Javier Morales never expected to die the way he did. Guess that's just life for you. Now he's on Earth-Bet, with the Celestial Menagerie, oh and did I mention his knowledge of the universe is based entirely on Fanfiction's he's read. He always did wonder what came after Leviathan. Good luck Javi, you'll need it.
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That Time I was Reincarnated Into Worm, Good thing I've read plenty of Fanfiction!
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Chapter 1 - Taking a Dive
Hello everyone! Welcome to my attempt to write a Worm Fanfiction.
My SI's powerset is the Celestial Menagerie, mostly because I don't have the technical knowhow to keep up with the stuff Lord writes (nor am I confident enough to BS it) and figured this would be a good middle ground.
I'm using this version of the Celestial Menagerie for those curious to want to know. Unsure if there are any more recently updated, I just kinda picked the first link I found on Google.
My point build up is 1000 words for 100 points. I'm keeping track of two separate pools of points, one for Powers and one for Summons.
For those curious, by the time I get to the first actual pull of the chapter I was like at 3k words, and thus was able to afford the 200 point Summon I pulled. Menagerie said I started with 100 free points so there's that.
Just wanted to say it in case some of you got snippety.Just kidding I love you all.
Anyways, I'm still very new to writing so let me know how it goes please. Leave me some feedback and let me know if I should keep writing more. If you want to read more of my work I'm on Fanfiction as well as Targetedandfiring. This story will likely be crossposted. Haven't updated on there in a few months because - honestly, - I kinda of hit a depressive rut and my mind blanks out when I try to write anything.
ANYWAY: Here's what you came for.
As the first generation of my family born in the U.S., there was always an unspoken expectation placed on my shoulders from a young age. I was the future, the reason for my dad's long hours butchering animals in freezing conditions. I was the reason my mom worked tirelessly to maintain the home—to feed and clothe me.
I wanted desperately to make my family proud. As much as I longed to explore the outdoors and connect with nature, the need to prove my worth to them was more vital. While other kids ran and played, I stayed inside with my books. As my love for nature grew with every wildlife documentary I watched, I was turned away from it, forced to keep my head down and follow my parents' wishes. My grades were impressive; soon enough, they were steering me toward becoming a doctor or engineer. My teachers said I'd be great at it. My parents approved, so I convinced myself that had to be my path.
I did my best to earn their approval. To show them their efforts weren't being wasted.
In junior high, I was programming Lego robots to perform complicated tasks, competing in tournaments against other schools. But I quickly realized I was only good at programming, not building the robots themselves. I just didn't have the creativity. So, I stuck to what I could handle.
In high school, I drowned myself in Advanced Placement classes, taking as many as possible to boost my GPA. I knew it would look good on my transcript. And yet, while I kept yearning for nature, the people around me kept telling me I would be an engineer. My parents wanted it; my friends were going that way, so that's where I decided I had to go, right?
But while everyone else was quick to direct my life, no one noticed how much stress I was under. The coursework, along with the extracurriculars my parents chose for me—it all piled up. I woke up at five, and school consumed my entire day. Sometimes, I wouldn't get home until eight at night, and I'd still have hours of homework ahead of me.
Sure, I graduated as valedictorian, but because of all the praise I received, I had few life skills and an inflated ego. So, what came next shouldn't have surprised anyone who was paying attention.
I flunked out of my engineering program.
Having never taken physics, combined with mounting depression from struggling through programming languages I couldn't grasp and the sudden loss of one of the few friends who still kept in contact with me, my grades began to slip. Exhaustion weighed on me, and it was clear I'd need at least two more years of hardware-based classes—if I could ever pass physics. Ha, that was a prospect that seemed more and more unlikely by the day.
As it turned out, I wasn't as bright as everyone made me out to be. That lie only held up in my small town. I chose a big-name school, isolated myself from my friends—all of whom had gone to a university much closer to home—and began to spiral.
"Am I the odd one out?" I'd joked at the time. But it hurt. They'd all gotten into the same school. I was the valedictorian; I could've gone too. Had they excluded me on purpose? Was there some secret meeting where they had gathered and said, "Hey, Javi? Yeah, no, let's not tell him we're going to the closer school, and he should apply there, too."
I kept asking myself those questions. I felt alone. Worthless. A monumental failure.
Those thoughts ran through my head as I sat on the Bay Area Transit bus, the rumble of the wheels the only thing keeping me awake. I was at my wit's end. The student debt kept growing. My parents were disappointed, scowling, telling me to hurry up and get my degree, just like my sister already had.
My sister. I used to think she spent too much time pursuing frivolous things and not enough time studying. But she was two years younger than me and already had a Bachelor's Degree. She was even preparing for medical school. When I tried to open up to her about my struggles, she wasn't any help.
"Dude, you're just not trying hard enough," she'd said, "college has been great for me so far, and if I can do it, I don't know why you're having so many problems."
Right. Of course, Isabella couldn't see what I was dealing with. She hadn't dealt with Mom and Dad's expectations. While she went to sleepovers and watched movies with friends, I was at home, writing the final draft of my latest essay.
Is this what my life had amounted to? I was bitter and alone on a bus because I'd bought into the lie my parents and teachers had pushed on me my whole life. I looked out the window, watching the sun sparkle on the ocean, admiring the looming hills and cliffs where birds nested. A familiar yearning built inside me, the same one I'd tried to bury for years. It felt too late now to pursue that path. What would people say? What would my parents say? "Four years, and you want to change your major?!" Yeah, that would go over well—
My thoughts cut off when something slammed into the bus from behind.
Screeching tires and metal grinding against metal filled my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
Whatever hit us was moving fast, slamming with enough force to throw me from my seat. A woman a few rows back screamed as the bus swerved violently.
I struggled to regain my balance as we plowed through the highway railing.
Then, we were falling.
Vertigo hit me as the bus rolled. Up became down, left became right, and all I could do was flail, desperate to grab hold of something—anything.
Screams echoed around me, adding to the confusion. The world was chaos. Metal crashed against rock as the bus tumbled down the cliffside.
A baby wailed, but the sound was swallowed by the noise, cutting off abruptly.
Then, the bus hit the ocean.
Momentum threw me forward again, and my head slammed into the metal siding. I felt something snap. But I barely had time to register the pain before freezing ocean water poured in, engulfing me in an icy embrace. The water pinned me down, resisting my struggles like the chains I'd that shackled me for years. It was the last thing I could feel—the cold, the weight, the helplessness.
As darkness closed in, a bitter thought crossed my mind: My carefully constructed life—one I had never wanted—was destroyed by a random accident.
The illusion of control was gone.
Suddenly, it wasn't cold anymore.
I didn't feel heavy.
I didn't hurt all over.
It was strange. I was sure I had died just a moment ago. I could remember it clearly. The breaking of bones, my lungs filling with cold seawater, the screams around me.
Had we been saved?
It didn't seem likely. The bus had been sinking fast, battered against the cliffside.
A dark part of me felt annoyed that I might've been saved from the unexpected but early grave. What now? Months of recovery, only to return to the stress of school and impossible expectations?
I tried to push those thoughts away. This floating sensation was the lightest I'd felt in a long time, and I wanted to enjoy it. I expected to wake up in a hospital bed, but when I opened my eyes, a stunning sight greeted me.
The planet.
All around me was the void of space, distant stars twinkling in the distance. When I focused on one of those gleaming motes of light, I felt myself moving impossibly fast toward it. I saw worlds after worlds, some similar to Earth, others completely alien. Yet I knew, somehow, that each one was teeming with life.
So, this was the afterlife.
As far as afterlives went, it wasn't bad. The vastness of the cosmos reignited a flame in me that everyone had tried to extinguish. That love of nature that had been taken from me, that fascination with life.
I smiled. This sight wasn't the pearly gates, but I hadn't expected to end up there. My parents were "devout" Catholics, but only in the sense that they showed up for the big days of prayer. At least they'd let me keep my agnostic beliefs.
As I floated there, something changed.
I suddenly felt tiny, insignificant in scope to what I saw laid out before me.
Then, I saw it.
Two creatures of indescribable size and horror melded together before a third, even more terrifying creature joined them. I watched in stunned silence as a massive chunk of the third being broke away, falling straight toward me.
"Santo Dios," I whispered as a tendril from the thing reached out to me.
Connection Established.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]
[TRAJECTORY]
[AGREEMENT]
And then the connection formed, and I knew. I knew what I was in front of. How, I wasn't sure. But this...this was a Shard. And not just any Shard—this one called itself the Celestial Menagerie.
The Shard spoke to me.
[GREETINGS]
Wait, what?
[GREETINGS]
Okay… Hello?
[DESIGNATION: CELESTIAL MENAGERIE]
[QUERY: DESIGNATION?]
It took me a moment to respond. The Shard had introduced itself and now wanted to know my name. On top of that, it had already fed me information on what kind of power it was offering. The Celestial Menagerie was a summoner-based power. I'd gain energy periodically, and in return, I could summon a randomly determined creature to follow my commands. It had its limits; I would only be able to summon a creature one in a twenty-four-hour timespan. I could also only have ten active summons at once.
It was a lot to take in, but I had to answer.
"My name is Javier Morales, but you can call me Javi," I said.
[DESIGNATION SET: JAVI]
When the Shard didn't reply, I decided to break the silence.
"Hey, Celestial Menagerie? I'm not sure if you're aware of the situation here, but I recently died. Can you help me out?" I asked, feeling more than a little desperate.
[ANSWER: DIMENSIONALLY DISPLACED SOUL]
[SOLUTION: SOUL REPLACEMENT?]
"Uh, yeah, no thanks. Possessing someone isn't really on my to-do list. Is there any way you could just grab my old body, fix it up, and then shift me to wherever you need me? Maybe include proof that I'm actually from the dimension you drop me in?" I suggested, hoping for a better solution.
[PROCESSING]
[PROCESSING]
[PROCESSING]
[AGREEMENT]
"Oh, that's great! Thanks so much—" I barely got the words out before my feet hit solid ground. Gone was that endless void. Instead, I awoke on a bus, shaken awake by a driver who looked like he'd had enough of me.
"Come on, man. We're at the last stop," he grumbled, not in the mood.
I blinked a few times, trying to shake off the grogginess as I got up and stumbled toward the exit. The first thing that greeted me outside was a sign confirming that what I had experienced wasn't some fever dream.
Brockton Bay Transportation Center.
"Hey, Menagerie? You sure this is where I'm supposed to be?" I muttered.
[AGREEMENT]
Of course. Not only had I just died, but now I'd been dumped in Worm—a world I only knew from fanfiction at best. Fantastic.
Let's just hope the tropes here don't get me killed again.
[SUMMON GRANTED]
[DIGI-EGG OF COURAGE]
[SUMMON GRANTED]
[VEEMON]
[SELECT THEME]
Alright, here we go. I took a moment to sort through what I'd just been handed, a mental library opening up when I focused. It appeared I'd gotten a free summon, specifically, a Digi-Egg of Courage. Since I didn't already have a Digimon, they'd given me a Veemon to go along with it.
Considering I was in Worm, it could have been a lot worse. If my memory of the old Digimon anime was correct, Veemon was an incredibly valuable pull. It could Armor Digivolve with multiple eggs and had some solid baseline Digivolutions, too.
On top of that, I'd received a Digivice.
Which, considering the current situation, was an absolute godsend.
But first, I had to pick a theme.
There were a lot of good options, but in the end, I went with Lightning. It would help my summons repel metallic weapons. Given the number of guns and knives likely floating around in this city, it was a solid defensive choice. I would take anything to boost my chances of not getting stabbed.
Getting my bearings, I made my way to the nearest bathroom. Thankfully, the transportation hub in Brockton Bay had one. Unfortunately, somebody hadn't cleaned it in a few months. Still, privacy was privacy.
I locked the door behind me and double-checked the stalls to ensure they were empty. Once I was sure I was alone, I reached for Veemon and my Digivice to summon them.
It happened instantly. The Digivice appeared in my hand, white with blue and yellow accents.
Veemon followed right after.
He was smaller than I remembered from the anime but still just as familiar. He probably looked a little bigger since his size was being compared to young teens in the anime. The little Rookie looked up at me with a grin.
"Hey, partner! Looks like we'll be working together from now on. Name's Veemon. Best Rookie around! Need me for anything?" he asked, looking way more chipper than I expected for someone—or something—that had just been summoned.
Still, I didn't have a reason not to match his energy.
"Nice to meet you, Veemon. I'm Javier Morales, your new partner, I guess? Heads up, though—his city is dangerous. Like, really dangerous. It's probably best to stay in the Digivice while we're out in public. Don't come out unless I'm down, we're somewhere private, or I ask for your help. That cool?" I said, watching his reaction.
Veemon's grin faded as he got serious, nodding sharply.
"Got it, partner. While in the Digivice, I'll keep our digital footprint small. Don't want any bad guys tracking us down with viruses or hacking," he added, catching me off guard.
I couldn't help but grin. Veemon wasn't just a fighter—he could keep an eye on the digital front. I hadn't even considered that.
"Good thinking. Thanks!" I replied, holding up the Digivice and watching as Veemon dissolved into strands of code and data, vanishing into the device.
"No worries. I can still talk to you from inside here; just hold the Digivice to your ear so it looks natural," Veemon said, his face popping up on a little screen that showed him chilling on some grass in a digital landscape. I nodded and started poking around the Digivice's other features. It looked more like a smartphone than the old-school versions from the anime, with everything Digivice-related built into the software. It could make calls, store contacts, and even act as a GPS.
In other words, I had a phone with the capabilities of a Digivice. While it was certainly advanced-looking for a phone of this time, as the date at the top of the screen helpfully provided, it also meant that I could carry it around with it only looking like a newer model of iPhone instead of the mess that would have been a more traditional Digivice.
"Veemon, I've got to ask. Are you able to stop people from tracking my calls?" I asked.
"Encryption? No sweat. I'm also pretty good at hacking and gathering intel. Heck, if you're in a pickle and can't afford to expose me, I can even give you buffs, too," Veemon replied cheerfully, causing my eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"Oh, for sure. It won't be a crazy buff, mind you. You'll move a little faster, hit a little harder, and be able to take one heck of a beating, but it has its limits. Just keep that in mind, alright?" Veemon replied.
Huh, that reminded me of how the Digivice from Data Squad worked and likely explained how the Tamers from previous seasons could take such a beating from Digimon and come out of it looking spiffy.
"If I got hurt, would you be able to heal me?" I had to ask. The pull I received was starting to seem like an awesome first pull.
"Sure, but I must be in the Digivice to heal you, so watch yourself, partner. And healing isn't the best, either. I can fix up broken bones and scrapes. Don't think I can do much if you lose an arm though," Veemon replied, causing me to nod thoughtfully.
"Right, thanks for that, Veemon. I'll be careful," I promised, putting the screen to sleep while I stored away my phone and checked my pockets. The Menagerie Shard said it would help me in this new world. In the worst case, I'd need to have Veemon hack some government server and fake an ID for myself.
Thankfully, I still had my wired earbuds, wallet, and some car keys in my pocket. Considering I didn't own a car, I would take that win.
"Alright, let's see what I've got in here," I thought, moving over to the wallet. There were some bills, enough to get me through the week if I needed to buy some groceries. It'd have to do. There was also a valid driver's license with an address I didn't recognize and, thankfully, a picture of my face.
"Veemon, I've got an address here. Do you think you can lead me to it?" I asked, trusting that Digivice's wide array of sensor tools would be enough to read the address.
"On it, partner!" Veemon replied. I decided to plug in the earbuds, so I didn't have to pull my phone out. It was new, and the last thing I wanted was to draw attention to myself while walking through a bad part of town. If fanfiction had told me anything, it would have been the entire city.
The only parts of the city I remember with any detail were that Taylor Hebert's dad worked at the docks, and Nazis controlled that downtown.
Any future ruminations were caught off as Menagerie provided me with a notice.
I felt a pool of the charge I had built up slip away as I became aware of what the Menagerie had granted me.
The first was my new summon—a Tinder. No, not the dating app, although I'd have to check to see if that existed yet on Earth-Bet. It can never be said that I wasn't one to try and profit from the successes of another universe.
According to the information I'd received, the Tinder was a Mars-aligned Djinn. And it was pretty intense for the cost. It had a unique active effect so long as Tinder could still be summoned for the day. It gave me a passive bonus to the damage I could take and even gave me a small amount of Psyenergy. Psyenergy was a type of psychic-based Ki that let me cast elemental spells. While I didn't know any elemental spells, I knew I had to learn now that I had Psyenergy.
While the passive bonuses were great, and boy, was I still trying to work through the fact that I was some type of psionic magic caster now, the active summoning effect made the Tinder great.
After summoning, it would rush to the nearest ally and revive them. The rules for this seemed a bit limiting, but it was understandable for the creature's energy cost. It defined an ally as someone I had just been fighting against another threat. As a result, if I show up to a fight and my ally is dead, I can't use Tinder to revive them. However, death wasn't the only condition required for healing. It was any downed ally, so if an ally were poisoned or hit their head and knocked unconscious, the TInder would still be able to work its magic.
