Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy and then I sort of lost interest in the story. But, you guys really wanted this, so I'm going to continue it. It may take me a few weeks per chapter, but if you've been patient this far, that shouldn't be too bad. God, it's hard to type with one hand...
A Rift in the Sky
The Gazimon should have noticed that something was amiss in his homeland. However, he ignored his God-given instincts because he was just thrilled about being back home. He'd gone off many months ago, when the moon was low and the sun shone only every other day. His trek led him to a rival gang of Gazimon that were occupying territory long laid out by his ancestors. The turf battle had been horrendous and the fight between the two gang leaders lasted many days. It ended with a swift move of a dagger plunged into a fur-covered heart. He'd been victorious and he couldn't wait to tell his family the great news. They would no longer have to live in fear and cower in cave, shadowed from all light. Gazimon were sun loving creatures by nature and this group of Gazimon were depressed to the point that some would venture out of the caves in the middle of the night to be preyed upon by larger Digimon.
The reason why the Gazimon were forced to huddle in a cave was because for four months straight they had been between leaders. The pact was having much difficulty deciding who would be the best to lead for them. One was smart and youthful while the other had much experience and knew where all of the best supplies could be found. Without a leader to take on the challenges put forth by other leaders of similar gangs, the Gazimon were forced to evacuate.
With the creation of Black Wargreymon, getting their land back proved much more difficult than it usually would have been. The more youthful Gazimon had won out in the end but only because he'd startled the other Gazimon so badly that his heart stopped. The tribe felt nothing but relief after his death because they could finally begin accumulating land. Unfortunately, they had to wait weeks in order to send out their new leader on his quest because Black Wargreymon killed their kind for sport and he was currently in the area. Cautiously, they studied Black Wargreymon's night rituals and were able to formulate a timeline in which their leader could voyage without facing Black Wargreymon.
It was on the faith of this same schedule that he returned. Still, his paw quivered above the dagger that was strapped to his belt. As he continued to approach the cave and as harm seemed past him, he began to throw caution into the wind. Had he been as alert as he had been earlier, he would have noticed that every creature in the area had evacuated and that the only sounds the night made were the whispers of the wind and the deep, growling breath of the hungry demon inside his cave.
~
Black Wargreymon instantly awoke. Something was outside approaching the cave so he got up to meet this threat. He glanced over at the Boy who had turned to him in his sleep and was now awake. Something inside Black Wargreymon surged and it was another feeling that he did not recognize. It was a feeling that had been in the cave earlier, when the mother Gorrillomon had been tending to the Boy's wounds.
The creature made a loud entrance and lit a match to the mushroom lamp hanging from the ceiling. "I'm back!" it said before screaming in helpless terror. Black Wargreymon grabbed the creature, which he now recognized as a Gazimon, and shook it by the ankles as it wailed. He stopped almost immediately after, however, because the Boy had began his share of wailing and Black Wargreymon wasn't sure why. He thought that the Boy may have been in pain, but he had been given a strong herbal painkiller only a few hours ago.
"What is it Boy?" he asked and the Boy stopped crying. The Boy shifted his eyes to the Gazimon and then back to Black Wargreymon.
Black Wargreymon sighed. It hadn't taken him long to figure out what the Boy wanted. "You want to keep it, don't you?" he accused. But the Boy just closed his eyes. He supposed that he could use this Gazimon to tend to the Boy and to dress the Boy's wounds.
"Can you mend?" he asked the Gazimon and it nodded slowly, unsure what to make of the situation. He had never seen such odd behavior from a Digimon that was universally declared as evil. Now he was resuscitating a boy from the Real World that he had nearly beaten to death - he just didn't know what to make of it all.
"Good. Then I'll let you live. But if you try to leave, I will find you and kill you. If you try to kill the Boy or if the Boy dies while he's in your care, I'll kill you." With that promise, Black Wargreymon threw the Gazimon to the back of the cave and blew out the light with the wind from his nostrils.
~
Daisuke had skipped dinner and stayed up all night. He couldn't sleep because of his worry. He worried about Ken and he also worried that he might have triggered something horrible in the Digital World by telling adults about its existence.
Hours passed and he lay on his bed facing the ceiling. He watched the city light cast eerie shadows overhead but they could not convince him to sleep. He could hear his Digimon's snores emanating from the floor and he could also hear Wormmon scuttling his claws against the ground.
