Episode Three: True Calling
After the battle, the four walked back to Aimee's single-bedroom apartment; it was certainly closer through the twisting London alleyways than Chester's estate, but, still, a big change for Chester, who was used to dozens of rooms and metres of space to himself at one time.
Aimee, who the adrenaline obviously hadn't had the same effect on, sat down, wrapped herself in a blanket, and sat opposite Impmon and Volpemon whilst Chester made three mugs and a bowlful of hot chocolate. He set them down on the glass coffee table inside the cramped dining room, before sliding in beside Aimee and gesturing to the Digimon.
"Alright. You should probably start at the beginning."
Impmon sighed. "Look, Chester, it really is a long-" Aimee stopped him, this time.
"Impmon, I think if more stuff like this is going to go on, we really should know the details about it."
"You wouldn't understand why we can't, Aimee..." Impmon sighed. He turned to his fellow Digimon. "You want to, or should I?" Volpemon took a break from lapping up the steaming chocolatey liquid, gulping the remainder of his mouthful down, and issuing a quick response, before promptly returning to the bowl.
"You do it. This stuff is... good." Impmon rolled his eyes.
"How do I explain this... ah." He reached out for Aimee's mug, held up a finger when she appeared angry, and dragged it across so it was opposite his own. "Alright..." Impmon sighed. "If we think, for a moment, that my mug represents this world." He looked up at Chester and Aimee. "More specifically, your world." He moved his fingers over to Aimee's mug. "And this is our world. The Digital World. Our home."
Chester and Aimee nodded, slowly, getting the picture, and silently urging him to go on. He motioned between the two mugs, back and forth, with a single gloved finger. "There's a connection between our worlds called the Bifrost Bridge, after some archaic mythology. It's usually a one-way transport, data from your internet gets transferred to our world, and every file makes it bigger and bigger. Usually, we can't cross, because of the four Guardians... but... uh..."
Volpemon interrupted.
"That's us." Chester cocked his head slightly.
"You... let me get this straight. You guard, ultimately, the only link between our world and the internet?" Volpemon nodded, chuckling.
"Big responsibility, eh?" He grinned. "Am I cooler now?" Chester turned back to Impmon.
"Could you continue without inflating his ego?" Volpemon broke out into a full-scale laugh, before shaking his head a few times and returning to his hot chocolate.
"Anyway..." Impmon shot the fox digimon a nasty look before continuing. "The big daddy of... well... everything inside the Digital World, is a core. An AI core, called Yggdrasil. It governs everything and anything that passes through the bridge."
"Hang on," Aimee interjected. "I thought you said you guarded the bridge." Impmon shook his head.
"Nope. We only made sure nothing got out. Stuff getting in was the head honcho's problem." Impmon sighed. "There was a group of thirteen knights that guarded Yggdrasil, but, one, Gallantmon, went crazy, attacked the core, and took a load of friends with him. Something fried inside the core, and its ability to make good judgment as impaired. The remainder of the knights got kicked out, and they then split into two groups; those still loyal to Yggdrasil, and the ones who travelled around, and tried to get stronger, so that they could one day liberate the core, and try and fix it."
"Keeping in mind this thing has an army maybe two-thousand Champions strong." Volpemon added in, again, getting a dirty look from his Digital cohort.
"Champions?" Chester queried.
"You still have a lot to explain, you realise, Impmon." Volpemon chuckled, and sat intently.
"A Champion is a level of Digital strength. We're Rookies. But... we'll get onto that later. Basically, Yggdrasil released a nasty virus, which made, we reckon, about eighty to ninety percent of the population that wasn't inside its hub rabid, like that Hielomon you saw an hour or so ago."
"And that, guys, is the real reason why we're here. To save the Digital and Human worlds." Aimee and Chester were distinctly confused by this, and it showed in their expressions. Chester posed a question.
"Alright... how the hell is staying in our world going to help you in yours?"
"Digimon weaken significantly when we cross," Impmon explained. "and, so, we can defeat them and absorb their data, that fog. Once we've defeated enough, and become strong enough, we hope to draw Gallantmon here, ambush him, and find a way to heal Yggdrasil." He puffed his chest out boldly and smiled.
