Chapter Four: The Seven Directions of Chaos
The Digidestined proceeded through the forest quietly, alert for possible attack by the Raptormon. Sandra walked behind the rest, clutching her baton and maintaining the Crystal Shield around them. She had tied the numbing leaves to Yoko's cuts with some of the vines hanging from the trees.
"Dead end," Inero said abruptly, stopping. Yulimon squeaked. "Dead, dead, dead end."
The Digidestined stared at the huge fallen tree blocking the path. "We have to go back to the other path we found awhile ago, then," Darmon said.
"We can climb over it," Chino announced.
"Maybe you can," Kaishi snapped, crossing his arms. "Some of us /aren't/ into sports."
"And what's wrong with sports?"
Before Kaishi could answer, Tamara broke in. "I think the proper question is, what's wrong with Kaishi-kun?" She spoke lightly, but her eyes glittered dangerously as she stared at her redheaded friend, waiting for an answer.
Kaishi shook his head and moved forward, out of the area covered by Sandra's shield. He grabbed a branch and scrambled over the tree, followed by the shadowy form of Varismon.
"I don't want to climb it," Yoko whined. "My arms /hurt/ again."
There was a horrifying roar from somewhere behind. Sandra froze and glanced back. "Don't look now. . . but I think our friends are awake."
Without any further conversation, all of the Digidestined dashed forward and leapt at the tree, grabbing at dead branches and hoisting themselves up.
The ground began to shake, jolting the children and their partners. Inero nearly fell and scraped his chin badly on a protruding limb. Tamara grabbed his arm and dragged him back up.
"What's going on?" Sandra screamed, having quite a bit of difficulty with her baton.
~~
"My earthquake," Farasimon smirked. She tapped her newly-played card. "That should help the builders of my fortress considerably, don't you think? Shake down all that rock on the cliff."
Skydramon drew another card and sighed. It wasn't Remove Trap, but it would still be quite a help to him. "Tyrannomon in offensive mode," he announced, giving the card to the wind and letting it take it to the table. "He's mine now, Attack cards or no."
~~
Kaishi jumped to the ground, Varismon hovering over his head. He reached up to grab Arcamon from Tamara as the ground quivered beneath his feet. There was another roar, closer now, and a thud from the other side. "Darmon!" Chino yelled.
"The digimon can't climb well!" Yoko shouted, her head appearing at the top of the tree. She tossed Celamon over and then ducked down, apparently to help Chino with Darmon. Kaishi caught the blue-green cat and set her down, then reached up to grab Ranumon and Inero's hand.
A bush rustled nearby. Inero cried out and fell forward, knocking Kaishi over. "Raptormon!" Inero shrieked, protectively cradling the tiny Yulimon.
"Just me," Teromon said, stepping out. "I went around the tree. It's pretty thick, though - I don't think they can."
Tamara jumped down and turned to take the baton from Sandra, then helped the American girl over the tree. "Yoko, Chino, Darmon!" she called. "Hurry it up!"
Another roar, much, much closer, and a thud that wasn't one of them. The ground was still shaking, but with each thud, it positively jumped. Darmon came sailing over the tree and landed on top of Sandra, knocking them both over. Sandra struggled to her feet, wincing at the sudden pain in her ankle, and grabbed the baton. "Where /are/ those two? We've got to get the shield up!"
Chino clambered over the trunk and slid to the ground, rubbing at a scrape on his knee. "My jeans will never be the same," he said sadly as Yoko appeared again.
"It's coming!" she shrieked, throwing one leg over the trunk and turning her head to stare back the way they had come. "It's a T-rex!"
"T-what?" Celamon asked as her partner jumped to the ground.
"A red and green Tyrannosaurus rex!"
"Tyrannomon!" Darmon cried. "Run away! Run away!"
Without bothering to set up the Crystal Shield, the children gathered up their partners and ran.
~~
Skydramon stared at the cards he held, shaking slightly. Three Attacks and a Weapon card. No, Chino wouldn't be able to use /that/ kind of Weapon. It was more suited to the small dark-haired boy, but he had to draw a Magic card to be able to arm another Digidestined. There were only six Magic cards in his deck, and he had played two of them. What were the chances of drawing Remove Trap or Control Room?