"Wormmon," he whispered, and the scuttling stopped. After his visit with Ken's parents, he'd needed a piece of Ken to make him feel better about the whole ordeal. Iori understood, of course, and Daisuke brought the worm home with him after a quick briefing on how to properly wrap his bandages. Strangely, after they had gone through the portal, Wormmon had not transformed into Minomon as he usually did. Koushirou's explanation had been simple; the worm was too weak to change between forms and the transformation could possibly cause more damage to his already strained tissues.
Daisuke swung his feet over the feet and bent over to look at Wormmon. Wormmon met his gaze with large, sad eyes and whined a little. "You miss Ken," Daisuke said and lifted Wormmon gently into his lap. He petted one of the creature's claws with surprising patience and gentleness. "Me too," he said finally.
Daisuke picked up his Digivice from nightstand and spoke quietly to Wormmon. "I'm going back now. I can't wait any longer. I can't do anything until I find him." The Digivice beeped in protest but Daisuke stood anyway and put Wormmon on his bed. He pointed it to his computer and said the magic words but he was not transported away. Instead the beam concentrated itself on Daisuke and he crumpled to the floor where he lay sleeping for the rest of the night.
~
Zogleck was in a poor mood. He had thousands of worshippers, thousands that feared him and catered to his every whim. However, his name was rarely mentioned amongst Digimon. All he ever heard those weaklings groan and fear about was Black Wargreymon. He'd had enough. Everyone knew that he was far superior, that he was far stronger and that his influence caused the strongest powers to whimper and fall to his mercy. Even the Digidestined and their Digital slaves were powerless to stop him. He thought of the boy he killed and smiled. He knew that if he told the Digidestined about who had caused the death of one of their own, the Digimon would spread word around quickly about the power Zogleck. All he had to do was find the little cretins and let them have the news.
Zogleck lounged in the throne that he had made his slaves create for him. He was undoubtedly the biggest influence in the Digital World; his fortress gleamed and his servants were many. He realized that the only reason why he felt insecure was because of those dreadful Digidestined and his competition, Black Wargreymon.
Zogleck had taken many of his torture ideas from Black Wargreymon. He'd sent servant after servant to spy on the black beast and many had not come back alive. He thought that perhaps now would be a good time for him to start spying on him again. Black Wargreymon seemed to have disappeared and no one that he encountered had seen him since the day that Zogleck killed that boy. Normally Zogleck would see this as a good thing, but he feared that his competitor was only hiding to make him *think* that he had disappeared from the area. However, in Black Wargreymon's sphere of influence there was not a creature in sight. Some slaves had reported movement late at night, but the movement ceased as suddenly as it began.
Zogleck did not like to be played, especially by inferior beings. He rose from his throne and glided down to his set of monitors. Unlike leaders before him, Zogleck had tapped into the digital pattern of the sky, the trees and the earth and was able to see whatever roamed the land. He had a perfect visual of everything in the Digital World, but only when the Digidestined were not around. Somehow they managed to interfere with digital patterns, like the world was using a straining amount of energy to allow them to Zogleck's world.
The monitors were blank, as they had been for days. He'd thought that the death of that Digidestined boy would cause the monitors to function again but it seemed that as long as the boy's body remained in his world it would cause the pattern disruption.
He called forth a slave and asked it to bring his troops. They would try to find the body and figure out how to get rid of it. Unfortunately there were several complications with the process, including that the body had landed in Black Wargreymon's sphere of influence and the possibly of an encounter was extremely high.
~
Daisuke awoke in a blaze of heat. He felt his hand burn and he lifted it into his vision. Nothing. Yet it still burned fiery hot through his veins past the point of discomfort and on to the point of pain. He cried out, alarming the two Digimon beside him. The two Digimon could not help this boy as he screamed and were forced to take cover as Daisuke's mother and father thundered up the stairs. Chibimon pushed the larger Wormmon under the bed and covered them both with a stray bed sheet as Mr. and Mrs. Motomiya ran into the room.
They were just in time to see the fire in Daisuke's veins travel from his fingertips and up his arms. The veins stretched and reddened in web-like patterns wherever the fire left its mark. Daisuke, not quite at the threshold of unconsciousness, screamed and beat his arm against his body as if he were trying to put out the fire.
