Owari Sensou
by Seruyamon
(Cyllya)
PROLOGUE: The Eggs and Her Journal.
Date: August 10, 2000—'The Beginning of the End.'
"Happy birthday, Botamon!" Patamon cheered to tiny black yellow-eyed Digimon that Elecmon was holding as the pinkish dust from its DigiEgg cleared.
"Welcome to the world, Kiddo," Elecmon laughed.
Botamon emitted a few inarticulate cheerful squeaks for a greeting. Elecmon sat him on the cushioned ground, and he wiggled away to join the congregation of Digi-babies that had formed a ways away.
Patamon's ears twitched in response to a bouncing sound behind him. He turned, smiled, and said, "There's another egg."
"But it's all white," Elecmon observed, "The other eggs are bright colors."
"Is it a real DigiEgg?" Patamon wondered. He flew over and pressed his ear against it. "It feels real. It's the right color but wrong size to be a chicken egg…hmm…maybe it's Chickenmon!"
"Um…yeah…" Elecmon muttered, "Hey, look! There are more!" There were three more white DigiEggs within the Hatching Grounds. The closest two were about ten meters away. The four formed a possibly perfect square. There were no other eggs within the square.
"I didn't see or hear them fall," Patamon commented, "Were they already here this morning?"
"Nope," Elecmon said, "I've already checked for any eggs that fell in the night. Those showed up between now and when we came out here."
"Hmm…YAHH!" Patamon screamed.
"Impossible!" Elecmon yelled. There was now another white egg just to the right of each of the first four. They hadn't fallen; they had just not been there one second, and there the next.
"This is getting creepy…" Patamon whimpered.
"No kidding…" Elecmon whispered.
"Hey, boys! Whatcha doin'?"
"Gatomon?" Patamon turned to see Gatomon bouncing toward them.
"We're marveling at a…an odd… occurrence," Elecmon said, considering his words before he said them. Gatomon walked up with a confused expression. She shivered suddenly; her eyes quickly flashed from confused but friendly to angry and hateful as she let out a hiss. Her fur raised a bit, and her gaze flicked around before landing on the closest few of the mysterious white DigiEggs.
"What?" Patamon asked nervously. The almost-murderous look in her eyes gave him a chill.
"N…I…" Gatomon stuttered, without looking away from the eggs, "W…I-I don't know…but I… have this feeling…. It…feels like something's… wrong."
Patamon and Elecmon looked at each other questioningly, but seeing the other didn't have a clue, they turned back Gatomon.
"I say we make a trio of really big aumlets," Gatomon said warily.
"Aumlets?" Elecmon asked. He and Patamon turned to look at the closest pair of eggs; there were three. Patamon yelped and dashed for cover behind Gatomon. The other three sets of eggs contained three eggs as well.
"Hmm…" Elecmon said, his voice quivering a bit, "Let's leave them be for awhile. They're not causing any problems yet."
Gatomon glared at the eggs. She struggled to tear her vision away and walked toward the group of baby Digimon that played nearby.
Date: August 15, 2000
Save the facts that they would mysteriously increase in number four at a time, they'd do so at exactly once per hour after the first fifteen eggs, they were forming two perfect circles, and they'd darken to a grayish with each egg addition, the enigmatic eggs had done nothing out of the ordinary in the next five days. The unbelievable heat wave that had hit Primary Village didn't seem to have any connection with them. The circle contained precisely 40 eggs by the time the next circle formed just inside the first, and the original four were the first to stop darkening in color. They had become pitch black with dark gray speckles.
Elecmon, Patamon, Gatomon, and the Digi-Babies lounged tiredly beneath the largest toy tree. The babies had a very shallow pan of water to stay cool in, and Patamon flapped his ears constantly, using them as fans. Elecmon had moved all the DigiEggs under a large ramada, remembering the old "I bet you could fry an egg on the sidewalk" joke.
When all of them had been moved save the circle of mysterious ones, he had suggested that they'd be better off where they were and built them their own ramada. Both ramadas were, of course, made of pads and padded posts for the safety of any falling eggs.
A teddy bear fell from the tree and hit Gatomon on the head before bouncing onto the ground. If she had even noticed it, she chose not to put forth the energy for showing the fact. She continued to absent-mindedly wave a paper fan in her face as she gazed tiredly in the direction of the eggs.
They were all black and gray save the last four that had appeared. The hour changed and they darkened to match the rest.
Gatomon scowled, yet her almost-deadly glare was interrupted by a tiny hot breeze. The breeze moved the tree's leaves just enough to let the shockingly bright sunlight pour into her eyes for a split second. She screeched and held her paws up to block the light, though the leaves were already doing it for her. She blinked several times and looked back at the circled of dark eggs. Her vision was blurry and covered in green and blue spots due to the sudden light.
"Patamon?" she asked.
"Uh-ugh?" Patamon mumbled in response.
"Uh, you see that?" Gatomon asked, "In the circle? I can't see with all this heat, but I think…."
"There's more!" Patamon shrieked. Within the circle, right next to where the first four eggs of the second circle had appeared, were four more white ones.
