Masters of Oblivion 

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

(Quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer on seeing the first nuclear explosion)

 I

Friday 

Digidentity

Aviemon: A bird like Digimon with a high resistance to the fire element. He’s attack is Razor Wing.

Once upon a time, long ago, ages past when the world was caught in chaos great monsters roamed the world and ruled over all humans. They were the Titans and they were great indestructible beasts that killed and tortured to their delight. Then came Zeus, king of the gods, and he defeated the Titans with his great might and majesty. Zeus then sat down on a throne on a great mountain called Olympus and with him came his children, the lesser gods who served him but fought amongst themselves. The world was then sent into an era of peace and advancement. Yet, except for the advancement of humans and nature, the fate of humanity was much the same as that when they were ruled by the Titans. The gods still ruled over them like monarchy kings and treated them like slaves not worthy of their rule.

This is Greek mythology and today we know it not to be true, we know that no god controls humanity and we have an abundance of free will. Some truth may yet be found in this story if you place humans where gods and titans should be, then it is humans ruling over and suppressing over humans.

It’s with these facts that God, in all his wisdom, has allowed humans to play god like little children copying their parents. It is in this way that humans might find rescue from themselves.

On Friday around twelve o’clock a military base called Trojan closed all its doors and locked off all the roads leading to it. Large metal gates came rolling down from the walls totally locking down every part of the complex but not before a number of battalions of soldiers came marching out and started directing people away from the base. They closed all the roads and stood guard around the base as if it were a prison that had run out of control.

In a totally different part of the city at around two o’clock a high school came out and all the children scattered to do, with joy, what they had been waiting for the whole day to do, get away from school for a few days.

One boy walked alone from the school making his way over busy streets with small crowds of people journeying with him. He greeted people he knew well on the way and bought an apple from a local fruit seller called Fred. He finally came to an apartment building where he went up a flight of stairs up to the forth floor and locked open a wooden door with a key that he took from his bag. He took off his shoes using his feet before stepping up the step into the house and after closing the door. It wasn’t to his surprise that he found no one home and after putting down his bag he went to make himself a sandwich of lettuce, tomato and ham and noticed that he still had to wash the dishes.

The telephone rang and he picked it up

‘Luke!’ Came a cry over the line from a female voice. ‘You won’t believe what I just saw!’

‘What?’ Luke asked Lee, the girl on the other end.

Luke looked at the phone puzzled as the line went dead. He put it down too tired on a Friday to bother with that eccentric girl. He sat down before the TV as he ate his sandwich. From where he sat he could see the building of the military base not that far away. He looked to it and saw a chopper flying by it but nothing more than that, he was wondering when his dad would get back.

Living a little closer to the military base Trojan was Pat in a small house with a garden of grass and sand to one side with a little wall around it. The sounds of the street could be heard quite close but one grows use to it after a while. At the moment he had no attention to pay to it whatsoever because he was busy kissing a girl called Abby. Abby was pretty by anyone’s standards and the sort of pretty guys really go for, not what you see in magazines but rather a natural sort of pretty. Pat, of course, is a football player.

They were also sitting on a couch before the TV as Luke was doing at that time but they weren’t watching TV at all.

It was in this state that they failed to notice the back door of the house open and a figure enter. This man, because he was much too largely built to be a woman, stepped into the house cautiously. The two lovers were so oblivious of anything else but each other that the loud footsteps of the man went unnoticed in the air. The man walked through the kitchen, peered into the living room. When he saw that the kids didn’t see him he walked to the fridge and opened it, the glee in his body language was obvious.

So as they kissed the man bent down and started shovelling food into his mouth of every kind.

There was a loud crack sound from the kitchen and the two kissing sprang awake.

‘What was that?’ Abby asked still holding onto Pat.

‘I don’t know.’ Pat confessed.

When he made no move to go and see, Abby made a sound of irritation and went to look for herself. Pat made to stop her but only got so far as to sort of stand up and take a step forward.

