~I'm SO sorry, I know I left that cliffhanger dangling for WAAAAY too long,
but as a result, I've managed to make changes to all the previous chapters
to fit in with the TV show so far, as much as I can manage. A bit more
stuff, better re-read! I've also changed the title, I think it's a tad
better than the previous one. And this chapter is very important, many
things happen here. So anyway, dear readers, R, E & R!!!~
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The Shadow Realms: Part V - Revelations
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"Gaaah!" Kenta scrambled for shelter as Leomon leaped straight for him, and Takato jumped out of the way and nearly bowled Guilmon over.
Next moment, before anyone had truly realized what was happening, Guardromon had placed himself between Leomon and Kenta and received the full force of Leomon's attack. Guardromon crashed to the ground.
"Ouch."
That snapped Hirokazu out of his state of paralyzed shock and he snatched his D-Ark from his belt.
"Okay, that's it!" he produced a card, and, holding it vertically between the two forefingers of his right hand, which he raised up above his head, his right arm stretching towards his left, and with his brown-lined D-Ark in his left hand stretching over to the right side, below his waist, he brought the D-Ark diagonally upwards towards the left and the card diagonally downward towards the right so that the two met midway, and the card slid through the slot with a crackling explosion of the energy, "Card Slash! Seed of Swiftness!"
Guardromon disappeared from the spot where he'd been lying and a moment later Leomon roared in pain as Guardromon crashed straight into him. He was thrown against the wall and his image began to fuzz.
"We've almost got him, Guardromon!" Hirokazu yelled, "Okay, Card Slash! Boost Chip!"
"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon fired his queer little rockets with heads and clubs straight at Leomon.
"No!" Jenrya cried from the ground.
"Wait!" Takato yelled.
But as the two projectiles reached Leomon and were about to hit him right in the chest, he suddenly blurred and a large hole appeared where his chest had been, so that Guardromon's attack hit the wall. The cloud of dust that was raised engulfed both Leomon and Jenrya.
"WHAT?!" Hirokazu yelped.
"Um, what just happened?" Takato wondered aloud.
There was a sudden yell from Jenrya within the dust cloud, cut off by a gasp, and then silence.
"Jen!" Takato called, but received no answer.
"Uh-oh," Guilmon said nervously, his bat-like ears quivering.
When the dust cleared, the Tamers saw that Leomon had pinned Jenrya against the wall with one large clawed fist, which was slowly strangling the blue- haired boy, and had raised the other to attack.
"Jenrya!" Terriermon, Hirokazu, Kenta and Takato cried in unison.
"Petit Twister!" Terriermon tried to free Jenrya with his tornado-like attack but was tossed aside.
"Guilmon, let's go!" Takato was taking out his D-Ark when Hirokazu stopped him with a gesture.
"He's 'mine', Takato."
"Hirokazu!"
"Just leave it to me, chumley."
Hirokazu was about to slash another card when Ryou stepped out from the shadows, his blue eyes glinting in the flickering light from the torches.
"That's not Leomon," he said matter-of-factly.
"Uh, you lost me," Hirokazu muttered.
"It may look like Leomon, but it's not," Ryou continued, "Here."
He handed Hirokazu a card. Hirokazu glanced at it and stared.
"Reveal?" he looked up at Ryou, who nodded.
"Yeah, it'll show you that Digimon's true form."
Hirokazu was skeptical, but just then Leomon roared out, "Fist of the Beast King!"
Jenrya tried to shield his face with his arms as the Beast Man Digimon's attack went right for him.
"No!" Terriermon leaped to protect his partner, but he could never have gotten there in time.
"Fireball!" Guilmon's last minute action deflected the Adult's attack, which hit the wall beside Jenrya's head and knocked his head sideways so fast he nearly blacked out.
"Come on, Hirokazu, it's worth a try," Takato yelled as Leomon bowled Guilmon over with a single attack and readied himself to attack Jenrya once more.
"All right, here goes," Hirokazu slashed the card Ryou had given him, "Card Slash! Reveal!"
Twin beams shot out from Guardromon's eyes and hit Leomon, and before their eyes the Digimon began to change, like an image reflected in water that has ripples in it. Slowly, Leomon transformed into a large, gelatinous red-eyed blob that shifted colors as it bobbed up and down in the firelight.
"What in the world is 'that'?!" Hirokazu exclaimed, aghast.
"Good question," Takato muttered.
A circular surface appeared out of Hirokazu's D-Ark screen and he looked down at it, "Blobbermon, Adult level. It can turn into any Digimon, and can use any Digimon's attacks! Whoa! No wonder we thought it was Leomon!"
Takato was frowning, "But if it wasn't Leomon, why did Katou-san's D-Ark act up?"
" 'I' can answer that," Ryou spoke up, and everyone stared at him, "Later. Right now you have a Blobbermon to take care of. It's fairly easy to kill, but better do it quick, before it changes into something else!"
