A/N: Many thanks to those of you who read and reviewed Chapter 7 (SilverSphinx, chibi Nataly, Miyo86, K. Asayuni and Moon Trance). You guys are the best! I hope you like Chapter 8!
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, Pacman, or Spiderman.
The Dark Sceptre—Chapter 8
By Fenris5000—Angelica
TK's foot finally touched the soft wet dirt at the bottom of the stairs and he let out a sigh of relief. Everyone had made it down safely, if not slowly. He and Tai guided Matt under the tree where the rest of the digidestined and digimon were waiting for them.
"We need to get to someplace where we can dry off." Sora exclaimed, approaching Matt and feeling his forehead. "Matt's got a high temperature, we should probably let him rest up some."
Matt sneezed and nearly fell over.
Tai chewed on his lip with indecision. It was true, Matt needed to rest, he was getting worse and worse; but then there was Kari, in the hands of their enemies. Alone. Scared.
"I'm fine." Matt said firmly, straightening. "We haven't got time to stop now. We've got the Talismans and we are close to the final temple."
"We haven't figured out how to use the Talismans to defeat the five evil ones yet." Izzy reminded them in a reasonable voice. "We know they work on Acolytemon, but how will we know our zipdigivolved digimon can defeat the evil ones? Or Kari?"
Tai gave the red haired genius a dark look but remained silent.
Matt glanced up at Tai. "Well we sure aren't going to find out how just sitting around here waiting for the rain to stop. I say we go. Things will fall into place on the way. They always do."
"Unless you fall over first." Mimi said, still clutching her Talisman and purring with delight every once in a while. "We should go in at full strength or we'll get demolished."
"Who says we're not at full strength now?" Matt challenged. "Do you seriously think that sitting here for two hours let alone two days is actually going to fix me up? I can answer that with two words: Fat chance." He rubbed his temple with a sigh. "We have to hurry. They know we have all five Talismans and they know we're coming after them to get Kari back. You don't suppose they kidnapped her just to get the chance to fight the mighty digidestined, do you? They need her for something. Now that they know we're coming, they are going to be moving faster to get their plan into action."
Izzy snapped his fingers. "They must be trying to figure out a way for Kari to teleport them out of Ash Island."
Tai and Sora were nodding. "Sounds reasonable." Tai agreed. "Okay, I'll probably regret it later, but Matt's right. We need to go after the five evil ones right away before they get organized. I doubt they've been sitting on their butts while we were defeating their minions. We were merely a thorn in their sides. They were distracting us so they'd have more time to reach full power." He hit his hand with a fist.
"So let's go." Gomomon said. "Lead the way, Joe."
The howling grew fainter as they distanced themselves from the Cliffs of Shadow. It was slow going as Matt was still shivering and sneezing, but at least the rain was starting to let up. About forty-five minutes later, they found themselves at the edge of the cobble-stoned courtyard peeking around the corner of the gate.
"Déjà vu." Matt muttered.
"Bless you." Mimi smiled brightly, looking up from her Talisman briefly.
"Mimi, you should put that away or one of the five evil guys is going to snatch it right out of your hand." Tai warned the pink haired girl, rolling his eyes. He watched as she turned a pout on him.
TK nudged his brother. "Hey Matt, how come we don't have a Talisman?"
"There are only five evil ones." Izzy stated matter-of-factly. "So logically therefore, there are only five Talismans, hence one heart for each evil one."
TK shrugged. "Well yeah, I get that part, I just meant, how come you guys all got one and Matt and I were left out. It could just as easily have been Tai and Joe left out. Why us? Were we needed at all?"
"Of course you're needed!" Tai exploded, his face turning red. "We're a team. Why without you…"
"Matt may not have gotten hurt." TK counted on his fingers.
"Well, yeah, there is that." Tai admitted sheepishly.
"We'd already have Kari back."
