Digimon: Under Zero (IC)

[KittyCatCake]

With the creation of EDEN, all devices have been connected by a network that can be entered and traveled through by people as they see fit, so long as they have Digivices, devices that store all of a person's personal information, applications, and money. With this creation, people have been given the ability to shape their lives and live as they see fit within the this digital space, however, with this expansion in technology came further dangers from the ever present threat of hackers, who grew ever more powerful with the Digimon and Digimon capture programs, creations that are assumed to have been created by hackers, yet seem to be impossible to fully analyze and replicate.

With the growing threat of hackers, the government created a new Agency, the Cyber Crimes Investigation Unit, tasked with apprehending Hackers upon identification. The problem, however, was that the Cyber Crimes Investigation Unit was ill equipped to deal with Hackers, and needed large groups to apprehend a single hacker. This realization came all too quickly, which prompted Kamishiro Enterprises to fund their own private security, the Data Squad, for their creation, EDEN. Their research lead to the creation of the closest approximation anyone can manage to a true Digimon, the Zero-Arms.

The creation of the Zero-Arms allowed Kamishiro Enterprises to properly arm the government agencies, for a price, selling the Police, Cyber Crime Investigation Unit, and the SWAT Team their own Zero-Arms to combat hackers with, if needed. Kamishiro Enterprises has also been selling their Zero-Arms to other people and companies to protect their households, businesses, and appliances in general with.

This brings us to our main characters, who have realized that with the law properly arming themselves to better deal with their kind, the formation of the Data Squad, and the strengthening of all security, they'll likely need to get Digimon of their own, if they intend to continue operating.

Players:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Your character is now getting out of school/work/college or if they attend none of the above, they are now deciding to log onto EDEN and visit the Black Market. Please specify the following: your character's routine after leaving the aforementioned place[Please mention which your character attends if any, or state that they do not if not applicable], or before getting onto EDEN, what friends they have at those locations or who they greet and say goodbye to when they log onto EDEN[1-3 if any], what form their Digivice takes[They are typically an accessory that is worn or held], how they got the Black Market URL if they do not frequent it, and how they greet the dealer and tell them what they're looking for. When your character gets to the Black Market, it's a crowded place with many hackers from many different teams of all kinds, famous and infamous alike, and behind the specific hacker is a sign that states that with your first Digimon purchase, you are given a free Digimodification card. Note that your character only has enough on hand for an In-Training Digimon, and that because your character is initiating the conversation, as a consumer, that the dealer has not spoken yet.[Please assume that all players are arriving and leaving the black market URL at different times, unless I specifically indicate otherwise in my next update post.

A picture of the Black Market Merchant:
]
[Please ask any questions in Private Message, the Discord Server, or the OOC thread. This is my first time, so I may have missed something.]

[RandomRoninKitten]

Curie Bennington leaned back in her seat, using her hood to hide her headphones, which act as her Digivice. During class, she had been using her Digivice to direct her Zero-Arms through the school, checking the camera Digital Spaces to watch her teachers and fellow students, to look for footage she could use to anonymously blackmail them. Unfortunately, most people know where the cameras are, so there usually isn't anything of substance, and it ends up just being a cure for boredom.

As soon as the bell rang, she directed her Zero-Arms to meet her at the front of the school, at the bell Digital Space, and made her way out of the room without talking to anyone. A boy did stop her in the hallway, however.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows as he leaned against the door-frame, just in the way enough to make slipping past him incredibly awkward to pull of.

"Oh, hello, there!" she said, cheerfully, while actually cursing at him in her head. This guy had been stopping her in the hallway, every day, since she moved up to this grade. He's a petulant, mouth-breathing dork, and fancies himself a hacker despite being lower Bronze-tier at best. He can be nice, but what he wants from her is pretty clear from his persistence. "I just have some after-school activities that I have to get to, nothing too important. How about you? How ARE you doing?" she asked, not really caring about the answer and just wanting to get out of there.
"Oh, well, if it's not too important, how would you like to get some milkshakes with me? I'll be paying, of course. I was just thinking that it would be a shame not to spend at least a little time with you today." he said, running his hand through his hair while he checked his Digivice, a black and navy-colored hand-held device in his pocket, about the size of your hand, which expands with the push of a button. Several possibilities raced through her mind as he was looking at his Digivice.

She resisted rolling her eyes, and just smiled warmly at him "I'd love to, which place do you have in mind?" she said, not wanting to turn him down, since she may need him later. Her hatred for human interaction had prevented her from making many friends, so she needed to keep the ones who go out of their way to speak to her at least somewhat close.

They went to Dairy Queen and after he wasted about two hours of her time, Curie excused herself and quickly went outside, to the nearest EDEN station, logging in when she was sure nobody was watching, and using the Black Market URL that she had been using pretty frequently to buy part codes and upgrades for her customized Zero-Arms.

She got to the incredibly crowded Black Market server and made her way to the same Merchant she always used. She never bothered to learn his name, it wasn't important to her. As she approached, she noticed that he had a sign, stating that each purchase comes with a free Digimodification Card. As usual, he was head and shoulders above his competition.

She told him that she was looking for an In-Training Digimon, as that's all she had money for today. She'd need to take some hacking cases and buff up her funds, but she didn't mind training her Digimon, she'd have plenty of time to do so, and could just use it to supplement her Zero-Arms operations until it grows. She pointed at the furry orange creature, Tsunomon, and said that she'd like that one. "Hello, again~" she said "This time, I'm looking for a Digimon, In-Training specifically, it's all I can afford unless you have a special. The orange one with the blade on its head, if you don't mind."

[Firehead]

Will sighed as he got out of class. He knew it was only his first semester, but he expected college to be a little more challenging than this. On the way to his dorm room, he was stopped by a girl, Judy he thinks, from one of his classes, a basic drama class he took for a humanity credit, briefly discussing the lecture before parting ways. She seemed to know the material better than him, so he was starting to find it strange that she kept discussing it with him, but he just passed it off as her being friendly. Entering his dorm, he found his dorm mate taking a mid-day nap. He remembered being disturbed by the guy returning rather late like he did nearly every night, so he probably crashed as soon as he got back from class. Will was sure he'd be up in an hour or so to get to the next party and start the cycle all over again. The guy wasn't as nosy as his parents had been, but they did share a space much more closely, so he still needed to remain cautious about his activities.

Taking a seat in front of his terminal, he looked down at his watch pressing the button's to activate the Digivice functionality, so he could enter EDEN leaving his roommate undisturbed. He'd never been to the black market before as his activities had never required anything so extreme before, but with enforcement ramping up just when he was planning to up his ante, so he most certainly needed a Digimon if he wasn't going to wind up caught either by the police or worse, someone's private security, and that wasn't something one could just make on their own. He'd gotten the URL from another student. A somewhat shady guy Will never exchanged names with, and they'd sworn they never met each other, but it got him what he wanted, and the secrecy was something he preferred anyway.

Stepping into the Black Market, he found it to be quite crowded with a lot of people going about their business, so he had some trouble navigating the unfamiliar crowds and landscape looking for what he sought. He finally found the dealer he was seeking. Apparently, there was a free card to go with his Digimon which was always a plus. Taking a moment looking at some of the other wares available while he prepared his nerves for something more nefarious than anything he'd tried before, he finally cleared his throat to get the dealer's attention. "Looking to get my first Digimon today. What do you have available?"

[mrblah]

Seo-Yeon was just getting out of school as soon as the bell rang, eager to get off campus quickly to log in at the nearest EDEN spot (her college had none on campus to promote students' focus on their studies rather than their 'cyber life'). The college student had a long day in her classes, and she had been forced to tolerate a dangerous enemy. Gossip. Rumors had been going around the campus about some power couple or other, and something else about a party involving them. Seo-Yeon mostly ignored it.

But that had nothing to do as to why she was in such a hurry to get to an EDEN spot. No, that was because Jules asked her for a favor. A few days ago, Jules had contacted her about another one of her terrible ideas. For some reason, the girl had gotten it in her head that Seo-Yeon needed a digimon, and despite how much the girl protested, her friend was very adamant about it. Denying the excitable and stubborn girl wasn't gonna happen. So despite her MANY misgivings regarding it, she ultimately had to go along with it.

She didn't have to run very far, as EDEN spots were all over Massachusetts. She got to a booth on an intersection, quickly accessing it and connecting to her account. She pulled up her arm, showing the digivice on her wrist to the machine's scanners. Her digivice was a high end device with state of the art features, colored cool blue with her name etched above the screen in white. It was a 'going to college' present from her father, with many new features and popular pre-installed apps, making it a convenient device to keep around. After the necessary processes were complete, Seo-Yeon found herself in EDEN.

The place was just as surreal and beautiful as she remembered it, emitting a calming presence that could so easily convince someone to spend hours and hours within it. She could see why it was popular, and why so many decided to simply abandon their lives to be in such a place... or maybe that was just the initial amazement of it all. She's new to EDEN, only having been in it a handful of times. But that had to wait. She came with a purpose and she just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

She spotted a familiar redhead sitting on a bench near the entrance, who looked up and waved at her. She walked over to the girl.

