Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Characters; Asuka (Qinlongfei), Jay (sonofthetrigod), Hannah (RazenX), Lexy, Benji and Tilly (KumoFuzei), Amelia (Somethingdictionaryrelated), John (tobiisagoodboy94) Kara (FallenAngel01) and Rocky (me)
A/N – We're jumping on a plane and heading over to Japan – but everything will stay in English, due to the fact that I have no Japanese linguistic ability, but I will add grammatical errors in John's speech, just imagine that he is speaking Japanese rather than English.
A/N 2 – Check out the thread for the Tangled Web on the Digital Connections forum! Here's the link topic/22352/116003425/1/#116079252
Go on, you know you want to!
Without further ado, here is a chapter from – by picking on a random name generator – no, I promised I'd go back to John for chapter 25
And Chapter 25 a quarter of the way to a centenary and this is an amazing story for me :D
Chapter 25 – Johnathan Bradley
"What do you know about the DEPT?"
"I do not know any bit about them, like I said already," I replied, leaving my head hanging. Pain was all I could feel.
Being in Japan had been a rollercoaster ride. I'd met Lyle. A guy who took me under his wing and exposed me to the interior operations within DEPT and what they are truly capable. I found out that he had also lost his Digimon partner in the same manner as Hope lost Labramon. Then I met this guy's friend, or more as I later found out, ex-girlfriend, Asuka. She's, well, she's incredible. Admittedly, she is a little moody at some points, but she's one of the prettiest girls I've ever met. Which sucks because I can barely talk to her. Later on in my Japanese adventures, the location of the apartment we were staying at was leaked and we were aware of the fact that they were on their way. I was just able to get in touch with Rocky to tell them that the DEPT were watching our every move. Then they stormed the house. Asuka and her Digimon partner BlackAgumon were able to escape out the window and jumping onto a nearby tree, they were able to escape to safety. Without me. At the time, she was calling out for me to climb out the window, but I couldn't leave Commandramon behind – he was busy barring the door, and there was no way that I could ever leave Commandramon behind, so I got caught.
"Come on Mister Bradley, there is nothing you can say that will make me believe otherwise."
"Stop, can you? I told you that I do not know, so do not ask again, because I will tell you the same answer. I haven't a clue."
"What about Commandramon – what do you know about him?"
"Commandramon?" I decided to play dumb, uncertainty lingered in my mind. With my interrogator, there was no way of knowing whether I should play dumb or spill all that I knew about the Digimon partner of mine.
"Oh, so you're going to play dumb, are you?" the officer replied, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on the table between us. "I suppose it wouldn't mean very much if I just initiated his deletion then?" The officer then clicked his fingers at the guard standing outside the window of the door to this interrogation room.
There was a click as the door opened and the guard peered inside. "Yes sir?" he said confidently, awaiting his orders.
"I'd like for you to initiate a deletion programme on the Commandramon we picked up at the operative's house."
I just couldn't help but cry out, trying to stop him. "No!"
My interrogator snapped his head back round to look at me. "Oh really. If that is so, you better start talking. What is Commandramon to you?"
"Nothing…"
"Then, start up the deletion."
"No! Please. I- he- Commandramon – he's my Digimon partner. Please, just don't hurt him."
The officer clicked his fingers and the guard walked away.
"No, wait! What are you doing?" I exclaimed, standing up from my chair and heading for the door.
"Sit down, Mister Bradley!"
"No!"
He leapt up and grabbed my right arm, wrenching it up behind my back. A pain filled growl filled the room. "I believe there's someone you ought to meet first. I'm pretty sure that there's a lot that needs to be out in the open."
"What's going on? What are you talking about?" I asked, writhing about and trying to free myself, but my interrogator's strength was far superior to mine. "Let me go!"
He shoved me into the corridor and herded me towards the room that reminded me of the main control room you might see in a science fiction room with lifeless workers clicking away at keyboards and multi-coloured buttons. The interrogator pushed me some more, into the centre of the control room.
"I believe you know Agent Kappa."
Yes, I do know Agent Kappa. She was wearing a brown leather jacket and pale blue jeans. Despite looking so normal in comparison to the other workers, there was a little surprise that I didn't twig before that she was a spy, or a double agent.
