The Fate of the World: No Sooner
by Creedogmon
edited by Godeerc VanDrey
Category: Digimon
Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Language: English
Summery: Lift-off and landing in a familiar place. Now what?
A/N: Now begins Section 2 of The Fate of the World. Expect new twists and untwists. Expect this story to be finished months before I get around to posting it. Expect delays. Expect the expected, or the unexpected if you're really naïve.
"Ready?" Matt asks. We nod in more of an I-guess way than a yes-we-are way. Truthfully, we're about to embark on one of the greatest and most dangerous journeys of our lives. Give me a second to catch my breath.
Amen to that, I hear a voice reply in my head. I turn my head and see Jessica turning hers, donning a similar bemused expression. We seem to be having a lot of those lately. The voice sounded a lot like Jessica's.
James looks at the computer screens, idling displaying a dialog box with several lines of numbers in a text area. "So, how do you work it?"
"I'm not sure…," CJ begins, but Eric cuts him off.
"Like this," he pulls out his gray digivice and holds it up to the screen confidently, "DigiPort Open!" An empty section of the dialog box which takes most of the area turns from inactive gray to glowing yellow as a beam of light emits from Eric's digivice, which causes all three screens to emit lights bright enough to make the large overhead florescent lights above look turned off. Eric is engulfed in energy, which shoots to the middle screen, and Eric is gone.
: : :
It's almost anticlimactic. "Just like on the show," I comment. It reflects against a void. The computer screen now shows the formerly inactive section of the dialog box
Daniel exhales, "Alright, suit up. If anything, we gotta save Eric from himself." He, James, and Matt line up and hold out their digivices, and they too disappear. Phillip follows them, then Anna and Justine holding on to each other, which eyes closed. I pick up White Paws and Jessica grabs Virginia, who has been handed her digivice, and the light engulfs us.
: : :
I don't know quite how to describe the teleportation. The light engulfs us, a feeling I'm quite used to at this point. It's not hot, but tingly, inside and out. I feel suspended, but from all directions. Quite suddenly, I feel rapid movement, as if I'm being pulled at a high velocity in some direction. It's almost as if I'm moving inward into myself and forward at the same time. This must be the new dimensional spacial direction CJ was talking about.
Then, as quickly as it began, I feel normal feelings returning. The movement ceases, and I experience the most absurd instance of inertia. I feel gravity again, and I'm standing on earthly ground again. The tingling fades, as does the yellow energy, much slower than it overtook me. And I'm in the DigiWorld again, to be perfectly blunt.
The scene I land in is far from quiet. Eric is celebrating, oblivious to anything around him. James, Matt, and Daniel are talking, interrupted by Anna screaming at them and Eric back and forth. Diana arrives after us, and walks up to me and Jessica, who's still holding Virginia, wiggling to be free. Katmondu is already trotting around, uncomfortable in the chaos. It's not loud, but everything is in terrible disarray. There's a terrible lack of orientation.
For goodness' sake, I think, how are we supposed to save the world when we're fighting. Why are we fighting?
I wish I knew, I hear Jessica's voice in my head. Again, I look to her, and she looks back. One finger is in her right ear, trying to cancel out the noise of the arguing.
Up to this point, the arguing created a mummer that went sharp to dull several times a second, but it was suddenly drowned out by a monstrous growl, like might be heard by a large tiger… a very large tiger. All heads turn toward the east to see an oversized ice-blue-and-white tiger, the Defender.
"Fuzzy!" I yell at him, "what is it?"
"You're gonna pay for that fuzzy remark, pitiful Unmon," the creature answers. The Defender doesn't talk. Even that accompanying voice when Katmondu transformed for the first time did sound like this. His mouth didn't move then. It does now.
"What do you know? It looks like that viral thing brought a welcoming committee of converted Unmons."
"Unmons?" Jessica whispers.
"I don't know. Never heard of them."
"Stop conspiring!" the tiger screams at us, "You will not help that… thing destroy the DigiWorld!"
"Destroy the DigiWorld?" Matt replies, a little too cool, "We came here to save it. Against the 'thing.' Black blob? Yeah, we're here to exterminate it."
