Digimon: Waltz of the Damned--The Second Movement

Shai looked at the proceedings somewhat detachedly, but when Lunamon was flung away, then hit by the sparks produced by the beetle-like Digimon's attack, she ran to the Lunar Rabit's side. “What William said is right, we need strategy,” she said.
Lunamon regarded her evenly. ”What do you suggest, then?”
Shai took a quick look around. Hawkmon was attacking the weak point left in the seudo-Kuwagamon's head by Veemon and suggesting to keep the Champion overbalanced, and Kotemon was bashing at its arms. Shai snapped her fingers as an idea formed in her head.
“Attack it from behind,” she told Lunamon. “Confuse it, so it won't know where to strike next.”
Lunamon nodded and circled Rikuwagamon. Suddenly, the hair growing out of her forehead glowed. ”Tear Shot!” she shouted as a large ball of freezing water appeared above her head and shot itself at the Rikuwagamon's back.

Haruka hid behind the tree when the sparks flew in her direction. She managed to escape a direct hit only feeling a rush of hot air. Tapirmon wasn't that lucky. The sparks caught her off guard, she had expected to be out of the Riku Kuwagamon's range after all. Tapirmon landed next to Silas suffering from Moderate burns. "I'm OK. But seriously what is this thing?"

Rue rushed to the Tapirmon forgetting for a second that it was an AI. She tried to examine Tapirmon. "OK Tapirmon you're a bit burned. Think you can continue on OK? Any side effects from those burns like an attack decrease?" I know this isn't Pokemon but I need to know what these burns can do.

" Attack? You're grammar's kind of weird human. But don't worry. It would take more than some sparks to deter this Spartan Tapir." she said shaking off some of the sparks. Though she tried to hide it Haruka still sensed her pain. Just a computer program Rue. Nothing to be concerned about I'm sure a potion or something will fix this up just fine after the battle. But I wonder why program an AI to feel actual pain in the first place? she asked herself. She came up with that strategy on her own. I didn't even have time to suggest it. I wonder what's going on with this? She was dissapointed that she couldn't directly control her Digimon but she at least she was beyond random attack patterns. Rue assumed that the Tapirmon would follow orders when given them at least, she had great voice recognition so far. They really went all out with the AI for this game. she thought. Rue nodded. "I suppose this isn't really a time for a tutorial. But..." she said while listening to Silas's Digivice's information. "We do have an edge here. This is a Virus type, not that that's surprising."

Tapirmon laughed. " Should have figured this out for myself. Most Kuwagamon are. But that means... she said. " I've got just the attack for this. But it could take a while to charge if it needs to effect a Champion. How to dodge those sparks in the meantime..." she said thinking out loud.

She's... Forming a strategy on her own, but still responding to my suggestions. she said. "Seriously they have AI like this and they're wasting in on and MMO? Something doesn't seem right here.'' She decided to test it. "What if you walked up right in front of it and stood entirely still?" she asked.

" Is that some kind of joke? Seriously. she said.

"It was." Rue said. "But if it's so slow and it's backside is so large... I'd imagine it could be easy to sneak up on it from behind. Provided the sparks don't richochet you'd be safe. The worst that could happen is that you could crash into it's rear."

" More a survivor than I thought." Tapirmon said approvingly. " When up against a physically stronger opponent fight dirty." she said laughing. Rue was uncomfortable with that observation but she was too afraid of Rikukuwagamon to not take advantage of a blind spot.

Tapirmmon opened her mouth shouting Nightmare Syndrome! filling the area around Silas, Rue and Tapirmon with cloud. " See if this bug can find us now." she whispered. Rue stuck close to Tapirmon hoping that she was right about the creature's blind spot.

edited 5th Oct '12 6:28:39 PM by RhymeBeat

As they walked, Renamon noticed that Tsukaimon was trying to ask her something about the message. The Data Digimon simply shrugged. There was nothing she found familiar about that message.

She walked together with her cheerful Human Partner, chatting with her to get an impression of the girl as they travelled towards their destination.

"Ayako?"

"Yeah, Renamon?"

"...how did you know my name before I woke up?"

The human girl smiled.

"Because I was told you were to be my partner before we arrived."

This puzzled Renamon, and she told Ayako as much. In response, Ayako showed her the Digivice and the status screen.

"I see...so this told you we were Partners."

"Yep! I'm so glad!"

"...why are you so happy that it was me? It sounds like you knew about me since before then..."

"Yeah, I did. I know all about you! ...well, not you in specific, but about Renamon. I'm a big Digimon fan back home."

"Digimon...fan?"

Renamon listened closely as her Human...no, her Partner talked about Digimon as she knew them and time passed quickly as they walked like this.

The two had been chatting for almost an hour straight when they arrived. It was mostly Ayako doing the talking, with Renamon asking questions about this and that in-between. Ayako couldn't believe the sophistication of the Artificial Intelligence, and she had completely stopped being surprised by how lifelike her Partner seemed. It was like she was really talking with a real living person, and Ayako couldn't stop herself from thinking that the developers had probably hired some kind of voice actor to provide all of the dialogue in real-time.

However...she didn't want to think about it like a game any more. This was so far from a traditional game experience. It was a dream about going to the Digital World come true and she would treat this all as if it was real! So voice-actress or game-construct or no...she was going to enjoy this time with her Partner to the full.

With that in mind, Ayako grinned as the derelict mansion came into view.

"All right! Let's go clear out this infestation!"

It soon became apparent to Joel that he was not, in fact, built for long hikes.

