Puppetmon's Playtime
Scene: On a beach of the Digi-world, the Digi-Destined have just witnessed the defeat of Metalseadramon, and the subsequent disappearance of the ocean as it recompiles. The Digi-Destined are now going to meet the next Dark Master, but there are a few problems to be dealt with first...
"Benjamon, you've been laughing for the last five minutes straight!" Joe complained, finally able to overcome his blush. "It's over, all right?"
Benjamon clamped his lips together, still forming an amused smirk. His cheeks were still damp with tears of mirth running out from his golden reptilian eyes. He looked at Joe again, then turned toward the forest, shoulders shaking as he tried to keep himself from chortling out loud. "I'm sorry!" he gasped after a few seconds of holding his breath, "But if you saw the look on your face..." his grin was so wide that a watermelon could've gone in sideways.
Joe glowered at Benjamon, then looked at the others, who had gotten over the shock of seeing Joe and Mimi kissing much more quickly than the odd rookie Digimon who had decided to join them. "Hey, where is Mimi now?" Joe asked, not seeing the pink dress or broad rimmed sun hat that characterized the flighty girl.
A dull thud followed by snorts and squeaks of suppressed guffaws told Joe that Benjamon had fallen over and was laughing again. He decided that this behavior would continue for the rest of the day, and he sighed. Whirling around to tell the amused Digimon to shut up, Joe saw Mimi kneeling in the sand, Palmon standing next to her. Mimi was scooping sand into piles with her gloved hands, the four hemispheres surprisingly uniform. The cactus-like Palmon held four brown crosses made of lashed sticks, and passed one to Mimi as each pile was completed.
"Okay, let's go!" Tai called, carrying Koromon towards the forest abutting the beach.
"No!" Mimi cried in response, her large eyes starting to tear as she set a cross into a pile of sand.
"What?"
Mimi sniffed, placing the last cross just as Sora closed the distance between them and placed her hand on Mimi's quivering shoulder. "What are you doing, Mimi?" Sora asked softly, crouching down beside her friend.
"These are memorials to our Digimon friends that have died..." Mimi answered in a quavering voice, as she began to point to the piles. "That one's for Wizardmon... Chuumon... Piximon... And Whamon..."
Tai stood for a moment, then said, "Well, let's get going..."
Mimi's eyes began to flow, and Joe immediately went to her side, holding and stroking her arm gently.
"TAI! Don't you have any feelings at all!?" Matt yelled, striding over until he was almost literally in Tai's face.
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked, taking a step back.
"Did you ever think that some of us don't want to fight all the time? That some of us need a break? And what about honoring our friends, who died so we could win?" Matt pressed his verbal assault, advancing on Tai, and poking his gloved finger into Tai's blue shirt with each sentence.
"But we have to defeat the Dark Masters and save the worlds!" Tai retaliated, shifting Koromon to one arm and shoving Matt back.
"What's with you? Do you have ice in your veins?"
"If I might add something to your interesting conversation..." Benjamon began, all traces of mirth gone from his face.
"NO! SHUT UP!" Tai and Matt yelled as one, going back into their intense bickering.
Izzy gulped and took a step back from Benjamon as the rebuked Digimon's eyes narrowed to fierce slits.
"Matt! Please stop!" TK implored.
"TK, stay out of this!" Matt responded harshly, "Tai has to understand that we aren't all like him!"
TK's eyes began to fill with tears...
"CHAIN BLASTER!" Benjamon roared, firing two balls of starlight, one from each hand.
"You...wha?" Tai's voice faltered as he saw two bright lights shoot past Matt's ears with a clearance of less than a centimeter. Matt stopped mid shout as he saw the same orbs spread apart to miss Tia's hair by the smallest of distances.
Everyone turned to look at Benjamon, who walked slowly towards the two arguing Digi-Destined. "Now listen." He snarled. "I've come along because I want to protect the Digi-Destined. And I'm not about to let you two endanger everyone because of an ethics versus necessity argument!" The six-foot tall Benjamon came into arm's length of Tai and Matt as he continued to berate them. "Did you ever think that you both could be right?" he growled, glaring at them from behind his glasses.
"What? No..." Matt began, cowed by the sudden change in attitude.
"Again, listen up! Tai here thinks that the best way to win is to keep moving, and fight hard until either success or failure results. He wants to save the Digital and Analog worlds before anything bad can happen. For him, the best way to honor the fallen is to make sure their sacrifices were not in vain." Benjamon looked at Tai, who nodded mutely.
"But..." Matt tried to object, but another icy glance from Benjamon quieted him down.
"You, on the other hand, think that the needs of the group come first, and so you want to slow down or even stop from time to time, so the group can be preserved. Furthermore, you feel the best way to honor the Digimon who sacrificed themselves to save you is to stop and remember them as best you can. That's an admirable sentiment, but by arguing and bickering to the point where you start to break up the team, you're a hypocrite!"
Matt opened, then closed his mouth as he realized what he had been doing. Being yelled at by a supposedly 'friendly' Digimon was disconcerting, to say the least. A Digimon understanding human emotions and even possessing the complex algorithms for such neurotic behaviors as mood swings, grudges, and communicated rage was completely new to Matt; he couldn't help but think of Benjamon as a human being for the duration of the tirade.
Sora and Kari watched the chewing-out process from beside the memorials.
"Remind me never to get on his bad side." Sora murmured.
"Right, if you'll do the same for me..." Kari replied.
Gatomon and Biyomon nodded, eyes wide as the two strongest Digi-Destined were taken down several pegs by a vocal rookie.
