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Lions and Dragons [Armor Hunt] [Leith]
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Jan 25, 2019 9:45:38 GMT
OOC: This thread takes place immediately after Final Obelisk, but the outcome of the thread has not yet been established, so Sophie and Lantis will not refer to details that happened.
Perhaps it was the feeling of the fresh, salty seabreeze blowing the heat of the day away, perhaps it was the fact that all the sound she could hear was the rushing of the waves, and perhaps this was the first time she had laid down without sleeping for nearly a year that made Sophie James realize she had been way overtime for a vacation.
Since founding AEGIS, Sophie thought she could handle it. Her grandmother handled the funding, her brother handled the muscle, while all she had to do was sit tight at the leader's desk and keep everything running. How quickly that all fell apart.
The shining dark obelisk haunted her nightmares for two nights afterward. Its appearance had ruined everything. AEGIS was proven an ultimate failure in its prevention, and the battle... it hurt too much to reminisce about, so she didn't. But... the fact that in the end, she as the leader of AEGIS had failed so miserably, that was the reason she was here.
Sophie had gathered no digimentals, dismissed reports of these "control spires" appearing in the digital world as being things of no consequence. Even though Colin and his partners helped to destroy one themselves. Then it appeared, and loomed over Sophie the entire time, made her feel that she had failed at being a chosen. Somehow she was made the partner of Lantis the Leomon, and what had she done since then? Sat down in the office of AEGIS HQ and said more orders than normal speech. Just... what the hell had she been thinking?!
Well, at least she was glad of one thing, that this avenue was open to her. Initially she had hesitated due to the fact that it would appear that she was shirking her duties as the leader of AEGIS, but, when Colin and his partners appeared afterward and helped settle things down, that was what made her decide. She was of no more use on that world for the time being. So she would recover on this world.
Thus, there Sophie was, resting on a quiet beach on the Binary Archipelago. Their first choice had been Whitewater, but, it was too busy to keep her mind at rest, thus when they overheard a suggestion that there were hundreds of miles of quiet, relaxing beaches in this area, they promptly moved there. Sophie hired a small villa, and there, she and her partner Lantis stayed.
She didn't completely shirk her duties, she would often send messages to her brother and to Enkidu through her D-Terminal, but, for the moment, she just wanted to find her feet again.
The first night was full of alcohol. Sophie learned her lesson from that and asked Lantis to remove all remaining liquor in the villa and replace it with liquids that wouldn't destroy her brain. He did so, and things got better from there.
Thus, this was their third day on break. Sophie was resting on the beachfront, dressed in a beach blouse, loose fitting trousers, sunglasses and a straw hat, resting on a towel. Lantis was resting beside her on another towel, the Leomon dressed in nothing but a pair of dark indigo jeans with a hole for his tail, his sword scabbard and the usual red feathered charm he wore over his shoulders.
As they laid there, they'd reminisce about their relationship, how Sophie first learned about digimon by Luke and Bellamy turning off their holosuits, then yearning to going to the digital world herself, meeting Lantis in Shibuya Station after the Spadamon of the Terminus City Watch ended up on the wrong train and getting lost. There they met, and from there, they bonded.
Sophie smiled as she remembered those days. When Lantis evolved to Leomon and stayed that way, making Bellamy jealous; making it much easier for him to pick a suitable holosuit, his formidable presence when she revealed him to her parents probably making it more likely for them to accept him.
Where had those days gone? The existence of AEGIS had consumed Sophie somehow. Was that where she failed?
Lantis meanwhile was laying on the beach thinking of how far they had come regardless. He was a digimon capable of evolving to Mega. And yet... to his ultimate regret, he had neglected to search for Armor digimentals. That was why he was so useless that night in Scramble Crossing. As BanchoLeomon he could have despatched the Control Spire, Sanzomon and Gokuwmon in an instant, but he could to nothing than be Spadamon in that moment. He had felt useless, pointless, a joke.
Only thinking of Leith made him feel better. That cute human that was his boyfriend. It had all felt so surreal at first when they first bonded. And it had been difficult to be sure. But, following that, both of them had got used to each other's comfort zones and respected them. It felt so much more better when Sophie said she was okay with their relationship. If only there had been a threat to fight, Lantis thought he was thrilled enough to evolve to Super Mega there and then.
