//------------------------------// // 290. Server City Ransom Pt. 15. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -?, Oleander- “Okay, so the Velguarder self-destructed before we could catch it, this is one of those kind of universe continuances where the words ‘grim’ and ‘dark’ is a constant thing isn’t it?” I ask because you can’t really do much for a grimdark universe that’ll force grim and dark to happen even if the heroes win darn near constantly. “In short term… yes. It always happens after many years of peace which Mega Man and we fought so hard for, IT IS KIND OF A VICIOUS CYCLE HERE.” After pausing Fred turned to me eagerly. “So are we going the nuclear option?” “Does everyone die if the grim dark stuff keep happening?” I waited for Fred to answer and I knew he would do so honestly. “No… but ‘maverick’ issue continues being a thing because most people don’t understand that you shouldn’t partially replicate something without understanding it in its entirety.” After a moment Fred whined quite loudly. “ALSO ROBOT SOULS HERE TASTE ALL SAMEY AND LIKE PLASTIC!” I swear it’s like that universe with those Eldar people who are actively seeking to destroy themselves through sheer idiocy. I mean, they saw me causing a calamity and then acted upon that knowledge without looking into the reason why it happened in the first place, had they done nothing then that calamity wouldn’t have happened. They really shouldn’t have tried to wheedle Fred away from me in the first place… that ended so poorly because Fred ate the ones who tried. I can’t even blame Fred for what happened, because they actively sought their own destruction through him. They seriously relied far too much on their future sight ability and all their lording it over people that they were the ultimate empire, which eventually caused them to become quite self-destructive in so many way it’s crazy they didn’t completely go extinct. If I hadn’t forced myself to have the inability to enjoy using dark magic I would have simply destroyed myself weeks into becoming Fred’s friend. Also self-fulfilling prophecies are something I avoid like the plague, like that wizard school I once came across. Never try to make a prophecy happen on purpose, it ends worse than if it happened naturally, accept the prophecy but try to find as many loopholes as possible if it inevitably ends in your death. A self-fulfilling prophecy is usually what happens to every other dark magic user when they let powers absolutely go to their heads and become holier than thou hubris loaded hate sinks, then wham they die due to a series of convoluted circumstances. I mean, they start getting sought out by some random hero of light to be stabbed repeatedly with a sword or some magical artifact macguffin of killing them for being evil shows up out of nowhere or the dark magic user even created the artifact in the first place as to end up being their own downfall. I understand the balance of good and evil perfectly well enough that something evil will rise up in the worlds I’ve left behind, which is why I usually only stop most of the major problems and egregiously dumb nonsense that happens in front of me. Like that stuff that was happening between Adrien and Marinette… I still don’t know what to do with the cosmic Fox Kwami thing called Trixx, but I don’t think giving them to Pom just yet would be the best idea. Pom is not quite ready for nearly phenomenal cosmic power over illusions, she could probably handle the super speed at least... though I don’t know if she plays a flute or not. Eh, I’ll just keep Trixx in the pocket dimension where they are for the time being, I made quite sure to Teumessian proof the pocket too. If a Blink Fox gets in, then they are definitely not getting out of there through their usual shenanigans without my saying so. Plenty of food and air in that dimension too, I’m not cruel enough to functionally bug jar a generally friendly cosmic being without adding air holes too small for them to use to escape. Had one heck of a time fighting those Akuma things though, why is it always butterflies that I have the most problem with? It’s like when Mothra beat our backsides soundly, but we didn’t have nearly a problem with knocking Ghidora down a peg in our three way fight with King Godzilla. “Oh.” A maverick robot was leaping for me. I calmly aimed my keyblade levitating in my magic and fired a beam of light from the tip that locked the virus completely out of their minds systems and they flopped onto their faces in front of me. Basically, I just cured them for life and with their mental state was restored to what it previously was before being altered by the malicious coding. A key that can unlock and lock anything conceptually would never not be useful on some level, which is why the aforementioned pocket dimension cannot be escaped by anyone that manages to get into it without my say so. “So…” Fred started. “No