Chapter 3: Enter Digital World

RedVegimon landed on the solid ground with a thud. Sporting a proud smile, he bounced up the slope while looking at the silhouette of a humanoid Digimon in the sky.

"Help!" the girl beside Dorumon screamed as her flailing legs hit RedVegimon's belly. The blows didn't even graze the plant Digimon.

She saved me from that scary giant, Dorumon thought, looking at the girl. Usually, he would scurry at the sight of an Adult Digimon, but... No! Go away! Dorumon bit into RedVegimon's tentacle arm, sending glowing red particles everywhere.

"You're such a bother. Oh, well." RedVegimon inhaled so deeply that Dorumon could feel like his head was going into the pitcher plant's mouth.

Green mist came along with a gust of wind, weakening Dorumon's grip on the plant Digimon. His stomach churned. A lump built up in his burning throat. It felt as though his snout had just hit a pile of dung.

"Brandon..." the girl's voice grew faint. "Help..." Then she spoke no more.

Dorumon dived in to bite RedVegimon's arm in a fit of rage, but he couldn't clamp his trembling jaw.

"Never mess around with a plant Digimon, kiddo." RedVegimon chuckled, continuing his journey up the crater. "Anyway, Sir Magnamon must be proud of me."

Sir Magnamon? Oh, no! RedVegimon was bringing him to a Royal Knight!

Dorumon really hoped that the one-eyed ogre earlier would come. The giant would certainly fight RedVegimon and Magnamon to save the girl, which would also give Dorumon the chance to flee. He did wish he could know the girl a little more before they were separated, though.

RedVegimon landed on the edge of the crater. "Sir Magnamon!" he called. "I've brought you-"

Bang!

"Huh?" Dorumon wondered out loud as he could no longer feel RedVegimon's tentacle arms around him. Standing with shaky legs, he inspected the surroundings. The unconscious girl now lay on the ground beside him. RedVegimon's limp body fell back into the crater before another gunshot resounded and the plant disintegrated into dust.

Behind where RedVegimon used to be, a gigantic human in a black greatcoat slowly clambered up the crater. Dorumon immediately pulled back at the sight of a massive gun in his only hand; for unknown reasons, he had a feeling that the giant would kill him next. As he tried to run, his legs gave in almost instantly. This reminded him of his experience with Dokunemon, whose poison weakened him just like this.

Several bangs echoed. Dorumon simply ducked and covered his tear-filled eyes with his paws. The angry giant was coming for him, undoubtedly.

"Miracle Glitter!" Magnamon roared from above.

A groan. Then the gunshots stopped.

Dorumon peeked through his claws. Teeth gritted, the giant staggered backwards with his only eye shut. When Dorumon turned around and looked at the sky, he couldn't find Magnamon. Was the Royal Knight hiding? Or had the ogre scared him off?

The ogre soon recuperated. After scanning the surroundings for a few seconds, he holstered his gun and approached Dorumon and the girl. Although Dorumon felt no sense of malice within the giant, he thought he'd better flee. His trembling legs sent him falling flat on his face, though.

"Are you scared?"

Dorumon gasped as he slowly looked back. The giant's golden eye emitted the same gentleness he usually saw from Garudamon, his heroine.

Dorumon nodded frantically.

"You shouldn't. My child is a good judge of character." The giant knelt in front of him, his gaze fixed at the girl. As he placed his fingers on the girl's neck, his eye widened. An unpleasant growl escaped through his gritted teeth.

"That plant breathed out poison gas!" Dorumon quickly explained, but the giant didn't reply. After a gulp, Dorumon added, "My friends know how to cure it! I was once poisoned like that." The ogre simply gave him a skeptical glare, which pushed him even further. "B-but I need help. My friends all ran into the forest when a Royal Knight attacked."

The grumpy-faced ogre grumbled, "Why did your friends leave you alone?"

"Because..." Dorumon murmured, tears trickling down his cheeks. Images of Omegamon's gargantuan cannon flashed across his eyes. "I ran away when they tried to save me. I was too scared."

The giant nodded and held the girl in his only arm. Standing up, he said, "Guide me with every single clue you have about them."

"Y-yes." As Dorumon tried to get up, his legs faltered and knocked him back down. Oh, no...

