Disclaimer: Digimon is not mine. Still.
Author's Note: I apologize for the length which you were kept waiting for this, but the truth is that I've been really busy. Plus, I've been having major revision problems as well, so I'm having to coordinate things as best I can. Please bear with me. I should be done writing the series by November, which means that the rest of the episodes might be coming out in fairly short order. If you have any comments, feel free to send them, and remember that reviews are always welcome.
Episode XX
Dodging the Bullet
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant."
-Horace
"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
-Japanese Proverb
"Let's get out of here." Izzy pointed away.
"I can carry Tai." Leomon rumbled, some of the edge having returned to his low and deep voice as the color gradually returned to his fur.
"So how much trouble are we in?" Mimi asked.
"A lot." Agumon replied shortly.
"That's about normal." Gomamon sounded better, but hardly up to a fight.
"Well, I figure we're about to be chased down and killed." Izzy responded.
"Daemon is sure to send out his Vilemon hordes after us. They're fast enough that they have the ability to track us and overwhelm us with numbers." Piximon looked around in some concern at their ragged party.
"Then our advantage is that individually we're fighting an enemy who is quite weak, correct?" Izzy asked.
"Well, yes." Piximon responded, lost in thought.
"Then what manner do you suggest we utilize in gaining the advantage?" Izzy continued, as if solving logic puzzled back in school.
"Well, if we're functioning as a team now" Sora stared at the two of them. "I think we have a plan we can use."
"So now what?" Yolei kicked a rock with her foot and sat down in the remains of one of the upstairs bedrooms, clearly suffering the aftereffects of the earlier battle downstairs.
"I really don't know." Ken responded truthfully.
"Well, Khartan." Davis pointed out.
"True, but how?" Ken wanted to know. "We need some more planning."
"Well, first thing tomorrow we take a look around this place." Kari replied, hovering closer to the fire and shivering. Without Machinedramon and the vast army of servants that had fled the castle with the defeat of their master, there was no power anywhere. Ken and Davis had scouted out a different tower-like building, close to the treeline, farther out from the castle for them to live in for an evening, fearful of the arrival of reinforcements.
"So what now?" Yolei asked again.
"Sleep. We're all a little tired Yolei, and our digimon are exhausted." TK pointed out.
"Oh, right."
"Sweet dreams everyone." Kari whispered as she closed her eyes.
"Just remember." TK muttered, as exhaustion overcame him as well. "Remember that we beat one of the bad guys tonight in a major way. Tomorrow is the start of a new day."
Nighttime normally belongs to the darkness. Tonight we make it ours. Izzy's voice echoed relentlessly in Joe's head, refusing to give the elder digidestined any peace.
"Are you sure you're up to this?" Gomamon asked one more time, looking concerned at his partner's reluctance to enter the battle ahead.
"It's not like I have a choice." He muttered in return.
"Both of you be quiet. I could have heard you a mile away." Ogremon, returned to his usual self, responded like normal, making Joe smile inadvertently.
"So, what did they bring?" Gomamon tried to peer upward, but his lack of height was now working against him.
"The usual crowd for a forest. You know them. Vilemon, with some local Woodmon, Bakemon and RedVeggiemon. None of whom are a match for me." Ogremon stopped looking around and ducked down again. "All we have to do is take care of them before they know what hits them."
"Right. That's your job. I think we just sightsee." Joe responded.
There was the sound of something reasonably heavy beginning to make its way through the brush nearby. Immediately everyone froze and almost held their breath in anticipation of what was coming next.
"Here they come." Ogremon whispered unnecessarily to the other two waiting beside them. But the first Bakemon from the group was floating overhead, almost ignoring where he was going while trying to peer further into the dark forest.
He made it to the first trap, right on time.
Joe unleashed the branch he had been holding back, and the long, thing whippy piece of willow lashed back like a whip, catching the white ghost directly in the center of his chest. The blow knocked the wind out of the ghost, sending him sprawling backwards head over what counted as heels.
"What? Get them!" Somebody shouted in the background. They made it all the way up to Joe before Ogremon leapt on them, screaming his own war cry. By that time the Bakemon and Vilemon were too close to fight properly, and the more powerful digimon made hash out of them.
"Well," Joe stood up as the last of the Vilemon toppled to the ground. "Now what?"
"We go get somebody else." Gomamon responded.
"Somebody, anybody, help me!"
The first squadron of Vilemon paused in place, hearing sounds that were not normally associated with the forest, the sounds of a voice that did not sound like any digimon they knew.
"Is it one of them?" The one who held the rank approximating that of sergeant wondered.
"I can't think who else would be wandering around at this time of night." The leader snapped. Being out in the dark in these trees was beginning to make him feel a bit uneasy. He was supposed to be an evil digimon, perfectly at home in the dark, but he could not see anything, blast it!
"Move out troops." The sergeant wave the troop forwards, and they floated slowly off in the correct direction, wings barely beating. All of them, unknowing or not, were sharing their leaders dislike for this particular place, after all, it was difficult to see anything, and if these creatures could actually challenge Daemon, the Vilemon wanted no part of it.
"Somebody help!" The scream was definitely female, and it sounded fairly desperate. For a moment it was even haunting, coming from all around, and then the patrol emerged in a forest clearing, illuminated by moonlight coming in from above. There, in one corner was a girl, a human female, in a pink shirt and jeans, trying to free herself from what looked like a huge lump of bramble.
"The others." She gasped at them, seeming not to care about the fact that they were hunting her. "Those morons! They just left me here when I got stuck. Help! I can't get out. Don't leave me here all night in this scary forest." She raised her one free hand in what was clearly a pleading gesture.
The two head Vilemon looked at each other and shrugged, as if to say to each other that they were both confused at their sudden turn of good luck. Then the patrol floated closer to take custody of their new prisoner.
If any of them felt a misgiving moving out into the middle of the clearing, they did not show it, not wanting to look scared in front of their companions. For that reason they were mostly unprepared as a huge shadow fell over them, and they were suddenly cut off from moonlight.
The leader looked up, but the only thing he could see was a huge mass that looked like a cloud, but so low that it was blotting out the very trees themselves. His brain refused to register for one precious, important moment, the rate at which the mass was approaching him, but suddenly it did. He opened his mouth to order everyone to run for it, but by then it was too late. There was a loud crash and the entire patrol was buried in over their heads in bracken and sticks.
Then, with a loud crack, the trees began to fall on them, bludgeoning them into unconsciousness.
After the last signs of struggle from within ceased Mimi tilted the huge lump of bracken off of her and stood up, brushing herself off. Palmon came out of the woods, looking tired, but satisfied with herself.
