2103/The Beast of Shadows

The Beast of Shadows
Date of Scene:	26 April 2015
Location:	The Malformed Zone
Synopsis:	Investigation of a digital disruption reveals a new Digimon.. But just WHO is he?
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 262, Rebecca Chambers, 516, 695, Duke, Gaonoir

---

Gaonoir has posed:
    It had happened in the late hours of the night. Some kind of electrical interference had gone off in an internet cafe in one of the more technologically advanced towns dotting the Malformed Zone. Yet somehow didn't set off any alarms. A few night owls reported seeing odd flashes briefly in the night, but that was it. So it was quite a shock when the early morning crowd arrived to find every computer in the cafe fried to a crisp, and the front window busted apart.

The window appeared to be broken from -the inside- was the weird part. Yet nothing had been taken, or even out of place save the destroyed equipment.

It didn't take long for image snapshots and reports of electronic distortions to flood the internet afterwards. Humans really were obsessed with doing that. There were even several posts of 'What Could It Be?' even though no sightings had been made, just due to lingering worries from the last time this happened....

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham wasn't sure what the energy surge could have been, initial reports suggested something like EMP, and she still hadn't ruled that out--but as the red armored valkyrie 'bot swooped down to investigate the site itself, she wasn't entirely sure what to think. Her high heeled boots click-clacked against the pavement outside as something crunched underneath her boot. She reached down and plucked up a shard of shattered glass in the talons of her black gloved hands, tweezing it between them and holding it close to her face for a moment for scrutiny. Then she looked up to the blown out window, felt just a tad embarrassed perhaps at not noticing /that/ before now and tossed the glass away briskly.

     Yep, something had happened inside the site itself.

Duke has posed:
Duke was still technically recovering. Oh sure the wound has healed up and only a nasty dark coloration to his red with jagged pixalated edges, but for the most part he looked bright as rain! He was enjoying a muffin of some kind, as was using he claw to gently tap the arrow keys on a computer that Alexis was allowing him to borrow so he could do more research on different things, before he gold eyes focused on a blog of 'strange events'.

Curiosity brought Duke there and curiosity paid off. Asking for help over the broadband went out that he was going to go look into it, he stuffed the rest of the muffin into his maw, before he hopped down and then went go wake up Doran, "Doran! Doran! We may have another Exile!"

...little did he know...

Once they arrive to the location via a warp gate, the Guilmon X quickly moved to the alley way and waiting for Doran, before he lead the way. Over boxes, around trash cans, also avoiding angry cats. The four foot red Digimon at last made it to the location and peeked his head around one of the buildings to spot....

"Ferham?" Duke asks out loud before he steps out around the corner, his ear fins perking up. "What are you doing here?"

Doran (695) has posed:
Doran was sleeping abnormally heavily and was very difficult to rouse when Duke came bouncing in, especially the smallest sound would usually snap him awake. Visually, he looks hale and whole without the grid-exposing holes that he had gotten when fighting Razer, but he's quite obviously sluggish.

Duke's haste is such that he barely managed to grab a bite to eat (literally) on his way to the warpgate.

Once they go through the warpgate, though, he seems to get much more alert -- perhaps solely through force of will. He moves with even more caution behind Duke, making it seem like the Guilmon-X is the only Digimon present, and stays back when Duke approaches Ferham. His ears swivel around and his nostrils flare as he tries to pick up something -- anything -- that could tell them what happened here. Or who came through.

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
Random electromagnetic pulses aren't a thing that Fiera is typically going to notice. However, she happened to be in this general neck of the Multiverse, and having heard about it on the news when she stopped for lunch, she was considering it when she hit the warpgate - and wanders through, just happening to arrive in the same area where the electrical interference happened.

Seeing some of the remaining damage and onlookers, the red-haired Pokemon trainer hangs back from the crowd, one hand going to her Pokeballs just in case she needs to let one of her current allies out ...

Gaonoir has posed:
That someone had 'spiked' an entire network of computers via remote was not out of the realm of hackers. It was the broken window, combined with no sign of any sort of fingerprints or other typical evidence, that had the local authorities baffled and the media sites in a frenzy of speculation. Was it another of those 'creatures' like the three headed canine? Or a copycat trying to make a hoax on the attention that had caused?

Above the streets, a couple of neon store signs flickered abnormally. A few shops down, the TVs on display in the window all fizzled out to static and a radio briefly sputtered garbled signals. It causes a few streetgoers to freak a little, even if there is no visible cause.

