CHAPTER TWO: absurdly spacious secret corridors
Dorumon heard a strange noise.
It was truthfully barely audible, the slightest of mumbles on the wind as something stepped on the ground once. The purple Digimon, who had stopped running to gather his thoughts, clammed up immediately and began straining his ears to hear anything else. Sue enough, the Digimon was rewarded with another soft thump, this one slightly easier to hear than the last.
…Or was he just imagining that? ‘Well,’ thought Dorumon, ‘there’s no way I could compare –’ And then there was the sound again. It was louder still.
Yes, by now there was no question. Some Digimon was moving around in the Castle, and whoever it was, it was moving around closer to Dorumon than the Digimon truthfully cared for. He stood still as a rock, looking around silently for the intruder but not daring to call out to him. As it turned out, he didn’t really need to.
“You,” mumbled a voice from the shadows. “You there.”
Dorumon froze up. Someone was speaking to him. And that was all mostly fine and good, except… Dorumon didn’t have a clue what the enigma in the dark was saying. It was in a different language, one he didn’t understand. It sounded flowery and calm one second and grating the next.
|Who’s there?| he whispered, not sounding particularly sure of himself.
There was a silence as, hiding down one of the many side passages of Dorumon’s present location, there stood a humanoid Digimon with widened eyes. Brushing the brim of his hat and making sure the cloak was in proper alignment, the blue-clad Digimon slipped out from his hiding place and approached Dorumon with calculated calmness. The other Digimon jumped in surprise, eyes widened.
“What’s wrong?” asked the Digimon. “It’s as if you’ve never seen a Digimon before.”
Dorumon was quite scared by now. There was a creepy creature he didn’t know the name of, who had entered his castle unknown and unidentified and was now speaking to him in a foreign language. |Who are you? Who are you?|
His maybe-stalker was about to speak, before realizing that Dorumon wasn’t exactly speaking in Japanese like most normal Digimon. He paused and smiled under the cloak he was wearing and spoke in a more appropriate tongue.
|Hello, young Dorumon,| he said in English. Dorumon’s eyes widened at the prospect that this staff-wielding, glove-wearing… thing was speaking English. |I know you must be very afraid of me speaking English all of a sudden when you were so used to me talking in Japanese. I’m sorry; I had performed a simple Code modification to learn English, since that was the usual language that Digimon around this Digital World tend to use. Never did I think I would need to break out my Japanese skills again… I was wrong, now wasn’t I?|
Despite him speaking in a comprehensible language, Dorumon had no idea what he was talking about.
|I don’t know,| Dorumon said quite intelligently.
The Digimon laughed, the various charms hanging from his gloves and clothing jingling with a light clinking sound. |Oh, of course you wouldn’t know all about what I speak of, that’s understandable… but really. Have you truly never learned about Code?|
|Um, no. Was… was I supposed to?| Dorumon got the feeling that his first interaction with a visible Digimon wasn’t going well.
|It’s pretty deep research,| noted the Digimon, |so I’m not sure if whoever you learned things from bothered to teach you. But I suppose they didn’t actually bother to, since you don’t know what it is?|
|Um… I think.|
The Digimon’s eyes closed happily, and he smiled under the collar of his face-hiding cloak. |Oh? Stop acting so scared, I’m truly not going to hurt you. Code, as a matter of fact, is the strings of symbols that compose everything that the Digital Worlds were, are, and will be. Even me and you.| He leaned on his snowflake-tipped staff, letting wisps of hair fall in his face. |Yes, it composes everything you’ve ever seen. And, believe it or not, you can actually take this Code – the makings of the universe – and bend and twist it to your every whim… well, almost your every whim, because a council somewhere in the Digital Patch will control how much you can and can’t change. In any case, there are certain Digimon and machines – the machines are usually referred to as ‘Digivices’ – who can use this power and manipulate the Codes, but most can’t.|
Dorumon’s head whirled with all of the new information as his new companion posed a question. |Too much information?|
Dorumon nodded his head, and his companion laughed. |Well, basically… Code is the foundation of everything, and most of it can be modified by certain Digimon or Digivices. Is that easier to understand?|
After gathering his thoughts, the purple Digimon nodded and said, |Yes, I think so. So… you’ve told me so much, but you’re missing something.| The other creature’s face looked confused as he said this, and Dorumon soon remarked in a flat voice: |What’s your name?|
He laughed and nodded. |Oh, I’m sorry! Excuse me. My name is Sorcermon. Now… do you mind terribly if I modified your Code makeup slightly?|
Dorumon blinked. |Why?|
|Because,| explained Sorcermon with the patience of someone who’s very close to being a martyr, |You would be hard pressed to find someone other than me who speaks English.| He seemed to sense the ‘Why?’ coming up in Dorumon’s throat, and replied accordingly. |Most Digimon speak Japanese nowadays, even though we’re technically supposed to be speaking English. Not many people still remember how to talk in English. I need to do the same thing to your Code that I did to mine – a simple Code fragment addition that makes you perfectly capable of speaking and understanding fluent Japanese. May I?|
Dorumon nodded his head. If Sorcermon had done it on himself, it must not be too bad.
|Wonderful,| said Sorcermon, |now sit still.|
Dorumon’s consciousness began to quiver and faded to nothingness.
