Digital Odyssey: They Move on Tracks of Never-Ending Light
 

The group stopped.

Unlike most of the other momentary halts in the most recent trek, this one was much more deliberate. Over the past half-hour the three Meramon had paused occasionally, but only to momentarily confer amongst themselves and subtly alter their course.

Conversation with the Meramon after the initial introductions had been sparse. There had been confusing mentions of others and safeguards, and then a discussion embargo had descended.

However, the embargo hadn't descended quite down to the level of the smaller sentient flame beings, who, like the children from the nursery, had overcome their initial fear of the unfamiliar and sought to make best friends. They identified themselves as DemiMeramon and offered up what little their small heads had memorized: The Golemon the group had dispatched was at most a psychological drain, rained from above at regular intervals to keep the Resistors exhausted and on nerves. The mist that hung in the air, it seemed, was the true threat; although the DemiMeramon didn't make it clear, the general consensus was that the mist was preventing advanced digivolutions from happening. When asked about the source of the mist the group was met with blank and confused stares.

That thread was ended with this latest halting. Two of the Meramon went to opposite sides of a nondescript patch of land, digging their inflamed hands into the earth and lifting. The incongruous sound of metal on metal rang out in the forest as the patch was raised, dirt spilling off the now exposed metallic columns.

A burst of fire was the first greeting, startling the group but not the Meramon who had remained in front of the new underground entrance. Their new guide took control of the flame and returned it, then motioned for the group to head into the maw in the ground.

Once inside, it took a moment to adjust to the new light source. In direct contrast to the murky gloom above, this was a blindingly gleaming hallway lit by omnipresent fluorescent tubes. In front of them was a large sign, written confusingly in the bold and sterile type of the languages of Earth. It informed them, in up to 17 languages, that the mess hall was to their right, while the infirmary and other bureaucratic offices was to the left.

Standing off to the side, a fourth Meramon gave the group a gruff lookover as the other Meramon filed in. The DemiMeramon streamed past the entire gathering, racing each other towards the mess hall. The Meramon who had originally spoken to them again motioned for them to follow, down the hall following the DemiMeramon. The other two stood alongside the fourth.

As they walked, they passed a series of doors, each door accompanied by a small charred square. Small black cameras, extremely noticeable against the bleached white surroundings, erratically twisted and swiveled, operating on either an extremely complicated or extremely broken algorithm.

Finally they came to a great opening, although they knew they were approaching something when they heard a modest din. The noise was revealed to be a large cafeteria, tables strewn about randomly while being occupied by an assortment of digimon. The rabble immediately quieted as the group entered, but the Meramon hustled through, taking no notice of the strange stares of awe. The group moved quickly through the room, passing into the doors leading to the kitchen. Amongst the giant, familiar, accouterments of ovens and cutlery, a more gaunt Meramon sat, manually cooking a large pan of frozen lasagna. He nodded to the original Meramon, then craned a look at the group of newcomers.

"Hmm, and what have you brought me?" His voice sounded more refined than the gruffness of the others, full of careful inquisition.

"New enemies of Bansheemon...they can digivolve."

This warranted a second appraisal from the elder. He nodded. "Hmm...interesting indeed. Well, excellent find. Dinner might be late, tell the others." With that the warrior was dismissed. The elder looked at the confused faces, then chuckled. "I don't think either of us will be getting answers with just our eyes, will we? Pull up a chair, I'll be right back."

While the group nervously found aluminum chairs and empty crates to sit on, the Meramon departed, but quickly returned with a set of plates, utensils, and a large jug of tea. "I'm afraid I can only offer hot drinks." He offered this apology with a smile. "Now, if you wouldn't mind filling me in on what you're up to?"

<They're everywhere! They're all full of Jeremy and Co. Doom! We're screwed! SCREWED! But the fire they're made of is so pretty....>

"Well Mr. talking beautiful flame of wonder, I'm Jeremy Negem and this my merry band of men (and thieving women). And we're here on an extended and mostly unplanned for vacation to have our every waking moment threatened by demons of every size and shape. Especially this one." Jeremy opened up

"Not a demon!" Chisokumon pouted, sipping some tea.

"We seem to have this nice colored thingies after meeting a fishy lady, gained magical familiars that so far have earned their keep, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make good on a promise I made last thread."

With that explanatory message, he then proceeded to leap onto the table and jump at Rosetta, in an attempt to reclaim what was lost.

