Disclaimer: This is bad, I keep repeating myself with this disclaimer. I don't own Digimon. Nor do I own Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Four Seasons: Chapter 9
The sun rose in the world of the FanFic Domain; a signal to all that it was time to wake up and rise with it. For many, there were groans of exasperation at having their rest interrupted like this, but for some there was excitement at the start of the new day. For the characters of the Digimon Branch of the FanFic Domain, they had much reason to celebrate.
And why shouldn't we? Thought a boy named John as he approached the Nonaka residence, a Tapirmon floating by his side. John had a small smile on his face, curving upwards as he thought of the vacation that he and the others were about to go on. This was one of those moments that he was grateful that he was both a character as well as an Avatar. He was able to go on little junkets such as this while the other authors were stuck working on repairing the website. Granted, he would want nothing more than to see the FanFic Domain up and running again, but he needed the rest. He had after all fought in the famed Fable War, struggled against the Seven Demon Lords, tussled once with Black Wargreymon (who now guarded the Domain Tower), and got nailed along with just about everyone else by the Lord of Fantasy's evil program called D-Leter. None of the other authors, except for Dean who had been there from the start, had shown up until after the character's got their butts handed to them in a sling and stole the glory. Not a single one of them except for him and Dean wound up in traction. Well, they didn't really end up in traction, but it sure felt like it. John groaned. Never before had he thought that something so simple as a backspace button could hurt so much, and he had even Mode-changed!
Yeah, all in all, John felt as though he and Tapirmon had so earned a little R&R, and he wasn't just talking about Reading and Reviewing. John chuckled as he stopped in front of the gate that led to Rika Nonaka's home. He raised his fist to knock, only to stop when the door opened, and a fiery red haired girl stood with a suitcase, looking over her shoulder and speaking in a loud, slightly irritated voice.
"Renamon! Would you hurry it up? We don't want to be… oh!" Rika blinked as she turned her head and saw John and Tapirmon standing in front of her. "I take it that you're here to see Renamon?"
"Um… well…"
"Look. Make it quick all right? She's going on vacation with me and just about everyone else, so if you have something to say…"
"Huh?" Said John, just a little bit bewildered. "I'm not here just to chit chat. Well, actually I am, but I guess I can do that on the boat…"
Rika grinned and looked at John with an amused look. "Going on the vacation trip too, huh? Good. Here, make yourself useful," she said and with that she tossed the suitcase that she had been carrying at John, who caught it, only to sink to the ground as its enormous weight nearly ripped his arms out of their sockets.
"GAAAH! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU PACK IN THIS THING? LEAD?!"
"Oh, knock it off you wimp," Rika huffed. "Since you've been going out with my partner, it's the least you can do." And with that, Rika strode right by him, head held high while John and Tapirmon watched her and sweat dropped. A shadow fell on them and they turned to its source.
It was Renamon.
"Good to see you, as always," Renamon said with a small smile as she helped John to his feet. "From what I overheard you'll be joining us on the cruise?"
John nodded. "That's right. Thought that I'd stop by and walk you guys there, and somehow I got dragged into bag carrying duty. Speaking of which, could you give me a hand here? Whatever it is that Rika's got in here it could sink the ship on its maiden voyage."
Renamon just looked at John and smiled before walking off and brushing his face with her tail, causing the boy to go through several shades of red before he started sputtering.
"Better hurry," said Renamon as she leapt up into the air. "The boat leaves in a couple hours."
"Oh, come on! RENAMON!!!"
The last thing John heard from the vulpine digimon before she phased out of sight was of her chuckling. John hung his head in defeat and groaned. Next to him Tapirmon tried to hold back a laugh.
"I guess it's true what they say," the digimon said. "Love hurts."
John growled. "Keep it up, Tapirmon and I'll digivolve you so that you can carry this thing yourself. And I won't even swipe a strength card to help you."
"WHA…? You wouldn't!"
"Watch me. Now give me a hand here."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris was walking down the stairs dressed in his usual attire complete with his digimon partner sitting on his shoulder, and carrying one small suitcase. They were going to meet up with Ryan and Richoemon and together they were to catch the FanFic Express to the Odaiba docks where the ship was to leave. Simple right?
Chris was just about to open the front door and get going when suddenly there a hard knock rattled it. Blinking, Chris looked over at Caramon before slowly opening the door. What he found was the shock of his life. Ashley Brahms, standing on his front stoop and wearing the biggest smile he had ever seen anyone have in his entire life.
Chris suddenly felt worried.
"Hiii Chris," The girl said cheerfully. "I'm going to be joining you and Ryan on your vacation, but I need you two to help me with something."
"Uh… what…?"
"Oh, I knew that you'd agree. Thanks. Now let's go get Ryan." And with that, Ashley grabbed Chris by the arm and immediately started dragging him out the door, nearly upsetting Caramon's precarious balance from his spot on his partner's shoulder.