Not very good. And his turn wasn't ended yet.
"This, face-down," he announced, playing one of his Attack cards. It wouldn't work until he destroyed that Forest, but at least it was on the field. Along with his Tyrannomon.
~~
The raptor with the golden eyes lay in wait behind a bush, watching as the children pounded past. It was not an ordinary digimon. It did not /think/, precisely, and it did not speak. It merely attacked. While intelligent, it did not process thoughts. It simply /knew/ what to do. That made it a deadly predator and a master strategist. Almost as good as its master.
It saw the girl with the dark hair and hissed. Instantly it knew - her name, her history, how to defeat her. It knew, but it required the aid of its brothers.
Together, the six of them were unstoppable.
Tyrannomon pounded past, then paused, sniffing. Raptormon snarled. The larger dinosaur knew that it was there! That creature had to be deleted. Otherwise everything would go wrong!
Raptormon turned and dashed away to find its brothers. They /would/ destroy the dark-haired one.
~~
Kemaimon frowned at the table. Glancing at the Tyrannomon card, he decided to do something about that. Reaching out, he flipped over his face-down card. "Spellbinding, activate and trap Tyrannomon!" White lines spread from the card and into the scene playing out in the air, wrapping tightly around Tyrannomon.
"You fell into my trap!" Ryukumon exulted. "The card I played on my last turn was hidden from you, so how could you know that activating a face-down card would also activate it?"
Senauramon gasped, almost dropping her cards. "You don't mean. . ."
"I do!" He reached through the window and brushed the mist away for a moment, allowing them to see his card. "The Seven Directions of Chaos! Separate the Digidestined!"
~~
Chino wasn't quite sure what had happened. One minute, he had heard the agonized roar of Tyrannomon, and the next, he and Darmon almost crashed into a tree that definitely hadn't been there before. It was deadly silent.
"Hello?" Chino called, spinning slowly and searching the foliage for his friends. "Hello? Where are they, Darmon?"
The small brown digimon peered around. "I have no idea. And we're stuck."
"Stuck?" Chino crouched down beside his partner, brushing his blonde hair out of his bright blue eyes. "What do you mean, stuck?"
"There are no paths out of here."
Chino stood and waved a hand at the bushes. "We can walk through them and /find/ a path."
Darmon shook his head. "No, those are poison. If you touch them, they'll make you fall asleep, and nothing will ever wake you up again."
Chino exhaled slowly, his breath hissing. "So let me get this straight. We're in a clearing, alone, surrounded by poisonous plants?"
"That's it."
Chino looked up at the branches stretching above him. "Are the trees okay?"
"Yeah, they're normal."
Chino bit his lip, thinking hard. "So we /could/ climb through the trees and get out of here."
"You could do that, yes, but I can't climb."
Chino nodded slowly and walked to the edge of the clearing. He stared out over the poisonous bushes. "I bet I can make that."
"What? Make what?" Darmon joined his partner, eyes worried.
"I bet I can throw you over the poison and then climb over through the trees."
"Throw me!" Darmon's voice rose to a terror-filled squeak. "Throw me over the poison?!"
"As you wish." Before his partner could protest, Chino grabbed him and tossed him over the bushes, then grabbed a branch and dragged himself into a tree.
~~
Yoko frowned and crossed her arms angrily. "Where are the others?"
Celamon walked down the path, sniffing. "I can't get any trace of them. They just vanished."
Yoko looked back down the trail and felt her stomach flip-flop. "Or maybe /we/ just vanished, Celamon. We haven't turned a corner! We should still see the tree!"
Celamon sniffed her way back. "You're right. No one's walked back here. We /did/ vanish!"
Yoko wrinkled her brow, thinking hard. Something was /wrong/. Other than the vanishing. "Celamon. Look at the path."
Celamon looked. "It's a path."
"There are no leaves on it, Cel. There were leaves back where we were. They fell out of the trees." She turned her gaze to the canopy above. "Something came and ate the leaves."
"It might eat us!" Celamon screamed in horror.
"No, not if it's a. . . a plant-eater thing." Yoko started walking down the path, so Celamon bounded after her. "Maybe it can help us! Hey! Herbi. . . um. . . plant-eater thing! Can you help us?"
Nothing.