The journey with the Meramon had been awkward, at best; Akuamon noted that Jenna's cheery mood that she'd held so firm upon first arriving had entirely dissapated. He could understand, he supposed; he had never been outside the nursery before, and it was a grim welcome to the world. What had at first been in a world full of cute little creatures with neat abilities, and nothing worse than a playful scuffle, now was all gloom and fighting and hurt.

But her change in demeanor was a bit excessive, it seemed; many of the other children didn't seem nearly as worried. Jeremy was certainly hyper enough, almost acting like any panic he had was more for show and joke than anything else.

As the woman--Bansheemon, she was called--had vanished, he felt his energy leave as she shrunk back down to Akuamon. During the trek, Jenna had barraged him with "Are you all rights" and "are you sures", but he focused on their walk through the misty lands. He was tired, sure, and rather sore, but it was really nothing...

---

Entering the Meramon's hideout was nerve-wracking, mostly due to all the blank, watching lenses of the cameras and gawking Digimon. Jenna tried to give the onlookers a small smile.

As they were seated, Jenna looked to the frozen meal. They had that sort of thing here, too...she had never much liked the food, but regardless she felt a pang of homesickness.

When the Meramon returned, she accepted a cup of tea, but it was nearly spilled as Jeremy dove across the table. "Err," she managed. Any thought she might have had to reply to the Elder Meramon was forgotten as she stared at his antics.

Before the hideout...

Lee looked around the battle zone at what remained of their ambushers, seeing their numbers falling rapidly, but likewise some of the other digimon were also starting to dedigivolve. Others began to replace them and continue the fight and very quickly Bansheemon was left almost entirely alone. Lee was about to shout something Taurusmon, to tell him to attack her now that her guards were down but before he had a chance the fight was over and Bansheemon fled.

"It seems we have found another enemy of Bansheemon."

"Meramon", Taurusmon said softly, walking back over to Lee. Lee in turn gave a slight nod, implying his understanding; the cavalry had arrived. They were safe now.

With calm finally established, Lee could finally take in the appearance of Taurusmon properly.

"So, what's the verdict?", the bull asked him. Lee just gave an expressionless stare and replied, "What, you couldn't have gotten any bigger?!"

"Oh, is that a joke I detect??", said Taurusmon in mock surprise, "Hahah-oh..." Taurusmons laugh was suddenly cut short as he began to glow and shrank back down to Buffalomon. "Aww nuts, guess being all big and powerful ain't as easy as a single digivolve huh." He sounded dissapointed.

In the present...

After the uneasy trip through the Meramons hideout had finished putting him on edge, any thought of food or drink Lee might've had vanished when such provisions became available. Instead he simply seated himself on an empty crate near the rear of the room with his back to the wall and watched with a slight sigh as the inevitable chaos unfolded...

Eric felt terrible sitting there on the cold aluminum chair and a cup of tea in his hands. For the umpteenth time since their new companionship with the Meramon, his mind returned to what had happened in the forest.

He had been running to catch up with the group after Coronamon showed off his new abilities when the ground started to shake. Normally he was a person with rather good balance, but he had tripped on something as the earth moved beneath him. What realy made him feel bad, and Coronamon too, was that his digimon tried to catch him, only to force his body to twist enough in the air to have his head impact with a nearby rock. Needless to say he was out cold for quite some time, and when he came to he saw Coronamon perched over him. His partner then told him what was going on, and that he was keeping him safe until he woke up.

Eric was grateful, of course, but he still couldn't help but feel bad that he only arrived at the battle right when the Meramon showed up. So now he sat, his head bowed in shame, and Coronamon desperately trying to cheer him up.

When the elder Meramon asked his question, Eric ignored Jeremy's answer and once he had pounced at Rosetta he looked up at the blazing humanoid.

"I don't think any of us know what's really going on," he said, wanting desperatly to be of some help. "We woke up in a nursery of sorts, where a digimon named Solmon gave us these scales and told us to find you. I don't think she knew what was going on either, and it sounded like we just appeared in the middle of her nursery."

Eric paused, racking his brain to try and figure something out.

"From what I've heard so far, digivolution doesn't seem to be very common, yet it seems that our digimon can do it with somewhat ease. If we can help you in any way, I know me and Coronamon are ready and willing."

Especially since we didn't help a bit last time, he added silently, the terrible feelings returning.

Rosetta was too busy looking down at Moonmon, cradled in her arms, to notice Jeremy leap onto the table or breaking of the fourth wall.

