CHAPTER FOUR
Her Black Bubble
It was day two at the Kingdom of Siah asDavis had taken a break from his tiring role of massacring pirates and stopped into a little town.
"Hm, I'd better buy some parts for SuperDavis..." he said to himself while heading towards the town's local shop.
Outside, Kari was walking peacefully through the charming town and noticed something strange, metal, that could be seen from the top's of the tree's just beyond the town. "Looks like some kind of trouble" she said.
Just then, Davis walked out of the shop grumbling; "What's his problem!? Pushy old dude!" he then directed his attention to Kari, who was merely a pretty girl to him, a pretty girl who was about to get attacked.
"Hey lady!" he yelled "That dudes gonna" before Davis could finished, a black ninja came up behind her and put a katana to her throat. "NOBODY MOVES AND THE PRINCESS LIVES!" he yelled frantically.
"Whoa.." Davis backed up and watched a King come out of the huge castle in front of him. Why wasn't anybody doing anything? After a two-minute deliberation on the matter, Davis figured he was the hero and henceforth, he shall have to save the princess! Davis grabbed a sword out of it's holster on one of the guards that came out with the King and calmly chucked it into the black ninja's head.
"Oh dude..." Davis backed up even more and watched the guy fall onto the ground bleeding and disappearing into nothing. "That's nasty!" He shook at the violent sight and dropped the sword.
To Davis' shock and dismay, all of the townspeople went back to their daily routines, ignoring the brutal slaying that had just occurred, while Kari and the King were staring in awe at him. "Young man" said the king while walking up to Davis. "What is your name?"
"Um" Davis took out his I.D "I'm Marth, I'm from.." Davis glanced back down at his I.D "Here, actually!"
"It's doesn't matter!" the king interrupted "You've just saved my daughter!" he handed Davis 300 gold and began to walk over to Kari.
"Uh... heh heh." Davis squinted and put his hands behind his head. "No problem!"
The town became normal once more, but Kari was still standing there, baffled as ever. "Marth" she said.
"Yeah?"
She ran to him and gave him a hug. "My hero!"
Davis blushed and hugged her back "Um, thanks!"
She got off "Sorry" she giggled "Just playing my part."
Davis nodded pretending to understand. "Okay... anyway, in return I only ask that you point out a shop where the shop keep doesn't totally freak out on me!"
Kari laughed and followed him to his impressive Mech. "That's amazing" she said looking up at it.
"Yeah, that's what I think, too!"
"Do you use it to travel?" she asked.
"You guess it!" He grinned, "That's how I got here."
"What do you travel for?"
"I destroy pirates, I usually just steal their money." Davis monitored Kari's reaction as she quickly backed up from him at hearing this. Davis laughed "Oh, don't worry. I only destroy the bad guys!"
"Oh" She leaned up against the Mech and watched Davis attempting to build a mini-castle out of the dirt he'd been spitting on. "Hey, I was wondering" she said "Where do you travel to?"
"Oh just anywhere." he replied, not looking up from his dirt-castle.
"Do you think you could, I dunno... Take me a few places?" she asked shyly.
Davis took his eyes off the dirt and checked up and down the girl that stood before him. With a trampy outfit like that and still having a kind, sweet personality, and the fact that she was a princess-"How can I say no?" Davis said allowed, "I mean, sure!"
"Thank you!!!" she yelled.
Davis helped Kari into his Mech, desperately trying not to look down her blouse as he pulled her up into the cockpit. He showed her his witty labeled controls and they started moving. It had been hours since they started moving, Davis had told her about the instruction book he "Read" and "Memorized" , and continued to tell her about Pirate stories. "So then I slashed at their ship, and it was like; WHAM! And it exploded and then I was like; YEAH! And so then I jumped out of my Mech heroically and stole all of their belongings!" he laughed.
Soon after he finished his story, not long enough for Kari to give him an odd stare, did they hear clanking and a small explosion. "Hey, SD stopped moving.." Davis mused.
"Do you find it hot in here?"
Davis moved in a little closer. "Well baby, I... actually I do!" The two got out of the Mech and saw that it was steaming. "Oh great, two days as a pilot and I already broke it!"
"Two days?" Kari scolded. "What about all those pirate stories?"
