Fanfic / The Worm Protocol

The Worm Protocol is a Digimon/Worm fanfic by Godzillaslayer101. A FF.net version can be found here while the "Royal Knights Origins" which makes up their backstories has an Archive of Our Own version here. Sadly, the later two have not been updated since sometime near January, 2016; though the story has continued on SpaceBattles.

Their lord beaten and broken. The Knights are in disarray, but a knight is still a knight, even if they were in a world that didn't make sense.

This is a what-if scenario involving the Digimon Multiverse. Yggdrasil is still expanding and to prevent the events of X-Evolution from happening again, decides to send pieces of itself out into the greater multiverse. The story follows one such copy as it finds out that it wound up in the bad part of the multiverse when a golden being, of the same level of existence but much older, assaults and puts it into... basically a coma. From there the story focuses on "Daddy's Gifts", 13 Mega Level Digimon given to each clone to guard them as they set up the Digital world and help protect it afterwards. The Royal Knights.

Only now they're all stuck in the human world, in human forms with no idea what just happened. Nobody expects what happens next.

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This story contains examples of:

• Admiring the Abomination: Glenn Chambers mentions that despite taking a lot of issue with the Royal Knights and Examon in particular the British Ambassador was "Half gushing, half weeping" over the giant dragon they have tried (and failed) putting strict restrictions on that often perches on Big Ben. And by the end of the day he is still a literal "Monster".
• All Myths Are True: In true Digimon fashion, if the world religions and mythologies of the world haven't been true before... They are now, if not always accurate to the source material the beings they've created are based on.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: For the Knights (who are secretly AI from an alternate history of earth) anyway. Though that isn't what the other Capes think.
  Jesmon: Ulforce says we're not allowed to talk to therapists.
• All There in the Manual: Reading this in the forum based format is recommended both for being kept up to date the best and for supplemental materials that can appear there, like commenters being kind enough to reveal the hidden text for when Yggdrasil's "talking" so that readers who aren't aware of it's existence or for reasons can't highlight the chapter to find it themselves don't miss as much, images or more descriptions about what certain characters look like or how their powers work, or simply keep track of smaller details about the universe.
  • It's worth noting that since you can't highlight on Fan Fiction.Net (or at least not easily) the Interface Screw mentioned above and under the YMMV section isn't present in that version at all.
  • The forums are also where the name of the Evil Twin of Jesmon Noelle made's actual "name" came up, Jesmon Executor, as opposed to the Fan Nickname Judasmon or just "Judas" like Rachel's dog.
• Almighty Janitor: Many of the Knights day jobs. Though, of particular note is Alphamon. He works at Starbucks. He doesn't own that particular franchise location, he just works there. Admittedly this changes once he finds Ami and needs to give her something to do in Japan so he becomes a private investigator like Sleipmon's day job (And Kyoko) instead. Other Knights include the overqualified Examon working as a mechanic despite having the means (and occasional motive) to design better vehicles than what he's fixing up, Crusadermon juggling fashion design with keeping the Drasilla from falling apart, and Ulforce's job as a driver.
• Angels, Devils and Squid: The three biggest players in Yggdrasil's first world generally ended up like this.
  • The self-explanatory Angels are too focused on what they believe to be "purity" to the point of enslaving those who "fail" for arbitrary reasons if they aren't killed outright.
  • The equally obvious Demon Lords are Always Chaotic Evil with each having their own Seven Deadly Sins based quirk and serve as merely the blackest of the greys of the three sets.
  • The "Squid" of this set, the animal based and least predictable Sovereigns, are holding their Above Good and Evil hat firmly while endorsing Might Makes Right to the similar detriment of all involved. And if the "Lovecraftian" nature of the last one is in question just ask Duftmon how he got his Leopard Mode, the leopard mode he still doesn't feel he can trust using centuries after the fact, and what the attempt to fix it did to Yggdrasil's avatar.
• Apocalypse How: Class 4 severity. Global Scale. The Royal Knights threaten to torch the atmosphere if Cauldron decide to betray them.
• Arc Words: The "Difference between being a Hero and a Knight" serves as one, though how it comes up can vary not unlike how "Who watches the Watchmen" was always an incomplete phrase. More importantly how this indicates the actions of the Royal Knights when compared to the Heroes of Earth Bet, and how their duties as the latter always take priority over the former.
  • Variants are common, however if you notice an Uppercase K "Knight" that isn't proceeded by "Royal" or you see a mention of Uppercase H "Hero" that isn't talking about the deceased Tinker... Pay attention to what's about to happen, because Earth Bet is about to see procedures and regulations circumvented if not outright ignored/defied. This result in good or bad things for the Knight in question.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Amy gives one to an aspiring cape after laying out all of the risks of the job to them.
  Amy: "Why does Taylor Hebert have to go out and fight villains?"
• As You Know: Duftmon, Gallantmon, Alphamon, and Omnimon reiterate the state of most of the world and their own powers in a briefing before Leviathan's attack.
