Butter-Fly Effect

What little you have as a plan can be summarized as this: Get in, get a shovel, get out before Puppetmon realizes you're here. Failing that, get out before he can properly react to your presence.

Yes, you're aware it's not the best plan in the world. It's all you've got, though, so you're going to stick with it.

You search for a door that doesn't have any minions surrounding it. There's one, off to the side, but it's closed with a padlock of some sort.

"Biyomon, do you think you could break it off?" You ask.

Your partner doesn't flutter away from your spot in the bushes, but you can see that she's thinking really carefully about it. "...Maybe," She eventually decides. "And I wouldn't have to Digivolve for it. But if someone finds it..."

"They won't necessarily know that we were here," Rikuto points out. "Just that somebody was. And that somebody could be anyone in this forest."

Left unsaid is how you haven't encountered any Digimon in this forest that haven't thrown their lots in with either Elecmon or Puppetmon. There's not really a lot of places to look, unless he means to imply that Puppetmon doesn't actually trust his minions all that much. But if that's the case, why even keep them around?

"...It's that or we find another way in," You finally admit. "Let's try it."

You all hurry across the clearing as quickly as you can, glancing around. You don't see any signs of Digimon around, just the three of you. It's... really creepy.

Then again, maybe that's just what happens with mansions in the middle of the woods. It's sort of like the Overdell, this way, except that you aren't sure the Overdell fits Puppetmon's aesthetic. You certainly haven't seen any Bakemon around.

Biyomon breathes a steady stream of green fire. It pierces the lock, and it clatters to the ground.

It also blasts a small hole in the door. Fortunately, the flames don't do much more than smolder, so it'll probably be safe to go inside the building.

You enter into a room that is completely dark, the door swinging itself shut behind you. You can't even complain about that last part, because the only thing more damning than the lock being gone is you accidentally leaving the door open.

Still. It'd be sort of nice if you could see.


[ ] Start by searching for a light switch.

[ ] Start by searching for a way out of the room.

[ ] Start by rummaging through the things in this room despite the complete blackness.

Well. When you think about it, the best way to avoid Puppetmon's attention would be to not just run randomly around his house, but instead to visit as few rooms as possible. Since you have absolutely no idea where he keeps his things, you'll just have to meticulously search every room you come across and see what you can find.

You don't really have much in the way of a safe light source. You think your Digivice might work as a flashlight, but the concentrated beam of light it gives off is better suited for caves and situations where you don't need to pay a lot of attention to detail.

As for your other option...

"Biyomon, you can make light, right?"

"Well, I can make fire..."

Rikuto backs up. "I'm not sure I like where this is going..."

You turn to him. "What do you mean?"

"This sounds like it's going to end with everything on fire. This is a wooden house, after all."

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Your partner is actually starting to make you a bit nervous. "Just... do you have a stick, or something?"

"There's this." You pick up a gardening rake. "I bet we can use it as a torch or something." It makes as much sense as anything else, right? Definitely much easier than scrabbling around in the dark for a light switch.

"Let's try it!" And she throws a stream of fire at the tip of the rake, washing over it... and also hitting the nearby wall.

The good news is, you can see everything inside the room, and it looks like a place where you would keep gardening supplies.

The bad news is, the wall is now on fire.

...So much for stealth.



[ ] Start rummaging through everything until you get to a shovel.

[ ] Forget the shovel and run.

[ ] ...Maybe you'll search somewhere else in the house.
-[ ] There's another door on the other side of the room.
-[ ] There's a trapdoor in the floor.

The one good thing about accidentally setting the place on fire is that visibility is no longer limited, and you can see a trapdoor in the floor.

"Heat goes up, right?" You check. If you've gotten it wrong, this whole idea would be a lot more dangerous.

"It does," Rikuto confirms.

"...All right then." And with that, you kneel down, and set to work prying the trapdoor open. It's harder than it looks, mostly because of how heavy it is, but eventually you've opened it to reveal a hole in the ground, one just as dark on the inside as this room used to be.

This time, you think you'll try to avoid setting it on fire.

Even if you can't see the bottom.

"...Biyomon, could you fly down and make sure the bottom's not too far away?" You have a partner who can fly, it makes sense for you to use those capabilities.

"Right!" She dips down below, but doesn't make it out of sight before landing. "...I think it's safe. You just can't see the floor because it's..." Pitch black, clearly, with how you can easily see her pink and blue feathers. Encouraged, you slide through the trapdoor yourself, spending a moment falling through midair- which is not the same as flying, flying's much safer- before hitting the ground.

It's cold. Like nothing living has been here for a very long time. Maybe even ever.

Rikuto peers down above you. "Um... I think I'll figure out something else, if that's all right with you."


[ ] ...That's fine. You'll find more if you split up, right?

[ ] Try and convince him to come with you despite his clear misgivings.