Steamwork Ghostly
“As if I don't have enough to do!” Vulcanusmon grumbled to Guardromon Gold as he stalked deeper into the Factorial Area's mines with the robotic Digimon following close behind him. “I thought the whole damn world was supposed to be at peace now, right? Titans and the rest of us working together in harmony—and the Titans promised to clear out of the Factorial Area! So what the hell are they doing raiding our damn mines?”
“I'm very sorry to have to bother you with this, Lord Vulcanusmon,” Gold apologized. “But LoaderLeomon swears they really did encounter a Titan this time! A GranKuwagamon too strong for them to defeat—”
Vulcanusmon sighed, “I know, I know. It's not your fault, or LoaderLeomon's either, and it's not like I want any of you taking the bastard on yourselves if it's that tough. You've been through enough without getting hurt too, or worse. I just wish LoaderLeomon had some idea of which way the GranKuwagamon went after it kicked their ass—we could be down here all day looking for it.”
That was not, in fact, the only thing the eight-armed Digimon blacksmith wished. Vulcanusmon wished a number of things, beginning with wishing that a rival faction of Digimon known as the Titans hadn't turned his entire Factorial Area into a damn circus—complete with amusement park and battle colosseum—while he was busy almost getting himself killed in the human world. Almost six months had passed since he had returned to the Digital World called Iliad. Vulcanusmon and the rest of Iliad's guardians, the Olympos XII, had finally defeated Chronomon, the common enemy of Digimon, Titans, and humans alike. . . with the assistance of said Titans and humans, no less. Now back home, Vulcanusmon had resumed his duties as manager of the Factorial Area, which supplied power to all of Iliad, and begun the arduous process of getting things back to normal.
Or getting them to a new normal, Vulcanusmon sulked as he and Gold kept walking. He wasn't thrilled about leaving the colosseum open either, but he'd agreed to do so at the behest of his fellow Olympian, Marsmon. Vulcanusmon kept his complaints to himself at the moment, since he didn't want the Guardromon to feel any worse about “bothering” him with this newest crisis. It was a bother, but that really wasn't Gold's fault. . . nor anyone else's except for the GranKuwagamon's.
Nevertheless, Vulcanusmon continued to brood, I don't have time for this! First it was shutting down the theme park they set up in my reactor, and now that I'm just getting back to work, everyone's too scared to mine any Chrondigizoit ore until I hunt down this damn bug—
“Lord Vulcanusmon, wait!” Gold called, breaking into his disgruntled thoughts. Vulcanusmon stopped and looked back to find that the Guardromon had fallen behind and was examining something lying on the floor of the mine tunnel, near one wall. Vulcanusmon had been so preoccupied with his mental complaints that he hadn't noticed it in passing.
“What'd you find?” Vulcanusmon asked as he backtracked to where Gold had dropped to one knee and was scooping the thing up in his three-fingered hands. “Oh hey. . . is that a Digitama?”
Gold replied rather dismally, “It was.” He was right: what had likely once resembled a large egg was now reduced to shattered pieces of shell oozing data. Pixels dripped between Gold's fingers for a moment before the entire mess dissolved and vanished before their eyes.
“What was a Digitama doing in the mines?” wondered Gold. “And what happened to it?”
“Don't know, but I bet that GranKuwagamon has something to do with it. It's too big a coincidence that two things would turn up here where they don't belong,” Vulcanusmon muttered as his rear six hands clenched into fists. “And if that damn Titan's attacking my workers and smashing Digitama, it's gonna have a bad time. C'mon, finding that egg means we must be heading the right way.”
They'd only gone a few more meters when a roar sounded from somewhere not too far ahead.
“And there's the damn Titan now!” Vulcanusmon declared, breaking into a rather awkward run. As skillful as he was at his forge, he wasn't very coordinated when it came to using his legs instead of his arms, and he could neither run nor fight especially well. At the moment though, he was too incensed to care how clumsy he looked, and anyway, Guardromon Gold wasn't all that graceful himself.
