Digimon Adventure: Side Order (Splatoon/Digimon)

[Candescence]

Author's Notes:

So this was a bit of a thought bubble I had not long after playing Side Order. It feels like a perfectly natural fit, really. Also, yes, I'm still working on Inky Future and Henshin Sisters, it's just I've sorta been taking a break from writing the same two things for a bit (mostly so I don't get burned out because of creative issues) to do other stuff, including gamedev. I do plan on getting back into both soon, but I also have a video project for Inky Future in the works, so stay tuned for that.

So, a couple of things to keep in mind. This is probably gonna be a relatively short story, especially considering the content of the actual expansion, which is honestly good for me, because I'll be able to finish it in a relatively timely manner. Secondly, I'll mostly be using dub names and terms on the Digimon side of things - I'm not a purist, but also because going full sub wouldn't make a whole lot of sense alongside the localized Splatoon names and dialogue (also the Digimon Adventure dub names are basically nicknames rather than outright name changes, something which I'm much less forgiving about when it comes to later dubs (coughDigimonFusionscough) ), but I will be using sub terms when I feel they make a lot more sense. Lastly, the focus is going to be on the 02 cast, not the original Adventure cast, mostly because of the limited immediate Inkling/Octoling cast and because they fit the dynamics of this group a lot better. Don't worry, other Adventure Digimon will show up, but not immediately.

Oh, and lastly, don't expect any references to Tri or either of the two post-Tri movies, because I have not watched them, Tri is supposedly a trainwreck, and the time frame/setting of this story basically makes it extremely unlikely for them to be at all relevant in any shape or form.

Okay, with all that out of the way, let's begin.

---

Chapter 1​

"Eight? Hey, Eight! Up and at 'em, would ya?"

Eight groaned as she opened her eyes, a familiar voice ringing in her ears. Before she even registered her surroundings, she noticed she was lying face-down on sand. She groaned as she began to push herself up with her hands.

"Whoa, one step at a time, girl, you don't look so good. You feel hurt anywhere? Any cuts or bruises?" Said the familiar voice as Eight slowly got to her feet, making sure she was okay to so so. Apparently she hadn't sustained any injuries, which was good. But her surroundings were so… White and sterile.

"There we go, that's the Eight I know! I did kinda panic when you didn't wake up for a while there, but it looks like you're okay!"

Eight blinked, as she looked over the person addressing her. The voice was familiar, but the form wasn't. "Uh… Who are you?"

"Oh, right, you wouldn't recognise me like this. I'm Pearl, your bestie!"

Indeed, the drone hovering in front of her via a single propeller at the bottom certainly had a resemblance to Pearl, between the crown, the LCD eyes, the yellow buttons that moved like eyebrows, and the tentacle-like appendages. The voice had been crystal clear, which was especially odd.

Eight blinked, cocking her head to her the side, "Pearl? Why are you piloting a drone that kinda looks like you?"

"Oh, right, this? Uh, I'm not piloting this. I am literally a drone right now. Look, before you ask, I have absolutely no clue how I got this way," Pearl said a little sheepishly, as she looked around a bit, "I was honestly hoping you'd have a better idea than me. I dunno where Marina went, either, she was supposed to be with me."

Eight tried to wrack her brain for any recollection of how this happened. Her memories of the last couple of days were basically shot - she remembered she had gladly volunteered to help Marina test something, but what that was, she simply couldn't remember. She rubbed her temples, "sorry, Pearl, but I don't remember a thing from the last couple of days. I remember something about helping Marina out with something, but otherwise, not really."

"Well, dang, me neither," Pearl sighed, briefly dropping altitude a bit before returning to her previous height, "welp, nothing else for it, then! We've got some exploring to do! This place is kinda familiar, if you haven't noticed."

Eight did indeed notice - the whole area looked like a bleached-out and colourless version of Inkopolis Square, clearly in disrepair and covered in sand and bleached coral. The sky was coral pink, and strange particle effects were occurring around them at random intervals. Deca Tower was replaced by a completely different tower altogether, which looked much more strange and imposing in ways she couldn't really describe. "Is this… Inkopolis Square?"

Pearl nodded, spinning around as she looked, "looks like it, but it's all totally off! Like, where's the colour? And where's the people?"

"Of course there's no 'people'. This is the Digital World, after all."

Eight spun around, startled by an unfamiliar voice. Her hands instinctively went to where her weapon would be - curses, all she had on her was her clothes. Why did this happen to be the second time she was in a strange situation without a weapon?

Sitting on the fence, casually licking her paw, was what looked like… Judd? No, she wasn't big and round like Judd was. What was Judd's species again? 'Cat'? She was white, with purple tips on her ears and tail and purple stripes along the latter, had piercing blue eyes, and her claws looked like green gloves, oddly enough. Eight had to admit, she was cuter than the Judds.

"Uh… Are you a Judd?" Pearl asked. Should've figured Pearl wouldn't know better.

"What's a 'Judd'? I'm Gatomon. And no, I'm not a cat, I'm a cat-like Digimon," said the odd cat.

"Girl you're making more questions than you're answering."

Eight decided to put that aside for now. "You said this was the 'Digital World'? You mean we're in some kind of… Virtual space?"

"Technically, I guess. You have a digital body, but you're clearly from the physical world… Still, you're not human, which is odd," Gatomon said, hopping off the fence and walking over, pointing at something on Eight's side. "You smell a bit like calamari, and look a bit like an octopus. Also, why do you have that?"

Eight noticed what Gatomon was pointing at - a handheld device clipped to the side of her bodysuit. Eight unclipped it, and took a look - it was an oddly primitive white rounded oblong-shaped electronic device with a small LCD screen on the upper half, two up and down buttons on the top right by the screen, a circular directional pad with a button in the middle, a red power button, an antenna on the left side, and pink side grips. On the black surface right above the screen, was text saying 'Digimon Link System'. "Huh? I don't remember having this."

"It's my partner's Digivice," Gatomon said, "I don't know how you got it, but it's not yours. Hand it over."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, settle down, bud," Pearl said, flying between them, "I don't think you'll want to be carrying that thing all day when Eight can just clip it to her clothes. We'll find your partner, and then give it back, okay? Pinky promise."

Gatomon's eyes narrowed, not looking at all convinced, but Eight decided to get down on one knee to get closer to her level, speaking with complete sincerity, "if this 'Digivice' was your partner's, then they're probably around here somewhere. I promise to help you find them. I'm Eight, and this is Pearl. It's nice to meet you, Gatomon."

Gatomon seemed to hesitate for a moment, but her posture relaxed seconds later. "Fine, but if you don't, I'm beating you both up, got it?"

Pearl guffawed, "really? HAH! You're smaller than I usually am! There's no way you can-"

-Pearl was immediately punted across the plaza with a well-placed punch.

Eight just giggled, as she clipped it back onto her suit. "Sorry, Pearl's something of a literal loudmouth."

"I'd be stronger, but somehow I lost my tail ring while in that stupid tower. Again," grumbled Gatomon, as she started walking, "come on, let's go. I've already done a sweep of the area, there's literally nothing beyond the boundaries of this plaza. There's only that tower over there."

"Right! Maybe Marina's in there! She'll know what to do!" Pearl said, flying back over, "man, you pack a wallop."

Eight noticed her reflection in the glass of what normally would be a nearby shop, and walked over, taking a look at herself. "What am I wearing?" The stark white bodysuit was comfortable and easy to move it, but it looked skintight. It wasn't revealing, but she wasn't sure she was a fan about how 1) it accentuated her already naturally curvy body, and 2) made her butt look big. "Pearl I know you're checking me out, stop it."

"Sorry, I'm just imagining Marina wearing that, and HOO MAMA," Pearl said, the drone somehow blushing.

"We can worry about fashion later," Gatomon said, getting them back on track, "I swear, it's like I'm hanging with Mimi and Palmon-"

"Krsssh…bzzt…Pe…arl…"

They stopped as they heard something clearly coming from the top of the tower - it was distorted and hard to hear, but Eight realised it was clearly Marina's voice. "That's Marina's voice."

Pearl gasped, and called out, "Marina?! Are you up there?!"

"Skrrrzzz…zzrrr…elp m…" Then there was a loud click, cutting off the transmission.

"Hang on, we're coming to you now! Shake a leg, you two, Marina's at the top of the tower!" Pearl said with uncharacteristic urgency as she began flying towards the tower entrance.

Gatomon frowned as she and Eight followed, picking up the pace, "hold on, you promised-"

"Marina's super smart, if anyone can help us find your partner, it'll be her," Eight said, "besides, as you said, we don't exactly have anywhere else to go."

"Okay, yeah, fair enough. Alright, let's go!"

Eight ignored the strange lockers to her right as they went through the tower doors…

❖​

The foyer was certainly nothing like the Deca Tower lobby, just a straight shot to an elevator, along with a large square zone in the middle, surrounded by water. The sand was gone, but this room was no less sterile, mostly being whites and greys.

"Yeah, this is definitely not the Deca Tower lobby. What the heck is this place?" Pearl wondered.

"Not safe," said Gatomon, putting up her dukes, "we're about to have company."

Two black gushers burst out next to the elevator, as strange, fish with artificial skeletons covered in black gel and with glowing red eyes emerged, blocking the way to the elevator. It was like nothing Eight had ever seen before.

"WHOA! Trouble's comin', use these!" Pearl turned around, and somehow, manifested a pair of Dualies from out of nowhere, which Eight caught. They were mostly white, with unpainted stainless steel parts. "Don't ask me how I did that, it's just something I felt I could do, ya know?"

However, much to Eight's surprise, when she took hold of the Dualies, something else appeared from out of Pearl - a short blue and white bipedal reptile-like creature with red eyes. He yawned as he stretched his arms, "whew, that was a nice nap!"

"Veemon?! Why are you-never mind, help us fight these guys!" Gatomon said, as she began punching incoming enemies.

'Veemon' blinked, and grinned, as he charged into the fray, delivering a headbutt to the nearest enemy, "oh, hey, Gatomon! Nothing like a good fight to warm me up after a nap!"

Eight decided not to question what was going on and just started shooting. It seems her ink worked just as well on these 'fish', which seemed to come in multiple sizes, as any other adversary she had fought.

Thankfully, the enemy didn't do anything other than just charge at them, which made predictable and easy to dispatch.

"WOO! Take that, you stupid fish!" Veemon grinned, throwing his fists up into the air as the gushers disappeared. "I've still got it!"

"We would've been overwhelmed if it weren't for Eight over here. Seems she knows her way around a weapon… Still, ink?" Gatomon said incredulously, before shaking her head, "actually, nevermind, not gonna look that gift horse in the mouth. If it works, it works." The word 'horse' was distinctly unfamiliar.

Veemon laughed, "yeah, you've always been one of our sharpest thinkers. I'd be asking questions about that till the cows came home!" Another unfamiliar noun - 'cow'.

Eight decided to just ask, "I'm sorry, uh… What's a 'horse'? And what's a 'cow', for that matter?"

"How do you not know what… a…" Gatomon's question trailed off as something apparently caught at snag in her mind. "I'm not speaking Japanese. Why am I speaking a totally different language I've never learned before?"

"Oh, that!" Veemon snapped his fingers, "Gennai said it's to help us better communicate with our new partners. He… He did tell you, right?"

"YOU MET GENNAI?!" Gatomon grabbed Veemon by the shoulders, "what do you mean, 'our new partners?!'"

Veemon's eyes widened, and he looked down at the floor solemnly. "Oh. Guess he didn't. Our old partners are gone, Gatomon. They've… They've been gone for 12,000 years."

"Oh. That's…" Pearl's appendages drooped. Eight knew she would've said 'awkward', but even that was an understatement. Everything about these 'Digimon' was making more sense now - their 'partners' had been human. And humans had been extinct for millennia…

Gatomon's look of shock and horror turned to rage as she punched Veemon in the face, "DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT!" Whoever her partner had been, Gatomon had clearly cared about them immensely.

"I'M NOT! Also, ow, that smarts…" Veemon groaned as he rubbed his face, "I'm serious! You think he'd lie about something like that?! Kari's gone, Gatomon! And so… So is Davis! And all the other Digidestined! I…" He sniffed, on the verge of tears, "oh, geez, I thought I cried enough about it already… I… I know it's hard to believe-"

"No. I refuse to believe it. If he's that serious, Gennai can tell that to me himself," Gatomon said coldly as she strode towards the elevator. "Come on, elevator's working now."

Eight quietly followed, noticing the green light that now was above the elevator door. She and Pearl looked at each other, not knowing what to say. How do you handle someone in denial about losing a loved one? Poor Veemon looked plain somber for someone who seemed otherwise peppy and cheerful.

As the elevator doors opened, Eight realised someone was already inside - an Octoling girl. A sanitised Octoling, judging by her green skin, though her hair went from indigo to red instead of the typical gradient. She wore a large pair of red shades that hid their eyes, a large set of headphones, a black and white baseball cap, a thigh-length black dress and knee-length black boots with high heels and laces.

Pearl acted first, though apparently she got the wrong idea - "you with those fish we busted up?! Sic 'em, Eight!"

"Cool it, I'm not your enemy," said the Octoling, raising a hand defensively - her fingers had red tips, and she wore a black-to-red halftone bracelet on their right wrist. "I'm just another bystander who got sucked in. I take it you guys followed Marina's voice here?"

"Say what?! You know Marina too?!"

"Oh, you mean Wormmon's partner?" Veemon said, "guess you guys know her, too…"

Another, smaller head poked out from the elevator, and smiled - a small, armoured quadrupedal yellow and brown Digimon with large claws, green eyes and a purple underbelly. "Veemon, Gatomon! I was so worried that nobody else would be around aside from Acht!"

"Armadillomon? Looks like the whole gang might be here, if Wormmon's here too," Gatomon said as they entered the elevator. Thankfully it was roomy enough to accommodate all of them, and the elevator began to move after the door closed behind them. Eight noticed that the Octoling had a Digivice with light orange grips clipped to their dress, and bandages around their left arm.

"First things first - I'm Acht. Marina and I go way back," said the Octoling.

"For real?! Yo, lead with that next time!" Pearl said, "I'm Pearl, this's Eight, and these are Gatomon and Veemon! Cool meeting you, Acht."

"Man, are all Octoling girls cute? Marina's super cute, and now I'm looking at two beauties in the same elevator!" Veemon said. Eight couldn't help but blush at the compliment.

"Uh… I don't like being called a 'girl'. If you have to address me, I prefer 'they' or 'them'," said Acht.

"Oh, you're non-binary. Sorry, didn't mean to offend," said Veemon.

"It's fine, you wouldn't have known."

"You're… You're sanitised, aren't you?" Said Eight. "Your skin… I've only seen that on Octolings in the Deepsea Metro."

"Oh, right, yeah, I was 'sanitised', or at least I am physically. I've been in the area since I came to - and somehow, with my free will and memories returned to me, somehow," Acht nodded. "I heard Marina's voice from up the Spire, so I came to find her. But those bony fish found me first. I call them 'Jelletons'. They're why I'm trapped in the elevator." She gestured to her bandages, "the Spire is crammed with Jelletons. This wound they gave me hasn't healed, so I'm stuck. I'd be in worse shape without Armadillomon, though. He saved my life."

"Just looking out for my partner," said Armadillomon with a smile. "Still, those fish are tough! Rookie Digimon like us aren't gonna be able to fight our way through them by ourselves."

"Partner? You can't seriously be giving up on Cody," said Gatomon.

"Acht's my partner for now, since they've got my Digivice. I'm sure we'll run into Cody soon!"

Veemon winced, but turned to Gatomon, "he's got a point, Gatomon. If our new friends can use our Digivices, they're our partners, at least for now, right? It was like when you were partnered with Ryo for a bit back when Millenniumon was making a mess of things."

Gatomon sighed, and nodded, "okay, yeah, I guess you're right."

"Wow, you must really be off your game if you're not acting like the smartest person in the room!"

Gatomon's eye twitched, but she shook her head, "anyway, it looks like we'll all need to team up if we want to explore this tower."

"Plus, I've got something that'll help us," said Acht, "I've been waiting for an Octoling with a drone. Said your name was Eight? You're the one I needed to see."

Eight blinked, "how did you know about-"

Acht suddenly flicked their wrist, and suddenly they had a red 'chip' in their fingers with a white rectangular bottom attached. "Okay, Pearl - check out what happens when you set this color chip into that Palette."

"You gotta teach me how to do that sometime," said Veemon, staring in awe like he had just seen a cool magic trick.

"Palette? What Palette? I dunno what you-oh, you mean this thing?" Pearl projected some kind of white rectangular music controller panel with 36 slots where the buttons normally would be.

"That's the one," Acht said as they handed the chip off to Eight. "Put this in the first slot."

"Okay, here goes, then," Eight nodded, as she held the chip by the white lower end, and snapped off the main part off as she slotted it in.

Pearl was briefly surrounded by glowing arrows pointed upwards, as were Gatomon and Veemon. She spun around, as if suddenly but briefly supercharged. "WHOA! Is it me, or did your weapon get stronger?"

"I just felt that as well! I guess it affects Veemon and I too," Gatomon said, looking at her claws, "but why only us two?"

"Oh, that's because that's Pearl's palette, and she's my partner!" Veemon grinned. "Uh… don't ask me how I know that, because I don't either."

"Oh, cool! But putting that aside, if you set a whole bunch of color chips in here, you could walk all over those fishy freaks!" Pearl said triumphantly.

"No doubt. Play your chips right, and you could make it all the way to the top, powering up your weapons and Digimon partners as you go," Acht nodded, "whatever's going on in this city, Marina's in the thick of it. Or so I'm assuming. But this injury has left me sidelined, and it's probably best that Armadillomon watches my back. Our strike team will be limited you four."

"Sorry I can't be more help," Armadillomon said.

Pearl nodded. "We're on it, Acht! Deep breaths, guys. It's time to go find Marina!"

Eight took a deep breath. "Right. I hope she's okay."

"If she knows more about what's going on, then she's the person we need to find," Gatomon said, "hit the button for the top floor."

"I'd love to, but this elevator only goes up one floor at a time," Acht said.

Pearl clutched her 'head' with her appendages, "whaaaat?! How come?! You mean I gotta be PATIENT?!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Veemon said, falling to his knees.

"Stop being so overdramatic, you two," Gatomon said dryly.

"I'm in a hurry, myself. But we play what we're dealt," said Acht, "we'll just have to take this a little at a time. Anyway, we've reached the next floor. You ready?"

Armadillomon nodded, "good luck out there, guys!"

Eight nodded, as the elevator doors opened, "I'm always ready."

❖​

The first three floors were quite straightforward in terms of objective—destroy the portals continuously summoning Jelletons that swarmed to assault the team. But this time, Eight wasn't alone.

While Gatomon treated this as more or less a professional matter and tried to stay on task, Veemon was having the time of his life - it had apparently been a while since he had fought so many enemies at once. Which was fine by Eight, though - with the horde dividing its attention, that gave her opportunity to focus on destroying the portals.

With each floor came new chips to slot into the Palette - poison ink that damaged enemies that stepped on her ink even more, then a chance for enemies to drop bombs that could hurt other enemies. And with the fourth floor being a basic splat zone type, came a double helping of ink efficiency for her main weapon that cut her ink use in half.

However, the fifth floor came with two immediate rewards - on one hand there was the chip that gave Pearl a Killer Wail (which Pearl was absolutely excited about), but on the other hand, there was an egg-shaped object with a large metal horn sticking out and painted with stylised flames. On the front was a symbol of a sun.

"Wait, that's the Digimental of Courage! What's that doing here?!" Armadillomon said.

Pearl scratched her head, "Digimental? Now you've lost me."

"It's an artefact of power that allows a special kind of evolution - the ability for a Digimon to Armour Digivolve," said Gatomon, "I don't normally use this one, but it fits Veemon like a glove."

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, 'evolution'?! Now I'm even more confused!"

"You'll get it when you see it, partner! What're we waiting for?! It's been ages since I've been Flamedramon!" Veemon said, his eyes sparkling.

Eight noticed an egg-shaped slot on the right side of the palette, and slotted the egg into it. But nothing happened. "Uh…"

"That's not how we usually use those. But you don't have Veemon's Digivice, so maybe it'll be active when we exit the elevator," said Gatomon, as they stepped out.

And, true to form, as Veemon stepped out, his body shone, "oh, hey! Here we go! ARMOUR DIGIVOLUTION - FLAMEDRAMON!"

Eight's jaw dropped, and if Pearl had a jaw, hers would be on the floor as well. In a flash of light, Veemon had transformed, becoming taller than Eight herself, taking on an athletic form adorned with armour similar in appearance to the Digimental of Courage, complete with a facemask with an even bigger horn. His hands and feet each had three sharp, steel claws. "V-Veemon?!"

"I'm Flamedramon now! This is what we mean by 'evolution'! Cool, huh?" Flamedramon said, flexing, and turned to the training dummy, "lemme show you what I can do now! KNUCKLE FIRE!"

His hands suddenly erupted into flames, and he launched fireballs from them, easily obliterating the training dummy, which still took firghte damage even after regenerating. "Yeah, it feels good using this form again!"

"Don't let it get to your head, we've still got a floor to clear," Gatomon said.

"THAT IS SO COOL! You didn't tell us you could do that before! Though, granted, I guess you'd need one of those Digimentals to evolve, huh?" Pearl gushed.

"Gatomon said it's a special kind of evolution, though," Eight pointed out.

Gatomon nodded in agreement, "it is. There are more 'normal' ways of Digivolving, but right now it feels like that method's blocked. Besides, I'm a higher level than Veemon already, so Eight can't Digivolve me further without something extra, like one of the Crests. If Pearl could use her Digivice, she'd have no trouble evolving Veemon, but in this tower, that's not possible unless we turn off whatever's blocking it."

"Ooooooh, I see," Pearl said, "alright, let's test out my new Killer Wail…" She seemed to be exerting herself, and groaned, "more like Killer FAIL! What the heck?!"

"Can't just do it on command, you gotta charge it up over time," Acht said from the elevator. "There's also battery packs on the field that'll add charge energy too."

