A/N:During this absence, I have gone back and re-read parts and its of my dual projects and made some fixes and such, and so this chapter took longer.
Chapter 9: Devouring Fear
The elevator continues to move downward as the group of chosen children takes this time to rest up.
Takeru is holding Patamon in his arms, being glad to see his partner all right. Even though the earlier fight left them in fatigue and soreness, they are alive and well. There may be some difficulties in terms of dealing with present evils, but at least for Takeru he knows he is not alone. Although the most surprising thought would still be Daisuke's timely rescue at that moment, it seems to be so quick... Yet it also proves to be a relief of some sort.
Ken stands on the other end of the elevator, pondering about the current situation. He knew that with Daisuke and BlackTailmon would be no problem since the environment gives them the same advantage as the enemy. Very weird thought indeed, as Ken wonders about how Daisuke would fit into all this. Right now, the situation may be stable because of Daisuke's timely rescue, but what about later? Should either Hikari or Takeru reject him, nothing good will come up with division amongst the team.
Iori and Armadimon stands along with Ken, but a little less in thought. Their fight's end seems to be to be so sudden that they could still feel the air of battle in the air. Right now, the only thought would be how Daisuke would manage an opponent of that strength alone. Nevertheless, it is not productive to think about one event too much, as the dual settles down to relax their minds from the recent chaos.
Miyako and Hikari sits next to each other, Miyako encourages Hikari to stay strong at this situation. Sure, many things take place in one sitting, but surely there is no need to feel down with that retreat. Instead, trust may be what Hikari needs now with the disorder of the roof situation.
The general condition of the room seem to be morose, but at the same time relief washes over the team as they continue to let the sound of the passing elevator run through the room.
Back at the rooftop, IceDevimon gives a little thought to the reason that Daisuke would send his friends away in one instant. The simple conclusion would be that the boy is either very brave or very foolish.
"So... It looks like that with the trash out of the way, the real show starts..." IceDevimon breathed out.
"Trash out of the way? The only trash I see is you, and are you ever ugly..." Daisuke responds, letting off a small smile.
"Oh really now, your friend back there said something similar, and look how he ended up! I suppose you may be no differ- AHHH!" IceDevimon shouted as he could feel a surge of pain from behind on the left leg.
From behind, Nat-chan speeds away from the ice Devil that yelps in pain from a hard scratch while regrouping with Daisuke. Daisuke takes the moment to laugh at the ice demon that is in pain from the scratch, as the sight seems to be too funny.
"You think this is funny? I will give you something to laugh at!" The ice devil shouted in response to the laughing.
Once again, IceDevimon releases Icicles from his Icy Shower attack, and the icicles plummet down onto the battlefield where Daisuke and Nat-chan manages to escape by just a margin. However, the anger from that one sneak attack did stir up a certain amount of hate within the ice devil to be merciless and devious in anyway possible. Flying up into the air, IceDevimon further terrorises the area with Zero Freeze beams, but Daisuke and Nat-chan luckily and miraculously evades the beams from freezing them over.
Even with such luck to evade the attacks, the cat-Digimon and her partner now found themselves in the middle of the stage with no more places to escape.
"This isn't good... looks like we just have to think of something else..." Daisuke commented, looking up to see IceDevimon preparing the next attack, or rather just a leap downwards. Without much thought, Daisuke picked up Nat-chan and leaped out of the way just in time of a crash.
This crash lead to a blowing of a hole in the middle of the stage as IceDevimon fell down yelling out something. Nat-chan stood up, faces the giant hole in the middle, from her senses she could tell the battle is far from over, and that the enemy still lurks down on the bottom somewhere.
"Daisuke, I think I will need more power to take this one down... perhaps even evolving..." Nat-chan informed, looking at the situation of both the field and the limited space to fight.
"Huh? He's still around huh? Figures, but why don't we just get out of here if he's going to be elsewhere for now, because we've got the chance to run..." Daisuke suggested, giving a light laughter to his voice.
"What? But you said we were going to beat him and that everything will be ugly... Is that all just a bluff?" Nat-chan asked back at Daisuke's comment.
"Well, yes! It is just a bluff! We can't take that ugly ice cube down, but we can run when he's out, so that we can think of something else later!" Daisuke laughed out in response; certainly, the decision to stay behind is not a sagacious one but just a diversion.
"Unbelievable..." Nat-chan commented at her partner's frivolous attitude in the situation.
