Champions of the Digital World

[Rex]

Oh hell no, the loudmouth from earlier had not just pushed him. Ryan was started to get seriously annoyed at this guy, and now his pride was on the line.

Sammy seemed to share his sentiments. "You and your little pipsqueak got a problem with us?"

Ryan pushed the orange shirted loudmouth back. "Go on then shit-for-brains, with a little runt like that I bet you have a higher chance of making it. Into the Airdramon's stomach at least!"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Life was a funny thing sometimes. Though it had its lulls - quiet moments where nothing in particular happened - for the most part it seemed to be a loosely associated cluster of plot devices, beads on a thread of fate stretching out into the unknown.

Just because it was unknown, though, doesn't mean it was unpredictable.

For example, this convention was one plot device after another. The announcement, the gathering of Tamers into one place... invariably followed by a giant enemy dragon from no where, as if the forces of nature put on a stylized bear suit and screamed "Tutorial fight, tutorial fight!"

Well, at least it got the tension that was building up in the general area to vent out somewhat. At least, it moved the epicenter away from where he was standing - which suited him just fine.

But there was the matter of the Airdramon outside, making a general mess out of things. "Safety features my phantom tail". he murmured. "Sure, DG Corp, release something digital and potentially destructive in a large association of geeks and go about how unbreakable your failsafes are. Tempting fate much?"

And there was of course the matter of all those Tamers who rushed off like the proverbial Leeroy Jenkins. This was a rather powerful looking Airdramon - dead-eyed or not - and from the look he got from his partner, he realized that she was thinking what he was thinking.

And that thought was "Does anyone in this group even have a clue what they are doing?"

He figured that he might as well ask the person who was most nearby - she may have not been his immediate suspect to be a tamer, but he wasn't the sort to make assumptions about the battle skills of others.

"Hey, Irea?" Reid nodded at the young woman with the Tapirmon "Silly question, but have you and your partner ever battled a Digimon outside the games?"

 

[Power Metal Maiden~]

Irea seemed to be zoning out, staring in the general direction of the Airdramon and it's havoc. She was drawing a complete blank on what she should be doing, though she didn't want to admit to herself that she was a little frightened. Maybe she didn't even realize it.

The only time Irea ever recalled fighting an Airdramon was in the Digimon online game, and even then she needed to work with others. It was just one of those stronger Digimon in the game. Now one was actually in the real world, and it was a scary thing. What could she do, without killing herself...or worse, Tapirmon. She was more afraid of losing her best friend, her only friend, than walking up to that huge Digimon and slapping it across its ugly skull.

Tapirmon, sensed her fear and worry. "Irea. Irea, snap out of it. Irea!" He continued to prod at her, but every sound that the Airdramon created just buried her deeper in her shock.

"Hey, Irea?"

The sound of Reid's voice finally snapped her out of it.

"Silly question, but have you and your partner ever battled a Digimon outside the games?"

At the same moment, both Tapirmon and herself blurted out two completely different answers.

"I know plenty about battling!" Tapirmon had exclaimed with confidence.

"I know how to press buttons." Irea muttered, forcing herself to peel her eyes from the direction of the chaos and back onto Reid. She then slowly looked down to Tapirmon. "Oh great." She mumbled, attempting to keep cool on the exterior, all the while her head was shouting "NONONONO PLEASE NO!!!"

 

[Psycho Monkey]

The boy pushed Blake back. "Go on then shit-for-brains, with a little runt like that I bet you have a higher chance of making it. Into the Airdramon's stomach at least!" he shouted angrily.

"You and your little pipsqueak got a problem with us?" questioned the Dorumon. Tsumemon growled at the other Digimon while Blake balled his fists.

"Are you calling us weak?" he demanded. The teen then smirked as he got an idea that would put these two in their place. He pushed up his sunglasses with his middle finger as a show of disrespect. "Airdramon can wait. What do you say we have ourselves a warm up Tsumemon?"

"Fine by me. It wouldn't be the first time I've beaten a Digimon above my level." agreed the In-Training. The hand shaped monster jumped off his Tamer's shoulder and pulled his finger like limbs in like he was trying to grab something. "Nail Scratch!" he cried raking his claws at Dorumon.

While the Digimon had their bout, Blake lobbed a punch at the other Tamer.

 

[Shiny Motley]

Before Miss Aiko had a time to respond, Eric felt the floor beneath him shake as he heard glass shattering and something bellow loudly.

“Hey, what was that?” Ryudamon said, whipping around in surprise before composing himself into a ready, offensive position.

