Yesterday When the War Began, Chapter 2:
**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. This fic was produced purely for entertainment purposes, and I promise not to sell it. So there. Don't sue me.
For poor TK, everything seemed to be happening at once.
First, Tai's fateful message had stunned him.
Then, Patamon had hit him in the face, and he had toppled backwards with a cry.
And finally, the explosion had hit.
From where he was at the time, he hadn't really felt much. Being out on the outskirts of Tokyo, all he had heard was a loud "boom", sounding from somewhere outside. A second later, the windows in the shop he was in rattled as a shockwave passed along the ground.
What he did notice was that their computer had instantly exploded. He had been bowled over by Patamon, so he hadn't been hurt, but Matt got blasted in the face with flying plastic shrapnel. He was lucky he wasn't blinded, but it still left angry red slashes across his cheeks.
A few seconds of stunned silence passed. "What the heck was that?" TK gazed up at his brother.
"Don't know squirt." Matt paused for a second, sorting it out. "Though I think I have a good idea. Didn't Tai say that the Diaboromon were invading?"
TK nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, and he also said something about hiding, and meeting somewhere in a week."
"And didn't Tai mention something about cruise missiles…" Matt trailed off. Both brothers locked gazes with one another, their bright blue eyes widening simultaneously. Wordlessly, they scrambled to their feet, and dashed outside of the little shop they were in.
Even from where they were, they could still see the mushroom cloud as it bloomed into the sky. Where towers and skyscrapers had once stood in the center of Tokyo, only flames were left. A huge, shimmering vortex hung in the sky, a literal living stream of black pouring out of it, and onto the city below. All around them, people began to take notice to what had noticed to Tokyo, and were in the process of panicking, some pointing and shouting, some piling into cars and driving towards the devastated city, others driving as fast as they could away from it.
"Come on!! We've got to help!! We've got our digimon, they'll certainly help in the rescue operation." Matt started striding towards the city, carrying Tsunomon in one hand.
"TK, Tsunomon's too weak to digivolve right now. Have Patamon digivolve and…"
"Matt…" The older, lanky boy stopped as he felt his sleeve being pulled. TK stood there, he looked so young, and so innocent, but his blue eyes were bright and clear, wise and discerning. "We're supposed to be hiding, remember? Tai said that Diaboromon would be looking for us. If there's going to be a war, then we're literally earth's last hope. You know it as well as I do. We certainly can't afford to barge in rashly and get killed for nothing." The maturity and the wisdom behind his little brother's words amazed Matt, but he couldn't just stand by and do nothing!
"So what do you suggest? Just let them die? Slaughtered by those Diaboromon?"
"No, Matt, of course not. Let's just do it quietly, rather than flying in with our digimon, let's go some other way," came the tempered reply.
Matt followed TK's gaze to a nearby car. It was old and beat up, but the keys were still in the ignition. Then, he turned back to TK. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked. TK merely nodded.
"Oh what the hell," Matt muttered as he walked up to it and broke the window with his fist, "we're only out to save the world here."
Sora coughed as she heaved the bookcase off her legs. Biyomon lifted hard on the other side, until the bookcase was high enough for Sora to slide her legs out.
"Thanks Biyomon." Sora said as she dusted herself off and took an inventory. She had been lucky. Although the bookcase had fallen on her, she hadn't broken any bones, and could still walk. What haunted her more was the message from Tai she had seen flash across the screen just before her computer, and everything else, had exploded.
"Sora, what's happening?" Biyomon looked up inquiringly at her master.
"I dunno. I think Tai's got a pretty good idea though, judging from that message."
"So what do we do now?"
Sora thought for a moment. Something serious was up, that much was obvious. She didn't know exactly how serious, but judging from the message, and the fact that everything seemed to be falling apart, it was apparently pretty grave. She still had no idea what a Diaboromon was, but apparently it was enough to spook Tai, so it was enough to scare the hell out of her. And what was it that Tai had said? Hide?
"Biyomon, I want you to go out and help my mom. If she's hurt in any way, tend to her, and get her ready to leave at a moment's notice."
