Project Horizon

"'It's the end of everything. What are we going to do?'"

About
Project Horizon is the longest game in the Broad Horizons series. The end of "The Destroyer Saga", it's the story of Syrus and friends finally discovering, and defeating The Destroyer.
 * This is the Second game made by Agumonofalchemy
 * It and Cubs in Care-A-Lot are the only two made in Ren'py.
 * This is the introduction of Grimm.
 * It was originally a RP between Agumonofalchemy and Grimminhiscrib.
 * The original RP is over 250 pages long.

Plot
The story begins with a short chapter starring Syrus and Cat. The 'short' is about how Syrus doesn't want Cat to treat him like a baby, and would rather keep working than take a bath, only to be forced by Cat to do so. He attempts to sneak out, only to be caught by Abigail. Some time later, the story proper begins, as Tec invites Syrus to return to the digital world in order to deal with a 'hacker'. Syrus agrees, and heads home. Later on, Grimm is alone in his room, when a message appears on his computer, asking for help. Clicking on it, he falls, and finds himself aboard a the ship of the Rebirth Pirates. It would seem Syrus tried to call for Merlin, but Grimm was brought in by accident. The leader of the Pirates, Captain Bluepadding discovers the new stowaway, and forces the duo to join his crew. He dumps them off on his first mate Gatomon, who changes them into their new 'uniforms', extra thick diapers. Unable to leave, they decide to make the best of it and head to the dining hall, only for Syrus to get in a fight with Shoutmon. After winning, Syrus and Grimm are sent on an away mission with Renamon.

Back aboard The Star Piercer, Kyo is engaging in training, only to be interrupted by a bored Abigail. He decides to take a break to play games with her. Syrus, Grimm, and Renamon, eventually make it to shore, a large dessert, where they are to "Rebirth" a Leomon, take his broken dead body, and turn it into an egg so it can be reborn later. While Renamon is doing so, Grimm talks to Syrus about being afraid in this alien world, and Syrus promises to help him home. Upon their return to the pirate's ship, they're called into the captain's office, where they are to be punished for the earlier fight. Syrus refuses to let Bluepadding hurt Grimm, as not only did Grimm not fight earlier, but the damage done to him by the punishment may be too much for him to handle. Syrus takes Grimm's punishment on top of his. A whopping fifty spankings. Outside, Syrus reveals to a very thankful Grimm his true intentions, by taking the spankings, he could recover his flashlight from the desk next to where he was. Now all they had to do was wait to make it to shore. The punishment did not end there though, as further, they would have to spend a week in the 'girls' room. There, Renamon decided to get a bit more vengeance on them for what Syrus did to Shoutmon. She places them into embarrassing onsies and makes them sleep in the same crib for the night. Once again, back aboard The Star Piercer, Lute goes searching for Syrus, and when he is unable to find him, decides to steal a diaper from the nursery. He is caught by Cat however, who quickly deduces his enjoyment of wearing diapers. He begs her not to tell anyone, especially Edgar, to which she agrees on the condition he becomes her cub, and calls her Nana Cat. Agreeing, she provides him with a bottle of carrot juice, and a fitting diaper.

The morning comes early in the digital world, and it seems Syrus and Grimm's embarrassment is nowhere near ending. Renamon strikes once more, this time force feeding them an all liquid breakfast, and changing them into 'sissy' clothes, along with shock collars. Whenever someone calls either of them a girl/sissy, they must say, "Thank you, I love being a sissy." else the collars will deliver a painful electric shock to Syrus. They are then ordered to scrub down the entirety of the ship by hand. While working, Grimm confronts Syrus on why he keeps taking the punishments, and Syrus reveals that Digimon don't die like his kind can. They talk a bit about Grimm's lonely life, no friends, no family, and Syrus reassures him that he has a friend now. Veemon arrives and calls Grimm into the Captain's room, alone. He reveals to Grimm that Grimm has become his tamer. This causes Grimm to cry, afraid Syrus will now leave him, having no need to stay anymore. Grimm runs out and begs Syrus not to leave, telling him about Bluepadding's news, and Syrus decides to exploit it. He quickly changes back to his normal clothes, and tells the captain he can split them, but only at File Island. Bluepadding decides to alter course straight there, and tells Grimm to have Renamon change him back to normal clothes. Upon finding out he's free of punishment, Renamon punches Grimm straight in the gut. This causes Grimm to outburst, demanding everyone stops their pointless fighting that got him into this mess. Grimm's paws start glowing a strange dark aura, and he states he feels 'numb'. Syrus sends him and Bluepadding back to the Captain's room, where Grimm begins to feel better.

