Dejital Wars Episode 1

C4: The Quiet and the Strong

[A/N: I was bored with the last chapter.  I wanted it to end.  Oh well.]

[Disclaimer: "Stars Wars" is owned by Lucas and his boys and TOEI owns "Digimon".  I own whatever I write.  Don't steal and don't sue.]

Destination: Alpha.  Time: Arrived.  Destination: Alpha.  Time: Arrived.

"Yamato, Taichi, please keep that confined to your room." Gennai sighed, "I don't want Takeru fainting at any given moment."

"Yes, Gennai." the two boys groaned in unison, "We will."

"Now that that's settled, we need to land." the Deji muttered, "We're looking for two boys this time, so we don't all have to go."

"We'll stay in our room!" Taichi and Yamato leapt to their feet and dashed off, giggling madly.

"I'd like to go." Ken offered his search, "It sounds fascinating."

"Jyou and I will take care of Takeru." Koushiro said, "He still seems pretty fried."

"I don't want to stay cooped up." Hikari smiled, "I'll go with Ken."

"That'll be fine." Gennai yawned, "More sleep for me."

As soon as they exited the spaceport, Hikari and Ken were greeted with an odd sight.  The planet barely seemed touched by human inhabitants.  Digimon walked around in the thick green grass.  The sun shone down with the time of high noon, and a soft breeze rippled the grass.  A few homes dotted the horizon, seemingly miles apart.  It was a clean planet.

"Who are we looking for?" Ken asked.

"Two boys." Hikari read the data pad, "Motomiya Daisuke, and Hida Iori.  Daisuke is eleven, and Iori is ten.  Daisuke has short, spiky brown hair and usually wears goggles on his head.  He often wears a gray-blue shirt, red belt, and brown shorts with red boots.  Iori has short brown hair as well, but his lays flat on his head.  He usually wears a beige, long sleeve shirt, gray belt, and black-brown pants and black boots.  Both are never seen without their digimon partners, V-mon and Armadimon.  I have no idea where they would be."

"Well, I could search for Daisuke." Ken suggested, "And you could look for Iori."

"Then should we come back to the ship once we find them?"

"That would work nicely.  I'll be back with Daisuke."

"I'll have Iori with me."

Hikari climbed up a low rise after a short time of walking.  A large tree sat in the center of the rise, its leaves creating shimmering patches of shadow and light.  Off to the left side, a small yellow ball was sitting all on its own.

The soon-to-be Deji child walked towards the ball, wondering what it was.  She rounded the tree, and saw a little boy sitting next to the ball, staring out at the horizon with his knees against his chest.  His emerald eyes seemed glazed.  His garb, however, seemed familiar.  Beige long shirt with a gray belt, black-brown pants, and black boots.

"Excuse me." Hikari said, "Are you Hida Iori?"

The boy didn't look up.  He put his chin on his knees, closing his eyes with a sigh.

"Excuse me?" Hikari tried again.  She reached out to tap the boy, when a yellow streak clamped onto her arm and threw her off balance, making her fall to the ground.

"Don't you be touching my pal!" a gruff voice snarled, the thing wrestling with Hikari's arm, "Don't ever!"

"Armadimon, don't!" the boy hurried to his feet and pulled the thing away, "I don't think she meant to hurt me!"

"She just wanted to talk!" Tailmon jumped into a defensive stance before Hikari, her claws bared and glinting in the light.  The yellow thing—an Armadimon—growled and bared its teeth.  Both digimon were ready to fight.

"Now that's enough!" Hikari shouted.  Each digimon froze, and they and the boy looked towards Hikari.  "I only wanted to talk to you.  I never said I wanted any fights.  Now, I'll ask you again.  Are you Hida Iori?"

"Why do you ask?" the boy questioned in turn, heaving the armadillo digimon into his arms.

"Well, I've been looking for you."

"Ken?  Ken?  Ken, are you listening to me?"

Ken stopped walking when a little poke to his leg registered in his brain.  He had been staring at the picture of the boy, Daisuke, from the data pad he carried with him.  His lavender eyes had been locked upon the smiling, laughing face of the boy.

"I'm sorry." Ken hastily stored the pad in his pocket, "What is it Wormmon?"

