Beyond The Horizon

> "The Destroyer is dead! What do we do now?"
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## About

*Beyond the Horizon* is the first game in the Character's Story Saga. This Game is the story of Syrus and Merlin and how their relationship begins to bloom.

* This is the Fourth Game made by Agumonofalchemy
* This is the first game to introduce bad endings and Game Overs.

## Plot

A few months have passed from the events of Project Horizon, and life returns to normal aboard The Star Piercer. Syrus wakes up one morning to find Merlin waiting on him, and assist him through the day. Reluctant at first, but going with it, he continues through his day. Culania comes by to ask to go on an adventure alone, revealing his new Card Power. Syrus gives his blessing, and Culania heads off to the world chosen by Merlin. Before leaving, Culania decides to scout it out by entering the world's Dreamside, only to be met by one of the world's gods.

It would appear to be a world based on *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*. And Culania is to be treated as a diplomat to this world, for he brings news of the death of The Destroyer, and hopes to help bring all worlds back into one universe. He is invited to the Castle of Twilight Sparkle, and is well taken care of, until a loud crash causes everyone to run towards the Everfree Forrest. Queen Chrysalis has returned with the Alicorn Amulet, granting her even more power than before. Threatening to steal the heart of Spike to become even more powerful, Culania sends several plushies to combat her. One short fight later, she is defeated, the world is approved to rejoin the Main Universe, and Culania heads home.

Back home, Kyo decides to go and explore a Red World, since the scouters are now broken. He goes and find it calm at first, however he is soon attacked by a resident who mistakes him for a weapon from a war that happened there thousands of years ago. She manages to defeat him, and he begs her to kill him, so that he might be freed of his cursed life, only for her to realize her mistake. They take Kyo to someone who might be able to repair him, and he is given a small gem. This gem binds with his soul and causes a new body to be created in the form of a griffin. However Kyo decides not to bring this world into the main universe.

After his adventure, the story changes focus to Cat, Abigail, and Culania going back to Care-A-Lot to bring it into the main universe. While there Arthur tells Cat about how he knows she needs help taking care of her cubs, and wishes to give her help. He takes her to a research facility, and shows her what they've been working on in Care-A-Lot with the goop Samantha left behind. The most noticeable one being the upcoming transformation of a giant Garudamon. Arthur leaves for a few minutes to get Cat's new help. Meanwhile it would appear two thieves working for Samantha have snuck in to reclaim one of her devices. Finding it, they accidentally activate it, causing the Patamon to be mentally regressed, as the other thief, a Gomamon, runs away. He trips on some scaffolding, and falls into a machine that transforms him into an immobile pooltoy. He is later purchased by Culania in a nearby shop. Cat becomes worried about the disappearance of Arthur and goes searching for him. She comes across the regressed thief and adopts him before continuing her search. Not finding him, she returns to the main room and encounters Moira, who explains why she's there with her mom, Diane the Garudamon. She goes onto say that their family has hit some hard times and are looking for work, causing Cat to mistake her for the help Arthur had gotten her. She offers them a job, and they accept. Carol and Ben joining the conversation to watch Diane's transformation. Arthur arrives with Sneaky, his help for Cat. Everyone realizes the misconception that has occurred, and Arthur says he'll find a way to fix it after the transformation. It begins, and immediately something goes wrong, causing Diane to turn into a diapercritter Biyomon. After finding out they're still going to have to pay a ridiculously large fee for the conversion, Carol states they can't and they'll just bail. Arthur says that instead they can work off the debt by assisting Cat, to which, they agree.

The next chapter focuses on Edgar and Lute delving deeper into the mystery of the strange symbol on Edgar's bracelet. After months of not finding any information on it, Edgar asks Culania if he might know anything, and is informed that Culania's seen it before in a book. In the library they find the book, *The Wanderer's Journal*, which reveals the symbol was on a wall in a world that has frozen over. They go to the world and discover a small hut that has the symbol in it, touching it, Edgar accidentally summons a small bat like creature called Candle. Candle tells them the symbol is a summoning sigil on his world, and will aide them in their understanding on the condition he gets to go with them.