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, and feel the sweat running down his neck in thin streams. Christ but this thing was realistic. He'd have taken another moment to marvel at the technology if he weren't so out of breath. Well, at least he wasn't as bad as what's-her-face over there. Olivia? Yeah, that was it. Lordy but he was terrible with names. Anyway, he was just a little glad he had someone to pity here. What was even her deal? The walk had been pretty unforgiving, sure, but even he didn't feel the need to fall over himself in exhaustion.

Ayako however, as always, was full of energy. These girls, man. How did they manage that? Were they all slamming down caffeine pills when he wasn't looking? He wouldn't put it past them, the weirdos. She was chatty as all hell, too. Joel almost felt sorry for her Digimon partner, though the fox-lady seemed like the quiet sort so he supposed she was used to not getting a word in edgewise. He turned to face the Japanese girl, brow raised. "I think," He said, kneeling down to retie his ratty-ass sneakers. "That can wait a little while. Gotta catch our breath, y'know?"

"Oh, tut tut Master Joel." Replied Demidevimon, taking flight from the boy's shoulder and hovering in place, trying to get a better look at the dilapidated mansion. "Any job worth doing is worth doing now. Besides," He added smugly. There's not much point in slowing down. At this rate, even Belphemon would have us in the dust." Joel wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he could assume it was bad. Joel could only reply with a grumbled "Yeah yeah." Before rising to his feet to observe the mansion. Oh yeah, this place was definitely a fixer-upper. They'd have to have a talk with the groundskeeper when this was all over.

Snarky comments aside, he couldn't see this being any easier than the walk here. It could take ages clearing this place out, it was so huge. The hedge maze in particular looked like it'd be a chore. Still, he couldn't help but admire the architecture from this distance. The manor must've really been something back in the day. Now was a whole different story, though. It was a little funny, seeing something so opulent and well-crafted brought to ruin by such simple things as neglect. There was some kind of personal comparison to be made there, but he wasn't going to go looking for it. Irregardless, they had work to do. Snide motherfucker though he was, DDmon had a point.

"He heard the guy." He intoned over the subtle snap-snap-snap of leather wings as he jerked a thumb towards his partner. "We wanna get this done, we gotta get it done fast. We rest up a little, then we're heading down."

edited 11th Oct '12 10:40:14 AM by Bindlestick

From the moment Weiss had left, Aquilla found herself in a rather foul mood. She could tolerate the skin peeling, soul searing “momentary discomfort” of her body turning into digital data and the near end of her life as she rushed toward an unknown portal with equally unknown wonders. She could barely tolerate the game’s decision to wash her in a bath of dirt, grime, and sand. She had cursed not herself for lack proper clothes, but rather the sun and harshness for making her feel hot and sticky. She could even tolerate the nauseating feeling of waking in a dazzling new world that not only promised adventure, but danger.

What she could not handle was her partner. From the moment she gazed into those bright red orbs, she knew that she would be in for it. It had landed on top of her, awaiting her to awake, thumping its tail rhythmically against her side, stirring up more foul sand. Quill could practically feel the slobbering drool that was sure to come.

“My luck in getting the most annoying of the bunch.” Sighing, she moved and it jumped off her. “It is what I get for not paying attention to the minor details of a simple survey. Had I known its importance forthright, I could have been spared such a treatment.” She sat up and bristled, the ringlets in her hair standing on end, mirroring her annoyance. It was an impressive game, she could say that much. Surely this game wouldn’t be able to be mass produced enough to be available to everyone. The team had been thorough, but ambitious. The saddened thought came to her suddenly. There wouldn’t be others able to play for those reasons. Somewhere a better fan of this franchise lay. She pursed her lips and thought it over, though quickly, for the Digimon stood at her feet with a grin.

She watched the play of soft fur and swishing tail. "Hi there! Name’s Labramon. What can I call ya?" Labramon gargled the ends of its words, chewing them over roughly. Though not a deep voice, it was pronounced. In its absurdity, it had the audacity to sound lightly Irish.

Aquilla expelled a breath of air. “It’s you not ya. Annunciation and pronunciation are keys to unlock the best in an individual. And I am Aquilla, Aquilla David. It is a pleasure Labramon. Call me Quill for short and for future reference refrain from jumping, biting or scratching me. This dress is rather expensive, not to mention delicate, and I would hate for the fabric to be sullied.”

"Yer a strange one, lass, but I think I’ll like ya well enough. Ye were sleeping s’ long I thought you’d sleep right through everything! Thought I’d have someone lazy as a partner." Labramon gave a bright smile that seemed as honest as it was eager.

Quill stood off and brushed the wrinkles in her dress, adjusting herself once more. Labramon had given a small quip about it being much too neat and how a little dirt could never hurt. It even compared her to a preening Kokatorimon. Of course, Quill had no idea what that was and only gave a small deadpan stare before it had grinned back.

It was then that Labramon went alert, sensing something. Its whole demeanor changed to one of rapt attention with a defensive pose aimed for attack. Quill turned in the direction watching one of the others dive down to the ground with its digimon before a geyser of dirt spewed from the earth. Quill looked at the large insect emerge and found herself simply tracing its size. She became filled with a mix emotion of fear and excitement. Her jaw dropped as she followed the fight with attentive eyes, watching the attacks bounce and collide with the large insect. She watched the rain of sparks descend downward. The quality streamline of the projections were simply too good. When it had became engulfed in a large cloud,Labramon had dashed off into it with Quill in toe.

Isn't it suppose to respond solely to me? She hadn't much time to think, things were happening quickly, but that one fact stuck out to her: Labramon moved of its own accordance. Had this been a tutorial? If so, Quill would put a complaint.

