Chapter
Two: Fleeing Light
"Biyomon,
digivolve to… Birdramon!"
"Tentomon,
digivolve to… Kabuterimon!"
Tai glanced up at the
champion-level digimon as they flew overhead and into the battle. "Try to stop them all at once!" he shouted as
he looked back down and whipped his flaming branch at a Woodmon who had
suddenly gained an irresistible interest in the boy.
The firebird rose high above the
clearing as the insect glided close to the ground, driving its feet into the
crowd of Woodmon and kicking them into one confused mass.
"Meteor Wing!" the bird
cried, launching large comets of fires streaming through the air. The balls crashed into the Woodmon and
vaporized several into digital dust.
Yet more poured out from nowhere and soon replaced the fallen warriors.
"Electro Shocker!" the
bug exclaimed, sending a ball of crackling electrical power running across the
ground and leaving a deep crack in the dirt in its wake. The Woodmon exploded once they passed
through its harsh glow.
Gatomon struggled as best she
could to free herself from the gripping vines of the Blossomon who held
her. She clawed at the vines but it did
no damage. She could hardly feel the
air passing through her lungs anymore as it continued to hold her.
It's… it's starting to get… really dark, she noticed.
Suddenly she felt the vines
release her neck. The feline collapsed
to her knees and gasped for air as Izzy and Sora drove a large branch of fire
into the Blossomon's legs, if they could be called that. The Blossomon flailed and screamed as it
stumbled away and tried to tend to its sudden emergency.
Sora ran
over to the cat and knelt down beside her.
"Are you alright?" she asked the digimon.
Gatomon looked up toward
her. "Yeah, thanks a lot for saving
me," she told the girl with a weak, irritated voice. She climbed up to her feet and looked up at Birdramon, who seemed
to be putting up a really good fight and tilting the battle in their favor.
"Birdramon! Digivolve to ultimate and you can burn all
of these weeds to a crisp!"
The girl
realized this and nodded. "Go for it!"
The bird
glanced down at her partner, understanding what she had to do. "I'm on it!"
Sora's digivice vibrated and
sent a blast of power flowing directly into her glowing Crest of Love,
activating the power and streaming its digital particles down to the bird.
"Birdramon,
digivolve to…"
The bird was enveloped in a
blanket of orange flames, transforming the feathers into the outer layer of a
humanoid winged creature with talons.
This large being quickly took the place of its previous state in an
explosion of glorious light and splendor.
"… Garudamon!"
Those watching from below stared
up in either awe or fear at the sight of the digimon. The bird-human pulled back its arms and summoned the power that
it had become familiar with.
"Wing
Blade!"
Just as it was about to send a
wave of fire across the clearing and finally obliterate those attacking them,
all of the Blossomon convened at once and directed themselves toward the
creature.
"Spiral
Flower!"
Garudamon's attack stopped as
the digimon felt several dozen large vines whip up to it and grab its body from
the sky. Sora's face filled with
distress as her ultimate-level partner was overtaken and pulled down closer to
the enemies.
Kabuterimon did not see his own
ambush come. More Blossomon reached up
and grabbed hold of the insectoid, pulling it down with unison force. The bug tried desperately to stay in the
air, flapping its thin wings and clawing up at the sky in hopes to grab onto
something, but all of his efforts were in vain.
Izzy and Sora cried out to their
digimon as they watched them being pulled against their will and whipped
through the clearing. The large bodies
suddenly overpassed the children. They
ducked to the ground as a gust of wind blasted across their backs and their
friends were swung into a large sect of trees, flattening them under their
massive weight. The Blossomon lifted
their vines and swung them across the clearing again, skidding them into the
floor as they moved them.
The red-haired boy raised his
head and saw all that was happening to his companion. "No! Kabuterimon, get out
of there!"
Neither of the digimon could do
anything. The Blossomon then slapped
them into a waiting crowd of Woodmon far on the other side of the clearing,
releasing them as they were passed on.
The wooden fiends wasted no time in overpowering their captured subjects
and quickly swamped over their bodies, pinning them to the ground without any
means of possible escape.
The two human kids stood up and
watched helplessly while the Woodmon tapped the digimon for their power. They flooded over them in a chaotic mass of
"Twig Tap!" and loud moans. Two
bright glows slowly brightened and faded as the crowd descended back to the
ground. With that two small figures
were tossed into the air like rag dolls and away from the Woodmon gathering.
"Tentomon!" Izzy cried as he ran
over to the falling digimon. He caught
him with hardly any ease, nearly dropping with him. He stumbled a bit where he stood and tried to balance out. "Are you okay? What did they do?"
"I don't know exactly, but I
feel like I've been used," the bug replied.
"I've never been so violated!"
Sora caught Biyomon just in
time, holding the collapsed digimon in her arms. "Biyomon, are you hurt?"
"I can't talk right now," she
said in a weak whisper. "I just want to
rest. Tell me if we won when it's all
over."
The girl glanced over at the
boy. "Our digimon are in no condition
to fight now! What do we do?!"
Izzy shook his head, finding
that for one of the first times he could not conceive a good answer. He looked over at Tai, who was still
fighting against the armies. One of the
Blossomon suddenly grabbed the flaming branch out of his hands and tossed it
far to the side, leaving him defenseless.
