Chapter 10: Doubt
"Tell me!"
"No"
"Tell me!"
"No!"
"C'mon Claire tell me how you did it!"
"Tyler I already told you! I don't know how I did it! Quit asking me!" a very annoyed Clair yelled.
"But I just gotta know how to make Dracomon digivolve! Please!"
Claire released an exasperated sigh as she tried to think of a way to make their self-proclaimed leader shut up. "Tyler, try thinking really intense thoughts and when you start glowing that's when you know you're doing it right,"
"No foolin'?" he said as he ran her suggestion through his mind.
"Yeah, really,"
The dragon digimon sitting next to his partner wasn't fooled as easily. "Sire, she is trying to get rid of us," accused Dracomon.
"Alright fine! Tyler I don't know how I made Biyomon digivolve but right now me and her both are tired and just want some time to ourselves OK?"
Tyler crossed his arms in disappointment. "Fine but when you're done you promise to show me?"
"I promise" she answered. With Tyler satisfied she stroked Biyomon's feathers as she rested in her lap. The fight with Allomon had taken a lot out of her and everyone else. Most of them still couldn't believe they were still alive let alone resting peacefully in the shrine. Miraculously it had survived the attack unscathed and had become their default meeting place. Tony and Kapurimon were sitting in the seat on the other side of the cabin talking to each other and fiddling with his new digivice. She had to remember to congratulate him.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Selena and Labramon making their way toward her. "Hey Claire, are you feeling alright?" the girl asked.
"I'm fine really, Allomon didn't even touch me thanks to Biyomon here," she responded.
Biyomon squirmed in her arms. "That's right! A guardian digimon always protects her human no matter what!"
Labramon stared at the proud guardian and smiled. "That was some fight. Didn't it hurt when Allomon bit you?"
Biyomon flexed her wings and sighed. "Well maybe they do hurt a little,"
"Then I'll help," declared the dog digimon as he opened his mouth.
"Cure Liquor!" He cried as he licked Biyomon with his long, wet, tongue. Claire and Biyomon both let out an astonished screech while Tyler burst into laughter.
"Eww! Josh, come and get your dog away from Biyomon!" screamed Claire as she pulled her partner away from Labramon.
Labramon's look of confusion did nothing to assuage her disgust. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" repeated Biyomon as she frantically shook her feathers. "You slobbered all over me!"
"She's right Labramon that wasn't nice. Here Biyomon, I'll get something to dry you off. Are there any blankets or towels around?"
"You seriously think we're gonna find that stuff out here?" asked Tyler.
"If they can make all this…" she paused and swept her arm around the plane's cabin for emphasis. "They should have something as simple as a rag so we can clean Biyomon off,"
"I can find something like that," offered Labramon.
"No offense Labramon but I think it'd be better if me or Selena does it. You should go be with your partner. Speaking of which where is he?" asked Claire.
"He's still in first class just kind of staring off into space. I swear he's just in his own little world when he does that," answered Selena.
"Josh says that when he does that it means he's thinking about something," stated Labramon as he remembered a similar tendency back in the forest.
"Then go and keep him company while I clean the drool out of my feathers," Biyomon suggested flippantly as she ran her beak through her plumage.
"And while you're doing that me and Dracomon will be outside trying out that human candle trick you pulled back on the beach," stated Tyler.
"I apologize for interrupting but might I suggest that everyone stay in the shrine for the time being?" asked a voice that came from none other than Lunamon as she entered the cabin.
The eager boy looked at her in confusion "Why?"
"Because our actions during the battle with Allomon have drawn quite a following and I doubt your popularity would be conducive to your training".
Tyler turned his head. "What's "conducive" mean?"
"She means you won't get anything done because there's too many digimon outside waiting for us," answered Tony as he finished polishing Kapurimon's helmet.
"Wow she's right! Look out the window!" said Claire.
Everyone moved to the right side of the plane and looked out toward the beach. Outside huge crowds of digimon were waiting patiently each with some variation of excitement plastered on their faces.
