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The Wizard and Art MacTavish: A Digi-Desert Showdown (Chapter 2)

by Mr.RMA

Mr.RMA Art and Candlemon arrive in the Digital World, specifically in a dry desert region with a single wild-west style town. Upon their arrival, the town seems nigh-on abandoned at first, but, they come to realize its denizens are merely in hiding. From what, the duo will soon discover, and they'll have to act fast if they want to save the town from calamity.

Disclaimer: As per last chapter, there be some violence, and in this case, though it's mostly old-western stylized, gunplay as well, just as a heads up.
As he found himself laying on his back in the glaring sun, Art initially thought he must have just missed the portal. That brief concern that he was to be stuck in excruciating banality forever didn’t last, as he picked himself up to see that there was not a building in sight, wrecked, pristine or otherwise. The street had been replaced by rocky desert ground, and even the sunlight seemed strangely… different. How to describe it… It was still hot, but, in the faintest sense, something about it felt strangely… artificial.

He looked to see that Candlemon was still in his grasp, the Digimon seemingly just coming back to consciousness himself, using his melty wax-arms to stretch as if emerging from some long slumber. Frankly it was rather difficult to tell how much time passed when the last thing one remembered was warping from one world to another in an instant.

“Oh, good, you’re all in one piece. See, I told you you’d probably be fine,” Candlemon said as he turned his attention over to the human.

“Yeah… guess your vote of confidence wasn’t misplaced…” Art said with a hint of sarcasm as he rose to his feet, his companion leaping out of his grasp as he did so, observing their surroundings in more depth.

“Well… aside from everything looking a bit bigger, I’d say this is the exact same spot I’d been pulled away from,” the Digimon said as both he and Art took notice of the petite dragon creature that had finally regained consciousness, having apparently been pulled back to the same location this time as well. The creature looked to both figures with a semblance of confusion that rather quickly turned apologetic before it floated off on its own.

“Jeez… even looking past the whole change of appearance, you wouldn’t think that little guy was the least bit related to what you were fighting…” Art remarked as he kept his eyes on the retreating Digimon for a while longer.

“It leads me to believe something was forcing its control onto the poor sap. Some kind of nefarious means in which a Digimon is brought into such a destructive rage that can’t easily be quelled,” Candlemon surmised.

Art mulled it over and suddenly his attention shot back entirely to the living taper beside him. “Yeah… wait… I totally saw something floating out of the guy after you took it down… Like some kinda floating shadow ball or something.”

“Did you now? Then that only furthers my suspicions,” Candlemon said, all the more intrigued by this evidence. “I’d approach the little fellow about it, but… they don’t look like they’re quite in the mood for a chat. All the same, call it a hunch, I doubt they’re the only one that got inflicted. We’ll have to keep an eye out.”

Yes… keep an eye out indeed… but then, as Art took another look at this barren landscape, he began to wonder just what one usually had to look out for in a place like this.

“So… This is the Digital World, huh?” he said, still adjusting to the strangeness of the artificial sunlight.

“Well yes… but, don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not all some never-ending desert wasteland, in fact there’s a village just up in this direction,” Candlemon said as he began hopping his way forward, Art following closely behind. “I came to this region to train, you see… Strengthening the body as well as the mind. So often those who use magic find themselves unprepared when their attacks at a range aren’t enough. Have to be prepared for a counterattack to get through every so often.”

“I take it the crazy dragon running amok wasn’t part of the plan?” Art said, tossing the digivice casually in the air a few times.

“No… and for goodness sake be careful with that! That device is the most important thing you could hope to possess in this world!” Candlemon quipped with a stern wag of a finger. It all looked rather silly of course, a living wax stick acting in such a stern fashion, but Art still complied, stowing the device back in his pocket.

“Alright alright, don’t burn yourself out, I’m not gonna lose it…” he said, though something seemed to cross his mind at that moment. “…You know, you seem to somehow know so much about this stuff and yet not much at all at the same time…”

“It’s all rather puzzling, I know… I’m sorry if I come across as flip-floppy with this information, but most of what I’ve learned has come from word of mouth, or speculation. There are legends of your kind having visited the Digital World before, some say they never left, and they were said to possess digivices just like yours,” Candlemon attempted to explain.

“…Other humans have been dragged here before? So… you’re saying that whole portal thing isn’t without precedent?” Art questioned, suddenly taking the device out again at that as if looking to observe it in further detail now.