"Retri bark!" She had heard the attack from Labramon and covered her ears as the wind from the attack whipped the dress around her legs. In the darkened cloud, she couldn’t see much of anything. The form of her digimon was lost to her and she silently wondered if running into the cloud had been the best option.

"Hell yes!" Veemon cried out on seeing how he'd cracked his opponent's armour.

"You're not hurt?" Eric called to him. He must have hit his own head pretty hard as well.

"Hey, don't worry about me! I don't get hurt by my own headbutts! Never really got why, but I ain't complaining."

Then the enemy started fighting back. One of the scissor talons went directly towards Eric, who froze up again as when the GeoGreymon hologram had been revealed. "Watch it!!" He could just hear Veemon's voice, before his partner tackled him to the floor. The talon passed over his head, and he could feel the wind moving away from the sharp digits. The sparks mostly fell on Veemon, who still covered the human boy, but a few of them fell on Eric's hands.

"Gah!" he yelled, jerking his hand back towards him.

"Aw, c'mon! It's only a few sparks! Doesn't hurt that much!"

"But... I..." I shouldn't be able to feel that at all... what game causes it's players physical pain?! He looked aside, seeing Silas accidentally analyzing his opponent. After noting the function, he sat back up and looked at the current state of the fight. "Wow, they're all trying different strategies. No cohesion at all." If Eric had thought anyone would listen to him, he'd have suggested using Sing A Song again, followed by everyone else unloading on the weakpoint.

There had to be some way to make the battle easier for the others. He thought about Hawkmon's words - which spoke of some experience - and got an idea. "Hey, try getting it under the jaw. Maybe you'll knock it over." Veemon grinned.

"That I can do!" He ran towards the reeling monster again, using Tapirmon's mist as cover, stopping when he was under it's mouth. "Alright, big and ugly! Vee-Headbutt!" He shouted, launching himself directly upwards.

edited 12th Oct '12 7:11:49 AM by Anura

— Tsukaimon's ears drooped in frustrated disappointment. He'd expected at least one of them to know what he was talking about. The diminutive Digimon gave a huff, and shifted back around on Alistair's shoulder. —

"'Ey palooka."

— The Southerner gave his new partner a wary look over his shoulder. He wondered who Bandai had hired to voice the ill-tempered Digimon. He didn't recognise them, whoever they were. It couldn't have been a child actor though, as Tsukaimon had sounded incredibly life-like, even while being strangled.—

"Yeah?"

"Yoo sum kinda more digivolved huumon?"

— Alistair blinked in confusion. —

"What do you mean?"

—The Digimon goggled at him.—

"Why else would ya be so BIG? Yoo almost EGGED me too!"

—Alistair sighed a little, but then smiled. Right. Of Course they wouldn't be programmed with the knowledge of what humans are. —

"Naaah, we don't digivolve. Ah jus' trained some, ate raight, and hit tha jackpot in genes!"

— Tsukaimon mulled that over for a moment, the fangs of his lower jaw jutting out. —

" Yoo beat uppa buncha littler mons ev'ry day an' absorb deir data? An' got sum kinda... strong core program?"

"Wha- the fff- What?! No! Humans don't work that way either. We're made of flesh and bone, not data. But I guess you could call genes a core program or something like that. I mean, they control what we look like, how well some organs work, and even how we think."

— The diminutive Digimon mulled it over some more, ears cocked in different directions. —

"Huuuh. So yoo beat uppa buncha littler ones ev'ry day an' eat-"

"Uh uh. I don't beat up anything for food. Plus, food's only part of getting healthier, like I said. I have to break down muscle to get stronger, not just pile stuff on. "

— Tsukaimon goggled at him with even greater confusion. —

" Hellfier? Mussil?! Da frag are ya talkin' bout, huumon?"

— Alistair rolled his eyes. This mon was shaping up to be a real elephant's child. But that he could even ask so many varied and non-game specific questions and respond to the Southerner's answers was an amazing feat of programming, not to mention foresight, on the developers' part. Still, this was going to be a long hike... —

" Aaaare we dere yet?"

"No."

" Why not?"

"It's a long way in a big damn jungle, remember?"

"So move fastaaaaah!"

"No. I don't want heat-stroke."

" Daaaaaa OOOOOHH! Now yer jus' makin' excuses! Bleeuuuhhh!"

— Alistair was fairly sure that when he got out of this game, he was going to throttle Weiss. At the least, he would give an earful to whomever was sadistic enough to give what felt like an incredibly realistic simulation of a steaming tropical jungle and its climate. Sweat streamed in rivulets down his face and neck, while he took deep breaths through his nose. He would have taken off his over shirt and stuffed it somewhere, but something refused to let him. A furry, short-tempered, chatty, and very warm something lying flopped onto his shoulder, red tongue lolling from its mouth and wing-ears twitching. For such an animated creature, it certainly seemed lazy. —

" WHEN are we gonna get dere, Slowmon?!"

"When we get there. Call whine-one-one, why don't you? Or better yet, FLY."

" Grrrr..."

— The Digimon smacked his partner's head with a wing-ear, knocking the fedora askew. Alistair's teeth clenched. One more thing. Just try one more thing, you little...

And then, as if like a lovely if mouldering dream materialising, he saw the chateau in the distance. The climate had changed with their exit from the jungle, hot still but mercifully dry, and Alistair could swear that a cool breeze had whipped up. A slow smile worked its way up on his face to a grin. He adjusted his fedora to a jaunty angle. —

"Well ain't that purdeh. Haaahh!"

