NOTE: Christian content.

Chapter 22: Getting In There

"So how do we deal with this thing?" Mermon asked.

Tina yelled up to her, "It can only hold out in this fight for so long! And its human friend isn't around to help it out, so it might go down before you think! Just keep it busy!"

"Cochina Bombs!" Shakkoumon shouted. Mermon dodged the disc and fired another torpedo at Shakkoumon. It sucked the attack into its belly.

"This really isn't getting us anywhere," Saw-Grass yelled, slicing through another slagster. "That thing needs to go down-and out before we do! These wheely-things are winning! They've got us scrunched into a little circle, here!"

"Not for long; Misty and I still have a few tricks up our sleeves," Ash shouted.

Misty agreed, "I have one thing. It'll probably kill us, but that's okay…"

"Misty, what on Earth are you talking about?"

"I'll give it a try," she sighed. "Togetic, go!"

"Togetic? What can he do?"

"You'll see. Togetic, metronome!" Togetic waved his arms, and a whirlwind started up. The slagsters were distracted just trying to keep their footing. They were sitting ducks for the pokémon's and Saw-Grass's attacks.

"Great work, all of you. Primape, return! Pidgeot, Heracross! Join Snorlax in fighting that big statue-thing!"

"Starmie, Staryu, Togetic, return!" Misty shouted. "Okay, Golduck! Try confusion!" Golduck's attack barely affected Shakkoumon. "Okay, that didn't work much…"

"Harmonious spirit!" Shakkoumon shouted, firing a pair of lasers out its eyes. The shots missed.

"Pidgeot, mirror move!" Pidgeot fired another two beams back at Shakkoumon, but the attacks were sucked into its port.

"Golduck, try a short-range move! Fury Swipes!" Golduck ran in for a slash, but Shakkoumon saw it coming.

"Extension claw!" Its arms stretched out at Golduck and tried to spear him before he could attack. Golduck was pinned down. Misty called him back quickly before he took any more damage.

"Heracross, try to get it from behind! Use tackle!" Heracross flew in for an attack run, but didn't get what he bargained for: Shakkoumon turned its head all the way around and gave Heracross so much AA fire that he had to veer off.

"Great! There must be some way we can beat that thing!" Saw-Grass muttered.

Shakkoumon looked at Saw-Grass. "Harmonious spirit!" it shouted, firing its laser beams at Saw-Grass. Saw-Grass moved his blades between himself and the beams to reflect them away, but he didn't bother to look at where they would reflect: one of the two beams smacked Mermon in the back and sent her flying straight towards Shakkoumon.

As Mermon shook off the blow she realized where she was: the middle of Shakkoumon's chest. "Oh, boy! I'm gonna get filleted, I know it!" she mewed. Shakkoumon reached for her, and she covered her face. THUNK! …Thunk-thunk-thunk!

Mermon peeked between her fingers. She realized that Shakkoumon couldn't reach her: it didn't have any elbows! All it could do was to move its arms at the shoulders, and that meant it wasn't flexible enough to get at her. The situation got better: Shakkoumon didn't have a neck, either, so it couldn't look down at Mermon and hit her with its Harmonious Spirit attack. Shakkoumon couldn't see what she was doing, and, in fact, its only indication that she was still there was the fact that it could hear her down there, laughing.

Shakkoumon felt a little ill at ease as it heard some clicking noises coming from her direction. It could feel her doing something down there, but it had no clue what. It tried to use its Data Vacuum attack to get rid of her, bit it was no use: there were so many nooks and crannies on its chest that she was able to keep enough of a grip on him to avoid getting sucked in.

"That does it!" Shakkoumon shouted. It was so ticked off that it was willing to risk hitting itself to get rid of her. "Cochina Bombs!" It fired several disc bombs out the port in its belly, and the discs went flying out and boomeranged backwards at its chest. It barely saw Mermon slip out right under its nose (literally) and didn't have enough time to shoot her with its eye lasers. The discs flew into its chest and created a much bigger explosion than it had bet on: Mermon had taken a few of her Destructor Torpedoes out of her axe, and she had been putting them on Shakkoumon's chest, hoping to detonate them later. (That explained the clicking noises Shakkoumon had heard.) That was the last thing Shakkoumon knew: its head came off and shot into the air. Its hands also shot off, and it fell forwards, dead.

