Digimon VIRAL
Episode Three
Gavindramon's Thunder Rings

   The white-haired boy stood with his arms crossed over his chest, staring down the triple-threat of the Woodmon. His partner, Ospreymon, half sat, half lay a few meters behind him, staring at the kid as if he were about to jump off a cliff. By now the three Woodmon had come to the decision that this would be an easy, willing target, and each stared at him with their hollow blue eyes. Nathan took his sleeve away from his cheek and stalked forward towards Audrey.

   "Listen, this is no time to try being a hero, Aud-"

   He had stuck out an arm to stop Nathan, who vaguely bounced off when his chest connected with the other boy's elbow. Audrey looked at him out of the corner of his eye, letting a weak smile slide over his face. "If this fails miserably and I die, tell your dad to tell my parents that I'm sorry."

   Gin was close to smacking her forehead with her palm. "Enough with the drama, please..."

   "Yeah, let's get this over with!" One of the Woodmon jeered, leaping forwards and pulling his branches back for an attack, "Branch Drain!!"

   Audrey pushed Nathan out of the way, taking a hit to the shoulder. Luckily it wasn't a lingering hit, and the moving tree didn't have a chance to drain his energy.

   "Audrey!!" Ospreymon swiftly peeled himself off of the floor, managing to catch his partner with his feathery bulk before he could hit the solid ground. "Damnit..."

   The trees laughed in unison, preparing for another attack.

   "I hope he's alright, I hope he's alright, I hope he's alriiight..." Lutramon was on her haunches, nibbling at her front paws nervously.

   The white-haired boy got up off his Digimon, seemingly unfazed but really hiding the fact that his shoulder was now throbbing. "You three aren't trees, you're barely twigs. It must be so easy to just snap each of you in half." It was evident now that he would not stop winding them up. This was a kamikaze move.

   "What!? You filthy human being, you dare come over here and insult powerful creatures like us!? Che!" The other two Woodmon were backing their comrade up, spewing various profanities. "Now, BRANCH DRAIN!" Three pairs of jagged wooden arms stretched out straight at Audrey, each aimed in a way that at least one pair would land a direct hit.

   "Ospreymon!" Audrey held his Digivice out infront of him, as by now it had begun to leak out a black light. It was just like the time Canismon evolved, the light expanding and engulfing the boy's partner.

   "OSPREYMON EVOLVE...."

   The bird Digimon grew in size, his wings expanding and losing their claws. His tail elongated, the orange feathers becoming a arrowhead-tipped whip. He gained a pair of tyrannosaurus-rex-like arms, and his spine was now lined with spikes. Overall his appearance became feral, as even his beak had gained sharp teeth.

   "GAVINDRAMON!"

   The great pair of wings smacked the branches away, lifting the large bird Digimon off the ground. Threads of electricity began to move through the green feathers covering his bulk, and he let out a loud screech before diving towards the threesome.

   "AHA! You idiots think you're powerful!? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH! THUNDER RINGS!" Gavindramon opened his beak to spew forth three electrified rings, which crackled and wrapped themselves around the three Woodmon, sending their voltage into their bodies before fading away. The trio writhed and screamed, but refused to let the giant bird win, and leaped onto his bulk as he swooped down.

   "You shouldn't get so cocky, you filthy bird. We've got the upper hand here. ROOT SNARE!" The feet of the Woodmon suddenly sprouted roots, which moved quickly to wrap around Gavindramon. They tangled around his limbs, and begand to move down his wings, to pull them in and smash the Digimon into the ground.

   "This isn't...good. That's unnatural behaviour...for Woodmon. It's just like the Kiwimon...I fought." Canismon was watching the fight with a frown, suddenly worried for his comrade.

   Audrey was mumbling to himself. "Come on Gavindramon, resist..." His eyes were wide, he hadn't actually expected his plan to work. But now his partner had evolved into something massive, and he was finding it difficult to believe that he was still inable to completely own the Woodmon.

   "Idiots." Gavindramon was thrashing through the air, trying to shake off the three, but coming to realize that the roots were sapping at his strength.

   "Ohoooo, see?" One of the smaller Woodmon piped up. "You're getting weaker. This battle is ours, you pile of feathers."

   Gavindramon snapped his neck around, delivering a glare of pure loathing. "Total idiots." He ruffled his own feathers, spreading his wings out as far as they could go. "Electric Radiance!" The electricity that had been moving through his feathers suddenly surged, catching the Woodmon and their roots off guard. Immediately they were forced to let go, screeching as they were blasted off of the giant bird.

   "Ohhh! He did it! He shook them off!" Gin watched the trio plummet to the ground with a sense of satisfaction. But these things were pretty stubborn.

   "ROOT! SNARE!" Their recovery time was unnaturally quick, and now they sent their roots through the ground, giving up on the giant raptor overhead and aiming for the remainder of the group.

