[i]“This shit’s broken.” “considering it’s you, could be.” “Hey, you stuck me with this. And you did it just fine before.” “have you tried rebooting the system?” “I am the system, you idiot. That’s a little tough to do.” “try it anyways.” “Maybe I should reboot you.” “not gonna happen, natty, i - ...whoa.” “Ok, how? Why the hell isn’t it working when I’m actually trying?” “no idea. but look! hands!” “I have no idea how you could possibly be older than me.” “mostly by being a sneaky -” “What?” “did you feel that?” “...is this a digimon thing?” “actually, yeah. something else came through.” “Well, fuck. ...good a time as any to see if this shit’ll work.”[/i] -- It was in the office district, thankfully late at night. The skyscrapers stood tall and dark, no one working in them at this hour. It did not make the area wholly abandoned - those driving through towards stores or their homes had to contend with the sudden thick fog rolling in, covering the streets and the sidewalks and alleyways. In one of those alleyways, something large formed. Its taloned feet dropped onto the ground, cracking the cement. Beads of moisture collected on its feathers, then scattered by a shake of its head. Its gaze easily pierced the fog - a bit of spillover from the Digital World. The way back was closed. That was fine. It would simply learn to survive here. To hunt in this new city. The Allomon growled as it began to walk, seeking new prey. -- Yotsuba had been spending quite a bit of that night talking to Terriermon. She had been learning all he had to tell her about the Digital World, good Digimon, bad Digimon, how he had to fight to survive at times. Life was easier for him compared to plenty of other Digimon, but not completely easy. She had asked him plenty of times how he ended up coming to her world, and it was something even he wasn’t sure about. He had been there for a few weeks, finally stumbling across the toy store, and hiding there for warmth and a safe place to sleep at night. And luckily for both of them, Yotsuba had managed to pick him out and take him home-- albeit not in the most honest way. Suddenly, Terriermon’s ears perked up and he let out a low growl as he leaped towards the window in Yotsuba’s room, grabbing onto it. “S-Something wrong, Terriermon?” Yotsuba asked, crawling over behind her friend, who still seemed to be agitated for some reason she wasn’t sure of. “There’s… something… out there!” he told her, still growling, with Yotsuba shushing a bit, hoping he would keep it down so her parents wouldn’t hear. “What’s out there?” she asked in a whisper. “A Digimon…” he told her, hopping off the window and taking a few steps back, before leaping at it, Yotsuba grabbed him and held him to the ground so as to prevent the chance at the sliding door in her room breaking from the impact or anything. “Why is it making you so upset?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “It’s big… and I don’t think it’s friendly. We have to get out there!” he told her, turning to face her as she let go of him. “Are you crazy? It’s late… we can’t go out there! I’ll get caught!” she told him, biting her lip nervously. “Come on Yotsuba, we have to!” he urged. She looked at the ground, and after letting out a sigh, she nodded. “Ok, ok, just let me pack up my clothes and stuff and we’ll get going. I’ll think of some excuse to leave,” she told him, and Terriermon nodded. It took a bit of time for Yotsuba to pack a suitable outfit and wig, along with some goggles she opted to bring just in case. She had Terriermon get into her backpack after and zipped it up, quickly heading into the living room, telling her parents that she had to go to a friend’s house to help study for a test they had tomorrow-- which worked, luckily. After getting a block or two away from her apartment, she went into a nearby alley, putting on her outfit, a school uniform for girls, a blonde wig, and putting the goggles on her head (opting not to put them over her eyes yet). Terriermon hopped in front of her, starting to run off in another frenzy, Yotsuba trailing behind as quickly as she could. -- Allomon stopped and sniffed the air. Data. Good to know that would be able to find suitable prey, wherever it was. It turned towards the smell and saw two figures approaching - one was unfamiliar, but the other other one looked like a Terriermon. Roasted rabbit sounded delicious. “Dino Burst!” The fire streamed from its mouth, aimed at the small Rookie-level. The other one, it could sample later. As soon as the fire started coming out of Allomon’s mouth, Terriermon and Yotsuba rushed out of the way. “Ok, you stay out of the way, I’ll fight it. If you get hit you’ll get hurt way too badly by that,” Terriermon told her as he started to run towards Allomon as quickly as his feet could carry him. Yotsuba gave a hard gulp, nervous about her new friend fighting this giant beast. She couldn’t let him go it alone, so she got up, following behind him-- albeit from a good distance. Terriermon jumped up, quickly spinning. “Terrier Tornado!” he shouted, before spinning so fast he looked like a literal tornado himself. The tornado shot away from him, moving quickly towards Allomon, and hanging in the air for a bit to watch as the small green tornado hit Allomon. Allomon’s head turned at the force of the attack - but, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have done much else. It righted itself, growling at Terriermon. Little thing had some fight, to be sure, and that was annoying in food, but so far this was all it had. So be it. “Dynamite Head!” It charged at Terriermon, hoping to catch him before he could land and evade the blow. Both Yotsuba and Terriermon grimaced as the attacked seemed to do just about nothing to Allomon. As Allomon started to charge at Terriermon, Yotsuba let out a yelp, but unfortunately couldn’t do much and was hit, and sent hurtling to the ground. “Terriermon!” Yotsuba screamed, starting to run over