"If you two would just get your minds out of their respective ruts and look around, you could see that you both have valid views, and that a compromise would get you both a lot farther than this cat fight!" Benjamon glared at them for a few moments more, before his eyes softened. "Now then, who's hungry?" he asked, watching in satisfaction as jaws dropped.
"What?" Tai blinked, trying to shift mental gears to follow what Benjamon had said.
"You heard me." Benjamon said, walking over to his backpack. "I think ka-bobs are a good idea. I will, however, need wood for a fire. Anyone care to help?"
"I will!" Tentomon volunteered, buzzing off to the forest, dipping down to the ground to snatch up kindling wood in a flight path that made him look like a demented red bee.
"I'll get some bigger stuff!" Palmon said, turning towards a large cache of driftwood. "POISON IVY!" she cried, purple tendrils arcing out and wrapping tightly about a substantial piece. Grunting and straining, Palmon drug the log over.
"That's great, Palmon." Benjamon said with a grin. "But it's a bit large to burn, isn't it?"
Palmon blinked her large, fluid green eyes, and giggled. "Sorry."
"Lemme through!" Gatomon said as she ran up, "I'm a hungry kitty, and I'll make short work of that scratching post! LIGHTNING CLAW!" Gatomon smashed her paw through the driftwood, splitting the sturdy trunk in half.
TK ran over to Matt and hugged his leg firmly. "Are you okay now?" he asked, plaintively.
"LIGHTNING CLAW!" Gatomon yelled again, leaping into the air and somersaulting. She came down forepaws first, each paw neatly severing the sections of driftwood in half again. "How's that?" she asked, looking up with large blue eyes.
"Perfect, Gatomon!" Benjamon complimented the small champion, and was rewarded with a brief smile.
Matt stopped staring at the bustle around Benjamon and looked down at his little brother. "Yes, I'm fine, TK. Just a bit surprised."
Gomamon bounded across the beach as he brought stones to make a firebreak. Tentomon had returned with four clawfuls of small sticks, which he deposited neatly on the ground.
"Excellent!" Benjamon said, all traces of his antagonism just minutes before gone. He opened his pack, and took out a large metal plate, several small vials of unknown contents, a medium sized cooler, and some napkins. He then picked out all of the forked sticks from Tentomon's pile, and placed them to the right and left of Gomamon's ring of stones, before setting up the wood for the fire.
Tai turned to Matt. "Matt," he began, "I'm sorry."
"That's all right." Matt replied. "I'm sorry, too." But deep within, Matt still felt that a compromise was not the way to go about beating the Dark Masters... And there was something else, something he couldn't quite place... A feeling of discomfort that grew whenever he looked at his friends.
"Gabumon, could you come here, please?" Benjamon asked, looking at the dog-like Digimon. "I need the fire lit."
After the meal, the Digi-Destined decided that they should get moving; and so, they went into the forest, into the darker regions of the Digi-world.
"Where did you learn to cook like that?" Kari asked softly.
Benjamon scratched his head, messing up his short brown hair. "I'm not sure. I've just always known. I never watched or read anything on cooking, I just do what feels, smells, looks, and tastes right."
"What, a Digimon with cooking instincts?" Izzy asked, incredulous, "You had to have been programmed that way. The way you've been acting is more human than any other Digimon we've met. It is almost like you weren't created in the Digi-world."
Benjamon kept silent, letting the genius speak.
"And I've also been speculating about your crests and Digivice. Why do you have three crests? One is sufficient for our Digimon, so who would go through the bother of creating two more for a single Digimon? That seems highly inefficient. More like an elaborate human creation than the simplistic, efficiency driven creation of a computer."
The forest grew thicker as they walked on, Benjamon dropping back to take the rear, scanning the undergrowth for any signs of movement. "Empty." He murmured, not seeing or hearing any 'wild' Digimon around him.
Patamon's ears twitched, and the flying uberhampster took to the air. Sailing upwards, Patamon scoured the canopy with his deep blue eyes before gliding back to TK. "I'll say!" he chirped.
TK looked up. "What was that, Patamon?" he asked, having not heard the first part of the conversation.
Patamon blinked... "Benjamon said the forest seemed empty," he paraphrased, "So I decided that I should go see if there is anything out in the tree tops... There isn't a single Digimon that I could see."
Benjamon sighed. "Well, I guess we are going to be stuck walking." He pulled out his Digivice and checked his reflection in the polished silver surface. The Digivice looked a bit worn, which struck him as being quite odd. The was no further time to think about it, as the ground suddenly jerked and began to move, knocking all but the sure-footed Gatomon to their feet.
"What's happening?" Kari asked, watching the forest slide by as she stood still.
"My guess is that it's some sort of conveyor belt," Izzy said, picking himself up.
"If that's the case, may I recommend we get off NOW?" Joe asked, picking up Gomamon and running for the stationary ground next to the belt.
"Good idea!" Tai shouted, running over with Koromon in his arms.
The Digi-Destined fled the moving forest belt, except for Benjamon, who had turned around and was jogging lightly against the belt, remaining in the same position.
"Just like the airport, only with cleaner air," Benjamon grinned as he easily paced the rolling belt.
And at Puppetmon's mansion...
"Eh? What's that guy doing?" Puppetmon wondered, jabbing at a button on his remote control. The forest floor began to roll faster... The striding figure maintained its position on his screen, not moving backward one jot. "What?" Puppetmon stood up, scratching one leg irritably as he stabbed at the remote again. The belt moved faster yet, but the lone figure on the screen refused to budge.
