Three weeks earlier...

Aardmon whistled as she stepped inside the great gates of the core, looking around. The place was even more extravagant on the inside than out; like a cathedral made of millions of building blocks, or a stained-glass window come to life. It was remarkably still; almost eerily so, as she could hear nothing of the light storm outside. She shivered, and a few glistening pieces of data fell from her shoulders and drifted to the floor.

“This place never gets old.”

“Hey Aardmon. Keep up.”

“Sure thing.”

The aardvark skipped forwards and wandered behind Ingeniumon, sticking her hands behind her back as her tail whipped from left to right.

“But how do you always know where to find it?”

“Practise.”

“No, I mean last time it was about sixty fathoms beneath the ocean.”

The robot tapped his hard hat. “I have a brain for these things. Also, as I said, a few centuries of practise.”

“We literally had to march halfway across the world this time.”

“That’s just how the core protects itself. Well...one way. It stops it getting too engrained into one part of the Digital World.”

Aardmon looked behind her. “Seems a bit inconvenient, doesn’t it? Come on; the Digital World’s been formed anew. There are massive towers growing from the ashes and sand and whole towns made of crystallised lightning, and wandering forests and musical mountains and everything now. The world’s moved on. Can’t we automate this?”

Clang.

Ingeniumon’s wheel rode up, and he muttered under his breath. “Blasted floor...every time...”

“I mean why didn’t this change after...you know...after the burning?”

The robot stared down at her. “It’s a focal point. Completely destroying the Digital World is pretty much impossible; there are bits and pieces that have to remain even if you rearrange them in different ways. The Dark Area is one. Each of Yggdrasil’s roots. Every element, every attribute, every dimension; all the things which actually make up this world, all defined in one place. And the base code for each is all stored here in the core.”

Aardmon tilted her head. “But this can’t be the proper core. Shouldn’t it be in the middle of the world? Why’s it floating around through the sky?”

“Oh...you’re not thinking about it right. It’s like...not everything works in three dimensions. This is the centre of the world even if it’s not actually at the centre. And yet it’s there as well.”

“...”

“What don’t you get this time?”

“Nothing...it’s just...why’s it outside?”

“You are full of irritating questions today. Go read a book or something.”

“Nobody’s written any. All I have is you.”

“That’s no excuse. Now hold on; I need to check the dimension sphere.”

The robot stopped in front of a pillar, and placed his gripper inside his own chest. Carefully, he retrieved an orb, bright silver and about the size of a tennis ball. It seemed plain at first glance, but Aardmon couldn’t look directly at it without feeling somewhat overwhelmed. And she’d tried multiple times. That was just the way the dimension sphere worked.

Ingeniumon seemed to have no such problems as he balanced the orb on the pivot of his gripper, and watched it spin around seemingly of its own accord. The floor beneath him seemed to glow ever so slightly, before several holes opened up, beaming a crude network into the space in front of the two Digimon. The network slowly filled in, showing a vast multi-levelled map that glistened with a thousand different colours. Aardmon’s eyes boggled, but Ingeniumon just shifted the image around like he’d done this a thousand times before. He probably had as well.

Aardmon watched as room after room blinked in front of her eyes. Some small, some huge, some mechanical, some mineral and some biological. Ingeniumon just kept the same expression (not an unusual feat), with the exception of the occasional tut or sigh.

“Gotta say, that burning has still made one gosh-darned heck of a mess in here.”

“What are we fixing today?”

Ingeniumon glared at her, and gave her a quick bonk on the head.

“Now Aardmon, what did I tell you?”

The student looked up at him, rubbing her flattened mohawk. “We’re not fixing anything...?”

“That’s right. The core fixes itself. That’s just what it does. We’re not engineers.”

“You are.”

“Well...yes, but that’s only as a last resort.” Ingeniumon opened a cupboard and reached inside. “We’re janitors. We clean things. And you’ve been talking so much that we’re behind schedule. Here, catch.”

He threw a tool at Aardmon – something like a cross between a lacrosse stick and a nine-tailed whip – and she caught it, fumbling just slightly.

Ingeniumon smirked, and whizzed the hologram around just in front of him, before stopping on a single, very rough looking room. “Just for that you can take this room here. It needs a good sweep.”

Aardmon slumped, and puffed her cheeks out. Ingeniumon smirked as he scrolled effortlessly through the map.

“Be careful. It’s a bit windy.”

He poked the centre of a room, and Aardmon vanished in an instant. The engineer twiddled his own tool attachment, poked another room, and vanished himself.

It took what felt like several weeks, but the hurricane-ravaged ravine was eventually swept clean. Aardmon was feeling quite pleased with herself, although in the time it had taken her to clean one room Ingeniumon had managed six. Grouchy he may have been, but he was certainly impressively efficient.

He’d also mellowed out a little by this point, and took his charge round with him on the rest of his current appointments. They visited one of the roots of Yggdrasil to stick some salve on a few bite marks – a process which was taking a very long time after the recent damage. As much as Aardmon tried to see up into the branches, the tree was as out of reach as always. Just a presence, keeping the whole world connected, and all linking up here.

They scoured beneath the great mechanical arms of the ancient forges, dodging between the scribes as they recorded all that was, and all that had ever been. Aardmon was tempted to peek, but she knew it was far beyond what she was meant to know. She simply shuffled along behind Ingeniumon all the way, head down, and avoiding the knowledge of the world to be.

They fixed a mirror in the beautiful labyrinth and dredged a swamp of some of the Vaccine’s purest ambrosia. They passed control panels and puzzles and caverns and great voids, doing just a little to fix things up wherever they went. At one point they circled around a large spike, impaling the ground and chained in place, through which they could just make out the Interface beyond. And more than once they walked past impossibly tiny bubbles of pure blackness; one of thousands dotted around the entire core, which together made up the infinite matrix of the Dark Area. Ingeniumon didn’t even touch them, simply rolling past at a hurried pace. Aardmon didn’t feel the need to question him on that.