"Humph!" Mimi snorted. "I expect that they weren't gentlemen at all."
"That's my Mimi." Palmon noted.
"So what you up to?" Kari asked her feline companion as Gatomon stood there, calmly washing her paws in the pool of water before her.
"Cleaning up. You know how it is. I have an image to maintain." The white cat sat down again and quickly shook her ears out. "So what are you doing?"
"Oh nothing." Kari admitted as she watched the moon pass quietly overhead from her vantage point at the side of the pool. Little wavelets lapped at the tiny sandy beaches, carrying with them the moon's light. A gentle glow made the water look as dark as pitch in comparison.
"I know what you're doing. You're thinking about TK." Gatomon sent a sly look at the blonde digidestined who was reclining against a hill not far away, holding a tired Patamon in one hand and gazing absently at the stars.
"Gatomon!" Kari half-shouted in indignation, but she had to admit that the thought had crept into her mind, and now her ears were flaming. She had to resist the urge to pitch her companion head first into the cold pool, something that no cat would appreciate. "Stop that!"
Gatomon chuckled in the back of her throat, amused at her companion's reaction when she suddenly noticed that TK was doing nothing, was not even blushing. Puzzled for a moment she noticed that he was still staring at the sky. "Hey TK!" she called. "What's up?"
"Huh?" TK blinked as if waking up, shaking his head to clear a set of mental cobwebs. "What?"
Gatomon chuckled again at the look on TK's face, and this time Kari joined in.
"She asked what you were thinking about." Kari told him, smiling at him.
TK just looked wistful. "I was just wondering what my brother was doing."
"Oh." Kari stopped, not wanting to tread on a raw emotional wound. "I forget, you see him so little, you feel more anxious about him."
"And you don't?" TK asked in return, raising an eyebrow.
"It's not like that, and you know it." Kari smiled at him, and then threw a piece of grass she had just picked in his general direction. "Tai hovers over me so much that sometimes its just a relief to get away from him. I miss him, a lot, but I have my friends and I can do my own thing now. Besides I have you."
That did cause TK to blush, but he looked skyward once more to the stars that were twinkling overhead. "I just hope that Matt's keeping out of trouble, and that he's not putting himself in danger for our sake."
"Must run faster." Matt panted to himself as he ran through the forest. From behind him he could hear the clatter and crack as a dozen or so Woodmon and Vilemon ran up after him, and he tried to lengthen his stride. His advantage lay solely in the fact that he had longer legs. The digimon had the advantage of having more stamina built in. So far, everything was holding even.
"Well, I suppose we could ask them if they want to give us a larger head start?" Gabumon pointed out, huffing between each breath.
"And give them more time to catch up?" Matt retorted.
"Look on the bright side. At least we're getting our exercise."
"Next time I'll go to the gym. At least there the weights aren't trying to kill me."
"You there, stop!" The Vilemon squad leader behind them shouted at them.
"Oh, like we're stupid enough to do that." Matt darted between a pair of falling down trees and hopped a log. Gabumon vaulted over with the help of his claws.
"We'll catch you eventually." The leader yelled back, trying to see the dark clad teenager through the darkness.
"Here." Gabumon whispered, pointing to the spot they had set up earlier.
Without another word Matt twisted to the side and jumped in the side of an open log, covered in thick-growing moss and slippery mold. The hollow trunk tilted down a green hillside, its end disappearing into the darkness. Matt and Gabumon held their breath and let the slippery wood act like a slide, making good their temporary escape. A moment of cold, wet darkness passed, and then they were along in a brushy area at the bottom of the hillside, invisible to any watchers.
"Where'd they go?" Someone asked up there in a high pitched voice.
"I don't see them anywhere." Another voice complained.
"I hate blundering around at night. I can't see my own wings." A third voice whined.
"Shut up! All of you buffoons be quiet." The leader snapped. "Spread out and start searching."
Gabumon and Matt looked at each other and exchanged silent nods. A moment later Matt and his companion climbed into the stump of an old, fallen tree. Even in daylight it was difficult to spot the crack that ran along the top, and the cave that it hid. In nighttime, spotting the concealed patch would be virtually impossible. Together the two of them hunkered down, eyeing the concealing fog with wary eyes, burying themselves in a blanked of old branches that had fallen in.
In the darkness and the eerie drifting mist there was a sudden crunch. Moments later a few more crunches occurred, somebody walking along the drier branches nearby. Matt tried to stop breathing. The wind, suddenly sharp and bitter, tried to cut through him like a knife, and he suppressed a shudder as shapes appeared in the fog.
"We ain't going to find them around here." A Woodmon complained as he and his Vilemon companion crunched through the branches.
"Maybe they had some kind of teleportation gizmo." The Vilemon suggested.
"Or maybe they climbed the trees and got away that way." The Woodmon looked up. "You could go up and see."
"Why me?"
"'cause you the one with the wings."
"Forget it. This place is too spooky to go off alone. Besides, I couldn't find them in this anyway."
"Not that we really want to find the brats." The Woodmon looked nervous.
"Yeah, no kidding. Did you see what they did to the top of the tower. I thought Daemon was going to blast us just for laughs. No way I want to get anywhere near somebody who can do that."
"If they really are the Digidestined, they can make their digimon digivolve, and I hear this one turns into that Greymon character."
The Vilemon jerked back. "Yikes. That guy could eat both of us as an appetizer."
"Yeah, I really don't want to find that guy. What say we go back home."
"You tell the boss we're too scared. See how he takes that."
"Yeah, really." The Woodmon gave the scenery another halfhearted glance, eyes passing Matt's position. For a moment Matt was sure he had been spotted, but then the Woodmon looked elsewhere.
"Hey, you down there. You find anything?" The leader's voice, loud and clear even through the fog, took the two searcher's attention away.
"No sir." The Vilemon replied.
"Well get back up here. They've probably gone onwards. We'll catch up to them."
"Wonderful." The Woodmon wondered, and then the two trudged off into the fog.
As soon as they were gone Matt and Gabumon released a collective sigh of relief, letting go of some of their tension.
"Well, they're out wandering the woods, right where we want them." Gabumon whispered.
"We'll give it about fifteen more minutes and then go find Izzy to tell him we've done our part. BrrrI'm freezing here."
"You can share my coat. I guess it's all up to the others now."
The Woodmon shifted uncomfortably. He knew that it was better standing guard at the camp then it was trudging over the woods in search of some phantom killers, but he really did not like it here. Everything he could see was dark, the only light being the faint light from a partial moon and distant stars reflecting off of the misty clouds. It gave the world an eerie, ghost-like feeling, and it gave him the shivers. He tried to focus outside, looking for any threat, but the fog refused to divulge any occupants.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.
