Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. And while I'm at it I don't own Coca-cola or Pepsi, either! Thanks and enjoy!
The Test--Chapter 1
For crying out loud, don't tell me we took the wrong gate! Daisuke thought, looking around him. What happened to the others? And where am I? This isn't Quewari--it can't be--at least not unless it's a ghost town.
Indeed, it appeared this was exactly where he was: an old western ghost town to be more specific. The sun cast an eerie red glow over the whole deserted town and a cold wind was blowing dust about through the streets. He was standing in the middle of a painfully quiet road and the dust was blowing into his eyes. In front of him was an old, run-down saloon, the doors hanging off their hinges and the windows all boarded up. The porch in front of the door sagged as though with some unseen weight. Tables and chairs inside the saloon were either broken or tipped over. Daisuke could even see a few overturned mugs of what he guessed had once been filled with whiskey atop a few of the tables.
It looks like whoever was here left in a big hurry. But why would they want to leave so quickly?
He shrugged and dismissed the thought, walking into the saloon, hoping to perhaps get something to drink.
Once inside, he could see more of what had happened to the bar. Areas on the floor inside were rotting and in one corner the floor was completely gone. The tables all had a thick coating of dust on them as did the chairs.
Daisuke climbed over the bartender's table and looked around, hoping to find anything to drink at all. He was very surprised to see a store of…cans of soda pop. The Coca-cola and Pepsi certainly didn't seem to fit with the rest of the "old west" scenery.
How convenient. A little too convenient, Daisuke thought, eying the cans with a thirsty eye. He picked up one of the cans of soda and turned it over and over. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it.
After a few more minutes of eying the can of pop, he put it back where he found it, using every bit of willpower he possessed and left the bar.
The only thing Daisuke could hear in this horribly quiet town was the whistling of the wind as it blew through the streets. The sun was nearly down and it was getting dark and very cold. In the fading light Daisuke could see a sign on the building across the street from him that announced in fading letters: INN.
I guess I'll go to the Inn for some sleep, he thought, leaving the rundown saloon and entering the equally rundown Inn.
Once inside the Inn he walked up the ancient stairs to the second floor, half afraid he would fall through the rotting wood. His footsteps did not echo on the softened wood and with every step he took his foot slid back about an inch on the slippery rot. He didn't even bother to put his hand on the banister--he feared that if he touched it, the whole rickety thing would crumble into nothing. But then again, it wasn't as though anybody was around to care.
He reached the top of the stairs, looked back down and cursed under his breath. Hanging behind the registration desk were multiple keys. All the doors before him were closed and he guessed he would have to get one of the keys to open them.
Daisuke walked back down the stairs, jumped over the table and took one of the keys. Strangely enough, the key was not tarnished and he could clearly read the room number upon it--7.
Once back upstairs, he walked down the row of doors until he came to the one with a large seven carved on it. The key slid easily into the lock, almost as though it had been oiled. The lock also yielded easily and he opened the door.
This was the point where Daisuke got the biggest shock of his life: the room, like the cans of cola didn't fit. In fact, it looked like a well-kept modern hotel room. The carpeting was a cheery pinkish color and a large bed in the corner complete with flowery comforter and pillows to match. A dresser made of mahogany was in the corner across from the bed and sitting atop the dresser--and this was what had surprised Daisuke the most--was a television set.
"Whoa," he muttered while walking into the room. This isn't your average western town.
It was darker outside, making it difficult to see clearly, so he flicked on yet another thing that didn't fit--the electric lights. No gas lamps. No fire whatsoever. Electric lights.
A powerful gust of wind blew through the open door of the Inn and traveled up the stairs, sending chills down Daisuke's back and neck. He realized he was still standing in the doorway and quickly entered his room, shutting the door with an ominous click.
The carpeting was soft, that much he could tell without even removing his shoes. Now that he was in the room, he saw that there were many more features than he had first seen. On the bedside table (which was also made out of perfectly intact wood) was a clock radio. In the corner that had been blocked from view by the door was a desk and a computer sat on the desk. At the foot of the bed was a huge boom box with an assortment of CD's and the bed itself, as it turned out, was in fact a waterbed.
