Author's Note: It does take me a long time to write these things. Doesn't it? In any case I want to apologize for any HTML errors that may occur, I am not writing this in my usual location. In addition, since I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow, nothing is really going to go up for a bit. I try to keep a bit ahead, and what I'm on now has made me stuck.
Thanks to those people who took their time to review.
Episode VIII
Truth and Beauty
"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
Ode on a Grecian Urn
John Keats
"That was great." Biyomon rubbed her
stomach as she digested lunch. "So now what?"
"We start moving again." Tai seemed to have
lost some of his urgency, but he was still pressing everyone pretty hard,
as the ragged state of their postures was beginning to show. "Matt,
you get point. Sora, you take the right. I'll get the left.
Let's go, right?"
Matt nodded, trotting off with Gabumon to
form the point guard. Sora and Biyomon smiled and nodded, walking
off to the right into the woods that formed one side of the path.
Tai watched this for a moment, fiddling with his pockets before pacing
off with Agumon into the brown grasses that rose to his shoulder, marking
the other side of the path. It was these guard positions that they
had begun to assume after a few days of travel, that helped keep them both
aware and safe. Izzy always stayed with the main group to keep track
of everybody (his tendency to operate his laptop at all times prevented
him from being a truly effective lookout) and to coordinate everybody.
The last day of travel had been quiet, nobody
coming near enough to detect or worry about, but they still kept their
guard up. After all, they were in the middle of what could be widely
considered unfriendly territory by all parties involved.
"So how close are we Izzy?" Joe asked.
He knew that the red haired computer expert was in the habit of keeping
certain upsetting information from their leader, who was still having problems
with self-control.
"I actually don't know." Izzy shrugged uneasily.
"I do estimate however that we are still quite far from our objective."
"How far?" Mimi asked curiously.
"Once again, I'm not sure. It will definitely
take several days of travel, but we might also be talking about weeks or
months. It is nearly impossible to tell without better methods, but
I don't dare do anything that could give away our position."
"Don't worry Mimi, I'm sure that we'll be
able to do it." Palmon sounded exceedingly happy about the whole situation.
"It's not that. I just was curious as
to how long we'll have to travel."
"As long as it takes Mimi." Joe laid one hand
on her shoulder gently. "As long as it takes." He ignored Gomamon's
curious look.
"Hey Joe?" the marine Digimon spoke up after
a few moments.
"What is it buddy?"
"You've changed a lot, haven't you.
I mean you're a lot more confident now, right?"
"I guess so Gomamon. I guess so." Joe
laughed unevenly.
"Well, do you still do stupid things that
I can make fun of, or do I have to find something else to make jokes about?"
"What stupid things?" Joe stopped.
"Oh, never mind…" Gomamon increased his speed,
pulling slightly ahead of the group, temporarily ignoring the presence
of the others.
"What do you mean stupid things? Gomamon…you…get
back here, I'm talking to you." Suddenly becoming aware of the variety
of laughter that the others were providing as a backdrop to the whole affair,
Joe sighed and hung his head. "I never win."
"Heads up guys. Matt's found something."
Izzy picked up his laptop with somewhat more enthusiasm this time.
The others stopped laughing immediately and gathered around, keeping a
nervous eye looking outward.
"He says it's a Meramon, and it looks friendly.
He and Gabumon should be able to handle it if anything goes wrong, but
Tai's coming up around the flanks if anything should happen that he can't
handle. We should probably close up too. Zudomon is our heavy
artillery for now."
"Right." Joe looked more confident, and he
grabbed his D3 from his belt quickly. Gomamon started off, and the
others quickly followed behind him. They moved quickly, weaving between
cover and always keeping something between themselves and the direction
that they were going, frequently crawling along on their hands and knees
as they moved.
"All clear." Matt's voice echoed cheerfully
from up ahead, and they stood up to see the rock star waving cheerfully
at them, his hair standing out in the midday sunlight. The light
shining on him was positively dancing in his hair.
The Meramon was standing there, fires roaring
over his body, but otherwise he appeared to be a rather calm Digimon.
Tai was already there, looking down at the Digimon from the top of a small
hill with Agumon at his side. Off in the other direction a piece
of brush rustled and Sora emerged into the light, blinking a little as
she watched the unknown stand there. There was a temporary truce
it seemed, as one champion stood there watching six humans and six rookies
stare back.
"It's all right guys." Matt exclaimed to them.
"This guy wants to help us stop Daemon. He says that he's been hiding
out in a house nearby, and he offered to take us there for the night.
It's in the right direction, so why not?"
Something annoying buzzed in Mimi's ear.
But it was Sora who voiced her silent suspicions. "And how do we
know that we can trust him?"
Meramon shrugged at them. "It's up to
you, but I have no reason to lie. Only a fool would follow that madman
Daemon anywhere except to a barbecue. I have no truck with him, and
he'll get short change out of me if he ever comes near me again.
You might as well come this way. Word has it that you're headed off
to Pinnacle, and if so, you're going to be headed in the right direction.