Celamon sat back on her hind legs, her ears wiggling. "I'll get us a leaf. Water Strike!" She raised her forepaws to let the attack jet toward a leaf. It clipped the stem, and the leaf fell.
Immediately, a long pink tongue snaked out of the bushes and captured the leaf. Yoko sprang after the tongue and found herself face-to-face with a strange pink digimon.
"Um, hi. We're lost. How do we get out of the forest?"
The pink aardvark flapped its small wings and rose two inches, the leaf crunching in its mouth.
"Um, nice flying. Um, help?"
It pointed down the path, back the way they had come. Yoko bowed.
"Arigato, Pinkmon. C'mon, Celamon!" The two dashed off, leaving the aardvark to its meal.
~~
Inero blinked, and instantly found himself upside-down. He gave a strangled scream and flailed wildly, trying to grab the vine that held his ankle.
"Don't panic!" Ranumon shouted, peering up at his partner. "Kindaamon didn't mean to catch you!"
The vine lowered Inero to the ground and let go. Inero stared at the blinking eyes of the tree and screamed again.
"Quit it," Ranumon told him. "Kindaamon is nice. I always liked him."
Kindaamon bent forward, brushing a limb against Inero's cheek. "A human child. What an amazing thing. There hasn't been a human in this region for many years - twenty, I believe."
Inero glanced around. "Ranumon, where are we?"
"Where Kindaamon is."
"And how far are we from where we were?"
"Opposite end of the forest, actually."
Kindaamon sighed, the sound like wind blowing through his branches. "The forest has changed, Ranumon. I feel it in the air, in the earth. Early this morning, everything shifted. This is no longer the opposite end of the forest. I am not sure where we are."
Inero sat down and drew his knees up to his chest. "We're lost. Tamara's gone. We're all alone!"
"You're not alone with me here," Ranumon murmured, nuzzling Inero.
Kindaamon made a creaking sound. "Rest here awhile. Perhaps your friends will track you down with their digivices."
Inero pulled his out and stared at the blinking red dots. "They're so far away. . ."
Ranumon grinned and balanced on his tail. "But I'm not. Isn't that the point of having a partner?"
Inero gasped suddenly and glanced around wildly. "Where's Yulimon?"
~~
"Where is my brother?!"
Arcamon stepped prudently away from her partner. "I don't know, Tamara. I have no idea how we got here."
Tamara hissed angrily and kicked an unoffending tree. "My little brother is gone, Arcamon. What did you do?"
"Me? I didn't do anything."
"Yes you did! You live in this awful place, don't you? It's like - like Jurassic Park without a freaking island or freaking electric fences! There are velociraptors and tyrannosaurs chasing us and my brother is /gone/!"
Arcamon was silent for a moment, then corrected, "Raptormon and Tyrannomon. That's who's chasing us. And what's Jurassic Park?"
"A good movie, a confusing book, and a horrible place." Tamara kicked the tree again. "Let's get out of here."
"And go where?"
Tamara heard a beep and pulled out her digivice. "What are these blinky things?"
"The other digivices."
Tamara nodded slowly. "Let's go to this one. It's moving toward us." She headed off, her eyes on the digivice. Arcamon pranced after her partner, flaming tail held high.
~~
Kaishi also watched his digivice. "That one's moving closer, Varismon. Let's head the other way."
Varismon hissed. "Why? Should we not meet up with them?"
"Yeah, but. . . later. Right now I'm. . . confused."
"About Devidramamon and the little boy."
"Yes." Kaishi shuddered and turned around, marching in the opposite direction. "That was horrible, Var. How you got bigger, solid, and then you made them all fall asleep. You could do that to anyone."
"It is Devidramamon's gift. I am not him now, and I need never be again, if you wish it."
"I think I do."
"And the child?"
"I hate him!" the redhead burst out. "I don't know why, but I /hate/ him!"
Varismon was silent for some time, then murmured, "He is no Digidestined. I cannot touch his mind. There is a wall there."
"Oh, so now you go inside people's heads. Is there /anything/ good about you?"
"I'm your partner, am I not?"
Kaishi stared at the ground. "Yeah. I guess that's a good thing."
~~
Sandra stopped running very suddenly when the others disappeared. She gaped at the place where they had been, then shrieked, "Teromon!"