Already the Blobbermon's image was beginning to shift again, its outlines blurring as it readied itself for transformation.
"Oh, right!" Hirokazu turned to his Digimon, "Guardromon?"
"No problem!" Guardromon fired his rockets, "Destruction Grenade!"
But he wasn't the only one who attacked.
"Fireball!"
"Blazing Fire!"
Hemmed in on all sides, the Blobbermon exploded into bits of data. Guardromon absorbed the data and Jenrya slid to the ground, looking dazed.
"Jen!" Takato cried, and everyone except Ryou ran to Jenrya's side, Terriermon in the lead, "Are you all right?"
Jenrya rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I've been better."
"Don't 'ever' do that again, Jen," Terriermon advised his Tamer sternly.
Jenrya laughed and Terriermon climbed onto his shoulder.
Suddenly there was a loud metallic sort of crash, and all of them looked up.
"Hey, weren't you going to explain something to us, Ryou?" Kenta asked, looking at the boy standing alone behind them, in the shadows.
"What's that?" Takato pointed to a pile of dark shards at Ryou's feet, which dissolved as they watched.
"Nothin'," Ryou muttered evasively.
Suddenly all of their minds felt clearer than they had in quite a while, and Kenta spoke up again, "Come on, a promise is a promise."
Ryou sighed and came to join them, sitting in the corner, "Oh, all right. But it's pretty crazy."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we've seen something crazier," Terriermon assured him.
"He's got a point," Takato nodded.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," Ryou muttered, "All right, first of all, you've got to know that..."
***
Takeshi Miki sighed as she unpacked her things and began to fill up her new room. Again.
'How many times have we moved?' the dark-haired girl wondered, her bright green eyes wandering to the great window that opened up onto the street below.
Shaking her head, which sent her short hair flying, Miki turned back to the box she was unpacking. She reached in and pulled out her class picture from last year. Tossing it aside, she continued to rummage around. Miki absolutely hated being the new girl all the time. But that was her life, basically. Always the new girl at school, the new girl on the block.
'Damn it,' Miki thought with annoyance as she tossed aside a small brown book belonging to her dead father, 'Why couldn't Mother have been something, anything, 'besides' a singer/actress?!'
Takeshi Rai was beautiful, glamorous and had starred in many famous cinematic productions. She was also a very popular singer who did many tours, and took her 15-year-old daughter with her.
Miki didn't really mind moving so much 'that' much. Every time was a chance to start over, to meet new people, to see new places and experience new things. Miki snorted as she remembered the people who'd pitied her verbally about her situation.
'As if 'they' knew anything about it,' she thought contemptuously, continuing to throw things about the room as she searched around in her box for something interesting to do.
***
Miki unearthed her Digimon card pocket and smiled down at it. Throughout her travels with her mother, her card pocket had always stayed with her, accumulating more and more cards as time went on. Miki had gained a rather notorious reputation for her card playing skills, but hadn't bothered to get into the league of the big competitions.
Suddenly she espied something strangely shiny and blue amongst her cards. It slid out of the pocket and onto the floor.
"What in the-?!" Miki picked up the blue card; it had a strange yellow and purple logo on it, like a D with a T-rex's head sticking out, which appeared and disappeared as she shifted the card's position in her fingers, "Where'd 'this' come from?"
Miki had collected many, many cards during her lifetime, but she didn't remember ever having seen a card like this one. On a sudden impulse, she dug out her cardreader from within the cardboard box and slashed the card through it.
"Wha-?!" she was astonished all over again when her cardreader suddenly glowed, and 'changed', with a strange 'BII-IP' sort of sound.
When the glow faded, Miki found herself holding a strange sort of rectangular white device lined with turquoise, with bumps at the sides, and a slot through the bump on the right side, and in the front there was a circular screen with two rectangular buttons beneath it. On top there was a turquoise strap.
"Okay," she said aloud to herself, "Now I've gone officially crazy."
For a moment Miki just stared at the thing, and then a possibility, or rather an 'im'possibility, slid into her mind: 'Could I really be holding a real Digivice?'
Before she had time to take this train of thought any further, the screen of the device began to glow, with a blinding light that filled Miki's vision. And suddenly she was in a different place, a very, very dark place where light did not, could not possibly exist, alone... or so she thought.
"Miki..." Miki jumped at the sound of the soft female voice.
"Wha-? Who are you? 'Where' are you? Where am 'I'?" she whispered into the infinite darkness.
A soft glow appeared beside her, and grew steadily stronger, until Miki saw the outline of a large, slender four-legged creature with great ears standing beside her. It looked like a stag, but it couldn't be. No stag glowed like that, or talked.
"I am Silvemon," the creature's features became clearer, and Miki found herself staring straight into a pair of great almond-shaped eyes, pale turquoise, glowing softly.
