Fanfic / Digimon Adventure: Side Order

Digimon Adventure: Side Order is a crossover fanfiction between Digimon and Splatoon, taking place in the original Digimon Adventure (with a focus on the cast of 02) continuity during the events of Side Order, written by Candescence, who also is the author of Inky Future.

The Octoling known as Eight wakes up in a strange, bleached version of Inkopolis Square, alongside Pearl from Off The Hook, who is now a drone for some reason. But before they can get their bearings, they're approached by a strange creature calling herself Gatomon, who claims to be a Digimon, which also causes Eight to discover that she has a device which Gatomon claims to be her partner's Digivice. They decide to join forces and figure out what's going on.

Complicating things is the fact that when Pearl manifests a weapon for Eight to defend herself, she also summons another Digimon, Veemon (who turns out to be Pearl's Digimon partner), who tells Gatomon that it's been 12,000 years, and that all the human Digidestined are long dead, something she is quick to reject. They also quickly meet Acht, a sanitized Octoling who is partnered with Armadillomon, and as they scale the mysterious tower that seems to be the source of everything going on, Marina turns out to be partnered with Wormmon, and both of whom are under the control of a mysterious entity called Order, whom seeks to turn real world into a colorless world of pure order.

When Gennai appears and confirms to Gatomon that what Veemon told her is true, and that her former partner, Kari, is long dead? She does not take it well.

With a new generation of Digidestined gathered, one different but at the same time similar to the last, it's up to Eight and Gatomon to fight through the Spire of Order to save the world. But can Eight and Gatomon overcome the latter's inability to get over losing her previous partner?

Also available on Sufficient Velocity and Spacebattles.

Tropes below will include spoilers for both the Digimon Adventure continuity and Side Order.

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Digimon Adventure: Side Order contains examples of:

• Arc Number: Played for Laughs. Eight, a number shared between both of Gatomon's Digidestined due to a weird coincidence - Kari became the eight Digidestined at the age of eight, while the number is in Eight's name, which in itself was purely by chance due to being registered as the Deepsea Metro's 10,008th registered test subject and just shortened to Agent 8 by Captain Cuttlefish at the time. Gatomon is baffled, Eight just finds the connection hilarious.
• Ascended Extra: Agent 4 didn't appear in Side Order, only being mentioned as having been hired by Marina to handle Memverse security, and their data was used to create the Parallel Canon boss fight. This story's Agent 4 (aka Sarah), on the other hand, was brainwashed like Marina was, and is the main adversary of chapter 2.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Sarah is notably chubby and rather full-figured.
• Big Fun: Sarah is cheerful and outgoing Bunny-Ears Lawyer, but is also notably chubby for genetic reasons (though this caused her to have a depressive episode for a time).
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Marina is possessed by Order, with Wormmon (evolved into Stingmon) fighting alongside Marina Agitando.
  • Sarah and Hawkmon also end up being antagonists in chapter 2 as part of the Parallel Canon fight, with Eight making an even more explicit effort to try and free them from mind control rather than splat them.
  • As well, Patamon/Angemon also suffered this fate, becoming effectively Order's bodyguard, which is not good news for obvious reasons. The heroes have to beat him down until he reverts back to Patamon in order to fix him, though exposure to a Digivice's light is enough to restrain him and allow him to temporarily regain his senses.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sarah Oakley is Agent 4 for a good reason. She's a free-spirited goofball, but she's also a polymath, an excellent combatant and is terrifying shot with anything that has an arc and can pin-point locate the origin of a sound, as shown in a flashback where she is capable of locating Eight in a training match and via her voice and lands a Splat Bomb right on her head. It's plainly obvious that she doesn't give Eight more of a challenge as Parallel Canon because she is actively Fighting from the Inside.
  Eight: She’s inquisitive, surprisingly smart and a polymath, kind, determined, loyal, free-spirited… She’s also kind of a ditz, overly excitable, careless at times, a goofball, a coddamn pervert and has the attention span of a goldfish, but still.
• Call-Back:
  • Gatomon lost her tail ring. Again.
  • Veemon reminds Gatomon that this isn't the first time she's been temporarily partnered with someone else while Kari is out of commission, to help her be more comfortable with working with Eight. Though it quickly turns out this is not temporary.
  • With the emergence of Order, Eight flatly notes that this is the second time a rogue AI has threatened the whole world, with the first being Commander Tartar from Octo Expansion.
  • While discussing the mortality of humans, Gatomon notes that she's seen humans die before, such as Yukio Oikawa's sacrifice at the end of 02.
  • When Eight asks what advice Gatomon could provide on being a new Digidestined, Gatomon replies "try not to get turned into a keychain by a insane clown", referencing the fight against Piedmon, without giving any further context. Eight is understandably very confused.
  • In a flashback, Sarah teases Eight about the fact that during the Great Turf War, the Great Octoweapons were defeated not because of anything the Inklings did but because the Octarians carelessly unplugged a power cord. Eight admits that it was not Octo-kind's finest moment.
• Cardboard Prison: In a flashback, Rachel complains that a snowglobe is clearly not a good prison for DJ Octavio, since he keeps escaping.
• Chubby Chaser: Eight is attracted to Sarah, who is notably plus-sized.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Parallel Canon fight is harder than it is in Side Order, partly because 1) each of the drones has their own Hawkmon copy, 2) they all start arriving on the battlefield simultaneously, and 3) Sarah is able to evolve Hawkmon to Aquilamon.
• Dub Name Change: The author reverts some Digimon name changes while keeping others on a case-by-case basis, treating all of the localized human character names as nicknames and keeping most Digimon names localized to keep things relatively consistent with the localized Splatoon names. However, some other names and terminology are reverted, such as "Digimental" (instead of "Digi-Egg"), and "Yggdrasil" (instead of "King Drasil", as the author believes the latter muddles the Norse mythology reference that the entire character is built around). This is played with in terms of evolution levels, and it's implied that both sets of names for evolution exist in-universe and not even the previous generation of Digidestined could agree on them.
• Foreshadowing: Eight discovers she's in possession of both the Digimental of Light and the Digimental of Hope. This hints that Patamon is her second partner, and that she bears both the Crests of Hope and Light, not just the latter.
• Generation Xerox: Discussed and downplayed. The new generation of Digidestined share some traits from their 02 predecessors, but are still notably distinct in their own ways, as pointed out by Hawkmon, who acknowledges Sarah's similarities to Yolei but likes Sarah as her own person. This also causes Marina to briefly angst about the possibility that she may have turned into a villain akin to the Digimon Emperor like Ken did if she had never heard the Calamari Inkantation and thus never had a Heel–Face Turn, though her friends assure her that, outside of being infected by a Dark Seed, she's too kind a soul for such a thing to happen.
