Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A Realm of Fear
Chapter: 4
"Digi-modify! WarGreymon's Brave Shield Activate!"
Henry's shout and subsequent card slash came almost too late. With a call of Pumpkinmon Power, the Pumpkinmon summoned a massive version of its head before dropping it down upon Terriermon, just as the data of a massive shield materialized about the long-eared Rookie. The pumpkin struck the shield and broke apart into great orange chunks and splattered seeds. Pumpkinmon looked aghast at the sight.
"Oh, now that's just gross!" he exclaimed. "Not to mention unfair! Why couldn't you have stayed a good little rabbit and be squashed?"
"I have friends who could give you a thousand reasons why," Terriermon giggled. "But the main one is because I live to annoy. Bunny Blast!"
Rearing back beneath the shield, the Rookie let out a stream of green energy blasts from his mouth. They struck Pumpkinmon's knees, causing the short Ultimate to stagger before he swatted at the tiny bursts.
"Ow! Ow! Owww! DemiDevimon!"
"I'm on it!" the bowling-ball-like digimon with wings laughed, surging toward Terriermon. Not even pausing in his attack, Terriermon brought his ears up and, upon clasping hold of the Brave Shield, lifted it up.
"Terrier Tornado!" he now shouted, the stream of green blasts halting. Spinning now at a rapid pace, the Rookie swung the Brave Shield about and with a great, tremendous smack, struck DemiDevimon across the face, sending him flying backward with a cry.
"That'll make you think twice about messing with me!" Terriermon declared, whirling to a halt, his ears still holding up the Brave Shield defiantly. Pumpkinmon grimaced.
"Come on. Do we have to fight?" he asked in a whiny tone. "We just want a light snack and to test something out. We're not here to hurt anyone. Well, maybe scare you a little bit, but we're not really in this for a fight."
"Huh?" Henry asked, arching an eyebrow. That struck him as a bit unexpected. Did we jump to conclusions about them?
"It sure didn't look that way to me!" Terriermon snarled, having none of the doubts that plagued his partner. "Henry! How about I digivolve? I'll teach these two bozos that they can't just come here and start trouble!"
"I don't know, Terriermon," Henry began. "Maybe we should hear them out. I…"
The half-Chinese boy paused, motion catching his attention. Looking down, he saw a fine mist rising up from the street and enveloping him. A pair of large, red-garbed claws fell upon his shoulders and a demonic snicker filled the air.
"Let's not make this complicated," a sultry, feminine voice whispered in his ears, and Henry felt his skin prickle. "Okay, boys. Have your fill!"
"All right!" DemiDevimon laughed, spitting out a tooth.
Electricity sparked and danced along the mist and Henry's vision of the world became lost to the fog, save only for a group of glowing eyes. All at once, the eyes surged toward him and Henry cried out, fear erupting from his chest unexpectedly. A black miasma surrounded one of the eyes just then and as Henry watched, a figure formed, long and thin, with impossibly large hands and demonic horns sprouting from its skull. It grabbed hold of him and yanked him out of the grasp of the red claws that had held him and pulled him toward an ever-expanding mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. Henry gave another cry and then the fog dissipated. Henry found himself standing where he had been when the mist first rose. There was no cavern of fangs. Just the city and the digimon he and Terriermon were in battle with.
Only, one of them, the DemiDevimon, had digivolved.
He stood there, a tower of black leather with tattered wings and red, gleaming eyes. He ran a tongue over his lips, looking quite pleased with himself and immensely satiated. Pinched between his long, blood-red claws, was something that looked like a digivice, similar to his own in design, but black. Flickering on its screen was something that appeared to be an image of a tree. A dark tree.
"Tasty fear," Devimon said, smirking at Henry.
"T-Terriermon," the boy said, suddenly feeling very tired. His legs were shaking and he found keeping his eyes open to be a battle in itself. "W-What's…?"
He couldn't continue. Before he even knew what was happening, his legs unhinged themselves and he crashed to the ground.
"Henry!" shouted Yua, dashing toward him. Terriermon backed up slightly, the Brave Shield vanishing from view as the modify effect ran out. He looked back and forth between his two opponents. He had been confident before. Pumpkinmon was fairly weak as an Ultimate and DemiDevimon was a pushover for him. But now that the latter had digivolved into the vastly more powerful Devimon, the situation had changed. Worse, he'd have to fight them both as a Rookie while having no ability to keep them from harming either Henry or Yua.
"I'd say that the test was a success!" Pumpkinmon grinned. Devimon turned his claws over, admiring them and their new lethality.
"Yes," he agreed, his tone deeper and more mature. "Yes, it was."
"We ought to return to our master to report this."
Devimon frowned, looking down at Henry and Terriermon.
"Perhaps I should test it a little bit more?" he suggested, a tinge of hope in his voice. "This one has friends who are no doubt on their way. If I could get their fear like I did this one…" His eyes fell on Yua, who looked up at him with wide eyes. Her red-colored nails drew into tight fists.
