-Equus, Airship Mauled, Fizzy-
I watched as Jaded got slammed in the chest by our strange Chimera daughters, they were happy and giggling in a playful manner as they knocked over the fun mother. I sometimes felt left out, because it was kind of hard for me to approach Silvers…
I was distracted by Silvers suddenly running up to me, all three of their heads looking up at me expectantly and I glanced at Jaded, she made a gesture towards Silvers and gave me a smile and a wink while making a heart shape with her claws.
Sure I was a bit wary, I’ve left most of Silvers rearing to Maries and Jaded, nobody would say Jade was a bad mother. Sure she was irresponsible, clinically insane, still going to therapy, we’re trying to stop her from being Saddle Arabia’s most well-known villain ‘Mirage’ and a notorious relatively hated rogue outside of Saddle Arabia, but nobody could say she was a bad queen to her kittens.
Jaded didn’t dote on them all the time and didn’t give them everything or spoil them, what she did do was challenge them at times and helped their minds grow.
I really don’t know what to do personally when I’m with Silvers, I’ve always been busy and they were growing up so fast.
I felt a paw press against my leg and our chimera child whines up at me, their Unicorn head, Abyssinian head and Dragon head were all looking to me for affection with bright eyes. Where did Jaded go? Probably off to help Gallus with his training today and this leaves me alone with Silvers.
I sighed, smiled and started to toy with them using my magic, when they got older they would probably stop seeking affection from me for being so cold at times.
Soon, before I knew it I was actually getting quite playful with them and forgetting all the world’s worries. Who knows where Jaded and Maries were, they left me alone with Silvers and I had to watch them.
We couldn’t just leave everything to Kuril, goodness knows she’s mostly raising little Gavin what with Jackie’s dangerous profession as a ‘cursed treasure’ hunter and being a pirate in general.
I had no problem with spending time with Silvers after a good thirty minutes or so, right up until Silvers started squirming. I think they needed to go to the bathroom… my lovely jerks were quite shrewd it would seem and I couldn’t even see Maries around, I did need to do my due diligence in cleaning up after Silvers.
“Come on, let’s go to the litterbox.” Sighing audibly, I wonder if Jaded was actually taking care of Gallus’s training today… or was she just plain outright torturing him?
-Gallus’s Training-
“Stop crying Gallus, Sehket put me through the same thing and I came out perfectly fine.” Jaded said cheerfully, but that only made Gallus whine harder as he knew his older adoptive sister wasn’t the sanest of individuals.
“What is it with my family and training me in possibly abusive ways?!” Gallus cried out as a large rock swung into him.
“You’re going to be one of the best guards this world has ever seen Gallus, good enough to catch even me!” Jaded retorted, she avoided answering the question at all and though she wasn’t world renowned in her infamy. She was definitely well known for outrunning or at least outmaneuvering the Wonder Bolts multiple times. That was mostly because Jaded playfully got Spitfire to chase her through the streets of Canterlot numerous times. “Besides the rocks build toughness and we’re not swinging them hard enough into you to seriously harm you.”
“I should call child services on you!” Gallus grunted and threw off the large rock like he was an earth pony, Jaded stayed quiet on pointing out how strong the lovable blue griffon was getting. Gallus was far stronger than Jaded physically was at the very least, could stand to work on his agility more.
“Mom is child services in Airship Mauled though…” Stated Jaded while looking thoroughly confused about what that would do when the sovereign nation of Airship Mauled’s child services were all on Kuril La Perm. Not that they had an orphanage or orphans to really worry about yet, but the local Diamond Dogs were somewhat accident prone and starting families so it might eventually become an issue. They would have to eventually get around to that, as Kuril couldn’t have every single wayward kitten all to herself in an unhealthy manner. “Anyway, let’s continue with Sekhet’s demi-god training regimen for one being armies that only halfway works for mortals. Flamberge and Fortitude…”
“I AM FORTITUDE, THE FANTASTICALLY FRANGRANT!” A voice shouted from off screen trying to cut Jade off.
