Not that anyone is reading past Chapter One anyway, I've decided I don't care if anybody does; I'm going to continue to post Iterum up until its here in all its completed glory. A new chapter will be posted every day until the fan fiction has caught up with its copy on Digital Dreams and then I will begin updates every Monday.
Chapter Four
"This walk always gets longer and longer."
"Its all in your head."
"Bullshit."
"Ugh, just shut up and meet your damn tamer."
A purring snicker echoed from the large muscled chest of a small lion cub. It was covered in golden fur with a bright orange tuft of fur at the top of its head. Bright blue eyes that seemed unusually lucid and alert considering the cub's lazy, lackadaisical expression. It twitched its long tail and continued its leisurely pace with the rushing Seph leading. Long black claws clacked on the shiny black floor.
A large sliding door opened for them and lead them into the smaller domed waiting room. The lion's blue eyes perused the room, searching out his tamer for their journey. After a few cursory looks, he finally found her in the middle of the block of chairs, her head lulled onto her shoulder and her eyes closed.
He approached her slowly, the heavy pendant on his thick golden collar oddly quiet. The girl before him was tall for human females. His grandfather used to tell him stories and descriptions of the various humans he had seen and he always described the females as being smaller and shorter than the males. This girl was two inches shy of six foot and was finely toned with slim muscle; she wasn't bulky like a Leomon and was more like the build of Liamon instead. Lithe and strong. Her skin was tanned and her hair was cropped short and messy, swept to the sides at the front and spiky at the back. A black beret was perched, at this junction of time and space, precariously on her drooping head. A white shirt lay hidden under a blue, belt covered jacket. Black, ripped jeans covered her legs; they were straight and went down and over the tops of a pair of blue high tops.
She shifted as he came closer and crawled into one of the chairs juxtaposition in the front row from her chair. He propped himself on the back of his chair, large clawed paws hanging down lazily. The blonde strands of hair at her bangs fell more into her closed eyes.
"Well, she wasn't supposed to be asleep when we arrived… but she probably would have been awake had we arrived earlier."
Seph interrupted the chain of though the lion had going and landed on the back of the chair next to him. "You took far longer to wake up than expected, Karel,"Seph continued, grumbling. Karel smirked, his lips lined with black. "Yes, well, for the sake of our schedule, you had better hope she isn't as difficult… and that the transporters actually are accurate this time."
A fangy grin spread across Karel's short muzzle and eerily it reminded Seph of a shark. Seph flushed, a peachy color invading his cream colored cheeks. "The last time was just a mess up and they are heading in the right way,"he groused. "Ermolai reported in alread-"
Karel shushed him as the girl stirred. The long lashes fluttered and the lids cracked open, allowing a sliver of blue green to glow from between them. Sleep still clung to the girl as she moved and sat up, snuffling and swallowing. "Wha-"she grunted, wincing as she turned her head, trying to focus her gaze.
"Ohhh… cricks are the worst thing, aren't they, love?"Karel purred, tail twisting.
Her eyes widened and looked toward the cub, memories rushing back. "Who are you,"she said, not asked, eyes turning hard. "Why am I here? What the hell-"
"Ah shh, shh,"Karel said soothingly. "Relax, my darling. I'm Karel the Liollmon. I'll be your partner. As for why, we don't know. We could never figure out why it was always certain humans who arrived. For now though, we must, unfortunately, make haste. You are Claire, yes?"
"I- yes… I am,"she bit out, standing and exposing how tall she truly was. Damn this girl was tall. He slid down from his seat and landed on the black tiled floor with a clatter of black claws. His chest expanded as he drew in a deep breath; it then deflated as he let it out in a slow, drawn out sigh.
"Alright, Seph,"Karel said, slinking between the rows. "Lead the way. And no fuck ups this time."
The Patamon cast a nasty glare toward Karel and took flight, leading the way. Claire trailed behind, a frown garnishing her features. What the hell had two text messages got her into?
The group had slipped through the sliding glass doors and into the long narrow tube that connected to the far triangular glass and steel building. In her chest, Claire could feel her heart pumping, thumping against her chest as they went further and further down the corridor. In her nervousness, she moved her hands together and instantly met something on her wrist.
Looking down she found a device. A flash of memory zoomed through Claire's mind and she realized that it was the band that her phone had turned into not long after sending her last text message on it. Carefully, she tried to pry her fingers underneath the band but found there was no room for them to fit and the thing felt like it was attached to her flesh. She gritted her teeth and looked it over more thoroughly. It was the same color as her phone had been, with a little screen on the top side. Or she assumed it was a screen. There was a hard covering over the top of it.
