Chapter Text
A vast, black space stretches out, seemingly infinite in design. Inside it lay countless things, screens and platforms and glowing wires carefully connecting them to something unseen in the void below. On the screens, hundreds of thousands of scenes flashed by as time went on- a murder, a charity event, a report on the weather, a hero pulling a cat from a tree, a fashion show. Yet across other screens scrolled text. News articles, websites, animal images. Everything could be found in that space.
Inside that dark, infinite space, on one of those countless, glowing platforms, lay an egg- more specifically, a digitama. This digitama, completely purple in color, laid still on that platform, occasionally rocking side-to-side in unpredictable intervals. While most would be unable to see it, floating, glowing sparks of light tore from the nearest screens and platform below and flew towards the digitama in passive streams, getting absorbed upon contact.
For some time, things continued like this. The screens changed. The wires mimicked electricity shooting down them. Text continued to scroll. the digitama absorbed data. Time marched forward, stopping for no one, and the world continued on.
A crack appeared in the digitama.
Then, as if that was all the encouragement required, data began flooding into the crack, suctioned into the digitama. It quickly began to rock, back and forth, back and forth, before finally light exploded from the crack, enveloping the digitama as it glowed like a miniature sun. "Dodomon!"
Dodomon opened its eyes. The digimon was small, with sharp purple fur lining its slime-shaped body, two sharp ears perking upwards as it heard the countless screens echoing inside its birthplace. Surrounding its mouth was white fur, and its orange eyes roved through the darkness in search of something edible. A screen floated close by, with one of the wires dragging across the platform behind it. Dodomon saw an opportunity and bounced forward, opening its mouth and taking a large bite.
The screen fizzled to static for a moment as it struggled to tear out the chunk of data in its mouth, shaking its head back and forth, before the screen switched to black as it succeeded. As it chewed, delighting in its meal, the screen flickered back to life. Dodomon swallowed and went to take another bite.
I probably shouldn't do that, said some part of its mind. It paused, mouth open, ready to take another bite. It shouldn't? It might be dangerous. But it was hungry.
For a moment, it tried to reach into that part of its mind, momentarily distracted and confused by how it could possibly think this was dangerous. It found nothing. No, thats not correct- something sat there, dark and heavy in its head, yet it was behind locked doors Dodomon could not possibly open, teasing it with knowledge it somehow knew was there yet unable to be accessed.
Dodomon took another bite of the wire.
It watched as the screen flickered again. Something in it shuddered, then, a sudden sense of danger filling it, of knowing this would alert something that it didn't want to alert, that this would put it in danger mere gluttony would never be worth. Dodomon spat the wire out and jumped back, panicked, feeling as if something would reach out of the void and crush it with its hand. It waited, terrified, eyes wide and panicked as it peered out at the crushing darkness, expecting something to blink back at it.
And yet, nothing happened. Dodomon relaxed after a moment, confused, before quickly deciding it didn't enjoy that feeling at all and would listen to the unknown-yet-smart part of itself. Turning its attention to the screen in front of it, the one whose wire it had been chewing on, Dodomon watched as the images silently played on it. Something struck it as odd, that there was no sound from the screen, but it could not quite touch on why it felt so unsettled at the lack of noise.
As it watched, transfixed and nervous at the same time, something happened inside it. The data it had eaten integrated with its core files, filling its core with information as it was processed, and with it expanded Dodomon's mind just enough for it to think, What is this place?
It looked around. It did not know. This dark place, its birthplace, it was just as much of a mystery as the world the screen showed. And with that question, laying terribly unanswered in Dodomon's mind, it thought, Who am I?
It was a digimon. The answer came from the part of its mind that it couldn't access. It was a digimon, and it had digivolved from a digitama into a dodomon. Alright, so its name wasn't Dodomon, that was its species? No, that didn't feel right. Dodomon was its name.
The decision of what to call itself was far easier. The most mentioned term was male, and so he decided to take it as his own. Something shifted in his code as he decided that, not that Dodomon noticed, far too distracted by the other sudden change taking place in his core to notice.
Something flashed in his mind, almost like a choice being torn away from him before he could even notice it had been given, before his body began to glow.
While Dodomon could not see it, too busy squeezing his eyes closed, his skin tore off, turning into code and revealing only a matrix beneath. It swirled around him as the matrix began to stretch, quickly turning into a lower half with legs and a tail before the code slammed into it, flesh growing to cover the data underneath. Knowledge filled him, of this form, of how to use it, of how to move. He opened his eyes and shouted, "Dorimon!"
Dorimon stumbled as he landed, newly-formed legs threatening to give out. He stared at them in wonder. Wiggling a paw, he looked back up. The screen had changed what it was showing again. Now that he was bigger- and stronger!- maybe he could eat the wire?
