CHAPTER 2 - Piximon's New Training
CHAPTER 2 - Piximon's New Training
It was several hours before they left the forest, and saw a patch of desert ahead of them. Piximon led them right into it, and everyone was soon very hot.
"Here we are" said Piximon, and stopped next to a large cactus.
"Where? I don't see anything" said Cody, looking around, "WHOA!"
From under the ground, a big digimon appeared. This was Kuwagamon, who had caused major trouble for the digidestined seven years ago.
"Digivolve!" yelled Ken, but Piximon stopped everyone,
"No, let's see you use digimagic" he said, Veemon ran forward, grinning. A flame appeared in his hand,
"Flameshtrike!" The fire had a good effect on Kuwagamon, he was yelling in pain, but soon recovered, and aimed for Veemon with his large pincers.
"Leyden Clap!" Elecmon attacked this time, shooting a large bolt of lightning at the red insect. The humans were too shocked to say anything, except Davis, who was cheering Veemon on, his D-3 giving a small pulse of light at every attack,
"Well, it won't hurt if we tried" shrugged Matt, "Give it a go, Gabumon?"
"Sure" nodded Gabumon, he concentrated on ice, all the snow that he had seen in the mountain home he lived in, he got it, Matt's modified digivice was glowing,
"Icy Wind!" Kuwagamon made quavering noises now, and small ice crystals appeared on his body.
"I've got an idea" said Gabumon, and muttered something to Veemon and Elecmon. They nodded.
"Flameshtrike!" Veemon shot another flame at Kuwagamon, the ice on his body melted, and Elecmon took advantage of his dampness,
"Leyden Clap!" Sparks flew in the red insect's body, and he vaporized into data.
"Whooooa!" breathed the humans, in awe at the three digimons' attacks. They were just rookies, and they took down a champion without a scratch, Veemon looked at Gatomon, she was also awestruck.
"Well done!" called Piximon, smiling, he turned to a bare patch of desert,
"I still don't see anything" repeated Cody,
"You will" said Matt, and Piximon waved his staff. A large ring appeared, and it opened into an Oasis, with a large manor at the top of a mountain.
Everyone exhaled in awe, except Gomamon, who looked uneasily at the manor.
"Come in" said Piximon, and entered the ring. Everyone followed, and the ring disappeared behind them. They reached some stairs, and TK and Patamon walked up.
"Do we have to go up there?" asked Davis,
"Of course, how else?" asked Piximon,
"I'll just fly up there, no problems" said Hawkmon, and made to fly, but the moment he was over the steps, he crashed down.
"Sorry, no flying" said Piximon, and they walked up the thousand or so steps to the manor. Once inside, Piximon arranged them in line.
"Okay, this will be hard for all of us, because Digimagic is extremely hard, as Davis, Matt, Elecmon, Gabumon and Veemon have discovered. And only six of you can do it properly... Training will begin!" he announced, making everyone jump suddenly. Piximon was always quite unpredictable. Joe sighed, and made to the mops and buckets.
"Where are you going?" asked Piximon,
"You said, training will begin" said Joe,
"How is mopping the floor going to help you with Digimagic?" asked Piximon. Joe blinked, and rejoined the line.
Piximon clapped, and the room transformed. They were now facing several targets, and a few turrets were erected around the room.
"Demonstration" announced Piximon, and flew up in the air. He fired several spells at the targets, and they were all destroyed. Everyone clapped.
"Veemon, get here" barked Piximon suddenly.
"What?" asked Veemon, confused,
"He's called you up" whispered Davis, and gave Veemon a small push. He stood in the middle of the room,
"Now, to use digimagic, you have to concentrate" said Piximon, "How did you use the fire spell you did before?"
Everyone looked at Davis, who blushed. How did he of all people unlock the digimagic secret without any help?
"Um, I focushed on fire?" asked Veemon,
"That's right" said Piximon, "You have to focus on what spell you want to cast. You used fire attacks as Flamedramon, and you remembered that, and you used fire, that's good"
Everyone was looking at Veemon, who somehow managed to change his blue face red in the nervousness he was feeling.