"Master," Kiwimon began in his airily condescending voice, "Might I suggest you concentrate on the other children?"
"No!" Puppetmon screeched, tapping the belt up to full speed, "I want to take care of this one first! He's not playing fair!"
Benjamon ran, arms pumping, legs pounding the ground as he matched the rolling belt millimeter for millimeter. Dancing left and right, he avoided the rocks, trees and holes that appeared on the ground scrolling by him.
"Show off." Matt grumbled.
"Hey, Benjamon! Come on!" Sora yelled.
"What?" Benjamon turned his head to reply...
THOCK!
"Ha! Got him!" Puppetmon gloated, "Now, for the others!" He scanned the remote cameras, and found the Digi-Destined. "Can't hide from meee!" he sang, activating that belt as well.
Benjamon's face was pressed against a tree. Not just his face, but his entire body was wrapped around the trunk. In his moment of distraction, Benjamon failed to notice the same tree in his path, and in looking away, had met the cursed thing head on.
Puppetmon stopped the first belt.
"YAAAAARG!" Benjamon shouted as the sudden halt threw him twenty feet, and skid five more. He would have gone farther except for the handy rock he caught between his legs. "ouch!" he squeaked, falling onto his backpack.
"Benjamon! Are you all right?" Kari called as the Digi-Destined began to move again. Kari ran out to the dazed Digimon.
"Thank you waiter... I'll have the Lobster Thermadore." Benjamon slurred, his face red and eyes crossed.
Joe ran out after Kari. "He's in shock." The aspiring doctor diagnosed, "And we need to prop his head up. Face is red, raise the head, and all that."
"Oh, I've got plenty of nothin', and nothin's wrong with mmeeee..." Benjamon crooned erratically.
The belt began to move again, slowly, deeper into the forest.
Matt jumped over to the first belt, landing neatly beside Kari.
"Matt, could you help Joe and I move him?" Kari asked.
"He's tough, he can move himself." Matt grinned, {I've been waiting for an opportunity like this} he thought, hunkering down and raising his hand.
"This is a test of the emergency broadcast system," Benjamon began, "BEEEEEEEE...."
SWACK! Matt's gloved hand slapped against Benjamon's red cheek. {That was for shouting at me!} he thought, smiling. THWAP! The backhand swing caught the other cheek. {And that's for being so arrogant!}
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Joe shouted, his eyes wide behind the huge glasses.
"Slapping me back to reality." Benjamon stated, his voice still a bit high.
Matt blinked. "Huh? It worked?"
Kari helped Benjamon to his feet. "I think we'd better get going. I'm done with the treadmill." He said, picking Kari up and leaping to the others.
"Why, that...!" Matt began, then ran off to the others, Joe lagging slightly behind.
"I got him!" Puppetmon chortled again.
"Yes, master, you certainly did." Kiwimon said, blinking his green eyes slowly underneath the bone helmet.
"He he he! Huh? Hey, where'd they go?" Puppetmon cried, switching cameras madly. "I need a new cable company!"
"Great idea, climbing the trees..." Benjamon said, rubbing his jaw tenderly.
"I'll bet there's a Dark Master behind all this." Sora said, clinging to the tree while Biyomon leaned against her.
"Right! So we need to go fight whoever it is!" Tai said, gripping the branch tightly.
"Tai, would you just go chill out?" Matt replied, a slight edge coming into his voice.
Benjamon shook his head, and jumped off into a neighboring tree, deciding that he just couldn't do anything about Tai and Matt, and perhaps he'd be better off leaving them alone.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Kari called after him.
"Scouting the area." Benjamon answered gruffly, moving off through the canopy.
After he moved far enough away from the others that he felt his appearance wouldn't tell the enemy where they were, Benjamon dropped to the forest floor, and waited for the ground to move.
Nothing... The forest was silent.
"AAAAAHHH!" something screamed, directly behind him.
Benjamon yelped and jumped in surprise, legs moving before he touched the ground. After several seconds of tearing towards the trees, the rookie skidded to a halt. "Wait. I know that voice..." he said, turning. "MIMI? How'd you get here?" he asked, confused.
"I don't know!" Mimi said, her eyes wide. "People just started disapp..." Mimi vanished.
"Huh? Wha... Izzy?" Benjamon sputtered as the short computer wizard suddenly occupied the space Mimi had just vanished from.
"Something's controlling us!" Izzy was lifted from the ground, and disappeared.
"I can't take this!" Benjamon protested as Sora flashed in.
"You're not the only one!" Sora said, nodding. "At least you're..." Sora popped out of existence.
Benjamon gaped, and ran through the woods to try and find the others. "What's causing this?" he asked rhetorically while he struggled to figure it out.
He ran on, deftly moving between trees.
"...I'll kill your brother!" a nasal voice threatened from the right.
Benjamon stopped. "What?" he asked himself in a whisper. "Who's that?"
"TK, no! Don't listen! He'll muumph!" the voice was immediately recognizable as Matt. Benjamon drew close, taking care not to make any noise as he sneaked up on the clearing.
"Well?" the unfamiliar voice asked.
A few moments of silence passed.
"Okay! But don't hurt Matt!" TK agreed, the contract being discussed unknown to Benjamon.
"Let's go!"
There were some rustlings, as of brush being pushed aside. Benjamon threw caution to the winds and burst into the clearing. Too late. TK and the stranger were gone. Matt, trussed up in red string, lay alone on the ground, squirming. Running over, Benjamon shifted the Crest of Honor into the bladed gauntlet, and cut off the crimson strands. Matt instantly got to his feet. "TK!" he shouted, and tried to run off.
