Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re hesitating,” noted a solemn voice, a pair of tremendous heads winding around Fu, two sets of red eyes giving him an idle gaze. “This isn’t a good time to be hesitating.”

It wasn’t. Su-Han and Marianne had already fallen to the small army of monsters marching against their fortress, and while Fei was still fighting, she couldn’t possibly hope to hold out against their adversaries much longer.

The young- well, younger- woman was striving to buy him time.

And he was hesitating.

“The last time I did something like this,” he said slowly, “it caused the catastrophe we’re facing now.”

“True,” noted his partner mercilessly through one mouth, opening the other to finish the sentence, “but right now, it’s a choice between taking a risk and potentially bringing about a new catastrophe… or doing nothing and guaranteeing that this catastrophe happens.”

…his partner was right, of course. 

Even if it was a mistake… a chance of fixing this catastrophe was better than simply allowing it to occur.

Even if the choice demanded his morals be broken as payment.

He sighed and placed a hand against the glowing green screen in front of him. “Forgive me. Please, all of you… forgive me for the burden I am placing on your shoulders.”

The screen glowed.

And then, all at once, lines blazed along the walls of the fortress, blurring towards the roof, and even though he couldn’t see it, Fu knew that bolts of lightning had exploded up from the roof and into the sky.

There. It was done.

All that was left was to wait.

And sure enough, the fortress rumbled, something scraping against the entrance, Fu stepping back to stand next to his partner, waiting for what was about to happen.

It didn’t take long for the wall to come down.

“COSMIC RAY!”

___________________

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Marinette took two seconds to consider the pros and cons of getting out of bed versus throwing a pillow at her alarm clock to shut it up, an internal argument that was swiftly silenced when her mother opened the trapdoor into her bedroom, a knowing look on her face.

“Just five more minutes?” Marinette tried pleading.

Sadly, as Sabine Cheng wished her daughter to get to school on time- and, admittedly, Marinette had set her alarm a bit late so she could sleep in- she did not get five more minutes, and was showered, dressed and eating breakfast downstairs fifteen minutes later.

“I bet you anything Chloé will be in my class again,” Marinette commented with a grimace.

“Four years in a row?” Sabine asked in surprise. “Is that possible?”

“Probably,” Marinette snorted. “Lucky me!” 

“Oh, dear,” Sabine said gently, “don’t say things like that. It’s the start of a new year- I’m sure things will work out just fine!”

Marinette considered that, then she nodded and smiled…

And immediately, as soon as she set down the box of cereal she was pouring her breakfast out of, she knocked over the milk carton, which knocked over the salt shaker, which rolled and knocked several oranges off the counter and onto the floor.

Marinette just shook her head and groaned in exasperation.

Lucky her, indeed.

___________________

Fortunately, her father was on hand with a box of macarons, and her mood was lifted!

Sure, Chloé was still a possibility. Sure, odds were good something else would go wrong.

But for now, she was in an excellent mood, and the school was just across the street.

Yes sir, nothing was-

Bzzt!

-and hello message on her cell phone. 

Almost instinctively, she pulled the phone out, frowning at the icon on screen- a black square marked with two golden dots and a wavy line. The message simply read, ‘Come save the Digital World!’.

…what did that mean? Was it a game advertisement or something? But even with Marinette’s fondness for video games, she felt relatively sure she’d remember downloading a game that produced that sort of notification.

Absentmindedly, she tapped on it.

And that was when everything all went wrong.

There was a sound like glass shattering, before the ground fell out from beneath her. Her surroundings vanished, everything gone in a nimbus of white-grey.

And then, she realized she was falling.

This realization came from the fact that she was, currently, in a cloud and had started falling towards something green and leafy- was that a forest?! 

A sudden flicker of green light shone around her, before the world lurched-

And she was suddenly sprawled on the ground, convinced for a moment that she was still falling, before finally realizing that she had not, in fact, fallen to her death.

She laid there for a moment, catching her breath, allowing the sheer terror that had overtaken her to die down, before slowly pushing herself up, looking around with wide eyes.

Okay.

Yes. 

This was a forest. 

A big, leaf-covered, surprisingly-temperate, sunlit forest.

Marinette looked around for a few minutes, in absolute shock, and then, at the top of her lungs, let out a scream of, “WHAT THE FU-“

___________________

“Okay,” she said to herself, fifteen minutes later, having crouched down behind one of the larger trees she’d found. “Okay. I’m in a forest. I was in Paris, and now I’m in a forest, after I fell out of the sky after answering an odd message on my phone, which was really a horrible mistake in retrospect. And now I’m here. In a forest.”

Okay! Okay, she could be calm about this. She could think this through. She didn’t know what was happening, and she’d wasted some time panicking, but she still had her phone. She could call home! Probably. It would depend on if she had cell service. Which wasn’t likely in a forest.

She paused for a moment. Then, in one quick moment, she pulled her phone from her pocket-

No. No cellular service.

Calling for help was out.

But she couldn’t panic yet. There were still opti-

“GRRAAAAGGH! FIRE BLAST!”

An enormous jet of emerald fire tore through the treelike, wood burning, scorched leaves falling from the air, the flames turning red as it ate at the foliage.

And a scream of fear rang out through the wood.

Marinette moved before she even realized what she was doing, dashing towards the sound of the scream.

It didn’t take long for her to regret it.

Well, not entirely. On the one hand, there was another person! A girl about Marinette’s age, with reddish-brown hair, wearing an orange-white-purple plaid shirt and a set of black horn-rimmed glasses.

And who was on the ground, obviously terrified out of her wits, because on the other hand, there was an enormous dinosaur monster standing there. Jet black, covered in red stripes and a purple marking shaped like a butterfly on its forehead, leather straps wrapped around powerful arms ending in huge claws, green fire dripping like saliva from its mouth as it lowered its head and roared in obvious fury.

Plaid girl, miraculously, sprang to her feet, and Marinette promptly did something impulsive. “OVER HERE!”

Plaid Girl’s head snapped in her direction.

Unfortunately, so did the dinosaur’s.

Plaid Girl bolted in Marinette’s direction as the dinosaur let out another “FIRE BLAST!”- and okay, the dinosaur could talk, Marinette would unpack that fact later- and she shoved Marinette to the ground for a moment, the jet of flames blazing overhead, before scrambling back to her feet, trying to drag Marinette up with her.

Marinette did her best to help in that regard, and did not fall over for once, so she could overcome her klutziness in a life or death situation!

“RUN!” Plaid Girl shouted, grabbing Marinette’s wrist and pulling- but Marinette pulled back. “Other way!” She gasped. “Found a hollow earlier! Good hiding spot!”

Plaid Girl immediately nodded.

Marinette dashed back towards her first hiding spot, even as the dinosaur roared, sending out another blast of green fire.

Plaid Girl followed.

___________________

“…so,” Plaid Girl noted, as they scrunched into Marinette’s spot, the sounds of the dinosaur’s stomping in the distance growing fainter. “That happened.”

“Yeah,” said Marinette softly- with that situation over, the panic had decided to take a more insidious approach, icy fear slowly coiling in her gut.

“…I’m Alya, by the way,” Plaid Girl introduced, almost sheepishly. “Alya Cesaire. Nice to meet you…”

“Marinette,” she said in response.

Alya nodded at that, then fell silent for a moment.

And then spoke up again. “What’s even happening?!” She demanded- quietly, but still obviously confused, scared, and angry about being both. “I was just walking to school! How the hell did we get dropped in a forest and hunted down by a friggin’ dinosaur?! Does this just happen in Paris?! Because I’m new in Paris, so I don’t know!”

Marinette… snorted. “No,” she said, struggling to fight further snickers. “This doesn’t just happen. I’m as lost as you are, and-“

She shook her head. “I was walking to school too. I just thought this was gonna be a normal day with my bad luck. I just… didn’t realize how bad, I guess.”

Alya frowned, before a slow smile started spreading across her face. “Well, one good thing’s come of all this.”

“Yeah?” Marinette responded dubiously.

“You’ve made a new friend, Miss Marinette.”

…Marinette considered that. “We’ve known each other for all of ten minutes,” she said slowly, “and we spent half of those running in terror from an enormous fire-spitting dinosaur intent on killing us.”

“And upon such things are eternal friendships formed,” Alya declared in a sage, false-snooty tone, tilting her head and raising her nose to sniff dramatically.

Marinette couldn’t help it.

She broke into giggles, clutching at her stomach. 

Alya just grinned, obviously proud of herself.

The giggles died down, and Marinette reached carefully into her backpack, an idea springing to mind. “…well, if we’re friends…”

The small box of macarons her father had given her- safely stowed, because she was not risking fresh-baked goods to her clumsiness!- was produced, and she held it out in offering.

Alya blinked. “…you just had macarons on you?”

“My family runs a bakery,” Marinette explained. “Do you not like macarons?”

Alya’s response was a quick, greedy snatch, a single macaron clutched between her fingers. “Don’t even think about it, girl,” she cautioned. “You can’t offer someone sugar and then threaten to take it away immediately!”