Dammit, I was going to be careful about how I used the Tinder. Once the cat was out of the bag that I could bring back the dead, everyone and their mother would be trying to recruit me. That was not the scenario I wanted to occur.
Moving away from the TInder, I looked at my other prize. A power called Vehicle Summoning. It was a niche power, allowing me to summon a creature as a vehicle I instinctively knew how to drive. I can only do this with one creature at a time, and, honestly, it didn't seem worth the effort for the moment as the vehicle size correlated directly with the original size of the creature. Still, it could have some uses later on.
Taking a breath to compose myself, I focused on Veemon's directions and stepped out of the bathroom.
"I'm going to check to see if my car keys match any of the parked cars in the parking lot," I said, keeping my voice low as I pressed the alarm key several times. By some luck, there was a match. The car that greeted me was a blue 2010 Kia Soul. It wouldn't be my preference for a vehicle to be seen driving, but it was better than none.
I quickly got in and closed the door behind me. I gave the interior a look. It was alright; the car was in good condition. After entering and twisting the key, I was relieved to hear the engine start-up. The car had some miles on it, 50,000 to be exact. It was not ideal, but I'd manage. I wasn't about to start an argument with my Shard at a time like now, especially since the car was in good condition.
"Alright, Veemon, I've got a car. Let's get us home now," I said, letting Veemon guide me through the streets of Brockton Bay.
It was pretty stressful driving around, especially considering I'd died not even an hour previously. Or maybe it was correct to say thirteen years from now? This wibbly wobbly timey wimey time stuff could get confusing, and I wasn't about to think too hard about it.
I was also paying extra attention to the streets as I drove. Brockton Bay was a broken city. I'd heard horror stories of towns where you don't stop at red lights in the evenings - and the more populated parts of the town seemed to match up with that idealogy. Combined with what I knew of capes and the gangs, I was half expecting traffic to come to a sudden standstill due to the sudden appearance of an enraged Lung.
Yeah, this new life is starting great.
"Is there any traffic on the police comms, Veemon?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the road but curious about the happenings in Brockton Bay.
"A bit. Everything's being handled just fine, though, or it's too far for us to get to in time to make a difference. The police would beat us to the crime scene," Veemon replied.
I clenched the steering wheel a bit tighter at those words. I wasn't angry at Veemon's way of thinking. He had a point, one that was valid and needed to be taken into consideration. Despite having powers, I was not ready to go off and be a hero. Acting like one would have to wait until I was sure I had something to wear.
Thankfully, Veemon didn't pick up any strange activity as he led us to the address. The property was at the edge of the city, bordered by the slight stretch of woodland separating Brockton Bay from what I had to assume was Captain's Hill. The home was small but on an incline that gave me hope it wouldn't all go to hell when Leviathan came to town in about a month and a half.
My attention slipped away as I felt another summon and power become available.
The Voice was different than my previous two summons. It was a type of magical tarot card. With it came a staff, or perhaps it would be best to call it a long wand - a magician's wand. One of those black rods with white tips old school magicians used to wave around before pulling a rabbit out of their hat.
Well, this wand had a magical charge, and I could expend those charges to summon the actual forms of the tarot cards. Right now, my magical charge was strong enough to summon only one of the tarot cards, but the charge could increase based on the number of magical tarot cards I had. I was sure this meant these tarot cards were limited not by the 24-hour summoning condition but by my magical power, if that's the case. It was impossible to test for the moment, but I'd start to look into it if I got more of these Tarot cards.
Anyway, let's go back to what The Voice could do. Putting it simply, it could steal the voices of people - rendering them permanently mute for her summon duration and mimic the voices she had stolen. This seemed strong. Didn't that Shatterbird lady in the Slaughterhouse-Nine need to be singing to benefit from her power? And there were many voice-based powers I could think of in Worm that this seemed relevant against. The Voice was also pretty strong against non-capes - stealing a person's voice so they wouldn't be able to scream for help or alert other members of the gang seemed like a great tool to have during infiltration missions.
That said, the more significant boon was the power I'd received. Rejection. It allowed me to keep my charge if I didn't like what the Menagerie had given me. I'd miss out on a summon and power until the following alert rolled by, but it'd help store up charge for stronger summons.
Parking the Kia into the garage, I stepped out and closed the garage door. I invited Veemon to step out and explore the home with me. It was small but made up for it by having a larger backyard surrounded by a thick hedge and some pine trees near the back of the property, providing a ton of privacy. It was likely the Menagerie had picked this home so that I wouldn't have to fear the neighbors seeing something they weren't supposed to, but I don't think I was ever planning on summoning anything too big here.
A quick investigation of the house by Veemon and I revealed that the home wasn't entirely bare. Basic amenities were taken care of, clothing that seemed to fit me just right but wasn't of the highest quality, and even the pantry and fridge were full of food - enough to last two weeks. However, it was only the essentials; Veemon immediately requested some human junk food to snack on, nailing it home. The little guy was curious to try some of it out. I made a note to grab some for him the next time I went out. The month's mortgage and utilities were due by the end of April, based on a few letters I'd found - and I made a mental reminder that I needed some way to set up a revenue stream for myself if I didn't want to lose my utilities and have debt collectors sniffing about the place.
When we finished checking the house over, I slumped against a wall - Veemon hopping onto a couch to watch some television. It seemed like the day's events were starting to catch up with me.
"I'm calling it early, Veemon," I said, trying not to sound too strained as I headed to the bedroom I would be sleeping in for the foreseeable future. Entering the adjoining bathroom, I stopped and stared at the mirror. My olive skin had grown incredibly dark beneath my eyes, evidence of the stress I'd been dealing with these last few years. My hair, a deep, dark, curly mess of brown, that I had let become dry and knotted in the time I'd dedicated to my studies.
No longer.
I spent a good hour focusing on my hygiene, and while my eyes were still rimmed in darkness, I was hopeful that I had taken the correct steps to better myself.
As I lay in bed, huddled under the covers - I closed my eyes and finally let myself go. Like Evan's passing, I kept that strong front until I was alone and in a safe place. The stresses of the crazy day I'd just had came back tenfold, and I wept. I wept for the baby that had its life cut short in the crash. I wept for the other passengers, who had been just as scared and hurting as I had been. I wept for my sister, whom I wouldn't likely be seeing again soon. I wept for my mother and father; yes, they had kept me under their thumb and pushed unbearable expectations - but I could tell they had done it out of love, out of wanting me to live a better life than they had led. I wept because somehow, out of everyone on that bus, I had been picked by Celestial Menagerie to do something. I honestly wasn't sure. I was in an unknown situation, in a world I barely knew anything about, and honestly - that's what scared me the most.
As I wept, I never noticed that the television in the living room had gone quiet. I never heard the door opening and closing in my distress. I never felt the bed bend as Veemon climbed up onto it. It wasn't until I felt his hands stroking my hair and back, offering silent reassurance to me, that I even realized someone had entered the room.
I went to say something but was cut off as my accumulating charge was depleted.
I'd gotten another summon and power. My new summon, called a Nagahide Welwa Ravager, solved the issue of not having a creature large enough to ride for Vehicle Summoning. It was green and scaled, with four red eyes and green ears that reminded me of goblin ears. It also came equipped with its saddle. Other than that, it attacked much like a big cat would and didn't seem to have any apparent special abilities.
I kept it and focused on the new power I had received.
Non-lethal was precisely what you would think it would be. At will, I could determine if my summons' attacks were lethal or non-lethal. From what I remembered, the Digiegg of Courage made Veemon digivolve into Flamedramon - and making it so Flamedramon didn't accidentally roast someone alive considerably eased my worries.
Veemon's question, "Are you feeling better?" cut me off from my reflection on the new summon and power I had.
I glanced over at him, realizing I must have looked like a mess. I went to wipe the tears away from my face.
"Yeah, sorry, it's just. Well, I guess I never asked, but do you know the situation that I'm in?" I asked, feeling inordinately stupid that I had just assumed Veemon was aware of the shitstorm that had been my day.
"Well, not really. I mean, I know you're my summoner and that I'm linked to the Celestial Menagerie, but other than that, I haven't a clue," Veemon admitted," so when I came to check up on you and found you cryin', it was a bit surprising. Hadn't realized anything was wrong."
"Yeah, it's just. Well, I'm pretty sure I died this morning, and now I'm in a different world, and the Celestial Menagerie is also around. I guess it all just hit me," I said, strained. Veemon gave me a light but comforting headbutt in reply.
"Hey, chin up, partner. I know things are different now, but you've got a second chance, right? Make the most of it," he said, hopping onto my lap and doing his best to hug me.
I couldn't help but smile at the attempt. I wasn't as alone as I had thought. This was a new world, yes, but things weren't hopeless. Javi rested his head back on his pillow, taking a deep breath before smiling at Veemon.
"Thanks, I think I needed that," I said, receiving a happy grin from Veemon as a response.
"Yeah, no problem! You get some rest; I'll hold the fort down, Javi!" Veemon said with a grin, hopping from my bed and becoming a data stream as he entered the Digi-Vice - which was currently resting on the bedside table. I knew he'd hopped in to take advantage of the likely crazy scanning tech the Digivice offered and relaxed back into the bed.
It'd been a hell of a day, but I was hoping that things would get better for the first time in a bit.
My SI's powerset is the Celestial Menagerie, mostly because I don't have the technical knowhow to keep up with the stuff Lord writes (nor am I confident enough to BS it) and figured this would be a good middle ground.
I'm using this version of the Celestial Menagerie for those curious to want to know. Unsure if there are any more recently updated, I just kinda picked the first link I found on Google.
My point build up is 1000 words for 100 points. I'm keeping track of two separate pools of points, one for Powers and one for Summons.
For those curious, by the time I get to the first actual pull of the chapter I was like at 3k words, and thus was able to afford the 200 point Summon I pulled. Menagerie said I started with 100 free points so there's that.
Just wanted to say it in case some of you got snippety.
Anyways, I'm still very new to writing so let me know how it goes please. Leave me some feedback and let me know if I should keep writing more. If you want to read more of my work I'm on Fanfiction as well as Targetedandfiring. This story will likely be crossposted. Haven't updated on there in a few months because - honestly, - I kinda of hit a depressive rut and my mind blanks out when I try to write anything.
ANYWAY: Here's what you came for.
Chapter 1
I had always done my best.As the first generation of my family born in the U.S., there was always an unspoken expectation placed on my shoulders from a young age. I was the future, the reason for my dad's long hours butchering animals in freezing conditions. I was the reason my mom worked tirelessly to maintain the home—to feed and clothe me.
I wanted desperately to make my family proud. As much as I longed to explore the outdoors and connect with nature, the need to prove my worth to them was more vital. While other kids ran and played, I stayed inside with my books. As my love for nature grew with every wildlife documentary I watched, I was turned away from it, forced to keep my head down and follow my parents' wishes. My grades were impressive; soon enough, they were steering me toward becoming a doctor or engineer. My teachers said I'd be great at it. My parents approved, so I convinced myself that had to be my path.
I did my best to earn their approval. To show them their efforts weren't being wasted.
In junior high, I was programming Lego robots to perform complicated tasks, competing in tournaments against other schools. But I quickly realized I was only good at programming, not building the robots themselves. I just didn't have the creativity. So, I stuck to what I could handle.
In high school, I drowned myself in Advanced Placement classes, taking as many as possible to boost my GPA. I knew it would look good on my transcript. And yet, while I kept yearning for nature, the people around me kept telling me I would be an engineer. My parents wanted it; my friends were going that way, so that's where I decided I had to go, right?
But while everyone else was quick to direct my life, no one noticed how much stress I was under. The coursework, along with the extracurriculars my parents chose for me—it all piled up. I woke up at five, and school consumed my entire day. Sometimes, I wouldn't get home until eight at night, and I'd still have hours of homework ahead of me.
Sure, I graduated as valedictorian, but because of all the praise I received, I had few life skills and an inflated ego. So, what came next shouldn't have surprised anyone who was paying attention.
I flunked out of my engineering program.
Having never taken physics, combined with mounting depression from struggling through programming languages I couldn't grasp and the sudden loss of one of the few friends who still kept in contact with me, my grades began to slip. Exhaustion weighed on me, and it was clear I'd need at least two more years of hardware-based classes—if I could ever pass physics. Ha, that was a prospect that seemed more and more unlikely by the day.
As it turned out, I wasn't as bright as everyone made me out to be. That lie only held up in my small town. I chose a big-name school, isolated myself from my friends—all of whom had gone to a university much closer to home—and began to spiral.
"Am I the odd one out?" I'd joked at the time. But it hurt. They'd all gotten into the same school. I was the valedictorian; I could've gone too. Had they excluded me on purpose? Was there some secret meeting where they had gathered and said, "Hey, Javi? Yeah, no, let's not tell him we're going to the closer school, and he should apply there, too."
I kept asking myself those questions. I felt alone. Worthless. A monumental failure.
Those thoughts ran through my head as I sat on the Bay Area Transit bus, the rumble of the wheels the only thing keeping me awake. I was at my wit's end. The student debt kept growing. My parents were disappointed, scowling, telling me to hurry up and get my degree, just like my sister already had.
My sister. I used to think she spent too much time pursuing frivolous things and not enough time studying. But she was two years younger than me and already had a Bachelor's Degree. She was even preparing for medical school. When I tried to open up to her about my struggles, she wasn't any help.
"Dude, you're just not trying hard enough," she'd said, "college has been great for me so far, and if I can do it, I don't know why you're having so many problems."
Right. Of course, Isabella couldn't see what I was dealing with. She hadn't dealt with Mom and Dad's expectations. While she went to sleepovers and watched movies with friends, I was at home, writing the final draft of my latest essay.
Is this what my life had amounted to? I was bitter and alone on a bus because I'd bought into the lie my parents and teachers had pushed on me my whole life. I looked out the window, watching the sun sparkle on the ocean, admiring the looming hills and cliffs where birds nested. A familiar yearning built inside me, the same one I'd tried to bury for years. It felt too late now to pursue that path. What would people say? What would my parents say? "Four years, and you want to change your major?!" Yeah, that would go over well—
My thoughts cut off when something slammed into the bus from behind.
Screeching tires and metal grinding against metal filled my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
Whatever hit us was moving fast, slamming with enough force to throw me from my seat. A woman a few rows back screamed as the bus swerved violently.
I struggled to regain my balance as we plowed through the highway railing.
Then, we were falling.
Vertigo hit me as the bus rolled. Up became down, left became right, and all I could do was flail, desperate to grab hold of something—anything.
Screams echoed around me, adding to the confusion. The world was chaos. Metal crashed against rock as the bus tumbled down the cliffside.
A baby wailed, but the sound was swallowed by the noise, cutting off abruptly.
Then, the bus hit the ocean.
Momentum threw me forward again, and my head slammed into the metal siding. I felt something snap. But I barely had time to register the pain before freezing ocean water poured in, engulfing me in an icy embrace. The water pinned me down, resisting my struggles like the chains I'd that shackled me for years. It was the last thing I could feel—the cold, the weight, the helplessness.
As darkness closed in, a bitter thought crossed my mind: My carefully constructed life—one I had never wanted—was destroyed by a random accident.
The illusion of control was gone.
Suddenly, it wasn't cold anymore.
I didn't feel heavy.
I didn't hurt all over.
It was strange. I was sure I had died just a moment ago. I could remember it clearly. The breaking of bones, my lungs filling with cold seawater, the screams around me.
Had we been saved?
It didn't seem likely. The bus had been sinking fast, battered against the cliffside.
A dark part of me felt annoyed that I might've been saved from the unexpected but early grave. What now? Months of recovery, only to return to the stress of school and impossible expectations?
I tried to push those thoughts away. This floating sensation was the lightest I'd felt in a long time, and I wanted to enjoy it. I expected to wake up in a hospital bed, but when I opened my eyes, a stunning sight greeted me.
The planet.
All around me was the void of space, distant stars twinkling in the distance. When I focused on one of those gleaming motes of light, I felt myself moving impossibly fast toward it. I saw worlds after worlds, some similar to Earth, others completely alien. Yet I knew, somehow, that each one was teeming with life.
So, this was the afterlife.
As far as afterlives went, it wasn't bad. The vastness of the cosmos reignited a flame in me that everyone had tried to extinguish. That love of nature that had been taken from me, that fascination with life.
I smiled. This sight wasn't the pearly gates, but I hadn't expected to end up there. My parents were "devout" Catholics, but only in the sense that they showed up for the big days of prayer. At least they'd let me keep my agnostic beliefs.
As I floated there, something changed.
I suddenly felt tiny, insignificant in scope to what I saw laid out before me.
Then, I saw it.
