FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I wrote this story after a friend suggested that I write a digimon fanfic, something I'd never done before. After it gained a surprising level of popularity, I decided to rewrite this story. this chapter hasn't changed mush, but there will be important details appearing in future chapters that will help the story make more sense.

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The boy gave a low groan as he sat up slowly, holding a hand to his temple as his head throbbed painfully. Cracking open his eyes, he looked around the strange building, unable to recognise it as he tried to stand. Managing to stagger to his feet, he stood at about 6 foot 3, and was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a simple t-shirt, his shoes kicking up dust as he staggered around, bumping into a wall.

"Holy crap!" he moaned, clutching his head through thick brown hair as the pain shot through his brain, "Oooow."

"Who the hell are you?" Craig jumped at the voice, spinning around and reaching for the switchblade in his pocket at the same time, jumping again when he saw the owner of the voice as they continued to speak, "A humon? What the hell is a humon doing here?"

"Wait! Wait!" Craig gasped, still holding his aching head as he stared at the owner of the voice, "You're a digimon, right? One of those new ones born after the Reset caused by the 12th generation of Digi-destined!"

"Yeah, what of it? You got a problem with Soramon?" The digital creature growled as it stalked out of the shadows, its lithe feline body crouched over, back arched as it poised to attack. Looking him up and down, it relaxed a little, thinking that this tall, dark haired boy could do little to harm it; he probably wasn't even over 18 digi-years old it thought to itself as an evil smile inched across its face.

"What? N-no! I don't have problems with any type of digimon! Unless they try to eat me!" Craig said nervously, laughing at his feeble joke as he pressed up against the wall.

"Oh really? Well then, I guess you do have a problem!" The humanoid cat cackled, launching itself forwards, quickly shouting out its attack, " Wind Blade!"

Craig ducked to the side as the feline slashed at the wall above his head, cutting a huge gash in the concrete wall just where the young human's head had been. Pulling his switchblade out of his pocket, Craig spun around just as the digimon leapt onto him. Without thinking, he swung the blade up, burying it in the creature's eye with a sickening pop, causing the feline to stagger back as it screamed, grabbing at the blade's handle as it tried to pull it out. Reacting instantly, Craig swung his foot up, slamming it into the knife's hilt, driving the blade through the Soramon's skull and into its brain, throwing the digimon back. Shakily pushing itself up, the Soramon glared at Craig with its remaining eye before its arms gave way, the feline giving a low groan as it collapsed, data starting to stream out of the wound and flying around in the air surrounding Craig.

Sighing in relief that he was now safe, Craig cried out at the sudden pain in his arm, looking down in surprise. He stared transfixed as the data started to gather on his skin, binding to him as it sank into his skin. He gave another cry of pain as the glowing symbols suddenly swarmed him, each trying to force their way into his body, making it feel like he was being tortured by a thousand sharp, red hot needles. He felt his consciousness slipping away and welcomed the coming darkness.

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Craig groaned again, even though his head no longer ached as much as it had before, now his entire body felt as if it had been remodelled forcefully, and was trying to remember how it was supposed to work. Reaching up, Craig rubbed his face with his right arm, freaking out when the furred hand landed upon his face. Scrambling to his feet, the teen stared in horror at his right arm, now covered in a light coat of grey fur, his hand more like a paw than a hand.

Looking around desperately, Craig spotted his satchel lying on the ground a few meters away, back where he'd woken up. Crawling unsteadily towards it, he dug around inside, swallowing nervously as he tried to keep calm. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled the small mirror he always kept with him out of the bag, staring in surprise at the unfamiliar watch-like device that was caught around it, the words, "Searching for data signature" scrolling across it's screen. Confused, Craig thought, oh what the hell, and slipped the watch onto his left wrist, the thing squawking instantly as a holo-screen appeared above it, the words, "Uneven data-gene combination detected, return to default setting?" scrolling across it, glowing brightly in the gloomy building.

"Default setting?" Craig said quietly to himself, a look of excitement flashing across his face as he shouted "Like my original body? Yes! Yes! Do it now!"

He gasped as the strange light flooded over his body, crying out as the pain tore into him. It felt as if his body was being run through a shredder, then pieced back together in a different way, pushing Craig to edge of consciousness once again. As quickly as it had begun, the pain ended, leaving Craig feeling drained as he gripped the floor, gasping for breath. The watch squawked again as the young man sat back, leaning against a wall, now showing a full 3-d version of his body, and the body, or at least what looked like parts of it, of the Soramon, the words "Combat form creation menu: start tutorial?"

"Tutorial? What the hell? Combat form?" Craig stared at the screen in utter confusion before finally relenting as he sighed, "Yeah, sure, yes start the tutorial."