"This should be good" whispered Gomamon,
"Now, use lightning on this target" said Piximon. Veemon blinked, and remembered what it was like being Raindramon. He remembered standing on four legs, and the lightning bolt blade on his forehead. He opened his eyes,
"Shtatic Bolt!" Veemon made a lightning bolt strike the target. Everyone gave a low, slow "Whoa!"
"That's the way" said Piximon, "Let's see, Gatomon, your turn"
Gatomon stood up and walked to the centre of the room.
"Now, who did you digivolve to... it was Nefertimon, wasn't it?"
Gatomon nodded,
"And that was a holy element digimon wasn't it?" asked Piximon,
"So?" asked Gatomon,
"So, you have to use Holy digimagic" continued Piximon, "Remember, focus"
Gatomon shut her eyes, and remembered being Nefertimon, the golden wig, the wings. She opened her eyes and a flash of blinding light filled the room.
"Light Column!" After a second, white orbs were seen orbiting around the target, then they all hit it, and the target was destroyed. Gatomon knelt down, panting. It seemed her attempt at digimagic took a lot more out of her.
"Well done!" shouted Piximon, "That's the way! Gomamon, your turn!"
It was quite a successful session. Gomamon had managed to break a target with a water attack, Gabumon froze his, and it shattered to pieces. Biyomon blew her target around with a wind spell, and Elecmon made a lightning bolt strike his target. Piximon was very satisfied, and gave everyone a large feast, and they all went to bed, except Elecmon, Patamon, Veemon and Sora.
"How did you do that without a digivice?" asked Sora again,
"I don't need a digivice" answered Elecmon, "All I do is focus on lightning, and it happens"
"Do you think any digimagic can be used without a digivice?" asked Patamon,
"Probably, but they help a lot in training" said Elecmon, "It took me a fair while before I got it right, but you lot got it on the first try"
"Exactly how long?" asked Patamon,
"Kilhamon was around for one year, and he was biding his time" said Elecmon, "I was one of the first cursed" he broke off, sighing, "Gennai fired me because I didn't defend the village properly" A tear rolled down his face, Veemon gripped his shoulder,
"So, for once, our digimon are powerful without our help" sighed Sora, changing the subject, "I hope we don't get separated"
"I don't think Biyomon will leave that eashily" said Veemon, "And I won't go in a hurry either, ush digimon need you humansh, shince you alwaysh come up with the plansh"
"What?" asked Sora. Veemon's lisp was very confusing, so Elecmon repeated his statement.
Sora seemed satisfied, and went to bed.
"I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out yesterday" said Patamon,
"It wash nothing" answered Veemon, scratching the back of his head,
"It didn't look like nothing" pointed out Patamon, "You were almost destroyed"
"Well... it's in the past now, and as long as we're all here" shrugged Elecmon. Patamon went to bed too.
"Don't you feel a bit left out that you don't have a partner?" asked Veemon,
"No" said Elecmon simply, "It does help having a human friend, but I prefer to fight my own battles"
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know, how you digidestined were fighting before?" said Elecmon "All the humans would do is bark orders out when you digimon did the actual fighting, plus they took most of the credit"
Veemon sighed. This was a cruel but accurate description of how they did fight before. First, he would digivolve, then fight, then Davis shouted out things to do at him, and when he won, he hardly ever received any thanks, but Davis would indeed take the credit. He looked over at his partner, Davis's snoring, combined with Gabumon's, was shaking the whole room,
"What'sh it like? Being able to follow your own goalsh than following shumone elshes?" he asked,
"There's two ways of putting it. It's great following your own dreams, but it's a lot harder work"
Elecmon had a habit of giving full answers, and soon Veemon fell asleep where he sat while Elecmon was going through the history of Primary Village when Veemon just asked him how he was.
"Wake up!" yelled Piximon in the morning. Everyone shot out of bed,
"What's the matter?" asked Elecmon,
"Kilhamon's attacking" answered Piximon, "Hurry!"
Everyone ran down to the manor entrance, and saw the familiar face of Kilhamon. TK, Ken, Cody and Yolei had played it safe and digivolved their digimon beforehand. Shakkaumon, Stingmon and Aquilamon stood ready, alongside their rookie allies.
