The duo entered the facility, for once, at the request of the human instead of the Digimon. Julien Mackensy, who once never fought at all but now did so only for defence, tapped his and Icarus the Falcomon's vitals into the hologram console and paid the relatively miniscule fee, filled with an almost morbid curiosity and eagerness to test his battle skills on an opponent who, technically, had no life to take - and therefore, held no worries for the pacifistic German boy.

Julien's anticipation, however, was easily dwarfed by that of his partner. "Human dude, I'm bored already! When's the machine gonna start working?"
"Zoon, Icarus, zoon," Julien said as he and Icarus entered the tiny white room that would soon become their battlefield.

The human boy ruffled the feathers atop the Falcomon's head in a fashion meant to be playful and reassuring, much to Icarus' chargin. "Careful, Julien. Don't mess up my feathers. That's my opponent's job."
"Oh, 'tschuldigung."

((5320 - 50 = 5270
This is set the day after Aerial Showdown and Fair Weather Fight. Since it seems Lucas and Vn are both experiencing some form of posting difficulties right now, Cleo-oneesama has agreed to moderate this to pass my time until they overcome those difficulties :^,^:))

"Lovely, lovely, lovely!" Cooed a voice.

The hologram room suddenly changed - Icarus and Julien were now stranded in a sea of fog... and a sea! The pair were standing over linoleum tile. They were on the deck of a lighthouse! The voice soon revealed it self as a golden creature doing flips in the fogs.

"I love the sea air! It does wonders for my mane," jovially cried out the sea-faring Pegsusmon.

Every time I've used the Training Fields so far, I've been left hovering over something... Julien thought with a slight grimace as the scene shifted.

Another thing that hadn't changed was the positively "real" feel of the virtual reality world. Julien, like Pegasmon, found himself enjoying the sea air almost instantly, until Icarus tapped him on the hip, reminding him they were there for a battle.

"No cards unless we turn out to need them, right?" Icarus said, reminding Julien of the terms they'd agreed to en route to the training fields.
"Hab it," Julien said, while Icarus moaned at his partner's poor english.

Nonetheless, it didn't dampen the Falcomon's fighting spirit. "Pegasmon! I'm Icarus, and I'm goin' in!" Icarus cried, acsending rapidly, but not so rapidly as to make himself dizzy. "Shuririkenen!" he squarked, flinging at the pegasus the barrage of tiny shuriken that was quickly proving to be his favorite attack.

Julien, meanwhile, gave Pegasmon's data a quick look on his D-ban. Armor Digimon, he noticed with concern. Icarus had dashed into a match with a higher-levelled oppenent, and no way to evolve himself... but that was no big deal, Julien decided. He was secretly looking forward to testing out the effects of the full range of his cards, and this would be the perfect chance.

“Battle? Wha? Oh, oh, right. Falcomon, nice to meet you….”

Pegasusmon put out its hoof towards the flighty bird creature, twisting around in the awkwardly to appear gentleman-like. The flying horse realized how stupid that is was as the flying metal thrown by it’s opponent shot towards it.

“Oh, bugger….”

The golden horse turned around, just in time for the shuriken barrage to give the horse a nice tail trim.

“Hmm.. alright, fine, we fight. My turn…” Pegasusmon twisted in mid air and found it’s opponent.

“Alright, try this…. SILVER BLAZE!” The hard-to-see silver triangle perched upon the horse’s head arm0or flashed a brilliant light before a beam charged out at Pegasusmon’s fowl foe.

Icarus had been prepared for a counterattack - that's what you do in a battle, after all. Smirking as he realised what a good chance this would be to practice aerial combat after so long as the earthbound Peckmon, he beat his wings and thrust upward with the speed of a ninja, the silver light sailing harmlessly under him.

Desisions, desisions... Icarus thought. Uchitake Otoshi, another Shuririkenen, or...

"Kratzen Zertrümmern!"

Icarus dived down, attacking from directly above Pegasusumon, his wings no longer sustaining his altitude, but poised to rake across the middle of the equiine's back, where there was a small gap in his armor.

Did... did I just use the German name of my attack? Icarus realised, eyes widening and briefly falling on the Tamer below, looking throuygh his card pouch for something useful. So shocking was this to the somewhat emotionally distant falcomon that it resulted in a slight pause immediately following his Scratch SmashL: something the hologram could use to his advantage.

