Power is a Black Dog

By Son Rhandi

Chapter 3: 'Victory is Ours..?'

It came again that night, that dark demon of dreams, to strip away his dignity. He could feel the burning pain of the creature's claws- his own claws- scarring his skin, drawing his blood, grazing his soul, and always, always with that revolting laugh.

"Kyah-kah kah kah kah ka-hah! You're in de-ni-al; you should be-lieve me! You're in de-ni-al; I'll help you see things clearly! You're in…"

This time, the creature had the gall to taunt him about it- in singsong fashion, no less- as the dark void carried the tune and the brutal swipes kept the beat… Oddly enough, more of the beast had become visible. This time, its forearms penetrated the pitch black to reveal a familiar gray skin that darkened to charcoal at its lower arms to connect to the claws. The void, too, did not seem so dark the second time around, as if it was a plume of storm clouds clearing ever so slowly. Was an answer for all this was being revealed? Perhaps.

It was that early morning that Mummymon was again relieved to find no… Wait. What was that on his pillow? Was it… blood? Yes, drops of blood. The mon raced to the bathroom and threw himself in front of the mirror. What he felt when he met his own image was nothing but pure terror…

The expanse of where his right eye should have been was cut- no, carved into in the shape of an eye, but surprisingly wasn't bleeding very much despite the deep penetration. He wanted to scream, but all he could manage was a tiny squeak. Like mad, he turned on the faucet and began to wash the wound furiously, not caring that he was drenching his coat and gloves in the process. The mon could barely keep his hands steady and began to feel nauseated as the water became red and clouded.

Choking back the taste of gall in his mouth, Mummymon leaned on the sink and turned off the water. After a few seconds of clutching the basin for support, he realized that he needed to stop the bleeding and opened the cabinet behind the mirror. There, he found gauze, cotton balls, a bottle of alcohol, and a few of those jumbo band-aids for knees and elbows. The digimon knew just how to use these, as he tended to Arukeni's minor cuts and scrapes as well as his own many times in the past. With quivering hands, he went to address his wound, hissing quietly at the sting of the alcohol, and sighing in relief when he was finally finished.

The band-aid contrasting greatly to his skin was sure to be noticed, he figured that much already. What could he tell Oikawa or Arukenimon if they asked? No, there would be no 'ifs'; they were obligated to inquire about it. More importantly, how did he ever get such a wound? He didn't even want to turn to the possibility of the nightmare dog, but knew no other explanation could be offered. This had become more than just a nightmare or a premonition. Nay, this was now part of a horrible and gruesome reality, from which any escape seemed nil.

Just then, he remembered the blood on his pillow. It would have to be washed right away, as not to arouse any unnecessary suspicions from the others. He also remembered the agenda for today. They were to destroy another Destiny Stone.

He'd have to work quickly, then, and hope that no one would be too curious of him.


"Acid Mist!"

"Necrophobia!"

And the digimon fell down. The spider and the bandaged corpse grinned menacingly. They were gaining an upper hand over the Chosen Children, who were vainly trying to protect yet another Destiny Stone.

Mummymon's rifle glinted in the light of the digital sun. He was feeling a bit elated, almost cocky. They had never beaten back those meddling kids and their pets this badly before. It was as if some new kind of power was surging through his veins. Never had his shots been so accurate, never had his blows landed so severely.

…It was great.

"My dear, I think this battle is won," said the mummy to his Arukeni, who was delivering a truckload of acid mist Nefertimon and Pegasusmon's way.

"Seems that way. What a good day we picked to create chaos..!" The two cackled. There was something in the air, it seemed, that favored the bastard children of both worlds in that fight. A stale wind blew, and the debris settled on the clifftop overhead skittered down in a cloud of dust.

Arukenimon flashed a toothy grin as she sampled the saline taste of blood gathering between her tongue and cheek. She had only tasted blood once before, when she sliced clean through a vein of a digimon who dared try to cross her. Needless to say, it was rather messy.

Mummymon had never felt this way before. His senses, which were dulled in his full digimon form, were tingling. His heart pounded in his ears, his blood ran cold, and suddenly, he became aware of all around him. He could hear everything; the tightening of his love's jaw as she clamped down to form a sadistic smile, the pounding hearts of those foolish children as they struggled to lift themselves from the dirt, and could even smell their fear. Yes, he was convinced that it was fear he smelled, for it was strong, and to be strong, it had to be in large amounts.

"V-Laser!!"