One of the Woodmon who he had burned charged forward and pushed Tai,
hitting him down to the floor. The
large-haired boy fell on his elbows and was stunned for a second. He tried to crawl away, staring up at the
creatures who stared down at him with contempt.
The pink head digimon had failed
in his own battle. His Bubble Blow attack did nothing against a Blossomon who
he was trying to stop. The flower
digimon punched at the head and sent it bouncing across the ground, putting out
his resistance.
"Lightning Paw!" The feline was hit in the side and
stopped. She collapsed to the dirt in a
vulnerable heap, barely able to move as the pain registered.
Izzy shook
his head. "I don't know what we can
do! We can't fight them!"
His statement was soon to be
proven correct, as all of the Blossomon and Woodmon stopped their activity and
turned in their direction. Their eyes
reflecting the glow of the nearby campfire and their own anger, the armies
began to make one more advance for the final attack.
* * * * *
Puppetmon screamed in playful
delight as he wiggled his fingers, watching the two kids dangle helplessly from
the tree branches from which they were suspended. He made their limbs respond to the commands of his hand and
laughed. "And they said there were no
strings attached to this job. I have to
go and worry about little kids ruining my playtime!"
Kari felt the wires attached to
her body force her to turn to T.K., who was also turned around on her
right. Against her will she pulled her
leg back and kicked T.K. hard in the butt.
"Ow!" the
boy cried. "Kari, what are you doing?!"
"I can't stop it!" Kari
screamed, her foot making contact with his sensitive behind and sending a sharp
stinging sensation throughout his lower body, making him respond in a cry of
pain. "He's making me do this! I can't control myself!"
The marionette giggled. "Come on, kick him harder! Kick him good! Make me laugh even more!"
Kari could do nothing but feel
her body respond to his commands. She
kicked him several more times, desperate to stop the violence she was
inflicting on the poor boy who she knew was probably scared out of his wits at
the moment. She could hear him whimper
and begin to moan to himself as she kicked.
She shook her head, defying the power over her body.
"Stop making
me do this! You're hurting T.K!"
Puppetmon
shook a finger. "Uh-uh. You're
hurting T.K!"
Patamon, who was suspended at
T.K.'s side by the same silver wires as the others had attached to them, shook
as best he could under all of the restraint that he had been placed under. The Dark Master had secured him in the tree
with the two kids, but under precaution had also wrapped the batpig with thick,
red putty-like rubber, the same material which he had used on Matt when he had
separated the two brothers from one another.
Patamon could not use his Boom Bubble attack to set himself or the
others free: his mouth had been covered as well.
T.K. started to weep, begging
for her to bring an end to it. "Please,
Kari, make it stop!" he choked out through messy rivulets of tears.
Kari wanted to yell at the
puppet again to quit with this cruel play when all of a sudden control over her
leg was gone. Her body was turned
around and her back was then facing the small boy.
"Now, it's time for revenge!"
the digimon shouted from below, twisting the wires with a flick of his fingers.
Kari felt her scalp scream like
fire as something grabbed the back of her hair and tugged hard. She realized that it was T.K., being
controlled and forced to tug at her hair.
"Kari, I
can't stop!" T.K. screamed. "I can't
stop doing this!"
"Aaaahhhh!"
she responded with tears of agony.
The Dark Master seemed to enjoy
his small act. He giggled and jumped at
the sight of violence being inflicted on such pure, innocent youths,
particularly ones who seemed to exhibit a faint caring for one another. He knew the girl was concerned about the boy
and his previous lapse of silent emotions.
And as for the blond-haired adolescent… he could only assume that he
liked the girl's company. Hence why he
felt to make them both suffer together was the best way to go about murdering
troublesome children.
"Stop it!" Kari screamed. "I thought you said you only wanted to play
with me! Leave T.K. alone!"
Puppetmon stopped the action,
letting their frail bodies go limp in the air.
"Are you kidding? I was just
warming up! All I want to do is have a
little fun!"
"But you said you wanted to play
with me!" Kari insisted. "If you want
to play with us you can leave T.K. out of it."
T.K. looked at her, shocked by
her insane suggestion. "No! I don't want you to get hurt. He's rotten, you know that!"
"Blame it on the tree rot I
caught last month," Puppetmon told the boy.
He kept his eyes on the girl, still interested in what she wanted to
say. "How do I know if you're really
fun? You might be pulling a trick to
save your friend, and I don't like to be tricked, especially when I don't know
you're going to do it."
"Trust me, I'm a lot more fun
than playing Solitare," Kari informed.
"I'll play whatever game you want.
I can prove to you that I know a lot of games. Just give me a chance and I'll show you."
The wooden creature went into a
brief state of contemplation, pondering over what she had just suggested to
him. He knew to be extremely suspicious
of everything in the Digital World, particularly those who were
Digidestined. If he let the girl run
loose, there was a chance that she could escape. Yet he knew he was the most powerful Mega digimon, along with his
colleagues of course. But he knew he
could not miss the opportunity he had to finish off the eighth child while
playing. That's what he lived for,
after all: playtime and destroying innocent little pests.
"Okay," the
digimon decided, "I'll play with you, but not Checkers 'cause I'm bad at them."
Kari knew she had just sealed
her own fate and tried very much to conceal the fact that she knew it, but she
couldn't. She gulped.
