United, We Flourish [Closed/Bone]

In the Digital World, seven days passed for every single day in the human world. Normally this was of little concern. It meant you could spend a day in another world after school, then be back home just in time for dinner. Not all parts of the world aged gracefully, though. It had been over a year since Maia had last made her way to the strange laboratory in the Grotto of Sorrows, and in Digital World that was a long, long time for thing to decay.

The first thing that Maia would've noticed, as she ran her hand along the side of the makeshift "exit," was that even such a cobbled together exit had fallen into disrepair. Not only was the exit lined completely with jagged stone, but it was also very cold to the touch. Considering what the topmost floor of the lab had been used for that likely wouldn't have been a surprise, but it couldn't have been this cold down there, could it have? Disconcertingly enough, the metal parts of the exit were equally torn and tattered. If Maia had carelessly run her hand along the exit anyway, it was likely she could've risked tetanus. After all, surrounded by moisture and left with no maintenance for the past god knows how long, the metal had curled, flaked, and turned a burnt orange color.

The floor had been treated similarly unkindly, as Maia would discover when she landed in the room. Where gel and water once sat were now large, hideous spots of rust. They stretched in a mess of orange across the floor, looking as bumpy and unsightly as the back of a toad. Worse still were the holes in the floor, dotting the centers of each rust spot like craters on the moon. Of course, this rust was far less viable to cause Maia problems than the rust alongside the exit, because it had completely frozen over. While that meant she was less likely to scrape herself, it also meant that falling was a serious concern. The floor was far too slick for safe travel, at least not without a guardrail or a Reppamon to hold onto. At times little particles of rust seemed to swirl beneath the surface of the ice, almost looking like blood in the water.

If Maia was looking for the furnace, it thankfully wouldn't be hard to find. The door that once blocked Elliot's human spirit had fallen under its own weight, flopped down face-first in front of the room. Without a spirit illuminating it the room was almost painfully dark, so much so that only by squinting would Maia be able to actually spot the furnace. This was because it had finally run out of fuel, leaving it little more than a giant sphere of cast iron. Unfortunately, if checked, there would only be rust and powdery ashes inside. No clues here.

The furnace being down for the count seemed like the reason why the room had been so cold. In the room that went unchecked on Maia's last visit, its opposite number seemed to be plugging away quite happily. Once, this western room had been producing a small, steady stream of cold vapors. Now, whatever machine was behind it was churning out great, rolling clouds of frost. Every so often a massive burst of vapor leaked from beneath the door, drifting towards whichever corner it pleased to. They were unpleasant to even be near, and severely uncomfortable to walk through. As the ice damage cracking through the door indicated, they probably weren't a good idea to touch, either. They also seemed to be the source of the near-permanent frost that had been surrounding this lab. The walls that these clouds touched looked like messes, orange rust and white frost intermingling.

Beyond this newer room, the other rooms were exactly as Maia had remembered. An eerie quiet fell over the southernmost room that Citramon had once occupied, and without the furnace the easternmost room was just as cold as the rest of the facility. So much for a warm break for the gearheads, huh?

Occasionally, footprints echoed through the room. The good news was that they sounded muffled and distant, and were definitely coming from the floor below. If Maia could help it, she wouldn't have to deal with the owners of those footprints whatsoever. The bad news was that, even if that was the case, they were coming from nearly every direction. Had Maia walked into a situation where she was surrounded?

Only time would tell. But hopefully Maia brought a jacket or three. This was starting to get seriously uncomfortable.

Normally you couldn't just attack a door. Not only was it very rude, but doors were also quite sturdily built in order to prevent attacks from breaking them easily. Otherwise, how were people supposed to have peace and privacy?

This door, however, didn't seem to get the memo. Ice damage had already run through cracks in its metal surface, leaving it far flimsier than it looked. For this reason, Kuu's attack cause the door to shatter quite dramatically. The ice exploded into several shards, leaving the weakened metal surface of the door to collapse inward on itself. Soon it would be little more than fragments of metal, each sliding across the floor in a different direction.

Without the door blocking it, whatever machine sat at the western room of Cold Storage was now free from any obstacles. The great clouds of freezing vapors that it coughed out now seemed to flow freely and perpetually, the room's temperature seeming to drop another five degrees in seconds. Through the clouds a large machine was visible. It looked like a cheap haunted house fog machine, if instead of tiny and cheap it was nearly the size of the entire back wall. It vibrated and shook unstably with each cloud produced, making loud thudding noises as it bounced from the ceiling to the floor. Clearly this wasn't the most expertly constructed machine, but it was still running when most other parts of the facility had fallen into disrepair, so it had to be doing something right.

