Well, it's Sunday once more, which everyone knows means a new chapter of this story, so here it is, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: In Soviet FanFiction, story disclaim you!
Chapter 8 Picnic
Tai
I blinked a time or two as the flash from the digiport left my retinas. Now it was just Sora and I in my room, and I was actually ok with that. Sure, I really felt that I should be going with the others to hear what Gennai had to say, but I understood traveling to the digital world might not be the best thing for me right now. After all, would my wheelchair even travel through the gate with me? And if it did, would the terrain really be good for a wheelchair? I think not. Plus, Sora stayed behind with me.
I did feel just a little bad about that, since I was keeping Sora from participating with everyone else, but it was nice to have some time with just her. We hadn't had a lot of that recently since someone had always been over to check on how I was doing, so it was nice to have.
"Well, looks like it's just me and you." I said with a smile towards Sora, who returned the smile.
"It does." She replied. "So what do you want to do?"
I paused from an instant response. What could I do? I was a cripple with a broken arm and a broken leg confined to a wheelchair. There wasn't exactly anything other than wheel around that I could do.
"I got nothing." I said rather lamely after a few seconds, and Sora let out a giggle.
"Yea, most of our normal activities are a little too physical for you aren't they?" Sora asked a grin still on her face.
"Yea just a little." I reply, and Sora's grin gets even bigger. That's when I realize what she just got me to admit to. "When I'm crippled!" I quickly add before she can add another joke.
"I was wondering if you'd catch that." Sora said still smiling, and I shook my head.
"I think it's a hunger induced slowing of the mind." I reply, gesturing to where my mother's snacks had gone completely uneaten by us digidestined. Most of the others had either tried my mother's food, or heard stories from people who had, and knew not to try any of the food.
"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Sora replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I was thinking you could let me take you out to this restaurant…" I said, trailing off with a grin.
"Tai Kamiya, are you asking me on a date?" Sora asked, showing mock shock as she asked that.
"Well, unless you call a boyfriend going out to eat with his girlfriend something else…" I was grinning at her now, and she just shook her head.
That was somewhat of a running joke between the two of us. Our relationship wasn't exactly conventional; after all we'd known each other since we were six and been best friends that entire time. That fact just made things different for the two of us. Neither of us wanted to lose our best friend to this relationship, or let the other go just for the sake of our friendship, so we just did things our own way and it usually worked. We didn't really go on dates that often, in fact we just went out to eat with each other without calling it an official date more often than we had even thought about going on official dates.
"Well in that case, I get to pick the restaurant." Sora said, referring to the fact that I almost always picked the restaurant, since I was the one driving, and the one paying. Luckily our tastes were very similar so it wasn't really a big problem for her.
"And no buts." Sora added as I opened my mouth to argue for arguments sake. "If you want me to take you someplace so you can fill up that bottomless pit you call a stomach, you'll grin and agree."
I was sure my eye was twitching, similar to the movie night the other night, but I simply nodded and grinned, though I made sure it was a pained one.
"That's a good Tai." Sora said, patting my head patronizingly, and I gave her the death glare as she did so. She was grinning even more now, and honestly that grin was too infectious, so much so I couldn't even give her my famous death glare for more than a few seconds before I was beaming back at her.
"If I'd known I could get you to do what I wanted just by smiling at you, I never would have had to wait to use the soccer ball way back when…" Sora said thoughtfully as she pushed my chair out of my room.
"Please don't remind me that you can do that now." I said with a sigh as Sora wheeled me out of my room into the living room.
"Awe, it's only cause you love me." Sora said, just before leaning down and giving me a quick peck on the lips.
"True." I said, grinning as well now as we faced my mother who was in the kitchen. She had been keeping me cooped up in the apartment pretty much from the minute that I'd gotten back from the hospital, so since yesterday, and we'd need her permission to go out.
"Hey mom, me and Sora are going to go get some food real quick. See you in a bit!" I called out, motioning for Sora to keep pushing me out the door.
