Calm down, Taichi told himself, Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. TK was lying completely still, as if he was… Don't even think it! "What's happening?" Sora asked as she came running up and gasped. "What happened?!"
"H-He w-was okay a-a s-second ago," Mimi sobbed, "Th-Then th-that ghost came… and..."
"A ghost?! Okay, l-let's calm down," Sora took a few breaths, "We'll find a way to help him, Mimi-san."
"Yeah..." Taichi muttered, still not believing what he was seeing. He's even younger than Hikari… How's Ishida going to take this? Taichi tried to imagine how he'd feel if Hikari was… he couldn't even think it. And with how much pain Ishida already had to be in… Stop panicking! Start thinking! He took several breaths to calm himself. Okay, Tokomon's gone, but that thing is there. That means TK used the digivice, but… No! He couldn't have! There was no way his body could have handled it! He looked around TK's body. No blood or anything. So he couldn't have used the digivice… but then how did Tokomon became that thing?!
The little digimon looked up at him with tear filled eyes. "He just wanted to help! I told him not to use the digivice! I saw how much it hurt you but he really wanted to help!" Taichi's heart sank. Of course TK would try to help, regardless of the danger. Taichi's parents often joked he was a bad influence on the little guy, but moments like this really made him wonder. "B-But then, some h-hooded ghost came out of the floor and d-did something weird! A-And the digivice g-gave a black light, a-and I became this! Now TK won't wake up! And I don't wanna be a Tsukaimon! They're mean!"
"Um, okay, calm down," he told both Toko- er, Tsukaimon and himself, "Let's not panic here. Like Sora said, we'll find a way to help him." Even if it meant beating the answer out of that ghost with his bare hands. "And what did you mean by not wanting to be a Tsukaimon?"
"They're mean!" Tsukaimon unhelpfully repeated.
"I think what he means is that when we evolve normally, it's mostly our personality that determines what we become," Agumon explained, "and Tokomon was nothing like a Tsukaimon."
"I get it," Taichi said. He flinched as the digimon scanner burned in the information on Tsukaimon. Tsukaimon can breathe fire, though not as much as Agumon, and exhale… poison gas? Yikes. Even attack with a small amount dark energy, but nothing about it being "mean". "The scanner's not saying anything about Tsukaimon being mean."
"Scanner?!" Koushiro sounded interested.
"Yeah, I can scan digimon," Taichi answered, not taking his eyes off TK, "It tells me about their powers, but nothing else." A name quickly burned itself into his head. "Huh, it's called a DigiScanner." Why wait until now to tell him? Was this a need to know thing or something, because he wasn't really sure he trusted the little gadget to actually know what he needed to know.
"Fascinating. And in that case, I would suspect the lack of information is because the evolution was forced. Tell me, Agumon, do you still feel like Koromon?"
"Mostly, yes," the dinosaur answered, "I feel a little different, but not much."
"I suspected as much. And if your original personality is staying intact, I would guess whoever created the digivice didn't want us prejudging our digimon by what they evolve into."
"Um, this is really interesting," Mimi's shrill voice interrupted, "but in case you forgot, our little TK-chan was attacked by a ghost!"
She's freaking out even worse than Ishida… Wait a minute. Ishida wasn't freaking out at all. Did that jackass not care what happened to his little brother?! Taichi looked around for the jerk- oh. There he was. Out cold. And Jou was out too? Well, at least Pukamon seemed to be looking after him. "Yamato-kun passed out after Tsunomon evolved," Sora spoke up, "Seems the digivice cauterized his wound."
"Ouch," Taichi said, grimacing. He's had a couple heat related accidents in the past, so he could imagine how that had to hurt.
"Jou-kun went to bandage him, but he took one look and fainted. It was a bit of a rush job, but I was able to get Yamato-kun bandaged up."
"Good thing you were there." Taichi looked at Sora, Koushiro, and Mimi, inwardly grimacing. "I think I can carry Ishida gently enough for his wound, but do any of you have a chance of carrying Jou?"
The three looked at each other though he already knew the answer. Mimi was out of the question. Koushiro already had his laptop and he was so short. Sora was the best shot, but she really didn't look confident.
"Never mind!" Pukamon announced, "He's waking up!" As the tiny water dinosaur said, Jou was slowly, and clumsily, climbing back to his feet.