• Badass Cape: Almost every member of the knights has one or a functional equivalent.
• Badass Crew: The Royal Knights are one half this, one half Badass Family.
  • Started out as Hitchhiker Heroes that became a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits as seen in the Origins Interludes. When it comes to their original backstories we have, to date:
    • Yggdrasil: a nigh-omnipotent being who is rather young and doesn't really understand how to interact with others or why the world she made ended up as it did.
    • Imperialdramon Paladin Mode: Has a mysterious past that has not really been elaborated upon yet. However we do know a few facts. Imperialdramon seems to have traveled through every major faction's territory at least once. He knows a lot about Angel Territory. He really hates the Angel faction, especially Ophanimon the Second. The Veemon mind from before his Jogress to Paildramon is in charge and he seems to hate what happened to cause that evolution. He knows a lot about Street Urchins and was raised in Platinumsukamon's orphanage on Keter. He does not consider himself to be a nice person. His evolution was involved with the death of the previous Ophanimon, but even he doesn't remember much of it before he was found eating her.
    • Omnimon: WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were a pair of Digimon the ran a peaceful little town in the ass end of nowhere that had once been friendly with the local magic kingdom until those guys vanished off the face of the earth.
    • Alphamon: Was originally one of the Youngest Knights, and most recent evolution. He was also a Bumbling Wizard Apprentice.
    • Craniumon: Death Seeker Warlord of one of the outer layers that Yggdrasil beat in a fight.
    • Duftmon: Tactician in the Sovereign's Armies who was found guilty of treason and punished by being banished to the more dangerous inner layers of the digital world after being forced into a form that traded his prized intelligence for raw power, which when Yggdrasil undid it earned her his loyalty.
    • Sleipmon: As a Chirinmon served as one of the "Hands of Cherubimon", a direct agent of an angel not unlike how the Devas serve their sovereigns. Chirinmon was put in charge of Imperialdramon during his "redemption" for his assumed murder of a Great Angel.
    • Gallantmon: Was a Virus Buster Virus wandering Angel Territory searching for a friend.
    • Crusadermon: A former member of the Angel faction, who "became an Angel" upon achieving Mega, before being released and reassigned to the Royal Knights by Cherubimon.
    • Dynastmon: Lord of the Wyld Hunt, a group which targeted Mon that the Sovereign couldn't attack officially for one reason or another.
    • Magnamon: A Veemon living on one of the most outer layers with his "older brother" even though he was already 20 years old.
    • UlForceVeedramon: Living with his "younger Brother" on one of the outer layers for a currently unspecified reason.
• Badass Adorable: Again Jesmon.
• Bar Brawl: Oswald of all people has Victus start a smaller one of these so he can talk to the Bar's owner without harassment to help with Canary's case. Victus is all too happy to start Playing Drunk to make sure the gangbangers in question throw the first punch.

• Berserk Button: Don't insult Yggdrasil's Knights to her face.
  Vanessa: Is this about the monster?
  Yggdrasil: HIS NAME IS ALPHAMON, AND HE IS MY BELOVED BEGINNING. WATCH YOUR TONGUE.
• Battle in the Rain: Against Leviathan, naturally. Though Alphamon is able to blow away the clouds (and everything else) when he unleashed Alphamon: Ouryuken.
• Big Damn Kiss: Paige Mcabee/Canary gives one in gratitude to Oswald/Omnimon for getting an appeal and releasing her from her Kangaroo Court. The other two following it were more of the "Shut Up" Kiss variety.
• Big Good: Yggdrasil for once. This doesn't mean she's nice this time around, but she is certainly nicer so far.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Yggdrasil's first world in Origins. Before Yggdrasil got involved the three main players were
  • The Great Angels who are Xenophobic towards anything with a hint of Viral Data.
  • The Demon Lords who are Omnicidal Maniacs.
  • And the Sovereign, under whose rule, Might Makes Right though there is some kind of mostly impartial system in place. But just to make sure you don't mistake them for good guys, their Establishing Character Moment is Haunglongmon inflicting a Fate Worse than Death via Body Horror on one of his subordinates.
• Breather Episode: Some canon omakes, like Christmas and for the party on January 1st, act as these after much more serious events (and likely precede more of the same) and the mini storyline based on various knights facing mugging attempts thus far has also had a lighter tone. The interludes vary a lot more based on who it's about in addition to what else is happening around it, like the one based on the Parahumans Online Message Board could certainly count, and if the canon omake is based on Gallantmon's "vacation" in Japan being one of these is unlikely.
• Brought Down to Badass: The Knights lost some of their signature abilities because of their connection to Yggdrasil has waned. They can still kick the ass of just about any Parahuman that tries to cross them.
