Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon, Gravol, or Tylenol.

A/N:  Thank you to matt4ever and Tino for your nice reviews of Chapter 3.  I hope you like Chapter 4  ^_^

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 4

By Fenris5000—Angelica

TK rolled over to escape the rays of the warm digital sunshine that were gleaming in his eyes.  He could hear someone walking around the camp.  Someone giggled softly.  Tai was telling Agumon to start the fire so the girls could start making breakfast.  He yelped when something whacked him.  Sora probably threw a pinecone at him.  "Chauvinist Pig." She said, loudly enough for even TK to hear.

TK yawned and blinked open his big blue eyes.  He sat up with alacrity.  Matt!  His gaze flew to where he'd set his brother down to rest the night before, beside Gabumon.  TK rubbed his eyes as he joined the blue furred digimon with the yellow horn and tail.

"How's he doing?" TK asked, his words still slightly slurred with sleep.

Gabumon shook his head; his gentle, normally happy eyes were languid with worry.  "He hasn't moved an inch all night.  He hasn't made a peep, all night.  He should have woken up by now." Gabumon had ordered TK to sleep after a few hours of sentry duty over Matt, taking the last few hours himself.

TK gave the digimon a small smile.  "Well, lets try to wake him up." He squeezed Matt's shoulder.  "Matt, come on, time to wake up."

Matt let out a hiss of pain and his eyes fluttered open.

TK let out the breath he had been holding.  He had this petrifying fear that he wouldn't be able to wake Matt up.  "Hey, welcome back."

Matt smiled wanly.  "Thanks."

"So how do you feel today?"

The smile faded.  "About the same."

"Oh Matt.  I am so sorry.  If I could make yesterday go away, I would.  I just hate seeing you like this and knowing I'm the cause." TK wiped at the salty tears that threatened to fall uncontrollably.

Matt rolled his eyes.  "Yeah, yeah, well as long as you learned your lesson this time, TK.  Never doubt your big brother.  I'm always right." He laughed.  "Ow.  My head hurts."

TK laughed.  "You want to try sitting up?"

Matt considered this with a skeptical look.  "I'll probably live to regret it, but I guess I'll have to do it sooner or later."

Gabumon gently took Matt's arm and put a supporting paw behind his back.

Once sitting, Matt was hit with a surge of nausea he couldn't hold back.

Mimi looked up from the fruit she was preparing for breakfast with sympathy.  "Oh, poor Matt."

"But he hasn't even eaten anything." Tai mumbled, keeping his eyes averted from that side of the camp.  The sounds of retching made his skin crawl.

Sora was squeezing the juice of an orangey-lemon like fruit into her water bottle.  "He's not throwing up Tai.  It's dry-heaves." She handed the half full bottle to Joe.  "You headed that way, Doctor Joe?"

Joe nodded.  "Yeah, I guess I should look in on my patient.  This juice should make him feel a little better, thanks Sora."

Gatomon followed closely, carrying a paw full of fruit and nuts for TK, Gabumon, and Matt for when they were ready for it.

Matt settled back with a groan looking gray and miserable, leaning heavily on Gabumon.

"I won't bother asking how you're feeling Matt." Joe said, handing TK the juice.  "You look like death warmed over."

"Thanks." Matt muttered tiredly.  "It'll pass."

"Yeah." Joe agreed.  "Oh, Sora squeezed you some juice.  You may not feel like it at the moment, but it would really do you good if you tried to get some down."

"Sure." Matt nodded.  "Maybe a little later." He closed his eyes.

Joe sighed.  He went back to the group by the fire.

"So how is he?" Tai asked, popping a handful of nuts into his mouth.

"Not good." Joe stated, sitting down beside Gomomon and taking the last pink and yellow striped melon wedge and sinking his teeth into it.  He wiped his mouth and turned to Izzy, swallowing.  "Do you think we could try the digiport program on your laptop one more time?" He motioned over in Matt's direction.  "To be honest, I'm surprised he's made it this far.  I'd feel a whole lot better about this mission if we could get Matt home nice and safe first."

