There had been a form-locking virus outbreak in the Digital World, though seemingly for once, the Japanese Digidestined didn't have to deal with the main trouble. However, the viruses had been spread around the entire digital world, lying dormant inside copies of random objects, threatening to begin infecting the area and blocking any digivolution. All of the digidestined around the word had split up to try and remove them as fast as possible, with Takeru and Pegasusmon heading for a small village on the Server continent where a virus was detected .
"So, this village is full of Pumpkinmon and Soulmon?" Takeru asked.
"Yup. And they've got some strange rules for visitors," Pegasusmon said.
"Like what?"
"You need to wear a costume or they won't let you in to look for the virus. They'll have costumes ready though."
"So they're like some kind of Halloween town or something?"
"Yeah, pretty much..."
They landed outside the town, a walled-off mishmash of witch huts, gothic houses, and pumpkin cottages. Jack-o-laterns were the main source of light. A Soulmon hovered near the gate.
"You can't come into town like that. You need to change, go to the costume shack," he said to Takeru, but then frowned at Pegasusmon.
"That's a really terrible My Little Pony costume, dude."
"I'm a Pegasusmon," the winged digimon sighed.
"Oh. Well, that's a pretty good costume then."
Takeru and Pegasusmon didn't bother correcting him.
The selection of costumes in human sizes, however, were somewhat lacking.
"...So it's either half a horse or a Cockatrimon," Takeru sighed.
"Looks like it," A less-than-helpful Pumpkinmon noted.
"Even if someone else was here the horse is useless, there's no front end," Pegasusmon reminded them.
"I guess I need to be an oversized chicken then."
Wearing the forced costume, a crudely made feathery suit lacking a tail, chicken-feet boots, and a fake beak, Takeru and Pegasusmon began searching the town, the human looking at his Digivice which had a scanner program loaded onto it.
"Okay, I'm not having much luck with this virus scanner, I'm only able to cover stuff within about ten meters. Looks like we're walking..."
They searched for about an hour, until they received a message.
"Mimi and Sora are heading here to help out, they found theirs... Wait, I think I might have it, this way!" Takeru said.
They soon came to an empty looking pumpkin hut.
"So, just behind that door," Pegasusmon estimated.
"Yeah. So we just need to look for duplicate objects, I hold up my digivice to start a quarantine and you can destroy the actual virus."
"Be careful though, if it infects your digivice we need another one to clear it out."
"Koushiro said they'll auto-quarantine themselves if they get infected, so at least it won't spread," Takeru replied.
Peeking in the door, they found shelves, laden with bags of powder - flour, cinnamon, pumpkin spices, and sugar. One bag of sugar was suspect.
"This is it, get ready to take it out... Ah, crap, it's infected my digivice," Takeru said, then paused.
"Wait, this doesn't feel right..."
He felt warm suddenly, and the fake beak seemed to be growing tighter, as did the feather costume. He stumbled back from the pantry.
"Takeru? What's wrong?!"
"Attack the virus, I think something's..." He said, interrupted by a sudden glow from his body.
Pegasusmon attacked, destroying the quarantined virus that was mimicking sugar, but accidentally bursting the real sugar, and damaging the shelves.
Takeru, meanwhile, was glowing, and growing - his body was filling out to more accurate Cockatrimon proportions. His arms grew into feathery wings, and he was glad he'd left his shoes behind in favour of the chicken-foot boots of the costume, as he was fairly sure the stretching of his feet to become the real thing would have torn them up. He yelped in surprise as a feathery tail sprouted suddenly from his back.
"...How did this happen?!" He protested, seeing he had transformed into a Cockatrimon.
They'd contacted Koushiro right away, who was still in the real world co-coordinating things.
"It must be the virus. It was a form-lock, so it must have affected you and the costume. Sora or Mimi should be able to fix it if you wait there" Koushiro said.
"Okay, any idea when they're here?"
On cue, Lillymon and Mimi landed outside.
"Hey! Heard you accidentally turned yourself into a birdbrain! I expected that kind of thing from Tai," Mimi joked.
