A/N: So this chapter has been a pain in the ass to write for many reasons. At first, it was just being difficult. THEN my computer died and I didn't have any of my files backed up (Luckily I'd recently sent all of my stuff from this story to a friend over MSN and was able to salvage what was written so far of this chapter). THEN the computer I can use now doesn't have Microsoft Word, which makes writing a pain in the ass in general, AND I like doing wordcounts and Firefox doesn't have a word count feature for my version yet (It's in beta testing and I can't download it).
So you can all thank Shiguya Retomasi for salvaging this chapter for me.
Disclaimer: I had something really awesome to put here, but I lost it. So, uh... I don't own Digimon.
Chapter Twelve: A Wise Mentor and a Chibi
17:09DST/Unnamed jungle between Wendigo Plains and Sand Beach/The Temple of Adminmon/Roof
Kyle groaned as he began moving again. Had he been in a joking mood before being frozen, he would have said something about pitying computers that froze up. He had been in a battle mood though, so the first words out of his mouth were "Is it over?"
Gaomon, who happened to be just getting over the Prison Fist himself, mumbled "Yeah. We won." The dog digimon was rubbing his shoulder. Typically a bad sign, you weren't supposed to feel pain in a specific area after de-digivolving.
"Barely. Arkadimon digivolved shortly before my lightning bolt struck them; if it had struck any later I wouldn't have been able to hold him off." Wisemon added. He, like the other four who hadn't been frozen when the lightning struck, was rubbing his eyes with one hand while massaging his ears with the other.
"You guys got off lucky. Labramon is still having trouble hearing, and it's been over ten minutes." Felicia said.
"Huh?" Labramon asked, proving Felicia's point.
"Great," Leormon said, "We have six people who're still stiff from being frozen, and five who may as well be deaf and blind for the time being."
"Didn't catch that last bit." Wayne said.
"Exactly." Leormon replied. And so it was that Wisemon and the Digidestined sat there on top of the Temple of Adminmon for yet another hour before any of them felt up to traveling.
18:12DST/Unnamed jungle between Wendigo Plains and Sand Beach/In flight over the treetops
When everyone was up for traveling, it turned out that Wisemon was still capable of using his Eight Balls of Lust attack eleven times to carry them all out over the jungle and to Sand Beach.
As they flew, the Digidestined decided to play some Q and A with Wisemon.
"So, uh, you mentioned earlier that you 'popped into existence'." Kyle began.
"Unlike most digimon, I was not born from a digiegg, nor did I progress to this level. Instead, I simply appeared atop the temple there one day at this level."
"And you just knew stuff immediately?" Akira asked.
"Well, some things. Other things came in time. I would be reading a prophecy and suddenly come across something I didn't know about, and then I'd wonder what it was for a few minutes and then I'd just know the information as if I'd remembered something."
"Most Wisemon don't typically come into their wisdom that way." Lunamon said.
"No, they typically don't." Wisemon paused for a second. He seemed to be remembering something. As he did so, his hand pixilated briefly. No one noticed it, and he soon added, "Typically Wisemon are wise before they're Wisemon, aren't they?"
"Yes." Labramon replied slowly. Silence followed for a while before Labramon asked, "You said you knew of the Digidestined from the moment you appeared. What exactly did you know?"
"There's six humans who were called to the digital world shortly after meeting digimon partners in the real world. The partners are bonded to each other in inexplicable ways, or at least ways that are inexplicable to those without a profound understanding of the physics behind it, and one of the humans arrived either one day or almost four years before the other five. The memory isn't clear on which one for some reason, which is odd considering the extreme time difference between the two options."
"Anything else?" Wayne asked.
"Well, they've all met Shiguya, and they're supposed to eventually defeat Hadesdramon."
"And that wasn't from a prophecy?"
"That was the reason they were called to the digital world by-"Wisemon cut off here as if he had been about to say something and was suddenly incapable of saying it. "By whomever it was that called them here." He eventually finished.
"And you know of Shiguya?" Felicia asked.
"He lives just three mythic spires away from here. He used to visit me sometimes." Wisemon said.
"And, out of curiosity, why are you coming with us?"