Izzy chewed thoughtfully on a star shaped nut.  "I don't have any problem with us trying it again, but I don't think anything will change.  I'm guessing that it won't work at all because we are on Ash Island.  Evil digimon are banished here, so they probably keep it under what you might say prison conditions.  If anyone could just create a digiport, the prisoners would be out of here.  It's bad enough they can teleport to wherever they please within the boundaries of Ash Island."

Tai's face fell.

Mimi was frowning.  "You mean we could be trapped here forever?  I didn't sign on for anything permanent you know.  I have more sites to see, people to make friends with, places to shop." She was on the verge of tears.

"Calm down Mimi." Sora said to the pink haired girl in the hot pink silk shirt.  "I'm sure that once we have Kari, Gennai will come and get us out."

Izzy opened his laptop and brought up the digital gate on the screen.  "Hey TK, can you bring your D3 device over?"

TK nodded, coming over.  "You want to try it again?"

"Yeah." Izzy shrugged.  "It can't hurt."

"Okay.  Digiport open." TK said confidently, aiming his device at the laptop.

Agumon stared at the screen with anticipation.  "Tai, it isn't working."

"I can see that, Agumon." Tai sighed dejectedly.

"Curses." Izzy muttered.  "Foiled again."

Joe got up.  "Well, at least we tried." He glanced over at Matt and Gabumon.  It looked like the blue furred digimon was trying to coax his digidestined to take a sip of juice, but Matt was shaking his head, clutching his stomach.  He probably needed some Gravol and some Tylenol, which was unfortunately something Joe had forgotten to bring.

"Well." Tai said, getting up.  "I guess breakfast is about done.  The sooner we hit the trail, the sooner we'll get to Echo Lake."

TK nodded.  "And the sooner we can save Kari and get Matt to a doctor."

"Right." Izzy stated, packing up his laptop.

*     *     *

The trek to Echo Lake was taken at a snail's pace.  This time Tai and Izzy supported Matt between them.  Every few steps forward, he would stumble, he even blacked out once.  If Tai wasn't convinced that Darknessmon and his partnermons in evil crime would attack a lone digidestined, he would have found a nice cave somewhere and tucked their injured friend in there nice and safe until they had finished defeating the evil ones and had Kari rescued.  But if Tai had learned one thing while adventuring through the digital world, it was never to underestimate your enemy.  They had lost so many friends during their first visits by the hands of Myotismon and the Dark Masters.  He wasn't going to let anyone hurt a single member of his team ever again.

Mimi knelt by the river to fill her water bottle and approached Tai.  "Hold on a minute, it's time for a drink, Matt."

Matt took the bottle and tipped some back.

Tai's eyes narrowed.  "Now you're not planning to throw up on me, are you?" He was grinning nervously.

"A little payback?" Matt inquired with an innocent expression.  "Don't worry Tai, I know that you've got the wussiest gag reflex on the planet.  If I threw up on you, you'd puke your guts out all over me, and unfortunately, you ate like a pig at breakfast."

"I did not." Tai stated indignantly, and then thought it over.  "Well okay, maybe I did.  Can we get on with our journey here?  The day isn't exactly getting any longer you know."

Izzy studied their surroundings critically.  "I think I can hear the waterfall, if I'm not mistaken, Echo Lake should be just around the bend."

TK took the lead, wearing Patamon on top of his white bucket-hat.  "Just how big is this bend anyway?"

"Not very big." Tentomon twittered, buzzing up beside them.  "I can smell the lake water from here already."

Mimi rolled her eyes; "We're walking right beside a stream, Tentomon, that's why you smell water."

"Hey, there it is." TK said grinning as they rounded the bend; just like Izzy said.  It wasn't a huge lake, they could see the shore all the way around from the point of the waterfall.  The calm water was a shimmering reflection of the blue cloudless sky.  The beach sands were almost as white as fresh snow, and the pastoral green hills surrounding the lake valley protectively looked too beautiful to waste on five banished digimon.  "Wow, this place looks like a postcard."

"Maybe after we defeat the five evil ones, we could talk Gennai into letting us build a nice summer house here." Mimi suggested, her bright starry brown eyes dancing with hope.

They made their way to the beach and sat down to rest.

"So why do you think they call it Echo Lake?" Sora asked, drawing a heart in the sand with a little piece of smooth broken driftwood.

