DIGIMON ADVENTURE 01-R HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
A revision of an episode of Digimon Adventure
By Lou Smith (AKA ker-plop)
CHAPTER 11
SPIRIT OF LEADERSHIP
Joe's stomach acid again tried to leap into his throat as he clung to the headboard of his bed-raft, his body shuddering at the mix of the floating undulation and the moist, cold fog. What a sorry hand life had dealt him, floating lost and separated from the other kids in this logic-forsaken world of monsters. Somehow he just knew it was going to happen that way; it was just his luck. "Ohhh… why did I go to summer camp?..." he gurgled.
"Hey Joe, you feelin' OK over there?" Gomamon's voice came through stuffed cheeks. "Just relax and enjoy the ride!"
Joe whirled around and his jaw almost snapped off as he watched Gomamon's claw pull a handful of nuts out of the medical bag. "Are you eating AGAIN?!" he howled, snatching the bag away. He jammed his head inside and saw that there were only a few crumbs left. "That-that-that was all the food we had!" he spluttered. "What did I tell you about rationing?! We had to save some for later!"
"But it is later, Joe; you said that twenty minutes ago," Gomamon pointed out. "Besides, if I have to Digivolve I'll need the energy—WAGH!"
"Who're you gonna protect if I starve?!" Joe shrieked, shaking the little white critter like a furious baby would a rattle. "Now we're as good as—" His face suddenly turned purple, he dropped Gomamon and raced back to the headboard, where he gave off several horrible juicy noises. "…Why me…?" he groaned, then started on another salvo.
Gomamon winced at the noise and shuffled up to his partner. "Hey, c'mon, Joe, buck up," he tried, clapping his paw on the sick boy's back. "Things'll get better, honest!"
Joe looked back at him, his chin and the sides of his mouth glistening with… something. "How?!" he demanded.
Gomamon grinned nervously; they weren't supposed to ask 'how.' "Uh… can I get back to you on that?" he asked.
Joe groaned and sagged over the side. He should have stayed at home and kept studying; those college entrance exams were only a few years off, and if he didn't get into medical school like his brothers, his dad would string him up and thrash him like a piñata!
Gomamon's ears suddenly perked up; he could hear something drifting nearby. "Joe! Something's coming!" he whispered, peering into the fog.
"Great…" Joe grumbled as he poured himself back onto the mattress and looking where Gomamon looked. As they watched, a large wooden crate floated out of the soup towards the bed. Joe's eyes bulged and he sprang up. "Great!" he repeated with much more joy. "We're saved! Maybe it's emergency supplies, or a real raft, or a flare gun, or all of them!"
Gomamon pulled back; after what they had just gone through, Joe's idea seemed, to put it nicely, far-fetched. "Err, I dunno, Joe…" he tried. "Maybe we shouldn't—"
"What?! You just said things would get better!" Joe huffed. "Quit flip-flopping!"
"But Joe…" Gomamon tried.
Joe already had his hands on the crate, pulling it closer to the bed. He yanked at the top, but it wouldn't come off. "Ugh, it's nailed shut," he grumbled. "Gomamon, do you know any sawfish? Or crowbar-fish?"
Before Gomamon could answer, though, the crate's top burst open, and out came the fiendish Ogremon! "Surprise!" he roared at the stunned duo, pulling his club back. "Say goodbye, peewee!"
Ogremon swung his club and Joe screamed and fell backwards. The blow sailed over both kid and Digimon, splintering only the bed's headboard. He swung lower, but the bouncy mattress let them leap over the club. Joe had no idea how he had gone from being seasick to dancing with a monster in less than ten seconds, but right then he didn't care; he let his body do the thinking for him as Ogremon's club closed in.
Again they fell to the bed and avoided the blow, then bounced up to dodge a fourth swat. Ogremon quickly lost patience and brought his club down on the middle of the bed-raft, smashing it in two. Joe scrambled onto the part that hadn't sunk, but Gomamon fell into the water. "You just messed up big time, pal!" he huffed. "Meet my friends!"
A rainbow-colored school of fish leaped out of the water behind Gomamon and threw their wet bodies against Ogremon. "Gimme a break!" the big fiend huffed as they splattered against his face and arms, "I'm not scared of some stinkin'—OW! Hey! Knock it off! OW!"
"They might be little," Gomamon declared, "but when they're all attacking at once—"
Ogremon snarled and let loose with a barrage of lightning-fast punches, socking every fish that came at him until the assault stopped. He grinned wickedly at Gomamon, who shrank back. "Err… well, sometimes the big guys win anyway," he gulped.
"Now for the easy one," Ogremon cackled, turning on the paralyzed Joe and raising his club again. "I bet you smash real nice!"
Joe could only whimper and clamp his arms over his head. His Digivice flashed brilliantly, and Gomamon glowed. In wild waves of white light and water, the little critter transformed into the big, blubbery Ikkakumon, sending everything rocking like fruit slices in disturbed gelatin. Joe dug his nails into the soggy mattress, trying not to throw up again. "Back off, mean green!" the giant walrus growled, swimming between Joe and the crate.
Ogremon looked a bit sickly himself, but he covered it with an angry laugh. "What, gonna jiggle me to death?!" he snarked, and lay into Ikkakumon with more machine-gun punches. Ikkakumon gnashed his teeth and shoved the crate with his stubby arms as hard as he could, and the big green goblin lost his balance and fell down. Ikkakumon took the reprieve to fire off a Harpoon Torpedo. Ogremon blocked the explosion, but the crate went skipping backwards over the waves.