Before the laughter could continue for any longer, an ice pillar busted out from the hole in the centre and both the Digimon and Chosen one looked onto the scene with some fear as the ice devil emerges once more.
"You think you can get rid of me that easily? You're wrong!" IceDevimon roared out, looking down on the pair with an even greater amount of cold hate.
Daisuke acted quickly and picks up Nat-chan and running for the elevator door that slides open and escapes while IceDevimon shouts at the appalling scene.
"What! Coward!" IceDevimon shouted at the pair that fled, but unable to stop them as the elevator door closed and went down. "Fine, we'll settle this at the bottom... Ahhh!" IceDevimon yelled out again as the ice he was standing on breaks, causing him to fall down the tower again.
In the elevator, Daisuke slowly calms down. Maybe the outcome did not turn out for the best, but at least now, there would be time to escape and rethink the situation. Perhaps it would be very possible to fight, and it certainly is not impossible to win. However, Daisuke knew there would be too much risk involved at the current situation with what he is thinking. At least his joking and easy-going attitude brought them through now. Sadly, Nat-chan could see right through her partner's personality barrier and could still see it now with the uneasiness.
"Daisuke... we could have beaten him, but why didn't we? I could evolve no problem, and then..." Nat-chan just said, but Daisuke is barely paying attention.
Inside Daisuke's head is where the scene of a twisted evolution came into place. A more unnatural type of way to evolve, and once into this state of evolution, all type of hate and power would be used without stopping, and all that's left will be destruction and desolation. Indeed such is true for the appearance of that LadyDevimon at that time, destroying everything without warning and almost completely out of control. Barely did Daisuke's voice reach her, and only then did Nat-chan's true self-recovered into the scene. Even then, though, the leftover of what happened because of that evolution did put quite a scar in the memory of Daisuke.
It is just that easy to beat that guy... but... what will happen if I try to use evolution powers again? Will it end up like what happened last time? Did my last evolution corrupt my ability to evolve Nat-chan properly forever? I could have asked Ken on the way to deal with something like this since he probably felt this kind of experience before... A little too late for now, and even if I could evolve properly, what will everyone think? We've just met after that one year and am I suppose to show them all how evil I look? I've got to think of something later... although thinking is not what I am best at, hehe... Daisuke processed in his head in response to the current situation.
"Daisuke? Are you feeling sick?" Nat-chan asked as she jumped onto Daisuke's shoulder, as the Chosen Child is still deep in thought.
"Huh? No... It's nothing... we should get going soon..." Daisuke said quickly in response, still in a paralysed state from the memories and possibly of everything that has to do with "evolve" now.
Back outside on the first floor, the pair looks to their left as the see IceDevimon just laying there immobile for whatever unknown reason.
"What happened to him? He beat us down here and he appears like he lost or something, oh well, better run..." Daisuke noted as the pair takes their exit of the building.
Of course, back inside IceDevimon makes his awakening, to his inconvenience, sees the elevator down already, and empty of any occupants. Getting up fully on a not-so-great state, he slowly heads for the exit.
Outside, Daisuke and Nat-chan recognised the concentration of energy at the area, obviously, this would be the centre of the area with these dark energies and since there would be nothing to hinder him from doing his task, Daisuke immediately gets to work.
Concentrating the energies of his Digivice, Daisuke shoots up a beam that begins to neutralise the area with his own weird type of powers. With the thickness of the field and the energies, it proved to be impossible for Daisuke to disperse it, but he did manage to weaken the general state of the field and causing the energies to flow freely around the area. Putting down his hands, Daisuke and Nat-chan could see the energies surrounding them in a circular motion. It would always be the same deal: Eat or be eaten. Surely, this time was no different, but it did seem strange when Daisuke thinks of the evolution process and how they are going to manage this scene. After all, IceDevimon could not possibly be out that easily when they did not really do anything yet.
"Hmm, guess we can't disperse it just by brute force, we'll have to take some of this with us as we go..." Daisuke said taking note of some of the energies that is flowing into Nat-chan and himself.
Daisuke and Nat-chan continued to head for the nearest exit to the field, although the area is almost falling apart as Daisuke did manage to dissipate the centre point of the field. Along the way, they also absorb some of the surrounding darkness as their own source of energy.
