1-05 Oceanic Assault
E.I.G.
Robo-Bird
- Pronouns
- It/They
--- Oceanic Assault ---
"I take it from your eyes that we didn't have any luck fixing things?" Janice asked as they returned from the medical Box in a tight group.
"Huh?" a once more human Shawn asked blinking red slit eyes. He looked over to Serperior and frowned at how the snake pokemon's eyes were still blue and round. "I guess she didn't bother reshuffling our eyes?"
"Given how hissed off she was with doing it at all I can see her skipping it," Serperior said earning an annoyed look from the Troubleshooter Lead.
"Great, now we have them in stereo. Is his new speaking ability going to be a long term change?" she asked the floating Porygon causing the Grass type's eyes to widen.
"I'm still over here," the rabbit like digimon said in the voice of A-0, "and we've always had it in stereo, you just couldn't hear the worse half of it." It walked over to the console by the transmission pad and began configuring it. "They decided to go through with something stupidly risky to give us back our heavy hitter."
"Meanwhile I got a crash course in how to let someone breathe water temporarily. Apparently that is risky to still have going when you leave a digital world?" Gazimon asked from the polygonal pokemon.
"It causes complications that take days to fix. I'm guessing this eye thing isn't going to be even a multiple week fix?" she replied turning back to her console.
The shocked snake pokemon was still staring at the Lead. "I'm talking? Like, as a human talking?" he asked with worry sliding forward towards the other console.
"Focus Serp, we can deal with the fallout after the fact. Is there any way to track Charlie 80 better? An island closer to his position would either be a better place to land or a rather rough fight," Shawn said moving aside obviously to give a spot for his starter to thread back onto the pad.
"That should be simple enough if we take down enough of the little guys." A-0 stretched out his current body, looking over his claws. "How good is that kickboxing of yours, Shawn?"
"Well my lessons were mostly a giant bird getting to laugh at me while I fell down mimicking him," the trainer replied giving a brief but strong kick outwards that was wrapped in a hint of tan glow. "Okay, I'm fairly sure I just figured out what Gazi meant with energy being easier to use. I think I was able to put some into that," he said as he stumbled a bit at the result.
"Okay, now I'm a bit worried. Stand back a bit," Serperior said eying his short leafy arms. After they cleared a good area away from any equipment the snake pokemon he sent a blast of leaves around himself. "Looks like you got a good chunk of my levels along with my old body. Do we have a plan B for when they show up with an army of pokemon we can't just smash recklessly."
"Plan B is already underway. I have contacted the trainers who have been using the Box and started having them recover as many pokemon as they can. Two are not in a good situation to do so, one is even in the middle of a desert right now," Janice said looking annoyed at the few leaves that had not broken down at the end of the move. "But we've got permission to assist those and will likely be doing a full health check after this is done." She looked over at A-0 and Gazimon. "So far six pokemon have not been able to be recovered, with an error message that implies some sort of delay. They all have been safely returned previously at some point since the issue started, but they are six of the more powerful pokemon that weren't in the initial part of the recovery effort. Whatever took over Charlie 80 is smart enough to figure out I was getting rid of its fighting power for when you got back."
"Shit," A-0 said shaking its head. "Shawn, you're either figuring out how to fight or staying behind. Gazimon, this is probably a pokemon level fighter here. Keep mobile and try and stay away from any captured pokemon." It sighed at the slightly upset look on the current Porygon's face. "We can try and capture it if possible, but this is one of the worst I've ever seen. That it is smart enough to not cause problems despite taking over the Box and is reacting to us attempting to cut off its threat indicates it could easily cause large amounts of problems for us when trying to take it down."
"I'm a little less sympathetic to a digimon that controls minds like that. I'm more worried about what exactly I'm going to be hiding from other than little dome things," Gazimon replied looking over at the Troubleshooter Lead. "The shelled thing seemed dangerous enough."
"The remaining pokemon are the Cloyster you met before, a Vaporeon, a Corsola, something called a Tirtoga, a Ka-bu-tops, and the fossil pokemon Omanyte," she listed off bringing up pictures of each. Other than the clam from before there was a blue four legged almost canine creature covered in fins, a pink thing looking like a rock with spiky growths, a dark blue turtle with a thick rock shell, a spiky brown pokemon that looked sort of like a bug, and a white spiral shell with a number of blue tentacles extending a short ways out its opening.
"Let me guess, a fossil hunter has half a Water type team missing?" Serperior asked pointing at the last three.
"The trainer currently in a desert, yes," she responded looking over the three. "So they are all fossil pokemon. Will that be a problem?"
"Only two of the six aren't extremely vulnerable to me, which means either it guessed right about me needing to go extra easy to keep them safe or it picked the absolute worst options depending on how you look at it." The snake pokemon now looked a lot more worried about plan B. "Do we have any level information on them?"
