Story in a minute. Author's notes first.
First, let me just say I'm so glad at how well this whole thing was received! ^^; I have zero confidence in my writing... that's a big thing for me. Thanks, you guys!
Anyway, the model of Digivice used in this fic is, in fact, a D-Arc/D-Power from the third season of Digimon, in case you couldn't tell from my amazing powers of description. And yes, Vic is named after Vic Mignogna. I... don't know what I was thinking when I named him. Or Sara. Or Fletcher. But hey, if you're hating the Digimon nicknames... it's gonna get worse. Much worse.
But not in this chapter. XD On with the fic!
Winry shifted slightly on the couch. She hated having to stay behind when Ed went out to fight, but she had to admit – what could she do? They would just have to trust each other to get out alive. They'd agreed after the battle in Central two years ago – Ed would always come home, and Winry would always be there, waiting for him.
Fletcher chuckled, awkward and nervous, like he was trying to deliberately trying to break the silence. "Reminds me of the one time we got lost in the forest," the Terriermon said quietly to Al, "I remember your mom and Winry's mom yelling at us for hours."
Al's eyes widened. He did remember that, he realized. It had been back when Winry's parents had still been alive; Winry, Ed, and he gone farther into the woods than they were allowed and lost their way. Their parents had gone to search for them as it had gotten dark, and after the scary part of being a small child lost in a dark forest was over, they'd gotten in trouble for going to far in the first place. "You were there?"
Fletcher smiled, "The whole time," His voice grew a little stronger, "we were always there when you were little. Do you remember how you were grounded for a week?"
"Uh-huh. I always wondered how we lived through that one... Mom took all our books, and we would've died of boredom."
"That was because Vic and I were there!"
Fletcher laughed – a high-pitched noise, almost like a dog's yip – and finally looked at ease. Al was smiling, lost in nostalgia, while Sara and Winry just watched.
"I can't remember anything like that..." Sara said softly.
Winry didn't say anything, instead changing the subject. "Do you think Ed'll be alright? We don't know what's out there, after all."
"Vic'll know how to handle it." Sara replied, "He always does. He got us here, after all."
"Yeah," Fletcher finally seemed to have relaxed a little, "he's smart. Like Ed, I guess." He added.
Ed was being stared down by an enormous dinosaur. It stood upright on two legs almost the size of the houses it was next to, with arms almost too big for its build that ended in claws as long as Ed's arm. Its eyes glowed red, its dark gray skin was stretched taunt across its muscles, and black stripes crisscrossed its head and back. Horns erupted on its skull over its eyebrows, and a long white mane, matted and tangled, covered its neck.
And Ed could only stop and stare. Was this another Digimon?
"Ed!" A familiar voice called. Vic appeared from an alley way, seemingly out of thin air. "There you are!"
Ed just kept staring at the giant dinosaur, ignoring his partner. The giant wasn't moving or anything; it was just standing there and watching them.
"This," said Vic, coming to stand between the monster and Ed and indicating the former with a gesture, "is a Growlmon. He's a virus type, but the entire line is, and they're normally very gentle. We don't have to worry."
Ed was still speechless. Vic kept going. "Hey!" He shouted to the dinosaur. "Heeey! Down here!"
The Growlmon looked down. Vic was still talking. "Uh, are you here for a reason of some kind? Because you're kind of conspicuous out here. It'd be easier on a lot of us if you could, er, de-digivolve. The people here don't see giant monsters a lot and you're really easy to..."
Ed could see this was going badly. The Growlmon was tensing. Then, in a moment of sickening horror, it opened its mouth and bellowed.
Vic jumped back as his partner transmuted his arm plate into the pointed blade. As Ed slashed forward, the Growlmon drew its head back, out of harm's way. Then it parted its jaws again – no sound came out, but this time a red light grew between its teeth.
"Get back!" Vic shouted, barreling into Ed's legs with a surprising amount of force for something so small, and knocking him out of the way just as a laser beam erupted from the giant Digimon's mouth, making a crater in the street where they had been standing.
"What was that?" Ed asked, his heart pounding. If Vic had been a second slower...