"Joe, quick!" Ikkakumon barked, floating over to the flotsam. "Let's get outta here!"
Joe leaped onto him like a hungry tick and Ikkakumon sailed off into the fog. Ogremon scrambled back on his feet and waved his club at them. "You cowards! Get back here and fight me!" he shouted, but they were gone. He started to get out of the crate, but the cold water on his foot quickly reminded him that he couldn't swim… and now he was floating aimlessly on the ocean. "Aww, crap," he huffed, sticking his club in the water and trying to paddle, "I really didn't think this one through… Get back here, you bums! C'mon!"
Joe listened to Ogremon's voice fade into the fog, but the silence didn't make him feel any better. "Now what do we do?!" he asked. "Where are we even going?!"
Ikkakumon groaned quietly, and Joe noticed his partner was starting to sink. "Ikkkakumon?!" he asked, clinging to his black horn, "what's wrong?!"
"Oogh… I guess Ogremon hurt me more than I thought…" Ikkakumon coughed. "I don't think…"
"Wh-what?!" Joe yelped, his eyes almost popping through his glasses as Ikkakumon's body continued to sink, then glowed a fatigued yellow. "No, you can't! We'll both drown!" he cried, but Ikkakumon shrank back to Gomamon and they both plunged into the dark sea. Joe forgot which way was up, used all his air in a frenzied underwater wail, and sank into blackness.
The twig dipped beneath the water and then hopped up again, making the vine wrapped around it twitch and jiggle. Sora pulled for a moment, then frowned and shifted her position; she had thought that was a bite, but her bobber was just moving along with the water. She yanked her stick rod crossly to the left, then sighed and resumed her vigil, listening to the lapping of the waves, as well as the wooden clunking of what remained of her bed banging against the rocky shore.
Presently she also heard hopping footsteps coming from behind, along with a silly little tune: "I'm always wishing… Sora'd get some fish…ing!~" She turned around and smiled at Biyomon, who had taken it upon herself to scout the island while she tried to catch some food. "Get anything yet?" the pink bird asked.
Sora shook her head. "No… but fishing takes a lot of time," she replied. "How's the island look?"
Biyomon shrugged. "Well, there's lots of woods, and it kinda looks like it goes uphill, but…" she pointed at the thick fog that drifted all around them, "I didn't want to get lost."
"Hmm… Maybe it'll clear up in the morning," Sora suggested.
"But when IS morning?" Biyomon asked. "I think the sun missed its wake-up call."
"Just have to wait and see, I guess…" Sora muttered, then pulled at the line again. She tried hard to focus on landing a fish. If she didn't keep herself occupied, she knew she would start worrying about Tai and the rest of her friends again… First they needed food, then they needed to know where they were, and then they could start searching. One thing at a time… that's how she had to think.
Biyomon's stomach suddenly gurgled, far more loudly than Sora would have expected of a bird. She looked at her partner and chuckled. "Don't worry," she said, "I know I'll get something big."
"I'd be happy if you caught a sardine," Biyomon replied, "or even a boot!"
Sora laughed again, but when she turned away from Biyomon she bit her lip in worry. She had no actual bait, and had only been able to fashion a twig into a hook that marginally resembled a worm. Were there any fish out there dumb enough to fall for that? And even if there were, would that hook be strong enough?
Suddenly a ferocious yank almost pulled her arms out of her sockets; her answer had come. "Good grief!" she blurted as she almost fell on her face, but managed to steady her legs and start yanking back. "What did I get? A whale?!"
"Let me help!" Biyomon squawked, grabbing Sora's middle and pulling.
They yanked and got yanked for two long minutes. Sora thought her teeth were starting to crack on each other when finally something emerged from the water, and she almost let go of the rod in shock; it was Joe, face down, with Gomamon clinging on beside him, coughing and spluttering. "JOE!" Sora exclaimed, yanking as hard as she could. "Biyomon, harder!"
About an hour later, the girls had a roaring fire going on the beach. Joe lay unconscious nearby on a bed of wet leaves, soggy but safe; thankfully he had not been underwater for very long. Sora and Biyomon sat nearby, listening to Gomamon relate their story. "So we got away, but I ran outta gas and sank," he went on. "I only blacked out for a few seconds, but when I came to, we were both underwater and Joe wasn't moving anymore. I tried to pull him back to the surface, but I'm still pretty beat up and I couldn't do it… I'm just glad your fishing line came by; you two are really strong!"
"It wasn't easy," Biyomon remarked. "He's heavy for a stringy guy!"
Gomamon chuckled, but as he looked at his partner his smile left him. "…I'm worried about him," he said.
"He'll be OK, Gomamon," Sora said. "He's breathing fine, and we dried him off pretty fast."
"Well, yeah, but it's not that," Gomamon said. "It's something else… Joe's not very good at this adventure stuff. He freaks out a lot and doesn't think he can do much… I'm scared he might not be able to handle the Digital World for much longer."
"Gomamon!" Biyomon huffed. "That's your partner you're talking about!"
"I know, but…" Gomamon muttered, trailing off under Biyomon's dirty look.
