Our group of heroes have been separated by a cruel twist of fate. Max and Fang manage to pull out of it and now their first step is to gather fresh supplies for their journey when they are suddenly taken for a wild ride neither of them expect.

All Characters belong to me.
Digimon is copyrighted and owned by Bandai.

Enjoy!! ^^

---

Old West

Max clung onto Fang's armor as they were tossed into the distance. The strain of fighting against the wind was becoming unbearable, until Max had an idea form in his head. "Fang, I want you to brace yourself." The Guilmon let go of Fang's gauntlet, but just as quickly formed a rope of light around it coming from his paw pad. "Alright...now let's hope this works..." Max gritted his teeth as the wind tore at his body, but he willed his other paw forward, then swung the rope downward.


It didn't take Fang much longer to realize what Max was planning, when he made a 180 loop below the Guilmon, he used his own force to drag Max down, the two of them using one another as anchors until they managed to find their way back to the ground, at which point they kept their bodies pinned to the ground using light energy in a way one might use glue to stick on paper, now they just had to wait for the storm to pass.


They would be locked in place for a good hour, but once the gale force winds stopped blowing, they were covered in large clumps of dirt which they dragged themselves out of. Max started cleaning off his body with a sigh. "Alright...that wasn't the most pleasant experience."


"Bleh...at least you don't have dirt and sand riding up your legs..." Fang complained, removing his grieves to clean out the dirt trapped inside before reattaching them. "That was some pretty quick thinking. What made you think to swing us back down to land?"


Max took his time responding, choosing to look at his surroundings and his digivice before doing so. "It was what Hilt said. He said the Darkness had other plans. I think the current would have swept us right into a trap, and I didn't want us going into a place we know nothing about without being rightly prepared."


Looking around, Fang took his digivice out as well and looked pleased. "Well according to this map on my digivice...we're close to a settlement. As strange as it sounds."


"Wait! Your map is working here? All I have is a large black space on the digivice." Max looked over to Fang's display, everything looked clear as day. "How is it that you have a full detailed map of the place. We've never stepped foot in this place."


That got a blush out of Fang, who shared the details of the map to his brother's digivice. "A glitch I guess?"


Raising an eyeridge, Max sized up the Gaomon's expression before smirking. "Fine don't tell me. I'll find out sooner or later, but I hope that it's not forced out of you."


"Is that a threat?!" Fang cried out, stepping over to Max, baffled.


"No!" Max sweatdropped and scratched his head. "If it has to do with your training, I'm hoping you don't have to use it. IF anything I'd like to keep you as far away from the battlefield as possible."


Fang's gaze softened a bit as he patted Max on the shoulder, stepping forward to follow his map. "I'd like to be able to do the same for you. I hate seeing you have to go out into battle every time something like this happens. Even more so when all I can do is provide tactical support from afar."


That got a small chuckle out of the Guilmon, though it was more like a giggle. "You're a brilliant wolf bro. And I value your input. And the fact that you've stood with me since the very beginning? Others would think being near me is a health hazard."


"I stood with you because even if you didn't know it at the time, we were still brothers. And I only ever wanted to get to know you. I won't leave your side." Fang promised with a big smile.


That got Max to pounce onto the Gaomon, who struggled under the weight of the dino but laughed, letting his brother ride piggyback as the approached the supposed settlement. It looked like a town you'd imagine in an old western movie, except every roof was missing, support beams strewn along the street as some buildings were already coming down upon themselves. There were no digimon in the town which struck both brothers as odd. But then again, the place looked like it'd been abandoned for years. "This place used to be full of life." Fang muttered quietly, shifting a bit under his load and started moving into the town.


"Despite you saying you're not the strongest member of our group...you're sporting rather hefty armor and carrying ME. Wait...did you say USED to be? So you HAVE been here before." Max wiggled off of Fang to examine some of the ruined buildings.


"More like a sense of deja vu than having actually been here. I didn't come to the digital world until I hitched a ride with you. And even then I've always been with the group..." Fang replied quickly, running a paw against one of the wooden beams then sighed. "Comeon. There's a tavern that should have some useful supplies...Not food but there's a good chance there's still a source of water."