Biyomon started flapping towards the door when she noticed that Sora had begun packing some things into a large backpack. "And what are you doing?"
Sora frowned. She had thought that her days as a digidestined was over, that she wouldn't have to fight anymore, but apparently, she had been wrong. "I'm packing. We've got to leave this place. Even though I hate his guts, I trust Tai, and if he says that we've got to hide, then we're going to hide."
(note to those who haven't seen the movie: Sora doesn't really hate Tai, so don't flame me, Taiora fans. They had a fight recently, but they'll get together again. I promise.)
Biyomon nodded once, then flew out the door. Sora ran around her room, stuffing anything that would be useful in the backpack. She would have to travel light, so she only packed a few clothes. The rest of the space was reserved for something more practical. Food, water, first-aid kit, torches, matches, batteries, digivice…everything went into the pack.
Sora heaved the pack onto her back, then lastly, she dug out the old hunting knife that she used on camping trips. It was old, but it was durable and deadly sharp. She hoped fervently that she wouldn't have to use it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She strapped it to her waist, and ran out of the room.
For Joe and Kari, things were even more confused. More so for Joe than Kari. At least Tai had called Kari to tell her about Diaboromon. Joe had gotten no warning at all. One moment he had been slaving over his exam, and the next, half the building had been blown apart, at least 20 exam candidates was lying on the ground dead or dying, and Gomamon had magically appeared.
Kari and Joe reacted similarly. Beckoning their digimon to follow them, they had rushed out of the building they had been in to see what was happening.
What they saw horrified them. Other than the fact that the city had been devastated, there were strange, spider-like digimon flying about through the air, indiscriminately destroying and pillaging, almost as if they were looking for something.
"What the hell's happening? What are those digimon?" Kari screamed over the roar of the panicked crowd trying to escape.
"Don't know! I've never seen them before, but they don't look too friendly if you ask me." Gatomon snapped a reply.
"Not too friendly? Gatomon, they're destroying the city!!"
The crowd was crazed with fear, as digimon smashed buildings into rubble. The falling debris crushed several people, unable to get out of the way fast enough. A telephone pole keeled over, and Kari and Gatomon had to leap out of the way.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Kari yelled at the Diaboromon, appalled by the massacre.
"Digivolve?" Gatomon inquired.
Kari turned to the cat-like digimon and nodded. "Do it."
Gatomon twitched her ears once, then she was suddenly suffused with a white light. Kari's chest suddenly glowed with the crest of light. "Gatomon, digivolve to…"
Her body lost its feline features, becoming taller, leaner, more humanoid. Blond hair and a helmet appeared on her head, and 8 wings sprouted from her back.
"…Angewomon," she finished.
Tai, Koromon, Izzy and Tentomon crawled out from under the desk, covered in dust. Coughing and wheezing, both boys collapsed on the floor, catching their breath.
Izzy recovered first. "What now?" he asked of the panting boy beside him.
Tai glanced at his home. Everything was destroyed, and he couldn't stay here anyway. In fact, he couldn't even stay in Tokyo. Diaboromon would find him, and he just wasn't ready for him, not yet anyway.
"We're leaving Tokyo."
"What? So we're just going to cut and run, just like that?"
Tai was stung by the insult. "No!! We'll be back, but we can't stay here. Diaboromon would find us, and we're not ready yet. There's a time for everything, and now's the time to retreat. I would've thought that you of all people would have figured that out by now."
Izzy and Tai glared at one another for a second, until Izzy was forced to lower his gaze. Tai was right, of course. It was just that it seemed so wrong just to leave like that.
"Fine, we're going, but where to?"
Tai picked himself up, and began packing, much like Sora had. "Tentomon, go outside and help my mom. If she's hurt, help her, but tell her that we have to leave right now. And if you can, get some canned food and water from the kitchen. Move it, we don't have a moment to lose." As he talked, he ran through a list of what he'd need on a trip like this. Tentomon merely dipped his head in affirmation and buzzed out of the room.