They let out whoops of victory as the digimon fell…but it didn't burst into data fragments. "What's the deal? You said digimon disintegrate when they die!" Ash shouted. "Isn't this one dead?"

Tina thought for a moment. "If we hadn't destroyed it, it would've gone back down to Darkpatamon and Pangolimon. It's dead, all right."

"Then it must be a different kind of digimon…?"

"I'll have to explain this to Mom, whenever she gets back…speaking of, I wonder how she's doing against that big base-thingy?"

"Speak of the devil!" June said as a battered Quadrigamon drove around the corner of the street, with Kari and Yolei riding on her back.

Mermon flew down to help Quadrigamon as she regressed back to Gatomon. "What happened?" she asked.

"Not much. Just that that machine nearly destroyed us!!"

"I can see that. What's the deal?"

"It had way more firepower than we figured on," Kari answered. "We're going to need megas to deal with this thing! And they had Imperialdramon's clone with them, too!"

"Who?"

"We never got his name," Yolei answered with a sigh. She held up Hawkmon, who was a very injured-looking digimon. "We need to get her to see Joe."

"Aw, great!" Ash sighed. "So…what do we do now?"

"We head back to base. Everyone take a different route. June and Tina, go with Mermon. Kari and I are with Saw-Grass, and Ash and Misty---you have your own way of getting back, right?"

Ash let Charizard out of his pokéball. "Feel up to a little challenge, Charizard?" Ash asked. Charizard let out a roar of defiance. "Good. Misty and I ride you home!"

"Let's get moving," Yolei sighed.

As they flew home, Charizard flew alongside Mermon for a while before veering off and picking a different route. As they flew, Misty said, "Ash…I'm starting to get worried."

"What about?"

"That we aren't going to win this war."

"Don't be silly," Tina shot back. "There are only two ways for us to lose: they either kill us all, or we surrender. Which of those two sounds likely to you?"

"Both," Misty sobbed.

Tina gulped. Knowing Youngdramon's personality, she whispered into Mermon's ear, "Don't take advantage of the situation by teasing her." Turning back to Misty, she said, "There's no way they can kill all of us if they can't find us, and they haven't found us yet, have they?"

"But I---it's---I---" Misty couldn't put her emotions into words, so all she could do was break into tears.

Tina did something she hadn't done before. She said in her mind, "God, this girl has a problem. Do you have a solution?" (Tina didn't even know she was doing this; she just said it.)

And the answer came: "I have a plan, but it's on My time, not yours. She will get better. Invite her to Cody's service tomorrow night."

This shocked Tina: she didn't go to Cody's services. And…God had said something, to her!!! That scared her, but she said to Misty, "You…um...I don't mean to butt in to something that's not my business, but you look like you could use professional help. People in the clergy usually have training in this kind of thing, and I know a priest. Maybe you talk to him---or maybe you should hear his sermon tomorrow might; you'll find it soothing."

Misty didn't take her hands away from her face, or seem to answer in any way. Tina thought to herself, I blew it, didn't I?

"I think we ought to part ways at the next intersection, in case anybody's following us," June cut in.

Ash said, "Turn left, Charizard…I'll guide you through the rest of the way back home." As Charizard rounded the turn, he said, "I think Tina's right: you need help, Misty. I'm here for you, but that's not enough. C'mon…please?"

Misty sobbed, "I feel like there's nothing left for me."

"Somebody just offered you something!"

"But I---…" Misty sobbed again.

"What's the harm in trying?" Ash asked.

Misty leaned on Ash's shoulder and cried into it. "Ever since we got here, it's been nothing but hurting!" Misty sniffled. "How will this be different?"

"Am I some kind of hurting, too, Misty? If I'm different from the rest of the world, maybe this can be, too. Misty, I'm going to be there for the sermon. And I want you to come, too. What do you have to lose?"

"…Okay," Misty sighed, wiping the tears from her face.

******

Misty walked out of the makeshift sanctuary with a confused, though somewhat relieved look on her face.

"So, Misty…any better?" Ash asked.

"I don't know…" Misty sighed. "Ash, I just feel like going to bed, right now."

"Okay, then," Ash answered.

