Do not own Digimon


Beyond Humanity

Chapter 7

That same night the team known as the digidestined went back to Puppetmon's forest. Off course they stuck to the edges for now, the fact being that the battle against MetalSeadramon had tired them. To face another Dark Master at this moment would mean their destruction.

It was a weird sight to behold: two angels, a bird, a wolf, a beetle, a sea serpent, a skeleton posing as a human, a real human and a bunch of digimon sitting round a campfire.

Life was weird.

"So, does anyone know how to deal with Puppetmon?" Tai asked, trying to get a conversation going as the silence was currently killing him.

"He's made of wood, right?" Matt asked. Tai nodded. "Then burn him."

Tai sweatdropped for a second. "That could work."

"No offence Matt, but that won't work." Izzy said, using all four of his arms to tap on his keyboard.

"What do you mean?" TK asked.

"Well, you see Puppetmon, though he looks like a piece of wood, is actually made of petrified wood, stone if you will. And as such will not burn."

"Where do you keep getting this stuff?" Joe asked as he rolled his eyes.

"Gennai. He has send me files about every Dark Master." He showed his laptop to the others, revealing four pictures. Three lit ones and one shaded with a red X over it.

"What else does it say about Puppetmon?" Tai asked, intrigued by this new information.

"Not much. He's a puppeteer, but we already knew that. He has quite a temper, he's a sore loser and believes himself to be quite the strategist. Which he isn't." Izzy red off the screen.


Somewhere else, in a huge manor in the middle of the forest a wooden figure sneezed, producing a sound heard rather far.

"Damn nose." He muttered as he continued his evil plans.

"Ha-ha! Piedmon was right!" Puppetmon danced in a rather creepy, doll-like way.

"There are lots and lots of fun things to do with this flood of Digital Energy!" He said, looking at a small dozen or so puppets.

"Now to wait for the digi-brats to show up and then we can have some fun!" Puppetmon laughed.

That same night

Tai was awake. Even though it wasn't his turn to be on watch he stayed awake, thinking of how to tell his friends about his change. The pain in his back from playing Kari's landing spot didn't help.

'If I tell them now they might not be so angry.' He thought. 'It's better then telling them when my head is exchanged for a skull.' He shuddered at that.

'This sucks.' Was his last thought before he finally fell asleep.


Dream sequence

Ever had one of those dreams? No not that kind. The kind where there's two versions of you: one evil one and one good one. Both of them trying to take out the other in an epic battle.(1)

Tai's mind was currently hosting one of those battles.

On one side of his mind was himself. The normal, goggle wearing, soccer playing teenager.

On the other was his 'corrupted' version. The skinless, fleshless, bony version of said soccer playing teenager.

The two of them currently glaring at each other, before the 'good' version of Tai suddenly lunged at the 'tainted' version.

And so started an epic battle with the real Tai as the only spectator.

And it wasn't as much epic as it was…weird.

Tainted Tai had decided that a head but was in order. Normal Tai dodged said attack and kicked the bony version in the head.

Causing his head to fall off…

Not that that stopped him or anything. Tainted Tai just fell to all four and aimed a missile at the distracted Tai.

At that moment the real Tai woke up and thought about how screwed up his mind was.

"Never eat fish before going to sleep…" Tai muttered before rolling over.


The day after that Tai barely even remembered what happened in his dreams and as most people would he just dismissed it as something irrelevant.

"Everyone ready to go?" Matt asked, though he still looked very tired, and he had the bane of all hair lovers: bed hair! Or in his case: bed fur.

Matt had done nearly everything to get it to look a bit presentable but it hadn't really worked.

"Sure…" Mimi yawned.


Soon the team was on the road once more, searching their way through Puppetmon's forest and hoping not to be found by any of its minions.

"So do we have any strategies?" Joe asked before sneezing, causing his glasses to fall of.

"Off course. As always we barge in, kill the bad guy and get the hell out of there." Tai said cheerfully. Their strategies usually did consist of those three steps.

"I mean." Joe started as he put his glasses back on. "A REAL strategy. You know like-

At that moment Joe was cut off as suddenly the ground underneath them started to move.

