Disclaimer: Some people can see dead people. Other can see dead people. Can
you see dead disclaimers? Let's check: I don't own Digimon or anything they
created. Can you see it? I guess not then.
Chapter 6: The Lake
And so, our journey into save humanity begins, though Izzy. He had gotten off of his horse because they were taking a break. They had reached the lake that Andrew had pointed out on the map. The group had only been traveling about four hours, but so far, nothing to worry about.
Izzy sat down on the bank of the lake. Its cool water was quite placid at the moment. He could see some froglike creatures on the other side hopping at each other and trying to slash each other with horns protruding from their heads. Suddenly Matt sat down next to Izzy. He looked troubled, but said in a meek voice, "Yo."
Izzy replied happily, "Hey Matt, how's it been? I'd just like to congratulate you again on that great victory over the Dark Seeker earlier this morning. You were really something."
Matt looked even more troubled. He looked away from Izzy, out towards the rest of them who were talking in a relaxed sort of way.
"What's wrong Matt?" Izzy asked. Matt didn't answer at first. He simply looked pensive. Finally he muttered, "I can't believe I did it."
Izzy looked confused. "Did what?" He asked. Once again Matt didn't answer right away. After about half a minute, he replied in the same pensive voice, "I killed him. It felt different with the Digimon, but this." Matt's voice rose to a shout, "I killed flesh and blood! I killed him!" A bunch of the frogs hopped into the pond. Even the other group members looked surprised. They didn't come over, probably because they knew Matt was all right.
Izzy turned back to Matt, and gave him a reassuring look. "Don't worry about that. You were dealing with something pure evil. You had to do that, otherwise we'd all be dead." Matt looked confused and Izzy continued, "Yeah. Andrew told me confidentially that if he'd killed you, then he would've become ten times stronger, and killed us easily. Then where would our race be?"
Izzy lifted his throat and swiftly drew his finger across it. He then stood up and put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Try not to brood on it." Izzy told him as he walked away. Matt still didn't look convinced.
Five minutes later everyone was gathering some kind of food. They had all decided to have lunch at the lake, because everyone was starting to get hungry. From here they would proceed straight north, towards the tall mountain in the distance. Izzy was catching fish. John had assured him that the fish in this lake were not poisonous or eating them would result in any kind of strange consequences. Suddenly there was a tugging on his line. Izzy jerked up with his rod, and reeled in. He had a fish that was bright green and about as long as a board. It flopped around as he held it in his hands, and then threw it into a small tub of water. Serra had created the stuff for him out of thin air a couple of minutes beforehand.
Izzy was just rebating when he noticed that Matt was still sitting like a statue at the lake's bank only feet away. Izzy looked solemn. Killing that guy must have hit Matt harder than I thought. Izzy thought. Perhaps I'll speak with the others about this. They'll cheer him up.
When lunch was finally cooked, Tai was sent over to get Matt. They came back with Matt still having that tortured expression on his face. Everyone was feasting on fish, berries, and some strange herbs that John had dug up.
"Hey Serra." Called Tai. "Why don't you just create food out of magic? I know you could do it." Serra smiled and replied, "If one relies on magic to do everything for him, then he will never truly grow and learn. He will become lazy, and weak." Tai had a look set on his face that plainly said, "Why didn't I see that coming?"
John continued the conversation track of magic. "Someone wondered why we couldn't just teleport directly to the temple. The answer is not simply that Torm and his followers are guarding the parameters, it's that if we did teleport you, it would be guaranteed that you would fail." They all looked confused. John elaborated, "Yeah, for some reason, if the chosen race uses any teleportation spell or spell that would speed up the process of getting places they need to go in the task, they fail. No one knows why, but the guess is that if you teleport, then you don't learn the necessary lessons one needs to know in order to succeed."
At that moment Andrew suddenly jerked up from taking a bite out of his fish. He looked alert and wary. Everyone looked at him and Lexx asked, "What is it?" He didn't answer at first. He simply just used some power to float up in the air in a standing position. He was looking around for something. Everyone was silent. There was a faint sliding sound over leaves. Andrew's head swiveled in its direction.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" He cried. There was a black shape in the direction Andrew had shouted. It suddenly disappeared. Andrew was looking startled. He put his hand into a pocket of the riding outfit he was wearing and took out a pair of goggles. He slapped them on, and looked again. After about a minute, he lowered to the ground and took off the goggles. They returned to his pocket as he said, "I felt something. A strange presence. More than a little bit dark. A different signal from the one coming from that small forest over there."
"What do you think it was?" Asked Izzy. "And what is in that forest over there." He pointed to a small clump of trees about fifty feet away.
"As for what that thing was, I'm not sure, but the magic signal from those trees is unmistakable. A magical axe. Flamebroad is what is it's called. You might want to pick it up before we leave."
They finished lunch feeling a little edgy, slightly afraid of the thing that had interrupted their lunch. If it was something that could put Andrew instantly on guard, then it was probably something to be reckoned with. When they had finished everyone except Izzy, Matt, Andrew, Serra, and John walked over towards the patch of forest. Izzy just wanted to talk to Andrew. Matt didn't say anything. The mages told everyone that they had enough magical items amongst themselves to last a lifetime. Izzy moved towards Andrew and told him, "Matt's been really feeling down lately."
All three of the mages nodded, and John said, "Yeah. I wonder why he's so depressed for killing something so evil." Serra continued, "He should be proud of his achievement." "I was wondering if you guys would talk to him for me." Said Izzy. "Well, let's have us a look at the poor fellow." Serra stood up. She immediately turned the color of porridge. The others were sharing her look. They leapt into the air. "Matt, RUN!" They screamed at him. He got up quickly, but not quickly enough. Something black splashed out of the lake. It had long black tentacles, a pointed face and yellow eyes. In one wild moment, Izzy realized that that is all it was. It quickly wrapped its tentacles around Matt's neck and began to strangle him. A black wave of power rushed out of it when it had securely fastened itself.
