-x-
Chapter Eleven
1 Missed Call
...of Cthulhu
The cold, gray mountain range near the western coast of Server had only very few specks of color scattered across the scenery. One of them was a large, grassy plateau. Resting near the edge, was an enormous rock, as big as a cruise ship.
A gust of wind blew across the field, when suddenly, three ghostly apparitions formed in the middle of the empty patch of land, one red, one green and one gray in the middle. The blurry figures slowly turned clear, as if they approached the focal point of an invisible camera. The shapes moved toward each other and finally merged, to form the image of a cloaked boy with black hair and rectangular shades.
For a moment, the Emperor remained in this phantom like state, walking straight towards the rock, until he seemed to breach an invisible barrier, turning solid again, afterwards.
He had crossed the field halfway when he noticed the worm like Digimon, hurrying toward him.
"There you are!" the worm said.
"Guess so…" the boy muttered mildly annoyed, not even looking at him.
"So... you were at that other place again, huh?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" the Emperor huffed, "The fact I just appeared out of thin air?"
"Yeah, the ghostly apparition thing is kind of a dead giveaway... I was... kind of hoping you wouldn't go there anymore..."
"I have to make sure everything is in check over there. Which it is... not that it's any of your business..."
"Oh, good..." the worm said unsettled, "Glad to hear that... Here too, by the way. Everything's under control."
"Uh huh. How is the kid doing?" the Emperor asked in passing.
"Uh, yeah that's what I wanted to talk about with you" the worm said nervous, "Airdramon is in a bad way, he needs help soon, or else -"
"When have I ever referred to Airdramon as 'the kid'?" the Emperor asked indignantly.
"Oh! The kid… right… yeah, right now? Three stories tall, and mad as hell"
"Good…" the Emperor smirked, "That's what I was hoping for…"
"No, for real, I mean, he is really angry!" the worm specified, „If he was ready, yet, I'd say he'd probably trash the fortress, right now!"
"Excellent. I'll make him put all that extra energy to good use…"
They reached the rock. The Emperor swiped his D3 across its surface, and suddenly a metal door with a key pad appeared. He entered a four digit code, and the door opened.
"Speaking of putting him to use…" the worm started anxiously, as they entered the secret base "What exactly is your plan with him?"
"Seriously? You haven't caught on, yet? Man, even for you, that's slow…"
"I mean, I know what the end goal is -"
"Then you should know, that the bitch has control over the towers!" the Emperor cut in, "Kind of impractical, wouldn't you say?"
"Sure, I get it, I get it… but what about the Evil Spiral?"
"It's still just mind-control! You saw, how easily those morons destroyed them, before! All of them could be turned against me in a heartbeat! No… I need a reliable ally, at the front line, for this… I know you wouldn't take that job…"
"I don't know how to feel about this…" the worm said, "And I know, what you're gonna say: 'Shut the fuck up, unless you got a better idea!'"
The Emperor laughed.
"Yeah, sounds about right" he giggled low.
"But I actually have one that could work."
They walked down a long, dimly lit, metal corridor.
The Emperor sighed.
"Fine, I'll bite… What is it?"
"Now, hear me out, here: We could team up with those kids, and take care of the problem like that!"
"Is that the whole plan? Because, I have a sneaking suspicion, my whip has an interesting rebuttal to that one…"
"Just think about it -"
"No!" the Emperor said stern, "I am the ruler of this world! Me! No one else! And I don't need the help of a bunch of retards, to earn my throne! If anything, I would probably kill them first, before I make my move… That reminds me: Is there like a respawn option for humans, too? Or are we just out when we die?"
"Um… you're… out…" the worm said, horrified by the boy's choice of words.
"I thought so" the Emperor said contemplating, "Looks like I only have to kill them once, huh? Convenient… but on a related note, I probably shouldn't lead the assault on her then…"
"Yeah!" the worm said eager, "Definitely not. Too risky. I mean, I'm always kinda nervous when you're out to fight those kids head on…"
"Oh, please!" the Emperor huffed, "I wouldn't worry about getting as much as a bruise, fighting them, even if that annoying girl wasn't constantly yelling at them, not to kill anyone…"
"Think about it; the more real allies we have, the better are our chances -"
"I said no!"
He grabbed his whip, and struck the worm with it, making him squeal in pain:
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry! Please stop!"
"Good!" the kid growled and entered a room to the right.
It was a small control room overlooking a large chamber. He hit a few buttons on the control panel, and something large appeared in the middle of the chamber.
The Emperor smirked upon seeing it.
"Very good..." he said satisfied, "At least you learned to hide him again, after you check on him." he added somewhat sharp towards the worm.
"Yeah... after the last whipping, it kinda sunk in... You think it's save?"
"Eh, he's well hidden. Usually at least..." he added grumpy.
"I don't know, man..."
"Oh, don't shit yourself! I already have a plan. We're gonna move fast, and squish her like the bug she is..."
"Uh, actually, I think she's more of a -"
"Quiet!" the boy barked.
He fell silent staring down into the chamber.
"Hmm..." the boy said contemplating, "Something's still missing..."
He typed on the panel, and the thing disappeared. He turned around on his heels, and left the room.
"What do you mean?" the worm asked.
The boy didn't answer.
Quickly he walked down the corridor, and into another room. It was another large chamber. In the middle of the room, was Airdramon, laying on his side, and breathing labored. There was a large crack in his skull, where Angemon's last attack had hit him.
"He needs help fast." the worm said concerned, "I figure we need medicine, most of all and some -"
"Shut up"
The boy stepped forward, and pointed his D3 at the dragon. He started to absorb his data.
"Um!" the worm said alarmed, "I don't think you should do that! Remember what happened with that beat up Kuwagamon -?"
"Yup" the Emperor said cold, "He died."
"Yes! Look at him! He won't survive that!"
"Too bad..." he sighed (although he didn't sound saddened, at all), "I really liked the intimidation factor..."
2 am again.
Kari exhaled quietly and looked at the ceiling again. Another night on the couch. Trying to forget what she dreamed about.
Tai's face entered her field of vision, upside down, as he stood behind the couch. She jumped slightly.
"Sis" he sighed, "We gotta stop meeting like this..."
"Sorry..." she muttered.
"Kari, this is the second time in two weeks, I found you, sitting on the couch, staring at the ceiling, at 2 am. It's starting to creep me out!"
Kari remained silent.
"What's going on?" he insisted, sitting down next to her.
"Couldn't sleep..."
"Yes, Captain Obvious!" Tai muttered rolling his eyes, "Whatever would we do without you?"
"I had a nightmare, okay?" Kari hissed.
"Okay! Something to work with!"
He sat up and looked her straight in the eyes.
"What was it about?"
"I..." she mumbled, "- I don't wanna talk about it..."
"Well, talking about stuff like this, often helps me out. You should try that sometimes, sis..." he added growling.
"Fine..." she said, now sitting up, as well, "I was..." she began a little shaky before taking a deep breath, "I was at this beach. And... everything was black and white... no colors anywhere... not even on me... And then there was the ocean... it was black. And there was this lighthouse. But there was no light coming from it – the light beams looked black. As if the colors where inverted or something..."
"Wait, I'm confused" Tai cut in quietly, "Were the colors inverted, or were there no colors at all?"
"No, it was just the light from the lighthouse. It was black instead of white..."
"Oh, gotcha... wait, how does that even work?"
"I don't know..." Kari whispered, "And then there was this voice... calling to me... from the water..."
Tai watched in silence as his sister remembered the experience.
"I couldn't move... Only towards the water... Nowhere else..."
She stopped, then she noticed her brother watching her closely.
"That's it." she said softly, "I woke up after that."
"That's it?" Tai huffed, "I thought something really creepy would happen, at the end! That was just lame!"
"No, it wasn't!"
"Yes, it was.
"It was really eerie!"
"Oh, really? Wanna hear about one I had that actually was creepy?"
"Sure..." she sighed, having a feeling, that their opinions, on what was creepy and what wasn't, seemed to differ.
"So, we're at home, right? And outside there's a zombie-apocalypse going on. And Mom and Dad were infected and tried to kill us. So, I ended up, having to kill them. But then I realized that you had been bitten... so... I... had to kill you, too..."
In shock, Kari stared at her brother.
"Oh, my god!" she said, having trouble, keeping her voice down.
Tai, meanwhile, stared blankly ahead.
"Did..." Kari started, hesitatingly, "Did talking about that, help?"
"Doesn't feel like it"
"Right... That's horrifying!"