"A special attack. All Digimon have them." Vic answered, getting up and preparing for a fight.
"And you're telling me this NOW!" Chalk another one up for the list of things Ed would make the Eeveemon explain later... if they lived.
"No time! Look alive!"
The Growlmon suddenly rushed them, moving like a freight train. One of the claws swiped at Ed and Vic, who both jumped out the way before it could hit them.
"Something's wrong!" Vic said as the Growlmon wheeled around for another laser from its mouth. "The entire Guilmon digivolution line are normally never violent unless provoked!"
But Ed had no time to question what that meant. The giant came in close again, and this time they had to dodge out of the way of crushing feet as well as the giant talons. One of its feet came down inches from Ed's own foot as Ed himself ducked to avoid the claws.
"How do we stop this thing?" He asked his partner, who, being smaller, was practically dancing in and out of the larger Digimon's limbs.
"We can't with this level of power!" Vic shouted back, catapulting off of a foot and ricocheting off a claw, making the Growlmon rumble deep and loud in its chest from frustration and anger. "Ed, look out!"
Ed had stayed in one place to watch the littler Digimon, and the the dinosaur's wild fury at being unable to catch Vic was taking hold of what little reason was left in its mind. Suddenly, one of its talons was swinging towards Ed.
Ed saw it coming. His golden eyes snapped onto he the claw, and his subconscious recognized it before his body could react. He wouldn't be able to move in time, Ed realized, and he could only watch at it came closer and closer-
Then a bright light came from Ed's pocket, and Vic started glowing like when he had reunited with Ed, only now instead of shrinking, he was growing into a humanoid size and shape. "Eeveemon," came Vic's voice through the light as well as in Ed's mind, "digivolved to Flaremon!"
A familiar flame-colored blur lept in front Edward, defending his human partner but also absorbing most of the force behind the swinging claw. The blur barreled into Ed, blowing them both back, and resolved into the anthropomorphic fire-fox form that Ed had first encountered Vic in.
"What was-?" Ed began, only for Vic to stop him mid-sentence. "Fight first, talk later!" Vic said, springing off his partner and facing the Growlmon. "This is some kind of shadow Digimon! It won't listen to reason!"
And you realize this now... Ed thought.
The two took off, launching themselves at the monster. Vic put his hands together like he was holding a two-handed sword, "Flame Whip!" He shouted, raising his hands above his head and bringing them down. A string of flame appeared in Vic's hands, twining around the Growlmon's neck. It growled, roared, and shook its head, shattering the flame whip. It brought its claws around. Ed, seeing an opening, leapt forward and tried kicking at its exposed side. The bigger Digimon turned its attention to Ed, only to whip its head around at Vic again. The Growlmon roared, confused, and thrashed its tail, destroying buildings and hitting the Digimon-human pair in the process.
"Still not working. Maybe... we should try working together." Vic said, as he was the first to recover from the tail's attack.
"Oww..." said Ed. "Alright. If it'll just get angry if we both just go at it like that, let's try something else..."
"Like what?" Vic asked, helping his partner to his feet and out of the wreckage.
"Baiting it." Ed said, matter-of-factly. "C'mon, follow me!" Vic's metal paw-hand still around his wrist, he took off down the street. "You go down that way." He said, pushing his Digimon partner down an alley way.
"Just attack when you see an opening."
Ed stood in the center of the road. The Growlmon was standing in the rubble it had made a minute ago, sniffing for them.
Ed took a deep breath. "HEY, UGLY!" He shouted. The Growlmon snapped up, turning to him, before bellowing and charging.
This is crazy, said the little, logical part of Ed's brain that was still processing what was going on. Vic's crazy. That thing's crazy. I'm crazy. I'm putting my faith in an imaginary friend I had when I was four.
The Growlmon was upon him now, and Ed could feel death coming once more. He shut his eyes, as the possibility that he wouldn't get lucky again entered his mind and-
"Flame Whip!"
Vic came in, right on cue, wrapping the whip of fire around the monster's leg, and pulling at it with all his might. The giant Digimon overbalanced, fell and skidded into another building, destroying it in the process. "And now for the finishing strike!" Vic continued, raising his duplicate of Ed's automail arm to the sky. "Alchemic Flare!" He brought it down, making a complex rune circle that caught fire and flared high into the sky, finishing off the Growlmon.