Tyler's eyes widened. "Dude, it's like we're a rock band or something!"
"I've never seen so many of the village digimon in one place before. We must be more popular than ever!" said Biyomon happily.
"This is true which is why I suggest we remain here until we can formulate a plan for our journey. Has anyone seen Lord Joshua?" asked Lunamon.
"He's in the first-class cabin by himself doing who knows what," answered Selena. Just then Joshua walked into coach with an intense expression on his face. The atmosphere of the plane became heavy as everyone took in the angry expression on the normally reserved boy. Worried Labramon ambled up to his partner.
"What's wrong?" He asked obviously concerned.
Joshua's apparent anger evaporated at the sound of his partner's voice. "Nothing, I'm just thinking that's all,"
Labramon still did not look relieved. "You looked like you were angry at someone. Was it because of what I did?"
"I told you before that I'm fine. That bite you gave me saved my life I'm glad you did it," Joshua reassured him.
"Not that! He means he's sorry for licking Biyomon and covering her with spit!" said a clearly annoyed Claire who was still helping her digimon clean her feathers.
"You did what now?" asked Joshua confused.
Labramon turned his head away from him. "She said that she was still hurt and it seemed like a good idea at the time,"
"Yeah, well the next time you have another one of your bright ideas please leave me and my clean, unslobbered-on feathers out of it!" yelled Biyomon.
Clearing her throat, Lunamon refocused everyone's attention on her once more. "Forgive me for intruding upon on the conversation but recent events warrant our prompt action. We have a decision to make concerning our future plans,"
"Ugh, Lunamon do you have to be so formal all the time? It's us! You don't need to act like Ms. SAT vocabulary all the time!" Tyler complained. "I mean just take Dracomon here, he only says exactly what he needs to say and we all think he's the greatest!"
"Speak for yourself dragon boy! Some of us appreciate a little decorum once in a while or did you forget she's the priestess for the entire village!" Selena shot back.
"I appreciate your kind words Lady Selena but above all else we must remain focused. We have yet to decide on the proper course of action we should take concerning our journey across the islands,"
"You mean we still have to find the older priestess right? The one you said used to protect all the islands?" asked Anthony.
"Well we obviously can't leave. The village is still a wreck and if any more of those bad digimon come here without us to protect it the villagers could get hurt again!" she pointed out of the plane's window to the mob of digimon still waiting on their return.
Joshua turned to Selena. "No, that's exactly why we should we leave! The sooner we find this priestess and find our way home the better!"
Tyler sat up in his chair. "Dude, I know you don't really like this place but we can't just leave! We gotta job to do!"
Selena walked up to Joshua. "Don't you care about any of the digimon here? How can we just go home with everything that's happened? Some of them were even deleted Josh!" She tried to convey here feelings as best she could. She knew their most recent addition to their team wasn't the most sociable but now he was acting downright cold-hearted.
Joshua looked straight at her. "That's just it. We shouldn't care about the village or the islands or this world. None of this should matter to us at all!"
The whole cabin went silent as the boy's words hung in the air. Even Labramon hung his head and backed away from his partner.
"I can't believe you!" shouted Claire as she jumped from her seat and stomped toward him. Biyomon, still resting in her arms, was in full and mirrored her partner's look of shock and anger. "Did you forget that Biyomon almost got killed? Hell, we all almost died but our diigmon risked their lives anyway!
"Yeah and the village digimon saved me and Selena from those bat digimon. Everyone helped out even Kapurimon did back when he just Metalkoromon," said Tony as his found his voice.
"Face it man, you're the only one here who wants to leave and after this maybe you should!" Tyler joined in on the rant. "Dracomon and I are more the willing to pick up the slack,"
Selena shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest to express her disappointment. "Lunamon tried to defend you. She said you just needed time to adjust and if you work with us maybe we can help you but you have to trust us and them," she swept her arm across the plane to indicate the digimon. "But not if you're just going to throw everyone's sacrifices away,"
Joshua let out a sigh of annoyance and massaged his temples with his right hand. "You all honestly don't see what's happening here? None of you has even the slightest idea?"