"Hello there." Leomon said with a growling rumble, and then brought his fist down hard on the unfortunate digimon's head. The Woodmon crumpled to the ground in an unconscious lump.
"That's the last of them." Leomon whispered.
Sora and Izzy both nodded. Tai, Piximon and Agumon were following up behind them.
"It looks like out plan was good." Izzy told them matter-of-factly as he consulted the notes he had written down on his laptop. "Between the distractions the others have caused, most of their guards are out of camp. We can set the whole area full of traps ready for their return."
"And an ambush." Leomon rumbled deep in his chest. He had been polishing his sword earlier, waiting for this moment. Around him empty tents sat in the faint light from above, white canvas glowing eerily against a darkened background. There was no noise other than them.
"Right. Shall we get busy." Izzy pointed.
Sora and Tai nodded. "Let's go do it."
"I'm cold." Ken muttered under his breath, trying to hug a jacket closer around himself.
"Well, it is nighttime." Davis responded, but even he looked less jaunty than usual.
The two humans were helping work a night watch shift. Technically Davis was supposed to be asleep, but he claimed to be too worked up to go to sleep, and was keeping Ken company. The two were huddled around the small fire that they kept for the night watchmen. Around them everything was crisp and cold, and the stars glimmered brightly outside of the window.
"I guess nobody showed up to save MachineDramon anyway." Ken observed. The only sounds outside were the chirping of crickets and the occasional owl hooting.
"That's sort of anticlimactic." Davis complained. "We mount this huge battle, but nobody cares."
"Well, he sure did." Ken remarked.
"That's true." Davis sighed. "So what was it like to be leader?"
"It was interesting, but the pressure got to me at the end. I'm not sure I want to do it so often the next time around."
"Well, I'm beginning to think we really don't need a leader." Davis looked back at Ken with a thoughtful expression in his eyes. "I mean, after all, the one who seems to have the best plan takes charge."
"That's not true. We still need someone who can make decisions for us when we aren't in the middle of a battle. In a fight, we usually run where the first person points, and we vote on big decisions, but the little ones, the things that keep us going, they still need a leader to decide on them. You aren't getting out of this so easily Davis. You're still the leader."
"I guess so." Davis cocked his goggles back at a jaunty angle. "But you know, we're a lot more comfortable with each other now than we used to be. I think we're getting this team stuff down."
Ken breathed on his hands to warm them. "I guess so. I'm beginning to see what the other team meant. We did have a lot to learn."
"I hope they remember what they already learned." Davis put in, stretching.
"We ready?" Joe asked Ogremon unnecessarily.
"Of course we are." The green giant returned, absently scratching himself with one long claw. The trio of people were hunkered down in a huge patch of bracken, trying to make themselves invisible in the nighttime fog. A sudden gust of wind rattled the trees above, creating a sudden rushing sound that was almost eerie.
"I hope this place spooks them out as much as it spooks me out." Joe muttered.
"I'm sure it does Joe." Gomamon pointed out.
"Well, how are we doing?" Izzy asked, wiping the sweat off of his brow with his sleeve.
"Just fine, thank you." Tai and Leomon had just finished excavating another pit trap, and were busy covering it with camouflage to avoid anyone sighting it.
"That gives us small traps all over the perimeter, and big ones in the camp itself. What about the falling trees?"
"They'll fall when you need them too." Sora and Agumon came up from behind, each one with dirty hands, but looking satisfied with their work.
"Good." Izzy finished tying a knot on his latest trap and then stood up. "Sooner or later they're going to be coming back, but I hope that they arrive all at once. That would make things easier."
"Easier usually doesn't happen to us." Agumon responded, sitting down heavily.
"Well, we deserve a break sooner or later." Sora replied, sitting down next to Tai's companion. Tai was blanking out again and did not notice that anything was happening. "Stick close to Tai for us, right?"
"Okay." Agumon nodded, instantly seeing what she was concerned about.
"So you noticed too." Izzy muttered into Sora's ear. The relationship between Sora and Izzy was an odd one, having to do with years of backing up the leaders on various issues, and doing the grunt work in battle. As a result of all that time spent together both Sora and Izzy were comfortable with managing the team's various problems.
"How could you not notice. Tai's been in zone-out mode ever since the battle."
"He was acting weird during the battle. I wonder why?" Izzy continued thoughtfully.
"Probably Kari, but we should ask him."
"Now or later?"
"Well, since the enemies aren't beating down the door, probably now." Sora straightened her hair and went over to Tai with Izzy trailing along.
"Why so silent Tai?" Sora dropped next to Tai.
Tai started and looked over at the two friends and his own digimon companion before sighing. "Because I screwed up and I know it. It's just my way of dealing with this particular problem."
"Why did you screw up?" Izzy asked. "And when?"
"You saw how I was behaving in the castle." Tai absently began to dig through the dirt around him. "You saw entirely how I was behaving. I rushed in like an idiot. What's the old saying? 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' That's what I was doing. Like an idiot I almost got us all killed."
"Accidents happen Tai. Mistakes happen all the time. We've all made them before." Sora tried to comfort him.
"But usually we don't make the same mistake twice. Every time I get something in my head as a leader, I try and rush off and do it. That's what's going to get us killed. I keep making the same mistake over and over and over again, and the rest of you don't. And what's worse is that I know I'm doing it. I knew we should have backed down, looked around more, thought things over, but the truth was that we were so close to getting Kari that I could taste it. And so I screwed up, and I knew that I screwed up. And I promised myself last time that I would never do this again."
"But your charging ahead has saved us before. It's good to be able to make up your mind, even if it might be the wrong idea. Without you we probably would have sat around and planned for a week, and all the plans would have been useless anyway." Izzy pointed out logically. "We all survived and we're all safe for now, so there's really nothing wrong with getting some experience."
"I'm supposed to be there for Kari."
"But she doesn't need it Tai." Agumon patted his partner's leg with one claw. "I mean, she's got Gatomon, she's got a lot of experience, and she's stood up to some pretty powerful evil on her own. If the creatures she's faced down all by herself weren't evil, than evil doesn't exist. She can take care of herself."
"And so can you Tai. You've got to give her a chance to prove herself, and you have to trust her. We all trust them to keep alive and do the right thing until we can help. You should do the same."
"It's not just that, is it?" Izzy asked with some concern.