Lightly she tapped her index finger over it and the cover slid away to allow her access to a touch screen. Words were flickering before her and she blinked, confused.
Enter your name.
A small keyboard was underneath the words and deftly she entered her first and then last name before she tapped okay. A loading screen appeared, this one looking like the silhouette of a feather and butterfly together. It was white but as the device loaded, it turned a light blue. The screen flashed again.
Accepted.
Name: Claire Evans
Age: 16
Blood Type: AB
Partner: Karel(Liollmon)
Welcome to the Digital World. Please enter a Username.
Claire hesitated here, looking at it with some amount of curiosity. She grappled a bit before typing in a name she often used for short lived skits on forums. She nervously chewed her lip and tapped okay once more.
LOADING…
The same picture as before popped up for a split second before it flashed to light blue and disappeared once more. A new screen popped up.
Is SilverNorthStar accurate?
y/n
She tapped yes.
Complete! Congratulations on setting up your Digital Monster Messenger(DMM) account.
"You set the Mark II up?"
Seph had been watching Claire through the process and now grinned at her. "The old D-bans were a bit simpler and bulkier than this one,"he explained. "They had a texting feature but it was somewhat archaic and a bit like the older phones; it was done by a number system. This system is more like an instant messenger; gets answers a lot faster."
Claire looked befuddled and was about to say as such when she was cut off by a huff. "You're only confusing her,"Karel muttered. "She doesn't know about the D-ban Mark I. She doesn't even know that it ever existed." The peach hue again streaked across Seph's face."Oh shut up! I helped design the Mark II. Pardon me for being a bit boastful."
"When was there a need for a Mark I?"Claire said, cutting any response Karel might have had to the prideful Patamon off. Karel's black lips pursed and he shook his head.
"No need to worry about that now, Claire,"he said soothingly. "You should prepare yourself for a rough ride instead. Seph hasn't quite worked the bugs out of his transport."
Seph huffed and fluttered further ahead of them. Karel grinned and looked toward Claire. "Things'll be cool. We just have to land somewhere close to the Digital City; it's the center of the Digital World and where Azulongmon will be telling the story of Insomnia. Now lets hurry, hurry."
The two increased their pace to catch up with the huffy, balloon of hot air.
The Triangular Infrastructure(as Claire had deemed it in her head) was a mass of bustling creatures and digimon over a rusty colored tile floor. It was a small city, carefully situated on the tip of the Digital World's crescent shaped moon. There were vendors and small cafés and, from where she was standing, she could even see a bustling grocery store. And in the center of this mass chaos there was a circular building, a sky scraper really, that stretched all the way to the ceiling.
Claire tilted her head back in an attempt to spy the top and only succeeded in getting a crick in her neck. She looked back ahead and moved to keep up with her "partner" and Seph. They were heading towards the building, she could see that now. Claire's eyes drifted down toward Karel and he looked back up at her with smirk.
"This building goes all the way up to the tip of the building,"he explained. "It serves as both a transport place and support beam." He trotted ahead of them and toward another sliding glass door. It opened for him and the trio entered.
"The transports are on the first floor. The above floors are off limits. That's where I do all my research."
Seph beamed proudly at the end of his words before leading them to a side room. The room that had originally entered appeared to be some kind of lobby. There was a front desk at the very back of the room where a Renamon sat, leaned back in her chair and filing her nails. On top of the chestnut desktop a tiny little potted plant sat at the right hand corner. A large paper calendar covered most of the desktop in front of the Renamon, no doubt where she kept all the important dates and names of people she was meant to allow up stairs. Directly behind her there was a large glass sign with the words Iterum scrawled across in a loopy writing. The same butterfly and feather emblem hung behind the letters. Bits of it were frosted blue and a light glowed behind the letters, illuminating them.
The new room they entered was brightly lit by several consoles that lined the wall. At the back were three half circle pads with a tube over each. A reminder of science fiction movies flickered through Claire's head and she couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips; her father had, very briefly, shown an interest in Star Trek. Later it skittered over to the Stargate series. Neither had interested her very much considering their somewhat advanced age but she remembered there were transport systems in both.
"Lemme guess, we stand on the pads and we get transported to the Digital World, right?"