“Certainly ’Survived’ this training.” It was easy to know that ‘Survived’ was the nice word for it and Jaded continued her sentence with barely a pause while ignoring a yak shouting about how smelly he was. “You can too Gallus. Think about it, all this pain and suffering now and later you won’t have to worry about it because you’ll be too bruised to feel anything… huh, yeah, is this kind of abusive? Eh, probably, but at least it’s not me going through this again. Anyway, how good are you with spears at this point?”
-Pokémon realm, Kingdom of Valora, Ironclad City, West Port, Pom-
The West Port of Ironclad City was along the coast northeast of Illusio, with a small corner of Avia bordering between the two places.
Avia, kingdom of the Flying Types, wasn’t the current issue as they were busy preparing for a fight with Dragnor the kingdom of Dragon Types who were already in a pitched fight with Spectra apparently.
The news came from Ieyasu himself, who simply thought they were petty squabbles. Also that Nobunaga of the Dragon Kingdom of Dragnor and Lady No of the Ghost Kingdom of Spectra were just fighting one another to see if they could be prospective political partners. I heard that some Pokémon don’t care about egg compatibility when it came to finding love. Dittos were often mentioned when it came to odd couples, but it was never explained why they were.
I was trying not to get too involved in the kingdoms personal wars, because what was happening here sounds far more urgent than some petty border squabbles as Ieyasu puts it.
Okay, I had to get Dormarch away from me for a while so I could talk with Ocellus privately, he’d likely want to take a bath with me and wouldn’t let me out of his sight for too long. I could definitely go for that bath right now, it would be a nice mother and child bonding moment, with my limited lifespan I don’t have much time to do that and actually enjoy many things.
Knowing me, I’ll be thrown into a whirlwind of pain pretty soon and I’m going to need healing before my next big bit of fighting. Any peace I could get was worth more than all the gold I could ever possibly own in my lifetime, which is looking quite grim.
Can’t very well shut everyone out of my life or shut down like I tried to do in Pugilis. I knew how to mother puppies as I was a ‘Baa-Baa’ for four very special Canis Minors that will eventually be Majors one day. Couldn’t be too hard to be similar for Dormarch, only it was going to be a bit more affectionate as far as relationships go.
Still after I bathe, I would at least want Dormarch to be somewhere else for a while so I can talk with Ocellus and possibly stop Smolder from being afraid of me… or was she afraid for me? At this point does it matter, she’s been rather skittish since I stopped in at the wagon to repair Dolly’s skateboard.
At least the repairs to said board were done with Dormarch’s help, but it certainly took some doing to safely fill the missing chunk in the board that had been taken out by that devastating weapon. I’m pretty sure Red Gil has that and is still running around with Greenkidu somewhere, at least that guy seemed more jovial about life than the other Gilgamesh we fought.
“Come on Dolly, Dormarch, now that we’re done repairing Dolly’s board it’s time we got a nice bath in. You’ll have a few hours to play and then then I’ll be making dinner for the evening after we hear out what Sami has to say.” After I said this, Dolly made a gagging noise and Dormarch seemed excited.
For Dormarch it meant spending more time together, for Dolly it was me getting rid of her peculiar smells after all the stuff we did in Nixtorm and the few things she might have gotten into or rolled around in while I wasn’t looking.
Dolly was still a tomboy dog, one with a mile long streak attraction to huskies. At least Dolly understood the reason why you had to clean yourself every once in a while, goodness knows I don’t want anyone getting sick around me and surprisingly it hasn’t happened yet to a disastrous degree.
Shanty was sick for a short while, but I was a continent away at the time. It involved lots of swamp water and voodoo monsters trying to drown her apparently. Sly Cooper’s gang was full of saints, even if they were notorious thieves I’d welcome them into my home with open hooves if I ever saw them again.
“I’ll show you to the bathhouse I personally give my patronage to if you’re ready.” Ieyasu stated as he stomped up to us, he had been busy organizing his people in the port for the next Enemy Program attack and saw us starting to move away. This place was hopefully going to remain a safe zone due to his effort. He was making sure the needed facilities in the city stayed open and were the most protected, fishing was a big thing here as a lot Pokémon around here could eat meat.