Ed watched at the larger Digimon seemed to come apart, dissolving into little blue specs that drifted into the sky and vanished. Then he turned to his partner, who straightened as the flames and runes vanished. "Vic," he started, "that was..." The words died. He really, really could put his trust in his partner.
Vic turned around, smiled -
And collapsed.
Ed caught him before he knew what he was doing. The Digimon's body glowed and reverted to his smaller form. "Sorry," he said, "Digivolving and attacking takes energy." And then he fell asleep.
"Well, I see we have some explaining to do, Fullmetal." Said a voice behind him. Edward stood up and turned around, still holding his sleeping partner.
"Colonel Mustang," Ed said, facing him, "we need to go see those creatures that were found. And I need Lieutenant Hawkeye, Al, and Winry to be there."
The five of them were gathered in the darkness, sometime later at the testing facility. "You have no idea what it took to get us in here, Fullmetal." Roy said as he leaned against the wall- the little monster Ed was holding was still asleep, while the other little ones Alphonse and Winry had come in with were talking to the captured monsters.
What Roy had gathered from Ed was that the colorful, cartoon-y creatures were from another world, there were a lot more of them in this other world, that each creature shared a special link with a human and count be considered a part of that person, and that the five gathered here were their special-link monsters.
"The bond-thing would explain why the little orange one keeps trying to talk to me," Roy continued, "but how exactly do we know these things won't try to destroy us? That big one you fought wasn't exactly peaceful, y'know."
"Why would we try to destroy a part of ourselves?" The Terriermon Fletcher piped in. "Like you said, if we kill the people here, we kill a good part of our own numbers." He paused. "But that Growlmon, and others like it, are part of why we're here. Our world is in trouble, and we can't stop it without your help."
"But why us?" Asked Winry. "Our world suffered a terrible tragedy not long ago. It's been almost two years, and we're still not back on our feet. Our home, this country, has suffered a huge blow, and now everyone's fighting about what the right thing to do is. Why would you choose us to help?"
"Vic's idea," Fletcher replied, "Once he sets his mind on something, he won't give it up. He wasn't the only one who had the idea to have our partners help us – there are legends about humans coming to the Digital World in times of trouble, and several mons thought we could make that work again – but he was the only one who stuck with it long enough to see it through. That's why we're here."
Vic was stirring in Edward's arms. His amber eyes opened and he looked up at his partner. "I overdid it." The Eeveemon yawned, then stretched, his bushy brown tail quivering, and looked around. "What's goin' on?"
"We were just explaining stuff to our partners." Fletcher replied. "But we're going to need an answer, and..." He started and flushed a little, turning his short yellow-ish fur a peachy color, "we-we're going to need a way back to the Digital World."
"We'll find a way." Vic answered. "While we're at it, did you tell them about the Digivices?"
"Er, no." The Terriermon replied, then started explaining about the devices that had landed by Ed, Al, and Winry; they were mystical things, with many legends surrounding them, but mostly they served to symbolize the connection between a Digimon and their partner. Vic, meanwhile, went to see to the still-caged Digimon; he wanted to release them.
"Hey guys," Vic said, waving at the Coronamon and the familiar Lunamon. Corona waved back, smiling. "Hey Vic! Can you see if you can get us out here?" He said, but Aurora didn't respond with nealy as much enthusiasm. "You shouldn't have come." She asserted, speaking in a low voice. "You've done something you shouldn't have." Vic was taken aback.
"Bu-Aurora!" Vic exclaimed, "the Digital World is in trouble! We had to come here, so our partners-"
"Whether or not they can help, you've still cracked the barriers between the worlds!" Aurora went on, "Who knows what could happen now!"
Vic scowled, then looked toward the other Lunamon, his pride hurt. She was humming a little tune to herself. "Who're you?" He asked, a little harsher than he normally would have. The Lunamon stopped her humming, and looked up. "A guide," She said, her voice musical, accented and a little raspy, "someone who's roamed the Digital World for a long while, and will keep roaming for much longer than she should. My name is Artemis, the huntress." She finished her speech with a wide, toothy grin; her teeth were much bigger, pointier, and sharper than they should've been.