"Correto-mundo!"Karel said lazily. "If I remember correctly, humans have been messing with this kind of technology for a while. It'll take them forever to sort it though; too many bits and pieces to fudge up.""Mm! Yes,"Seph said with a nod. "The Digital World has technically being doing this kind of thing since its conception. All the internet and computers are is transfer of data. That's all we're doing now. We even fitted such thing to the trailmon tracks in the Digital World to make trips so much shorter." Seph made himself comfortable at the console in front of the pads and started fussing with the buttons.
"It just doesn't always work right… just make sure we get there in one piece. I don't like the idea of being reverted to a DigiEgg.""You won't, you won't,"the Patamon assured. "Now get on the platforms."
Claire hesitated while Karel followed the order without a second though. He stepped onto the pad and sat down with a sigh of relief. His blue eyes locked with Claire's blue green and he arched an elegant fuzzy brow. "Well? Com'on. We're probably going to be dropped off in the vicinity of the Digital City.""Probably…?"
Claire's wariness seeped into her voice as stepped onto the pad next to Karel's. Instantly the pit of her stomach dropped out as the tube descended over them. Through the glass, she could see Seph grin maniacally and tugged a pair of overly large goggles over his blue eyes, magnifying them ten fold.
"Hold on to your undies!"he cackled and slammed his pudgy black paw onto a large blue button. As he did, the pads instantly lit up with blinding white light and, looking down, Claire could see herself disintegrate into motes of glowing data. Beside her, Karel also began to disappear but unlike her, he seemed at ease with it. The whole process did not phase her "partner", even as it reached where his vital organs should have been.
Claire, however, felt a stifling feeling her chest and, while it didn't hurt, it made he feel uncomfortable and stretched. She could see bits of herself fluttering up past her blue green eyes and right into the large coil that was attached at the top of the tube. What the hell was going on?
She closed her eyes and tried to pretend to be anywhere but here.
Night had fallen in the village. Ermolai had been kind enough to allow Kaoru and Athanas to slumber in the spare home to the side of the Vademon's own shack. Kaoru's ankle had been placed in a tight brace by a medically smart Tailmon and a nice pillow had been slid under it by Theo. Now the pair lay in the one roomed home, staring out the sky lights in the ceiling.
The Digital World sky was different from the Real World sky. For starters, in the day time the sky wasn't just blue but green and yellow, like a computer mother board. The clouds looked like they were cut outs from google images. Cut outs from moving google images because they still did move. They shifted and changed. The sun was the same, though. The same warm yellow at midday, the same orange blaze of glory in the afternoon, and the same red sparkle of life in the morning.
Now laying there, Kaoru realized that the night time sky was different too. It was the same dark blue but there were stretches of purple and paler blue that she didn't get to see in her city home. The moon, every night, was a crescent, curling in the sky. The stars were multicolored, like sprinkles or something similar, and every now and again would blink out and then back on, like the lights on the modem at home. Constellation hunting became quite the adventure.
While Kaoru had been in the Digital World what felt like months, this was the first night she'd ever taken time out to admire the sky in earnest. Every other night, she was too busy passing out as soon as they came to a rest spot or staring off into the darkness with nervous anxiety. Tonight, though, she was contemplative.
Her heart and her body felt hollowed out. She missed home. She missed her okaa-san and her mere. And, deep down, she missed Claire too. She missed Claire almost more than her parents. Kaoru didn't kid herself into thinking she was impregnable or invincible. Growing up, she had been a chubby, rolly child with parents that were unlike everyone else's. She didn't have a daddy like Claire did. She had two mommies. Two mommies that loved her more than enough for five daddies.
She rolled over and felt her eyes water. Having two mommies didn't make making friends easy; not in the least. Little kids were curious and cruel, without the help of some of their parents telling them lies. They used to say she was weird…
And then Claire stepped up and knocked them all down. Claire and her met when they were four and they'd been inseparable since then. At least up until now. How scared must Claire be without Kaoru?
As scared as I am without her…
A fat tear slipped from Kaoru's eyes and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure Athanas was asleep. When she was sure she let a little sniffle and hiccup escape her.
Kaoru had fallen into an uneasy sleep and her awakening was proving even less easy. She awoke with a start to the sound of screaming. Her fingers tightened on the hem of her blanket and she sat up, the thick, brown curls falling around her face. Her blue eyes darted around the room and she quickly pinpointed Athanas in the darkness, already crouched by the cracked door of their home.
"Athanas…?"she whispered, carefully getting onto her hands and knees and inching over. He glanced back at her sharply, his sensitive ears having heard her waking up. A single claw came up to his muzzle and lingered just in front of it; it was a sign for her to be quiet. After she seemed to pick up the message, he gestured for her to come closer with that same claw.