As we were led there by the king of Valora himself, I asked about the various local facilities starting with the obvious. Medical facilities, if things have been as bad as Shanty has hinted at and the sights around here were quite run down from constant battle damage, then the medical facilities must be a bit overrun at the moment.
Ieyasu said that the hospitals around here were fairly overworked, but it had plenty of well-paid Chansey that all had the word ‘joy’ somewhere in their names. Also thanks to the toughness of Steel Types, as long as they didn’t run up against the Berserker Viking’s heat generating axes, they generally did very well against the EPs in battle.
So while some injuries were bad, it was mostly the mild injuries and the ‘heavy’ amounts of exhaustion being a big problem. Made sense, given all Steel Types were easily drained of their stamina given how heavy they were and how much strength it took to move their bodies in general if they were ground bound Steel Types. I couldn’t even begin to guess how exhausting it is for those Skarmory to even get airborne in the first place with how their wings worked.
The City was quite sprawling and large, so it had plenty of bathhouses including one of Ieyasu’s favored which we were currently heading towards.
I asked about the commerce in the city next. It used to be better, but all the fighting in the streets made the vendors move to be closer to the outer edges of the city where it was safer, since the EPs started appearing near the more technological points of the city.
The parts where computers and technology were more prevalent were towards the more central districts. The society here was far more advanced than most of the continent, given there were cameras and other bits of machinery and factories that I didn’t see much of anywhere else on the continent.
If you discounted Illusio’s floating city of Cerebrum, having just reminded myself that it no longer existed, and Violight where their advancements could use the energy of the locals to power things. Valora was the most advanced place in Ransei and was always looking towards the future.
Living space wasn’t a problem, sure the homes and apartment blocks were a bit damaged from all the incursions of the EPs, but the Steel Types were said to be and are titled as the most stubborn Pokémon on the continent next to Rock Types. As such their buildings were structurally built to last as long as they would themselves in most fights, which explained why the structures were huge to fit some of the larger Steel Type Pokémon around, but still accommodated the smaller Pokémon too. They built big here and it showed, given this city was the likely to be largest one in all of Ransei… that was still around.
If I had a hide made of steel I would be pretty stubborn too, my wool could only do so much to mimic metal and would be growing back faster if I was given more time and plenty of food.
Glancing around a the tall buildings, that rivaled those in San Fransokyo, were holding up to constant stress of an invasion force from beyond this world and the damage dealt to them from battle was quickly repaired by various floating or flying Steel Types.
Sure the city may looked to be in quite a bit of disrepair, but it was still bustling despite the constant attacks from those ‘Enemy Programs’.
I needed to keep in mind to talk to Sami after I was done bathing and had a short conversation with Ocellus, she apparently had the most information on what was going on and wanted to get me up to speed on things.
Upon asking about the bathhouse I learned that Steel Types preferred cool or cold water, but the baths around here had hot water for other species.
That would be good for us since we had a nice booking waiting for us for our assistance in battle and making sure that massive fight didn’t happen in the city itself, Ieyasu was more than glad when it came to rooting out the invasive pests all at once.
-Ironclad, Maids and Milks Bathhouse, Dolly-
“This place sure does smell nice.” It did at least smell clean, I calmly followed Pom into the steaming waters and suddenly everything started feeling all nice, cozy and more importantly fuzzy.
“Don’t fall asleep in the onsen Dolly, we need to scrub up and get clean.” As she said this Pom already had Dormarch half asleep as she scrubbed his back gently. “I doubt that anything we’ll hear about the EPs will be good news.”
Yeah, that’s a ‘no duh’ there Pom, there were so many of those things that I’m surprised we even took them all out. They didn’t seem very powerful.
I guess with those vegetable things Shanty mentioned making more of them constantly was the real problem, it would be easy to overwhelm anybody not prepared for rabbit levels of breeding.
I’m trying not to think of weapons flying at me from all directions and slamming into my board as I frantically blocked them. My skateboard was fine now and even had a cool new crescent design on it and everything.