Vic spotted a light glint of gold in the Lunamon's hand. "Wait, what's that?" He asked.
Artemis flinched and drew away, hiding the thing. "Nothing," She answered, defensive.
"It's something." Vic said, drawing up closer to the cage. "I just want to look, I won't touch it."
"No!" Artemis yelled and snapped at Vic's fingers; teeth met fur, and sank into the flesh beneath. Horror-struck, Vic pulled his hand-paw away. The bite wound didn't bleed, but it fizzled and almost – pixellized when he looked at it.
"Everything alright over there?" Riza Hawkeye asked. They both jumped; Riza was so quiet they'd forgotten she was there.
"It-it's okay." Vic said, still shocked, they were supposed to be a legend but there was one right in front of him- "We should probably get them out of here now, and get to finding a way back. That is," He looked at Ed with pleading eyes, "If you want to."
Ed took a deep breath. "If it means saving the worlds..." he paused and looked at his brother and their best friend, "I'm in."
"I'm with Brother." Alphonse said, "I'll go with you." Fletcher smiled at this, his golden eyes sparkling.
Winry was indecisive – it was the reason she had been so quiet this whole time. On the one hand, it meant going with these strange creatures – who she still wasn't so sure about, not now that one had destroyed part of Central – but on the other hand, she was not going to be left behind again. Not if she was given a choice.
She stayed silent. Her partner looked down, long ears drooping in disappointment.
"I'm not so sure about this." Roy said, "We have our jobs to do here. Especially you, Fullmetal."
"And I'm staying with the Colonel." Riza added. "We both have jobs to do."
"Alright then," Corona said, bringing their attention back to the caged Digimon, "you're not gonna help. That's great, but could you at least let us out of here!"
"I can't do that," Roy said, "You're experiments. I'll be in trouble with the higher-ups if I let you out." He approached Corona's cage. Odd feelings of familiarity were starting to stir inside of him. "I'm sorry."
The Coronamon looked crestfallen, but for once didn't say anything.
Then he perked up, twitching a little. He looked like he'd just realized something. "Guys," He addressed the other Digimon, "do you feel that?"
The others sensed it too, apparently. "Another one." Vic said.
"Another what?" Riza asked, looking at the Digimon seriously.
"Digimon," Corona finished. "another one's broken through."
"Not a problem," said Vic. "We can handle it. Right Ed?"
Ed stared. On one hand, the last fight had nearly been the end of him, the end of them both, but on the other hand, they'd come through it when they'd worked together.
"Is it as big as the last one?" Ed asked. If they could detect Digimon, could they get any other information on them?
"It ...doesn't feel like it." Corona said. "But..."
Ed took a deep breath. He had said he would help... "We'll do it. Just leave it to us."
Vic blinked, then smiled. Ed smiled back, and held out a hand, which the Eeveemon swung onto, landing on his partner's shoulder. "Lead the way." Ed said.
"Fullmetal," Roy interjected, "are you sure that's smart?"
Ed looked over his shoulder as he left the room. "I promised I would help these guys." He said simply.
Corona snickered. "Vic's lucky to have a partner like that."
"Left!" Said Vic, "Down that alley!"
Ed's body was behaving automatically, as though Vic's directions were bypassing his brain and going straight to his limbs. His mind was locked in mortal combat; instinct was battling reason to the death, and reason was getting owned. It didn't make sense, Ed acknowledged that, but he didn't feel anything bad coming from the little furry Eeveemon.
Plus, said instinct, as his journey had taught him, would it kill him to trust people once in a while?
Yes, said reason, it would.
"There she is!" Ed didn't process this immediately and ran headlong into a wall.
"Ow..." he said, recovering from a fairly large lump on his head. "Hey, Vic, you okay?" The Digimon had little dizzy swirls in place of his eyes, but was otherwise unharmed.
"Well, well." Said a voice. It was female, vaguely accented like Artemis's, and sounded... a little off. It was coming from above them.