After what seemed like a long time, the two sat down in a rather nice looking forest of upside-down trees. Well, Aardmon sat down. Ingeniumon just sort of half-folded himself forwards like a gorilla on painkillers.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, just watching the lights dancing around them. There was a faint rustling from all around them, like so many wind-chimes. But apart from that, nothing. Just tranquillity. A rare resource in such a damaged world.

Aardmon rested her head in her palms, looking forwards. “Don’t you miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Hanging out down there. The normal world. With other people.”

Ingeniumon huffed. “People annoy me.”

“Even me?”

Aardmon fluttered her eyelids at her mentor, and he glanced sideways. She hissed. “Ouch. Harsh.”

“You’re acceptable. You don’t listen in the slightest, but you do have an inkling of what you’re doing.” Ingeniumon held his gripper up in front of him, clicking it together a couple of times. “I’m getting too old for this. The world keeps changing and I really can’t be asked to keep up with it anymore.”

Absentmindedly he brought out the dimension sphere, and the map came up again, just as detailed and flawless and ever. He scanned it, an almost wistful look in his eyes as he swiped left and right.

Something caught Aardmon’s eye, and she squinted. It was a little fuzzy, but right on the far edge of the map she could make out something wiggling. It was tiny, but definitely there, flapping around like a mad thing. She blinked, and it stopped, before disappearing back into the matrix.

“Um...”

The aardvark raised a finger, but Ingeniumon had already swiped forwards. She put it out of her mind, and returned to staring forwards, pouting.

“You do a far better job than I could. And you can navigate this place. I’ll get lost going down a straight corridor.”

She glanced up, only to find the robot looking directly at her, his finger frozen in place.

“Do you want me to show you?”

Aardmon blinked, before her smile widened. “What, really? Seriously?”

“Well, you’ll need to learn at somepoint. Might as well do it now while I’m around to do some damage control.”

He rocked back and forth, before raising himself up, positioning himself behind Aardmon. Gently he guided her hand, and placed the orb at the very centre of her palm. Aardmon could feel an intense weight, yet her arm stayed completely still, as if the orb was guiding her, rather than the other way round.

“Just balance the ball in your palm, that’s all. You need to will it to open, and will it again to find the place you want.”

Aardmon took in a breath, and opened her fingers, letting the ball spin freely. It wobbled severely, and she didn’t make things any better by constantly trying to correct it. Still, it worked eventually, and the map sprung up in front of her; slightly scaled down so she could reach it. She whistled, waving left and right as the matrix spun gently before her. Ingeniumon guided her hand again, dragging a white space out with two fingers and revealing a keypad full of Digicode.

“X, Y, Z, Time, Frequency, Orientation. Twelve co-ordinates, followed by the chamber designation. It’s all very simple.”

Aardmon looked stumped, so Ingeniumon reached out and pulled the nearest room forwards, pointing out the unique code in tiny scribbled symbols beneath the miniature void.

“See? All the same pattern, and all relatively in order.”

Aardmon squinted. “HMN_GO...Humans?” She glanced up at her mentor. “There’s a branch connecting with the human world here?”

“There are several. All in the same layer. There’s one which assigns partners and one which forges their digivices.” The robot leaned forwards. “This one’s pretty much the initiation engine.”

“Huh?”

“The start button.”

“But I thought Yggdrasil was the one who called humans to help.”

“It is. And if it decides to do so then it goes here and presses the start button.” Ingeniumon stared down at the little beast. “Thankfully, we’re not allowed.”

Aardmon grinned, peering all around at the little network of rooms. “Have you ever met any human tamers, Ingeniumon?”

If the robot had had the capacity to pull faces, it would have pulled a nasty one right then and there. “God no. Revolting creatures. Always so...noble and willing to help...sucking up to everything they meet just because it’s different from their own world. Blegh.”

The aardvark raised an eyebrow. “Is there anyone you like?”

“As I said, you’re acceptable. Come on; let’s find the room we’re supposed to be looking for. Can you put this in?”

It wasn’t as clean and efficient as when Ingeniumon had done it, but Aardmon managed to put in the code and select the right room in the archive. With a buzz of excitement, she held onto Ingeniumon, and pointed forwards. The two of them vanished in an instant, not even leaving any footprints in the forest floor.

The two arrived in a squat, angular room, with squiggly horizontal lines buzzing up and down around all the walls. It didn’t contain much, save for a couple of gyroscopes, a bench full of compasses and spirit levels, and a large ellipsoid suspended between two spikes in the centre of the room. She shuffled forwards, bemused. “What’s this place?”

“Longitudinality.”

“Huh?”

“It’s one of several dimension rooms around the matrix, dictating the measure and type of your displacement.”

“Whu?”

“It allows you to walk in a straight line.” Ingeniumon leant down, and ran a finger over the lower surface of the ellipsoid, causing it to turn the tiniest amount. “Ah dadgummit. It’s tilted. That’s a pain.”

He looked up at Aardmon, who appeared just as lost as ever.

“You ever been walking and suddenly jumped about two-hundred metres to the right for no reason?”

Aardmon thought for a moment. “Once. I think I threw up.”

“That’s what happens when this thing lists to one side. The thing needs to be perfectly aligned. Although the engravings over the surface allow you to make portals; there are complimentary ones in all the other dimension rooms. But Yggdrasil does all that. I don’t touch these things. Except to realign them, which is a pig of a job.”

He sighed, and looked over at his apprentice. “I don’t suppose you could grab a spatial fulcrum and yocto-calibrator from the main stores can you?”

Beat.