Mimi reached over and added some flowers and initials with her fingertip.

Palmon looked at it with confusion.  "I heart M…"

"Palmon!" Mimi shrieked, smothering her hand over the sand and erasing the evidence.  Her cheeks were even pinker than her hair.

"M what, Mimi?" Tai snickered.  "Like I even have to ask?"

"Myself." She stated quickly, her eyes narrowing.  "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No." Tai said.  "No one ever went to jail for loving themselves." He grinned knowingly.  Quick thinking, Mimi.

"Who couldn't love Mimi?" Palmon said smiling, using her vines to wrap around Sora's discarded piece of driftwood so she could write her own:  I heart Mimi.

Joe picked up a smooth flat stone and winged it into the lake.  It skipped four times before disappearing under the rippling clear water.

"Nice throw." Matt said from beside him, leaning contently against Gabumon.

"I could do better." Tai said lazily from his recumbent position beside Agumon.

TK stood up and scanned the shore of the lake.  "Tai, he skipped it four times.  Do you want to put your money where your mouth is?"

Tai rolled over onto his stomach and propped his head up on his hands.  "Maybe later.  Izzy, we are at Echo Lake, so now what?  Do we wait for the next Talisman to come out from hiding and bite us?"

"I don't know!" Izzy shouted.  Know, know, know.  He paused at the reverberations of his own voice.  "Prodigious!" Prodigious, prodigious, prodigious.  "Well, I guess I just figured out why they call it Echo Lake." He smiled smugly.

Tai buried his head in his hands.  "Well there goes any hope of us sneaking in quietly.  Thanks a lot Izzy.  And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

Izzy flushed.  "Well I'm smarter than you, or you wouldn't always be asking me to enlighten you about everything in the digital world.

"Would you guys quit that!" Sora and Joe yelled in perfect unison.  Quit that, quit that, quit that.

TK was laughing.  "Hey, that sounds fun.  Yodalay-hee-hoo!"  Yodalay-hee-hoo, yodalay-hee-hoo, yodalay-hee-hoo.

Tai groaned.  "You guys." He whined.  "You are just begging for us to get attacked by evil Acolytemon right here and now!" Now, now, now.

Matt perked up.  "Wow, the acoustics in this valley are excellent."

"Now don't you start too." Sora whispered. 

Matt's face fell.  "Okay, but when this is all over, I'm bringing my bass down here."

"And plug it into what?" Tai reminded him sarcastically.

"Whatever." Matt responded.  "Hey Tai, why don't you do something useful for a change and get out your pocket telescope and see if you can find the next temple.  If you find it before Izzy, you can gloat about it for the next three months."

Tai's mouth opened and closed a few times before he actually came up with something to say.  "Huh.  I don't gloat.  I never gloat." He pulled out his telescope.  Darn that Matt for thinking of this great idea before he did!  "And just so you know, I'm only doing this because I don't have anything better to do." He scanned the beach and tried focusing across the lake.  "N…othing.  No, wait a minute.  There is a big ugly gray…"

"Monster?" Joe asked, looking around fearfully.

"Castle." Tai said with a smirk.  "And it's real close." He grinned smugly.  He gave Matt a hand.  "Okay, time to get up, Lazybones."

Matt arched an eyebrow.  "Aw come on mom, five more minutes?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

Sora, Mimi, Palmon and Biyomon took the lead this time, the sand made it difficult to walk.  The gentle sounds of the water lapping the shore made it pleasant enough though.

They crossed a rickety wooden drawbridge with blackened chains over a small gorge and entered the crumbling courtyard.

"Looks deserted." The little white digimon with the purple markings and orange hair said, eyeing the castle walls covered in thick vines of ivy.

Joe took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt.  "Great Gomomon, whenever someone says something like that, all heck breaks loose." He put his glasses on nervously.  "This place is not creeping me out.  This place is not…"

"Would you cut that out, Joe?  You are creeping ME out!" Mimi whispered loudly, slapping him on the arm.

"Owww." Joe moaned.  "You didn't have to hit me."