The watch squawked again as new words suddenly started scrolling slowly up the holo-screen, Craig reading them carefully as his expression changed from confusion, to surprise, to horror, and finally to defeated acceptance. Leaning back, he sighed in frustration as he realised that he was stuck here, in the new digital world, for what was almost certainly an indefinite amount of time.

"Crap, so this place has gone downhill now, has it?" He muttered to himself, his voice echoing eerily through the abandoned building, "And the digi-vices can now allow Tamers, or whatever we're supposed to be called, to alter our genes with code from defeated enemies, and fight alongside our own digimon. I have to say, that is both fucked up and incredibly cool at the same time."

The watch squawked as it showed the two holographic images again, making Craig sigh as he set about "Digi-dapting" his body, as the 'vice had referred to it. Once finished, he looked at the new form with a little admiration, proud of how surprisingly cool he would look as he hit the 'finished' button on the bottom of the screen, the second figure disappearing to be replaced by a stats screen. Intrigued, Craig whistled at the improvements he had made to his own body; strength, reflexes and stamina were all way up, and he could now apparently use the Soramon's 'Wind Blade' attack.

"'Forms a blade of hardened air over the user's hand and extending for a short distance ahead of it, can be improved, or even adapted, by the use of digi-quips. Default attack.'" Craig read the description, hitting the highlighted words 'digi-quips', before continuing to read the next screen, "'Special equipment able to enhance a Digimon's abilities, some may add secondary elemental effects to certain types of attack.' That sounds awesome, I've got to try and find some of these 'digi-quip' things soon."

A beep from the watch caught him off-guard as all the screens Craig had opened closed, a new screen with what seemed to be a radar on it, a basic map forming around a central point, appearing. A yellow dot blinked at the top of the circle, causing the watch to beep each time it flashed.

"Must be my digimon or something, I suppose," Craig mumbled to himself as he slung his satchel over his shoulder, grabbing his knife from the floor where it must have fallen after the Soramon had finished deleting, "Might as well go see what it is. All things considered, this could just end up being pretty fun."

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The Meramon sprinted down the alleyway as quickly as her legs could carry, the dirty toga-like dress she wore fluttering around her as she clasped the staff, which was nearly twice her own length, tightly to her chest. A sudden shout caused her to lose focus for a second, only to be knocked off her feet by a fireball slamming into her back. Shrieking in pain, she hit the ground and rolled, skidding to a stop just before the alley turned a sharp corner. Managing to stagger to her feet, she pointed the end of the staff at the approaching figures.

"Stay back! I will use this thing! And it'll be hell to pay for you 'cause it'll give me an elemental bonus!" She shouted, causing them to laugh as one of the figures called out to her

"Your strength is way too low to handle that quip, ya little thief," He laughed, "You'll be blasted right back!"

"I'm counting on that," she whispered as she tightened her grip, screaming out the enhanced attack, " Electric Lightning Beam!"

The force of the blast sent the small cat flying through the air, staff still grasped tightly in her hands. Suddenly, she felt one end hit the ground, jarring the precious digi-quip out of her grip and sending it spinning into the sky. The feline cried out as she watched it fly away, landing around the corner, where it seemed to hit someone, a shout coming from around the corner as she landed heavily on the ground, skidding several feet before stopping.

"Ow, what the hell is this thing?" She stared at the humon as he walked around the corner, holding the staff as he looked at it in confusion. Pushing herself up, she watched as the strange bangle on his wrist squawked, a screen made of light forming above it, the boy staring at the symbols scrolling up it as he grinned, "Cool, then let's give this a go. Activate: Combat Form."

The cat digimon and the others behind her stared as the human cringed, tensing up as a pale grey light enveloped his body, his skin rippling slightly beneath it as grey fur grew out of his arms and face, a pair of grey feline ears forming atop his head as a long tail snaked its way out of the back of his jeans. Grasping the staff in an outstretched arm as the light faded, he announced his attack.

" Weapon form: Electric Wind Scythe, Thunder Slash!" The staff crackled with electricity as the wickedly curved, semi-transparent blade formed at one end, sending a arcing shockwave down the alleyway as the human swung it in front of him, the attack gouging huge slashes into the walls on either side of the narrow passage, throwing dust and rubble into the air.

The feline blinked as she felt her fur stand on end, the attack flying over her head as she watched the human in disbelief. Unable to dodge, the attack slammed into the dumbstruck gang of digimon, the group erupting into a cloud of dust and data as they screamed. Craig ran into the cloud, coming out the other side just in time to see two figures manage to stagger around another corner further down, looks of terror on their faces. Turning around slowly, he glanced over to the injured feline as she pushed herself to her feet, having to use the wall for support.

"Hey," He called out, making her spin around in surprise, "Don't you guys heal when you absorb data or something? If so, what are you waiting for, come get some before I absorb it all."