Matt frowned. "TK, would you please stop feeling sorry for yourself. It isn't in your nature." He paused and raised an eyebrow. "That is my department." He sneezed, ending it with a round of coughing. "I'm sure we both have something to do in this rescue mission." He gasped, leaning heavily on his younger brother and Tai.
"Do you think we'll make it to the temple this time?" Sora asked nervously, tucking a loose strand of damp red hair behind her ear. The rain had just stopped, but they were a long way from being dry.
"We have to." Tai replied. "We need to get to some place dry and relatively warm, preferably not shiny or dusty." He peered around the corner with a frown. "Come on, it's now or never."
They carefully picked a path through the overgrowth to the temple, watching for any signs of the five evil ones or their servants the Acolytemon. They reached the temple and slowly mounted the stairs and pushed open the heavy gold door.
Izzy led them in, followed closely by Tentomon. The computer genius slicked his wet red hair back and tried to squeeze some of the water out of it. "Well, it isn't too bright in here." He said jauntily as the rest of the group followed them in.
"Well a little light would be nice." Tai grumbled as his eyes tried adjusting to the dimness of the temple. "You think they would at least have a night-light." He moaned. The door closed shut behind them with an ominous click.
Mimi and Sora reached for a knob at the same time, finding nothing. "We're locked in!" They both wailed in stereo.
Izzy shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we wanted in and we are now in, although somewhat permanently. So I suggest we start looking for Kari."
"Right." Tai agreed. "Now we know what to do, all we need is to be able to see more than one foot in front of our faces." He reached out a hand and touched the cool wall.
"Maybe Joe packed a flashlight." Sora suggested hopefully, looking around trying to see something. All she could see were the shadowed faces of her friends and digimon.
Joe was quiet.
"Well Joe? Did you bring a flashlight along?" Gomomon asked up to his digidestined who was always prepared for anything. Why did they even bother asking? Of course the digidestined child of reliability would have a flashlight.
Joe stayed silent.
"Joe? Are you alright?" TK asked, reaching out to grab his friend's arm.
"Yeah." Joe sighed. "I can't believe I forgot to pack a flashlight. I'm sorry guys. I don't suppose any of you have taken up a secret smoking habit have you?"
Everyone groaned.
Izzy clicked open his computer and switched it on, bathing the tiny room in a soft light. "I don't know how long the battery will last, but we can try laptop light for a little while at least until we find something we can use as a torch."
Tai nodded. "Okay, let's go then, and everyone keep your eyes open for a torch or something. Izzy, you and Tentomon take the lead."
"Aye, aye, Captain." Tentomon twittered, lifting off the ground and surging slowly ahead. The laptop light provided enough light to see about seven feet ahead of them down the narrow corridor. "There is a hallway going left here." Tentomon reported, stopping for instructions.
"Well Matt?" Tai asked, turning to his quiet best friend.
Matt groaned, mumbling something about not feeling very good as his knees gave out.
"Oh great." Tai fretted with a frustrated sigh as he and TK struggled to get a better grip on Matt. "Just keep going straight guys. The fastest path between two points is straight across. No dilly-dallying."
"You heard the man, Tentomon, let's go." Izzy instructed, following his little red insect like digimon down the dim corridor.
"Are you two okay or do you need a break?" Sora asked the blond in the white fisherman's hat and their big haired leader with concern. "You guys have been supporting Matt for hours, would you like Mimi and me to take a turn for a little while?"
"I'm fine." TK said firmly.
Tai nodded. "Yeah, I am too."
"This is ridiculous." Mimi said. "Matt isn't going to be able to fight anyway, why don't we put him down here to rest while we continue. We'll pick him up on the way back."
Tai bristled. "We are not leaving him behind. He would be helpless. I made some bad decisions before, and I won't repeat them. We are all sticking together."
Gabumon watched them in the failing light. "You need Matt or the quest will not be successful. Yes he is not in the best shape right now, but he's tough. He'll bounce back."
"Quit talking about me like I'm not here." Matt grumbled in irritation, giving his friends a dark look.