She immediately popped the pastry into her mouth. “…oh my god that’s delicious,” she proclaimed.

“It smells delicious, too!” Chirped a high-pitched voice. “Could I have one, please?”

…neither of them had said that.

Both girls looked at each other, blinked, and then slooooowly looked at the small… dog? It looked like a dog, but like a cartoon dog, complete with innocent blue eyes, somewhat oversized collar, and innocent smile as it wagged its tail- standing right outside their little hollow. “Hi! I’m Salamon! Can I come in, please?”

Luckily, Alya had the presence of mind to clap her hands over Marinette’s mouth to muffle her scream of terror.

There was still a fire-breathing dinosaur on the loose, after all.

___________________

“I’m sorry,” ‘Salamon’ said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ve never seen Digimon like you before! I should have realized you might react poorly to me.”

“…Digimon,” Marinette repeated weakly. “That’s what you are?”

Salamon blinked in obvious confusion, tilting her head to the side exactly like a particularly curious dog. It was almost cute enough to distract Marinette from her spiralling. “It’s what all of us are! Digital monsters from the Digital World. Are you two okay? Did you hit your heads really hard and get amnesia? I don’t know anything about amnesia, but it can happen, right?”

“Woah, wait wait wait back up,” Alya urged quickly. “Digital World? I got a message about that on my phone before things went to shit- Marinette, did you-“

“I did!” Marinette interrupted, comprehension suddenly blossoming. “I thought it was a game or something, but- Come save the Digital World! It- this is the Digital World! We’re in another world! Our phones sent us into another world!”

Alya clapped a hand over her own mouth, eyes wide as she swore furiously under her breath.

“None of those are nice things to say,” Salamon said, and for a small cartoony dog, her poker face was excellent. “…so you mean you two aren’t Digimon?”

“No,” said Marinette. “We’re humans. From… Alya, you said you moved to Paris, right?”

“We’re both from Paris, yeah,” Alya confirmed.

“…hu-mons,” Salamon repeated. “…you two are weird. But you don’t seem like you’re lying. If you were, you’d come up with something believable.”

…alright, fine, the cartoony dog was growing on Marinette.

“…so you two don’t know anything about what’s happening here?” Salamon asked curiously.

“No,” Marinette admitted, shaking her head. “We don’t know anything.”

“We just ended up here, with that dinosaur-thing trying to kill us,” Alya confirmed with a nod.

Salamon’s resemblance to a dog only increased as she suddenly let out a low, pitiful whine. “…he wasn’t always like that,” she said softly. “Monodramon… he was a friend. He played a lot of pranks on people, sure, but he liked to make them laugh. He was… he was good.”

“Hold up,” Alya said cautiously. “That guy was a friend of yours?”

“He was,” Salamon confirmed. “…and then, two days ago, an evil Digimon named Eosmon came to the forest. Monodramon tried to fight her, but… instead she forced him to become DarkTyrannomon. Then she left the forest, and he’s been here and rampaging ever since. None of us living here have been able to stop him- he’s too powerful. And…”

“…you don’t want to risk hurting him, right?” Marinette asked quietly. “Because he’s still your friend, and you want to help him?”

“Mm-hmm,” Salamon said with a mournful nod.

Marinette fell silent.

She didn’t understand it all, not really. But it sounded utterly awful.

…wait.

“Alya,” she said slowly. “The footsteps.”

“…they’ve stopped,” Alya confirmed. “I can’t hear them.”

Salamon’s eyes widened. “Oh no.”

And all at once, another jet of emerald fire tore through the air outside their hiding hole, DarkTyrannomon’s roar filling the air once more.

“RUN!” Salamon howled.

Marinette immediately grabbed Alya’s wrist, pulling her out of the hole. Salamon wove between their legs and started darting away, letting out a quick bark- “Follow me! We have other hiding spots in the forest! He hasn’t been able to get into them so far!”

Marinette didn’t argue. She rushed after Salamon, releasing Alya’s wrist as soon as the other girl pulled up alongside her. DarkTyrannomon roared and loosed another jet of fire, but fortunately, the dinosaur seemed to be slower than-

There was a sound of breaking wood, before a tree, torn out of the ground, soared over their heads and crashed into the earth ahead of them.

…because of course the dinosaur had a brain.

Salamon visibly backpedaled away from the impact site, her blue eyes narrowed in concentration. “…new plan,” she said softly. “You two, run and keep running until you see a big pinkish-red rock. Knock three times on it and they’ll let you in. I’ll hold him off.”

…what?

“Salamon, no!” Marinette snapped. “We can make it! We just have to keep-“

“You want to take the chance of him sniping us with a Fire Blast?” Salamon shot back. “At least this way, you two will be alright! You’ll probably be able to get out of the forest if you play it right-“

“You just said he’s too powerful for you to fight!”

“I’m still willing to try!”

“...Um, guys?”

“What?!” They snapped in unison, turning to glare at Alya-

-who was pointing at the slowly approaching form of DarkTyrannomon.

Crap.

“We’re out of time,” Salamon whispered, before raising a paw, pressing it against Marinette’s ankle in a pseudo-shove. “Please. Run.”

Marinette looked down- the small Digimon’s eyes were gleaming with obvious fear. 

She didn’t want to do this. Marinette didn’t want her to do this.

But she clearly intended to anyways.

To fight a losing battle so that Marinette and Alya could survive.

…it wasn’t acceptable. Marinette hated it. But what else could they do, really?

…there weren’t any better options. Not unless something just happened at the last minute to present one.

“…if you get the chance to escape, take it,” Marinette pleaded.

“I will,” Salamon very obviously lied, before turning to DarkTyrannomon, letting out a low growl.

And then, suddenly, a blaze of red light erupted into existence, the glow streaming through… Marinette’s pocket?

Almost instinctively, she reached into it, procuring her phone, which was shining brilliantly, the screen unlocking on its own and the apps displayed changing, the case rippling from black to brilliant red, a pattern of five black spots like a ladybug’s shell appearing at the centre.

The screen flickered with static for a moment, before displaying a single line of text, and buttons for ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

Partnership established. Initiate Digivolution?

Marinette stared for a moment.

…she was taking the risk.

She clicked yes.

The red aurora all around them seemed to strengthen for a moment, before it spun around Salamon, who let out a sudden gasp, before the scarlet light rippled into a cocoon, Salamon’s voice suddenly sounding from within: “Salamon Digivolve to… Gatomon!”

The light cocoon split.

Where Salamon had been standing, a bipedal catlike creature stood instead, a pair of yellow, red-striped gloves covering its claws, purple tufts on its ears and tail twitching, a small ring around the tail shining with golden light for a moment, the feline’s blue eyes gleaming with mischief.

“…what,” said Alya. “I- what- Marinette, did you do that?!”

“…maybe?” Marinette offered, just as surprised. “It just said ‘initiate Digivolution’, so I clicked on it-“

The cat creature suddenly giggled. “Ohhh, Marinette, I so owe you for this!”

…that was Salamon’s voice. “Salamon?”

“Gatomon, now!” She declared gleefully. “You just Digivolved me!”

She shifted on her feet, grinning excitedly. “Okay, new new plan, you two stay here and watch the show! This is gonna be fun!”

And before either girl could say anything, Gatomon bolted towards the dinosaur-

Before leaping into the air far further than any creature that small had any right to, right arm flashing through the air with a shout of “Lightning Paw!”-

And DarkTyrannomon staggered, jaw cracking to the side from the sheer strength of the blow, stumbling backwards, a look of surprise flashing across the monstrous creature’s face, as though it hadn’t been expecting its prey to resist.

Probably because, until thirty seconds ago, its prey hadn’t been planning to resist.

“…okay, are we in Pokemon?!” Alya demanded. “Because I’m starting to think we’re in Pokemon! Salamon just magically ‘evolves’ into a new form and is suddenly strong enough to fight a giant-ass dinosaur evenly?!”

“I guess so,” said Marinette faintly, not quite over the surprise just yet.

She’d done that? Turned Salamon into Gatomon and made her strong enough to, apparently, stand up against DarkTyrannomon?

…with her phone.

Impulse suddenly struck her, and she raised the device, looking at several bars at the top of the screen- besides the big ‘Initiate Digivolution’ button that was currently greyed out, there was ‘Partner Status’, ‘Contacts’, ‘Location Tracking’, and… hmm. ‘Digipedia’.

Gee, whatever could something called a ‘Digipedia’ do?

She tapped it. The screen promptly rippled, revealing a camera-like screen, which she directed towards DarkTyrannomon- bingo. A 3D image of the dinosaur appeared on the screen, as well as several lines of text.

“DarkTyrannomon,” Marinette read aloud. “Champion-level Virus-attribute. With its Special Move Fire Blast , a super-powerful jet of fire, it transforms all of its surroundings into a sea of flames.”

“Lemme see,” Alya hissed, pulling herself over, frowning at the 3D image. “…Marinette, can you zoom in on the forehead?”

Marinette did so-

“Look!” Alya hissed, gesturing. “The real deal’s got that weird purple mark on its forehead! But it’s not supposed to! Maybe it’s a weak spot or something!”