Eric shook his head. Though he knew it was extremely rude to leave a lady alone, he also knew it would be his job to protect her. Her and the other girls in the immediate area. “Something’s getting out of control, that’s what,” he murmured to himself. He watched as several of his fellow tamers flock to the source of the attack, and gave a look of apology to Miss Aiko before following. She looked strong enough to fend for herself, anyways, even if for a little bit.

As he neared the others, he couldn’t help but overhear two guys having an argument, no, more like a fight between themselves and their Digimon. Ryudamon skidded to a halt when he sensed his partner not running anymore, and leaped back a few feet to join him.

“...first time I’ve beaten a Digimon above my level,” he heard the Tsumemon say before it launched an attack at the opposing Dorumon. Ryudamon growled and readied himself in a crouching position, eying the Tsumemon and its partner with disgust.

“How dare you fight now,” he said angrily, “when there’s an Airdramon outside threatening all the humans here?” Before he could jump into the action and knock the Tsumemon away, though, Eric gave him a slight nudge with his foot. Looking up, the Digimon saw the teen shake his head.

Motioning towards larger source of commotion, Eric said, “We should let them settle their dispute themselves. This isn’t our fight.” Ryudamon opened his mouth as if he was about to object, but Eric’s stern look shut him. The duo continued towards the battlefield, and Eric nearly bumped into a red-haired guy, a few years older than him or so, who was accompanied by what his Digivice identified to be a Dracomon.

“Come on, there’s saving to be done,” he said, stopping to get a better look at the person. He seemed almost petrified with fear, staring at the Airdramon incredulously as if he couldn’t believe it was real. His expression seemed to soften a little, and he continued, “There’s a lot of us, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to get rid of this disturbance quickly.”

Ryudamon nodded in agreement and held a hand out to the Dracomon. “Piece of cake with the two of us, don’t you think?” he said with a confident grin on his face.

(OOC: wow, long overdue post. And a crappy one. And from China. Forgive me if not very good my engrish :<)

 

[Rex]

Okay, Ryan had not been expecting it to come to blows. He was easily socked in the jaw, and fell backwards. He scrambled back to his feet as quick as the stars in his eyes would let him, and leaped at the other man, trying to wrap his hands around the older teen's neck.

Sammy, meanwhile, had indeed expected a fight. He had been watching the In-Training Digimon closely, and easily jumped out of the way when it went for him.

"Oh, you want to play with me?" the Dorumon taunted, putting a few feet between him and the Tsumemon. "Alright, try this on for size, Metal Cannon!"

With that, the Dorumon shot an iron sphere out of his mouth, which flew straight at the In-Training Digimon.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Well, there were two contradicting responses, if Reid ever saw any.

Tapirmon's answer was not surprising: he was a Digimon, and Digimon clashed often on the field of battle in their natural habitat. Floramon told hm that in some layers of the Digital World, if you weren't a good fighter, you had no chance to survive. The same was probably right for Tapirmon.

Irea's answer was also not, on the whole, too surprising - but told him more than her words did. She was trying to keep a brave front - but even he could tell that she was tense. Worried. Maybe even afraid. And why shouldn't she be? There's a high-levelled champion out there and it's actually doing damage. Real damage.

No, that wasn't it. Her gaze at Tapirmon. She was afraid of her partner getting hurt - A perfectly understandable notion. After all, she had no battle experience - and so had no idea about her partner's true abilities in the real world...

There was a strong bond there - but not the trust of comrades on the battlefield. He wondered how true that was for any of the others around here.

"I think it's best you sit this one out, then." Reid nodded "On the field of battle, there are three important things you need to remember: Know and trust in your own abilities and those of your partner. Be aware of your own limitations and your partner's limitations. And lastly - work together to overcome these limitations and attain victory. As you two are now... I don't think you have that sort of understanding yet - and that means you aren't at your best. And to stand any chance against this sort of creature, you will need to be at your best."

"Words of wisdom, young grasshoppah!" Floramon chimed in, launching into an exaggerated bow. He could swear her lip-synching didn't match her voice for a moment. Reid regarded her with a playful glare for a moment - before a general commotion near the exit suddenly drew his attention.

Reid and Floramon facepalmed in unison. Apparently, the testosterone buildup in the room has finally reached critical meltdown level and now two of these complete idiots were having a full-blown fist-fight... as if the Airdramon derping about outside wasn't bad enough. Maybe someone should have gone and made sure they didn't hurt themselves too badly - but that someone was not going to be him. He didn't want to lose his brainpower to osmosis, after all.

 

[Tailon]

Renata called to him, but Jason was in too much of a hurry to stop and talk to her. He raced down the escalator as quickly as he could, tripping slightly at the bottom, while Bearmon hopped down from the upper floor unassisted. Reaching the main doors, Jason burst out into the hot sun, Bearmon close behind.