Gilgamesh was terrifying, De’ Ville’s didn’t have anything on that guy and everyone barely managed to trap him in Cerebellum. Even heard he didn’t die cleanly and it took blowing up the entire city to finally do it, which was set up by that Coco Crow bird spy gal. I shivered a bit in memory of the terror that kind of guy brought just by existing, why did he even do all of that to begin with? It all seemed kind of pointless destruction to me, I think I even saw a few weapons embedded in the streets on the way here.
“Dolly, could you take Dormarch around the city to play after this?” Why would she… that’s when Pom started sending me the idea that she needed to talk to Ocellus about a few thing and maybe try to get in a few words with Smolder after her earlier reaction. Dormarch was angry with Ocellus and I understood why, but I wasn’t about to hold a grudge against the shape shifting ladybug.
The first thing Pom wanted to do sounded easy, the second not so much as I saw Smolder get very wary around Pom and was constantly flinching whenever Pom moved around too much around her.
All Pom wanted me to do was my due diligence in pup care as a top dog, by making sure Dormarch stayed relatively happy and I was always good at making sure puppies had something fun to do. If ‘Danger’ wasn’t my middle name, then ‘Distraction’ would have been a good second choice.
“Excuse me, does the milk have lactose in it and does it have too much fat?” Pom asked of a passing Tank-milk.
“No, but it’s heavily fortified and exceedingly low in fat content, we even go to great lengths make sure just about any mon can enjoy the milk served here.” The Milk-flank stated cheerfully, did the cows really need to be dressed as maids? Sure it was cute, but it was also weird to see a several hundred pound biped cow in a dress. “We also have several berry flavors, strawberries in particular grow quite well around the hills of Valora.”
“Good to know, it’ll be a good treat for my family then.” Hmmm, did Pom just say the magic word ‘treat’? That got my tail wagging and I incidentally splashed a sleepy Dormarch and made him sputter a bit as he sat upright. Pom started to trail off in thought. “Strawberry is a flavor dogs like, but the sugar content isn’t exactly healthy for them. I’m sure we can splurge this time, Ieyasu is the one who offered us a full bathing package. Still need to figure out how to make kibble by hoof and I’ll still have time to ask some vendors around here.”
Well if you can make the kibble exactly how I like it or better, then I’d really fully appreciate the effort and lengths you’d go to for me Pom.
“Hey bro, no sleeping in the bath.” I copied Pom’s words from earlier with a grin as I saw Dormarch nodding off despite glaring at me for splashing him.
I slapped my paw at the water and drenched Dormarch again.
“Alright, I’m awake…” Dormarch stated somewhat drowsily, I then splashed him again to make sure he was fully awake. Pom shook her head at us and gently went back to scrubbing Dormarch. “Digital evolutions are a little tiring Dolly. There are Digimon that stay in higher powered evolutions for the rest of their lives, it leaves me wondering how they can live without a power saving mode if I’m this tired.”
“Dolly you’ve been wearing your helmet so much, I think you should scrub and brush your ears out a bit.” Pom looked over to me and Dormarch seemed so happy and calm under her hooves as she washed his tails and here I was just sitting off to the side just watching the cute moment. “Unless… you want me to do it?”
“Um… yeah sure thing Pom.” Eventually I found myself gently being scrubbed and cleaned too.
The way she scrubbed my ears felt heavenly, like I was staring at Hansel for half a day without interruptions. It must be from taking care of her four god puppies waiting for her back home.
“Honestly, you could take care of yourself a bit more.” Isn’t that what you were here for Pom? I take care of you and you take care me. The gentle strokes of a brush going down my right ear had me so relaxed, that I found it hard to concentrate on much. It felt like I was getting licked by my birth mother again, Pom’s magnetism at work and I didn’t mind the feeling one bit. “Regardless you’re still a wonderful Dalmatian and it’s nice to have you and Dormarch in my life, otherwise I don’t know where I’d be right now.”
“Squeak?” I looked at Lit and he was waving a leg at us at the edge of the tub, did he want help with being cleaned too?