• Cast Herd: An easier way to break up the large cast of the series can go as follows:
  • First are the Royal Knights themselves, which typically have Omnimon and Gallantmon as a "set" with an optional Alphamon, Dynastmon and Crusadermon tend to always be together, Gankoomon and Jesmon make up a father and son pair, Magnamon and Ulforce are closer siblings than the rest, Crainumon tends to have Yggdrasil be a part of his stories more often, which leaves the solo Duftmon, Examon, and Sleipmon easier to handle. In Origins Yggdrasil and Imperialdramon's bond is the focus as they slowly gain the other members.
  • Alphamon often comes with Contessa and his adoptive children which break down into the Vasil siblings, Ami (who often has Arata show up in her own storylines), and their respective partners with Ryudamon and Isaac breaking down into a closer set. Regardless of whether you see him or not Ouryumon is also always with him.
  • Gallantmon has Suzie, Kai, and the Mizu no Yurei due to his dealings in Japan trying to protect the former in the latter's territory.
  • Omnimon has Canary and interacts with the Triumvirate the most.
  • Jesmon has Taylor as Shawn and as a hero acts as the leader of the Squire Initiative.
  • Gankoomon has the Undersiders through his issues with Grue, and often references the Sistermon Blanc and Noir.
  • Magnamon has Amy who gets her own herd with Taylor, Victoria, and Lalamon.
  • Duftmon has Kayden, by extension her children Theo and Aster, Accord, and occasionally drifts into dealing with his various brothers.
  • Most team groups from Worm also apply to help divide them up too, like the Triumvirate or the PRT.
  • Other Digimon groups like the Digimon Sovereign (and their 12 Devas), the Three Great Angels (who have their own servants), and the Seven Demon Lords also still apply.
• Catapult to Glory: Hackmon is seen to use this plan to win an agreement with Gankoomon so that the latter will train him as an apprentice. The agreement was that Hackmon had to get inside the Royal Knight's castle. Hackmon flew over four thousand layers and ended up in Yggdrasil's throne room!
• The Chessmaster: Coil likes to think of himself as one. "His" arc even features what happens in Brockton compared to a Chess Match using chess notation. He loses in 15 moves. Though admittedly, if Yggdrasil hadn't intervened he'd have had a much better chance of winning.
• Christmas Episode: As mentioned one of the canon omake chapters functions as this, showing off the "human" Royal Knights family dynamics primarily Played for Laughs.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: As the Royal Knights explain to Cauldron right off the bat this is why having a symbiotic relationship with humanity is so important to Digimon as species. While they can live separately humans are what shaped everything they are (in some cases more literally than others) and as a result are the most powerful "resource" a Digimon can ever use.
• Composite Character: The Royal Knights have memories of their Data Squad, X-Evolution, and Cyber Sleuth incarnations. Gallantmon and UlforceVeedramon also have extra memories. Gallantmon has memories of Tamers and Ulforce has those of V-Tamer.
• Cool Car: Examon builds one for UlForce for Christmas. It was intended to be a real life James Bond spy car. Examon might have also suped up Alphamon's Alfa Romero Montreal.
• Cradle of Loneliness: One of Hackmon/Jesmon's first memories involves this as he was holding his parents as they died. And since they were Digimon... Their bodies didn't stick around.
  • Omnimon does the same thing with Mattias's corpse when he fails to stop him from killing himself despite not even knowing the man very well. On the other hand despite saving him from the fire on his debut being such a brief moment Omnimon still remembered the man's name and who he was from hearing his voice alone and Omnimon had also just suffered a primarily emotional attack from Myotismon's shades along with failing to stop him from eating five children.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Tried to be invoked by Jesmon Executor when he cuts off Jesmon's arm at the end of 10.3 and the former's first line of dialogue in 10.4 is "Looks like he's been disarmed." No one else got the joke.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of the battles that the Knights fight in are this, but then they are thirteen of the strongest warriors from their franchise, and Worm's average power level tends to be somewhere lower in the Superweights. But the real heavy hitters of Worm are powerful enough that the Knights expect that if any of them go up against them alone, they'll only survive long enough to warn the others to get into hiding.
• Death from Above: Examon's main shtick. Worm has currently only seen one of his three main methods.
  • The one that's been seen? Avalon's Gate, the most modular, but likely weakest of the three. The two in reserve? Dracoinian Slam and Pendragon's Glory.
• Demonic Possession: Digimon who have trouble entering Earth Bet normally can get around it by doing this with a human host as Myotismon and Mattias demonstrate. Turns out if this happens to a cape the Digimon also gets their powers to some degree, though their control of it depends on how willing their actual owner is being.
• Destructive Savior: The Knights are trying not to be this. Their effectiveness varies. And when they stop like they do during Endbringer Fights...
  • All Digimon have the possibility to be these when fighting in the physical world and just get more likely to accidentally doing so as their powers increase. Isaac for example is still unintentionally one of these on a digital level and Gallantmon explained how powerful Ryudamon could be as a mega in terms of deforesting a rainforest in an hour.
