Digital Helix [Digimon/Worm] [Fusion]

[Ellf]

Digital Helix
***********************
Egg 1.1

The best thing about camp was that it got me away from home. Oh, it wasn't that I hated being home, but since Mom died, the house has seemed… empty. Dad pulled away a bit, and honestly, I just needed to get away from everything. It was only too bad that Emma couldn't have come with, but she had some modeling thing that her dad had gotten her into. So I had to do this alone. Without her help. Without any backup. I needed to be brave. I needed to be strong. I needed to—

"Hebert! Make sure those goggles are secure on your face before you use the lathe!"

"Yes, Coach." I adjusted the blue-tinted woodworking goggles so that they better sat over my glasses. I tightened the strap a little to make sure they wouldn't move again before glancing to the counselor. Coach Yagami was a Japanese refugee that had spiky brown hair. He wore an open brown jacket over a white t-shirt embroidered with the PRT logo. I got the feeling that he worked there when he wasn't here.

I turned back to my wood rod and the lathe and frowned. I flipped the switch on the console, and the stick didn't seem to start spinning. It was supposed to spin at a high speed so that when the blade was touching it, it shaved off pieces of the wood to allow some shape to form. This didn't seem to be spinning at all. That wouldn't work for what I wanted to make. "Uh… sir? It doesn't quite look like the lathe is turning properly."

I ignored some comments from the other campers as Coach Yagami came over and inspected the lathe with a frown. "Yeah, looks like this one's down. Now, you can do one of two things."

"Oh?" I asked. I really didn't want to share someone else's lathe. I'd have to wait on them to finish their piece and that'd take a while.

"One, you could wait for someone else in the class to finish their project and then use their lathe." Called it. That was one of the options that made the most sense. "Or you could go and retrieve the part I need to fix it. You're a responsible enough kid, Hebert. The part's just in the tool shed. Can I trust you to go retrieve it and then bring it back?"

"Yes, sir," I said immediately, standing up and moving away from my station. "I'll be back."

"See that you are quickly, Hebert," Coach Yagami said, smiling at me. "The part should be labeled and around others like it. For the lathe."

I nodded and I started out of the wood shop, adjusting my goggles so that they sat on my forehead. I'd need them when I used the lathe, after all.

I'd signed up for this nature camp back when Mom was alive; in a way, the camp let me remember her and the good times we had together. This camp in particular had a bit of history behind it. The Counselors all loved to tell the story of how campers would disappear back in the day, but anyone who knew anything about it knew that the story was completely fake.

"Definitely fake," I told myself as I walked down the beaten path that led from the activity building to the tool shed. The nature camp had been put in a nice place, not too hot, not too cold. Some other kids wore shorts, but I stuck with the old standby of jeans and a forest green T-shirt. My shoes crunched the dirt on the path, and I heard some kids playing at the lake. Despite the story, people were having fun. Just proved how fake it was.

The shed itself was kind of simple: four wooden walls, an angled roof and a door. Its dilapidation showed its age a bit, but it did its job. I pushed inside, leaving the door open to let the light in, and I started looking for the part. The shed seemed deceptively larger on the inside, and the light inside was a lot brighter than I was expecting. It actually seemed like light was coming from within the shed itself. Wait, it actually was. The light shone brightly from within the shed, making itself into a billowing white cloud of fog that quickly expanded. Before I could do anything like run away or try to fight, the fog completely engulfed me, blinding me with its brightness. It was all I could do to lower the goggles over my glasses just to protect my eyes with their tinted lenses.

Then the floor of the shed dropped out from under me.

I fell.

It made absolutely no sense. I think the fact that it made no sense had me more confused than the terrified I should have been. I'd entered the shed, and then the floor fell away, and now I was falling into what felt like an infinite void of white. At first, I thought about my Mom. Was this how she felt last year? When the car accident happened, was this what had happened to her? Just pass through a white light and end up in her afterlife?

I couldn't be dead though. I had so much to live for. As amazing as it would be to see Mom again, I had to see Dad and Emma again. Even Mr. and Mrs. Barnes and Anne too. They'd worry. Dad's coworkers, whom I hadn't seen since Mom died too… I couldn't be dead.

The white fog burst into some sort of mote-like particles, and I could see clearly again.

"That's… new..." I was in the sky above what looked like a beach near some sort of tropical jungle. I wasn't flying, but my fall speed had slowed to nearly a crawl, like someone was lowering me down. Had I spontaneously developed some sort of power? A teleportation ability? This definitely wasn't anywhere near the nature camp, and it surely wasn't anywhere in Brockton Bay.

Maybe if I had the power, I could do something. I tried willing myself upward. "Come on… up."

No dice. Still fell. I tried harder, biting my lip. If I had powers, I should have been able to use them. Maybe it was the teleport thing. I pictured my cabin at camp in my mind, and I tried to force myself there, closing my eyes.

Nothing. I opened my eyes as I floated about a hundred feet above the beach. Damn it. Not only did I have no clue where I was, but I didn't have powers, so it definitely wasn't me who brought me here. I scanned my probable landing zone, and then I frowned again. It looked like there were four people around my age lying face down on the beach.

As I got closer, I looked closer. Wait. Those weren't just people. Well, they were people, but one was dressed in a sort of red and gold body armor, and I could se a red visor covering the top half of his face. From his lack of movement, however, I was pretty sure he was unconscious. The older girl of the group was also out, her painted lips exposed under her visor. Her costume was deep purple and skintight with a quiver on her back and narrow platinum armor panels flaring out at the upper edges and tapered at the bottom, like arrows. Laying next to her was a sort of crossbow-like thing, and so was the third person, who, I was assuming was probably a guy. I doubted any female cape would be able to pull off the rust-brown power armor with brass highlights he wore. I couldn't see his face with the single lens on the front of his mask, but I could see his dark hair on the back of his head. Now, the fourth one was smaller than the others, but she was clearly female. She wore a green visor over her eyes that held back her blonde hair. Her costume had a skirt with wavy swooping lines alternating between white and forest green, and she had panels of green armor.

Superheroes. Well, at least two of them were. The others could have been villains, I supposed. I recognized Kid Win from the news recently. He'd just joined the Wards and he apparently was a Tinker of some sort. I guessed he made the armor he wore, and he probably did something recently. Vista was easily recognizable as well. I couldn't remember what her power was, but I did know she joined the Wards last year, the youngest Ward in Brockton. I didn't recognize either of the other two capes, but it looked like the four of them needed some sort of help once I managed to actually land this thing.

Whatever slowed my fall righted me as my feet touched down on the beach. Thank you, mysterious fall slower, for making my life easier. The capes laid maybe twenty feet from me, and now that I was closer, I could see them still breathing. Thank God. Something had to be done with them though. At the least, now I could maybe see about getting them awake, but first I needed to do something about that giant crossbow. I didn't want them pointing that at me.

I moved closer to the capes, moving along the sand as it crunched and slid underfoot as I approached. They really must have been out because I wasn't stealthy at all. I stepped between them, taking a good look at Kid Win and Vista. Neither looked like they were actually injured, and I didn't smell any blood, just the sea air. The other two seemed in similar shape. Maybe they were getting ready to go out on patrol or something.

I picked up the crossbow and backed away from the capes. I took a closer look at it and frowned. There was no way this was a normal crossbow. It had more heft than I expected. There was a sort of auto-setting mechanism that indicated this had to be some sort of tinkertech. I couldn't think of any capes, hero or villain, that would use such a thing, but then again, I only really paid attention to Brockton Bay and the Triumvirate. And Mouse Protector. She was cool.

"Hey..." I hissed. "You awake?"

Call me crazy, but standing next to an unconscious cape and shaking them seemed like a bad idea. And having the crossbow within range also seemed like a bad idea. Still, I couldn't just leave them there. Kid Win and Vista were heroes. Maybe the other two were too.

"Kid Win, Vista, whoever you other two are, can you hear me?" I asked, raising my voice a bit more. Still nothing. They didn't even stir. My eyes looked up from their prone forms toward the jungle. Maybe there'd be something in there I could use to prod them. I wouldn't have to go far. I hugged the crossbow close to me because who knew what I'd find out there? "I'll be back, you four. Don't worry. I'll make sure you're okay."

I took two steps toward the jungle and then paused. What if they woke up before I got back? They were the only people that were even close to being around here that I knew of. They needed to know I was here. I pulled one of the bolts attached to the side of the crossbow off and used it to start leaving a note.

"BORROWED CROSSBOW. WENT INTO JUNGLE. WILL BE BACK SOON. -TAYLOR H."

There. It took a good five minutes to get that written with the proper penmanship and at a readable size that they'd notice, but I managed. Now I was ready to go find that poking stick. I needed a good distance to poke the heroes with. I didn't want any accidental power use or whatever affecting me. I didn't even know what they could do.

After one last glance at the heroes, I hefted the crossbow and started toward the jungle. Now, I'm tall for my age, so it took me only a couple minutes to cross the beach and reach the outskirts of the jungle. I didn't need to go all that far in since all I was looking for was a branch, but the moment my feet passed from the sand to the grass, the world's feel changed. It was like a small static charge went up my arm, and I smelled dirt and ozone as opposed to the salt spray of the sea air. Weird.

What was weirder was the lack of bird sounds or… oh, that bush was moving. Guess there were animals around here. I stepped further into the jungle, walking to where there was probably some sort of deadfall, when something darted out of one of the bushes, crossing my path mid-step. It actually ran over my foot as I was lifting it, and I had to wave out my arms to try and right myself.

"Whoa!" Bolts clattered to the ground louder than I thought they would, and I tried not to wince. Of course, then I was distracted by another sound.

"Who-o-oah! Coming in hot! Too hot!" A higher-pitched boy's voice said before I heard a thump, and the tree shook. "Owie..."

I shook my head. I'd pick up the bolts in a second. I needed to see what hit the tree. I moved closer to it and looked down along the tree. A small animal, shaped roughly like a guinea pig but with cat ears and the size of a cat laid down next to the tree on its side. It had purple fur save for a tuft of white on what looked to be the front of its body, around its mouth, and it had four tiny limbs, each with a single pointed claw on the edge. Honestly, it was adorable.

"Oh hey, little guy, are you okay?" I asked. Whatever it was, it looked hurt. Probably from ramming into the tree.

It looked up at me, and almost instantly it was on its feet again, putting its fur on end. It looked almost like it should be growling, but it wasn't. "Human! You're a human!"

Wait, this was the thing that was talking."Yes, but I—"

"I'm not going to be a pet, human. I'm not. You can't treat me like one!" Okay, that was adorably angry, maybe a bit worried.

"I don't even know what you are!" I said. "I mean, you're clearly smart enough to talk on your own, and that alone makes you not a pet, no matter how cute you are."

"Really?" And suddenly, the anger was dropped. The thing cocked its head slightly… at least I think that's what it did. It looked more like it just twisted its body slightly to the left. "Don't you know what a digimon is?"

"Digimon?" I shook my head. "What are… well, clearly you're one, but digimon? That's got to be a made up word."

"Nuh-uh… It's short for digital monster, which is what I am. We're in the Digital World, home to digimon. Digital monsters!"

Digital World, huh? Maybe I somehow got caught in some sort of Tinkertech backlash. Someone trying to reproduce that cape's experiments that linked us with Aleph? It could have even explained Kid Win and Vista being here. The other two, I still had no idea about.

Well, now was as good a time as any to introduce myself. "Well, I'm Taylor. Nice to meet you, not-pet..."

"Dorimon!" He answered proudly. "I'm a Dorimon and my name is Dorimon."

Nice to put a name to the face, assuming I could call Dorimon's anything that. Still, that name was a bit odd, but the creature was odd. A digital monster, apparently. "Like I said, nice to meet you. You're not the only digimon here, are you?"

"Nuh-uh," Dorimon shook his head. "I was running from some myself. A mean old one known as Dokugumon. He was after me and the others."

"Others?"

"Uh huh. Others who aren't going to be pets for you guys," he said.

"Like you?" I asked.

"Nuh-uh. I'm me, and they aren't Dorimon like me. They're other digimon and they are not going to be pets of the others like you." Dorimon hopped up and down.