"Will you guys please be quiet?" Tai said through gritted teeth.  "We've already advertised we're here.  What do you want to do, send the evil digimon an engraved invitation to come get us?"

"Tai, you are talking in clichés again." Sora chided softly.

"So sue me."

"Tai."

"Okay, okay.  Hey, can anyone see an entrance in all that stupid ivy overgrowth?" Tai asked, getting back to business.

Izzy looked closely.  "Right ahead of us.  Maybe we can cut through."

"Allow me." Agumon said, stepping ahead of them.  "Pepper breath!  Poi." A small ball of fire flew out of the little orange dinosaur-like digimon's mouth and disintegrated the vines.

"Alright Agumon." Tai grinned.  "That was awesome.  Now let's go inside."

Patamon flew in first, with TK right behind him.  The little orange rookie with bat-like wings sneezed.

"Bless you." TK said, letting his finger trail along a ledge thoughtfully, a cloud of dust following in its wake.

"This place needs a visit by the business end of a vacuum cleaner." Mimi said, before erupting into a fit of lady-like sneezes.  Soon everyone was doing it, as if it were contagious.

"Oh my head." Matt moaned pathetically.  "I don't feel very good, I think I'd better sit down." He said as his knees buckled.

"A-choo!" Sora sneezed again.

"Wow, thirteen." Tai said, clearly impressed, trying to keep Matt up.  "Thirteen is an unlucky number Sora, you'd better do one more." He grunted.

"Tai, will you please keep your mind focused on not dropping Matt?" Izzy gasped with exertion.  "Come on Matt, this is not the time to be zoning out.  This place is too dirty to set you down."

Matt groaned.  "I'm okay, just give me a second."

Joe was still sneezing.  "I'b nod.  This dusd is messig ub by subuses.  Cab be go dow?" Sniff, sniff, sneeze.  "Ahhh."

"Ew Joe, did you have to sneeze in my direction?" Mimi wailed, wiping off her bare arm as she joined him and they headed down the dimly lit corridor.

"Sorry Bibi."

"Shhh." Tai whispered loudly.  He did not like the way their footsteps were echoing so badly.  The whole place reminded him of some creaky old museum.

"Brrr.  It's kind of chilly in here." Sora remarked, rubbing her bare arms.

"Yeah." Mimi agreed quietly.

They trudged along until the corridor opened into a large even dustier room.  There were several blocks arranged on the wall opposite them, and two other doors on the adjacent walls leading out.  The ceiling had to be at least twenty feet high, with barred windows around the circumference of the room about every three feet within the top four feet of the room to the ceiling.  The slight sunlight filtering in shone eerily against the massive cobwebs draping down, floating gently on the nonexistent breeze.

"Hey." Tai said grinning hugely as they approached the blocks on the wall.  "What do you think these are?"

Matt glanced around the room.  "The next Talisman is in here." He stated.  "It's yours Izzy." He studied the wall with a frown.  "Wisdom."

Izzy perked up.  "I wonder what we have to do to get it?  There's no place to hide it, where could it be?"

"Someplace where you'll never find it." A haunting voice from the right hand door said.

They all turned to witness the red fog curling into the room.  The tall blue haired female of the evil ones stepped out of the haze.  She was flanked by four panting little Acolytemon.

"Step aside, Lady." Tai exclaimed.  "We don't want to hurt you…  much.  Now where is my sister?" He growled.  Agumon was advancing a step.  "You don't scare us, you don't even have any powers.  Why even bother meeting up with us?"

Sorceryladydevimon's eyes glowed red.  "I may not possess power here and now, but you have tasted a small sliver of our united abilities.  I am here only to protect the Talisman of Wisdom." She laughed icily.  "Besides, I have brought my faithful little Acolytemon to do battle with you.  Unlike me, they do have the power to destroy you, here and now."

"Ha.  You may not realize this, but we have already met with, tangled with and defeated all the Acolytemon that Poisonmegamon could throw at us." Tai exclaimed.

Sorceryladydevimon smirked at the group.  "Are you waiting for a standing ovation?  Acolytemon attack!"

