I love getting suggestions…they inspire me so! Send more! Send more!
Outta curiosity…I've mentioned the continent of Modem in several of my fics. I've always thought of this place…do you think I should write a fic just about it? I was thinking of throwing in a little Dark Ocean…with a bit of a twist…Tell me what you think! (Ideas are nice!)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Okay? Okay…
The Grass is Greener
Chapter 5: Built In Modem
"I told you guys not to Digivolve!" Izzy raged. The others backed away. It was rare to see the red-haired child genius angry at all, and when he was you'd pretty much better do what he said.
"Well…Well what were we supposed to do?" Gatomon asked in defense. "Let them get stomped?"
Izzy glared, plopping down in his chair. "There must have been another way!" he growled. "Before that they had over a week. Now they've got less than three days!"
Patamon sighed and glanced at his partner, curled up on his lap. He was half-asleep, occasionally muttering to himself so quietly no one could hear. Through quite a while of coaching, T.K. had been able to pull some of his memories from the void, but they were limited. He remembered Patamon good and well, but what surprised the whole group when he remembered every detail about Kari, but little of Matt or his own mother.
The fact that he had sparked giggles in Yolei, who'd proclaimed loudly that this was grand evidence that T.K. was in love with Kari, and had been all along. This had obviously been met with some determined protests from Davis in particular, but was the only idea anyone had, and Izzy agreed…In a way.
"At this point they can only remember the things that were most important to them…" he sighed. "We can assume Kari is at the same level…If they haven't done anything to her."
He glanced nervously over at Gatomon. The Digimon-turned-girl had been worried sick about her partner all day long. But she was listening intently, as they were here to figure out how to get her back.
"Well?" she urged. "What're you staring at? Do you have an idea or not?!"
Izzy jumped, shook his head, and scrambled to dig in the drawer of his desk. "Where'd I put that…Ah!"
He pulled out something small and silver, which he quickly slipped around T.K.'s wrist. The Digimon looked at it curiously. It was a silver string, with a small white scroll on it. "What's this thing?"
"It's a speacial charm Gennai gave me." Izzy explained, pulling out an identical scroll and handing it to Gatomon. "It should stall the effects of the spell when you Digivolve…but it'll only work once. So when you get in there, you can't change back."
"What does that mean?" Davis asked. "In where?"
Izzy punched something into his laptop, then turned it to face the others. On the screen was an ominous black castle, high in the sky that seamed to be died blood-red. "Ew…" Yolei whispered. "Yuck."
"This is where we've targeted all the Dark Energy Sorceressmon has been giving off." Izzy explained. "It's a small castle just off the coast of the continent of Modem. As I've explained before, Modem is the Dark Continent of the Digital World. Sorceressmon and her Master get their strength from the Black Energy."
"So…Who's her master?" Ken asked.
"I dunno." Izzy shrugged. "It could be just about any dark Digimon. We just don't know yet."
T.K. examined the chain quietly, trying to keep all the information that was flying around straight. It was hard to remember much of anything that hadn't happened in the past two days, but he remembered her. And, more important, he remembered what happened to her, and his body and soul yearned to get her back.
"Are we all set?" Izzy asked, looking around at the others.
"You bet!" Davis exclaimed, speaking for the group. "We'll start off tomorrow morning. Everyone be here by 10 o'clock and we'll head out!"
~ * ~ * ~
As promised, they set off quickly the next morning. It took a few minutes longer than usual to go through the portal, and when they did they all came out with a burst, which of course took them a few minutes to untangle themselves.
Yolei sat up and looked around. "Yuck." she grimaced, making a face. "What a creepy place."
And it was. Modem, in general, is a pretty creepy place for anyone used to the scenery from Sever. However, if you're from Modem, the greenery of Server is stranger still. On Modem, they have no greenery. They have reddery.
The grass is blood red. The leaves are red, though they turn green and blue during the fall. The wood of all trees are all different shades of black and dark gray. Flowers that are usually white are purple, while yellow is blue, and roses are green. And, may I add, the sky is blood red like some vicious battle just happened in the clouds. If you're used to it, as most people who travel to Modem are, it's really not as strange as it sounds.
After taking all this in, they spotted the thing they'd come to meet: A huge black castle, built on a huge rock that just jutted out of the ground so suddenly it looked like it was a piece of driftwood that had been thrown down the beach and just stuck in the sand.
I could describe the nice, long, boring walk up to the front gate, if you really like. I could tell you haw they saw enough strange plants and, occasionally, low-level Digimon to keep Izzy and Jim busy for years. I could tell you how utterly and completely creeped out and sickened they got at some of the things…but that would take a long time and you'd probably loose interest before we were half way through, so I won't even bother.
Sum it up to say that, after an hour-long hike, they arrived at the front gates of the castle and gazed up with interest.
"Uh…Now what?" Davis asked, breaking the silence.
"I…I guess we go in." Patamon muttered, reaching for the door rings.
Cody rolled his eyes. "Really, Patamon, we're facing a huge castle of black energy on a continent with red grass, Kari's being held prisoner inside by a mysterious dark master and his crazy purple henchwomon, and you think they'll just leave the door open so we can walk right in and…?"
