Natural Born Leader
A Digimon Fanfiction
By: Bekah-chan
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: (Okay, here I go) *sniffle* I DO NOT *cringe* OWN *wince* DIGIMON *sniffle* (I did it!!!) I do, however, own (or came up with) most of the stuff that doesn't have to do with Digimon. So, HANDS OFF!!!! Thank you ^_^
Thanks for the Reviews! :)
Part V:
"How, *exactly* is that kid still alive?"
We were now out in the hallway, standing over the blood Tai had left there; And Jun's question was a valid one. The carpet had an area of roughly a square yard, completely soaked a deep red, and blood was dripping between the elevator casing and the ruined car.
"I have no idea," I answered her, "Tai's a strong person though, I told you about the time when-- "
"Yes. Yes, I know... Could you just hold off on the Digital World stories for now?"
I didn't brag about these kids *that* much, did I?... Okay, maybe I did- But they deserved it!
"Right," Jun went on, now almost ignoring me, "I need something personal of Tai's..."
That's why she'd used mother's opal ring that night; The spell called for something that had been close to the persons aura for awhile. Like calls to Like.
"Lets' see..." he didn't wear any jewelry, didn't have a watch, was too attached to his hair... "What about his digivice?"
"I don't know," Jun thought about it, "The blood would probably destroy it."
Well, that wouldn't do. We thought some more, then;
"Hey, Davis? What's that?"
I followed the direction of her gaze and saw, almost out of sight in the shadow of the elevator door, a white splinter of bone. My mind flashed back to when the salamander had torn it's claws out of Tai... "Umm," I swallowed, "That would be a piece of Tai's collar bone."
"Oh... Eww."
I nodded agreement.
"But... That would work, for the spell I mean."
She was right. I looked over at the small piece of bone, sitting like a tiny island in a vast sea of red. She was right, it would work; That small piece had been close (read: within) Tai's aura for a *long* time. The problem now was; how did we get it?
"Okay, go get it," Jun had obviously come to the same conclusion as I.
"Me?" I demanded, "Why me?" Neither of us liked blood much, how could we after what happened to our parents? Plus, even if we hadn't had a phobia about it before now, this much red stuff was enough to make anyone shudder. *I* didn't want to touch it.
"Because," she explained, her eyes leaving the gory scene as she turned to look at me, "You already have it on you, no reason for both of us to get messy."
I looked down at my clothes to see what she meant, and swallowed back my nausea at what I saw. I remembered picking Tai up to carry him inside, but I had not given thought to what it had done to my clothes; There were giant splotches of blood all over me; on my arms (more on my left sleeve since that's the one I'd used to support Tai's shoulders); the front of my shirt; the left side of my shorts; and drying patches on my knees and lower legs where I knelt beside the injured boy.
My first thought was for Tai; he'd lost so much blood. I was worried about him.
My second thought was: ~Ewww~ accompanied by a shiver because blood was *touching* me.
And third: ~Jun's right Again, dammit!~
"Hurry," she continued, when she was sure I had the point, "Tai's time is running out."
I sighed, and bent to take off my socks, only to change my mind once I'd seen the soles. I was just surprised I hadn't tracked blood all over. *Double Sigh* I carefully walked across the crimson carpet, valiantly ignoring the way it soaked, the rest of the way, through my socks. I picked up the bone splinter (it was about an inch long and less than a quarter of an inch wide), I held it gingerly so it wouldn't slip... Then I made haste back to where Jun was standing, stopping at the edge of the blood stain to hand Jun the splinter and take off my socks before stepping onto (blessedly) clean and dry carpet.
I stood, balling my socks up so the blood was on the inside, as I watched Jun cast her spell. It had gone through some changes since she first cast it; Like, it now filtered the blood as the item collected it. I looked down at the carpet, and was very grateful for that part. Because, while it seemed clean enough, it was a carpet in an apartment *hallway*, and hardly sanitary.
The spell was faster too. About 30 seconds later, all the blood was gone from the carpet, and the elevator. And the bone fragment had turned almost black with all the blood packed inside it.
"This should do it," Jun commented as she turned to walk back. After a few steps, when she noticed I wasn't following, she said over her shoulder; "Aren't you coming?"
"In a minute," I answered her, "I need to do something about the elevator before people start coming home."
She looked past me at the elevator, which looked like it had suffered from a bomb, or something; and nodded to me, "Okay, but hurry. I'm going to need you to remove your patch on Tai's artery." she paused, "That was good thinking, by the way." then she turned again and hurried into the Kamiya's apartment.
I paused for one incredulous second, to ponder that my little sister had actually complemented me, then I shook it off... I had work to do.