"Tell me about it..." Tai said crossing his arms, "Told you yours was lame..."
"It's not!" Kari protested.
"It is. Why do you let this get to you so much? It's just some stupid dream about the clipboard. Big deal!"
"Right..." she mumbled, "The clipboard... But wait, that was yesterdays mission! Shouldn't I dream about today's mission? Since it's fresh on my mind and everything?"
"Well, for starters, today's mission didn't happen yet, because it's two in the fucking morning!"
"You know what I mean!"
"Also, you're saying, you didn't dream about last mission? Stop the fucking presses..." Tai added sarcastically; Their last mission had been so uneventful, that Tai had fallen asleep at multiple points.
"Well, we almost died near the end..." Kari muttered defiantly, "So there was potential there..."
"That's every mission, sis!" Tai countered, "Coming to think of it, though: You guy's suck at recon missions."
"Yeah..."
Since Izzy was still eager to take over the industrial area, and thus win Andromon, as a powerful ally, he had send the team there to gather intel, in preparation. Tai would later claim, the mission was so sleep inducing, he had feared at one point, dozing off again could mean, he would never wake up.
"Oh, and since your missions are such a blast to watch, recently, I might sit next one out."
"That's sudden" Kari said taken aback.
"Well, my last term for tomorrow was canceled. So, I'm thinking of going straight home and taking a nap instead. Would be nice, if I could do that now..." he added grumpy.
"You wanted me to tell you about my dream!"
"No, I wanted you to stop worrying about lame nightmares like this, and get a good night's sleep!"
"Why do you keep calling it lame?" Kari hissed quietly, "It was really creepy!"
"Well, why do you get so worked up about the most boring nightmare of all time?"
"Well, I - ! Oh... you mean..."
"Finally... looks like it's sinking in." Tai said eye-rolling, "It's not real! Don't let it get to you so much!" he continued, nudging her arm with his elbow, "Why would this lame-ass bullshit be worth getting fucking sleep deprived over?"
"You're right..." Kari said softly, although she didn't sound quite convinced, yet.
"Just don't think about that anymore." he said putting a hand on her shoulder, and smiling reassuringly, "Go to bed, okay?"
"Okay" she whispered nodding.
The siblings stood up and approached their rooms. At the door to her room, Kari stopped.
"Tai?" she asked.
He turned to looked at her.
"Can... can I stay in your room tonight?"
"What?" Tai asked, taken aback, and raised an eyebrow.
"I just... I know it's silly, but -"
"Uh... why do you have to make this weird?"
"Ugh! I'm not asking you to share you're bed with me!" Kari said, now rolling her eyes, too, "You still have the bunks, I'll just take the top one. What's so weird about that?"
"There's probably so much shit, you could read into that..."
"Please... I... I really don't wanna be alone, right now..." she said sheepishly.
Tai's facial expression softened at that statement.
"Fine..." he sighed, opening his door to let her in, "But you explain that shit to Mom and Dad at breakfast!"
Kari smiled a little, but remained silent.
He would worry too much. She knew that.
That's why she couldn't tell him.
She couldn't tell him, it was a recurring nightmare.
One, she was having for more than a week.
On the walk to school, the next morning, Kari felt optimistic. The sun was shining, her brother made sure she was in a good mood, by cracking jokes the entire way – it felt like it was going to be a good day.
That was until they reached the school; Now the siblings had to split up. Kari entered the building, making her way through the somewhat dark, almost gloomy hallways. The further she walked, the more it felt like the colors were being drained. Despite all the noise in the hallways, she could hear a voice whispering her name. Over and over. Yet, nobody here was talking to her.
Distraught, she looked around, anxiously looking for a familiar face she could cling to.
For someone to pull her out of this...
She got lucky when she passed the computer lab: Shooting a frantic look inside, she saw Izzy standing at a desk, working on his laptop. She breathed a sigh of relief and entered the room to join him.
"Hey, Izzy" she said softly.
He looked up.
"Oh, hey"
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting for Wannabe" he explained, "Since she forgot to bring the box for our funds, yesterday, I told her to bring it today. She wanted to meet before classes start, for some reason."
"Oh, okay..."
The conversation trailed off. A wave of panic washed over her, as she feared, the awkward silence would last long enough to force her to leave.
"But it's a good thing you're here, right now" he said (Kari had trouble keeping quiet, while she triumphed internally), "I was doing some research, and I need your help, real quick"
"Research?" she asked curiously, stepping forward to look over his shoulder, onto the screen.
"Yes" he said calmly, "I was trying to find out, who could potentially be the Emperors partner. I have an idea, who it could be, but I have never seen that candidate. So, help me out here, when you first encountered the Emperor, there was a rookie-level the Emperor clearly didn't want to be there."
"Um..."
"If it helps, TK's reaction was laughing at it, and saying, and I quote 'What the fuck is that?'."
"Oh, right!" Kari said recollecting, "Yeah, it was a small green worm."
"Hm... is that so..." he said typing rapidly, "Let's see... 'Worm'..."
"Uh, you sure?"
"Look at our track record" Izzy said in passing, "So far every new recruit we had, was apparently named, by quickly glancing at them. Well – except for Veemon, but you get the idea. Although, now that I think about it... maybe him too."
A list of search results opened up on his screen.
"Oh!" Kari said pointing at the very first entry, showing the green worm they had seen that day, "That's him!"
"See?"
"So, can you figure out who he is, now that we know who his partner is?"
"Eh... maybe." he contemplated, "We could gather intel, about this Wormmon. Quite possible, there's nothing there, though. Didn't find anything on Veemon, either. So much for the claim, that he was a big dog, back in the day..." he added facetiously.
"Morning, Izzy-Senpai!"
Yolei came basically floating in, carrying Poromon in her arms.
"Hi, Kari" she added beaming once she spotted the other girl.
"Hey" Kari replied with a smile.
"Morning..." Izzy said plainly, "You got it?"
"Yeah, sure" she said, quickly opening her bag. She tried pulling out a big tin box, that was wedged in there, but ended up dropping one of her schoolbooks on the floor instead. A small piece of paper slipped out from between the pages, and sailed to the floor. It looked like it was cut out of a magazine; colors dominated the piece and there was some text on, what Kari assumed was its backside.
"I got it" Izzy said calmly and picked it up.
He glanced at the side of the piece that had landed facedown, and shot Yolei a look with his eyebrows raised.
"You cut out a picture of him?" he asked puzzled and showed the photograph of a boy roughly Kari's age, with black hair in a bowl cut framing his face just like hers.
"Who's that?" Kari asked.
"It's that Ichijouji kid" Izzy said disinterested, passing the paper back to Yolei, "Turns out, I'm not the only one she is fangirling over…"
"Oh, he is such a dream!" she squealed, "Also he is supposed to be a genius like you, Izzy-Senpai! He is just so perfect!"
"I wouldn't call him a genius" Izzy said cool, not even acknowledging the fact, that Yolei just called him a genius, too.
"But he was top of his year in the exams five times in a row!"
"I hear that was an average year, at best…" Izzy said unimpressed.
"He skipped two full school years, though!"
"And look what rank he is, now."
"Well, rank two but – obviously you're his competition, now. So -"
"Oh, kiss my ass another time!" Izzy said annoyed, "Just hand me the box, will you?"
Kari giggled softly and glanced out the window. She froze. For a moment, she thought she saw an ocean just outside the window. A black ocean. She blinked, and it was gone. She stared ahead, once more lost in her thoughts.
She didn't hear Izzy talking to her.
"Uh, Kari?" he said, when she didn't react.
"Huh?" she said quietly, snapping out of it.
"Don't worry, I got it" Yolei said walking past her and closing the door to the lab, "Are you okay? You look pale."
"Yeah" Kari said quickly, "Just tired… That's all."
"I do hope, I don't have to tell you this" Izzy said stern, "But do not adapt your brother's sleeping habits! You're smarter than that."
"Don't worry, I won't…"
Yolei walked over to Izzy, and with a shy expression on her face, she pulled a big tin box out of her bag and handed it over to Izzy.
He stared at it.
The box had numerous cartoon cat faces plastered all over it.
"Are you serious?" he asked deadpanned, "A 'Hello Kitty' box?"
"I'm sorry, okay?" Yolei said defensive, "I couldn't find the one I was thinking of, so I brought this one instead…"
"Ugh… well, on the plus side, I suppose nobody would assume there's money inside… Makes hiding it a lot easier."
"Thanks Izzy-Senpai!" Yolei said happy.
"For what? Are you saying this was part of your plan, all along?"
