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

[] Beat: Your friend(?) seems to be taking Angewomon's comment rather badly. You want to make sure he's okay and try to reinforce that you and Sparks are there for him.

===

A few seconds after Scratch climbs aboard, MetalMamemon shouts for the Maildramon to lift off. The massive armored digimon flaps its wings with a nearly deafening roar and rises into the air, seemingly without any real effort. You're honestly a bit confused about how something so big and heavy looking can soar through the sky like this, especially when carrying six passengers upon its back. Focusing on that topic is much easier than coming to terms with the reality that your body is now dozens if not hundreds of feet away from the ground.

You'd never liked being high up in the air, and even Flamemon's attempts to knock that out of you via exposure had never really been able to cure you of that fear. So while Sparks stares at the new surroundings and rapidly changing ground, you just hunch down as low possible and try to avoid moving. Every now and then you spot a blurry figure fly past the Maildramon's saddle. You catch sights of a purple underbelly and blue scales, of an elongated body. Orange wings that are nearly too fast for you to see, and a leering white face.

The others notice it too, but judging from the others' lack of visible reaction you guess that the Dramon(?) must be another member of Angewomon's squad.

Pidmon and Angemon stay close to your ride, and occasionally you overhear their er, zealous chatter as they catch up on their time spent apart.

The hours pass much more slowly than you wish they would, and the fear in your core gradually diminishes and boredom overcomes it as you slowly are convinced of the fact that you're not going to tumble off Maildramon's back. You begin to actively look around at the others for something to do (taking absolute care to not look down) and spot the brooding form of Beat staring motionlessly at the corner. Guilt and sympathy rise up in tandem as you look over the sulking little rookie, as you realize that he's really not taking the holy digimon's comment very well.

So with a nervous swallow, you get up off your belly and pad over towards the Wormmon.

"Verge." The Wormmon turns to you and gives a weak nod.

"Beat." you reply, returning the gesture. "Are you… okay?"

"Hmph."

I think that means… No?

"Don't uh, worry about what Angewomon said." you murmur, trying not to wince as the words flow through your mind a second time. She hadn't addressed you directly when saying them, but you have a feeling that's only because she didn't think you were a rookie, which is an oddity but one you admit to understand given your larger than average size.

Come to think of it...didn't Sorcerymon say that Drimogemon are supposed to be champions?

You're so engrossed in thought that you almost fail to notice the Wormmon's blue eyes narrow at you in a glare.

"She was right..." Beat says, his voice low and angry.

"No she wasn't. I mean-I'm a rookie too"

"Tsk, you're strong." The Wormmon nearly snarls. "And still getting stronger." He shakes his head back and forth and angrily slams his tail into the saddles floor. "I've hit my limit, and I still haven't digivolved!" A sudden wetness fills the rookie's eyes as he looks down. "I don't think I can." A few seconds pass, before you realize that Beat is crying. "I want to be strong. I have to be."

You stare down at the nearly sobbing mon for seven seconds, then decide to stop thinking so hard about it and reach out to hug him to your chest. At first the insect digmon stiffens and tries to shake his way free, but after a few seconds he loosens up.

"We're here for you, Sparks and I." You reassure him. "You'll digivolve soon, I… I just know it."

The two for you stay that way for twenty-nine seconds before Beat finally pushes his way free. The Wormmon sniffles once and turns his head away, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like "Thanks."

===

The Maildramon finally sets back down again early in the evening, much to your undying gratitude. You waste no time in scrambling up over the side of the boxy saddle, not caring if it means dropping from the massive digimon's back, and land a second later on hard rocky ground. Your squadmates and commander follow suit, but you ignore that in favour of looking around.

Wait, this. It seems... familiar.

You look around with a frown, examining at the rocky terrain of a series of foothills at the edge of a series of small mountains. It takes a few seconds of thinking but you finally make the connection. While this place isn't the exact same region in which your village had been, it's still very similar.

This. This is like the area around the mines! Hrm, Angewomon said we'd have to dig so, ah. Their fortress must be set into the mountains themselves!