Meanwhile, Syrus and Merlin go back to ABCove to meet up with Grimm, since they've been too busy to keep in touch. Arriving there they find Grimm's small shack of a home gone and replaced with a giant mansion, confused, they soon find Grimm inviting them into his new home. As it turns out, he's been adopted by a new family due to a mess up with his paperwork that legally makes him only 3 years old. Regardless they decide to catch up.

That night, Syrus is back home, asleep in his crib, he has a nightmare. A premonition of what occurs later in the story. His woken by Merlin who tells Syrus it's a day for him to relax, but finds it's not going to be that simple. Merlin's gotten the idea in mind to tease Syrus and treat him even more like a cub than normal. He dresses Syrus in frilly clothing and tells him to play like a good child, to which Syrus agrees to go along with. All the while, he does not understand why. His heart and mind race whenever Merlin does this to him, and he can't bring himself to stop. The day continues as a 'normal' day aboard The Star Piercer, and it is time for the afternoon report. Without warning, Syrus kisses Merlin, which pleasantly surprises him. Agreeing to call Syrus by name from now on, their moment is interrupted when the alarms go off, and the discover Culania has collapsed.

Everyone gathers in the nursery to understand just what happened to Culania, only to simply not understand. Culania wakes up and informs them why.

> "As if a million billion people all at once fell asleep... When Alchemist did... whatever he did. I panicked and used all my power to force him to sleep. But I had to wake up a million people to do so! Whatever that anger was, it would not sleep. Whatever that just was. It felt just like that. Like making a million people fall asleep, all at once, right nearby."
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Deciding to investigate the cause, they go to explore the world closest to them and see what could have caused this. There, they see at first, it appears if nothing has happened. Scans of the world show no one is harmed, no one fell asleep, in fact it seems that the world is getting better, as all wars and crime have stopped. They realize the cause however, some sort of gas that's making everyone gather to build massive factories. It's fading, but they manage to trace it to the source. There, they discover four Digimon, who have just set off some strange bomb. These four are mercenaries of Samantha, and attack the group. The mercenaries manage to overpower the heroes, and they must retreat. Later, they regroup and realize this can only mean trouble for them in the near future, and decide to prepare themselves.

The next day we find one of the mercenaries, Dameon, setting up the bomb again, this time in the outskirts of ABCove. Grimm finds him and tries to convince him not to use the weapon, and promises him a lot of toys in exchange for going on a mission for him. Going back to Grimm's home, Dameon is horrified to learn of Grimm's mission. To go to a SCIP world, and bring his half dead father back from the bowels of Purgatory. After a bonus to the pay, promising Dameon he can come to Grimm's house at any time to be babied, and be Grimm's friend, they go. They manage to get into purgatory and find Grimm's father. After a bit of realization that they don't remember how, they realize they had an encounter with a memory eater and shrug off the fact they have what they need to get him out. Grimm's father, now mortal again, go home with the two. Grimm catches him up to speed and he realizes Dameon needs his pay, so decides to start immediately. Afterwords, he reunites with his other children, and goes to introduce himself to the new family. It's there that Dameon breaks down. He realizes that the adventure with Grimm, the loss of the bomb, everything he's done, means Samantha is going to kill him, and everyone there. They all comfort him and tell him they'll figure out how to stop her, deciding to go to Syrus.

He lays out her plan. 10 Mercenaries, himself included, have been sent out to do various tasks. Some to distract Syrus while the others go and acquire artifacts for Samantha's scheme, a super weapon that will make her unstoppable. They go as follows:

### Pandora

Culania wishes to go to this world alone again as he had earlier. However Cat finds out what he's been doing and refuses to let him go. She's so worried he's going to get hurt, and says it would be one thing if she could go with him. Further, she laments more on her lost form, to which Culania tells her, he can return her to. She accepts. Using a drone he got from Diane, he transforms her back into her original diapercritter form, and they head out. Pandora is in an old factory, decrepit and forgotten, the two begin searching for Pandora, only to find him trapped in a giant machine. He tells the story of how Samantha paid him to make cartoons, and would do so. But one day, she offered him a deal to make hypnotic cartoons to fight with, and he refused. Samantha then trapped him in this machine and forced him to make the hypnotic cartoons. Culania frees him, they share a hug, and return to The Star Piercer.

