You are Marnie, a girl living in the Ark known as the Digital World. For all your life, you've endured a dreary existence in City 87-O, haplessly railing against a skin-deep system that denies you all but the most meaningless human experiences. You've spent years beholding the shining tower in the center of the city, and watched its guardian Digimon circle it endlessly, protecting the portal that leads out of this sunless landscape. Throughout your youth, you never thought you'd actually be able to make your dream a reality. But things have begun to change over the past few months.A chance meeting with a Digimon has plunged you into a hidden world of wonders, filled with wild Digimon, enigmatic Code Crackers, mysterious server partitions that reveal the City's inner workings to you, and underground organizations seeking to bring change to this world. Amidst this danger is the authenticity you've so dearly craved, and you've never been happier. Right now, you're in the middle of a mission to take down your Digimon Nemesis. You and your partner, Phascomon, have broken into the lair of DarkTyrannomon, who has taken over an entire Job District. You've made it past his lieutenants and minions and are mere steps away from facing down your foe one last time and putting an end to his danger. Once that's done, you plan to climb The Tower, defeat its guardian, and finally claim your freedom. The real world awaits.== Thread 1:https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6216903/Thread 2:https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6254189Thread 3:https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6297141/
>Talk about what you've seen here. This district is teeming with life, and you feel rather sad that you're playing a part in destroying it. Astamon wants to lead a Digimon pack of his own, but DarkTyrannomon seems to have succeeded first. You want to hear his take on this whole setup.“Does it hurt when I localize the code?” ”Pfft, not one- Merde! Fine, it does! Don’t pinch!”Astamon winces as you inject a syringe right beneath his skin textures. There’s a thick layer of data composite that fills the gap between his more durable exterior and his vulnerable Digicore, but it’s been eroded by the explosions from the Gatling gun earlier. He needs to sit here and recover again, but you’re on a time limit now. There’s no way you can get him back to his previous state, you just need to move on once he’s capable of fighting again. ”He’s awfully persistent. How am I supposed to get any rest while he’s banging on the door?” He complains, motioning to the partition entrance. Gigadramon is still trying to come in. You feel the strain from the chamber’s heat. You can’t risk shrinking Astamon to a lesser form, because his data volume is all that’s keeping the cyborg out. There’s a chance that the monster won’t be able to fit in here even without Astamon, but you absolutely can’t take a chance. All that’s left to do is slowly wait for the code to repair your partner. In the meantime, you start talking. “What do you think of this place?” He stares at the bulging wall, his grip tightening against his gun. “Astamon?” ”Sorry. Just raring to go. What place? This dingy box?” “No. I mean this partition. It's way more crowded than I expected. It's almost a shame to wreck it."Astamon slowly lowers the gun. He plants the stock against the floor and braces the weapon against his knee, sitting with one leg extended before him. ”I don’t know. I guess. A while in, I started thinking… He has a whole kingdom of his own now. He made good on that claim. And he did it in what, a month?" "Things must move fast in the Network." "They even have different roles, just like the City Digimon. They've got their big meaty dinosaurs, they've got the swarms of bugs, they've got air troops led by a big scary flying bastard. And then there's overlap, like all the flying bugs." You patch his shoulder up, getting a glimpse of the damage in the process. It's disconcerting. Now that he's this much bigger, and isn't coated in a defensive shell, you can see the injuries extending into his body. It's a gaping static void that you need to close up. "What did you mean about it being a shame?" He asks.
"Well, they've carved a place out for themselves. It may be a despot ruling it, but no way he can bully every single Digimon. There were tons of weaklings in here too, they didn't get squashed." "Oh come on! What are you saying? That he's suddenly a good leader? I know his type, there's just too many little guys to terrorize. He'd be stomping down there if he could." "I'm not saying anything! Just that... To those Digimon, it's an actual home, that's definitely a better place to live in than the inside of the system. So it just feels like we're doing something bad by ruining it for them." Astamon thinks it over, then sighs and nods. "I don't like doing dirty work for the City after all. If I had my way, I'd leave them be." "Maybe you can take notes. When you're eventually ruling over territory of your own, is there anything you think you can actually use from here?" "Definitely one thing. However he did it, he made sure every Digimon was doing their part. Look at those Rookies out there, they're awfully hungry. They're all chipping in to fight."By now, Gigadramon has given up on breaking in, giving the two of you some peace and quiet."The annoying thing is, DarkTyrannomon had the luxury of building this all up without getting that it'll just be torn down." He spits. "Did he really think the city would just leave him be? In such a vital area? This was a doomed venture from the start, but he still insisted on it.""It does look like it was supposed to be a long-term home. His little domain.""Once a garden king, always a garden king. It's about having a piece of the pie in the first place, not making sure it sticks around." You tap your foot slowly. "I wonder where all the Digimon are going to go after. There's too many for them to capture." "Ah, whatever. They picked their side." He shrugs. "Did they really? Some of them looked young. This is all they know, isn't it?" "If you've got something to say, spit it out, Marnie, my back is killing me. I've got enough to worry about without all the poking and prodding."
"Okay, fine." You say, rolling your eyes. "You want to be a good boss. But you're treating these guys like problems! There's gonna be hundreds of displaced Digimon lost in the Network once this is over with." "It's not like we can do anything about it." "No, but you're being callous, don't you think? They're going to be paying for their leader's mistakes. I know we're in a rush, and we have a big fight, but I figured you'd at least feel a little bad for them." Phascomon has always been a bit selfish, but you could tell that he had a soft spot for other Digimon. He seems to have gone the other direction ever since he unlocked an infinitely stronger form. The moment he stopped being the underdog, he's been acting different. It's not like it affects you personally, but you don't want him to start going down the same path as the guy you're here to kill. And you're the only person who can even call him out on it. "... I guess not. It's hard to feel bad when they're shooting me a hundred times a second." "I know, I know..." You mumble, placing a reassuring hand on his less injured shoulder. "But they're not just data, or obstacles in our path. We agreed to always do what we had to do. That doesn't mean you have to start hating every enemy just because they're in the way.""It's not easy." He's procured a cigar from somewhere, and is taking a deep puff. You wince as you smell the acrid tang."I thought things would be a breeze once I Digivolved. But even with this much power, it's not easy. That's the problem. I thought that by now, I'd be able to take care of us both. But these guys are still posing big enough threats that we could lose it all at any moment. I can't forgive someone who'd do that to us."
He picks his coat up and examines the damage. Most of the holes have been repaired. There are a few stains that have been permanently seared into the material by Viral attacks, but they'll be fixed when he changes form."But you've got a point. I shouldn't be throwing a fit over a bunch of wimps, or stepping over them like that coglione does. No more losing my cool. That good enough?" "Yeah. And... I know you just want to keep me safe. And you've done a great job so far. So it's not like you're not strong enough. We wouldn't have made it this far with just Porcupamon, y'know?" "Damn right." "Maybe just treat this place as a quick look into the future. One day, you're going to be ruling over a slice of the Digital World like this. If those Digimon didn't care for it at all, they wouldn't be fighting so hard." "I guess it ain't all bad. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll make sure I create a place that they can love enough to fight for. Like this, but better." You nod, satisfied with the reaction you've gotten out of him. It would have been saddening for him to lose his way further down the line. Maybe something about all this power is taking him out of the mindset that the meek little Rookies have. You make a brief note to ask Doc about Digivolutions affecting a Digimon's personality, while you quietly carry out the last bits of Astamon's treatment. ==“Everything okay now?” You ask, staring at your Digivice watch urgently. “We have to go.” ”As good as I could be. Surface damage has closed up, he doesn’t have an instant route to my insides anymore.” Astamon slings his signature gun over his shoulder and grimaces at the door behind him. You’re both thinking the same thing: If you leave this room, Gigadramon might be able to enter. But you have no choice. You need to move on, and you’re both sick of the sweltering heat anyway. “Let’s go find him.” You step forward and load yourselves into the adjoining partition. It remains quiet inside. You’re in some kind of huge, nondescript hallway. The same footprints and claw marks are present here, but there are no signs of fireballs being launched. He’s been here, but this isn’t a room where fights break out. You walk through the massive hallway with your eye on the ceiling. It’s high, but not freakishly so, putting you at ease for a moment. “The roof isn’t that high. He can’t have gotten much bigger. Good sign.” Astamon shoots you a mildly pitying look before breaking out the bad news. ”No. He can turn back to BlackAgumon, remember?”
You swear under your breath. You can’t estimate his increased size at all, then. The lack of info makes the journey even more tense for you. The both of you advance through the straight passageways, wary of traps, but fortunately find none. Along the way, there are numerous elevator points leading to lower floors, but you don’t bother with them. You have a strong feeling you just need to go forward. Eventually, you find your mark; a partition load point that’s buzzing with angry particles. The usual welcoming blue has been invaded by flecks of neon crimson, and you feel heat radiating outwards. This must be what an overloaded partition looks like from the outside.”Looks like we’ve found him.” “Can you fit in? We can’t have you de-Digivolving.” Astamon pokes at the door. The red particles coalesce around his point of contact, providing heavy resistance, but there’s enough soft blue left behind for him to test it. “One second.”He slides one leg backwards and bends his knees. ”It’s not actually over capacity yet. They just have a filter to prevent data from reaching a certain point. Must have held something important.” “I’m sure he’s wrecked it by now. Go ahead.” Astamon kicks the doorframe with all his might. The blades atop his shoes carve through the material, and the shock wave from his attack dispels the barrier. If it was truly at its storage cap, nothing you could have done would have opened it up. Luckily, that’s not the case. Your partner dusts himself off and loads into the partition. You follow behind a second later. You find yourself in a grand chamber, filled with server racks, screens, and blocks of coolant. Many of these items have been wrecked, whether by tooth, nail, or flame, leaving the room in a dismal state. You don’t get to look around for more than a few seconds. Your enemy is already here and waiting, his eyes shining as he drags a colossal tail across the ground. DARKTYRANNOMON- CHAMPION- DINOSAUR- VIRUS
Astamon swaggers forward, breathing a sigh of relief. DarkTyrannomon is only a bit bigger than when you saw him in the radar station. He’s larger than the massive Deltamon, and smaller than Gigadramon. He still fits within the confines of this massive operations room, with his head not quite reaching the ceiling. New scars cover huge portions of his body, marking him as a veteran of countless brutal battles. Trickles of data flow in from ports along the ceiling. This room must receive plenty of it from the outside. The entry points have been gnawed at and corroded, but all are intact, providing a steady stream of usable info for the sole occupant of this place. This is what he’s been feeding off to grow even stronger.”Leaf girl. And Phascomon. No, that’s not right. You-“ He bares his teeth in rage as he beholds Astamon’s new form. His wicked tail slams up and down several times, shaking the room. You hope that the stitches on it come undone from how furiously he’s beating the ground, but you have no such luck. ”I’m Astamon now. And you’re still the same old big bastard, huh?” He motions to a wall of screens with the butt of his gun. These ones have been spared from the beast’s rage, and are still flickering between different images. Whenever stock charts appear, the lines plummet out of frame. It’s rather surreal to see DarkTyrannomon eyeing the constant advertisements. After several shifts in the display, you spot footage of the streets down below. Chaos is continuing to break out, and the City Digimon are pushing their way inwards. Through this footage, he’s able to keep an eye on his kingdom from afar. ”What’s all this? You’re really making a name for yourself, huh?” ”The pack. The pack I gathered. The pack I promised to kill you two with.” He scrapes at the ground with a metallic nail, beginning to pace to the side. Astamon follows, and the two circle each other like starving wolves. He always makes sure to put himself between you and the colossal dinosaur. ”Marvelous, isn’t it?” He grins, his foul gums showing above his innumerable teeth. ”I am a king once again. I outnumber your miserable band of humans.” He throws his head back and roars, forcing you to cover your ears in agony. Astamon holds his gun out, preparing to fire. Despite everything, the Digimon sounds almost… Anguished. ”Yes… Yes, I have won. I thought I did. But why? Why is it that you stand before me, stronger than ever?! How is it that you’ve Digivolved yet again?!” He howls, slamming his front limbs into the ground.”ANSWER ME, ASTAMON! LEAF GIRL! HOW DO YOU OUTPACE ME AT EVERY TURN?!”
His tail whips across a rack of servers, shattering them and spilling their contents across the scarred concrete. The temperature immediately skyrockets. The room can barely contain an Ultimate and a Champion of his size. It's rumbling near-constantly now, and you wonder if his rage is enough to destroy an actual partition. Astamon aims squarely at his face, his wings fanning out behind him. You can see it in his posture, and feel his thoughts through your Digivice. You feel the same way. The both of you aren't certain you can beat this guy after all. He’s strong. If he’s not that much bigger, it must mean that he’s data-dense. Every stray motion exhibits raw power, and you can see how he would cow even Okuwamon with this wrath. And yet, he wants more. He can’t seem to settle for his own strength. He reaches a limb out and closes on empty air. To have power is not enough. He can’t stand the fact that you and Astamon have it too. “Don’t tell him anything, Astamon.” You hiss from behind clenched teeth. It’s not just the roar. Something is eating at you. You glance around, paranoid that this room holds some hidden toxin. You see nothing but a wavering halo of blue light around his reptilian snout. ”You done?” Your partner taunts arrogantly, keeping his spirits up despite his doubts and injuries. ”We’ve had a long day. I’m itching to delete you and go home already. I’ve got a show to catch.""Show...?""The Falsettos has a movie special tonight.” DarkTyrannomon roars again. This time, the sound brings you to your knees. Astamon turns around in concern, as you feel the force reverberating through your data. It almost reminds you of your first meeting with Phascomon, when you put the Digivice in your inventory. It's like something is pulsating from within your own body.“Astamon! Get him!” You yell, straining to hear your own voice and force that infernal ringing out of your ears. You raise your Linker, preparing to power him up. ”It’s because of THAT, isn’t it…?” DarkTyrannomon asks. He points right at your wrist. ”Yes… I’m sure of it. Over and over, that device has been it. That’s why I told them to fetch it. But they’ve all failed. No matter, as long as I can take this, as long as I can seize the source of your strength, I can forgive that.” He wants your Digivice. Even with it, you doubt he can accomplish anything without an actual bond. But the covetous beast wants it all the same. He remains on all fours, preparing to charge. ”COME, ASTAMON! NO MORE RUNNING! LET THIS BE OUR LAST BOUT!” He charges forth, and Astamon does the same.
Astamon:>Have Astamon keep his distance. If you keep attacking him from afar with Hellfire, he'll eventually launch a fire blast of his own, and you'll need to watch out for that. But it beats dealing with his claws and teeth. If you believe that his melee attacks are a greater threat than his projectiles, this would be a good call.>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job. Marnie: >Taunt DarkTyrannomon. He seems to be extremely reactive to your words right now. His enmity towards the both of you could be exploited. It's clear that his grudge has been growing deeper and deeper, just like your own. You could distract him in a way that allows your partner to capitalize on it and deal even greater damage. However, this could cause attacks to come your way, so you'll be risking yourself and forcing Astamon to look out for you.>Look around the room. There may be technical details about this chamber that will come in handy. You need to search for entry and exit points, find out what pieces of software are still running, and identify the various server racks and coolant bricks that you could exploit later on. This is his lair, he may also have set up traps, though that seems unlikely considering your nature. Either way, you'll lay low and try to support Astamon from afar.
We're back! Thank you guys for waiting. Upcoming updates may be intermittent, as I've got some interviews this week. Thank you to artanon as always for this beautiful Op image. Glad to have you guys around for what should be the last thread.
>>6332390>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job. >Taunt DarkTyrannomon. He seems to be extremely reactive to your words right now. His enmity towards the both of you could be exploited. It's clear that his grudge has been growing deeper and deeper, just like your own. You could distract him in a way that allows your partner to capitalize on it and deal even greater damage. However, this could cause attacks to come your way, so you'll be risking yourself and forcing Astamon to look out for you.That's what I call "The full retard combo". Salmon won't do anything against his regeneration anyways. Also if he can beat Giga, his ranged attacks must be terrifying.>>6332392You're welcome, OP. Thanks for the idea for the drawing, I focus too much on characters so I couldn't come with something like that by myself.
>>6332390>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job.>Look around the room. There may be technical details about this chamber that will come in handy. You need to search for entry and exit points, find out what pieces of software are still running, and identify the various server racks and coolant bricks that you could exploit later on. This is his lair, he may also have set up traps, though that seems unlikely considering your nature. Either way, you'll lay low and try to support Astamon from afar.
>>6332392Welcome back, QM!>>6332423Good work on the art, anon.>>6332390>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job.>Look around the room. There may be technical details about this chamber that will come in handy. You need to search for entry and exit points, find out what pieces of software are still running, and identify the various server racks and coolant bricks that you could exploit later on. This is his lair, he may also have set up traps, though that seems unlikely considering your nature. Either way, you'll lay low and try to support Astamon from afar.
>>6332423+1
>>6332390Taunting him might pull out the demon lord symbol, but what would we even do with that? Shoot it?>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job. >Look around the room. There may be technical details about this chamber that will come in handy. You need to search for entry and exit points, find out what pieces of software are still running, and identify the various server racks and coolant bricks that you could exploit later on. This is his lair, he may also have set up traps, though that seems unlikely considering your nature. Either way, you'll lay low and try to support Astamon from afar.He was expecting porcupamon, so maybe there's traps after all. But we can also just shoot everything we don't think is important. I'm not sure if it would even give him a stomachache if he ate viral data, but I don't see much else we can use.Does he keep his toilet here? Fatass must have some big dookie we can have astamon kick into his mouth.
>>6332454>we can also just shoot everything we don't think is importantIf the fighting is fierce to the point that collateral damage to the surrounding objects - ESPECIALLY the cooling tanks - is enough to brick the entire partition and kick out all three of them into the hallway outside, what will happen? What would happen if they did get kicked out into the hallway, but then the hallway can't contain them, so they get kicked back out to the elevator section, but then the elevator section can't contain them, so it continues until they get shunted all the way to the balcony partition... and then the system shoves Gigadramon (who somehow succeeded in loading himself into the balcony area Marnie and Astamon came in from) outside too? So then DarkTyrannomon is outside the building exposed, but so are Marnie and Phascomon... and Gigadramon is right fucking there full size. What's stopping Gigadramon from ever obeying DarkTyrannomon then if he's strong enough and large enough that with Astamon there and the two other bosses deleted, Gigadramon actually goes for betraying DarkTyrannomon on the spot?
>>6332423>>6332424>>6332431>>6332454>>6332433>>6332613Getting close, looking around! Writing!
>>6332500Right, so cooling tanks are important. Glad we clarified that obvious statement.
>Get Astamon to go up close. You'll never know just how strong he is without testing his durability in a direct brawl. Astamon is agile enough to avoid most attacks, he may be able to weave through his blows land a proper Maverick kick. That way, you can determine whether you're actually doing damage to him, instead of wasting time on bullets that may not be enough to do the job. >Look around the room. There may be technical details about this chamber that will come in handy. You need to search for entry and exit points, find out what pieces of software are still running, and identify the various server racks and coolant bricks that you could exploit later on. This is his lair, he may also have set up traps, though that seems unlikely considering your nature. Either way, you'll lay low and try to support Astamon from afar. "Astamon! Get close!" DarkTyrannomon responds to your command and tries to counter it. He digs his claws in, halting his momentum as he launches a fireball from his mouth. The projectile soars straight for your partner, and you feel the room turning unbearably hot. It feels like your skin textures are melting, in tandem with the overloaded partition. This is the sort of attack you were afraid of him using repeatedly. And indeed, the orb is far stronger than the last time. The superheated mass flies at your partner, who leaps forward with all his momentum and focuses his energy into a single point. His leg impacts it, and your vision goes white as the searing sphere detonates into brilliant light. You hope he's alright. An attack of this caliber would wound even an Ultimate-level Digimon. You wouldn't be surprised if this is what he defeated Gigadramon with.Luckily, your partner isn't just trying to tank it. The flames part around him, and he's still standing upright in the midst of a halo of scorched ground. He's panting, and you can see that the residual damage has aggravated his wounds, but he's deflected the worst of it with his own kick. He doesn't risk any taunts. He just runs forward to meet DarkTyrannomon head-on, where he can no longer fire off his breath attack without harming himself. The stygian black beast snarls and attempts to whip him with a low sweeping tail, but Astamon leaps over it and sinks his knife into his shin.
The fight seems to be a lot more even than before. Porcupamon wasn't able to face him head-on, and you needed multiple Champions just to hold him back. But this time, he's agile enough to dodge, strong enough to make his hits count, and durable enough to take blows, even if he doesn't have the protective shell of his Champion form. DarkTyrannomon slams his hand down on Astamon, who swings the butt of his gun and knocks the descending claw off course. He clambers up his side and draws a line of blood with his knife, causing DarkTyrannomon to screech in pain and thrash wildly. "DARK NAIL!" He yells, trying to carve Astamon off his own body."MAVERICK!" Your partner responds by kicking him at the base of the neck, corroding his white scales with a qi-wreathed boot. They clash over and over, filling the room with shockwaves that threaten to knock you down with each detonation.While the two of them battle, you examine the chamber for anything of use. Traps first. You're expecting to find pitfalls, or webs, or something that his Digimon minions could have set up. Nothing of the sort turns up. This seems to be his actual resting place, and the arena he's chosen to face you. He knew you were coming, that much was certain.You notice a pathway leading upwards at a slight incline. Claw marks line the walls and floor around its vicinity, serving as evidence of DarkTyrannomon's constant passage. The path backwards is your ideal escape route if things get dicey, but this might do in a pinch. Next, you observe the coolant bricks. Some of them have been shattered, but a decent number are still intact. It's the same story as the screens. He seems to have smashed them indiscriminately up until he discovered their usefulness. The tubes that feed data into the room are a useless feature for your battle, neither combatant will be able to benefit from the trickle.Since you're keeping your head down, you manage to escape the enemy Champion's notice for a decent amount of time. Astamon is finally blown back by a punch, and he smashes into a rack near you. Flecks of frost cling to his coat as the spilt coolant washes over him. He pushes himself back up, panting, and you observe DarkTyrannomon's state.
He looks like he's received tangible damage. Ugly red scars crisscross his body, and you can see a continuous line where Astamon dragged his blade up his entire spine. The Maverick kick has dispelled skin textures on his collarbone, and several of his teeth have fallen out thanks to Oro Salmón. However, it's all superficial. He still seems raring to go, while your partner is exhausted from fighting too many enemies. Even at peak performance, this would be a difficult fight, but victory is seeming more and more unlikely. "Marnie. Think of something, quick. I'll go keep him off you." Astamon grunts, rolling his shoulders and stepping forward again. His gun is covered in scratch marks, like he shoved it into DarkTyrannomon's jaws at some point."You've grown stronger... But not enough. Yes, I see now. This is why you clung to your pack. Mine has whittled you down." He gloats. "Yeah, yeah... Credit where it's due, you found some strong ones."You hide behind a wall of screens while the two talk. "Not strong enough. Two out of three have fallen. But their own underlings were what I was after in the end. Once I'm done with you, I'll march out there myself and put an end to this."Several ideas race through your head as he prepares to attack Astamon again.>Taunt him for letting the war with the City Digimon go so poorly. He's been sitting here waiting for you two, apparently. But his kingdom is crumbling due to that. If he was outside to turn the tide, maybe he would have been able to destroy the attackers. Target his failure to maintain his garden, and try to distract him so that Astamon can come up with a more efficient attack. This will put you in the spotlight, however.>Start sabotaging the coolant racks. The two of you have trained to fight in lagging partitions. He hasn't. If you can destroy a couple, he'll be slowed down significantly, giving you and Astamon time to reclaim the advantage while he struggles to adjust. But if you do this, any stray shots that wreck more coolant racks later on will have a catastrophic impact on this partition.
>>6332844>Taunt him for letting the war with the City Digimon go so poorly. He's been sitting here waiting for you two, apparently. But his kingdom is crumbling due to that. If he was outside to turn the tide, maybe he would have been able to destroy the attackers. Target his failure to maintain his garden, and try to distract him so that Astamon can come up with a more efficient attack. This will put you in the spotlight, however.Why sabotage now if he'll inevitably sabotage himself later due to his size and collateral damage attacks? This is the perfect time for Marnie to start verbal harassment that DarkTyrannomon cannot escape, cannot close his ears or shut his eyes against because if he does then Astamon will kill him. If DarkTyrannomon tries to pursue Marnie, we have ways to avoid and continue to bait him. We have some Optic Camo remaining to play like TF2 Spy and go invisible to spam taunts at him. We have freeze code remaining, imagine what it could do if we end up landing that in DarkTyrannomon's mouth. We have f1oat and f0rce remaining to rapid reposition around the place and juke his fire blasts especially with f0rce at play. We have the malware packet gun which can still have some effect because DarkTyrannomon being bigger means his eyes are also bigger targets alongside his nose and the inside of his mouth. Now is the time to help Astamon even the odds with TEAMWORK and FIGHTING SPIRIT and APP SPAM and make up for the damage he's taken on the way. Squid and Doc will reload all our .apps before we go for the Tower anyway, right? Doc especially once we drop off all our data loot and DarkTyrannomon's severed head on a platter model
>>6332844>Taunt him for letting the war with the City Digimon go so poorly. He's been sitting here waiting for you two, apparently. But his kingdom is crumbling due to that. If he was outside to turn the tide, maybe he would have been able to destroy the attackers. Target his failure to maintain his garden, and try to distract him so that Astamon can come up with a more efficient attack. This will put you in the spotlight, however.Taunt him, get a good hit, then hit the coolants when he's rampaging for maximum effectiveness.
>>6332915+1, break his ability to strategize with rage before we then trigger our trap card>>6332844
>>6332844>Taunt him for letting the war with the City Digimon go so poorly. He's been sitting here waiting for you two, apparently. But his kingdom is crumbling due to that. If he was outside to turn the tide, maybe he would have been able to destroy the attackers. Target his failure to maintain his garden, and try to distract him so that Astamon can come up with a more efficient attack. This will put you in the spotlight, however.
>>6332915>>6332922>>6333075>>6333194Taunting!
>Taunt him for letting the war with the City Digimon go so poorly. He's been sitting here waiting for you two, apparently. But his kingdom is crumbling due to that. If he was outside to turn the tide, maybe he would have been able to destroy the attackers. Target his failure to maintain his garden, and try to distract him so that Astamon can come up with a more efficient attack. This will put you n the spotlight, however."By the time you get out there, it'll be too late. You-" He sprints forward to claw at Astamon again. Your partner leaps backwards and spreads his wings, avoiding the attack and holding his gun out to hose DarkTyrannomon with bullets. He launches another fireball, and your partner is forced to pirouette in midair and avoid it. The sphere detonates against the ceiling, drowning out your voice. Waves of heat wash over you, and you try again once your vision is restored. "You've been in here hiding like a coward the whole-" "IRON TAIL!" He sweeps his tail at Astamon, who fails to avoid it in time. He gets smashed into a wall of screens, shattering them and permanently denying DarkTyrannomon their usage. Once more, you fail to make yourself heard. "When-" He stomps on the ground and roars triumphantly, celebrating the hefty blow. Astamon struggles to get back up, his suit tattered and his skin textures eroded again. The shockwave silences you, and you feel your frustration mounting. You whip out your packet pistol and aim it squarely at DarkTyrannomon's eye. With a high-pitched whine, it launches its malware payload, which strikes your target perfectly. He whips his head around to snarl at you, and you stare him down unflinchingly. You've snatched his attention by force.
"You think you'll have the luxury of joining the fight? Even now, your forces are being kicked out of the district. You've lost them all." Astamon tries to move. You watch in horror as DarkTyrannomon swings his tail again, completely demolishing the wall of screens and burying your partner in the rubble. You feel pain and panic through your Digivice link, but he's still conscious. Only then does he stomp towards you to answer your taunt. He's learnt from his last fight. "No. Gigadramon is strong. He'll find a way to break them. Rrgh... My plan wasn't to seek you out today, until he told me you were right here, ripe for the picking. Is this whole attack your doing too? Do they answer to you...?"He's taking pride in beating you and Astamon according to his own metrics. So how will he react when you lie and make it seem like he's lost at every turn? A small smile curls your lips, and you keep the gun pointed at him fearlessly. He could obliterate you with one fireball, but you get the feeling that he won't. Not without listening. You try not to glance at the rubble, where Astamon is trying to pull himself together and prepare a decisive attack. "Yeah. You've got a pack, I've got a pack. And mine is winning. Because Astamon and I actually got out there and fought alongside our subjects. You remember Commandramon? Little pipsqueak who we kicked your ass with last time? Even he's evolved now. We deleted Deltamon with his help." DarkTyrannomon slams the ground in rage, and you feel a flicker of doubt. Luckily, he doesn't change his mind and go for you. "You- You've even bent the City's slaves to your will?! How?! What secret does that device hold, to give you two such power?" He points at the Digivice with a broken claw, courtesy of Astamon. You see a wireframe weakly attempting to reform over it. As you think about how you're going to keep him engaged, that buzzing within you grows stronger. You suddenly understand something about this gargantuan beast. He isn't just trying to climb upwards. He's targeted the two of you, and wants what you have. But even with this Digivice in his hands, it's something he can never have. And letting him know that will be more effective than any cutting insults. "This thing is a Digivice." You say, holding it up for him to see."Digivice. A Digimon device." He mumbles, understanding the name immediately. "I asked HOW. How?" He demands.
"When we're not fighting, I can Hololize him in here." You say, watching as particles of blue slide into your Linker. "He can rest, do his own training, it can even make food for us." You conjure up a chunk of meat. He's not so easily distracted that he starts craving it immediately, but he seems intrigued in it, so you continue. "But it's just a tool that makes partnering with him convenient. At the end of the day, you're after the wrong thing. It's not the Digivice." "Then what is it?! No matter. I'll tear that from your hand anyway. Another useful little trinket. Speak, and I'll give you a few more minutes of life. I want to savor this long-awaited victory." "It's US, you idiot! Me and him, working together. We're not like you. We don't just want to rule over a playground. You haven't even done that properly, you've half-assed it by not helping out any of your subjects." He snarls, but you keep going. "Me and him have a connection. A human and a Digimon. And that's something you won't ever get, because you don't know anything other than killing, and fighting, and getting stronger. You tried that before with Doc, and you deleted one of HIS partners. I'll never forgive you for that.""The key is a Human after all? Then I just have to find another one to ally with, one to bend to my will-" You let out a sharp, mocking laugh, catching him off guard. His heavy brows rise just a fraction, before flames seep from between his teeth. He lowers his head to roar straight in your face, sending spittle onto your goggles and blasting your hair backwards. You even lose your laurels somewhere behind you. You wipe your lenses clean with the back of a hand and try not to sound rattled, despite the intimidation working. "S-see? You don't get it. And you never will. You're still talking about bending people to your will. We're here by choice. We help each other. You never had anything that Doc wanted. I bet the concept of doing things for anyone other than yourself doesn't even exist in your head. So this is out of your reach. Forever. This bond with others that's made us so strong."
He raises his foot, and you prepare to jump out of the way. Syllables are already forming on your lips as he slams it back down on the ground. He shreds a row of servers in his fury, and carelessly wipes out another coolant rack. The temperature is unbearable now, reflecting his wrath, and you see the air being tinged with waves of heat. "So what? SO WHAT?! It gives you strength, you said. Then why is your Astamon lying shattered behind me?! I don't care. I don't care anymore. I don't need to take your source of power. I just need to overwhelm it with my OWN. And I AM STRONGER THAN YOU!" He's absolutely lost it. DarkTyrannomon charges up a Fire Blast, and you see it again. There's some kind of sigil inside him, standing out with its blue hue amidst the crimson blaze of his special attack. It rotates rapidly, and the mass of flame grows in accordance with it. His muscles swell, and the damage done to him by Astamon starts to recover. You feel like he's even growing by several inches, though it's impossible to tell at his scale. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR WORDS! I DON'T NEED A HUMAN! I DON'T NEED YOUR PRECIOUS BOND! I'LL KILL YOU ALL MY WAY! FIRE BL-" "HOLOLIZE!" Astamon bursts out of your Digivice and leaps into his open mouth. DarkTyrannomon's eyes go wide, and he tries to chomp down, but Astamon braces himself, forcing those deadly jaws open with sheer strength. A manic grin flashes across his face, as he points Oro Salmón' down his throat, right at the growing gout of flame. "Missed me? HELLFIRE!"He unloads his gun, and DarkTyrannomon's throat explodes.
The massive dinosaur staggers backwards, then collapses with an earth-shaking thud. Dust and data artifacts are churned up, while he painstakingly pushes himself back to his feet. Your partner lands beside you, proudly swapping his weapon to his other hand before reloading it. That's the most decisive blow he's managed to score so far. "You okay? Did the tail hit anything important?" "Arm's broken. Unlucky. He erased the joint." "H-huh? But you just-" You see his gloved hand trembling. He promptly hides it in his pocket. Even with his limb shattered, he used it to fire his gun. The recoil must have been excruciating. He coughs, and you see a fleck of static blood emerging from the humanoid lower half of his face. DarkTyrannomon staggers forward to continue the fight, and you can tell that the damage has been significant. Part of his throat has been ripped open, and his wireframe is distorted. That can't be comfortable, you know from experience."Tricks. Endless tricks...""We've used that one on you before, too. You getting sloppy, or what?" He tries to roar, but the sound is cut off. Astamon charges forward with glee. You're whittling him down. Something is different about his demeanor now. You entrust the fight to your partner and look around, making sure you're aware of your surroundings.
Your vigilance pays off immediately. From those data ports on the sides of the building, you see shapes beginning to load in. A sense of alarm passes through you as Digimon emerge from the tiny entrances. "B-boss! We're here...""Here to help..." "We've got orders to fight, Boss!" Several insect Digimon have entered. They immediately start balking from the sheer heat they're being bombarded with. Their confidence wanes when they see the battle breaking out, and they realize they're in too deep. DarkTyrannomon is wrecking more and more of the room as he tries to catch Astamon with his deadly blows. Your partner is firing his gun repeatedly, striking only at scar tissue or trying to burrow bullets into his blue eyes. He dances forward and slams a Maverick kick into DarkTyrannomon's already damaged shin, and his wireframe crumples. "Was he serious...? How are we gonna help?" A Wormmon whines, quivering from head to toe."Okuwamon is dead, we gotta follow Gigadramon now! orders are orders. For the hive!" A yellow bug calls. "Don't be an idiot. Look for something we can do. Don't jump in." The second Wormmon replies.
You quickly hide behind a server rack, your gun held tight. Backup is here, but they seem severely lacking. Nothing strong enough to pose a threat can even fit in this room anymore. You're outnumbered, but certainly not outgunned.>Get the drop on these Rookie Digimon. They can't hurt Astamon, but you don't want them to get the chance to attack you. Perform a pre-emptive strike and take them out, let Astamon worry about DarkTyrannomon now that you've weakened him.>Keep taunting DarkTyrannomon. His ability to multitask has been cut in half due to the damage. Go just a bit closer, ignore these Rookies, and try to distract him further. If you can shatter his morale, or get another big reaction out of him, you're certain Astamon can finish the job. >Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.
>>6333335>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.