   Nathan was watching the cracks appear in the ground as the roots moved closer and closer. "Guys...I think we better run."

   "Agreed." Zuru grabbed Kotamon's paw, pulling her up off the ground. The team risked a glance at the oncoming threat, before turning right around and running.

   "Oh that's low, attacking the ones not even in this fight." Gavindramon adjusted his wing feathers, turning around and down towards the ever-expanding cracks in the earth. "Thunder Rings!" The same electrified circles rose from his throat, hitting the cracks. The voltage grounded itself, vanishing into the earth, but catching the roots in the process. The surge travelled along the roots, frying them in the process, and eventually reaching the Woodmon, who were chased out of the bushes they had been hiding in. The team stopped in their tracks, turning round to see the assault was stopped.

   "Arrgghhhh! Give it up bird, no matter how much you come at us, we'll recover!"

   Gavindramon landed on the ground, and began walking towards the trio, his pointed tail lashing around behind him. "No matter how much I come at you, you're just stubborn wood creatures. So what if I can't shock you to death?" Thick, threatening bolts of lightning were crackling all over Gavindramon's body as he got closer and closer. The three Woodmon made to run for it, but the bird whipped that orange tail of his right around, smashing them into eachother and against the ground.

   "Augh! Master isn't going to like this...!" Before they had time to roll out of the way, Gavindramon had come over, smashing the Woodmon to pieces with his beak and claws.

   Audrey almost let his jaw hang open at the scene. "That's...pretty brutal." It seemed like such an unusual course of action to take, but, well, if electricity wasn't working there really wasn't much else to do.

   "Stupid trees!" Gavindramon had just about reduced them to splinters, but kept on stomping. The pieces of the Woodmon burst into data fragments, each leaving behind three bronze computer chips, which were also promptly smashed by the giant Digimon.

   "Ga-Gavindramon!" Audrey began tentatively walking towards his partner. "I think you can stop now, they've vanished." The bird stopped mid-stomp and turned his head to look at the boy, before flapping his wings once and making his way over.

   "Wow, that was vicious." Lutramon was the first to make it all the way back. "Vicious, but effective."

   "Audrey, sorry, even though it worked, why did you act like an idiot and risk your own life?" Zuru had her hands on her hips, and she was still slightly shaking.

   The white-haired boy hesitated for a moment before answering. "I figured there wasn't a choice. That's all." He could see his fingers trembling a bit, though, as he lifted a hand to give Gavindramon a pat on the head.

   Gin sighed to herself. She couldn't help staring at Ospreymon's new evolution, though. It must be just a matter of time, she thought to herself, that the other two Digimon would evolve as well. Hopefully none of them would have to risk their own lives like that again. "Nathan, I think someone's a little tired."

   The goggle boy blinked, turning his head to his partner Digimon. A slight smile slid onto his face, Canismon had fallen asleep. He was already tired from the earlier battle, and his evolution must have been pretty taxing on his strength. "I'll let him sleep."

   "Er, you guys do realize the situation now, right?" Kotamon pointed a claw at the building that had been their shelter. "They know where we're hiding out now, we've got to get out of here."

   "She has a point." Audrey admitted. "Gavindramon...can you get us away from here?"

   The giant green predator have his partner an exasperated look. "I'm not a plane! I'm not letting THAT many snakes onto my back."

   Lutramon shuffled over, smacking one of Gavindramon's legs with her tail. "Come on, suck it up. You know you're our only way out, and it'll only be for a while."

   He drooped his head, tiny clawed hands twitching. "Fine, fine, fine. Just get it over with."

   And one by one, the remainder of the team climbed onto Gavindramon's back, trying to figure out just how to sit down without getting an unpleasant surprise from one of the spikes along his back. Nathan had a bit of trouble pulling Canismon up with him, so the other two Rookies had to help out with the dog.

   Audrey was sitting right up at the front, his arms wrapped around the bird's neck. "Are you sure you can carry all of us?"

   "Yeah, now you have doubts." Gavindramon spread his wings, preparing to take off. "I've got like a twenty-foot wingspan. Don't worry your little head over it, kid." And with a flurry of leaves and dust the Digimon took off. Flapping his massive wings and rising over the roof of the warehouse. His passengers were very much not used to this sort of transport, and clung to his plumage. "Ugh, don't pull out my feathers." It seemed, now, that as long as his energy wasn't drastically used in a battle, Gavindramon would hold on in this form, for quite a while longer at least. The sun was just barely clawing its way over the horizon, though the moon still persisted in the sky. The gian green raptor had settled his flapping to soaring, riding the thermal uplifts that grew stronger as the sun shone brighter. Just about all of his passengers had let sleep overtake them, and, confident that they wouldn't be sent plummeting, drifted off to clingy sleep. Audrey was the only one awake, and he idly ran his fingers through the feathers on Gavindramon's neck while watching the world straight ahead, ever moving closer and vanishing beneath the bulk of his partner Digimon.

