Disclaimer: I think after chapter 15 I'll stop writing a full disclaimer and just put ditto marks. Because by then, everyone should have figured out the extremely obvious fact that I DON'T OWN DIGIMON.
Right, now after that brief interval, we're getting back to the older digidestined, who were my main reason for writing this in the first place. Thanks to ff.net's regular stuff ups (they actually lost my author profile for a minute there!) I've had plenty of time to just write, which should explain why I also have two new fics up.
Chapter 11 - Thinking... thinking... thinking...
"Hey, you, wake up!" a gruff voice said.
Tai groaned, still half asleep, and rolled over. Unfortunately this meant that he was lying almost on top of Koromon and had pinned down one of the digimon's ears.
"Yowch!"
Koromon woke with a start and tried to leap into the air, but found one of his ears was trapped, and whipped back to slam into Tai's face. Tai scrambled to his feet with a lot of unnecessary noise, waking several of the others up. Tsunomon also jumped up to help Koromon, which caused a few difficulties since he was in Matt's arms at the time. Matt himself roared with pain as Tsunomon's horn stabbed his nose. Tsunomon, of course, turned around and began pouring out profuse apologies while Matt staggered upright. By now almost everyone else was awake and adding to the chaos; Joe took about half a second to lose his glasses and Tentomon had flown at full speed into a tree.
"QUIET!!!" a voice roared, and Tai remembered what had woken him in the first place. As silence fell upon the group, they all turned to the edge of the ruined Labyrinth to see a very grumpy looking projection of Gennai (the old Gennai - I liked him better when he looked ancient).
"Er... sorry about that, Gennai." Izzy mumbled with an embarrassed grin. "We were kinda tired, so we thought we'd have a sleep, and then I suppose -"
"Oh, don't worry about it." Gennai interrupted. "I'm not here to tell you off, I'm here to help you."
"That's a relief." Sora said, "We certainly need it."
"Yes, well, we're not all at our best in the morning." Gennai nodded at Tai, whose shirt was ripped, and Matt whose nose had started to bleed.
After the digidestined had gotten themselves organised (Joe found his glasses and Izzy extracted Tentomon from the tree) Gennai finally managed to deliver his message.
"You've done very well so far, defeating Tauromon," he began, "He was the only Mega digimon out of all those guarding Tauromon's castle. Serpentmon, Kappamon and Banemon are all Ultimates."
"Well, they should be a piece of cake!" Tai grinned. "If we can beat a Mega the the others shouldn't be any trouble."
"Don't bet on it." Gennai shook his head. "Tauromon is the only one of the four that needs to use the power of a Mega digimon. He relies entirely on brute strength and wild rage. The other three have other, more subtle gifts that use skill and tactics rather than out-and-out destruction."
"You mean they'll be harder to beat than Tauromon?" Mimi said, clutching Tanemon tightly. "He was awful. So angry. And he just never stopped fighting."
"Yes, that was probably Tauromon's greatest virtue." Gennai nodded. "He ignored every instinct to give up and kept on fighting. Believe it or not, he was very loyal, too."
Gomamon made a face and shook his head. "Sorry, but I have a hard time believing that."
"Not loyalty in the way you know it," Gennai smiled. "He was loyal to his master, Mordremon. All of her servants are."
"Yes, I noticed that," Sora nodded. "Usually when you find a digimon that's working for another, they're scared of the master and that's practically the only reason they obey. But Tauromon seemed to really like Mordremon as another digimon, not just as a superior."
"I'm not sure that Mordremon is a digimon." Gennai frowned. "Not a digimon that we know of, anyway."
"Yes, I've wondered about that too." Izzy agreed, eagerly, "When we first saw Mordremon, the digimon analyzer didn't have any information on her. Couldn't even tell me what level she was at."
"What could she be if she isn't a digimon?" Biyomon wondered.
"It's a mystery to me," Gennai shrugged. "But right now I think you have things to worry about other than her. You still need to get through this forest, across the lake and up the mountain before you will see Mordremon again. There are many digimon you must fight along the way, too. Izzy, I've loaded another map onto your computer, covering Mordremon's realm."