"Digivolve!" Tai yelled as the room exploded into chaos.  The rookie level digimon except for Patamon and Gatomon were surrounded with blue light as they transformed to champion with the powerful hum of six digivices in unison.  The Acolytemon were momentarily stunned from the flashing lights.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon hurled a ball of fire towards the evil digimon as if they were bowling pins.

The Acolytemon were glowing red and dodging the large orange with navy blue striped dinosaur-like digimon with the tri-horned helmet's attack easily.  One aimed a burst of the red transparent energy in Sora, Mimi and Joe's direction.

Garurumon leapt in the way and aimed a fast, hard howling blaster attack that took out the stream, dispersing the deadly energy into tiny fading sparkling particles.

"That was too close." Sora gasped, clutching Mimi's hand.

Ikkakumon positioned himself in front of Tai, Matt and Izzy.  "Harpoon Torpedo!" He growled, attacking the two Acolytemon who were skittering towards the three boys at an alarming speed.  They dodged and fired, but their aim was off target and their red energy bursts hit the wall beside them.

"Look out!" Tai yelled as the pieces of stone started crumbling away.

"No!"  Sorceryladydevimon yelled angrily.  "You IMBECILES!"

"Huh?" Tai, Matt and Izzy said in unison.  She sounded too angry to be mad that they had ducked and did not get vaporized right away.

Izzy turned his head as a flash of gold light caught his eye's peripheral vision.  "Prodigious." He said softly.

"What?" Tai demanded, swinging around.  "Huh?  What's that?  A story?" The wall had crumbled, revealing a solid gold plaque underneath with several verses on it.

"That's it." Matt whispered.  "A riddle.  Izzy, solve the riddle and the Talisman of Wisdom will be yours."

Izzy stared at the words and recited them slowly:

"As I was walking to Digimudopolis,

I met a Digimon with thirteen friends.

every friend had thirteen carts,

every cart had thirteen dogs,

Every dog had thirteen fleas.

Fleas, dogs, carts and friends;

how many were going to Digimudopolis?"

"I hope you've been brushing up on your thirteen times tables." Tai said, wiping his brow.  He was glad this was not his test.  He could go as high as the ten times tables, then he had to start using his fingers/toes/calculators and abacus.

Kabuterimon zapped the two Acolytemon who were sneaking up on the three.  "Electroshocker!"

Tai turned around in surprise.  There were at least a dozen of the little black troll-like Acolytemon in the dusty chamber now joining the fray.  Sorceryladydevimon stood to the side with a grimace of distain on her face, her eyes were glued to the gold plaque.

Togemon started her spinning needle spray dance, warding off two of the Acolytemon approaching TK.  "Digi-Armor, energize!" TK said, holding up his D3 device.

"Patamon armor digivolve to…  Pegasusmon."

"There are too many of them." Sora exclaimed as she watched Birdramon attack four Acolytemon near the left hand door.  As soon as they were defeated, six more appeared almost as if from out of nowhere at the door to the right.  "We're going one step forward and taking two steps back."

"Now who's talking in clichés?" Tai muttered under his breath.  "Come on Izzy, don't you have it figured out yet?  We'd sort of like to get out of here today and in one piece, you know." A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of Tai's cheek as he watched the numbers of the Acolytemon increase.  "This is nuts, where are they all coming from?"

Izzy glared at Tai in annoyance.  "Would you please stop screaming in my ear?  I am trying to concentrate here.  Hmm.  Thirteen squared is one hundred sixty-nine, okay, that's friends and carts, times thirteen dogs is two thousand one hundred ninety-seven, right?"

Tai's face was agitated.  "You're asking me?"

"Two thousand one hundred ninety-seven dogs times thirteen fleas is…  twenty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-one." Izzy continued.  Tai was not the only one sweating.

"Okay, now what?" Tai asked.  "Oh no, here comes another bunch of those creeps." He whirled around to look for help as the Acolytemon started to charge up, glowing red.  "Greymonnnn!"

Greymon nova blasted the four spindly Acolytemon who were pestering him and quickly turned to face his panic stricken digidestined.

"Tai!" He'd never make it!

A bright strobe-light effect exploded from Tai's pocket, along with a loud buzzing song.  "What's that?" Tai jumped.  Please don't let it be a big digi-bug!