"What the hell!" Was the last thing Tai heard before he lost sight of Joe. The others weren't faring much better as they all seemed to stand on some kind of weird treadmill.

Tai quickly lost sight of everyone except Agumon.

"What just happened?" Agumon asked. "I have no i-

Just then Tai disappeared in a flash.

"Tai?" Agumon asked. "Great, just great…"


Tai reappeared in a different part of the forest, obviously far away from Agumon and his friends.

'Have they been separated from their digimon as well?' He thought. 'Who could have done this?' He continued his line of thought till one name popped up.

"Puppetmon."

"Right you are little digibrat!" A weird character stood in the shadows of a nearby tree. "You know what? I feel like playing a game!"

"I don't." Tai said angrily. "And tell me where my friends are!"

"Don't be so hasty! We're going to play a game first! Besides, you don't need them. I brought you a new friend!" Puppetmon laughed before disappearing from sight.

"The rules are simple! Survive long enough without getting tagged!" Puppetmon's laughter could be heard but it was impossible to pinpoint from where it came.

"Ready? Set! Run!"

At that point the trees beside Tai began to break down as something broke through them. Deciding not to hang around and find out whatever it was Tai took Puppetmon's advice and ran.

After what felt for hours, but were really only ten minutes, Tai stopped for a second in a small clearing. How could he have been so stupid!

He pulled out his digivice. With it he could easily find his friends and possibly Agumon.

He looked at the tiny screen and tried to figure out where the hell north was on the thing.

A bleep was suddenly heard and a small red dot was currently coming closer and closer to his location.

And then suddenly it was right behind him!

Tai spun around, hoping that whatever was coming his way was an ally. But when he did so there was nothing there…

He suddenly felt a presence behind him. He spun around again to see…


The others weren't faring much better. They to had been separated from their digimon and scattered across the forest. Luckily there were four airborne digihumans that quickly met up with each other in the air.

"Do you know what happened?" Kari asked as she did her best to hover in one place, a hard chore for someone who hadn't had her wings for more then 24 hours.

"It appears that Puppetmon used some kind of teleportation device on us to scatter and confuse us." Izzy said.

"So now what?" TK asked.

"We look for the others, I mean what else can we do?" Sora answered.

"Is it just me or do you guys feel like you're being watched?" Kari asked.

Out of the forest four shapes suddenly flew up to meet them.


"This sucks." Joe said as he sneezed again. "I'm all alone and my cold just won't stop."

"You're never alone Joe.." A voice said, scaring the crap out of Joe.

"W-W-Who's there?" Joe stuttered as he turned around to see a figure standing there. Joe opened his mouth to scream and.

"Who the hell are you?" Joe asked, knees shaking, tail twitching nervously.

"I am you Joe Kido." The figure stated. "But yet I am what you're not."

Joe glared at the mysterious figure. He did look like him. The whole serpentine look was the same. The only difference was that he stood up straight and had a confident look in his eyes. The same look that Joe wanted sometimes.

"I am you but without hesitation, without your known fears." Not-Joe continued. "All in all, I'm a better you then you'll ever be."

Joe fumed at this.

"Shut up!" Joe yelled. A fire burned within him, begging to be released. "You can't be me!" Joe yelled as the fire within him froze and turned to ice, which he blasted at his doppelganger, effectively freezing him.

"This is very weird." Joe said, poking the frozen figure, which fell over. Which then caused its head to break off.

Joe winced as that happened. It may have been a clone of him but it's still weird. Especially if you took a closer look at the figure and realised it was made of wood.

"Who on earth could do such a thing?" Joe asked as he picked up the frozen lizard-like head. 'And who would try such mind games, even though they weren't worth much.' (2)

"Puppetmon, off course…" Joe muttered. "I have to find the others." With that Joe dropped the head again and ran off.


"Who the hell are you?" Matt growled at his reflection.

"I am you. Or more precisely, what you could have been." The reflection smirked. "Could have been?" Matt was confused by those words.

"Indeed." Not-Matt said. "I am that of you that isn't held back by friends, family. And most certainly not that dishonest leader of yours." Matt flinched at that. So this was his 'cool guy' act, but then in the flesh.

