Route of Fel Fires Part 3
**Presently** Monoku/Jadramon
Almost, almost there you two, keep it—. And now we’re falling as a Tsunomon. Just as we crested the lip of the edge. Jaku’s mind is reeling in fear as gravity begins to take hold of us, while Monodramon’s mind is rolling its eyes in a very “I told you so” manner. Despite this, as despair struggles to dig its clawed grip into us, we find ourselves not falling. Rather, an Elecmon has caught the tip of our horn in his jaws, and is struggling to maintain his balance precariously perched at the edge of the floating farm island.
Monodramon’s mind won’t admit how grateful it is to not be facing another plummeting as it grumbles about the events. Hey, enough with that, I’m no sap, and I don’t need to be grateful to nobody for nothin’. I’d have figured a way out of it.
Sure you would Monodra, sure you would. Your ridealongs are grateful for certain. If we’re lucky, our act of mutual salvation will leave us in the good graces of these farm digis. That would mean food Monodramon, maybe enough to re-digivolve.
Monodramon’s mind growls back, I know what it means lamebrain!
Perhaps we should remind Monodramon that we literally are his brain. Regardless, it appears we’re saved, as several Tanemon help drag the Elecmon back from the edge of the island. We work at finding an appropriate way to greet the farm digis, but apparently Monodramon’s mind and mouth have other ideas.
Monodramon, as Tsunomon, growls, “Hey, watch out you don’t cut yourself. I aint going to be responsible if you derez yourself. You lumps of grass got any food around here?”
We would be facepalming if we had any limbs, or control over them. As we’re about to attempt a slightly hostile takeover of our shared mouth, we receive a surprise visit from several Piximon that look quite the worse for wear.
The eldest-appearing Piximon orders us, “You there, quickly, before it falls completely, you must enter the portal of destiny.”
Monodramon, as Tsunomon, grumps, “I aint gotta do nothing pal. I’m worn out from saving this farm. I want some food, and I want to get back towards Devidramon. Monodramon at least. Buzz off Pixipunk.”
Piximon brings its small wooden staff bearing down upon us to strike Tsunomon’s head. However, with Monodramon in full control of what little constitutes our current body, his reflexes are far swifter than we anticipated. Monodramon’s mind directs our Tsunomon form to dodge the incoming skull-rap almost effortlessly. He truly is used to picking, and likely winning, fights.
The eldest Piximon motions to the other Piximon to surround us, leaving our Tsunomon form in a poor position. Monodramon’s mind simply has us growling a challenge at the five younger Piximon. We really could have handled this much better Monodra, you do know that, don’t you? Jaku’s mind has been unusually silent, as it appears to be shunted into some far corner of our consciousness. It’s worrying to say the least.
Monodramon, as Tsunomon, once again orders, “Buzz off, I aint got the energy to waste on you Pixipunks. Gotta get some grub. Then after that, gotta find a way down and find some other losers to fight to fill my dark-data belly. Well, I guess I aint dark-data anymore, but whatever.”
This assertion causes all of the Piximon to pause. The eldest asks, “You’re what? Not dark-data any longer? Is your brain addled? There’s no cure for dark-data, only temporary patches for their memory leak. We’d be able to see if you were a patched dark-data digi.”
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Monodramon, as Tsunomon, barks back, “I’m telling you Pixipunks, I was dark-data, never ate another ‘mon, but I was! Then I kinda died I guess, only some human kid punk thing died too, and I kinda ate their extra data, and suddenly there was more going on. Now I want to just go on about my life without the noose of a flippin’ perpetual memory leak around my neck.”
Piximon looks aghast, “You, a dark-data digi had a partner? And they died?”
Monodramon’s mind rolls our Tsunomon eyes before stating, “Of course I didn’t have a partner. Was just some weird human punk that stumbled onto a fight with some dark-data Weregaruru in the wilderness. We both bit the dust I guess. I think that Weregaruru was digivolving into a Beelzemon after finishing us off. I was, koff, grumble, passing out, koff, grumble, after ,koff, losing, koff, to that crazed creep, and when I was waking up, we were dropping thousands of feet out of the sky here in the Digital World.”
The eldest Piximon motions for his allies, or attendants to stand down, and he approaches our Tsunomon face. Piximon’s peering stare contains an intensity that burns into us like an LCD left on a single image for too long. Despite ourselves, Monodramon unwillingly quivers slightly under Piximon’s gaze. The Piximon seems unable to find proof of any sort of falsehood in Monodramon’s statements, and appears baffled by this revelation.
Piximon demands, “Where is this human then? Surely you didn’t consume their body.”
Monodramon, as Tsunomon, responds, “Of course not Pixipunk. I think it’s a greasy red smear near a pool of lava, or maybe it fell in the lava. I don’t remember. It was kind of a blur. We were falling as Tsuno, there was extra data, and it got me back up to Monodramon, so I glided to safety. Didn’t really keep an eye on a crispy plummeting corpse. Kinda too gruesome even for me.”
Piximon grimaces at our description of Jaku’s body, its demise, and location. Eventually Piximon’s grimace recedes to a simple frown of disappointment. Turning towards the farm digis, Piximon asks, “Elec, would you be so kind as to please set our new friend up with some silo space, quickly now, before we lose our window. The Portal of Destiny is falling, and my brethren can’t stop it. Something knows the portal is here, and keeps opening rifts to attack its suspension enchantment.”
Piximon looks pained as a feather simultaneously falls from the left wing of each of the assembled Piximon. It doesn’t take us long to realize its significance. One of a very close-knit group of Piximon has derezzed in a way that there’s no coming back from. What data held their shared feathers in place amongst their friends has vanished. Worse, another feather drops, and another. The eldest Piximon points towards the nearby falling island, and the other five rush off as a fourth feather drops from each of their wings. It’s believed that close-knit groups of Piximon grant each other a feather from their own wings, in place of one another’s. It seems such belief is true, and likely for just such an occasion.
Elecmon and several Tanemon haul a digi-coder towards us, and Monodramon’s mind grumbles, knowing we don’t have anywhere to put such an etching-QR-tattoo besides our face, or the back of our head. The etching may remain on the back of our head after digivolving, or it may end up on our tail, or rump. Despite his mental protest and reluctance, Monodramon sits at the edge of the digi-coder, awaiting the inevitable squishing and burning that occurs in short order.
Monodramon would be rubbing our rear in a mixture of embarrassment, annoyance, and mild pain, if we had limbs currently. Still, he’s looking forward to having access to an all-you-can-eat digital inventory, or as close as he’s ever likely to see to such a thing. He’s even willing to follow this Piximon through some portal at this point, as it means we’re not hanging out on islands getting attacked by shadow monstrosities that don’t offer any data.
Monodramon greedily digs out the first three pieces of meat that appear in our new digital inventory, and scarfs them down immediately, edging us closer to returning to his desired digivolution stage. We’re not quite there, but we remain close. We’re quite certain Monodramon is sizing up the eldest Piximon, trying to determine if we’d risk losing more data in a fight than we’d gain.
Jaku still remains silent, disconcertingly so. Without access to even a single limb, they’re essentially trapped in someone else’s mind. We can sense that it feels like a hellish, fiery prison from which there is no escape. Jaku’s existence is currently bound entirely to Monodramon, and that may be for eternity, or until we’re rent asunder by those shadow monstrosities. Such an event is one which may simply remove each of us from existence entirely with no reincarnation as a digitama. We’re not certain if that would be preferable to Jaku at this point, as opposed to being reincarnated over and over, linked to, and trapped within Monodramon’s mind.