Ingeniumon snorted, and brought up the matrix. “You can be a pain, you know that? Stay here, I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Aardmon looked around. “What am I supposed to do here?”

“Study the dimension sphere or something, I don’t know. Maybe start by finding where the storeroom is.” He pointed his blowtorch at her sternly. “I will be expecting you to zap me around all by yourself before too long, you know.”

He vanished in a puff of sparks, leaving Aardmon standing alone in the room.

After all the weird and wonderful things she’d seen, a microscopically-misaligned squashed ovoid wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing to be stuck in a room with, so before long Aardmon was knelt on the floor, examining the dimensional matrix and trying to pinpoint the many hundreds of rooms. Her eyes were beginning to sting, and she took a few deep breaths.

“Take it slow, Aardmon. You have several centuries to get good at this.”

Something wriggled in her peripheral vision. She blinked, and looked to one side, before jumping backwards a mile.

Something was crawling on the matrix. Only small, but visible, and wriggling back and forth with an elastic quality. It scrunched itself up, and sprung forwards, disappearing from view.

Aardmon peered forwards, when the black thing suddenly appeared again beside her, landing with an undignified splat on one of Yggdrasil’s chambers. It did much the same as before, merely swimming around on the surface, before bouncing off again. And again it appeared, way over on the other side.

Aardmon watched in fascination – and the tiniest bit of revulsion – as the map was slowly scoured all over by this mysterious little parasite. It disappeared from right in front of her, and she looked closer, trying to make out what the thing was doing. There didn’t seem to be any damage, only a few tiny spots of blackness lingering on the surface. She raised a finger and prodded at it, only to recoil as the matrix literally deformed in her hands. She pulled back, and it sprung back to where it was originally.

“Must just be a glitch...or something...god this thing is confusing...”

Her claw had left a little imprint in the edge of the room, and she gently rubbed away at it until it was smoothed out. She stepped back, placing her hands on her hips and grinning inanely.

“There. I’m officially a janitor.”

She looked away at the door, but her mentor still hadn’t returned. Obviously the yocto-tacho-whatchamacallit was a heavy old beast.

She turned back towards the matrix, and started, her eyes falling back on the little room. The black spots were back, more intensely this time. As Aardmon watched, more of the little black circles burst open, gathering in little clusters like a little rash on the surface of the chamber.

“Nope. No no no...”

Aardmon crouched forwards and rubbed furiously at the spots, hurriedly scraping them away from the little projection. “If Ingeniumon finds out I’ve got his sphere dirty he’s gonna blow a gasket.”

She pulled her hand away, but her face fell as she saw that she’d just managed to smudge the substance all over the outside of the wall. The rash broke out again in seconds, popping up faster than ever and beginning to coagulate into a small gelatinous mould on the outer edge of the chamber.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Aardmon snorted, and went to pluck the mass off, but it hurriedly undulated out of her grasp like a beached seal, avoiding her jabbing fingers. She braced herself, and lunged again, managing to grip the gel by one of its tendrils. It squirmed, trying to pull itself away, but Aardmon pulled backwards and the thing stretched out.

“Get...off!”

She wrenched her arm backwards with a victorious laugh, only to cringe at what sounded like a clap of thunder tearing through the sky.

She looked at her hand, but the black mass wasn’t there.

She looked at the room, and saw that the edge of the room had split open like a piece of paper.

And the black mass was inside.

Aardmon squeaked, and fell on her backside, her heart jumping up to her mouth, dropping down to her feet and spending the intermediate time bouncing up and down with alarm.

“Ingeniumon’s gonna kill me!”

She scrabbled to her feet and looked inside the tiny chamber, but the mass had already crawled away, squeezing into the next one a few rooms down. She ran to one side and cornered it, clamping her paws around the affected room, but it just seeped outwards and managed to spread into three rooms at once. As it did so, the noises worsened, and the colours all around began to flicker in a worrying fashion.

Aardmon was panicking now, staring back at the door, then up at the ceiling as she heard a horrendous scuttling from...heck knows where. She screamed and swiped at all the corruption she could see on the map of the core, but at a second glance it was clear she’d only managed to catapult it into yet more neighbouring rooms.

“Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod-”

Another scrape. A tiny little tremor, as if something large had just nudged the chamber she was currently in. Aardmon powered sideways and stood in between the approaching blackness and one of the holographic roots of Yggdrasil, hurriedly staring back in desperation.

“Please oh god please do something you have to know what to do here-“

Yggdrasil did know what to do here; that is, to retract its root in the space of a microsecond, seal the chamber up in a great big orb, and flash a very rude but not-at-all uncalled for warning sign right up into her face, saying “STEP AWAY FROM THE CORE AARDMON” in great big neon letters.

Aardmon stared around as other bits of the core’s infrastructure pulled themselves in and locked themselves tightly together all around her, which was worrying in itself, but even more so was the significant part of the map which was now dripping black. The infection was targeting rooms now; linking up with itself to block off large sections of the map, presumably to take over at its leisure. It was one great big strategy game, and Aardmon was stuck bang smack in the middle.

And she couldn’t help but notice that one of the black mass’s tendrils was ever so tenderly reaching into her own room.

She looked up, and screamed, falling to the floor. Much like the little holographic projection, the ceiling to the chamber had split open, and little globs of twisted metal and multicoloured tentacles were falling inside, shuffling around and linking up into a disgusting skeletal parasite. It reared up, wobbled about, and sprouted two great big bulbous eyes on the ends of its two necks.

“GET AWAY FROM THERE RIGHT NOW!”

Aardmon jumped a mile as the door slammed open and Ingeniumon stood, covered in metallic goop and with his blowtorch steaming. He wobbled forwards, and the room lurched, spider-webs of the infection spreading out across the walls. Aardmon gave a hysterical laugh, and held her claws to her chest.