"Shit." Cursed John. Before the blackness hit Izzy, he saw that there were white shields around the others. Suddenly there was a blinding pain surrounding Izzy. It wasn't just around him it was in his very mind, his very heart. From far away, he heard Serra's voice.
"Get the other Digidestined!" She cried.
"Go, NOW!" Shouted Andrew. Suddenly there was a thud as something slammed into his stomach. Izzy flew backwards out of the cloud of blackness, which was still growing. A white ball of power was pushing him back out of the place. It disappeared and Izzy got up. Then he ran with all his might towards the forest. He saw Tai and the others gathered around a tree, staring at it.
"Hey guys there's a thing, it's got. What's that?" He stopped in mid sentence as he saw something imbedded into the tree. "The axe, what did you expect, Turkey?" Replied Tai. "It says something on the hilt, but I can't read it. And none of us have enough strength to pull it out. We tried."
He was right of course. The axe was huge. The hilt that was about four feet long a steel/orange color and the blade another two, which was pure red.
"You were saying?" Asked Sammie. Izzy didn't say anything. On the hilt were inscribed words that he couldn't read, in a strange language. Instinct took over.
"It says that only the strong minded can wield this axe." Izzy told them. Suddenly he looked surprised.
"How do I know that?" He asked.
"Good question. Do we have any strong minded people here?" Kari inquired. "Yeah, Izzy." Replied Joe. They all encouraged him to try it. Slowly, almost resentfully he grabbed the axe. He focused all of his thoughts to will himself to take it out. Nothing.
He pushed himself harder. Still nothing. He was running out of time. He needed to help out Matt and the mages.
"Guys." He cried to his fellow Digidestined. "Go help Matt, he's being attacked.
"Matt, being attacked." Yelped Jennifer, who looked shocked. "Hang on, I'm coming Matt." She tore off. The others trailed after her except Tai.
"Are you okay with this Izzy? Can you handle it?" He asked.
"Of course I can. Go help Matt." Izzy replied. He turned back to the axe. It was glowing orange. If I don't get this thing out, we may not be able to help Matt out. The mages were okay, but how long can that barrier hold out. I've got to pull this thing out. He concentrated with all his might. Slowly, very slowly the heavy axe slid out of the tree. When it was completely out Izzy strained to hold it up. He could only keep it about a foot off of the ground. He tried to run with it, but he could only do it for short bursts of five feet.
As Izzy ran closer to the cloud of darkness he found he was straining not only to hold the axe up, but also to move forward. The magic of Flamebroad was giving small cover from the searing pain that was on the other side of the axe. Suddenly the weight of the axe was ten times heavier. Izzy knew that he wouldn't be able to hold Flamebroad and keep walking. The weight increased, and a blast of pain hit him as he dropped the axe. He fell to his knees screaming. But also being tortured by a howl of pain, he could hear voices.
"DAMMIT, I can't hold this shield much longer." That was Andrew. It sounded like he was keeping up a barrier for everyone.
"Just one more minute Andrew." Tai called. "Izzy will be here in just one minute."
"A MINUTE! I CAN"T HOLD THE SHEILD UP FOR A WHOLE OTHER MINUTE!" He retorted. "HANG ON ANDREW, I'M COMING." John roared, but too late. There was a sound like the power of a computer shutting down, then suddenly screams of pain. The Digimon could be heard from far away. Izzy thought he could hear Tentomon crying, "Izzy you've got to help them!"
Slowly, very slowly he stood up. The pain was lessening, but he could hear screaming from the others. A light seemed to be growing in front of him. Izzy opened his eyes. There was a thin white oval shaped wall in front of him. It was transparent, so he could see. There were four other white lights inside the globe of blackness created by their enemy. John, Andrew, Serra, and Tai who had a very small one, had personal shields active to protect them.
"ANDREW, WHAT'S GOING ON?" Izzy cried to the mage. He swiveled around.
"Izzy!" He returned. "You've got a personal shield. Good job." The other mages looked around and saw him. "When the other Digidestined came, they walked right into the darkness without being touched." Serra explained.
John elaborated, "Yeah, Kari the Child of Light seemed to be able to give them some cover, but it couldn't last. We merged shields and Andrew tried to hold up a big one while we pulled you in with magic. But Andrew couldn't hold it, and the whole thing, including Kari's crashed down on us. I can't blame Andrew because I don't know a single person who can hold up a shield of that magnitude against a Guiltfeeder with a fresh victim."
"A. Guiltfeeder?" Inquired Izzy walking towards Tai, and dragging Flamebroad along with him. Andrew nodded. "Yeah, they're really nasty beings of the dark. They sneak up on people and suck out their guilt to turn into dark energy. Unfortunately for us, this one just picked up a gold mine of the stuff. Matt has almost limitless guilt for killing that guy. DAMMIT. We get horrible timing."
By the time Andrew finished saying that Izzy had reached Tai. He had been crouching down because of the pain. Not to blame him, his shield was about the size of a potato. When Izzy reached him however their shields merged into a larger one. Tai hadn't been screaming, but groaning loudly. When the shields merged, then he stopped and got up.
"Wow, what a knockout." He muttered. "Thanks Izzy."
"No problem. Now, we've got to stop that thing."
"They call it a Guiltfeeder right. Hmmm. Maybe if we can snap Matt out of his guilt, or disconnect that thing, then we can get Matt back."
"Good idea, but I wonder why our personal shields aren't wavering at all." Tai shrugged, but a chilling voice suddenly spoke. The hair on the back of Izzy's head stood up, and Tai looked freaked out.
"Good question." Sneered an evil voice. "But enough of this game. All of you, drop you personal shields. NOW!" The mages looked alert and wary.