I stepped closer to the elevator, stopping at the doorway and glancing upward. In the roof of the car, in a place ironically close to the escape hatch, the salamander had ripped through the steel like it was aluminum foil; the jagged edges pointing up where the metal had been pulled back. The made-dragon must have done this before Tai entered the elevator, and just waited for the car to stop on the floor it wanted, then dropped behind Tai.
It's been said before, but it's true; People never look up... Especially when they need to.
And, they never duck when they should.
"Davish?" I looked down to see my digimon.
"Yes?"
"Jun said you needed to finish something out here. Can I help?"
"Sure," I smiled down at him, "You wanna hold my socks?"
*****
Because of some, highly inaccurate, myths about my kind, human's are under the impression that we are allergic to certain types of metal, like iron. This is, of course, not true; Which is lucky considering the city Jun and I live in.
In any case, this was a good thing now, as the cable supporting the elevator car was made of steel, and I had to touch it to break it.
I'd used the escape hatch to get to my current position, on top of the elevator. Jun and I had used a lot of magic in one area today, but most of it had been shielded, so I figured it was okay to use it to open the hatch. There was no way I'd have gotten it open otherwise; I am short (they should really consider a re-design).
While chanting a simple fire-cracker spell, I flicked one finger at the hatch and blew it open. Then I vaulted at the wall, used a kick to ricochet about halfway up the length of cold metal, and turned in mid-air to catch the edge of the open hatch.
As I pulled myself up onto the roof of the elevator I reflected that it was a good thing I was barefoot, I wouldn't want to try that in my socks.
A short time later, I bit my bottom lip as I considered the steel cable in front of me. The best way to hide the condition the elevator was in, that I could think of, was to cut the cable and let the car drop. The resulting mess would conceal the fact that some of the damage had been enacted pre-drop.
Or, I hoped it would.
Thing was, I couldn't just cut the cable. That would make it look deliberate; Which, nowadays, would make people think 'terrorist'; Which would just scare everyone; And was one of the reasons I was doing this in the first place.
The danger was past, I didn't want anyone afraid. This, I knew, was also what Jun had thought when looking at the damage the salamander had left. I smiled, my sister and I spent a lot of time protecting people... I think we got it from our Dad.
Anyway, I had to make the elevator cable look like it broke naturally. Which would confuse people (the cable seemed fairly new) but was better than the alternative.
I looked around, in the dim light, noting the elevator cable, the system of weights and pulleys the made the car go up-and-down, and the maintenance ladder built next to the smaller shaft that held the counter weights.
I could do a small time spell to accelerate the corrosion on a section of the cable (this would be the part that requires me to touch it), then try to get over to the ladder before the car fell.
Piece of cake.
Hopefully, not a piece of squished cake at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
Or, maybe the cake would be mangled up it the broken elevator car...
And maybe I was stalling.
Sighing I shook out both my arms and placed a hand on either side of the steel cable, about shoulder height. I closed my eyes for a moment, bringing the spell from my memory. I hadn't used this one for awhile, mainly because it wasn't very useful. It only sped time up in the area between the caster's hands, and aged whatever was there a couple hundred years in as many seconds. I opened my eyes again, took a deep breath, and let it out again, slowly.
Here I go.
I quickly said the words, and channeled the magic down my arms, where it gathered between my hands with a soft glow, the color of rust.
Appropriate.
I held the spell until I could hear the metal groaning. At which time I quickly released the cable, turned around and lunged for the ladder... And missed.
Fortunately I was able to grab the rung below the one I had been aiming for. I looked down the shaft in time to see the elevator car crash six stories below.
And I thought, for the second time that day, that I was very good at destroying things. If the object I was destroying was inanimate, it was even kinda fun...
"Davis?"
I glanced to my right and saw Izzy's head looking around the bent (and thus unable to close) elevator door.
"Ya?"
"What did you do? What was that sound?"
"Well," I answered him, smirking, "We don't have to worry about the elevator anymore." I gestured down the shaft.
Izzy looked down, then backed-up a few steps, his head moving from my line of vision. A minute or so later, it was back.
"Why..." Izzy swallowed and tried again, "Why did you do that?"
"Because," I sighed, "the last thing we need is people asking why the roof of the elevator car had been torn off."
"Oh..."
"Ya; 'Oh'" I agreed.
"Davish?" Now Demiveemon's head joined Izzy's, although a little lower, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. But, could you guys move? I'd like to get out of here."
"Sure, Davish."
My digimon backed up, tugging Izzy with him. I climbed down a few rungs and used the one that was adjacent to the small ledge at the bottom of the elevator portal, to slide over, before I pulled myself back into the hallway.
Time to go see how Jun was doing.
To Be Continued ^_^
Author's Notes: Okay, some people (my beta readers) have expressed concern that Tai is still 'in peril'. All I can say is; "Be Patient!!" I'm getting there. I promise ^_~ I'll have Jun fix him in the next chapter, alright?