>>6333335>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.Keeping the rookies in here is actually good because they occupy space, and if we delete them then Gigadramon will just send more goons in to replace them. Taunting DarkTyrannomon further is decisive, but it endangers Marnie badly if those bugs single her out.>From those data ports on the sides of the building, you see shapes beginning to load in. A sense of alarm passes through you as Digimon emerge from the tiny entrances.So we leave them be. I doubt we have time to go get healed by Cutemon AGAIN after we survive this, so we need to minimize Marnie's risk. Even a single gloomy and cute Wormmon can do serious damage to a human. Lagging the partition means the rookies are sitting ducks while denying further backup from the outside. However once DarkTyrannomon is deleted then the partition will have space again so we will need to haul ass out of here before we're literally swarmed. I doubt we can dump food at the rookies or cow them into submission if Gigadramon is ordering them here
>>6333335>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.This is getting uglier by the update but I'm sticking to the initial plan.
>>6333333Just popping by to congrat you on the nice digits.
>>6333335>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.While taunting is still an option, needing to order the rookies could possibly lock darktyra in the lag, so this is our best shot at exploiting it.
>>6333335>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing spee
>>6333348>>6333351>>6333357>>6333368>>6333371Sneaking! >>6333364Oh damn, those are nice!
No update for 1-3 days, working on job interview stuff
>>6333914Good luck, QM!
>>6333329It all makes sense now.>while we may ne jealous of those who express nonchalance towards their internment in the City, we're the object of envy for othersIt's also bad that he has that and I'm glad we haven't given our signature look of superiority.
>Sneak around the rookies and sabotage the room's infrastructure. Two more coolant shelves ought to bring on a huge wave of lag, which Astamon can use to turn the tide decisively. You won't need to worry about the bugs too, if they're caught by the lowered processing speed.You don’t want to mess with these guys. They’re not going to be able to affect the fight in a tangible way. Ultimately, you just deem them a minor complication. You peek out from behind your hiding place and scan your new set of enemies.FANBEEMON- ROOKIE- INSECT- VIRUSWORMMON- ROOKIE- INSECT- DATA There are three of them; two Wormmon and a Fanbeemon. They’re currently hiding from Astamon, who hasn’t even noticed them yet. Right as you take a step forward, the less whiny Wormmon looks in your direction. You dart behind the rack in time, and it doesn’t seem to spot you. ”Like I was saying, you two should web that guy!”“You’re joking, or an idiot. That’s an Ultimate-level. Didn’t you see what he did to Okuwamon?”“N-not just Okuwamon. They- they dealt with the fusion brigade."“Our half of it was full of freshly Digivolved Kunemon anyway, they’re no veterans.” Fanbeemon scoffs. You use this chance to slip away, heading towards an icy blue coolant rack and examining the wiring that comprises it. You can’t just hit it, because if you handle it the wrong way, it might blast you with a hazardous substance. You have to hack it using a Cracker tool. Astamon and DarkTyrannomon continue to brawl, cracking the walls and floor with their fury. Now that his opponent has been weakened, Astamon is using his gun far more. He sends them into the open wounds, while DarkTyrannomon tries to pin him beneath a claw. He hip-checks him and knocks him into the air, before launching another fireball that’s enhanced by the rapidly spinning sigil. You feel the buzz continue, but you have no time to go through your inventory to try and locate the source. You just finish disconnecting the coolant tube and slink off into the darkness.
”What’s that hissing?” A Wormmon asks. ”T-th-the coolant pipe broke…”“Hey… Isn’t there a human in here too?” “Spread out then! Call out if you see them.” With that, the Rookies start hunting for you. You could shoot them if you find the chance, but you have a goal in mind: Disabling the last block so the whole partition lags out. To your dismay, the nearest intact one is past a long stretch of empty space. You’ll be spotted for sure. Fanbeemon can fly. It’s the one who’s most likely to see you, so you’re forced to take cover at the base of a wrecked server. Hiding yourself from direct line of sight. Your camo reserves are for use in the physical world, you can’t dip into your rations any more. When the bee starts coming your way, you set your hand on the side of the rack and crawl around the corner as he passes overhead. That way, you make sure there’s always something between the two of you. ”I FOUND HER!” The non-coward Wormmon screeches. It's no use. By dodging the aerial threat, you've ended up in the line of sight of one of the lesser ones. You break into an immediate sprint, knowing it’s only a matter of time before webs and stings come your way. Astamon can’t help, he’s trying not to get injured. Both combatants are flagging hard, but Astamon was already in bad shape to begin with. Maybe another surge of power will do the trick and end this once and for all, but he’ll burn out afterwards.
You reach the coolant rack and spear it with the malware packet that Squid gave you. But when you try to take cover, your leg refuses to move. You look down and see webs clinging to it, gumming your limb to the floor. You point your gun at it and try to get the right angle while the code works. ”Over here! Fly faster!” Instead of trying to shoot your leg free, you groan and place the barrel of your packet pistol on the coolant tube. They're spread out, and if you start shooting them now, they'll hit you with more lethal attacks in retaliation. Your best bet now is to keep ignoring them like you committed to, and hope your subsequent choice can handle them.>Power up Astamon with your bond. He’ll prefer beating DarkTyrannomon this way, and you’re hoping you can end things decisively. If he can spare a few shots, he could eliminate the Rookies easily, but you don't know if he can afford that even with the powerup. >Shoot the coolant pipe and brick the partition. Once everything is slowed to a crawl, they won’t be able to properly attack you, and you can slowly (very slowly) reposition yourself to defeat the three bugs. Astamon will also be able to lay on heavier pressure that DarkTyrannomon may not be able to keep up with. You're still stuck, however, and DarkTyrannomon's attacks will still have as much force. The processing speed is slower, not physics itself.
Thanks for the wait fellas!
>>6335019>Shoot the coolant pipe and brick the partition. Once everything is slowed to a crawl, they won’t be able to properly attack you, and you can slowly (very slowly) reposition yourself to defeat the three bugs. Astamon will also be able to lay on heavier pressure that DarkTyrannomon may not be able to keep up with. You're still stuck, however, and DarkTyrannomon's attacks will still have as much force. The processing speed is slower, not physics itself.We're betting on the rookies being too inexperienced and low morale to kill us.
>>6335032+1
>>6335019>Shoot the coolant pipe and brick the partition. Once everything is slowed to a crawl, they won’t be able to properly attack you, and you can slowly (very slowly) reposition yourself to defeat the three bugs. Astamon will also be able to lay on heavier pressure that DarkTyrannomon may not be able to keep up with. You're still stuck, however, and DarkTyrannomon's attacks will still have as much force. The processing speed is slower, not physics itself.Let's hope this works. Then we bond him up.>>6335020No problem, OP. It was shorter than I thought.
Let's not forget DarkTyrannomon has not trained in the heavy lag like we have. Astamon did it as both Phascomon and Porcupamon, but not really as he is now as Astamon. Even so, the lessons can still carry over enough that he should have the complete upper hand over DarkTyrannomon. DarkTyrannomon knows if he reverts back down to BlackAgumon to not lag the partition out as much, Astamon WILL end him. As much as he likes to think otherwise, DarkTyrannomon is still a Digimon like any other, and all digital lifeforms are beholden to the system everybody exists in. He is not immune to lag and never will be. Watching and feeling his death approach without being able to properly control his body or abilities, unable to do anything but sit there as nothing he does works and Astamon's bullets approach his Digicore... I hope he suffers.
>>6335019>Shoot the coolant pipe and brick the partition. Once everything is slowed to a crawl, they won’t be able to properly attack you, and you can slowly (very slowly) reposition yourself to defeat the three bugs. Astamon will also be able to lay on heavier pressure that DarkTyrannomon may not be able to keep up with. You're still stuck, however, and DarkTyrannomon's attacks will still have as much force. The processing speed is slower, not physics itself.
>>6335032>>6335033>>6335037>>6335061>>6335152Writing!
>Shoot the coolant pipe and brick the partition. Once everything is slowed to a crawl, they won’t be able to properly attack you, and you can slowly (very slowly) reposition yourself to defeat the three bugs. Astamon will also be able to lay on heavier pressure that DarkTyrannomon won’t be able to keep up with.You fire without hesitation. As soon as the icy hose comes loose and starts spraying mist everywhere, time seems to stop. Your eyes flicker towards the suspended Fanbeemon, whose wings are still moving at an incredible rate despite the intense lag. This causes it to sag and plummet to the ground from its constant attempts at adjustments. The Wormmon are doing the same. It seems like this is particularly effective on Insect Digimon due to their twitchy movements. All three of them are left completely unable to attack you. You've successfully warded them off and eliminated a threat bloodlessly."Wh-Wh-wh-w-w-what d-di did di- di-"You slowly point your gun at the web pinning you to the ground."Heel-hel-hee-h-help-p-p-elp!"You ignore them. They're going to be terrified and useless. As you blast the webbing away, you see them clustering together and heading for the data ports, apparently thinking nothing of deserting the field of battle. Their fear overrides their loyalty to their leader. You find it a wise choice. They can't help in any way, and their lives mean absolutely nothing to their boss. Once you're free, your attention turns towards Astamon, and you slowly move towards him. Despite your urgency, you make sure not to change your mind about where you're stepping, and fully commit to your inputs as you wade through the burning-hot, almost solid air.
At a glacial pace, Astamon turns the fight around. DarkTyrannomon is thrown off by the entire room going awry, while Astamon was prepared from the beginning. He immediately lands and transitions to a ground fighting style, so he doesn't have to micromanage his wing movements. He leisurely holds his hand out, locks his elbow, and sprays a deluge of bullets at his enemy. DarkTyrannomon's head is whipping back and forth, and his tail is shuddering with such force that some of the stitches really do snap this time. He fails to adjust, and the bullets manage to dig straight into an open wound, wreaking havoc within his body. You don't say anything. Your partner can handle this. And handle it he does, with slow, measured movements. You watch as he focuses that purple fire into his foot over and over, kicking DarkTyrannomon's wounded leg like a training dummy. It's exactly like the Digivice simulations. The massive beast attempts to back away, but he can't decide between retreating and trying to claw Astamon to death, resulting in him lagging and snapping between frames. At his size, he's had to avoid low-capacity partitions, so he's never placed himself in a situation to train like you did. "M-M-MAVE-MAVERICK!"Astamon delivers another blow. Then another."MAVE-MAV-M-MA- RICK!"He kicks over and over, only shifting stance when DarkTyrannomon's claws get too close. Despite the tension, he's able to calmly deliver his judgement. All DarkTyrannomon can do is watch and struggle as he gets struck in the same place over and over. The skin tries to scar over, but with each blow, fewer red textures regenerate. "MAVERICK!" Finally, Astamon's foot sinks right through. DarkTyrannomon caves, falling over as his limb is completely destroyed. He roars in pain, attempting to charge up a fireball, but Astamon slowly pivots and kicks his jaw shut, forcing him to abort. Disturbingly, the sigil isn't affected. It's the only thing in the room spinning at a normal pace. Once their leader has been downed, the three Rookies flee. They crawl through the holes they entered from, giving the room just a tiny bit of space. Your movements are all still sluggish, but it's enough to talk normally now, without that annoying stutter. "... Did we do it?" You ask, as you watch the monster try and fail to get up.Astamon takes a deep breath. He's in awful shape. While the dinosaur has lost a leg, his own arm has been broken, and hangs loosely by his side. His suit and wings are in tatters, and one of his horns has broken. But your foe has it way worse, and you're glad for that.
DarkTyrannomon's body is no longer regenerating. The ghastly wound on his collarbone, the distorted area over his throat, and the stripped wireframe on his leg are the greatest scars that mar his body. Astamon aims his gun squarely at his head with his good arm."I think we did." But he doesn't sound happy enough. It wasn't decisive, the two of you had to scrounge for every advantage instead of relying on Astamon's newfound power. To you, though, it's done. You've defeated DarkTyrannomon. And soon he'll be gone for good."Still... Not... Enough... How? Is having a human really so huge a difference? Where is MINE?! Where's MY human?!" His hot breath washes over you as he bemoans his victory on the ground. You feel the buzzing in your inventory, and now that you're given a brief reprieve, you decide to dig through it and pull out the offender out before it drives you insane. Your precious book seems to be the cause. You stare at it in confusion. It's just a book.app, it's not supposed to have features. You've never seen it do this before. "Marnie, focus." Astamon demands. He waves his gun around. "Figured you'd want to get the last word in." You nod, glaring into the vivid blue eye of your nemesis. He tries once again to stand, but Astamon swings the butt of his gun and smashes him back into the ground. You instinctively shield your eyes from the churned-up artifact dust, but your goggles are already protecting your vision. "You deserve this. You've had this coming since the day we met." "You couldn't have let it go, huh? If you didn't hunt down Solarmon, if you didn't hurt Doc and delete Kokuwamon, maybe you'd be having a free and easy life out there.""You... I'll kill you! I-""No, none of that now. No more running, you said. You've lost."DarkTyrannomon throws his head back and screams. The room rumbles ominously, and the air itself seems to come apart into constituent code.It's a long, drawn-out sound of utter agony. He's lost. He has no way out of this, Astamon has completely trounced him. After all your hard work, after making it through numerous trials and growing in strength, he's bridged the gap between him and DarkTyrannomon, who's always been a step ahead. You get the feeling that Astamon doesn't feel the same way, since you had to step in by lagging out the partition for him to win, but you don't share his doubts. Without his strength, this wouldn't be possible. It was the two of you, together.
"Yeah? Come on, scream a little louder. Your Gigadramon isn't coming to save you. Here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna delete you so hard you'll never come back. None of your data will be left behind. Serves you right.""I'll kill you, I'll klill you both!" "Boooring~! That all you can say? Come on! Put more fire into it!"Astamon prods at his snout with his gun, then pulls it away when he tries to snap at it. In his desperation, DarkTyrannomon has regressed to his flailing and screaming, just like when you met him as a BlackAgumon. All that growth is lost now that he's at his lowest. "You two... Never... Never forgive you... For taking it... My Garden..." >Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. You've been waiting for this a long, long time. He's killed multiple friends and allies, he's hurt your partner, and he's a threat to the innocent souls who live in the City. Let him hear all that rage you've saved up, now that he's helpless. You won't get the chance to again. He's been beaten in every regard, claim your psychological victory and keep it forever.>Have Astamon shoot him and simply end it. You want to get out of here. Your timer is ticking down, and while you've got a safe amount left, you don't want to linger. The point is to delete DarkTyrannomon, if you can do it without any further friction, then you want to get it over with.
Sorry for the delay again! Aforementioned interview stuff went well. Hoping to finish this before January, with the last of my NEET power, but it might last slightly longer than that since I don't want to rush the most important points coming up.
>>6335941>Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. You've been waiting for this a long, long time. He's killed multiple friends and allies, he's hurt your partner, and he's a threat to the innocent souls who live in the City. Let him hear all that rage you've saved up, now that he's helpless. You won't get the chance to again. He's been beaten in every regard, claim your psychological victory and keep it forever.A damn shame Marnie has no way of knowing the book is bad news.But if DarkTyra really becomes a demon lord in this state, then it'll have to fight Brigadramon.
>>6335941>Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. You've been waiting for this a long, long time. He's killed multiple friends and allies, he's hurt your partner, and he's a threat to the innocent souls who live in the City. Let him hear all that rage you've saved up, now that he's helpless. You won't get the chance to again. He's been beaten in every regard, claim your psychological victory and keep it forever.Unleash the angst and edge and freedom desire and all the loathing to the City. Let your nemesis hear exactly what you've been through and how you feel before you end him. Let him know how exactly your envy differs from his. It's worth it. It has to be. You want it to be.
The important question to ask before voting isn't "Would Marnie have the wherewithal to put two and two together between the symbol and the book," but "Would Marnie gloat according to her previous encounters (ie. Raremon, Sealsdramon, etc.)".
>>6335941>Have Astamon shoot him and simply end it. You want to get out of here. Your timer is ticking down, and while you've got a safe amount left, you don't want to linger. The point is to delete DarkTyrannomon, if you can do it without any further friction, then you want to get it over withJust fucking kill him already, I've got a bad feeling about this. It will be the book giving him a second wind or DarkTyrannomon digievolving. They already deleted two of his friends, ruined his garden and fucked his shit up. Just fucking kill the damn dinosaur, get the data and get out of there.
>>6335941>Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. You've been waiting for this a long, long time. He's killed multiple friends and allies, he's hurt your partner, and he's a threat to the innocent souls who live in the City. Let him hear all that rage you've saved up, now that he's helpless. You won't get the chance to again. He's been beaten in every regard, claim your psychological victory and keep it forever.Personally, I think she would keep it to a one-liner. Something along the lines of "you should look back at how to treated everyone while you're in the grave, maybe it'll help you in the next life," followed by a double headshot with Astamon.If anybody can come up with something better, please do.
>>6335942Congratulations, QM!>>6335941>Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. A deeply inefficient choice, but I've been yammerinh on about spitemaxxing, and this is truly maximum spite. Plus, maybe it will help make Asta feel better; he DOES hate Garden Kings.
>>6335954Sealsdramon deserved to be taken down a peg. Raremon was just sad.
Man, I hope the envy book is not reacting to the clear envy that DarkTyrannomon is showing towards Marnie and Phascomon because I wouldn't want to lose a data center worth of XP. Specially after reminding that the spite route adds retarded trap choices to the pool.
>>6335954I say let Marnie have a woman moment for a change. We have enough girl protags piloted by guys and written by guys so they never once display any degree of being manipulative or being a bitch or being obsessed or any of the well-known hallmarks of being a girl. I want to see it happen.>>6335985>"Still... Not... Enough... How? Is having a human really so huge a difference? Where is MINE?! Where's MY human?!">You feel the buzzing in your inventory, and now that you're given a brief reprieve, you decide to dig through it and pull out the offender out before it drives you insane. Your precious book seems to be the cause. You stare at it in confusion. It's just a book.app, it's not supposed to have features. You've never seen it do this before.That's because his human is Marnie.
>>6335993In fact as Marnie rants at him, I wonder if the clarity will cut through to his Digicore and he realizes the truth... and with it, realizes it's been HIS fuckup all along. That might be what truly breaks him
>>6335993>That's because his human is Marnie.You don't know that, maybe the Demon Lords picked her because she's a good angry puppet, not special.I'm going to appeal to greed one last time: think about all the data, the data center, the Parrotmon, we could fill for not killing Vademon. Think about the mega we could get. What if Brigadramon gets it instead of us, he's our prey.That's it, I won't pester anymore.
>>6335993>His human is MarnieOh shit, BlackAgu got digicucked by the Dropbear Mafia.
>>6335944>>6335953>>6335963>>6335966>>6335959Updating! It's a long one, and I don't have enough time today to get to the point with the next vote, so I'll just leave it off and continue part 2 when I can sit down to write next.
>Finish talking. He isn't upset enough to satisfy you. Astamon is right, this is a surprisingly boring reaction. You've been waiting for this a long, long time. He's killed multiple friends and allies, he's hurt your partner, and he's a threat to the innocent souls who live in the City. Let him hear all that rage you've saved up, now that he's helpless. You won't get the chance to again. He's been beaten in every regard, claim your psychological victory and keep it forever."Shut up already! ALL of this is because of you in the first place! You're a little shit who's wasted your whole life acting high and mighty. It's coming back to bite you now." Astamon holds him down, allowing you to get your anger out. DarkTyrannomon is unable to move in his current state, and his textures are starting to come apart from the damage. His regeneration has completely stopped by now. "What else is there? This strength..." "What else? Everything! You've never bothered to make friends? To talk to other Digimon? To learn how this City works?" "Worthless. All of it. What do you two have, then?! Why does it drive you so?" "We've got dreams, you big lug. Marnie here wants to get out of the City and go back to where humans came from. I want to go to the real Digital World, where I can do exactly what you've tried and failed to do: Be a leader. You're a tiny fish in a tiny pond, that hasn't changed since you were a Rookie!""You were never going to make it in the first place. Like I said, even if you defeated us, you'd be blown up by the City's Digimon. None of your minions care about you in the slightest. None of them mean anything to you, so why would they come to help you in your time of need?" He stares in the direction of the data ports with a drooping eyelid. He noticed the Rookies, at the least, and their absence now."Gigadramon... I've beaten him. He has to obey me. He'll come-" You laugh right in his face. "Are you stupid? You're even dumber than I thought, if you really believe they want anything other than your death! If you're gone, they get to take over. They're probably already getting started on their own plan. You don't have any connections, whether human or Digimon. That's what makes you worthless! We're going to delete you here, and you won't have achieved anything! You're not stronger than us, you're not smarter than us, you-" He tries to whip you with his tail, but the tip completely falls off. He shudders in agony while Astamon presses the barrel against his head. "No... NO! I've- I've created my kingdom! I can't lose here. There's... There's still..."
The fallen behemoth trails off, a vein bulging on his head as he tries to think. He's getting properly upset now. You don't want him to just know that he's lost. You want him to realize he has NOTHING. No kingdom, no bonds, nothing but his own hollow pursuit of strength, because he could never stop even once to think about the world around him. He's a dullard, he's a monster, and he's a meaningless existence. "Nothing. You have no legacy. You really haven't made a mark on this world at all, apart from the people you've hurt." "... Who were they?" That question catches you a little off guard. "Who?"The weaklings I deleted. Who were they, to fill you with so much rage on their behalf?" "One of them was a Digimon dear to Doc. The one you abducted. You took him away from the rest of them. You chained my friend up. And then you completely deleted a couple of humans in the radar station. Those were people I fought alongside. Is there even anybody you have, who you'd feel the same for if we beat them? Deltamon? Okuwamon?""No... Why would I? They were weak, so they lost! The weak have no usefulness, there's no loss when..." "We beat you. What does that make you?"He roars in fury again, breathing heavily as the wound on his neck widens. Your book seems to be humming, but you put it aside, ignoring it in favor of taunting this creature further. You want to crack him in his final moments, and that means you need him to understand. It's cruel of you to teach him such logic just to hurt him, but he deserves it after all of this. "It's not the same. I'm strong! I do not admit defeat! I'll kill you, I'll kill you both!""No, I'd say it's the exact same. They don't have any usefulness, so it's okay if they get deleted, right? What about you? Who are you useful to? Who'll miss you?" He can't answer that. He seethes quietly, trying and failing to push himself back up. His body is taking a long time to give out, and Astamon is awaiting the bounty of data that must be hidden within. He ate a whole datacenter, he could get a good deal stronger from this. Finally, DarkTyrannomon hisses in a low voice. "Who are you useful to?""Me, you puttanella. And to plenty of our human friends. To Digimon we've met and helped.""We've both left our mark on the City, while you were out here playing at being a king, while you were gathering up a whole army without bothering to learn about the consequences. There's not a single Digimon that'll miss you. You don't have anyone to go home to, you just have yourself. That's why you lost it all." "Lost it all, lost it all..." He mumbles.
He digs his metal-tipped claws into the ground, his voice strained with emotion. "I've lost it all... If only... If only I had a human. If I had that source of strength... Yes... I'd have beaten you here. What would it be like? I never thought you had such power in you, with how little data you have. Astamon... Tell me... How are humans so...""I'm there to pick him up after every hard battle. I'm there to make plans with him and move forward together. That's how he's Digivolved so many times. We're partners. We have dreams that extend beyond 'getting stronger'. There's an actual purpose to our lives, unlike you. You were strong, I admit. But you've wasted everything, you've hurt everyone, and now you're getting what you deserve." "I deserve better. I deserve to rule...." "You don't deserve ANYTHING after all you've done! You're a waste of data. All you're good for right now is making this room hotter." "A human... There must be a human that..." "No way. Nobody out there would take on a burden like you. You'll never have the strength you're looking for. You'll never have someone who gives a shit about you. NEVER. You hear me?!" You lean in close, yelling right in his ear hole. You see him tremble in fury, but he's unable to even react anymore. You see from the way his pupil is constricting that he gets it. He's wasted his life on a trivial pursuit, that's amounted to nothing in the end. He'll never have what you have. He'll never find his strength. He'll never make any bonds. And it's over for him."It's time to go. Astamon, finish him off.""Gladly. Say goodnight, DarkTyrannomon. I'll miss you, in a messed up way." DarkTyrannomon lets out a keening whine, all of his wrath evaporated by your own."No... No... I don't need yours. I have my own... My own strength, I... I'll-"Astamon pulls the trigger. The first bullet doesn't manage to pierce his skull. It just rips into his texture and echoes through the room. He keeps firing, trying to burrow through and execute him instead of sending the shots into an existing wound and targeting the Digicore. He's picked up on your own moment of cruelty, and wants to make sure that your hated foe dies an awful death. "More... More strength is all I need... I just have to..."More and more bullets thud against his skull, and he thrashes back and forth."Delusional to the end, huh?" "More... Always... More..." Without warning, the room takes on a sordid green tinge.
You see the hovering sigil expanding, and the partition instantly freezes up. All three of you are suspended fully, and your training doesn't help. You're completely bricked, even though the storage space was fine just a moment ago."What's going-"Your book, your childhood treasure, flies out from your hand, where you were gripping it tightly. Your most precious belonging, short of your Digivice, flips itself open and displays its beautiful, scenic vistas to the dying Digimon, showing him what he's missed out on. And then he responds. "No... No... Yes... Yes... I hear you. No. You were right... You were RIGHT." Astamon's finger tries to pull the trigger one more time, but he can't move. None of you can do anything but talk. You can't even move your eyes to get a different angle. The hair that fell in front of your face is permanently blocking a wedge of your vision, bugging you quite a bit. Even the instinctive urge to push it away is denied, you can't move a single muscle, you can't run a single line of code. But DarkTyrannomon can. "YOU WERE RIGHT! I WANT IT! I NEED THIS... I NEED WHAT YOU HAVE! YOUR BOND, YOUR LEGACY, I NEED IT ALL FOR MYSELF! HOW?! HOW DO I OBTAIN IT?! HOW DO I SNATCH-" The spinning sigil, which you've come to recognize as some foreign program, floats out from its anchor point in front of him. You have no clue what it really is, but by now, you've at least figured out that it's responsible for his unnatural strength, for his first Digivolution, and his terrifying potential compared to Digimon of his level. It's some mystery file that's now suspending the room completely. "I... Can't... Shoot him..." Astamon grunts, straining to move just an inch more. But he's thrown off his vantage point on DarkTyrannomon's head when he raises it to the ceiling and his eyes glaze over. "HOW?! TELL ME! TELL ME HOW I CAN TAKE IT! IT SHOULD BE MINE! MINE! MINE!" It's not his miraculous recovery that causes you to recoil in horror, nor is it the fact that you and your partner are both suspended in time. You would take that a thousand times over, instead of what really happens before your eyes.
Your book, the 'Fruit of Knowledge.Envy' flies apart while you're paralyzed, mutilating your dearest possession and spreading the images out in the air. Amidst the mountains, valleys, lakes and oceans, valleys and towns, festivals and homes, jungles and alpines, you see lines and shapes that were never quite clear before. Each part of the book.app comes together into a composite, their opacity fluctuating until a sigil is evident, generated from hidden contours.It's the exact same as the one that was haunting DarkTyrannomon and granting him such power in the first place. It rotates lazily in the air, comprised of the hundred photographs that created the very dream you were taunting your defeated nemesis with. It's tainted. Your beloved book has been holding something like this within it all this time, preparing for the day where it could inflict its insidious influence on some equally corrupted soul. You still have zero understanding of it, but you're able to put together that your prized object is connected to this in some way."Please... Tell me... Tell me..." He plants one limb against the ground and stares at the twin sigils as they overlap and rotate. You have no idea how to react to this development, but if he's somehow managed to turn things around, all you might be able to do is display one final moment of spite. "You'll never have it." The sigils both press themselves into his forehead, and his head goes limp. "I know." He wheezes, finally admitting defeat. Then his texture and wireframe falls apart completely, releasing his full bounty of data into the searing air. "What's happening?! What's going on with him?!" Astamon yells. Your thoughts become muddled by the partition reaching the absolute limit of its endurance. The floor and walls begin to melt into slag, but your eyes are firmly on DarkTyrannomon's floating Digicore. It's a black mote of endless sorrow; a far uglier thing than even Raremon's. And mass is reconstituting around it.<D I G I V O L U T I O N><進化>
Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. You've pushed him to the breaking point with your vitriol, and his psyche has collapsed completely. The DarkTyrannomon you've known and despised is gone. Left in his place is a rapidly growing tower of bone, forming around the Digicore and absorbing the terrifying amount of data that he's internalized. Doc's theory is proven correct. He wasn't able to synthesize all of it. It's just been sitting inside him and slowly giving him strength. But now, all of it is being sucked up at once, allowing the Digimon to reach his next stage. He's done it. If he was still around to gloat, he might have been overjoyed at achieving his Ultimate-level Digivolution. He would have been glad to give Astamon another round, with power that you're no longer confident you can overwhelm. But there's none of that. No reaction from the decaying corpse of a Digimon that's drawing itself to its full height, moving unnaturally despite the partition being completely overwhelmed. Cracks appear in the wall, and you and Astamon remain frozen as the newborn, yet all-too-familiar creature unfurls wing-like growths and throws its head back to roar. It's an infernal sound that makes your veins run cold, filling them with stygian ice and cutting your face like deep black obsidian. SKULLGREYMON The partition shatters, and the green haze gives way to the blinding blue of a system collapse.
>>6336453On one hand, OH FUCK OH SHITOn one hand, spitemaxxing got us a cool outcome
>>6336449NNOOOOOOOOOOOO, FUCK SHIT, I KNEW IT, IT'S NOT A WOMAN MOMENT, IT'S A RETARD MOMENT.
>>6336450Give us the data please. Even if her revives.
>>6336453Good think we beat Okuwamon or this would have been for nothing. Shit, I'm passed off.
That's why the city doesn't want you to be free, Marnie. Least that a year of freedom and you're unleashing an apocalyptic demon beast in the most retarded way possible. May our hero Brigadramon vanquish this threat and restore the peace to the city.That's it, I'll stop now. I needed to spitemaxx myself. Great update, OP.
>>6336479Those heroic civilians from the virus buster office will save the day!
Keyed in my tripcode wrong on mobile or something. I’ll try and get the other half out asap, felt this was a good point to post what I had
>>6336481kek>>6336453Oh fuck.Actually... Maybe this will attract Brigadramon, and we'll get to see what he's capable of from cover?
>>6336565That's if we can escape in time before the VPNs expire, otherwise we have zero cover
You find yourself kneeling in a hallway, with Astamon right beside you. He grimaces as he pushes himself back up with the stock of his gun. You’re in trouble now. You can’t regain your bearings with the colossal Ultimate Digimon bearing down on you. You must be in some kind of adjoining hallway. The room is chugging severely, and there’s no space for two Ultimates. If you don’t shrink down Astamon, your movements are going to be stalled, but you’re unwilling to risk it. It’s the same situation that DarkTyrannomon was stuck in moments ago. SkullGreymon has loaded in by the very end of the thick hallway. It takes up the entirety of the chamber, causing the walls and floor to crack once again. This partition isn’t long for the world. ”Damn it… DAMN IT! ALL THAT DATA! HE USED IT!” Astamon can’t fight like this. At peak performance, you might have been able to risk it, but this is too much. The skeletal monster starts crawling its way through the hallway, dragging chunks of it apart as it moves towards you. He no longer roars or brags, there’s only a slow exhalation coming from its agape mouth, as eyes green with envy bore deep into your data. SKULLGREYMON- ULTIMATE- UNDEAD- VIRUSAn orange mound atop its spine clangs against the roof, keeping it pinned for a brief moment. You and your partner turn to run in slow motion, heading for the door on the other end. “What did he DO?! How-“ ”I should be the one asking that! Just run!” SkullGreymon’s limb scratches Astamon in the back, causing him to scream in pain. Thanks to the lag, the successful hit is drawn out over long moments, causing him to feel the claw ripping through his textures, carving out the data beneath, and finally making an exit wound as it carves a gulley across his spine. Astamon staggers forward, his movements turning jerky and erratic as he fails to uphold his training. “HOLOLIZE!””Marnie, no!” He gets sucked back into your wristwatch, freeing both you and SkullGreymon to run at full speed. You sense your partner trying to break out of the Digivice again, but you clamp a hand over it and sprint.
”What are you doing?! You need me out there!” “You can’t take any more! We’ll-“”CURSE. BREATH.” Its voice sounds hollow. It’s like DarkTyrannomon is being puppeted by this massive skeleton. The sound that you hear definitely belongs to your enemy, but there’s none of his spirit left in it. Just overwhelming malice and the need to seize you. It opens its mouth, and a dark miasma rushes forth. It coalesces on the ground, behaving almost like a solid. You see screaming faces writhing and bulging out from within. The purple gas billows towards you, but you manage to outrun it. You reach the end of the hall and load yourself into the next partition before the smoke can touch you. SkullGreymon won’t be far behind.Astamon forces himself out of your Linker. You feel panic pulsating through the connection, as the both of you run down the hall. He pauses abruptly and turns around, aiming his gun down the partition with his sole functional arm. “What are YOU doing?! Don’t stop to fight him! He’s gonna catch up-“ You both freeze again as the abomination loads into the room. You can’t even register its full bulk, nor the way its misshapen skeleton is crammed into a space that’s way too small for it, both in terms of scale and storage. Skullgreymon's body is made almost completely of bone, with a misshapen organelle in the center of its chest. You can't make out any further detail. Its limbs are lanky and tipped in claws slick with Astamon's blood, and sutures bind its bones together. The proportions are all wrong. It's not like DarkTyrannomon's wireframe. It's not even howling or making noise any more, it's just shambling forth and attempting to put its combat instincts to use. It's worse than Raremon, if only due to the sheer power it's exhibiting. It oozes menace that even Astamon can pick up on.
You keep looking ahead. There are two exit points, thankfully. Up and down. This hall must be the very end of the entire building’s partition system. One point goes back down to ground level. If you take it, you can return to the Financial District, where the open air will provide enough space to face SkullGreymon. But you know that Astamon can’t defeat him anymore. He’s taken too much damage to even try, and frustratingly, you’ve spent so much time in here that time is now a concern. Your biggest hope is that the City Digimon will relish the chance to take this guy out for you, and you can suck up the scraps. One of the biggest problems then will be escaping them, for not all of them will be as cooperative as Hi-Commandramon. The other problem is that your VPN won’t survive it. Go back down there, and you’ll be marked by the City for good. There’s no more running. You’ll spend the rest of your time flagged by the system, and you don’t know how swift their pursuit will be. That leaves the second option: Up. You can exit the partition entirely and make it back into the City, with SkullGreymon in pursuit. You’ll be left with no choice but to run then, but escape will be infinitely easier. Somebody else will deal with him, this is no longer within your capability. You’ve achieved your goal, DarkTyrannomon is no longer able to lead, this is just an incredibly unfortunate and unforeseen turn of events.Bullets slam into the skeletal behemoth, but do absolutely nothing. This hallway has even less capacity than the room, and you're so far beyond data capacity that it's going to break down and shunt you outside soon. You'll have no choice but to suck Astamon into the Digivice again and make a decision. >Go down. You'll get back into the partition, where the City's Digimon will be waiting to fight it. However, if you choose to do this, you'll run out of time and your VPN will expire, flagging you from now on. You've consumed too much time by now to perform this safely. Once you're in the Financial District, you can try to scavenge some remaining data if they do manage to defeat it. But there are still enemies to worry about, like Gigadramon and the final dregs of SkullGreymon's current forces.>Go up. Finish your mission here by exiting into the City proper and taking SkullGreymon with you. You've got a feeling that it'll be dealt with, even if you don't put in any further pain and suffering. From there, you can make your escape and safely abscond back home, in order to process everything that's happened here tonight. You and Astamon can't risk any more battles.
>>6336999>Go up.All his base are still, indeed, belong to us. he has no chance to survive. Make your time, SkullGreymon.