She walked into the kitchen and found the door standing open and a few discarded pieces of food and crushed and empty holders. On the ground a large hole had been made in the wood of the floor as if something heavy had been dropped on it. The back door stood ajar and when she looked out she saw deep large footprints in the sand.

‘What is it?’ Pat said coming into the kitchen also.

‘Someone stole all your food.’ Abby said pointing at the fridge without looking anywhere else but the open door.

‘I’m going to kick his ass!’ Pat said.

‘Then come, he went this way.’ She said quickly moving into the garden.

‘Hmm… I meant if he came back and put you in danger, then I would kick his ass!’ Pat explained quickly not moving.

‘I’m going to stop dating you!’ She warned.

‘I’m coming! I’m coming!’

Luke was washing the dishes looking out at Trojan and watching another chopper fly over it. It was getting late and a yellowness lay over the whole city as the sun started to sink throwing its light at an angle. The effect was only half of the city glowing with a gold reflection off glass and metal.

He glanced down at the ground bellow and found something interesting to look at. There were a big bunch of boys chasing an animal along the street. They had clubs and stones in their hands. This didn’t interest Luke that much, he saw it a lot but not usually such a big group, what did interest him was the animal. It was of yellow colour and in all the commotion it made he couldn’t see it properly. Before he could identify it, it disappeared and the boys also.

Luke threw down the cloth and putting on his shoes he went back down the stairs. When he came onto the street a car passed by but the kids were no where to be seen. He started in the direction they had gone walking with a brisk pace and thought to himself if he didn’t see them soon he would turn back, it wasn’t worth it.

He came to an alleyway and down it he saw the boys crowding around something at its end, a few girls had joined them now. Luke quickly ran to see what it was.

‘It’s a bird!’ A young girl shouted triumphantly.

‘Of course it is stupid!’ A much bigger boy said. ‘What does that book of yours say about it?’

The question was directed at another boy warring glasses and paging through a bird book. He was bending the pages as he searched for the information but could find nothing.

‘It’s probably an outlandish bird!’ Cried another boy.

‘Yeah, some rich guy imported it from a tropical island and it got away.’

‘Can’t it hurt me?’ Another girl said.

‘No! But it does sort of look like an eagle.’

At this point Luke managed to push his way between the children and caught sight of the bird. It was definitely big enough to be an eagle, it was large, as big as the smallest girl staring at it a little frightened. It also had a hooked beak like birds of prey have. Its colour was strange though, a yellow orange haze with bright yellow tail feathers and two bright yellow feathers sticking out the back of its head. Its blue eyes looked at the children with mild curiosity.

Luke was staring at it with interest when the bird turned to look straight at him and stared back. It didn’t move at all as their eyes were locked.

‘I wan’t! I wan’t!’ The small girl was shouting pulling at her brother’s pants.

‘We should call the vet.’ Another boy said.

‘No, I’m taking it.’ Another boy said.

‘Hi.’

The children fell into shocked silence and all took a step back from the bird. Luke was the only one who remained where he was frozen with surprise as it was from being addressed by a bird.

‘I believe,’ the bird said after a short time moving its head as a human would when addressing a toddler, ‘the correct response is to greet back.’

‘It talks!’ A boy shouted at the top of his voice.

‘It.’ The bird said undignified.

‘We’ll make millions!’ Another boy shouted.

‘Ah, time to go.’ The bird said fluttering to the top of the alley wall. ‘Coming?’

The last remark was addressed at Luke who was just as surprised as ever. He regained control of his muscles when two boys sprang past him and the bird jumped off the other side of the wall. Luke grabbed the boys by their collars and pulled them off the wall and then sprang over it jumping onto a dumpster first.

‘Good to have company.’ The bird said as Luke landed next to it.

The boys’ greedy faces appeared above the wall as they tried to pull themselves up.

‘Not that sort of company!’ The bird said and Luke ran after it as it hopped away down the street.

‘There it is!’ Came a cry from down an alley they passed and the majority of the boys and girls came running after them.

‘Ah, the innocence of young children!’ The bird said hopping from parked car to parked car. ‘Highly irritating. You might not have some place of dwelling where we could shelter for the time?’