— He punched out with his left arm, nearly unseating the suddenly alert Tsukaimon, whose wing-ears began beating in excitement, fangs bared in a malicious expression. —

"Told ya we'd get dere! Time we gots us a piece-a-da action! Nyehhhh-heh-heh-heh-heh!"

"Yeah, let's clean them out! CHAAAARR-wait."

— He was half-way through lunging forwards when he noticed the state two of his fellow players were in. Tsukaimon leapt off Alistair's shoulder speeding onward for a few meters, before he noticed that his Tamer wasn't following. The Digimon proceeded to puff himself up in impatient annoyance. —

"Hey, Joel, Olivia, you two alright? You look like yoah about to keel over."

edited 14th Oct '12 2:09:42 PM by Colonial1.1

Lucas whistled a low, peaceful tune as they took what was, to him, a short walk.

"You gonna do that all day? It's starting to get on my nerves."

Lucas hummed for a second and tilted his head.

"I might."

He responded before resuming his whistling.

A good forty minutes later, they came into sight of their destination.

"Nice looking place."

It is pretty cool, but I ain't looking forward to having to fix it up.

"Won't be able to tell how bad it is till we get closer."

Lucas leaned against a tree and started to address the other people he was with.

"Anybody got binoculars? Might be a good idea to see whats waiting ahead of us."

Ayako looked at the other players with a small degree of confusion. She did not feel tired at all; there was not even a bead of sweat on her brow. Then a thought struck her. They thought they were physically in this world, and thus were making themselves tired. She smiled. Now that they had entered the game...no, the Digital World, they were just data. You didn't get tired or sleepy in the Digital World unless you convinced yourself you were tired. Neither game characters or data got tired from moving long distances. She decided not to share this information with them yet. They did not seem like they would enjoy receiving this information now.

"Yeah...we'll take a short break."

Renamon stood alert, keeping an eye out for potential threats as the others caught up or took a break. She still had more questions, but they could wait. According to Ayako, she was supposed to work together with her Human, her Tamer. So for now, Renamon would see what her Tamer planned for them to do.

Upon hearing Lucas' words, Ayako started searching her bag. She was unsure of what items she'd been allowed to take with her, but if she was lucky...

"Ah!"

The Japanese girl took out a top-modern camera and a zoom lens attachment. It wasn't Ayako's best telescopic lens, as she hadn't thought she'd need it for the Beta Testing, but it was better than nothing.

"It's maybe not binoculars, but it's almost the next best thing."

She brought the camera up to her eyes and started studying the area around the mansion with her zoom maxed out.

"It looks like the mansion is surrounded by some kind of hedge labyrinth. And there's also a moat around the building when we finally get through the maze."

"So, it is not easily accessible, then."

Lords…

Olivia did not respond immediately, so focused on getting her breathing back under control that she had not even realized Alistair had spoken up. For a few seconds, the only sound to come out of the young woman’s mouth was a low, ragged wheeze; gradually, however, the noise died down, and with her breath normal once more she was able to straighten up.

“I’m fine,” she said, though there was a tightness to her voice that had less to do with irritation at this narrowly-averted attack than it did with the attack itself. “Just needed to catch my breath, that’s all.”

Truth be told, she was not fine—the hot, muggy air in this godforsaken jungle really did not agree with Olivia’s lungs, to say nothing of all the other crud that was probably floating around in there as well, and being forced to exert herself like she had been doing for the last hour or so didn’t help matters at all. Not that she would admit that, of course; the day that Olivia Tantalos let her guard down and showed weakness in front of people who were barely more than perfect strangers would be the day that hell froze over and pigs took to the skies on demonic wings.

I’ll just have to find someplace private where I can take my meds without having to worry about prying eyes…

Syakomon, for his part, had begun rocking himself from side to side in an attempt to flip himself back into an upright position. After a few seconds of this he succeeded, flipping over to land on his lower shell; as soon as he did so the clam cracked open half an inch and spat out a clod of dirt and grass.

“Yuck!” he said, his tone conveying the disgust that his rigid and inflexible shell could not. “Th-that was nasty.”

A short distance from the beta-testers, the damp loam of the forest floor was disturbed as something with sharp claws, long ears and filthy grey fur silently dug its way out of the ground. Eyes like sinister rubies examined the players and their partners, going wide in surprise as their owner realized just who this eclectic group of intruders must be; and while it had no idea what the big, weird-looking critters accompanying the Rookies were, it wasn’t sure that it wanted to stick around and find out.

“Dis ain’t good,” the burrowing mammal muttered to itself. “Better warn de others…”

And with those whispered words, the Gazimon sank back into its hole and was gone…

Knights…

This time, Kotemon’s attack met with more success; the reptilian kendo practitioner’s electrified fists struck the arm that Rikuwagamon was using to cover its head wound at the wrist, and the colossal Champion let out a shrill screech of surprise as its limb spasmed from the blow, leaving the wound exposed for a brief instant. At the same time, Lunamon’s Tear Shot attack struck it in the back; apart from getting the beetle’s thick and heavily-armoured wing cases wet, however, the ball of water did no visible damage.

Still, this two-pronged attack made for an excellent distraction; jolted by the Thunder Kote technique and staggered—if only briefly—by Lunamon’s own contribution, Rikuwagamon failed to see Veemon coming until it was too late. The blue reptile slammed headfirst into the gargantuan bug’s jaw, knocking its head back and causing it to grunt in pain; a cracking sound came from the beast’s maw a moment later, and a few of its dagger-like teeth promptly fell out. He did not manage to knock the monstrous insect over, but the impact had clearly winded Rikuwagamon for the beast was forced to use its other three arms to prop itself up, leaving the soft underbelly exposed as it tried to throw off its daze.