>>6336999>Go up. Finish your mission here by exiting into the City proper and taking SkullGreymon with you. You've got a feeling that it'll be dealt with, even if you don't put in any further pain and suffering. From there, you can make your escape and safely abscond back home, in order to process everything that's happened here tonight. You and Astamon can't risk any more battles.
>>6336999>Go up. Finish your mission here by exiting into the City proper and taking SkullGreymon with you. You've got a feeling that it'll be dealt with, even if you don't put in any further pain and suffering. From there, you can make your escape and safely abscond back home, in order to process everything that's happened here tonight. You and Astamon can't risk any more battles.I wouldn't mind getting flagged if Asta was in a better shape and we had the data but right now is better to end with this mission already.Our hero Brigadramon is going to kill him for sure and reclaim the juicy data that has always belonged to the city. The datacenter, the Parrotmon, countless champions, all for our HERO. There might be human casualties and that will turn Marnie into even a bigger retard than Liza and Leomon because the latter did it for a good reason, to help a bro, while Marnie could harm non terrorist only to dunk on a mentally challenged dinosaur to give an hypocritical discourse.
>>6336999>Go up. Finish your mission here by exiting into the City proper and taking SkullGreymon with you. You've got a feeling that it'll be dealt with, even if you don't put in any further pain and suffering. From there, you can make your escape and safely abscond back home, in order to process everything that's happened here tonight. You and Astamon can't risk any more battles.>>6337036Fuck that, ESLfag. He NEEDED to be dunked on after all he did and we suffered through to get to this point. And with this, Marnie knows about the critical danger the books hold so she can go warn Squid and Wind
>>6337036Seethe harder. No, seriously. Spitemaxxing ftw.
>>6337099She literally made everything worse only for the empty satisfaction of being mean to the retarded dino. All the suffering, possible casualties, extra damage to Astamon, loss of precious xp, all for some mean words. If you're happy for turning Marnie into a drooling retard for some mean words, good for you. Until I see a clear benefit of this, I'm going to despise this useless choice. Because I didn't enjoy the mean words and I'm not particularly impressed for yet another Skullgreymon that's nothing but a mindless monster. Plus if they warn the dogs about the books, we might lose an actually fun demon lord villain.I'm just want to vent, I have the right. Don't worry, I don't want to piss off OP's playerbase so I'll stop now.
>>6337140kek
>>6337137>>6337141Yeah man this outcome, while not as beneficial to us as just killing him would have been, still has its good points. I can imagine if we had just killed him, maybe his Envy sigil could have transferred to Marnie's book instead of the book sigil going to DarkTyrannomon the way it played out here. That combined with all the data DarkTyrannomon collected being released, could have forcefully made Astamon undergo Dark Digivolution to something fucked up against Marnie's will. In that sense, we would have been in a trap regardless because of the book being there in the scene. What do you think about that potential scenario? Likely? Or am I reaching too much?
>>6337188I thought that at first to cope but if I can't stop seething until I get the confirmation and we learn more about the sigil's properties. If it's a manifestation of an special Digicore, then it's safe because I think Astamon doesn't eat Digicores, only data. It's another matter if the sigil is rooted in the data. It's all speculation.With that logic we could say that warning Wind about the fruits will make him want to use that power.Still, if you think that not getting the data was dodging a bullet, then you're ok in my book. Not that it matters, really.
>>6337188>>6337252The bad case scenario is that Marnie sees this and has pretty reliable proof to tell the Dogs not to trust their books.The worst case scenario is that Wind sees this and thinks "Hell yeah we gotta activate these books"I chose it largely for the same reason we had Marnie take the hit to her leg: establishing character moment and all that. I'm viewing this far more like an anime season than a quest where I'm trying to maximize progression. As such, I don't feel particularly anything about losing out on Darktyrannomon data.What's more important to me is the dynamic between Marnie and Phascomon, and if they're really committed to leaving before all the stuff here comes to a head. Accumulating power to achieve those goals is secondary to the goals themselves.
>>6337020>>6337023>>6337036>>6337099Writing! >>6337140>>6337275Don't worry about being upset with the way the votes went, I welcome discussion on it! This was a major event, so it's to be expected. >I'm viewing this far more like an anime season than a quest where I'm trying to maximize progressionYep me too, that's why I didn't use dice. The narrative and story you guys would like to pursue is key. Some things are fated to happen, some things can be avoided even if it never becomes obvious due to the skip itself.
>Go up. Finish your mission here by exiting into the City proper and taking SkullGreymon with you. You've got a feeling that it'll be dealt with, even if you don't put in any further pain and suffering. From there, you can make your escape and safely abscond back home, in order to process everything that's happened here tonight. You and Astamon can't risk any more battles.“Astamon, get back in!” ”He’s gonna-““He can’t attack properly in here! We need to go!” You interrupt. You have to get out NOW, before he comes close enough to scratch your partner again. You don’t want to let him go downstairs, he’ll be able to unfold his body and fight at full strength. Exiting the partition will let him do the same, but at least you have somewhere to run. ”Fine!”“HOLOLIZE!”The room speeds up as Astamon is converted into data and compressed into your Digivice. The partition still isn’t rated for something as huge as SkullGreymon, and you end up sluggish. You wade through the air, conscious of your movements, and you feel your anxiety ratchet upwards from each arduous step. When you slowly rotate your head to peek at SkullGreymon, you see it advancing at a steady rate. The ease at which it moves chills you. DarkTyrannomon struggled to move in lag due to his frenzied motions. But this creature is eerily calm. It knows exactly what it wants, and how to get there. It takes one step at a time, stomping across the smooth floor and dragging itself using its bony scythes. It’s going faster than you. Luckily, your lead is enough to reach the partition before it can get you. You yell in triumph as your fingers brush against the wall and you attempt to load yourself out. Locked. LOCKED?!
You bang on the blue portal, choking out a noise of pure despair. ”What? What’s going on?! Marnie! What’re you doing?!” “IT’S-“ You reach into your inventory and seize one of Squid’s decryption tools, smashing it into the wall of code as quickly as you can. It starts breaking the lock, but the bar moves at a horrifically slow rate due to the lowered processing speed of the whole hall. Of course it’s locked. This leads to the outside, and you’re on top of the tallest building in the whole District. It has to have some level of security. You look over to the other path that leads downwards. It’s down a whole different intersection, that SkullGreymon has now closed off. You’re locked in. “No! It’s not opening!” ”SEND ME OUT!” If you do, you’ll slow the decryption down by so much that you’ll never get out of here. There’s no space for him. You can’t. “It’ll brick everything! We’re cornered! We just have to wait!””Wait?! He’s RIGHT there!” SkullGreymon crawls closer and closer. You watch desperately as the progress bar ticks upwards, slower than you’d like, but far faster than you’d hope for. There’s still time. Five… Four…”DEATH. NAIL.” Astamon forces himself out of your Digivice, causing the world to freeze again. ”MA-M-M-MAV-MAVERICK-ICK-RICK-K-K!”His leg impacts the descending claw. You see the shockwave form bit by bit, spreading outwards and destroying scraps of data from both their surface textures. The last three seconds last for an eternity, and the hall begins to crack and splinter again, just like Astamon's foot and SkullGreymon's palm. You don't want to find out what happens if the partition kicks you out while there's only a locked door ahead of you. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to be sent out the other way, or maybe you'll all be shredded into nothingness. Fortunately, you never have to find out. As Astamon and Skullgreymon each recoil from the devastating clash, the crimson lock turns blue."H-H-HO-HO-HOLO-LI-HOLOLIZE!" You suck Astamon back in, then load yourself out before SkullGreymon can give chase.
You've never been more glad to see the darkened sky of the exterior world. You've ended up on a rooftop helipad, with the blocky roof entrance right behind you. You immediately start running, eager to be out of the lag again. The air feels icy cold against your skin, due to the heat you've been marinating in for the entire final section of your mission. "Thanks, Astamon..." "Mh." He mumbles. He sounds upset that you keep returning him to the Digivice, but you really had no choice, shrinking his data volume is one of the key abilities you can leverage here. The building is thick. Before you can even reach the edge, you feel waves of force emanating from behind you. SkullGreymon pushes its way back into the physical world, oozing malice from each and every vertex of its body. It starts groaning again, and it crouches down to aim the shape on its back at you. You finally register that it's a missile. Luckily, you hesitate to send Astamon out for a few terrifying moments. That would have been the last thing either of you ever did. Within seconds of SkullGreymon's emergence, heavy gunfire rains down on it, shredding its bones in a manner that Astamon's gun was completely unable to. You have no doubt in your mind that you would have been caught in the attack if you presented your partner as a target.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!Your goggles flash with an agonizing hue of red. You haven't seen this alarm in a long time. Not since that distant first night where you stared out at the Tower, unwisely scanning a beast that could see you right back. A Gatling cannon drowns out the entire world as it roars, and the roof explodes into shrapnel. You feel the ground itself caving as the rain of high-explosive bullets detonate against SkullGreymon over and over. Brigadramon descends from its eternal post. Now that you can see the Tower, you notice that it utterly dwarfs this piddly little structure that dared to stand above everything else in the job district. The Guardian moves with a sense of absolute certainty, and jets towards Skullgreymon to strike with unerring precision. As it makes contact, something explodes, and you're forced to avert your eyes. You've always known that this monster would be the last obstacle in your way. But you've never seen him this close before. It's even more dreadful than SkullGreymon. The air is warped by the sheer density of a Mega-level Digimon. His body is a shade of brilliant metallic blue, and countless thrusters are bolted to his body, giving him unmatched aerial capability. Weapon hardpoints and extended blades stick out from all over his body. Back when you started your journey with Phascomon, you wondered what Brigadramon would be like, and if there was more to him as a Digimon. But you can glean nothing. Right here, he acts only as a force of destruction, fully unleashed onto the invader."GROUND. ZERO..." "STOP GAWKING! WE HAVE TO GO! BEFORE HE SPOTS YOU!" Astamon screams from inside the Digvice. The sense of impending doom grows. You know that he's seen you already. It's impossible to escape his notice. But a lone Human is in no way a greater threat than a marauding Ultimate Digimon thats made its way into City 87-O proper. Brigadramon is dead set on deleting him first, and it'll only take him seconds. You throw yourself off the roof as a second, even more devastating explosion rocks your entire world. You plummet towards the ground, biting your jacket sleeve so your scream is muffled. Anything to avoid Brigadramon's attention. The gun roars, and then there's silence. You activate f1oat.app far too late, and you smash into the ground at too high a velocity for comfort. You don't quite hit the pain cap, fortunately, but you writhe about for a short while before managing to clamber to your feet. You look up at the roof, breathing heavily as you watch the destroyed data rain down on the whole district. It's over.
"Hey. Marnie. You okay? Talk to me.""I'm fine. Just thinking of-" Your voice is cut off suddenly. "You sure? You're crying." You reach up to touch your face, then flick away the particle effects. You don't quite know. You're confused. It's paralyzing you and interfering with your thoughts, but you know there's really nothing that should be making you this upset. The mission has been stressful, but nothing has gone THAT wrong, you still have your VPN, Astamon is still alive, and SkullGreymon is very certainly dead now that silence has fallen. So why do you feel that definite sense of loss? Like something meant for you has been forever snuffed out. That it'll never be returned to your hands. You tremble as you raise the Digivice to your face to get a close look at your partner. He's still here. Nothing is wrong. As you think of him, the feeling slowly dissipates— or more accurately, it melts away until the innermost traces of it are a hypercondensed core that buries itself deep in your heart. You're both alive. Everything will be okay.A sharp bolt of blue streaks from above and strikes you. You flinch, expecting some weapon from Brigadramon, but it's even worse than that. It's your book.app, returned to your hands like absolutely nothing is wrong. You don't know how to feel. You stash it in your inventory and start moving again."Hey... You're scaring me. Come on, let's get a move on. Let's go home. Before he comes down here." And you definitely expect him to rocket down at any moment. You're a known factor, Brigadramon might be after you. Or at least City goons will be. You have to pick a place to go to.
>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City.>Run to Doc immediately. He might know what's going on, and you have things to hand him. He's your best bet regarding Digimon, he might be able to explain what the hell just happened, and you really need a friendly face right now.>Head to the Dogs of War base. You've been through a bizarre sequence of events, and your treasure is involved. You can't stand to look at it right now. Wind and Squid were the ones to help you with it last month, and you also need to tell them since they have book.apps of their own.
>>6337633>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City.the tracks are waaay too hot right now, we should be doing a network jump or something right after refreshing the VPN.
Well, that raises some troubling possibilities. Maybe part of the reason the sigil is so hidden is because the book is just an interface, like a digivice.What if the demon lord is part of Marnie herself, injected at birth? That's not something you can just take out and delete. And it might be something that prevents true freedom for her.....orrr maybe going to the real world will force a purge.
>>6337627ENTER, OUR HERO
>>6337633>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City.Better to not give Doc unnecessary problems.>>6337619Good. If my seething also empowers you, then take it all :AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
>>6337275>'m viewing this far more like an anime season than a quest where I'm trying to maximize progression. As such, I don't feel particularly anything about losing out on Darktyrannomon data.>Accumulating power to achieve those goals is secondary to the goals themselves.+1 to this sentiment.>>6337643>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!Oh no! he has the power of God and anime on his side[/spoiler]>>6337633>Go home. Well shit, BlackAgu was definitely our destined Digimon partner.
>>6337633>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City.GO HOME
>>6337747>BlackAgu was definitely our destined Digimon partner.>So why do you feel that definite sense of loss? Like something meant for you has been forever snuffed out. That it'll never be returned to your hands.It would seem so.OR> As you think of him, the feeling slowly dissipates— or more accurately, it melts away until the innermost traces of it are a hypercondensed core that buries itself deep in your heart>A sharp bolt of blue streaks from above and strikes you. You flinch, expecting some weapon from Brigadramon, but it's even worse than that. It's your book.app, returned to your hands like absolutely nothing is wrong. Maybe it's something implanted in Marnie via the Envy book. Maybe >>6337637 is right and this is Leviamon's doing? If so, then the feeling of loss Marnie is feeling is actually fake and is perceived only thanks to the Envy book and it's connection to Marnie as a host vector and as a tool for it.
>>6337832I think both may be true. The Book (or Leviamon) was trying to pair us and BlackAgumon because our our shared tendencies towards dissatisfaction and spite, but we ran into Phasco-Bro first.
>>6337633>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City.
>>6337832Or not fake, but Darktyra was actually being fed with Marnie's envy, and that envy got destroyed. Even if it's a dark emotion, losing a piece of yourself might suck.
>>6337635>>6337643>>6337747>>6337761>>6337889Writing! No update today, got home very late. Really enjoying reading the theories and thoughts on the envy book.
>>6337999OP, what would it take for Doc and Squid to asspull so hard with their code cracking skills that they create the nocl1p.app?
>>6338314The .app is actually not that hard to physically create, and already exists in lesser form (the temporary one Marnie used in Operation Havoc). Both of them can probably make it. Or maybe not, I do arbitrarily decide on certain tools being exclusively made by one or the other to show their expertise in different fields. No real rhyme or reason why squid couldn’t make lifeline, for example, it’s just that she didn’t, and Doc did. The reason I’ve established for them not printing multiple copies is that a Code Cracker basically can’t trust random people to not be retarded with their toys. Something that breaks the rules of physics is liable to be flagged immediately, as does running so many concurrent .apps that your Human processing becomes impossibly high in the eyes of always-present passive detection, so using it in the outside world gets someone noticed straight away. That means it’s only safely useable in a partition, which is already a niche use.And then if it’s a long term tool instead of a self deleting app, it’s possible for the user to be caught, and for the .apps to be ripped apart and the Cracker identified. So it’s also a matter of trust, potential trouble, cost, and whether the entire project is worthwhile. Basically the Code Crackers that have showed up in the plot have a vested interest in keeping their products transient so they can’t be pirated, have to be bought multiple times and are a recurring source of profit, and to reduce risk to both customers and themselves. They’re both the sort of geniuses to know their limits and play safe. The copy that Marnie used was already babyproofed, thus could only stay active for so long before expiring.
>Go home. You don't want to implicate anybody else. This is the safest route if you're worried about endangering your allies. You need to try to lose any pursuers and then hide in your own apartment. You still haven't been flagged, you haven't doomed yourself yet. Bank on Brigadramon being too busy overseeing the massive raid they're carrying out to chase down just one person to the ends of the City."Let's just go, yeah..." You look back up at the rooftop. Shreds of data are still raining down. How much of that was part of SkullGreymon, and how much was the rooftop itself? You're hit with a grim reminder that it's all the same now. He's indistinguishable from the scrap that his attack has churned up. That thought continues to upset you, despite your joy at his defeat. You can't bring yourself to smile. The book.app is silent in your inventory. You turn tail and run, not daring to send Astamon out. Within the Digivice, you see him bobbing slightly. He's tired out and wants to return to a lesser form, but he can't until you're safely back home. Brigadramon tears through the air high above. You see smoke trailing off his body, and soot caked in the creases of his armor. SkullGreymon's final blow has done SOMETHING, at the very least. He's not untouchable like you've been fearing. But you don't have anything as strong as that colossal organic missile that the undead dinosaur bore on its spine. He sends out a ping that highlights the street down below. A massive waveform blitzes through the air and turns into a lattice grid when it impacts the buildings, travelling down their length and highlighting them in green. This whole district has been evacuated for the operation, so you're likely the sole human left behind. You breathe heavily as you try to outrun it, but you can't outspeed data like that. Salvation comes in the familiar bricky form of a vending machine, rescuing you yet again.Like last time, with Cutemon, and unlike the first time where you were ambushed using one of these, you take the machine for your own and load yourself through it. You linger within the platform for a short amount of time, getting your bearings and hoping that the scan doesn't reveal that you've fled into this thing. "We should use the Network, we can't walk around with him patrolling..." "Yeah. But in your condition, can we?" Astamon responds by hololizing himself. He's noticeably sagging, and his data is struggling to heal where SkullGreymon cleaved him in the back. One foot is cracked, on the opposite side of his erased joint, and he's in awful shape. But you have one last stretch to embark on. "Home." He declares. "Home." You agree.==
You didn't plan for a jaunt through the Network, you thought you'd be able to emerge into the district and run to your next destination. But Brigadramon is patrolling, and you have no way of sensing when he'll stop. You wish you had some way of liaising with Hi-Commandramon and demanding his help, but that's out of the question by now. The two of you move through the electronic tunnels without the convenience of a ping, just hoping to escape into the City and pop out somewhere without an audience. Astamon's presence wards off most of the curious Digimon, but after a while, he stops being able to maintain his Ultimate form. He collapses, and as you fuss over him, he transforms back into Porcupamon. From then on, a few more Network-bound Digimon dare to approach, and you're forced to shoot at them with the packet pistol. You score a lucky hit on a Digimon that looks like it's made of cardboard, when it tries to launch a roll of tape at you. The malware deletes it instantly, spooking even a few Champions and causing them to flee. Notably, there are way less Digimon in here than before. You see some in the distance following pre-established network tunnels, all moving in the direction you're fleeing from. They're being drawn to the District. You're grateful for the lingering distraction, and the fact that you don't see any Ultimate Digimon like Giromon, or the horse that came after you two during Operation Augur. Finally, you find a train station ticketing machine that you can use as an exit. Porcupamon has run out of steam and reverted to Phascomon. He pants heavily, struggling to get to the portal. You quickly scoop him up, your heart hurting as you see your partner in this state."Hey, easy. Let's-" "Lemme go first... I need to... to scout..." "You're in no condition to fight!" "But what if there's a bot? I'll come get you if the coast is... is clear..." He huffs.Despite his exhaustion, your partner forces his way out of your arms and scurries out before you can do anything.“PHASCOMON!” You cry, but it’s too late. He’s outside. You huff and cross your arms by the portal, waiting for his bulbous head to pop back in and tell you that it’s fine. But he doesn’t. Something is wrong. You pace back and forth urgently, staring at your Digivice and hoping to feel something. Maybe you’re too far away to sense him through the link? He could be in trouble. You don’t hesitate any further, and quickly load yourself into the outside world. ==
“Should we call somebody?” “It’s not moving.” “Don’t poke it! Let’s just find a bot, we- WOAH!” You’ve emerged right in front of two humans. You recognize them, actually. The woman in the pencil skirt with two curls by the side of her bob-cut is the recruiter from this morning. And looking over her is the big guy who was bragging about viruses earlier. He has a tie wrapped around his head like a sash. The two look like they've been out partying, now that office hours are over.“What the- Hey! How’d you get in there?” He exclaims. You ignore them. These are the first people who have caught you in action. You couldn’t have been so lucky forever, but at least it wasn’t in the middle of a servitor swarm. You spot Phascomon on the ground, face-down and snoring heartily. He’s collapsed from his injuries and is sleeping them off. Luckily, nothing awful has happened to him, but this is far from optimal. You stop yourself from reaching for him and giving yourself away. What you do here is vital, you can't just pick him up like you know him. The Digital Lifeform Conservation act is well known, and you have these two pegged for narcs. Nemu places a hand on your shoulder. “Hey. I don’t know what’s going on, but we should just call a bot, right? Come on, it’s not safe. That thing is a Digimon, y’know.” “I wonder what type it is.” The Virus Busting guy mumbles, tucking a stick under his shoulder. He holds out a tablet to snap a photo. >Write in: Talk your way out of this somehow, you need to escape this situation with your wits. You’re lucky that the final obstacle between you and your home is just a pair of humans who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but your words have never been more important than right now.
>>6338529>Write in:Tell them that you are a city employee just like them. A super secret employee hired to test if certain gifted individuals can locate hurt Digimon and take them to the bots, for an exorbitant amount of credits of course.You could tell them that the bots are short on personal thanks to a certain terrorist attack so they might want to recruit the elite citizens with more points to help with this super secret mission, specially those that are specialists at virus busting.To keep their mouths shut, you need to tell them that if they want to form part of it, they ONLY must wait for the city to contact them after getting high scores., the highest if possible. If they talk now about wanting to participate, they'll get in trouble because the bots will think they want to violate the Digital Lifeform Conservation act, this is a super secret mission after all.
>>6338582If they want more info tell them that the creature is a Monkemon, it throws pink excrement when he gets angry. If you need to hololize him, just do it, but call the Digivice a Pokevice. Or the smuggling program maybe.Don't forget to the them about how important citizens are for the 87-0's functioning and how the city is always looking new ways to put their talents to work.
>>6338529Our first priority is making sure he doesn't take a photo. Hmmmm.>Shout at them in a panic, asking them what they're still doing here and that the evacuation order is still in place. Dozens of giant insects and plants have been running around, this is no time to be standing around.>Pull their arms and drag them away, looking for a good place to activate the last optical camo."Listen, you two passed the audit for quality of public service, but if you insist on playing heroes now is NOT the time to be slacking off on work. Small digimon like that are nothing compared to the tremendous amounts of repairs and firepower we need right now! Just sit here, I'll call someone to assist you.">Go somewhere out of sight but not towards phascomon, and activate camo.>If the big guy is already going back for phascomon, Start dropping lanterns to blind him and hide the hololize to bring phascomon into the digivice.
>>6338582>>6338598Kek, solid bamboozling. +1>>6338529
You can say whatever you want here and it's probably going to work. The main problem is they snitching to the bots when they ask for metadata.
>>6338529I change my vote from >>6338582 >>6338598to>>6338634It's more practical and probably those two aren't that retarded to fall for it. It doesn't solve the snitching problem but neither does mine.If the big guy takes a photo, use that program from the hospital, the one that fucks up machines from a distance.
>>6338634>>6339013Writing!
>Write-inYou need to get them away from here as soon as you can, so you can fetch your partner. And you don't have much time before they get suspicious. You only have a few moments to talk. You've already acted suspiciously by emerging from a ticketing machine, and your nerves are fried from the adventure you've just been on. You start trying to boss them around."Hey, what're you two still doing here? There's an evacuation order, isn't there?" The backwards cap guy blinks at you. He lowers his camera, and you thank your lucky stars you don't have to attack it with your image-wiping .app."Uh, yeah. In the district, right? We're outside of it. In fact, we're on the way home." He motions to the ticketing machine for the train station. They're indeed in a public space and using a service that's still running. Damn. That's one thing wrong already. "Well, uh... There are a whole bunch of big bugs and plants running around in there. So..." Nemu inadvertently comes to your rescue with her own realization. "Oh! So that was what Brigadramon was doing! I told you there were explosions!" "Yeah, you did. Huh. Big operation going on? Involving Digimon? Oh, then we REALLY should call someone for this guy! He came from there!" He motions to Phascomon, who has rolled over onto his back. A big snot bubble is forming on his nose. All of the most devastating injuries have been banished by his form change, but cuts and scrapes proportional to his current size are still covering him. "And speaking of coming from the district, how were you inside the terminal in the first place?" She asks. You don't really have a direct explanation thought up for that, so you just keep talking and building up your narrative. "I'm... an auditor!" "An auditor? You? Little kid like you?" Cap guy asks, furrowing his brow. He's got a bit of a snaggletooth, which sticks out from his bottom jaw. He chews on his lip while staring you up and down, having trouble buying that. You get behind him and start pushing him towards the platform. He obliges in confusion, and Nemu follows along. "That's why I was going around this morning. You two passed, by the way. Quality of public services is good enough. But this is a serious situation, you know? Lots more Digimon are gonna be showing up soon. Tomorrow morning, there'll probably be a lot of repairs needed. Just get going! I'll call someone. Stay right there." You look at his skeptical face, and feel your cover story rapidly unraveling. You're out of things to say. You don't have an excuse for what you were doing in the partition, and your auditor angle isn't strong enough. You're not establishing yourself well enough as some kind of special agent assigned by the City. These two are adults with their own jobs, surely they know how work is assigned, and are seeing holes in it. This is why you hate talking to career folk.
"Just- give me a bit!" "Hold on." He frowns, holding an arm out to stop you. But Nemu waves you off. "Let's just wait and see. Go call whoever you're going to!" She smiles warily. You scurry off, and as soon as you're out of sight, you activate one of your last remaining Optical Camo applications. When you peek around the corner, you see them wandering towards the nearest servitor. They're going to report you. They've seen your face now, and they've met you in the district. They'll likely be able to refer the bots to that footage and identify you after a certain amount of time. Big trouble is approaching. You run back towards Phascomon and quickly return him to your Digivice, before vanishing down a side alley while cursing the two of them the whole way.== You burst into your apartment and immediately get to work on your double. The TV alibi will hold up until they have a source of cross comparison. You don't know how much longer you have before they track you down, but the timer has probably started thanks to those two. The concerning part is that Phascomon is badly hurt. He'll need a while to recover, during which you can't rely on his power. He isn't even awake yet. You want so badly to get his take on the current situation, but you can't bear to wake him up like this. You finish disconnecting your proxy program and save the metadata clip so you have a good chunk to provide if they ask for your actions from today. You force yourself to sit down for a little bit and think. DarkTyrannomon is gone now. You've rid the City of a massive threat, and you'll be getting no thanks, nor any data. Your solace comes from the fact that you've eliminated a long-standing nemesis and avenged the comrades you've lost because of him. But that's your sole win from today. Things are going to get much harder from now. You have to start planning for your climb as soon as possible. You send Wind a text immediately, informing him that you want his aid with the distraction in an upcoming period of time. He replies quickly. You're glad for that, it makes you feel like the friction between the two of you is dissolving. 829SH(: So just be ready please.W: Got it. I have to put my foot down on tomorrow, only tomorrow is impossible, you're texting me way too late. But I'll get everyone on standby.829SH(: Okay. Thanks. Btw there's something I have to tell you guys, I need to come over sometime.W: Good, better if you do before we actually launch our mission.829SH*(: I'll just text ahead. W: Ok. Also, you got anything to do with the nightly news? "Huh?" You flick the TV on.
"Earlier tonight, a stunningly successful operation by City-sanctioned security forces led to the destruction of a highly dangerous Digital Life form, which has been hampering District B67 operations over the last month."To your utmost surprise, they're actually showing the fight between Brigadramon and SkullGreymon. It must be to shock the viewers, and really let it sink in that Digimon aren't to be trifled with. The ease with which he battles the marauding monster is also excellent propaganda. You're too busy looking for yourself falling off the roof in the footage, so you end up having to rewind it once the bright explosion fills the screen. The static clears and you end up looking at SkullGreymon again. Your book is silent, but just watching this rekindles that sense of pining. You watch as he crouches down on all fours, occupying the entire roof. The massive missile on his back surges upwards, heading towards Brigadramon high in the air. Brigadramon doesn't cut off its Gatling gun. With this framerate, it looks like a completely uninterrupted beam of light that's creating an endless explosion against the skeletal beast. He drops straight down like a meteor and launches several small projectiles of his own, which detonate against the missile. When they fail to stop it, he slashes it directly and causes the explosion that blinded you as you were falling. His course continues uninterrupted despite the mild damage from destroying the missile. You watch in a mixture of awe and fright as he spirals across the Ultimate Digimon's spine, breaking entire segments of the bone apart at once. Once that's done, he performs an aileron roll from behind and carves its limbs into scrap, before halting in front of it and blasting the skull with its endlessly spinning gun. And yet SkullGreymon lives. Not for any longer. Brigadramon then surges forward and destroys the organ in its chest. When he emerges on the other side, the Digicore has already been crushed, leaving the body to fall apart into the shreds of data that rained down upon you, along with chunks of the utterly devastated roof. Then he pings the ground and flies off once it makes contact. The camera pans towards him again. This time, you see his Gatling gun shooting in small bursts. Unlike the constant stream of death that he used on SkullGreymon, he only fires tiny, almost pathetic looking spurts at unseen targets. But as soon as each shot is complete, he moves on to the next one. Regular viewers might just see it as blind firing, but you understand what's happening. Every attack is successfully eliminating an invader, completely deleting them without even descending to the ground. Whether they're Rookies, Champions, or even Gigadramon, you're confident that the fact that he stops firing means that he's made a kill.If he scanned you, you could have been one of them. You don't know what his orders are regarding you.
"Marnie...?" Phascomon asks weakly. You see him on your screen with one eye open, watching the broadcast blearily. "Shh. Go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning." "I... Sorry, I-""What? You don't have anything to be sorry for. Come on, get some rest. You really, really need it now." You turn the lights off on your Digivice, and that's enough to lull his exhausted little form to sleep. You sit on the bed and watch as the propaganda continues.There's nothing else of interest. They simply announce that tomorrow is a holiday for those who work in that district, as they finalize their repairs and make sure everything is back in shape. The screen is then filled with live comments from the audience, who are cheering and celebrating the resolution of their tech issues.You keep it on just in case, worried that you'll see yourself there. Luckily, no such thing happens. You pace around while figuring out your next move.>Go to sleep for now. You're exhausted and not thinking straight. In the morning, when Phascomon hopefully wakes up, you can start planning anew. But right now, any further strain is going to hamper your judgement. Maybe the two didn't even report you. That's a long shot, but you hold on to a bit of hope.>Start packing up. If you're flagged, you're going to lose a lot of privileges. That includes having an apartment. You want to get your most important belongings and leave before they can find your address. You're not sure how fast they can figure out who you are. Work through the exhaustion and get ready to depart your home forever. >Leave immediately. You're paranoid that something is going to happen. You don't think you have time to even pack, just get out of here. With your failure to talk your way out of the earlier situation, you think that your choice to come home has retroactively become a mistake. You'll prioritise going to the Dogs of War base over Doc's, since you want to brief them on the book. Unless you change your mind as you're walking out of the door, of course.
Unfortunate outcome. But there were several key metrics I had in mind, and most would have to be answered in the write-in. Like:>Excuse for being inside partition>Something to keep the two cooperative>Reason for them to not report Digital Lifeform>Minimal contradictory statements>Some level of Evidence to strengthen story and provide authority>>6338582 Super secret job was actually hitting more of these thanks to the inclusion of a top secret promotion. Auditor was halfway there but overall not specialized enough of an excuse and didn't explain why Marnie and Phascomon burst out of the same device. Had some contradictions too, I think it's partially on me for not emphasising that the vending machine popped Marnie into a populated zone outside the district, but the job audit angle was already incompatible with being so close to a Digimon.Also for the latest choices, just mention it in the vote if you guys pick the 3rd option AND want to go to Doc's particularly strongly instead of the dow base.
Well, this is a fine pickle.>>6339161>Leave immediately. You're paranoid that something is going to happen. You don't think you have time to even pack, just get out of here. With your failure to talk your way out of the earlier situation, you think that your choice to come home has retroactively become a mistake. You'll prioritise going to the Dogs of War base over Doc's, since you want to brief them on the book. Unless you change your mind as you're walking out of the door, of course.Nope. This has been fuck-up after fuck-up, rather fucknup as little as possible the rest of the day.>inb4 this is a fuck-up
>>6339161>Leave immediately. You're paranoid that something is going to happen. You don't think you have time to even pack, just get out of here. With your failure to talk your way out of the earlier situation, you think that your choice to come home has retroactively become a mistake. You'll prioritise going to the Dogs of War base over Doc's, since you want to brief them on the book. Unless you change your mind as you're walking out of the door, of course.I want the information about the book to pay off already, also the Dogs might have easier access to Cutemon.I fucked up hard there. I should have added more layers to the lie as I wanted.
>>6339161>Leave immediately. You're paranoid that something is going to happen. You don't think you have time to even pack, just get out of here. With your failure to talk your way out of the earlier situation, you think that your choice to come home has retroactively become a mistake. You'll prioritise going to the Dogs of War base over Doc's, since you want to brief them on the book. Unless you change your mind as you're walking out of the door, of course.We all knew this would happen eventually. Chalk it up to Marnie being fried after that whole mission like anybody else would be in her place. In any case, we're almost scot-free and we need to obey Wind as much as we can while he's sheltering us or we're doomed before we can even assault the Tower.
>>6339157I was really hoping for someone better than me, but them's the breaks. We're gonna need another outfit change, but we're in the endgame.>>6339163Oh, we came out of the vending machine? Yeah I didn't catch that. Not like I can come up with something even with all that.>>6339161>Start packing up. If you're flagged, you're going to lose a lot of privileges. That includes having an apartment. You want to get your most important belongings and leave before they can find your address. You're not sure how fast they can figure out who you are. Work through the exhaustion and get ready to depart your home forever. That being said, I still think running around looking exactly as is will be the biggest problem, so we need SOME time to wear something else.
>>6339161>Pack upNo need to panic... The city ain't THAT efficient. They're struggling with essentially gangs of teenage hoodlums, kek.
>>6339163OP what would have happened if we had chosen to simply kill DarkTyrannomon normally without spitemaxxing as we did? How different would things have played out? Did we mess up too hard having Marnie spitemaxxing just to let it all out for fucking once after all she's been through?
>>6339161>Start packing up. If you're flagged, you're going to lose a lot of privileges. That includes having an apartment. You want to get your most important belongings and leave before they can find your address. You're not sure how fast they can figure out who you are. Work through the exhaustion and get ready to depart your home forever.
>>6339394I think it's a bit early to ask with the heat not yet down.Personally my guess is that astamon would be the one forcibly dark evo'd. Whether its another ultimate like skullgreymon im not sure, but the beatdown on phascomon would be severe and our cover blown even harder. If it goes straight to demon lord then the whole City is screwed for the next half hour.