"No…"
"Come on, now" Poromon stepped in, defending his partner, "She did exactly what you asked her to do!"
Izzy sighed.
"You know what? You're right; ignoring how ridiculous this is, good job, Wannabe"
"Thank you, Izzy-Senpai" Yolei said tearing up.
"That didn't sound much better…" Poromon said.
The bell rang.
"Thank fuck…" Izzy mumbled under his breath, "Okay guys, see you later" he added quickly.
He put his laptop under his arm and hurried out.
"See you soon" Yolei said cheerful as they exited the room and headed off in different directions.
"Later" Kari said, as she walked away.
She was on her own again. She hurried to her classroom. Again everything felt desaturated and cold. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Hey, watch it!"
Surprised, she opened her eyes.
It was TK.
"Oh! Sorry..." she said embarrassed, yet happy to see him.
"What did you close your eyes for?" he asked mystified by her behavior.
"I - uh... it's not important. What's up, TK?"
"Keeping my distance from Brainiac" he replied with a shrug.
"How's that going?" Kari asked, simply glad to be distracted from her surroundings.
"Well, so far amazing" TK said and sounded surprised himself, "Looks like he doesn't wanna talk to me either. So, I'm not complaining."
"He keeps looking over here, though..." Kari pointed out.
"Yeah, I said 'so far', didn't I? Wanna know why? Because you weren't there."
"You just had to phrase it like that, didn't you?"
"Come on, sometimes you gotta go for the low hanging fruits, too."
"True"
"I really hope he won't come over here, though."
"Oh, come on. He's not that bad!"
"If you say so..." TK sighed, "But his backpack keeps moving from time to time, so..."
"Oh..."
Their talk was interrupted, when their teacher, Ms. Iino, walked past them. She was in her mid forties, with glasses, her graying hair kept in a bun.
"Students, inside." she ordered in a harsh tone.
The pair exchanged a glance, before shooting Davis a look, and finally, following their classmates inside.
Class was mostly uneventful at first. Ms. Iino's almost militaristic approach to teaching, kept Kari mostly distracted from her fears.
However, her discomfort was growing steadily, and she had already decided not to look out the window, afraid of what she might end up seeing beyond the fragile glass.
So instead, whenever she wasn't preoccupied with one of her teachers almost absurdly difficult tasks, she chose to focus on her friends.
They were her anchors, keeping her from going adrift. The metaphor unnerved her, so she pushed it aside, and focused on TK.
He was idly drawing something on a piece of paper. The more she watched the more violent his drawing appeared to be, for some reason. It looked like slashing. Slashing... leaving marks on the paper like wounds... She shuddered and looked away.
Davis on the other hand was practicing, what could only be described as the polar opposite of entertainment; he sat there, a few rows in front of her, resting his head on his hand and staring blankly ahead. She decided that he wasn't helpful, in keeping her distracted.
Her glance found his bag, which was moving subtly, every now and then. Part of her wished, Digimon were not a secret to be kept, so DemiVeemon could just jump out, and roast her for a while. She would have laughed at how ridiculous it was, that she would prefer that over her current circumstances, but another unwelcome thought crept into her mind: What if, there was something else in that bag... something sinister. In her mind the image of a small ghoulish creature manifested. An evil being, only intend on killing who ever discovered it in its hiding place - So basically DemiVeemon, she thought and almost had to laugh. But not for long. Because the image in her head became clearer... more detailed... more gruesome...
She forced her eyes shut and shook her head, as if to try to shake off this gloomy mindset.
"Yagami" Ms. Iino called out, "Do you have something to add, to what I just said?"
"No, ma'am!" Kari said startled, "Nothing at all..."
She quickly glanced around the room before lowering her head again; She saw both Davis and TK looking at her, concerned.
When she looked down, she saw something else, something new: Water spreading out across the floor. She looked toward the door and saw the liquid poring out from under its gap. She felt dizzy... her vision was blurry... finally, the room tilted...
...and everything turned black.
"Yagami!"
Her eyes snapped open. She was on the floor, Ms. Iino standing over her, eyebrows furrowed. The rest of the class had formed a circle around her, looking down at her, most of them concerned, others just curious. The girl that was usually sitting to her left, was holding her from behind. Apparently she had caught her before she hit the floor. On the bright side, the water was now gone.
"I'm okay..." she said immediately and blushed.
She hated being the center of attention like that. So, she stood up, to show them she was fine – she only managed to, because the other girl was helping her.
"Clearly" Ms. Iino said unimpressed, "You're going to the infirmary. Now."
"No, listen... I'm not –"
"I need one of you to escort her there. I don't see her making it on her own."
Davis and TK immediately raised there hands.
Davis growled and glared at him, while TK just rolled his eyes, at how jealous he was.
"Good. Takaishi, you go with her." Ms. Iino commanded, "The rest of you, sit back down. Class is resuming."
"But -" Davis said upset, "Why him? I volunteered, too!"
"Yes, but you just want an excuse to leave the classroom, as usual. So, you're staying."
"But I know her, too!"
"Oh, in that case why don't we all escort her then?" the teacher snapped sarcastically, "Since we all know her."
The class laughed, and Kari was certain, she could hear DemiVeemon calling Davis an idiot, from inside the bag.
"But -!"
"Sit back down, Motomiya" Ms. Iino said dismissively.
Davis cussed under his breath, but complied.
TK and Kari left the room, and as soon as he closed the door, she saw more water creeping along the floor of the hallway. With growing suspicion, she decided to find out what was happening. She hurried (as fast as she could despite her dizziness) away from the classroom and towards the computer lab.
"What are you doing?" TK hissed confused, jogging after her (she wasn't going very fast), "Infirmary is the other direction!"
"Come on, this is more important" she said, "We gotta investigate!"
"What are you talking about?" he asked and sounded concerned.
"Well, somebody opened the gate!" she explained breathlessly.
"What? I didn't hear a fucking tidal wave destroying the hallway again!"
"What do you mean? Look at all the water!"
"What water?"
Kari slowed down.
"But..." she said nervous, "There's water all over the..."
She looked down. She couldn't see the floor beneath her. The water was black like ink.
"Floor..." she finished her thought unable to look away from the floor. For some reason, it hadn't even crossed her mind, that this might not be a result of the gate being opened.
"Kari..." TK said scared, "What's going on?"
He sounded legitimately scared.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement.
She turned.
There was the missing tidal wave, TK was talking about.
Blackened.
Rushing towards them.
"No..." she said faintly, "Please don't..."
She closed her eyes, and braced for impact - only to be caught by TK, who grabbed her by the shoulders in order to keep her upright.
"Hey, hey, hey!" he said distressed, and held her.
She opened her eyes, again. The wave was gone.
"Wha..."
She could barely talk.
"Come on..." TK said uneasy, and turned her around, "I'll get you to the nurse"
"Thank you..." she mumbled unable to keep her eyes open.
Slowly they made there way towards the infirmary. TK supported Kari, since it was clear she couldn't walk on her own.
"TK..." Kari whispered, looking up at her friend.
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Tai..." she muttered quietly, closing her eyes again and letting her head slump against his shoulder.
TK nodded.
"Sure thing" he said.
But he couldn't help, but wonder: Did she just make a Spider-Man reference? - No! Stay focused! This is more important!
"Well, so much for the mission." Izzy said mildly annoyed.
He and the rookies had already assembled in the computer lab, when TK had sent him an e-mail.
"What do you mean?" Yolei asked.
"Kari is sick and TK is taking her home, right now."
"Oh..." Yolei said saddened.
"I hope she's gonna be okay" Cody added.
"Eh, it happens from time to time." Izzy shrugged, "She was always sickly. Back in the day, she had a fever, and almost died on us. Mostly because we were in the Digital World - you know, the least helpful place, since... well, every customer support call center, ever..."
"So now what?" DemiVeemon asked.
"Nothing" Izzy said plainly.
"Nothing?"
"We need everybody, for the industrial area." Izzy explained, "We need to take it next try. It's just too important. We need Gatomon and backup, in case she devolves again – that means Kari, by the way"
"Ugh, shit..." DemiVeemon muttered, "Fine..."
"Relax" Izzy said confidently, "At least that means a day off for you guys."
"Sure, but tomorrow is your anniversary, remember?" Yolei said.
"Oh, that's right... that was a thing, too..."
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Might have to cancel that shit."
"But Kari seemed so excited about that!" Upamon argued.
"She'll get over it. I don't think, we can afford to take two days off in a row... "
"Wouldn't be the first time..." DemiVeemon huffed.