The amber-streaked digimon butted her head against Sandra's thigh. "I'm right next to you."
Sandra fell to her knees and hugged the plant digimon. "Where are they?" she whispered. "Why isn't Tyrannomon chasing me anymore?"
Teromon listened carefully for a moment. "He's gone. They're gone. Where /did/ they go?"
Sandra took several deep breaths, trying desperately to calm down. "Okay. Okay. Let's keep going and maybe we'll find them."
"Sure, Alexandra."
"Quit it. I go by Sandra."
Teromon shrugged, a motion that caused her to overbalance and collapse. "Ouch."
Sandra grinned. "Come, Teromon. We have to get out of this forest. Maybe the others will meet us on the other side."
"Don't forget your baton!"
Sandra grabbed the baton and twirled it, watching the multi-colored sparks jetting from the end. "How did I get this? It just appeared."
"I don't know, Alexandra."
Sandra narrowed her eyes. "I bet whatever gave me this took the others away as well. In which case maybe we can use my baton to track them. Magic residue and such."
"Magic what?"
"You wouldn't understand. I read a lot." Sandra dropped the baton and bit her lip, trying to think. "Um. Show me the way to your Master?"
The baton wobbled, spun, and pointed backwards.
"Well, we're going the wrong way. . ."
"Then let's turn around now!"
~~
Tyrannomon roared, dark eyes wild. First he had been compelled into fighting for the Air Master, then he had been trapped in a spell, and now he was in a different place and the prey was /gone/!
Well, except that squealing little blue thing.
Tyrannomon snapped at the Spellbinding, which dropped off, and bent down, sniffing at Yulimon. It screamed in horror and quivered.
A white-haired human child burst from the foliage and snatched up the Yulimon. The boy turned his eyes on Tyrannomon. He said nothing, but the digimon read the child's eyes. "You will go away now, and you will not come back."
Tyrannomon obeyed. Without thinking, he obeyed.
The little boy smiled, hugging Yulimon, and walked back into the brush.
~~
Senauramon clenched her teeth, dangerous in her anger. These fools! They didn't even /know/ her master strategy, and yet they thwarted her with every turn. She hadn't even known that Ryukumon owned Seven Directions of Chaos! /She/ didn't even have that card! And worst of all, now it was a very bad idea to turn over her face-down card. Every time someone did, Seven Directions would do something. This time it had split up the children, but next time. . .
Next time, Ryukumon might separate her Raptormon.
And that ridiculous card of Kemaimon's! How dare he! She had had /plans/, and now they were ruined unless she removed the Magic card. At least he couldn't affect the other children. . . unless he had a Control Room card.
/Why/ hadn't she checked their decks?
She gazed at her hand, for the first time feeling doubt. A Weapon: No, Kaishi had one, or would, anyway. Armor: She didn't need it, and couldn't think of anyone who did. Two Attacks: Useless, all useless! The Game rested on her next draw.
She pulled a card from the deck and played it, barely looking. Then she looked again and started to smirk. It couldn't have turned out better.
"Cemetery," she snapped. "All cards in all hands go to the cemetery." She put her current hand down, grinning still. Now there was more of a chance. If /only/ someone would remove that stupid Forest of Illusions!
~~
Skydramon came very close to sobbing when Senauramon called a Cemetery card. What about the Weapon? What good was a Control Room without something to /do/ with it?
Then he recovered. Another of his Magic cards would resurrect any card he chose. Of course, everyone else would get a card back as well, but that didn't matter.
However, he still had the problem of six Magic cards in his entire deck. How could he possibly draw what he needed to win?
~~
Farasimon abandoned her hand, but didn't choose anew. "I'm off to check on my fortifications," she announced. "Call me after Ryukumon plays." She walked quickly out of the room.
Once in the hallway, she kicked the wall. Stupid, stupid Cemetery card! She had really wanted to play Blossomon as another guard. Now that option was lost forever. Or at least until the next Game.
Assuming, of course, that she lived that long.
Three turns left until she faced the Digidestined for the first time.
And possibly the last time.