"Guess it's time to get going." said Matt, looking at his bloodstained shirt (or it would be, if it wasn't black, and things don't really show up on black...) "The sooner we get to the lake, the sooner I can clean up."
"There's a fair way to go before you get to the lake," Gennai interrupted. "You have to get through this forest, and it's controlled by-"
Suddenly, the image of Gennai flickered and vanished.
"Where'd he go?" Tai asked, looking around wildly.
"It's not like him to just vanish like that." Izzy frowned. Tentomon, who was vaguely buzzing around, slightly dazed by his collision with the tree, suddenly smashed into the back of Izzy's head as he caught sight of something moving in a distant stand of trees.
"Tentomon, watch where you're going!"
"But I saw something... over there," the bug pointed with one claw.
Peering into the shadowy woods, the others could see something sliding along the ground. There was a slithering, rustling sound and a hissing breath. Then, out of nowhere, the head of a giant snake emerged from a nearby bush and arched up over their heads.
"Sorry I had to cancel that conversation," Serpentmon lisped at the petrified children. "but it was beginning to bore me. Doesn't that old fool ever say anything worth hearing?"
"If all you want is entertainment, you should try cable TV." Matt snorted. "It's more fun that EAVESDROPPING ON PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS!!!!11" (yes, I know the 1s don't really apply, but you try telling that to Yamato...)
"Private?" the serpent's eyes widened. "Don't be silly, that wasn't private. That dusty old fossil was just about to mention me, and I have a right to know when people are talking about me!"
"He said nothing about you!" Koromon protested.
"I said, he was about to." the snake's tongue flicked out and her eyes narrowed. "He was just about to mention who controls this forest, and that happens to be me."
"Oh, so you're the one we have to beat to get out of here!" Tai shouted, leaping up. "Well let me tell you, we're not going to make it easy. We won't just be scared by a show off like you!"
"Er... yeah, right." Mimi murmured, backing away with Tanemon in her arms.
"Show off?" the snake smiled dangerously, but sank her head down so that she could look Taichi in the eyes. "I never expected to win by a show of force, my dear."
"Why'd you do it, then?" Gomamon asked, looking confused.
Serpentmon flicked her tail about carelessly. "I thought you might like us to be properly introduced, that's all."
Izzy raised an eyebrow. "And evil digimon with manners. That's something new."
"Um, excuse me, Serpentmon." Mimi crept forwards. "You seem to be a sensible sort of digimon, and I was just wondering, do you think you could just let us through the forest? I mean, we only want to get past to help our friends at Mordremon's castle, and fighting is such a waste of time. And so messy! I mean, it would ruin all those lovely scales of yours."
The others held their collective breaths as Serpentmon looked at Mimi curiously. "So, girl, you think that being a sensible and polite digimon, I'm also won over by flattery?"
"Uh..."
"Well, you're wrong!!!" Serpentmon shot up above the level of the trees, a full third of her body lifted off the ground. "I may be well mannered, but I don't let you off at any cost. I would never betray my master in any way."
"Please, please don't attack us right now." Joe pleaded, looking up at the enormous snake.
"Attack you now?" Serpentmon bared her fangs in what the children later discovered was laughter. "No, I would not want to defeat you yet. I do not opt for the easy way out. No, I play a longer, harder, more interesting game than that. I will see you again, children. Take care."
And with that, she plunged down into the forest and out of sight.
*****
The children didn't have long to wait before Serpentmon began her 'game'. They had barely begun their trek into the forest when a low snarl rippled through the trees.
"What, exactly, was that?" Sora wanted to know.
"I'm not entirely sure." Izzy muttered, tapping away at his computer once again. "My digimon analyzer doesn't really pick up sounds, but I think it could be a-"
"Whatever it is, it'll probably be walkover." Tai dismissed Izzy's worried expression.
"But Tai, in this sort of forest, the digimon could easily-"
"Don't worry, Izzy, we can handle it."
"But they've probably got-"
"For the last time, Izzy, we'll be fine!"