"Looks like if this place falls down everything will be taken with it... I wonder how we'll explain or handle this afterwards..." Daisuke noted, looking at the taller buildings and the general area of the place is under the dark field.
"Nothing we can do about it, as long as we leave it alone we should be fine, right Daisuke? That's what you would say," Nat-chan said in response, looking at Daisuke with a smile.
"Yeah, maybe..." Daisuke responds, while opening a hole in the base of the dark field to secure their escape route. However, as he did that, a sheet of ice appears over the exit, cutting off the exit. Turning around, IceDevimon hovers in the air above the pair and prepares for another Zero Freeze attack.
The immediate reaction to the attack would be a quick run away, as Daisuke and Nat-chan flees from the area back into the condensed city-area and into a narrow alley.
"Daisuke, I need to evolve if we are to beat him up, he's too quick, and his attacks can freeze us even," Nat-chan informs, looking back in the direction they ran from and seeing the area all being frozen-solid.
"I know, but..." Daisuke said quickly in response, still thinking of the consequences of the evolution from before.
"But what? Our lives depend on our power, and we do have that power to evolve..." Nat-chan almost asked knowing about Daisuke's uneasiness.
"I know that, it's just that... I can't!" Daisuke slowly processed out, then stopping in the running along with his partner.
Nat-chan faced Daisuke at the stop of movement; she knew something was up, but what? Certainly cannot be the power, maybe something to do with confidence, but perhaps not... "What is it?"
"Well, I just... don't want a repeat of that time... what if you don't evolve 'correctly', or something goes wrong? I really can't risk that again..." Daisuke finally explained, though uncertainty still fills his voice.
"That was the past though; we may just be able to..." Nat-chan said, then ducking as more Zero Freeze beams explode at their location, freezing more pieces of the land. The alley way did not prove to be a good place to be in this situation, as the frozen areas would put the pair prone to slipping.
"No more escape for you two, this is the end! It would be too easy to eliminate the two of you; perhaps I should keep you in my personal prison where you two will become my source of energy... After all, you two are similar to me, using the power of this darkness around us... huh? Where did you two go?" IceDevimon said, as he looked around to see his prey having disappeared again.
Of course, on the frozen ground Daisuke and Nat-chan could not go very far on feet. Because of this, the raging ice demon still sees them clearly and prepares for another Icy Shower attack and shooting the icicles around the alleyway, causing much debris to fall off from the higher parts of the buildings. These obstacles would prove useful in the hindrance of the escaping pair. To make things more interesting, IceDevimon also fires off more Zero Freeze beams that seem to be even more of hindrance.
Still, Daisuke manages to evade complete disaster in the escape, as the beams would always miss him by just a small bit. At the intervals between falling chunks of building pieces and Zero Freeze beams would be, Daisuke would take the opportunity and climb up the building debris and jump down on the other side to continue running away. Finally, what seems to be like an eternity for Daisuke and his partner, they finally came out of the alley way and into a more familiar opening. Here they immediately noticed the area to be the same area that the group entered.
Whether his friend were still around or not did not really matter that much because even if he escaped, the situation will only be worse with IceDevimon outside of the dark field to cause trouble for outside areas. There would be no time to think as IceDevimon quickly caught up in the chase and started to throw icicles like spears at the pair.
Yelling out for their lives, the pair ran as fast as they could, despite the fact that now their peers would see their ludicrous way of "handling" the enemy, but it was certainly better than losing their lives altogether.
As the yelling and the crashing of icicles continued, the rest of the group did take notice of the commotion and turned back to look into the dark field to see the ridiculous sight.
"What the... Is running around with that guy suppose to be properly taking care of him?" Takeru asked out loud hearing as if Daisuke is laughing at the dangerous situation.
"At least that leaves no doubt that the person in front of us is indeed Daisuke... Seems like a normal thing he would do..." Ken stated, looking on as more crashes and yells ring across the place.
"Should we go help him then? Looks like he would need it..." Iori said, taking notice of the situation getting worse.
"Ok... we should be able to evolve to full power outside the field, and afterwards attempt an attack from behind the enemy..." Ken instructed, letting his plan flow out.
Back inside the field, Daisuke and Nat-chan continues to run, still evolution is impossible at this point because of self-doubt from Daisuke. They continued to run, until Daisuke tripped and fell down, where then IceDevimon immediately sealed off all exits to the area with Zero Freeze, and this time there would be no escape.