"Hey, I can get a lot done in two days!"
"Well" She threw her hands into the air "What do we do now?"
Davis pulled out the novel instruction manual and flipped it to page one. "Page one.."
It was day two. Inside of Tanek's Keep there held a very inquisitive Mimi.
"Is Sora okay?" Mimi asked with a worried expression as Tanek walked casually into the room following his brief private conversation with Sora. "Can we make her normal again?"
"It will be difficult, Kanzas." He replied with a solemn glance to the floor. "She is already under the impression that I am some kind of villain despite my best efforts to convince her of the truth. She believes I have kidnapped her, as her character is some kind of princess. She simply disregards any mention of her friends or her true destiny as a warrior of light as gibberish. She truly believes herself to be a character from this world."
"Oh no..." Mimi sobbed as she sunk to her knees shedding tear after tear for her friend. Surely she would remember Mimi if she had a chance to talk to her! It had to be worth a shot, right?
"I want to talk to her." Mimi requested with a suddenly determined glare.
There was no way Sora could really forget her. No brainwashing or evil could cloud true friendship, and Sora's love for her friends was unrivaled by anyone, even that really clingy Ken kid! The crest of Love was hers, after all.
"No, I cannot allow that." Tanek said sternly. "Even if she does remember you mentally, a program would kick in upon seeing a warrior of light that would force her body to fight you to the death. Please, just trust me to deprogram her over time." He persuaded, hoping to curb this dangerous line of thought that Mimi had been following. "She did not attack you earlier because it was only thirty minutes ago that Zander uploaded the program, so I'm afraid my original plan to have you break the spell on the warriors of light must be cast aside."
A black wind called by Mimi's outrage at the situation began kicking up her cloak and running through her hair. This wasn't fair at all! Whoever this Zander jerk was, he was incredibly cruel.
"Fine..." She submitted as the wind died down. She wasn't about to put Sora's life or mental stability in any more danger than they already was.
"Good girl." Tanek said with a sense of finality.
"Now then, on to happier news." He chuckled with a sympathetic smile. "I have found another one of your friends, Kanzas. T.K, I believe his name is. He is a weaver of the light in this world. A white mage, we call them. However, he has fallen in with a band of pirates and become one of them." he explained with mock excitement lacing his every word.
"I want you to take the ship I had constructed for you in Ruelah, the cyborg lands, and capture him. The ship is called The Silver Rose, and it's a technological masterpiece. T.K's pirate friends should pose no threat to it." He assured. "Now then, it's docked at the beach a few miles west. Take the chariot to it. The crew knows where he is and how to run the ship. I only need you there as captain. Come back safe..." He finished worriedly as he gestured to the door and turned to his own chambers. It was all too easy, really.
"Okay!" She said with renewed vigor.
One more friend to save, and one less evil minion under Zander's control. She was absolutely amazed that T.K would allow himself to be under any sort of dark rule. She figured he would sooner... No, she wouldn't think about it. She had too much to do and just enough time to do it. As she turned to leave the dreary castle, she looked about at the frightening gargoyles and tall, dark, twisted spires. The castle was in almost every way where she imagined every evil wizard she'd ever heard of would live.
"Tanek doesn't have very good taste..." Mimi mumbled to nobody in particular. "I wonder if he'll let me redecorate this place later. I wouldn't be surprised if Sora only thought he was evil because of how gloomy everything looks."
She sighed. Looking at herself in a mirror as she passed by one, she chuckled slightly. "Then again, even I look pretty dark in this outfit. Maybe he just wants to scare off people that are out to get him..."
It was day twoin the Kingdom of Zebien and Tai called for Matt from the distance.
Matt looked up from his over priced items he bought at the Item Shop and looked over at Tai. "Hey…you been to a shop yet?"
"Yeah, scary, isn't it?"
"What's his problem?" Matt said laughing, referring to the shop keep. "So anyway, what are you doing here? Finish you bath?"
"Yeah. I came to find you... and some good food!"
Matt rolled his eyes. "It figures."
"I was told that if we go to the castle we could get free food and they're expecting me! So it's like hitting two Birdramon with one stone!"
"Hold up!" Matt stopped in his tracks "I'm not going to the CASTLE with you!"
"Wha? Why not?"