Though Matt ignored his words, one thing made him wonder. "What do you mean, 'dishonest' leader?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. Haven't you noticed that he's been acting strange lately? How he disappears? How he-"

He was cut off by a freezing blast coming from between the trees.

Joe stepped out and smirked, revealing his lizard-like teeth. "Two down…"

"Joe?" Matt asked suspiciously. "What did you just do?"

"I froze him." Joe smiled. "Serious, something's wrong here. See?" He pulled on the head of Not-Matt, which came off.

"I faced my own just a few minutes ago and then I heard you." Joe said as he threw the head at Matt.

Matt stared at it. "You do know that I could have taken care of it myself."

"Sure." Joe said, smirking on the inside because he got to be the hero for once. "Let's just go and find the rest."

Matt nodded. 'Damn, now I owe Joe one. And I still don't know what he was talking about. What are you hiding Tai?'


Meanwhile up in the air.

"Is it just me or do those people look familiar?" Sora asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "No kidding." Izzy muttered.

Normally the puppets would use the same lame mind games on these digidestined. But those only (if ever) worked if the target was alone.

So they decided for a full on attack.

Sora kicked her clone away once it came close enough, confused by the clunky movements and the lack of intelligence behind the attack.

"They don't seem very bright, do they?" Kari said as she easily dodged her clone. "This is an insult to our intelligence." Izzy muttered.

The puppets were quickly dispersed and the quartet sighed a bit. "What was the use of that? They were so weak." Sora said.

"Yeah. The only scary thing about them was that they looked just like us." TK added.

"Let's just find the others now, maybe they're in more trouble." Kari said and with that they took off.


"Damn digibrats." Puppetmon muttered in his toy room. "They destroyed nearly all of my friends!" He switched the channel again. "And they're tough, they weren't even fazed by my psychological warfare." Apparently Puppetmon had considered his talents in discouraging the enemy rather high.

"But there are still two left!" He laughed as he centred the cameras, hidden among the trees, on Tai. "This will be fun!"


Puppetmon is actually quite hard to write you know? It's like writing about a power obsessed four year old. But I hope you like my Digi-puppets as I call them. I didn't feel like doing the whole 'Matt leaves' arc, since I have no idea how to handle it. And yes I know they don't do much story wise for the others. But I plan to make them a great step in Tai's side of the story.

Reviews

Minwolf: Thank you and yes, Agumon is slowly turning into BlackWarGreymon, given the fact that so many people wanted Tai to turn into said digimon.

Martiny the one and only still: indeed and in this case: a small lack of inspiration and exams are the bane of every author.

Lord Pata: It's fun to hit Joe 'Hits Joe in the head with a baseball bat.' See? Nah I only hit because he's my favourite character.

Doodle-chan: the same, I love my big brother and all but sometimes he needs something heavy and possibly made of steel to land on him.

Super garurumon: not just yet 'evil laugh'

Depthmon: Thank you! And Mimi's form will be revealed soon and yes, they will get attacks but only one each, so TK only gets Magna Antidote (I know it's not an attack but meh), Joe gets the Ice Breath and Tai gets the missile. The others, well you'll just have to wait

Anime25: indeed, poor Tai and yes it'll be a Takari but only a slight one, they're still a bit to young.

GRX3m0m: thank you.

Hobblin'-Marcy-Bellamy: Mimi's a minor favourite of mine actually, coming right after Joe and Tai and don't worry: I wouldn't do that to Mimi (Though it would be funny, Mimi as a half cactus)

Takari4ever3012: I think the same. They should have done something like this in canon. But that's just my idea ;)

Shadow of a rose: Glad to meet you as well. I don't know why but it's just fun to torture Tai. I plan on torturing him just a bit more next chapter.

Courage sun: thank you, I try to stay creative and this just popped into my brain.

Beth: thanks, that really means a lot to me

Author notes

(1)Don't know if any of you ever had this kind of dream but I did once. My evil side won. Big time. Seriously, he crushed my good side

(2)To me it would be a slap in the face, to be confronted by someone that's just like you in every way, only better.

R&R people!