NO! Said something inside him, that terrible feeling of dread crashing over him once again. Dorimon stumbled back, ears pinning against his head as he sought out a threat that didn't exist. He growled. Frustration built inside him. He wasn't allowed to eat because, because what? A part of his mind he couldn't access, with knowledge he should know but unable to access for some reason he didn't understand, all while stuck in this dark, silent place, not knowing how to get out, and he was hungry-
"Metal Drop!" He shot forward, mouth opening as something cold formed and shot out of his throat. Dorimon struggled to stop, trying to gain friction on the platform before he ran into the screen. He just managed to struggle to a stop before he fell off, mere inches away from the screen, and looked up just in time for the iron pebbles he had shot out to hit the screen, causing cracks to form in it that began leaking data. Dorimon watched, transfixed by the sight, before jolting as it began to stream towards him.
Raw data tasted sweet, and was filling! Dorimon lapped at the air, more of the data being directed towards him as he ate it, more than happy to finally be full. Soon enough the screen stopped and turned black, and the data stopped coming out.
Refreshed and with a clear mind, Dorimon realized he had no desire to stay in this place after he had done exactly what he had been warned against doing. He spun around, looking for a way out. There had to be one. He wouldn't stay here forever, would he? He prodded at the part of him that he couldn't access. There had to be a way out of here.
Almost as if something was guiding him, Dorimon looked to the middle of the platform. He pulled on the new well of power inside him, and-
The world shattered into itself. Data condensced in one spot, so tight that cyberspace could do nothing but break in its wake. A portal formed out of broken reality, code surrounding it, floating in endless loops and fractals. The portal let out a low hum. Inside was nothing but darkness, and it was just big enough for Dorimon to squeeze through.
The outside world was nothing like he expected it to be. In contrast to the silence of cyberspace, cars rushed by, engines roaring and screaming so loudly they echoed off the walls. Humans chattered and stomped and shrieked and spoke, mixing with their vehicles to create a terrible wailing cacophany of noise. The air was so thick Dorimon struggled to breath, smoggy and full of smoke. Surrounding him were dumpsters so filled with trash they couldn't be closed, foul smelling liquids dropping to the ground and staining it. Everything stank. He could almost feel it on his skin.
It took Dorimon far too long to move, trying to hide his face and stop hearing and feeling all these terrible, overwhelming things. It was like the world had decided to press down on him and scramble his mind, unable to focus on anything individually from how much there was.
And, perhaps hours later, the feeling began to fade. Dorimon opened one of his eyes to look around. It was dirty, pressed between buildings and full of abandoned things he didn't dare touch. A look behind him revealed some sort of device, half-shattered and occasionally flickering on. It was flat and thin and Dorimon didn't know what in the world it could be, so he ignored it in favor of looking out at the street.
What was once busy and bustling with people had become quiet and still, although nowhere near as silent as the place he had come from. Darkness stretched over the empty roads, and Dorimon took his time sniffing and looking about at this strange world. Buildings stretched into the dark, cloudy sky, so far up he couldn't see the tops of them. Occasionally a human would pass by, but Dorimon's purple fur and tendency to walk by the darkly-colored buildings helped him remain unseen.
It felt like he had been walking for forever when something caught his attention. He sniffed at the air, looking around, desperate to locate the source of the absolutely amazing smell he had found, only to find nothing.
Following his nose, Dorimon was lead between buildings and across streets. Swerving around the rare human who had decided to stay out late, he eventually went into an alley. The smell was coming from inside!
…The door was made of metal and very much locked. Dorimon prodded it. No, there was no way he was getting in that way. He looked around the alley. A dumpster, that tantalizing smell, a brick wall, some weirdly shaped things on top of the building…
A vent, just low enough to the ground Dorimon could get in it if he jumped.
He walked over, examining it. He narrowed his eyes. Something began to bubble in his mouth, so he opened it, and spat out, "Acid Bubbles!"
They hit the vent, which sizzled. He eyed the screws and nails and did it again at the four corners, watching in satisfaction as it melted. He prodded at the vent, but it still didn't budge. His ears perked up. Voices slowly began to get louder as they approached the door. Dorimon debated between finding the source of the smell or running for only a moment.
Backing up, he shouted, "Metal Drop!"
The vent was dented by the metal, but it broke when he rammed into it. Dorimon grunted at the almost painful feeling, but the voices had started to get louder, so he began walking through the vent. Each room he walked past that he could look into he peered at, but none of them had the source of the smell. In some of those rooms, the sources of the voices- humans- dwelled. Dorimon looked at them, at how big they were, and decided to go around them.
Finally, he found the room with the source of the smell. Breaking down the vent, just like he had before, Dorimon trotted into the room before he stopped.
Everything was too tall for him to reach. Counters rose high above his head, cabinets lay locked, and the smell came from the top of a table without chairs that Dorimon had no chance of getting to! He kept looking and quickly found something much better. A crate had been opened and spilling out of it were various, delicious-looking fruits.
Dorimon immediately went over and began to feast. Apples, bananas, oranges, and so much more! They all tasted so sweet and crunchy and yet watery, and Dorimon had started to try and calculate how long he would have before humans entered the room when he noticed movement in the corner of his eye.
A large bag lay next to the crates, black in color and zipped closed. He sniffed it after walking over, only for the bag to shake in response. Backing up in surprise, he prodded it. Something inside made noise. He struggled with the zipper, pulling it with his mouth. Once he finally managed to open it, Dorimon pulled himself up and peered inside.
Terrified pink eyes stared up at him.