"N-No…" she whispered, climbing to her feet. "No!"
Devimon made an angry, growling noise, but before he could say anything Pumpkinmon intervened.
"We ought to return. We were lucky with this one! He wasn't expecting anything like this!"
"Neither will the others."
"But they'll be better prepared once they see their friend here!" Pumpkinmon ran up to Devimon and tugged at a wing. "Come on! Let's go and report to the master! We don't want to take on more than we can handle, right? Some of these Tamers can digivolve to Mega!"
At that, Devimon twitched before nodding his reluctant agreement.
"Very well." He smirked down at Henry. "Sweet dreams, child."
"Hey!" Terriermon said, finally finding his voice. "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing he won't recover from," Pumpkinmon promised. "Like we said. This was just a light snack. We don't want to hurt anyone. Anyway, see you around!"
Devimon's eyes glowed as he eyed Yua and the unconscious Henry.
"See you soon," he said, smiling ominously with shining teeth.
With that, Pumpkinmon threw up a hand and mist once more surrounded them. It billowed up, encompassing them both before retracting and then, a second later, they were both gone. Terriermon let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Whirling about, he ran over to his partner.
"Henry! Speak to me! Say something, even if it's just my name! Henry!"
His frantic cries were met only with the sound of an incoming jet engine. Yua looked up to find a metallic, dragon-like craft swooping down toward them, its eyes empty and emotionless.
"W-What is that?!" Yua stammered out, her voice half a scream.
Terriermon pinched his lips and turned as the mechanical dragon unfolded a pair of legs from its abdomen and came in for a landing.
The Zero Arms had arrived.
###
A panting Kenta burst into the waiting area, where he found Takato, Guilmon, Rika, Renamon and Yua seated together with a despondent Terriermon sitting in Yua's lap while Guilmon pawed at Renamon's twitching tail. Yua was gently running a hand through the Rookie's cream-colored fur, looking rather shaken. Swallowing, he hurried on over.
"You guys," he gasped. "I c-came as soon as I heard. Yua…"
"Oh, Kenta!" the girl exclaimed, ceasing in her pats. Getting up from her seat, she rushed over to him and crushed the bespectacled boy to her, squishing Terriermon between them.
"Yow! Hey! Would you two lovebirds at least put me down before you get lovey-dovey?! Sheesh!"
"Pih?" came an inquiry from MarineAngemon, floating up from behind.
"No, to whatever it was you said!"
"But you don't know what it was he said," Guilmon said, padding on over. Sniffing the air, he cocked his head to one side before shaking it.
"I don't care! Because I'm sure it's something bad about me!" Terriermon replied as Yua pulled back from Kenta, leaving one hand against the boy's cheek.
"Sorry," she apologized to the long-eared Rookie. "Momentai?"
Terriermon squirmed in her grasp and she let him go.
"Someone really needs to copyright my catchphrase," he grumbled, hopping up onto Guilmon's head. "At least then I'd make my own money."
"And what would you invest it in?" Renamon asked, joining them as Rika and Takato approached from behind.
"I don't know. A line of T-Shirts that said 'momentai'? Who cares?"
"H-How's Henry?" Kenta asked, drawing Yua's hand into his own. Rika's gaze followed it before she crossed her arms together.
"The rest of his family is visiting him and Yamaki's here talking to the doctors," Takato replied. "We still haven't heard anything."
"They won't let me be with him because everyone's afraid I'm going to wreck all the equipment just by being a digimon."
"I thought they said they were worried about you wrecking it by being you," Rika hmphed.
"Heyyy… Momentai! You don't need to be like that! It's not like I'm going to get between you and your crush, even by accident."
"Uh, crush?" Takato asked, lifting an eyebrow. Rika hmphed again, restraining herself from pummeling the dog-bunny.
"Ignore the weeny rabbit, Gogglehead. He's being stupid."
"Are you alright?" Kenta asked Yua. "You weren't hurt or anything, were you?"
"No, I wasn't," Yua smiled, looking back at Terriermon. "Henry's digimon was very brave."
"Bravery had nothing to do with it," Terriermon said with a huff. "Those guys were weird. They talked about how they didn't want to fight even though they picked one. Not to mention…" He shook his head. "…they said something about 'eating' and they had a weird, black digivice. Then they did something to Henry and then the DemiDevimon digivolved to Devimon."
Kenta adjusted his glasses. "If Kazu were here, I'm sure he would say something like, "but don't they already digivolve?" I mean, the digivice thing is weird, but Calumon released the light back to the digital world, didn't he? Why would they need a digivice?"
"Don't know. So far as we know, nothing's changed about that." Rika, glanced at Takato. "Calumon still lives with Jeri, right? I didn't see him today and he usually follows Jeri around wherever she goes."
"Yeah, but it can't hurt to check in just in case" Takato replied. Terriermon giggled.
