Me: I don't own Digimon as usual. I usually don't dedicate every single chapter to fellow authors-or that many stories-but thanks to Lilac Kamiya-who this chapter is dedicated to-I've got another idea for this to really shake things up!
Sora: (gulps) What are you going to do?
Me: (laughs evilly) If I told you now, then they'd know.
Tai: You'd better not plan anything to hurt Sora!
Me: I'm not the one who's going to have to battle against evil Digimon in a moment.
Digimon
The WarGame of the 21st Century
Chap. VIII-A Love/Hate Relationship
Tai and the other DigiDestined couldn't believe what they were seeing-five Diaboromon were destroying their beloved town, as well as the Dark Masters, Kimeramon and MaloMyotismon! Sora shivered and hugged him tightly.
"Tai, what are we going to do? There's no way we can battle that many Digimon!"
"Hold on, guys! Those Digimon aren't even there-at least, not all of them." Imperialdramon advised.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"All that's there is some demolished buildings from earlier-and the Dark Masters and MaloMyotismon, but that's all."
This confused the DigiDestined even more than when they thought they'd seen the Digimon tearing up their home.
"So what your saying Imperialdramon, is that those Diaboromon and Kimeramon are nothing but images and somebody's using those images against us." Izzy noted calmly.
"That's right."
"Giga Cannon!!!"
WHAM! Imperialdramon was hit hard and sent spiraling down toward the ground. The DigiDestined cried out as they were tossed around like bananas in a crate. Sora managed to grab hold of Tai and keep a firm grip, as did Yolei with Davis, Kari with T.K. and Mimi with Matt.
"Hold on! We're going down!" Imperialdramon warned.
Within seconds, they'd hit the ground hard! The team managed to get out before Imperialdramon deDigivolved into Veemon and Wormmon.
"Why'd that attack sound familiar?" Matt asked irritably as he and the others rose to their feet.
"Look up and you'll see why!" Joe responded. They all looked up to see Machinedramon, cannons poised and ready for action.
Tai's eyes narrowed to slits as Koromon hopped out of his arms.
"Koromon Digivolve to…AGUMON!!! Agumon Warp-Digivolve to…WARGREYMON!!!"
The Dragon Digimon flew up in the air with his "dramon destroyers" ready to slice 'n dice Machinedramon once again! Seconds later, Machinedramon had raised his arm up at the same time as WarGreymon attacked. Tai winced as he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal once again! A moment passed, then WarGreymon deDigivolved back to Agumon, with a nasty cut on his cheek.
"Without your Mega Digimon, you DigiDestined are mine!" laughed Machinedramon evilly.
"Not likely! Yokomon Digivolve to…BIYOMON!!! Biyomon Warp-Digivolve to…PHOENIXMON!!!"
Within seconds, Phoenixmon flew up high in the skies and aimed her attack toward Machinedramon.
"Crimson Flame!!" The fire-shaped Crest of Love hit the Mega Digimon and finished what WarGreymon started. Seconds later, Phoenixmon deDigivolved back to Biyomon.
"That was great, you guys!" Sora cried out as Biyomon and Agumon ran back to their partners and hugged them.
"Agumon, are you okay?" Tai asked as he observed his friend's cut on his cheek.
"I've had worse."
"So, out of all the Digimon that were out there, only the four Dark Masters and MaloMyotismon are real. The question is, why would Piedmon appear again, especially after PhoenixGreymon kicked his butt? And how did they come back?" Davis asked. He sweatdropped as everyone eyed him with eyes wide open.
"Davis…that was actually an insightful question. I think me being your girlfriend's starting to rub off on you!" Yolei said as she pulled him into another enthusiastic hug.
"Don't expect me to say 'Perfecto!'" Davis joked sarcastically.
"How'd all those Digimon appear here in the first place?" Kari asked, changing the subject.
"It's possible that we accidentally left the computer on and another Digimon made it out, then recreated these Digimon out of data-most of them; the rest could've been brought back by use of the Box of Darkness." Izzy explained.