"Hold it right there you two." My mom said, causing Sora to stop our forward momentum. "Just what makes you think that you're in any condition to go out Tai?"
"Um…I won't be walking?" I replied, trying my best to look innocent. My mother gave me one of her over protective looks, and I was starting to think we would be stuck here, with my mother's food. That second thought caused me to shudder just thinking about it.
"Don't worry Mrs. Kamiya, I'll make sure Tai behaves, and doesn't do anything stupid." Sora said, giving my mother her best innocent look. My mother smiled at Sora, and seemed to accept that.
"Ok, but don't stay out too long, and no trying to walk Tai!" My mother told us, and Sora started wheeling me out the door.
"Ok mom!" I shouted over my shoulder as Sora pushed me out the door and out towards the elevator.
Of course I should have known something would happen as Sora and I headed for the elevator. You see, our dates never went smoothly, something always interrupted it, or blew up the restaurant, or just plain was in the way. This time, it was the last one.
"Come on, work!" Sora shouted at the, out of order, elevator, which refused to obey her command. Personally I felt that was a bad decision on the part of the elevator. It obviously had no idea what Sora was capable of.
"You know Sora, we could always use the stairs…." I started to say, but trailed off as she looked back at me. The anger that had been directed at the elevator was suddenly directed straight at me.
Luckily Sora took a breath before yelling, so she just shook her head.
"Tai, even if we could do that without you breaking something else, which I might remind you would leave you crippled even longer, how are we going to get you back up the stairs?" She asked. I thought carefully for a moment before responding. Usually I would argue for arguments sake, like earlier, but right now Sora did not look happy, and she was right. So I phrased the next bit carefully.
"Yea, you're right." I sighed, and Sora turned me back around. I could tell she wasn't all that happy about not being able to go out either. I suppose that was probably mostly my fault.
You see, she wouldn't be so disappointed if we dated more often, and I'm mostly the reason we didn't do that. We'd just get so caught up in hanging out that dating, or rater going out on dates, didn't come into my mind at all.
Of course, that's when brilliance struck me, and I got a sudden idea.
"Hey Sor, I have an idea to sorta make up for this!" I said with a smile.
"Really?" She asked, sounding excited.
"Yep! We'll have a picnic!" I replied, and I'm pretty sure Sora almost tripped on something.
"Tai, we can't exactly go anywhere." Sora replied, and her tone of voice made it sound like she was talking to a child.
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." I replied with a grin, and gestured with my good hand to my apartment. "You just get a basket together, and I'll handle everything else."
Sora gave me a look that told me she was a little skeptical of my idea, but then nodded.
"Ok Tai, I'll try this."
She went into the kitchen, and I wheeled myself into my room. It would take a minute to reconfigure the digiport to put us somewhere else, but it shouldn't be that difficult.
Let's see, Izzy usually just presses this button here, and it…oh crap, no don't turn off you stupid computer! And so began my battle with the digiport program. Izzy really did make it look much easier than it turned out to be, but I didn't crash the entire thing this time, so I counted it as a victory for me and digimon stuff on the computer.
"You know, if you'd asked for some help I could have helped you with that." A voice, Sora's to be exact, said from behind me.
"Well, that would have ruined the surprise, which is ruined anyways." I replied, giving her a smile, which she returned.
"Well, it was a nice thought, so thanks." More smiling as she said this, but her smile turned into her a frown as she looked at the computer. "Unfortunately I don't think it's a good idea for you to go into the digital world."
"Oh come on Sor." I said, and then busted out the chain of logic, yes I am capable of those so go ahead and stop coughing to hide your laughter, and started talking. "I was thinking, we need to see if I can travel to the digital world at all, because we're going to need everyone, including me, on board for this battle. Plus, it's only to Primary Village, so there won't be any danger at all, so I won't get reinjured. And if there are any problems we'll be right next to the TV and can get out of there!"
Sora looked at me, and then the computer, glancing back and forth between us as she considered the options.
"Come on Sor, I know how much you've always wanted a picnic around Primary Village." I pleaded with her, and I could see I'd convinced her.