In the brief moment where his parents had entered the room they had already realized that there was nothing they could do. They saw blood in the redness, not fire, until they held his heated flesh. The webbing marked his shoulder and held onto his neck and squeezed his throbbing jugular. It wasn't until Daisuke stopped yelling and started choking on his breath that Chibimon noticed that the Digivice had become a flaming ball of heat. Amid the screams and the terror coming from the parents, Chibimon slipped to other side of the room in a ball of laundry disguise.
While the Motomiya's struggled to aid their dying son with cups of water from the bathroom, Chibimon prodded the device with a numb little paw. He could see that the object was hot, hotter than the wooden floor it was burning a hole into and hotter than the plastic restaurant toys that melted in its proximity. However, since he was a Digimon of flames, it did nothing to his paw. He poked at a button or two, trying to get the thing to stop torturing his friend. Finally, in frustration, he picked it up and tossed it with all his might. It landed two feet in front of him with a soft clutter, mocking the little Digimon's display of strength. Chibimon cornered it and began to jump up and down on its surface in a way that was less than discrete. The Digivice let out a sharp sound, in protest perhaps, then its surface began to cool. As it cooled it blackened and Chibimon backed away from the image of evil.
Daisuke, who had torn out some of his hair in his fit to control the blaze, was lying beaten on the floor with the tufts of brown hair he had pulled clenched tightly within his fist. His parents were frantically describing his symptoms to a doctor over the phone, begging him to come see their boy.
The throbbing veins eclipsed his head and although they had lost their fiery passion, they remained as red as the fire that had touched them. Chibimon crossed the room to settle beside his friend who trembled slightly but remained awake. He then retreated back under the bed where Wormmon was looking on with wide-eyed terror.
"Phone," Wormmon said to him, his voice still weak.
"I don't know how," Chibimon said with tears in his eyes.
"Teach," Wormmon reassured him and Chibimon snatched Daisuke's phone from under the nightstand. It was red, which was unnerving, but he took it with him anyway. Wormmon told him what buttons to push and suddenly he was calling Koushirou.
"Hello?" Koushirou said as he picked up the phone.
He was met by silence.
"Hello?" He said again and Wormmon whispered, "say something!"
"Koushirou?"
"Chibimon?"
"Something happened. You have to come over right away."
"What happened?"
"You'll see when you get here!"
"All right, all right."
"One more thing…"
"What's that?"
"You'll have to sneak in to see Daisuke. His parents are around."
"I'll do my best."
~
Somehow, although Koushirou was considered to be a nerd by many, he always managed to get himself into the worse situations. At this moment he was dangling from the Motomiya's balcony, desperately trying to get a foothold. Up until now he had been unusually sneaky; he'd made up an excuse to get into the apartment below, he'd entered the apartment disguised as a carpenter, then headed to the balcony. There he found himself stuck and in danger of getting caught. Finally he swung his leg up at just the right height and managed to gracelessly deposit himself on the concrete surface. He glanced around quickly to see if anyone inside the house had registered the sound. Nothing moved. It seemed that the only person who had noticed his unremarkable entrance was an old lady a skyscraper over. She glared for a moment but then returned to her sunbathing as if nothing unusual had happened. Koushirou breathed a sigh of relief, grateful of the strangeness of his friend Daisuke that allowed him to get away with this.
Koushirou opened the sliding door carefully, looked both ways, and then entered the apartment. Everyone appeared to be upstairs in Daisuke's room, which was where Koushirou needed to be too. It was then that he called in his distraction, a weary Yamato who had been up all night peeling. Yamato rang the doorbell with a touch of urgency while Koushirou ducked behind a sofa. Lucky for him, both parents raced down the stairs, hoping that the doctor had finally arrived. Koushirou slid up the stairs and dove into Daisuke's bedroom.
Daisuke was lying on his bed, on top of his sheets. He was in his boxers and Koushirou could easily see the raw red veins peeking out from under his skin. The boy whimpered painfully and Koushirou stood frozen in the middle of the room.
Chibimon emerged from under the bed and demanded that Koushirou hide in the closet. He did, but he took the Digimon with him.
"What happened to him?"
"Last night we were going to go back into the Digital World…"
"Hey!"
