The Great Binary Archipelago All Out Race [Kath/Amy][Career]

Just like the one from last night, the conversation previously held by Katherine and Amelie, had brought some pretty interesting revelations for the first one. –That’s right. –The girl replied nodding to her blue-eyed friend. –Some might say I’m from everywhere, sort of. –She then explained. –But I was actually born in Madrid.

Closely listening to Amy, the girl then tilted her head, her gaze up. –I see. –She muttered. –I can’t really remember how Paris was since I was too little. My dad is French, though. I think I never asked him in which city he was born. –Which wasn’t surprising at all, since she barely spoke to him. She then immediately shook her head at her friend’s statement –No! That’s not… -To only realize her friend was probably only teasing her, as she usually did. –I had been wondering for a while where you were from, since due to your name I assumed you couldn’t be Japanese, and French was just my guess. –She finished with a smile. –I had never been in Toulon, but sounds nice, as you describe it. We moved from Madrid shortly after I was born, but then we went back, years later. It would be hard to tell you all the places where I’ve lived at. –She said, sighing right after.

-That sounds perfect. We’ve got a deal. –The girl ensued a chuckle. She was always up for learning new stuff, so learning to brew tea properly was kind of exciting, especially if she got to do it with a friend, but that was then. Now, she had seen Ooi fall from the bed, face straight into the floor. –Ooi! Are you okay? –She asked, sort of preoccupied at first. –Let me help you out. –The girl quickly rushed to unravel her friend from the sheets web swirling around her. Once she was out, Katherine noticed Ooi seemed to be okay-ish, so she just nodded and made her way back down. Hoping Amelie would have been able to stop Liquid and Jazz from keep eating before everyone was already down and have taken a seat. Luckily, that didn’t seem to have been necessary, since she found both the bunny and the candle pretty interested in the conversation taking place.

-Agri…culture? –Jazz tilted her head, looking at Amelie pretty confused, the three-horned not only was pretty oblivious towards human world’s concepts but to almost everything that didn’t have to do with sand and stealing.

-Oh! You have told me about Inra, old man. I didn’t know it was him, though! –Liquid said, leaning both hands on the table, sort of excited.

-Who’s this Inra, anyway? –Katherine asked, getting back into the conversation, walking towards the table with both hands on her back. Taking a seat next to Amelie right after.
-Kath. –The Lopmon turned at her partner, also pretty shocked at the revealing. –Inra is known across the Digital World. Rumors of his adventures are still being heard around Rustport, even to this day. –Jazz explained. –He was known across the Binary Archipelago as ‘Sturdy Inra’ and that nickname extended pretty much everywhere. He traveled across the sea defeating evil digimon, and always protecting the Archipelago. –It was surprising seeing Jazz know so much about someone who had no direct relation with Rustport, to say the least; so this Inra had to really be something else. –To be honest, I thought it was only a legend. –She finished. To be honest, both Katherine and Jazz have recently proved things that were only thought to be legends were actually true.

-Oh. I didn’t know that stupid Inra was so famous. –A burst of laughter escaped Nanimon.
-That’s amazing. He sounds like quite a strong digimon. –Katherine turned at Amelie, as they heard the conversation go on. –You have been around this world much more than me. Have you ever heard of him, Amy? –The girl asked her peer. –And that guy is going to participate in the race too. –A worried countenance on the raven-haired girl’s face. –I wonder what kind of team he has.
-Wait… ‘Sturdy Inra’!? –Liquid’s eyes widened, as he seemed to have finally realized who this sea serpent was. The candle got off his chair and started browsing through some stuff around a shelf, then coming back to the table with what seemed to be a magazine in his hands and putting it on the table. –Like the ‘Sturdy Inra’ who once won the race 6 years in a row!? –Katherine caught a glance at the magazine, which was labeled ‘Great Binary Archipelago All Out Race – All time statics’. Jazz quickly reached for the booklet, starting to read it. –This shows all the winners the race had since it started. –The bunny’s eyes widened as her eyes kept going through the pages. –This race is over 400 years old! –Jazz added.

-They did tell us it was a big tradition, didn’t they? –Katherine mentioned, still sitting next to Amelie.
-It is true. –Jazz kept reading. –Sturdy Inra’s team won the race 6 years in a row, over 100 years ago! Then, a team led by ‘Garmore the builder’ managed to win 5 years in a row, almost breaking Inra’s record. –The bunny got to the end of the page. -But then, the team of some guy named ‘Cobra’ stopped him right there, winning the last edition. –She closed the magazine, turning at Liquid.
–This Cobra really stopped Garmore when he was in some sort of streak. Isn’t there a chance he would be participating in this year’s race too? –Katherine asked. More powerful enemies didn’t seem like something they needed right now.
-He’s unable to compete due to a terrible wound he received during that race he won ten years ago. –Liquid quickly explained. Katherine sighed in relief. –Well, that’s one powerful enemy less.
-Snake is his son, though.

-Eeeehhhh!? –Both Katherine and Jazz squealed, both hands on the table.

-Well, I should have seen that coming due to their names, shouldn’t I? –Katherine sweatdropped, turning at Amelie.

-So we have Inra, who already won six times in a row. –Jazz started counting enemies with her fingers. –We have Snake, who’s the son of the guy who broke Garmore’s streak. –Her ears then perked up, she turning at Liquid. –What about Garmore? Does he have any child to compete for him too?
-Oh. I have a daughter, but she works as a fashionista back in Whitewater, she doesn’t care about racing. –Nanimon replied.
-Oh, that’s a relief. –Jazz said. –Well, what if he’s competing himself, just like Inra?

