Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon: Data Storm ❯ He lead us to our future by the mountain ( Chapter 3 )

*Jean-Seb is taking some time off on the couch.*

Welcome welcome to this third rewritten chapter of Digimon:Data Storm. If you already read the original version, you will find little actual new material, but if not, then I'm talking for nothing.

*Johnny springs away from behind the couch and bops him up the head.*

What an idiot. Well, anyway, Digimon is not ours, no matter how hard we've tried. Please refrain from stealing other material from the Digital Nodes universe.

*Jean-Seb pushes him away*

Oh, and before you leave us, We'd like to thank Shirubie, radagast and Oreo man. Your help is priceless!

ÏNÄL TOMÖZTLAYÖ ÖTËCHHUÏCAC TEPËTITECH - He lead us to our future by the mountain

"Well, I do know a butterflymon in Patläninitlan. He's a blacksmith." Sepikmon tried to reassure her, but she just palmed her forehead with her other hand.

"My lord, would you happen to be aware of unauthorized data streams in Axolotl node?" Derek asked out of the blue.

"What do you mean, Cohuatzintli? You think the missings could have been taken away?" Santiramon asked, intrigued.

"Actually..." the man's head dropped. "No I didn't think of that," he mumbled. "But as stream monitor I detected some very weird energy signature about a week ago." Santiramon raised a brow.

"Wouldn't that be yesterday's data storm?" Derek's face darkened.

"Oh right. Temporal entropy."

"Just when I started to respect you, you come out with some undecipherable jargon." Andrea tried to keep her brain from melting from the ambient surrealism. "Computer technicians. What in heaven and hell is that 'entroprise' about?" Derek's face took on the fine carnation of a radish.

"Sorry. Old habits die hard. Basically, the bigger a node is, the more rapid its timeflow is compared to smaller nodes and the real world. I've calculated time in HTTP is about twelve time as rapid as in Axolotl," Derek explained.

"Well, that explain why you were on File Island a month ago, but I landed here only a week after you."

Derek reached for the device that has produced holograms earlier and pressed a few control. An holographic map sprung up this time. Andrea recognized in the middle the temple at the centre of the city. A zoom out revealed forests and villages surrounded the capital. A part of the city lit up.

"Moloyantlan, you said, right?" Derek asked, his finger moving on the touch-sensitive icons.

"No," Sepikmon corrected him. "Moyotlan. Owlmon is prefect of Moyotlan. That's to the west." He pointed. An area of forest surrounding a few villages and cultivated areas lit.

"Hum... A day's walking distance." Clockmon estimated.

"2 and a half, actually. The road is not quite straight: it follows the river and it go round Ololtepetontli." Sepikmon pointed a large, round mound the river wedged around. A red, tortuous line shot from the temple to a city in the yellow area. A label popped up: Ahuamoloyan pop 2629.

"That's the prefecture seat, right?" Derek asked. Another place lit in the forest, causing the Moyotlan indication to fade to its limits, with a second label: Patläninitlan, pop 261.

"Correct. If there's one place we can get pointers, it's there," Sepikmon.

"I'll have messengers sent to Owlmon immediately," Santiramon said, calling the servants back in.

Feeling mostly unconcerned with the route they were taking, Andrea had taken the time to examine the device Derek used. She eventually recognized a PalmOne handheld of a similar model to Mark's.

"How did you get it to do these kind of things?" she exclaimed. "That's impossible!" Derek and Sepikmon, who had been discussing different means of transportation, jumped out of her way. He seemed to look at it in a novel way now.

"Actually, I don't think it's still the exact thing I used to have for on-field work. Mugen Dramon called it a D-Coder. Apparently, it allows humans to travel between the real and the digital world." Andrea looked closer at the screen, deciphering some glyphs and a menu with several options: "Messages", "Data storage", "Encoding". It suddenly felt familiar.

"No way!" she barely managed not to drop the device.

"What?"

"My... My graphic tablet got, it got all weird and it had the same menu. Then, then when I pressed it, pressed it on the computer screen..." she stuttered. Derek looked dreamy

"Wow... Can I have a look at it?" he implored. Andrea shrugged.

"I don't have it with me. No idea where it got."

"I do think we left it at my home. You were in quite a hurry," Sepikmon helped out. Derek stared at them for a moment, then Clockmon and him exchanged an ominous glance.

"What?" Andrea and Sepikmon chorused.

"The D-Coder is one of this world's most potent device! Not a good idea to leave it lying around like this!" Derek yelled. He turned toward the digimon lord. "I am deeply sorry my lord, but we have to go now."

With that, he whirled and, followed by Clockmon, ran out of the room. Andrea looked bemusedly after him, and rubbed her temples for the form. This journey promised battle, toil and trouble. At least if she was to take care of it.