"Easy for someone who's hiding in the shadows. Show yourself you wimp." Andrew returned the sneer. There was a flare of green light and suddenly the whole sphere of darkness was bathed in a greenish light. Izzy could see the Digidestined, kneeling, some laying back screaming in pain. The Digimon were also crying out. Matt was still by the lake, being constricted by the Guiltfeeder. Their steeds, which had been standing away near the lake were all dead. All accept one. He recognized the remaining creature as Eldar the White. Andrew was looked very frightened. He ran quickly to the Stag's side.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Roared Andrew. "GO BACK, WE CAN MAKE IT ON FOOT. I DON'T WANT TO ENDANGER THE OTHERS." The creature nodded and Andrew escorted it away. It walked with a limp. Izzy couldn't figure out how it was killing the creatures, but not the humans. Andrew seemed to read his mind. "We've got to stop that thing, or it'll kill them too." Andrew gestured to the humans and the Digimon. "This is called black torment. It puts one's mind under dark pressure until it cracks, and the affected just flat out die."
The Digimon had been at the place where they had been eating. They were finishing fourths when the Guiltfeeder attacked. Izzy noted they had all Digivolved to their rookie forms. Tai was looking at Agumon. Izzy tapped him and pointed towards the axe he was carrying. Tai glanced at it as the cold voice spoke.
"I told you to drop your personal shields. Do it, or I'll break his throat." As if to add to this, the Guiltfeeder tightened its grip on Matt. He tried to scream out, but it didn't work. Instead he gagged. Tai who was still looking at the axe, yelled out, "Empty threat. If you kill Matt, the you'll have no power." Izzy shook his head. "No tai, If he kills Matt he will still be able to use the black power he has, just he won't have a fresh mine. Hey, how do I know that?" Tai was still looking at Flamebroad when the mages nodded. Their personal shields disappeared and they fell to their knees looking like they were holding back a scream.
Tai suddenly grabbed Flamebroad, and muttered, "Together." Izzy nodded, and together, using their strength of mind, they lifted the axe up. Now thought Izzy. How do I dissipate this shield before he kills Matt. As if in answer to his question, the white shield was dropped. Now the only thing standing between them and black death is a magical axe that had suddenly become ten times harder to hold! Together. Only together can we do this. The weight of Flamebroad seemed to lessen, but only a little. The Guiltfeeder's yellow eyes narrowed. Izzy guessed that it had shot a black beam at him because there was a sudden searing pain in his stomach. He released the axe and was shot backwards about twenty feet! He felt down towards his stomach. For some strange reason the only pain he could feel was coming from there and not all around him. There was blood soaking his clothes. Izzy could tell that the beam had punched right through him. Izzy opened his eyes, straining against the unconsciousness that threatened to take him. There was a transparent shield with a red tint in front of him. He could see Tai standing twenty feet away, straining to hold up the axe. The Guiltfeeder looked completely taken off guard.
"How?" The dark voice called. "How on the three faces of Rhune and you resist my power, even with that axe of yours?" Izzy could tell that Tai was analyzing the situation. All was silent for about half a minute, and then Tai brought up Flamebroad above his head. It came swishing through the air. A fireball rocketed out of the magical axe and fried the Guiltfeeder's head. There was an ear-piercing shriek, and the monstrosity let go of Matt. He spluttered and fell to his knees, as he took deep gasping breaths. The blackness quickly vanished. Everyone stopped screaming and looked completely startled.
The Guiltfeeder opened its eyes. It didn't look too pleased. One of its tentacles began to wrap around Matt, but that didn't seem to matter anymore. The world was disappearing into blackness. Izzy groaned. He knew he was dying. The blood loss was too much, and he would bleed to death. Before the world disappeared in blackness, he suddenly saw a pink patch with blonde all around it appear in front of him. There was a warm feeling down on his stomach. The world slowly began to reappear into his eyes. The face of Mimi was rematerializing in front of him. Her eyes were closed and she was holding her hands down towards his wound. Izzy looked down and saw that there was no wound. Once again Mimi had come to their help by healing him. He sat up and looked around. Mimi opened her eyes and smiled at him. Izzy smiled back and muttered and awkward "Thanks."
Izzy then stood up and looked at the scene that he had been watching. The black skin of the guilt feeder was completely around Matt's neck now, but no black power was emanating from him. It was just chocking him to death. There were three sudden flashed of bright light and three balls of white light smashed into the head, and tentacles of the Guiltfeeder. The three mages had blasted it. He could tell because there was smoke coming out of their outstretched fingertips. They looked cold and menacing. The Guiltfeeder screamed and fell back. Matt began to sputter and cough again as he crawled towards his friends. Tai charged forward, Flamebroad now burning with fire. He brought it swishing through the air to slice the Guiltfeeder, but it dodged. Black tendrils tried to reach out and grab Tai, but he simply kicked away the floating form of the Guiltfeeder. It splattered into the muddy bank on the side of the lake. It looked up just in time to see Tai standing over it, his axe upraised. The foul creatures eyes opened wide, but it didn't have time to scream. Flamebroad came swiftly through the air and imbedded itself into the Guiltfeeder's face. There was an explosion and jets of flame blasted diagonally out on either side of the axe. When the smoke cleared there was only a crater and a little bit of ashes.
Tai wrenched out Flamebroad from the dirt. It looked like easy work. Then he slung it over his shoulder and turned back towards the group. Something hurtled into him, and he dropped Flamebroad. It was Sora. She embraced him and whispered something into his ear. It made him grin and rub the back of his head in an embarrassed sort of way. Meanwhile Andrew came up behind and took Flamebroad. He swished it around through the air once or twice and then twirled it around. It looked like he wasn't even trying. Tai was watching very intently even though Sora was still holding onto him. When she finally let go Andrew tossed him the axe. Tai tried to swish it around too, but it was too heavy for him. Andrew chuckled slightly.