"…but Daisuke's Digivice went nuts and he just fell asleep. And when he woke up, it was there was fire in his veins. He was screaming from the pain. I think it's because of the Digivice. It was on fire for a while too and afterwards it turned black. I don't know what's going on…" The little Digimon's eyes welled with tears.
Koushirou didn't know what to think. He'd seen a lot of strange things in the Digital World before and a lot of Digimon had tried to kill him, but his Digivice remained a secure item from that world. Chibimon, who had bravely picked the black-as-coal instrument off the floor where it was smoldering, gave it to Koushirou for inspection.
"It's pure black," he marveled, turning it over. "Not even Ken's Digivice was pure black."
"Last night when the Digivice made Daisuke sleep, I think it was trying to help him. But this is the mark of evil."
"I wonder if I can turn it on?" Koushirou wondered and began to poke at the buttons just as Chibimon had. Nothing happened.
Koushirou turned it in his hands once more, then removed a screwdriver from his pocket. "You aren't going to take it apart are you?" Chibimon worried. He was afraid of the Digivice and what it might contain.
"Well, then what am I doing here? I'm supposed to be figuring this out."
"You're the genius! You tell me!"
At that point the Motomiya's re-entered, their faces full of worry. Mrs. Motomiya went straight to her son, who could only tremble as she spoke to him. She took his hand and tried to rub the red lines away, but they remained a symbol of the torture of her son.
Another person then set foot in the room. He was a heavy set, well-dressed man whose presence assumed intellectualism. He sauntered over to Daisuke's bedside and looked worriedly at the child.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen before," he began, "I don't know what to make of this."
"Oh please doctor, you have to do something!"
The doctor removed a needle from the case he was carrying. Daisuke screeched as it penetrated his skin and bled profusely from the small hole that the doctor had created. The doctor used a wad of gauze to stop the bleeding and put the sample into his case. He took the child's temperature as he squirmed and shrieked, but everything seemed normal other than the strange coloring of the child's veins.
Koushirou meanwhile contemplated the Digivice in the closet. With his long legs tucked up under his chin, he decided that since the Digivice belonged to Daisuke, Daisuke would probably be the only one able to use its powers. He assumed that if he opened it up, it would reveal nothing. Or worse, the flames could be trapped inside of it, waiting to peel off his face.
~
Black Wargreymon looked worriedly at the Boy. The Boy had grown more ill over night and the Gazimon had spent most his time taming the infection. The weary Digimon had Black Wargreymon bring fresh water from the lake but there was nothing else the large Digimon could do with his tremendous claws.
He was now settled beside the Boy, whose face was twisted in agony. The wounds on his legs were causing them to swell and puss and his arm had been nearly impossible to set properly. The bones would heal slowly because of the other wounds, however they would have to be broken again in order for the arm to be set in a position that would allow it to be functional. Black Wargreymon knew it would be for the best, but he really didn't want the Boy to suffer anymore.
The Gazimon had exited the cave ten minutes ago, in search of certain herbs he hoped would ease the Boy's pain. Black Wargreymon had given him a warning: if he wasn't back in the cave in a half an hour, he would find him, tear a slit in his gut and ingest the Gazimon's intestines until he died. The Gazimon did not take the threat as an empty one.
"Where's Daisuke?" the Boy asked suddenly, opening one of his swollen eyes. He put his broken hand on Black Wargreymon's arm and gasped when he found crying to be painful.
"Who's that?" Black Wargreymon asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He'd seen the torture of baby Digimon, mothers, fathers, and children - he thought long ago that he'd be immune to this kind of pain. The difference with the Boy was that Black Wargreymon was sure that he was an important part of his destiny. If he wasn't, Black Wargreymon would have just laughed and moved on. He was so sure that he'd found something spectacular, even if he didn't know why.
"Friend," was the answer before the Boy rolled his eyes into the back of his head and twitched uncontrollably. Black Wargreymon held a claw against the Boy's raven-colored head until the tremors subsided. Where is that wretched little Gazimon, Black Wargreymon wondered.
Outside the cave, the Gazimon returned, passing by the pool in such a hurry that he didn't notice the light emanating from it. Diving under the digital rift lay the black Digivice of a Digidestined clinging to life. Although broken, it did not fail to send the beam of light to help its master. The dark forces slipped away from its light and collected at the bottom of the pool like seashells.