"Agent Kappa has been betraying you the whole time, and you didn't even realise that. It's funny, isn't it?" The interrogator folded his arms and chuckled to himself. "Agent Kappa has told me everything about you, Lyle and his sister Amy, but she's not important to us. To be honest, you're not that important either, but you can help us get what we want. You see, although the DEPT branches work as one, we're all fighting for the glory. The glory is destroying the Digital World, and there are multiple branches around the world. We're going to destroy the Digital World, but first, we need to crush the Digimon on this side of the world."
"What about Black-" I started to say BlackAgumon's name, but Asuka shrieked a series of some abuse at me, some Japanese worlds that I didn't even understand.
This only interested the interrogating officer more, because I don't think that he even knew that Asuka was a Digidestined herself, with BlackAgumon at her side.
"Shut up, Johnathan!" Asuka shouted. "You don't know anything so just be quiet!"
"No, no Agent Kappa. Let the boy speak. I don't think that I should just ignore what he has to say, it might be valuable. What black thing my boy?"
"Nothing," I muttered, looking away from Asuka, disgusted by her betrayal a little. It felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest and dropped on a dirty floor with mangled bits or rubbish and hair entangling itself around it.
"Come on Mister Bradley. You don't need to play the hero. She's betrayed you already, so what's the harm in telling me about this black thing?"
"No."
There was a hiss, like a small release of air as the door opened and Commandramon was marched into the control room, right up to 'Agent Kappa'.
"Ah, Commandramon, thought about speaking up yet? Perhaps you can tell me about Black- oh what was his name?" The interrogator pressed his finger to his forehead as he looked to the ground.
I found myself sidling towards Asuka and Commandramon, amazed that none of the officers were taking any notice whatsoever. They were like zombies, their gaze fixated on the computer screens in front of them. It was then that I decided to do something that Amelia had taught me to do, but only in emergencies was I ever allowed to do this. I slammed my hand on the Digivice after initiating the start-up sequence.
Before our eyes, a dark green spiralling ring appeared. The entrance to the Digital World. My first time in the Digital World was fast approaching. I grabbed Asuka and Commandramon and pulled them through the portal. The journey through the portal was… fast and I could feel the wind rushing through my hair.
We hit the ground on the other side in a heap on the floor.
"Ow…" I moaned.
"Asuka, Asuka. I'm here. Over here!"
Lifting my head, I saw BlackAgumon running towards us, but he then tripped over, rolling down the hill towards us. I also noticed that Asuka and I had had a slight wardrobe change
For me, I had unconsciously swapped my camouflage jacket for a red zip-up jumper and lost my jeans to some grey shorts which made me feel freezing. For Asuka, she was now wearing a red collared coat with a white front that had silver buttoned down the front in two columns. With red trousers the same shade as the coat and grey boots, but she was ready for action.
"BlackAgumon, prepare for battle. We're going to fight this out, Johnathan." Asuka spoke in fluent English.
"You're speaking English?" I asked.
"No, you're speaking Japanese…" she snapped angrily. "It must be the Digital World – that it's able to translate for our mother tongue. Enough! You're dead meat!" Asuka backed away from me and her partner leapt forwards, striding towards me and Commandramon.
"No! I'm not going to fight you – despite the fact that you're a backstabbing double agent, I still see us as friends."
"Well tough! You nearly lost me BlackAgumon." Her eyes flashed red with anger. "BlackAgumon double digivolve!"
"BlackAgumon double digivolve to SkullGreymon!"
Something was wrong. I was looking up at a hideous skeletal Digimon which made my stomach turn. It had glowing narrow eyes that glared at me and Commandramon. There was a huge orange hump sticking out from behind its skull. I never wanted Commandramon to become anything like that.
"I'm not going to fight you, Asuka!" I shouted as this SkullGreymon roared in my face.
Asuka folded her arms. "No way Johnathan. You need to pay! Pandemicamon will never allow you to go back, not after I've told him what you've done."
"Pandemicamon, who is that?" I screamed, diving out of the way of some fiery ball of rock that was sent my way. "I've never heard of them."
"That's because no one has ever seen him. Apart from me. Pandemicamon has orchestrated the whole of DEPT and he's got me to thank for that."
"Wait, Asuka. Hold on," I said in a quieter tone that I thought might get her to silence her Digimon partner.
"What?" Asuka called out, but her Digimon wasn't going to be silenced by his human partner.
"Dark shot!" SkullGreymon cackled, releasing a missile from the orange rock on its back.
As the missile hurtled towards me, I panicked and felt my freeze up as if someone had turned off my ability to move.
"John!" Commandramon called out, ramming into me.
