A Lava-ly Day For Adventure! [Closed]

    Two cats were walking on an island. These cats were, for a matter of a fact, completely identical, just like most digimons of the same species! The Meicoomons’ leisurely stroll along the coast went along slowly, but at the very least they looked like they were enjoying themselves.

    Well, at least one was. Nami didn’t look as thrilled as her sister, but not a lot could be done about it. “Query. Why do I have to be here? Mana-chan could’ve partaken in this activity on her own.” Vocabulary aside, it was pretty much the question that kids worldwide repeated incessantly when dragged out to activities they considered boring.

    “C’mon, sis! Your ass is gonna get flat if you spend all the day doing stuff on that workbench! Sides, this place ain’t half bad, if you ask me. Maybe you’ll even be able to find the samples you’re looking for.”

    Nami just heaved a deep sigh. Her sister might’ve been partially right, but she just felt so close to a breakthrough! Data samples were this close to be fully compatible, which meant she could begin to work in earnest. But that also meant even more work so… maybe this was for the best. “Acceptance. Very well then. Does Mana-chan have any information pertaining to this area?” She would honestly be surprised if her sister didn’t. Despite her outward, careless disposition, the more lively feline seldom engaged into these situations without doing at least some groundwork.

    A sagely nod followed. “Of course! It’s primarily inhabited by goblinoids and their evolutions, even though my sources told me there’s some kind of leader that reigns among them, which is fairly rare for their species. They also called it ‘El Goblino’, which is kind of a silly name, but I’m not arguing semantics with a Junkmon. I’m glad I was able to understand him at all.”

    The conversation would’ve followed normally if it weren’t for the fact that sisters stumbled into a pretty peculiar situation; an Orgemon being less than nice towards a dog and… pseudo dog, all while two human girls watched a bit helplessly. “Disappointment. That doesn’t look like the so-called ‘El Goblino’ you spoke about.” However, if they were here to unwind, might as well do it in earnest. “Request. Can we take care of it nonetheless?”

    Now, that was something Mana could agree on, even to the point where their opponent was likely alerted by the conspicuous fight bgm that began playing amid the would-be battlefield. “Hey, dummy! Only cats are allowed to bully doges, so get those down nice and slowly!”

    Both Meicoomons know for a fact that threats seldom worked, but hopefully the Orgemon would be distracted enough to not notice the foul hairball projectile that Nami was about to spit directly into his face. Said attack was followed by Mana trying to close the distance and slash his arm. With some luck, that’d give the captives a window to break free.

OOC: No probs at all! I realized it belatedly that not interacting in any way may not be the best but well, was a bit too late to change my post lol.

IC:
Luckily, help would arrive on the scene. Two Meicoomon had approached the group, and without too much delay, launched their respective assaults on the Ogremon. That was enough to distract the Ogremon, allowing for the Gaomon and Gabumon to escape.

A chance!

Raijin tried to orient his rifle slightly to try and get a good shot off at Ogremon’s head, but alas, the Digimon was moving just a bit too much. If only he was an ace sniper…

Well, he just had to settle for hitting the Ogremon and dealing as much damage as possible.

Or at least, that was what he wanted to do, when at the edge of his scope he noticed the Shamanmon getting back up.

Surprisingly, the altercation somewhat… paused? Raijin was confuzzled as he peered through his scope, watching the various Digimon speak to each other. Unfortunately, Raijin was not a lip reader either, so he had no idea what the conversation was about… okay scratch that, he kinda did, based on the fact that a massive rumble could be heard from behind him. This was the third time he had heard such a noise, so he was pretty sure what it was. Especially given that he had spent plenty of time in this region. Oh and also how all the attention was turned in his direction, but beyond him.

A volcano behind him just erupted. But it sounded… relatively far. So perhaps not quite as important right now. He could deal with the volcano later. Right now, he has a chance… yes he did…

Through all this, Raijin was still taking his time to align his shot. As the various Digimon turned to talk to each other, the Ogremon was being relatively still.

It was almost perfect now. He should be able to hit the Ogremon straight in the head, accounting for the wind conditions and everything, and… Raijin pulled the trigger.

What has he done? Well in Raijin’s mind, he was taking out a potentially difficult opponent. Whether there were any downstream negative effects, he neither knew nor cared. Maybe these oni-like Digimon were just trying to protect the island. Mattered not - to Raijin, they were all evil that needed to be cleansed from this world.