"Lies! You doubt my ability to feel its presence. You know very well that its composition can't be reformed into our world. It has integrated itself. It is imperceptible to the physical senses. Or did you not have enough faith in the digimon to know that we could tell?" The enormous tiger paces. It's very much the size of the Defender, in fact a replica almost. I find myself thinking that this is his evil clone, but I doubt this for some reason.
The tiger continues to pace back and forth, surveying his prey. As I look all around me, I notice no cowards. We all stand in a semicircle, staring down the beast. The tiger speaks again, "I suppose you're waiting for me to attack. You still think me too dumb to know that I can see through your lies. You think I'll go along with your charade. Wrong."
The tiger halt, turns toward Jessica and I, crouches, and before I have time to react after his hypnotizing pacing, he's leapt toward us. I step back to absorb the blow, which would have been foolish, had not Katmondu, in Defender form, leapt from the grass, knocking his twin off-course.
"Foolish IceFelismon! Why do you attack your own kind?" the belligerent digimon asks Katmondu. The Defender, of course, only growls.
"It pains me to see you have joined the Dark Side." The Defender, in quite cat-like behavior, only paces, never taking his eyes off IceFelismon, which I conclude is his name and digimon type. As Katmondu turns once again, his digivice catches IceFelismon's eye. He crouches and growls at this, "A digivice! Did you have to kill a DigiDestined to get that?"
"He is a DigiDestined," I tell him, surprised at my own bravery. I'm not even in Caretaker from. I noticed none of us, minus Katmondu, have powered up.
"You still insult my intelligence. DigiDestined are revered here. All digimon know that DigiDestined appear like Unmons."
"What are Unmon?" Jessica asks.
IceFelismon looks at her, his face bored, but his body still taut, "Like yourself. Two-legged, uneven fur, artificial coverings…"
Phillip, his inner digifan coming through, states, "Hey, don't a bunch of digimon have clothes and junk. Gabumon wear fur, for example."
I figure this might be Phillip's last moment, but IceFelismon just stares him down, accepting Phillip's counterpoint. "True, clever Unmon."
"Wait, were the DigiDestined Unmons?" Daniel inquires.
"Is this some type of stalling technique? I'm beginning to think this might not be a façade." He takes a long moment scrutinizing the situation, then replies, "No. They were humans, I think they're called. From the Other World."
James steps forward, with courage, "The Other World? We're from another world. And we're human. And we're DigiDestined."
"I doubt it strongly. There have been no DigiDestined in the DigiWorld since the Schism. Many prophesies foretell new heroes, but they are wrong."
Daniel takes a half step forward, delicately, "Wrong? I thought the ideas of prophecies were that they came true, even if in a strange way."
The tiger crouches down and stares into the distance, "I'm afraid not. A prophecy not long ago began to come true. The signs were there. The Unmon scholars announced a new salvation was to come." His tone is pained, "I was to be one of the DigiDestined's partners. From birth, I was told someday I would meet him and we would save the world. Well, the evil has come, and I'm holding up my half of the prophecy. I'm trying to save the DigiWorld, but where's my partner? He should have been here years ago."
"How do you know he hasn't been here?" I prompt, "He could have come, suited up, banners waving, sword drawn, and you could have killed him, thinking he was the enemy."
"I would know. The Great Digimon said that they knew when their partner was upon them, innately, instinctively. There would be a sign."
The Defender jumps IceFelismon, and the two wrestle on the ground. The Crest of Vigor starts glowing, gaining luminance, and blinding us all. "What in—" IceFelismon begins to say when both are engulfed with light. They shrink and the light leaves them as powered-down Katmondu and a small Salamon, completely off-white, with floppy cat-like ears and toeless paws. "You're my DigiDestined," the now squeaky voice asks.
Katmondu rubs his head against Salamon's flank, and looks at him curiously. "But he's not… human, is he?"
I kneel down to the Salamon. "No, he's not a human. He's a cat."
"He's my size."
"Yeah" is all I can muster.
"Are cats as good as humans?" the Salamon questions.
"Well, humans have a better sense of logic and problem solving, but cats are descendants of the fiercest animals on the planet. Humans are far separated from our instincts. Cats are well-tuned and have fewer things to fear in general."
Salamon now jumps Katmondu and they spar.
Jessica comes up on me, "Katmondu has a digimon now."