And thus, here Sophie and Lantis were, resting on a beach outside a villa on the Binary Archipelago, mulling over their decisions, adventures and plans and wondering where to go from here.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jan 25, 2019 23:27:06 GMT
"Lantis? Sophie? You in there?" The third time knocking was no more effective than the first or second, even despite that the third try involved louder knocks due to a harder punch, not out of annoyance but just to make sure he was making himself heard through the sizeable villa. Jesus. I'm not even sure the Pillar has suites this spacious. Leith was very impressed, though a luxury retreat wasn't really Leith's reason to be there. That was just the setting Lantis and his human had apparently chosen (not that he was about go and complain.
"Maybe they're just not home," ExVeemon calmly speculated.
"Well I told him we were coming." Lantis had seemed upset in Tamernet communiques, upset enough that Leith wanted to come see him. Of course, the easiest and cheapest way to get there was by dragonback, which is why ExVeemon was also there. As for Shoutmon, he was silent but present. He didn't much care to be left at the Pillar without the other two, even if the rest of ASCENSION could have been company. "Is this the right place? I don't think we should just go in." Just to check again, Leith pulled up Tamernet and, specifically, and his message history. There he found the problem. "...Oh. I don't think I hit send last night. Whoops."
ExVeemon took this in stride. "I'm sure he'll be happy to see us anyway!"
"Definitely you, at least." Perhaps Shoutmon didn't really deserve the cocky smirk he was wearing, but the drake still was rather proud of himself for getting those two matches made. "'Ey, lucky you two, gettin' with a couple o' rich guys!"
"Thanks, but that's not gonna happen if he's not here."
ExVeemon shrugged and looked around a little. It seemed the back of the villa led out to a sandy beach. "Maybe they're back there."
"I don't know if we can just go around if this isn't the right place."
"Let me look." Leith covered his face from the wind of ExVeemon flapping his wings to take off, trying to spare his hair from it and doing a poor job. At ExVeemon's viewing altitude, it was possible that Sophie and Lantis could have turned and saw him because he was able to see them from up high as well. From up on high, ExVeemon gave Leith a thumbs up with his very large thumbs before calling down to the pair, "Lantis! Hi there!"
It took Shoutmon and Leith a bit longer to circle around and come into view. When they did, it became easy to see that Leith still hadn't changed his hairstyle, though the young man was rather struggling to get it to hang neatly after that wingbeat had gone and displaced it all. He did, however, change his wardrobe... slightly. His shirt, rather than black in this hot region, was a sort of brighter aqua, though it did still have a pattern of blue skulls all over it. Of course, he wasn't willing to abandon black altogether either. His swim trunks were a black camouflage pattern, and his open-toed flip flops were also black. As for the rest of the team, they looked about like they usually did.
"Hi! Lantis, sorry I didn't say anything about coming. I kinda... forgot. Is that OK?" As the young man got closer, it was only then he spotted Sophie's smaller frame over Lantis' larger one. "Oh! Hey there. I don't think we met. I'm Leith, and that's Shoutmon and ExVeemon. No special names." ExVeemon landed gently with the rest of the group, though his mass did disturb a little sand in the process. "I met your brother a few times." As Leith held out his hand politely, it dawned on him how stupid it was to claim knowing Colin as his closest connection to Sophie. He just suddenly felt nervous about meeting her for the first time, and his head sort of... failed. To him it felt close to meeting the boyfriend's parents, only the opinion of parents mattered less.
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Jan 31, 2019 12:27:01 GMT
Lantis was the first to look up as he heard others approaching. He had a good feeling he knew who it was, as Sophie had only let a few others know where they were currently. To his delight, it was the person he had wanted to see the most. "Ah, Sophie, it's Leith" he told his tamer.
Sophie sat up too, raising her sunglasses so she could see properly. He was as Lantis had described, long brown hair, glasses, was about the same age as she was. "Hi there" she said, then Lantis stood up, brushed some sand off his jeans, then smiled gently as they approached. Sophie stood up too, accepting the handshake. "Nice to meet you at last" she said this with a smile. "Lan's told me a lot about you. You're a musician I hear?" Lantis was somewhat delighted that introducing Sophie to Leith seemed to be going okay so far.
Sophie meanwhile had always been curious to see Lantis's boyfriend in person. It had honestly been something of a curiosity of hers. Not in a disapproving way, just more like... fascinated. Of course, Lantis was an adult and could fall in love with whoever he wanted, And, she had to admit, her partner wasn't bad in the looks department, even though he was a digimon. But still, if this was what he wanted, then she would be fine with it.
Lantis chuckled as Leith apologized for not coming earlier or notifying them. "That's okay, Leith. I know things are pretty hectic lately". The events of Scramble Crossing would not be recounted here though.