"It requires strength of mind, just like Izzy said, and a whop lot of it. A fine hunk of steel you have there. Well, I guess you can keep it. By the way." He turned towards Izzy.
"You 'knew that' because of your crest. The power of your intelligence combined with the magic of this world to give you a." Andrew was obviously casting around for words to describe it. He settled on "A sixth sense." Izzy smiled, opened his eyes wide, and muttered in a low whisper. "I see dead people." Everyone cracked up. Even the three mages were on the ground laughing. Izzy supposed that even though they were some great figureheads of magical power in their world, they still had time to see movies. Even Matt was laughing a little. John got up still chuckling. When everyone had stopped he looked at Matt sternly.
"Well I hope you're proud of yourself. You nearly got us all killed." Matt, who still was still smiling suddenly looked tense. He was probably guessing that everyone was ready to take a potshot at him when John clapped him on the shoulder. "Happens all the time. Don't worry about it." Jennifer grinned. Andrew extended his hand out towards Matt who looked at it. He then took it. Andrew pulled him up as a blue light shone from the younger ones pocket. Matt frowned.
"What's that?" He asked.
"What's what?" Replied Andrew.
"THAT!" Matt pointed at his pocket. Andrew looked down and saw the blue light glowing from it. He slapped himself and cried, "I forgot all about those!" Andrew reached into his pocket and drew out a bunch of what looked like necklaces. But with a closer look, they realized that they were.
"OUR CRESTS!" Exclaimed Tai. One of them was glowing blue. The mage tossed it to Matt, and then distributed the rest. "I found those one day when I was getting ready to take you to Rhune in the Digital World. I figured they might come in useful.
Five minutes later the mages were swiftly packing up spare food for the journey. Izzy walked over to Andrew and asked him, "Why so quickly? We still have time right?" Andrew didn't even falter in packing. "Let's put it in perspective, if someone suddenly started shooting off firecrackers, began to blow off horns and made every kind of loud noise one might be able to imagine, and finally put up a sign that said 'A lot of stuff is happening here' many people would come see what all the commotion, is that right?"
Izzy looked very confused for a second, but then he realized. "Oh, let me guess, anyone or thing with a sense of magic in a five mile radius will be coming to see what set off so much magic."
"Bingo!" he replied. He finished packing right then and called all of the Digidestined to him. He pulled out a thing that looked like a C with a flat back. When Tai got over to them Andrew turned him around and stuck the thing on his back. It stayed as if it were glued there; he then walked away to talk to his sister.
"What did he do?" Inquired Tai. Sora and TK examined his back, and his ax.
"Move your ax back, no down, now turn it diagonal, now just push it back, now let go." TK directed him so he fit the ax into the holder. When he let go, it just stayed there. Tai looked back and exclaimed, "Cool." About a minute later they set out again. This time they were walking instead of riding, so they wouldn't make nearly as good time. But they were still going.
*Meanwhile*
Back in the real world a bus rolled to a stop somewhere in Odiabia. The door swung open and four people hopped out. One had long purple hair, and brown eyes. Another one had very dark blue hair with brown eyes as well. The third one looked just like the second, but much shorter. The last one had spiky brown hair and brown eyes. They were all carrying luggage and it was about the middle of the day. The bus rolled away as the purple haired one cried, "We're back!" The tall one with blue hair smiled and said, "Calm down Yolei. Yeah, we're back after vacation, but we don't have to flip out about it." She grinned at him. "Well I can't help being happy Ken." The short one called out, "That was more fun than I've ever had. I'm not even remotely tired." Finally the last one spoke. "Let's get the others together so we can do something. I agree with Cody, I'm not even remotely tired." He cried out. Suddenly a small blue creature poked out of his bag. It had little horns and was incredibly cute.
"Davis, can we do something. I'm really bored. That city was even more boring. All we did is look." Davis laughed and told the little creature, "It may have been boring for you Demiveemon, but well. oh never mind. I agree with you. Let's GO!" "Yeah!" The rest cried out. They sprinted off while Cody yelled to the others, "Meet in the park in twenty minutes!"
Twenty minutes later Ken came sprinting into the park. He wasn't even panting. He simply stopped, looked around, and sat down waiting for the others. Not far behind him were Cody and Davis, both looking slightly tired. They spotted Ken and walked over to him.
"Anything?" Asked Davis. He looked slightly distracted, like something was nagging at the back of his mind."
"No." Replied the Genius. "I asked for Mimi and Izzy, but got nothing. Their parents didn't even seem to care where they are." "Same here." Replied Davis and Cody unanimously. Right on cue Yolie ran over. She was breathing deeply.
"Hey guys. Guess what, I just went to some of the others houses and they're not there, and their parents don't seem to care where they've gone!" She sputtered while trying to catch her breath. Ken stood up. "This is serious. None of the Digidestined are here except us. Where could they have gone?" The question hung in the air for a moment like a mist. Then the answer hit them all at once. It was so simple.
"THE DIGITAL WORLD!" They all cried. Everyone sprinted off. Ken leading and Yolie trailing clutching a stitch in her side. When they got to the school they burst through the doors of the computer lab. And brought up the map of the digital world. Yolie sat down in the chair while glaring at the rest.
"You could've waited up you know." She snarled at them.
"You should've kept up." Davis told her. Yolie looked just about to reply when the map screen flashed up. There was a small message in the bottom left-hand corner that said: Last Login: 9/1/02 Everyone stared at it.
"Ahhhh, that was two days ago." Yolie practically fainted.
"What do they think they've been doing in there for two days." Cody asked.
"Nothing." Replied Davis. "They're not there. And they haven't been for two days." He pointed directly below the last login. He was right of course. The Digidestineds' signal was nowhere on the map of the Digital world. There was Last Logout: 08/30/02. The New Digidestined stood in silence for a minute then Ken asked the question running on everyone's minds. "Where are they?