Fred, you can’t eat them after I just saved them.” My tone is drier than a continent sized desert. “Also didn’t you just whine that their souls tasted like plastic?!” “IT’S LIKE SHOVING CRAYONS UP YOUR NOSE OR EATING THEM OLLIE!” Huh, that was a weird way for Fred to put that into context… while he was currently eating crayons out of a large variety pack box. “There are guys that prefer glue, but I prefer crayons… ALSO GLUE IN SOME UNIVERSES ARE MADE FROM PONIES AND I'M EVENTUALLY MARRYING ONE SO I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A BAD IDEA AS A VISUAL GAG!” I loved Fred dearly, but he was quite a somewhat evil weirdo at times. Still going to marry that and possibly Cashmere if she ever stops being too shy. -Digital Realm connected to Ransei, the next day, Dalmamon home, Pom- We had plenty of time to decide whether or not to attack Ultros, we decided to leave yesterday with the information given to us and take a break from dealing with gangs for the evening. We could follow up on the information, but I had other ideas and a fairly good suspicion of what would happen if we continued our course of following bread crumbs to find Etemon. Which brings me to here and now, I looked to the sky before knocking on the door and once I made myself known… I was swiftly allowed in. “Excuse me, but I need to ask you something.” I was here alone to find out if I was right as I sat down at the table and Pickle was willing to be a good host. “Uh yes, what do you need ma’am?” Pickle’s ears raised and his three tails began wagging, my goodness the memories of how adorable these guys truly are... “You’ve been here since this world was made right?” All I had to do was figure out what we needed to do next. I will simply not be led around by a carrot tied to a stick. “Yes, we were some of the first beings plopped down in this world by the system.” Then he should know the answer to my question. “Sure we’re a failed experiment, but the system is keeping us around and I enjoy life and being alive. Could have more purposes in life, but keeping one hundred sibling in line or out of danger keeps me busy enough as they can be rambunctious being cooped up like we currently are. Those two trouble makers Delightful and Dig are especially troublesome. Even if we are kind of stuck being unable to defend ourselves for the most part, we’ve been getting by.” “Where do the least amount of Digimon gather in this city, also where are they least likely to go?” Depending on what he says… “Well there’s a lot of great places in Server City.” Of that I have no doubt Pickle. “If you want the least used place in the city, and criminally so at that, then you’d be looking at the school. There’s so much in life to learn there at the library, imagine all the knowledge and ancient history of the various digital worlds in there! I could be the first digital archaeologist and I might even find and dig up an ancient meme to put in a museum! A Dalmamon can dream I guess…” Hmm… I’m not going to ask for a location, because if I’m right… then I won’t need to. “Oh barf, give me physical learning over that mental learning any day, also digging up old memes? Really bro?” Variance intoned as she grinded down the banister on her skateboard and popped off to land on the floor. “Woo, I didn’t fall flat on my face! I mean… yeah, I’m just that awesome! What do you need my bro for, I would help you with literally anything right about now. I need something interesting, I need action, I’ll even take helping with a mystery at this point, I hate being cooped up in here all day…” They lived in a giant fire hydrant, I’d be fascinated as to why considering none of Dolly’s family were interested in fire hydrants. Okay, this place is making me depressed… I needed to focus on why I’m here. “Okay then, both of you get Di Lodovico, since I want at least several confirmations on something. Also a copy of the map of the city and something for me to write on it with please. At most I’ll need to ask all three of you two questions and depending on the answers, it’ll greatly help me in an investigation to find the guy causing the gang issues around here.” If this went as I thought it did, then I’d be making a monkey out of Etemon if he wasn’t already one. I’m tired of being given the runaround and I did enough of that in Saint Canard and I’m certainly not repeating the endgame of that! I’m hopefully cutting the proverbial Gordian knot here and now. “If they are answered how I think you will, then it’ll solve a major problem that’s been itching at me.” The three Dalmamon were gathered, a map was placed out on the table and ninety eight other three tailed siblings were curiously as to what was going on. “Okay, answer this, where do you think Kamemon’s base would be if they had one?” Those turtle soldier Digimon of King’s Kame’s were visibly quite sparse compared to every single other faction. The Falcomon could appear