"I have what the trainers thought they were, and our own entry and exit scans to compare to that. The latter will have the issue that fossil pokemon are rare, so we are giving a rough guide there," she replied pulling up another data sheet. "Cloyster and Vaporeon are both in the 50s judging from their status and last known attacks. Corsola and Ka-bu-tops are in their 40s, with the latter noted as having evolved immediately prior to going into the Box. Finally the last two are in the 30s, with notes from their trainer that the 35 to 45 range is the expected evolution conditioning."
"There is some risk that the high level minds are in the lower level bodies," Shawn noted. "We can't be sure that is the way the corruption decided to split them."
"No, conditioning of the body is the most critical aspect for us right now," Serperior disagreed. "I can still take any of them easily, especially with the type disadvantage. The mind control is going to take a lot of their thoughts out of the equation, and if it is relying on the mind present then the same lack of familiarity Gazimon is currently dealing with should even things out." He looked over the data. "I'd treat them all in the 30s until proven otherwise."
"Are we sure they got switched back correctly?" Janice asked dryly. "Because it really is sounding like two Shawns here."
"They've both been like that as long as I've known them," A-0 said shaking its head. "I can't really imagine what it is like not knowing that the snake is just as wordy as his human."
"Is this level something you can compare with? Because a day ago you told me I was only around 10 and I'm hearing much bigger numbers here," Gazimon asked nervously watching the discussion his worried question had started.
"Level is technically the percentage measure of how close a pokemon is to their peak power. This is determined based on measurements of the pokemon in question, and data on the species overall. Generally a pokemon of a given level will be able to face an foe of around the same level on fairly equal ground, but that is more because the majority of pokemon are around the same general strength overall. Legendary pokemon are the notable exception as even the most basic of them tend to be stronger than an equivalent pokemon," Janice explained bringing up another document. After looking it over for a moment she stopped scrolling and frowned. "'Researchers deploy new cataloging software intended to collect and analyze information gained on rare and Legendary pokemon,'" she quoted turning to look at A-0 again. "It was looking for Legends and generally a collector?" The rabbit monster nodded with a touch of anger. "I'll see if I can find the code for it, maybe get you a plan C."
"Back to Gazi's question," Serperior said earning a sigh from the digital creature in question. "Most pokemon in the wild will vary in level based on their location, with lower level typically meaning younger. The outliers of a fairly young pokemon that has a high level are mainly found with trainers. For example in the rare locations where my species lives in the wild you could find individuals of our first form, Snivy, that are much older than I am." He motioned to Janice who after a moment brought up an image of a green reptile with thin arms and legs that resembled Serperior. "Snivy tend to be below level 20, as around that level we can evolve into Servine." Another image, this one having a longer body, more leaves, and far shorter proportioned arms. "At around level 40, the condition that our potential enemies are at, we finally can become Serperior serpents such as myself." He curled around on himself into a regal pose, that was marred slightly by the not quite fitting round blue eyes he now possessed. "I was in the 60 to 70 range, but I'd say offhand that I lost at least 10 levels from this whole mess."
"And how much stronger is 60 than 10?" Gazimon asked floating around the Grass type while looking over at the pictures of his prior forms.
"Below Level 10 can fight some, but generally should be kept out of any serious battle. Between levels 10 and 50 is fairly average for wild pokemon, and vary from destroying boulders to small hills. Past there you get the really strong pokemon that are able to reshape the land around them. At level 100 even a fairly common pokemon could possibly destroy a small mountain in a fairly short time frame. A strong Legendary can destroy an entire region at their peak power," Shawn noted with a somewhat joking smile that was made rather sinister by his slit red eyes.
"Ah, that doesn't sound too far from the difference between an In Training, a Rookie, and a Champion," Gazimon replied with the polygons of the body he was in changed to pale versions of their normal color. "I think that last one even sounds kinda like an Ultimate digimon."
"Right, does that help then? I want to get my brother safe and my body back some time today," A-0 said testily. "We know the threats, we fixed the firepower, and we even have an idea what we are after."
Gazimon froze in place for a moment, then bobbed in an approximation of a nod. Serperior grinned while moving onto the transport pad. Finally Shawn tapped the floor while still smiling before joining his starter. "Alright, I'll be ready if you need help again, and working on possible ways of assisting from outside the Box. Stay safe, and kick its ass," Janice said seriously before they once again transported into Box 180.
---
Serperior was attacking the small domes as soon as they landed, before their eyes even cleared. "Unidentified creature has reentered the local region. All entities are currently Swapped. Deploying improved containment units," the dull voice of the Administrator said from nowhere. The four of them quickly moved to deal with the already present mass of creatures that covered the island they arrived on. The small domes extended all the way to the shore of the small island.
"Gazimon, as soon as we get some space get the four of us water breathing," A-0 ordered rapidly slashing through the many digital life forms surrounding them. It focused more on clearing a spot than destroying as many as it could, pushing aside foes to create pileups of twitching polygons. Serperior was doing this more efficiently by sending spirals of leaves around the group over areas that the rabbit monster was not covering.