"Well sorry. I thought you passed out, okay?" Tai said lightly. "Sheesh."
Sora shrugged. "Well let's go catch up with the others or we won't be able to see our way."
Gatomon and Patamon took the lead. Gabumon and Biyomon took the rear. The low ceilinged corridor was just wide enough for Tai, Matt and TK to walk side by side.
The light started to get brighter. "Oh it looks like we're catching up." Mimi stated in relief. "They must have slowed down for us."
"Actually, it looks more like they are walking towards us." TK replied, shaking his head. What were they doing? They didn't have time for dawdling.
"Okay, let's have it." Tai said as soon as they were in earshot.
Izzy stopped short, his face partially masked in shadows. "Well, unless you brought a jackhammer, this way was a dead end. We're back tracking to that side exit we passed a little while ago."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a door?" Tai inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"We checked, okay?" Izzy said. "So turn around and get walking."
Tai turned them. "Okay, Gabumon and Biyomon, lead the way."
Gabumon let his left paw train along the sidewall of the corridor as he slowly plodded ahead. It hit something. He felt closer, it was a long cone shaped stick that he was able to remove easily.
"Gabumon, what are you doing?" Tai asked as he bumped into the stationary light blue with navy-blue stripes, and yellow--half dog half lizard like digimon.
Gabumon let out a blue blaster and set the torch on fire. "Now we can conserve Izzy's laptop for emergencies." He said, starting to walk again.
Izzy sighed with relief. He had brought some extra charged batteries in case of an emergency, and was glad he did not have to dip that far so soon. "Way to go Gabumon."
"Here is the entrance." Biyomon said, turning right and stepping into the next arm of the corridor. The floor sloped gently downwards as they continued. There were two more doorways opposite each other.
"Keep going straight." Tai replied, shivering, as the air seemed to cool off even more. "How far do you suppose this goes?" The light of the torch cast creepy shadows on the walls and ceiling. He squinted ahead out of the range of the torchlight. What were those shiny red dots? Was he seeing things? They blinked out, and then appeared again a ways away.
Biyomon stopped. "I think we're following an Acolytemon." She stated slowly. "Spiral Twister!"
"Blue Blaster!"
The surges of blue and green swirling energy blasted ahead together, rewarding the digidestined and digimon with a squeal and a small explosion.
"Good call." Tai cheered, letting his free hand trail along the cold smooth corridor wall. "Okay everyone, keep your eyes open in case there are any more of those little creeps around."
Izzy cleared his throat. "Um Tai, this may seem kind of knit-picky, but this passageway seems to be impossibly long for us to still be inside the temple." He paused as everyone stopped walking. "I think we must have entered some sort of underground complex."
Biyomon squinted ahead. "I think I see the end of the passageway up ahead." She said helpfully.
"Okay, let's go check it out." Tai suggested with a shrug. "Any ideas Matt?"
Matt sighed. "It's too early to tell. There is something here, but it's a weak force still. There is something in the way. Sorry." He smiled apologetically.
"No harm done." Tai nodded as they followed Sora's pink and blue bird digimon down the dark flickering passageway.
They neared the end of the corridor. "Oh no." Gabumon said with frustration clear in his voice. "Not another dead end."
Joe rubbed his forehead; his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. "Oh this is just great. At the rate we're going, we may or may not find our way to Kari in about a hundred years."
Tai turned around with a scowl. "Now don't go over-exaggerating Joe. Let's go back to those other doors we passed."
"I feel like a rat in one of those science experiments." Mimi cried, wringing her hands nervously. "What if someone electrifies the floor to see how we react to stimuli?"
Izzy snapped his fingers. "Of course. It all makes sense."
TK rolled his eyes. "Are you going to share your revelations with the rest of us?" He readjusted his arm under Matt's shoulder and shook his head. His older brother was still hot and shaky.