everywhere, even if they could only glide and not exactly fly. “The river!” Pickle answered immediately, assured that’s where the Kamemon would be based. “Those guys? I’ve seen them running around and picking up Digi-Credits everywhere, but I seriously doubt they would have a base in a place so wet. They certainly use the river to get to places throughout the city though.” Variance stated afterwards, matching what I’ve seen. The Kamemon were not engaging in combat as often as they were seen gathering Digi-credits. “They couldn’t be anywhere under the river either what with the Pink Troopers being so aggravated by the Goblimon, they definitely control the sewers. I would know, one of my friends is a Chuumon and is helping the Pink Troopers somewhat.” “I also know they wouldn’t be based in the river, the Backspace System doesn’t work very well in water.” We all looked at Di Lodovico blankly. “You guys knocked more than a few Goblimon into the river and I was tagging the wall near where they splashed down each time.” “You were doing what?! You know how dangerous it is to be out and about right now Di Lodovico!” Flinching at Pickle’s voice, Lodovico looked away with his tail between his legs. “Heh, you still know how to make a fun mess of walls bro!” Variance stated cheerfully, then looked suspicious in the same way Dolly gets sometimes. ”What were you tagging the wall with?” “Nothing too important.” Di Lodovico stated with his eyes darting about, but never quite settling on me. I narrowed my eyes at him and he blushed a little. “Besides none of the gangs caught me wandering around and Pom’s group didn’t see me doing my work either so it’s fine!” “You could have gotten hurt or worse!” I can see where Pickle and Dylan certainly shared a nature. -Server City, riverside region, nobody- A large bit artwork stood above the water of the river. It was of Pom surrounded by a heavenly glow with golden feathered angelic wings, clouds and flowers artistically surrounding her. One hoof was stretching out to boop an average looking Dalmamon on the nose, the Dalmamon was made to be exceedingly plain looking and seemed to be in complete awe of Pom. -Dalmamon home, Pom- “Yeah, yeah, beans for brains. Let’s move on, what’s you’re other question!” Variance asked. “Has that cloud always been there?” I asked pointing outside a nearby window. “No.” Okay, that’s Pickle. “Nope.” Variance added to my growing sense of excitement. “Strange, today was a clear forecast…” Yes Lodovico, that’s exactly as I thought! “Funny, I think that clouds been there for about a week before Etemon first obnoxiously advertised the Backspace System.” “Now I need to ask someone else something.” If you’re not busy, I need you to bring Sami here immediately Dolly… -Five minutes later- “So… many… cuddles…” Shuddered Dolly as she somehow managed to get out from under the avalanche of baby Digimon that liked her to drag Sami here. “To think I thought I was free from being dogpiled by numbers… kind of makes me miss the larger part of my family.” “What am I here for, shouldn’t we be planning out an assault on Ultros? Since it sounds like we’re going to have trouble with him.” Giving Sami and easygoing look, I shook my head. “That won’t be necessary if I’m right. Quick question, was there a limit on the distance one can move with the Backspace System?” I received a blink and a tilted head. “About halfway across the entire city… which is a pretty good range overall, why?” Getting up and walking past Sami, I looked out the window and did some estimates on how high the one cloud in the sky that never moved was. It had been there before the game cube and it hasn’t moved since, which matched the clue given to us yesterday about the leader of the Avalanche Avians. Given what I knew about the weather forecast saying ‘clear skies’ and there’s one section covered in cloud that haven’t moved in weeks, it was so much more obvious now. It was probably where the Falcomon came gliding in from and any thermals around the city could be easily manufactured easily enough in this information driven world. They could deploy everywhere they needed to be, any defeat and they’d safely be back up there. Thus the name of the gang being ‘Avalanche Avians’ as they could come down on you from above like a rock slide. “I know exactly where Etemon is now.” I walked back over to the map and then drew two circles representing Ogremon to the southeast, Octomon to the northeast and then added a third member Raptor Swallowmon. Land, sea and air… if they were all operating a specific distance of each other and I was estimating how high up Raptor Swallomon was that we’d have to go up there to get at them personally after dealing with Ultros. If the Backspace System were to activate with him then how far would he have to fly, just knowing he was a flying digimon? Oh my goodness, this is just one huge game of monkey in the middle isn’t it, except