Revenge of the Kaiser
Chapter Eight: Complications
"So…what's next on the agenda?" Davis asked the weary group around him. He was answered with a few impassive shrugs from Izzy, Ken, TK, and Matt, a soft grunt from Joe, and an annoyed stare from Yolei.
"We need to get Cody out of the Digital World," Sora spoke after a moment. "He needs to get away from all of this."
"I agree," Yolei added, watching as Cody sat himself on the ground and held onto the egg as tightly as possible.
"Nope! I have been assigned the duty of protecting the prize!" He held the egg up to be seen for a moment before once again tucking it under his arms. "I shall sit here, for as long as it takes!"
"He's really lost it," Davis gaped.
"Which is why we need to get him out of here," Sora hissed in an urgent whisper. "Maybe we can get him back to normal when the constant reminder of the Digital World isn't suffocating him like this."
"His partner is dead; the location is of little significance," TK muttered darkly. "Besides, I'm not leaving without Kari."
"What about our parents? Or school? I hate to sound insensitive about the situation, but there are people on the other side who are going to notice that we didn't come home for dinner these past few nights." Joe shook his head, discouraged.
"I don't doubt that Mom called the cops as soon as we missed curfew. And it's been more than forty-eight hours, so they'll have to listen to her now," Tai added.
"Exactly," Joe began, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "so why don't we figure a way to get back, and get things sorted out at home? Besides, right now we're just begging for a digimon to come and attack us. Our digimon can regain strength at home where we can protect them."
"No, it takes weeks for an egg to hatch in the Digital World. It would take months for them to hatch in our world, if they're even capable of it. We have to stay here. I'll fight Kaiser by myself if I have to," TK said.
Matt stepped forward. "Mimi," he breathed, casting his gaze over the group.
"Is the only one not stuck in this situation. Did you want to bring her here so we can all suffer together?" Yolei muttered sarcastically.
Matt shook his head, glaring at the lavender-haired girl. "If I may continue," he hissed, "we can contact Mimi so she can tell her parents that we're alright. We'll have her speak with my father—of all the parents, we're most likely to tell him that we had to go to the Digital World for an emergency—."
"And he's the one most likely to get so wrapped up in his job that he forgets to tell the rest of the parents!"
Matt lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes. "Right," he mumbled, running his hand through his golden locks. "You got it, Davis."
Izzy crossed his legs as he lowered himself to the ground. Using his knees, he held his laptop up and began typing furiously. "I'll send Mimi that e-mail."
Sora was the first to hear the now all too familiar sound of an approaching Airdramon. Sure enough, Kaiser came into sight. "Tai…" she whispered urgently.
Kaiser dismounted quickly, jumping down before his beast had even landed. Four Vegiemon hopped off right after. "That one," Kaiser growled, pointing towards Joe, "Grab him!"
A Vegiemon advanced towards Joe. "Hey now, I'm more the guy that gets left behind then the guy that gets kidnapped," he said, holding his hands up and backing away.
Kaiser turned towards Izzy. "That one too."
Izzy blanched, eyes wide. He scurried to his feet, wrapping his arms around his laptop as if it would protect him.
"What do you want with them?" Matt demanded, stepping in front of Joe to defend the elder boy.
"I don't have time for you right now," Kaiser hissed, voice low and strained. His hands clenched into fists. "Step aside."
Matt felt his body begin to shake, Dragomon's words ringing through his mind. "Fine, take them then, but take me too."
Kaiser nodded towards an idle Vegiemon. He didn't have time too argue or fight with the Digidestined.
"Matt, are you crazy?" Sora gasped.
Matt couldn't answer; Vegiemon's long arms wrapped around him, forcing the breath in his lungs out.
Davis shook his head. "Are we really going to let him just take them?"
"Yes," Tai answered.
"But what if he's taking them to torture and kill them?" Davis challenged, watching the three boys being dragged unceremoniously onto Airdramon.