"Well, if you recall, the first time I didn't know we were on the clock, yet, because Agumon got captured in that time frame. Also, at that point, it seemed near impossible, to make an appointment with you guys over the weekend!"
"I'm sorry!" Yolei said, "It was all going so fast, I already had plans!"
"And the second time" Izzy resumed without paying attention to her, "Was when two of our key team-members got hospitalized. This one we can avoid, so let's do that."
"I don't know, man" DemiVeemon said, crossing his arms, "I think that would be a really good opportunity for some team building"
Yolei glared at him, suspiciously.
"What is it now?" DemiVeemon growled, not even looking at her.
"That's funny coming from you..."
"Look, I am TRYING, OKAY!?" he yelled, "Can you get THE FUCK off my back?!"
"Okay, whatever" Izzy said, "We can try, but I'll monitor the Digital World closely. The instance something of importance happens we might have to drop everything, and go on an impromptu mission"
"Yeah, because the last one went so great..." DemiVeemon said, referring to the oil platform.
"True, but our last trip to the industrial area, didn't do us any favors either." Izzy pointed out, "And for that one we actually had a plan, remember?"
"Yeah, but the plan was 'do something you clearly suck at'." DemiVeemon argued, "Call me crazy, but I don't see the difference between a plan that sucks, and having no plan at all."
"Tread lightly, alright?" Izzy said threateningly, "Also, we took down that one tower, as planned. So, no: It wasn't all a waste of time."
Upamon said:
"Uh, to be fair, I was aiming for one of the Mekanorimon, and I kinda hit it by accident."
"Never mind then..."
"But wait, does that mean you're coming with us tomorrow, Izzy-Senpai?"
"I suppose so..."
Izzy sounded about as excited, as someone who was about to go to prison, for the first time.
"What?" DemiVeemon asked in disbelief, "I thought, you'd go to the other end of town, or something."
"Why would you figure that?" Izzy asked emotionless.
"I don't know, because you hate us and shit?"
"I don't hate you guys" Izzy clarified, "At least not – all of you"
"Very reassuring... " Cody muttered.
"For the record, Cody, your not among the ones, I hate."
"Thanks" Cody said quietly, while Yolei looked at Izzy, anxiously.
"Also" Izzy continued, "I wanna keep an eye on all of you, just in case."
"Right, what the hell is supposed to happen in your boring-ass world, anyways?" DemiVeemon huffed.
"You'd be surprised…" Izzy said grim, "Strange things tend to happen, when a bunch of us hang out together… I would like to claim, that's the reason, we never do that… That it's all calculated, but – I assume, I couldn't even fool you guys with that one…"
"Thanks" DemiVeemon said grumpy.
"So..." Davis said somewhat awkwardly, "The mission is... off then?"
Izzy turned to face him, leaned back in his chair, and looked at him skeptically:
"Guess" he demanded.
"Um... I mean..."
"It's off!" Izzy said with a dismissive gesture, and turned away again, to look at his screen.
The rookies did not leave, though. Instead, they looked at him, expectantly.
He looked over his shoulder.
"What are you waiting for? I'm not walking home with you people."
The rookies exchanged a somewhat disgruntled murmur, and went to leave.
"You're mean..." Upamon said pouting.
"And you are still alive..." Izzy said unfazed, "From your perspective, that seems to be a nice trade-off, wouldn't you agree? Now, stop complaining, you just got an extra day off, after all. That is - unless something crazy happens of course..."
Ten minutes later.
Izzy had just left the school grounds, and turned to his right, to make his way home, when behind him, TK sprinted around the corner, Kari's schoolbag in hand, and an expression of sheer panic on his face.
"Doc! DOC!"
"TK..." Izzy sighed, "You gotta stop with these Back to the Future references. They stopped being funny after the first ten-thousand times!"
"Sorry!" he said breathlessly when he caught up to the redhead, "Force of habit - You gotta help me, man! Something crazy just happened!"
"You just had to phrase it like that, huh?"
"It's Kari! She's gone!"
"What do you mean gone?"
"I mean she vanished into fucking thin air!"
"Oh, great... we're getting abducted by the Digital World again..." Izzy said dry, turning around on his heels, and the pair returned to the school, "And there I was, hoping we were past that shit... Alright, let's send you in, to get her, then. I'm gonna contact Gatomon and Patamon just in case you need support."
"Right... Wait, they have a Digivice with them?"
"Of course they do."
"Yeah but – you never give yours away. Who's do they have?"
"Joe's"
"What?" TK asked incredulously, "Seriously?"
"I told him I needed it for some tests – which – wasn't even a lie. Funny, I didn't notice... Anyway, he didn't ask for it back, yet, which is good thing, because it means, Gomamon hasn't convinced him to rob a bank with him, yet"
"True" TK said, nodding in agreement.
"Please! Please stop! I don't know anything, I swear!"
"Bullshit!"
The Numemon screamed in pain when Gatomon brutally hit him with her paw. She was holding two of them hostage in an abandoned building near the outskirts of Temp City. She had both of them tied to pipes on opposing sides of the room. She had already beaten one of them half-unconscious, and now it was time for the other one to talk.
"Tell me where they are!" she demanded raising one of her claws, "Now!" she said, stabbing it into the lower parts of his body, simultaneously.
"Alright! Alright, I'll tell you! Just please sto-o-op!" he sobbed in pain.
Gatomon opened the small bag she had with her, and pulled out a map and a pen.
"Alright" she smirked, "Mind pointing it out to me?" she asked and rammed the pen into his stomach.
"OW! WHY?"
"Well, I got you tied up." she argued, "How are you supposed to point it out to me, with your hands behind your back?"
"You could have - put it in my mouth" he croaked in pain.
"Oh, right... well, too late, now."
She held up the map in front of him. Shakily he pointed the pen at an amusement park near Dev Lagoon.
"Right here?" she asked pointing at the location herself, "Whoa, don't draw on it! I saw what you pointed at. Mind giving me my pen back?"
"I c-can't... j-just - take it"
She sighed and pulled the pen back out.
"Just stop whining, alright? You guys are all slime anyways." she said annoyed and walked over to the other Numemon - and an evil grin spread across her face.
"Now you. It better match or one of you is gonna die!" she said merrily, almost singing the last word.
She had almost reached her target, when she heard a soft beep.
"Gatomon?" Izzy said.
"Uh, bad timing, Izzy." she said, as she rammed the pen into the other Numemon's guts.
"Ow!" he whined, "We talked about this!"
"Shut up, I'm on the phone" she hushed him in passing.
"What the hell is she doing?" TK asked.
"Hey, are we in a conference-call, again?" she asked reproachful, "You gotta tell me, man!"
"It's just me and TK. He raises a good point, though: What are you doing?"
"Uh, reconnaissance?"
"The thing you said, you'd only ever do again when the Dark Ocean freezes over?" TK asked dry, "I still don't get, what that means, by the way."
"I meant recon work with you guys!" Gatomon clarified, "On my own I'm good at this, with you guys it's such a massive train wreck, it almost loops back around to be considered abstract art!"
"Speaking of train wrecks" Izzy said, "Mind explaining to us why you're not with Patamon?"
"Hang on, did you just call Patamon a train wreck?" TK asked.
"No, dumbass!" Gatomon hissed, "He called us two, trying to stick together, a train wreck."
"People understand what I'm trying to say for once... what a breath of fresh air..."
"By the way" Gatomon added, "He's good at hiding. He found a safe place."
"Funny, TK just found him flying around in the streets of the city."
"I told him to keep a low profile!"
"You just ditched him, didn't you?" Izzy asked with a sigh.
"Well, yeah..." Gatomon admitted, "but I told him to keep a low profile!"
"God dammit, Gatomon!" TK yelled, "Remember what happened with Agumon?"
"No, I completely forgot..."
"Un-fucking-believable!"
"Hey, can you boot him from the call?" Gatomon asked annoyed, "I'll see 'em in a minute anyway."
"Nah, I don't see the point."
"Come on, Izzy" Gatomon insisted, with her tone all but suggesting, that she wanted to talk to him privately, "I really don't wanna talk to him, right now!"
"Alright, I gotcha..."
"What?" TK shouted.
"Calm down, I can still hear you."
The cussing on TK's end got cut off.
"So how is your... reconnaissance going?"
"Drop the air-quotes, will you? This is important, too"
"Debatable..."
"But since you asked." she said, while roughly ripping the pen out of the Numemon, "Pretty good"
She stood back up and glared at the Numemon in front of her while slowly cracking her neck.
