Chapter 1: Paved with good intentions

It didn’t take long for Van, Alyss, their digimon companions, and the Kokuwamon to navigate to where the thugs were left. Alyss looked at the individuals, restrained, with their digimon nearby. Kokuwamon began to charge up its electricity as it saw them. Alyss held up her hand in front of the Kokuwamon, kneeling down to the man in the polo shirt. She shook him a bit, and he woke up quickly. “Who… oh hi there-” The man said flirtily, staring at Alyss. He began to look around, and noticed the Kokuwamon and Van behind her. His tone shifted as he began to spoke. “O…Oh…”
“Why did you attack the Kokuwamon?” The man looked between Alyss and the Kokuwamon. “W…well I-”
“And don’t lie,” Van added, stepping up closer behind Alyss. The man looked around, and sighed. “Look… I only know a few things about digimon. Something I do know however is that digimon grow by beating up others. So I wanted to make sure that Kodokugumon would grow quickly.”
“Y…You’re kidding… Just that?” The man shrugged lightly, looking straight up at Alyss. “It’s what I know works for raising my digimon.”
“Yeah, in the games. But these digimon… they’re different. They’re real!” Alyss said gesturing to Betamon. “Have you talked to Kodokugumon at all?” The man just shook his head. “No, they’re just data. Why would I?” Alyss stood sighing. She walked over to the spider from before, gently waking him. “Kodokugumon?” The spider jumped up, noticing his tamer restrained. “Wait, don’t-”
“We won’t hurt him, but we need to talk.” Alyss did her best to look into the Kodokugumon’s face disarmingly, ignoring the extremely large spider in front of her. “Your tamer here-”
“Joseph-” Alyss nodded, looking over to the man in the Polo. “Joseph you say-”
“Yeah… I’ve been his digimon partner for months on his bracelet…” Alyss nodded, still not breaking eye contact from Joseph. Joseph’s expression began to turn confused. “Since you’ve been his partner for a bit… Does Joseph have a favorite food?”
“Oh, he loves Paella, but if you don’t use freshly bloomed Saffron it just doesn’t taste right to him.” Alyss turned back to Kodokugumon smiling. “He also really loves to cook and-”
“Kodokugumon…” Joseph said, looking at the large spider. “Y…How do you know all this?” The Kodokugumon turned to Joseph in confusion. “W…well you’d talk about it with me. You’d be cooking, and you’d just talk about your wants and such. You’d complain about Paella not made with Saffron, you’d get mad about work, and you’d talk about how you really wanted Lacey to notice you from the local coffee shop.”
“Really?” Alyss smiled, offering headpats to the Kodokugumon. The Kodokugumon pressed its head into Alyss’s hand, nuzzling softly. Alyss had a stream of shivers up her spine, before calming down. “Do you get it Joseph?” Alyss said, standing up. “These digimon are real. They have memories. They have people they care about.” Kodokugumon waddled over towards Joseph, resting next to him. Joseph looked at the Kokuwamon. “Wait… are you-”
“A survivor of your onslaught? Yes.” Joseph looked down. “A…and you’re real?” The electricity arcing between the Kokuwamon’s hands crackled with anger. “I… I’m sorry.” Joseph began to bow his head, as much as he could with the restraints. The Kokuwamon still crackled with electricity, as Van got between them. “Look you don’t have to accept his apology but-” The Kokuwamon discharged some of the electricity, but Van didn’t flinch. “I… I knew it… You humans…” The Kokuwamon began to glow in a yellow light, growing. “Kokuwamon,” Alyss shouted, “We don’t want to fight. We just wanted to make him understand… We just wanted to show you that we are able to learn and adjust our ways!” Kokuwamon’s form became more rounded, with a large central area. Its near black metal coating turned to more of a copper brown, with parts lined in a soft Bronze. “Digivolve to… Guardromon!” As the light faded, the steampunk robot stood in front of Van and Alyss, the anger visible in its eyes. “Humans… Destructive… Deadly… A threat to us… Must remove the-” Guardromon was thrown off by the flames that deflected off the metal surface. Agumon stood determined next to Van, glaring at the Guardromon. “Van, he’s gone off the deep end.” Betamon jumped next to Agumon, charging