The ogre's face slowly turned into what Dorumon often saw from a concerned Garudamon. The giant turned around and crouched. "Get on. Hope your arms are still strong."

Dorumon couldn't help but gulp before crawling onto the ogre's back. However, shocked by the weird odor - a mixture of pungent herb and rotting meat - of the giant, he slipped. "S-sorry," he muttered as he climbed back up.

The giant nodded. With Dorumon's arms wrapped around his body, he set off.

The human killed RedVegimon, which was good. Humans who knew too much about Digital World would only cause problems, so a foolish Digimon who brought them here had to die before it committed another idiocy.

Magnamon first thought he could observe the humans from afar before persuading them to keep a secret about this world and go home; being frail creatures, they would certainly want to leave a monster-filled place such as Digital World ASAP. Yet when this white-haired giant appeared, Magnamon changed his mind. Although a few minutes had passed since the encounter, he could still feel how the ogre's bullets punched his armor and sent a shockwave throughout his body.

He arrived at a field of darkness, where Omegamon and Dukemon were chatting with each other. Yggdrasil's realm was never a place for dark Digimon, yet it barely had any source of light. If the green lines and the binary codes on all over its floor and wall hadn't glowed, one might have mistaken this place for the Dark Area of Digital World.

When he approached them, they turned. Omegamon quickly noticed the scratches on his golden armor and asked, "Some X-Antibody Digimon did it I presume?"

Magnamon shook his head, walking past Omegamon and Dukemon. "It was a human."

Both Omegamon and Dukemon exclaimed, "A human!"

"Allow me to report this to Lord Yggdrasil first," Magnamon said, approaching the massive portal of light at a dead-end path. "As you see, we are not dealing with an ordinary human. He is perhaps as strong as a Perfect Digimon."

"A Perfect Digimon?" Omegamon questioned. "Hmph, I doubt Lord Yggdrasil will let him get away."

The portal would lead to Yggdrasil's chamber, yet no Royal Knight had ever entered it. As He created them, He had implanted a command into everyone's heads: "Do not see Me face-to-face," and if they wished to contact Him, they had to relay the message to Magnamon, who would then contact Him via the messaging terminal near His chamber. However, Magnamon suspected that perhaps the mythical Alphamon, Yggdrasil's very first creation and Royal Knight, had the privilege to see their Lord.

Magnamon placed a palm on the wall beside the portal, summoning a white screen with black Digimon Alphabets - the Digimoji. A semitransparent keyboard appeared beneath it as a big "ENTER PASSWORD" appeared on the screen. Once Magnamon typed the password and pressed the enter button, it replied with, "USER AUTHORIZED. TYPE THE MESSAGE."

"From Magnamon to Yggdrasil,
Greetings, my Lord. I am hereby to inform You that two humans have entered Digital World. One of them, however, is not like what You have told us. He is brave and strong, perhaps he is as strong as a Perfect Digimon. What would Your command be?"

A few minutes later, a beep resounded.

"From Yggdrasil to Magnamon,
Greetings, my fellow Royal Knight. Study him for a few days. Try finding his reason of coming to Digital World, as it will make it easier to convince him to go back. For the time being, I shall accelerate the time flow of Digital World, so that humans can never fuss over their missing comrades before they return."

"From Magnamon to Yggdrasil,
Yes, my Lord."

After logging off, Magnamon walked towards Dukemon and Omegamon.

"What is His command?" Dukemon asked.

Omegamon unsheathed his sword. "If He wants that human to die, I will gladly kill him."

"Lord Yggdrasil ordered us to study him before convincing him to go back."

Omegamon pointed at the scratches on Magnamon's armor. "Magnamon, I never doubt you and our Lord's order, but is it safe to let him roam this world?"

Omegamon's words actually tempted Magnamon to consult Yggdrasil again, but he quickly remembered the incident with RedVegimon earlier. Maybe if the plant Digimon hadn't brought the human girl along, that white-haired giant wouldn't have come. "Perhaps our Lord believes that harming him will only bring more humans to Digital World, which is why He prefers the peaceful way."

"I doubt I have the patience, so..." Omegamon looked at Dukemon.

Dukemon nodded before walking away. "Then allow me, Dukemon, to carry out His order."

