Chapter 11
Kona stood staring up at Quarantine, Dandimon by her side, her heart slamming against her chest. She felt terribly unprepared, and she knew M felt the same. She could see it in his eyes as he watched the silent Quarantine building.
Kona's Digivice buzzed, and she peeked at the time before opening the message. 11:51. Nine minutes to War Cry's release.
She took a shaky breath, opening the message.
Kari-
Hey, where are you? Why didn't you answer my text? I'm worried about you.
Kona slid the Digivice back into her pocket. This isn't their fight.
Without speaking, Kona activated the shield and cannon she had created.
Dandimon stumbled back as the semi-transparent shield formed all around him. He smiled, looking around at its luminescent form.
Kona rearranged the cannon on her arm, arming it.
She sighed, looking at M. An uneasy feeling was spreading through her. "Shall we?" she asked, part of her aware that it was a very bad idea to come without Kari.
He nodded, stepping forward and leading the way.
They approached the chain fence in silence, stopping just outside. There were no Gaurdromon, no Sentrimon, and it was eerily quiet. Like something very bad was coming. Like the Digital World knew something she didn't.
Kona took a deep breath, peering back at her Digivice.
"Two minutes," she said meekly, and M nodded, looking almost... numb.
"I'm going to aim for those ropes, if they come again. That shield should hold for a little while, but it only has the ability to take 50 damage. After that, you're on your own. I think dodging that thing is more important than attacking it. If it gets a hold of you again, I don't know what I can do. I guess, just... avoid it at all costs. And if you have to run, do it. I'll catch up."
He nodded again.
The door of the Quarantine building was not open, as it had been previously, and there was a long bar locking it closed.
Kona's heart leapt into her throat as the display on her Digivice went from 11:59 to 12:00, and the bar on Quarantine's door began to creak.
"And, M," she whispered, barely able to speak over her pounding heart. "Don't be a hero."
He didn't respond as the bar lifted, and for a few heart-wrenching moments, Kona thought the doors might not open.
With a deafening pop, the double doors snapped open, a flood of Sentrimon pouring out and charging.
Kona took a single shocked step backward before she felt Dandimon's hands around her waist. He rocketed into the air, his black wings tossing sand about with force.
Kona felt like her heart had dropped into her toes as Dandimon ascended quickly. And for a moment, she thought they would avoid the attack.
Her hopes were shattered as Dandimon yelped in pain. Kona looked around and down, finding the same gold ropes extending from the hands of every Sentrimon. They had whipped them through the air, lassoing M's left ankle and piercing straight through his wings.
He faltered in the air, struggling to stay aloft as the ropes shredded holes in his leathery wings.
"Hold on," he groaned, holding her tight as he began to fall.
A fear-ridden cry escaped her as he plummeted faster and faster, spinning in the last moment and cradling her as he slammed into the ground with a grunt.
Kona rolled from his grasp with the force, and as she spun in the sand back to him, she found the ropes violently dragging him back toward the army of Sentrimon.
"No!" she gasped, yanking her cannon into view and firing as many shots at the attackers as she could get off. She hit three or four before a host of Sentrimon branched off, their golden-rope fingers extending into the sand before them and slithering toward her like a pit of snakes.
She yelped, crab crawling away with one hand and firing aimlessly at the ropes with her cannon.
Despite hitting a fair amount of them, they were able to overwhelm her. She desperately looked around for Dandimon, but couldn't find him in the ever-growing crowd of Sentrimon.
Kona yelped as three ropes launched from the sand, enveloping her cannon and beginning to squeeze. She yanked back hard, but to no avail as the cannon digitized again, leaving her defenseless.
As suddenly as they had attacked, they retreated from her, turning back toward the group, presumably to join their attack on Dandimon.
"M!" Kona screamed, rocketing to her feet.
She heard him use his VanGuard attack, and as a huge group of Sentrimon were thrown away from him, she saw him.
The shield was clearly already down, but at least he was still Dandimon. He attempted to leap into the air again, his wings working hard, but they caught him again. He cried out as more ropes enveloped him, slamming him back into the sand.
"Shit," Kona gasped, tearing her backpack from her shoulder and retrieving her computer. There were too many. Coming without help was a mistake. It was time to go.
Kona was so distracted that she didn't notice the ropes slithering beneath the sand. She screamed as they burst forth, ripping her computer and Digivice from her grasp. As she leapt after them, more emerged, restraining her ankles and wrists and simply holding her in place.
As she watched, the ropes holding Dandimon began to glow, and he screamed. She knew they were draining him as they had last time, and her only hope was her escape code and tether. When he reached 9 health, he would be transported back, and the tether tying them together would take her too.
She watched in horror as he struggled against them, eventually glowing white and returning to Myotismon.
She watched and waited in pity as he was slowly sapped of his strength. She could barely make out the screen on her Digivice from where it was suspended by golden ropes. He was close—his health rapidly dropping through the teens.
"STOP!"
A monstrous voice reverberated through what seemed like the entire Digital World. It was so deep and loud, Kona felt like she could feel it in her rib cage.
The Sentrimon immediately halted, frozen in place like ice sculptures. Kona strained to see her Digivice, finding his health at exactly 10.
"The girl has written an escape thread. Clever."
Kona peered around, searching for the source of the voice. Her eyes landed finally on M's sapphire eyes.