Just then, five large Tyrannamon crashed through the trees and surrounded the digidestined. The sound of digivolving monsters drowned out any attempts at speech, but even so, Tai thought he heard Izzy yelling 'I told you so!'.
(A/N At this point in time I have six champion digimon trying to beat the hell out of the Tyrannamon. Three of them (Koromon, Tsunomon and Tanemon) were at the In-training stage at the start of the chapter. They went to rookie somewhere in between. You figure it out.)
The humans huddled together in the centre of the battlefield as the digimon fought around them. Greymon's lashing tail narrowly missed a tree as he wrestled with one of the monsters. Garurumon and Ikkakumon had teamed up to try to take another down, but the red beast was still fighting valiantly. Togemon was having a little more trouble with the dinosaur she had chosen to attack, as its leathery hide didn't seem to be affected by her Needle Spray.
The humans leapt aside as one of the red dinosaurs skidded along the ground towards them, having been knocked over at last. Several of those watching gasped in amazement as Birdramon locked her talons around the creature's middle and actually managed to lift him about a metre off the ground. As the monster thrashed about in fright, she was forced to release it, but it backed off and was reluctant to begin fighting again.
"I think this may be getting a little dangerous." Izzy commented, backing into Matt in an effort to get as far away from the monsters as possible.
"A little?" Joe replied, sidestepping as Garurumon's tail cracked like a whip. "Not exactly one to panic, are you?"
"I hate to point this out," Sora pointed out, "but somehow our side don't seem to be doing to well!"
"How could we be losing?" Mimi demanded, "There are more of our digimon than there are Tyrannamon."
"Maybe our digimon are a bit out of shape." Matt suggested, a grim expression on his face. "I mean, these six haven't done any serious fighting for years, even though we discovered how to get back here to digiworld. Without us around, they couldn't digivolve and fight the hard-core sorts of battles that we used to."
"I suppose that's a possibility," Izzy frowned, "but we don't exactly have time to whip them into shape, do we?"
"Don't worry about it, we'll be fine!" Kabuterimon roared.
Then a Tyrannamon grabbed his head, threw him at the approaching Greymon and winked at the two other monsters who tossed an exhausted Birdramon onto the pile. The red creatures snorted and chucked a few fireballs at the other digimon as they struggled to get up and fight back.
"We're getting slaughtered!" Joe groaned, shaking his head. "This is awful, what are we going to do?"
One Tyrannamon had Garurumon by the scruff of his neck and had pinned the wolf against a tree. With a strangled gasp, he glowed for a moment before becoming Gabumon and sliding slowly down the trunk of the tree and collapsing on the ground. Ikkakumon was soon to follow, his awkward bulk making it hard for him to avoid the relentless attacks of the reptilian monsters. Gomamon crawled slowly and carefully across the battlefield to the apparent safety of the humans' little huddle. Gabumon, however, could barely move and it was Matt who had to take the risks to reach the tree where he lay in a crumpled heap of fur.
As Birdramon escaped into the air, leaving Kabuterimon and Greymon on the ground, one of the three Tyrannamon that had been guarding them grabbed her talons and tried to yank her back to the ground. Togemon, who was already trying to fend off two monsters, gave an outraged roar and leapt forward to defend the struggling bird, somehow bringing a little energy back into the battle. Birdramon, Kabuterimon and Greymon all assisted her in attacking the five reptiles, but somehow Togemon seemed to do the most damage. It was strange how she was perfectly nice most of the time, but could suddenly become so violent.
"Like human, like digimon." Sora muttered, then grinned nervously as she saw Mimi looking at her suspiciously. So unpredictable, these girls.
"Hey, Gabumon, you okay?" Matt asked, reaching his furry friend.
"I'll be fine. I suppose." Gabumon muttered, groggily.
"Good, now let's get you back with the others." Matt smiled.
"What others?" Gabumon asked, looking confused.
Matt stared in disbelief. "You know, the digidestined, the rest of us. Our group."
"The what?"
"That must have been some bump on the head!" Matt commented, still hardly able to believe what he was hearing.