A piercing red light shined through the clouds of frost, a dot appearing at the top of Kuu's helmet. It began moving rapidly, scanning him from nose-tip to tail-tip in an attempt at analysis. Then it moved to Maia, traveling from her forehead to her toes. The red light started blinking, and then died down. What was it? An attack? A machine? Whatever it was, a dark shadow shot out from the room, masked by the cloud of vapor as it scuttled up the walls.

It was only when the shape had scuttled up to the ceiling that it stopped, beeping a few times to try and catch the duo's attention. "Gi-zu~!" it chirped, shaking off the layer of block frost over it and revealing the familiar purple chassis of Gizumon. So that's where the little guy had been all this time! From its perch on the ceiling it began scrambling in circles, as if drawing a ring above Kuu and Maia's heads. "Gizu! Gizu, gizu, gizuuuuuuu!" it continued, seemingly satisfied by recognizing such familiar company.

Gizumon bounced towards the floor, spinning its spindly legs like a helicopter to gently touch down at the floor. Then it beckoned to the cooler room, beeping a few times to try and catch Maia and Kuu's attentions. Once all eyes were on it it would dart back into the room, perching on the machine and waiting for the duo to follow.

The Gizumon looked down at Kuu as he launched into his usual Kuu ramblings. It scampered up to the sliding Reppamon, giving him a few taps on the helmet with a spidery leg. As always, Kuu had a lot to talk about it, but most of it seemed to go over Gizumon's head. It had simply tilted its head curiously, letting out an inquisitive "Gi?"

The changed when Kuu mentioned the word "friends." That seemed to catch Gizumon's attention. It leaped up into the air, eye blinking green as it started letting out an excitable series of beeps. "GiGiZuGi GiZuGi GiGi Gi ZuGi ZuGiGi GiGiGiiiiiii!" it said, body twitching side to side as it responded. Was it displeased? Or malfunctioning? It seemed cheerful, but it was always cheerful. Judging by the oddly rhythmic tone to its voice after it finished, it seemed like it almost could have been a coded message. But what would it have possibly said to such an innocuous statement?

When asked about being trapped, Gizumon shook its head. "Zu-Gi~," it chimed, waving its arms out to motion towards the facility as a whole. It seemed with the horrifying Porcupamon gone, Gizumon had free reign of the place. On closer inspection, there were little scratch marks all along the walls from where Gizumon had been scampering. How a creature with such delicate pronged feet survived in the slippery ice of Cold Storage was a mystery, but at least it was quite happy about its lot in life.

When Maia and Kuu had finally followed Gizumon into Cold Storage, the Gizumon scampered up to the top of the large cooling machine. It scampered up to the machine, waving to show Maia and Kuu that now it was standing all the way up there! It was so tall now, you guys! After the initial joy of climbing, it scampered over to the leftmost corner of the machine, waving the duo over. Attached to the machine was what looked like a large, thermos-like canister. Gizumon unplugged it, turning it over and revealing that it was empty bar a few sizzling drops. Gizumon then promptly rustled through a nearby box and pulled out another canister, replacing the old one. Once some rolling clouds of frost emerged, Gizumon clapped happily. It pointed to the box, then the machine. Then the box, then the machine. Then the box, then the machine.

Was that seriously what Gizumon did all day?

After demonstrating a day in the life of Gizumon, it turned to Maia and Kuu and pointed a spindly leg. With another leg it motioned for them to go on. It seemed to be waiting for them to talk about their lives now!

Hopefully they could get it done in short order. There was a strange clunking sound coming from outside of the room. If Maia or Kuu peeked out to see what was going on, they would notice that the elevator-like platform in the middle of the room was rapidly starting to descend.

Gizumon chirped, beeped, and whistled happily as Kuu agreed, hopping off of the frost machine and landing right back on Kuu's mask. He made a happy little drumbeat on the fox's head, timing it in tune with his robotic sound effects. At least as far as robots went, this once understood concepts like "friendship" and "music", even if it didn't understand ones like "appropriate room temperature."

"Giiiiiii," it hummed, content about Maia agreeing with it. Why yes, it WAS tall! Thank you for noticing, Maia! Frankly, it didn't seem to have a care in the world, but considering her Digimon partner Maia was probably painfully used to that by now. At least her being the responsible one ensured that Kuu didn't do anything stupid like joining Gizumon in climbing up the walls. While it was probably easy for Gizumon and his literal machine precision, it would've been a lot harder for a Digimon as goofy and graceless as Kuu!