>>6339394He would still have Digivolved, yes. It was an important event I’ve charted for a long time that was fated to happen. However, what would’ve happened was that the wasted time and lag trapping would have been significantly less. I failed to convey just how long everyone was stuck in the bricked partitions due to my eagerness to write the scene, but if you guys voted to shoot him, Marnie would have been able to flee downwards into the District without automatically being flagged due to VPN expiry. >>6339160 that’s what this pic was originally for, in fact. An alternate route where the City Digimon are forced to fight a giant ass Kaiju with their full arsenal. And then depending on how I improvised there would’ve been some further votes to benefit from the data spill in some manner.
>>6339474>prolonging the mission after all the damage Astamon tookBro what the fuck is this assumption, Astamon's not a tank and he got one of his arms broken in the fight ans after all the insane struggle we pulled through to get there, we just wanted our win and to fuck off already but noooooooooo muh demon lord ruse getting us NO DATA and NO THANKS and NO REWARD and ZERO GAIN
>>6339494>AssumptionKek it’s me anon I’m just heavily inconvenienced by ip fuckery and can’t be fucked with the trip on mobile sometimesAnd yeah it would not have been a GOOD choice either, further pursuing that would have hurt Astamon more and increased the current recovery time he’s undergoing, along with some other effects, both good and bad. Taunting DarkTyrannomon locked off the greed option for better or worse.
>>6339170>>6339197>>6339218>>6339257>>6339324>>6339428Need tiebreaker please, next vote or vote swap will lock it in. Gonna write after that, on the way home now.
>>6339257>I still think running around looking exactly as is will be the biggest problem, so we need SOME time to wear something else.Appearance and cosmetics are irrelevant to the system. The bots will instantly identify Marnie on sight.>>6339324>strugglingThey let it happen and you know it>>6339462I thought so too, that the tables would be flipped and Astamon is the one receiving Dark Evolution instead.>>6339517>further pursuing that would have hurt Astamon more and increased the current recovery time he’s undergoingAnd delaying our assault on the Tower longer as well. That risks Wind exerting his influence and weight harder on Marnie (not in THAT way!), not to mention other unknown factors>along with some other effects, both good and badI just know you had HoverEspimon down there waiting in the wings like the opportunist fuck he is to ambush us on seeing Astamon substantially injured. And though we could attempt self-defense, our boy Hi-Commandramon would not have any of it if he saw it happening. He'd easily put two and two together on seeing SkullGreymon chasing us and Astamon injured. It might have broken him further seeing a "good friend" of his like HoverEspimon going all in on the backstab, on top of knowing how hard Marnie and Astamon were at work this entire shitshow. An interesting angle that seeing our desperate struggle and knowing us firsthand, VPN disguise aside, could have pushed Hi-Commandramon further against the system on the inside.
>>6339530>The bots will instantly identify Marnie on sight.The bots will, but they're running off civilian testimony.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>6339530Quite accurate yeah! That’s where the City mons would have shown up again>>6339519Flipping coin
>Leave immediately. You're paranoid that something is going to happen. You don't think you have time to even pack, just get out of here. With your failure to talk your way out of the earlier situation, you think that your choice to come home has retroactively become a mistake. You'll prioritise going to the Dogs of War base over Doc's, since you want to brief them on the book. Unless you change your mind as you're walking out of the door, of course.829SH(: Change of plans.829SH(: I can't stay at my apartment anymore, I need to come by.W: You flagged? Come on, M, we can't hide you.829SH(: I'm not, promise. I didn't get caught.829SH(: But they're investigating me.829SH(: Please.W: Fine. We've improved our jamming anyway. He sends you coordinates for Network access, but you know you can't take that while Phascomon is asleep. Running unescorted through the Network is sure to get you killed. In fact, going through the sewers is just as dangerous while your partner is down, but you've made the choice to leave at once. You don't want to dilly-dally. 829SH(: mon is down, I can't get thereW: Seriously?? W: You're on your own.W: Fine. Meet at point. Sending volunteer. You sigh in relief. A volunteer. You do have people you could call friends among their number. You don't stop to pack your things, since you're forced to leave. All you get is a quick break that lasts less than fifteen minutes. It's nowhere enough to properly put your thoughts in order or come to terms with the rapid change. You're going to miss this place sorely.
While you've never felt like you've belonged in this City, this house has treated you well. You look out the window from the last time, examining the Tower that's not really on the other side of the partition wall. For most of your life, you chose to keep that place out of your sight. But after partnering up with Phascomon, you've forced your window's point of view to reflect that horrid beacon, so you could always remember your goal. You're 29 floors up, and your current view actually belongs to one of your neighbors who you've never spoken to. You flick through your apartment controls and turn off the window, watching as purple curtains draw themselves across the panel. You glance around, taking in the rest of the detailing. Your partner has made some changes to the place, and once you had someone to share it with, you naturally ended up moving things around as well. The artificial foliage and smooth marble is beloved by the both of you, and when he's not napping in your room or the Digivice tree, he's loved clinging to the support pillars near the edges. And of course, the TV pit most of all. Before you turn the news off, you hesitate, then flick through the channels to find his favorite show. That gangster movie is on. The one he wanted to get home to watch. He's going to miss it, and you can't even tape it for him, since you'll be gone. You shut the television off with a sigh. You no longer feel any bitterness towards this place. Having a friend by your side has filled it with life, that's now about to be drained clean. You wonder how the next inhabitant will treat this place once the inside is completely wiped. As you set your hand on the exit portal, you hesitate just long enough to turn around and take a photo of the interior. It's for nobody's eyes but your own. Just one little bit closure you're trying to wring out, now that you're abandoning your home. "So long..." You say to nobody. And then you're out the door forever. ==
As you walk, you keep an eye out for security instances. Your eyes constantly flicker upwards, expecting one to be seen flying overhead. You’ve spent your final Optical Camo usage on rescuing Phascomon, so you’re dry. You finally reach the rendezvous point. At this time of night, few people are making use of the parking lot. You watch it for twenty minutes before concluding that no vehicles are going in and out, and that it's safe to enter the grounds.Instinctively, you look for that shock of hair that Ryan walks around with. You don't manage to find it. Instead, somebody whistles at you from atop a gate control terminal. "Marnie! Here!" You look up, and you’re happy to see Bella sitting there in the pink of health. She looks like her usual gloomy self, save for the little smile on her face."Bella!" "And me!" Gazimon calls from her Digivice. "You're good to walk around again?" "Yeah. Thanks to you. Squid did a diagnostics test on me. Absolutely nothing wrong. Like nothing ever happened." You look down at your own leg, which once bore that nasty scar. Though her disfigurement was infinitely more severe, you had to bear your injury for quite a bit longer. You can empathize with how she would have felt. "That's great! You volunteered to come pick me up?" Bella nods. She slides off the terminal, kicking her legs through the empty air as she tries to lower herself to the ground. You end up having to walk over and help her down. "Phew... Out of practice. I wanted to help you out. I heard Phascomon is... How bad is it?" "Yeah. What got him?""DarkTyrannomon." You sigh. "Well, at the end of his life, he was SkullGreymon." "No way... From the news report? Squid was freaking out." She mumbles. "Brigadramon finished the job." Gazimon remarks."He did. But we fought him and won before he Digivolved. Phascomon just needs a ton of rest now. Nothing life-threatening." You can't see her expression from inside the Digivice, but she beeps softly and says nothing else. "Let's get moving. I don't want to use the Network again." Bella declares. "Of course. The sewers will do. They haven't auto-tagged me, but I think it's only a matter of time..." The two of you hurry to the nearest teleportation beacon. ==
“So… You’re really gonna do it, huh?” She asks, as your party of three skips over a small drainage channel. Gazimon wrinkles her nose. “Do what?” “What else? Climb the Tower and leave.” “Oh. Yeah. I am. Wind told you guys about the distraction, didn’t he?” ”Yeah. That our mission will double up as a chance to draw Brigadramon away. From you, that is, we may have to deal with him.” While you’re grateful for the chance to avoid him, you’re rather concerned about the fact that your allies will be facing such a monster. You’ve only just experienced his strength tonight, you’re certain there will be casualties if they take him on. But there’s no sense in worrying Bella. You might not even want to bring that up to Wind, lest he reconsider. “That’s the plan. And I’m going to need to do it soon, because once they find me, I won’t be able to move freely anymore.” Gazimon holds out a claw to stop the two of you. You hear a Digimon’s footsteps ahead, and prepare for an encounter. Bella’s eyes widen when you draw your gun, but she stays silent as per Gazimon’s frantic command. Fortunately, the Digimon moves on, and you resume your trek. She starts making small talk again after a while, and you take the chance to oblige.>Ask her about their upcoming mission. It’s a big one, and all you know is that they’re stealing a Deckerdramon sample. You’d like to know more about their distraction effort, and how it’ll benefit you.>Ask her how she’s been. The two of you haven’t gotten time to catch up ever since she got injured. She’s in a much better mood now that her body isn’t in shambles, but you haven’t had much of an opportunity to deepen your friendship.>Ask about the Sewers. Things have been rapidly changing in here ever since Raremon’s suppressive presence was removed. You’d like to know more about this ecosystem, and how your actions have ended up shaping it.
>>6340025>Ask about the Sewers. Things have been rapidly changing in here ever since Raremon’s suppressive presence was removed. You’d like to know more about this ecosystem, and how your actions have ended up shaping it.How's SeadramonBut also we should tell her about the books. Aside from that, the only thing Wind really has to know about is the schedule.
>>6340025>Ask her how she’s been. The two of you haven’t gotten time to catch up ever since she got injured. She’s in a much better mood now that her body isn’t in shambles, but you haven’t had much of an opportunity to deepen your friendship.I'd like to know how are they planning to avoid getting fodderized when Brigadramon comes to to shower then on democracy but I don't think she's got particularly useful information about that.>>6339474I suppose nothing of significant value could be gained from not choosing spite. I wish we had been able to outsmart the virus buster, that would have solved everything, or at least bought Marnie and Phascomon a good night of rest.Still, there's something very funny about the outcome. I imagine HoverEspimon getting all his tricks and his 200 IQ plan ready to trap Marnie, but he got ultra cucked by the Chad Virus Buster and Nemu. I hope he doesn't get the promotion.Those two should get their spin-off quest. Such a loveable pair.
>>6340025>Ask about the Sewers. Things have been rapidly changing in here ever since Raremon’s suppressive presence was removed. You’d like to know more about this ecosystem, and how your actions have ended up shaping it.The was a very bittersweet scene, and I too wish we could have given our duo some more time... But in the end, maybe this is better. Long goodbyes hurt more, and this was a place we'd always have to abandon.
>>6340025>Ask about the Sewers. Things have been rapidly changing in here ever since Raremon’s suppressive presence was removed. You’d like to know more about this ecosystem, and how your actions have ended up shaping it.It's all ephemera anyway, just code in the stream
>>6340039>>6340081>>6340339>>6340059Sewers! >>6340059Kek yeah he just got completely skipped. It’s fun writing those two. I based them off Sleepmon/Sheepmon and Bearmon. Maybe in another world they have Digimon of their own.
Bit late sorry, nursing a bad hangover.
>>6341008Had a good weekend, QM?
>>6341179Could have been better. Lost my glasses in the process so now I’m too blind to write comfortably. Going on a quest to find them while writing on mobile when possible.
>Ask about the Sewers. Things have been rapidly changing in here ever since Raremon’s suppressive presence was removed. You’d like to know more about this ecosystem, and how your actions have ended up shaping it.You want to know more about what’s happening in the sewers. You got to see a whole new Champion Digimon last time, so growth has clearly been progressing. Liza might be part of it now that she has access to a Digimon again. You decide to prompt Bella.“You guys have been using the sewers a lot more, right?” “Yeah,” she says. “Now that we use the front gate most of the time, we’ve been doing patrols and all. My job has been making sure Digimon don’t try to establish their territory on the routes leading up to the base.” "If they do, it might slow down the bots. Bit of a double edged sword.""It might, but we don't want any unpredictable elements hanging around." You pause to examine a gouge on a wall. It looks like a portion of the sewer has been damaged. "Lots of fights, huh?" "They've been getting more active, yep. We've identified a few areas with higher-level Digimon that are far enough to ignore. They're the sort you'd expect to find in a sewer." "Ugh, that Sukamon is the worst... Disgusting!" "I hate Numemon more." Bella mumbles. "What are those?" You ask.
You hardly believe it when they start explaining how they throw giant balls of pink dung at their enemies. You vaguely recall Phascomon mentioning Digimon like those two, back when you were asking him things about junk data. You're once again grateful that your human nose can't smell digital waste. Gazimon looks as bothered as your partner usually is, while she wanders across the stone walkways. "Ew. And there are a lot of them now?" "They're lesser Champions, so even a Rookie can beat them a lot of the time. They just don't want to, they're too gross." It seems like beating Raremon has given plenty of Digimon the opportunity to flourish. You wonder if things would be safer for the Dogs of War if it was still alive. Wind and Kaus Gammamon could handle it without issue, the main hazard would be its paralyzing miasma, that seemed to render Rookies completely incapable of putting up a fight. "Any Digimon of note that don't throw junk at people?" "Well, there's a Shellmon. It's really big. It tried muscling in on our territory, but Wind took care of it. He didn't delete it, though, it retreated into its giant shell and he decided to leave it alone." "And there's that weirdo." "How could I forget that one...?" Bella muses. "Let's hope we don't run into him, that Digimon gives me the creeps." You try to pry a little further, but they seem put off by the topic. You shrug and continue walking with them, moving on to your next topic soon enough. "Are there a lot of Vaccines down here nowadays? I knew a Digimon down here who was really insistent on undoing all of this." You motion to the stone walls and copper pipes. If it weren't for the high amount of Virus-type Digimon constantly changing the environment, these sewers would be made of plain textures and sterile polygons. You grab a copy.tool and refill your stocks of assorted assets, in case they come in handy later. Bella watches curiously. She only tangentially knows about your smuggling partition, so this must be a first for her. "There are these little green guys that jump out of the junk sometimes. Swimmon? They like to clean up the place." "They didn't like me very much. I paralyzed a couple who got too uppity!" Gazimon snickers. Seadramon's old goal of cleansing the sewers is very likely dead, then. It seems like this place is going to stay the way it is. You recall what she told you about wanting to become the ruler down here. That might cause conflict with the Dogs of War, especially since Liza has a link to them too
“Cool, cool. Have you heard from Liza?” “Not really. Why do you ask?” “I kinda… got her in contact with a Digimon that Phascomon and I knew. She should have been active in the sewers recently.”Bella reacts with abject surprise. “I haven’t heard from her at all.”"Do me a favor, don't tell Wind about it. I just wanted to give her a chance, y'know? Without-" "You don't have to explain yourself. I know. She always treated me well, if I wasn't so messed up back then, maybe I could have..." She trails off. It's clear that Liza's fate is really bothering her. "If you two see wild Digimon, maybe you could ask them about Seadramon then. And if she and Liza have shown up around here." "Will do, will do. Oh, speaking of Sewer Digimon...""Ryan will be happy to see you. He's been excited to show you something for a bit." "Really? Ryan? I'll go see him after I get settled in, then." The time for small talk passes once a pod of Otamamon splash across the upcoming intersection. They're led by a red one. You check your Digivice and see that Phascomon is still asleep. When a few curious enemies start coming towards you three and licking their lips, Gazimon steps ahead of you. You aim the packet pistol as well, and prepare for their advance.==
Once Bella passes the two-factor authentication test at the gate, an on-duty member opens up the entrance to admit you. You glance inside. Things look quite a bit neater than the last time. Even the pile of scrap assets that they once left for Squid is gone. Immediately, you’re accosted by a few members of the jamming team, led by ToyAgumon. ”Welcome back, Bella, Gazimon, and Marnie!” He chirps. “Hi. Are you guys here to scan me?” ”That’s right. We need to see how compromised you are. Squid found a read-only backdoor to the city’s fugitive database. She can confirm whether you’re there.” “Pfft.” You look towards the source of the scoff. Sitting on a couch is the mohawk-sporting kid who you’ve developed a heavy distaste for. “What?”“Even you can get caught, huh?” His Goburimon isn’t around, but the youth himself is as nasty as ever. Before you can think of a retort, the Jamming squad starts scanning you and requesting small packets of info. You oblige, knowing that you’ll be kicked out of here if you make a fuss. “Huh!” Hannah exclaims. “You’re still clean for now. They’re not sending out any search requests.” “That’s good. As long as I haven’t been caught in a partition without a VPN, I won’t be tracked automatically, right?” “Correct.” She agrees. “By the way, good job getting a Digimon. You’re juggling it along with jamming team duties?” “Huh? Oh, yeah! How’d you hear about that?” She asks, surprise evident on her face. “I saw you training with Palmon the other day.” “You noticed?” Hannah sounds self-conscious all of a sudden. She starts twiddling her thumbs and shuffling on the spot.“Yeah. I’m taking on both responsibilities until we train up more recruits.” The Goburimon guy scoffs again and leaves his seat. He heads towards the cafeteria.
“What crawled up your ass?” You spit. “I just don’t want to watch her swoon over you. What an eyesore. Have some self respect, Hannah, she ain’t all that.” “She saved us! And she’s probably one of the strongest Digimon Tamers in the whole City!” “Don’t let Wind catch you saying that.” He mocks, as he vanishes around the corner. His Digivice buzzes angrily on his hip.You glance at Bella for clarification, but ToyAgumon is the one who signals for you to crouch down instead. ”A lot of people think highly of you after what you did. And word has been spreading on the outside too, because of you and Phascomon jumping Mike.” He whispers. You haven’t bothered to socialize with the punks who live on the surface, so you’ve never picked up on that growing rep of yours. You’re sure Phascomon would be excited if he was awake right now. You just stare at the spot where Mike vanished, nearly burning a hole into the patchwork textures with your gaze. “Wind doesn’t like that, I take it.” ”Of course not. But he said he had a talk with you? And reached an understanding?” “Yup. And come on, he can’t blame me for how these guys are reacting. It’s not like I’m trying anything.” Once the scanning team is done, they scurry away and leave you be. You end up standing in the hallway with Bella, who’s looking tired after your jaunt through the sewers. “Thanks for going all the way there to pick me up.” “It’s the least I could do. I haven’t thanked you properly.” “Let’s call it even, then. I’ll find my own way in. Is the room still available?” “No, but I’ll let you know which one is soon.” You flash her a thumbs up and head deeper into the base. There are two places you could be right now. It’s late, and you’re tired as hell, but you want to settle both things before bed. You're not sure if you have the time, though, and things could change in the morning. You're in a rough spot.>Go visit Ryan first. He wanted to show you something, you might as well see what it is before it gets too late. Most people are already asleep by now, you might want to catch him before bedtime. >Talk to Wind and Squid first. The situation with the book is rather important, since they have copies of their own. Search for them so they don't end up retiring to bed before you can inform them about the anomaly.
>>6341493>Talk to Wind and Squid first. The situation with the book is rather important, since they have copies of their own. Search for them so they don't end up retiring to bed before you can inform them about the anomaly.ah, pre-rendered goodness.Squid needs to know asap, not really to do anything, but to give her as much time to form her own convictions as possible before Wind makes an order.
>>6341494+1
>>6341493>Talk to Wind and Squid first. The situation with the book is rather important, since they have copies of their own. Search for them so they don't end up retiring to bed before you can inform them about the anomaly.I do want to talk with our man Ryan.>>>/i/821348 I got another Squid drawing from another guy. Please, thank the artist if you liked it.
>>6341327Now THAT'S what I call a bender! Find em yet?>>6341493>Go visit Ryan first. He wanted to show you something, you might as well see what it is before it gets too late. Most people are already asleep by now, you might want to catch him before bedtime. In case Wind turns it into a fight.
>>6341493Changing vote from >>6341509 to>Go visit Ryan first. He wanted to show you something, you might as well see what it is before it gets too late. Most people are already asleep by now, you might want to catch him before bedtime.This guy >>6341641 spooked me. What if Wind wants to fight Astamon with Fugamon to test themselves? We will have no choice but to refuse because of the injuries from the finance district assault. Speaking of which, Wind would absolutely be the type to "NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!" a la a certain flower
>>6341493>Talk to Wind and Squid first. The situation with the book is rather important, since they have copies of their own. Search for them so they don't end up retiring to bed before you can inform them about the anomaly.
>>6341494>>6341550>>6341749>>6341641>>6341688Wind and Squid first! >>6341550Yoo that’s awesome!! I’ll go thank him yeah, it looks wonderful. >>6341641I did! Vision restored.
>Talk to Wind and Squid first. The situation with the book is rather important, since they have copies of their own. Search for them so they don't end up retiring to bed before you can inform them about the anomaly. “Actually, could you tell Ryan that I have to handle something important first?” “Sure. Will do.” “Thanks. Are Wind and Squid still awake?” “Should be. He wanted to know when you got here. So he won’t be in bed just yet.” You nod gratefully, then head towards the lab. This is a private topic between the three of you and your Digimon partners, so you don’t want to use the meeting room. You see ToyAgumon waddling towards the partition ahead of you, so you hurry up and catch up to him. ==After the two lead members of the Dogs of War have entered the workshop, Wind swipes a token across the door and locks it tight, making sure that no guests arrive to interrupt your conversation. He tests the buzzer to make sure they can still report in, then settles into a seat. He seems to have gotten sick of dealing with the horrid heat in here, and has clipped a personal cooling device to his collar. His hair is constantly tossed about by the frigid breeze. Politely, he hands you one, and you gladly accept. When you turn to Squid questioningly, half-offering the stick in your hand, she shakes her head and tugs her lab coat open, revealing the numerous devices keeping her cool from within. "Hey." Wind starts. "Sorry I sent that text." "Huh? Oh. It's okay. You did go look for a volunteer in the end, didn't you?" There was a short delay after his message about you being on your own. You didn't want to beg him or anything, so you started making alternate plans. You were considering visiting Doc before he updated you with a rendezvous point. With so much on your mind at the time, a bit of rudeness was the least of your worries. "Yeah. It's just- You know. Everything with Liza. I can't ever forget that." Squid quickly changes the topic. "So, what was it you wanted us to know about, Marnie? You said it was important?" "Something to do with your solo trip." Wind guesses. "We theorized earlier that it had something to do with the SkullGreymon on the news." Kaus Gammamon adds, standing behind Wind with his hands folded behind his back. He doesn't seem bothered by the temperature in here. "Yeah. And also to do with this." You remove your book from your inventory and stare at its pages. It's completely fine now. The pages have been rearranged back into their original order, and try as you might, you can't identify the sigil again when you flip through them. You offer it to Squid straight away. "Could you do a scan while I explain? I wanna see if anything has changed since the last time." She obliges, leaving the confused Wind to follow along with the both of you as the book is placed into the Virtual Machine again. You start recounting your tale.==
Once you're done, the both of them are staring wide-eyed. From the looks on their faces, you deduce that Squid hasn't found anything like that when researching their books. The effect yours had on DarkTyrannomon was severe enough, but coupled with the fact that they're too heavily encrypted to crack, there really has to be something wrong here."... You're certain it was your book?" She asks. "Yes. Like I said, it was buzzing in my inventory. You know how, uh... Your Digimon can bother you even if you store the Digivice?" Kaus Gammamon and ToyAgumon both nod. "Yep! She doesn't put me in there much. But I did that at the start.""It was like that for a while, before popping all the way out. And that symbol that my book formed... I've seen it before. In the radar station. DarkTyrannomon had it even then, so I don't know how long this was going on for." "This doesn't make any sense." Wind mumbles. "Digivolution caused by a book.app? It's nothing like your OOPART, it didn't unpack anything, right?" You can't quite remember whether data actually flooded into him or not. "Doc Cracker told me about items that could directly power Digivolution for a bit." Squid muses. "But this sounds really different." "Where do you two keep your books? They're not on you anymore, right?" Wind points to a corner of the workshop."We've stored them for safekeeping. Squid reads hers a lot, but I've already figured out what I need to know for mine." "He only reads it when he's feeling down." She giggles."Hey!" He sets the coolant device to ultra-high and blasts her with a wave of cold, prompting her to squeak and retreat, but not without snickering into her long sleeves. "Thanks for telling us all this. We hit a dead end with the research and decided not to bother anymore." Wind continues. "Do you have any idea what to do with the books?" You ask.
Wind taps his foot and looks at Kaus Gammamon. An odd look passes between the two of them, and he ends up furrowing his brow at the blue dragon-man."Thoughts?""I believe it would be for the best to leave them in storage. Marnie, you said that this effect took place when you had it in your inventory?""Yeah." "This case of rogue Digivolution nearly cost you and Phascomon your lives. However, if it is caused by your books, then simply keeping them away from dangerous wild Digimon seems like the most prudent course of action." All of you nod in agreement. "I don't really encounter any of them in the first place, so it should be fine, right?" Squid says. "It should be. I only carry mine around as a good luck charm sometimes. But what are you going to do about yours?"He points at you, and you look down at the book forlornly. You can't believe that your childhood treasure has become such a threat. You can't deal with a second occurrence, especially when you still have no idea what triggered it. The wisest course of action would be to keep it safe, like they're doing. But you no longer have a home to go back to, thanks to the incoming tracking. And you don't know whether it really will act up again.>Request that you store your book with them. You no longer have a safe, long-term base, but they do. If they're already storing theirs without issue, you might want to get it off your hands. However, this means trusting them to have access to it when you don't. You know that you can't make demands or ask for conditions about its storage anymore. >Keep it on you. Maybe you don't trust them to hold it, or you have future plans for it, or you just want to keep your childhood treasure close to your heart even if it might be a hazard. Whatever the reason, you want this item to stay with you, instead of stuffing it into a random folder. >Try to destroy it. This is going to be a hard choice. It's not just something to be rid of, you love this thing, you truly do. Your hopes and dreams came from it. But maybe it's not meant to be, if it's some kind of unknown trap that seems to have multiple alternate versions of itself lying in wait. Ask Squid if there's a way to get rid of it long-term, or some reliable method of data destruction that she knows of.
>>6341988>Try to destroy it. This is going to be a hard choice. It's not just something to be rid of, you love this thing, you truly do. Your hopes and dreams came from it. But maybe it's not meant to be, if it's some kind of unknown trap that seems to have multiple alternate versions of itself lying in wait. Ask Squid if there's a way to get rid of it long-term, or some reliable method of data destruction that she knows of.Fuck you Leviamon, we decide our own future and the real world awaits us. We won't let your baseless Envy sabotage us from making it to that portal or corrupt Astamon... although Dark Digivolution into a Mega might be the thing to help us kill Brigadramon after the book.app sabotaged us and lost us our precious data from DarkTyrannomon...
>>6341988>Keep it on you. Our destined partner is dead, and our current partner is a Demon Man, which is already arguably a dark digivolution. This could actually be useful.
>>6341988>Try to destroy it. This is going to be a hard choice. It's not just something to be rid of, you love this thing, you truly do. Your hopes and dreams came from it. But maybe it's not meant to be, if it's some kind of unknown trap that seems to have multiple alternate versions of itself lying in wait. Ask Squid if there's a way to get rid of it long-term, or some reliable method of data destruction that she knows of.I think this is going to be very harmful to Marnie, but let's see if she's still interested in the outside world after this.
>>6341988>Request that you store your book with them. You no longer have a safe, long-term base, but they do. If they're already storing theirs without issue, you might want to get it off your hands. However, this means trusting them to have access to it when you don't. You know that you can't make demands or ask for conditions about its storage anymore. I want to know what's up without Marnie being the one that fucks shit up. Let Wind ruin everything.
>>6341988>Keep it on you.We've lost enough as-is. Let's not deliberately lose more just to pile on the misery.
>>6341988UGH FINECHANGING VOTE FROM >>6342021 TO>Keep it on you. Maybe you don't trust them to hold it, or you have future plans for it, or you just want to keep your childhood treasure close to your heart even if it might be a hazard. Whatever the reason, you want this item to stay with you, instead of stuffing it into a random folder.But if it fucks us over again I want Marnie to be really REALLY PISSED
>>6342045>>6342368>>6342376>>6342049>>6342050Writing! May be delayed again, got insanely sick. Trying not to let the average time between posts extend too much.
>Keep it on you. Maybe you don't trust them to hold it, or you have future plans for it, or you just want to keep your childhood treasure close to your heart even if it might be a hazard. Whatever the reason, you want this item to stay with you, instead of stuffing it into a random folder. Once the prospect of throwing this book away comes up, you find yourself clinging on to it tightly. Wind notices straight away, and tries to prompt you into relinquishing it.“Marnie? You okay?” “Yeah.” “I asked what you were planning to do. It already activated once, are you really going to risk it again?” You shake your head and set the book down on the table, examining the front and back cover. “If it happened once… Surely it won’t happen again.” You say weakly. “… What?” "You know. Datastreams never strike the same place twice, and all."“Marnie… Firstly, that's a myth. It uses a scatter algorithm, so it's just a matter of time. And statistically, we can’t make any assumptions about how it works. You’ve come to us about this, why don’t you keep it here? You can pick it up whenever you need, how about that?” Wind nods in agreement. You know that they’re taking this seriously, but you can’t bring yourself to commit to it. “I don’t want to be without it. I’m going to be leaving soon anyway. I’ll take it with me, and it won’t be an issue anymore.” Squid tries to say something else, but Wind sighs and holds out a hand to stop her.
“Alright. Like I said before, it goes two ways. I’ve got no right to make any demands, that’s your own book. Just be careful, okay? If you change your mind, we’ll probably have some kind of secure storage set up tomorrow.” You nod, watching as ToyAgumon ejects your book from the virtual machine. “Anything?” Squid asks. ”Nothing compared to the last scan. There haven’t been any changes to the file.” “Could you draw out the weird symbol you saw?” Wind asks. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I could remember it. It’s going to be wonky.” You say, as Squid offers you a 3d pen. “It’s fine. Just the general shape.” You sketch it out to the best of your abilities. Once you’re done, the three of you are out of things to talk about. You sit around for a bit, before excusing yourself to go find your allocated room. “It’s near the end of the hall.” Wind says. “I’ll send you an alert if you show up on the wanted list. If that happens, you’ll need to exit through the Network from then on.” “Got it.” “So I’d recommend not going on your final climb until Phascomon is healed up. Is that a good timeframe? Maybe a week for recovery, then we’ll hold our own operation. And that'll be your cover.” “Works for me.” He nods, and the three of you part ways. There’s still a certain stiffness in the way he speaks, but the ice between you two is thawing a little bit. You don’t want to linger around here too long, since you’re not a member. A week for Phascomon to get better, then you can start preparing for your final journey. == By the time you get settled into the room, Ryan is already asleep in his own chambers. You don’t blame him for not waiting up, it’s pretty late at night. You sit in silence, staring at the snoozing form of Phascomon. The mission was only hours ago, it’s a perfectly reasonable timeframe for him to be sleeping for, but you find yourself missing him already. You hope he isn’t permanently hurt in any way. The feeling of solitude hits you particularly hard, now that Wind has given you a specific date. One week. Just one week till you climb the tower. If you’re successful, you’ll get to see the real world. You want that so badly. You want it more than anything else. It’s so close you can almost taste it. Your hand closes on empty air, as you imagine the flickering light overhead transforming into the yawning portal at the top of the Tower. Your dream is within reach. You can’t let anything stop you anymore. As you lie in bed, you flip through the pages of the book that you’ve insisted on holding on to. This is what keeps you going. This is what’s promised to you once you crawl through that damn portal. Then you’ll be the first person in 87O to be free. ==
The morning alarm blares through the room, waking you immediately. You groan and pull yourself out of bed to silence it. Your hand idly slaps on the door panel, missing it several times. ”Argh! Turn it off! Off!” You hit the button, then whirl around to see Phascomon at the foot of the bed, his face buried in the sheets. “Phascomon!” ”Zzz…”He must have Hololized himself the moment he woke up, sometime while you were fast asleep. You head back to the bed and groggily put your goggles on, giving him a quick scan. Luckily, everything turns out alright. The Digivice has healed him up, and his shape is stable. You can’t estimate when he’ll be in fighting condition again, though, his Ultimate-form injuries were particularly severe. You decide to just get back to sleep and wait till you’re both fully satisfied. As you pass by, your hand tenderly rests itself between his horns, and he snorts in his slumber. You get back beneath the covers and reclaim the rest of your rest.
Nobody from the Dogs of War comes to bother you, so you assume it’s a good sign. Several hours later, you’re finally ready to start your day. “You up?” ”Hnng… Few more minutes.” He deserves his rest after how hard he fought last night. You place Phascomon back in your Digivice and head outside. If you’re going to be here for a week, you’ll want to set a day aside to visit Doc. You can’t leave without saying goodbye, and you owe him some data. By now, breakfast hours have ended, and the cafeteria is relatively empty. But the vending machines are always active, and since you’re not a full member, you don’t have to stick to their schedule. You get yourself a bowl of fruits and settle down to eat. Once Phascomon is properly awake, you can sit him down and have your private debriefing on the mission. The two of you need that. But for now, he's unavailable.What’s the plan for today? >Go search for Ryan. He wanted to show you something, and you did bail on him last night. He should be somewhere around the base.>Talk to Squid. In order to climb up the Tower, you have to actually understand what that entails. Get proper intel on the area around it, as well as possible threats and hazards.
>>6343268>Go search for Ryan. He wanted to show you something, and you did bail on him last night. He should be somewhere around the base.Let's not keep him waiting
>>6343268>Go search for Ryan. He wanted to show you something, and you did bail on him last night. He should be somewhere around the base.
>>6343273>>6343349>>6343393Paying Ryan a visit! Writing
>Go search for Ryan. He wanted to show you something, and you did bail on him last night. He should be somewhere around the base.You still need to see what Ryan wanted. After finishing your breakfast, you head out into the main hallway to look for him. Phascomon is still fast asleep, so you make sure not to jostle the Digivice too much. As it turns out, Ryan is right there by the gate. He looks occupied at the moment. Four new recruits are assembled behind him, and he's speaking to the crew members who are manning the hidden door. You recognize Hannah, Mike, the member who had the strange bird Digimon, and a completely new guy with an Otamamon. "Yeah, it should be enough. We're already authorized to go. Should be back before lunch." Ryan says. He's standing straighter than the last time you saw him. The recruits are falling in line, including the Goburimon douchebag, and they seem ready to head out into the Sewers. You hasten your pace, wondering if now is even a good time."Hey-" you breathe. "Good morning!" "Marnie!" "Hello!" Gizamon croaks. The other three look happy to see you too, apart from the obvious exception. "You okay? I heard you had a big night." "Yeah. Phascomon is still resting, but he woke up for a little bit. Never mind that, Bella told me you wanted to see me for something?" "Ah, yeah... I wanted to do it before lights out. But now we have to do this mission." He glances towards the door that's currently being pulled open. "Should I catch you some other time, then?" "Actually, why don't you come with us?"You look down at the yellow creature. He's grinning widely, his blue eyes gleaming with anticipation. "Where are you two going?" "There was an incident early this morning. Routine patrol got attacked- he's okay, but there's a Digimon blocking the path."