"I'm wanted … for regicide!" Matt pulled out a list from his pocket "And plus, the King of Zebien is next on this list!"
"No problem! We just need to get you some new threads!" Tai grinned as he dragged Matt into the nearest … Tai stopped in his tracks and looked around town. "Hey, have you noticed..?"
"Yeah, there are no clothing shops."
"All they sell are adventure items." Tai sighed and looked around at a town house "And you know what that means...!"
"Tai … I'm not going to break into someone's house just to steal clothes"
"No, no! They won't even care! You can just walk right into their houses."
Matt raised his eyebrows and started walking towards the castle. "I'll just wait outside and look busy"
"Yeah, you look real busy in your stinky ninja clothes..." Tai opened the gate to the castle and winked. "I'll be right back!"
"Yeah you look real busy in your stinky ninja clothes" Matt repeated mockingly as he watched Tai approach the door. "Humph. Maybe if I walk around in circles until Tai comes back out I'll fit in here." He mumbled.
Tai was greeted by the guards at the door and taken into the King's throne room, he knelt down before the king and gave a solute.
"Sir. Isaac, you have come here request of the king of Zebien!" shouted an annoying guard.
"Our princess has been captured, we have had rumor that she was taken to a desert, but that was day's ago. Her current whereabouts are unknown. There is a new Blacksmith, you should look him up, he lives in Halacab just north of this landscape, he's young, but he has already created a sword better than the Masamune, Excalibur, Ultimaweapon, Master Sword, Ragnarock, and countless others. I am sure it will guide you on your journey if you can find it. If you have heard, there is a reward of the princess' hand in marriage. Sir. Isaac, will you find her for us?"
"Yes sir!" Tai shouted immaturely. "Do you have any clues or hints, as of her whereabouts?"
"The east desert. That is all I can tell you"
Tai saluted the king once more before exiting the castle. He found Matt outside walking in the gardens.
"So how did it go?" Matt asked
"Great! We have to go find a Princess who is lost somewhere in the desert, isn't this cool?!"
"Wait, wait, wait…WE?"
"He even gave me some Gold to go and get armor."
Matt and Tai both looked at the shop and then back at each other. "Oh man…"
It was day two in the Kingdom of Ruelah.
"Sir! I bring news of the convict!!" shouted one of Ken's follower-Cyborgs
"Yes?" Ken asked calmly "Did you find him?"
"No, sir."
"Then what's the news?"
The Cyborg shouted; "That…we haven't found him yet!"
"This is stupid! He's wanted, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you guy's can't find him, right?"
"Um, yes, Sir."
"Then" Ken finished polishing his arm "I'll do it myself!!"
"Yes, sir!"
It was day two on the Pirate Ship Chikastutso and T.K was bored and confused. There was really no other way to put it. Patamon had fallen asleep an hour ago, and T.K had taken the time to try reviving every pirate he could find. However, every time he would approach one of them he would simply find a healing potion or a few hundred gold on the ground next to them and they would vanish into thin air.
After twenty minutes of crying in their memory, T.K decided to explore the treasury for anything that might be useful. He might not have been big on video gaming, but he knew the word treasury was a good thing in pretty much any universe.
Although the treasury was indeed filled with all sorts of...well...treasure, T.K noticed he couldn't actually pocket any of it for himself. He was simply incapable of it. He could pick it up and put it into his bag, but it would simply reappear in the treasure pile. Occasionally, though, specific items from the pile would stay in his bag such as a nice looking pair of lady's gloves, a few piles of gold, a necklace, two helmets, three swords, ten potions, a roll up tent, and an entire suit of armor.
For one reason or another, these were all perfectly capable of fitting in his bag. What was more confusing than that to T.K was why he attempted to place them in his bag in the first place, and he eventually decided to leave the treasury because it was officially freaking him out.
So there he sat on the deck, watching the waves roll by and heading south for whatever reason as he occasionally checked on Patamon to make sure he didn't go flying overboard or something. His mind wandered to the others momentarily, and he found himself drifting off to sleep once he got to Davis.
As his eyes began to close, he smiled slightly at the sheer craziness of a plasma cannon blowing the crow's nest to kingdom come. What a strange dream he was having. It was a little painful for a dream, though, what with that wooden board that fell and cracked his arm as funny little red numbers appeared above his head. What was that screaming noise, anyways?