"Figures," Elecmon muttered. As the day continued, four eggs appeared per hour, and the other new eggs began to darken to a brilliant red with yellow sun-burst shapes
"Hmm…" Patamon thought, "Just out of curiosity, where are the others?"
"Hmm?" Gatomon asked, "You mean Augumon and them?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Augumon and Biyomon are in the Yokomon Village," Gatomon thought, "Gomamon's up in Dossier—"
"Oh, he's so lucky!"
"—Yeah, all that snow…" Gatomon said dreamily, "Oh, and Tentomon is living in that one factory with Andromon. Palmon's out on Server with the Gekomon and Otamamon. And Gabumon…uh, I think he tends to travel around a lot. I bet he knows File Island by heart."
"Hmm, Izzy had the Crest of Knowledge," Patamon pointed out, "Do ya think Tentomon could figure out the egg mystery?"
"I doubt it," Gatomon said, "I'll email him sometime, but I don't think he'll know anything."
"Oh, well," Patamon said.
Date: December 24, 2000
How odd. Just when I think I can't get any colder, those retched things send ice through my veins. I know there's something wrong about them, but every time I try to say something, it won't come out all the way. I can voice some of my feelings, but only enough to make them look at me like I'm crazy. How horrible to feel on Christmas. I have to many other things to think about now, than to worry about Elecmon's little joke. I wouldn't have minded it much if it weren't so embarrassing.
"Ugh! I hate snow!" Gatomon screeched angrily as she bolted through the wooden door of a tiny cabin so fast she was a blur. She laid a Yuramon, which was shivering and wrapped in a gold-plaid scarf, at Elecmon's side and curled up so close to the fire it looked like her fur was about to catch of fire.
"Thank you for finding her for me, Gatomon," Elecmon said, "but you really didn't have to."
The white fury ball by the fire merely sneezed in response.
She's so cool… in more ways than one,
Patamon thought as he brushed some snow off her.The little one-room cabin they were in was too small for a pre-teen human to stand in without slouching. All the baby Digimon save the Yuramon Gatomon had brought in were sleeping in heaps in the corner. The room had that soft cozy look to it.
Elecmon got out a thermos of hot cocoa and poured three light-green mugs and a baby bottle. He gave the bottle to Yuramon and passed mugs to Gatomon and Patamon.
"Have some cocoa, Gatomon," Patamon said kindly.
Gatomon wordlessly uncurled and began to lick the cocoa out of the cup. She turned her head to the side and sneezed.
"Bless you," Patamon said. Gatomon smiled. Patamon noticed Elecmon holding a thin wooden pole in one hand and pointing up with the other, so he looked up. He saw the traditional parasitic Christmas plant dangling from a string on the end of Elecmon's pole above him and Gatomon.
Mistletoe….
As his face reddened a bit, he narrowed his eyes at Elecmon, who seemed to be stifling the urge to giggle.
"Crummy tradition…" he murmured. Gatomon was still peacefully lapping up her hot cocoa. She moved into a sitting position and hadn't noticed the mistletoe. "Uh, Gatomon?" Patamon asked nervously.
"Hmm?" Gatomon turned her head toward him, and his face became a bright fire-engine red.
He hesitated, quickly kissed her, jumped back in case she decided to use him as a scratching post, pointed frantically at Elecmon, and cried, "That was his fault!"
Elecmon started laughing. He stopped suddenly and looked out the window.
"There are more eggs," he observed.
"You mean the weird ones?" Gatomon asked. She forgot about her intentions of slicing him up as the two of them and Patamon crowded around the window. The third circle of off mysterious eggs had become red and yellow. Four more eggs had appeared where they had expected the fifth circle to be. This left the location that would have held the fourth circle empty.
Date: April 2, 2001
After the fourth circle of eggs became complete and stayed an icy blue, the fifth began where the forth should have.
"We have to get a hold of a computer technician," Gatomon said wearily.
"Why's that?" Patamon asked.
"So he can reprogram this blasted weather!" Gatomon cried. Sure enough, the weather wasn't quite up to Gatomon's standards; the rain was pouring like it would never rain again. It had started raining rather suddenly, forcing Gatomon, Patamon, and a few Digi-Babies to take shelter under another tree. It then lessened to a sprinkle as suddenly as it had came up.
"Cheer up. It's not so bad now," Patamon advised.
Gatomon muttered something. Patamon figured that, if she'd wanted herself to be heard, she would have spoken at least a little louder the first time. Therefore he didn't ask her to repeat herself.
"So, what color do you think the newest of the weird eggs will be?" Patamon asked, hoping to start a conversation.
"I don't really care much," Gatomon snapped while aimlessly glaring at some irrelevant object in the distance.
"Oh," Patamon said, a bit stumped. He giggled, "Well, since you seem to think their evil or something, imagine if they turn bright pink!"
Gatomon didn't answer.
"Huh? Pink? On bad guys? Then they might hatch into a pink Virus Digimon!" Patamon laughed. Seeing no response, he added, "Imagine if Apocalymon had been pink!"
Gatomon ignored him. Patamon sighed.