Then Labramon let out its Retri Bark, and the monstrous antlion howled in agony as the supersonic waves played havoc on whatever organs allowed it to hear. It clutched at the sides of its head with its two upper hands, as if trying to block out the doglike Rookie’s awful cacophony, and Hawkmon promptly took advantage of Rikuwagamon’s distraction.

“Feather Strike!” he called out once more, hurling that pinion towards the monster for a second time; again it spun through the air, whirling and whining like a red-and-yellow buzz saw, and again it buzzed harshly as it struck the wound in Rikuwagamon’s head.

“Keep at it, my comrades!” the avian Rookie called as he caught the feather. “We are wearing the foe down.”

He didn’t have long to celebrate, however, for at that moment Rikuwagamon retaliated. The giant beetle closed its mouth, gurgling softly as its thorax suddenly swelled up like a balloon for a split-second; then those jaws opened impossibly wide, and the dusky brown insect vomited up a fizzing ball of noxious green phlegm. It flew through the air on an arc like some sort of very disgusting grenade and exploded as it hit the ground, covering Labramon, Veemon and Hawkmon with a stinging, burning gunge that quickly began to harden and solidify like organic cement; in seconds they would be completely immobilized.

Some of the splatter flew towards the human players hidden within the cloud as well, and Silas was forced to throw an arm up in front of his face to protect himself from Rikuwagamon’s bile. The young man hissed as the filthy green sludge struck his hand and sleeve, his fingers clenching in pain; son of a bitch, but that burned! He tried to shake his arm, to get the disgusting crud off of him, but it clung tightly to his flesh and clothing like glue; in seconds it had solidified, trapping his arm in that position.

“Well, this is just great,” the curly-haired Canadian growled.

Shai stood completely still. Her mind was in overdrive, but focused on one thing and one thing only: finding a way to defeat the antlion Digimon. She figured that its main weakness was that it could not attack all of the players' Digimon at once... As was demonstrated when it attacked three of them, leaving Kotemon, Tapirmon, Lalamon and her own partner free to attack it.
She noticed the gunge coming her way and did the first thing that came to her mind, which was springing away. She rolled when she hit the ground.
Meanwhile, Lunamon saw her chance when Rikuwagamon tilted itself. She launched herself at it, covering her claws with darkness. "Lunar Claw!"

It took a couple seconds for Joel to register Alistair's question. He was pretty focused on the mansion right now, squinting as hard as he could to get a better idea of what they were dealing with. He was hoping to spot a guard patrol or something, a wandering monster at the very least, but he was having no such luck. For a moment, he wondered if their anonymous messenger wasn't just stringing them along. This place looked abandoned, little more than a decrepit shack that served as a pointless objective to waste the group's time and energy.

But that sort of thinking didn't get anyone anywhere. This was a game, after all, and he really doubted that Bandai would have the stones to pull that kind of thing right off the bat. He glanced away from the distant sight of the mansion and towards Al, a look of momentary confusion on his face. "Eh?" He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Oh, yeah. Like Olly said, just need to rest up. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really the hiking type." Now that he thought about it, Al didn't look tired either. Not that surprising, seeing as how the guy was built like a brick shithouse. That didn't account for Ayako's seeming lack of exhaustion. Maybe it was a mental thing, he mused. Like, you only got tired if you thought you were supposed to be tired. That sounded kinda dumb, though. Just a little too Matrix-y.

Speaking of Ayako, it looked like she was trying to get a better look at the manor with a camera she'd pulled out. He guessed a few more things than just clothes had transferred over here. Would've been good to know about that beforehand. A switchblade or something would've been nice right about now. Not that he ever expected to use something like that in the game, but just having it be there would be a small comfort for him. Joel wasn't one of those weirdos who kept a small stockpile of shitty fleamarket blades 'just in case', but there was a certain sense of security that came with being armed, even lightly. Though he doubted anything commercially available would be of much use here, if that crazy-ass T-rex hologram they'd seen back in the auditorium was any indication.

What the hell was he thinking about this for, anyway? He was trying to make friends here, not slit their throats. Best to get his mind off of this weapon talk. Turning away from Al, he looked towards Ayako again, gazing just slightly over her shoulder."What do we need a camera for when we've got two eyes in the sky right here?" He said, gesturing towards his partner Digimon, who was still clumsily hovering above the group, and to Al's own weird purple lump of a 'mon. "I say we just send the flyers over to scope the place out, then we storm the castle. We'll get a more detailed look at the joint, and they might just take out a couple guards while they're in there." He had to admit, this definitely wasn't one of his better ideas. No sense in not putting it out there, though, stupid-sounding though it was.

Demi Devimon, for his part, didn't object. Or say much of anything on the subject, really. He made a slight grimace at the suggestion, like he'd just tasted a bit of spoiled food, but gave a small nod at the idea just the same. He didn't like this plan, that much was for certain. But Joel was, for the time being, his master and there were much more foolish plans out there. Besides, this was how you made your way up in the world, trading favors for favors. Had to gather your gear before you could climb the mountain, and he wanted to be well-prepared for when he reached the top. Ambitions though he was, he was nothing if not patient.