"Sweet Coney Carbuncle!" T.K cursed as he snapped to his senses and wondered briefly what on earth he had just yelled that for.
The ship was under attack by something, and now his arm was broken.
"Patamon!" He called in a panic as he scrambled to find his staff and heal his arm. Praying he didn't vanish like the pirates he had attempted to heal, T.K opened the menu and selected Cure from the list; selecting himself as the target. A white light wrapped itself around his arm and he felt his bone slipping back into place and mending itself.
Patamon, as it turned out, was the screaming noise. He had begun wildly flying about screaming for T.K as soon as the enemy ship fired on them. Speaking of the enemy ship, T.K figured he had better asses the situation before he planned his counter attack strategy. When the simple action of turning his head was performed, however, T.K quickly decided there was a terrible imbalance of technology in this game.
The enemy ship was easily five times the size of his, and appeared to be a solid steel battleship loaded with more guns than a secret agent. A secret agent who was also a cowboy from space with hidden compartments for guns. A space cowboy agent who was in the space army and drove a space tank that also had a lot of guns, and that was on a space ship full of space tanks just like it, which itself was on a bigger space ship full of those smaller ships. T.K noticed he had been thinking about this for a full fifteen seconds, and promptly decided to turn his counter attack strategy into an escape strategy.
"Speed up you hunk of junk! Oh man, there's no spell for that!" He growled in anger while stomping his foot.
"Patamon, where are you?!" He called once again, noticing the screaming had stopped and began worrying for his little orange friend. As he looked about he suddenly realized that Patamon was above him, and fading fast in a very literal sense. Patamon seemed to be drifting in and out of existence.
"Patamon, what's happening to you?!" He yelled.
Patamon tried to respond but his words chipped in and out like bad reception on a cell phone. Finally, Patamon disappeared completely. "Patamon!" T.K yelled to no one. Now was no time to cry, T.K still needed to find a way to escape the crazy battleship attacking him!
Within seconds the Chikastutso took another hit with a loud popping noise and embers of fire threatening to set the whole ship on fire. "Hey!" T.K yelled in anger. "What are you trying to hit me for?!"
"For your own good!" Mimi called from her ship. Suddenly Mimi began to glow black and she jerked to the side calling out: "I'm trying to protect this world and you stand in our way!"
Mimi was completely unrecognizable to T.K. as he now began loading the cannons with treasure in any attempt to damage her ship. "I'm just sailing!" He yelled back. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody!"
"Tell that to the slaughtered men on your ship!"
T.K looked behind him and recalled holding that dying pirate and then looked back at the gothic enemy standing before him and his ship. "That wasn't my fault, I don't know what happened, please just let me explain!"
"I wish I could, Richard!" She screamed and fired off another white blaze at the ship. "You'll thank me one day!!"
"You're crazy!" T.K yelled as he took shelter behind some barrels and slammed his fists on the ground. "If only I could fly this ship away, I could get away from her" He whispered.
Just then the Chikastutso grew long orange mechanical wings and took to the bright blue sky. "Jumping Swimmon! We're flying!" He laughed as the Chikastutso left the ground, causing the waters to boil and splash onto the enemy ship.
"Tanek never told me that he could fly!" Mimi groaned. "Somebody stop him, he's flying away!" She called to her fellow shipmates. "Can't we fly this boat?"
The soldier began turning some dials. "Yes ma'am, but we're still learning the secrets of this ship. It could be a few moments before we can figure out how to engage flight mode." He quickly made a call to the engine room to 'spread the wings'.
Mimi assumed it was code, although after what she just saw it wouldn't have surprised her if this ship actually had wings.
Mimi looked curiously at the dials, not quite knowing what they were for or why they were just turned. "Fine, fine. As long as we catch up soon." She whispered with impatience, knowing he couldn't hear her and not quite caring.
It was January 25th, 8:30PM at the Kamiya household.
"Did it work?!" Yolei squealed with excitement.
"Give me a second, I'm setting up the camera's so we can see where everyone is." Izzy fiddled around with some wires on Tai's new 12-inch monitor. A high-pitched buzzing was heard and the screen slowly appeared. The monitor would give them a choice on which character they would like to watch.
