NOTE: There is some Christian content in this chapter---actually, it's a pretty small amount. In fact, it's really, really small: so small that, taken out of context, you could mistake it for Zoroastrian content. It's not meant to be Zoroastrian, but the mistake could still be made. So I'm just warning you.
Chapter 23: The Storm That Brews
Davis and Veemon pushed at the warehouse door with all their might. Its rusty hinges complained loudly, but finally began to give. The door opened just a crack at first. Then a little more, and a little more, until it was finally open enough for a human being to squeeze through. Davis stepped inside and looked around. There was nothing but darkness in the warehouse, so he couldn't see anything…but he felt like he was being watched. "Hello?" he asked. His eyes began adjusting to the darkness, and he saw a multitude of little points of light. As his eyes became even more adjusted, he saw that the points of light were eyes, and they were intently watching at him. There was a dozen or more young children in the warehouse, ages ranging from six to twelve, and they were all looking sickly and underfed. There were also a few baby, in-training, and rookie digimon spotting the crowd, and it looked as though the digimon had been catching a few rats or small birds for the children to eat.
"What happened to you guys?" Davis asked, although he thought he knew the answer.
None of the children was brave enough to speak up. One of the younger children sniffled, and then a few more sobs broke out.
Davis flushed. "Ken! Wormmon! Hare! Jackpot!" he shouted. He set his backpack on the ground, and began fishing out food, blankets, ponchos, bandages, and anything else to help the kids realize that he wasn't there to hurt them. Wormmon, Ken and Hare arrived, and they only seemed to scare the children even more.
"Are you sure this is the jackpot?" Hare asked. "If this is what you call good, I'd hate to see what's bad!"
"Will you pipe down and get out some food before these kids die of malnutrition?!" Davis insisted.
One of the older kids---and, apparently, the assumed leader of the pack, stepped forward and asked, "Wha---what do you want with us?"
"The original plan was to get you out of here and take you to the orphanage."
"The orphanage?" She swallowed. "You're…you don't look like Red Cross workers, to me."
"It's not like we're officially humanitarian workers. But nothing's official on planet Earth, anymore."
"Then…" She was trying to decide whether she should trust them or not. "Why are you helping us?"
"Because we can. We're supposed to help other people, we're Digidestined," Davis answered.
"Digidestined??" she asked. "There's…how can that be? I mean, it's too good to be true, it's…"
"It is true," Davis insisted. He held up his digivice.
"But that digivice was in a museum in Tokyo! I saw it only a few months ago!"
"I know; the army took it out of the museum and gave it back to me."
"Why?"
"They thought I'd need it, and they were right. So…are you coming back with us to the orphanage?"
After looking at the other children, she slowly realized that they didn't have much choice but to risk going with these boys back to the orphanage. The alternative was to slowly starve to death. And the two boys looked like they were Digidestined, and they were loaded down with humanitarian gear. "We'll come along with you," she said at last, hoping she wouldn't regret the decision later.
"It's kind of a long walk from here. Can you make it?"
"I don't think some of the younger ones can," she answered solemnly. "So, unless someone can carry them…"
Davis and Ken looked at each other, and then at Veemon and Wormmon. All the while, Hare was looking at the two of them, hoping that he wouldn't end up needing to carry all the children. He didn't.
Paildramon ran down the street with the children in his folded arms. He figured that the sooner he got to the power plant, the less likely it would be that he would run into bad weather or any menace machines. Unfortunately, he heard the telltale whooping of headhunters on his six. He was too weighted down to fly, and his hands weren't free to use his desperado blasters…
******
Yolei stared at Tina and June with her mouth wide open: "You deliberately left behind Tina so that you could do what?!"
"Rescue a fawn."
"A what?"
"There was a baby deer caught out in the floodwater. We had to get her out of there and Mermon couldn't carry all three of us at the same time."
Yolei sighed angrily. "You were ready to jeopardize a sentient person for the sake of an animal?!"
"Mom, I---!"
Yolei interrupted, "You just can't do that! In the future, when you see an animal in danger, remember that, when it comes to an animal's death versus your own death, your life is worth more than an animal's!"
Tina looked down. She walked just outside the office and came back a second later, holding a taught rope. The rope was tied around the fawn's neck, and Tina pulled the fawn into the room. The fawn was taking in her surroundings with uncertain, timid eyes. "Mom, we aren't the only living things God put on this planet. Look at her. Look into her eyes." Yolei slowly stepped forward. Her own weakness for animals that she had had at Tina's age was rekindled as she gently stroked the little creature's fur. "Can't you see that there's a personality and a life in there? She's scared, confused, and out of place‑‑‑just like every digimon and human out there. Animals are victims of these menace machines, too, Mom. If it's our duty to take care of the digimon and people, then the animals are our responsibility, too."
Yolei sighed. She was stirred by Tina's speech. "Tina, you have a big heart---and I don't want to see it get you killed."
"If I get killed out there, I'm dying for the right reasons."