William was soon engulfed inside a large cloud before he could see Kotemon land the attack. He couldn't see through the thick cloud and began to panic. Anyone in the cloud would hear his rapid breaths. In. Out. In. Out. Just then, he felt a burning sensation on his foot. Some of the bile got onto his foot. It burned. William screamed out a shrilling sound. He tried to get the goo off, but he felt something clinging onto his foot... The goo hardening. He tried to run, but he didn't know about the goo's hardening properties, so he fell. There was a nice SNAP sound near his ankle.

"KOTEMON!" William shouted out, unsure if the Digimon could hear them in the cloud. Kotemon, meanwhile, leaped up with Lunamon. A combination attack was good, right? "FIRE MEN!" Kotemon said. Its mask didn't light on fire, but instead, it was the bamboo sword it was carrying. Kotemon timed the attack with Lunamon's own attack.

Renamon studied her Tamer as Ayako packed away her camera.

"Well, we could do that. But we might need them more while getting through the labyrinth. And they might need us, since we can help them evolve."

Renamon perked up at this. What was that?

"Besides...I don't feel too great about just sitting around here waiting for scouts. I'm gonna go test my luck in the labyrinth. Who's with me?"

The girl grinned, ready to leave.

—Alistair watched Olivia for a moment, eyebrow raised. It’d take more than being tired to that to a person. Come to think of it, she does look kinda peaky.

What puzzled him more was that he, Olivia, and Joel even experienced physical wear and tear in this game. A fatigue/energy bar was one thing, but making a player feel that fatigue (deliberately) was entirely new. The programming required for that small detail must have been incredibly complex.

Nonetheless, he nodded, and turned to Joel with smirk. —

“Somethin’ tells meh ya might need some training yoahself to get around this place. Mebbe I’ll take ya for a jog.”

—He turned back to the distant manse, pointing.—

“Tsukaimon. Git ovah theah, look through tha windows, then come back an’ tell what ya saw.”

—The blue-and-white beast paused to stare at Alistair, gave a mid-air nod, then with a flap of his wings, raced towards the mansion. —

“ Yoo got it!”

— The Southerner was about to sit back for a while, when Ayako spoke up. He grinned in response. —

“Are you kiddin’? Ah’ve been ready to git ovah there since Ah saw it!”

— He started forward, then looked back over his shoulder at the other three. —

“If ya’ll are readeh, then we move out.”

edited 28th Oct '12 10:48:38 PM by Colonial1.1

Joel turned back to Al, a small smile on his face. He gave a small, slightly artificial, chuckle. "Thanks for the offer, big guy. Gonna have to take you up on that eventually, but I think I'm set for now." It was a little difficult to keep up a mask of confidence around these people. Or around anyone, for that matter. Usually it wasn't much of a problem, since when he actually dared to pull off one of his little 'cons', if they could even be called that, his interaction with the mark was fairly limited. A few honeyed words and a trusting glance were usually enough to draw in the more gullible folks, but it took a bit more than that to get all social.

Come to think of it, his dad was just about the only person he was really comfortable talking to. Made sense, he saw the guy every day, he was family. As one could extrapolate, he wasn't especially popular at school either, but that was a whole different kettle of fish and he didn't feel like ruminating on that right now. Christ in a sidecar, what was wrong with him today? If he kept rambling to himself like this, he was gonna get left in the dust before you could say the word 'go'. Should've gotten more sleep before coming here, he tended to get all weird and faux-philosophical when he was sleep-depped. Fuckin' jet-lag.

Bringing his focus back to reality, he saw Al's partner taking flight towards the manor below. Well, even if his little plan hadn't flown over, it was good to see someone taking the initiative. Someone who wasn't completely irritating, anyway. He could've sent in his own 'mon along with him, but he doubted that would accomplish much more than supplying a second, slightly more unsettling opinion on whatever the hell was inside. Besides, he didn't quite like the idea of getting caught unarmed without his partner to save his ass. He doubted they'd actually be ambushed on their way down or anything, but he felt like sticking with his gut on this one and his gut told him to watch his fuckin' back here.

He turned on his heel towards Ayako and Al, who had already taken it upon themselves to check out the dilapidated mansion. What was with all the turning today? Christ, he was starting to turn into Shai. He mulled it over for a moment, silently weighing the pros and cons before following behind the two more energetic teens. "Right behind ya, Gomer." He mumbled to himself, waving over Demidevimon, who quickly swooped above his master and hovered just above his shoulder. He was still a little sore from the hike, but he could definitely handle a little more walking. He assumed the others would take care of the heavy lifting for him, and there was no way in hell he was staying behind with Miss Wheezy and Sketchy Slim.

Okay, maybe those weren't the best nicknames. Whatever, it wasn't a huge deal.

Quill watched the green sludge come toward her in slow motion and yet she found herself paralyzed. She simply watched it fly in a large arc before the pulses in her brain reacted in a sudden jerky way and she threw her hand up to cover her face. Perhaps it had been sheer bad luck, but the angle of the trajectory had been absolutely perfectly aimed. Perfect that in that it had hit her arm to her mouth, covering both the wrist and lower face before sealing both body parts together tighter than envelope glue and pinning it firmly in place.

As before, she had no luxury of a painless experience, her screams muffled under her arm. Small splatters decorated her leg, burning through it and working like concrete to harden anything in reach.

She watched helplessly as the wind moved again, whipping the sand like whips against her body as she watched the other Digimon go down from the attack. She could only see though partings in the cloud, every scene like a flickering old movie.