"Howdy!" Jules greeted her, a big smile on her face. She hugged Seo-Yeon, who didn't move in response, already used to the tiring redhead's antics. "I was worried you wouldn't show for a second there, Irene! Glad ta see my bestie's as loyal as normal!" Seo-Yeon could already tell her friend was simply trying to butter her up for the ridiculous thing they were about to do. "Can we simply get this done?" She asked in an exasperated tone. "Righty! Then let's a-go!"

Jules had given her the URL to the black market server, and the two went exactly there. She was wondering what digimon she'd be getting. Jules had apparently decided for her and prepared everything, but she wanted it to be a surprise.

The two were walking towards a hacker Jules requested to meet with, someone Seo-Yeon already didn't trust or like from one look at him. His appearance practically screamed hacker. Seo-Yeon had no idea how Jules knew this person, but she probably contacted him through one of her many acquaintances. The girl, somehow, knew a lot of people who happened to owe her favors, for helping them out one way or another. Seo-Yeon thought it was really suspicious, but considering Jules was her only friend, she didn't push for info.

Approaching the man, her fearless friend took lead and spoke with a wide smile. "Hey, I got my friend here. Ya got an Xiaomon?" Jules pulled the required amount of money from her pocket in a discreet manner, just enough for the dealer to see that she had the funds to pay for it.

[Randomizer4]

“Your room is on the third floor, go left once you exit the elevator.” The receptionist gives a friendly smile, which Minerva returns. “Thank you that would be all.” Tugging on her bag, Minerva heads to her hotel room. She was a ways from home, but she liked it. Finally free from the constraints of her parents she could set out for herself. In her room she could hopefully go to EDEN undisturbed. Minerva got her other illicit equipment from the Black Market already, away from the watchful eyes of her parents, but now it was time for the next step, a Digimon. Minerva had delayed this step for a while, since she wasn’t fond of having to rely on something of a digital monster, even if the thing was loyal to a fault.

Reacher the somewhat old fashioned and mouldy room, she threw down her bag and jumped on the bed. With a satisfied grin, she clicked the stone in the centre of her necklace, her Digivice. Logging in and reaching the digital world, the New Hampshire girl took a look around the busy marketplace, strolling along confidently. Once she found the salesman, she recounted her account balance to herself, before speaking up. “Good day sir, I would like your Budmon Digimon please, if you have one.” Minerva had thought this thing through a great deal beforehand and had decided on the plant monster. She wasn’t that skilled in hacking yet, but had the confidence to make up for it and believed this was a good choice with a lot of potential for growth.

[Littlemankitten]

Karina yawned as the teacher dismissed the class. Changing time zones had made her already tired-self into a sleep deprived zombie. She had managed to get 5 hours of sleep in the past 2 days, which was good for her. She enjoyed college in America so far, the culture was much different but she adjusted and the people were surprisingly nice. She seemed to attract a lot of attention from others as a foreign exchange student. Because of this, she made two friends fairly quickly and saw them almost everyday. As she walked out of class she noticed them both waiting for her. They waved and she came over, letting out another yawn.

"You really need to take some sleeping pills or something, that amount of sleep is not healthy." Said a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

It was the same line he used almost every time he saw Karina. His name was Arend. A foreign exchange student as well, Germany specifically, him and Karina met and stuck with each other right off the bat, they both agreed Americans were strange.

"You say that every single time Arend, you know she's not gonna do it." A redheaded girl said with an exasperated tone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

She was American, and had taken an interest with the 'exotic' pair as she put it shortly after the first semester began. Her name was Ashley. She was snappy, sarcastic, and rude to most which led her to not have many friends. She seemed to tone it down a lot with Karina and Arend though, as long as they don't do something that would annoy her. "How was class Karina? Wanna go to lunch with us?" Karina looked up at her. Standing at 5'1", both Ashley and Arend were almost a foot taller than her.

"Class was fine, just boring English writing stuff... You know I said I couldn't do it today, I have to go home and do stuff." She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. That was, of course, a lie. She really planned to go to the black market and buy a digimon. While buying something from the black market was something she loathed, she felt it was a necessary evil in order to stop malicious hackers where she could. Ashley waved her off and sighed. "Fine, we'll try and not have to much fun without you." Karina nodded and walked away, waving goodbye to both of them. Heading to the nearest EDEN access point, she logged in using her digivice, a ring in the shape of a red star gifted to her by her parents and went to the black market server. She was completely out of her element there, having been in usual open spaced, friendly servers this was the opposite of what she was used to. stumbling around and bumping into quite a few things, she finally managed to make it to the dealer she was looking for. She looked at the various digimon there for much longer than anyone should have, seemingly starting to drift to sleep before finally opening her mouth. Uhmmmmmm... I would like a Nyaromon please." The Nyaromon looked cute, and seeing as it was a light creature, it seemed to fit in perfectly with her.

[KittyCatCake]

RandomRoninKitten/Curie:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Curie Bennington leaned back in her seat, using her hood to hide her headphones, which act as her Digivice. During class, she had been using her Digivice to direct her Zero-Arms through the school, checking the camera Digital Spaces to watch her teachers and fellow students, to look for footage she could use to anonymously blackmail them. Unfortunately, most people know where the cameras are, so there usually isn't anything of substance, and it ends up just being a cure for boredom.

As soon as the bell rang, she directed her Zero-Arms to meet her at the front of the school, at the bell Digital Space, and made her way out of the room without talking to anyone. A boy did stop her in the hallway, however.


"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows as he leaned against the door-frame, just in the way enough to make slipping past him incredibly awkward to pull of.

"Oh, hello, there!" she said, cheerfully, while actually cursing at him in her head. This guy had been stopping her in the hallway, every day, since she moved up to this grade. He's a petulant, mouth-breathing dork, and fancies himself a hacker despite being lower Bronze-tier at best. He can be nice, but what he wants from her is pretty clear from his persistence. "I just have some after-school activities that I have to get to, nothing too important. How about you? How ARE you doing?" she asked, not really caring about the answer and just wanting to get out of there.
"Oh, well, if it's not too important, how would you like to get some milkshakes with me? I'll be paying, of course. I was just thinking that it would be a shame not to spend at least a little time with you today." he said, running his hand through his hair while he checked his Digivice, a black and navy-colored hand-held device in his pocket, about the size of your hand, which expands with the push of a button. Several possibilities raced through her mind as he was looking at his Digivice.

She resisted rolling her eyes, and just smiled warmly at him "I'd love to, which place do you have in mind?" she said, not wanting to turn him down, since she may need him later. Her hatred for human interaction had prevented her from making many friends, so she needed to keep the ones who go out of their way to speak to her at least somewhat close.

They went to Dairy Queen and after he wasted about two hours of her time, Curie excused herself and quickly went outside, to the nearest EDEN station, logging in when she was sure nobody was watching, and using the Black Market URL that she had been using pretty frequently to buy part codes and upgrades for her customized Zero-Arms.

She got to the incredibly crowded Black Market server and made her way to the same Merchant she always used. She never bothered to learn his name, it wasn't important to her. As she approached, she noticed that he had a sign, stating that each purchase comes with a free Digimodification Card. As usual, he was head and shoulders above his competition.

She told him that she was looking for an In-Training Digimon, as that's all she had money for today. She'd need to take some hacking cases and buff up her funds, but she didn't mind training her Digimon, she'd have plenty of time to do so, and could just use it to supplement her Zero-Arms operations until it grows. She pointed at the furry orange creature, Tsunomon, and said that she'd like that one. "Hello, again~" she said "This time, I'm looking for a Digimon, In-Training specifically, it's all I can afford unless you have a special. The orange one with the blade on its head, if you don't mind."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Merchant Hacker smiled very slightly as he saw her approach, she had purchased from him many times before. He wouldn't call her his best customer, but she was certainly a regular by now. He quickly projected his screen from his Digivice after pulling it out and allowing it to open up in his palm, a square device about the size of his hand until it opened and extended. He tapped and swiped at the transparent red screen, before spinning it, trading the Tsunomon and a Bronze pack of three cards for Curie's credits. He then spoke up after "Welcome to my shop, how can I help you?", looking just past Curie.

As she turns around, she would see that a black-haired boy was standing behind her, in his school uniform still.

It was Miro Howard, wearing a confused and concerned look, but it quickly changed to one of understanding "So, this is what you're doing when you aren't in school." he said, looking around the area and continuing "I'd have asked you to join me if I knew you were into hacking as well. I guess this means that we can work together, and have one more interest in common." he continued, however, by the Merchant's generic greeting, one could gather that Miro had never been to this server before, so if he was a skilled hacker at all, he didn't get his supplies from here.

He didn't seem upset by the revelation at all, in fact, he seemed pleased that they had more to do together. After thinking for several moments, Miro added "I was planning on testing some upgrades I made to my arsenal... we could go to Kowloon and have a look around if you'd like." he suggested, half smiling.

