Chapter 10

Wait until it is night before saying that is has been a fine day.
-French Proverb

As blue night fell across the Digital World, a small reptilian figure slipped through the lighted door of a pub and settled itself in a rear booth.

Chipset was a village that had grown up around a small regeneration node. The land around it was lush and swampy, so most of the inhabitants were insect-types. They welcomed all visitors and viewed viruses as a food source, so rogue digimon avoided the area.

Chamelemon had taken a train from Gigaterra and walked the rest of the way. He was afraid a virus was following him, and so decided to spend the night in Chipset. He had to show himself to a hungry green Snimon guard before entering, which both frightened and reassured him. A virus would be crazy to try to get in.

He placed his order with a Kunemon, then laid Base on the table. "Interesting digs," said the baseball bat. "Don't look in the corner. The Roachmon are eating something nasty."

Chamelemon looked. "Sheesh, some people. Do you eat?"

"Nope, more's the pity," said Base. "No stomach. I'll watch your back, though."

"Thanks." Chamelemon folded his skinny fingers and studied them with one eye, while the other swiveled around the room.

Presently the caterpillar Kunemon returned, carrying a tray of meal-worms. It came with a complementary cookie, which Chamelemon set aside for dessert. He ate a few of his worms, but found he had no appetite. He poked the rest around his plate like a small child with vegetables.

"What's the matter?" said Base. "Too much sauce?"

"I don't feel good," said the lizard. He picked up a worm, looked at it, and set it down again. "Something's wrong."

"No offense, but it's probably your diet," said Base. "If I ate worms that big, I'd be sick, too."

"No, it's not that," said Chamelemon. "There's something important I've forgotten to do." He heaved a sign, picked up his cookie and put it down.

"Does it have anything to do with losing your attacks?"

Chamelemon fixed one eye on Base. "How many times are you going to ask me about that?"

"As many as it takes," said the bat, grinning.

Chamelemon shook his head. "They're just gone. I don't know how. It's like ... it's like I've been disconnected from the mainframe." For a second his skin turned the sickly yellow of fear.

"Tough luck, pal," said Base. "Maybe you're getting sick. You're off color."

Chamelemon smirked and ate his cookie. Then he sat for a while as his meal grew cold, watching the insect-digimon move in and out of the pub. None of them appeared agitated. If there had been a digimon following him, it must have backed off.

He rose from his table, tossed a zip coin on the plate, picked up Base and walked outside. As he did, his stomach twisted and he doubled over. He staggered and leaned against the wall of the pub in the starlight, panting. He was outside, unattached, purposeless. "I'm going to die," he thought in panic. "My data must be corrupt!"

"Dude, you okay?" said Base. "Your hand is shaking."

"Fine," said the lizard. His stomach cramp passed, but the feeling of disconnection persisted. He rested there, then made himself get up and go to the barn that sheltered transient digimon. He curled up on a heap of straw in a corner with Base beside him, and worried himself to sleep.

* * *

"We shouldn't stay here," said Tithonia.

The Digidestined were camped in the lee of Tusk Mountain, and Zach had lit a fire. He and Savannah were roasting hot dogs on sticks while Spikemon and Hissmon watched the sizzling meat, entranced. Tithonia had brought a single blanket and three cheese sandwiches, one of which she was eating, eyes averted from the hot dogs. Her digimon had descended to rookie, and was now Mulemon, a little toy donkey with short legs. She was stretched out beside Tithonia, fast asleep.

Tithonia kept an eye on Tusk Mountain. "It's one big virus. We shouldn't stay here."

Savannah looked up. "The digimon would know if something was wrong."

Tithonia looked down and stroked Mulemon. Mulemon's ear flicked, but she did not awaken.

"Nothing will hurt us out here," said Zach. "Digimon are afraid of this place."

"Except for viruses," Spikemon said, licking his chops as his partner rotated his hot dog.

Hissmon looked uncomfortable. "This place is taboo to all data types. Tithonia is right, we shouldn't remain here."

"And where are we going to go?" asked Savannah, frowning at the other girl. "Back to the train tracks? There's no station for another five miles!"