Kilhamon advanced, levitating off the ground. Aquilamon attacked, but missed. Kilhamon was too fast. He cast a spell on Aquilamon, and he fell over the forest, out of view. Stingmon attacked, and it was more successful, but Kilhamon healed himself and blasted Stingmon out of the sky, leaving only Shakkaumon standing. Shakkaumon was an Ultimate digimon, and was much more of a challenge. He absorbed Kilhamon's attacks, and fired a few of his own, but Kilhamon deflected them. Finally, Kilhamon absorbed energy to his staff, and pointed it at Shakkaumon. He fired the energy and it shot right through Shakkaumon, giving him no chance to absorb it. He was badly damaged, and de-digivolved back to Patamon and Armadillomon. Kilhamon cast his deadly curse one more time, and aimed at Patamon. Armadillomon jumped in its way, and he was cursed now. Cody's digivice deactivated.
"Right, now it'sh our turn!" yelled Veemon. The six cursed digimon formed a line, and shot their digimagic at Kilhamon,
"Flameshtrike!"
"Icy Wind!"
"Light Column!"
"Rain Gate!"
"Gust Whirl!"
"Static Bolt!"
It was very effective. Kilhamon set up a barrier, and deflected the second wave of spells.
Kilhamon looked at the humans, their digivices out, supporting their partners. Kilhamon thought, and decided they had to go.
"Dimensional Gate!" He created a silver barrier around them, and transported them and their abled digimon back to the real world leaving the cursed digimon only.
"Who to kill?" he asked. He pointed his staff at Gatomon,
"Kilha Blast!" He shot a gold beam at her. Gatomon braced, and shut her eyes, but the beam never hit. She opened her eyes, and saw the back of Veemon. He had blocked the attack, but was making tragic noises and breathing faintly. He collapsed.
"That's it!" yelled Gabumon. Gatomon was so shocked; she didn't hear Gabumon's fierce roars as he attacked. Kilhamon disappeared.
Gatomon looked at Veemon, who was on his back. He didn't respond when she shook him gently. Tears fell out of Gatomon's eyes.
"First Wizardmon, now you" she gulped. Her tail ring glowed. She shut her eyes and concentrated and white haloes appeared around Veemon.
"This time, I won't let you go" she whispered, "Asura!". The wound disappeared, and Veemon's ruby eyes fell open.
"What happened?" he asked,
"You okay?" asked Gabumon, who ran up to them. Gatomon was still shocked.
Soon everyone was around the scene.
"Where are the humans?" asked Elecmon,
"They're back in the real world" answered Gomamon, "We're all alone"
"Kilhamon's shut the gate" said Armadillomon, "We're separated"
"What do we do?" asked Biyomon, "Are the other digimon still here?"
"No, Kilhamon banished them too" said Gabumon.
"So it's just the seven of us?" asked Gatomon, "Alone against Kilhamon?"
"I'm afraid it is" said Piximon, who joined them, "All you can do is resume your training, and let's hope that you become more powerful than Kilhamon"
Piximon left up the stairs. Armadillomon sighed.
"What will we do?" he asked,
"Welcome to SOCD" said Gabumon,
"Hey, SOCD sucks" said Biyomon, "How about we change the name again? I prefer Digimages to S-O-C-D"
"Yeah, that's better" agreed Armadillomon, "Digimages it is"
"What happened?" asked Davis. He, TK, Cody, Ken, Yolei, Kari, Matt, Joe, Sora, Patamon, Poromon and Leafmon were in the computer lab. "Where's the others?"
"It's no good, I can't get the gate open" said Izzy, looking at the computer screen, "It looks like our digimon are in charge now, good luck guys"
The digimages were training hard for the next few days. Veemon, as Gennai had said, seemed to be the most successful digimage, while Armadillomon still had trouble using one spell. Most unfortunately, Gatomon was too busy showing sympathy to Dillomon than to admire Veemon.