It was hardly a ridiculous conclusion.

“GATOMON!” Marinette shouted. “HIT THE FOREHEAD! WE THINK IT’S A WEAK SPOT!”

Gatomon had been dancing circles around DarkTyrannomon the entire time they’d been talking, and she turned to shoot a confident grin. “GOT IT!” She shouted back, before DarkTyrannomon roared and swept down a gigantic claw to try and crush her- only for the smaller Digimon to jump up and onto it, dashing up the arm to the shoulder, leaping into the air, and plunging straight down as the dinosaur looked up, opening its mouth.

It didn’t fire fast enough.

“Lightning Paw!”

Gatomon’s blow hit the centre of the purple scales.

DarkTyrannomon’s roar transitioned into a scream of pain.

And a sudden blaze of purple light filled the forest, rippled to pale blue, then faded.

Gatomon was standing on the ground in a ‘superhero landing’ pose, eyes shut.

And DarkTyrannomon was gone. In its place, a small, draconic creature was lying on the ground, unconscious, its chest rising and falling steadily with its breathing.

Almost instinctively, Marinette switched back to the Digipedia camera, directing it at the small dragon. “Monodramon. Rookie-level Vaccine-attribute. Its Special Move Beat Knuckle is a simple bold move in which it is said to assault with earth-shattering force, and wallop with its powerful claws.”

Alya let out a sharp inhale. “Monodramon. Didn’t Salamon say-“

Marinette was already rushing over. “Gatomon! Are you alright?”

Gatomon opened her eyes and shook her head, making a buzzing noise with her… was it still lips on a cat? Eh, the term worked- before looking up. “I’m okay, yeah!” She confirmed with a nod, before turning to see the unconscious dragon, her eyes widening. “...Monodramon,” she breathed. “He’s alright! He’s-”

Gatomon suddenly staggered, the red glow returning for a brief moment to wrap around her, before Salamon slumped to the ground. “...tired,” the puppy squeaked.

Marinette considered her options.

Then she reached down and scooped Salamon into her arms, Alya bending over and doing the same for Monodramon. “Salamon,” Marinette asked, “you said there were more of you. Can you give us directions?”

Salamon raised her head and offered a small grin. “Just follow my nose,” She quipped, before pointing with her head.

Marinette, agreeably, did just that.

Hey, Salamon had just saved their lives. Taking her back to her friends was only the polite thing to do.

___________________

“...you know,” commented the Digimon that Salamon had introduced as ‘Tentomon’ idly, “if it weren’t for the fact that Salamon backed you up before Sunflowmon dragged her off to tend to her injuries, I wouldn’t have believed a word you just said."

“I don’t blame you,” Alya admitted. “It’s unbelievable to us , and we’re living it!”

Salamon had led them to a small cluster of six other Digimon- a trio of Tanemon, a Budmon, Tentomon himself, and their leader Sunflowmon.

She’d also given them a bit of an explanation on how exactly Digimon worked- namely, that she, Tentomon and Monmon were all ‘Rookies’, that DarkTyrannomon and Gatomon had been ‘Champions’, which were a level above and much more powerful, and that the Tanemon trio and Budmon were ‘In-Training’, the level below Rookie.

Sunflowmon was also a Champion, but her decision to not fight DarkTyrannomon was forgivable in Marinette’s opinion. Traditionally, flower monsters didn’t match up well against giant fire-breathing dinosaurs.

“Well, you helped Monodramon and us,” Sunflowmon noted with a frown. “We’d like to help you, too. But we have no idea what’s happened to you, or how to get you back home. I’m sorry.”

“..it’s okay,” Marinette assured. “It was a long shot, anyways.”

It didn’t stop her stomach from sinking- no doubt her and Alya had been missing for long enough now that people were worried about them- but to be fair, Sunflowmon didn’t even know what a human being was.

“...wait,” Tentomon said. “There might be a way for you to find out. Sunflowmon, what about Miracle City?”

Sunflowmon let out a gasp. “Of course! You two should go there! It’s only two weeks away from this forest on foot, and we can provide you a map and supplies and things-”

“Woah, woah, slow down!” Alya called, raising her hands in the universal gesture for surrender. “What’s Miracle City?”

“It’s the Digital World’s centre of education,” Tentomon explained. “Three enormous libraries, two big schools, scholars from all over the Digital World gather there to study and share their knowledge!”

“Not just education, either!” Budmon chirped happily. “They’ve got a huge marketplace! And lots of Digimon live there, too!”

“Exactly,” Sunflowmon said with a nod, her smile still wide. “It’s full of resources you two should be able to access! I can’t be completely certain they’ll have the answers you’re looking for, but there’s a chance!”

…two weeks. Two weeks Marinette, and Alya too, would be missing from home, and that was just if ‘Miracle City’ had all the answers they were after, and a means to get them home.

But any chance was better than no chance.

She locked eyes with Alya, who nodded firmly. Then Marinette turned back to Sunflowmon. “Thank you for your generosity, Sunflowmon,” she said respectfully. “We’ll gladly accept your help.”

Sunflowmon grinned broadly.

___________________

Marinette studied the map with a frown. “Alright… looks like we follow this path out, then we turn left… oh, there’s a town along the way! We can probably refresh our supplies and things there…”

“Waaaaaait!”

Marinette turned- “Salamon?” she asked in surprise.

The puppy Digimon darted up, panting energetically. “I’m coming, too!” She declared. “I’ve always wanted to see Miracle City! And besides, you two are gonna need someone to help protect you while you’re travelling!”

Marinette blinked.

Then she turned to look at Alya, who just grinned and shrugged. “I’m not against it! If Salamon wants to come, she can come.”

Marinette sighed and shook her head, but she was unable to stop the smile spreading across her face. “I see I’m outnumbered,” she joked. “Thank you, Salamon. We’re glad to have you along!”

Salamon grinned happily.

…and then the grin turned sheepish. “...it’s actually not just me,” she admitted. “C’mon out!”

And from behind a tree…

“Monodramon?”

The small dragon smiled with equal embarrassment, reaching up with one arm to scratch at his shoulder. “Hey,” he greeted softly.

“...why do you wanna come?” Alya asked in confusion.

“...honestly, I wanna get away for a bit,” Monodramon admitted. “No one blames me for what I did, but… I don’t like being in the forest right now. I still feel guilty. And besides, Salamon’s my best friend. Wherever she goes, I wanna follow.

Marinette considered that.

Turned to look at Alya- and it was mildly impressive that they’d gotten this ‘friend telepathy’ thing down so fast.

“Welcome to the team,” Alya declared with a grin. “The more the merrier!”

Monodramon’s entire face lit up, before he dashed up and immediately wrapped his arms around Alya’s legs in a hug. “Thank you!”

Alya just shook her head and laughed, accepting the gesture in the spirit it was offered- namely, that Monodramon would've given her a proper hug if he was big enough. “Man, you little guys are weird.”

“We know,” Salamon chirped merrily, before turning to Marinette. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” Marinette agreed with a nod, before turning to walk up the path.

Miracle City awaited them.

___________________

Author's Notes: Later chapters probably won't be this long- I had to get a lot of the exposition and stuff out of the way. And no, not everyone involved in this is all in one place.

But we'll be seeing more of them later.

If you have questions, please, feel free to leave them in the comments! I am moderating them, but I'll do my best to answer them all promptly. Thank you for reading the first chapter, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the future!

Chapter Text

“All I wanted,” Adrien grumped to the universe at large, “was to go to school and make friends. Was that too much to ask?”

As the universe did not possess a mouth, it couldn’t answer Adrien’s question, but he could feel it laughing! It had a low and wicked sense of humour!

Still, at least… wherever this was seemed safe enough. A warm, sunny canyon filled with rocks that he could climb or clamber over- sometimes, just for the fun of it- and a stream running through it that looked clean, if he got thirsty. Which he hadn’t yet, which was particularly impressive given it had been five hours since he’d last had something to drink! Normally, physical activities in the sun were much more parching.

…come to think of it, he wasn’t all that hungry, either.

Which was weird. But he wouldn’t question his blessings, especially not now.

He clambered on top of a new rock, then took his phone out of his pocket, frowning. No bars. Rrgh, if he could just contact The Gorilla!

…actually, that might not help. Adrien had no idea where he was. And Father had never actually implemented tracking on his phone, operating under the assumption that, well, Adrien would never be out from under his, Nathalie’s, or The Gorilla’s supervision for long enough to warrant tracking being on his phone. The one time Adrien would have been grateful for it, too!

Rrgh! Stop it, Adrien! Complaining about your situation won’t help!

He shook his head to get rid of the annoying whiny thoughts, then stood to take a look around from atop his boulder perch. Hmm… canyon, canyon, cliffs… nothing he hadn’t seen yet so far, but tracking the stream, he could spot something green…

Well, no one had ever accused Adrien of being overly cautious.

He worked his way over, raising a curious eyebrow. The green stuff, as it turned out, was grass in a sheltered nook of the canyon- the stream had broken into a small pond, and plant life had clearly decided to take advantage. Small flowers blossomed, and a young-seeming tree was stretching its branches over the water, leaves shifting gently in the breeze.