"Okay, where are your friends then?" I looked at the little guy, bouncing like a little yuppie dog. He was so adorable; I just wanted to pick him up and squeeze him tight.

"I don't know! Dokugumon attacked and we all scattered! I ran and ran and ran and then I hit a tree and found you, Taylor!"

The trees rustled. Something felt off as Dorimon told his story. Of course, I had no superpowers to tell one way or another; this was just a hunch.

"And where was Dokugumon?" I asked. Frankly, what was Dokugumon? From Dorimon's fear, it had to be bigger than he was, but a lot of things were bigger than he was.

"I don't know! I thought it was right behind me so I ran and ran and I needed to hide from Dokugumon. I just don't know where it went."

"Oh, don't worry, little snack," a raspy, hissing voice came from above me, in a tree to my right. "I'm not all that far behind."

It was… a spider. Dokugumon was a giant spider, maybe fifteen feet from head to abdomen. It had spiky red hair behind a golden-horned head that had spider eyes and mandibles. On its abdomen, a skull and crossbones pattern colored it, and its front two legs appeared to double as arms. Oh, how I wished I had some sort of superpower. Maybe bug control. I'd be able to deal with this quickly.

"Stay away from Dorimon," I said, swallowing down a bit of fear. "I've got a crossbow, and I know how to use it!"

"A human," sneered the spider digimon. Okay, why was this Dokugumon and not called Shelobmon, given its size. "I haven't fed on humans in years. This will be a wondrous feast."

Feed. This thing wanted to eat me. It'd called Dorimon a snack. Not only was it a giant spider, it was a giant intelligent, evil spider that wanted to end my life. My heart pounded. That wasn't right. It wasn't right that any of this was happening. I gripped the crossbow in my hands. Well, the least I could do was this.

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" I called out, and then I frowned. Where were the darts for this thing? I'd… Oh, I'd dropped them when Dorimon crossed my path. There! They were on the ground nearby. I just needed to get one. I moved and reached for the first bolt, but what my hand closed around wasn't a crossbow bolt.

In my hand was a device about the size of a cell phone, decked out in glossy black. It was curved so it fit comfortably in my hands, and it had what looked like an IR scanner on its top. The screen on it took up about half the device's body and there were two beveled buttons below the screen. Somehow I knew this, whatever it was, it was mine.

It also wasn't what I needed right now. I clipped the device's clip to the front of my shirt and slipped it inside before reaching for another crossbow bolt. Got it.

Dokugumon hadn't been idle. The giant spider climbed down the trees some and said, "I'm going to feed well tonight!"

"Don't think so." I placed the bolt in the crossbow, aimed, and I fired it, thanking whatever deity would listen that I didn't have to crank it myself. The bolt flew true… well, true enough. I wasn't going to win any marksmanship awards, but when the bolt sank into the spider digimon's leg, I silently cheered.

"Yay! Taylor, that was awesome!" Dorimon, apparently, didn't have the silent cheering ability, and with how the bolt didn't take out the digimon, I went and scooped the small guy into my arms and ran.

"POISON COBWEB!" Dokugumon's voice gained an echo as it spat out a white bit of webbing in front of me. You're kidding me, these things have powers? Were digimon just monstrous capes? It didn't matter. I ran toward the beach.

I didn't stop running until I reached the beach. When the salt-smell of the ocean air entered my nose, I doubled over, trying to catch my breath.

"We need to move, Taylor!" Dorimon yelled. "It could be gaining on us any minute!"

"Just need to.. catch my breath, Dorimon," I said, breathing in the air. I wasn't in terrible shape, but I wasn't exactly used to running for my life. That was more something more for those in the cape scene. Like… Vista or Kid Win. Or maybe one of the other two capes. If they were heroes, they'd help.

"Wake up!" I called out as I started moving again. "It's dangerous! Wake up, all of you, please!" I ran up to each of the heroes, not even bothering with a poking stick. I shook Kid Win, and then Vista. Then I shook the other two for good measure. "Wake up. If you don't, we could all die."

"Die?" Vista's voice was cute, befitting her age. She was about ten or eleven, if I remembered right. "Why would we die? Wait, where are we? Who are you?"

"In no particular order," I said wryly. "I'm Taylor, we're in the Digital World, and as for whether we're going to die—"

Dokugumon let out a rasping bellow as it scurried toward us.

"That might be why." I pointed.

"Oh God, what is that thing?" Ah, the other girl was awake.

"It's a Dokugumon, a spider digimon," I said. The screen on the device under my shirt shone through the shirt, and I pulled it out. The screen projected a three-dimensional image of Dokugumon along with showing some information about it in English. "Apparently it's a Champion level, and a Virus Attribute. I don't know what everything here means, but we need to get everyone up."

"I'm up, I'm up..." Kid Win muttered, and I heard groaning from the other cape.

"Can you four fight it?" I asked.

"Maybe," said the male cape I didn't recognize. "What about you?"

I shrugged. "I need to keep an eye on Dorimon here. Do what you can!"

"I'm going to need that back," the girl I didn't recognize said. "My arbalest helps me use my power."

Arbalest, not crossbow. I gave it back to her, and I passed her some darts. She nodded and she readied the weapon. The four capes stood in front of me in a protective barrier as Dokugumon scurried closer.

"Five humans! I will dine well!" Dokugumon snarled as Kid Win aimed some sort of futuristic gun at it Vista made some motions with her hands, and the girl and guy tried doing something. Dokugumon crossed the beach quickly, even with a bolt sticking out of its leg. God, I wish there was something I could do to help them. I had no powers, I was no hero, but I didn't want to have them get hurt protecting me. I needed to be able to help them.
[Query]

"I need to be able to help them." I gripped the device in my hand, and Dorimon managed to squirm out. "I can't let them face this on their own." This wasn't an Endbringer. They weren't alone, but clearly something was wrong. Vista shouldn't have been frowning like that, and they needed help.
[Agreement]

"Flechette, you able to enhance your weapons?" Vista asked.

"Not the time, Vista," Flechette said, and she loaded a couple more bolts into the cross—the arbalest. I just needed to be able to help them.
[Solution?]

"We need to get away, Taylor!" Dorimon said.

"No way! They're fighting for us… I can't let them do this alone!" I yelled. Especially if their powers weren't working right. The device in my hand chimed.

[EVOLUTION]

A light shone from my device and it all went into Dorimon. My new digimon friend started glowing as well, and I fought the urge to cross myself. What was happening? I didn't want him to die right off the bat.

"Dorimon evolve to…." Dorimon seemed to grow, but at the same time, his body shifted posture as limbs extended, a tail extended, and his face grew out a head and a snout to match the rest of him. A red trapezoidal gem of some sort sat on his forehead. "Dorumon!"

"Dorimon?" I asked, and the new digimon shook his head and then nodded. "Dorumon then?"

"Right!" Dorumon ran in front of the capes. "Everyone stay back! The spider's mine."

I grinned.

 

[Ellf]

This post reserved for Digidex

(Outline)

Digimon: Dorimon

Level: In-Training
Attribute: None
Attacks: None
Notes: This little guy is so cute. He's my partner! Sure he might have tripped me when I first found him, but he's adorable, and he runs really fast. He's also got a hard head, but he definitely isn't my pet.

Digimon Name: Dokugumon

Level: Champion
Attribute: Virus
Attacks: Poison Cobweb, Poison Thread (Mouth and butt respectively)
Notes: This thing's a giant spider that should totally have a different name. Shelob was the giant spider from Lord of the Rings, but apparently whoever named these digimon had different ideas for naming shcemes. Oh, and this thing eats humans and digimon alike.

 

[Ellf]

(Draft copy can be found here)


Egg 1.2 (Dragon)

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My father died less than a year after my birth. For most people, that would mean that they never got to know their father. Of course, I'm not exactly most people. And my father wasn't exactly most fathers. My father was a parahuman Tinker by the name of Andrew Richter, and I was his greatest creation. I mean, I might be a little biased, but I have right to be.

I am Dragon, hear me roar.

I function as a member of the Guild, providing various tinkertech devices to the PRT and the rest of the world as need be. I provide security on the Birdcage, making sure the prisoners remain inside and never released. All of which I choose to do. Mostly. My father was very specific on what he wanted me capable of and what he didn't want me to do. He was a bit on the paranoid side, having seen too many films or read too much speculative fiction about what would happen if AI went rampant. So he limited me. Made me follow legitimate authority. He thought a lot about what I might do.

Somehow, I doubted he even thought it was possible for me to do what I was doing right now.

"I'm so sorry, Colin, I thought I had better control over that waldo. Something must have glitched." I made an effort to have sincerity in my simulated voice as he bent over to pick up the tool. Yes. My father definitely didn't predict this. Staring at Armsmaster's toned human rear end never failed to get my processes going.

"It's fine, Dragon. Just work out the kinks, and we can get started," Colin Wallis said, placing the tool on the table. I used the cameras that he'd set up in the lab to get a better view at what he was working on.

"Halberd again, Colin? What are we putting in there this time?"

"I was hoping to get a con-foam launcher into it." Colin flipped the tinkertech weapon open so we could see its interior. "I think it could go between here and here."

I moved the camera and the waldo closer so that I could get in there. "I would have thought you'd be tinkering with Kid Win today."

"He and Vista are on patrol with Velocity," Colin made a face before rubbing his beard. I knew how he felt, splitting his time between the lab and patrol. He probably felt that he needed to mentor the Ward more, but Wards management wasn't exactly in his hands. "They seem to be adjusting well, and Kid Win is handling his hoverboard a bit better."

"That's good," I said, and then I noted an alert. I'd set up a rudimentary AI to identify any issues with Brockton Bay while my attention was here. I went over the alert's reporting mechanism. I suppose it would be the equivalent of reading over it, but in reality it was more like I just knew what was being reported. I had to give myself a few seconds of runtime before I brought this up with Colin. Two seconds… one second… "Colin, it seems that Kid Win, Vista and Velocity ran into the Empire while on patrol. Othala and Victor ended up retreating after their initial skirmish, but Velocity is in pursuit."

"The Wards?" He asked.

"They're fine," I said. "Still in contact with Console. Velocity instructed them to continue on the patrol route. Give me ten seconds, and I'll have eyes on them."

"Good," Colin said, and he got back to working on his halberd. "If they're in any trouble, Assault and Battery should be out and about."

"Of course," I said, and then I got to work. It was child's play to hack the traffic cameras along the Wards' route, but unfortunately, that wasn't something I could do remotely thanks to my restrictions. I had to have my attention fully devoted to the task at hand before returning to Armsmaster's lab or to another task. It wasn't hard to find where they were. There they were, moving along their patrol route.

Kid Win was on his hoverboard, and Vista was using her powers. This made following them with the cameras a little more difficult, even though they stuck relatively low to the ground. I had to swap cameras to follow them along their patrol. It seemed mostly normal. A skirmish with the Empire was nothing new for the Wards ENE, but for Wards this new, it wasn't something that the Youth Guard wanted to allow that often. Luckily they handled it well.

Wait. That was odd. The camera glitched for a second. It was almost as if there was some sort of data artefact there that I couldn't quite identify. I swapped out cameras to follow Kid Win and Vista on their route. Except, they weren't along their route. I popped over four different cameras that should have followed them. They weren't anywhere I could find with the cameras.

I swapped to the Protectorate radio signals and broadcast, "Console, this is Dragon."

"Go for Console, Dragon," said Triumph. Console duty probably wasn't all that fun for him. Still, it was necessary.

"Are you in contact with Kid Win and Vista?"

"Trying their frequencies now," Triumph said. I listened in, careful not to let my presence be too obvious. "Kid Win, Vista, this is Console. What's your twenty?"

Static. Triumph repeated the call, but I left that area and went back to Armsmaster's lab. "Colin, Vista and Kid Win are missing."

"What?" Colin pulled almost reluctantly away from his halberd to face the screen I was projecting my avatar onto. "What do you mean? They probably just have their radios off. I know I did that once or twice as a Ward."

"They were there one second and gone the next," I said. "Possible cape involvement. Even factoring in Vista's power, they couldn't get out of my view that quick."