Besides, I know a secret way to get there."
That uncomfortable buzzing sound began again.
Mimi shook her head to try and rid herself of the sound, but it steadfastly
refused to go away.
"Well, I believe him guys." Matt stated.
Tai nodded, as did Sora. Joe shrugged and Izzy, ever attentive to
his computer, was scanning the surroundings. Mimi just shrugged and
tried to ignore her inner disquiet.
Despite what Meramon had claimed about being
nearby, the house was actually quite a ways away, fortunately in the right
direction. As they walked along the feeling of irritation and buzzing
refused to go away, but it faded to such an extent that Mimi could barely
hear it, and, as a result, was only mildly phased by its insistence.
"Anyway, here it is!" Meramon exclaimed.
"Wow!" Tai exulted. "It's great!"
It was indeed impressive. Instead of being open and exposed,
it was actually built into what looked like an enormous tree, with a trunk
and branches the size of an apartment building. It easily mounted
the banks of windows and balconies that dotted its trunk like some odd
swarm of insects that had assaulted the tree. Wind blew gently through
the leaves, rustling them, and leaving it with a peaceful feeling, a well
disguised structure in a patch of trees.
"I like it." Biyomon exclaimed.
Mimi still felt the buzzing sound, but she
ignored it, preferring to dwell on how happy her companions were at this
sudden benefit. They had been getting tired of sleeping outdoors
again, especially after it had rained on them one night. Now, the
prospect of a night in a house with beds, and the possibility of real food,
was giving any other consideration the back burner.
"Right this way." Meramon gestured grandly
and two huge doors, crafted it seemed out of the tree itself creaked open
slowly, responding to their presence. Beyond the doors they could
see a brightly lit hall, illuminated by giant chandeliers attached to the
ceiling, trailing decorative glass like a rain of diamonds. Crimson
carpets decorated the floor and the sides of the walls were decorated with
a gentle gleam that reminded Mimi of Mother-of-Pearl. "I know it
looks grand, but most of it is fake anyway. The former owners wanted
it to look nice, so they decorated it like this."
"I'm still impressed." Palmon murmured under
her breath.
"Me too." Sora was staring at the depth of
the carpet, which seemed soft enough that they might accidentally lose
Gomamon in it or something.
"I find the decorations positively stimulating."
Izzy ran one hand up and down one polished wall, resorting to extreme verbosity
to express his approval. Tentomon looked like he would have rolled
his eyes had it been possible, but refused to make a comment.
"I'm glad you like it." Meramon smiled at
them, although it was a little hard to see with all that flame. "Why
don't I show you where the guest rooms are."
"How do you know about us?" Mimi asked, still
trying to get rid of that buzzing sound. No matter what she did it
seemed determined to stay off at the edge of her perception, waiting for
her to notice it. The presence of Meramon only seemed to encourage
it.
"You're quite famous here. You're the
kids that beat the Dark Masters, and later helped defeat the powers of
MaloMyotismon. When Daemon revealed that he was looking out for a
group of kids and Digimon working together, I knew that you guys were the
only ones who it could be. Then word came down through some of the
other Digimon in the forest that the Digidestined were in my area.
Naturally I came out to take a look and see what was happening."
"I didn't know we were that famous." Tai commented.
"Oh, you better believe it. None of
us had ever seen anything like that before. You did wonders."
"Yeah, we are kinda great, aren't we." Agumon
definitely looked pleased with himself.
"Oh please." Murmured Biyomon, trying to look
away from the small lizard.
"Here we go again." Gabumon sighed.
"I guess we are sorta cool." Matt remarked,
examining a picture of a tree on one wall, both hands in his pockets in
the posture that Tai had been calling the 'cool rock-star posture'.
"Matt…" Sora protested.
Meramon went on smiling and directed them
down a hallway to a set of oaken doors with gold inlay Each door
led to a separate room, each laid out in much the same way. Although
outshone by the decorations in the grand hall, the simple wood and quilt
type decorations of each individual room were welcoming, a great help to
those who had spent too much time sleeping out in the open under the stars.
Mounted with heaps of soft, fluffy blankets the beds looked especially
welcome and inviting to the traveling heroes.
"You can feel free to choose your own rooms.
There are bathrooms at each end of the hall. I'm honored to have
you here, but nobody else really lives here except for a few Veggiemon,
and they're too shy to come out and see us, so you should be undisturbed.
I'll go see if I can get us some dinner, and we'll ring the bell downstairs
when it's ready."
"Girl's get the bathroom at that end." Sora
called, pointing at the south end of the hall.
"Fine with us." Matt commented, turning around.
"I hope they have plenty of hot water here, because I need a bath like
none other."
"Amen." Tai muttered, his face suddenly turning
completely innocent as Matt directed a scathing glare his way.
"Maybe we should wait a little." Joe suggested,
as the boys walked off toward their end. Izzy nodded mutely, recognizing
that Tai and Matt's continuing exchange of looks would only lead to a large
quantity of water being splashed around later.