Two creatures of indescribable size and horror melded together before a third, even more terrifying creature joined them. I watched in stunned silence as a massive chunk of the third being broke away, falling straight toward me.
"Santo Dios," I whispered as a tendril from the thing reached out to me.
Connection Established.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]
[TRAJECTORY]
[AGREEMENT]
And then the connection formed, and I knew. I knew what I was in front of. How, I wasn't sure. But this...this was a Shard. And not just any Shard—this one called itself the Celestial Menagerie.
The Shard spoke to me.
[GREETINGS]
Wait, what?
[GREETINGS]
Okay… Hello?
[DESIGNATION: CELESTIAL MENAGERIE]
[QUERY: DESIGNATION?]
It took me a moment to respond. The Shard had introduced itself and now wanted to know my name. On top of that, it had already fed me information on what kind of power it was offering. The Celestial Menagerie was a summoner-based power. I'd gain energy periodically, and in return, I could summon a randomly determined creature to follow my commands. It had its limits; I would only be able to summon a creature one in a twenty-four-hour timespan. I could also only have ten active summons at once.
It was a lot to take in, but I had to answer.
"My name is Javier Morales, but you can call me Javi," I said.
[DESIGNATION SET: JAVI]
When the Shard didn't reply, I decided to break the silence.
"Hey, Celestial Menagerie? I'm not sure if you're aware of the situation here, but I recently died. Can you help me out?" I asked, feeling more than a little desperate.
[ANSWER: DIMENSIONALLY DISPLACED SOUL]
[SOLUTION: SOUL REPLACEMENT?]
"Uh, yeah, no thanks. Possessing someone isn't really on my to-do list. Is there any way you could just grab my old body, fix it up, and then shift me to wherever you need me? Maybe include proof that I'm actually from the dimension you drop me in?" I suggested, hoping for a better solution.
[PROCESSING]
[PROCESSING]
[PROCESSING]
[AGREEMENT]
"Oh, that's great! Thanks so much—" I barely got the words out before my feet hit solid ground. Gone was that endless void. Instead, I awoke on a bus, shaken awake by a driver who looked like he'd had enough of me.
"Come on, man. We're at the last stop," he grumbled, not in the mood.
I blinked a few times, trying to shake off the grogginess as I got up and stumbled toward the exit. The first thing that greeted me outside was a sign confirming that what I had experienced wasn't some fever dream.
Brockton Bay Transportation Center.
"Hey, Menagerie? You sure this is where I'm supposed to be?" I muttered.
[AGREEMENT]
Of course. Not only had I just died, but now I'd been dumped in Worm—a world I only knew from fanfiction at best. Fantastic.
Let's just hope the tropes here don't get me killed again.
[SUMMON GRANTED]
[DIGI-EGG OF COURAGE]
[SUMMON GRANTED]
[VEEMON]
[SELECT THEME]
Alright, here we go. I took a moment to sort through what I'd just been handed, a mental library opening up when I focused. It appeared I'd gotten a free summon, specifically, a Digi-Egg of Courage. Since I didn't already have a Digimon, they'd given me a Veemon to go along with it.
Considering I was in Worm, it could have been a lot worse. If my memory of the old Digimon anime was correct, Veemon was an incredibly valuable pull. It could Armor Digivolve with multiple eggs and had some solid baseline Digivolutions, too.
On top of that, I'd received a Digivice.
Which, considering the current situation, was an absolute godsend.
But first, I had to pick a theme.
There were a lot of good options, but in the end, I went with Lightning. It would help my summons repel metallic weapons. Given the number of guns and knives likely floating around in this city, it was a solid defensive choice. I would take anything to boost my chances of not getting stabbed.
Getting my bearings, I made my way to the nearest bathroom. Thankfully, the transportation hub in Brockton Bay had one. Unfortunately, somebody hadn't cleaned it in a few months. Still, privacy was privacy.
I locked the door behind me and double-checked the stalls to ensure they were empty. Once I was sure I was alone, I reached for Veemon and my Digivice to summon them.
It happened instantly. The Digivice appeared in my hand, white with blue and yellow accents.
Veemon followed right after.
He was smaller than I remembered from the anime but still just as familiar. He probably looked a little bigger since his size was being compared to young teens in the anime. The little Rookie looked up at me with a grin.
"Hey, partner! Looks like we'll be working together from now on. Name's Veemon. Best Rookie around! Need me for anything?" he asked, looking way more chipper than I expected for someone—or something—that had just been summoned.
Still, I didn't have a reason not to match his energy.
"Nice to meet you, Veemon. I'm Javier Morales, your new partner, I guess? Heads up, though—his city is dangerous. Like, really dangerous. It's probably best to stay in the Digivice while we're out in public. Don't come out unless I'm down, we're somewhere private, or I ask for your help. That cool?" I said, watching his reaction.
Veemon's grin faded as he got serious, nodding sharply.
"Got it, partner. While in the Digivice, I'll keep our digital footprint small. Don't want any bad guys tracking us down with viruses or hacking," he added, catching me off guard.
I couldn't help but grin. Veemon wasn't just a fighter—he could keep an eye on the digital front. I hadn't even considered that.
"Good thinking. Thanks!" I replied, holding up the Digivice and watching as Veemon dissolved into strands of code and data, vanishing into the device.
"No worries. I can still talk to you from inside here; just hold the Digivice to your ear so it looks natural," Veemon said, his face popping up on a little screen that showed him chilling on some grass in a digital landscape. I nodded and started poking around the Digivice's other features. It looked more like a smartphone than the old-school versions from the anime, with everything Digivice-related built into the software. It could make calls, store contacts, and even act as a GPS.
In other words, I had a phone with the capabilities of a Digivice. While it was certainly advanced-looking for a phone of this time, as the date at the top of the screen helpfully provided, it also meant that I could carry it around with it only looking like a newer model of iPhone instead of the mess that would have been a more traditional Digivice.
"Veemon, I've got to ask. Are you able to stop people from tracking my calls?" I asked.
"Encryption? No sweat. I'm also pretty good at hacking and gathering intel. Heck, if you're in a pickle and can't afford to expose me, I can even give you buffs, too," Veemon replied cheerfully, causing my eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"Oh, for sure. It won't be a crazy buff, mind you. You'll move a little faster, hit a little harder, and be able to take one heck of a beating, but it has its limits. Just keep that in mind, alright?" Veemon replied.
Huh, that reminded me of how the Digivice from Data Squad worked and likely explained how the Tamers from previous seasons could take such a beating from Digimon and come out of it looking spiffy.
"If I got hurt, would you be able to heal me?" I had to ask. The pull I received was starting to seem like an awesome first pull.
"Sure, but I must be in the Digivice to heal you, so watch yourself, partner. And healing isn't the best, either. I can fix up broken bones and scrapes. Don't think I can do much if you lose an arm though," Veemon replied, causing me to nod thoughtfully.
"Right, thanks for that, Veemon. I'll be careful," I promised, putting the screen to sleep while I stored away my phone and checked my pockets. The Menagerie Shard said it would help me in this new world. In the worst case, I'd need to have Veemon hack some government server and fake an ID for myself.
Thankfully, I still had my wired earbuds, wallet, and some car keys in my pocket. Considering I didn't own a car, I would take that win.
"Alright, let's see what I've got in here," I thought, moving over to the wallet. There were some bills, enough to get me through the week if I needed to buy some groceries. It'd have to do. There was also a valid driver's license with an address I didn't recognize and, thankfully, a picture of my face.
"Veemon, I've got an address here. Do you think you can lead me to it?" I asked, trusting that Digivice's wide array of sensor tools would be enough to read the address.
"On it, partner!" Veemon replied. I decided to plug in the earbuds, so I didn't have to pull my phone out. It was new, and the last thing I wanted was to draw attention to myself while walking through a bad part of town. If fanfiction had told me anything, it would have been the entire city.
The only parts of the city I remember with any detail were that Taylor Hebert's dad worked at the docks, and Nazis controlled that downtown.
Any future ruminations were caught off as Menagerie provided me with a notice.
I felt a pool of the charge I had built up slip away as I became aware of what the Menagerie had granted me.
The first was my new summon—a Tinder. No, not the dating app, although I'd have to check to see if that existed yet on Earth-Bet. It can never be said that I wasn't one to try and profit from the successes of another universe.
According to the information I'd received, the Tinder was a Mars-aligned Djinn. And it was pretty intense for the cost. It had a unique active effect so long as Tinder could still be summoned for the day. It gave me a passive bonus to the damage I could take and even gave me a small amount of Psyenergy. Psyenergy was a type of psychic-based Ki that let me cast elemental spells. While I didn't know any elemental spells, I knew I had to learn now that I had Psyenergy.
While the passive bonuses were great, and boy, was I still trying to work through the fact that I was some type of psionic magic caster now, the active summoning effect made the Tinder great.
After summoning, it would rush to the nearest ally and revive them. The rules for this seemed a bit limiting, but it was understandable for the creature's energy cost. It defined an ally as someone I had just been fighting against another threat. As a result, if I show up to a fight and my ally is dead, I can't use Tinder to revive them. However, death wasn't the only condition required for healing. It was any downed ally, so if an ally were poisoned or hit their head and knocked unconscious, the TInder would still be able to work its magic.
Dammit, I was going to be careful about how I used the Tinder. Once the cat was out of the bag that I could bring back the dead, everyone and their mother would be trying to recruit me. That was not the scenario I wanted to occur.
Moving away from the TInder, I looked at my other prize. A power called Vehicle Summoning. It was a niche power, allowing me to summon a creature as a vehicle I instinctively knew how to drive. I can only do this with one creature at a time, and, honestly, it didn't seem worth the effort for the moment as the vehicle size correlated directly with the original size of the creature. Still, it could have some uses later on.
Taking a breath to compose myself, I focused on Veemon's directions and stepped out of the bathroom.
"I'm going to check to see if my car keys match any of the parked cars in the parking lot," I said, keeping my voice low as I pressed the alarm key several times. By some luck, there was a match. The car that greeted me was a blue 2010 Kia Soul. It wouldn't be my preference for a vehicle to be seen driving, but it was better than none.
I quickly got in and closed the door behind me. I gave the interior a look. It was alright; the car was in good condition. After entering and twisting the key, I was relieved to hear the engine start-up. The car had some miles on it, 50,000 to be exact. It was not ideal, but I'd manage. I wasn't about to start an argument with my Shard at a time like now, especially since the car was in good condition.
"Alright, Veemon, I've got a car. Let's get us home now," I said, letting Veemon guide me through the streets of Brockton Bay.
It was pretty stressful driving around, especially considering I'd died not even an hour previously. Or maybe it was correct to say thirteen years from now? This wibbly wobbly timey wimey time stuff could get confusing, and I wasn't about to think too hard about it.
I was also paying extra attention to the streets as I drove. Brockton Bay was a broken city. I'd heard horror stories of towns where you don't stop at red lights in the evenings - and the more populated parts of the town seemed to match up with that idealogy. Combined with what I knew of capes and the gangs, I was half expecting traffic to come to a sudden standstill due to the sudden appearance of an enraged Lung.
Yeah, this new life is starting great.
"Is there any traffic on the police comms, Veemon?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the road but curious about the happenings in Brockton Bay.
"A bit. Everything's being handled just fine, though, or it's too far for us to get to in time to make a difference. The police would beat us to the crime scene," Veemon replied.
I clenched the steering wheel a bit tighter at those words. I wasn't angry at Veemon's way of thinking. He had a point, one that was valid and needed to be taken into consideration. Despite having powers, I was not ready to go off and be a hero. Acting like one would have to wait until I was sure I had something to wear.
Thankfully, Veemon didn't pick up any strange activity as he led us to the address. The property was at the edge of the city, bordered by the slight stretch of woodland separating Brockton Bay from what I had to assume was Captain's Hill. The home was small but on an incline that gave me hope it wouldn't all go to hell when Leviathan came to town in about a month and a half.
My attention slipped away as I felt another summon and power become available.
The Voice was different than my previous two summons. It was a type of magical tarot card. With it came a staff, or perhaps it would be best to call it a long wand - a magician's wand. One of those black rods with white tips old school magicians used to wave around before pulling a rabbit out of their hat.
Well, this wand had a magical charge, and I could expend those charges to summon the actual forms of the tarot cards. Right now, my magical charge was strong enough to summon only one of the tarot cards, but the charge could increase based on the number of magical tarot cards I had. I was sure this meant these tarot cards were limited not by the 24-hour summoning condition but by my magical power, if that's the case. It was impossible to test for the moment, but I'd start to look into it if I got more of these Tarot cards.
Anyway, let's go back to what The Voice could do. Putting it simply, it could steal the voices of people - rendering them permanently mute for her summon duration and mimic the voices she had stolen. This seemed strong. Didn't that Shatterbird lady in the Slaughterhouse-Nine need to be singing to benefit from her power? And there were many voice-based powers I could think of in Worm that this seemed relevant against. The Voice was also pretty strong against non-capes - stealing a person's voice so they wouldn't be able to scream for help or alert other members of the gang seemed like a great tool to have during infiltration missions.
That said, the more significant boon was the power I'd received. Rejection. It allowed me to keep my charge if I didn't like what the Menagerie had given me. I'd miss out on a summon and power until the following alert rolled by, but it'd help store up charge for stronger summons.
Parking the Kia into the garage, I stepped out and closed the garage door. I invited Veemon to step out and explore the home with me. It was small but made up for it by having a larger backyard surrounded by a thick hedge and some pine trees near the back of the property, providing a ton of privacy. It was likely the Menagerie had picked this home so that I wouldn't have to fear the neighbors seeing something they weren't supposed to, but I don't think I was ever planning on summoning anything too big here.
A quick investigation of the house by Veemon and I revealed that the home wasn't entirely bare. Basic amenities were taken care of, clothing that seemed to fit me just right but wasn't of the highest quality, and even the pantry and fridge were full of food - enough to last two weeks. However, it was only the essentials; Veemon immediately requested some human junk food to snack on, nailing it home. The little guy was curious to try some of it out. I made a note to grab some for him the next time I went out. The month's mortgage and utilities were due by the end of April, based on a few letters I'd found - and I made a mental reminder that I needed some way to set up a revenue stream for myself if I didn't want to lose my utilities and have debt collectors sniffing about the place.
When we finished checking the house over, I slumped against a wall - Veemon hopping onto a couch to watch some television. It seemed like the day's events were starting to catch up with me.
"I'm calling it early, Veemon," I said, trying not to sound too strained as I headed to the bedroom I would be sleeping in for the foreseeable future. Entering the adjoining bathroom, I stopped and stared at the mirror. My olive skin had grown incredibly dark beneath my eyes, evidence of the stress I'd been dealing with these last few years. My hair, a deep, dark, curly mess of brown, that I had let become dry and knotted in the time I'd dedicated to my studies.
No longer.
I spent a good hour focusing on my hygiene, and while my eyes were still rimmed in darkness, I was hopeful that I had taken the correct steps to better myself.
As I lay in bed, huddled under the covers - I closed my eyes and finally let myself go. Like Evan's passing, I kept that strong front until I was alone and in a safe place. The stresses of the crazy day I'd just had came back tenfold, and I wept. I wept for the baby that had its life cut short in the crash. I wept for the other passengers, who had been just as scared and hurting as I had been. I wept for my sister, whom I wouldn't likely be seeing again soon. I wept for my mother and father; yes, they had kept me under their thumb and pushed unbearable expectations - but I could tell they had done it out of love, out of wanting me to live a better life than they had led. I wept because somehow, out of everyone on that bus, I had been picked by Celestial Menagerie to do something. I honestly wasn't sure. I was in an unknown situation, in a world I barely knew anything about, and honestly - that's what scared me the most.
As I wept, I never noticed that the television in the living room had gone quiet. I never heard the door opening and closing in my distress. I never felt the bed bend as Veemon climbed up onto it. It wasn't until I felt his hands stroking my hair and back, offering silent reassurance to me, that I even realized someone had entered the room.
I went to say something but was cut off as my accumulating charge was depleted.
I'd gotten another summon and power. My new summon, called a Nagahide Welwa Ravager, solved the issue of not having a creature large enough to ride for Vehicle Summoning. It was green and scaled, with four red eyes and green ears that reminded me of goblin ears. It also came equipped with its saddle. Other than that, it attacked much like a big cat would and didn't seem to have any apparent special abilities.
I kept it and focused on the new power I had received.
Non-lethal was precisely what you would think it would be. At will, I could determine if my summons' attacks were lethal or non-lethal. From what I remembered, the Digiegg of Courage made Veemon digivolve into Flamedramon - and making it so Flamedramon didn't accidentally roast someone alive considerably eased my worries.
Veemon's question, "Are you feeling better?" cut me off from my reflection on the new summon and power I had.
I glanced over at him, realizing I must have looked like a mess. I went to wipe the tears away from my face.
"Yeah, sorry, it's just. Well, I guess I never asked, but do you know the situation that I'm in?" I asked, feeling inordinately stupid that I had just assumed Veemon was aware of the shitstorm that had been my day.