Izzy pulled his laptop open and turned it on. "Let's hope the map program includes building schematics." He whispered, clicking away. "Aha, I was right."
"What is it Izzy?" Tentomon twittered, craning his neck for a better look around his brilliant digidestined's shoulder.
"This temple here at the bottom of the hill is actually an entrance to the passageways leading up to this other temple up here on the tip of the hill."
Sora squeezed in beside the red head and let her eyes scan the iridescent blue screen. "What are these squiggles?" She asked, tracing her finger over the shiny purple lines that etched across the map of the temples.
"Simple." Izzy answered. "We have to get through this labyrinth to get to the temple."
Mimi's jaw dropped. "A labyrinth? I knew it! We're the rats! We'll be in here for years. Someone did lock the door behind us." She started breathing faster. "We're trapped." Tears started sprinkling down her cheeks. "We're going to be stuck in here for the rest of our lives."
"Calm down Mimi." Izzy said in annoyance. "My laptop shows the way there. We can't possibly get lost with my map program guiding us."
"Really?"
"Really." Izzy nodded affirmatively. "Now come on, let's go back to that last junction. If we take the left passage, we'll be going up some stairs."
"Stairs." Matt repeated wearily, retracting his left arm from over Tai's shoulder and rubbing his throbbing head.
TK looked on worriedly. "Rest time." He stated, getting ready to ease his brother down into a sitting position.
Matt frowned. "Not this time TK." He resisted his younger brother's lead firmly.
"But Matt."
"No TK, this needs to be done." Tai said hesitantly. "We have to get out of this maze. If we stop now, it will just be harder later. Who knows how long the torch will last and what if there isn't any fresh air coming in? The longer we stay in here, the worse it could be."
TK hung his head dejectedly. "This isn't right. Why do we have to possibly sacrifice Matt's health to rescue Kari? I don't like having to choose which is more important to me." He said in a small voice.
"Then it's a good thing this is not your choice to make TK." Matt said gently. "It's mine. Let's go. Where are the stairs?"
Izzy gulped. "About fifty paces this way." He turned and led them off. Gabumon and Gatomon moved up through the line with the flaming torch and joined the red-haired genius at the front.
As they neared the junction, some scraping noises started.
"Sounds like we have company." Gatomon said grimly, springing ahead.
"Gatomon, wait!" Joe called out.
The little white cat digimon with the big blue eyes and enormous yellow glove did not stop, she just hesitated long enough to turn direction at the cross passage. "Lightening paw!"
Izzy and Gabumon rounded the corner just in time to see her strike the lone spiky black troll who was noisily waiting for their arrival. It let out a shrill squeal and disintegrated instantly to a small pile of black digidust.
"Well?" Tai asked from the back of the group.
Sora smiled. "Two down, a possible million to go?"
Izzy shook his head. "I highly doubt there are that many Acolytemon on Ash Island Sora."
"Too bad your map program doesn't show where the Acolytemon are hiding." Tai said to Izzy wistfully.
"Yeah." TK added. "Then we could have a nice little game of Pacman."
"What's Pacman, TK?" Patamon asked hovering near his digidestined's head.
"It's an old arcade and video game from back home." TK explained. "It just reminded me of this. The maze. And if we could see the Acolytemon on Izzy's laptop running around, well it would be nice if we could put a hungry little guy with a big mouth into Izzy's program that we could make chomp up the Acolytemon."
Izzy shook his head. "It's a nice idea TK, but unfortunately, we haven't got that ability yet." He had a calculating look on his face though.
"Well lead on." Tai ordered, peering ahead into the darkness. "How long do we follow the stairs for?" It was always easier to start something if you had a limit that you knew about.
"It looks like there are ten steps up, then there is a landing and another ten steps. We go up the first ten and then use the door on the landing to enter another passage." Izzy responded, tracing his finger along the purple trail on the laptop screen.
Sora gazed up. "Those stairs look kind of steep guys, let's take it slow and careful, okay?"
