Chapter 14
A Day in the Digital World: Three
The group of partner digimon so far- Agumon, Biyomon, Gabumon, Palmon, Patamon, Tentomon, and Wormmon.
"Another five days to reach the Port of Waves," Palmon whined as she leaned up against the post of the welcome sign for the Port of Waves.
"It is nice to be done with another long walk," Gabumon agreed.
"At least this time it wasn't across a burning desert. A walk through a forest with lots of shade, water, and food is much nicer than the blistering sun and hot wind," Biyomon stated, recalling their last two treks across the desert.
"It's great that we finally made it, but we should hurry up and look for Leomon before we miss him again," Agumon noted with a hint of urgency to his voice.
"You have a point. It would be really annoying if we missed him again by a few days," Biyomon sighed at the unpleasant idea.
"Then let's find the city hall," Wormmon stated.
"I wonder where the city hall is?" Patamon questioned no one in particular as he glided around a set of stairs that lead down to the village proper. From where they were they could see the entire port sprawling out beneath them.
"That's a good question. It's been a while since we were in a city this big, so it leaves us with a lot of ground to cover," Gabumon noted looking out over the landscape.
"It's actually a very pretty city," Palmon commented. "Maybe if we find Leomon here we could take some time to relax and soak up some sun."
"That would be nice," Biyomon agreed, "we'll just have to see how things play out."
"Let's start…!" Agumon began to cheer before the rumble of an explosion came echoing up to them from the city below.
"What was that!" Palmon cried, tracing the sound of the explosion back to its source.
In the distance a cloud of white dust rose into the air as chunks of broken rock and wood rained down onto the surrounding buildings and streets.
"Something must be attacking the city!" Wormmon stated unable to take his eyes off of the rising cloud.
"What should we do?" Patamon questioned of the group.
"We help!" Agumon declared before he began to run down the stairs, followed by the rest of the group.
They hurried down the stairs toward the incident, but when a flash of light flickered at the edge of Agumon's peripheral vision his attention was drawn to the right. Something off in the distance, atop of a roof on the same level of them was reflecting the bright sunlight. Whatever was reflecting the light was small and shiny, and apparently moving, because it quickly vanished below the line of buildings.
"What…?" Agumon briefly questioned the source, it somehow bringing up memories of his partner.
In the middle level of the city a rift had formed, sending out sporadic arcs of electricity to the buildings around it. It was uncommon to see one appear but not open quickly, but in the last couple of months they had been acting differently; just like the portal that now hovered over the street. All around the rift rookie and small champion digimon cowered behind boxes and stalls, not wanting to get close to the rift in case it was dangerous, but still wanting to watch to feed their curiosity. However, two digimon were brave enough to chance approaching the rift, a small blue dino digimon and a small yellow digimon down on four paws.
"So what's this thing supposed to be?" The familiar blue dino digimon asked his companion.
"How am I supposed to know, Veemon?" The small yellow digimon asked back.
"I don't know Armadillomon, I just thought you might have an idea," Veemon rejoined taking a few steps closer to the rift.
"I don't think getting so close is a good idea, Veemon," Armadillomon stated, his voice filling with more concern than before.
"But it's just hanging there," Veemon replied as he reached out and touched the surface of the rift with one of his white claws, sending a ripple of energy flowing out and across its surface.
As if responding to his touch the arcs of energy increased in power and became more frequent, before the blue surface of the rift began to change to white.
"That doesn't look good…" Veemon noted taking a few clumsy and frightened steps back.
"What did you do?" Armadillomon moaned, taking a few steps back as well.
"All I did was touch it!" Veemon yelped in his own defense.
"Well, that doesn't seem like such a good idea now does it," Armadillomon argued back, continuing to take steps back away from the now violent rift.
"You say that after the fact!" Veemon retorted.
Before Armadillomon could think of a retort, a Moosemon erupted forth from rift and crashed down on the white stones street, its hooves digging through the hard surface and down to the brown earth beneath. Then, in a flash the rift collapsed in on itself and vanished.
"Did it just…" Veemon began to ask if a digimon had just emerged from the circle of energy when Armadillomon answered before he was able to finish.
"Yes, yes it did…" Armadillomon stuttered in awe.
For a solid minute the Moosemon stood in the street just looking around, ignoring the two digimon just a few feet from it. Then, with a narrowing of its eyes it locked in on a building to its right.
"HANGING TWISTER" Moosemons attack bellowed in a tone lacking any hints of emotion.
In a tearing and ripping whirlwind of air, dyed blue by the attacks energy, the building on the right was demolished by an explosion of powerful gales. Shattered bricks and wooden planks were sent flying in all directions as most of what remained of the three walls of the building collapsed in on themselves.
