I hope that by now anyone reading this can see why I'm okay with the chapters in this story being a little short. For as short as they are, a lot happens. In this chapter, for example, we get the kind of revelation that it took us the entirety of Book One to come to previously. The Digidestined make some huge leaps in logic, but heck, even if the scenario that they come up with here isn't Tyranterramon's endgame, the possibility that it is is incentive for them to keep going and continue the fight. And it really says a lot about how far all of them have come that they are all so willing to go into such extreme danger, even given the possible stakes. Well, except in the case of Kris. She isn't as all there as the others, so the implications of all of this might not have hit her yet.
Also hurray for bullshit technobabble, because I know practically zero real quantum physics. You'll see what I mean. At least it sounds like science. Kind of.
Chapter Three
Tyranterramon’s Plan
My team and I ran from the ocean region, fleeing deep into the surrounding forest. Once we were far enough away that the thunder was only a distant rumble we stopped to rest, searching for firewood and setting up a makeshift camp. Then we settled in around our newly lit fire to think things through.
A few feet away my two Digimon were engaged in one of their famous arguments. Each of them seemed to think that the other was to blame for our failure to defeat Tyranterramon. “You’re the one whose cannon wasn’t strong enough to finish him off!” Snakemon cried.
“At least my cannon could hit him. It took you the entire battle to strike just one blow with your sword,” BlackMainemon countered.
Snakemon hissed, and BlackMainemon bared his teeth. They lunged at each other, but I grabbed them mid leap, placing them on either side of me, “You two stay put. We can’t afford to be fighting amongst ourselves right now. Our enemy is just too strong.”
My two partners hung their heads in apology, and I turned back to the others.
“Alright, Tyranterramon is obviously strong, but we’ve hit him hard. Even he can’t recover from a blow like that easily. That gives us time to figure out what he’s planning.”
“He wants to destroy the world,” said Sarah. “What’s so complicated?”
“That’s ridiculous,” I replied, “no one
wants to destroy the world. What does that get them?”
“He doesn’t want to destroy the world,” said Mechmon. “I remember an old story, little more than a nursery rhyme, about a massive ancient Digimon who attacked the cores in an effort to use them to somehow gain control of the entire Digital World. I think this Digimon is actually Tyranterramon. The powers of the Digimon in the story match up.”
“But the only way that Tyranterramon’s ‘used the cores’ so far,” said Jen, “is by destroying the Ocean Core and absorbing its data. Doing so ruined the Ocean Region. Why ruin the world that you’re trying to rule?”
“I actually have a theory about that,” said Mechmon. “It’s a little far-fetched, but it’s the only thing that makes sense based on what we’ve seen of Tyranterramon’s behavior. I think that Tyranterramon plans on destroying not just one or a few cored, but all five cores.”
“But the cores hold the File Two together,” said Snakemon, like the implications of this should be obvious.
“Yeah,” said Ponymon, “and if Tyranterramon were to destroy all five cores, File Two would collapse.”
“He doesn’t want to destroy the world,” said Mechmon. “I remember an old story, little more than a nursery rhyme, about a massive ancient Digimon who attacked the cores in an effort to use them to somehow gain control of the entire Digital World. I think this Digimon is actually Tyranterramon. The powers of the Digimon in the story match up.”
“But the only way that Tyranterramon’s ‘used the cores’ so far,” said Jen, “is by destroying the Ocean Core and absorbing its data. Doing so ruined the Ocean Region. Why ruin the world that you’re trying to rule?”
“I actually have a theory about that,” said Mechmon. “It’s a little far-fetched, but it’s the only thing that makes sense based on what we’ve seen of Tyranterramon’s behavior. I think that Tyranterramon plans on destroying not just one or a few cored, but all five cores.”
“But the cores hold the File Two together,” said Snakemon, like the implications of this should be obvious.
“Yeah,” said Ponymon, “and if Tyranterramon were to destroy all five cores, File Two would collapse.”
“Wait,” I exclaimed, “what?! Are you
kidding me? You mean that stuff about the Cores holding the Digital world
together is literal?”
“Of course,” said Coltmon. “It’s why
the ocean region is such a violent mess now. It is literally falling apart.”
“Coming apart at the seams would be a
more apt analogy,” Mechmon interjected. “This entire reality is made of data and code
woven together into recognizable forms. Think of the Core as the knot tying the
thread off. Without it, the thread comes loose.”
“Then if there were no Cores,” Kris
reasoned, looking like she was trying to do a complicated math problem in her
head, “the whole world would be destroyed? That's bad.”
“Not just this world,” said Mechmon. “It would mean the end of your home dimension, the original Digital World, and probably a few other universes nearest them on the same pan-dimensional plane. At least in theory.”
“Why would Tyranterramon want that?” I asked, not even pretending to be able to follow everything that was being said. “He would die along with everything else, right?”
“Theoretically,” said Mechmon, “as Tyranterramon’s power grows, so will his control over the core data. By the time he absorbs the data of all five cores, he will be strong enough to survive even the empty void at the end of the world for a few minutes. In those few minutes he will have complete control over the data that governs this world. I believe that Tyranterramon plans to will that data into a new form, triggering a sort of controlled big bang. He wants to produce a world, a universe, of his own design that he can rule over for as long as he wants. I think that’s what it means ‘use the cores’.”