"What, am I talking to myself here?" he murmured.
"Puni!" a nearby Punimon nodded.
"Yeah, thanks for the feedback," Patamon muttered.
Date: June 11, 2001
As far as I know, Primary Village isn't on a fault line, so June 11th is a complete mystery. Too many weird thoughts that won't make more than pictures and sounds in my heads, and they refuse to be converted to words. Thus, there's no use in trying to write them down.
The fifth row of DigiEggs became a dull brownish-blue. Gatomon got to the point of disliking any discussion about the eggs, but she would occasionally forget what she was doing when she glared at them. Patamon and Elecmon were getting a bit bored with them, though they couldn't stop wondering about them. It had been nearly a year since they'd first began to appear, and three waves of normal DigiEggs had hatched, digivolved to the In-training level, and left the village for whatever reason.
"Yo, kiddies!" Gatomon cried over the Hatchling grounds, "It's lunch time!"
Patamon cringed at her loud voice as the baby Digimon came toward them and Elecmon. There was a slight vibration in the ground.
"What was that?" Gatomon demanded.
"Earthquake?" Elecmon suggested.
"In movies it's usually something different," Patamon said.
"Like something big tunneling up from beneath us?" Elecmon asked.
"Maybe," Gatomon said. Seconds later, more rumbling and vibration began. It became so severe that Patamon felt he was forced to take flight, and Elecmon fell over. A few seconds later, Gatomon fell onto all fours and collapsed onto her belly.
The baby Digimon near the picnic table squealed louder. Elecmon began crawling toward them.
"No, I think it is an earthquake!" Patamon cried. Suddenly the bright-colored marshmallow-like ground sank down beneath Gatomon.
She screamed and disappeared beneath the cushions as dust became thick in the air. The rumbling stopped.
"Gatomon!" Patamon called, coughing amongst the dust. The cushions wiggled near the spot she'd disappeared. Patamon struggled to lift them to no avail. Elecmon returned from the babies and helped him. They moved the first big fluffy cube to reveal Gatomon, looking shook up but fairly unharmed. Yet with the movement of the cushion, the one beneath her moved enough to make her fall off it. Patamon dived down, grabbed her tail, and toiled upward.
"Thanks," Gatomon said as she was placed softly on the remaining above-ground cushions.
"No problem," Patamon said, looking nervously at the spilt in the ground the earthquake had caused. He asked, "Is it over?"
"There should be aftershocks," Elecmon said. He turned toward the fields of the Hatching Grounds. The split and upturned cushions ran through them. He said, "I need to get any DigiEggs that fell before they get hurt worse."
As he ran toward the eggs, Patamon asked, "Notice how he always talks as if he thinks we're not gonna help him?"
It took Gatomon a few seconds to nod because she was looking at the circle of mysterious DigiEggs. She followed Patamon as he chased after Elecmon.
There were four new eggs to begin the newest row.
Date: September 7, 2001—'The King Day.'
I guess I didn't expect him to believe me when I finally managed to force the words out. I want more than anything to warn them, but something's stopping me. Six coincidences would be enough, but I can still hear—and see too, if I close my eyes—Mr. Ishida explaining what the Hour of the Beast is.
"Whatcha doin' up here? Can't you tell it's only five A.M.?" Patamon asked as he flew into a toy tree and landed on a branch behind Gatomon. She was sitting on the end of the branch the way a normal cat would, save that she was positioned perfectly straight and still. She seemed quite similar to a statue of a sheepdog guarding a flock
Her eyes were hardened and unblinking.
Patamon hesitated and asked, "Gatomon? Are you okay?"
"They're affecting the weather."
"Huh?" Patamon questioned. Her voice seemed so steady and automated that it took him a few seconds to realize she had been the one to speak. He noticed she was staring at the weird eggs.
There were now eight circles within one another. The outer two were black with gray specks. The next row was red with yellow sunburst shapes. They were followed by a row of bluish-black with a water-like pattern, a row of icy silver, a row of brown and black smudged colors, a row of black with jagged yellow or gray lines over it, and row that seemed to have the appearance of an extremely cloudy night sky. The next row fit eight eggs in. They were just black, and there was room for one more egg in the middle of the circles.
"What do you mean?" Patamon asked Gatomon.
"When those red ones first started to appear," Gatomon said, "It was about 115 degrees out. When the silver ones started coming, there was the first blizzard to every hit Primary Village in centuries. When the bluish-black ones came, it was raining really hard. There was an earthquake the day the brown ones started to come, and a thunder storm the day those black one with the lightning pattern came. There was a really strong wind the night that the sky-looking ones showed up. All of those black ones showed up during a lunar eclipse."
"Uh," Patamon mumbled, "It does seem strange, but it's just a coincidence."
He nearly fell off the branch when she turned her hard stare onto him. It was obvious he had said the one thing she didn't want to hear.
"If you're right," she said, turning back to the eggs, "Then that would mean six coincidences… and just in case it turns out to be significant, I think there maybe a small solar eclipse today."
"Really?" Patamon wondered. He looked toward the still-rising sun and said, "Cool."
