Chapter 5
"-ill," Tai finished lamely, and sighed. "Well, so much for that...whoa!" he exclaimed, staring around himself. Matt and Mimi were already doing that.
The Internet was a strangely beautiful place, without all those ugly virus things running around like an infestation of digital cockroaches, the way they were the last time he'd been there. It was composed of waterfalls of 0s and 1s, strange spires of soft- and hardware, and whorls of data, with odd stuff that resembled carnival paraphernalia floating everywhere; carousels, Ferris wheels, and streamers of colorful information. Tai took a 'step' forward, felt a moment of startled dizziness as he tilted forward instead moving ahead, then looked down-and flinched, as he realized that he was standing on absolutely nothing.
"Ack!"
"Hey, neat!" Mimi exclaimed, pushing off of a nearby spire and turning herself upside down. Gravity didn't seem to apply in this world, which was a good thing; Mimi was wearing a skirt.
"Man...let me try!" Matt said, and grabbed a nearby streamer, pulling himself along it like a climbing rope in gym class. "Sweet..." he said, and kicked off of a free-floating spiral of pink material. It flew one way as he flew the other, doing involuntary cartwheels. "Whooooooooooooooaaaaa-oof! $#*%!!!" he yelled, flying dizzily through space and impacting with Tai head-on. They bounced off each other in opposite directions, cursing and floundering.
Mimi was doubled over with laughter, holding on to a carousel horse to keep from floating away. "You guys are so dumb!" she giggled, and kicked off, shooting gracefully through space as she turned in mid-'air' to land feet first on a nearby sheet of numbers, then pushing off again. She caught Matt by the arm, and the opposing momentum sent them into a pin-wheeling tailspin until Mimi stopped them neatly against another spire.
"See? Piece of cake," she said cheerfully.
Matt's eyes seemed to be having trouble focusing. "Cake...ri-ight," he moaned, trying to get the world to stop spinning.
Tai, meanwhile, had managed to brake himself against a Ferris wheel.
"Stop the 'Net, I wanna get off..." he moaned. "It was a heck of a lot easier when we had Omnimon to ride on."
"Hey, Tai, you're upside down," Mimi called. Tai frowned, looking over at his friends. They appeared to be hanging heads-downward from a spire some distance away.
"I am not!" he yelled back. "You are!"
"We both are!" she giggled. It was then that Tai realized something he hadn't noticed before; there was no such thing as up or down in this screwed-up world. He felt a dizzying rush of nausea as vertigo made his head spin...
"Tai! Tai, are you all right?"
Tai blinked. "Agumon...?"
The little Digimon's face came into focus, looking concernedly back at him.
"Tai, speak to me!"
"I-I'm fine," Tai said, rubbing his head. "I just need to...adjust..." He suddenly snapped out of his daze. "Agumon! When did you get here?"
"Just now," the dinosaur Digimon chirped. "Palmon and Gabumon are over there. C'mon!" He shoved off, flying quickly through the air. Tai yelped.
"Hey! Slow down! I'm not very good at this yet!"
"He's not *any* good at it!" Mimi cheerfully supplied from where she perched on her spire, still mind-bogglingly 'upside-down'. Palmon was floating next to her.
"Oh, shut up," Tai muttered. "I'm starting to wish we hadn't brought the little hot-shot..."
"What happened, man?" Matt said, suddenly seeming to appear at Tai's shoulder. Tai jumped with surprise, then realized that his friend had flown over with Gabumon's help. "You kind of spaced out for a few minutes...the Digimon arrived while you were swaying like a drunk duck."
"Sorry," Tai said, looking embarrassed. "I'll be all right now."
"Good," Matt said, glancing down and suddenly becoming very serious, "because I think I see the Welcome Wagon approaching..."
Tai followed his gaze...and spotted a viscous-looking black haze, bubbling up from the spires and carnival gear floating below his feet. Mimi gave a little cry of alarm and kicked off, speeding over to the boys with Palmon at her heels.
"What now?" she said, looking worriedly at Tai as she stopped her trajectory against a pillar of data.
Tai grinned; *now* he was in his element.
"We fight," he said, and grabbed his Digivice. "Agumon, Digivolve!"
The other two followed suit.
"Agumon, Warp-Digivolve to...WarGreymon!"
"Gabumon, Warp-Digivolve to...MetalGarurumon!"
"Palmon, Digivolve to...Togemon!"
Mimi sighed, shaking her head. "I *wish* I had a Mega level, too...it's so much more convenient."
"Are you saying I'm inconvenient?" Togemon thundered, looking hurt.