  • Aiba and the Volcano of Okinawa manage to do some real damage to the city whenever they have a brawl, though Aiba does try to keep it to areas with low or no population.
• Diabolus ex Machina: This version of Earth Bet just so happened to have had a large variety of equivalents to past Digimon tamers, regardless of whether or not they even shared a universe before and Worm lampshading the unlikelihood of parallel selves existing like this at all due to the sheer odds against it, who had strong connections to various incarnations of the Royal Knights... So most of them explicitly ended up dying in horrific ways during Worm's canonical destruction of Japan and the fall out from it to hurt said knights and further set them against this new world they have been forced to live in.
  • Aiba, the protagonist of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, has a meta case of this. Word of God said that, had Takumi (the male version) been chosen his mother would only be making just enough to barely be above the poverty line until Alphamon helped her out financially, which would then let Takumi be able to go to a better school where he and his friend Arata would be classmates. However Ami was the one who won the poll. How much did picking the girl change when in the game it was purely cosmetic and the traits of all other characters are pretty constant despite the Alternate Universe? Her mother is dead because unlike Takumi she didn't get sick enough for her mother to stay home to take care of her and was killed in the Leviathan attack as a result, and as an orphan decided to rebel against the Yakuza controlling Japan leading to Arata joining one so he could try to protect her from the inside (and doing enough to get her to stop considering him her friend when even becoming a near literal monster couldn't make her go that far in her game), and as she is constantly on the run was suffering massive malnutrition before Alphamon stepped in. All because of a coin toss and a poll.
  • With how the crests and crowns of the Seven Demon Lords work Leviathan being host to Leviamon can seem like one of these done for the purpose of making a pun.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Crusadermon. It's a Berserk Button. Doesn't help that his human form looks exactly like Saber.
• Drives Like Crazy: UlForce.
  Jesmon:UlForce was a fine driver, it was just... the human body wasn't meant to jerk to the side so quickly.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Digimon have one with what "Attribute" they are: Vaccine beats Virus, Virus beats Data, Data beats Vaccine, and Free types are always equal to what they face. The Angel Territory happily embraces their strength against all Virus Digimon while trying to ignore that this means that their "inferior" Data-type charges have just as much "right" to give them the same treatment.
• Emotion Eater: As per their canon, Digimon do this. It is why even the worst of them don't want to destroy the human world, they want to rule it.
• Entertainingly Wrong: The PRT and other cape communities would be Properly Paranoid about the Royal Knights in any other situation based on the logic Miss Militia provides for their concerns, but due to our better understanding on the subject at hand it comes across more like this.
• Evil Twin: Noelle is still here and her powers still create these. The fact it works on Digimon data even if it's "metal" was more of a shock, as her conflict with Jesmon proved. Judas(mon) is also explicitly lacking in some of his originals abilities as a result instead of being twisted into "new" powers the way cloned capes could be.
• Expy:
  • Alphamon of Kakashi in terms of personality and the tardiness based running gag but looks like Daniel Radcliffe.
  • In universe Yggdrasil made Gallantmon and Sleipmon's human forms based on their respective partners.
  • Crusadermon's human appearance is one to Saber. He's a guy. He doesn't appreciate the joke.
• Fantastic Racism: Crusadermon again, against Humans.
• Fantastic Nuke: Examon's "Avalon's Gate." It has wiped cities off the map, literally. And of course, this isn't the biggest weapon in the Knight's arsenal.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Shawn/Jesmon. Helps him a lot since it gives him the Funny Foreigner excuse in public.
• Foregone Conclusion: The end of Omnimon's arc shows a Breather Episode with all the knights together at Paige's concert. As the author pointed out the timestamp for this event can be useful point of reference when comparing it to the almost simultaneous events some of his brothers were going through, as this serves as a Flash Forward for them.
• Funny Background Event: While the Bargain with Heaven above is going on Gallantmon is being swarmed by DigiGnomes. He's enjoying it. His explanation for why afterwards? Takato Matsuki was a dreamer, the biggest.
• Funny Foreigner: Mostly invoked with Shawn's behavior with Taylor but all of the Knights had this as their defense during their time in the apartment trying to sort themselves out and adapt to living as humans.
• Gigantic Gulp: After his debut against Heartbreaker, Alphamon celebrates the repeal on his coffee ban by drinking an entire barrel of the stuff.
• Good Is Not Nice: Just because Yggdrasil isn't evil here it doesn't mean she won't use extreme measures if she considers it necessary. Such as creating DEX-Digimon as a last line of defense/first line of offense. It is Yggdrasil after all.
  • The Royal Knights also aren't exempt from this, stand outs so far being Craniumon and Gankoomon.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Romanji most often appears in sections taking place in Japan (to help remind the reader that the characters are actually speaking Japanese), Digimoji uses Japanese as it's primary cypher, and various Digimon can have this even if they don't have a Japanese theme to them.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: Gallantmon and Omnimon. Dynasmon and Crusadermon. At least in their human identities seeing as Digimon have No Biological Sex.