"Think I got a new lead, finally" she added, staring down her hostage threateningly, "Shame we have to cut the interrogation short, though"
She took a step closer to him.
"Wait, wait, wait!" he begged in a panic, "I-I can show you right, now! I-it won't even take a second! You need confirmation, you said so yourself!"
"Nah, it's alright" Gatomon said, pointing her claws at the Numemon, "I believe him" she added cold.
"No, please!"
But Gatomon raised her paw – before bursting into laughter.
"I'm just fucking with you!" she giggled, and turned to leave, "Alright, guys! Have a good one! See you later!"
And before either of them could say anything, she had already left the room and slammed the door shut.
"Come on, it wasn't that fucked up" Gatomon defended her interrogation tactics.
"It sounded really fucked up!" TK said, not having any of it.
After Gatomon had met up with him and Patamon, they made their way into the desert, to where Izzy had spotted Kari's dot on the map.
"Cut me some slack, okay?" Gatomon argued, "You try being nice, while questioning someone, when all your life, you got the answers you needed, by being an absolute dick!"
"Uh huh... got any more ways of saying 'old habits die hard'?" TK asked dry, "Because that excuse still sucks, after three years. Or, you know what? Try using it another ten-billion times. Maybe it'll age better, then!"
"Shut it..."
"Also you were supposed to get intel!" TK continued, "Why the fuck did you jump to torture immediately?"
"Trust me, TK; These guys had it coming. They were basically criminals!"
"Criminals my ass..." TK muttered.
"Just... don't tell Kari about this alright?"
"What's in it for me?"
"Uh, I'm not gonna kill you in your sleep, that's what's in it for you -"
"Whoa!" Patamon said taken aback.
"What the fuck, Gatomon?" TK exclaimed.
"Now, that was just uncalled for." Izzy joined in.
"Guys, I was joking, relax!"
"Very fucking funny..." TK said deadpanned.
"Too far, Gatomon" Patamon said, shaking his head.
"I do not wanna have another talk about death threats for your team mates, you know?" Izzy said.
"Okay, I get it! Jeez..." Gatomon growled annoyed, "Shouldn't we be there, by now, Izzy? I thought, you said, it wasn't too far?"
"Yes, you should see her by now" Izzy said, a hint of nervosity in his voice, "Look around, maybe she isn't exactly straight ahead..."
"It's a flat fucking desert!" Gatomon said, "Why wouldn't we see anyone standing around here?"
"Shit, maybe she collapsed again..." TK contemplated.
"Collapse? Again? What is going with her?" Gatomon asked, now worried for her partners wellbeing.
"She told me she had weird flashes of the clipboard... or something" TK explained.
"Would you kindly rule out the 'or something'-part?" Izzy said irritated, "Be more specific! She might need our help now!"
"I don't know, she was really out of it. At one point she thought, the hallways were flooded, and she kept having that thousand-yard-stare. I thought she was just sleep-deprived, but when I brought her home, at some point, she suddenly mumbled something about an ocean, and walked across the street like a zombie. I thought she was about to get hit by a truck, but then she suddenly, like... fuzzed out - and vanished!"
"Did she say anything, why she was acting like that?" Izzy asked, "She told me she was tired, did she tell you why?"
"How is that important?"
"Might give us some hints where she actually went"
"What do you mean? I thought she was close by?"
"Closer than you might think" Izzy said, "Stop now, and you are essentially on top of her."
"But -"
The trio looked around.
"Maybe she's underground?" Gatomon suggested.
"According to my data, she's supposed to be at sea-level."
"So, how much higher up are we?"
"You're not. Right now, you're four feet below sea-level"
TK opened his mouth in confusion. He hesitated, then he looked up.
"What, are you an idiot?" Gatomon asked vexed, "You think we wouldn't have seen her, if she was levitating four feet in the air?"
"Yeah... I'm starting to think she's not in the Digital World" Izzy said now definitely nervous, "Did she mention if she has seen these images of the clipboard, or whatever it is, before?"
"Uh, yeah she told me about a lame nightmare she had. Something about a beach and everything was black and white."
TK shrugged.
"Sounded like the clipboard to me. But, wait - she isn't - there... is she?"
"Fuck... I don't know..." Izzy said anxious, "I hoped it was just an error when I couldn't talk to her, over the network, but now..."
"You know, to me that doesn't sound like the clipboard necessarily..." Gatomon said, and now she sounded uneasy, too.
"What do you mean? That sounds exactly like the clipboard!" TK argued.
"To you maybe" she said, "To me it sounds like... fuck no. Can't be..."
"Like what?" TK asked irritated, "Come on, Gatomon! Spill it!"
"Fuck I hope I'm wrong..."
Gatomon took a deep breath:
"She might be at the Dark Ocean."
"There it is again!" TK said annoyed, "What the hell is this Dark Ocean supposed to be?"
"Yeah, um... 'hell' might be right on the money, there" she said unsettled, "There are stories about some sort of other dimension. Some Digimon claim they have had visions about a black ocean in a world that's entirely black and white. And after they had those visions, some of them vanished and never returned."
"Fuck..." TK said, turning pale.
"Question for all of you" Izzy said, "Would you say, the clipboard matches that description?"
"Wait, that could be!" Gatomon said, her eyes lighting up, "Maybe they're one and the same! That means, we have a way to get to her!"
"Potentially..." Izzy said slowly - he almost sounded shaky.
"What?" Gatomon asked, "What's the matter?"
"You do remember what almost happened to you, when I briefly put you there, right?"
"Oh, no..." she said wide-eyed.
"W-wait!" TK said hectically, "You have the signal of her D3, though! If she - I mean... it would have been crushed then, right?"
"We had enemies, who tried to destroy them in the past, though..." Izzy added for consideration, "And all of them failed miserably. It's possible that they can't be destroyed like that."
"You mean..." Gatomon asked, an expression of true horror on her face.
"It – it might just be her Digivice, there..."
Gatomon turned away from the others. She stared off into the distance, completely speechless, about Izzy's proposition.
TK sat down in the sand, did essentially the same. Patamon flew next to them, helplessly looking from Gatomon to TK and back again.
"Oh, never mind." Izzy said suddenly, "I just checked my e-mails, she sent me one a few minutes ago. Sounds like she really is at that place. She says she's fine, though."
"Izzy you fucking dick!" Gatomon yelled absolutely furious, "What the hell was that shit about?!"
"Be more specific"
"'I think she might be dead, guys - oh, never mind! Guess I should have checked my e-mails beforehand!'" she shouted while wiping her eyes, "You fucking asshole! Don't you ever pull that bullcrap again!"
"Fine..." Izzy growled, "Tell you what, next time one of my friends is presumed dead, I'll be sure to grasp at straws faster. How does that sound?"
"Fucking brilliant, I'm on board!" Gatomon said, before clearing her throat, to cover up a sniffle, "Now, can you just find a way to send us in there?"
"Without crushing us..." TK added anxiously, "...Please..."
"I'm working on it as we speak, now can you do me a favor and only talk when absolutely necessary? I wanna focus, so I can figure this out quickly."
The trio remained mostly silent while Izzy ran tests, which meant he was trying to send multiple rocks to the clipboard, while asking Kari for feedback via e-mail. Save for an incident were TK tried to sit down on a rock which was just getting cut from existence, his experiment went uneventful, for minutes on end. Izzy himself was barely talking in the process, only giving brief updates now and again (Mostly saying "No" or "That didn't work").
After fifteen agonizing minutes, Izzy finally had a breakthrough:
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
"Did it work?" everyone asked in unison.
"No, I'm just fucking with you - of course it did. Kari just wrote me that a big rock appeared in a tunnel nearby."
"Great!" TK said, standing up, "Then let's go, send us in."
"Slow down, just because I was able to send a rock in there without pulverizing it, doesn't mean, I can send you in there without killing you. Ideally I would send a living test subject in there first. You don't see any other Digimon around, do you?"
The crew looked around. Then, shrugging slowly, Gatomon said:
"I mean... I know two guys nearby who might be willing to help... with a little encouragement"
"You mean, the two you just talked to?" TK asked suspicious.
"Oh, come on! It's perfect! Might as well take advantage of the situation!"
"You wanna interrogate them some more, and threaten to literally send 'em to hell?"
"Oh, don't be a bitch about it!"
"Guys, I'm gonna cut this short" Izzy sighed, "I'm not even too sure, whether I wanna send you in there, at all."
"But we gotta get her outta there!" Gatomon protested.