"Oh, no, not at all!" Mimi exclaimed. "It's just that it would be nice to be able to Warp-Digivolve, that's all..."
"Can't argue with you there," Togemon agreed, and turned back to the approaching virus. "Still, gotta do my best. How about some NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"TERRA FORCE!"
"ICE WOLF CLAW!"
The attacks burst in showers of colored light against the front line of the oncoming mist. Large sections of it dissolved, and the Digidestined cheered, pumping their fists in victory. Tai mistakenly let go of the spire he was holding to wave his arms and cheer in victory, and began to slowly drift away, flapping his limbs uselessly and only managing to turn himself 'upside-down' again.
"Oh, pay attention," Mimi muttered with a roll of her eyes, reaching out to grab him by the foot and pull him back to the spire again.
"Thanks," Tai said grudgingly, feeling a little stupid...but his good spirits quickly recovered, and he grinned. "We're kicking this thing's tail!"
"It doesn't have a tail, Tai," WarGreymon pointed out.
"Oh...right..."
"And I somehow don't think that it's going to be that easy," MetalGarurumon mused.
"He's right," Togemon agreed. "It never is."
At that moment, a fresh wave of the mist shot toward them like a sudden tsunami.
"Oh, no!" Mimi yelled, her eyes going huge as the black fog towered over them.
"I hate it when we're right," Togemon and WarGreymon chorused.
"ICE WOLF CLAW!"
"NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"TERRA FORCE! You kids had better run, and fast!" WarGreymon added as his attack exploded among the waves of virus, obliterating a large area...which was filled almost instantly with more of the stuff, coming from below.
"Right," Tai agreed, and looked at the others. "We'd better link hands, so we don't get separated."
"I call the middle," Matt said immediately. "I'm no good at this."
"Neither am I!" Tai protested, but before he could say anything else, the other two had linked up and pushed off, and he was dragged along. "Hey! I'm supposed to be the leeeeeeeeaderrrrrr!" Tai shouted as he flew through the 'air', with Mimi mostly controlling their direction and Matt helping to push off with his legs.
"Then stop whining and lead!" Mimi shouted back. Tai blinked.
*She's right...I've done nothing but complain since we got here,* he thought, surprised at himself. *This was my idea...I'd better prove that it was worth having.* His face set in a determined look, and he grinned as a surge of courage made his crest blink with a split second of orange light.
"Thanks; I think I will."
With that, he got a better grip on Matt's arm, so that he was part of the machine and not just extra baggage. As the next obstacle in their passage, a Ferris wheel, loomed ahead of them, he watched the others and kicked off of it at the same time that they did. Shooting away at an even greater speed, they whizzed toward a solid wall of data.
"Oh, great," Matt yelled. "We're gonna crash!"
"What now, Boss Man?" Mimi shouted.
Tai thought quickly...and it hit him. "We've got to turn backwards! Wave your legs, like this!" He imitated the fishtailing motions he'd made earlier as he'd drifted away from the spire. "We can stop ourselves against it and push off in the other direction!"
Matt and Mimi didn't waste breath talking about it; they just nodded and began to kick wildly. Gradually, they rotated in mid-trajectory...
"NOW!" Tai bellowed, and they bent their legs and landed with a painful slam against the surface...but not nearly so painful as it would have been, head-on. Their bent knees absorbed the shock; in about a tenth of a second, they had kicked out and were heading off at a right angle to the way they'd came, almost straight 'up' the side of the wall.
"I think you're getting the hang of this," Matt admitted with a wince as he stretched his aching legs.
"Don't thank me," Tai panted back. "We're not out of this yet."
"What?" Mimi said, confused.
"Look behind you," Tai said. Mimi obliged...and gasped.
The Digimon were speeding toward them, firing shots off behind themselves as they flew...and close on their heels was the biggest mass of the virus they'd seen yet.
"Izzy, how much of this stuff *is* there?!" Tai yelled at nothing. Nothing didn't reply, of course; Izzy couldn't hear him, any more than Tai could have heard an answer. Matt, however, already had one for him.
"A lot," he wheezed. "A whole freaking lot. Tai, if we're gonna get out of this in one piece, we're going to have to think of something...fast."
_____
(Well, folks, there's seven more finished chapters to this thing...but if y'all want 'em, somebody has to tell me Aquilamon's attack! I've utterly forgotten it! Geesh, I'm more of an airhead than Mimi...well, I guess it's from all the stories frolicking about in my head. M_~* This one actually doesn't frolic so much as run madly from place to place, screaming, and doing short romantic scenes. Oh, well. Somebody please review and tell me the attack! -Bandit yori)
"-ill," Tai finished lamely, and sighed. "Well, so much for that...whoa!" he exclaimed, staring around himself. Matt and Mimi were already doing that.