"What happened?" Benjamon demanded, holding Matt's shoulders firmly.
"Puppetmon took TK and he's going to kill him!" Matt cried, trying to break away.
"Which way did they go?" Benjamon barked.
"That way! Let me go!" Matt pointed to a section of brush that was slightly disturbed.
"Not unless you give up your suicidal instinct and stay here. You heard Puppetmon! He'd kill you!"
"But he's gonna kill TK!"
"Leave protecting TK to me for now. I can Digivolve and stand a chance against Puppetmon. Without Gabumon, it'd just be you and an evil mega Digimon who wouldn't think twice about reducing you to worm fodder. How would you protect TK from six feet under?"
Matt faltered, and Benjamon let go. "Tell the others what's happening, Matt." He said, and took off after Puppetmon and TK.
"How does he keep doing this to me?!" Matt fumed, pounding his fist into a tree. "He makes me stay and wait while he plays a hero!"
"Ha ha ha! We're gonna have real fun when we get to my house, TK!" Puppetmon cackled as he led his captive through the woods.
"If you say so..." TK murmured, thinking about his brother being left alone and tied up like a holiday ham.
"Hold it!" Benjamon crashed through the undergrowth, Digivice at the ready as it lay in the palm of his hand.
"Huh?" Puppetmon spun around, drawing his mallet.
"Benjamon!" TK said happily.
"Let TK go, you automaton!" Benjamon declared, not willing to use clichés.
"Automawhat?" Puppetmon scratched at his head.
Benjamon sighed. "Automaton: An early, commonly doll-like robot, utilizing clockwork to perform movements imitating humans. Essentially, a complicated puppet." He explained, hands on hips. "You're really ruining the flow, you realize."
"Ooooh! An AUTOmaton! Why didn't you say?"
"I did! Weren't you listening?!"
TK looked from Puppetmon to Benjamon, confused. "What about me?" he cried.
"Oh, right..." Benjamon said sheepishly, "TK! Get back to the others! I'll handle this block of wood!"
"Oh, you will, will you?" Puppetmon mocked Benjamon.
"Benjamon Digivolve to..."
The silver Digivice sparked like a firework and went dark.
"What's wrong? Why isn't it working?" Benjamon shook his Digivice, while Puppetmon fell on the ground, laughing hysterically.
"Benjamon Digivolve to..."
Nothing happened.
"TK, RUN!" Benjamon shouted, moving to scoop up the youngest Digi-Destined.
"I'm sorry, but you can't do that!" Puppetmon almost sang as he stepped between Benjamon and TK. "PUPPET PUMMEL!"
Puppetmon swung his huge hammer in a flat arc, crashing the head of the mallet into Benjamon's torso with the sickening crunch of breaking bones as the attack smashed several ribs, ruptured organs and tore tissue. Benjamon flew back the way he came, shadows quickly obscuring his doubled-up body.
"I can't believe it! I'm TK's brother, Not Tai, not Benjamon! Why does everyone else end up with TK, while I end up alone? It's not fair!" Matt yelled to the sky, turning away from the tree in disgust and flopped onto the ground.
Humans sometimes have unexpected insight into the future. This may be a modified survival instinct triggered by the subconscious. Or, it may just be a plot point in the story. Whatever it is, Matt's head snapped back to the shadowy recesses that had swallowed TK, Puppetmon, and Benjamon. Seconds later, the sound of multitudes of branches and twigs being ripped from the trees filled the clearing.
"What's happening?" Matt wondered, getting to his feet and stepping back from the thick trunk of the tree. The crackling noises suddenly ceases as Benjamon, backpack and body ripped and punctured by the flanges of trees, sped through the air and savagely collided with the tree, a sickening snap of severed vertebrae reverberating about the glen.
Benjamon's red backpack had not been designed to take such stresses from inside and out; it burst, spewing spices, bandages, metal, plastic- and five small roses of varying colors. Ironically, a single, ice blue rose fell on Benjamon's nearly still form.
"Oh my god..." Matt choked, clapping his hands to his mouth to stave off the urge to retch violently.
"Matt... I ... I couldn't Digivolve..." Benjamon rasped, his Digivice a charred husk that dropped from his limp hand. "Why?" he asked, pain-wracked golden eyes crying, pleading for an answer.
"I don't know." Matt murmured glancing over the numerous abrasions and the abdomen severely caved in by Puppetmon's hammer.
"I'm sorry, Matt. I tried to save TK - and I failed you." Benjamon said listlessly, breaking into a hacking cough that brought up black, bloody bile.
Matt felt sick and backed away. "What happened?" he asked softly, then as Benjamon's words sunk in a little deeper... "TELL ME!" he demanded.
"I don't know!" Benjamon gasped hoarsely. "My short term memory is scattered. I'm just... trying to hold on."
"Why?" Some of the edge left Matt's voice. "You'll just come back at Primary Village."
"N... No. I'm not from the Digi-world. I've only got one life." Benjamon's eyes slowly dulled, and his skin growing ever paler. "Matt! I don't want to die! I'm scared..." He suddenly reached out and clasped Matt's hand. "Promise me that..."
Benjamon never finished.
The light left his eyes, and his clammy hand slipped off Matt's, falling to the grass slowly, much like the inexorable falling of a logged tree.
"I never liked him," the lone Digi-Destined murmured. "But I never wanted him dead."
Is Benjamon really dead? Is the fanfic kick over for Drowzee1? Tune in next time for the second installment of 'Puppetmon's Playtime!'