"I hear you, I hear you." The hopefully temporary Porygon had opened a single black colored pane that was scrolling through options using a simple command prompt. "I'm just worried that the whole week before I ended up here had a lot of me working on this sort of thing without a clue," he mumbled just barely audible over the combat. Commands slowly processed on the screen while Shawn split his attention between trying to assist Gazimon and keeping any enemies that got past the others away. The small domes sometimes shattering with his kicks.
"Vaporeon inbound," Serperior said looking at an unusually mobile segment of the water that as it approached was more clearly shown to be physical rather than digital like the rest of the ocean. It surged onto the beach, revealing a lighter portion of the puddle that was instead made of data. "And it somehow had the controller melt with it," the snake pokemon continued looking at the liquid dubiously. "A-0, can you hit just the digi part?"
The furry combatant looked over annoyed. "I thought that was why you and your partner got even more mixed up. No, I'm not going to be able to splash a puddle better than you," the currently Dark type replied before breathing out a wide cone of paralyzing gas to slow the approach of a smaller group that had spread out so it would take longer to hit them individually.
"Alright, hopefully this is a tough guy." The serpent started off with a few glowing leaves in an attempt to target the liquefied corruption more than the controlled pokemon. The watery body of the target sloshed aside and formed blue scaled paws to grip the digital sand better as it dodged. The opposing pokemon partially reformed showing clearly that it was a Vaporeon while keeping the digital life form as hard to hit liquid halfway down its back. "I'm going to need a bit of focus here, so do your best without me," Serperior said darting forward to close the distance in order to increase his accuracy.
Gazimon's pane was almost immediately broken by an attacking foe taking advantage of the new hole in their formation. The current Porygon barely managed a weak Signal Beam to take out the enemy that interrupted him. "Was this just a part of the plan I wasn't told?" he asked floating between the remaining two. Rather than restart his work he produced more of the energy attacks, slowly growing more proficient in using them.
"The plan assumed that we'd have a little time to clear a spot." Shawn was now moving much more to push or kick the many small domes away from the remaining trio. "I'm glad these ones don't seem to have an attack."
"Now I'm thinking I should have taught you how to make a dome shield too," A-0 shouted while making a long running slash through a great many of the smaller foes, the sight of which briefly distracted the other digital member of their group.
Serperior approached his foe with caution, more for the safety of his target than his own. The small domes were easily shoved or shattered, and they seemed to know it as they remained well out of his path in their single minded pursuit of his team. The Vaporeon's dull blue eyes seemed similarly focused, but with just enough awareness to know he would not allow it to pass as easily. Two more small groupings of spinning leaves made sure it stayed where it was as the serpent slid quickly towards the Water type.
The aqueous pokemon splattered downward instead of trying to move to the side, then fired a rainbow colored beam attack along the ground towards the plant pokemon. This produced a frozen trail that the Grass type easily slid past as the poorly aimed attack went wide. The use of the disadvantageously typed attack made the snake suspect that the corrupt research program wanted them captured rather than injured, as the trail of frozen land revealed that the icy results of the move were being increased, likely at a beneficial cost of damage.
Serperior would have liked a similar option himself to capture his target with minimal harm. Coiling physically around a puddle of water was a poor idea in general, and the other option of growing a multitude of small plants to tie up an overly mobile target was unlikely to work well on something they could try to drink instead. So instead he would simply have to remove the controlling creature while doing as little damage to his opponent as he could manage.
Seeing that its enemy was both able to avoid its ranged attack and closing fast the Vaporeon instead attempted to slam into Serperior, the movement quite off as if it expected to be considerably larger and likely armored. The snake pokemon took this movement to slash out with a sharp leaf along the liquefied part of the aquatic pokemon's body, slicing through the lighter colored area entirely. The digital portion of the liquefied target fragmented away quickly as the pokemon fell to the side panting and solidifying more as it tried to regain control of its current body.
The many domes surrounding the two pokemon shifted slowly in their movement to try and recapture the panting Water type. Serperior quickly wrapped around the now much more solid pokemon and sent a wave of leaves around them to clear a way back to the rest of the group. "Ugh, am I still in the fish?" the Vaporeon asked wearily.
"Can deal with that later, when out of this mess," the serpent replied quickly as he continued to move back to where the others were struggling with the shear number of enemies and set down the recovered pokemon. "One down, five to go!" he called out to them while sending out another blast of cutting leaves.
"Too bad it turns out we actually needed you handling the massive army trying to stop us," A-0 yelled back while rushing between the various piled up domes around the trio. Shawn was very busy keeping them off himself as well and Gazimon was doing slightly worse with his own attempts to keep the swarm away. Serperior quickly returned to dealing with a large arc around the group with another wave of glowing leaves while the Vaporeon managed to get back on their feet.
"They haven't been stopping for a while now," the Vaporeon said tiredly. "There were a bunch of Rock types the thing decided it liked and we couldn't do anything when they swarmed to get them." The fish like pokemon shook itself, small splatters of its body flying a short distance before moving back to it again. "It's been keeping them close to Manaphy while looking them over. They are the only ones of us that didn't end up switched."