The creature 'was' like a stag, with a soft gray furry body, and long legs, but paws instead of hooves, and instead of antlers it had a pair of great black wings in the place of ears. It was marked here and there by strange symbols. There was one like an upside down arc on its forehead, yellow, that seemed to gleam with a light all its own. It had a sort of silver, symbol-covered armor across its chest that thrust out two long, curving protrusions over its shoulders. Its face was long and ended in an elegant snout, almost like a shark's, with a small black nose. Its tail was long and thin like a whip, ending in a wicked curving scythe blade that gleamed with the light of a thousand diamonds and Miki knew, somehow, that it could cut through almost anything with a single swipe.
Miki sat still, staring at the creature, awestruck by its beauty.
"I am your partner, Miki," the creature whispered, its tail swaying back and forth over its back, its huge pale eyes blinking slowly.
"Partner?" Miki breathed, not taking her eyes off the creature, almost afraid it might disappear if she did, and leave her alone in this dark place.
"I am a Digimon," the creature smiled, showing wicked gleaming fangs, "And I have been waiting for the right Tamer. A strong Tamer, one who will not abandon me. That Tamer is you, Miki."
"Digimon? Tamer?" Miki repeated, bewildered, "Y-you're a real D-Digimon?!"
"Of course," Silvemon shook her head, "Can I drop the mysterious attitude now? Anyway, why do you think I came when you found the blue card? Now, tell me: are you willing to come with me, and perhaps leave your world behind forever? Or would you prefer to renounce your status as my Tamer, and stay in your world?"
"Come with you to the Digital World?" Miki asked quietly.
When Silvemon nodded, any doubts or hesitations Miki had had vanished completely, and a smile spread over her tanned face, "Of course! Of course I'll come with you!"
"Your choice is final," Silvemon warned.
"I'm coming," Miki said firmly.
And with that, an almost blinding light appeared in front of them both, with strange red and green squares appearing and disappearing around the edges of it. Silvemon stepped forward and turned back.
"Then let's go through this confounded portal already. I have no idea where we'll end up, but it will bring us where we are most needed."
"Okay," Miki nodded, got up and walked to Silvemon's side, her card pocket still in one hand, and her Digivice in the other, "Let's go."
Together they entered the portal, leaving behind the darkness.
***
Ruki awoke slowly, blinking as she rose sluggishly back to consciousness. And that bothered her. Why should she wake so slowly? And what was that throb in the back of her head that made her feel like she'd been hit by a hammer? Then she realized that someone was prodding her in the side.
Ruki looked around wildly, trying to stand but finding that something was preventing her hands and feet from moving. Her D-Ark had disappeared from its place at her belt, as well as her cardpocket. She was in some sort of dark, dank stone chamber, and the only light came from somewhere in front of her, where a dark cloaked figure was hunched over something, muttering furiously.
Juri was shackled to the wall beside her, apparently still unconscious, her long brown hair falling around her face and preventing Ruki from getting a good look at her. Ruki decided to try talking to her anyway.
"Juri! Hey Juri!" she hissed.
No response. Cursing, Ruki looked around once more, but her gold-streaked tawny hair was loose, falling in her face, tickling her cheeks and impairing her vision. And with her hands shackled, Ruki couldn't do anything about it except throw her head back, which made her back ache. Her fierce violet eyes, flickering about warily, came to rest on the last person she'd expected to see in such a place, at such a moment.
"Ryou?!"
***
"Okay, okay," Hirokazu held up his hands, "Rewind! You're telling us that you're 'not' Ryou?!"
"No, I'm not," the subject of his query responded tiredly, "My name's Kai. I was created from Ryou, but I am not him. I'm a copy, a clone."
"You're what?!" Takato exclaimed.
"I'm confused," Guardromon commented.
"Aren't you always?" Hirokazu said exasperatedly.
"Long ago, a part of the Digital World sank into darkness. No Digimon lived there but one: Shadowmagemon, Prince of Darkness, the vilest, most foul creature that ever lived. When Cyberdramon returned to his Digiegg, Shadowmagemon sent one of his servants to steal it for him," Ryou/Kai told them quietly, "And so, using Cyberdramon's Digiegg, he lured Ryou into his realm and captured him. After poisoning Cyberdramon's Digiegg with his evil, Shadowmagemon used Ryou's data to create me, and sent me to the real world with you guys. The thing you saw earlier on the ground was the remains of the Dark D-Ark he gave me. It allowed him to channel his power through me and to prevent you from remembering that Ryou wasn't in the least as, well, as nasty as I was. I only acted that way to prevent you from finding out about the Dark D-Ark and me. Essentially, I wanted to alienate you so that none of you would be inclined to examine me too closely. And it worked. The Dark D-Ark also allowed him to observe us. That's why I smashed it."