“That’s what has gone around… The rumors have been coming true so far, I’d say much of it has a basis in fact, though to know how much… well… that might be impossible unless we ran into those humans for ourselves.”

“Well I suppose it can’t hurt to have more folks familiar with my world around,” Art said with a shrug.

“Yeah… sure…” Candlemon muttered quietly, obviously not agreeing entirely to the sentiment for some reason, though before Art could question it, they were already stepping foot into the village. It seemed to pop out of nowhere, though Art’s focus hadn’t entirely been on the trail ahead in the first place. “Ah, good, we’re here!” Candlemon said with a quick surge of glee, though his cheerful smile seemed to ebb on both the flame and candlestick’s faces as they observed the condition of the place.

The village, constructed much like a frontier town out of a theme park, seemed almost as barren as the desert outside of it. The creaking sound of the wooden buildings went uncontested, beyond the occasional whistle of the wind or the swaying of signs hanging out of what Art could assume were shops of some kind. As they neared what appeared to be the center of town, the human decided to speak up after the two had walked mostly in similar silence.

“Hey… Candlemon, is it normal for a town like this to be so… y’know… riddled with bullet holes?” Indeed, the whole town seemed to be awash in the evidence of some massive gunfight, small holes punched into the walls of nearly every building they passed.

“…No… firearms aren’t the weapon of choice for the townsfolk in these parts…” he replied, eyeing the whole place suspiciously. “This isn’t at all how the place looked when I warded that Coredramon off…”

“Hey!” A voice seemed to squawk in their direction from the building to their left, the spitting image of some vintage saloon. Under the swinging doors there appeared to be a pink-feathered aviary creature calling to them. “You two! Get in here before he comes back!”

“Wha…who?” Art asked as he blinked in confusion.

“Perhaps we’d better ask when we’re inside,” Candlemon said, waving Art to follow as he hastily hopped his way towards the Saloon, his Tamer indeed not hesitating to go after him. Inside the tavern, the answer to where many of the villagers went was answered right away. Plenty of Digimon seemed huddled together. Art could see at least several variations of birds, a couple mammals, even a plant-creature or two in the collective, at least amongst the things that took on a semi-complex shape… Aside from them, there seemed to be a number of creatures that looked like little more than blobs of varying colors.

“You two must be visitors… Sorry, you dropped by at a really bad time…” The pink-feathered bird said as she nonetheless gave a sheepish wave in greeting with her wing, which seemed to have scarlet claws at the end.

Candlemon glanced at her for a moment before realization hit him.

“Ah, right, you’re the Biyomon I met before… I’m afraid you don’t recognize me, I’m the Wizardmon that dropped by earlier, though my recent reversion has made my appearance rather unfamiliar,” he said with a light wave of his own.

The bird, ‘Biyomon’ as Candlemon had labeled her, squinted for a moment as if in disbelief, but something seemed to click in her mind after looking at him long enough.

“What in blazes happened to you? And…” it was then that Biyomon shifted her attention to Art. “…Is that… You can’t be serious…”

“He’s a companion of mine, let’s just leave it at that,” Candlemon said, looking to swiftly re-rail the subject. “And what happened to me is a matter I can get into at a less dire time. What could’ve possibly driven you back into hiding so quickly?”

Biyomon continued to look at Art for a bit, still quite wary, but eventually seemed to pull her gaze back to Candlemon at his question. “Well, as soon as you lured away Coredramon, we were all cautiously making to return to our lives. Barely a moment passed when another stranger strolled in and just started opening fire on everyone. We all took cover as best as we could, and now we’re just hoping he’ll leave us be if we don’t draw his attention.”

“Who, may I ask? Did you get a glimpse of his identity?” Candlemon questioned.

“From the looks of it he must be a Deputymon,” replied the Biyomon.

“Are you certain? I know they can be rather cavalier but, such chaotic attacks on a town of innocents seems pretty atypical to say the least,” Candlemon said in slight disbelief.

“We would’ve thought the same, but, as it happens this one is all sorts of trigger-happy! We’ve all seen him with our own eyes!”

“HE’S COMING BACK!” Came a shout from a Digimon that looked more akin to a bald eagle to Art before he swooped for cover along with the rest of the occupants.