In fact, it looked like a pretty good place to stop for now- even if he wasn’t tired, that didn’t mean it couldn’t creep up on him! Probably! Best to just not risk getting tired, right? Definitely not because he liked the peacefulness of the location, no sir, his reasoning was completely pragmatic…

He sighed, taking a seat against the tree, resting his head against the bark.

Which was when something tightened around his ankle.

“What the-“

The snare trap yanked him into the air with a scream, dangling by his trapped like from a particularly sturdy branch, struggling to get loose- how had he not seen that?!

“HEEEEEEEEELP!” He shouted instinctively. 

Then he cursed that instinct, because snare traps didn’t just spontaneously occur in nature, and he’d probably just alerted the person who’d set it up.

And sure enough, another voice soon reached his ears.

…a voice that was cackling hysterically.

“HA! Gotcha, ya damn dirty-“

The voice cut off, suddenly, before declaring in a tone of surprise, “You’re not a Fangmon.”

Adrien, with difficulty, shifted in the trap, managing to get a good look at a purple… creature? It had floppy devil ears and a tail, a red bandanna, and green eyes gleaming with what looked like confusion. “No, I’m not a Fangmon.”

“Then you shouldn’t’ve stepped into my Fangmon trap,” the purple creature deadpanned. “Gimme just a sec, I’ll get you down.”

It bolted around behind Adrien, before a few shuffling noises later- “ Oof!” He protested as he hit the ground. “Maybe a bit gentler next time?”

“You’re stupid enough to wander into another one of my traps?” The creature sniped back drily. “C’mon, it ain’t safe out here. You can share my cave for the night, I ain’t enough of a jackass to leave you out on your own. ‘Sides, the Fangmon come out at night.”

…well, like Adrien said earlier, he wouldn’t count his blessings. And this little purple thing seemed trustworthy enough- it had let him down, at least, when it could’ve just left him trapped! 

“Lead the way.”

___________________

“Impmon,” Adrien said with a groan, pinching his nose shut, “look, I kept from asking this overnight out of respect for you letting me stay here, but I have to ask now; why do you have so much cheese?”

Impmon, who’d introduced himself over the course of the evening, raised his nose and sniffed dramatically. “Only a heathen would ask that sort of question! Clearly you know nothing of the glories of cheese.”

“Glories,” Adrien repeated dubiously. “Right. Shouldn’t it all be rotting by now?”

“Normally, yeah,” Impmon said with a shrug and a grin, “but a friend of mine, Sorcerimon, did a neat little magic trick before he left for the big city. Keeps all my cheese perfectly chilled and keeps it from going bad! I’ve had a nice little stash of Camembert in there for almost a month now…”

…well, Adrien wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the horse was a rather odd, slightly mischievous devil-shaped digital monster with a taste for rather gross dairy products.

“…so,” he said quietly. “What now? You said you’d let me stay the night, but…”

“Mm, yeah,” Impmon noted, suddenly frowning. “I’d let you stay longer, honestly- you’re decent company, and it’s not like you’ve got anywhere else to go right now- but sticking around my place isn’t gonna help you get home. Best chance you got is probably Miracle City, by my guess- they’ve got a pretty big university. Whole reason Sorcerimon moved there. I’ll bet you can find some answers there.”

“Miracle City,” Adrien repeated.

It wasn’t much more than two words at the moment, but it was still hope.

“Tell you what,” Impmon said, and Adrien promptly turned his attention back to the purple Digimon. “I’ll escort you to the edge of the canyon. The stream goes up to a proper lake eventually, and Miracle City’s on the other side of it. You shouldn’t have too many difficulties from there.”

“Really?” Adrien said in surprise, before quickly backpedaling. “I mean, you don’t have to do that, Impmon, I can probably get there fine on my own-“

“Nah, I gotcha,” Impmon said with a nonchalant shrug. “‘Sides, you’re an idiot. You’ll probably end up goin’ the wrong way and gettin’ yourself lost.”

“…gee, thanks,” Adrien deadpanned.

“No problem!” Impmon chirped merrily, before strolling towards the cave exit. “Now c’mon. Y’don’t wanna waste daylight!”

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Adrien mentally chanted, before following after the little devil with a resigned roll of his eyes.

Completely unaware that they were being watched.

___________________

Scanning. Scanning.

Targets found. Analyzing,

Impmon. Rookie level. Threat level: minimal. Asset potential for this area: negligible.

Unknown target detected. Scan confirmed. Transmitting to Eos Core for analysis. Awaiting further instructions.

…THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. 

BUT IF IT’S REAL…

TRANSMITTING INSTRUCTIONS.

Instructions received and acknowledged. New primary directive: Capture target designated ‘Caterpillar’. Exterminate all impediments to this goal.

Engaging Sublimation program. Engaging transmission array. Contacting assests. Preparing for capture of target ‘Caterpillar’.

___________________

Two pairs of eyes ignited as sudden rage coursed through them, the butterfly-shaped brands on their foreheads pulsing.

They had a target to hunt down.

A pair of fanged maws extended up to the roof of their cave and howled in terrifying unison, before both dashed out and into the sunlight- normally something they hated, but to carry out their orders, they would tolerate it.

Capture the Caterpillar.

___________________

“So,” Adrien asked, after almost an hour of walking with amiable, relatively-pointless chit-chat- Impmon was a surprisingly good conversation partner once you learned to filter out all the seemingly-instinctive mockery. “You mentioned Fangmon yesterday. What are they?”

“Oh, right,” Impmon noted, raising an eyebrow. “Forgot that part. Well, long story short, this canyon’s normally home to a pack of Fangmon- and they’re decent neighbours, for the most part! They’re basically harmless- the worst they do is howl when they go on their night runs. But two weeks ago or so, things went pear-shaped. The entire pack showed up sporting these glowing purple marks on their foreheads and just started attacking. Everyone who was there scattered- I ain’t the only Digimon living around here, but I haven’t seen anyone else in a while. We’ve all sorta holed up wherever we live, and we don’t come out unless we have to.”

“…that’s awful,” Adrien breathed quietly.

And it was. After all, hadn’t he wanted to leave the mansion his whole life? The thought of people being trapped in their own homes, unable to go out because of their own fear…

His gut twisted.

“But they don’t come out during the day,” Impmon said with a shrug, as though it didn’t matter. “Nocturnal. So we’ll be fine!”

As the universe had a sick and cruel sense of humour, it promptly decided to prove him wrong.

Howls rang out, followed by a high-pitched scream of terror.

“…me and my big dumbass mouth,” Impmon muttered. “I- wait, wha- where are you going?!”

For Adrien had, almost without realizing, bolted in the direction of the howls.

He almost wished he hadn’t.

A pair of large, wolf-shaped monsters were snarling viciously at their prey, exceptionally long jaws filled with fangs- oh, maybe that was why they were called Fangmon!- and dripping with hot saliva, red and white fur bristling, yellow eyes gleaming with unnatural fury, a purple marking shaped like a butterfly pulsing on both beast’s foreheads.

But it was what they were snarling at that had Adrien’s attention, for another human, dark skinned, wearing a bright red baseball cap and enough bracelets to make Chloé jealous enough to raid her jewellery closet just so she could be ‘more bedazzled’, had his back pressed up against a rock, a yellow creature that looked somewhat like an armadillo standing in front of him in a defensive pose, glaring at the canines.

“Dude!” the human protested. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

“I wasn’t!” The armadillo shot back. “I saw a loose boulder and I shoved it on impulse! I didn’t think they’d be able to dodge!”

“WELL, THEY COULD!”

The Fangmon, evidently, were tired of this debate, as one of them promptly advanced, letting out a snarl. “Snipe Stea-“

“Bada-Boom!”

A bright red fireball streaked over Adrien’s shoulder, hit the lunging Fangmon in the side of the head, and promptly detonated. 

Adrien turned to see where it had come from, and spotted Impmon holding out a hand in a gesture like a finger gun, another sphere of flame flickering into existence. “Armadillomon, you dumbass!” He snapped.

“Yeah, yeah, yell at me later!” The… armadillo-shaped Digimon whose name was Armadillomon, that made sense, actually, shot back. “C’mon, Red Hat, we gotta scoot!”

“My name is Nino!” the other human- or ‘Nino’, evidently- protested, but he still ran after Armadillomon, Impmon finger-gun-flicking a second fire blast into the second Fangmon in an attempt to buy time.

Unfortunately, aside from a few small singe marks, the Fangmon seemed completely unharmed, and immediately started chasing, howling in fury.

“They’re faster than us!” Nino yelped. “Move faster, dude!”

“Doing my best!” Adrien shouted back- a sudden weight landed on his back, and Impmon’s arm reached over his shoulder and gripped on tightly. “Night of Blizzards!”

Adrien didn’t see the attack itself, but judging by the sudden burst of cold, and a whistling sound piercing the air, he had an idea of what Impmon had just done. The howls taking on a more pained note before shifting back to rage was an equally useful indicator.