" 'That's' why as soon as you smashed it, I remembered that you were supposed to be older than us!" Jenrya blurted.
Kai nodded silently.
"Why are you telling us this?" Takato asked suspiciously, "Aren't you on 'his' side?"
"Never mind 'why'," Kai said abruptly, his face darkening, "I 'am' on your side, whether you choose to believe that or not. And Ryou is still in Shadowmagemon's clutches. I am the only one here who knows the exact location of his castle. So, as you see, you have no choice but to take my word for it, if you want to see Ryou, Ruki or Katou-san again."
"He's got Ruki and Katou-san, too?" Jenrya cried.
"Yes, and I think he also captured Renamon as we were entering the castle," Kai replied.
"So what you're saying is," Takato said slowly, fiddling with his goggles, "The only way to rescue them is to break into Shadowmagemon's castle?"
"Oh, dear," Guardromon mused, sitting down beside Hirokazu.
"Oh, boy," Guilmon said unhappily a moment later.
Kai nodded, "Unless they manage to escape on their own, which is highly unlikely, because Ryou hasn't been able to do it for the last four years."
"Ryou-san's been in that goddawful place for the last four years?!" Hirokazu yelled.
"Quiet!" Takato, Jenrya and Kai immediately hissed at him.
"Poor Ryou-sama, it must've been really bad, stuck as a prisoner of a bad Digimon for four years," Kenta said.
"Gee, ya think?" Hirokazu said sarcastically.
"Guys, stop it, we need a plan," Jenrya muttered, placing his head in both hands and narrowing his eyes as he thought hard.
***
There was a moment of silence, suddenly broken when a white light brighter than the torches filled the small stone room. Its source was a strange sort of window in the air, and it was fringed with red and green cubes, appearing and disappearing. They all stared at it in shock.
"What the-?!" Takato yelped.
"Whoa," Terriermon muttered.
"Is that a portal?!" Jenrya said incredulously.
His question was answered when a moment later two forms materialized out of the light-emitting window onto the dusty straw-colored floor of the place, and the portal vanished behind them.
A girl about their age sat in the dirt, her short, messy, slightly spiked chestnut hair kept out of her tanned face by a white bandana that was tied around her head, her bright green eyes blinking, slightly dazed, as she looked around. She wore a plain gray T-shirt and a pair of jeans without any belt. In her right hand she clutched a turquoise D-Ark and in her left a card pocket much like Rika's.
Beside her stood a strange, gray four-legged creature with big turquoise eyes and black wings for ears, as well as ornate silver armor across its chest and a whip-like tail with a deadly curving scythe blade gleaming at the end.
"What the hell?!" was Hirokazu's stunned comment.
The girl jumped when she noticed the five boys and three Digimon staring at her from across the room. She dusted herself off as she got to her feet and quirked a smile.
"Don't mind me, just dropping in."
"Who're you?!" Takato asked, snapping out of his attitude of frozen astonishment.
"Name's Miki, Takeshi Miki," the girl came over to them, the wondrous gray creature accompanying her and watching the boys and Digimon with wary eyes, "And this is Silvemon."
She gestured to the creature beside her. Jenrya had taken out his D-Ark as Terriermon examined the gray creature from head to tail.
"Silvemon, Child level Data type Digimon," he said finally, reading through the information his D-Ark was giving him, "Attacks are Lune Gale and Lightning Scythe."
"That's a Digimon?!" Kenta stared with eyes the size of Ping-Pong balls.
"What, you've never seen one before?" Silvemon retorted with a bite of impatience in her voice, "I'm Miki's partner, and we've come to help."
"We have?" Miki stared at her partner.
"You have?" Takato asked at exactly the same moment.
Silvemon rolled her eyes, "Yes, now would you mind telling us why the Portal of Need brought us here?"
"The Portal of Need?" Kai piped up suddenly, his blue eyes glinting, " 'That's' what you used to get here?"
"Yes," Silvemon replied, "Now, are you boys going to tell us why you need our help?"
"We don't," Hirokazu muttered, ignoring Silvemon's glare.
The Tamers looked at each other, then at Kai.
"You explain," Takato said.
"Could someone tell me 'what the hell is going ON here'?!" Miki said crossly, sitting down beside Hirokazu.
Kai sighed and leaned back against the wall, "I don't know why you're here, Takeshi-san, but we 'do' have a pretty big problem at the moment."
"Call me Miki," the girl said with a smile.
"Okay, then, Miki, y'see, there's this evil Digimon named Shadowmagemon..."
And with that he began to explain the boys' predicament to Miki.