"Roger that!" Izzy exclaimed with great enthusiasm as he typed frantically on his laptop into Unlock's game code. "I have successfully warped Patamon into the game and merged him with T.K's ship. I'm sure he'll be much more useful that way."
"Wait," Joe interrupted "So Patamon isn't going to turn back into Patamon?"
"Nope." Izzy smiled.
"But what if the ship explodes, doesn't that mean Patamon explodes with it?" Joe asked now in somewhat of a panic.
Izzy stared blankly at T.K's part of the screen and blinked a handful of times. "Yes. If T.K doesn't treat that ship right then he could very well lose Patamon forever, considering as of now I don't have a way to bring Patamon back into the real world!"
"What?!" came a collective yell from Joe, Yolei and Cody.
"Yeah" Izzy laughed nervously. "Maybe I should send him a virtual note?"
"Sounds like a good idea" said Cody "Don't you think so, Yolei?"
"Yup!" Yolei grinned, "Don't you think so, Joe?"
Silence.
"Don't you think so, Joe?" Yolei repeated. With no response Yolei turned around from watching Izzy on his computer and looked at Joe, who was staring at Mimi frightened and whose jaw was dropped from here to Hong Kong! "Joe, what's wrong?" She asked as all the children turned to look at Mimi.
"Her... H-h-her ... HELP HER!" Joe yelled and ran up to Mimi. "Izzy, her bubble is black! Why is her bubble black?!"
"What?!" Izzy turned from Mimi and looked back to his computer. Hitting a few buttons he brought up Mimi's vitals. "Everything looks normal... I don't understand." He turned back around and walked up to Mimi, who was barely visible through the black swamp infecting her bubble.
"Izzy, fix her!" yelled Cody.
"There's no Manuel on this, okay? Give me some time!" Izzy yelled, beginning to feel the pressure from his friends. "Her vitals are fine, this doesn't make any sense." Izzy clicked the option to watch Mimi on Tai's computer and noticed she was listed under enemy. "Uh oh."
"Uh oh, what uh oh?" Yolei asked walking up to the screen. "Uh oh!" she repeated and the others ran over.
"Look's like we've solved the black bubble mystery..."
It was day two in the Desert plane of Zebien.Tai and Matt stood in front of a desert plain in awe and confusion. If they would take a few steps backwards they would be flashed to a sandy road. The two looked around the desert, which only featured mountains of sand for them to look at, then back at their Camel's, which the King of Zebien let them borrow.
"So, left or right?" Tai said with a grin as he mounted the Camel.
"How about forward…"
"Excellent! Onward hoe!" he yelled while hitting the sides of the Camel.
"Yeah.." Matt rolled his eyes "Onward…"
"Come on, man! Have a little more enthusiasm! We're going to go save a princess… a princess!"
Matt pouted as his Camel walked along the forever desert. He looked at his wrist and then back to the furry creatures neck "I missed my gig…"
"Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"You're not wearing a watch…"
"So what!? I always know when I missed a gig... it's in my heart"
"Ooh, that's so romantic!" Tai mocked in a high-pitched voice.
It was day two as Davis and Kari sat in unknown whereabouts deciding what to do next."Hey 'Viv?" Davis asked the overly patient, and very beautiful girl that was sitting next to him.
"Yes?"
He sighed and whipped the manual he had been reading for the last few hours at a tree.
"What is it?" she asked
"I don't think..." he looked up at the sky and blushed lightly "I can fix it."
Kari stood up, placing her hands on her hips and tried not to lose her temper…
"Marth!"
…and failed
"It's hot! I'm sweating, I've been sitting here for the last two hours patiently as you try and figure out that stupid book and you haven't even offered me a drink! When you're not reading that stupid book you're kicking the sand or looking at my chest!! You won't even talk to me! And on top of that we're hopelessly lost and I'm scared and there could be monsters in this forest and your not equip with anything but that piece of crap robot!"
