Chapter 3: The Sickly Tribe
Outside of the walls of the park, a small fight had broken out. A weak-looking Vulturemon was screeching at a small, red dragon Digimon.
The smaller Digimon leapt into the air, before saying "Fire Breath". He spewed flames from his small snout out at the bird, singeing a few of its dark feathers. The bird began to fly away, but the dragon persisted. It leapt onto the bird's wing, before spitting more fire, nearly burning each feather off. The Vulturemon fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the dragon continued its assault. Not long after, the larger Protomon began to fade away, small chunks of code flying away as an egg appeared where it once was. The dragon stood over the egg, before raising its clawed wings, then slashing them through the egg, causing data to spill out. Whatever poor Protomon that was inside would be nothing but a pile of jumbled code now, if it was lucky it might become an actual functioning piece of code.
The long, winding, brick path of the park was finally taking a toll on Chelsie and Christina, they're movements were slowed, and they breathed heavily.
"I think we should have a rest." Christina muttered, before walking over to a nearby tree and slumping beside it, her back resting against the soft bark. Chelsie nodded in agreement and trudged over to the tree beside Christina, plopping down on it. Mentamon stood on the pavement, slowly scanning the area, its antenna glowing strangely,
"Mentamon, over here!" Chelsie called to it. The Reptile Protomon turned and walked over to her, its antenna now its normal green colour. It rested its head on her lap. It felt a brick had been placed on her, but Chelsie tried not to mind, as she slowly drifted to sleep, she felt a wave of love spreading her, like never before.
"Mi!"
"Re!"
"Do…"
Chelsie woke up as strange, high-pitched sounds came from around her. Glancing around, she saw small, black, music-note-shaped Protomon surrounding her, with stumpy, hippopotamus-like legs and feet, with their antennas flopping over their faces. They continued to make their strange sounds, before turning to face her.
"Humans!"
"Have been!"
"Found…"
"Must!"
"Take to!"
"Tribe…"
"What's going on?" Christina yawned, opening her eyes. Cacomon, who had been hanging upside down on a tree branch above her, floated down towards the music-note Protomon.
"You Notemon better have a good reason for waking us all up." It groggily spoke, shaking its head.
"Village!"
"Tribe!"
"Leader…"
"Wants!"
"Help!"
They chimed, staring wide-eyed at the girls. Chelsie glanced at Christina, who slowly shook her head. "I guess I can do it." Chelsie groaned, slowly getting up, Mentamon still resting beside where she previously was. She picked up the reptilian Protomon, nearly falling over as she did so. This seemed to wake up her partner, as it steadied itself on the ground. The Notemon had already begun to run away into the trees, never stopping in their dash into the strange place. Chelsie ran after them, Mentamon at her feel.
It had only been a few minutes of running, but she was already worm out, her run had been shortened to a slow walk, though Mentamon was still trudging along, its head tilted downwards. Ahead of them, she could see a faint clear in the trees, and a strange, glowing, orange light came from in between the trees, a fire! She could hear singing as they approached, and at the edge of the trees stood the three Notemon that had woken them up. Once they were in hearing range of the Protomon, they turned to them,
"come!"
"Into!"
"Our…"
"Camp!"
Behind them sat a small clearing, no trees, but soft, brown sand. Small twig hut sat around the area; leaves draped over them. The largest hut sat on the other end of the clearing, it had multiple smaller huts connected to it. On one side of camp was a field of eggs, all black with a rainbow of music notes covering it. Each egg had a small bit of grass below it, with stones creating a barrier around it.
Over a dozen Notemon were in the area, all chirping and singing to each other. Chelsie and Mentamon followed the three Notemon into towards the largest hut, inside they heard heavy wheezing. Poking her head inside, Chelsie saw a small hippo Protomon, it had a pink head with a light blue body, it had a music note for a tail, with headphones underneath its ears. It had a small tuft of black hair on its head and a single, large, square tooth poking out of its mouth. Its beady, black eyes were dull, and its body seemed to be growing duller each time it coughed. Its long antennas were slicked back behind its head, their colours fading as well. A single Notemon stood beside it, cooing to it.
"Great!"
"Leader!"
"Hippomon…"
"Is!"
"Sick!"
The Hippomon turned to look at the group, its body shivering as it did so, "who are you?" Its voice sounded upbeat, but its tone was ruined by the sickliness that edged its voice.
"They're!"
"Here!"
"To…"
"Help!"
The hippo Protomon slowly nodded, before slowly standing up, its legs wobbling. "I had a run in with a Plaguemon a small while ago." It closed its eyes in thought, "you should be able to spot it without knowing much about its appearance. It's got a long, bird-like face, pretty noticeable around here." It said through fits of coughs, "I don't know how it got me sick, but maybe confronting it will make it remove this sickness."
"We can do it, it won't be that hard!"