You look at your wristwatch. You won't be any help, all you have is your gun. From the size of the response force, you assume they're being faced with a Champion Digimon. While Phascomon is out of commission, you're a bit hesitant to engage in an impromptu mission. However, Ryan and Gizamon seem eager to have you, and more importantly, you don't want to back down when there's a scowling prick hoping for you to slink away. "I'll come with. Is it something you can show me along the way?" "Definitely.""Yup!" You start to follow them, but the gatekeeper holds a hand out to stop you."Hang on-" "What?" You ask, a little too brusquely. You feel a bit bad when she recoils."Wind said, uh... He said to just... To just remind you to put on a VPN. In case.""Right. I can do that." You double check your encryption suite and make sure everything is functional. You haven't been tagged yet, but it could come at any time. That was why Wind demanded you use Network transit. You can't be going in and out of the base's jamming frequency while tracking systems are trying to pinpoint you. Once you're confident that you've layered enough veils onto your metadata, you snap the tome shut and follow after Ryan, taking up the rear with your drawn Packet pistol.==
The six of you walk through the sewers in single-file formation. Ryan has little time to converse with you. Once you're properly within the concrete tunnels, he focuses solely on his destination. You feel rather impressed by how he's taking charge, just like you've advised. A small, prideful part of you wonders whether he can really handle the Digimon, though. The new recruits might not be much help. Goburimon can definitely handle any Rookie down here, but the bird that looks suspiciously like the fruit you had for breakfast is unimpressive. Hannah's Palmon seems versatile, but you don't know if it has anything that can harm a Champion.And you don't even need to consider the Otamamon, it's on-par with other sewer Digimon, and the last owner of one got obliterated by DarkTyrannomon. Eventually, when Ryan stops to review directions, he introduces the two other newbies as Josey and Paul. They seem nervous to be out here. "Was our patrol route really this long...?" Josey asks. His vibrant Digimon shakes its head beside him."No," Ryan replies, his nose buried in his map while Gizamon stands guard. "We're tracking it further than that." He holds a scope over his eye and keeps looking. You've been following the same tracks with your goggles, and can see them getting fresher. "Where was Flynn attacked again?" Paul asks. "We passed it about ten minutes ago." You answer. "Well within your territory." You and Ryan pick up on the thickest trail at the same time, and both look West. "There." He declares. "Get ready for a fight as soon as we go in. We're going to make it regret coming so close." As they march down a particularly long drainage pipe, you find yourself sorely wishing Phascomon was in fighting shape. You could at least serve as their secret weapon then. Part of you regrets coming all the way out here on a whim. Mike seems to pick up on your hesitation. He pauses to sneer at you. "What's the matter? Not such a big girl without your partner?" "Eyes ahead." You spit. When he doesn't obey, you point your gun past him, causing both him and his partner to flinch as the weapon rises. "I'm serious!" He turns to look, and sees what the rest of the group has already been preparing for.
Ahead of you is a gigantic cistern. There's a great ring that encircles the room, with walkways and catwalks spaced around it. Several huge tubes pour junk into the chamber, adding to the overflowing volume. Something moves about within, displacing the liquid further and sending junk data sloshing down the pipe and towards your group. Everyone holds on to something, except you— you retrieve your own rod from your inventory and jam it into a crack in the wall, using it for leverage without getting your hands dirty. Ryan and Gizamon push through once the water recedes, and they stand by the edge of the cistern. The Digimon within rises from the murk, and the recruits are struck by its size. Even Ryan backs away to watch the pink monster rise from the depths. But not you. It's not that big compared to Deltamon. It's still enough to delete you with a swipe, but oddly, you don't find yourself intimidated by it after what you've fought. SHELLMON- CHAMPION- MOLLUSK- DATA"PUNY HUMANS! I, SHELLMON, HAVE RETURNED!""You shouldn't have. We heard you messed up one of our boys!" Gizamon yells.Shellmon throws its head back and laughs. The green tendrils atop its scalp writhe hungrily, and it slaps the surface of the water with a giant hand, sending junk splashing towards the disgusted Rookies. As it adjusts its body, its eponymous shell tilts out of the water, rising above even its head."This place is mine! All of it! It will be MINE! I'm the new lord of the waterways, little Gizamon. I've never had humans... But I've eaten dozens of you."Its eyes focus on Hannah, and it chomps its teeth savagely. "Hey. Ryan. You sure about this?" You ask, nudging him with an elbow. Without Kaus Gammamon to tip the scales, you're not so sure they have a chance at all. If things go South, as shameful as it would be, you know you'd have to drag whoever you could, and leave behind anyone you couldn't.To your surprise, Ryan lifts his Digivice instead of backing away. He flashes you a wavering smile. "Don't worry." "You really shouldn't have said that last part, bub. I'll cut your jaw off first.""HA! HA! HA! With your little spikes?! You couldn't even reach-""GIZAMON!" Gizamon leaps into the air, and Ryan's Digivice shines. "DIGIVOLVE!" <D I G I V O L U T I O N><進化>
Gizamon is engulfed in that beautiful, familiar light. As he rapidly swells in size, you see the writing on the wall and turn to the rest of the Dogs of War. They don't seem stunned, they're just waiting for it to finish, but they're still standing around and watching. You take it upon yourself to bark orders."HOLD ON TO SOMETHING, DAMN IT!" They scramble to obey once Gizamon's new form comes crashing down into the water, sending out a rippling deluge of junk that threatens everybody in the room. Except Ryan, who's standing atop his partner with his arms crossed. Palmon comes to the rescue by shooting her vines out and wrapping them around the solid pipes. You, Hannah, Paul, and Otamamon are scooped up. Josey's Pomumon grips him around the head and flies into the air, causing him to scream in agony from the pressure on his neck. You see him fumble and drop his f1oat.app into the water, and his partner gets equally flustered from dealing with the weight. Mike and his smelly goblin are washed away to who-the-hell-cares.Once the waves clear, Shellmon is watching in fear and fascination as a colossal monster hovers in the cistern, its crimson shell gleaming and its massive claws raring to go. Ryan turns back to look at you, oblivious to the mess he's caused. Not a perfect debut for his partner's Digivolution, but you don't want to rain on his parade, even if droplets of trash are raining down on all of you thanks to it."Marnie, meet Ebidramon." EBIDRAMON- CHAMPION- AQUATIC- DATA"What... WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU?!" Shellmon demands. Ebidramon doesn't respond. Instead, he shoots forward like a rocket. "TWIN NEPTUNE!" His claws shear through the water, attempting to chop Shellmon's head clean off. The giant mollusk sinks beneath the waves, and Ebidramon follows, with Ryan clinging on to his armored head.
You watch him vanish. So this was what he wanted to demonstrate to you. It's cute that he wanted to show off so badly, but thanks to the water level, his recruits are unable to provide support. Hannah sets you all back on the catwalk, while Otamamon jumps into the water to find Mike. You point him and Goburimon out. The two have been slammed into a wall, and have been holding on to a pipe. Josey is yelling at his partner, who's arguing that he should have activated f1oat when you gave the order. You ignore them. If they're not going to lay down fire support for Ryan, that's on them, and kinda on his own leadership. He's getting too excited. You want to find your own way to help, and that comes in the form of observing the environment. Your goggles point the way after a quick scan of the room. Shellmon and Ebidramon emerge from the waves and begin battering each other against the circular walls. Debris sprinkles from the ceiling as the cistern chamber is shaken over and over by the two battling giants. You can't tell what's going on amidst the murk. Once they sink back beneath the waves, you run across the still creaking catwalk and spawn a ladder that leads to an overhead platform.
Atop it is a system of wheels, responsible for controlling the flow throughout this room. While you hack them and spoof the credentials needed to rotate the object, you read the labels.FLOOD is out. Hell no. You'd be drowning everyone by raising the water level further.That leaves DRAIN and PURGE. You're unsure what each one does. Your hands clasp the wheel as soon as the cracking tool pops out. >Turn it left to DRAIN. This sounds obvious enough. It seems like this will drain the water from the room, allowing the other Rookies and humans to stop fumbling around. However, Ebidramon and Shellmon are fighting within the cistern. You're not sure who will have the advantage if you take all that water away. You might end up making things worse for Ryan and Ebidramon. >Turn it right to PURGE. You're actually not sure how this is different from DRAIN, and there's no manual. It sounds like it'll get rid of the water too? However, there's the implication that it'll be through a different mechanism than the left side. It's a bit of a scarier word as well. You can use this and take a risk if the other option sounds too unpalatable for you.
>>6343708Big thanks to Art Anon for the Ryan art last thread! And I hope the lengthy update makes up for the days lost to the hangover + food poisoning combo.
>>6343729>Turn it left to DRAIN. This sounds obvious enough. It seems like this will drain the water from the room, allowing the other Rookies and humans to stop fumbling around. However, Ebidramon and Shellmon are fighting within the cistern. You're not sure who will have the advantage if you take all that water away. You might end up making things worse for Ryan and Ebidramon.purge sounds like it could alert the City
>>6343729>Turn it left to DRAIN. This sounds obvious enough. It seems like this will drain the water from the room, allowing the other Rookies and humans to stop fumbling around. However, Ebidramon and Shellmon are fighting within the cistern. You're not sure who will have the advantage if you take all that water away. You might end up making things worse for Ryan and Ebidramon. Based on looks only, Ebidramon looks better suited for terrestrial combat. Shellmon seems too heavy to move on land properly.The mystery button is tempting.>>6343730It did, OP, don't worry. I'm glad you're ok.
>>6343722>You see him fumble and drop his f1oat.app into the waterBro your inventory? These newbies really need to learn>PomumonMan I could go for a fruit salad right now. If this rookie and his partner live long enough, what will he be? Vegiemon? Cockatrimon? Arbormon? Or Parasaurmon?>Mike and his smelly goblin are washed away to who-the-hell-cares.Goburimon is cool and the saner of the two. I hope he makes it>>6343729>Turn it left to DRAIN. This sounds obvious enough. It seems like this will drain the water from the room, allowing the other Rookies and humans to stop fumbling around. However, Ebidramon and Shellmon are fighting within the cistern. You're not sure who will have the advantage if you take all that water away. You might end up making things worse for Ryan and Ebidramon.Deny the water advantage to Shellmon so the rookies can provide support and gain exp. Problem is Shellmon withdrawing when he's losing. I don't think Phascomon is recovered enough to pierce through Shellmon's shell armor, and if Wind didn't bother finishing him off then how will the group get to do it?
>>6343729>Turn it left to DRAIN.or, if it' an option>LET THEM FIGHT.After all, there's no reason to assume Ebidramon is losing.
>>6343747>>6343754>>6343822>>6343841Draining!
>>6343841I think it's still better for the rookies to provide proper support and be organized for after the fight.
>Turn it left to DRAIN. This sounds obvious enough. It seems like this will drain the water from the room, allowing the other Rookies and humans to stop fumbling around. However, Ebidramon and Shellmon are fighting within the cistern. You're not sure who will have the advantage if you take all that water away. You might end up making things worse for Ryan and Ebidramon. You don't want to mess with a mystery option. Your goal is simple enough, and DRAIN sounds like it'll accomplish it just fine. All you need is for the water to recede, so it stops threatening to flush the Rookies and recruits out of the cistern chamber. You twist it left with substantial effort, and hear gears grinding loudly. Pipes peter out above you, and bubbles begin rising rapidly from the massive body of water. You feel the room rumble, and the sound of gushing junk data scratches through the air. This chamber looks a lot more textured than the hallways you first saw. The sewer-dwelling Digimon have fully terraformed it, and you're not sure what that means for the piping systems. It seems like twisting the wheel has done the job, however. The water level lowers rapidly. You climb back down and see Otamamon swimming back towards the others, with Goburimon's club held in his mouth. The goblin himself is trailing behind him, holding tightly to his tamer as the three of them kick and paddle against the junk. "I see them!" Hannah cries. You look over the lip of the cistern. As the water drains away, you realize that the two Champions have been left in a gigantic cylindrical pit. The tip of Shellmon's shell appears first, slick with scrap data and covered in dangerous spikes. Palmon begins attacking right away. "Plant Shock!" The leaves that the Digimon throws simply bounce off the shell. "It's armored! Don't waste your energy!" You call. The group looks up at you. Ryan is still underwater, and he'll likely appear in the next few moments when the water drains. But you decide to direct them just a little, since they're not moving without him. "Stop standing around! Spread out and get ready to rain attacks down!" They scramble to obey. Hannah and Josey begin circling the lip of the cistern arena, while Paul holds out a hand to pull Mike out of the water. He shakes himself dry, then sulks off to take his position with Goburimon. Only then does Paul order Otamamon to watch over the battle.
While the four of them prepare to strike with their partners, you remain on the platform and aim your gun into the pit. The last of the water finally vanishes into the grate that's opened beneath the feet of the two dueling monsters. What was once a solid floor has partially slid away to reveal a grid, the holes too small for either Champion to fall through. All the water has been drained into some sub-level beneath the tank. The first thing you notice is that Shellmon's pink face is covered in static, and its blue eyes are wide with shock. The second thing you notice is that its mouth can't close. It's bleeding helplessly, with its entire jaw ripped clean off. Ebidramon made good on his threat. Both of them look damaged, but Shellmon is in far worse shape. It looks up in panic once it realizes that the water is gone. With no liquid to hide in, the Digimon can't actually escape the hole. It's stuck in here until either it or Ebidramon is deleted. And the gigantic lobster looks nowhere close to defeat. One of his antennae has been cut short, and there are some cracks on his brilliant shell, but he still has both claws, and they're slick with Digital blood. Ryan is wearing some kind of bubble helmet, which deactivates itself once he's back in open air. "No... Mercy! I'll- I'll go!" Shellmon screams, nigh incomprehensible thanks to the jaw injury. "You've had your chance. Our boss spared you the last time. And what did you do? Came right back and attacked one of us." "Never again! Never! A second chance!" "LOBSTER STEP!" Ebidramon shoots forward. Or, rather, scuttles. It's an incredibly fast motion, but he doesn't turn into a blur, or anything of the sort. You find it hard to describe how he just moved. It's like his numerous legs each rattled back and forth a dozen times in a second, allowing the creature to end up behind Shellmon. One arm crushes its pink limb, and Ryan looks up at his juniors."NOW!" "Water Jet!""GOBURI BOMB!""Rapid Seed!""Poison Powder!"
All four of them throw out their special moves, which strike Shellmon in its pink flesh. The Digimon roars in agony, and you see Ebidramon's claw snap shut without resistance. The vivid pink arm topples to the ground. But when the dust clears, you see the gigantic shell still standing. Shellmon has been dismembered and heavily wounded, but is now hiding inside its ultimate fortress."You... GIVE UP! GIVE UP, HUMAN! NONE CAN TEAR THROUGH MY SHELL! EVEN YOUR BOSS FAILED!" Ryan clicks his tongue in annoyance. You can't imagine Kaus Gammamon tearing through this with brute force. Maybe Astamon might be able to, but that's not an option now. Shellmon has tipped the shell over, so that the opening is downwards against the grate, rendering it invulnerable. "Fine! I'll remember this! When you leave- AND YOU WILL! I will bide my time! And I'll come back for you all! I'll remember your lack of mercy! And YOU WILL TOO, WHEN I-" "Flip him." "WHAT?!" Ebidramon has enough brute strength to grab the entire shell and heave. With his massive bulk, he's able to flip the Digimon over. You whistle, impressed. Neither Kaus Gammamon nor Porcupamon would have been able to lift this. Ryan's partner has turned into a real impressive monster. "NO! NOOOOO!" "Blast him again, boys and girls!" Ryan cackles. You share his smile. This time, you accept the invitation and start firing with your packet pistol, adding its high-pitched whine to the racket caused by the sheer variety of attacks that batter the opening of Shellmon's unbreakable shell.DELETED==
Once Palmon pulls Ryan and Gizamon out of the cistern, high-fives are had all around. You can't help but grin from ear to ear after watching the successful expedition. He wanted to share this new power with you, and you're the first one he runs up to once he's back on dry land."So? What did you think?" He asks, his eyes bright and eager."Awesome. Really awesome. I wish Phascomon was awake to see it, I know he'd be super impressed too." ...You do have actual critiques on his performance, though. Diving down there with Ebidramon was a poor idea, and he didn't actually handle his team properly. But you don't want to ruin his day by calling him out in front of them. Ryan pumps his fist in happiness, then looks down at the leftover shell. "Uh oh." "What?" You ask, joining him by the edge."Why hasn't its shell disintegrated...?" You stare at it and feel a sense of concern as well. This giant piece of evidence is now sitting in the bottom of an empty cistern, not too far from where the actual Dogs of War base is. You don't think you've seen a Digimon leave behind a part like this upon deletion before."Squid will handle it." You say. "She probably has something. But we'll try to destroy it first, just in case. We can't have this sitting down here." You all stand around for a few minutes, lazily blasting it with different attacks, but you don't make any progress. In that time, Ryan starts walking around to the other recruits, and actually handles them like a leader.
"Hey."He places a hand on Paul's shoulder. "You saw us down there, right?" "Y-yeah! Of course..." Otamamon hides behind Paul's leg. "So, like I told you two. Don't listen to anything people say about having a 'common Digimon'." He spits, making air quotes with his fingers. "It's all relative. Having plenty of Gizamon in the sewers didn't make my buddy here any less remarkable, did it?" "I guess not...""Your strength will come from the bond between the two of you. So keep at it. Okay?" The two of them salute eagerly. Ryan glances at the others. You feel like you see Hannah nod and look away with a guilty expression on her face. Mike puffs out his jaw and does the same, but you see no such regret. Gizamon stretches and yawns. "I think we're gonna try to destroy the shell for a bit more. I have to Digivolve for that. Marnie, do you wanna head back first?" You don't like the idea of splitting up. However, you're eager to get back and talk to Squid. You have so much to do, standing around a hole in the sewer seems like the worst possible use of your time. "Okay.""Mike, Josey, go with her." Ryan orders. You glance at the two of them and roll your eyes. You'd really rather not, but you can see why the others aren't being picked. He needs Hannah to pull him out of the hole repeatedly, and he seems to be trying to mentor Paul, just like how you guided him in the Hospital. You bid them goodbye, and start making your way back towards the entrance with the two in tow. ==
The sewers feel less cramped with fewer people. You enjoy the silence for a little while, and rather than worry about the Digimon in here, you end up thinking about what you want to ask Squid. You have so much on your mind that you don't even hear the grunt coming from behind, until it gets loud from frustration. "HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" You spin around to see Mike, who's been trying to get your attention. Josey is holding his hands up in a panic. "Dude! Don't shout in the sewers!" "Shut up!" Goburimon hisses at him and his Digimon, and they back away. "Okay! I hear you. What the hell is your deal this time?" You ask."... People have been laughing at me, you know. Because of you." "What?" "Both in and outside of this base. You did a real number on my street cred."Goburimon raises his club and smacks it into his palm several times. "Not taking us seriously! Because we lost!" "That's what this is about?" You ask, incredulous. This place may be regularly patrolled, but it's still hostile territory, and he's kicking up a fuss in here. Not that he could do it anywhere else, though. This is the only time he can catch you. Once inside the base, nobody else will have it."Yeah. Before I joined up... I'd pound whoever dared to. But I don't get that chance anymore. All because of a fraud like you, and your sneaky little tricks." "How am I a fraud?" "You're full of crap. Ordering us around like that... Like you actually know anything... I don't buy it, all those tall tales people share about you. You're a tiny pipsqueak who doesn't even come up to my chest, little girl like you beat all those Digimon? Doesn't check out. All you have is a Digimon who can do sneak attacks. Sure, maybe a strong Champion form. But what you did was just a fluke. You're a poser! I grew up on the streets, I know what it's like, and I know you sure don't!" "So- Fight us again!" "You're challenging me. Right now?"
"Mike! Come on-" He shoves Josey into the canal when he tries to get between you. He sputters and pulls himself up, and Pomumon hisses in anger. You glare at him, but this time he doesn't back down. Instead, he takes a step towards you. "Fine. Once Phascomon wakes up, we'll give you a go. Happy?" "No. I want it right now." "What? My partner's out of commission." He scoffs haughtily."Not my problem. What, you gonna surrender before we even get down to it, then? If you back down, I'll treat it as our win. That'll make it even. We've got this guy-" Goburimon yanks Josey out of the water and loosely drapes a green arm around his shoulder. The punk and his Digimon stand there and watch your expression, the very picture of juvenile delinquency. "-as a witness. Come on, Goburimon! You've wanted this for a long time!""YEAH!" The Digimon advances towards you, and your eyes widen. Is he seriously sending Goburimon at you? You don't have a Digimon who can actually do battle now. You're not going to let yourself be intimidated by this prick, but realistically, you can't do much if he gets in swinging distance of you. "So? What'll it be? We're challenging you. Send out your Digimon, or admit that we've won!"Goburimon swings his club at empty air. You back away further, feeling your anger mounting. This is nonsense. But if that's what this guy needs to feel like he's a winner again, you suppose you can't talk him out of it.>Try to send Phascomon out. Your partner is asleep and exhausted, but you really need him now. This will interrupt his rest, and you won't forgive this guy for doing that. It'll be even worse if he loses to Goburimon in his diminished state, because then Mike and his partner will have properly won on their own twisted terms. >Shoot this asshole. You have a packet pistol. If he wants to send a Digimon against you, you have the right to even the odds. This will be the most cathartic option. However, you'll have to deal with the consequences later. Wind won't be happy if you shoot one of his recruits, Ryan may get in trouble too, and the fact that your actions are justified will probably come secondary. >Try to get Josey to interfere. He seems too spooked to stand against Mike and Goburimon, but if you can encourage him, you could try to call their bluff. As long as you can get him to give a proper statement, Wind will be on your side by the end of this. You just need him to not be intimidated into following along with this guy's crap.
>>6344201>Try to get Josey to interfere. He seems too spooked to stand against Mike and Goburimon, but if you can encourage him, you could try to call their bluff. As long as you can get him to give a proper statement, Wind will be on your side by the end of this. You just need him to not be intimidated into following along with this guy's crap.This is childish, just tell him he won and call it a day.
>>6344227Can we fight Goburimon ourselves by spamming props, or Freeze Code into unloading packet pistol right in the head until he surrenders? Think that's an option? Or we just pull out the cartoon meat and reason with Goburimon right in front of Mike?
>>6344258OP can you please confirm if Marnie still has Freeze Code to use here? You did mention she copied a bunch of props earlier
>>6344201>Pull out the assets and freeze codeWe can TRY to just shoot goburimon in the legs to trip, but if we hit the torso or arms we probably won't come out unharmed.
>>6344258I like these plans. Freeze code and threaten Mike with the gun, fee it's an option. If not, point out that Mike see only doing this because he's afraid, and he's afraid because we're the better tamer, and that his "witness" will inevitably tell the others the same thing.
>>6344201>>6344309Also, the lanterns. Blinding goburimon will at least make those swings harder to connect.
>>6344258>>6344277>>6344309>>6344310Yep, Marnie still has freeze code. I’ll take that as a write-in option, makes sense and is doable. Will tally and confirm in a few hours.
>>6344390Wait a sec>>6344309>>6344310Do we shoot Goburimon? Do we threaten Mike? We haven't decided shit besides "spam assets and freeze code Goburimon" which is incomplete and solves nothing>>6344312And what "lanterns"?
>>6344393Freezing Goburimon and threatening Mike is my preference, plus pointing out this whole scheme is harebrained as shit.
>>6344393We have a few lighting fixture assets. They're not dedicated spotlights, but inside sewers they'll at least make it hard to see.Its also true that shooting goburimon is less ideal and risky compared to just talking them down. I'm just noting that shooting the legs is preferred to the arms/club.As a side side note, pulling out the gun shouldn't do anything, but would firing it trigger any alarms in the sewers?
>>6344420It wouldn’t
>>6344258>>6344309>>6344310>>6344227Writing!
>Write-inYour gaze hardens as Goburimon steps closer to you. This is complete nonsense. From where you're standing, they're nothing more than two upstarts trying to claw back some semblance of street pride. It's utterly pathetic. You're not going to back down and let them claim some kind of victory over you, even if you don't have a Digimon. You'll figure something out."What's wrong? Send out your bear. Or do you wanna see what it's like to get hit by a Digimon again?" That statement sends you over the edge. You glance at Josey and Pomumon. The latter looks ready to attack, but he's being held back by his partner, who's absolutely no help. Even if Phascomon was ready, you'd much rather finish this by yourself in this moment.Neither this loser, nor his fresh partner have any idea what you can do. You spread your hands in front of you, creating a blocky smuggling partition that temporarily obscures your body. Goburimon stares at it absently, then swats it aside with his club. The brick fizzles as it breaks apart into data, but you've already prepared your counterattack.Hovering in place is a light fixture, taken from that asset store a long time ago. You have your goggles on, but Goburimon takes its glare full-force. He shades his face for a moment and swats at the glowing ball absently, making an amateur mistake that leaves him exposed to your next move. The freeze code has been deployed in a ring above your wrist. You punch through it with the other hand, sending the packet outwards and striking the Digimon dead-on. You've practiced this motion repeatedly, and frozen plenty of Rookie Digimon with it. He doesn't give you any particular trouble. Goburimon is left suspended, one foot off the ground and his club stuck at the end of its arc. You barge past the Digimon and knock it straight into the water, then hit it with a second packet of code to lengthen the time it spends like that. Josey and Mike both look flabbergasted. The older boy tries to step forward with his hands raised, obviously wanting to take you on in some dull little street fight. Instead, he's forced to freeze when you pull your pistol out and aim it directly at his head. The vents open up, revealing the wicked glow that emanates from within.A low hum fills the hallway as the lethal payload is generated.
"What are you-" You cut off his fearful lament by shooting at the wall next to his head. The pipe corrodes and bursts, spraying him with some kind of vaporized data that causes him to stumble. "You know, it's not the Digimon themselves that leave scars. It's the data type." You explain. Josey and Pomumon are both watching. He wanted them to witness his half-assed victory, so you'll give him exactly that. "I've been punched and scratched by plenty. Vaccine Digimon, Data Digimon, they don't leave the same kind of marks. The reason it damages our data is the malware. From a Virus type. Or one of these." You shoot the ground by his feet, and this time, he properly sees the surface breaking apart into wisps of aggregate data. The malware hisses as it dissolves the textures and models alike. He yelps and scrabbles away from you, looking behind you to desperately call for his partner."GOBURIMON! GOBURIMON! HIT HER!" "My code doesn't wear off that fast. You wanted to get him to hurt me? That it? How about I leave a few holes in your ugly face to pay you back? I know a man who has those, he has to cover them up with augs." You keep it squarely pointed at his face. "Wait! Okay! I'm- Don't shoot!" "Why not?! You were prepared to do the same, right?" You challenge. "You're the one who needs to know how it feels like to walk around with those wounds long-term." "I WASN'T GOING TO! WE WERE JUST BLUFFING!"You grit your teeth. Your finger hovers on the trigger, and even though you were never intending to actually fire, you find yourself heavily tempted. You want to hurt this guy like a wild Digimon. If you and Phascomon can tear through hordes of them when they threaten you, this human being really isn't that much different. He's only spared by being one of Wind's crew. You shoot him, you'll have an angry tyrant to answer to. Instead, you lower it to his leg, making sure you can still blast him if he acts up."Say the words."
"What... I don't get what you mean." You aim it at his head again, incensed by him playing dumb. His arms rise to cover his face. "Say you surrender! I don't need a Digimon to kick your ass, as I've proven. Yield." "OKAY! FINE! I-" Before he can get the words out, you hear a splash from behind you. Goburimon has unfrozen, and is thrashing about in the water. He's too disoriented by his sudden transportation to attack, but the brief moment of distraction is enough for Mike to try something. "HOLOLIZE!" He sucks Goburimon into his Digivice."HOLOLIZE!" Then he tries to deploy his partner in front of you. Your eyebrows rise in surprise. That's the move you and Phascomon used on him. It doesn't work, however. He's had no coordination with his goblin, and when he materializes, the Digimon is still thrashing about like he's submerged in the water. A little bit of your anger fades. He's not TOTALLY inept, that would actually be a decent move under different circumstances. He seems to have really taken his defeat to heart. "Do you want me to shoot your partner, then?" "Ugh..." "Huh?! How'd she do that! RARGH, DOESN'T MATTER! EAT THIS!" He inhales, ready to throw out the fireball from last time. You have no choice. You aim the gun at his Digimon's open mouth."I yield. Back down, buddy." "WHAT?!"Goburimon turns around in rage. "YOU SAID THAT IF WE TRAVELED TOGETHER, I'D GET TO FIGHT HER AGAIN! I CAN WIN THIS! I DIDN'T PARTNER WITH A COWARD!" "We've already lost, man! Not yet. We're not ready yet." "GAH!" Goburimon is raring to go. He turns back around, clearly ready to continue without his partner's support. When he takes a step towards you, you shift your aim to his head, fully prepared to delete this Digimon if need be. All five of you are thrown off by the sudden tremor that passes through the hallways. When you turn to look, you see a massive red shape at the end of a hall, with one claw furiously embedded in the concrete passageway. Ryan, Ebidramon, and the rest of the team have caught up. The lobster stomps through the hallways, his antennae swishing menacingly. Mike gulps when he spots the team leader riding atop his Digimon, his eyes ablaze with equal fury. "What the hell is going on here?" Ryan hisses.==
"Sorry about all that." Ryan mumbles, as you finally step through the gateway and arrive back at base. Throughout the rest of the trek, Mike has been hanging his head in shame. His partner has been forced back into his Digivice, and he's been yelled at by your friend. Phascomon would have loved that severe scolding if he was awake. You didn't know he had that kind of attitude in him either. "It's okay." You say. "I had it handled.""You shouldn't have had to in the first place. This guy... I'm bringing him straight in for a disciplinary review. You just go do whatever you need to. AND YOU!" His arm shoots out to grab Mike by the ear and twist it. Despite being much taller than you, the punk struggles like a little kid with his hand caught in the cookie spawner. "Let's see what Wind thinks of the shit you've pulled today. What a disgrace you are. Come on, move!" He yanks him towards the meeting room."Hey, Ryan?" You add. "Hm?" "Congrats. To you and Gizamon. It was impressive. You've really stepped up, huh?" "Guess I did." He grins. "See you around, once this dumbass is dealt with." With that, he drags the young man off to receive his punishment. You hope that whatever they do to him is bad.
You take a deep breath and settle down on the couch. You've done a brief avatar reset, so you're no longer coated in the sewer goop, but you're now tired from the busy morning. Mike acting up like this has caught you by surprise. "Has he done anything like this before?" You ask Hannah.She shakes her head. "No... But he doesn't like you. We heard a bit about what you did to him? But never straight from you.The other three recruits all look up at you, wide-eyed. Your exploits throughout the City have been spreading, clearly, and this new generation of Digimon Tamers are eager to hear it. You recall what you discussed with Wind a while back. He doesn't want you subverting his authority, and you agreed. You also know that he doesn't like how much influence you're gaining. Regaling them with a tale like this isn't exactly a violation of that, but it might set him off in the future. You don't really know, he's been harder to predict as of late. You certainly don't want to pile on trouble now that he's having to deal with Mike.>Settle down and talk to them. There's no harm in just explaining the situation. And since Ryan has vanished without giving them a proper debrief, you feel like it would be good to have a proper conversation and drop some words of encouragement.>Head back to your borrowed room instead. You want to try and rouse Phascomon, and failing that, just get some rest. >Go see Squid like you planned to. Your tentative date is in a week, you still have tons of time, but you can't hold in your excitement. You want to get your plans settled as soon as possible, and she's one of the two main consultants you'll have to reach.
>>6344610>"I didn't do anything Ryan can't already do right now.">Go see Squid like you planned to. Your tentative date is in a week, you still have tons of time, but you can't hold in your excitement. You want to get your plans settled as soon as possible, and she's one of the two main consultants you'll have to reach.
>>6344612+1Also at some point we should talk with Ryan and pass him pointers and stuff... but wouldn't that get the newbies and others to like him over Wind and then get Wind to see Ryan as a new up-and-coming Marnie in a sense? I don't know how to handle this well, but I know that Marnie won't be around in the city forever anymore. Ryan and Wind might. That's why they need to know things to pass them on to the next generation of Digi-Destined
>>6344605Ryan would cream his pants if he saw this.
>>6344610>Go see Squid like you planned to. Your tentative date is in a week, you still have tons of time, but you can't hold in your excitement. You want to get your plans settled as soon as possible, and she's one of the two main consultants you'll have to reach.
>>6344610>Settle down and talk to them. There's no harm in just explaining the situation. And since Ryan has vanished without giving them a proper debrief, you feel like it would be good to have a proper conversation and drop some words of encouragement.
>>6344612+1>>6344610
>>6344612>>6344619>>6344670>>6344945>>6344935Writing!
>Go see Squid like you planned to. Your tentative date is in a week, you still have tons of time, but you can't hold in your excitement. You want to get your plans settled as soon as possible, and she's one of the two main consultants you'll have to reach."You'll probably hear about it again. It wasn't a big deal. Nothing that Ryan couldn't do right now." You wave farewell and start heading down the hall, leaving them slightly disappointed. There's no need to gloat about Mike when he's just a desperate delinquent trying hard to claw his way upwards. He's beneath you and your goals. You're not going to give him a chance to earn his honor back, or any nonsense of the sort. "See ya." Hannah mutters, as you turn the corner and vanish out of sight.When you reach the workshop, you hear the sound of an explosion from inside. That alone is normal, but the resulting clatter of furniture is not. You hurry inside so you can check on your friend."Squid? ToyAgumon?!" "Here!" The puppet coughs. "We're okay!" You walk in and behold the mess that the two have left behind. Several metal bars have been embedded in the walls, ceiling, and more importantly, the server racks and coolant blocks. Random furniture is upturned, with a table lying askew atop a workbench. You don't recognize these items from your previous visits to the workshop. Squid looks like she has things handled on her end, so you wordlessly help ToyAgumon yank a chair out from between two lathes. "Hi, Marnie!" Squid chirps."Hey. Working hard in here...?" "We had a little accident... But it works! We're making a different type of bomb." You examine the junk again. They're scrap assets, but there's no actual dirt and garbage, which bodes well for the workshop. Squid holds up an .app file to demonstrate. "It's more like an asset bomb. Once they explode, they just launch their contents everywhere! It's not really powerful on a system level, but it's a good distraction when fighting Digimon. Or bots." The three of you continue to clean up for a little while. You neatly set the assets down in a corner, where ToyAgumon digitizes them for future use. Once the lab is clean enough, and Squid has swept up the files that have been destroyed in the explosion, she settles down and spins her chair in a circle. "Whatcha here for?" "I'm going to be climbing the Tower next week. But I can't go close and scout it in right now. Do you have any info that would help me?" "I have a little, yeah. You just got back from the sewers?" "I did. I was out with Ryan. He wanted to show me Ebidramon, and we ran into a Shellmon on the way. The team took care of it, though." You don't say anything about the confrontation."Okay! I was gonna ask you for a favor in exchange, but helping them out counts. I'll go get your files." She scoots across the room and pulls out a folder, then pulls up a map of 87-O."Have a seat!"
"So, what do you want to know?" While she opens up the directory, you look at your Digivice and see that Phascomon is still fast asleep. He should be here for this, but you're too eager to get started. You'll fill him in later. "Firstly, I need a map of the path leading up to the Tower. It's going to have lots of security, right?" "Oh yes, lots! The area leading up to it is off-limits for people. It's like the data center we crashed during Operation Havoc, there'll be a compound surrounding it." "Much bigger. I actually don't have a proper scan, it's off-limits. So your best bet is to travel through the airspace. Who knows what kind of security measures they have on the ground?" You click your tongue in irritation. That's the first big obstacle, then. You'll need to be flying straight up to reach it, over a substantial distance. Unless you want to go through the horrible slog of fighting through their land defenses and armies of servitors, who are without a doubt positioned within the administrative district. "Maybe Doc will have something." "I doubt it... Even with all my info on the City, there's no helping it. They don't let people get close. So there's never really been an opportunity to gather that data. Nobody is willing to go scan it or map it, it's a black box." "What about through the Network?" "They'll have really heavy Network defenses too." You tap your fingers against the desk, trying to imagine how you'll be climbing. On the day itself, you can think of no other route than to fly straight there with Astamon. "Do you have schematics of the external building?" You've burnt that detestable symbol of oppression into your memory, but you still don't know all the details. She may not have access to the district, but the outer surface is clear to see. As expected, she zooms in on the diagram and begins pointing things out to you.