She eventually ran after Derek and Clockmon. Sepikmon did too, but as they crossed the entrance, he tried to stop abruptly, only managing to slip while whirling on himself and eventually take off in the other direction.

"My sword, I left my sword in the antechamber!!" he cursed.

Andrea blinked at him. When she turned back, she saw another stairway going down, with the human and the digimon midway. Then she saw the slope on each side. A nice straight slope with a track for flowing water. And she smiled.

Derek wasn't sure what that was. Apparently, something vaguely feminine (but she wasn't sure, for it was very blurry) had just slided past them at great speed with a yell of glee and calls of "Beware, pedestrians!"

Andrea found herself giggling like there was no yesterday, sprawled on her back in a patch of grass, and looking up at the inquisitive face of Derek.

"Hi," she said.

Then a hand picked and helped her up.

"I think that was too much for her," Sepikmon proposed. "I could slap her out of it, but I'm not too sure it's a good idea."

"Yeah, you might break her neck or something," Derek retorted. With that he slapped the giggling woman apparently busy with catching a bumblebee the others couldn't see.

She punched him in the jaw.

"Don't. You. Ever. Do. That. Again," she warned. Then she took a deep breath. "I think we were panicking and getting to Sepikmon's house just now, right?" Derek rubbed his pained jaw.

"Right."

Then he and Clockmon sprinted out of view again. Andrea and Sepikmon sighed and took after them.

Around the corner was the busy market that was the centre of Teocaltintlan. Fortunately, the thick crowd meant Derek and his companion had left an obvious trail.

"Derek, wait!" Sepikmon called.

"We don't have time to wait!" Derek answered, not bothering to look back.

"But you don't know where my house is!" Sepikmon countered.

Derek turned back, still running, which proved to be a bad idea, as usual in such cases, since he collided with a cart full of pumpkins pushed by a very large green caterpillar. The orange (actually, striped orange and red) projectiles flew everywhere.

"O! Xitëitta! Ticän tequitïhua!" the insect yelled at Derek as the human attempted to remove his hand from inside one of the fruits. Clockmon provided a quick solution my smashing the troublesome piece of food. For some reason, Andrea knew exactly what the creature just said ("Hey, Watch out! People are trying to work here!"), though she had no idea how it had said it. She picked up one of the fruits and hauled it back in the cart.

"My house is that way," Sepikmon pointed with his finger.

"That means we were headed in the right direction! Why did you stop us?" Clockmon protested. Sepikmon's shoulders dropped in despair. Andrea chuckled, helping the large insect to place a particularly large fruit back in the cart.

"Don't we want to recover my D-Coder?" she asked, cutting the burgeoning argument with the clippers of common sense.

"Oh, right, quick." Sepikmon led the way.

Through a few streets and after a couple more minutes of running that left both Andrea and Derek exhausted, they finally reached the cubic stone structure that was Sepikmon's house. Andrea vaguely remembered the floorplan. She looked for the window to the room where she had laid down. No trace of the device. Sepikmon had meanwhile rushed through the house, looking everywhere.

"Cuitlatlahcalqueh! It's not there!" he cursed.

As Derek was about to say something, he was interrupted by a beeping sound. He snatched his own D-Coder.

"I'm picking a signal! I think it's your D-Coder!" he exclaimed.

"What makes you think that?" Andrea asked dubitatively.

"Well, it's not a power signature I've ever seen before, it's moving, and it's coming from just out of town," Derek explained.

Then the small hologram gave out a bright flash, and everyone was blinded for several seconds.

"What was that?" Andrea asked, rubbing her tearful eyes.

"It was activated! Or rather it discharged energy to activate something... I think."

"That's... Not a good sign, is it?" Sepikmon asked.

"Probably not."

Having recovered enough sight by now, Derek looked at the holographic map again.

"Weird... It's moving on the road to Ahuamoloyan."

Sepikmon looked at the map.

"Our thief is moving fast. But we can move faster."

Andrea could almost hear a grin. The group returned near the marketplace and approached a small stand in front of a fenced space. Wooden machinery was housed behind. The stall announced for everyone to see "Ähuïleh Agumon - nehneminimeh". The owner was an orange lizard about half her height. It was identical to the slaves she had seen in the throne room, save for several necklaces of large worked wood rings and feathers covering most of his chest.

"Hey! Eztepoztli! what can I do for you?" the lizard jumped down from a stool almost as tall as him.

"Hi there, Ähuïleh. I need a walker. It's urgent." The lizard rushed around to his side. Andrea noticed additional bracelets at his ankles. The various pieces of wood produced constant little clopping sounds as he moved.

"Oh... You'll tell me everything, right?" he asked excitedly, opening a door in the fence that ressembled a corral more than anything else. The machines lined inside looked like the hybrid between a clockmaker's nightmare and a wart. "So, what do you want? A jumper? A bumper? A mover?" Agumon continued.