***
~Finally! Finished! Took me quite a while, too. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, the next one won't be out for a while. All right, so review and tell me what you think of the changes to the story and of this chapter. Are all you Ryou fans happier now? I certainly hope so. I also have a question for you readers: What color are Hirokazu's and Kenta's D-Arks? (It's D-Ark, not D-Power, chaps, get used to it) Whew! I'm gonna need a LOT of peanut butter after this one...~
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The Shadow Realms: Part V - Revelations
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"Gaaah!" Kenta scrambled for shelter as Leomon leaped straight for him, and Takato jumped out of the way and nearly bowled Guilmon over.
Next moment, before anyone had truly realized what was happening, Guardromon had placed himself between Leomon and Kenta and received the full force of Leomon's attack. Guardromon crashed to the ground.
"Ouch."
That snapped Hirokazu out of his state of paralyzed shock and he snatched his D-Ark from his belt.
"Okay, that's it!" he produced a card, and, holding it vertically between the two forefingers of his right hand, which he raised up above his head, his right arm stretching towards his left, and with his brown-lined D-Ark in his left hand stretching over to the right side, below his waist, he brought the D-Ark diagonally upwards towards the left and the card diagonally downward towards the right so that the two met midway, and the card slid through the slot with a crackling explosion of the energy, "Card Slash! Seed of Swiftness!"
Guardromon disappeared from the spot where he'd been lying and a moment later Leomon roared in pain as Guardromon crashed straight into him. He was thrown against the wall and his image began to fuzz.
"We've almost got him, Guardromon!" Hirokazu yelled, "Okay, Card Slash! Boost Chip!"
"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon fired his queer little rockets with heads and clubs straight at Leomon.
"No!" Jenrya cried from the ground.
"Wait!" Takato yelled.
But as the two projectiles reached Leomon and were about to hit him right in the chest, he suddenly blurred and a large hole appeared where his chest had been, so that Guardromon's attack hit the wall. The cloud of dust that was raised engulfed both Leomon and Jenrya.
"WHAT?!" Hirokazu yelped.
"Um, what just happened?" Takato wondered aloud.
There was a sudden yell from Jenrya within the dust cloud, cut off by a gasp, and then silence.
"Jen!" Takato called, but received no answer.
"Uh-oh," Guilmon said nervously, his bat-like ears quivering.
When the dust cleared, the Tamers saw that Leomon had pinned Jenrya against the wall with one large clawed fist, which was slowly strangling the blue- haired boy, and had raised the other to attack.
"Jenrya!" Terriermon, Hirokazu, Kenta and Takato cried in unison.
"Petit Twister!" Terriermon tried to free Jenrya with his tornado-like attack but was tossed aside.
"Guilmon, let's go!" Takato was taking out his D-Ark when Hirokazu stopped him with a gesture.
"He's 'mine', Takato."
"Hirokazu!"
"Just leave it to me, chumley."
Hirokazu was about to slash another card when Ryou stepped out from the shadows, his blue eyes glinting in the flickering light from the torches.
"That's not Leomon," he said matter-of-factly.
"Uh, you lost me," Hirokazu muttered.
"It may look like Leomon, but it's not," Ryou continued, "Here."
He handed Hirokazu a card. Hirokazu glanced at it and stared.
"Reveal?" he looked up at Ryou, who nodded.
"Yeah, it'll show you that Digimon's true form."
Hirokazu was skeptical, but just then Leomon roared out, "Fist of the Beast King!"
Jenrya tried to shield his face with his arms as the Beast Man Digimon's attack went right for him.
"No!" Terriermon leaped to protect his partner, but he could never have gotten there in time.
"Fireball!" Guilmon's last minute action deflected the Adult's attack, which hit the wall beside Jenrya's head and knocked his head sideways so fast he nearly blacked out.
"Come on, Hirokazu, it's worth a try," Takato yelled as Leomon bowled Guilmon over with a single attack and readied himself to attack Jenrya once more.
"All right, here goes," Hirokazu slashed the card Ryou had given him, "Card Slash! Reveal!"
Twin beams shot out from Guardromon's eyes and hit Leomon, and before their eyes the Digimon began to change, like an image reflected in water that has ripples in it. Slowly, Leomon transformed into a large, gelatinous red-eyed blob that shifted colors as it bobbed up and down in the firelight.
"What in the world is 'that'?!" Hirokazu exclaimed, aghast.
"Good question," Takato muttered.
A circular surface appeared out of Hirokazu's D-Ark screen and he looked down at it, "Blobbermon, Adult level. It can turn into any Digimon, and can use any Digimon's attacks! Whoa! No wonder we thought it was Leomon!"
Takato was frowning, "But if it wasn't Leomon, why did Katou-san's D-Ark act up?"
" 'I' can answer that," Ryou spoke up, and everyone stared at him, "Later. Right now you have a Blobbermon to take care of. It's fairly easy to kill, but better do it quick, before it changes into something else!"
Already the Blobbermon's image was beginning to shift again, its outlines blurring as it readied itself for transformation.
