Bleached White [A Rank]

The head pat from Skadi would draw a soft, surprised sound out of Fiora; her antennae briefly stiffening, before they started to sway in a bit more relaxed fashion. "I, uh, get fascinated with artifacts rather easily..." She'd sheepishly admit; scratching her cheek with a claw. "Anything strange or unknown catches my eye, honestly; but... Artifacts are especially fascinating to me."

It sounded as though everyone had an idea of what they were going to do, though; Fiora would stick with the humans on their GrandLocomon - Ilbert - while Valt played distraction and bodyguard, and while Skadi and Anzu scouted the village. Once things were cleared out, the humans would meet back up with their respective partners, and they could go from there... Fiora would nod her agreement to everyone's plan; taking the time to close down her laptop, and put it in her Infini-Store. "That sounds good to me; I'll, uhm... I'll be close behind, then!"

"As the clearing forms a ring around the village, hmm... You'll probably find it best to conceal yourselves, as soon as you - well - move beyond the treeline." She'd advise Anzu and Skadi as she packed the laptop up. "It'll minimize the chances of either of you being spotted right away, especially as you cross the open space towards the village. Be wary of any Bleached Digimon who might have keen hearing or smell, too."

With that, though... Fiora would set off down the road; towards the village in question. "It's a bit of a walk - I wanted to make sure we could rendezvous without any interruptions - but the village is right this way."

If there was anything Skadi didn't want to do today, it was to worry or let down her senpai. She turned up to Valt lightly disciplining her, and she nodded, "I understand, Valt. To be honest, I just wanted to reassure you guys that I won't be dead weight here, considering, you know..." Her voice lightly trailed off as she rubbed her arm, while Kenny reassuringly pet her on the head with a smile. It was a legitimate worry Skadi had haunting her inside, and it wouldn't take a genius to know what she was on about.

Still, the little Valaismon, along with Kenny, looked up in awe as Valt quickly warped up into his UlforceVeedramon form, but they listened with intent about what Valt had to say. She wasn't just going to bum-rush into enemies headfirst, just generally play it safe for the time being, at least up until the chips were down. But a sense of worry entered Kenny's consciousness. There were potentially Megas running around, and Skadi could still only hit Ultimate. What if she...

No, no, when push came to shove, Skadi was a smart girl. She knew when to take risks when necessary. It wasn't like she was going to engage a feral one directly for shits and giggles. He had faith in his girl, and hopefully today, it would pay off for them in spades. The two nodded in agreement with Valt's idea. He was a strong fellow, after all.

With everything now set up and ready to go, and Fiora advising them on how to sneak around as she started to lead the group, a bright light enveloped Skadi as she quickly digivolved all the way to her SilverGrademon form, as they followed along with Akemi and Anzu. The innocuous looking, and fully in view, Geiserseele lightly dangled off her neck as they walked along.

All the while, Kenny whispered to himself, "Good luck, Skadi, I know you guys can do this."

As soon as they reached the edge of the clearing that surrounded the village, the plan would begin. Fiora would allow herself to be picked up; her limbs curling around Ryouta's arm for grip, apparently unused to being lifted. "Be ready for anything," She'd breathe to them, in one final piece of advice, before Ryouta would begin his countdown - three... two... one...

The next moments that followed would be a flurry of movement. Ryouta deployed Ilbert, while Valt's jets activated, only to be followed next by Ryouta - as well as the other humans, most likely - making a run for the Grand Locomon. Fiora would glance towards the other digimon - Skadi and Anzu - though quickly lost sight of them as she was brought into the train, and set down onto the carpet.

Then, would be the preparation for combat. Fiora would glance up to the hologram of a butler - though she did not recognize him to be an extension of Ilbert, she would quickly figure it out as Ryouta gave his orders. Outside, drones were released into the air, and Valt would bring up a veil over himself - all in preparation for the combat that was likely to come.

And with that...

... At first, there would only be silence.

A quiet, unnerving silence - the sort of quiet that one might experience in the tension before two beasts clashed, or in the anticipation of a jumpscare. The silence was almost unnatural, even; as though any bird or insect had been scared away from this place long ago...

... But, that quiet would not remain as such for long. Fiora moved to one of the windows; peering through it, towards the sky, with a certain degree of anxiety, until...

... "INCOMING..!"

Fiora's shout would be nearly drowned out by the screech of a mighty bird, as a large and silhouetted shape blotted out the sun that sat above them. Were Valt and Ilbert to look up as well, they would see as a sudden rain of razor-sharp white feathers would come down upon them both; cutting and embedding itself like darts into metal and flesh as if it were all the same. The drones' retaliatory fire upwards would hit their marks, but it didn't seem to phase the beast...