"A nacaxacualoani."

Sepikmon pointed with his hand. Andrea looked and her eyes widened. The thing had 10 legs crisscrossing each others, powered by a series of large cogwheels that extended from the top and bottom of the machinery. If she hadn't known it was made for walking, she'd had though it was a giant meat grinder. Ähuïleh AGumon grinned at his friend's request.

"Oooohh... A meat grinder, you know what you want!" Andrea's blood froze.

"That thing is actually called a 'meat grinder'? No way I'm boarding that!" she protested.

"But it's perfectly safe! I use them regularly myself!" the small lizard protested, obviously insulted, "and besides it's the most rapid mean of transportation you'll find!"

"I am not getting on something that looks like kitchenware."

"Actually, I do not exactly appreciate the prospect of sitting on this thing either," Derek piped in. Sepikmon sighed.

"Very well, that'll be a teppachihuini, then." Sepikmon noticed the suspicious looks the two humans gave him and pointed at an ant-like machine. "A 'dust mover'."

Agumon handed him one of the wooden disks from his necklace. Sepikmon bowed and they boarded the machine. At first Andrea had problems with the rope-ladder, but not as worse as Derek, who completely ensnared himself in it, requiring an amused Agumon's help to put him out of his predicament. Eventually, they all managed to board the fairly large platform on the front of the machine. Sepikmon walked to what looked like an instrument panel. A round depression marked its centre and he inserted the disk carvings-down into it. It turned a bright green. When he rotated it clockwise, it started to produce a slightly pulsing light. It reminded Andrea of her computer's screen.

And the machine started to walk.

Two hours later, Andrea could not stand it anymore. Her lungs tried to go out her nose every other minute and her eyes were tearing so much she wanted to rip them off her face. And she was covered with sticky dust and sweat from head to toe.

"Stop it! Stop it! I give up!" she yelled over the racket produced by the machine. Eztepoztli looked at her sternly.

"At least the nacaxacualoani goes too fast for the dust to really be a problem. And we barely gained any terrain, since you're always stopping us to wash your eyes," he said as she jumped down and ran to the nearby river, obviously not listening to him.

"It's that earth road," she said as she splashed water on her face, "Don't you ever pave roads around here?"

"No, we use nacaxacualoanimeh," Eztepoztli muttered spitefully in her back. She didn't hear him. Looking around, she noticed they had started the long way round the mountain, who now stuck out of the forest right in front of them. An idea started to form and she ran back to the teppachihuini.

"Hey, I just though about something! If we use the walker to follow the river on the other side of Ololtepetontli, we should be able to catch up to the thief, and not even be bothered with the dust!" She pointed to the river that disappeared between the trees on the left-hand side of the road.

"That sounds like a good idea," Eztepoztli approved.

"No, it isn't!" another voice interjected. They looked around and saw a grey humanoid rabbit standing by the river, right next to the place where Andrea had washed her eyes. It might as well have been standing there the whole time without her even noticing it. It was leaning forward with both hands on a stick and slowly moving back and forth. It's paws sported claws longer than Andrea's own fingers and a fang protruded form the left of his superior lip.

"And why's that?"

"Because that would make you go straight through Chacaltzontloc, the wild Aruraumon's village, and they're really cranky these days. Mating season. Not only will this land you in a world of trouble, but you'll never see that D-Coder again. However, if you keep on this road, you'll encounter minimal resistance and the thief will actually give it up personally," it answered, as if the answer was obvious.

"And you know that because?" Clockmon asked.

"That's Gazimon, the hermit. He lives in the mountain and he's a seer. Or at least that's what people say..." Eztepoztli begun to explain.

"But personally, you think I'm a fraud. Right?" the newcomer ended his sentence, leaving the larger digimon speechless. "At any rates, can I come with you? I have affairs to tend to in Ahuamoloyan, or rater, Owlmon will have affairs to tend with me. And you are going to need my help. Trust me on that one." He approached as if he was going to board the weekly bus.

"And what if we refuse?" Andrea answered as he reached her. He started to climb the rope-ladder until their heads were on the same level.

"The idea didn't even cross my mind," he said, grinning.

Andrea rolled her eyes. The creature continued his nimble ascension and she climbed after him. All eyes were on him as he stepped on the platforn and settled down, his stick across his knees. Sepikmon wasn't sure this was a good idea, but the creature seemed mostly harmless, and if they could be of service...

"By the way," Gazimon turned at Andrea as she reached the platform, "There are protective mask in that trunk your friend is sitting in front of."

Andrea rushed to the wooden box as the walker started moving again.

"Of course I could, but that wouldn't do any good."

"Could you please explain that over?"

The discussion had been dragging on for several minutes, and Andrea had to admit she was rapidly losing ground to confusion. To top it off, the small digimon was being a smartass.