"Um, sorry," he said, giving everyone a sheepish look, "I just can't handle blood." He peered at Ishida. "Someone did a good job, though."
"Thank you," Sora responded with a smile, "Our school's soccer club is filled with little Taichis so I get a lot of practice." Taichi rolled his eyes.
"Keep it up and you'll be needing first aid," he grumbled.
"You say something?" she asked in a sweet voice.
"Let's just go!" Mimi cut in, "I don't want TK-chan here any longer than he has to be!"
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"Remind why I'm carrying blondie here?" Taichi grumbled. Ishida on his back wasn't too hard… for about five minutes. Now the jerk was an even bigger-pain-in-the-back than pain-in-the-neck which was really saying something.
"Because Jou would trip," Pukamon chirped.
"Pukamon! I'm not that-" Jou's argument was cut off as Taichi heard him yelp and stumble, which was pretty impressive given how empty this corridor was. The entire group had agreed that since Tailmon left through the central doorway, that was the best chance of finding a way out. The walls were lined with torches lit with that heatless fire which only added to Taichi's impatience. It didn't help that the light practically died out as it reached the dark ceiling, almost like the darkness was pushing against the light.
"It can't go on forever," Tsukaimon said from his perch on TK's head, who was being carried on Sora's back, "File Kingdom is holy ground. This is probably just a cut off basement or something."
"I'm just worried if Agumon and Gabumon are enough," Sora said. The two digimon were several meters in front, specifically as far they could be while still visible in this darkness. Carrying Ishida, if Tailmon attacked again, or maybe that hooded ghost, Taichi wouldn't be able to do much. "I could give TK-kun to Mimi-"
"No!" Jou snapped, "Three digivices and only Taichi-san's okay! They're too dangerous!"
"He's right," Taichi agreed, "It felt like my digivice was trying to rip me apart."
"So I should just force you to handle everything?" Sora's voice took on an edge he'd rarely heard.
"At least let's wait until we can safely rest," Koushiro interrupted, "After that, however, I fully agree with Sora-san." The group traveled on in silence. Taichi took the opportunity to whisper a quick question to Sora.
"Okay, you're a girl-"
"That's the rumor," she interrupted while rolling her eyes.
"So anyways," Taichi continued, "any idea what's going on with Mimi? Why's she so obsessed with TK?" Sora looked thoughtful.
"Okay, remember that blackout a few weeks back?" he nodded. A storm knocked out power for a few hours. Wasn't really a big deal, but it happened at night and Hikari was not ready to go without her nightlight. She spent the entire time claiming their pet cat, Neko, was scared and kept trying to comfort the very, very patient animal. It was one of Sora's favorite Hikari stories.
"So he's her teddy bear?" he asked. She nodded.
"Pretty much. Now my turn." She took a breath and he knew what was coming. "Do you seriously think I'm just going to just stand back and watch as you risk your life like that again?"
"We're coming to a big room!" Agumon announced, thankfully sparing Taichi any need to respond. He really didn't want any of the others going through what he did, but Sora did have a point. He and Agumon weren't even enough for Tailmon, let alone the hooded ghost and whatever else was here. Who am I kidding? With a little guy like TK around, Sora would use the thing even if it did take me out.
Stepping into the new room, the torches quickly became visible, clearing away the darkness, and revealing a gigantic mural that made Taichi wish the darkness would return. In the center was some kind of floating fortress or, on closer inspection, it looked kind of like a city. The towers, or buildings, or whatever, had a very sleek design making them look like they were made of metal. Behind the fortress city thing was a gigantic dark mass that had seven tentacles stretching out. At the end of each tentacle was a figure, the sight of them awakening some sort instinctual fear in him, or perhaps it was the digivice that was afraid.
He couldn't make out most of the figures, but one kind of looked like an alligator with a really big mouth. Another was in robes with demonic wings. The one he really noticed had both feathered and bat like wings. And they were all killing something. Six of them were in pairs, killing a serpent-like dragon with a long beard, a two headed turtle with a tree for a shell, a bird covered in flames, and a tiger. The seventh one, who had the mixed wings, was slaying a more western looking dragon with spikes pointing upward from its side. The killings were disturbingly graphic, as if whoever did this mural reveled in how those five creatures suffered. It made him sick. "So glad TK's not awake to see this," he muttered.