Sora set her mouth. She hated to say so, but she agreed with Gomamon: Joe was one of the weakest kids in the group. Izzy, Mimi and TK were also unfit to be on this adventure, but they all had their own survival skills: TK had Matt to watch his back; Izzy could think his way out of trouble; and Mimi could scream and tantrum enough to collapse a house. Joe, on the other hand, fell apart at the first sign of danger, and he didn't have anything to offer…
Absolutely nothing to offer? She stopped herself and thought about it again. No, maybe there was something… She thought back a few days, to when Gomamon had first Digivolved. Joe had taken it upon himself to scout the mountain Tai and Matt had argued about, and even tried to fight off a crazed Unimon. Maybe he had felt he had to, since he was the oldest kid in the group, but still, he had done it on his own… Maybe behind that yellow belly, there really was a spine.
"So, uh, where are we?" Gomamon asked, breaking her out of her ruminations. "Have you guys explored yet?"
"Only a little," Biyomon said. "It's too foggy to get very far."
"We only landed about an hour before you showed up," Sora said.
Gomamon screwed up his face in thought, then turned to the girls. "Hey, Sora, Biyomon," he started, "I want to help Joe out with being brave. Can you help me?"
Sora nodded. "Sure," she said.
"How?" Biyomon asked.
"Well, that's the hard part," Gomamon said. "Sora, you're really tough and all… but could you let Joe be the leader while we're on this island? I think that'll help his confidence."
Sora winced, in spite of herself. "Lead?!" she asked. "But…"
Suddenly Joe groaned, and then he sprang up with a shout of "Ogremon!"
"Woah, easy, Joe!" Gomamon said, rushing over to him. "We're OK now."
"I… wha?!" Joe babbled, then looked at Sora and Biyomon. "Oh, thank goodness!" he breathed, then looked around again. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.
Sora shook her head. "It's just us, Joe," she said. "We're stuck on this foggy island."
"Oh… great…" Joe muttered, visibly sagging.
Gomamon glanced at the girls and made a hopeful gesture. Biyomon looked at Sora, then coughed. "We could start looking for them; maybe they're here somewhere," she suggested. "So what do we do, Joe? Where do we start?"
Joe looked at her like she had said a demon with a chainsaw was standing right behind him. "What?!" he yelped. "Oh, geez, no!"
"C'mon, Joe, a situation like this needs a leader," Gomamon said with a grin, "and you're it!"
"I'm no leader! You guys pick someone else!" He spluttered, looking over at Sora. "What about you?"
Sora forced a smile and saw his heart sink. "I think they're right," she said. "You're the oldest one here."
"Have you lost your minds?" Joe whimpered. "Come on!"
"Nope, you're the best fit," Gomamon said.
"Yeah, Joe's the leader!" Biyomon chirped, raising her wing happily. "All in favor say aye!"
Gomamon and Sora also raised their hands with big grins. Joe's limbs shook like twigs in the wind, and suddenly all he could look at were his shoes. How could they expect a cowardly little nothing like him to be the leader?! If this was a joke, it was a pretty sick one!
Gomamon cringed; had hoped Joe would at least say he'd try, but his partner had retreated into himself almost immediately. He had to push a little bit more. "C'mon, Joe, you can do it!" he urged. "Remember how you climbed the mountain and stood up to Unimon?"
Joe's mind flipped back to the blind terror of clinging to that monster and trying to dislodge its Black Gear. Then he remembered why he had done it: because he had to be responsible for the others. Sora was right; as the oldest kid in their small group, it was his duty to make sure they were safe. He pursed his lips, screwed up his face and got on his feet. "A-all right, then!" he squeaked, "I'll do it!"
"Yeah! That's the spirit, Joe!" Gomamon laughed, hopping up and down.
"This'll be great!" Biyomon agreed.
Sora's smile wavered a bit. Joe being leader could be good for his confidence, but what would it do for the rest of them?...
Just then, the air shook with a series of long, hollow peals from a distant bell. Joe's neck stiffened and his eyes darted around without turning his head. "…Did anyone else hear that?" he ventured.
"Yeah…" Sora agreed. "Sounded like a bell at a harbor, but lower…"
The cold wind blew and the fog around them lifted, revealing the island's geography. As Biyomon had said, it was mostly hills covered in jungle trees and plants, but now that the air was clear they spotted a tall building on the highest hill, hoisting what looked like a letter "X" on a rod on its top. "What's that?..." Gomamon asked.
"Almost looks like a church," Sora remarked, "though they don't usually have 'Xs' on them…"
"Hey! Maybe there's someone here!" Joe exclaimed, perking up immediately. "Maybe even other humans!"
"Err, I don't know about that…" Sora admitted warily.
"Someone had to ring that bell…" Gomamon pointed out.
"Let's go see!" Biyomon chirped, starting to fly.
"No, wait, Biyomon," Sora urged, stopping her partner. "Joe's the leader." She turned to the bespectacled boy expectantly, then motioned towards the woods.
Whatever elation Joe had gained melted away like hot wax. "I… what?" he gulped. "B-but… W-well, we don't know what's in those trees, and what if…" He trailed off as he heard Sora sigh and saw Gomamon's disappointed face. His response was, apparently, the wrong one. He swallowed hard a few times, looked at the forest and swallowed again. "A-all right, then…" he coughed, "follow… follow me!"
They set off into the woods, which despite being tropical were as cold as the beach had been. Joe had expected they would have to push their way through overgrowth and climb over rotting logs, but surprisingly there was an obvious dirt path between the trees that seemed to take them right up the hill, though the climb was rather steep. "H-hey, slow it down, guys!" Gomamon complained as he scrambled behind. "I'm a swimmer, not a hiker!"