Eventually the ship arrives in File City one of the three ports of File Island. Syrus and Grimm disembark to hit up the local gym to prove why Grimm shouldn't train here. Bluepadding follows along, as Syrus had his sail stolen and will only give it back at Factorial City. In the gym, their training was to push a massive boulder. Syrus does so, and Gaomon does with some difficulty. Grimm however is unable to even budge it, he gets mad, and the dark glow returns, he punches the boulder, shattering it. Syrus quickly knocks Grimm out, fearing for his own safety, believing the numbing being because of Grimm's earlier injury.

When Grimm awakens, they've arrived at Factorial City. Syrus insists on sending Grimm home, but after he refuses, Syrus makes him a deal. Let him scan Grimm here, figure out why it's happening, and then send him home. Grimm agrees. After Andromon and Syrus scan him, they find whatever is causing this is coming from Toy Town. A bit reluctant to go there, Bluepadding and Gatomon go with Grimm and Syrus, since Grimm is insistent, and Bluepadding doesn't want to die.

On their way there, Grimm asks Syrus where his tamer is, since technically Grimm saw him first. Syrus tells the story of how The Alchemist died, and why he still lives. At Toy Town they find it oddly quiet, and barge into Samantha's palace, only to find it empty of life. Up the stairs they climb, until confronted with something odd. A jet black version of Grimm. This is Grimm's shadow who demands to speak with Grimm, alone. Grimm hastily agrees, the others unable to stop him, as the shadow commands dolls to stop them. Alone, the shadow confronts Grimm about his true feelings. Grimm's not here to get stronger, he's just here for the diapers and attention. The shadow leaves, saying if Grimm wants to prove him wrong, to keep climbing. The others catch up to Grimm, and Syrus saves him from a death trap on the stairs. Continuing their assent, they arrive in a new room, this time theirs a different shadow. Still Grimm's, this one is completely white, with a large scar down one eye. This one seems cowardly, and winces as they approach. Grimm talks to the shadow for a bit, and it promises to guide them the safe way to the black one. They find the black shadow asleep on the top floor, next to him is a collapsed Monzaemon, he's halfway converted to Warumonzaemon, apparently he'd been absorbing the negative emotions of the shadows, keeping them weaker. Suddenly the white shadow stabs Bluepadding in the back, calling them all idiots. Syrus prepares to fight them, but Grimm steps up instead. He berates his own shadow for acting like a spoiled child; to which the black shadow punches him in the face. Grimm recovers and says there is someone there he wants to kill, the shadows offer him a dagger to kill the one they believe Grimm wants to kill. He however turns it on himself and threatens suicide. Syrus talks him out of this, offering his own life instead, like what the shadows want. Grimm ponders this, but a voice in his head tells him it's not the right path. Grimm realizes what the right thing to do is, and attacks his shadow. Because of Grimm's refusal to accept the shadow as part of him, the two fused together to make a monstrosity. At this point, the rest of the Pirates arrive as backup, and the group beats a hasty retreat. The shadow gives chase however, yet Grimm jumps at it once more, a brilliant light coming from his paw, the shadow vanishes, Grimm collapsed on the ground.

Later, he awakens again in Factorial Town hospital, Syrus checking up on him. He's recovering, but Bluepadding's still unconscious from the stabbing, Grimm is still weak as well. It's time for Grimm to go home, but Syrus decides to show him one last thing. He introduces Grimm to Tec. Grimm realizes where they are, and promptly freaks out. Syrus sedates him, and asks about the fate of the Rebirth Pirates since Bluepadding will have to go too. Tec informs him they'll all forget any of this, and even their captain ever existed. Syrus sighs and heads through the portal. On the pathway home, Grimm wakes up, and tries to flee from Syrus, but Syrus calms him down enough to talk. Syrus tells Grimm what he's done, much to Grimm's horror. He apologizes claiming this to be all his fault, and that things would have been better if the communication glitch never happened. Trying to change the subject he has Grimm tell him about his hometown ABCove.