A Rift in the Sky
The Gazimon should have noticed that something was amiss in his homeland. However, he ignored his God-given instincts because he was just thrilled about being back home. He'd gone off many months ago, when the moon was low and the sun shone only every other day. His trek led him to a rival gang of Gazimon that were occupying territory long laid out by his ancestors. The turf battle had been horrendous and the fight between the two gang leaders lasted many days. It ended with a swift move of a dagger plunged into a fur-covered heart. He'd been victorious and he couldn't wait to tell his family the great news. They would no longer have to live in fear and cower in cave, shadowed from all light. Gazimon were sun loving creatures by nature and this group of Gazimon were depressed to the point that some would venture out of the caves in the middle of the night to be preyed upon by larger Digimon.
The reason why the Gazimon were forced to huddle in a cave was because for four months straight they had been between leaders. The pact was having much difficulty deciding who would be the best to lead for them. One was smart and youthful while the other had much experience and knew where all of the best supplies could be found. Without a leader to take on the challenges put forth by other leaders of similar gangs, the Gazimon were forced to evacuate.
With the creation of Black Wargreymon, getting their land back proved much more difficult than it usually would have been. The more youthful Gazimon had won out in the end but only because he'd startled the other Gazimon so badly that his heart stopped. The tribe felt nothing but relief after his death because they could finally begin accumulating land. Unfortunately, they had to wait weeks in order to send out their new leader on his quest because Black Wargreymon killed their kind for sport and he was currently in the area. Cautiously, they studied Black Wargreymon's night rituals and were able to formulate a timeline in which their leader could voyage without facing Black Wargreymon.
It was on the faith of this same schedule that he returned. Still, his paw quivered above the dagger that was strapped to his belt. As he continued to approach the cave and as harm seemed past him, he began to throw caution into the wind. Had he been as alert as he had been earlier, he would have noticed that every creature in the area had evacuated and that the only sounds the night made were the whispers of the wind and the deep, growling breath of the hungry demon inside his cave.
~
Black Wargreymon instantly awoke. Something was outside approaching the cave so he got up to meet this threat. He glanced over at the Boy who had turned to him in his sleep and was now awake. Something inside Black Wargreymon surged and it was another feeling that he did not recognize. It was a feeling that had been in the cave earlier, when the mother Gorrillomon had been tending to the Boy's wounds.
The creature made a loud entrance and lit a match to the mushroom lamp hanging from the ceiling. "I'm back!" it said before screaming in helpless terror. Black Wargreymon grabbed the creature, which he now recognized as a Gazimon, and shook it by the ankles as it wailed. He stopped almost immediately after, however, because the Boy had began his share of wailing and Black Wargreymon wasn't sure why. He thought that the Boy may have been in pain, but he had been given a strong herbal painkiller only a few hours ago.
"What is it Boy?" he asked and the Boy stopped crying. The Boy shifted his eyes to the Gazimon and then back to Black Wargreymon.
Black Wargreymon sighed. It hadn't taken him long to figure out what the Boy wanted. "You want to keep it, don't you?" he accused. But the Boy just closed his eyes. He supposed that he could use this Gazimon to tend to the Boy and to dress the Boy's wounds.
"Can you mend?" he asked the Gazimon and it nodded slowly, unsure what to make of the situation. He had never seen such odd behavior from a Digimon that was universally declared as evil. Now he was resuscitating a boy from the Real World that he had nearly beaten to death - he just didn't know what to make of it all.
"Good. Then I'll let you live. But if you try to leave, I will find you and kill you. If you try to kill the Boy or if the Boy dies while he's in your care, I'll kill you." With that promise, Black Wargreymon threw the Gazimon to the back of the cave and blew out the light with the wind from his nostrils.
~
Daisuke had skipped dinner and stayed up all night. He couldn't sleep because of his worry. He worried about Ken and he also worried that he might have triggered something horrible in the Digital World by telling adults about its existence.
Hours passed and he lay on his bed facing the ceiling. He watched the city light cast eerie shadows overhead but they could not convince him to sleep. He could hear his Digimon's snores emanating from the floor and he could also hear Wormmon scuttling his claws against the ground.