Unsure of what to do, the feline scowled at him as she hobbled closer to the cloud of data, watching him closely as pieces of errant data were slowly absorbed into his skin, making him flinch slightly each time one touched him. Relaxing a little, she inhaled slowly, feeling the rush as she felt her body absorb the data, healing it, and making her a little stronger at the same time. Finished, she opened her eyes slowly and stared at the strange digimon, who was now holding a piece of dried meat in front of her face.

"Hungry?" he asked, waving it under her nose, the Meramon about to say no when her stomach growled loudly, the smell of the meat too good to resist. Red-faced, she snatched the stick of meat out of his hand and began chewing on it, letting a small purr escape her as she savoured the taste. As she swallowed, the Meramon peeked suspiciously at this strange person, blushing unintentionally as she caught him staring, knowing full well what he could see.

She was shorter than he was, only coming up to just below his shoulders, with dirty brown fur, which was supposed to be bright white, the girl not having had a chance to properly clean herself in months. Her toga-like dress wasn't fairing any better; worn and slightly shredded in places, the back now badly singed thanks to the fireball that had hit her. The only thing that appeared well looked after was the small golden clasp on her shoulder which was holding her dress up, the item gleaming in the light of the sun above them. She jumped as he locked eyes with her, glaring coldly back at him with startling ice-blue eyes.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked suspiciously, turning to face Craig as she swallowed another chunk of the meat.

"Because I'm your Tamer," He said, not reacting to the look of surprise she gave him, "The name's Craig, nice to meet you, uh..."

"Namico," the Meramon replied, staring up at him in confusion as thoughts buzzed around her head, "But I thought there could be no more Tamers after the Reset, so how are you here?"

"No idea, I just woke up here like ten minutes ago. And even though I'm enjoying this little bonding session we're having, I think it would be best if we got moving, before the two that got away bring back some friends," Craig said, turning around and walking out of the alleyway and into the street beyond as he looked around, before turning to Namico and asking, "Digimon now have proper cities now? With multiple species and types living together without trying to kill each other? Well, not trying to kill each other constantly."

"No," Namico replied coldly as she checked around the corner, "This is just another layer, another environment we have to learn to survive in."

"Oh," Craig sighed, looking around at the tall concrete-like walls surrounding them. Sliding the staff under the cover on his satchel, he started walking down the road, only to be grabbed by Namico as she dragged him back into the alleyway.

"Are you crazy?!" she hissed, peering around the corner again, "If a Rider found you you'd be dead!"

"A Rider? What's a Rider?" Craig asked, looking around the corner too.

"A type of quip, a vehicle, we call the digimon who use them Riders too," The growl of engines and sounds of shouting suddenly echoed from around a nearby corner, making Namico tense, "Here some come! Quick! Hide!...What are you doing?!"

Craig pulled the staff from his satchel and glanced around the corner again, spotting the group of 'Riders' swerving around into the street. Namico dove behind a pile of rubble as they screamed past; Craig pressed firmly against the wall as he watched them carefully, the shouting digimon too preoccupied with making a noise to spot the feline stepping out of the side alley. As the last of the Riders raced past, Craig leapt out of his hiding place, swinging the staff in a wide arc, smiling as he felt the other end connect with flesh and bone, flinging the driver off the vehicle, which came to a sputtering stop only a few meters away.

"Namico, get on the Rider," he shouted, running towards the strange contraption. It looked like a three wheeled motorbike from the real world, except that it was covered by what looked like soot, and in place of an engine all there was was a large sphere made of glass. Jumping on it, the machine gave a soft hiss as he revved the 'engine', the sound of howling wind rushing from the exhaust pipes, pushing out a great cloud of soot and blowing away most of the rest on the outside, leaving the Rider looking much cleaner than before. Spotting an empty bracket of about the right size just next to him, Craig absentmindedly slotted the staff in, the bike's sound instantly changing, what appeared to be lightning now also crackling in the sphere, along with a swirling grey coloured smoke. Checking behind him, he saw Namico watching at him nervously, motioning to the feline to join him, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's safe! And if we die, you can kill me!"

This didn't seem to cheer the feline up as she still leapt onto the bike, clinging to Craig's back when he revved the Rider, accelerating away just as its original owner staggered to his feet and began hurling fireballs at them.

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"A Rider is powered by the basic elemental power of its driver," Craig read aloud, a piece of dried meat sticking out his mouth, "Many, in fact most, have one or several slots into which another piece of Digi-quip may be placed, providing the Rider with extra elemental power."

"I still don't like them," Namico huffed, puffing out her cheeks as she glared suspiciously at the bike.

The two of them were resting in another abandoned building, one that had a door large enough to admit the Rider, and were now sitting around a small camping light Craig had had in his satchel as he read up on various pieces of Digi-paraphernalia.