-Nah. I’m not competing anymore, I retired since that last race. –Nanimon, yet again, replied.
-Well, that’s good, isn’t it? –Jazz asked, turning at Katherine. Her tamer didn’t reply at all, her eyes were wide open, looking straight at Nanimon. It took her a second, but then Jazz realized too.

-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH!?!?!? YOU ARE GARMORE!?

After some brief seconds of silence, arms crossed, Nanimon threw a smirk at Amelie. –I definitely like how you think, sis. –He then said. –That’s exactly what someone thinking about winning should consider.
-We won’t be paid that much attention, huh? –That hade a huge amount of sense to Katherine. The advantage of having many known and scary-looking teams participating at the race, definitely helped them somehow go unnoticed. –Liquid. –The girl addressed the candle, turning at him. –Does anyone around here know you’re Garmore’s disciple? –She asked.
-No way. –Liquid shook his head. –The old man doesn’t let me tell anyone about it. Not that I’m very interested in doing it. Yiayiayiayiayia!
-I have been retired for ten years. Since then, I just built that old warehouse and started working there as a shipwright. I don’t care about fame or anything like that, so I’ve been keeping a secret that I once was Garmore, and that’s why I don’t go by that name anymore. –Nanimon explained, taking a sip of tea. –That being said, no one except Inra knows the kid's mentor is actually Garmore. I told the kid to not tell anyone, so please don’t take it against him for keeping this information from you; he was only keeping a promise with me.

-I think that’s actually great. –Katherine said, a plain look in her eyes. –Amelie is right; they would never expect a team of newcomers like us to have a real chance of winning. –Playing it low and using the cards on their favor carefully was the type of strategy the raven-haired girl tended to support. –That, of course, until we do.


-I wouldn’t discard the possibility of some evil digimon trying to take you out from the get-go. But I think you won’t be anyone’s main target. –Garmore turned back at Amelie. –So the girl is absolutely right. As a newcomer, Cobra managed to win that race and stop my winning streak, and it was mainly because he took advantage of no one knowing him, and paying attention to only Inra and me. I believe in you, and I know you can do this. –The Nanimon concluded.
-I hadn’t thought of it that way, but… -Katherine turned at Amelie, replying to her previous comment. –It is kind of exciting getting to face a strong guy that's actually a legend between digimon. –She could only think her friend was awesome: she had managed to turn something that at first sounded like an adversity in something good for them. She might be wrong, but Katherine was damned well convinced of her friend’s sense of positivity, and she loved it.

Even though Katherine felt like she still had a lot of stuff to ask to Garmore, especially since what led to his retirement and why did it happen exactly after the last all-out race, Ooi was right; they were now done with eating and it was time to get to work, time for stories could come later. The girl offered herself and Jazz to clean the dishes; it was the least she could do after Amy working so hard to make breakfast for everyone.

Once the dishes were done, Garmore waved some temporary goodbyes. –I am very much thankful for that breakfast, sisters. –He bowed at the group. –It was a long time ago since I tasted a human-styled breakfast, it was certainly delicious! –The Nanimon added, throwing one of his weird poses. –I wish you the best of lucks at work. I’ll be back later to check on your progress, for now, I should head to work.


-So? What do you think? –With Garmore off, for now, everyone had headed back to the dock, to decide on what to do with the boat. Liquid received them showing them a square, medium-sized red flag, with some sort of yellow-colored glass at the middle. It took a while for Katherine and Jazz to understand the reference. The girl tilted her head until she remembered. –Oh! Beer Flag Team, right?
-That’s right, Cheater-sis! Yiayiayiayiayia! –Another burst of laughter escaped Liquid.
-Isn’t a red flag like too much of a flamboyant? –The girl sighed.
-Why did you choose that name, Liquid? –Jazz asked.
-I was a big fan of the old-man while growing up –The candle quickly replied with a smile. –He won that many races by building a boat that used some sort of very odd technology powered on beer. I would say it’s pretty different from my juice system, but it was amazing when he first used it. I think that’s why he chose that name. Since I admired him that much, I just wanted to thank him everything he had taught me by bringing the name of his team back for one more race. I did this flag myself. –He concluded with a smile.
-Couldn’t that make them think you’re his apprentice and then our whole advantage would be blown? –Jazz then asked a fairly valid question.
-I wouldn’t think so. –Katherine replied. -If Garmore had been out of the radars for around ten years, they would probably only think he’s a fan who uses a boat too. –That way, she quickly dismissed Jazz’s preoccupation. –So I think there’s really nothing wrong with it. What do you think, girls? –She asked, turning at Ooi and Amelie. –I think it’s a nice motivation for Liquid to have. Plus, we shouldn’t do or stop doing stuff based on the other teams, we should do our thing based in our own strengths, and if that flag is a motivation for Liquid, we should have it.

Jazz stared at Katherine, sort of shocked. –That’s some really good speech, Kath. I don’t know where did you get that from, but I loved it.
-Hey! –The girl puffed her cheeks. –What do you mean where did I get it from? Couldn’t have I thought of that myself? –She said, looking somewhere else in a tantrum-like manner. –Well, actually… Amy might have helped me get there. –The girl sneaked a bit of her tongue out, turning at her blue-eyed friend.
-Yiayiayiayiayia! –Liquid’s laugh, as usually, marked the pace of the conversation. –You are all so funny, sis. –The candle seemed sincerely happy with having them around. Then why had he kept so many secrets so far? The thought was a recurring one on Katherine's head, especially after that talk with Amelie. –Well, we should start considering those necessary modifications for the boat, right? –The candle suggested. –I took the time of moving all of those tools and components the old man brought last night there. –He pointed at one corner of the dock. The same pile of stuff Garmore had brought last night and left at the kitchen could now be seen there.
-If you brought them here, couldn’t you have organized them a little? –Jazz muttered, sighing right after.
-I’m going to prepare the boat so we can start working on it. Meanwhile, why don’t the four of you go browse through all of that and see what can you find to improve the boat? –Liquid asked. –I’ve been gathering all of that stuff for years, so I am sure you can find pretty interesting stuff there.