"Ugh, fine. Looks like we'll be relying on you to deliver the literal firepower, Flamedramon," Pearl said.

Acht nodded, "right, see that turbine tower on the field? You need to get that to the goal. But it's ink-powered, so only Eight can shoot it to power it."

"Alright, then Flamedramon and I can keep the fish off her back. That's just fine with me," Gatomon said, punching her palm. "Let's get to work."

Eight nodded, getting into the lift cage and the two Digimon grabbed on to the bars, "right, I'm counting on you two!" As the cage came over the stage, she dropped down, using Pearl's hover to safely descend, before focusing her fire on the turbine that stood out like a sore thumb. As she shot it, it filled with ink, moving on a linear track.

She noticed Flamedramon's transformation was paying dividends, smashing through the hordes of Jelletons spawning from the platform above. Gatomon was no slouch either, though, smashing fish with her fists, and Pearl was making use of her new weapon to keep enemies off Eight's back.

If they could power up like this? The rest of this tower would be a cakewalk.

❖​

As it turned out, when each floor was completed, Flamedramon reverted back to Veemon, until the start of the next floor, which was interesting, but a minor note nontheless. But the next four floors provided some good upgrades - increased weapon range, a dodge roll attack, main weapon ink coverage, and the ability to increase the rather video-gamey 'lucky chain' that increased the chance of items dropping from defeated enemies.

Then came the tenth floor - the final room where they were certain to find Marina. Pearl was absolutely gung-ho about storming it, though Acht cautioned them to be wary.

As they rode the final cage up, it became apparent what was on the floor ahead - a huge heart-like machine with Marina herself halfway inside of it, standing motionlessly. And the strangest thing is, Marina was somehow enormous, wearing the outfit she wore during the Chaos Vs. Order Splatfest, with a weird black headset covering her eyes.

"Is that… No way," said Acht.

"Marina! Hey, 'Rina! Yo, can she even hear me?!" Pearl called out.

"That's Marina?! Is she normally that huge?!" said Armadillomon.

"Considering the machine she's stuck in and how she's not even moving an inch, I'm assuming no," Gatomon said. "We'll need to remove her from it before-"

Suddenly, a red light on the headset lit up, and Marina's head tilted forwards in a robotic fashion, before the rest of the headset lit up with a green light and began forming glitchy squares. Her hands started moving erratically, as she began to speak in monotone. "Intruders confirmed. Commence Grayscaling." The machine started pumping, moving up and down.

"Too late! Time to fight!" Flamedramon said.

"Sit tight, Marina! We're gonna get you outta that thing!" Pearl declared, "ready to rock, Eight?!"

"You bet," Eight said, "Gatomon, Flamedramon, on me, let's save her!"

"Hostile digital lifeforms detected. Dispensing security," said Marina in monotone.

"Acknowledged. Moving to intercept," spoke another voice, as something flew right over Marina - a bipedal green bug-like creature about the same size as Flamedramon. It also wore a similar headset to Marina.

"Stingmon! Guess I gotta keep him busy!" Flamedramon said, rushing Stingmon, "let's get that stupid headset off you, buddy! The controllers aren't even facing the right way!"

"Well, guess while they're fighting we need to deal with that machine trapping Marina," Gatomon said, right before a barrier formed around the machine, "nevermind, I guess it wouldn't be that easy!"

Eight noticed a set of portals forming, linked to the barrier. "I'm betting those barriers are maintaining the barrier. We destroy those, the barrier goes down."

"I'll take that bet! Let's move!"

Eight just picked a portal, and started shooting, occasionally shooting down enemies that got too close while Gatomon and Pearl helped keep them off her back. She could see and hear Flamedramon and Stingmon coming to blows in the background, and the machine Marina was stuck in was firing globs of black ink at the team.

Thankfully, however, destroying the portals was simplicity itself - after so many other trials, this was almost too straightforward for Eight to accomplish.

"ERROR! An unexpected barrier issue has arisen," Marina said, as the barrier fell. "Requesting assistance."

"Acknowledged, moving to intercept," Stingmon said, taking to the air once more and turning towards Eight, firing off huge needles from his arms, "Multi-Moon Shooter."

"WHOA!" Pearl said, as she, Eight and Gatomon dodged. Eight was happy to make use of the offensive dodge roll that deflected incoming attacks.

"EYES ON ME, BUD!" Flamedramon said, as he jumped onto Stingmon's back, and yanked the headset off, "GOTCHA!"

Stingmon screamed as he fell to the ground, but he quickly shook his head. "What… What was I… Oh, no, Marina!"

"Welcome back, pal," Flamemon said, hopping off Stingmon's back, "you gonna help, or what?"

"R-Right, sorry, just need to reorient myself…" Stingmon turned to the machine, "this infernal device… I won't forgive you for controlling me and my partner! SPIKING FINISH!" He charged the machine, slashing and stabbing with his claws and spikes on his arms.

"That's the spirit! FIRE ROCKET!" Flamedramon erupted entirely into flames, turning himself into a flaming rocket as he slammed into the machine.

"Now's our chance! Let's do this!" Pearl said.

"LIGHTNING CLAW!" Gatomon hissed as she began slashing with her claws.

Eight had no real special attacks (aside from Reefslider, but…), so she just opened fire.

The combined attacks began ripping the machine to shreds, and Marina began to slip out, tumbling over as the headset disappeared. Eight was quick to catch her in her arms, though they both tumbled to the floor.

"Uuuugh…" Marina groaned as she opened her eyes, "Eight…? Pearl…?"

"Rina! You're okay!" Pearl said happily, as Eight checked up on her.

"MARINA!" Stingmon flew over to her, "are you hurt?!"

"Stingmon…? Oh, thank goodness you're okay too…" Marina groaned as she began to get up.

Suddenly, black smoke began to gather around the wrecked machine, coalescing into a singular mass. It began to glitch, forming two eyes and a circular mouth from white pixels. "ERROR. Grayscaling interrupted. Intruders confirmed disorderly. Classifying as dissidents."

Pearl glared at it, "who's this fool?!"

"My thoughts exactly! We torch it or what?!" Flamedramon said.

"The entity that started this mess in the first place," Stingmon said, on the defensive, "everyone, be careful!"

"That's not a Digimon," Gatomon said warily, "but it is a digital entity…"

"I am Order itself," said the entity, "a consciousness generated from the processes of many who yearn for stability. I am fully realised. I therefore have no further use for a vessel." It began to glow, causing red static to spread across the area, "all things… Will be converted to memory."

"Oh, no, this is bad!" Marina said, getting up, "the tower, it's-"

A powerful shockwave suddenly swept the entire group up, sending them flying right into the nearest wall, and right out of the tower itself.

Eight groaned, losing consciousness as she felt Flamedramon catch her.

❖​

"Eight! Eight! Please be okay!" Marina pleaded (now wearing her orange top and pants and wearing a Digivice with a black grip), sitting on her knees as Eight opened her eyes. Her concern changed to relief, and she turned to Pearl, who was suddenly now her old self, "oh thank goodness! Pearl! Eight's woken up!"

"These two have been fussing all over you, you know," Gatomon remarked, standing right next to Eight.

"Wait… Pearl? You're back to normal?" Eight groaned, as she sat up.

"Yep! Marina worked some magic, and BAM!" Pearl grinned, "now I'm back in the flesh, bay-bee!" She pulled out her own Digivice, with blue grips, "and I actually have my own Digivice now!" She was wearing that big poofy white jacket.

"YAY! My partner's back to normal~!" Veemon grinned, riding on her shoulders.

Right next to Marina was a green caterpillar-like Digimon, who looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Thank you so much for freeing us…"

"Aw, Wormmon, it's okay," Marina smiled, patting him on the head, "but yes, Eight, Gatomon… Thank you so much. It was like being trapped in a waking nightmare." She opened up the black laptop she had on her lap, showing her desktop, which rather notably had a picture of Pearl as the wallpaper. "I'm so, so sorry. It was the Dramatic Days in Orderland module that stuck Pearl in drone form, and… Did all the other stuff, too."

Pearl blinked, raising an eyebrow. "Uh, what? Dramatic Days in…?"

"Right, let me back up a bit," Marina said, opening up a program, showing in-development aspects of the world around them, "this is the Memverse. It's a prototype VR… that is, a virtual reality that I made."

"Your virtual reality?" Pearl blinked, "hold up! You've been saying we've been in a fake place this whole time?!"

"I already told you this is the Digital World!" Gatomon snapped, "weren't you listening?!"

"Girl you were speaking so much weird stuff all at once at the time that I just kinda tuned out."

Eight rolled her eyes as she got up onto her feet. That was just like Pearl, really. She was a great friend, and had a simple wisdom to her, but she was not the sharpest tool in the shed most of the time.

"Gatomon's right. Some stuff here is real, like the Digimon, but aside from them? The only 'real' things in the Memverse are our minds," Marina explained. "This isn't technically the 'Digital World' as the Digimon know it, but it is sort of based off of it. That fuzzy cloud we met was Order. It took control of me and Stingmon and caused the whole Memverse to go haywire. It's forcibly connected to who-knows-how-many people to the Memverse. Their minds are all in here now."

"Which is how I got pulled into this, I take it?" Acht asked, as they came over, holding Armadillomon with their arms wrapped around him. Eight couldn't help but be amused at realisation that they were holding her partner like a stuffed toy. It was actually kind of adorable.

"Acht… I'm so sorry. I never intended for you to get roped into my mess," Marina said.

"It's fine. We've got other problems. Like what to do about the situation we're in," Acht said.

"Yeah! We gotta stop Order's evil schemes!" Armadillomon nodded, looking rather happy with being carried.

"Order's ultimate goal is a colourless world of pure order - a place where nobody has a will of their own, doing whatever they're told, day in, day out," Marina explained, "Order's using the Memverse to make the dream of that changeless world a reality."

"First Commander Tartar and now Order… Why do these AI keep popping out of the woodwork?" Eight groaned.

Pearl snorted, "geez, what's its beef with change? Actually, hold up. I thought the Memverse isn't real? Even if it gets what it wants in the Memverse, who cares? The real world stays the real world, right?"

"Firstly, that'd be bad for us Digimon, who are somewhat more real than the rest of this virtual space, thank you very much. And secondly… The Memverse is not as real as it could be," Gatomon said, "but if Order gets what it wants? It's not the first time some bad guy has tried to merge the real and digital worlds. And it's possible, too."

"Oh. Oh squit. Yeah, that's super bad."

Marina nodded, "Gennai already filled me in on a lot of the details. I was gonna go into a spiel about our minds being affected in the real world, as well, but the long and short of it? Order's going to keep pulling people into the Memverse, and then try to merge the two worlds together to create the world it wants, definitively. If we don't stop it, people all over the world will lose their wills. Life as we know it will be over!"

"OKAY YEAH THAT SOUNDS UBER BAD!" Pearl winced, "over my dead body, Order! We need to stop it, pronto!"

"Again, I'm really sorry," Marina frowned, "this is all my fault!"

"That's not how I remember it," Wormmon said, "this entire project was for entirely good reasons. Order just… Came out of nowhere."

"Yeah, listen to your partner, you had good reasons for making the Memverse!" Pearl nodded, "if that creep Order hijacked your work… It's gonna be sorry it ever tried!" She turned towards the tower, pointing to it, "we're gonna kick that loser out, together!"

Veemon pointed to the tower as well, getting up onto Pearl's head, "that's right, Order should be quaking in its non-existent boots!"

"Oh, boy, this brings back memories," Gatomon smirked. Eight just giggled.

"Aw, Pearlie~! You say the coolest things," Marina giggled.

Pearl just laughed… And then turned to Marina, "by the way, who's this Gennai dude you mentioned? I know Gatomon and Veemon were talkin' about him earlier, but…"

"Ah, that would be me. Now that Marina and Wormmon are free, I can come out of hiding."

Emerging from behind a corner, was a man who was distinctly not an Inkling or an Octoling. Eight gasped - he was human. He had pale blue eyes, short brown hair with a ponytail, and white and brown robes with a black belt and undershirt. "Hello, everyone. I'm glad you're all safe."

"A… Are you human?" Eight asked in disbelief.

"I wish I was. No, I'm simply a digital entity created in humanity's image," Gennai said, shaking his head with some regret as he walked over to them. Eight also felt slightly let down, but considering he was the closest thing to a living human? This was still astonishing.

"Gennai… What is going on?" Gatomon frowned.

"I apologise, Gatomon, Armadillomon. This… This wasn't how you were meant to be introduced to your new partners, but I had to employ drastic measures when Order took control of this digital space."

Marina nodded, "Gennai was hiding out in Kamabo Corporation's servers, safekeeping what was left of the data from the old Digital World that was around from the human age. He was a huge help in creating the Memverse. He introduced me to Wormmon, and both Veemon and Gatomon were supposed to be surprises for Pearl and Eight."

"Huh. Guess my partnering up with Armadillomon was a coincidence, then," Acht said, "not that I mind."

"New partners…?" Gatomon frowned, "you… You can't be saying all this nonsense about humans being extinct is true, right?!"

Gennai nodded. "I'm sorry, Gatomon. You don't remember humanity's last days right now, but I do. All land-based mammalian life went extinct 12,000 years ago. All that remains of human civilisation are ancient ruins… And us."

There was an immediate silence. Nobody else knew what to say. Eight could see Gatomon's eyes widening, her small body shaking - her heart shattering into a million pieces. Eight reached out to her. "Gatomon…"

"Kari… This can't be… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gatomon screamed at the top of her lungs, turning around and bolting, jumping over the barrier.

"Oh, Gatomon…" Armadillomon said, utterly pained. It looked like he had already come to terms with the reality of things.

Veemon and Wormmon just looked at each other, frowning, as did their partners.

Eight took a deep breath, and walked towards the barrier. "I'm going after her. I'll… I'll be back soon."

---

Author's Notes:

And here we go.

I will admit, it's been a long while since I watched either Adventure or 02, though, I probably should rewatch to properly refresh myself on some of the personalities of the characters. Still, hope I did a good enough job for the time being.

 

[Candescence]

Author's notes:

So, uh. This chapter somehow ballooned into 11k words. I blame my penchant for organic dialogue.

---

Chapter 2​

Eight called out for Gatomon as she walked, becoming increasing aware of how ephemeral the 'city' surrounding the Order Sector truly was as she found herself passing through buildings and objects like they weren't even there. On some level, they really weren't, just a backdrop for a VR game in an area she wasn't supposed to be.

Thankfully, reaching the very edge of the simulation didn't take long. If the world just stopping with nothing but an abyss beyond it wasn't enough of a clue, it was the black triangular obelisks in the distance jutting out from the abyss that lined the horizon. Or were they white inverted obelisks with red roots coming from the sky? She wasn't sure. The sight was just… Wrong.

It was there she finally found Gatomon, sitting at the very edge, curled up by herself.

Eight took a deep breath, and sat down next to her. "I'm sorry about your partner… Her name was Kari, right?"

"Hikari Yagami. 'Kari' was her nickname. She was the brightest light in my life, and the kindest, most wonderful person I ever knew."

Eight just nodded. "I figured you cared about her a lot."

"I knew humans were mortal and didn't reincarnate. For heaven's sake, I even saw a man die in front of his own partner who he only just met! But I never considered that I'd have to face the reality that I'd lose her. Or maybe I was hoping I'd die first and be reborn without those memories so I wouldn't have to bear the pain of losing her."

Eight couldn't help but imagine if she had to suffer the heartbreak of losing one of her new friends or found family so abruptly.

"You're not dragging me back, you know."

"I don't plan to. I'm just going to sit here and keep you company until you're ready to come back with me."

Gatomon sighed. "I almost hate that you sound just like her when you say that. Sorry. I'm not trying to take my anger out on you. I know you're just trying to help. Look at me, reverting to my old ways at the drop of a hat."

Eight had absolutely no idea what she meant by that, but she decided it was best not to pry right now. "Still, you can't just deny that she's gone."

"Of course not. I hate that it's happened, but if Gennai says it happened, then there's little chance it hasn't. And I'm familiar enough with the connection to my partner to know that I have a connection to you, now, not her anymore. I… Just didn't want to admit it until there was no other choice."

Eight nodded. "I really do get that she was so important to you-"

"It's not just that, though! All of this means that everything we worked for was for NOTHING!" Gatomon yelled furiously as she sprung to her feet, throwing her claws up in the air in frustration, "trying to make a better world for humans and Digimon alike, and it all goes down the freaking drain! ARRRRRGGGGHHH!"

"It could've happened in any number of ways, though, like, I dunno, a freak meteor strike," said Eight.

"I'm pretty much we could've dealt with an incoming meteor somehow, but… Yeah, you're right," Gatomon sighed, sitting down. "So many hopes and dreams, snuffed out forever. It's tragic."

"Then we'll carry that torch for those who're gone," Eight said. "I can't deny Octolings and Inklings have issues, too. Considering what I've seen and heard about humans… They seemed a lot like us. Maybe we were put on this Earth by some higher power to continue where humans left off? I dunno. But it'll definitely all be for nothing if we let Order do what he wants."

Noticing that Gatomon was saying nothing, Eight decided to continue. "Besides… You know Kari better then I do. If she was here… What would she do?"

"She'd say stopping Order's plot is the right thing to do, and throw every fibre of her being into it," said Gatomon, "she'd probably be chiding me for sitting around moping when the world needs saving."

"Ah, sorry… I'm not trying to guilt trip you-"

"-no, it's fine," Gatomon said, getting up onto her feet, "I'm the one who needs to get my act together. Like it or not, we're partners, now." She paused, and then shook her head, "no, that's being unfair to you. I don't dislike you at all. You've been nothing but nice and kind to me since we first met, and I… I really appreciate that." Gatomon turned to her, "you were chosen to inherit Kari's light for a reason. And-"

Eight giggled, "you don't need to give some grand speech to justify it." She smiled, extending a hand to her, palm facing upwards, "is it really that hard to just say you want to be friends?"

Gatomon looked down at Eight's hand, and smiled, putting her paw on top. "You sure know how to cut to the chase, huh? Yeah. I'd like us to be friends."

"That's good to hear. You ready to head back, now?"

"Sure. Let's go."

The pair began to walk back, passing by the ephemeral buildings. Gatomon broke the unnatural silence. "So… Is your name actually Eight? Seems a bit on the nose for an octopus."

"Ah… I don't remember my real name, actually," Eight said, scratching her cheek and laughing sheepishly, "I lost my memories and I'm still missing most of them. It was Marina's idea to call me 'Eight'. Before that, the only identity I had was Agent 8 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon."

"Splatoon? You don't mean 'Platoon'?"

"Nope."

"You guys are weird. But I guess that explains why you've got some fighting experience. That's certainly a step up from the previous Digidestined, who got forced into their roles while they were in elementary school. For pete's sake, when I partnered with Kari she was eight years ol-OH GODDAMN IT, SERIOUSLY?!" Gatomon throw up her paws in exasperation, "eighth Digidestined at the age of eight, and now I'm partnered to someone whose name is literally Eight! Why does that number keep popping up?!"

Eight couldn't help but bust a gut, laughing at the coincidence. "Oh cod that is amazing. But seriously, they were that young? Inklings and Octolings can't even participate in ink battles until they're, like, fourteen at the earliest. Why would kids that young be forced to save the world?"

"Because the 'gods' of the Digital World were freaking nuts. Homeostasis and Yggdrasil both had a bizarre sense of morality. Yggdrasil especially was a lunatic. Homeostasis… Had good intentions, but I don't think it ever properly understood humans or Digimon or the kind of world we wanted to create together. Also, it believed in 'the balance between good and evil', as if any amount of evil was at all a good thing."

"So… Did they die with the old Digital World, then?"

That gave Gatomon pause for a moment. "We already destroyed Yggdrasil when he became too unreasonable. I don't know about Homeostasis. Gennai served it, but… Huh. We never actually asked who was handling assignments for new Digidestined. Probably best to ask when we get back."

"Well, one way or another, I'm one of the new Digidestined. Do you have any advice for me?"

Gatomon tapped her chin with her claw. "Well… Try not to get turned into a keychain by a insane clown. Seriously, not a fun time."

Eight just stopped, trying desperately to process what she just heard. "What?"

❖​

Five years ago…



Agent 8 was somewhat nervous as she followed Agent 3 and Cap'n Cuttlefish into a wide alleyway not far from Inkopolis Square, though less in a terrified sense and more in a 'I'm about to meet my idols' sense. She was about to meet the Squid Sisters, after all - she knew they were the Cap'n granddaughters as well as Agents 1 & 2, and she had seen them perform live at that 'concert', but meeting them directly in person was a whole other kettle of fish.

Of course, she was only mildly more anxious than Marina, who was trailing a little bit behind Pearl, despite the fact that those two had already met the Squid Sisters. It had been merely hours since they had saved the world from the machinations of Commander Tartar.

But waiting in the alleyway was indeed Callie and Marie - the former wearing a beanie, cardigan, shirt, shorts and boots, while Marie had a lovely kimono and zori sandals, with a green wagasa parasol.

"GRAMPS! You're okay!" Callie grinned, hugging the poor Cap'n perhaps a little too tightly. "We just heard about what happened in the bay!"

"Oh, that… That wasn't in the plan, but we pulled through!" Cap'n Cuttlefish laughed, albeit in a strained manner, which caused Callie to let go.

"Geez, you could've warned us before you embarked on such a ridiculous expedition, you know," Marie remarked. "And you brought back an Octoling and Off The Hook, too?"

"OH YEAH!" Callie immediately shook Agent 8's hand, "Agent 8, right? It's so nice to meet you! I'm Callie, and this is my cousin-"

"Marie. You are two Squid Sisters!" Agent 8 said in broken Inkling, restraining herself from squealing in delight. "I'm so happy to finally meet two you in person!"

"Yeah, she's been anxious as shell the moment we learned we were meeting you two," Pearl grinned, "she wasn't this nervous when she was literally saving the world!"

"Peeeeeeaaaarrrrllll…" Agent 8 groaned.

