Digimon: Digital Monsters
The Clockwork Alchemist
Chapter Three: Magic and Alchemy
"My Lord?" Mojyamon, a rather large Digimon resembling a yeti, called out into the gloom. "My Lord, are you there?"
Something shifted in the dark, something awful and vast, and a bright pair of eyes gleamed at him from the shadows. Mojyamon trembled, and curled in on himself in an attempt to appear smaller.
"What is it?" a voice grated, eddies of power swirling through every syllable. The very breath of this monstrous creature was almost enough to push the snowman back. For what it was worth, Mojyamon managed to stay his ground.
"I h-have news, Exalted One," he stammered. "A girl has appeared, but she isn't one of the others. She is a new DigiDestined."
"I see. She may pose a problem…"
"I'm…not sure she's the one you seek, Lord," Mojyamon said timidly.
"Does she bear the Crest?"
"No, sir, there wasn't a Crest."
"Even so, I cannot take chances. If she is the one I seek, then as long as the child lives the Digital World lies in grave danger."
"My Lord, if I may speak…" Mojyamon ventured.
"You may."
"This kid…I don't see how she could be such a terrible threat," the yeti admitted. "She's such a little thing, after all."
"Delphimon's predictions are never wrong," the Great Beast replied, the ground shaking as he moved. "If there is even the slightest chance this child is of the Prophecy, then I must do all I can to prevent such atrocities from occurring…"
"Atrocities, sir? What…?"
"Mind your place," the creature warned darkly. "Do not overstep your boundaries, champion."
"I apologize, my Lord," Mojyamon said quickly, bowing almost to the floor. "I was too bold; I did not mean to pry…"
"Where is the child?"
"At the entrance to the old mining tunnels not too far from here. Of course, to my Lord, nothing is too far away…"
"Groveling does not become you," the black thing replied, disdainful. "You are dismissed."
"Thank you, my lord," Mojyamon sighed, and turned to leave.
"Mojyamon."
"Yes, My Lord?"
"If you value your hide, do not return there."
"Yes, My Lord…" the Digimon murmured in reply, dismay in his voice and sorrow in his eyes as he hurried away from the old, black ruins of the arctic. He felt he'd never been happier to be back outside, even in the middle of a howling blizzard.
.xXx.
By morning the storm had passed, the shining serenity in its wake lying as testament that it had been there at all. Those that had taken shelter in the cave were stirring now, stretching stiffened limbs and peering out into a beautifully blanketed world.
Wizardmon awoke and shifted to get a better look at their guest, hiding a yawn beneath his cloak as he checked her vitals.
"How is she?" Meramon asked.
"Stable," he replied. "If she lived through the night I guess that means she's okay. She ought to wake soon."
"When she does she'll want breakfast," Meramon grinned. "They always do. I was just about to go get something to eat myself; I'll pick up a few things for her…and you. You look like you could use the extra energy."
"Thank you my friend," Wizardmon smiled as his fiery companion made his way outside, and settled back to wait for the Digimon's return. Which, as it turned out, wasn't very long.
There was a sudden shout, an agonized cry that was abruptly cut off, as if whatever had made the sound had just had its throat slashed. Then the few early risers that had followed the fire-man out came rushing back in a panic, Meramon hot on their heels.
"GET UP!" he shouted frantically. "Get up! Snimon—a swarm of them! They're attacking—"
But the rest of his sentence was cut off as an awful buzzing filled the air and the first insect appeared, a colossal praying mantis armed to the teeth with a pair of twin-scythes jutting from his fore-legs. Wizardmon leapt to his feet as the Snimon slashed at Meramon, and hurled a bolt of energy into the blade, knocking it askew before it pierced the fire-man's head.
"Everybody run!" Wizardmon shouted, his staff glowing as he levitated the girl and moved her further into the cave, Digimon scrambling past him in a frantic rush to escape. Andromon and Beelzemon, however, stood their ground.
"We'll hold them off!" Andromon called over his shoulder. "There's an exit at the other end of the tunnel—escape through there!"
"Meramon!" Wizardmon yelled over the noise. "You know where it is, lead everyone outside!"
"What about you?" Meramon asked, throwing fireballs left and right as the insects surged forward, crawling over their wounded without pause. "Ditch her, and let's get out of here!"
"If I was going to leave her, I wouldn't have picked her up in the first place," Wizardmon replied. "Go on ahead; I'll follow in the rear."
Meramon hesitated, glancing at the Snimon surging menacingly forward, and nodded.
"I'll cover you!" he called over the noise, ducking a swinging blade, and blasted the ceiling over the Snimons' heads, bringing down an avalanche of rock directly on top of the first line. "That should buy us some time. Hurry!"
"Here, give her to me," Andromon said, kneeling next to the wizard and holding out his hands for the girl. "We can go much faster if I carry her."
"Thank you," Wizardmon replied, quickly unloading the child. "Come, we must move quickly. They'll be coming through any moment now."
.xXx.
There were a vast number of tunnels winding through the mountain caves, and one in particular that led straight out to the other side. It was this path they chose to follow, quickly leaving the droning of the Snimon behind. Wizardmon silently matched Andromon stride for stride, glancing every once and while at the child in his arms with anxious unease. If she was here, she was important somehow, and he would do everything in his power to protect her. It was his duty, after all. Yet…in a way it was more than that. He just wished he knew what that was.
"Hey, something's happening up ahead…" Meramon warned them, trying to see through the gloom. The passage was blocked up with Digimon, trying to to see over each other's heads at the commotion blocking the exit.
