Digimon Inheritance: A Heroic Lion's Turbulent Times (Finished)

[] You bought a healing disk for exactly this sort of reason. Give it to Flamemon, let him be fully healed and restored. (Verge only has one disk).

===

Flamemon tenses up and whirls toward the exit looking like he's about to sprint off, but you interrupt him with a shout.

"W-wait!" Fumbling with the grey satchel's straps, you open the bag and dive in with a paw. The next moment sees you pulling out the healing disc you'd purchased from Sorcerymon. "Here, take this. It-it'll heal you." Your best friend looks looks back at the offered item and then flashes you a genuine grin.

"Ha! Ha! Thanks Verge! You're as dependable as ever!" While you begin to blush his good arm sweeps out taking the floppy disc from your paw before raising it up. A second later he takes a deep breath, then crushes the healing object in his grip and...

There's not white light effect like the magic from Sorcerymon's spell, but as the pieces sink into his skin it soon becomes clear that something is happening. There's a barely noticeable ripple going down his good arm, one that travels down his flesh, going from one side of his body and then spreading out towards the other. In its wake his many cuts begin to close and the bruises lighten up to reveal normal colored flesh. It takes perhaps ten seconds, but by the end of things your best friend is back to his old healthy self.

"Alright!" he shouts, thrusting his now healed limb triumphantly into the air. "Now let's go! For heroes like us there's not a moment to waste!" With that he blurs from sight and vanishes through the exit. In the wake of seeing your friend healthy and more importantly happy again, the crushing feeling inside you goes away. Though this is only for a single moment, as the fact that Lunamon is in danger brings things crashing back down. Pulling on the sudden stream of anger you let loose a small growl then scramble outside after him.

Upon exiting, you spot the two foreign digimon talking with Gramps and Sorcerymon nearby. A surge of wrath erupts from your core and for a moment your various drills begin to rev up.

If they hadn't drawn away everyone's attention and attacked me, then maybe someone would have noticed what happened!

You contemplate rushing forward and spearing the Monodramons back with your nose while his back is turned, then blink as you realize exactly what you're thinking about doing.

That's… why was I thinking like that?

Unfortunately, there's no time to dwell on it. Shaking the murderous thoughts away, you follow after Flamemon to stand nearby.

"-can track where it's going." The purple reptilian digimon says. "I can help find the other rookies but... This evil mon is tricky and knows how to er, misdirect followers by backtracking. We might have to split up."

Gramps stares across at the Monodramon with narrowed eyes, one arm reaching up to scratch his chin.

"Don't trust you," he grumbles. "For all I know you could be working with it."

"Hah!" Impmon laughs at that statement before rolling his eyes. "I'd nevuh work fawh any mon besides myself!"

"Gramps!" Flamemon cuts in, both figuratively and literally by striding between them. "What are we waiting for?! The others are in danger, we have to give chase now!"

"Spirits below, quiet down!" Gramps snaps "Never underestimate a Dokugamon, even a fresh one! They're too dangerous to just rush after!" even as he speaks the familiar shadow of Fu falls overhead.

"I'm back! The stupid trees blocked me from seeing anything." The Sunflowmon huffs in irritation. "We're still not fighting these dummies right?"

The red Elecmon lets out a deep sigh at her words, then looks over towards the village's other resident champion.

"Sorcerymon. I'm trusting you with this." A sudden burst of anger leaks into his voice, like he hates what he's about to say "I'll be useless in a fight against a champion right now." The scarred rookie snarls bitterly, "Body still needs time to recover." With that he turns over to look at the new arrivals. "I'll stay in the village with Verge and make these two don't tr-"

"No!" you roar, cutting the caretaker off. There was no way that you'd just stay behind while Lunamon and the others are in danger. Gramps takes a hesitant step back as you glare at him. Sorcerymon tightens the grip on his staff for a moment and even Flamemon looks taken aback by your suddenly display. Then just like that the moment passes and you realize what just happened. However instead of cowering you swallow nervously and continue. "I-I won't just stay here."

Impmon lets out another small chuckle at that.

"Hehe, looks like dis one has a bit of a bite tuh him"

Monodramon gives a small cough.

"And I can't just stand by while this injustice goes on!"

Flamemon nods in agreement at his words.

"That would be unheroic!"

Monodramon turns to your best friend and flashes a giddy grin, who reciprocates the gesture. You can't help but feel a small tinge of jealousy at the strange kinship the two mon seem to possess.

"Exactly! An ally of justice would never let this just pass by!"

Gramps holds his head and quietly mutters something about 'two of em'.

Sorcerymon cuts in with a hefty sigh.

"Ah don't believe should waste anymore time. These Varmits can come along, but..." The humanoid mon turns over towards the fire-type digital monster "Flamemon, keep an eye on them." Your best nods vigorously at the statement and gives a thumbs up.

"Let's go already!" Fu exclaims lifting higher up into the air "Auger's in danger!"

Thresh lets loose a bark and tries to rush towards the breach, only for Gramps to hop forward and grab the little digimon mid-run. The wholly unphased rookie rears up one paw and brings it down at high speeds, smacking the black In-Training mon right in the noggin. You tilt your head at the display and have to hold back a growl of anger at his actions, but the old Elecmon hurriedly puts your ward down and reaches into his bag. Your attention is drawn towards his hands as the older digimon brings out several small containers. After taking a half dozen salves out, Gramps begins tossing them towards you.

"Hrmph, these should help with any poison." He explains while you struggle to catch the small projectiles. Your paws are certainly not the best for it, but Gramps aims for your thick fur letting them land in the relatively soft mass of grey hair that covers your underside to act as padding. Flamemon quickly comes to your assistance, opening your bag and helping you load them in.