If no objections rose, the 4 girls should head to the pile of very diverse types of items. While they looked for something interesting that could also be helpful, Jazz decided to continue the whole conversation about agriculture.


The sort of confinement Jazz had been put herself through during the last years, living with Boru, Roru, and Koru at Rustport, definitely had her unknowing a lot of stuff not desert-related. Even though she had seen the meat growing out of the ground, like pretty much any digimon or human that had any share of traveling around the Digital World, she wasn’t at all familiarized with such term. –I really liked all of what you mentioned about agriculture before. –The bunny muttered, placing her index finger in her lower lip, and turning at Amelie. –You definitely know a lot, Shisei. –Raising both of her tiny arms, Jazz smiled at the brunette.
-Shisei? –Katherine tilted her head, turning at her digimon partner, sort of confused.
-Back in the desert, that’s how we use to call wise women digimon. I think it has something to do with some kind of ancient deity or legend.
-Shisei, huh? –The curly haired then giggled, staring at Amelie. –That sounds cute. –She then tried to focus again on the work ahead.

–I’ve got an idea. Why don’t the four of us select one item from here each, and try to come up with a good idea of how that could positively modify our boat. –After this suggestion, she turned at the pile of various objects in front of her. It was fairly big, and it felt like everything could be found there. –Why don’t you two start? –She added, with a smirk.

Not that Katherine could really know, since she hadn’t had any human friends ever, but apparently being Amy’s friend was leading her to actually feel her excitement and how fired up she was. Either that or thrill was just in the air. In any case, the bottom line was she was feeling the electricity of an amazing day about to come. They still had some work to do to get there, but she already wanted tomorrow to come and just ride that boat straight to the victory and to the girl and the bunny’s third Zoid Gem. Even though she still didn’t really know if that prize was actually one of the legendary jewels, the prize was far from being her main reason for competing in this race now. A determined looked covered Katherine’s face. Whatever that was, being a mystical friend connection or just overall excitement in the air, it felt pretty damn good!

-D-Drink!? –Katherine took both hands to her cheeks, showing a worried countenance. If it wasn’t obvious by this moment, the girl had never had any kind of alcohol, not even a sip of a beer. Her parents didn’t like alcohol, and being as conservative as Japanese culture was, she really hadn’t had any kind of chance to try it. That, without mentioning she was kind of a nerd, so that didn’t help either. Of course, she couldn’t deny she had wanted to try it a couple of times: undying curiosity wasn’t absolved of those kinds of things, after all; but, as with most things, she was just afraid to do it alone, plus it would be kind of pathetic illegally getting alcohol and trying it by herself, wouldn’t it? She was too innocent to even think on how could Amelie put her hands around alcohol. –If it’s for the team, and if it’s with Amy… I guess it’s okay. -She simply muttered. If they won, why the hell not?  

Jazz, who was completely oblivious at this concept, could only look at her partner, confused. –Didn’t we have a drink during breakfast? –She asked, tilting her head. –No, Jazz-sis, she means… -It wasn’t surprising Liquid knew what Amelie meant, even being as innocent as he was, the candle had a very good-at-drinking digimon as a mentor, so he had to be acquainted with the concept.
-O-Of course we did! –Katherine quickly ran to cover Liquid’s mouth, who then simply shrugged and kept preparing the boat. For some reason, she felt like she didn’t want her partner to know about these kinds of stuff, at least not yet. Was this what having a little sister felt like? It could definitely be the case, Katherine concluded.

Nope. Not this time. Katherine was not feeding Amelie’s ego this once, at least not without teasing her friend a little. In all honesty, she was getting a liking to it. –Where? –The girl asked, wrinkling her lips to a side. –Oh, so you want me to tell the girls how you put me in the positivism lane last night? –She then giggled right after. –You just want me to say nice things to you, don’t you, Amy? –She added, obviously teasing her friend. –Well, I think not this time. You’ll have to try again later, and be much more persuasive. –The girl concluded giving out one of her classic winks. Hopefully, the blue-eyed would understand she was just taking the chance to joke a little; it had been easily served, after all, hadn’t it? She couldn’t let that pass. With some luck, Amy would only come back with some more teasing back at her, which she usually wouldn’t enjoy, but again, with Amelie it was different.

Becoming a Shisei, huh? Jazz kept browsing through the things in the pile, right in front of her, putting the ones that she didn’t like for Katherine to check, while putting those that raised her attention to the side, while Katherine, sitting quietly on the ground behind her partner, slowly analyzed the ones in the pile the bunny discarded while she thought about the concept. Before she could say anything about this, her digimon partner jumped forward, just as with the parts’ scavenging. –Haha! That would be nice. –Jazz said. Katherine just waited for her to say something uncalled for; she knew it was coming.  -I think you have to be beautiful for that, though, so Katherine has no chance. –Just as she finished her sentence, like a lion, the raven-haired girl lifted the bunny from the ground and started biting one of her horns.
-I haf enouf of yourf insolence youf are always mofcking me I will showf youf… -The girl muttered rapidly, hardly able to speak while she bit her digimon partner. 
-Ah! Let me go, no, stop that, are you planning to eat me!? stop it, stop it…! –Jazz said, also speaking very fast and trying to break free from the grip at the same time her tamer bit her and rambled.