Gatomon jumped off the branch and onto the ground. After being relieved of her weight, the branch bucked upward just enough to knock Patamon off it.
A while later, Gatomon checked the digital clock under the ramada everyone used for shelter in the spring, summer, and autumn.
5:59:54…
"Hey, did you say you heard there'd be an eclipse?" Elecmon asked as he and Patamon came up. They turned toward the sun as Gatomon nodded and glanced at the clock again. At what must have been six o'clock to the second, a tiny sliver of the sun was replaced by blackness. At 6:03, it was about half eclipsed.
6:05:59…6:06:00…6:06:01…6:06:02….
"No way…" Gatomon muttered. She sounded fearful and her fur bristled.
"I guess it'll be a full eclipse after all," Elecmon observed, having not heard Gatomon.
6:06:04…6:06:05….
Gatomon cringed and, despite people saying you shouldn't, looked up as the eclipse completed. Everything—not just the sun, but everything—instantly went blacker than night. For a moment, she feared she'd gone blind or had passed out as she heard Elecmon and Patamon gasp and the DigiBabies squeal. Her vision returned as the moon began to move away from the sun.
Gatomon nearly fainted when her eyes flicked to the clock, which said 6:06:07 followed by 6:06:08.
"What was with that?" Patamon questioned.
"It's not supposed to be that dark during an eclipse," Elecmon said. He quickly proceeded to checking on the baby Digimon, which seemed to be paralyzed with fear. As Patamon flew over to help him, Gatomon looked at the pointlessly clock again.
"That was no coincidence," Gatomon muttered. Several mental pictures, which were not unlike short video clips, started playing in her head all at once. Myotismon, VenomMyotismon, flashes of red light, Devidramon attacking the DigiDestined, Wizardmon's tattered hat flying up into the air and landing shortly after its owner did….
Despite having a few good reasons to have done it before, it was at that moment she passed out. The last thing she saw was the last of the mysterious DigiEggs. The eight before it had been pitch black, but the newest made those look gray.
"Gatomon? …Gatomon?" a voice asked, sounding very distant.
Gatomon groaned.
"Can you hear me? Wake up…."
"Oh, wake up, Gatomon," said a higher-pitched voiced, "Please wake up!"
She became vaguely aware of being shaken by something. As soon as the notion sank in, her eyes flew open, and she jumped up. She quickly stood to face her attacker with her claws ready to slice him to ribbons.
Patamon and Elecmon backed away cautiously, though they were rather alarmed.
"Are you okay?" Patamon asked cautiously.
"Calm down, or you hyperventilate again," Elecmon warned.
Gatomon's fur relaxed as she lowered her paws, but her muscles stayed tensed. As she first noticed that she was in the same place she'd been when she'd passed out, she opened her mouth to speak, but the words failed to come out. She tried again and produced a squeak.
"What is it?" Patamon asked.
She looked into his eyes for quite a few moments, giving him the feeling that he was being sized up. She turned on her hateful gaze as her eyes flicked toward the mysterious DigiEggs. Her expression didn't change when she looked back to Patamon.
He shuddered under her glare.
And without another word, she walked off.
Date: October 7, 2001—'The Hatch's Day.'
Today it happened. I nearly passed out again. And for the second time since VenomMyotismon, triple-six proved to be an unlucky number. And they still didn't notice it. I thought the whole 'mysterious DigiEggs' conflict couldn't get any worse, but I know better than a lot of people that eyes are a window to a person's soul. Now that those aumlets-waiting-to-happen have eyes, things are worse. But they're only babies. Nothing is really born evil, is it? I bet even the Dark Masters were cute, cuddly, and friendly when they were in their Baby levels.
October 7, 2001, was by far one of the most significant days to exist for as long as anyone alive could remember. Yet when Elecmon was awakened at five o'clock in the morning by the wails of a distressed DigiBaby, there wasn't the slightest thought in his mind that this day would be mentioned in the days to come.
The wails awoke the other babies and set off a chain reaction among them, so it didn't take Gatomon and Patamon long to wake. It was nearly six o'clock by the time the children were calmed, and the three of them were exhausted, yet too awake to go back to sleep.
Gatomon glanced wearily at the clock. Oddly enough, the sky darkened a bit as soon as the clock hit six o'clock.
There was the sound of breaking glass. Gatomon turned her head to see Patamon flying near the barred-off fireplace used for cooking. His flight seemed automated, his face showed and expression of shock, and there was baby food—stringed bananas—and the shard remnants of a small jar scattered upon the bricks below him. He didn't seem to notice the mess.
"No way," Elecmon murmured. Gatomon followed his gaze to the sky and gasped.
"That's…it's not right," she stammered.
"Theoretically impossible," Patamon said.
There was the beginning of a solar eclipse.
"But…how?" Elecmon questioned, "There's no record of an eclipse ever hitting the same place twice. And only a month apart?"
"It's not right," Gatomon repeated.
Patamon looked at her a moment, considering the meaning of what she'd said. He quivered again as she glared at him, then at the mysterious eggs, and then back at him.