“If that’s the case,” I said as the weight of the situation began to hit me, “he’ll go after another core as soon as he’s strong enough. And the more cores he absorbs the more powerful he’ll become, until the world literally ends!”
I looked around at the wide, desperate eyes of my friends. We all knew that our rest time was over.
Using the Digicomp’s File Two map I figured that the closest core to Tyranterramon’s most likely location was the desert. The forest was large enough that you could be in the forest and still be days away from the forest core (wherever it was), but the desert was small. Reaching its core would be a simple matter for someone like Tyranterramon. According to Mechamon’s best guess Tyranterramon would need to almost fully recover before absorbing another core so soon after the first. That meant we had some time to regain our strength, but we would still have to leg it as we did.
“Not just this world,” said Mechmon. “It would mean the end of your home dimension, the original Digital World, and probably a few other universes nearest them on the same pan-dimensional plane. At least in theory.”
“Why would Tyranterramon want that?” I asked, not even pretending to be able to follow everything that was being said. “He would die along with everything else, right?”
“Theoretically,” said Mechmon, “as Tyranterramon’s power grows, so will his control over the core data. By the time he absorbs the data of all five cores, he will be strong enough to survive even the empty void at the end of the world for a few minutes. In those few minutes he will have complete control over the data that governs this world. I believe that Tyranterramon plans to will that data into a new form, triggering a sort of controlled big bang. He wants to produce a world, a universe, of his own design that he can rule over for as long as he wants. I think that’s what it means ‘use the cores’.”
“If that’s the case,” I said as the weight of the situation began to hit me, “he’ll go after another core as soon as he’s strong enough. And the more cores he absorbs the more powerful he’ll become, until the world literally ends!”
I looked around at the wide, desperate eyes of my friends. We all knew that our rest time was over.
Using the Digicomp’s File Two map I figured that the closest core to Tyranterramon’s most likely location was the desert. The forest was large enough that you could be in the forest and still be days away from the forest core (wherever it was), but the desert was small. Reaching its core would be a simple matter for someone like Tyranterramon. According to Mechamon’s best guess Tyranterramon would need to almost fully recover before absorbing another core so soon after the first. That meant we had some time to regain our strength, but we would still have to leg it as we did.
This time around we’d actually had time
to plan before coming to this world. In the few seconds of spare time that I’d
managed to scrape together at home I’d been able to grab some protein bars,
canned fruit, and three bottles of water, as well as some other assorted food
from the kitchen. This way we balance our nutrition and keep our strength at
its peak longer this time around. It wasn’t much, but we were going to need
every edge we could get, no matter how small. I pulled out the protein bars,
the fruit, some rolls, the water, some paper plates and some plastic forks. I
cracked open the cans of fruit with my Swiss Army Knife, dished the food, and
passed it around. We ate, and for the first time in this world that I could
remember since our time with the Gekomon, we were full.
After the meal we set out for the Desert Region, aiming to locate the next core before Tyranterramon. So far there was no indication that the scanners in our Digivices, or even the ones and mine and Jeremy’s secondary devices, could locate the energy given off by the cores, so our search could get difficult. But we were ready. As we walked Kristin and TechnoPupmon got to know each other better. Kris was impressed by how eager the metal pup was to help out, and by his powers, and TechnoPupmon found Kris’ odd roundabout way of thinking amusing.
After the meal we set out for the Desert Region, aiming to locate the next core before Tyranterramon. So far there was no indication that the scanners in our Digivices, or even the ones and mine and Jeremy’s secondary devices, could locate the energy given off by the cores, so our search could get difficult. But we were ready. As we walked Kristin and TechnoPupmon got to know each other better. Kris was impressed by how eager the metal pup was to help out, and by his powers, and TechnoPupmon found Kris’ odd roundabout way of thinking amusing.
Meanwhile Serpentmon and BlackColtmon
engaged in one of their more typical, less serious arguments. BlackColtmon
would comment on Serpentmon’s immature attitude, and Serpentmon would come back
with a crack about BlackColtmon’s over seriousness. It was a sign of their
friendship, and it meant that they had forgiven each other for their failure to
put an end to Tyranterramon’s threat, and were ready to move on.
“It’s weird,” said Jen, “we haven’t seen any wild Digimon since we arrived here.”
“Maybe they’re hiding,” I said solemnly, “I’m sure most of the Digimon in this area are aware of what happened in the Ocean Region.”
“It’s weird,” said Jen, “we haven’t seen any wild Digimon since we arrived here.”
“Maybe they’re hiding,” I said solemnly, “I’m sure most of the Digimon in this area are aware of what happened in the Ocean Region.”
I looked around. The forest in the
digital world had never been super lively compared to the ones back home, since
here insects and animals tended to be much larger, and so lived further apart,
but things were eerily quiet. Between Manipulamon and now Tyranterramon, I
wondered if some of the Digimon hadn’t decided to hide away for good and say “screw
it” to the whole world.