“We’d best get a look and see for sure while we have the chance,” Candlemon murmured, hopping towards the door, motioning for Art to follow. The human did so, though he kept low to the floor, crawling on his stomach to look up through the opening of the tavern entrance as a figure came passing by in spurred cowboy boots. From there, moving up to the rest of their bottom-half, he seemed quite normal, with a simple pair of blue jeans to complement the boots, though, once Art got to the figure’s torso… that’s where things took a jarring turn. His upper body seemed to make up a giant gun barrel, with spring-like arms, gloved hands grasping two more handguns. A ragged bandanna and a ten-gallon hat were all that one could make out for the creature’s head, said bandanna flowing back as a gust of wind passed through the village, the light whistle of the breeze only contested by the humanoid revolver’s footsteps.

Candlemon motioned Art to fall back as the gunman began to scout about for what one could assume was a new target. Art shuffled his way backward, cringing at the splintery wooden floor digging at him with each movement.

“Yes, no doubt about it, that’s a Deputymon…” Candlemon whispered as he similarly moved back with the others.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me with this guy… A gun… carrying more guns… Is that not a little overkill?” Art stated, mouth slightly agape at the sight he’d seen, something that likely could’ve fit right at home with a political cartoon.

“Oh, you’d be surprised. Those of us that use guns… well… they tend to pull out all the stops.”

Candlemon’s words were immediately followed by the sound of rapid gunfire, but the shots didn’t seem to be aimed at anything in particular, going off in different directions. After they ceased, there was a quiet pause… the footsteps emanated once more, and slowly faded.

“He should leave us alone for a few moments more now…” Biyomon said, fluttering over to check on the others, making sure no one had gotten hit by a stray shot.

“Have any of you attempted an escape?” Candlemon asked another nearby Digimon shaped like that of a bright yellow armadillo with fan-like ears.

“A few… but most of us didn’t have enough time. Deputymon’s quick on the draw. Anyone who makes a break for it is guaranteed to have to dodge some heavy firepower.”

“Yet he never bothers to walk into any of the buildings it seems…” Candlemon said, pondering this observation some more.

“Seems almost like he’s just staking a claim to all the territory outside… but what sense would that make?” Art asked.

“Little… But then… if the source of this violent behavior is coming from where I think it is, that might explain the lapse in this fellow’s logic,” Candlemon said with a knowing glance.

“Another one of those orbs then…” Art guessed.

“Precisely.”

Knowing the answer didn’t seem to make the human feel much better. “Then what the hell do we do? You’re stuck in this… lower form, I mean, I don’t know what this digivice I’ve got is capable of, but… I’d say it’s pretty high odds we won’t be able to get you back to Wisemon so easily again.”

“Likely not, but, like you said, you haven’t familiarized yourself with it… There’s no better time to learn,” Candlemon suggested. Art couldn’t necessarily argue with that, pulling out the digivice to observe it more keenly.

It was an egg-shaped device, not unlike the design at the end of Wizardmon’s staff, with a gold exterior to match, and a strange, rune-like language engraved around the upper end. The screen at first glance seemed like nothing more complex than something out of a calculator, with three buttons to access. It was much like the toys from the virtual pet craze decades prior… in fact, scarily accurate to those toys to his recollection, but obviously this wasn’t quite so simple in its function.

As his thumb hovered over the button at the middle, the screen didn’t respond, and indeed, pressing the button brought no response. However, as he moved to press the button on the left, the screen flashed the word ‘BEAM’ at him, and as he moved toward the button on the right, the word changed to ‘ID’. Admittedly ID seemed a little less suspect than BEAM, so, he decided to press the righthand button and the device seemed to briefly shake before a surprisingly visible green laser shot out of it, hitting the bald-eagle Digimon who’d last played sentry to the group, though he didn’t seem to react to the contact in any way. The seemingly simple screen suddenly projected a sort of holographic image, displaying the avian with the designation ‘Hawkmon, Rookie Level, Bird Type, Data Attribute’.

Directing the laser over to Candlemon, the features on screen changed in turn – ‘Candlemon, Rookie Level, Fire Type, Data Attribute’.

“Guess I should’ve guessed ID would be an identifier function… but I can’t make heads or tails out of most of the stuff it’s spewing here…” Art said, compelling Candlemon to take a look at the holographic image for himself.