Since the battle, Moonmon hadn't woken up. After trying to defeat a Golemon to just get to her, Lunamon had ended up the most injured out of all of them. If she wasn't so brash - so hasty, then this wouldn't have happened. Even if she hadn't known Moonmon for long, the fact was clear - this was her fault.

She did, however, notice Jeremy jump at her from the table. Instinctively, she held out her hand, trying to stop him in time. As Jeremy was already in mid air, nobody but Neo could stop him now.

And so, Jeremy crashed into Rosetta, landing on top of her with her back to the floor. Rosetta's eyes widened for a moment, not entirely sure what was happening. Soon enough, though, that familiar anger welled up inside her, and she punched him off her.

"Pervert!" she yelled, glaring at him. Holding Moonmon to tighter to her chest, hoping she wasn't hurt, kept her free hand in a fist. "Just what do you think you're doing?!"

A moment later, she remembered that his hands were on her head - though at the time she thought he just had a strange fetish. Running her hand through her hair, she remembered what had been there before though wasn't now.


"Oh," she said, in a much lower voice. "Your goggles. Sorry, but I don't have them anymore."

The first golemon had blown it off her head. She hadn't bothered to get it, as her main concern was Lunamon at the time.

However...she remembered, just a little bit, of what she saw when she ran at Bansheemon.

"Actually," she said, in almost a whisper. "I think that Bansheemon grabbed it or something, since I saw it caught up in her hair."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh h!"
Jeremy's yell was so loud, glasses threatened to shatter and the room shook a bit, as if he himself was a banshee.

Then with that, he collapsed to the floor in the fetal position.

In a few minutes he would make a mad dash to the door, then stop and return to this pose, then after awhile do it again, slowly making progress toward his goggles and the doom that held them.

Chisokumon sipped his tea calmly as his tamer spazzed on the floor. "I think he drank too much tea. It can make you all jittery. So, is Moonmon going to be alright, Rosetta?"

Rosetta was silent for a moment, before nodding. "Of course," she said confidently as she could manage. "Any partner of mine isn't going to be beaten like this!

"Then again," she said, looking at Jeremy. "If you were exactly like your partner, it would be a little scary - wouldn't it, Chisokumon?"

She smiled at the rookie, feeling relieved already. Something popped in her head, though, as she looked around. This was a village of Meramon - who Solmon had told them to find. At first, she had assumed it was a single digimon, but...

Did this mean that there could be more than one Bansheemon? Curse their lack of plural/singular distinction!

Everything was moving like a blur to Jun. One minute, Dobermon had blown a Golemon to pieces, and the next he had shrunk back down to Houndmon and nearly gotten trampled by another Golemon. Then, these giant flame men came out of no where, to take them to an underground hideout. Jun had calmly picked up Houndmon and followed them. Now, the whole group were sitting on chairs, drinking tea with what she was told were the Meramon. One of their group, Jeremy she remembered, was spazzing out on the floor screaming about his goggles. Clearly Jeremy was much more immature for his age than she thought at first. She took a sip of her tea, wishing it were coffee and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, but will someone just tell me what the hell is going on?" Houndmon looked at his confused partner and just sweatdropped.

Jamario:

For some reason, Jamario felt more confident with the goggles on, like he was finally worthy of this adventure. As they entered the hideout, he felt a sense of pride well up in his chest. He was chosen He was special. On his back he felt the digimon fidgeting anxiously. Jamario Looked back at his partner and whispered "Isn't this cool?" Colugomon sniffed the air. "hmmm, something seems wrong, hmm never mind" Colugomon grinned confidently. "Let's make ourselves known"

Jamario's newfound bravery and sense of worthiness quickly vanished "Wait! stop" he hissed as Colugomon jumped off his back and glided to the center of the table.

He ran after his digimon, but tripped over Jeremy's curled up frame. "Ohh, I'm sorry bruh, my digimon's acting crazy again" Jamario scrambled to his feet then rushed over to the table where Colugmon was speechifying

Colugomon:

Colugomon stood up on the table and addressed the digimon present "I see you all have very good taste in champions. Now that I'm here, we can get to this "saving the digital world" bit! and while we're at it, I should introduce myself. I am Colugomon, the mighty, and this is my human partner-mmf" A brown hand clamped itself over the squirrel's mouth and an am lifted him off the table."uhh, I'm sorry everybody, he has this condition see, where he says crazy things. just ignore him."