"Well, not really. I mean, I know you're my summoner and that I'm linked to the Celestial Menagerie, but other than that, I haven't a clue," Veemon admitted," so when I came to check up on you and found you cryin', it was a bit surprising. Hadn't realized anything was wrong."
"Yeah, it's just. Well, I'm pretty sure I died this morning, and now I'm in a different world, and the Celestial Menagerie is also around. I guess it all just hit me," I said, strained. Veemon gave me a light but comforting headbutt in reply.
"Hey, chin up, partner. I know things are different now, but you've got a second chance, right? Make the most of it," he said, hopping onto my lap and doing his best to hug me.
I couldn't help but smile at the attempt. I wasn't as alone as I had thought. This was a new world, yes, but things weren't hopeless. Javi rested his head back on his pillow, taking a deep breath before smiling at Veemon.
"Thanks, I think I needed that," I said, receiving a happy grin from Veemon as a response.
"Yeah, no problem! You get some rest; I'll hold the fort down, Javi!" Veemon said with a grin, hopping from my bed and becoming a data stream as he entered the Digi-Vice - which was currently resting on the bedside table. I knew he'd hopped in to take advantage of the likely crazy scanning tech the Digivice offered and relaxed back into the bed.
It'd been a hell of a day, but I was hoping that things would get better for the first time in a bit.
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Chapter 2 - Scrapheap Training
Chapter 2
Here's the next chapter. I used 1500 words for 100 points instead to see how it went.
I ended the last chapter with roughly 500 words, so the first roll of this chapter happens at 1000.
Also, a Guest Reviewer wanted to know how old Javi was. In case it wasn't clear, he was in his 4th year of University before his death. So that's usually 22, the age I'm going with for this story. He didn't get aged down when he was placed on Earth Bet. His Shard fixed his old body and threw it into Worm with his soul along for the ride.
Also, one last thing. Every 10,000 words, I'll be rolling for a free Mundane Animal. I shamelessly stole this from Brockton's Zoo of Myth and Legend, which mentions it in the original quest, but my chapters aren't 1000 words, so…HERE WE ARE! Every 10k, we roll for a free Mundane animal.
Waking up in a strange bed inside a strange home was offputting. As my eyes opened, I couldn't help but reflect on yesterday's happenings. For starters, I encountered a horrible and watery end. My soul had left this mortal coil behind. My candle had gone out - okay, that's enough morbid references to my death.
Instead of going wherever my spirit was supposed to go, some extra-dimensional entity saw fit to gift me the Celestial Menagerie - before kicking me into Worm. Rude. At least it'd restored my body, given me an okay ride and a home, so I wasn't immediately on the streets.
I even pulled a few cool Summons.
My first pull from the Menagerie had resulted in a Digi-Egg of Courage and a powerful partner in Veemon. It was good that the Digi-Egg of Courage had been given first because I had no idea how to Digivolve Veemon normally. In the Tamers anime, Digmon needed to gather enough data from the Digmon they defeated in battle. I also couldn't discount that there might have been some "Power of Friendship" shenanigans involved - as the first digivolutions always seem to come when the Tamers were in most danger. That Digi-Egg of Courage let me avoid that and jump straight to Flamedramon.
The anime could have clarified whether Armor Digivolution meant the Rookie was in its Champion or Ultimate state, but I suspected it was closer to Ultimate than the former. At the least, I was sure Flamedramon was on par with weaker Ultimate level Digimon.
I should consult with Veemon about this; he might have more clarity on how strong the Veemon line of Digimon was.
As I reviewed the information on the Tinder I received, I couldn't help but do a double-take. I must have been out of it yesterday because I'd misinterpreted how to use it entirely.
My nerves and stress had messed with my understanding of what I had pulled. I had been incorrect about needing Tinder to be able to be summoned to benefit from its effects. No, I still had to summon it like the rest of my summons. Once the Tinder had been summoned, I could let it fuse with my body - placing it in a ready state. While it was fused, I was just that bit harder to kill and benefited from having a small pool of Psyenergy that recharged every minute. Nothing had changed there.
No, I hadn't realized that the TInder could go from ready to unleashed. The unleashed state was the reviving effect on an ally, healing them from death into a perfect, healthy state.
I had previously thought that once I'd used up my Tinder's unleashed state, I'd need to wait 24 hours to summon it again. No, this little Djinn was more substantial than I had first figured. Instead of becoming unsummonable, Tinder would go into a waiting state. In this state, I lost access to the passive benefits Tinder granted me and would have to wait until after I'd left a battle to set it back to its original ready state.
Or, I could use the power of the waiting Tinder to summon Mars. Not the planet. Mars was a Summon Spirit. A Summon Spirit that manifested itself as the most beautiful of art, a vast reaching fiery explosion! Wow, was I glad I had Non-Lethal, as I was pretty sure this would be able to kill someone.
After using the Summon Spirit, my Tinder would go into recovery mode. Tinder would spend the next minute restoring the energy it burned before automatically returning to the ready state. This meant multiple revives; a fight was more than doable, which raised the value of Tinder from a good summon to freaking fantastic.
I could only hope the Menagerie saw fit to grace me with more Djinns, as it was heavily implied that the more Djinns summons I had, the more powerful Summon Spirits I could take advantage of. So long as they were from the exact alignment, that is.
I quickly looked over the Welwa I had received, hoping that I missed something with it as well, before determining that no - it was just a weird warg, goblin, and lion hybrid. I could ride around on one, but Veemon would be able to take it down without my assistance. I was reasonably sure its scaled hide wasn't even bulletproof.
At least the image in my head looked cool.
As I debated starting the day, the rising sun crept up and shined through the blinds. It was indeed morning now. I should get up and figure out how to establish myself and survive.
The world outside was dangerous, filled with parahumans, gang violence, and constant threats - whether from the authorities discovering my identity or other, less respectable groups. From the fanfictions I'd read, Cauldron was at the top of the list of people I did not want to fuck with. Second, at this time, was Coil. He had eyes and ears everywhere, and unless the Menagerie had given me some way to avoid Thinker powers -
[AFFIRMATIVE]
What?
[THINKER IMMUNITY: ON]
And you only tell me this now?! For some reason, I got the vaguest sense that my Shard was embarrassed - at least as much as possible for a giant multi-dimensional creature that acted more like a computer than a living being.
Still, this was good. Because of this, I was safe from a lot of threats. The city already has annoying Thinkers like Tattletale and Coil.
Any further thoughts on the pair were halted as I felt a summons get selected and my charge ready to slip away to provide them to me. Looking over the results, I wasn't too impressed with what I had gotten this time.
A Tripod was a small robot that could scale walls and shoot lightning bolts. Rejection made me picky; however, the creature was weak compared to my current lineup. The only benefit it provided me was as a scout, along with the ability to attack from awkward angles. Yeah, no, there had to be better options, and saving up my points seemed like the correct way to go.
The power I had pulled was one called Controlled Reproduction. It let my summons reproduce so long as they were compatible, with the resulting offspring having a more substantial growth rate than their parents.
I did not have any compatible summons, and it felt weird just to tell Veemon to get it on with another Digmon. Maybe I just didn't want to tarnish my childhood memories like that. Yeah, that was probably it.
I summarily rejected both and returned to my daily dose of morning reflections.
From the fanfictions I'd read, Contessa was the scariest thinker around - practically letting her power puppet her around to scary amounts of effectiveness. The last thing I wanted was her showing up out of the blue and offing me for messing up some Cauldron scheme I wasn't aware of.
After her, the biggest Thinker threat in the city was Coil. His large information network, well-armed mercenaries, and crazy-effective ability to run two different simulations of reality and pick the better outcome let him essentially pick the best outcome for himself —every time.
Finally, there was Tattletale. Without this Thinker immunity, she'd realize I wasn't from this world exceptionally quickly. Hell, even with Thinker immunity, I was sure it wouldn't be enough for her to get some basic information from me.
The strange feeling of guilt from my Shard confirmed it for me. Yeah, if Tattletale's powers could work on an Endbringer even partially - like how she had pointed out the location of an Endbringer core in some of the fanfiction I'd read - I'm not surprised she could read me, even if only partially.
Speaking of Endbringers, was the Thinker Immunity able to hide me from precogs as well? The Simurgh was the one I was scared about, but if Coil got his hands on Dinah, then dealing with him would be a lot more difficult.
The reassurance from my Shard let me let out a sigh of relief. Considering Scion hadn't obliterated me on first arriving at Earth-Bet, I had to assume that I was blind to him for now, at least until I took direct action against them. Good to know.
My sigh of relief must have caught the attention of the only summon I had out and about. Veemon was still good until later in the day when the summon duration would cut off, and I'd get to summon him again. Thus, he'd kept a watch during the night, but I only had to wonder if and when he'd managed to sleep.
Did he even need any? Veemon's voice cut off my ruminations through the Digivice speakers.
"Yo partner, up and at them. You can't just laze about all day," Veemon commented as he emerged from the Digivice in a stream of data, hopping up onto the bed casually despite his short stature.
"What do you mean?" I couldn't help but ask," We're pretty well stocked on supplies. The last thing I want to do is go out to fight crime when it risks getting mugged by the ABB or caught by a member of the E88. Pretty sure they wouldn't approve of someone with my skin color walking through their turf Veemon."
"Well, yeah, that would be bad. But if you're stuck here, you must understand how the Celestial Menagerie works, right? Like, come on, you've got the summons and the powers. Don't you think we should figure out what you can do with them?" Veemon pointed out, making an excellent point.
"So training then, huh?" I asked, giving it a thought. That made sense. With the Digivice, I was essentially a very minor Brute, but it was probably best to figure out how much damage I could take. Then, I needed to see how strong Veemon was compared to his strength as a Flamedramon. I also needed to test out some of the benefits that the TInder provided me.
"Exactly," Veemon replied, pumping his fists excitedly. Besides, I need to stretch my legs, partner. C'mon, let's head somewhere quiet and see what you can do."
I couldn't help but smile at Veemon's enthusiasm. I grinned and nodded. Veemon was right; I couldn't just stick around all day and hope nothing bad happened. This was Worm; I needed to be proactive if I wanted to maximize my survivability.
"Alright, first things first, then. Veemon, I want you to hop back in the Digivice and gather some intel for me while I shower and get us some breakfast ready. I want to know every major faction in this city, where their territory stretches, and the capes they have available," I said, getting Veemon to grin excitedly and nod.
"On it!" he said as he turned back into data and disappeared into the Digivice while I prepared for the day.
I quickly took care of my morning restroom routine, feeling much refreshed after my shower from the night before. Picking up the Digivice, I placed it in my pocket and headed to the kitchen—deciding to make a large batch of sliced potatoes, spicy chorizo, and an egg. Once everything was ready, I put all my ingredients into two large breakfast burritos, adding some fresh taco cheese and a few diced peppers before I finished rolling up the burritos.
Letting the burritos cool just a bit since they were still so hot, I quickly brewed up some coffee, drinking it with just a little bit of vanilla cream so it wasn't scalding on my tongue before pulling the Digivice out.
"Alright, Veemon, let's see what you have for me. Hurry on out of there; I also made a burrito for you. Eat it up before it gets cold," I said, turning my attention to the notes that Veemon had pulled up for me. He'd given me a list of the notable groups and their capes. Capes, I'd need to watch for this upcoming outing.
First up were the town's independent heroes. New Wave was just as fanfiction had described them. Capes without any secret identities. The consequence of a very failed movement to increase cape accountability. Fluer's death was a lot more recent than I would have thought, occurring in 2007, a mere four years prior. Looking at the details of her case, it looked like her killer hadn't been tried as an adult and was already free. I quickly annotated on my phone for Veemon to track down the now adult - Chris Schwarz. I'd read that fanfiction was hit or miss on whether Kaiser had dealt with him for breaking The Unwritten Rules and attacking a cape in their civilian identity. I wanted to look into whether anything had been done to him. If he had been accepted into the gang, that might be information I could leverage to get on New Wave's good side, assuming they didn't know already.
While their patrol routes were not publicized on their website, they were well known. They tended to stick to patroling downtown, by the southern end of town. That's good to know. While I was only planning to go out today for some training, I didn't want to deal with bumping into the local heroes just yet.
If I were discovered, it would be by one of their flyers. Lady Photon, Laserdream, Shielder, or Glory Girl. Hopefully, I was approached by anyone besides Glory Girl. Victoria Dallon was, according to quite a few fanfiction I'd read, a person of wreckless personality who preferred to throw hands instead of asking questions.
Any further ruminations were held off as I noticed a new connection with the Menagerie. One was Experiment 214, an alien experiment creature adept at taking terrible pictures of people. Yeah, this one is getting rejected.
I was surprised to receive nothing for my power pool. Instead, it seemed like the charge for my powers had grown in size. This might let me pull a better power on my next Menagerie pull.
Still, I was slightly annoyed at having to pass up Experiment 214. If I were going for a more cartoony rogue hero, it would make sense to keep it, but I needed something with substance right now. As incredible as having Experiments from Lilo and Stitch were, I didn't remember many of them being particularly strong. That weakness to water that most of them had meant they were pretty useless when Leviathan also came to town.
Focusing on the report that Veemon had given me, I moved on from New Wave. It didn't look like I would likely run into them so long as I avoided the south side of town.
The Azn Bad Boys, or the ABB, was an Asian gang controlling most of the Docks. They were unique in that Lung tended to press-gang all Asian teens into the gang, using fear to prevent discourse between the different ethnicities within the gang. This was not a Japanese gang, not a Chinese gang, not a Korean gang. This was an Asian gang.
Lung was famous, although there barely seemed to be anything written about his fight with Leviathan. I suspected this wasn't an oversight by Veemon, who had gone to such lengths to include information from a Wiki Article on Lung's notable feats. While it mentioned he fought against Leviathan alongside the other defenders of Kyushu, there wasn't much else available about that confrontation, which is strange. I added an annotation that we should look into that fight more. All the fanfiction had made it seem like Lung had ramped up to a level where it was just him and Leviathan fighting.
Lung had controlled the ABB alongside his lackey, Oni Lee. According to this, he could teleport and leave behind duplicates with some autonomy, although they had concise life spans. There wasn't much information about him besides that he was regarded as a sociopath and extremely dangerous. His duplicates had made good use of his grenades for suicide runs with horrible results. It's best to stay away from him for the moment. Especially if he was carrying Bakuda bombs, as I suspected he was now.
There was a pitying amount of information on Bakuda—just rumors and gossip about the ABB having a new Tinker. There wasn't even a name to go around. I made a note for Veemon to look up any university bombings that might have occurred in New York within the last couple of months. I didn't expect to get much out of any special reports Veemon might find about the incident, but I mainly hoped to verify what fanfiction had told me about Bakuda's origins.
As I took a break from reading my report, I couldn't help but look at Veemon, who was panting slightly as he tried his best to finish the burrito.
"Can't take the heat," I asked, taking a sip of coffee as Veemon scowled at me and took a chomp out of his burrito in defiance. He swallowed it quickly, almost without chewing.
"Nah, I got this," he said, with a bravado that didn't match his words.
"Are you sure? I could get you some milk," I suggested, moving to stand up. Vemmon hesitated before giving a dismissive nod.
"Well, since you're up already, I don't see why not," he replied. I couldn't help but laugh as I served him a cup of cold milk. He scarfed most of it down quickly, saving about half the glass before continuing his mission to finish my admittedly hotter-than-I-had-intended burrito.
The Empire-88 was a mess of capes to keep track of. There was Kaiser, who was in charge of the gang. His lieutenants Hookwolf and Krieg, and then eleven other Parahumans. All were active in Brockton Bay. The gang controlled the wealthier parts of town, downtown, and the Towers. I don't think it was a coincidence that New Wave preferred to patrol the area then. Notably, Veemon had included Purity in their numbers - although the latest information had her making solo strikes against the ABB. Interesting. Could I suborn her if possible? Fanfiction tended to make her seem like a sympathetic character, only acting in the self-interest of her child. However, she was also very likely a Nazi, and if she was trying to go hero, she was making it hard for anyone to believe her when she kept attacking Asians. She was better off running to a different city, asking for witness protection from her husband, and rebranding herself rather than staying in Brockton. I included a few notes about what I knew and then moved on.
The next group I looked into was Faultline's Crew. They'd recently made headlines for their defeat of Chevalier and Myrddin. An impressive feat, along with the money from that job, was likely how they could afford to set up a nightclub in Brockton Bay. Information that I had to annotate. I figured they'd steer clear of me so long as I didn't approach them to join. They had some code about not performing jobs in the city, and I planned to be active in it. It was quite a bit of a conflict of interest that they probably wouldn't want me on the team.