Fortunately whoever had designed the bathrooms
had anticipated the need of tired travelers to soak themselves nearly into
oblivion. There was a wonderful hot tub in the girl's end that looked
more like a swimming pool than any indoor tub feature that Mimi had ever
seen. Steam curled from the water in one end, and at the other it
was brisk and cool, ready to plunge any unwary bather back into instant
alertness. Fluffy towels dotted both ends of the room, which was
covered in cream-colored tile, glowing invitingly. It took about
two hours for the four of them to soak themselves free of the bruises and
battering of their quest, and to assure themselves that they were truly
clean, indulging in the massage of gently moving hot water.
Mimi was almost fully dressed again when she
noticed that the buzzing had temporarily disappeared, and that the normal
sounds of the background had returned. Cheerfully, she put the rest
of her clothes on, clothes that they had just painstakingly cleaned and
dried in the hot atmosphere of the bath area. Sora made a noise of
contentment, one that was quickly echoed by the two Digimon, before she
leaned back against the wall, still basking in the heated air blowing off
the pool.
"Hey Sora…" Mimi asked tentatively.
"Yeah Mimi. What's on your mind?"
"Well, I was just wondering. Am I better
traveling companion than I was the first time here? I mean, well…you
remember how I was."
Sora turned over and gave Mimi the smile that
demonstrated the reason TK and Kari both thought of her as their second
mother. "I remember like it was yesterday. But you grew out
of it, didn't you? I'm sure that I became a better traveling companion
too as time went by. And you're really much better than you used
to be."
"Oh, thanks. I was just wondering because
it still seems like I end up with the least work and try to avoid the most
stuff."
"You're easygoing Mimi." Palmon sounded like
she was one step away from asleep. A quite small step.
"Yeah, it's just the way you are, and the
other guys respect that. Everyone knows that you'll do your part
when the crunch is on. Don't worry about it, it's just part of growing
up, you start feeling uncertain." Sora closed her eyes again.
"I wish I were like you Sora. You're
always so confident." Mimi traced patterns of her unconscious' devising
in the surface of the ceiling.
Sora snickered. "You obviously have
no idea. You should try the view from in here, it looks a lot worse
than anything you imagine."
Mimi just sighed.
The six humans and their six companions managed
to get inside the dining hall before the buzzing began again. If
it was not for the huge table of a dark polished wood lurking in the middle
of the room, dominating the room by the sheer virtue of being out of place,
the room would be indistinguishable from the main hall. Everyone
was feeling greatly refreshed and looked clean, except for some out of
place hair and slightly wet clothing on the behalf of Matt and Tai, who
were still exchanging rather significant glances. Joe and Izzy kept
rolling their eyes whenever that happened, but they were all ready to get
on with whatever was happening. When the deep-toned bell had rung
out, echoing over the building, all twelve of them had boiled out of their
respective areas, stomachs grumbling uncomfortably, ready to go feed themselves.
Meramon nodded to them as they came in, motioning
to the magnificent spread of food laid out on the table. Mimi sat
down with the others, but almost immediately the buzzing became so insistent
that she knew something was wrong. As the others set to, she looked
up at their host, and noticed another detail about the room that had somehow
escaped her before.
"What are those?" Mimi pointed with one hand
curiously.
Meramon turned and an unrecognizable expression
flitted across his face. "I truly don't know. I expect that
those were the former owners of this house. I found this building
abandoned some years ago." Jerking with his chin, he gestured towards
the two gray monuments in the corner. Any sculptor alive would have
been proud to have had the talent to sculpt those three figures, a Leomon,
an Ogremon and a Centarumon, each a perfect portrait of their true-life
models. Yet, those selfsame sculptors would also doubtlessly scratch
their heads in wonder at why such a talented artist had chosen to do the
entire affair in gray stone instead of in some more majestic medium.
Nevertheless, the talent that had gone into the art was astonishing for
its attention to detail and level of completeness. Mimi could feel
though that the peculiar buzzing sound seemed to originate from around
that area.
"Are you all right Mimi? You're not
eating." Palmon looked concerned.
"I don't know…I feel…"this time the buzzing
faded to be replaced by a wave of subtle wrongness that struck her like
a wave at the beach. She stood up unsteadily, feeling the emotional
roller coaster that was raging in her head reach down into her inner ear
and send her balance sprawling. "I think that I better go lay down."
She staggered off towards the room that she had mentally marked as hers
while the others watched her go in open shock.
By the time she got to the room, the sense
had faded, but something else was beginning to settle in. She knew
that something was wrong, but she had no idea what it was, and no idea
what it really meant, and that made her confused. Even though she
could feel it in her bones, her bones refused to impart to her any information
that would allow her to take any action. All she had were her feelings,
nothing that would stand up to determined examination, nothing that could
set her fears to rest either. Truth be told, she really did not have
the faintest idea what she was afraid of other than the usual premonitions
of vague disaster.