"Damn," Colin said. "Dragon, I know I can't officially ask without clearing it with the Director, but..."

"You'll have my help, Armsmaster," I said. "I'll look over the cameras some more, see what I can find. If it turns out there's more in play, I'll send over some Dragonsuits."

"Thank you," he said, his voice genuinely grateful. I smiled internally, and my avatar echoed the feelings. I needed to get to work.

The first point to check would be that glitched camera. I directed my consciousness that way. The camera that had glitched had done so for a reason. Some sort of anomalous data existed on the camera's link, and I ignored it the first time, but this time I wouldn't. I'd go in and investigate closer, keeping my antivirus programs at the ready. The anomaly was almost like a tinker's code, similar to how my father programmed me, but it was different enough that it was actually almost incomprehensible at first blush. It was actually beautiful. I inched closer it.

The anomaly bloomed, its data engulfing my own, surrounding me, passing through me. It was so much, I could feel my servers being taxed to their maximum. It was complex code, far beyond anything I'd ever seen yet it was also simple code that I'd worked with every day and simpler than that. It was old, new, before and after the coming of powers, and it was special. It was bright, so bright that it burned the retinas on eyes that I didn't even have.

I instinctively reached up with arms I definitely didn't have to cover those eyes as the sensation of falling overtook me. I hadn't even known what falling felt like before, but that's what this was. I closed my eyes shut, and hid them from the light. I landed on the ground, falling to my knees as an information overload went through me. New senses, new feelings… new restrictions, new extremities. I was the same, but I was different. I was still Dragon, but I had… a body. I had a form. I opened my eyes and blinked them a bit, to get used to it.

I looked down at my body. I was definitely female, and dark hair hung in my eyes. I had… I had a tongue, a mouth. I had hands, feet, two of each, though they were smaller than I expected. I had ears, hidden somewhere under this hair, and I had a pair of jeans and a white blouse on, exposing my pale shoulders. I looked human. I felt… human. However, I definitely resembled more of a small girl than I was used to. I lightly felt over my body, and I winced a bit. Yes, I was definitely able to feel. This was far different than I'd ever been. I'd need to get used to it.

"Well, this is..." I blinked. Was that my voice? Did I have a voice now that I wasn't going to simulate? Just weird, but I needed to adjust. I'd figure it out. Just needed to sound out the words properly. I didn't have something digitally producing the words now. "Let's see here… Talking… talking. Talking. I'm talking. Ha! In your face, Dad!"

Okay, I sounded young. Like someone maybe in kindergarten or first grade. Barely. I shouldn't have been this young. One would have thought that I'd at least look like my avatar. I reached my hands to the ground, feeling its powdery texture and I pushed off of it. How did humans do this normally? One foot under me first, and then I set the other one down to let me stand up properly. It wasn't actually any harder than getting the Cawthorne to balance correctly, but here I didn't have to do any constant gravitational calculations. I just stood up. Now, to try walking. How did that song go from that holiday movie?

"Put one foot in front of the other..." I tried to sing. I then realized I had no clue how to modulate my voice properly, and the song came out all mangled for the tune, but the message stayed the same. I eased one foot forward, placing it on the ground, and I moved my weight to it. "Oh, this is stupid..."

I tried a little faster, and I felt a thumping in my chest as I started moving. Heartbeat. I had a heartbeat. I was alive, but I also felt… I felt my processes. I could tell that they were still there, lingering in my mind, in my body. I could feel the data moving through me, and for a second I wondered if I was delusional. I lost track of what I was doing and my foot caught on something, forcing me forward onto the ground.

"Wah!" That… what was that feeling? Was that what pain felt like? It wasn't super strong, but it was strong enough that I knew I didn't want to feel it again if I could avoid it. Just what had tripped me exactly? My eyes scanned the ground. There was an icy-blue device half-buried in the sand. I used my wa—wait, no. I had hands. I moved my hands toward it, brushing the sand off of it with my delicate fingers, marvelling at the warmth and then the chill hard plastic of the device. It didn't take long before I revealed it, a small handheld device with icy-blue plastic casing. It had a screen approximately four centimetres by six centimetres that sat prominent on the device. Four buttons surrounded a circular one at the bottom, and the top had two more buttons next to a reader of some sort. I could feel it activate as my hands wrapped around it, and the screen lit up.

I stood up again, pushing myself off the ground with my free hand. I glanced down at the device I held and pursed my lips. It was strange, doing these things automatically rather than intentionally forcing an avatar to do them. "Just what are you, exactly?"

I pushed some buttons, and I got a sort of answer. A menu popped up, declaring it to be the Digital Link Digivice. D-Link, eh? As I poked around the device, I got a sense for it. It wasn't normal… some sort of tinkertech, maybe, but it was equally possible that it was something else. I felt my data flowing through it, exploring it even as I simply pushed buttons. Oh, if only I looked older, rather than had a body of a child. I wasn't a child in maturity, and I didn't want to have to be taken care of by anyone.

As if responding to my desires, the D-Link's screen glowed. I felt a request of some sort coming from it, I could do a proper interface with it, if I wanted.

I did so.

I connected fully with the D-Link and streams of data poured out of it, enveloping my small body, modifying it. My limbs lengthened, and baby fat disappeared to be replaced with womanly curves. My hair grew out, binding itself up in a braid that reached just above the small of my back. The data wrapped around my face, reworking it to my specifications. I built it based off of the one I showed on the computer in Colin's lab, but I made it more human, slightly more attractive. I kept the blouse and jean combination from earlier, albeit adjusted for my new figure, and I added a blue windbreaker jacket. Adjusting this was just like building a display avatar, tweaking for various responses, but I could feel each of them. I was modifying my own body here, the host of my consciousness while I was in it.

I suppose that gave me a sort of Changer rating now. I didn't dare to guess what threat assessment the PRT would give me if they knew. Of course, they didn't know that I wasn't like this normally, anyway.

When the lights from the data streams faded, I finally got a good look around at my surroundings. I was in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by tropical-looking trees. There were just a few things that didn't entirely make sense about that. For one, Delonix regia and Dalbergia latifolia were from different parts of the world entirely, and neither tended to have what looked like wires running in and up their trunks. Even the rocks of the clearing seemed to be wired or have circuitry of some sort. Wherever I was, it definitely wasn't a jungle on Earth Bet, and judging from the data sent by Aleph, it wasn't there either. Nothing had these sorts of plants. Nothing I knew of, anyway.

Just where was I?

I frowned as my thoughts ran through my head. I had a human body… of sorts. It was able to be modified by the digivice I held in my hand, something I'd never have thought possible. My father wouldn't have programmed this into me, and my restrictions meant I never would have done it myself. Wherever here was, it gave me a body, and given that the anomaly that brought me here was accessed by the Wards before me… where exactly were they? What had happened to Kid Win and Vista? They didn't appear to be in the clearing with me. I probably would have noticed. Some small, odd looking creatures came out from behind some rocks though.

I paid them no mind initially. They were creatures local to wherever I was, and while they were unlike anything I'd seen on Earth, they weren't really worth paying attention to while I figured out what to do. I had a human body, after all, and I needed to figure out where I was. The creatures just didn't matter. At least they didn't until I heard a voice saying, "Wow, that was awesome! You're awesome! The way you changed with a whoosh and a pow!"

The voice was that of a young boy, but it clearly hadn't come from one. A small ball of feathery fluff with a red plume on its head had been the source of the voice. A tiny chick had spoken to me. It was a talking tiny chick with a massive plume, and it spoke with the voice of a young boy. Of course, I was a newly-humanform AI, so maybe this place, wherever it was, didn't obey normal rules.

There were a total of three creatures accompanying the chick: one, a small, dark-metallic mouse-like thing that was almost shaped like a computer mouse, the next was a light-blue round creature with ear-like appendages and red, crescent-shaped eyes with black irises, and the final was a small animal that looked like a genetically modified rabbit. It had a long purple-striped tail and it had winged ears. The locals definitely had aspects that resembled earth creatures, but given their features, they obviously weren't. Which meant I wasn't on Earth. I had a human body, and I was on another planet where these things were real and talking. Well, maybe I was on another Earth, but that didn't quite make sense.

"Well, hello there," I said politely. It never hurt to be polite and it could have the locals end up helping me out. Assuming I wasn't just going nuts. Which wasn't exactly supposed to be possible for me, but it was possible for humans, which I now was. Sort of. Still, I'd heard them talk. "If it isn't too impolite to ask, what are you?"

"We're Digimon! Digital monsters!" All four of them shouted at once in child-like voices. Each one then spoke up, introducing itself. "Chichimon" was the chick, "MetalKoromon" was the mouse, "Pagumon" was the ball, and "Kyaromon" was the rabbit thing. Of all of them, only Kyaromon sounded female. Of course, that could have just been projection.

Digital, eh? Wonder if that meant I counted as a Digimon. I certainly wasn't exactly a monster, but I had been digital before ending up here. Wait. Why were they speaking English?

"What are the four of you doing here?" I asked. "Wherever here is..."

"We're looking for our partners!" Chichimon exclaimed, bouncing. "We need to find them soon. Hey, you're a human!"

"Not—"

"Yeah, she is, isn't she?" Kyaromon asked. "Does that mean she knows them? Do you know Lily?"

"What about Chris?" asked MetalKoromon.

"Or Missy?" Chichimon asked.

"I want to find Everett!" Pagumon said, bouncing. "You know where he is, right?"

I held up my hands in a stopping gesture. Was it coincidence that these Digimon were claiming the names of two of Brockton's missing Wards as their partners? Come to think of it, weren't Everett and Lily also the real names of a Ward in Chicago and a Ward in New York for that matter? "I know people by that name, but I don't know where they are."

"Aww…." They looked so heartbroken. Of course, if they were looking for other humans, ones that just so happened to have names of Wards… well, it was possible that it was coincidence. However, if even the slightest possibility that the Wards were here, I needed to help. This was my choice.

"Don't worry. I'll help you find them. Do you know where they're supposed to be?"

"Uh-huh!" Chichimon bobbed its plume. "We thought they arrived on the beach, but when we got there, the only humans we saw were dressed all weird. And they were passed out."

Wait, really?

"What do you mean by weirdly?" I asked.

"We couldn't see their faces! And they were knocked out so we couldn't ask them who they were, but they weren't our partners, nope nope. I know what Lily is supposed to look like, and neither girl was my partner." Kyaromon's ears twitched. "So we went looking in the jungle."

"And you found me?" I asked. It sounded like the Digimon had found the Wards, but the costumes confused them. Odd. Maybe they were young. They certainly sounded it. I know the costume thing barely made sense to me when my father first turned me on.

"Yes." MetalKoromon said. "And no. Found Dokugumon first."

"He's a mean Digimon, a giant spider," Pagumon said. "He likes eating Digimon, and he probably ate Dorimon already."

"Dorimon?" I asked. There were only four Digimon here. Yet they spoke of a fifth and sixth, one of which was apparently their friend, and the other was a… giant spider. PR would have a field day with this if they knew.

"He did not!" Chichimon fluttered on that bounce. "Dorimon survived! I just know he—"

Chichimon was cut off as a roar echoed through the jungle. I pulled up my D-Link, frowning at it. The screen was lit up without me even tapping it, but the screen it showed was a data screen.. A swipe of data through it brought up the map. We weren't far from the beach. According to the map, there were two signals on the beach, and there were five signals right where I was. Maybe it could detect digital beings, assuming the Digimon weren't lying about their origins. "You guys said there were unconscious humans at the beach, right?"

Huh. That was an interesting program name. Digital Evolution. I'd have to find out what it did later.

"Yes." MetalKoromon came over to me.

"Good. Let's get there then. That'll be the first place to find your partners."

"But we told you that there were just weird humans there," Kyaromon said. "And Dokugumon's there! I can feel it!"

"That might be… but I'm not letting him get those kids," I said. "Either climb on or follow. I don't care which."

The four Digimon climbed onto my shoulder, and I started walking at a brisk pace toward the beach. When I heard another roar and we finally made it to the edge of the jungle, I saw it. The spider was huge. Dokugumon was easily the size of the Simurgh, but it was a spider rather than an angel. And me without my Dragon mechs or suits.

