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On This Broken Road (Martian)
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Post by darkblade on Dec 30, 2016 0:08:26 GMT
Not everyone had wings or portals to get around the Digital World.
That was a rather obvious fact, but for even those who had wings, there was the unavoidable bother of travel across the Digital World. And though new tamers would be fascinated by the surroundings and the talking Trailmon, and even seeing the trains make their own tracks, travel by rail eventually became an extended rest from walking the hard terrain of this world. For Iko and Luke, the travel was for good cause: they were coming back from an errand, Luke holding a small package in parchment paper to take back to a Starmon on a rail station. Iko, in his champion form, sat just a short distance away, just finding it a good time to catch a nap. Even with the broiling sun and desert landscape outside, the cool interior of the Trailmon made it quite comfortable to rest, once you got used to the chop of the rail.
"... Lazy squirrel." Luke jokingly chided the wolf, referring to his rookie form.
"Oh, shaddup. Never liked the rail." Giving his tamer nothing but a flicker of his eye, he gave a scoff and turned to face the other way. Yeah, he wasn't feeling too talkative right now...
Well, that was fine! Once they dropped that off and picked up their reward, they could be well on their way back. But... well, sometimes, things didn't go as planned.
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Post by Marshal North on Dec 30, 2016 3:37:49 GMT
Marshal and Coronamon's vacation had taken a bit longer than originally planned. Instead of just spending some time in Whitewater, like they had originally planned, the two had decided to do a whirlwind tour of the Digital World and take in the sights once more.
Today's adventure saw them taking a Trailmon through the Folder Desert. The last time they had been here was when they ran into Robyn for the first time since she had disappeared. It was also the first time Coronamon had reached his Mega form.
"Man, that was quite the fight, eh?" Marshal said, reminiscing.
"Yeah," Coronamon agreed. "I never thought you were capable of yelling that loud!" The two of them laughed together as they sat inside the Trailmon. The ride was...insanely boring, so the two of them decided to go around the other cars and see who was there. After stepping into the one directly in front of them, they ran into none other than Luke Destro and his partner, Iko!
"Oh, hey guys!" Marshal said pleasantly. "Long time no see!" The two of them hadn't seen Luke and Iko in quite a while, so it was nice to see a familiar face.
Coronamon locked eyes with Iko and gave a confident smirk. Last time they had fought, Coronamon cut it short to avoid getting hurt. Now, he was two levels stronger than he was before, so maybe this time things would be different! That was, if they fought of course. There was no real reason for the two of them to do such a thing!
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Post by darkblade on Dec 30, 2016 3:55:43 GMT
"Well, well..." It took Iko a moment to see, after Coronamon and Marshal stepped into the car, but there was a familiar face around here! Prying his eyes open, and giving a yawn, he just gave a chuckle at the Coronamon's tough grin. There was a familiar, confident fire in the rookie's eyes, and it was one that Iko could appreciate. But perhaps it was a bit boastful? Aside from those initial words, he just kept the eyes locked for a moment...
... And Luke shook his head, his voice a bit more tired than Marshal's. "Yeah, long time no see. Surprised to see you out here in the middle of nowhere." Silently, he stowed the package back away in his bag, just to get it out of the way. "And as for them..."
Iko stared a moment longer. And then gave a smirk. And then, broke out in laughter, holding his arms over his chest. "Sorry, sorry..." Laughing through tears, he straightened out his back, shaking his head. "Just been a while since I've seen someone do that. Well, I suppose, once we get done with this-"
BANG.
The sound was resounding, a brief tremor through the train. Iko's ear twitched, immediately taking a defensive stance. "The heck... what's attacking way out here?!"
"N-no!" Luke shook his head, correcting him. The train was still moving, smoothly, but was quickly decelerating. Earning a glare from the wolf, he clarified. "That was... a single noise... probably from compressed air. I think the engine blew!"
"... The engine blew?" Huh. The sound didn't continue, and Iko slowly relaxed, just shaking his head. "Great. Just great... anyone know how to fix something like that?"
"... No idea if I even know how a Trailmon works..."
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Post by Marshal North on Dec 31, 2016 0:25:42 GMT
Marshal sighed. Coronamon only acted this way around Iko, honestly. The two of them hadn't hit it off well when they first met, and it looked like Coronamon was looking for a fight again. Marshal whacked his Digimon on the side of the head to scold him. They were on vacation, after all! Rivalries could wait.
Funnily enough, Marshal's smack synced up perfectly with an explosion that rocked the whole train. Luke and Iko were hypothesizing that the engine blew. "Well, now what?" Marshal wondered. He had no idea how Trailmon worked, and Coronamon's passions lied in cooking, not mechanics!
"This is why we fly everywhere," Coronamon reminded him. Come to think of it, there was no reason why they hadn't used Firamon to get around!