"Then please, tell us Sherlock!" challenged Tyler. "What do you know that we don't?"
Joshua shook his head. "Not here," He looked past Selena's shoulder toward where Lunamon had been sitting in silence. He figured she had learned to stay out of the conversations they were having, whether out of politeness or because she just wanted to listen in.
"How about everyone from Earth go into the first-class cabin while the digimon go outside?" He suggested. He kept his eyes trained on Lunamon's face watching for any kind of reaction. The priestess failed to meet his gaze but she seemed unusually calm about his announcement especially since he was effectively kicking her out of her own shrine. After a few moments Selena noticed that his eyes weren't on her.
"Is this about Lunamon? What do you have against her?"
"Look, if you all really want to know what I think then meet me behind the curtain but tell your digimon to go outside. This is important!" he waited for everyone's response trying to keep his nerves under control. "After that you can do whatever you want,"
Both humans and digimon alike looked at each other as if trying to communicate their thoughts without speaking. Tyler broke the silence first.
"Alright, let's see what he has to say that's so important,"
Lunamon looked at the group with increasing worry. "Please Lord Joshua if you have some disagreement with me I would be more than willing to talk with you but I feel separating us like this would solve nothing,"
Joshua ignored her and instead focused on the mixture of emotions displayed on her face. Even though she wasn't human he could still clearly make out her feelings. She was trying to endear herself to him in her usual manner but he noticed a small crack in her composure. Obviously she hadn't planned on him figuring out so much so soon. He then turned away from the priestess and looked down at his partner still sitting at his side. "Labramon would you take the other digimon off the plane for a while," he said.
It was obvious from the dog digimon's face that he didn't want to be separated, especially now since he had gained the nagging feeling that his partner had lost some trust in him during the fight with Allomon ,but the stern face Josh was giving him told him that whatever he was doing he wanted to do it his way. Labramon rose from his place and walked toward the side exit without saying a word to his partner or the other digimon. It was obvious that they had heard Joshua's request so there was no need to say it again.
"You're just walking out?" asked Biyomon indignantly. She stared at her fellow guardian digimon hoping for some kind of response. Labramon looked back at her and inclined his head toward the door expecting her to follow. Biyomon scoffed at him and turned toward Claire.
"Don't worry about us Biyomon," she reassured the bird digimon. "I bet this is all just a misunderstanding,"
"Yeah, we'll straighten out Mr. Paranoia over here in no time. You guys just go have fun for a while," added Selena as she and the others began to enter the first-class cabin. Joshua, being the one to call the "meeting" in the first place, entered first and stood right in front of where the cockpit would be in a normal plane. The others filed in and took a seat roughly where they were the first time he had seen them, when he and Labramon had first stumbled upon the village.
The last of Tyler's patience evaporated as soon as everyone was accounted for. "Ok, you got what you wanted now talk! What's this about?" he crossed his arms and stared directly at him waiting for an answer.
"I'll tell what this is about!" Selena answered angrily. "This is about whatever he has against Lunamon! Ever since he came here he's done nothing but ignore or disrespect her!" she turned toward Josh without missing a beat. "She's been nothing kind to all of us, she even fought with us against Allomon and those other bat things but you for whatever reason have a problem with her!"
"No to mention that whole "we shouldn't care about anything here crap you said earlier," Claire added. "For Christ's sake you said that in front of Labramon! Did you see the way he looked at you when you basically said you didn't care about him? I thought the poor thing would be heartbroken!"
"And the other digimon here have been so nice to us," said Tony. "How come you don't like them?"
Joshua looked around the room as he absorbed the comments and questions. Admittedly he did feel slightly guilty for his perceived coldness toward Labramon but his feelimgs would have to wait. This was far too important.
"Look I know I'm not the most likeable person her so I'll make this quick. I don't trust Lunamon, at all!" he crossed his arms and leaned against the sides of the cabin waiting for a response.