Tithonia kept her eyes on the grass and said nothing.

Savannah ate her hotdog while roasting two more for their digimon. "Do you want one?" she asked, looking at Tithonia on the edge of the firelight.

"No thank you," said Tithonia. She self-consciously took a bite of her cheese sandwich.

Zach finished his dinner and wiped his hands on his pant legs. "What's the worst that could happen?" she said as Savannah fed their digimon. "Something might attack us. Big deal. We got two champions, now."

"Yeah!" said Spikemon, gulping down his hotdog. "I can take on anybody. But I wish we still had Base."

"Me too," muttered Zach. When Tithonia looked questioning, he explained about bringing the baseball bat to life. Then Zach and Savannah fell to discussing the identity of the orange lizard that had stolen Base while they unrolled their sleeping bags and climbed into them. Tithonia wrapped herself in her single blanket and lay down apart from the others, facing Tusk Mountain.

She was awakened hours later by Mulemon nudging her. She opened her eyes. Their fire had died down, but the digital night was bright enough to see through. Mulemon's ears were flattened, and her nostrils were flared. "Quiet," she whispered. "Wake the others and get back to the Real World, right now!"

"Why?" Then Tithonia sat up and saw why.

Circling the base of Tusk Mountain was an eerie procession of ghostly figures. Perhaps fifty ghost-type Bakemon were floating in single file, led by a tall woman robed in green. Her bare arms were extended, and over each of her palms floated a tongue of green flame.

"Bansheemon is an ultimate," whispered Mulemon, close to panic. "That's stronger than champion. She could kill us all! We've got to get out of here!"

Tithonia crawled to Savannah in desperate silence and shook her, aware of how easy it was to see in the Digital World's bright night. When Savannah opened her eyes, Tithonia whispered, "Get your digivice, they'll be here any minute." She repeated the process with Zach, as Savannah sat up and stared at the viruses.

Hissmon and Spikemon awoke, and understood immediately. Spikemon, usually so willing for a fight, shrank back behind Zach and cowered to the ground. Hissmon gasped and flattened himself against the grass.

Zach started to pick up his camping gear, but Spikemon said, "Leave it. We can come back. We've got to get out of here."

The specters had rounded the base of the mountain and were walking toward the Digidestined, chanting a dirge in low voices. Bansheemon's empty eyes seemed to stare right through them, and the flames in her hands danced with a ghastly light.

Then her white face stretched into a smile, and her pace quickened. "She's seen us," hissed Hissmon. "Make a portal, quick!"

All three Digidestined fumbled with their digivices in blind panic, their terror growing with the approach of that tall, green woman. Behind her, the short white Bakemon began to grin.

"We're out of range of our node!" exclaimed Savannah, squinting at her device's screen.

"Make one anyway!" said Zach. "Let me!"

The air shimmered and a hole curled open. "Go on!" said Zach, shoving Tithonia and Savannah through. He glanced at their three digimon, who were standing shoulder to shoulder between their masters and the enemy, teeth and fangs bared. "Come on, guys!" he said, and jumped through the portal.

He landed on a chair on the other side and crashed to the floor with a curse. "Dang Real World nights! Are you girls okay?"

"Yeah," came their breathless voices to his left.

It was pitch black. He stood up, his knees smarting, and groped for the light switch. His hands encountered a table and another chair. There was no wall. Come to think of it, the air smelled like an alien air freshener. "This isn't my room," he said, encountering yet another chair. "Savannah, where are we?"

"I know this smell," she said. "Hold still a minute. I think I know where we are."

Tithonia's voice came from a short distance away. "We're in the library."

There was a click, and Zach was blinded as the lights came on. He saw Savannah sitting on the floor and Tithonia in the corner, her hand on a light switch. One of the library's computer's screens was glowing blue, with the familiar digiport graphic on it. As they looked stupidly at it, the screen blinked off.

"Spikemon?" said Zach.

"Shh!" said Savannah. When Zach and Tithonia stared at her, she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. You know, it's the library..."