"Going to visit Shiguya. Finished deciphering most of the prophecies, nothing better to do." After this there was silence for a while. Not much else to ask. And then, suddenly....
"Blasphemers!" The shout came from under the canopy, and it sounded as if whoever said it had been shouting it for a while. Everyone turned around to see a Tapirmon floating up through the canopy.
"What?" Wayne asked.
"Blasphemers! Trespassing in the most holy of temples!" The Tapir shouted.
"I'll deal with it." Lunamon said to the others shortly before digivolving to Lekismon. "Moon Night Kick!" Lekismon jumped out of the steel balls that had been flying her above the canopy and did a flip in the air before kicking the Tapirmon far into the jungle. The balls she had been riding on caught her as she de-digivolved into Lunamon again.
And so your author just added a couple hundred words to this chapter without accomplishing anything other than showing how kickass Lekismon is.
Later....
19:32DST/Sand Beach/Jungle Border/Mythic Spire #5
Once they got to the beach, they landed and Wisemon's spheres disappeared. It seemed relatively quiet for having a black spire. Wisemon seemed to be rather impatient. "I'll go on. You guys should be able to handle things without me for a while, right?" He asked
"Yeah, we'll be fine." Wayne said as he leaned against the spire. Also leaning on the spire with him were Jeff, Kyle, and Akira. The three nodded.
Wisemon nodded as well. "OK. See you all soon." With that, the Ultimate digimon walked off in what they assumed was the direction of the next spire. And so the night progressed. Eventually driftwood was gathered and lit for a bonfire using Coronamon's Corona Flame attack. The digidestined gathered around the fire in wait.
When they first heard the wolf howling, they dismissed it as being rather far off.
23:14DST/Sand Beach/Jungle Border/Mythic Spire #5
Felicia woke with a start when the wolf howled again. This was the fourth time so far, and once again it sounded closer. She shivered a bit before muttering "This is eerily similar to Wendigo Plains." A few minutes later, she fell asleep again.
4:32DST/Sand Beach/Jungle Border/Mystic Spire #5
The wolf hadn't howled since Felicia mentioned how similar it was to Wendigo Plains, but now she woke up to the sound of Akira screaming in pain as she was bombarded with thousands of tiny blades. Felicia looked around groggily to see everyone else looking around in confusion. Soon afterward Akira collapsed back on the sand, severely weakened, only for Lunamon to be hit and de-digivolved to Moonmon.
By this time everyone was now wide awake and staring around for the source of the danger. It wasn't long before Kyle was hit, and then Leormon, Jeff, and Gaomon. Those who were hit all collapsed on the sand, unable to get up.
Felicia glanced at Labramon, Wayne, and Coronamon."This doesn't look too good." She said before instinct told her to jump to the left. She made it out of the way just as another blast of blades shot out from where her shadow had just been. The blast came from what appeared to be another blob of shadow, with nothing to cast it. "What is that?" She asked, pointing at the blob before noting it was rushing back into her shadow. She dodged away again just in time to avoid yet another blast of blades.
"I wish I knew." Wayne replied, only for the blob to head into his shadow and strike him down. Coronamon followed soon afterwards.
"Shit."
4:34DST/The Complex/Dan and Arkadimon's room
Dan woke up in pain all over, but more specifically with a massive headache. "Fucking Wisemon. How the hell did I get back?"
"You were deleted, Hadesdramon brought your data into a digiegg and brought it back here. It only hatched a few hours ago." The voice was unmistakeably BlackAgumon's, and there seemed to be some restrained laughter involved.
"Sure. That sounds wonderful. Explains the pain." Dan sat up regardless of the pain and saw BlackAgumon standing in front of the mirror, most definitely restraining some laughter. Oddly enough, he could see none of his own reflection. "What are you laughing at?"
BlackAgumon merely stopped restraining the laughter and stepped out of the way of the mirror. Dan gazed into it, blinking a few times before it hit him. When it did, his voice contorted into a hilariously angry mask. Hilarious, because, well, we'll let Dan explain.
"I'M A FUCKING CHIBI?!"