"Tail Hammer!!"

"Double Stars!"

The giant red arachnid evaded the attacks of the Chosen Children's pets with relative ease. Maybe it was the fact that they were actually winning, or perhaps it was her partner's sudden and unwanton fighting prowess that showed itself this day. Whatever it was, she, too, found herself fighting with a new strength. Arukenimon charged boldly and swiftly to ExVeemon, who was unable to react quickly enough, and sprayed her acid mist directly into his eyes. The dragon fell over, roaring and writhing in pain on the parched ground. Wide-eyed looks of concern went out to him from Ankylomon and Shurimon, then turned to angry glares when they cast their eyes upon the offender. The two poised to defend.

"Necrophobia!!"

Before they could even turn their heads completely, Mummymon blasted them full on courtesy of his rifle from behind and they went flying into the cliffside, reverting to Armadillomon and Hawkmon. As mentioned before, he was aware of everything around him… "Mwa ha ha ha! Not much use in defending the front when you're being attacked from the back, is there?" The bandaged one chortled.

Seizing the moment when ExVeemon was still temporarily blinded, Arukenimon leapt and began to trample the blue dragon's abdomen mercilessly, tenderizing his insides and making sure she got him with every single one of her legs good and deep. Once she spied him woofing up a blotch of blood, she knew that was enough, and gave him a square kick in the jaw to say 'good-bye'. With that, ExVeemon returned to the form of an unconscious Veemon. The Chosen Children looked on in terror. There was no real way they could help their digital partners without risking death, and that knowledge alone was enough for the dastardly duo.

"No one left but us," Nefertimon stated the obvious. "Shall we give it one final attack?"

"All or nothing," Pegasusmon replied. "Let's do it!"


"Arukeni, in the sky..."

"Huh?" She lifted her head. "Nefertimon and Pegasusmon flying towards us, eh..? Nothing we can't handle. On my word…"

"Of course."

"Spider Thread!"

"Snake… Bandage!!"


"Star Shower!!"

"Rosetta Stone!"

Both sides got their hits and hard knocks. Both the spider and the corpse got a hold of Pegasusmon; red thread bound his legs, and white bandages, his wings. Stones could be swatted away; however, stars weren't dispelled so easily. One of the now captive Pegasusmon's stars had mildly injured Arukenimon's arm. Mummymon knew that quite well, he had heard her skin tear as the star passed, and, to Pegasusmon's misfortune, he was not pleased.

Like lightning, Nefertimon dive-bombed to try and get the two away from her bound teammate. Mummymon merely side-stepped the sphinx, but she had managed to catch his partner in the gut and was now carrying her off in the direction of the Destiny Stone. He was far from worried. Rather, he laughed at this turn of events and carried on his business with the winged horse.

"You… hurt my Arukeni… I can't forgive you for that. Sorry." Pegasusmon thrashed and struggled and just did whatever he could to try and escape the bonds that held him, but to no avail. In fact, the only thing he succeeded in was tiring himself out. On bended knee, Mummymon took Pegasusmon's wings in his massive dark paws and unwrapped a small portion of the ligature, just enough to see the mon's feathers. He then grazed his fingers along a few of his golden feathers, scrutinizing and admiring them, strangely enough.

"Beautiful…" He murmured in a voice that didn't quite sound like his. He gave the loose feathers one last feel, then…

CRICK!!!

An excruciatingly painful bray and a giddy laugh later, Pegasusmon reverted to a pain-wracked Patamon. Mummymon had gathered both wings up in his mighty claws, then gripped and twisted as hard as he could, breaking the bones of both his wings in three places.

Meanwhile, Nefertimon had caught Arukenimon in the gut and was carrying her off. By fate or by chance, she was headed in the direction of the Destiny Stone. How perfect. The stage had already been set; all Arukenimon needed to do was give a starting time.

"Give it up, spider!" Nefertimon shouted. "The only way out of this is down!"

"Oh, I don't know about that…" Arukeni replied with a bit of arrogance, nonchalantly looking over her shoulder to calculate the distance between herself and the Destiny Stone. Just a few more seconds…

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0!

Arukenimon's large hands hooked on to Nefertimon's head and wrenched her in the direction of the ring surrounding the Stone, nearly snapping her neck in two in the process. Timing it just right, she used all the strength she had to hurl the sphinx to the ring, resulting in a booming metal clang as she collided with it, and returned to Gatomon, falling to the ground.