"Kari, don't
do it!" her male companion insisted.
"You don't know what you're doing!"
Patamon finally seemed able to
lift his mouth out of the red securing material tight around his small body and
breathed for a fresh lungful of air.
"He's right! He's too powerful! Don't go with that termite-nest job!"
"Hey, I thought I told you to
stay out of this!" Puppetmon exclaimed.
"Puppet Pummel!" He swung
his large hammer and sent several blasts of yellow light from the barrel. They struck the friendly digimon and hurt
him badly. One of the blasts popped the
wire that kept him suspended and he fell hard to the ground, being knocked
unconscious on impact.
T.K. gasped
in horror. "Patamon!"
"You too!" the villain declared
as he pulled his arm back and launched another ball of the red putty that had
been used on Matt. The substance hit
the small boy and quickly cased his lower face, including his mouth, silencing
his cries to a level of low, muffled murmurs that could not be comprehended by
the speaker himself. T.K. was still
able to see and move his head, but because the puppet had not released total
control over the manipulative wires he still could not move his arms or
legs. All he could do was hang there
with the massive weight of his green backpack putting a strain on his
shoulders.
Kari felt the strings on her
body start to loosen a little. Without
warning she realized Puppetmon released her support and she dropped from the
tree, screaming. Luckily, the evil
digimon had her float in the air in a slow descent, then once she was at the
floor was let go completely. She fell
on her front and her palms hit the ground for support. Her pink scarf stuck out between her fingers
and her whistle swung like a pendulum into the dirt, dangling from her neck.
Puppetmon laughed as the girl
slowly climbed up to her feet. "Okay,
here's the name of the game. We play
Tag. You have to keep running
throughout my forest until I catch you.
Once I catch you… then it's lights out for you.
He flipped and turned the handle
of his mallet in his hands, then raised it up at a forty-five degree angle and
glared at the girl with an evil glint in his eyes.
"I suggest
you start running."
The girl looked up at T.K., then
at the Dark Master, knowing that she had no other option to choose from. She started to nudge away from where she
stood, away from Puppetmon's reach, afraid that she would be killed the second
she turned her back. But with a sudden
burst of frightened energy she quickly spun around and dove into the mysterious
darkness of the trees.
Puppetmon smiled and waited a
few seconds until he could no longer see Kari in the light. With that he charged forward, giggling in
his high-pitched voice, and began his pursuit, ready to play the game and hunt
his target down.
* *
* * *
Tai was too nervous to move in fear
that it would provoke those digimon who had now surrounded the group in a
tight, inescapable circle to attack and rip them to microscopic, bloody
shreds. He looked around at all of the
Blossomon and Woodmon who had nudged them into one close spot. Koromon quivered in Tai's gloved hands, his
eyes closed tight and his floppy, stringy ears shaking in coordination with his
body. Sora and Izzy were frozen in
terror right behind him, protecting the injured and weary Tentomon, Gatomon and
Biyomon.
"So does anyone have any great
ideas? Izzy, you're the genius, tell us
what we should do!" Tai shouted, glancing back a little over his shoulder at
the boy.
"Oh, yeah, like I have the
solution to everything," Izzy replied, keeping his eyes on the menacing digimon
ahead of him. "Really, Tai, if you want
someone to help you plan a means of escape you should ask them when the enemy
is not preparing to—"
"Oh, just give it a rest
already!"
"I don't suppose we could
persuade them to let us go over some hot cocoa, huh?" Tentomon asked, hoping
that his glib look upon the situation would at least brighten their final
moments of life.
"Not likely," Biyomon said. "Well, guys, I guess we can say that we
tried our best."
"Stop, you're making me
depressed!" Tentomon complained. He
started to cry to himself.
With that a Woodmon bent low and
began to prepare for a final rush at Tai.
The boy's eyes widened as he saw the digimon suddenly leap out and fly
at him without polite reservation, screaming at the top of its lungs.
Feeling his fight-flight reflex
kick in at the moment, Tai twisted to his right to dodge the oncoming
attack. He dropped to the floor as the
Woodmon flew past where he stood and right around the Digidestined…
… crashing right into a
Blossomon.
The entire clearing froze and
stood silent with shocked awe as the Woodmon sent the Blossomon crashing to the
hard dirt, making it scream in response.
The two skidded across the ground several feet and came to the stop near
some other Blossomon.
"Hey, watch where you're going
you stupid splinter-for-brains!" the fallen Blossomon snapped at the Woodmon.
The brown digimon slowly climbed
up and tried to regain its posture. "It
wasn't my fault! The kid moved out of
the way!"
"Sure, try to give an excuse to
your lousy clumsiness!" a Blossomon who stared down at him exclaimed. "All of you Woodmon are the same! None of you know how to aim correctly! Maybe if you cleaned out that bark in your
head you would know better!"
"Hey, watch it you daisy
wannabes!" a Woodmon from the other side of the crowd yelled in defense of his
kind. "You're the ones who cause
allergy seasons!"
Tai looked back and forth from
the ground where he lay, watching as the digimon shot insults back and forth
across the clearing. Koromon did as
well, moving his eyes from his seat on the boy's chest.
"All of you Woodmon are all the
same!" a Blossomon cried. "You can
never handle that we make bouquets beautiful while all you're good for is
firewood!"