And things just kept getting more and more chaotic as time went on. The Ogremon gave the twin kitties an abhorrent look after their rant. "Ogremon sorry, Ogremon didn't know kitty Digimon and dirty humans spend entire lifetime in service to dog gods like Ogremon does."

"And Shamamon not filthy!" Shamamon added, also offended. "Shamamon bathe everyday in Mt. Inu-Inu's hot springs! They naturally exfoliate skin and clean pores! And good for hair!" Sure enough, both Shamamon and Ogremon had luxurious-looking manes on their head.

"And Ogremon no call dirty humans monkey Digimon. Dirty humans are dirty humans. Ogremon can tell that much." He shook off the comments, and instead pointed back at Gabumon and Gaomon. "Ogremon no want to die, but Gaomon and Gabumon will just be reborn! It perfectly fine, so just be sacrifices!"

"As if that would be enough to convince anyone of anything! If this volcano is really gonna blow, we should focus on getting out of here, or evacuating everyone here, instead of babbling on about a bunch of nonsense like sacrifices!" Natsu cried out, quickly turning towards her sister. "And we should not want to go pay the volcano a visit! That's just stupid!"

"Oh come on, sis! We've got Digimon by our side! I'm sure we can handle a volcano or two no problem! Isn't that right, Gabumon? Gaomon?"

"N-no, I think a volcano might be a little too much for Digimon like us..."
"Leave it to me! If the volcano erupts I'll just blow away all the lava with one punch!"

And to Nami's threat? Well, it seemed like it went over the Digimon's head. "Lava no green, silly cat Digimon! Green liquid that melts people is acid! Even Ogremon know that mu-" All of a sudden, a piercing shot flew through the air and struck the Ogremon right in the forehead. The oni Digimon fell silent as he fell onto his back.

...Then he sat right back up, rubbing his head. A single attack from an armor champion wasn't going to kill him, after all!

"Was that a freaking sniper!?" Natsu yelled out in shock. Gaomon raised his snout into he air, sniffed out something, and pointed towards an area not too far off. "There's someone over there!"

Haru spun over towards that direction, a fierce look in her eyes. "Hey, buddy!" She shouted out at the top of her lungs. "Shooting people's not cool, dude! We're trying to have a conversation here, so we'd appreciate it if you'd stop trying to shoot us!"

"Indeed!" Gaomon added with a flame in his eyes. "Shooting people in the face from afar is never the right thing to do! A real 'mon would shoot someone in the face up close!"

"This is all..." Natsu's straight-man senses were tingling in every-which way, and she was overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of the situation.

And to make things worse, the ground began to rumble even further. It seemed like Mt. Inu-Inu was feeling the same way Natsu was. Unfortunately for literally everyone on the island, Mt. Inu-Inu would most likely do more than call someone an idiot.

---

2105/6000

    Little did the cats know that this area wasn’t only known for hosting an active volcano, but also for an exceedingly high amount of self-righteousness. Nevertheless, Mana gave the Orgremon a look that made clear she wasn’t buying what he was saying. “Oh, and when your kin arrived here for the first time, the so-called ‘dog-gods’ already knew you’d devote your life to serve them, and that’s why they decided you weren’t intruders, huh? Funny how that works, cause everyone is new to a location at some point.”

    Besides that point, though? It seemed like it was extremely fruitless to argue with these digimons, even though the more cheerful of the sisters made a note regarding checking out the hot springs at some point; it might prove to be just what they needed once this situation was resolved. However, at least for the time being, it seemed like all the involved groups were in a weird kind of stalemate. The goblinoids were bent on sacrificing the doges, and their owners were bent on that not happening, but on looking for another solution. It was true that the volcano wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but that’d make the excitement drop from the situation by a fair bit, and Mana was thriving on it, so there was no way that was going to happen.

    What they got instead, though, was a failed attempt at assassinating the Orgemon —which surprisingly didn’t have Mana as the culprit!—. The plot thickens! Just like the lava that was going to burst forth from the volcano, but that was a small detail at the moment. The current situation had turned exciting again. Of course, the older Meicoomon’s warnings had fallen on deaf ears as the recently arrived knight templar-esque digimon made his quest for extermination all the clearer, but that was probably Mana’s preferred outcome. Surprisingly enough, it was on Nami to calm her older sister’s giddy behavior by placing a paw atop her head. “Disagreement. Don’t.”