“Sure thing Lit.” Pom smiled at Lit as he was avoiding falling into the hot water we were lazing around in.
-West Port, an hour later, Pom-
That milk was good after a nice hot bath, it also had helpful restorative properties that made Milktank such good healers in Aurora. A nice relaxing time overall.
Now that Dolly had Dormarch and Lit with her as they ran around possibly getting into trouble, hopefully not too much, I could talk to Ocellus without Dormarch causing issues out of spite.
Dolly and Dormarch didn’t have to worry about me, because they would feel it if I were in danger and Dormarch accepted that as a good enough reason to go play without worrying too much about me for a while. Plus he could kind of teleport so it was a moot point to be right next to me at all hours of every day, including when I need to use the little ewe’s room.
“What did you want to see me about Pom?” Ocellus asked as we sat down in the wagon together.
“First, is Smolder scared for me or of me?” As soon as I asked, a complicated look crossed Ocellus’s face as she made a rather distressing hissing noise and inhaled through her nose.
Smolder didn’t actually relax too much when I had hugged her earlier.
“She’s… complicated. It’s also a bit more than that and I’m sure she’ll come around Pom, just give her time. I know Smolder almost better than I know my own family.” At least you’ll be there to take care of her Ocellus, especially if I couldn’t. “She’s had a lot of upsetting things happen to her, but I thinks she’s still strong. Stronger than I am at the very least, but nowhere near as strong as you have been for us.”
“Next question then, do you feel anything off about this?” I pointed my left hoof at the gold wool on my right leg. Ocellus blinked and actually looked confused for a moment before looking closer at my wool and she then became quite wide eyed.
“That’s your wool?! I thought that was a gold bracelet or something like that.” After a moment of shaking her head in disbelief, Ocellus shivered and then looked over the wool again. Scrutinizing it a bit more than usual, she glanced at me and then looked back at the wool. “No, I don’t feel anything unusual about it, but I can obviously see the unusual change in color. Why do you ask?”
“Good… that’s… that is good. If you start to feel something, tell me.” I wasn’t about to say what she would be feeling, but I’m pretty sure it would come about when I turned into a Chrysomallus, because she’ll definitely feel it then. “It’s very important given a unicorn or other magic sensitive beings might be able to feel it eventually if it becomes too strong, but I’m banking on them only being able to feel it when I... fully convert.”
“What… would they be feeling exactly?” Ocellus became suspicious, she could probably sense my nervousness. She’s been sensing me being constantly anxious for the most part of a year, despite my efforts to try and keep my emotions up and positive.
It obviously hasn’t been going very well and I really couldn’t hide it from a Changeling.
“It is what my becoming a Chrysomallus will eventually entail and why it will kill me if I grow wings, you’ll know why I asked when… ‘if’ the time comes.” Well I might as well drop a hint. “If any other races knew about the secret, someone unscrupulous would probably try to force what a Chrysomallus is capable of to occur. It’ll backfire with a one hundred percent guarantee if someone tries it in any case, but I would prefer that people leave the lambkin race alone and not force anything to happen. Also it’s good that you don’t feel anything from my wool yet, but you will if I do change. I’m guaranteed to die if I sprout wings and I’m guessing that you’ll at least know why when the time comes.”
“Should you really be hinting to me that this has something to do with the magic inherent to your nature?” If things didn’t turn out okay Ocellus, you’ll at least be a little more aware as to why. “As in the ultimate endgame of the words ‘sacrificial lamb’?”
“Don’t worry about it, I trust you. Changeling education can’t be that far behind the rest of the world right?” I really did trust Ocellus and if she said she didn’t feel anything yet, then I was at least fine until I grew wings. I would be fine, I had to be fine, because if I wasn’t fine then it’s going to be very hard to get Ocellus and Smolder home… at least Smolder and Ocellus had homes to return to. What was Shanty going to do for a home? What would Dolly and Dormarch do if I were gone now? Tianhuo would at least try and take care of them, I know that much as she didn’t mind the dogs I brought with me when we started living together. “Do you know where Sami and Canard are? Also do you have anything you want to ask me?”