"Wormmon," he whispered, and the scuttling stopped. After his visit with Ken's parents, he'd needed a piece of Ken to make him feel better about the whole ordeal. Iori understood, of course, and Daisuke brought the worm home with him after a quick briefing on how to properly wrap his bandages. Strangely, after they had gone through the portal, Wormmon had not transformed into Minomon as he usually did. Koushirou's explanation had been simple; the worm was too weak to change between forms and the transformation could possibly cause more damage to his already strained tissues.
Daisuke swung his feet over the feet and bent over to look at Wormmon. Wormmon met his gaze with large, sad eyes and whined a little. "You miss Ken," Daisuke said and lifted Wormmon gently into his lap. He petted one of the creature's claws with surprising patience and gentleness. "Me too," he said finally.
Daisuke picked up his Digivice from nightstand and spoke quietly to Wormmon. "I'm going back now. I can't wait any longer. I can't do anything until I find him." The Digivice beeped in protest but Daisuke stood anyway and put Wormmon on his bed. He pointed it to his computer and said the magic words but he was not transported away. Instead the beam concentrated itself on Daisuke and he crumpled to the floor where he lay sleeping for the rest of the night.
~
Zogleck was in a poor mood. He had thousands of worshippers, thousands that feared him and catered to his every whim. However, his name was rarely mentioned amongst Digimon. All he ever heard those weaklings groan and fear about was Black Wargreymon. He'd had enough. Everyone knew that he was far superior, that he was far stronger and that his influence caused the strongest powers to whimper and fall to his mercy. Even the Digidestined and their Digital slaves were powerless to stop him. He thought of the boy he killed and smiled. He knew that if he told the Digidestined about who had caused the death of one of their own, the Digimon would spread word around quickly about the power Zogleck. All he had to do was find the little cretins and let them have the news.
Zogleck lounged in the throne that he had made his slaves create for him. He was undoubtedly the biggest influence in the Digital World; his fortress gleamed and his servants were many. He realized that the only reason why he felt insecure was because of those dreadful Digidestined and his competition, Black Wargreymon.
Zogleck had taken many of his torture ideas from Black Wargreymon. He'd sent servant after servant to spy on the black beast and many had not come back alive. He thought that perhaps now would be a good time for him to start spying on him again. Black Wargreymon seemed to have disappeared and no one that he encountered had seen him since the day that Zogleck killed that boy. Normally Zogleck would see this as a good thing, but he feared that his competitor was only hiding to make him *think* that he had disappeared from the area. However, in Black Wargreymon's sphere of influence there was not a creature in sight. Some slaves had reported movement late at night, but the movement ceased as suddenly as it began.
Zogleck did not like to be played, especially by inferior beings. He rose from his throne and glided down to his set of monitors. Unlike leaders before him, Zogleck had tapped into the digital pattern of the sky, the trees and the earth and was able to see whatever roamed the land. He had a perfect visual of everything in the Digital World, but only when the Digidestined were not around. Somehow they managed to interfere with digital patterns, like the world was using a straining amount of energy to allow them to Zogleck's world.
The monitors were blank, as they had been for days. He'd thought that the death of that Digidestined boy would cause the monitors to function again but it seemed that as long as the boy's body remained in his world it would cause the pattern disruption.
He called forth a slave and asked it to bring his troops. They would try to find the body and figure out how to get rid of it. Unfortunately there were several complications with the process, including that the body had landed in Black Wargreymon's sphere of influence and the possibly of an encounter was extremely high.
~
Daisuke awoke in a blaze of heat. He felt his hand burn and he lifted it into his vision. Nothing. Yet it still burned fiery hot through his veins past the point of discomfort and on to the point of pain. He cried out, alarming the two Digimon beside him. The two Digimon could not help this boy as he screamed and were forced to take cover as Daisuke's mother and father thundered up the stairs. Chibimon pushed the larger Wormmon under the bed and covered them both with a stray bed sheet as Mr. and Mrs. Motomiya ran into the room.
They were just in time to see the fire in Daisuke's veins travel from his fingertips and up his arms. The veins stretched and reddened in web-like patterns wherever the fire left its mark. Daisuke, not quite at the threshold of unconsciousness, screamed and beat his arm against his body as if he were trying to put out the fire.