Katherine stopped biting her partner’s head (for odd that it sounds) and turned at Ooi. –C-Curls? –She asked, blushing a little and holding her hair with one hand. She stood up and started moving some of the parts from the pile in front of Ooi. –That’s an amazing finding, Ooi. –The girl said with a smile, while she kept moving components of all kind of sizes. Nitro was definitely a game changer, and putting it in the boat was for sure one of the things they had to do. –I suppose we would need to adapt the nitro to some sort of mixture that can work with the boat’s engine, since ours doesn’t work with regular fuel. –The girl explained. –But I’m sure there must be a way. –She added, nodding. Ooi really wasn’t the person to try explaining how nitro worked to, nor was this the time for such details.

While Katherine helped Ooi move the last piece of metal that seemed to be getting between her peer and that small fuel tank, she heard as a certain something fell from the small mountain of artifacts. She finished moving the piece, letting the shorter girl finally reach her objective while she crouched to pick up this small object that had fallen from the pile. It was a small silver trinket, it had a shape that resembled that of the sun, with even the small curves that represented the heat coming out of the central circle. It was hollow in the middle and on the upper part, it had a silver, very thin chain, making it a beautiful pendant.

-Hey, Shisei! –Jazz was clearly addressing Amelie. –Look at this! –The bunny was holding some rectangular metallic plates, one in each hand. –They are not heavy at all, even though they seem pretty resistant. –The bunny kept moving the pieces up and down like they were wings. –What do you think? The boat can jump into pretty high, right? We saw it last night. What if we could add this, so the boat could glide through the skies? –Jazz suggested, clearly excited about the idea. –That would make the landing much better, and could help us to reach higher distances in the air. –It was obvious they weren’t going to have a flying boat, but a gliding one was possible. It was definitely a good tool to consider, and for the bunny, it seemed like a very good idea.

-That’s a great idea, actually. We could cut those to make them have a wing-like shape. –Katherine approached Jazz and Amelie again, as she analyzed the plaques the bunny was holding. She then turned to the brunette. –Look at this. It’s so pretty. –She raised her right hand, holding the pendant by its chain. Of course, that was not really useful for the boat, but she felt the need to show something that cute to Amy. The curly-haired was also holding a small round shaped metallic piece of around her palm’s size in her left hand. The gadget had a red button right at its center. Nevertheless, Katherine wanted to show that beautiful pendant to her friend first, so she was saving her findings for later. Katherine then would tilt her head. –Oh! By the way, did you find anything that we could use, Amy? 

Both the girl and the bunny had ended up completely in love with Whitewater after that adventure alongside Miyu over the city, so the idea of going to have fun in one of those places full of shiny lights and beach-like decorations, excited Jazz beyond expectations. –Yay! Let’s have fun with Shisei! –She yelled, raising both of her tiny arms into the air.

-Do not encourage her, please. –Katherine replied, sighing right after. So apparently Amelie had not noticed how her talking about they focusing on their team’s strength and not in their opponent’s capacities had inspired her friend to see things more in a glass-half-full way, huh? Even though that was surprising, it was understandable considering how sometimes the things one say tend to clench on someone’s else mind more than in themselves. Before she could say anything about this, the curly-haired girl’s whole body bowed a little backwards, as she felt Amelie’s getting extremely close to her face and whispering something once again. As usual, her voice was as delicate as it could get and the feel of her breath in Katherine’s ear simply made her face go red, her eyes widening. When Amy stepped back, a normal distance remaining again between the two, Katherine just stood there and lowered her gaze in a very obvious shy manner, not only because of such gesture but also because this time she actually could listen to what she was saying.

So Amelie getting persuasive wouldn’t end well? What on earth was she talking about? How was she going to persuade her? Knowing she wouldn’t find an answer to these questions and considering she was too flustered to even try to ask her about this, she simply let it pass. Even though she had recovered control of herself much more quickly this time, it was very likely her friend had already found out about apparently one of Katherine’s main weaknesses: people having some sort of contact with her ears, especially in such a cute and dainty manner. It was very possible her beautiful blue-eyed friend even exacerbated this weakness, could she be developing some sort of weakness towards her? Well, there was a way to know this, but she definitely didn’t want to go there, especially now that they had work to focus on. Sadly, apparently, this was the day of making Katherine blush and not letting her focus. -I am not! I mean… -Even though maybe kinda didn’t exactly counted as a compliment for her, Ooi still had managed to make her a little flustered, still maintaining some of the blushing her French friend had produced on her cheeks just some seconds ago. -T-Thank you, Ooi. -She simply replied. 

Finally, some work talking allowed Katherine to focus on the task at hand. Even though she was pretty sure those implements didn’t belong to Nanimon but to Liquid himself, that didn’t mean they were ready to work with juice-fuel. One thing was for sure, though: with the big improvement to the boat that small tank would endorse, they would definitely find a way to get it to work.