"Shut it," Marshal chided. "I was being nice and giving you a break for once." The two of them stood around while the train slowly came to a stop.
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Post by darkblade on Dec 31, 2016 21:04:06 GMT
Wait... they could fly, and they were still going by train? As the train slowly came to a halt, Luke blinked. "Wait, didn't we meet up with you guys last time because you overextended traveling? How often do you travel on like that?"
"Sheesh..." Iko, meanwhile, shook his head. "You can't travel by flight easily here anyway. Heat and dry air aside, sandstorms can crop out of nowhere. And as soon as you lose sight of the rails, there isn't a landmark to be seen for miles." There was a good reason to be using this Trailmon, and as it finally came to a halt, Luke and Iko feeling a light jolt in their feet, the tamer took to the door. "Let me just get a look..."
It didn't take long to get to the front of the train. From looking at the head, the creature's eyes closed from overheating, there didn't appear to be any outside interference to the engine. And in opening the front door to the car, Iko swore as he tried pried it open, shaking out his paws. "Ah... hot, hoooot..."
"Yeah, hot." Gripping the handle with his left hand, seemingly bothered by the heat, Luke wrested it open, and a huge puff of steam billowed out of the door. That alone didn't look good, but as Luke stepped up, he swore under his breath: taking an old-looking fire iron, he cleared out a wedged piece of metal. "This bit broke off, and connected to this coolant, and melted the side of the container. Water was supposed to keep it cool, but with the conduction? Whole thing eventually just blew open."
"Which means?"
"We're running without a radiator, basically. Technically speaking, this isn't that hard to patch up-"
"Well, that's good!"
"-... If I could touch any part of this without burning my hand off. Clear the door." He tossed the iron into the sand, the far end glowing red as it sunk into the sand. "Given its size and the heat outside, I say... what, six, seven hours?"
"... Oh, you're freaking kidding me..."
"Be glad I can fix it at all." Luke shook his head, but he had a point!
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Post by Marshal North on Dec 31, 2016 22:02:42 GMT
Marshal recalled the day that had transpired before the two of them had met Luke. "Ah, that was a bit of a crazy day. We already had been flying around half the Digital World in pursuit of something, so Coronamon was already a bit exhausted."
After a little bit, the four of them made it to Trailmon's front car. Luke seemed to know what was going on, which was good. That still didn't change the fact that they were stuck there for a while! "What are we going to do until then?" Marshal wondered. "I mean, I love standing around in the desert as much as the next guy, but this is ridiculous!"
Coronamon was a little more concerned that Luke was trying to get anything done with the engine room as hot as it was. "You know, heat doesn't really bother me," he brought up, flipping his tail around to remind him that he was a fire-based Digimon. "If you need me to do anything, I probably could follow instructions just as well."
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Post by darkblade on Dec 31, 2016 23:47:57 GMT
At the very least, everyone seemed to understand the situation: the room was hot, it needed fixed, and they couldn't fix it while it was hot. And Luke had a good idea of what to do, as he stepped out of the room. Still: "Hm?" He looked down at the Coronamon, who seemed eager enough to help. And it was true, the heat probably wouldn't bother him. And Iko even seemed on board with the idea: "Heck, let's do it!"
"One second, Iko." Luke, however, crouched down, giving a smile towards the Coronamon. "Sorry, but aside from helping me find scrap or tools in the rest of the train, I don't want you in the engine room. One little slip and we could break it far more than we have now. Tell me, do you know what a stripped bolt is?"
"An, um... what?" Iko scratched his head, and sighed. Alright, his partner had a point! "Alright, so I guess the first thing is figuring out how to work out this heat through seven hours... this fur ain't doing me any favors."
"We could see what kind of shade the train car is casting?" Luke gave a shrug. "We won't have to worry about freezing in the desert night, we have a good firestarter right there. Um... how are we for supplies?"
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Post by Marshal North on Jan 2, 2017 3:24:59 GMT
Marshal checked his backpack. "Looks like we have some water," he noted, rifling through a few bottles of water. "A few cans of non-perishables, too. If we have to hang out around here for a night, we'd be more than prepared. Might be stretched a little thin between four of us, but it'll do."
Coronamon was a little disappointed that he wasn't able to help out, but understood Luke's concerns. If he messed anything up unintentionally, it could make things considerably worse for them! "Understood," he nodded. "Let's look for some shade."
Marshal picked out a few water bottles and tossed them around to the group. "Drink these sparingly," he warned. "We don't have a whole ton of them."
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Post by darkblade on Jan 6, 2017 1:43:37 GMT
Water and canned food, eh? As Marshal checked his back, Luke swung his around to the front, and took a quick peek inside. "Hm, I'm set for water as well. Might be able to just hang the tent up for shade, push comes to shove... and even if the engine doesn't work after I take a crack at it, well, we at least have the tracks to follow!"