“They’re not slowing down!” Impmon reported a second later. “Keep runnin’!”

Right.

Keep running, while Impmon did his best to impede their pursuers- Adrien could already hear more fireballs being launched.

But it didn’t sound like it was working.

There had to be something else. They couldn’t just keep running, the Fangmon were too fast- they needed to try something else.

Think, Adrien, think! Options! Ideas!

He didn’t want those Fangmon to hurt him. He didn’t want them to hurt Impmon, who’d been so helpful. And he definitely didn’t want them to hurt Nino or Armadillomon. There had to be something they could do!

…and then, jet black light started shining from his pocket.

As best he could without disrupting his stride, he reached into it and procured his phone, which crackled and shifted shape, the case rippling to ebony, a pale green symbol of a paw pad gleaming at the centre of it.

Partnership established, announced the screen. Initiate Digivolution?

Adrien didn’t think.

He selected ‘yes’.

And on his shoulder, a sudden whirlwind of shadows and green lightning consumed Impmon, before the little creature floated off his shoulder, his form visibly shifting in size. “Impmon Digivolve to… Wizardmon!”

The nimbus of darkness and electricity burst away, and an entirely new Digimon landed on the ground- human-shaped, if only two-thirds as tall as Adrien, dressed in a yellow-and-red jumpsuit, with a purple cloak and hat that covered his mouth, grey skin, and spiky orange-blond hair. One hand almost idly twirled a staff topped with a bronze sun.

“…well,” he noted, and though the voice was slightly deeper, it was unmistakably Impmon’s. A set of green eyes gleamed with obvious mischief, and his face crinkled in a way that made it clear he was gleefully smirking under his cloak’s collar. “This changes things.”

And without hesitation, he spun on a heel, twirling his staff in the direction of the Fangmon, calling out in a strong voice, “Blink Breeze!”

The wind promptly picked up, before whirling into a thunderous gale, sweeping up from under the still-lunging but visibly surprised canines and hurling them skyward with howls of what sounded deliciously like fear.

“… dude,” Nino proclaimed, his jaw dropping. “That was awesome!”

“Thank you, thank you,” ‘Wizardmon’ quipped, bowing a bit dramatically. “I’ll be here all day.”

Behind him, the Fangmon landed, scrabbling quickly to their feet as he turned to face them. Both beasts growled, the markings on their foreheads pulsing.

… the markings. Which Wizardmon-as-Impmon had said earlier weren’t supposed to be there.

“Wizardmon!” Adrien shouted. “Those marks! Try hitting them! Maybe it’ll do something!”

“Good call!” Wizardmon called back, before the duo of Fangmon lunged. “Magical Game: Vanish!”

Wizardmon promptly disappeared.

As a consequence of this, the two Fangmon collided headfirst with one another.

Adrien had to laugh at the sight- the sheer dichotomy of the terrifying monsters that had been hunting them suddenly becoming slapstick victims was wonderful.

One of the Fangmon immediately raised its head and snarled in obvious rage, which became a yelp of pain as Wizardmon flickered back into visibility and firmly planted his boots on its back, carefully aiming his staff at the canine’s head. “Alright, hold still-“

The second one pounced. “-Gah! Thunder Ball!”

Wizardmon swept out his staff and blasted the second Fangmon away with a blast of lightning, before leaping off the first before it could buck him off, twirling his staff again. “Magical Game: Double!”

With a sound like ripping fabric, Wizardmon promptly split into two Wizardmons, both of them twirling their staffs. “Double Thunder Ball!”

Twin bursts of electricity erupted into existence, hurling the canines aside, the twin Wizardmon advancing on their opponents, bolts of lightning arcing towards their foreheads-

And then, the air rippled, and an entirely new Digimon appeared in front of Adrien.

And a really weird one, too- it looked like some sort of butterfly robot? With purplish-indigo solar panels for wings? Most of it was purple, actually, the crystal… metal… whatever-it-was gleaming in contrast to the main white body.

“ Target acquired, ” it declared in an emotionless voice, before it raised a hand glowing with energy. “ Bolt Rip.”

A bolt of energy burst out and blasted Adrien full in the chest, sending him hurtling backwards and straight into a boulder.

The world went white for a moment before his vision started to clear, and Adrien’s head felt like it was filled with slowly-evaporating cotton as he managed to angle his head back towards the butterfly robot (bot-terfly?) as it advanced- he could vaguely see one of the Wizardmons zapping a Fangmon full in the face, seemingly stunning it, before its wings obscured his sightline.

To their credit, Nino and Armadillomon did try to help- Armadillomon curling up and lunging while Nino threw a rock- but the robot simply raised its hands and fired yellow-purple energy blasts from each, sending both of them rolling away, before advancing and grabbing Adrien from under the armpits. “ Target captured. Returning to-”

Alas, it was promptly interrupted.

Because, as Adrien had noticed earlier, Wizardmon had blasted one of the Fangmon in the face.

Where the butterfly brand was.

And in a blur of red and white, both Fangmon leapt into the air, letting out howls of fury as they dug their fangs into the robot’s wings and started ripping into it in a mad fury, followed by Wizardmon leaping into the air, staff crackling with electricity before he slammed it down on the robot’s head .

Evidently, the assault was too much for it, which was reasonable considering a pair of pissed-off mutant wolves had been doing their level best to tear it to shreds.

The robot flickered for a brief moment, purples rippling to shades of blue, before it disintegrated into pixels.

Adrien let out a brief low groan, before Wizardmon stepped up in front of him, extending a hand to pull him to his feet. “C’mon, kid,” he urged. “You good?”

…Adrien accepted the hand up.

Then he turned to the Fangmon. “...so. Are. Are you guys good, now?”

The first Fangmon turned to look at him, yellow eyes gleaming… before abruptly breaking into a dog-like grin, its tongue dangling from its mouth as it let out friendly-sounding panting noises.

“...I think that’s a yes,” Nino offered, before extending a hand and hesitantly patting the second Fangmon on the head. Judging by the way it pressed its head further into his palm, it didn’t mind.

“Like I said earlier,” Wizardmon offered smugly, “good neighbours until those brands got on ‘em.”

The first Fangmon let out a sudden growl of agreement, flicking its snout in the directions of the pixels that had fallen on the ground like snow and were slowly vanishing… also like snow, actually.

“...ohhhhhh,” Adrien realized. “Purple butterfly robots. Purple butterfly brands. Did that thing do that to you guys?”

Both Fangmon boofed in agreement, looking astonishingly cute for a pair of demonic canines with way too many teeth.

“...but now that it’s gone,” Wizardmon noted, “that means that it can’t go back and zap you again, and if you can get those brands off the rest of your pack…”

Double boofs again, this time far more excited, the Fangmon exchanging eager glances, scratching at the ground, looking about ready to bolt-

“WAIT!” Nino yelped suddenly.

All eyes present turned to him.

“...uh,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry. Just, the thing is… do you think we could ask a favour from you guys?”

___________________

As it turned out, yes, Nino could ask a favour from the now-very-pleasant Digimon duo.

“Thanks, dude, dudette!” Nino declared cheerfully, as the Fangmon allowed them to dismount, before the one he’d been riding gave him an affectionate lick on the cheek, panting happily. “Aww, dude, I’m gonna miss you too! It’s been a fun hour! And a less fun two hours prior.”

Adrien dismounted the Fangmon he’d been riding with Impmon- who’d shrunk back down from Wizardmon unexpectedly, but had just shrugged and gone with it- and gently scratched her behind the ears, which she evidently liked judging by her low, pleased growl- it was honestly surprising how fast the two had gone from ‘threats’ to ‘energetic overgrown puppies’, but he wasn’t complaining!

“You two’ll be alright, right?” He asked gently. “You’ll try and rescue the rest of your pack?”

Fangmon boofed an affirmative, before promptly giving him an affectionate lick, making a mess of his hair. “Hey!” He protested, though he was unable to keep himself from laughing.

Fangmon just shot him a doggy grin, before she and the second one bolted back towards the canyon, letting out jubilant howls as they ran away.

Adrien wished them luck.

“...so,” Nino noted. “We’re all just travelling together?”

…oh, wow. Adrien hadn’t even questioned that for a mom-

“Yeah, sure,” Impmon said with an easy shrug. “It’ll be nice to see Sorcerimon again. Besides, this moron’d be hopeless without me.”

He pointed at Adrien idly, but it was obvious there wasn’t any heat in the barb.

“If you wanna come, I’d be happy to have you,” Adrien admitted. “I think we could help each other. And it’d be nice to have more friends than Impmon.”

Nino paused at that.

Then he smiled, holding out a fist. “Well, we did survive a pair of murder wolves. We kinda gotta be friends after that! Nino Lahiffe. Nice to meet you, dude.”

“Adrien Agreste,” he introduced politely, extending his own fist for a fist-bump.

“...Agreste,” Nino repeated with a frown. “Are you famous or something? I swear I’ve heard your name before.”

“...I model for my father’s fashion line,” Adrien explained, a bit sheepishly. “We, erm. Have very large billboards with my face on them.”