We crashed into the ground, which made me feel like I had broken my elbow as Commandramon practically landed on top of it and forced it the wrong way.
"Ow, oh- ow!" I gasped, clutching my arm at the point of my elbow.
"John, are you alright? What's wrong?" Commandramon asked quickly whilst SkullGreymon ready another attack.
"It's my elbow, I landed on it funny."
"I'm sorry, John we have to fight. You're hurt and there's no running. SkullGreymon's an ultimate level Digimon, that's stronger than my champion form of Sealsdramon. Please, let me protect you and do my job."
I gritted my teeth. "Fine." A growl past my lips as agony pulsated up and down my arm, colonising at my elbow. "Commandramon, digivolve!"
My military like Digimon began to glow and grow into his champion form. "Commandramon digivolve to, Sealsdramon!"
It felt great to see Sealsdramon again, bearing in mind that the last time I saw him, he defeated a Digimon in a field. He was the best, and I don't think he was ever going to be beaten by another champion level Digimon, but not an ultimate. This was definitely going to be a challenge, but like our last opponent, SkullGreymon was last and didn't have speed on his side, unlike Sealsdramon.
"Go on, Sealsdramon!" I yelled, pushing off the ground to stand up, keeping my elbow still as much as I could. Now that Asuka was distracted by the battle between SkullGreymon and Sealsdramon, I edged closer to her.
But something was wrong, whatever she told SkullGreymon to do, he did something different and as I turned to see a black and smoky aura leaking from its bones.
"SkullGreymon – listen to me!" Asuka snapped angrily, running towards her ultimate level Digimon.
A swipe from one of SkullGreymon's limbs sent Asuka flying back, right into me.
"Johnathan!" she squealed, cupping her hand over her mouth. "Something's wrong – SkullGreymon. He's not even listening to me. I'm not sure about this."
"Asuka, there's nothing we can do about it." I gently moved away from her feeling a little shy all of a sudden.
She leapt up to her feet and ran right into the centre of the ongoing battle between SkullGreymon and Sealsdramon, who was clearly feeling the challenge of the fight. "SkullGreymon, stop!" Asuka yelled. "You have to stop fighting. You're not well."
SkullGreymon let out an erupting scream that worried even me.
"Stop it!" Asuka whimpered, falling backwards onto the dirt ground. "This isn't like you!"
SkullGreymon refused to reply, instead, he released a fiery missile into the sky. When it exploded, sparks fell all around us.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ground began to tremble. A crack began to form in the ground, separating us all onto four separate and individual islands. Asuka was trapped in the centre and wobbled about the ground she stood on.
"Johnathan!" she called out, looking as though she was about to jump.
"Don't do it-" I stopped when I saw the dark black smoky matter draining from SkullGreymon's body and into the crevasses below. "What the?" I was now looking at a small black ball lying unconscious on the floor. "Asuka – what's happening?"
"I'm so sorry, Johnathan. I'm so, so sorry…"
Up from the split in the ground rose a black cloud of smoke which materialised into a person beside her.
"This is Pandemicamon, Johnathan." Asuka shook her head. "Run, get out of here, run!" she squeaked, tears beginning to roll off her face.
I stumbled back, but Pandemicamon moved his hand forwards in a single and swift movement which only dragged me towards him and Asuka. As I got nearer to the edge of the crevasse in the ground, I felt the shear evil in Pandemicamon. Even as I watched Asuka pleaded with the dark Digimon in an attempt to stop him hurting me, I realised that she really wanted to change how she was. Or at least that's what I was hoping.
"Sealsdramon!" I yelped. "Help!"
"John, you have to open a Digital Gate to the human world!" Sealsdramon yelped, before fading into Commandramon. "I've got no energy to hold my champion form at the moment."
At first, I didn't want to leave Asuka behind, but I had a moment of selfishness. My fingers pressed the relative buttons on my Digivice and allowing the Digital Gate to open. I began to drag myself across the ground towards the portal and felt Pandemicamon getting closer to me. With one last push, Commandramon and I tumbled through the portal.
We fell down onto a gravelled road where there was a short hedge growing either side of it. As I stood up, I saw that the road disappeared around a hilltop, and that the other way, the road led to a small cottage house.
"Oh my!" I heard a girl squeal.
There was a girl who was genuinely dressed like a cowgirl running towards me. She looked dwarfed in this cream jacket she wore and the red neckerchief that blew in the wind made me think she was some kind of sheriff.