Surprisingly, the Merchants were a rising power in the city. Fanfictions would have you believe they were well entrenched in the parts of town no one cared about. However, they had gone from having no capes to being led by capes in a few months. Capes were often the deciding factor in a gang's success. There were plenty of minor gangs that weren't even mentioned in the city because they were without any capes and, therefore, couldn't contend with the more prominent gangs like the E88 or ABB. For how often Skidmark was perceived as a druggie in the fics I'd read, he at least knew how to grow and sell his product. As distasteful as it was.
The Undersiders were mentioned as a low-tier gang of thieves operating from within the docks. I corrected Veemon's assumption of them, adding annotations about how they were working under Coil - although only Tattletatle knew about that, considering she'd been forced to join them. Their heist likely drew attention from Coil's other, more covert operations with his mercenaries. In a few days, the ABB would gather under Lung to hunt them down, and the events of Worm would kick off in earnest.
Uber and Leet were, as described in fanfiction, goofy gamer villains who sometimes went too far for views on their streams.
Then came the local government heroes. The Protector ENE consisted of Armsmaster, Assault, Battery, Dauntless, Miss Militia, and Velocity. Their Wards team consisted of Aegis, Browbeat, Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, Shadowstalker, Triumph, and Vista. I double-checked the list but didn't see any names I didn't recognize.
After finishing the last part of the reading and my coffee, I got to wash up the dishes.
"Thanks for the intel, Veemon. Based on what I know of this world, I made some annotations for you to check out later. Catch up on them later; I'm eager to head out," I said. Veemon smiled and nodded.
"It's about time, partner. I thought we'd be cooped up in here all day. Let's get moving!" Veemon said, eager to head off. I couldn't help but laugh at his exuberance. As we headed into the garage, a crazy idea struck me.
Well, this is training. Why not?
Focusing on my Nagahide Welwa Ravager, I summoned it in its vehicle configuration after confirming that the corresponding vehicle wouldn't take over the whole garage. Instead of some goblin lion creature, I found a sleek motorcycle waiting for me. Knowledge about the bike and how to drive it flooded my system.
What sat before me in the garage was a 2009 YAMAHA V Star 950. It was kitted out with saddlebags for my equipment that, when opened up, had a valid Driver's License to drive the bike, a proper Registration, and even Insurance. To top it off, some deep green, almost black, riding leathers were available in one of the saddlebags. I quickly put those on while inspecting the rest of the bike and grinning at the novelty license plate with the words 'RAVAGER' instead of a proper license plate number. The paint job was a mix of matching deep green, almost black to match my leathers, accented by chrome inlays. In the right light, the green nearly looked scaled.
As I snapped on the generously provided helmet, I tensed in anticipation as the Menagerie went to give me a new summon.
And was happily surprised by the result. The summon I had gotten was versatile and could heal and blend in. When push came to shove, she wasn't helpless - able to throw down the gauntlet and battle with the best of them.
Her name was Kijyo Koyo, and she was a Servant.
I'll be honest: the category of summons she came from was confusing. Things like Noble Phantasms and Magic Circuits were mentioned upon her arrival. I spent a good few minutes just trying to understand. Veemon, thankfully, didn't interrupt - probably having realized what was happening.
After contemplating, I decided to keep my newest summon, forking over all my accumulating charge in exchange.
The power I received was also a keeper. Accelerate Gains did just as it implied, providing an incremental boost to my charge build-up.
With a sigh of disappointment, I unstrapped my full face-covering helmet and placed it back on the bike. I needed to process the implications of this new summon. If I understood correctly, she had once been a Kojyo oni - precisely the one in the tale of the "Momijigari," that her soul had been copied and turned into a Heroic Spirit upon her death. Despite her status as a demon, her deeds in life - precisely her actions against the Imperial Court and her kindness to the innocents - had led to her worshiping - a condition required to become a Heroic Spirit. However, there was a slight problem. She was a Berserker-Class Servant. To manifest in the modern world, a Servant needed to take on the characteristics of a Class, and for some reason - Koyo, who by all accounts was a gentle soul in life, took on the characteristics of the Berserker Class, despite being an oni of sweet, kind, and compassionate disposition. She was also an oni. They were creatures of violence and mischief in folklore, the boogeymen in traditional Japanese folklore.
I shouldn't have been surprised that she'd gravitate to the Berserker class, which lets her turn into a 'dragon.' I say dragon, but in reality, her Berserker class increased her toughness and strength, and that 'dragon' she could turn into was really based on an ancient dinosaur skeleton she'd seen as a child.
It was still really cool, and as of right now - I'd have to say she was my strongest summon. Stronger than even Flamedramon. Enhanced strength, durability, the ability to drop freaking lighting from the sky, and she was a healer as well - her healing powers strong enough to heal wounds of the flesh and detoxify the body if I understood what my Shard was transmitting to me.
I was only grasping my new summon when I got another one.
A ratfish.
I was going to reject it out of hand, but noticed that my charge hadn't decreased. Was this a free summon? Well, okay then, I'd take it. I waited to see if I'd get free power, but a chiding sensation from my Shard told me I was pushing my luck in that department.
With a shrug, I turned my attention back to Koyo. She was such a complex summon that I needed to assess what else my Shard mentioned I could do with her. For instance, I was tempted to perform a ritual that would remove her from the constraints of the Menagerie. I would get a Command Spell with a single charge, and she would recognize me as her Master. There was just one issue with this. While I would benefit from the free summon slot opening, she'd get much more autonomy not being bound to the Menagerie. As her Master, she wouldn't be able to turn on me, but she would also be a lot less constrained about holding back her vices. Considering she was oni from feudal Japan, I suspected anyone who disrespected her would be meeting a painful and gruesome end.
In the end, I decided that was a risk I couldn't take. Better to have her as a summon and use my Non-Lethal on all her attacks than let her off the Menagerie's chain - where she might be inclined to start up some violence and eat a Nazi or three. That didn't sound so bad.
I couldn't help but snort in amusement from my joke, placing an earbud in my ear as I got on the bike.
"Thought I'd lost you there for a moment, partner. What was up with that?" Veemon said as I opened the garage door and rolled the bike onto the driveway. Thankfully, it was facing away from the road, a fact only now occurring to me as I revved the engine on the bike. Bless be my Shard, the home wasn't impressive, but they seemed to understand that privacy was best with a power like the Menagerie.
"Yeah, got a new summon. It's pretty complicated. I had to process a lot there. If I go into that funk while driving, please knock me out of it, would you?" I asked as I pulled away onto the street and let myself fall into my newly developed instincts.
Driving a motorcycle was more freeing than I thought. The Welwa and I seemed to become one. Make no mistake, while it was physically a vehicle - I could tell that more was going on beneath the surface. It felt more like I was mounted on a living beast, not an engine but the pumping legs of a sizeable feline-type creature beneath me. The roar of the engine was the roar of a Welwa.
Soon, I'd merged onto the highway and took it north to the northern end of town.
Veemon gave me directions as we drove along at a decent pace. Gone was the hesitation that came with trying to keep my balance on a skateboard. I rode the bike with an ease and confidence I never would have had in my old life.
Driving into the docks, evidence of gang signs became more clear. This location was under ABB control, and gang tags were everywhere. The streets here were nearly empty, and people were rushing to get to wherever they were heading, heads down and shoulders hunched whenever they passed anyone wearing gang colors.
"Veemon, see if you can hack into the camera systems around here. Guide me around any ABB patrols; the last thing I need is them getting any ideas," I said, receiving a quick affirmation from Veemon in response. Our course shifted slightly; I had to make a few more turns, but we eventually pulled into the more run-down parts of the docks.
Less and less ABB patrols had to be skirted around, and soon, we had reached our destination. The Boat Graveyard was aptly named. A giant collection of boats had rusted up and run ashore over the years, forming a natural maze of rusted metal.
With Veemon's help, we navigated to a clearing in the rust, well out of sight of any prying eyes. I slowed down and parked the Welwa at the edge of the clearing before glancing around. A few rusty piles littered it, but otherwise, it would do to test out my summons.
"This should do the trick," Veemon said, emerging from the Digivice in a swirl of blue data. I nodded along and went to take off my helmet but was stopped by Veemon.
"Hold it, partner," Veemon said," This is a cape activity we're doing. Keep the helmet and your leather on; it should do as a costume for now."
"Huh, yeah, I guess you're right," I said with a chuckle, trying to scratch my head in embarrassment, only to realize it was impossible with the helmet's hard protection in the way.
"Well, I wonder if I can somehow…" focusing on my Vehicle Summoning power, I willed my Welwa to shift back into its natural state but still left me my protective leathers and helmet. I was surprised it worked with the Welwa, which quickly transitioned into its natural state. I first noticed that I had underestimated its size and body shape. It was well-muscled, and its body shape was more bearlike than a big cat's. Despite looking aggressive, it let me pet its scaled hide quickly enough.
The Welwa lacked the saddle and riding equipment it usually came with, probably because I was wearing them.
I'm cut off from any further analysis by a connection to the Menagerie forming. My power tries to latch on to an enormous 5-headed Snake, but my lack of charge makes it impossible. It quickly slithers away into the Menagerie.
I do, however, manage to grab ahold of a power. Adaptive Immunity is precisely the type of power that I'd need to give myself and the rest of my summons additional staying power. No way am I rejecting this. It's well worth losing some charge for such a fantastic power.
From now on, whenever one of my summons is killed, I and the rest of my other summons gain immunity to the specific damage that did my summon in for the next 24 hours.
While the power was great, it did mean I needed to build up my summon pool, so I had some that were expendable - as of right now, there weren't very many of my summons that I felt could be tossed in to grant the rest of us immunity - besides the ratfish.
Turning my attention back to the Welwa, which I was still petting on the head, I decided to give it some orders.
"Alright, let's see what you can do; attack some of the stacks of scrap around here. Go all out," I said, and the creature lumbered into action. I noticed that it was a lot slower in this form than in its vehicle form, but it had respectable attack power. Its claws were tearing through rusted metal sheets, barreling through stacks of scrap bigger than itself without any issues.
After a few minutes of watching it, I nodded and called it back. I'd seen enough. In terms of fighting capabilities, it could probably beat a brown bear up quickly enough, and any regular person was screwed. The scales also meant he was resilient enough to take some attacks; not even charging through glass and scrap had left a scratch on it. He was an excellent bruiser, but until I received a proper costume, I was better off keeping him in the back line as my main form of transportation and personal protection.
Alright, Veemon, you and I will be next.
The little blue Digimon grinned, bouncing on his toes in excitement.
"Alright them, let's spar!" he cried.
What followed was a beat down from Veemon. His fighting style was that of a mixed martial artist, and he was deceptively fast and agile. He was easily able to use my height and bulk advantage against me, darting between my legs and slamming into my back to trip me up. Or just plain out charging me in the gut with his VeeHeadbutt, which was all kinds of painful. Ultimately, I couldn't help but be left gasping after the beatdown he gave me. Bruised and beaten, but surpringly not broken.
"Is the reason I'm still conscious related to having a Digivice?" I asked, gasping as I hobbled to my feet. Nothing was broken, but I would definitely be feeling this in the morning.
"Eh, you gave it your best shot, Javi," Veemon said, not even looking winded, as he bounced up to my side," don't worry, I'll show you some of my moves so you can keep up next time. Although, I'm unsure how to toughen up your skull so you can deliver a VeeHeadbutt."
I nodded appreciatively, wincing at the idea of toughening up my skull. Hopefully, Veemon's training plans wouldn't go too overboard.
Thinking now was as good a time as any, I summoned the Tinder inside of myself, immediately feeling a sense of warmth envelop me. My bruises ached a little less, and I could feel the expansion of my mind as a new energy built up within me. Not that I was suddenly smarter, but I garnered this was the new mote of psychic potential Tinder granted me.
It fed me ideas, too, on how to use this newfound energy. Tinder fed me information on how to use this new Psyenergy. Many of the Mars-aligned spells it granted me were what you would expect from a fire-based Djinni. Fire Blasts, Bombs, and even Lava Spouts - albeit weak- were all within my repertoire. With my Non-Lethal effect, I could even guarantee these - quite lethal albeit weak- spells wouldn't kill anyone. I even had some defuffing spells and even out-of-combat utility spells that I could use.
Unfortunately, without more Psyenergy, the stronger versions of these spells would have been locked away. At most, I could cast one spell before waiting a minute for my Psyenergy to recharge. Still, it gave me some options to use in combat besides relying entirely on my Summons.
"Okay, Vemeon, let's get you to Armor Digivolve," I said, summoning the Digi-Egg of Courage. It was small, and it was just right in my hand. In the show, they would say something to activate them, and the Menagerie helpfully provided what I needed to get this egg to work.
Pointing the egg in Veemon's direction, I spoke out clearly.
"Digi-Armor, Energize!"
The egg became a glowing mote of energy and data within my hand, heating up at a rate I was surprised didn't get me burned before it shot into the eagerly awaiting Veemon. It encircled him, and Veemon began to glow.
There was no cool background music as Veemon Digivoved into Flamedramon. His body became enveloped in a torrent of burning flames before he emerged.
He stood shoulder to shoulder with me, with a large gleaming horn on his head. The flames of the Digi-Egg of Courage had coalesced into a helmet and armor around his body. From his armored greaves emerged three blade-like claws.
"I am Flamedramon, the Flame of Courage," he said proudly, voice more profound and grown up from his cutesy voice as a Rookie. He smirked, recognizing the impressed expression I must have been wearing.
"You grew up so fast, partner," I smirked in response, causing Flamedramon to let out a pleasant snort.
"This form is only temporary. At any point, I can remove the Digi-Armor; it might mean you won't be able to use the Digi-Egg of Courage again for the day," Flamedramon explained, and I nodded as I quickly confirmed the information.
"What to stay as Flamedramon for the rest of the day then?" I asked, receiving a nod in response.
"In this form, I am more powerful. While in the Digivice, I should serve as greater protection for you," Flamedramon explained.
"Got it, in that case. Let's see what you can do," I grinned, pointing to a nearby tower of scrap.
"Right!" Flamedramon nodded," Behold, the Flames of Courage! Fire Rocket!"
Flamedramon planted his feet on the ground. With a roar, he launched himself into the air, flames erupting around his body as he flew over the scrap tower and across the clearing like a missile before turning in a sharp arc to slam into the base of the debris, the resulting explosion sending dust and shards of metal flying in all directions. I had to rush to take shelter behind the Welwa, only standing after I was sure I wasn't about to get run through by stray metal or glass.
"Nice one!" I called, jumping out of cover," Got anything more precise?"
"Sure thing. Watch this. Flame Fist!" Flamedramon replied. Flamedramon focused, charging his fist with searing fire before punching forward, a concentrated burst of flames shooting out. The blast hit a rusted boat hull dead-on, bending it backward before it toppled with a loud clang.
I couldn't help but whistle," Alright, Flamedramon, that was legit."
"I told you. I've got some serious firepower now,' Flamedramon stated as he walked over," just imagine what we'll be able to do as you grow in power and unlock more summons."
I couldn't help but nod in reply, feeling a sense of confidence I hadn't felt since arriving in this city. This power - Flamedramon, the Tinder, the Welwa, and even Koyo - they were my lifeline here. The more I trained, the more summons I received, and the greater my chances of surviving in a city like Brockton Bay.
"Okay," I said, clenching my fist. Let's keep going, then. I need to know exactly what all my summons can do if we're going to survive in this place."
"That's the right attitude to have. Let's meet the newest summon then," Flamedramon suggested, and I nodded. I began reaching out to Kojyo Koyo.
A large, horned Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared in the clearing. Her face was littered with battle scars, and a short white eboshi sat between her horns. Long streams of black hair rippled from beneath her hat, framing her large lizard face. On her back hung a beautiful white and red kimono, and from her horns hung several ceremonial prayer beads.
Upon her appearance, Flamedramon took a step back, not out of fear. He was the Flame of Courage. No, he was more surprised than anything else.
"I did not think the Menagerie could grant such a strange Dark Tyrannomon to you," Flamedramon said quietly, assessing the new summon with a critical gaze.
That wasn't all the Menagerie wanted to grant me as the familiar sensation of a connection forming filled my senses.
The Menagerie had just tried to grant me a Noble Phantasm as a summon called Duria Antiquior. It would have allowed me to summon Jurassic lifeforms to aid me in battle. Specifically, a Plesiosaur, Ichthyosaur, Dimorphodon, Ammonite, Belemnit, oh, and a little Cocker Spaniel named Tray, to fight with me.
That sounded ridiculous, and while cool, it would have been a Summon I'd have Rejected had I had the charge to accept it. Instead, the connection to it slipped away.
The power I got was a lot more critical. Resource Network formed a network between myself and my summons - letting us share physical, mental, or mystical resources with any other member of the network. Yeah, okay, now we were talking. This is the type of power that I needed. As the center of the network, I could cast Koyo's magic, gain the agility and strength of Flamedraon, or have my Welwa gain those benefits instead. That Psyenergy pool that TInder gave me? I could give it to Flamedramon. With Koyo's monstrous durability and strength, I was a high-tier Brute.