Marie chuckled, "it's okay. We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other. Sounds like we have some wild stories to tell - while you were guys were out on expedition, Callie got brainwashed by Octavio, I had to pick up a new recruit, she saved the Great Zapfish again, no biggie."

"I'm sorry, CALLIE GOT BRAINWASHED?!" Marina gasped.

"Octavio got out again?" Agent 3 groaned. "I still think that snow globe is a terrible place to lock him up. Also, I'm assuming she's the new recruit?"

"That's right! You're welcome for holding the fort while you were away, by the by."

Agent 8's gaze was directed upwards towards a radiator embedded in a wall - a shorter athletic-looking Inkling girl with short hair, Marigold ink colour and red-orange eyes was sitting on it. She had a yellow hoodie, shorts and a pair of black and orange snowboots, but the unique headset gave her position away - she was another Agent. How'd she get up there, anyway? "Oh, I you notice not there."

The Agent just grinned, as she hopped down, landing gracefully. "What can I say, I'm good at being unnoticed. Nicely spotted, by the way, Agent 3. I'm Agent 4. Also, no offence, but you two really need a shower. Marie told me 3 had hygiene issues but this is a bit much!"

Agent 3 just glared with mild annoyance at Marie, who just did her typical smirk. "We've been stuck underground for a while."

The Cap'n laughed, "you're certainly energetic! And you saved the Great Zapfish, you say? Excellent work, young lady, you'll make a fine Agent."

Agent 4 grinned, as she saluted, "thanks, Cap'n, I'll make you proud yet!"

Now Agent 8 was wondering if saving a city at the least was a prerequisite for becoming a full Agent of the Splatoon at this point… Which were some impressively high standards.

Suddenly, Agent 4's attention was now squarely on her. "And I guess I'm not the newest member now, huh? Wow, you're super pretty! Honestly the Octolings I fought in Octo Canyon were kinda cute but you're a cut above the rest! Nice to meet you, Agent 8!"

"UH, THANK YOU???" Agent 8 said, completely caught off guard and her face flushed. "Nice meet to you too?!"

Pearl laughed, "someone's not used to compliments!"

Agent 4 looked over at Off The Hook, "also, nobody told me you guys were bringing Off The Hook with you! I swear, is every idol group a bunch of secret agents in this city?"

"No, but I used to be an Octarian soldier," Marina laughed sheepishly.

"By the way, what's your name, squirt?" Agent 3 asked.

"Huh?" Agent 4 blinked, "you already-"

"No, your real name, dummy," Callie chuckled.

"Yeah, that," Agent 3 said, "Agent 8 here lost her memories, so she doesn't know what her real name is."

"OH! Right!" Agent 4 bonked herself on the head, sticking her tongue out in embarrassment. She looked over Agent 8, "but that won't do, we can't just call you Agent 8 all the time, especially in public! Uh… Hmm. Would 'Eight' do just fine? I know it's a bit weird, but-"

Eight smiled softly, "no, I… I think I like it, actually."

"Cool!" Agent 4 grinned, extending a hand towards her, "nice to meet you, Eight! I'm Sarah Oakley! I hope we can be good friends!"

❖​

After climbing back over the barrier, the pair were greeted by the rest of the group. Eight got the amusing sight of Veemon over-dramatically hugging Gatomon. Eight had noticed that Gennai had also healed Acht's arm injury.

As for a certain question on their mind, Gennai was quick to answer. "To be perfectly honest, if Homeostasis is still active, it hasn't contacted me, sadly. I've handled a few Digidestined assignments so far, but apparently some other entity is handling the rest, which is a stroke of good fortune, because manipulating the system has been somewhat more challenging now that Order in charge. Either that, or it's somehow being done at random, which has never happened before."

"But basically, until we know more, we'll have to assume we're on our own," Marina said, "Order has tripled the number of floors and dialed up the difficulty to the highest it can go - double damage, one life, and once you're splatted, boom, you're kicked out of the Tower. Thankfully, however, with that one run you've accrued 'Prlz', a currency I can use to hack the system and tweak the settings to make things easier for you here and there."

"Should've figured Order wouldn't make things so easy for us," Gatomon said, arms crossed, "but as long as it's just the fish, even one armour-evolved Digimon should be enough-"

"Not so fast," Acht said, "we've detected new data being added to the Tower floors. Now that Order knows we're coming at him as Digidestined, he's gonna be throwing Digimon us in turn."

"Oh, that's a problem," Eight frowned. "Which I had more weapon options other than Dualies, then…"

"Hey, what's wrong with Dualies?! They're awesome!" Pearl said, almost defensively. They were her favourite weapon type.

"That's where the Palettes come in," Marina remarked, handing some kind of chip module to Eight. It had a pixel art representation of Marina on it. "This is my Palette - each one is tied to their owner's soul, perhaps maybe they're even a fragment of it. Slot it into Pearl's drone form and see what happens. Unfortunately, Pearl can only hold one Palette at a time, and since there's only one Pearl, well, only you can take advantage of the colour chips and the extra partner."

Pearl suddenly transformed into her drone form, turned around, and ejected a similar module with Pearl represented on it. Eight slotted in Marina's module.

A white Brella appeared in her hands, and she noticed Wormmon briefly glow. "Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Should've figured your weapon would be a Brella."

Wormmon blinked, looking over himself, "that's certainly an odd feeling…"

"Is that a new weapon type? I'm not familiar with that one," Acht noted.

"It's pretty new, actually, only came onto the scene a few years back," said Pearl, "definitely a different feeling compared to having my Palette slotted in." She did a flip in excitement, "oh, right! We also had a few keys, so while we were waiting, we unlocked a few of those lockers we passed by the first time. Turns out one of Marina's dev diary entries was in there, but there was also another Palette!"

Marina held out another module. It had a pixel representation of a short-haired Inkling. Despite the low detail, Eight felt like she recognised them immediately as she took it. "Is… Is that Sarah?"

"Who?" Acht asked, scratching their head.

"Sarah Oakley, aka Agent 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, and both Eight's roommate and girlfriend," said Marina.

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting about her," said Pearl.

Marina just shook her head with a chuckle. "Figured you would, Pearl. I hired her to handle Memverse security. She's also Hawkmon's partner - she was supposed to show up as a surprise during Eight's test run."

Realising that this palette was linked to Sarah's soul, Eight immediately swapped out Marina's Palette for Sarah's, allowing the Brella to be exchanged for a Splattershot. Maybe Hawkmon had some positive news-

-the fact that Hawkmon (an avian Digimon with a red and white vaguely tribal aesthetic) was partially translucent when he appeared was not a good sign. He opened his blue eyes, and when his eyes passed over Marina, he sighed with relief, "oh, Lady Marina, it's good to see you managed to escape from that horrid entity's clutches!"

"Well, that'd be thanks to Eight, Pearl, Acht and their partners," Marina said, "but now Order has his own body and is operating independently."

Eight decided to get to the point. "Hawkmon… Where's Sarah?"

Hawkmon winced. "Oh. Oh dear. You must be Miss Eight, then. I'm afraid… Sarah and I have been compromised. We noticed some anomalous activity already within the system, and attempted to isolate it, but… Order was stronger than we ever could've anticipated. I'm sorry. This was all supposed to be a pleasant surprise, alongside the Memverse helping you get your memories back, but… Oh, it's all gone so terribly wrong!"

Marina nodded, "the Memverse was created to help you and the Sanitised Octarians regain the memories, and for them, their free will as well. You might not remember this, but Order took over just as we were about to start our first big test run."

Eight's heartbeat accelerated. This was all for her? And Sarah volunteered to help out for her sake, only to fall under Order's control? This was far too much for her.

"Why's he all see-through and stuff?" Armadillomon asked.

"It's because his main body not under his own power, hence 'compromised'," Gennai said, "thankfully we can manifest a body for his mind to use when Eight is using Sarah's Palette, but that still means if we encounter Sarah in the tower, Hawkmon's real body will be with her, and they'll be our enemies."

"Even now I can feel myself being puppeteered by external code," Hawkmon shivered. "Sarah and I have been turned into enforcers for the master of the Spire."

Eight clenched her fists. "That tears it."

Gatomon blinked… And then nodded. "Right. Say no more. We're going in, and we're rescuing them. Am I right?"

Eight nodded back. "You don't mind sitting this one out, Veemon?"

"Hey, this is fight is yours and Hawkmon's, not mine, I ain't gettin' in the way of another man's mission," Veemon said.

"I'll hold the fort out here and make sure things don't get worse," Gennai said, "good luck to all of you."

"Eight, you're really worried, I can see it on your face," said Gatomon, "you really care about Sarah that much?"

Eight couldn't help but smile as she recalled fond memories from after she came to Inkopolis. "Sarah was one of the first people to welcome me to Inkopolis with open arms, she immediately offered to let me room at her apartment, and started showing me around the city and helping me get my bearings at the first opportunity. She's one of the nicest, most caring people I know, and even though she'd fought Octolings before as an Agent, she didn't bat an eye at the idea of an Octoling living with her. She wouldn't stop asking questions about me and where I came from. She's inquisitive, surprisingly smart and a polymath, kind, determined, loyal, free-spirited… She's also kind of a ditz, overly excitable, careless at times, a goofball, a coddamn pervert and has the attention span of a goldfish, but still."

Hawkmon sighed, "Miss Eight, please don't exaggerate my partner's faults like that, her attention span is not that poor."

"Sounds a bit like Yolei," Armadillomon giggled.

"Yes, she is, but she's her own person with her own quirks, and I wouldn't change that for the world," Hawkmon said wistfully, with a smile. "I do miss Yolei, but Sarah is a wonderful companion, all the same. There's never a dull moment when she's around."

Eight couldn't help but notice Gatomon looking at the floor. Did something Hawkmon say take hold in her mind?

❖​

"You're lucky my bed is king-sized and I've way more space than I know what to do with!" Sarah remarked as she closed the apartment door behind them, "seriously, it's surprisingly hard to find a single-person apartment in this city. But I haven't been living here long either, so I hadn't had time to get a roommate before Marie roped me into this whole Agent business. Well, make yourself at home! Because, uh, this is your new home, I guess!"

Eight looked around as she stepped into the living room area, setting aside her boots. She was now taking it in that she now actually had a place of her own to live. Sure, she had her own bunk back in the domes, but she had little in the way of personal belongings or anything besides that. All she had was her clothes and her Octo Shot.

She found herself sitting down on the sofa in front of the TV, realising how utterly exhausted she was. All that fighting to get to the surface and then save the world, and only now that she had true comfort, safety and relative privacy (also, a chance to finally take off her boots) did her body decided it was done holding herself up. "Whew… Home? I never had real home before."

"You know, if you want, we can just speak Octarian," Sarah remarked, speaking surprisingly fluent Octarian, "I was already learning it before I became an Agent out of curiosity, and Marie helped me fill in the gaps."

Eight blinked, switching languages as well. "I… I'd really like that, thanks."

"Uh, you want me to make you something to eat? Have you even had breakfast?" Sarah asked, leaning over the back of the sofa.

Eight's stomach rumbled. Oh. Right. It was still morning. "Yeah… Yeah, I'd like that, thanks."

"No problem! Eggs on toast, coming right up!" Sarah grinned as she headed into the kitchen. "Oh, you mind having orange juice as well?"

"Um, I guess that… Should be okay…" Goodness, this couch was so comfortable… Eight could just…

"Eight? Come on. Wake up, sleepyhead~"

Eight blinked. Did she fall asleep? Considering there was a plate with a pair of toast cut into halves and scrambled eggs between them on the table alongside a glass of orange juice, and Sarah was suddenly sitting next to her, that was the only logical inference that came to mind. She blushed. "Sorry, I guess I fell asleep."

Sarah giggled, "it's okay! Just eat up before it gets cold. Maybe take a sip before you do, though, you must be parched."

Eight picked up the glass, and took a sip of the orange juice. The taste soothed her throat in mere moments as she drank, and once she felt fine, she took one of the halves and took a big bite. She sat the glass down as she chewed, savouring the taste, before she swallowed, and then eagerly started munching on the rest of it.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down! It's not gonna get cold that fast," Sarah laughed, "take your time with it!"

"Sorry, it's just it TASTES SO GOOD~!" Eight sobbed happily as she slowed down to savour the taste, "I never had anything this good as a soldier! It was just… Rations. And they were okay, but… They were nothing compared to this! And the juice is nice and fresh!"

"Oh boy you are gonna lose your mind when we take you to any kind of fancy restaurant if you're getting excited over eggs, toast and orange juice," Sarah chuckled. "I knew a bit about life in the Octarian domes and the power crisis, but this…"

"It's more a military thing, I guess, but then again, all Octolings are drafted into the military at a young age. I've been learning how to fight for as long as I can remember."

"Geez, a country bumpkin and an army brat living in the same apartment," Sarah laughed, sitting back. "But I have been seeing other Octolings around lately, and some are even coming up straight from Octo Canyon ever since I beat Octavio. You're not the first to arrive - I think there's an exodus going on. I've been talking to some of them, and… Well, as far as I understand it, they don't see much value or pride in fighting for a nation that's falling apart and is too obsessed with an ancient war that the other side has left in the past. I've also heard that Inklings and Octolings over in the Splatlands never fought in the War and get along pretty well, too. Maybe the Octarians can just… Leave the domes behind and live elsewhere. Kinda wild that it took this long for them to consider it."

"Yeah. I hope so," said Eight, nodding, "the domes were mostly built by the humans, not by the Octarians. I just hope the surface world can handle the Octarians coming up to find a new life."

"Well, doesn't seem like a problem so far. But for now, I think you should worry about yourself first, Roomie," said Sarah with a smile, "I'm sure you're itching to get into turf wars."

"Actually… Not yet. I'm very burnt out on fighting right now."

"Ah, gotcha, I guess that makes sense. Then you can take it easy, I'll show you around Inkopolis, and we'll get you a part-time job. Sure would be nice to finally split the rent with someone."

Eight gazed around the room - compared to the basic furnishings of her military dorms, this was downright luxurious, with various fancy and modern furnishings. "I'm surprised you can afford an apartment this fancy."

Sarah blinked, and then giggled, "fancy?! This is honestly only a bit fancier than the baseline apartment here in Inkopolis."

"Oh, yes, I remember… Inklings are pretty hedonistic," said Eight, "that's what I learned in school - they don't settle for anything but the 'freshest' stuff. The most fashionable clothes, the best food, the freshest furnishings…"

"Guilty as charged. And you guys are smart and disciplined but somehow you lost the Great Turf War because someone accidentally unplugged the Great Octoweapons."

"Uuuuggggghhhh don't remind me of that. Not our proudest moment," Eight groaned, indulging in her eggs on toast to clean the bad taste from her mouth. "Honestly right now I just want to eat, and take a good, long rest."

"Take a shower before you do, though, as I said, you need to get the smell off. Also, you need new clothes. Not that I mind your current outfit, because dang, girl, you've got some curves."

Eight tried not to choke on her food. She was still very not used to being complimented in this way, and her face turned red. She swallowed, and turned to Sarah, "I'm sorry, are you… Flirting with me?!"

"Sorry, is that how I'm coming off? Look, I'm an Inkling teenager, I can't help it," Sarah laughed sheepishly, scratching her chin, "I can't help but admire a beautiful girl's body, you know? And it doesn't help that you walk like a supermodel on a catfishwalk. If you don't swing that way, I totally get it, though, I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Eight looked back at her food, and took another bite. "I mean… I guess I wouldn't mind dating or kissing another girl. I'm just not used to being complimented like that, you know?"

"Yeah, not a lot of time for dating in the Octarian military, I guess. I'm just as hedonistic as any other Inkling, and it pains me that I can't have what you've got in terms of figure. Seriously, I'm sixteen and I'm still practically flat as a board," Sarah grumbled, looking down her shirt.

Eight just giggled. "Be careful what you wish for, Sarah. I wanted to get to the surface but the overwhelming amount of work I had to do for it? Not fun."

"Hey, at least you got what you wanted, I saved Callie and the Great Zapfish out of the goodness of my heart, I didn't even get paid for it."

"What, was meeting the Squid Sisters not enough?"

"I didn't even know who they were before meeting Marie, to be honest. Didn't watch much TV before I came to Inkopolis. Too busy with extracurricular activities, like learning other languages. And math. I'm literally in the top 5% in my grade when it comes to math, you know."

"Yeah, but… That's not saying much. Inklings are terrible at math."

"I guess you've got a point, but still. I guess I appreciate why those two are so popular now, but honestly, Callie and Marie are more like big sisters to me. Or, sometimes, Marie's more like a second mom and Callie's a cool aunt. But usually they're more like big sisters."

"Well… Now I've got a lot more time to learn about you, them, Agent 3, the Cap'n and Off The Hook," Eight said, "I dunno if I'll actually join the Splatoon officially, though. Cap'n just called me 'Agent 8' because of the number that Commander Tartar gave me."

"You saved the world. If there's anyone who deserves to rest on their laurels, it's you, so I won't hold it against you. And maybe the Splatoon might not even need to exist anymore soon, either," Sarah smiled, patting Eight on the back. "Either way… I'll do my best to help you find your place here."

"Thanks, Sarah," Eight smiled. "You're a good friend."

❖​

After setting a few hacks (Eight decided upon damage reduction, an extra life and some Pearl drone upgrades), the group (sans Gennai) headed into the elevator. It was time to get to work.

"Alright, first floor," Acht said, "from here on out, you'll need to pick your floors carefully."

"If you look at the Palette, you'll see it has two 'common tones'," said Marina, pointing them out - one was orange, and the other blue, "Sarah's Palette has range for its first, and mobility for its second."

There were also a couple of symbols underneath them, which Eight noticed - one was red stylised heart, and the other was a blue eye-like symbol. "What are those?"

"Oh, those are the common Digimentals for this Palette - in this case, Love and Friendship," Marina smiled, "mine are Knowledge and Kindness. Pearl's are Courage and Sincerity. Any of the Digimentals should be compatible with any Digimon, in theory."

"So… Armour Evolution is a special way of doing it, right?" asked Pearl, "are there other ways for Digimon to evolve? Well, aside from the standard way, which we still can't do."

"There is fusion, an alternative way to reach higher levels," Wormmon explained, "and perhaps the only one without the Crests… Those were already lost long, long ago. So without fusion, Ultimate and Mega levels are off-limits. Evolving from Rookie to Champion is perfectly achievable, however."

Acht just looked incredulous. "Wait, so 'Mega' comes after 'Ultimate'? That's a weird naming scheme."

"Oh, yes… Ken, Cody and Izzy thought so too. They sometimes preferred 'Child', 'Adult', 'Perfect' and 'Ultimate' for the last four evolution stages."

"They're just names, for pete's sake," said Pearl, "I think they're neat either way!"

"Well, either way, first floor is ready," Acht said, "pick your first chip."

Eight took a deep breath as the set of options appeared before her. Time to get started with her first run.

❖​

Eight dodged behind cover as she avoided Sarah's Inkjet projectiles, trying to stay on the move and stay out of her line of fire.

They were having a one-on-one practice match on Starfish Mainstage - it was off rotation and considering nobody was using it for anything else right now, it was pretty easy for the Squid Sisters to reserve it for the Splatoon to practice on. Callie, Marie, the Cap'n and Agent 3 were watching from the sidelines.

Both Agents were down to one life each. Eight had learned fairly quickly that despite being a newbie to this whole business herself, Sarah was not far behind Agent 3 in terms of skill. She was using a custom Hero Shot Replica with the Tentatek Splattershot loadout, while Eight stuck with her trusty Octo Shot.

She heard Sarah's Inkjet expire, causing the Inkling girl to get launched back to her starting position. Okay, good. Time to start flanking. She started moving carefully and quietly, sticking to the walls and trying to stay out of sight.

Sarah laughed, calling out in Octarian, "WHEW! Man, you're pretty good! I'm glad I didn't fight you in Octo Canyon! Even the Elites there weren't as good as you are, no wonder you aced all those tests underground!"

Eight decided to start moving in the other direction, intending to double back to throw off Sarah when it came to where she was actually going. "Thanks. You're really good too. Three was tougher, but she removed her special limiter."

"Oh, man, that would've been rough! Also, thanks for giving away your position, by the way."

Perfect. Time to double back, and-

Eight heard a whistling noise coming right towards her, and right over her head. Something bonked her right on the head. "OW!"

Then she saw the Splat Bomb roll right off her head, moments away from exploding.

Eight let out a squeaky yelp right before it exploded, splatting her instantly.

As she respawned, she heard Callie call out, "well, guess that's it! Sarah wins the match! That was a close fight!"

Sarah super-jumped right in front of Eight's spawner, grinning, "sorry, Roomie, but I guess I win our first match! You did really well, though."

"H-How? You knew exactly where I was and was able to land a bomb right on top of me," Eight said, still astonished.

"Oh, Sarah's decent with main weapons, but she is terrifying with hitting arcs," said Marie as the others came over. "The Octolings in the Canyon learned that the hard way. She's also got really good hearing and a sense for where sounds are coming from."

"That was pretty impressive, I couldn't throw a bomb that precisely," Agent 3 said.

Sarah blushed a bit, scratching her cheek, "hehe! Thanks, Rachel."

Eight just smiled as she stepped off the respawn point. She couldn't be mad at Sarah. "Well, you won fair and square. Congratulations."

"Well, I guess I gotta accept my prize for winning, then."

Eight blinked. "Prize? What pr-"

Sarah walked up, stood up on the tips of her toes, and gave Eight a kiss on the lips.

Eight was frozen like a state, her face red as a tomato as she processed what just happened. The delighted gasp from Callie and the light chuckling from both Marie and Agent 3 didn't help.

Sarah giggled as she stepped back, "you said you wouldn't mind if you got kissed by a girl, right?"

"I… I mean… No…" Eight stammered. Truth be told, she didn't dislike the kiss - if anything, she actually liked that brief moment.

"Good! Then I can get to kiss you whenever I beat you, and you can kiss me when you win! Fair's fair!"

"I don't think she necessarily wants to kiss you as a prize, Sarah," Callie chuckled.