The middle ground between the fence and the Tower is a radar deadzone. As for the building itself, you have a decent set of schematics. To your relief, you see spokes and platforms on the external surface of the building. There are enough spots for Astamon to stop and rest along the way. From looking at the diagram, you get the same impression from the Tower as you do from the insides of partitions. This thing doesn't look like it was manufactured for human use. The overall shape and structure is meant to evoke the high-rise buildings around it, but the actual furnishing, invisible to the eye most of the time, is not. There are no railings, or lights, or decorations. The utility platforms seem to be solely for servitors to stand on. When you get further up, however, Squid points out several deployment hatches. Digimon emerge from these. Passing by them will be dangerous, as their elite troops will have direct access to you. You immediately mark these as hazard zones, so that your goggles will highlight them once you get close. "They must have a manufacturing factory inside, right?" You ask. "Definitely." She confirms. "I've seen bots coming out from the Tower itself. It's the center of everything, it's gotta be self-sufficient. I'm willing to bet it has all the same facilities inside it that you'd see spread around the districts."Good thing you're just scaling the outside instead of wading through the infinite corridors. "If we keep reading, we're gonna be here all day." She concludes. "Tell you what— ToyAgumon can help you! I have plenty of notes in here, but you won't understand them without a translator. I'll go fix up the asset bombs, you two go sit somewhere else!" "Okay! Come on, Marnie." ToyAgumon scoops up the files and totters out. You follow close behind, and the two of you search for a nice, quiet place to go over the contents of the folder.
What do you want to prioritize learning about first? >The aerial defenses. You want to know what kind of resistance they can mobilize. Digimon are a sure-shot, you want to find out whether they have other measures in place to attack fliers. You recall how you've dealt with freeze lasers before, those may be something to look out for.>The pinnacle. The Tower is larger at the top, right below the yawning portal that leads out of City 87-O. You want to know what's up there, so you can figure out how you'll navigate it when you manage to get past the first few obstacles. >The portal itself. You know it leads out of the City. That can't be ALL it does. There has to be some kind of two-way interaction for it to be open like that. Since you're going to be traveling through it, you need to know. You don't have high expectations for info, since nobody has entered before, you just expect there to be something of note in this folder.
Don't worry about any urgency with this info, it's not exclusive and Marnie will read up on it all before climbing. It's just for infodump purposes/my writing checkpoint for today.
>>6345068>travel through the airspaceCan we optic camo and spam f1oat+f0rce across?>>6345069>There are no railings, or lights, or decorations.We can use the darkness against them, but if a scan ping hits us we might be sitting ducks>Squid points out several deployment hatches. Digimon emerge from these. Passing by them will be dangerous, as their elite troops will have direct access to youCould we still infiltrate through them?>you're just scaling the outside instead of wading through the infinite corridors.Okay but the outside is exposed to Brigadramon isn't it>>6345071>The aerial defenses. You want to know what kind of resistance they can mobilize. Digimon are a sure-shot, you want to find out whether they have other measures in place to attack fliers. You recall how you've dealt with freeze lasers before, those may be something to look out for.We start first with getting there
>>6345071>The pinnacle. The Tower is larger at the top, right below the yawning portal that leads out of City 87-O. You want to know what's up there, so you can figure out how you'll navigate it when you manage to get past the first few obstacles. This seems funnier.
>>6345071>The pinnacle.
>>6345071>>The aerial defenses. You want to know what kind of resistance they can mobilize. Digimon are a sure-shot, you want to find out whether they have other measures in place to attack fliers. You recall how you've dealt with freeze lasers before, those may be something to look out for.Our flight is still not that great.>>6345084I'm thinking L1ne, actually. There's only so much height we can get with f1oat. We just need to figure out how not to grind our legs on the tower wall.That, or we look if they've got rocket encampments for us to surf up the tower.
>>6345071>The aerial defenses. You want to know what kind of resistance they can mobilize. Digimon are a sure-shot, you want to find out whether they have other measures in place to attack fliers. You recall how you've dealt with freeze lasers before, those may be something to look out for
>>6345084>>6345287>>6345428>>6345175>>6345282Writing! Asking about aerial defenses >>6345084Will leave some options for it once the time comes yeah
>The aerial defenses. You want to know what kind of resistance they can mobilize. Digimon are a sure-shot, you want to find out whether they have other measures in place to attack fliers. You recall how you've dealt with freeze lasers before, those may be something to look out for."Let's start with the process. The safest way to approach is through the air, right?" ToyAgumon nods. "If you try to travel through the district, you'll attract a lot of attention. And like we said, it's a deadzone. No scouting possible." That eliminates it as an option for you. You'll have to come up with a few different methods of clearing the distance. After a certain point, you predict that anything you do will get the same armed response, so it's just a matter of what's efficient. Subtlety is probably no longer a factor. You have one shot at this. But whether you fly up with Astamon, use your .apps to reduce your gravity, or find some entirely different piece of tech to gain altitude, you'll have to deal with the aerial defenses when climbing."Through the air, then. What kind of defenses do they have?" ToyAgumon starts sifting through the set of notes."Firstly, there's Brigadramon. Get too close and he'll come for you. Hence Operation Javelin! Our mission objective is a high enough priority that he'll be forced to respond. Or at the very least, to patrol the area outside our mission site." You nod. After seeing what he did to SkullGreymon, you're not confident you can fight him. A Mega-level Digimon seems to be a world apart from Ultimates. The Dogs of War completely taking him off your hands is the biggest favor you could ask for. It makes up for what they owe you. "Next, there's the Digimon. You can expect every sort of flying Digimon you've seen so far. Cargodramon, Pteramon, probably a bunch of Espimon too. You noticed the deployment ports earlier, right? The Tower uses those to send out instant response teams. It doesn't get much more instant than the exterior of their barracks. You'll be fighting a LOT." That was to be expected too. But surely they won't send out a whole army, like they did against DarkTyrannomon's forces. You may have time to eliminate squad after squad while clambering upwards. Cargodramon is a dangerous opponent, but you feel like Astamon has the right skillset to take it down. It has weak points and organic components that seem possible to target using his gun. If Kaus Gammamon could take one down, you definitely can too. "I hope they can't replenish their forces in a week. They lost a good amount inside the Finance District yesterday." "That's good. I doubt they can Digivolve new members in a week. But it's more than enough to reconsolidate their manpower. They'll be fully organized again by the time you climb."
"Damn... Okay, what about static defenses?" "We've identified these hardpoints." ToyAgumon pulls up the diagram again. Hundreds of red highlights appear on the green projection, dazzling you with their sheer variety."What... am I looking at?" You manage to ask. "These are weapon and program deployment hardpoints. We don't have much footage of their usage. Most haven't been used in forever, so we can't identify them. Here-"He extracts the data and swipes the package over to you. It's so overwhelming that you hesitate to even load it into your goggles. Seeing so many hardpoints is demoralizing. "What do they even use these for?! They can't be THAT desperate to make sure nobody climbs it." "It's not for you. I said we didn't have MUCH footage. Here!"ToyAgumon pulls up a recording and slides it onto a wall display for you. It's shaky and unprofessionally shot, but the quality is good. There's a timestamp from several decades ago, long before you, Squid, or any of the Dogs of War were born. There's no audio, just a view of the Tower and Brigadramon high above it, circling placidly in the empty space between the zenith and the portal.Without warning, a crack extends across one end of said portal. You shoot upright and lean forward to watch.
The wireframe of the sky, perpetually rent open by the opening, seems to deform and split even further. You see sinuous masses extending outwards. Immediately, the POV is washed in red. The cameraman turns around to capture the red lights that have appeared atop the building. Entire city blocks are colored the same hue, and from the way the lights shift and swirl, you can imagine the roar of klaxon sirens. But the cameraman doesn't run. They ignore the evacuation order and keep filming. Brigadramon is already acting. His Gatling cannon is aimed straight upwards, and he's firing an explosive beam of death into the portal. The shape pulls itself free and topples towards the Tower. From there, the fight is obscured for about a minute. The cameraman suddenly points at the shape, which has miraculously clambered in the direction of the recording. The footage would have been pointless without it. It's some kind of Digimon made of wires and spiky limbs. The thing is colossal, easily clinging to the side of The Tower despite the sheer girth of the skyscraper. However, it seems like it's almost dead. Even from afar, there are innumerable holes in its body. It has to be an Ultimate or Mega, in order to survive Brigadramon's assault. You've never seen anything crawl out of the portal, this is new to you. As the entity crosses the first of the hardpoints, which ToyAgumon points out dutifully, a dozen turrets unfold from the side of the structure. They launch packets of malware, lasers loaded with freeze code, and thick nets made of metal. But there are no explosives, or higher tier ordnance compared to Digimon attacks. The creature sweeps its limb across the wall and destroys several hardpoints, before its limb is entangled by the net. Every time it lifts an appendage off the Tower, it gets entangled by the net, leaving it unable to cling on. Brigadramon rockets downwards and impales the monster in the back, yanking its remaining limbs off the building's surface and causing it to plummet out of sight. The Cameraman keeps recording for a moment more, before a servitor abruptly flies into view, occupying the entire frame in an instant. The jumpscare causes you to flinch. Then it goes black."So, as you've seen-" "Wait, wait- What was THAT?!"Both of you stare at your Digivice in surprise. Phascomon has woken up.
"Good morning. You feeling okay?" "Better. Nap's over, at least. Ah- It's the next day. I've missed my show, haven't I?""Yeah... Sorry, I couldn't get it recorded. I'll pull it up for you sometime." "That'd be nice. But let's talk about the show we've just seen first. What kind of Digimon was that?"You Hololize him while ToyAgumon explains."It's common knowledge that the portal leads outside of the City. Right? That's why you want to go to the Digital World, and Marnie wants to go to her real one."You both nod in sync. "The reason we know that is because Digimon can come and go through the portal itself. Very rarely, like you've seen, things come through. Most of the recordings are erased, and the invaders are deleted by Brigadramon. Without exception, the only Digimon to make the trip are highly dangerous Virus-types." "So the Tower isn't just to keep us in. It's to keep them out?""Exactly! Hence the weapon hardpoints. You've seen some of the variety. I'm sure they have stronger weapons on different segments, maybe they didn't deploy the most powerful of them because Brigadramon was on duty." "That Digimon looked like something was really wrong with it." Phascomon remarks."Really?""It did, right? I got the creeps just looking at it." You didn't get that feeling, so you assume it's a Digimon thing. "So, shoot all the hardpoints as they open up. That seems easy enough a plan." Phascomon muses. "Apart from that, any last defenses we need to know about?""Yes! They'll have airspace scanning." ToyAgumon motions to a set of fin-like structures near the top of the Tower. They extend all the way down its length, marking out the four cardinal directions from base to tip. "What's that?""These send out and receive data from the environment. Every few seconds, they ping the surrounding area. You'll be detected once you get close enough, so your best bet is to gain as much altitude as possible BEFORE you come into scanning range." He explains a few more key things: How there's an event horizon where they'll scan you for sure, how they'll scan you easily if they detect a rogue human hundreds of feet in the air all by themselves, and a reminder of how excessive .app usage will flag your processing expenditure, same as always."Camo is useless then?" "Yeah. The Tower has kernel level antivirus detection. It and Brigadramon have the highest level of scanning power in the City. You can't hide from it.""It can't actually deactivate the .app, can it?""No. Why do you ask?""Then it's not useless. Keep the optical camo on anyway, it could still keep you safe from lesser enemies." Phascomon declares.
"From the sound of it, we need to get some kind of tool. Do you think Doc would have anything?" "We gotta go ask him, don't we? We've got a visit coming anyway." You do. You need to give him the scan data, then have your final meeting. Squid is already doing a lot for you, you don't want to demand any new tech from her. You can think of a few potential tools that would help out, provided Doc has access to them. "I think we're done here for now. I've got a lot to look through..." "You sure? You won't be able to understand the data without one of us translating!" "I'm sure. Tired out from the day. Plus, Phascomon just woke up. I need to catch him up on everything." "Okay! I'll head back to the lab, then. See you two around!" Before he leaves, he does some kind of secret handshake with your partner, ending with a butt bump and a salute. You watch with bemusement as they finish up their farewell and march off in different directions. "You two learnt that the last time you were here?" "We did! Hey, what gives, anyway? Just how much did you do without me?" He whines. "Well, you weren't waking up... I just went on a little adventure with Ryan, then went to the lab." You make small talk as you head back to the spare room. You'll fill him in properly in a little bit. The day has been busy, and while you catch up with your partner, you're already starting to plan out tomorrow's goal.>Take some time to relax with Phascomon. He needs a while to recuperate, you could spare some of your prep time talking to him and enjoying your stay in the base as much as possible. It's no vacation resort, but you're not being put to work either.>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.>Talk to Wind. You'd like more info on this mission that they're doing, and since you won't be going on it, this will be your only chance to find out the details. It's not just for curiosity too, he and Squid seem convinced that it'll draw Brigadramon, you'd like to know their reasoning, since your escape hinges on it.
>>6345547>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.I don't think the flagging risk is that bad yet, but on the flipside if they didn't suspect anything yet they will when Marnie doesn't have an alibi inside the apartment.
>>6345549+1
>>6345547>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.The faster we get to Doc, the better.
>>6345547>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.Get our obligations and farewells out of the way....Shit, though, are the Demon Lords manipulating Marnie and the other bibliophiles into letting them in to devour the CityDigis and humans?
>>6345547>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.
>>6345549>>6345561>>6345664>>6345714>>6345875Writing! Will be a bit.
>Go visit Doc early. You want to get ahead of the flagging that you're still convinced is coming soon. If you can finish meeting him before any complications arise, you may be able to eliminate a potential risk and settle one of your last remaining pieces of business.Now that Phascomon is awake, you need to take some time to talk to him. You need to discuss your next move, how the mission went, and the upcoming week. You’ll save the visit to Doc’s for tomorrow. You quickly check in with him and receive the go-ahead, then close your inbox and turn your attention to your partner. “How are you feeling?””Like I just hit a brick wall. All my limbs are back, though.”You nod, curling up on the unmade bed and tucking your knees to your chest. You idly slide through the news, showing him the update from last night. "Do you remember much? Apart from this morning.""Bits of it. I, uh... The vending machine! I kinda conked out the moment the coast was clear.""About that..." You hesitate before telling him. You don't want him to feel bad, but you don't want to hide something like this after all. You let him know exactly why you've had to abandon your home. He goes silent afterwards. "Phascomon? Phascomon? Hey." "All because I couldn't hold on for one more damn minute...""It's not your fault! You hit your limit. We pushed it for too long... Come on, don't get like that." He scratches at the bedframe idly, corroding its textures with his viral claws. "It wasn't enough. Not for SkullGreymon, not for-" "Stop that!" You exclaim. "You keep stressing over not being the strongest. But there's always something in the way. All that power you have isn't just linear. SkullGreymon didn't fight through a hundred minions like you did. And there was that freaky thing with the book that made him stronger in the first place." "It doesn't matter, those are all just excuses! And I don't wanna make 'em! If I can't beat Brigadramon, then how are we gonna leave?""That's what this whole plan is for, right? If things go well, we won't have to fight him." "I guess... There's no turning back now, huh? We're really going?" "In a week, yeah. Sorry... Do you need more time? We can always tell Wind to delay it." "No." He mumbles. He doesn't sound happy, though. You can tell it's bugging him. Probably the fact that you discussed this without him. "We don't have a choice anymore. Thanks to those two reporting it. A week is safe. I'll save my strength for it."That settles it, then. You've got the rest of this week to finish up your business, then it's time to bid this city farewell. "Oh yeah. Something else happened." You start filling him in on Ryan's short expedition.
"Ha! Sounds like he got what he deserved. But why didn't you wake me up?""I wanted to deal with it myself. Plus, now he's lost to both you and me. One win each." "Heh. I like the sound of that. You sure about not rubbing it in, though? This is your last chance to really make him sweat." He teases."Nah. I don't want to bother. It's troublesome enough. He's a nobody anyway." "Suit yourself. If he comes to bug us again, I'm cutting his leg off. Capisce?" "Maybe don't go that far... But I get the idea."The two of you take it easy for the rest of the day and idly discuss your plans. Phascomon seems quite distracted all throughout, which you chalk down to his sense of failure from the last mission. Try as you might, you can't convince him that things went alright. You decide to worry about it later. You have the rest of the week to settle it, and then the both of you can...You stare up at the ceiling. One week. One week till everything ends.==The next day, you and Phascomon leave the base bright and early. You've gotten Squid to set up a macro that informs you once you've been marked, and it hasn't happened just yet. You're starting to hope that they haven't found you after all. If they have so many resources, and your flagging wasn't instant, maybe the threat has passed? Maybe you can even go back to your apartment and put your things in order. Phascomon wants to say a proper goodbye to your place, and even though you've had a farewell of your own, you'd love to go back.But that comes after you visit Doc. After two uneventful days, Wind has authorized you to use the teleporter again. You transport yourself aboveground, then start climbing the nearby buildings to make your way towards Doc's district. Your encryption suite remains active the whole time, as you cut through dark alleyways and leap over gaps in the rooftops. You stare longingly towards your favorite rooftop, but push the thought of visiting out of your mind. No detours, it's not safe out here.
The whole way there, you're constantly looking over your shoulders. You almost miss a jump due to your nerves at one point, and resolve to be more careful from there. Once you reach the district, you find it strangely deserted. There aren't many punks on the street, and the scant few that you spot are just shuffling to their destinations with their heads lowered and their hands in their pockets. It feels like the place has been cowed, though the graffiti and litter are still around. "What do you think happened here?" Phascomon asks, sounding concerned."... Seems like they're spooked by a crackdown? But I don't see bots anymore." You pause on a rooftop several blocks away from Doc's apartment and let him know that you're almost there. He replies a few minutes later with confirmation that his defense grid has been deactivated for you. As you prepare to leave, you hear the sound of banging coming from several streets down. It sounds like something is striking metal. A howl cuts through the perpetual night, and you hear raised voices. Phascomon perks up instantly. As he moves, you see him flinch on your Digivice screen. He's still hurting and tired, and isn't ready to respond properly. You clench your fists. >Go investigate. There's trouble happening right on Doc's home turf. Whatever it is, it's taking place at this very moment, and will pass if you don't go and have a look. You're ill-prepared for it, but curiosity is pushing you forward.>Carry on with your visit. This isn't any of your business, and you can't afford a distraction in this state. Whatever is happening, it'll be up to the people who live here to deal with it. You've already jumped into their mess once, you're just going to focus on meeting Doc.
>>6346500>Go investigate. There's trouble happening right on Doc's home turf. Whatever it is, it's taking place at this very moment, and will pass if you don't go and have a look. You're ill-prepared for it, but curiosity is pushing you forward.It might bite her in the ass later if she doesn't know what's up.
>>6346561+1Sucks to see Phascomon taking it as hard as he is. I only hope we can asspull enough fighting spirit to get from Astamon to... Is Magna Kidmon really the only Mega appropriate for him to become? Belphemon Sleep/Rage and Beelzebumon are out because they're the Demon Lords. Plutomon is out for a similar reason. Heavy and Saber Leomon are out because we do not want to death flag him. Venom Vamdemon is out, too omnicidal. Quartzmon is out? Olegmon doesn't feel appropriate but Digimon evolutions do whatever they please. Megidramon is out, he's super evil. Fros Velgrmon is interesting but I dunno if he counts. Dynasmon is out, he's a Royal Knight. Ancient Megatheriumon is... kinda meh maybe? Astamon's fitting evolution options are pretty limited with the character Phascomon has in this quest. Maybe the QM can asspull one of those card game evolutions or something? I doubt he can XROS UP
>>6346500>Carry on with your visit. This isn't any of your business, and you can't afford a distraction in this state. Whatever is happening, it'll be up to the people who live here to deal with it. You've already jumped into their mess once, you're just going to focus on meeting Doc.does Doc have a place to network jump. This isn't really about Marnie. If something DOES happen, dealing with it might still compromise Doc's location so it's better to provide the best chance to move while we can.
>>6346574Beelzemon Blast Mode. It's like the normal one but not evil.
>>6346574There's also the dark version of magna kidmon
>>6346678>>6346700>AvengeKidmonNah doesn't really fit him>Beelzebumon BMNow this one is more like it
>>6346651He was setting up a terminal the last time Marnie and Phascomon visited, yep
>>6346561>>6346574>>6346651Writing!
>Go investigate. There's trouble happening right on Doc's home turf. Whatever it is, it's taking place at this very moment, and will pass if you don't go and have a look. You're ill-prepared for it, but curiosity is pushing you forward."We should go see what that is." "But if it's trouble, I can't fight!" Phascomon argues. "I'll stay out of sight. We'll just watch, okay? Unless it's something crucial. I don't like the atmosphere right now." "All the more reason to go straight to Doc..." You can't help but agree. And yet, you can't just bail on whatever this is. You hurry towards the source of the noise, keeping several .app files ready for deployment. With so many c1oak variations active, you can't spam all your .apps at once anymore, and you'll have to be frugal. You don't take your packet pistol out either, shooting it here would draw too much attention.As you clamber over the lip of a building, you see several figures condensed in a narrow alleyway. Empty trash cans have been scattered about, and several of the punks have injuries on their surface textures. Your eyes immediately flicker to the Digimon standing before them.
HYEMON- ROOKIE- BEAST- DATAA Rookie? This thing looks quite strong for a low-level Digimon. It's currently chewing on somebody's arm, while his friends try their hardest to ward it off. All they can do is throw garbage cans at it and fling debris, but the creature doesn't back off. Its red eyes glint with hunger as it crunches down hard, snapping the guy's limb in the wrong direction. He screams, and the sound echoes across the adjacent alleyways. You definitely understand the pain he's in. The damage must be well past the pain cap that a human being is meant to have."Where'd this guy come from?!" The bots should be swooping down with their response teams in tow to handle situations like this. So why is the Hyemon rampaging freely? "CALL SOMEONE! PLEASE!" The victim yells. His friends hesitate. One of them opens a communication window, but another punches him on the shoulder. A third manages to gather up his courage and run forward with a trash can lid. You recognize that guy, actually. That was the same person who accidentally hit you in the face a while back. "Get away from-" The Hyemon lashes out. It releases its victim for a moment so it can snap down on the lid, while its red claws shear the young man's pants leg apart. He falls over and screams as the Digimon shreds the metal disc, then lunges forward to bite his head off. It doesn't get the chance. You land on the Digimon and jam your thumbs into its purple ears. While it howls in protest and bucks wildly, you hit it with a chunk of freeze code and suspend it in place.
Luckily for everyone involved, you had the foresight to ask Squid for a few copies before going out to visit Doc. Your .app library hasn't been fully restocked, but you requested enough for casual travel and usage. The Hyemon is large in stature, but its filesize proves to be low enough to be frozen by your attack. You roll off its back and lunge for the guy on the ground, seizing him beneath the armpits. The others are stunned by the sudden turn of events, but the trash can guy spurs them into action."YOU DUMBASSES! COME HELP ALREADY!" They hurry over to grab their friend's legs and pull him down the alleyway, while you stare at the Hyemon contemplatively. After a few moments of consideration, you deploy several metal bars from your inventory of assets and jam them into the Digimon's mouth. Then you wait for the first usage of the freeze code to run out."MMPH! WHAH IS THIS?! HOW DAHRE-" It bites down to shatter the metal, and you're shocked by how easily it's splintering the rods. Fortunately, it's just standing in place, so you're able to freeze it again. With the timer reset, you're free to join the punks in their escape.==You pant heavily as the whole lot of you settle onto a rooftop. The guy who got mauled is moaning in agony, with the others clustered around him. Trash can guy stares at you with wonder, as he and his friends press on the wound haplessly. "You again." "I've got questions." You say. "But first, get him to reset his avatar." "Tell them it was a Data Digimon, so it probably won't have done permanent damage."They cajole the guy into doing so, while one of his friends covers his mouth so that the Digimon doesn't hear his constant screams. Once he manages to struggle through the menus in the throes of his agony and hit the reset button, he exhales sharply and sits upright.
"Better?" You ask. He nods frantically, large sweat particles sloughing off his face and fizzling into the empty air."It shouldn't have done permanent damage. But if you know a Code Cracker, get to them for a checkup." "You're her, aren't you?" Trash guy asks. "Same one who's been tearing up hell all over the City. Just like the Dogs of War." You stare at them, feeling your Digivice vibrate softly. Phascomon is trying to urge you forward. You're keeping Doc waiting, and you don't really want to stay here for a chat, but you consider that there may be things you need to know.>Ask them for information about this district. The last time you were here, there was a crackdown. This time, there are wild Digimon. You want to find out what's wrong with the place at the moment, this is highly unusual for the City.>Ask them what they've heard about you. Your days of low-level delinquency are over—you know that you're gaining a reputation as some kind of underground figure. And yet, you've barely interacted with regular people throughout the last few months. You want to find what they know about you, in case it's important.>Don't spend any more time here. You rescued them, that'll have to do. While things seem okay now, you're still on a timer, you don't want to jeopardize your final meeting with Doc to sate your curiosity like this. Take your leave.
>>6346958>Don't spend any more time here. You rescued them, that'll have to do. While things seem okay now, you're still on a timer, you don't want to jeopardize your final meeting with Doc to sate your curiosity like this. Take your leave.You can just ask Doc for info about the district anyway.
>>6346958>Ask them what they've heard about you. Your days of low-level delinquency are over—you know that you're gaining a reputation as some kind of underground figure. And yet, you've barely interacted with regular people throughout the last few months. You want to find what they know about you, in case it's important.I want to humor Phascomon. We need to sow the seeds for future escaping humans
>>6346958>Ask them for information about this district. The last time you were here, there was a crackdown. This time, there are wild Digimon. You want to find out what's wrong with the place at the moment, this is highly unusual for the City.Forewarned is forearmed.
>>6346958>Don't spend any more time here. You rescued them, that'll have to do. While things seem okay now, you're still on a timer, you don't want to jeopardize your final meeting with Doc to sate your curiosity like this. Take your leave.shouldn't Doc be able to answer most of these? The kokuwamons still go out sometimes.
>>6346958>Ask them what they've heard about you. Your days of low-level delinquency are over—you know that you're gaining a reputation as some kind of underground figure. And yet, you've barely interacted with regular people throughout the last few months. You want to find what they know about you, in case it's important.
Rolled 2 (1d2)>>6346991>>6347094>>6347037>>6347113>>6347086Flipping coin and writing
>Ask them what they've heard about you. Your days of low-level delinquency are over—you know that you're gaining a reputation as some kind of underground figure. And yet, you've barely interacted with regular people throughout the last few months. You want to find what they know about you, in case it's important.“Where’s your Digimon?” The trash can guy prompts. “He’s taking a nap at home.” You lie in return. The others are all staring at you in wonder. Despite the static veil you have over your face, you feel like they’re looking you right in the eye. Being observed so closely is a little disconcerting, and you feel the urge to leave; especially after the run in with the two snitches. But these are street punks. Before you met Phascomon, they would’ve been people like you. You can at least guess how they’ll react to things. You decide to prompt them a little, while Phascomon listens with interest. “How much do you guys know about me anyway? I haven’t been keeping up.” They glance at each other. “You’re in that video too, aren’t you?”“Video?””Sealsdramon.” Phascomon reminds you. His voice echoes right in your ear through the Digivice comms, unheard by the group of four."The one with the Digimon shooting people. I pulled it up after seeing you the other day. Matches your shape." Trash guy says. Squid did a perfect job censoring everyone's faces and scrubbing the metadata from the raid footage, but since you've revealed yourself to the people in this district before, you've become recognizable. And this guy seems rather sharp. You decide that there's no point lying about it."Yeah. That was me." "No way!" "Really?!" His friends stare at you in surprise. The guy whose arm got mauled slowly speaks. "I did remember seeing you the other day. Yeah. Rings a bell now. You and your Digimon beat up that guy's green one!" "Ha!" Phascomon laughs. "Yeah, that was me. I don't have much time, I need to get going. What else do you know?" "We heard that there was a girl with a Digimon out there, who was working with the Dogs of War to sabotage the bots. Something about how you guys blew up a building and stole data. And how they can't seem to track you all down. And then when you showed up the other day with an actual Digimon, everybody knew it wasn't just a rumor." "What's it like having a Digimon?" "Yeah! Where'd you get it?" "How old are you anyway?" "Why were the City Digimon attacking you guys?"You ignore their questions. "Who's been spreading all this info?" "Nobody in particular. It's been circulating online, and people are just whispering about it on the streets. Oh, and the footage of you joining that fight has been spreading too. They say you have a high-level Digimon? Is that really true? We saw something big fighting the City Digimon in that clip, but couldn't make much out. Do you have a second one or something?"
"No, just the one. He's my partner. Hey, about those videos... have they spread outside of the underground?" You ask nervously."Yeah. Actually... I did see a guy reading about it in the train the other week. He had a window up and was just looking over the clip, clear as day. Random wagie."You pinch the bridge of your nose. If even regular citizens are starting to hear about this, then you really have no time to spare. If you chance across someone who's familiar with the rumors, they could easily report you or call security instances over."Ugh. Hey, do me a favor. You guys owe me for saving your butts." You demand."Huh? Sure. What is it?"You look towards Doc's building. You're keeping him waiting, you need to get out of here now and make sure they don't follow you. You doubt he's taking customers as of late, and it wouldn't do to have them track down his base. These guys don't seem like the worst type of mischief makers, but they're awfully curious."Don't tell anybody you saw me. There's too much info leaking already. I don't want to get recognized, it's gonna complicate things.""Sure. Sure, we can do that. Complicate what, though? What are you after? You fighting to take down the entire bot network or something?" Lid guy asks, with an expectant glint in his eye."Yeah!" Mauled guy cries. "We- we wanna do that too. You're like... one of a kind. You've been sticking it to those damn drones this whole time, right? I wanna get a Digimon of my own, so I can do the same.""No."You don't know why you're admitting it. Maybe it's just a moment of weakness, or the need to share your dreams with someone other than your close confidants. You turn around and point towards the Tower."I want to climb that.""Climb it?!""There's a portal up there that leads to the real world. Where all of us came from once. I want to go back."That idea shocks them into silence. They don't even ask any follow-up questions. It's clear that the thought has never crossed their minds before. They're content to stand around and raise hell for the system, so they can feel like they're breaking the bars of their cage. But only you have a way out.You take the chance to stand up and leave. They call after you, desperate to get in some final questions, but you soon plummet out of sight.
"So, you're making a name for yourself, huh?" Phascomon sulks. "Why do you sound mad?" "Where's MY rep?! Marnie AND Phascomon! Come on!" He whines, banging his fists against the Digivice screen. He pre-empts your admonishment with a grimace of his own. "I know, I know... We don't actually want the attention. But this stinks. I'd like someone to pay attention to me too, I do all the fighting!""Ugh... I don't want people trying to get inspired by me or anything. I just want to go. The Dogs of War can take all that heat, for all I care, but we don't need it." "Come on. Isn't it cool? You're like some kind of hero! Some kind of icon! If you stuck around, I'm sure you could gather up people of your own. Kinda like Wind's crew. Think about it!" Your partner says. "But I don't care about any of that." You reply, exasperated. "What would I even do, then? Just keep blowing up data centers until we get caught eventually? We can't stay, Phascomon." "I get it, I get it, jeez. I just..." He mumbles, almost too softly for you to hear."I'm gonna miss it."You spy Doc's building up ahead. You hurry forward, marking a sudden end to your conversation.=="You're running late, girl." "Sorry!" You send Phascomon out once you're safely in his apartment. You've gained access using your Digivice credentials, as usual, and you've found his security protocols vastly improved. His interim workshop is a jammer deadzone now, with minimal communication in and out. You feel a sense of safety as you settle down, despite the turrets and freeze lasers hanging above you. "Any trouble outside?" "Yes, actually. You wouldn't happen to know about a Digimon prowling the streets?" Doc puts his half coded .app down. An extra lens deploys itself over his mechanized face, and he stares at Phascomon curiously. "Give me the rundown."
Phascomon explains the encounter with Hyemon, and how you managed to take it down without him needing to lift a finger. He sounds quite proud while relaying the tale. You notice the Kokuwamon and Solarmon standing by to listen. Once he's done, Doc ends up stroking his beard in concern. "Do you know what's going on, Doc? Why haven't they done anything about it?" "Is there ever really a situation where you would want to call the bots for help?" He asks. You think about it from the perspective of those living here. They've just dealt with a crackdown that led to plenty of folks being podded. You can't imagine any one person being willing to snitch and call for yet another investigation. They'd be despised throughout the neighborhood if anyone found out. "No. I guess not." "Huh? But that's stupid! Someone has to do it!" Phascomon yells. "What do you mean?" "I mean- eventually, someone is gonna need to take the plunge and ask for help, to save everyone else, right? Unless they can deal with it by themselves. Which they can't!" "You might be right, Phascomon, but they don't think that way. To live here, you need a certain amount of pride." Doc replies. He glances towards his multiple partners. "But if they can't put a lid on it...""I'll have it settled." Solarmon offers. Doc nods in acknowledgement and turns back to you. "But why haven't the servitors detected it on their own?" You ask. "They're still down a whole radar station, remember? The damage done to it was incredible. Their scanning capabilities have been cut, and since this place has just been cleared... They see no reason to check again." Vaguely and indirectly, your actions have helped cause this. You feel a slight twinge of guilt at the idea of people being eaten by that Digimon. But it's in Doc's hands now, and you trust him to secure his own neighborhood.
Once the immediate threat has been discussed, Doc leans back in his chair. Normally, he would have a lot to say, but all that greets you today is silence. The both of you are aware that this might be the last time you see each other. Emotions are welling up inside you. For a while now, he's been someone you could rely on heavily. You would have been caught long ago if it wasn't for his help, and you've paid that debt of gratitude back by saving him in turn. Phascomon picks up on the solemn atmosphere. He tugs at your pants leg. "Oi. Come on, say something." You shift in your seat and try to work out what topic you'll start with.>Ask Doc about the workshop. It looks different today. Apart from the jammer, it seems neater- no, more sparse. Most of the tools and benches seem to have been emptied out, and the grimy rear half is devoid of machinery.>Give Doc the data you owe him straight away, then give him a full rundown of what happened inside the partition. He must know about SkullGreymon by now. You want to get his opinion on the book, and on DarkTyrannomon.>Start asking about The Tower first and foremost. You want to prepare yourself for the biggest moment in your life. Anything else can wait. He may have insights that Squid lacks, or know of ideal locations for you to set out from.
>>6347528>Give Doc the data you owe him straight away, then give him a full rundown of what happened inside the partition. He must know about SkullGreymon by now. You want to get his opinion on the book, and on DarkTyrannomon.Is it out of character to suspect that we've done all the work for someone else to claim the City once we hit that portal?