FireHead/Billy

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Will sighed as he got out of class. He knew it was only his first semester, but he expected college to be a little more challenging than this. On the way to his dorm room, he was stopped by a girl, Judy he thinks, from one of his classes, a basic drama class he took for a humanity credit, briefly discussing the lecture before parting ways. She seemed to know the material better than him, so he was starting to find it strange that she kept discussing it with him, but he just passed it off as her being friendly. Entering his dorm, he found his dorm mate taking a mid-day nap. He remembered being disturbed by the guy returning rather late like he did nearly every night, so he probably crashed as soon as he got back from class. Will was sure he'd be up in an hour or so to get to the next party and start the cycle all over again. The guy wasn't as nosy as his parents had been, but they did share a space much more closely, so he still needed to remain cautious about his activities.

Taking a seat in front of his terminal, he looked down at his watch pressing the button's to activate the Digivice functionality, so he could enter EDEN leaving his roommate undisturbed. He'd never been to the black market before as his activities had never required anything so extreme before, but with enforcement ramping up just when he was planning to up his ante, so he most certainly needed a Digimon if he wasn't going to wind up caught either by the police or worse, someone's private security, and that wasn't something one could just make on their own. He'd gotten the URL from another student. A somewhat shady guy Will never exchanged names with, and they'd sworn they never met each other, but it got him what he wanted, and the secrecy was something he preferred anyway.

Stepping into the Black Market, he found it to be quite crowded with a lot of people going about their business, so he had some trouble navigating the unfamiliar crowds and landscape looking for what he sought. He finally found the dealer he was seeking. Apparently, there was a free card to go with his Digimon which was always a plus. Taking a moment looking at some of the other wares available while he prepared his nerves for something more nefarious than anything he'd tried before, he finally cleared his throat to get the dealer's attention. "Looking to get my first Digimon today. What do you have available?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The guy's mouth slowly contorted into a grin as he heard Billy's question, and he lifted a rectangular device, roughly the size of his hand, out of his pocket, which opened and extended, projecting a transparent red screen before the Merchant Hacker. He started swiping screens to the side as he looked through his various wares,
seemingly searching for something specific. "Well, well, we have a new Master Hacker in training. You are wise to come to me for your start. I have all manner Digimon that can be found in Kowloon, however, I suggest one specific Digimon to you." He stopped swiping pages and swung his hand at his screen, spinning it around to display a small, round, blue ball of fur, witha tail, and a W on its forehead. The creature vaguely resembled a cat.
As he showed the creature to Billy, he explained "This Digimon may look small now, but it has far more room for growth than a powerful Digimon that you could have chosen. Raising them from the In-Training form gives them greater potential than just buying a strong one, as it gives them more of a chance to form a bond with the Hacker." he continued. "Would you like this one?"

After agreeing to the suggestion, the Merchant Hacker continues "A wise choice indeed." as he spoke, he accepted the credits from Billy's Digivice, before transferring over the Wanyamon and a three-card pack of Digimodification cards, by swiping his hand over the display screen. The card pack's design was bronze foil with a black "3" on the front, showing it was a starter pack of three cards. After sending over the products, he glanced from side to side and leaned in towards Billy, before whispering "Watch out for the AOA, they've been keeping a close eye on EDEN as of late." unfortunately, his statement was based on the assumption that Billy knew who the AOA was, which he most certainly didn't. As if on que, he motioned very slightly with his head in the direction of the abyss beyond the crowds of hackers and the blank black floor tiles that made up the Hacker Black Market server. Just in view, hanging over the edge of the platform, was what looked like a Zero-Arms. While the model was not one he had seen before, it looked like a Mass Production Zero-Arms, due to the simple design.


From what little of the Zero-Arms he could see, it looked like a winged serpent, with blue lights, and the rest of its body solid black, with segments to allow it to move. The hacker wouldn't look directly at it, however, and muttered under his breath "Don't look directly at it. most of us likely know it's here, it's best to ignore it. We'll be moving servers soon, anyway."

MrBlah/Irene

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Seo-Yeon was just getting out of school as soon as the bell rang, eager to get off campus quickly to log in at the nearest EDEN spot (her college had none on campus to promote students' focus on their studies rather than their 'cyber life'). The college student had a long day in her classes, and she had been forced to tolerate a dangerous enemy. Gossip. Rumors had been going around the campus about some power couple or other, and something else about a party involving them. Seo-Yeon mostly ignored it.

But that had nothing to do as to why she was in such a hurry to get to an EDEN spot. No, that was because Jules asked her for a favor. A few days ago, Jules had contacted her about another one of her terrible ideas. For some reason, the girl had gotten it in her head that Seo-Yeon needed a digimon, and despite how much the girl protested, her friend was very adamant about it. Denying the excitable and stubborn girl wasn't gonna happen. So despite her MANY misgivings regarding it, she ultimately had to go along with it.

She didn't have to run very far, as EDEN spots were all over Massachusetts. She got to a booth on an intersection, quickly accessing it and connecting to her account. She pulled up her arm, showing the digivice on her wrist to the machine's scanners. Her digivice was a high end device with state of the art features, colored cool blue with her name etched above the screen in white. It was a 'going to college' present from her father, with many new features and popular pre-installed apps, making it a convenient device to keep around. After the necessary processes were complete, Seo-Yeon found herself in EDEN.

The place was just as surreal and beautiful as she remembered it, emitting a calming presence that could so easily convince someone to spend hours and hours within it. She could see why it was popular, and why so many decided to simply abandon their lives to be in such a place... or maybe that was just the initial amazement of it all. She's new to EDEN, only having been in it a handful of times. But that had to wait. She came with a purpose and she just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

She spotted a familiar redhead sitting on a bench near the entrance, who looked up and waved at her. She walked over to the girl.

"Howdy!" Jules greeted her, a big smile on her face. She hugged Seo-Yeon, who didn't move in response, already used to the tiring redhead's antics. "I was worried you wouldn't show for a second there, Irene! Glad ta see my bestie's as loyal as normal!" Seo-Yeon could already tell her friend was simply trying to butter her up for the ridiculous thing they were about to do. "Can we simply get this done?" She asked in an exasperated tone. "Righty! Then let's a-go!"

Jules had given her the URL to the black market server, and the two went exactly there. She was wondering what digimon she'd be getting. Jules had apparently decided for her and prepared everything, but she wanted it to be a surprise.

The two were walking towards a hacker Jules requested to meet with, someone Seo-Yeon already didn't trust or like from one look at him. His appearance practically screamed hacker. Seo-Yeon had no idea how Jules knew this person, but she probably contacted him through one of her many acquaintances. The girl, somehow, knew a lot of people who happened to owe her favors, for helping them out one way or another. Seo-Yeon thought it was really suspicious, but considering Jules was her only friend, she didn't push for info.

Approaching the man, her fearless friend took lead and spoke with a wide smile. "Hey, I got my friend here. Ya got an Xiaomon?" Jules pulled the required amount of money from her pocket in a discreet manner, just enough for the dealer to see that she had the funds to pay for it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Hacker Merchant's eyes lit up as the credits screen allowed him to transfer the proper amount. He pulled out a rectangular device, allowing it to open up and extend, before projecting a transparent red screen in front of him, which he tapped at several times, before accepting the credits into his Digivice and transferring the file to Jules' hand in exchange, the Xiaomon file, as opposed to directly sending it or materializing the Digimon itself, was a square blue chip, slightly transparent, with a picture of the Xiaomon on it. "I don't want to assume which of you the program is for, so I'll just give you the file. When you'd like the materialize it, just open the screen for Digimon Capture and tap the image." he said, before doing the same with the three-card Digimodification pack, which he also sent into Jules' hand. The card pack was wrapped in bronze foil with a black "3" on the front. Both files could easily be transferred into a Digivice by scanning them.
The card pack can be opened by going to the file on the Digivice and selecting it, and pressing open.

After sending both files into her hand, he continued "Xiaomon may be small now, but raising a Digimon from In-Training allows it to achieve greater potential, as it can form a bond with the Hacker." he swung his hand across his screen, causing it to minimize back into his Digivice.

Right when the Hacker had finished speaking, a second Hacker strode up to the pair of girls and cleared his throat. He was a brown-haired guy with a pair of red headphones, a white shirt with black sleeves, under a black hoodie, and a pair of black jeans.



He cleared his throat a second time before speaking "What's a pair of lovely young ladies doing in a shady, dangerous place like this? You certainly don't LOOK like hackers, but I suppose appearances can be deceiving." he said, with a smug look on his face, as he flipped his bangs with one hand. It was hard to tell if he was flirting or looking for trouble, but the Merchant Hacker didn't speak to him, he just leaned back against his sign and watched intently.

Randomizer/Minerva

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

“Your room is on the third floor, go left once you exit the elevator.” The receptionist gives a friendly smile, which Minerva returns. “Thank you that would be all.” Tugging on her bag, Minerva heads to her hotel room. She was a ways from home, but she liked it. Finally free from the constraints of her parents she could set out for herself. In her room she could hopefully go to EDEN undisturbed. Minerva got her other illicit equipment from the Black Market already, away from the watchful eyes of her parents, but now it was time for the next step, a Digimon. Minerva had delayed this step for a while, since she wasn’t fond of having to rely on something of a digital monster, even if the thing was loyal to a fault.