The eclipse happened exactly as it had before, but when it completed, it acted normally, save the sudden loud "POOF!" sound.
At the darkest part of the eclipse, it happened. Accompanied by the "POOF!" sound and a lot of grayish-black dust. Nobody could tell what had happened until the dust cleared, the moon passed, and the sun shone almost mockingly down upon them—then there they were.
"Oh, my…" Elecmon began.
"They h-hatched," Patamon stuttered.
Sure enough, the mysterious DigiEggs were gone. It their place were DigiBabies. They all made yawning sounds as Gatomon, Patamon, and Elecmon gaped at them. All of them turned in synchronization toward the center one, who was small, round, and pure black. He had a wicked-looking mouth with tiny, yet sharp, fangs. His eyes were closed and he was facing downward. He looked up suddenly and looked straight at Gatomon. His black almond-shaped eyes seemed to carry a physical force, and she cringed and took a step back as if she'd been punched in the gut.
"Come on," Elecmon said. He jogged toward the babies. Patamon hesitated and followed. Gatomon started to say something, but couldn't find the words, so she sprinted after them.
"Hey there, little guy," Patamon said to the nearest of the babies. It was soft-black with red stern-looking eyes. It was round with cone-shapes sticking out horizontally on each side of it. It had no visible mouth. All of the black white-speckled eggs had hatched into these things.
"Migh-ta!" the seventy-six of these babies cried, "Mita!"
"Mitemon?" Elecmon wondered.
The next row of 32 red and yellow eggs had hatched into little red, yellow, and orange Digimon with tiny puppy-like mouths and long thin ears. Their big brown eyes looked almost mocking.
"In-KAH! Inca!" They said.
"Incamon," Elecmon said.
"Spheru!" said the 28 blue Digimon that had hatched from the bluish-brown eggs. They had two cone-like horns on their heads, for tiny clawed paws, and a pair of gem-like sky-blue eyes.
"Crysta! Crysta!" said the silvery Digimon that had hatched from the 24 silvery-blue eggs. They had a horn on either side and on top of them, along with a pair of talons, a puppy-like mouth, and glittery eyes that were a lighter shade of the color of the rest of his body.
"Spherumon, Crystamon," Patamon recognized.
"Dusty!" cried the brown babies. There were 20 of them and they looked like a smooth round brown rock. There were hollow spots, like holes in stone, where their eyes should have been, but they appeared able to see just fine. They looked smooth, but they were rough to touch.
"PI! Pi! Pi!" were the words of the round off-yellow Digimon that had come from the 16 black, yellow, and gray eggs. They also had the smirking puppy-like mouth, along with shrewd dark-brown eyes.
"Dustimon…and Pimon," Elecmon said.
The 12 cloud-like eggs yielded tiny bird like Digimon by the name of Sunlemon. Their wings and tail were thin and pointed. They had small curved beaks and talons similar to the Crystamon. There was a light pink mask over its face, and its tail was the same color. It was mostly a lavender color, and its eyes were sky blue.
Oddly enough, the next eight Digimon looked exactly the same—just like the center one but with a puppy-like mouth, no fangs, and red eyes—but they were apparently completely different Digimon.
"Illimon…Detemon…Tifimon…" Elecmon murmured as he wrote their names on a pad of paper, "Enemon…Unsumon…Panimon…Cortamon…Forlomon…and…" He looked at the center Digimon.
"Bay-na," the Digimon said curtly.
"And Banemon," Elecmon finished.
"Banemon," Gatomon whispered to herself.
"That makes a total of 237 Digimon," Elecmon said, "and 16 different kinds. I've never heard of these Digimon before."
"Well, they seem friendly enough," Patamon said.
"Did you expect them to jump up and start trying to kill us?" Elecmon asked.
"Don't say the 'K' word," Patamon snapped, "I was just worried about all their sharp edges. Look at those teeth on Banemon."
"So, he'll have to learn about proper dental hygiene a little sooner than most babies. Big deal."
Date: November 10, 2001—First Evolution
I haven't been able to sleep much lately; Banemon is giving me the chills. I suppose there's nothing to worry about; very few Digimon get past the In-training level. Speaking of that, today was pretty significant. I owe my watchfulness to my wakefulness. That's why I clearly noticed what happen at midnight.
A leaf, followed by a toy sailboat, fell from the tree above Gatomon. She brushed the fallen leaf off her nose, spotted the sailboat, and rolled out of its way before it hit her. She sighed, laid back down on her belly, and tried to gain unconsciousness. After several moments, however, she found that she had failed in this and looked wearily at the clock. It was midnight.
She spotted a movement in the darkness and looked more closely at it. It was a new moon, but there was enough light to tell what it was. Three round, black baby Digimon moving around. Judging by the fact that its eyes were almost invisible save the light reflection in them, Gatomon determined that the center one was Banemon. The others were two of the eight identical Digimon. There were always at least two of them with Banemon at all times, reminding everyone of the president's secret service guys.
"Hey, what are you little dudes up to now?" Gatomon asked as they came near, trying to remember that she was talking to babies.
