Welcome to Gaia! ::

DexDorugamon roared in pain as its armor was torn apart by the attack. Seeing his opening, ExVeemon fired off one last X-Laser at the hole in DexDorugamon's armor, destroying the Digimon.
As DexDorugamon converted into data, BlackGuilmon relaxed a moment, then frowned. "Odd, he didn't drop the crest... the Digivice DID say that the Crest of Hope was in this general area, right?"
Hyokomon nodded. "Yep, yep. The little blinky dot on the Digivice said it was right around here - I saw!"
BlackGuilmon frowned further. "So if the Crest of Hope wasn't with DexDorugamon... where is it?"
"I can answer that."
BlackGuilmon immediately whirled around to see a female Digimon holding Lekismon hostage, the golden-armored being's club mere centimeters from crushing the rabbitlike Digimon... not to mention the large silver being that towered over them all. "s**t... it's Kinkakumon and Ginkakumon..."
Kinkakumon smirked. "Now, we're going to make a little trade: you give me and my brother BlackGuilmon, and in exchange you get your bunny friend AND the Crest of Friendship, both intact. I'd say that's a fair deal, wouldn't you?"

Leo and Liollmon soon reached the top of the rope before getting on the zipline, contorting their bodies in all sorts of ways in order to avoid being shredded. Mere seconds after they hit the ground once more, the duo were up in the air again, swinging from rope to rope in order to get to the other end of the pit.

"Sure," Jimmy agreed, smiling as he stood and opened the door, "but what exactly are we supposed to pay for the food with? Or were you thinking more along the lines of foraging for food?"

However, Kinkakumon didn't appreciate the input, and made it known by pressing her club a little against Lekismon.
BlackGuilmon grimaced, trying to figure a way out of this and finding none, before finally sighing. "Fine... I'll come with you."
Kinkakumon smirked. "That's a good boy. Now, just walk through the portal there - and girlie, if I catch you or the bear trying to follow, your little bunny here is dead meat." With that, a portal of pure darkness opened up next to Ginkakumon. BlackGuilmon reluctantly headed through the portal, and Kinkakumon smirked before roughly pushing Lekismon toward Sandra, tossing the Crest of Friendship to the human girl as well. "Pleasure doing business with you; bye-bye!" With that, she headed through the portal as well, Ginkakumon somehow managing to follow before it closed behind them, leaving Sandra, Lekismon, Grizzlymon, and Hyokomon standing there with the Crest of Friendship and no BlackGuilmon.

Eventually, the duo reached the other side, Liollmon landing neatly on Leo's shoulder. "All right, now comes the hard part." As if to prove his point, the MadLeomon roared before charging toward them, Liollmon and Leo barely dodging the black lion's Beast-King Fallen Fist, which created a rather impressive crater where they'd been standing a moment ago. "Critical Bite!" Liollmon quickly hopped off Leo's shoulder, pouncing at MadLeomon and sinking his fangs into the mad beast's throat... except that the attack only seemed to cause MadLeomon to go into a rage, wrecking everything around him.

"And even if he can't help us, I know just about everything there is to know about what plants are edible and what plants aren't!" FanBeemon declared proudly, puffing up his chest.
"Databanks indicate 92% of that knowledge was acquired via trial and error," Hagurumon noted matter-of-factly, taking the wind out of FanBeemon's sails.

(Sorry I took so long to reply... I honestly thought I'd already replied to the RPs... sweatdrop )
ExVeemon shook his head solemnly. "Sorry, but from what I can tell, those lot were from the Fallen - a Virus supremacist organization. The Fallen have their base in another dimension, and nobody but another member of the Fallen knows how to get there. Your best bet is to get your other crest so you can stand a better chance the next time you meet one of them."
Hyokomon managed to calm down in time to hear ExVeemon. "Okay, so then we go visit that Sephamamon for the Crest of Hope, right?" He asked innocently.