-
“Well?” asked Sorcermon. “Do you understand me?”
Dorumon wearily opened one eye. He was lying on the floor of the same corridor he had been earlier, with Sorcermon standing over him. The Digimon made a few soft moaning noises and then tried to speak.
|What happened?| he asked.
Sorcermon’s eyebrows furrowed. “Do you understand me? Try to answer in Japanese.”
Dorumon hesitated for a few seconds before replying: “Yes… Yes, I think I can understand you now.” He watched Sorcermon smile with his eyes, which told him that he had been doing the right thing. The blue-clad Digimon offered out a hand, which Dorumon clutched in his paw and used to steady himself. “Thank you.”
Sorcermon nodded. “Okay, so the Code modification went well. And now it’s time to get you out of this place!”
Dorumon’s expression turned to one of surprise. “What? Why?”
“Didn’t Mi- eh, that voice tell you that you needed to get out of here? I know a way, so we’ve got to go down it.” He turned around, beckoning Dorumon to follow – which he did, albeit greatly confused.
-
Eventually, after what seemed like hours of Dorumon winding around the castle in places he never really knew had existed (under the guidance of Sorcermon, of course) the duo came to what appeared to be a very dark, chilly tunnel constructed of stones.
“Well,” said Sorcermon, moving his head to look at Dorumon, “admittedly, there were shorter ways out than this…”
“So why didn’t we take them?” asked Dorumon, who wasn’t truly used to so much running around in such a short period of time.
“Because there’s something here I think you need to see,” said Sorcermon distantly, turning back to face forward and continuing to walk. “Here, it should be just down at the end of this hallway and… here.” He turned to his left and walked into darkness – while the turn they needed to make to continue along the path was farther to the right!
Dorumon slack-jawed. ‘He just walked into a brick wall!’ thought the Digimon, slowly approaching the supposed brick wall with ears twitching for the slightest noise. Upon closer inspection it wasn’t a wall at all, but a side passage well-cloaked in shadow. He could hear the stomping of Sorcermon’s boots from inside. Quickly Dorumon darted into the passage and skidded to a halt beside Sorcermon, who was clutching his snowflake staff.
It was emitting a blue light from the tip, which the wizard Digimon used to observe a pattern on the wall.
“This, my friend,” said Sorcermon proudly as he took a few steps backward to throw light onto the whole symbol, “is Code in its purest form.”
The symbol on the wall was a black box with a six-pronged stick star in the center, with two shoots coming off from each point.
“But what does it mean?”
Sorcermon chuckled, almost as if Dorumon’s amazed question confused him. “Most Code doesn’t truly do anything important, unless it’s stuck together with other pieces of Coding. This, though, is different… nobody knows what this means. Do you know why?”
“No.”
“It’s different because this particular Code symbol is found in only one place. That place is…” Sorcermon paused for dramatic effect. “…the Source Code, a truly enormous compilation of totally original Coding that has scripted everything that the Digital Patch was, is, and will be. It’s one of those Code compilations that can’t be modified, for obvious reasons.”
Dorumon thought for a second, and then spoke in an uncharacteristic bout of musing. “I’d like to use the Source Code…”
Sorcermon blinked, but not from surprise – as a matter of fact, both of them soon closed their eyes. The entire room was soon filled with a glowing yellow light, a light of which definitely didn’t come from Sorcermon’s staff. The light formed into a dancing circle before the duo’s closed eyelids before concentrating itself into an arrow-shaft of light and flying… directly into Dorumon’s forehead.
Neither of them heard Dorumon scream as, slowly, the jewel in his forehead began to crack.
-
“Champion? But why?”
“Hey, some Digivolution lines go back farther than others. Suck it up, Rookie.” A Leomon crossed his chiseled arms and frowned with disdain at a small sea-green dragon sitting on the grassy ground and pouting. It had two red wings similar to a Seadramon’s but much smaller, and a two-pointed set of horns of the same color. Its jaw, stomach, and claws were all white. The Dracomon certainly didn’t look happy.
“Well, hey,” said Leomon. “At least you’re a Rookie who can hold their own. I mean, imagine being a Burgermon. Now how would you like that?” He nudged the Dracomon softly with one foot.
Dracomon swatted his kick away. “Um… I guess so…”
“Yeah, see? I’m awesome!”
“I wish I was Minervamon again so I could dice you into really tiny pieces!” snapped Dracomon.
Their petty argument was cut off by a booming voice that seemed to be coming from the heavens itself. “Marsmon! Minervamon! I sent you to do something and I expect it done!”
Dracomon rolled her eyes. “I see Apollomon has learned to use his indoor voice…” she mumbled.
Leomon grabbed Dracomon by the chest and picked her up back to her feet. “You heard the honcho,” he noted smugly. “Get going!” And he set off towards the castle, Dracomon having to run to catch up with his long strides.