"Oh, right!" Hirokazu turned to his Digimon, "Guardromon?"
"No problem!" Guardromon fired his rockets, "Destruction Grenade!"
But he wasn't the only one who attacked.
"Fireball!"
"Blazing Fire!"
Hemmed in on all sides, the Blobbermon exploded into bits of data. Guardromon absorbed the data and Jenrya slid to the ground, looking dazed.
"Jen!" Takato cried, and everyone except Ryou ran to Jenrya's side, Terriermon in the lead, "Are you all right?"
Jenrya rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I've been better."
"Don't 'ever' do that again, Jen," Terriermon advised his Tamer sternly.
Jenrya laughed and Terriermon climbed onto his shoulder.
Suddenly there was a loud metallic sort of crash, and all of them looked up.
"Hey, weren't you going to explain something to us, Ryou?" Kenta asked, looking at the boy standing alone behind them, in the shadows.
"What's that?" Takato pointed to a pile of dark shards at Ryou's feet, which dissolved as they watched.
"Nothin'," Ryou muttered evasively.
Suddenly all of their minds felt clearer than they had in quite a while, and Kenta spoke up again, "Come on, a promise is a promise."
Ryou sighed and came to join them, sitting in the corner, "Oh, all right. But it's pretty crazy."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we've seen something crazier," Terriermon assured him.
"He's got a point," Takato nodded.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," Ryou muttered, "All right, first of all, you've got to know that..."
***
Takeshi Miki sighed as she unpacked her things and began to fill up her new room. Again.
'How many times have we moved?' the dark-haired girl wondered, her bright green eyes wandering to the great window that opened up onto the street below.
Shaking her head, which sent her short hair flying, Miki turned back to the box she was unpacking. She reached in and pulled out her class picture from last year. Tossing it aside, she continued to rummage around. Miki absolutely hated being the new girl all the time. But that was her life, basically. Always the new girl at school, the new girl on the block.
'Damn it,' Miki thought with annoyance as she tossed aside a small brown book belonging to her dead father, 'Why couldn't Mother have been something, anything, 'besides' a singer/actress?!'
Takeshi Rai was beautiful, glamorous and had starred in many famous cinematic productions. She was also a very popular singer who did many tours, and took her 15-year-old daughter with her.
Miki didn't really mind moving so much 'that' much. Every time was a chance to start over, to meet new people, to see new places and experience new things. Miki snorted as she remembered the people who'd pitied her verbally about her situation.
'As if 'they' knew anything about it,' she thought contemptuously, continuing to throw things about the room as she searched around in her box for something interesting to do.
***
Miki unearthed her Digimon card pocket and smiled down at it. Throughout her travels with her mother, her card pocket had always stayed with her, accumulating more and more cards as time went on. Miki had gained a rather notorious reputation for her card playing skills, but hadn't bothered to get into the league of the big competitions.
Suddenly she espied something strangely shiny and blue amongst her cards. It slid out of the pocket and onto the floor.
"What in the-?!" Miki picked up the blue card; it had a strange yellow and purple logo on it, like a D with a T-rex's head sticking out, which appeared and disappeared as she shifted the card's position in her fingers, "Where'd 'this' come from?"
Miki had collected many, many cards during her lifetime, but she didn't remember ever having seen a card like this one. On a sudden impulse, she dug out her cardreader from within the cardboard box and slashed the card through it.
"Wha-?!" she was astonished all over again when her cardreader suddenly glowed, and 'changed', with a strange 'BII-IP' sort of sound.
When the glow faded, Miki found herself holding a strange sort of rectangular white device lined with turquoise, with bumps at the sides, and a slot through the bump on the right side, and in the front there was a circular screen with two rectangular buttons beneath it. On top there was a turquoise strap.
"Okay," she said aloud to herself, "Now I've gone officially crazy."
For a moment Miki just stared at the thing, and then a possibility, or rather an 'im'possibility, slid into her mind: 'Could I really be holding a real Digivice?'
Before she had time to take this train of thought any further, the screen of the device began to glow, with a blinding light that filled Miki's vision. And suddenly she was in a different place, a very, very dark place where light did not, could not possibly exist, alone... or so she thought.
"Miki..." Miki jumped at the sound of the soft female voice.
"Wha-? Who are you? 'Where' are you? Where am 'I'?" she whispered into the infinite darkness.
A soft glow appeared beside her, and grew steadily stronger, until Miki saw the outline of a large, slender four-legged creature with great ears standing beside her. It looked like a stag, but it couldn't be. No stag glowed like that, or talked.
"I am Silvemon," the creature's features became clearer, and Miki found herself staring straight into a pair of great almond-shaped eyes, pale turquoise, glowing softly.