• Humanity Ensues: What happens to the Royal Knights after the prologue.
• Hypocritical Humor: In addition to be a favorite of Gankoomon Dominik indulges in some when talking with Theo by saying Frenja and Menja had "Some asinine Norse names"... When he works for and partially named himself after his god known as "Yggdrasil" and works with a Digimon based on Odin's steed (and Loki's son) Sleipnir. Not to mention hearing Duftmon complain about how easily frustrated Accord gets with any "imperfections" which Jesmon internally lampshades but no one comments on.
• I Am the Noun: The Seven Demon Lords seem to be invoking this: Unlike the Holy angels who do all have a concept that is meant to show where they stand (Seraphimon is the "Savior" and holy father of sorts, Ophanimon was and should still be "Compassion", and Cherubimon being the "Most Virtuous" of the three) they all use their species names instead of given ones like most Digimon, but the Demon Lords will address each other by the sin they represent instead. The biggest exception to this being Lucemon, who prefers to be known as " Perfection" instead of "Pride", who still fits in a different way.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Dominik, Oswald, Kaji, Gary, Magnus, and Adam's $400 collective response to Victus meeting Mouse Protector. Max Anders/Kaiser took the same route to the pair meeting, as Victus had been assaulting him with racist puns earlier, but at a different bar.
• Insistent Terminology: The Knights might be playing the Hero roles but they are quick to remind and correct people that they are Knights first.
  Tattletale: Wait, you can't do this. You're a hero.
  Gankoomon: Wrong. I'm a knight. There's a difference.
• It's All About Me: Coil is like this even when confronted about it directly. Also Jesmon Executor.
• It's All My Fault: Jesmon blames himself majorly for not being there when Taylor got locked in her locker and triggered as a result.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gankoomon for the most part. He can be and often is a complete ass. He also does care about his family despite his own denials.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Gankoomon is best described as an asshole. But he also believes that there is good with the bad and so is willing to protect the world.
• Kung-Fu Jesus: Jesmon/Shawn.
• Mercy Kill: What Jesmon has do for some of Bonesaw's victims.
• Mistaken for Gay: Emma starts a rumor that Shawn is Gay. It got him into a fight against three E88 gangers on Day One. He kicked all their butts and earned the position of "toughest guy in school."
  • Gallantmon and Omnimon are rather close. But seeing as Digimon lack sex drives...
• Mirror Match: When Noelle get's loose, Jesmon, who's already injured at the start of the confrontation, has to deal with one of these against Jesmon Executor. He does get backup in the form of the PRT, Protectorate, and Squire Initiative, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
• Mood Whiplash: The side story chapter, "On the Value of Meetings, Family, and Presentaion" starts up rather seriously as we watch a Curb-Stomp Battle between one of the Royal Knights and the Mizu no Yurei's Yakuza. This is then unintentionally juxtaposed with two of the Royal Knights in the Mizu no Yurei's kitchen as one ignores the other while preparing a meal for everyone with the homeowner's food. The Author's Note sums it up best.
  Godzillaslayer101: I planned for this to be serious, but then Alphamon happened.
  • See the Crosses the Line Twice Entry since this is what happened when the joke fell flat.
• Mugging the Monster: Literally. The Empire 88 in Winslow try to beat up Jesmon. Who is a Digital ''Monster''.
  • There is also a series of Omakes being created where different people try to Mug the Royal Knights while they are in human form. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
  • The Volcano of Okinawa sends a hit squad after Adam Henry, the Human form of Alphamon as a way to attack his assistant, Ami Aiba. We find out about this when they are all knocked out unconscious in a corner of his apartment.
• Multilayer Façade: Due to the fact that no one in the Worm verse has any idea about what Digimon are or what Digimon are capable of, the Knights effectively have this. Currently, their biggest threat is thought to be Examon, who also still has this as they've mistaken what kind of WMD he has.
• Mutually Assured Destruction: What happen if either Cauldron or Royal Knight decide to betray each other. Yggdrasil, the being powering the Knights will die, and the Earth's atmosphere will be torched.
• Mythology Gag: As expected of their status as Composite Characters, there are little jokes about their other incarnations such as Alphamon's coffee addiction (along with other jokes from Cyber Sleuth), Ulforce referencing Taichi and Zeromaru from V-Tamer after hacking Xbox Live.
  • A more subtle one appears with Lucemon of the Demon Lords, who calls himself "Perfection". Not only is he the bearer of "Pride" he's the only Demon Lord who has this title as an Ultimate, which in Japanese was called a "Perfect" level Digimon.
  • In Origins, Imperialdramon threatens Omnimon about beating him "‘til you’re black and the code on your sword changes", which describes the Jogress of a Blackwargreymon and a Blackmetalgarurumon known as Omnimon Zwart, as his sword says "Termination" as opposed to Omnimon's "All Delete".
