*in Bob Ross-style voice* Welcome back. Certainly glad you could join me today, because today I thought we’d just to a happy little painting, and I hope you enjoy it. So I tell you what, let’s start out today and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me. While they’re doing that, let me show you what I’ve got done up here already…
*get bashed in the head by a mallet*
Ow, I needed that - and I need to limit how much “The Joy of Painting” I watch…
Anyway, this is my Secret Santa gift to you, Shuppet Master, and I hope you like it.
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“Finally, some me-time!”
Such was what Leo Vertua was thinking out loud. He had decided to take a little stroll outside the fortified sanctuary of the Sacred Three, who had been guiding him and the other Chosen during their journey. It was one of the rare chances he had to be by himself and get a breather; not that being away from his friends was a bad thing, of course. It was just that sometimes he needed an opportunity to think on his own every once in a while.
He had been walking through the canyon just outside of the sanctuary, where he had acquired his Spirit and gained the power to evolve into Samuraimon, the Knight of Fire. The memory wasn’t an overall pleasant one - considering a Digimon by the name of Meramon tried to kill him and the other Chosen before the Spirit could be found - and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. But that was a quite a while ago, and at the moment things were looking up.
…until it started to snow.
This mini blizzard caught Leo by surprise. It came through more like an ocean wave than a winter storm. In less than a minute after it started, there was already an inch of snow on the ground.
“Man, this sucks…since when does it snow in the desert?! Oh, wait a minute…” He quickly remembered being in the Arahas Desert several months back, and conditions there were much worse.
…or so he thought.
As if cue, the wind began to howl, and the snow began to pile higher and higher until it reached up to the Knight’s knees.
“This BITES!” Leo called out as he tried to make his way through the rising drifts. Peering through the near-blinding snow, he saw what looked like a cave at the base of one of the canyon’s walls. With no other options in sight, he decided to go for it. As he entered the sheltered abode and shrugged the snow off of his clothes, he heard the D-5 in his pocket beeping. He pulled it out and activated its communication feature.
“Leo, you alright out there?” He heard Aaron’s - fellow Chosen and Knight of Wind - voice ring out. “The S-3 detected this freak blizzard the moment it started.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Leo replied. “I found a nice little cave out here in the canyon. I think I’ll gonna have to stick around and wait out this Nor’easter.”
“You sure you’ll be ok out there?” Aaron asked. “You’ve said you’d be ‘okay’ plenty of times before, and each of those times you ended up battered or bruised by whoever decides to pick a fight with us…”
“Sheesh, you’re starting to sound like Asuka,” Leo replied, holding his temples. “You’re worrying too much. And hey, there’s a first time for everything, right? Besides, I have my D-5 handy. If something does happen, I’ll be sure to let you guys know.”
He heard Aaron sigh on the other end. “Fine, but you be careful out there. Your little angel would never forgive me if I let something bad happen to you.”
Leo was about to give a ‘will do’ statement until he heard that last remark. “Huh? Hang on, whaddya mean ‘little angel?’” He didn’t get a reply - only a standard cut-off of the com-link. “Damn him,” he huffed, stuffing the D-5 back into his pocket.
He gripped his shoulders for warmth, but then slapped his forehead. “What the heck am I doing? I don’t have a be this cold!” Pulling the D-5 out again, he raised it over his head and called upon his evolution.
“EXECUTE! KNIGHT SPIRIT EVOLUTION! SAMURAIMON!”
As the Fractal Code dissipated, the Knight of Fire could immediately notice the positive results. Already his body was warming up, and he felt far more comfortable than moments before. “Much better,” he said to himself. He got a good look at his surroundings, and noticed that the cavern went a bit deeper than he originally thought. “Well, it’s not like I have anything else better to do right now.” Deciding to do a bit of exploration, he snapped a finger, and a ball of fire burst to life in his extended hand. With a competent light source, he ventured deeper into the cave.
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A twenty-minute trek down into the depths made Leo notice a particular trend: it was a single path, with no other interconnecting tunnels. And in several instances, he saw how some of the sand and rock on the tunnel’s floor was fresh, as if they had recently been churned up.
Before he could continue on this thought, he found the tunnel opened up into a massive cavern. The walls were lined with strange crystal-like structures that glowed brightly, illuminating the area. At the center of the room was what appeared to be a hot spring; a quick feel of the water confirmed this assumption. As he was pulling his hand back out, his mind clicked when he realized there were snowflakes coming down, even though there were no openings in the cavern’s ceiling.
As he tried to figure out how that would be possible, a massive gust of wind came through the cavern from its entrance, sending snow in Samuraimon’s direction. The Knight shielded himself and groaned as the warmth he had felt earlier was whisked away by this freak of nature.