Reacher the somewhat old fashioned and mouldy room, she threw down her bag and jumped on the bed. With a satisfied grin, she clicked the stone in the centre of her necklace, her Digivice. Logging in and reaching the digital world, the New Hampshire girl took a look around the busy marketplace, strolling along confidently. Once she found the salesman, she recounted her account balance to herself, before speaking up. “Good day sir, I would like your Budmon Digimon please, if you have one.” Minerva had thought this thing through a great deal beforehand and had decided on the plant monster. She wasn’t that skilled in hacking yet, but had the confidence to make up for it and believed this was a good choice with a lot of potential for growth.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Merchant Hacker nodded and brought out his Digivice, a square object which extended and projected a red transparent screen, which he then started swiping through with one hand, until he spun the screen, sending the Budmon into Minerva's Digivice, with a three-card pack of Digimodification Cards, trading them for the credits. The card pack's design was just shiny bronze foil, with a black "3" on the center of the front, heavily implying it was a starter pack of three cards. There weren't any packs for any of the tiers lower than Bronze, however, likely because Hackers were never supposed to reach Wood and Charcoal tiers.

The Merchant Hacker inhaled to say something, but before he could, two people walked up to him from behind Minerva, a guy and a girl

The girl had platinum blond hair, silver eyes, and was wearing a sweater with crosses all over it, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black jeans, and a pair of black boots. Around her neck was a spiked collar, and on her head was a pair of blue headphones, which one would guess served as her Digivice.

Beside her was a male Hacker who had long black hair, teal eyes, and was wearing an unzipped grey hoodie, over a black and grey striped shirt, a pair of bluejeans, and sneakers.

The pair seemed to be completely ignoring Minerva, and spoke directly to the Hacker Merchant, the girl starting by stating flatly "I'm surprised this server hasn't been moved to a new URL yet, you know, considering." she said, motioning very slightly towards the very edge of the platform, beyond the crowds of people, where a black winged-serpent-like Zero-Arms was sitting just barely in view, hanging off the edge.

This Zero-Arms, however, was not a model Minerva had ever seen before, but vaguely looked plain enough to be a mass production model, only making it even stranger that she hadn't seen it before. Typically, a mass production Zero-Arms would be shot down and analyzed for replication, then widely used shortly after being sighted. Even if the model was weak in terms of performance, collectors would already have the model on the market.

As this information was being processed, the male spoke up "How can you be comfortable doing business with... THEM... watching your every move? They could be trying to blackmail you, or hand you over to the Data Squad or the CCIU... not to mention each time you make a sale to someone else, they are in just as much danger of being blackmailed or arrested." he said, gritting his teeth. He made a sideways glance at Minerva, and made a look as if he had just noticed her "Excuse me, miss..." he said, motioning with his head for her to leave, at which point, the female hacker bumped Minerva backwards with her hip and took a position right in front of her, blocking Minerva's view of the Merchant Hacker. They immediately continued their conversation, but all that Minerva could overhear from there was a mention of "The AOA" from the Merchant, an organization Minerva had never heard of, and "AX models", further information of which she couldn't quite hear.

LittleManKitten/Karina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Karina yawned as the teacher dismissed the class. Changing time zones had made her already tired-self into a sleep deprived zombie. She had managed to get 5 hours of sleep in the past 2 days, which was good for her. She enjoyed college in America so far, the culture was much different but she adjusted and the people were surprisingly nice. She seemed to attract a lot of attention from others as a foreign exchange student. Because of this, she made two friends fairly quickly and saw them almost everyday. As she walked out of class she noticed them both waiting for her. They waved and she came over, letting out another yawn.

"You really need to take some sleeping pills or something, that amount of sleep is not healthy." Said a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. It was the same line he used almost every time he saw Karina. His name was Arend. A foreign exchange student as well, Germany specifically, him and Karina met and stuck with each other right off the bat, they both agreed Americans were strange.

"You say that every single time Arend, you know she's not gonna do it." A redheaded girl said with an exasperated tone.She was American, and had taken an interest with the 'exotic' pair as she put it shortly after the first semester began. Her name was Ashley. She was snappy, sarcastic, and rude to most which led her to not have many friends. She seemed to tone it down a lot with Karina and Arend though, as long as they don't do something that would annoy her. "How was class Karina? Wanna go to lunch with us?" Karina looked up at her. Standing at 5'1", both Ashley and Arend were almost a foot taller than her.

"Class was fine, just boring English writing stuff... You know I said I couldn't do it today, I have to go home and do stuff." She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. That was, of course, a lie. She really planned to go to the black market and buy a digimon. While buying something from the black market was something she loathed, she felt it was a necessary evil in order to stop malicious hackers where she could. Ashley waved her off and sighed. "Fine, we'll try and not have to much fun without you." Karina nodded and walked away, waving goodbye to both of them. Heading to the nearest EDEN access point, she logged in using her digivice, a ring in the shape of a red star gifted to her by her parents and went to the black market server. She was completely out of her element there, having been in usual open spaced, friendly servers this was the opposite of what she was used to. stumbling around and bumping into quite a few things, she finally managed to make it to the dealer she was looking for. She looked at the various digimon there for much longer than anyone should have, seemingly starting to drift to sleep before finally opening her mouth. Uhmmmmmm... I would like a Nyaromon please." The Nyaromon looked cute, and seeing as it was a light creature, it seemed to fit in perfectly with her.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As soon as Karina spoke to the Merchant Hacker, he cocked his head for the briefest of moments, seemingly confused that someone like her wanted a program like that, but his professionalism took over almost immediately, causing him to nod slowly and smile at her "Ah, a good choice. Light Digimon are hard to counter, and have many applications." he said, pulling out and opening his Digivice, which projected a red transparent screen in front of him. He tapped at the screen several times, then started swiping pages to the side for several minutes. He finally found what he was looking for and spun the screen, initiating the trade with Karina for her credits, and giving her a Nyaromon program for her Digimon Capture, and transferring a bronze pack of cards with a black "3" on it. "As the sign states, the purchase comes with a pack Digimodification cards." he stated,
motioning towards the sign behind him. After looking up at the sign, he realized he blundered and quickly tapped at the transparent screen beneath the sign, changing it from "Free card" to "Free pack of cards", shaking his head and muttering under his breath. After adjusting his sign, he looked back at Karina and stated flatly "You didn't see that." as he stuck his hands into his pockets.

Before Karina could say anything, she is suddenly bumped from the side and knocked to the floor of the server.
Looking up from the floor, standing above her is a horrifying wolf-like creature with belts around its legs,
red and white fur, and massive fangs.
However the creature backed up slightly, until it was standing next to a goth girl with black hair, wearing a necklace of many crosses, and ripped leggings. She patted it on the head, ignoring the fact that it just knocked over a random hacker and addressed the Merchant Hacker in a soft voice, "Hello, Carl, I'm just stopping by to pick up the card pack that I ordered."

The Merchant Hacker's face twitched as the girl spoke his name, replying in a cool and collected way "I have it in my inventory, of course. Thank you for choosing my shop. We're also currently having a special, a free pack of cards with every purchase" he said, sending both files to her in exchange for her credits. The girl opened a purple screen from her Digivice, which was her necklace, and looked through the files, nodding, then walked by Karina,
calling back to Carl "Have a pleasant day, Carl." to which the Hacker Merchant twitched again and said nothing.
The fanged Digimon followed the girl away from the Hacker, seemingly intentionally stepping on Karina's stomach, chest, and face as it walked by, with all four clawed paws. Karina would, however, be able to scramble to her feet before the girl exited the server if she desired.

[mrblah]

Jules took the purchased goods with a smile. "Thank ya kindly." She said with a polite nod. Seo-Yeon was relieved that the illicit business transaction was done and over with, believing they'd be leaving the black market server now, with no other reason to stay. She was pleasantly surprised that everything went off without a hitch. Seo-Yeon thought there'd be at least some trouble in a server full of hackers...

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Seo-Yeon was always a firm believer that one who talks about trouble is often inviting it, so it shouldn't have came as any surprise when someone she instantly didn't like approached her and Jules, the sound of him clearing his throat enough to get her to swivel in his direction. Jules's reaction was more normal, as she just turned to the man when he announced his presence. She gave him a wide toothy smile. "Oh, hi there!" She greeted him with an enthusiasm Seo-Yeon was surprised by. Had this girl no fear? This was a hacker who just suddenly approached them! As usual, Seo-Yeon couldn't understand her friend.

"And we just came to get a bit of business done. I was in a good mood and I saw this deal, so I wanted to get my friend here a present." She took a step forward in front of Seo-Yeon, briefly gesturing to her but subtly getting between the two to draw the man's focus onto her. "But you're most certainly right, appearances can be deceiving! I got a lotta stories 'bout all o' that, I'll tell ya... but I'm sure neither of us have the time for such a long conversation, huh?" Jules laughed good-naturedly, though her words carried a double meaning conveying their intentions to leave.