• Happy Ending Override: Gatomon bitterly notes that a lot of what the Digidestined fought for was ultimately rendered meaningless by the apocalypse that wiped out humanity and almost completely destroyed the Digital World in the process.
• Have You Seen My God?: Homeostasis is notably missing (and possibly destroyed), as confirmed by Gennai, and Yggdrasil was destroyed by the previous generation of Digidestined at some point due to its Knight Templar tendencies. O.R.C.A. may have taken over both their roles.
• Heroic BSoD: Gatomon goes into a panic and flees when she realizes that Veemon and Gennai are telling the truth and that it's really been 12,000 years, meaning none of the human Digidestined are alive anymore. It takes Eight sitting down and talking with her to at least help her partially recover, and even then she still has a ways to go before she can fully get over losing Kari.
• Hero of Another Story: Turns out Return of the Mammalians is happening in the meantime, as revealed by Palmon when Eight activates Callie's Palette, and it turns out Agent 3, the Captain, both of the Squid Sisters and Deep Cut are all Digidestined as well. Also, O.R.C.A. has been handing out Digivices and partners. By the time the first arc of Side Order is finished, the Splatoon have already defeated Mr. Grizz and would've dived into the Memverse to help were it not for Eight and co. turning the tide against Order.
• The Mourning After: A more platonic variation. Gatomon still has issues getting over the fact that Kari is gone. She logically accepts that Kari is dead and that she won't see her again, but emotionally she still has issues, which is implied to likely cause problems for her and Eight's partnership. This is implied to mostly be caused by Gatomon's more complicated backstory (which includes some notable abandonment issues, her time as Myotismon's minion and previous trauma from losing a close friend) compared to the other Digimon partners, who also mourn their former partners but are more willing to move on. Her issues are enough of a problem that, in a stressful and tense situation, Gatomon calls Eight "Kari" and puts herself in a position that costs them a run by acting too hastily in an attempt to save Eight while also forgetting that Eight isn't as helpless in an active combat situation as Kari is, though Eight doesn't blame for her it.
• Named by the Adaptation: As typical of many Splatoon fics featuring the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Agent 4 is Sarah Oakley, Agent 3/the Captain's name is Rachel Milton, and the new Agent 3 is Max Engeld.
• Nightmare Sequence: Gatomon takes a nap by herself after a run gone wrong, causing her to have a nightmare reliving her time as Myotismon's minion and being physically abused by him, while he taunts her about losing Kari. However, the nightmare is ended when the Calamari Inkantation plays (caused by Eight playing it in reality) and lights representing the Squid Sisters appear, driving off Myotismon and freeing Plotmon from her chains.
• Nosebleed: This happens to Eight when she's checking out Sarah's posterior, much to everyone else's amusement. Gennai is quick to hand her a tissue.
• Not Me This Time: When the events of Return of the Mammalians are explained by Palmon, Sarah is surprised that DJ Octavio isn't the culprit this time around.
• Ocular Gushers: Palmon creates these when Gatomon asks her how she's coping with losing Mimi, surprising everyone, and though part of it is genuine, Palmon semi-admits she also wanted to see the reaction to it.
• Pet the Dog: During their brief reunion, DJ Octavio compliments Marina's music, and encourages her to continue the path she's set herself on. He's also appreciative of the work Marina is doing to help the sanitized Octarians.
• Schrödinger's Canon: Digimon Adventure tri., Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning are in this territory as far as this fic is concerned by the author's own admission, both because they haven't seen either of the three and both the time frame and setting of the story (along with taking place long after the epilogue of 02) basically renders them functionally irrelevant. There are some minor references, such as referencing Yggdrasil (along with Gatomon alluding to events that resulted in it becoming a big enough problem that the Digidestined destroyed it) and the Smartphone Digivices, but whether the events of the three above series/movies happened in any real form is very much up in the air.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Pearl and Marina as usual, but when Eight and Sarah reunite, it does not take long for them to start flirting, much to Acht's exasperation.
• Taking Up the Mantle: In Chapter 3, after a brief discussion that is also a meta-nod to the tradition of the protagonist of each Digimon series having a pair of goggles, Gennai reveals that he actually is in possession of the original set of goggles worn by Tai and Davis. Despite notably not being the bearer of the Crest of Courage, Eight decides to wear them anyway, and the group agrees that they suit her perfectly.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While Eight is resisting Order's Greyscaling program, Order demands why she continues to resist "perfect harmony", but Eight lacks the energy to speak. Two disembodied voices, implied to be the spirits of T.K. and Kari, speak for her, dismantling Order's arguments until Eight is able to speak for herself, arguing that Order's "perfect world" would simply be one of statues and would eventually be broken by someone opposing it, either from within or from the outside.
• Weight Woe: As shown in flashbacks, Sarah had a depressive episode after permanently gaining a significant amount of fat due to a genetic trait. Part of how she gets out of this mindset is Eight revealing that she likes Sarah as she is. She's still a bit sensitive about her figure, but she's mostly gotten over it.