### Honey

Syrus is confronted by Merlin who demands Syrus go to a doctor for a checkup. Syrus attempts to brush it off as he is too busy searching for Honey. However Merlin does not accept this and take Syrus anyway. At the hospital, there seems to be something happening, we find in short notice that Dr. Kondraki has managed to capture Honey who was spraying honey all over the hospital. Coming to claim him, Dr. Kondraki begins Syrus' check up at Merlin's request, (he had made an appointment earlier). While examining Syrus, and interrogating Honey, Syrus begins to wax on about the history of the Digital world. It's at this point Honey reveals his plan, his honey causes people to loose their minds as they drool more honey, turning them essentially into zombies. He then zombifies himself to stop them from getting more information from him. The trio bolt, and decide to head to an underground laboratory to try and stop the zombies from spreading. They find a cure and Syrus manages to use his flashlight to duplicate it in vapor form, saving the Hospital. Dr. Kondraki then agrees to go with them to get revenge on Samantha.

### Leon

Syrus is hungry. Turns out he's been skipping meals in the search for these guys, and Cat confronts him on this. Agreeing to eat, he says they have a reservation for the Restaurant. As Leon is working there. Actually, he invited them. He doesn't want to fight, and wants them to take him with them so he can be free of Samantha. He breaks down crying because of what she did to him, and Cat comforts him, as the three head to the Star Piercer.

### Jack

Culania decides to go to a world alone. He wants to get over his shyness, and go on an adventure. He arrives in a town and finds it abandoned. Suddenly, he is accosted by a small dragon threatening to eat him. Before the two can fight, they are interrupted by a strange creature calling himself Twilly. The three compare notes and find that Jack had come to this town and began making the heroes disappear, and they decide to set a trap for him. Cutting to Jack, we find he's been turning all the humans into plush toys. He is invited to the festival of dolls, upon arriving meeting Culania who claims to be the Fairy of Toys. Culania challenges him to a game called the Fairy's Inquisition, where if either of them lies, they shall be eaten by a dragon. The game begins and Culania manages to convince Jack that what he's doing is wrong, and pointless. Jack repents and frees the trapped humans, allowing them to return themselves to normal. Culania forgives Jack, and does not want him to return to Samantha who would no doubt punish him, and invites Jack to join them on The Star Piercer, saying farewell to his new friends.

### Ceil

Syrus, proud of Culania's work decides to take him on another adventure, this time to an ancient world of dust and sand. It was there they found an ancient pyramid, and after disarming some traps, they made their way into the central antechamber. That is where they encounter Ceil, a fallen prince and his army of servants. They had been sent by Samantha to steal something known as the Sands of Time. They fail to stop him from stealing the sands, and this awakens the guardian Anubis who attacks the heroes. Discovering Culania's divine status, Anubis relents the attack, and swears obedience to Culania, allowing him to become a plush toy. Beaten, they return home where Syrus reveals to Culania his feelings for Merlin.

### Dral

Syrus and Merlin get a call from Grimm, it turns out Dral has invaded ABCove, in an attempt to finish Dameon's work. The three head out to confront him, only to discover he's hiding in the local school, where they can not go. In an attempt to get to him, Merlin signs Syrus up for school and goes himself to find Dral's family. In the school, Syrus finds Dral, and accepts a piece of candy from Dral that allows him to see through the strange marking put on him by Samantha. Dral is being forced to work for her or else she will have his brother kill his mother who is fully under her control. Agreeing to help Dral, they rush off to find the brother, after Merlin had encountered him and fell out of communications with Syrus. Thankfully the mind control used on him is the same that was once used on Merlin, so he is able to be broken from it by Syrus, freeing the family.