~~~~~~
A/N: It's over. Chapter Four is /over/. And it took forever. Now, then, if you're planning to review, by all means, /do so/. I'm gonna keep writing no matter what you say, but everyone likes compliments! ^_^
The Digidestined proceeded through the forest quietly, alert for possible attack by the Raptormon. Sandra walked behind the rest, clutching her baton and maintaining the Crystal Shield around them. She had tied the numbing leaves to Yoko's cuts with some of the vines hanging from the trees.
"Dead end," Inero said abruptly, stopping. Yulimon squeaked. "Dead, dead, dead end."
The Digidestined stared at the huge fallen tree blocking the path. "We have to go back to the other path we found awhile ago, then," Darmon said.
"We can climb over it," Chino announced.
"Maybe you can," Kaishi snapped, crossing his arms. "Some of us /aren't/ into sports."
"And what's wrong with sports?"
Before Kaishi could answer, Tamara broke in. "I think the proper question is, what's wrong with Kaishi-kun?" She spoke lightly, but her eyes glittered dangerously as she stared at her redheaded friend, waiting for an answer.
Kaishi shook his head and moved forward, out of the area covered by Sandra's shield. He grabbed a branch and scrambled over the tree, followed by the shadowy form of Varismon.
"I don't want to climb it," Yoko whined. "My arms /hurt/ again."
There was a horrifying roar from somewhere behind. Sandra froze and glanced back. "Don't look now. . . but I think our friends are awake."
Without any further conversation, all of the Digidestined dashed forward and leapt at the tree, grabbing at dead branches and hoisting themselves up.
The ground began to shake, jolting the children and their partners. Inero nearly fell and scraped his chin badly on a protruding limb. Tamara grabbed his arm and dragged him back up.
"What's going on?" Sandra screamed, having quite a bit of difficulty with her baton.
~~
"My earthquake," Farasimon smirked. She tapped her newly-played card. "That should help the builders of my fortress considerably, don't you think? Shake down all that rock on the cliff."
Skydramon drew another card and sighed. It wasn't Remove Trap, but it would still be quite a help to him. "Tyrannomon in offensive mode," he announced, giving the card to the wind and letting it take it to the table. "He's mine now, Attack cards or no."
~~
Kaishi jumped to the ground, Varismon hovering over his head. He reached up to grab Arcamon from Tamara as the ground quivered beneath his feet. There was another roar, closer now, and a thud from the other side. "Darmon!" Chino yelled.
"The digimon can't climb well!" Yoko shouted, her head appearing at the top of the tree. She tossed Celamon over and then ducked down, apparently to help Chino with Darmon. Kaishi caught the blue-green cat and set her down, then reached up to grab Ranumon and Inero's hand.
A bush rustled nearby. Inero cried out and fell forward, knocking Kaishi over. "Raptormon!" Inero shrieked, protectively cradling the tiny Yulimon.
"Just me," Teromon said, stepping out. "I went around the tree. It's pretty thick, though - I don't think they can."
Tamara jumped down and turned to take the baton from Sandra, then helped the American girl over the tree. "Yoko, Chino, Darmon!" she called. "Hurry it up!"
Another roar, much, much closer, and a thud that wasn't one of them. The ground was still shaking, but with each thud, it positively jumped. Darmon came sailing over the tree and landed on top of Sandra, knocking them both over. Sandra struggled to her feet, wincing at the sudden pain in her ankle, and grabbed the baton. "Where /are/ those two? We've got to get the shield up!"
Chino clambered over the trunk and slid to the ground, rubbing at a scrape on his knee. "My jeans will never be the same," he said sadly as Yoko appeared again.
"It's coming!" she shrieked, throwing one leg over the trunk and turning her head to stare back the way they had come. "It's a T-rex!"
"T-what?" Celamon asked as her partner jumped to the ground.
"A red and green Tyrannosaurus rex!"
"Tyrannomon!" Darmon cried. "Run away! Run away!"
Without bothering to set up the Crystal Shield, the children gathered up their partners and ran.
~~
Skydramon stared at the cards he held, shaking slightly. Three Attacks and a Weapon card. No, Chino wouldn't be able to use /that/ kind of Weapon. It was more suited to the small dark-haired boy, but he had to draw a Magic card to be able to arm another Digidestined. There were only six Magic cards in his deck, and he had played two of them. What were the chances of drawing Remove Trap or Control Room?
Not very good. And his turn wasn't ended yet.