Max followed Fang inside, looking a bit skeptical. "You're the boss. It seems like you know more about this place than I do." The Tavern looked pretty clean, despite the missing roof there seemed to be very few clumps of dirt. And aside from the weeds growing in the corners it looked like it could be up for buisiness.


The duo started combing the Tavern for any sort of supplies they could find, and interestingly enough, Fang did find what looked to be a fridge packed with soda, but that struck him as odd. "Hey Max I found some soda here...but that's not possible..."


"Wait...soda?!" He looked shocked, but sat down near the closest table he could find as Fang brought over two cans of orange soda.


Fang nodded, taking a deep breath as he used his digivice to scan each can to make sure it was safe before sitting down himself. "It's man made soda too. Not digital, that's the weird part. Someone's been in this town. And I don't know who but this tavern was known for it's sweet tasting ale. Beast type digimon used to come in here in swarms."


There was a phsssh sound as Max opened his can, using his own light to purify it just in case the scan from the digivice happened to miss any lethal poisons or viruses. "So then...if it's man made then it's someone who's been to OUR world and doing so frequently."


"I don't like the thought of that. This is the Dark network...and the thuoght of someone coming to our world is disturbing." Fang pointed out, taking a small sip.


"Who'se to say it's a digimon?" He asked, putting his arm on the table. "There are plenty in our homeworld that could find their way here."



There was a sudden rustling sound to their right, which both mons turned to see where it had come from. "I think we have a guest..." Max muttered quietly. He set his drink down and approached the direction of the sound. He lifted up a rotted floor board and blinked when spotted two blue eyes poking out from the shadows. "I see you. May as well come on out."


For a moment, a black paw slid out of the crevice, but just as quickly snatched the digivice on Max's person before dissapearing back inside. "Ack! Hey! That's mine!" He groaned, then dove into the dark underground of the Tavern. For a moment Fang just watched from his seat, hearing all sorts of crashing and growling, and for a moment he could have sworn he heard the sound of glass breaking. A couple minutes longer, Max came back, both paws grabbing onto a pair of Black feetpaws, dragging out a Bearmon from the floorboards. "That'll teach ya to steal from me!"


"Gah!! I'm sorry please don't hurt me!" The Bearmon pleaded, paws gripping the floor boards as he was dragged out towards the table.


"Why did you steal from me in the first place?" Max asked, crossing his arms as he digitized his digivice so that wouldn't happen again.


"I...don't know. I thought I could use your gadget to sell for some bits. I'm really sorry!" The Bearmon started sniffling a bit, then started bawling right out.


Max blinked, not quite expecting the rookie to start crying right off the bat and sweatdropped. "Hey...hey it's alright. But erm...WHY did you need bits so badly?"


The Bearmon sniffled a bit, wiping his snout. "Well...Food out here is scarce...and what vendors there ARE out here price their wares super high! I can barely afford a single loaf of bread."


"That's outrageous!" Max exclaimed, looking horrified as he looked at the sniffling Ursine. "This place is absolutely deserted...how can anybody live here."


The bearmon tilted his head, before raising an eyeridge. "You guys aren't...from around here are you? This place...heck this whole WORLD used to be an amazing place! It was vibrant! Full of color, and everybody enjoyed the wonders of the world. That is until war broke out...The dragons of the East wanted our land for themselves...and we wanted theirs so that we could build better houses. The war was so intense this world eventually grew cold...or so I've been told by my parents. The color was practically drained from the soil itself and eventually all that remained was chaos..."


Fang looked startled by that realization and came to understand it. "This is the old digital world...IT's like Victorygreymon said when we entered this place. This Dark network is the remnants of what remained of the old digital world. But I never thought that descendants of the digimon that lived in that era still existed."


"So you're saying that while SOME digimon were transported to the new world in Yggdrasil's own making...there were a few that never made it out of this place?" Max was baffled, and horrified at the realization. "How...and Why didn't everyone leave?!?"


This made the Bearmon shrug, who simply sighed. "Some of them didn't want to go. They were afraid of a whole new world without understanding what it would mean, or what they would experience."


Fang didn't like that thought, and he could only think of how rough life must be here. "But...surely exploring a new world would be better than having to struggle in this one right? Everyone in the new digital world is at peace...there are treaties between the four great regions and there hasn't been war in centuries."