They were wide and terrified, and he had stopped struggling altogether.
"Kona... you have to leave," he said, his voice unsteady. "You have to go. Now. Leave me. Just go, please..."
"What, no! Why would I do tha..."
"I know what this is!" He cried back, anguish clear in his voice. "Please, just go home befo..."
"HUSH!" the voice boomed, and a rope extended from the nearest Sentrimon, gagging M and silencing him. "I have not given you permission to speak."
"What the hell are you!" Kona screamed, fighting hard against the ropes, to no avail. "We are a Digidestined pair, you have no right to..."
"I HAVE EVERY RIGHT!" The voice thundered around her, actually bringing storm clouds to the sky as it did.
Kona watched with fearful curiosity as what seemed like a thousand more ropes began snaking from the Quarantine building. They gathered in a pool mere feet in front of her, crawling toward the sky and entwining with each other to form a shape. A shape that began to look almost...
Human.
Through her periphery, she could see M struggling again, watching her worriedly.
The ropes began to dim in their gold color, going almost black before forming a low-contrast shadow. It was the shadow of a man; tall, thin, and sallow. He had long black hair and sunken cheeks that made his dark, flat eyes more prominent. He wore what looked like a long purple trench coat, and stood before her, hunched forward, his hands resting in his pockets.
"Hello, Korikona. I've waited a very long time to meet you. The partner to the unstoppable Myotismon. I didn't think the person that could tame him existed."
He began to slowly pace around her in circles like a predator.
"It would have to be a programmer. Someone who can give him everything he wants. Everything he wants to take."
M struggled hard against the ropes holding him, and they tightened, eliciting a pained whimper from behind the gag that silenced him.
"Who are you?!" Kona growled, trying to yank her right hand free and only managing to cut the circulation in her hand.
"Oh, but you know me already," he said, leaning over her shoulder and dragging a strand of her hair away from her face threateningly.
M snarled, snapping the rope that gagged him with just the force of his fangs.
"Get away from her!" He screamed.
The shadow cried out in pure rage, swooping across the emptiness unnaturally fast to stop right in M's face.
"You will never tell me what to do again!" it spat, leaning in and staring M down.
He shied away, turning his eyes downward and surrendering. Extremely unlike him.
The shadow turned back to face Kona.
"Tell her, Myotismon. Tell her who I am. Tell her why she is now in this predicament. Tell her whose fault it is."
M sighed, utterly defeated. Kona felt like screaming at him. 'We talked about this! We have to fight! You can't just give up!'
"Yukio Oikawa," M mumbled.
Kona's heart nearly leapt up out of her throat. "But... but he... died..." she gasped.
"On that, we can agree," the shadow said, walking back toward her. "I am not Yukio. I am a failsafe that he wrote in a kind of... mindless trance. He woke in the middle of the night, unsure if he was awake, asleep, or... dead. He was distantly aware of the evil occupying his mind..."
He practically hissed the word 'evil' back at M.
"In his delirium, he wrote a program. One that would do what he could not: fight back. One that would visit his own suffering back on his torturer. I am that program. I am his legacy. His call to action. His War Cry."
Kona couldn't speak. She felt like someone had stuffed a handful of cotton balls down her throat.
She licked her lips, willing away the dry mouth. "But... why now!" She gasped. "He's changed, there's no reason..."
"THIS MONSTER will never change!" War Cry hissed at her. "He masquerades, alternates, hides, manipulates. But he does not change."
Kona stared back at him defiantly. If she couldn't fight with her fists, then she would fight with her eyes.
"And you think I'm here to KILL HIM?! Kill him! Oh, death is too simple, too quick, too good for him. I want him to suffer. As my creator suffered. FOR YEARS. For an eternity. For as long as he deserves. And what better way..."
War Cry approached her again, gently resting a hand against her throat. "Than to take from him the one thing he's ever truly wanted."
M screamed in anguish, his Crimson Lightning visible from beneath the ropes, attempting to fight them off.
"Hold him tight, my darlings," War Cry said absently over his shoulder. "I'd hate to trip that Escape Thread this little genius wrote."
The ropes tightened around M, and he stilled, going quiet.
"You wouldn't dare," Kona growled at War Cry, leaning against his grip to show him she wasn't afraid of him.
"I am a program. I have one purpose. So I don't have to dare. I just do..."
"Hey! You!"
Kona smiled wide, knowing Kari's voice.
War Cry turned, finding a defiant Kari standing on one side of M, Angewomon on the other, an arrow of pure light held in her hand.
War Cry giggled maniacally.
"And what can you do to fight me that he could not?" he asked, his grip still tight around Kona's neck.
"Absolutely nothing," Angewomon drawled, twirling the arrow in her fingers like a drum stick. "But I can hurt him..."
Without missing a beat, she brought the arrow down against M's arm, eliciting a cry of pain.
"What are you..." Kona began to yell, but suddenly she was very aware of Angewomon's plan.
The Escape Thread... Angewomon had just damaged M.
War Cry screeched, launching toward M. Kona felt herself yanked backward, the ropes tearing from around her. The familiar nausea overwhelmed her as she and M, Kari and Angewomon were torn from the Digital World. The enraged screams of War Cry followed her, seeping into her very bones as she was finally released into her own world.