"Don't panic, you haven't had as much practice as the others" said Piximon kindly, to Armadillomon, after repeated failures, "I'm sure you'll get at least one spell right by tomorrow"
"What am I doing wrong?" asked Armadillomon.
"I think you're a defensive one" said Piximon, "You use defensive digimagic, and I think that's the problem"
Armadillomon stood in the centre of the room. The turrets around him activated.
"Okay, you're going to take some fire" said Piximon, "Try to use Ankylomon's defense"
One turret shot at Armadillomon. The ammo wasn't very strong, but it still made a nasty sound against his shell.
"Try again" said Piximon, and the turret fired again.
"Steel Curtain!"
A small barrier formed in front of Armadillomon, and the bullet bounced off. Everyone cheered.
Piximon gave them dinner, and announced something.
"I'm afraid I can't let you stay here any longer" he said formally, "I'm getting the place fumigated"
"About time too" muttered Veemon, scratching a nasty bite on his stomach,
"You're going to have to leave tomorrow, and I hope your training helps you well. And give Kilhamon a good kick from me"
The digimages had a short sleep before being evicted in the morning. The moment they set foot in the desert, they were immediately attacked by a lot of champion digimon. They retreated back into Piximon's oasis.
"A siege" exclaimed Gomamon. There were Tyrannomon, Tuskmon and Kuwagamon patrolling the area. Kilhamon was levitating in the middle, aiming at the gate.
"I'll distract them, you all escape" whispered Biyomon. She flew out of the Oasis, and shouted insults to Kilhamon.
"Hey, big nose!" she yelled. Kilhamon shot a spell at her, but it missed.
"You couldn't catch clap in a brothel!" yelled Biyomon. Kilhamon was soon very furious, and was chasing Biyomon around the desert, commanding the champion digimon to attack also.
"Let'sh go" whispered Veemon, and they carefully ran through the desert back into the Primary Forest. Biyomon joined them five minutes later.
"That should keep them busy for a while" she giggled. Behind her, all the digimon were attacking each other, and Kilhamon was trying to control them. He gave up after a while, and hovered their way, looking mad.
"This could get ugly" said Gabumon, "Everyone ready?"
They nodded, and prepared for Kilhamon.
The Digimages attacked, showering Kilhamon with a variety of spells.
"Flameshtrike!" Veemon had used fire,
"Mental Break!" Gatomon had used a special spell that can reduce the power of Digimagic,
"Water Spout!" Gomamon had summoned a tornado of water,
"Aero Gale!" Biyomon had used a tornado of air,
"Magic Hailstorm!" Gabumon had fired ice crystals,
"Electric Cloud!" Elecmon summoned a large dark cloud, and Armadillomon stood ready for when Kilhamon retaliated. Kilhamon survived the wave of spells, and most unfortunately, turned the spells around. Gabumon was attacked with fire, Gatomon had ice crystals showering upon her, and Gomamon was caught in a tornado, while Biyomon was being tossed around with the water spinner. Elecmon had suffered the digimagic reducing spell, and the dark cloud disappeared. Kilhamon shot another gold beam at Veemon, like the one he had used on Gatomon before, but the beam never hit.
"Moon Curtain!" Armadillomon had used a barrier to deflect the attack.
"Thanksh" panted Veemon, and got ready. He focused on being Exveemon this time, the ten foot monster that was his champion form. He remembered his attack, and he felt even more powerful than usual. The V rune on his forehead lit up, and began to absorb surrounding energy.
"Vee Lasher!"
A V shaped beam shot out of Veemon's hand, and hit Kilhamon in his stomach, winding him. Kilhamon teleported away and Veemon panted heavily. Gatomon went about healing everyone, and put her hand on Veemon's shoulder.
"Hey" she said gently, "You were great"
"I've been thinking" said Elecmon, "We need a leader for the, ahem, Digimages don't we?"
"Of course we do" agreed Gomamon, "But who?"
"I propose that Veemon is" said Gabumon. Everyone agreed,
"Why me?" asked Veemon,
"Why not?" asked Gatomon, "You know what to do for us, plus you made Kilhamon wet himself"
The digimages walked through the forest, and found themselves in a large but empty meadow.