‘Back there?’ Luke said pointing back the way they had come and where the boys were running after them.

‘What do you mean?’ The bird asked not comprehending.

‘It’s back that way!’

‘Oh right. This way!’

Luke followed the bird right into the path of a car who stopped suddenly and hooted. They ran into another alley and the bird perched itself on the top of a fire escape a floor up.

‘I don’t suppose you have wings hidden anywhere?’ The bird asked.

‘No, but I have hands.’ Luke said pulling down the fire escape and climbing the ladder.

Just before the other kids could grab it he hoisted it up again and they were left on the ground.

‘Thanks.’ The bird said to Luke.

‘Anytime. No wait! What are you?’ Luke asked jumping up.

The bird jumped away as a stone hit the railing, some of the kids had run off and the others were throwing them with junk.

‘Up we go!’ The bird said jumping to the next floor and Luke followed climbing the iron stairs.

‘Aviemon is my name.’ Said the bird.

‘Luke.’ Luke said.

‘Please to meet you and thank you for helping me out of that predicament there. I rather like my feathers and I don’t want them plucked.’

‘What are you?’ Luke asked.

‘Yes, you asked me that before. Not quite sure really, I seem to have lost some vital memories of all but the last few hours. The last thing I can remember is waking up in this large room full of machines, seemed very high tech. But unfortunately I could not explore the room much further before I realised I was in rather bad company and decided to fly off. It took me a small time to find the way out of that building but I managed it. Then I was flying around this pretty little city of yours and was just about to indulge myself in a discarded donut when the first of those children discovered me.’

‘Okay,’ Luke said, ‘I still don’t know anything about you.’

‘You know about as much as I do.’

‘What about the bad company, in that room?’

‘They were also Digimon.’

‘What are Digimon?’

‘Well, that’s what I am, not quite sure what that is though.’ Aviemon realised.

They reached the roof of the building and looked out over the buildings again, the sun was reaching the horizon.

‘Right there, that’s where I came from.’ Aviemon said pointing with a wing.

‘The military base?’ Luke asked looking at it and for the first time he saw that there was a large number of choppers flying around that area.

‘That’s right.’ Aviemon said.

At that moment the door behind them on the roof opened and the boys shouted again when they saw them.

‘Children!’ Aviemon said with a snigger and lifting off he flew to the next roof. Luke only then realised how extensive Aviemon’s wing span was, he seemed a lot bigger then an eagle suddenly.

‘Chasing a bird, how simple.’ He turned back to the children and saw Luke still standing there. ‘Hoops.’

Luke without hesitation got onto the wall of the balcony and, to everyone’s amazement, start to walk over a wire spun between the two buildings. He was almost just as surprised, but more shocked, when he saw how far it was to the ground and almost lost his balance. But Aviemon then landed on his shoulders and with a burst of power carried him the last small distance.

‘Quite a stunt.’ Aviemon said a bit breathless.

‘Yeah, learnt it from my dad.’ Luke said.

‘Is he in the circus?’

‘No, the military. Let’s get going before those boys get up here.’

It was late dusk when Pat and Abby came into the park following the trail of the man that had stolen all Pat’s food. Pat, being one of decent size and build ate a lot and saw this theft as a personal insult.

‘The park at dark.’ Abby said walking onto the black grass.

‘Don’t worry, I got your back.’ Pat said confidently.

‘No you don’t, you’re going ahead, get moving.’ Abby said shoving him before her.

Pat lost and regained his confidence and then strode into the park with Abby following quickly behind him. It was growing ever darker and they could see nothing that could be a person although they saw many things that might have been giant monsters.

It occurred to both of them that the man might be waiting in any of these bushes ready to pounce on them any moment and both thought about turning back. Neither of them said anything because neither of them was ready to admit to the other that he or she was afraid.

They came into an opening between the trees where there were a number of jungle gyms and swings. They looked around but they could see nothing in the failed light.

‘My pork!’ Cried Pat picking up a small piece that he happened to spot lying in a sand pit.

‘There!’ Abby said in a hushed voice pointing at the other side of the playground where some bushes moved.