A/N: Blargle. This story is SO much harder to write than its sequel. And it disappoints me how short the chapters get. Still, for some reason writing from Dan's point of view is just so much fun. Pity I can't use him next chapter, and possibly the one after that. On a side note, the chapter title is absolute crap, but I can't be assed to make another one, and the chapter itself is shorter than I'd like, probably because I split the Mystic Spire #5 battle.
Disclaimer: Me? Owning Digimon? SOMEONE needs to lay off the crack….
Chapter Thirteen: Dawn/Anger
4:42DST/Sand Beach/Jungle Spire/Mystic Spire #5
Felicia gasped for air as once again she rolled out of the way of the series of blades flung from her shadow at her. For the past ten minutes, she'd been switching between contemplating what digimon could do such a thing, and dodging the blades. After this last attack, though, she found she had still been hit. There was a cut on her shoulder. Now, normally this would be where muttered a curse of some sort and got very angry. Instead, Felicia succumbed to the oddest thing she could've done at the time: she started thinking in French.
In order to fully understand how this could happen, one needs to realize that Felicia enjoyed learning languages, and having learned Spanish as a child, took French 1 and 2 in Middle School, and in her sophomore year of high school was now taking French 4 AP. Thinking in French was then of course quite easy for her. So, back to the present….
Felicia's first thought in French right now was 'Je saigne,' meaning 'I'm bleeding'. This struck a chord in Felicia's knowledge of digimon. How? The word for blood in French was sang. There was a digimon that could go into its enemy's shadow and hurl blades at it called Sangloupmon. Having made the connection, Felicia muttered "Naturellement!" It all made sense now. She quickly dove out of the way of another one of Sangloupmon's blade attacks and then reached into her shadow before pulling out the blood wolf digimon. Growing Labramon's muzzle, she growled "Retribark!" A French textbook flew out of nowhere and smacked the Sangloupmon on the head as it was thrown back by the soundwaves.
"Sticker Blade!" The blood wolf cried in retaliation, only for Felicia to block the attack with the French book. It was around this time that the Digital World decided the sun should start rising, and a single ray of sunlight came up just level with the horizon. Felicia hurled the textbook to the side and began advancing on Sangloupmon, her digivice aglow. She felt somehow empowered by the sunlight just barely cresting the horizon now.
"Felicia Biovolve to: Felicia Seasarmon Mode!" She shouted, noting in the back of her mind that Labramon digivolved to Seasarmon as she biovolved. She could tell the Sangloupmon was scared when it hurled more blades at her. She smirked and yelled "Tiida Iya!" just in time for a shield made out of sunlight to appear and halt the blades. Seasarmon approached from behind and muttered "Sekkantou," launching a beam of concentrated sunlight at the Sangloupmon. Although the beam was relatively small, likely an effect of there being so little sunlight right now, Sangloupmon was a digimon highly affiliated with night. Even that little beam was enough to instantly delete the Sangloupmon as the sun continued to rise. Felicia just raised a golden eyebrow and sat down on the sand to watch the mystic spire turn white, the blinding light from the transformation reflecting off of the gold bracelets she found on her wrists in this form. As Seasarmon sat down next to her, she put her hands behind her and leaned back. It had been a long night, and she hoped there wouldn't be too much walking today.
After the spire finished putting on its show of turning white, she soon found herself falling asleep using the French book as a pillow.
5:21DST/The Complex/Dan and Arkadimon's Room
Dan was not amused. BlackAgumon had shut the door behind him when he left, and as a chibi, Dan could not reach the doorknob. To make matters worse, he found he couldn't make digital portals anymore, and he needed to go ask Hadesdramon what was happening. He was left with only one choice: jumping to try and reach the door knob. The sight seemed to amuse Arkadimon, who sat on the bad making an odd wheezing sound that Dan just knew was laughter.
Of course, it was a hilarious sight. Although Dan was jumping quite high for a chibi (which is indeed a lot higher than one might think), the doorknob remained just out of reach. Cursing his luck, he glanced around the room for something to aid him in getting the door open. Normally Arkadimon's In-Training form seemed to look like merely an overlarge insect, but right now it looked like a step stool. With a quick movement, Dan had pulled Arkadimon to where he had been previously jumping, hopped onto his partner, and from there managed to jump just high enough to grasp the doorknob with both hands. "Sorry about that!" He squeaked as he struggled to pull the door open.