Chapter 6: The Lake
And so, our journey into save humanity begins, though Izzy. He had gotten off of his horse because they were taking a break. They had reached the lake that Andrew had pointed out on the map. The group had only been traveling about four hours, but so far, nothing to worry about.
Izzy sat down on the bank of the lake. Its cool water was quite placid at the moment. He could see some froglike creatures on the other side hopping at each other and trying to slash each other with horns protruding from their heads. Suddenly Matt sat down next to Izzy. He looked troubled, but said in a meek voice, "Yo."
Izzy replied happily, "Hey Matt, how's it been? I'd just like to congratulate you again on that great victory over the Dark Seeker earlier this morning. You were really something."
Matt looked even more troubled. He looked away from Izzy, out towards the rest of them who were talking in a relaxed sort of way.
"What's wrong Matt?" Izzy asked. Matt didn't answer at first. He simply looked pensive. Finally he muttered, "I can't believe I did it."
Izzy looked confused. "Did what?" He asked. Once again Matt didn't answer right away. After about half a minute, he replied in the same pensive voice, "I killed him. It felt different with the Digimon, but this." Matt's voice rose to a shout, "I killed flesh and blood! I killed him!" A bunch of the frogs hopped into the pond. Even the other group members looked surprised. They didn't come over, probably because they knew Matt was all right.
Izzy turned back to Matt, and gave him a reassuring look. "Don't worry about that. You were dealing with something pure evil. You had to do that, otherwise we'd all be dead." Matt looked confused and Izzy continued, "Yeah. Andrew told me confidentially that if he'd killed you, then he would've become ten times stronger, and killed us easily. Then where would our race be?"
Izzy lifted his throat and swiftly drew his finger across it. He then stood up and put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Try not to brood on it." Izzy told him as he walked away. Matt still didn't look convinced.
Five minutes later everyone was gathering some kind of food. They had all decided to have lunch at the lake, because everyone was starting to get hungry. From here they would proceed straight north, towards the tall mountain in the distance. Izzy was catching fish. John had assured him that the fish in this lake were not poisonous or eating them would result in any kind of strange consequences. Suddenly there was a tugging on his line. Izzy jerked up with his rod, and reeled in. He had a fish that was bright green and about as long as a board. It flopped around as he held it in his hands, and then threw it into a small tub of water. Serra had created the stuff for him out of thin air a couple of minutes beforehand.
Izzy was just rebating when he noticed that Matt was still sitting like a statue at the lake's bank only feet away. Izzy looked solemn. Killing that guy must have hit Matt harder than I thought. Izzy thought. Perhaps I'll speak with the others about this. They'll cheer him up.
When lunch was finally cooked, Tai was sent over to get Matt. They came back with Matt still having that tortured expression on his face. Everyone was feasting on fish, berries, and some strange herbs that John had dug up.
"Hey Serra." Called Tai. "Why don't you just create food out of magic? I know you could do it." Serra smiled and replied, "If one relies on magic to do everything for him, then he will never truly grow and learn. He will become lazy, and weak." Tai had a look set on his face that plainly said, "Why didn't I see that coming?"
John continued the conversation track of magic. "Someone wondered why we couldn't just teleport directly to the temple. The answer is not simply that Torm and his followers are guarding the parameters, it's that if we did teleport you, it would be guaranteed that you would fail." They all looked confused. John elaborated, "Yeah, for some reason, if the chosen race uses any teleportation spell or spell that would speed up the process of getting places they need to go in the task, they fail. No one knows why, but the guess is that if you teleport, then you don't learn the necessary lessons one needs to know in order to succeed."
At that moment Andrew suddenly jerked up from taking a bite out of his fish. He looked alert and wary. Everyone looked at him and Lexx asked, "What is it?" He didn't answer at first. He simply just used some power to float up in the air in a standing position. He was looking around for something. Everyone was silent. There was a faint sliding sound over leaves. Andrew's head swiveled in its direction.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" He cried. There was a black shape in the direction Andrew had shouted. It suddenly disappeared. Andrew was looking startled. He put his hand into a pocket of the riding outfit he was wearing and took out a pair of goggles. He slapped them on, and looked again. After about a minute, he lowered to the ground and took off the goggles. They returned to his pocket as he said, "I felt something. A strange presence. More than a little bit dark. A different signal from the one coming from that small forest over there."
"What do you think it was?" Asked Izzy. "And what is in that forest over there." He pointed to a small clump of trees about fifty feet away.
"As for what that thing was, I'm not sure, but the magic signal from those trees is unmistakable. A magical axe. Flamebroad is what is it's called. You might want to pick it up before we leave."
They finished lunch feeling a little edgy, slightly afraid of the thing that had interrupted their lunch. If it was something that could put Andrew instantly on guard, then it was probably something to be reckoned with. When they had finished everyone except Izzy, Matt, Andrew, Serra, and John walked over towards the patch of forest. Izzy just wanted to talk to Andrew. Matt didn't say anything. The mages told everyone that they had enough magical items amongst themselves to last a lifetime. Izzy moved towards Andrew and told him, "Matt's been really feeling down lately."
All three of the mages nodded, and John said, "Yeah. I wonder why he's so depressed for killing something so evil." Serra continued, "He should be proud of his achievement." "I was wondering if you guys would talk to him for me." Said Izzy. "Well, let's have us a look at the poor fellow." Serra stood up. She immediately turned the color of porridge. The others were sharing her look. They leapt into the air. "Matt, RUN!" They screamed at him. He got up quickly, but not quickly enough. Something black splashed out of the lake. It had long black tentacles, a pointed face and yellow eyes. In one wild moment, Izzy realized that that is all it was. It quickly wrapped its tentacles around Matt's neck and began to strangle him. A black wave of power rushed out of it when it had securely fastened itself.