Aimee and Chester were stunned. That was his great plan?
"W-what?" Aimee was the first to speak. "Are you mad or something?"
Impmon was genuinely confused. "Huh?"
"So, you draw him here. What then? What if he's too strong? What if he brings the rest of his team with him? And what then? You think this... Yggdragil-"
"Yggdrasil." Volpemon interrupted again, rolling his eyes.
"Whatever! You think he's just going to let you back in?" Aimee raised her voice and got up out of her seat. Chester laid a hand on her arm, but without looking at him, she moved out of his grasp. Impmon rose too.
"He doesn't have to! We have you."
"What difference does that make?" Aimee glowered at Impmon, and he returned the glare.
"All the difference, maybe?" Impmon locked gazes with Aimee, and the two stood there for some time, staring at each other. Volpemon rolled his eyes, and sighed at Chester, who just watched the two. Eventually, Impmon sat down and put his head in his hands. He turned to Volpemon, and sighed.
"Should we?"
"Should you what?" Aimee quickly snapped in retaliation. Impmon sighed again, and stared at Aimee, not answering her, but making it evident it wasn't her discussion. He turned back to Volpemon and repeated the question. He nodded.
"You didn't answer my question, Impmon. What difference does it make that we're here?" Impmon grinned. He and Volpemon closed their eyes very briefly, the room filling with a low thrum, almost indistinguishable. Chester could swear he felt himself become ever so slightly heavier. He patted down his jacket pockets quickly, before looking back up at Impmon, then to Volpemon, who was grinning, and finally Aimee.
"Did... did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"...never mind." He turned to Impmon, starting to pose a question, but he was cut off almost immediately by a slow nodding.
Volpemon grinned, before uttering two words. "Back pocket." Chester slowly moved his hands down to the seat of his jeans, before feeling around slightly, and drawing out something that looked like vaguely like a bright white mobile phone. There was a small, square, and currently blank screen covering the top half, surrounded by a blue plastic circle. Below it was a power button, four directional buttons, and inside them, an 'OK' button. It looked as if it was an MP3 player. Chester stared up at Volpemon, then back down at the device, flipping it over, and running his hands over the engraved words on the back. 'D-Nexus'. He mouthed it to himself, before repeating it in a low mutter. He exchanged glances with Aimee, who seemed to be just as stunned as him. That had happened a lot in the last few weeks. He looked up at Volpemon and Impmon, and before he could even ask, the sarcastic Digimon replied.
"D-Nexus. It's automatically bonded to Volpemon. Using the data he obtains from fallen Digimon, he can use their attacks. As well as that, it doubles as a passport, and a storage system... albeit a rather cramped storage system at later digivolution levels..." Chester mustered up the will to speak.
"Wait, you're... you're going to fast. He can use other Digimon's attacks? A passport for what? Digivolution?" Impmon gestured at Volpemon, who had finished his hot chocolate, and started sipping from his own mug.
"His turn to explain."
Volpemon growled slightly at Impmon, frightening Chester slightly, before moving into speech, turning to his partner.
"You saw how Hielomon used that attack, Icicle Fist?" Chester nodded. "Well, now, Impmon can use it, seeing as he delivered the killing blow. I still absorbed some of Hielomon's data, but Impmon absorbed the majority, so he'll be able to use Icicle Fist whenever Aimee selects it from her D-Nexus." Chester turned to Aimee, seeing that she was now pressing buttons avidly on her own copy of the white device, this one with a mauve ring, instead of Chester's light blue one.
Chester pondered how Impmon, much smaller than the Hielomon had been, would use an incredibly powerful leap like that punch had been, then he remembered how Impmon had killed the brute with his incredible pyrotechnic display. Volpemon continued.
"The data I absorbed, and the rest of the data that Impmon did, too, helps me Digivolve." Before Chester could ask anything, Volpemon started explaining again. "After I absorb enough data, I'll change into a form. Bigger. Stronger. More powerful. And a lot more cool." Volpemon grinned. Chester nodded, soaking this all in like a big fleshy sponge. Aimee still had one unanswered question.
"Wait... you said it was a passport, too, right?" Impmon answered her partner this time.
"Yeah." The Digimon grinned. "You're our safe ticket into the Digital World."