In the brief moment where his parents had entered the room they had already realized that there was nothing they could do. They saw blood in the redness, not fire, until they held his heated flesh. The webbing marked his shoulder and held onto his neck and squeezed his throbbing jugular. It wasn't until Daisuke stopped yelling and started choking on his breath that Chibimon noticed that the Digivice had become a flaming ball of heat. Amid the screams and the terror coming from the parents, Chibimon slipped to other side of the room in a ball of laundry disguise.
While the Motomiya's struggled to aid their dying son with cups of water from the bathroom, Chibimon prodded the device with a numb little paw. He could see that the object was hot, hotter than the wooden floor it was burning a hole into and hotter than the plastic restaurant toys that melted in its proximity. However, since he was a Digimon of flames, it did nothing to his paw. He poked at a button or two, trying to get the thing to stop torturing his friend. Finally, in frustration, he picked it up and tossed it with all his might. It landed two feet in front of him with a soft clutter, mocking the little Digimon's display of strength. Chibimon cornered it and began to jump up and down on its surface in a way that was less than discrete. The Digivice let out a sharp sound, in protest perhaps, then its surface began to cool. As it cooled it blackened and Chibimon backed away from the image of evil.
Daisuke, who had torn out some of his hair in his fit to control the blaze, was lying beaten on the floor with the tufts of brown hair he had pulled clenched tightly within his fist. His parents were frantically describing his symptoms to a doctor over the phone, begging him to come see their boy.
The throbbing veins eclipsed his head and although they had lost their fiery passion, they remained as red as the fire that had touched them. Chibimon crossed the room to settle beside his friend who trembled slightly but remained awake. He then retreated back under the bed where Wormmon was looking on with wide-eyed terror.
"Phone," Wormmon said to him, his voice still weak.
"I don't know how," Chibimon said with tears in his eyes.
"Teach," Wormmon reassured him and Chibimon snatched Daisuke's phone from under the nightstand. It was red, which was unnerving, but he took it with him anyway. Wormmon told him what buttons to push and suddenly he was calling Koushirou.
"Hello?" Koushirou said as he picked up the phone.
He was met by silence.
"Hello?" He said again and Wormmon whispered, "say something!"
"Koushirou?"
"Chibimon?"
"Something happened. You have to come over right away."
"What happened?"
"You'll see when you get here!"
"All right, all right."
"One more thing…"
"What's that?"
"You'll have to sneak in to see Daisuke. His parents are around."
"I'll do my best."
~
Somehow, although Koushirou was considered to be a nerd by many, he always managed to get himself into the worse situations. At this moment he was dangling from the Motomiya's balcony, desperately trying to get a foothold. Up until now he had been unusually sneaky; he'd made up an excuse to get into the apartment below, he'd entered the apartment disguised as a carpenter, then headed to the balcony. There he found himself stuck and in danger of getting caught. Finally he swung his leg up at just the right height and managed to gracelessly deposit himself on the concrete surface. He glanced around quickly to see if anyone inside the house had registered the sound. Nothing moved. It seemed that the only person who had noticed his unremarkable entrance was an old lady a skyscraper over. She glared for a moment but then returned to her sunbathing as if nothing unusual had happened. Koushirou breathed a sigh of relief, grateful of the strangeness of his friend Daisuke that allowed him to get away with this.
Koushirou opened the sliding door carefully, looked both ways, and then entered the apartment. Everyone appeared to be upstairs in Daisuke's room, which was where Koushirou needed to be too. It was then that he called in his distraction, a weary Yamato who had been up all night peeling. Yamato rang the doorbell with a touch of urgency while Koushirou ducked behind a sofa. Lucky for him, both parents raced down the stairs, hoping that the doctor had finally arrived. Koushirou slid up the stairs and dove into Daisuke's bedroom.
Daisuke was lying on his bed, on top of his sheets. He was in his boxers and Koushirou could easily see the raw red veins peeking out from under his skin. The boy whimpered painfully and Koushirou stood frozen in the middle of the room.
Chibimon emerged from under the bed and demanded that Koushirou hide in the closet. He did, but he took the Digimon with him.
"What happened to him?"
"Last night we were going to go back into the Digital World…"
"Hey!"