“Ah… I believe I can help with that. Levels you can probably figure out most easily, essentially how much data we’re composed of, ergo our power and energy levels. We start as Digi-Eggs, then move up to Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, and, for most we stop at Champion, but, with enough time and effort, or, with outside forces involved, there are two more levels, Ultimate and Mega, but Digimon of that caliber are naturally of a rarer ilk.”

“So that would make Wizardmon your Champion form and Wisemon your Ultimate?” Art guessed after seemingly connecting the dots.

“Right you are… Now… regarding type, that’s mostly just what we look like or what we’re associated with… Birds, fire, dragons, wizards, and plenty of which I am still not-too-familiar with myself. Then there’s the matter of attributes… How to put this…” he took a moment, crossing his wax arms as both flame and candlestick gave a pondering look. “Attributes lump us mostly by a sort of… general personality. Data, Vaccine and Virus are the most common. Data tend to keep to their own personal endeavors; Vaccines are rather cavalier ‘greater-good’ sorts most often, and Viruses are typically aggressive and ruthless in their motives… but that is more a basic instinct thing for all three. You’ll find one’s attribute doesn’t speak for their alignment, especially considering it often changes when one digivolves.”

“…You sure know your stuff…” Art remarked. “This uh… common knowledge? How many of you Digimon figure all this stuff out?”

“Some, but not all. You’re lucky to have partnered up with someone so well-read, not that your choices were plentiful,” Candlemon said with a chuckle, but that was quickly broken off by the sound of more gunfire outside, everyone flinching and ducking for cover once again. “That Deputymon’s gonna leave all these poor Digimon cowering for the rest of their lives if we don’t stop him! What does that other button do?”

“I dunno… Just says ‘beam’ when I move toward pushing it,” Art explained.

“Beam…” Candlemon’s eyes narrowed in thought. “…Perhaps that is the key…” He proceeded to hop his way behind the bar, grabbing the first empty glass he saw and holding it out towards Art. “Right… try it on this first.”

Art raised the digivice up to aim at the glass, pressing the lefthand button. The device immediately fired a bright yellow beam of energy that seemed to pass harmlessly through the glass and out the tavern. The device gave a beeping sound and the screen showed a ‘3’ that suddenly changed to a ‘2’ before going blank again.

“Proves my assumption that it isn’t some destructive energy blast… I have a theory, and this might come across as a bit of a strange request, but… I want you to try hitting me with it now,” Candlemon said as he placed the glass down. As he figured, Art looked a little taken aback by such a request.

“…You understand I have reservations regarding shooting my partner with a beam we don’t fully know the capabilities of?” he said.

“Of course, but, I’m serious, you must trust me on this. I’m… mostly positive it won’t bring me any harm,” he said, continually proving that reassurance wasn’t his strong suit. Nonetheless, after some more understandable hesitation, Art merely let out a sigh and pointed the digivice up at Candlemon.

“Sure hope you’re right about that then… Okay… here goes…” Squinting his eyes as if prepared to immediately shut them at the first sign of carnage, Art pressed the left button again, another beam firing, but as it reached Candlemon, the light from which it was constructed came to a halt, surrounding him in its glow for a few moments before dissipating. Candlemon had merely closed his eyes, looking strangely tranquil.

“…So… what’s going on? What’re you feeling?” Art asked, still with some lingering concern.

“Quite calm, relaxed even… it’s as if getting hit with that beam brought any anxieties down quite drastically… which is another point for the theory I’m leaning towards.”

“And this theory… Care to… y’know… share it?” Art asked.

“That beam function could potentially force the orb out of that Deputymon on its own… I’d be willing to bet it’s a sort of clean-up tool, something that could remove such invasive substances from a Digimon without forcing us to overpower them through direct combat,” Candlemon said, running a hand along their face in a mock chin-stroking motion.

“So, we shoot him with the beam… and theoretically, if there’s some mind-controlling orb in him, it’ll just pop right out and, boom, rampage over?” Art said with a sort of look of hope that it would indeed be as simple as that.

“That is my hunch… maybe you can even get him from back here when he passes by… that doorway has a good amount of space to fire under,” Candlemon suggested.

“Okay… it’s worth a shot… Next time he comes around…” Art said in agreement, taking aim under the door, beads of sweat pouring down his face as he listened to the distant footsteps get steadily louder and louder until those spurred boots came back into view. Holding his breath, he fired the beam, the screen going from 1 to 0 as the light made its mark… “Is it… is it working?”