"Even if it's gonna work out, and you guys survive going in, there's no way for me to tell, if I can get any of you out again."
"But -" TK began, but Izzy cut him short:
"If I send you in I might risk losing all of you at once!" he said stern, "We just can't take such a risk!"
"You mean..." Gatomon said in disbelief, "You wanna abandon her?"
"I'm not saying that!" Izzy insisted, "Of course I wanna find a way to bring her back! But it would be reckless to endanger any more of you... in the... process..."
"What is it?" Gatomon asked nervous.
"Her blip just started moving - fast..." Izzy said, "She's being chased, I guarantee it."
"Well, now we have to go in there!" TK argued.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Izzy exclaimed, "Maybe... no, we have no choice, she is definitely gonna die, if you don't go - FUCK!" he yelled, making the others jump, surprised about his sudden outburst.
"Look, we're gonna make it, okay Izzy?" TK said reassuring.
"I wish, I had your optimism..." Izzy mumbled, "Well, get ready then. Go just a little bit back towards the city, until I tell you to stop."
They followed Izzy's instructions and got into position.
"Alright, guys. Here goes nothing." Izzy said, taking a deep breath, "Write me an e-mail as soon as you get there. I'll figure out an exit-strategy in the meantime. Boy, I'm really not looking forward to killing you..."
"It will be fine" TK said soothingly.
"If you say so... Get ready!"
And again, everything went black for a split second, then the feeling of being slowly crushed - then they hit the floor. TK hit his back against a wall as they arrived.
Coughing, they slowly got back up.
Despite the fact that the experience wasn't nearly as bad as the first time, TK said:
"Fuck... still hurts like a bitch."
"Huh" Gatomon said mildly surprised, while TK wrote his e-mail to Izzy, "That was easy"
"Yeah, well" TK said closing his D-Terminal, "We still need to find Kari..."
"Right"
They looked around. They had ended up in a gray concrete tunnel. The tunnel was curved so they couldn't see its ends.
Wordlessly, they decided just to follow it in one direction. They had just walked a few moments, when they spotted the exit and someone sitting next to it, leaning against the wall. The person (or Digimon) had the appearance of a jester. He was holding a small cup, making him appear like he was a beggar.
"Creepy..." Gatomon muttered.
"Still let's ask him if he has seen her" TK suggested.
"Alright"
"Um, hello?" TK called out.
The man turned his head. As they drew closer TK suddenly stopped as he recognized him; That wasn't a man. It was a Digimon. And not one, any of them was happy to see.
The jester wore a mask, black on the right half and white on the other, with a red heart on the brow, and a vertical cut across the eye hole, on the latter half. His hair was tied back in a straight bundle, and looked more chaotic and unraveled than usual. Although its orange color was completely absent. But that was true for everything in this realm; his usually crimson colored jacket, with puffs at his shoulders, each graced by the image of a black, spades shaped skull, was now gray dirty and partially tattered. As were the white frills and collar, which gave him a rather aristocratic appearance. His usually green pants and over-sized, yellow boots had suffered a similar fate.
It was Piedmon.
"Holy shit..." TK muttered under his breath.
"What do you want?" Piedmon asked, with his raspy voice. He sounded just as jaded and broken, as he looked.
"Um..." TK began nervously, "Uh, you know what, we'll figure it out. It's cool!"
"You are..." Piedmon said, slowly standing up, "A human... here?"
He took a step toward them.
"How..."
Another step.
"...unusual."
The trio slowly backed off.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" TK hissed without moving his lips.
"I don't know!" Gatomon hissed back.
"Wait..." Piedmon said, looking at Gatomon, then Patamon, and finally (eyes squinted) at TK, "No way..."
An insane looking smile formed on Piedmon's face.
"Yeah, we just got turned around, so..." TK said awkwardly, "We'll be on our way"
"Ooooh... You are going nowhere..." the clown said, his voice shaking with excitement, "You are the kids, who got me stuck here... aren't you?"
Piedmon reached over his shoulder to grab a dagger from an x-shaped hilt, storing a total of four daggers, one on each end, respectively.
Even Gatomon, who normally would have not taken kindly to be called a kid, swallowed audibly.
"Well, technically he did" TK said shaking, pointing at Patamon.
"Hey, don't throw me under the bus, like that!" Patamon said frightened.
"Fuck! Sorry, I panicked, okay?"
"What is wrong with you?" Gatomon asked, "You idiots just confirmed our identities!"
"Oh, no need for confirmation" Piedmon said, and cackled in pure sadistic joy, "Well, what do you know? I thought I'd never have fun again - But here we are!"
His laughter echoed in the tunnel.
Patamon and TK now backed off, cowering behind Gatomon.
"What are you hiding behind me for?" Gatomon asked, "What the hell am I supposed to do against a fucking Mega-level!"
Piedmon's high-pitched laughter grew even louder.
"AH, YOU'RE GONNA PAY!" he exclaimed, as he closed in on them, his facial features distorted by sheer insanity, "ALL OF YOU!"
But suddenly, another one of Piedmon's daggers, was drawn from the lower left hilt.
The jester screamed in agony as his own weapon got thrusted into his back, and pierced all the way through his chest. He struggled to look over his shoulder at his attacker; it was a shadowy creature, looking just like a silhouette, with round glowing red eyes and slender limbs.
The being pushed the dagger deeper through Piedmon's chest and Mega-level's legs gave way. The jester collapsed, and fell facedown to the floor.
"That was..." Patamon said stunned.
"Convenient?" Gatomon continued unsure.
"Anti-climactic?" TK suggested at the same time.
Their savior stepped closer and now, suddenly, they could make out his features: It was a Divermon - with a black spiral on their right arm.
"What an eyesore" he said, with a wheezing voice, passing by Piedmon and dropping the latter's dagger on the floor next to him.
He then walked towards the trio.
"Shit..." TK mumbled, "That's not good..."
Gatomon just got ready to defend her friends against him - when he walked right past them.
"W-wait!" TK said startled, "How the fuck did you do this? He is a freaking Mega-level!"
Divermon stopped.
"He is weak... ever since he encountered the Elder One..."
"The Elder One?" Gatomon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Our old god... he fought him... and was defeated... He left him as nothing but a shell of his former self... But he kept disturbing the peace... It had to be done..."
TK, Gatomon and Patamon exchanged a quick glance. They looked at Piedmon's lifeless body and then back at Divermon.
"Is he - dead?" TK asked uncertain.
"As a doornail" Divermon replied simply.
"But -" Gatomon said confused, "Shouldn't he like - explode or dissolve or something like that? Isn't that how it usually works?"
"You are from the Digital World, aren't you?" Divermon asked, "Yes, I heard stories... That's how it is there... Our old god is said to have come from beyond the veil, too"
"You keep calling him you old god" Gatomon said, "Is he not around, anymore?"
"He is... but then the new god came... he enslaved us at first, with his black rings. But then we proved that we were worthy... and then he gave us these gifts" he said and raised the arm with the Evil Spiral, "An extension of his will. He gave us the opportunity to realize his wishes at all times... now we are no longer his slaves... but his agents..."
"Oh, really?" Gatomon said, obviously struggling, not to let her resentment show, "Can I have a look at that - uh... gift?"
Silently, Divermon extended his arm toward her - and Gatomon immediately destroyed the spiral with her Lightning-Paw.
"What?" Divermon said startled, and flinched, "What... I don't..."
"Yeah, you know what we call that?" Gatomon asked grumpy, "Mind-control. Ever noticed how your free will basically vaporizes as soon as this so called 'god' tells you to do his bidding? That guy isn't a god. He's a kid who managed to brainwash you!"
"I don't believe it..." Divermon said, "Is that why the savior was sent? But... you are not the one... none of you is..."
Gatomon shot TK a look. Then she asked Divermon:
"Okay, then who is that savior?"
Kari felt like the rock, that appeared out of nowhere in the tunnel, might as well have been representative for the massive load, that came off her mind, at that very moment. Izzy had found a way, the others could be send to her. That meant there was a way out. There just had to be. She immediately sent him a mail for confirmation.
Trembling she sat down outside the tunnel, hugging her knees, waiting for Izzy's response. The wait was agonizing. She wanted to close her eyes, cover her ears - but she couldn't. What if she wasn't alone?
At one point she thought, she saw movement in the water, but she couldn't tell. Involuntarily she started rocking back and forth slightly.
"Please..." she whispered, "Please, leave me alone…"
She thought she heard voices, whispering to her, like before, and suppressed the urge to cover her ears again.