"I take it you're actually Cloyster then? Any idea where your body ended up?" Shawn asked while moving over to check the pokemon. He quickly retrieved a few medical items from his bag and began working to restore the pokemon while the others reestablished their defenses.
"Yes I am, but I don't know where- Your eyes are red," the pokemon cut itself off. "Oh please tell me I didn't just get beaten by a human stuck in a snake."
"Don't worry about that, we've managed to mostly fix ourselves," the blue eyed snake said slashing with his entire body to clear a large pile of foes that had built up during his rush to take out the Vaporeon. "We've just got switched eyes right now."
"That one is his body right?" Gazimon asked pointing his body towards a shape rising out of the water. The mentioned Water/Ice pokemon then emerged from the water at the site he indicated.
Serperior gave a huff and started to move towards the new foe. "No! We need you here dealing with the army," A-0 shouted at him while leaping over a group in the direction of the clam. "I've got these things, I should be able to manage something," it continued holding out its claws.
As the snake pokemon continued to remake their defense along with Gazimon the latter's body quickly moved through the group of domes between them and Cloyster under A-0's control. Claws slashed at some of the enemies as it passed, but most were ignored in favor of the approaching pokemon. The Cloyster, presumably controlled by the corruption and inhabited by the Vaporeon, responded by sending another freezing beam towards the purplish digital monster. A-0 quickly rolled to the side, then dug under the ground to avoid further attacks on his approach.
Unlike with the fight against Vaporeon the dome creatures were still remaining around the pokemon as it was attacked. As a result A-0's burst from the ground close to its target hit a good number of them, with others flowing forward to attempt to capture him themselves. This distracted the clam pokemon long enough for the current digimon to get a quick slash close to the controlling dome, although the Water type was able to close its inner shell fast enough to block the attack.
The rabbit monster quickly jumped to the side, stomping another pair of the smaller foes, to avoid a surge of water that accompanied the grey shell opening again. The massive spike just above the dual type's head then swung towards A-0, easily dodged by the digital monster ducking low while it tried to hit the dome creature again. This time the digimon was able to graze the edge of the attacking pokemon, but the damage was minimal and it needed to retreat for a moment to fully avoid its opponent's strike.
It quickly sliced through the domes where it landed, with the creatures now moving away from the two combatants so that Cloyster could more easily attack. The pokemon slid on the sand in a quick twist to face A-0 again, this time firing the spike from above its head. Another spike took its place and quickly fired after it, and then a third in a brief but strong ranged attack. A-0 moved forward again threading between the first and second spike while letting the third graze along its arm as it brought the claws on the limb into contact with the small dome controlling the pokemon. The digital life form shattered, and the pokemon immediately spun around sending out another icy beam in an arc around it to hit more of the mind controlling creatures.
"Thanks," the Cloyster said looking over at the group slowly moving the defensive line towards the two of them. "Although you are the reason one of them latched on me to start, so really you owed me that much." The Water/Ice type continued to send attacks into the still rather thick waves of foes.
"Gazimon, how is that water breathing coming?" A-0 called over as the two sets of battles thinned the available targets from between the two groups enough to speed up their movements towards each other. This was helped by Vaporeon recovering enough to join in the assault on the side of the Troubleshooters.
"If you can spare some time from somehow using my body to fight I'd love to have some help!" the current Porygon replied with sarcastic anger. "I can see all the stuff you showed me over in Delta 2's place, but the snakes are still a mess I don't really want to work with. Not to mention knowing about this stuff is only making me more worried about what you've done to my body already."
"I think dealing with that can wait for you to be back inside your own body," Shawn said sitting down as Cloyster joined the defensive ring around the group. "Let me see what you've got there."
"No," A-0 said sliding in between the two of them. "The guy who has someone else's eyes does not get to mess with the rest of us, and yes that applies to you too Serperior."
"Sill busy fighting, but grateful for the help," the Grass type said briefly pointing to the two Water types that had moved to surround the rest of them.
"Right, first bring up a pane and we'll start with yourself," A-0 began to work Gazimon through the process. The single black pane reappeared, then after the short refresher on the process it flashed along with the Porygon's body. They repeated this for both Shawn and A-0 without any issue. "Why were you even worried?" the latter asked annoyed by how easily the process went. "Serperior, are you ready for this?"
"We can handle the Analyzers while you do whatever you need to do," the Vaporeon noted, getting a bob of agreement from Cloyster. "The big one is already slowing down how fast they are coming at us, and this is already a lot more of them than I expected us to be able to take down." Its words were confirmed by the more widely spaced waves of the small domes of corruption.
"Is everyone up for the next part, or do we extract now and come back after a rest?" Shawn asked the group as Gazimon worked on letting the Grass type breathe under the water.
"A short break to rest would be nice, but I don't want to try and go out again," Serperior replied. "Can you help Gazi make a shield to keep them out for a bit, A-0?"
"Yeah, I think I can. He honestly needs the experience more than you two do," the rabbit monster replied. "So you're off the hook for now."
