Disclaimer: I don't own digimon. I do own Cronomon. Also the mountain, the lake, the castle and the other creepy things inside the castle.
Hopefully, this chapter will explain a bit more to anyone who is still reading. If it doesn't, then let me assure you that I should get past the introductions by chapter 5.
Chapter 2 – Seriously CreepyThe minute Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Miyako and Iori entered the Digiworld, they could see something was wrong. Something was different, anyway. They had emerged from the digiport into a place that they had never seen before. Not even Takeru, who had travelled farther than any of the others, knew where the group was now. They were at the bottom of a series of cliffs, that rose up and up into the sky. Behind them was a huge lake that seemed to stretch far beyond them on either side. And on the far bank of the lake was a dark forest that seemed to be devoid of any life, Digimon or otherwise.
"Where did all the other digimon go?" Patamon wondered, peering into the trees.
"Never mind the digimon, where have we gone?" said Takeru.
"Kinda creepy here, isn't it?" Iori said, thoughtfully, as he gazed up at the castle.
"Kinda creepy?" Miyako retorted, "I haven't seen something like this since… actually, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this."
"Well, whatever's up with this weird place, I bet there's some evil digimon behind it, and we have to stop them!" Daisuke was determined to have at least one fight before they returned to the real world.
"Yeah, we're gonna fight!" Veemon agreed.
Takeru rolled his eyes. "Geez, you two will use any excuse for a fight. We don't know if there's anything wrong at all – yet. Don't jump to conclusions."
"Sometimes there are other ways to win than just fighting." Patamon agreed. "Life isn't always a soccer game, you know!"
"And sometimes there aren't even any enemies to worry about." Gatomon jumped in, having her say. "You have to find out what's going on before you can do anything about it."
"Geez, you don't all have to gang up on me." Daisuke grumbled, scuffing his shoes in the dust.
Ignoring the goggle boy's reprimands, Armadillomon peered at the water in the lake. Gingerly, he sniffed it and then delicately dipped his tongue in for a taste.
"Yeuch!" he exclaimed, jumping back. "Nobody drink the water! It's disgusting!"
"How disgusting is it, exactly?" Hawkmon pondered.
"It's an interesting blend, actually," began Armadillomon the food expert. "An interesting cross between pond slime, dead fish and..." he paused for a moment, thinking hard, "And Cody's socks after he's been to a kendo lesson."
"Armadillomon!" Iori said, looking shocked, "I wondered why I had so many odd socks. You're eating them!"
"Aw, c'mon now, Iori." Armadillomon cringed slightly. "A mon gets pretty hungry sometimes, you know."
"I thought we came here to scout around, look out for trouble." Miyako said, impatient. "I'm going to going to go and have a look around. C'mon, Hawkmon."
As Miyako and Aquilamon flew out of sight, Hikari realised that maybe they should figure out where they were. Nothing like this had ever happened before, coming through the digiport to a place they had never seen. She began to play around with her digivice, searching for a clue.
"I don't think that'll be much help." Takeru said, peering over her shoulder.
"Oh? Why not?" she asked. She put her digivice away, all the same.
"If we don't know where we are, then I doubt the D3 will. They only remember places they've been before."
"Yes, I suppose so. But if we've never been here, or anywhere near this place before, then why are we here today?"
That question had everyone stumped for quite a while. Iori stopped quizzing Armadillomon on the missing socks. Daisuke and Veemon stopped looking at the mountain, the lake, the forest and the speck of mud on his shoe as if they were all going to attack him. If they had been able to hear, Miyako and Aquilamon would probably stop and wonder as well.
"Think about it." Hikari continued, as if they weren't already. "The digiport almost always dumps us somewhere we know, either a place that we've come across recently or a place visited years ago during the first trip to the digital world. Why, after all this time, would it leave us somewhere completely new?"
"I'll tell you why." As usual, he and Wormmon had decided to show up when they were least expected. "It's because someone configured a kind of warp so that we would all come right here. I don't know how or why, but somebody wants us here, for their own reasons, whether they be good or bad."
"Spot on." a croaky voice said, out of nowhere. "You must be smarter than I thought."