Okay, I don't know what she had for breakfast, but it's clear that she needs to switch to something else, thought the little lizard digimon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taichi, Davis, Takuya, and Koji stood outside the front door of the Kamiya residence and Taichi calmly knocked on the door and they waited. Earlier they had run into Kari Kamiya as she was walking with her friends from season two, and Taichi had asked if Tai was going to be coming on the trip. When she had replied that the former goggle wearing teen showed no interest in coming Taichi immediately took it upon himself to drag him out of his apartment against his will, and Davis volunteered to lend him a hand.
As for Takuya and Koji, well, they had anticipated this eventuality and were just arriving at the apartment at the same time as Taichi and Davis, though Taichi later heard that it was mostly from Takuya's insistence that they check up on Kamiya just in case he pulled something like this.
So now here they stood, waiting.
Click.
The door finally opened and out poked the head of one Tai Kamiya, and as soon as he saw who it was he shut the door with a hard slam before any of them could get a word in edgewise. With a collective sigh, Taichi began banging on the door for a few minutes before finally turning to Davis, who smirked, gave Yagami the thumbs up and looked down at his partner, Veemon. The little blue reptile digimon cracked his knuckles and position himself in front of the door.
"VEE HEAD BUTT!"
CRASH!
The four Digidestined looked inside the Kamiya residence and sweat dropped.
"He certainly loses a lot of doors this way, doesn't he?" Said Takuya sarcastically.
Shaking his head, Taichi strode inside with his Agumon and headed towards Tai's room. "You guys stay here, the teenager said. "I'll be just a few minutes."
Takuya looked over at Koji. "You know, we could just spirit evolve and bring him with us."
Koji snorted. "Give me a break Takuya. If we do that, we'll cause even more trouble. It's bad enough that Davis had Veemon break down Tai's door, I don't think Agunimon setting fire to his apartment is going to help."
"Hey! Who said that I was going to set fire to his apartment?"
"You just did. Right now. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Why you…!"
Davis was just about to intervene when the familiar forms of Taichi and Tai exited the apartment. Tai had a bag, and oddly enough, a pleased look on his face, which was in stark contrast to Taichi, who's facial expression was enough to curdle milk.
"Um… that sure was fast," said Davis
"Mmmm…" grumbled Taichi as he set off with Tai right next to him. Koji, Takuya, and Davis quickly followed suit.
"So," began Takuya. "How did the great Taichi Yagami pull this one off? I mean, here I was thinking that we would have to tie up Tai and drag…"
"That's such a stupid joke, Takuya," said Koji, shaking his head.
Takuya looked baffled. "Huh? I didn't know I was joking about something. What'd I say?"
"Never mind. It would only become worse. So, seriously Taichi. How did you get Tai to come along?"
"I'm not sayin'…"
"I made him admit that I'm a better soccer player than he is," said Tai Kamiya with a huge grin plastered onto his face.
Koji groaned and sweat dropped while Takuya and Davis stared incredulously at Taichi.
"Man," began Davis. "Talk about swallowing your pride."
Taichi growled and picked up his pace. "Let's just hurry up and get this over with, okay? And I don't want to hear another word about this! Not in front of me, and not in front of anyone else!"
"Oookay…"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the Odaiba docks…
"Remind me again how it was that I got dragged into this?" Asked a brown haired boy as he and a little orange dinosaur with Zebra stripped hair pulled one very large suitcase up a ramp that led to the ship. Nearby, Beetlemon from Frontier watched the scene and sweat dropped. Judging from the speed that they were going at, whatever was in that suitcase had to be very heavy, and he quickly hurried along to avoid being dragged into it himself.
"Oh, stop you're complaining, Ryan. The exercise is good for you…"
"Exercise? This is murder!" Exclaimed Ryan. "Why the heck does Ashley need to bring so much clothing? She's an anime character for Digimon for cryin' out loud! She only needs one set of clothes!"
"Yeah, I tried explaining that concept to her and she just looked at me blankly. After that, she gave me the Sad Puppy Dog Look…"
"Yeah," said Caramon. "You folded like a deck of cards at that."
"You know," grunted Ryan as he tugged on the suitcase. "It bothers me that you can go up against fifty foot tall monsters with the power to level entire cities without batting an eye, and yet you come apart when a girl gives you the Sad Puppy Dog Look."
"The suitcases aren't getting on the ship any faster, Ryan."
"Ninety-nine suitcases of clothes on the wall, Ninety-nine suitcases…" Caramon sang.
"You're not helping…" growled Chris, before his face assumed a thoughtful look.
"Man, just how did we get dragged into this?"
Ryan huffed as he pulled on the suitcase again. They were almost onboard with the first suitcase. "Don't ask me, you were the one who decided to give her a bowl of milk. It's your fault that we can't get rid of her now. Aaaagh! I'd almost give anything to have D-Leter show up and start wrecking some havoc, maybe take out Ashley in the process while everyone does their hero bit…"
Ryan's voice trailed off as Chris gave one final push on the suitcase, and sent it into Ryan's stomach, sending both him and Richoemon, with the suitcase crashing to the boat floor. Chris sweat dropped.