“Ohhhhh, yeah, that explains it,” Nino said with a nod.

And then a loud yawn interrupted their conversation.

“Can we please just go already?” asked Armadillomon drily. “Day’s not gonna last forever, y’know! We oughta cover some ground!”

And with that, he spun on his back legs and started walking.

Adrien just blinked. “...so, is he-”

“He kinda sucks,” Nino said bluntly. “But he did save my butt once, so I guess he can stay. Besides, strength in numbers and all that.”

Adrien wouldn’t argue with that.

“...he’s going the right way, right?” he asked Impmon sheepishly.

“Yeah,” Impmon confirmed wryly, sticking his hands behind his head. “And he ain’t wrong about us burning daylight. Let’s scooch.”

Adrien wouldn’t argue with that, either.

He pulled his altered phone out of his pocket, frowning at the screen for a moment, then shrugged and tucked it away again. He’d check out all the new features later.

For now, he had more important business to attend to.

“Hey, Nino,” he asked curiously as the boys started wandering after their companions, “do you play Ultimate Mecha Strike?”

___________________

AN: I AM RETURNED! And with a plan for an update schedule, to boot- I’m going to try for a new chapter every four-to-six days. It might fluctuate every now and then- I might get something done early and be eager about posting it, or I might have a lot of advice from my test audience that needs to be worked in- but I’ll do my best to keep it consistent.

Thank you to everyone who’s commented, bookmarked, or otherwise just read the fic so far- I know we’re just starting out, but the response has genuinely been exhilarating to me, and I’m really excited to keep sharing this story of mine. I hope you continue to enjoy it!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section- I’ll do my best to answer them. Thank you for reading, and I’ll be back soon!

Next Time: “Protectors of the Village! Roar, Strikedramon!”

Chapter Text

Alya was awoken by the unexpected sound of quiet crying coming from a curled-up ball of scales, just off to the side of the fire they’d made that evening. Well, it had been a fire, anyways- it had burned down to coals at this point.

She shifted on the sleeping cushion Sunflowmon had given them and pushed herself up slightly- Marinette was still asleep, and Salamon was curled up on a smaller cushion next to her.

Alright. No need to wake them up.

Instead, she got up, stepping quietly over to the fourth member of their party and shaking his side gently. “Hey. Monodramon. Wake up, little guy.”

The little dragon shifted, wide golden eyes opening and looking up. “Alya?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” she promised, offering a smile. “You alright?”

Monodramon shifted into a seated position, staring into the embers of the fire. “…not really,” he admitted. “Nightmares suck.”

“No argument here,” Alya declared immediately, resting a sympathetic hand on the little dragon’s shoulder. He didn’t shrug her away, which was a good sign. “…do you wanna talk about it?”

“…I think maybe,” Monodramon admitted. “But it was all so disjointed, I can’t remember anything. Just… fear, and roaring.”

…oh.

“I mean, I don’t remember what happened while I was DarkTyrannomon,” Monodramon went on, “but seeing all that destruction…”

Alya impulsively pulled the little dragon into a hug. Monodramon stiffened for a moment, then relaxed slightly.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered. “Salamon said so. It was another Digimon that turned you into that. You didn’t have any control, you can’t be blamed.”

“…I know,” Monodramon said softly. “Or, in my brain, I know. But the rest of me hasn’t gotten the memo, if that makes any sense?”

“A little,” Alya assured. “But hey, that’s what we’re for. We’re a team right now, and we’re sticking together, alright? We’re here if you need us.”

Monodramon fell silent at that. Then he extended his claws and wrapped them around Alya’s wrists, returning the hug as best he could. “Thanks, Alya.”

And then the moment was interrupted, as a soft orange glow shone from within Alya’s backpack. With a frown, she reached over, sticking her hand into it, and pulled out her phone-

Just in time for the case to turn bright orange, a darker reddish symbol like a fox’s tail rippling onto the back, a simple message flaring across the screen: Partnership established.

…of all the times for Marinette to be asleep- when something cool had just happened, and now Alya had no one to scream gleefully about it to!

…but then, Marinette had only been her friend for a day and a half by now. Maybe she wouldn’t appreciate being woken up in that manner…

…nah, screw it.

“MARINETTE!” She shrieked at the top of her lungs. “LOOK AT THIS!”

___________________

As it turned out, Marinette did not appreciate being awoken in the middle of the night, even to see something cool. 

She made this displeasure known by the very mature means of siccing Salamon on Alya.

“Okay, I get it,” Alya said drily from her position on the ground, an entirely-too-bemused puppy sitting obediently on her stomach to pin her down. “You’re unhappy I woke you up in the middle of the night to scream with joy.”

“Just a little,” Marinette agreed cheerfully, digging through her backpack. “Wow, Sunflowmon packed a surprising amount of food- but it’s almost all fruit and…”

She frowned as she pulled something out. “Salamon, what exactly is a meat apple?”

“…it’s a meat apple,” Salamon said with a frown. “You cook it over a fire and eat it, and it’s very tasty and nutritious! Not as good as grown meat, but we don’t have good enough farmland in the forest to get a meat plantation going, so meat apples it is.”

“…you… you grow meat out of the ground on farms- y’know what, I will just accept this rather than risk my sanity crumbling from my attempts to sort it out,” Marinette decided. 

“This world is wacky ,” Alya muttered.

Salamon promptly paw-smacked her on the knee, which she decided was fair.

“But we’ve got some normal fruits too- bananas, berries… how on earth did Sunflowmon fit a watermelon in here? Where’d she even get a watermelon?”

“One of life’s great mysteries,” Monodramon joked. “Want me to crack it open and we can split it?”

Marinette agreeably heaved the watermelon out of the bag- which, it should be noted, should not have been big enough to fit the watermelon and everything else Sunflowmon had given them, and Alya was at a complete loss to explain that particular defiance of the laws of physics- and Monodramon promptly raised his tough, sharp claws and set to work, easily dividing the melon into fourths, handing one to Marinette, setting one down for Salamon- who promptly howled “FOOOOOOD!” and smashed her entire face into it to start munching, because Salamon was a treasure- and carried the last two back over to Alya, holding one up for her to take.

“Thanks, buddy!” She declared cheerfully, accepting the melon- and realizing that they had no forks or knives.

Oh well. She had two perfectly good hands mounted on the ends of her wrists. She could just use those.

“So,” she said, as she wolfed down the very tasty fruit, “I stole the map from Marinette last night, and I know we’re coming up on a village. Have you been there before?”

“Sometimes,” Monodramon offered. “You can’t get everything from living in a forest, after all. It’s a nice little place, Chocolate Gummy Village. I think you’ll like it!”

“...Chocolate Gummy Village,” Alya repeated.

“Yes,” he said with a nod. “And if that sounds strange to your human ears, it’s named because the village is a natural Spawn Point for Conomon and Zerimon- and since Kokomon and Gummymon are the only recorded In-Training forms for those two-”

“Aaaaaand you’ve lost me,” Alya interrupted.

Monodramon sighed, then shook his head. “We’ll just… explain when we get there, I’m guessing Marinette’ll have all the same questions.”

Alya decided to surrender to the dragon’s practicality.

___________________

After finishing their breakfast- and cleaning up their campsite, because it was the polite thing to do and also Salamon insisted- they spent an amicable hour walking the rest of the way to the village, coming across a paved path halfway there, before the first few buildings came into view.

“Aaaaaand welcome one and all to Chocolate Gummy Village!” Salamon cheered happily as she skipped slightly ahead, turning and wagging her tail eagerly. “Home to the Zerimon-Conomon Spawn Point! C’mon, c’mon, I wanna show you-”

“HALT!”

Marinette visibly jumped. Alya did not jump, and if Monodramon said otherwise, he was a filthy filthy liar. 

A figure stood on one of the rooftops, before leaping down and hitting the ground in a frankly perfect superhero landing, before standing up.

A purple-furred humanoid rabbit shot them a suspicious look, wearing a sleeveless yellow jumpsuit, blue bandanna, and red gloves with a huge set of metal battle claws attached to them, clearly ready to drop into a fighting stance. “State your purpose!” she barked firmly. …well, spoke firmly, anyways- Salamon had her beat in the barking department.

Monodramon just sighed, stepping forwards and shaking his head. “Turuiemon, it’s us.”

The rabbit frowned closed for a second…

And then instantly shifted to a cheery smile, her battle claws folding back up, hostile demeanour shifting to happy in a matter of seconds. “Monodramon! It’s been ages! Sorry about the paranoia- things have been getting crazy around here lately.”

Her expression shifted back to serious as she looked over Alya and Marinette. “Who are these two?”

“…it’s a bit of a long story…” Salamon offered sheepishly.

___________________

Fortunately, Turuiemon believed the long story.

Which was good, because her claws looked really sharp and Alya did not want to be on the receiving end of them!

”It’s good that you came here for supplies,” the purple rabbit noted pleasantly, escorting the quartet deeper into the village. “Our marketplace is surprisingly large for a village of our size, considering how much foot traffic we get. You should be able to pick up just about anything you need. Oh, and mind the babies.”