"Who's there?" Gatomon asked, her eyes narrowed. "Show yourself, now!"
"Gladly," said the digimon, as it stepped out of the shadows. It was a big black bird digimon, with a long, sharp beak and cold eyes, holding a small, round object in one claw.
"Who are you?" Ken asked, rather surprised. "I didn't think there were any digimon around here, besides ours."
"Ah, well, that's where you're wrong!" the bird replied, triumphantly. "I'm a native to these parts. And yes, you were correct about the warp. I created a warp within the digiport that would bring anyone travelling through it directly to this place. It was extremely difficult to create, let me tell you that. Although I do think it was rather well done, don't you? Tapping through the digital system was -"
"Hey! You guys!" The bird was interrupted as Yolei sprinted toward the group, with Hawkmon close behind. "You won't believe where we've gotten to. The mountain is absolutely enormous, we could barely see the top of it. The forest was so big we couldn't find the end and... what is that?!"
Miyako caught sight of the black bird that claimed to have brought them to this part of the digiworld, and stopped short, glaring. She obviously didn't think it should be trusted. Hawkmon recognized the weird creature at once.
"I know you!" he exclaimed, "You're Cronomon!"
"Well, I don't care what it's called, but I don't like it." Miyako said, defiantly. "It's just as creepy as the rest of this place."
"Well, I must admit, I wouldn't trust this bird myself." Hawkmon sniffed. "She's only a rookie digimon, but she has a strange power – see that thing in her claws? She can teleport from place to place."
"Plus she's been known to hang around with some evil digimon before," Patamon added, watching Cronomon warily.
"Well, I want to know why she brought us here." said Iori.
"She brought us here?" Miyako repeated, looking alarmed.
"Yes, apparently." said ken
"You're here?" Miyako said again. "Ken, why do you always have to appear out of thin air like that? Will someone please explain to me what is going on?"
Everyone, six humans and six digimon, turned to look at Cronomon.
"Well, I might as well explain." she sighed, ruffling her feathers and settling down on the rock. "It's true that I have been involved with some evil digimon before, a long time ago, but I didn't do anything really bad. I was only very young," she looked pointedly at Gatomon, "just as you were when you were taken and used by Myotismon."
"You keep Myotismon out of this." Gatomon replied, grumpily.
"Sorry to offend you, Gatomon. But I go on with my story. I decided to put all that behind me and find another place to live. So that's why I came here, to the mountains. There are some other digimon here as well, and we all live together quite well. However, we are faced with a problem.
"Many of the digimon I live with are getting sick, suffering from some disease that has never before been seen anywhere in the digital world. The master of my home knew of the digidestined, children and digimon sent to help right the wrongs of the digiworld, and suggested that we get them to help us in our plight.
"It was I who discovered a way to bring you here, using the teleportation power of this handy little thing." She held out the little thing in her claw. "I managed to create a warp that brought anyone travelling through a digiport straight to this mountain. Although, it might have been better if I had made it the top of the mountain. But no matter. Will you help us with our troubles?"
"I suppose we really should help." Ken began. "That is our duty as the digidestined. And I haven't been a very good digidestined so far, so I feel I should make up for it."
"Doesn't sound like much fun." Daisuke muttered. Veemon nodded in agreement. "I'm in it for adventure, and fights! Not a bunch of sick digimon on a cold mountain."
"Like we said before," Iori began, "There's more ways to win than just fighting. I'm going."
"And I'll go wherever he does." said Armadillomon, defiantly.
Hikari and Takeru nodded their agreement. Daisuke immediately changed his mind immediately, deciding that if Hikari thought they should, then they should. Only Miyako and Hawkmon were yet to be convinced. They still didn't trust this bird that came from nowhere, had the power to teleport, and told stories of sick digimon in a land devoid of life.
"How do we know that this isn't just another plot dreamed up by more evil digimon to try to kill us?" she raged. "We're just going to go along with it, and we have absolutely no idea!"
"You don't know what Cronomon's like." Hawkmon insisted. "I've met her before. Only once, just briefly, but it was enough for me to know that she can't be trusted."