the monkey was having fun at everyone else’s expense in the middle and giving everyone else the run around. “Why did you draw an eye on the map?” Looking at the map Dolly tilted her head curiously, I dotted the exact center of said eye on the map and the central location was ‘Fury Clan’ high school. A place we might have passed by once or twice without a second glance since Digimon didn’t really use it, given that Etemon didn’t have anyone visibly guarding the place from the outside and yet still looked relatively clean when we passed by it. “Because that’s my idea of an approximate distance the Backspace System could move each of the three main gang leaders that are running around Server City. That, right there, would be where Etemon is within a certain distance of all three gang leaders provided they lose…” I trailed off. Hakase was said to be the genius that created the Backspace System, I think I know where he’d be and Etemon would know we were coming through the Monitamon network and would know to go to ground if we bothered looking into the Greymon Expert. “Ogremon said he was going to where Etemon was, the information we bought from Ultros’s faction hinting at Raptor Sparrowmon’s location being that large cloud above a certain portion of the city that hasn’t moved… well it’s become quite glaringly obvious.” “So do we go after him now?” Sami said with excitement and grabbing at her bazooka. “Not quite yet, remember that guy… Hi-Andromon if I’m remembering right? He’s said to be an ultimate level Digimon right, we need to see if we can redirect him to Ultros. Give him a sense of purpose if he’s still running around the city hunting down problems, It’ll keep him away from us at least while we find the real problem.” If Ultros was going to be more than a champion sized problem, then we’ll find a way to throw an ultimate sized one at him. The Goblimon are currently busy with the Pink Troopers, Ogremon won’t have any backup if we attack Etemon’s holdings now, well… aside from the Kamemon. Why would I ever bother trying to get into the sky to fight Raptor Swallowmon when we could bring them to us since the game was basically up? The Commandramon are good at shooting down the Falcomon… and we could bring in the Skate Park Scamps who’ve been running around defending the park territory. “I need help with making a plan, I’m done with these monkey shines and running about the city fighting all the time just to get anywhere. I’m not going to be drawn into two more protracted battles with entire gangs before having to face all three gang leaders at once and then Etemon himself at where he currently is. I can see the writing on the wall here, it’s exactly the direction things were previously going in and we’re ahead on intelligence now! I say we cut out having to deal with Ultros entirely, we’ll deal with Raptor Sparrowmon if he shows up to the party unannounced. I want to leave this realm sometime within the next two digital days. I am not here to fight an endless gang war, all of this was for us to get that anchor key off of Etemon and get back to Ransei!” Sami and Dolly looked to each other then turned to me with determined looks. - Some hours later, Data Diver’s Beach Bungalow territory, Ultros- “We’re under attack!” A Monitamon announced. “Woohoo bring on those sweet honeys… wait… you’re a not a honey!” Pot crown covering my wondrous head, I slithered out to see the beautiful battalion coming for me personally. Much to my disgust it was just a Hi-Andromon attacking my base, probably a holier than you system police guy who overdid it on the whole keeping things stable and peaceful. What happens when you have too much order and not enough sense, since when were we Digimon ever that peaceful for any prolonged amount of time?! “A little Biyomon civilian told me about your dirty presence Octomon, I’m here to deal with you in as much a capacity as I can! Lock-on…” Hi-Andromon didn’t seem like he wanted to talk much, given how quickly his spiel ended. His right arm started glowing as he approached me. “Spiral sword!” I barely managed to slither and slink out of the path of the flying sword attack. “Life’s a beach and you made a poor decision coming here metal copper!” I shouted as I pointed my gun weapon at the offending overzealous police drone of the system. “There’s no silver or gold rank here for you bronze stooge and you’re about to find out what makes me different from other Octomon.” “Spiral Sword!” The second flying blade was blocked when the Black Widow, in all its lovely glory, erupted from the sand in front of Hi-Andromon who froze to study the new problem before him. If I were him I would try attacking or would be warily backing up. Digi-tank X-ATM092, The Black Widow, was a four legged walking tank of pure annihilation. It had a forward facing gatling cannon built in that could punch through most low quality forms of Digizoid. It could focus fire