Yolei was cut to the quick. As much as she wanted not to show it her intense fear and sadness for her daughter, she could not hide the wavering in her voice as she said, "I don't want you out there on seek patrol any more. You and June are both going to be orphanage supervisors." Yolei tried to mask a sob with a cough. She continued, "As for the dam you found, I'll send Blackwargreymon to deal with it. He's a mega; he should be able to destroy it."
Tina looked down at the ground. She had half a mind to say, "That's very selfish of you, Mom. I'm not just your baby; I'm a Digidestined, and I'm just as important out there as you, or Kari, or Davis, or anyone else." But she held her tongue, nodded, and went back to her room to change out of her wet clothes.
Rika was inside, and she was still brooding over how rain had ruined her and Renamon's outing a little while before. She looked at Tina's drenched condition and asked, "What happened to you?"
"And what digimon did you find?" Renamon asked. "I can smell that you were with some creature that I've never seen before."
"Not a digimon. A baby deer. It was the sweetest thing you've ever seen."
"Yeah, right," Rika groaned, turning the other way.
"What is it with you and cute?" Youngdramon asked.
"I just don't like it!"
"Then why are you wearing a blouse covered in smiling teddy bears?" Youngdramon asked.
"Because it's all I have that's clean. My normal blouse got lost in the laundry."
"Oh."
"So…I've had rotten days ever since I was promoted back up to seek patrol."
Tina cut in, "Well, if you want to get demoted without getting punished too badly, I'll tell you how. First, you have to be the daughter of the top paperwork executive in the power plant. Next, do something she thinks is unwise and that makes you look so incompetent that you'll probably get killed. Your mother will then demote you to orphanage supervisor because she doesn't want you taking risks."
"That happened to you?" Rika asked.
"Yeah. A saberstrike almost ate me while Mermon was flying the fawn away from danger. She had to leave me behind because she couldn't carry June, the fawn, and me all at the same time. She came back and got me afterwards."
"How did you avoid getting eaten? Did you outrun the saberstrike?"
"No, actually, Joey killed it."
Rika's eyebrow went up. "Joey?"
An inquisitive squeak rose from Tina's overalls pocket. Joey poked his head out.
Rika's mouth dropped open: this was too repulsively cute for her to handle. "What is that?"
"We're guessing he's a baby digimon. I found him outside my house, one cold autumn night," Tina shone the room's desk lamp under her face to create a scary mood, "When the wind was thick with mists of rain, the sky was black, and there was thunder, and lightning…" she jiggled the light switch, and Youngdramon made low roaring noises to simulate thunder.
Rika stared at them blankly. Tina and Youngdramon slowly stopped their storm demonstration.
"…Anyhow, I couldn't just leave him there. So he stays with me. Anyhow, he somehow must've gotten an APPEP ray gun, or something."
"Non otawawo," Joey corrected.
"Whatever. Anyway, he shot that saberstrike---"
"Ferra-tor-grend'l," Joey corrected.
"---whatever, he shot it and it died before it got me."
"I see…and, how come he uses those weird words for the menace machines and ray guns? What kind of digimon is he, anyways?" Rika extended her D-Arc towards Joey, and the D-Arc didn't pick up a data signal at all. It didn't even say, "no available information." The screen was completely blank. "Weird," Rika thought aloud.
"Just like everything else here." Tina sighed. "Ever since I talked Mom into getting you promoted, everything seems to be going downhill."
Rika and Renamon simultaneously shouted to her, "What??!!"
"I think you blew your cover, Tina," Youngdramon observed.
"I want some revenge for this!" Rika shouted. "Somebody get me some duct tape!"
******
Blackwargreymon flew in low, almost skirting the water over the dangerously low river. He could see where the water had been on the banks before the dam was built. There was at least two meters missing---maybe two and a half. Blackwargreymon didn't concern himself so much with how bad the problem was: he was more interested in the solution. I'll be able to see how bad things have been after this is over. Chances are---since I came from Tokyo and didn't see water on the way---I'm nowhere near too late to stop this.
He was right, but there was something odd: a strange column of energy floated up from the lake that was forming behind the dam. "What on earth is that?" Blackwargreymon wondered as the dam came in sight.
His concentration broke as a yellow beam of energy narrowly missed him. "Terra Destroyer!" he shouted back, hurling a pair of fireballs at the dam's top. Water burst out of the two bite marks in the dam and spilled into the river below. "Now, for the rest of it---Black Tornado!" He hurled his own body into the dam claws-first, and the dam broke. The dam disintegrated into tor-bines, each of which fired bursts of energy at Blackwargreymon.
Blackwargreymon took his wing panels off and made them into a shield to defend himself from the tor-bines' revenge-crazed fire. He looked at the column of energy behind his back. "What is that thing? Is it their doing?"
One of the tor-bines' attacks flew into the column, and the column looked like it was…destabilizing, somehow. After another beam flew in, the column vanished without a trace.
"Why would they fire on their own device? Hmm…" The attacks from the tor-bines seemed to abate, so he replaced his wing panels and flew after them. "If you aren't destroyed, you'll just try to build another dam. Black Tornado!" Blackwargreymon swept the rest of the machines up into the air and destroyed them.
"Now…to report a job well done to Yolei."
******
"Ash---!"