The creature 'was' like a stag, with a soft gray furry body, and long legs, but paws instead of hooves, and instead of antlers it had a pair of great black wings in the place of ears. It was marked here and there by strange symbols. There was one like an upside down arc on its forehead, yellow, that seemed to gleam with a light all its own. It had a sort of silver, symbol-covered armor across its chest that thrust out two long, curving protrusions over its shoulders. Its face was long and ended in an elegant snout, almost like a shark's, with a small black nose. Its tail was long and thin like a whip, ending in a wicked curving scythe blade that gleamed with the light of a thousand diamonds and Miki knew, somehow, that it could cut through almost anything with a single swipe.
Miki sat still, staring at the creature, awestruck by its beauty.
"I am your partner, Miki," the creature whispered, its tail swaying back and forth over its back, its huge pale eyes blinking slowly.
"Partner?" Miki breathed, not taking her eyes off the creature, almost afraid it might disappear if she did, and leave her alone in this dark place.
"I am a Digimon," the creature smiled, showing wicked gleaming fangs, "And I have been waiting for the right Tamer. A strong Tamer, one who will not abandon me. That Tamer is you, Miki."
"Digimon? Tamer?" Miki repeated, bewildered, "Y-you're a real D-Digimon?!"
"Of course," Silvemon shook her head, "Can I drop the mysterious attitude now? Anyway, why do you think I came when you found the blue card? Now, tell me: are you willing to come with me, and perhaps leave your world behind forever? Or would you prefer to renounce your status as my Tamer, and stay in your world?"
"Come with you to the Digital World?" Miki asked quietly.
When Silvemon nodded, any doubts or hesitations Miki had had vanished completely, and a smile spread over her tanned face, "Of course! Of course I'll come with you!"
"Your choice is final," Silvemon warned.
"I'm coming," Miki said firmly.
And with that, an almost blinding light appeared in front of them both, with strange red and green squares appearing and disappearing around the edges of it. Silvemon stepped forward and turned back.
"Then let's go through this confounded portal already. I have no idea where we'll end up, but it will bring us where we are most needed."
"Okay," Miki nodded, got up and walked to Silvemon's side, her card pocket still in one hand, and her Digivice in the other, "Let's go."
Together they entered the portal, leaving behind the darkness.
***
Ruki awoke slowly, blinking as she rose sluggishly back to consciousness. And that bothered her. Why should she wake so slowly? And what was that throb in the back of her head that made her feel like she'd been hit by a hammer? Then she realized that someone was prodding her in the side.
Ruki looked around wildly, trying to stand but finding that something was preventing her hands and feet from moving. Her D-Ark had disappeared from its place at her belt, as well as her cardpocket. She was in some sort of dark, dank stone chamber, and the only light came from somewhere in front of her, where a dark cloaked figure was hunched over something, muttering furiously.
Juri was shackled to the wall beside her, apparently still unconscious, her long brown hair falling around her face and preventing Ruki from getting a good look at her. Ruki decided to try talking to her anyway.
"Juri! Hey Juri!" she hissed.
No response. Cursing, Ruki looked around once more, but her gold-streaked tawny hair was loose, falling in her face, tickling her cheeks and impairing her vision. And with her hands shackled, Ruki couldn't do anything about it except throw her head back, which made her back ache. Her fierce violet eyes, flickering about warily, came to rest on the last person she'd expected to see in such a place, at such a moment.
"Ryou?!"
***
"Okay, okay," Hirokazu held up his hands, "Rewind! You're telling us that you're 'not' Ryou?!"
"No, I'm not," the subject of his query responded tiredly, "My name's Kai. I was created from Ryou, but I am not him. I'm a copy, a clone."
"You're what?!" Takato exclaimed.
"I'm confused," Guardromon commented.
"Aren't you always?" Hirokazu said exasperatedly.
"Long ago, a part of the Digital World sank into darkness. No Digimon lived there but one: Shadowmagemon, Prince of Darkness, the vilest, most foul creature that ever lived. When Cyberdramon returned to his Digiegg, Shadowmagemon sent one of his servants to steal it for him," Ryou/Kai told them quietly, "And so, using Cyberdramon's Digiegg, he lured Ryou into his realm and captured him. After poisoning Cyberdramon's Digiegg with his evil, Shadowmagemon used Ryou's data to create me, and sent me to the real world with you guys. The thing you saw earlier on the ground was the remains of the Dark D-Ark he gave me. It allowed him to channel his power through me and to prevent you from remembering that Ryou wasn't in the least as, well, as nasty as I was. I only acted that way to prevent you from finding out about the Dark D-Ark and me. Essentially, I wanted to alienate you so that none of you would be inclined to examine me too closely. And it worked. The Dark D-Ark also allowed him to observe us. That's why I smashed it."
" 'That's' why as soon as you smashed it, I remembered that you were supposed to be older than us!" Jenrya blurted.
Kai nodded silently.
