The Seal Man, and Other Tales, with Barry and Cisco

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Jyou's located a short walk away -- a little way south-east, over a bridge to another one of the islands that make up Odaiba, past a construction site repairing some light damage from a Digimon battle, and to the southernmost tip of one of the islands.

But he's there, sat on a bench with a textbook in hand and a white, orange-mohawked sea lion slumped around his shoulders like a scarf.

"Hope we didn't keep you waiting," Yamato says, as Jyou looks up at them and flicks down his glasses.

Comments

[run_barry]

"It's never too late to learn," Barry says encouragingly. "Of course, definitely want to do it in a good setting."

To make it easier and safer for everyone involved. 'Sink or swim' with Jyou would be a bad time all around for sure.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"... I'm not sure that's normal brotherly behaviour," Jyou says to Cisco, casually. "I've got two older brothers, and they almost never tried to drown me."

Unless they tried when he was very young and he just forgot. It's possible.

"Yamato's offered to teach me, but his preferred swimming environment is the sea, and the waters here are cold."

[run_barry]

"Learning to swim in the sea doesn't quite seem like quite the best," Barry agrees, eying the water a little which does look like it would be cold.

"Maybe you could just try it out at a community center or something first."

[makes_the_toys]

"Yeah, no, my brother's a dick," Cisco replies easily.

"So what kinds of powers do you guys have?" he asks Jyou and Ikkakumon.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Maybe I'll try once I move away. Tokyo Med has a sports centre after all," Jyou says thoughtfully.

Ikkakumon drifts around a curve of the island, pulling away from it slightly to head out a little further into the open water of the bay.

"Ikkakumon can fire torpedoes from his horn," Jyou says brightly. "And his evolutions, Zudomon and Vikemon, have heavy Chrondigizoit weapons for smashing things, and electrical and ice powers. I have the same grab-bag of powers as the other terrestrial Crestbearers, just customised for water, but I'm not as powerful as Taichi, Yamato, and Hikari, who all have celestial Crests. That's, er, that's not a bad thing, though. If I cut loose and start bleeding off energy, the worst that'll happen is a few geysers and some waves. If Taichi goes all out, he starts slowly baking the planet."

[run_barry]

"The exercise would be good for you," Barry points out.

He cants his head and repeats with a curios tone, "Chrondigizoit?"

[makes_the_toys]

"Coooool," Cisco says, listening to Jyou list what he and Ikkakumon can do.

"It's awesome that you can do that stuff, but yeah, being able to roast the world or putting it on deep freeze is definitely too much. Good thing those guys have a handle on their powers like they do."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Oh, er, Chrondigizoit, it's the hardest metal in the Digital World. Sometimes Digimon incorporate it into their armour, so Zudomon and Vikemon's Chrondigizoit weapons are a good way to break through them," Jyou explains. "None of the other partner 'mons have Chrondigizoit weapons, so the two of us get deployed against anything armoured with it."

He gives a quick chuckle. "The three of them do a good job keeping their powers under control -- Hikari especially, she's never had any trouble with it, she doesn't even bleed off energy when she's evolving her partner."

[run_barry]

"Gotcha, that makes sense," Barry replies. From both a tactical and metallurgic standpoint.

[makes_the_toys]

"You don't say?" Cisco says, intrigued hearing about Chrondigizoit. "How does it compare to Garurumon's pelt?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I don't have an exact Mohs scale number for either of them, but it's a lot tougher than the mithril in a Garurumon pelt," Jyou says. "A lot rarer and more difficult to generate, too. There's only a few Digimon who can cover themselves entirely in Chrondigizoit."

[run_barry]

"How much data do you have on the Digimon?" Barry asks.

[makes_the_toys]

"And do you guys ever test it?" Cisco added in. "Because I would love to see what we could pit Chrondigizoit against. I bet it would be awesome."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"We have a pretty solid database of every Digimon we've encountered. Koushiro knows the most about how they actually function, so if you want a full run-down of the science, you'd have to ask him," Jyou says. "But we've never tested out exactly what Chrondigizoit can do. It's supposedly unbreakable to anything except itself, though."

[run_barry]

"I'm sure it would be interesting to discuss and learn about," Barry replies.

[makes_the_toys]

"But testing is the fun part," Cisco says. "It's all 'supposedly' until you actually do pit it against stuff to find out."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Battlefield experience suggests it's true. The few times we've encountered Chrondigizoit armour, only Chrondigizoit weapons can break it, even if it's skin-thick," Jyou says. "And Koushiro and Yamato are our only scientific types on the team, so any test they can't organise between them probably isn't happening."

[run_barry]

"Yeah. And it's not exactly easy to do that kind of testing safely," Barry points out.

[makes_the_toys]

"I guess 'battle tested' does still count as a valid result," Cisco allows.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Even if it's not in laboratory -- ..." Jyou trails off at that, as a sharp series of beeps and a flickering of light start coming from his digivice, clipped onto his belt.

He pulls it off his belt, holding it up and pressing a button to bring up a display of some kind of wavelength, squinting at it.

"Getting some odd activity off the Gate."

[run_barry]

Carefully so as not to lose his balance, Barry steps closer to Jyou.

"What's up?"

[makes_the_toys]

"Define 'odd activity'," Cisco says, looking around and then up at the sky.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Jyou angles a glance up at the sky, then back at his display. "A signal for it to open, I think."

He's only just gotten the words out when the sky above Odaiba splits open, a funnel of flickering, glowing data appearing directly above them.

What appears to be a blimp with eyes appears out of it first, followed by several streaks of light, some speeding down towards the island, a few landing in the water of Tokyo Bay.

[run_barry]

"Is that good or bad?" Barry asks, looking up at the blimp thing and then watching those streaks fall.

This feels like a Situation, but Barry knows not all Digimon bad guys. Still... it does has that 'yet another trip where Something Happens' vibe to it.

[makes_the_toys]

"Oh, please don't be Penmon... " Cisco mutters, watching with worry.