"Speak for yourself you ugly
weeds!" a Woodmon shouted. "If you knew
what you looked liked you wouldn't want to take up space!"
"Uh—Izzy?" Tai began to
ask. "Do you have a clue to why they're
fighting like this?"
"I wish I did!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Like I said," Tentomon told
them, "Woodmon and Blossomon cannot stand being together. They're always a problem at weddings."
"Maybe someone should help them
all to a session of counseling," Sora suggested, only being heard by her own
ears since the loud insult-throwing escalated throughout the clearing with very
little signs of ending at all.
* *
* * *
"Oh Karrrrriiiiii!" Puppetmon
called as he stalked through the dark trees surrounding the path he had
taken. He let his vicious eyes dart
from side to side, trying to cut through the shadows and find the prey he had
let loose for this strategic game of his.
He could feel the presence of a young soul somewhere in the
vicinity. His black heart, or what he
could call whatever he felt inside his wicked little body, told him there was.
He took a step, crushing a twig under
his foot. He played with his hammer,
turning the handle several times, getting it ready for a good swing at his
running target. He listened closely,
hoping to hear her run all of a sudden and make the chase a lot more enjoyable
for him.
"I know you're somewhere around
here, Kari," he said, looking around and raising his mallet. "I can hear your heart beating so fast it's
gonna explode! Here, let me help you
slow it down a bit!"
He received no response, which
he did not appreciate much. He frowned
and looked toward the trees at his right, knowing she was listening to his
every word.
"That's not very nice," the
puppet said loudly. "All I want to do
is destroy you. Is that really so
bad?" He stood silent for a moment,
then pulled his mallet back.
"HELLO!"
He swung his mallet and
completely obliterated a large patch of shrubbery growing around a large tree
in front of him. The thick bark blasted
away from the trunk and exploded in all directions. Kari flew back several feet from where she had been hiding behind
them and fell on her back hard. She
winced at the sharp snap of small stiff branches that broke from her
weight. The dirt scuffed her elbows and
stung the back of her head.
The puppet stepped over the
rubble and looked down at the girl. She
stared up, realizing she had been discovered and caught. She quickly tried to crawl backward using
her feet and hands, her eyes and face locked in an expression of pure fear, her
mind racing at a hundred thoughts a second.
"See? You can't beat me at games!
I always win!" he declared.
He's not going to let me live,
Kari thought. I'm going to die. Puppetmon is
going to kill me now.
Puppetmon chuckled, raising the
hammer. "Next time you should run
faster. TAG!" He whipped down the mallet.
Kari screamed and rolled to the
right just as the hammer struck the dirt, sending a rolling shock wave through
the ground. Cracks shattered the flat
surface and vibrated the trees with relentless force.
The girl, having dodged her doom
by a foot, spun and tried to climb back up.
Her leg slammed into the back of Puppetmon's leg and knocked his lower
appendages out of lock.
The puppet fell forward, caught
by surprise, landing on his stomach.
Kari, unaware of what she had done and too scared to even care, pushed
herself up and took off at thought-racing speed.
Puppetmon lifted his head in
time to see her run through the trees.
"Hey, nobody does that to me and runs away!" he screamed. With a furious cry he pulled his arm back
and shot it forward, releasing screaming threads of silver, cutting across the
air with the same velocity, if not faster.
Kari swung around the trees,
trying to elude his eyes as best she could.
The wires shot past her by a centimeter, missing their opportunity to
seal to her skin. But that did not mean
they missed completely. One wire raced
past her cheek in the blink of an eye.
It slit her skin easily as it passed.
Another wire shot by her leg and cut her shin. Two other threads tore right around her clothes and left clean
razor cuts in their wake.
"AAAHHH!" she screamed in
terrible pain as hot, sticky rivulets of blood caressed her soft cheek, running
down the side of her face. She reached
up and touched it, trying to protect it from further attack. Her leg grew limp from the numbing sensation
that grew from her other wound. She
tried to put her weight on it but the nerves screamed against it.
Puppetmon retracted his wicked
threads and climbed up to his feet. He
nearly lost his balance for half a second but let it pass. With a cackle he took off after her.
"See, Kari?! I will never lose to you!"
Kari spun around and continued
to run. Her leg ached from the
injury. She felt the sharp branches
scrape the sides of her body, attempting to shred the flesh and cloth it ran
against. A twig that jagged out toward
her suddenly snatched the pink scarf she carried in her hand. She stopped for a moment and tried to pull
it free from the branch but could not do much in ripping it away. She let it go and kept going.
The wild digimon laughed. "It's not that easy to get rid of me!"
The girl glanced back over her
shoulder. She saw her pursuer leaping
from left to right, slipping into the shadows and escaping from the line of
sight. She could hear him shoot through
the thick leaves that layered the trees, leaping from one corner to another, so
fast that it became difficult to even know if he was about to pop out at her
from the right or left. All she could
hear was the rapid sweeps that shook the leaves.
Suddenly the evil being appeared
in front of her path, jumping down from the trees ahead of her. Kari stopped and nearly slid, trying to halt
with the heels of her feet. Terror
swept across her face.
"Found ya!" he exclaimed.