“Yeah, I know where those two are, but first… do you think Dormarch will ever stop being angry with me?” Ocellus didn’t like negative emotions and she probably got a face full of them from Dormarch.
“Dormarch is a really sweet boy. Like you said with Smolder, I’m sure he’ll come around eventually.” I cuddled Ocellus to me and she hugged me back. “You’re not a bad person and I’ve long since forgiven you for almost getting me killed.”
“I still made a decision and I still don’t know if it was the right one or not.” At least things worked out in the long run Ocellus, we couldn’t predict how things would have turned out otherwise. “Why don’t I have to make it up to you though?”
“Were you the one trying to attack Ms. Bunny Shuttle while I was practically comatose and broken? No, you weren’t. Don’t forget, Dolly was there with you too, she’s not angry at you either and she really doesn’t hold on to anger for too long.” That, I noticed, made Ocellus perk up a bit. “You were under duress the entire time. Just, take each day one step at a time Ocellus and just do your best. Goodness knows I’m trying to do just that and you’re a really good friend as far as emotional support goes.”
“Thanks… so Sami, Canard and Clefairy should be near where what we’ve been calling the main breach zone.” Ocellus stopped, looked thoughtful for a moment and then she hopped out of the wagon. “Let me show you, they are probably busy with organizing the resistance at the moment. I’m sure they’ll finally get some time to relax when you show up, oh and the Bullet Buizels and Skitty Squad are also running around the city somewhere. They’ve been a big help in keeping things organized, plus there’s the Dhelmise Pokémon unit that watches over this safe zone, oh let me introduce you to them. Hey, Dhelmise unit, I want you to meet my friend Pom! ”
Dhelmise were a weird anchor and ships steering wheel combined by powerful seaweed, apparently Shanty had a good rapport going with them as they were one of the sea faring specialist units of Valora. They were a Grass and Ghost Types, with a technical half Steel Type on top because of their ‘Steelworker’ ability, a sea unit that didn’t involve the words ‘Water Type’ was fairly curious as was their appearances as living boat implements.
Pokémon were always so curious, so living seaweed usually bound to anchors was a new one on me.
-Some time later, resistance against otherworldly incursions building, Sami-
Good thing I’m digital, because otherwise exhaustion would be getting to me as well. The Enemy Programs brought a lot of digital energy with them and that made it easy to use for personal gains, such as making backup alternative ammunition for my gun.
“Well at least this incursion was kicked in the butt fast enough that the exhaustion rates were much smaller than last time. Though the assault on Pom outside the city still took a bit of doing to finish off by the Hakamo-o and Skarmory units with Ieyasu being the major force on the field of battle.” I was running through the recent fighting in the streets with Canard.
Canard was a person who cared a lot about what was going on, having lived through an invasion of his home planet made him empathize with the locals quite a bit. He was nothing like the first few commanders I had and mostly outlived through sheer grit. That he was my partner and quite handsome for a tall alien duck helped a lot, in comparison I was a short, orange by choice and not exactly the most prettiest soldier on any battlefield.
“Hey guys, heard you need to tell us some things?” Pom came in with… whoa what was up with that Digimon?! “Is something the matter? I could come back tomorrow.”
“No you need to be in on this, like right now.” That was certainly a Dalmamon, one of the newer species of canine digimon, but not one of the ones we met in the digital realm.
There were a few things uniquely off with him, like his coding was running double time for one and it seemed like he had an evolution given he was in a standard Power Saver mode.
“Oh right, this is Dormarch, my son and digimon partner.” Pom made this Dormarch quite happy just being called her son as all three of his tails wagged excitedly.
I’m still avoiding my chances of evolution like the plague, Sealsdramon was still a nightmare for me and if I had an option for something else I would gladly take it and grasp it with everything I have. I could feel the pressure to evolve getting worse, but it was so worth it to be near Canard. A notable bright light in a long tunnel full of darkness.
“Right, what do you think you know so far?” Just to be clear on the things they might need to know and I happen to have a lot of information.