"I think treating me to food if I win will be enough," Eight giggled.

"Sure, but if you ever want to use up those free kiss vouchers, I'm always game," Sarah winked.

If nothing else, Eight had learned that living with Sarah meant that dull moments were few and far between.

❖​

Eight's experience and having three allies by her side made the gradual climb much easier than it otherwise would've been, even if she and her Digimon partners shared lives. It was just a matter of being careful enough to not get splatted by the Jelletons and the various Rookie-level Digimon, since there was no time limit on any floor. It got easier when Eight acquired the Digimental of Love, allowing Hawkmon to evolve into the larger and much more flight-capable Halsemon, who could unleash wind blades and even tornadoes.

The first boss on floor ten was the Asynchronous Rondo, which was a strange rotating set of rings making a really creepy noise. Thankfully it was also surprisingly straightforward to deal with - shoot the weak spots as they come around, don't get caught by the spotlights, and watch out when the whole thing starts spinning like crazy. Avoiding Sting Rays or bomb spam was not fun. Also, the Sealsdramon that was hanging out on the edge of the arena and trying to flank her managed to cost her a life before Halsemon took it out.

Eight's focus for building on her Palette was a mixture of range, fire speed, ink efficiency and equipping Pearl with bombs, Killer Wail and Inkstrikes. She also included a bit of attack power to help her two partners, though they benefited from most of the other chips that weren't in the Pearl drone category.

But then came the twentieth floor. Eight stepped out onto the balcony to see what awaited her - a symmetrical arena, and for some reason, another elevator on the other si-

Eight's breath caught as she saw who was standing there. "Sarah?"

Standing on the platform in the middle of a puddle of black ink, was a short, chubby female Inkling with short hair, wearing the same outfit as Eight, and carrying a Splattershot. But she was adorned with a chrome face mask with two large creepy red glowing eyes. Standing next to her was Hawkmon, adorned with a similar mask that better fitted his face, and flying next to her was a black, single-eyed copy of the Pearl drone. Clipped to her jumpsuit was a Digivice with a red grip. Both of them had dark colour schemes, with the same black ink as the Jelletons.

And then several more Inklings and Digimon just like them emerged from the ink, but their entire heads were round and chrome rather than just the mask. They then disappeared into the ink, though one of the Inklings in the back didn't do so in time, causing one of their teammates to grab them by the foot and pull them in.

"Oh, man, that's creepy," said Pearl. "Also since when could you pull a teammate into your ink like that?"

"The ones at the front are real," Halsemon said, "that's my real body right there, alongside Sarah. The others are copies."

Eight was just struck by the sheer horror of what she was seeing. "Sarah… What did Order do to you?"

"Eight, snap out of it! This is our chance to save her and Hawkmon, remember?!" Gatomon said.

Eight took a deep breath, and nodded, stepping out onto the cage platform. "You're right. Let's go save them!"

Eight rode the cage out as far as she could go, before using Pearl to hover over to the raised area in the middle of the arena with the armor power-up. She'd need that, as well as the high ground, if she wanted to win. She started painting immediately as Halsemon covered the air, and Gatomon watched her flank.

"First wave, incoming!" said Acht, "watch yourselves!"

Didn't need to be told twice - Eight could already see the first clone arriving via the opposite cage, and a second one wasn't far behind. Flying in alongside each cage was also one of the Hawkmon copies, whom wasted absolutely no time trying to dive-bomb Eight. However, Halsemon intercepted the first one, tackling it out of the air.

The first clone had a Luna Blaster, attempting to close in the distance quickly. Eight responded by hurling a Splat Bomb its way, and then catching it out as it tried to evade to the side, splatting it quickly.

"Watch out!" Gatomon slashed her claws at an incoming Hawkmon clone, allowing Eight to step out of the way and focus her fire. The clone was quickly overwhelmed by the ink, and disintegrated into data.

As for the second Inkling clone? That one got quickly splatted by Halsemon's Mach Impulse shockwave. First wave cleared.

"Don't get comfortable, second wave inbound!" Marina called out. "And they're ramping up the deployment schedule, too!"

Indeed, the platform on Sarah's end of the floor suddenly widened to accommodate three cages simultaneously. Three clones stepped onto the cages, which activated at the same time, with the clones being accompanied by their Hawkmon copies as well.

"Oh, joy," Gatomon frowned, "what's the plan here, Eight?"

"Halsemon, keep the Hawkmon copies busy. Gatomon, if any of those three Inklings try to get up onto the high ground, splat them, but don't get into their line of fire if you can help it," Eight said, "Pearl, are your weapons charged yet?"

"You bet! Watch this!" Pearl launched an Inkstrike right into the centre of the enemy's half of the arena as they exited their cages, forcing them to scatter to the sides. She then targeted one of them with a Killer Wail, which locked on, following its movements.

"Roger that!" Halsemon said, firing off red lasers from his eyes as he chased down the Hawkmon copies, forcing them to evade as well.

"Alright, but we only have one life, so we gotta be careful," said Gatomon, watching for enemies trying to head for the high ground.

Eight took stock of the enemy's weapons - Dualies, Roller and Brella. Thankfully, these copies weren't as skilled as their progenitor, but if they behaved even a little bit like Sarah, Eight knew how she'd typically use them - the drone with the Dualies would aggressively attempt to access the high ground, the Roller would try to flank, and the Brella would fight defensively until it saw an opening to attack. "Gatomon, the drone with the Dualies is going to head straight for us, intercept it. I'll deal with the Roller when it tries to flank. Once they're done, you bait the Brella's shield so I can shoot it down from behind."

Gatomon took a moment to process this, and grinned, baring her claws, "can do." She went to the edge and kept low, waiting to strike.

Noting that the Roller drone went to the left, Eight followed them, tossing a bomb in their path. Same play as before - let the drone move right into her fire. As predicted, it made it easy pickings. And based on the surprised yelp of an Inkling behind her, it seems Gatomon successfully nailed her prey.

Eight suddenly picked up a whooshing sound in the air, stepping to the side and barely dodging a feather that came back around, barely scoring a cut on her arm. A Hawkmon drone had broken away and was gunning right for her, slicing at her with its talons. Eight evaded with quick movements, shooting it down with the last of her ink. "Whew… That was close…"

"EIGHT! I've got the last drone distracted!" Gatomon called out. She was down on the lower ground, dodging incoming fire from the Brella drone, but just close enough that the drone was keeping the Brella open defensively.

Eight dived into her ink, recharging as she rushed towards them, and lept off the edge, immediately spraying ink when the drone's back was turned. "Right!"

The drone suddenly spun around, Brella springing open. But that was enough for Gatomon to pounce, slashing at its back with her Lightning Claws, splatting the drone immediately.

Halsemon tackled the last of the Hawkmon drones to the ground, stabbing it with his claws until it disappeared. "Sorry, one of them slipped away. Looks like this wave is done!"

"Nice work, but there's one more wave left, and the rest of the drones are all coming at once," Acht observed, "oh… Oh, that could be a problem."

Eight looked up at the enemy's platform. Sarah was holding up her Digivice, speaking in a monotone voice. "Maximum response level authorized. Digivolve."

"Affirmative," said the controlled Hawkmon in an equally monotone voice, "Hawkmon, digivolve to…"

The platform was bathed in what could best be described as 'dark light', as much of an oxymoron as that could be. When it faded, what was in Hawkmon's place was a bird Digimon even larger than Halsemon, letting out a mighty screech. "Aquilamon!"

"Oh, now that's just cheating!" Pearl complained.

Gatomon nodded. "You said it. Halsemon, you think you can take your original body?"

"We're roughly the same level, so yes, but I won't be able to keep the Hawkmon drones busy in that case! You'll be on your own!" Said Halsemon. "I'll see if I can break that mask!"

"So… Two and a half against nine, technically," said Gatomon, "those aren't great odds."

"Well, we don't have much choice," Eight said as they backed up onto the high ground. "But I have something to even them a bit. Save Sarah for last, we need to break off her mask instead of splatting her."

"Huh?"

At this point, Eight had a Trizooka charged up, and as soon as the drones started dropping, she activated it, immediately firing off a shot. That took one drone and Digimon clone pair by surprise, splatting them both immediately. The second shot was dodged, but the third took out another Hawkmon. "Three down, five more to-"

Suddenly, Sarah glided right for her, and just as Eight was about to shoot, her eyes widened as Sarah suddenly started up a Triple Splashdown. "Oh, squit. MOVE!"

Gatomon bolted back, and Eight started swimming away, but the Triple Splashdown got her, sending her flying back off the platform, her single armour upgrade shattering instantly. Pearl managed to keep Sarah from immediately following up with a bomb, Inkstrike and Killer Wail, but cursed, "she can do a Triple Splashdown out of nowhere?! Where'd she learn THAT trick?!"

"Great, now we've lost the high ground," Gatomon cursed as the remaining drones began advancing - they had an Inkbrush, a Slosher and a Blaster, and they were summoning Jelletons. Two Hawkmon drones were approaching from the air. "Now how do we get out of this one? I think we might be screwed here, partner…"

Eight, on the other hand, had no such thoughts. "No, don't give up! We're going to save Sarah and Hawkmon, I swear it!"

Suddenly, a light shone from her Digivice. A golden egg-like object with small wings was briefly projected from it, and Gatomon suddenly glowed. "Gatomon, Armor Digivolve to…!"

In a flash, she was a grey quadraped with green eyes, large curved horns and hooves, adorned with a metal helm and a large ring around her neck. She looked down at herself, clearly bewildered, and bleated, "GOATMON?! Wha… Why Goatmon of all Digimon?!"

"Hehe, you look kinda funny," Pearl said, giggling immaturely.

Goatmon shook her head, "wait, that means-no, no, we can talk about this absurd situation later! MYSTIC BELL!"

The bell hanging from its neck chimed, and while Eight found it a soothing sound, the enemy were stopped in their tracks, stumbling back and disoriented. Goatmon charged the Inkbrush drone while splatting any Jelletons in her way. The drone tried to splash her, but its ink barely did anything as it got tackled by Goatmon's horns, splatting it.

Eight and Pearl both threw bombs at the other two Inkling drones, quickly splatting them, and Pearl shot down one of the Hawkmon drones with the Killer Wail, while Eight charged, shooting down the other clone and any Jelletons in her way with her Splattershot. "SARAH! It's me, Eight! Please, I need to know you're still in there!"

"E-Eight?" Sarah said in a fluctuating voice, "no… Get… Get away… I don't… Want to hurt you…" She briefly hesitated before hurling a Splat Bomb right at Eight.

Thanks for the warning, babe, Eight thought as she dashed to the side, avoiding it entirely. She dashed right for Sarah, "Goatmon!"

"I'm on it!" Goatmon charged in front of her, blocking Sarah's incoming shots, leaping up onto the platform and knocking her down with a light hit. Eight quickly climbed up as Goatmon pinned Sarah's Splattershot to the floor with a hoof, and she dived onto her, grabbing the mask and wrenching it off with all her might, screaming in determination, black ink ripping from Sarah's face. "SARAH!"

Underneath, Sarah's dulled eyes swiftly returned to normal, and she smiled weakly. "Oh… Hey, babe… I'm glad you're… Okay…" She then fell unconscious.

Suddenly, Halsemon crashed to the floor, pinned down by Aquilamon's talons. The larger bird was about to strike. "GAH!"

"Mystic Bell!" Goatmon called out, the bell ringing again and evidently shattering Aquilamon's concentration, allowing Eight to get up and pepper Aquilamon with ink, followed by an Inkstrike from Pearl. This allowed Halsemon to slip out from under him, and shatter the mask with a quick strike.

Halsemon faded away, as Aquilamon's eyes flickered, his body returning to normal. "Oh, good, that worked. That was certainly a close one… Ah, Sarah! Is she okay?"

"Seems so," Eight said, looking over her unconscious girlfriend. "But her ink colour hasn't changed, so she's still technically an enemy… But we can't risk splatting her."

"That's a problem," Marina said, "I can hack the system so we can get out of here with her, but… It'll cost you your last life. We'll have to start over."

"That's fine," Eight said, picking Sarah up in her arms, "I was planning on aborting the run to get Sarah to safety, anyway. Let's go. Also, I need to tell her to lay off the ice cream again…"

❖​

One year after the Deepsea Metro incident…



"Sarah, we're going to be late the opening ceremony at this rate!" Eight called out, once she was fully dressed for the Splatfest, noticing that Sarah was taking an unusual amount of time in the bathroom. The lack of response was a red flag. Of course, this wasn't entirely surprising to her.

She sighed, heading to the bathroom door, and testing the handle. It was unlocked. She opened it gently. "Sarah?"

Sarah was standing in front of the sink, staring into the mirror. All she was wearing were her Splatfest tee and shorts. Eight knew what the problem was, of course. This scene only served to underscore how much Sarah's body had changed since they had first met - gone was the relatively thin, athletic build, and in its place was a much wider figure, filled out by fat build-up that had been accumulating shortly before her eighteenth birthday, and resulting in this new build.

It hadn't been anything Sarah had done - if anything, when she noticed the changes she had tried to work out more and eat less for a while. But the fat just keep accumulating. A visit to the doctor illuminated what was going on, however - it was a trait from her father's side of her genetics which only happened in female Inklings, developing during puberty. The fat itself was here to stay, and trying to get rid of it was ill-advised for health reasons. Thankfully, it hadn't hampered her physical abilities any, and it even gave her additional energy and stamina, but it didn't matter. The once constantly-cheerful Sarah's self-esteem had rapidly deteriorated, and while her friends and family did their absolute best to support her and help her recover, there were still days where her mood was in the toilet.

Eight sighed, her heart breaking for her roommate, as she came up behind her. "Oh, Sarah…"

"Chaos ain't gonna win this Splatfest. Marina's too popular," Sarah said, just staring into the mirror, "I don't know why I even bothered deciding to participate."

"Don't say that, stranger things have happened in Splatfests," Eight said soothingly, putting her arms around Sarah's waist. She still was getting used to Sarah's waist being so wide, as well as her actually having a proper bustline, nevermind one bigger than even Eight's. "Your mind's playing tricks on you again. This is just a fun festival, the outcome doesn't really matter."

Sarah just mumbled, clearly struggling to respond. Eight just said soothingly, "you always have a fun time at Splatfests, even when your side loses. Just because the genetic lottery didn't turn out like you wanted doesn't spell the end of your good luck."

"I mean… I guess…"

Eight decided to pull out a bombshell she had been wanting to save till later when the Spaltfest ended. "Besides… I think you're beautiful in your own way."

That snapped Sarah out of her depressed stupor, blushing, "eh?!"

Eight giggled, hugging her tighter, "and I kinda like the way you are for other reasons too. You're like a big pillow or a plush toy, you're just so soft."

"You… You really think so?"

"You're still really pretty, just not in a 'supermodel' way. And that's okay! Nobody thinks any less of you for it. We just don't want to see you down in the dumps like this. You're worth the whole world to me, and I know the others think the same thing, and what's happened doesn't change that one iota."

Sarah sniffed, her eyes watering, "Eight… What did I do to deserve such a wonderful friend…?"

"By being a wonderful friend yourself," Eight smiled, kissing Sarah on the cheek.

That caused the waterworks to break out. Eight just let Sarah cry as long as she needed to. When the tears began subsiding, she spoke, "are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good now," Sarah sniffed, smiling as she wiped her tears, "thanks, Eight. I don't know what I was thinking. Sorry for being so gloomy."

Eight finally let go, and giggled, "it's okay. Come on, let's get you ready, otherwise we'll be late."

Sarah grinned as she turned around, "oh, yeah, right. Gotta double-time it, then, let's go!"

❖​

"CHAOS REIGNS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

As they arrived back in the apartment after the results were announced, Eight could not be happier for Sarah, who was at the best mood she had been in months. They were holding hands all the way back. "See? I told you it was possible."

Sarah just giggled. As Eight closed the door behind them, Sarah flopped onto their shared bed. "Aw, man, I'm beat. What time is it?"

"Like, one in the morning?" Eight remarked with some amusement as she followed Sarah into the bedroom, "we should probably get some sleep."

"Yeah, probably," Sarah yawned, as she turned onto her back. "G'night."

Eight smirked, and turned out the lights, before flopping onto the bed… And right on top of Sarah. The fact that her head was resting on Sarah's chest was no accident. "Mmm…"

"Uh, Eight? You're lying on top of me."

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, I thought you were a pillow, you're so soft~"

"Your head is on my boobs right now."

Eight looked up at her mischievously, "and how many times have you done that to me, hmm~?"

Even with only the moonlight shining through the windows, Eight could see Sarah blushing. "Um… Fair play, I gu-wait, you don't mean… You can't seriously be saying you find this body… Attractive…?"

Eight moved up, bringing her head up above Sarah's, looking down on her with a smile, "I told you, you're beautiful."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh my cod. You're not just saying that, aren't you? You actually find plus-sized women hot."

"Maybe. Or maybe it's because I think you're hot no matter what body you have," Eight said teasingly. She then went for the splat, kissing Sarah passionately on the lips.

Sarah was initially surprised, but eagerly leaned into the kiss. When they stopped, she grinned, "wait a minute, you didn't even win and you kissed me anyway."

"Hmm… I think that's just the first kiss you owe me from my victories. We have a lot of kisses to go through before we're even~"

Sarah smirked, "lay 'em on me, then, Roomie." She blinked. "Wait… So… Does this mean we're officially…?"

"Only if you want to. I've been meaning to ask you for a while, but… You've been down in the dumps, so…"

"Oh, I see… Well, then." Sarah kissed her back briefly, "I'm just gonna say it - I fell in love with you from the movement I first saw you, Eight. And I couldn't be happier that we became friends. But now… I want us to become more than friends… If that's okay with you."

Eight giggled, and put her hand on Sarah's cheek. "Of course! I grew to love you over the last year of us living together, and it broke my heart to see you fall apart. So it makes me happy to know you're back to your old, cheerful self. I love you too, Sarah."

They immediately started making out. And minutes later, they both passed out in each other's arms.

❖​

"There," Gennai said, standing up as Sarah's ink returned to her usual marigold colour, "she has been purged of Order's influence entirely. I will say, her will is rather strong - she was fighting Order's control from the inside all this time."

"That's Sarah, alright. She'd never accept being controlled by someone else," Eight smiled softly, sitting by her bed. They were out of the Tower, and Gennai had set up a more comfortable rest stop for the team to use, rather than just sitting on the ground. "I was so worried we wouldn't be able to fix her, but… My hopes shone through."

"Yeah, speaking of which, you mind checking your Digivice?" Gatomon said, "look in the items view."

Eight blinked, turned on her Digivice's screen, and scrolled through the menu. Sure enough, there was a menu for stored item, with two Digimentals inside - listed as the Digimentals of Hope and Light. "Hope and Light… They're both inactive, though."

Gatomon frowned, looking at the screen as well, "Light, I get, but why do you have both of them? Not that it matters, right now, we can't use them until we properly activate them fully. Now that I think about it, we haven't seen hide nor hair of Patamon. I hope he's okay."

Pearl (who was back in Inkling form) looked over Sarah, blinking, "I'm not sure why I keep forgetting about Sarah, honestly, considering she's Eight's chubby girlfriend."

"Pearl, please don't talk about my partner's figure, she's quite sensitive about that," said Hawkmon.

"She could just exercise more and eat less fatty foods," said Armadillomon.

"Oh, I do wish it were that simple. It's… It's a genetic condition."

"Yeah, I remember her complaining about how she 'got a mom bod before she was even eighteen'," Marina sighed, "she wanted a figure like Eight's, but now she's more stacked than me and Eight combined, but not in the way she wanted. You know she's still got issues when she asked me to make sure her suit here make her look 'less fat'."

Pearl grinned, "hey, at least she didn't turn into a gremlin like me." If there was one thing Pearl had no shortage of, it was the self-confidence to make fun of herself.

Eight just chuckled, brushing her fingers against Sarah's hair, "I like to think of her as a big soft pillow or a nice marshmallow. Her body is as soft as her heart."

"Aw, that's sweet," Veemon smiled. "Oh, hey, she's waking up!"

"Oooooh… Man, my head…" Sarah groaned as she sat up, clutching her head. She noticed Eight sitting beside her bed, and smiled, "I guess I wasn't dreaming after a-"

Eight promptly kissed her passionately on the lips. Sarah did not hesitate to reciprocate.

After half a minute of making out, Eight broke the kiss, putting her hands on Sarah's cheeks, "Sarah, are you okay? I was so worried you might not be able to go back to normal!"

"Hehe, I'm fine, I'm just still a bit groggy, I'll work it off," Sarah grinned, "thanks for saving me, babe."

"Anytime, babe~"

"Oh my cod I thought Marina and Pearl's flirting was awkward enough," Acht groaned, as they stepped away, "I am not going to be a third wheel right now."

Sarah just laughed as Armadillomon tried to get Acht to come back, and turned to Marina, "sorry, Marina, I tried to deal with Order when it first appeared, but it was way stronger than I expected."

"You managed to warn me and Gennai and hold it off just long enough, which gave us a fighting chance," Marina smiled, "nobody expected an entity like Order to manifest in the system. But now we can fight back, partly thanks to your efforts."

"Yay I wasn't completely useless!" Sarah grinned, throwing her hands up, "I guess I'll take that as a win!"

"And your Palette's one of the more solid ones, which is partly why I was able to free you," Eight smiled, "nevermind the fact that you were clearly fighting Order's control this whole time. I imagine I would've had a lot more trouble with you if you didn't."

"Yeah, while I was brainwashed I was commanding the drones, who aren't really as smart about fighting as I am, so next time you run into that boss floor they won't know to come at you all at once," Sarah chuckled. "Well, either way, you beat me, so I guess you won that kiss, babe~"

"I dunno, you weren't at your best, but I'll take it~" Eight giggled.

Hawkmon smiled, "oh, it's so good to see you back to normal and in such good spirits, Sarah!"

Sarah laughed, hugging him, "thanks for helping my roomie, partner! I really appreciate it."

"Ah, I was only doing my duty."

