Taichi: Protector Of Fire
[A/N: Long live Taichi, the
pyromaniac! Will Kari survive her brush
with the one digimon that is completely of the darkness, or will the Light
truly die?]
[Disclaimer: Don't own.]
"PEPPER BREATH!" Agumon shouted, trying to save Kari. "Hand of Rime!" Shinji counteracted, and a ball of ice in the shape of a fireball fell to the ground.
"Kari!"
Tai shouted, starting towards the Fallen Child. "Ah, ah, ah!" Shinji flicked out a clawed finger, "One more step
and her throat gets slit!"
"Kari…"
Tai whispered, fearful for his sister.
Kari
choked weakly and tried to move the clawed hands around her neck. Shinji squeezed tighter, absolutely gleeful
at the thought of Kari dying. "The
dying of the Light is indeed beautiful!" she laughed, "I can't wait to kill
your little boyfriend!"
Very
suddenly, she froze. Her grip around
Kari's neck slightly loosened, but very little. "Fire…" the Fallen Child murmured, "How could Fire be here?" Shinji looked up and then towards the other
Digi-destined.
"Tai?"
Matt looked towards his friend, "Tai, what's the matter?" Tai's eyes were closed, his hands gripping
opposite shoulders tightly. He grit his
teeth and his muscles literally bulged. An aura of fiery energy surrounded the twelve-year-old—but he didn't
look twelve years old anymore. His body
appeared to age rapidly, to that of a seventeen-year-olds.
In
a flash of his fire energy, his old clothes were gone and replaced by a large,
beaten-up, studded black leather jacket and baggy blue jeans. Large boots were on his feet and studded
gloves with the fingers cut off appeared on his hands. The now-teenager opened his eyes, and
instead of his normal brown eyes, small flames were there.
"I
am not Tai!" Tai shouted, "I am Taichi, the Protector of Fire!"
Shinji
dropped Kari, who ran away as quickly as she could. "Oh dammit." Shinji sighed rather sarcastically, "Looks like I've
finally got a real rival."
"Damn
right!" Taichi raised his fists, "I'm gonna kick your ass!" "Oh really?" Shinji grinned slowly. There was a loud 'THUD' sound, and Taichi
gagged as Shinji's fist sank into his bare stomach. He flew back a few feet and coughed, dropping to his knees.
"Oh,
what power." Shinji smirked, "I thought the great Fire Protector would be a bit
more of a challenge." Tai lifted his
head slightly with a grin and his inferno eyes flashed with power.
"PINNACLE
OF INFERNO!" he shouted, throwing up his gloved hands. A tornado of flames appeared around his
hands and was thrown at Shinji. She
vanished in the inferno, and when flames disappeared, she was gone.
"Is
this all the Fire Protector is?" Shinji's hand gripped Taichi's head tight, "I
don't believe that you are supposed to be the Digi-destined leader." Taichi seemed frozen with fear, but he
grinned.
"FURY
PUNCH!" the Protector of Fire shouted. Flames appeared around his right hand, and he punched backwards.
Shinji
gagged in pain as the attack burned through cloth and skin. A spurt of blood dripped down through her
clothes and she fell back. "Eye of The
Devil!" Taichi grinned and opened his eyes wide. Beams of fire energy shot from the flames that were his eyes and
slammed into the wound in Shinji's side.
"How
could you possibly develop your powers in such a short time?" she moaned with
pain, "It took five years for me to get my powers as they are." "Look at my body." Taichi grabbed her
collar, "I have made myself age, made myself develop. We Protectors must be at a certain stage in our development for
our powers to truly manifest."
"HAND
OF RIME!" Shinji slammed her attack into Taichi's face. The Protector of Fire fell back with a face
full of ice, and Shinji phased out of sight.
A
large Tyrannomon was patrolling the front gates of the castle. He was feeling exceptionally good about
himself; he had just been moved up to the head of the guards, and felt like he
could take on the master Shinji herself. Suddenly, he spotted a speck of black coming up towards the castle. "IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" the Tyrannomon roared.
Shinji
slowly made her way up the hill towards the castle. With each excruciating step, she moaned, "Ow…ow…ow…" Spots of blood followed with each step, from
the burn wound from Taichi. "That
damned Protector." she thought angrily, "I'll get back at him if it's the last
thing I ever do."
The
Tyrannomon gasped when he saw who it was. He ran forwards and stumbled alongside Shinji. "Master Shinji!" he gasped in awe, "I, I didn't know it was you! Is there—there anything I can do, 'cause I'm
always able to lend a hand and—"
Shinji,
irritated with the idiot Champion digimon, smacked him hard in the nose. Tyrannomon flew into a far-off cliff, and
Shinji continued up towards the castle. "We need a new head of guards." she made a note to mention that, pending
she made it into the castle anyway.
"…and
the tributes are all coming in quite nicely." a Datamon said in a monotone
voice, "There don't seem to be any more struggles to keep the money." Ladydevimon and Devimon appeared very bored
with the whole report.
"Hasn't
it been an awfully long time for Shinji to be gone?" Ladydevimon asked after
the Datamon left, "She should have destroyed the Digi-destined by now."
The
door creaked open and Devimon snapped, "We heard the report already, now—"
Shinji
slowly walked up the hallway. Every
step made her lose more blood; she was weak, shaking, pale, and sweating from
all the blood loss. Her parents…they
would help…they would…
Shinji
pushed the door opened with the last remaining shot of energy in her body and
leaned against the doorway. Her
father's words reached her ears, but she couldn't decipher them…
"The-the
Protector of Fire…has…awakened…" she groaned, just before fading into
blackness.