    For a moment, the feline looked thoroughly confused. “But…” She let out a sigh, and for the first time, she looked genuinely disappointed. At least for a second, until she regained her chipper tone. “If you waste your time on the Goblinoids, the volcano could erupt! Wouldn’t that inflict more damage on innocent lives than killing a few of these? Sides…” In an unexpected gesture, Mana interposed herself between the Orgremon and the newcomer. “I’m extremely evil too!” An attempt at evil laughter was made, but the truth was that the cat was just adorable. “You’ll have to get past me first if you wanna harm the green dummy behind me!”

    In the meantime, and while the older sister made sure the attention was focused on her, Nami turned to where the two obviously-not-monkey-digimon and their doges were. “Briefing. The newcomer is unreasonable and the locals aren’t helpful. We’ll have to act on our own. Any ideas? Gaomon is forbidden from speaking.”

    Straight to the point! Maybe they could solve this situation on their own, and hopefully with no deaths. Least to say, the younger Meicoomon didn’t look like a very patient individual, and Gaomon tended to speak nonsense more often than not. Safety measures are good, right?

Knight templar-esque was probably the most apt description of Raijin one could have. Whether intentional or not, his programming made him singular in his pursuit to destroy evil. Perhaps it was because of his mechanical nature. Even then, his rigidity did seem rather extreme. Maybe his programming was, rather, incomplete, or even corrupted? Well, it was not something that could determined right now, so is a moot point regardless.

Upon the bodyblocking by the Meicoomon, Raijin almost let out a sigh. The Digimon was tiny - at least compared to the nine meter tall mecha-like Raijin. In fact, all here were tiny to him, except for Ogremon. Yet, ironically, he was definitely one of the weaker beings here. And he knew that too - an armor form was not as strong as its equivalent, even if he should seem like he should be far stronger. He did not want to fight the Meicoomon. But if need be, nothing would stop him from being more than willing to commit to his cause, all the more evidence of an extraordinary, or perhaps out of the ordinary, conviction.

"Stand aside." Raijin stated firmly to the Meicoomon. "Your kind is not known for such repugnant behavior. But, if you wish to continue claiming evil, so be it."

Raijin shook his left hand gently to loosen his gauntlet from his grip, letting it fall to the ground with a thud. He then raised his left hand, a handle forming in it before extending into a complete lance, pointed directly at Mana’s face. If nothing else, it is clear Raijin liked to make a statement. And this statement, this time, is that he was not messing around. Cute or not, clearly trying to simply cause Raijin to question his conviction or not, lying or not, it all was ignored by Raijin. And Nami too. Raijin ignored her calling him unreasonable, for sure.

Of course, everyone else had to chime in too. The goblinoids. Haru. Then the Gabumon. Gabumon’s words definitely caused Raijin’s attention to turn away from Mana, and to Gabumon, while the goblinoids fell to the ground begging and pleading. "So now you are claiming evil, too?" Raijin questioned, his head slightly cocked to the side. His eyes narrowed somewhat, betraying a mixture of both enmity and a bit of feigned confusion.

"This world is not grey. We are all bits and pieces of code, and code has proper rules embedded in them. Everything was designed, and designed to be a specific way." Raijin explained his viewpoint, the way his viewpoint was allegedly ingrained in him. He turned slightly to face the goblinoids. "There is a reason we Digimon are classified by attribute. There are those with the virus attribute, the very definition of which are those that are meant to be evil and damaging to this world." Back to Gabumon, Raijin faced. "Then there are Digimons with the vaccine attribute, meant to protect this world. I believe that should make sense to you, right?"

Raijin turned to address the humans briefly. "And especially you two. Vaccines and viruses work the same in your world?"

Admittedly, he had never been to the human world, but he was nonetheless certain the information that was programmed into his neural processor should not be incorrect. "Of course, corruption can occur as well. But as we all know, that turns good bad, and bad… worse. So why, may I ask, should I ever believe something programmed to be evil, and can only be worse, to actually be good? Would that not be an illogical thought process? If I force myself to go against such simple directive, would that then not actually be a bias I would be exhibiting out of my own wants, rather than from an unbiased, logical perspective?"