  • Literal one in Arc 13. Examon, who's form is based off of Y Ddraig Goch, kills an opponent who took the form of a White Dragon at Dinas Emrys. He then stops Ulforce from quipping about beer or pigs before falling unconscious.
  • Vanessa, Nicolas, Alphamon, Ryudamon, and Isaac are floating above the Digital World because as one of them points out no one set the down direction. When Vanessa does, everyone falls except the person who planted the bait in the first place! Also like Tamers, the Digital World more explicitly follows Your Mind Makes It Real logic as the results of the trolling didn't cause any of them serious injury, despite Vanessa and Nicolas's stitches from being shot, as neither of them were really thinking about that issue at the time.
  • The Digiegg made from Leviathan's core after Jesmon converted it to data sounds very similar in appearance to the one from Digimon's first movie. Considering it contains Leviamon it's size and appearance is very fitting, compared to how the one from before was just for a Parrotmon.
  • In Taylor's Interlude in the Dark Ocean, Hackmon shows her a "Hiding Tree."
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Where to start? The Royal Knights, any or all thirteen of them, and they each have a more personal example. The Endbringers, Scion... In the origins Interludes we have The Demon Lords, the Great Angels, the Sovereign...
• No Sense of Personal Space: again Jesmon/Shawn. The Christmas Omake hints that this might be due to a tragic incident in his past.
  • Confirmed by a later chapter, the one who destroyed the town? Gallantmon/Megidramon.
• Noodle Incident: Some of the Royal Knight's "parties" involving them, Hunglongmon, and Opanimon.
  • Or them and the Olympus XII.
  • Jesmon has begun to suspect that he's about to get dragged into one whenever Gankoomon gives him a strange greeting.
• Papa Wolf: Magnamon to Amy. He denies this.
  • Gankoomon as well, though he isn't as upfront about it.
  • Alphamon and Gallantmon have their moments too.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The Royal Knights. The Endbringers. Scion. As they show against Leviathan.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The result of both Coil's last gambit and by extension the Leviathan fight basically resulted in these, but the latter involved a much harsher Downer Ending for the arc.
  • The fight between Examon and the Three Blasphemies has shades of this too considering the amount of damage he took, the sheer amount of property damage to national landmarks, giving Earth Bet more reasons to keep him contained as physically possible because they have a better awareness of his destructive potential, and Mags indicating the result is a case of Heads I Win, Tails You Lose in addition to indicating something happened to make her an actual threat to the Royal Knights offscreen.
  • This also comes up with the war between China and Sleipmon as the nation has been lately pulling out everything they can to end him, up to and including making children act as suicide bombers since he took out two of their limited parahuman slaves, and when he is given a means to end it peacefully it's only by agreeing to marry a 15 year old girl under the expectation that he make her pregnant, which is both physically impossible for him and disgusts him to his core as both a blatant disregard of his history with his human partner and the children working for DATS and the value he puts on his honor both in his actions and words.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: A couple that the Knights have to deal with. Staying true to their own forms of Justice, trying to appear as Heroes to the public at large, and sanctions the UN placed upon them (mostly Examon). Their levels of Obstructiveness vary.
• Off the Rails: From Worm Canon. Major steps towards this began with the Knight's debut as they took on and took down S-Class Parahuman threats to the world such as the Slaughterhouse 9, Heartbreaker and Nilbog, but it irrefutably happened when Gankoomon fought Lung.
• Old Master: Gankoomon's day job.
• Orphanage of Love: Keter of all places seems to have one run by a PlatinumSukamon Imperialdramon is familiar with.
• Our Monsters Are Different: They are actually sentient A.I. from another earth that can become Bond Creatures to children through The Power of Friendship™. Much of the story is various characters trying to figure out how that relates to a Grimdark world of Supervillians and Heroes.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Discussed Trope between Ami and Adam as a joke about his sleep schedule and lack there of, specifically citing those inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Twilight franchise, and the hopping Chinese Vampire. And then of course we had already seen the undead demonic digital vampire Myotismon.
• Outside-Context Problem: Again this is the Royal Knights, super powered AI from an alternate universe, becoming known as heroes on Earth Bet who have no idea about what Digimon even are, much less all they can do.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Crusadermon, only slightly enforced on him by Yggdrasil as despite his open distaste for the "male" human form she created for him he hasn't made any major efforts to make it more masculine.
• Really 700 Years Old: The Royal Knights again. The oldest pair, Omnimon and Alphamon are 1300, Gallantmon is 1200, most of the other knights are probably somewhere around 600~700, and Jesmon, the youngest, who's human form is that of a teenager is about 30.
• Record Needle Scratch: Explicitly mentioned by Ulforce when he realizes that Sliepmon just let slip that he was given a marriage proposal.
  Ulforce: I needed a record to scratch now. That moment post-emptively simply demanded it.