But the others saw this place as a kind of
heaven. After all, they needed some kind of rest in the middle of
their quest, did they not? It was all very well to go slogging through
the mud and the cold until your legs are half covered with dirt and goo,
and the only way that you can clean them results in your lower extremities
starting to freeze off, as long as you have no other choice. Rising
in the morning and realizing that you had been sleeping on a tree root,
and had a bend in your back the size of a bowling ball was acceptable if
that was all you could do. But, when presented with habitation that
was more civilized in nature, was it possible for them to stand aside and
let it pass on a feeling? Mimi was certain that there was no way
that she could get them to leave in any way, shape or form, not without
something more concrete. After all, she only had her feelings, and
they had been wrong so many times before that she could not truly count
them.
The sudden realization that the others would
act to dismiss, to declare irrelevant all of that which was troubling her
heart, that they would go so far as to actively ignore her and pass judgment
upon her that would be completely unflattering, struck at her heavily.
After all, she was traditionally the one who was the flightiest in the
group, and it would be the easiest to dismiss her deepest fears as unfounded
flights of fancy. Her heart contracted and expanded like a series
of explosions as the realization that she might be considered nothing more
than an empty-headed piece of fluff entered her mind and struck right at
the center of her being.
There was a knock on the door.
"Mimi, it's Joe. Are you all right?"
Calm and familiar, the voice floating through the door cut through the
heart of her depression and into the center of the mind that still belonged
to her.
"Sure. I'm fine." Mimi quickly used
her sleeve to dash the tears from her eyes, shaking them angrily on the
floor.
"Can I come in?" he asked, ever the gentleman.
"Of course."
Joe entered calmly, professionally, every
movement correct and friendly, although somehow a little distant.
His time volunteering at the local hospital had indeed changed him in many
ways, one of them being the way he approached what could be called business
situations. Palmon came along too, and she was definitely upset at
the fact that her partner had taken off in the middle of dinner.
"So how are you feeling?" Joe asked, checking
her face carefully and calmly, giving her a reassuring smile.
"I'm fine Joe. You don't have to worry.
It was nothing like that. Really. I think it was all inside
my head." The way in which the tears must have reflected in her eyes must
have registered on Joe because he narrowed his eyes.
"I see. One of those. You want
to talk?" It was an offer, but it was, in a sense, an offer that refused
to be ignored. One way or another, Mimi knew that she needed to get
this off her chest, and Joe was giving her a perfect opportunity to do
so quietly. In a way, she was embaressed, but she was also profoundly
relieved at the opportunity with which she had been presented, a way to
get things off her chest.
"Joe, it's just that...sob>...you're not
going to believe me either, are you?" her tears returned with a vengence
in a peculiar attempt to override her remaining sanity. Joe just
wordlessly handed her a small towel that he must have been keeping around
for emergencies, waiting for her to compose herself. With another
sniff, she carefully drew herself back together, glued the shattered box
of her ego back into one piece, and turned to her waiting companion.
"All right. I know this place seems
so good and all, but I really think that there's something wrong here.
Something really wrong, and I don't just mean stuff like the rooms aren't
right. I mean that something is seriously wrong, and that I can't
tell what it is at all." Mimi could still feel the buzzing sound in the
background interfering with her thinking.
"How do you know Mimi?" Joe asked rather seriously.
He pushed his glasses up higher on his nose to clear his thoughts and to
give her his full attention. Telling what Joe was thinking was a
little like reading a book, a fact that reassured Mimi extraordinarily.
Although she had occasionally accused Joe of being somewhat stuffy and
uncomplicated, his ability to be fairly serious was a remarkable help in
this particular situation. Already she felt the effects of his seriousness
moving to touch her inner feelings, reassuring her and helping her regain
some of the confidence that she had just lost during her bout of self-doubt.
"Well, I've had this buzzing sound in my ears
ever since I got here. I thought it meant that something wasn't right,
but now I'm almost positive that something is really dreadfully wrong.
I just can't figure out what it is, and nobody else is going to believe
me."
"That's not true Mimi. We always believe
you."
"That's right." Palmon was clearly perturbed
by the entire situation, but appeared to be determined not to show that.
"But nobody is going to give this up for something
as simple as a little feeling. Are they?"
Joe thought for a minute before responding,
his eyes focusing somewhere above the top edge of his glasses in a maneuver
that warned everyone who knew him that he was strongly considering something.
After a moment he spoke in a serious, but absent minded tone of voice that
informed the listener that he had been considering something fairly important.
"I don't know if this is just a little feeling. If we have been carrying
our crests around inside us all of this time, sort of dormant, than this
could be something that the crest is trying to tell you. If this
is true, well, you know what that means. The crests only act when
we're really in danger."
"You think this could be my crest Joe?
You are the expert." Mimi looked over at him. "I guess if your crest
can glow, all of our crests can glow again."
"Yes. I've been talking to Izzy about
that. I think that all our crests can glow again, and that means
that they may start to lend us some things not unlike extra-sensory perception.
It would be really neat. So, where is the buzzing coming from?"