Lantis meanwhile would walk up to Leith, offering him a gentle hug, bending down a little so Leith didn't have to lean up too high. Afterward he'd say "So what have you guys been up to lately?" he asked, his tail flicking a little happily now that they were here.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Feb 1, 2019 0:34:11 GMT
"Yeah. All of us are in a band together, actually. ExVeemon there's even learning bass. Also he's dating your brother's digimon. Also, he's dating your brother's digimon's brother by extension." Leith wasn't sure if this dry sort of humor was endearing him to Sophie, but it at least calmed his own nerves a bit.
"Hectic is one way of putting it, Mufasamon..."
"Cion's got us busy raising money for her utopia, not to mention the band is actually making a living now. Well, it was either raising money or building it ourselves, and physical labor ain't my thing." It seemed Leith didn't get what Lantis was really referring to. None of them did. They didn't know, at least not yet. So, blissful in ignorance, Leith was grateful that the giant lion bent down to make a hug a more realistic possibility. The strength of the Leomon's arms was never forgettable even if he was being gentle with his human, but it wasn't out of fear that Leith kept that thought in his mind. Quite the opposite.
ExVeemon crouched, too, though his reason was so he wasn't too high over everyone else to be part of the conversation. "It's been pretty normal, though. Just living, y'know? Sometimes it feels weird for Tamer digimon to live such a boring existence, I gotta say." ExVeemon chuckled to show that wasn't in a negative spirit.
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Feb 3, 2019 12:18:20 GMT
Sophie chuckled at what Leith said. Lantis was somewhat relieved at this. He had a feeling that he knew Sophie well enough that she'd enjoy Leith's brand of humour, and was delighted to be proven right. "Well then, I'm sure we'll be meeting at quite a few family reunions then" she said. "Although... yeah, best leave a few of my uncles and aunts out" she rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Is this the family back home in Omaha, Sophie?" Lantis asked, curiously.
"Yeah... the less spoke about them the better though" Sophie said in a way that made it clear she didn't want to ruin this by talking about them.
Lantis then chortled at being called 'Mufasamon'. "Heh, you're just a delight aren't you?" he asked Shoutmon, smiling. He didn't mean that in a negative way, just he liked how blunt he was.
Sophie and Lantis then listened to Leith as to what he had been up to lately. "Ah, Cion, I've heard of her..." Lantis remarked. "Colin and his partners have had more contact with her than I have, but she seems quite nice. If you're working with her, I'm okay with that" he felt the need to say.
After Lantis and Leith exchanged hugs, they listened to ExVeemon. Sophie felt a little jolt inside as she searched her thoughts on this. Sure... the life of a tamer could be fairly basic, so basic that she felt she had spent the past few months doing nothing but prancing about AEGIS headquarters finding ways that she could delude herself into thinking she was important when in reality that was not the case. Yes, she had the connections to make AEGIS happen, but, she had been made so frightened by the failures of DATS before her that in reality they had achieved very little in their mission. And the ultimate failure of that... because she had spent so much time prancing and so little time preparing themselves for the disaster that occurred... she let out a sigh of frustration at herself.
Eventually, she felt the need to speak. "In building up AEGIS, I thought I was doing all the right things to make Lan able to meet any challenge that came his way..." she began. "But... turns out something happened that just smashed all that to pieces. Basically... long story short, because we had no armor levels, we could do nothing to help the situation that we faced a few days ago. So... Leith, do you know anything about armor levels?" she would ask, hoping for an affirmative answer. "My brother has armor levels, yet, because I was so caught up with AEGIS, I never went through what he went through, so... I just want to ask, what's the steps involved?"
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Feb 3, 2019 16:37:40 GMT
"Believe me, Sophie: I know a thing or two about shitty family." Maybe there was a time when Leith waited for the other one to initiate profanity before responding in kind quite liberally, but that was a time long past, long before so many things happened. So Lantis liked Shoutmon's inconsiderate nicknames? Well, that sure was a nice change of pace. It wasn't all happy and smiles, though; Leith thought that Sophie was just letting slip what he thought was making Lantis upset enough to draw him here in the first place. But Lantis didn't tell him anything more specific, and Leith supposed that if he actually wanted to, he could have.
"Control spires are dangerous," ExVeemon agreed, "We would know."
"We had to knock one down once. I mean, most of us did."
"It ain't my fault I didn't exist!"