[Firehead]

William watched slightly impressed at the projection screen the guy used to display his wares. The man quickly moving through items as if he had something in mind to sell him. He decided not to comment on the future master hacker comment an obvious ploy meant to butter him up for the whatever the merchant had to sell. He looked at the Digimon displayed on screen trying not to react to the price tag. A rookie would certainly have been out of his price range. Still, he had to admit this one had a nice look. "Alright, you have me convinced, I'll take it." He watched his Digivice as the goods were transferred. First, he'd check the app used to interact with Wanyamon. He wouldn't release it yet as these crowded streets didn't feel conducive to an introduction. He also looked at the three pack of cards wondering just what he'd gotten. He'd have to check that soon, so he could keep that in mind if something came up.

He raised an eyebrow when the merchant told him to keep an eye out for the AOA not quite certain what that even was. "Well, that's what this little guy is for, after all. Might be good to keep away from too much trouble til he's grown a bit though." His eyes moved in the direction indicated freezing when he saw the giant Zero-Arms just watching though he quickly pulled his gaze away when told not to look directly at it. Did it think it hadn't been noticed? Is it involved in this AOA group the merchant was warning him about? "So it's just watching for now? Creepy thing. Well, I guess I'll leave you to your business." Departing from the merchant, the first thing he did was to open the card pack to find out just what cards he'd gotten.

[Littlemankitten]

Karina nodded as the merchant told her about the light digimon. She had studied the different types extensively and had actually made the decision of what digimon to get beforehand, despite what she might of made the merchant think. She then watched with intrigue as he did his thing to get the transfer done. Once the transfer was complete she nodded and did a slight bow, ignoring the mistake he made. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped once she realized she was falling to the floor. Letting out a soft gasp of surprise she looked up and saw one of the scariest digimon she had the displeasure of seeing. Yet what managed to catch her attention more was not the digimon but the girl that appeared to own it. She was attractive in a way she had never really seen or considered before, almost as she felt both scared yet intrigued by the girl. Karina just laid there, not really wanting to get up as the girl spoke to the merchant named Carl. The floor was surprisingly comfortable, then again most things were when you get so little sleep. When the digimon stepped on her again she let out a muffled grunt and continued to lay there for a while.

Karina eventually got up and brushed herself off, yawning again and turning to Carl. "That was quite rude of those two." She looked around a bit before wiping her forehead, a small trace of blood coming off onto her hand. She looked at the blood one her hand for a while, ignoring the sudden stinging pain she felt before looking back up at Carl and yawning once again. She did another bow. "Thank you for your business, I think I will be going now." She then went to go to her digivice to disconnect, though doing it a quite a bit slower than most people would like pretty much everything else she has done.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Curie resisted panicking briefly, before deciding that this wasn't a terrible thing, as he seemed completely fine with the fact that she's a hacker, and hadn't assumed that she's a malicious one, thereby bringing her to the conclusion that she had not been found out. She put on an embarrassed look, forcing herself to blush and and bringing her arms to her chest to look even smaller "Gosh, I guess you found me out... nobody in school was supposed to know that I'm a hacker... buuu, forget that I'm a hacker right now!" she said, as she used her Digivice to open her card pack, and looked through her new cards. When he asked her to go to Kowloon with him, she scowled and considered it briefly. Kowloon was basically a place that was cut off from the main EDEN areas, and primarily used by hackers, and was also where Digimon were encountered the most. If she went to Kowloon, she may be able to try out her new Digimon... or pretend to be helpless and see how Miro handles himself. All in all, she had nothing to lose by going with him.

"Buuu, well, I guess if you can't selectively forget this incident, I have no choice but to go with you." she said, trying to sound hesitant "Just make sure other hackers don't hurt me, okay?" she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

[Randomizer4]

Minerva was about to smily slyly at a deal well done, when she got so rudely interrupted. How rude, hath they no manners! The Zero-Arms intrigued her and she tried to store its appearance in her memory.

At that point the man seemed to notice how impolite he was being and Minerva all but expected him to apologise and get out of her way. Instead, her compatriot bumped Minerva away. Rude for now reason meant one of two things: Danger or foolishness. The way this man spoke highly implied the former, but Minerva couldn’t help but eavesdrop. “AOA, AX models…” she murmured. Meanwhile she gave the female hacker the bitchface, before taking a look at her cards, trying to justify a reason for her to stand still and listen in more.

[KittyCatCake]

MrBlah/Irene

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Jules took the purchased goods with a smile. "Thank ya kindly." She said with a polite nod. Seo-Yeon was relieved that the illicit business transaction was done and over with, believing they'd be leaving the black market server now, with no other reason to stay. She was pleasantly surprised that everything went off without a hitch. Seo-Yeon thought there'd be at least some trouble in a server full of hackers...

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Seo-Yeon was always a firm believer that one who talks about trouble is often inviting it, so it shouldn't have came as any surprise when someone she instantly didn't like approached her and Jules, the sound of him clearing his throat enough to get her to swivel in his direction. Jules's reaction was more normal, as she just turned to the man when he announced his presence. She gave him a wide toothy smile. "Oh, hi there!" She greeted him with an enthusiasm Seo-Yeon was surprised by. Had this girl no fear? This was a hacker who just suddenly approached them! As usual, Seo-Yeon couldn't understand her friend.

"And we just came to get a bit of business done. I was in a good mood and I saw this deal, so I wanted to get my friend here a present." She took a step forward in front of Seo-Yeon, briefly gesturing to her but subtly getting between the two to draw the man's focus onto her. "But you're most certainly right, appearances can be deceiving! I got a lotta stories 'bout all o' that, I'll tell ya... but I'm sure neither of us have the time for such a long conversation, huh?" Jules laughed good-naturedly, though her words carried a double meaning conveying their intentions to leave.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"As a matter of fact..." he said, running his hand through his hair, flipping his bangs effeminately, as he stepped around Jules, so that he was again looking at both of them, continuing as soon as he re-positioned himself "I happen to have plenty of time to talk, especially if it's with the two of you. My name is Shawn... tell me, ladies, are you with a hacker team? If not, are you looking for one? You see... I'm a high-ranking Hacker, within the Demons..." the word Demons reminded them of all the times the name came up on the news, the group wasn't known for being particularly skilled, but for being malicious troublemakers with a lot of members. Everything they did seemed to be solely for attention, and ranged from account raiding, credit theft, digital hijacking, account kidnapping and torture, among other things. This Hacker's association with that group made far too much sense, and immediately explained the girl's instant dislike.

As Shawn was still speaking, the girls would be faintly aware of several people in Demon's Masks and hoodies, the standard Demon's hoodie being black, with purple lines on the shoulders and sleeves, with the Demons logo on the left side of their chest, strategically positioning themselves in the crowd of Hackers nearby, then standing still once apparently in position, as buyers moved between dealers around the server platform. They were looking around in a paranoid fashion, as if searching for someone, or something, their eyes hidden by their masks, but their heads moving around enough to make it appear to be so. Three or four were immediately noticeable, but there were likely more. The Black Market Dealer who was still nearby glanced at each of them, but didn't seem bothered at all as he moved and leaned against his sign.

FireHead/William

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

William watched slightly impressed at the projection screen the guy used to display his wares. The man quickly moving through items as if he had something in mind to sell him. He decided not to comment on the future master hacker comment an obvious ploy meant to butter him up for the whatever the merchant had to sell. He looked at the Digimon displayed on screen trying not to react to the price tag. A rookie would certainly have been out of his price range. Still, he had to admit this one had a nice look. "Alright, you have me convinced, I'll take it." He watched his Digivice as the goods were transferred. First, he'd check the app used to interact with Wanyamon. He wouldn't release it yet as these crowded streets didn't feel conducive to an introduction. He also looked at the three pack of cards wondering just what he'd gotten. He'd have to check that soon, so he could keep that in mind if something came up.

He raised an eyebrow when the merchant told him to keep an eye out for the AOA not quite certain what that even was. "Well, that's what this little guy is for, after all. Might be good to keep away from too much trouble til he's grown a bit though." His eyes moved in the direction indicated freezing when he saw the giant Zero-Arms just watching though he quickly pulled his gaze away when told not to look directly at it. Did it think it hadn't been noticed? Is it involved in this AOA group the merchant was warning him about? "So it's just watching for now? Creepy thing. Well, I guess I'll leave you to your business." Departing from the merchant, the first thing he did was to open the card pack to find out just what cards he'd gotten.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The merchant nodded, replying quickly as William turned his back "Yeah... for now. I suggest keeping a lookout, with their resources, I highly doubt it's the only one..." he said, just barely loud enough for him to hear, with a little two-fingered wave, that William may or may not have seen.

William's Bronze card pack opened on his projected screen for him, the Bronze foil peeling away, and the cards spreading out for him to view:

Stoneform: Your Digimon becomes Earth Element, gains 1d5*2 defense(Skin or fur becomes stone), gains a 2d3 attack dice(Basic attacks become stone punches), and loses 2d4 speed.