“Mind the what?” Marinette repeated, before a tiny, insanely cute brown Digimon that… well, Alya could only describe it as a ‘floppy-eared blob bobblehead with horns’, rounded another corner, looked up at them, and let out a gasp of, “New people! NEW PEOPLE!”

Seven other small brown blobs, and a few green ones that… looked identical, actually, save for them only having one horn, promptly followed the first one’s wake, before all promptly crowding Marinette, letting out energetic little squeals as they did.

“I- hi there!” Marinette offered, as the small Digimon continued to crowd her eagerly. “It’s, uh, very nice to meet you- Alya?”

Sadly, Alya was occupied at the moment. “So, those are, like, baby versions of you?”

Turuiemon chuckled. “Well, not just me. I used to be a Kokomon-”

“The green ones are Gummymon, the brown ones are Kokomon,” Monodramon offered quickly, which Alya appreciated because pulling out her phone’s new Digipedia option mid-conversation felt like it would be rude.

“-before I Digivolved to Lopmon and into my current form from there,” Turuiemon finished. “And my brother Gargomon used to be one of those Gummymon. We were born here, and we both decided to stay and protect it once we hit Champion! I mean, no Digimon would ever attack a Spawn Point, but better safe than sorry.”

“Aaaaand you’ve lost me,” Alya admitted, ignoring Marinette’s imprisonment under a pile of Gummymon and Kokomon, her hand rising out of the heap of energetic babies the only evidence as to her continued survival. “What is a Spawn Point?”

“...you don’t know?” Turuiemon asked in surprise. “...well, alright. Basically, it’s-”

But then she fell silent, abruptly directing her gaze upwards. Alya followed her sightline, and spotted trails of what looked like neon yellow pixels , tracing their way through the air, before spiralling downwards towards a small structure, made from stone brick and shaped vaguely like a castle’s turret. Alya could see into it, at least partially, courtesy of an open door, and spotted the pixels clumping together and forming into a large brown egg , probably around the size of a watermelon. 

“That,” Monodramon summed up. “That’s a Spawn Point. Whenever a Digimon dies, their data finds its way back to the appropriate Spawn Point, and reforms as a Digi-Egg. And then, eventually, that egg will hatch into a Fresh-form Digimon.”

…what.

“So what you’re saying,” Alya said slowly as, behind them, Salamon dived into the pile of babies, clearly as a rescue attempt for Marinette, “is that you guys, what, can’t die?”

“We’re reborn after death, yes,” Turuiemon said with a nod. “Usually with some memories of our previous lives, but… detached, so we can form a new identity. And this village is where every Digimon who started out as a Conomon or a Zerimon goes through that process.”

“...woah,” Alya whispered.

That was… okay. Wow. 

Yeah, they weren’t humans, but Alya had gotten used to thinking of Digimon as people in about the first five minutes of Salamon proving to be sentient and very sweet. So it was still a surprise when one of them said something like that.

“And that’s why no Digimon ever attacks a Spawn Point,” Monodramon finished. “It’s just… not done. Even the most wicked, evil Digimon would refuse to do it.”

“Which makes me and Gargomon staying here to defend the village a bit redundant,” Turuiemon admitted sheepishly. “But we do it anyways. It feels like the right thing to do, y’know?”

“I feel that,” Alya agreed with a nod- she did like the idea of doing the Right Thing.

Marinette stepped up next to them, looking decidedly more annoyed than she had earlier, Salamon padding alongside her and audibly giggling, one of the Kokomon still mounted firmly on Marinette’s shoulder. “The little ones are very energetic,” the dark-haired girl noted flatly.

“Thank you!” Chirped the Kokomon happily, before Turuiemon carefully picked him up and set him on the ground so he could… walk away? Waddle? Slide? Alya had no idea what his method of locomotion was, and honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to.

“Anyways!” Alya chirped merrily. “Can we meet this Gargomon dude?”

“I suppose so,” Turuiemon said with a shrug. “He’ll probably be in the marketplace, c’mon! You’ll need to go there anyways.”

___________________

Scanning. Scanning.

Target reached. Chocolate Gummy Village. Mission parameters: claim territory. Seeking assets.

Assets found. Gargomon, Champion level. Turuiemon, Champion level. Multiple Terriermon, multiple Lopmon, two Bulucomon, one Gaomon, all Rookie level. Multiple Kokomon and Gummymon, In-Training level. Multiple Conomon and Zerimon, Fresh level. Salamon, Ro- 

Error. Asset registration failure. Failure flagged and forwarded to Eos Core for further analysis. Awaiting further instructions…

Instructions received. Commencing territory claim mission. Engaging acquisition protocol.

“Evilization Ray.”

___________________

Alya’s sentiment lasted until a small purple-and-white butterfly-like robot materialized in midair and fired a blast of black-purple energy towards something on the ground.

Five seconds after that, the sound of utterly deranged laughter rang out, followed by what sounded horribly like machine-gun fire, what-

Turuiemon was kind enough to clear up the confusion by letting out a gasp of what sounded like horror. “Gargomon?”

And then she moved in a blur of pale purple.

Alya wordlessly exchanged a look with Marinette, before they nodded and dashed after Turuiemon, Marinette pulling out her phone as they moved, a whirlwind of red light flaring into existence, Salamon swiftly Digivolving to Gatomon- which seemed premature, but Alya wouldn’t argue with Marinette’s paranoia when something was very obviously wrong. 

About ten seconds later, the very obviously wrong something made itself clear. A surprisingly-muscular Digimon that looked like a humanoid green bunny- wearing jeans for some reason- was cackling maniacally as it fired the guns it had for hands, glowing green bullets leaving brutal scars in the wood of the buildings around them, smaller Digimon screaming and running for it. Turuiemon was already there, dancing around the bullet streams, an expression of mingled confusion, concern and rage on her face. “What are you doing?!” She demanded furiously.

Alya’s gaze flickered over to Marinette, who nodded sharply. “Gatomon!”

“On it!” The feline chirped, before lunging, claws flashing. “Lightning Paw!”

Gargomon was too busy cackling maniacally and causing property damage to dodge the blow. Gatomon’s entirely-disproportionate-for-her-small-size super strength was almost as comical as when she’d pummeled DarkTyrannomon. Gargomon, despite not having wings, received a comprehensive lesson in how to fly.

Right into the nearest building.

Turuiemon stared in apparent shock. Alya let out a whoop. Gatomon smirked and blew on her fist like it was a smoking gun.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” The purple rabbit demanded, rage taking over her face. “You just attacked my brother! What were you-“

“Evillization Ray.”

Oh fuck Alya forgot about the robot thing-

The laser hit Turuiemon full in the forehead, and the rabbit immediately bent backwards, letting out a brief noise of surprise.

Before straightening up, a dark-purple-almost-black butterfly mark on her forehead, and an expression of blank rage on her face, and hello very sharp claws Alya didn’t want to be on the receiving end of!

“Ninja Claw!” Turuiemon barked, before lunging, blades gleaming, sharp edges ready to rip into Alya’s-

“Beat Knuckle!” Monodramon shouted, fists blazing with cracks of fiery energy that slammed into Turuiemon’s face. “Alya, run! I can’t hold-“

Turuiemon, who hadn’t even flinched from the hit, swept up an arm and swatted Monodramon aside like he weighed nothing. The small dragon soared through the air, skipped twice across the ground like a stone over water, and ended up in a crumpled ball, letting out a tiny squeak. “…ow…”

Fortunately, the desperate lunge hadn’t been for nothing. Alya had followed instructions and ran, diving behind some sort of cart- oh hey, Marinette was here too!

“Squishy human, rabbit with gun arms,” the dark-haired girl noted sheepishly. “Figured I should hide. What happened?”

“Well, Turuiemon’s evil now too.”

Marinette’s face rippled straight to ‘oh shit’ before she pulled herself up, peeking over the cart’s side-

“AHAHAHAHAHA! Bunny Pummel!” Gargomon declared gleefully, opening fire en masse. Turuiemon darted into the bullet stream, effortlessly springing around the shots as though she could predict where each of them were going to land.

Gatomon wasn’t quite as fortunate. Despite her smaller size, green pellets kept crashing into her, detonating in bursts of energy, the cat’s expression twisting into a bigger and bigger pained grimace with each passing second even as she lunged. “Collar-“

Gargomon stopped firing. This wasn’t a good thing, as it meant Turuiemon had two uninterrupted seconds in which to attack. “Ninja Fist!”

The blow slammed into Gatomon’s tiny stomach and sent the little Digimon flying, crashing into a wall herself, a pained wheeze escaping her as she collapsed.

Marinette, very understandably, let out a scream. “GATOMON!”

Gargomon cackled in triumph. Turuiemon crossed her arms and nodded stoically.

And then there were three, the butterfly robot descending, tilting its head slightly. “Target confirmed. Gatomon, Champion level. Commencing acquisition. Evillization-“

A sudden blur of purple-gold-red scales shot past, Monodramon letting out a shout. “Beat Knuckle!”

The blow landed. The robot didn’t even flinch, instead aiming its arm at Monodramon instead. “Prior asset confirmed. Commencing reacquisition.”