"No." Tai admitted, shaking his head. "I feel worthless too. I mean, everyone except me and Matt can digivolve their digimon to Ultimate. I was useful as long as I could make the right decisions, but if I can't, than what can I do for the team? Think about it. It's something inside of me that keeps my crest from glowing. That's the problem. It's my fault if I can't protect the team the way that I'm supposed to."
"It's not over yet Tai. There's still a lot you can do, and time will help." Sora patted him on the back of the head, but was interrupted as Matt came sprinting into the campsite.
"They're right behind me." He panted as Gabumon staggered up behind him.
"Time to go." Izzy jumped off, and, warily, Tai and Sora followed behind him.
Mimi and Palmon arrived at the ambush point they were assigned to scant seconds before they could hear the distant crunch of branches and dried twigs that indicated someone approaching. Within seconds the noise was so loud that it was clear that many people were approaching instead of just one.
"Is that our cue?" Mimi asked, hunching down behind a large bush.
"Probably."
A few moments later there was more crunching and a group of RedVeggiemon and Vilemon appeared out of the fog, dark shapes solidifying into living digimon. A moment later they were passing by, and seconds after that they were all gone as they faded into the darkness.
"Right, so be ready if they come back." Palmon whispered.
"I guess so. Brrrr.it's cold out here, isn't it?"
The first Vilemon to drift back to the camp they had set up, anxious to get back to warmth and comfort, however limited, set off the first snare. It was simple, a rope made out of twisted vines, sliced handily by Leomon, connected to a whippy sapling, the sort of trap that you saw on TV. It looked ineffectual, and probably would not work against a person. But the Vilemon who landed in the loop of vine and set off the trap did not weigh as much as a human. The sapling sprang back upright, and hurled the unlucky digimon into a tree.
"Quick, everybody, the digidestined must be here." One of them, presumably a leader yelled, pointing at the camp. This seemed to arouse more fear than courage in the troops following him.
"Charge." Somebody else yelled, and the crowd, which was gathering still from the various groups that had been scattered all over the forest, started to move forward.
There was a crash as some RedVeggiemon discovered the tiger pit trap that was directly in their route, falling down with a crash. Progress stopped. Muttering started as latecomers to the fray begin to ask what was going on. Leaders barked orders to try and resume progress, but now almost nobody was listening to them.
A small cloud of wooden objects flew through the air, launched from a makeshift catapult, knocking several of the Vilemon down and sending them sprawling. There was a rush as the attackers stopped advancing and attempted to find a large, solid object to hide behind. This lasted for a few moments while there was utter chaos outside, giving the shadows in the depths of the camp a few moments to maneuver.
Finally, after being zapped by their leader a few times, a group of Vilemon and Woodmon on the right flank managed to get going in sort of a cautious charge, working their way slowly up the hill. Their charge was uninspired, and their mood as they crested the long, dark, running slope and found Leomon waiting for them at the top, was one of extreme discomfort. This discomfort was immediately added to by the attack of the huge Champion.
Fists flying and sword whirling he swept through the crowd, difficult to see in the darkness, but his actions were evident. Here and there small dark shapes would go flying off into the trees. Most of them were not rising. Leaders screamed contradictory orders, urging their people on, but the rest of the attackers seemed not to want to proceed up the hill to where that mess of blackness was whirling away.
"Now!" Izzy yelled. "While they're not looking."
With a thunderous crash the second arm of the trap opened up. The huge trees around all the corners of the camp had been weakened by some inspired woodworking. Now, as Izzy gave the command, Sora and Tai dropped a huge collection of logs on the mass of attackers. The trees toppled slowly enough to actually give the digimon under them a chance to escape, a chance to dive out of the way, but it was not enough. Branches slammed into heads, sending digimon reeling out, unconscious. Others were pinned beneath the heavy logs, the weight keeping them from escaping. Some were just injured, and they were the most chaotic of all, running around screaming, spreading chaos through the ranks.
"Pit Bomb!" A group that had been sneaking closer and closer suddenly found themselves blasted away.
"Let's get out of here!" Someone in the back shouted, and the rear of the group broke apart, rogue digimon fleeing blindly into the woods. Some leaders managed to retain order among themselves, but the continuous mass of screams from the hillside battle kept their troops from attacking. In moments the bulk of the attackers had melted away into the woods, disappearing from view.
"Needle Spray!" A shout from one part of the forest indicated that they were being hurried along on their retreat. There was a sudden round of dull, heavy thuds as the needles hammered into trees and whatever else was in their way. A new set of screams and warnings told the listeners that the retreating enemy was giving that area a wide berth too.
"Pummel Whack!" Another group of sudden screams gave the attackers yet another region to avoid on their hasty retreat. Soon the noise of combat and people fading through the bushes had vanished. In the chaos, all of the attackers had fled, some running blindly into the arms of the ambushers, some escaping outright. Nobody was hanging around the camp any more. The digidestined stood in the middle of a cleared forest, breathing sighs of relief and triumph.
"All right!" Sora and Izzy exchanged high-fives as the battle ran down. "We did it."
"We sure did." Matt gave one of his rare full smiles. "It looks like we're not out of the game yet." Gabumon laughed by his side.
"Who'd have thought?" Joe asked, emerging from the woods with Ogremon and Gomamon on his tail. "It looks like they aren't as tough as we thought."
"There were quite a lot of them." Gomamon admitted, and giggled.
"So now what?" Mimi asked as she stepped out of the concealing shadows.
"We fall back and regroup before taking Daemon on again." Izzy suggested.
Tai just nodded, and sunk back into his dark mood again.
"This place is a mess." Yolei complained, as she helped Cody lift up what was left of a door so they could see what was under it.
"Well, we weren't exactly trying to keep it in one piece." Davis responded, climbing over a pile of rubble in the middle of the hallway. The three of them and their digimon companions were delving down deep into the castle. Ken, Kari and TK had opted to check out the top of the castle, and to keep watch in case anybody tried to sneak up on them. So far it appeared that the wreck of a fortress was now abandoned.
"Yeah, we did do some damage here." Veemon admitted, but he looked proud of himself instead of upset.
"Some damage is right. I've seen thousand year old ruins in better shape than this." Yolei rolled her eyes, but smiled good-naturedly. It seemed that the morning after their big victory that nothing could keep them down.
"So where does this go?" Cody asked the question that all of them had been thinking about. The huge corridor they were in sloped gradually downward from Machinedramon's throne room, ending somewhere ahead in the blackness. Doors lined the sides, but they refused to open.
"Listen to that?" Armadillomon suddenly exclaimed. "D'ya hear it?"
"Hear what?" Davis asked, before quieting himself to listen.
Then they all heard it, a faint voice drifting through the hall. "Help meeeee."