They arrive in Grimm's home, a small shack, and are greeted by Grimm's one friend Timmy Nook. Grimm hugs Timmy after being gone so long, only to be informed he's been gone for less than a day in this world. Bluepadding starts to come to, and Syrus explains how Grimm could need some extra security should the shadows come back, to which he agrees, calling it a 'vacation'. Grimm is angered by this and runs into the only other room in the shack, locking it and staying the night inside. In his dreams, Grimm is once again confronted with the voice, revealed to be the deceased Alchemist, who asks Grimm to forgive Syrus. They talk for a while, Grimm wondering how he's talking to a dead man, why Syrus had to agree to the mind wipe, and how important Tec is to their battle against The Destroyer. "'Nine memories of a single man, and in exchange? Worlds and worlds of lives. Billions and Billions of people...'""'...'""'It may not seem right. But in a battle against the end of all things, one must sometimes take the lesser of two evils.' -Alchemist and Grimm"Before he leaves, Grimm asks why Bluepadding had to come with, Alchemist simply says "it isn't over yet." Meanwhile, back aboard The Star Piercer, Merlin is searching for Syrus, only to find Abigail and Culania. It's at this point Tec finally tells Merlin of his master's distress call, and asks him to go to the Digital World. He agrees, but Abigail butts in and demands he takes the two of them with him. He reluctantly accepts, after Tec tells him it should be safe. Immediately upon arrival in the Digital world, they are aboard the ship of The Rebirth Pirates, are attacked by the crew, and thrown in the brig. Everyone seems okay, though Culania's paw is hurt. Merlin asks for the ship doctor to treat Culania, and is given the luxury on the account of him being a cub. Doctor Falcomon arrives later to take a look at the paw, Culania gives him a small plush toy as thanks, much to his confusion. That night, Renamon enters the brig while Abigail and Culania sleep, and talks to Merlin. She wants to know why, why the gift, why he sides with Abigail, and why they're here. He tells her Culania's backstory and fails to understand siding with Abigail. Renamon tells the backstory of the Digital World.

Thousands of years ago, the world was a wonderful place, but one day a great darkness descended on their world. Fearing for their lives, they sent their best solders, the Royal Knights, to hold it at bay while they searched for a solution. They found another world, one closer to the darkness, and asked to work together, however that world responded by sending the Digital World deep into the darkness, as they jettisoned away. That world was inhabited by pokemon, and the inhabitants never forgot what they did. She ends her story telling Merlin that tomorrow morning, the trio will be put to trial by combat. If they can survive, they'll go free. Morning comes quickly back in ABCove, Grimm, awake after a particularly bad nightmare, snicked out early before the others were awake, only to be confronted by two others, people who look like black and white versions of himself. They say their names are Wilhelm and Satoshi, and are in fact, Grimm's brothers that were separated from him as babies. Syrus hears their talking and upon seeing them prepares to attack, believing them to be shadows, only for Grimm to stop him. Proof comes in the form of birth certificates, and Grimm tells the sad story of his adoptive

family. How they hated him, and eventually disowned him. They head inside to figure out just where to go from here, and to introduce the brothers to Bluepadding. Wilhelm comments about the diapers in this town, not used to wearing them, unlike Satoshi who enjoys them. They begin talking about their real family, and how they all found each other. Grimm says he thinks their parent must have been jerks, but Wilhelm tries to defend them, telling his earliest memory. Their father running through the rain to get them to the foster home, sick, weak, and dying. Satoshi says they should just forget their bad adoptive parents, causing Grimm to explode in rage at the idea of forgetting/forgiving them. Syrus scolds Grimm about this though, saying the past is behind them and they need to keep moving forward. Grimm finally accepts this.

Fun times don't last long though, as now Syrus is getting a message from Tec saying Merlin, Abigail, and Culania are in The Digital World. Syrus panics and wants to leave, but everyone says their helping him for what he's done for them. Syrus is hesitant to accept, especially given what happened the days before, but they're insistent, and go with.

Back aboard The Star Piercer, Kyo is finishing his daily training, and is bored once more. Lute pays him a visit, he wants to ask Kyo how he's able to keep a level head on the battlefield. The two talk a bit about battle techniques, and how to focus on important tasks, before Kyo realizes somethings off about Lute. He asks and Lute says he's not telling, which only gets Kyo more interested. So Kyo offers Lute a challenge, Lute beats him in a videogame, and he drops pressing the issue, but if Kyo wins Lute has to tell him. Lute, knowing Kyo's habit for figuring out secrets, reluctantly agrees. The game begins, and sparks fly as Lute seemingly continuously beats Kyo who only grows more and more angry. It ends, Lute having won, and needing to calm down an upset Kyo. Kyo asks how Lute can stay so calm during the game to which he says "It doesn't really matter" and that "It'll still be there, win or loose." Lute has an epiphany as Kyo calms down instantly, revealing he let Lute win to prove his point. Grateful, Lute realizes what he needs to do, and repays the favor to Kyo by telling him his secret in exchange Kyo doesn't tell Edgar.