Candlemon looked closely, but, to his horror, he didn’t notice an orb of any kind leaving the Deputymon, who had come to a halt from the impact of the beam… but it hadn’t stopped him for long. Far from it… he had turned away from his near-mechanical pacing trail, heading straight for the tavern.

“He’s coming this way!” Hawkmon shouted.

“Art, shoot him again! Hurry!” Candlemon said as panic began to set in.

“I can’t!” the human shouted back as he continually pressed the button to no avail, the screen flashing a red image of the number 0 and a slowly growing progress bar beneath it. “It must have a limited number of shots before it has to recharge!”

Biyomon flew to the other side of the tavern, flapping her wings as a green, spiraling flame seemed to manifest around her, launching the fire attack into the closest wall, burning a large hole into it leading outside.

“Hawkmon, get the younger ones and make a break for it! The rest of us are gonna try to hold him off!” she said quite commandingly. The red-feathered bald eagle, despite clearly not looking too keen on abandoning his comrades, nonetheless complied, beckoning all the small, blob-like Digimon to evacuate through makeshift exit, looking back at the others for a moment before similarly making his escape while the remaining rookie levels readied themselves for battle.

Guilt-ridden that the scheme only served to place them all at greater risk, Art seemed to be trying to stammer out an apology.

“Candlemon, shut the human up and try to figure something out, ‘cause otherwise we’re all looking at a last stand right here!” Biyomon chirped just as the doors swung open. Without hesitation all the Digimon flung attacks at the Deputymon at once, and though nothing seemed to stagger his step, it was at least enough to keep him from easily firing a clean shot at anyone… for now.

Candlemon, for his part, stood in front of Art and began to rapidly fire globs of hot wax at their opponent, managing to coat one of Deputymon’s pistols just before it could get a shot off in their direction. “Is it ready yet?” he shouted to Art who had frantically kept watch on the Digivice.

“Not yet! We just need a few more seconds!” Art replied, watching the progress bar creep agonizingly closely towards full.

The collective efforts of the rookie Digimon were starting to falter, exhausting themselves with such a vicious assault, though Deputymon, despite being thoroughly distracted, wasn’t looking much worse for wear. To make matters worse, with one less handgun, he had resorted to firing from the barrel that composed of his chest, the large energy blasts knocking the Armadillomon back just as he had curled up and attempted to launch himself at the mutant revolver. Though he had fortunately not been entirely obliterated by the shot, from how he was helplessly wobbling on his back, near unresponsive, it wouldn’t take much to finish the job.

“Art, I hate to alarm you but we’re about to start seeing some casualties here, we’ve got to do something!” Candlemon shouted, having switched from lobbing wax to small embers of flame, likely tiring himself out by this point as well.

Art anxiously stared at his digivice screen. Still not enough time… but time was something they just didn’t have… Internally he pleaded with someone, something, anything, to give them a few more seconds… and as if to answer those prayers, the screen flashed the message “Digivolution” once more.

“Candlemon! Heads up!” Art shouted as he pressed the center button with haste, an intense ray of light hitting his partner and once more bathing the entire vicinity for a moment as Candlemon seemed to twirl about in the air before metamorphizing into a familiar humanoid shape. In an instant, Wizardmon was back on the scene, pulling down his pointy hat and drawing his staff, launching a ball of lightning towards Deputymon, the explosive energy ball finally managing to knock him backward.

“Ah, much better indeed,” Wizardmon said, clearly more comfortable being back in this state and, with some newfound rejuvenation, began to launch more attacks at Deputymon, the other Digimon taking this moment to stand down and recuperate.

As magic and gunfire began to collide over and over, Art knew this was only a temporary reprieve from their inevitable defeats. If this Deputymon was really under the same influence as the Coredramon, he’d take the upper-hand eventually… Fortunately, the digivolution was proving a lengthy enough diversion, and Art’s digivice flashed a blue light as the 0 turned back into a 3. Terrifying as it was to step into the line of fire, Art threw caution to the wind and ran up to get a closer view of Deputymon, firing another beam right at his gun-chest… but aside from flinching once more and getting knocked away by another of Wizardmon’s combustive spells, nothing came of it.

“It’s still not working!” Art cried out in frustration, tumbling backward as a shot narrowly grazed the side of his hat.