Tai nodded. "Right. Sora and Gabumon go first."
Sora nodded and started up the steps slowly after Gabumon, listening carefully for any signs of Acolytemon. She could hear Mimi right behind her complaining away about breaking one of her nails.
"Shut up Mimi." She head Tai warn from behind the pink clad girl.
"That wasn't very nice Tai." Agumon said from behind his enormous haired digidestined. "You should say you're sorry."
Tai let out an exaggerated sigh. "Oh alright. I'm sorry Mimi."
Gabumon stepped up onto the landing and pointed the torch through the next passageway. "Looks clear." He said, walking in.
"Hey! Could you bring the torch back? I can't see the stairs!" Joe yelled fearfully from about halfway up the steps.
Gomomon and Tentomon were right beside him at a standstill. "It's too bad you don't digivolve into a lightening bug Tentomon." Gomomon laughed playfully as the light returned.
Gabumon stood at the top of the landing illuminating the entire staircase both ways. "Sorry about that you guys, I just wanted to made sure the next leg of the maze was safe before anyone went into it."
The three joined the blue striped digimon and ambled after him into the next corridor. It was well lit; Agumon was just pepper-breathing the last torch on the wall.
"Ah, that's better." Izzy said, letting his eyes wander over his friends. They all looked like a bunch of drowned rats who were slowly drying off.
"Which way?" Tai asked impatiently, looking down the passageway.
Izzy consulted his laptop and pointed straight ahead. "That way." He studied the maze on the screen and followed the quickest route to the top temple. "Then down a flight of six steps, around a corner to the right through a door up three steps, turn left, down four steps…"
"Okay, okay." Tai said through gritted teeth. "I get the picture. We have a long way to go yet." He ran his fingers through his dishevelled hair in frustration. "And then we'll crush those five evilmons like bugs."
"Izzy." Sora began, walking up to him. "Do you have a digi reference program that might actually say something about these specific Talismans? Like how to activate them against the evil ones? Or do our digimon fight them?"
Izzy pushed his hair out of his face and pursed his lips with a frown. Shrugging, he hit a few keys on his laptop and scrolled down a screen. "Well, it doesn't mention the Talismans." He said, looking up. "I think we can assume the evil ones will be tangible when we meet them for the next fight. So I'm thinking our digimon should be able to do some damage this time. The evil ones are useless without Kari, so I think our first move should logically be to separate Kari from the circle."
"Okay." Tai agreed. "And how do you suggest we do that? If she's got that evil sceptre thing, she can pick us off one by one."
Mimi perked up. "Kari has a soft heart, maybe if Gatomon tried getting through to her, she'd snap out of their control." She twirled a strand of pink hair around her finger, smiling brightly at all her friends.
"Mimi, you're a genius!" Tai exploded, a huge grin replacing his undecided expression. "Of course, that is the perfect plan!"
The pink haired girl's face was nearly the same shade as her hair as she smiled bashfully.
TK rolled his eyes. Obviously this was the first time in the girl's life someone had called her a genius.
Gabumon handed the torch to Sora and hung back to walk behind TK, Matt and Tai with Agumon.
Izzy's map program worked like a charm. The kids and their digimon did not hit a single dead end in the next half hour of walking the convoluted passageways.
Sora and Mimi led the group into a small chamber and stopped.
"Izzy." Tai clucked his tongue in irritation. He stood before a wall with three doors that appeared identical except each had a gold plate with some mysterious symbol engraved on it. "What's with the doors?" That map program didn't say anything about three doors. They didn't have time to try all three.
Izzy scratched his head, studying the LCD display on his laptop. "I don't know Tai, I guess one of these doors is a continuation of the passage and the other two are dead ends." He hypothesized. "Although detailed fairly well, my map program doesn't say which is which, so I guess we'll just have to try them all."
"Maybe we should split up." Sora suggested with a shrug. "That way we'd be a lot faster."