a stream, blast a shotgun spray or fire a barrage with no focus whatsoever hitting anything in the general vicinity it’s facing. The two glowing blade arms at the front were capable of three modes, blade, three-digit grapple claws and quite lethal crab scissors. Said arms could cut up a War-Greymon. At the backside of the nigh unstoppable self-repairing spider menace machine piloted by my best lackey Hi-Vision Monitamon were four high powered grenade launcher. Said Grenade launchers had some special ammo just for Digimon like Hi-Andromon, It’s Ray Bomber Special was one of its ‘beaming’ qualities. It has been specially rigged to repair itself in two ways. The fast way by absorbing any kind of electrical energy attack, which all the Monitamon around here can use on the pylons connected to the legs. The other was its basic self-repair function making it functionally impossible to put down as long as the pilot is alive as the pylons will fix themselves if damaged. Its armor was of a special Obsidian and Cyplasium Digizoid composite mix that made the vehicle tough to deal with. Sure the mixture made the Obsidian Digizoid easier to damage by the likes of champion or rookies and the Cyplasium worked far slower in automatically repairing data damage, but overall… The Black Widow would obviously live up to its name! -Two minutes later, near Fury Clan High School, Canard- I was grinning. Pom had actually figured it out, instead of facing three gang bosses and possibly Abobo we’d be facing one and possibly Abobo… Abobo was still a massive problem on my mind and we had no clear idea where he was. He might be aware of Lit now and that would be an issue with fighting the hulking monstrosity that can easily crush us in his grip. This was going to be interesting, the Monitamon were going to be a bit busy with Hiandromon as he attacked Ultros’s base, that Biyomon who worked at the local digital fast food restaurant had been quite charming with her smile. While that attack on Ultros was happening, we were slowly sneaking up on the digital school where Etemon was hiding. One of the five Commandramon confirmed he was on one of the top floors near the roof from a nearby building where they were setting up to start taking out any Falcomon that arrived at range. Raptor Sparrowmon might make an appearance and that was going to be a problem for everyone involved in this assault, maybe Tempomon will join in on the excitement. At least we knew the Skate Park Scamps were willing to assist. Just two major issues stood in our way, Ogremon who has probably recovered by now and Abobo who might be his recent training partner. Ogremon was dangerous, but less so than Bulkmon as a high tier champion. If we fought Ultros, Pom figured he would have just shown up here. The entire point of our fighting the gangs was done, we knew where Etemon was and we knew he had the key on him… we just had to get it from him now. Aside from Abobo the Bulkmon being stated as being here and Ogremon, there were a lot of Kamemon and a few falcomon on watch. As soon as we started fighting, we were likely to be locked in by barriers like the one that stopped us at the bridge a while ago. Etemon would still be the end game, we couldn’t battle an ultimate on even footing… so we’d cheat the difference a little with the so called King of Digimon. Which is why Uver brought in Pistmon and Moosemon. Moosemon was a white and blue furred moose, with large blue horns. Something about my religion connected with that particular Digimon on a spiritual level. We also had the Digi-bots Metabee and Rokusho who were completely immune to Etemon’s downgrading ability that turned champions back into rookies through horrible singing. They could even become a mega level for a short while provided they both were in agreement and could sync up, which was apparently a rarity for them though they have done it at least three times. “It is a-boot time we get to it eh!” Moosemon stated as he started to drag his right hoof against the ground. We had to support him and Pistmon in the fighting, Pistmon was good in wide open areas and places where he could maneuver and the hallways of the school were going to be a bit tight for him… Moosemon said he wouldn’t have that problem. “Are you ready Pom?” I asked the shivering Ewe. “No… but we’re still going to do this anyway. Our goal is not to take down Etemon… though it might cause good things to happen overall if we do, we just need to grab the key. That’s it, that’s all we’re here for, we’re not here to be heroes.” Pom nodded to herself, I wondered if she was deeply in denial about the hero thing? As Moosemon and Pistmon prepared to bust through the back of the building, the Skate Park Scamps were breaking through the front to at least draw off Ogremon or Abobo. -Front entrance, Fury Clan High School, ???