Outside, Airdramon's rampage was fairly contained. From where he stood, Jason could see it was not a Wild creature, but had a partner, who sat behind its skull helmet, using its horns to keep himself steady. The young man was shouting something at the people below, but the roars and flapping wings of his partner made it pointless.

Bearmon stood at the ready, and Jason held his Digivice in one hand, flipping open the deck holster on his belt with the other.

"Alright, big guy, let's see how a shell does against a real Digimon!" Jason shouted at Airdramon as Bearmon attacked.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Blake was taken back when the other kid literally went straight for the jugular. He grabbed the boy's wrists trying his best to keep from getting strangled. This was not how he imagined things were going to turn out.

At the same time, Tsumemon was knocked back by the explosion of Dorumon's attack. the In-Training got back to its fingers and growled at his opponent in frustration. Another attack like that could be bad. He turned to his Tamer expecting guidance only to find Blake having his own problems in fighting off the other human. It did however give Tsumemon a rather underhanded idea.

"Dorumon! I dare you to attack me while I'm over here!" he yelled at the Rookie scurrying over to the dueling Tamers. "Nail Scratch!" he cried lunging at Ryan.

"Nice one Tsumemon!" Blake complemented. Dorumon would have to have some serious balls to aim an attack that could potentially harm his Tamer. For good measure, Blake took advantage of his partner's distraction to knee his opponent in the stomach while keeping him close enough that the Rookie didn't decide to take a page from Tsumemon's book.

 

[Rex]

Maybe this wasn't the best idea? Blake was larger and easily stronger then Ryan. He had caught Ryan's grapple fairly easily, and reversed it, and the smaller boy was having trouble breaking Blake's grip. Ryan wasn't especially paying attention to Sammy and the other Digimon, the Dorumon wouldn't listen to him anyway.

The knee to the stomach didn't help. Ryan doubled over, at least as much as Blake would allow while holding him. The smaller boy quickly noted that he and Blake were very close, and that to properly hold him back, Blake had spread his legs. It was only then that he saw the approaching hand, claws extended.

Ryan aimed a kick right up between Blake's legs. Then, in that moment of distraction, he broke away, and dodged back, away from the other Digimon. His right pant leg was cut open, and he started bleeding from a few nice size scratches, but it was no where near as bad as it could have been. He fell on his ass, rolled over, and scrambled back to his feet, trying to put distance between himself and Blake.

Sammy, meanwhile, now had the opening he desired, "Metal Cannon!" The attack sent an iron ball straight at Blake. With a second "Metal Cannon", another iron ball was heading in the Tsumemon's direction.

 

[Tangrow]

"Hm." Fiona pondered to herself, assessing the situation. Some others had already ran out to fight the Airdramon, the boy with the bear in particular, but Fiona stood stock still. "I was hoping to fly on you, FanBeemon, yet..."

"You're too heavy, milady." FanBeemon said frankly.

"...I will ignore that."

"Milady! There appears to be fighting!" Her Digimon cried out, causing Fiona to whip back around, only to find two boys fighting each other, quite heavily, from her standpoint. She herself winced when she saw the smaller one use a cheap shot to the groin on the other. Her eyes then hardened.

"FanBeemon, stop them." She said. The insect had no time to waste and foregone his manners to reply in place of buzzing as quickly as he could to protect the trainer, who was about to be severely injured by a large iron ball. Although the digimon wasn't the sturdiest, he was plenty strong enough to attack.

"Gear Stinger!" He shouted, shooting many serrated stingers from his abdomen. The force wasn't enough to stop the iron ball entirely, but it shifted it just off course to avoid FanBeemon and Blake. Fiona appeared indignant as she caught up to the scene.

"Now, what in particular do you think you are doing?" She asked both boys. "Were you planning on killing one another here, hm? Murder? My, I was unaware Digidestined could stoop so low. Firing on the actual human? Pathetic." She tiraded, both angry yet remaining composed.

"Now, I do not suppose you both are aware, but there is a very large, imposing, and dangerous Digimon outside threatening lives. I suggest you either vacate the premises, or help out, like someone of your status would." She continued, but then changed to a different note. "Or, indeed, you could keep on fighting. I wonder who gets arrested when one of you gets a broken arm or experiences a loss of life? Just because you have a Digimon does not mean you suddenly can do as you please." She stopped, and then added one more line. "Let's steal because we have a Digimon. Let's kill people because we have a Digimon. A novel idea."

"Oh, milady..." FanBeemon swooned as he took his place on her shoulder.