“You came-“

“I SAID GET AWAY!”

Ingeniumon shrugged his shoulder, and his blowtorch burst into life, spouting a huge blue flame that caused the thin black trails to crumble to dust all around him. The spider-like entity shrieked, and wobbled all the more, before bunching itself inwards and coiling up like a spring. Aardmon noticed, and cried out.

“Watch out!”

Ingeniumon raised his gripper arm and marched forwards, charging his blowtorch again as the entity sprang.

Not towards him.

Towards the wonky ellipse.

Ingeniumon barely had enough time to register before the spider latched onto the globe, flattening itself down and rubbing its tendrils (inappropriately) over the surface. It gurgled, and scraped upwards, the ends of its legs scratching the smooth surface.

Ingeniumon’s head flipped back towards Aardmon, with utter fury in his fixed smile.

“What the fuck have you-“

“-done!?”

Ingeniumon felt the sea breeze on his face, and a distinct lack of any solid matter beneath his wheels. He flailed wildly as he fell, before slamming into the sea below with all the grace of a rock.

Eventually he resurfaced, staring directly up at the sky as he lay on his back in the middle of some unknown ocean, longitudinally several thousand miles from where the core was currently located.

“Oh for FUCK’S sake...”

His face watched blankly as the bright sun above sparked, spun a few times, and flicked out with a little poof, leaving him staring up at the shifting digital void.

“As if I didn’t already have enough to do...”

Aardmon pressed herself up against the wall, watching in horror as more and more of the metallic gunk fell from the ceiling. It sloshed back and forth, coagulating into an amorphous mass that pressed itself up against the chamber walls, almost as if it were in pain. The creature convulsed, and the walls buckled, the two surfaces becoming one and bending to its will. A roar echoed throughout the building, signalling the formation of yet more horrendous beings. Or perhaps the same being. Aardmon couldn’t be sure.

She pushed herself up against the wall, and slammed against it, the dimension sphere pulsing in front of her as she yelled gibberish and unhelpful remarks at herself.

“ComeoncomeonthinkthinkthinkwhatthehellamIgonnadoforgod’ssakethinkthink-“

She swiped her hands back and forth, but the matrix had shrunk to a hundredth of its size. That was something; most of the chambers seemed to have sealed themselves away. But several of them were still open, and even more had been completely overrun by the virus’s gelatinous grip. She pawed through the remaining chambers, looking for a way out.

“Where’s the main room! Where the hell do I go...”

There was a screeching grunt from in front of her, and she bowled herself sideways as the amorphous beast lunged at the wall, taking out several more of the panels. The wall itself was infected by this point, the metallic surface melting downwards into some kind of soup.

Aardmon grabbed the matrix as she backed away, her escape routes slowly dissolving into mush. She screwed her eyes shut, and screamed into the void.

“Damnit Ingeniumon, why didn’t you show me any useful rooms-“

She gasped, and glanced to her left. There, within the cluster trapped by the virus, was the first room she’d seen. She grabbed her head, trying desperately to remember the coordinates, from just a few moments earlier. It seemed like an age ago now, but she pressed against her forehead, thinking so hard her brain could have burst.

“X...Y...Z...”

She felt her feet giving way beneath her as the whole of the room began to liquefy, the central orb vanishing beneath the surface.

“...Time...Frequency...”

The parasite wriggled, growing eyes in multiple places as it spread its web all throughout the interior of the chamber.

“...Orientation!”

Aardmon reached out and typed in the coordinated, even as the black mass threatened to swallow her whole.

“HMN_GO!”

The Digimon took in a great gasping breath as she landed within the new room; the first link to the human world she’d heard so much about. Her legs shook and her teeth chattered. Even in this temporary refuge she could hear and feel the virus clattering about all around her, hammering away at this most mysterious of chambers.

The chamber itself was practically empty. There was a single door, and on the opposite wall, a single panel, engraved with the ancient and instantly recognisable symbol of the digivice. Aardmon rushed towards it, feeling desperate.

“Come on...start! We need help! I need your help! Yggdrasil!”

She slammed her fists against the wall, pressing her forehead forwards as tears streamed down her face.

“Please...I need you right now. I don’t have the right to ask you anything but without you this world is gonna end, and it’s all my fault. Please...just send anyone. Five...ten...as many as you can find, wherever you can find them.”

The Digimon’s knees buckled, and she gently sank down to the floor, her words echoing in an empty chamber.

“Whoever’s out there, whoever’s listening...please send help...”

Her fur twitched, and stuck up, tingling with a new energy. She snapped her eyes open and looked up in relief to see the symbol bursting with life. All around her she could hear a new mechanism moving; creaking levers, clanking gears, and the definite shrill sound of a whistling kettle.

Aardmon placed her hands around her snout, crying tears of relief as she stepped back...

The panel cracked, tiny spurts of black gunk forcing their way through. The machinery wheezed and screeched all around, and steam began to billow out from the cracks beneath.

Aardmon turned, and she saw it, unfurling behind her like a huge laughing spider. Four biomechanical limbs, grasping at the core and scraping away rock and crystal. A patchwork head, swaying from left to right as the multiple faces leered and giggled, bloodshot eyes staring out into nothing.

HhheeehLlleelOooooo WwwooorRRRrlllDDddD

Aardmon held the dimension sphere tightly against her chest, staring up at the monstrosity. There was a thudding sound to her right, followed by a worrying snap and the sound of lightning. The digivice flickered behind her, still glowing as brightly as ever despite the impending doom.

Aardmon gritted her teeth, and glared up at the parasite.

“Wh...who are you?”