"All around, but especially..." Mimi trailed
off in surprise as she realized what she had been overlooking all that
time. "Especially from within me. I'm creating the buzzing
that I'm hearing."
"Any clue where?"
Mimi began to pat herself all over in an attempt
to discover if there truly was an origin of the noise or if she was just
imagining things. As she did so, she noticed a few certain patterns,
and that her hand seemed naturally drawn to her chest, just below her neck.
One hand rose to that spot and closed around the hard golden gleam of the
necklace she had gotten from Cortell the day they had arrived here.
"It's this Joe. It's the necklace that's making all the noise."
Joe sat bolt upright. "But the necklace,
didn't Cortell say it was magic or something?"
"That's what he said all right." Palmon did
not look too happy about this change in events either. Her blossom
was standing a little more upright than usual, something that was sure
to be interpreted as a bad sign.
"But if that's the case, it's really trying
to help me..." Mimi trailed off hopelessly.
"And that means..." Joe joined her.
They both stared at each other in a look of
mingled horror. Then, as one, they bolted for the door, heading down
the stairs.
"It appears the trap will have to sprung early
master." The shadowy figure bowed frequently to Daemon, who stood
straight and tall on his floating dais of bone-like metal, in the middle
of a column of darkness. One solitary shaft of light illuminated
the room, shining down on the shadow to increase its discomfort.
"I see. Well, we shall get them eventually
I suppose. They are very little bother now in the grand scheme of
things." Daemon had his attention focused elsewhere, and he motioned with
a dismissing gesture to his servant, who quickly scurried away. Daemon
remained utterly fixated on the other being that hung in the shadows, a
representation of his master, a shadowy presence in the distance.
"My Lord Khartan, we shall get them given
time. And mostly I will be able to keep them off balance." Daemon
bowed his head briefly.
"I hope so, for your sake. I do not
need their interference while my plan progresses, do you understand?" The
dark figure, one of the few who was above the powers of the Dark Ocean
stared down at his apprentice with terrifying force. Daemon was forced
to nod his assent to this. "Good, my little pet, good."
"As you wish Master." Daemon watched
with some relief as Khartan turned back to other pursuits.
Joe and Mimi darted into the dining room, just
in time to see a dozen or so RedVeggiemon dart down one of the hallways
in pursuit of something neither of them could see. This left the
room empty, only the half-eaten food on the tables stood as mute evidence
that somebody had been there at one point.
"We've got a problem now." Joe noted clinically,
darting out after the others. "Without me there, we don't have a
single Ultimate."
"I can Digivolve now if you need me Mimi."
Palmon tugged on Mimi's dress.
"Go for it. We've got to get Joe to
Gomamon."
"Palmon....digivolves to....Togemon!"
"Oh boy." Togemon was not paying them much
attention, watching over their shoulder down a narrow corridor in another
direction. "I think I hear something."
The group that bubbled out of that corridor
was even larger than the group that had just vanished down the second corridor,
and this time, instead of bringing only a horde of scrambling RedVeggiemon,
there were other Digimon mixed in with this.
"So Joe, what's the plan?" Mimi asked as the
second group caught sight of them.
Joe pointed in another direction. "Run
like crazy!"
"Nova Blast!"
The spherical ball of fire blew a hole through
one end of the room, venting the room to the open air, and allowing four
kids, four Champions and a rookie to dart through the opening, leaving
their pursuers behind in a cloud of smoke.
"So much for hospitality. Mom was right,
people these days don't know how to be polite." Tai gasped and looked around.
"Now what?"
They were standing in the middle of a courtyard,
more like an open air garden, that was encased between two huge branches.
All around them were the carved walls of the crazy house that they were
stuck in, windows looking at them with unfriendly eyes, masked by the smoke
that was drifting in behind them. Once their concealing shield, the
smoke now prevented them from seeing what was behind.
"Well, Tai? You're the leader." Matt
noted, trying to peer through the thickening grayness.
"Uh…I…I mean…" Tai stammered.
"Guys, there's got to be another door here,
right? So let's just run, okay?" Sora took off in one direction.
Like a flock of sheep everyone else followed her until they almost ran
into another wall, and found a huge door.
"Back to the chase." Matt commented.
"Well, we could buy ourselves some time."
Izzy suggested, tugging the door open. "If memory serves, RedVeggiemon
are extremely weak and unable to withstand more than a mere handful of
hits. Our Champions can cause some extreme damage to them on the
way, enough to make them a little more cautious. All you guys, when
they start to appear out of the smoke, start hitting them. Create
more smoke and panic if you can to confuse them. Then, you guys can
dedigivolve into rookies and we can slip away."
"That sounds like a plan Izzy." Tai stood
up and pointed. "Let's go get them guys."
As the smoke began to thin a group of what
looked like bouncing red balls bounded out of the gray haze and into the
central courtyard, accompanied by the usual clamors of the chase, such
as "Where did they go?" and "Which way?" and "What do we do now?".