"I take it from your eyes that we didn't have any luck fixing things?" Janice asked as they returned from the medical Box in a tight group.
"Huh?" a once more human Shawn asked blinking red slit eyes. He looked over to Serperior and frowned at how the snake pokemon's eyes were still blue and round. "I guess she didn't bother reshuffling our eyes?"
"Given how hissed off she was with doing it at all I can see her skipping it," Serperior said earning an annoyed look from the Troubleshooter Lead.
"Great, now we have them in stereo. Is his new speaking ability going to be a long term change?" she asked the floating Porygon causing the Grass type's eyes to widen.
"I'm still over here," the rabbit like digimon said in the voice of A-0, "and we've always had it in stereo, you just couldn't hear the worse half of it." It walked over to the console by the transmission pad and began configuring it. "They decided to go through with something stupidly risky to give us back our heavy hitter."
"Meanwhile I got a crash course in how to let someone breathe water temporarily. Apparently that is risky to still have going when you leave a digital world?" Gazimon asked from the polygonal pokemon.
"It causes complications that take days to fix. I'm guessing this eye thing isn't going to be even a multiple week fix?" she replied turning back to her console.
The shocked snake pokemon was still staring at the Lead. "I'm talking? Like, as a human talking?" he asked with worry sliding forward towards the other console.
"Focus Serp, we can deal with the fallout after the fact. Is there any way to track Charlie 80 better? An island closer to his position would either be a better place to land or a rather rough fight," Shawn said moving aside obviously to give a spot for his starter to thread back onto the pad.
"That should be simple enough if we take down enough of the little guys." A-0 stretched out his current body, looking over his claws. "How good is that kickboxing of yours, Shawn?"
"Well my lessons were mostly a giant bird getting to laugh at me while I fell down mimicking him," the trainer replied giving a brief but strong kick outwards that was wrapped in a hint of tan glow. "Okay, I'm fairly sure I just figured out what Gazi meant with energy being easier to use. I think I was able to put some into that," he said as he stumbled a bit at the result.
"Okay, now I'm a bit worried. Stand back a bit," Serperior said eying his short leafy arms. After they cleared a good area away from any equipment the snake pokemon he sent a blast of leaves around himself. "Looks like you got a good chunk of my levels along with my old body. Do we have a plan B for when they show up with an army of pokemon we can't just smash recklessly."
"Plan B is already underway. I have contacted the trainers who have been using the Box and started having them recover as many pokemon as they can. Two are not in a good situation to do so, one is even in the middle of a desert right now," Janice said looking annoyed at the few leaves that had not broken down at the end of the move. "But we've got permission to assist those and will likely be doing a full health check after this is done." She looked over at A-0 and Gazimon. "So far six pokemon have not been able to be recovered, with an error message that implies some sort of delay. They all have been safely returned previously at some point since the issue started, but they are six of the more powerful pokemon that weren't in the initial part of the recovery effort. Whatever took over Charlie 80 is smart enough to figure out I was getting rid of its fighting power for when you got back."
"Shit," A-0 said shaking its head. "Shawn, you're either figuring out how to fight or staying behind. Gazimon, this is probably a pokemon level fighter here. Keep mobile and try and stay away from any captured pokemon." It sighed at the slightly upset look on the current Porygon's face. "We can try and capture it if possible, but this is one of the worst I've ever seen. That it is smart enough to not cause problems despite taking over the Box and is reacting to us attempting to cut off its threat indicates it could easily cause large amounts of problems for us when trying to take it down."
"I'm a little less sympathetic to a digimon that controls minds like that. I'm more worried about what exactly I'm going to be hiding from other than little dome things," Gazimon replied looking over at the Troubleshooter Lead. "The shelled thing seemed dangerous enough."
"The remaining pokemon are the Cloyster you met before, a Vaporeon, a Corsola, something called a Tirtoga, a Ka-bu-tops, and the fossil pokemon Omanyte," she listed off bringing up pictures of each. Other than the clam from before there was a blue four legged almost canine creature covered in fins, a pink thing looking like a rock with spiky growths, a dark blue turtle with a thick rock shell, a spiky brown pokemon that looked sort of like a bug, and a white spiral shell with a number of blue tentacles extending a short ways out its opening.
"Let me guess, a fossil hunter has half a Water type team missing?" Serperior asked pointing at the last three.
"The trainer currently in a desert, yes," she responded looking over the three. "So they are all fossil pokemon. Will that be a problem?"
"Only two of the six aren't extremely vulnerable to me, which means either it guessed right about me needing to go extra easy to keep them safe or it picked the absolute worst options depending on how you look at it." The snake pokemon now looked a lot more worried about plan B. "Do we have any level information on them?"
"I have what the trainers thought they were, and our own entry and exit scans to compare to that. The latter will have the issue that fossil pokemon are rare, so we are giving a rough guide there," she replied pulling up another data sheet. "Cloyster and Vaporeon are both in the 50s judging from their status and last known attacks. Corsola and Ka-bu-tops are in their 40s, with the latter noted as having evolved immediately prior to going into the Box. Finally the last two are in the 30s, with notes from their trainer that the 35 to 45 range is the expected evolution conditioning."