The creature stopped, and chattered to itself. One of its arms fell off and dissolved into slag, but another one grew in its place, glowing red hot and sealing itself in place. The beast chose its largest and widest face, and thrust it right up to Aardmon.

ccccAAaalallll mmeeeeemee the FFfFffuuuuUUUnnnnymmMMMMannnn

It swayed, and thrust out an arm, slamming it into Aardmon’s chest. Red-hot fingers hooked around her arms, then her hands, then in between her own fingers. A petrified Aardmon pulled with all her might, but her fingers were peeled away bit by bit from the dimension sphere. Eventually she could hang on any more; crying out and dropping it.

The orb didn’t even touch the floor before the creature swiped at it, and in less than a second it was juggling the dimension sphere in front of her. Aardmon’s teeth chattered, and she raised her fists.

“You have to go. Y-y-y-y-you’re not welcome in this world.”

The Funnyman tilted its head, and frowned.

buTTTttt itttTTT’ss mYYYYYY woRRRllldDD noooOOOOOowwwwowWW

It reached out, opening up its hands around Aardmon as she took one more step back. The last thing she saw was her own terrified face, reflected in the sphere which was now half-embedded inside the Funnyman’s central joint.

Then the Funnyman disappeared. So did the chamber. And the core completely. Her vision blurred as she fell towards a prairie, the dusty ground coming up quickly to meet her-

She landed in a sand dune, and everything went black.

The humans listened intently as Aardmon told the whole story, in between her frequent pauses and gasps for breath. The children didn’t say a word; they just patiently waited for her to finish. Ingeniumon was silent as well, but he kept working, chipping away at the Funnymon’s body and pulling out ream upon ream of frazzled wiring and twisted metal. Occasionally he would turn around, cocking his head sideways at the aardvark’s explanation. But still he didn’t speak.

Aardmon’s story finally ground to a halt, and she sat there, not looking anybody in the eye. Nobody wanted to be the first to say anything. Most of them didn’t even know what to say.

Eleanor stood up without warning, and walked away, standing a few metres away and staring up at the ceiling. Lorelie shuffled forwards.

“...how did...you...find us then?”

Aardmon shrugged. “It was easy, really.”

“You had to...cross worlds.”

“You already had...the digivices. You’re the ones who opened the portal in the first place, without even knowing it. I just had to run around until I found where it was opening. It took a while, but you know.” She tapped the side of her head. “I have many secrets. I know more than I let on.”

The group shuffled uncertainly. Callum held his head in his hands, pressing his palms into his eye sockets.

“Jesus christ...”

Martin held his hands together, looking left and right for any sort of interjection or conversation starter. When it became clear that he was not going to get one, he cleared his throat, and forced a smile.

“I mean...sure, you let it out...or in or...wherever. But surely it was gonna find its way in anyway...right?”

He didn’t sound convinced. Neither did Aardmon, who merely crouched up further into her ball.

“I mean, the Funnyman was a horrible monster. It was too strong for...any of us...it had to be only a matter of time-“

“WRONG.”

SLAM

The boy jumped as Ingeniumon slammed a large pill-shaped cartridge down at his feet, causing Zoamon to squeak and scramble up to the boy’s shoulders. The robot snorted, and steam vented from his neck.

“You people don’t half spout bollocks sometimes.”

Martin peered inside the cartridge, which was full of a translucent gel-like substance. A coagulated cube of metallic ooze bobbed around in the middle like a bubble in a spirit level, with a single eye peering outwards. The boy looked up. “Is this...the Funnyman?”

“No shit.” Ingeniumon placed his hands on his hips. “Is that what you’re calling it?”

Aardmon raised her hand tentatively. “It...called itself that.”

“I’m not talking to you.”

Ingeniumon thrust a hand down on the top of the cartridge, causing the creature inside to bounce around. “This isn’t some evil mastermind or whatever you people imagined it was. It’s just a virus. They’re everywhere around here.”

The humans looked at one another, confusion on their faces. Lorelie held out her keypad. “Like a computer virus?”

“It’s just a plain, bog-standard virus like the ones which annoy the Digital World every other day. Probably made by some dumb seventeen-year-old twonk in your world. You know...you get viruses in your world don’t you?”

Ursula held her forearms together. “Well yes. But they just make people sick; they don’t...mutate and take over half the world.”

“Do you know how anything works? Do you listen at all in school?”

“We’re teenagers.”

Ingeniumon’s head dipped downwards, and he exhaled sharply. "This is why I don’t like dealing with humans.” He tried again. “ Viruses in your world attach themselves to cells and make copies of themselves, right? It’s just the same here; they will latch onto data, replicate themselves and insert something nasty into whatever they latch onto to boot. That’s how this thing was able to grow so stupidly big and powerful; it’s just working with what it could grab onto. In this case, the core, and the dimension sphere. That’s a lot to work with.”

Empermon tapped his shoulder with his saxophone, his patience wearing thin. “I don’t pretend to understand any of this, but if that’s the case then why would you let them roam around the core to begin with. From what I can gather there’s important shit in here.”

Ingeniumon started, and steam vented from behind his mask. “I don’t ‘let them roam around’ ANYWHERE. They do it themselves. That’s how they work and it’s not my job to run around with a spray can.”

“But they’re dangerous, aren’t they?”

“Only if they get in! The core has DEFENSES. They gather around the outside but you know what happens? THEY CAN’T GET INSIDE. If they try they just get absorbed or incinerated or teleported away, so they don’t actually get into the main chambers and damage any really IMPORTANT bits. And that’s the way it works.”

He thrust an arm out at Aardmon. “ Or at least it WOULD be if you don’t have some FUCKING MORON running around pressing random buttons and LETTING THEM IN.”

Aardmon flinched, and stood up, her arms shaking. “I’m sorry, I was scared! I didn’t know what to do-“

“Well you should have asked me!”