"Sorry."
Ryan took a deep breath, content to just lay on the floor for a bit and regain his energy. "Well, at least we made it onboard. Now if we can just convince Ashley to leave her other six hundred and ninety-nine suitcases behind we'd be good to go."
"Ugh," spoke a voice from nearby. "How pathetic."
Ryan looked in the direction of the voice from his position on the ground and sighed. "Oh. Hey, Rika."
"Hey yourself," said the red haired girl as she took off her sunglasses. "What're you guys doing being someone else's servants?"
"I blame Chris," said Ryan, pointing at his friend.
"Hey!"
"Anyway," said Ryan. "What're you doing here? I didn't think that this sort of thing was your cup of tea, what with all the people around."
Rika hmmmphed and crossed her arms. "After yesterday I felt the need to get away from all authors. Seriously, that story was just plain degrading to be in."
"I don't know," said Ryan jokingly, his mouth becoming one goofy smile. "Despite the apocalyptic signs that it entailed, I thought that it was actually pretty funny seeing you in a dress."
Rika's eyes narrowed dangerously and Chris and Caramon looked at the boy as though he had lost his mind. Are you insane? Mouthed Chris. Behind Ryan, his partner Richoemon proceeded to back up slowly.
Rika's mouth curved upwards in a frightening smirk and she turned around. "You know," she said. "I was going to help you with the suitcases." And with that the Digimon Queen strode off. Ryan, Chris, Caramon, and Richoemon blinked.
"Hmmm…" said Chris. "She didn't hit you."
"I'm not complaining. Still, I do find it just a tad bit disturbing. Wonder if she's sick or something."
Chris grinned and nudged Ryan. "Hey, maybe she likes you."
Ryan glared venomously at Chris. "Knock it off. I don't believe that for a second. Just the very suggestion of it sounds wrong."
"You got another theory?"
"Yeah. I suspect Author influence or a double. Maybe both. Now come on. Let's get this stupid suitcase stowed and call it a day."
"Ashley's going to complain until our ears bleed you know…"
Ryan snorted. "At least then we won't be able to hear her."
Chris chuckled. "Good point."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A short distance off, Ryo Akiyama and his partner Cyberdramon stood watching the two OC's with a strange look.
"Is it just me," asked Cyberdramon. "Or is that one kid courting death?"
Ryo whirled around and fixed his ultimate level partner with a look of surprise.
"Cyberdramon? Did you just make a joke?"
Cyberdramon grinned eerily.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Okay," said a humanoid dragon with fox ears to a young human girl named Kaio with her mythical cat partner Arbomon. "Got your toothbrush? Toothpaste? Extra clothes? Cell phone? Books to read? Clean…?"
"DIGI-DRAGON!!!" Shouted Kaio.
"I'm just making sure that you have everything. You know that I worry about you."
Kaio sighed. "If you were so worried about me then you wouldn't bother sending me into so many dangerous fics." Kaio looked at her author fiercely before her face softened.
"Sorry. It's just that you annoy me sometimes with the whole motherly routine."
Digital-Dragon-Master grinned. "I know. That's why I do it. Now, are you sure that you have everything?"
"Yes," said the girl hefting her bag.
"All right then. Have fun, and remember to give me a call if something goes wrong."
Kaio sighed and rolled her eyes. "I will. Don't worry."
"Okay. Have a good time, try not to hurt anyone, stay safe, see you later, and…"
Kaio Griffen groaned and just turned around and ran towards the boat, with her partner chasing after her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The cruise ship pulled away from the docks with a large crowd of people waving goodbye to the characters assembled on the decks of the boat. The characters pressed up to the railing and waved back. Chris turned to Kaio, who was standing next to him.
"Hey, why are we even waving anyway? Half the people there aren't even authors. In fact, they're mostly faceless. We don't know any of them."
Kaio shrugged. "They're just here for the sendoff. Just run with it Chris. It's supposed to look good for a dramatic moment."
"You mean for that moment when we get lost at sea and hit an iceberg?"
Kaio frowned. "I think you've been watching too many movies, Chris."
As the boat sailed away, that glitch in the FanFic Domain's data pattern kicked in, and some music began, followed shortly by the lyrics. It had a strange, upbeat, almost fun sound to it that didn't seem to belong with the song's words, but it played nonetheless, and sounded strangely prophetic to everyone who paid attention. One character, Ashley Brahms listened intently and shivered before deciding to head below deck and escape the music.
I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today.
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.
I hear hurricanes are blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers over flowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise
All right!
Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye.
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.
The ship sailed off towards the horizon, almost a symbol of hope for the future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somewhere in cybernetic oblivion, a presence watched.
It's almost time…8