He stomped after Vulcanusmon, who hesitated when the tunnel split in a fork. He listened for another roar from the GranKuwagamon to know which way to turn, but instead, a horrendous noise came from the tunnel on the right—a squealing metallic sound followed by a loud crash. . . and a high-pitched wail of pain.
That wasn't a GranKuwagamon! Vulcanusmon thought as he took off down the right-hand tunnel. That was some other Digimon who's fighting it—and losing. He'd thought all of the mine workers were accounted for, having cleared out when word of the rampaging Titan spread, but someone must have been overlooked.
Rounding a bend in the tunnel, Vulcanusmon stopped short so abruptly that Guardromon Gold almost ran into him. They'd found the GranKuwagamon; the giant insect Digimon loomed between them and the tunnel's dead end, where a mining operation had been halted at some point and abandoned. GranKuwagamon was larger even than Vulcanusmon himself and filled the tunnel's diameter, reaching the ceiling and both walls. Its back was to Vulcanusmon, and he surmised that it had cornered whatever Digimon he'd heard crying out.
What the hell is going on here? Vulcanusmon wondered. Why did it come in the mines in the first place, and then chase a worker all the way down here? And where'd that egg come from?
Whatever it was doing, GranKuwagamon had no business doing it, especially if “it” involved hurting innocent Digimon and destroying their eggs. Vulcanusmon preferred to avoiding getting in hand-to-hand (so to speak) battles if at all possible, but he'd had little choice in the matter in the human world nor when facing down Chronomon with the other members of the Olympos XII.
And I don't have any choice now, he vowed. I've gotta stop this thing! First things first, though—he had to get its attention away from whatever Digimon it was torturing, and lure it into fighting him instead.
That was easily accomplished when Vulcanusmon yanked his hammer free of his belt and slammed it into GranKuwagamon's back, where its thorax and abdomen joined. The Titan roared with pain and stumbled around in a circle to face its assailant. As it turned, Vulcanusmon caught a glimpse past its legs of its victim.
At first he thought she was a Mamemon, several of whom worked in the Factorial Area. She was sprawled on the rocky floor of the tunnel, trying to brace herself on her glove-like hands as she glared up at GranKuwagamon with one half-closed eye. The other eye was completely shut, and her small, round metal body was scuffed.
Then Vulcanusmon noticed the other metallic detritus lying in a heap against the tunnel's dead end: a hovercraft like a little UFO. One long arm with a gigantic boxing-glove hand had been wrenched off of the vehicle and lay to one side. The other arm was still attached, though bent at an awkward angle, and clutched in its glove was a single Digitama.
Not a regular Mamemon, then—a CatchMamemon, Vulcanusmon thought. While most Mamemon species tended to be cheerful and carefree, CatchMamemon were a more serious variant who believed that their primary purpose in life was to care for Digitama. They were notoriously stubborn in general, all the more so when it came to defending their eggs.
Vulcanusmon concluded, And this one's too stubborn for her own good—GranKuwagamon's nearly killed her, and she's still trying to protect that egg. No CatchMamemon worked in the mines, so Vulcanusmon still had no idea what she was doing there or why GranKuwagamon was trying to destroy her Digitama, but he was too furious to care.
When the insect Digimon lunged towards him, Guardromon Gold cried, “Watch out, Lord Vulcanusmon!” and lumbered forward, trying to get between GranKuwagamon and Vulcanusmon. With his Chrondigizoit-infused armor, Gold moved too slowly to make it in time, although Vulcanusmon easily dodged the attack. GranKuwagamon roared again and turned on Gold instead, which only made Vulcanusmon angrier. Though tougher than an ordinary Guardromon, Gold was still only an Adult-level Digimon, making him even weaker than the Perfect-level CatchMamemon the Titan had almost killed.
“You damn bastard, picking on Digimon weaker than you—and defenseless Digitama?” Vulcanusmon yelled. “I thought you Titans at least had a sense of pride! Wait'll Plutomon hears about this!”