After a few seconds of struggling, he had the door open enough to finish pulling it open from the floor. He hopped down, pushed it open just enough so he and Arkadimon could get through, and then stormed off through the hallways of The Complex looking for the R and D lab. The looks he received from the various digimon who served Hadesdramon as he walked down the halls angered him, and he glared at anyone who dared to laugh. Needless to say, glaring only made it worse.
As he strode through the automatic sliding doors of the lab, he forced himself to calm down. He made his way over to the virus Elecmon who had invented the device that gave him the ability to summon the portals. "I can't summon portals. I thought you said it would survive deletion."
"It did. It just got overloaded by a large current of electricity. Another shock should fix it, but I'll need to know what you got hit with." The purple and gold pain in the butt was smart enough to not mention Dan being a chibi.
"Lightning. A Wisemon's prediction, if I had to guess."
"Interesting…" The Elecmon turned to the computer next to him which was currently displaying a readout of the status of Dan's device. It was utter gibberish to Dan, but the Elecmon seemed to understand it. After a few seconds of studying the data, the Elecmon turned to Dan. "You'll feel a little pain, but it'll be like getting hit by a rookie's attack as a champion. Assassin's Bolt." A small blade of electricity jumped from the Elecmon to just behind Dan's ear.
"Ouch." Dan said before feeling the sudden reconnection of the device. "Digital Portal Open. Pre-set Destination: Hadesdramon's Lair." In a process that suddenly took longer than usual, Dan and Arkadimon were swept over by a beam that disassembled them into data that was then sucked through the portal and reassembled on the other side.
6:14DST/Hadesdramon's Lair
When Dan came out the other side of the portal, he was disappointed to find that he was still not back to normal. He stormed down the hallway, followed closely by Arkadimon, until he came to the actual lair. He approached the edge of the precipice the struck out over the volcanic crater Hadesdramon called home with the usual fearful respect, but this time there was an tinge of anger about it. "My lord." He said.
There was a rumbling from below and then suddenly a pair of red glowing eyes appeared in the shadows below. As always, a new wave of fear washed over Dan at the sight of the eyes. It was never the eyes themselves that did it, but always the thought of what the eyes were a part of. He had only actually seen Hadesdramon once, but the mega level dragon digimon was the sort of thing that gave little kids nightmares if you even mentioned his name after they'd seen him.
"Why do you wake me?" Hadesdramon rumbled.
"Surely you see my current form." Dan replied, gradually regaining his confidence and anger. "What happened? I need to know what has happened to me. Weakness is not something I will tolerate in myself."
"Ah, yes. Dan. I was expecting you to come to me, but not so soon. You show strength greater than I expected. Quite simply, you were deleted. This is a side-effect, unforeseen, but easily explainable. Surely it follows that if you can take on a Champion form, just as Arkadimon can, you can also take on an In-Training form, an Ultimate form, and even a Mega form if Arkadimon ever reached that level."
"So being deleted put me into this form?"
"Yes. And you get out of it the same way Arkadimon would get out of his In-Training form, I assume. The buildup of power." Dan could've sworn Hadesdramon was smirking there. The tone made it so obvious.
"And you can accelerate that, correct? I cannot remain like this."
Now Hadesdramon chuckled. "Accelerate is not a strong enough word. Darkworld Breath." Up from the crater following these last words came a cloud of dark smoke. It hovered briefly around Dan and Arkadimon, obscuring them. And then it began to thin, as though absorbed by the two. When it could be seen through again, Dan and Arkadimon stood there, Dan returned to normal and Arkadimon at his Champion level now. Although neither one actually looked different, something about the way they stood screamed evil.
Hadesdramon's last words echoed around the chamber: "There is someone by the name of Shiguya who assists the other humans. Find and destroy him."
A/N: Funny, the character I originally intended to focus on in the story turns out to be one of the hardest for me to write. Mleh. Anyone who's read Digital Demons will recognize the significance of Wayne being the last one to get to Champion here if they think about it for a while.
One of these days I may have to see if it's worthwhile to do a drinking game where you take a shot every time I use an ellipse in a story.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer, disclaimer, I do not own Digimon!