Max nodded in agreement, taking out a loaf of bread from his digivice and handing it to the Bearmon, who looked confused for a moment but bit into the bread. "That means that this Dark network isn't just a secret hideaway for the dangerous criminals of our digital world but there are also innocent digimon that have called this place home for several centuries...maybe more!"


Bearmon nibbled on the food that was given to him, looking down to the rotton wood boards. "I'm sorry...I really am. So then...is that world really as nice as you make it sound? Is there food?"


"Of course there is. There's many assortments of foods. Though some digimon do eat others for sport...some for the feel of a good full stomach. But for the most part, there is peace." Fang responded with a calm smile.


Bearmon looked relieved to hear that, then smiled. "Then...will you take us with you? There are more just like me that would like to get out of this place and into a better home!"


The request didn't exactly catch Max, OR Fang by surprise, but the fact about others certainly caught their attention. "If you guys really want to escape this place, yeah we'll bring you back with us, but we have some buisiness here we have to take care of first. But since we have no plan of attack, why don't you take us to your friends. Our digivices can store quite a number of digimon and it'll be safer for travel."


The Bearmon grinned wide at that, nearly breaking into a cheer. "I'll take you to them right away! Our hideaway isn't too far off from this place."


"By all means lead the way." Both Max and Fang nodded in agreement, following Bearmon through the town's streets. "Do you know who might have stocked that fridge with soda's?"


"Uhhh..." Bearmon started scratching his chin as he walked forward. "I think it could have been the new guys..."


Max blinked, follwing along and wondered who could be new here, maybe the demon lords? Royal knights. "What kind of people are these...new guys? Are they digimon? Human?"


Bearmon stopped for a moment, shaking his head as he turned to look at Max. "Neither. But one looks like he's a red dragon type, and the other is a rather tall...black furred wolf."


Suddenly, Max could feel his skin or rather...scales crawl as he heard that. He turned to Fang in an instant. "You don't think it could be THEM do you?"


"It's possible...we didn't see either of them die in the human world. The base collapsed and the police couldn't find any dead bodies." Fang pointed out, sighing. "If it's them then we have a lot of trouble on our hands."


"Ahem!" Bearmon cleared his throat, the two blushing and shaking their heads as they followed the digimon to what looked to be a crumbling church. "Here it is. Most of the digimon that live in town stay here. It's the only place with a roof so it's the best shelter in the area."


The Gao and Guilmon nodded, watching the double doors open up, hearing the sounds of an organ playing from inside kind of surprised the duo as a black furred wolf sat infront of the Organ player, with geckomon, Bearmon and even a few Biyomon circled around him to listen to his playing. Upon closer inspection, the wolf's eyes were a bright yellow, with a pair of thin cut glasses. The sight in and of itself put Max and Fang on edge. "You guys get away from him! That's one of the Darkness's agents!" Max cried out, already jumping forward at the wolf.


Loud cries echoed around the room as Max pounced onto the wolf, it's eyes went wide as it lifted both paws up. "I'm sorry I'm sorry! Look I was only playing for these digimon!" His eyes looked completely innocent, as if he didn't recongnize Max. "M-My name's Delta...now can you let me up?"


That caught Max by surprise, he stared at Delta, as if trying to figure him out. "You know me Delta! You stole my human body from me and left me trapped like this!"


"I did?" He looked remorseful, even apologetic. "I'm sorry if I stole something from you. But please, I bruise easily."


"It's no use!" A low growl came from one of the bleachers, a crimson red dragon sat with his feet propped up on another set of seats, teeth gleaming as he smirked. "Delta has no recollection of what happened back in the human world kiddo. Daemon stripped him of all of his information."


Max turned his gaze toward the dragon, his eyes wide. "You're Duke. You're the one that attacked and killed Leo!"


Duke propped himself up, dusting off his legs. "Want to kill me for revenge? Go ahead, but as far as I know, I have all the answers you're looking for." The red dragon smirked, teeth shining as he crossed his arms.


Fang stared at Delta, then over to Duke and sighed. "Someone PLEASE tell me what's going on here!!"


Shrugging his shoulders, Duke lifted an index finger, and fired his signature deleter shot at a Devimon that was closing in on Fang, instantly deleting the dangerous champion and sighed. "You both take a seat. You've got a looot of catching up to do."


(To be continued)