The Powers Within: Longevity of Forest
by Creedogmon
by Godeerc VanDrey
Category: Digimon
Genre: Fantasy, General
Rating: PG
Language: English
Summery: Matt gets his power.
A/N: It's getting kind of tedious doing these Author Notes when I don't have anything else to say. Anyway, I wish I could put more in the summary, but not a lot happens. Read the story now. You're waiting your time up here.
Chapter 7: Longevity of Forest
Matt, silent in the passing dusk, watches as Jessica stares at her crest intently as she walks. The fuchsia-colored tab inside shows and almond shape beneath an arc and above two semicircles encasing two attached circles. She sighs and looks up at Matt.
"So, Matt, what do you think? Are you getting a power?" Jessica prompts.
Matt turns away, looking at the ground, shrugging his shoulders. "Me? I don't know. I mean if both you two got them, I guess I'm highly likely to. How do you get them?" He turns back, his brown bangs shifting.
"I don't know. My guess is it's one of those things that you're kinda just destined to get." Daniel muses.
Somewhat testily, Matt comments, "Well, if I'm destined to be here, why shouldn't I be destined to get a power?"
Daniel paused, "Destiny's tricky. We'll call it God's will if you're more comfortable."
Matt too pauses, "God created the heavens and the earth. Is this earth?"
Daniel looks around, "God created only man to be wise. The creatures here speak. Maybe not, but where else would we be?"
"In a dream?" Jessica suggests.
"Maybe. But it's quite a long dream. And as long as we're here, let's make the most of it. We're fighting monsters, let's kick their butts." Daniel raises his hand for a high-five, which Matt returns, though rolling in his eyes in the process.
"Okay, but how do I know when I'm going to get a power?"
Jessica responds, "You usually hear a voice, as you've heard us comment about."
"Okay," Matt starts, "Do you think we're the only ones?"
Daniel answers, "I don't know. I mean we must have powers for some reasons. Fighting off these monsters may be one of them. And from what I can tell, this is a big place."
"'Cause I'm thinking. You know how Chris VanDrey just disappeared, with that little girl?"
"You think he maybe here?"
"Who knows? But only if…" Jessica answers.
"If this isn't a dream. He wasn't kidnapped or whatever." Matt finished.
: : :
The trio settles down as the dusk finishes. They sit down near a small bluff with a forest on it. Matt and Daniel build a small fire. "You know, guys, our parents are going to be worried sick." Matt comments.
"What do you propose we do?" Jessica asks, "It's not like there's any phones around here."
Daniel suggests, "It's not like we can't try."
Holding her head on her hand, Jessica looks back, "A whole lotta good walking around is doing us."
"A whole lotta good sitting down is doing us."
With that, Jessica inhaled sharply, closing her eyes, exhausted. "It recharges us. When we used our powers, it drained us."
"Really?"
Matt sighs, "Daniel, at full strength, you collapse after attacking with the power. We rest. Jessica, I know it looks like the wilderness, but this ain't earth. What we've seen so far is of no help to us. The more ground we cover, the more likely we are to find something we need."
"Or stuff we don't, like more monsters." Jessica snips, breathing heavily.
Daniel sits up, "We've both defeated monsters, Jess. I say, bring them on. I am the Champion."
Matt mediates, "Champions are only champions till they're defeated."
"No challengers yet." Daniel stares down Matt, then looks toward Jessica, who is drifting to sleep. Matt returns his stern look. Daniel smiles, "No challengers. I guess that's a good thing. I've had enough monsters for one day." Matt returns his smile and they bump their fists together.
'Well, Magistrate, what are you going to do? You friends are already powerful and you are not. How do you expect to be an ally to them?'
Matt goes pale, "Did you guys hear that?"
Daniel lowers his eyebrows, "A voice,"
"Yeah, you heard it?"
"No, but if you did, watch out. I may still be waning after my whole Champion change, and I may not be able to call upon my power. If I can call on it again. And by the look of Jessica, she doesn't look like she's ready for a battle either." Jessica is sleeping against a rock, mumbling about her mother or brother or something.
"All right. I'll be on the lookout. Sleep, Daniel, I've got the watch for awhile."
Matt expects to fall asleep, but is unable to, tired and fearful of an attack. Matt looks to the two sleeping forms, the Champion of Ascendancy and Sister of Care. What am I? The Victim of Being-Saved? No, the Accidental-Arrival of No-Power-Yet. Matt grabs his green-paneled digivice, and looks at the digivices of Daniel and Jessica. He then turns to the soft glowing of their crests beneath their shirts. Matt grabs the breast of his shirt. Hey, man, they didn't have necklaces with crests two days ago either. And they didn't know when they would get power, or that they would at all. Matt closes his eyes and exhales deeply, trying to wipe the sleepiness from his body. I miss caffeinated beverages.