"I know," I reply.
"Will we get digimon?"
"You ask me like I know," I look over to Justine, but she shrugs her shoulders. I took to Jessica again, "Maybe."
: : :
Diana stares at Christopher and Jessica with a displeased look on her face. She notes the crest hanging on Katmondu's neck as he play-fights with his new companion, looking down at the ever-astute Hawkmon standing loyally by her side.
: : :
By the light of the fire, Salamon tells us tales of the prophecies and other legends of famous digimon.
Matt's face is stern as he comments, "You're telling us that the evil thing is immaterial in this world, but you can still sense him?" Salamon nods with a maturity unbefitting of his size.
James speaks up, "Now, going back to the big prophecy you were talking about. Did it say who was supposed to have digimon and who was supposed to have Crests of Power?" I notice Diana sit up at this question.
Salamon sighs, "I'm afraid I don't know the prophecy word for word. My impression from all the buzz surrounding it was that all of them would have digimon. On the matter of Crests of Power, that was not a project of the Unmons. They are the ones who help pair up digimon with Other World heroes and who harness the power of the Crests, but the Crests' ability to transform humans and give them fighting power was either something the Unmons didn't know about themselves or something they didn't announce."
Justine muses, "These Unmons, do they have control over the DigiWorld or something?"
Salamon laughs, which sounds like a childish giggle, "No. They are not as… durable as digimon. However, they have been studying digimon for eons, and are extremely benevolent. They are the Keepers of the Prophecies as well, all of them literate."
Daniel smiles, "Literate? You have writing?"
"Yeah," Salamon answers sarcastically, "of course we have writing. How else would we have prophecies? Unmons train each other in the Digital World's writing, called DigiCode. It's a colloquial name. DigiCode's the world standard, so it's to keep from just calling it writing. I heard it that I resembles the writing standard of the Great DigiDestined."
Phillip asks, "Japanese?"
"Sounds right," replies Salamon.
Justines perks up, "I lived in Japan for a couple of years. You wouldn't happen to have an example of it?"
Salamon frowns, "Not on me. We're in one of the Non-Civilization areas, but if you come upon a building or something, you'll see some. I doubt you could read it. It's been said that it only resembles this Japanese. I honestly can't say if any DigiDestined took the time to learn the language."
I see Diana rubbing her temple, and ask her about it. She tells me that it's no big deal, just a headache. Jessica comments about the med kit in her bag, and Diana accepts some pain reliever. Jessica pulls a couple of ibuprofen out and tosses them to Diana, who holds out her hand.
The pills don't reach her hand. She suddenly leans forward, her, eyes clenched shut, and groaning. She opens her eyes widely, almost as if possessed and starts mumbling to herself. She then yells something somewhat coherent. "Pen and paper!" is all she says, repeating in several times in a demanding way.
I toss her my notebook and James tosses her a mechanical pencil out of his pocket. Still intent on her thoughts, she violently pushes pages aside to a black page and clicks the pencil twice before madly scribbling on the page, mumbling under her breath as she goes.
When she finishes, she drops the pen and breathes as if exhausted, holding the notebook by her side. When she seems to regain her breath, she looks at the page, her eyes following the lines. She mouths the words as she goes. The entire time, showing a variety of emotions, none of them giving any indication that she knows what she has just written with such fury.
She passes it to Jessica and I, then asks, "What do you think of it?"
: : :
A/N: From here on out, you're in for some lengthy delays. I have a lot of important stuff on the board. I have no idea how many chapters this is going to be, but it's turning out to be quite a few if I'm on Chapter 7 and we're only now in the DigiWorld. The first few chapters were rather short, but they'll be getting longer as I go. I have this strange tendency to write stories that are much to long for a short story, but inadequate for a novella or a novel. I'm not a professional writer, so what I really need to do is put more into each chapter. I think once we get multiple plotlines going, it'll bulk up. I'm so excited!
(Sonriso) - Longer? Longer? Creedog, people are going to get tired of having to read so much before they get to me! I mean, you're a nice writer and all, but people really respond to my superior comedy chops. I won't be able to keep this boat afloat if you keep weighing it town with your plotlines and character development. Snappy, half-wit wisecracks is what the public is demanding.