Realizing that makes you a little nervous. After all, you'd never really tried digging through that much stone before. Before your thoughts can crystallize into more worries, the armored Dramon lets out another terrifying roar and flies back up into the sky. Pidmon settles down to the ground beside you and waves towards the sky, where Angemon and the rest of his leaders squad are rapidly vanishing into the distance. The six-winged champion lets out a final goodbye of "Stay true and just for the Divine Lord!" before finally vanishing from sight and earshot.

Pidmon nods at the words, and then flashes you with a happy pearly white grin. Ardat waves at the group as well, though you doubt any of them were able to catch her goodbye.

Scratch wastes no time in leading your group up towards the nearby mountains, using the large piece of paper Angewomon had given him to navigate the squad's path. An hour of marching passes before he leads the party to a small cave barely five feet tall with a solid *X* carved just atop the mouth. Your sergeant transitions into *order mode* (Which honestly is barely any different from his usual tone), telling Ardat and Beat to scout the area while he and Pidmon set up camp. With that he turns to you, and gives an order that makes you grin.

As you expected, he tells you to start digging straight through the cave.

It's been… a while since you've last been able to just drift away and let your drills do the work. Heck, the last time you actually remember boring through the ground was before Count and Repulsa attacked.

You take to the opportunity to engage in your hobby with rapid fervor, rushing into the shallow cave on all fours and nearly banging your head on the marked wall at its back. Boring through solid stone had never been easy, but you'd more than doubled your strength and speed since the last time you'd attempted it. While it's still not exactly a leisurely endeavor, you manage to drill your way through the tough surface at speeds you'd previously considered absolutely impossible.

Getting lost in the simple motions is easy, and hours pass by in what feels like the blink of an eye. However, even as your muscles burn you push forward, hoping to just get a little bit more done before coming back-

-And slam to a halt as your nose hits something hard.

At first you think it must be a patch of harder rock or some sort of ore, but tearing away at the surrounding stone reveals something else entirely. Through the darkness your eyes make out a substance that is neither mineral nor crystal. It's some kind of darkly shaded wood.

Erm, spirits below! What this doing, down here?!

Curiosity piqued, you continue to break away the stone around the surface, revealing more and more of the round wooden structure. You think 'structure' because it certainly isn't a naturally formed bit of wickedly tough plant-matter.

The dull luster of the wood, like impure silver. The completely smooth edges, as if it had been carved and then laid into the very rock itself. The strange symbols plastered onto its surface, completely different from digimoji. The material's odd smoothness... it almost reminds you of a tree root, of all things, but you know that can't be true. Nothing natural like this exists in the digital world.

The flashing symbols, so similar to the alphabet you'd learned from Sorcerymon but slightly different in structure, flash a bright white. A sudden overwhelming impulse erupts from your core, screaming for you to dig through the wide and long structure, that it shouldn't hinder your ability to move on. For that singular moment, even more than you want to live or breathe, even more than you want revenge, you want to crack this thing open. It's almost as if a voice is in your head, whispering that your drills were constructed solely for this specific purpose, and that you shouldn't let this simple obstacle stop you.

With a roar of indignation you rush at the wood(?) with your nose and claws, ripping free mere splinters free with each hit but nonetheless making progress. Finally your nose plunges through the outer shell and into-

-Darkness.

===



Your eyes snap open with sudden panic as a will rips through your mind, commanding you to get up. The force pushes your body up, forcibly thrusting you onto to your hind legs. With a wild yelp of fear you spin around, looking at the surroundings, the pause as you realize where you are. What commands you aren't words, not really. Rather a force of pure will is shoving concepts directly against your mind, and making your body feel them. It's like being attacked by raw thought, by sheer, fundamental existence.

What-It can't be this-this is...

The grass of a slightly inclined hill tickle your feet, and your eyes look over the sight of a familiar forest.

This is where...Where I trained with Flamemon. How did I-

The burst of will forcibly pivots you an entire one hundred and eighty degrees until you're facing what should be a mountain range.

Only it's not there.