"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" Pikachu fried the saberstrike in its tracks. Ash glanced around to make sure the saberstrike had been alone. There was nothing else in sight. "Thanks, Pikachu."
"Pi-KA!" Pikachu made a salute and jumped back onto Ash's shoulder.
"Ash, that's the third attack we've had today!"
"Attack? What are you talking about, 'attack'? Those machines didn't get the chance to throw one attack at us before you noticed them and Pikachu thrashed 'em!"
"But Ash…"
"A little worried, Misty?"
"No! I mean…well…"
Ash rolled his eyes: he almost felt ashamed of her worrying. "Misty, if you're scared to be out here, then---"
"Ash, these things are eating people! Don't you think a little worry is called-for?"
"…Okay, maybe a little…unless you spot one of these things before they spot you."
"But what happens if we don't?"
"Misty…that kind of pessimism will get us killed."
Misty sighed. After a short pause, Misty asked, "Ash…do you hear that?"
"Yeah, I do…" The noise didn't sound like the smacking chops of a saberstrike, nor did it sound like thunder. It was something far different, like the woosh of a train or something the like…
"Over there!" Misty shouted, pointing at something gray in the distance.
"What is that?"
"It looks like a fog rolling in," Misty answered. "But it doesn't sound like one…"
There was a short pause as they watched the incoming rush of white, foamy water.
"You think we ought to go inside?" Ash asked.
Misty nodded, and the two of them raced into a nearby building. The water rushed into the streets behind them, and began to flood into the building, too. "Upstairs!" Misty yelled. The water licked at their heels as they raced up a flight of stairs. The water seemed to be chasing them, almost as if it were alive. They kept climbing, and---for a minute, at least---they seemed to be outrunning the tide. But then they came to a door at the top of the stairs that they found was locked. The water raced after them, caught up to them, and rose to about waist-level.
Misty let out a small yelp. "This water's freezing!"
"Yeah, I know," Ash agreed, pulling a flashlight out of his backpack. "I wonder if Primape can punch through that lock and get us out…huh?" The water around them began to change temperature very quickly, going from cold to warm and back very suddenly and repeatedly.
"Hurry up, Ash! I don't know whether I'll boil or freeze if we stay here, but I don't want to do either!"
"Primeape, go! See if you can't open this door!" Primeape didn't even try to knock the doorknob off; he went for the entire door: the doorknob was the only thing left. "…Uh, thanks, Primeape…return!"
He and Misty continued their trek up the stairs, and made it away from the water.
"That was scary!" Misty said.
"I know. How do you think a flood would affect the power plant?"
"Hard to say. Those reactors would have to be airtight to keep out radiation, so they'd probably keep water out."
"I hope so."
Pikachu felt glad he had a shoulder to sit on that was tall enough so that the water never touched it. He shook off his fur, and there was no moisture whatsoever in it.
"Oh, quit bragging!" Ash muttered as he searched his knapsack for a towel. "And if I was going to…huh? Uh, Misty…weren't we dripping wet a second ago?"
"Yeah…"
"So how come we aren't, now?"
"…Good question…"
They looked down the staircase they had just come up, and there wasn't a drop of water anywhere…no indication that there had ever been a flood at all.
"Well…at least the weirdness works in our favor, this time," Ash said.
"Yeah…great…"
Pikachu suddenly let out a hiss.
"What is it?"
"Ka chu…pika..."
"A Ghastly? Here? But…this planet doesn't have any pokémon on it!"
"Ka chu!" Pikachu answered.
"GAAAAAAA!!!" The shout came from behind them.
"Whoa!" Ash shouted as he dodged a blast of Night Shade. "Pikachu, thundershock it!" Pikachu's bolt fried the Ghastly, and it faded into nothingness.
"Is it gone?"
"Good question. But I know that we ought to get out of here if there's going to be ghost pokémon around."
"You don't suppose that whole flood was just one of Ghastly's hypnotic tricks to scare us away, do you?"
"Pi ka," Pikachu answered, shaking his head.
"You didn't smell him until just now? …Huh. Well, I'd sure like to---"
There was a roar outside.
"That…doesn't sound so good," Misty said.
"Let's check it out."
"Ash, this is too dangerous for you to---"
"Save it, Misty! It's our job to check out the weird stuff! Come on!"
Misty reluctantly followed.
They found a clutch of saberstrikes…and half of the saberstrikes were already scrap metal. The other half was quickly becoming scrap metal, at the hands of a huge, menacing Tyranitar.
"Oh, boy! I've got to get my hands on this guy!"
"You're…you're going to try to catch this thing?"
"Sure! It's a wild pokémon, look," Ash explained, pulling his Pokédex out of his pocket.
"Tyranitar, the armor pokémon. A combination rock- and dark-type, it is very powerful and dangerous when provoked."
Misty gulped. "I'm in no more rush to get killed by a tyranitar than a saberstrike! Let's get out of here---"
"Misty, you're forgetting one thing!"
"What's…that?"
"Rock and dark are bother vulnerable to fighting-types, and this guy should be easy for Primeape to handle! Primeape, whittle this guy's hit points 'til I can catch him!"
"Ash, no!"