Breaking Tail 01 - Captured
Breaking Tail: Captured
by Kharon Alpua, concept by FishFantastic
Gatomon dived under low-hanging branches in the thick forest. She was being chased, hunted, by unfamiliar figures, both Digimon and human. She had tried to defend herself at the start, but the Digimon intercepted, and endured, her attacks.
Now, she fled. They were following her, but she was gaining ground, for the moment. There were no caves nearby, no burrows of a Prariemon or Rabbitmon. Her best defense was the thick growth of trees and the uncountable branches she was placing between herself and her stalkers.
Once she was barely able to hear the footsteps in the distance and the grunts and cries of the Digimon pursuing her, she started to climb one of the trees. If she gained some height, she could make better time trying to find a village or other place of shelter.
As she neared the upper limbs of the tree, she heard a cry both familiar and eerie. A Saberdramon was flying nearby, its dark feathers ruffled by the air moving through them. Gatomon prayed it was not a foe today, and compressed her legs against the tree, then pushed off towards the next tree.
As she heard the flap of Saberdramon's wings, she knew the mistake she had made. The screech as Saberdramon swooped over and nearly caught her told her this was a foe, possibly one of the predators on her tail. She let out a sigh of relief as her tail slipped from the grasping talons of Saberdramon, and she rolled onto the branch she had aimed for.
Her decision was rushed now. She knew a foe was on top of her, and she could try to rush and keep ahead, or descend to the ground and use the dense forest to protect her. Distance or cover? She leapt to a lower tier of branches, but Saberdramon's sonic attack shook the trees. She lost her footing and began to fall. The trembling trees made it difficult for her to catch herself, and as she heard the sound of Saberdramon crashing into the tree, and the shattering sound that followed, she felt her stomach drop. Then she felt the talons close around her belly, and she was almost grateful to be captured instead of attacked.
Almost grateful, she reminded herself, as Saberdramon swooped around, carrying her towards the place she had started in. As the talons gripped harder, she blacked out.
Smoke and alcohol filled her nostrils as she woke up. "Hey, I think the kitty is coming around," said a deep voice. "Wake up li'l pussy," it continued. "You gave us a real chase, and I plan to take it out of you before we sell you off."
"Shin, drop it," said another voice, confident and brusque. "We're hunters. Sometimes we chase our prey. They don't owe us anything for making it more fun." There was almost a laughing note to his voice.
"Yeah. We don't get to damage the goods," said a female voice. "No more than necessary to capture them, at least. You try and I'll take it out of your pay, got it, Shin?"
For a moment, all Gatomon heard was low grumbling, but then the first voice came back in. "Yeah, I got it Miri."
Gatomon could hear her captors moving around. After a moment, Gatomon felt a poke at her side. The female's voice spoke up. "You don't need to be happy about this. You're one of the clever ones, though, aren't you? You had a plan, not just instinct, to escape us. Unfortunately, our bounty list called for us to catch one of your kind. If you can show us a feral Gatomon, maybe we'll let you go."
Gatomon grunted and pushed herself up. Her legs were in metal cuffs--maybe she could break them, but not with someone watching. Her hands were free, though. She turned around to look at the owner of the voice, a young and tough looking woman with black hair and green eyes. "Miri, is it?" Gatomon was not happy with the idea of being classed as some sort of special Digimon--all Digimon had minds capable of planning and strategy, even if some didn't use it.
"Yes. I lead this band of hunters. Shin is the newbie, Gungun is our scout, and Roku is the Digimon handler."
"Poachers," Gatomon said. In the last few years they had been a growing problem. As some of the children with digivices had grown up, they had not been the bright beacons of hope they had once been. Some were consumed by human flaws, and those flaws spread. By now, there were organizations in both worlds dedicated to rooting our Digimon poachers, but it was still only rumoured what actually happened to most of the Digimon they captured. Some were _tamed_ to serve as hunting aids to the poachers. Most were never seen again, and that was all anybody knew for certain. "And do you hunt with your own partners, or broken down pets?"
