Digimon: The Nail
Part 6
by Christian "Sid" Lang
Dieter checks his equipment one last time.
John is still on the phone, telling Mr. Tanaka not to call again for 24 hours.
Sighing, Dieter checks the small folded headset in his pocket.
Then he watches the kids.
Takato, Lee, and Ruki are very calm by now.
He knows they are afraid, but still they are determined to go... there.
Davis on the other hand looks nervous.
Obviously the boy is afraid of the unknown situation he'll drop them in.
John finally finishes his call and sighs.
Without saying another word, the two men shoulder their backpacks.
"Okay Renamon, you've had your fun." Gatomon purrs.
She looks down at the fox, who just snarls up at her.
It's a weak snarl. The Digimon has thrashed in her cell for hours.
"You should have saved your strength. Master wants to break you personally."
The fox's eyes widen, and Gatomon can see fear in her eyes.
"Don't worry. One Master is through with you, you will be loyal. Or dead."
Grinning, Gatomon summons some Bakemon to carry the wild Digimon.
Master is waiting.
"What is this place?" Lee asks Davis.
"The world of the Digimon." Davis answers.
The four children carefully look around while the two men check their comm gear.
Finally the two men nod. Everything is fine. For now.
Davis asks himself how long it will stay this way.
He knows that he might only be needed during an ambush.
His DigiVice would protect them. Wouldn't it?
Davis gulps and remembers what has happened to the last team that went here.
Nobody returned. Nobody.
Whenever he came here with his friends, they had never left this clearing.
Nobody ever suggested to move too far from the TV.
Ruki checks her device and looks at the other two children doing the same.
All devices point the same way.
The three children form a makeshift triangle, with Takato at its front.
Ruki is behind his left shoulder. Dieter is towering behind Takato.
John and that other child are covering their backs.
After some minutes of walking, the group exits the forest.
Ruki gasps. The forest has been standing on top of a large hill.
From here, it is easy to see a large part of the surrounding land.
Most of it is grassland. But one structure instantly catches their attention.
It's a castle that looks as if it came straight out of a child's nightmare.
"Definately not Neuschwanstein." Dieter mutters.
Ruki looks down at her device and gulps.
The arrow points straight at the castle.
"OK, does anybody doubt where we will go?" John asks.
Nobody speaks up.
"Then I suggest we drop our camping stuff here." John tells Dieter.
The two men unload their stuff quickly.
All the camping and survival equipment had added much weight to their load.
They quickly dig a hole and drop the equipment in it.
As a final touch, John puts a small pack of C4 in the hole, too.
"What're you doing?" Dieter hisses.
"If we have to go in a hurry, I don't want them to get my stuff."
Dieter holds up a remote-control and smiles, making Dieter groan.
John quickly covers the whole with some branches before standing up again.
The backpack now feels much lighter, giving him more freedom of movement.
Finally they start towards the castle.
"Ken."
Ken wakes with a start and instantly looks for the intruder.
Sitting up in his bed, he can see him and growls.
"Wizardmon! Who told you that name?" he snarls.
He had always had a strange feeling when talking to this Digimon.
The mysterious wizard has always been a puzzle to him.
Now he somehow guessed his real name, a name he had never told anybody. Except for...
"Gennai." Wizardmon whispers.
Ken instantly checks the room again to make sure they're not being watched.
"Your time has come. Help is on the way." the Digimon tells him.
"What kind of help?" Ken asks.
"Humans. They will be here soon."
"Why do they come here? For another attack?"
"They have come for the three wild ones." Wizardmon only answers.
"What should I do?" Ken asks, starting to get dressed.
"Help them and escape. The time of the Digimon Emperor ends tonight."
Ken only nods and watches the Digimon leave his room.
The walk to the castle is shorter than imagined.
When they reach the outer wall, the three kids check their devices.
The arrows now point in different directions.
Ruki's arrow points to a different part of the castle, making the girl frown.
"We'll worry about this later. But we can be sure that we have to go in." John says.
"We should make a plan how to split up. Just in case." Dieter suggests.
John nods and looks at the group.
"Ruki and Davis stay with Dieter. The rest stays with me." he finally decides.
Dieter only nods and unpacks his headset. John does the same.
"Codenames?" Dieter asks.
"I guess we're the only ones on this world with radios." John answers flatly.
Dieter smiles sheepishly and nods.
John once more realizes how alien this situation is for all of them.
"Either this place is deserted or somebody is careless." John mutters.