“Oy – what’s this?” Pegasusmon growled as his beam missed Icarus by a mile. The horse let up his silver beam of energy, then realized he couldn’t see the bird anymore.

“Wait, what, where’d that rude little peck go?”

Pegasusmon looked around wildly, spinning in the air, which must’ve looked like quite a sight.

“Darn, darn, DARN!”

Pegasusmon continued his stream of mild frustration until he heard his opponent’s voice above him. His elegant head bobbed up and he saw the talons coming towards him. But a moment of hesitation gave Pegasusmon the advantage he needed.

“Shooting Star,” Exclaimed Pegasusmon, who turned it’s wings towards the oncoming Falcomon, and send out a shower of what could only be called stars.

Damn, you'd think I'd know how to deal with barrage-based attacks, Icarus thought. In that particular instance, however, he wasn't, the attack connecting thanks to his close proximity to Pegasusmon. Well, practice is what I did come here for.

However, the golden horse wasn't the only one who could exploit a close range. "Kratzen Zertrümmern!" The Falcomon didn't hesitate to unleash that same attack again. Quick, accurate and with a lot of force behind it: everything a melee attack should be, especially when it was a specie's only one.

Julien, in the mean time, could only marvel at how well Icarus handled himself against a superior foe, as well as make vain attempts to think of a fitting card for the situation. He singled out a few, but decided to save them for later: using even one now would just amount to wasted energy.

Pegasusmon smiled in delight under it’s helmet. It seemed that his attack was working! Because of it’s joy, it didn’t take time to realize that it’s child opponent was preparing to strike back.

Ow!” Pegasusmon winced as it felt something graze across it’s back. It’s head turned to see what it was.

“Ah, you monster! My precious coat ! I worked so hard for the last few minutes of my existence to make sure it was perfect. Oh, you’ll pay for this!” Pegasusmon removed itself from the feisty talons of Falcomon, turned it’s body towards the small bird.

“Rodeo Gallop!” Pegausmon cried, as it’s legs flailed wildly in the air, trying to knock out Falcomon. It didn’t seem to know that it was in a most vulnerable position.

Julien couldn't help but laugh at Pegasmon's comment about his coat, but that laugh changed to an expression of concern when the Armored pegasus attacked.

Pegasmon's godl plated hooves repeatedly fell upon Icarus, but upon hearing Julien shout "Dodge!", the Falcomon realised they didn't have to. Rodeo Gallop had already done its damage, but Icarus avoided at least some of what could've been done when he capitalised on the split second between kicks in order to soar upward and out of range, withdrawing a handful of old-fashioned ninja tools from whatever void his blue vest kept concealed as soon as the kicks stopped beating against him.

"Uchitake Otoshi!" he cried, throwing the explosive devices upon Pegasmon. So far, the radiant beam from the lighthouse had done a good job of enabling all three present to see despite the fog, but if these little smoke bombs connected, they'd not only do damage, but have the added advantage of almost totally blocking Pegasmon's vision for 30-60 seconds.

At least I got some of him, thought Pegasmon as she felt the warm bale of feathers fly out of her range. Buts she still had to be prepared. She knew almost nothing about her opponent except it was quick to get into battle and it had a tamer. For a few quick seconds, Pegasmon had thought of using the humans’ presence for her advantage, but then decided not to. She didn’t have to sink that low.

Pegasmon turned over, but as she did, something collided on her uncovered rump. Pegasmon didn’t cry out in pain again, but simply gasped. The area was now completely covered in dense fog.

“Darn….”

If she attacked she’d give away her position, she thought. So she simply fluttered around in the fog, waiting for it to go away.

((Interesting random NPC sex change ^^))

Icarus could only grin maliciously as he primed his talons for another Scratch Smash, but had a better idea almost instantly.

"Human dude!"
"Ja?"
"This is really way to easy!"
"Zorry."
"How 'bout a card to spice things up?"
"Vhat one?"
"I'm not picky."

And a good thing too, since the Uchitake Otoshi had prevented not only Pegasmon, but Julien, from seeing properly. It was all the German youth could do to fumble blindly around in his deck while waiting for his eyes to adjust to the smoke - which cleared before such a thing happened.

Julien had, nonetheless, already "chosen" his card by that time.

"Digi Modify!"

Twin balls of gunpowder, like higher-tech versions of the explosives Icarus was used to, formed clutched in his talons, their bright fuses burning through the last of the smoke. "Heh, thanks," the Falcomon said, before transferring one Bomb to his wing-hand, opting to save the other for later, and turning his gaze back to Pegasmon.