"We've kind of knew that already," said Selena. "The question is why,"
Josh took a deep breath to calm his nerves before speaking again. "Because nothing she's said to us since I came here has made any sense!"
Everyone in the rom looked at him strangely. "Like what?" asked Selena.
Joshua counted of a finger on his right hand. "For one, she lied about us being brought here by her gods or whatever for some great purpose. I didn't come to this world because some deity asked me nicely, some…thing trapped me in a train car and told me that if I didn't cooperate it would kill everyone else on the train including my little sister!"
"You have a sister?" asked Tyler. "That's a surprise,"
Joshua looked up at him. "Why's that?"
"You don't act like it," Claire clarified. "Honestly, before you told me I thought you were an only child,"
"She's my half-sister," he explained. "But that's not important right now. What is important is that I think whoever brought us here isn't exactly a saint let alone some benevolent god,"
"He does have a point," Claire admitted. "I came here because some demon-possessed toy tried to take my little brother away and I told it to take me instead. You know come to think of it you never did tell me why you thought the toy wanted me instead of him,"
Joshua swept his hand across the cabin. "Well just look at us. Don't you think it's a bit convenient that the gods just happened to choose the five of us?
"Lunamon said we were special," Selena challenged. "I think we have proof of that after Claire lit up like a Christmas tree,"
"Yeah, whenever she gets around to telling us how she did it we'll all be glowing like that too," said Tyler leaning unmistakably toward Claire. "I mean if we could do that why wouldn't they call on us to help?"
"I mean…" began Joshua. "Ok, how about this. How many of you could shine like that back home? "He asked. As expected everyone shook their heads. "And how many people do you know can shine the way Claire did?"
Tyler scratched his chin. "I think I saw some hippie's on TV read people's auras and stuff. Maybe they're on to something,"
"Yeah, this one time I met The Great Soondi and he said everyone's got cosmic energy in them and if you work real hard you can do stuff with it!" Tony added.
Claire raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You should probably mind who you listen to hun but in this case I might have to agree with him. Just a little bit,"
"So maybe the gods chose us because we have stronger auras then other people," Selena guessed. "Maybe the five of us have the strongest auras in the world and that's why the gods chose us,"
Despite his skepticism Joshua considered it. "And let's say you're right. Auras or cosmic energy or chakras or whatever you want to call it exist and they can be measured in people. What are the chances that the five most powerful "auras" in the world all belong to Americans and all of whom are roughly around the same age?"
Joshua's question hung heavily over everyone in the shrine. They had to admit it was a strange coincidence.
As usual Tyler was the one to break the silence. "How do you know I'm American? I could be Canadian for all you know!"
"Are you Canadian?" Joshua asked.
"No. I'm from Denver but still!"
"I'm from Brooklyn," said Claire. "Moved to Atlanta about five years ago,"
"You too?" asked Selelna in surprise. "My family and I moved there from Vegas a while ago,"
Tony raised his hand frantically. "Ooh, I'm from California! Then my mom made us move to Atlanta when I was eight,"
"And I'm originally from Chicago. Another amazing coincidence that we all just happened to move to Atlanta isn't it?" By now Joshua was certain the others would see reason after this.
"But what does any of that mean? Have the gods been watching us the whole time? Is there something in Atlanta that's so special?" Selena voiced the questions the entire group had been pondering since the reveal of their respective hometowns.
Joshua shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but if anything it means we can't trust these "gods" at all which in our case means Lunamon,"
Claire frowned at him. "OK, hold up. You've had a problem with her ever since you came here. I get that all this is Digital World stuff is strange as hell and we should watch our backs but Lunamon has always been our best friend ever since we came here and really I don't even think she could hurt us even if she wanted to,"
"Yeah, see that's why I don't trust her. She's supposed to be a representative of the ones who brought us here but why do these gods need her to talk to us in the first place? Why don't they just come down here and talk to us directly! Why haven't they said a single word to us except through Lunamon!" Joshua's voice grew in volume as his questions marched forth. He usually liked to keep his thoughts to himself and if he had to explain them he had always imagined himself as calm and patient but he couldn't deny how good it felt to finally get these nagging thoughts of his chest.