"Jou-kun, Koushiro-kun, and Mimi-kun aren't even looking," Sora whispered to him, sounding a bit sick herself.
"I'll let you know when we find a way out of here," he announced back to the others. Forcing himself to look at the mural again, he noticed a symbol beneath the image, and five symbols beneath it, spaced across the entire wall. His head and eyes began burning as the DigiScanner activated. "The DigiScanner is translating these symbols!" he announced.
"Really?! What are they?!" Koushiro sounded like he'd forgotten about the image.
"Let's see. The top one is Shadow. The five below are Miracles, Destiny, Life, Death, and Equality."
"That's interesting," Mimi said in a sarcastic tone, "but can we please get out of here already?!"
"Yeah, sure." Looking at the sides of the room, there was only wall within the haze. No doorways or anything. So a secret door then? Great. Taichi really didn't want to look at the mural again.
"I think I found something!" Agumon announced from the Miracles symbol, "The air's a bit fresher here!" Taichi hurried over with Sora next to him. He could hear the others following, though a bit slower. Looking closely, he could just barely make out a seam on both sides of the symbol.
"Maybe we should get Koushiro-kun to examine-" Sora started to suggest when Taichi touched the symbol. It began to glow with an eerie purple light. Her voice turned to a growl. "Or we can just touch everything in this obviously cursed place." The wall around the symbol slid upwards.
"Found an exit!" Taichi chirped, shooting Sora a smug grin, and ignoring her withering glare. Looking through the opening, it looked like it lead to another big room, but the darkness didn't seem quite as thick. Agumon and Gabumon stepped through and looked around.
"It's safe!" Gabumon announced. Taichi stepped through with Sora right behind him. The room was at least as big as the one he'd woken up in, except this one didn't have a pit covering half of it. The usual torches lined the room, but the darkness didn't seem quite as hazy or oppressive. There was only one doorway leading in from the far side, next to it were two fallen stone pillars. The part of the floor he entering the room on was raised with three steps a few feet ahead.
"It's a throne room," Koushiro spoke. Taichi looked around, and there was a large stone throne against the wall in the center.
"So that awful picture was right behind the king of this place?" Mimi asked.
"The brighter the light," Tsukaimon said, sounding again like he just reciting, "the darker the shadow."
"And in this case the shadow swallowed the light," Taichi muttered. He looked ahead to the far side of the room. One large doorway leading in, two pillars on either side, though the pillars were now in several pieces. The walls on the left and right sides of the room had images of what looked like some type of fancy warrior but on each of them the faces were scratched off. Around the center of the room was a statue that looked kind of like an ankylosaur.
"Would any of you happen to know what the Harmonious Ones looked like?" Koushiro asked suddenly. Agumon and Gabumon looked at each other and then shook their heads.
"I don't either," Tsukaimon said.
"I feel like a lot of our information was rushed," Motimon said.
"That would explain how none of you knew the state File was in," Koushiro said, "Anyways, I'm suspecting that those creatures the mural showed us-"
"You mean those poor animals that thing was murdering?" Mimi asked in a bitter and sickened tone.
"Yes. I believe they were the Harmonious Ones. Look where it was, right behind the throne. And those carvings of those warriors, all of them defaced."
"Like a victory lap of someone very evil," Taichi said. Koushiro nodded.
"Whoever it was either built or took over the secret passages. I would guess a secret society or something that was able to stay hidden until they could strike, directly at the ruler no less. On top of that, considering how little our digimon know about File's situation, it's likely it happened after the digivices were finished, but before they were sent off."
"Wait!" Mimi snapped, "Are you seriously saying that we're supposed to fight whatever caused this?! I don't wanna fight! I hate fighting!"
"It's okay, Mimi," Tanemon said, "We won't make you do anything you don't want to!"
"And besides, fighting's our job," Agumon said, "We'll keep you safe and help you get back home." His voice turned sad. "And we might have to go with you." Taichi looked at Sora, her expression showing what he was feeling. Yeah, it's great for us they're doing the hard part. But what about them?
"It does look hopeless," Gabumon said.
"Maybe it'll be better when we get out of this creepy place," Tsukaimon suggested.
