Heart hammering in his throat, Izzy peered in around the doorless corner into what looked like a mad scientist's wet dream. No sign of Tentomon, nor even of his own Digivice… but something was in here, and whatever it was battled back his fear of being caught with a vicious, curious tenacity. So, hand still throbbing in a painful reminder of just how unprepared he was, he edged his way inside with a careful sort of hyper awareness he'd been sorely missing previously, and he used it to his full advantage to look at everything on the counters for something that may be useful.
Or at least, that had been the plan. None of his plans were working out, and it was starting to really bother him. What actually happened was, he was busy looking around in half distraction until he came around the raised berth in the center of the room. Any hope he had of a quick exit went sideways. His jaw dropped and his breath caught in his chest. "T-Taichi?"
Strapped down, Taichi didn't react. His eyes were open, but they stared off at nothing. His expression was slack and it was like everything in him had been sucked away… all the way down to his soul. Izzy reached forward with shaking hands, gripping Taichi's left hand with mounting concern. Freezing. If there weren't a very faint rize and fall at his chest, the missing Digi-Destined Leader could have been…
Dead.
Izzy sniffed, too much in the past few hours coming at him to have a hope for keeping tears of relieved stress from swelling forward. "Tai..." he breathed, tightening his hold. Found you repeated in his head like a lighthouse beckoning him onward. Rubbing at his eyes, he turned his attention to the metal holding his friend in place. A memory from years gone flashed to mind, and he sucked in a breath, turning his eyes back to Tai's, younger Sora's blank features superimposing him for a split second.
Shivering, he looked around for a means of deactivating them. Everything in him told him this was Taichi, not a copy… no matter how eerily similar the two situations appeared. And that meant that Izzy had to get Taichi free and clear. Alone. Without even his partner Digimon.
He shook his head with a growl, "Focus! Get those manacles off. That's first priority right now." He'd have to wing everything else, as he had been failing miserably at this entire venture. The circumstances were as they were, however, and while he wished he could change the events, going back wasn't an option, and he'd take the fortuitous reunion with their missing friend for what it was.
All five snapped open with a heavy clink, making Izzy jump. He only barely kept his shout of surprise to himself as he whirled around to find the source. He expected another human to come out at him, just like what had happened only minutes – had it only been minutes? - ago in a different room. Heck, it could even be the same human that had confronted him; recovered swiftly from the unpracticed swing of an already throbbing fist.
Only it wasn't a human staring at him. It was a small Digimon, blue and white with large ruby eyes, and it was seated comfortably on Taichi's chest. Grinning broadly, "You're taking too long. You're lucky you talk to yourself. I'd have Bubbled you into submission for coming so close to Tai-hoomon."
"Uh… wha-what?" he asked, caught entirely off guard. "Who are you? How do you – how long have you been in here?" Izzy cautiously stepped forward, more concerned at Taichi's continued lack of reaction. "Tai?"
"Longer'n you. Tai-hoomon hasn't moved an inch, either. I'm gonna pommel those Hoomons for this. No one imprisons Demi-Veemon, and no one hurts my Hoomon, Tai." The little dragon-like Micro-Digimon puffed and let out a rather impressive growl for something so otherwise cuddly. It was a strange mix of cute and intimidating.
Izzy deftly ignored the tough talk, gently shaking at his friend's cold shoulder. "Tai, wake up. I don't think I can carry you back down the mountain, please… focus, Tai. Can you focus on me?" He waved in front of still unblinking brown eyes that almost appeared black in the storm-lit lab. "Tai… please! I still have to find Tentomon..."
Demi-Veemon quirked his little head, curious. "So you're a Digi-Destined like Tai-hoomon? And your partner is a Tentomon?" Izzy barely heard the questions, caught up in the emotional maelstrom that threatened to consume him, until, "You probably belong to this thing then! I thought it was Tai-hoomon's, but it didn't do anything."
Izzy jerked his head up to stare uncomprehendingly at the tiny 'mon – now holding his own shiny Digivice in his paws. "You… found my..." he breathed, cautios as he reached for it. It lit up at his touch before falling back into standby. "Thank you, Demi-Veemon. You have no idea how important that was."
The Micro-Digimon narrowed his glowing red eyes in challenge. "Oh I've got a good guess… your partner Tentomon can't Digivolve without it, right? I'm a Digi-Destined Digimon too you know!"
Izzy missed most of the mini rant thanks to a booming peel of thunder that shook literally everything in the room. Danger prickled at his skin like the ever present static charge that still numbed parts of his body, and he knew they had to leave. Any safety the castle-fortress on the mountain had promised had officially crumbled and left them all vulnerable to the raging elements swirling outside. "Tai!"