“Perhaps… there must be something we’re still neglecting…” Wizardmon muttered, already looking like he was beginning to tire, though his eyes seemed to nearly pop right out of their sockets as an epiphany struck. “Art! Perhaps you need to hit the location where the orb is situated!”

“Where would that be?”

“Look, any Deputymon I’ve ever seen has two yellow eyes peeking out from under their hat… but look at this one!” As Wizardmon spoke, he seemed to harness as much energy as he could conjure into his free hand which began to glow a bright violet, and Deputymon’s movements stiffened, temporarily pausing the chaos long enough for Art to notice that there were, in fact, no eyes at all between his hat and his bandanna. “You have to hit him squarely in the head. Quickly!”

Art took aim for the headshot and fired, but Wizardmon’s spell broke just in time for Deputymon to shift away. One shot left… Art knew if he missed here, they wouldn’t get another chance. He needed to make sure this last shot was point blank. Forcing himself to act on impulse, he ran right up to the Deputymon just as his pistol chest prepared for another devastating blast. Art let out a shaky battle cry as he jabbed the digivice right into the gunman’s blank face and fired the last beam.

All three combatants were blown back and a cloud of dust had kicked up, but through the blinding dust particles, a shadowy orb could be seen rising up into the air and blinking out of existence. As the smoke cleared, Deputymon remained flat on his back, his hat several feet behind him. Wizardmon looked to the other side of the battleground and saw that Art was still knocked prone as well, frantically moving over to his partner, but looking thoroughly relieved when, not only was there no sign of any outstanding injury like, say, a hole in the man’s chest, but he was quickly coming around, propping himself up with his elbows.

“Did it… Did it work?” the human asked, naturally a little delirious.

“Indeed it did… but I swear, you need to stop being such a damn fool! One shot from that barrel and that would’ve been it!” Wizardmon shouted, sounding like some concerned parent scolding their child.

“Hey, you know… I had to make sure that last shot landed. You think I was going to screw this up and doom the rest of you? I’ll take that gamble again if I have to,” Art said with thorough conviction, merely causing Wizardmon to clutch his own face in his gloved hand and shake his head, though Art could detect a faint chuckle rumbling from his concealed lips.

“…Seems I’ve picked quite the self-destructive Tamer indeed… Well, I’m just happy you were quicker on the draw when it counted,” he said, taking the human’s arm in his to pull him back up to his feet. The rest of the Digimon convened around them, but leapt backwards as they heard Deputymon let out a groan as he emerged from his unconscious state.

“Is he… Did you… well… fix him, or whatever?” Biyomon asked cautiously.

“I believe we did… There shouldn’t be anything to fear, but, to be safe, you lot might want to stand back until we make sure,” Wizardmon said, motioning for Art to approach their hopefully ex-foe as he put his hat back on his head and opened his now-fully-visible yellow eyes.

“Ah… what in Sam Hill…” Deputymon muttered in a distinctly movie-western accent, shaking his head to force himself fully back into lucidity. “Reckon that was a horrible nightmare… or… rather… one that came true…” he said upon coming to a steady realization over where he was and what had happened.

“You were under another’s influence, my friend, some invasive parasite that drove you into an uncontrollable rage,” Wizardmon explained. “What is it that you last recall before this ‘nightmare’ began?”

Deputymon’s eyes narrowed as he mulled that question over, doing his best to retrace his own steps. “Well… I’d been moseyin’ along from town to town, an’ I’d heard whispers of a village out in the desert area that was in need of more powerful Digimon to protect it… Reckon it was this very town here, so I’d set out to make my way over an’ offer my services as that protector… but then… somethin’ happened along the way… Ugh… Tarnation, every time I try to think about it everythin’ goes all hazy-like… but… there was someone there… they threw some kinda spherical thing at me and… from there it all turned into a dream I couldn’t wake myself up from…”

“Hmm… They were clever enough to ensure he couldn’t easily recall his attacker in detail…” Wizardmon murmured, subtly nodding as if he expected as much.

“Alls I know for sure is… it’s lookin’ like I’ve got a heckuva lot to make right with this here town…” Deputymon stated guiltily, looking over to Biyomon and the others. “If you’re fixin’ to lock me up an’ eat the key, I won’t be puttin’ up a fight. Just promise you’ll lend me a deck’a cards is all…”

Biyomon looked to Deputymon at that, but was quiet for at least a good minute.