Scissor Magic: Your Digimon's arms(Or front legs) become crab claws, and their skin becomes a crab shell. Basic attacks become claw slashes for 2d4, and the Digimon gains 1d6 defense.

Blue Card: Your Digimon permanently Digivolves from In-Training to Rookie. This card will self destruct after use.(If your Hacker has Natural Selection, DM me which Digimon you'd like to Digivolve to when this card is used.)

While the other cards were disappointing common cards, the Blue Card was one William had never seen or heard of. Also unlike the others, the Blue Card was shining like a star, had no shiny bronze border, and lacked the bronze foil back of all other common cards. It instead had a simple blue back. The entire situation was odd, and the card's supposed power was questionable at best, however if it worked, William would be skipping a lot of training.

Behind William, as he stood there, looking over his cards, the rest of the buyers and dealers shuffled around, going about their business, some barely bumping into William as they made their way around him, undisturbed by his standing still in the dead center of the server platform.

As William stood there on the platform, he couldn't help becoming faintly aware of Demons Hackers strategically placing themselves throughout the crowd, glancing around, their eyes hidden, but their heads moving as if they were searching for something or someone. The sight of the Demons usually made one's stomach churn, as they were known for being extremely malicious trouble-makers.

LittleManKitten/Karina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Karina nodded as the merchant told her about the light digimon. She had studied the different types extensively and had actually made the decision of what digimon to get beforehand, despite what she might of made the merchant think. She then watched with intrigue as he did his thing to get the transfer done. Once the transfer was complete she nodded and did a slight bow, ignoring the mistake he made. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped once she realized she was falling to the floor. Letting out a soft gasp of surprise she looked up and saw one of the scariest digimon she had the displeasure of seeing. Yet what managed to catch her attention more was not the digimon but the girl that appeared to own it. She was attractive in a way she had never really seen or considered before, almost as she felt both scared yet intrigued by the girl. Karina just laid there, not really wanting to get up as the girl spoke to the merchant named Carl. The floor was surprisingly comfortable, then again most things were when you get so little sleep. When the digimon stepped on her again she let out a muffled grunt and continued to lay there for a while.

Karina eventually got up and brushed herself off, yawning again and turning to Carl. "That was quite rude of those two." She looked around a bit before wiping her forehead, a small trace of blood coming off onto her hand. She looked at the blood one her hand for a while, ignoring the sudden stinging pain she felt before looking back up at Carl and yawning once again. She did another bow. "Thank you for your business, I think I will be going now." She then went to go to her digivice to disconnect, though doing it a quite a bit slower than most people would like pretty much everything else she has done.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Karina fiddled with her Digivice and prepared to log out, out of the corner of her eye, she could see people in Demon's Masks and hoodies positioning themselves at various points in the server and waiting, looking around, as if searching for somene or something. Even people who weren't well-informed on their Hackers knew that the Demons were widely known for malicious activity towards seemingly random people, large scale crime activity,
and generally being a widespread nuisance. One inparticular locked their eyes on Karina and began staring. The act was blatant and obvious, despite the mask darkening their eyes to the ppoint that they couldn't be seened, the direction of their head made it clear. That hacker then took out his Digivice and began tapping at it, after which a few of the other Demons members checked their Digivices. to Karina's back, she could also head footsteps, as another two or three people stopped nearby, several feet away, she would guess.

RandomRoninKitten/Curie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Curie resisted panicking briefly, before deciding that this wasn't a terrible thing, as he seemed completely fine with the fact that she's a hacker, and hadn't assumed that she's a malicious one, thereby bringing her to the conclusion that she had not been found out. She put on an embarrassed look, forcing herself to blush and and bringing her arms to her chest to look even smaller "Gosh, I guess you found me out... nobody in school was supposed to know that I'm a hacker... buuu, forget that I'm a hacker right now!" she said, as she used her Digivice to open her card pack, and looked through her new cards. When he asked her to go to Kowloon with him, she scowled and considered it briefly. Kowloon was basically a place that was cut off from the main EDEN areas, and primarily used by hackers, and was also where Digimon were encountered the most. If she went to Kowloon, she may be able to try out her new Digimon... or pretend to be helpless and see how Miro handles himself. All in all, she had nothing to lose by going with him.

"Buuu, well, I guess if you can't selectively forget this incident, I have no choice but to go with you." she said, trying to sound hesitant "Just make sure other hackers don't hurt me, okay?" she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As they headed towards the exit to the area, Curie chose to open her card pack and check its contents. The Bronze foil slide away on her screen, and the cards fanned out for her to look them over. the first two cards were roughly what one would expect when opening a Bronze card pack, common garbage for noobs:

Rock Breaker: The Modified Digimon's arms or front paws are covered in red scales, with their hands or paws growing large claws. The Digimon's element is changed to Fire and they become capable of destroying terrain with their claws. Their basic attack dice is changed to 1d3x4, and fire elemental damage received is reduced by an additional 25%.

Vulpine Lunge: Modified Digimon gains fox arms and legs, with purple bracers, gains 2d5 speed, and can attack a second time if the first attack is blocked or misses.
Blue Card: Your Digimon permanently Digivolves from In-Training to Rookie. This card will self destruct after use.(If your Hacker has Natural Selection, DM me which Digimon you'd like to Digivolve to when this card is used.)

The Blue Card was odd, as Curie had never heard of or seen it before. t lacked the standard border that the other cards had, and had no back design.

As she was pondering this, the two of them reached the portal at the end of the platform and used it to transfer themselves to the Kowloon area.

When they arrived, the area was mostly empty, aside from a distant group of Demons Hackers, dressed in the standard masks and purple and black hoodies, with the Demons logo on the chest. There were four in total, and they were gathered around an object or person that couldn't be seen from this distance. Curie's companion, Miro, leaned forward slightly and stated "Hmm, I wonder what's so interesting to those shady guys, over there. I wonder if we should take a closer look" before turning his head in her direction and awaiting his reply.

The Kowloon area was an area made up of blue platforms, haphazardly connected together, creating walls and pillars, and a long pathway, which connected the entrance to a portal, which would take one to the next Area, Kowloon 2.

Randomizer/Minerva

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Minerva was about to smily slyly at a deal well done, when she got so rudely interrupted. How rude, hath they no manners! The Zero-Arms intrigued her and she tried to store its appearance in her memory.

At that point the man seemed to notice how impolite he was being and Minerva all but expected him to apologise and get out of her way. Instead, her compatriot bumped Minerva away. Rude for now reason meant one of two things: Danger or foolishness. The way this man spoke highly implied the former, but Minerva couldn’t help but eavesdrop. “AOA, AX models…” she murmured. Meanwhile she gave the female hacker the bitchface, before taking a look at her cards, trying to justify a reason for her to stand still and listen in more.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The female Hacker turned around and looked at Minerva, crossing her arms and bending down slightly, as she was just a bit taller. She patiently waited as she checked her new cards, seemingly waiting for her to notice.

the bronze card pack shimmered for a moment, before the foil disappeared and the cards spread out before her on the screen:

Voltic Plume: Modified Digimon gains a plume of red and blue feathers on their ass, which electricity arcs between. The Digimon can now change their basic attacks to Electric Element(Striking the target with their electrified plume of feathers), and gains a 33% chance to afflict the target with Paralysis. An enemy attacking the modified Digimon with melee attacks has a 20% chance to take 1d4x2 damage and become afflicted with paralysis.

Specter Helm: Modified Digimon gains a pair of tusks and a silver helmet, becoming Dark Element. Target gains the Waking Dream ability, becoming capable of awakening themselves from the Sleep Status, as well as gaining the Waking Dream attack in place of their Signature Attack, and can negate damage from one attack, once. Waking Dream: 10SP/1d6/25% chance to put target to sleep.

Blue Card: Your Digimon permanently Digivolves from In-Training to Rookie. This card will self destruct after use.(If your Hacker has Natural Selection, DM me which Digimon you'd like to Digivolve to when this card is used.)

While the first two cards were easily recognized as card pack filler, Bronze tier garbage, he Blue Card was bizarre. This card was one that Minerva had never seen or heard of, and seemed sketchy at best, however, if it worked, it would eliminate a lot of training.

As Minerva was contemplating the odd card, the Hacker girl piped up "Hey, you. I saw that look you gave me. Is there a problem?"
she asked, bringing up her menu and materializing a transparent, white, machete-shaped blade in her hand, with a blue glow. The entire weapon, much like any other Trace summon, looked like glowing plexiglass, in the shape of a weapon. Her male partner, looked over his shoulder at the two, but shrugged and returned to chattering with the Black Market Dealer, who only looked slightly bothered by the brewing scuffle.

[Littlemankitten]

Karina looked up from her digivice when she noticed the Demon members. She hated the group with a passion, everything they did was against what she believed people should be like. Their sole purpose seemed to just be to cause carnage and mayhem wherever they went. It was despicable. And now it seemed she might be their next target. Hitting the log out button she look around really quick, or at least, quick for her. Other than waiting, she really didn't know what to do. Fighting doesn't seem to be possible with the amount there were. She just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so she didn't have to deal with their BS.