"We can see things a mile off here" said Biyomon, standing on a hillock, "Anyone got food?"
"Err, no" confessed Armadillomon, not needing to point out that none of them had bags to store any food, "But I could go find some"
"I'll go too" said Gatomon, and looked around the meadow. Biyomon flew around, looking for trouble.
"Hey, Meemon, got yourself a girlfriend" said Gomamon cheekily, giving Veemon a sneer,
"No I don't" snapped Veemon, glaring stonily at the white and purple seal, "Buzsh off"
"Come on, have a laugh" said Gomamon, but he walked off all the same, and decided to pick on Gabumon's messy silver hair.
Veemon turned to Elecmon,
"You ever had a crush on someone?" he asked,
"Yeah" said Elecmon, watching Biyomon,
Veemon looked where Elecmon was staring, and looked slowly back, not believing it,
"You're joking"
"We can all dream" laughed Elecmon, "Anyway, what do you want to know?"
"Never mind" said Veemon quickly. He was put off, but Elecmon shook his head,
"It's Gatomon isn't it?" he asked. Veemon nodded, thinking it pointless to deny it. Elecmon sighed,
"I don't think you'll have too much trouble trying to get her affection anymore" he said, in the air of a father giving his son advice, "What you did in Piximon's place was really impressive. She's in your debt now, you saved her life, and when a fella saves a girl's life, it almost always works out"
Elecmon was watching Biyomon again. Veemon rolled his eyes and walked off, looking for food.
The meadow was more lucrative than first expected. Edible berries grew every few feet (Dillomon took a taste and said they were okay, Gatomon said he was a mindless bint with his brain in his stomach) and they soon sat down for a nice lunch, discussing their new power.
"This digimagic stuff's pretty cool" said Gomamon, munching on some mashed berries, "It's getting stronger, the more we practice"
"Yeah, I know" agreed Armadillomon, scoffing more berries than anyone else, "Soon, we'll be able to take out a mega in one blow"
"Don't be too rash" said Veemon, not eating much, he wasn't hungry,
"Why not?" asked Elecmon, also not eating, he didn't like the berries much, "You've only been a digimage for five days, and you can now use a champion level attack. Why is that by the way?"
"Why's what?" asked Biyomon, eating the berry seeds that the others discarded,
"Vee laser is a champion level technique, for example" explained Elecmon, everyone stared, Elecmon's train of thought seemed to derail a lot, "But what is the level of the other spells? Like Flamestrike and Leyden Clap?"
"Good question" thought Gatomon aloud, "I'd say they'd be between rookie and champion... what I still can't find is why you three took out a champion using the spells?"
"Three against one I guess" shrugged Gabumon, carefully picking the seeds of his berries out, "Kuwagamon isn't so tough, when the humans first came to the digital world, he lost to us seven rookies, without digimagic"
"But he won the second time" pointed out Biyomon,
"That was just against Agumon" pointed out Gabumon, eating a handful of seedless berries, "We didn't fight, remember? That was probably why Piximon was so nasty to us that time... anyway, in no time, we should move onto Ultimate level techniques..."
"But we're only rookie and champion level digimon" pointed out Armadillomon, "We can't just pick fights with whomever, we need defensive power too"
"We do" pointed out Veemon, everyone looked, "This digimagic stuff. As digimages, we slowly and steadily become stronger, in offence, defense, speed, power, all that. It's not quick and sudden like in digivolving. It's like Role-Play Games. Like... leveling up"
"Leveling up..." repeated Elecmon, confused,
"Yeah" nodded Gabumon, who also played role-play games, "I get it. The power of our digimagic makes us go to higher levels, and we're slowly becoming strong, maybe even better than megas. We level up in experience... I get it now"
They paused, Gomamon gaining some laughs by mimicking Elecmon behind his back,
"How did you grow your hair so fast?" asked Biyomon. Gabumon looked uneasy again.
"We won't laugh" said Veemon, giving Gomamon a stern look.
"I spent a while in the mountains" answered Gabumon, his hair blowing majestically in the breeze, making everyone impressed at the wolf digimon, "I just needed a break for a while, and it helped me get stronger"
"Three years in the mountains?" repeated Gatomon, "How did you pass time?"
