--- An Eventful Year ---
Gazimon finished quietly adding a couple of items to the grocery list, and then chuckled at the sound of Serperior's liquid yawn as his teammates woke up. "Looks like I've finally worked out how to get up without the two of you noticing," he chuckled quietly. "Only took a year."
"Ugh, I've been splashing around with this liquid thing for most of a year," Serperior joked with a bubbly chuckle of his own.
"Personally, I have realized I went too far with learning pokemon moves about the time I turned into a Legendary pokemon," Shawn outright laughed. "We will have to ask the rest of the team what took them this long."
"I say that waits until Grant's team's party for their full year," Gazimon huffed and because of the thought inspected the room. Serperior still had his flower pot to sleep in, although there was a thin coat of Forest's Ichor on one side now. Shawn's bed above it didn't have any of the sludge, but it had collected a number of leaves that probably came from the maybe-human. His own bed had one of the Ichor enhanced Dark Network Nodes now alongside a small pile of minor projects. The largest change was the presence of a large amount of technology to allow the doorway to instead open to the main world Basirablemon used and their shared temple outside.
"You mean just a couple weeks from now?" the snake twins questioned as the two of them started their morning routine.
That had not really changed much. Same food, similar clothes, and a job to get to. Gazimon was just happy it had stopped being a constant rush to get this stuff done. It was almost the same as the first day he had spent in the pokemon world, and yet completely different at the same time. Gazimon himself had gotten a pair of kid kids, and one student kid back somehow. He was respected and powerful now, with the capacity to crush Datamon and Etemon if they showed back up somehow. Yet, despite having everything his Pagumon self would literally have killed for, the thing that made him the happiest was having his two teammates around to joke with without any threat.
They then moved to the Troubleshooter Lab, and were surprised to not find Janice there. "The Team Lead is off getting the baked goods with A-0 and Kabutops," Quagsire called out from where the amphibian pokemon was working on something with Metagross. "She should be back soon."
There were a few bits of decoration around the room for the anniversary, including a banner that declared "Congratulations On Your First Year Troubleshooters Metagross and Gazimon", and Grant was in the process of getting out bottles of various cheap beverages along with a mix of dishes and utensils borrowed from the cafeteria. A small number of tables and the extra desks from when there had been a League presence had been set up as a place to put everything. MasterTyranomon and LAS were both at desks working on some documents, and none of the decorations or dishes were in the way of any of the equipment.
"No Dugtrio?" Gazimon asked as he moved over to his Network and Ichor infused console, while his teammates went to their own stations. Quagsire simply frowned at him in response, and he laughed as he started to check the messages that had not gone directly to his mind.
"We are waiting for our own party for them to join," Grant joked, and earned a sigh from his trainer. "Or until the rest of the food gets here, whichever comes first."
Further discussion was interrupted by the first option. Janice and Kabutops in a newly attempted human form both had clear containers filled with cupcakes, while A-0 had a large bag of other smaller baked goods balanced carefully on a pane resting on its head. "Sorry you two," Janice grumbled as she showed off her container. "I know you both said to not do anything fancy, but the bakery owner's kid just got back from Galar and brought an Alcremie with Opinions." The twelve cupcakes were in three rows, one made of four white icing covered cube shaped ones, a second triangular row of red coated ones, and an impressive set of yellow frosted seven sided ones.
"I'm a bit worried they are going to find out about ours and do something more impressive," Kabutops agreed grimly as he showed off the other set. These were a full platter of blue icing coated round cupcakes, with the outside ring of cupcakes additionally decorated with trios of claw shaped mounds of grey icing, and the inside two with red and black rings to look like Metagross eyes.
Shawn smothered a laugh at the sight, even as Gazimon could only sigh. "At least it wasn't a full cake," he joked to the group and turned to check on Metagross.
"We shall file a complaint," the machine-like pokemon mechanically noted.
"I have the more sensible pastries," A-0 added and carefully maneuvered its bag to one of the tables. "You know, the stuff we were actually there to get. All of the things we all actually asked for specifically."
"They were trying to be nice about it," Kabutops said as he set his box of cupcakes down on another table. "Although I think the plan for me didn't work, they called me by name before I introduced myself." He changed back into a Kabutops and took off the orange pendant he was using for the effect.
"I think they just recognized the pendant," Janice pointed out as she finished setting down the baked goods. "Anything happen while we were out, other than the Shrine Legendaries waking up?" Gazimon wasn't alone in rolling his eyes at that new designation.
"Charlie 13 has sent his latest report on the former Fragments," Metagross noted idly, and most of the group smiled at that basic thing being the first thing to turn up. "They wish to discuss the difference between ghosts and past lives with Giratina." Everyone waited for everything else for a moment. Then realized a bit slowly that it wasn't the first thing, but instead the only thing.
"I'll see if we can manage that," Janice said happily as she went over to the bag A-0 had set down, and grabbed a small well sealed bag of silvery glazed donut holes.