Kari had very little time to
react. She spun around and jumped away
just as Puppetmon swung his angry mallet horizontally across the air. The head of the weapon crashed into the bark
of the tree at his side and literally sent splinters flying like large
toothpicks into the dark sky. The
remains were completely obliterated the second they hit the ground.
Feeling her heart pound like a
jackhammer, Kari tried to race as fast as she could, desperately trying to find
another path by going back. Her
breathing came in furious gasps and her leg began to limp from her injury.
"You're not hiding so easily
this time!" the puppet shouted as he reached back with his free hand and lifted
the cross of two wooden planks from his back where it held. "Puppet Pummel!" With one good swing he let the X spin toward
her like a deadly boomerang.
Kari had a good second to look
back and see the oncoming weapon when her leg gave up in the middle of a step
and collapsed. She fell down to the
ground on her stomach, missing the X as it passed by overhead. The thing swept across the trees, drilling
right through them like a buzzing saw on hyper-drive. Within five seconds fifteen trunks had been broken through and
the tall statues swayed and collapsed against one another.
The innocent raised her head in
time to see the path she was planning to take blocked instantly by a mess of
fallen trees, breaking into jagged logs.
She knew that there was very little hope for escape. This digimon knew the ropes. He had battled many others before, and knew
the art of destroying life very well.
If she was to live, she could not do this alone.
"T—Tai!" she stammered as she
tried to climb up, shaking at the pain in her leg. "Tai! I—I need you! Help!
Somebody help me!"
The cross came flying through
the sky back to Puppetmon. He caught it
with ease and slipped it back across his back along with the mallet. He did not like the girl's call of
distress. "No, no, calling for
Digi-losers is not part of the game. I
think it's time-out for your voice." He
raised his hand in her direction.
Just as Kari was about to give
another shout for assistance, the sound was caught in her throat as a strange
sensation passed through it. She
stopped and felt it running like a traveling numbing inside the neck. She reached up and touched it, trying to
feel for an exterior explanation as to why it felt that way. Then she knew that he was doing this to her.
She tried to yell at Puppetmon
to explain what he was doing to her, but to her surprise she could not even
mutter a sound. She stopped and focused
on this peculiar new development. She
tried to speak but her vocal cords were not working. She tried to scream but
even that would not substitute. She
could still breathe, but something had blocked all sounds in her throat.
Kari looked toward Puppetmon
with a panicked, concerned look on her face.
He laughed, lowering his hand.
"There, now you can't call for anyone to save you. It'll wear off, but by then you won't even
be around to speak a word!"
She could not believe what he
was now doing to her. She turned and
sprinted away, back into the trees that had not been taken down by her
adversary. Despite the pain in her leg,
she pushed herself back onto another path through the forest.
Puppetmon frowned. "Come back!
I'm not through with you!" he called as he took off down the dirt path
and followed her escape route.
* *
* * *
"Petal pusher!"
"Lawn rot!"
These and many more offensive
insults were thrown back across the clearing as the Woodmon and Blossomon had
engaged into one massive battle against each other. The scene was like that of a cartoon, where two enemies fought in
a big act of arm-swinging and dust-kicking.
Neither of them wanted to pay attention to the Digidestined children who
watched with confusion and wonder from a safe distance at the edge of the
clearing, protected behind the cover of the trees and the camouflage of the
shadows.
"Wow. They sure know how to hate one another," Tai muttered to himself,
watching a Woodmon being thrown into the campfire that they had started earlier
in the center of the clearing.
"This just goes to show you that
even on the side of evil there's conflict from within," Izzy said in his usual
prodigy-child observance. "I just wish
they didn't have to ruin the night like this."
"Ruin it? Would you rather have them sitting around
the campfire telling ghost stories and playing cards?" Tentomon asked, in his
usual humorous way. "It's better that
they fight one another than fight us."
Sora
watched a Blossomon being rushed at the side by a Woodmon with very jagged splinters
on his head. The Blossomon didn't even
feel himself getting impaled and thrown away like a tissue with one good twist
of the neck. "Still, it's all so bad
that they even have to do this. They
could have talked it out and resolved their problems nicely and—"
"Are
you insane? This is the best fight I've seen since I wrestled my Dad for the
last pork chop!" Tai shouted to her.
"I'm
putting my money on the Woodmon," said Koromon with amusement.
The
feline of the bunch rolled her eyes in the simple sarcastic manner as she tried
to ignore the insane ramblings of her companion's older brother. Humans. Why do I even bother hanging out with them?
she wondered, feeling embarrassed.
It was
then that her sensitive ears picked up the faint calling in the air. She could barely even hear it at all. She turned her head and tried to listen over
the shouting and commotion going on with the insane battle nearby. Yes, she definitely heard something.
"Do
you guys hear that?" she asked.
Sora
and Biyomon turned to her. "What?" the
bird asked.
"I
heard someone calling for help," the cat replied. "It didn't sound like it was that far away. Somebody might be in trouble."
"You're
probably hearing things," Sora suggested.
"I didn't hear anyone. Maybe
you're just tired and imagined it."
Suddenly
a thought crossed Izzy's mind as he glanced at Gatomon, remembering the reason
why she had joined the group so recently.
He looked around where they hid and a worried look started to appear in
his eyes. "Uh—guys, we're missing some
people. What happened to T.K. and
Kari?"
The
sound of her name snapped Tai's attention away from the heated fight. He looked at Izzy.