• Red Baron:
  • As Alphamon explains that since Digimon normally go by their current species titles like "Yggdrasil's Beginning" are both distinguishing traits and seen largely as symbols of rank or strength, to the point Ryudamon explicitly says he doesn't want a name like what Nicolas gave Isaac until he reaches Ultimate, which was mentioned to be a common level to earn one's title.
  • Going with the above all of the Royal Knights have one of these given to them by Yggdrasil as evidence of their bond with her.
  • Examon is better known by the nickname "Nuke-Dragon." For bonus meta, he's red, though the name itself is a misnomer, as he doesn't use Nukes.
  • Isaac also addresses Alphamon as "The Power" and "The Progenitor"
• Remote Body: Sleipmon, can create these from ice in the real world, as long as he gets help with the High Code. Overlaps with Myself, My Avatar.
• Refuge in Audacity: One of the major sources of humor found in the work, as we have God-like (and potentionally "gods" in their own right) Digimon interacting with humans and in turn outrageously over powered parahumans interacting with both them and normal civilians as well. And later on both have to deal with primarily Rookie level digimon and the children they partner with, parahuman or not.
• Revenge Myopia: Vanessa holds a deep hatred for Alphamon for getting her Daddy (Heartbreaker) sent to the Birdcage and won't refer to anything other than "the monster", even though he's the one responsible for keeping her and her brother Nicolas out of jail/foster care. This ends when she is taken into the Digital World and shown the video of Alphamon demanding that Heartbreaker confess his control over his kids to keep them out of prison, and Heartbreaker outright saying that he's willing to let them rot.
• Rule 63: The non-canon "Error Code: 0x3F0x0F" omakes. The Royal Knights wake up genderbent and none of them are amused by this development. (Except Gankoomon because of how his/her sisters are frustrated by it all) Crusadermon looks almost exactly the same and abuses their responsibility of picking outfits for everyone by going for either showing off Yggdrasil's backup bodies or playing off particular strengths the best they can.
• Running Gag: Most Chapters or Omakes that heavily feature Alphamon after he adopts Nicolas and Vanessa have a moment where he starts fantasizing about murdering Heartbreaker in increasingly brutal and disturbing ways. Nicolas even gets in on it a few times.
• Shout-Out: Both as mythology gags to various works in the Digimon Franchise and Worm that form the story's core and to other works in general.
  • The Internet still needs new wallpaper. Extra funny as supposedly none of the knights should remember that joke from Our War Game.
  • In origins Alphamon was noted to essentially make his Doraemon Expy rookie form Dorumon even more so by accidently dying himself neon blue.
  • The fire associated red headed Gankoomon uses the phrase "Got it Memorized", doubling as a reference to Axel and Marcus Damon by virtue of the two sharing a voice actor in the English dubs which got the latter to say the phrase too.
  • Another series of shout-outs come from the Chapter titles. They almost always reference another form of media be it a song, movie, or book.
• Smart People Play Chess: And the author expects you to find the hidden notation and recognize what it means!
• Superheroes Wear Capes: As the Knights take on the function of Superheroes they raise the percentage of Capes who actually wear a cape in Earth Bet.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Examon gives one though it's more obvious to the readers than the people he's telling it to. Especially when Omnimon points out the Specific Detail the other characters missed. Though some likely were distracted by the other specific detail they had asked for.
  Examon (Speaking):None of my shots in the Service of the Royal Knights has ever been more than 2,500 kilometers.
  Omnimon (Thinking): The longer ones he took before we convinced him to come down.
• Tastes Like Purple: Imperialdramon was powerful enough to induce this effect on the other knights, just with the power of his swings, not even using an actual attack. And it wasn't the real Imperialdramon either, just a memory!
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How the Royal Knights start their fight with Leviathan in Brockton Bay: A volley of 12 of the thirteen knights strongest techniques and one from Ouryumon all at once. With all the knights who have access to one activating their X-antibody for the power boost that comes with it. Again this is only how they start the fight, as this isn't enough to finish the job on it's own, and not all knights were in prime condition anyway even ignoring the situations with their Forces and mode changes.
• There Was a Door: Gankoomon thinks this word for word before wondering where Jesmon learned his manners. And then demonstrating where Jesmon learned his manners from.
  • In a later Chapter Gankoomon notes that he, like a proper Digimon, does in fact use doors. This is after he kicks it down to chase Oni Lee, whom he had just punched through a window.
• The Cape: the Image that many of the knights try to portray while on duty. It works to varying degrees. Gallantmon, Omnimon, Alphamon, Magnamon, and Jesmon are the best at it, as attempting to be this is more in line with their normal personalities.
• The Strategist: Duftmon, For the Royal Knights.
• The Talk: Discussed by Omnimon and Gallantmon after the latter told him why having two men sleep in the same bed would have people thinking odd things about them, Gallantmon then mentions that Takato's was a Type 1 situation.
  Gallantmon: "Be glad it wasn’t Mr. Matsuki who explained it to you. He took out charts and diagrams, Takato was so mortified he couldn’t look either Rika or Jeri in the eye for a week."