They all wandered over to the bag to grab their preferred treats, and then got to work. Gazimon had updates on his own mostly empty digital worlds to cover, along with the updates on the HardWare forces. The original HardWare-Heavy, who was going by "Heavy" because it turned out the group that stayed behind did not get on board with names as thoroughly as the group he had worked with, sent a new long report on settling down in a project to work with a number of digital developers to try and recreate a large number of digital life forms that had been destroyed during the Upload and Great Corruption conflicts.
The hard part there was getting them to not overdo things on that project. It was supposed to be a longer term thing to make sure everyone did it right, but the HardWare units were excited about the very prospect, and with all of them around now there was more than enough free units to work on it full time. Compared to the relatively sedate DSS Warehouse life forms it was a mess, but 326 could at least be trusted to keep up with Gazimon's goals. More authority had turned out to help its mood greatly.
The quiet period was interrupted around the time Gazimon had managed to work out what he was going to prioritize and get the list half typed up. "So, that was a year," A-0 commented as it sampled one of the thin flat semi-clear squares of crumbly sugar it liked. The room laughed, but not because it was funny.
"I think it was still the best one of my life," MasterTyranomon rumbled, already finished with a very good recreation of a pastry Gazimon remembered from their time as In-Training digimon. "Freedom, friends, and the ability to defeat those that had bound me."
"Got to agree there big guy. This was definitely the best year of my life," Gazimon happily added and grabbed another of the warm to the touch Chople berry jelly filled cookie-things he had developed a taste for.
"We have got to fix that," Shawn said a bit firmly around a piece of the fairly tough bread that he liked. "Because last year was terrible, and if you two haven't seen better we need to make sure that happens."
"I've done my part on that task," Janice said as she crunched one of her thinly metal coated balls of fried dough. "Although I think Dialga might have gotten me registered as a Legendary for scaring him."
"Next year will be a lot better if we don't need to worry any creators of the universe," Quagsire grumbled with clear amusement as she finished off a set of cookies with some kind of dried berry pieces in them. "So we might need to make sure the former Fragments don't manage that now, or we will have to start over again."
"I think Giratina is more used to us than his brother," Grant said and then took another bite of his historical berry jam cookie-things that were the result of a Celebi and successful planter beds that ended up separated from the rest of the DSS garden. There was a bit of distance between the Armaldo and anyone else due to the jam having a smell that was just a tiny amount less bitter than the taste.
"I'm not sure I'm used to us," Serperior joked with his last little nut filled muffin gone, and got a few sarcastic laughs. "Alright, maybe I am used to it, but I don't think everyone here is entirely used to me and my family."
"I think that qualifier includes more of us than you imply," LAS said as she daintily picked up a sphere of solid sugar similar to A-0's treat with a tendril.
"Confirmed," Metagross stated simply and ate another of the four jam coated star shaped cookies they liked. "Your family is very large, and very confounding."
"I know I'm listing some of you on the new paperwork I'm getting made," Kabutops informed the group and bit into one of the round flat salty and crunchy things he had.
"I thought you didn't want people to work out you are normally a pokemon," one of Dugtrio's domes pointed out smugly even as another pulled one of their own plain donut holes under the floor. That got small pebbles thrown at Dugtrio by the rest of their team.
It also sparked a bit of discussion about the details of Kabutops' planed trainer career that Gazimon only halfway listened to as he got back to his priority list. He got the first pass done, and sent it off to DarkHardWare-Heavy 326 to review before he would send a final list to the original Heavy. That done he moved on to the daily task of making sure that the energy needs of the various worlds he managed with the Dark Network weren't going up out of nowhere, a process that Janice handled for the Boxes since his very first job as a Troubleshooter.
"We're probably going to get asked about those," Shawn eventually noted with a nod towards the unasked for cupcakes. "Alcremie get serious about their work." Serperior, Janice, and A-0 all laughed a bit about that, which meant it had been a thing before.
"Fine," Gazimon falsely complained and got up to grab one of his square white frosted ones. "This is just a funny thing to make. Admittedly a nice touch, but strange to see these some way other than round."
That prompted everyone else to grab one of the things, although Gazimon didn't really pay attention to who grabbed from which set. "So do we make a toast or something?" Serperior asked sarcastically with a dramatic movement of a red frosted triangle cupcake.
"To the end of an eventful year," Gazimon joked back and raised his into the air. "And hopefully an uneventful one next."
--- End ---
[Author's Note]
With this I end the project I have now spent over three years and three quarters of a million words writing. There have been great moments to put down on the page, and plotlines that I still feel could have been handled better. Characters that I am happy to have made and who I mostly thought were going to end up somewhere very different.
I'm happy to have shared this story with all of my readers old and new, and glad to have gotten the feedback and commentary it has produced over that time. I have no idea when I will begin to post another story, or even what I'm going to move to next, but I have all of you to thank for being part of the motivation that has gotten me through this project.
Thank you for reading!