"I guess they don't know about switchbacks here…" Sora remarked.
"Want a lift?" Biyomon asked, flapping down and clutching Gomamon's sides with her talons.
"OW! No!" Gomamon huffed, swatting her away. "When was the last time you clipped those things?!"
Joe didn't like the climb at all, and not just because he was quickly running out of stamina; finding a path that went straight to the building with the bell rang the bells of warning in his brain. Still, the others' disapproving faces on the beach hung in his mind and he stayed quiet. After all, he never saw brave kids like Tai fussing and fretting about how dangerous something felt… but then again, that's what got them all split up in the first place! Should he really follow his example? He sighed heavily, the med kit suddenly feeling like a hundred pounds. Why hadn't Sora taken charge? Even if boys were supposed to protect girls, she was way more capable than he was! He just wanted to go home and study… he was no leader.
Another fatiguing ten minutes later, the trees parted and the group found themselves on the bald hilltop. It was a much wider space than they could have seen from the beach, and the church was still some distance away. The fog, which had faded from the shore, was still very much present at the jungle canopy, coating everything beneath the hill and giving the feeling of being surrounded by the void. "Whew!" Biyomon chirped. "Did we climb a hill or a mountain?"
Sora pushed her helmet back and looked around. "Hey Joe, I think I've seen this place before," she admitted. "When we were climbing Infinity Mountain…"
Joe looked between the church and the hilltop and saw what she meant. He had seen this place before from the mountainside, too, if only for a few moments. "Yeah…" he agreed. "Then… we must be on part of the big island that broke away!" He looked back at the church. "Then maybe the others ARE in there! Or at least some other people! Let's go look!"
Sora looked at the dark building and bit her lip. Maybe it was the fog or the night sky, but now that they were closer, it didn't look like a place she would want to stay in; Joe's earlier worries suddenly became believable. "I don't know…" she muttered.
Joe froze up again, suddenly flooded with second-guesses. Now Sora was against investigating the church and he was for it? How did their roles get reversed? He turned away and played with his hands, looking out at the fog and trying to get his brain in order. Had he been right to be cautious before, and was he being too brave now? But if they didn't go check the place out, they would never know! But now even Sora was nervous, and that was definitely a bad sign. But still…
Gomamon touched his leg and he leaped around with a yelp. "What'd you do that for?!" he demanded hotly.
"Geez, sorry," Gomamon muttered. "So are we going or not?"
Joe chewed on his teeth for a few moments more, the others' expectant gazes boring into him like hot needles. "…All right," he finally said, "we're going."
Sora, Biyomon and Gomamon started to walk. "J-just a minute!" he objected, scrambling ahead of them and trying to look stern; if they had made him leader, why were they ahead of him? "I'M the leader! I… I'll say when we go!"
"OK… geez," Sora muttered.
Joe turned and looked at the sullen church in the moonlight, the giant "X" above it suddenly reminding him of the "Xs" in the eyes of dead cartoon characters. He clenched his hands several times and swallowed, hoping the sweat on his palms would somehow relocate to his dry throat.
Gomamon blinked a few times as the silence grew more awkward. "So… are you gonna say it?" he asked.
Joe cringed, then bared his teeth and nodded painfully. "R-right," he agreed. "H-here we go!" He stomped ahead of them as quickly as he could, before his jellied legs could liquify.
Sora grimaced as she watched him almost stumble a few times, then walk with his balled hands swinging like stiff planks. "Err… maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Gomamon," she remarked.
To her surprise, Gomamon was smiling. "Nahh, it's going fine!" he said. "I've never seen him act like he got a Black Gear down his pants."
Sora heard herself snort with laughter, in spite of the situation. "W-well, OK," she snickered. "Let's hurry, Biyomon."
Another fifteen minutes of hiking across the hilltops and the party reached the building. A bare wall of stone greeted them, but they could hear a muffled organ playing, as well as chanting voices. "Huh… either this place doesn't have an entrance, or we came at it from the back," Sora remarked.
"But someone IS here!" Biyomon chirped. "Joe, you were right!"
"Err, w-well…" Joe mumbled, the music locking up his legs. Organs were not instruments that meant something good. "Gee, Sora, now that I think about it… maybe we shouldn't… I mean, maybe there's a boat or something back on the beach we can use to…"
His heart sank as he heard her sigh. "Now we know you were right, and you want to turn around?!" she asked, the irritation in her voice very much apparent. He bit his lip and stared at the wall. He felt bad enough when the others ignored him, but making them angry made him feel even worse. How could one person be so wishy-washy?
Gomamon tugged at his sock. "Joe, you want me to take a peek?" he asked.
Joe blinked, then angrily shook his head. "No, I don't want you taking a peek!" he snapped. "I'm the leader; I'll do it!" Without another word, he darted along the wall towards the chanting.
Gomamon watched him go, then grinned widely. "Nice job, guys," he chuckled. "This is working like a charm."
"Yeah, he'll be roaring and pulling trees up by their roots in no time!" Biyomon laughed.
"Err, let's not get too carried away…" Sora muttered.
As he approached the edge of the church and the chanting got louder, Joe's brave footsteps shrank to timid tiptoes. It took all his remaining guts to clamp his fingers into the wall and peer ever so slightly around the corner, and what he saw made his breath turn to spit in his throat. A wide churchyard flashed with strings of colorful decorative lights as twenty or thirty people shuffled in circles to the organ's melody, uttering the unknown language behind wide-eyed, smiling white masks. In a flash, he was back in front of his friends, gasping for air. "P… people!" he managed. "Dancing people!... Creepy dancing people!"