The Internet was a strangely beautiful place, without all those ugly virus things running around like an infestation of digital cockroaches, the way they were the last time he'd been there. It was composed of waterfalls of 0s and 1s, strange spires of soft- and hardware, and whorls of data, with odd stuff that resembled carnival paraphernalia floating everywhere; carousels, Ferris wheels, and streamers of colorful information. Tai took a 'step' forward, felt a moment of startled dizziness as he tilted forward instead moving ahead, then looked down-and flinched, as he realized that he was standing on absolutely nothing.
"Ack!"
"Hey, neat!" Mimi exclaimed, pushing off of a nearby spire and turning herself upside down. Gravity didn't seem to apply in this world, which was a good thing; Mimi was wearing a skirt.
"Man...let me try!" Matt said, and grabbed a nearby streamer, pulling himself along it like a climbing rope in gym class. "Sweet..." he said, and kicked off of a free-floating spiral of pink material. It flew one way as he flew the other, doing involuntary cartwheels. "Whooooooooooooooaaaaa-oof! $#*%!!!" he yelled, flying dizzily through space and impacting with Tai head-on. They bounced off each other in opposite directions, cursing and floundering.
Mimi was doubled over with laughter, holding on to a carousel horse to keep from floating away. "You guys are so dumb!" she giggled, and kicked off, shooting gracefully through space as she turned in mid-'air' to land feet first on a nearby sheet of numbers, then pushing off again. She caught Matt by the arm, and the opposing momentum sent them into a pin-wheeling tailspin until Mimi stopped them neatly against another spire.
"See? Piece of cake," she said cheerfully.
Matt's eyes seemed to be having trouble focusing. "Cake...ri-ight," he moaned, trying to get the world to stop spinning.
Tai, meanwhile, had managed to brake himself against a Ferris wheel.
"Stop the 'Net, I wanna get off..." he moaned. "It was a heck of a lot easier when we had Omnimon to ride on."
"Hey, Tai, you're upside down," Mimi called. Tai frowned, looking over at his friends. They appeared to be hanging heads-downward from a spire some distance away.
"I am not!" he yelled back. "You are!"
"We both are!" she giggled. It was then that Tai realized something he hadn't noticed before; there was no such thing as up or down in this screwed-up world. He felt a dizzying rush of nausea as vertigo made his head spin...
"Tai! Tai, are you all right?"
Tai blinked. "Agumon...?"
The little Digimon's face came into focus, looking concernedly back at him.
"Tai, speak to me!"
"I-I'm fine," Tai said, rubbing his head. "I just need to...adjust..." He suddenly snapped out of his daze. "Agumon! When did you get here?"
"Just now," the dinosaur Digimon chirped. "Palmon and Gabumon are over there. C'mon!" He shoved off, flying quickly through the air. Tai yelped.
"Hey! Slow down! I'm not very good at this yet!"
"He's not *any* good at it!" Mimi cheerfully supplied from where she perched on her spire, still mind-bogglingly 'upside-down'. Palmon was floating next to her.
"Oh, shut up," Tai muttered. "I'm starting to wish we hadn't brought the little hot-shot..."
"What happened, man?" Matt said, suddenly seeming to appear at Tai's shoulder. Tai jumped with surprise, then realized that his friend had flown over with Gabumon's help. "You kind of spaced out for a few minutes...the Digimon arrived while you were swaying like a drunk duck."
"Sorry," Tai said, looking embarrassed. "I'll be all right now."
"Good," Matt said, glancing down and suddenly becoming very serious, "because I think I see the Welcome Wagon approaching..."
Tai followed his gaze...and spotted a viscous-looking black haze, bubbling up from the spires and carnival gear floating below his feet. Mimi gave a little cry of alarm and kicked off, speeding over to the boys with Palmon at her heels.
"What now?" she said, looking worriedly at Tai as she stopped her trajectory against a pillar of data.
Tai grinned; *now* he was in his element.
"We fight," he said, and grabbed his Digivice. "Agumon, Digivolve!"
The other two followed suit.
"Agumon, Warp-Digivolve to...WarGreymon!"
"Gabumon, Warp-Digivolve to...MetalGarurumon!"
"Palmon, Digivolve to...Togemon!"
Mimi sighed, shaking her head. "I *wish* I had a Mega level, too...it's so much more convenient."
"Are you saying I'm inconvenient?" Togemon thundered, looking hurt.