They stopped and looked at her with a smirk. Banemon turned onto their previous course and said, "Baneh."
"Tifi," said one of his escorts.
"Forlo," said the other. They followed him unquestionably.
Wondering what Banemon, Tifimon, and Forlomon could be up to, Gatomon followed behind them in the stealthy way that only a feline can pull off. Despite her silence and stealth, she had a feeling that Banemon knew she was following. The trio stopped at the very tip of another small hill and stood like they were waiting for something. Gatomon crouched behind a bush halfway up the hill.
As she watched, the identical Cortamon, Illimon, and Detemon, along with a rock-like Dustimon and a yellow Pimon, bounced up the hill. Most Baby Digimon can't talk, but these five seemed to understand each other fine as they talked excitedly amongst themselves.
Enemon, a Mitemon, and a Crystamon came up a few seconds later. A while later, the rest of them—Unsumon, Panimon, a Spherumon, an Incamon, and a Sunlemon—went to the hilltop. There was one of each species of the mysterious Digimon at the top. The others formed a circle around Banemon. Gatomon stayed on her belly and crawled closer to their congregation.
"Baneh! Baneh!" Banemon yelled so loudly, shrilly, and suddenly that Gatomon thought she'd been discovered. Yet Banemon didn't seem to be paying her any heed.
The other fifteen Digimon slumped as if their energy had been drained by their leader's outburst. Banemon glowed with an eerie black light. Then he stopped glowing and he wasn't Banemon anymore….
"Incumon!" he cried. He looked a lot like Banemon and had the same voice. He was, however, basketball-sized and had bat-like wings where his ears could have been. Though he had no legs, he had a set of four paws.
Gatomon gasped quietly and thought, Oh, he digivolved…! Oh, wait… all babies do. He's only an In-training; no worries.
"My loyal crew," Incumon said, "Allow my to introduce myself. I am Incumon—I may have a mere Bubble Blow now, but this little victory only proves we have what it takes to go further. My cadre, join me in the possession of speech and attributes! Tifimon!"
"Perfimon!" what had been Tifimon said. He said something quietly, but Gatomon heard the word 'sincerity.' Perfimon looked like a basketball-sized Tifimon with big round-tipped ears.
"Panimon!" Incumon said.
"Scairamon!" he and his twin-like fellows looked just like Perfimon.
"Detemon!"
"Malimon!"
"Unsumon!"
"Undemon!"
"Enemon!"
"Valimon!"
"Illimon!"
"Benimon!"
"My strongest! Cortamon! Forlomon!"
"Calimon!"
"Solimon!"
"Be gone…" Incumon said to the eight of them.
They left, single file, down the hill. Gatomon kept her eyes on Calimon until Incumon began to speak again.
"Sunlemon!" he announced.
"Eskymon—I am a flying Digimon! I have the air!" the little purple and pink bird-like Sunlemon had digivolved to a similar thing. It was larger, black instead of pink, and had a thin forked tail.
"Pimon!"
"Glittamon—a volt!" said the Digimon that looked like a larger Pimon with lightning-bolt-like ears and a long thin zigzag bright yellow tail.
"Dustimon!"
"Silicamon!" came the Digimon's deep voice. It looked like a ten-inch-high boulder with hollows for eyes.
"Crystamon!"
"Hailemon!" answered the Digimon that looked just like a larger Crystamon with a longer snout and a thin bushy tail.
"Spherumon!"
"Droplamon!" Droplamon had a mermaid tail sticking uselessly out behind it, and it was bigger. Those seemed too be the only difference.
"Incamon!"
"Fiermon!" said the larger version of Incamon with visible fangs, and short pawed legs.
"Mitemon!"
"Vermimon!" announced the creature that reminded Gatomon of Demidevimon. It was round and black with a grin that was quite similar to that ugly feathered bowling ball. His eyes were red like Mitemon, his horns were more on top of his head than they had been, and he had a puppy-like mouth with fangs. His legs were very short and ended with paws.
"Now!" Incumon said boldly, "You know what you must do!"
The In-training Digimon bounced or flew enthusiastically down the hill. Incumon waited until they were at the bottom and started to flap his wings curiously. He didn't rise at all. He strained and flapped harder. He rose an inch or so off the ground and fell back down, panting. He bounced high, almost straight up, but toward the bottom of the hill. He opened his wings as far as they would go and glided awkwardly down to the bottom of the hill.
"Hmm," Gatomon mumbled.
She tightened her muscles, gave a quick glance around to make sure the Digimon she'd just observed were all in the same area, and leaped. She was a white blur that rocketed to the ramada and landed neatly on the chair in front of Elecmon's computer. She jumped down to her sleeping place, laid on her back, and thought for a few minutes. She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't manage to do so.
"Might as well edit Elecmon's files," she said to herself. She turned on the computer, opened the required program, and found the word "Mitemon" among the list of other names.
She typed a hyphen, followed by, "35 days-Digivolved to Vermimon." She did the necessary correspondence with the other 15 Digimon that had Digivolved before being tired enough to sleep.