“Something called Moon Cell might be behind this. That the Enemy Programs are like Digimon, but are their own thing and are basically not very intelligent golems?” Okay, so Pom did know a few things already. She wasn’t entirely computer savvy, but she was at least aware of something similar to compare it to. “Dormarch here was why I even know the words ‘Moon Cell’ means something horrible, because it was Moon Cell that sent Dormarch’s body after me.”
“Wait, his body?” I queried, a little bit confused.
“Remember that Skull Chaosdramon X you saw on the way out of the digital realms? Yeah, we had to get Dormarch’s body back before it did any more damage in Nixtorm when it followed us back to Ransei.” Okay, that, that was some news to start dropping on us Pom. Dormarch seemed fairly calm about it, so I’m going to assume that things worked out well enough in the end if he had his body back. I might question it a bit though. “So… what don’t we know?”
“Okay, here’s the thing, Moon Cell is a computer… one of the most powerful crystal based photonic storage computers ever devised, to the point that even the Saurians that Canard talked about can’t even match a fraction its raw computational power. Said computer seems quite intent on committing full blown Omnicide to everything on another planet, right up until Arceus pulled its plug massively, but he didn’t destroy it… mostly because he couldn’t.” There was some obvious horror that came with hearing that a quite functional and living god couldn’t destroy it. I knew that Moon Cell could be destroy… it’s just going to take some extreme planning to pull it off. “In any case, Moon Cell is something alien and highly dangerous, if the mentions of omnicide didn’t clue you in. Fortunately it doesn’t have the capability to commit complete ominicide… well not yet at least. It’s currently slowly trying to gain the capability to do that and has been trying to study Digimon to that end, it wants to destroy both the digital realms and everything living on this planet. Possibly while recording itself doing so for posterity.”
“Why Digimon?” Dormarch tilted his head and his tails stiffened.
“The computer has something really powerful in it called ‘Servants’ that it can’t field in reality for quite a few reasons. What it has been fielding thus far has been the Enemy Programs you saw, entire armies of EPs are easily generated. Even I can make like two or three myself if I had enough chunk data to make a few units, but I would need to be strong enough to control just those few with any efficiency. They are basically ready-made 'almost' automated soldiers that Moon Cell has no problem throwing at us in large numbers. Since it can replace its losses as easily as you blink.” The crux of the matter was that it was trying to get these so-called Servants out into the field of reality. In the digital plains, those Servants were likely to be deadly and stupidly powerful, like a Deva or a Demon digimon having an effect on the very coding in their general vicinity. “What I don’t get is if the Moon Cell had full access to a digimon already, then why hasn’t it already sent Servants to this world to start wiping it out? It’s been using those lame Enemy Programs that are the most basic and weakest of programming that something of its immense power and caliber could be throwing at us. ”
“It never had full access to me though.” Dormarch answered simply drawing my attention to the mental question I’ve been asking since seeing him for the first time. “It only had access to my soul and body after a nasty virus attack almost destroyed them. I put my heart and mind inside of Pom and Dolly here.”
“That should be functionally impossible, especially if your heart and mind were separated and nothing was holding them together cohesively, not without your soul core that all digimon need!” I pointed out while thinking about the horrors of what Dormarch might be now, he was still Digimon yes… but he was also reading as what a Servant might look like on this world to me.
The word ‘potential’ was what I would use to describe the digital lifeform I was seeing before me. Sure he was probably the weakest servant to ever exist, but with the capacity of digital evolution… it is little wonder Moon Cell started sending everything it had in his general direction. He’s kind of the missing key that it needs to begin manifesting Servants into reality on this world.
Also how did a lack of mind and heart data keep Moon Cell from manifesting Servants?! It definitely had enough information to manifest its EPs in reality, why not its Servants though?
“Well it isn’t impossible, because I did it and survived the repercussions.” That would take a miracle, also the fact that you’re running two cores that have been haphazardly mish mashed and mangled together while remaining harmonious was very highly distracting.
“When you say ‘Servants’… can I get an example of what one would look like?” Pom asked looking concerned.