"There is some risk that the high level minds are in the lower level bodies," Shawn noted. "We can't be sure that is the way the corruption decided to split them."
"No, conditioning of the body is the most critical aspect for us right now," Serperior disagreed. "I can still take any of them easily, especially with the type disadvantage. The mind control is going to take a lot of their thoughts out of the equation, and if it is relying on the mind present then the same lack of familiarity Gazimon is currently dealing with should even things out." He looked over the data. "I'd treat them all in the 30s until proven otherwise."
"Are we sure they got switched back correctly?" Janice asked dryly. "Because it really is sounding like two Shawns here."
"They've both been like that as long as I've known them," A-0 said shaking its head. "I can't really imagine what it is like not knowing that the snake is just as wordy as his human."
"Is this level something you can compare with? Because a day ago you told me I was only around 10 and I'm hearing much bigger numbers here," Gazimon asked nervously watching the discussion his worried question had started.
"Level is technically the percentage measure of how close a pokemon is to their peak power. This is determined based on measurements of the pokemon in question, and data on the species overall. Generally a pokemon of a given level will be able to face an foe of around the same level on fairly equal ground, but that is more because the majority of pokemon are around the same general strength overall. Legendary pokemon are the notable exception as even the most basic of them tend to be stronger than an equivalent pokemon," Janice explained bringing up another document. After looking it over for a moment she stopped scrolling and frowned. "'Researchers deploy new cataloging software intended to collect and analyze information gained on rare and Legendary pokemon,'" she quoted turning to look at A-0 again. "It was looking for Legends and generally a collector?" The rabbit monster nodded with a touch of anger. "I'll see if I can find the code for it, maybe get you a plan C."
"Back to Gazi's question," Serperior said earning a sigh from the digital creature in question. "Most pokemon in the wild will vary in level based on their location, with lower level typically meaning younger. The outliers of a fairly young pokemon that has a high level are mainly found with trainers. For example in the rare locations where my species lives in the wild you could find individuals of our first form, Snivy, that are much older than I am." He motioned to Janice who after a moment brought up an image of a green reptile with thin arms and legs that resembled Serperior. "Snivy tend to be below level 20, as around that level we can evolve into Servine." Another image, this one having a longer body, more leaves, and far shorter proportioned arms. "At around level 40, the condition that our potential enemies are at, we finally can become Serperior serpents such as myself." He curled around on himself into a regal pose, that was marred slightly by the not quite fitting round blue eyes he now possessed. "I was in the 60 to 70 range, but I'd say offhand that I lost at least 10 levels from this whole mess."
"And how much stronger is 60 than 10?" Gazimon asked floating around the Grass type while looking over at the pictures of his prior forms.
"Below Level 10 can fight some, but generally should be kept out of any serious battle. Between levels 10 and 50 is fairly average for wild pokemon, and vary from destroying boulders to small hills. Past there you get the really strong pokemon that are able to reshape the land around them. At level 100 even a fairly common pokemon could possibly destroy a small mountain in a fairly short time frame. A strong Legendary can destroy an entire region at their peak power," Shawn noted with a somewhat joking smile that was made rather sinister by his slit red eyes.
"Ah, that doesn't sound too far from the difference between an In Training, a Rookie, and a Champion," Gazimon replied with the polygons of the body he was in changed to pale versions of their normal color. "I think that last one even sounds kinda like an Ultimate digimon."
"Right, does that help then? I want to get my brother safe and my body back some time today," A-0 said testily. "We know the threats, we fixed the firepower, and we even have an idea what we are after."
Gazimon froze in place for a moment, then bobbed in an approximation of a nod. Serperior grinned while moving onto the transport pad. Finally Shawn tapped the floor while still smiling before joining his starter. "Alright, I'll be ready if you need help again, and working on possible ways of assisting from outside the Box. Stay safe, and kick its ass," Janice said seriously before they once again transported into Box 180.
---
Serperior was attacking the small domes as soon as they landed, before their eyes even cleared. "Unidentified creature has reentered the local region. All entities are currently Swapped. Deploying improved containment units," the dull voice of the Administrator said from nowhere. The four of them quickly moved to deal with the already present mass of creatures that covered the island they arrived on. The small domes extended all the way to the shore of the small island.
"Gazimon, as soon as we get some space get the four of us water breathing," A-0 ordered rapidly slashing through the many digital life forms surrounding them. It focused more on clearing a spot than destroying as many as it could, pushing aside foes to create pileups of twitching polygons. Serperior was doing this more efficiently by sending spirals of leaves around the group over areas that the rabbit monster was not covering.
"I hear you, I hear you." The hopefully temporary Porygon had opened a single black colored pane that was scrolling through options using a simple command prompt. "I'm just worried that the whole week before I ended up here had a lot of me working on this sort of thing without a clue," he mumbled just barely audible over the combat. Commands slowly processed on the screen while Shawn split his attention between trying to assist Gazimon and keeping any enemies that got past the others away. The small domes sometimes shattering with his kicks.