Speaking of Koyo
She seemed to be assessing Flamedramon, the Welwa, and me. Her gaze almost softened as she looked at me. Then, her form shifted. I noticed that Flamedramon relaxed as she did so, turning from a large Tyranosaurid to a tall and beautiful woman of Noble bearing.
As she approached, I felt…concern emanating from her, and she seemed to be motioning to my scruffy appearance. I was about to wonder why she wasn't speaking when I remembered something. Her Mad Enhancement robbed her of her voice, leaving only her sharp mind and gentle disposition behind.
"Are you worried for me?" I asked, confused. She nodded and hurried over, pointing to my scruffed clothing and a bruise beginning to develop on my hand from one of Veemon's stomps.
"Oh, it's just a training injury. I should be fine," I tried to dissuade her worries. The pout she gave me suggested that she wasn't amused.
"You want to help?" I asked, and she eagerly nodded, a smile returning to her face. She seemed to chant words neither Flamedramon nor I could hear, and I immediately began to feel refreshed, my bruises disappearing and my stamina returning.
"Oh wow, I feel like I could go another few rounds, Flamedramon," I said with a grin, looking at my sparring partner.
He snorted and shook his head.
"I appreciate your tenacity, Javi, but as a Dragon Digmon, I'm obligated to go-" That was as far as Flamedramon got as Koyo glomped him.
I couldn't help but laugh at his predicament, watching as Koyo easily manhandled him. Considering I'd had trouble even keeping up with Flamedramon when he was a Veemon, it was an impressive feat. Flamedramon was also conscientious of his claws - doing his best not to tear at Koyo's kimono. I didn't have the heart to tell him he'd fly through the moon sooner than scratch her.
Koyo herself seemed adoring as she hugged Flamedramon. Her beast form had been based on her idolization of dragons, so perhaps this was her adoration just manifesting.
"Koyo, please let him up. We're here to train, not play," I said, earning myself a pout as the oni-woman stood to her feet.
"If you please, Koyo, a demonstration of your power in this environment," I asked. She nodded with a happy smile. A sinister look quickly came over her eyes as she morphed back into her Dragon form and began stomping around the stacks of scrap and discarded boats. The earth shook with her every step, and she used all aspects of her body. Her tail to slam, her feet to stomp and deliver vicious kicks, her head to bludgeon, gore, and tear. Even the tiny Tyrannosaur arms were more versatile than expected, growing into muscled long limbs to deliver punishing punches. All this while moving faster than I was sure a Tyrannosaurus could move. These weren't rageful attacks either; somehow, she had developed a martial art dedicated to fighting as a dinosaur.
Halfway through her impromptu demonstration, she shifted into her human form, manifesting golden shackles and a three-pronged sword. Her sword delivered flaming slashes, while with her shackles, she bonded up and threw large pieces of the boats around us. It was clear from the ease with which she managed this that it wasn't close to the weight limit of things she could lift.
Finally, she stopped and developed a distasteful expression. Her body shifted into her Oni form, and a spiked bone tail emerged behind her. Her legs had become scaled-clawed feet, and two horns jutted from her forehead. Her attacks became more vicious in this form, her sword slashing and reverberating with cracks of lighting and searing fire. Her movements became swifter, and she was moving so fast that I struggled to keep up with her.
Then, the world around us shifted. We were no longer standing in the Boat Graveyard; instead, we were surrounded by an Autumn Forest consisting of Maple Trees, their leaves a collage of browns, reds, and oranges.
Flamedramon tensed beside me and looked around.
"Javi, what is happening?" he asked.
"It's her Noble Phantasm," I replied, transfixed as I looked around us. Koyo had disappeared, nowhere to be seen, until the wind blew, and she charged through a curtain of autumn leaves - back in her Dragon form.
Her attacks were focused on a huge yacht, her blows vicious and unrelenting.
A voice filled our minds, stretching out all around.
The drizzling rain hastens the maple leaf viewing.
Koyo delivered a final bite to the yacht, teleporting behind it and dropping a lightning bolt from the sky in her Oni form.
The loneliness of a quiet autumn evening.
She slashed with her sword through the yacht, an eruption of fire blooming behind her as she passed.
The ferocity of a midnight storm.
A trio of lightning bolts fell from the heavens.
May the dream never end.
Koyo slashed through again, leaving another fire explosion behind in her wake.
May you never wake from your dream...
The last slash seemed to intensify the gale of maple leaves swirling around us. They sharpened and tore through what was left of the yacht, exploding outwards in a maelstrom before settling on the scrap and rust around us.
Finding ourselves out of the maple forest, I couldn't help but watch in stunned stupefaction as the old rusty yacht no longer seemed to exist. Evidence of existence was present. The depression in the ground where it had sat these last few years was evidence that it had existed. On closer inspection, it seemed the heavenly lightning that Koyo had dropped down had gone so far as to incinerate even the ashes of the yacht left behind entirely.
Koyo was watching me, a sense of pride emanating from her at the seemingly splendid job she had done. I, however, had other concerns.
We had just made a lot of noise.
There were several thundercracks of noise if my estimation was correct.
In a big city, one patrolled by trigger-happy capes. On a relatively clear day.
"Flamedramon, I need a sit rep on the reactions to this," I said, pulling out my Digivice. I watched Koyo's visibly deflate at the realization her display might have gone a bit overboard. Honestly, it was my fault. I knew her Noble Phantasm, Autumn Leaf Viewing, was powerful. A Noble Phantasm usually, but not always, tended to be the finishing blow that decided battles between Heroic Spirits.
Flamedramon didn't hesitate to enter the Digivice and was already beginning to send over information. His processing speed was breakneck as a Flamedramon, over three times as fast, and he parsed through details at an incredible rate.
Already, there were alerts throughout the city.
According to Flamedramon, the Autumn Forest effect was more wide-ranging than we initially thought. Koyo had covered my entire summoning distance of 500 meters in her Noble Phantasm. That was a six-block radius; unfortunately, we hadn't been as lucky at avoiding being isolated within that effect. Flamedramon was already pointing out that a minor scuffle between a low-end Merchant and ABB patrol members had been halted because of the impact.
Already, information had been sent to ABB and Merchant higher-ups. In fact, Lung was on a call with Oni Lee at this very moment. Yeah, that couldn't be good.
The PRT had tasked Armsmaster, Velocity, and Miss Militia with investigating the incident—along with a squadron of PRT vans. Velocity's arrival was the bigger deal. I likely had two to three minutes before he arrived to leave.
Already, I was heading to the Welwa, turning it back into the Yamaha while inserting the earbud to keep in communication with Flamedramon.
I went to unsommon Koyo and then stopped. She was looking rather confused about the current situation but we didn't really have much time before this place would be swarming in parahumans.
"Koyo, can you shift your clothes into a different style? Your kimono stands out and isn't practical riding wear," I said; when she hesitated to respond, I quickly shot out," Shift your clothes into something similar to what I'm wearing, or I'll unsommon you. Battle likely approaches if we remain and aren't ready to engage anyone."
At that moment, I felt a connection to the Menagerie. First was the new creature, a Nicaraguan Blood Sucking Vine. I summarily rejected it, choosing to save up my points for now.
For my powers, I got two. One was Baby Summoning, which allowed me to summon a baby form of one of my summons. Cute.
The other was Calming Aura, which made me a calming presence to non-sapient beings. I decided to take it. I wasn't sure if it would ever come up, but the charge loss was almost insignificant enough not to bother about letting this power pass me by.
Turning back to Koyo, I saw she had shifted into a set of matching motorcycle leathers with a face-covering helmet. Looking somewhat nervous about her get up.
"It looks good. Now, hop on. We can't stay here much longer," I said, motioning to the back of the bike. She climbed on, looking a bit confused about what to do next.
"Hold on to me, and don't panic; it's just like riding a horse…only faster," I said as I hit the accelerator and tore away, driving into the docks. Koyo had her arms holding my side, and I had to steal away some of Flamedramon's durability to avoid cracking a rib from her tight hold, only returning it when she eased up.
"Velocity's coming in fast on the training ground we were using, thirty seconds from arrival. Oni Lee's phone pinged in North Docks, pathing you towards the Boardwalk district to stay clear of him," Flamedramon stated, giving me a course that moved me through the city while gaining the least attention possible.
On one occasion, the net had closed so tightly that I could see a street over as a PRT van screamed northbound.
Only then did I ease up a bit, driving more naturally.
"It seems like the PRT are engaged in a fight with Oni Lee and ABB forces that were scoping the area," Flamedramon stated," Velocity has discovered tire tracks but is being called to assist in the engagement."
I sighed in relief and briefly looked over my shoulder at Koyo - who seemed to be primarily glancing all around at the rides and shops on the Boardwalk. It was the only decent part of town, which wasn't surprising.
Unfortunately, without any money, there wasn't any hope of splurging on a shopping trip.
"Flamedramon, path us home," I said," and keep abreast of the situation in the Docks. We've got a lot to go over."
Who would have thought a simple training trip could turn out like this?
-
Bonus Points (Free)
Kijyo Koyo (500) (Type-Moon)
Accelerate Gains (200)
Adaptive Immunity (200)
Resource Network (300)
Baby Summoning (Free)
Calming Aura (50)
Here's the next chapter. I used 1500 words for 100 points instead to see how it went.
I ended the last chapter with roughly 500 words, so the first roll of this chapter happens at 1000.
Also, a Guest Reviewer wanted to know how old Javi was. In case it wasn't clear, he was in his 4th year of University before his death. So that's usually 22, the age I'm going with for this story. He didn't get aged down when he was placed on Earth Bet. His Shard fixed his old body and threw it into Worm with his soul along for the ride.
Also, one last thing. Every 10,000 words, I'll be rolling for a free Mundane Animal. I shamelessly stole this from Brockton's Zoo of Myth and Legend, which mentions it in the original quest, but my chapters aren't 1000 words, so…HERE WE ARE! Every 10k, we roll for a free Mundane animal.
Waking up in a strange bed inside a strange home was offputting. As my eyes opened, I couldn't help but reflect on yesterday's happenings. For starters, I encountered a horrible and watery end. My soul had left this mortal coil behind. My candle had gone out - okay, that's enough morbid references to my death.
Instead of going wherever my spirit was supposed to go, some extra-dimensional entity saw fit to gift me the Celestial Menagerie - before kicking me into Worm. Rude. At least it'd restored my body, given me an okay ride and a home, so I wasn't immediately on the streets.
I even pulled a few cool Summons.
My first pull from the Menagerie had resulted in a Digi-Egg of Courage and a powerful partner in Veemon. It was good that the Digi-Egg of Courage had been given first because I had no idea how to Digivolve Veemon normally. In the Tamers anime, Digmon needed to gather enough data from the Digmon they defeated in battle. I also couldn't discount that there might have been some "Power of Friendship" shenanigans involved - as the first digivolutions always seem to come when the Tamers were in most danger. That Digi-Egg of Courage let me avoid that and jump straight to Flamedramon.
The anime could have clarified whether Armor Digivolution meant the Rookie was in its Champion or Ultimate state, but I suspected it was closer to Ultimate than the former. At the least, I was sure Flamedramon was on par with weaker Ultimate level Digimon.
I should consult with Veemon about this; he might have more clarity on how strong the Veemon line of Digimon was.
As I reviewed the information on the Tinder I received, I couldn't help but do a double-take. I must have been out of it yesterday because I'd misinterpreted how to use it entirely.
My nerves and stress had messed with my understanding of what I had pulled. I had been incorrect about needing Tinder to be able to be summoned to benefit from its effects. No, I still had to summon it like the rest of my summons. Once the Tinder had been summoned, I could let it fuse with my body - placing it in a ready state. While it was fused, I was just that bit harder to kill and benefited from having a small pool of Psyenergy that recharged every minute. Nothing had changed there.
No, I hadn't realized that the TInder could go from ready to unleashed. The unleashed state was the reviving effect on an ally, healing them from death into a perfect, healthy state.
I had previously thought that once I'd used up my Tinder's unleashed state, I'd need to wait 24 hours to summon it again. No, this little Djinn was more substantial than I had first figured. Instead of becoming unsummonable, Tinder would go into a waiting state. In this state, I lost access to the passive benefits Tinder granted me and would have to wait until after I'd left a battle to set it back to its original ready state.
Or, I could use the power of the waiting Tinder to summon Mars. Not the planet. Mars was a Summon Spirit. A Summon Spirit that manifested itself as the most beautiful of art, a vast reaching fiery explosion! Wow, was I glad I had Non-Lethal, as I was pretty sure this would be able to kill someone.
After using the Summon Spirit, my Tinder would go into recovery mode. Tinder would spend the next minute restoring the energy it burned before automatically returning to the ready state. This meant multiple revives; a fight was more than doable, which raised the value of Tinder from a good summon to freaking fantastic.
I could only hope the Menagerie saw fit to grace me with more Djinns, as it was heavily implied that the more Djinns summons I had, the more powerful Summon Spirits I could take advantage of. So long as they were from the exact alignment, that is.
I quickly looked over the Welwa I had received, hoping that I missed something with it as well, before determining that no - it was just a weird warg, goblin, and lion hybrid. I could ride around on one, but Veemon would be able to take it down without my assistance. I was reasonably sure its scaled hide wasn't even bulletproof.
At least the image in my head looked cool.
As I debated starting the day, the rising sun crept up and shined through the blinds. It was indeed morning now. I should get up and figure out how to establish myself and survive.
The world outside was dangerous, filled with parahumans, gang violence, and constant threats - whether from the authorities discovering my identity or other, less respectable groups. From the fanfictions I'd read, Cauldron was at the top of the list of people I did not want to fuck with. Second, at this time, was Coil. He had eyes and ears everywhere, and unless the Menagerie had given me some way to avoid Thinker powers -
[AFFIRMATIVE]
What?
[THINKER IMMUNITY: ON]
And you only tell me this now?! For some reason, I got the vaguest sense that my Shard was embarrassed - at least as much as possible for a giant multi-dimensional creature that acted more like a computer than a living being.
Still, this was good. Because of this, I was safe from a lot of threats. The city already has annoying Thinkers like Tattletale and Coil.
Any further thoughts on the pair were halted as I felt a summons get selected and my charge ready to slip away to provide them to me. Looking over the results, I wasn't too impressed with what I had gotten this time.
A Tripod was a small robot that could scale walls and shoot lightning bolts. Rejection made me picky; however, the creature was weak compared to my current lineup. The only benefit it provided me was as a scout, along with the ability to attack from awkward angles. Yeah, no, there had to be better options, and saving up my points seemed like the correct way to go.
The power I had pulled was one called Controlled Reproduction. It let my summons reproduce so long as they were compatible, with the resulting offspring having a more substantial growth rate than their parents.
I did not have any compatible summons, and it felt weird just to tell Veemon to get it on with another Digmon. Maybe I just didn't want to tarnish my childhood memories like that. Yeah, that was probably it.
I summarily rejected both and returned to my daily dose of morning reflections.
From the fanfictions I'd read, Contessa was the scariest thinker around - practically letting her power puppet her around to scary amounts of effectiveness. The last thing I wanted was her showing up out of the blue and offing me for messing up some Cauldron scheme I wasn't aware of.
After her, the biggest Thinker threat in the city was Coil. His large information network, well-armed mercenaries, and crazy-effective ability to run two different simulations of reality and pick the better outcome let him essentially pick the best outcome for himself —every time.
Finally, there was Tattletale. Without this Thinker immunity, she'd realize I wasn't from this world exceptionally quickly. Hell, even with Thinker immunity, I was sure it wouldn't be enough for her to get some basic information from me.
The strange feeling of guilt from my Shard confirmed it for me. Yeah, if Tattletale's powers could work on an Endbringer even partially - like how she had pointed out the location of an Endbringer core in some of the fanfiction I'd read - I'm not surprised she could read me, even if only partially.
Speaking of Endbringers, was the Thinker Immunity able to hide me from precogs as well? The Simurgh was the one I was scared about, but if Coil got his hands on Dinah, then dealing with him would be a lot more difficult.
The reassurance from my Shard let me let out a sigh of relief. Considering Scion hadn't obliterated me on first arriving at Earth-Bet, I had to assume that I was blind to him for now, at least until I took direct action against them. Good to know.
My sigh of relief must have caught the attention of the only summon I had out and about. Veemon was still good until later in the day when the summon duration would cut off, and I'd get to summon him again. Thus, he'd kept a watch during the night, but I only had to wonder if and when he'd managed to sleep.
Did he even need any? Veemon's voice cut off my ruminations through the Digivice speakers.
"Yo partner, up and at them. You can't just laze about all day," Veemon commented as he emerged from the Digivice in a stream of data, hopping up onto the bed casually despite his short stature.
"What do you mean?" I couldn't help but ask," We're pretty well stocked on supplies. The last thing I want to do is go out to fight crime when it risks getting mugged by the ABB or caught by a member of the E88. Pretty sure they wouldn't approve of someone with my skin color walking through their turf Veemon."