GranKuwagamon spoke for the first time, its voice a buzzy growl as it snarled, “That so-called 'Lord Plutomon' is a disgrace to the name of the Titans—where's the pride in compromising with inferior Digimon?! We will rise again to purify Iliad of you weaklings, until only our superior race remains! All non-Titans must be destroyed, from you twelve pathetic 'gods' all the way down to your last Digitama!”
Vulcanusmon hadn't realized GranKuwagamon even knew who he was, but the insect's diatribe explained a lot. Before he could respond, Gold bellowed, “I won't allow anyone to threaten Lord Vulcanusmon! Destruction Grenade!”
He fired golden flying missiles from the hatches in both his arms, aiming for GranKuwagamon's head only for the larger Digimon to swat the missiles away with its scissor-like pincers. It lashed out at Gold with its claws, knocking him off-balance until he fell over on his back.
Fuming, Vulcanusmon shouted, “That's enough! Appropriate Works!” As quickly as GranKuwagamon could move, Vulcanusmon was far quicker; within seconds, his attack spawned a weapon for each of his eight hands, and he spun around to pummel GranKuwagamon with every one of them. Ordinarily, Vulcanusmon's attacks weren't especially powerful, but now he was so furious that he whaled on the Titan with his full strength.
It screamed with pain—though not nearly what it deserved for brutalizing Gold and CatchMamemon, in Vulcanusmon's opinion—and struck back, flailing its claws and pincers at him. They skittered harmlessly off of his dome and mechanical arms, although one claw slashed through his pants to gouge a shallow wound into his left thigh. Vulcanusmon scarcely noticed and only attacked GranKuwagamon again, then again until it collapsed to the ground in a crumpled tangle of limbs and wings.
It gave a final harsh buzz as if trying to speak but died before it could get any words out. As soon as he saw it begin to dissipate into data which would reform into a Digitama of its own, somewhere, Vulcanusmon turned away and used four hands to pull the heavy Guardromon Gold back to his feet.
“Are you all right, Lord Vulcanusmon?” Gold fretted. “You're injured—”
“I'm fine!” Vulcanusmon interrupted. “It's her I'm worried about.”
He moved towards the prone CatchMamemon, wincing and swearing under his breath when he put weight on his wounded leg and finally felt a sting of pain. Ignoring it after that, he knelt down in front of the much smaller Digimon and carefully picked her up with his front two hands.
Up close, he could tell that she clearly wasn't a normal Mamemon; she bore a yellow circuitry pattern on the left side of her face, and she lacked legs altogether. Detached from her hovercraft body, she was almost completely helpless, and Vulcanusmon realized that even if she didn't die of her injuries, she'd never be able to survive without repairs.
Both of CatchMamemon's eyes were closed, but the right one opened slowly, as if with a great effort on her part, when Vulcanusmon lifted her up to his own eye level and said gently, “Hey—it's okay, I got rid of the bug. Your Digitama's safe now.”
“Y-you're. . . Lord V-vulcanusmon?” CatchMamemon asked in a faint, high-pitched voice. “You. . . helped m-me?”
“Well of course! Why wouldn't I?” Vulcanusmon responded in bewilderment.
CatchMamemon didn't answer, and her eye closed again as she mumbled, “Thanks. Please. . . t-take care of—of my egg. . . .”
When she fell silent, Vulcanusmon feared she was about to dissolve just as GranKuwagamon had. However, nothing happened and she only lay limp in his hands as Guardromon Gold trundled over to his side.
“Is she going to make it?” he asked, and Vulcanusmon nodded.
“She's just unconscious. I think she'll be okay if we get her healed up in Factorial Town.” He got to his feet, still cradling CatchMamemon in his front hands, and went to inspect her hovercraft body. Vulcanusmon went on more cheerfully, “Oh, the damage isn't as bad as I thought! I can fix it right up, no problem.”
However, when he leaned down to pick up the Digitama still cupped in one of the hovercraft's large hands, Vulcanusmon's heart sank: a thin fissure in the egg's silvery, metallic shell ran from its top to almost halfway down its side.