"Surviving" answered Gabumon, "You don't get bored when there are monsters visiting you every day"
"That sounds very exciting" said Gomamon, smirking, "I've only been selling Sandy's sea shells by the sea shore"
Biyomon and Armadillomon smirked.
"Shut up" snapped Veemon, knowing that insult was directed at him, "Sho what if I've got shpeech problemsh?"
"So you won't swim synchronized up the Mississippi?" asked Gomamon. Biyomon and Dillomon completely cracked up, even Elecmon coughed to hide his laugh.
Veemon got up and left, cursing.
"That was cruel" scolded Gatomon, "What's he ever done to you?"
"Okay, okay, I won't do it again" said Gomamon. Gatomon turned back to Gabumon, and they had a chat about their adventures. Elecmon smiled, so things were looking bright for Veemon now. Gatomon had defended him, when she would normally add a few insults.
Veemon didn't return all afternoon. He was sitting next to a stream, looking at it coldly, and muttering under his breath, "Shandy Shold Shee Shells by the Shee Shore" and "Shwim shyncronished up the mishishippi", trying to get it right, but then the practice changed to "Shtupid, shmart-arsh sheal" when Gomamon's words entered his mind. He hated people teasing him about his speech impediment, and now he couldn't digivolve to change that. He was stuck in his short, pathetic, lisping form. Veemon began to feel very miserable as the sun set, so he got up and walked back toward where the others were. Nobody was there, just a lot of berry stalks and seeds.
'They leave me behind, fine' he thought, 'I can look after myself', but he wasn't fooling anyone. He wandered all over the meadow, looking for the others, but none appeared. He was about to give up when something caught his eye over the horizon. Glowing orange balls were flying in the air and all coming from one spot. Veemon ran all the way to where the fireballs were coming from, and thankfully found someone who wouldn't ask him "Been skiing and sledding in the snow?"
Agumon was breathing fireballs in the dark, apparently bored. He was an orange lizard with large head, emerald green eyes, and had long sharp claws on his hands and feet.
"Oh, hi" he greeted when Veemon approached, "You haven't seen Tai around anywhere?"
Tai was Agumon's human partner. He was around Matt's age and height, and also had extremely spiky hair that reminded one of a bird's nest.
"No... have you heard of Kilhamon?" asked Veemon
"Yeah, so?" asked Agumon,
"You won't shee Tai for a while becaushe Kilhamon'sh shut the gate to the real world, and we're shtuck here without any humansh"
"So, you're stuck here without being able to digivolve?" asked Agumon,
"Yeah, and I couldn't if I tried. Kilhamon'sh shtopped ush all from digivolving"
"That's... bad" said Agumon, not able to find a better word in his shock, "Who's gonna stop him now?"
"Well, there ish one way" said Veemon, and explained to Agumon about Digimagic,
"You can only ushe it if you've been curshed"
"Wow" said Agumon, "So Kilhamon's just a rookie, and he defeated Shakkaumon?"
"And Metalgarurumon" added Veemon, somberly, making Agumon's jaw drop,
"No way! Metalgarurumon can't lose to a rookie" he spluttered,
"Well, he did" shrugged Veemon, "Ashk Gabumon if you can't believe me"
Agumon sighed, "I wish I could warp-digivolve without a digivice"
"That would be usheful" sighed Veemon,
"So where are the others?" asked Agumon, "You said 'us' didn't you?"
"We got shplit up" explained Veemon, glad that Agumon didn't tease his speech.
"We'll look for them tomorrow" said Agumon, and looked to the nest of twigs he set up. He shot a fireball at it, and a large fire came into existence.
"The ground's a bit stiff, but this is all that's here" explained Agumon. He slept on one side of the fire, but Veemon stayed up on the other side, whispering "Shandy shold shee shells" under his breath. He finally nodded off around midnight.
Will Veemon meet back up with the team? If so, will he be able to say "Sam's Sallet (or similar)" without sounding like a kid? Also, what will happen with Agumon joining their quest? Find out in Chapter 3