“I-I-I-I didn’t want to disturb you! You were busy!”

“And now I’m even busier because you decided to make shit up and cause even more damage.”

“But I-“

“But nothing. YOU did this. YOU managed to fuck up this badly.”

He rolled forwards and jabbed his gripper into Aardmon’s chest, causing her to fall backwards once again. She stared up, tears welling in her eyes again as the robot’s smiling face glared down at her.

“I’m actually really fucking impressed. Seriously. I didn’t think it was possible for one person – one single dumb creature such as you – to fuck something up on such a grand scale. Not only did you let a virus in and let it corrupt a good chunk of the entire database of how the world works, but you decided that the best option was to get fucking humans involved and even that you managed to fuck up royally. Look at them! You thought you could hide what you’ve done and fix your mistakes with this pathetic display?”

Aardmon tensed, and closed her claws up.

“It’s my fault. Everything’s my fault. Please don’t be mad at them.”

“I’m not mad at them. They don’t know any better. They never did. But I thought you had the tiniest shred of intelligence sufficient to not fuck up everything you touched. I didn’t expect any more from these nobility-spouting dipshits-“

“WE’RE RIGHT HERE YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FUCKING ARSEHOLE!”

Ingeniumon hadn’t even turned a whole ninety-degrees before Eleanor’s fist struck him clean across the jaw, causing his head to spin around like a sport’s rattle. Callum and Ursula held Eleanor as she struggled, her arms shaking and her fist bleeding from the impact against the robot’s sharp mask. She spat, and swore even more, her face shaking with rage.

“NOBODY TOLD US! YOU WEREN’T HERE! NOBODY WAS FUCKING HERE AND NOBODY HAD ANY FUCKING ADVICE EXCEPT FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT!”

She thrust her arm out at Aardmon, who froze, her fur bristling at the words. Eleanor carried on.

“WE WERE TOLD OUR WORLD WAS IN DANGER AND WE WERE STUCK WITH ALL OF THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT ATTACHED TO US, BUT YOU KNOW WHY WE STAYED? YOU KNOW WHY I WENT THROUGH ALL THIS? BECAUSE AT THE END OF ALL OF IT, ALL WE WERE DOING WAS TRYING TO HELP!”

Eleanor slumped in Callum and Ursula’s arms as she fell into a coughing fit. Her hair was wild, and sweat dripped from her forehead. She gritted her teeth together, staring at the ground.

“All we were doing was trying to save this horrible fucking world.”

Ingeniumon’s head slowed to a stop, and he reached up and clicked it back into position, humming as he did so.

“I’m glad you’ve got that out of your system.”

Eleanor’s look was poisonous. “Fuck you.”

“Suit yourself. You wanted to help? Brilliant. Fucking wonderful. Just what I needed. You want to know what your help has given me?”

Ingeniumon pointed backwards, and as if to illustrate his point another panel snapped off the wall and clattered to the ground.

“That alone is a good ten weeks of work. This whole chamber is over a year to fix it completely, and then there’s all the others to sort out. Not that I wasn’t already busy trying to fix it anyway, I mean, it’s not like we had a near-apocalyptic invasion happening recently where half the fucking world burned to the ground. But please, tell me how justified you are in your actions.”

Eleanor didn’t answer, and neither did anyone else.

“I’m listening.”

Lorelie shuffled in the centre of the group, holding one arm in the other. Her voice sounded from the base of her throat; muted and electronic, but audible all the same.

“We were only trying to help.”

“Excuse me?”

Ingeniumon’s head snapped towards Lorelie, waiting expectantly. He leaned forwards, and placed one gripper to the side of his head, mocking a listening action.

“Please repeat that, I didn’t quite hear it.”

The girl clutched her arm tighter, looking away, and avoiding showing the robot the hurt face on her screen.

“I said we...we were only...trying to help.”

“I thought so.”

Ingeniumon snorted again.

“I know, I know. Only trying to help this world. Everyone says that. Everyone always means that. Every human and every Digimon is only trying to help. The last humans were only trying to help. The Fire Kingdom were only trying to help. Most people are only trying to help and most people suck hard at it. At some point trying to help just isn’t going to cut it.”

“But-”

“I’m not done. You want to know what your problem was?”

He rolled his arms out, and pointed an accusatory gripper at all of them.

“You thought you could just march in and do what every fucking group of humans does; that the world would bend to your will and you’d just be able to march through. You didn’t bother to think, and you didn’t bother to get along, and every time things went wrong you just blamed it on how harshly the world was treating you. You might have just wandered in and thought you could be Digimon tamers but you had no idea where to start. You couldn’t even beat this pile of junk.”

He shoved a wheel out and kicked the cartridge beside him, causing the sealed virus to wriggle in agitation.

“And now you have the gall to say that you were ‘trying’? You aren’t heroes. You’re nothing but embarrassments. Every single one of you.”

Ingeniumon made a spitting motion, and turned away, dragging the cartridge along with him. Ursula broke out of her stupor, and shuffled forwards, holding out a hand as she called out weakly.

“Wait...what now?”

“What do you mean what now?”

Ingeniumon turned, and the girl stood awkwardly, clenching her fists. “If you don’t need us, what do we do now? How do we get home? What about...you know...” she gestured to her D-Psyche, which glowed dimly. “...this?”

“Not my problem.”

“But we can’t live like this!”

“Still not my problem.”

Ingeniumon rummaged in the boxes around his midriff and threw a small device down at their feet. Ursula picked it up, and examined it. It looked like a small radio, put together hurriedly but far more stable-looking than any of their own equipment.

“I suggest you give your backup technicians a call. Though I wouldn’t bet on them being useful. I told them to pull you back before you actually got to the core and fucked it all up, but I guess they were completely useless as well. Never trust a fucking human to get anything right; they’re all platitudes and no substance.”