as Terriermon got up, hurt, but still in good enough shape to keep fighting. Terriermon started running towards Allomon again. “Bunny Blast!” he shouted, shooting a few blasts of superhot air at his legs before jumping up, shooting another one at Allomon’s face. The attacks to the legs made the Allomon stagger back, wincing. Its skull was apparently too hard to be affected by the Bunny Blast, but not the rest of its body. It shook its head and steadied itself before opening its jaw. Terriermon wanted heat? “Dino Burst!” Again, flames swept out aiming at where Terriermon would likely land. Terriermon started to land, and Yotsuba ran forward, not noticing the attack that Allomon was readying up-- instead wanting to protect her friend. As Terriermon landed, he had already noticed that Allomon was getting ready to attack again, and grabbed onto Yotsuba’s goggles as best he could, using his ears to try and lift them away just out of range. And as much of a longshot as it was, the two barely managed to avoid the flames, and the dust that was kicked up sending the two hurtling away a bit, knocking them both on the ground. They were down. It was was time to strike a finishing blow. Allomon opened its mouth- “darkness gear!” The attack impacted against its teeth. Allomon roared, growling at it faced the yellow-eyed Hagurumon floating not so far away. “Dynamite Head!” It charged at the machine digimon, who dropped down to avoid the massive dinosaur. Footsteps approached Yotsuba and stopped, a very familiar face looking down to her before he spoke, voice same as it had been that afternoon: “Tell me, you think the universe really likes you or is it just hoping for a repeat performance? Because there’s no way you should be alive right now.” Yotsuba quirked an eyebrow, confused, while Terriermon was getting up. Once she realized who it was, her face turned red and she smiled, “Nice to see you too,” she said, trying her best not to be offended by the comment. She finally got up, dusting herself off, “We were doing fine-- but thanks for the help,” she said, still smiling. “Ok, ok, let’s get back to this,” Terriermon said, taking a moment to catch his breath before literally leaping back into battle to assist Hagurumon. “Bunny Blast!” Terriermon shouted, shooting another barrage of superhot air blasts at Allomon, this time opting to aim for his body and legs instead of its head. Yotsuba grinned and clenched her fists in excitement, turning briefly to look at her friend who had decided to help her out. “I didn’t know you had a Digimon too,” she said, before looking back at Allomon, cheering Terriermon on. He raised an eyebrow at her before nodding curtly. “Picked up the bastard a few days ago.” Allomon stumbled at the attacks Terriermon launched, and Hagurumon made his move: “gear roller!” He swooped at Allomon’s legs and, when close, rolled the left ankle between one of the hand gears and the main body gear. Allomon fell to the ground - not beaten but certainly crippled. Hagurumon came to a halt near Terriermon. “...hi there.” The machine digimon waved. “friendly, i hope?” He looked to the Allomon, trying to right itself. “well, anyways, he suggested I just shoot darkness gears down allomon’s throat if he tries another dino burst. guessing you could do something similar.” Yotsuba seemed confused. Despite only meeting him a few hours ago, something seemed… different about him, his mannerisms, something. She mentally shook the thought away, maybe he was like Terriermon in that he got a bit different during a fight? When Hagurumon waved, Terriermon waved back, “Yup, I’m friendly! Just wanting to stop this big lug,” he told Hagurumon, looking over as Allomon was starting to recover from the assaults. “Both of us attack when he opens his mouth and aim for the mouth, got it!” Terriermon said with a small smile before leaping up in the air again, waiting for the right moment to attack. Allomon snarled at the two Rookies. It was not going to be beaten by them - it refused. It opened its mouth, fire collecting in the back of its throat and giving it a ghastly look- “now! darkness gears!” Hagurumon launched the small explosive gears. Terriermon nodded, prepping his attack, “Bunny Blast!” and more of the superhot air blasts shot from his mouth straight towards Allomon’s open mouth. Both attacks hit where they needed to. The Allomon gasped for air that it couldn’t get before its head fell to the ground. Its outline grew fuzzy and pixelated before dissolving altogether, the dinosaur digimon vanishing into the aether. Hagurumon smiled. “that went pretty good, terriermon.” He glanced to his tamer, who was impatiently tapping his foot. “i think i’m wanted elsewhere. sorry about him.” He flew over to the boy’s side. The boy gave Yotsuba one last contemptuous look. “You can keep doing what you were trying back there. But don’t come crying to me if you or the bunny get killed. Come on, Hagurumon.” He walked away, the machine digimon muttering something under his breath. Terriermon nodded to Hagurumon, “Yeah, we did pretty darn good,” he said with a small smile, watching as Hagurumon flew over, deciding to slowly walk over to Yotsuba now. Yotsuba looked at the place where Allomon once was. “So is it… gone for good?” she asked and Terriermon nodded. “Yup, we beat that thing, it won’t be coming back around these parts at all,” he told her. Yotsuba looked to face the boy. “Thanks for the help, we might not have made it without you guys,” Yotsuba told the boy and Hagurumon, but looking confused at his next comment. “H-Hey! We were doing fine before you came along!” she said angrily, crossing her arms and turning red. “He wasn’t like this earlier… I wonder what’s up with him…” she muttered to herself as Terriermon stopped next to her. “Shouldn’t we go back home now?” he asked, poking at her leg slightly. “Crap! You’re right!” she said nervously, grabbing her companion and running off to get changed and get home.