"What? Hey! I don't need to hear that!" Joe panicked, shrinking back as the fourth Vegiemon approached him with a blindfold.
"Shut up Joe," Matt said as a blindfold was wrapped around his eyes. "Just calm down."
Joe grunted as he fell hard against the cement. "I don't know what I did to deserve this!" he pouted, using his newly freed arms to pull away the blindfold.
Kaiser stepped over Izzy carelessly. "Follow me."
Matt helped Izzy to his feet, removing the blindfold so the computer genius could keep his firm grip on his laptop. "Why are we here?" Izzy questioned quietly.
"NOW!" Kaiser shouted.
Matt tilted his head towards Kaiser, suggesting that they follow. Joe and Izzy fell in step behind him, heads hung in silent desperation. "Why us? It's never us."
"Didn't he explain it to you?"
Joe jumped, looking around frantically. "Who said that?"
"I did; down here."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Blackwormmon."
Izzy raised an eyebrow. "Do you know why we are here?"
"Of course I do. You are here to save the Kaiserin. I'm guessing that you are the really smart one, and the tall, panicky boy is the semi-trained doctor."
Joe frowned, removing his glasses and wiping them clean with his shirt. "What's wrong with Kari?"
"She's dieing, I bet," Matt spoke solemnly.
"She's not well at all," Blackwormmon concurred. "My master does not know why she is so ill, but it worries him greatly."
Kaiser cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the small group. "In here," he growled, nodding towards an open room.
Matt was the first to enter, taking note of the supine body upon the bed in the center of the room. "Kari," he gasped, running to her.
Joe was right behind him, stumbling over his own feet in his haste. He swatted Matt's arm, urging him to move aside. "When did she get like this?"
Stepping inside the room, Kaiser moved to the opposite side of the bed. "I found her unconscious a few hours ago."
Placing his palm on her forehead, Joe sighed, discouraged. "Her fever seems pretty bad."
"It's one hundred and two degrees."
"Vomiting?"
"She can't keep a sip of water down."
Kari moaned, clutching her stomach and turning onto her side. Matt watched as Kaiser's entire body tensed up, as if he too were in pain. Using his injured hand, Matt brushed away Kari's damp hair from her face.
"Matt?" she questioned weakly, reaching out and touching his forearm with a shaky hand, "is that you?"
"Yea, Kari, it's me."
"You were in the Dark Ocean—."
"Don't worry about that right now."
"No," she whispered, swallowing thickly. "I didn't care when I heard…I do now. I'm sorry."
"You can make it up to me later."
"Tell Tai and Ken that…" Shutting her eyes, Kari let out a pained gasp, tightening her grip on Matt.
"Joe, do something!" shouted Matt.
"You knew, Matt," Izzy suddenly spoke, his tune accusing. "You knew she was like this before Blackwormmon said anything."
"Joe you need a scalpel," Matt spat, eyes narrowed on Kaiser. "The only way to save her is to remove the spore."
"No. Removing the spore would make her not love me anymore. I can't allow that."
"Will you condemn her to death?"
"Yes!" Kaiser snarled, "if it means she'll die loving me and not Ken! Vegiemon!"
The four Vegiemon scurried in, bowing to their master. "Take them back to their group. They are of no use to me."
"You can't just let her die!" Matt shouted, resisting the pull of the Vegiemon. "You're a fool! Didn't you hear her tell me that she was sorry? She cares about us! She cares about Ken! The liquid darkness is spent so if you let her die she'll die hating you!"
"Take the blonde one down to the dungeon," Kaiser commanded.
Slamming the door shut, Kaiser fell back against it. "Fuck."
"What will you do?" Blackwormmon demanded.
"…I don't know."
… … … … … … … …
Well that didn't take too long. It wasn't six months : ) You know, Shattered took me less than two months to complete, and this is already like nine months old! I need to finish this before it's a year. Let's hope.
I thought it was cute (in a disturbing type of way) that they referred to the alert malfunction as a 'hiccup.'