"But where are we going?" Izzy insisted, even as he pitched in to begin packing.
Tai didn't turn from his packing. "Just before those missiles hit, as you were extracting our digimon, I sent a message to the others." He didn't have to explain "others", Izzy knew exactly what he meant.
"It's Myotismon all over again, but this time, our enemy's even stronger, and he has at least a million underlings to do his bidding. We can't win if we stay in Tokyo. We have to get together to coordinate, concentrate our strength, plan, and then, and only then, will we be ready to take this world back."
"In the message, I told everyone to meet at "where this all started" in 1 week. No doubt Diaboromon's intercepted the message, but he won't know "where it all started" is. No-one will, except the digidestined." Tai's eyes flashed as he continued to pack. "We're going back to that summer camp where we first got sucked into the digiworld."
Izzy was silent for several seconds. Tai turned his head to make sure that he had heard, and was surprised by what he saw. Izzy's face was hard. It didn't even look like a face anymore, more like a mask. A chilling, emotionless mask.
"You do realize what this means, don't you?" Izzy's voice was quiet, restrained. "This is unlike anything we've ever faced. Our enemy has full control of the Internet. He has his troops stationed in almost every corner of the globe, and he just managed to beat WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon like they were 2 helpless in-training."
The intellectual boy's voice chilled even more as the implications began to sink in. "This won't be something that we can beat in a couple weeks, if at all. Diaboromon won't be like the Dark Masters or Myotismon."
"This could turn out to be a full-scale war, one that could drag on for years."
"Celestial Arrow!!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!!"
The 2 devastating attacks hit home, and deleted at least 5 Diaboromon immediately. The copies weren't as powerful as the original, and while they could probably defeat most champion level digimon, they were simply no match for the 2 ultimates that they now faced.
Their strength lay in their numbers though. Even now, as the fight attracted more and more attention, Diaboromon flew over to join the fight, concentrating their attacks on the 2 beleaguered ultimates.
Desperately, Kari finally managed to seek out Joe. Being smaller, she could maneuver her way through the panicked crowd easier, and Joe, being rather tall, was easy to spot. "What's happening? What's going on?" Kari gasped out as she finally reached Joe's side.
Joe glanced over to see who had asked him, then turned back to the fight. "Don't know! Not the foggiest. I mean, 1 minute I was failing my biology exam, and the next, this!! You know as much as I do, which isn't much."
Kari frowned in concentration. "Tai phoned me an hour ago. Said something was up, and it was urgent. He sounded pretty panicked to me at the time, but I couldn't just leave the birthday party." Then she looked around at the destruction around her. "Perhaps I should have gone."
"Mega Blast", whispered sibilant voices over and over again. Kari and Joe dived behind a pile of rubble as a series of explosions peppered the downtown streets. Streets filled with innocent people…
"Angewomon!!" Kari screamed at the top of her lungs. "We can't fight here! Fly, and take the battle to the air! Too many people are getting hurt!!"
Miraculously, in spite of the explosions, the scream of the panicked people, and the wind whistling in her ears as she twisted about at superhuman speeds, Angewomon heard. With a mighty flap of her 8 wings, she flew off into the sky, bursting from the pack of Digimon like a rocket.
The Diaboromon were well coordinated, if nothing else. They were, after all, copies of each other, and as such, could read and communicate with each other instantaneously. Half of the squad there immediately flew off to chase Angewomon. Zudomon, being unable to fly, continued to do battle on the ground.
The big, sea-going Zudomon was having trouble. He was hampered by his size, and was being forced to fight in a narrow street filled with screaming people, and was somehow not supposed to kill anyone or destroy any buildings. Awkwardly, he swung at the Diaboromon around him, but they flew circles around the big digimon. "Cowards!! Stand still and let me hit you!!" he roared.
One of the Diaboromon, seeing what it thought was an opening, leapt onto Zudomon's back, and wrapped its six legs around the big digimon's arms and legs. Zudomon bellowed, and with a mighty wrench, tore one of his arms free. Reaching behind him, he grabbed one of Diaboromon's flailing limbs, and with a mighty heave, tossed him high into the air.