... as a massive white Hououmon would descend from the heavens. Its claws were outstretched to strike upon Valt in a basic dive attack with no fear - let alone any emotion at all - to be read in its blank eyes..!

"That..." Fiora breathed, shock visible in her tone and eyes. "That isn't a Garudamon..."

---

- As Valt and Ilbert prepare themselves... A Bleached Hououmon descends from above to engage them!
- Hououmon first uses Featherstorm on Ilbert and Valt both; before following up with a basic claw attack on Valt, diving down at him!
- The drone's retalitory fire hits its mark; but doesn't appear to phase it.

Move Used:
[ATTACK] Featherstorm: Hououmon flaps their wings; firing a barrage of feathers upon 1-3 enemies of their choice, damage dealt being equally split between all targets! [2 Turn Cooldown]

Passives Known:
? ? ?

Cooldowns:
Featherstorm: 0/2

With the group having reached the clearing, Kenny and Skadi looked over to Ryouta and Valt, ready to put the plan into action. And, right on cue, the moment the aforementioned GranLocomon appeared, Kenny quickly sprinted inside the giant train, nearly stumbling a bit as he got inside the literal and metaphorical monster train, his heart beating rapidly. With nothing else to do now, he just took a seat as quickly as he could, relaxing into his seat, and hoping things would come to pass, while Ryouta, Illbert Valt prepared themselves for the worst, summoning turrets to intercept whatever came to pass.

The giant loud cry of a Bleached Hououmon, however, followed by the whizzing of knife-like feathers, made Kenny's heart miss what felt like a beat too many. Despite the turrets hitting the Hououmon true, it seemed to merely shrug it off, like if it was nothing. All Kenny could do now, as the giant bird flew down towards Valt, claws first, was to pull out his D-Nexus and give the giant bird a scan.

---

As for Skadi, the moment she heard the loud caw coming from the Hououmon, she quickly proceeded to follow Anzu away from the ensuring kerfuffle. As much as she wanted to help Valt in the battle, she couldn't. She had a lot of faith in her master, that he and his partner-in-crime would be able to take down the giant bird careening towards the Holy Knight Digimon, as planned.

With the bean-turned-bloodhound seeking out shade to blend in, Skadi knew she had to hide away too. With a simple tap on Geiserseele's gem, the entirety of her body, cape and all, turned completely invisible in a split second, hopefully going unnoticed underneath the giant multi-winged chicken's beak.

All she had to do now was follow where Anzu would go. After all, KIZNA rules did dictate that teammates needed to stick together, right? Best thing to do now was to try and follow her and her shadow. If anything, hopefully, by virtue of being a bloodhound, the Sangloupmon would still be able to stick near Skadi with an enhanced sense of smell.

---

Kenny uses the Improved Scanner on Hououmon to check on it quickly while Valt and Illbert tangle with it.

Improved Scanner: An improved scanner that subtly displays a Digimon's combat information on your screen. If given a post to clearly scan a Digimon, you learn their name, attribute, type, and family, along with a quick description and two of their signature moves.

Skadi uses Geisterseele to turn herself invisible, following where Anzu goes to hopefully blend in and escape, all the while hoping that Hououmon doesn't spot them and try to tear them apart.

Geisterseele (Weak Artifact): A small gold necklace with a glowing red gem, adorned around a Digimon's neck. It allows the wearer to turn invisible outside of combat, great for hiding or camouflage. It can be used for as long as the user wants, but only outside of combat. It's not strong enough to be used inside of combat. If hit by an attack or if the user uses an attack themselves, the effect automatically wears off.
KIZNA. Crafted from [Professor's Chronometer] + [Soul Essence] + [Gold Cat]

As Valt dodged past the Hououmon's claws, the inertia of the dive would send the bird digimon into Ilbert instead; wings beating heavily as it would kick off of the train, to take flight once more. The damage from this maneuver was likely minimal - though the impact could probably still be felt by those within, in the mighty bird pushing off of Ilbert and the wind from its beating wings. Fiora would huddle a little closer to the other humans, with this- staring as the Hououmon's shadow would cast thru the windows as it moved.

The bird was swift; as the missiles chased it down, it would make a wide circle around the both of them in an attempt to try and out-fly it! However, it did not seem to expect Valt's Voltic Explosion; the lightning bolt from above striking the bird in its back! This would seem to upset the Hououmon's flight path enough for the missiles to glance against its side - sending it careening to the side, just enough to avoid the subsequent volley of shots.

Yet, even in appearing as though it were injured - scorch marks visible on its feathers, the dark distinct against the white - it did not react to its own pain. Instead, it would simply regain its balance; beating its wings to briefly hover in place, as its claws began to glow a bright white..!