Tai's eyebrows drew together in consternation. "We could." He said slowly. "But what if the evil ones decide to attack while we were separate? We are in their fortress. They are probably watching us right now, waiting for us to do the inevitable: split up, so they can attack while we are weaker.
TK gasped.
"What is it?" Mimi yelped, moving her head around wildly, her eyes darting everywhere trying to find some monster that had snuck up on them.
The younger blond slipped himself out of Matt's grasp and walked straight to the door on the right and stood directly in front of it. "This is it." He said in a hollow voice, not turning.
"TK?" Matt asked with uncertainty, watching his brother's stony expression and stiff movements.
There was a slight pause. "Open the door, Matt."
Everyone looked at the taller blond. Matt's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?" His voice had the slightest tremor. He hardly recognized his own little brother.
"Open the door."
"Um, TK, I think you are overestimating me here." Matt said holding his head and blinking rapidly.
TK turned finally with a start. "How'd I get over here?"
Izzy frowned. "You walked there TK."
TK frowned back. "I did? Just now?" He had a wondrous expression on his face as he tugged absently at his green shirtsleeve.
Joe removed his glasses and polished them with his cream colored shirt. "You mean you don't remember?" His eyes were wide as he put them back on.
"No." TK said simply, shaking his head slowly. "What did I say? What else did I do?"
"You told Matt to open the door." Sora said helpfully, biting her thumbnail. "And Matt basically said he didn't know how."
Tai glanced at his droopy best friend. "Come on Matt, aren't you getting any tingling sensations at all?"
Matt gave Tai a withering glare. "I'm not Spiderman, okay? I don't exactly have a users manual telling me when and where to expect these flashes of insight I keep getting." He slipped out of Tai's support and carefully approached the door before TK. "I don't know how to open this stupid door." He replied wearily as he reached out to lean his arm against it. His hand just barely touched the engraved gold plate. He sensed a warm glow surround him all of a sudden. He turned with a start.
"What is going on?" Tai demanded, clutching his glowing Talisman possessively. It was gleaming a bright warm orange light and was beaming straight into Matt. Izzy's green light joined it, then Joe's purple light, Sora's red light, and Mimi's pink light.
"Matt!" Gabumon said worriedly, taking a decisive step forward.
"I'm okay." Matt responded, feeling the pulsing light absorb into his skin. The rainbow colored light blended and the glow shifted to an icy blue hue.
"Oooh, that looks weird." Mimi said, wrinkling her nose. "How can all of those clashing colors make blue?"
Izzy shrugged his shoulders, for once speechless.
"This is the Digital World." Gomomon said. "Weirder things have happened."
The door shifted under Matt's hand, and opened with a heavy grinding sound.
"Alright Matt!" Tai cheered as his friend stepped back in surprise. "Now we're cooking. Let's go."
"Wait!" Sora said grabbing their big-haired leader by the arm and spinning him around before he could take a step into the new chamber. "We can't just go in there, what if the door closes behind us again? We'll never push our way out."
Matt walked through the door. "It's okay guys, nothing bad will happen. We need to come into this chamber. The last Talisman is in here."
"I thought we had them all." Patamon said, hovering near TK's head, a confused expression on his little orange and white face. "Does that mean there is a sixth evil digimon we have to fight in order to get it?"
Mimi cradled her head in her hands. "Oh no, not another one. I don't know how much more of this I can take." She sobbed.
"Look you guys." Izzy began. "Gennai did not say anything about a sixth evil one, so I doubt one even exists." Now if only he could feel as confident as he sounded.
TK entered the chamber, watching his older brother walking unsupported by anyone; Gabumon was loyally by his side. What had caused the other's Talismans to flare and beam at Matt? The tall blond looked like he was back to his old self, no more wobbling. What did it all mean?
The chamber was about as big as the average master bedroom with a fixture on the ceiling piping in natural light from outside. The light converged on a carved stone alter in the centre of the room. TK walked towards it hesitantly. It almost felt like he was being pulled closer to it; like a nail filing to a magnet. He did not know if he ought to fight it or go along for the ride.