"My head? What about my head?" Gabumon lifted a paw and started running it over the top of his head. "yes, I do seem to have a bit of a lump there, don't I?"
"No, stupid, that's your horn." Matt sighed.
"Oh." Gabumon looked confused.
"Look, we should just get moving so that we're out of the way of the fight. Can you stand up and walk?"
"I can try."
"Good, that's something." Matt rose to his feet and turned around.
He seemed to have momentarily forgotten the fight that was going on. Because if he had remembered, he probably wouldn't have stood up while there were several monsters thrashing about in anger / pain. He hardly had time to curse his own foolishness before the Tyrannamon's tail whipped out and knocked him senseless.
"Matt! Gabumon!" Tai roared, "You stinking monsters, you'll pay for that one, I'll come and fight you myself, just you wait and see!"
He wanted to run over and help them, but Sora and Izzy managed to hold him back for a moment.
"Tai, what exactly are you going to do to help?" Sora demanded.
"I... I could... I thought..." Tai stopped struggling and sighed. "Oh, I don't know."
"Exactly!" Izzy concluded. "There's nothing useful you can do and you'd only be putting yourself in even more danger. So I suggest you stop for a moment and think of something sensible."
Tai did try to think of a plan, but all he could see was the red tail smashing his friend into the ground. he was older and a little wiser than when he first became the leader, but he was still Tai, and some things would never change. After several minutes of thinking to absolutely no result, Tai did the one thing that almost never failed.
"Greymon! Digivolve!"
The Tyrannamon stopped and looked at Tai, then at the other digimon. They weren't stupid and they knew what was about to happen. They could see Tai's crest, and those of the other children, beginning to glow. It didn't take a Datamon to figure out that four Ultimate digimon would be harder to fight than four Champions. So the reptilian ones took action, not against the other digimon, but against the ones that gave them their power.
The digidestined, both human and digimon, thought it was a good sign that the Tyrannamon began to retreat, jogging into the trees and heading in different directions. For some reason, it didn't occur to them that it was most unusual for any digimon to run away from a fight simply because its opponent was digivolving.
With an earth-shattering crack, a tree standing near the humans began to topple over, cutting them off from their digimon. Several other trees were uprooted and fell, enclosing Tai, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe and Gomamon in a cave of sorts as more trees were piled on top. In their panic, the humans had briefly forgotten their digimon companions, who were helpless as they were still halfway through digivolving. Unable to continue to the Ultimate stage, the four digimon still in the fight (Greymon, Birdramon, Kabuterimon and Togemon in case you've lost count) had to resume their Champion forms once more and fight the reptiles that outnumbered them alone, without assistance from the humans. This was going to be one very tough little battle.
******
Tai woke up to find himself in darkness. He stood up very quickly, banged his head on something, swore, then sat back down again.
"Please, watch your language, Taichi." said Izzy's voice from somewhere in the darkness.
"Where are you, Izzy?" Tai shouted. His voice echoed around the wooden prison, and behind him he heard Joe, Sora, Mimi and Gomamon yawning and grumbling their complaints.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Tai could see Izzy crawling along the ground near the edge of one of the fallen trees, seemingly examining them. Why he'd do that, Tai didn't have a clue, but he did know that they had to get out of there.
"What happened, Izzy?" the Joe asked, crawling towards the other kid. "Why were we asleep?"
"For a start, the Tyrannamon dropped a few trees on us." Izzy said, grimly. "They did their job well, too. We're completely enclosed in this one place, and it's going to be tough finding a way out."
"Tyrannamon!" Sora exclaimed, jumping to her feet, hitting her head and dropping back down with a muttered curse.
"Like I said to Taichi - watch your language." Izzy frowned.
"Aw, come on, Izzy!" Gomamon protested, "It's PG13, we can say these things. Don't be so stuffy, you sound like Sora's mother."
"How do you know what my mum sounds like?" Sora asked suspiciously.
"Ah... never mind." Gomamon mumbled.