Dieter frowns as he leads the group through the large front gates.
So far, they have not met any creatures of any kind.
"Or somebody doesn't fear any outside forces." Dieter adds.
"Let's hope we won't find it out." John tells him.
When they reach a staircase, the three children check their devices again.
Then they rotate them to check the vertical direction.
Takato's device points down just like Lee's.
Ruki's device points down.
"Already." Dieter mutters and shakes his head.
"We'll stay in contact." John tells him and taps his headset.
"Okay. Davis, Ruki, you're with me. Come on."
Two floors below the ground level, Lee stops them.
"This is it." he whispers and shows them his device.
Takato nods after checking his own device.
John frowns and sneaks through the long corridor the boys point at.
The dark stone walls instantly remind him of a dungeon.
Which could be close to the truth. he tells himself.
Lee and Takato are walking next to him, and John briefly checks the display, too.
The arrow slowly turns to the right side, and John sees a door some meters ahead.
Standing in front of the wooden door, he checks the displays.
Straight ahead.
Takato moves his device a bit and John can see that the arrow moves more than usual.
"Must be somewhere behind this door. And its close." Takato whispers.
"We're close to our objective." John whispers into the headset.
Whatever it is. he adds silently.
Roger. We're still on our way. Dieter replies.
John readies his assault rifle and carefully opens the door.
"How far, Ruki?" Dieter asks.
"Not far now. Maybe one more floor." the girl behind him answers.
Dieter nods. They had not met anybody so far.
Maybe this castle really is deserted.
When he arrives on the next floor, he knows that this castle is not deserted at all.
This floor looks inhabited, and through a half-open door, light shines into the corridor.
"This is it." Ruki whispers.
Ken turns around when he hears the door open.
He yelps when he sees the gun and instantly raises his arms.
"Don't shoot! I'm human!" he whispers.
The man, a soldier of some kind sighs and lowers the rifle.
Ken can see that the man is accompanies by two boys of about his own age.
He carefully removes the goggles he always wears outside his room.
"My name is Ken. And I want to help you if you help me out of here." he offers.
"Captain John Nelson. These are Takato and Lee." the man whispers in return.
Ken can see that Takato and Lee walk towards a cell, looking at some kind of device.
Slowly, Ken takes out his own device. It looks different than theirs, but yet similar.
"You have one of those things, too?" Captain Nelson asks.
Ken only nods.
"My God." Lee whispers when he looks into the cell through a small slit in the door.
"What are those creatures?" Takato whispers.
When he hears this, Captain Nelson instantly raises his rifle again.
"No! Wait! I have been told you came to rescue them!" Ken tells him.
"Who else knows we're here?" the man instantly hisses.
"So far, none of our enemies." Ken answers.
The man listens to a muffled voice coming from his headset.
"This may change really soon." the man mutters.
"I repeat. We've reached our objective. Hostiles nearby."
Dieter takes another look.
He is standing at the half-open door leading to the lit room.
The large room reminds him of a middle-ages living room. The light is coming from a fireside.
Three... creatures are in the room.
One tall man with a cape, one cat-like creature and a humanoid fox.
Ruki is below him, checking her device.
But which one is our objective?
He watches the man, who is holding the fox up at its neck.
"So, will you obey me?" he asks.
It's a polite voice, but Dieter can hear the menacing tone in it.
The cat looks up at the fox and smiles.
Dieter blinks. The cat is actually smiling just like a human would do.
"N-Never." the fox mutters, causing Dieter to raise an eyebrow.
I didn't know they could talk. That could mean that the man isn't human either.
The man just laughs and tosses the fox into a corner of the room.
Dieter instantly checks Ruki's display. The arrow has moved with the fox.
Dieter moves away from the door again.
"OK, here's the plan." he whispers.
Keeping his weapon ready, John watches as Ken opens the prison cell.
Slowly, two creatures walk out of it.
One looks like a canine bunny, while the other is a red dinosaur.
When they see the kids, they start to smile. John blinks when he sees the friendly faces.
"Finally!" the bunny-dog cheers and runs to Lee.
At the same time, the dino runs towards Takato.
John lowers his rifle when he sees that Lee and Takato are also smiling.
"You came! You came!" the dino cheers with his childish voice.
Ken joins John and smirks.
"They're called Terriermon and Guilmon." the boy tells them.
John then notices that the boy frowns.
"Come on! We should free somebody else, too!" he tells John.
Trusting the boy, John nods.
"OK, guys. We'll party later! Come!" John tells the boys and the Digimon.