"What?! Kari!"
* * *
* *
The girl
tried to move as fast and as long as she could, but her petite body could not
take the punishment that she was forcing herself to do. It was not everyday that she prepared to run
for her life from an insane digimon who wanted to hunt her down like some
inferior animal. Her injuries throbbed
and continued to bleed a little. She
moved with a fast limp now, but it still put her at a disadvantage.
I have to hide, she told herself. I have to hide. I can't let him get me or else I die.
Not
that far behind, the puppet jogged with an eager determination, not slowing
down one bit. Every sharp branch that
threatened his pursuit snapped against his body as he passed. He jumped over every rock and loose tree
root that offered to trip him up.
"Don't leave, Kari! The fun's
just starting! The oil in my gears can
keep me running for hours!"
Kari
shot behind a large section of bushes that sat around the base of several
trees. She got down behind their cover
and tried to hope that he did not see what she had just done. She kneeled, her heart beating so hard her
little chest was ready to pop from a ventricle rupture. She wanted to hear her own breathing, to
know that she was still alive and was not living through some afterlife
fantasy. But she could not find any
comfort in that, for she could still breathe and feel the air travel through
her neck, yet she could not hear the sound of it going through her mouth. This disadvantage frightened her greatly.
I don't want this to be happening to me, she told herself, finding it to be the only way she
could communicate to herself. I can't do this without my friends, without
my brother. Tai, where are you?!
Puppetmon
ran across the grounds that she had just covered and came to a slow stop as he
realized that she had disappeared somewhere around there. He glanced across the area, the malicious
glow in his eyes illuminating the evil intentions he had running through his
mind. "Come on out, little
Digi-puke! I know you're hiding around
here. I know you can hear me!" He reached back and pulled out his hammer,
swinging it forward with a sword-swipe gesture. "I promise I won't hurt you.
You won't even be able to feel my mallet pound you into a really big
mess on the floor!"
Kari
kept her body still. She felt the fear
forcing her to shake. She fought it,
twitching in response. The bleeding
from her wounds had slowed, the side of her face becoming hard with drying
blood. If she was to live she had to
avoid getting hurt even further. She
was not going to be able to escape if she was dragging her crippled self
through the forest, vulnerable to the digimon that was after her.
Please don't see me.
Puppetmon
stepped across the shrubbery that she was hiding behind, where she was watching
him under the protection of the darkness and the thick plant life. She held her breath for a long time as he
stopped only a few feet from her, waiting to see if his intuition was correct
and the girl was right there near him.
The
puppet groaned, stepping further across the path. Kari wanted to sigh in relief but found it impossible. She was glad that he was not looking in her
direction.
"This
isn't funny!" the digimon shouted. "I
don't like having to put up with this!
Come out now little Kari so I can destroy you!"
Kari
followed him with her eye as he darted around, spinning in every direction,
trying to allow his internal compass to guide him to his prey. He was growing impatient. The expression on his face now held newfound
annoyance.
"GET
OUT HERE NOW BEFORE I DECIDE TO DESTROY YOU WITHOUT
THE HAMMER!" he roared in rage.
The
girl continued to crouch behind her shield of camouflage and watched him
growing seriously impatient. Having an
idea suddenly come to her mind, she reached down very slowly and picked up a
small rock the size of her thumb off the ground. The pebble trembled in her nervous hand, yet that did not prevent
her from pulling her arm back and flinging that rock far ahead of Puppetmon.
Puppetmon
received an answer to where she was when he heard the pebble crash into the
bushes about twenty feet away. He
twisted his neck fast and looked toward where he had heard the noise come from.
"Ah, ha! Thought you could play a fast
one on me, huh?!" He raced down the
dark path after the illusion the girl had set up. Within seconds he was screaming in battle-cry fashion and fading
into another sector of the forest, leaving her alone for the moment.
Kari
slowly climbed up to her feet, finding it troublesome as her injured leg
wobbling under the pressure. She could
not believe that her little plan had worked.
It would buy her some valuable time to escape for sure, but she could
not doubt that he was going to figure out what happened and come back after
her. Whatever time she had she had to
use it.
She
stepped away from the bushes she had hid behind and stepped out into the
open. She kept her body ready to react
in case Puppetmon had suddenly turned back and was going to pull a surprise
attack on her. She nearly stumbled with
the pain that soared up and down her leg.
I have to find someone. I need to find the other Digidestined so that they can help. I have to help T.K. He's all alone and most likely very afraid.
Just like I am right now.
Knowing
that she had to join with another one of her companions before Puppetmon
returned for her, she ventured further into the forest and disappeared into the
mysterious darkness that she was not sure would lead her. All she could do was hope her sense of
direction would be kind to her tonight…
* * *
* *
The
young boy tried to free himself of the bind that the puppet had placed him
under. He tried as best as he could to
stretch the material that held his body tightly under restraint. Yet he knew that his brother had no luck of
freeing himself when it had happened to him, and if his older brother was not
strong enough to break it what hope did he have of becoming lucky all of a
sudden?
That
still did not force him to cancel all attempts. He still felt that he had to try something. He was left with an unconscious Patamon lying
very quietly on the ground below him.
He had to help his companion. He
could not stand to see his digimon being abused while he had no way of helping
him. If he could free himself, he was
certain he would be able to get his friend to safety.