"Isn't that a V-mon over there playing with that boy?" Wormmon poked a claw in the direction of two people, a blue digimon and a be-goggled boy.

"Yes." Ken nodded, "We should see if it's Daisuke and his digimon."

As they drew closer to the pair, Ken noticed they were playing with a soccer ball, and the boy was quite excellent with handling the ball.

"OK, V-mon!" the boy cried, "Try to block this!"  His foot drew back, and the ball went flying from the kick.  The V-mon leapt up, using his head to stop the hard kick, but went down in the process.

"Ah!" the boy hurried to his fallen digimon, "V-mon, are you OK?"

"Look at all the pretty colors." V-mon groaned, his eyes twirling.  The boy laughed, a chiming sound in Ken's ears.  He went up to the boy nervously.

"Pardon me, but are you Motomiya Daisuke?" he asked.

"Yep, that's me!" the boy turned around with a giant smile, "Who are you?"

"My name is Ichijouji Ken." Ken held out his hand.  Daisuke gripped it and shook, smiling genially.  "I've been looking for you."

"Oh?" Daisuke said, letting go of Ken's hand and sitting down on the grass.  He patted a spot next to him, inviting Ken to sit with him.  "Why's that?"

"I've been traveling with a man named Gennai." Ken sank down next to Daisuke, "He's been gathering children to be Deji Knights.  You're one of the children."

"Oh, wow!" Daisuke fell to his back, looking up to the azure sky, "That's cool!  So I'd be a Deji Knight, flying all around the galaxy and fighting bad guys?"

"That's the gist of it." Ken nodded, "Do you like the idea?"

"Like it?" Daisuke sat back up quickly, raising a clenched hand with a grin, "I love it!  I've dreamt all my life of being a hero that went around and beat up bad guys!  Now I get to live it!"  Ken smiled, chuckling a little.

"What's so funny?" the brown-haired boy asked, letting his head droop to one side in question.

"You're kind of cute." Ken said, but then clapped a hand to his mouth.  It seemed too late, the damage was done.  His face flared red.  Daisuke laughed aloud.

"It's OK." Daisuke laughed, "I'm not grossed out or anything.  I think you're kind of cute too."

Ken lowered his hand and his eyes, his face turning an even darker shade of red.  He didn't want to look at Daisuke at that moment.  It seemed far too embarrassing.  Daisuke lifted his chin with a finger, forcing the unfortunate genius to look at him.

"It's funny." Daisuke smiled, his chocolate eyes closed, "We only just met, but I like you a lot already.  Funny, huh?"

"Yeah." Ken giggled sheepishly, a smile on his face, "It's pretty funny."

The two didn't say much else.  They just smiled at each other.

"So I'm going to be a Deji." Iori said in a soft voice, walking beside Hikari as she led the way back to the spaceport.

"Are you excited?" Hikari asked, smiling warmly.

"I don't know." the young boy said, his eyes locked on the ground, "I think I felt like this was going to happen."

"Part of the powers that come from the Digital is seeing what lies ahead." Hikari tried to offer a solution, "It was probably that."

"After my father died, and when my mother passed from grief, I started to feel like there was something different about me." Iori murmured, "I felt like there was something inside me that made me try to be better than I could be.  I wanted to honor my parents by becoming the best I could, and to show everyone that they were the best there was, even if they were gone.  It wasn't the Digital.  I just knew I had a destiny that involved great things."

"That's beautiful, Iori." Hikari said, her ruby eyes gleaming, "You'll be a wonderful Deji Knight."

The spaceport came into view.  Ken and Motomiya Daisuke were standing at the entrance to the port, Ken leaning against Daisuke with his head on the new child's shoulder.

Two more children, four more to go.

"We're going to the planet Biyou." Gennai said, "Three children are there, then we only have one more."

The other children seemed eager.  But…but…

No landing confirmation came when Gennai called.  No response came at all.  Gennai risked being shot down by air cannons, but nothing happened.

When each person disembarked the ship, they were greeted with the greatest of horrors.

No person remained alive on Biyou.  No creatures, no plants.  Nothing was alive.

Blood was everywhere.  A few mangled, ripped limbs lay strewn across the white-paved road.  Crushed flowers lay scattered, and everything was a picture of destruction and chaos.

"Piemon has been here."

—to be continued—