Chapter 2
Izzy's laptop lay abandoned near one of the trenches. The silence of the forest was unbroken, yet a shadow seemed to fall over it. Strangely, there was nothing to cast it... It floated around the small machine, investigating it. A tendril discovered the modem linkup, and it reached toward it, sending questing fingers of fog into the circuitry of the computer...
"Where *is* it?"
The frustrated teenage voice was the deciding factor, as the laptop's owner came closer. With a soft humming sound of electronic transfer, the mist dove into the computer. The little Pineapple sparked, shook, and then gradually fell back into its usual rhythms.
A moment later, Izzy came crashing through the brush and spotted his beloved laptop.
"There you are!" Hurrying forward and scooping it up, he darted off without a backward glance, on his way to the Digiport.
And in his wake, the remains of the mist stirred themselves...and wafted away to find new spires to devour and renew their power...
A mile or so away, a stone skipped once, twice, three times across the surface of a tranquil lake, then sank with a plop. Disappointed, TK Takaishi frowned at his throwing hand, and reached down to choose another pebble. Finding a good one, he tossed it into the air once, caught it, and threw-
"Hey, TS, whatcha doing?"
Startled, TK let his hand wobble, and the stone plopped into the water without a single skip. Whirling around angrily, he glared at the intruder.
"Davis, what are you doing here?"
The purple-haired gogglehead shrugged. "I got bored. Cody's off on one of his rants again. I don't get what he's talking about, so I came to talk to you."
"I don't feel like talking," TK said quietly, but with tightly leashed anger behind the words. "Go away."
"Why?" Davis said flippantly, sitting down on a piece of driftwood with a sigh of relief. "Man, I needed to sit down. So, what's up?"
"The sun is up," TK said, his voice grating with impatience as he bent over to look for rocks again, refusing to look at Davis. "The clouds are up. The treetops are up. I wish you would *shut* up."
"Hey, that's pretty funny, TI!" Davis chortled, completely missing the point. Groaning, TK continued to search for rocks. However, Davis did not shut up. "I bet I can think of some, too! The mountains are up, outer space is up, the...um...the...the birds are up... Wait a minute, are there birds in the Digital world?"
"Davis, please go away," TK said firmly.
"Well, there's bird Digimon, so I guess those would count..." Davis continued, ignoring TK. "We sang a song with birds in it for Christmas, in my class. It was pretty cool." Still oblivious to TK's rising temper, Davis broke into song. "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree! On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree!"
"Davis..." TK gritted.
"I wonder why anyone would want a partridge in a pear tree?" Davis mused, pausing in his song for a moment. "I mean, what would you do with one? Well, if it was from Kari, I suppose anyone would want one. What is a partridge, anyway?"
"Davis!"
"Oh, well, I'll look it up later. Anyway..." He began to sing again. "On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens, two turtledoves-"
TK picked up a large rock and stomped over to Davis, brandishing it under the startled goggle-head's nose. "Davis, if you don't shut up and go away, I am going to hit you with this rock," he ground out from between clenched teeth.
Davis' eyes got very large as he stared down at the rock and back up at TK's angry blue eyes. "But-"
"I don't want to hear it! I don't want to listen to one more word out of your asinine mouth! Now BUG OFF!" TK yelled, shoving Davis-rock and all-with a vicious strength. Davis stumbled backward, looking shaken and frightened at this sudden show of anger, and nearly fell over the driftwood as he fled the beach.
TK stood looking after him for a long time, finally letting his gaze drop to his hands, still holding the rock. It was half the size of his head. His hands trembled, and he let the rock fall from them, making a sizable crater in the sand.
"What am I doing?" he whispered, appalled and sickened at what he had threatened to do. "What is wrong with me? I'm not like that...am I?" He shuddered, doubt creeping down his backbone like fingernails down a chalkboard. "I can't be!" he blurted, and sat down dejectedly on the log that Davis had vacated in his terrified bid for freedom... "I've spent so much time fighting monsters," he murmured softy, his eyes dark with fear. "What if...what if I'm becoming one?"
In the shadows nearby, something stirred. If it had had a mind, it would have been pleased at the amplifying effect it was having on the faults of the nearby humans, and the self-doubt and fear it was sowing in their hearts.
However, it was mindless on its own, and felt nothing...except an inexorable hunger.
"Have you reached them yet?" Yolei called anxiously over her shoulder as she pushed through a patch of thick underbrush. Looking up from his D-Terminal, Ken shook his head.