Katherine immediately shook her head at the statement that Amelie threw after being showed the pendant. –Based on what they said last night, I think all of this stuff belongs to Liquid, actually. Nanimon just helped him bringing them from his warehouse to here. –The girl explained.
-That’s right, Cheater-sis. –Liquid himself arrived at the conversation being held by the girls. –These are all things I have been reuniting for years.
-Oh, Liquid. –The girl then turned at their waxy friend. -Do you happen to know what this pendant does? -Katherine raised the chain with the trinket, swirling around her hand. Liquid silently stared at the object, making a humming sound, like he was trying to remember where it came from.
-Oh! That's right. I remember buying that thing back at Whitewater years ago. It should come with some sort of round remote controller that's supposed to activate it, I think. -Liquid turned back at the pile of tools and artifacts, trying to locate it with his gaze.
-By chance do you think it could be this one? -Katherine showed the circular-shaped metallic piece she was holding in her left hand to the digimon
-Yes, yes. That's it. -Liquid nodded happily. -How did you know?
-It has a small sun-like figure on its backside, just like the shape of the pendant. How does it work?
-Who knows.
-Don't... You know?
-Not at all. It came with a box full of other tools, and I never got it to work. -The candle scratched the back of his head. –But it says something at the back of the remote, right?
-It does. It says ‘Water shield’. –Katherine stated, looking at the back side of the device.
-I remember how, at first, I thought that would create a shield made of water, but when you press the button… -Liquid began to explain while Katherine did exactly that: pressing the red button. –Nothing happens. –She said, plainly. Maybe it was undying curiosity at a full display, or maybe she was just too stubborn to let the item she found being proved useless; whatever was the case, Katherine wanted to get to the bottom of this odd device.

Meanwhile, Amelie showed her finding to the rest of the group. –Oh, oh! I had completely forgotten about that! –Liquid remarked, happily.
-Oh my god! That’s so creepy, Shisei! Turn it off! –Jazz seemed to be fairly scared of Amelie’s hand being enveloped by the weird device, but also kind of marveled by it. –How can it do that? –The bunny asked, both hands raised in a karate-like defensive stand.
-Aren’t you overreacting? –Katherine asked, turning at her partner. It was definitely the oddest item any of them had found, but it seemed really interesting. –What kind of material could this be made of?
-Some old man gave that to me as a gift, after I watched some sort of robot fight in Whitewater! It was fun! –Liquid explained with a smile. –He said that was what the fighters used to coat their bodies for protection. Apparently, they used some sort of ‘pressure delta’ system to make it expand across the robot's body. –The candle seemed to be thinking how that could be applied on their boat.
-What’s a ‘pressure delta’ system? –Jazz asked, looking fairly confused.
-It’s a mechanism that uses the difference of pressure between two environments to expand or contract something. Pressure being the force applied over a surface by a certain body or substance. –Katherine answered, trying to keep her explanation deep enough to enlightened her digimon partner but also short enough to avoid Ooi feeling like she was going to die out of boredom, although that last part might have failed.
-So you use that difference between pressure to apply a certain force to something?
-In a way, yes. –The girl smiled at the bunny, feeling kind of happy she had got it.
-Okay, I think we can somehow make that work to protect our boat. –The candle explained -I’m going to need one of you to help me with it, though. –He added, chuckling right after. Liquid then hopped towards Ooi, who was holding the nitro tank. –That’s awesome, Third place-sis! I was actually thinking about that exact same tank while I prepared the boat, I knew it had to be somewhere. I’m sure we can find a way of making that nitro work, it’s just a matter of adapting it to the conditions of our fuel. –He explained.

-Adapting something to certain conditions… -Katherine mustered a reflexive expression. –Liquid, I’m going to the lake outside to try something.
-Oh. –Liquid turned at his peer. –Sure, Cheater-sis! I hope you can come up with something for that thing you found, because I have definitely given it some fair share of thought myself! Yiayiayiayiayia!
-Do you think you can work on the nitro tank and on that pressure mechanism with only one of us? Because I might need two more members of the team for trying this. –Katherine explained, a determined look on her gaze.
-Huh? –Liquid tilted his head. –Of course! Even though I’m now sort of curious of seeing what you have in mind! Yiayiayiayiayia! –The candle let go a burst of laughter, before focusing on the work to do now. Even though his intelligence was definitely appreciated, Liquid was not useful for what Katherine had in mind at the moment; plus, he would be much more needed working on that nitro and the defensive system, and he was perfectly aware of this. –Okay. I just need one of you sisters to work with me. –Liquid nodded.
-Can I go with you, Kath? –Jazz quickly volunteered, raising both hands for Katherine to lift her from the ground.
-Of course. –Katherine replied, picking the bunny up and then turning at both Ooi and Amelie. –I’m sorry, but I’m going to need one of you two. The other one should go with Liquid. So, who wants to come? You must be prepared for swimming, though. –The girl added, letting go a kind smirk. She was going to make that pendant work, no doubt on her mind.

Trying to the deny that her friend’s excitement was definitely contagious was impossible for Katherine; Amy was clearly interested in this sort of stuff, really invested in trying to understand its mechanics and capabilities which, for one side, made Katherine feel like she could really learn and grow from their association and, for the other, could only make her wonder how many amazing things had her blue-eyed peer discovered by having spent so much time inside this mythical world. After being inside of the Digital World for 6 months in total; the fact that she still would show some excitement out of something Katherine could show to her made the girl very happy. No patting her bunny, though, that part the curly haired girl was not very fond of; but it was Amy, again, so it was probably fine? She would consider it.

Letting go a small chuckle, Katherine turned back at Ooi. –Do not worry, Ooi, I don’t know if it would be as fun as it sounds. It probably will involve a lot of science. –That was probably the best thing she could think of to say to the little one so she wouldn’t feel too bad for not being able to participate in this sort of testing. The girl then looked down at her own clothing, noticing she didn’t put her swimsuit below that morning either. Well, someone would have to study the results from a safe distance anyway, right? So it probably wasn’t that big of a deal. Just like that, the group turned to do their outing. While they walked, Katherine lowered her gaze, looking at Amelie’s outfit; she definitely could see the dark lines of a swimsuit below her clothes, so she would be the one doing the swimming.