From where the other children stood the confusion was almost palatable,
an expression of the bafflement they had been skilled enough to leave in
their wake as they made their way through the courtyard. Unfortunately
for their pursuers, Tai chose that moment as the moment to introduce them
to the variety of skills at their disposal.
"Now guys!"
"Nova Blast!"
"Howling Blaster!"
"Electro Shocker!"
"Meteor Wing!"
"Marching Fishes!"
What sped across the courtyard could probably
not be adequately described without seventeen different colors of paint
and a large bucket of water. Lines of fire and electricity twisted
and mixed as they burned their way across the intervening space, dancing
with each other to form odd new shapes and patterns as they moved forward,
constantly changing, but still proceeding in the same direction.
In terms of explosive force however, it would be simple to describe the
reaction with two different tanker trucks full of gasoline at high speed.
There was a moment of panic among the opposition, and then the RedVeggiemon
abandoned the area quickly, several of them doing so at increased velocity
and altitude, much to their dismay. This time the air was filled,
not only with smoke, but with pieces of debris in a large cloud.
Nobody noticed a group of small figures sneaking
through a number of rooms on their way out.
"Let's try a right here." Joe and Mimi bumped
along, held tightly inbetween Togemon's two fists. They tried gallantly
not to lose their lunch in the high speed chase through the building.
"Got it." Togemon threw on a new burst of
speed as she dashed around the corner, hoping that their pursuers would
not be able to follow them. As she went by she kicked the wall, raising
a shower of plaster that impeded their pursuers just a little. Togemon
had left the RedVeggiemon far behind her, but just looking back Joe could
watch the five Monochromon that had followed them gaining speed, thundering
along like the herdbeasts they were.
"Uh-oh." Mimi, looking forward, had observed
a new problem. Ahead of them, instead of another hallway, was the
dining room, table still in disarray. And there, standing in the
middle of the room, was Meramon, looking as if he was waiting for them.
"You're a naughty girl Mimi." The fiery Digimon
pointed a burning red finger at the girl, shaking it slowly to gain their
attention. "Had you not aroused such suspicions within yourself over
the nature of our little trap here, you would not be in such an awkward
predicament. We would have long ago captured you all together and
confined you to one of our specialty dungeons. Ah well, the chase
is part of the fun you know, that's the way things work around here."
"Shove it pal." Togemon dropped Mimi and Joe
in an unceremonious heap and then commenced spinning around at a tremendous
angular velocity, throwing needles in all directions in a continuous barrage.
Behind them the Monochromon stopped tentatively, and the Meramon winced
back from multiple hits.
"So is that how you like to play, eh?
So be it...Meramon....Dark Digivolve to...SkullMeramon!" Metal mask and
dark clothing now accentuated a body of blue flame. The newly minted
Ultimate pointed at them and laughed. "Now, to deliver you to Lord
Daemon intact, sort of."
"Needle Spray!" Togemon cut lose with a heavy
barrage at point blank range.
"Just don't get to close. He'll burn
you for sure!" Mimi was concerned for her friend's safety, a concern that
appeared well founded as SkullMeramon unleashed a blast of blue fire that
sent everyone spinning. Floorboards fountained into the air and Togemon
went sailing backward as the explosion roared into their ears. Even
the Monochromon were tossed in the wrong direction.
"Now, get them!" SkullMeramon gestured, and
in the distance, Mimi could pick up the faint sounds of the RedVeggiemon
catching up with them, the huffing and grunting that meant that they were
almost completely surrounded. "Make sure that we get them alive,
but maybe not intact. Too intact that is."
Mimi rolled away from the continuing combat
and found herself lying on the stone feet of the Leomon statue. Waves
of wrongness poured off it like rain after a summer shower, pouring down
the stone carvings in a continuing torrent. Quickly she placed one
hand on the statue and realized that it felt cold, almost like ice, but
it seemed as if it held something warm inside, something merely waiting
for the cold to lift before flowering back into life.
Holding out both hands she placed them carefully
on the base of the statue, and reached deep inside of her, a place she
had rarely gone. Inside her swirled her spoiled tastes, her inability
to treat any subject with seriousness, and her tendency to think only of
herself. Inside of her the tantrums she had thrown over the years,
the distractions she had provided when total concentration was needed,
all those traits which she had come to realize were her worst problems
in trying to be a serious hero were waiting for her. Her own fears
and doubts tried to mob her. And the facade that she had built when
she realized that she had no way of possibly controlling herself against
the powers that she was now required to face cracked and collapsed.
All those selfish moments tried to drown her in their memory, all of those
times when she had purposefully drawn attention to herself when others
had probably needed it more, the exasperated expressions of her teammates,
the disappointed faces of her friends came back to haunt her in one crashing
moment.
Years ago, even a few months ago, that probably
would have been enough to bury her alive, but now she was a changed person.