"So those things are still popping up?" Leith's lips pursed. Apparently he didn't much like the thought either. "Armor levels are... uh..." This was new. Leith thought that Lantis, and therefore Sophie by extension, was at least as knowledgeable and experience as himself. The fact that he knew something they didn't took him a little by surprise. Maybe he was getting somewhere after all? "Well you can't even talk about armor digivolution unless you have one of these." With a couple button pushes on his digivice, Leith summoned four ankle-high vaguely egg-shaped objects in front of himself: a red flame-pattern one with a spike sticking out, a black one with a different spike sticking out, a blue one covered in transluscent needles like a sea urchin, and a warm, orange sphere without any sharp points. Only when it was before his eyes did Leith need a moment to realize what a collection he had. "Wow..." But he didn't stay unfocused for too long.
"We found this one - the digimental of friendship - when someone had the bright idea to run inside an old desert temple that wanted to put us through some uncannily deadly trials. Still pissed about that, by the way." ExVeemon showed no guilt. "This one is courage. It appeared to us when a mega level Whamon dared us to attack it, and, well... we did." Leith swallowed. "If that had gone worse, that one would be on me. This one is the digimental of peace." Leith very tenderly picked up the needle-covered one. "This one just appeared out of nowhere once ExVee and Shoutmon resolved their initial sibling rivalry."
"Don't call it that!" both digimon objected simultaneously.
"'Jealousy issues?'"
"Forget it!"
"OK, OK. And that last one is the digimental of fury. We actually kinda intentionally engineered this one. We intentionally got Shoutmon angry as he could get, and it worked... unfortunately." Leith sighed. "If you don't have one... I'm not sure how to help you. I don't know where they come from or how they decide who gets which, or even if some people get none. They're like the digivices themselves. But I do know that if you've got one, and you do this-" Leith replaced the egg of peace with the egg of courage. "Digi-armor, energize."
A red light shone on ExVeemon from the digivice and wrapped him in a sort of spherical cocoon... that got set on fire. This was definitely not the typical digivolution process. The cocoon began to contract, shrink, until the creature standing where the great dragon had been was only a bit over six feet tall (or had to be, given the size of the cocoon). When the fire finally burned itself out, the light returned to Leith's digivice. There was left standing Flamedramon. "And that's how that works."
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Feb 16, 2019 9:25:43 GMT
Bad family too, huh? Sophie knew well enough to leave that question alone. While she was of course curious, she didn't really want her first meeting with her partner's boyfriend to have something as bitter as that lingering.
In truth, once her mother's parents had died, Sophie really didn't care for any of her remaining family left in the US. She thought it was with some irony that both Grandpa Luke and her brother's partner shared the same name. At first she thought it was a sign that the old man had returned to look after them, but, that was just silly. Grandpa Luke loved his wife, Grandma Liza. And Luke the Elecmon loved... yeah, ExVeemon looked nothing like her, so that clinched it she supposed.
Brought back to the current conversation, Sophie nodded at the term. "Control Spires, yes..." she said. She then glanced up with curiosity as ExVeemon said they had encountered them. "You did? So that must mean..." the gears clicked into place. Maybe Leith and his partners could help them after all? Privately, Sophie squee'd internally at the choice of boyfriend that her partner had made, yet her facial expression didn't change.
"They are, sadly" Sophie admitted, but no more than that. She didn't want to recount that evening.
Following that, Sophie and Lantis stared as Leith revealed the nature of Armor Digivolution. Four strange objects were shown in front of them; each of them baring a different crest. "I see, that makes sense with the stories I've heard" Lantis remarked.
"Friendship, Courage, Peace, Fury..." Sophie repeated softly. "Right... so a tamer has to prove themselves worthy to obtain such an artifact".
Lantis meanwhile couldn't help but snicker a little at the mention and proof of sibling rivalry. In that way they reminded him of Luke and Bellamy, even if his brothers-in-partnership were a little more chill than that. But he smiled at Leith all the same, glad he was helping them out in this way.
Then Leith went as far as demonstrating armor digivolution to them. Both he and Sophie stood back a bit from seeing this unorthodox method of evolution, and before long, they were looking upon ExVeemon's Armor Ultimate level.
"Whoa... amazing" Sophie remarked. "So that's the kind of evolution that control spires can't prevent..." she wanted to know more.
"The location of these digimentals, how did you find them?" she asked Leith eagerly, then realized she was probably being a bit too forceful. "Ah... sorry, got a little carried away there, but... is there a method to locating them?" she then mulled over the last bit, how they obtained the Digimental of Fury. "You... intentionally engineered a digimental? How did you manage it?"
Lantis was glad this talk had got Sophie out of her funk. He even had an idea. "Sophie, can you take out your D-Terminal?" he asked. Sophie consented, then held it up.