"Oh, don't be so modest, I keep telling you…"

Sarah then looked back at Eight, and grinned, "by the way, the suit looks good on you. Exactly as I hoped."

There was a pause. Eight quietly clenched her fists. "Wait. Sarah… Was the skin-tight suit your idea?"

"Sorta. Marina made the base design, I just made some suggestions on how to make it look more, well, appealing," Sarah said. She clearly didn't realise what the problem was yet.

Eight huffed, turning around as she stood up, pointing to her rear end, "have you seen how big my butt looks in this thing?! It's embarrassing!"

Sarah just stared. "I'm not sure I see the problem here, babe."

"SARAH!"

Acht came back, with a smirk, "nevermind, now it's come back around to being hilarious."

"Now I want poporn," said Pearl. Veemon nodded in agreement.

"I knew these suits were a bad idea," Marina moaned.

"Don't lie, Marina, you wanted to see Pearl in one," Wormmon said.

Sarah got off the bed, and showed off her rear as well, "please, like that that compares to how fat it makes my butt right here."

Eight couldn't help but stare. "Oh, wow it does make your butt look way bigger than mi-" She shook her head, "no, no, that's not the point! Your butt was already bigger than mine to begin with!"

"And you love it like that, babe~" Sarah taunted, shaking her butt.

"Your nose is bleeding, Eight," Gatomon said, with some amusement in her voice.

Gennai offered a tissue, and Eight immediately wiped off the blood, blushing. "StupidsexychubbyInkling…"

Pearl and Veemon were both rolling on the ground, howling with laughter. The others were in various states of amusement.

Gennai clapped his hands, though he also was chuckling, "alright, settle down. You should rest before attempting to scale the Tower once more."

"There's only one Pearl drone, so Sarah can't use Palettes without her help. Only one person can scale the tower at a time," Marina said, "I guess I could hack in a weapon, but my hacks and color chips would only apply to the person using a Palette, so…"

"Yeah, I get it," Sarah sighed, "I don't think I'm ready to step back onto the battlefield, anyway. Sorry, babe, you're on your own for now."

"You could hang out in the elevator with us, but…" Pearl said, "actually, nevermind."

"Or what?" Sarah asked, eye twitching.

"She was about to make a comment about not having enough room, but she stopped when she realised she was accidentally commenting on your size," said Wormmon.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it," Pearl laughed sheepishly, "but seriously, it'd get pretty tight in there with one more person in any case."

"I'll hack the elevator to make it bigger so there's plenty of room for all of us," Marina remarked, as she walked off, with Wormmon following, "that's no problem. Get some rest while I work on that, okay?"

Sarah sat down on the bed, "well, Roomie… Guess we're relying on you to save the world again."

Eight sat down next to her, putting an arm around her waist, "as long as you're by my side to support me, I know I can do it. Also, Hawkmon will still be by my side as long as I use your Palette, so…"

Hawkmon chuckled, "considering Yolei and Kari worked together quite frequently, it's appropriate. I'm used to working with Gatomon."

Gatomon nodded, "we need to work on activating the Digimental of Light, but I'm sure it'll come to you naturally."

Acht leaned against a wall, "you know, Eight, I never figured you for a chubby chaser."

Eight pouted, "she's beautiful and you know it. Also, I was in love with her before she gained weight. You got a problem with that, Acht?!"

"Whoa, whoa, it's fine," Acht raised their hands defensively, "just unexpected, is all. I'm happy for you both. I just wish I wasn't the only non-Digimon in the elevator who's single."

"With those looks? I don't think you'll stay that way for long," Pearl remarked.

Armadillomon chuckled, "she thinks you're pretty, Acht!"

Acht briefly paused. "I'll just take the compliment and leave it at that."

"I know I'm still a bit sensitive about how other people talk about my body, but I'm happy with how I am now," said Sarah, grinning from ear to ear, before looking at Gatomon, "and you must be Gatomon. I hope you and Eight get along!"

"Thanks. The problem isn't us, though, I just have some issues to work though," Gatomon smiled back. "I guess all we need to do is find Patamon and his partner, and then I guess the D3 gang will be back together, if in spirit at least."

Eight nodded. The only way to do that at this point was to scale the Tower again. This time, she fully intended to make it all the way to the top.

---

Author's notes:

The chapter didn't initially have the flashbacks, but then I realized that, unlike Pearl and Marina, I did not have the luxury of having a per-existing relationship in canon already known and shown, so I decided to go back and build up why Eight and Sarah care so much about each other. Perhaps it's a little front-loaded, but I also wanted to avoid it competing with the main emotional subplot of this fic, that being Gatomon's emotional own issues, and I felt it wouldn't make sense to continue the flashbacks into further chapters that aren't nearly as focused on Eight and Sarah's relationship. But in any case, I hope I made it work here.

A few notes on which names/terms I reverted from their localized forms so far:

• Digimental: Sure, they kinda look like eggs, but there's already Digi-Eggs that are, well, actually eggs. It's just silly and confusing.
• Yggdrasil: I am not calling him "King Drasil" and butchering a perfectly good Norse mythology reference. Especially not in a world with four Thor movies made by Marvel. And I feel especially mad that Cyber Sleuth didn't revert this one.
• The evolution levels: Because I thought it would be funny if they were subjective and even the Digidestined couldn't agree on which ones were best. I honestly think the Japanese ones make more sense, but the English ones have a goofy 90s charm to them.

 

[Candescence]

Author's Notes: So I was planning on getting back to the next Unswimmingly chapter but WHOOPS the momentum was too strong when I started writing this one. Honestly, at this point I might as well just wrap up the first arc of the plot first.

---

Chapter 3​

Thankfully, the team had acquired just enough keys from that last run to unlock enough of the lockers in the square to acquire a fourth Palette. Specifically, Callie's Palette - Roller, Burst Bomb and Kraken Royale.

When she saw whose Palette it was, Marina gasped in sheer glee, "it's Callie's Palette! Part of her soul got sucked in, too!"

Gatomon blinked. "Who?"

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know who they are. The famous idol duo from Inkopolis," said Acht, "they're also secret agents but that's another matter."

"Wait, they're part of this 'Splatoon', too?! How many celebrities do you guys know?!"

"Huh, I guess idol culture from Japan managed to come back," Armadillomon said.

Pearl scratched her chin, "I wonder how Callie's doing, anyway."

Marina chuckled, "I couldn't imagine Callie not doing well. But… That means…" She grinned, "you're holding part of Callie's soul! That's too cool! And I'm close enough to TOUCH it. I'm freaking out over here!"

"Whoa, there, 'Rina. Breathe, girl. Find your chill."

Wormmon noted to the other Digimon, "Marina's a very big fan of the Squid Sisters." They just nodded in understanding.

Sarah blinked, "wait, if this is Callie's Palette… Does that mean she's a Digidestined, too?"

Gennai chuckled, "I honestly have no idea. Perhaps a random Digimon may be assigned to her Palette instead, or hers doesn't summon one at all. Why not try it out and see?"

"Well, surely there's no other Digidestined around yet," said Gatomon, as Eight swapped out the Palettes, "if this is the only Digital World arrrrrrooooounddddPALMON?!"

"Hi, Gatomon~!" giggled the female Digimon that popped out of Pearl - she was a short, bipedal plant-like creature with a large flower covering her head, big green eyes, a wide toothy mouth, long arms with purple 'fingers', and stubby legs that looked like roots. "Whoa, this is a surprise! Wasn't expecting to get summoned here like this, but with a bunch of familiar faces around, I'm pretty much at ease!"

Marina squealed, "oh my gosh she's adorable."

Acht just tilted their head. "Huh. That's a surprise."

Pearl scratched her head, "man, that felt weird, like I was pulling her from a long ways away."

Veemon grinned, "so it's not just us?! HUZZAH!"

"Well, if nothing else, it is a relief that there are other Digimon out there outside of Order's grip," said Hawkmon.

Gatomon's jaw dropped. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

Eight chuckled a little at her partner's confusion. "Palmon, does this mean Callie's a Digidestined?"

Palmon threw up her arms in excitement, "that's right! So are Marie, the Captain, and the newbie! You're an Octoling, right? Those eyes, the hair… That means you must be Eight! And that means the chubby girl with the short hair is Agent 4."

"Wait, 'newbie'?" Sarah asked.

"Yep! We've got a new Agent 3!"

"THE CAPTAIN HIRED A NEW AGENT 3 RATHER THAN PROMOTING ME?! RACHEL, WHAT THE HECK?!"

Eight giggled, "it's just a number, Sarah, not a rank." Sarah and Rachel had an interesting relationship, practically like sisters.

"Actually, Callie's grandpa recruited him," said Palmon.

Sarah's eye twitched, "okay, who put the old-timer in charge of recruiting? He retired, for pete's sake…"

Eight sighed, "you know the former Cap'n, he's kinda not all there and just does his own thing sometimes…"

"Wait, so it's a 'him', this time? Guess the Splatoon isn't an all-girls club anymore," Pearl remarked.

"Putting that aside," said Gennai, "Palmon, how did you end up with Callie?"

Palmon snapped her fingers. "Oh, yeah, that. The team are exploring some ruined ancient underground human sanctuary called 'Alterna'. That's how they got their Digivices! Given by some supercomputer named O.R.C.A., by the way."

That got everyone's attention, especially Gennai, who rubbed his chin in thought, "interesting… Has a new computer usurped administrator status in absence of the others? If a human-made supercomputer is still operational, I suppose it'd make sense…"

Palmon nodded, "yeah, that's kinda what we think, too. Marie's partnered with Biyomon, the Captain's partners are Agumon and Gabumon, and the newbie's got this new Digimon I've never seen before, Guilmon. Also, there's this bunch of weirdos who go by 'Deep Cut' who say they're bandits but they're just a bunch of goofy goobers - the Inkling girl with the eels has a Terrimon, the shark-riding Octoling has a Renamon and the manta ray has Gomamon. Yeah, I know, it's weird."

"Wait, Deep Cut are Digidestined?! And BANDITS?!" Marina blinked.

Pearl chuckled, "'Rina, those three are about as subtle about their side-gig as the punches to the face Frye gives me half the time every single she comes running at me, they're not nearly as slick about as they think they are. Though I'd probably call them 'treasure hunters' more than bandits, really."

Marina sighed, and then asked, "by the way, how is old man Cuttlefish?"

Palmon replied, "he got kidnapped by some dude named Mr. Grizz. We're still trying to find him. Oh, and we think Grizz stole Splatsville's Great Zapfish."

"Oh come on, a Great Zapfish got stolen AGAIN?! Wait, so not DJ Octavio this time?" Sarah asked.

"The newbie beat him up and he denied everything. In fact, Grizz apparently stole his entire army."

"Someone speedran one of the Splatoon's two rites of passage," Eight said idly. The first was beating up Octavio. The other was saving the world.

"How?!" Marina asked incredulously. "Also, we knew Grizzco was shady but not supervillain shady!"

Acht whistled, "man, we've been missing a lot while we're stuck in here."

It took them a hot minute for them to explain to Palmon what was going on in the Memverse.

"Wow, no wonder Callie and Marie can't reach you guys," said Palmon, "they've actually been kinda worried, you guys are apparently unusually incommunicado. Even Deep Cut are kinda concerned that they can't contact you."

Pearl laughed, "yeah, they would! Those guys talk a big game about how they hate everything about Inkopolis (well, just Shiver and Frye, I think Big Man might literally be incapable of holding a grudge), but in reality they're pretty chill, it's nice to hang with them."

Eight asked, "uh, so… Is it going to be a problem having you here?"

"Not really! My real body's back in Alterna, and handling both of them is fine… So far, I guess. Not like my partner's doing much of anything other than handling mission control for the newbie," said Palmon, "in fact I'm telling the Splatoon pretty much everything I'm learning here. They're pretty happy to learn you're okay but alarmed about the whole 'Order' business. They'll come running to help once they've rescued Cuttlefish and the Great Zapfish, and dealt with Mr. Grizz."

"We've got three other Palettes to work with that should be fine, so… I'll save Callie's for after you've resolved what's going on over on your end, then," Eight said.

"Sounds good! But if you really need my help, I'm definitely game to do a run with you guys!"

Before Eight can switch Palettes, Gatomon stopped her. "Palmon… How are you dealing with losing Mimi?"

There was a pause.

Then Palmon's tears erupted into twin waterfalls, freaking everyone out. "UWWWWAAAAAAAAAA! Come on, Gatomon, now you've made me cry about it all over agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiin!"

"GAH! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Gatomon winced, "please don't cry!"

Palmon shut off the hoses, wiping the tears from her eyes, "hehe, you should've seen your face. But I'm okay, Mimi wouldn't want me moping like this for too long. It's sad, but Mimi lived a full life, you know? All our partners did."

She walked up to Gatomon, taking her paw with both hands, "if you're asking me that, then I guess you're having the hardest time moving on out of all of us, huh? I get it, Kari meant a lot to you, and… Well, you've had the most complicated history out of all us, what with being separated from the rest of us at the start, being Myotismon's minion for a while, and Wizardmon dying in front of you. Just know that Kari would've wanted you to be happy, even if it meant having to let go of her."

Eight kept what she just said in mind for later - this was entirely new information that certainly added some context to Gatomon's issues. It also made her realise that she and Gatomon were even more similar than she initially thought.

Gatomon looked down at Palmon's hands. "Yeah. I know she would've, but it's just easier said than done, you know."

"Believe me, I do!" Palmon hugged her, "I'm always available if you want to talk about it, okay?"

Gatomon sniffed, her eyes watering as she hugged back, "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Palmon."

Palmon then let go, and turned to Eight, "okay, now you can switch me out. See you guys later!"

Eight just chuckled, and then swapped Sarah's Palette back in, "okay, I'll stick with this Palette for now - both the Splattershot and Hawkmon are pretty reliable. Also I think Sarah would be mad if I beat Order with anything else, so…"

Sarah howled with laughter. Hawkmon just chuckled, "I do appreciate the vote of confidence, Miss Eight, though I'd say you don't need to feel pressured into using Sarah's Palette."

"Well, if we're ready, let's just get into the elevator," said Gatomon, as she headed for the tower. Eight just hoped she wasn't being too hasty.

❖​

It turns out when a floor is named 'Eternally-Shelterless_Nightmare_Gateway.Floor', it is not an exaggeration.

The new run had been going fairly well so far - a new boss fight on Floor 20, Pinging Marciale, had cost them a life due to their unfamiliarity with it (also having to chase after that dang rolling ball was super annoying), but otherwise things had been smooth sailing so far. They had also acquired the Digimental of Friendship, allowing Hawkmon to evolve to Rinkmon, a humanoid cyborg Digimon with ice skates and arm cutters, able to move at high speeds. Unfortunately, the last ten floors were where the difficulty was really ramping up, and they were on their last life.

Gatomon wished she had the ability to ink surfaces like her partner could, because on a zones control floor with two zones separated by a substantial gap, the only thing she could do was attack enemies. The problem with this? There were now Champion-level Digimon as foes that would spawn every so often.

She grit her teeth, dodging to the side to avoid a Shellmon's Aqua Blaster as she tried to defend the zone opposite to Eight. As fast as he was, Rinkmon couldn't be everywhere at once, and the floor was swamped with enemies that he was ripping through with his arm-blades. And even then, there were enemies where melee was ill-advised, such as those flying homing bomb fish, Homing Arpeggios, which exploded on contact, even on a melee hit.

The Shellmon advanced menacingly, threatening to clean off the zone with another water burst. Gatomon rushed in, jumping over an arm swing as she unleashed a barrage of claw slashes, followed by the strongest kick she could muster as she launched off the enemy, "CAT BARRAGE!"

Thankfully, the upgrades granted by Eight's collected colour chips had been enough to allow her to beat back the enemy with her attacks, sending it sliding back down the slope and knocking over several Jelletons and a couple of Rookie Digimon in the process. She landed on her feet, panting as she tried to take a moment to get a breather. But there was simply no reprieve to be found in this stressful situation, as one of those infuriating flying enemies - Drizzling Capricciosos, if she recalled - was coming overhead, and threatening to ink the zone. She leaped into the air, intercepting it and hacking at it until it burst.

She landed, keeping a few small fry enemies at bay, but then she glanced across the gap to the other zone. Eight was also shooting down a Drizzling Capriccioso, but something else was closing in on her - multiple Homing Arpeggios were flying right at her.

Panic set in, and with all of the stress, rational thinking went out the window, as her mind muddled who was standing on the other side.

"KARI!" Gatomon called out, as she leaped across the gap in a single bound, shoving a surprised Eight out of the way, before swinging wildly. She could handle this - even if they exploded, she could tank the hit, and at worse, devolve back down to-

-her eyes widened, as the first bomb she struck with her claws exploded in her face instead of being splatted. That stunned her enough that the next couple of bombs got past her claws.

The whole world went white.

❖​

Gatomon was panting and shaking after she found herself landing on her feet outside in the Square. She fell down on all fours, looking down at the ground.

"Oh dear, something must've gone horribly wrong in there," Gennai said with some concern, as he walked over.

"Gatomon! Are you okay?!" Eight gasped, squatting down to her partner's side, a hand on her back.

"What in the Digital World just happened?!" Hawkmon said, as he came over, "oh dear! Gatomon, calm down! Take deep breaths!"

Pearl changed back to Inkling form, "seriously, girl, take moment to find your happy place!"

Once the rational part of Gatomon's brain was working again, she screamed in self-hatred, punching the ground, "stupid, stupid, STUPID! Why did I attack those stupid bombs with my claws rather than just retreat? I saw them exploding when Rinkmon attacked them with his arm-blades, why did I think my claws would be any different?!"

"It's okay, that was a hard and stressful floor. Sometimes we make mistakes when we're super stressed," Eight said reassuringly. "We still got pretty far that time. We can just try again and do better next time."

Pearl noted, "though… Gatomon… Did I hear you call Eight 'Kari' for a moment there, or was that my imagination?"

"Now that I think about it, I did indeed hear her call out Kari's name moments before things went wrong," said Hawkmon.

Gatomon's eyes widened. She did do that. Why did she…?!

Eight frowned, "Gatomon…"

"I… I need to be alone for a bit," Gatomon said, as she got up, turned around, and headed for the back of the Square, as the others flooded out of the Tower.

She heard Gennai call out, "okay, let's all take five, everyone. Tell me what happened."

Gatomon just leaped over the barrier at the back, found a corner for her to curl up in, and closed her eyes.

Plotmon found herself in the darkness, chained up to a familiar stone wall by the neck. Panic set in once again. She knew this place. "No… Why am I here again?!"

"Oh, you poor little thing… Deprived of your light, aimless and weak." A pair of glowing red eyes broke through the darkness, followed by a familiar, sinister cackle that sent a shiver down Plotmon's spine as she growled.

A whip came through the darkness, striking Plotmon, causing her to scream. The voice reprimanded her, "bad dog. Have you so readily forgotten who your master is?"

"No… You're dead! We killed you for good!" Plotmon screamed as the whip struck her again. "This isn't real… This isn't real…"

"You've always had doubts about that, my little pet. I came back before, why not again? As long as that fear is in your heart, I am never truly gone," said the voice, as the monster of her nightmares emerged from the dark - Myotismon. The vampire grinned, as he continued to whip her, "and with the light that has guided you snuffed out permanently, where does that lead you? Back to me."

He then kicked her right into the wall, causing her further agony, as she curled up, sobbing. This couldn't be happening! Not now!

Then music began to ring through the darkness.

Plotmon opened her eyes, seeing two lights descend from above - one magenta, one lime green - causing Myotismon to recoil in pain and anger, eyes wide in fury. "What is this light?!"

Streams of ink shot out from each of the lights, one shattering the chains that kept her bound to the wall with a wide sweeping burst, and the other destroying the collar around her neck where the chain was bound to, revealing the true golden collar underneath.

"This music… How does this music have so much power?! I will not permit you to-" Myotismon recoiled again, covering his body with his cape as a powerful sound wave and a barrage of Splat Bombs bombarded him, sending him further and further back into the darkness. "NO! I WILL NOT BE DENIED! YOU BELONG TO ME!"

The lights reformed into two humanoid figures, extending their hands out to Plotmon…

"Gatomon! Please, wake up!"

Gatomon gasped, panting as she shot awake. Eight was by her side. Coming from her Digivice, was the same song as she heard in her dream. "Wha… Was I…?"

Eight sighed in relief, and smiled, sitting down next to her, "you looked like you were having a nightmare and I couldn't wake you. I thought the Calamari Inkantation would wake you up - I thought you might like it, so Gennai copied one of Marina's copies of the song to my Digivice."

Gatomon took a moment to listen. It was actually a really good song. Sure, it was a bit high-energy for someone trying to relive her stress, but there was something oddly liberating about the melody and the lyrics. "Huh. This is… Actually pretty nice. Can we please put on something more low-energy, though? It's not entirely helping my stress levels right now."

Eight giggled, as she switched songs on her Digivice - from 'Calamari Inkantation' to 'Maritime Memory'. Gatomon noted that according to the screen, both songs were performed by the Squid Sisters. "How about… No, no, this one's a bit too upbeat and celebratory…" She then switched to 'Bomb Rush Blush' by Callie, and winced, "NOPE too high-energy… Just like Callie…"

"You cephalopods have interesting music," Gatomon smirked.

"Ah, here we go, perfect," Eight said, switching songs to 'Tide Goes Out' by Marie.

Gatomon closed her eyes, taking in the music. This was still pop, but it was slow, serene song, exactly what she needed. "Thanks. So these are songs by the Squid Sisters, huh? I guess I can tell why they're so popular."

"Do you want to talk? Otherwise I can just sit here or leave if you want."

Gatomon sighed. "sure, it's fine… I want to apologise. I screwed up on that last run. Like, badly. I was super stressed, saw you were about to get hit, and… I forgot that you're not Kari. You can fend for yourself, without me. I'm not used to having a partner who can literally fight alongside me, so when I saw you in peril..."