Back with Syrus' group, the five landed back in The Digital World, this time in some forest. They decide their best change of finding the pirate's ship is to head to one of the port towns, weighing their options, they agree to return to Factorial Town. Proceeding forward, they encounter a lake, where in the center of it Bluepadding claims to see his ship, and makes a mad swim for it. Syrus gives chase, as no one can swim in this lake, as they will begin to 'decode' if they stay in it too long. At the center, and with no options, Syrus feels the invisible ship and tosses Bluepadding onto it before climbing up himself. They 'enter' the ship, and hear the voices of the crew, talking about how they're heading towards Factorial Town to resupply, and how Gatomon is the captain. Syrus reveals the truth to Bluepadding on how they all forgot him. This causes Bluepadding's shadow to manifest and control him, sending Syrus flying. He crashes into the shore, and the two Bluepaddings jump after him. They pull guns on the group, but Syrus manages to knock the guns out of their paws, the Grey brothers holding down the shadow, while Grimm talks to Bluepadding, making him see reason and accepting this being his life. With that, the shadow dissipates, and the group continues onward. As night approaches, the group arrives at Grey Lord Manor, and decide to spend the night. After a quick meal, where they are taken care of by ghost hands, and escorted to their room in the attic, the group sleeps. Everyone has bad dreams that night, everyone save for Bluepadding. They try to leave, only to find the main entrance has been locked, not even Syrus' flashlight can break it down. This leads to a horrific revelation for Syrus, the Grey Lord is gone. With the Grey Lord gone, the mansion locks down to keep the Grey One locked away in the basement. The door will only open if the Grey Lord is present, or if the Grey One is dead or incapacitated. With no other options, the group descends. The walls begin to change from wood to stone, as they go through the bedrock below, and then eventually flesh, parts of the Grey One's body. They've arrived to the Grey One's room. A large room, with a hellish looking throne of bones against the far wall. The group is met by an emaciated Pandamon named Ryu. Satoshi, out of kindness and good will changes his soaked diaper, and promises to get him some food, a bright light engulfs the two, and Ryu has become Satoshi's partner. A loud voice fills the room as the Grey One screams and comes to life to attack the group, the throne, it turns out was him, in a form used to contain him. He gives chase to the group, as they desperately think of a way out, unprepared for what he really was. One hasty decision later, and they begin attacking the large eyeballs lining the room, being a part of the Grey One, this temporarily blinds him, allowing them to escape to another room. Satoshi begins crying, wanting to go home, another bright light, and the six appear back outside, on the front door of Grey Lord Manor, and beat a hasty retreat. They arrive in a location known only as Ancient Time Zone, and begin passing through. Stopping for a brief bit of lunch, they rest a bit and try to figure out what's happened today. They hear a roar, it sounds like the Grey One, but much higher pitched, and they decide to leave and talk more later. As they keep going they hear the roar grow louder and come across a dilapidated jeep. Hopping in and driving off, they become cornered by their pursuer a Growlmon. Readying for a fight, everyone arms themselves save for Wilhelm, who simply jumps and hugs the creature, causing it to turn into a Guilmon named Lilly, Wilhelm's new partner.

Meanwhile, back on the ship it's time for the battle. Merlin and company are given food, and the rules are explained again. Merlin's up first he must do battle against Veemon, the two battle, seemingly even matched, however Merlin manages to win by trapping Veemon inside of a covered platter. It's his right to now kill Veemon, but decides against it. Next is Culania's battle. He's to fight against Gazimon, the fight seems unbalanced as Culania can not fight. Falcomon speaks up and vouches for Culania, giving him the benefit of the five minute fight. All Culania has to do is survive for five minutes. He starts the fight by summoning Anselm, the Diamond Shark, one of his plush toys. Gazimon goes straight for Culania, only to be stopped by Anselm, and the two do battle. The battle rages for several hours, only for Gatomon to tell Gazimon to stop, conceding the victory to Culania. The final battle is between Abigail and Falcomon, and it goes about as well as you might imagine, Abigail's electrical attack being just enough to tickle Falcomon, and her conjuration of a powerful mace being nothing more than a rattle. Falcomon knocks her down and prepares to finish her off, but Merlin stops them. Gatomon is enraged and demands an explanation, threatening immediate execution. All the shouting causes Merlin to shout out Syrus' name, and the ship grows silent. They ask what he knows about Syrus, since they all feel like something is missing, and all they know is the name Syrus. Merlin promises to talk for their safety, and the ship continues towards Factorial Town.