"This, face-down," he announced, playing one of his Attack cards. It wouldn't work until he destroyed that Forest, but at least it was on the field. Along with his Tyrannomon.
~~
The raptor with the golden eyes lay in wait behind a bush, watching as the children pounded past. It was not an ordinary digimon. It did not /think/, precisely, and it did not speak. It merely attacked. While intelligent, it did not process thoughts. It simply /knew/ what to do. That made it a deadly predator and a master strategist. Almost as good as its master.
It saw the girl with the dark hair and hissed. Instantly it knew - her name, her history, how to defeat her. It knew, but it required the aid of its brothers.
Together, the six of them were unstoppable.
Tyrannomon pounded past, then paused, sniffing. Raptormon snarled. The larger dinosaur knew that it was there! That creature had to be deleted. Otherwise everything would go wrong!
Raptormon turned and dashed away to find its brothers. They /would/ destroy the dark-haired one.
~~
Kemaimon frowned at the table. Glancing at the Tyrannomon card, he decided to do something about that. Reaching out, he flipped over his face-down card. "Spellbinding, activate and trap Tyrannomon!" White lines spread from the card and into the scene playing out in the air, wrapping tightly around Tyrannomon.
"You fell into my trap!" Ryukumon exulted. "The card I played on my last turn was hidden from you, so how could you know that activating a face-down card would also activate it?"
Senauramon gasped, almost dropping her cards. "You don't mean. . ."
"I do!" He reached through the window and brushed the mist away for a moment, allowing them to see his card. "The Seven Directions of Chaos! Separate the Digidestined!"
~~
Chino wasn't quite sure what had happened. One minute, he had heard the agonized roar of Tyrannomon, and the next, he and Darmon almost crashed into a tree that definitely hadn't been there before. It was deadly silent.
"Hello?" Chino called, spinning slowly and searching the foliage for his friends. "Hello? Where are they, Darmon?"
The small brown digimon peered around. "I have no idea. And we're stuck."
"Stuck?" Chino crouched down beside his partner, brushing his blonde hair out of his bright blue eyes. "What do you mean, stuck?"
"There are no paths out of here."
Chino stood and waved a hand at the bushes. "We can walk through them and /find/ a path."
Darmon shook his head. "No, those are poison. If you touch them, they'll make you fall asleep, and nothing will ever wake you up again."
Chino exhaled slowly, his breath hissing. "So let me get this straight. We're in a clearing, alone, surrounded by poisonous plants?"
"That's it."
Chino looked up at the branches stretching above him. "Are the trees okay?"
"Yeah, they're normal."
Chino bit his lip, thinking hard. "So we /could/ climb through the trees and get out of here."
"You could do that, yes, but I can't climb."
Chino nodded slowly and walked to the edge of the clearing. He stared out over the poisonous bushes. "I bet I can make that."
"What? Make what?" Darmon joined his partner, eyes worried.
"I bet I can throw you over the poison and then climb over through the trees."
"Throw me!" Darmon's voice rose to a terror-filled squeak. "Throw me over the poison?!"
"As you wish." Before his partner could protest, Chino grabbed him and tossed him over the bushes, then grabbed a branch and dragged himself into a tree.
~~
Yoko frowned and crossed her arms angrily. "Where are the others?"
Celamon walked down the path, sniffing. "I can't get any trace of them. They just vanished."
Yoko looked back down the trail and felt her stomach flip-flop. "Or maybe /we/ just vanished, Celamon. We haven't turned a corner! We should still see the tree!"
Celamon sniffed her way back. "You're right. No one's walked back here. We /did/ vanish!"
Yoko wrinkled her brow, thinking hard. Something was /wrong/. Other than the vanishing. "Celamon. Look at the path."
Celamon looked. "It's a path."
"There are no leaves on it, Cel. There were leaves back where we were. They fell out of the trees." She turned her gaze to the canopy above. "Something came and ate the leaves."
"It might eat us!" Celamon screamed in horror.
"No, not if it's a. . . a plant-eater thing." Yoko started walking down the path, so Celamon bounded after her. "Maybe it can help us! Hey! Herbi. . . um. . . plant-eater thing! Can you help us?"
Nothing.