"Is he crazy!" Veemon cried as he and Armadillomon moved about dodging falling debris.
"I don't know!" Armadillomon responded. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that it came out of that strange portal."
Not satisfied with the destruction it had just caused the Moosemon turned its attention to a group of small digimon cowering against a wall, too afraid to run away.
"HANGING TWI!" Moosemon bellowed, but a sudden impact to the side of its head stopped it in mid attack.
"VEE HEADBUTT" Veemon cried out a second before slamming into the head of the Moosemon.
The attack barely fazed the Moosemon, but it had been enough to stop its attack and turn all of the Rifteds attention on Veemon.
"Stop that!" Veemon growled as he staggered about holding his head, trying to clear his mind of the haziness that had set in after the brain rattling hit he had initiated. "What do you think you're doing?" He added trying to point a finger at the Moosemon but was instead pointing to a fruit stand in the other direction.
"A more important question Veemon, what do you think you're doing?" Armadillomon questioned his friend with a shocked look. He, like Veemon, was one for defending the weak, but considering the level difference and the fact that they couldn't digivolve without their partners, they were at a serious disadvantage. And that wasn't even factoring in the fact that something seemed very wrong with the Moosemon.
"I meant to stop him… but now I'm trying to make the city stop spinning…" Veemon dizzily answered.
"HAMMER HORN" Moosemon snarled as it began channeling blue energy into its antlers, ready to bring it down on the dazed and defenseless Veemon at its feet.
"DIAMOND SHELL" Armadillomon cried out, curling itself into a ball and aiming itself at the Moosemons head hoping to stop it like Veemon had before.
However, this time the Moosemon saw the attack coming and swung its antlers towards the approaching hard ball. With a heavy impact it connected with Armadillomon and sent him flying through one of the two remaining walls of the demolished building, bring part of it down on him, and burying him in debris.
"Armadillomon!" Veemon cried out for his companion, but the only response he got was the sound of rocks hitting against each other as the newly fallen wall settled.
The Moosemon knowing that it hadn't killed its opponent due to the hard shell readied another attack to bring the remainder of the building down on the small digimon and end its life. But before it could launch an attack a broken piece of white stone bounced off the side of it head, drawing its attention back to Veemon.
"Come on you big jerk," Veemon taunted, throwing another rock that the Moosemon didn't bother to avoid.
With a snarl and flare of its nostrils the Moosemon slowly, one hoof at a time, turned towards Veemon. As he watched the Moosemon slowly take steps towards him Veemon stared into its red pupil less eyes which despite its angry look and movements showed no such emotion, for that matter they looked empty and dead.
"Come on! Come and get me!" Veemon taunted giving a quick glance over to where Armadillomon was buried beneath the rubble before running off, continuing to call to the Moosemon as he did in hopes of getting him away from his downed friend.
"I think that explosion came from just up ahead," Biyomon stated as she eyed the approaching corner.
"I think you're right," Agumon replied as he rounded the corner first. When he did a flash of light blinded him for a second before vanishing. "That light again?" He pondered to himself without stopping. He knew that whatever had caused it had run down the alley at the end of the street, and if he hurried he might see what it was.
Down the last bit of the street the group went and slid to a stop at the corner. While the rest of the partner digimon focused on the demolished building Agumon stared down the street he guessed the source of the flash had disappeared down, but he saw nothing except old crates and closed stands. Whatever it had been, it was gone once again.
"Agumon, are you okay?" Biyomon questioned him. It was easy to see that he was distracted by something since he was staring off into the distance while the others had already headed down the opposing street to the destroyed building.
"It's nothing Biyomon…" Agumon sighed before following her to join up with the others.
"What digimon did this?" Palmon inquired as she and the rest of the group looked over the wreckage.
"More importantly, why did sthey do this and where did they go?" Tentomon further inquired with a more serious tone.
"Actually, I have another one that at the moment that might be the most important," Patamon announced as he landed on a slab of stone and pressed his ear against the surface. "Does anyone else here something moving under the rocks?"
Before any of them could answer a low grinding sound starting coming from below their feet followed by sections of the flat white stone that made up the road rising up around a small central point. Then, with a final burst a yellow pair of claws and head emerged from the ground.
For a moment the group of partner digimon stared at the head of Armadillomon as he stared right back that them.
"Guy…?" He questioned, unsure if it was them. This isn't the first time he had met similar digimon, just not this many at once. He still remembered how Veemon grilled him with questions to make sure it was him when they first met up again.
"ARMADILLOMON!" They all cheered in a lopsided unison before closing what little distance there was between them and pulled him out of the hole he had dug to get him out from under the debris.
"Is it really you guys?" Armadillomon asked through all of the chatter and sounds of reunion.
"It's really us, Armadillomon," Agumon assured him with a big toothy smile.