Chapter Fourteen: The Flaming Lion
10:32DST/Digital Ocean/Between Mythic Spires #5 and #6/Rowboat
"Stroke!" Wayne called again as everyone rowed the boat closer to the small island ahead. Everyone, that is, except for him and Coronamon. Nothing like an affiliation with fire to keep you away from the edges of the boat. Given the circumstances, no one seemed to mind too much. After all, they figured, Wayne and Coronamon were the only ones who hadn't reached Champion yet; this next spire was bound to be their fight. "Stroke!" He called once more, and the boat inched closer to the island. At this rate, they'd get to shore in about an hour. Still, it's better than swimming, he thought, thankful once more that they had found the boat beached on a sandbar from which they could just make out the island. He really hadn't been up for a swim after last night's attack. Sure, the blades were gone and the wounds had healed and all the digimon were back to Rookie again, but there was still an ache where he'd been hit. "Stroke!" He called, resigned to another hour of doing so.
11:43DST/Island on which Mythic Spire #6 is located/Shore
The group stumbled onto shore now, their arms tired and their tempers high. Kyle had hit Wayne over the head with his oar roughly ten yards from shore, and thus the boat had capsized. Thus it had fallen to him to drag the boat ashore while everyone else got there first. They were now lying down to dry off with the sun as Kyle heaved the boat up. "Lazy idiot." He muttered as he walked past Wayne to collapse on the sand a little further inland.
"I HEARD THAT!" Wayne yelled, still rubbing the bump on his head. Although he hadn't been doing any of the rowing (hence everyone else's high tempers), he was now rather out of it from being hit on the head and then suddenly thrown into the water. He stood up a little shakily and gave silent thanks that Kyle had been exhausted when he'd hit him. Despite the exhaustion, Kyle had managed to hit Wayne rather hard.
Shaking his head to relieve the pain, he glanced around and began to take in his surroundings. The island looked like it had burned in a wildfire recently, and the general effect was one of making it seem like a forest a horror movie might take place in at night. Then again, there was evidence on the ground that it was more of a jungle than a forest. Burnt vines and leaves too big to belong anywhere but a jungle littered the ground.
"Well, at least Coronamon won't accidentally set fire to it." He muttered, walking slowly towards the burnt jungle. He glanced back to see Coronamon following him just far enough behind to have not heard the muttering. Apparently he wasn't the only one who wanted to explore the island while everyone else rested.
The pair walked in silence for a while, with only the noise of the burnt plant matter crunching under their feet to accompany them. It wasn't long before they lost sight of the beach and found themselves on what appeared to be a path of some sort. Judging from the state of the various leaves and such, it was used rather frequently, although by what they couldn't tell. They decided without speaking that it was best not to use the path.
After a while they found another path. The crossed over it again, only to see another path just a few feet further away heading in a slightly different direction. They crossed this one too, and saw another path. After a few more it became apparent the paths were all converging on one central point.
"Worth investigating? It could lead to the spire," Asked Coronamon.
"Sure, I guess. But let's be careful," Wayne replied.
And so the pair turned onto the next path and began following it to the point of convergence. In a few moments, they found themselves in a clearing. The only thing there was a burnt tree that stood taller than the rest and seemed to have lost its branches. The tree was precisely in the middle of the clearing. Nothing too unusual, though. Wayne and Coronamon shrugged, perhaps a little disappointed, and sat down to rest a bit anyway.
13:48DST/Island on which Mythic Spire #6 is located/Burnt Jungle
Kyle sighed as he searched through the burnt jungle looking for Wayne. In typical group fashion, it was decided that Kyle be sent to go find Wayne and Coronamon and tell them that lunch was ready. Of course, he was sure he was also expected to apologize for hitting Wayne. Not that he would. Wayne had deserved that.
Of course, in order to go find Wayne and not apologize to him, Kyle first had to figure out where he was. He'd gotten lost within a few minutes of venturing into the jungle. So it was around now that he first came upon a path. He noticed it'd been used recently. He DIDN'T notice that it had been used by something with giant bird feet. So he decided to follow it thinking that Wayne and Coronamon had used it recently and chances were that they would be at one end or another of it. Of course, he also didn't notice that the digimon that had recently used the trail was staring at him from the cover of some burnt ferns. Pity the fool.