### Crimek

Crimek's power prevents most people from getting close to him, a magic rattle that can transform anyone into a diaper. So Syrus sends Diane after Crimek, believing that her nature as a diapercritter will be able to protect her from transformation. Arriving in this new world, she finds it mostly abandoned, only to be accosted by a buizel named Edward. The two exchange notes and formulate a plan to take out Crimek, who it's revealed to have converted most if not all the planet's population aside from Edward into diapers. The two launch their surprise attack, and manage to capture Crimek who refuses to talk, and attempts to bargain for his freedom. Refusing this, Diane smashes the rattle which in turn frees Crimek from the control Samantha had over him and returns him to his old mental state, a lost and confused child. Taking pity on the child Diane promises to return Crimek home. As they leave, she also manages to convince Edward to join them as there is nothing left for him on the empty world.

### Edmond

Culania enters the Nursery asking Syrus if they are still on to go to the Circus they had tickets for. Unable to go because of the search for the mercenaries, Merlin takes Syrus' place. The show begins, and is quite impressive, until an accident occurs causing one of the performers to fall and nearly die, being saved at the last second by Culania's plushies. This causes the ringleader to pull Merlin and Culania aside, and ask them for help as a lot of accidents have been occurring, to the point where many of their remaining employees believe someone is trying to kill them. This turns out to be true, as Samantha is attempting to strong arm them into selling her merchandise and generate revenue for her, to which they refuse. Agreeing to help them, they set a trap and manage to capture Edmond and interrogate him, Merlin seeming to get extra angry at Edmond. Like most of the mercenaries, he's being forced to work for Samantha under threat of, in this case, loss of control of his body should he refuse. He tells Merlin what they need to know, and the circus promises to protect him for now, as they forgive him because their employees die regularly, only to return alive before their next tour. Once home Culania asks Merlin why he seemed so angry, only for Merlin to confess to Culania his true feelings for Syrus, and strong desire to protect him.

### Londrer

Edgar and Lute agree to help out on this one. Reported by a friend of Syrus, Londrer has set up a large factory on a planet and is destroying the local ecosystem as he's making toys, dolls, and clothing for Samantha. Inside the factory, the three find he has fully automated the factory to the point where the only way to travel is through the production lines. As they try to make it to the office, they are accosted by machinery and dressed as dolls for shipment. Making their way to the office, they find Londrer, asleep. Waking him, he congratulates them for making it and demands to be taken to Syrus. Returning home, it is revealed that he is Andromon, reborn as a rookie digimon after having died in the events of Project Horizon. He joins the party.

### Samantha

    Finally, after tracking down all the mercenaries, there's nothing left to do save for their assault on Toy Town. They find it has been rebuilt since the events of Project Horizon, and what's more is Samantha has also managed to create a resonance frequency field that prevents the use of Syrus' flashlight in Toy Town. The only way to her is through the traps she had set. Using the knowledge gained from the mercenaries, they manage to make it to her true lab where she had been working on Project Chronos, a plan to imbue the power of the sands of time into a Culumon to permanently kill Syrus. Thanks to the hero's meddling however, the project is incomplete, yet this does not stop Samantha from activating it. Chronos emerges, only to cry out in absolute pain, all of existence, time, and space are flashing through his mind. This causes him to warp time around him, aging and regressing those around him. Syrus tries to calm him, using the medallion Samantha had made to contain his power. This does stop him from warping time, however there's an even bigger problem now. Samantha having regained her senses holds a knife to Merlin. Should he die, he will go to Primal Village and be under Samantha's control again, to the point where Syrus may never see him again. She demands Syrus submits to her.

    Chronos overcome with pain, freezes time to reduce the pain more. He thinks between bits of pain and anger, and knows of a place with a cure for his pain. Traveling back in time, he arrives at the Hospital of Dr. Kondraki, and begs for the cure. Kondraki agrees after Chronos tells him his time traveler's code, realizing it must be important. Thanking him for the pill, Chronos returns to the present and begins to debate with himself on what he should do. He decides to talk to Syrus in the frozen time to tell him exactly what he needs to do. Syrus has to admit his true feelings for Merlin for them to get out of this alive and whole. Syrus does just so, causing Merlin to warp digivolve into his ultimate form and defeat Samantha. He admits he feels the same about Syrus, and the story ends with the two of them talking about where to go next with their relationship.