[mrblah]

Demons? Demons... demons... the name was familiar. She couldn't place it exactly, but she heard the name before. Maybe it was from a cooking channel? Or in a book about some political group? Maybe they were just the equivalent of boy scouts -

Oh, who is she kidding? Seo-Yeon knew about the Demons. Everyone knew about the Demons. You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the group, infamous for their malicious actions and general cyber terrorism. They were nothing but scum. Terrible rats who do awful things for their own amusement and to be noticed. She kept her expression neutral, not belaying the dark and disgusted thoughts in her mind. She could really see this 'Shawn' rolling with a crowd like that.

But... it didn't change the fact that they were dangerous. They were malicious hackers, no more nor less, whose first instinct is to harm others. Meeting one was bad enough, but she could see the others in the crowd. Even if they ran away, the others would chase after them, and they'd be cornered. Faced with this impossible situation, Seo-Yeon uncharacteristically swore under her breath. Damn it... looks like Jules finally got her stuck in something really bad. She shouldn't have agreed to this.

"Is that so? I ain't ever heard of a Shawn before. Guess you ain't big on attention so much, huh?" Jules replied in her usual cheerful tone of voice, her mask of politeness and casual way of speech doing its usual job of contrasting with her true nature. Seo-Yeon at least felt a little relieved that the girl was acting the same. She's never seen her panic before, but this is a situation that filled Seo-Yeon with anxiety and fear. It'd be understandable if her friend felt the same way... but she seemed to not have. Seo-Yeon couldn't say for certain. Even knowing her as long as she had, Jules Crawford remained a total mystery. She was glad the girl was there, though. Jules was clever, moreso than her. She must have had a good plan!

"Neither me nor my friend here are experienced hackers. In fact, we're new to that sorta thing, so we haven't even thought of joinin' a hacker group yet. So if you're asking 'cause you want us to join, then we might be interested if you're fine with newbies!"

... Why did she even bother hoping for her friend to NOT take this opportunity to get them in even bigger trouble? Seo-Yeon wanted to strangle her.

[Firehead]

William nodded trusting the merchant's assessment of the situation. He probably wouldn't want to hang around here for very long. With that thing out there and the threat of more didn't sit well with him. He stopped to check his new cards grunting as a few people pushed past him. Next time, he'd make sure to find somewhere out of the way to stand, but the pack was already opening, and he didn't want to miss this.

He looked over the two common cards. Nothing exciting, but extra attack and defense were always useful. The third card had him thoroughly confused though. The blue card didn't look right, and he'd never heard of such an effect. A permanent evolution sounded too good to be true and set off a warning in his head. Was it some sort of prank? The pack had looked legit, so it was either an employee doing the pranking or someone who'd found a way to fake a card pack.

Before he could ponder this further, he started to notice the unusually high concentration of Demons Hackers hanging around. The placement looked too strategic to be a coincidence. Were they really considering causing trouble with that giant snake thing watching? He doubted it would remain a passive observer once a scene was started, so he figured it was time to get the hell out of dodge. If they were looking for someone, he didn't want to be here when they found them. He made his way to the way out quickly hoping to get out before trouble started.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Curie half smiled to herself as she saw the group of Demons Hackers, standing off in the distance. Those guys were never up to any good, much like herself, however she did it for her own satisfaction, unlike these guys, who did it for attention. Simpletons, all of them... however, seeing them here gave her a great opportunity to test this new Blue Card... perfect. If this went south, she could always use her Zero-Arms, and if things went right, she'd be able to skip a stage of training.

With all of this in mind, she activated her Illusion skill, transforming her hoodie into a long-sleeved Demons Hacker hoodie, zipped up, and changed her shorts black, to match. Once the transformation was done, she whispered to Miro "I'm going to go see what they're up to... stay back here, and come save me if I'm discovered, otaaay?" she said, then called her Zero-Arms out of her Digivice, and instructed her to hide on the side of a platform, out of sight, but to remain nearby just in case; "Sweetie, mommy is going to need you to watch her back, while she goes over there to spy on these Demons hackers, otay?" to which she nodded, like a good girl, before flying into position as stealthily as possible.

With everything now in place, she would walk over to the group of hackers, fixing her hair on the way there, to see what the group was up to.

[Randomizer4]

Minerva smirked as she read through those cards, when she was done with this situation she would definitely try the blue card, hoping that the black market dealer wouldn’t sell her crap. More urgent was the woman in front of her, who seemed to be easily ticked off, again, a sign of well-placed or misplaced arrogance.

Using her own digivice, Minerva traced her weapon of choice, a light rapier, stylish, yet effective. She knew most opponents would be stronger than her, so agility and cunning should be her watchwords. However, combat could still be avoided without any loss of honour, if the woman backed off.

“You and your compatriot were quite rude for not waiting your turn with the gentleman over there. However, since I have better things to do today, I will let it go this time, if you try to behave yourself properly.” She gave the woman a smile, seemingly completely relaxed, in truth, all her muscles were ready for a sudden burst of energy would she try anything in surprise. Minerva didn’t plan on trouble and she didn’t like getting into things unplanned. Her ego prevented her from simply backing out, however.

[KittyCatCake]

Randomizer/Minerva

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Minerva smirked as she read through those cards, when she was done with this situation she would definitely try the blue card, hoping that the black market dealer wouldn’t sell her crap. More urgent was the woman in front of her, who seemed to be easily ticked off, again, a sign of well-placed or misplaced arrogance.

Using her own digivice, Minerva traced her weapon of choice, a light rapier, stylish, yet effective. She knew most opponents would be stronger than her, so agility and cunning should be her watchwords. However, combat could still be avoided without any loss of honour, if the woman backed off.

“You and your compatriot were quite rude for not waiting your turn with the gentleman over there. However, since I have better things to do today, I will let it go this time, if you try to behave yourself properly.” She gave the woman a smile, seemingly completely relaxed, in truth, all her muscles were ready for a sudden burst of energy would she try anything in surprise. Minerva didn’t plan on trouble and she didn’t like getting into things unplanned. Her ego prevented her from simply backing out, however.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The woman smirked and took a battle stance, using one hand to hold her weapon at the ready and the other to to use her screen to scroll to her Digimon partner or Zero-Arms, Minerva couldn't tell which. However, as it looked like she was about to escalate the confrontation further, her male companion grabbed her by the shoulder and whispered to her, unintentionally loud enough for Minerva to hear "If we fight here, we won't be welcome in this Server anymore. It's not worth it...". She nodded atthe guy and de-materialized her weapon "You're lucky this time, but rest assured, if we cross each other outside this server, I'll kick your prissy ass." she said, shaking her shoulder loose of the Merchant's grip and trotting away, swinging her hips extra noticeably, as her male companion trailed behind her, shaking his head.

Over nearby, people Minerva would recognize as Demons Hackers had been gathering while other people were logging out as they noticed them. These guys, Minerva knew, had a very bad reputation for starting fights and causing trouble for little to no reason, in huge squads. Over to her left was a group of five people, whispering to each other, two of them were DemonsHackers in full uniform, the others consisted of a girl in a blue school uniform, with shoulder-length white hair, a girl in a brown western-style outfit with a skirt and plaid vest, wearing her red hair in a braid, and a brown-haired guy with red headphones, black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black and green hoodie. The guy with the headphones was motioning towards the end of the platform, where the Dragon-like Zero-Arms was hiding.

RandomRoninKitten/Curie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Curie half smiled to herself as she saw the group of Demons Hackers, standing off in the distance. Those guys were never up to any good, much like herself, however she did it for her own satisfaction, unlike these guys, who did it for attention. Simpletons, all of them... however, seeing them here gave her a great opportunity to test this new Blue Card... perfect. If this went south, she could always use her Zero-Arms, and if things went right, she'd be able to skip a stage of training.

With all of this in mind, she activated her Illusion skill, transforming her hoodie into a long-sleeved Demons Hacker hoodie, zipped up, and changed her shorts black, to match. Once the transformation was done, she whispered to Miro "I'm going to go see what they're up to... stay back here, and come save me if I'm discovered, otaaay?" she said, then called her Zero-Arms out of her Digivice, and instructed her to hide on the side of a platform, out of sight, but to remain nearby just in case; "Sweetie, mommy is going to need you to watch her back, while she goes over there to spy on these Demons hackers, otay?" to which she nodded, like a good girl, before flying into position as stealthily as possible.

With everything now in place, she would walk over to the group of hackers, fixing her hair on the way there, to see what the group was up to.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The group was Demons Hackers were standing around a downed girl, who had white hair that flowed down her back, and was wearing a brown sweater over a white and black schoolgirl uniform. One of the Demons Hackers were kicking her in the stomach and shouting at her "What were you doing in Demons Territory, huh!? You should know better than to enter Demons' territory, let alone by yourself!" he then swiftly kicked her in the face once. The girl wasn't responding to the questions, just laying there on her side, crying miserably and holding her stomach. The group of hackers was tking turns stomping on her and kicking her, and from the looks of her body, they had used Digimon or Zero-Arms at one point, to down her, as her clothes and skin had bruises,
cuts, and burns in places.