"Little Pecker!" And with that, a small explosive ball of feathers and metal was launched at Kyle. The poor guy barely had enough time to feel the pain of the explosion and turn in the direction of the sound before the follow-up attack. "Nose Mattock!" And Kyle fell to the ground, unconscious.
13:50DST/Island on which Mythic Spire #6 is located/Burnt Jungle/Center
Wayne woke up with a start when he heard the explosion. He looked around for a moment to see Coronamon also just waking up, and then he heard the shout of "Nose Mattock!" The two locked eyes, and then they ran off in the direction of the sound. There was a path heading fairly straight towards the sound, and so they were able to run down it fairly fast. The sight that greeted them angered Wayne.
It was a Kiwimon about to crush Kyle under its foot. Wayne burst into flames without even trying to use Petit Prominence. And then he ran at it, screaming "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Within moments, he had tackled the Kiwimon to the ground and dodged out of the way as Coronamon sent a flurry of fireballs at it. He soon had to dodge out of the way again as the Kiwimon got up and used the momentum to try and head butt him. When he dodged, however, he heard Coronamon cry out in pain, shortly followed by an explosion.
"Coronamon!" He shouted, feeling an echo of the pain himself. He turned and glared at the Kiwimon with a look that could burn through steel. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that." Suddenly his Digivice was in his hand. Sensing something unpleasant to come, perhaps, the Kiwimon turned and ran back towards the center of the jungle. Not that it did it much good, because soon afterward Wayne literally roared "Wayne Biovolve to: Wayne Firamon Mode!" Now running on hands and feet, Wayne followed the Kiwimon at top speed, metal bands like the ones on Coronamon's wrists forming on his forehead, wrists, and ankles. "Flame Dive!" Came the next roar as Wayne flew up into the air, propelled by a jump and the bands working as jet engines. He caught fire, and then dove down and tackled the Kiwimon to the ground. The giant bird disappeared in a cloud of data as it was deleted.
When Wayne looked up, he saw the 'tree' in the center of the jungle was now shining and slowly turning white. As it did so, the jungle started to return to an unburnt state before his very eyes. "So it was the spire afterall…." He muttered, turning back and walking back down the path to find Kyle and Coronamon.
14:34DST/Island on which Mythic Spire #6 is located/Shore
Leormon had just finished convincing the rest of the Digidestined he thought Kyle was in danger (probably severely injured by this point, but ignoring that…) when it started happening. The burnt trees and ferns and such at the edge of the jungle suddenly started looking not so burnt anymore and began regrowing leaves at an unbelievable rate. Granted, this was the Digital World, so such phenomena could easily be explained by a major power shift in the area, but Leormon saw no cause for such a power shift. He wasn't the only one in the group who thought so, as the human members of the group began gasping in awe, while most of the Digimon muttered something along the lines of "Huh?"
A few moments later, Leormon collapsed under a heavy weight. Upon closer examination, he discovered it was the unconscious Kyle, faint burn marks on his shirt but otherwise apparently all right now. Everyone immediately began looking around for the source of falling Digidestined, but the most anyone caught was a glimpse of flaming shoe disappearing into the regrown canopy of the jungle.
"OK, so he's not in danger anymore…." Leormon said as he pulled himself out from under his partner.
"Yeah, uh…." Aki began, only to be interrupted midthought by a streak of fire flying past her, which then turned around, slowing down, before landing in the middle of the group. Standing there, holding up a shell-shocked looking Coronamon, was Wayne, complete with the fire bands indicating Champion level. He was met with blank stares and open mouths.
"What?" He asked, as if it was perfectly normal for him to fly in as a streak of fire. One day it would be, but for now, it wasn't. Luckily for him, he wasn't going to have to explain this right away. Or maybe not.
"OW!" He yelled as he was suddenly smacked upside the head by Jeff, right where Kyle had hit him not four hours earlier. "What was that for?"
"You missed the lunch I made for everyone." Jeff replied calmly. Insert Wayne face-faulting.