"Yeah, yeah... Wait, you don't have a costume!" Takeru protested.
"Sure I do, I've got a microphone! I'm a pop star."
Takeru tried to facepalm, but accidentally sent a gust of wind from his wing, hitting the shelf, disturbing the burst sugar.
It went for his beak, irritating it.
"Ah..."
"Okay, hold still while I get this program ready..." Mimi said, ignorant of Takeru's plight.
"No, that menu, Mimi," Lillymon corrected.
He sneezed, and upon opening his eyes, accidentally released two green beams.
"Gha! Takeru, what are you doing!?" Pegasusmon yelped, jumping back as Mimi and Lillymon were struck by the beams.
Where they had stood, there now stood two marble statues, both looking up in confusion, Lillymon still pointing at Mimi's digivice. The only sign they were not true statues apart from their puzzled expressions, were that their clothing remained unpetrified. Mimi's digivice, however, was also stone.
"Oh man, I didn't mean that, I sneezed! S-Sorry, Mimi!"
"Just turn them back," Pegasusmon sighed.
Takeru blinked, and frowned.
"Um... I can't. I don't actually know how to do it..."
"Ah. That's a problem. Try looking at them?"
He looked.
They were interrupted by Sora's arrival.
"...What the..."
"It was an accident! I sneezed!" Takeru explained.
"Oh. Then turn them back," Birdramon said.
"He doesn't know how, he can't deliberately attack."
"Then spill some powder and sneeze again, we can't risk disinfecting you and having Mimi and Lillymon stay stone," Sora suggested.
"Okay..."
Takeru waved his wing, and felt the powder irritate his nose.
He sneezed.
"Wait, no, you're looking the wrong-" Sora protested, as Takeru opened his eyes and petrified Pegasusmon instead.
"....Oops. Sor-ACHOO!"
"Gha!" Sora dived out of the way of the beams, but Birdramon was not so lucky.
Takeru sneezed again.
"Look left, no, your other left! That's m-" Sora protested as she was petrified by a stray eye beam.
Takeru sniffled as the sneezing was finally under control.
"Um... Sorry..."
He then frowned.
"Wait, what was your costume meant to be? Did they seriously let you away with being a tennis player?"
Hikari was next to arrive, Nefertimon racing there to the point she had to de-volve to Gatomon upon arrival. This time they took a cautious approach, IE staying outside and shouting in the door.
"...Have you tried saying petra-fire?"
"Petra-fire?" Takeru repeated, and found himself petrifying part of the floor.
"Oh. Uh, thanks..."
"Just turn them back and stay away from the flour. Honestly, Takeru, I know you're a cockatrimon but you didn't have to be such a birdbrain," Hikari sighed.
"Hey, Mimi made that joke already."
"Also is it really such a good idea to tease him now he knows how to petrify you?" Gatomon wondered.
"I've petrified enough of my friends today, Gatomon," Takeru fumed as he began turning the others back, starting with Mimi.
"I say you should petrify her for stealing my joke," Mimi said as she became flesh and blood once more.
Takeru sighed as he finished restoring the others. The three digimon devolved back to their lower forms as they reverted.
"Just get the antivirus program ready please, Mimi."
Takeru was turned back to normal, finding that the wearing of a costume had indeed saved anything from getting wrecked.
"Oh, hey, the floor stayed stone, guess it was a good idea we waited. And yeah, I did get away with being a tennis player," Sora noted.
"Next time, you should do what I did," Hikari said as she entered.
"There won't be a next time if I can help it," Takeru muttered.
"...What did you do?" Patamon wondered, as she looked perfectly normal.
"I just said I was dressed as my brother if he'd been born a girl and was a couple years younger."
"Takeru, don't facepalm, that's what started this mess in the first place!" Palmon whipped out her vines to grab his arms.
"He can't petrify anyone anymore! I think..." Gatomon said.
"I think we can't be too careful. Let's blindfold him," Hikari said, removing one of her gloves.
"You should have petrified her when you had the chance," Mimi stage-whispered to Takeru.