"Also, I have spotted an X-Antibody Digimon at Tropical Jungle, Omegamon," Magnamon said. "Moreover, the Digimon there know quite a lot about X-Antibody. Maybe there are more X-Antibody Digimon around that region."

Omegamon nodded. "I will cleanse that place then."

Gray clouds concealed the sun. Leaves dropped off, swaying in the gentle breeze before landing on the ground. Under the canopy of trees, Brandon walked with Mika in his arm and Dorumon on his back, his boots turning brown due to the wet twigs beneath. Darn, how could he find Dorumon's friends if he could only see the same trees here and there?

I have to find them somehow. He looked at the unconscious Mika, recalling how weak and fast her pulse was earlier. Her body heat, too, seemed to bypass his greatcoat and burn his skin. I doubt Millennion doctors know the cure for this.

Splash!

Looking down, Brandon found out that he had just plunged his sound leg into a small puddle of brown water. Now, he had to find a source of clean water ASAP; else his skin would develop a rash and itch.

Hmm, puddles of water and wet twigs... He saw only gray clouds and no sunlight up there. It had just rained, hadn't it? Back when he still lived in the streets, whenever thugs surrounded his home, he would hide in the city sewer. That dark and damp place stank, but he'd rather endure the odor than expose himself to the rain and catch a cold. Dorumon's friends must have the same thought.

"Is there a shelter nearby?" Brandon asked.

"Yes," Dorumon replied. "There's a place called Drill Tunnel somewhere in the forest." Brandon raised an eyebrow, prompting Dorumon to add, "Some Drimogemon created the tunnel when they dug Mount Panorama."

It was simpler than he had thought. Looking up and around, he could see the silhouette of a mountain in the east.

"Eh?"

"Your friends should be in the tunnel," he told Dorumon.

"How did you know?"

He smiled, walking eastwards. "Where else will you go when it rains?"

"Wow, you're really clever, Mister!"

Clever? Brandon only grinned. When it came to surviving in the streets, or perhaps the wilderness, nobody could match him. Yet when it came to science and something similar, he believed even an elementary school kid who ranked the last in the class knew more than he did.

The gray clouds gradually cleared. Rays of sunlight pierced through the rustling leaves, which Brandon interpreted as a warning that the inhabitants of the forest might show up anytime soon. Fortunately, neither his eye nor his ears detect something suspicious nearby.

The surrounding vegetation became less and less. A few seconds later, Brandon found a forked path. A vast lake waited ahead, while to his right a mountain trail rested.

Almost there! Smiling, he turned right and ran along the path.

"Mister," Dorumon began, "you see that blooming flower on the bush over there? It can be a-"

"Poison Ivy!" a girl's roar came from behind him.

Something whizzed beneath him. He quickly jumped aside, dodging six outstretched vines.

Brandon turned around to see a plant kid with a blooming flower on her head. The huge cyan leaf on her back made him think of a child wearing a superhero costume.

"Palmon?" Dorumon asked.

"Let that Digimon go!" the plant kid demanded, shooting her vine-like claws at Brandon. He simply tilted his head to dodge the assault.

"Stop fighting!" Dorumon got off Brandon's back and crashed on the ground. "He's trying to help me find my friends!"

"That scary-looking giant said so?" Palmon sighed. "He may just be a Royal Knight in disguise."

Palmon had a problem with the Royal Knight, just like Dorumon? She should be an ally then, Brandon thought.

Lying still on the ground, Dorumon yelled, "He's not! He scared off Magnamon and saved me!"

"Really?"

Dorumon nodded, slowly getting up. His entire body trembled as though the breeze chilled him to the core.

"You look sick," Palmon noted, her unfriendly glare turning into a concerned look.

"Poison." Dorumon pointed at Mika. "RedVegimon sprayed poison gas at us."

"I helped Dorumon find his friends because he said they know the cure," Brandon explained. "So, if you don't mind," he pleaded, "could you give us some directions to Drill Tunnel? This girl needs help."

Palmon looked at Brandon. "You look scary, but you don't feel like a Royal Knight."

Dorumon smiled. "That means-"

"Follow me." Palmon ran past Dorumon and Brandon. "I'll take you to Drill Tunnel. Don't worry. It's now a home for X-Antibody Digimon."