"We are hunters," Miri insisted. "And it depends on the hunter. I don't force my ideals on my party, but Gorimon is my original partner."
Gorimon. Gatomon looked around and saw the white-furred digimon near the fire. She also saw a dozen caged Digimon, most of them child or adult level. Saberdramon was eating something just outside of the cave they were in. A Black Leomon and a several Monitamon were also near the fire. Three men were examining the caged Digimon.
"Do you have a partner?"
"Would you release me if I do?"
Miri shook her head. "It would change how much we get paid," she admitted. "We're almost done with this hunt, and we'll be finding you a buyer soon."
"Selling Digimon?"
"What did you think we did? If we killed you you'd just reformat," she said. "There is a lot of money in exotic animals, though, and that market today focuses on Digimon."
Gatomon growled at that. "We aren't just animals to be collected or displayed!"
"The money is too good to pass up," Miri said, smirking. "So yes, you are."
This was too much, Gatomon decided. She pushed herself up to pounce at the woman.
As she moved through the air, preparing to claw at the human's face, she saw a red blur. One of the Monitamon released a cloud of dust in front of her. She felt a sudden impact on her left side and fell back to the ground. "I told you she belonged in a cage like the others, Miri!" The second male voice from earlier was getting closer as it spoke. "Good defense, red. You get an extra share of supper tonight."
Miri sighed. "I thought she would be sensible when faced with the facts. She not like the ferals, Gungun."
"We caught a Gatomon in our last hunt, didn't we? You know, if we just take those gloves off she'd be harmless."
"Just keep track of them," Miri said. She let out a small grunt and turned away from Gatomon. "Gungun, didn't this Gatomon have a gold ring on her tail when we found her?"
"I'll check green's playback," Gungun said.
Gatomon felt her gloves being pulled off, but the dust the Monitamon had released seemed to have her paralysed. Miri's voice was sharp with the next words: "Roku, get her caged now. I've tried to talk sense to her."
A new figure, a particularly skinny human male, lifted her up. "Heavier than she looks," he said. He held her and walked over to the cages. unceremoniously, she was dropped into a cage, and then heard a clunk of heavy wood and metal. "Get me a sack of feed, Shin."
After being locked in the cage, blinders were pulled up, absorbing most of the sound from outside on top of blocking out the light. Gatomon might as well have been unconscious for all she could sense. Sometimes the poachers would open the blinders, but always in a cave with firelight and smoke. Usually it seemed to be so that Roku could check on their health and give new bags of feed--a horrible mix of dried plants and meat--to the Digimon. Grumbling within the cages was constant. Punishment for the noise was iregular.
It had probably been several days by the time the blinders were opened up in midday. Three new humans had joined the poachers, and Roku was offering explanations some of the benefits of the different types of Digimon they had captured. Some of it sounded like selling pack animals, some like show pieces, and a few as something worse: sexual objects.
Roku didn't say anything when the well-dressed man walked over to Gatomon's cage and leered at her. "Exactly what I wanted," he said. "Did you take anything off of it?"
"A pair of gloves," Roku replied. "We're holding them safe. Gungun says she had a ring on her tail, it probably fell off while we were chasing her."
Gatomon sighed. She had noticed the missing ring -- Saberdramon had knocked it off of her during her first leap -- before she was ever caged. Hopefully they wouldn't find it.
"Ten thousand bonus if you find me that ring," the man said, grinning. "Did you know this species can't naturally evolve without that ring?"
Gatomon gulped heavily. Did he want her for her evolution? How could he know what he would be? Did he even care what it was?
"You folks did a good job. I'll take the two Gazimon and the Pokomon plus this one."
Roku nodded. "I'll get them ready, sir."
The blinders were closed, and the leering face of the buyer, and fear of his intentions, was all Gatomon could find herself thinking of. She felt the cage being moved. She felt the lurching and bumping as her cage was moved in a vehicle. She heard the grunts and groans of the Gazimon, and the whimpers of Pokomon.