Doran would feel that unusual buzzing in the back of his head though. Ferham might too, depending on how sensative to low electromagnetic like frequencies the robot woman was.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Duke?" Ferham has that sort of back and forth moment with the Guilmon X, her green eyes peering at him from over her shoulder, before the rest of her turns. "Didn't expect to see you here, either, investigating a strange energy disturbance, I had wondered if it might have been something electromagnetic pulse related," she intoned quietly, peering at Doran. "Friend of yours?" she gestured to Duke and leaned down a little, curious.

     "Thought it might be more of your kind, or maybe someone experimenting with anti-electronic weaponry," she straightened out again, quickly enough. "Do you... feel that?" she looked around, a little warily.

Doran (695) has posed:
Doran's tail swishes from side to side as he feels a headache building between his eyes. At first he dismisses it, thinking he hadn't eaten nearly enough or hadn't gotten enough rest (though that's certainly not the case). He simply makes a mental note to eat a bigger breakfast when they get done here.

He nods to Ferham as he steps around Duke so she can get a better look at him. "I am. My name's Doran."

He flinches and twists his head to one side suddenly as the headache spikes, leaving a constant buzzing sensation in the Digicore Interface on his forehead. He ducks his head to press his front paws against the red gem, but it isn't helping any. He's never felt anything like this before. "Duke..." his voice actually whines a bit, "...something's wrong..."

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
Fiera continues looking around, noting the general absence of familiar faces; she doesn't really recognize Digimon on sight, although she's able to figure out that Duke and Doran are something other than Pokemon readily enough. Their presence also seems to help her reach a decision, and she opens up one of her Pokeballs; Foxfire, her Ninetales, promptly materializes next to her.

Duke has posed:
Duke takes notice of some of the people's reactions past Ferham, then his gold eyes observe as the TV screens act up, this causes him to tilt his head and he almost loses track of what Ferham is saying by the strange disturbance to some of the electronic devices.

The Guilmon X does look back to her though when she asks if he feels something, "Feel what?" He asks her, but when Doran ducks his head down and actually whines. The Guilmon X's eyes go wide and those ear fins go up before they go back.

He quickly sweeps over the area with his eyes, before sneers his teeth. If something /is/ wrong, then these people be in danger lingering around. If he was /wrong/, well, better safe then sorry right. However as a cute little dragon-dino he wont get anyone's attention.

Duke leaps out into the middle of the street, which may startle already a few people, before his form glows and his body breaks down in the glow before reforming to a six foot four dino-draconic humanoid-like beat with white mane mohawk hair. Probably for the Pokemon training this may not be to unusual, but what comes next may be....

The Growlmon X lets out a roar, which shakes the area, causing the already broken glass to crash down a bit more and causes the more mundane people to actually roar. The Growlmon X then sweeps over with his foot and his tail flicks as he growls lowly.

He then closes his gold eyes and sniffs the air a few times, trying to pick up any odd scents, before he snaps open his eyes and roars again, this time with words. "Leave! Now!" Those poor people. Strange happenings from a computer and now a very primal, possibly angry, six foot four beast.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Rebecca got word of what had happened, and she sensed that something definitely wasn't right here. Donning her uniform (she'd been off the clock and out of uniform,) Rebecca quickly made her way to the area, and sighed as she arrived. There were too many rubberneckers and reporters. Rebecca attempted to get through when things started to get worse. "Good thing I come prepared!" Rebecca says as she checks her sidearm.

Kirito has posed:
    One rarely sees KIRIGAYA KAZUTO out and about in the real world, but out and about he is. A short'ish, skinny, pale-skinned youth who spends way too much time indoors... but he has a kind, boyish, rounded face. He's dressed mostly in black for some inexplicable reason and wears a thick jacket over it all.. also black but with some decorative fur trim.

    But he's got a bag full of who knows what clutched in one hand when he comes across the now famous cafe.

    "....???"

    Curious, the boy steps in nearesr and leans over a few shoulders before he finds his own angle to gaze from.

    Then he spots Ferham (how could anyone MISS her) and takes a few spoked steps to the side away. One of the boy's hands reaches halfway up his back but he freezes the mid-motion midway, making a sheepish and irritated face.

    He will just -never- get used to walking around in normal cities again...

Gaonoir has posed:
Despite being mid-afternoon this was creepy enough to make a good campfire story. There's that eerie feeling of being watched by something, but it somehow stays out of view. Like lurking just outside the field of vision, nothing unusual to see when one actually looks that way. Lurking on the fringe of perception, slipping in and out of the shadows.