Suddenly Davis, instead of trying to be charming or cool, became full of anger at the thought-to-be sweet girl standing before him. "Hey! Ya'know what? I'm hot too! And I'm sweating, too! I've been sitting here for the past two hours reading this stupid book and I hate reading! I'm so sorry, I don't have a drink for you, if you'd like, your majesty, no pun intended, I can go and look for a river for you! When I'm kicking the sand, I'm thinking of something that might help us that isn't in the forever book over there! We're not hopelessly lost, if you think your lost, and you go in one direction, you will find something. And do you know why I don't talk to you? .. because I'm trying figure out the stupid book for you, because I took you along, and I figured that you wouldn't want to be stuck out here in the hot, god-forsaken forest!!" Davis took a breath and then sighed looking at the ground "And ya'know what? … it's a Mech, ..not a robot"
"Marth?"
"Yeah?" he replied in an annoyed tone, still staring at the ground.
"Fix your stupid robot!"
It was day two in the desert, or rather, the middle of nowhere. By this timeMatt and Tai had stopped riding on camels some time ago, and were now on foot, traveling into the randomness that was nowhere. Tai Kamiya wiped the sweat off of his forehead and turned to his partner.
"Good going…" Matt pouted.
"What!?"
"You scared the damn camels away!!!" Matt yelled trying not to rip out his hair "Okay Tai, lemme play out a scenario for you. 'Two people are traveling down the desert plains on camels, when they are confronted with five large sandworms. The twosome steady the camels and ride away to safety' … now let me play out our situation.. 'Two people are traveling down the desert plains on camels, when they are confronted with five large sandworms. The one being jumps off his camel, dragging his other, unfortunate partner, off his camel, the first idiot screams "COOL, MAHN!" as the other turns just in time to see both the camels run into the distance, with all of their belongings dragging behind' …" Matt sighed. "Our weapons, food, gold… everything!"
"Okay man, I get it. But I'm not the only one to screw up on this little 'mission' of ours."
Matt huffed, "OH? So now everything's my fault?"
"I never said that!" Tai said as he continued to walk, head down towards the sand. "I just said that I'm not that only one to have messed up in here!"
"What have I done?!" Matt argued.
Tai then said, "You've caused a lot of trouble, is what you've done! Regicide?! I mean… REGICIDE?"
"Well it's not like I planned on killing a bunch of stupid kings in the first place!"
Tai clenched his fists and raised his head as they walked. "Well it's not like I planned on the Camel's running away!"
"Then why'd you get off your Camel!?"
"It's not every day you see SANDWORMS, Matt!!!!"
"All right! THAT'S IT!" Matt clenched his fist and swung a punch. Tai bravely took the punch in the face and then pushed Matt into the sand. "What's that for?!" Matt spewed "Can't fight it out like a man!?"
"No, I could… but" Tai looked up at the black castle before them and gulped. Matt also took a look at the castle. The two then turned their attention to the sand, words were being written in it out of nowhere.
All who have come to oppose Tanek will die.
Rain, nor sun, summoners, nor ninja, knight, nor magic,
Material, nor pause, nor off switch, nor charm, nor any other
Source shall defeat the likes of me.
My advice: Go back where you came from, newcomers.
Matt looked over at Tai as he finished reading. "I don't think she's here!" Tai said sweating profusely.
Matt replied "Yeah, me neither!"
January 25th, 6:30PM at the Kamiya household.
Since Izzy had discovered a way to link Tai's monitor to the console and watch his friends as they played through the game. The only downfall in the system was the time difference. Since it was an hour for a day, they were only able to see one "scene" every couple of minutes. Izzy would have to accept the invitation to watch through his laptop. Currently they were watching Ken order around his troops.
"Hey!" Izzy grinned and did a close up on Ken "His character must be a space-bot! And those are is high tech servants! Sent from the high space lords, Zashneb!!"
Joe shivered and looked at the screen "Zashben?"
"Neb, not ben…" Izzy shook his head. Does anybody know what they're talking about these days?
"As long as they stay away from me!" Joe zoomed out and backed away from the computer, taking focus on the console. "Where do you suppose this came from?" he gasped, "You don't suppose the aliens are real, do you?? That they really did send this here so we could save their planet... That this is all real?"
Izzy nodded with excitement, "Yes! I do suppose that is a possibility!! The aliens could have simply taken their minds from their bodies when the cords were connected to their heads and they really are in space right now! It's like an out of body experience!"
"So wait, there's an even bigger chance that they could seriously be ...killed?"