"I think there's someone down here." Yolei said.
Author's Note: I apologize for the length which you were kept waiting for this, but the truth is that I've been really busy. Plus, I've been having major revision problems as well, so I'm having to coordinate things as best I can. Please bear with me. I should be done writing the series by November, which means that the rest of the episodes might be coming out in fairly short order. If you have any comments, feel free to send them, and remember that reviews are always welcome.
Dodging the Bullet
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant."
-Horace
"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
-Japanese Proverb
"I can carry Tai." Leomon rumbled, some of the edge having returned to his low and deep voice as the color gradually returned to his fur.
"So how much trouble are we in?" Mimi asked.
"A lot." Agumon replied shortly.
"That's about normal." Gomamon sounded better, but hardly up to a fight.
"Well, I figure we're about to be chased down and killed." Izzy responded.
"Daemon is sure to send out his Vilemon hordes after us. They're fast enough that they have the ability to track us and overwhelm us with numbers." Piximon looked around in some concern at their ragged party.
"Then our advantage is that individually we're fighting an enemy who is quite weak, correct?" Izzy asked.
"Well, yes." Piximon responded, lost in thought.
"Then what manner do you suggest we utilize in gaining the advantage?" Izzy continued, as if solving logic puzzled back in school.
"Well, if we're functioning as a team now" Sora stared at the two of them. "I think we have a plan we can use."
"So now what?" Yolei kicked a rock with her foot and sat down in the remains of one of the upstairs bedrooms, clearly suffering the aftereffects of the earlier battle downstairs.
"I really don't know." Ken responded truthfully.
"Well, Khartan." Davis pointed out.
"True, but how?" Ken wanted to know. "We need some more planning."
"Well, first thing tomorrow we take a look around this place." Kari replied, hovering closer to the fire and shivering. Without Machinedramon and the vast army of servants that had fled the castle with the defeat of their master, there was no power anywhere. Ken and Davis had scouted out a different tower-like building, close to the treeline, farther out from the castle for them to live in for an evening, fearful of the arrival of reinforcements.
"So what now?" Yolei asked again.
"Sleep. We're all a little tired Yolei, and our digimon are exhausted." TK pointed out.
"Oh, right."
"Sweet dreams everyone." Kari whispered as she closed her eyes.
"Just remember." TK muttered, as exhaustion overcame him as well. "Remember that we beat one of the bad guys tonight in a major way. Tomorrow is the start of a new day."
Nighttime normally belongs to the darkness. Tonight we make it ours. Izzy's voice echoed relentlessly in Joe's head, refusing to give the elder digidestined any peace.
"Are you sure you're up to this?" Gomamon asked one more time, looking concerned at his partner's reluctance to enter the battle ahead.
"It's not like I have a choice." He muttered in return.
"Both of you be quiet. I could have heard you a mile away." Ogremon, returned to his usual self, responded like normal, making Joe smile inadvertently.
"So, what did they bring?" Gomamon tried to peer upward, but his lack of height was now working against him.
"The usual crowd for a forest. You know them. Vilemon, with some local Woodmon, Bakemon and RedVeggiemon. None of whom are a match for me." Ogremon stopped looking around and ducked down again. "All we have to do is take care of them before they know what hits them."
"Right. That's your job. I think we just sightsee." Joe responded.
There was the sound of something reasonably heavy beginning to make its way through the brush nearby. Immediately everyone froze and almost held their breath in anticipation of what was coming next.
"Here they come." Ogremon whispered unnecessarily to the other two waiting beside them. But the first Bakemon from the group was floating overhead, almost ignoring where he was going while trying to peer further into the dark forest.
He made it to the first trap, right on time.
Joe unleashed the branch he had been holding back, and the long, thing whippy piece of willow lashed back like a whip, catching the white ghost directly in the center of his chest. The blow knocked the wind out of the ghost, sending him sprawling backwards head over what counted as heels.
"What? Get them!" Somebody shouted in the background. They made it all the way up to Joe before Ogremon leapt on them, screaming his own war cry. By that time the Bakemon and Vilemon were too close to fight properly, and the more powerful digimon made hash out of them.
"Well," Joe stood up as the last of the Vilemon toppled to the ground. "Now what?"
"We go get somebody else." Gomamon responded.
"Somebody, anybody, help me!"
The first squadron of Vilemon paused in place, hearing sounds that were not normally associated with the forest, the sounds of a voice that did not sound like any digimon they knew.
"Is it one of them?" The one who held the rank approximating that of sergeant wondered.
"I can't think who else would be wandering around at this time of night." The leader snapped. Being out in the dark in these trees was beginning to make him feel a bit uneasy. He was supposed to be an evil digimon, perfectly at home in the dark, but he could not see anything, blast it!
"Move out troops." The sergeant wave the troop forwards, and they floated slowly off in the correct direction, wings barely beating. All of them, unknowing or not, were sharing their leaders dislike for this particular place, after all, it was difficult to see anything, and if these creatures could actually challenge Daemon, the Vilemon wanted no part of it.
"Somebody help!" The scream was definitely female, and it sounded fairly desperate. For a moment it was even haunting, coming from all around, and then the patrol emerged in a forest clearing, illuminated by moonlight coming in from above. There, in one corner was a girl, a human female, in a pink shirt and jeans, trying to free herself from what looked like a huge lump of bramble.
"The others." She gasped at them, seeming not to care about the fact that they were hunting her. "Those morons! They just left me here when I got stuck. Help! I can't get out. Don't leave me here all night in this scary forest." She raised her one free hand in what was clearly a pleading gesture.
The two head Vilemon looked at each other and shrugged, as if to say to each other that they were both confused at their sudden turn of good luck. Then the patrol floated closer to take custody of their new prisoner.
If any of them felt a misgiving moving out into the middle of the clearing, they did not show it, not wanting to look scared in front of their companions. For that reason they were mostly unprepared as a huge shadow fell over them, and they were suddenly cut off from moonlight.
The leader looked up, but the only thing he could see was a huge mass that looked like a cloud, but so low that it was blotting out the very trees themselves. His brain refused to register for one precious, important moment, the rate at which the mass was approaching him, but suddenly it did. He opened his mouth to order everyone to run for it, but by then it was too late. There was a loud crash and the entire patrol was buried in over their heads in bracken and sticks.
Then, with a loud crack, the trees began to fall on them, bludgeoning them into unconsciousness.
After the last signs of struggle from within ceased Mimi tilted the huge lump of bracken off of her and stood up, brushing herself off. Palmon came out of the woods, looking tired, but satisfied with herself.