"No luck. I can't figure out what's even causing this jamming, let alone how to fix it. It's the most bizarre electrical signal I've ever seen; I've never seen anything remotely like this before..."
"Well, whatever it is, it's been cutting us off from the others for nearly half an hour, and I don't like it one bit," Yolei muttered. They had started tramping through the underbrush of the forest about fifteen minutes after their D-Terminals had gone on the fritz. Any attempt to contact the outside world or the other Digidestined was erased mid-send in a flash of black across the screen. Ken's description of 'bizarre' pretty much summed it up. He was falling farther and farther behind Yolei as he became more involved in trying to counteract the virus-like program failure.
"I don't like it either, but I don't know what we can do about it that we aren't doing now," Ken said resignedly. "We're heading back to the others and continuing to try to communicate with them, and that's all we can do right now."
"I guess," Yolei doubtfully murmured. "But still-"
A crash and a yell from behind her nearly scared her out of her skin.
"Ken!" she shrieked, turning to see him sprawled facedown across the ground. "Ken, are you okay? What happened?" she cried, dropping to her knees next to him. He lifted his head, gave it a dizzy shake and looked up at her, his blue eyes rueful but without the agony she had been afraid she'd see.
"I'm okay," he said, levering himself up onto his elbows. "I just took a bad step. It's funny," he said thoughtfully, "but it felt almost like the ground dissolved from under me... No, I must just be getting clumsy."
Yolei smiled, glad that he was all right. "I wouldn't say 'clumsy'. This forest is full of stuff to trip on. You just had bad luck. Here, I'll give you a hand," she said, standing up.
Ken took her hand and started to get up, but winced and sat down hard, letting go. "Oh, that's not good," he muttered, twisting around so that he could pull up his pants leg and look at his ankle. It was bruised-looking and beginning to swell up. "Ow..." he said softly, wincing. "I don't think it's sprained or I would have felt it before now...but it definitely doesn't feel good to stand on it."
"Maybe you pulled a muscle," Yolei said, worry welling up in her throat. "Just what we need," she muttered angrily. Ken looked guilty, and she immediately felt even worse. "I'm not blaming you, Ken," she said quickly, looking at the ground. "I just...well, now we're stuck out here, and it'll be dark in a few hours..."
She shivered, and Ken felt a unexpected and surprisingly strong wish to protect her, to make her feel safe. *Not much chance of that,* he thought wryly, glancing at his ankle. *There's got to be something I can do...*
"Hey, why don't you go on ahead a ways?" he suggested suddenly. Yolei looked surprised, and nervous.
"Are you sure?" she said, twisting her hands in the hem of her jacket. "I don't like to leave you alone out here..."
"Positive," Ken said firmly, giving her a courageous smile. "You can find the others and bring them back here. If you don't find them and it starts getting dark, come on back. I'll keep trying to get a message through."
"I suppose..." Yolei said, and reluctantly jogged off through the trees, shooting glances over her shoulder as she disappeared. Ken looked after her, feeling a bit forlorn. Finally, when she was well out of sight, he sighed and settled himself with the D-Terminal in his lap, and began to try to edge a message around the growing virus.
Out in the forest, the shadows had begun to lengthen, and Yolei looked uneasily around herself as rustles and whispers of sound slipped through the early evening air. A cracking sound behind her made her whirl, her heart beating frantically. Nothing appeared, but her feelings of fear and dread did not go away.
She was beginning to have misgivings about this whole idea. With Ken there, the forest was just inconvenient, but alone...it was downright scary, especially now, as it began to get dark. Shivering, she turned and hurried onward, breaking a trail of branches as she went to ensure her ability to find Ken again.
A soft, faintly hissing sound behind her made her pause and listen carefully. The sound stopped as her footsteps did. She frowned and kept going, and the sound started up again. Little stabs of panic began to sting her stomach, which squeezed into a tight knot.
She stopped again, and this time heard the sound continue, a sinuous, whispering hiss. It was coming closer...
"Ken?" Yolei squeaked, scanning the shadows. "Tai? Sora? Izzy? Davis?" No answer; just that eerie whisper-hiss. "Davis Motomiya is a big fat loser!" she yelled in a sing-song voice. No reaction. "Davis, this isn't funny!" she cried angrily. Still nothing. Hugging herself, she backed away from the sound, but it was spreading, surrounding her.
Was it just her, or were the shadows moving? She frowned and looked more closely...and at that moment, the first edges of the heavy black mist slithered into view, closing in a tight circle around their victim.
A terrified scream rang through the forest, and then there was no sound at all...