Hopefully I can go save Kari from Puppetmon, he thought to himself.
He
found it unusual that he had put priority over the newest of the group,
especially since they had not communicated much except for one brief moment
earlier. He knew that he wanted to help
her. She was one of them, a
Digidestined, and being one did not make her an outcast. It made one special, a chosen child among
many others.
And
right now, he felt that Kari was becoming a very special person to him.
He
wiggled from where he hung. He had
never thought that she was important at all, other than being the one who had
helped them save their home and the entire human realm. Now all of a sudden, after having brought
concern over his own personal emotions, he knew that she was one he could not abandon. He had to repay her kindness. He had to find a way to save her.
He
nudged his neck just enough that his mouth was able to escape from the binding
material that held it shut. He took a
good gasp of air through it, trying to refamiliarize himself to it again. He had made some progress now. It was time to get clever.
T.K.
turned his head far back enough to notice he was close to the rough trunk of
the tree he had been hung on. It was
only a few inches to his left.
He
smiled. Yes, he had a possible escape
plan now. All he needed to do was to
move close enough to it to damage the binding putty and cut through. The trunk had sharp sides to put a dent into
his trap. With luck he could get
himself down.
The
boy called up the will to try and move his body as much as he could. The movement he was able to cause started up
a swinging motion as the string that held him up responded to the
activity. Within seconds he was swinging
harder and beginning the first look of a pendulum.
"Okay,
T.K., you can do this," the youth told himself as he focused on the trunk with
his eyes, trying to twist enough so that his plan would work.
He
felt his backpack hit the branch, pressing the putty against it. His return swing caused it to scrape it and
leave impressive scratches in the bind, although T.K. could not even see
them. He still believed even without
looking that he was doing okay.
He
swung again, this time causing a greater crack in the bind. He felt it shudder against him. It was close to breaking, he could
tell. With one more good hit against
the trunk the shell over his body would shatter.
T.K.
swung back again, letting the momentum carry him now and the string that held
him do the work. Suddenly he snapped
his eyes up at the string above him and realized something he did not take into
consideration sooner.
That
one string was holding onto him, and it was a long way down as indicated by the
fallen Patamon.
His
eyes widened with distress. He looked
back just in time to see his crash into the trunk. The collision scratched through the binding putty and severed its
hold on his body. Without much time to
do anything, to grab onto the tree, he dropped through the air, the freefall
causing him to scream along the way down.
He felt the ground meet him without mercy one second. The next second all was silent for him.
He
didn't even have a chance to realize the back of his head had slammed against
the hard dirt.
* * *
* *
"What
do you mean Kari is gone?!" Tai exclaimed at Izzy, noticing that his sister had
disappeared sometime during the start of the fight. He moved closer to the smaller boy, a threatening glare crossing
his eyes. "Why don't you know where she
is?!"
Izzy found himself at a loss,
unable to defend himself against Tai.
He was worried that he would take out his anger on him for even bringing
it up in the first place. "I—uh—I—I,"
he stammered, crouching back from the older boy's frightening impression. He was surely intimidated, unable to provide
a valid explanation for him.
The lack of answering only made
Tai more upset. "What?! Tell me where you saw her go! What happened to my sister!" He reached out and grabbed the cuff of
Izzy's shirt. "Where is she?!"
"Tai, leave Izzy alone!" Sora
snapped, stepping forward and brushing his hands away from Izzy. "He didn't do anything! I told her and T.K. to escape in case they
were hurt in battle."
Tai turned his attention on
her. The fact that she had sent both of
them away shocked him even further. He
didn't understand why she would do a thing like that. He knew it was ten times more dangerous for them to be alone in
the forest than to be near them.
"What?!" he shouted at her. "How could you?!"
"It was the only way we could
make sure she would be safe!" Sora argued.
"If her and T.K. had stayed they were going to get hurt. We couldn't take the risk of that
happening."
"So you let them go off into the
wild just like that?! What's wrong with
you?! Kari and T.K. cannot take care of
themselves alone, especially when there are Dark Masters out there trying to
kill them! How could you do something
as stupid as that?!"
Sora was taken aback by the
outburst he had given. She had grown
used to Tai's usual plethora of idiotic ramblings and careless behavior. Since she had met him she believed that he
was only show, that everything he said was really not what he felt and only for
display. But as she stared into his
angry brown eyes, she felt a dozen daggers shredding her insides. It felt like all the feeling that he had for
their friendship had been thrown out the window, along with his sanity. For the first time in a long time, Sora
actually felt… ashamed.
She didn't even try to stand her
ground. The color in her face flushed
and she regressed into herself. Tai
continued to stare at her with contempt, waiting to see how she was going to
explain herself for what she had done.
"Tai?" Koromon asked, trying to
catch his attention as he stared toward the clearing.
"What?" he barked in response.
"Uh, I think we better leave
this place. The party's over."
Tai turned around and followed
his eyes, wondering what he was trying t o tell him. The anger in his face started to lift as he spotted the one
person he did not want to see approaching the clearing in a full run.
Puppetmon ran into the clearing,
his hammer raised high in the air and ready to use against that which he was
chasing. He stopped and looked around,
caught by surprise by the sudden mutiny in his army. He was nearly hit by a Woodmon that had been tossed in front of
him.