   The thought cheered him up, now. He honestly had never thought that he would end up with this many new friends in the span of a day or so. There were two or three people he would spend time with at school, but that was exclusively in said location, and they had approached him first. Somehow, he had always found it the most difficult thing to approach new people for reasons other than day-to-day talk. At work, during the summer, talking to customers, co-workers, and employers was a breeze, nothing was on a personal basis. But once Ospreymon had offered him a detour to the Digital World, he hadn't hesitated, and now didn't even regret it, regardless of how dangerous this place proved to be. For the last few years Audrey's closest friends had been a pair of albino rats that lived in a cage in his room. The moody Digimon had, after all, done him a favour by taking him away from the real world. The boy quietly sighed to himself, but this apparently caught the attention of Gavindramon, who'se voice jerked him out of his thoughts.

   "I can't hold out very much longer, Aud. We'll have to land, or I'll crash. Well, more like you'll crash and I'll gracefully float down." He snuck himself a smirk, as Audrey couldn't see his beak from that angle. "You better wake the others up."

   Nodding, the boy turned around, shaking the shoulder of the one closest to him. "Hey, Nathan, Gavindramon's losing power. Better wake up."

   "Nghuh?" Nathan groggily lifted himself up, waking up Canismon in the process. "Oh, okay..." And with eyes still full of sleep, turned around and continued the waking chain.

   By the time the whole team had awoken, the giant green bird was skimming the treetops, moving lower and lower through the sky.

   "Hey, shouldn't you land? I mean... if you de-evolve now we'll hit the trees and die or something." Zuru called out to the front while retying the bow in her hair.

   "Pff, no. The forest ends right up there, I can probably make it that far." The others looked forward, where the dark green trees abruptly cut off and gave way to a field of pure white.

   "Probably, he says..." Canismon muttered.

   "What is that up there? Snow?" Gin tried to sit up a bit higher to see, but sat right back down when the wind blew a bit harder.

   Kotamon, who had her eyes locked on the field, turned to the girl. "Unfortunately not... You guys would be freezing your tails off by now if it was."

   Nathan frowned. "But we don't have tails..."

   "Ohhh, you know what I mean..."

   Audrey smiled a little and went back to looking ahead. The forest had almost vanished, and they were so low the tree branches were reaching up at them, only to be snapped by Gavindramon's wings. The turbulence had them hold on tighter, until suddenly it stopped, and below them was a whiteness so clean that the hills and valleys carved into it were almost indistinguishable from all else. The descent now became steeper, it was obvious to them the end of the flight was fast approaching. About eight feet above the ground, without warning, the same light of evolution surrounded Gavindramon, and he shrunk down into his Rookie stage, sending the rest of the team rolling over the surface.

   Each of them spent a minute or so spitting the ground out, as Ospreymon glided down and kicked around whatever was under their feet. "Sand? Completely white sand? That's pretty unusual..."

   "Ahhhh, it doesn't taste like sand at all..." Lutramon was wiping her tongue with her paws.

   "It... makes me thirsty." Canismon shook what he could out of his fur.

   "Eugh. You guys have never had salt before?" Gin said with a grimace.

   Nathan looked around him. "A desert made up entirely of salt? That's so weird it's almost gross."

   Audrey, who seemed the least bothered by this, stood up. "There was probably an ocean with a high concentration of salt here, a really long time ago."

   "Oh, attractive and smart. What else is there we don't know of?" It was a casual remark from Zuru, but the white haired boy still turned around and said nothing.

   Nathan frowned a little. "I think you embarrased him."

   "I was just fooling around, geeze." Zuru smiled nervously.

   Gin laughed. "Come on guys. We've got a lot of walking to do."

   "Isn't there a shortcut or something?" Kotamon whined. There was a stretch of blue at the horizon, but it seemed so far away from their current, whited out position.

   "Plus, with there being no landmarks at all, we'll prolly get lost or somethin'..." Lutramon stuck close to Gin, as if her own words had scared her.

   "I don't think so." Canismon lifted his head, he had been sniffing the ground, and now showed them what he had found.

   Nathan blinked through his purple hair. "Railroad tracks?"

   His partner nodded. "They might not lead to the blue horizon, but they'll definitely lead somewhere." The tracks themselves were as white as the salt around them, and probably would not have been noticed had Canismon not sniffed them out.

   "Well, not much for us to do but start walking!" Ospreymon finally spoke up.

   "I'm not used to excercise in the morning..." Nathan quietly muttered.

   Almost simultaneously, the team's eyes traced what was visible of the tracks, and followed their line as far as they could. One by one they began walking, thankful that this was nowhere near as hot as a real desert, but still disliking the sheer distance left to cross.



BACK