It's cracked. . . I can't fix that, he thought. But I can't just give up on it either, not after she asked me to take care of it. Maybe if we can keep it from cracking further, it'll be all right.
Vulcanusmon gingerly scooped up the Digitama in his second set of hands, held in front of him. Each was only about half the size of one of the hovercraft's hands, so it took both of them to hold the egg securely. As Vulcanusmon bent to grab the broken hovercraft parts with various other hands, Gold asked dubiously, “Do you need me to carry something?”
“Nah, I got it,” Vulcanusmon reassured him. “We need to hurry back to town, though.” With Gold trailing after him, he started winding his way back through the mine's tunnels towards Factorial Town with all eight hands full of machinery, egg, and CatchMamemon.
Back in town, Vulcanusmon's Kokuwamon assistants carried CatchMamemon, still unconscious, into an unoccupied little apartment. Neither Vulcanusmon nor Guardromon Gold could fit through the door, but the former crouched down to peer in as the Kokuwamon gently laid the smaller Digimon on a couch that curved against two of the walls.
“Watch for needles!” Kokuwamon A fretted to his partner. “A Togemon was staying here until we closed down that awful theme park. I kept finding her spines in this place for months!”
“Don't worry about that!” retorted Vulcanusmon from the doorway. “Hurry up and give CatchMamemon a couple of those HP Capsules before she gets any worse!”
Kokuwamon B brandished one of the capsules, studied CatchMamemon for a few seconds trying to figure out how to administer it, then shrugged both sets of shoulders and shoved it in her mouth.
After only a couple more seconds, he cried, “It's not doing anything! We never could trust that Vademon merchant! And to think he had the nerve to charge Lord Vulcanusmon for—”
“Never mind, just give her another capsule,” Vulcanusmon sighed. “As badly injured as she is, it's going to take more than one.”
Kokuwamon B stuck another HP Capsule in CatchMamemon's mouth—and, to Vulcanusmon's relief, she came to with an indignant “Mmph!” followed by a fit of coughing after she swallowed it. She opened both her eyes after that to glare at the two Kokuwamon.
“What the heck did you just—ugh. . . .” She broke off with a wince as she moved her arms, indicating that she was far from healed.
Still, she didn't seem on the verge of death anymore either, and Vulcanusmon chuckled, “They probably saved your life, so you oughta be a little more grateful.”
“Oh! Lord Vulcanusmon. . . ?” CatchMamemon blinked her wide, round eyes at him. “Is that really who you are? I thought maybe I was dreaming. I'm not dreaming now, am I?” She lifted a hand towards him, then cringed and grumbled, “Ow, no, this isn't a dream. It hurts too dang much.”
“Yeah, I'm really Vulcanusmon—you can drop the 'Lord' part, though—and these are my assistants. They carried you in there and gave you HP Capsules until you woke up. You're in Factorial Town now,” he explained.
“Oh. . . .” CatchMamemon looked at the two Kokuwamon and murmured in chagrin, “Thank you. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I just thought—oh! My Digitama!” She turned back towards Vulcanusmon in a near panic. “Is it all right? Where is it?”
If Vulcanusmon had been anyone else, he might have told her to calm down; however, he'd been told that himself so often, he knew it would only agitate her more. He said quickly, “I brought it back too! I've got it right here. There's, uh. . . there's a problem, though.”
He'd been holding the egg in one of his rear hands, out of CatchMamemon's sight, but now he passed it to his front right hand and held it inside the doorway where she could see it.
“Oh. . . oh no. It's c-cracked. . . .” Her high-pitched voice broke, and although Vulcanusmon didn't know whether or not Mamemon species could cry, she sounded close to tears as she went on, “That h-horrible GranKuwagamon smashed almost all of them. I could only get away with two, and then I-I dropped one in the mine while it was chasing me, and this is the only one left—and it's cracked! I'm such a failure! I-I couldn't protect any of them!” she finished in a wail.