Ed and Vic looked up. On the roof of the building they'd run into was a girl, around thirteen or fourteen years of age. As they looked, she slid down the roof and landed – totally unharmed, which was remarkable as it was almost a twenty foot drop – several feet to their right.
"Vic," Ed said quietly, "are you sure that's a Digimon?"
"Positive!" Vic replied. "Some Digimon can do that! Look closer,"
Ed did. And felt his stomach swoop when he looked at the Digimon-girl's eyes – the blue irises were slashed through with a slit-shaped pupil, like a snake's or a cat's, and they never left her prey as she stalked around them.
And that wasn't all.
The sides of her bright red hair were pinned up into pigtails on the sides of her head. But the pigtails weren't pigtails, they were feathery crests shaped like pigtails. Those two things make her stand out, that wrecked the sense of normality.
"Thanks for noticing," hissed the girl, dropping her disguise. In a blocky, fuzzy blur, her human form faded and something else, something huge and strange loomed up where she stood. A giant, avian shape stretched six, seven, eight feet above the ground, and Ed and his partner backed away as their brains processed the new monster's shape.
The Digimon stood almost nine feet above the ground. She might've looked like an ostrich or giant chicken, but it was longer, leaner, and much more graceful than that. Her feathers were deep, bloody red, and cybernetic attachments and armor plating were linked to her legs, underbelly and chest, as well as on her shoulders, extending onto the long flat feathers of her wings, and her back. A system of cables hooked the bases of her wings to the magenta colored armor on her backside, and long fins extended from her shoulders. The bottom of her beak was also armored, a single piece that extended up her jaw, in addition to a smaller fin on the nose.
The Digivice in Ed's pocket blipped. He pulled it out, and the screen projected a large circle, displaying a picture of the monster in front of them and a readout of what looked like her stats.
Asumon, he read. Champion level, not afraid to get physical. Special attack is Blood Angel Spear.
"Sounds tough..." Ed said. "We can take her."
"The last one we faced was a Champion too." Vic pointed out.
"Oh..." Ed blanched a little. "Crap."
Asumon sank into a battle stance. "You idiots! I'm nothing like ShadowGrowlmon. We might as well be totally different levels of Digimon." Ed figured out why her speech seemed no unnatural now, her mouth was ever so slightly out of sync with her voice, and something lurked behind it, like someone else was whispering along with her.
"Wait," Vic realized, "you know that Growlmon?"
"Know him?" Asumon laughed. "I sent him here! I'm the one who turned that big lunkhead into a Shadow Digimon!"
Vic stepped back, eyes wide. Ed felt the horror coming off him in empathic waves. "You-you would-"
Another laugh. "You little idiot. You have no idea what we're planning!"
Ed had no idea what they were talking about. He wanted to move, to fight, but feelings – sickening horror, revolted disgust, burning, furious curiosity - simple, powerful emotions that he was sure wasn't his were keeping him in place.
These weren't his feelings, they were Vic's, Ed realized. He was feeling what his partner was feeling.
Asumon twisted her armored beak into a smile. "That's the disadvantage of having a partner." She said. "I'll just give you two some alone time to... figure things out." The mecha-like bird put a very unpleasant emphasis on those last words.
A whorl of bright, blurring color opened beneath them, almost like the Gate, except it wasn't a giant eyeball. "Wha- what is-" But Ed never finished his sentence, because whatever they were standing on was, it wasn't solid, and he and Vic fell right into it.
Asumon assumed her human disguise again as the portal closed, changing shape from a robotic bird-creature to a normal girl, barring the feathers and vertical pupils.
Once nuisance down, she thought, her smile no less monstrous in this form, five more to go.
All the villain Digimon were fun to write.
I really don't know how Vic turned into what he is, though. He was originally supposed to be The Smart Guy, like Ed. Then I made his attitude a little more laid back, then I started joking about how he's Mr. Exposition... then I realized what an annoying pain in the ass this made him and played on that.
In my mind, though, his heart's in the right place. He just can't shut up. xD
THERE, I POSTED THE SECOND CHAPTER. I'M SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. CAN I WRITE A TV TROPES PAGE FOR IT NOW?
