Ghost Stories [not open anymore sorry]

One of the Impmon was a lord? Well, that's actually pretty cool. Mae hadn't met one of those before. "Uh...Dark lord of what? Is it any specific part of the Dark Area...?" The Keramon inquired, curiously. "Also...Haunting would mean you wouldn't be resting in peace, right?” It was probably clear by this comment that she didn’t quite believe what Buck said about ghosts not being real.

Then why were there ghost Digimon? She looked to Carlos and just pointed down the tracks, further into the forest. "My memory's kinda fuzzy but they should be further in...Sorry..." The Keramon was a bit more incredulous at the aftermath of the poking test. Why were the faces so...sensitive? It was odd.

Without another word, the Keramon just decided to begin walking along the tracks in the direction she pointed. Things had to be around here somewhere. If anyone followed? Well, that's their choice. Mae had a slight inkling she wasn't really gonna like what she found anyways.

Bellamy had to fight hard to think of a way to respond to Dio in this state. It was a little tricky to do so lately, particularly because Bellamy normally reacted with scorn toward others with huge egos, but, given what he went through with Dio in Old Terminus, the Impmon genuinely thought of him as a friend, so he thought of something that he could say that would keep him happy.

"Yeah, well, never know what ya might come across" Bellamy responded. While he had no interest in actual haunting, well, hopefully if Dio could pull off that gig without hurting anyone that'd be kinda cool?

Then... oh dear, Buck poked Dio. He took it about as well as Bellamy expected, but, thankfully was intervened with before it got nasty.

Colin supposed that things were established enough for them to at least trust each other, so, as the Keramon proceeded through the forest, he and his partners would follow. She had asked for possible assistance after all, accounting for the ghosts, so, the trio didn't feel like they needed to give any further consideration than to accompany her to assure this haunting didn't happen.

Then Buck went along and directly insulted Dio, calling him a dark court jester. Bellamy immediately went to damage control mode. "Easy there, pal, he doesn't get what he's sayin'" Bellamy whispered to the other Impmon, clasping his shoulder in an attempt to stop him doing something extreme. Hopefully Dio wouldn't go that way though.

Mae gave a nodnod to Dio as she proceeded along, with an added bit of "Oh, that's fine. I don't remember a lot of stuff either!" And then she found herself being joined by the tamer of that Bearmon that had been accosting her earlier. Apologizing went a long way, though. So, the Keramon nodded. "Sure. I don't think going alone's really smart, and I wasn't really expecting much help, if any, so...thank you."

Of course, she heard it become tense back there, and she turned around. "...Please don't fight. That would be mildly inconvenient...I guess...? I mean...Hnn...I dunno..." It seemed like it had been resolved by the timely intervention of Bellamy. And the revelation that she had company along with her for this little excursion!

...It felt odd.

For more reasons than one. As the group proceeded further (if they did,) they'd probably feel like they were being watched. By more than one pair of eyes. What could that be?

After that "small" disagreement had been defused, they all proceeded deeper into the forest, Carlos hoping his partner wouldn't clash as harshly again. The more they went inside the thick, the more it felt not only that they were being watched, but that they probably weren't welcome there. But that wasn't too worrying travelling in such a large group...

...but it wasn't until Luke spoke up that the duo noticed that Buck and Wylde were missing.
They were just...gone. Banished without a trace. Suddenly both man and impmon found themselves feeling a cold sweat crawling down their back.

"Yeah...they probably just went back or something..." Carlos agreed with Colin, hoping thinking that was the most logical explanation.

"Hmph, or they chickened out." Dio added, trying to not sound too concerned about the other two's sudden dissapearance, continuing down the trail not wanting to think too hard on the whole thing. "W-whatever, it's their loss, let's just carry on."

As it was probably becoming obvious right now, densely forested areas carried a bit of an extra weight on Dio's shoulders after some rather unfortunate happenings, but he was doing a pretty good job at ignoring such uncomfortable feeling of deja vu, as he was almost convinced there was something out there, watching their every move. Even if it was though, he wasn't alone this time. He had Carlos and his other friends there. Things would work out just fine. Surely.

Still, the faster they could get out of that place, the better.

Colin thought that was the most likely explanation. If something had happened to them, surely they would've made a noise. Well... they couldn't do anything about it now that they were gone. As they continued into the forest, Bellamy felt a little surprised to feel Luke suddenly walk close to him, timidly looking around.

"You okay there, Luke?" Bellamy asked, grinning at his brother. "Come on, ghosts ain't real".

"Ghosts might not be, but... eh... I'm probably being paranoid" Luke admitted. While he was normally level-headed and logical, the Elecmon wasn't the bravest digimon in the world.

"Eh, don't worry, aniki, you've got me to keep ya safe!" Bellamy patted his shoulder. "Dang, shame we left the boombox behind, I wouldn't have minded a singalong".

"Bells, really?" Colin laughed. It was clear they were just having this conversation to make themselves less nervous.