Almost like shadows themselves were alive.

The somewhat cute dinosaur abruptly changing into a larger snarling dragon-like beast does a good job of drawing attention. It's little wonder how quickly last night's events got on the internet when you see how quickly people pull out smartphones and start snapping pictures. Then Duke roars, and most of them scatter. After the previous stories of demonic dogs and living arsenals no one wants to take their chances.

But the Growlmon's larger form now cast a larger shadow. For just an instant something seems to move from one of the alleys, yet still remains unseen at first...

"SHADOW UPPER!"

Until with a barking cry a dark form literally leaps out of Duke's own shadow, one gloved fist aimed with the uppercut at the dragon-raptor's chin. And packing a surprising amount of force behind the blow, despite being maybe half of Growlmon's size.

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
Well, that's something you don't see every day, either. Not that the evolution effect is THAT atypical, but usually, a Trainer can tell when one of her Pokemon starts evolving, and the transition usually takes a LITTLE longer than just an abrupt flash and metamorphosis.

Fiera is still trying to piece out exactly what is going on, but in the meantime, Foxfire moves in front of her, ready to protect her trainer if necessary. Not that Fiera needs THAT much protection - as soon as Gaonoir lashes out to punch at Duke, Fiera's legs are shifting into a ready crouch, braced to bolt in one direction or another, and her right arm is up, ready to draw her sword if she needs it.

On the other hand, without knowing what the 'sides' are in this fight, she's not about to jump into it.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Noticing the sudden girl and ninetales, Ferham turned and waved a little to them, just to show she was friendly. Or making an attempt at being so, that was still helpful, right?

     "Please don't be alarmed, they're not wild," she gestured to Duke and Doran, nodding to Kitsun. To Duke's sudden alarm however, she produces her whip, the length contained in the handle. "Do you know what the disturbance is, Duke?" she asks briefly, but as it turns out, things are getting real, as they say.

     Then things just got surreal as Duke's shadow seemed to /come alive/ and attack them. Welp, there goes Ferham's advice that the digimon weren't dangerous...

Duke has posed:
        * KURBLAM! *

The upper cut impacts the underside of the jaw muzzle of the Growlmon X, the sheer force was enough to cause the Dinosaur-dragon humanoid to cry out in pain with a screech, that he nearly tumbles over and if not for his tail's balance, he would have.

Duke's gold eyes flare with a blue spark of energy, as his white ivory claw with onyx tips flare to life with electrical blue charge and a blue glow emitting from them. For anyone who just came in they may now spot easily this six foot four beast about to carve a claw into a cute dark blue, almost black like cartoony puppy!

Something blew out the window-- and something was causing the interference in the air and given Duke just roared to scare people off... It be very easy to understand if people believed this Growlmon X was the /real/ trouble maker.

Those plasma ignited claws go to impale down at the much smaller Digimon, before after his swing he goes to snap his massive sharp teeth after the dog. Those eye ridges narrowed and his eyes locked on the Black Gaomon. He does hear Ferham's question and can see the Pokemon trainer in the corner of his eye, but its always been hard to /talk/ like this. Let alone focus on talking and fighting at the same time!

He hasn't even had time to register the fact there are two more responders coming to the scene to investigate the location which was now turning into a possible battle location.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Not being too familiar with Digimon and things like that, Rebecca is caught off guard by this abrupt change. She yelps and falls onto her bottom, feeling a bit humiliated as she tries to get up on her own. That creature just changed into something truly menacing, without any warning, and it may not be a B.O.W., but it's still got Rebecca on edge all the same.

    "Stop! Please!" Rebecca gasps out, still in shock from this whole thing. At the same time, her sidearm is drawn and aimed at the creature, albeit with a bit of shakiness.

Doran (695) has posed:
The headache continues to ache and buzz. It's not going away. It hurts, it's loud, it's driving Doran crazy!

With an anguished howl, Doran's body shatters in golden light before reforming into a much bigger version of himself -- Digivolving into his Adult Dorugamon form, standing at almost the same size as Duke's Growlmon-X form. Problem is, his golden eyes are constricted into thin cat-like slits and he's snarling with each breath.

It still doesn't end the buzzing headache.

This is also when Duke suddenly gets punched out of his own shadow, and Doran's gaze is drawn to the shadowy interloper. It hit Duke. Therefore it is an enemy. Everything and everyone else -- Rebecca Chambers, Ferham, Kirito, Fiera, and any remaining bystanders -- is utterly ignored.