"The port closed," said Zach, walking back to the computer that had opened. "Our digimon didn't come through." He looked at the empty screen in horror, then held up his digivice and pressed the blue button. The port box sprang to life, but with a message blinking in it.

CONNECTION TERMINATED

"Oh my gosh," said Savannah, getting up. "You mean they're still back there with that--with that--"

Tithonia walked up to a different computer and tried to open a port. Savannah did the same. They tried every computer in the library, even the catalog computers, but they all showed the same message.

Zach returned to the original computer and stared at it. "Savannah, I have his data stick. He's just a rookie."

"Run, Hissmon," muttered Savannah, biting her thumbnail and looking at her digivice. "Run for it."

The silence that followed was terrible. All three were waiting for their digivices to flash red. Zach kept thinking of Bansheemon's horrible smile, and of the little ghosts in a line behind her.

"What did you mean," ventured Tithonia, "when you said we were out of range of our node?" She was chewing the end of a braid, and had a drawn look as if she were holding back tears.

"That's what my digivice said," replied Savannah, chewing her other fingernail. "Node out of range, port unavailable."

"I got that, too, but I hit enter anyway," said Zach. He sat down and grasped a handful of his hair, which he pulled slowly without noticing. "It must have picked the nearest node or whatever to take us out. So we wound up in the library." He checked his watch. "At eleven-forty-five PM. How will I explain this one to Mom?"

"If we open the doors the alarms will go off," said Tithonia. "We have to stay here."

"Just what I wanted to do," snarled Savannah, jumping up and staring into a paperback rack. "Spend the light locked in a library."

"But we can't get back," said Zach, who had not heard a word they said. "Connection terminated. Maybe we can get back in through our home computers. We've got to get back."

The next morning, the librarian was dumbfounded to open the library doors and find three teenagers asleep in chairs inside, one of them snoring at a computer with an odd red Gameboy beside him.

* * *

Spikemon leaped for the portal, but it was gone before he could spring. At the same time, he felt the digivice connected to him change from Analog to Remote, as it did when Zach was in the real world. For some reason the portal had closed too soon.

But there was no time to worry about it. Bansheemon was still approaching, and she did not look friendly. "Run!" barked Spikemon.

The three digimon bolted across the plain, making for the Railmon tracks, propelled by wild terror. Behind them Bansheemon erupted into shrill laughter, and the Bakemon chimed in with demonic cackling. They did not give chase.

The three reached the train track and stood panting. Hissmon's long body was covered in dust, and there were foxtails and burrs stuck under his scales. Mulemon was trembling all over, her head hanging. "That was terrible," she whispered.

Spikemon looked back, but there was no sign of pursuit. "We're just rookies," he panted. "We weren't worth killing, so they scared us."

"They did a good job," said Mulemon.

Hissmon raised the front half of his body erect, like a cobra, and looked around. "Did you hear Savannah say that they were too far from their node?"

"Yes," said Mulemon. "What does that mean?"

"Humans can only enter and leave the Digital World through nodes," said Spikemon, scratching a burr from between his toes. "They're like a gateway to the real world. Zach's computer was connected to the one near Digiforum."

"Yes," said Hissmon. "We can travel through them, too. But a remote connection to a node only allows for a limited data transfer."

"So what happened?" said Mulemon, lifting her head. "They could go through and we couldn't?"

"They must have filled up the connection," said Spikemon, swinging his head from side to side. "So we got left behind."

There was a short silence. Crickets chirped all around, and if not for the ominous peak in the distance, the night would have been peaceful.

"So what do we do now?" said Mulemon.

Spikemon and Hissmon looked at each other.

"Want to go back to Digiforum and wait?"

"Yeah."

"We could take a Railmon," said Mulemon, cheering up. "How many zip coins do you fellows have?"

"Three," said Spikemon.

"Twelve," said Hissmon. "I pad my zip file every time I eat."

"That explains why you're so thin," said Spikemon, and dodged as Hissmon struck at him.

"I have five," said Mulemon. "So let's find a Railmon station!"

The three set off along the track, looking for the nearest station.