Then, they saw it. They stopped walking, and laughing, staring at the appirition. Luke began to shiver a little, while Colin's jaw dropped.

"Y-you guys see that too, right?" Colin asked. Bellamy was momentarily stunned, but realized the "ghost" was talking to them. He recovered the quickest of the three, this Impmon wasn't afraid of no ghost.

"Yo what up?" he asked the ghost casually. "Her again? I take it you guys met before?" Bellamy looked between the two, ah, so this was why Mae had said there was ghosts, because, there technically was. "Say, are you that Impmon ghost that we've been hearin' legends about?"

"Bellamy... h-how can y-you talk like that?" Luke asked, bewildered.

"Crest of Tenacity baby!" Bellamy grinned, pointing to the red shining heart painted on his shoulder armor.

Mae didn't really feel like she could move after the shock of the ghost. The spirit looked the Keramon over, before doing the same to her company and nodding a few times. "...Lot of questions. Hokay. So. First off. I'm -one- of the Impmon ghosts. There's...more than one. I'm more recent, though. Second, I do know her. I babysat her before I died." That elicited a blink and a tilt of the head from the Keramon. "So...You were that Devimon that..." "Couldn't hurt a fly, yes." The spirit finished that one for her.

Specter then leveled his gaze at Dio. "You're the Dark Lord? I don't recall you coming into power. Though...I don't really recall much at all. As I was saying, I'm not here to hurt anyone but I do bring a warning. The other pair that went back is not safe. And the Keramon was followed." He said, getting closer to the group. Now that they could get a better look at him, it was clear that he didn't seem like a normal impmon. He lacked the face on his chest. His scarf was longer, and tattered, and he had four belts. One on each arm and two on his waist.

Plus, he was a ghostly white! With a cold aura around him to match. "So...How about I cut you a deal? Er. No. No. Not a deal. I can't really do much for bargaining. Er...Call it a request." The imp began. "I'm dead. As you might be able to ascertain. I can't quite reincarnate. Maybe not yet. I do have a theory on how to get around that, though."

"Please tell me I don't have to fight that thing if it's what I think it is. If it's following me then there's...really only one person that follows me." Mae piped up. "Frighteningly astute, little Meicoomon! Yeah, I'm asking if you could do me a solid and deal with the Slayer if you run into him. Get rid of him and I might be able to get out of here? Maybe?"

There were two things wrong here. One, Mae was a Meicoomon? And two, what the actual fuck was a Slayer? On the subject of Mae, she went from scared to looking like she was on the brink of panic. At least...as much as the constantly smiling Keramon could evoke. Specter glanced at her and remembered something. "...Oh. Oh. You weren't supo-...I am so sorry. Geez Louise..."

Though the ghosts comment about not remembering Dio coming into power stood out for the little imp like a sore thumb.
"You don't?" Dio seemed almost miffed by this, but let it slide for the time being, there were more pressing matters anyway. "That's fair actually, I don't remember much about that period of time, heh. It's been a while." He added with a shrug.

Sure, there was the whole "actually a demon lord" bit, but this was probably not a good moment to bring it up. At any rate, while the ghost's situation was a rather bizarre one, the solution couldn't have been more straightforward.

Beating up someone that was after her? Sounded straightforward enough. Were it up to Carlos he would have rather avoid confrontations for a while, but if Colin and the twins were sticking out for the keramon then he really had no excuse to back away. Besides Mae looked genuenly frightened and worried, there was no way they would leave her to fend for herself like that.

With renewed confidence, the man nodded at Bellamy's words. "Yeah! We're six against one, it will be easy! Right Di-" He had to stop himself as soon as he saw just how tense his own partner looked. It wasn't hard for him to figure out why: Dio was...less on keen on wanting to help out as soon as the spirit said a bit too much regarding Mae's...Meicoomon roots.

As if on instinct the imp's hand immediatelly reached for his own neck, scratching the side of it that was obscured by the red bandanna, where two rather large bite scars were. After some all too recent and all too painful events Dio had developed a bit of a distaste for Meicoomons in general, and while his distrust was mostly aimed at the Meicrackmon side of that evolutionary line, just being in the general vicinity of anything vaguely similar was enough to make him feel uneasy.

Well, at least this explained why he felt weird about this Keramon. That feeling, that smell...it was unmistakeable. He wasn't too sure about this anymore, and it was obvious. Both for Carlos and anyone else. Said human wasted no time however, placing a hand on the imp's shoulder gently.

"Dude, you ok?"

"Y-yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He barely muttered back, prompting the man to shake his head. The last thing he wanted was for his partner to go through a bad moment once again, and he was more than willing to give him an exit to this if he wanted it.

"You sure? If you rather sit this one out..."

"I'm fine!" The imp was quick to snap back, his voice booming to a rather loud level for such a small creature, taking the man aback. Dio seemed rather regretful of his sudden outburst though, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry...let's just go and beat this slayer or whatever."