Back aboard the Star Piercer, Edgar is reading in the Library, trying to figure out anything he can about his cursed bracelet, getting nowhere, he goes for a walk in the garden, a common action of his. Lute meanwhile is trying to relax in his room, but can't. Cat checks up on him, and reaffirms she won't tell Edgar. Lute panics that Kyo might however, and runs to confront him, still wearing a diaper. He literally runs into Edgar in the garden, and is forced to reveal to Edgar his secret. Edgar accepts this, and they all head out into the town they landed in for some real relaxation.

Syrus and friends keep heading north, the quickest way to Factorial City, and come across the town Far Outpost, and decide to spend the night there, as their next destination, Freezeland, can drop below absolute zero at night. They find a hotel, and go upstairs to rest, and it's here Syrus tells Grimm more about his family back home, whom he hasn't seen in over a week now. Grimm begins to complain again about how it must be nice to have a family, but everyone quickly points out not only does he have a family, but blood relatives too, something Syrus could never have. Grimm finally seems happy, but then, a new voice shakes them away from that moment. DaVoice as he so calls himself, Grimm's shadows, having never been accepted, return once again, this time fused together as one being. Everyone tries to fight him, but he manages to flee, knocking Grimm out cold for good measure. Failing to wake him, Syrus decides to make a quick stop at Ice Sanctuary as they pursue DaVoice, believing the healing waters can wake Grimm up. Indeed they do, and it also seems to return some of Grimm's lost memories. Wilhelm and Satoshi seemingly remember this place, though it was less icy. They continue their hunt for DaVoice, passing by Toy Town, which is now in ruins, it's there that Samantha tells them how DaVoice destroyed the town, and Factorial City is going to fall quickly. They manage to make it to Factorial City which is very clearly on fire. They make their way to the central portal room, and Syrus finds Andromon, who is gravely wounded, using the last of his power to keep the portal active. One tear filled goodbye later, and the group heads through the portal after DaVoice, and arrive in Tim Nook's Shop in ABCove. It's the final battle, and everything has to come together. Edgar has created a barrier around the shop and civilians, and demands to know just what the hell is going on. Syrus finally reveals that TEC is The Destroyer, and always has been. Just Stringing the group along in some evil scheme. Tec has set a collision course with Earth 4, while DaVoice fights against Syrus and friends. Syrus manages to coordinate everyone's attacks, and they snare DaVoice. It's at this point Grimm decides the only way to end this is for him to die, killing DaVoice with him. Reluctant, Syrus agrees, and the two are killed simultaneously. Syrus and Grimm awaken inside of Purgatory some time later, according to Edgar, the two aren't dead, but displaced by divine magic, and should return soon. It's here Grimm reveals all of his past, and the two need to figure out how to stop Tec from destroying all worlds again.

Syrus reveals he had a plan, but it was all based on timing. Now that DaVoice is dead, Tec has lost his divine powers as a god, and will need to consume a universe to regain them, so they have a small window of time to act. If they can remove Tec's mind, and kill the body, he should be dead forever. Grimm asks how he's going to remove the mind if it's essentially the entire digital world, and Syrus says it will take a large amount of processing power and energy, but can be done with the T.A.R.D.I.S.C. they used to get to the Digital world last time. "'Tec's core big enough for you?!' -Syrus"A plan in mind, everyone boards The Star Piercer, and they charge straight for Tec. Utilizing Syrus' flashlight, they manage to carve a hole straight through him, and arrive at the core. Inserting the T.A.R.D.I.S.C. the Digital World begins being torn out and brought to the Hub Universe. Tec congratulates Syrus for being able to finally beat him, but decides to still try and kill everyone by self destructing. The group hightails it and just barely manage to escape.

Later back in ABCove, the town is being repaired, and everyone is just catching their breath. Grimm makes an off hand remark about wanting it to be done as if by magic, and suddenly a small army of angels appear behind him, he orders them to fix the town and they comply. In no time at all, ABCove is fixed, and everyone gets ready to party and celebrate their victory.

Grimm is on his way to the party, when he encounters an angel that seems familiar. It's The Alchemist. The two talk for a brief while, and Grimm is warned about a darkness growing within Syrus before The Alchemist vanishes again.

The party is considered a success and the story ends.

Trivia

 * This is the last Game in the series where Merlin wears a White Diaper. He switches to Black Pull ups in later games (though he is briefly seen in a Diaper later in Beyond the Horizon.)
 * While it's not the First Appearance of the Alchemist, this game marks his first appearance in-gameplay.