"Is there a way to use this that can be used to locate them?" Sophie asked. "I'm sorry for laying all this down on you so much when we just met, but... I think what you've said can help our situation" she explained.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Feb 17, 2019 4:36:54 GMT
"Demonstrating the trait seems to be the running theme, at least," Leith confirmed in answer to Sophie's hypothesis.
Flamedramon had seen once before someone admiring his evolution into that form as it happened, only that boy was admiring Flamedramon for just a little more than the process. Flamedramon's reaction, for that reason, was, "...I have a boyfriend," but his chuckle made clear he was just joking around.
"The long answer to how we found them is different for each one, but respectively the short answers are 'pure chance,' 'pure chance,' 'pure chance,' and 'an educated guess.'" That last one Leith explained since it was also the one Sophie asked specifically about. "Well, there are a lot of traits that digimon might be able to earn an egg with, but most of them seem to be purely good traits. As you can imagine, we had some trouble figuring out what good traits might apply to Shoutmon."
"Bite me."
"Good example." Shoutmon rolled his eyes. "But I heard from a friend who heard from a friend of a friend of a friend... you get it. It's the digital world. Rumors travel. Anyway, there was a digimental for fury. Well, that seemed too perfect, so we pushed and pushed and pushed until... well..." Leith lifted his shirt just enough show some of his right side. It looked completely normal, but he explained, "Our friend Cion patched up a nasty burn that used to be there. I wasn't thrilled with the perpetrator at the time, but I got over it. But the truth is I think you don't really choose your digimental. It chooses you, like-" Leith raised his wrist digivice to his own eye level. "Well, like these things."
The young man furrowed his eyebrows as he considered the possibility of a D-Terminal tracker. "I wanna help, but I think the best answer I can give you is 'probably.' The egg of Courage looked like a little red dot on GPS tracker when it called to me - a phrase I might actually be getting used to saying, funny enough. Didn't show me a map so much as, like, just where Raidramon and I were in relation to it."
"Man, I missed all the fun!"
"Count yourself lucky, Shoutmon," Flamedramon teased, "Remember what he did when he first met me?"
"Can we not let that go?"
"I don't know, Leith. It was pretty dark."
Leith shoved off the taller drake but not hard enough to send him going anywhere. That was by intention. Each knew that the other was just teasing. "But, uh - on topic. All I can tell you is if you put yourselves in a position to earn it, it'll come. You're a couple of hardworking, diligent people, though. Knowing you-" Leith said to Lantis, "-and having heard about you-" he referred to Sophie, "it's probably both inevitable and soon."
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Feb 27, 2019 20:47:54 GMT
Speaking more to Leith, Sophie was beginning to understand how Lantis liked him so much. He was very logical and intelligent. She was beginning to think that this arrangement would work out well for all of them.
After Flamedramon demonstrated his evolution, Lantis quickly chuckled. "Heh, yep, so I've heard. Luke's a lucky mon. Still, I prefer Leith, no offense, just I like the fur he has..."
"Lan, we prefer to call it "hair"" Sophie whispered a little urgently. But still, Lantis didn't mind, he knew the distinction.
Next, Sophie and Lantis listened to what Leith had to say on the subject. So, luck was an element. "Also actually being in the digital world probably helped too" she remarked, with a tone of self-depreciation. But ah, the traits, that was a tough thing. Especially given her current state, she couldn't really think what traits applied to them. Complacency perhaps? Arrogance?
When Leith revealed he had been injured as a result of that "experiment", Lantis gasped and immediately rushed to him. "You got burned?! Oh my god, is-" he saw that it was fine then relaxed a little. When Sophie realized that all was in fact fine, she smiled, it was obvious that her partner cared deeply for this guy.
Sophie and Lantis were both genuinely flattered by the compliments Leith gave them. In fact Lantis would give him another cuddle if he wanted, purring as he did so. Sophie meanwhile mulled over what was said.
"So, a tracker...?" Sophie asked. Out of curiosity, she took out her D-Terminal, trying out the different modes. One involved just a simple dot on the screen, only this time, for the first time in her arrival to the digital world, she saw a second dot on it. "A dot on the screen... like this?" Sophie asked, showing it to Leith.
"That means..." Lantis looked out to sea, peering at the islands in the distance. "Could that mean that there's a digimental nearby?"
"If there is, we ought to at least check it out" Sophie said, rubbing her chin. "But we should probably get changed first..." she turned to Leith. "Would you like to come with us? Either way, feel free to follow us to the villa, we've got food and drink there and you and your partners are welcome to stay a while".