It was a tense moment for sure. He was used to tense situations, especially given he often caused them. Yet, Raijin had never actually been in this particular kind of situation where those he was sure were on the side of good were willingly calling themselves otherwise, just to protect evil. Plenty had more or less defended those he hunted down, but often just with words that never amounted to any material action.

And why was he so sure they were going out of their way to protect evil, even when they were good? Well, what he said before were not lies. He did witness the Shamanmon try to straight up murder the human girl. And the Meicoomon absolutely attacked the Ogremon straight off. Sure, evil can fight evil, but… it was clear as day this was not the case.

After all, more than anything, Raijin was here, even before the arrival of the humans and their Digimon on the shores, before the Meicoomons arrived on the scene… he had watched absolutely everything unfold. Including the actions of at least the Ogremon.

…

Raijin lowered his lance and dropped it on the ground. He moved his left hand to his side, summoning another spiked gauntlet around it. He then sighed, shaking his head.

All this time, the humans had been jabbering on.

Why do these beings always make it harder for him to do his job? It was hard enough as is.

Perhaps they were really as evil as they claimed. Then maybe he should just put the onus on them.

"How about this. You are all as evil as you claim, and I will fight every single one of you. It will be either my death or yours. If you feel comfortable killing a defender of good, so be it. Alternatively, we go on with the knowledge that these goblinoids are evil. I will accompany you all to the volcano as wished, protecting the group from the goblinoid Digimon and other evil out there. At the end of this, we all part ways. Except the goblinoid Digimons and myself. None of you need to know what happens from then on."

The best offer someone like Raijin could make.

"I see... so the concept of free will is something completely lost on you..." Gabumon commented, then turned towards his tamer. "Haru! I think this guy... is an idiot! I don't think talking to him is going to help!" Haru nodded, while Gaomon growled in anger.

"Virus, this! Vaccine, that!" The doggy Digimon shouted. "Sounds like you're underestimating Data Digimon! Maybe you'll reconsider that after I shove my fist up your-"

"Butting in here!" Natsu interrupted, patting the dog Digimon on the head. "Gaomon, maybe we should dial it back a bit!" But not everyone was willing to do that!

Ogremon stomped out in outrage. "Ogremon data attribute! Not all Digimon the same attribute, bigot!" He screamed out, waving his bone club frantically.

"Same with Shamamon! If murder-happy Digimon going to kill people like some attributist, then murder-happy Digimon should make sure murder victims are right criteria!"

And if Ogremon and Shamamon seemed upset, nothing seemed to compare to Mana. While nothing remotely considered explosive, it was clear that the kitty wasn't tolerating this rather tense situation any more. And judging by how things were building up, a peaceful resolution didn't seem possible.

The ground began to shake even more, and anyone not willing to hold themselves steady would likely fall over. Because there was still that thing that was going on, too. You know, the whole, volcanic eruption that could potentially kill everyone on the island kind of thing. Someone should probably take care of that.

Haru turned to Ogremon and Shamamon, then back to Nami. "Well... your sis seems confident enough, so..." She directed her attention towards the other kitty. "Hey, Nami! We're gonna go on ahead, so I hope you can work things out soon!" Then to Raijin. "As for you, other guy, umm... no offense, but you seem kind of like a relentless psychopath, so I think we're gonna be avoiding you from now on! In the meantime, we're gonna see if we can stop a volcano and save a bunch of lives, so we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't be a creepy stalker and try to follow us or you know... kill anyone!" The ground rumbled once more, nearly causing Natsu to stagger over and fall, if it weren't for Gaomon rushing over and putting out his hands, giving her a cushion to sit on. And as she got back on her feet, a beam of light shot forth from Mt. Inu-Inu, spiraling around into the air, then flying straight towards the group present.

And just when it looked like it was going to crash down into the sand like a meteor, it's trajectory stopped before briefly floating in midair. The object itself looked to be some kind of strange egg, or rather, two eggs fused together, they spun around in midair until one side pointed towards Natsu, and the other side Haru. The one pointing towards  Natsu having a red drill sticking out of it. The eggs split into two, flying towards the respective tamers. 