Daisuke sat down in the recliner that had an excellent view of the TV and removed his shoes, wishing he had a pair of pajamas. His wish came true when he looked in the top drawer of the dresser--a pair of pajamas was neatly folded inside and they were exactly the right size.
He changed into the pajamas and picked up the remote control for the TV before sitting back down in the recliner and flicking on the television. The sitcoms and movies were some of the most welcome things Daisuke had heard in a long time; they temporarily ended the eerie silence of the deserted town.
Eventually, his eyelids began to feel heavy so he flicked off the TV and lights before climbing into the waterbed. Although he felt like things were just a bit too convenient, he couldn't help thinking that it felt great to lie down in the warm, soft sheets as opposed to being out in the middle of a blizzard or running away from one of the Dark's minions. Within five minutes he was asleep.
~*~
The sunlight filtered through the blinds over the window and into the room, waking Daisuke from his sleep.
He sat up in the waterbed and yawned before clamber out of bed and changing back into his clothes. Then he made the bed so it looked just as it had before he slept in it and folded up the pajamas before placing them back in the top drawer of the dresser.
Wow, I take better care of some room in a ghost town than I do my own college dorm room, he realized.
Finally, he was ready to leave. He picked up the shiny silver key to the room and stepped out into the rundown hall. It was like stepping into a totally different world. The room was so tidy and inviting while the hall was so unkempt and depressing.
When he got to the bottom step, his foot went through it and he had to yank it back out of the rotting wood.
Once free of the wood, Daisuke walked back over to the registration desk and hung up the key back in the same place it had been hung before and then left the Inn to explore the rest of the deserted town.
It's not like anybody is going to care where I go anyway, he reasoned as he walked into an abandoned blacksmith's shop.
The blacksmith shop was, like almost everything else in the town, broken down. But like everything he had previously seen, there was also something about it that didn't click with the setting. The tools were completely modern. In fact, it looked more like a factory than a blacksmith's shop--had there been no sign outside announcing the fact that it was indeed a blacksmith shop, that would have been what he had thought it was. The machinery looked threatening and out of place in the one-room shop with the dim sunlight filtering through the single window. It had once made horseshoes, bars for the prison--just about everything metal in the town seemed to be produced here.
What is up with this town? He thought. He could see several iron items littered about the ground. As with the bar, it looked as though whoever had been here had left in a big hurry. What happened here?
As he wondered what could have happened, the light that shone through the window flickered for just a brief moment. It was enough to catch his attention.
"Hello?" Daisuke shouted out loud. Somebody's here, he thought. There was no answer at all. Who else could be here?
He knew that the flickering light could not have been his imagination. It had been too distinct, too conspicuous for him to have imagined it.
The wind was picking up again outside and it blew through the open door. He felt a chill go down his spine--though he wasn't sure if it was from the wind or from something else. Then something happened that confirmed his theory that somebody was here with him: loud, distinctive footsteps echoed through the room.
Daisuke stiffened and shouted: "I know you're here! Whoever you are you'd better let me see you!" before turning around to face whoever had entered the blacksmith shop. He was surprised when he saw nobody. What he did see was a set of footsteps beside his own in the dust on the floor. The footsteps went in a straight path and ended directly in front of him.
"Who's there?" he demanded. "Hello? HELLO?"
He sensed something behind him and instinctively ducked, narrowly missing being hit by a horseshoe hurtling through the air directly for his head. It flew across the room and hit against the wall with a loud clang and Daisuke ran out of the blacksmith shop as fast as he could possibly go.
The next structure in the strip of buildings was the jail. He almost decided to forget about searching any more of the buildings and instead return to the lavishly furnished room back at the Inn, but muttered to himself: "I'm being just a LITTLE paranoid here" and instead entered the jail.
The jail was cold--too cold. It was like walking into a freezer, in fact. He walked farther back into the darkened halls, feeling a bit nervous about his surroundings. The bars of the cells on either side of him seemed to be glaring at him, holding some unknown secret and he could almost hear the grunts and shouts of the inmates of the prison being emitted through the iron bars.
He shivered and quickly walked back to the back wall. What's that? He wondered. There was something on the wall that stood out. It was a small patch of blue that was rather small. It was fashioned into a circular shape and Daisuke's breath caught in his throat when he realized exactly what it was: a button.