"Well, yeah, that would be bad. But if you're stuck here, you must understand how the Celestial Menagerie works, right? Like, come on, you've got the summons and the powers. Don't you think we should figure out what you can do with them?" Veemon pointed out, making an excellent point.
"So training then, huh?" I asked, giving it a thought. That made sense. With the Digivice, I was essentially a very minor Brute, but it was probably best to figure out how much damage I could take. Then, I needed to see how strong Veemon was compared to his strength as a Flamedramon. I also needed to test out some of the benefits that the TInder provided me.
"Exactly," Veemon replied, pumping his fists excitedly. Besides, I need to stretch my legs, partner. C'mon, let's head somewhere quiet and see what you can do."
I couldn't help but smile at Veemon's enthusiasm. I grinned and nodded. Veemon was right; I couldn't just stick around all day and hope nothing bad happened. This was Worm; I needed to be proactive if I wanted to maximize my survivability.
"Alright, first things first, then. Veemon, I want you to hop back in the Digivice and gather some intel for me while I shower and get us some breakfast ready. I want to know every major faction in this city, where their territory stretches, and the capes they have available," I said, getting Veemon to grin excitedly and nod.
"On it!" he said as he turned back into data and disappeared into the Digivice while I prepared for the day.
I quickly took care of my morning restroom routine, feeling much refreshed after my shower from the night before. Picking up the Digivice, I placed it in my pocket and headed to the kitchen—deciding to make a large batch of sliced potatoes, spicy chorizo, and an egg. Once everything was ready, I put all my ingredients into two large breakfast burritos, adding some fresh taco cheese and a few diced peppers before I finished rolling up the burritos.
Letting the burritos cool just a bit since they were still so hot, I quickly brewed up some coffee, drinking it with just a little bit of vanilla cream so it wasn't scalding on my tongue before pulling the Digivice out.
"Alright, Veemon, let's see what you have for me. Hurry on out of there; I also made a burrito for you. Eat it up before it gets cold," I said, turning my attention to the notes that Veemon had pulled up for me. He'd given me a list of the notable groups and their capes. Capes, I'd need to watch for this upcoming outing.
First up were the town's independent heroes. New Wave was just as fanfiction had described them. Capes without any secret identities. The consequence of a very failed movement to increase cape accountability. Fluer's death was a lot more recent than I would have thought, occurring in 2007, a mere four years prior. Looking at the details of her case, it looked like her killer hadn't been tried as an adult and was already free. I quickly annotated on my phone for Veemon to track down the now adult - Chris Schwarz. I'd read that fanfiction was hit or miss on whether Kaiser had dealt with him for breaking The Unwritten Rules and attacking a cape in their civilian identity. I wanted to look into whether anything had been done to him. If he had been accepted into the gang, that might be information I could leverage to get on New Wave's good side, assuming they didn't know already.
While their patrol routes were not publicized on their website, they were well known. They tended to stick to patroling downtown, by the southern end of town. That's good to know. While I was only planning to go out today for some training, I didn't want to deal with bumping into the local heroes just yet.
If I were discovered, it would be by one of their flyers. Lady Photon, Laserdream, Shielder, or Glory Girl. Hopefully, I was approached by anyone besides Glory Girl. Victoria Dallon was, according to quite a few fanfiction I'd read, a person of wreckless personality who preferred to throw hands instead of asking questions.
Any further ruminations were held off as I noticed a new connection with the Menagerie. One was Experiment 214, an alien experiment creature adept at taking terrible pictures of people. Yeah, this one is getting rejected.
I was surprised to receive nothing for my power pool. Instead, it seemed like the charge for my powers had grown in size. This might let me pull a better power on my next Menagerie pull.
Still, I was slightly annoyed at having to pass up Experiment 214. If I were going for a more cartoony rogue hero, it would make sense to keep it, but I needed something with substance right now. As incredible as having Experiments from Lilo and Stitch were, I didn't remember many of them being particularly strong. That weakness to water that most of them had meant they were pretty useless when Leviathan also came to town.
Focusing on the report that Veemon had given me, I moved on from New Wave. It didn't look like I would likely run into them so long as I avoided the south side of town.
The Azn Bad Boys, or the ABB, was an Asian gang controlling most of the Docks. They were unique in that Lung tended to press-gang all Asian teens into the gang, using fear to prevent discourse between the different ethnicities within the gang. This was not a Japanese gang, not a Chinese gang, not a Korean gang. This was an Asian gang.
Lung was famous, although there barely seemed to be anything written about his fight with Leviathan. I suspected this wasn't an oversight by Veemon, who had gone to such lengths to include information from a Wiki Article on Lung's notable feats. While it mentioned he fought against Leviathan alongside the other defenders of Kyushu, there wasn't much else available about that confrontation, which is strange. I added an annotation that we should look into that fight more. All the fanfiction had made it seem like Lung had ramped up to a level where it was just him and Leviathan fighting.
Lung had controlled the ABB alongside his lackey, Oni Lee. According to this, he could teleport and leave behind duplicates with some autonomy, although they had concise life spans. There wasn't much information about him besides that he was regarded as a sociopath and extremely dangerous. His duplicates had made good use of his grenades for suicide runs with horrible results. It's best to stay away from him for the moment. Especially if he was carrying Bakuda bombs, as I suspected he was now.
There was a pitying amount of information on Bakuda—just rumors and gossip about the ABB having a new Tinker. There wasn't even a name to go around. I made a note for Veemon to look up any university bombings that might have occurred in New York within the last couple of months. I didn't expect to get much out of any special reports Veemon might find about the incident, but I mainly hoped to verify what fanfiction had told me about Bakuda's origins.
As I took a break from reading my report, I couldn't help but look at Veemon, who was panting slightly as he tried his best to finish the burrito.
"Can't take the heat," I asked, taking a sip of coffee as Veemon scowled at me and took a chomp out of his burrito in defiance. He swallowed it quickly, almost without chewing.
"Nah, I got this," he said, with a bravado that didn't match his words.
"Are you sure? I could get you some milk," I suggested, moving to stand up. Vemmon hesitated before giving a dismissive nod.
"Well, since you're up already, I don't see why not," he replied. I couldn't help but laugh as I served him a cup of cold milk. He scarfed most of it down quickly, saving about half the glass before continuing his mission to finish my admittedly hotter-than-I-had-intended burrito.
The Empire-88 was a mess of capes to keep track of. There was Kaiser, who was in charge of the gang. His lieutenants Hookwolf and Krieg, and then eleven other Parahumans. All were active in Brockton Bay. The gang controlled the wealthier parts of town, downtown, and the Towers. I don't think it was a coincidence that New Wave preferred to patrol the area then. Notably, Veemon had included Purity in their numbers - although the latest information had her making solo strikes against the ABB. Interesting. Could I suborn her if possible? Fanfiction tended to make her seem like a sympathetic character, only acting in the self-interest of her child. However, she was also very likely a Nazi, and if she was trying to go hero, she was making it hard for anyone to believe her when she kept attacking Asians. She was better off running to a different city, asking for witness protection from her husband, and rebranding herself rather than staying in Brockton. I included a few notes about what I knew and then moved on.
The next group I looked into was Faultline's Crew. They'd recently made headlines for their defeat of Chevalier and Myrddin. An impressive feat, along with the money from that job, was likely how they could afford to set up a nightclub in Brockton Bay. Information that I had to annotate. I figured they'd steer clear of me so long as I didn't approach them to join. They had some code about not performing jobs in the city, and I planned to be active in it. It was quite a bit of a conflict of interest that they probably wouldn't want me on the team.
Surprisingly, the Merchants were a rising power in the city. Fanfictions would have you believe they were well entrenched in the parts of town no one cared about. However, they had gone from having no capes to being led by capes in a few months. Capes were often the deciding factor in a gang's success. There were plenty of minor gangs that weren't even mentioned in the city because they were without any capes and, therefore, couldn't contend with the more prominent gangs like the E88 or ABB. For how often Skidmark was perceived as a druggie in the fics I'd read, he at least knew how to grow and sell his product. As distasteful as it was.
The Undersiders were mentioned as a low-tier gang of thieves operating from within the docks. I corrected Veemon's assumption of them, adding annotations about how they were working under Coil - although only Tattletatle knew about that, considering she'd been forced to join them. Their heist likely drew attention from Coil's other, more covert operations with his mercenaries. In a few days, the ABB would gather under Lung to hunt them down, and the events of Worm would kick off in earnest.
Uber and Leet were, as described in fanfiction, goofy gamer villains who sometimes went too far for views on their streams.
Then came the local government heroes. The Protector ENE consisted of Armsmaster, Assault, Battery, Dauntless, Miss Militia, and Velocity. Their Wards team consisted of Aegis, Browbeat, Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, Shadowstalker, Triumph, and Vista. I double-checked the list but didn't see any names I didn't recognize.
After finishing the last part of the reading and my coffee, I got to wash up the dishes.
"Thanks for the intel, Veemon. Based on what I know of this world, I made some annotations for you to check out later. Catch up on them later; I'm eager to head out," I said. Veemon smiled and nodded.
"It's about time, partner. I thought we'd be cooped up in here all day. Let's get moving!" Veemon said, eager to head off. I couldn't help but laugh at his exuberance. As we headed into the garage, a crazy idea struck me.
Well, this is training. Why not?
Focusing on my Nagahide Welwa Ravager, I summoned it in its vehicle configuration after confirming that the corresponding vehicle wouldn't take over the whole garage. Instead of some goblin lion creature, I found a sleek motorcycle waiting for me. Knowledge about the bike and how to drive it flooded my system.
What sat before me in the garage was a 2009 YAMAHA V Star 950. It was kitted out with saddlebags for my equipment that, when opened up, had a valid Driver's License to drive the bike, a proper Registration, and even Insurance. To top it off, some deep green, almost black, riding leathers were available in one of the saddlebags. I quickly put those on while inspecting the rest of the bike and grinning at the novelty license plate with the words 'RAVAGER' instead of a proper license plate number. The paint job was a mix of matching deep green, almost black to match my leathers, accented by chrome inlays. In the right light, the green nearly looked scaled.
As I snapped on the generously provided helmet, I tensed in anticipation as the Menagerie went to give me a new summon.
And was happily surprised by the result. The summon I had gotten was versatile and could heal and blend in. When push came to shove, she wasn't helpless - able to throw down the gauntlet and battle with the best of them.
Her name was Kijyo Koyo, and she was a Servant.
I'll be honest: the category of summons she came from was confusing. Things like Noble Phantasms and Magic Circuits were mentioned upon her arrival. I spent a good few minutes just trying to understand. Veemon, thankfully, didn't interrupt - probably having realized what was happening.
After contemplating, I decided to keep my newest summon, forking over all my accumulating charge in exchange.
The power I received was also a keeper. Accelerate Gains did just as it implied, providing an incremental boost to my charge build-up.
With a sigh of disappointment, I unstrapped my full face-covering helmet and placed it back on the bike. I needed to process the implications of this new summon. If I understood correctly, she had once been a Kojyo oni - precisely the one in the tale of the "Momijigari," that her soul had been copied and turned into a Heroic Spirit upon her death. Despite her status as a demon, her deeds in life - precisely her actions against the Imperial Court and her kindness to the innocents - had led to her worshiping - a condition required to become a Heroic Spirit. However, there was a slight problem. She was a Berserker-Class Servant. To manifest in the modern world, a Servant needed to take on the characteristics of a Class, and for some reason - Koyo, who by all accounts was a gentle soul in life, took on the characteristics of the Berserker Class, despite being an oni of sweet, kind, and compassionate disposition. She was also an oni. They were creatures of violence and mischief in folklore, the boogeymen in traditional Japanese folklore.
I shouldn't have been surprised that she'd gravitate to the Berserker class, which lets her turn into a 'dragon.' I say dragon, but in reality, her Berserker class increased her toughness and strength, and that 'dragon' she could turn into was really based on an ancient dinosaur skeleton she'd seen as a child.
It was still really cool, and as of right now - I'd have to say she was my strongest summon. Stronger than even Flamedramon. Enhanced strength, durability, the ability to drop freaking lighting from the sky, and she was a healer as well - her healing powers strong enough to heal wounds of the flesh and detoxify the body if I understood what my Shard was transmitting to me.
I was only grasping my new summon when I got another one.
A ratfish.
I was going to reject it out of hand, but noticed that my charge hadn't decreased. Was this a free summon? Well, okay then, I'd take it. I waited to see if I'd get free power, but a chiding sensation from my Shard told me I was pushing my luck in that department.
With a shrug, I turned my attention back to Koyo. She was such a complex summon that I needed to assess what else my Shard mentioned I could do with her. For instance, I was tempted to perform a ritual that would remove her from the constraints of the Menagerie. I would get a Command Spell with a single charge, and she would recognize me as her Master. There was just one issue with this. While I would benefit from the free summon slot opening, she'd get much more autonomy not being bound to the Menagerie. As her Master, she wouldn't be able to turn on me, but she would also be a lot less constrained about holding back her vices. Considering she was oni from feudal Japan, I suspected anyone who disrespected her would be meeting a painful and gruesome end.
In the end, I decided that was a risk I couldn't take. Better to have her as a summon and use my Non-Lethal on all her attacks than let her off the Menagerie's chain - where she might be inclined to start up some violence and eat a Nazi or three. That didn't sound so bad.
I couldn't help but snort in amusement from my joke, placing an earbud in my ear as I got on the bike.
"Thought I'd lost you there for a moment, partner. What was up with that?" Veemon said as I opened the garage door and rolled the bike onto the driveway. Thankfully, it was facing away from the road, a fact only now occurring to me as I revved the engine on the bike. Bless be my Shard, the home wasn't impressive, but they seemed to understand that privacy was best with a power like the Menagerie.
"Yeah, got a new summon. It's pretty complicated. I had to process a lot there. If I go into that funk while driving, please knock me out of it, would you?" I asked as I pulled away onto the street and let myself fall into my newly developed instincts.
Driving a motorcycle was more freeing than I thought. The Welwa and I seemed to become one. Make no mistake, while it was physically a vehicle - I could tell that more was going on beneath the surface. It felt more like I was mounted on a living beast, not an engine but the pumping legs of a sizeable feline-type creature beneath me. The roar of the engine was the roar of a Welwa.
Soon, I'd merged onto the highway and took it north to the northern end of town.
Veemon gave me directions as we drove along at a decent pace. Gone was the hesitation that came with trying to keep my balance on a skateboard. I rode the bike with an ease and confidence I never would have had in my old life.
Driving into the docks, evidence of gang signs became more clear. This location was under ABB control, and gang tags were everywhere. The streets here were nearly empty, and people were rushing to get to wherever they were heading, heads down and shoulders hunched whenever they passed anyone wearing gang colors.
"Veemon, see if you can hack into the camera systems around here. Guide me around any ABB patrols; the last thing I need is them getting any ideas," I said, receiving a quick affirmation from Veemon in response. Our course shifted slightly; I had to make a few more turns, but we eventually pulled into the more run-down parts of the docks.
Less and less ABB patrols had to be skirted around, and soon, we had reached our destination. The Boat Graveyard was aptly named. A giant collection of boats had rusted up and run ashore over the years, forming a natural maze of rusted metal.
With Veemon's help, we navigated to a clearing in the rust, well out of sight of any prying eyes. I slowed down and parked the Welwa at the edge of the clearing before glancing around. A few rusty piles littered it, but otherwise, it would do to test out my summons.
"This should do the trick," Veemon said, emerging from the Digivice in a swirl of blue data. I nodded along and went to take off my helmet but was stopped by Veemon.
"Hold it, partner," Veemon said," This is a cape activity we're doing. Keep the helmet and your leather on; it should do as a costume for now."
"Huh, yeah, I guess you're right," I said with a chuckle, trying to scratch my head in embarrassment, only to realize it was impossible with the helmet's hard protection in the way.
"Well, I wonder if I can somehow…" focusing on my Vehicle Summoning power, I willed my Welwa to shift back into its natural state but still left me my protective leathers and helmet. I was surprised it worked with the Welwa, which quickly transitioned into its natural state. I first noticed that I had underestimated its size and body shape. It was well-muscled, and its body shape was more bearlike than a big cat's. Despite looking aggressive, it let me pet its scaled hide quickly enough.
The Welwa lacked the saddle and riding equipment it usually came with, probably because I was wearing them.
I'm cut off from any further analysis by a connection to the Menagerie forming. My power tries to latch on to an enormous 5-headed Snake, but my lack of charge makes it impossible. It quickly slithers away into the Menagerie.
I do, however, manage to grab ahold of a power. Adaptive Immunity is precisely the type of power that I'd need to give myself and the rest of my summons additional staying power. No way am I rejecting this. It's well worth losing some charge for such a fantastic power.