"I'm gonna check out the statue," Taichi said, wanting to take his mind off those depressing thoughts. Maybe a dinosaur statue would cheer him up a little. Nope. The ankylosaur was reared up with an expression of absolute fury. And it wasn't exactly an ankylosaur. It had large spikes around the edge of its shell, though most of them were just stumps. It looked like there were supposed to be spikes on its back too though none remained. Even the club at the end of its tail had a couple spikes and many more stumps. I wonder… He concentrated on the DigiScanner, immediately being rewarded with the burning, but he was given the image of a yellow, spiky ankylosaur called Ankylomon. Its body was harder than steel and it had incredibly powerful legs that granted it amazing agility.
"The ghost!" Tsukaimon cried out. Taichi jumped back and looked around. There it was, right up above, wearing a gray tattered cloth and red hood and cape, almost looking like a small reaper. It was carrying a scythe connected to a chain. The other end of the chain had a metal ball attached to it. The DigiScanner called it Phantomon.
Phantomon held out a hand and a glowing object appeared above it. "That's a digicore!" Agumon said, "It's a digimon's soul!" What?! The shock of what Taichi just heard caused him to lose focus on the Digiscanner, deactivating it.
"That's impossible!" Pukamon said, "When a digimon dies, our digicore goes to a Village of Beginnings with a bit of our physical data to be reborn!"
"He's a necromancer!" Tsukaimon said, "Taichi! Agumon! Get away from the Ankylomon! It's not a statue!" Taichi grabbed Agumon and ran towards the far exit, not wanting to lure this Ankylomon to the others. He soon heard a fearsome roar and a shadow began to fall over him. He dove forward, dragging Agumon with him, and the entire room suddenly shook with a loud crash. Letting Agumon go, he scrambled to his feet and began running and turning around just in time to see Ankylomon's tail club slamming down in front of him, vibrating the floor again.
The tail raised and he immediately knew to run. He zigzagged towards the exit, Ankylomon's tail crashing right behind him each time, the floor trembling with each blow. Then it stopped and Ankylomon roared in another direction. Taichi spun around and slowed as he saw a large crack in the floor where the dinosaur tried to jump on him. Ankylomon itself was facing Gabumon and Agumon. It had three patches of ice on its shell- no, make that two. Agumon shot one off.
Ankylomon suddenly launched itself upwards and flipped over to its back as it began dropping, but thankfully, Agumon and Gabumon were already running. Ankylomon slammed into the ground, vibrating the floor with its impact, and flipping to its feet a split second later and sweeping its tail, catching both of the smaller digimon, throwing them next to Taichi. It then pointed itself at the others. "No!" Taichi shouted.
"We'll stop him!" Agumon shouted as he and Gabumon ran towards the dinosaur.
"Scatter!" Sora shouted as she started running, carrying Yokomon. Jou was already lifting Ishida while Pukamon covered him. Ankylomon lunged towards Mimi head first and the girl flew back into a wall, Tanemon crying out her name. A burst of purple gas spread across Ankylomon's face, getting its attention. Tsukaimon fired another shot, Ankylomon looking a little irritated, but then Agumon shot a fireball. It hit the gas cloud and exploded, causing Ankylomon to step back. It quickly jumped forward, spun around as Gabumon's ice fire left a streak of ice on its shell. Then the three digimon scattered as Ankylomon raised its tail and started hammering it at them.
With each blow vibrating the floor, Taichi's eyes fell on the two points where the Ankylomon crashed down earlier. The cracks were growing. Oh, crap. We're in trouble! "Get it over here!" he shouted, "The floor's starting to give, so let's make him fall alone!"
Ankylomon seemed to hear him because it immediately sprung into the air, somersaulting towards him. Once again, Taichi could only dive, but he did manage to go diagonal from Ankylomon, so the tail only landed next to him. And within half a second, Ankylomon had flipped to its feet and was in the air again. Oh, come on! That's not fair! He started to scramble back, hoping for some sort of miracle. A large pink bubble came in the corner of his vision. It popped and he was lifted off the ground as Ankylomon just missed him.
He hit the ground rolling. Once he stopped, he could see his saviors were Sora and Koushiro, holding their digimon, and were running in different directions. Ankylomon crashed and suddenly the floor was gone and Taichi was falling into the darkness below.
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Afterword: This fight was a lot tougher to write than the previous one, which really surprised me. I thought this one would be one of the easier ones.