Hehe, being her best friend helped me for once… I thought to myself with an internal laugh.
"Ok Tai, but if there's any sign of danger we're leaving, no ifs, ands, or buts." Sora said, giving me her stubborn look. I knew more than enough to argue with her when she got that look on her face, so I just nodded.
She grabbed a hold of my hand and we held up our digivices to the computer screen together, and we were instantly sucked into it.
~Digital World~
I landed on my back as the portal spat me out, Sora's hand still clutched in mine, and I noticed several things right away.
First the low intensity pain that I had been feeling since I woke up in the hospital was suddenly gone. That was a pleasant surprise. Next my casts were both gone, and I could actually move both my arm and my leg without so much as a flicker of pain shooting through my body. Yet again a pleasant surprise. Finally, I wasn't wearing the same clothes I had been a second before, which considering that I had been in rather baggy sweats…was sort of just a surprise.
I quickly jumped to my feet to test out if I could really walk, and almost shouted with joy as my leg supported itself and me without a problem.
"Tai what are you doing?" Sora shouted as I jumped up, but when I didn't fall down with a shout of pain she just stared. I actually returned the favor, mostly from surprise.
She had gone through an outfit change, almost like the younger guys when they came to the digital world. It wasn't anything drastic, in fact she had just traded the skirt she had been wearing for some jeans and the blue shirt she had been wearing was exchanged for a yellow one.
"Why's your outfit different?" I ask her, just as she asks the same thing.
"What do you mean different?" We say in unison once more, and then we both stop. We look at each other, then down at ourselves, and then back at each other, then we burst out laughing. The situation was comical if you thought about it.
I could see that instead of the sweats I was wearing before, I was wearing one of my normal blue shirts with stars on them, with a longer, darker blue shirt underneath. My pants were now a pair of grey jeans, and I was wearing sneakers instead of the slipper and cast I had been wearing. In fact, it was pretty much identical to the outfit I had worn the last time I was in the digital world, you know, when I almost died.
I was actually happy about that, since this outfit was one of my favorites.
"This is weird." Sora said, and I looked up, noticing that she was examining her own outfit.
"You can say that again," I replied, pulling both of my hands behind the back of my head, something I hadn't been able to do for a few weeks now. "I mean, all my injuries are fixed!"
Sora seemed to remember that fact, because she was standing next to me before I even realized she had moved, and was running her hand on my arm.
"That's amazing!" She exclaimed as she felt that my bone was perfectly fine.
"You're telling me, I can actually walk…" I said, paying more attention to my leg. I felt that was understandable since it was the one the effected my life the most.
"How is this possible?" Sora asked me, though I really don't know why.
"Sora," I said simply, raising an eyebrow at her, and she giggled.
"Sorry, we'll ask Izzy when they get back." She said, and I just shook my head.
"Yep, but you know what this means…" I said, leaning down to pick up the picnic basket.
"…Better picnic!" She exclaimed, grabbing my free hand as the two of us headed to find a good picnic spot.
What followed was a fun picnic. The two of us were able to relax with each other, and be ourselves. It was amazing just how relaxed we could be with each other, even after all of this time.
"This is great." I commented as I leaned against a tree, Sora leaning up against me.
"Mmmmm," Sora replied, her head laid across my chest. I had an arm wrapped around her and I honestly couldn't imagine a better place to be right then.
A few seconds later she lifted her head though.
"Tai?" She asked quietly, and I jumped a little. Honestly I had been falling asleep then and there and her sudden movement and calling my name had startled me out of my sleep.
"Yea, I'm up." I say quickly, causing another giggle out of Sora.
"Sorry," She said, and I just smiled at her.
"It's fine Sor, what's up?" I reply, not really bothered by her startling me, it was just my standard reaction for when that happened to me in school, which was pretty often.
"I was wond…do you smell that?" Sora said, suddenly changing her sentence as a strange smell floated over to us. I picked up on it almost as soon as she asked what that smell was and wondered what exactly it was."