"You want it?" he said teasingly, before hurling the explosive black sphere in Pegasmon's general direction. "IT'S YOURS, MY FRIEND! NO RUBIES NESSACARY!"

Julien, meanwhile, scratched his head at the bizarre quip he attributed to the more-or-less random computer data that formed the Falcomon.

“Rubies? Like the one in my armor?” asked the very bewildered armor digimon. It continued flying this way and that, trying to find a way to get through the thick fog. Then it suddenly disappeared. Pegasmon found herself wanting to fly through the visible air, but remembered she was in a battle – perhaps a bit too late.

But this, perhaps, was also Icarus’s problem, for Pegausmon had flown rather close to the bomb-throwing digimon in her frenzy. The bomb exploded against Pegasmon’s flank, and continued to spread outward, causing some damage to the lighthouse, which shook violently, but didn’t collapse... yet.

Julien found his attention drawn to the grand tubular structure behind him; though it wasn't damaged too badly, it dawned on him that he, or Pegasmon, really ought to be using it to his advantage, somehow. He could hardly have Icarus pick it up and use it as a weapon... he'd just have to think more laterally than he or his partner had been so far, then.

For the moment, though, Falcomon seemed to be doing alright for himself. Deciding to make use of a natural weapon he'd left alone for too long in the fight against Den, Icarus waited a few seconds for the explosion to die down, before moving in and attempting to pierce Pegasmon's neck with his beak, the remaining Bomb still clutched in his surprisingly dexterous foot.

“Damn it,” Pegasusmon quipped, still shaking from the effects of the bomb. It hadn’t hurt so much as completely shaken the digimon’s view. If it wanted to put up a fight, it’d have to do much, much better. She saw her Falcomon foe come at her with his beak, and knew what to do.

Like a ballerina in the air, Pegausmon completely flipped over, once more kicking and flailing, trying to punch the oncoming bird in the face before it could get anywhere near her hide again.

((This post assumes Pegasmon's attack was another flurry of multiple kicks, not just one. If that wasn't your intent, I offer my apologies, and an edit.))

"Digi Modify! Blitzenpuls!"

Julien, having just slashed the very card his hand had been hovering over in case of another melee attack on Pegasmon's part, cried his first order of the fight. "Icarus! Take as many as you can, denn scratch her!"

Icarus wasn't initially fond of the idea of having to sit there and take any kind of attack, but when the effect of the card transmitted itself to his brain, he realised the rational thinking behind Julien's idea, seeing the shocks of pain Pegasmon was feeling with every blow she landed.

"Krat...zen... Zertrümmern!" Icarus stammered out the mouthful of an attack in between kicks, before striking with his talons amid the melee barrage, again using the close range to his advantage.

“Gah!” Pegasmon reeled back from its opponent as the electric-charged claws dug deep into her hide. After enduring a few, she pushed herself away from Falcomon, very, very angry.

“You’re smart kid… and so is your digimon partner,” Pegasmon growled and shook it’s mane. “Which means I need to get tough,” it concluded… but it already promised itself to do that once. How could it do it now?

“Shooting star,” it yelled quite far away from Falcomon, hoping it’s precious stars would do some damage as it tried to decide on a proper tactic.

"Throw Bomb und try to rest on top of lighthows!" Julien called, ahving been struck with an idea, but one that'd take a relatively large amount of time - and good timing - to execute.

Icarus heard just as he sailed above the Shooting Stars... too late, as one or two of them caught him in the abdomen. It hurt, but the Falcomon knew Julien well enough to know this plan of his would have benefits in the long run, plus it could've been worse: the attack could've dislodged the Bomb. Speaing of which...

Once Falcomon had flown past the passing Shooting Star attack and caught up with Pegasmon, he swung his body around in midair, letting go of the spherical explosive as he did so, allowing the extra momentum to send it flying toward his equine foe. Once he was certain his weapon was on the right track, Icarus made his way to the roof of the lighthouse as instructed. Whatefeer Julien was planning, it had an distinct advantage in allowing the bird to catch his breath.

Julien, meanwhile, could only pause to soak up Pegasmon's compliment. He had to, having recieved very few of those from anyone but his grandparents or teachers in his life... hell, even Icarus was less than kind to him sometimes. But the Falcomon had said it himself: he'd stick by Julien, at least until his adult form was accessable again. And then... Julien didn't want to think about that.