"Vulcan's Hammer!!"
The Diaboromon literally exploded into black bits of data as the hammer hit him, but already, more Diaboromon were attacking. Even as Zudomon swung his arm back, at least 5 Diaboromon jumped on, and stuck to him like limpets. Flailing awkwardly, Zudomon fell onto his back, as sheer numbers overwhelmed him.
Angewomon was having similar troubles. The angel digimon's fighting style involved more finesse and speed than Zudomon's brute force, and the fact that she was fighting in the air helped delay the inevitable, but eventually the sheer weight of numbers began to tell.
With 8 wings, she was much more maneuverable and faster than any of the Diaboromon there, but whenever she deleted one, another 3 seemed to take its place. "Mega Blast", a group of them launched their attacks simultaneously.
Angewomon twisted and turned, her 8 wings flapping in 8 different directions, and miraculously managed to avoid them all. In her dodging however, she landed in the middle of another group. One of them swung its limb into her face, stunning her. For a moment, Angewomon lost her momentum.
That moment was enough. The digimon followed up with a sweeping, downward blow, and Angewomon was pummeled towards the ground. "Mega Blast", the dark spiders chorused again, and a flaming mass of meteors smashed into her in midair.
The angel digimon hit the top of a high-rise apartment, and smashed a path all the way down to the bottom. "Angewomon!!" Kari screamed as she sprinted across the broken ground as fast as she could, desperate to get to her digimon's side.
"No! Kari, it's too dangerous!!" Joe yelled after her. Then he swore under his breath as he took off after her. Kari was apparently beyond listening. Scrambling madly over rubble hills, and skirting around craters and other debris, Kari reached Angewomon's side. The angel digimon had obviously been badly hurt, and she groaned as she shifted herself in the wreckage. Zudomon was no better off, as he desperately wrestled with half a dozen Diaboromon on the ground, rolling around as he sought to throw them off.
Joe finally managed to reach Kari, and he had to hold her back to stop her from dashing headlong into the fray. "No, Kari, Kari listen to me!! It's too dangerous! You'll just get killed. Listen to me!!"
Kari struggled furiously against his grip as Joe pulled her back, tears streaming down her face. "Angewomon, come on! Get up! You can do it…"
The taller, lanky boy looked up, and he saw the Diaboromon Angewomon had fought swooping down on them, coming in for the kill. "No…" Joe trailed off. Then "Kari! GET DOWN!!!" Grabbing the petite, brown-haired girl, he threw himself to the ground and covered her head with his arm, trying to shield her body with his own. "Mega Blast", the Diaboromon attacked again.
Again, a line of explosions bloomed all around them as the flaming meteors hit the ground. Joe and Kari were thrown back at least 15 feet as the shockwave hit them. Joe landed hard on his side and he gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. Then he twisted his head and looked at what had happened to Angewomon.
The combined attack had been too much for her. Already weakened, and then hit by dozens of shots in less than a second, she had devolved back to Gatomon, and now slumped weakly in the wreckage, unconscious. Whirling around, he saw Zudomon go down, arms flailing, and then a faint glow, as the ultimate devolved back into Gomamon. They were helpless.
Joe held Kari, who had been knocked out, protectively to his chest, and scanned the situation, wide-eyed. There was no way out, surrounded as they were by black spiders. What would Tai do? How would he get out of this mess? How did this mess start anyway? The Diaboromon opened their mouths. "Mega…"
"Gate of Destiny"
A blinding river of light, tremendously powerful, blasted through the legions of Diaboromon left, annihilating almost half of them immediately. Joe looked up to see a glowing shape, with 8 wings, just like Angewomon had, which meant TK was…
An old beat-up car, sporting a couple of brand-new dents and scrapes, pulled up and screeched to a halt beside them. The passenger door opened, and Joe saw Matt at the wheel, with an insane grin on his face. The back window scrolled down, and TK's head popped out. Never in his life had Joe seen a more welcome sight. "Hiya Joe, need a lift…" TK's grin suddenly disappeared as his blue-eyes widened with shock. Joe heard an audible gasp as the younger boy sucked in a sharp breath. He looked down.