"But I don't have a bed to sleep in…they talked me into giving up my sleeping bag for their infirmary," Misty sadly murmured.

"There's a solution to that," Ash interrupted. "I'll show you. C'mon upstairs." They started climbing the manhole, and they found out that it was a lot more difficult to get to the top than they'd counted on: halfway up, they saw someone coming down. They got into an argument over who had to turn around and go back so the other could pass, and Ash and Misty ended up returning to the bottom so that the others could get through. Ash shouted up to the top, "Anyone coming down?" There was no answer. "Okay, because I'm coming up!" Again, there was no answer. Ash and Misty climbed up again. "That was annoying," Ash sighed.

"Yeah…annoying…" Misty answered quietly.

"Misty, you don't need to be glum 24/7."

Misty sighed. "Ash…"

"I know how you feel, Misty. Don't worry. We'll be okay. That was the whole point of Cody's sermon. Why are you always so scared and so sad?"

"I don't know, Ash. All I know is that I can't stop worrying, and I can't stop feeling like we're all going to die."

"And then what?"

"What do you mean?"

"What are you afraid will happen after you die?"

"…I didn't think anything happens then. What do you think happens?"

"Tina told me that you sit in front of God, you give an account of your life, and then you get judged."

"Judged…what if you don't get first prize?"

"Not that kind of judged, the other kind!"

"You mean…like a criminal case? What have I done?? What crime is there to talk about?"

"I don't know…Tina said that everyone's done something, or something like that."

"If everyone did something, then isn't everyone doomed?"

"I don't know…Tina said not."

"Are you sure all this is true?"

"Yes, I am. Tina wouldn't lie about something like that. Everything else, maybe. But not this."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because she wouldn't be able to pull a prank on us in the afterlife!"

Misty giggled. They had momentarily run out of things to say, so there was a brief silence. Then, Misty asked, "---Hey, how long is this ladder, anyway?"

"Well, too long," Ash answered. "And…hey!" he shouted, looking up at the top. "We're coming up, here!"

"Well, I'm coming down!"

"We've been coming up for the last two minutes! You're closer to your end!"

"You kids have no respect for your elders!"

"It's not that I'm trying to disrespect you, but we've had a rough day, and---hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm coming down, whether you're moving out of the way or not!"

"But you're…" Ash let out a grunt of frustration, realizing that he wasn't going to change his mind.

"What do we do, Ash?" Misty asked.

"We stay here. There's no way he can get around us if we stay here. He'll have to get back up to the top."

"Ash, it's not such a great idea to make waves like this. I don't think that---"

"Hey watchit!" Ash shouted at the man came down the ladder straight at him. Ash slipped his hand out from under his foot. "Are you trying to kill me? ---Sorry for saying that, Misty--- Hey, what're you---awh!" Ash shouted as the man lost his grip and fell to the ground. He let out the screams of a dying man as he plummeted to the bottom of the shaft.

Misty gulped and shuddered, and almost felt like screaming, herself.

"Misty, come up here. We're…we're almost there."

"But…Ash…we just killed somebody!"

"It was an accident! And if we let it get to us, the situation will just get worse."

Misty sobbed.

"Misty…don't think for a minute I don't wish that hadn't happened. But he chose to break the rules, and that's what made him fall like that. Please, come up here."

"…Ash…if it wasn't you who was telling me this, then I'd let go and fall, myself…and I---whoa---!!!" Misty's hand touched a wet spot on the ladder, and she lost her grip.

"Bulbasaur, Chikorita, I choose you! Ash threw the pokéballs up to the top of the shaft. "Catch Misty!" he shouted up to his pokémon, and they reached down with their vines and pulled Misty up to the top. Ash picked her up out and saw that she'd fainted.

Ash let out a sigh of frustration and pity. He, Bulbasaur, and Chikorita carried her indoors, and they set her on the floor. Ash took off his jacket and rolled it into a ball to give her as a pillow. He called back Bulbasaur and Chikorita, and he let out Pidgeot. Pidgeot covered both of them with its wings as blankets, and Ash let his head rest on his own backpack. He looked at Misty, and her face was expressionless. If he didn't know that she was hurting inside, he wouldn't be able to guess how hurt she really was. He wished there was someone he could turn to so that he'd be able to get her help…