Both held their breaths as they waited to see what would happen next. What did happen next was a total anti-climax for instead of a large burglar stepping out from behind the plants a scrawny girl did instead.

‘Lee!’ Abby and Pat cried in union.

‘Did you see it!’ Lee cried, she was standing as if at any moment something would leap at her from out the trees.

‘See what?’ Abby asked not approaching.

‘A panther!’ Lee said dramatically looking from side to side slowly.

‘A cat?’ Asked Abby.

‘Yeah, a really big cat!’

‘Black?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then where is it!’ Abby shouted back urgently.

‘Hmm…’ Lee couldn’t answer.

‘Here I am.’

Abby and Pat jumped and turned at the same time. Lying on the jungle gym next to them was a large cat with its paw dangling down one side. It would have been frightening enough just to see this hunter but the fact that it actually spoke amplified that effect.

‘I see you!’

Once again it wasn’t one of the children who spoke. They turned to a large dark figure jumping into motion from the bushes. Abby and Pat were frozen in place as it came rampaging at them. With one powerful shove it broke through wood and threw a jungle gym aside. Then raising its fists high it brought them down on the cat. But the cat was gone and the fists crushed the gym.

This was the same man or thing that had been inside Pat’s house.

‘What are you doing?’ The cat cried as it landed perfectly on its feet a distance away.

‘Smashing!’ The big man said and deforming already broken metal under his feet he came at the cat again.

Pat and Abby ran aside but Lee, being the excitable person that she is, came running closer to get a better look. The other two were just backing up against some swings when they got startled once again.

‘This is so unnecessary!’

Sitting on the wood at her ease was a woman. They couldn’t tell much of her as they turned to see the man breaking another set of swings but they did see that she was blue, a glittering dark blue in the night.

‘Another one!’ The man cried almost jumping with glee when he saw the woman sitting there.

‘Hold it big fellow, violence is no necessity at the moment.’

‘Oh yeah?’ The man said back in a booming voice.

‘That’s right.’

The woman jumped off the pole of the swings and landed next to Abby who looked at her with amazement and an open unmoving mouth. She could now see the woman had long green hair that sparkled like her skin and had a bow around her shoulder and waist with a red quiver on her back. She was dressed in a top and skirt that seemed to be made of leaves. Her eyes were a starry black, her ears were large and pointed.

The cat not seeming at the least tired after being chased around the playground by the big brute turned and came strolling towards the woman.

Lee ran closer and came to stand on one spot jumping up and down ecstatically. 

‘I’m going to smash you!’ The man warned again, now that he was standing still they couldn’t quite see him but they could see the glint of the moon off his arm and leg.

‘Electrified!’ The cat purred.

‘That’s right, I’m like am unstoppable machine of smashing!’

‘But don’t smash us, be at peace.’ The blue woman said soothingly. ‘You have a pure essence and therefore we are no enemy to you.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t say that.’ The cat purred again turning around the woman’s legs.

‘Right,’ Pat said finally regaining his senses and stepping forward, ‘what’s going on here!’

‘There!’ The cat cried suddenly springing and staring at a spot in the bushes.

The great man turned but he was knocked aside by something invisible and losing his balance fell with a great crash.

The blue woman moved so fast it was hardly visible. From her quiver she drew an arrow and fitted it.

‘Starlight Arrow!’

It sprang lose and sparked into a bright white colour lighting the playground. The arrow seemed to hit a shadow that refused to disintegrate. There was a cry and Lee was knocked off her feet into the sand pit as something rushed away.

‘Are you alright?’ The black cat said coming next to Lee.

‘I’m fine.’ Lee said in a puny amazed voice sitting up with wonder.

‘We better go, are you coming smashing man?’ The woman asked the man who struggled to his feet.

‘I’m going to smash that guy!’ The man cried turning in the direction the shadow had fled.

‘And we’ll help, but not right now, come along. Are you coming too humans?’ The woman turned to Abby and Pat with her eyes sparkling like her body.

‘Humans!’ Abby suddenly cried finally having enough of all this unbelievable unexplained weirdness.