"Seriously?!" Sora asked, jerking back.
"Other humans? Really?" Biyomon asked. "C'mon, I wanna see!"
The others followed Joe back to the corner and this time the others peered at the spectacle. "Wow…" Gomamon said. "That is one silly-looking dance."
"Do they do this in your world, Sora?" Biyomon asked.
Sora shook her head, staring at the display with mixed emotions. "That chanting sounds really eerie," she muttered, "but the masks and lights… maybe it's like Halloween."
"Hallow… what?" a raspy voice came.
All four of them, not just Joe, slammed against the church's wall with accompanying screams. Next to them stood a man dressed in clerical vestments, his face hidden by the same bug-eyed smiling mask that the dancers wore. He took a step back and bowed. "Ah… my apologies," he said. "I am the head priest of this church. I thought I heard somebody back here."
The kids stayed frozen for a moment more, then slowly eased off the wall. "W-well… you found us," Gomamon admitted.
The priest's black-pupil mask drifted between Sora and Joe. "You seem to be in some distress…" he remarked sympathetically. "You all look so frazzled… you should come inside and find a place to rest."
"I-inside?" Joe squeaked, glancing at the imposing wall.
"Well, it's probably warmer in there than out here," Sora said. "Thanks very much, sir."
The party followed the man past the dancers and into a sparse but high ceilinged church where several more priests in masks stood at attention, all chanting quietly towards a plain-looking wooden table of an altar which only sported a few sluggishly-burning candles and another metal "X" on a post. The organ's tones groaned even louder, but strangely the instrument was nowhere to be seen. "It's nice to have some young people here," the priest said as he slowly led them down the aisle, "this holiday just wouldn't be complete without them."
"What are you celebrating?" Sora asked. "Halloween's not until fall…"
The priest stopped and bowed to the altar, then turned back to his guests. "We have gathered to honor Lord Bakemon, and present offerings to him," he explained.
Joe thought he felt Gomamon tense up beside him. "Wait, back up," his partner said, "did you just say Lord Bakemon?"
"Indeed I did," the priest answered. "It is a wonderful ceremony."
Gomamon and Biyomon looked at each other in alarm. "But… the only 'Bakemon' I've ever heard of are these horrible ghost Digimon that haunt Overdell Graveyard," Gomamon objected.
"Yeah, why would you want to honor someone like that?" Biyomon asked. "That's too scary for me…"
The priest towered over them, his clenched fists suddenly shaking. "And who are you to criticize who shall be worshipped in this place?!" he demanded, the smiling mask unable to hide the rage in his voice.
"Woah, geez!" Gomamon flinched. "Take it easy!"
"Gomamon! Be respectful! We're guests here!" Joe scolded him, then smiled awkwardly. "I'm really sorry about that," he said.
Sora didn't like the man's reaction at all—she had never seen the priest at her mom's church fly off the handle like that—but she decided to try to defuse the situation. "So, uh, how do we honor this Lord Bakemon?" she ventured, looking around. "What's the offering? I don't see any candles, or flowers or money…"
The priest looked at her, his mask's creepy eyes and red smile partially hidden in the church's shadows. "The offering is here," he stated.
"Oh, yeah?" Biyomon asked, her feathers suddenly standing straight. "What… what is it?"
"The offering…" the priest said, and suddenly his white mask cracked right down the middle. "The offering…" he repeated, raising his arms as if in praise, "is… YOU."
To their horror his mask blew into shards and his body tore apart like wet tissue paper, revealing a floating, fanged ghost-like creature. Sora and Joe screamed in unison. Gomamon and Biyomon immediately leaped in front of them. "He's a Bakemon!" Biyomon squawked.
The other priests wavered, then split apart to reveal their true spectral forms. They floated towards the kids, snarling and gnashing their teeth. "N-no way!" Joe stammered, stumbling backwards. "Ghosts aren't real! They… they can't be real ghosts!"
"You're right; they're digital ones!" Sora quipped. "RUN!"
The four of them practically kicked the wooden doors down as they hightailed it out of the church, only to find themselves surrounded by the masked dancers. "Uh-oh… I forgot about them!" Biyomon gulped.
The dancers exploded into Bakemon just as the priests had, but they weren't the only things that changed: the colored lights dissolved and the bare cobblestone churchyard was suddenly littered with mossy tombstones and stone slabs. Behind them the church wavered, then melted into a decayed shell of its former self, its walls cracked and its stained glass windows smashed in. "Ugh, how stupid are we?!" Gomamon yelped. "We walked right into Overdell Graveyard!"
"WHAT?!" Joe shrieked, his pitch higher than Sora's.
The Bakemon advanced on the kids from all sides, wailing and clicking their fangs. Biyomon leaped in front of Sora and flapped up a Spiral Twister, but the ghosts just floated out of the way. Away from the sea, Gomamon couldn't call his Marching Fishes, so desperately he leaped up and clawed at the Bakemon, missing completely each time.
"This isn't working!" Sora huffed, yanking out her Digivice. "C'mon, Joe!"
"R-right!" Joe muttered, clutching his Digivice in trembling fingers. "Gomamon!"
"Lay off, flour bags! Gomamon Digivolve to…" Gomamon began, but then he cried out, stumbled and fell. "Ow ow ow… S-sorry, Joe… Ogremon's fists are still with me…" he groaned.