"I understand. We've barely known each other for like, a few hours now?" Eight said, putting her hand on Gatomon's paw. "We're still figuring out how to best work together, even if it means unlearning some old habits. I was used to working alone too, with only voice support from my friends, before I properly joined the Splatoon and started doing Turf War matches and Salmon Runs. And before that, well… I didn't really have any real friends amongst my comrades in the Octarian army."

That got Gatomon's ears to perk up, and she opened an eye. "Huh? Octarian army? You were a soldier even before you joined the Splatoon?"

Eight nodded. "I was conscripted into military school at a young age, and at fourteen, as soon as I could fight, I graduated and became a soldier. It was all about discipline and preparing to fight the Great Turf War all over again to defeat the Inklings. It was only later after being exposed to the Calamari Inkantation and hearing the other side's story that I realised I was on the wrong side all along."

Gatomon opened both eyes wide for a moment in realisation. A young girl roped into fighting for the wrong side out of no fault of her own nor having any real choice in the matter... "You're… You're just like me."

When Eight raised an eyebrow, Gatomon decided to explain. "When I was still an egg, Gennai and his colleagues were planning on distributing us along with our Digivices and Crests to the children chosen by Homestasis - the Digidestined. But their headquarters were attacked, and Gennai escaped with the eggs and the Digivices. But due to an attack from a pursuing Digimon, he dropped one of the egg and Digivice pairs - mine. When I hatched, I had no idea of my purpose or destiny, only knowing in my soul that I was supposed to be waiting for someone, but that someone never came, and I grew up alone."

"Oh, Gatomon…" Eight's heart breaking was clear as day in her voice. "That must've been awful."

"Oh, it got worse. I decided I couldn't just wait for them and set out on my own. Unfortunately, I found someone else first - Myotismon. He was a monster beyond compare. But I had nowhere else to go. Either way, he would beat me on a daily basis, because he hated what he saw in my eyes - not just hostility towards him, but also the light of hope. That's what Palmon meant when she mentioned my time as his minion. My heart grew cold, and the only way for me to live was to shut out almost everyone else… Except one person, Wizardmon. My only friend. And as Palmon mentioned… He died in front of my eyes, saving me from Myotismon's attack. All because he helped conspire to unite me with Kari and get me to realise I could be better."

"And I thought losing my memories, having to go through a huge series of tests and nearly being blended in a literal blender was bad," said Eight, with a wince. That was something that would need further context later. "Go on."

Gatomon nodded. "Myotismon invaded the real world and tried to seek out the eighth Digidestined, who he believed was the greatest obstacle to his victory. While I searched, I encountered Kari. She was so young, but she knew I wasn't just a normal cat. I followed her home, thinking she might be the eighth Digidestined… And I was planning to kill her."

Eight gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. "But… She was just a child."

"Yeah. Now you understand the kind of place I was at back then, emotionally. But I couldn't go through with it, for reasons I didn't understand at the time, and continued to monitor her from afar. It was only when Wizardmon found Kari's Digivice and figured out our connection that he decided to force the issue and used the Digivice to prove that we were partners. And all the while, Kari was nothing but kind and understanding about everything. She didn't really understand what I had gone through - how could she? But she tried her best to be empathetic regardless."

Eight looked like she was thinking for a moment. "Was… Was your nightmare about Myotismon? I could hear what you were saying in your sleep."

Gatomon winced. Guess Eight read her like a book. "Yeah. He was beating me, taunting me over having 'lost my light'. Then the music came, and two lights came down, freeing me and sending him scrambling - one magenta, one green-"

"-wait, the Squid Sisters?! You've never even seen what they look like!"

Gatomon blinked, "wait, seriously?! How?!"

Eight giggled, "their grandfather, the former Captain of the Splatoon, told me the Calamari Inkantation is an adaptation of an an ancient folk song. He said there's spiritual aspects to the melody that we still don't quite understand."

"Huh… In the dream, Myotismon said the song had some kind of 'power' imbued in it. I guess it represents freedom and hope. And man, he really hates both of those things. No wonder it inspired you to seek your own path."

"Wait, so was that actually him in your dream, or…?"

"I really, really hope not."

There was a brief pause. Eight took Gatomon's paw. "Just know you're not alone. And if that meanie Myotismon tries to torment you in your dreams again, I will personally come in there and shoot him in the face."

That got a laugh out of Gatomon, but she appreciated the sentiment regardless. "I dunno how that'd be possible, but I appreciate it, Eight. I'll try and do better next run."

Eight giggled again, "and don't mistake me for Kari in the heat of the moment again, please."

Gatomon blushed, looking away, "I was super stressed and not thinking straight."

Eight continued to giggle, and started scratching Gatomon's head behind the ears. Gatomon started to purr softly, but she noted, "you do know I'm not a cat, right?" When Eight took her hand away, she remarked, "I didn't say you could stop."

That got a laugh out of Eight, who continued to scratch Gatomon's head and back. "I can't say my childhood was perhaps that bad, but I still have a lot of gaps in my memory. Military academy was still rough - they wanted us to be all tough and disciplined, immersing us in propaganda about how evil the Inklings and hedonistic the Inklings were. Granted, Inklings are hedonistic, but they're not that bad, and they're happy with spreading their quality of life to others less fortunate than themselves. It was when the Squid Sisters performed the Inkantation at that impromptu 'concert' seven years ago that doubts crept in about how willing I was to fight for a cause I wasn't sure I actually willingly believed in. Unfortunately, my road to the surface was harder than many others."

"Right, you mentioned a bunch of tests and an actual blender? What?!"

"Yeah, I got stuck in a place called the 'Deepsea Metro', lost most of my memories, had to go through a whole bunch of trials to progress by some AI named Commander Tartar, who said if I passed I could go to the 'Promised Land'. This 'Promised Land' was actually being put in a literal blender and being turned into primordial goop to be mixed in with goodness-knows-how-many-other-people as part of his insane plan to wipe the planet clean of us 'worthless lesser species' and create a brand new superior species that he believed would be a better successor for humankind."

That gave Gatomon pause as she processed the outright horror of what she was hearing. "This 'Tartar' guy sounds like a massive piece of work. I still think Myotismon and the Dark Masters are worse, though, considering how unapologetically evil and sadistic they were for no reason, but… What kind of beef did he have with Inklings and Octolings?"

"Well, the 'crimes' he listed included fighting 'pointless Turf Wars', fighting wars over 'minor genetic deviations', obsessing with fashion, and accusing us of being 'selfish, hedonistic scum who only know how to live according to our own whims', so he decided rather than do as his creator intended and give us the repository of human knowledge he had, he decided we weren't worthy of it."

Gatomon's eye twitched. "Okay, and suddenly now all benefit of the doubt I had with him is gone, that's just straight-up racist. He literally had all that knowledge and yet somehow wasn't aware that humanity were just as prone to those exact same things? Unbelievable. Even Apocalymon had a more sympathetic motive than that!"

Eight sighed, "I guess he just went insane after being active and alone for many thousands of years."

"But in any case…" Gatomon got up, "I never thought I'd meet someone like you, who truly understands at least some of the pain I've endured. Maybe we should've had this talk sooner. Thank you, Eight."

"Well, better late than never. You're welcome, Gatomon," Eight smiled, "ready to head back now?"

"Yeah. We're still on a timer. We gotta scale the tower before Order finishes their scheme," said Gatomon, as she prepared to go back-

-suddenly, Eight's Digivice lit up, and they took a look. The Digimental of Light had activated. Eight blinked, "so the Digimental is finally working?"

"About time, it's never done that before. I guess we just needed to be more in sync," Gatomon chuckled, recalling fond memories of 2002, "also, be glad the D-3 Digivices got upgraded to be able to store those things, you needed a whole different device to do that back in the day."

Eight laughed sheepishly, "to be honest, this thing still feels, uh, very retro. I'd prefer something more modern. The screen is tiny."

"I'm guessing Marina hasn't gotten around to making new Smartphone Digivices, yet. Izzy made those himself when smartphones were in vogue, since he was running his own tech company."

"So… How do I use the Digimental, again? Do they normally just activate on their own, or…?"

Gatomon blinked. Now that she thought about it… "Actually, no. You just think of the Digimental you want to use when it's in your Digivice, and then call out 'Digi-Armor Energize'. Or 'Digimental Up'. Whatever works, it's the intent that matters. But Armor Evolution rarely happens by itself."

"Okay, I guess I'll keep that in mind. I'll save it for when things get tougher," Eight smiled, "come on, let's get back to the others."

As the pair returned to the Spire's foyer, where everyone else had gathered, Gennai smiled as he saw them arrive. "Ah, excellent timing, you two. We were discussing the fact that Digimon can't spray ink like Eight can, and that got me and Marina thinking. We've used the Prlz you've got so far to create a brand new program that allows Digimon companions to spray ink using their attacks. Eight, if you could hold out your Digivice, please?"

Eight nodded, doing so. Gennai held out his hand, and a stream of data went into it.

Gatomon felt the data stream into her by proxy, and she noticed a creamy, sparkly covering over the sharp edges of her claws. She extended her claws, slashing into the air, and was surprised to see ink spray from it, depleting from a virtual 'ink tank' in her mind's eye. "Whoa."

"Cool, isn't it?!" Veemon grinned, throwing several punches that painted the floor ahead of him. Gatomon noticed that the other Digimon had been playing around with inking the floor in the foyer.

"Of course your maximum ink supply is limited compared to Eight's, about half by my estimate," said Marina, "but you can disable your ink output on a dime, so you don't need to worry about not being able to attack while your ink is refilling."

"Yeah, now poor Eight won't need to handle inking duties by herself! And Pearl on occasion too," Sarah chuckled.

Pearl grinned, "seriously, is there anything 'Rina can't do?"

Marina just giggled, "I guess I can't be as super-cool as you are, Pearlie~"

That got a light chuckle out of Acht, crossing their arms as they leaned against a wall. "You really have changed, haven't you, Marina? Back when we were in school, you would've been mortified at the idea of falling in love with an Inkling."

Marina's face was immediately flushed, "ah, I guess you're not wrong…"

"Ooooh, deets about 'Rina's school life? Gimmie the hot goss," Pearl grinned wider.

Acht shrugged, "what can I say? She was a hardworking, patriotic overachiever. I was just a slacker and a serial truant. When we graduated, I just ended up doing security work while she went on to become a big shot engineer, and her defection, well, it really surprised everyone. I'm still not sure how we ended up as friends."

Marina smiled, "it was because you stood out like a sore thumb. Nobody else wanted anything to do with you, but I was just curious - and you were the only person who wasn't just interested in associating with me because of my status, and more than happy to talk about, well, anything other than academics. You were actually a friend, and not just a hanger-on."

Wormmon sighed, "oh, that reminds me of how Ken was when he was infected by the Dark Seed - a genius prodigy didn't have any real friends, just people who gathered around him because of his genius and his parents who piled on enormous expectations due to his older brother's death. When he stopped being unnaturally prodigious, most people lost interest, but he gained true friends."

"Well, it did kind of take a bit for him to be accepted, most of our partners were pretty reluctant due to his stint as the Digimon Emperor," said Hawkmon.

Armadillomon nodded, "oh, yeah, I remember Cody had the most trouble, but that was because his worldview was pretty black and white, and he had trouble accepting that people who had done terrible things could change for the better."

Sarah frowned. "Should… Should I even ask what these 'terrible things' even were?"

Gatomon couldn't help but recall the destruction and suffering caused by the Digimon Emperor - it was hard to imagine that the Ken that became a true hero and the Digidestined of Kindess was the same person who had been such a monster. In many ways, Ken and the Digimon Emperor had been very different people, through almost no fault of his own. "The Digimon Emperor terrorised the Digital World, killing and enslaving Digimon because the Dark Seed had caused him to believe the Digital World was just a video game. By the time he came to realise what he was actually doing, the damage was already done. Even if the various Digimon could be reborn, he had still inflicted a lot of pain and destruction, and it took years for most Digimon to forgive him for what he had done."

A terrible silence settled over the group.

Marina fell to her knees, hands over her mouth. It was clear her mind was going to dark places, and before Gatomon could say anything, Wormmon spoke first. "Marina, I know what you're thinking. But you wouldn't have become another Digimon Emperor… At least, not without a Dark Seed corrupting your mind, but that would turn anyone into a villain."

Marina's eyes were watering, "but if I hadn't heard the Inkantation… Maybe I could've become some kind of zealot-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, 'Rina, girl, chill," said Pearl as she rushed to her side, "don't think about 'what-ifs', that's dumb, that's stuff that never happened and never will happen, ya know? Besides… You're not that kind of person."

Veemon jumped onto Pearl's head, "Pearl's right, you're a good guy at heart! Acht, back us up here, would ya?"

"Yeah, they've got a point," Acht said, as they came over, "you were always a kind person, Marina. The Inkantation just helped you on the road to becoming your best self."

Armadillomon nodded enthusiastically, "I can't imagine you being mean and evil, Marina!"

Gatomon and Eight both nodded in agreement. Marina was just too nice and friendly, it would take something like what Order brainwashed her with to make her evil.

Tears streamed down Marina's cheeks. "Thank you… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten worked up over this…"

"Aw, 'Rina, it's okay, you don't need to-MMPPH!" Pearl's response was swiftly interrupted by a passionate kiss from Marina, which sent Veemon tumbling off her head, but Pearl reciprocated in kind.

And then Armadillomon proceeded to completely swerve the tone of the conversation. "Hey, while we're comparing our partners to the last bunch of Digidestined, who gets to be the gogglehead?"

Veemon brought his fist down onto his palm, "OH, YEAH! It is kinda weird to not have a gogglehead on the team! Just feels wrong, somehow."

The Octolings and Inklings just stared at them in confusion.

Hawkmon cleared his throat. "I suppose some context is needed. It's something of a tradition among the Digidestined - a team 'leader' (or in absence of one, usually the Digidestined associated with the Crest of Courage) wears a pair of goggles on their head. It started with Kari's brother Tai, who started his adventure with a distinctive pair of goggles, and he passed his pair down to Davis as something of a passing of the torch. Ever since, it's become a tradition for Digidestined team leaders to wear goggles, at least over the forehead or around the neck."

"Davis had his own pair, but those got broken thanks to a Digimon attack on his first day in the Digital World," said Veemon.

"Dang, should've brought my set of pilot goggles," Sarah grumbled.

"Ah, that reminds me…" Gennai smiled, rummaging through his robes, "in humanity's last days, I was given these, in hopes they'd be passed on to a future generation."

Gatomon and the other Digimon gasped in shock as they saw what he pulled out - a pair of familiar round goggles with a black strap. "Wait… Are those…?"

"The original pair of goggles worn by Tai, and later on, Davis," said Gennai.

Pearl whistled, "dang, those are older than, like, all of Mollusc-era civilisation! Kinda basic, though, I rather have something more fancy. Besides, I doubt they'd fit on my drone form, anyhow, and I'm not exactly the leader, here. Eight?"

All eyes fell on Eight, who walked over to Gennai, looked down at the goggles, and took them in her hands, strapping them onto her head and wearing them on her forehead. Much to Gatomon's surprise, they looked right on her. "How do I look?"

Sarah grinned, "I think they suit you, babe."

"Yeah! You're definitely gogglehead material!" Veemon nodded vigorously.

Gatomon smiled to her partner, "I think Tai and Davis would be proud if they saw you right now."

Eight scratched her cheek sheepishly, "aw, you guys…" It struck Gatomon that she was oddly shy at times.

"Okay, now that we agree that Eight is the team gogglehead, I think it's about time we start that new run now," said Acht.

"Are you and Gatomon ready to go further, Eight?" Gennai asked.

Gatomon and Eight turned to each other, and they both smiled, nodding in sync. No words were needed - they were both now sure they could go the distance.

❖​

This particular run through the Spire up to the 20th floor turned out to be even more smooth than the last one. The ability for Gatomon and Hawkmon (later Halsemon, once Eight acquired the Digimental of Love) to ink surfaces by themselves proved to be incredibly useful for crowd control and helping Eight gain territory. The three of them were now a well-oiled machine, wiping out enemies and clearing objectives with ease. Eight had gotten lucky enough to swap out the Trizooka with Crab Tank, and it turned out to be both an incredibly useful armoured 'panic button' as well as a powerful ranged special weapon.

"Here we are again," Gatomon said, as they stepped out onto the platform overlooking the battlefield for the 'Parallel Canon' boss battle. As expected, the clones were waiting on the opposite platform, unmoving. The ones at the front looked like proper duplicates of Sarah and Hawkmon, but one look back at Hawkmon and the elevator confirmed that, unlike last time, the real deal were on the right side this time.

"Yeesh, is that what we looked like when you guys fought us?" Sarah winced, "man, that is super creepy. Don't hold back against that thing, okay, babe? Even if it looks like me."

"Believe me, I won't. And I've got a new secret weapon," Eight smiled, holding up her Digivice, "Gatomon, you ready?"

Gatomon grinned. She had been waiting for this moment. "Absolutely… Partner."

"Digi-Armour, ENERGISE!"

"Gatomon, Armour Digivolve to…!" Gatomon could feel that familiar rush of energy surging through her as she transformed, filling her with holy power, expanding in size significantly, now adorned with wings, an armoured breastplate and gauntlets, and a feminine mask befitting an Egyptian queen. "Nefertimon!"

She had missed this warmth. Eight's light was different from Kari's, but it was no less warm and filled with determination and care for her friends. She just hoped she could do right by it, and Eight.

"W-Wow, you're pretty, Nefertimon!" Eight smiled. "And so big!"

Pearl laughed, "man, you went from being smaller than me to being HUGE!"

"Wait until you see her as Angewomon," Halsemon chuckled, "but in any case, let's take our fight to the enemy!"

"Let's show these fakes what real teamwork looks like," Nefertimon nodded.

There was no hesitation as the trio descended onto the arena, taking the high ground immediately. When the clones descended, Nefertimon and Halsemon wasted no time shooting down the Hawkmon copies with energy shots. This left the Inkling copies easy pickings for Eight and Pearl to take out as they descended.

Of course, this meant the next wave was not any more challenging in any meaningful fashion. The Hawkmon copies were still easy pickings, and if Eight and Pearl didn't pick off the clones on the ground, the two Digimon sure did from above. It was an utter rout.

Suddenly, the remaining Hawkon clones were forcibly evolved into Aquilamon. Halsemon snarled, "looks like Order is trying to ramp up the difficulty even more to stop us!"

Before anyone could panic, Marina called out, "they're not as strong as Aquilamon normally would be! The energy required for that trick basically cut the power increase for each of them to only a fifth!"

"Then we just focus on the copies on the ground? Can do," Eight said, "Nefertimon, Halsemon, I'm counting on you guys!"

"I won't let you down," Nefertimon said, as the five sets of copies descended from the platform, she summoned and launched a large stone megalith with DigiCode at one of the Aquilamon copies, knocking it out of the air, "Rosetta Stone!"

"Mach Impulse!" Halsemon declared, striking another with a blade shockwave.

"Wait, did she just summon an ancient stone tablet as a projecti-OKAY NEVERMIND we're doing this!" Pearl said as Eight activated the Crab Tank, shooting down two of the Inkling copies, and sending two more into a retreat. Pearl followed up with an Inkstrike and a Killer Wail to keep them on their toes.

Nefertimon, for her part, evaded another Aquilamon's Blast Rings. She kept moving, firing off gems from her leg gauntlets that exploded on contact, "Queen's Paw!" Seriously, if this was the best Order could throw at them, she was kind of disappointed.

"Tempest Wing!" Halsemon ran further interference by unleashing a huge tornado, buffeting the clones in the air.

Nefertimon noticed the 'true' copy of Sarah arrive via her cage, gliding over to Eight just as the Crab Tank wore off. She remembered what Sarah did last time, and summoned another Rosetta Stone, timing the launch just right. As she predicted, 'Sarah' attempted to perform a Triple Splashdown from out of Eight's range, but the megalith slammed into the clone, splatting it instantly, and allowing Eight room to avoid just the two summoned ink fists that still came down.

"WOO! Nice shot!" Pearl cheered.

Eight looked up at Nefertimon with a smile, "thanks for the save, Nefertimon!" Then her eyes widened, "LOOK OUT!"

That warning caused Nefertimon to quickly spin around as an Aquilamon copy dived at her, trying to ram her with its horns. She managed to hold back the horns with her paws, but the force of the tackle sent them both crashing down to the floor, the clone pinning her down.

"Nefertimon!" Eight called out, leaping off the high ground and immediately opening fire, splattering the Aquilamon clone with sustained Splattershot fire, weakening it.

"Thanks… For putting yourself… A point-blank range! QUEEN'S CURSE!" The eyes of the snake ornament on Nefertimon's brow glowed, firing off an intense, red high-temperature beam that ripped through the clone's head, deleting it immediately. She got back on her feet, immediately wary of any other nearby foes, "sorry, I let my guard down for a moment. Thanks for the help."

One of the Inkling clones was moving in to attack, but a volley of her Queen's Paw was enough to send them into retreat again, and was finished off by one of Pearl's Inkstrikes. "Just need to deal with the remaining Aquilamon copies. Eight, can you-"

She noticed that Eight still had an additional layer of armour - she had an active advantage over the last grounded clone. She's a fighter, she can take care of herself, she thought, as she took to the air, "nevermind, the rest is up to you!"

Just two Aquilamon copies left, both distracted by Halsemon. This gave Nefertimon a chance to bombard one of them with Queen's Curse, followed by a vicious claw slash, finishing it off. Halsemon followed up, ripping through the last one with Tempest Wing.

The sound of the last Inkling copy being finished off marked the end of the battle. A wave of relief washed over Nefertimon - if this fight went this smoothly, then perhaps they had nothing to worry about for the next nine floors.

As the four of them returned to the elevator (with Nefertimon and Halsemon devolving as they approached), there was much jubilation. Sarah laughed as she hugged Eight, "that was AWESOME! Order doesn't know what's gonna hit him in the FACE!"

"Excellent work," said Acht, "so I guess you managed to get the Digimental of Light working after all."

"I guess it just took Eight and I understanding each other a bit more for us to be in better sync," Gatomon smiled.