"Nah, another train will come eventually. This is a daily route. I, um... think, anyway." Yeah, neither Luke nor Iko were exactly sure on that front, but it wasn't as if everyone was hopeless around here, even if] the Coronamon and Marshal didn't always make the best decisions. And at the very least, everyone's heart was in the right place.
And as Marshal passed out a water-bottle to each of them, Luke gave a nod. "Not a bad idea... here, just add these to 'em. You can keep tabs on 'em." He passed over his own water to Marshal, as Iko took a bottle in hand, and Luke's tent under one arm. "I'll go ahead and pitch up more shade on the other side. Really, I'm more concerned about getting bored out here in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah just don't bring it up." Luke smirked, tapping his shoulder on the way by. "Good time to just hang out."
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Post by Marshal North on Jan 6, 2017 4:08:36 GMT
Marshal nodded and accepted the extra water. He assumed responsibility for all of it while the four of them waited for the Trailmon to cool down. "I agree with Iko," he said, chuckling. "The heat's bad enough as it is, but that doesn't hold a candle to dying of boredom!" He laughed as he opened his bottle of water and took a sip.
Coronamon was lost in thought, trying to come up with things to do. He didn't really have any opportunity to cook for them! That was the only thing he did anymore, though. Having a vacation from actual Tamer stuff was nice and all, but it was starting to get boring. Coronamon silently wished Marshal would be thinking the same thing. Maybe there was a short adventure to be had, even out here in the desert? They would be here for a while, after all.
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Post by darkblade on Jan 8, 2017 3:10:14 GMT
Now why did Iko have to say that? If anything was going to drag out this whole experience, it was going to be thinking about just how long they were going to be out here. For Iko, this sort of environment was per-the-normal, but for the other three?
Well... hopefully it would pan out. At least at first, they had a little bit of work to take care of: out in the shade of the Trailmon, Luke and Iko managed to get the tent set up in a packed-enough-area of sand ("Though, don't touch that stake on the left, its kinda shifty"). And Luke managed to get another look at that engine shortly after, getting a detailed sketch of the Trailmon's schematics. The Trailmon itself didn't seem like much of a talker, more-or-less sleeping this off like a bad headache.
"... So once we separate and patch the casing, we'll still need to find ventilation for the heat..."
And Luke more or less had it figured out. Scribbling down a few notes, and folding it up and setting it aside, he returned to the group. "We have what we need?"
"If we're driving at night, yes. Should be able to drive on a cold engine." Luke idly stretched his arms. For him, and perhaps him alone, this was exciting! Figuring out a new machine and being able to mess around in the engine! Iko, however, gave a yawn. "Wonderful. Ah, Coranamon, over here."
Hm? Luke looked over, as Iko used his arm to flatten out an area of sand. He began poking holes on a flat surface with one nail, until he had a grid, four-by-four. "You ever play Dots and Boxes?"
"Hm." Luke smirked. Coranamon definitely seemed a bit absent, and Iko was quick enough to pick up on it. "Well, hopefully that will keep 'em occupied... ah. So why were you all out this way in the first place?"
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Post by Marshal North on Jan 17, 2017 2:23:33 GMT
Coronamon had never heard of this "Dots and Boxes" game, but it sounded intriguing. "Go on," he said, looking on with interest. He and Iko hadn't started on the best terms, but maybe this could be a way for them to get on friendlier terms. Then again, maybe not.
"We're just kind of enjoying some time off," Marshal explained. "The two of us have been through...a lot since the last time we met, to put it lightly." Between the mission on the mountain and the brief stint where they had been apart, Marshal and Coronamon were seriously overdue for a vacation.
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Post by darkblade on Jan 21, 2017 3:58:29 GMT
Well, anything to kill time, right? Seeing the rookie level walk over, Iko gave a nod. "Very simple game: we just take turns drawing lines across," Iko swiped his nail across the sand horizontally, "Or up-and-down. If you put a line down that makes a box, you mark it with the first letter of your name, and then take another turn. Whoever has the most boxes at the end, wins."
Yup, it was that simple game! So simple that he had picked up on it after twice playing it with Luke while they were killing time in his college dorm, though it was of far more interest to the wolf than the tamer himself. As Iko wasn't much for idle conversation, it was a way he could keep himself occupied, at least!
And as for Luke, he gave a chuckle. "I get ya, a run-down train sounds like a pretty ordinary thing compared to everything else around here. Iko's just been trying to get a better handle on his ultimate." Shooting just a glance to his partner, Luke went on: "Then again, considering him? You could take a good bet that the wise-ass he is gets us in a lot of heat, sometimes."
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