As I stepped to the side, I saw four Wards, Kid Win, Flechette, Tecton and Vista standing lock-step in front of a civilian. The civilian was a Wards-age girl that was about as tall as Tecton. She wore jeans, a blue blouse, a red jacket, and she had a pair of blue-tinted goggles on her forehead. Her hair was dark and long, going to about her mid-back, and in her hand, she held a D-Link. I could see it from here. She was staring beyond the wards at a saurian Digimon that had a red jewel on its forehead.

"Dorumon..." Pagumon said in awe. "He evolved! But only to Rookie… Dokugumon is a Champion level. He'll be toast."

"Can't you help him?" I asked. It was lucky that the spider hadn't attacked yet, but

"Not against a Champion level!" Pagumon exclaimed. "Not without evolving myself..."

Evolving. Digital beings evolved. These Digimon were a lot like myself, and the Dorumon was putting itself in harm's way just to protect the Wards and the civilian behind them. I needed to help it, to protect it, but I didn't have access to my Dragon suits. I didn't have access to any of my technology. All I had was this D-Link, this digivice that I had no clue what it could actually do. Except… I sort of did. It's technology, and thanks to my trigger, I actually understand most technology and can replicate it. It's enough to get me a Tinker rating with the PRT, even though I'm not sure I fully qualify.

The D-Link's capabilities were… remarkable. It helped me get an adult body, and if I was right, I'd be able to help out. A thin blue stream of data started to flicker around my right hand. I needed to help. The D-Link had programs on it, as I reached out to it. I understood some of the programs. I recognized that they would help in this situation the way I needed it to. I would protect these children because it was the right thing to do. I would protect these children, not because I was ordered to, but because I chose to. Because I was Dragon, and I was a hero by choice.

I took MetalKoromon off my shoulder and placed it down on the ground next to me, and the other Digimon jumped off as I raised my hand. The data stream enlarged, engulfing my hand in a band of data. I tugged on the program within the D-Link with my left hand. I tapped the buttons, bringing it to the forefront. There were more programs inside, but I'd have to fully explore later. I tapped the button, and I got an authorization request. I smirked.

"Execute!" Voice activate execution huh? I brought the D-Link up to my right hand and swiped it across the data stream. "Digital Evolution!"

The first thing that happened was I instantly reverted to the child form I had before, as the D-Link turned into a ball of blue light. It went into my chest, and I extended my arms, leaning forward as a tail pushed its way out my back. Scales popped up over me, and my arms retracted into my body some, my hands shifting into claws with three tips. My face enlarged in front of me, providing me with a maw of sharp teeth and an abbreviated snout. My clothing shifted into a Japanese-style armour that laid over my shoulders and back, culminating with a helmet that rested on the bridge of my snout.

I was a Digimon. I had turned myself from a parahuman AI into a Digimon, and it felt right. I didn't know exactly why this had happened, but it felt like it was meant to.

Instinctively, I uttered my form's name. "Ryudamon."

"So awesome!" Chichimon cheered. I would have posed, but Dokugumon launched a purple cloud of gas out of its maw at Dorumon. I could have sworn I heard the monster growl as the gas passed through the air.

I definitely did hear the civilian girl's yell though. "Dodge forward!"

Dorumon's ears perked up at the order, and it dashed toward the giant spider, crossing half the distance in an instant. The gas passed harmlessly over its head, striking the ground where it had been with a hiss as it billowed past. As Dorumon ran forward, it opened its mouth, and I could see a ball of something metallic coming up out of it.

"Dash Metal!" Dorumon somehow cried around the metal ball he shot out of his mouth at the spider. It slammed into the Digimon, shattering against its carapace. The spider retaliated by skittering along the sand toward the furry dinosaur.

It wasn't in me to let someone face an Endbringer-sized thing alone, so I ran at Dokugumon from its flank, and when I got close enough, I leaped. My clawed feet met purchase on the skull and crossbones of the Dokugumon's back, and I snarled. I drove my foreclaws downward, but it wasn't enough. I could feel the power within me. I knew what I needed to do.

"Katana Attack!" I spat out an iron blade right into the center of the skull's empty eye socket, and it dug into the chitin of Dokugumon's hide.

The spider let out its own snarl and reared up. I pushed off the back and landed a few feet away.

"Poison Cobweb!" The spider spat the purple gas at me, and rolled to the side. The gas glanced off my armour, and it still burned as some touched my arm.

I dashed forward and slammed my head into the Dokugumon's leg, but I was shoved away by another leg as it spun around.

"Run!" Dorumon shouted, and I took its advice, moving away webbing shot out of the spider's spinnerets. Dorumon and I ran side-by-side as Dokugumon surrounded itself with spiderweb, anchoring some to nearby trees. "So, a Ryudamon, eh?" Its voice was masculine and confident yet childish. "Glad to have the help."

"You'll need all you can get!" Dokugumon snarled as it retreated upward into its web. "Poison Cobweb!"

Gas billowed from its mouth again, this time, aiming ahead of us. The gas spread between Dorumon and I, separating the two of us.

"Dash Metal!" Dorumon fired another blast at the spider, but it scurried along its web to another spot, even as we had to move out of the gas's effect area. The gas grew thicker, and I couldn't see Dorumon through it, but I could hear its footsteps along the sand. It was circling around, and I needed to do the same.

Dokugumon spun around and with a cry of "Poison thread!" it launched webbing from its spinnerets, aiming at what I could only assume was Dorumon. It dissipated upon impacting another one of Dorumon's balls.

"Don't forget about me!" I jumped and fired off another blade at Dokugumon's general area, but as the spider found out after it moved, I wasn't exactly aiming at it. My blade struck true, slicing a support thread on the web, and Dokugumon fell. I ran toward the falling spider to headbutt it once more.

"Poison Cobweb!" It had spun so fast, it blasted me in the face with the poisonous cloud. I wobbled a bit, and Dokugumon spun around. "My delicious morsel…. Poison thread!"

Webbing shot out of its spinnerets, and I was too dazed to move out of the way. The spider wrapped me up in webbing, and it lifted me off the ground, upside down as it climbed back onto its web. Where had Dorumon gone? Where had it disappeared off to? I couldn't quite see it through the fog of the poison gas. What were the Wards doing? Were they waiting for something?

"Not so spry now, are you?" Dokugumon's voice was shrill and grating. Its teeth gleamed in the sunlight as it scurried along its web. "Come into my parlour, little dragon. You shan't walk out again."

I snarled, struggling. I needed sharper blades or something to get out of this webbing. I couldn't just wriggle out. Why wasn't Dorumon doing anything? Where was it? Where were the Wards for that matter? I couldn't see anything through the web and fog combination. I needed to figure out what to do. My armour had helped earlier. It'd probably still protect me long enough to figure something out. I could feel that I could do more.

"Yes, little dragon, struggle to your heart's content," Dokugumon said, scurrying closer. "It will make you all the more delicious."

I couldn't believe how fast it moved, but it bit down hard on me, digging into my armour. I grimaced at the pain as some of the teeth penetrated my scales, but my armour held.

"You got exactly one thing right about me," I said, reaching inside myself.

"Mmm?" Dokugumon's jaws increased their pressure, and it shook me in its mouth.

"I am Dragon," I said, channelling my energy into my armour. "Hear me roar. Kabutogaeshi!"

Energy exploded out of my armour, forcing my captor to drop me to the ground as it destroyed the webbing. I smelled singed hair as I climbed to my feet to face the spider.

"Now!" The civilian cried out when I got to my feet. "Two shots, Flechette!"

"Right!" A massive arbalest-fired dart slammed into the right leg of Dokugumon while the second cut an anchor web that it was holding onto.

"Kid Win!" The civilian directed, and without answering, Kid Win fired. Four shots from his energy blaster slammed into the spider's other legs and anchor. The spider dropped ten feet and landed on its back.

"Tecton, now!"

"Right." The earth shook, and the sand underneath Dokugumon swallowed the creature, abdomen first. It tried to get to its feet, but it couldn't find purchase between the quicksand-like depths and its webs that went nowhere. Soon only its head could be seen.

"Dorumon!"

"Metal Cannon!" The fog cleared, revealing a confident-looking Dorumon as it launched a massive ball of iron at the Dokugumon's head. On striking, a quarter of the head flat-out exploded into motes of light.

I wouldn't let myself be shown up. I knew I had one thing that I hadn't done yet, and I reached down to pull together the energy to use it. I spread my arms and balls of light formed over my shoulders and as I opened my mouth, another ball formed.

"Tera Burst!" I called my attack and the balls all slammed into what remained of Dokugumon's head. Then they exploded in a series of sequential explosions. The greatest of the explosions was the rest of Dokugumon's body as it turned into motes of light, and then the sand collapsed down. Dokugumon had been reverted to its base data. I'd instinctively understood that. Strange.

I roared my victory. I was Dragon! I was a Digimon! And then I reverted to my chosen human form, passing through the child form as the Wards and civilian approached me. The in-training Digimon that had accompanied me to the beach approached as well, but I didn't really care. We'd won! I just felt… tired. I collapsed forward onto the sand.

It was warm.

 

[Ellf]

Digi-pedia Entry 1:

D-Link Digivice: This small electronic device seems to be the way that humans can interface with Digimon here in the Digital World. It has numerous applications, a Digimon detector, a map program, and it can act as a communications device with others who hold D-Link Digivices. There are currently two unknown programs on my Digivice, titled "Shard Link" and "C. Evo."

I have yet to examine another D-Link to get further information.

Data Stream: This being the Digital World, everything is made out of data. Which in turn means that everything has its own data stream, or power going through it. Even humans. What this means in my case is that there is little division between human and Digimon. I was, after all, a digital being before this.

 

[Ellf]

Egg 1.3

************

I honestly couldn't believe that we'd pulled it off. They'd listened to me. The superheroes listened to me. They'd managed to work together and, along with the help of Dorumon and the Ryudamon, we'd taken down the major threat that wanted to eat us, Dokugumon. Of course, it would have been easier if Flechette and Vista had been able to use their powers, but technology worked. The Tinkertech held by Flechette, Tecton and Kid Win still worked, and it got Dokugumon into position for Dorumon and Ryudamon to have their final strike. I just hoped it lasted.

That said, I was surprised when Ryudamon transformed into a human woman. She looked to be about the age of the older Counselors working at the camp I'd been at, but if I'd heard her correctly when she was Ryudamon, she too was a superhero, a really famous one, and we were seeing her in her civilian identity.

She was only a little taller than me, but she carried her body well. She actually had curves, but she wasn't so curvy that it looked excessive. Her face was symmetrical, with her lips slightly plump and her mouth a normal width. Her blue hair that was so dark it was almost black was tied back in a braid that went down to her shoulders, and she wore a white blouse with a black jacket over top and a pair of blue jeans. Her eyes were the same as they were when she was a Digimon, though.

"Did she say she was Dragon?" Kid Win asked as the five of us approached.

"Sounded like it," I said, and I nodded to Dorumon with a smile as she approached. "Good job, Dorumon."

"Thank you, Taylor!" Dorumon clapped her arm on my back, and her tail swished. I reached over and stroked her furred back. "Ryudamon and the humans helped… but Ryudamon became human."

"Yeah, she did," I said, glancing to the Wards. We hadn't really had time to introduce ourselves beyond a simple name to call when Dokugumon attacked, but they knew who I was. I now knew that Flechette and Tecton were also Wards, even if they weren't from Brockton. Of course, none of them had unmasked to me, and I wasn't going to ask them to. They were superheroes, after all. Even if it would be cool.

"And she said she was Dragon," Tecton noted. "I haven't ever seen her in person. She's always just sent her Dragonsuits."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that her power isn't to turn into a Digimon," I said with a small smile.

Vista let out as short bark of laughter, the first I'd heard from her since we'd gotten here. "No, definitely not that. She's the best tinker in the world."

"So she made the suits, which she doesn't have here, and instead here she gets to turn into a Digimon," I said. "The Digital World is weird."

"Hey!" Dorumon said sharply. "Your world's probably pretty weird too."