Review here, and send suggestions to drowzee1@wa.freei.net
Scene: On a beach of the Digi-world, the Digi-Destined have just witnessed the defeat of Metalseadramon, and the subsequent disappearance of the ocean as it recompiles. The Digi-Destined are now going to meet the next Dark Master, but there are a few problems to be dealt with first...
"Benjamon, you've been laughing for the last five minutes straight!" Joe complained, finally able to overcome his blush. "It's over, all right?"
Benjamon clamped his lips together, still forming an amused smirk. His cheeks were still damp with tears of mirth running out from his golden reptilian eyes. He looked at Joe again, then turned toward the forest, shoulders shaking as he tried to keep himself from chortling out loud. "I'm sorry!" he gasped after a few seconds of holding his breath, "But if you saw the look on your face..." his grin was so wide that a watermelon could've gone in sideways.
Joe glowered at Benjamon, then looked at the others, who had gotten over the shock of seeing Joe and Mimi kissing much more quickly than the odd rookie Digimon who had decided to join them. "Hey, where is Mimi now?" Joe asked, not seeing the pink dress or broad rimmed sun hat that characterized the flighty girl.
A dull thud followed by snorts and squeaks of suppressed guffaws told Joe that Benjamon had fallen over and was laughing again. He decided that this behavior would continue for the rest of the day, and he sighed. Whirling around to tell the amused Digimon to shut up, Joe saw Mimi kneeling in the sand, Palmon standing next to her. Mimi was scooping sand into piles with her gloved hands, the four hemispheres surprisingly uniform. The cactus-like Palmon held four brown crosses made of lashed sticks, and passed one to Mimi as each pile was completed.
"Okay, let's go!" Tai called, carrying Koromon towards the forest abutting the beach.
"No!" Mimi cried in response, her large eyes starting to tear as she set a cross into a pile of sand.
"What?"
Mimi sniffed, placing the last cross just as Sora closed the distance between them and placed her hand on Mimi's quivering shoulder. "What are you doing, Mimi?" Sora asked softly, crouching down beside her friend.
"These are memorials to our Digimon friends that have died..." Mimi answered in a quavering voice, as she began to point to the piles. "That one's for Wizardmon... Chuumon... Piximon... And Whamon..."
Tai stood for a moment, then said, "Well, let's get going..."
Mimi's eyes began to flow, and Joe immediately went to her side, holding and stroking her arm gently.
"TAI! Don't you have any feelings at all!?" Matt yelled, striding over until he was almost literally in Tai's face.
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked, taking a step back.
"Did you ever think that some of us don't want to fight all the time? That some of us need a break? And what about honoring our friends, who died so we could win?" Matt pressed his verbal assault, advancing on Tai, and poking his gloved finger into Tai's blue shirt with each sentence.
"But we have to defeat the Dark Masters and save the worlds!" Tai retaliated, shifting Koromon to one arm and shoving Matt back.
"What's with you? Do you have ice in your veins?"
"If I might add something to your interesting conversation..." Benjamon began, all traces of mirth gone from his face.
"NO! SHUT UP!" Tai and Matt yelled as one, going back into their intense bickering.
Izzy gulped and took a step back from Benjamon as the rebuked Digimon's eyes narrowed to fierce slits.
"Matt! Please stop!" TK implored.
"TK, stay out of this!" Matt responded harshly, "Tai has to understand that we aren't all like him!"
TK's eyes began to fill with tears...
"CHAIN BLASTER!" Benjamon roared, firing two balls of starlight, one from each hand.
"You...wha?" Tai's voice faltered as he saw two bright lights shoot past Matt's ears with a clearance of less than a centimeter. Matt stopped mid shout as he saw the same orbs spread apart to miss Tia's hair by the smallest of distances.
Everyone turned to look at Benjamon, who walked slowly towards the two arguing Digi-Destined. "Now listen." He snarled. "I've come along because I want to protect the Digi-Destined. And I'm not about to let you two endanger everyone because of an ethics versus necessity argument!" The six-foot tall Benjamon came into arm's length of Tai and Matt as he continued to berate them. "Did you ever think that you both could be right?" he growled, glaring at them from behind his glasses.
"What? No..." Matt began, cowed by the sudden change in attitude.
"Again, listen up! Tai here thinks that the best way to win is to keep moving, and fight hard until either success or failure results. He wants to save the Digital and Analog worlds before anything bad can happen. For him, the best way to honor the fallen is to make sure their sacrifices were not in vain." Benjamon looked at Tai, who nodded mutely.
"But..." Matt tried to object, but another icy glance from Benjamon quieted him down.
"You, on the other hand, think that the needs of the group come first, and so you want to slow down or even stop from time to time, so the group can be preserved. Furthermore, you feel the best way to honor the Digimon who sacrificed themselves to save you is to stop and remember them as best you can. That's an admirable sentiment, but by arguing and bickering to the point where you start to break up the team, you're a hypocrite!"
Matt opened, then closed his mouth as he realized what he had been doing. Being yelled at by a supposedly 'friendly' Digimon was disconcerting, to say the least. A Digimon understanding human emotions and even possessing the complex algorithms for such neurotic behaviors as mood swings, grudges, and communicated rage was completely new to Matt; he couldn't help but think of Benjamon as a human being for the duration of the tirade.
Sora and Kari watched the chewing-out process from beside the memorials.
"Remind me never to get on his bad side." Sora murmured.
"Right, if you'll do the same for me..." Kari replied.
Gatomon and Biyomon nodded, eyes wide as the two strongest Digi-Destined were taken down several pegs by a vocal rookie.