The door swung open with a loud ca-reeeeeeek. Patamon grinned at Cody, who was standing there wordlessly, and they started in.
"I don't believe it." Cody muttered, then followed after.
The inside of the castle was even more confusing and disturbing than the outside. Everything in it was pure black, so you couldn't tell where wall ends and door begins, what was a table or a suit of armor. It was baffling and confusing, and it was a good thing that Ken had a penlight with them, or they'd have to feel their way around like a blind man.
"Talk about creepy." Gatomon muttered, taking a step closer to Patamon, who took a step in the other direction to avoid any more embarrassing contact at that particular time.
"I think I saw something move over there!" Yolei squeaked.
Ken swiped his light in the direction she was pointing. "There's nothing there." he comforted. "You're just seeing things."
There was silence a moment as they crossed through the hall, looking for the pathway to the dungeons. Yolei stopped. "There it is again!" she gasped.
"I saw it to…" Cody muttered. "Something is there!"
Davis took the penlight and waved it around in front of them. "Come out!" he called. "I'm warning you…show yourself!"
Lights suddenly blazed on, torches, lit suddenly by an unknown force. Standing before them, staring at the floor, was a tall, dark figure. She was dressed completely in black, with dastardly white skin and long, grayish-brown hair. Her eyes were dark and unemotional.
"It's LadyDevimon." Gatomon growled.
"One of Sorceressmon's products, I'll suspect." Hawkmon muttered darkly. "A guard to prevent us from entering farther."
"Well then." Wormmon buzzed. "We'll just have to get through, huh?"
With a few quick flashes of light, the five champion Digimon stood ready. "Are you okay, T.K.?" Patamon called up.
"Yeah!" T.K. held his arm up, showing the charm on his wrist. "This thing's working fine. I don't feel different at all!"
"Just remember, that charm only works once!" Gatomon called. "So don't get hurt!"
T.K. nodded, then the group dove into the fight.
"Spiking Strike!" Stingmon buzzed, thrusting his blade forward. LadyDevimon dodged and it pierced the wall behind her, creating quite a long gash in the darkness. It sizzled purple a moment, then faded away.
The LadyDevimon turned to face them. "Darkness…Wave…" she muttered unemotionally, thrusting the dark attack into their midst.
The Digimon leapt back, away from the attack. "Grand Horn!" Aquilamon shouted, knocking LadyDevimon back with the force of his blast.
"Tail Hammer!"
"V-Laser!"
The attacks overwhelmed their fallen-angel foe. She stumbled back in mid-air, wounded slightly. "Evil…Wing…" she muttered, sending out another attack toward Ankylomon, who blocked it easily.
"She's weakening!" Ken called to the Digimon. "Everyone attack at once and we'll have 'er!"
"Then let's do it!" Davis cheered. "Everyone ready?!"
The Digimon started building their energy up for a final attack. T.K.'s eyes were drawn unavoidable to the victim of their attacks…and he stopped.
LadyDevimon looked…afraid. The wooden dolls had never looks scared or worried or…well, anything. But LadyDevimon looked like she knew she was going to die…and she looked familiar…
"Ready…" Davis coached, and the Digimon nodded. "Aim…Fire!"
"Spiking Strike!"
"V-Laser!"
"Blast Rings!"
"Tail Hammer!"
The blasts of energy flew towards their target. LadyDevimon threw her hands up in defense, still not saying a word, as the attacks combined into a single glow and grew to a point.
There was a blast and a range of explosions. But when the smoke cleared, instead of a wooden doll they saw…
"T.K.!" Patamon gasped.
The angel Digimon had thrown himself in front of the attacks, defending the LadyDevimon. He was singed and injured, but at the same time looked strong and determined, like there was some kind of mission to the whole thing.
"T.K., what were you thinking?!" Gatomon cried. "Why did you protect her?!"
T.K. groaned a moment before managing to croak two words: "It's…Kari…"
The others stared. "What?!" Davis gasped. "What did you say?"
"It's Kari!" T.K. insisted again. "It's her!"
Gatomon looked at T.K. a moment, then at LadyDevimon. That look in her eyes… And the touch of brown in her hair…and her eyes again…She really did look…
"It is her!" Gatomon gasped. "Good lord…that LadyDevimon is Kari!"
The other Digimon quickly backed off as T.K. turned to her. LadyDevimon/Kari seamed confused with the fact that he had protected her, and was uncertain exactly which side he was on.
"Kari…" he whispered, holding out his hand gently. "It's me…don't you remember? T.K.…"
She blinked at the name. For a moment, nothing happened, then she reached out one clawed hand for his wearily, muttering, "T…K…?"
T.K. took the clawed hand, smiling and nodding. Kari wavered in the air a moment, then groaned and fell forward, into him. He caught her carefully, and slowly she turned back into the little brown cat.
"She's back…" Gatomon whispered, then cheered. "She's back! Kari's back!"
The cat stirred in T.K.'s arms. He smiled down at her as they descended towards the ground. "How're you feeling?" he asked gently.
"Better." she whispered, a slight smile on her lips. She leaned up sleepily and kissed him on the cheek, causing a light shade of blush to cross his face.
"Aw…" Yolei cooed, partly to the two Digimon and partly to Davis. "Ain't that sweet?"