“Ho…Ho…Ho…”
The deep voice made the Knight of Fire shudder. He lowered his arm and saw a strange-looking Digimon, who had appeared out of the gust of ice and snow. It was a ten-foot-tall giant of a creature. Someone a good distance away might have mistook it for a polar bear, given its teddy bear-like features. However, someone close by would have seen it more as a snowman of sorts. It was wearing a large black top-hat, and had a red and green scarf around its neck. A corncob pipe was stuck in place where its mouth would be.
Samuraimon pulled out his D-5 and used its newly acquired Description function. “Frigimon, an Icy Digimon at the Champion level. While normally docile, it will mercilessly use its Subzero Ice Punch and Snowball Fight attacks if threatened.”
“And where do you think you’re going, little boy?” The Frigimon asked in an overly-annoying voice.
“Uh…I was actually about to leave, if you don’t mind,” Samuraimon said, taking a step back.
“Oh, I’m afraid I can’t let you go anywhere,” the Icy Digimon stated, gathering some snow from the ground. “The boss wouldn’t like it if I let you go…”
“The boss? Hang on…you couldn’t possibly be working with the Dark One, could you?”
“Mind your own business!” The Frigimon snapped in an agonizingly poor French accent. “That doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that I put you on ice so no one will squeal.”
Samuraimon drew his katana and held it out. “I’m warning you, you’d better not provoke me. You wouldn’t like me when I’m provoked.”
“Hey!” Frigimon yelled. “That’s MY line! Alright, you’re gonna pay for stealing my thunder!” He formed a snowball and hurled it at the Knight.
Samuraimon didn’t think anything of it, and let the snowball hit him in his left shoulder armor. “Is that the best you can do?” He asked.
Frigimon giggled like an idiot. “Look again, silly.”
Samuraimon suddenly felt his left shoulder freeze up. “What the hell?” Looking over, he saw that ice had formed where the snow had hit him, reaching all the way down to his elbow.
“Ha ha, got you!” The Icy Digimon laughed. “Now to finish the job! SNOWBALL FIGHT!” In a flurry, Frigimon launched a barrage of snowballs at his target.
Despite his partly-frozen arm, the Knight of Fire was able to dodge the onslaught of snowballs, rushing in with katana at the ready. “Time to trim the tree!” He called, slashing at the Icy Digimon’s stomach. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work, as the wounds were covered by the snow from other parts of his body. Growling, the Knight tried again and again as Frigimon just took it. Each time, the damage was essentially negated.
Frigimon chuckled. “That won’t work on me! But this will work on you! SUBZERO ICE PUNCH!” He brought down a balled fist with one mighty swing. Samuraimon dodged just in time, Frigimon’s fist impacting on the ground where he was standing. The area was immediately covered in ice.
“Crap, that was a close call,” the Knight said out loud.
“Come on,” Frigimon said, punching like an amateur boxer, “you need to chill out for me.”
“I think I’ll go with getting fired up! Incendiary Stream!” Samuraimon unleashed his main attack; a blast of pure fire raced towards the lummox.
“Where’s your holiday spirit?” Frigimon asked as he gave a wave of his arm, a small wall of ice was formed, blocking the fire attack. “You need it before I can officially kill you cold turkey!”
“Ugh, you’re getting on my nerves!”
Frigimon turned around just in time to see the Knight of Fire in the air above him. He unleashed another Subzero Ice Punch at the same time his adversary fired a second Incendiary Stream. The attacks collided in a good sized explosion, sending both combatants back a good distance away from each other.
As the steam dissipated, Samuraimon barely dodged another snowball. He could see Frigimon blocking the exit, packing more of the icy projectiles into a pile in front of him. He then took two larger ones and stuck them on his biceps, as if to bulk himself up in more ways than one. “I’m the best! You’re the worst! Let’s run and we’ll have some fun now before I melt away!”
“Fat chance, Frosty!” Samuraimon melted the ice on his arm, then launched a volley of fireballs at an alarming rate.
“I resent that!” Frigimon replied, hurling a volley of snowballs to meet the fireballs. Each projectile collided head-on. “We do not discuss my dad’s side of the family!”
Both sides continued their volleys, but pretty soon there were more snowballs hurtling through the air than fireballs. The Knight of Fire was slowly but surely getting tired. Eventually he had to choice but to run for it. A quick dash was all it took to get out of range of Frigimon’s throwing arm.
“You’re no fun at all,” Frigimon commented, taking the time to make some more snowballs. “At this rate you’ll be dead from exhaustion. That won’t make for a good snow-samurai!”