But nothing they could do would sway the other digidestined from going along with Cronomon, to do all they could to help these poor, sick digimon.
"So where are these digimon?" Veemon asked, eagerly.
"At the top of the mountain."
Everyone groaned, remembering Yolei's description. 'The mountain is enormous,' she'd said, 'we could barely see the top of it. How were they going to climb the mountain and get back to the real world in time for dinner?
"Um, it'd take us quite a while to get there, Cronomon." Takeru told the bird, gingerly.
"And we don't have all that much time." Hikari agreed.
"Oh, that's no problem at all." Cronomon assured them. "I can zap us all there in no time at all, using this nifty little device." She held out the thing in her claw for all the children to see.
"No way!" Miyako burst out. "I'm not getting zapped anywhere by some creepy digimon with a weird rubber ball. Who knows what she could get up to?"
Iori shook his head. "Even if Cronomon turned on us, she has absolutely no chance of beating our digimon, even if they don't digivolve. Either way, we win."
"Yeah, an you don't wanna just leave all those other digimon stranded up there, do ya?" Armadillomon agreed immediately.
Miyako sighed. Why wouldn't they listen to her? Sure, she made on-the-spot decisions more than she should, but she was so sure that this was a bad idea.
"Well, I don't like it either," Hawkmon muttered, "But let's go along with it for now. If anything goes wrong, I'm here to protect you."
She still didn't want to go along with it, but it was reassuring for Miyako to know that someone believed her. She'd go. Hawkmon believed, so she would go. And if it turned out that she was right, she could rub all their noses in it. Yeah, she might as well go.
But she still didn't like Cronomon.
"So how does this thing work, Cronomon?" Hikari asked, looking at the tiny sphere.
"It's quite simple, really." The digimon croaked. "Just stand there and we'll be up the top of that cliff in a jiffy."
As the children watched, Cronomon's little device began to glow. The world around them seemed to fade away as the swirling colour took its place.
I still don't like this, the Inoue girl thought to herself, as the world disappeared. I don't like this at all.
******
The colour that surrounded the children and digimon began to fade, and they found themselves at the top of the mountain, outside a castle. A cold wind blew about them, making everyone wish they had worn a jacket.
"I'm back!" Cronomon called, knocking on the door. "Oh come on, open up, it's me! And I brought visitors. Stupid door."
With one last, huge effort, Cronomon finally managed to pull open the big wooden door, and was thrown sprawling in the dust. "Honestly, don't see why they have to make those things so heavy… Ah, yes, come on children, come right in."
She hopped and fluttered into the hallway, which seemed rather dark, lit only by the light from the windows. All six children wandered in, gazing around.
"I've brought the children, master, you see?" Cronomon called into the darkness.
"Excellent," was the smooth reply, "Bring them in, so that I can meet them."
"Uh, that's very nice of you, but I think we'd better go now, and come back later, when we know what to do about the, um, disease." Daisuke said, nervously, backing away.
"Yeah, we told Koushiro we'd be back by four thirty," Veemon agreed, nodding vigorously.
"And we really don't know anything about medicine." Ken added, just for good measure. "Not even me, and I'm supposed to be a genius!"
"Oh, but you can't leave now," the voice said, "Can he, Miyako?"
Everyone turned around to where Miyako had been standing, and where she was now being held up in the air, in Cronomon's claws, with several other large, menacing digimon behind them.
"Told you we shouldn't have come with her," Yolei spat, nodding at Cronomon.
"Told you she was bad news." Hawkmon agreed, from where he was lying on the ground.
Somehow, although they were beaten and helpless, Miyako and Hawkmon still managed to sound as annoying as ever.
"Yeah, she isn't always as dumb as she looks, you know," Cronomon told them, "But it's too late now. All of you are staying with us."
~~~~~~
So what do you think? Making more sense now? Well, I'll try to make things more interesting in the next chapter, which should be up within a week. Please, do me a favour and review! And by the way, I don't have anything against Miyako. I kinda like her, actually. It's just that she reminds me of my little sister and she really seemed to work with the role of being distrustful and all.