"Let me handle it! Biyomon Digivolve to…" Biyomon tried, but her gurgling stomach immediately grounded her. "Oogh… Now I really wish you'd caught something…" she mumbled.
The ghosts cackled nastily and descended on the Digidestined in a giant pile. "Stop it! Get off!" Sora yelled as six Bakemon pinned her.
"Please, no!" Joe pleaded. "I'm allergic to pain!"
Joe's vision went in a flurry of white and he lost control of his limbs. When his bearings returned, he lay on the church's altar bound in heavy rotting cord. The Bakemon floated around the table in their circular dance, chanting their eerie language in much more menacing and… hungrier voices. Gomamon and Biyomon were nowhere to be seen.
Sora lay next to him in the same kinds of bonds. She squirmed and grunted against the ropes, but despite being old and grimy they didn't give at all. "Oh, geez…" she wheezed, collapsing against the table, "for guys with no arms, they tie a mean knot… Any luck, Joe?"
Joe yanked and flailed for a few moments, then sagged. "No…" he muttered. He glanced at her, and seeing fear in the usually strong girl's face only made him panic even more. "B-but I'm OK!" he insisted in a desperate voice. "I'm the leader! I'll think of a way out of this!"
Sora watched him furrow his brow, crane his head and look all around the room, and gnash his teeth. For a moment she thought maybe he was coming up with a good plan… but a few seconds later he gave a low moan and started sobbing. "Th-this isn't fair!" he bellowed. "I'm supposed to get into med school!"
She groaned and shook her head. It was official: making Joe the leader had been a bad idea.
Two ghosts floated in over the dancers, carrying oversized salt and pepper shakers, and then they began to sprinkle the spices on the kids. In another scenario those containers would have been funny, but at the moment they froze Sora's blood. "H-hey, you're not REALLY gonna eat us, are you?" she asked the one dumping salt on her.
"Of course not," the Bakemon replied, "we're just doing the prep work. Lord Bakemon is gonna eat you."
"Oh… great," Sora mumbled.
The pepper-toting ghost grumbled as Joe kept bawling, now sneezing and gagging between wails thanks to the seasonings. "Knock that off!" it snapped. "Nothing's less appetizing than soggy flesh!"
"He's gettin' snotty because you're adding too much pepper!" the salt Bakemon complained.
"Yeah, what about you?" the pepper Bakemon huffed. "Too much salt is bad for the body!"
"Do I look like I care?" the salt Bakemon returned, tugging at its ghostly sheet.
As the ghosts bickered back and forth, Sora bit her lip. Where were Biyomon and Gomamon? Had the ghosts already taken care of them?...
"You jerks!" Gomamon huffed, swatting his paw against the rusted metal bars of the prison cell. He had come to trapped in a tiny, dingy basement jail with Biyomon, a lone Bakemon keeping its angry eyes on them. They could hear strange chanting going on above them and knew something awful was happening to their partners, but neither had the strength to break out; they could only shout at the guard.
"That Devimon put you guys up to this, didn't he?" Biyomon asked. "You're disgusting! The other Digimon had to get Black Gears stuck in them, but he just had to offer you guys a free meal!"
"Quiet!" the Bakemon snapped. "Once Lord Bakemon has eaten the humans, you two are his dessert!" The ghost floated over to a wooden box in the corner and pulled out a bunch of purple bananas, then started eating noisily.
Gomamon scratched at the floor. "Oh, this is bad, so bad…" he fretted. "Joe's probably wet himself by now… Ugh, this is all my fault; why did I talk Sora into letting him be the leader?! If she was in charge, we—"
"Don't think like that, Gomamon," Biyomon said, shaking her head. "I bet this was Devimon's plan when we got split up. Besides, Sora wanted to explore the island, too; we probably would have ended up here anyway."
Her words didn't make Gomamon any happier, but they did stir him to action. "We've gotta get out of here," he said in a lower tone so as not to attract the Bakemon's attention.
"How? Those bars are rusty, but solid…" Biyomon whispered, then glanced in the eating guard's direction. "Think we can trick him?"
The Bakemon was gnawing disgustingly on his lunch, with little flecks of food spattering all over his face. Gomamon's face resumed its sly grin. "I think it's a given," he muttered. "Just play along…"
He shuffled back up to the bars and clanged on them loudly. The Bakemon dropped his lunch in surprise and turned angry eyes on him. "Knock it off!" he huffed.
"When're you gonna start taunting us?" Gomamon asked. "Soon?"
The Bakemon just stared at him vacantly. Biyomon caught on and rattled the bars. "Seriously?" she asked. "You call yourself a bad Digimon, but you won't taunt us?"
"Of course I do!" the Bakemon huffed angrily, then almost looked embarrassed. "But, well, I've never had prisoners before; usually we eat everyone right away. I don't know how…"
"Oh, it's easy; even good Digimon can do it!" Biyomon said, waving a wing. "You just figure out what we want, and then don't let us have it!"
"Huh… That's all?" the Bakemon asked.
"Yeah," Gomamon said. "For example, we're reeeeeally hungry over here… and you've got food. Get the hint yet, you pasty balloon?"
"OK, OK!" the Bakemon grunted, baring his teeth. "You don't have to be jerks about it! Sheesh…"
He floated back to what was left of his bananas and waved them at the Digimon. "Ha! You like that?" he sneered. "Don't they look so-o-o good?!"