But the button was too small for him to press with even his pinky finger. What does it do? He thought.
Inspiration hit him suddenly and he bent down and picked up a small twig on the ground that had been blown in by the wind. The twig was small enough to press the button and he used it to do so.
There was a loud buzzing noise, then the ground began to shake violently as the wall with the button on it fell away along with the ground he was standing on. But Daisuke didn't fall too far--it was only a few feet before he landed on a bumpy sloped surface.
It was very dark in this new place and it took him a moment to figure out that he was on a set of stairs that led downward. The walls around him were made of packed dirt as were the stairs themselves. Tentatively, he stood and felt for the next step. It wasn't a big step at all and he stepped down to repeat the process.
The darkness seemed to press in on him and it was stiflingly hot and humid. After only five minutes of walking down the stairs he was sweating profusely.
And then he came to a step that had no step after it--only a hole. Daisuke felt around on the ground for a pebble and upon finding one threw it into the hole, listening for it to hit the ground. After several seconds, he heard the pinging noise.
It can't be that big of a drop, he reasoned as he sat down on the ledge, dangling his legs into the hole. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the edge.
There was a horrible feeling of falling for a few seconds and then he hit hard ground. Directly in front of him was a wall. No, wait; it's a door, he thought as his fingers brushed the doorknob.
He held the knob in his hands for a moment before turning it. The room behind the door was lit with a red light from a pit in the ground and it was incredibly hot. The walls and ceiling of the room were made of more packed dirt.
"Who dares enter my domain?" a voice challenged.
Daisuke snapped his head to the left and saw a figure clad in black robes. He had no idea what he should say, but he was surprised to realize that the voice had been feminine.
"I suppose name is not important. Now then, what IS important is that we must fight."
Daisuke almost felt like laughing. Judging from the voice, this fight was going to be totally one-sided. His challenger would have no chance.
"So why do we have to fight?" he inquired.
"The Dark requires it." The robed woman took Daisuke by the hand and led him into the room after closing the door and the stated: "only one rule: we fight to the death. Winner takes all."
With that, the woman shed her robes. She was wearing a tight short dress that was a poisonous green color and her eyes matched the dress with the same distinctive shade of bright green. Her hair was a gold color that shimmered.
"Now we shall shake hands," she stated.
Daisuke felt her grab his hand again and gritted his teeth--she was squeezing his hand so hard she was liable to break every bone in it.
The handshake ended and the woman calmly said: "as a courtesy I must allow you to make the first move with no resistance. Begin when you are ready."
Daisuke was dumbfounded. She doesn't look like she could squash a beetle, let alone beat somebody up, he thought. With a shrug, he drew back his fist and lightly hit her in the shoulder.
The next instant his hand, which he was now slowly pulling back was tightly clasped in hers and she flipped him back over her shoulder, making him land on the ground with a painful thump.
Before he could even make a move to get to his feet, he felt the woman's foot slam into his face and he tasted blood in his mouth; his lip was bleeding.
Daisuke quickly jumped to his feet and went after the woman, trying to do a jump kick, but she moved out of the way and grabbed his foot, flipping him back onto the floor.
"This is truly pathetic. At least give me a challenge," she muttered as she raised her foot to stomp on Daisuke's face again.
He rolled out of the way at the last minute and her foot instead pounded on the ground. As she was still unbalanced, he quickly got to his feet. Then she turned around and kicked him across the chest, sending him flying backward and knocking the wind out of him. He was dangerously close to the pit in the ground and now he knew why it was casting a red glow--it was filled with magma.
That was when he realized the woman was flying through the air, ready to knock him into the magma. At the last second he raised his arms in the air and gave the woman just enough leverage to miss hitting him and instead land in the boiling magma.
The last thing he saw of her was a surprised look on her face. The instant she disappeared into the magma, a bright white light filled the room and something burst out of the pit of magma. It floated over to Daisuke and into his hand.
Then the light died away. He looked at what was in his hand and furrowed his brow. It was a crystal; a pure crystal.
A door slid open in the wall and it, too was filled with a bright light. Without a second thought, Daisuke walked through…