She saw her own Labramon go down, tossed away like a rag as it became sealed to the sand. Its back paw had taken the same blow and it was fighting against it, clawing at it. She wanted to scream out and when tried only found that she swallowed them back inside herself. She stomped her free leg, visibly upset that something had just spit up its inner contents on her. ‘There will never be enough baths to fully erase this memory from mind.’ She shuddered as she thought to herself. To distant the possible oncoming panic, She breathed in deeply. There had to be a way to get rid of this thing. It had to have a weakness.

That’s when it came to her suddenly. What if what happened to her, happened to it? Could it even solidify itself? Quill had no idea how Digimon worked but it seemed if it had frozen her in place, it could do it to itself.

But how could she trick it? There were no mirrors around. Would a mad chase solve the problem? Could she confuse it? She felt like she was grasping at straws but it better than nothing. She found herself stumbling around in the cloud, looking for another to tell her plan too. She reached out her free hand to find something (or someone) to grab a hold.

Of course communicating it would be an entirely different matter, especially effectively.

Eric saw the sludge flying in his direction. There was enough adrenaline in his system now to stop him from freezing up this time; he jumped back a few times to try and get clear. Nonetheless, some drops of the stuff fell on his clothes, quickly burning holes in them. He moved to rip one off his front, but stopped when he saw how it had stuck to him; he might end up ripping his own flesh off.

He looked around instead for his partner, who had fared considerably worse. He was almost completely covered in the stuff, leaving only his head exposed. The grunts of effort showed that he was trying to break out. Eric grabbed his Digivice and went looking for a list of known attacks. The result was disappointing; he could only use "Vee-Headbutt" and "Vee-Punch", neither of which were usable right now. And average strength might not be enough to break out on his own.

"Does this count as a status effect?" He wondered out loud. He went back to the Digivice and brought up "current status".

Lucas shrugged in response to Ayako's statement.

"I don't wanna spend to much time here standing around either, but I ain't exactly keen on getting lost in a maze."

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen.

"I got some paper and a pen here, maybe we should use your camera to try and map out a route through the maze before we go in."

Impmon jumped down from his shoulder and peered in the direction of the Manor.

" I could just burn the maze down."

"This is going to be our place, you know. I don't want to have too much of it destroyed before hand."

edited 4th Nov '12 5:50:34 PM by luckybreak91

Tapirmon finished her charge mouth agape. She hit Haruka with her hand for a second, clearly unable to speak. Haruka nodded at her Digimon, though wary of the cloud stepping back. "Let's get out of here. We've been gone long enough. The other's need us."

The pair stayed outside the cloud Haruka movely far more cautiously than nessecary. Tapirmon's eye reflected more and more annoyances as Haruka slowly made her way back to the others until she lost patience and zipped ahead straight in front of Rikukawagamon. " VIRUS DELETE! she cried out releasing a shot of code at the bug. " I'm not afraid of you you little Virus." she said defiantly.

Haruka was in a state of panic. "Tapirmon! Don't do this Tapirmon. You could get hurt." I may be silly calling out at computer data... But I can't just ignore the risk and danger for her. she thought.

Knights…

Eric’s display revealed a rotating wireframe image of Veemon; a small icon flickered above this schematic, depicting a no-crossing sign.

“Current status: Immobilized,” the digivice intoned. “Digimon afflicted with this condition suffer from reduced mobility and cannot perform any actions requiring movement, such as direct physical attacks, until the status wears off. A successful physical resistance check on the afflicted Digimon’s part can negate this condition, and it can also be removed by using a RESTORE DISK or one of several healing techniques.”

At that very moment, Veemon would succeed in breaking free of his prison. Shards of solidified organic cement went flying every which way, pelting Hawkmon and Labramon for a few moments but otherwise not harming them.

“Physical resistance check successful,” Eric’s digivice said unnecessarily as the Immobilized icon vanished. A second later Hawkmon also managed to shatter the sludge containing him, albeit with more difficulty than Veemon had; he took no other action at the moment, panting as he recovered his strength.

Meanwhile, Rikuwagamon shrieked as the two attacks connected simultaneously with its underside and left a charred, X-shaped scar on its chitin. Its lower pair of arms lashed out to swat Lunamon and Kotemon away, but they did so with less energy than before; it seemed like the giant Champion was finally beginning to tire. Then Tapirmon blasted it with Virus Delete, further weakening the beast, and this time it did not even manage to bat her away.

Silas started as someone grabbed hold of his still-trapped arm, cocking a fist back to punch whatever assailant might come stumbling out of the acrid smoke. When he saw who it was, however, his eyes widened—it was the blue-haired girl, Aquilla, and she looked even worse off than he was. Her hand had been sealed to her mouth by the sludge, and judging from her expression she too had found the experience quite painful; could she even breathe?

He glanced at his own arm then, where her fingers were wrapped around the gunk on his sleeve; thank goodness that the sludge had already solidified before she grabbed him, or they might have been stuck together. A pity he wasn’t as strong as their Digimon partners were, or he might have been able to break it.

A frown came to his face then. He wasn’t strong enough to break free alone…but if he had help…

“I have an idea,” he said to Quill. “See how my arm is bent? Try to pull it so that it straightens out, it might break the sludge. If that works, I’ll help you get your mouth free.”

As Tsukaimon took to the air and began to fly over the maze, he would suddenly find himself colliding with an unseen force; a shimmering screen of energy, like some sort of force field, flickered into existence before him for a brief instant, and while it faded away before he could have a good look at it this barrier seemed to encompass the entirety of the mansion and its surrounding grounds.

Then a voice would ghost through the purple Rookie’s ears, one whose cultured tones and suave base bespoke something ancient and powerful. ”Ira.”