"If you two would just get your minds out of their respective ruts and look around, you could see that you both have valid views, and that a compromise would get you both a lot farther than this cat fight!" Benjamon glared at them for a few moments more, before his eyes softened. "Now then, who's hungry?" he asked, watching in satisfaction as jaws dropped.
"What?" Tai blinked, trying to shift mental gears to follow what Benjamon had said.
"You heard me." Benjamon said, walking over to his backpack. "I think ka-bobs are a good idea. I will, however, need wood for a fire. Anyone care to help?"
"I will!" Tentomon volunteered, buzzing off to the forest, dipping down to the ground to snatch up kindling wood in a flight path that made him look like a demented red bee.
"I'll get some bigger stuff!" Palmon said, turning towards a large cache of driftwood. "POISON IVY!" she cried, purple tendrils arcing out and wrapping tightly about a substantial piece. Grunting and straining, Palmon drug the log over.
"That's great, Palmon." Benjamon said with a grin. "But it's a bit large to burn, isn't it?"
Palmon blinked her large, fluid green eyes, and giggled. "Sorry."
"Lemme through!" Gatomon said as she ran up, "I'm a hungry kitty, and I'll make short work of that scratching post! LIGHTNING CLAW!" Gatomon smashed her paw through the driftwood, splitting the sturdy trunk in half.
TK ran over to Matt and hugged his leg firmly. "Are you okay now?" he asked, plaintively.
"LIGHTNING CLAW!" Gatomon yelled again, leaping into the air and somersaulting. She came down forepaws first, each paw neatly severing the sections of driftwood in half again. "How's that?" she asked, looking up with large blue eyes.
"Perfect, Gatomon!" Benjamon complimented the small champion, and was rewarded with a brief smile.
Matt stopped staring at the bustle around Benjamon and looked down at his little brother. "Yes, I'm fine, TK. Just a bit surprised."
Gomamon bounded across the beach as he brought stones to make a firebreak. Tentomon had returned with four clawfuls of small sticks, which he deposited neatly on the ground.
"Excellent!" Benjamon said, all traces of his antagonism just minutes before gone. He opened his pack, and took out a large metal plate, several small vials of unknown contents, a medium sized cooler, and some napkins. He then picked out all of the forked sticks from Tentomon's pile, and placed them to the right and left of Gomamon's ring of stones, before setting up the wood for the fire.
Tai turned to Matt. "Matt," he began, "I'm sorry."
"That's all right." Matt replied. "I'm sorry, too." But deep within, Matt still felt that a compromise was not the way to go about beating the Dark Masters... And there was something else, something he couldn't quite place... A feeling of discomfort that grew whenever he looked at his friends.
"Gabumon, could you come here, please?" Benjamon asked, looking at the dog-like Digimon. "I need the fire lit."
After the meal, the Digi-Destined decided that they should get moving; and so, they went into the forest, into the darker regions of the Digi-world.
"Where did you learn to cook like that?" Kari asked softly.
Benjamon scratched his head, messing up his short brown hair. "I'm not sure. I've just always known. I never watched or read anything on cooking, I just do what feels, smells, looks, and tastes right."
"What, a Digimon with cooking instincts?" Izzy asked, incredulous, "You had to have been programmed that way. The way you've been acting is more human than any other Digimon we've met. It is almost like you weren't created in the Digi-world."
Benjamon kept silent, letting the genius speak.
"And I've also been speculating about your crests and Digivice. Why do you have three crests? One is sufficient for our Digimon, so who would go through the bother of creating two more for a single Digimon? That seems highly inefficient. More like an elaborate human creation than the simplistic, efficiency driven creation of a computer."
The forest grew thicker as they walked on, Benjamon dropping back to take the rear, scanning the undergrowth for any signs of movement. "Empty." He murmured, not seeing or hearing any 'wild' Digimon around him.
Patamon's ears twitched, and the flying uberhampster took to the air. Sailing upwards, Patamon scoured the canopy with his deep blue eyes before gliding back to TK. "I'll say!" he chirped.
TK looked up. "What was that, Patamon?" he asked, having not heard the first part of the conversation.
Patamon blinked... "Benjamon said the forest seemed empty," he paraphrased, "So I decided that I should go see if there is anything out in the tree tops... There isn't a single Digimon that I could see."
Benjamon sighed. "Well, I guess we are going to be stuck walking." He pulled out his Digivice and checked his reflection in the polished silver surface. The Digivice looked a bit worn, which struck him as being quite odd. The was no further time to think about it, as the ground suddenly jerked and began to move, knocking all but the sure-footed Gatomon to their feet.
"What's happening?" Kari asked, watching the forest slide by as she stood still.
"My guess is that it's some sort of conveyor belt," Izzy said, picking himself up.
"If that's the case, may I recommend we get off NOW?" Joe asked, picking up Gomamon and running for the stationary ground next to the belt.
"Good idea!" Tai shouted, running over with Koromon in his arms.
The Digi-Destined fled the moving forest belt, except for Benjamon, who had turned around and was jogging lightly against the belt, remaining in the same position.
"Just like the airport, only with cleaner air," Benjamon grinned as he easily paced the rolling belt.
And at Puppetmon's mansion...
"Eh? What's that guy doing?" Puppetmon wondered, jabbing at a button on his remote control. The forest floor began to roll faster... The striding figure maintained its position on his screen, not moving backward one jot. "What?" Puppetmon stood up, scratching one leg irritably as he stabbed at the remote again. The belt moved faster yet, but the lone figure on the screen refused to budge.