Ladydevimon
and Devimon dashed to their daughter. "How did she get this burn?" Ladydevimon wondered as she carefully held
her daughter in her arms, "It couldn't have been the digimon…" "The Protector of Fire has awakened."
Devimon said angrily, "Taichi has realized his powers. That is how Shinji received that burn."
"No!"
Ladydevimon gasped, "That's not possible!" Devimon growled angrily and said softly, "Take care of her, she's lost
almost all her blood." He stormed away,
leaving his unconscious and possibly dying daughter, and a stunned Ladydevimon.
……"Father?"……
"Father,
what are the Protectors?"
"The
Protectors?" "Yes, the people we are to
destroy. What are they?"
Shinji
couldn't move, but she could watch and hear what was going on. When she was seventeen, close to being the
perfect warrior…she had asked about the Protectors… Devimon let out a sigh and tried to recall exactly what he
memorized before his deletion.
"The
Protectors are digimon without the term 'mon' at the end of their name." he
began to explain, "It signifies that they are born digimon that were not
hatched at Primary Village. But those
digimon are able to control their power without having to digivolve. And the Protectors are the
Digi-destined. They take their own
elements and use them for energy and power. When their power is realized, their bodies must be at a certain stage of
development for them to handle their power. That is why I am training you so hard."
…"Shinji?"…
Shinji
slowly woke back into the world of darkness in which she lived. "Shinji?" the voice said again. Shinji looked up into the rather worried
face of her mother. "How long have I
been unconscious?" the Fallen Child murmured. "Just a little more than a month." Ladydevimon absently stroked her
daughter's hair, "That burn was very severe." Shinji blinked once and then glanced down towards her left side. A large, slightly reddened bandage was about
her torso.
"Just
another scar in the many I've received." she sighed without thought, "Training
and life, the place where scars happen." "I have…" Ladydevimon said slowly, softly, "Bad news. Taichi has gotten almost all of the
Digi-destined to realize their Protector origins. The only ones left are the Children of Light."
"Shinji."
Devimon's baritone voice called out from the doorway. The Fallen Child sat up and held the place of the burn wound,
facing her father. "I have something to
give you." the demon said with a dark grin.
TK
collapsed to his knees, panting with exhaustion. "C'mon, TK." Yamato said in a normal tone, "You've gotta unleash
your power."
"I
can't!" TK moaned, "I just can't!" Taichi and Yamato sighed and look over towards the other Digi-destined,
or Protectors as they were. Sora
continually fiddled about with making small gusts and breezes, and Mimi amused
herself by shifting the earth beneath the others' feet without warning.
Taichi
shot a glance towards his…you could call Yamato his boyfriend if you wanted
to. Yamato had been the second to come
to his powers, growing into the beautiful Protector of Ice within a few
seconds. His hair had lengthened to his
waist, and he had gotten into the habit of tying it back. His blond bangs fell into his face and over
his literal ice eyes. His clothes had
changed in a flash of ice, just like Taichi's had done. He wore a fading, navy-blue trenchcoat with
his trademark tan gloves, loose, blue silk shirt, fading black slacks, and soft
brown shoes. Always the stylish person,
Yamato.
The
other Protectors had a style all their own as well. Mimi, Protector of Earth wore the usual for her, a dress and
stylish shoes. Her hat had vanished in
the earth transformation, leaving her long, golden-brown hair free to the
wind. She actually liked it after the
metamorphosis, letting the wind blow through her hair. She wore small sandals, but preferred to go
barefoot when she could. Her earthen-colored
dress was long, to her ankles, and was without sleeves. Also, with the transformation, her eyes were
as a small circle of earthen-color.
Sora
remained the tomboyish girl she always had been when she aged the five years
for true realization of her powers. Her
eyes, a literal clear cyclone, showed her as the Protector of Wind. Her skin-tight, faded nearly to white jeans
went perfectly well with her loose sandals that seemed closely identical to
Mimi's. Her hands were no longer
covered by her red gloves, but bare and cool to the touch. Her hair remained rather short, and her
blasted bike helmet vanished in the windswept metamorphosis, replaced by a
white spaghetti strap shirt.
Taichi
glanced over towards Jyou, the Protector of Water. It was arguable that Jyou had been the most changed of all of
them. He wore a three-quarter vest that
rode up to the middle of his stomach and hung on his muscularly cut torso. He was slim, taller, and no longer needed
his glasses. His hair had gotten
longer, but only to hang about his neck and fall in front of his water-droplet
eyes. His pants had gone from sensible
khakis, to worn and slashed army-style camouflage pants with combat boots. Yes, he was the most changed.
Koushiro,
the Protector of Lightning…looked like a goth. He wore a long cloak, as he had grown very much in the aging
process. He wore a long-sleeved, gray,
button-down shirt that was tucked loosely into baggy black slacks that led down
to sneaker-like gray shoes. His eyes
constantly flashed with bolts of lightning.
And
yet, TK and Kari were the only ones that remained unable to obtain their
powers. It was strange.
Ladydevimon
was worried. Certainly, any mother
would be. Their daughter had just
awoken from a month-long unconsciousness, and then, had been taken away once
more. A heavy footstep sounded her mate
and her daughter's return. Two minutes,
just two minutes had passed, but when Ladydevimon looked upon her daughter's
face…
She
nearly let out a scream of horror.