up its electricity. “Alyss, we need to help,” Betamon said, staring at the Guardromon with determination. Alyss turned to Joseph, whose face was blue with fear. “Kodokugumon… Can you get him out of those webs? And the rest?” Kodokugumon looked between Alyss and Joseph before nodding. “I’ll do my best!” Alyss nodded, turning to Van. “Let’s beat this one together.” Van squared up, observing the Guardromon. “Hey Alyss… Where would you punch a Guardromon to hurt it?” Guardromon’s eyes began to glow a deep red. Alyss tackled Van as flashes of light turned some of the nearby tree to charcoal as it illuminated them. “Van, I wouldn’t punch it. Guardromon are dangerous-” Agumon jumped forward, slashing at Guardromon, who seemed unphased by the claws bouncing off it’s tough metal outside. Guardromon slapped Agumon aside, still staring at Joseph. “Alyss-”
“I’m thinking-” Another flash of light, Alyss reached out for Joseph, but was too slow, as she let out a yell. Before she could even reach out, Kodokugumon jumped up, pushing Joseph out of the way, getting struck by the beams from the Guardromon. Joseph, now freed from the restraints, squeezed Kodokugumon. “Are… are you okay Joseph?” The weakness in Kodokugumon’s voice was clear. Starting from it’s injury, data began to pass into the air. Joseph nodded furiously, looking at the giant spider on top of him. “But what about you-” Kodokugumon began shaking its head softly. “We… we digimon… We’re never gone permanently…” Tears began to roll down Joseph’s face, the sounds of Guardromon’s footsteps approaching Joseph were hard to ignore. “No… No, not Kodokugumon…” As Joseph squeezed his partner, there was a momentary peace, before Kodokugumon burst, a large egg being left behind, covered in purple and lavender stripes. “I… I just learned…  I just learned that you were…” Joseph said Weakly, Guardromon closing in on him.

Alyss and Van watched as the Guardromon towered over Joseph. “Guardromon… its got extremely tough paneling… We’d need our own champions to break it easily…” Alyss reached into her pocket pulling out her phone, and pointing it to Betamon. “Alyss what are you-”
“I’m hoping for something good to happen… Please!” Alyss cried out, squeezing her eyes. After a moment of nothing happening, she grabbed a rock, and threw it at Guardromon. With a harmless ting noise, it bounced off the shell of the guardromon, who did momentarily stop. “Alyss,” Van started, “You got his attention. Now what-” Guardromon turned towards Alyss and Van, walking towards them. “Must… Destroy… Humans…” The synthetic voice rang through the Air as Alyss looked around the area for anything. Betamon jumped in the way, firing off an electric shock. It connected with the Guardromon, leaving a slightly discolored area. “Alyss, Run!” Betamon shouted as he held his ground. “Now without everyone…” Alyss said, still observing the area. “Alyss, we need a plan.” Van said, getting into his usual fighting stance. “Betamon, Agumon, can you focus on the area that Betamon hit?” Betamon nodded, as Agumon got into a similar fighting stance as Van, next to Betamon. “No Agumon, with your pepper breath attack, don’t try and punch him,” Van added in. “You don’t want to get hit by Betamon’s electricity.” The thought dawned on Agumon, who began to charge up a pepper breath. They fired off attacks, connecting with the same spot as before from the Guardromon. “Van,” Alyss whispered. “Try and get the eyes with a rock. If we can at least do something about that then maybe we’ll have a chance?” Van nodded, immediately picking up small rocks. The Guardromon, annoyed by the onslaught of attacks raised it’s right arm, a small silver missile shell with eyes and a red warning light on top of it. “Everyone move-” Van shouted, as the missile shot straight towards them. Van and Agumon jumped one way, Betamon jumping another. Alyss jumped back, the missile landing close enough to still hit her with some of the debris. “Damn it…” Alyss said, brushing off some of the dirt. As she looked up, she noticed Guardromon looking straight at her. “Uhm…” Guardromon held up its arm again, another missile rising from it. “O…Oh no…”
