PeterN: Thanks (again) for the review Theo 'Blitz' Leung. I didn't feel like writing more to Immaterium, so I couldn't. Hmm… to torture Sora or not to torture Sora, that is the question….
Mimi ran down the street. Up ahead she had spotted Joe, his head down and walking fast but aimlessly through the streets. The gap between them quickly closed and she called out his name. He spun round, anger still in his eyes and soul.
He looked.
All emotion drained from his body.
He blinked.
He blinked again.
"Mimi…?"
She collapsed into him and hugged him. "Joe! I'm so glad to see you."
Slowly and awkwardly he returned the hug, the powerful fog of shock still blanketing most of his thoughts.
"How did you get away?" he finally asked once some of his brain started connecting to other bits of it again. He looked at her, surprise and guilt in his eyes as she started to sob. Incoherent bits of words came bubbling from her mouth, not much of which he understood.
"…ran…explosion…helplessness…horrible…"
Slowly she stopped sobbing and dried her eyes with the back of her hand slowly. She looked into Joe's face. "There's another one of them here." She said in-between stifled sobs and breaths. "We have to kill it. We have to."
"It's ok Mimi. Come on, let's go to Tai's place, it's the nearest and his parents are out. We can talk about it there." He led her in the direction of the apartment block he had just stormed out of. Maybe I was wrong, and Tai was right. Again. Why must I always get things wrong? So much for being reliable.
Mimi glanced quickly at the look on Joe's face. A faint flicker of a smile crossed her lips before the mask of sadness and desperation slipped back down over her features. A brief moment of doubt crossed her mind before she quickly dismissed it. No. This is the way it is supposed to be now. She thought as they headed towards the apartment block.
A long tall shadow cast itself out as silence descended. Slowly and purposely the head of the creature turned, its stare fixed upon a single object in the centre of two roads. Its burrowing gazed seemingly piercing the spherical stone as it deliberately read every word on the ring around it.
One safe Route through turbulent Seas,
One Gate guarded by seven Locks,
Seven Locks embedded in stone,
To stop all others being used,
Never again to be revealed,
Never again the great despair,
Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Khorne
Chaos must fall or all shall die.
Contempt and disgust flashed across its eyes as it finished reading, memories trickled back from times millennia upon millennia past as it thought about the last battle. One simple battle was all they had to win. One battle against a weak, pathetic dimension.
The Greater Daemon looked around, all hell had literally broken loose as the armies of Chaos plunged into the dimension. Each of the major Chaos Gods had sent one army and one champion, none outdone by another. He was part of the Commander's elite squadron. This world seemed to classify its warriors by the titles of Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Up ahead was twelve Mega ranked enemies, seven WarGreymons, three ImperialDramons, one Machinedramon, and one Piedmon if the spy sorceries were correct.
He glanced further on; just visible to his acute eyes was a massive source of heat on the horizon, almost blocked from view by the billowing clouds of smoke and debris where the initial bombardment of attacks had churned teratons of mud into the sky. Huge globules still rained down smashing smaller Daemons and Digimon asunder under the relentless downpour.
Onward they crept, slowly working through the almost perfect cover in absolute silence. He looked around wildly as a massive roaring sound burst around them, shooting through the air above their heads a squadron of Slaaneshi bikers soared across the craters and smashed through the raining landscape towards their target. His target. All surprise was lost and several of the distant Digimon fly into the air. Ten streaks of energy smashed towards the bikers, incinerating half of them in the first salvo. He felt the immense heat as the blasts carried on and scattered around the squad he was in.
The commander stood up tall, the greatest of the Lord of Changes. His wings unfurled and glistened like rainbows as he took to the air chanting in the daemon tongue. The squadron followed his flight as they sped towards the enemy. One giant graceful creature followed by its smaller, but no less deadly kin. The commander levelled his hand, palm outstretched at the enemy. A pillar of flame shot out and smashed into the rapidly nearing group of Megas. Three of them disappeared instantly as they warp flame engulfed them. The squadron shot out various attacks that they favoured destroying another two Megas between them before they were upon them. Just seven remained with none of the Daemons gone.