"Yeah, that's a good start," Biyomon said, then put a wing on her head and sank to her knees, "oh, but I'm so weak from the hunger, I can't hear you very well…"
"Oh, yeah?" the Bakemon grunted, then floated closer, took one banana off the bunch and held it up. "Well, get an ear of this!" He plunged it into his mouth and chewed noisily.
"That's better," Gomamon agreed, "but I'm so hungry, I can't even see what you're eating… What is it? Some kind of corn dog? I want to see…"
"For Pete's sake!" the Bakemon huffed, drifting right up to the bars. "Lord Bakemon can't eat you guys fast enough for—"
Gomamon and Biyomon grabbed his arms and slammed his face against the bars half a dozen times, and the ghost fluttered to the floor as lively as a pillowcase. "Jackpot!" Gomamon exclaimed, pulling the bananas inside the cell. Both Digimon wolfed them down without hesitation, peels and all.
"That was pretty cool," Biyomon remarked. "You're pretty sneaky, Gomamon!"
Gomamon beamed, but then he remembered the danger. "Praise me later," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "We've gotta Digivolve!"
The Bakemon's chanting became louder and more unified, and the ghosts began to float around the altar like a horrific merry-go-round; the kids realized the eerie song was almost sung. "Please, don't! My soul's no good!" Joe pleaded, kicking at the air. "It wouldn't fill anybody up!"
"Oh, so they SHOULD eat me too?!" Sora snapped at him. "Thanks a lot, 'boss!'"
Joe looked at her, then sagged in defeat. "I'm sorry, Sora…" he muttered chokingly. "I was a lousy leader."
Sora looked at his wet cheeks and clenched teeth and felt terrible for yelling. "N-no, it's not your fault," she sighed. "We all just wanted you to have more confidence."
"What?!" he asked, looking at her with shock.
"Our timing was the lousy thing," Sora said, shaking her head. "We shouldn't have forced it on you here… Sorry, Joe."
The apology just made Joe feel worse. He thought his taking charge had been a necessity, but the Digimon and she had been trying to help him be brave, and had put their trust in his incapable hands… and this was the result. He lay back against the table and whimpered; why did Sora have to be so nice? And why did Gomamon think he could do anything?!
They suddenly were aware of the silence in the room. The Bakemon's chant had ended, and all of the spirits' eyes were on them. The one at the head of the ring raised its cloth-covered arm. "It is time!" it announced.
Joe and Sora held their breath as the ghosts floated closer and closer to each other until they mashed together like an evil cloud… and then there was a single gigantic Bakemon with two long, spindly claws jutting from its robes and a jagged scar across its left eyehole. With a wailing roar, Lord Bakemon had appeared for his offering. Both kids shut their eyes and screamed as loud as they could.
Suddenly, the floor beneath the altar heaved upwards. Ikkakumon's horn burst through the table, and then Birdramon's wings sent wood and stone every which way and the kids sprawling across the floor, the stinking ropes seared off by her flames. "Goin' up!" the big walrus rumbled. Lord Bakemon snarled at the newcomers, clenching his claws angrily.
"Go, quickly!" Birdramon roared. "We'll handle this!"
"Yeowch!..." Joe hissed as he picked himself up. "Splinters in every limb!..."
"Better than getting eaten," Sora huffed, grabbing his arm and running for the door.
Joe and Sora took refuge in the third row of tombstones just as Lord Bakemon hurled their partners out of the church, smashing the front wall and upturning several graves in the first row. Birdramon shot into the air as fast as she could. "The children are off the menu!" she squawked, flapping up a hail of fireballs, but Lord Bakemon faded away and the attack only set the church ablaze. Lord Bakemon reappeared cackling.
"OK, then try this!" Ikkakumon roared, firing his Harpoon Torpedo. Lord Bakemon intercepted the missile and threw it over his shoulder like an empty soda can, blowing the flaming church to smithereens.
Sora and Joe covered themselves as scraps of wood rained down. "Sheesh, who knew ghosts were so strong?!" Sora yelped.
Joe gripped the tombstone hard, his mind racing at the word 'ghost.' He was a man of science and didn't believe in the supernatural—at least, that's what he would have said before being sucked into this strange world—but he suddenly remembered something his superstitious grandmother from the country had said on one of his visits. He couldn't remember the context, and he had disregarded it at the time, but she had said that evil spirits were weakened by certain holy chants… What were they called? "Mantras!" he blurted all of a sudden.
Sora looked at him, as confused as she was alarmed. "Say what now?" she asked.
"Well, I think that's what they're called," Joe said quickly. "If we chant one, we can weaken Lord Bakemon!"
"Are you nuts?!" she huffed. "What are a few words gonna do?!"
"Hey, it's all I've got!" Joe snapped back. "Have you got a better idea?!"
Sora watched Birdramon fling another Meteor Wing, but Lord Bakemon just disappeared again, then reappeared and sliced at her. "Well, they sure need help…" she admitted, "but do you know any mantras? I don't!"
Joe winced and thought hard. His grandmother had taught him one, but it was meant for luck on exams, not fighting ghosts… Still, it was all he had. "I might be a bad leader," he said as he got up, "but I won't let you guys get eaten without trying my best!"
Sora bit her lip, then nodded. "Good luck!" she said.
Joe took a few shaky steps toward the fighting monsters, then closed his eyes, clasped his hands and started to chant: "Rukideku yorukide ga Tosute, Rukideku yogishi Fuara, Bikoroyo Oonten Makuyahi…" Sora didn't recognize the words. Maybe she had heard a smattering of them during a religious service, but for the most part she had no idea what was coming out of his mouth.