"Vaporeon inbound," Serperior said looking at an unusually mobile segment of the water that as it approached was more clearly shown to be physical rather than digital like the rest of the ocean. It surged onto the beach, revealing a lighter portion of the puddle that was instead made of data. "And it somehow had the controller melt with it," the snake pokemon continued looking at the liquid dubiously. "A-0, can you hit just the digi part?"
The furry combatant looked over annoyed. "I thought that was why you and your partner got even more mixed up. No, I'm not going to be able to splash a puddle better than you," the currently Dark type replied before breathing out a wide cone of paralyzing gas to slow the approach of a smaller group that had spread out so it would take longer to hit them individually.
"Alright, hopefully this is a tough guy." The serpent started off with a few glowing leaves in an attempt to target the liquefied corruption more than the controlled pokemon. The watery body of the target sloshed aside and formed blue scaled paws to grip the digital sand better as it dodged. The opposing pokemon partially reformed showing clearly that it was a Vaporeon while keeping the digital life form as hard to hit liquid halfway down its back. "I'm going to need a bit of focus here, so do your best without me," Serperior said darting forward to close the distance in order to increase his accuracy.
Gazimon's pane was almost immediately broken by an attacking foe taking advantage of the new hole in their formation. The current Porygon barely managed a weak Signal Beam to take out the enemy that interrupted him. "Was this just a part of the plan I wasn't told?" he asked floating between the remaining two. Rather than restart his work he produced more of the energy attacks, slowly growing more proficient in using them.
"The plan assumed that we'd have a little time to clear a spot." Shawn was now moving much more to push or kick the many small domes away from the remaining trio. "I'm glad these ones don't seem to have an attack."
"Now I'm thinking I should have taught you how to make a dome shield too," A-0 shouted while making a long running slash through a great many of the smaller foes, the sight of which briefly distracted the other digital member of their group.
Serperior approached his foe with caution, more for the safety of his target than his own. The small domes were easily shoved or shattered, and they seemed to know it as they remained well out of his path in their single minded pursuit of his team. The Vaporeon's dull blue eyes seemed similarly focused, but with just enough awareness to know he would not allow it to pass as easily. Two more small groupings of spinning leaves made sure it stayed where it was as the serpent slid quickly towards the Water type.
The aqueous pokemon splattered downward instead of trying to move to the side, then fired a rainbow colored beam attack along the ground towards the plant pokemon. This produced a frozen trail that the Grass type easily slid past as the poorly aimed attack went wide. The use of the disadvantageously typed attack made the snake suspect that the corrupt research program wanted them captured rather than injured, as the trail of frozen land revealed that the icy results of the move were being increased, likely at a beneficial cost of damage.
Serperior would have liked a similar option himself to capture his target with minimal harm. Coiling physically around a puddle of water was a poor idea in general, and the other option of growing a multitude of small plants to tie up an overly mobile target was unlikely to work well on something they could try to drink instead. So instead he would simply have to remove the controlling creature while doing as little damage to his opponent as he could manage.
Seeing that its enemy was both able to avoid its ranged attack and closing fast the Vaporeon instead attempted to slam into Serperior, the movement quite off as if it expected to be considerably larger and likely armored. The snake pokemon took this movement to slash out with a sharp leaf along the liquefied part of the aquatic pokemon's body, slicing through the lighter colored area entirely. The digital portion of the liquefied target fragmented away quickly as the pokemon fell to the side panting and solidifying more as it tried to regain control of its current body.
The many domes surrounding the two pokemon shifted slowly in their movement to try and recapture the panting Water type. Serperior quickly wrapped around the now much more solid pokemon and sent a wave of leaves around them to clear a way back to the rest of the group. "Ugh, am I still in the fish?" the Vaporeon asked wearily.
"Can deal with that later, when out of this mess," the serpent replied quickly as he continued to move back to where the others were struggling with the shear number of enemies and set down the recovered pokemon. "One down, five to go!" he called out to them while sending out another blast of cutting leaves.
"Too bad it turns out we actually needed you handling the massive army trying to stop us," A-0 yelled back while rushing between the various piled up domes around the trio. Shawn was very busy keeping them off himself as well and Gazimon was doing slightly worse with his own attempts to keep the swarm away. Serperior quickly returned to dealing with a large arc around the group with another wave of glowing leaves while the Vaporeon managed to get back on their feet.
"They haven't been stopping for a while now," the Vaporeon said tiredly. "There were a bunch of Rock types the thing decided it liked and we couldn't do anything when they swarmed to get them." The fish like pokemon shook itself, small splatters of its body flying a short distance before moving back to it again. "It's been keeping them close to Manaphy while looking them over. They are the only ones of us that didn't end up switched."
