Digital Inference 2

Chapter 2:  Flight
<<<Lisa Wilbourn>>>

Viximon, despite being small and mostly comprised of floof, was fast. Like, shockingly fast in Lisa’s opinion. The more shocking thing was that she was keeping up, despite having to fight the brush and whatnot as they fled the very large and angry bug digimon.

Given her prior career, it wasn’t surprising she was in shape. Combined with the vanity that all teenage girls have (despite being forced to be asexual), she kept herself in as good shape as she could. Not to say she lived a completely healthy lifestyle, of course, but in her day-to-day life, she was active enough to keep the pounds off.

That still didn’t explain why she was nearly keeping up with Viximon. Sure, she kept in shape, but she was no marathon runner or anything.

{Adrenaline pushing you faster. Damage accruing.}

“Thank you, power.” It was rather obvious, adrenaline was a helluva drug after all. And fearing for your life certainly helped.

“Duck!” Viximon called out, turning around and jumping at the giant bug.

Lisa hit the dirt as Viximon became a stone, purple smoke pouring off her as she crashed into the bug’s face (only inches from where she’d been) and threw it back. “Killing stone!” Viximon announced before changing back and dropping to the ground again, “Let’s keep running! I think I made him angrier!”

“Did I just fall into one of those Aleph anime imports Alec enjoys!?” She screamed in her head as she decided Viximon was talking sense, and she got up and resumed running.

The creature roared and knocked down a tree- she had to correct herself as she ducked and threw herself to the side, a tree sailing through the air where she’d just stood and blocking their path.

“This is how I die. Crushed by a digital bug monster…” At least she wasn’t drowning; that was a good thing, right?

Though more subconscious action than anything else, Lisa pulled her gun, inwardly laughing hysterically, and shot at the lumbering bug. Each shot landed, given the size of the target, but was as ineffectual as she assumed. It did seem to hurt it, but it kept up its advance, seemingly relishing in its inevitable victory.

Viximon tried to jump at it again, but was smacked aside before reaching the creature.

“Viximon!” She called out, looking at her Digivice with wide eyes. It still had health points, but not many of them. “Listen, big guy, um, we can help you get more berries! Or just take me and leave her alone!” The silent order was clear; in her opinion, Viximon needed to run. In spite of her power, she seemed more fragile than Lisa herself was.

The bug’s mandibles clacked. Lisa figured it was laughing at her.

{It is laughing at you.}

“Thanks, Power, very helpful,” Lisa internally sighed, "Guess this is it then…”

“Electro Shocker!” Called out a voice, an actual lightning bolt slamming into the large red bug. “Shocking Touch!” Then a large blue beetle slammed into the red one, lightning flowing through both of them and seriously hurting the red monster.

{Really hates the red bug. Is attacking the red bug. Is ignoring you. It is not hostile to you.}

“Thanks!” She called out, not really caring about the why, and instead turned to run, grabbing Viximon as she went. “Gotcha, I gotcha.”

Viximon just whined but otherwise didn’t comment.

{Is disappointed in how weak it is. Believes it should protect its partner. Wants to be pet.}

She’d get to the petting after they were out of the inevitable splash zone of two bug kaiju throwing down. That didn’t stop her from comforting her partner, though, “You did fine, you’re ok,” Lisa said, “If we’re partners, that means we need to protect each other, right? Well, I’m protecting you right now, got it?” 

“Right…” Viximon mumbled, “I bet the previous digidestined didn’t need to protect their digimon partners…” Lisa looked quickly and realized she was pouting.

“Bah, heroes always act like things went perfectly,” Lisa said, ignoring that villains usually did the same thing, “I’m sure they did some stuff like this!”

{River ahead. No dangerous digimon around. Will block scent trails.}

“Oh, thank god.” Lisa thought, “Okay, we just need to cross the river, and we should be safe. Or, as safe as we can be anyway.”

Viximon seemed conflicted about something before saying, “Thanks… I’m sorry for planning a bunch of pranks on you.”

{Is not sorry about the planning. Is sorry that they could make you feel bad.}

“It’s fine, Vixi,” Lisa said with a chuckle, “I probably wouldn’t have minded if we were in a safe area,” She added as she pet and hugged the digital fox thing.

It was funny how quickly she found herself getting attached to the creature, though.

{Self-Delusion. Finds Viximon adorable and latched on both as a sense of comfort and because you have a weakness for cute things.}

Lisa blinked as the cold of the river shocked her down to her core. It wasn’t moving fast enough to make crossing dangerous, but it did come up to her waist. “Self-delusion?”

She didn’t feel that deluded…

{Feels that you are dead. You are alive. This is not hell. This is not the afterlife. You are alive. You are not dead. This is not an illusion. This is not tinkertech. You are not on Earth Bet. You are not on Earth. You are not dead.}

“I, uh, I think I should sit down to catch my breath for a minute…” While she tried not to have an existential crisis in the middle of the river.

{You are not dead.}

“I heard you the first time, damnit!” Besides, if she were dead, she wouldn’t be feeling exhaustion or pain.

Viximon just looked up at her with concern in its eyes, but didn’t question it. Instead, Viximon just snuggled into Lisa’s arms and closed its eyes to rest as well. Though its ears flicked, showing that it wasn’t going to drop its guard.

Lisa was shaking as she got out of the river and behind a large pile of bushes, and it wasn’t entirely from the cold and wet. Her breathing was heavy and rapid, fingers half-digging into the endless fluff of Viximon’s body. “I am not dead,” She reiterated to herself, tears in her eyes. “I can get back home. God, I hope I can get back home…”

Earth Bet might’ve been a shithole, but it was her shithole. Besides, it’s where she kept all her stuff! And it wouldn’t feel right leaving Bet without putting a fucking hole between Coil’s eyes! And she needed to at least say goodbye to the Undersiders!