"What is it?" Wizardmon called. "Is the tunnel blocked…?" But even as he said it a wave of panic swept down the line, and those Digimon in the forefront started shouting and trying to back track into those trying to get out. Wizardmon pushed through the crowd, ducking and weaving through the larger ones until he abruptly burst out into the sunlight. Having been in the dark for so long he was temporarily blinded, and blinked for a moment, trying to reorient himself…
And then he saw them. Hundreds of them—buzzing through the air, their blades glinting in the afternoon sun as they clicked massive pinchers and glared with eyes like multi-faceted mirrors. The swarm had been waiting for them.They were cut off from both sides now, and this time, there would be no escape.
There was a moment where the world seemed to freeze and time slowed down, as if to give the wizard a second for the true horror of their situation to sink in, before everything went to hell. At once the swarm descended upon the first few to reach the exit, cutting them to pieces where they stood or flying up into the air with them and dropping them on their comrades. All around him Digimon were screaming, firing off wild attacks in a desperate frenzy, scattering everywhere.
"DON'T PANIC!" Wizardmon roared, slamming the thought into every mind within reach. "Back to the cave, now! Those that can fight, front and center!"
They wasted no time in obeying, the wizard's voice still ringing in their heads, and scrambled back inside. A dozen champion-strength Digimon stepped forward, throwing everything they had at the Snimon in a furious attempt to drive them back. Andromon set his burden down and joined Wizardmon, firing colossal blasts of energy at one insect after another. But even with all their strength combined it still wasn't enough. If one bug went down, three more immediately came to take its place; and they were slowly gaining ground.
Suddenly, there were cries from within the cave, too, and Wizardmon knew the rest of the swarm had arrived through the tunnels. Digimon came rushing out of the cave, only to be snatched up by the Snimon outside, for there was no place to run. The cave ended at a small cliff, and below that was what was known as Rush Valley, with a narrow path leading down. They were sitting ducks and the Snimon knew it. They pushed in from all fronts, picking off their victims one by one.
Wizardmon fired off spell upon spell, shouting incantations and ancient runes, but the insects were everywhere, and then one came in from the left and caught him in the shoulder. The wizard ducked away, swinging his staff and bleeding badly, but the Snimon smacked him to the ground and his weapon skittered away. And with an awful screech the insect brought his scythe down upon the Nightmare Soldier's head.
I'm going to die…
Instinctively, Wizardmon closed his eyes, bringing his arms up in a pathetic attempt to shield himself, and waited for the inevitable. But it never came. There was an earth-shattering noise, the ground bucked, and then something crunched. The wizard opened his eyes, cautiously, and stared in disbelieving shock. A gargantuan hand had reached from earth and snatched the Snimon right out of the air, crushing it instantly.
In a daze, he looked back over his shoulder at the girl crouched at the base of this stone appendage, her hands flat on the ground and a look of borderline panic in her eyes. She wasted no time in jumping to her feet while the swarm (and everyone else) stared at the stone fist in awe, clapping her hands and slapping the cliff wall. Again the rock shifted, and almost instantaneously an immense barrier of stone came arching down over the ledge they were standing on, effectively shielding them. Another clap and the tunnel was suddenly full of dead insects, impaled upon the thick iron rods that had shot from the walls. Anything that wasn't a Snimon had, miraculously, been spared.
For several seconds no one moved. The Digimon stared in flabbergasted, open-mouthed and unadulterated amazement at the girl, while she leaned against the wall with both hands and breathed heavily in extreme shock and terror. Finally, she turned her head to look at Wizardmon, who happened to be the closest, and asked in a very shaky voice, "What the hell is going on?"
"Er…well, that's a little complicated…"
"Where am I? What are you things?" she demanded, now completely freaking out. "Omigod, I'm probably dead! I died and this is hell!"
"You're in the Digital World, miss. We're Digimon, and…" he started to explain, stepping forward, but she shot away from him so fast her back hit the opposite wall before he could blink.
"You stay away from me!" she barked, taking a fighting stance. "I don't know what that is, I don't know what's happening. You come any closer and I'll do to you what I did to them!" She pointed into the cave. "Understand?"
He nodded, holding up his hands as a sign of peace. "It's okay, we don't want to hurt you. In fact, if it had not been for me you would have died in the snow storm."
"What were those bug things?"
"Digimon."
"Like you."
"Bad Digimon."
"How do I know you're not bad?" she asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the large number of others at the wizard's back.
"Look, we're on the same side, okay?" Silphymon cut in soothingly. "We—"
But she suddenly cut off as a little Tokomon scuttled past her feet and scampered towards the girl before anyone could stop it. Wizardmon held his breath as the kid froze, watching with a mildly surprised look of 'what-the-hell?' as the tiny thing came right up to her, sat down at her feet and stared up at her with a pair of the biggest brown eyes she'd ever seen. And then it hugged her foot. At that point she wasn't quite sure what to do anymore.
"So…you're not evil?" she asked finally, quirking an eyebrow. Wizardmon smiled and shook his head.
"No, not evil at all," he replied. She nodded, trying to gently shake the Tokomon off her foot.
"Alright, then."
"What's your name?"
"Romy," she said and grinned. "Romy Elric, the Clockwork Alchemist."
To be continued…
Disclaimer: All rights belong to somebody else.
Vocabulary:
Delphimon is a Digimon I made up, so I doubt you will find her on the net. Delphi was the Greek god Apollo's oracle, and made cryptic predictions of the future after getting high on some hallucinogenic weeds. Her prophecies always turned out to be right, though.
Hello, and welcome to the third chapter of the Clockwork Alchemist! And yes, this is a strange crossover with Fullmetal Alchemist, if you haven't guessed that already. It's one of my absolute favorite animes, and I got this idea and this is the result. Unfortunately, Edward won't be in this, but that's why this story's not in the FMa section. Also, I need reviews to live, so don't hesitate to press that button!
Calfuray