• Too Dumb to Live: Not an uncommon find here, typically due to arrogance or ignorance.
  • Myotismon was one due to their arrogance and pushing a Royal Knight's (and more importantly Yggdrasil's) Berserk Button on purpose, as lampshaded by Ulforce.
  • Kai is a lesser case considering how he deals with the Yakuza and ignoring the sort of threat they present more often than not.
  • Both of the Laborn siblings according to Gankoomon as Brian broke his promise to use "Gary Kim"'s teachings to only protect himself and his sister and Aisha tries tailing him while leaving a trail of food behind her due to overreliance on her new powers.
  • Coil crosses into this when he can't accept that his plans aren't going to work. That doesn't mean he's not dangerous.
• Training from Hell: What Gankoomon subjected Hackmon to. He still does it to Jesmon and this later acts as a partial basis for the training Alphamon sets up for Nicolas and Vanessa.
• Trauma Conga Line: Gallantmon's time in Shinjuku. It starts with the discovery that his tamer/friend/parent/creator/brother/Partner Takato did live on Earth-Bet, but was killed by Leviathan at age 8, and goes downhill from there.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Some short messages in chapters may be written in Binary code or Hexadecimal to play with the "Digital" part of "Digimon". Later on to stress The Chess Master nature of Coil's plans chapters 10.2 to 10.6 all have actual chess move notation appear as a form of Foreshadowing and pointing out when the "players" make good or poor moves. It also further plays with Yggdrasil's use of Interface Screw as the match is technically between him and her, and forum's readers identified the type of play it is as being primarily a King's Gambit, which Coil loses badly.
• Unconventional Formatting: For three characters/factions so far. Ouryumon, wHO spEAks In ThIs stYlE, Yggdrasil who after the first prologue noted her thoughts with invisible text, and Dagomon and his "Scubamon" could use Black Speech with a Zalgo text generator. The later two have been scrapped pending revisions. Yggdrasil is currently using red text instead. Dagmon and his flunkies haven't been seen again yet.
• Wham Episode: Arc 6, which details Alphamon taking care of Heartbreaker's children Nicolas and Vanessa, begins with Vanessa getting a DexDorumon as a partner.
  • Leo's interlude to a degree too. Yes Leo as in Legend's son. Who now has an Elecmon. The rookie best known for digievolving into Leomon who ALWAYS dies. While this boy is still somewhat recovering from Myotismon's attack.
  • 11.5 "Viva La Vida" hits you with three bombs right after each other: first Jesmon dies so his OS generics can convert Leviathan's core into data so his brothers can destroy it, then as a part of Leviathan's "death" its data is changed into being a "host" for an incoming digimon, who turns out to be Leviamon himself wasting said sacrifice and presenting the Royal Knights a target who they can't kill for the risk of triggering the Karma system.
• Wham Line:
  • After Gallantmon deals with an undergroup of Yakuza, the final scene with a subordinate reporting to The Oyabun has this bombshell of a line.
    Sheng gently hugs her, and whispers to her to be safe, and Rumiko Nonaka, the Mizu no Yurei, mother of the late Rika Nonaka, and daughter of Seiko Hata, does the same.
  • There's another one at the end of 9.5
    UlForce: Saint knows where Yggdrasil is.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As in Worm, some villains are still these or like to think of themselves as such, notable examples being Accord and Coil. Accord's case is "tame" enough that despite his track record, (which includes selling teens and others to the Yang Ban) Duftmon is willing to work with him to enact his plan to end world hunger, but Coil's excuses for doing what he does falls apart as soon as the Knights set up in Brockton Bay. When he still tries to play this card in his defense Gankoomon wastes no time setting him straight.
• White Man's Burden: Basically what all of the "tenants" of the angel's amount to is the digimon equivalent of this. All Vaccines naturally outrank Data, which is why the latter needs them to act as their "respectful" Guardians, and Virus types are only acceptable if they agree to enter a form of slavery where despite having "angel" status if they go against a Vaccine's orders (or their supervisor is killed), they are put to death.
• World of Snark: Every knight seems to fall into this at least around each other, Digimon's love of Casual Danger Dialogue in the English dubs still shows in the human cast who survived, and the Worm 'verse wasn't exactly lacking in the Deadpan Snarker department either. So needless to say, Original Characters who appear are also following suit.
• Wrap Around: Examon fires a shot that crosses the equator twice before landing in its target. Unlike most examples of this trope, it took nearly eighty-five minutes to travel.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: In combination with the above the angels have a system that if an "angel" atones for their "sin" of being a virus type they can be released from their shackles and be considered an honorary vaccine. Needless to say this is rarely done in practice and largely exists just to give virus digimon enough hope to endure their slavery, and with even a digimon who only became a virus upon reaching Mega and had previously been a loyal data type military Captain being suggested to get this promotion made Ophanimon (who was meant to represent compassion) strongly object.