Leo caught Liollmon as his partner was thrown off. "You okay there, soldier?"
Liollmon jumped out of his partner's arms and growled in reply. "Oh, it is ON! Lion Claw!" He pounced forward and slashed at MadLeomon, not even realizing that he was starting to crackle with electricity. His claw met MadLeomon's fist, and he was thrown back once again. As he met MadLeomon head-to-head again and again, his body crackled with more and more electricity, until finally he started changing.
"Liollmon, digivolve to... LIAMON!"
Needless to say, both Leo's and Commandramon's jaws dropped at their partner's impressive new form. "...Holy s**t..." Even MadLeomon seemed a little wary now.

"Why the hell would I do that? That would be interfering with Sparky's natural mad skills with the ladies!" FanBeemon declared, nodding sagely.
Sparky twitched slightly. "Well, oh perverted one, if I have these 'mad skills' you're talking about, then why, pray tell, have I never had a girlfriend?" he asked dryly.
"Well, if you DON'T have mad skills with the ladies, then why do you have the Crest of Love?" FanBeemon pointed out reasonably... or at least he probably thought it was reasonably.
"Logic indicates that perhaps Jimmy is a closet romantic," Hagurumon piped up in reply to FanBeemon's reasoning, causing Sparky to blush and try to hide in his shirt.

(No, I still want to RP.)

"I think it's Seraphimon," ExVeemon answered dryly, looking rather amused at her copying Hyokomon's mangled pronunciation. "As for where to find him... well, all I know is that the Purified base is a big palace on some kind of mountain somewhere."
Hyokomon blinked before wrinkling his face cutely in concentration. "Par-ace? Is that kinda like a big fancy house with smaller tall houses all 'round it?" he asked hesitantly.
ExVeemon quirked an eyebrow as he turned to the little guy. "Actually, yes. Why, have you seen it?"
Hyokomon tilted his head. "I 'unno... my head feels all fuzzy when I try to think 'bout it too hard..."

"THUNDER OF KING!" A bolt of lightning came from Liamon's mane, slamming into MadLeomon and turning the black lion into an extra-crispy carcass; however, that didn't keep the Digimon down for long, because it quickly got up and retaliated with a Beast-King Fallen Fist -
"CRITICAL STRIKE!"
Only for the punch to be dodged and its throat to be torn open by Liamon's fangs, a blood-covered Crest being torn out with it.
Leo caught the Crest as it flew through the air, cleaning the blood off before putting it in the corresponding tag... only to grimace as he fell to one knee, the pain in his leg coming back tenfold now that the adrenaline had worn off.
SaberLeomon grinned before turning to Christa. "All right, now you can go over to your boyfriend."
Commandramon immediately hurried over to his partners, examining Leo's leg. "Hold still, sir, I'm good at first aid."

BlueMeramon nodded and gave them directions to a good charity restaurant. The group started walking over, only to immediately start going into a run when they saw a fair-sized explosion coming from the approximate location of the restaurant in question. Once they got there, it was easy to see what the cause of the explosion was: a SkullMeramon leading at least three dozen DarkLizardmon on a rampage.

Hyokomon immediately squeaked in fear, scurrying to hide behind Lekismon. "'m tryin' to!" he protested, scared as he tried to remember. Of course, the more he tried to remember, the worse his headache got, until finally... "I r'memb'r a bunch of pretty lights," he murmured, suddenly speaking as if in a trance. "Lots of Piximon standing guard, too... Heavenward Mountain, I think it was...?"
ExVeemon glanced over sharply before nodding to himself. "Certainly fits with the general holier-than-thou Purified attitude to have their base there," he agreed. "If that's the case, you'll want to be going east."

Needless to say, Leo was very, very startled, but definitely wasn't complaining as he soon started kissing her back, enjoying himself.

Sparky nodded, digivolving Hagurumon to Guardromon even as FanBeemon used his 88 Call to call in some reinforcements. The Digimon then rushed into battle, at least managing to hold their own against the horde of DarkLizardmon.

ExVeemon nodded. "Well, see ya." With that, he started the fairly long walk back home.
Hyokomon and the others started walking, following Sandra; however, as time went on and the scenery changed more and more, Hyokomon started leading the others instead of following, seeming to remember more and more about where they were going. Eventually, a single mountain came into sight, and Hyokomon went from walking to running, scurrying toward the mountain with surprising speed for poultry with stubby legs dressed in an eggshell. "C'mon, c'mon, we're getting close!"