Doran flares his wings and lunges at Duke's attacker with a feral snarl, his red front claws bared to help tear this attacker apart.

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
"'Tame' never excludes 'dangerous,'" Fiera points out to Ferham, giving the two monsters a wary look as another monster gets bigger and joins the fray. "Particularly when things get this crazy," she adds, raising her voice a bit to be heard over the three-way melee. "Is there anything we can do to get them to calm down before they damage the area even more? Do you even know who these are and what sides of anything they're on?"

Foxfire just keeps standing ready; she's either very patient or just very well-trained, and you'd need to know Fiera to know which is more likely.

Gaonoir has posed:
The bipedal canine lands after his strike, immeadiately bringing up his gloved fists in a defensive stance in front of him. The energized claws collide with them and a brief explosion of energy ignites with the contact. Followed by trails of smoke hissing in his wake as the smaller creature skids backwards from the attack. Smoke hisses from the black marks on his gloves, he's not impaled like one would of expected. Just goes to prove size isn't everything.

In fact, he's smiling. "Knew a couple of you wouldn't be able to resist poking your noses around a 'disturbance'."

Then the other evolves and rushes towards him. "..Huh?.."

For a moment there's almost a recognition in his yellow eyes, but in that brief moment Doran's large form impacts, knocking him for a tumble down the street.

"Well isn't -this- interesting.. But okay, I could use the workout!" Some of the shadows seem almost drawn to him, condensing around the form in almost a negative image of how the saurian digimon had glowed before changing form. A pair of scarf-like projections snap out of the darkness, followed by two large paws, wicked claws having now punctured out of the gloves.

But unlike the other two digimon evolving, as the bear-sized canine rears from the darkness another short but potent EM-like burst rings out, causing most of the streetlights along the block to flicker and spark before blowing out entirely. Televisions in show windows screech their audio before going dead, screens cracking and splintering from the shock. Probably did not help Doran's headache any, either.

Maybe disorienting enough that the Dorugamon won't see the massive paws reaching for him as the bear-huskie rears on his back legs, grabs Doran and HEAVES him towards Duke.

In the background, one shop monitor crackles, managing to stay on long enough to flash a distorted sequence of digital sigils and -- BLACK GAOGAMON -- before dying like the rest of the screens.

Kirito has posed:
    No sooner than Kazuto's over to investigate than a FIGHT breaks out in the streets.

    A fight between MONSTERS. "You've gotta be kidding... NOW?!"

    Can he go ANYWHERE in the Multiverse and not run into something way past his level?

    Frustration's readily apparent on his face, but the boy doesn't jump in to interfere. Instead he folds his arms over his chest and edges towards an alley. If he needs cover, that'll be a good choice!

Duke has posed:
'Stop! Please!' Rebecca's voice is heard over the sound of the battle, though when Doran howls and suddenly evolves. It is the state that Duke's own friend is in that causes the Growlmon X some pause. "...Doran?"

He can only watch then as Doran lunges in and goes in for the attack, Duke turns to look at Rebecca, "Protect people! Danger!" Is all Duke really can explain for the moment. It doesn't seem he has any plans to stop either, as he turns his attention back to the fray.

Which is almost to late as Doran is being thrown /at him/. Duke's eyes go wide and he quickly leaps out of the way to avoid becoming a ball of fluff and scales with his best friend. His large claws screech across the ground, cutting a deep gash in the cement surface as the digital symbols only catch his gaze for a moment.

Duke then widens his stance as flames lick around his maw, his pupils become reptilion like as they then glow with blue energy. He rears back his head as his white hair goes to stand on end. Then he roars out as a massive wake of flames exhaust out from his maw, with sheering heat of magma, threatening to melt down everything around in. "EXHAUST FLAME!!"

For Ferham, Kirito, and Kitsun, they may need to suddenly go on putting out fire duty, as those flames end up lighting up a few buildings near by as well!

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Duke!" Ferham spun around as she realized Duke had been struck, her whip held in her left, primary hand. "The two creatures I was with are my friends, we're being attacked," Ferham tries to explain in a hurry, though she is soon pushing off the asphault and hopping back to try and avoid the sudden pulse of electromagnetism--which is not good news for her. She might find herself a bit frazzled by it, none the same.

     "Augh, Duke!" she seemed to be concerned for her reptilian allies, to say the least, taking cover behind her wings as shots begin flying.