“Lucky you, getting a tamer to order you around, while I fly around without help. For god’s sake, I got a D on tactics in hologram school….” Moaned Pegasmon. Perhaps it enjoyed being a stand-up comedian more than a battler.

Peagasmon continued flying around, waiting for an attack… then one came. As the bomb soared closer, Pegasmon found her situation bleak.

“Damn bombs…” She cried as it impacted her again, this time hitting nothing but the flying mare. As the smoke cleared, cracks on her armor were visible. She didn’t have much strength left.

Pegasmon then did something unexpected. It didn’t move, it didn’t attack. It simply stayed put in the air, waiting to see what Ikky’s next move would be.

Julien and Icarus were ready to put the second part of the former's plan into action. "Icarus! Rub your Shuririkenen against yourself and throw zem!"

"JULIEN!" replied a clearly outraged, and blushing, Falcomon. "You filthy... oh, so you didn't mean it that way." Remembering that metal conducts electricity, Icarus unpocketed a couple of handfuls of tiny shuriken, and realised why JKulien wante dhim to land: he couldn't execute this move unless he had two wings free.

Icarus rubbed the shuriken in his claws against his coat of electrically-charged feathers, then when he was convinced they'd built up enough power, threw them at his hovering opponent - just in time to feel the effect of Lightning Pulse quite literally fizzle out. "Shuririken!" But the weapoons the electricity had empowered were still out there, charged and well on their way.

Julien, meanwhile, took note of the cracks on Pegasmon's armor and the bruises on her fur, and considered going easy on the poor steed - but stamped out that thought almost instantly. This was only an articificial Digimon: a software manikin. What good was respecting its will to live when it wasn't truly alive to begin with?

Pegasmon opened her eyes wide. She could either sink or swim... literally it seemed. As the charged shurkiens flew out towards her, she herself charged… into the water. Hoping she could swim, she sped down into the ocean and avoided the electric-charged attack.

The dive into the water was quite refreshing, and for a moment, Pegasmon wanted to call out to her opponents for them to join her jovial splash. Then she remembered her battle. She dived into the water, but it was hard for an air-horse to become a water horse. She just hoped this would give her an advantage over another non-swimmer.

"Damn... what's she up to?" Icarus growled. "Julien? You got any cards I could use for underwater combat?"
"Um... one minute..." Julien picked up his deck and took advantage of Pegasmon's pregnant pause to go through it with a fine toothed comb. As it turned out, he didn't have any cards that could adapt a Digimon who was, if anything, worse suited to aquatic conditions than Pegasmon to said environment, however...

"Nein. Zhis two mean ve von't need undervater combat, zhough," he said, unceremoniously slashing the mentioned cards and smiling brightly up at his partner.

The second the first card was slashed, a catchy, envigourating beat filled Icarus' invisible ears: it seemed to be coming from nowhere, yet it was everywhere. The Falcomon had been perched atop the lighthouse, yet when he heard that music, he felt compelled to move his body in any way at all: in no time at all, he knew that was what he was supposed to be doing.

The dance tune was there for one specific purpose: to allow Icarus to avoid the negative effects of the next card in the combo. Though that card would allow Pegasmon the choice of attacking at close or far range, there was one choice it would not allow her: the choice not to attack. Once the card had passed through Julien's D-ban, she'd have no choice but to make her presense in the water known in some way.

Icarus steeled himself, feeling at one with the rhythm, trusting in it to carry him away from Pegasmon's forced attack...

Pegasusmon continued swimming around, getting used to it. However, the water on her wings and in her armor meant she wouldn’t be flying around for awhile. She sighed, and then felt something in her body grow warm. IT felt like she had to, HAD TO do something. She reared up out of the water making a huge splash. HE body, she couldn’t control her body... why was it acting this way?

“I, uh, oh shit. Alright, SHOOTING STAR!.” Pegasusmon lifted her almost useless wings out of the water and they created a rain of half-hearted starts towards Falcomon. Now, it looked a pit like Falcomon was fishing with a fishing rod made of shooting stars… alright, horrible analogy.

"Shit," snarled Icarus as Pegasmon merely gave away her position, when removing herself from that troublesome position would've been preffered. Even so, her provoked attack gave him little trouble, the Falcomon swaying his hips and wings as he allowed the music to guide him out of the Star Shower's path.