The holy bird would pause for but a second - glancing between Ilbert and Valt, as though to decide who to strike at - before it would dive down at the GrandLocomon, diving in close to tear at him with its claws! Assuming the attack landed, it would only remain long enough to strike and attempt to tear away at the exterior metal, before taking flight once more - just in time to avoid the drones' fire.

Meanwhile, Kenny inside would be able to scan the Hououmon from inside Ilbert, though... It seemed as though the scanner was struggling to read its data; taking longer than it normally would've to actually display it. On top of this, when it was finally able to display the data, it would initially be... A bit strange.


The D-Nexus would begin to briefly hang upon being able to load this far - a high-pitched whine escaping it for a second that would make even Fiora wince, but... Briefly closing out of the scan, and then going back into it, seems to be enough to fix it and make the moves in question display correctly once more.


"That... was bizarre..." The wormmon would breathe softly in comment; peering up at Kenny and his D-Nexus. "Nothing, uhm, broke there - right?"

...

In any case, Skadi and Anzu would - for the time being - be able to escape the notice of the Hououmon, and they would not see any other signs of white digimon for the time being as they moved; the village itself looming just across the open expanse of the clearing that surrounded it. Assuming they recalled the given layout of the map that Fiora had marked out, they would have a small handful of options of places to investigate, including...

- The Mayor's House
- Residential Homes
- The Marketplace
- The Collapsed Mine Entrance

Where would they start, in their investigations?

---

- Hououmon takes glancing damage from the missiles, and full damage from Valt's Voltaic Explosion.
- It is able to dodge the follow-up turret fire from Ilbert
- In retaliation, Hououmon dives at Ilbert, and uses Pure Strike!
- Upon striking, the bird then backs away - dodging the drones' retaliatory fire as well.

Move Used:
[ATTACK] Pure Strike: Hououmon dives in close, and strikes at the foe with glowing talons! [1 Turn Cooldown]

Passives Known:
[PASSIVE] Bleached: This digimon has been cleansed of all flaws, and pardoned of all sin; every part of their body becoming bleached white, so as to signify this. They are immune to any effects that influence their mind or emotions, such as taunts, mind control, fear, and pacification; and attempts to read their minds or scan their data results in... Strange, though more confusing than anything, results.

Cooldowns:
Featherstorm: 1/2
Pure Strike: 0/1

Admittedly, it was kinda hard to watch the battle between Valt and the Hououmon from within the train, considering that their view was rather limited, but it was probably for the best. Besides, Ilbert had been tanking a lot of things that Hououmon was throwing at it and then some. And as Fiora huddled close to the fleshy humans, Kenny briefly wrapped his arms around the little Wormmon, stroking her head in an attempt to keep her calm.

But as the battle dragged on, something felt a little... off about the Mega Digimon's behaviour; how it looked like it was able to casually shrug off a powerful lighting bolt with relative ease, despite the nasty amount of damage Valt left on it. Kenny just hoped that his scan would bear even a little bit of fruit.

However, as he glanced at the screen, much to his surprise, it was starting to lag a little bit. He briefly raised an eyebrow at this, "What's taking this thing so lo-"

Almost like it just read his mind, the screen started to print that sweet, valuable information... then he felt his eyes widen as a series of 1's and 0's - binary, as he recognised it, started to flood the screen. And that wasn't even the craziest part. Instead of listing off the abilities the Mega had at first, it started to print out a weird message in what looked like chicken scratch about... being cleansed what?

Before he had time to comprehend it, the D-Nexus let out a horrid screeching noise around Ilbert's interior, nearing making Kenny drop his D-Nexus in shock, before he could reset it properly to see the real results. And boy, was there plenty of questions to ask as he silently read them to himself, frowning a little as he did.

"'Cleansed of all flaws'? 'Pardoned of all sin'? What kind of crazy cultist bullshit are we dealing with here?" He muttered to himself a little, before glancing over to the nervous Fiora. He reassuring stroke her head once more, "It's fine. Real question is, are you guys OK? Sorry about... whatever that was." Akemi was right. What the fuck were these things, indeed? This was just getting crazier by the minute.

---

In what felt like an absolute miracle to Skadi at least, she and Anzu had successfully escaped the attention of Hououmon. Her eyes constantly darted between the gradually disappearing battle between Valt and the pure white phoenix, Anzu and her shadow-y form, and the ground, making quiet steps and avoiding any twig, dry leaf, or whatever possible to prevent her from raising a decibel too many.

As soon as they hit the village, they were immediately greeted with a set of options, and thankfully not a Bleached in sight. She briefly stopped for a moment to figure out their options ahead as she took a moment to think. At least until Anzu piped in, suggesting to check the Mayor's home. Underneath her silver clad armour and invisible cloak, Skadi gave a small smile, and a little "Mm-hm."