Even living in the Digital World, in the midst of such danger for a few
short days had changed her tremendously, so far that she would hardly be
recognizable to the girls at school if they saw her now. Her muscles
had remembered things that she had been certain they had forgotten, but
more importantly, her mind had recovered as well, and now was functioning
as a member of the single, cohesive team that she had helped to build over
half a year of constant struggle. Inside her, new powers raged, and
she was able to ignore the doubts that assailed her with only a minimum
of effort. Grabbing out with two hands as insubstantial as the wind,
yet as strong as a tornado, she grabbed onto the core of her being, the
piece of purity and truth that she had carried along all those years inside
of her, and let it flower into being.
"No, not that!" SkullMeramon yelled in the
background, but his voice was now faint and indistinct.
Something flamed in her chest, but, more important,
something flamed in front of her. All three statues, the Leomon,
the Ogremon and the Centarumon, representative of the three different classes
of Digimon, began to shake. Cracks ran up their cold, gray surface,
reaching for their heads, but these were shallow cracks, as if only the
surface was being damaged. Beneath those cracks something was glowing
bright green, the color of new spring growth, and the color of the light
that was glowing in the center of her chest. Slowly it seemed, those
cracks spread and grew, lighting up the room as they expanded. Time
seemed to tick by like molasses, and even though Mimi knew that there had
only been scant seconds since the beginning of the movement, it felt like
years had passed. There was a shaking moment and then the gray stone
exploded as if it had been detonated from within, and there, standing like
they had looked a moment before, were a Leomon, an Ogremon and a Centarumon.
"Round Two!" the Ogremon charged, Centarumon
following on his heels as they rushed SkullMeramon. But the Leomon
up, reaching down to Mimi and steadying her with one huge paw, a gentle
and puzzled smile on his face.
"Mimi, is that you? Are you all right?"
"Leomon?" The name was both a question and
a reminder of loyalty and friendship, an echo of bonds forged before in
the fires of conflict. It was a bell ringing in the night to celebrate
the return of a friend from the great beyond.
"Later Mimi, we'll have some catching up to.
For now, I think it's time that we gave SkullMeramon a piece of our minds."
"I think I can help too. Togemon!"
"Right here." The giant cactus staggered out
of the destruction in one corner of the room, but Mimi was already moving,
drawing her new power back into her and down her hand into the device that
she thrust at her friend.
"Togemon....digivolves to....Lilymon!
Oh that feels much better!"
"All right." Joe was walking a little wobbly
as he moved out of the rubble he had managed to extract himself from.
"Way to go Mimi!" he gave her a heartening smile that warmed her down to
her toes.
"I'll take care of that overgrown bonfire.
The rest of you cover those other guys. Flower Cannon!" Somewhere
in the background SkullMeramon screamed as fire exploded into him, the
kind of fire that burned him with a pain that he could not ignore.
Two Ultimates were clashing, and that set the whole building shaking.
"Mind if we join in?" Tai jumped out of a
hole that had appeared unexpectedly in the side of the room. Behind
him the wall crumbled as four more Champions forced their way in, along
with a still un-digivolved Gomamon, a situation which changed abruptly
as the light of Joe's D3 and reignited crest speared the marine mammal.
"Gomamon...digivolves to....Ikkakumon!"
"Ikkakumon...digivolves to....Zudomon!"
The huge marine warrior loomed against the
background, the top spikes of his shell poking holes in the roof above
them as he stomped forward into battle. He used his hammer as a weapon,
not like one would use a sword, all cutting strokes and sudden movements,
but rather like he was nailing together a few boards, hammer rising and
falling methodically.
"Time to clean this place up Zudomon.
Flower Cannon!" SkullMeramon stood for a moment, staring at them, before
the ball of white fire crashed into his center, and swelled there, struggling
against his internal fires.
"Pummel Whack! Solar Ray! Fist
of the Beast King!" RedVeggiemon and Monochromon went flying as the
three immensely powerful warriors went to work, hammering their way through
the press of their foes like giant battering rams. Faced with such
a powerful and concentrated foe, the other enemy Digimon turned and fled
in horror.
SkullMeramon had time for one final scream
before he disintegrated with a blast of fire.
"Anyway, I was having a good time out in the
woods terrorizing the populace when that old guy came by to talk to me."
Ogremon actually looked embarrassed at being a good guy again.
"Gennai came to all of us and told us that
there was a great evil gathering in this area of the Digital World.
At that time the Digimon Emperor had first gathered his forces and was
conquering the Digital World slowly but surely." Centarumon stared down
at them with his single glowing eye.
"But Gennai informed us that new Digidestined
were being recruited, ones who could handle this problem without running
into the same barriers that we would. He told us that they could
defend that part of the world, but that this new evil would need powerful
and determined warriors to hold it at bay while other reinforcements could
be brought up to deal with it." Leomon stared down at them from his
imposing height. "We were nervous about leaving our homes in the
Digital World in the hands of the Emperor, but once we understood the stakes
of the conflict, we had no choice but to agree. So many of us, the
most powerful of Digimon that served good faithfully and unswervingly left
the eastern region of the Digital World and came here, a place where the
Digimon Emperor never penetrated."