Instead of the short, spiky mountains of the Ragged Alps, an unfathomably large Tree rises up in the distance. Thicker and taller than any mountain your eyes had ever laid themselves upon, the smooth dark wood rises up into a Magnificent canopy, one wide enough to bear a thousand different cities with room to spare. The Great tree resides before you, and a sudden fear erupts from you core as you somehow realize that its attention is focused squarely on one Drimogemon. You've only felt like this only once before: when you hatched. You have no truly concrete memories of the first few days of your life, but this feeling of total vulnerability, of awe so great it's like physical pain, is exactly the same.

Pure unadulterated terror tears itself free from your core as a sudden pressure exerts itself on your body. Your eyes feel like they're going to pop out their sockets, as undesirable nausea fills your body. Thankfully after a few seconds it dies away as the will changes yet again.

You try to move, but invisible bindings take hold on your body, keeping you frozen in place. A scream tries to tear its way out of your throat, but like your straining muscles, it's kept in check. Dozens of tiny brown roots, squirming like tendrils, erupt from around feet and suddenly pierce into your flesh from all directions, worming their way inside your body. You can feel everything, every single shred of pain as they tear through your muscles and nerves, curl around your bones and dig up into your skull. Some ethereal thing pours into you, and it burns like venom being injected into your flesh. The will flashes again, this time booming from directly inside your mind.

===

-You let out a scream of agony and collapse, falling down onto the stone floor of the tunnel. You can't do anything but writhe around, whining and mewling. Pain wracks your whole body, and for a few tens of seconds it's all that your mind can comprehend. It takes a few minutes, but the sensation fades, letting data reach your remaining working eye once again.

I-I'm back?

With rapid blinks, you look at the surroundings viewing the few fragments of what had once been a blockage. Only, there isn't nearly enough debris resting on the ground. If you tore through the many thick feet of hardened artificial material there should be tons of debris. Yet, all that remains are a few tiny shards of material and a bit of dust. The rest of the *root* is still there on either side, but the arcane symbols that were once growing brightly are gone, leaving what now looks like normal wood.

The sheer wrongness of the situation makes you shudder.

I'm-I'm okay, that- I...That could have been-just been a dream yeah-yeah that-that could be it.

Still shivering and extremely sore (most of it not from the digging itself), you turn back the way you came and stumble back towards the camp. After spending the evening and who knows how much of the night digging, you're ready for a sleep. However, as much as you try to dismiss that vision, it sticks in your head, almost like it's intentionally being propped up in your memories. The odd twitching sensation in your muscles since it happened isn't helping matters either. It almost feels like your body is… settling after yet another change. Not that you seem to be any bigger this time around.

=== Do you tell Scratch about what happened? (Choose One)

[] Yes. Perhaps the Sergeant can help you figure out what the heck happened? Maybe he can at least help you confirm that it wasn't a fantasy?

[] No. Despite everything that's happened you can't say you fully trust Scratch, not like how you trust Sparks anyway. You'll keep this to yourself,

===Tomorrow: (Choose One)

[][Social Option] Try to talk to Scratch again. You're curious about what the heck happened between him and Angewomon. He's an ultimate too isn't he? Why did she act like that towards him?

[][Social Option] Talk to Sparks again, your friend seems to have recovered from what happened, and after what happened you kind of want to talk to him.

[][Social Option] Now that you've met Angemon, you have a better idea of why Pidmon is like… well, how he is. Maybe you could ask about how they met and why he wants to be like the bigger angel?

=== Stat/Skill Changes: (Strength Training)

• Strength: 228.75->232.50
• Fortitude: 196.00->198.50
• Endurance: 200.50->201.00
• Agility: 174.75
• Special: 171.50
• Spirit: 150.25

Digging: 22/100->23/100

=== Talent Changes: (Note: Previous progress Not lost)

Strength: E->E+ (2.5X)

Fortitude: E->E+ (2.5X)

Endurance: E->E+ (2.5X)

Agility: F++->F+++ (1.75X)

===

Authors Note: Well...That happened. Interesting note this mission had a 1 in 3 chance of being picked.

Also, Digging through the solid rock of a mountain will count as Strength Training.