few things like who created them in the first place, even if Sami hasn’t had time to study the one currently in his Digivice.” The commandramon gestured to Canard. “Now that we have that back we can compare findings with the second one we have on claw, which we have ‘acquired’… through some rather dubious means. Once we have our Personnel Flatbed in order, we’ll get you back to Jijimon’s territory in no time at all. We can stand around here all day gabbing, but I think its best we move before the Goblimon build up enough force to actually beat those Digi-Bots.” “Well we got nothing else going, so count us in!” Metabee stated excitedly, Rokusho sighed audibly rolling his glowing red eyes upwards. “Ret-tsu-go, the vehicle is still in surprisingly good condition and we might want to move because Driver is getting a little too physical with the vehicle and it’s beginning to disturb the rest of us.” One the Commandramon stated and cringed when he saw the driver nuzzling the vehicle and kissing it affectionately. Once we were up the ramp we were on our way to a few surprises once we reached Jijimon’s base, the Digimon Kindergarten and Dolly’s bane. -Outside Jijimon’s Home- The vehicle came to a stop, I actually felt sorry for the Goblimon and Falcomon we ran over crossing the bridge back to the western side of the city. In fact was that a… A Falcomon flopped to the ground groaning and disappeared into a vortex leaving a number of Digi-credits behind. Yeah, it was a Falcomon stuck to the bumper by inertia. “Can I stay out here, the last few times I went in there I got badly swarmed!” Apparently Dolly was apparently afraid of being a magnet for cute little Digimon babies. “Sure they are adorable and sweet, but there are way too many of them in there. Besides I want to check on my Dalmamon… should I call them cousins? They are next door and might enjoy some company if they’ve been cooped up in the hydrant house.” Lit squeaked a sentiment that vaguely seemed similar to Dolly’s as he got mistaken for being a Digimon baby for his tiny appearance. “Sure, go ahead Dolly.” I carefully got up and walked down the ramp in a three legged trot. The Commandramon noticed, but weren’t saying anything about my limping. “We’re staying out here, talk to us if you need anything as we’ll be hanging around here. I’m not exactly good around kids and Rokusho has issues with opening up to people.” Metabee sent a leery eyed stare to Rokusho and he looked way while crossing his arms and huffing. “So… what was the game and how easy was the user to beat considering you caused them to game over?” A Commandramon finally asked as we entered. “Something called Battle Beasts? It apparently took place in a dome and we ended up at a mountain where we had to climb up to it first and hold the flag for five minutes or defeat all other teams. Dolly just sped up the side of the mountain and got the flag, it would have taken all the other teams approximately twenty minutes to do on foot what she did in about two minutes.” We were guaranteed to win that and thankfully without a vicious fight to the death. “It was surprisingly simple, I don’t think the person who was playing the game realized how advantageous the ability to go up vertical surfaces was when they chose that battlefield and we had three people capable of doing that quickly. Dolly, Lit and myself.” “The user probably had it coming!” A Commandramon stated as we entered Jijimon’s home to the sound of digital babies running around excitedly and I saw a Dalmamon was playing with them gently. “I’m so sorry I hurt you!” A high pitched squeaky voice sounded out and I found myself lifted from the floor and wrapped in the claws of… Frizzle? I can understand why she doesn’t talk now. She’s a tough lizard, but that voice would make anyone comment. Frizzle was even blubbering as she carefully held me off the floor. “Hey, be gentle with her, her right leg looks to still be smarting and it hasn’t been as long for them as it has been for us.” Sami stated as she sat in a chair without her gear on, she looked battered and badly bruised. She brightened when Canard came in. “Nice to see you’re okay Canard! Can’t wait to plant those digital seeds… anyway, a lot has happened as you can probably tell.” “Hey, where’s Dazzle?” I blinked and looked around for her, then my eyes zeroed in on a slightly larger and more feminine streamlined looking lizard that was much bigger than Dazzle previously was. “H-hey there… I um… I evolved.” Dazzle certainly did, I believe she was what was called a Salazzle now. She looked quite nice. “I’m a little bit bigger than before… also I learned the move Flame Lash.” “Which was really useful against those digital sewer mutants, didn’t honestly know roachmon’s could get that huge.” Sami stated while shivering. “So… many… explosions… ugh, just stay out of the way of any Pink Troopers you see for a while, if any attack you personally, then promptly set them on fire. They really don’t like fire. They don't like fire at all.” “Do I even want to know the story?” I asked as Frizzle carefully set me down and I went to hug Dazzle who used to be about my size and was now much larger. “Well… no.” Dazzle shyly rubbed at her head as I hugged her. “Though a thorough explanation might be in order before we hit up Octomon’s territory, we’ve been fairly distracted as you can probably tell. One explanation is that I haven’t told you I was kind of a freak among Salandits… given I was far larger than other Saladits, even as a princess my size is unusual. Now that I’m even bigger there’s less to worry about when it comes to fighting off any Salandits or other Salazzles if we were to ever go to Viperia back in Ransei, but I still wouldn’t like it.” “You look beautiful at least, even if you seem to be having some trouble accepting your new appearance.” I silently watched as several emotions pass over Dazzle's face, before she eventually decided to blush and bury her chin into her chest while looking away. “Also does Frizzle talk now?” “Not very much…” Dazzle answered quickly. “Is it her high as helium voice that probably got her bullied?” I asked trying not to put it in a way that would upset Frizzle. “Yes.” Sami answered for Frizzle. Frizzle just pointed at Sami and nodded with a serious expression on her face.