Celamon sat back on her hind legs, her ears wiggling. "I'll get us a leaf. Water Strike!" She raised her forepaws to let the attack jet toward a leaf. It clipped the stem, and the leaf fell.
Immediately, a long pink tongue snaked out of the bushes and captured the leaf. Yoko sprang after the tongue and found herself face-to-face with a strange pink digimon.
"Um, hi. We're lost. How do we get out of the forest?"
The pink aardvark flapped its small wings and rose two inches, the leaf crunching in its mouth.
"Um, nice flying. Um, help?"
It pointed down the path, back the way they had come. Yoko bowed.
"Arigato, Pinkmon. C'mon, Celamon!" The two dashed off, leaving the aardvark to its meal.
~~
Inero blinked, and instantly found himself upside-down. He gave a strangled scream and flailed wildly, trying to grab the vine that held his ankle.
"Don't panic!" Ranumon shouted, peering up at his partner. "Kindaamon didn't mean to catch you!"
The vine lowered Inero to the ground and let go. Inero stared at the blinking eyes of the tree and screamed again.
"Quit it," Ranumon told him. "Kindaamon is nice. I always liked him."
Kindaamon bent forward, brushing a limb against Inero's cheek. "A human child. What an amazing thing. There hasn't been a human in this region for many years - twenty, I believe."
Inero glanced around. "Ranumon, where are we?"
"Where Kindaamon is."
"And how far are we from where we were?"
"Opposite end of the forest, actually."
Kindaamon sighed, the sound like wind blowing through his branches. "The forest has changed, Ranumon. I feel it in the air, in the earth. Early this morning, everything shifted. This is no longer the opposite end of the forest. I am not sure where we are."
Inero sat down and drew his knees up to his chest. "We're lost. Tamara's gone. We're all alone!"
"You're not alone with me here," Ranumon murmured, nuzzling Inero.
Kindaamon made a creaking sound. "Rest here awhile. Perhaps your friends will track you down with their digivices."
Inero pulled his out and stared at the blinking red dots. "They're so far away. . ."
Ranumon grinned and balanced on his tail. "But I'm not. Isn't that the point of having a partner?"
Inero gasped suddenly and glanced around wildly. "Where's Yulimon?"
~~
"Where is my brother?!"
Arcamon stepped prudently away from her partner. "I don't know, Tamara. I have no idea how we got here."
Tamara hissed angrily and kicked an unoffending tree. "My little brother is gone, Arcamon. What did you do?"
"Me? I didn't do anything."
"Yes you did! You live in this awful place, don't you? It's like - like Jurassic Park without a freaking island or freaking electric fences! There are velociraptors and tyrannosaurs chasing us and my brother is /gone/!"
Arcamon was silent for a moment, then corrected, "Raptormon and Tyrannomon. That's who's chasing us. And what's Jurassic Park?"
"A good movie, a confusing book, and a horrible place." Tamara kicked the tree again. "Let's get out of here."
"And go where?"
Tamara heard a beep and pulled out her digivice. "What are these blinky things?"
"The other digivices."
Tamara nodded slowly. "Let's go to this one. It's moving toward us." She headed off, her eyes on the digivice. Arcamon pranced after her partner, flaming tail held high.
~~
Kaishi also watched his digivice. "That one's moving closer, Varismon. Let's head the other way."
Varismon hissed. "Why? Should we not meet up with them?"
"Yeah, but. . . later. Right now I'm. . . confused."
"About Devidramamon and the little boy."
"Yes." Kaishi shuddered and turned around, marching in the opposite direction. "That was horrible, Var. How you got bigger, solid, and then you made them all fall asleep. You could do that to anyone."
"It is Devidramamon's gift. I am not him now, and I need never be again, if you wish it."
"I think I do."
"And the child?"
"I hate him!" the redhead burst out. "I don't know why, but I /hate/ him!"
Varismon was silent for some time, then murmured, "He is no Digidestined. I cannot touch his mind. There is a wall there."
"Oh, so now you go inside people's heads. Is there /anything/ good about you?"
"I'm your partner, am I not?"
Kaishi stared at the ground. "Yeah. I guess that's a good thing."
~~
Sandra stopped running very suddenly when the others disappeared. She gaped at the place where they had been, then shrieked, "Teromon!"