From now on, whenever one of my summons is killed, I and the rest of my other summons gain immunity to the specific damage that did my summon in for the next 24 hours.
While the power was great, it did mean I needed to build up my summon pool, so I had some that were expendable - as of right now, there weren't very many of my summons that I felt could be tossed in to grant the rest of us immunity - besides the ratfish.
Turning my attention back to the Welwa, which I was still petting on the head, I decided to give it some orders.
"Alright, let's see what you can do; attack some of the stacks of scrap around here. Go all out," I said, and the creature lumbered into action. I noticed that it was a lot slower in this form than in its vehicle form, but it had respectable attack power. Its claws were tearing through rusted metal sheets, barreling through stacks of scrap bigger than itself without any issues.
After a few minutes of watching it, I nodded and called it back. I'd seen enough. In terms of fighting capabilities, it could probably beat a brown bear up quickly enough, and any regular person was screwed. The scales also meant he was resilient enough to take some attacks; not even charging through glass and scrap had left a scratch on it. He was an excellent bruiser, but until I received a proper costume, I was better off keeping him in the back line as my main form of transportation and personal protection.
Alright, Veemon, you and I will be next.
The little blue Digimon grinned, bouncing on his toes in excitement.
"Alright them, let's spar!" he cried.
What followed was a beat down from Veemon. His fighting style was that of a mixed martial artist, and he was deceptively fast and agile. He was easily able to use my height and bulk advantage against me, darting between my legs and slamming into my back to trip me up. Or just plain out charging me in the gut with his VeeHeadbutt, which was all kinds of painful. Ultimately, I couldn't help but be left gasping after the beatdown he gave me. Bruised and beaten, but surpringly not broken.
"Is the reason I'm still conscious related to having a Digivice?" I asked, gasping as I hobbled to my feet. Nothing was broken, but I would definitely be feeling this in the morning.
"Eh, you gave it your best shot, Javi," Veemon said, not even looking winded, as he bounced up to my side," don't worry, I'll show you some of my moves so you can keep up next time. Although, I'm unsure how to toughen up your skull so you can deliver a VeeHeadbutt."
I nodded appreciatively, wincing at the idea of toughening up my skull. Hopefully, Veemon's training plans wouldn't go too overboard.
Thinking now was as good a time as any, I summoned the Tinder inside of myself, immediately feeling a sense of warmth envelop me. My bruises ached a little less, and I could feel the expansion of my mind as a new energy built up within me. Not that I was suddenly smarter, but I garnered this was the new mote of psychic potential Tinder granted me.
It fed me ideas, too, on how to use this newfound energy. Tinder fed me information on how to use this new Psyenergy. Many of the Mars-aligned spells it granted me were what you would expect from a fire-based Djinni. Fire Blasts, Bombs, and even Lava Spouts - albeit weak- were all within my repertoire. With my Non-Lethal effect, I could even guarantee these - quite lethal albeit weak- spells wouldn't kill anyone. I even had some defuffing spells and even out-of-combat utility spells that I could use.
Unfortunately, without more Psyenergy, the stronger versions of these spells would have been locked away. At most, I could cast one spell before waiting a minute for my Psyenergy to recharge. Still, it gave me some options to use in combat besides relying entirely on my Summons.
"Okay, Vemeon, let's get you to Armor Digivolve," I said, summoning the Digi-Egg of Courage. It was small, and it was just right in my hand. In the show, they would say something to activate them, and the Menagerie helpfully provided what I needed to get this egg to work.
Pointing the egg in Veemon's direction, I spoke out clearly.
"Digi-Armor, Energize!"
The egg became a glowing mote of energy and data within my hand, heating up at a rate I was surprised didn't get me burned before it shot into the eagerly awaiting Veemon. It encircled him, and Veemon began to glow.
There was no cool background music as Veemon Digivoved into Flamedramon. His body became enveloped in a torrent of burning flames before he emerged.
He stood shoulder to shoulder with me, with a large gleaming horn on his head. The flames of the Digi-Egg of Courage had coalesced into a helmet and armor around his body. From his armored greaves emerged three blade-like claws.
"I am Flamedramon, the Flame of Courage," he said proudly, voice more profound and grown up from his cutesy voice as a Rookie. He smirked, recognizing the impressed expression I must have been wearing.
"You grew up so fast, partner," I smirked in response, causing Flamedramon to let out a pleasant snort.
"This form is only temporary. At any point, I can remove the Digi-Armor; it might mean you won't be able to use the Digi-Egg of Courage again for the day," Flamedramon explained, and I nodded as I quickly confirmed the information.
"What to stay as Flamedramon for the rest of the day then?" I asked, receiving a nod in response.
"In this form, I am more powerful. While in the Digivice, I should serve as greater protection for you," Flamedramon explained.
"Got it, in that case. Let's see what you can do," I grinned, pointing to a nearby tower of scrap.
"Right!" Flamedramon nodded," Behold, the Flames of Courage! Fire Rocket!"
Flamedramon planted his feet on the ground. With a roar, he launched himself into the air, flames erupting around his body as he flew over the scrap tower and across the clearing like a missile before turning in a sharp arc to slam into the base of the debris, the resulting explosion sending dust and shards of metal flying in all directions. I had to rush to take shelter behind the Welwa, only standing after I was sure I wasn't about to get run through by stray metal or glass.
"Nice one!" I called, jumping out of cover," Got anything more precise?"
"Sure thing. Watch this. Flame Fist!" Flamedramon replied. Flamedramon focused, charging his fist with searing fire before punching forward, a concentrated burst of flames shooting out. The blast hit a rusted boat hull dead-on, bending it backward before it toppled with a loud clang.
I couldn't help but whistle," Alright, Flamedramon, that was legit."
"I told you. I've got some serious firepower now,' Flamedramon stated as he walked over," just imagine what we'll be able to do as you grow in power and unlock more summons."
I couldn't help but nod in reply, feeling a sense of confidence I hadn't felt since arriving in this city. This power - Flamedramon, the Tinder, the Welwa, and even Koyo - they were my lifeline here. The more I trained, the more summons I received, and the greater my chances of surviving in a city like Brockton Bay.
"Okay," I said, clenching my fist. Let's keep going, then. I need to know exactly what all my summons can do if we're going to survive in this place."
"That's the right attitude to have. Let's meet the newest summon then," Flamedramon suggested, and I nodded. I began reaching out to Kojyo Koyo.
A large, horned Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared in the clearing. Her face was littered with battle scars, and a short white eboshi sat between her horns. Long streams of black hair rippled from beneath her hat, framing her large lizard face. On her back hung a beautiful white and red kimono, and from her horns hung several ceremonial prayer beads.
Upon her appearance, Flamedramon took a step back, not out of fear. He was the Flame of Courage. No, he was more surprised than anything else.
"I did not think the Menagerie could grant such a strange Dark Tyrannomon to you," Flamedramon said quietly, assessing the new summon with a critical gaze.
That wasn't all the Menagerie wanted to grant me as the familiar sensation of a connection forming filled my senses.
The Menagerie had just tried to grant me a Noble Phantasm as a summon called Duria Antiquior. It would have allowed me to summon Jurassic lifeforms to aid me in battle. Specifically, a Plesiosaur, Ichthyosaur, Dimorphodon, Ammonite, Belemnit, oh, and a little Cocker Spaniel named Tray, to fight with me.
That sounded ridiculous, and while cool, it would have been a Summon I'd have Rejected had I had the charge to accept it. Instead, the connection to it slipped away.
The power I got was a lot more critical. Resource Network formed a network between myself and my summons - letting us share physical, mental, or mystical resources with any other member of the network. Yeah, okay, now we were talking. This is the type of power that I needed. As the center of the network, I could cast Koyo's magic, gain the agility and strength of Flamedraon, or have my Welwa gain those benefits instead. That Psyenergy pool that TInder gave me? I could give it to Flamedramon. With Koyo's monstrous durability and strength, I was a high-tier Brute.
Speaking of Koyo
She seemed to be assessing Flamedramon, the Welwa, and me. Her gaze almost softened as she looked at me. Then, her form shifted. I noticed that Flamedramon relaxed as she did so, turning from a large Tyranosaurid to a tall and beautiful woman of Noble bearing.
As she approached, I felt…concern emanating from her, and she seemed to be motioning to my scruffy appearance. I was about to wonder why she wasn't speaking when I remembered something. Her Mad Enhancement robbed her of her voice, leaving only her sharp mind and gentle disposition behind.
"Are you worried for me?" I asked, confused. She nodded and hurried over, pointing to my scruffed clothing and a bruise beginning to develop on my hand from one of Veemon's stomps.
"Oh, it's just a training injury. I should be fine," I tried to dissuade her worries. The pout she gave me suggested that she wasn't amused.
"You want to help?" I asked, and she eagerly nodded, a smile returning to her face. She seemed to chant words neither Flamedramon nor I could hear, and I immediately began to feel refreshed, my bruises disappearing and my stamina returning.
"Oh wow, I feel like I could go another few rounds, Flamedramon," I said with a grin, looking at my sparring partner.
He snorted and shook his head.
"I appreciate your tenacity, Javi, but as a Dragon Digmon, I'm obligated to go-" That was as far as Flamedramon got as Koyo glomped him.
I couldn't help but laugh at his predicament, watching as Koyo easily manhandled him. Considering I'd had trouble even keeping up with Flamedramon when he was a Veemon, it was an impressive feat. Flamedramon was also conscientious of his claws - doing his best not to tear at Koyo's kimono. I didn't have the heart to tell him he'd fly through the moon sooner than scratch her.
Koyo herself seemed adoring as she hugged Flamedramon. Her beast form had been based on her idolization of dragons, so perhaps this was her adoration just manifesting.
"Koyo, please let him up. We're here to train, not play," I said, earning myself a pout as the oni-woman stood to her feet.
"If you please, Koyo, a demonstration of your power in this environment," I asked. She nodded with a happy smile. A sinister look quickly came over her eyes as she morphed back into her Dragon form and began stomping around the stacks of scrap and discarded boats. The earth shook with her every step, and she used all aspects of her body. Her tail to slam, her feet to stomp and deliver vicious kicks, her head to bludgeon, gore, and tear. Even the tiny Tyrannosaur arms were more versatile than expected, growing into muscled long limbs to deliver punishing punches. All this while moving faster than I was sure a Tyrannosaurus could move. These weren't rageful attacks either; somehow, she had developed a martial art dedicated to fighting as a dinosaur.
Halfway through her impromptu demonstration, she shifted into her human form, manifesting golden shackles and a three-pronged sword. Her sword delivered flaming slashes, while with her shackles, she bonded up and threw large pieces of the boats around us. It was clear from the ease with which she managed this that it wasn't close to the weight limit of things she could lift.
Finally, she stopped and developed a distasteful expression. Her body shifted into her Oni form, and a spiked bone tail emerged behind her. Her legs had become scaled-clawed feet, and two horns jutted from her forehead. Her attacks became more vicious in this form, her sword slashing and reverberating with cracks of lighting and searing fire. Her movements became swifter, and she was moving so fast that I struggled to keep up with her.
Then, the world around us shifted. We were no longer standing in the Boat Graveyard; instead, we were surrounded by an Autumn Forest consisting of Maple Trees, their leaves a collage of browns, reds, and oranges.
Flamedramon tensed beside me and looked around.
"Javi, what is happening?" he asked.
"It's her Noble Phantasm," I replied, transfixed as I looked around us. Koyo had disappeared, nowhere to be seen, until the wind blew, and she charged through a curtain of autumn leaves - back in her Dragon form.
Her attacks were focused on a huge yacht, her blows vicious and unrelenting.
A voice filled our minds, stretching out all around.
The drizzling rain hastens the maple leaf viewing.
Koyo delivered a final bite to the yacht, teleporting behind it and dropping a lightning bolt from the sky in her Oni form.
The loneliness of a quiet autumn evening.
She slashed with her sword through the yacht, an eruption of fire blooming behind her as she passed.
The ferocity of a midnight storm.
A trio of lightning bolts fell from the heavens.
May the dream never end.
Koyo slashed through again, leaving another fire explosion behind in her wake.
May you never wake from your dream...
The last slash seemed to intensify the gale of maple leaves swirling around us. They sharpened and tore through what was left of the yacht, exploding outwards in a maelstrom before settling on the scrap and rust around us.
Finding ourselves out of the maple forest, I couldn't help but watch in stunned stupefaction as the old rusty yacht no longer seemed to exist. Evidence of existence was present. The depression in the ground where it had sat these last few years was evidence that it had existed. On closer inspection, it seemed the heavenly lightning that Koyo had dropped down had gone so far as to incinerate even the ashes of the yacht left behind entirely.
Koyo was watching me, a sense of pride emanating from her at the seemingly splendid job she had done. I, however, had other concerns.
We had just made a lot of noise.
There were several thundercracks of noise if my estimation was correct.
In a big city, one patrolled by trigger-happy capes. On a relatively clear day.
"Flamedramon, I need a sit rep on the reactions to this," I said, pulling out my Digivice. I watched Koyo's visibly deflate at the realization her display might have gone a bit overboard. Honestly, it was my fault. I knew her Noble Phantasm, Autumn Leaf Viewing, was powerful. A Noble Phantasm usually, but not always, tended to be the finishing blow that decided battles between Heroic Spirits.
Flamedramon didn't hesitate to enter the Digivice and was already beginning to send over information. His processing speed was breakneck as a Flamedramon, over three times as fast, and he parsed through details at an incredible rate.
Already, there were alerts throughout the city.
According to Flamedramon, the Autumn Forest effect was more wide-ranging than we initially thought. Koyo had covered my entire summoning distance of 500 meters in her Noble Phantasm. That was a six-block radius; unfortunately, we hadn't been as lucky at avoiding being isolated within that effect. Flamedramon was already pointing out that a minor scuffle between a low-end Merchant and ABB patrol members had been halted because of the impact.
Already, information had been sent to ABB and Merchant higher-ups. In fact, Lung was on a call with Oni Lee at this very moment. Yeah, that couldn't be good.
The PRT had tasked Armsmaster, Velocity, and Miss Militia with investigating the incident—along with a squadron of PRT vans. Velocity's arrival was the bigger deal. I likely had two to three minutes before he arrived to leave.
Already, I was heading to the Welwa, turning it back into the Yamaha while inserting the earbud to keep in communication with Flamedramon.
I went to unsommon Koyo and then stopped. She was looking rather confused about the current situation but we didn't really have much time before this place would be swarming in parahumans.
"Koyo, can you shift your clothes into a different style? Your kimono stands out and isn't practical riding wear," I said; when she hesitated to respond, I quickly shot out," Shift your clothes into something similar to what I'm wearing, or I'll unsommon you. Battle likely approaches if we remain and aren't ready to engage anyone."
At that moment, I felt a connection to the Menagerie. First was the new creature, a Nicaraguan Blood Sucking Vine. I summarily rejected it, choosing to save up my points for now.
For my powers, I got two. One was Baby Summoning, which allowed me to summon a baby form of one of my summons. Cute.
The other was Calming Aura, which made me a calming presence to non-sapient beings. I decided to take it. I wasn't sure if it would ever come up, but the charge loss was almost insignificant enough not to bother about letting this power pass me by.
Turning back to Koyo, I saw she had shifted into a set of matching motorcycle leathers with a face-covering helmet. Looking somewhat nervous about her get up.
"It looks good. Now, hop on. We can't stay here much longer," I said, motioning to the back of the bike. She climbed on, looking a bit confused about what to do next.
"Hold on to me, and don't panic; it's just like riding a horse…only faster," I said as I hit the accelerator and tore away, driving into the docks. Koyo had her arms holding my side, and I had to steal away some of Flamedramon's durability to avoid cracking a rib from her tight hold, only returning it when she eased up.
"Velocity's coming in fast on the training ground we were using, thirty seconds from arrival. Oni Lee's phone pinged in North Docks, pathing you towards the Boardwalk district to stay clear of him," Flamedramon stated, giving me a course that moved me through the city while gaining the least attention possible.
On one occasion, the net had closed so tightly that I could see a street over as a PRT van screamed northbound.
Only then did I ease up a bit, driving more naturally.
"It seems like the PRT are engaged in a fight with Oni Lee and ABB forces that were scoping the area," Flamedramon stated," Velocity has discovered tire tracks but is being called to assist in the engagement."
I sighed in relief and briefly looked over my shoulder at Koyo - who seemed to be primarily glancing all around at the rides and shops on the Boardwalk. It was the only decent part of town, which wasn't surprising.
Unfortunately, without any money, there wasn't any hope of splurging on a shopping trip.
"Flamedramon, path us home," I said," and keep abreast of the situation in the Docks. We've got a lot to go over."
Who would have thought a simple training trip could turn out like this?
-
Bonus Points (Free)
Kijyo Koyo (500) (Type-Moon)
Accelerate Gains (200)
Adaptive Immunity (200)
Resource Network (300)
Baby Summoning (Free)
Calming Aura (50)