"Well, maybe it's a bit hard." Chelsie grumbled. They had only started trying to find the Plaguemon. It was supposed to be early morning, and yet it was the middle of the night. Chelsie could barely see a thing, and the only light source she had was Mentamon's antenna, which wasn't strong enough to light up anything further than a metre away from it. The constant growling and snapping of twigs didn't help the tense feeling that was growing in the air either. At this point, she didn't know where they were, they had been walking aimlessly for what felt like years, and the complete darkness was worrying.
"I sense something else nearby." Mentamon spoke firmly, staring into the ominous shadows around them. As if on que, a large, ear-splitting screech split the air, it wasn't bird-like in the slightest, it sounded almost human. But what came out of the shadows was the far from human. The Protomon that stood before them wore a large, black cloak, with golden arms and hands sticking out from under the sleeves. It had a long, black, feathered tail, with long, thin bird legs to match, sticking out from its cloak were bird-like wings. But its face was nothing like a bird. It wore a plague-doctor's mask, with a reddish-grey horn attached either side, its pupils were shaped like crosses, although judging by its appearance, it seemed to be the exact opposite of a holy being. The Plaguemon stared down at them, its body ever-so-slightly twitching.
Chelsie stepped forward, although she feared the worse, this thing didn't deserve to have the satisfaction of seeing her afraid. "Why did you make Hippomon sick?" She asked, steeling her body.
"Sick...?" The Protomon repeated, tilting its head, "I did… that…?" It quietly spoke, its voice quivering and stuttering, "I only… wanted it… happy…" It lowered its head, its body slouching, "never meant… to make… sick…" It stared at Chelsie sadly.
"Maybe you can go help fix him?" Chelsie replied, nodding to Plaguemon, "maybe you can tell him it was a mistake."
The Protomon nodded back, "I… say sorry… to friend…" It straightened back up, before placing one of its hands on Chelsie's, "take me… to friend…"
"Bubble Shot!" A familiar voice cried from the darkness as an array of bubbles shot at the cloaked creature. It reacted by screeching in pain, before turning around, its claws twitching. From the shadows, Chelsie saw something she never expected, Jake and Weepamon, Jake himself was holding his Digivice high into the air, as if he was going to Digivolve Weepamon.
"Jake stop! Plaguemon isn't trying to hurt anyone!"
But it was too late, "Weepamon, digivolve!" He yelled as a white light engulfed Weepamon. Its body began changing rapidly, it sprouted stubby arms and legs, and its tail feathers grew out into long frills. On top of its head, more frills began to grow out. Suddenly the light faded, as it did, a pink and yellow axolotl Protomon emerged, "Axomon!" It cried, it's voice now upbeat and excited, compared to Weepamon's depressing tone.
It ran forward and jumped into the air, before saying "Water Blast!" A jet of water shot from its mouth, slamming into Plaguemon, which was pushed back from the impact.
Chelsie looked down at Mentamon, "we've got to stop them before they kill Plaguemon." She told it. Mentamon nodded, before running towards Axomon, "White Beam!" A powerful, white beam of energy shot from Mentamon's antenna, shooting directly into Axomon, which tumbled back, landing on its stomach.
"What are you doing? That Protomon's going to kill us!" Jake yelled, shaking his head,
"it isn't! If you'd listened to it before you started attacking, then you'd realise that!" Chelsie snapped back, stepping forwards. In between them, Mentamon and Axomon glared at each other, looking as if they were both ready to attack the other. "Mentamon, stop." Chelsie told the yellow Protomon that stood in front of her. It turned to her, before walking towards her, barely acknowledging Axomon.
Jake looked away, "fine then. Axomon, come here." The axolotl Protomon stood up and bounded towards its partner, wagging its tail.
Plaguemon came out of the darkness where it had been hiding, quietly staring at Jake, "why'd you… attack…?"
"Because you looked evil." Jake muttered, staring at something beside him, "let's just go."
As the group walked back towards the tribe of Notemon, the darkness around them seemed to follow with every step they took. The camp itself seemed to light up in the darkness, bright lights came from each hut, and the fire in the centre was burning brightly. They entered Hippomon's hut, where they found him laying on the ground still, but looking a little livelier than before. It stared up at them, its body tensing when it noticed Plaguemon, which was hunched over due to the low roof.
"I'm… sorry…" It said, stepping towards the leader, "never meant… make… friend sick…" It stared down at the Hippomon,
"it's alright." Hippomon croaked in response, mustering up an awkward smile,
"help… make friend… better…?" Plaguemon asked,
"sure…" The two stared at each other for a bit, before Plaguemon sat down beside the hippo Protomon. Chelsie and Jake left the hut, before being bombarred by the trio of Notemon,
"leader!"
"Will be!"
"Safe…"
"For thanks!"
"We give!"
"You egg…"
One of the Notemon walked over to the cluster of eggs, before pushing one out. Unlike the rest of the eggs, it had a light blue colour scheme, with fish patterns covering it.
"Thanks, but we don't-"
"Take!"
"Egg for!"
"Being kind…"
Chelsie knelt down and pick it up, it wasn't as heavy as she expected, and was quite small, nearly pocket-size. What kind of Protomon would hatch out of this egg?
Link to the wiki: wiki/Protomon_Wiki