"Did you just come through that little circular portal thingy?" she asked, grabbing me by the crook of the elbow to pull me off the ground.
I screamed in agony and she let go, squirming a little as if she had physically broken my arm.
"I did."
There was a click as Commandramon lifted his weapon so that he could look through the crosshairs at the girl.
"He's a Commandramon, right?" she asked calmly, sounding a little worried. "Look." The girl took a step back. "I'm a detective, investigating anything digital or Digimon related, it's your lucky day, mate!"
"Where am I?" I asked, looking around and feeling that Geography was not my strongest point here.
"You really don't know? This is Lion's Head." She smiled, beaming at me with a friendly expression.
"Lion's Head? I don't mean to be rude, but can you not play riddles. Where am I?" I didn't believe that Lion's Head was a real place that existed.
"Don't insult Lion's Head. Lion's Head is a real place. This is Ontario, Canada, and I'm Zoe, Zoe Lionheart. One of the descendants of the Lionheart family that helped to build this town. There's me and my Dad living in that little cottage, along with ToyAgumon."
"ToyAgumon- that means you're a Digidestined, right?" I had to be sure, but I was surprised I hadn't realised that there was a chance that she could be one of us.
"Well of course." Zoe smiled. "But I didn't know that there were other Digidestined in the world… I thought it was just me and ToyAgumon."
A grin crept across my face. "Oh no, Zoe. You've got it all wrong. Seriously wrong. There are so many Digidestined out there in the world. I know, like eight back home in the U.K and I know of two in Japan. And I'm pretty sure that there must be some elsewhere in the world."
Zoe seemed a little hurt, she sniffed dramatically. "I never even knew that there were others in the world." She straightened up and buttoned her coat shut. "When I saw Commandramon, I had to make sure that you were a good guy and that you were also a Digidestined." A sigh left her mouth. "This is so weird. When I woke up this morning, I truly believed it were just me and ToyAgumon, but now… Now there's you and Commandramon, plus all these other kids that you know, I know. I know that I am not alone."
"Of course you aren't alone. There are probably hundreds of kids that are Digidestined from all around the world. It was only a matter of time before you met one. For all you know, there's one just across the border in central America, maybe even another Canadian state."
Looking around me, I knew that Lion's Head was not where I wanted or needed to be. To be honest, I worried that the DEPT might be tracking me and that I had led them straight to Zoe and ToyAgumon.
"Do you know about the DEPT?" I asked. "It's important that you tell me the truth. I need to know."
"The, DEPT… Is that an initialism or something?"
"Well no," I said, unable to stop myself from correcting her. "You've got it wrong there. It's not an initialism because That would b T. The DEPT is an acronym, standing for something like the Digimon Extraction Programme Team, but it's an acronym, I swear." I spun around, frantically surveying my surroundings. "This is crazy, I have to get out of here in case I've been followed by Pandemicamon and he finds you… You can be our back up in case something goes wrong in the U.K. I'm going to go through a portal to the Digital World, but you cannot follow me, please don't try and follow me because it's, because it's dangerous in the Digital World when you haven't been there before."
Zoe looked a little hurt so I knew I hadn't handled the situation as well as I should have.
"Sorry Zoe…"
"It's fine. I understand. Come on ToyAgumon, we'll leave him to do it himself." She turned to walk away down the road towards the cottage. "ToyAgumon!" she called out softly.
"Zoe…" I said quietly. "Commandramon, why are girls so confusing?"
But not even Commandramon could answer my seemingly simple question. "That is something I cannot answer, Johnathan, because I do not have sufficient data. What I do know is that we definitely need to get out of Canada, hopefully leave to the Digital World and not encounter Pandemicamon. It'll be easy to get home if we use the Digital World, though there's no way of knowing exactly where we will end up to be honest, because we ended up in Canada the first time we left the Digital World."
"But what about Rocky and Benji, and Kara and Tilly… Those guys left the Digital World and they ended up back home- how do you explain that?"
"That could purely be coincidence."
"Well let's hope coincidence helps us out again." Commandramon turned to see the door to the cottage Zoe lived in. "What are we waiting for?"
"You got it…" I mumbled, pressing the buttons that would open the gate to the Digital World.
The only good thing about today seemed to be that I had found another Digidestined girl.
Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = I believed a chapter was in good hand, because I hadn't uploaded a chapter in so long… Hope it wasn't too bad, because I just left my mind to it. Please make sure to review, they're really encouraging! And here's to Zoe, our new Digidestined girl made up by This is the real deal