"Why are you telling us this?" Takato asked suspiciously, "Aren't you on 'his' side?"
"Never mind 'why'," Kai said abruptly, his face darkening, "I 'am' on your side, whether you choose to believe that or not. And Ryou is still in Shadowmagemon's clutches. I am the only one here who knows the exact location of his castle. So, as you see, you have no choice but to take my word for it, if you want to see Ryou, Ruki or Katou-san again."
"He's got Ruki and Katou-san, too?" Jenrya cried.
"Yes, and I think he also captured Renamon as we were entering the castle," Kai replied.
"So what you're saying is," Takato said slowly, fiddling with his goggles, "The only way to rescue them is to break into Shadowmagemon's castle?"
"Oh, dear," Guardromon mused, sitting down beside Hirokazu.
"Oh, boy," Guilmon said unhappily a moment later.
Kai nodded, "Unless they manage to escape on their own, which is highly unlikely, because Ryou hasn't been able to do it for the last four years."
"Ryou-san's been in that goddawful place for the last four years?!" Hirokazu yelled.
"Quiet!" Takato, Jenrya and Kai immediately hissed at him.
"Poor Ryou-sama, it must've been really bad, stuck as a prisoner of a bad Digimon for four years," Kenta said.
"Gee, ya think?" Hirokazu said sarcastically.
"Guys, stop it, we need a plan," Jenrya muttered, placing his head in both hands and narrowing his eyes as he thought hard.
***
There was a moment of silence, suddenly broken when a white light brighter than the torches filled the small stone room. Its source was a strange sort of window in the air, and it was fringed with red and green cubes, appearing and disappearing. They all stared at it in shock.
"What the-?!" Takato yelped.
"Whoa," Terriermon muttered.
"Is that a portal?!" Jenrya said incredulously.
His question was answered when a moment later two forms materialized out of the light-emitting window onto the dusty straw-colored floor of the place, and the portal vanished behind them.
A girl about their age sat in the dirt, her short, messy, slightly spiked chestnut hair kept out of her tanned face by a white bandana that was tied around her head, her bright green eyes blinking, slightly dazed, as she looked around. She wore a plain gray T-shirt and a pair of jeans without any belt. In her right hand she clutched a turquoise D-Ark and in her left a card pocket much like Rika's.
Beside her stood a strange, gray four-legged creature with big turquoise eyes and black wings for ears, as well as ornate silver armor across its chest and a whip-like tail with a deadly curving scythe blade gleaming at the end.
"What the hell?!" was Hirokazu's stunned comment.
The girl jumped when she noticed the five boys and three Digimon staring at her from across the room. She dusted herself off as she got to her feet and quirked a smile.
"Don't mind me, just dropping in."
"Who're you?!" Takato asked, snapping out of his attitude of frozen astonishment.
"Name's Miki, Takeshi Miki," the girl came over to them, the wondrous gray creature accompanying her and watching the boys and Digimon with wary eyes, "And this is Silvemon."
She gestured to the creature beside her. Jenrya had taken out his D-Ark as Terriermon examined the gray creature from head to tail.
"Silvemon, Child level Data type Digimon," he said finally, reading through the information his D-Ark was giving him, "Attacks are Lune Gale and Lightning Scythe."
"That's a Digimon?!" Kenta stared with eyes the size of Ping-Pong balls.
"What, you've never seen one before?" Silvemon retorted with a bite of impatience in her voice, "I'm Miki's partner, and we've come to help."
"We have?" Miki stared at her partner.
"You have?" Takato asked at exactly the same moment.
Silvemon rolled her eyes, "Yes, now would you mind telling us why the Portal of Need brought us here?"
"The Portal of Need?" Kai piped up suddenly, his blue eyes glinting, " 'That's' what you used to get here?"
"Yes," Silvemon replied, "Now, are you boys going to tell us why you need our help?"
"We don't," Hirokazu muttered, ignoring Silvemon's glare.
The Tamers looked at each other, then at Kai.
"You explain," Takato said.
"Could someone tell me 'what the hell is going ON here'?!" Miki said crossly, sitting down beside Hirokazu.
Kai sighed and leaned back against the wall, "I don't know why you're here, Takeshi-san, but we 'do' have a pretty big problem at the moment."
"Call me Miki," the girl said with a smile.
"Okay, then, Miki, y'see, there's this evil Digimon named Shadowmagemon..."
And with that he began to explain the boys' predicament to Miki.
***
~Finally! Finished! Took me quite a while, too. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, the next one won't be out for a while. All right, so review and tell me what you think of the changes to the story and of this chapter. Are all you Ryou fans happier now? I certainly hope so. I also have a question for you readers: What color are Hirokazu's and Kenta's D-Arks? (It's D-Ark, not D-Power, chaps, get used to it) Whew! I'm gonna need a LOT of peanut butter after this one...~