Doran (695) has posed:
Doran screeches as Gaonoir Digivolves, recoiling backwards noticeably as he claws at his Digicore Interface with his front claws. The pain, the buzzing, this accursed FAMILIARITY! The Digivolution (if you can call that shadowy transition 'Digivolving') only makes it WORSE for the duration.

This obviously leaves him wide open for Gaonoir to grab him and throw him at Duke like a fuzzy missile. Luckily, the Growlmon-X evades, but unluckily this causes Doran to slam through a fire hydrant and bodily against the already-damaged building behind them. Though the impact leaves a Dorugamon-shaped imprint on the wall and little damage to Doran himself, his still-healing wounds suddenly crack open on his shoulders and muzzle, exposing the bluish grid-pattern under his fur-like 'skin'.

The impact seems to stun him for a moment, his eyes visibly blank with a golden swirl spinning in the center, then he blinks. Once. Twice. Shakes his head and staggers back to his feet with rubble falling off of him, looking around all bewildered for a moment as if realizing where he is. His eyes, tellingly, are no longer slitted like a cat's and he seems much calmer now.

"Uuuuurgh..." The buzzing and headache are still there, yes, but he has so many new aches and pains that he's able to somewhat ignore it now. He also realizes that there's a geyser spewing from where the fire hydrant used to be, but he isn't quite enough together to do anything about it or the fire Duke caused. "I thought I said... we needed to avoid collateral damage...!"

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
Fiera and Foxfire bolt for, if not cover then at least better distance, as Duke releases his fire attack; this is a little too hot for the Ninetales's comfort, and certainly too much for Fiera to want to stay close. On the other hand, Fiera doesn't have any good firefighting Pokemon with her - at best she's got a Dugtrio, who's better suited to firebreaks via tunneling and controlled cave-ins, NOT the kind of thing you want in an urban environment.

Her hand comes to rest on one of her Pokeballs, though, and after a split second's consideration, she plucks, expands, and flings the red-and-white sphere in what seems to be a single smooth motion. "Futon, you're up!"

Cue a Snorlax materializing. Flat on its back, at first ... but Futon the Snorlax sits up a moment later, grunting at the nearby commotion. "Snor ... ?" <<What's going on?>>

"Still figuring that out," Fiera calls out, "but can you try and calm the dog-like one?"

Futon lets out a sleepy (or contemplative) rumble ... then yawns. Massively.

And you know how yawns are contagious ... is it trying to lull the Digimon to sleep?

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Meanwhile, Rebecca's decided that she needs to put a bit of space between her and the Digimon. She doesn't have much in terms of firepower, and her Beretta may be more like a peashooter to that Digimon. Still, as a member of S.T.A.R.S., Rebecca's determined to assist in this mission in any way she can. No matter how difficult it may seem. She gets a firmer grip on her Beretta as she pulls back some more.

    "You leave me no choice!" Rebecca yells as she fires off a pair of shots at the enemy Digimon, hoping that her gun can affect it somehow.

Kirito has posed:
    "Do you have a Water Pokemon?!" Kazuto yells Fiera's way desperately. He has no idea what she has or doesn't have!

    But Kazuto?

    Kazuto does the next best thing by dashing through nearby stores and hunting for a fire extinguisher. Sometimes you don't need anything too crazy to deal with a more mundane problem!

    As soon as he's got one he's out in the streets, spraying down every fire around!

Gaonoir has posed:
Black Gaogamon stalks towards the two other digimon, but pauses as he feels a sting against his left shoulder. Several hit flashes are visible as the Beretta fire rings off his form. The hits leave small 'cracks' much like those Doran is sporting, but the dark primary color of his form makes them hard to see, as there seems to be no 'glow' underneath. Or they haven't penetrated too deeply yet.

"Pest," is all her snarls out of the corner of his mouth at her. One of the lengths of scarf, previously just flapping behind him as he moved, suddenly snaps to life of its own and snaps at Rebecca like a whip. Fortunately he's not really paying much attention to her so it's more like swatting away an annoying bug. Rather than, thankfully, using those hooked claws on the end of it.

Then his head turns the other way towards the Snorlax. Another... no, that's not a Digimon. It doesn't -smell- like a Digimon. He gruffs at the yawning, shaking his head a bit. It doesn't put him to sleep, but there is a noticable droop in his expression as it muddles his awareness some, much like the slowing effect of Otamamon's Lullaby Bubble technique.

You could say it's causing the program to lag. Haha, so funny.