-I don’t know. –A glance back at the metallic device in her left hand, Katherine started making her way out of the shack, heading towards the lake. –Liquid probably double checked this, so I don’t think it’s malfunctioning. I’ve got some ideas to see if we can make it work, but they all swirl around the same concept. You two are going to be good test subjects! -A short giggling escaped Katherine after that comment. Jazz didn’t waste the chance of jumping from Katherine’s shoulder to Amy’s, rubbing her face against hers in an affectionate manner. –Yay! Let’s do our best, Shisei. –It was easy to see the bunny was rather excited too for this experiment, probably a combination of swimming with friends and getting to see the development of something very interesting.

She couldn’t clearly remember at the time, but Katherine was almost sure she hadn’t seen Jazz swimming yet, even though they came from an adventure at a city near the beach. –You do know how to swim, right? –They all stopped right in front of the lake, it was time to get to work. The bunny simply hopped down from Amelie’s shoulder and went straight into the water, floating some seconds after with no trouble.

-Of course! I learned when I was a baby! –Probably not in the best way, although that wasn’t something the bunny wanted to talk about at the moment. It was sort of surprising for Katherine, since she knew her partner was mainly raised at the dessert, but she had mentioned something about living in Cipher Jungle during some time when she was little, so that could explain this unknown of ability the hare had.
–Perfect. That will be very useful. –The girl simply gazed at Jazz, floating on the water. She then turned at Amelie and walked around her, looking to stand behind the brunette. –Just… stay still for a second. –Katherine slowly moved her friend’s brown hair to the side and put the pendant on her, to then walk to the front side of the girl and take a good look at her. –It looks very pretty on you, I like it. Silver goes smoothly with your skin color.


-Are we going to use the gem? –At first, surprised by her digimon partner’s line of thought, Katherine then simply smirked at her.
-You thought so too, huh? –Katherine then turned at Amy, it was time to give some explanations. –Amy, I suppose you know what Chrome Digizoid is, right? –Explanations the actually were better starting off with a question. -Have you ever heard of the Zoid Gems? -Opening her backpack, which she had brought from inside the hut, the girl pulled out an ochre-colored jewel, about the same size as her hand, and showed it to her blue-eyed teammate. –This is the Ochre Zoid Gem. I am not completely sure, but I think it has the power of releasing actual solar energy from it. If you get closer, you’ll even feel how the air is kind of warm around it. –Having left the concept of that particular Zoid Gem behind, the girl proceeded to explain her plan. –I believe this collar charges up with solar energy, so leaving it under the sun for a while, would probably have it charged. Since we don’t have got that much time, I think the Zoid Gem is perfect for this. –The girl held the gem tight, making it shine brighter; a stronger warm feeling covering the environment. The collar then let go a brief but bright orange burst of light, Katherine and Jazz both smirking at the sight.
-So you think it’s going to work now? –Jazz asked, still from the water. Katherine immediately pressed the button on the remote, but nothing happened. –Figured. –Handing out the remote to Amelie, she muttered. –Amy could you… dive into the water, please?

---

Nodding at Ooi, Liquid gave her a huge smile. –It’s going to be great to work with you, Third-place-sis! –He then hopped towards the working area, with all sort of tools scattered around the boat, which he had gotten out of the water and now was on top of some sort of platform. –Let’s start with the nitro, shall we? –After gathering some see-through containers from a shelf and putting them over a table, Liquid then took an odd pair of shoes out of a trunk next to the workbench. They looked like some sort of roller-skates, they had a dark purple color and were completely adjustable. –Of course, we can’t put a mix in the boat without really knowing what it does, since it could damage our tank; so that’s why we’ll use these. They use the exact same kind of engine as the boat, just in a shorter scale, so that way we could try the mixes for our boat on these things to run all the tests we need before actually putting the mix inside our baby. –He then handed out the roller skates to the raven-haired girl. –I’m sure they will fit. –The skates had a small hole on the back side. After taking some really thin hoses and fitting them in each hole, Liquid connected the other side of the hoes to the small tank Ooi had found, and placed some sticky pads on the tank, sticking it to Ooi’s back.


The candle then stared at his partner. If the girl agreed to all of this, she would have the fuel tank stuck to her back and two hoes coming out of it, connected to the roller skates in her feet. –This is going to be fun! Yiayiayiayiayia! –A burst of laughter escaped Liquid, who seemed to be having the time of his life. –Now, we just need to get the mix we’re putting in it. Usually, nitro is a mixture of oxygen injected to the fuel to make the engine overwork. In this case, I think it should be some mixture of juices that accelerates our own. –Pointing at the bunch of jars he had previously taken out, he continued. –I really don’t know which mixture would give us the effect we desire so we’re just gonna’ have to try different mixes until we get somewhere. Luckily, I have many kinds of juices, so it shouldn’t be impossible to find the right one. –Over the table, 8 jars could be found, they all contained juices of different colors with different labels.

-Muscle jam – Bright red.
-Big berry – Dark red.
-Oily Fruit – Black.
-Metal Banana – Silver.
-Wood Grapes –Brown.
-Broccoli Tangerine –Light green.
-Blue Cantaloupe –Light blue.
-Slimy Coconut. –White.


-Just pick two of those juices and I’ll mix them for you and put the result in your tank, connected to your roller skates; then we’ll see what happens. If we get a good burst of speed, then we’ve got our nitro. –The concept was fairly clear. –Don’t worry, none of these should make the engine malfunction, and you won’t be at any real danger since we’re doing this at a very small scale. I can’t guarantee we won’t get some pretty funny results from certain mixes, though, Yiayiayiayiayiayia! –As usually, Liquid laughed loudly.