“Alyss!” Betamon called out as the missile fired off. The area immediately was bathed in blue light, a muffled pinging coming from Alyss’s phone. There was an explosion sound as the light began to dissipate. Betamon had been missing, instead a large serpent creature, with its hide a soft teal, the occasional red stripe, and a white underbelly. It had a yellow helmet-like piece on it’s head with smoke coming off of it having intercepted the missile, it’s mouth full of sharpened fangs. “Seadramon-” Alyss called out in surprise. Alyss noticed as she held her hand forward, it was glowing a faint but dark blue. “Alyss…” The seadramon straightened up, towering over the Guardromon. “Seadramon you can use your ice breath to maybe weaken it’s hull.” Seadramon smirked, charging forward at the Guardromon. “Gladly,” he said cheerfully, coiling around it, and angling downward. Seadramon, opened his mouth, letting out a torrent of frost. “Van,” Alyss called out. “As soon as Seadramon’s breath attack stops, have Agumon aim for that spot before-” Van chuckled. “He can hear you ya know, just tell him.” Van nodded towards Agumon who returned his nod. Van ran over, grabbing Agumon, and tossing him up onto Seadramon’s coiled tail. As the frost breath weakened, Agumon inhaled deeply, and began to shoot his pepper breath into the Guardromon. Agumon took another deep breath and fired off again, repeating his onslaught of pepper breath. The cracking of Guardromon’s armor was loud, it was struggling to move due to the frost coating most of its body, and the coiled Seadramon around it. Finally, Seadramon loosened his coil, letting the Guardromon fall to its back. The armor that covered it was cracked, nearly shattered fully. Data began to drift off of it into the sky. Alyss ran over, putting her hand on the Guardromon as a tear ran down her cheek. “I’m… I’m sorry Guardromon…” Alyss tried staring the Guardromon in the eyes, as its synthetic voice rang out from the cracked metal. “W…why do you cry… human…”
“Because you’re dying…” Seadramon hovered over Alyss. “He’ll be reborn, in the village of beginnings with the other Kokuwamon that were-” Alyss turned looking up at Seadramon. “Even so… He didn’t have to… He could’ve kept on living, and made a nice home for them to return to…” Seadramon looked down to Alyss, a bit dejected. “No… No you’re right… Guardromon, can you forgive her? Please… She… She doesn’t want digimon to lose their lives if she can help it.” The Guardromon looked between Alyss and Seadramon, though Alyss had not turned away from Seadramon. “Guardromon, if you’re going to hate one of us, hate me, the one that made it so you could be defeated,” Seadramon continued. There was almost a chuckle that came from the armored digimon, before a few coughs. “I… I am sorry… Human… Friend of digimon,” Guardromon began. “We… we were told… to hate humans… then we were attacked… you gave me hope for revenge… but it was… wrong.” Alyss turned back to the Guardromon, as Van walked over to it. “Other human… you had… strong eyes… No hesitation… You will balance her kindness well… Keep-” Van held his hand up. “Alyss is a great friend. I won’t let something happen to her.” Guardromon’s eyes seemed to smile as they closed. Finally, Guardromon dissipated, the data flying into the air around them

There was a moment of Silence, before Alyss stood up, walking over to Joseph. Joseph looked up at her, clutching his digiegg. “Listen to me,” she whispered, “You need to change… You can’t just think this is a game… What would you do if that Guardromon killed you or your other friends?” Alyss looked down to the digiegg. “The ones that won’t come back.” Joseph looked down to it. “We… We didn’t think this was real… We figured we were just… dreaming or in some beta test we didn’t remember signing up for…”
“And now?” Joseph shook his head. “I don’t plan to do anything stupid now. If nothing else, I want to help raise Kodokugumon to be… Well… To be himself at least.” Alyss nodded, turning away. “We’re going to need to convince your friends too. Cause if they won’t change how they feel about digimon… Then I’m not going to help them out…” 
“H…Help them out? What do you mean?” Van walked over as Joseph asked this question. “Don’t recognize her? Alyss is a digimon content creator. She spends her free time studying digimon. I tend to join in, though we joke that she drags me along.”