"Humph!" Mimi snorted. "I expect that they weren't gentlemen at all."
"That's my Mimi." Palmon noted.
"So what you up to?" Kari asked her feline companion as Gatomon stood there, calmly washing her paws in the pool of water before her.
"Cleaning up. You know how it is. I have an image to maintain." The white cat sat down again and quickly shook her ears out. "So what are you doing?"
"Oh nothing." Kari admitted as she watched the moon pass quietly overhead from her vantage point at the side of the pool. Little wavelets lapped at the tiny sandy beaches, carrying with them the moon's light. A gentle glow made the water look as dark as pitch in comparison.
"I know what you're doing. You're thinking about TK." Gatomon sent a sly look at the blonde digidestined who was reclining against a hill not far away, holding a tired Patamon in one hand and gazing absently at the stars.
"Gatomon!" Kari half-shouted in indignation, but she had to admit that the thought had crept into her mind, and now her ears were flaming. She had to resist the urge to pitch her companion head first into the cold pool, something that no cat would appreciate. "Stop that!"
Gatomon chuckled in the back of her throat, amused at her companion's reaction when she suddenly noticed that TK was doing nothing, was not even blushing. Puzzled for a moment she noticed that he was still staring at the sky. "Hey TK!" she called. "What's up?"
"Huh?" TK blinked as if waking up, shaking his head to clear a set of mental cobwebs. "What?"
Gatomon chuckled again at the look on TK's face, and this time Kari joined in.
"She asked what you were thinking about." Kari told him, smiling at him.
TK just looked wistful. "I was just wondering what my brother was doing."
"Oh." Kari stopped, not wanting to tread on a raw emotional wound. "I forget, you see him so little, you feel more anxious about him."
"And you don't?" TK asked in return, raising an eyebrow.
"It's not like that, and you know it." Kari smiled at him, and then threw a piece of grass she had just picked in his general direction. "Tai hovers over me so much that sometimes its just a relief to get away from him. I miss him, a lot, but I have my friends and I can do my own thing now. Besides I have you."
That did cause TK to blush, but he looked skyward once more to the stars that were twinkling overhead. "I just hope that Matt's keeping out of trouble, and that he's not putting himself in danger for our sake."
"Must run faster." Matt panted to himself as he ran through the forest. From behind him he could hear the clatter and crack as a dozen or so Woodmon and Vilemon ran up after him, and he tried to lengthen his stride. His advantage lay solely in the fact that he had longer legs. The digimon had the advantage of having more stamina built in. So far, everything was holding even.
"Well, I suppose we could ask them if they want to give us a larger head start?" Gabumon pointed out, huffing between each breath.
"And give them more time to catch up?" Matt retorted.
"Look on the bright side. At least we're getting our exercise."
"Next time I'll go to the gym. At least there the weights aren't trying to kill me."
"You there, stop!" The Vilemon squad leader behind them shouted at them.
"Oh, like we're stupid enough to do that." Matt darted between a pair of falling down trees and hopped a log. Gabumon vaulted over with the help of his claws.
"We'll catch you eventually." The leader yelled back, trying to see the dark clad teenager through the darkness.
"Here." Gabumon whispered, pointing to the spot they had set up earlier.
Without another word Matt twisted to the side and jumped in the side of an open log, covered in thick-growing moss and slippery mold. The hollow trunk tilted down a green hillside, its end disappearing into the darkness. Matt and Gabumon held their breath and let the slippery wood act like a slide, making good their temporary escape. A moment of cold, wet darkness passed, and then they were along in a brushy area at the bottom of the hillside, invisible to any watchers.
"Where'd they go?" Someone asked up there in a high pitched voice.
"I don't see them anywhere." Another voice complained.
"I hate blundering around at night. I can't see my own wings." A third voice whined.
"Shut up! All of you buffoons be quiet." The leader snapped. "Spread out and start searching."
Gabumon and Matt looked at each other and exchanged silent nods. A moment later Matt and his companion climbed into the stump of an old, fallen tree. Even in daylight it was difficult to spot the crack that ran along the top, and the cave that it hid. In nighttime, spotting the concealed patch would be virtually impossible. Together the two of them hunkered down, eyeing the concealing fog with wary eyes, burying themselves in a blanked of old branches that had fallen in.
In the darkness and the eerie drifting mist there was a sudden crunch. Moments later a few more crunches occurred, somebody walking along the drier branches nearby. Matt tried to stop breathing. The wind, suddenly sharp and bitter, tried to cut through him like a knife, and he suppressed a shudder as shapes appeared in the fog.
"We ain't going to find them around here." A Woodmon complained as he and his Vilemon companion crunched through the branches.
"Maybe they had some kind of teleportation gizmo." The Vilemon suggested.
"Or maybe they climbed the trees and got away that way." The Woodmon looked up. "You could go up and see."
"Why me?"
"'cause you the one with the wings."
"Forget it. This place is too spooky to go off alone. Besides, I couldn't find them in this anyway."
"Not that we really want to find the brats." The Woodmon looked nervous.
"Yeah, no kidding. Did you see what they did to the top of the tower. I thought Daemon was going to blast us just for laughs. No way I want to get anywhere near somebody who can do that."
"If they really are the Digidestined, they can make their digimon digivolve, and I hear this one turns into that Greymon character."
The Vilemon jerked back. "Yikes. That guy could eat both of us as an appetizer."
"Yeah, I really don't want to find that guy. What say we go back home."
"You tell the boss we're too scared. See how he takes that."
"Yeah, really." The Woodmon gave the scenery another halfhearted glance, eyes passing Matt's position. For a moment Matt was sure he had been spotted, but then the Woodmon looked elsewhere.
"Hey, you down there. You find anything?" The leader's voice, loud and clear even through the fog, took the two searcher's attention away.
"No sir." The Vilemon replied.
"Well get back up here. They've probably gone onwards. We'll catch up to them."
"Wonderful." The Woodmon wondered, and then the two trudged off into the fog.
As soon as they were gone Matt and Gabumon released a collective sigh of relief, letting go of some of their tension.
"Well, they're out wandering the woods, right where we want them." Gabumon whispered.
"We'll give it about fifteen more minutes and then go find Izzy to tell him we've done our part. BrrrI'm freezing here."
"You can share my coat. I guess it's all up to the others now."
The Woodmon shifted uncomfortably. He knew that it was better standing guard at the camp then it was trudging over the woods in search of some phantom killers, but he really did not like it here. Everything he could see was dark, the only light being the faint light from a partial moon and distant stars reflecting off of the misty clouds. It gave the world an eerie, ghost-like feeling, and it gave him the shivers. He tried to focus outside, looking for any threat, but the fog refused to divulge any occupants.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.