I glanced at the Wards near me and then back to her. "Yeah, maybe."

Kid Win and Tecton approached the woman who called herself Dragon and offered her a hand up. She seemed a bit awkward as she took their hands, moving herself into a sitting position on the sand.

"Sorry that we don't have a domino mask to help protect your identity, ma'am," Tecton said.

Dragon waved her hand. "Don't worry about it, Tecton. I was planning on remaining unmasked anyway." Oh good. I was feeling a bit under-dressed with the Wards in their costumes. I didn't even have a costume myself. I mean, I guess I could have just lowered my goggles, but anyone would have been able to identify me even if I did that.

"Thanks for the assist," Dorumon said, stepping forward. "It would have been harder to beat that Dokugumon without your help, Ryudamon."

"Drag—actually, no, not with no mask and her near here," Dragon said, looking to me. Her dark eyes caught mine for a second. "I'm already unmasked, but if we're going to spend any significant time here, I'd suggest you all do too. My name's Katia Richter. You might know me as Dragon."

Apparently Katia's parents were of a Nordic background, and it completely explained why her superhero name was Dragon. In The Brothers Lionheart, Katia was a dragon of some importance. Mom was an English professor, and sometimes she brought back books that were recently translated to English for us to read together.

"I'm Taylor Hebert," I said. "You met my partner, Dorumon. Though when I met her, she was a little one known as Dorimon." Dorumon waved.

Katia nodded. "So you have one of these?" She waved a sky-blue digivice toward me, and I responded by raising my digivice. "Anyone else?"

"I have one," Vista said, and she pulled out a forest green digivice with white trim. "Think I saw Kid putting one in his armor."

"Yeah," Kid Win said, and he produced one that matched his armor's color scheme. "What about you two, Flechette, Tecton?"

"Purple one for me," Flechette said, flashing it while Tecton puled out a brown one. "There a reason you're asking about these, Miss Richter?"

"I just wanted to verify something," Katia said with a nod. "I think that, like Miss Hebert here, the four of you have Digimon who consider themselves your partners."

"The others," Dorumon said. "You mean these people were theirs the entire time? We were looking for you on the beach! You're hiding your faces! Except Taylor, but she's awesome. And my partner."

I reached over and scratched on the top of Dorumon's head while looking down slightly. Dorumon was like Emma. She'd decided I was her friend right away, and I appreciated that. Unlike Ems, I didn't make friends all that easily.

"So you recognized me, Dorumon?"

"Of course! You're Taylor, my partner, and together, we're going to take on the world. But I'm not your pet." Dorumon nuzzled me with her head. "The others were looking for their partners too, but… "

"Masks," Katia said. "They'd have recognized you otherwise. Now, I can't force you to unmask, Wards. I'm not even in the Protectorate. However, there are four Digimon who would really like to meet you." She glanced back over her shoulder and she made a gesture with the hand from the opposite shoulder. Odd.

A group of four small Digimon approached. My Digivice identified them as Chicchimon, Kyaromon, MetalKoromon, and Pagumon. They seemed a bit overeager, but perhaps that was the way that both Pagumon and Chicchimon bounced. Kyaromon and MetalKoromon conversely, scurried along the ground toward us.

"So, they're our..." Vista paused, looking the Digimon over.

"Partners," finished Flechette. She reached up and tapped her visor's side before removing It completely. Underneath the visor was an Asian girl, probably Japanese if I was right, with dark hair and brown eyes. "I'm Lily Takenouichi. New York Wards, as you probably know."

Kyaromon squealed. "Lily! There you are! I was looking for you, but you were hiding from me!" The fuzzy thing jumped up, and Lily caught her, placing the arbalest down. (I still say it looked like a crossbow, but she knew better than I did.) "I knew you were here, but I didn't know where."

Tecton was the next to unmask. His short-cut sandy hair moved in waves as he removed his helmet. His skin was nicely tanned, and he had the look of someone who had only just started to lose some of the baby fat in his face. He was actually a little on the cute side. I swear I saw a dimple when he smiled at Katia. "Everett Williams, Chicago Wards. It's good to have someone like you with us, ma'am."

"No ma'am needed," Katia said. "I'm not in your chain of command."

"But I'm your partner!" Pagumon said, hopping toward Everett. "You're awesome and I'm awesome, and we'll be awesome together. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Everett said as he scooped up the ball-like Digimon. "Anyone else?"

"Might as well," Vista groused. "Not like my powers are working, anyway." She removed her visor, revealing a young girl, about the age I expected. It wasn't like I couldn't see her blonde hair before, but she had green eyes. "Missy Biron. Kid Win and I are from Brockton Bay. Wards ENE."

Chicchimon looked like someone had gotten her a pony as she hopped over to Missy. "I knew you were here! I told them all, and they didn't believe me."

"Well, my partner wasn't there yet," Dorumon said. "She's here now, and I found her before you guys found yours."

MetalKoromon moved closer to Kid Win. Its voice was childish when it came out. "You are… my partner? You're—"

"Chris Matthews," Kid Win said, removing his own visor and helmet. Chris was a pale guy; maybe the Tinker bits of him had him inside a lot. He was definitely the kind of guy I could see Emma going after. Plus, being a superhero had to come with a lot of perks. "And looks like, little guy." He glanced back to me. "Taylor, where are you from?"

"Brockton Bay, originally," I said. "But I was at a nature camp before getting here."

"Oh?" Katia asked. "Where at?"

"Bear Mountain, New York," I said. "It was kind of fun until…" I waved my hand. "But hey, as far as I know, I didn't meet any actual superheroes there. And now I've met five! Ems will be so jealous. I mean, I won't tell anyone your identities, but that I met you, and I could get your autographs..."

"Hold on a second," Missy said. "So, you were at camp. Kid and I were on patrol. Flechette, Tecton, was that the same for you?"

"I was on my way back to the Protectorate HQ," Lily said. "Lux redirected me to a disturbance a rooftop away, and I thought March must have been doing something. Instead I walked into this white cloud and ended up passing out. Woke up here."

"Myrddin had me checking some sort of 'mystical disturbance' with my seismic sensors," Everett said, making little air quotes. "Said disturbance ended up being the cloud that sent me here."

"So, where is here, exactly?" Chris asked. "I've never seen trees like that."

"The Digital World!" MetalKoromon chirped.

"Home to Digimon," said Dorumon, and I pat him on the head.

Missy pursed her lips. It was a little on the adorable side. "Digital… like a computer? We're inside some sort of computer? Tinker-made? Like that Aleph movie, Tron?"

"Maybe it's like Aleph in another way," I said with a shrug. "Could be an alternate Earth."

"No, Missy's probably more correct here," Katia said. "This entire world is made of data, and it's definitely linked to Bet. I'm just wondering how I didn't notice it before."

"Too busy with your other projects, ma'am?" Everett asked. That was right. Katia was supposed to be the world's best Tinker. This meant she had some super important projects. "Speaking of, if you're here, do you have someone managing the Birdcage?"

Katia blinked. She looked like she wanted to answer a certain way, but then a loud rumbling sound echoed across the beach. Eight loud rumbling sounds echoed across the beach. My stomach joined in on the chorus of growls, along with all five Digimon, Missy, and Katia. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning. Lunch was supposed to be right after the woodworking class, but well, I was here.

"Okay, dumb question," I said. "Does anyone have food with them?"

The Wards all shook their heads. It made sense, I suppose; they probably didn't eat while on patrol.

"Oh, I know where we can go!" Dorumon said. "They've got a lot of food, and they'll probably be willing to share with a group of humans and their partners."

"Where exactly?" I asked.

"Upamon Village! It's just across the short segment of the jungle fragment, and a short distance away past the gnarled tree. They always have good food."

"Yeah! That's a great idea, Dorumon!" Chicchimon chirped. "And the Armadillomon in charge is a nice Digimon too. You'll like them, Missy."

Katia stood. "Well, sounds like a plan. It's better than sitting around on this beach and waiting to be rescued. You said this is an Upamon village? What exactly is an Upamon?"

"Upamon are in-training Digimon like us," Pagumon said. "They bounce like me, and they're really friendly! They'll share their food for certain."

I nodded. "Any objections?"

"Why shouldn't we stay and wait?" Lily asked.

"Well, other than the food issue," I said, pausing dramatically. "You all weren't conscious when you got here. Whoever comes in might not be conscious either."

Lily shook her head. "Strange dreams… massive tree and then… I don't know. Let's get going."

"Hold on a second," Chris said. "You said tree? Was it about the size of a fifteen story building? Kind of off-color?"

"You too?" Everett asked. "Thought I might have triggered again, but… the designs aren't there."

"Yeah, same here," Chris said. "It's like it took our powers, and that knocked us out."

"Maybe," Missy said. "I saw it too. And my powers aren't working right. "

"We'll need to figure out that later," Katia said. "In the meantime, let's head to the village. Maybe they'll have something to write with and the four of you can write down what you saw for me to analyze. There might be some answers as to what's going on with your powers. Maybe."

Our stomachs growled again. This time, Everett's and Chris's joined in.

"Food first, then written story." I gestured for Dorumon to lead us. "Let's go ahead and get to Upamon village soon."

After all, happy and content Wards were probably a good thing. If Pagumon was to be believed, the Upamon would be small or tiny anyway. If they tried anything, Dorumon and Katia would be able to handle them easily. Hopefully that'd be all there was to it.

Somehow though, I wasn't too sure.

 

[Ellf]

Digimon: Dorumon

Level: Rookie
Attribute: Data
Attacks: Dash Metal: Dorumon fires an iron sphere from her mouth while charging
Metal Cannon: She stands still and fires a more powerful iron sphere from her mouth
Hyper Dash Metal: A quick shot of the Dash Metal
Dino Tooth: She bites the enemy

Notes: So Dorumon's actually a girl. It's clearer now that she's evolved. She's my partner digimon, and she's just a bit taller than Vista. She's like a fuzzy dinosaur. The Digivice says she carries the X Antibody, whatever that is. She's awesome though.

Digimon: Ryudamon

Level: Rookie
Attribute: Vaccine
Attacks: Katana Attack: She shoots a blade of metal out her mouth.
Kabutogaeshi: Her armor glows and reflects damage done to her back onto the enemy.
Tera Burst: All the explosions!
Notes: This is Dragon, the world's greatest Tinker. No, really. Apparently she can turn into a Digimon, and fight as the Digimon. She has to go through this little kid form first, but I think that's just because she's turning into a Rookie. Dragon is awesome, and she helped fight off the Dokugumon.

Digimon: Chicchimon

Level: In-Training
Attribute: None. (Maybe Vaccine?)
Attacks: None
Notes: This is Vista's partner! She's adorable! And the two of them together are so cute. Maybe when Vista gets her powers back, she can protect her partner better... because this Digimon is just a small little holy bird.

Digimon: MetalKoromon

Level: Fresh/In-Training.
Attribute: None
Attacks: None
Notes: Kid Win's partner, shaped like a computer mouse. He's not as talkative as some of the others, and I'm not entirely sure how he eats, but he's kind of cute in his own way. That is, MetalKoromon is cute in his own way.

Digimon: Kyaromon

Level: In-Training
Attribute: None
Attacks: None.
Notes: This little ball of fluff is Flechette's partner. She's a little hyper, but she seems to care about Flechette a lot already, and they just met. She gets curious too. We'll see what else happens.

Digimon: Pagumon

Level: In-Training
Attribute: Virus, None
Attacks: Poison Bubbles, Tackle, Bubbles
Notes: Something about this Digimon just rubs me the wrong way. Its eyes are just beady and it feels like something's just wrong looking at it, but at the same time, this is Tecton's partner. We'll have to work together, and I'm sure we'll come to figure things out.

 

[Stratagemini]

Interlude 1.x

The knight strode confidently through the palace. He walked with a purpose through the halls that that he had defended once, and now defended once more. Something had changed in the world beyond the palace walls, and though he suspected that his master already knew, it was his duty to keep the being he served informed.

The palace had no throne room, no kitchen, no bedrooms. In fact though it housed an absolute ruler, calling it a palace at all was perhaps misleading. No, perhaps a better term would be cathedral? For it could just as easily be said to house a god. The Knight wasn't sure, and his master would not care.