"Yeah, about that, what was it that you were gonna ask Eight earlier?" asked Pearl.

"Something I trusted her to do anyway."

Armadillomon chuckled, "still getting used to having a partner who can fight alongside you, huh, Gatomon?"

"Not everyone can fight, and that's not a bad thing," said Eight, "but I'm glad you can trust me to handle myself. We can't rest on our laurels, though, we still have nine more floors before we reach Order!"

Gatomon nodded, "and we know Order isn't going to go down without a fight, either. Let's keep our heads in the game till the very end."

❖​

This time, the last nine floors before the control room went by without significant difficulty. The Digimental of Light was the edge that Eight and Gatomon sorely needed to progress further up the Spire.

"Last floor, everyone," said Acht, "final stop."

Marina nodded, "Order must be waiting for us here. I'm partially responsible for what's happened so… I'll go with you guys."

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Without a weapon?!" Pearl said, freaking out. "No way!"

"I know, I know, but I have to," Marina sighed, and smiled, hugging Wormmon, "besides. I've got my partner here to help protect me."

Wormmon sniffed, "oh, Marina…"

Acht shrugged, "look, it's pretty much impossible to change Marina's mind once it's set. But she can handle herself without a weapon. There shouldn't be a problem."

"Aw, Acht… That's sweet of you!" Marina smiled.

Sarah grinned, punching her palm, "if Marina's going out there, I'm going out there too to support Hawkmon! You coming, Veemon?"

"You bet! I ain't gonna let my partner go by herself for this one!" Veemon grinned.

Pearl chuckled, "alright, alright, I can see when I've been outvoted. No big blazes of glory, okay?"

Marina nodded, "yeah, of course."

"You comin' too, Acht?"

Acht shook their head, "Nah. I'd rather not get in your way. Armadillomon and I will watch from here in case things go south."

"Good looking out, then. And yo, if things go real bad, keep Marina safe!" Pearl said, "alright, people, get hyped! Get psyched! Get ready for a big ol' messy FIGHT!"

The elevator doors opened, and the group piled out onto the staging platform. The once-bright control room was darker, with enormous black and red inky tentacles emerging from the void below and from an enormous set of speakers above. The arena was surrounded by huge TV screens floating in midair, in static, and a large musical stage was to their left, also just floating off the side.

Floating above the centre of said arena, was Order. But there was another figure standing below them - tall, imposing, and blackened, with six greyed wings and a helmet covering his eyes, standing at attention with a long staff.

Gatomon's breath caught in her throat. This was the worst case scenario she could've thought of. "Angemon…?"

---

Author's Notes: I figured a chapter devoted mostly to Gatomon's POV would be best suited to this point in the story, since she's the got the most stuff to work through right now.

 

[Candescence]

Chapter 4
​

Eight looked at Gatomon, "wait, 'Angemon'?"

"You know how we've been wonderin' where Patamon is?" Veemon winced, "oh boy, guess that question's answered. He's under Order's control, too!"

"Angemon is one of the strongest Champion-level Digimon, capable of even holding his own against higher-level adversaries," Gatomon warned, "I suppose the saving grace is that he's not MagnaAngemon, or worse, Seraphimon, otherwise we wouldn't stand a chance…"

"Who cares?! We gotta get through him to beat up Order anyway!" said Pearl. "I'm just wonderin' how the heck all of us can get to the other si-"

Suddenly, a bridge of light formed. Pearl just blinked. "Okay then, nevermind. Maybe we should double-time it, though, in case Order decides to drop us into the void…"

The whole group took her advice, rushing across the bridge, which only faded once all of them were on the other side, much to Eight's relief.

"A perfect world is a stable world. It has no need for change. For variation," said Order, "it has no need for desire. For conflict. In this world, none desire what might be. They embrace what is. Their lives are peaceful ones. I will achieve a quiet and peaceful world. Reasons to oppose this include: … ERROR: no reasons found."

Gatomon hissed, "you sound like Yggdrasil. He never understood that a world of perfect order is one without free will or vitality. It's not truly 'living'."

"Yeah, who are you to decide what kind of world we wanna live in?!" Veemon snapped.

"You're just an emotionless machine with no empathy, you can't grasp why people would prefer the excitement of uncertainty over placid, dull 'order'," said Sarah.

Marina sighed, "I can't deny that a chaotic world is an unstable one. That uncertainty can tire you out or make you scared of what tomorrow might bring. There've been times when I wished everything could stay the same forever." But she shook her head, and declared, "sometimes when colours clash and mix, you end up with mud. But every now and again, you get to see a beautiful rainbow! And in the end… That's a gamble I'm willing to take! With Pearl, and Wormmon, and Eight, and Acht, and Sarah, and everyone else!"

"This world's architect…my creator…would deny me… Illogical. Irrational. ERROR." Order suddenly started vibrating and crackling with red lightning, "ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. An unrecoverable mentality error has occurred." It launched high into the air, "the sentence for the interruption of order is termination." It then surged down into a large grate behind Angemon.

"Affirmative," Angemon said, taking on a fighting stance as the platform shuddered, "termination procedure initiating."

"Angemon, stop!" Gatomon pleaded, "it's me, Gatomon! Don't you recognise me?!"

Angemon paused, cocking his head to the side roboticaly. "I… I recognise-"

That's when something enormous erupted from the grate - a towering, black octopus, made from the same substance as the Jelletons, along with a 'structure' assembled from Jelleton parts, including a variety of said parts swirling around in its head around a central 'black hole', and a set of parts that formed a 'nose' and a mouth. Two black and red eight-balls formed the eyes. It roared furiously, rocking the arena.

Eight could see a name in her mind's eye.

MAGISTRATE OF ORDER
OVERLORDER​

"Oh dear. It looks as if our enemy has no interest in debating with us," sighed Halsemon, "I will ferry Marina to that stage over there. Sarah, perhaps staying on my back might be ideal?"

"Yeah, good call," Sarah nodded, as she and Marina got on Halsemon's back, "I can keep an eye out from the air. Eight, you better beat this thing!"

As Halsemon took off, Eight gripped her Digivice, "yeah. I will. Digi-Armour Energize!"

"Gatomon, digivolve to… NEFERTIMON!" Right out of the transformation, Nefertimon launched a Rosetta Stone at Angemon, before tackling him.

At this point, Overlorder had formed a shield much like Marina did when she was possessed, and two portals emerged to power it. Eight took a deep breath. "Veemon, Wormmon, help me thin out the enemies, but please, pull back if things get hairy."

"No problem, toots!" Veemon grinned, as they went for the left portal, and he started punching enemies, "take THIS! Vee Punch!"

"Please don't call her 'toots'," Wormmon said flatly as he used string from his mouth to restrain enemy movements, "sticky net!"

Eight realised how good a pair these two were in battle - Wormmon could snare enemies with webbing, allowing Veemon an easier time to beat them down. It also gave Eight and Pearl some breathing room to open fire on the portal, and with some sustained damage, it erupted.

By the time Eight had turned towards the other portal, Halsemon had already flown back over to destroy it. Overlorder was startled when the portal cracked and shattered, leaving it exposed to incoming attacks from Eight, Pearl and the Digimon fighting alongside them. Thankfully, Nefertimon was still running interference against Angemon, as Eight could see from a glance.

Once it took enough damage, Overlorder exploded, but quickly reformed, forming another barrier, along with three portals this time. "That will not be repeated. Sentry, prioritise the main Digidestined."

"Affirmative." Angemon suddenly swooped down, knocking away Veemon and Wormmon with his staff, and his fist glowed as he prepared to attack Eight, "Hand of-"

"MACH IMPULSE!" Halsemon knocked him out of the way.

As they passed by, Sarah called out, "we'll help keep Angemon busy! Blow up those portals!"

Eight called out to Nefertimon, "partner, are you okay?!"

"I'm still kicking!" Nefertimon said, helping drag Angemon away from Eight, "Angemon, you need to fight this!"

Angemon grit his teeth, "N-Nefertimon… I…"

Eight decided to let Nefertimon and Halsemon handle that, and helped Veemon and Wormmon back up, "alright, get up, we can't stop moving or we'll be overwhelmed!"

"Super Chump protocol initiated."

Veemon winced as Overlorder suddenly scattered black Super Chumps all over the arena, "speaking of which…!"

"Pop them before they explode!" Eight started shooting at the Super Chumps close by to them. Thankfully they were spread out enough that it was easy to form a safe space, but that also splattered a lot of the arena in black ink. "Okay, move before he does something else!"

Thankfully the next portal was nearby, but when it started taking notable damage, it also began to move, forcing Eight to pursue it. She considered pulling out the Crab Tank, but right now that was more of a panic button move.

She let out a sigh of relief as the portal erupted, but she couldn't rest just yet. Overlorder was laser-focused on her, and was clearly preparing something else as it started lobbing globs of black ink at the trio as they circled around towards the second portal. Thankfully the webbing strategy helped with managing the enemies, and they started attacking the second portal-

"Reefslider protocol initiated."

Veemon blinked, "wait, how's he gonna ride a Reefslid-"

Eight, who knew much better than to assume that was how Overlorder would deploy it, instead activated the nearest ink rail (thankfully there were a few of those which hung upwards), calling out, "grab onto me!"

Veemon and Wormmon didn't question or object, grabbing onto her as she changed into her octopus form, swimming right up the ink rail as Overlorder started launching Jelleton-style Reefsliders right at them, exploding just out of range. Veemon winced, "oooh, that's how. Man, those things are way scarier when they're coming right at you! Jelly sharks are no joke!"

Wormmon just looked at him flatly before Eight leaped off the rail once the Reefsliders stopped coming, shooting at the portal, "'jelly sharks'?"

"What? That's pretty much what they look like! Man, now I'm hungry."

"Please focus!" Eight winced as she tried to avoid the incoming swam of Jelletons. These also included more dangerous types, but no sign of Spawning Accordos or Towering Nobilmentes yet. She took out a Whirling Accelerando, sending its shell spinning with a quick kick, ripping though foes in her way and doing heavy damage to the moving portal in front of her.

"COMIN' THROUGH!" Veemon smashed another Whirling Accelerando, leaping onto the shell, sending it spinning as he laughed, and launched himself off, slamming his head into the portal with the momentum, "VEE HEADBUTT!"

The portal exploded, sending Veemon flying right into Eight's arms, nearly knocking her down, "WOO! That was SWEET!"

Pearl said quickly, "get me near that last portal! I've got some firepower saved up!"

Eight nodded, taking off running as Overlorder suddenly began firing off triple Sting Rays, though she, Veemon and Wormmon were able to stay ahead of it before it ran out of juice. As they approached the last portal, Pearl unleashed everything in her arsenal on it, weakening it enough for Eight to quickly wear it down until it erupted as well.

The shield cracked and shattered, and both Eight and her helpers wasted no time attacking Overlorder directly. However, Overlorder summoned four enormous tentacles in front of them. Eight winced, and bolted to the side, as did Veemon and Wormmon, as they narrowly avoided the tentacles coming down on their previous position.

Eight decided to pull the trigger on her special, activating the Crab Tank and revving up the dual miniguns, rapidly splattering Overlorder until it exploded once more. "We'll keep doing this as long as we have to, Order!"

"Enough. HAND OF FATE!"

Eight was quick to change the Crab Tank into ball form, avoiding the incoming surge of light, before she turned her attention to Angemon, who was now focusing on her. Nefertimon and Halsemon were trying to keep him at bay, but they were somewhat weakened. Eight just fired off an explosive shot, stunning him, and revved up the miniguns once more, continuously splattering him.

Angemon, however, much to her surprise, successfully tanked most of the incoming barrage and charged at her, unleashing another Hand of Fate from his fist. Thinking quickly, Eight shifted the Crab Tank into ball form while evading in hopes that the armour could take the hit.

Instead, the Crab Tank was destroyed in one go, and she was sent tumbling right to the edge of the arena, her body armour also being broken as she let out a scream of pain & anguish.

As Eight struggled to get back on her feet, Angemon approached.

"NO! Get away from her!" Nefertimon tried to block his path, but she was knocked out of the way by Angemon's staff, as was Halsemon. Veemon and Wormmon couldn't even slow him down with their attacks. Nefertimon groaned as she got back up, "EIGHT!"

Sarah groaned, still holding onto Halsemon despite being battered about, "yeesh, this guy's tough as nails! Eight, watch out!"

Angemon raised his fist once more. "With you out of the way, there will be no-one else capable of halting the Greyscaling process. There will be perfect order."

Pearl tried to get in the way, blasting him with an Inkstrike, "ARGH! JUST GO DOWN ALREADY!"

Eight could feel her Digivice vibrate. With the strength she had, she unclipped her Digivice and held it up.

A powerful light shone from it, stunning Angemon. He suddenly began speaking more naturally, "partner… You… You have to defeat me… To free me… Please! I can't stop this myself! I'm sorry…"

"Say no more," Eight said, her armour finally recovering, as she picked up her Splattershot and opened fire. "I'm sorry too, Angemon!"

"Well, he asked for it!" Pearl started attacking, "sorry about this, big guy!"

"BLAST RINGS!"

"QUEEN'S CURSE!"

The two Armour-type Digimon attacked from behind, causing Angemon to scream in pain, before Nefertimon flew around, covering Eight as she launched a Rosetta Stone, "I hope this works!"

The stone slammed into Angemon, and as he tumbled back, he reverted back to his Rookie form before slamming into one of the lower walls. Seeing Patamon for the first time broke Eight's heart - a quadraped, he was so cute and round, with the top half of his body being orange and the lower half cream, and had two large wings on his head. Even if he asked for it for both their sakes, that didn't mean he deserved to be hurt like this.

Eight rushed to pick him up, "Patamon!"

"Okay, good, guess he's okay after all!" Pearl sighed. "Who would've thunk such a cute little guy could evolve into someone so tough…"

Patamon's adorable blue eyes flickered open, and he smiled, "thank you, partner. I'm sorry we had to meet like this, but… I'm glad you were able to free me from Order's control."

"Wait, 'partner'?!" Nefertimon said, cocking her head to the side, "I'm… Wait… Are we both Eight's partners?! I guess that's not unprecedented, but I wasn't expecting it… It does explain why she has the Digimentals of Light and Hope…"

Pearl chuckled, "oooh, that's a twist!"

Patamon giggled weakly, "I know, it's kind of a surprise too."

Veemon grinned, "we're just happy you're okay, bud."

"He's not our enemy anymore, that's all that matters!" Sarah said, as Halsemon flew over, and she held out her hand, "I'll ferry him over to Marina so she can help him recover."

Eight almost did so… But then what Nefertimon said reminded her of something. "Actually… I've got another idea. Does evolution recover health?"

Halsemon nodded, "usually, if the Digidestined has the spare energy for it."

"Good. DIGI-ARMOUR, ENERGISE!"

Patamon floated up into the air, glowing as he transformed. "Patamon, Armour Digivolve to…" He morphed into a majestic, yellow winged golden-armoured steed, "PEGASUSMON!"

"Oh, that is dope!" Sarah grinned, "now we've got three Armour Digimon on our side!"

At this point, Overlorder had re-emerged, now with a barrier maintained by four portals this time.

"With Angemon no longer a threat, that means the portals are our only obstacle, now," said Nefertimon, as Jelletons started closing in, and she started blasting them with Queen's Curse, "let's move!"

"Right! EQUIS BEAM!" Pegasusmon also started firing holy beams from his brow, "let's take this fight to the enemy!"

Eight nodded, splattering Jelletons closing in on them, "we stick together. Veemon, Wormmon, you help me clear our the lesser Jelletons. Nefertimon, Pegasusmon, you're our main damage dealer on the portals, the bomb spawners and the snipers! And, well, Sarah, Halsemon, do your own thing."

"Good strategy. With Nefertimon and Pegasusmon being able to fly, having our strongest damage-dealers on the offensive will allow us to minimise risk," said Wormmon.

"Hey, as long as we're not the ones dealing with the bombs or the snipers. Man, those guys suck," said Veemon.

Pearl cackled, "now that his bouncer's on our side, Order's got no cards left to play! Let's wail on him!"

Nefertimon nodded, and flew towards the nearest portal, "right! Let's not waste any more time."

"This time, I'll do right by you, Eight!" Pegasusmon declared, as he flew alongside Nefertimon. Sarah grinned, giving a peace sign as Halsemon flew off to another part of the arena.

As Eight got moving, she started inking as much turf as she could - she needed to restore her special as much as she could in case she needed to deploy the Crab Tank again. Veemon and Wormmon maintained their web and strike strategy against the lesser Jelletons and the Rookie Digimon that Overlorder had begun to summon, while Pearl helped with general crowd control. Nefertimon and Pegasusmon's beam attacks against the first portal swiftly burst it. First one down.

On their way to the next nearest portal, Eight heard another portal explode, and Sarah's gleeful laughter from that direction. Looks like Halsemon finished the job over there. Two down.

A couple of Tyrannomon were summoned via the portal, attempting to block their path, but Nefertimon and Pegasusmon unleashed a combination attack, 'Golden Noose', forming a ring of light that bound the enemy in place, allowing Eight and Pearl to attack from a safe distance while her partners went on to handle the portal, destroying a Towering Nobilmente that was preparing to snipe at them. With the Tyrannomon tied up, the portal was quickly burst, destroying the two Champion Digimon in the process.

Eight focused on getting her special full, as Sarah and Halsemon burst another portal. The portal began to crack, and it shattered, just as Eight activated the Crab Tank, and opened fire. A barrage of Digimon and Pearl drone attacks swiftly followed suit.

Overlorder was on the ropes. Pearl laughed, "looks like you're donezo, Snore-der!"

"Such chaotic strength. It is fearsome," said Overlorder, as it suddenly began charging with energy, "but the program is now fully executed. The rebooted world will now know the tranquillity of order."

It let out a tremendous roar, knocking back everyone else with the sudden shockwave, as the world began to become grey and covered in static. Nefertimon, Pegasusmon and Halsemon all reverted back to their Rookie forms, collapsing to the floor.

"Damn it… It wasn't enough…!" Gatomon groaned.

Marina gasped, "no… After all that we were too late?! I don't want a blank world…" Eight could see her typing away on her laptop on the stage, "I have to do something! Maybe I can shut down Order's program! No good! It's propagating too fast! Pearl… I…"

Acht tried to reach Marina's laptop, but the two of them were frozen by the Greyscaling.

Eight held Gatomon and Patamon tight, as the world became grey…

❖​

It was nothing but grey.

Eight could not feel anything. It was if her body didn't exist.

And yet, when she saw the pillar of light begin to emerge ahead of her? She knew she needed to move towards it. And so she did. Despite having no legs. Despite only being able to muster the barest of energy to do so.

One step at a time.

"Why do you persist?" Order demanded from the void, "perfect order is perfect harmony."

Eight had no mouth and could not speak, nor did she have the energy to do so.

"Your 'harmony' is a world of statues, not people. You wouldn't be running a society, you'd just be the curator of a museum," said a male voice from behind her left shoulder, "it's okay to want peace and stability, but not to the point of life becoming static and meaningless altogether."

"Illogical. A world of perfect order means avoiding the tragedies that brought humankind to extinction. No conflict. Everyone will have their place."

A female voice from behind Eight's right shoulder rebuked, "If something else comes from beyond your 'perfect order' that you can't handle by yourself, what then? Your efforts will have been for nothing. You should know in this world in particular, 'there's always a bigger fish'."

"My order will expand beyond the confines of this world. Everything will be perfection."

The male voice rebuked, "you can't control or predict everything. 'Gods' stronger than you have tried. There will be those outside your order who will see it as a travesty and seek to shatter it, for good or ill."

As Eight came closer to the pillar of light, her footsteps began to accumulate a rhythm. Her footsteps created ripples of pink and green, becoming stronger with each step.

The female voice remarked, "even now, Eight refuses to bend to your will. And that will never change."

"Because her hopes for freedom for herself and her friends always burn bright."

"Because her light is a spectrum beyond your pale grey."

Eight finally found the energy to speak. "It's like Marina said. I'm willing to take the good with the bad… Because those beautiful moments with the people I love and cherish mean the world to me."

There was no response from Order.

As Eight entered the pillar of light, she saw two symbols within - a single ray of light beaming down from a small run, and a flower pattern. She took a deep breath.

"It's all up to you now. Sorry for having to impose this on you," said the male voice.

The female voice spoke, "we can't support you in person, but… We'll be there in spirit. And I'll be there especially for her. Make us proud, Eight."

Eight could feel their warm smiles, even if she couldn't see them.

She reached out for the two symbols, and grasped them in her hands.

❖​

"There it is… Eight! I'm feeling your vibe! And Marina! Your backing track SLAPS!" Pearl grinned, back in Inkling form, and giving Marina a thumbs up, "cancel that snooze button! Hit me with the beat, DJ!"

As Eight got back on her feet, Marina smiled, summoning a full DJ suite on the stage, "coming at you, Pearl!"

Gatomon blinked, as she also got up, "Eight… You did it! You actually forced back the greyscaling through sheer force of will!"

Patamon giggled, "she's a Digidestined, what did you expect?"

Gatomon smirked, "heh, fair point."

"Oh, we're doing this?! YAY!" Armadillomon laughed as platforms formed for him and Wormmon to use alongside their partners, who stepped up to begin ramping up the music.

"Oh man it's been a while since I did some music!" Sarah grinned, as she picked up an electric guitar, plugging it in to the sound setup.

"Of what use is this resistance?" Overlorder said, "happiness is stasis. Unchanging. Forever."

"I dunno, your 'stasis' was broken pretty easily by Eight," Veemon smirked.

"You kidding me?! We're still on tour! The show don't STOP!" Pearl snapped, with a quick flourish, "keep your boring gigs for boring people. We're out here LIVING, loser! Right, gang? Crank it up!"

Marina maxed out the microphone volume, "mic check!"

Eight immediately knew what this meant. "You guys might wanna stay behind Pearl."