>>6347576+1>suspect that we've done all the work for someone else to claim the City once we hit that portalDoesn't Marnie already know Wind wants to rule the City and take it from the hands of the system? She doesn't fucking care about him and his ambition, nor about the fact she might be an inspiration to others on the way out. The fact that revealing she wants to climb the Tower and the real world is beyond it is planting a seed in the minds of the punks that will then spread and maybe eventually more people will want to leave like Marnie does... it hasn't registered to Marnie one bit.>"Ugh... I don't want people trying to get inspired by me or anything. I just want to go. The Dogs of War can take all that heat, for all I care, but we don't need it." >"But I don't care about any of that."The only real reason is>the need to share your dreams with someone other than your close confidants.Without caring about the impact that dream has on a bunch of nobody lowlifes, or how it might one day spread to somebody who might care as much as Marnie does. That's going to be somebody else's problem later, not ours.Speaking of problems>"Where's MY rep?! Marnie AND Phascomon! Come on!" He whines, banging his fists against the Digivice screen. He pre-empts your admonishment with a grimace of his own. "I know, I know... We don't actually want the attention. But this stinks. I'd like someone to pay attention to me too, I do all the fighting!"Phascomon has been going through it on his end. First everything about his perceived failure during the assault on DarkTyrannomon, now this? I think we seriously need to talk to him at some point. Sure he wants the recognition and fame of being Mafia Boss but it doesn't really fit with how he also wants to get to the Digital World and be a leader there. Marnie can't just go out in the public mask off and start grandstanding just to sate Phascomon's desire, not without an army of bots and Brigadramon instantly killing the both of them. But what can we do in-character that Marnie would want to do for him?
>>6347631That's one thing, but literally getting your negative emotions sucked up to feed a demon lord is another thing entirely.
>>6347528>Give Doc the data you owe him straight away, then give him a full rundown of what happened inside the partition. He must know about SkullGreymon by now. You want to get his opinion on the book, and on DarkTyrannomon.I just wonder if Wind can actually fend off the abominations from beyond the portal and if they come from the Digital World or the human world.
>>6347528>Give Doc the data you owe him straight away, then give him a full rundown of what happened inside the partition. He must know about SkullGreymon by now. You want to get his opinion on the book, and on DarkTyrannomon.
>>6347576>>6347631>>6347734>>6347828Giving doc!
>Give Doc the data you owe him straight away, then give him a full rundown of what happened inside the partition. He must know about SkullGreymon by now. You want to get his opinion on the book, and on DarkTyrannomon."Here," you begin. "I owe you this."You break the tension by extracting the entire folder from your inventory. Doc's artificial eyes light up as he sees the density of the file. He holds his hands out hungrily, but maintains his decorum today. The Code Cracker spends several moments flicking through the directory and examining the treasure you've brought him. "More than enough in here." He says with a satisfied nod. "So we can keep the little peashooter, right?" "Of course. You've more than paid for it. Ah, to think there was so much Insect data in the district..." He turns to look at his several partners, and his gaze settles on a particular Kokuwamon for a long time. Then he snaps his attention back to you. "I see you're unharmed, and so is the little tyke. Just tired, are you?" Doc asks Phascomon."Real wiped, yeah. We've had a bit of time to catch our breath, but I think Digivolving is out of the question for a couple more days. But I'm eatin, sleepin, and soon I'll feel essere sano come un pesce!" "We had a rough time. Did you catch the news the other night?" You ask."Why, of course. That Digimon wasn't normal... But I clocked him as DarkTyrannomon immediately. Couldn't be anything else. Am I grasping at straws here?" "No, spot-on. That was him." The two of you launch into your explanation of the day's events.
“And then I landed on Deltamon again and managed to shoot through its head!”Doc is clearly very interested in yet another one of your tales. So far, you’ve mainly briefed him on Hi-Commandramon’s presence, since that was the greatest point of suspicion. Phascomon is eager to get to the good part, and you’re glad to see him cheering up. He did amazing before he ran out of steam, and he's clearly proud.“But it had three heads.” Doc prompts, seeing where this is going. ”Exactly. It was a close call! The guy was still moving around and fighting. I would’ve been hit by its triple beam if the middle head wasn’t taken out. But it couldn’t shoot anymore, so I got up close and-“ He fires off a finger gun. “Bang. Beating it didn’t make the rest of the Digimon flee, though. They all seemed the stubborn type. Big reptiles like Deltamon and DarkTyrannomon himself. The City’s forces mopped up and we moved on.” “Hmm… That checks out with what I know about their behavior. I’m happy to hear my present helped. You know I don’t like making them, but…” “I know, Doc.” He’s never opened up about the specifics, but it’s obvious to you what happened. He must have given a malware shooter to the wrong person, sometime in his long career as a Code Cracker. You’re suddenly glad you didn’t give in to the rage and shoot Mike, that would have let Doc down. ”Anyway, next was the bugs, because Marnie wanted to scan them all for you.”"And scan she did. This will do just fine for a while. I've never seen these green Kunemon before." Doc pulls out a projection of the subspecies you found. He seems particularly interested in them. You take over the storytelling, going over the encounter with the abnormally strong Rookie, the encounter with Okuwamon, and finally, the moment where you and Phascomon had to work together.
"It was the same as before. I just felt like I had to do something, and the Digivice reacted. It gave Phascomon the power to deal with him." "Accelerated enough to escape his jaws and hit him right in the face. And afterwards, I realized I could fly! I've got no clue if it was the power, or the data absorbing, but that Digivice sure is amazing.""That it is. A true marvel. I'll have to ask you questions about your flight later. But now that you've unlocked your Ultimate form, does that energy transference feel different?" Your partner nods. "Stronger. A lot stronger. It wasn't so dramatic before, but with it, I felt like I could do anything. But my stamina ran dry near the end...""That's to be expected. You fought so many enemies and absorbed so much data. I could tell from your file density the moment the scanners picked you up." Doc motions to the several devices on the ceiling. You and Phascomon both perk up. You've never paid attention to those before. "Passive detection?" "For monitoring heat." Doc confirms. "Huh! It's enough for you to pick it up?" "Of course! You beat Okuwamon, you beat Deltamon, you beat like... It had to be at least thirty other Champion Digimon." Phascomon crosses his arms and nods smugly. He starts saying something, but trails off and looks at you. "The Digivice. DarkTyrannomon wanted it real, real bad. Because next up, a whole bunch of scouts came down looking for it.""Those Airdramon were as scary as you described. And it looked like the Gigadramon was leading the entire brigade of flying Digimon." "They had packs, you said? And alpha Digimon in charge of each niche? Very interesting... Surprisingly organized too. Like the beginnings of an army. It's a good thing you dealt with it when you did.""The City Digimon did everything else. I'm sure the survivors are back to living in the Network by now." You wonder if Gigadramon lived. You guess you'll never know. By now, it's clear that Doc really wants to hear about DarkTyrannomon. You quickly go through the other dangers you experienced: the flying cat Digimon, the scary birds, and the swarm of freshly Digivolved insects. Doc flips through the folder as you mention them. Finally, you reach the part where the two of you entered the partition. "So, his growth was capped after all." Doc muses, once Phascomon describes your former adversary. "Big enough to punch Deltamon into submission, but smaller than Gigadramon. Still stronger, though, despite the stage difference.""And we think we found the source of all that crazy strength he had." "Oh?"
You and Phascomon didn't have much time to talk this over, but you briefly discussed the subject and came to the same conclusion. As Phascomon gives Doc a beat-by-beat description of their fight, you pull the book.app out and offer it to Doc. "He was obsessed with my Digivice, at the end. He thought that if he got it, he'd suddenly get stronger. Like how I was able to power Phascomon up. But it wasn't the Digivice. I think... I think this book had something to do with it. Squid couldn't find anything, but-" He's already handing it over to the Kokuwamon, who plug it into a machine to perform some scans. Doc isn't using a Virtual Machine like your other Cracker friend, but you trust him to handle it safely. "But we saw this big ol' circle appearing near him. It was like... I dunno, some piece of code. Some program hooked up to him.""Did you get a copy?""Not from him. But once he was beaten, the same symbol pulled itself out of my book." "What?" Doc asks, sounding completely baffled. You wince. You hoped he'd have some magical answer as always, but he seems just as stumped as everyone else. "Pulled itself out?" He continues."Yeah. The pages broke apart and outlined the shape. Then when it touched him, he Digivolved." Just like Wind, Doc asks you to sketch it out. You open up the same drawing app you used the other day and send him the draft. The Kokuwamon stop prodding it, and instead hover over the pages with a scanner. "What are ya doing, Doc?""I'll make an algorithm to scan the pages and compare them to the completed symbol. Accounting for inaccurate memory, of course. Arcs first, then those straight lines you remembered. It should be tedious. I'll automate it. Consider it a freebie, out of interest, the next time you-" He cuts himself off. "Ah. There is no next time, is there?" "... Yeah." The mood grows cold again.
"So, uh... SkullGreymon."Both of you feel a chill as you discuss the abomination. You explain the encounter to Doc, making sure you really capture how horrid that monster was. The slow pace at which it crawled, the lack of skin and flesh, the raw, black miasma oozing from its core, and the massive amount of firepower it seemed to have. "If it hit any of the buildings, I think it would have done a crazy amount of damage. That thing is a mass partition buster. For sure." Doc nods in agreement. Malware that can wreck a partition from the outside is rare. DarkTyrannomon did it when he was in his previous form, completely shredding the walls of Doc's workshop open when he kidnapped him. His Ultimate form would have done far more if the missile struck true. "But Brigadramon took it on the chin." "He did." Once you're finally done catching Doc up, he leans back in his chair and takes a deep breath. "So, he's dead. Finally. Bit the dust at last." "He is.""Yup."Doc holds out a hand to pat the nearest Kokuwamon. They lower their heads, but there's a definite sense of relief in them now that they've heard the news. "Thank you. Both of you." You nod, and Phascomon mirrors you a heartbeat later. This meant a lot to Doc. He loves Digimon deeply, and to demand the death of one must have hurt. But it wasn't pure vengeance that spurred him on. DarkTyrannomon was a danger to everyone, and even the City's overseers agreed on that. Finally, with this arduous mission his partner is avenged. You sit back to let him feel that sense of closure.
Once the moment of silence has passed, you slowly begin telling Doc what you've learnt about The Tower's defenses. His many artificial eyes light up once he hears the pitch: That you'll have to approach from the air in some way. Before you can go into the details or ask further questions, Doc stands up. He rummages through a locker and pulls out a handful of items. You shift in your seat in excitement. He's breaking out the permanent tools once again. "I was always planning on offering you a going away present. If you didn't deliver that data... Well, I wouldn't really have taken the gun back." "You wouldn't?" "Here. These could come in handy. I've shelved some of them for a long time, because any old fool using them outside is sure to get caught. But if you're going to leave anyway, there's no better chance to clear some stock."You look over the devices. This is the final upgrade Doc is sharing with you. You've gotten some powerful ones: Your Smuggling Partition upgrade, your Encryption Suite, and the Packet pistol. Now you're being offered something that will directly affect your optimal approach to climbing The Tower.>The grappling hook, yet again. It's useful for urban exploration, and if you end up near the surface of the Tower, it'll be extremely practical. You don't want to be near the building if possible, or you'll be dealing with all the turrets, but in the likely event that you can't just fly straight to the upper platform, this will help.>A device that looks like a glider. Doc describes it as being a long term f1oat tool. However, due to the increased processing power consumed by it, you can't couple it with as many .apps. This means that gaining infinite vertical height by combining it with f0rce is impractical, for you'll be flagged and approached by bots even faster. You'll have to find some other way of securing altitude before you use it.>Some kind of object that's worn on the back. Doc describes it as a jump pack. It releases far stronger usages of f0rce in intervals, that can only be applied to your own body. High power, low precision. However, it's also crazy loud in terms of data guzzling. Utilizing it will nearly instantly flag you. The mobility granted by this thing is huge, but it'll be the least subtle option, immediately negating some of your pre-existing advantages if used.
>>6348146>The grappling hookJesus, this new capcha sucks.
>>6348146I would SO love to go cave story with the jump pack, but it just doesn't work with the encryption suite.>The grappling hook, yet again. It's useful for urban exploration, and if you end up near the surface of the Tower, it'll be extremely practical. You don't want to be near the building if possible, or you'll be dealing with all the turrets, but in the likely event that you can't just fly straight to the upper platform, this will help.
>>6348146>Some kind of object that's worn on the back. Doc describes it as a jump pack. It releases far stronger usages of f0rce in intervals, that can only be applied to your own body. High power, low precision. However, it's also crazy loud in terms of data guzzling. Utilizing it will nearly instantly flag you. The mobility granted by this thing is huge, but it'll be the least subtle option, immediately negating some of your pre-existing advantages if used.This would be so retarded and epic.
>>6348146>Some kind of object that's worn on the back. Doc describes it as a jump pack. It releases far stronger usages of f0rce in intervals, that can only be applied to your own body. High power, low precision. However, it's also crazy loud in terms of data guzzling. Utilizing it will nearly instantly flag you. The mobility granted by this thing is huge, but it'll be the least subtle option, immediately negating some of your pre-existing advantages if used.We're going to get flagged soon anyways almost certainly, thats why we left our place.No more hiding.
>>6348146This will help clear gaps and ledges for us. >The grappling hook, yet again. It's useful for urban exploration, and if you end up near the surface of the Tower, it'll be extremely practical. You don't want to be near the building if possible, or you'll be dealing with all the turrets, but in the likely event that you can't just fly straight to the upper platform, this will help.
>>6348437>>6348345>>6348216>>6348206>>6348162Wait a second guys>>6348146>You don't want to be near the building if possible, or you'll be dealing with all the turrets, but in the likely event that you can't just fly straight to the upper platform, this will help.Can we even fly straight to the top unnoticed? I thought we had no choice but to climb the outside of the tower normally using the ledges and landings servitors use to rest Astamon up here and there. We also destroy the turret hardpoints as we go up before they open fire on us. Or am I mistaken? I thought the hardest part was crossing the no-man's-land up to where the Tower was. Isn't that what the glider is best used for?>>6345543>"If you try to travel through the district, you'll attract a lot of attention. And like we said, it's a deadzone. No scouting possible.">You'll have to come up with a few different methods of clearing the distance. After a certain point, you predict that anything you do will get the same armed response, so it's just a matter of what's efficient. Subtlety is probably no longer a factor. You have one shot at this.>But whether you fly up with Astamon, use your .apps to reduce your gravity, or find some entirely different piece of tech to gain altitude, you'll have to deal with the aerial defenses when climbing.If we can get to the Tower stealthed then it'll make climbing it easier up to the inevitable point>>6345546>"Exactly! Hence the weapon hardpoints. You've seen some of the variety. I'm sure they have stronger weapons on different segments, maybe they didn't deploy the most powerful of them because Brigadramon was on duty."But the Dogs' operation will pull Brigadramon away, implying we might be unfortunate and run into those god turrets>"These send out and receive data from the environment. Every few seconds, they ping the surrounding area. You'll be detected once you get close enough, so your best bet is to gain as much altitude as possible BEFORE you come into scanning range.">He explains a few more key things: How there's an event horizon where they'll scan you for sure, how they'll scan you easily if they detect a rogue human hundreds of feet in the air all by themselves, and a reminder of how excessive .app usage will flag your processing expenditure, same as always.Can we make enough vertical distance with Astamon before that point? Will the jetpack be powerful enough to help clear vertical distance the moment we get flagged? I ask these but these are for when we're at the Tower. The jetpack flagging us the moment we use it won't matter at the top area when we get flagged instantly, but all this implies we're already there. How can Marnie make it to the Tower at all through that no-man's-land????
>>6348497If we take the grappling hook, going solo might allow us to exploit something with the turret targeting since they aren't built for humans. But yes it will at best seriously exhaust Marnie.If we take the jetpack, we're going fast and hard, chaining jet bursts with hololizing Astamon to maintain height and fight aerial digimon. Unless we have a different plan that will get us closer without necessarily fighting.And if we take the glider, an insane amount of height could get us most of the way without a fight. But I'm concerned that it'll be next to useless when we face whatever's on top of the tower.So I won't complain with any of the options, really.
>>6348497Image isn't to scale at all, but the general dilemma is: >Beyond a certain elevation anywhere at all, a human gets flagged for insanely abnormal location behavior >At a certain distance to the tower, a human will always be flagged>Ultimate-level Digimon get picked up by scans relatively quickly, making it problematic to fully use Astamon's flight>Astamon will have difficulty fighting at full power while holding Marnie, making it important to use some form of checkpoint (a tool or a physical rest platform)>Ground travel, which includes said distance, is so unpalatable and unpredictable that it is not a selectable option for Marnie's tasteSo with these issues in mind, the three transportation tools can power different physical approaches. There's both vertical and horizontal distance to think of, and whether one wants to risk alerting enemy forces and sacrificing the luxury of the White Zone in the image. Bit swamped with some stuff, so I'll leave this info here and tally votes tomorrow!
>>6348520How I'm visualizing it is something like this.....which, when you look at it, makes grappling hook look awful. Should we really just bite the bullet and go jets?
>>6348550Roughly accurate! Jet’s caveat is that it’s loud, so in terms of this diagram it would create the red zone in its trail. And for glider, there has to be a jumping off point to obtain the altitude in the first place, that creates a new problem.
>>6348550I voted for the grappling hook because it seemed the best bet to save us quickly if we get knocked off during the fight, and it seemed like a tool that could be useful for other gambits, too.
>>6348565>>6348554>>6348550>>6348520Thank you for the image! This helps a lot. If we don't have a jump-off point close enough to the Tower that warrants the Glider, which I doubt since it's said to be the tallest building in City 87-O, then it's either Grappling Hook or Jetpack. Grappling Hook is cool and all but I got the impression that part of the Tower up to like halfway or so wasn't an instant-flagging zone, but your image gives the impression that it is. I thought Marnie could pop her Encryption Suite and combine it with the Grappling Hook to stealth climb her way to near enough to the auto-detect border, then pop out Astamon and blitz the rest of the distance up with him. I thought it'd be more like pic related where the initial problem is "how to close the distance to the Tower over/through the radar-black zone?" and then the next problem is "how to climb the Tower?". You make it seem like there is only one problem where I was given the impression there were two different ones.>At a certain distance to the tower, a human will always be flaggedThen what's the fucking point of stealth + the grappling hook when we need to be right up against the Tower to climb it which you say will instantly flag Marnie?>Ground travel, which includes said distance, is so unpalatable and unpredictable that it is not a selectable option for Marnie's tasteBut neither the jetpack nor grappling hook will help that, the only solution for it is the damn glider which is one-and-done and cannot help us actually scale the Tower but only reach it safely. I think the Glider should be included by default in that case, no?
>>6348576FORGOT IMAGE
>>6348146For the time being my vote is>Some kind of object that's worn on the back. Doc describes it as a jump pack. It releases far stronger usages of f0rce in intervals, that can only be applied to your own body. High power, low precision. However, it's also crazy loud in terms of data guzzling. Utilizing it will nearly instantly flag you. The mobility granted by this thing is huge, but it'll be the least subtle option, immediately negating some of your pre-existing advantages if used.As what >>6348206 saidhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQPqmS5iGzYBut we don't have a second person to tag along with Marnie unless Phascomon is on her back during part of the jetpack joyride
>>6348576There are different physical factors involved in each choice. An option that chooses altitude may attract heat and attackers way earlier than the red zone, but then they’d skip a portion of the climb. While an approach that goes lower and stealthier would still attract enemies, but being against the tower guarantees a foothold, rest points, and different sorts of enemies who can’t just bomb their home building like they could a target free-floating in the air. Image also isn’t to scale because I’m not able to fully express it at this stage of writing, so don’t take the diagram as direct calculations. Just that there’s a flag zone horizontally and vertically. Glider isn’t a default option because even before the three tools being offered, Marnie already had the option of flying straight there with Astamon or using f1oat + f0rce to clear distance in a much sloppier manner. I’ll elaborate more in future updates, just trying to give enough info here to justify the choices and threat assessment strategies. Also holy fuck this new captcha is schizophrenic.
>>6348206This is me>>6348146Bah. If we still don't have a particular plan in mind for the grappling hook I'll switch to jetpack
Counting and writing!
>>6348767>>6348581>>6348345>>6348437>>6348162Jetpack
>Some kind of object that's worn on the back. Doc describes it as a jump pack. It releases far stronger usages of f0rce in intervals, that can only be applied to your own body. However, it's crazy loud in terms of data guzzling. Utilizing it will nearly instantly flag you. The mobility granted by this thing is huge, but it'll be the least subtle option, immediately negating some of your pre-existing advantages if used.You’ve been trying to take things slow and steady for the most part. But here, at the final juncture, you find yourself getting hasty. You envision how you’re going to climb the structure, and in some way or another, it involves flight. Astamon can take you two up, but you’d much rather have a way of moving independently without pausing to wrangle .app files every few seconds. “I’ll take this, please.” “Then I’ll teach you how to use it.” Doc gives you a quick lesson on the jump pack. Once equipped, it has a very intuitive aiming mechanic. You just need to point a remote in the direction you’d like the impulse to be in, and then hit the button to activate it. There’s a cooldown between bursts, but if you’re going to trigger a flag risk the moment you use this object, you might as well fill that space with f1oat. ”First I get a gun, then you get a gun! Now I’ve got wings, and you grab some of your own too! Real original.” Phascomon teases. You don’t find it particularly funny, but it gets a chuckle out of Doc. He swipes the other two devices back into his encrypted archive. “You’re going to go straight up, then? No dillydallying?” “Yeah. I guess so. We’ll play it by ear once we reach the center. I actually wanted to ask if you knew anything about the middle. Squid said there were barely any scans.” “She’s right. It’s a blind spot, nobody is enough of a damn tool to go map it out and risk a Podding." “What about the surrounding area? Anything interesting before the boundary?” Doc pulls up the same map that Squid showed you. This time, he properly points out the human-occupied zones that ring the compound.
"There are a few different types of neighborhoods. Finance District, Residential, Entertainment, Retail." "They don't seem very cautious about what they put next to the Tower." "Why would they be? Nobody tries to get close. They security is focused around the cordon. What you'll want to look out for are these buildings." Doc Cracker points out a handful of skyscrapers. Phascomon leans in to examine them. "We have to leap off from these to get height." He concludes."The taller, the better." You add."Now, that's where your problem comes in. The tallest one is a retail tower. Full of folks. And because of that, full of bots."He points it out for you, and you behold the building. It's one of the few buildings that doesn't look absolutely puny compared to the Tower. There's a massive open space up top, where people can load themselves onto the roof, and the tower itself is full of activities. You've never visited this place before, but you know it as a generically named, relatively popular place for people to have fun in. "Hey! How come we didn't go visit that one?""Too many people. The mall was much simpler. No payment system." Doc shows off the numerous interior floors, revealing the holodeck rooms, movie centers, Ferris wheels, and luxury stores. There's plenty to do in here, but it's meant to be a place to burn credits. You want no part of it. The rooftop has an electromagnetic field around it, to prevent humans from falling off and hitting the streets far below. You'll have to climb up there, avoid notice, and then rip through it before claiming its altitude as your starting point. It'll be very conspicuous. The next spot Doc shows you is in the financial district. He points out an area similar to his old workshop. "Hey! This is like where we trained! Back when we first met!" Phascomon notes.Doc has identified a rooftop that's nestled between several far taller buildings. The structures grow taller and shorter according to the success of their occupants, and right now, a convenient shape has formed. Using the surrounding buildings as cover, you may be able to gain a large amount of altitude with the enclosed rooftop as a launchpad. That could get you the vertical height you need without risking detection, and then allow you to sail towards the Tower. It's less than that of the retail tower, but still a respectable distance.
And finally, there's the entertainment district. It's a sort of theme park, filled only with simplistic games and attractions. Somebody like yourself, who regularly free-falls off buildings, has no need for its manufactured thrills. You don't really get why Doc is pointing it out. "How does this help us? I'd love a visit, though. One last place to see, before-" "We can't risk it. No detours, Phascomon." He nods silently and waits for Doc to continue. "This one is interesting. You see this machine?" He zooms in on a particular attraction. "This here is a pop tower. You sit on the bench, and it flings you up into the air, where you get a nice view of the city. Then it comes back down, and you stumble out to visit the next ride." You glance at the tool that Doc is holding. He's dangling a classic decryption .app file between his fingers. He and Squid both include it as part of their regular supplies. You use them to break open locks, access terminals, and perform nonspecific tasks. You get the drift immediately. "So I could change the settings on it?" "THAT sounds fun! Now we have a reason to visit the park!"By hacking the ride, you could launch yourself high into the sky, at the cost of explosively breaking public property. This one is even more conspicuous than the retail tower, but with 300 floors worth of height to climb to reach the top of the Tower, this sort of altitude will be valuable. Each of these options gets you a different amount of height, and has a different likelihood of detection. Your f0rce thruster is already highly conspicuous, so when you make your final decision, you'll have to decide whether to go all-in, or to negate its downsides with one of these approaches. But that comes later.
"Thanks, Doc. I'll look over these and see what seems the most appealing." He nods, swiping the files your way. The mood grows quiet again. His Kokuwamon partners enter the room with snacks, and all of you quietly unwrap a couple to eat in silence. Now that you've gotten your info on the surrounding area, you're running out of things to discuss. This is your last meeting with Doc. No matter what, you're going to bid him a proper goodbye and thank him for everything he's done over the years—particularly the last few months where he's guided you and Phascomon. Before that, you want to drag out your small talk for just a bit longer, so you don't have to give your final farewell yet. >Ask Doc about his future plans. You want to know what he's going to be up to once you either leave the City, or end up in a Pod forever. It'll put your mind at ease to know whether he'll be living healthily and happily out here. >Reminisce on the past. It's been a few years since you got to know him. Those early days were all business, and you want to think back on them for a while to see how far the both of you have come.>Write-in: You'll be saying your sincere goodbyes to Doc after this, maybe there's something else you want to ask him with this last chance.
>>6348988I'd like to know what he thinks about the Digimon that come from the portal. If he thinks they might be searching for the sigils. I'm ok with giving him the book.Can we ask about his past, how he got into code cracking, how he met his Digimon.
>>6348988support >>6349056Doc should know more about the past portal incident.
>>6349056I want to keep the book, but I also want to ask him about what he and his Digimon plan to do, and what they think is going to happen.>>6348988>Ask Doc about his future plans. You want to know what he's going to be up to once you either leave the City, or end up in a Pod forever. It'll put your mind at ease to know whether he'll be living healthily and happily out here. also>Hug him before we leave
>>6349121+1but let's also bring up the portal incident just so he knows
>>6349138Yeah, sure.
>>6349056>>6349068>>6349121>>6349138Will start writing after tiebreaker
>>6349056I change my vote to>Ask Doc about his future plans. You want to know what he's going to be up to once you either leave the City, or end up in a Pod forever. It'll put your mind at ease to know whether he'll be living healthily and happily out here. Keep the book if you want, but ask about the Digimon from the portal and if he thinks they might be going for her book. Also try to compare the reactions of his Digimon to the video. If they get scared of Infernmon itself the state it is in.
>>6349237Locking in!
>Ask Doc about his future plans. You want to know what he's going to be up to once you either leave the City, or end up in a Pod forever. It'll put your mind at ease to know whether he'll be living healthily and happily out here."Hey, Doc. You look like you're getting ready to leave this place." You remark."I noticed! Room's looking sparse. Where are you going?" You see a proper smile spread across Doc's face. His knee starts bouncing in excitement too. "I am. Do you remember what I told you about the errand I sent your little friend on?" You shake your head. You've lost track of that particular tidbit of information, amidst the chaos of the past few days. Luckily, Phascomon remembers."Liza and Seadramon? They found your new workshop?""That they did. It's a good place. I've verified the files, and I sent Kokuwamon 4 with her to collect data. It's perfect." He's going to be moving out of this dingy little apartment! You preferred his old place. Compared to the customized and well-hidden workshop partition, his current home is downright primitive, and clearly wasn't his first choice. He'll really be able to get back into his work once he has a new place that he feels safe in. "That's great, Doc!" You beam. "You said she'd get a Digivice too, right? So that means..." "Yes. She'll be able to move around properly with Seadramon. Last I saw her, they were still partnered up and getting used to each other. But she's doing just fine." "Did she say anything we need to know?" "She asked about you. But you know my policy. I don't leak things between my customers." "I appreciate it, Doc. But if she asks, feel free to tell her how we are. Or where we're going." You add."Duly noted, my girl. So, I've gotten things cleaned up. I'll fold my temporary terminal into an archive soon, then I'll be making the move." "Are you gonna be okay on the street, Doc? You said you had issues moving around without detection." "That I do. But I'll manage. I made the walk here, didn't I?" "Hey. Your face got all messed up because of malware, right?" Your partner interrupts. You shoot Phascomon an affronted look, but he waves you off. "Shh! I'm going somewhere with this. We know Cutemon, remember? You could get that fixed up with his powers, right?" Doc reaches up to touch the metal plate that houses his numerous optics. "... Now there's an idea. The middleman would be the Dogs of War, yes? He and them have an arrangement now?" "Yeah." "Then I'll contact Squid and get something arranged. You're right, maybe it's time to get all of this fixed up."Things are looking up for Doc. You don't have to worry about him being stuck in this dingy district anymore."LEAVE. SOON!" One of the Kokuwamon exclaims."For all of us." Doc finishes.
You have one more topic you want to bring up to Doc. The projection is still in the middle of the table, so you point to the portal above it. "Squid showed us some footage." "Footage?" You open up her Tower data archive and swipe the file towards the window that Doc is using. He dispels the error message and authenticates the data transfer, then leans back in his chair to watch the video. He leans forward in interest, but doesn't seem too surprised. You glance at the multiple Digimon in the room as the monster emerges, having a hunch. True enough, they all shudder and fidget on the spot, just like Phascomon. The mere sight of this entity is highly intimidating to them. All of them breathe sighs of relief once Brigadramon slays it.Doc stares at the screen, deep in thought. "Doc? You good?" "Hm? Oh. No, I was just thinking. I've seen this before, yes, it's well-expunged.""So Code Crackers know about it?""Not necessarily. It's not our area of expertise. It's not like we can interact with it, after all. It's just a piece of information that may show up if you've been around for a while.""Do you think it has any relation to the book?" "What? Why would you think that?" You point at Phascomon, then to the Kokuwamon. "Just seeing it seems to do something to Digimon. It was like... When DarkTyrannomon was around, there was this aura around him. Like we could feel it from laying eyes on him. If it's-""Nah. It's different. Different feeling to me. Solarmon, what about you?""Yes, I concur. The discomfort from exposure to DarkTyrannomon is of a different variety. Now that you have described it as being sourced from your 'sigil', I am able to catalogue it. This Digimon brings a separate feeling. It's hard to put into words.""CRUMBLING. VIBRATIONS.""DATA SHAKING. PREY.""EAT US."The three Kokuwamon speak one after another.
"Now, that's not going to put you at ease, girl. But it seems like your question is answered." "I guess. What do you know about the Digimon itself, though? If it even is a Digimon." "It is. I think it's nothing to worry about. These invaders don't come crawling in here often. Many, many years between encounters. There have been... Two? In the last twenty years. Ah, they were close together, it's been infinitely longer since the last emergence than the time between each of those." "Really? When?""I don't know. I never saw it. Brigadramon destroyed them fast. Faster than in this video, actually. We only know it happened because of white noise analysis. Speculative measurements of the disruption caused by them. But now I have a question." "Sure." "What do you think happens if you destroy Brigadramon and leave that portal unguarded?" "Huh?" The question gives you pause. If he's gone, then the City's other Digimon will have to step up and fight. But they probably can't delete the threat as fast as their strongest guardian. That gives it the opportunity to make it deeper into the City. Either way, losing Brigadramon is no good for 87-O. You've always seen him and the Tower as symbols of crushing oppression. But now that you've seen him fight SkullGreymon and the creature that emerged from the sunken wireframe portal, you've come to understand that he has a real use. Doc notices your discomfort and sets a hand on your shoulder. "Ah, come now. It's a good thing you're not actually fighting him. Just something to chew on. Once you leave, the rest of us still have to live here. So try not to tear things apart too much, hm?" You nod. Maybe it's for the best that you don't stand a chance against him. "Do you think more things like that are waiting? Right outside the portal?" Phascomon asks nervously.That question hits you harder than the first. You've never considered the possibility that the portal itself would be deadly. But... You look at the book.app on the table, and feel that familiar flame burning in you. No. You can't think about things like that anymore. You're so close. You're so close to your dream. You can make it, you can crawl through that portal if you just follow the plan. You can escape this damn City forever. You can pursue those scenic vistas and natural wonders of the world that have tempted you since your childhood. You can be happy at last. "No. I don't think so." "What makes you say that?" You shrug. You don't really have an answer. ==
After a few more snacks and a few more follow-up questions on the jetpack and the surrounding area, you finally accept that it's time to go. You slowly stand, and Doc joins you, seeing you off right to the door. He hands you a folder that's filled to capacity. "One last stockpile." "This is real generous, Doc. Thank you." You grip it gratefully. You're all topped up with the best he can give. Once you get the missing pieces from Squid, you'll be firing on all cylinders. Phascomon speaks to the other Digimon in a soft voice, saying his personal goodbyes to them as well. You look at your old friend for the last time. He's been your longest-standing human connection, even if you were nothing but Street Punk and Cracker for most of the last four years. He regards you in turn, his jaw set in a stoic line. "Thank you. I mean it, for everything. The Digivice, all the advice, everything." "Yeah. Thanks, Doc. I'll remember everything you taught us.""Mhm. I won't say it's been no trouble. But sometimes, the trouble is worth it. You both know that well, eh?" "Yeah. Goodbye, Doc. Are you sure you...?" Your invitation is just an impractical impulse. He shakes his head like before."No, no. My place is here. Now, go see that outside for me." His arm twitches, and he uncertainly raises both shoulders just a fraction. Yours do too, almost seeing an invitation. But then he lowers it. You extend a handshake. His arm rises back up to take it. "Well." He says, gripping your hand."Y-yeah. See y-"
Behind your back, unbeknownst to you, Phascomon looks at the Kokuwamon and rolls his eyes. They spread out and act in sync, with no rehearsal needed. Kokuwamon 3 lowers his head and tases Doc with the arc of electricity passing between his antennae. His limbs jerk upwards in shock, while Kokuwamon 4 rams into him. Phascomon does the same. He launches himself upwards and headbutts you, forcing you forward. Your arms rise to steady yourself, and you find yourself gently colliding into Doc. Just like that, the gap is closed by your partners. He sighs and pats you on the back gently, while you wrap your arms around him in a proper embrace. Once you get over the twinge of annoyance, you find yourself grateful for the help. Despite the care you have for each other, neither you nor Doc are the hugging type. The way you've been interacting has been set in stone by near half a decade of cordial interactions. But right now, as you squeeze him sincerely, you're glad you've been allowed to share this moment. "Thanks, Doc.""Goodbye, Marnie. Goodbye, Phascomon. And good luck out there." You separate from your goodbye hug, and then you move to the door without looking back. "I'm going to have to give these four rascals a talking to..." He mumbles to you, as you prepare to load yourself out. You smile, using the contortion to force that teary ache back into your eyes. "So long, Doc. Fellas.""Wait." You pause, your back still turned. You don't want your final picture to be of all of them staring at you, waiting for you to walk through a door you'll never come back through."The islands.""Doc?" "The islands. Them sunny ones. See them for me, yeah?"==
Once you're out in the hallway, you keep walking. Phascomon is clearly feeling the heartache too, but he knows how much more this means to you. He lets you walk in silence, tears slowly rolling, while he cuts apart the lasers and security measures in your path. You reach the elevator unimpeded thanks to his bushwhacking, and you hit the buttons. "Thanks, Phascomon." "Yeah." "Hololize."You teleport downstairs, where you keep walking. Once you emerge from the building, however, and the jamming radius that Doc sent up, you receive a handful of messages at once. Unread!W: Hello?CalamariCracker: Marnie??? R: yo u good? ShadowSong112: hey!!!Your vision swims as you look through the wall of missed texts and calls. Phascomon notices your alarm and paces around on the screen."Marnie? Hey! What's up?"You keep swiping and scrolling, until you reach the uppermost text."Marnie! What's going on?"Unread!CalamariCracker: You're got.CalamariCracker: URGENT.CalamariCracker: Keep VPN on always.You look at the elevator behind you, feeling panic set in. This is Doc's place. You can't lead anything here. You sprint away from the building as fast as you can, hoping that the flagging doesn't mean that they instantly know your position. "We're burnt." You whisper into the Digivice.