"There's no time to figure out who left the computer on and no time for blame. We've gotta take down the Dark Masters again, as well as MaloMyotismon and whoever that Digimon was that came out of the computer!" Tai demanded heatedly.
"We need a plan of sorts before we go charging in Tai." Matt advised. Tai silenced him with a glare.
"I thought our little tiff was over and through years ago! We take them down one at a time and conserve energy between days."
The Dark Masters-those three who remained-and MaloMyotismon gathered around a certain Android Digimon-the same Digimon who'd brought them back and created the images of the other Diaboromon.
"We observed the DigiDestined from a distance. The Digimon of Courage and Love Warp-Digivolved and handled Machinedramon like he was tin foil." MetalSeadramon hissed angrily.
"There's no way I'm goin' up against that Phoenixmon! She'll turn me into kindling!"
Puppetmon yelled out.
"And you won't have to. Once I'm through with those two DigiDestined, they'll have destroyed each other along with their own Digimon-and I shall have my revenge against them! Puppetmon, since you're the smallest one out of all of us next to me, take this and make sure it hits this DigiDestined. Let the toxin do the rest. Once evil has taken over the mind of that one, the leader won't have the Courage to handle the situation."
The team had divided themselves into two smaller teams instead of one big one-Tai, Sora, Davis, Yolei, Ken and Kari and T.K., Cody, Matt, Mimi, Izzy, Joe and Michael-their trump card DigiDestined. Izzy explained everything out before they all departed:
"Here's how it works out-Tai's team handles Piedmon, MaloMyotismon and that mysterious Digimon; our team takes on Puppetmon and MetalSeadramon. We should hold back on WarGreymon, Phoenixmon, MetalGarurumon, our MetalSeadramon and Imperialdramon unless it's absolutely necessary! They'll be expecting us to make some sort of attack, so we should all use our heads and not go rushing into battle. Remember-'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' Tai, Davis, this includes the two of you." Tai and Davis both glared at Izzy for that remark.
As Tai's team creeped quietly through the alleyway of Odaiba, Puppetmon appeared from a distance behind them, holding a dart in his hand.
"This'll be fun! One strike and things fall apart for the whole team. They'll hate each other again and it's all because of the Digimon who brought me back!"
Tai and Sora dropped back a few feet to have some "alone time" as Kari put it.
"Tai, are you sure we can beat these evil Digimon again? They were hard enough to defeat the first time, and we were separated for a time while we took care of some of the Dark Masters." Sora said, her face lined with fear. Tai pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her neck.
"We had no idea how those battles would turn out, didn't we? And things turned out all right, didn't they? Everything's going to turn out okay here, too. Trust me-I would die if you wanted me to, Sora. I love you." Tears grazed Sora's eyes before spilling down her cheeks.
"Oh, Tai…ow!" Sora winced as she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Tai immediately felt around for any needles or pins, but the thing had already slipped down to the ground.
"You okay?" Tai asked worriedly.
There was a strange glint in her eyes as she replied, "Never been better."
"HA! Perfect shot! Now, alls I gotta do is wait for the toxin to take effect and a storm will be brewing up within the team! They'll remember not to mess with Puppetmon or the Dark Masters!"
Night fell within the skies of Odaiba. The teams had found no trace of the Dark Masters, so they called it a day and went home. Sora hadn't been feeling well since that dart-she was assuming it was a needle-struck her in the neck. She asked her mother if she could spend the night at Tai's house, to which she readily agreed. Things hadn't gotten any better for Sora at Tai's place. She was sweating and tired, but so was Biyomon for some reason-and she'd had a big lunch along with Agumon and Gatomon! There was no reason for her to be as tired as Sora! Tai felt her head and pulled back his hand in surprise-it was burning up!
"Sora, maybe you should get some sleep until tomorrow. Take my bed-I'll sleep on the couch." Tai advised. At first, Sora didn't want to, but after a few protests, Sora realized that her knees were giving out on her-and it wasn't because of Tai's kisses. So she reluctantly agreed.
An hour or so later, Tai was sleeping soundly on the couch when he heard a scream coming from his room.
"TAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIII!!!!" Instantly, he bolted up, raced into his room and held the sobbing Sora close.
"Shh, it's okay now, Sora. What happened? Bad dream?"
The look on her face told Tai that it was ten times as worse as any normal bad dream!
"It was horrible! I saw you, and Piedmon was seriously injuring you! WarGreymon couldn't help because he was too weak to battle, and none of the others were able to help out because MetalSeadramon was holding them captive. Then, I saw you being stabbed through the chest with a sword…But that wasn't the worse part!"
Tai's eyes widened in amazement. "That's not the worse part? What could be worse than me being stabbed through the chest?"
"The worse part is: When the sword glinted off the rising sun…I saw my face there, Tai! I killed you!" Sora started crying again, and that woke up the Digimon.
"Sora, are you okay?" Biyomon asked.
"I'm fine now, Biyomon. Go back to sleep."
"What happened, Tai?" Agumon asked. Biyomon came back in and yanked him right out.
"Ow! That hurts! I'm just trying to find out what happened to Sora."
Tai and Sora chuckled a bit as they saw their Digimon acting pretty much like they would on normal occasions.
"You sure you'll be alright?" Tai asked. Sora took up a defensive position.
"I'm fine! Quit treating me like a kid, Tai!" Sora gasped as Tai flinched back sadly.
"Sorry, Sora. I guess you want to be alone, huh?"
"Tai, wait. I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me…please stay with me. I don't think I can trust myself." Sora pleaded. Tai nodded as he laid down on the floor near Sora, worried even more than he was a few minutes ago.
Morning. According to Kari, Sora had looked better, but she was still feeling a bit woozy from the event that occurred last night. The team reconvened at Izzy's place a little after breakfast, not knowing of the tragedy that would befall them later on.
"Okay, guys. We've checked out the east and south sides of town and found nothing. Now we should try the west and north sides this time. Any ideas on how we should approach this?" Sora's eyes had taken on a look of maliciousness.
"Yeah-we take them down for good and not worry about some cockamamie plan!"
Everyone eyed her with a worried look.
"You okay, Sora?" Matt asked. Sora then turned her fury on Matt.
"Yes, I'm alright! Why is everyone asking me that?"
"Whoa, chill out! I was just concerned, that's all." Sora's eyes hadn't lost their maliciousness. They had turned redder than usual, though.
"If I want concern, I'll turn to my boyfriend, who never had the guts to tell me how he felt before all this." Tai grimaced as he felt his anger increase.
"You didn't do anything before this either! And you went on to Matt before I could tell you how I feel-"
"DON'T YOU BLAME THIS ON ME, TAI!" Sora shrieked angrily as she turned and hit Tai with the palm of her hand, leaving a very seeable bruise. Tai's head snapped back and he didn't do anything but just sit there, refusing to show his tears. Sora's eyes widened in sadness and guilt as she looked at her hand, like it wasn't hers. Tears trickled down Sora's face as she realized what she'd done. Kari went over to her brother's side and glared angrily at Sora. A flash of anger crossed over Sora's face, but passed as she took a tentative step toward Tai.
"Tai…I…"
"Don't." Tai got to his feet and slowly headed to the door.
"Tai, please…I didn't mean to hurt you…I don't know what's happening to me…"
Tai shivered with pain and betrayal as he turned to Sora, who, despite the glare she found herself giving Tai, shuddered at the glare Tai gave right back at her!
"Call me when your attitude has changed back into the Sora that I know and love!" Tai finally allowed the tears to burst as he grabbed Agumon and ran off.
"TAI, WAIT!" Sora pleaded as she ran after him with Biyomon flying behind her. The others waited a moment or two, then got up and headed out the door.
"Tai, please talk to me! I can explain what's going on if you'll just listen to what I have to say!" Sora begged as Tai finally came to a stop.
"Fine. For the sake of our relationship, I'll listen. Give me one good reason why we shouldn't break up right now!" Tai demanded sadly. Sora looked at him with her tears flowing freely down her face.
"Tai…I think I'm turning evil."