Izzy's laptop lay abandoned near one of the trenches. The silence of the forest was unbroken, yet a shadow seemed to fall over it. Strangely, there was nothing to cast it... It floated around the small machine, investigating it. A tendril discovered the modem linkup, and it reached toward it, sending questing fingers of fog into the circuitry of the computer...
"Where *is* it?"
The frustrated teenage voice was the deciding factor, as the laptop's owner came closer. With a soft humming sound of electronic transfer, the mist dove into the computer. The little Pineapple sparked, shook, and then gradually fell back into its usual rhythms.
A moment later, Izzy came crashing through the brush and spotted his beloved laptop.
"There you are!" Hurrying forward and scooping it up, he darted off without a backward glance, on his way to the Digiport.
And in his wake, the remains of the mist stirred themselves...and wafted away to find new spires to devour and renew their power...
A mile or so away, a stone skipped once, twice, three times across the surface of a tranquil lake, then sank with a plop. Disappointed, TK Takaishi frowned at his throwing hand, and reached down to choose another pebble. Finding a good one, he tossed it into the air once, caught it, and threw-
"Hey, TS, whatcha doing?"
Startled, TK let his hand wobble, and the stone plopped into the water without a single skip. Whirling around angrily, he glared at the intruder.
"Davis, what are you doing here?"
The purple-haired gogglehead shrugged. "I got bored. Cody's off on one of his rants again. I don't get what he's talking about, so I came to talk to you."
"I don't feel like talking," TK said quietly, but with tightly leashed anger behind the words. "Go away."
"Why?" Davis said flippantly, sitting down on a piece of driftwood with a sigh of relief. "Man, I needed to sit down. So, what's up?"
"The sun is up," TK said, his voice grating with impatience as he bent over to look for rocks again, refusing to look at Davis. "The clouds are up. The treetops are up. I wish you would *shut* up."
"Hey, that's pretty funny, TI!" Davis chortled, completely missing the point. Groaning, TK continued to search for rocks. However, Davis did not shut up. "I bet I can think of some, too! The mountains are up, outer space is up, the...um...the...the birds are up... Wait a minute, are there birds in the Digital world?"
"Davis, please go away," TK said firmly.
"Well, there's bird Digimon, so I guess those would count..." Davis continued, ignoring TK. "We sang a song with birds in it for Christmas, in my class. It was pretty cool." Still oblivious to TK's rising temper, Davis broke into song. "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree! On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree!"
"Davis..." TK gritted.
"I wonder why anyone would want a partridge in a pear tree?" Davis mused, pausing in his song for a moment. "I mean, what would you do with one? Well, if it was from Kari, I suppose anyone would want one. What is a partridge, anyway?"
"Davis!"
"Oh, well, I'll look it up later. Anyway..." He began to sing again. "On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens, two turtledoves-"
TK picked up a large rock and stomped over to Davis, brandishing it under the startled goggle-head's nose. "Davis, if you don't shut up and go away, I am going to hit you with this rock," he ground out from between clenched teeth.
Davis' eyes got very large as he stared down at the rock and back up at TK's angry blue eyes. "But-"
"I don't want to hear it! I don't want to listen to one more word out of your asinine mouth! Now BUG OFF!" TK yelled, shoving Davis-rock and all-with a vicious strength. Davis stumbled backward, looking shaken and frightened at this sudden show of anger, and nearly fell over the driftwood as he fled the beach.
TK stood looking after him for a long time, finally letting his gaze drop to his hands, still holding the rock. It was half the size of his head. His hands trembled, and he let the rock fall from them, making a sizable crater in the sand.
"What am I doing?" he whispered, appalled and sickened at what he had threatened to do. "What is wrong with me? I'm not like that...am I?" He shuddered, doubt creeping down his backbone like fingernails down a chalkboard. "I can't be!" he blurted, and sat down dejectedly on the log that Davis had vacated in his terrified bid for freedom... "I've spent so much time fighting monsters," he murmured softy, his eyes dark with fear. "What if...what if I'm becoming one?"
In the shadows nearby, something stirred. If it had had a mind, it would have been pleased at the amplifying effect it was having on the faults of the nearby humans, and the self-doubt and fear it was sowing in their hearts.
However, it was mindless on its own, and felt nothing...except an inexorable hunger.
"Have you reached them yet?" Yolei called anxiously over her shoulder as she pushed through a patch of thick underbrush. Looking up from his D-Terminal, Ken shook his head.