"…but Daisuke's Digivice went nuts and he just fell asleep. And when he woke up, it was there was fire in his veins. He was screaming from the pain. I think it's because of the Digivice. It was on fire for a while too and afterwards it turned black. I don't know what's going on…" The little Digimon's eyes welled with tears.
Koushirou didn't know what to think. He'd seen a lot of strange things in the Digital World before and a lot of Digimon had tried to kill him, but his Digivice remained a secure item from that world. Chibimon, who had bravely picked the black-as-coal instrument off the floor where it was smoldering, gave it to Koushirou for inspection.
"It's pure black," he marveled, turning it over. "Not even Ken's Digivice was pure black."
"Last night when the Digivice made Daisuke sleep, I think it was trying to help him. But this is the mark of evil."
"I wonder if I can turn it on?" Koushirou wondered and began to poke at the buttons just as Chibimon had. Nothing happened.
Koushirou turned it in his hands once more, then removed a screwdriver from his pocket. "You aren't going to take it apart are you?" Chibimon worried. He was afraid of the Digivice and what it might contain.
"Well, then what am I doing here? I'm supposed to be figuring this out."
"You're the genius! You tell me!"
At that point the Motomiya's re-entered, their faces full of worry. Mrs. Motomiya went straight to her son, who could only tremble as she spoke to him. She took his hand and tried to rub the red lines away, but they remained a symbol of the torture of her son.
Another person then set foot in the room. He was a heavy set, well-dressed man whose presence assumed intellectualism. He sauntered over to Daisuke's bedside and looked worriedly at the child.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen before," he began, "I don't know what to make of this."
"Oh please doctor, you have to do something!"
The doctor removed a needle from the case he was carrying. Daisuke screeched as it penetrated his skin and bled profusely from the small hole that the doctor had created. The doctor used a wad of gauze to stop the bleeding and put the sample into his case. He took the child's temperature as he squirmed and shrieked, but everything seemed normal other than the strange coloring of the child's veins.
Koushirou meanwhile contemplated the Digivice in the closet. With his long legs tucked up under his chin, he decided that since the Digivice belonged to Daisuke, Daisuke would probably be the only one able to use its powers. He assumed that if he opened it up, it would reveal nothing. Or worse, the flames could be trapped inside of it, waiting to peel off his face.
~
Black Wargreymon looked worriedly at the Boy. The Boy had grown more ill over night and the Gazimon had spent most his time taming the infection. The weary Digimon had Black Wargreymon bring fresh water from the lake but there was nothing else the large Digimon could do with his tremendous claws.
He was now settled beside the Boy, whose face was twisted in agony. The wounds on his legs were causing them to swell and puss and his arm had been nearly impossible to set properly. The bones would heal slowly because of the other wounds, however they would have to be broken again in order for the arm to be set in a position that would allow it to be functional. Black Wargreymon knew it would be for the best, but he really didn't want the Boy to suffer anymore.
The Gazimon had exited the cave ten minutes ago, in search of certain herbs he hoped would ease the Boy's pain. Black Wargreymon had given him a warning: if he wasn't back in the cave in a half an hour, he would find him, tear a slit in his gut and ingest the Gazimon's intestines until he died. The Gazimon did not take the threat as an empty one.
"Where's Daisuke?" the Boy asked suddenly, opening one of his swollen eyes. He put his broken hand on Black Wargreymon's arm and gasped when he found crying to be painful.
"Who's that?" Black Wargreymon asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He'd seen the torture of baby Digimon, mothers, fathers, and children - he thought long ago that he'd be immune to this kind of pain. The difference with the Boy was that Black Wargreymon was sure that he was an important part of his destiny. If he wasn't, Black Wargreymon would have just laughed and moved on. He was so sure that he'd found something spectacular, even if he didn't know why.
"Friend," was the answer before the Boy rolled his eyes into the back of his head and twitched uncontrollably. Black Wargreymon held a claw against the Boy's raven-colored head until the tremors subsided. Where is that wretched little Gazimon, Black Wargreymon wondered.
Outside the cave, the Gazimon returned, passing by the pool in such a hurry that he didn't notice the light emanating from it. Diving under the digital rift lay the black Digivice of a Digidestined clinging to life. Although broken, it did not fail to send the beam of light to help its master. The dark forces slipped away from its light and collected at the bottom of the pool like seashells.