Date: November 11, 2001
"Guess what, Gatomon!" Patamon shouted, waking her up.
"What…?" Gatomon said. Her tone clearly displayed her testiness.
Patamon counted on his fingers while he rattled off names, "Banemon, Incamon, Mitemon—"
"Digivolved?" Gatomon asked, "I know. They kept me awake while they did it. It's already recorded."
Patamon blinked in surprised. He said, "Oh."
Elecmon came over, murmured a greeting to Gatomon, and turned his computer on.
"Don't bother," Patamon said, "Gatomon already fix all your files."
"She did?" Elecmon asked before turning to her, "For all sixteen of them?"
"Yep," Gatomon mumbled, trying to sleep. She was re-roused upon the sound of fluttering wings and bouncing. She ignored it and rolled over.
"Hello," Elecmon said, "You and your friends are leaving, aren't you?"
"Yeah," said a slightly squawky voice.
Gatomon stopped ignoring and rolled back over. Eskymon was perched on the back of Elecmon's chair. Glittamon was nearby.
"Thanks for all you've done for us, Elecmon," Glittamon said, sounding cute.
"On behalf of all of us that are leaving," Eskymon said, "We want to thank you for all you've done and say that we'll miss you all."
"We'll all be sure to visit every now and then," Glittamon said.
"Bye-bye," Eskymon said.
"Bye, kids," Elecmon said.
"Goodbye, Patamon," Glittamon said.
"Bye, don't forget to write," Patamon said.
"See ya 'round, Gatomon?" Eskymon asked.
"Uh…" Gatomon stammered, startled by the friendliness of something that made her so uneasy, "Yeah, sure… bye."
"Bye again!" Glittamon said to the three of them. Eskymon flew toward the other In-training Digimon, and Glittamon bounced along behind.
"They're cute," Patamon said.
"Yeah, darling," Gatomon said sardonically.
Incumon stood down in the huddle of Digimon that Eskymon and Glittamon joined. He must have noticed Gatomon's gaze upon, because he looked up and winked spitefully at her. She gave him a "what the heck?" sort of look as he said something to his group and they all disappeared into the forest.
"Hmph," Gatomon muttered.
Dates: November 20, 2001, through February 13, 2002
Now that Incumon isn't around, I've been sleeping
a little better—Note 'a little.' Over the past few months, the mysterious Baby Digimon have all become In-training and left the Village. Half the Digi-world's Digimon are In-training, so maybe these 'll stay In-training too. Maybe.Gatomon awoke an hour early and was thus notably tired. It was still dark, but the Grounds were lit lightly by softly glowing lanterns on high posts. She silently wolfed down a quick breakfast, traveled stealthily to a tree, and leaped onto a branch. From a higher tree branch, she jumped to reach the top of a conveniently placed tower of five immensely over-sized fluffy toy building blocks.
This had become a commonly-visited place for Gatomon because she had a good view of the Hatching Grounds. There were two other higher pillars of blocks; one was too far from the center of the Grounds to give her a good view, and the tallest of them all required too much extra effort to get atop it. It wasn't that hard to get up there if she needed the extra sight, but there was enough extra climbing to be annoying on a regular basis.
She looked around; there wasn't a flick of movement in sight. Because of the lack of movement that her catty eyes would naturally single out of the stillness, she had trouble fully perceiving her soundings visually. Upon looking closer, she could vaguely see everyone breathing heavily as they slept.
What carelessness,
Gatomon thought to herself. Now that Devimon, Etamon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, and Apocalymon had been defeated, everyone believed the DigiWorld to be perfectly safe—she shifted her paws uneasily and spat as she considered the fact. Everyone, save her, was sleeping like a rock. What if an evil Digimon—and lesser Viruses did still exist—were as quiet as her and was to come to the Village with not-so-friendly intentions? A Champion could destroy half the kids on the Grounds before the other half woke everyone up.No matter; she'd talk to Elecmon about it later. Right now, she had a mission.
She leaped off the tower and landed on the soft fluffy ground. She bounced once and her next landing shifted gracefully into bouncing strides. She half-ran-half-leapt across the Hatching Grounds on fours. She reached the end of the padded ground and continued un-bouncing across the grass. While on fours, she could run at a fair speed without using too much energy.
She went through the small forest by prancing between the treetops. She stopped in a tall tree at the edge of the forest and looked down upon the one-hundred-or-so straw huts below her. They looked quaint and friendly enough, with just a few small Digimon moving peaceably about in the pre-dawn light. Yet there was an aura about the place that Gatomon couldn't ignore.
What is a soul? Do evil people not have souls? Is there emptiness were a good person's soul would be, or is there a black dark evil soul there? Is a soul a person's character, or their goodwill? What ever it was that those creatures had—emptiness or darkness—Gatomon saw it.
And why shouldn't she? 'Eyes are the window to the soul,' people say. Gatomon was an expert on eyes…. She did, after all, used to be beaten for her eyes.
As the sun completed its act of rising, the rest of the Digimon came out of their huts. A lot lived two or three to a hut, but they were small Digimon and the huts were roomy enough. Two-hundred-thirty-seven Digimon went about what seemed well enough like normal activities.