"Gatomon!" Hikari cried out with tears in her eyes. But of course, he cries went unheard by her digimon partner. Being knocked out cold can do that.

"I'll take this gun…" Mummymon murmured, as he scooted Patamon onto his back with his foot. "…And aim it straight at your heart." He took the barrel of his gun to middle of his victim's pudgy chest. Finger on the trigger, he was ready to kill. "Good-bye…"

"Mummymon! Quickly! Come here and destroy this Stone!"

"Hrrm?" Apparently, the mon was too wrapped up in what he was doing to devote any attention to anything else. Due to Neferti's impact, the ring around the stone had cracked and fallen, and all that remain was a large and glowing stone sphere. Abandoning Patamon (to his immense relief), Mummymon rushed to meet the calls of his lady, crying out "Necrophobia!" to destroy the thing, which was easier than one would expect. After a few seconds of the wild laser, the stone cracked down the middle, then crumbled to the earth below.

They did it. They actually won a battle.

But the time for celebration was not then. Now was the time for a hasty retreat, before the children's pets recovered. Hopping the cliffholds as if they were some kind of super-evolved forms of mountain goat, the victors slipped back into their gijinka guises and high-tailed it out of there in the jeep as Ken and Stingmon arrived on the scene just in time to be too late.


The two laughed and joked outrageously on the entire cruise through the Digital World, not believing the turnout of recent events. They had finally gotten a taste of victory, and damn, was it ever good. The emotional high was so superb it was as if they were floating on air. Nothing else mattered right then. All they knew was they had finally come out on top after so many failures, so many losses, so many plans gone awry, and a celebration was in order. And what better way to celebrate than tearing up the Digital World with a sweet set of wheels? Mummymon and Arukenimon took their sweet time getting to the nearest computer to return to base, taking every out-of-the-way twist and turn possible to make the revelry last as long as possible. As of then, they were joyriding through a not-so-dense forest along an inviting river. Their laughter had died down at that point, and both were content to chatter- which was very unlike the spider to do- about their performance.

"You know, Mummymon- and don't let this go to your head-, I was quite impressed with your fighting earlier."

The mon blinked. He had actually received a compliment from his ladylove. The most lucky day! "Really?!" She nodded in response.

"It was crazy. I didn't know who you were then. You were different, just kind of out there… like a fighting machine." Mummymon's heart swelled. This win must have put her in an extremely good mood for her to be saying things like that about him. "No…" She continued. "It was really more like you were relying purely on instinct, like some kind of beast."

The brakes screeched to a halt. Inertia demanded Arukenimon keep going even if the car wasn't and nearly bashed her skull on the dashboard. She turned to Mummymon with a 'what the hell are you doing?!' look, but her expression of anger was quickly replaced with one of shock as she noticed a small pool of blood in her companion's lap and a trail of blood flowing from his lips.

"Kaaaaaaaah…… It burns..! It burns!"

Like mad, the mon, clutching the area where the band-aid was located, leapt from the car, fell to his knees and plunked his head in the river, re-emerging several seconds later and sucking in air. Shifting from his knees to his bum, Mummymon propped himself up with his arms and panted heavily, relieved that the severe burning had left his mystic wound.

"Mummymon..?" He turned to see his lady friend approaching him. This was not good. She has asked that morning why he had a band-aid on his face, and he made up a little fib and told her that he had been playing with a paddleball, and that was the result. She just scoffed and told him to fix breakfast. But now, his story wouldn't stick, especially with that blood that suddenly spewed from his mouth a minute ago.

"Mummymon, what the hell was that just now..?!" She did have concern for him, but didn't want to show the full extent of it, and hid it under a somewhat testy exterior.

"Um… What was… what?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" She yelled. "You were spilling blood, for god's sake! This has something to do with what you're covering up with that band-aid, doesn't it?!"

Trapped. Mummymon was at a loss, unable to think up anything to tell her. Suddenly, Arukenimon latched onto his arm and ripped off the band-aid, gaining a small yelp from its ex-wearer but nothing more. As soon as he felt the thing leave his face, he placed his over the 'eye' and guarded it from her sights. Sighing, she turned to flick the used sticky bandage away, and said in all seriousness, "Now, tell me what's going on."

Mummymon covered his mystic wound in shame. How could she tell him anything when he himself had no idea what was going on? Sooner or later, she'd find out about the wound anyway, wouldn't she? Steadily, he removed his hand and revealed to her what he'd been hiding.