"Yea," I replied getting another whiff of the smell, and suddenly recognizing it. "It smells like something's burning."
Sora sits up all the way as I say that. "What could be burning out her…" Sora trailed off and I'm pretty sure she had the same idea as me.
"Primary Village!" We say at the same time, quickly getting to our feet. I didn't even want to think what could be happening over in Primary Village if that burning smell was indeed coming from it.
I grabbed Sora's hand and headed over anyways, because I had to know what was happening, even if I didn't want to. Of course the fact that neither of us had our digimon with us was a very big inconvenience, but there wasn't anything we could do about that at this moment.
We both ran as fast as we could to the hill that was the main separation between us and Primary Village. As we ran towards it I could pick out the smoke rising from beyond the hill, all but screaming to me that Primary Village was burning on the other side of the hill.
I slowed my pace, and slowed down Sora with me. She responded to me dragging her back, turning towards me.
"What?" She asked in a whisper, which seemed appropriate to me this close to the source of the smoke.
"I want you to wait here." I reply in a whisper.
"WHAT?" She manages to whisper shout.
"I want you to wait here." I reply calmly. I was not about to let Sora walk into danger without a digimon to protect her, and she was going to have to accept that.
"I am not going to wait here and let you go and get hurt again!" Sora said, squeezing my hand tighter.
"I'm not going to get hurt this time Sora, I'm going to just see what's happening, not try and attack anyone." I tell her and she starts to reply to that, but I hold up a hand. "And I want you to stay here so I can focus on not getting hurt."
Sora had closed her mouth as I finished speaking, and then nodded jerkily.
"See, I was just being selfish," I say grinning at her. I saw the brief glimmer of a smile tug at her lips, and squeezed her hand.
"Be careful." She says just before pulling me in for a longer than normal kiss, which surprised me. Even after all this time I still wasn't completely used to actually kissing Sora, but I quickly returned the kiss, waiting until she broke our embrace, and then pulled the rest of the way apart. I gave her hand a final squeeze before letting go.
I worked my way up the hill quickly, and when I got towards the top, I got lower. All of those action movies I had watched in the hospital would finally come in handy as I snuck up on the village. I dropped down to a crawl as I reached the top of the hill. Unfortunately there were still a lot of trees that were blocking my view, so I kept crawling forward.
Working down the hill was not quite as much fun as I expected, the whole crawling thing was a lot more exhausting than it looked, but eventually I made my way to the bottom. Around that time I was finished with crawling, and just kept sorta crouched as I moved towards the Village. It was still on the far side of quite a bit of woods, so I still couldn't see anything until I was almost in the village.
I came upon the toy blocks that made up the outer edge of the Village, and I could tell instantly that something was wrong. The blocks, usually made up of all the bright colors you would see and expect in a baby's toy, were all dark grey or black.
What is going on… I wonder to myself as I run up to the wall, running a hand on the blocks, which I instantly pull back. The blocks were cold, and it seemed to go deeper than a surface cold. Touching the block made me feel like my entire body was freezing, despite the relatively nice day outside.
I rubbed my arm as I stepped back from the blocks. I didn't want to be anywhere near those things if I could avoid it. Suddenly there was a crack, like wood breaking, from the other side of the blocks, and I moved towards the nearest entrance.
I got to the entrance and despite the cold pressed my back up against the block, then peeked around the corner for a second.
I spotted some good looking cover just inside the Village, and quickly dashed to it. Unfortunately the cold feeling from touching the blocks seemed to be all over the Village as I entered it. I shivered from the cold as I looked around the corner of my newest bit of cover. I couldn't see anyone or anything as I looked around the corner, so I deemed it safe enough to walk out.
I made my way down the main street of Primary Village, and everything started to come into focus. It was hard to see at first thanks to the smoky haze covering the Village, but as I made my way deeper into the Village I was able to make out the damage to the place. It was bad. Most of the little buildings around the Village had been knocked down, and quite a few of them were burning still, causing the smoke that was visible form where Sora and I were picnicking.
