Chapter 25: Gatomon Loses It
"Get plenty of sleep, Agumon. I have a feeling we're gonna need every ounce of our strength," Tai told me as he jumped into bed.
"Right, Tai. The last thing I need is to be tired when we fight Myotismon,"
"Don't get ahead of yourself. Hopefully we won't have to fight him tomorrow," Tai told me.
I don't know why, but I couldn't get any sleep. I just lay in my little bed for almost an hour, unable to even close my eyes. Finally, I got up for a glass of water. I stood in the kitchen, slowly sipping the water and wondering why I couldn't sleep. I wasn't hungry at all, and I didn't have any more reason to be nervous than I had the last few nights. Tai was snoring loudly, but that had never been a problem for me before.
I finished my water and walked back toward Tai's room. I heard some kind of sound come from Kari's room, and it made me stop. I slowly walked up to the door. It was open a crack, and I peaked in. I saw Gatomon standing on the bed next to a sleeping Kari.
"Couldn't sleep either?" I asked, walking into the room. Gatomon ignored me.
"Hey, why are you being so rude?" I asked, taking a few steps forward. Suddenly, Gatomon raised her claws. I got a glipse of her eyes, and there was a strange, almost frantic look in them. Suddenly, she started to bring the claws down toward Kari's throat.
"Pepper Breath!" I cried as I balst a ball of fire at her. Her claws barely grazed Kari's neck, leaving a tiny scratch, before my fireball sent her flying into the wall. The noise awoke Kari, who looked at me and blinked.
"Agumon, why are you waking me up?" she asked groggily.
"Look out!" I said, leaping up onto the bed.
"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon screamed. The blow landed right on my jaw, and I fell backwards. It felt like my jaw was broken. Gatomon is champion level, and her attack hurt rookies a lot more than it normally would. Still, I jumped up to my feet as Kari scrambled out of the bed.
"What's going on?" she asked frantically.
"Something's wrong with Gatomon!" I told her. Gatomon leapt at us, but I managed to push Kari out of the way just in time. I was slammed into the wall hard by Gatomon's attack, but I couldn't worry about the pain right now. I had to get Kari out of there.
"Kari run!" I yelled to her. She obeyed instantly, jumping up off of the floor and rushing out of the room. Gatomon leapt at her, but a well-aimed Peper breath knocked her away from the door and into a corner of the room. I rushed after Kari and slammed the door shut behind me.
Tai came out of his room. "What's all the noise?" he asked.
"Tai, something's wrong with Gatomon!" Kari said. "She's going crazy."
"What do you mean going crazy?" Tai asked. Just then, Gatomon's claw bashed through the wooden door, which I was doing my best to hold shut. It created a small hole, but not one large enough for her to get through.
"You two run and get help, I'll hold her up!" I yelled at them. Tai grabbed his jacket and pulled the cell phone out of it while Kari grabbed her D-Terminal. They both ran out of the apartment as Gatomon's claw smashed through the door again.
"Agumon, meet us in the park!" Tai yelled back at me.
"Alright I said. Through the slightly larger hole, I could see Gatomon leaping at the door again. I shot a fireball through the hole, knocking her back. It only bought us a few seconds, though, because her next attack shattered the door, sending me rolling back into a sofa. She stared at me, as if thinking about whether or not she should waste her time with me or not. Her pupils were very small, and her eyes were badly bloodshot. She apparently decided not, because she streaked out of the room after Tai and Kari. I got up and quickly followed.
The apartment building has open-air balconies on the outside of each floor, stretching all the way along the building, which the front doors open out onto. As I ran out, I saw Gatomon turning the corner at the end of the balcony, heading for the stairs. I looked down at the street below and Saw Tai and Kari running on the sidewalk. I looked down at the street right below me, and saw an open garbage dumpster. Knowing that I had to get ahead of Gatomon again, I jumped from the fifth story balcony, aiming for the rather full dumpster.
I hit the trash hard, and I was dazed for a split second. Thankfully, my tough reptile skin protected me from the broken glass in the dumpster. Regaining my composure, I climbed out of the dumpster and ran after Kari and Tai. I could see them far ahead of me on the sidewalk, and I could just make out that Tai was talking on the cell phone. As I ran after them, I heard a grunt behind me. I looked back to see that gatomon had made it out of the building and was now gaining on me. I stopped for a second and launched a fireball at her. The attack caught her offguard and sent her flying sideways into a planter.