With that out of the way, the two would set off together, Skadi's eyes still darting everywhere to ensure the coast was clear, and she could keep up with Anzu as well. Thank Yggdrasil this form provided amazing eyesight. For a scouting mission like this it practically felt like a Godsend; a necessity even. She reminded herself to stay calm, and play it safe.

As Valt came in close, the Hououmon would suddenly turn itself to face him with a beat of its wings; before bringing those aforementioned wings up, between the both of them! The feathers would begin to glow - and with this glow, Valt's slashes would seem to be rebelled by the holy beast's wings, blocked completely...!

This close up, it was likely that Valt would be able to notice that it was sluggishly bleeding, where the missiles had impacted; and yet... Even the liquid data that slowly dripped from its side didn't look normal; having an almost ethereal glow to it, and quickly evaporating into thin air as it dripped away from the Hououmon's body.

Yet, this close up would also mean that Valt was within range of the Hououmon's claws; beating its wings once more, the bird would attempt to grab him with a downward strike of its claws, and slam him into the ground in a basic attack...!

...

Fiora, meanwhile, would be able to hear Valt clearly enough - and thought to herself for a second, before she would respond. "... In the end, it's, well, your call; if this digimon proves to be too difficult to subdue and collar, killing it is our next best option. I, uhm, highly advise against loading it, however... We do not know how its data will interact with yours, presently; and if the data is particularly corrupted or malignant, it may change - or, well, to better word it - it may affect you in averse ways." The way that it had interacted with Kenny's attempts to scan it was certainly one good example of that, Fiora thought.

"However..." Fiora paused briefly, seeming to ponder their options. "... This one seems to be our best bet for capturing a subject, and doing it efficiently and safely. If we are able to capture this one, we won't have to worry about transporting it out of the village and - well - it possibly drawing attention, and I can keep it under control right here once it's forced into a Rookie form. Don't collar it unless you're absolutely sure the digimon won't accidentally break it in the process, though."

As far as the scan went, though... Fiora turned towards Ryouta and Kenny; frowning slightly in concern. "If there is indeed a cult behind these Bleached Digimon, it's certainly news to me..." She'd comment; adding "This certainly does raise some questions, though... This... Cleansing, this pardoning, this purging..."

Once more, Fiora fell quiet for a few seconds, to think to herself. "... These Bleached Digimon... Perhaps they've lost the capacity to feel entirely...?" It was a theory, but she believed it was solid enough; it certainly would explain the blank look that they seemed to always have, and how they didn't react to their own pain...

...

For the scouting duo of Anzu and Skadi, things were... Eerily quiet, in the village. It really was as Fiora said - that there was little to no signs of any combat, of any struggle... It was as if the village became a ghost town without any warning, and that the only ones here to replace the citizens were the Bleached Digimon that now prowled the area...

... And speaking of these Bleached Digimon... As the duo decided to make their way to the Mayor's house - a sizeable looking building that was near impossible to miss - a sudden crashing noise from up ahead would likely draw their attention. If they were to look ahead them...



... They would likely see a pair of feline Bleached Digimon jumping out of the Mayor's House, through a second-floor glass window that was now thoroughly defenestrated. The bleached DinoTigermon would be the first to jump out; stepping forward a few paces once it landed, then glancing back, waiting for the KaiserLeomon to jump out after it.

The two beasts would glance around briefly, but didn't appear to be on the alert otherwise; simply surveying their surroundings before they'd begin to wander around the side of the building, turning a corner and disappearing from view. Even though they were no longer within sight, though... It was safe to say that the duo would not be alone, in perhaps the least comforting of ways, in investigating the Mayor's House.

Approaching the front door, though... The duo would be quick to find that it was locked, strangely enough. Finding an alternative way in would likely not be an issue; as the two Bleached Digimon certainly were able to get in, somehow...

... But the only question now, was how would the duo enter the building?

---

- The Hououmon blocks Valt's attack with Shining Wings
- Next, it tries to strike at Valt with its claws, in an attempt to snatch him and slam him into the ground below in a basic attack...!

Move Used:
[ABILITY] Shining Wings: Hououmon briefly covers itself with its shining wings; blocking up to 2 Mega attacks. [3 Turn Cooldown]

Passives Known:
[PASSIVE] Bleached: This digimon has been cleansed of all flaws, and pardoned of all sin; every part of their body becoming bleached white, so as to signify this. They are immune to any effects that influence their mind or emotions, such as taunts, mind control, fear, and pacification; and attempts to read their minds or scan their data results in... Strange, though more confusing than anything, results.

Cooldowns:
Featherstorm: 2/2 - Ready Next Turn
Pure Strike: 1/1 - Ready Next Turn
Shining Wings: 0/3