Ursula gripped the device tightly, her teeth gritted together. “But-“

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Lorelie. The shorter girl shook her head, showing no expression on her screen.

Ingeniumon scoffed, and clicked his blowtorch a couple of times.

“I’ve said all I need to. I want nothing more to do with you.”

Aardmon raised a hand, but the robot stuck his gripper out.

“All of you, just get out.”

No fanfares. No applause. Only a deep, deafening silence as the group sat alone in the central hall, several chambers away from where Ingeniumon was working. They didn’t say anything; nobody quite knew where to begin. Even Zoamon seemed to have retracted from their usually chatty Rookie persona, as they bobbed around Martin’s lap.

Ursula raised the communications device in her hand, gently fingering the buttons. She glanced up, and saw Martin staring at her. After a few seconds, she slid it over, where it bumped against his shoe.

“Thanks a bunch.”

The boy picked it up, and pressed in the centre. A series of numbers appeared on the screen, followed by a loud buzzing noise, harsh in the silence of the room. The buzzing cleared, and a voice came through, more clearly than before.

“Is it you? Are you there? It’s Keble. Please answer.”

Martin looked up at everybody, but no-one stepped in. He held the device slowly up to his mouth.

“We’re here.”

“You’re still in the core? How are you? You’re not in danger...are you?”

Martin didn’t reply.

“...did you beat the Funnyman...?”

“We met Ingeniumon.”

“...oh...”

The line went blank. Then, after an agonising few seconds, it sounded up again, though faint and chaotic, and made up of the sound of their four guides yelling at one another, which slowly grew in volume and intensity.

Eleanor stood up and wrenched the device from Martin’s hand, cutting it off and dropping it to the ground. The boy glared up at her, but she didn’t even react, just staring down at the ground as her breathing grew deeper.

The comms unit lit up again. Buzzed a few more times. Martin reached forwards and held it, staring at the screen. But he did nothing more. It timed out in his hands, going dark and leaving the chamber silent once again, save for Eleanor’s heavy breathing.

Callum leant forwards, trailing his hand over his knee. “So I guess that’s it then. We’re done here.”

Empermon looked sideways at his partner. “What about the core? And your bodies?”

“Didn’t you hear Ingeniumon?” Callum turned his D-Psyche upwards, gently curling the ends of the slab which made up his fingers. “It’s not his problem. It’s ours. We’re done.”

Aardmon shuffled forwards, grasping her chest so hard that her knuckles went pale.

“I’m...so sorry...”

Eleanor sniffed, not even looking back. “Wouldn’t it have been better for you to just chuck us in the fucking ocean?”

Aardmon paled. “I...I don’t understand...”

“Drown us. Or throw us in the Dark Area or whatever. Wouldn’t that have been a better, nicer way to fucking hurt us?”

She glanced backwards, her eye showing beneath her matted curled hair. It was bright green in the low light, staring at Aardmon with a poisonous gaze.

“Couldn’t you have been any fucking kinder than...this? After all we went through – all the fucking bullshit – we’ve put up with...couldn’t you have at least made it quick?”

Aardmon held her knees, looking to one side.

“I didn’t know. I panicked. I’m so, so sorry-“

CRACK

Eleanor moved like a hurricane, her fist striking Aardmon across the jaw. The rookie went down, sprawling across the floor, and her hand going to her cheek as she screamed from the impact. Martin and Callum reached out towards Eleanor but she knocked them away, clenching her fists tightly as she struggled to breathe.

Aardmon sat up, shaking as she held her bleeding cheek. Despite that, her eyes were firm.

“I have no right to ask you to forgive me. I don’t have an explanation; I can only say I’m sorry-“

Eleanor stamped her foot, eyes blazing. “You’re SORRY?”

“Eleanor!”

The girl whirled round towards Callum, who remained staring down at the floor, one hand in his pocket.

“We’re done, alright? No point having a go about it now; it’s finished. We’re finished. It’s over.”

“But it’s not over, is it?” responded Eleanor, slamming her D-Psyche down. “This is still a pretty big fucking issue. I don’t think home’s gonna be sorted out yet. You and me, and all of us, we still have these fucking mental toasters stuck to us. And you seriously think we can just forget everything that’s happened and just go back to normal because it’s over? After everything this bitch put us through?”

Martin gritted his teeth beside her. “Maybe we wouldn’t have had to if you people were actually able to work together.”

“Excuse me?”

Zoamon looked worriedly down at their partner as he shrugged his shoulders, pointing fingers at the both of the other kids. “You two were always marching ahead and getting in each other’s way, and you both screwed it up. Maybe we could have beaten the Funnyman if you could put whatever it is you have between you to the side and just get along.”

Callum took in a breath. “What, and you’re any better ‘cause your jellyfish can’t take a decent punch?”

Martin’s eyes flashed, and he held Zoamon tightly against his chest. “You leave them out of this. They did everything right. Everything they should have.”

Zoamon struggled, looking nervously upwards. “M...Martin...?”

Martin wasn’t finished; his shoulders were shaking as he held his arms around the little jellyfish. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? That was always the problem. We can’t work together. We never could. You’re sitting there blaming Aardmon for this mess, but we were the ones who...fucked this all up.”

Eleanor pressed her teeth together, and glared at the aardvark. “We never even had a fucking chance.”

Aardmon’s claws dug into her own arms. “You did. You always did, every one of you. I believed in you.”

“What was that?”

“I believed in you from the beginning! All of you! You...you could have taken the Funnymon down on your own!”

Callum scoffed. “Why did you lie to us then? Why didn’t you tell us what really happened?”

Martin glared at him. “Would you have listened if she had?”

“Why the fuck are you defending her?”