Part 6
by Christian "Sid" Lang
Dieter checks his equipment one last time.
John is still on the phone, telling Mr. Tanaka not to call again for 24 hours.
Sighing, Dieter checks the small folded headset in his pocket.
Then he watches the kids.
Takato, Lee, and Ruki are very calm by now.
He knows they are afraid, but still they are determined to go... there.
Davis on the other hand looks nervous.
Obviously the boy is afraid of the unknown situation he'll drop them in.
John finally finishes his call and sighs.
Without saying another word, the two men shoulder their backpacks.
"Okay Renamon, you've had your fun." Gatomon purrs.
She looks down at the fox, who just snarls up at her.
It's a weak snarl. The Digimon has thrashed in her cell for hours.
"You should have saved your strength. Master wants to break you personally."
The fox's eyes widen, and Gatomon can see fear in her eyes.
"Don't worry. One Master is through with you, you will be loyal. Or dead."
Grinning, Gatomon summons some Bakemon to carry the wild Digimon.
Master is waiting.
"What is this place?" Lee asks Davis.
"The world of the Digimon." Davis answers.
The four children carefully look around while the two men check their comm gear.
Finally the two men nod. Everything is fine. For now.
Davis asks himself how long it will stay this way.
He knows that he might only be needed during an ambush.
His DigiVice would protect them. Wouldn't it?
Davis gulps and remembers what has happened to the last team that went here.
Nobody returned. Nobody.
Whenever he came here with his friends, they had never left this clearing.
Nobody ever suggested to move too far from the TV.
Ruki checks her device and looks at the other two children doing the same.
All devices point the same way.
The three children form a makeshift triangle, with Takato at its front.
Ruki is behind his left shoulder. Dieter is towering behind Takato.
John and that other child are covering their backs.
After some minutes of walking, the group exits the forest.
Ruki gasps. The forest has been standing on top of a large hill.
From here, it is easy to see a large part of the surrounding land.
Most of it is grassland. But one structure instantly catches their attention.
It's a castle that looks as if it came straight out of a child's nightmare.
"Definately not Neuschwanstein." Dieter mutters.
Ruki looks down at her device and gulps.
The arrow points straight at the castle.
"OK, does anybody doubt where we will go?" John asks.
Nobody speaks up.
"Then I suggest we drop our camping stuff here." John tells Dieter.
The two men unload their stuff quickly.
All the camping and survival equipment had added much weight to their load.
They quickly dig a hole and drop the equipment in it.
As a final touch, John puts a small pack of C4 in the hole, too.
"What're you doing?" Dieter hisses.
"If we have to go in a hurry, I don't want them to get my stuff."
Dieter holds up a remote-control and smiles, making Dieter groan.
John quickly covers the whole with some branches before standing up again.
The backpack now feels much lighter, giving him more freedom of movement.
Finally they start towards the castle.
"Ken."
Ken wakes with a start and instantly looks for the intruder.
Sitting up in his bed, he can see him and growls.
"Wizardmon! Who told you that name?" he snarls.
He had always had a strange feeling when talking to this Digimon.
The mysterious wizard has always been a puzzle to him.
Now he somehow guessed his real name, a name he had never told anybody. Except for...
"Gennai." Wizardmon whispers.
Ken instantly checks the room again to make sure they're not being watched.
"Your time has come. Help is on the way." the Digimon tells him.
"What kind of help?" Ken asks.
"Humans. They will be here soon."
"Why do they come here? For another attack?"
"They have come for the three wild ones." Wizardmon only answers.
"What should I do?" Ken asks, starting to get dressed.
"Help them and escape. The time of the Digimon Emperor ends tonight."
Ken only nods and watches the Digimon leave his room.
The walk to the castle is shorter than imagined.
When they reach the outer wall, the three kids check their devices.
The arrows now point in different directions.
Ruki's arrow points to a different part of the castle, making the girl frown.
"We'll worry about this later. But we can be sure that we have to go in." John says.
"We should make a plan how to split up. Just in case." Dieter suggests.
John nods and looks at the group.
"Ruki and Davis stay with Dieter. The rest stays with me." he finally decides.
Dieter only nods and unpacks his headset. John does the same.
"Codenames?" Dieter asks.
"I guess we're the only ones on this world with radios." John answers flatly.
Dieter smiles sheepishly and nods.
John once more realizes how alien this situation is for all of them.
"Either this place is deserted or somebody is careless." John mutters.
Dieter frowns as he leads the group through the large front gates.