Nibbling her lip, she did, carefully peaking out the door over his head and around his horn with her one blue eye. Outside a group of four legged Digimon growled and wandered around the homes, sniffing around the grass and leaves. Ermolai was at the door of his home, looking nervous.
"There iz nothing here for you. Not a thing."A larger canine, this one looking to be the leader spoke up. "So you wouldn't be hiding humans here, hmm?"
The leader was as tall as their Vademon host but ten times more grizzly. It looked like a werewolf with periwinkle fur and blue stripes. It had a thick ruft of fur along is back, all tipped with blue and long fly away ears, similar to the ones on Athanas's fur. A wide set black nose sniffed the air and a dagger sharp canine protruded from its bottom lip. There was a brown guard of some kind on its right shoulder, attached by a belt that wrapped around a muscled, furry torso. The blue jeans it was wearing were tattered torn and held up by a brown belt. Out the back a scraggly wolf tail twitched and swayed, standing up higher than the rest of the four legged canines skulking around. He had a pair of brass knuckles that gleamed in the dawn light and he shifted on huge paws. Sharp, golden eyes darted around the surroundings suspiciously.
"Humans? You know I'm done with that business!"Ermolai answered, a waving it off and looking anywhere but at the gruff wolf or their building. In the silence of their home, Kaoru carefully backed away from the door, growing nervous. She tapped the cover of her d-ban and instantly headed toward the Digimon Analyzer.
Species: WereGarurumon
Level: Perfect
Type: Beast Man
Attribute: Data, Vaccine
Field: Metal Empire, Nature Spirits, Nightmare Soldiers
Press here to see Subspecies and Variations.
Perfect… like Ermolai…
"Athanas… We have to get out of here,"she whispered in her partner's ear. He waved her off. There weren't any exits for them without being seen. For now they were left hoping that Ermolai's silver tongue could talk them out of trouble.
"If you're out of that business, my Vademon friend, why do my men smell human all over this village?"growled the massive WereGarurumon, tail and thick mane bristling.
"A Lilymon friend of mine came to visit. If you'll notice, you'll also smell flowers."
The eyes narrowed with some suspicion. "You won't mind if I leave one of my men behind then, will you, Ermolai?"
From here, Kaoru could see Ermolai's lips twitch but his expression betrayed nothing else of what he was feeling. "No, go right ahead, Zuriel,"he said with confidence. I guarantee he will have nothing to report in the least. Nothing at all."Zuriel's expression didn't waver but he did glance back around his band of hounds. They all circled, bodies lowering beneath the gaze of their leader. His eyes fell upon a sleeker wolf with thick fur. It had sharply pointed ears and a regal muzzle. Its fur was a darker periwinkle than that of the WereGarurumon's and there were bat like red markings along its shoulders, haunches and were purple bat wings protruding from a thick ruff of white fur; these wrapped around the canine's neck and came to point evenly at each other at the beast's heart. From behind the sharply pointed ears, another pair folded themselves off, pointing straight ahead and blocking off any view Kaoru had of the beast's eyes. It didn't stop her from seeing the massive canines that hung from its jowels or the paws that were made of blades instead of flesh and bone.
The Analyzer again went to work, giving her the appropriate information on the monster that would be patrolling the village in search of them.
Species: Sangloupmon
Level: Adult
Type: Demon Beast
Attribute: Virus
Field: Dark Area, Nightmare Soldier
"Ira, you will stay behind."
The Sangloupmon named Ira raised its great head and spoke, the voice startlingly female. "Yes, Zuriel,"she said smoothly. "I will do my best to search out any humans I may or may not find." Zuriel nodded and Kaoru caught the tail end of a little smile on his large, bulbous muzzle.
"We will continue our patrols. If you come across anything, you know how to find us.""Of course."
The bipedal canine nodded and with that the group of canine's dispersed, leaving Ira behind. She twisted her head around and looked about, her pointy ears pricked. "I will start with an investigation of the villager's homes,"she informed Ermolai. "I expect full corporation. Please ensure that your underlings give me that at least."
Ermolai frowned. "Very well… Perhaps you would like to start at the outer ridge of the village? To best assure that they would make no escape?"It was hard to tell, being unable to see her eyes, but Ira seemed to be looking at the Vademon with some suspicion. "It would be wise, yes… your village is small, leaving very few exits. I start now."
As the words left her mouth, she melded into the shadows, disappearing from site. The only thing that kept Kaoru's gasp of shock at bay was Athanas's paw over her mouth. As it was, the pair looked and felt trapped. They didn't need to actually be trapped…