The smallest of them rushed at him, a sword in either hand, it danced with the grace of death as it threw sword upon sword at him. Pain flared through first one wing, them his leg, and finally his side as the swords pierced him. He faltered and fell back, saw half of his fellow Daemons shot or cut down. Only the greatest stood his ground against five surviving Megas.
He watched in awe as the Commander swung his staff, now luminescent with its own power, two Digimon fell in a single swipe as it disembowelled them before stealing their souls to Chaos. Lightning thundered overhead, a great Digimon of immense size and power roared down through the heavens. A single flash of light. The Commander was no more. Only dust remained.
He stumbled backwards, fear coursing through his mind, amidst the confusion and panic of the Chaos armies he snuck back through the gateway and hid.
His mind returned to the present as seething hate filled his mind. This time I shall not run. You may have scared me last time Azulongmon, but I have had more than enough time to grow strong. Stronger than you will ever be. I know how you and your three friends made these things to keep us at bay, but I have returned, and I will smash the locks, and open the gateway. The flood of Chaos shall rise once more, and this wretched dimension shall fall at our feet!
TK ran. Faster. Still faster he needed to go. He glanced back. Too close. The thing was there. The thing pretending to be Sora. Catching up. He looked ahead again. Head down. Arms pumping. Feet running. Blood flowed under the floor. Regular thumping assaulted his ears. The floor contracted in time with it. He glanced around in panic. It was alive. The whole place alive.
He fell to his knees as he tripped. He saw the flesh like floor, soft and breaking. Thick knots of muscle stretching out as far as the eye saw, pumping, constant and steady. His own heart raced as his lungs cried for more and more air, a frenetic counterpoint of frenzy to the massive vein-like place he was in. Blood pulsed beneath it, pushing the floor up as it passed. His knee sagged into the floor, through it. Blood sprayed up as it was ripped. Pure fear saturated him as thoroughly as the blood saturated him. All sanity blasted from his mind as he collapsed coated in blood.
Not noticed by him, two hands yanked him upright and picked him up, moving towards some unknown destination.
Joe and Mimi entered the apartment block, Joe dreading taking back everything that had happened with Tai not ten minutes ago. Quickly they climbed the stairs and reached the door. He swallowed and knocked on the door again. An age later Tai opened the door. A second of anger was written on it as he looked at Joe, before noticing Mimi.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
"Mimi?" he said slowly, but now with a smile.
"I'm glad to see you too Tai."
"How did you…"
"I-I'd rather not say…." She interrupted slowly trailing off and noticing the slight look of horror on Tai's face. She quickly went in followed by Joe. On the television was the constant news report on what was believed to be a giant animal.
"…n. Military units are moving into place as we speak, several nearby tank divisions have been dispatched and are expected to reach the area within the next fifteen minutes. If you have just joined us, we are still reporting on the giant animal that has killed everyone in a town and is now demolishing every building. The destruction this thing has caused is horrendous and the loss of human life a great tragedy. Just in, it appears that a tank division has just arrived. We regret we cannot bring you any pictures of this, but among the loses were our reporter team…."
Mimi listened to the television intently, hate showing clearly in her eyes as she sat down in shock. Joe and Tai sat down next to her.
"It'll be ok Mimi. The military will easily be able to destroy that thing and everything will be as it should be soon enough." Joe tried to comfort her as the reporter started speaking again.
"No…. The animal has just destroyed the tank division…. It was not harmed and is now moving…."
Joe thumped the off button on the remote in annoyance while Tai just looked at him with what would normally have been a smug look.
Mimi gaped at the now blank television screen for a few seconds. "We have to do something, maybe the Digimon can destroy that thing like the other one."
"Where are they though?" Kari asked, "Only Koromon and Tsunomon are here, and both of them are unconscious." She turned to face Mimi, "Do you know where Palmon is?"
Mimi looked back at her for almost a minute in silence, tears swelled up in her eyes and she broke out crying.
PeterN: Wonder whether anyone will read this as it's taken so long to do…. Please read and review anyway though.