It's enough for the blast of flames to erupt from Duke's maw, catching the sluggish slugger in the chest. Flames spray about from the impact, sending up great plumes of smoke and scattering more fire along the streets.

Good thing someone went to grab a fire extinguisher! That might not be enough on its own, though.

The flames help illuminate the street more to make up for the busted street lights... but as they rise up they also cause more shadows to be cast around them. The wolf-bear grins in a very unsettling manner at the Growlmon. "Aaaw, how cute. He thinks he's protecting them. Like he's some kind of -KNIGHT-."

Low, low blow there.

Then the shadowy beast opens his maw, and much like a certain wolf of fairy tale inhales sharp and deep. Not just smoke from the fires, but the shadows being cast around them start to distort, acting as if being peeled off the surfaces with the sucking breath.

"BLACK VOOOOOOORTEX!"

The inhale turns into a roar, expelling a forceful spiral of howling dark energy blasting outward like a horizontal cyclone. It's aimed at the Growlmon, but others need to be careful to not get caught in the fringes of the powerful vortex either!

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham soon realizes that Rebecca is firing a weapon, lifting herself up from where the EMP pulse that Gaonoir caused had stunned her. She had to pull herself up and back, getting into the line of the action, lest she accidentally be hit by all the different attacks heading towards the enemy. Could she even fall victim to the Snorlax's Yawn attack? She somehow didn't want to find out.

     When Gaonoir tries to snap it's scarf-like appendage at the young human, Ferham is there to meet it with a whip of her own--trying to actually 'catch' Gao's attack and pull it back and away from Rebecca before it hits her. This is of course going to at least lead to an awesome tug of war.

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
"Niiiiiiiiiiiiine!" shrills Foxfire as she sees the Black Vortex being launched; a billowing aura of golden light flares up around her, followed by her eyes shining bright blue, and she attempts to counter the Black Gaogamon's attack with a Fire Spin - literally attempting to burn the darkness away, it seems.

Fiera does not really seem to respond to Kiritol she's too focused on managing her Digimon - or possibly she's too deeply in sync with one or the other of them to focus on a little thing like holding up her part of a conversation. With the mostly lack of success of her Yawn, though, Futon wobbles to her feet and stomps over to Black Gaogamon, just trying to swat him upside the head.

It bears noting that a Snorlax tends to hit like a sumo wrestler, except arguably harder. They don't usually resort to physical attacks; that might be for the better given how big your average Snorlax is.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    Rebecca squeezes her eyes shut, preparing for the worst. But then she opens them and finds that Ferham has a 'grip' on the situation at hand. She gives Ferham a thumbs up before pulling back a little, attempting to fix the safety on her Beretta which has suddenly jammed. Worst possible time too...

Duke has posed:
The Growlmon X growls at Gaonoir as he brings up 'knight' and his eyes narrow sharply. He snorts out flames from his nostrils, though he looks over to Doran. "Hard. Combat. Virus. Trying!" He snaps that last part out before he watches the human attempt to use the fire extinguisher to to put out the fires. "Help him!" He asks Doran, as he goes to focus back on the Gao-species.

The Growlmon X leaps over Gaonoir's attack which Ferham counters and then goes running right for the other Digimon, his large claw feet carrying him quickly. Even as the Shadow spiral comes to life and is flung toward him, he does stop.

Instead in watching the Fox Pokemon activate her own counter, he leaps to one side, his body impacting against the side of a building as his claws dig in for a moment, before he shoves off the building and then goes to slam both of his feet into the side of the Dog-bear just as Snorlax goes to smack him. Impact Combo!

Once his feet impact him or ground, he flips around and roars out which shakes the very buildings slightly and the windows. He snarls his teeth. "No knight." He at last replies. "But will protect!"

Doran (695) has posed:
Doran grabs a big mouthful of water from the (broken fire hydrant) geyser, spitting water at the fire that might be too high or too far for Kazuto's fire extinguisher. As such, he's completely unable to protect Rebecca from Gaonoir's reprisal, though Ferham seems to have that covered.

Upon Gaonoir releasing his Black Vortex attack, Doran digs his claws into the concrete and tucks his wings in close to avoid getting pulled in as well. At the Black Gaogamon's taunt, though, his head whips around as he snarls, "You created this entire situation solely to draw us out, completely ignorant or uncaring of the innocents who almost caught in the crossfire? !" He flares his wings and draws himself up to full height, his Digicore Interface glowing faintly. "Clearly you know nothing of being a knight yourself!"