Kari hadn't been just knocked unconscious. A random, flying piece of shrapnel from the last attack had hit her, and had embedded itself in her lower left stomach. Even as Joe watched, blood poured from the wound, soaking her shirt, and dripping onto his own hands. Joe suddenly felt dizzy. So much blood…
Then he shook his head and pulled himself together. With a tremendous mental effort, he pushed all his thoughts of fear and doubt into the far back of his mind, and he forced himself to remain clinically calm, detached.
"Come on, help me get her into the car," the older, blue-haired boy said, and TK hopped out to help. Once Matt saw Kari, his eyes widened. "Oh my God, what happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Matt shook his head. "No time, we've got to get out of here. I'll tell you when we have a moment to breathe, but right now…" Matt's gaze sharpened. "TK, run and go get Gatomon. Joe, you'd better go get Gomamon. We're leaving."
"But…but…you're just going to retreat? We can't run from an enemy like this!" Joe stammered back, even as TK took off to get Gatomon.
"We don't have time for this!! Trust me, I know what I'm doing, and if we stay, we're going to die. We'll just have to come back later, more prepared, and stronger."
Joe locked gazes with Matt for a moment, then nodded. He trusted the blond-haired boy, and if he thought they should retreat, then he was inclined to trust his judgement. Running off, he scooped up Gomamon, and ran back towards the car. At the last moment, he looked up, to see how MagnaAngemon was doing.
The angel was wreaking havoc amongst the Diaboromon. MagnaAngemon was an Angel type digimon, which meant that although it took a lot of energy to digivolve, his evolved forms were much more powerful than anything else. Even though he was only an ultimate, his power was comparable to that of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. Added to the fact that the Diaboromon had been caught completely flat-footed by the attack, MagnaAngemon was making quick work of what was left.
Dark spiders desperately dived at him, attempting to strike the holy warrior down in midair, but anything that came close got sliced apart by his sword. Swirling and twisting, Diaboromon fell before him like corn before a reaper. All that could be seen of the angel was a tornado of slashing swords and flashing wings, unstoppable.
One Diaboromon foolishly struck out with one of its limbs, attempting to do what it had done with Angewomon. MagnaAngemon merely ducked under the blow, and ran the spider through. Then, even before it had dissolved into data, he wrenched his sword free and slashed another three with blinding speed. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, whirling off to the next group even before they had dissolved.
TK buried his face in his hands, attempting to shut out the awful sounds of carnage from his senses. He was choked with tears. The gentle, innocent young boy had thought he had left this behind, that this wouldn't have to happen anymore, that there would be no more death and destruction.
He had apparently been wrong.
The rout continued for a while, until MagnaAngemon tired of it all. Bursting free from what was left, he flew off to gain himself some space, and then drew a glowing circle with the tip of his sword. "Gate of Destiny…"
The golden, shimmering gate appeared at his command, and the doors opened. Immediately, Diaboromon were sucked in, helpless to avoid the pull. Even as they fell screeching into the blinding light, the golden doors closed on them; the entire gate rotated, and then shrank into nothingness.
There was a moment of silence as the angel devolved back to Patamon. The little orange digimon flew into TK's waiting arms. Matt looked questioningly at TK to see if he was all right. The youngest boy didn't return the look, gazing morosely down at his feet. Joe, tending to Kari's wound with a piece of his shirt, noticed, and gazed curiously at TK, then nodded at Matt. "You said we had to go. Fine, let's go. We're ready". Kari groaned, and Joe looked down worriedly. "Besides, Kari needs medical attention." The lanky boy looked up again, "Soon."
Matt nodded and turned back to the wheel.
** Author's note: Again, please REVIEW!! Also, don't flame me because I got certain parts or quotes of the movie wrong. I'm sorry OK! I don't memorize movies line by line. I've tried to keep it as accurate as possible, but if I didn't, well, I apologize in advance.