"Ooh, this thing does have a store function!" Craig suddenly exclaimed, sitting up and pointing the watch at the rest of the contents of his satchel, laid out in front of him, a beam of light hitting all of the items and turning them to a stream of data, which the watch quickly absorbed.

"Dammit, Craig! You're not listening to me!" Namico scowled at the boy, "Stupid Humon!"

"I am listening to you, Nami, but that thing is the easiest and best way to travel around in this place, so we're not leaving it behind. And anyway, ours runs on wind and electricity, so it's quiet and environmentally friendly to boot." Craig laughed, looking at the annoyed digimon, who turned away.

"Who'd want to be friendly to this environment?" she growled, jumping to her as she stalked to a corner, "And my name is Namico."

"What?" Craig asked, "It's just a nickname, I didn't mean any offence. Just chill, calm down even."

Namico growled, lying on the floor as she curled up, muttering quietly at him, "Going to sleep."

"G'night, Nami," Craig sighed quietly, turning the lamp off and storing it in the watch. As he lay back on the hard floor and closed his eyes, a thought flashing through his head, making him quickly sit back up, pointing the digivice at the Rider as he activated the store function, watching as the entire bike disintegrated and was quickly absorbed into the watch in a stream of glowing data.

"Awesome," he whispered as he lay back down, a wide grin on his face as he slipped into sleep.

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"There it is!" Namico shouted over the roaring wind, pointing at the purple beam of light that shot directly into the sky, now only about ten blocks away if her directions were right. Looking around quickly, Namico spotted an annoyingly familiar cloud of smoke rising from between the buildings, a little too close to their current location.

"Fire Riders!" She yelled, pointing out the dark cloud of ash to Craig.

The two of them had been travelling across the layer together for three days so far, and it had been only yesterday that Craig had finally managed to convince the feline digimon to lead them to the Beam. He simply nodded silently at her shout, twisting the throttle harder on their Rider and shifting into his Combat form. Those three days of travel hadn't exactly been peaceful, the pair having clashed with several more gangs of Riders, most of which had seemed to be fire users, prompting them to start calling referring to them by their elements. The Fire Riders in particular did not seem to be too happy about having someone new driving around in their territory, and especially not someone who kept beating and escaping from them. Both she and Craig had gained quite a lot of data from these small skirmishes, more than Namico had ever been able to gain before in her life, and so had become a lot stronger.

Namico held onto Craig's bare shoulders as they changed, his shirt having been shredded in one of their earlier meetings with the Fire Riders, a thin layer of fur growing out of his skin as his body became more feline, as his muscles shifted beneath his skin, tensing beneath her grip. She couldn't admit this to him, but Namico actually preferred it when he was in this form, she felt safer for some reason, like she was with one of her own kind, or perhaps it was just because she now had a powerful ally. The unmistakeable low rumble of the Fire Rider's bikes suddenly grew louder, prompting Craig to accelerate even more as Namico held on even tighter, not wanting to fall off. Suddenly, the sound of the Fire Riders was deafening in their ears, and glancing behind them Namico could see why.

There were about thirty or so Riders, the biggest group they had ever encountered, all belching great plumes of smoke and shouting at them as they raced on just ahead of them. Tapping Craig on the shoulder, she pointed back at the mob, to which he nodded. Reaching over carefully, he pressed a button on his watch, making it chime, then form a strange object in his hand. It was blocky and shaped like an 'L', Namico had seen him take it apart the day before, after the fight with the Riders that had left him shirtless, and so knew it was made up of lots of little parts. Turning around, he pointed the 'gun', as he'd called it, at the Riders, pulling the 'trigger' and sending one of the tiny 'bullets' flying towards the Riders with a loud crack. It hit the front wheel of one of the three wheeled vehicles, causing it to burst spectacularly, and sending the bike flying back into the rest of the tightly packed group, taking out almost all of them.

Now with only four Riders left, the group behind them pulled back a bit, staying as far away from each other as possible. Three were on the smaller two wheeled Riders, the fourth a three wheeler that was smaller than Craig and Namico's, and they now seemed nervous to approach this strong threat. Namico leant over Craig's shoulder and shouted, "Take the next right, then it's straight ahead! I hope you know what you're talking about!"

"So do I!" Craig shouted back, tires squealing as he swerved around the corner, the Riders carrying on past, knowing what was only a few hundred meters down that road.

Craig, with Namico looking over his shoulder, stared at the huge beam of light that seemed to be flowing upwards. Pushing the Bike to full throttle, they sped down the road, Craig with a huge grin on his face, Namico clinging desperately to his back, arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

Well, Craig thought as they ramped off the edge of the crater that surrounded the beam of light, if I do die, at least it'll be pulling massive air on a super powered trike with a cute girl holding onto me. As they entered the beam, another thought flashed across his mind. Did I just call Namico cute?

Then it was only bright light and deafening silence.