"I do, but it's always so funny."

"Do you realize how annoying this is?"

"Hey! No need to get rude!" he cut her before she could add anything.

"Raaaargh!!" she yelled and clasped her hands on her head in disgust. Gazimon turned toward Derek.

"Exactly, that's my fate for not living up to my duties as a priest," he anticipated.

"So you're saying you are chased by priests who want to sacrifice you?"

"Okay, I think I've made my point enough."

"And for the luv'a'pete, please stop doing that!" he waited a few seconds. "Thanks."

Andrea went to sit by Sepikmon, seething.

"He might not be a fraud, but he can be one annoying asshole," she grumbled. Eztepoztli shook his head. Andrea had to jump to avoid receiving the edge of his mask in the jaw.

"Ontlachiyani lives both in the past and the future. Can't really blame the guy for having a less than firm grasp on the present," he stated calmly. She stared at him.

How could these people get that jaded about things? Just an hour earlier, Sepikmon didn't trust the rabbit digimon, and now, he went on and called him by his nickname.

Andrea jumped away as the mentioned one suddenly tapped her on the shoulder with his stick.

"You know, that isn't my real nickname at all, actually. I've abandoned my priest's nickname a long time ago. Some call me 'Huecayomatini', others prefer 'Ontlachiyani', but I like 'Huehuenpol'." Some of the feathers on Eztepoztli's head moved.

"'Old fart'?" Gazimon chuckled at Andrea's equally quizzical look.

"It's a long story, but if I start now, we're going to be interrupted and you'll never see through the whole thing." Andrea didn't even attempt to contradict him.

"I'll settle for hearing it later."

I've seen through enough things today for the rest of my life, she added for herself. She had apparently been transported straight into the Internet and now she had to save some butterfly from who knows what in order to go back, assisted in that task by a computer nerd, an ape-man with a mask as tall as her, a walking clock and a precognitive rabbit-man. She felt the beginnings of a headache creeping up to her. Than two hands landed on her shoulders and started skillfully massaging away a bit of her stress.

"I know how that is," Derek said.

That was too much. Andrea's accumulated anger burst away. She turned back and yelled.

"NO YOU DON'T! You've been perfectly in your element all along! You haven't been sent from your office straight into a rainforest and told around by creature right out of children's shows what you were supposedly fated to do! You have absolutely NO idea how that is!" Gazimon gave her a stern look.

"I've expected more strength from you. You've been chosen to save this world and you actually resent it?" The creature was obviously troubled.

"Perfectly! And what if I do?" she shot back.

"If you really do, than you don't know what it is to witness a thousand year's ritual sacrifices," Gazimon throttled out. "How it is to realize you can never rise up to what you've lived for all your life," he spurted. "To realize that everything you've lived for was built on the blood of countless innocent lives!"

As he shot that last call, the confidence he'd been dripping so far evaporated. Faucets long closed opened up under the pressure and flowed seemingly endless cascades of tears. He collapsed face down and started sobbing confusedly. Andrea, Derek and Clockmon looked at each other for a second, than Andrea reflexively knelt and took him in a tight embrace, slowly rocking back and forth. The Gazimon didn't react, letting himself be moved like a rag doll.

"There, there, let it all get out," she murmured in his ear.

Without listening, the grey-furred creature tried to sniff the cries away, but only managed to choke on his own tears. Andrea instinctively started to rub his chest, oblivious to the fact everybody was now looking at her.

"You can't let it eat you up," she continued. "Let it all flow away."

"NO!" the broken-down creature somehow managed to yell. "I can't let myself do this!" Andrea was crying too now. She spun him around. Huehuenpol didn't resist.

"WHY? Why can't you?" she yelled back. He dropped his head. A soulless voice came from his mouth.

"Because there is too much at stakes."

She was going to ask what stake could be more important than his own sanity when she noticed the teppachihuini had stopped and a yell came from the road.

"Ohocelotzintli!"

Ohocelotzintli Gazimon looked up and she noticed an air of determination she wouldn't have expected earlier from the glinting, mischievous eyes. Hers remained fixed on an invisible point of the board.

"And then there is them."

Who're "them"? Why won't Gazimon let himself be helped? And what's the deal with that nickname? How far will Andrea go to protect her hair? Get answers to at least some of these in the next chapter: Tëahmän tönalmiquiliztli

Johnny's linguistic trivia
It seems that classical Nahuatl didn't have a specific word for "future". One of the expressions often used is "in ömpa titztihuih", which means "where we will go to look". Unfortunately, using that expression meant that my chapter title was one letter too long. With the help of my resident Nahuatl expert (Yes, that's you Radagast!), I eventual crafted the expression "ïnäl tomöztlayö", meaning "beyond our tomorrows", a very nice expression with the advantage of being short enough to fit the form, yay!