He pulls his head up and back, baring his throat, as energy builds within his mouth. "POWER METAL!" He snaps his head forwards, launching a large metal ball at Gaonoir from his mouth with startling accuracy -- and quite possibly /through/ the shadowy/fiery tornado (if Foxfire's Fire Spin counter works).

Gaonoir has posed:
While the shadow beast has little trouble fighting multiple opponents, normally they are all coming at in one group trying to overcome his durability, rather than acting from different options at once. Ferham intercepting the strike at Rebecca and hauling on her whip yanks him to the side, causing the angle of his attack to go off from the vector it was intended. Combined with the counter-spiral from the Fire Spin, it's enough of a dispositioning to give Duke the room to slam into a wall instead of getting blasted, and try to close in on the beast.

A big dousage of water helps finish what Kirito started, keeping the flames from spreading to any of the actual buildings.

Black Gaogamon does turn his gaze towards the reploid after his attack, eyes darkening. The scarf-whip snaps away from her as it untangles from her whip... And instead the shades around her leap to life, his Shadowplay power grabbing onto her and trying to drag her into the darkened alley they spawned from.

Then he turns back to the rest of the fight... just in time for Duke to whallop him from the side. It knocks him the other way, which is right into the Snorlax's own slow but steady blow. Rocking backwards from the combination the bear-wolf staggers in reverse, then finally drops down to all fours.

The metal cannonball is -caught- in his jaws, and after a pitched creaking and cracking as he bites down, shatters into bits. He spits a few out, then turns his gaze back to Doran.

And then he laughs, deep and distorted, sounding almost like a hyena's howl instead of a wolf for the moment. "Knight? Oh I am no knight." That unnerving predatory smile has returned to his expression.

"I'm their shadow."

But even the warrior knows he's not familiar with dealing with such diversity in opponents, he's not had enough experience with this 'Multiverse' yet. So he leaves them with that ominous reply. Ferham would get a close-up view as he leaps over her and into the alleyway his shadow manipulation tried to drag her into.

But by the time she or anyone else looks again he's gone, disappeared into the shadows the same way he had initially emerged from them.

Just a haunting, distorted echo of his laughter is left to say good-bye.

Duke has posed:
The Growlmon X attempts to follow, but he doesn't have the energy to put into the speed any further, the strange darker color on his side can be seen tearing slightly open as he grits his teeth in pain, before he body starts to glow gently.

It wasn't to much longer after his body glows down it revert back down to the four foot dino-dragon Digimon with his ear fins pulled back and a snarl still on his face. His tail whipping side to side in annoyance as his gold eyes glare.

Though he takes note of the fires at last dieing out and then glances over the destruction in the area, before he turns to everyone. "Is everyone alright?"

Though he does trot over to Ferham to make sure she is also ok and then snarls at the shadows. "And we'll get you! Who-- who ever you are!" Like that is honestly going to do any good.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
    By the time Rebecca has got her gun unjammed, it seems things have passed. She scowls and shakes her head, holstering her Beretta. "Damn it, I had to miss out on getting him because of my gun jamming." She looks to Ferham and adds, "And I'm surprised that you would try to aid me, even if it's indirectly." She apparently recognizes that Ferham is a Confederate elite.

    After her comments, Rebecca heads over to where the enemy was previously, hoping to find possible clues as to what happened.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     As Ferham restled to try and keep the limb from pounding on Rebecca, she was taken back by the sudden assault of the weird shadows. She was picked up and carried off, more or less, giving a bit of a shriek as they hauled her away and off into one of the nearby alleyways. Whoops. Guess the valkyrie's attempt at heroics has backfied on her...

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
"I'm all right, so are Futon and Foxfire," Fiera answers Duke as she straightens up from her crouch. "Good job, everyone ..." She tosses a Pokeblock into the Snorlax's mouth before recalling her, but Foxfire stays out, sitting on her haunches next to Fiera. "Sorry about not introducing myself earlier; I'm Fiera Kitsun, a Pokemon trainer."

Yeah, just 'a trainer,' ignore the sword on her back.

Doran (695) has posed:
Doran stops cold when Gaonoir catches his Power Metal attack and shatters it with a bite -- and with no harm caused. He knows Gaogamon are Adult-level Digimon, like Dorugamon and Growlmon-X, and surely a black variant should be no different... right? Yet he's acting almost like a Perfect...

His head dips down as he takes a threatening step forwards at Gaonoir's response, but the black Digimon seems to have lost interest in fighting. He does not relax until his buzzing headache finally fully abates and that lingering sense of familiarity fades with it.