Unfortunately, that one dodge proved to be all that card was good for, for the background music faded out as soon as Icarus was confident he was safe. Diving down, past the now-even-more-damaged lighthouse, he came to rest hovering a little in front of Pegasmon in the water, and called out to Julien.

"Alright, time for plan B. Now, Julien, what exactly IS that?"
Julien had no answer to that, but he did have a quesstion for the Falcomon, brought on by a card he thought might prove useful. "Icarus, does zhere exist any aquatic Rookie Digeemon?"
"Well, duh, yeah," Icarus said. "Gomamon, Swimmon, Otamamon, Penmon and more..."
"Alright zhen, take your pick," Julien forewarned Icarus, beaming as he slashed the card that would've worked so well against Laiko, had she not EXACTLY the right counter for it. "Kostümverwandlung!"

Instantly knowing the effect of the card thanks to the magic of the D-ban, Icarus opted to become a Digimon close to his original self, but better suited to the task at hand. As he focused his mind, his plumage was dyed a deep, cool purple with a stripey snow white belly, his "ear feathers" and beak elongated, the latter becoming more hooked and suited for hunting fish, while his body, paradoxically enough, became both more rotund and more streamlined and adapted for swimming. His feet and legs, once muscled and tough, broadened and shortened, becoming more paddle-like - and his wings reformatted into thin, sharp flippers a far cry from the flying aids he was used to.

"Penmon!"

The transformation complete, Icarus found himself suspended above the murky sea, with no means of flight - which, of course, didn't last long before he ungracefully flopped into the water. Giving his body a brief moment to adjust to its new surroundings, the new Penmon poked his head above the surface to take a moment to yell at his Tamer.

"My physique! Julien, what did you do to it? I look like a feathered version of you!"
"I'm not sure," Julien said, almost reeling in the face of a rather uncalled for comment. "You vhere the one to pick the Digeemon, remember?"
"Fine," said a disgruntled Icarus, before resubmerging and turning back to his opponent. Despite his newfound bulk, which would've been clumsy on land, he found himself enjoying the ease with which he manevuvered underwater.

When he found his way to the swimming horse, the Pen-Falcomon said nothing, but the malicious grin on his face spoke volumes. "Ewig Slaps!" Moving in for the kill, Icarus slapped his flippers across Pegasmon's elongated face once, twice, three times... as many times as he could manage before she could strike back and the card expired, always striking with speed and presision he could never have managed in or out of water as Falcomon.

“Og! Ah, Oh!” Pegasmon ‘s face went from one side to another as each slap landed on her face. Her eyes opened wide and she gasped for air. AS the barrages continued, she found she could no longer swim, and was drawn deep into the surf.

“At least I got to see the sea….”

(Battle ends. Falcomon and Julien get .1 DEP and a Pegasmon plushie that tells jokes when squeezed, and finally, 150 money.)

((Sweet! Thanks for modding me, Cleo :¦D:))

"And I didn't get to somehow kill you with the lighthouse," Icarus said mock-regretfully as he wathced his artificial victim sink into the artificial briny deep. Once Pegasmon was out of sight, Icarus was a Falcomon again, and the ocean a plain white room again. It was an odd feeling, jolting from underwater to dry land in mere seconds...

"Ve von!" Julien said elatedly, stowing his deck and grinning like a maniac while Icarus hugged his old, slimmer body - never had he thought he'd be so happy to be Falcomon.

"That was such a blast!" Icarus said as he took Julien by the hands and spun him round (or tried and failed to, anyway, due to the discrepency in weight). "We must do this hologram thing again sometime, say, after I evolve again? It can't be long now, I can FEEL it!"
"Heh heh, ja. Sure," Julien said, and collected his plush stand-up Pegasmon before heading toward the exit of the Training area. "Good vork back zhere, Icarus. Vhat you vant to do now?"
"Good work yourself. Those cards really helped me... oh, and I 'unno," the Falcomon replied. "How 'bout we go for a walk somewhere?"
"Vhere?"
"I'm not picky. Let's swing by the Apartment to get some supplies, and decide on the way."

Julien departed the facility, intent on doing just that... and as he left, imagined bloodstains on his copies of Bomb, Lightning Pulse, Musical Rhythm, Trigger and Costume Change. With a tiny sigh he told himself what he'd done was no worse than slaying a video game enemy - and since it seemed that battle had brought him into greater unison with Icarus as a partner, the pros of taking that non-life far outweighed the cons, it seemed. He'd get over it.