"Master," Kiwimon began in his airily condescending voice, "Might I suggest you concentrate on the other children?"
"No!" Puppetmon screeched, tapping the belt up to full speed, "I want to take care of this one first! He's not playing fair!"
Benjamon ran, arms pumping, legs pounding the ground as he matched the rolling belt millimeter for millimeter. Dancing left and right, he avoided the rocks, trees and holes that appeared on the ground scrolling by him.
"Show off." Matt grumbled.
"Hey, Benjamon! Come on!" Sora yelled.
"What?" Benjamon turned his head to reply...
THOCK!
"Ha! Got him!" Puppetmon gloated, "Now, for the others!" He scanned the remote cameras, and found the Digi-Destined. "Can't hide from meee!" he sang, activating that belt as well.
Benjamon's face was pressed against a tree. Not just his face, but his entire body was wrapped around the trunk. In his moment of distraction, Benjamon failed to notice the same tree in his path, and in looking away, had met the cursed thing head on.
Puppetmon stopped the first belt.
"YAAAAARG!" Benjamon shouted as the sudden halt threw him twenty feet, and skid five more. He would have gone farther except for the handy rock he caught between his legs. "ouch!" he squeaked, falling onto his backpack.
"Benjamon! Are you all right?" Kari called as the Digi-Destined began to move again. Kari ran out to the dazed Digimon.
"Thank you waiter... I'll have the Lobster Thermadore." Benjamon slurred, his face red and eyes crossed.
Joe ran out after Kari. "He's in shock." The aspiring doctor diagnosed, "And we need to prop his head up. Face is red, raise the head, and all that."
"Oh, I've got plenty of nothin', and nothin's wrong with mmeeee..." Benjamon crooned erratically.
The belt began to move again, slowly, deeper into the forest.
Matt jumped over to the first belt, landing neatly beside Kari.
"Matt, could you help Joe and I move him?" Kari asked.
"He's tough, he can move himself." Matt grinned, {I've been waiting for an opportunity like this} he thought, hunkering down and raising his hand.
"This is a test of the emergency broadcast system," Benjamon began, "BEEEEEEEE...."
SWACK! Matt's gloved hand slapped against Benjamon's red cheek. {That was for shouting at me!} he thought, smiling. THWAP! The backhand swing caught the other cheek. {And that's for being so arrogant!}
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Joe shouted, his eyes wide behind the huge glasses.
"Slapping me back to reality." Benjamon stated, his voice still a bit high.
Matt blinked. "Huh? It worked?"
Kari helped Benjamon to his feet. "I think we'd better get going. I'm done with the treadmill." He said, picking Kari up and leaping to the others.
"Why, that...!" Matt began, then ran off to the others, Joe lagging slightly behind.
"I got him!" Puppetmon chortled again.
"Yes, master, you certainly did." Kiwimon said, blinking his green eyes slowly underneath the bone helmet.
"He he he! Huh? Hey, where'd they go?" Puppetmon cried, switching cameras madly. "I need a new cable company!"
"Great idea, climbing the trees..." Benjamon said, rubbing his jaw tenderly.
"I'll bet there's a Dark Master behind all this." Sora said, clinging to the tree while Biyomon leaned against her.
"Right! So we need to go fight whoever it is!" Tai said, gripping the branch tightly.
"Tai, would you just go chill out?" Matt replied, a slight edge coming into his voice.
Benjamon shook his head, and jumped off into a neighboring tree, deciding that he just couldn't do anything about Tai and Matt, and perhaps he'd be better off leaving them alone.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Kari called after him.
"Scouting the area." Benjamon answered gruffly, moving off through the canopy.
After he moved far enough away from the others that he felt his appearance wouldn't tell the enemy where they were, Benjamon dropped to the forest floor, and waited for the ground to move.
Nothing... The forest was silent.
"AAAAAHHH!" something screamed, directly behind him.
Benjamon yelped and jumped in surprise, legs moving before he touched the ground. After several seconds of tearing towards the trees, the rookie skidded to a halt. "Wait. I know that voice..." he said, turning. "MIMI? How'd you get here?" he asked, confused.
"I don't know!" Mimi said, her eyes wide. "People just started disapp..." Mimi vanished.
"Huh? Wha... Izzy?" Benjamon sputtered as the short computer wizard suddenly occupied the space Mimi had just vanished from.
"Something's controlling us!" Izzy was lifted from the ground, and disappeared.
"I can't take this!" Benjamon protested as Sora flashed in.
"You're not the only one!" Sora said, nodding. "At least you're..." Sora popped out of existence.
Benjamon gaped, and ran through the woods to try and find the others. "What's causing this?" he asked rhetorically while he struggled to figure it out.
He ran on, deftly moving between trees.
"...I'll kill your brother!" a nasal voice threatened from the right.
Benjamon stopped. "What?" he asked himself in a whisper. "Who's that?"
"TK, no! Don't listen! He'll muumph!" the voice was immediately recognizable as Matt. Benjamon drew close, taking care not to make any noise as he sneaked up on the clearing.
"Well?" the unfamiliar voice asked.
A few moments of silence passed.
"Okay! But don't hurt Matt!" TK agreed, the contract being discussed unknown to Benjamon.
"Let's go!"
There were some rustlings, as of brush being pushed aside. Benjamon threw caution to the winds and burst into the clearing. Too late. TK and the stranger were gone. Matt, trussed up in red string, lay alone on the ground, squirming. Running over, Benjamon shifted the Crest of Honor into the bladed gauntlet, and cut off the crimson strands. Matt instantly got to his feet. "TK!" he shouted, and tried to run off.