"What were you saying about Tyrannamon, Sora?" Mimi asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, yeah." Sora's eyes widened. "How long were we out for? Are our digimon okay? Have they been fighting the Tyrannamon the whole time?!"
"There's another question." Tai said, thoughtfully. "Why were we asleep, anyway?"
"Maybe I should start from the start." Izzy began.
"The rest of you don't seem to remember, for some reason.
"When the Tyrannamon dropped the trees on us, they didn't just stop at
that. They took some care to seal us off completely and confine us in a
very small area. This place was actually airtight."
It took a few moments for the others to comprehend what Izzy had just said.
"So you mean that we would have run out of air?" Joe blurted.
"Exactly. That's why you all fell asleep, because we were running out of air." Izzy nodded, grimly. "Somehow I managed to stay awake a little longer and scraped a few holes between the branches that those Tyrannamon pulled together. You were all asleep for so long, for a while I was afraid..."
"Don't worry about it, Izzy." Mimi replied, quietly. "We're okay now."
"But we have to get out of here!" Tai, once again, tried to jump to his feet and managed to hit his head. This time, however, he had the sense to keep his mouth shut.
"We really need to help our digimon, Izzy." Sora went on, guessing what was on Tai's mind. "If they were in trouble before, I hate to think what they're like now."
"Actually, they're doing okay." Izzy announced, surprising them all. "Matt gave be a full report just ten minutes ago. Greymon and Togemon de-digivolved and Birdramon and Kabuterimon carried them up out of reach of the Tyrannamon. They've been dive-bombing the monsters ever since."
"And where's Matt, anyway?" Tai demanded. "Why didn't he help us out?"
"The Tyrannamon won't let him or Gabumon anywhere near us." Izzy shrugged. "He just sneaks up when they're not looking."
"Like now, for example." Although the voice was muffled by the wood, it was still Matt. "Nice to see that the rest of you are awake and well."
"Matt?" they heard Gabumon ask, "Who are these people?"
"I'll introduce you later." Matt sighed.
"And why, exactly, do you need to introduce us?" Mimi asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.
"Don't ask." Matt groaned. "I'll tell you later. Look, our reptilian adversaries have traveled quite a way away, so you might want to try digging out now."
"Sure thing, Matt, I'll get right to it." Gomamon said, and immediately started digging. The other kids trapped under the log moved out of the way as dirt flew everywhere.
"See you later!" Matt said, over the sound of Gomamon's claws scraping the earth. "Gabumon and I have to go back to playing dead."
Izzy backed into a corner and heard the crunching footsteps grow fainter. He was relieved that the others hadn't asked too many questions. They did ask quite a few, but not the ones that he was so afraid to answer. Even he didn't really know what had happened back when he first realised that they were suffocating. The fear at realising what the others had not, and trying to fight the drowsiness... and losing. Of course, that wasn't what he told them. Izzy hardly believed the truth himself. Voices in his head... it wouldn't be strange for things like this to happen in the digiworld, but such a far-fetched explanation coming from the scientific Koushiro Izumi... it would be too strange.
The boy opened his computer and tried to push the memories of that strange experience from his mind. Maybe he'd find out one day. Maybe he wouldn't. It was probably best not to dwell on such things. And yet...
He quickly started typing, attempting to calculate how long it would take for Gomamon to dig through to the other side of their prison. It was something to do. He had almost begun to stop worrying when another thought hit him:
Why didn't the others remember?
A little while later, Gomamon emerged from his hole in the ground, completely covered in dirt.
"All done!" he announced, his grinning teeth a strip of white in his blackened face. "Let's get out of here!"
"Woo hoo!" Tai looked as though he would jump into the air, but he stopped just in time, remembering where he was and sat back down.
Izzy smiled to himself. Even a boof head like Tai could learn.
******
The sun had just begun to sink below the horizon when the kids crawled out of their wooden prison. Looking skyward they could see Birdramon and Kabuterimon circling and random bursts of flame lighting up the area.
"Guess we'd better go help them." Tai started off towards the sounds of battle, the fearless leader once again.
Everyone immediately followed him - except for Joe, who had somehow lost his glasses in the dirt. Gomamon sighed impatiently as his human companion scrambled about.