I didn't stay long enough to see what happened. I kept chasing Kari and Tai to the park. As I got close, I heard Gatomon's claws pounding on the sidewalk behind me. I rushed into the park. I ran toward Tai and Kari, but Gatomon was to fast. She slammed her claws into my back hard, knocking me to the ground, and leapt over me. As I got up I could see that she was almost to them. I tried to blast my fireballs at her, but I missed.
Just as she leapt at them, something dove into her and slammed into the ground. When the dust cleared, I could see Aquilamon pinning her to the ground with his talons. From the other side of the park, Yolei ran towards Kari and Tai, who had stopped running. I ran to them as quickly as I could, but just as I got there, Gatomon managed to free herself. She leapt at Aquilamon, knocking him backwards into a tree.
"Agumon, he needs help!" Tai yelled to me. I nodded in agreement.
Agumon digivolve to...:::::Greymon!
As Greymon, I stepped in front of the three humans. From my new height, I could see TK, Patamon, Matt, and Gabumon running toward us from another area of the park.
Gatomon ignored the temporarily downed Aquilamon and turned back toward me. I gritted my teeth and prepared for her attack.
"Lightning Paw!" She screamed as she leapt toward me. I waited until she was in the air, and then I attacked.
"Nova Blast!" I called out my attack. The enormous fireball hit her and blasted her back into the ground. The smell of singed fur rose from her as she stood up again. She was about to attack again when Garurumon, having just digivolved from Gabumon, tackled her into a bench. The bench was reduced to splinters as they rolled about thirty feet away. Patamon flew in next to me and prepared himself to fight. Aquilamon also stepped up next to me, the three of us forming a wall between our partners and Gatomon.
Garurumon was quickly on his feet again, and the massive white and blue wolf-like digimon positioned himself for another attack. Gatomon was slow getting up, but the maddened look had not left her eyes yet.
"Gatomon, what is wrong with you?" Garurumon growled at her. She didn't respond. She was breathing heavily and seemed to grow even angrier because of his question. She was staring at him, and her eyes seemed to be getting redder.
Matt finally realized what was happening. "Garurumon, look away! It's her Cat's Eye Hypnosis ability!" he screamed to his digimon. Garurumon obeyed just in time. The red waves spread out from Gatomon's eyes, but Garurumon wasn't looking at her. He still wasn't looking at her when she stopped, and she took the opportunity to score an easy hit right on his head. Garurumon was knocked away and landed in a fountain. He smashed into the stone statue which was spewing water and it crashed down on top of him. Gatomon wasted no time in rushing to the fountain and landing another easy hit while Garurumon was down. He sprang up and tried to find her, but she had run around behind him, and she now leapt over him and aimed an attack right at the back of his head. The attack never got off, though.
"Poison Ivy!" Palmon yelled out from behind Gatomon. The vines wrapped around her and dragged her backwards toward the ground. Garurumon turned to face her, expecting her to break free of the vines shortly, Palmon being a rookie-level digimon. But that didn't happen. In fact, Gatomon didn't even seem to be struggling against the vines. She just laid there with a confused look on her face. Her eyes were no longer bloodshot
"What happened? Why are we in the park?" she asked, looking around. Palmon released her and she slowly stood up.
"You don't remember anything?" Tai asked as he stepped forward. Garurumon, Aquilamon, and I returned to our rookie forms.
"The last thing I remember was going to sleep in Kari's room," Gatomon said. "So why are we in the park?"
"You were going crazy," I said. "You even attacked Kari."
Gatomon looked shocked. "I . . . attacked Kari?" she asked, unable to believe it.
"Yeah. I walked into the room and you were attacking her," I replied. "Everyone came here to stop you."
"I don't remember any of that," Gatomon said. She turned toward Kari. "I'm sorry, Kari," she said, lowering her head.
"Don't worry Gatomon. You're back to yourself now, and that's all that matters," Kari said.
"But what could have caused her to go insane in the first place?" TK wondered.
"It's impossible to say if Gatomon doesn't remember anything," Matt said.
"I'm sorry everyone, but I can't think of anything," Gatomon said.
"Could it have been Myotismon?" Yolei asked.
"Do you think he's finally managed to get back to the real world?" TK wondered.
"If he has, then we have to warn everyone else, tonight. There's no time to lose," Tai said.
"Hold on, I've got an email from Gennai," Kari said. Everyone crowded around Kari to see what it said.