Working with someone that was as excited as him about trying new stuff for the boat, was definitely a plus for the candle. Sure, Katherine and Amelie had the liking for science and the curiosity about how every component worked around the raft; but when it came to attitude, Liquid prefer the childish and outgoing craziness of Ooi, that honestly matched his. While he slowly mixed around a quarter of each jar in a bowl, Liquid chatted about this whole experiment with his partner for the endeavor. –Oh! So you have some of those back at the human world? That’s amazing. I knew some of the things found around this world were inspired by human concepts, I just don’t know which, since I’ve never actually been inside your world. –A brief silence interrupted his talking, while he mustered some sort of disheveled expression; trying to dismiss those sad memories immediately.–Were you good using these? I don’t think it’s that hard, but maybe these are safer.

-This is perfect! –Liquid outlined a smile, while he looked at the red-wine colored mixture that came as a result. Well, probably perfect was a bit too much, since he didn’t know what effect it would have in the role skaters, but at least he knew it would do something… probably. The candle hopped over the table to be able to reach Ooi’s backside and fill the tank stuck on her back. He raised his hand, showing a metallic remote to who was now his test subject. –This is the controller for those things. You just start moving, and when the time comes I’ll push some buttons here and activate the nitro. -There was a fairly large amount of space around the dock, so Ooi would be able to move freely, she could also notice these roller skaters were much more easy to use than the ones from the human world; they had some sort of system that applied pressure to the sides, allowing the user to stay on their feet, without ever falling.

Once the raven-haired girl had started moving, Liquid would do the honors and just push the nitro button. Immediately, the skates would stop right in place. Even though at first it seemed like nothing was happening, Ooi would likely notice how she was very slowly starting to rise from the ground. Liquid called it as soon as he saw it: yeap, anti-gravity nitro. The effect was not that strong for the short girl to get to the roof, but her body rose around 3 meters above ground level. Before Liquid could do anything, Ooi was just floating around the place. After some seconds of silence, Liquid simply burst in laugh. –YIAYIAYIAYIAYIAYIAYIA! Oh god, that’s so funny, third-place-sis! –Once she managed to get down, and once the candle stopped rolling on the floor from pure amusement at the scene, she could pick another mix for the candle to try in her tank.

---

-Now that you mention it… -Katherine took a good glance at Amelie now that she was only in her swimsuit –You seem pretty healthy. You would make a perfect test subject for a fishy experiment. –The curly haired came back with a tease, regarding the comment her friend had made some minutes ago. She wouldn’t have thought she was going to let that slip, would she?

Jokes aside, being such a fashion lover, Katherine was having trouble to not stare at her friend imagining all the kinds of clothes she could make her wear and all the very different styles that probably would suit her amazingly well. Amelie’s skin was rather pale but also seemed very delicate, her features were feminine and she even had the height of a fashion model. –Shisei is so pretty. –The sweet voice of Jazz could be heard from the water, as she stared at the brunette. –She is… -Oops! That probably simply escaped from Katherine’s thoughts, while she blatantly stared at her peer now.

Enough was enough, she probably had stared enough to come up as rude, so it was time to get to work and avoid making her partner feel more awkward than how she was already probably feeling. –That much is fine, I think. –Katherine then turned at her digimon partner. –Jazz, I need you to throw the softest blazing ice possible at Amelie, okay? –The bunny nodded nonchalantly like she knew it wouldn’t hurt her; for a second, Katherine thought about clarifying this to her friend, but Amy had no reason to not trust her, right? She had to know Katherine wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

Said and done, the icy wind the Lopmon softly blew was enough to barely make the French girl feel how the temperature of the water lowered a bit. Katherine frowned, what she was expecting to happen was not occurring. Maybe the intensity wasn’t enough? It was very likely. –Can you do it a little stronger? -Jazz then began to blow with a little more strength; she didn’t need to go much further until some sort of invisible wall of energy started protecting Amelie. Katherine could then see how the very small pieces of ice inside the air the hare was blowing started to shatter at around 1 meter from hitting the girl. If one looked closely, some sort of orange-colored shield could be seen shattering those pieces, but only at the exact spot where the wind was trying to get through to make contact with Amelie. It was like the user wearing the collar was protected by an invisible shield that only manifested itself when the strength of the projectile went over a certain level. Katherine smiled at the sight, of course, she was happy, just not overly excited, since she knew this only raised more questions.

-It worked! –Jazz stopped blowing and raised both arms in celebration, a fascinated grin on her face. It wasn’t a secret Jazz admired Katherine fondly, and it was probably due to the fact of her tamer being able to achieve these kinds of things. –How did you know that was going to work?

-I concluded the ‘water shield’ didn’t refer to a shield made of water, but a shield that activates while the user is on water. That raises several more questions now. –It was too early to call it a victory. –How much strength can the projectiles have? We really can’t try that without taking the risk of hurting Amy. Would it still protect someone that was very close to her? Could it protect her from multiple projectiles at once? –Lots of queries filled the curly haired girl’s mind. –Any idea on how we could test some of this right now, Amy? -Being as intelligent as she was, Amelie would have to just deal with the fact that Katherine recurred to her against these sorts of questions. 

Just after pressing a couple of buttons in the remote, once he was sure Ooi was in a safe position for landing, Liquid deactivated the skates, allowing the girl to come back to ground level. –Your… mom? –Slowly tilting his head at the concept, the candle just hopped towards the table, while he kept chatting with the raven-haired girl. –That sounds fun! Doing stuff like that with your parents. –To be honest, the closest thing to a parental figure Liquid ever had was Nanimon, so even though he wasn’t completely familiarized with the idea, he still could only be but a little jealous about Ooi being able to have done something that fun with her mother.