She saw something in the tunnel, out of the corner of her eye. She took a deep breath, mustering all of her courage to look.
She screamed when she saw, what it was, clearly: Two glowing red eyes staring at her from the shadows.
She stumbled onto her feet and ran away from the tunnel.
"Oh, god! Please don't! No, please don't!"
She ran across the beach, but there was a row of large rocks blocking her way. She was trapped.
The only way out was...
"No..." she said panting, both from the sprint across the beach, and her rising panic.
… the water.
She wanted to get as far away from here, as possible.
She looked back.
First she saw the lighthouse from her nightmares, not exactly helping to put her at ease. Next she saw, that the creature behind her had made its way out of the tunnel. It was a Divermon with an Evil Spiral on their arm.
That didn't help, either. She wouldn't be able to defend herself against an Ultimate.
Frantically she looked for other escape routes when the Divermon suddenly reached out to her:
"Please, wait!"
She stopped and looked at him. Even through the red glow in his eyes, thanks to the spiral, she could see the plea for help, they were expressing.
She stood still waiting for him to approach, although her knees were shaking so heavily, she feared she couldn't stand up for much longer.
She tried to say something, but no sound would escape her mouth.
"You... you are the savior" Divermon said, "Aren't you?"
"I..."
"Please..."
He came to a stop right in front of her, and stretched out the arm with the spiral.
Kari understood.
"I... I don't know if I can help you with this..." she said shaky.
"Please..." Divermon repeated desperate.
She needed to do something. She wanted to help him.
She took a step closer. Hesitantly, she touched the spiral.
And just as she did so, she noticed a light below her. She looked down, and saw it shining, from her chest, right from where her heart was racing, right now.
She didn't know what it meant, but she grabbed the spiral, now with growing confidence, and suddenly her hands started emitting the same pure, white light. And just like that, the spiral loosened, giving her the chance to pull it off his arm with ease.
She held it in her hands for a moment, looking at it with a frown. Then she dropped it.
She looked up to see that the Divermon's eyes had returned to normal. Relieved, she sighed, and even managed to smile at him, if only weakly.
"You are the savior!" the Divermon exclaimed.
"I... I mean..." she said nervously, blushing slightly.
"My friends!" he suddenly announced loudly, towards the water, "I was right! The true savior has arrived!"
"No – please, that's not…" she said unnerved.
She turned to look; Slowly, a large group of Divermon emerged from the water, approaching them. Fifteen or even twenty of them. All of them with glowing red eyes.
"Oh, boy..." she whispered, "That's a lot of spirals..."
"Heretic!" one of them called out, pointing at the Divermon, she had just saved, "How dare he, defy the will of our new god!"
"He has deceived us!" Divermon said standing tall against the rest of them, "These gifts were all for oppression! He is manipulating us, controlling us! Only now, I am able to think clearly for myself again! Free yourselves from his chains, my brothers!"
"We need to make an example out of him!" another Divermon shouted.
"Wai- Wait!" Kari managed to call out, "He is right! I know, who gave you those spirals! He is no god! He is only using you!"
"She is godless, too!"
"No! Please..." she said, and her hands and chest started to glow again, "Let me help you..."
A hushed mumble swept through the crowd. They hesitated at first, but one by one, the Divermon who had not spoken up, stepped out of the water and approached her.
"Don't listen to her!" one of the skeptics said, "She is spreading lies about our true god!"
"He is the one, who spread lies!" Divermon countered, "Our minds have been clouded for too long!"
And so, Kari started to free the ones, willing to listen to her. As the group of clear minded Divermon grew, more and more started to join in - even the skeptics were slowly swayed.
"No..." the last of the nay-sayers said in disbelief, "She is brainwashing you! Can't you see? Brothers, come back to me!"
But they turned their backs to him, walking into the light.
"Yes..." Divermon said, "We had been brainwashed... Wake up, brother. Please. Accept the truth!"
The last Divermon stared at them.
"You are all doomed..." he said grim, before turning around and retreating into the blackened ocean.
"That is so OP" a familiar voice said loudly.
Kari spun around.
It was TK. He had just arrived at the scene, together with Gatomon, Patamon and apparently, yet another Divermon. This one was already freed from the Evil Spiral, though.
"Oh, thank god!" Kari exclaimed, and ran to her friends.
She hugged TK tightly.
"I'm so glad to see you guys!" she sobbed.
"It's okay" TK said somewhat awkwardly, patting her back, "We'll get you out of here"
She released him and gave Gatomon an equally big hug.
"Thank you!" she sniffled.
"Well, we're not save, yet" Gatomon pointed out, when Kari released her.
"Izzy is working on an exit strategy, though." TK said quickly, to reassure her.
"Don't leave!" one of the Divermon said.
Kari turned around to reply to them - and froze.
The Divermon had turned into black shapes, shadows with slender arms and legs, and each of them with a pair of round expressionless eyes, emitting a white glow, and lacking pupils.
"So, I didn't imagine that!" TK exclaimed, pointing at them, "You're no Digimon! You're some weird shadow-demons!"
"TK, I'm not sure, that'll help..." Gatomon said.
"Please..." one of the creature said, "Look at us..."
"I'm looking" Kari said shocked.
"You can see... just how lost we are... without your guiding light! We are begging you! Stay with us! Become our bride. Our new goddess!"
In shock, the group stared at the crowd in front of them.
Then TK spoke up:
"Okay, seriously, Kari: I'm starting to see a pattern here."
"Please understand..." one of the shapes said, "We can't just let you leave..."
They closed in on them, but Gatomon stepped between them and her friends:
"Don't you fucking dare! You better back off nice and easy, back into that black shit water, and back to your shitty old god, or else -"
"Heresy!" one of the figures called out.
"How could she?"
"Who does she think she is?"
"...insults the Elder One!"
All of them talked over each other, so Gatomon used that chance; She looked up to TK and Kari, with what appeared to be a look of shock and horror – In reality it was her, suppressing the largest grin, ever to try and spread across her face. Quietly, under the cover of the commotion, she told her friends her plan:
"Guys, I think I got this..." she said, holding back laughter, her eyes watering from the intense stress, her face was under, "Trust me on this one! Find an exit with Izzy. I think, I can stall them for hours!"
TK and Kari nodded and hurried over to the tunnel for cover.
"Okay, hopefully she can buy us some time" TK said on edge, as they reached the tunnel, "Izzy is working on it. I'm sure he'll get us out of here in -"
The rock Izzy had placed in the tunnel crumbled to dust.
"- no time..." TK finished taken aback, "I'll better write him, that that one didn't work..." he added with a sigh.
Kari got anxious again. She forced herself to take deep breaths, and sat down in the sand.
"Stay strong" TK said soothing, although he sounded only half-convinced himself, "It's just trial and error. He'll find us an exit soon"
But after half an hour, TK was pacing around in front of the tunnel While Kari sat next to him, hugging her legs again. Gatomon was still talking to the shadow creatures. They yelled at her from time to time, but she kept them in check, somehow – Even despite the fact that she was low-key mocking them.
"Well, that's what I'm saying" she said in a matter-of-fact tone, "if his whole shtick is just to terrorize you guys, then why worship him, in the first place?"
"Just listen to her!" one of the creatures exclaimed, in disgust, "We are wasting our time! She knows nothing about faith!"
"It is not a waste of time..." another one said, "I am sure, she can still be redeemed..."
"Right... Okay, guys!" Gatomon announced loudly to the crowd, "Just give me one second, I need to talk to my friends for a bit. Won't be a minute!"
Gatomon hurried over to them.
"Guys, I think things could get messy at this rate." she explained.
"Seriously?" TK scoffed, "They don't like you?"
"Just shut up and get Angemon ready. You know just in case."
"Because, that'll send the right message..." TK muttered.
"Just to keep things civil, how does that sound?"
"Fine, Patamon let's go into the tunnel for this - and - try not to say anything. We better don't piss 'em off... any more..."
"Okay!" Patamon said and followed him.
"I'll..." Kari said timidly, "I'll stay here, I... don't wanna go in there..."
"Okay, sure!" TK said, hurrying inside.
But a few minutes later, TK returned - with Pegasusmon.
"It doesn't work!" he growled, "Looks like we're blocked here, too... I hope Pegasusmon will do..."
"Wait a minute..." Kari said, as something dawned on her, "If Pegasusmon works, that probably means, there's a tower nearby! He must have built one when he enslaved them!"
"Sure" TK said, "But – where? I haven't seen one..."