“…If you were really under something else’s control, I think we can come to forgive you for this… Perhaps if you prove yourself trustworthy enough, we’ll be able to accept you in full as a citizen,” she said, seemingly lightening up her expressions at that. “After all it does seem that at least one person here has already proven they’re more trustworthy than we’d have expected,” she said, looking to Art specifically. “I think it’s best to warn you that you humans are much more known through rumors than any direct encounters… and I’m afraid those rumors don’t paint you in the friendliest of lights… You might not get the warmest reception wherever you travel… but I certainly hope you can convince them that you’re much more well-meaning… Thank you… Wizardmon’s judgement in companions seems sound.”

“Well ah… it’s no problem, don’t mention it,” Art replied with a humble chuckle.

From there, Wizardmon proceeded to use his magic to help repair the parts of the town that had been most thoroughly damaged, and soon after, he and Art were preparing to set off.

“Wait… Reckon there’s one more thing I ought’a tell ya… It’s kinda itchin’ at the back’a my head…” Deputymon said, halting them before they left. “Don’t know if it’s just lingerin’ stuff from that earlier mind-controllin’ fiasco, but… I keep seein’ this big ol’ estate standin’ on its own in some kinda big, dark forest northways,” he said as he pointed northward. “If you fellas need some kinda direction, maybe you can ride off an’ look for it yourself.”

“A suspicious mansion in the woods you say… I will admit that is certainly more my sort of forte,” Wizardmon quipped. “Thank you for that, Deputymon… and good luck, I certainly hope you and these people can move past this misunderstanding in time.”

“Reckon we’ll see. Thank ya kindly, Wizardmon… an’… Art, was it? Good luck to ya both as well,” he said with a wave of his hat, as the rest of the townsfolk, finally free to step outside, waved their collective goodbyes and well-wishes before Art and Wizardmon were out of sight.

“So we’re heading towards a haunted house… I mean, hey, it’s still more lively than a desert,” Art said humorously, though Wizardmon didn’t say anything in reply. Art looked over and saw that the Wizard Digimon had been clutching his chest with a clear look of discomfort in his eyes. “Hey… Everything okay over there?” Art asked with a growing sense of worry.

“…It’s… It’s fine, don’t fret…” Wizardmon answered, pausing to take a deep breath before continuing to walk in a more upright position. “Just a strange feeling for a moment there, but it’s passed.”
~~~
‘Good move, very good move,’ a message appeared on a monitor, its sender anonymous, its source seemingly untraceable.

‘I figured it was only a matter of time before you noticed,’ came the reply, popping up in a similar undisclosed fashion.

‘Oh, we’ve noticed we’ve had someone new to play with right from the start, don’t you fret about that. We just wanted to see if you were worth our time. You’ve certainly proven more than capable, in spite of having so few pieces on the board… yet your pieces attract reinforcements quite admirably, eh?’

‘Who are you?’

‘We could be any number of things, stranger, but we think we’ll leave you to figure that one out for yourself. After all, we’re much more interested in finding out who you are.’

A pause… no reply came for a moment. Whoever this was, they were evidently looking to be cautious about this.

‘I believe it would be for my best interests not to clue you in on that information.’

‘Oh, most definitely, but it will be so much fun when we finally get it out of you… and then we can have a nice chat face-to-face. We would enjoy that quite a bit.’

‘Whatever reason you have for all this corruption, I will not let you tarnish what we’ve worked so hard to maintain.’

‘Do you not consider what you’ve done to be a corruption in its own right? Sending yet another human into the Digital World, sending Digimon into the real world… toying with realities like that. You can point your finger at us all you want, but we think you’ve been plenty naughty yourself.’

‘Whatever measures I must take to stop you I will, don’t think you can guilt me into thinking otherwise.’

‘We’re happy to hear that, you wouldn’t be such a fun playmate if you broke so soon. Now, you’ve moved your pieces, and like we said, it was quite a good move indeed, but now it’s our turn again.’

‘Make your move. I’ll stop you each time, don’t think I can’t keep this up.’


‘Let’s put that to the test then, shall we? So exciting, and such high stakes too. Playing for the fate of two worlds is such a thrill. Don’t let us down, friend.’

The connection was severed in an instant, the messages seemed to blink out of sight, and the players set to continue their game.