Tyler shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe they've got better things to do?"
"What could be more important than contacting the people you brought to destroy your own world?" asked Joshua as he stared directly at Tyler. Once again the boy in the goggles shrugged his shoulders and turned toward the rest of the group in the hope that someone else had an answer.
"And that's another thing," Joshua continued. "Lunamon said we were brought here to "destroy the world" to keep it from getting worse. Why?"
"Because if you don't it'll get worse," answered Claire. "It's like when a really old car breaks down completely and it's cheaper to get a new one instead paying for the repairs,"
"Then why not fix it sooner and avoid having it break down at all? What sense does it make for the gods to wait until now to call us when their world is so far gone that the only option left is to destroy it?" he rebutted. "And why call us at all? I know we all saw what you did back there during the fight but we're only human. If digimon like Allomon exist why would they take the risk of bringing aliens with no connection to this world over their own kind? For all they knew we could've been card carrying members of the Kill all Digimon League and where would they've been then?"
"You been thinking a lot about this," Selena commented.
"Well someone had to!" he exclaimed. "Ever since I met all of you you've all taken Lunamon and the other digimon's stories at face value! What the hell do we know about this place other than what they've told us? That's why I think we need to get out of here ASAP before Lunamon takes us wherever she has planned,"
"Why are you always so damned cynical?" she shouted back angrily. "You don't know Lunamon!"
"Neither do you!" he shot back. "You've known her for how long? A few days? Is that all it takes for someone to convince you to trust them? Or is it because she's cute and you want her to be your partner?"
Selena stomped toward him. "You-"
"Alright that's enough!" Tyler shouted. "We're supposed to be a team! And we can't do that if we're fighting each other,"
Joshua glared at their supposed "leader" and shouted back at him. "What team!" You mean us? Now we're making a team because Lunamon told you to? Have you forgotten that we might never get back home again? Are you really that gullible or just stupid?"
Tyler shoved the shorter boy in anger. Joshua stumbled backward struggling to regain his footing before finally stopping himself before he fell on his back.
"Hey Ty, we don't have to fight. Can't we just go back outside with the digimon?" Tony pleaded to the older boy.
"What the hell's your problem dude!" Tyler yelled.
"My problem is that you all don't have a problem!" he accused. He picked himself up then walked past both teenagers without even looking at them and headed toward the curtains.
"Where're you going?" asked Claire.
"Out," he answered tersely. "I'm going to find a way back home. You can all go follow Lunamon if you want. I don't care," The curtains quickly parted as the boy stormed out of the shrine.
"Well good riddance!" Selena shouted after him. "Paranoid weirdo!"
"Is he though?" Claire questioned. "He did bring up some good points,"
"That's no reason to be a jerk!"
"I know but he was right about one thing, we do have to leave the village," Claire adimitted.
Selena looked at the other girl in surprise. "What! You don't actually believe what he said about Lunamon do you?"
"No but I was thinking about what would happen if more digimon like Allomon come around. The only reason they came here in the first place was because they thought we could make them digivolve,"
Tyler nodded in understanding. "So the longer we stay here the more likely the village will get attacked again,"
"And just like that we've got something else to worry about," Selena sat down in the seat next to Tony and massaged her head with her fingers. "Great. Now I have a headache too,"
Man, that took a lot longer to write than I anticipated. I've been doing research lately about future arcs and frankly I can understand why shows like Digimon have multiple writers. They say that when a writer creates a character he puts a piece of himself into that character. I think that's true but when you're a single person writing an ensemble piece you have to constantly keep your characters sounding natural without them becoming cardboard cut-outs. With more writers they can focus on one or two characters at a time and then have them play off each other in a much more realistic way.