- “Do you really think those guys who took Ogremon down a peg will show up? I mean they barely beat Ogremon, so really them getting past us is clearly impossible.” I was standing in front of a pillar just doing an average day of my guard job for Etemon. “I really doubt they could truly beat us if they had so much trouble with the Goblimon.” My friend was about to say something when he was hit with a door, one that was kicked off its hinges from the front entrance and my friend was hit by the large rectangular wooden projectile in a rather painful slow motion display before my eyes. I turned towards the entrance and the falcomon was about to yell something when he was hit with an attack. “Diamond Storm!” Shards of crystal leaves embedded themselves into the Falcomon, popping him into a vortex immediately as a Renamon sauntered through the entrance. Behind her were a Lobomon, a Bearmon and a… oh no… that’s Weregarurumon of the Skate Park Scamps! “Emergency, we’re under… ulp…” I was stopped from yelling fully when the Lobomon’s foot buried itself into my stomach and I felt myself disappearing to the nurse’s office… I had a feeling it was about to be filled with patients. Not that we had anyone to take actually care of our injuries. As I disappeared I watched as the four quickly started trashing every Kamemon, Falcomon and the few Goblimon, not currently tied up by the Pink Troopers, in sight. Why couldn’t the Monitamon have warned us about this?! -Pom- Alright, quick take downs, don’t worry about the health of those I’m going to be beating down quickly. We push through them to the big boss behind all this ruckus and take what we came for and then get out of here before something else finds a way to keep us here indefinitely. I took a slow breath, then exhaled slowly as well and tried to calm down. The school was actually kind of innocuously normal looking, which was obscenely weird for the digital world to have a normal school when consistent architecture was a bizarre concept for Digimon. Moosemon charged forward and busted through the back door of the school, only to immediately be blown back through said entrance over our heads by a point blank Pummel Whack attack. “Hah, I told Abobo this is where the real fighting would be at!” Ogremon stated loudly, confirming Abobo was around. “Why are you here? All the fighting is on the other side of the building!” I was hoping to maybe gain access to Etemon without running into trouble. “This is the story where the villain is doing something for dramatic irony!” Yep, that is the same Ogremon alright. “Can we avoid a fight?” I know it was hopeless to say that. “No, you’re part of my revenge arc anyway, now I got those sewer mutants all over my territory thanks to Sukamon and I'm blaming you for it!” That would not actually be my problem Ogremon, that was more your problem that you caused in the first place. “Look if you really wanted a better or more serious reason to fight… then I can think of something to say to help you.” After several weeks away in the Game Cube, I wondered how much stronger Ogremon had gotten. “Go ahead and try, I’ve heard every insult in the book and there’s nothing you can hit me with that will make me mad.” Ogremon stated blithely with his arms crossed and tapping the bone club on his left shoulder. “In fact, I dare you to actually crack me if you can!” “You’ve actually read a book?” I asked in slight surprise. “Yep, that’s one way a Goblimon can become an Ogremon. We need to read or learn something intellectually stimulating, so I read the entire history of a punk rock band… also I learned to read.” Ogremon glared at us. “Of course, not having a Leomon to fight sucks. So I’ll take you all on!” “Funny with the way you were going on about your revenge story and arcs, I thought you would have read a fantasy novel.” Now I was honestly curious, plus if Ogremon were here then that meant that the other group would be able to reach Etemon sooner. “Meh…” Responded Ogremon. “The only reason why I’m not attacking in earnest yet is because I was waiting on those two to show up to help with your higher tier Digimon in your invasion force. Say hello to Gawappamon and Shawmon, evolutions of Kamemon. They’ll keep your big guns busy while I wipe the floor with your rookies.” We looked beyond Ogremon to see he was gesturing at. There a stitched up doll turtle thing with headphones around his neck and an odd flat disc head, kind of looked like a Neighpon Kappa. The other looked like a warrior armored styled kappa with a dangerous weapon that had wide bladed at one end and the other had a gun like aesthetic, looked especially good for twirling. “Think you can take them Moosemon, Pistmon?” Well Canard felt a little caught off guard, because Gawappamon and Shawmon did look pretty tough. “Can you fight Ogremon?” Pistmon asked. “We’ve done it before.” I answered. “Yeah, but he might have come up with a lot of tricks since then, be careful.” Pistmon stated before he and Moosemon charged forward and