Matt seemed to sense his brother's reluctance. "It's okay TK." He said with a small smile. "Go ahead and pick it up. It's yours."
"Now just wait a minute here." Joe said nervously pulling at his collar as he and Gomomon brought up the rear and joined the other digidestined and their digimon. "What if it's a trick? Maybe it's some evil candlestick that will explode if we touch it."
"Or turn us into a pile of frogs." Gomomon piped up helpfully. "Though in some cases that might actually be an improvement."
Joe gave the little white digimon with the bright orange hair and purple markings a withering glare. "Thanks a lot for your comments, Peanut gallery."
Gomomon wore a pleased smile. "Your welcome."
"It's called a wielding sceptre." Matt said evenly as TK hesitantly lifted the surprisingly light object off its resting place. It was about a foot long and platinum in color. TK's fingers wrapped around the smoothly ridged handle comfortably as he regarded the bejewelled head of the sceptre curiously. A colorless gem roughly the size of a mandarin orange winked and sparkled out the tip of the stick. The encasement of the gem was about the size and shape of a medium sized soup can, elegantly ridged with small interspersed vertical rows of tiny pyramids and smooth flat rows. Each flat strip had a small colored gem; orange, green, purple, red, pink, blue, yellow and lavender. The encasement tapered off to the base where it met the handle.
Mimi was standing right beside the digidestined keeper of hope. "Oh, that is sooooo pretty." She squealed; there were stars in her eyes.
TK frowned and tried shaking the sceptre like a maraca. "Hmmm. Yeah. So how does it work? What does it do?"
A low grinding noise interrupted. They all turned with a start to witness the heavy door seal shut.
Sora and Biyomon rushed to it in panic. "Where is the knob?" Biyomon asked as Sora tried throwing her weight into it.
Tai grabbed the auburn haired girl by the arm before she could hit the door a second time. "Just calm down a minute, Sora. Gee, if I didn't know any better, I'd have said you were claustrophobic or something." He paused to look over his shoulder at the others. "Now this chamber is fairly large, we have our digimon with us. They can get through that ridiculous door." Under his breath: "Whoever heard of a door without a doorknob. Sheesh."
"That isn't necessary." Matt said, raising his eyebrow.
"Um, Earth to Matt. We're trapped in this chamber." Joe reminded his friend gently. He did have a moderate head injury after all. "There is only one door." His eyes narrowed as he watched the tall blond. "Hey, is it just me, or do you look… um… better?"
Matt nodded. "Don't worry Joe, you are not hallucinating." He pointed to the door. "We have no use for that exit. The other two passageways are dead ends. This was the correct passage."
"But we're trapped!" Sora said, shaking her arm out of Tai's well meaning but forgotten grasp.
Matt smiled. "No we're not." With the exception of TK's, the Talismans held by the other digidestined's started glowing again, and the energy was directed straight at Matt, who in turn was absorbing the light. "TK, you ready to try something new?" He asked with a smirk.
TK gulped, nodding.
Matt lifted an arm and spread his glowing blue fingers right at TK.
"TK!" Patamon yelped in concern.
The blue light turned yellow and was absorbed into the younger blond's skin. "I'm fine Patamon." He regarded the painless sparkly yellow energy and took a deep breath. He could feel the power course through his veins and transfer into the sceptre.
"Aim at that wall." Matt advised him, pointing to the plain stone wall opposite the heavy knobless door.
TK nodded, pointing the sceptre at the target and feeling it fire like a canon.
"Holy moly." Tai stammered, his jaw nearly hitting the floor. The wall was crumbling from the impact point, revealing what looked like a spiral staircase leading upwards beyond the grey rubble.
Matt gingerly picked a path through the debris once the dust had settled. "You guys coming?" He looked over his shoulder with a cocky smile. "It's time we showed those evil Mons who they're messing with."
TBC…