His jaw dropped open. "What?!
How many times do I have to tell you all you are not to fight each other
unless I say you can?!" he demanded.
His voice caught the attention
of those who fought one another. Fear
spread as the Woodmon and Blossomon turned and caught sight of the one who had
sent them to do his dirty work. They
all knew that they had angered the Dark Master, and with the way he looked
heads were about to fall.
Puppetmon moved his eyes across
all of them in the clearing. "All of
you need a good lesson to learn: when you don't listen to instructions you need
to be punished." He turned the hammer
in his hands. "Time to take your
medicine!"
With a loud cry the Dark Master
charged and swung his hammer at many of the digimon. "Puppet Pummel!"
The next moment three Blossomon had vaporized into digital dust and
caused others to fly into an explosion of dirt and fire.
The children gasped at the
sudden attack before them. They watched
with surprise as Puppetmon went berserk on his own forces, eliminating Woodmon
and Blossomon left and right. Tai could
not believe what he was seeing. "He's
going crazy!"
"Puppet Pummel!" A Woodmon disappeared in front of the puppet
and another flew away from the blast.
Several tried to run back into the forest but the Mega digimon moved so
quickly they had no time to escape.
They became personal with his weapon the second it slammed into their
frail digital bodies.
"This is the time when we flee
in terror and hide, right?" Tentomon asked, obviously trying to hide his alarm.
"I would concur with that
theory," Izzy stated. "We need to get
out of here before he sees us. We have
to hide somewhere where he won't find us."
Tai spun around. "No.
First we find Kari and T.K. and then we retreat," he ordered.
"Are you crazy? Puppetmon is going to take us down the
second he turns this way. We have to
escape now," Izzy insisted, growing to be more authoritative in the matter.
Tentomon and Biyomon turned and
started to glide away, leading them into the forest to escape. "This way, hurry!" Biyomon told them as they
left.
Sora and Koromon took off after
them, while Tai stood there, unmoved by their thoughts. He shook his head. "No, we aren't going anywhere until we find Kari!" he exclaimed.
Izzy and Gatomon grabbed the
big-haired kid by the wrists and tried to pull him away. "I'm all for finding your sister, but we
can't do it here!" Izzy told him.
"I want to find Kari just as
much as you do," Gatomon informed Tai, "but even I know when it's time to back
out of a fight. Let's go before I'm
turned into fresh kitty litter."
Tai still put up a resistance,
even as the two escorted them from their hiding spot. He tried to escape their grasps, but all he could do was let them
drag him off kicking and screaming to be let go and calling his sister, his
voice shadowed by the screams and explosions of the digimon who were being
destroyed by their dark leader.
"Kari!"
* *
* * *
The young girl felt her body slowly
starting to give way to exhaustion. She
found it more difficult to breathe than before, her lungs pushing to their
maximum capacity and still calling for more.
Her leg stung harshly, the wound growing worse with every step she
took. She had moved fast and far for
several minutes already, well away from where she had first started. To add to her problems, she did not know in
which direction she had to go.
In other words, she was becoming
very lost.
The remaining strength she had
in herself was already wearing thin.
She had to stop and rest. It was
the only way she was going to keep going.
She defied what her body was telling herself and pushed herself
further. She knew she would not be able
to get very far if she depleted all of the fight in her body, but she ignored
the fact.
Kari felt her foot crash into an
uprooted plant that she stumbled into, catching her foot into the vine. She fell on her knees, cracking her right
knee against a sharp rock. Her mouth
responded in a silent attempt at screaming in agony. The stinging sensation that pierced her nerves was so unbearable.
She
looked down to find her knee bleeding and dirty. She grasped it, pushing her hands down to create pressure. She tried to crawl forward, hoping to
continue on her way, biting her lower lip and pressing her eyelids shut to try
and stand it.
I—have—to—keep moving, she told herself, using her other leg to help her
stand. No stopping now. I—have to find
Tai. I need—to tell them what has
happened… T.K., are you okay? Please
let him still be… alive.
She tried to take a step forward
and her legs automatically buckled, causing her to collapse again. This time she shot out her palms, letting
them take the blunt of the fall. She
gasped for air, truly exhausted. Her
sight was growing faint. Her limbs felt
weak and she doubted they would support her if she tried to continue. Her determination, thought, was still
stubborn and forced her to slowly drag her body across the dirt. She was losing all sense and felt her mind
start to sway.
No… it's starting to get really dark. I can't go to sleep now. I… have to find the others. I need… T.K., please hang in there. I'll… find you.
She could barely support her
head on her neck anymore. It hung low
against her shoulders, nearly kissing the dirt. Everything that she could see under the milky light of the moon
was slipping into shadow. Everything
around her, the ground, the trees, the entire night sky was going black. She, too, began to slip in with them.
She
tried to utter a sound, faintly moving her jaw in vain. The words were at the tip of her lips yet
they could not make themselves come to life.
Her dirt and blood-caked cheeks grew moist as tears steamed down and
left wet streaks in their paths. She
tried to move further one last time, her arm reaching out across the ground in
hope of grabbing something to pull herself by.
That was when the last bit of consciousness escaped her and she fell
flat on the ground, lying still, allowing the shadows to start consuming the
child of Light into its hungry, patient darkness…