You make a manic flight over rooftops and alleyways, keeping an eye out for flying security instances or patrolling Cargodramon. You do actually hear one high overhead at one point, and your nerves cause you to burn an Optical Camouflage use immediately. It doesn't even pause, moving in a straight line to the far West of the City on some unrelated mission. "Damn it! What's the plan now?" "I don't know. I'm not sure how strong their tracking is. We weren't in a partition like Lenny, they don't have us yet, right?" "They shouldn't!" You look through the messages, rapidly scrolling back down their length and following the instructions your allies have provided. W: Don't come back yet. Cc sending checklist.W: Do NOT use sewers.W: Network ideal if d is recovered, can come immediately if you use it.The checklist in question is complex, covering several scenarios and potential levels of surveillance they've placed on you. The first is that public services will be reporting your presence immediately if you use them. You need to always have a spoofer up, Squid commands. And you shouldn't let bots see your face.The final important aspect is that they've gained access to your movement history. It's not humanly possible to have the encryption suite active at all times. There are brief, maybe only seconds-long intervals where it lapses throughout the day, causing you to clearly appear as 'Marnie' to their passive human location indicators. This was the exact same principle that limited VPN usage in partitions to a handful of hours.These short snapshots paint a picture of you in various places around the City, even if it's just a tiny flash. You specifically recall your VPN expiring for two minutes while you were in the punk district this morning, possibly marking it as a location of interest. From there, they can use an algorithm to predict your daily routine.
This prediction is the main issue. Wherever you're going now, they may have already anticipated it and diverted resources to intercept you. You keep reading the messages and find a lifeline. Squid is working on deploying a teleporter beacon for you. One of the Dogs of War will set up a dead drop, and one they do, you can safely use it to reach the base. You have to survive out here till then.Squid didn't say anything about them tracking outgoing messages yet, so you send her a text of assent, then let Doc know that you've been spotted. He might want to move fast as well. "So, they're closing in. I think... I think in a worst case scenario, I could go into Porcupamon. If I need to push it. Astamon is out.""Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Now that you're in this situation, you decide to go back to the basics. Crowds. Crowds are good. If you're in a crowd, you're being surrounded by noise, and scans will have a harder time picking you up. You could benefit from being somewhere crowded. And you can't go somewhere too obvious or familiar. But that naturally means you'll be in close proximity to bots. >Go somewhere completely new. If they're trying to predict your path, you can't visit any areas you've been in before. Randomly pick a spot and hang out there until Squid gives you the dead drop location. The downside is that you won't have much info on random, arbitrary districts. And the main reason you'd have for visiting this would be that they're poor spots to do parkour across rooftops. You'll likely be on the ground.>Visit a place you haven't been to in a while. This algorithm is meant to point out the most likely locations you're in, so a place you haven't been spotted at in a long time is probably secure. You'll have the advantage of familiarity too. >Flee into the Sewers, but don't visit the vicinity of the Dogs of War base. The winding halls and proximity to Digimon should ward off bots. Porcupamon can handle any Sewer threats for sure, but doing so will tire him out. However, accessing the beacons leading to the sewer may be a problem now that your actions are logged.
>>6349305>Visit a place you haven't been to in a while. This algorithm is meant to point out the most likely locations you're in, so a place you haven't been spotted at in a long time is probably secure. You'll have the advantage of familiarity too.if we're really ballsy, we could chill in the hospital for a while.
>>6349302>Digimon-enabled hug for awkward punksD'aww.>>6349305>Go somewhere completely new. If they're trying to predict your path, you can't visit any areas you've been in before. Randomly pick a spot and hang out there until Squid gives you the dead drop location. The downside is that you won't have much info on random, arbitrary districts. And the main reason you'd have for visiting this would be that they're poor spots to do parkour across rooftops. You'll likely be on the ground.Looks like PhascoBro is going to get his last-minute sight-seeing around 87-O after all!
>>6349305>Visit a place you haven't been to in a while. This algorithm is meant to point out the most likely locations you're in, so a place you haven't been spotted at in a long time is probably secure. You'll have the advantage of familiarity too.
>>6349417kek, adorable!
>>6349328+1We need completely new to break their algo predict
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>6349313>>6349331>>6349328>>6349451Rolling and writing!>>6349417Holy shit, cute!! Really put a smile on my face when I opened the thread kek
>>6349417Nice detail on the untied shoelace
>>6349814OP? You OK?
>>6350139Yeah, still writing! Just had some work stuff yesterday and wasn’t able to complete the update. No issues foreseen with running, may just be late every so often when days are packed :((
>>6350162'Tis the season. Don't worry about it. We're all looking forward to the update!
>Visit a place you haven't been to in a while. This algorithm is meant to point out the most likely locations you're in, so a place you haven't been spotted at in a long time is probably secure. You'll have the advantage of familiarity too.You don't want to end up in a spot that you have zero information on. That's just asking to be tagged by a camera or servitor station that you have no knowledge of. No, you'll have to visit somewhere that seems unlikely. Based on what you've been told, they're searching for you by analyzing patterns. As long as you go somewhere that's out of character for yourself, the pattern will be broken.Unless they can predict THAT too, but it doesn't check out based on the logic Squid has cited, so you decide to not worry about it. If they can track you that far ahead, you're screwed anyway. "Okay. Let's go." "Where to?" "I've got somewhere in mind. I've wanted to visit again for a bit, actually..."You briskly walk towards your destination. You still remember where it is, and you check your map long the way. You can't risk jumping around on buildings anymore. If something sees you, it's highly conspicuous. You stay on the ground and walk Westwards. "Not the apartment, huh? Too good to be true.""It's not. Sorry... I don't think we can ever go back there. I know you wanted to say bye, but we just..." You couldn't risk it. But now that you've only JUST been flagged, you regret your haste. You did actually have time. You had to say goodbye too early, and Phascomon didn't get that bit of closure. It's a small matter, all things considered, but you feel sad regardless."Yeah. I won't push it, it's gonna be the first place they look." You cleaned up well as you left, and didn't bother packing essentials or taking some of your more treasured novelties. Before you walked out of that door, your priority was getting rid of illegal evidence and .apps that might implicate your friends. The apartment is useless for the bots now. "Where are we going then?" "The VVV plaza. It's far from the Tower, that's already a huge plus." "I remember. I wonder how that coffee guy is doing..."==
After crossing through several crowds, you reach a place that you haven't visited in a month: That mall overlooking the West end of the City's boundaries, with the Tower hidden behind you. Nothing tears the view apart with its bulk. All you see ahead of you is an extended urban landscape, ebbing and flowing into little hills and valleys. "Look at the way they're all arranged. The places further towards the edge.""Yeah? What do you see?" "Doesn't it feel kinda smoothed-out? It looks like that page in your book."You pull it out as you observe the environment ahead, all the way up to the impassable barrier and infinite drop-off. Phascomon points out the right page, and you notice the section on natural geography. You see what he means. This part of the City doesn't look like leveled artificial ground. It's like they preserved some kind of pre-existing landscape."It does. Everything here used to be a Digital World, right?" "Yeah. That spot is like... Merde, must be some echo of it." "You'll see the real thing soon." You say, determined for it to be true. Your partner watches the environment in silence. Despite everything going on, you try your best to relax and wait. The old café is somewhere behind you, but you're apprehensive of what you'll find in there. The nice man who always had drinks for you and the Dogs of War was right in the path of Sealsdramon's squad. You've never gotten an answer about what happened to him. "Seen enough yet?""Yeah. Let's go snoop." You leave the lookout post behind and walk towards the squat little building. The outside is just as you remembered. However, the 'VVV' sign is gone. That doesn't bode well for the occupant. You try to enter the partition, but find it locked. The security gate is low-level, so you feel confident enough that breaking in won't trigger an alarm. You get Phascomon to pop out for a brief moment and sever the lock, allowing the two of you access. An abandoned place like this is likely to be a good hiding spot.
Once you're inside, you notice the damage. There are blade marks around the entrance, but no gunshots. The Digimon who stormed the base had to use this area directly. Tracing the edge of a gouge with your finger, you recall the way Sealsdramon sank his blade into Phascomon and Kaus Gammamon over and over. He was a terrifying enemy, and you're glad that your partner punished him so strongly. But his death can't bring back the spiky-haired barista. You never had a proper conversation with the man. Maybe you would have liked to at some point. As you look around, you notice that the coffee shop has been ransacked thoroughly. You travel all the way to the end, where you see a gap in the wireframe of the building. The model has been ripped apart to reveal the hidden room where the teleporter once stood. The floor is stained with malware fragments, scorch marks, and bits of a scrapped model. You see bits of black and green everywhere, that could have once formed a distinct shape."She blew it up.""Definitely. They didn't get their hands on it." You behold the beacon. It was truly a work of art. The moment you saw it, you knew that its creator had to be a genius. As someone who can appreciate vital code like this, it's a shame that Squid had to detonate her creation to stop it from falling to the enemy. Yet another thing of beauty ruined by them. "She did a thorough job. How do you think she wrecked it so cleanly?""Probably the same principle as my gun." "The mix of virus and vaccine programs?"That makes sense. There must have been something within the device that could be used to eat its code and render it not only inoperable, but completely devoid of use. Any intact portions would have been taken by the City Digimon when they closed this place up. You consider salvaging the scraps for Squid, but decide to not waste your time on it.The two of you head back outside to the bar counter. Phascomon clambers onto the red stool that Mr. Lash once used. You settle down on a green one, set out in a row for customers."This dispenser is still functional." "He didn't really use it, did he? He had some... Weird way of making it with his hands." But not many people came to pay for it and appreciate it. It was some sort of art, and it's lost now. You're ashamed to admit that you never actually thought to admire it closer. You just thought it was neat, but you didn't have time to watch him do something that was inarguably authentic. "I sure can't make it. Dispenser it is! Cream and sugar for you?" "Yes please." Mr. Lash, as well as many others, incorrectly clocked you as a black coffee drinker. You prefer things that are sweeter. Phascomon hits a few buttons and spawns a drink for you, then goes ahead and fixes one for himself. The two of you sit there in the abandoned café and enjoy your hot coffee for a while, taking in the atmosphere as you hide away from the long arm of the law.
"Do you think this place will get repurposed eventually?""Eventually? Of course. But it's a real quiet spot. Could be years before anyone asks for this lot, and they wipe the whole partition and start over."You'll never know what happened to the man who once sat where Phascomon did. All you know is that he was kind to you all, and that'll be your final impression of him. As you drink your third cup of coffee, Phascomon idly hits buttons on the machine, dispensing items that he then forces you to place in your inventory. The Digivice can't receive them, but he's craving a stockpile for the week. "Come on! How many are you gonna get?""It's really good!""You didn't like it that much before.""I guess tastes change."You sigh and oblige. Hopefully Squid will get back to you soon. Hiding out in here has turned out well so far, they haven't managed to trace you to this location. If they did, a squad of Digimon would be bursting through the door by now.Or maybe they'll be outside when you load yourself back into the plaza. The thought makes you shudder, and you start on a fourth cup. Phascomon can't beat them all as Porcupamon."Hey."He idly tugs on the leaves of a holographic plant."What do you think the Dogs of War are gonna do once you're gone?""They'll have that strong Digimon by the end of the mission, right? Deckerdramon? I guess their plan is to take down Brigadramon eventually.""Hard to make the whole City rebel if they're just one group. Too many people are happy to just sit around."You nod. That's been a perpetual flaw with their plan. But it won't be your concern after the two of you leave."Wind's whole thing about having the City run by humans instead of bots... I don't think that's ever going to happen, actually." "Right?! He can go suck it. But I'm thinking about Squid, Ryan, the others. Bella. Uh... Okay, I don't think we give a hoot about anyone else."You shrug. Yeah, those are the main ones. And their Digimon partners, of course."I'm just thinking, is all. Once we're gone, they're gonna be doing things that will get them podded. Or deleted. And their story ends there." You shift about in your seat. That's another thing you really didn't want to think about. Once you leave, there'll be so much unfinished business that you'll never know the conclusion to. It's exactly like the VVV coffee shop and Mr. Lash. There's no ending. "But what can we do?" You ask. "... I don't know. We can't really change their course, huh?" Try as you might, you can't think of anything either. The two of you muse on it for a little while more, before you stand up with an air of finality. "It's not our concern anymore. We just... we can't worry ourselves over that. There's not supposed to be anything tying us down. The real world is out there. The Digital World is out there. All of this- it's not real. So we just-""You keep saying that." He sighs.
"What?""Real. Not real. You have this..." He holds his clawed hands out in front of him, like he's trying to measure something. "This label you stick onto things. All the time. It's like your catch phrase.""What are you talking about? In the end, none of this matters. We're going to leave it all behind and not come back. That's what I mean by it not being real.""It's real to ME!" He exclaims, knocking a cup of coffee off the counter as his tail whips about in irritation. As it tips over, the liquid turns into brown voxels that scatter over the ground and evaporate instantly. "This place isn't all bad, okay? There's- There's Doc. And ToyAgumon. And it's where we've gotten so much stronger. I know you think it's some prison. Maybe that's true! But don't you think we should-" Your message window pops into existence, interrupting him. Squid has sent you the location. The both of you look at it, wide-eyed, knowing that it's time to move. You have to make it there and return to the safety of the base. No. You close the notification. You're not letting this ill timing cut your partner off. "Sorry. You were saying?"He sits down on the polished wooden surface as you place the last few cups back in your inventory. "Don't you think we should clean up before we go? Make sure the things that actually matter in here don't break the instant we're out?" "We can't, Phascomon... We can't stay any longer. I'm flagged. Maybe if they never spotted us, we could delay things. A week. Two. But there's no more time like this. Whatever Wind and the Dogs do, we can't shift their course completely. He made it clear we don't have any leverage." In a flash of blue light, he loads himself into your Digivice. You check the coordinates and head for the door, leaving yet another place behind for the final time. "Not even a few more days? Just a bit more." "And push the whole mission back? No. Come on. Aren't you excited to see what's out there? We just have one last lap." "Maybe not as-" He turns away from the Digivice screen."Ah, screw it. Let's go." ==
You teleport back into the base, leaving Hannah, the jamming team, and the teleporter beacon behind. They'll make it back some other way. Meanwhile, your already disguised signal is being scrambled further by the team, put through dozens of veils of static so that the servitors will never find it. It takes a huge amount of manpower to let you use the teleporter without having your coordinates triangulated immediately. Wind is waiting for you in the lobby. You send Phascomon out of the Digivice to stretch his legs, then walk over to the blond teen. "Hey." "You okay? Gave us a real scare when you didn't respond." He squints at you, and you feel your heart lighten a bit. You can feel that he's sincere about it. He's not solely regarding you as some thorn in his side. "I was talking to Doc. He had his entire apartment blacked out, so I didn't see the message until I was out." "Well. You're back in a jamming zone. So just take it easy till we move out. You saw how much work it took to protect you, right?" You nod, hoping he's not going to pinch pennies or ask for a favor in return. Fortunately, he's just trying to make a point. "When we carry out Operation Javelin, we can't afford to veil you. All we can do is give you a safe spot to exit through, then you're on your own. You've got to be fast with whatever plan you have. I'll brief you on our timeline later on, so we can sync up the distraction with your exit." "Thanks." Phascomon mumbles begrudgingly. "You are most welcome, Marnie and Phascomon." "That's all. Dism- You can go do what you need now." Wind finishes. "Thanks for the help. We'll go rest. Long day." You sigh. You and your partner head further into the base.You're too tired for anything else today. Running from the bots and enemy Digimon took a lot out of you. You'll both just be getting dinner and resting. There are a few days of the week that you'll be spending on fixed things, like rest, training, and planning. As you settle in the cafeteria, you and Phascomon idly discuss what to do on your next free slot.>Sit in on Wind's briefing for Operation Javelin. You'd like to know their actual plan is, and how it'll serve as a distraction for you.>Read the rest of the Tower files with ToyAgumon. By the end of the week, you'll definitely have finished them anyway, but doing it earlier will give you a clearer picture.>Write-in: Talk to a friend. Despite the distance you've tried to keep, you've ended up growing closer with some members of the Dogs of War. Since you're leaving forever, maybe there's something you'd like to say to one of them. You could pick a topic and a person to approach.
One more vote after this, then it's time for the big day. Unless I remember anything important I completely forgot to bring up or write, of course.
>>6350206>Hang out with Squid. Help out. Learn. We've gotten this far with the support of two very capable individuals, and we're leaving without them.Plus, this is our last chance to reinforce Squid's convictions before any book weirdness.
>>6350222+1
>>6350206>Sit in on Wind's briefing for Operation Javelin. You'd like to know their actual plan is, and how it'll serve as a distraction for you.I really want to know more of how he plans to manage and protect the city. How will he make the puzzle solvers do something useful for the first time in their lives.Man, it's not enough, there will be a lot of things unanswered after Marnie leaves. I'm mostly invested in Marnie so I'm more than ok with what we get, but I'd love a second part, maybe with a new MC.>>6349420>>6349814>>6349890I'm glad you like it. That's how I imagine the kids that dismiss their nanny bots too early.
>>6350222+1>>6350329>They do that periodically, I think. It just never lasts. Whether it’s the warrior woman vs. loving diplomat angles, to whether she skews more fantasy or sci-fi, there seem to be at least two major camps who jockey back and forth. It would be nice if they could at least just list out “okay, here are her powers and abilities.” She’s not the only character to have that problem, but among the very mainstream big names, she does feel like one of the least consistent even in that regard.Liza and Seadramon would work, desu.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>6350222>>6350259>>6350329>>6350421Rolling and writing!
>Write-in: Now that you’re both safe, you and Phascomon stop drinking so much coffee. He enjoys a well-deserved dinner of leaves, while you decide to get something from the vending machines instead of eating Digivice meat today. You settle in for the evening while idly planning out your next steps. Once that’s all done, you retire for the night. ==The next day is spent thoroughly researching the approaches that Doc has laid out. You’ve got the finance district, where you have to sneak between buildings so their presence will hide the Jetpack up until you reach cruising altitude. You’ve got the retail tower to infiltrate and leap from. Entering it in the first place will be risky because of the sheer amount of bots, but it’ll give you a great head start. And then there’s the ridiculous plan of firing yourself out of a hacked machine to gain maximum airtime at the cost of instant flagging. Combining all three approaches with your chosen tool and Astamon’s flight will lead to different outcomes. Even though the big day is coming up, you can’t decide. You and Phascomon end up arguing over your ideal approaches. In order to not waste time, you decide to lay out the possibilities for all three. You’ll have to decide and finalize your plan later in the week. After that, you bring him to the training room. Wind has given you priority access to a Holodeck, and requested that you make your bookings on an opt-out basis, with the assumption that you’ll need it at every other hour. It’s a generous arrangement. As you enter for your appointment, you see a handful of recruits filing out. Mike and Ryan are among them, and when the former sees you, he flushes with rage and clenches his fist, but hurries along with the others. Phascomon chuckles as he beholds the angry red markings popping up above his head. ”Sucker.” Once everything is set up, he Digivolves into Porcupamon and you begin training.==
In the early hours of day four, you get woken up by the alarm again. This time, you let it rouse you properly. You get changed for the day, making sure your second outfit is set up in your loadout menu. You'll need that when you walk into the sweltering workshop. After a quick breakfast, you head to the Holodeck to get a short session of practice. You'll be giving it up to the other Dogs of War in just an hour, which is when you'll be visiting Squid. "MADNESS BROACH!" Porcupamon shreds a target with a ball of whirling energy. He pushes spikes through his body and covers himself as soon as he launches the projectile, then turns towards you."Felt like I gained distance." "It seems to same to me. Are you sure it's not in your head?""My throwing arm has gotten better!" He argues."Well, what's definitely gotten better is the spike downtime. You got them back near instantly." "Huh? I could always do that.""You could NOT! It took a while! You were way faster!""Who's tripping now?!" The two of you bicker lightly, and eventually you both replay the last few projections of the Holodeck to see who's right. The results are inconclusive, and you decide to call the session early. "Well, either way, I feel stronger. But this form will never be strong enough to take on the enemies we'll see while climbing. What's the point anyway?" "You still can't Digivolve into Astamon, right?" You suddenly feel the sense of strain that you've recently become acquainted with. Porcupamon quivers as he tries to draw on your link and energize himself, but he just can't. He relinquishes his hold on it and sighs. The sound hisses through the hollow confines of his gas tube. "No... But it felt like I was closer this time.""You'll be all healed by tomorrow, as per the Digivice projections. It was better today! But while you're stuck like this, why would we want to waste time? Any practice is good. We have to work on conserving your energy more, you ran dry last time.""Normally, I'd agree... But we're doing a straight climb. And we need to fly. Do you really think we'll benefit from going back to earlier stages? It's all or nothing." You stare at your feet. You can't argue with that logic. There's just no room to go into his Champion form when you'll be assaulting the most heavily guarded place in the City. When you look inwards, you realize that you really just want to be doing things with your partner. Training and spending time together like this, where it's just the two of you, feels familiar. You want to savor it. But it's not really making an impact on the upcoming mission. "Okay. Forget it, we'll wait till you can Digivolve again. Squid should be ready by now, let's go see her instead."Porcupamon pumps his fist, then shrinks down into his default form and toddles along. "Let's go!"
No explosions greet you when you enter the room today. Instead, Squid and ToyAgumon have a wall of Digimon images in front of them, and they're tracing out paths between them. "Good morning." "Mornin." Squid's eyes light up when she sees you, then light up further when she sees Phascomon. He immediately leaps behind your leg when she starts getting grabby, but she manages to resist today. "G'morning, you two!" "Ah! I see your little mitts! Hands off!" Phascomon grumbles. "Hey... Whatcha doing?""We're picking apart samples of Digi-DNA we got from the partition, and finding out if there are any links between them and the Digimon partners of our members.""Is it going well?"You remember Doc mentioning something about looking through a Digimon's data for markers. Squid probably doesn't have the same level of expertise, but it looks like she's made good progress. There are plenty of green lines connecting the various Digimon that you can recognize. "Good! Progress is good. You've seen Ryan's Ebidramon, right? He got a sample the other day, that's how he Digivolved." "He showed me Ebidramon, yeah. I was really surprised. Could he have gotten the form without the data?" "Signs point to yes. Ebidramon is a natural Digivolution of Gizamon, and Gizamon already had an adequate amount of data in him for a Rookie."You glance at the chart, managing to identify quite a few that you recognize. Kunemon is connected to Kuwagamon, and the other giant bug you saw in the radar room. You decide that you want to give Squid a proper parting gift, since she's helped you out so much already. Pulling out the copy of the Digimon scan folder, you extract the file on Okuwamon and slide it above the red bug in the mindmap. Squid and ToyAgumon both turn to stare immediately, and then she gasps in wonder. "That's- Where'd you get that?! Oh! In the Finance District!"She claps her hands together in glee as you offer her the collection of data. This may not be a huge help in the grand scheme of things, but you're glad you've pushed her current project forward a little.
She claps her hands together in glee as you offer her the collection of data. This may not be a huge help in the grand scheme of things, but you're glad you've pushed her current project forward a little. "So, Bella and Gazimon need a powerup too. I see the logic." Phascomon says, tapping the window where an image of the purplish mammal is rotating slowly. "But how many more newbies can you really trust with Champion Digimon?" "... Wind wants to give them all Digi-DNA samples." "ALL of them?!" You ask, bewildered."To tell the truth, I think it's a bad idea... They haven't learnt discipline. Or patience. That's a lot of power to get unnaturally."You completely agree. You remember the partition, and how Kuwagamon Digivolved, only to get obliterated in moments. And with Leomon, Liza still behaved so inappropriately that she caused the biggest crisis for the Dogs of War thus far. When Wind Digivolved Kaus Gammamon from his previous form, it took him YEARS with his partner. Multiple years of exploring the sewers and collecting data. Now that they've found a way to jump-start Digivolution, their power can grow exponentially. But that doesn't turn them into a more effective fighting force straight away. "This seems dumb... Imagine that mohawked cazzo and his dipshit human suddenly getting a new form. But with that current attitude?" "Squid, can you shut the door...?" You ask. She obliges.Phascomon is the first to broach the topic once there's another layer of security over the Workshop. "How sustainable do you think this all is?" "Sustainable?" "Y'know, how far are you gonna get?""Our goal is to keep going till we have the City in human hands instead of bots. But-" "But you know that you can't get the majority of the population on your side. Most of these chumps are... satisfied. Completely satisfied with the way things are. How are you going to shake them?" "We have plans in mind for that. Don't worry!" ToyAgumon chirps. "You too, bud...? It's not that we don't believe in your whole big purpose. But it just feels..." "Marnie... Wind knows what he's doing, okay? He's let me read through his book, y'know. There's a lot in there. There are principles for leading, ways to hype people up, lots more than you'd think!" "In times of comfort, people are reluctant to rise. You'd be right. But they're already taking notice. Have you seen the clip we leaked of Sealsdramon attacking us?"You recall the punks from the day before saying that people were watching those in public. Right there in the train. So, it's true that average citizens are getting to see CITY-SANCTIONED Digimon attacking and deleting people. Maybe that's a good first step after all."... I did." "Wasn't a bad move, that one." You settle into a chair.
"Just be careful, okay? I'm worried. I, uh..." "We don't want anything bad happening to you guys. You two especially, is what she means to say." Squid beams at you, and ToyAgumon scratches the back of his head with his sticker-eyes closed. "That's kind of you to say! It's... scary sometimes. We're doing big things. But we have it covered. We'll deal with it.""I'm cautious! I don't jump into this stuff all the time either." Squid protests. "And don't be afraid to say no to Wind sometimes. You're too important for him to treat like a minion." "Pfft! Of course!" "She's veto'd him before!" You don't feel THAT much better after bringing this up, but it's better than nothing. Even without you, the Dogs of War are going to keep trucking on. You've been in their lives for only a handful of months, and you're not confident your impact will last forever. You can only hope that Squid takes this seriously and treats this rebellion situation with the caution it needs. "But enough about us. Three more days, huh? Till you go see the outside world?""We're so close." You say, gritting your teeth. "I can't sleep. I keep thinking about it. We can't fail here, or we'll lose everything." "Sounds like you're the one who needs to worry about Podding. Here!" She hands you a fully packed folder of tools. You accept it gratefully, feeling the scales of mounting debt tip further in her direction again. You can never repay her, nor Doc for everything. They've pushed you forward out of kindness, and now you're about to set out on a final journey of your own. "Thanks. Any last minute things you need help with? I can-" "No, no, nothing like that. I just want to say goodbye properly. This is the last time we'll be seeing you..." Her mood shifts for the worse in an instant, and you end up sliding your chair closer to hers. "Maybe one day, when you guys have completely taken over... You can come through the portal too?" She shakes her head.
"Maybe. Only if I get bored of the source code. But how could I? There's just so much it must contain. And when that's done, there are other Digital Worlds and systems out there. Earth isn't for me, I'm afraid."Then you'll truly never see each other again. You resolve not to make your parting THAT miserable, you still have three days in the same base as her, after all. "Then... Is there anything you can code that'll let us keep in contact? Some kind of token or beacon that you can track in the future. Like a..." "Like a pager! Brilliant idea, Marnie!" "I- I don't know! That's difficult! The tech needed to communicate across entire systems like that... I couldn't even begin to imagine how I'd get started. But I could try!" She swipes the Digimon tree away, and prepares to get started straight away. You tug on her floppy sleeve. "Hang on! If you get carried away now, we'll lose our chance to talk and catch up!" "Ah... You're right. But I only have three days... And I have the mission prep to do!""Ouch... Maybe you shouldn't have brought that up." Phascomon whispers."Focus on the mission prep! It's the key to this in the first place. Stay safe, okay?" "Yeah..." ToyAgumon agrees with an odd tone. You raise an eyebrow, but decide not to pry.You manage to squeeze in enough time to chat with Squid until early afternoon. Once you move on from the topic of missions, rebellions, and Digimon, you find that the two of you quickly run out of things to talk about. She's content to sit in silence for long stretches. As you sweat in the blazing workshop, you end up wishing there were trivial interests that the both of you could share. Maybe a handful of things like favorite shows, or Sportsball teams, or new releases of food or clothing. But there's nothing. The both of you have immersed yourself in a completely different world. Little mundanities like that are forever out of your reach. Maybe once you get out of this prison, you can take it slow and really appreciate things. You could relax when there are no bots, no Digimon, no Brigadramon waiting to capture you and seal you away forever. As you have that thought, you find yourself glancing at Phascomon, who's chatting animatedly with ToyAgumon in a corner. The two of them seem to be having a good time. "Do you think there are humans out there too?" You ask abruptly. "Probably. The whole population made it into all of these Digital Arks a long time ago. That's... I don't know. Maybe like a million million. Chances are, someone else has exited!" She doesn't sound too sure, and that doesn't inspire confidence in you. That final question seems to break her spell. She stares at the clock in the corner and suddenly slaps her hands on the side of her head. "Ah! I'm behind schedule... I need to go run some programs, they'll take a few hours. Marnie..." "I know. We gotta go."
Maybe it's the fact that she's around your age, instead of a mysterious old man, but you find it easier to express your goodbyes. "Hey. I know I don't say it often enough, but all your help has been... We couldn't have made it so far without you two." "Yeah. You've got my gratitude." Phascomon agrees. "Don't worry. I got to work with someone as interesting as you!""And you've made her plenty happy. That's good enough for me!" ToyAgumon nods. "We should go. Thanks for-" Before you can initiate anything, she lunges forward to hug you. You press your head into your shoulder and return the motion. You still have three days, it's not a final goodbye, but you feel tears welling up anyway. You feel blocky plastic touching your leg, and glance down to see ToyAgumon doing the same thing. Squid pulls away after a while, and stares you in the eye properly. She manages to hold eye contact for a few seconds before her lips quiver and she looks away. Then she zones in on her next target."... May I...? Come on... You were saying you were grateful and all!""Oh, fine! Just a few seconds, capisc-"Squid reaches forward to scoop up Phascomon. His wings and tail flail about wildly as she nuzzles the top of his head and giggles, running her hand over his fur and ears roughly. "Oh! He feels even better than I thought! Why do you two have to leave?! I wish I could pet you forever!""MARNIE! GET THIS WITCH OFF ME! HEEELP!"You feel those tears getting forced back in. With a smile slowly prying your lips apart, you push forward to rescue your partner with another optical blast.==
Day five. Two days left. You and Phascomon are stuck in a hectic mood. You finally sit down with him and open up your map again, where you highlight the several options Doc has pointed out for you. You need to decide on something so you can fully chart the route and take all contingencies into account. You have to spend today and tomorrow finalizing the path you'll take during your escape."I'm a fan of-""I know, you've said that already! Okay. Let's read the pros and cons lists again... Then decide.">Head to the job district that's closest to the Tower. There are four buildings that surround a single short one. If you can avoid being spotted in the district itself, and then hide away from observers who have their windows set to the middle building for some reason, you could use the short rooftop as a launchpad. This would let you gain a medium amount of air, before the conspicuous jetpack gets picked up. You'll end up hitting the tower at a lower altitude, but the response will come slower.>Head to the retail tower. Sneaking through the actual thing will be harder, and you could have complications arise before you even act. But if you make it to the roof, you can tear through the EM field and leap off. This will immediately sound an alarm, negating the downside of your noisy jetpack and getting you a height advantage when climbing. >Head to the entertainment district and hijack a ride. This is absolutely the most conspicuous of the three options, thanks to the destruction of public property. Hacking a pop tower and blasting yourself into the sky is already a Podding violation. Combine that with entering Tower airspace and using the jetpack, and you'll get Digimon swarming you immediately. However, you can't beat the height gained by this choice.
Tomorrow is Christmas eve my time, so I may not be able to update! I feel bad about leaving 2-day gaps so often lately, seasonal difficulties. Sorry fellas. Christmas will be business as usual, I hope, only plan to chill at home.
>>6350612>Head to the retail tower. Sneaking through the actual thing will be harder, and you could have complications arise before you even act. But if you make it to the roof, you can tear through the EM field and leap off. This will immediately sound an alarm, negating the downside of your noisy jetpack and getting you a height advantage when climbing.We still have copies of fritz and brick. They'll reasonably suspect it's us, but it's not a violation that goes directly to violence. And they don't know our goal.Optical Camo won't be terribly important beyond this point, so burning through it doesn't sound so bad.
>>6350619+1I'm worried about Phascomon. Can he not become Astamon due to all his misgivings and the fallout of the finance sector assault? Is the thought of his power not being enough stifling him further? I think we need to talk this out ASAP
>>6350612>Head to the entertainment district and hijack a ride. This is absolutely the most conspicuous of the three options, thanks to the destruction of public property. Hacking a pop tower and blasting yourself into the sky is already a Podding violation. Combine that with entering Tower airspace and using the jetpack, and you'll get Digimon swarming you immediately. However, you can't beat the height gained by this choice.Retardmaxxing this one
>>6350612>Head to the entertainment district and hijack a ride. This is absolutely the most conspicuous of the three options, thanks to the destruction of public property. Hacking a pop tower and blasting yourself into the sky is already a Podding violation. Combine that with entering Tower airspace and using the jetpack, and you'll get Digimon swarming you immediately. However, you can't beat the height gained by this choice.Seems like a Phascomon choice.
>>6350612FUCK ITCHANGE MY VOTE FROM >>6350641TO POP TOWER LAUNCH
>>6350613Don't worry about it. That's the same all over /qst/, after all! Merry Christmas, QM.>>6350612>Head to the entertainment district and hijack a ride. Let's make the mist of our noisy option.>>6350641I agree that we should chat with PhascoBro, though.
>>6350200>"He didn't really use it, did he? He had some... Weird way of making it with his hands.">But not many people came to pay for it and appreciate it. It was some sort of art, and it's lost now. You're ashamed to admit that you never actually thought to admire it closer. You just thought it was neat, but you didn't have time to watch him do something that was inarguably authentic.But what Marnie doesn't consider is Mr. H had to learn the art of coffee somehow. Either he came up with it himself or somebody else taught it to him. And if it was invented or discovered once, who's to say it can't be reinvented or rediscovered once again by somebody else?
>>6350734If he discovered it on his own, we know for a fact it arose indepedently at least twice, since that would imply artisanal coffee culture from Earth died.
>>6350700Oh definitely. Here at the end we need Marnie to be in max sync with Phascomon or he might never go Mega.>>6350735Do you think there's ancient data archives of Earth culture and info still around? Perhaps they are in the Tower in a special area? These are meant to be virtual arks for humanity, right? There's bound to be someplace... I wonder what Marnie could see if she ever noclipped in the Tower.