met Gawappamon and Shawjamon. They managed to push them back a bit before the fighting between them started in earnest. “Just out of curiosity before I kick you’re backsides all up and down the place…” Ogremon put his bone under his left armpit and loudly cracked both his knuckles before taking it back into his right hand with a grin. “What would you’re insult have been? I doubt it was about me reading a book at least once in my life or an insult to my intelligence.” I took a deep breath and couldn’t believe I was about to say this to the guy. I just knew he was going to be in a blind fury afterwards and this might be a bad idea, I somewhat thought we could actually benefit a lot if he showed off some of his tricks early and might tire himself out to make the fight much easier down the line. “I believe that you’re a very nice guy and can be a respected member of just about any community in Server City, also I would like to imply that you’re as handsome as a bishonen character from a manga.” There was a dead silence afterwards that stretched on into a minute with no reaction from Ogremon, he just stood there with an empty look on his face devoid of all emotion. Well silent if you were ignoring all the thrown discs flying around behind Ogremon that Pistmon was avoiding coming from Gawappamon. There was also Shawjamon’s weapon being deflected by Moosemon’s horns making a loud clanging noise. Pistmon was cleary at a disadvantage indoors from what I could see, no room to build up speed or to distance himself. “…” Ogremon looked at me and started breathing loudly. I can slowly see veins popping out of his forehead as he started turning red, his right left eye was twitching violently and his grip on his bone club tightened. His eyes started turning from icy blue to pure blood red filling the entirety of his eyes. “Uh… that probably wasn’t a good idea Pom.” Shifting his grip on the hockey stick Canard held it up defensively. Oh knew for certain it was a bad idea to say that to Ogremon, but I really did think he could be a nice guy if he wanted to. Dolly burst out laughing and Ogremon’s ire continued to grow. Even Frizzle and Dazzle were giggling a bit and Sami looked at me completely horrified as if I were some kind of alien. “Why, in all of the digital realms, would you ever say something like that to him?” The panic on Sami’s face was starting to make me feel slightly panicked as well, I guess she understood the full scope of the insult completely. Ogremon wanted me to drive him into a frothing blind rage, well I think I have succeeded... badly. Who knows, maybe he was actually easier to deal with if he wasn’t thinking straight? “WAAAGGH, I’M DEFINITELY CRACKED!” Ogremon’s voice went completely demonic as he flexed and grew a foot taller and was radiating a deadly dark purple aura. “ROUND TWO, NOW!” Dolly stopped laughing and was immediately behind her board shivering as she held it and the Stone Bone Club up defensively. “PUMMEL WHACK!” The attack immediately broke the Canard’s Digi-stick in two as he moved to defend me and the rest of the attack sent Canard flying into a nearby wall where he grunted as he bounced and bodily slapped against the floor. That Ogremon had moved at least three times faster than he previously did weeks ago was astonishing, I immediately used Dancing Falme to dodge the next three attacks and a shockwave he belted out with near impossible to see speed with a swing from his bone. The most deranged thing about it, he wasn’t even calling out his attacks anymore. One second I was dodging, the next I found myself outside, on my back, staring dumbly at the me shaped hole in the wall and a badly bruised jaw that my wool barely managed to stop from being completely broken or possibly shattered into little pieces. Yep… probably shouldn’t have insulted him that badly, also he was much more of a threat than before. Did the whole thing about having a revenge story actually mean that much to him? I inhaled, exhaled and rolled to the left fifteen times. This created multiple holes the size of Ogremon’s left fist which was now buried in the fifteenth hole… up to his shoulder. He swung his club down and despite my attempt at rolling a sixteenth time, instead of sideways and forward towards the school wall. This proved to be a bad idea when the blast wave hit and went through my wool entirely as I was rocketed back into the building through the wall to land back inside after a quick tumble. I think he just cracked a few portions of my skeleton with the shockwave of that last attack alone. I probably shouldn’t have learned how to insult someone by listening in on Smolder and Shanty’s friendly insult sessions or actually answered Ogremon’s challenge on actually finding an insult so heinous he’d actually crack like he just did. Currently he’s fighting like what I would assume fighting an Ultimate level Digimon would feel like. This did not bode well...