Almost like it were magnetic, Natsu found herself holding her Digivice towards the incoming object, and size differences-be-damned, the egg suddenly went inside the touchscreen of her phone-like Digivice as if the screen were made of water. Confused, Natsu looked at her Digivice's screen seeing a strange glowing symbol she didn't recognize. She hesitantly placed her finger over the glowing symbol, and a bright, crimson and blue light shot out from the screen and made its way towards Gaomon. 

"You want some of this, weird light!?" Gaomon screamed out in protest, clearly understanding the situation about as well as Natsu was. His fist collided with the light, and he was swallowed up whole. "Oh fu- wait... this actually feel pretty good... in fact... I might even... wait... no... but then again... or maybe... yes! That's definitely it! Gaomon... Armor Evolution!" His body broke free from the light, and in his place was a four-legged beast, much larger than the previous glove-wielding doggo. His claws were on full display now, as well as a number of spikes and drills over his body. "Dorulumon!" 

Meanwhile, a similar event was happening to Haru and Gabumon. The light was white and gold, and when the light shot forth from Haru's Digivice, Gabumon began to scream in terror as he ducked away from the light at the last second by diving down into the sand. However, the light of Digivolution was a persistent son of a bitch, so it flew back around, and even sped up somewhat, almost as if it were kind of annoyed. It struck the cowering Gabumon. "I don't care what happens to me anymore... just don't ruin my fur and... ugh... I don't feel so good. In fact, I kinda feel like I'm gonna... Armor Evolution!" In his place, a metallic-looking wolf covered in a bright white armor and glimmering golden blades remained cowering in the sand. When it seemed like he was safe, he looked up, cried out, "Garmmon!" For no apparent reason, and then looked around. Natsu and Haru seemed a little dumbfounded, but Haru seemed to be the first of the two to recover. 

"Yo, Gabumon! You look like you grew up!" She praised, patting the metallic wolf on his side, careful to avoid any sharp parts. 

"I do!?" He replied, before clearing his throat. "Oh, yes... Umm... I do! But Haru... I'm not Gabumon anymore! I'm Garmmon now!" Haru looked back at her evolved partner, and then gave him an almost annoyed stare. 

"Huh? But... is your name gonna change every time you evolve, though?" Garmmon nodded, and Haru shook her head from side to side. "That sounds like a total pain, though. I'm just gonna keep calling you 'Gabumon', alright? So much easier to remember!" 

"But... I say my name every time I evolve... for whatever reason... so it won't be that hard to..." He sighed before simply going, "Haru... okay!" Garmmon, now back to Gabumon, but still a Garmmon, but totally still Gabumon-in-spirit acknowledged.

While he was still crouched, Haru climbed atop the metallic wolf Digimon's back. "Yeesh! Gabumon! You should install a seat-warmer or something in here! Your back's gonna freeze my butt off, dude!" 

"I-I'm sorry! But I'll probably warm up... eventually!" 

"Natsu!" Dorulumon suddenly barked out at his tamer. "You've gotten a lot smaller! You need to start training more or you'll never be able to keep up!" 

"You're just bigger, stupid!" Natsu countered. "And humans don't just... change shape like you Digimon do! At least... not without a horrid amount of poor life choices... or medical conditions!" 

"Whatever, just get on my back!" It took a few tries for Natsu to climb on, unfortunately. There were spikes in the way, and Dorulumon wasn't exactly lowering his body for her convenience. Natsu hadn't even mounted her partner for a second before Dorulumon shouted out, "We're gonna head to that volcano and drill right through it!" 

Natsu screamed out in surprise as Dorulumon began to run full speed towards the soon-to-erupt volcano, while the girl shouted in protest the entire time. "Wait... umm... Dorulumon, right? If you run like this, I'm gonna fall off! And you're not gonna drill into a lava-filled volcano while I'm still on your back, right? Right!?" 

Not one to fall behind, Haru held her hand out to Ogremon, Shamamon, and Nami. "Any of you three need a lift?" She wasn't sure Nami needed a right, but the green Champion and Rookie Digimon got on as well, making it pretty packed on top of the newly evolved Armor Champion. 

"This is... perfectly fine..." Gabumon muttered, his legs shaking from the weight. But he managed to move forward at blinding speeds before he knew it. 

"Ogremon! Shamamon! Show us the best path towards the volcano, and we'll see what we can do from there!" 

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WC: 4500/6000