It seems that Shoutmon’s lucky streak after arresting Impmon wasn’t meant to last. He had enjoyed playing with the purple speck to his heart’s content, making sure that Impmon learnt his lesson by familiarizing the imp Digimon with every nook and cranny of his tired soles. Nevertheless, once that was done, Shoutmon had opted to return to his base of operations in order to turn in Impmon as well as to collect his reward. That’s why, after making sure that Impmon was firmly secured in a glob of grime in his toegap, Shoutmon put back on his foot armor pieces and stepped into the teleporter. However, in his haste to be rewarded he had forgotten to fic the previously hacked teleporter. As a result, something went very wrong during the transfer…
It all happened in a flash. One second, he was standing in Impmon’s lair, in a secluded digital space in the depths of the EDEN cyberspace; The next second he was in the middle of a warm foamy desert that seemed to extend in all directions. To make matters worse, Shoutmon soon noticed an intense stench permeating everything in this strange world. If he had to describe it, it was like an extremely powered up version of the scent often found in used sweaty footwear. This puzzled Shoutmon even further, still unable to get his bearings. This weird landscape didn’t resemble any of the cyberspaces or private servers Shoutmon knew, so he quickly theorized that he had accidentally warped into the real world, but where exactly? Looking far in the distance he could see the blurry shape of an orange mega-structure, standing like a tall bridge and supported by a central beam. However, it would take him hours if not days just to get there on foot. Looking even further into the horizon, objects were so distant that they only resembled blurry undefined shapes to Shoutmon. The only thing he managed to recognize was the warm summer sun far in the distance. Unfortunately for the king Digimon, he didn’t have any time left to ponder about his situation, as his train of thought was soon interrupted by a series of quakes, each growing in intensity and throwing him out of balance. The tremors got so intense that Shoutmon started fearing for his wellbeing. However, just as they had started, they suddenly stopped. When Shoutmon finally managed to stand back up he immediately noticed something wrong in the horizon. Standing far in the distance was a blurry blue monolith of immense proportions that extended up into the sky. It was so tall that the red Digimon was unable to see it in its entirety. Furthermore, this newly gargantuan blue structure was currently eclipsing the sun, casting the entire landscape in a dark shade that did little to stave off the warmth emanating from the ground. Things only got even more confusing when a thundering and booming voice came from said blue blur, easily outmatching the loudest thing Shoutmon had ever heard and causing the red Digimon to wince in pain as if he was standing close to an explosion. - “WELL WELL WELL, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?”- said the mysterious voice before an equally massive blue structure descended from the sky and uprooted the entire landscape, bringing the desert up with it until the entire sky and horizon was replaced by a gigantic face, and more precisely, an eye looking down at Shoutmon. - “I DIDN’T EXPECT TO GET A NEW INSOLE CLEANER SO SOON! THE LAST ONE IMPMON SENT ME BROKE JUST YESTERDAY, NOW THAT’S GOOD SERVICE!”- added the godly voice. It was then that things finally started falling into place in Shoutmon’s mind. The foamy texture, the warmth, the smell, the weird orange structure far in the distance… it wasn’t a foreign world, he had just been shrunken to the size of a speck of dust and left stranded on a flip flop! It was a shocking revelation for Shoutmon, made even worse the moment he finally registered the words of what essentially was a god to him – “W-wait! What do you mean by insole cleaner?!” – asked a panicked Shoutmon dreading what the godly Digimon might have in store for him. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was so small that his voice went nowhere and remained unnoticed by the titan currently holding his world. Before he could attempt to communicate with the giant again, his massive face moved away, finally revealing the identity of the titan as a Veemon. In a swift movement, the flip flop was once again lowered to the ground. – “I NEED TO GO GET SOME GROCERIES IN TOWN, HOPE YOU DON’T MIND MY PAW JOINING YOU DOWN THERE, SPECK!” – said Veemon before positioning his foot over the insole containing his brand-new toy. Shoutmon was treated to a full view of Veemon’s already grimy and sweaty sole filling the entire sky before slowly descending upon him, leaving the speck to scramble for any indentations in the insole which could protect him from the full brunt of Veemon’s foot.
Once he felt both his stompers snuggly secured in his tattered flops, Veemon went on with his day, paying little mind to the red speck under his foot. It had been a tranquil summer day so far, with the usual sweltering heat and the loud cicada cries as a backdrop. Veemon took his sweet time going to the local grocery store, opting for a more scenic route since he wanted to enjoy the peace only a mountain village in summer could bring. It wasn’t until well into the afternoon that Veemon finally arrived back at home. As soon as he had crossed the door, he quickly took of his flop and looked for his red speck, eager to see in what state he was after baking under his foot for most of the day. However, as seconds turned into minutes, Veemon was unable to find Shoutmon anywhere on the insole. Growing frustrated, Veemon soon assumed that Shoutmon was probably buried under a piece of grime and that he would appear sooner or later once he got to work on his flops. As such, Veemon moved on with his chores. After storing all the groceries, he turned on the TV and got comfortable watching it, leaving his flops sitting by his side. There was another news report about the disappearing Digimon and Humans in the EDEN cyberspace, something which caused Veemon to snicker since he knew about Impmon’s exploits. Still, the question of the whereabouts of Shoutmon remained in Veemon’s mind, wondering how long it would take him to find his lost speck, since he already had tons of devious game ideas for him…
Unbeknownst to Veemon, Shoutmon had been stuck to a glob of toejam inside on of the groves of his toeprint for the best part of the afternoon, being forced to endure the full brunt of Veemon’s foot musk and leaving him to wonder if he would ever manage to catch the attention of the mischievous titan that was now his entire world.