'It's okay, Magistrate, sleep. You have already failed at perseverance for tonight. Relax.'
The voice makes Matt uncomfortable. It sounds untrustworthy. He wills to stay awake until the source of the voice presents itself. He'd eluded death twice in the twenty-four hours, and now is not the time to start playing his odds. His eyes, however, are heavy. He can't quite make something out in the distance, the light from the slowly dying fire fading. Though an occasional flame would spurt up, only the coals remained. Matt stretches. "It's going to be a long night," he tells himself.
Sleep comes to him for only a few seconds when a huge blast hit near Jessica. Her violet aura instinctively protects her, but she is unsurprisingly scared senseless. Both Daniel and Jessica try to call upon their powers, but nothing more than a weak glow from their crests emerges. "Go ahead, Magistrate, run away, you're still strong," comes the familiar voice.
Matt turns to look at the source of the voice. A monstrously large bug-like creature stands there. It screeches, yet unlike the voice in Matt's head. It is dangerous just the same. Matt ponders his options, Run? Hide? Stand? Stay?
He looks back at his two allies, straining to regain their energy. Yet neither has begun to be enveloped by their colored auras. Realizing he is the only thing in between his friends and his enemies, he looks forward and refuses to move, trying not to shake as he faces the enormous bug. His digivice glows. Well, if I'm getting a power, it might as well be now. Eyelids clenched shut, Matt rushes forward toward the insect, praying for some kind of miracle. Mid-dash, Matt is enveloped in a green, spherical protection aura, shielding him from the Kuwagamon's clamping pincers, which opens his eyes. He continues to rush forward, under the bug, dives, and rolls to the side. A small tab forms from within the digivice, and, like the others, inserts itself during a golden glow on Matt chest as he gets back up, on the left side of the monster.
A forest-green glow envelops Matt. As it dims, Matt's body is changed. His now-browned skin has a rough, bark-like texture. His thick hair is now a mess of stringy grass. "So, beetle-brain, you don't believe that I am worthy to be the Magistrate? You don't believe I have the tenacity to do so? Well, I got an answer for you. Wrong!"
A smaller bug, though still human-sized, flies up from behind Kuwagamon's shoulder. A vine shoots up from the ground and wraps itself around the smaller insectoid. The vine slams the bug onto the ground. It screams and struggles, "No, Magistrate, you will not defeat me. For I am Retalimon!" The screech is familiar in Matt's mind. The bug is tall, has six legs, all armed with blades, which it starts to cut through the vines with. Its exoskeleton is like a suit of armor.
"First order of business. Even the odds. Dozens of thick vines shot up around Kuwagamon. Each one wraps around a different part of the Kuwagamon. Eventually, the monster, covered in ever-tightening vines, dedigitalizes, the digital matter spraying through the cracks in the vines.
Retalimon, now cut free, doesn't get far before Matt calls upon his power. "Might of Forest!" Vines and small, crooked trees shoot up all around Retalimon, forming a thick knot around the bug, as a huge beam of green light from Matt's aura strikes him. The askew growth falls to the ground, shattering the knot, followed by an explosion of digital matter. The green light again covers Matt, bringing him back to normal, before he collapses to the ground.
: : :
Matt awakes next to a small, but roaring fire. He groans and sees Daniel, seated on a log, as his eyes refocused. "What happened?"
"Well, to say the least, you finally got your power. Kudos."
"Really? What do I look like?"
Jessica, entering from within the forest, answers him, "A bright green lock of hair, and your eyes now have almond-shaped green dots on either side of your iris." Matt looks into her eyes, seeing his wavy reflection. Indeed, there is a leaf-green lock of hair and a small green dot in both of his silvery-blue irises.
As the sun rises, a faint "Hello!" can be heard in the distance.
Amid surprised gazes, Daniel speaks first, "Let's check it out."
"Yeah, one minute. I'm still a little weak."
"Suit yourself, man," as Daniel sprints towards the bluff.
Matt smiles at his new crest. The Crest of Tenacity. The emblem is of a leafless, branch-less tree trunk, a vertical almond shape in the middle, resting above two triangles near the roots on a forest green background.
I am the Magistrate.
: : :
A/N: Ooh, ooh. We're getting closer and closer to the end. Yay!
(Sonriso) - You know, without me, Sonriso, wouldn't these stories just be so much more… boring? C'mon, what do you think? Ariee, talk to me, girl. Tab, my best bud, what would the CPoC be without me?
A/N: Hold it. You want Ariee and Tab to read these? Are you crazy?