“Wait… what? What does that have to-”
“I have a fairly good memory when I research something. As long as I’m not feeling sick or having a foggy mental day, I’ll be able to recall it.” Joseph stared between Van and Alyss and shook his head. “Guess… Guess I got a bit lucky.” As they were talking, a small green caterpillar, with a purple beak and black lightning bolts along it’s side crawled down a tree. As it seemed to realize everyone nearby, it began to shake. “Oh, a Dokunemon,” Alyss said, kneeling down about 10 feet away. Joseph made an audible gasp, before Alyss spoke over him. “Not very talkative by nature, but they’re docile creatures. Whenever I’d play games that involved Kunemon or Dokunemon I often try to guess what they’re going to say. If I were to guess… Afraid of the Seadramon?” The Dokunemon nodded its head softly, staring between Alyss and Seadramon. “It’s okay… we’re friendly. Tell me, do you know somewhere we may meet other humans?” The Dokunemon turned, and nudged it’s head to gesture. “Perfect, thank you Dokunemon. We’ll be out of your home soon, so please tolerate us a bit longer okay?” The Dokunemon seemed to shiver for a moment before nodding its head and heading back up the tree. Alyss turned back to Seadramon. “Speaking of… So… Are you a Seadramon full time now or-” As she asked, Seadramon shrunk down almost instantly, reverting back to Betamon, wearing a tired expression. “Nevermind. That answers that,” Alyss said, tapping her chin gently. Van gestured to the 2 unconscious individuals. “Should we deal with them now?” Alyss sighed, heading over to the Mushroomon tamer, shaking him awake gently. As he opened his eyes, seeing Alyss, a smile crept across his mouth. “Oh hey the-” Alyss covered his mouth, clearly frustrated. “If you’re just gonna try to flirt, I’m gonna cover your mouth.” Annoyed the man shook his head. “Listen to me. This… Game mindset of yours? It stops now.” Alyss lifted her hand from the man’s mouth. “I only want to hear ye-”
“Why you talking like you have any control over what I do?” Alyss shoved him against the tree hard. “Because you’re tied up, and I just had to clean up your mess. If you’d like, I can leave you here alone, tied up.” From behind Alyss, Joseph walked over, still holding the egg. “Ben, you need to listen to her.” Ben looked up to Joseph, taking note of the egg. “What happ-”
“One of the Kokuwamon… it came back for revenge. If not for Alyss and Van here, we would’ve probably been killed.”
“Who is Van-” Ben said looking around. “Wait, that’s the guy that knocked us out! We wouldn’t have been at risk for that if he didn’t-” Van cracked his knuckles. “I’m more than happy to do it again.”
“ENOUGH,” Alyss shouted. She began standing up, but stumbled a bit. Van reached out to steady her, but she held her hand out. “Ben, if you want to stay here tied up, that’s your own call but-” Van put his hand on Alyss’s shoulder. Joseph kneeled down in front of Ben. “Listen to me… These digimon we have aren’t just… Data. You remember the Mushroomon you had on your Pendulum device?” Ben nodded softly as Joseph continued. “That Mushroomon is the same as the one from your pendulum device.” Ben laughed. “Really, you buying this Joseph? You think this guy here is Tommy?” Van couldn’t help but chuckle. “His name is Tom-” Alyss covered Van’s mouth. “Ben, that is Tommy,” Alyss said pointing to the Mushroomon. “Ask him something only Tommy would know. Joseph, can you wake up Tommy?” Joseph nodded, stepping over to Mushroomon, waking him up by shaking him gently. As Mushroomon came to, he noticed Ben being tied up, and punched his fist into his open hand. “Alright, who needs the beating-” Agumon began stepping forward readying his fists, but Betamon jumped in his way. “Tommy, we need you to answer a question for us,” Betamon said. Tommy nodded, still ready to fight. “This better be good.” Ben just stared forward. “W…wait… so… you… no, Tommy was…” Tommy seemed to stare at Ben. “Wait, did you not realize?” Ben just shook his head. Tommy closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “Yeah, it’s me.” Ben stared in disbelief. Alyss began stepping away, walking over to the last guy, but fell to her knees, her breathing labored. “Alyss-” Betamon said, jumping over to her. Van rushed over as well. “Alyss what’s going on-”
“E…exhausted… just going to…” Alyss fell over, closing her eyes. Van went to check Alyss’s pulse, and pulled his hand away. “Betamon, do you know where we can get some cold water? She is running a fever-”
“Betamon nodded, beginning to jump away. “This way, towards where we met up.” Van picked up Alyss, putting her onto his back. “Agumon, I need you to help them. Betamon, can you just lead all of them to where we were? I remember the way fairly well.” Betamon seemed surprised but nodded. “Yeah, we’ll take care of these 3.”