"That lighthouse... I know it's a long shot, but -"
"Are you kidding?" TK asked, "The light coming from that thing is black! It's worth a shot"
Pegasusmon nodded and shot out of the tunnel and to the lighthouse. Without hesitation he shot multiple shooting stars at it. The first few shots destroyed a large portion of its facade, exposing the black core underneath - Kari was right.
"GUYS!" Gatomon shouted, "The natives are getting restless! Hurry up!"
"Godless traitors!" one of the creatures shouted.
But just a moment later the tower collapsed, under the pressure of Pegasusmon's bombardment.
"Back off, freak!" Gatomon shouted, hitting one of them. He fell to the floor and didn't get up again.
Then suddenly, a golden ray of light cut through the remaining crowd, killing (or at least incapacitating) five or six of them - Angemon had joined the struggle.
"You will pay for this..." one of the creatures threatened, as the rest of them decided to slowly retreat into the water.
"Oh, yeah?" Gatomon asked challenging, "Try and make us pay! Go ahead!"
"The Elder One was right..." the creature said, slipping into the water, "We should have never doubted... our god."
The rest of them disappeared below the surface.
"Huh..." Gatomon said relaxing in her stands, "That was easier then expected. I can see why these pushovers would disguise themselves as Ultimates."
She walked by the shadow-figure she had taken out and spat on them.
"Oh! Perfect timing!" TK said, with a satisfied smile, looking at his D-Terminal, "Got a mail from Izzy!"
But when he read it his smile slowly began to fade.
"That's it, huh?" Kari asked and tears ran down her cheeks, "We're gonna die here, right?"
"Kari, stop -"
"We don't have food, we don't have water" Kari cried, "Who knows how long it will take Izzy to find a way out - if there even is one!"
"I mean..." TK said, "If times are tough, we could always eat Piedmon..."
Kari looked up.
"What?" she asked completely baffled.
"Never mind... long story..."
"You shouldn't have come to save me..." Kari said, now returning to being a crying mess, "We're all gonna die because of me! I'm so -"
"Kari, stop it!" TK said, grabbing her by the shoulders, looking straight into her eyes, "We're gonna make it! I don't know how, but we're gonna make it! We're DigiDestined! It takes more than this bullshit to bury us!"
"TK..." Kari said wide eyed. But she wasn't looking into his eyes, she was looking at his chest: It was emitting a golden glow.
"What the..." TK said looking down, but there was more: his D3 was shining in pure white light. Almost instinctively, TK pointed it at Angemon.
"Angemon digivolve to..." the angel exclaimed, and transformed; his helmet was replaced with a taller, purple one, and he gained an equally purple armor plate for his left arm, big enough to cover its entire length. He now had silver armor plating and numerous golden accessories, with ancient runes engraved into them. One of them was a ring around his left wrist, with an attachment that included a dagger sized blade, that seemed to be made out of purple light or plasma.
"...MagnaAngemon!"
"Holy shit!" TK exclaimed, before jumping in the air from excitement.
"But..." Kari said uncertain, "How will that -"
"Piedmon!" TK said thrilled.
Gatomon shot him a confused look.
"Uh... that's not Pied- oh! I get it! I'm stupid..."
"What are you talking about?" Kari asked confused.
"Piedmon is here!" TK explained, "MagnaAngemon send him here! This is our way out!"
"Oh my god!" Kari said, and her eyes lit up, "Wait - Piedmon is here?!" she added frightened.
"Well, he's dead now, so..."
"Wait, what?"
"We'll explain later" Gatomon said, "Let's just get out of here!"
"You heard her, MagnaAngemon!" TK said, "Open up!"
"Roger that!"
MagnaAngemon used his plasma-blade to draw a perfect circle, slightly bigger than himself. That circle quickly turned into a golden ring, engraved with ancient runes, surrounding a silver gate. The gate opened and revealed a purple glow inside. Once opened, the gate began sucking everything in its surroundings inside. They briefly exchanged a look, took a deep breath and let themselves get pulled in.
It was like passing through a layer of water, however they remained dry as a bone. The trip was over in an instance, and they fell, pretty much four feet, until they landed rather softly in the sand below.
"Are we back?" Gatomon asked, when she got back up.
"Only one way to find out" TK said and pressed a button on his D3 twice in quick succession.
They heard a soft beep.
"Izzy?" TK asked tense.
"Oh, thank fuck!" Izzy exclaimed, more relieved than they had ever heard him be.
"Yup" TK said, "Sounds like we're back to me."
"So, the Dark Masters are finally dead, huh?" Izzy asked, back in the lab, as they told him what had happened at the Dark Ocean, and subsequently of Piedmon's demise, "Only took us three years... By the way, I would have preferred if, you guys had talked to me before you let yourselves get sucked into MagnaAngemon's gate."
"What, with e-mails?" TK asked bewildered, "Then we would have been stuck there for at least a week!"
Izzy sighed:
"Point taken... still, it was a huge gamble. Who knows where you could have ended up, instead. Could have been an empty void or a death zone, if you start from there..."
"Well, it wasn't" TK said defiantly, "So who cares - Kari are you okay?"
Kari who had spent the time, TK used, to tell their story, silently regaining her composure, had suddenly burst into tears.
She rushed towards the boys and pulled them into a group hug.
"Thank you both!" she sobbed, "Thank you so much!"
"Don't mention it..." TK said hugging her back, and even Izzy patted her back with a mild smile.
"Man, good thing we had MagnaAngemon this time" Gatomon sighed, as they went to leave the room, a few minutes later, "How about, we go straight to Ultimate next time, there's no towers around?"
"Yeah..." TK said exchanging a quick meaningful look with both Kari and Izzy, "We should do that – hey, can I catch up with you guys? I wanna talk to Izzy for a second. Patamon can you go with them? Kari looks like she needs all the company, she can get."
"Sure!" Patamon said smiling.
They awkwardly waved them goodbye, as they left the room. As soon as the door closed TK turned to Izzy and hissed:
"How the hell did that happen? How did he evolve like that?"
"I don't know!" Izzy hissed back, "Your guess is as good as mine!"
"Since when is that your go to answer?"
"Look lately things make even less sense than three years ago – never thought I'd say that... I don't know what to think anymore!"
They stood there in silence for a moment, reviewing what had happened at that ocean.
Suddenly TK's eyes lit up:
"Wait, you don't think -"
Their eyes met and all over sudden they spoke in unison, vocalizing the same thought:
"The other crests!" Izzy said.
"Gennai was bullshitting us!" TK said.
Close.
They repeated the progress with new thoughts
"Yeah, guess that's a real possibility..." Izzy said cynically.
"What other – Oh!" TK said, confused at first, but ultimately he got it, "You're right I was being hopeful... but it looked like Kari's activated too, when she helped those... things... why would she still have the one she originally got?"
"Look, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the whole crest thing, in general... Which isn't helped by the fact, that lately Gennai never ever replies to me!"
"But hey: looks like we can reach Ultimate again! That's fucking awesome!"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Izzy slowed him down, "We can test it once the opportunity arises, but things seem to work so wildly different at the Dark Ocean, I wouldn't be shocked if they worked there exclusively."
"Yeah... damn..."
They fell silent again, for a few minutes. Then Izzy spoke up, slowly:
"This..."
"- Would have killed Tai"
"It really would have!" Izzy agreed nodding eagerly, "Across all of that? Three perfect opportunities for heart-attacks, minimum!"
"And I was wondering, why you didn't call him or anything" TK said shaking his head, "Good thinking, keeping him out of this!"
"Well, I – rarely experience bad thinking… but I appreciate it. Now, let's just hope she isn't too traumatized, or else our cover might be blown…"
"Oh, shit! You're right!"
"Eh, don't worry about it too much. Gatomon is with her, after all."
"What, you think she would be a good trauma therapist?"
"Not at all! However, I do believe, she could get some very convincing fake smiles out of her."
The Emperor gritted his teeth.
His spirals lay scattered all across the beach, some of them being washed ashore by the black waves.
A distant rumble caught his attention. A massive creature rose from the depths in the distance, dwarfing an island nearby. The being had massive wings like a dragon, and numerous tentacles grew from its head and its limbs were made up of them. The monster was silhouetted against the setting silver sun. But its red eyes shone brightly contrasting the black mass of its body.
The Elder One stared down the young boy.
The kid closed his eyes tightly – until the sound of the waves and the monsters growling was replaced with deafening silence.
He opened his eyes. He was back in his control room.
His right hand gripped his D3 tightly – trembling.
"Pull it together!" he whispered, before turning and storming out of the room.