He foregoes an introduction for the moment as he immediately bolts off after Ferham, mainly to ensure she's alright after Gaonoir's shadow trick.

Kirito has posed:
    "yeah. more or less." States Kazuto, who's warily standing b the corner of an alley again with the flames sppressed. Fire extinguisher still in hand!

    "Looks like trouble happens no matter where you go in the Multiverse. What about you guys?"

    No he doesn't seem to be bothered to be talking to a Digimon in the slightest.

Duke has posed:
Duke gives a nuzzle to Ferham to make sure she is alright, with some concern in those gold eyes. He looks over his shoulders to Rebecca as she goes to investigate further, then looks over to Fiera Kitsun. "I would say nice to meet you, but... these circumstances are not the best." He looks a bit sad as he says that. "I'm Duke." He gives a nod of his head, before he looks over to Doran who is probably giving Ferham a hand. "That is Doran."

"And your a Pokemon Trainer?" The Guilmon X cants his head as he looks back at Fiera, "So your like Alexis then." Then his eye ridges furrow. "...and hopefully nothing like Lute."

Duke shakes his head to Kirito and frowns softly. "Don't know. I thought it may be another Exile, like the last one... or maybe like us and just be confused... but him..." Duke sneers a bit. "...There was something very /different/ about him."

Rebecca would find at the original building that the glass had been blasted from inside out. Nothing was messed with or missing, but there was one tower and computer area that was /fried/. As if it had exploded or some massive electrical interference happened to cause it to burn up.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Uhhnn..." Ferham was a little stunned by her magic carpet ride of sorts courtesy of the shadows, but when she feels Duke nuzzling at her, a gloved hand rises to pat along the digimon's snout. "What happened? Where is that creature that attacked us?" the fembot pulled herself up, shaking her head a little before slowly getting to her feet. She was unhurt, seemingly, but just a little shaken from her brush with Gaonoir. "Is everyone alright?" she peered between Kirito, Duke, Rebecca and Doran.

Kirito has posed:
    "I just said yeah." Kazuto responds, looking over a shoulder. he doesn't seem like he wanted to stick around and had turned to start walking away soon, but now he's kind of wide-eyed while looking over a shoulder as if worried about the repeat question.

    Except he really wasn't walking away, just heading to a different angle to survey the smoldering mess where there was a fire earlier...

    "Exile? This have something to do with the strange cafe mess?"

Duke has posed:
Duke looks over to Ferham and shrugs his small shoulders, looking slightly hopeless. "It looked like a Gaomon... or the species of... but..." He looks back at the alley. "Never seen one like /that/ before." His eye ridges narrow in thought, though when Kirito speaks up, Duke looks over to him.

"Not sure. When we Digimon Digivolve we tend to cause a bit of disturbance to electronics around the area, but not like he did." His gold eyes look at the cafe. "I once fried some hard-drives though when I warped, but.... that is not a common event."

The Guilmon X then looks over to some screens that he remember showed the Digimon language on it and then in english the evolution. His gold eyes narrow slightly in thought about that. His tail flicking gently. "He is dangerous though." Is all Duke can confirm. "...but we Exiles may cause our language to appear on screens... but..." Something just isn't adding up.

"He knew we would come here to investigate." Duke at last adds in thought before growls softly. "But how did he know..." The Guilmon X looks at the others. "Doran and I are heading back to Alexis' Ranch. If something comes up, I'll contact over global." Then the Guilmon X is off!

Fiera Kitsun (262) has posed:
Fiera smiles thinly, and bows politely to Duke and Doran; in fact, Foxfire bows slightly as well. "It's good to meet you both, and I should hope I'm more like Alexis and not at all even remotely like Lute. I've got a few scores that need to be settled with him, but - that'll come in its own time. This is Foxfire, and the big one you saw a bit ago is Futon."

She ponders briefly, but the Digimon seem to need to be on their way, so she waves to the Guilmon X as Duke sets off - and files away that tidbit about where Duke is heading.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Urgh, you know Lute?" Ferham is surprised to hear his name here, looking over to Kitsun, finally getting back up on her feet. "I recognized your guardians, Pokemon, correct? Yeah, he uses those, I'd certainly hope you're nothing like him," Ferham smirked a little, folding her arms around her chest. "For now though, I need to go check up on my friend, and run some diagnostics, I'm worried the EMP from before might have damaged me, watch out for yourself out there," Fer gave Fiera a wave before she spread her wings and took off.