When the blinders were opened again, they were in a glass-walled room. After a moment, a woman wearing a collar opened their cages. "Welcome home," she said, almost as if she was reading from a script she'd used before. "Master Akihiro warns you to not attempt to escape. He has placed a disruptor in the doorway which may damage or kill you. It has killed Digimon before, and he does not wish to see you die."
Gatomon pushed herself out of the cage and looked up at the woman. She wore a collar, but also a loose outfit with red pleated leggings secured by two leather belts and an open-chested robe (appearing to have been torn in several places) exposing her breasts. She had steely-grey hair down to her ankles, tied in two long tails, and eyes just on the border between red and brown. Gatomon had a sense that this woman might be a Digimon, but felt confused as to whether this figure was actually a Digimon or was a human imitating one. If she was a human, the resemblance and bearing to a Digimon was uncanny.
"Master Akihiro has assigned me to be your caretaker," the woman continued, seeming more scripted with every word. "I will bring you food and let your trainers into this suite. I will tend to any injuries you may suffer during training. When you are collared, I will escort you on any journey outside of this room."
Gatomon became aware that the Gazimon were both growling and eyeing the woman. Pokomon was whimpering and had not left the cage yet.
"You are slaves now," the woman said. "You do not have rights, and you do not have choices. If you attempt to defy Master Akihiro, punishment will be swift and merciless." Her hand raised to her throat for a moment and Gatomon saw a small blinking light on the collar. "If you require anything in the environment to induce greater cooperation, notify me and I will relay your needs to Master Akihiro. You will comply or we will all be punished. Script complete, new slaves may now respond to caretaker Fumiko."
One of the Gazimon, a female based on the slightly softer shape of muzzle and wider hips, leapt at the woman to attack her. Gatomon just watched as another Digimon, a female humanoid with dark red clothes and oversized clawlike hands and tall pointed hat, appeared in the room next to the woman, catching the Gazimon silently. "Guardian Witchmon will prohibit all attacks on your caretaker," Fumiko said flatly. "You are slaves. You must accept this fact."
Gatomon examined the Witchmon, and noticed that her garments were unusual. Witchmon's breasts were bared and presented with a leather corset, the typical collar was removed and replaced with a collar similar to Fumiko's, and her legs were equally bared but bound in leather belts. Finally, looking at Witchmon's face, she noticed that it was tattooed with the Digicode for "slave" under one eye, and "leash" under the other.
Gatomon nodded slowly. "I understand," she said. She intended to fight, but she had to choose her battles. This, she could tell, was not one she had a chance to win. "They might not tell you, but the Gazimon are mated and need bedding large enough to share." She was guessing at this point, but the sounds they had made during travel had suggested it to her. "Pokomon is too young to understand what's going on, but you need to train her like the child that she is."
Fumiko nodded. "And what do you require, Gatomon?"
Gatomon looked at her paws, the scars of an old experience throbbing. "I will cooperate if I am allowed the opportunity to lead this class of slaves, caretaker," she said, closing her eyes, hoping to hide the pain she was feeling. "I am . . ." Her voice trailed off.
Fumiko approached her and knelt down, lifting Gatomon's chin so their eyes would meet. The tears were impossible to hide. "You are obedient," she said. "Until Master Akihiro says otherwsie, I allow you to speak for these slaves. You are not granted any authority over or responsibility for them."
Fumiko stood back up silently. "If you require nothing else, there is a pantry with food and four beds. I will convey your needs to Master. Guardian, release." Witchmon's hand released the Gazimon, and Witchmon floated on her broomstick to Fumiko's side. "This door is forbidden until you are collared, slaves. The disruptor does not recognize obedience -- only the Master's collar."
Gatomon looked towards the windows. This room was high above a city, and the only safe escape was through the door. "Yes, caretaker," she said. "I understand." As she spoke, the caretaker and guardian both left through the door, leaving her alone with a scared toddler and a probably mated pair of Gazimon. Given these actions, she might look like a collaborator to them. She didn't yet know what would come next, so she simply took a deep breath and turned to her fellow captives.