"Hello there." Leomon said with a growling rumble, and then brought his fist down hard on the unfortunate digimon's head. The Woodmon crumpled to the ground in an unconscious lump.
"That's the last of them." Leomon whispered.
Sora and Izzy both nodded. Tai, Piximon and Agumon were following up behind them.
"It looks like out plan was good." Izzy told them matter-of-factly as he consulted the notes he had written down on his laptop. "Between the distractions the others have caused, most of their guards are out of camp. We can set the whole area full of traps ready for their return."
"And an ambush." Leomon rumbled deep in his chest. He had been polishing his sword earlier, waiting for this moment. Around him empty tents sat in the faint light from above, white canvas glowing eerily against a darkened background. There was no noise other than them.
"Right. Shall we get busy." Izzy pointed.
Sora and Tai nodded. "Let's go do it."
"I'm cold." Ken muttered under his breath, trying to hug a jacket closer around himself.
"Well, it is nighttime." Davis responded, but even he looked less jaunty than usual.
The two humans were helping work a night watch shift. Technically Davis was supposed to be asleep, but he claimed to be too worked up to go to sleep, and was keeping Ken company. The two were huddled around the small fire that they kept for the night watchmen. Around them everything was crisp and cold, and the stars glimmered brightly outside of the window.
"I guess nobody showed up to save MachineDramon anyway." Ken observed. The only sounds outside were the chirping of crickets and the occasional owl hooting.
"That's sort of anticlimactic." Davis complained. "We mount this huge battle, but nobody cares."
"Well, he sure did." Ken remarked.
"That's true." Davis sighed. "So what was it like to be leader?"
"It was interesting, but the pressure got to me at the end. I'm not sure I want to do it so often the next time around."
"Well, I'm beginning to think we really don't need a leader." Davis looked back at Ken with a thoughtful expression in his eyes. "I mean, after all, the one who seems to have the best plan takes charge."
"That's not true. We still need someone who can make decisions for us when we aren't in the middle of a battle. In a fight, we usually run where the first person points, and we vote on big decisions, but the little ones, the things that keep us going, they still need a leader to decide on them. You aren't getting out of this so easily Davis. You're still the leader."
"I guess so." Davis cocked his goggles back at a jaunty angle. "But you know, we're a lot more comfortable with each other now than we used to be. I think we're getting this team stuff down."
Ken breathed on his hands to warm them. "I guess so. I'm beginning to see what the other team meant. We did have a lot to learn."
"I hope they remember what they already learned." Davis put in, stretching.
"We ready?" Joe asked Ogremon unnecessarily.
"Of course we are." The green giant returned, absently scratching himself with one long claw. The trio of people were hunkered down in a huge patch of bracken, trying to make themselves invisible in the nighttime fog. A sudden gust of wind rattled the trees above, creating a sudden rushing sound that was almost eerie.
"I hope this place spooks them out as much as it spooks me out." Joe muttered.
"I'm sure it does Joe." Gomamon pointed out.
"Well, how are we doing?" Izzy asked, wiping the sweat off of his brow with his sleeve.
"Just fine, thank you." Tai and Leomon had just finished excavating another pit trap, and were busy covering it with camouflage to avoid anyone sighting it.
"That gives us small traps all over the perimeter, and big ones in the camp itself. What about the falling trees?"
"They'll fall when you need them too." Sora and Agumon came up from behind, each one with dirty hands, but looking satisfied with their work.
"Good." Izzy finished tying a knot on his latest trap and then stood up. "Sooner or later they're going to be coming back, but I hope that they arrive all at once. That would make things easier."
"Easier usually doesn't happen to us." Agumon responded, sitting down heavily.
"Well, we deserve a break sooner or later." Sora replied, sitting down next to Tai's companion. Tai was blanking out again and did not notice that anything was happening. "Stick close to Tai for us, right?"
"Okay." Agumon nodded, instantly seeing what she was concerned about.
"So you noticed too." Izzy muttered into Sora's ear. The relationship between Sora and Izzy was an odd one, having to do with years of backing up the leaders on various issues, and doing the grunt work in battle. As a result of all that time spent together both Sora and Izzy were comfortable with managing the team's various problems.
"How could you not notice. Tai's been in zone-out mode ever since the battle."
"He was acting weird during the battle. I wonder why?" Izzy continued thoughtfully.
"Probably Kari, but we should ask him."
"Now or later?"
"Well, since the enemies aren't beating down the door, probably now." Sora straightened her hair and went over to Tai with Izzy trailing along.
"Why so silent Tai?" Sora dropped next to Tai.
Tai started and looked over at the two friends and his own digimon companion before sighing. "Because I screwed up and I know it. It's just my way of dealing with this particular problem."
"Why did you screw up?" Izzy asked. "And when?"
"You saw how I was behaving in the castle." Tai absently began to dig through the dirt around him. "You saw entirely how I was behaving. I rushed in like an idiot. What's the old saying? 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' That's what I was doing. Like an idiot I almost got us all killed."
"Accidents happen Tai. Mistakes happen all the time. We've all made them before." Sora tried to comfort him.
"But usually we don't make the same mistake twice. Every time I get something in my head as a leader, I try and rush off and do it. That's what's going to get us killed. I keep making the same mistake over and over and over again, and the rest of you don't. And what's worse is that I know I'm doing it. I knew we should have backed down, looked around more, thought things over, but the truth was that we were so close to getting Kari that I could taste it. And so I screwed up, and I knew that I screwed up. And I promised myself last time that I would never do this again."
"But your charging ahead has saved us before. It's good to be able to make up your mind, even if it might be the wrong idea. Without you we probably would have sat around and planned for a week, and all the plans would have been useless anyway." Izzy pointed out logically. "We all survived and we're all safe for now, so there's really nothing wrong with getting some experience."
"I'm supposed to be there for Kari."
"But she doesn't need it Tai." Agumon patted his partner's leg with one claw. "I mean, she's got Gatomon, she's got a lot of experience, and she's stood up to some pretty powerful evil on her own. If the creatures she's faced down all by herself weren't evil, than evil doesn't exist. She can take care of herself."
"And so can you Tai. You've got to give her a chance to prove herself, and you have to trust her. We all trust them to keep alive and do the right thing until we can help. You should do the same."
"It's not just that, is it?" Izzy asked with some concern.
"No." Tai admitted, shaking his head. "I feel worthless too. I mean, everyone except me and Matt can digivolve their digimon to Ultimate. I was useful as long as I could make the right decisions, but if I can't, than what can I do for the team? Think about it. It's something inside of me that keeps my crest from glowing. That's the problem. It's my fault if I can't protect the team the way that I'm supposed to."