Vulcanusmon came close to telling her to calm down after all. Instead, he told her, “You did protect them, CatchMamemon! You did your best, and it's not too late for this one. The crack's not that bad, so it might still hatch if you keep it somewhere safe and don't move it again. It can stay right here, okay?”
He passed the silvery egg to one of the Kokuwamon, who carried it over to CatchMamemon and set it on the couch beside her. She made a little mechanical sniffling sound but did seem calmer as she took the Digitama in her gloves and carefully nestled it into the corner of the couch.
“I can really keep it here until it hatches or. . . or until I'm sure it's not going to?” she asked Vulcanusmon. “I can stay until then?”
“You can stay as long as you want to,” he offered. “But don't you have a home somewhere, to go back to?”
“Not anymore,” CatchMamemon muttered. “I used to live. . . well, I guess maybe you'd call it a village on the outer rim of the Factorial Area. But it was mostly just me and a couple of Elecmon, and the Digitama. You know how sometimes if a Digimon dies unexpectedly, their data will form an egg in a weird place? A few years ago, an unusual number of Digitama started appearing in this area. I dunno for sure, but I think maybe they came from the data of Digimon killed in the colosseum.”
Vulcanusmon said grimly, “I see. Well, I can promise you there won't be any more eggs spawning from that data. The colosseum's under new management—no more fights to the death allowed.”
“I'm glad. I don't want any more Digimon to die,” said CatchMamemon. “But anyway, while the Digitama were appearing, I'd go searching for them and bring any I found back to our village. Then the Elecmon and I would take care of the eggs and the baby Digimon once they hatched, until they were strong enough to move on.”
She hesitated, and when she continued, her voice quivered again. “B-but last night, that GranKuwagamon and a couple regular Kuwagamon raided the village. They said the same thing GranKuwagamon told you, Lor—I mean, Vulcanusmon. . . that the Titans should never have compromised, and that they were the only Digimon who deserved to live. They—they killed the Elecmon and smashed all the Digitama except for the two I ran away with. GranKuwagamon chased after me, so I went down in your mines to try to hide the eggs from it. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble by leading it there,” CatchMamemon finished sadly.
“It's not your fault. It's no one's fault but that damn GranKuwagamon's,” Vulcanusmon sighed. “I didn't realize any of the Titans still felt that way. Most of 'em turned out to be all right in the end, so you don't have to worry about anyone coming after your egg now. Especially not here.”
CatchMamemon mumbled, “Thank you for your kindness, really. I just. . . don't know how I'll be able to care for it, even here. Without the rest of my body, I'm pretty much useless. Since I don't have legs like a regular Mamemon, I can't do anything without my extra arms.”
She sounded ashamed, but Vulcanusmon smiled under his respirator's mask and said gently, “I know how that is. Take away all this—” He gestured at the mechanical apparatus he wore on his upper body. “—and I'm pretty damn useless myself.”
“Oh. . . really?” CatchMamemon's eyes widened as she looked him over; then, for the first time in their acquaintance, she smiled when she realized how much they had in common.
“Really. But—as long as I do have the extra arms, I can fix anything!” Vulcanusmon boasted. “I'll get your body working again and reattached in no time! In the meantime, the Kokuwamon can help you out if you need anything.”
He looked at the cracked Digitama thoughtfully then muttered, “I wonder. . . I don't want you to get your hopes up, but one of my friends, Venusmon, is pretty much the most talented healer in Iliad. I've never heard of anyone healing a Digitama, but it can't hurt for me to ask her if it's possible.”
“Oh! That would be wonderful!” CatchMamemon cried, clapping her hands together. “Thank you so much, Vulcanusmon!”
Vulcanusmon replied, “You're welcome, CatchMamemon,” but she informed him, "If I don't have to call you 'Lord,' you don't have to call me 'CatchMamemon.' My friends always just called me Catch, instead.”
“Heh,” Vulcanusmon chuckled. “In that case. . . I'll just call you Catch.”
artwork by Balloon