"Don't you ever stop dropping things, Joe?" he complained. "And if you have to drop things, do you have to do it right in the middle of some emergency?"
"I didn't choose to be clumsy, pal." Joe growled, standing up. Like his digimon, he was now almost completely covered in dirt.
"Two of a kind, eh?" Gomamon grinned.
"Look I try not to lose things and I try not to be late for everything," Joe said, "but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. I'm just naturally hopeless."
"Now, c'mon, it's not that bad." Gomamon replied, slightly alarmed by Joe's outburst.
"Yes it is!" Joe howled "How am I supposed to be 'Old Reliable' if I can't even be relied on to turn up when I'm needed?"
"Joe, we really don't care!" Gomamon shouted. "I mean, we don't care if you're late sometimes, not we don't care about you, although there probably are people that don't care about you but they obviously don't know you very well because anyone who knows you would care about you so-"
"I get the point." Joe cut off Gomamon's useless babbling.
"You don't have to always be perfectly punctual to be reliable." Gomamon finished, with a weak grin.
"I'd like to be, though." Joe said, looking a little disappointed.
"Tell you what." Gomamon said, "Why don't I help you out a bit, so that you're not so late all the time?"
"That might be good." Joe grinned.
"Okay then!" Gomamon grinned, "From now on we aren't going to miss a single thing!"
Just then there was an explosion of light from the scene of the battle and MetalGreymon, MegaKabuterimon, Garudamon and Lillymon rose above the trees and started to battle all over again.
"Starting from tomorrow." Joe smiled, as he clambered onto Zudomon's back and they set off through the trees. (Hey, you know how I hate writing in the digivolving part)
******
At last the digidestined seemed to be gaining some sort of advantage in the battle against the Tyrannamon. The Ultimate level digimon helped a lot, as there were now five of them fighting. Although both the digidestined monsters and their reptilian rivals seemed rather tired after the day's fighting.
"Hey, Matt." Tai popped up beside his blue-eyed friend with a wide grin. "good to see you again."
"You too, Tai." Matt smiled. "Gabumon, this is my best friend, Tai. He's our leader."
"Nice to meet you, Tai." Gabumon held out his paw for Tai to shake. The boy didn't take it.
"Is this some sort of joke?" Tai asked in disbelief.
"No, I'm afraid not." Matt shook his head sadly. "Gabumon has completely lost his memory."
"Weird." the other boy commented. "And you can't get him to remember? He doesn't recognise us?"
"I just introduced him to you. Do you really think I'd do that if he knew you?"
"Good point." Tai frowned. "Well, why doesn't he digivolve and go fight while we're waiting."
"He doesn't know how." Matt shrugged.
"Couldn't he just fight as a rookie digimon?"
"He doesn't even remember how to fight!" Matt sighed, exasperated.
"Bummer." Tai commented. Then he cringed as a few of the battling digimon came dangerously close. "Say, why don't we get up into the trees? It could be safer."
"Good idea." Matt nodded. "Oi, Sora! Mimi!" he shouted to the girls. "Tell Izzy to get rid of that computer and get into the trees. It's safer!"
"Gotcha." Sora nodded curtly and dragged Izzy off the ground while gesturing to Joe to jump off Zudomon's back and into the trees.
"Uh, I don't know..." Joe mumbled, reaching tentatively for a branch.
"Come on, Joe, don't be a wimp." Mimi growled.
"I'm not a wimp! I just don't think I can-"
Joe wasn't given much of a choice. The fifth Tyrannamon suddenly launched itself at Zudomon, throwing Joe right off. He managed to grasp a branch and drag himself upwards, clinging like a leech.
"You'll be fine, Joe." Sora reassured him.
"Easy for you to say, you're on the ground." Joe mumbled.
"Well, look at Izzy." Mimi pointed at the younger kid, who was sitting in the fork of the tree, busily working away on his computer.
"Tai and Matt are trying to drag Gabumon into the tree with them." Sora grinned. "He seems to have forgotten how to climb."