"Checking to see how up to date he is on Jeri's home life?"
Rika narrowed her eyes dangerously at the long-eared digimon, a light blush coloring her features.
"You never miss a beat, do you?"
"I've got to have something to take my mind off of Henry." Terriermon sighed and his shoulders sagged. For a wonder, he looked remorseful. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't bullied him into looking for Halloween costumes, he wouldn't be in this mess."
"Hey, let's not go placing blame on anyone," Takato said, dropping down to Terriermon's level. "It's not like any of us could have predicted this would happen, right? We'll figure this out."
Terriermon gave the boy a wan smile. "Boy, it's no wonder all the girls are chasing after you."
"Say whaaa?" Takato blinked, his face coloring.
"Forget him, Takato," Rika growled, her hands tightening around her arms. "Besides, here comes Yamaki now."
With a nod of her head, she indicated the hallway where the blond-haired head of Hypnos was emerging from, flicking his lighter open and closed at a slow pace.
"Well," Takato began, observing this peculiar habit of the man, "whatever's going on with Henry, it doesn't sound like he's worried."
"He's still worried about something though," Rika pointed out. "I'm willing to bet it's got something to do with those digimon Terriermon fought."
"Given what Terriermon said about the likelihood of their returning, you're quite right," Yamaki said, approaching them. "According to the doctors, Henry should make a full recovery within a few hours. Whatever those digimon did to him, it seems related to one of them digivolving and it drained him of his energy."
"They were testing that weird digivice thing," Terriermon added. "And they said it was a success."
Yamaki flicked his lighter open and then closed, his frown deep. "I will need to inform my superiors of this development. It could represent a new development in the digital world."
"Do you think we could be looking at another invasion, like what happened with the Devas?" Takato asked.
"Our sensors detected a large gathering of wild digimon in the substrata of the dimensional divide. The two digimon could have been meant as a scouting force as well as a test of their new ability. You will need to all be on your guard for the foreseeable future while we try to determine what this group's motivations are."
"So, the same as usual," Rika said, adjusting her footing so she leaned all her weight on one side.
"We'll be ready," Takato said sternly. "Count on it."
Yamaki adjusted his sunglasses and nodded to them. "We'll be in touch."
With nothing more to be said, Yamaki turned and departed, leaving the Tamers to their own devices.
"So," Takato began carefully, "how do we go about preparing to fight someone who can take our energy so they can digivolve?"
"It would perhaps be best to hit them hard and fast," Renamon said, to which Rika nodded her agreement.
"We should go straight to Mega," she said. "No fooling around at the lower levels."
"And if you can't, we can use barriers," Kenta added. "MarineAngemon is good with that, aren't you buddy?"
"Pihpih!" the tiny fairy said with a smile.
"We'll need to eat lots of bread too," Guilmon chimed in. "That way, we'll have lots and lots of extra energy to fall back on if they take some to digivolve."
"It's always about food with you, isn't it?" Takato laughed.
"Of course, it is. He's a walking stomach!" Terriermon laughed.
"And you aren't?" Renamon asked.
"Sure am, but mine's smaller. Besides, Guilmon's the one who packs on the pounds, not me."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll absorb so much energy they'll get fat too," Rika said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Since it's pretty clear that Henry's going to be okay, how about we get to patrolling?"
As she said this, her eyes fell on Takato, who did likewise at almost the same moment. A simultaneous blush arose on both their cheeks as they held each other's gaze, both thinking of their respective conversations earlier in the day.
MarineAngemon, observing this, sighed. "Puh."
Terriermon scowled. "Beat me to it."
"Hah?" Guilmon looked at the long-eared digimon in confusion. "But you don't even know what he said."
"Oh, come on! It's so obvious!"
"It sure is," Yua said with a smirk, looking at Takato and Rika knowingly.
"See? Even she gets it!"
"No one's getting anything," Rika growled, already storming away. "I'm out of here!"
Takato gave a start before hurriedly bowing to Yua.
"Sorry about that. She sometimes gets… Ah, anyway. Nice to meet you. Sorry that you had to go through all that. Got to go. Rika! Wait!"
As Takato and Guilmon chased after Rika – Renamon fading from view in the process – Kenta let out a heavy sigh.
"I guess we're going to have to cancel our dates for a while," he said apologetically. "Sorry about this. I know you were looking forward to this, but…"
"Oh, we're not canceling anything," Yua laughed. Drawing Kenta's arm closer to her, she hugged him tightly. "We're still having our Halloween date. I'm sure you and MarineAngemon can protect me from anything that comes up, right?"
Kenta blushed brightly at Yua's proximity while Terriermon looked back and forth between them in amusement. She had an energy that rather reminded him of Jeri back before Leomon had died. She had been so eager to become part of the adventure that the real danger wasn't a blip on her radar until the last second. And as for Kenta, he was looking very much like Takato did back then.
"Haaa… Young love," he sighed. "It makes a Tamer become a gogglehead."
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