The amber-streaked digimon butted her head against Sandra's thigh. "I'm right next to you."
Sandra fell to her knees and hugged the plant digimon. "Where are they?" she whispered. "Why isn't Tyrannomon chasing me anymore?"
Teromon listened carefully for a moment. "He's gone. They're gone. Where /did/ they go?"
Sandra took several deep breaths, trying desperately to calm down. "Okay. Okay. Let's keep going and maybe we'll find them."
"Sure, Alexandra."
"Quit it. I go by Sandra."
Teromon shrugged, a motion that caused her to overbalance and collapse. "Ouch."
Sandra grinned. "Come, Teromon. We have to get out of this forest. Maybe the others will meet us on the other side."
"Don't forget your baton!"
Sandra grabbed the baton and twirled it, watching the multi-colored sparks jetting from the end. "How did I get this? It just appeared."
"I don't know, Alexandra."
Sandra narrowed her eyes. "I bet whatever gave me this took the others away as well. In which case maybe we can use my baton to track them. Magic residue and such."
"Magic what?"
"You wouldn't understand. I read a lot." Sandra dropped the baton and bit her lip, trying to think. "Um. Show me the way to your Master?"
The baton wobbled, spun, and pointed backwards.
"Well, we're going the wrong way. . ."
"Then let's turn around now!"
~~
Tyrannomon roared, dark eyes wild. First he had been compelled into fighting for the Air Master, then he had been trapped in a spell, and now he was in a different place and the prey was /gone/!
Well, except that squealing little blue thing.
Tyrannomon snapped at the Spellbinding, which dropped off, and bent down, sniffing at Yulimon. It screamed in horror and quivered.
A white-haired human child burst from the foliage and snatched up the Yulimon. The boy turned his eyes on Tyrannomon. He said nothing, but the digimon read the child's eyes. "You will go away now, and you will not come back."
Tyrannomon obeyed. Without thinking, he obeyed.
The little boy smiled, hugging Yulimon, and walked back into the brush.
~~
Senauramon clenched her teeth, dangerous in her anger. These fools! They didn't even /know/ her master strategy, and yet they thwarted her with every turn. She hadn't even known that Ryukumon owned Seven Directions of Chaos! /She/ didn't even have that card! And worst of all, now it was a very bad idea to turn over her face-down card. Every time someone did, Seven Directions would do something. This time it had split up the children, but next time. . .
Next time, Ryukumon might separate her Raptormon.
And that ridiculous card of Kemaimon's! How dare he! She had had /plans/, and now they were ruined unless she removed the Magic card. At least he couldn't affect the other children. . . unless he had a Control Room card.
/Why/ hadn't she checked their decks?
She gazed at her hand, for the first time feeling doubt. A Weapon: No, Kaishi had one, or would, anyway. Armor: She didn't need it, and couldn't think of anyone who did. Two Attacks: Useless, all useless! The Game rested on her next draw.
She pulled a card from the deck and played it, barely looking. Then she looked again and started to smirk. It couldn't have turned out better.
"Cemetery," she snapped. "All cards in all hands go to the cemetery." She put her current hand down, grinning still. Now there was more of a chance. If /only/ someone would remove that stupid Forest of Illusions!
~~
Skydramon came very close to sobbing when Senauramon called a Cemetery card. What about the Weapon? What good was a Control Room without something to /do/ with it?
Then he recovered. Another of his Magic cards would resurrect any card he chose. Of course, everyone else would get a card back as well, but that didn't matter.
However, he still had the problem of six Magic cards in his entire deck. How could he possibly draw what he needed to win?
~~
Farasimon abandoned her hand, but didn't choose anew. "I'm off to check on my fortifications," she announced. "Call me after Ryukumon plays." She walked quickly out of the room.
Once in the hallway, she kicked the wall. Stupid, stupid Cemetery card! She had really wanted to play Blossomon as another guard. Now that option was lost forever. Or at least until the next Game.
Assuming, of course, that she lived that long.
Three turns left until she faced the Digidestined for the first time.
And possibly the last time.
~~~~~~
A/N: It's over. Chapter Four is /over/. And it took forever. Now, then, if you're planning to review, by all means, /do so/. I'm gonna keep writing no matter what you say, but everyone likes compliments! ^_^