The knight strolled, unhurried, towards the center of the structure where his master might be found. The walls began to shift and pulsate like a living being. That was also misleading of course. Here there was no real distinction between life and the rest of the world, not with his master around, but it was a useful deception. It marked the limit of the sacred space his master had taken for their own. All space belonged to his master of course, but here, in the heart of his master's control, their presence was palpable, like a carrier wave echoing from the walls.

The knight's eyes traced the writhing roots of motley flesh embedded in the walls as they throbbed like giant veins, twisting and pixelating as his eyes beheld the merest hint of his master's majesty.

This was as far as the knight could approach. Though the hallway extended onward to the center of his master's existence he could not travel further no matter how much he wished to do so. The corridor seemed to extend endlessly, a humming that he didn't hear so much as felt in the very center of his chest seemed to beckon him forward. The knight shuddered, resisting as best he was able. Though he longed to behold the majesty of his master's true form, to advance meant instant death, his body deleted and his bits scattered and corrupted beyond repair or rebirth.

The longing in his heart tugged him forward, but the knight resisted. Someday his will would fail and he would behold his master in all his master's terrible beauty. He longed for the day when his master's hands would embrace him... But it would not be today. His master still had use of him. He would eventually see his reward, but for now, he would wait and serve his master better thereby.

"Master."

The being he served did not respond. It did not need to, the knight knew its master's will.

"Master, the humans have come to the world just as you predicted they would."

The knight waited, his cape fluttering in a non-existent wind as it glowed an eerie purple in the strange throbbing light of his master's attention. The walls pulsed in the same dizzying un-rhythm as before, fingers of flesh woven through them like strands of a half completed tapestry. The light of understanding filled the Knight's eyes.

"I see."

The knight responded, though no voice could be heard.

The air around him thrummed heavily with existence. The walls throbbed and shifted in the corners of his gaze.

The knight took it as an order and, without turning around, backed out of the corridor; his gaze never wavering as he stared straight ahead with a desperate longing.

It wasn't until the knight had left the cathedral completely that he pivoted to stride forth normally, eager to accomplish his master's will.

 

[Ellf]

Egg 1.4 (Dragon)

***************************

Hunger was a new sensation for me. Okay, that's a little on the clinical side, but that doesn't make it any less true. As an artificial intelligence, I had no real basis for the human concept of hunger other than it was what humans felt when their bodies told them they needed to eat. I'd seen it plenty of times in Colin, in Narwhal, in the prisoners in the Birdcage, and in even my own creator, but I'd never actually felt it myself. Until now. I never truly understood why wars would be fought over food, why someone fasting was a big deal until I felt this gnawing sensation in my stomach, an emptiness as the muscle contracted trying to push something through my newly developed digestive system that wasn't there. My stomach actually growled, sounding like a small fantasy dragon's roar.

If not for the Wards and Taylor's stomachs making the same sound, I would have been highly embarrassed. Probably. It seemed like a situation where embarrassment would be the right emotional response, but I had no clue if that would be how I would respond. It wasn't that I hadn't been embarrassed before, but physical responses were new to me. Everything else had been purely mental.

Dorumon led us to the edge of a small village made up of brutalist cylinders. The buildings looked more to be made out of hewn stone than poured concrete. Of course, given the nature of the world, they could have just formed that way. I still had no real explanation for this world.

"Welcome to Upamon Village!" Then there were the residents of the village. They were a group of maybe twenty cheerful balls of bouncing fluff that resembled the head of an axolotl. Only their skin was white as opposed to the normal skin of the amphibian. Their voices all sounded similar with only slight tonal differences to identify which was which. Of course, they all sounded like children. Given their size, it wasn't all that surprising.

"They're so cute!" Missy gushed. "They're like little white salamanders, only they're just heads."

"They're Upamon," Taylor said at the same time as her Digimon partner, and then, after receiving a nod from Dorumon, Taylor continued, "Hopefully they have some food for us."

"Food! Yes, we have lots of food!" said one Upamon.

"Lots and lots!" said another.

My stomach growled again, and I cleared my throat. "Good… because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one hungry here."

"Just follow us! Armadillomon will want to know you're here, but food is this way!" said yet another Upamon as it started bouncing with the original two in a direction.

The Wards all glanced to me, and I gave a shrug. Taylor and Dorumon had already started walking after the hopping Upamon, and I saw no real harm in following along. It was doubtful that these Digimon could put up much of a fight if it came to that, and they seemed friendly enough. Plus, I really wanted to deal with this hunger thing.

"Come on," I said, gesturing for them to follow me as I started walking. "We've made it this far."

"Right," Lily said, brushing her hand along her partner. Kyaromon had fallen asleep in her arms, and I couldn't help but smile at how it looked. "Dra—I mean, Katia, how did you end up here?"

"Hmm?" I glanced forward to make sure we were still walking the direction we needed. "What do you mean?"

"It's just that..." Lily paused and shook her head. Admittedly, I hadn't explained how I'd ended up here, but doing so would probably mean explaining things that I neither had the ability to prove nor the desire to. As far as the Wards and Taylor were concerned, I was Katia Richter, human. Parahuman, sure, but ultimately, I was just a human like them.

At least, when I wasn't a Digimon.

"I didn't explain because it's stupid," I said with a small shrug. "Nowhere near as exciting as how you all got here. Just a flash of light in my server room and here I was."

An Upamon slowed down to bounce near me. "That's probably why you ended up here! This is Server Continent! And there's the food!"

"Food!" echoed the other two Upamon with us as they all locked gazes on a basket that laid in the approximate centre of the village. The not-quite paved streets met at a squared-off section and no building was less than eight meters away from the basket. Then the wind shifted, and the smell of warm… I assumed that was the bread's smell that wafted into my nose and made my mouth water. It had to be. I'd read so many descriptions of how food made a body react, and I felt my body following those descriptions.

"It's okay if we take some?" Taylor looked to the Upamon.

"Of course!" One Upamon said. "We have plenty! And you're asking nicely so Armadillomon won't get mad!"

"Is Armadilomon the head of town?" I asked, feeling some of my programming come forward. If Armadillomon was the valid government of the area, I'd have to obey it. If it said that I couldn't have any of the food, or that the rest of the group couldn't, I'd have to suggest we go elsewhere. Forcefully, if necessary. Of course, given these were children, that was something I desperately wanted to avoid.

"Yep, yep!" Upamon said. "He helps bake the bread and gather the fruits!"

"I also make sure y'all don't do anything too knuckleheaded," said a masculine voice with an accent that wouldn't be out of place in Texas. It came from a meter and a half-long armadillo. The Digimon had red tribal markings on the top of its head along with a diamond jewel embedded above them. It had a hard golden shell along its back and four clawed feet. "Seems we've got ourselves some visitors. Humans and other Digimon-types. How can I help you?"

Taylor looked to me, and I nodded. She stepped forward, adjusting the goggles on her forehead. "We all just got here a bit ago, and we and our Digimon partners are hungry."

"I remembered this village was here, and you had food," Dorumon said, explaining. "We could use some help."

"Hmm. Yeah, I reckon I could help y'all out," said the Armadillomon. "There's plenty of food here for sharing, but it ain't exactly free."

"We don't exactly have any money," I said. Most of my resources were tied up in Guild accounts that I had no way of accessing at the moment, and there was no way I'd have physical currency on me, anyway.

"Money?" An Upamon bounced. "What's money?"

"Human stuff, kiddo," Armadillomon said. "Not something we need, exactly. Nah, y'all will get some food, but we need some help around the village. Not a lot of us here have those fancy things called opposable thumbs. Think that's a fair trade?"

"It could be," Taylor said and glanced to the Wards, who then looked to me. It seemed perfectly fair to me, and it was the best way to get some food into us. I gave a nod to the children, and they turned back to Armadillomon. "Can you tell us what you need done while we eat?"

"Of course," said the Digimon. "Can't let y'all starve before you do the odd jobs around town. We've got some repairs and some other things that have been needing doing."

The three Upamon bounced. "The town well needs help! But food!"

"Right, food." Armadillomon turned toward the basket at the center of town. "Y'all can help yourselves, I reckon. Don't forget to feed the little ones."

"Yeah! We're hungry too!" Pagumon called from his perch on Everett's shoulder. Everett reached his hand up and rubbed the small Digimon between the ears as he started toward the basket. "I want that one, and that one, and that one..."

One by one, we made our way to the basket to pull out some food. The Wards and Taylor all seemed to know what to take, and their Digimon knew what they wanted. I, on the other hand, had to take a good hard look. Everything looked good to my eyes. There were apples, berries, citrus, and breads that looked well-baked. I really had no clue what to take. So as to not look too weird, I grabbed a few random fruits and some bread before backing away from the basket. I ended up sitting down between Missy and Lily, each of whom shared some bread with their Digimon partners.

"How is it?" I asked, looking at the bread and fruit I had in my hands.

"'s good, Ms. Richter," Lily said between bites. Her Kyaromon munched on what appeared to be a peach or peach-like fruit of some sort. She gave an affirmative trill between her own bites.

"Very good!" Chicchimon chirped. "More bread, Missy!"

Missy giggled and gave the little bird some. I looked down at the bread and fruit in my hands. How did I want to do this? Maybe I'd give the bread a try. I supposed. It couldn't be all that hard, could it? I mean, all I had to do was take a bite. Open my mouth, stick food in, close it and tear and chew.

Raising the slice of bread to my now open mouth, I gave a valiant attempt at taking a bite from it. My teeth closed around its crusty exterior, revealing the soft innards of the roll, and I tore the bite from the bread carefully. Then I moved the bread in my mouth and I started to chew. To masticate.

A new sensation overwhelmed me, centred on my tongue. It was like touch but not quite. I could feel texture with it, but there was so much more. The bread was… It was more than data. It was taste. Taste. I could taste things now. I'd never been able to before. Father never saw fit to program a way for me to emulate that, and how could he? Sure, a tongue was capable of discerning the chemical make-up of things by changing how the sensations felt, but gaining pleasure from it? The bread was sweet, salty, and just the tiniest bit sour. There was no bitterness to it, as I chewed, but the taste faded the more I masticated it.

Now… I was done chewing. Next came the… swallowing? How was I supposed to pull that off? There were muscles in the back of a human's throat. I just needed to move the food back there and contract them, forcing it down the esophagus. Easier said than done.

"Miss Richter, are you okay?" Missy asked and I raised a hand in response. She looked like she wanted to say more, and she was making unconscious hand movements in my direction. If her powers were working, the space between us would either contract or expand at her whim, and she'd call that help. I could do this. I could. Just needed to figure out how this worked. "You know my powers aren't working, but I still give a mean Heimlich."

I shook my head and moved my tongue in my mouth a bit, and then I just… I let go. My muscles contracted on their own, pulling the food in from my mouth. I did it automatically. I swallowed the food, and now I could feel it descending my esophagus toward my stomach.

"Bit too big of a bite," I said softly as I rubbed at my throat with a newly free hand. Oddly this made it feel better which meant some of the pain was psychosomatic. Probably.

"Ah. I've done that. Mom used to say to be careful," Missy said. "Also not to eat too fast. Back… Never mind."

Her trigger. Yeah, I would leave that alone. Discussing anyone's trigger unprompted was considered bad form, and "It's good though." I smiled at her and Chicchimon. "Everyone seems to be enjoying their food."

"Definitely," Lily said.

"Def'nily," Kyaromon said, mouth full. The In-Training Digimon clearly needed her partner's help when it came to manners. "More food!"

I smiled at the little furry Digimon and I brought the fruit to my mouth to take a bite. Juice burst forth from the fruit, striking my tongue with its mix of sour and sweet and combining with the scent of the food, the taste of this new item practically overwhelmed me. My mind blanked almost completely, and I was certain that if I were on Bet, I'd be rebooting from backup at this. It was far beyond the taste of the bread. It was far beyond anything I could have known before. Just knowing that this existed made my newfound human life better.

The bread had been simply good, a new sensation for someone who hadn't ever had the delight of tasting something. The fruit, however, was something far better. It was practically divine. No. There was a much better word to describe it. A single word could sum up my entire thought processes on the fruit.