"Shit." Cursed John. Before the blackness hit Izzy, he saw that there were white shields around the others. Suddenly there was a blinding pain surrounding Izzy. It wasn't just around him it was in his very mind, his very heart. From far away, he heard Serra's voice.
"Get the other Digidestined!" She cried.
"Go, NOW!" Shouted Andrew. Suddenly there was a thud as something slammed into his stomach. Izzy flew backwards out of the cloud of blackness, which was still growing. A white ball of power was pushing him back out of the place. It disappeared and Izzy got up. Then he ran with all his might towards the forest. He saw Tai and the others gathered around a tree, staring at it.
"Hey guys there's a thing, it's got. What's that?" He stopped in mid sentence as he saw something imbedded into the tree. "The axe, what did you expect, Turkey?" Replied Tai. "It says something on the hilt, but I can't read it. And none of us have enough strength to pull it out. We tried."
He was right of course. The axe was huge. The hilt that was about four feet long a steel/orange color and the blade another two, which was pure red.
"You were saying?" Asked Sammie. Izzy didn't say anything. On the hilt were inscribed words that he couldn't read, in a strange language. Instinct took over.
"It says that only the strong minded can wield this axe." Izzy told them. Suddenly he looked surprised.
"How do I know that?" He asked.
"Good question. Do we have any strong minded people here?" Kari inquired. "Yeah, Izzy." Replied Joe. They all encouraged him to try it. Slowly, almost resentfully he grabbed the axe. He focused all of his thoughts to will himself to take it out. Nothing.
He pushed himself harder. Still nothing. He was running out of time. He needed to help out Matt and the mages.
"Guys." He cried to his fellow Digidestined. "Go help Matt, he's being attacked.
"Matt, being attacked." Yelped Jennifer, who looked shocked. "Hang on, I'm coming Matt." She tore off. The others trailed after her except Tai.
"Are you okay with this Izzy? Can you handle it?" He asked.
"Of course I can. Go help Matt." Izzy replied. He turned back to the axe. It was glowing orange. If I don't get this thing out, we may not be able to help Matt out. The mages were okay, but how long can that barrier hold out. I've got to pull this thing out. He concentrated with all his might. Slowly, very slowly the heavy axe slid out of the tree. When it was completely out Izzy strained to hold it up. He could only keep it about a foot off of the ground. He tried to run with it, but he could only do it for short bursts of five feet.
As Izzy ran closer to the cloud of darkness he found he was straining not only to hold the axe up, but also to move forward. The magic of Flamebroad was giving small cover from the searing pain that was on the other side of the axe. Suddenly the weight of the axe was ten times heavier. Izzy knew that he wouldn't be able to hold Flamebroad and keep walking. The weight increased, and a blast of pain hit him as he dropped the axe. He fell to his knees screaming. But also being tortured by a howl of pain, he could hear voices.
"DAMMIT, I can't hold this shield much longer." That was Andrew. It sounded like he was keeping up a barrier for everyone.
"Just one more minute Andrew." Tai called. "Izzy will be here in just one minute."
"A MINUTE! I CAN"T HOLD THE SHEILD UP FOR A WHOLE OTHER MINUTE!" He retorted. "HANG ON ANDREW, I'M COMING." John roared, but too late. There was a sound like the power of a computer shutting down, then suddenly screams of pain. The Digimon could be heard from far away. Izzy thought he could hear Tentomon crying, "Izzy you've got to help them!"
Slowly, very slowly he stood up. The pain was lessening, but he could hear screaming from the others. A light seemed to be growing in front of him. Izzy opened his eyes. There was a thin white oval shaped wall in front of him. It was transparent, so he could see. There were four other white lights inside the globe of blackness created by their enemy. John, Andrew, Serra, and Tai who had a very small one, had personal shields active to protect them.
"ANDREW, WHAT'S GOING ON?" Izzy cried to the mage. He swiveled around.
"Izzy!" He returned. "You've got a personal shield. Good job." The other mages looked around and saw him. "When the other Digidestined came, they walked right into the darkness without being touched." Serra explained.
John elaborated, "Yeah, Kari the Child of Light seemed to be able to give them some cover, but it couldn't last. We merged shields and Andrew tried to hold up a big one while we pulled you in with magic. But Andrew couldn't hold it, and the whole thing, including Kari's crashed down on us. I can't blame Andrew because I don't know a single person who can hold up a shield of that magnitude against a Guiltfeeder with a fresh victim."
"A. Guiltfeeder?" Inquired Izzy walking towards Tai, and dragging Flamebroad along with him. Andrew nodded. "Yeah, they're really nasty beings of the dark. They sneak up on people and suck out their guilt to turn into dark energy. Unfortunately for us, this one just picked up a gold mine of the stuff. Matt has almost limitless guilt for killing that guy. DAMMIT. We get horrible timing."
By the time Andrew finished saying that Izzy had reached Tai. He had been crouching down because of the pain. Not to blame him, his shield was about the size of a potato. When Izzy reached him however their shields merged into a larger one. Tai hadn't been screaming, but groaning loudly. When the shields merged, then he stopped and got up.
"Wow, what a knockout." He muttered. "Thanks Izzy."
"No problem. Now, we've got to stop that thing."
"They call it a Guiltfeeder right. Hmmm. Maybe if we can snap Matt out of his guilt, or disconnect that thing, then we can get Matt back."
"Good idea, but I wonder why our personal shields aren't wavering at all." Tai shrugged, but a chilling voice suddenly spoke. The hair on the back of Izzy's head stood up, and Tai looked freaked out.
"Good question." Sneered an evil voice. "But enough of this game. All of you, drop you personal shields. NOW!" The mages looked alert and wary.