As Curie approached, one of the hackers turned towards her and nodded, while a second shouted to her "Yo! We've got this wannabe hacker here that we found wandering around alone." he said, pointing at the girl and kicking her in the side. "All she had with her was a weak-ass Zero-Arm, it went down in one hit... if you look real hard, the pieces are all over the face" he said, punctuating the statement with an evil cackle.

Firehead/William

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

William nodded trusting the merchant's assessment of the situation. He probably wouldn't want to hang around here for very long. With that thing out there and the threat of more didn't sit well with him. He stopped to check his new cards grunting as a few people pushed past him. Next time, he'd make sure to find somewhere out of the way to stand, but the pack was already opening, and he didn't want to miss this.

He looked over the two common cards. Nothing exciting, but extra attack and defense were always useful. The third card had him thoroughly confused though. The blue card didn't look right, and he'd never heard of such an effect. A permanent evolution sounded too good to be true and set off a warning in his head. Was it some sort of prank? The pack had looked legit, so it was either an employee doing the pranking or someone who'd found a way to fake a card pack.

Before he could ponder this further, he started to notice the unusually high concentration of Demons Hackers hanging around. The placement looked too strategic to be a coincidence. Were they really considering causing trouble with that giant snake thing watching? He doubted it would remain a passive observer once a scene was started, so he figured it was time to get the hell out of dodge. If they were looking for someone, he didn't want to be here when they found them. He made his way to the way out quickly hoping to get out before trouble started.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

On his way to the exit, Billy walked past a short blond girl in a red and white school uniform, who was logging out slowly, a group of five people, two of which were Demons Hackers, The others consisted of a girl in a blue school uniform, with shoulder-length white hair, a girl in a brown western-style outfit with a skirt and plaid vest, wearing her red hair in a braid, and a brown-haired guy with red headphones, black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black and green hoodie, who was motioning towards the Dragon-Like Zero-Arms on the edge of the server's platform and whispering something, and a set of two girls who were arguing and drawing their weapons. The first of them was a girl with long,
brown hair and teal eyes,
wearing an expensive-looking black and teal dress and black leggings, and had a rapier drawn,
and the second of them, had platinum blond hair, silver eyes, and was wearing a sweater with crosses all over it, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black jeans, and a pair of black boots, was stopped by their male companion, who was wearing a grey hoodie and black and grey striped T-shirt, and black jeans. She hesitated briefly and left in a huff, shoving past William to get to the exit first, her companion also shoving past him rudely. After the two hackers who had pushed past him had exited the area, two more Demons Hackers came out of the exit gate and stopped right in front of it, blocking it as they spoke among themselves. They were both wearing the typical uniforms, with the masks, one was male, the other was a female with pink hair streaming out of her hood, down below her shoulders, her stomach was exposed by her hoodie being too short, and she was wearing a black skirt with purple stripes, and knee-high black boots.
In order to get out of the server now, Billy would need to get the two to move out of the way, or take the extra time to slowly log out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Demons? Demons... demons... the name was familiar. She couldn't place it exactly, but she heard the name before. Maybe it was from a cooking channel? Or in a book about some political group? Maybe they were just the equivalent of boy scouts -

Oh, who is she kidding? Seo-Yeon knew about the Demons. Everyone knew about the Demons. You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the group, infamous for their malicious actions and general cyber terrorism. They were nothing but scum. Terrible rats who do awful things for their own amusement and to be noticed. She kept her expression neutral, not belaying the dark and disgusted thoughts in her mind. She could really see this 'Shawn' rolling with a crowd like that.

But... it didn't change the fact that they were dangerous. They were malicious hackers, no more nor less, whose first instinct is to harm others. Meeting one was bad enough, but she could see the others in the crowd. Even if they ran away, the others would chase after them, and they'd be cornered. Faced with this impossible situation, Seo-Yeon uncharacteristically swore under her breath. Damn it... looks like Jules finally got her stuck in something really bad. She shouldn't have agreed to this.

"Is that so? I ain't ever heard of a Shawn before. Guess you ain't big on attention so much, huh?" Jules replied in her usual cheerful tone of voice, her mask of politeness and casual way of speech doing its usual job of contrasting with her true nature. Seo-Yeon at least felt a little relieved that the girl was acting the same. She's never seen her panic before, but this is a situation that filled Seo-Yeon with anxiety and fear. It'd be understandable if her friend felt the same way... but she seemed to not have. Seo-Yeon couldn't say for certain. Even knowing her as long as she had, Jules Crawford remained a total mystery. She was glad the girl was there, though. Jules was clever, moreso than her. She must have had a good plan!

"Neither me nor my friend here are experienced hackers. In fact, we're new to that sorta thing, so we haven't even thought of joinin' a hacker group yet. So if you're asking 'cause you want us to join, then we might be interested if you're fine with newbies!"

... Why did she even bother hoping for her friend to NOT take this opportunity to get them in even bigger trouble? Seo-Yeon wanted to strangle her.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The guy smiled even wider "as a matter of fact, within the Demons, I'm a big deal. I suppose it makes sense that you may not have heard of me, given that you're new, however you'll learn more soon enough." he said, opening his Digivice screen and transferring a Demons Mask and a stomach-exposing variant of the Demons hoodie to each of the girls "Consider yourselves on your trial period. After this operation, we'll be taking you to our leader, and he'll give you your first assignment, which will determine whether you pass or fail." he said, in an almost threatening tone, but his voice was still somewhat higher pitched and friendly, making it difficult to determine what he meant by this. He then motioned to two other masked Demons Hackers, who came over to him immediately, and he grabbed the girls by their shoulders, moving the group away from the merchant. He huddled up with the group and whispered the plan to them silently "Our mission here is threefold... we have 32 Demons Hackers in this server, for this operation. I'm going to need one of you to distract, preferably destroy, that Zero-Arms over there on the edge of the platform" he said, motioning towards the very edge of the platform, a dragon-like Zero-Arms that was barely within sight. "It's owned by the AOA, and we all know how we feel about THOSE cock-gobblers. We'll then need the rest of us to attempt to chase off the merchants, that way we can appropriate their wares for the Demons. Recently, our feuds have left us somewhat low on resources... so here we are" he said, running his hand through his hair again. He didn't seem the least bit nervous, however he had no reason to be, given that the server population had slimmed down, with people logging out as they noticed the crowd.
Nearby, a blond-haired girl in a fancy red and white dress seemed to just now be logging out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Karina looked up from her digivice when she noticed the Demon members. She hated the group with a passion, everything they did was against what she believed people should be like. Their sole purpose seemed to just be to cause carnage and mayhem wherever they went. It was despicable. And now it seemed she might be their next target. Hitting the log out button she look around really quick, or at least, quick for her. Other than waiting, she really didn't know what to do. Fighting doesn't seem to be possible with the amount there were. She just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so she didn't have to deal with their BS.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Nearby, as Karina attempted to logout, a group was forming in front of her and huddling up, with at least two Demons members present. The rest could have been Demons members, too, but only two were wearing a uniform.
The others consisted of a girl in a blue school uniform, with shoulder-length white hair, a girl in a brown western-style outfit with a skirt and plaid vest, wearing her red hair in a braid, and a brown-haired guy with red headphones, black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black and green hoodie. Karina didn't know the guy,
however, one could easily assume he was a douche, just from the vibe he gave off. The brown-haired guywas whispering something to the others and motioning towards areas of the server platform, and at one point motioned towards the very edge, where she could see a rather large dragon-like Zero-Arms hanging off of it, barely in view.

(Upon my next response, Karina will finish Logging Out of EDEN)

[mrblah]

Seo-Yeon felt incredibly disturbed when the man laid his hand on her, and she had to fight back a shudder of revulsion. Worse was that she actually had their uniform now... almost as if she was one of them! She sent a glare Jules' way, trying to be discreet about it so that no one else noticed. Silently, she cursed the girl for getting her into MORE trouble. How were they gonna get out of this one? Did she even have an actual plan, or was she just winging it? Why the hell did they not just log out immediately or something?

While Seo-Yeon was in her thoughts, during the huddle, Jules herself was paying more attention. "AOA... uh, I ain't ever hearda them. What's so bad about these AOA guys?" She asked Shawn directly, shrugging a little with a sheepish expression as if she were apologetic about it. "Oh, but uh, since we're new, I don't think my friend nor I could do too good a job at distracting that thing? Kinda looks like it'd rip through my silly Zero-Arms no problem, and my friend's is barely functional in combat!" Those were blatant lies. Bella was fully capable of combat, and Jules's own Buddy Bot was a Self-Defense Droid in its own right. Plus, Seo-Yeon had her new Digimon to assist in combat if need be. She might even be a better choice than the other unnamed hackers...

But Shawn didn't know that, and it seemed like neither Jules nor her wanted him to know that. She was glad they were on the same page again, now if only she stopped digging their graves with these criminals... "Also, are we doing this now 'cause we might need to change and all!"