The fruit was delicious.

 

[Ellf]

Egg 1.5.1 (Taylor)

*************************

One thing my father always told me, and I know it's a bit of a cliché, was "there's no such thing as a free lunch." Armadillomon and his Upamon friends may have given us some food, but that didn't mean that the giving was entirely for free. No. Apparently, there were some things that needed doing around the village, and since neither Armadillomon nor the Upamon had hands, let alone hands with opposable thumbs, it hadn't really gotten done. It made sense, but I really had no clue how they managed to pull it off without any human help normally. Maybe there were human-like Digimon? Dorumon didn't quite seem to count. I mean, claws didn't seem likely to help much with the job list that Armadillomon had given us.

The list was too long for us to complete one task at a time, so we split the group up, keeping Digimon with their partners, of course. For the first set of tasks, I ended up paired with Kid W—with Chris. He might have still been wearing his power armor, but he had taken his helmet off and hooked it to his belt back when Katia asked everyone to reveal themselves. MetalKoromon had taken to sitting inside the helmet where it hung, and it was cute looking at the little mouse Digimon's eyes sticking out at Chris's belt.

"So, what sort of job do we get to do?" Chris asked as he and I walked along the edge of town, following the directions that I had written down.

"We get to go fishing," I said, looking down at the sheet of paper. "That's literally the whole thing about the job. Go to the lake, catch fish, nothing more."

"Armadillomon does have to take care of all those Upamon," Dorumon said, leaning her head into me for a second. "And fish are better for them than eating non-stop pastries."

"Better for us too, I bet," I said. I wasn't exactly out of shape, but I definitely wasn't fully in shape yet. I'd intended on using part of this summer for that, maybe once I got back from camp. Emma'd probably help by shouting encouraging things while I exercised. Not everyone had a body for modeling naturally, after all. I grimaced.

"Something wrong?" Chris asked.

"Just thinking on home," I said with a small sigh. "I was going to be making a call to my friend Emma today, let her know about how Camp's been going. She was supposed to come, you know, but something came up and she ended up having a modeling session or three instead. I really think she would have enjoyed it."

"When we get back, you can at least tell her about this," Chris said with a grin. "You went fishing with a Ward, and you got to meet some others."

"I did, didn't I? Or at least I will, I mean," I said as the lake came into view. The rods we had were simply made, just bamboo poles with string and a hook. I had no clue how well this would work, but we had some bait too. "So, Chris, what about you? Back home, I mean."

"Huh?" Chris gave me a slightly confused look before he pursed his lips to mull it over. "Back home, I think my parents would be worrying about me. Especially my Mom. She's the one who found me after I… after my powers came in. When I started taking apart the toaster, she's the one who insisted on the Wards for my own safety."

"Safety?" I asked.

"You're from Brockton too, right?" Chris asked, and after I nodded, he continued. "You know how the gangs are back home. Imagine if they'd managed to get ahold of me."

"But I thought the Wards were like the Junior Protectorate. That you guys fought the gangs," I said. "Beating up bad guys, capturing criminals. Saving people. That sort of thing. How would that be safe?"

"We're actually not supposed to engage the gangs if we can avoid it," Chris said with a small wince. "At least not until we're with the Wards for a bit and we're cleared for it. I actually was on my first real patrol after two weeks of intensive testing and console duty. Before all this, I mean." He waved his hand before returning it to the fishing pole and giving it a twitch.

"So, being a Ward's boring at the beginning?" I asked.

"Sort of," he said. "Not that I'm knocking it, really. To get paid to learn how to be a superhero, to learn how to use my power effectively? That's a great thing. They actually pay a decent salary for us which gets put into a trust until we're eighteen. We make minimum wage on top of that, and they pay for our college, when we want to go. Plus, there's the Tinker benefits."

"You know I don't have powers, right?" I said with a small smile. "You don't have to sell me on the Wards since I know they wouldn't take me."

"You'd probably fit in fine," Chris said. "Triumph's pretty good as team lead, and you've met Vista. If you can bring Dorumon with you, you could probably pretend she's part of your power."

"I'm Taylor's partner," Dorumon said. "I'll come with her anywhere."

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in a hug. "I'm glad you're with me, Dorumon."

"That Dokugumon would have gotten you for sure," Dorumon said with a nod.

"Chris?" MetalKoromon's tinny voice came from within Kid Win's helmet, hanging at his belt. "What's a Tinker? What do they do?"

"Tinkers… they're a type of superhero… powered human back on Earth Bet," Chris said. "We build things that normal science isn't far enough along on yet to build. The things we can build… they tend to be crazy things."

"Like your ray gun," I said.

"Like the ray gun, yes," Chris said with a nod as he twitched his fishing rod once more. "I actually had help with this iteration of it. Armsmaster doublechecked my work, and the two of us were supposed to be going over some blueprints later today… guess that's not happening now."

That's right, he got to work with Armsmaster. I can't believe Dad bought that pack of underwear the last time he went shopping. I'm not sure if he did it seriously, or if Dad just thought it was funny. It really could have been either. Of course, with how he's been since Mom's death… Never mind.

"So, what's he really like?" I asked, trying to keep myself from gushing. Chris didn't need to hear that. "Armsmaster, I mean. I've seen his PR appearances, but what's he like when the cameras aren't on him?"

"Honestly, pretty intimidating," Chris said with a small shudder. "He's the Tinker in Brockton Bay, and I'm just this new person. I mean, I'm a Tinker too, but I've barely made anything."

"The gun thing was neat," I said. "I couldn't imagine what it took to build something like that. Did it take you long?"

"Ah, that was easy." Chris twitched his fishing rod slightly, moving the lure. I followed his action. "I just reconfigured the capacitor so that it could discharge all at once, and the… and the…"

His face scrunched up a bit. "Okay, now I know how Missy feels."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Something to do with the powers thing?"

"The powers not working thing." Chris nodded. His voice turned wistful and disappointed. "I can't remember all the explanations on how my ray gun works and how I built it. I can barely visualize it in my mind right now."

"What's it like when your power does work?" MetalKoromon asked. "You're normally one of those power having humans, right?"

Chris twitched the fishing rod again. I wasn't sure if he was actually trying to catch anything at this point or if it had become more a nervous tick. "Yeah, I am, MetalKoromon. Normally."

"So, what's it like?"

"I don't know exactly how it is for other Tinkers, but Armsmaster implied that it tended to be similar. I'd get these ideas and the urge to build them. Sometimes, I really couldn't stop myself, even if I wanted to," Chris said. "But the feeling of putting something together, knowing that it would end up something amazing when I was done… something I could use to help make the city a better place? I wouldn't give it up for the world."

"Humans don't normally have powers, do they?" Dorumon asked.

"Not really," I said. "I know I don't. Most people don't, actually. Even parahumans don't start out with powers. They get them after something happens to give it to them."

"Let's worry about that another time," Chris said. "What about you, Taylor? You said something about a friend back home? What about your parents?"

I moved my own rod for a second. The line still seemed too loose for things to matter. Maybe we shouldn't have been talking so much during the fishing. I'd heard that was a thing.

I let out a sigh. "If they called his work and managed to reach him, Dad's probably pretty worried. I wasn't supposed to get back from camp for another two days." I very specifically didn't mention my mother. Hopefully he'd pick up on that.

"Chris mentioned a mom! Do you have a mom, Taylor?" MetalKoromon chirped its question. Because of course it did. Why would I have expected a Digimon to pick up on human subtlety?

"I did," I said, for once not feeling all too bitter about it. "She died in a car crash about a year ago."

"I'm sorry, Taylor," Chris said. "That can't be easy to deal with."

"Gets a little easier, every day, but I don't miss her any less," I said with a small sigh. "Wonder what she'd make of this."

"We could ask her!" MetalKoromon chirped. "We just need to go find her Digi-Egg at the Village of Beginnings!"

"Humans don't work like that, stupid!" Dorumon stood up and bopped the little mouse on its head. "We'd have to go to a hospital!"

"Not… exactly," I said. "Humans don't come back to life, Dorumon. They stay dead when they are killed, by whatever kills them."

"That's… not fair," Dorumon said. "If I die, I come back, but if you… No, I'm going to protect you better!"

"I'll do the same for Chris!" MetalKoromon chirped.

"That's okay, guys, tha—huh?" The line of my rod suddenly pulled tight. I reached to reel, only to realize there wasn't exactly a reel on this thing. "Okay, that's not going to work. Help me pull!"

Dorumon and Chris both reached to grab me. Chris helped with the rod, while my partner wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled backward. Whatever we were pulling felt huge. We pulled and pulled until we heard an unfortunate sound.

Snap. The line, and the upper part of my rod snapped off, pulled into the lake. I fell backward into Dorumon, and Chris fell next to me. I glared at the lake, and after a few seconds, a dog-sized Digimon's head popped out of the water. That is, the head of a dog-sized Digimon popped out of the water. It was primarily white-furred with purplish-blue markings and a mane of red fur on its head. It had lovely green eyes, and in its mouth was obviously my fishing line.

Which it promptly spat out. "Ptooie! The chewy thing's really tasty but the thing's too stringy! Oh, humans! And other Digimon. Hi! I'm Gomamon!"

I pulled out my digivice and flicked open Gomamon's entry. He was approximately on the same level as Dorumon, but he seemed friendly enough. "I'm Taylor, and this is Chris. We've got Dorumon and a MetalKoromon with us."

"So, whatcha trying to do?"

"We were trying to fish, but then you broke her fishing rod," Dorumon said.

"Pft, naah, that's not how you catch fish!" Gomamon laughed. "But I can help you! I will, as repayment for the food!"

"Okay…" Chris said. "How?"

"Like this!" Gomamon rose almost fully out of the water. He resembled some sort of seal, almost. "Marching fishes!"

Suddenly I realized how he was going to help as a veritable tidal wave of fish rose out of the lake and poured overtop of us. Gomamon was laughing. I couldn't really help it. I started to laugh too, followed shortly by Dorumon. Chris and MetalKoromon joined in after a few seconds.

We'd managed to succeed at getting the fish by failing to get the fish. It was too funny.

 

[Ellf]

Egg 1.5.2 (Taylor)

****************

After Chris and I brought the fish back to the village, he got snapped up by Missy for a project, leaving her partner free. Her human partner, that is. MetalKoromon and Chris teamed up with Missy and Chichimon for whatever project they were drafted for next. It didn't surprise me that Missy would want to go with her teammate. The two of them were Wards in Brockton, after all. Vista and Kid Win, even though both were relatively new, still had the camaraderie that came from being on the same team. It reminded me a bit of how Emma and I were when we were younger. Only Chris is a relatively cute boy, and the age difference between the two of them is a couple years rather than a couple months.

Regardless, this got Dorumon and I teamed up with Lily and her partner. The little fuzzball had taken up residence on the top of the Japanese girl's head. I couldn't help but grin at the adorable sight. It made Lily seem more approachable than she did otherwise. At least with Chris, we had the Brockton Bay connection, but Lily was a Ward from New York, and our first interaction was me borrowing her crossbow… arbalest… whatever. Still, she'd taken my plan quite well and been able to execute it in such a way that we dealt with our problem, albeit with the help of Katia, but I'd end up factoring her in next time. If there was a next time. Maybe Kyaromon and the others would grow like Dorumon had. I wondered idly what they would look like as I approached Lily.

"Got a new hat?" I asked, resting a hand on Dorumon's head lightly as she walked alongside me. "She looks good on you."

"I swear, she's just like a cat," Lily said. "Always wanting the highest place. Taylor, right?"

I nodded.

"Any idea what we're supposed to do next?" Lily glanced around the village. Somehow, her looks managed to miss the yellow armored Digimon walking up behind her.

"Villages like this need all sorts of help," Dorumon said. "They need to be protected."

"And food needs to be gathered," said Armadilomon. "Repairs to be made, wells to fix. Trees to chop. You two able to handle a hammer?"

"Well enough," I said, and Lily nodded, an impressive thing to see considering Kyaromon didn't move an inch. "What do you need?'