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Mar 3, 2019 4:01:55 GMT
“It’s called hair, Lan,” Leith accidentally, coincidentally corrected the lion at the same time as Sophie. He had to smile and laugh a little about their good timing and similar thinking. What a relief! Leith didn’t underestimate the significance of the Tamer’s approval; if a partner doesn’t like the boyfriend, the boyfriend goes, so the young man, thought. A romantic bond no matter how strong was still harder to break than a partner bond. But Sophie liked him! He liked her, too, frankly. She seemed like a real down-to-earth person who was one of those rare Tamers actually in his age group. “I don’t know if it’s impossible for digimentals to appear in the real world, but I’ve never heard about it.”
Lantis’ concern for Leith was heartwarming but a few weeks late. God, he sure wished Lantis had been there at the time, though. Or maybe not, he second guessed himself, I’m not sure Royland would have survived.
Leith couldn’t well reject a little more attention from his kitten, now could he? In this loose, casual atmosphere he didn’t have a problem taking that cuddle or giving it right back. But the atmosphere didn’t stay so casual for too long, not after Sophie went and showed Leith her digivice screen. Shoutmon didn’t get it at first, but both Leith and Flamedramon recognized the display. “That’s what we saw!” the drake confirmed.
”Sophie, that’s- whoa. Guys?” Leith looked to both his partners, not needing to ask them his question out loud.
Flamedramon inclined his head in a way that suggested he deferred to Leith. Shoutmon asked, “We gotta, right?” Like Leith’s silent question was dumb and unnecessary.
”Then we’ll come. I don’t know how we can help, but we’ll give it a shot. You guys rested? Anyone hungry? I’m good myself.” Neither digimon answered affirmatively. “Alright, we’ll follow you inside and wherever that thing leads, but I’d advise you to change fast. For all we know that little dot’s gonna disappear in ten minutes.”
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Mar 7, 2019 7:15:51 GMT
Sophie and Lantis noted that Leith spoke at the same time as Sophie, and the two of them giggled. Lantis was delighted, another sign that they would get along nicely. As they calmed down, Sophie took his words with a nod. "I see, makes sense. Not impossible of course, I mean, digivices and digimon eggs seem to show up regularly on Earth". So many new tamer-digimon partnerships being formed as well.
As Lantis hugged Leith again, the moment was soon changed when Sophie revealed what was on her screen. It seemed this was the real deal, and that they should hurry. "Right, of course" Sophie said, and she and Lantis made a brisk pace up to their villa. On the way, Sophie keyed a message to one of her trusted companions, bidding him to come at once. While he was within Terminus City, he could arrive within minutes if he accepted.
The villa was an elegant one - courtesy of the social network her brother Colin had made in his days as a member of PROFIT. The rent was acceptable and the privacy most welcome.
"We'll be right back. Make yourselves at home and pick what you want from the fridge and pantry" Sophie told their guests. Then she and Lantis went upstairs to change. Sophie put on a black tank top, khaki cargo pants, a black jacket with pockets, and brown boots, while Lantis changed his jeans for his usual black leather combat trousers, complete with sheath for his sword.
To Sophie's delight, once she was dressed, she received a response, and Enkidu was alert and ready. In her room, Sophie raised her digivice and opened the digiport. Seconds later, a black and white dog digimon emerged from the portal that lingered. He nodded up at Sophie.
"Ready to help you out, ma'am" he said, giving a salute. Sophie smiled and saluted in response, then the three of them moved downstairs to where Leith and his partners were.
"Leith, Flamedramon, Shoutmon, this is our mercenary, Enkidu" Sophie introduced them quickly. "He'll be here for additional support. Now then... since our target is across the sea... I suppose we should plan how we mean to get there". Lantis could fly in his higher forms, that was true. But there might be a little trouble getting all of them across. Lantis probably couldn't carry Sophie, Leith, Flamedramon, Shoutmon and Enkidu all together.
"Should ask first, do any of you have any forms that can transport us across water?" Lantis asked, taking the initiative, posing this question to Flamedramon and Shoutmon.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Mar 7, 2019 22:54:24 GMT
Leith and co all followed Sophie and Lantis inside, but they didn't all pig out. Living off what the trio earned for a good long while taught Flamedramon a bit of respect for that, so all he took was a little string cheese - just a snack to stay powered up and ready for anything. Leith didn't even take anything, being both too polite in his own mind to take food that wasn't made or bought for him and too genuinely full to bother. As for Shoutmon... he was neither of those things. Shoutmon pigging out gave Leith enough time to slip a pair of thin black gloves without fingertips from his Infinity-store. These were for grip, protection from friction burn, and comfort as well. Why? Because he was anticipating riding 'monback.