The black-purple energy beam lanced forwards and struck Monodramon’s forehead, and Alya forgot how to breathe. The little dragon let out a snarl of fury, instantly collapsing onto a knee, dark energy starting to surge around him, pupils shrinking as the miasma around him starting forming into a horribly familiar saurian shape-

No.

“MONODRAMON!” Alya shouted. “FIGHT IT! YOU’RE STRONGER THAN THIS! I KNOW I’VE ONLY KNOWN YOU FOR A DAY AND A HALF, BUT YOU’RE NOT THE SURRENDERING TYPE!”

At that, Monodramon let out a sudden growl, reaching up with a claw to grip the side of his head, a grimace springing across his face. “Rrgh… “

Alya’s pocket flared with heat. She almost instinctively plunged a hand into it, pulling out her phone-

Oh. Right. If Marinette and Salamon could-

She didn’t bother thinking. She just punched the screen.

Fortunately, the phone was intuitive.

Monodramon threw his head back and roared, the black miasma instantly splitting in a whirlwind of orange light, his body growing and growing. “Monodramon Digivolve to… Strikedramon!”

In an explosion of motion, a taller, more humanoid dragon ripped out of the light storm in a blur of white-purple scales, metal armor gleaming across his body, a shock of vibrant red hair visible beneath his helmet for a brief moment before it burst into bluish-white flames, claws glowing with heat as they lashed out. “Strike Claw!”

The robot made distressed beeping noises for a brief moment, before the claws dug in and Strikedramon pulled, ripping it in half. Both parts crackled with violet lightning, rippling to a more bluish colour before dissipating into particles.

Strikedramon stomped on the ground, letting out a triumphant snarl. “Never again,” he declared. “Gatomon?”

The cat, still visibly injured, managed nevertheless to stroll over to the dragon’s side, a wicked grin spreading across her face. “Payback time?”

“Oh yeah.”

Alya almost felt bad for Gargomon and Turuiemon as the duo pounced without hesitation, Strikedramon’s body bursting into flames as he rushed straight into Gargomon’s bullet stream, Gatomon’s gloves igniting with golden energy as she danced around Turuiemon’s claw swipes, the rabbits suddenly fatally sluggish without the robot thing nearby.

“Fang Strike!”

“Saint’s Knuckle!”

Both blows landed home. Both rabbits howled as shockwaves of purple light burst from their foreheads, the markings shattered by two strong punches.

Then both of them fell unconscious to the ground.

Gatomon let out a triumphant whoop, throwing a fist in the air. “Hah! Yes! Take that, you… ooh boy, tired, Marinette Imma pass out now-“

The cat promptly faceplanted. A burst of red light ran down her body as she reverted to a considerably less injured Salamon, the small dog immediately starting to snore.

“…y’know what, she handled both of ‘em for a hot minute,” Alya noted. “That’s fair.”

Marinette stood up and rushed over to the dog’s side, immediately scooping her up, grinning fondly. “Thanks, Salamon. You did great.”

“No kidding,” Alya agreed, before standing herself, walking over to the not- devolved Strikedramon. “How you feeling, big guy? That zappy-zap didn’t look pleasant.”

“Better now,” Strikedramon declared gruffly. “Better than Salamon, at least.” He crossed his arms, turning to the duo on the ground. “What should we do with ‘em?”

“…right,” Alya realized, before turning around.

Fortunately, with the conclusion of the fight, the other Digimon were returning, several heads poking up around walls leading into the square.

“Don’t suppose you guys have a hospital?” Alya asked hopefully.

___________________

They had a hospital, complete with a Terriermon in a lab coat.

“Damn Eosmon,” Turuiemon grumbled as she wrapped bandages around a scratch on her arm. “Thank you, both of you. Nobody else in the village would have been strong enough to hit the brands before Gargomon and I could take them out.”

“Not our most shining moment,” Gargomon agreed grumpily. “I can’t believe I just got sniped like a chump! I see another one of those stupid robot butterflies, I’m gonna-“

Alya decided to ignore the threat that sounded anatomically impossible, but who knew with Digimon. “So there’s more than one of those Eosmon things? Salamon said that Monodramon-“

Strikedramon coughed.

“Sorry, Strikedramon- Salamon said he’d been attacked by one as well.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Turuiemon muttered. “There’s a lot. But they mostly stick to more widely populated areas of the Digital World- not to say Chocolate Gummy Village isn’t populated, but Gargomon and I are the strongest Digimon in the area. They wouldn’t really benefit from turning any of the babies violent.”

“…do you think another one will come?” Marinette asked quietly. Salamon was sleeping much more peacefully on one of the cots, ointment rubbed across her various injuries. “I mean, if they came after you both once…”

“It’s the first time they’ve come near here,” Turuiemon admitted. “We’ve gotten a bit complacent- Gargomon and I will have to set up a watch, start hiding ourselves when they come by. But I expect it’ll be relatively infrequent if they do- we’re just not a worthwhile target.”

“…even so,” Marinette said, “Alya and I could probably stay and-“

“Nah,” Gargomon refuted immediately. “You crazy kids are going up to Miracle City, right? You can’t just drop a plan for our sake. We got caught by surprise, that’s all!” A bloodthirsty grin sprang across the green rabbit’s face. “It won’t be so easy for them next time.”

“True,” Turuiemon agreed. “You should keep going with your travels. You’ve bailed us out once, and now we know how to avoid needing bailing again. We can handle ourselves from here.”

“Sounds like they’re sure,” Strikedramon grunted. “I vote Alya and I go and stock up on supplies while you stay with Salamon. We can head out as soon as she’s fit.”

“…I’m down with that,” Alya decided with a shrug. “Though, quick question. How long you gonna stay like that, big guy? You just gonna be Strikedramon forever?”

The dragon was silent for a moment, but the scales over his cheeks were turning pink. “…I like being tall.”

That was fair.

___________________

Supplies restocked, Salamon fixed up, Strikedramon devolved, and Marinette assured that the village be fine, the group was on their way once again.

“So we know that there’s more of those Eosmon around now,” Marinette noted with a frown. “We’re gonna have to be on the lookout.”

“No kidding,” Alya said with a sigh, before breaking into a grin. “But hey, we know we can beat them, at least! And they’ve gotta be fragile, Strikedramon just ripped that one apart because my partner is awesome -“

“That was very satisfying,” Monodramon admitted sheepishly. “I’m quite embarrassed by that now, actually…”

“Don’t be!” Salamon encouraged. “You were awesome! And fierce!”

“...well, if you say so,” the little dragon declared with a still-sheepish grin. “Thanks, both of you!”

Marinette, meanwhile, had unfurled their map again, frowning at it. “Hmmm… huh. This says there are two roads that both go to the city. One’s shorter though, Sunflowmon’s notes say it’s a day longer for the beach route-”

Salamon and Monodramon’s heads snapped up. “Beach?!”

“Can we go?!” Salamon asked immediately, blue eyes wide with excitement.

“Please, Alya, please?” Monodramon begged. “It’s been so long since we’ve been to the beach! It’ll be fun!”

Alya blinked. “...a beach does sound pretty fun, actually…”

“...I don’t know,” Marinette said with a frown. “We want to get to Miracle City as fast as possible. Taking a day off for a beach trip might not…”

She made the mistake of looking away from the map, at the two Digimon giving her puppy-dog eyes and at Alya, who looked mildly amused. “Don’t look at me. I can deal with my little sisters, but my little sisters don’t have superpowers.”

“...alright, fine, we’ll take the beach route,” Marinette conceded with a sigh. “One more day won’t make a difference, our parents will be freaking out enough that we’ll be missing for weeks anyways.”

The Digimon let out whoops of excitement, before immediately starting to do a happy dance.

Alya just chuckled, walking over to a more forlorn-looking Marinette. “Girl, relax. I get why you’re worried. I’m worried too! My sisters and my parents are probably freaking out right now.”

“...so why are you alright with this?” Marinette asked softly.

“...we gotta keep our spirits up,” Alya said simply. “The way I see it, the more hope we have, the better our chances. And it doesn’t hurt to give the tiny creatures who are helping us a bit of fun, right?”

“...right,” Marinette agreed, tension in her shoulders visibly fading. “It makes sense. And it’s fair to let them have some fun. They’ve already fought to protect us twice.”

“Fair to let all of us have some fun,” Alya said cheerfully. “C’mon, girl! We oughta enjoy ourselves too, right? Now say it with me! Beach day!”

“BEACH DAY!” The Digimon whooped triumphantly.

Marinette hesitated for a second. Then a smile broke across her face. “Alright, alright. Beach day!”

“WOOOOO!”

___________________

AN: …yeah, this is officially just a passion project, not a regular fic lol. Update schedule is officially ‘whenever I have something ready to go’. But don’t worry, I do in fact have a plan for how exactly this fic is gonna go, and there will be more. Thank you to everyone who’s read it so far, and I hope you continue to enjoy! As always, I’m willing to answer questions in the comments!

Next Chapter: Adrien and Nino have a beach day! …wait…