"I take it you're actually Cloyster then? Any idea where your body ended up?" Shawn asked while moving over to check the pokemon. He quickly retrieved a few medical items from his bag and began working to restore the pokemon while the others reestablished their defenses.
"Yes I am, but I don't know where- Your eyes are red," the pokemon cut itself off. "Oh please tell me I didn't just get beaten by a human stuck in a snake."
"Don't worry about that, we've managed to mostly fix ourselves," the blue eyed snake said slashing with his entire body to clear a large pile of foes that had built up during his rush to take out the Vaporeon. "We've just got switched eyes right now."
"That one is his body right?" Gazimon asked pointing his body towards a shape rising out of the water. The mentioned Water/Ice pokemon then emerged from the water at the site he indicated.
Serperior gave a huff and started to move towards the new foe. "No! We need you here dealing with the army," A-0 shouted at him while leaping over a group in the direction of the clam. "I've got these things, I should be able to manage something," it continued holding out its claws.
As the snake pokemon continued to remake their defense along with Gazimon the latter's body quickly moved through the group of domes between them and Cloyster under A-0's control. Claws slashed at some of the enemies as it passed, but most were ignored in favor of the approaching pokemon. The Cloyster, presumably controlled by the corruption and inhabited by the Vaporeon, responded by sending another freezing beam towards the purplish digital monster. A-0 quickly rolled to the side, then dug under the ground to avoid further attacks on his approach.
Unlike with the fight against Vaporeon the dome creatures were still remaining around the pokemon as it was attacked. As a result A-0's burst from the ground close to its target hit a good number of them, with others flowing forward to attempt to capture him themselves. This distracted the clam pokemon long enough for the current digimon to get a quick slash close to the controlling dome, although the Water type was able to close its inner shell fast enough to block the attack.
The rabbit monster quickly jumped to the side, stomping another pair of the smaller foes, to avoid a surge of water that accompanied the grey shell opening again. The massive spike just above the dual type's head then swung towards A-0, easily dodged by the digital monster ducking low while it tried to hit the dome creature again. This time the digimon was able to graze the edge of the attacking pokemon, but the damage was minimal and it needed to retreat for a moment to fully avoid its opponent's strike.
It quickly sliced through the domes where it landed, with the creatures now moving away from the two combatants so that Cloyster could more easily attack. The pokemon slid on the sand in a quick twist to face A-0 again, this time firing the spike from above its head. Another spike took its place and quickly fired after it, and then a third in a brief but strong ranged attack. A-0 moved forward again threading between the first and second spike while letting the third graze along its arm as it brought the claws on the limb into contact with the small dome controlling the pokemon. The digital life form shattered, and the pokemon immediately spun around sending out another icy beam in an arc around it to hit more of the mind controlling creatures.
"Thanks," the Cloyster said looking over at the group slowly moving the defensive line towards the two of them. "Although you are the reason one of them latched on me to start, so really you owed me that much." The Water/Ice type continued to send attacks into the still rather thick waves of foes.
"Gazimon, how is that water breathing coming?" A-0 called over as the two sets of battles thinned the available targets from between the two groups enough to speed up their movements towards each other. This was helped by Vaporeon recovering enough to join in the assault on the side of the Troubleshooters.
"If you can spare some time from somehow using my body to fight I'd love to have some help!" the current Porygon replied with sarcastic anger. "I can see all the stuff you showed me over in Delta 2's place, but the snakes are still a mess I don't really want to work with. Not to mention knowing about this stuff is only making me more worried about what you've done to my body already."
"I think dealing with that can wait for you to be back inside your own body," Shawn said sitting down as Cloyster joined the defensive ring around the group. "Let me see what you've got there."
"No," A-0 said sliding in between the two of them. "The guy who has someone else's eyes does not get to mess with the rest of us, and yes that applies to you too Serperior."
"Sill busy fighting, but grateful for the help," the Grass type said briefly pointing to the two Water types that had moved to surround the rest of them.
"Right, first bring up a pane and we'll start with yourself," A-0 began to work Gazimon through the process. The single black pane reappeared, then after the short refresher on the process it flashed along with the Porygon's body. They repeated this for both Shawn and A-0 without any issue. "Why were you even worried?" the latter asked annoyed by how easily the process went. "Serperior, are you ready for this?"
"We can handle the Analyzers while you do whatever you need to do," the Vaporeon noted, getting a bob of agreement from Cloyster. "The big one is already slowing down how fast they are coming at us, and this is already a lot more of them than I expected us to be able to take down." Its words were confirmed by the more widely spaced waves of the small domes of corruption.
"Is everyone up for the next part, or do we extract now and come back after a rest?" Shawn asked the group as Gazimon worked on letting the Grass type breathe under the water.
"A short break to rest would be nice, but I don't want to try and go out again," Serperior replied. "Can you help Gazi make a shield to keep them out for a bit, A-0?"
"Yeah, I think I can. He honestly needs the experience more than you two do," the rabbit monster replied. "So you're off the hook for now."
) another that is a big player is his new Dark type and the changes it gives him by being a sort of digimon/pokemon hybrid.