Samuraimon wasn’t just getting tired. He was slowly getting colder. He could feel the heat escaping his body faster than normal. “Damn it, why is this more difficult than usual?” He quietly asked himself as he dropped his katana and tried to catch his breath. “He’s only a Champion! I shouldn’t have any problems with him at all…
“Wait…hang on…maybe I’m the one making it more difficult. I just need to find a way to make it easier for me…” He turned his head slightly and remembered the hot spring. “Before you melt away, eh? That gives me an idea…” As he looked back at the Icy Digimon, he nearly got pelted in the face with yet another snowball.
“Boring!” Frigimon called. “I can do this all day with the snow I’m making in here. Make it easy on yourself and let me make an snow-samurai out of you.”
“Oh really?” Samuraimon asked, picking up his katana. “I doubt you even have the snowballs for that.”
Frigimon looked confused. “Of course I do! I got a pile of them right here!”
The Knight shook a finger, then pointed at him. “That’s not the kind I’m talking about. You’re so childish, I doubt you even have a pair right now.”
The Icy Digimon’s eyes seemed to narrow as his fists balled up. “Shut up! You don’t know me at all!”
“Oh, sure I do,” Samuraimon said coolly, as he went up and down the blade of his katana with his other hand. “You’re just a sad excuse for a snowman who’s blindly following a meaningless cause.”
The pieces of coals that made up Frigimon’s eyes and buttons appeared to be burning red as his anger went up even higher. “I SAID SHUT UP!” He took the pile of snowballs and quickly mashed them together until they made one giant sphere. He hurled it with all his might.
“Just what I was hoping for,” Samuraimon commented. He fired a stronger version of his Incendiary Stream, destroying the giant snowball before it could even come close to hitting him. Frigimon was so fixated on his projectile that he didn’t see the Knight charging towards him.
“Sword of Salamandra!” The Knight cried out, slashing much harder than before. As he was taunting the Icy Digimon, he was using the energy he could spare to superheat the blade of his katana, making it much hotter than normal.
The end result: it cut through Frigimon’s arm with no problem at all.
“ARGH!” Frigimon howled as the limb fell away from his body. “YOU NAUGHTY LITTLE SKUNK!” He threw a Subzero Ice Punch with his remaining arm, but Samuraimon dodged easily.
“What’s the matter, Frosty?” The Knight of Fire asked. “I thought you liked cutting ice sculptures!”
“Santa says you’ve been a bad boy this year!” Frigimon snarled as he flung more snowballs at the Knight. “You’re getting nothing but a heaping pile of coal!”
“Cool,” Samuraimon replied with a smile, “more fuel for the fire.” Frigimon kept throwing snowballs, eventually having to resort to pulling off snow from his own girth to provide material. The Knight continued to dodge the projectiles, leading the Digimon closer and closer to the hot spring.
Soon it was the Frigimon’s turn to tire. He tried to hurl another snowball, but his arm gave out as he faltered, going down to one knee.
The Knight saw his chance. Superheating his blade again he zipped in and sliced off the Icy Digimon’s remaining arm. Ignoring the screams of agony, he did the same to his legs, cutting them off the knees. Now Frigimon looked more like a snowman - if there were any large sticks in the cavern, he could have easily completed the look.
“Ah……….come on, I was only kidding about making a snow-samurai out of you!” Frigimon cried out in near desperation. “I’m only here to spread the cheer! You know, the Dark One’s influence on all the Digital World? The One who will strike you all down and make everything his own?”
“You know,” Samuraimon said exasperatedly, “your jokes have become old. So has this talk of the big guy taking over the world. The odds of that happening is just like your odds of survival...” He clenched his fists and gathered energy for his special ability.
“…a snowball’s chance in Hell. BURNING BIG BANG!”
The explosion of power sent Frigimon flying, landing in the middle of the hot spring. His cries of pain were indescribable as he slowly but surely melted away. In mere moments, all that remained was his hat, scarf and pipe, while residue from the pieces of coal began to float to the surface of the spring. All of the leftovers eventually dissolved into Fractal Code
The Knight of Fire used his D-5 to absorb the Fractal Code. “I’ve heard of a low melting point, but that…was pretty pathetic.” Sheathing his katana and devolving to human form, he made his way towards the exit.
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The trip out was longer than the trip in, but Leo was glad he was even able to make it out at all. He did notice that the so-called Nor’easter was over. The sun was shining brightly overhead, and all the clouds had disappeared. One would never have guessed that there was a storm less than an hour ago.
Leo sighed as he scratched the back of his head. “Well, that wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to spend my me-time...” With that, he began his trek back up to the sanctuary, where his friends would surely be waiting for him…
Secret Santas 2008
Originally Posted by shazza
I hope you dont take it too seriously 
Thank you Saffire Persian. (Complete list coming soon)
Merry Chris-miss to you too.
Wow, you definitely put plenty of effort into this. I couldn't tell you how inaccurate it was, since I personally don't dive this deep into history unless I absolutely have to. 