Everyone was happy with Gizumon's friendliness and height. A shame they weren't nearly as happy to hear that he was making the room cold. While Maia's question was met with proud beeping, Kuu's caused his eye to glow a sorrowful blue. Was he hurting his friend? That wasn't good! But the room had to be cold, or else everything'd go wrong. As if to demonstrate, he scuttled across the walls, hitting a few ominous-looking red buttons. Rusted doors began to slide outwards, revealing several cubes of teal gel.

They were basically identical to the holding cells that the Troopmon were stored in on Maia's first trip here. However, rather than the Troopmon, a much more colorful assortment of Digimon were being held for storage. A multicolored Sukasimon, tongue stuck to one of the gelled walls, was a particularly proud centerpiece that Gizumon pointed out. An Omekamon, its cardboard arms covered in gold and red scribbles to match Omnimon Alter-S, held out its marker as if prepared for a duel. A ClearAgumon, body the same consistency as the gel holding it, had its eyes widened in shock. Something that looked like a guy in a Gatomon suit sad in as abandoned of a corner as possible, Gizumon making a point of not going anywhere near it.

One cube was missing from the assortment. Judging by the picture of an orange hanging from the wall behind it, it was clear who that was.

A shame Maia and Kuu wouldn't have much time to check it out, though. The sound of the lift descending had drawn Maia and Kuu's attention away. Briefly Gizumon pondered, wondering what could be more interesting than fresh specimens. Then it realized what was going on, its eye widening and flickering between many colors. Immediately it ran back into its room, dragging the fallen door behind it so that it could make like a pile of scrap and hide. Cables snaked out to hit the red buttons that opened its display case, slamming every door shut a little too quickly.

The clip-clopping of hooves could be heard from the floor below. They were strangely rhythmic, less like wild beasts and more like soldiers marching in formation. Occasionally heavy, labored breathing could be heard, as if the soldiers on parade were having a really tricky time. Each few steps sounded like they were on a different material. First stone. Then cold, hard steel. Finally, a mesh grate, like the one that surrounded the elevator platform.

If Maia or Kuu's eyes were particularly sharp, they would notice a shadow stretch across the elevator platform. Even if they weren't sharp, they would notice the Digimon making its way onto the platform. It looked like a cross between a centaur and a soldier, with miniguns protruding from where its hands should have been. It didn't look the slightest bit natural, even by Digimon standards. It also wasn't alone, judging by the four others that followed after it.

A gun smashed into the elevator platform's button, and it started to move up again. If Maia was asking for trouble by coming here, she sure as heck did a great job of finding it.

Maia's scans would reveal a few important bits of information about the Gatomon cosplayer. The first was that it was called Betsumon. The second was that it was a Puppet Digimon of Data type and an unknown family. The third was that, when it was clearly visible instead of hidden behind a semi-translucent cube of gel, it didn't leave nearly enough to the imagination. Maia's assessment of "kind of creepy" would surely be even more correct after the Digivice helpfully provided a little turnaround of Betsumon for her to look at. Thankfully, Gizumon didn't seem to particularly notice or care about her scanning. Had it been a more wholesome subject, perhaps Gizumon would have felt comfortable sharing more detail. However, it was very pointedly ignoring anything that had to do with Betsumon for the time being.

Much more interesting to Gizumon was the angry orange! Immediately Gizumon scuttled over to the gap where Citramon's cage was, leaning back as his eye flickered to a neutral white color. Soon a small hologram was playing, stopping just short of Kuu's face so the Reppamon could properly see what was going on.

Citramon was sitting in the middle of his gel prison, a wick on his head angrily sparking as he stewed in his thoughts. While at first he was motionless, soon he found himself capable of actually wiggling around in his gel-like prison. Sure enough, the wick had started melting through the gel prison, giving Citramon some actual breathing room. He let out a triumphant cheer, then squeezed his eyes shut to focus harshly. Soon he was able to pull an arm free, then use said free arm to create a small orange in his hand. After slamming the orange harshly into the gel, he had blown clear through his prison and escaped out of the camera footage.

Gizumon tapped on his lens thoughtfully as the hologram faded. Citramon was an interesting Digimon. Where'd he end up going, anyway?