“You could ask Dormarch, he’s coming off as partially one and thankfully not under Moon Cell’s control. We’d be kind of up to our necks in a river of digital guano without a paddle in that case.” That made everyone around me flinch. “To be more precise Servants are likely to be data of powerful legendary souls that were once living that get brought back to life via the computer, we don’t know exactly as we haven’t seen any true Servants yet. However I do know they would be somewhat like how the EPs are classified, why they’d be entirely on par with the likes of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.”
…
…
The dead silence and horror in their eyes was getting to be a bit much, Gilgamesh was defeated and not for the lack of trying on an entire armies part. Yeah, that look in their eyes was quite warranted.
“So what’s for dinner?” I asked cheerfully trying to bring the mood back up, Dolly started barking cheerfully and wagging a tail wanting to know too.
-Dinner time that evening, rented out restaurant space, Dolly-
Huh, she actually figured out how to make kibble… but would it taste good, especially with water?
After a few nibbles I appreciated the spice of the vegetables and the bits of fish, then I went for a full mouthful of the stuff Pom made.
Okay… a few chews, the crunch, the consistency, the chewiness, the flavor… and swallow to see how it feels when it goes down.
…
“Pom, I’m your dog and always have been if anyone ever asks.” I blurted out without a second thought.
“I take it you approve of the menu items I stuffed into the kibble then, I’ll continue working on it to see if I can make it even better.” Don’t make a promise you can’t keep Pom, also stop smiling like you won first place in a skateboarding contest after only two days of training. Unlike Dormarch who was eating the normal food, I was eating my preferred food and I usually preferred what Pom made. “Kibble is not so difficult to make, but it is a lot of work to make it.”
“It scratched a major itch I’ve been having for a while now.” Though I wouldn’t mind trying some of the vegetable stir fry Pom made, it probably wasn’t as healthy for me.
We continued to eat with friends and family, it was like a potluck exploded in here, Pom didn’t have to do all the cooking and it made me appreciate just how far we’ve come.
“So how exactly do we deal with a ‘kill everything moving and some things that aren't’ computer that wants the power to kill everything harder?” I finally asked and it was quickly translated.
If there was an elephant in the room, it would be trumpeting loudly right about now. In fact there was trumpeting, was it that Cute Phant guy? Huh, he was with that weasel guy. I thought they’d both be in Bug Land right now going on a honey bender or something.
“Well we do have one plan, send someone into the digital realms to distract it from attacking and give it something else to focus its attention on.” Saying this Sam-I-Am looked at both Dormarch and Pom, it didn’t take a genius to know what she was suggesting and I didn’t like it one bit.
“It figures… how soon can a passage to the digital realms be opened?” Pom asked, already resigned to committing to the bit already. Dormarch and I would have to be at our best to keep Pom safe far too soon again.
“Can we at least get another day before running head long into danger?” Being with Dormarch on this one, I barked out in agreement. I figured Pom needs a bigger break than she was willing to give herself.
“Incursion attempts into the Yggdrasil System digital worlds are occurring as we speak.” Yiggy Sis spoke up drawing our attentions to the device Dormarch wore as a collar. “It won’t be long before Moon Cell acquires the data needed, even if Dormarch was not presented as bait. User Pom may still prove to be viable bait in spite of that.”
“Whatever you choose Pom, we’ll always be right behind you!” Dazzle assured as she held up a closed fist that was glowing with flames. Shine, Curdle, Quetal, Lit, Favela and Mundo nodded along to the sentiment.
Even Canard, Frizzle, Clefairy and Sami weren’t going to stop now.
We were all absolutely insane… the good kind at least.
We had good friends and we had all the help we could get, but I sometimes wonder if that would even be enough. We kind of needed entire armies and the whole Ba Sing Se continent was still kind of hurting from Gilgamesh.
Where were we even going to get the armies needed to fight what was about to be thrown our way? I was on that roller coaster now too and I understood why Pom wanted it to stop.
-That moment in the Kingdom of Cragspur, The Aggro-crag, King Evan-
“For we cannot face the oncoming danger alone, to unite all of Ransei is to save it from an untimely end!” I proclaimed to the cheers of multiple Pokémon.