“I’m not! I’m defending what she’s saying! We could have beaten the Funnyman; I believed that much. I staked my life on that much!”

Callum stood up. “So when we needed you most, you backed down?”

“I didn’t back down. I literally - physically - couldn’t carry on.” Martin stared at the taller boy, and shoved him roughly in the chest. “I did better than you did at Motimon’s ship.”

Now Eleanor whirled around, and suddenly all three teenagers were up in each others’ faces, with their partners watching helplessly from the sidelines. Eleanor gritted her teeth. “If you were so brave, then you should have led us through this!”

“That was your job! I was trusting you!”

Callum hissed. “You’re a fucking coward, you know that? All hopeful thoughts and not a single bone to back it up. Guess you and your partner have something in common.”

“Take that back!”

Martin reached out towards Callum to hit him, but he missed and fell to his knees. Callum breathed in heavily, only for Eleanor to stand in front of him. “What are you acting so fucking justified for?”

“Why not?!” yelled Callum, shrugging her away. “Everything’s finished, isn’t it? There’s no fucking point in carrying on so why the fuck not? Let’s micro-examine every single little place we went wrong so that when wenever get asked to do this again we’ll know exactly how not to fuck up this exact way!”

“Well maybe we’ll start by ditching you and your fucking incompetence.”

“I was the one who found my partner first, I’ve been the one carrying this whole goddamn team for a lot of this, and I’ve had a really shitty time here and got fuck all for it but a lousy t-shirt and this goddamn useless piece of modern art stapled to my fucking arm. You think you have problems? I can’t tie my shoes anymore.”

Eleanor laughed hysterically. “Tell me, does it feel good?”

“What?”

“Having your head so far up your own arsehole you’re swallowing your own goddamn windpipe?”

“Go jump in a pit, you fist-happy bitch.”

“STOP IT!”

Lorelie barged into the centre of the group, trying desperately to break up the fight with a red flashing light on her D-Psyche as she yelled at her three friends. “ It’s finished, alright? We can’t keep on like this; it’s no-one’s fault! No-one’s to blame!”

“I beg to differ.” Eleanor exhaled, and turned towards Lorelie. “When did you get so fucking chatty all of a sudden?”

Lorelie started, and her hand went to the base of her D-Psyche. She looked up, but Eleanor was marching forwards, driving her back.

“And what the hell was that back there? What have you been planning? Have you been working with that bitch all along? ”

She pointed a finger back towards Aardmon, who flinched, her fingers going to her own chest. Lorelie stammered.

“I...I wasn’t thinking...it just-“

“Are you FUCKING kidding me? You’ve been nothing but a load this ENTIRE time and NOW you suddenly stand up and do something? What kind of game are you playing? What’s the goddamn point of actually helping now?”

“...I’m sorry...”

“No, I’m not finished!” Eleanor whirled round, pointing at everyone in turn. “This whole thing has been a fucking farce. You’re in on it too. We’ve been mauled, tortured, fucking wrecked, and for what? For WHAT?”

The girl shot daggers back at Lorelie, who fell backwards, knocking her head on the ground.

“Is that all this is? A joke? One great big fucking GAME? Is that all this ever was to ANY of you-“

Eleanor never finished her sentence, as Ursula stepped forwards and grabbed her by the collar, lifting her six inches clear from the ground. She stood there, glaring into Eleanor’s eyes, the other girl too stunned by the motion to move.

Ursula breathed in.

But her voice only gave way to an anguished wail.

The girl was crying. Streams of tears pouring down her cheeks. Her teeth clicked together, and her hands shook from the strain and the pure fury and anguish and devastation coursing through her.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Only a couple of choking sobs, echoing around the chamber. She lowered her arms, gently putting the smaller girl down. Eleanor staggered back, holding her collar, speechless, as Ursula raised her trembling hands to her own face, shaking her head.

“I...I-I-I...I’m so sorry...”

Ursula turned in an instant, and ran from the chamber, one arm covering her eyes.

“Big sis!”

Hinkymon held out an arm, genuine concern on his childlike face. He paused, and looked back at the others, with an expression far too pained for somebody so innocent. Then he too scampered off, following his partner.

Lorelie held a hand to her chest. “Ursula...”

“Fuck this noise.”

Eleanor marched in the opposite direction, then paused. She walked back, reached down and grabbed Chelomon by the shell, holding her in her arms. She glanced up at the others, then kept walking, not looking back.

“Don’t look for me.”

“Eleanor...”

Lorelie held out her hand weakly, but the girl was already gone. Either side of her, Martin and Callum looked down at their own partners. Callum sniffed, and walked off, with Empermon limping along behind him. Martin gave Lorelie one last glance, and his eyes were sad behind his glasses.

“Sorry.”

“Guys, wait...please...”

One by one they all walked away, disappearing into the blackness.

Even Aardmon stood up and trudged off, not even sparing a glance backwards.

Lorelie was left standing alone in the great hall.

Well, very nearly alone. Lorelie looked down, and saw Sorimon shuffling towards the doors herself.

“Sorimon, not you too...”

She took a step forwards, but the shrew glanced back, her eye glowing in the gloom. The look she gave Lorelie was piercing and devastating, causing the girl to stop in her tracks.

Sorimon glared at her for a while, before she slumped forwards, holding her tiny arms around her tiny chest.

“I wanted to fight with you. What was so wrong about that?”

“Sorimon...we’re partners...”

“Why are you still lying to me?” Sorimon sniffed, and rubbed her snout. “We’re not partners. We never were, were we...?”

She shuffled away, disappearing into the gloom as Lorelie stared after her. For a moment the girl stood in the multicoloured twilight, with not even the sound of her own breathing to keep her company.

Eventually she fell to her knees, curled into a ball, and began to cry.

And even then, no tears were coming.