Taylor, the naive and jaded girl, probably would want to go with her. Lisa had done her research and… well, if she wanted, Lisa couldn’t really blame her. Absentee dad, dead mom, social pariah, bullied by someone who could’ve been a sister to her. That’s a lot of reasons for wanting a fresh start.

“I need to get back home…” Lisa whispered, clutching tight to Viximon and half crying into her fur. “Why am I so affected by this!? It hasn’t even been a day!”

{You are not dead. You are relieved you are not dead. You are scared for Taylor. You are scared for Brian. You are scared for Bitch. You are scared for Viximon.}

“I… I can get through this,” She thought as she started using a breathing exercise, “I’ve survived… well, not worse. But I’ve survived the streets, I survived Coil’s recruitment, I survived the ABB going insane, and Leviathan. I can survive a digital world with digital kaiju!”

After regaining some of her composure {False. You’re just going to resume having your crisis when you’re in a safer location.} she stood up and looked to the river. 

“Think if we follow it downstream, we could find a city?” Lisa asked, figuring Viximon was more familiar with the area.

“Yeah! There’s a city down there, but they never let me in…” Viximon complained, still concerned for her, “But maybe now that I have a partner, they will!”

Her ‘HP’ still hadn’t recovered, but she didn’t want to fight anything anyway. If something attacked them, they’d just run.

“Okay, well, a city certainly sounds safer than anything else,” Lisa said as she started to follow the river, “So, before you found me, what were you doing, Vixi?” 

“I was training to get stronger so I can digivolve!” Viximon said with a nod, “And then I got a vision that you’d be there, and you were! Oh, do you think the being that gave me the vision can get you home, too? I think it was God!”

Precognitives usually couldn’t open portals in space, but maybe they’d know someone who could. “Maybe,” Lisa said, voice distant, “But getting to them could be a little hard. It’s not like there’s a giant mountain around with a floating castle on top or something that we can see.” If there was, maybe they could have recruited a flying monster, digimon, to take them there.

Viximon then smiled, “Now you tell me about you! What was your life like?” Which made Lisa wince.

How did you explain that you’re actually a villain to a sweet ball of fluff? At threat of gunpoint, admittedly, but still.

“Well, I was helping with Search and Rescue during an Endbringer fight,” Lisa said, figuring she’d save the villain reveal for when they were at the city and safe. “It was against a giant monster called Leviathan, a powerful hydrokinetic. Things… weren’t looking great, but against Endbringers the goal was to survive and not win.”

“Like a rampaging Mega,” Viximon said with a nod, “Got it.”

She was going to shelve that for never. “I was also getting information on how the Endbringer worked, how it fought, and any weaknesses it might have had. And giving myself a migraine while I was at it,” She added with a faint snort, “Not that I’ve had that problem since I woke up.”

The digimon in her arms nodded, “I’ve heard of digimon doing that for other things! Did a Royal Knight arrive to help stop Leviathanmon?”

{Powerful digimon. Idols to Viximon. Viximon thinks they can do no wrong.}

Lisa took a moment to think, “They’re called the Triumvirate, the three strongest parahumans alive,” She said, “But, like I said, Leviathan couldn’t be defeated, just survived. It was like a force of nature… it’d sunk an island in the past. But they, along with the efforts of various heroes and villains, managed to drive it off from other attacks. But… Leviathan can apparently be petty and well… here I am,” She explained.

Viximon nodded, “I bet the Royal Knights would totally be able to help! They’re the best and most powerful digimon ever! And they’re so nice!”

Lisa just chuckled. “Maybe,” She said with a smile, “Though I hope you never meet them. Never meet your heroes is a saying for a reason…”

They saw a few digimon as they went, smaller caterpillar-like ones were the most common, but most left when Viximon said she wasn’t able to fight. They had to run from one, however, after Lisa had accidentally stepped on its tail.

“So,” She started after escaping the angry digimon, “Are all digimon fight-happy, like that?”

“It’s the best way to digivolve!” Viximon replied, “By knocking out the opponent, we eat some of their data. Some bad digimon eat the whole of their opponents' data, but most don’t. Those were Wormmon and Kunemon, the green ones were the first, and the yellow ones with stingers were the second.”

Lisa slowly nodded, “Alright, that makes some sense, I guess…” She didn’t understand it at all, really, but it was enough to work with. And they’d started hearing a waterfall, so there was going to be a climb to look forward to.

If she knew this was going to happen, she would’ve learned the specifics about computers and everything.

“... Viximon,” Lisa started, staring ahead at what should have been a waterfall, “Why is the river going up?”

Straight up, and up, and up. No mountain met them, just a cliff face of water the width of the river.

A complete violation of physics and just about every sort of common sense. Though she could admit it was fascinating to see. Rather surreal, actually, and hammered in that this Digital World operated on different mechanics than Bet did.

“Oh! The city is on top of it!” Viximon replied, pointing with her tail at a… floating castle that was drinking up the river as though through an invisible straw before letting it all fall back down on the other side.

“And… how do we get up there?” Lisa asked, “Do we have to ask a flying digimon for a lift or something?”

“I don’t actually know,” Viximon replied, “Do you think we could swim up? I can’t, I’m too much fur, but you have a lot less of it!”

“We’ll… save that for a last resort.” Lisa said, “Maybe… there’s some sort of ferry service? Let’s look around.”