"What happened?" Benjamon demanded, holding Matt's shoulders firmly.
"Puppetmon took TK and he's going to kill him!" Matt cried, trying to break away.
"Which way did they go?" Benjamon barked.
"That way! Let me go!" Matt pointed to a section of brush that was slightly disturbed.
"Not unless you give up your suicidal instinct and stay here. You heard Puppetmon! He'd kill you!"
"But he's gonna kill TK!"
"Leave protecting TK to me for now. I can Digivolve and stand a chance against Puppetmon. Without Gabumon, it'd just be you and an evil mega Digimon who wouldn't think twice about reducing you to worm fodder. How would you protect TK from six feet under?"
Matt faltered, and Benjamon let go. "Tell the others what's happening, Matt." He said, and took off after Puppetmon and TK.
"How does he keep doing this to me?!" Matt fumed, pounding his fist into a tree. "He makes me stay and wait while he plays a hero!"
"Ha ha ha! We're gonna have real fun when we get to my house, TK!" Puppetmon cackled as he led his captive through the woods.
"If you say so..." TK murmured, thinking about his brother being left alone and tied up like a holiday ham.
"Hold it!" Benjamon crashed through the undergrowth, Digivice at the ready as it lay in the palm of his hand.
"Huh?" Puppetmon spun around, drawing his mallet.
"Benjamon!" TK said happily.
"Let TK go, you automaton!" Benjamon declared, not willing to use clichés.
"Automawhat?" Puppetmon scratched at his head.
Benjamon sighed. "Automaton: An early, commonly doll-like robot, utilizing clockwork to perform movements imitating humans. Essentially, a complicated puppet." He explained, hands on hips. "You're really ruining the flow, you realize."
"Ooooh! An AUTOmaton! Why didn't you say?"
"I did! Weren't you listening?!"
TK looked from Puppetmon to Benjamon, confused. "What about me?" he cried.
"Oh, right..." Benjamon said sheepishly, "TK! Get back to the others! I'll handle this block of wood!"
"Oh, you will, will you?" Puppetmon mocked Benjamon.
"Benjamon Digivolve to..."
The silver Digivice sparked like a firework and went dark.
"What's wrong? Why isn't it working?" Benjamon shook his Digivice, while Puppetmon fell on the ground, laughing hysterically.
"Benjamon Digivolve to..."
Nothing happened.
"TK, RUN!" Benjamon shouted, moving to scoop up the youngest Digi-Destined.
"I'm sorry, but you can't do that!" Puppetmon almost sang as he stepped between Benjamon and TK. "PUPPET PUMMEL!"
Puppetmon swung his huge hammer in a flat arc, crashing the head of the mallet into Benjamon's torso with the sickening crunch of breaking bones as the attack smashed several ribs, ruptured organs and tore tissue. Benjamon flew back the way he came, shadows quickly obscuring his doubled-up body.
"I can't believe it! I'm TK's brother, Not Tai, not Benjamon! Why does everyone else end up with TK, while I end up alone? It's not fair!" Matt yelled to the sky, turning away from the tree in disgust and flopped onto the ground.
Humans sometimes have unexpected insight into the future. This may be a modified survival instinct triggered by the subconscious. Or, it may just be a plot point in the story. Whatever it is, Matt's head snapped back to the shadowy recesses that had swallowed TK, Puppetmon, and Benjamon. Seconds later, the sound of multitudes of branches and twigs being ripped from the trees filled the clearing.
"What's happening?" Matt wondered, getting to his feet and stepping back from the thick trunk of the tree. The crackling noises suddenly ceases as Benjamon, backpack and body ripped and punctured by the flanges of trees, sped through the air and savagely collided with the tree, a sickening snap of severed vertebrae reverberating about the glen.
Benjamon's red backpack had not been designed to take such stresses from inside and out; it burst, spewing spices, bandages, metal, plastic- and five small roses of varying colors. Ironically, a single, ice blue rose fell on Benjamon's nearly still form.
"Oh my god..." Matt choked, clapping his hands to his mouth to stave off the urge to retch violently.
"Matt... I ... I couldn't Digivolve..." Benjamon rasped, his Digivice a charred husk that dropped from his limp hand. "Why?" he asked, pain-wracked golden eyes crying, pleading for an answer.
"I don't know." Matt murmured glancing over the numerous abrasions and the abdomen severely caved in by Puppetmon's hammer.
"I'm sorry, Matt. I tried to save TK - and I failed you." Benjamon said listlessly, breaking into a hacking cough that brought up black, bloody bile.
Matt felt sick and backed away. "What happened?" he asked softly, then as Benjamon's words sunk in a little deeper... "TELL ME!" he demanded.
"I don't know!" Benjamon gasped hoarsely. "My short term memory is scattered. I'm just... trying to hold on."
"Why?" Some of the edge left Matt's voice. "You'll just come back at Primary Village."
"N... No. I'm not from the Digi-world. I've only got one life." Benjamon's eyes slowly dulled, and his skin growing ever paler. "Matt! I don't want to die! I'm scared..." He suddenly reached out and clasped Matt's hand. "Promise me that..."
Benjamon never finished.
The light left his eyes, and his clammy hand slipped off Matt's, falling to the grass slowly, much like the inexorable falling of a logged tree.
"I never liked him," the lone Digi-Destined murmured. "But I never wanted him dead."
Is Benjamon really dead? Is the fanfic kick over for Drowzee1? Tune in next time for the second installment of 'Puppetmon's Playtime!'
Review here, and send suggestions to drowzee1@wa.freei.net