Gatomon blinked, "wait, why-"

"Boo-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Pearl didn't even need the Princess Cannon this time. The sheer unfathomable power of her yell slammed into Overlorder like a truck going at top speed, and annihilated the walls and ceiling making up the top of the Spire, exposing everyone to the artificial sky, now shining blue.

Gatomon winced, covering her ears, "holy cow, that scream would make the Dark Masters recoil in pain!"

When the dust settled, Overlorder was suddenly starting to dance. "My limbs are self-animating. Why. This is outside my parameters. An undefined error is occurring."

"Ha! This world you dreamed up is so boring, even you can't stand it anymore!" Pearl taunted, leaping into the air and changing back into her drone form with a flourish, "but we got the ink to fix that. Don't get cooked… Stay off the hook!"

"Rock it, Pearl! Ain't my partner the coolest?!" Veemon grinned.

"Useless. Try all you like. The result will never change," said Overlorder, forming another barrier with two portals scattered around the arena. And even then, it couldn't help but move to the beat.

"Hey, what the…?" Gatomon frowned, "I feel weaker all of a sudden…"

"The Palette's empty!" said Acht, "did Order do this?"

"Look! I think I see colour chips trapped inside those portals," Marina pointed out - and Eight could see said chips swirling around in the portals.

"Order's not going to let us get to them easily, though," Gatomon said, as the portals started summoning both Jelletons and Digimon.

Eight smirked, gripping her Splattershot, "then we're just gonna have to fight for them."

"Well, good thing that scream also gave us a boon."

A hologram of Gennai appeared by them. "Destroying the top of the tower and damaging Order like that also disabled the evolution blocker."

"Oh man, for REAL?!" Pearl laughed, as light shone from her crown, "what're we waiting for, then?! DIGIVOLVE!"

"Veemon, digivolve to…" Veemon exploded with light, expanding significantly, becoming much more buff and even gaining a sharp horn, "EXVEEMON!"

"HOLY MACKEREL! You got BUFF, buddy!" said Pearl, "I mean, I'm a lesbian, but dang, I can appreciate a dude's muscles!"

"What can I say?" ExVeemon grinned, as he flexed, "always bet on Vee!"

"Get out there, partner, and help my roomie, please!" Sarah grinned, holding up her Digivice, as its screen shone.

Hawkmon took to the air, transforming as he did, "as you wish! Hawkmon, digivolve to… AQUILAMON!"

"I think it's high time you fought, partner," said Acht, as their Digivice shone as well, "we'll be fine over here."

"You can count on me!" Armadillomon leaped across, as he transformed, "Armadillomon, digivolve to…" He became much larger, and much spikier, even forming a large spiked ball on his tail, "ANKYLOMON!"

Wormmon looked up at Marina, who just smiled back. He nodded, and leaped into the air, transforming, "Wormmon, digivolve to… STINGMON!"

Gatomon and Patamon looked at Eight expectantly. No words were needed. Eight held up her Digivice, "let's do this!"

"Patamon, digivolve to… ANGEMON!" Angemon emerged in his full majesty, no longer tainted by Order's greyscaling. However, Gatomon was unaffected, since she was already Champion-level to begin with.

Pearl laughed, "awww yeah! We're turning up the intensity on this fight! It's encore time… Ready to take a bow, Eight?"

Eight considered using the Digimental of Light, but she could feel a threshold that was on the verge of breaking. She just needed a bit more power. "Everyone, keep the enemies at bay! Gatomon, you're with me!"

Gatomon didn't object. "You got it. I'll follow your lead, partner!"

Overlorder twitched. "That will not be… Error. Running compulsory Greyscaling. Error. Retrying… Error Persists."

All the evolved Digimon except Angemon charged into battle, smashing into the enemy ranks as Eight charged for one of the nearest portals - the one with the range chips. Angemon instead covered his partners, smashing through enemies in her way with his staff, and unleashing a Hand of Fate on the portal, allowing Eight and Gatomon to follow up with their own attacks. "That should be enough to get you started!"

"Thank you, Angemon!" Eight said, as the portal exploded. It wasn't just the chips she had collected up to this point, either - every single possible range chip, including possible duplicates. Eight felt like nothing was out of reach for her, now. "WHOA!"

Suddenly, all of the team's Digimon shone with the same colour. Gennai chuckled, handling an interface in front of him, "I've distributed the effects of the chips to the whole team. The more chips you acquire, the stronger all of you become! This is your battle to win!"

Eight grinned, realising how absolutely overpowered she was going to become at this rate, charging right at the portal containing the mobility chips, and opening fire. Even the enemies trying to block her shots couldn't do anything due to the piercing chips making it basically impossible for them to prevent the shots from reaching the portal, and when it did explode, the explosion was even larger than the first one.

The entire team glowed blue, and suddenly they were moving significantly faster. Even the relatively slow Ankylomon was dodging attacks like they were in slow motion. Even when Overlorder tried to target Eight and Gatomon with its Sting Rays, it was simply far too slow to keep up with them.

Eight felt like she was practically everywhere at once, as she and Gatomon circled around towards the next portal that emerged - Overlorder was bringing out more in turn to keep the shield up. Which was fine by her, because next up was the lucky chips. And when that one exploded and the chips slotted into the Palette, she felt like luck was on her side. "BOOYAH!"

"You're certainly having the time of your life, Eight!" Gatomon grinned, "but I can't blame you!"

Pearl laughed, "now you're starting to get how we squids and octos have fun!"

And then Ebb & Flow kicked in. And Eight really felt like she was on fire.

As they circled around, Gatomon charged ahead, unleashing a Lightning Kick on the next portal holding the drone chips, right before eight opened fire, wiping out any enemies trying to attack them. This time, Pearl shone with power. "OH YEAH, BAY-BEE! Just what I was waiting for! Lemme show you how it's DONE! Oh, and I've got a new trick up my sleeve, now!" As she unleashed mayhem on the enemy, Eight felt like with Pearl at her side, anything was possible.

"Greyscaling is running in reverse. Impossible," said Overlorder. It was music to Eight's ears.

Before Eight could even get to the next portal…

"ExVeemon and Stingmon, DigiFuse to… PAILDRAMON!"

Eight's jaw dropped as she saw the two Digimon fuse together, forming a powerful Ultimate-level Digimon resembling a hybrid of both, firing off a powerful double-shot from the cannons on his waist, obliterating the portal in one shot, "DESPERADO BLASTER!"

"Thanks, Paildramon! Guess that's your new trick, Pearl?" Eight chuckled, as she was further upgraded with support chips. Now she felt like the entire world had her back.

Pearl cackled, "what can I say? Marina and I are in SYNC!"

"Last portal, let's go!" Gatomon said, slashing at incoming enemies.

Eight nodded, seeing the portal with the power-type chips back where they started, and charged, opening fire, the homing shots making it basically impossible to miss - the portal was already halfway done when she got to it as it was. When the chips slotted in, Eight felt like she was brimming with strength.

"Ngh… Colour overflow…" Overlorder groaned, trying to keep the barrier together, but it shattered, "grah… How are you so determined."

"Time to finish this," Eight said, feeling the threshold break, and she held up her Digivice, "SUPER DIGIVOLVE!"

Gatomon gasped, as she glowed. "No way… Gatomon, Super Digivolve to…"

Angemon also glowed, "Angemon, Super Digivolve to…" He erupted in a burst of light, becoming more armoured and even more majestic, with a purple arm-blade and wings wrapping around his body, "MAGNANGEMON!"

Gatomon, on the other hand, became a tall, beautiful angelic woman, a helmet covering half her face like Angemon, "ANGEWOMON!"

Sarah had an immediate nosebleed. "Oh, come on, that's not fair… Why you gotta surprise me with that gorgeous figure?"

Angewomon stared at Eight in shock, but then smiled, and formed a holy halo around her, before forming a bow from the wings on her glove, which formed a holy arrow of lightning, "I believe it's about time we finished this."

"Agreed!" MagnaAngemon said, forming a large gate, "Order, your crimes against this world will not stand, and we will see you punished!"

"You folks ready to see a Colour Wail?" Pearl said as she summoned a seven-pronged Killer Wail, comprised of a single large main cannon and six satellite cannons.

Acht smirked, "ha! This is gonna leave a stain."

"Pour it on, Pearl!" Marina cheered.

"Don't leave us out of this one!" Paildramon declared, flying above them, flanked by Ankylomon and Aquilamon, "let's make this hurt! DESPERADO BLASTER!"

"MEGATON PRESS!"

"BLAST RINGS!"

Angewomon fired her arrow, "CELESTIAL ARROW!"

MagnaAngemon fired a tremendous beam of light from the gateway, "GATE OF DESTINY!"

"BOOYAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Pearl unleashed the Colour Wail, ripping into Overlorder with the might of the full spectrum, as Eight just held down the trigger.

"Incompatible…with…program…" Overlorder simply could not hold up against the combined might of the incoming attacks. It started to spasm out with fast, robotic movements, "warning. An undefined error is occurring. Warning. An undefined error is ocurriiiinnnngggg."

And then it exploded in a spectacular display of light and ink.

When the light faded, Order was seemingly nowhere to be seen. Until Eight adjusted her view upwards a little. She could see, floating in the air, an octopus paralarva with black tinted tentacles but mature eyes. "Uh… What."

"Wait… What's that? It's… It's…" Marina blinked… and then squealed, "IT'S SO CUTE!"

The little octopus was pacing about in the air, as if throwing a fit, "you wuined everything. I was so cwose to my perfect world of order."

"No freaking way," Sarah laughed, "is THAT what we reduced Order to?!"

Marina chuckled, "it's like Order, except… a lot less scary. I don't think we'll have much to worry about here."

"I'd rather not be so blase about the enemy who tried to turn the world into a colourless hell," Angewomon said flatly.

Gennai however (who was now there for real), just smiled, "I've locked out all administrative access to anyone who shouldn't have it, for sure, this time. That little octopus is not going to be able to cause any problems anymore."

As all the Digimon reverted back to their previous forms, the little octopus grumbled, "you haven't seen the wast of me… I'll fwind a way!"

"I dunno. You do look rather delicious, so maybe I'll save us all the trouble and eat you," Gatomon said, licking her lips with a devious grin.

The little thing just bounced in panic, "EEP."

Eight just gave Gatomon a flat look. "Gatomon…"

"He deserves the scare after what we went through," Gatomon said.

"Sweet! Case closed, then!" Pearl smiled, hands on her hips, before posing and pointing at the small octopus, "yo, babypus! You were down with our music, right? We can getcha VIP seats to our show… IF you promise to be on your best behaviour!"

Marina giggled, hands together as she squeed, "aw, Pearl~!"

Surprisingly, the little octopus was taken in by this offer, looking smitten, "aw, Peawl!"

"I am not calling that thing 'babypus'," Acht sighed.

Sarah chuckled, "how about 'Smollusk'? He's small, cute…"

"Yeah, whatever, that works I guess."

Eight groaned, "can we just go back to the real world, please?"

"Oh, yeah! Back to the real Inkopolis Square we go! We've still go a tour to finish!" Pearl grinned.

Suddenly, a new elevator formed just up the slope, large enough to fit all of them, leading up to the sky. Gennai chuckled, "that elevator will serve as a gateway back to the real world. Shall we?"

Everyone stepped into the elevator, and when it closed, it began to ascend into the sky, leaving behind the little octopus and the Memverse.

❖​

Eight watched the artificial city below crumble away as the elevator ascended into the skies, surrounded by schools of artificial fish, while her companions chatted happily amongst themselves. As it reached the peak, everything went white.

Then there was nothing but darkness.

She was sitting back on a chair. Something was on her head. She could hear muffled commotion nearby.

"GAH! That was close! Warn us before you do that, would ya?!"

"Hey, we didn't know the computer would just spit us all out like that! Also WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!"

"WE CAME TO SAVE YOU DINGUSES, AND THAT'S THE THANKS WE GET?!"

"Frye, settle down."

"Uh. Sorry, Boss."

"Hey, uh, can someone get the headset off Eight's head?!"

"Right, of course, the mechanism should be right here-"

There was a hiss as the headset opened up. Eight's eyes adjusted to the light, but she could see the computer room in Pearl and Marina's house was now suddenly very crowded. Of course, there were her companions (minus Sarah), mostly heaped up in a pile (with Gennai being the only exception, just standing to the side with some amusement) but pressed against the wall were several more Inklings, Octolings and Digimon, with Eight trying to recall the names of a bunch of the latter. Eight immediately recognised the Captain, aka Rachel Milton, of course, flanked by an orange dinosaur and a reptile with a fur pelt (presumably Agumon and Gabumon), but there was also an Octoling boy with softcore-style fuzzy hair (what?!) wearing the brand new Hero Suit, with a Smallfry Salmonid on his head (WHAT?!) and a red dinosaur by him (Guilmon), looking inquisitively at the commotion. Callie and Palmon were there, but a large pink bird (Biyomon) was right by Marie. The biggest surprise was Sheldon standing next to Eight, apparently having helped open the helmet, and a large red bug Digimon next to him, along with Deep Cut. Frye was holding some kind of fuzzy Digimon with big floppy ears (Terriermon?), a tall yellow fuzzy bipedal Digimon (Renamon) was up against the wall next to Shiver, and a more aquatic-looking fuzzy creature (Gomamon) was on Big Man's head.

"Patamon! You're okay!" Palmon giggled, hugging him. "We were worried when you weren't in the Memverse group earlier!"

Patamon giggled, "yeah, I got controlled by Order, but it's okay now!"

Marina rushed out of the room all of a sudden. Eight looked down. She was in normal clothes. THANK GOODNESS.

"Ah, success! She's conscious!" Sheldon smiled, "Eight, are you alright?"

"I… I think so…" Eight sat up, "uh, why are you all here?!"

"Well, firstly we asked Sheldon to check up on you and make sure things didn't go too badly on your end," Rachel explained.

Sheldon nodded, "oh, yes! I was not expecting to receive a Digivice and Tentomon as well, but I'm hardly complaining! Technically I could have tried to remove you from the simulation, but I needed to be absolutely sure that it wouldn't have adverse side-effects, and, well, the problem became quite moot."

"We saved the world from Mr. Grizz's crazy plan and then we rushed all the way here from the Splatlands," Rachel said, "we were gonna come up with a plan to enter the Memverse but then you guys were already in the process of beating up Order, so we were mostly just there in case something went horribly wrong."

"Oh, yes, it was quite the exciting affair, with the Digimon and the battle in space, shame you missed it."

Eight blinked. She recognised that voice but couldn't place where it was… Until she saw something floating in midair by the Squid Sisters. Were it not for the eyes and the beard, she would not have recognised the dried squid. "Cuttlefish?!"

"Mr. Grizz did something to him that dehydrated him. We barely managed to revive him, somehow," said Marie, "you missed a lot."

"Geez, I can see that!" Sarah stumbled out of another room, also now in more casual clothes, helped by Marina, "oh man that was nuts. Also, did you guys just break into Pearl and Marina's house, or…?"

Sheldon understandably looked quite sheepish. "Well, sort of. To be fair, you were in potential peril!"

"Also, we're bandits, we go wherever we please," Shiver said, as she and Renamon both laughed in sync.

Big Man just winced, "ay… (Hey, we don't break into people's homes that often…)"

Gomamon laughed, "aw, come on, big guy, live a little! This time was for a good cause!"

Fyre groaned, "seriously, your estate is so big and ridiculously extravagant that I want to break something! It is, like, the peak of Inkopolis opulence!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you're just jelly," Pearl said, ignoring Fyre's immediate bout of angrish, "but how did you get here so fast?"

"We caught a ride. He's still waiting outside," Callie remarked, gesturing out towards the balcony.

Eight blinked, as she took a look out through a nearby door. She gasped. "What?!"

Marina also took a look, and her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. "SIR?!"

"Don't call me 'sir', Marina. I'm not your commander anymore," grumped DJ Octavio, whose Octobot King was hovering right outside the house. Sitting right in the cockpit beside him, was a dinosaur Digimon in tactical gear. "It's been a while."

Marina stepped out onto the balcony, as everyone else emerged from the computer room, "should I even ask what you're doing here? Since when do you help the New Squidbeak Splatoon?"

Octavio chuckled, as he started to turn the Octobot King, "they helped me get some payback, that's all. And then I heard what you were doing to help the poor Octarians who got messed up by Kamabo, and what that Order punk was doing, so there was no way I was gonna let him mess everything up on my watch."

"I… I appreciate that. Sir… I know this isn't what you wanted for the Octarians, but-"

"Save your breath. My course is long set, and it'll take way more than that to convince this old fool to change it." He paused for a moment. "By the way, Marina… I've heard some of your material. You've got some spicy beats. Keep it up. Commandramon, full speed ahead."

"Yes, sir!"

With that, the robot rocketed away, leaving everyone speechless.

Marina sighed, stepping back into the house, though she had a small smile on her face, "that was… Certainly a thing."

"Wait. Octavio's a Digidestined, too? Now I've seen everything," said Sarah, scratching her head… And then turned to the Octoling boy, "WAIT A MINUTE, you're the newbie?!"

"Should I be concerned about the Salmonid?" Eight asked. Sure, it was still a Smallfry, but Smallfries were still dangerous even by themselves…

"Nah, Little Buddy's tame… Mostly," said the boy, holding the Smallfry in his hands, "I'm Max Engeld, the new Agent 3. You guys must be Agent 4 and Agent 8."

"Guilmon is Guilmon!" Cheered the red dinosaur, "nice to meet you!"

"Max got exposed to 'fuzzy ooze' particulates when he fell down into Alterna," explained Rachel, "hence the fuzz. Don't worry, it's not contagious."

Sarah grinned, "well, happy to meet ya, I'm Sarah!"

Eight smiled, "well… Nice to meet you too, Max. I'm Eight. It's nice to know I'm no longer the only Octoling in the Splatoon…"

"Speaking of new guys… Who's the green Octoling and the dude who looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Terriermon asked.

"Yo. I'm Acht, a school friend of Marina's. Don't mind me," Acht said, with a lazy wave.

Gennai just chuckled, "it's been a while since I've heard that comparison. I am Gennai, an ancient program who aided the Digidestined of the previous generations. It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Oh, and it looks like the 1999 and 2002 partner groups are all together again."

Cue a mass hug of the various Digimon in the aforementioned groups.

Pearl remarked, "man, this apartment hasn't been this crowded in a while. Good thing we've got lots of space." She then turned to Frye, grinning, "also, did I hear you call Marie 'Boss'?"

Shiver blinked, "yeah, so? The boss ladies pulled a move that was so boss we decided they should be our bosses."

Pearl grinned wider, "you do realise they're the Squid Sisters, right? The Inkopolis idol duo?"

"Uh-oh," Terriermon said mischievously, "someone goofed~"

Both Fyre and Shiver immediately went white, as most of the room's occupants chuckled. And then the chuckles turned into uproarious laughter when Big Man noted, "ay… (You know, I thought they looked familiar…)"

Renamon laughed, "oh dear. Maybe you were a bit hasty before, Shiver…"

Palmon smirked, "laugh it up, fox girl, that makes Biyomon and I your bosses, too."

Biyomon sighed, "I'd rather not be, but someone has to manage the gremlin dog who looks like he's about to steal something."

Terriermon just whistled innocently, but Eight felt like he'd do something like rob the place or, uh, commit tax fraud when nobody was looking.

As the house erupted into laughter and conversation, Eight stepped out onto the balcony. She needed the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, on the verge of sunset, and the sight of the city of Inkopolis surrounding the estate.

"So this is the real world after 12,000 years, huh?" Gatomon asked, as she climbed up onto the balcony railing, with Patamon hovering next to her.

"You betcha," Sarah said as she and Hawkmon went up to the balcony railing as well, "welcome to Inkopolis. It's a fresh new world out there."

"It is quite the sight. Humanity's torch really has been kept lit," remarked Hawkmon, as he perched on the railing, "this wouldn't be possible if it weren't for all our efforts, past and present."

Gatomon suddenly looked sullen, and Eight scratched her head, "it's okay, Gatomon. You've got time to mourn."

"Oh… She still misses Kari," Patamon frowned. "Gatomon…"

"I haven't gotten over losing her, and I'm not sure when I will… If ever," Gatomon sighed.

"At least you're not doing it while the world's in immediate peril," said Sarah, "it's okay. You've got all of us to help you through it, one step at a time. After all, we're friends."

"YOU BETCHA!" Pearl stepped out onto the balcony, followed by Marina, Acht, Veemon, Wormmon and Armadillomon, "man, that was one heck of an adventure we just had."

"I think there's still some loose ends, but nothing super urgent that can't wait until the tour's done," Marina remarked with a smile, "which shouldn't take long, either."

Acht nodded, "well, in any case, we'll still keep on fighting, and be ready for anything that comes our way."

"Well said. It's been a long time since I've seen the real world," Gennai said, also stepping out onto the balcony, "I mourn the loss of humanity, but I am hopeful with the sea of endless possibilities stretching before my eyes."

"I'll drink to that!" Pearl laughed, turning around as she turned around and called out, "hey, anyone want a beer or some wine? Marina and I have plenty!"

"The rookie and his partners are underage, so don't give them any," Marie remarked.

Max objected, "hey, I can handle a good beer just fine!"

Rachel snorted, "doesn't matter, no alcohol for you, Captain's orders."

"Aw, man…"

Eight giggled, "well, if nothing else, things won't be boring with this bunch around."

Sarah laughed, and kissed Eight on the cheek, "same as it ever was, babe."

Eight giggled, kissing her back, and they leaned against each other. Gatomon just smiled softly, as they enjoyed the sunset together.

---

Author's Notes: No, this is not the end of the story. We've got post-game stuff to cover! And I promise it will be much more exciting than what Nintendo actually delivered with Side Order's post-game.

I tried my best with what I was trying to convey with the "Spectrum Obligato Brave Heart Mix" with the music links (seriously, that remix of Brave Heart would be perfect if it had the iconic guitar riffs at the start), but it's not as elegant as a proper cohesive music track would be. I was imagining the first part of Spectrum Obligato transitioning to a faster-tempo version of Brave Heart, then Ebb & Flow, and then back to Brave Heart for the final sequence.