We
figured we could beat Tyranterramon in this world without collateral damage to
ours, I thought, but we never even considered the collateral damage that we might bring
down upon the lives of the people here. It was selfish.
I was snapped from my reverie, however, when a pair of Digimon chose to make themselves known to us. Out of the ground burst two mole-like Digimon with drills for noses and for toe nails.
“Well,” I said to Jen, “are you proud of yourself? You jinxed us.”
“You have entered the territory of the mighty Drimogimon bandits,” said one of the Digimon. I ignored them. At first I’d thought that they were our old friends Moji and Dre, but clearly I’d been wrong.
“They’re not any Drimogimon that we know,” I said.
“For entering our territory,” said the second Drimogimon, “you will have to be punished.”
“You don’t want to do that,” said BlackColtmon, but the two moles ignored him and lunged at us, thrusting with their drill-like claws. They were slow and easy to dodge.
“Ooh,” said Kris, “let me and Pup handle this one.”
I shrugged dismissively, “Knock yourselves out.”
Kris raised her Digivice and it came online, “Initiate Digivolution!”
TechnoPupmon grew, becoming a large robotic wolf made of green and blue armor panels covered in silver stripes, with leaf-like plumage protruding from his shoulders, “TechnoPupmon, Digivolve to, TechnoGarurumon!”
The large robotic wolf thrust his claws into the ground and called, “Gripping Thorns!” Suddenly thorn-covered vines grew from the ground and wrapped around one of the two enemies. Seeing his friend trapped, the other Drimogimon moved to attack. Its nose drill spun and it lunged forward. But TechnoGarurumon was too fast to be hit by such an obvious, straightforward attack. He leapt up and called “Nature Blaster!” A thick beam of leaf-green-colored energy lanced from his mouth, striking Drimogimon square in the back. Drimogimon was vaporized, becoming data.
“Don’t think you can beat me as easily as that dead weight,” said the other Drimogimon. He broke free of his restraints and began swiping wildly at his mechanized foe. TechnoGarurumon ducked under the oncoming attack, slid forward, and thrust his claws through his foe’s chest. The second Drimogimon vaporized as well, and TechnoGarurumon de-Digivolved to TechnoPupmon.
“Awesome job Pup!” said Amanda. Kris agreed, giving the metal dog a hug.
“You weren’t too bad I guess,” said BlackColtmon.
“Oh come on,” said Serpentmon enthusiastically. “That was awesome!”
I smiled, but I just couldn’t get very excited over such a small victory. TechnoPupmon and his Digivolved forms were strong, true. But the question was, in the end, would they be strong enough to make any difference against someone like Tyranterramon? If not, then what would?
Next Chapter >>
I was snapped from my reverie, however, when a pair of Digimon chose to make themselves known to us. Out of the ground burst two mole-like Digimon with drills for noses and for toe nails.
“Well,” I said to Jen, “are you proud of yourself? You jinxed us.”
“You have entered the territory of the mighty Drimogimon bandits,” said one of the Digimon. I ignored them. At first I’d thought that they were our old friends Moji and Dre, but clearly I’d been wrong.
“They’re not any Drimogimon that we know,” I said.
“For entering our territory,” said the second Drimogimon, “you will have to be punished.”
“You don’t want to do that,” said BlackColtmon, but the two moles ignored him and lunged at us, thrusting with their drill-like claws. They were slow and easy to dodge.
“Ooh,” said Kris, “let me and Pup handle this one.”
I shrugged dismissively, “Knock yourselves out.”
Kris raised her Digivice and it came online, “Initiate Digivolution!”
TechnoPupmon grew, becoming a large robotic wolf made of green and blue armor panels covered in silver stripes, with leaf-like plumage protruding from his shoulders, “TechnoPupmon, Digivolve to, TechnoGarurumon!”
The large robotic wolf thrust his claws into the ground and called, “Gripping Thorns!” Suddenly thorn-covered vines grew from the ground and wrapped around one of the two enemies. Seeing his friend trapped, the other Drimogimon moved to attack. Its nose drill spun and it lunged forward. But TechnoGarurumon was too fast to be hit by such an obvious, straightforward attack. He leapt up and called “Nature Blaster!” A thick beam of leaf-green-colored energy lanced from his mouth, striking Drimogimon square in the back. Drimogimon was vaporized, becoming data.
“Don’t think you can beat me as easily as that dead weight,” said the other Drimogimon. He broke free of his restraints and began swiping wildly at his mechanized foe. TechnoGarurumon ducked under the oncoming attack, slid forward, and thrust his claws through his foe’s chest. The second Drimogimon vaporized as well, and TechnoGarurumon de-Digivolved to TechnoPupmon.
“Awesome job Pup!” said Amanda. Kris agreed, giving the metal dog a hug.
“You weren’t too bad I guess,” said BlackColtmon.
“Oh come on,” said Serpentmon enthusiastically. “That was awesome!”
I smiled, but I just couldn’t get very excited over such a small victory. TechnoPupmon and his Digivolved forms were strong, true. But the question was, in the end, would they be strong enough to make any difference against someone like Tyranterramon? If not, then what would?
Next Chapter >>
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