Not that there was much time to answer before the robot disappeared. Now Maia and Kuu were discussing the new elevator-bound friends who seemed so excited to meet them. Fortunately, after the D-Reaper incident Maia seemed suitably fed up with friends, and Kuu was keeping enough space from the elevator that he seemed leery as well. This was probably a good decision, because Assaultmon seemed like they would make for terrible friends. With miniguns for hands, clawed hooves for feet, and unflinching gas masks for faces, not a single thing about this fearsome fivesome screamed "friendly."

They did, however, seem rather surprised by the intruders so brazenly greeting them. They hopped back in a unit, the smallest of the Assaultmon tripping up a little due to the ice and falling flat on its face. Fortunately, it picked itself up in time to join the other four in trying to encircle Maia. The Assaultmon marched in unison while their heads swiveled towards her, refusing to let her out of their sight.

Slowly, the leader raised his guns, garbled noises coming from his gas mask as he held them towards Maia. The words "INTRUDER. STATE YOURSELF." could faintly be made out through the garbled static blocking out most of his voice. After his demand, the other four repeated his exact words a mere second later.

At least unlike the Troopmon, these guys asked their questions before shooting.

Stuttering like a lost child. Even in high security areas, it never failed to get sympathy from onlookers. However, most of those onlookers were people either embarrassed about the possibility of a scene being made or guilty over causing such worry in the first place. Metal centaurs made of weaponry and death were another subject entirely. However, even they seemed to pause somewhat at Maia's words, stopping for a bit to give her some proper breathing room.

What seemed to be the lead Assaultmon, if only due to a scar-like red stripe painted down his chest, took point. He walked up to Maia, eyes glowing red as he started trying to scan her and Kuu for information. Unlike the rapid, twitchy scan of Gizumon, this scan was almost cold and clinical. A red line started at the crown of Maia's head, then moved slowly down to her toes. Human. Nothing special about her. No trace of Digital DNA. Harmless. Then the same was done to Kuu. Reppamon. Champion level. Holy Beast. Virus Buster. Needed to stop fidgeting so the scan could go faster. Not a threat.

Of course, not being a threat didn't mean Maia and Kuu weren't trespassers. The lead Assaultmon's response was as blunt as a bag full of hammers as she innocently inquired about her presence here.

"NO."

That said, she was looking for a friend? Weird. The Assaultmon had not seen any walk these halls since their reawakening and cleanup duty. Since then, it had been nothing but dust and the occasional mysterious scuttling noise. Their faces were unsympathetically hardened as they looked down at Maia, the leader's discordant voice box once again starting up. "NOBODY'S HERE. YOU SHOULDN'T BE EITHER," it said. Whether the miniguns on its arms were starting to gently spin in a show of intimidation or simply due to programming, the lifeless glares of the Assaultmons' gas masks betrayed nothing.

"LEAVE THE PREMISES."

For all her great acting, Maia didn't seem to watch nearly enough post-apocalyptic fiction. When the scary goons in gas masks showed up pointing guns and telling you to do something, the word "why" was basically an invitation for them to fire. At the very least, the Assaultmon seemed to have more restraint than your average Walking Dead villain. Rather than open fire immediately they simply intensified the speed that their miniguns were spinning at, seemingly priming to fire. "NOT ON THE AUTHORIZED LIST," the Assaultmon warned. "NO AUTHORIZATION, NO ALLOWANCE. NO EXCEPTIONS."

Fortunately, Kuu's disdain for the property of others didn't seem to be a problem to the Assaultmon. They didn't even look towards the door when Kuu mentioned breaking it and Maia mentioned fixing it. Judging by how the door seemed to shut itself more tightly, however, it seemed that Gizumon sure did care a lot. Poor guy probably didn't even want to be seen, considering how insistently he was making sure his presence was unknowable. If Kuu walked towards that wall, he was going to be such a betrayed friend!

What did catch the Assaultmon's interest, however, was Kuu mentioning a certain stuffed bear. Immediately the Assaultmon looked towards each other, speaking in static-masked radio chatter. Most of it was basically inaudible due to the poor vocals, but the words "SUBJECT 67" came up over and over again. Yes, they knew he was mean. Yes, they knew he barely said a thing. And at the mention of the orange, the smallest Assaultmon said "109?" before being angrily elbowed by a compatriot.

The five continued chattering quietly before looking at each other and nodding. "YOU'VE SEEN TOO MUCH," the leader said, matter-of-factly. The five quickly scuttled back to open up more space, the whines of their miniguns reaching a fever pitch as they finally started to fire.