"It's not over yet Tai. There's still a lot you can do, and time will help." Sora patted him on the back of the head, but was interrupted as Matt came sprinting into the campsite.
"They're right behind me." He panted as Gabumon staggered up behind him.
"Time to go." Izzy jumped off, and, warily, Tai and Sora followed behind him.
Mimi and Palmon arrived at the ambush point they were assigned to scant seconds before they could hear the distant crunch of branches and dried twigs that indicated someone approaching. Within seconds the noise was so loud that it was clear that many people were approaching instead of just one.
"Is that our cue?" Mimi asked, hunching down behind a large bush.
"Probably."
A few moments later there was more crunching and a group of RedVeggiemon and Vilemon appeared out of the fog, dark shapes solidifying into living digimon. A moment later they were passing by, and seconds after that they were all gone as they faded into the darkness.
"Right, so be ready if they come back." Palmon whispered.
"I guess so. Brrrr.it's cold out here, isn't it?"
The first Vilemon to drift back to the camp they had set up, anxious to get back to warmth and comfort, however limited, set off the first snare. It was simple, a rope made out of twisted vines, sliced handily by Leomon, connected to a whippy sapling, the sort of trap that you saw on TV. It looked ineffectual, and probably would not work against a person. But the Vilemon who landed in the loop of vine and set off the trap did not weigh as much as a human. The sapling sprang back upright, and hurled the unlucky digimon into a tree.
"Quick, everybody, the digidestined must be here." One of them, presumably a leader yelled, pointing at the camp. This seemed to arouse more fear than courage in the troops following him.
"Charge." Somebody else yelled, and the crowd, which was gathering still from the various groups that had been scattered all over the forest, started to move forward.
There was a crash as some RedVeggiemon discovered the tiger pit trap that was directly in their route, falling down with a crash. Progress stopped. Muttering started as latecomers to the fray begin to ask what was going on. Leaders barked orders to try and resume progress, but now almost nobody was listening to them.
A small cloud of wooden objects flew through the air, launched from a makeshift catapult, knocking several of the Vilemon down and sending them sprawling. There was a rush as the attackers stopped advancing and attempted to find a large, solid object to hide behind. This lasted for a few moments while there was utter chaos outside, giving the shadows in the depths of the camp a few moments to maneuver.
Finally, after being zapped by their leader a few times, a group of Vilemon and Woodmon on the right flank managed to get going in sort of a cautious charge, working their way slowly up the hill. Their charge was uninspired, and their mood as they crested the long, dark, running slope and found Leomon waiting for them at the top, was one of extreme discomfort. This discomfort was immediately added to by the attack of the huge Champion.
Fists flying and sword whirling he swept through the crowd, difficult to see in the darkness, but his actions were evident. Here and there small dark shapes would go flying off into the trees. Most of them were not rising. Leaders screamed contradictory orders, urging their people on, but the rest of the attackers seemed not to want to proceed up the hill to where that mess of blackness was whirling away.
"Now!" Izzy yelled. "While they're not looking."
With a thunderous crash the second arm of the trap opened up. The huge trees around all the corners of the camp had been weakened by some inspired woodworking. Now, as Izzy gave the command, Sora and Tai dropped a huge collection of logs on the mass of attackers. The trees toppled slowly enough to actually give the digimon under them a chance to escape, a chance to dive out of the way, but it was not enough. Branches slammed into heads, sending digimon reeling out, unconscious. Others were pinned beneath the heavy logs, the weight keeping them from escaping. Some were just injured, and they were the most chaotic of all, running around screaming, spreading chaos through the ranks.
"Pit Bomb!" A group that had been sneaking closer and closer suddenly found themselves blasted away.
"Let's get out of here!" Someone in the back shouted, and the rear of the group broke apart, rogue digimon fleeing blindly into the woods. Some leaders managed to retain order among themselves, but the continuous mass of screams from the hillside battle kept their troops from attacking. In moments the bulk of the attackers had melted away into the woods, disappearing from view.
"Needle Spray!" A shout from one part of the forest indicated that they were being hurried along on their retreat. There was a sudden round of dull, heavy thuds as the needles hammered into trees and whatever else was in their way. A new set of screams and warnings told the listeners that the retreating enemy was giving that area a wide berth too.
"Pummel Whack!" Another group of sudden screams gave the attackers yet another region to avoid on their hasty retreat. Soon the noise of combat and people fading through the bushes had vanished. In the chaos, all of the attackers had fled, some running blindly into the arms of the ambushers, some escaping outright. Nobody was hanging around the camp any more. The digidestined stood in the middle of a cleared forest, breathing sighs of relief and triumph.
"All right!" Sora and Izzy exchanged high-fives as the battle ran down. "We did it."
"We sure did." Matt gave one of his rare full smiles. "It looks like we're not out of the game yet." Gabumon laughed by his side.
"Who'd have thought?" Joe asked, emerging from the woods with Ogremon and Gomamon on his tail. "It looks like they aren't as tough as we thought."
"There were quite a lot of them." Gomamon admitted, and giggled.
"So now what?" Mimi asked as she stepped out of the concealing shadows.
"We fall back and regroup before taking Daemon on again." Izzy suggested.
Tai just nodded, and sunk back into his dark mood again.
"This place is a mess." Yolei complained, as she helped Cody lift up what was left of a door so they could see what was under it.
"Well, we weren't exactly trying to keep it in one piece." Davis responded, climbing over a pile of rubble in the middle of the hallway. The three of them and their digimon companions were delving down deep into the castle. Ken, Kari and TK had opted to check out the top of the castle, and to keep watch in case anybody tried to sneak up on them. So far it appeared that the wreck of a fortress was now abandoned.
"Yeah, we did do some damage here." Veemon admitted, but he looked proud of himself instead of upset.
"Some damage is right. I've seen thousand year old ruins in better shape than this." Yolei rolled her eyes, but smiled good-naturedly. It seemed that the morning after their big victory that nothing could keep them down.
"So where does this go?" Cody asked the question that all of them had been thinking about. The huge corridor they were in sloped gradually downward from Machinedramon's throne room, ending somewhere ahead in the blackness. Doors lined the sides, but they refused to open.
"Listen to that?" Armadillomon suddenly exclaimed. "D'ya hear it?"
"Hear what?" Davis asked, before quieting himself to listen.
Then they all heard it, a faint voice drifting through the hall. "Help meeeee."
"I think there's someone down here." Yolei said.