Surprisingly, Taichi sat up at Izzy panicked call. Demi-Veemon called out in surprise as his perch adjusted upward, forcing him to slide down into a waiting arm. "Woah! Tai-hoomon? Hey! You're awake!"
Izzy paused, relief going cold as Taichi's expression still stayed empty. The missing teen slowly moved to stand, but his dark gaze didn't focus or move. No bubbly words of praise or comfort, unlike anything Izzy expected. No calm confidence or playful smack about kicking butt or joking about how long all of this took. Taichi simply stood, cradling Demi-Veemon with a blank look that somewhat aimed Izzy's direction.
It… was all wrong.
Izzy had noticed over the years – he was observant and always looking into anything Digimon related – that their given crests were traits that often spoke when nothing else did. Yamatto was the fiercest friend anyone could have, and he showed it differently every day. Mimi's serene grace and child-like heart radiated everywhere she went, even when she were simply reading a book. Hikari could make anyone smile, even if they'd had the worst day ever.
And Taichi had always shown with courage. Now? Izzy didn't feel that infectious confidence in the slightest. In fact, he was scared, and no bravery came to the rescue. No hope, no light, no friends… and all because he'd acted without thinking. He hadn't gotten all of the facts before striking out for more information, and it would be their downfall.
"Hoomon? We should find your Tentomon partner before someone finds us," Demi-Veemon spoke up, seeming just as unnerved at this predicament. Izzy blinked, looking up from the floor. The blue Digimon stared unblinkingly back. "We can't wait around here too long, right? That storm's pretty crazy, and your partner could be in danger."
"Ye-yeah. You're right. Let's… let's find Tentomon and go..." he eyed Taichi, moving for the exit, half startled when the other teen quietly followed without a word. "I promise… I'll figure out with they did to you..." he whispered to himself, clenching a sore fist.
Regaining a small sense of priority, he turned his Digivice's screen up, adjusting his hold. They had always been mostly intuitive, acting when needed without a lot to really do from their linked Human. But there had been times when the "buttons" had come in handy. They never really did the same thing twice, but they seemed to help shift whatever the current function was set for. In this case, his fingers connected with all three buttons and the top "switch".
The screen lit up with a familiar grid pattern, a very faint bee-da-deep sounding from the sealed internals. Izzy studied it a moment, then sighed. Stepping forward out into the hall brought another faint bee-da-deep, and he grit his teeth at the surge of adrenaline that shot through him at the sound. Taking a calming breath, he turned around and walked in the direction he'd come from in experimentation. Nothing. Two steps back in the original direction, and the sound quietly rang out in his hand, and Izzy smiled. 'I'm coming, Tento… hang in there…'
He cautiously glanced at Taichi and Demi-Veemon as they made the three of them made their way faster than Izzy had anticipated. Taichi still said nothing, still not looking at anything in particular as if he were locked in deep thought. He kept pace without complaint, but he was limping.
It barely looked like him.
That was… sure, it looked like Taichi, physically… obviously, because it was, but… in plain sweat pants Izzy knew weren't his by the way they dragged on the floor, a plain shirt that looked like a twenty-year old hand me down… wild hair that was awefully flat and lackluster… An ill feeling wormed through Izzy's stomach. Taichi had been his closest friend for years. This was absolutely the furthest from normal his friend could be.
Suddenly Demi-Veemon landed hard on Izzy's head, a quick thump of a hind-quarter entirely unnecessary in the moment, but given regardless. Izzy almost shouted and swatted the small Digimon if not for the movement from ahead that sent a fresh wave of ice rocketing through his veins. Gasping instead, he whirled on his heel, grabbed Taichi's upper arm and ducked into another room he'd been perfectly happy to bypass thanks to his helpful Digivice. He didn't pause, shoving them all inside.
His first instinct was to barricade the door. Only, Taichi stumbled and Izzy's focus of panic shifted drastically as he tried to catch the other on some inborn reflex. Izzy was far from in the best shape himself, and all three of them went to the floor. Demi-Veemon flipped gracefully like Gatomon to land right side up, and Izzy might have been annoyed at the little Digimon's pride if he weren't trying to pick himself and Tachi back up.
"Uh oh..." the Digimon intoned, hunching protectively. Izzy looked up with a jolt, dark eyes wild as a surge of 'Really?' flashed in his mind not for the first time. No humans met his line of sight, but what had grabbed the blue and white creature's attention was quite apparent.