"Oh, no, not at all!" Mimi exclaimed. "It's just that it would be nice to be able to Warp-Digivolve, that's all..."
"Can't argue with you there," Togemon agreed, and turned back to the approaching virus. "Still, gotta do my best. How about some NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"TERRA FORCE!"
"ICE WOLF CLAW!"
The attacks burst in showers of colored light against the front line of the oncoming mist. Large sections of it dissolved, and the Digidestined cheered, pumping their fists in victory. Tai mistakenly let go of the spire he was holding to wave his arms and cheer in victory, and began to slowly drift away, flapping his limbs uselessly and only managing to turn himself 'upside-down' again.
"Oh, pay attention," Mimi muttered with a roll of her eyes, reaching out to grab him by the foot and pull him back to the spire again.
"Thanks," Tai said grudgingly, feeling a little stupid...but his good spirits quickly recovered, and he grinned. "We're kicking this thing's tail!"
"It doesn't have a tail, Tai," WarGreymon pointed out.
"Oh...right..."
"And I somehow don't think that it's going to be that easy," MetalGarurumon mused.
"He's right," Togemon agreed. "It never is."
At that moment, a fresh wave of the mist shot toward them like a sudden tsunami.
"Oh, no!" Mimi yelled, her eyes going huge as the black fog towered over them.
"I hate it when we're right," Togemon and WarGreymon chorused.
"ICE WOLF CLAW!"
"NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"TERRA FORCE! You kids had better run, and fast!" WarGreymon added as his attack exploded among the waves of virus, obliterating a large area...which was filled almost instantly with more of the stuff, coming from below.
"Right," Tai agreed, and looked at the others. "We'd better link hands, so we don't get separated."
"I call the middle," Matt said immediately. "I'm no good at this."
"Neither am I!" Tai protested, but before he could say anything else, the other two had linked up and pushed off, and he was dragged along. "Hey! I'm supposed to be the leeeeeeeeaderrrrrr!" Tai shouted as he flew through the 'air', with Mimi mostly controlling their direction and Matt helping to push off with his legs.
"Then stop whining and lead!" Mimi shouted back. Tai blinked.
*She's right...I've done nothing but complain since we got here,* he thought, surprised at himself. *This was my idea...I'd better prove that it was worth having.* His face set in a determined look, and he grinned as a surge of courage made his crest blink with a split second of orange light.
"Thanks; I think I will."
With that, he got a better grip on Matt's arm, so that he was part of the machine and not just extra baggage. As the next obstacle in their passage, a Ferris wheel, loomed ahead of them, he watched the others and kicked off of it at the same time that they did. Shooting away at an even greater speed, they whizzed toward a solid wall of data.
"Oh, great," Matt yelled. "We're gonna crash!"
"What now, Boss Man?" Mimi shouted.
Tai thought quickly...and it hit him. "We've got to turn backwards! Wave your legs, like this!" He imitated the fishtailing motions he'd made earlier as he'd drifted away from the spire. "We can stop ourselves against it and push off in the other direction!"
Matt and Mimi didn't waste breath talking about it; they just nodded and began to kick wildly. Gradually, they rotated in mid-trajectory...
"NOW!" Tai bellowed, and they bent their legs and landed with a painful slam against the surface...but not nearly so painful as it would have been, head-on. Their bent knees absorbed the shock; in about a tenth of a second, they had kicked out and were heading off at a right angle to the way they'd came, almost straight 'up' the side of the wall.
"I think you're getting the hang of this," Matt admitted with a wince as he stretched his aching legs.
"Don't thank me," Tai panted back. "We're not out of this yet."
"What?" Mimi said, confused.
"Look behind you," Tai said. Mimi obliged...and gasped.
The Digimon were speeding toward them, firing shots off behind themselves as they flew...and close on their heels was the biggest mass of the virus they'd seen yet.
"Izzy, how much of this stuff *is* there?!" Tai yelled at nothing. Nothing didn't reply, of course; Izzy couldn't hear him, any more than Tai could have heard an answer. Matt, however, already had one for him.
"A lot," he wheezed. "A whole freaking lot. Tai, if we're gonna get out of this in one piece, we're going to have to think of something...fast."
_____
(Well, folks, there's seven more finished chapters to this thing...but if y'all want 'em, somebody has to tell me Aquilamon's attack! I've utterly forgotten it! Geesh, I'm more of an airhead than Mimi...well, I guess it's from all the stories frolicking about in my head. M_~* This one actually doesn't frolic so much as run madly from place to place, screaming, and doing short romantic scenes. Oh, well. Somebody please review and tell me the attack! -Bandit yori)