"That's great…! Veemon!" Armadillomon suddenly shouted as he looked around frantically.
"We haven't met up with him yet, why?" Wormmon questioned with a puzzled look.
"No, that's not it! He and I have been traveling together for a while now," Armadillomon stated as he continued to look around. "But while we here this strange circle of energy appeared in the street and a Moosemon came out of it and began tearing the city up. Veemon stopped it from attacking some digimon, but then it turned on us and knocked me out. And now their gone…"
"What!" The group shouted as they started looking around as well.
"That mean digimon chased that digimon that saved us down that way," A small red in-training digimon pointed back the way they had come with its big floppy ears.
"Thanks," Agumon thanked the small digimon before motioning for the others to follow him, "Let's go save Veemon!"
When the group of partner digimon was a good distance down the road the in-training digimon all came out of hiding and began to examine the destruction that had befallen their little corner of the city. One small green digimon in particular hopped out, right up next to the digimon that had given the partners a direction to go.
"Do you think you should have told them about those humans that were here before them?" The green digimon asked the red one.
"I don't know…" The red digimon responded. "We didn't come out when they were here so we don't know why they were here… So it's not like we could have told them anything about the humans."
"This was not a good idea," Veemon cried as he jumped down an alley letting the Moosemon stampede by. He ran down the alleyway, jumping over and dodging crates as he did. Behind him he could already hear the Moosemon correct its course and begin tearing its way down the alley, the sound of crates exploding and stone cracking under its hooves being the indicator.
"Come on!" Veemon whined, "Why don't you just give up already! Trust me, I'm not worth it."
But either the Moosemon didn't care or thought he was because it just continued to charge, quickly catching up with him. When it was on him Veemon once again dove through the first opening he could find and managed to avoid being speared on its antlers.
"Where am I going?" Veemon questioned himself though tired gasps of air.
Veemon continued to run down the street he had jump out into but he quickly noticed something was wrong. "Wait… Where did he go? I don't hear him anymore…" Veemon inquired of himself, stopping to catch his breath and listen. There was nothing. No hooves against stone or angry grunts, just the low echoes of waves crashing on the beach and the wind blowing between the buildings.
However, the eerie silence didn't last when the sudden cracking of stone filled the air and in the next instant the Moosemon erupted through one of the walls of a building behind Veemon.
"Damn!" Veemon cursed as he attempted to dodge the flying shrapnel that was once part of the wall.
His battles from the past had taught Veemon quite a few lessons, and one of those lessons was how to notice when he was in a position in which he had no choice but to fight. By stopping he had allowed the Moosemon's trick to catch him off guard and close the gap between them, and with the Moosemons size and reach if he tried to turn and run he would be crushed when he attempted it; leaving him with only the chance to strike in hopes of creating an escape route.
"VEE HEADBUTT" Veemon cried before launching himself at the Moosemons neck. A second later he impacted the solid mass of fur and muscle, shaking his brain and bouncing him backwards. His only hope now was that the Moosemon had been surprised and wouldn't be able to react. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and the Moosemon instantly recovered and leveled its own attack against him.
"HAMMER HORN" The Moosemon bellowed slamming its antlers against Veemon who was airborne and unable to avoid the attack. All Veemon could do was brace himself against the attack by covering his head and face with his arms.
As soon as his arms were up the Moosemons attack connected, sending ripples of pain shooting through Veemon's body and sending him sailing through the air, heading for the wall behind him. While his mind reeled from the impact Veemon thought about what would come next. He would hit the wall, HARD, and it would most likely knock him out; and while he was out the Moosemon would finish him off. He truly hated that it was going to end like that; alone and without ever having seen Davis again.
Through the haze of his half-conscious vision Veemon could see that the wall was close now, so he braced himself and hoped that the Moosemon would make it quick. But just as he condemned himself to his end a blur suddenly shot between him and the wall. In the next instant he impacted something a lot softer than a wall, but whatever it was he couldn't tell because his eyes and mind had finally given out to the pain and gone black.
As Veemon floated in his sea of unconscious blackness he was aware that he was being held, and that whatever was holding him was moving. He could also pick up on sounds. Someone was talking to him, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. Then, in a flash of blinding light his eyes flickered back into use and found himself staring up into a blurry face… A human face!
It was the face of a human, there was no mistaking it, and it even looked familiar. It was still so blurry and the sunlight coming in from the window behind it didn't help, but despite these problems Veemon tried to make it out. Brown hair under a blue hat, brown eyes, tanned skin, a pair of goggles hanging around the neck, and a warm and bright smile were what he saw. These bits of features stirred in his brain until they found a connection and an image shot through his mind. An image of Tai when he was fifteen.