"Why can't Cion buy us one of these places, huh?"
"What, a luxury suite in a literal ivory tower ain't good enough for you?"
"What else can I get?"
"You're incorrigible."
Later, Sophie and Lantis would both reemerge from their respective rooms... with more company. At least the trio didn't have to wonder long or hard about who or how; he was just hired help. Hey, muscle was muscle. But he was also another spot on somebody's back as far as Leith and group knew, so that was a problem that had to be solved. Lantis had a suggestion, though, to which Flamedramon's response was, "Yeah, both of us. Plesiomon and MegaSeadramon for water, ExVeemon and Sonoramon for air."
"What about mega?" Shoutmon asked a bit too eagerly.
"No." Leith shut that down almost before Shoutmon could finish suggesting it. "That's emergencies only, full stop. It's gotta be. Don't go getting trigger-happy, Shout. Got that?" Leith was coming down on Shoutmon a lot harder than a mere rejection of a suggestion; he was scolding Shoutmon just for coming up with it. "Anyway. Sonoramon and ExVeemon can each carry two at the max, or MegaSeadramon and Plesiomon could probably manage four. Either way, we can get ourselves and you wherever we gotta be. It's just a question of whether you're more afraid of heights or water."
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Mar 9, 2019 10:26:31 GMT
Sophie was glad to hear that they had options of transport over the water. Lantis was about to suggest the bigger digimon when Shoutmon suggested Mega, which made Leith make an angry reaction. Sophie and Lantis stared for a moment. In fact, Lantis almost made a motion to approach Leith to ask what was wrong, then stopped himself, thinking better of it. Best not ask something like that, not in front of others. However, when they were alone, it was something he might ask of him, just so he'd know his boyfriend's troubles and comfort him if needed.
Enkidu was curious too, but also said nothing. In his experiences in the digital world, a reaction like that usually meant that evolving to a certain form was dangerous. But of course that sort of thought was best not dwelled upon.
Deciding the best option was probably to disregard all that, Lantis made his original suggestion. "Perhaps Plesiomon and MegaSeadramon would do? I understand I may be a little heavy to ride on a flying digimon's back, but I'm not that heavy to make a swimming digimon sink".
"Well, that's all fine with me, I don't mind a bit of water" Sophie agreed. She wasn't like Bellamy after all. Enkidu wasn't either, so he raised no objections.
"Alright, so it seems that we'll travel out there via sea" Lantis concluded, making sure his sword belt was secure. "Are we all ready to move out?"
"Uh, what is it we're actually doing?" Enkidu asked, a little unsurely. Sophie realized she hadn't told him, then supposed she'd make something of a formal briefing.
"Okay. So the situation is this. A signal appeared in my D-Terminal that Leith and his partners confirmed to be the signal of a digimental, presumably linked to us. That signal is coming from an island off the archipelago. So our current mission is to travel across the sea and investigate".
"Cool, makes sense" Enkidu said, smiling. "Alright, let's do this" the BlackGaomon punched his fists together with bravado.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Mar 11, 2019 0:34:16 GMT
Well this 'Enkidu' didn't lack a work ethic, that was for sure. The lazy young man thought for a moment that he could learn something from that, though only if it didn't lead to danger and despair like usual. In any case, he still had to do his part to help someone close to him out of moral obligation if nothing else, and that attitude led him to gesture the other trio to follow his own back to the beach. "You guys good?" he asked his own pair of digimon, which was met with a pair of nods. "Alright, let's do this," he rather casually declared as he raised his digivice. As he did, the screen glowed bright white. "Flamedramon, digivolve to..." The same red light that came from Leith's digivice for armor evolution instead withdrew back from Flamedramon into the device once again. Like the digivice screen, Flamedramon himself glowed bright white. During this time his body began to grow and morph into something much thicker, taller, wider - bigger in all ways, just about. Even the arms and legs grew, but they also changed shape into aquatic flippers, not terrestrial limbs. This was a gigantic aquatic dinosaur. Once the transformation was complete, the light went away. "...Plesiomon!"