"Now, I truly suggest if you wish to continue fighting, take it where there is not something large and angry just outside, hm? Or you could take that energy, and possibly channel it into fighting it. Wouldn't that be nice?" She finally ended, taking a few steps away. It wasn't normally her style to intervene, but Fiona did not want anyone to die, especially seeing as nobody else was doing anything. Not that she would admit it. It's much better to sound bothered and haughty about it.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Blake doubled over having been kicked in the balls. It would seem this other Tamer was just as pragmatic as he was. The teen hadn't even caught his second wind yet before he saw the Dorumon charging an attack, only this time it wasn't aimed at Tsumemon. It was aimed at him! Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the metal sphere flew towards Blake.

This can't be happening! he shouted in his mind.

Out of nowhere an insectoid Digimon appeared shooting numerous stingers from its body safely deflecting the blast. Blake slowly got to his feet, the last few seconds slowly registering in his mind.

"Now, what in particular do you think you are doing?" asked a blonde haired girl condescendingly. She was obviously the Tamer to... whatever that bee-like Digimon was supposed to be. Blake didn't have the chance to look up its species on his Digivice though for the girl continued her high and mighty rant with no room for interruption. The way she talked down to him infuriated Blake but at the same time he couldn't help but feel grateful to her for helping him. Not that he would admit that anyway.

"Whatever you say lady." Blake finally said when the girl had finally stopped her lecture. "You and your..." He finally pulled out his Digivice to scan her partner. "...Fanbeemon had no right to interfere in our fight, but I'll let it go this time because I was just about done with this runt anyway." The teen then turned to Ryan. "Sorry kid, but you were just a warm up. We have bigger fish to fry. C'mon Tsumemon." he called beckoning his Digimon to follow him out of the room.

The battered In-Training got up and hobbled after his Tamer who was also walking a bit funny from his earlier injury. Blake picked up Tsumemon and placed him on his shoulder. Instead of going towards the battle with Airdramon though, the teen turned down an empty hallway in the opposite direction.

"Wait, where are we going?" demanded Tsumemon.

"Not against Airdramon, that's for sure." said Blake in a hushed voice just in case anyone was still in earshot. "You got your ass kicked by a Rookie just now and you think I'd be foolish enough to send you out against a Champion level? No way! I don't fight losing battles. Look, just about ever Tamer here has a Digimon at the Rookie level. We are staying away from them and from Airdramon until you can Digivolve too." he said.

"Then let's find me some weak Digimon or some other means so that I can get stronger! You did promise to have me at the Rookie level by the end of the day 'Oh Great Master Tamer.'" said Tsumemon.

"I know what I said! Real life isn't like a videogame though so it will take some time and strategizing to get it to work here."

Blake and Tsumemon continued walking ignoring the panicked screams from all of the wannabes at the convention.

 

[Rex]

Ryan glared daggers at the interrupting woman. His injured leg hurt like hell, and now his ego was on the line more then ever. Maybe to some it wouldn't be much, but the interruption just has he was about to get his retribution was the last thing Ryan needed to push him over the line.

"You stupid bitch! Do you not see the fucking cuts on my leg?! That was his little hand monstrosity, you know! And where do you get off interrupting a fight you had no place in? And I didn't even tell Sammy to shoot at the jackass, he does what he damn well pleases! Not to mention the fact that he fucking started the fight in the first place!"

While he was distracted, the other boy packed up and ran. Ryan turned to him and called out, "You better run, you worthless pussy! Touch me again and next time I'll do more then just knock the wind out of you!"

Then he was back on the interrupting girl, "As for you! You're advice is unwanted, unnecessary, and unwarranted! So why don't you and you insect buzz off, you self important whore!"

 

[Tangrow]

Fiona's eyebrows flew upwards as the attacking boy went off on her. In truth, she had expected things to clear out once she stepped in, and halfway it had, as she spied the victim making his way off, despite not exactly being what she would call grateful. Close enough, anyway. Fiona crossed her arms, now thoroughly irritated at the boy and his 'Sammy's' behavior.

"...So why don't you and your insect buzz off, you self important whore!" FanBeemon's wings flew up in anger. He had went with the bug pun. FanBeemon couldn't stand bug puns. Fiona crossed her arms.

"Oh my," She drawled. "How witty. My heart has been struck so hard by your insults that I may just faint on the spot." Fiona took the time to examine her nails. They needed to be redone soon. "I am simply the exact portrait of the whore. Look at me, oh heavens. What am I doing with my life."

"Anyway," She said, adjusting her hat. "As I said, I believe I had better things to do, like be useful. Just let the grownups handle the Airdramon outside, seeing as you are unable to control your own useless Digimon. What a liability." She turned and began walking away, at a quick pace. In reality, she wasn't sure what she was going to do once she got outside, but she refused to be late to something as exciting as that. She gave a backwards glance to Ryan, flashing a small smile. FanBeemon settled atop her hat, before walking off to attend to the more pressing matter at hand.

"Have a nice day."