I got closer to one of the squares and thought I saw some movement ahead of me, and quickly jumped behind some more of the blocks that were all over the Village. I spent a second catching my breath, the adrenaline really running through my body now, and leaned out a little bit to try and see what had been in the square. That's when I felt someone grab my shoulder.
I spun around immediately, only to come face to face with Sora, who had jumped back when I'd turned around so suddenly.
"Holy crap Sora." I whisper as I sink back against the freezing cold block.
"Sorry!" She whispered back, looking around, and I could tell she was really uncomfortable being here, hell, so was I; this place was freaking me out the deeper into it I got. And now Sora was in the middle of it, so one more thing for me to worry about.
"Sora, what are you doing here?" I whisper to her, and she looks around before replying.
"If you seriously thought I was going to let you come in here alone after what happened the last time I let you go someplace alone, you're crazy!" She whispered back looking right at me.
I didn't really have a reply as I looked at the determined look on her face. Sure I'd been trying to look out for her, but she was trying to look out for me just as much. And the last time there'd been a situation like this I had convinced her to stay behind, and then almost died.
I never realized just how odd it was to say that. I'd nearly died here in the digital world less than three weeks ago, and yet here I was in a situation that could end in pretty much the same thing happening, without even thinking. Man, what was the matter with me?
"Ok, but don't tell anyone." I reply to Sora after a few seconds.
"What?" She asked, obviously confused for once.
"I'm crazy, don't tell anyone, especially Matt." I say, before letting out a grin. I was trying to ease the obvious anxiety that Sora had with a joke, and the smile I got out of her for a second made me happy.
"Tai, now's not the time to be joking!" Sora said, wearing a stern expression I was pretty sure she saved just for me.
"Ok, calm down…Geez…" I say, giving her the grin I would always wear when she had that expression. I sobered up after that, turning back around. The sooner we figured out what exactly was happening the sooner we could go someplace where Sora would be safe.
I lean around the corner once more, this time not getting surprised by someone grabbing a hold of me, and get a good look at the square. This had obviously been one of the squares baby digimon had lain in their cribs for their time in Primary Village. I said lain for a reason. Most of the cribs that I could see were wrecked, ripped into pieces by some sort of force that had destroyed the entire square. I shuddered thinking about what had happened to all of the baby digimon that had been here in those cribs when it happened.
"Oh shit…" I whisper, mostly to myself, but I'm pretty sure Sora heard me, because I felt a hand on my shoulder as she leaned around. I would have stopped her, but I couldn't move. I was frozen with anger and sorrow at the sight before me.
I heard Sora gasp before pulling back behind the block, and I cursed my weakness. I should have stopped her before she had the opportunity to see that sight.
I ducked back around, hoping I could try and make her feel better, but she was just standing there waiting for me.
"You ok?" I asked, and she jerkily nodded her head, just before jumping forward into my arms.
"What would do that to all the babies?" She whispered, and I could swear that there were tears in her eyes. Sora may have been stronger for the rest of the digidestined, and she really was the least openly tearful of the older digidestined girls, but she still had a connection to this place, we all did.
We had come here to see the rebirth of all the digimon after Primary Village had been destroyed by the Dark Masters…
That's when it hit me. I had seen Primary Village like this once before, devoid of any color, and with all of the cribs and thousands of eggs destroyed. When we were fighting the Dark Masters Primary Village had been left like this.
I clenched a fist in anger as that realization hit me. Someone or digimon was emulating the Dark Masters practice here in Primary Village.
Sora continued to hold tight to me, and I released my clenched fist, instead pulling Sora into a tighter embrace.
"Sshhh. It'll be ok, we'll find the ones who did this and reverse it." I tell her trying to be soothing. In all honesty, I sucked when girls, especially Sora, cried. I usually couldn't take it and needed to hit whatever it was that caused her to cry. Unfortunately whoever had caused it this time was beyond my reach at the moment, so I'd have to try and comfort her.