"Easy for someone who's hiding in the shadows. Show yourself you wimp." Andrew returned the sneer. There was a flare of green light and suddenly the whole sphere of darkness was bathed in a greenish light. Izzy could see the Digidestined, kneeling, some laying back screaming in pain. The Digimon were also crying out. Matt was still by the lake, being constricted by the Guiltfeeder. Their steeds, which had been standing away near the lake were all dead. All accept one. He recognized the remaining creature as Eldar the White. Andrew was looked very frightened. He ran quickly to the Stag's side.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Roared Andrew. "GO BACK, WE CAN MAKE IT ON FOOT. I DON'T WANT TO ENDANGER THE OTHERS." The creature nodded and Andrew escorted it away. It walked with a limp. Izzy couldn't figure out how it was killing the creatures, but not the humans. Andrew seemed to read his mind. "We've got to stop that thing, or it'll kill them too." Andrew gestured to the humans and the Digimon. "This is called black torment. It puts one's mind under dark pressure until it cracks, and the affected just flat out die."
The Digimon had been at the place where they had been eating. They were finishing fourths when the Guiltfeeder attacked. Izzy noted they had all Digivolved to their rookie forms. Tai was looking at Agumon. Izzy tapped him and pointed towards the axe he was carrying. Tai glanced at it as the cold voice spoke.
"I told you to drop your personal shields. Do it, or I'll break his throat." As if to add to this, the Guiltfeeder tightened its grip on Matt. He tried to scream out, but it didn't work. Instead he gagged. Tai who was still looking at the axe, yelled out, "Empty threat. If you kill Matt, the you'll have no power." Izzy shook his head. "No tai, If he kills Matt he will still be able to use the black power he has, just he won't have a fresh mine. Hey, how do I know that?" Tai was still looking at Flamebroad when the mages nodded. Their personal shields disappeared and they fell to their knees looking like they were holding back a scream.
Tai suddenly grabbed Flamebroad, and muttered, "Together." Izzy nodded, and together, using their strength of mind, they lifted the axe up. Now thought Izzy. How do I dissipate this shield before he kills Matt. As if in answer to his question, the white shield was dropped. Now the only thing standing between them and black death is a magical axe that had suddenly become ten times harder to hold! Together. Only together can we do this. The weight of Flamebroad seemed to lessen, but only a little. The Guiltfeeder's yellow eyes narrowed. Izzy guessed that it had shot a black beam at him because there was a sudden searing pain in his stomach. He released the axe and was shot backwards about twenty feet! He felt down towards his stomach. For some strange reason the only pain he could feel was coming from there and not all around him. There was blood soaking his clothes. Izzy could tell that the beam had punched right through him. Izzy opened his eyes, straining against the unconsciousness that threatened to take him. There was a transparent shield with a red tint in front of him. He could see Tai standing twenty feet away, straining to hold up the axe. The Guiltfeeder looked completely taken off guard.
"How?" The dark voice called. "How on the three faces of Rhune and you resist my power, even with that axe of yours?" Izzy could tell that Tai was analyzing the situation. All was silent for about half a minute, and then Tai brought up Flamebroad above his head. It came swishing through the air. A fireball rocketed out of the magical axe and fried the Guiltfeeder's head. There was an ear-piercing shriek, and the monstrosity let go of Matt. He spluttered and fell to his knees, as he took deep gasping breaths. The blackness quickly vanished. Everyone stopped screaming and looked completely startled.
The Guiltfeeder opened its eyes. It didn't look too pleased. One of its tentacles began to wrap around Matt, but that didn't seem to matter anymore. The world was disappearing into blackness. Izzy groaned. He knew he was dying. The blood loss was too much, and he would bleed to death. Before the world disappeared in blackness, he suddenly saw a pink patch with blonde all around it appear in front of him. There was a warm feeling down on his stomach. The world slowly began to reappear into his eyes. The face of Mimi was rematerializing in front of him. Her eyes were closed and she was holding her hands down towards his wound. Izzy looked down and saw that there was no wound. Once again Mimi had come to their help by healing him. He sat up and looked around. Mimi opened her eyes and smiled at him. Izzy smiled back and muttered and awkward "Thanks."
Izzy then stood up and looked at the scene that he had been watching. The black skin of the guilt feeder was completely around Matt's neck now, but no black power was emanating from him. It was just chocking him to death. There were three sudden flashed of bright light and three balls of white light smashed into the head, and tentacles of the Guiltfeeder. The three mages had blasted it. He could tell because there was smoke coming out of their outstretched fingertips. They looked cold and menacing. The Guiltfeeder screamed and fell back. Matt began to sputter and cough again as he crawled towards his friends. Tai charged forward, Flamebroad now burning with fire. He brought it swishing through the air to slice the Guiltfeeder, but it dodged. Black tendrils tried to reach out and grab Tai, but he simply kicked away the floating form of the Guiltfeeder. It splattered into the muddy bank on the side of the lake. It looked up just in time to see Tai standing over it, his axe upraised. The foul creatures eyes opened wide, but it didn't have time to scream. Flamebroad came swiftly through the air and imbedded itself into the Guiltfeeder's face. There was an explosion and jets of flame blasted diagonally out on either side of the axe. When the smoke cleared there was only a crater and a little bit of ashes.
Tai wrenched out Flamebroad from the dirt. It looked like easy work. Then he slung it over his shoulder and turned back towards the group. Something hurtled into him, and he dropped Flamebroad. It was Sora. She embraced him and whispered something into his ear. It made him grin and rub the back of his head in an embarrassed sort of way. Meanwhile Andrew came up behind and took Flamebroad. He swished it around through the air once or twice and then twirled it around. It looked like he wasn't even trying. Tai was watching very intently even though Sora was still holding onto him. When she finally let go Andrew tossed him the axe. Tai tried to swish it around too, but it was too heavy for him. Andrew chuckled slightly.