So far, they have not met any creatures of any kind.
"Or somebody doesn't fear any outside forces." Dieter adds.
"Let's hope we won't find it out." John tells him.
When they reach a staircase, the three children check their devices again.
Then they rotate them to check the vertical direction.
Takato's device points down just like Lee's.
Ruki's device points down.
"Already." Dieter mutters and shakes his head.
"We'll stay in contact." John tells him and taps his headset.
"Okay. Davis, Ruki, you're with me. Come on."
Two floors below the ground level, Lee stops them.
"This is it." he whispers and shows them his device.
Takato nods after checking his own device.
John frowns and sneaks through the long corridor the boys point at.
The dark stone walls instantly remind him of a dungeon.
Which could be close to the truth. he tells himself.
Lee and Takato are walking next to him, and John briefly checks the display, too.
The arrow slowly turns to the right side, and John sees a door some meters ahead.
Standing in front of the wooden door, he checks the displays.
Straight ahead.
Takato moves his device a bit and John can see that the arrow moves more than usual.
"Must be somewhere behind this door. And its close." Takato whispers.
"We're close to our objective." John whispers into the headset.
Whatever it is. he adds silently.
Roger. We're still on our way. Dieter replies.
John readies his assault rifle and carefully opens the door.
"How far, Ruki?" Dieter asks.
"Not far now. Maybe one more floor." the girl behind him answers.
Dieter nods. They had not met anybody so far.
Maybe this castle really is deserted.
When he arrives on the next floor, he knows that this castle is not deserted at all.
This floor looks inhabited, and through a half-open door, light shines into the corridor.
"This is it." Ruki whispers.
Ken turns around when he hears the door open.
He yelps when he sees the gun and instantly raises his arms.
"Don't shoot! I'm human!" he whispers.
The man, a soldier of some kind sighs and lowers the rifle.
Ken can see that the man is accompanies by two boys of about his own age.
He carefully removes the goggles he always wears outside his room.
"My name is Ken. And I want to help you if you help me out of here." he offers.
"Captain John Nelson. These are Takato and Lee." the man whispers in return.
Ken can see that Takato and Lee walk towards a cell, looking at some kind of device.
Slowly, Ken takes out his own device. It looks different than theirs, but yet similar.
"You have one of those things, too?" Captain Nelson asks.
Ken only nods.
"My God." Lee whispers when he looks into the cell through a small slit in the door.
"What are those creatures?" Takato whispers.
When he hears this, Captain Nelson instantly raises his rifle again.
"No! Wait! I have been told you came to rescue them!" Ken tells him.
"Who else knows we're here?" the man instantly hisses.
"So far, none of our enemies." Ken answers.
The man listens to a muffled voice coming from his headset.
"This may change really soon." the man mutters.
"I repeat. We've reached our objective. Hostiles nearby."
Dieter takes another look.
He is standing at the half-open door leading to the lit room.
The large room reminds him of a middle-ages living room. The light is coming from a fireside.
Three... creatures are in the room.
One tall man with a cape, one cat-like creature and a humanoid fox.
Ruki is below him, checking her device.
But which one is our objective?
He watches the man, who is holding the fox up at its neck.
"So, will you obey me?" he asks.
It's a polite voice, but Dieter can hear the menacing tone in it.
The cat looks up at the fox and smiles.
Dieter blinks. The cat is actually smiling just like a human would do.
"N-Never." the fox mutters, causing Dieter to raise an eyebrow.
I didn't know they could talk. That could mean that the man isn't human either.
The man just laughs and tosses the fox into a corner of the room.
Dieter instantly checks Ruki's display. The arrow has moved with the fox.
Dieter moves away from the door again.
"OK, here's the plan." he whispers.
Keeping his weapon ready, John watches as Ken opens the prison cell.
Slowly, two creatures walk out of it.
One looks like a canine bunny, while the other is a red dinosaur.
When they see the kids, they start to smile. John blinks when he sees the friendly faces.
"Finally!" the bunny-dog cheers and runs to Lee.
At the same time, the dino runs towards Takato.
John lowers his rifle when he sees that Lee and Takato are also smiling.
"You came! You came!" the dino cheers with his childish voice.
Ken joins John and smirks.
"They're called Terriermon and Guilmon." the boy tells them.
John then notices that the boy frowns.
"Come on! We should free somebody else, too!" he tells John.
Trusting the boy, John nods.
"OK, guys. We'll party later! Come!" John tells the boys and the Digimon.