"The Talisman." Matt said, watching as the strobe light appeared to engulf Greymon.  Everyone in the room stopped to watch.

"Greymon zipdigivolve to Dynamogreymon!" The voice of Greymon grew deeper and his appearance grew fiercer.  He was bigger and had golden spikes coming out of his back.  His tri-horned brown helmet was now gold, and his tail was covered in sharp spikes.

"Holy cow!" Tai exclaimed, pulling out his Talisman.  "He's at a new level!"

"Incinerator Attack!" Dynamogreymon said fiercely, breathing a white-hot continuous flame from his jaws at the Acolytemon in his wake.

Sorceryladydevimon's eyes popped open as she witnessed her followers disintegrating before her very eyes.  A dense red fog curled around her.

"Quick Dynamogreymon.  She's  going to get away!" TK yelled, pointing at the quickly dissipating red cloud.  Sorceryladydevimon was gone.  Dynamogreymon's incinerator attack blasted the final lingering Acolytemon to smithereens.  The digimon dedigivolved and the chamber grew quiet except for Izzy's mumbling.

"Thirteen plus one hundred sixty-nine is…  carry the one…  one hundred eighty-two.  Plus two thousand one hundred ninety-seven is…  two thousand three hundred seventy-nine.  Plus twenty-eight thousand five hundred sixty-one is…  thirty thousand nine hundred and forty."

"So that's it?" Tai asked.

Izzy nodded.  "That's my answer, but now I don't know what to do with it."

Tentomon was studying the wall.

"Maybe you have to yell it out really loudly." Tai suggested, shifting slightly.  "Gee Matt, you're starting to get heavy."

"I'll take him." Mimi perked up.  Sora hurriedly took the other side.

"Thanks." Matt smiled with a wink.  "I was wondering when you two would finally get a turn.

"Behave yourself Matt." Sora laughed.

"You guys." Tai growled.  "We need to stay focused here."

Tentomon cleared his throat.  "What do you suppose these blocks on the wall are for anyway?"

"I don't know." Gabumon stated, also staring at the mystery.  "Matt, have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Izzy came closer and blew some dust away from the first block, then the second block.  "Oh prodigious!" He exclaimed, quickly clearing the dust from the rest of the blocks with his shirtsleeve.  "These blocks are like rudimentary computer keys.  You probably push the blocks with your answer." There were ten blocks ranging from zero to nine.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Tai demanded, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his t-shirt.

Izzy let out a frustrated sigh.  "Tai, I want to be sure before I do anything.  What if there is only one chance and I mess it up?" He looked closely at the blocks.  "Hmm.  It looks like each block can only be pressed once." He scratched his head.  "Thirty thousand nine hundred and forty has two zeros." He double-checked his calculations.  No, he was right.  "Oh, I get it." He slapped his head.  "I forgot to add the digimon.  That would be thirty thousand nine hundred and forty-one." He sighed in relief and was about to press the three stone.

"Whud aboud I?" Asked Joe, sniffing as he pushed up his glasses.  He came up to the gold plaque.  "Thad would maig id thirdy thousadd bibe hudred add fordy-two, ride?"

Izzy frowned.  "Er…  yeah.  Maybe I ought to reread it." He mumbled, letting his eyes rescan the plaque.  "Ooh.  It's a trick."

"A what?" Tai asked.

"The answer is one.  It doesn't say anyone is going to Digimudopolis except for meI just met all those characters who were probably just roadside attractions while on my way to Digimudopolis." Izzy explained, pressing the stone with the number 'one' on it.

The stone went all the way into the wall and the plaque clicked open like a wall safe.  Izzy reached in and brought out a creamy green stone roughly the same size and shape as Tai's inlayed in the same silver sheath on a silver chain.

"Oh look, now Izzy has a necklace too." Tai smirked.

"Say Mimi, I've always thought men with necklaces were pretty cool.  What do you think?" Sora asked the pink haired fashion expert.

Mimi pondered.  "Actually Sora, now that you've mentioned it, all the really cool guys in New York City have been wearing them."

Tai and Izzy looked at each other—shrugged--and placed their chains around their necks, slipping the Talismans under their shirts.  If Mimi said it was cool, who was going to argue?

TBC…