There was nothing to prove her indication. She still had that eye-and-soul theory, but would anyone in their right mind believe her? Elecmon only knew that they were babies—or former babies—so they were perfectly safe. If they were to become Viruses, it wouldn't be until they were at least Rookies.
What about Patamon? He probably didn't believe the 'eyes are the window to the soul' theory. After all, he was one her best friends and he'd shudder whenever she glared at him. He wouldn't shudder if he saw her soul in her glare.
Incumon was easily singled out of the pack despite Vermimon and those eight identical Digimon looked a bit similar.
Nothing…there was nothing but innocence. Gatomon turned and sprang back in the direction she'd come from. Yet as she did, she felt the cold black eyes of her foe on her.
"Gatomon?" Patamon asked as his friend approached, "Where'd you go this morning? We worried something was wrong."
Gatomon stomped past him like he wasn't there. She got in Elecmon's face and demanded, "What's wrong with you?! Don't you think you should have someone keep watch at night? Some dupe-head could just saunter in and take out half the Grounds!"
"Uh…" Elecmon stuttered, shocked by the suddenness of her accusations. He stammered, "There aren't anymore evil Digimon… and if there were, we'd wake up in time."
Gatomon seemed to explode. She screamed, "You IDIOT!"
"WAHHHHHHHHHH!" came the wails of disturbed babies. Patamon rushed around trying to quiet them.
"There are evil Digimon!" Gatomon continued loudly, "And what if they're as quiet as me? I was hoppin' around all morning and you nitwits slept like logs."
"Okay, okay," Elecmon said, "I trust your instincts enough, I'll ask someone to keep watch at night."
"Good."
Date: February 14, 2002—Second Evolution and Valentine's Day
"Happy Valentine's Day, Gatomon," Patamon said casually as the sleepy Gatomon walked past him.
"You too," she said as goodheartedly as she could. She was tired and grumpy, having been the one to keep watch. Elecmon couldn't get anyone else on such short notice, and she was willing in consideration of Incumon being around.
She laid down in her usual sleeping space and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she got a sudden chill.
"Hey, Gatomon," came Elecmon's voice, "I found someone who's willing to keep watch for us."
She already knew who….
"Hello, Gatomon," said someone's friendly sounding voice, "and Patamon."
"Hi, Incumon," Patamon said, "Hi, Vermimon."
"Hi," Vermimon said. Gatomon opened her eyes.
"Incumon and Vermimon have agreed to keep watch at night," Elecmon said.
"We were built for nighttime anyway," Incumon said.
"Yeah, and we don't want our birthplace to get hurt," Vermimon said.
"I think you're right Gatomon," Incumon said, "There's too big a chance of evil Digimon around to not keep someone watching over anyone who's sleeping."
Gatomon's mind was still focusing one a previous part of the conversation: Them? Keep watch? They're what we're watching against! Hurry, think of an excuse! Something! Anything!
"You don't have to, you guys," she said, "I'm perfectly willing. Plus…no offense…but I don't think you're strong enough. We should have a Champion or Ultimate Digimon. A Rookie at least…."
"We were built for nighttime, Gatomon," Incumon argued civilly, "You're not, or you'd be black. Besides all we have to do is yell and wake somebody up."
"It'd be too easy for you guys to get hurt…."
"I only regret that I have but one life to give to these Grounds," Vermimon said proudly.
Incumon didn't argue; he strained his muscles until….
"Mephimon!" he cried. He was instantly a pitch-black dingo-like creature with a thin head, four fangs, wicked-looking claws on each wide paw, a pair of shredded demon-like wings, and a whip-like tail.
"Beetamon!" the former-Vermimon echoed. He was a gray-shelled beetle-like Digimon with small sharp cones tipping each antennae, two armless hands, two short feet, a dull-brown underbelly, and big red Jell-O-like red eyes.
"There!" Mephimon said, "We're Rookies, and I can tell by looking at you that last night made you pooped. We'll be fine, and we'll make sure all the bad guys are seen in time."
"Yep!" Beetamon said.
"See ya at sundown!" Mephimon said, "I bet I can fly now!" He was right, though Beetamon needed more practice. He lifted the bug in a talon-like front paw and flew toward their village.
Elecmon smiled and said, "They're great kids, aren't they? Makes me wish they'd been around while the Dark Masters were causing trouble." He left to presume his daily duties.
"Ninety percent of the universe's bricks are less dense than he is," Gatomon muttered.
"Elecmon?" Patamon asked.
"Yes," Gatomon snapped, laying back down and closing her eyes. She thought, He's got the people we're watching for taking care of the night watch! She'd meant to say it out loud, but the words hadn't come out right.
After a few moments, Patamon timidly said, "Hey, how about you help k…k…." He'd choked up the second Gatomon opened her eyes with no attempt to hide the evil-looking glare. He stuttered, "K…k-kee…" he blinked, "…Never mind…." He seemed to shrink fearfully as he flapped and took flight.
When the sound of his wings indicated that he was a good distance away, Gatomon made another attempt at sleep.