-Oh! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! –A clearly uncomfortable expression could be seen on Liquid’s face, as he quickly shook his head and hands at the idea of him going into the real world, completely dismissing it. It worried him for a bit that he might have been too obvious about how the pure thought completely terrified him, so he quickly cleared his throat and tried to come back with a response that wouldn’t raise so many questions on the girl. –I mean… I don’t think I would fit there! N-Not at all. –Just like the candle’s, the face on the small flame up his head denoted an expression of awkwardness regarding this topic. –The real world is just… not for me. –His smile had gotten notably false, as he quickly tried to change the subject. –I have heard about holosuits, though! Those things seem fun! –Letting go a chuckle, Liquid internally had to wave off a bunch of memories inside of him; even though he was sure it was pretty obvious for anyone who saw him at the moment that he wasn’t feeling all that well, he tried to go on with the conversation.

Unavoidably, after calling them based on the spots they reached on that imaginary race Liquid thought they had held yesterday morning, he had kind of forgotten his team partners had actual human names. -Your… real names? But you’re third-place-sis, aren’t you? Yiayiayiayiayia!

Writing something in an old board next to his workbench, the flame-type digimon nodded at his peer. –Don’t worry, we can actually rule out some of the juices based on their combined effect. The burst of speed effect on our feel should be the predominant element of a nitro-like juice, so considering this mix had nothing of ‘bursting’ but only immediately stopping and floating slowly, I would say none of these is the correct juice. So that leaves us with only 6 possible options. –He then carried on to mix the Metal Banana juice with the Oily Fruit one, this producing a dark gray mixture.

Just like before, the tank filled up, Ooi started moving and Liquid went on to press the button. This time, even though the girl’s movement didn’t stop, the roller skates began trembling, making an odd metallic creaking sound. Liquid quirked an eyebrow at the sight, knowing this probably meant they were malfunctioning. –I think this is not it. –Just in case, and always prioritizing Ooi’s safety, Liquid pressed the button that loosed the skates from the girl’s feet; just to be immediately glad he did it a second later since the roller skates (without the raven-haired girl on them, thankfully) were immediately jutted towards a wall. At that moment, Liquid knew they had one of the ingredients right for the nitro, they just needed to change the one that was making the engine malfunction.

The roller skates had crashed against the wooden wall; and even though not real damage was produced by this, the vibration did take down a set of tools and metallic devices up a shelf hung up at the surface. –Not quite what we wanted… but I think we’re very close! –The candle smiled at Ooi. If the girl got closer to the crash site to pick up the roller skates, she would see the pile of stuff that fell from that shelf, but only one would immediately catch her eye, mainly because of the oddity of it being in a place like that. A black and red colored D-3 rested on the ground alongside the other multiple things that fell.

---

Either because she didn’t understand Katherine was teasing her about the fishy experiments comment the blue-eyed had made back at the dock or because she was talking in all seriousness about being willing to allow Katherine to make finish experiments on her, Katherine could only giggle at her friend’s statement. –Don’t worry, I won’t do any experiments with you! –Unless they were fashion experiments, but that much she wouldn’t reveal right now.

Maybe the concept was too complicated, or maybe Katherine was just too socially awkward to understand what this “like-like” thing meant; and on behalf of keep thinking of herself like someone that could understand complicated concepts with ease and knowing she was pretty much on the socially awkward side, she immediately assumed the second option was the right answer: she couldn’t get it because she didn’t have the social expertise to do so. She didn’t even try to turn at her digimon partner, because she knew that was a lost cause. –I think I do like-like Shisei! –Jazz muttered, leaving pretty clear that she didn’t know what that meant. Katherine just sighed, preferring to remain silent about her own opinion. –Don’t jump into conclusions about things you don’t know. –Still, if it was true that Jazz had improved her social skills greatly after everything that transpired in Rustport and she was doing much better at getting along with humans (more than with digimons) the bunny seemed to clearly have acquired a liking for Amelie pretty easily, which on one side was great and on the other made the tamer a little bit jealous.

-It… it was no big deal. –Katherine had started to realize she didn’t handle the praising all too well when it came from people she actually liked; it had happened a couple of times already since she had arrived the Digital World. The girl then closely listened to Amelie’s thoughts, putting all of her attention into them. Once her friend concluded, Katherine would start to tackle them one by one.

-About putting it on a wood plank… it’s something we can try but I doubt it will be necessary. –A shook of her head accompanied that sentence. –If I understand how this system works as I think I do, I can probably make this work outside of the water, so right now we should mainly focus on the strength of that shield. –Was she being cocky? Probably; was she also right? Probably, too. The suggestion of Amy about digivolving definitely seemed like the way to go. –That would be excellent. I don’t think we have that much time to wait for Liquid and as long as you’re good with it, I think we can try it with your evolved forms. That way we can also be sure we won’t hurt you. –A grin showed over the girl’s face.

Honestly, the rest of their problems regarding this matter seemed to be resolved if Amelie evolved. Nevertheless, based on her comments, maybe some other would arise.

-What do you mean… not family friendly? –Her lower lip wrinkling, Katherine just stared at the girl on the water. –Like in the way they act or in the way they look? As long as they are not dangerous to us or to you, we’re fine if they are ugly. –Putting that inquiry on the table, and if Amelie’s evolution were in fact not harmful to the group, then the only thing left was for her to do it!

Katherine could not deny for a second she was extremely curious about seeing a human become a digimon in front of her eyes.