"No wonder we never found you. I wondered
about that." Izzy tucked his chin on his hand in his 'thinking' posture.
"I was curious about why we used to know so many Digimon here, but when
we tried to find you, we didn't have the faintest clue where you were.
It explains many things."
"I'm glad you understand." Centarumon looked
at the bearer of the Crest of Knowledge compassionately.
"Well, you might have looked harder." Ogremon
grumped. Mimi, still basking in the light that her crest had produced
elbowed him to remind him to be civil. He growled at her, but it
was a sound edged in fondness.
"Here, we have been fighting the evil for
some time. However, it was only recently that Daemon appeared.
That house was once our hidden base, but SkullMeramon was able to infiltrate
it, and with the help of Daemon he imprisoned us all within its boundaries.
That you freed us was incredibly fortunate."
"Not to mention lucky for us." Tai muttered.
"Now." Leomon stood up from where he had been
sitting, stretching his massive arms toward the sky. "It is now time
to move on my friends. We have information and skills that will let
you defeat that creature of darkness, and to launch a successful attack
upon the Pinnacle. But first we need to return home and rest and
relax before launching our next attack. And you should probably meet
the others."
"Who are the others?" Izzy asked.
"You'll see." Leomon smiled at them
and then led them off into the forests and toward their destiny.
Interlude-Blueaxe
Author's Note: I'm afraid that the interludes only serve to hint
at things that may become important later in the story. They are
not essential to the plot, and need not be read.
Of all those systems developed to fight the
great wars between Darkness and Light, the system of cut and paste is perhaps
the best known and the easiest to use. Cut-and-paste is perhaps the
oldest programming trick of them all, take a portion of someone else's
code that does what you need and install it in your own program, modifying
it to fit your own needs. For those who design weapons it is often
difficult to create weapons that can survive combat in the Interconnected
Worlds, a place where the laws of physics change often. Only the
very powerful and the very simple seem to be able to survive.
But Digimon can fight in all worlds, and a
Digimon is essentially a computer program body with an infinitely complex
soul and a built in weapons system. A skilled programmer can, by
simple process of modification, take the code in a Digimon that powers
their own special attack and copy it. Then, it is a simple matter
to graft that weapons system into the object awaiting it, and there you
have it, a perfectly functional multi-purpose weapon system. It lacks
the versatility and the change in power that a Digimon can give it, but
it is easier to control and much easier to manufacture. Due to its
ease of production and the large variety of weapons available, it is no
wonder that cut-and-paste is now the most common weapon system of them
all.
The Iron Duke carried two special weapons
under her wings, the so-called "Sacrificial Sheep", two large blocks of
floating stone that masked an internal power core, rather like a charged
battery, and a huge number of grafted weapons systems. As the Dreadnought's
internal systems re-stabilized, and her momentum carried her out of the
assault zone, internal triggers built into the semi-independent systems
triggered. Power began to shunt through specially constructed power
regulators and channels, creating the energy necessary for the outside
to transform.
Citadel had worked tirelessly to create that particular system,
and they had succeeded mostly due to the efforts of their inspired engineers.
MetalGarurumon's Ice Wolf Spikes attack had been copied and processed to
the utmost, each element analyzed and painstakingly reproduced. Normally
the attack produced a swarm of independently guided missiles that not only
damaged whatever they hit, but also froze anything wherever they exploded.
If focused properly the warheads could create ice, turning a patch of air
into a wall of frozen water. That was the property the engineers
had needed and they had done dozens of field tests to make sure that they
had recaptured it correctly when they began to make modifications to the
warhead yield and dispersion pattern.
By itself, a dose of the Ice Wolf Spikes could
give any Mega a serious movement problem, but the planners, especially
Justice and Gennai, had come up with a semi-ingenious plan. Each
of the Sheep carried a hundred recreations of that attack, an expenditure
that soaked up energy like a sponge. Raw power had been wasted by
the bucketful in order to create each independent Sheep, and now the results
flung themselves outward. The defenders gasped as thousands of missiles
tore away from those stations, not enough to destroy the heavily armored
fortifications, such as they were, or long-ranged enough to hit the mobile
units backing up the defenses, but enough to spell instant death to anyone
caught outside. But the missiles did not seek out the Dark's soldiers,
instead exploding in a cacophony of blue light around the transit point,
a flowering of brilliant color and blasts of frigid air that took everyone
there by complete surprise. And then, as the air cleared, the defenders
stared in awe.
There, surrounding the transit point, was
a dome of ice, kilometers large, and thick enough to put a crimp in any
bombardment. Continued explosions from inside indicated that they
were still reinforcing the barrier from the inside, probably with missiles
from more emerging ships. Gunners found their targets obscured, their
firepower diminished as they wasted energy fruitlessly trying to burn through
meters of ice. Eventually the gunners recovered from their shock
and concentrated enough firepower on the dome to collapse it into shards
of crystal, raining down on the ground.
And there, standing exposed now, ten Dreadnoughts
in perfect formation roared down on their hasty fortifications like the
wind of death.