It took a few minutes, but eventually Sora stopped, and released the hug, rubbing her eyes as she stepped away. I held on to her hand and gave it a squeeze, which she returned.
"Come on, let's get out of here." I tell her, and lead the way towards the entrance we had both used. We move faster than the way in, and we were nearly to the door when I nearly trip over something on the ground.
"What the hell." I say as I barely keep my balance, any other profanity dies on my lips as I see what I had tripped over. It was Elecmon, unconscious on the ground.
"Elecmon!" Sora exclaims, quickly dropping down next to the digimon. I could see his chest still rising and falling so I knew he was alive, but he looked pretty injured.
"Sora, we need to get him out of here, now." I tell her urgently, then bent down and pick up the digimon. I take off for the exit to the village, forgetting stealth, and Sora is right beside me. We make it out and up the hill, and finally down near the TV digital port.
Other than the fact that I was semi running for my life it felt pretty good to make that run at a full sprint. I'm not the biggest fan of running, but not even being able to walk for three weeks, so far, had really given me a different opinion on that. It just felt good to be able to move that fast on my own after so long of depending on others to move me around.
Sora came running up behind me a second or two later, a little more out of breath than me.
"You ready?" I ask her as she takes several deep breathes. She simply nods and holds up her digivice, and I hold up mine as well. A second later we're sucked up by the TV.
~Kamiya Apartment~
The first thing I noticed was the fact that I was moving steadily backwards, away from the computer I had just emerged from. My backwards motion was stopped by a sudden jarring, and I'm pretty sure I'd hit the wall of my room.
The second thing I noticed was the throbbing pain that I had lost when I entered the digital world. Then I noticed that I couldn't move my leg or arm since they were back in their casts. Finally my sweats were back on, just like I had left them.
Not permanent… I thought sadly, and then remembered exactly who I had been carrying when I entered the portal.
"Where's Elecmon?" I ask Sora who looked in better shape though she was back to her normal clothing as well.
"Over there." Sora said, moving over to where the unconscious Elecmon was still on the ground. I looked at the clock on my wall as Sora picked up the digimon and put him on my bed. We'd been gone for nearly three hours, where were the others?
Oh my…Primary Village gone again, and Elecmon injured? Those are bad enough, but anther CLIFF HANGER! NOOOOOOOO!
Preview:
"Izzy, Digidestined, greetings." He said to all of us. "If everyone would follow me, there is much we must discuss, and not much time." Gennai turned as he said this and entered his house.
"But Gennai, we can't exactly do that anymore. We gave up the powers of our Crests four years ago." Kari said to Gennai, saying what was on all of us original digidestined's minds. "That's what these are for." Gennai replied to Kari, turning the ornate box in front of him around and opening it. Inside were nine nearly identical necklaces.
Review Replies:
Zeobide274: Actually I haven't decided yet. They may show up as underlings, but not as big a role as Doumon will have. And yea, All of the digidestined are emotionally compromised though. The others are a family pretty much to them, so everyone has someone to lose in the battles, not just Tai. You'll have to wait to find out the leader with Tai gone. Davis was just taking the lead in the fight since it was his digimon, If you noticed Matt took the lead with finding the information in that chapter. Any revisions on your guess, or does this cement your opinion on who the bad guy is?
TaioraWarrior: Hey I did update on time! Lol and that's with finals going on! Lol jk Oh ok, and I thought that we'd already discussed who the master was for this story? Didn't we? And yea, it didn't take Sora long to figure that out, as you saw in this chapter lol. And exactly! Lol
Lachelle92: Hey! Don't dis davis! He's a nice guy! Lol and you'll have to wait a little while to find out if Doumon is dead…I couldn't reveal that too soon…
Supershooter: was the make up good? Lol and just wait until you see their reaction to losing the bet in the next chapter. Let's just say that someone accidently let's slip that T.K. had already been to Gennai's once before…lol
DephsXylex: I'm glad you liked the action. It's something I've been working on, and there will be quite a bit of it in the chapters to come. And I would expect Ken to learn, but Davis…no, not really lol.