The newly formed group heads out just a few seconds later and you find yourself struggling to keep up with their initial pace. While you're much much faster than last month, every other digimon here is more speedy still. Sorcerymon and Fu (Though she's flying above the trees) are champions while Flamemon is well, Flamemon. Monodramon and Impmon are also faster than you, so you still end up lagging behind somewhat. It's a bit humiliating, but there's more important things to keep track of right now. In truth you don't mind having to continuously sprint through the woods it helps keep your mind off what's currently happening.

Your magical mentor follows a number of clues to chase after the spider digimon, but you have a feeling that he's intentionally slowing down so you can keep up. From what you're able to tell, the party seems to be following a specific pattern consisting of certain odd holes and shreds of torn webbing left behind on trees to mark the kidnapper's passing. Most of your time when moving is split between worrying about those who were kidnapped and being angry about everything that's happened today. It's that constant flow that helps keep you going at a dead sprint even when your legs begin to burn from the strain.

Eventually Sorcerymon reaches a branching path as the trail heads off in two separate directions, forward and directly to the left. The white champion curses under his breath and after a few seconds whirls over towards the branching path then looks up towards the sky.

"Fu! Stay with them!" He shouts before point his staff towards the rest of you group. "Keep going! ah'll cover this here path"

Monodramon takes this moment to jump forward and and run down the other path at the head of the pack with an unhelpful explanation of "Just follow my lead!"

You grudgingly follow behind the smaller rookie, glowering at his back. While you'd never admit it, you're slightly grateful for the slower pace he sets while investigating the trail. It leads your group closer to the ever looming series of small mountains (though to a far different location than the mines) with a small shred of heavily burnt webbing showing you to a small cave leading down into the ground.

Doing your best to ignore the foreboding feeling that always comes with entering unknown areas, you approach the entrance along with the rest of the group and try not to shiver.

The plant-type champion crashes down through the surrounding foliage and lands just outside, but quite unfortunately, it's not actually nearly large enough for the now gigantic Fu to fit inside. In fact, it barely comes up to half of her enormous height. Your friend goes so far as to desperately get on her hands and knees (which draws a small chuckle from the Impmon) to try but even that fails to let her get inside the comparatively small opening. Her reaction to finding out that she can't actually help Auger is... Not ecstatic.

"No!" Your friend screams in anguish using one massive hand to punches at the mountainside above the cave. Not that it does much beside bruise her limb. Fu is nearly brought to the point of tears as she realizes that right now there's nothing she can do to help her best friend. Her odd, gangly flailing would be rather comical if not for the dire circumstances.



"Do not worry Fu!" Flamemon shouts winking at the devastated champion "We shall go in and save them! It is our duty as heroes!"

"Indeed it is!" The Monochromon adds. "The allies of justice won't let you down!"

"You better save him" The champion sniffles. "G-go on then dummies! I'll be right out here waiting!"

Not having the support of a champion against this *Doukagmon* is a worrying prospect, but you counteract that by grabbing onto the anger swelling out from your core and embracing the emotion.

I have to go! Lunamon. The others. They need me!

With bared teeth and spinning claws you follow along as the group rushes in at high speeds. However this time, every mon goes at their very top speed and as the seconds pass you're entirely left behind as the other three rookies forage ahead. The cave leads down into a long narrow tunnel that seems to stretch into the very bowels of the mountain. You notice little bits of web layed out here and there around the area; not enough to actively hinder your way, but it does force everyone to not move in a straightforward manner.

The run continues on for roughly a minute before there's a low rumbling sound up ahead in the tunnel. Off in the distance Flamemon trips over something, prompting a rumbling sound that quickly gets louder and louder.

Huh?

In the next moment a mass of thick webs interwoven with rocks fall from down from the ceiling, netting a huge portion of the tunnel its its sticky grasp. Your best friend and both of the purple digimon can't do much more than let out brief cries of surprise before it crashes down and bears them to the ground. Of the three, Flamemon reacts the quickest by a wide margin, but as he's at the center of the trap he fails to make it out in time.

Spirits above no!

With a loud crashing noise, the mass falls on all three of them, kicking up a big cloud of dust. When it clears, you're met with a nearly overwhelming horrifying sight.

All three digimon have been caught underneath the trap, completely buried under the mass of sticky organic and heavy inorganic material. You can't see or hear any of them, but you don't think that was enough damage that any of them would be in danger of deletion. You know flamemon is tough and that Monodramons wasn't so much as scratched by Gramps tackle. The only one you're unsure of is the Impmon, but you doubt he'd die from something like this either.

Having been far behind the trio, you're the only one left free to continue on down the tunnel, but... should you?

If you were to continue sprinting forward and stick to the left side of the tunnel (as it boasts fewer webs) you could probably get through to the end without too much resistance. Though that would require going in alone.

Wha-what should I do?

=== Choose one:

[] There's a champion in there, not something you can handle by yourself. You'll try and help Flamemon and the others get free before continuing on, though you've never tried ripping apart things like this sticky web before.

[] Lunamon, Auger & Sparks are in danger. Who knows what that champion might be doing with them in its nefarious clutches. You can't waste any more time. Continue ahead by yourself and trust that Flamemon will get out of his bindings soon.

===

Authors Note: I can't help but feel as if this is all a little rushed. Things seem to be going at a faster pace than I'm used to. But that's good. We've spent more than enough time in the prologue already.

Beta'd By @no.

=== Stat Changes:

• Strength: 104.00
• Fortitude: 110.00
• Endurance: 97.75->99.5
• Agility: 85.00->86.5
• Special: 31.00
• Spirit: 27.50