And just like that the barrier seemed to vanish, allowing him through. Once he reached the manor proper, Tsukaimon would find that most of the windows were boarded up too thoroughly to see through, and many of those that weren’t had thick, heavy drapes drawn which made it all but impossible to get a look at the mansion’s interior. What few windows didn’t fit these criteria offered little more than glimpses of drawing rooms, studies and other chambers that you would expect to find in such a place; most of these contained furniture hidden under filthy white sheets, and a thick layer of dust coated the walls and floors.

Back with the others, Olivia wearily picked up Syakomon and followed her fellow players as they approached the maze. Oh, wouldn’t this be fun; after an exhausting hour-long slog through the jungle, now they’d have to spend God alone knows how long trying to find their way through this damned labyrinth before they could even get to the front door. And given how big the manor looked, it was all but certain that they would have to spend even more time traipsing up and down its musty halls in order to hunt down all those—what were they again? Gazimon—so that they could complete the quest. And of course, she was the only one here forced to carry her partner all the way; everyone else’s Digimon could walk or fly in some way, was it really too much to ask that Syakomon be able to hop or something?

“I am really starting to hate this game,” she muttered under her breath.

No sooner had she said this than they had reached the entrance to the hedge maze—and no sooner had they reached the entrance than the nearest stretch of hedge suddenly sank into the ground with a whoosh. Then the stretch of hedge beyond that did the same, and the one after that, and so on, until a perfectly straight, fifteen-foot wide corridor which ran from the entrance all the way to the bridge which spanned the moat separating the manor from the rest of the surrounding landscape.

Olivia blinked in surprise.

Half a dozen Gazimon were scattered along this long path, looking just as confused as she was; obviously they had been stationed throughout the maze, waiting to ambush unsuspecting travellers at key points. Equally obvious was the fact that they had not expected the walls which made up the maze to just vanish like that.

The nearest Gazimon glanced towards the group then, and its ears drooped. ”Aw, shoot.”

edited 12th Nov '12 9:47:23 AM by SullenFrog

Ayako stopped dead in her tracks as the maze suddenly resolved itself in front of her eyes. Renamon stopped next to her, also studying the strange phenomenon.

"...that makes things a little bit easier."

For a moment, she wondered if this was perhaps a part of the Gazimon's plan. To lull them into a false sense of security and then attack them. But they looked perhaps the most confused about what was happening.

"Heh, that's all right, then."

Ayako grinned and caught Renamon's eye.

"The quest said to get rid of all the Gazimon. So let's get started!"

The Renamon wondered for a moment why her Human was so quick to do as the curious message had said, but on the other hand she wouldn't object to getting rid of these pests. The Digimon nodded and turned towards the Gazimon, assuming a fighting stance.

Lucas observed what just happened, smiled, nodded to himself, and suddenly began walking to the Gazimon. Impmon, surprised at the shift from leaning on a tree to walking, fell on the floor. As he picked himself up, he watched in curiosity what Lucas was doing.

Lucas quickly found himself in the midpoint between his comrades and the Gazimon.

"I, am Lucas, and these are my friends. I just felt I should warn you not to try and fight us, you're gonna lose."

Veemon pulled himself out of the mon-shaped hole he'd left in the sludge, draging several more shards up with him, and fell onto one knee. "Ha... Th's... Not go'a... Ha... Hold me..." he manged to get out, before slowly walking back towards the fight.

"No." Veemon turned towards Eric, who was running towards him. "You've done enough already, and you seriously paid for it. You need to get your strength back."

"But I..."

"It's on it's last legs too. The others are more than a match for it in it's current state."

Veemon seemed to get the message, and fell into a sitting position. Looking up at his Tamer, he pouted. "It's still not fair that they get all the fun."

"I wouldn't say that they did. You got in some very solid hits on it." As Veemon grinned at the praise, Eric reflected on his partner's performance. He had certainly been surprisingly effective for someone with all average stats. He didn't often bother with characters like that in games because he usually found it more effective to press an advantage, or have weaknesses covered up by teammates. Indeed, the only point of having such a character in a team was to fill in for a specialist where one was missing; a patch in the strategy, as it were.

Well, if they needed any of that, Veemon was right about having some fight left in him. He went back to closely watching the fight, getting any information he could.

— When Tsukaimon slammed into the invisible barrier, he bounced off it, flailing helplessly in the air. He didn't even get to squeak in surprise, though, because the voice spoke. The Digimon heard it, a word of power. A word some called unholy. It sent shivers throughout his code, deep into his very core. In that moment his vision flared red, and a moment later it was clear again. Tsukaimon shook himself, dazedly fluttering forward. To his further surprise, the barrier was down.—

"Wut da... ooookeeeeyy."

— He flapped onward with greater confidence, soaring over hedge maze and past the manse's windows. He'd expected plenty of ugly grey-furred faces peering out (after all, the message had said there was an infestation), but was disappointed to find only the dusty interior. Tsukaimon swept back over the maze... Only to find that it wasn't a maze anymore so much as a hedged path filled with fuzzy grey targets.

Back on the ground, Alistair rubbed his hands together in anticipation, a grin widening on his face. He cracked knuckles, looking from one Gazimon to another. —

"Well well well, our first enemies of the campaign. Time we got some action in. TSUKAIMON! Give 'em death from above!"

—He jabbed a finger at the front most mon, holding his hat in place with his other hand.

" Yoo got it, bawss!"

—The fanged messenger pointed himself towards the designated target, puffed himself up, and...—

Bad Message!

— A small torrent of screeching static-filled light screamed from Tsukaimon's maw towards the Gazimon at lightning speed. —