"T… Ta…" The Veemon groaned through the pain and haze, just trying to say Tai's name, but no matter how much he strained himself he couldn't get the word to come out.
Why didn't Tai recognize him? Was it because there were other Veemon out there and he like the rest couldn't be sure about his identity? Or had Tai forgotten him after all the time that had passed?
"Rest little… …you wake up… …taken down… …Moosemon… …you," the broken words of the Tai like figure said in a voice that could easily have been Tai's. Veemon knew he was missing a lot of what was being said due to the ringing in his ears, but he didn't really care, it was so nice to hear a familiar voice.
Suddenly, the figure stood up and walked away leaving Veemon alone in the bed he had been set down in. To the side Veemon could see him going towards the door with some fuzzy white blur now resting on his shoulder. Veemons mind cried out for Tai to stay and not leave him, but somewhere between his mind and mouth the message was lost and he could only continue to try and utter Tai's name.
"Tai…" He finally managed to weakly say before his vision and mind failed once again. As he faded into black again he couldn't be sure if he had been heard since his eyes and gone out before his mind, so he never saw Takuya walk out of the room and back into the street.
"Ve… Veem…"
Was someone calling his name? Was it Tai? Did he finally recognize him?
"Vee… Ve…"
It wasn't the voice he had heard earlier, but it was still a familiar voice; one he hadn't heard in years!
"Veemon!"
With that final clear and loud utterance of his name Veemon's eyes shot open and his mind cleared. Above him the pale blue eyes of Wormmon looked down at him; the look of happiness easy to see in his long lost friends face.
"Wormmon…?" Veemon questioned from the flat of his back, but before he could get an answer movement in room drew his attention. "Guys…?"
"Hey, Veemoon," Agumon smiled.
"It's good to see you," Biyomon smiled with a small bow.
The next few hours were spent in reunion. They all welcomed the return of two more members and shared their individual stories since they had been broken up. It wasn't until someone asked Veemon how he got in the bed that he recalled the human he had seen.
"So how'd you get into that bed?" Armadillomon inquired as he looked around trying to find an answer to his own question.
"I was put here by… TAI!" Veemon ended in a sudden shout as he jumped up and began looking around, his words making Agumon jump with similar surprise.
"What about Tai?" Agumon demanded the information.
"It was Tai who saved me and put me in this bed," Veemon claimed, making the eyes of all the partner digimon open wide in surprise. "…at least it looked like him."
"Tell me what you're talking about," Agumon again demanded. No one could blame him for being anxious for answers. If Veemon had suddenly claimed to have seen one of their partners they knew they would be acting the same way.
"Well, you see…" Veemon began telling them what had happened with the Moosemon and how he had been saved by what appeared to be Tai. "But because I couldn't see straight, I couldn't be sure if it was Tai…" He concluded with and silence fell over the room.
"Hmmm," Tentomon pondered before coming back with a question. "If it was Tai; why didn't he recognize Veemon?"
"I don't know… But are you sure it was Tai?" Agumon questioned Veemon once more.
"He looked and talked like Tai, but I can't be sure. I was pretty messed up," Veemon admitted.
"…" After that Agumon said nothing as he began contemplating what Veemon had told him.
"Okay, all of that Tai stuff aside, this is still pretty big," Tentomon stated. "This means that there are definitely humans in the Digital World. And since Moosemon is gone they must also have the means to fight."
"Are you saying they have new partners?" Palmon cried, making the digimon shutter at the thought.
"No… Well, I don't know… but we can't even be sure it was Tai," Tentomon try to reassure the group.
Silent contemplation once again fell over the group as they tried to figure out what to do with all they had learned. The strange rift, the evil digimon, humans in the digital world again, and a sighting of one that might or might not have been Tai.
"We should start looking for Leomon again," Agumon suggested, breaking the silence, before walking out the door. The other just gave each other quick glances before following Agumon out the door in search of Leomon or the city hall.
In the shelter in the woods, on the kitchen table for two, an open laptop hummed away as the image of a map, currently focused on the Port of Waves, was displayed on the screen. Next to it an open cell phone in sleep mode rested. In front of the stove the cloaked figure stirred something in one of the pots before pulling out the large spoon and set it down on the counter. Then, turning and looking out the window over the sink, into the night sky that could be seen through the breaks in the tree branches they uttered a few words.
"He came to the Digital World today," the figure noted before sighing and picking up the spoon once more to return to stirring the food.
In the Dark Area things appeared to have returned to normal. The forests that had once been clear cut had somehow returned, and the scarred earth no longer showed any sign of mistreatment.
Everything on the surface seemed right, but two things were still amiss. First, a strange atmosphere had settled in over the land. It was one of foreboding and anticipation of the things to come. And second, there weren't any digimon in the Dark Area no matter where one looked. They had all just disappeared…
To be continued…