"Enough of this nonsense boy... I've grown tired of this little game... time to end this..." IceDevimon breathed out, a little exhausted from the attacks and chasing the pair around.
Daisuke immediately saw something in his sight, and began to laugh at the situation. Certainly, the situation is interesting, but he knew this is all over and just decided to take it easy.
"Well, not quite. You'd better look behind you or else it's really all over..." Daisuke laughed out, still smiling.
"That's not going to work; you're just out of ways to escape..." IceDevimon cheered, thinking that Daisuke could be lying around, but the fact is far from it.
From the back of IceDevimon, the Spiking Finish and Red Sun beams attacks forces right on his back, causing the ice Digimon to fly forwards, where Daisuke and Nat-chan jumps out of the way to avoid collision. The sight that followed is a most hilarious one fitting to the situation as IceDevimon had his own head stuck into the wall of his own ice along with his hands, rendering him immobile.
Not wasting a single second, Daisuke flashes his Digivice at the unsuspecting foe, absorbing the enemy into his own Digivice to quarantine it.
Hahaha! You and your friends are tricky... I guess this is the end of me... said the familiar voice in Daisuke's head.
So it was you from that time... But how and why? Daisuke responded back in his thoughts, and a little confused to why it was this Digimon that called out to him.
It does not matter now, you've taken care of me and there won't be anymore voices in your head, but listen to this: As long as you and your partner linger around in this world, everything will be put in danger! IceDevimon's telepath voice ringed before completely dying down.
"Wow, do you mind explaining that later?" Takeru said as he saw the enemy completely disappear.
"Yeah, I can... but right now I suggest we get out of here..." Daisuke said in response, as the dark field along with whatever is inside begins to collapse at a high destructive rate.
Quickly the group evacuated the area and saw the dark field come down with a crash and evaporating into the air. However, the remains of the area would be a big surprise to the group: a perfectly normal and functioning part of the city without any damage.
"Huh, what just happened? Didn't everything got destroyed and then turned into air?" Miyako asked, looking in amazement, as the inhabitants of the affected area seem to be moving about normally.
"It looks like whatever was in that field was in another dimension that landed onto this place, it may have looked similar to our place, but in reality is just a replica of some sort... still, looks pretty strange..." Ken observed.
"Well, at least for now we're safe, and all six of us is together again too," Hikari noted.
"Oh right, I almost forgot... so... where has this sloppy, stupid, lazy, unacceptable..." Miyako listed, but soon ignored as the conversation went on.
"Well, at least Ken has told all of you about V-mon, but... there's sure a lot of things that are best explained in detail, but right now, we need to be caught up immediately with what's going on first... Iori, who is this Ophanimon you spoke of?" Daisuke said, trying to release some stress from the past event.
"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Miyako shouted, still trying to take her poke at Daisuke until Ken calms her down.
"Well, she claims to be this celestial Digimon and a servant of Qinglongmon, but..." Iori managed to say before a large disturbing noise interrupts the scene, and everyone looks in Daisuke's direction with a weird look.
"Oh, so sorry, looks like our discussion will have to wait, it's lunchtime. I'd say we go to Takeru's house to finish this," Daisuke decided in response to the weird stares.
"What? My house?" Takeru asked, surprised at that answer.
"Sure, why not? I did say that your fridge has to be raided before anything else, so let's go, we're all hungry..." Daisuke trailed off and started to walk in the direction of Takeru's house to the best of his memory.
"Y-you were serious about that?" Takeru asked again, knowing that Daisuke would just empty his fridge and there would be countless hours of explanation on that.
"Come on, you know it just won't be Daisuke not to cause inconvenience for all of us..." Ken said to Takeru, causing the Chosen of Hope to sigh in defeat, whatever happens to the fridge would surely be a disaster.
Therefore, it would be agreed to settle all the formal introductions at Takeru's house for now, and Nat-chan happily jumps on Daisuke's shoulder at the end of this little scene, but Tailmon begins to doubt a little at the sight of the virus black cat. Although Hikari seem to not notice now due to all the events that happened so far just now would prove to be tiring. Besides, Hikari is interested to find out about how Daisuke miraculously came back into the scene so suddenly.
Worse is not yet to come, but this chapter mainly dealt with the fear that should be dealt with before going on. Fear not, many more scenes are planned to bring out the golden scene. Still, this chapter came out way shorter than I thought it would, but oh well...