"No luck. I can't figure out what's even causing this jamming, let alone how to fix it. It's the most bizarre electrical signal I've ever seen; I've never seen anything remotely like this before..."
"Well, whatever it is, it's been cutting us off from the others for nearly half an hour, and I don't like it one bit," Yolei muttered. They had started tramping through the underbrush of the forest about fifteen minutes after their D-Terminals had gone on the fritz. Any attempt to contact the outside world or the other Digidestined was erased mid-send in a flash of black across the screen. Ken's description of 'bizarre' pretty much summed it up. He was falling farther and farther behind Yolei as he became more involved in trying to counteract the virus-like program failure.
"I don't like it either, but I don't know what we can do about it that we aren't doing now," Ken said resignedly. "We're heading back to the others and continuing to try to communicate with them, and that's all we can do right now."
"I guess," Yolei doubtfully murmured. "But still-"
A crash and a yell from behind her nearly scared her out of her skin.
"Ken!" she shrieked, turning to see him sprawled facedown across the ground. "Ken, are you okay? What happened?" she cried, dropping to her knees next to him. He lifted his head, gave it a dizzy shake and looked up at her, his blue eyes rueful but without the agony she had been afraid she'd see.
"I'm okay," he said, levering himself up onto his elbows. "I just took a bad step. It's funny," he said thoughtfully, "but it felt almost like the ground dissolved from under me... No, I must just be getting clumsy."
Yolei smiled, glad that he was all right. "I wouldn't say 'clumsy'. This forest is full of stuff to trip on. You just had bad luck. Here, I'll give you a hand," she said, standing up.
Ken took her hand and started to get up, but winced and sat down hard, letting go. "Oh, that's not good," he muttered, twisting around so that he could pull up his pants leg and look at his ankle. It was bruised-looking and beginning to swell up. "Ow..." he said softly, wincing. "I don't think it's sprained or I would have felt it before now...but it definitely doesn't feel good to stand on it."
"Maybe you pulled a muscle," Yolei said, worry welling up in her throat. "Just what we need," she muttered angrily. Ken looked guilty, and she immediately felt even worse. "I'm not blaming you, Ken," she said quickly, looking at the ground. "I just...well, now we're stuck out here, and it'll be dark in a few hours..."
She shivered, and Ken felt a unexpected and surprisingly strong wish to protect her, to make her feel safe. *Not much chance of that,* he thought wryly, glancing at his ankle. *There's got to be something I can do...*
"Hey, why don't you go on ahead a ways?" he suggested suddenly. Yolei looked surprised, and nervous.
"Are you sure?" she said, twisting her hands in the hem of her jacket. "I don't like to leave you alone out here..."
"Positive," Ken said firmly, giving her a courageous smile. "You can find the others and bring them back here. If you don't find them and it starts getting dark, come on back. I'll keep trying to get a message through."
"I suppose..." Yolei said, and reluctantly jogged off through the trees, shooting glances over her shoulder as she disappeared. Ken looked after her, feeling a bit forlorn. Finally, when she was well out of sight, he sighed and settled himself with the D-Terminal in his lap, and began to try to edge a message around the growing virus.
Out in the forest, the shadows had begun to lengthen, and Yolei looked uneasily around herself as rustles and whispers of sound slipped through the early evening air. A cracking sound behind her made her whirl, her heart beating frantically. Nothing appeared, but her feelings of fear and dread did not go away.
She was beginning to have misgivings about this whole idea. With Ken there, the forest was just inconvenient, but alone...it was downright scary, especially now, as it began to get dark. Shivering, she turned and hurried onward, breaking a trail of branches as she went to ensure her ability to find Ken again.
A soft, faintly hissing sound behind her made her pause and listen carefully. The sound stopped as her footsteps did. She frowned and kept going, and the sound started up again. Little stabs of panic began to sting her stomach, which squeezed into a tight knot.
She stopped again, and this time heard the sound continue, a sinuous, whispering hiss. It was coming closer...
"Ken?" Yolei squeaked, scanning the shadows. "Tai? Sora? Izzy? Davis?" No answer; just that eerie whisper-hiss. "Davis Motomiya is a big fat loser!" she yelled in a sing-song voice. No reaction. "Davis, this isn't funny!" she cried angrily. Still nothing. Hugging herself, she backed away from the sound, but it was spreading, surrounding her.
Was it just her, or were the shadows moving? She frowned and looked more closely...and at that moment, the first edges of the heavy black mist slithered into view, closing in a tight circle around their victim.
A terrified scream rang through the forest, and then there was no sound at all...