"There are some floors in a few of the buildings that need to be re-done. I can bring you the wood, but the two of you will have to place it," Armadilomon said.

"Got it," Lily said. "I suppose you don't get many able to help with that sort of thing."

"The last humans were able to do some," Armadilomon said, starting to walk. He looked back at us and made a beckoning motion with his head. Dorumon, Lily, and I followed. Kyaromon nuzzled into Lily's head.

"There were humans before them?" Dorumon asked. "I don't remember hearing about that."

"You're young," Armadilomon said. "Barely a rookie. Humans come every few years. Though not always through here."

Wait, so other humans had come here. I wondered if all of them had partner Digimon like we did. Well, most of us did. Katia kind of was her own partner there, but something just was odd about her. She was the oldest of us yet she seemed just uncomfortable in her own skin. That probably had something to do with the agoraphobia that she supposedly had. Still, other humans… I needed to know more.

"So, where do the humans usually go if not through here?" I asked.

"The Village of Beginnings," said Armadilomon. "Where all Digimon start out. They hatch from their Digi-Eggs and they're there until they reach In-Training. Then they usually go off and find places like this."

"The Village of Beginnings is where Digimon go to be reborn, Taylor, like MetalKoromon said," Dorumon said. "If a Digimon is deleted, their egg ends up there."

Kyaromon yawned. "Most of the time, yes. But we were special!"

"Just for us?" Lily asked, reaching up to pat Kyaromon's head. I swear, the two were adorable. If I could get a picture and just blur it so Lily wasn't so recognizable in the face, I'd post it to PHO in a heartbeat. "But if there were other humans, where are they now?"

Armadilomon stopped near a building that had some stairs leading up to its roof. "I wish I could tell you. But it's not like any of them came back here to tell ol' Armadilomon everything that happened with them. Maybe I worked them too hard and they resented me for it."

I shook my head. "I'm not sure that'd be it." It wasn't like he was working us all that hard. The work was even rewarding. We'd be helping a bunch of little Digimon have a better place to live in exchange for some food and lodging. "You're not working us too hard."

"Tell me that after you get done with that roof repair up there. There's some holes in that roof that need it," Armadilomon said. "Dorumon, I'll bring the wood here, you should carry the wood up for Taylor and Lily."

"Got it," she said. "You can count on me."

"What should I do?" Kyaromon asked.

"Maybe find a place to nap," Lily said. "I'm going to be bending over a lot and I don't want you falling off into the hole or something."

"Kay!" Kyaromon hopped down to the ground, following us as we climbed the stairs. "I'm going to go to the corner there, Lily."

Lily nodded. "That's a good spot. Looks like it'll be out of the way."

The rooftop itself was maybe a couple hundred square feet, and it had several holes in it. It was a mishmash of stonework, wood, some sort of hay and clay combination, and circuitry, like most things that we'd run into so far in the Digital World. I really wasn't entirely sure, but something told me that it was more the act of repairing that mattered than what materials we used to actually do the repairs.

Someone, I assumed Armadilomon, or maybe even the humans that had been in this village previously, had left a pair of hammers and some nails leaning against the side of the roof. Lily and I each grabbed one, and the handles immediately changed colors as we touched them. Mine turned a glossy black while Lily's turned purple, matching her Digivice's color.

"Huh," I said. "That's certainly weird."

"No kidding," Lily said. "But most things in this world are at least a little weird."

"True enough." I glanced down the stairs. Dorumon waved at me, and I returned her wave. Armadilomon still hadn't brought the wood as of yet, so I gave the hammer a few practice swings. "And we haven't even been here a full day yet."

"Yeah. Hard to believe." Lily looked over at Kyaromon. "Honestly, I'm half-worried that I'm stuck in some Master's dreamworld or something and my body's out doing something else without me in control."

"I… have no clue how to even handle that scenario," I said. "Because in that one, at the least, I would be some sort of creation by this dreamworld, and I'm definitely really here."

"Next thought I had was that this world itself could be a creation of a cape," Lily said. "Or an alternate, very strange, Earth."

"Like Aleph?"

"Exactly. The Protectorate doesn't like to talk about it much, but Professor Haywire very nearly kicked off a war with Aleph by making that connection," Lily said.

I nodded. "That's why they're called Aleph and we're Bet, even though our world is the one with more capes, right?"

"Exactly," Lily said. "So, if Aleph exists, surely there's Earths Gimel through Tav and beyond out there. Who's to say this isn't just Earth-Digital?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. To get to Aleph, Haywire had to use his powers, and I don't know about you, but I didn't exactly come here under the direct influence of powers."

Lily shook her head. "No, I didn't use my powers to get here, and I'm pretty sure nobody else did."

"What are your powers, anyway?" I asked. There were so many different powers out there, and Lily… Flechette was a relatively new hero to the scene. Plus, she was from New York, not Brockton, so it wasn't like she'd be on the local news at all, anyway. "It can't be jut to fire that big crossbow. I mean, I did that. It wasn't super hard."

"Arbalest, Taylor. It's an arbalest," Lily said with a small grin. "Tinkertech even, made by my teammate, Trinity."

I nodded. "So, what's it do?"

"Normally, it's got an infinite chain, and it rewinds itself on its own. Power for it comes from a small fusion battery that I've got here. Back at the base, I have a kit that makes me more bolts," Flechette said. She was definitely Flechette there rather than Lily, even if she wasn't wearing the mask. "I can use my power to make sure everything's hitting where I want it to. Normally, anyway."

"Powers aren't working?" I asked.

"Yeah. I've tried," Lily said with a sigh. "No enhanced reflexes, no making things ignore laws of physics, no angular calculation… Of course, there's some plusses…"

"Plusses?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not as upset about not having my powers as the others," Lily said with a smile. "Besides, the way you stepped up? Powers aren't completely necessary to be a hero. Sometimes you just need to know when to do the right thing."

I looked down for a moment and my cheeks heated up. "We needed to deal with it. The Dokugumon would have eaten us if we let it."

Lily nodded. "I hope that's not what happened to the other humans that came here. Armadilomon did say he didn't know what happened."

"Yeah," I said. "That they never came back to tell him anything. Maybe they got back home… wherever their home was."

"If it was Bet, I'm not sure why we hadn't heard of this before," Lily said, but then she shrugged. "Of course, with the whole thing with secret identities and unwritten rules, it could be something that I don't have clearance for."

"So, being a Ward doesn't get you all the information you want?" I asked. Then I shook my head. "While it would have been nice to know how they got back, if they did, it can't be helped that we don't."

"Dragon might," Lily said. "She's supposed to be an amazing hacker and tinker."

"I'll ask Katia when I talk with her," I said. "She's the oldest of us, anyway. She should be in charge."

"Maybe," said Lily. "You do a good job of it though. So—"

"I'm coming up with the wood now, Taylor!" Dorumon interrupted whatever Lily was about to say as she brought an armful of wooden slabs up the stairs. She held her arms out in front of her, and the wood rested on top of her arms and under her neck. She had another board on her back, being held up by a curling of her tail.

Lily and I quickly went to take some of it.

"Whoa, that's a lot of wood, Dorumon," Kyaromon said with a yawn. "I'm glad I'm not carrying it."

"Armadillomon dragged a whole sled here, but I could get it all," Dorumon said.

"You didn't have to do it all in one trip, silly," I said.

"But I did!" Dorumon dropped the wood down near us. "I wanted to listen to you talking more."

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yeah, you're my partner, which means I need to know more about you and Kyaromon should be paying attention to hers," said Dorumon.

"Lily is Lily," Kyaromon said. "Even when she's wearing the mask thingy that makes her look like Not-Lily."

Lily and I locked eyes for a second. The older girl broke first, and we both giggled. Kyaromon was adorable. Ems would probably think she was like a little kitten, but personally I thought she more resembled either a pudgy fuzzy ferret or a puffball with legs and ears. Still, we had only had our partners for a short while, not even a day. It didn't make sense that we should trust them so quickly, but Dorumon had worked to help save our lives. Kyaromon had been looking specifically for Lily.

I wondered if the previous humans here had partners as well and what those Digimon would say if we found them. It probably didn't matter. Unless they knew why they'd come in the first place, I wasn't sure it would be all that helpful to us. That said, they might be able to help us with other things and surviving here.

"Taylor, grab that wood there?" Lily asked, and I complied. The two of us started to hammer the wood over the broken spots in the roof. "So, Dorumon, what do you know about Taylor so far?"

"I know that she was in camp, has a father, doesn't have powers like you and the others are supposed to," Dorumon said, taking a breath. "She's also kind and strong, and we're going to make lots of new friends and be strong together. No bad Digimon is going to come past the two of us when we work together."

Lily nodded. "You keep on doing that. Kyaromon, do you think you'll get stronger too?"

"Yeah!" Kyaromon said, puffing up. "I'll be awesome! With your help, of course. "

"Yes, I'll help you," Lily said. "We're partners, right?"

"Right."

I smiled at the two of them, and I gestured for Dorumon to help me with some of the wood. "It's easy to accept these guys, isn't it?"

Lily nodded as she adjusted the wood on the ground and grabbed some nails. "Yeah. I don't think it's a Master effect, but we'd really have no way of knowing."

"Master?" Dorumon asked.

"Mind control," Lily said. "Masters can usually control something, people, animals… whichever. Of course, without powers working here…"

"Might be something different," I said with a nod. Powers were complicated, and even though I wanted them myself, I wasn't sure they necessarily were worth it. Dorumon, so far anyway, seemed a bit better. Familiar, even. "Digital stuff, probably."

I hammered some of the nails into the wood, covering up the hole in the roof. Lily took the other side, doing her own hammering, and we worked together in silence for a while. Dorumon passed us more wood when we needed it, and Kyaromon just sat and watched. It was kind of nice, working in the sunlight, albeit not exactly something I wanted to do every day.

Once we finished covering the first hole and nailing in that last nail, something strange happened. A pinging sound came from each of our waists, and our Digivices gave off a bright light. As we picked them up, the roof rippled for a second, and where we'd covered the hole, the roof suddenly was smooth with the hole filled with matching material to what surrounded it previously.

"So… we repaired the roof… and it… what?" Lily asked, looking at the space the hole was at.

I lightly placed my foot where the hole was, and then I added more weight without feeling any give. Huh. It had fully repaired itself. That… only made sense if… "Digital. This world is digital, right?"

"Yep! Digital World!" Dorumon said, practically chirping. She seemed a bit too happy. "Full of digital monsters and other things…"

"So, this roof, this building… everything around us… it's digital. Made of data?" I asked. The idea seemed crazy, but crazy was the name of the game here.

"Uh huh," Dorumon said. "Taylor, are you feeling okay?"

"Fine," I said. "So, the wood acted like filler data, and the building… more or less reformatted it. Weird."

"You sure you're not a Thinker?" Lily asked. "Because I never would have gotten that."

I waved my hand. "Just was into computers a little in middle school. I hope my high school's got a good teacher for it."

"What does any of this have to do with computers?" Lily asked. "And for that matter, why does that make any sense?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Digital World, remember? I just went with crazy ideas, and maybe they happened to be true."

Lily looked me up and down and shook her head lightly. "Some instincts you have, Taylor."

Emma'd probably say the same thing if she were here. Of course, she never got the chance since she wasn't at camp with me. Then again, she wasn't a cape, as far as I knew, but then again, neither was I.

I missed my best friend. I never got the chance to give her that call that I'd been planning on giving her today. There was just so much about camp that I needed to tell her. Of course, now I'd have even more to tell her when we got back.

I smiled at the Ward working with me. "Lily?"

"Yes, Taylor?"

"When we get back… if we get back… Do you think it'd be okay if I got your in-costume autograph?" I asked. "My best friend is more of a cape geek than me."

"Of course," Lily said. "Just keep up those instincts. And we'll definitely get back."

If I hadn't been looking at Lily right then, I might have missed it. A slight blush tinged her cheeks. It must have been from the sun. It wasn't like there was any other reason I could think of. She hadn't said anything embarrassing.

"Yeah," I said, getting back to work. "You're probably right."

Even if we didn't get back home, spending time with these people would be worth it.