TVs. Each one showing a different spot in the complex. A Surveillance room, he realized grimly. Blissfully empty of anyone else… but that may not be for long. The person he'd glimpsed in the hallway could be coming here. And if not here, they could be heading to Taichi, and if they found him missing, they'd come here next.
Cursing quietly, he stood up and hurried to the control panel, taking a moment to familiarize with the Digi-code controls and started flipping through the cameras to find the hall they'd just exited… only to see the figure of a woman vanish at the far end of the hall in the opposite direction from where they'd come from. "Oh thank goodness..." he breathed.
"I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news," Demi-Veemon drawled, hopping up beside Izzy and pointing at a different screen, but… that's an Ultimate Level Digimon. And it just downloaded a helpless Armadillomon." Izzy was frozen the second he looked, spying the faintly rabbit-like features of a Digimon he highly suspected was the next evolution of Wendimon. The camera couldn't discern its shape, blurring like it was a ghost or liquid or vaporous. Scientists surrounded the Ultimate in varying degrees of interest and minor disgust.
"Down… loaded?" he asked, the explanation clicking in his mind.
"Yeah. When a Digimon downloads data like that, the Digimon that was, no longer is. And the bigger 'mon is stronger for it. Pretty gruesome and horrible. Saw it happen just before I met Tai-hoomon," Demi-Veemon explained grimly. "I bet that's what happened to the Hawkmon I met earlier… I got away thanks to him, but he didn't make it." His ear-like protrusions dipped low.
Izzy grimaced, turning back to the TV he'd been working with, cycling through the feeds for a better understanding of the castle. He wished he knew what'd happened to his back pack. His laptop would have been handy. He'd be able to jack in and find what he needed much easier and have it all in his hard drive. He couldn't remember when he'd seen it last.
"Um… Hoomon? Still more bad news, but isn't that your Tentomon friend?"
Izzy didn't feel anything as he snapped his eyes up to find the familiar shine of fuschia, grey and green exactly where he'd never wanted to see it – staring helplessly up at the poisonous Ultimate that'd become their top antagonist this entire trip. Chained in place with humans holding the ends tightly, Tentomon looked like lamb for slaughter.
NO.
Moving like a blur, Izzy bolted, sliding into the hall and pounding the floor like a machine. He vaguely heard his Digivice confirm his direction with faster, more urgent beeps, but otherwise, he was far too focused on reaching his partner to notice anything. Nothing else mattered.
He burst into the large room, barely acknowledging it was the correct one, and managed to dodge the two humans closest to the entrance. He didn't think as he practically lurched to protect his partner from the rabbit's claws. His arms wrapped around his partner's shell mid home-run slide on his knees, fully expecting to be ripped apart. Instead, his Digivice flared in a burst of light and sound, the larger Digimon growling ominously as it fell backward.
"Izzy!" Tentomon cried, his tone pitched in a mix of relief and fear identical to his human's.
Izzy didn't reply, standing to jump at the closest human like a berzerker. The man shouted, falling back just a stream of bubbles sailed past and Demi-Veemon entered the fray with a show of teeth and bit into another man's shoulder. Both sets of chains fell to the ground with a loud clatter. Unfortunately, the other two were faster than either of them could recover, and they pulled their chains with a mighty tug that flipped Tentomon with an awkward cry. "Hey!" Izzy shouted, teeth bared.
Wendimon's digivolution shrilled, stalling everyone in the room. It wasn't wind, exactly, but something pushed out with a power to send them all toppling in it's anger. Izzy scrambled on his knees to his partner, pulling the insect close in some vague and ineffective shield that seemed cliché even as he found himself doing it.
He missed the hows, caught up in the action of protecting his Digimon from the insane power that would overwhelm them soon. Yet the Ultimate Digimon grunted, falling back again and the force evaporated instantly. Izzy looked up, one of the useless chains that'd likely held Armadillomon in place was taut around the rabbit's mouth.
"Izzy! Move!"
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A/N: Holy moly an update. So sorry it's been a year or three. I can't help it when the characters don't tell me what's going on. I struggled with this so much. Anyway, I'm not quitting on this thing yet (I... it's at HOW MANY CHAPTERS?) so please bear with me. Thank you all for sticking around this long. If you're new to this, well, welcome aboard.
Hope everyone enjoyed Tri - I did. Still waiting on Last Evolution to release, but... hey! New reboot to get lost in! Cool! I haven't seen that yet either, but I'm definitely going to be giving it a shot when more episodes have released.