"It requires strength of mind, just like Izzy said, and a whop lot of it. A fine hunk of steel you have there. Well, I guess you can keep it. By the way." He turned towards Izzy.
"You 'knew that' because of your crest. The power of your intelligence combined with the magic of this world to give you a." Andrew was obviously casting around for words to describe it. He settled on "A sixth sense." Izzy smiled, opened his eyes wide, and muttered in a low whisper. "I see dead people." Everyone cracked up. Even the three mages were on the ground laughing. Izzy supposed that even though they were some great figureheads of magical power in their world, they still had time to see movies. Even Matt was laughing a little. John got up still chuckling. When everyone had stopped he looked at Matt sternly.
"Well I hope you're proud of yourself. You nearly got us all killed." Matt, who still was still smiling suddenly looked tense. He was probably guessing that everyone was ready to take a potshot at him when John clapped him on the shoulder. "Happens all the time. Don't worry about it." Jennifer grinned. Andrew extended his hand out towards Matt who looked at it. He then took it. Andrew pulled him up as a blue light shone from the younger ones pocket. Matt frowned.
"What's that?" He asked.
"What's what?" Replied Andrew.
"THAT!" Matt pointed at his pocket. Andrew looked down and saw the blue light glowing from it. He slapped himself and cried, "I forgot all about those!" Andrew reached into his pocket and drew out a bunch of what looked like necklaces. But with a closer look, they realized that they were.
"OUR CRESTS!" Exclaimed Tai. One of them was glowing blue. The mage tossed it to Matt, and then distributed the rest. "I found those one day when I was getting ready to take you to Rhune in the Digital World. I figured they might come in useful.
Five minutes later the mages were swiftly packing up spare food for the journey. Izzy walked over to Andrew and asked him, "Why so quickly? We still have time right?" Andrew didn't even falter in packing. "Let's put it in perspective, if someone suddenly started shooting off firecrackers, began to blow off horns and made every kind of loud noise one might be able to imagine, and finally put up a sign that said 'A lot of stuff is happening here' many people would come see what all the commotion, is that right?"
Izzy looked very confused for a second, but then he realized. "Oh, let me guess, anyone or thing with a sense of magic in a five mile radius will be coming to see what set off so much magic."
"Bingo!" he replied. He finished packing right then and called all of the Digidestined to him. He pulled out a thing that looked like a C with a flat back. When Tai got over to them Andrew turned him around and stuck the thing on his back. It stayed as if it were glued there; he then walked away to talk to his sister.
"What did he do?" Inquired Tai. Sora and TK examined his back, and his ax.
"Move your ax back, no down, now turn it diagonal, now just push it back, now let go." TK directed him so he fit the ax into the holder. When he let go, it just stayed there. Tai looked back and exclaimed, "Cool." About a minute later they set out again. This time they were walking instead of riding, so they wouldn't make nearly as good time. But they were still going.
*Meanwhile*
Back in the real world a bus rolled to a stop somewhere in Odiabia. The door swung open and four people hopped out. One had long purple hair, and brown eyes. Another one had very dark blue hair with brown eyes as well. The third one looked just like the second, but much shorter. The last one had spiky brown hair and brown eyes. They were all carrying luggage and it was about the middle of the day. The bus rolled away as the purple haired one cried, "We're back!" The tall one with blue hair smiled and said, "Calm down Yolei. Yeah, we're back after vacation, but we don't have to flip out about it." She grinned at him. "Well I can't help being happy Ken." The short one called out, "That was more fun than I've ever had. I'm not even remotely tired." Finally the last one spoke. "Let's get the others together so we can do something. I agree with Cody, I'm not even remotely tired." He cried out. Suddenly a small blue creature poked out of his bag. It had little horns and was incredibly cute.
"Davis, can we do something. I'm really bored. That city was even more boring. All we did is look." Davis laughed and told the little creature, "It may have been boring for you Demiveemon, but well. oh never mind. I agree with you. Let's GO!" "Yeah!" The rest cried out. They sprinted off while Cody yelled to the others, "Meet in the park in twenty minutes!"
Twenty minutes later Ken came sprinting into the park. He wasn't even panting. He simply stopped, looked around, and sat down waiting for the others. Not far behind him were Cody and Davis, both looking slightly tired. They spotted Ken and walked over to him.
"Anything?" Asked Davis. He looked slightly distracted, like something was nagging at the back of his mind."
"No." Replied the Genius. "I asked for Mimi and Izzy, but got nothing. Their parents didn't even seem to care where they are." "Same here." Replied Davis and Cody unanimously. Right on cue Yolie ran over. She was breathing deeply.
"Hey guys. Guess what, I just went to some of the others houses and they're not there, and their parents don't seem to care where they've gone!" She sputtered while trying to catch her breath. Ken stood up. "This is serious. None of the Digidestined are here except us. Where could they have gone?" The question hung in the air for a moment like a mist. Then the answer hit them all at once. It was so simple.
"THE DIGITAL WORLD!" They all cried. Everyone sprinted off. Ken leading and Yolie trailing clutching a stitch in her side. When they got to the school they burst through the doors of the computer lab. And brought up the map of the digital world. Yolie sat down in the chair while glaring at the rest.
"You could've waited up you know." She snarled at them.
"You should've kept up." Davis told her. Yolie looked just about to reply when the map screen flashed up. There was a small message in the bottom left-hand corner that said: Last Login: 9/1/02 Everyone stared at it.
"Ahhhh, that was two days ago." Yolie practically fainted.
"What do they think they've been doing in there for two days." Cody asked.
"Nothing." Replied Davis. "They're not there. And they haven't been for two days." He pointed directly below the last login. He was right of course. The Digidestineds' signal was nowhere on the map of the Digital world. There was Last Logout: 08/30/02. The New Digidestined stood in silence for a minute then Ken asked the question running on everyone's minds. "Where are they?