It didn't look like the Digimon knew, either. "Joe, what's that all about?" Ikkakumon asked.
"He didn't finally snap, did he?" Birdramon asked worriedly.
Lord Bakemon cackled nastily, grabbed Ikkakumon and smashed him into the ground, then floated towards the kids. "Joe, it's not working!" Sora complained.
Joe's eyes popped open in alarm; he had forgotten something. "Crap! We need a drum!" he realized. "Some kind of rhythm!"
Sora angrily banged her hand against her helmet. "What?! Where are we gonna find…?!" she trailed off, then her eyes lit up. "Joe! Here!" she cried, pulling off the headgear and tossing it to him.
Joe missed the catch and scrambled after the rolling helmet, then seized a broken piece of wood from the explosion. Though every instinct told him to run like a madman, Joe put the helmet in front of him and sat on his knees as Lord Bakemon approached. He repeated the chant: "Rukideku yorukide ga Tosute, Rukideku yogishi Fuara, Bikoroyo Oonten Makuyahi…" and he tapped a slow, somber rhythm on the blue helmet. This time, there was a reaction; as he recited, Lord Bakemon winced and gurgled angrily, suddenly pulling back. His big white body started to sag and deflate like an old soccer ball, and his claws sagged like branches covered in wet snow. Sora's mouth fell open; it was actually working!
Lord Bakemon wailed miserably and started to flee backwards, but Joe finished his chant and pointed the stick at the ghost. "NOW!" he thundered at the Digimon.
"Uh, right!" Ikkakumon sputtered, then fired another Harpoon Torpedo as Birdramon shrieked and launched more fireballs. This time the missile buried itself in Lord Bakemon's middle and the fireballs found their mark. The ghost king exploded with a wailing scream, filling the air with a snow of burnt cloth.
Joe looked at the fluttering pieces and his mouth pulled into the biggest grin Sora had ever seen. "YES! YES!" he shrieked happily, dancing around the graves and hurling the stick into the air. "IT WORKED!"
Ikkakumon and Birdramon both roared in celebration. "I've gotta remember that chant," Sora exclaimed, picking up her helmet and dusting it off. "What did you say, Joe? 'Unholy demon, be gone' or something?"
Joe chuckled and scratched at his head. "Actually, it was just 'let me get perfect scores on everything' a lot of times. Backwards."
The helmet dropped from her hands. "Seriously?!" she asked. "Man, this place is weird…"
Suddenly the entire island trembled, and the graveyard's hallowed ground split open right between the kids. Joe's triumphant smile snapped off like an icicle in March. "Oh, no!" he shrieked.
"What's next?! Zombies?!" Sora yelped, jamming her helmet back on.
The Digimon raced over in case something horrible crawled out of the gorge, but the quaking subsided as quickly as it had begun, and the night fell silent again. After a few tense moments, both Joe and Sora crept to the edge and peered down. There were no new Bakemon or zombies or any terrible creatures; just an intricate mess of black gears slowing to a halt. "What the…?" Joe asked.
"I knew it!" Birdramon thundered. "Devimon really WAS behind this!"
"So that's how he split the island up…" Ikkakumon growled.
The gears stopped, then they all groaned and shattered into scrap with a horrible clanging crunch. Everyone suddenly had the sensation of slowing down, like a car pulling off a highway, and then the waves they could see on the shores below all shifted violently to the left. A strange sense of peace came over the cemetery, like a rainbow after a thunderstorm. "…Woah…" was all Joe could say.
"…I guess whatever evil was here is gone now," Sora tried to summarize.
Birdramon noticed the remaining fog had lifted, and a familiar shape appeared on the horizon. "Sora! Look!" she announced. "It's the mountain!"
The others turned and looked. Across the cold sea loomed the imposing Infinity Mountain—the place where Devimon had split their group up and sent everyone flying—sitting on the remainder of File Island. "That's almost swimmable!" Ikkakumon announced.
"It was that close all this time?" Sora asked. "Maybe we were just drifting in circles…"
Joe looked around at the empty graveyard, then at his friends. "If Tai and the others went through anything like we did, I think we'll have a better chance of meeting them there," he reasoned.
"Yeah…" Sora said with a nod. "Let's go, Birdramon!"
She climbed on her giant bird and took to the sky. Joe mounted Ikkakumon, and they crashed down the side of the island and into the water. Birdramon flew low and kept pace with them. "Don't worry, Joe, I'm good to go this time!" Ikkakumon promised.
"Good…" Joe sighed.
Sora looked down at Joe and smiled. "Sorry I thought so badly of you, Joe," she apologized. "You did a great job as the leader."
Joe blinked, his cheeks starting to turn red. "I did?" he asked. "Err… but it was mostly luck…"
"No, she's right," Ikkakumon rumbled. "Without that mantra thing, we couldn't have beaten Lord Bakemon. I knew you had some guts in there somewhere!"
Joe thought about it and managed a smile. Scared out of his mind, he had stared down that giant specter and still remembered an entire chant. Maybe he was braver than he thought. "Well… thanks for giving me a chance, guys," he said.
"Of course," Birdramon cackled. "We'll be counting on you for all our future ghost-busting needs!"
Sora and Ikkakumon laughed. Joe groaned and shook his head. What had he just gotten himself into?...