"Oh, I suppose it might not be that bad." Joe mumbled, sitting up.
"That's more like it." Sora smiled approvingly, grabbed a branch and began to haul herself up bit by bit. It wasn't until she was several metres off the ground before she realised that Mimi wasn't following her.
"What're you waiting for, Meems?" she yelled. "This tree doesn't have an elevator, you know."
"In case you hadn't noticed," Mimi snapped, "I'm not exactly dressed for tree-climbing."
"You should have known better than to wear a skirt ten inches long in the digiworld." Sora snorted. "Stop wasting time, no-one's going to perv on you."
"Easy for you to say! And my skirt is not ten inches long."
"No, it's shorter!" someone shouted.
Sora just sighed and started back down. "Look, I'll help you if you really want."
"No, don't worry about it, I'll be fine." Mimi dismissed Sora's offer and immediately started to climb.
"Are you sure? I mean, I understand that you might not be very enthusiastic about this sort of thing..."
"I told you, I can do it myself. Now back off!"
Sora smiled to herself as Mimi settled on the branch next to her. The one in pink had always been a little proud.
It was well and truly dark now, as the digidestined stood cheering their monster companions on. It had been a long, tiring battle, but it seemed as though the end was in sight. The Tyrannamon were finally weakening. There were a round of cheers as two of the red-skinned reptiles were driven off into the forest. Without them, the battle seemed as though it had already finished.
The leader of the Tyrannamon group looked up, irritated by the celebrating humans. So confident, weren't they. The monster grunted in pain as it was struck a hefty blow from Garudamon's talons. Those humans... they were getting so annoying! Something would have to be done.
The monster neatly ducked Garudamon's next blow and sidestepped as MetalGreymon tried to cut it off. Tyrannamon quickly assessed the situation, took aim and fired - at the tree.
The six humans (plus Gabumon, who could remember what
fire was) immediately started yelling and screaming. Just as planned,
their digimon turned to try to save them, scooping the humans out of the
perilous branches. Joe returned to his position on Zudomon's shell,
Lillymon swooped in and out again with Mimi in her arms and MegaKabuterimon
grasped Izzy in one of his long arms. Garudamon, not bothered by the
flames, took time to carefully collect Matt and Gabumon as well as Sora.
MetalGreymon had extended his huge metal claw to bring Tai back to safety.
Trapped among the burning branches, his ears filled with the cracking of charred
wood, Taichi was only too happy to escape. He coughed as he started to
clamber onto his digimon's claw, the smoke filling his eyes and nose and
mouth. But through the haze and behind the bulky forms of the digimon, Tai
could see other dark shapes, coming closer...
"NO!!" Without thinking, Tai grabbed one of the burning branches and ripped it off the tree. He leapt onto MetalGreymon's claw, ran up his arm and onto his head, launching himself out into space and swinging his firebrand into the face of the DarkTyrannamon that had planned this particular ambush.
Shocked that one of the humans had been able to hurt him, the monster shook his head violently then turned to run off into the forest. The two remaining Tyrannamon followed him, and MetalGreymon woke up just in time to catch Tai before he hit the ground.
No-one had much to say as all the digimon returned to their rookie forms and they watched the tree continue to blaze. Tai still held the branch he had used to attack the DarkTyrannamon. It was only Izzy who heard the rustling sound behind them and the low, rasping voice.
"Well done, brave children." Serpentmon whispered. "Well done indeed, although it is a pity to lose a tree like that. but tomorrow will bring a new challenge. Let's see if you can keep this up."
There were ominous rumbling sounds from the sky. The huge blaze began to die down. Tai's flaming torch hissed and went out as the skies opened and it started to rain.
~~~~~~
Well, that was fun! *looks around to see the three remaining readers fast asleep* Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad!
Was it?
Yeah, that chapter took me a long time to finish. Gomen! Although, I must say, I do know some people that only update about three times a year. Do you think I try too hard, going for an update every single week? Ah, who cares, I'm babbling now. I think it goes without saying that I'd like you to review... but just for the record, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME A REVIEW!!!