Leo smiled back. "Well, what can I say? I'm a fantastic guy," he quipped.
Liamon smiled and watched them... though he got the distinct impression he was forgetting something, something important...
Unfortunately, the moment was short-lived; Commandramon noticed some movement from the "corpse" and immediately opened fire on it. "M16 Assassin!" However, rather than staying there and being filled with bullet holes, MadLeomon suddenly came to life once more, dodging the attack.
Liamon growled. "s**t! I forgot, MadLeomon are Undead Digimon - tearing the throat out only slows them down! Thunder of King!" A bolt of lightning came from his mane, striking the revived MadLeomon.
Unfortunately, that didn't do much as MadLeomon was surrounded by a familiar glow... "MADLEOMON DIGIVOLVE TO... MADLEOMON ARMED MODE!" With that, everyone had to scatter as MadLeomon Armed Mode did its The Lion Sleeps Tonight attack.
Unfortunately, Leo, with his injured leg, didn't get very far before stumbling and falling. He glared defiantly at his berserk, chainsaw-wielding opponent, fully ready to meet his end with the determined defiance of a soldier...
"Commandramon, digivolve to... Sealsdramon!" Needless to say, Leo was very surprised when the newly digivolved Sealsdramon deflected the chainsaw skillfully with its knife. "You all right, sir?"
Leo slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine... congrats on digivolving."
"Thank you, sir."
Then a new voice came from behind MadLeomon. "Damn... I was hoping that stupid lion would at least maim you a little. Still, I suppose that just goes to show you how weak all you little kitties are - even the Undead ones." A Cerberumon stepped out of the shadows and grinned ferally at the group. "Still, I suppose I like it better this way - your blood will taste oh so delicious. Maddog Fire!"
"Thunder of King!"
Lightning met fire, just barely managing to cancel each other out. Cerberumon frowned, growling as he saw Liamon. "Ah, yes, you... I think I'll particularly enjoy rending you limb from limb. MadLeomon, be a good little kitty and keep trying to kill the Digidestined of Determination."
Sealsdramon was about to rush to help Liamon, but was instead forced to defend the still-down Leo once more, though he was having trouble even with the help SaberLeomon was now providing, since the berserk MadLeomon was attacking from all angles with its chainsaw.

The BlackLizardmon were rather quickly dropping in number; unfortunately, as luck would have it, FanBeemon soon found himself facing SkullMeramon. "Hoh boy." He was quickly forced to start dodging Metal Fireballs, intercepting what he couldn't dodge using his Gear Stinger attack.

Hyokomon immediately stopped, looking rather sheepish. "Sowwy..." Once the others had caught up, he began leading them again, this time at a slower pace.

Fortunately, Reptiledramon's attack managed MadLeomon to back off enough that Sealsdramon could use a new ability of his. "Scouter Monoeye!" Immediately statistics flashed on his eye, a series of numbers that, to Sealsdramon's well-trained mind, showed just what to do. He vanished into the shadows, soon reappearing behind MadLeomon. "Death Behind!" His knife sliced through MadLeomon's leg, cutting it off and causing the lionlike zombie to become off-balance. "Now! Aim for the head!"
Liamon and Cerberumon, meanwhile, were locked in a duel to the death, every flash of lightning meeting a stream of fire, every claw-slash met with another claw-slash. However, it slowly became evident that Liamon was going to lose...

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work; instead, SkullMeramon simply seemed to absorb the fire into those flaming chains of his before blasting a particularly hot Metal Fireball at Flaremon.
FanBeemon struggled, eventually managing to slip out of Reppamon's grip and hurry back toward the battle, since he knew Flaremon wouldn't stand a chance. Fun fact about Meramon-species Digimon: since they were basically humanoid masses of flame, more fire only made them stronger. (Note: I have no idea if that's true in the show or not, but it WOULD make sense.) However, as he made his way back to the battle between SkullMeramon and Flaremon, he never noticed the slight glow he was gaining that indicated he was going to digivolve soon...