At the same time, Shoutmon went through a very similar transformation. "Shoutmon, warp digivolve to..." The only difference between the pair was the end result: instead of a gargantuan plesiosaur, this was a great, nimble serpent. "...MegaSeadramon!" As for their Tamer, he knew full well who he wanted to ride. After slipping his shoes into his Infiniti-store, he stepped across the sand to hop on Plesiomon, aided by the blue digimon himself using his neck to help lift Leith up there, where he sat between a pair of spines at the base of the neck and held on to the one in front of him. Why Plesiomon? Because he knew Plesiomon would put more effort into being a gentle ride than the red digimon would. "Alright, digimon riding crash course! For both these guys it's basically the same: just grip with your calves and knees and hang on to the spine or fin in front of you. Sit as far forward as possible. If you're on MegaSeadramon, you're gonna have to deal with the fact that his body wiggles around a lot to swim, no getting over it."
"Believe me, we've tried," the serpent groaned.
Plesiomon and MegaSeadramon would both offer help onto their own backs by staying down flat as they could and using their neck or tail for whoever couldn't get up by themselves. At that point, after making sure everyone was comfortable, including the mounts, both water digimon would shuffle forward into the sea, transition from shuffling to swimming, and get the journey underway. At that point Plesiomon would ask of Sophie, "Sophie, we'll follow you. Tell us where to go!" Leith checked his own digivice out of curiosity to see if he could lead the group himself, but his screen was just blank besides all of the allies around. It seemed the machine refused to direct him.
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Post by Sophie & Lantis on Mar 18, 2019 3:08:51 GMT
Sophie and Lantis watched with impressed expressions as both Flamedramon and Shoutmon evolved to their giant water dragon forms. Seeing them in front of her, Sophie was rather impressed. "Well, riding giant sea digimon wasn't exactly on my list of things I've always wanted, but, now that we're about to do that anyway I'm okay with it" she remarked.
Who would ride on whom though? Plesiomon seemed like the easier ride, but Sophie didn't want to prevent Lantis being with Leith if he wanted. But the lion digimon made the decision for her by offering to help her on Plesiomon's back.
"He can handle us both I think" Lantis said, also getting up on Plesiomon behind Sophie. Enkidu meanwhile made his way onto MegaSeadramon's back, seemingly not minding the extra challenge.
It was an interesting experience for Sophie. The only other time she had ridden another creature like this was riding horses in middle school, and even then that was with a saddle. This could get a little tiring, so she was glad that Lantis was there for support.
Once they were off the shore, Sophie took out her D-Terminal and examined the radar. "Plesiomon, could you turn left a little?" she asked the seagoing digimon. Once he had done so, she would wait until the dot on her screen was dead ahead, then looked up. "Okay, head straight out to that island there, thanks" she instructed, pointing to a large island about seven miles away, covered with trees and a large hill, not quite a mountain, but probably volcanic in origin. Hopefully it was dormant.
For Enkidu it was a little rough riding to begin with, he almost fell off a couple of times, but managed to hold himself steady and eventually keep balance in rhythm to MegaSeadramon's method of swimming.
As the journey went on, Sophie became a little nervous about the trials that were to come. Would she succeed? Well, she was determined to, but, still, this was her first real adventure in the digital world, and there was always that first time anxiety to get over.
Lantis seemed to notice that, so he made a suggestion when they were halfway there. "Sophie, if you wouldn't mind, could you evolve me to Ultimate too? I think I'd like to do some aerial recon of the island, just to make sure we're not going in blind"
"Ah, right, of course" Sophie said, putting her D-Terminal away and instead took out her digivice. She was so strung up that mustering the mental energy to evolve him came quickly. Lantis would then evolve on the spot on Plesiomon's back.
"Leomon digivolve to... GrapLeomon!"
At once, Lantis's outfit became a mechanized battle suit, with turbines on his ankles and wrists, his canine teeth extending to the length of daggers, and his fur changing color slightly from tawny brown to a golden yellow. As the light of the evolution faded, he stood up on Plesiomon's back, made his turbines spin, then leapt into the air, catching the wind current, flying over toward the island to look at what awaited them from above.
There wasn't exactly much to see as he flew higher and higher. The trees covered almost everything, but, when he looked more carefully, he could swear he saw a clearing or two. And in one of those clearings... he smelled something that gave him a bad feeling. Nothing too obvious, but, just a sense of foreboding, that something was not right here.
Lantis would continue scouting around until Plesiomon, MegaSeadramon, Leith, Sophie and Enkidu landed on the white sandy shore. He too landed nearby, approaching.
"I've spotted something that looks like a village nearby..." he began, pointing into the woods. "But we'd best keep our guard up, I don't like how it feels".
Sophie looked at her radar again, and saw that it was directing them in the same direction. "Well, looks like we're heading that way anyway" she grimaced, but, with 3 Ultimate level digimon and 1 capable of evolving to at least Champion on their side, she hoped it'd be within their power to defend themselves.
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