NOTE: Christian Content

Chapter 55: Judgment

"Angewomon, co-op digivolve to…Oyarsa!" Oyarsa(1) was a peculiar super pokémon: she was pearly white all over, and looked as strange as anything. She looked like a statue, but, whenever anyone looked at her, she looked like she was rushing at the viewer with unbelievable speed. However, this must have been some kind of an optical illusion. Other than that, she was covered in leaf-like patterns of green and purple.

"Impressive, I'll admit," Wickemon snorted. "But I've got the same kind of help! Wickemon, co-op digivolve to…Lilithium!"

The two super pokémon began slugging it out, and they came to a stalemate quickly.

"This isn't good," Yolei thought aloud.

"If you module-evolved me, we could tip the odds in our favor, chi!"

"Thanks, but we need somebody as a backup in case our digimon and pokémon get too tired," Kari explained.

Moochi sighed. "At least I can help Brock…Moochi Cannon!" Moochi's shot smacked Houndoom. He felt that hit…

"Steelix, use Rock Throw one more time!"

"Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" Steelix took some damage from the fire, but not before he made Houndoom hit the wall from his attack.

"We're sick of you coming in and threatening us, chi!" Moochi spat.

"And telling us our final destination is shackled in your closet!" Kari added.

"So call off Remon and Lilithium!" Yolei added.

"In your dreams! Digi-modify! Co-op digivolution, activate!"

"Remon, co-op digivolve to…Black Rook!"

"We can win the digivolving game, too," Yolei spat. "Brock, Forretress!"

"I'm one step ahead of you!" Brock hurled his pokéball at Yolei's digivice.

"Aeroangemon, co-op digivolve to…White Rook!" White rook looked almost exactly like her evil counterpart, except that she was white and it was black. The only other notable difference was that she had a parapet on her head while her counterpart had an onion dome on its head. "I've had it with your shenanigans!" White Rook spat. "Hyper Beam!"

"Hyper Beam!" Black Rook answered. The two rays completely cancelled each other. "Faint Attack!" Black Rook shouted.

"Protect!" White Rook shut her two walled wings, and as Black Rook disappeared and began smacking White Rook's walls, she took no damage at all. "I thought I said that I'd had it with you!" White Rook said. "Spikes!" Out her two cannons, White Rook fired a barrage of metal tines. Black Rook tried to protect itself, but its walled wings were being slowly eroded away.

"Brock, there's got to be something else we can do to help these guys out!" Misty said.

Yolei cut in, "The best thing you can do is get some distance away---and warn us if he's getting reinforcements, or anything!"

"Will do," Misty said. As the three of them raced away from the battle, they saw something blue and bright go flying over their heads.

"What was that, chi?" Moochi asked.

"That looked like…I don't know; it didn't look like a menace machine to me!"

"The question is, what is it…?"

"Crobat, I choose you! Follow that thing and see what it is!" Crobat flew after the blue creature to get a better look at it. As he got closer, he saw that it had a long, kite-like tail and was a bird with a short bill. Crobat thought he knew what this was: Articuno, a pokémon.

Articuno began to catch on that it was being followed. It fired a blue ray of ice at Crobat.

Crobat was quick enough to dodge. In fact, Crobat was quick enough to get to the other side of Articuno and smack him with a Wing Attack.

Articuno was ticked, and he thought that he had to destroy Crobat to ensure his own safety. So he began firing ice beams all over.

Crobat began leading Articuno back towards Brock, and hoped that he'd be able to make it before Articuno landed a hit. Just as he was landing, Articuno did it: he hit him with the Ice Beam.

Articuno flew down to go in for the kill, and was more than a little surprised to see not a bat pokémon, but two human beings and Moochi---not to mention Vulpix.

"Vulpix, use Fire Spin!" Vulpix spat a tornado of fire out at the ice bird, and it was too much for it to take. It tried to break free of the flames, but it was no use. "Pokéball, go!" Brock hurled the empty pokéball at Articuno. Try as it might, it couldn't escape the ball, either. Game over: it was caught.

"So…now what, chi?" Moochi asked.

"Step one: freshen up Articuno," Brock answered, taking a device out of his backpack. It looked like Cleaver's handiwork; it had a single, round, cup-shaped port on the side that looked like it was the exact size and shape to fit a pokéball. Brock stuck Articuno's pokéball into the port, and then took it out, again. "Step Two: Articuno, go!" Articuno flew out of the pokéball, ready to fight. "Articuno, attack Black Rook! Use Ice Beam on its insides when it opens up for another attack!" Articuno waited and fired. This caused Black Rook more pain than it did damage, but it was enough for White Rook to gain the upper hand and land another attack on Black Rook's vulnerable belly.

The Unnamed Figure shot a grapple hook out from the Trojan at Jaymon and called back Murkrow. "Lilithium, hold them off while I escape!"

"My pleasure!" Lilithium sneered, hurling Oyarsa away. "Ice Beam!"

"Hyper Beam!" The two ray attacks cancelled again, sending a blast of yellow light and snow everywhere. Oyarsa flew up into the air and onto one of the buildings. Lilithium followed her with its ice beam ready to fire…only to find that she wasn't there.

"How in the world…?" Lilithium felt a jolt to its back as Oyarsa blasted it, coming out from hiding. "So…that's how the game is played, huh? All right then, Faint Attack!"

"Metronome!" Oyarsa answered. A sheath of fire appeared around Oyarsa. "Flame Wheel!" she shouted as she tackled Lilithium.

Lilithium felt that: it was very vulnerable to flame attacks. "Finally learning how to fight dirty, huh? Good to know we're doing some evil, down at Linonian central---"

"Foresight!" Red beams flew out of Oyarsa's face and locked onto Lilithium.

"Uh-oh," Lilithium gulped.

"Hyper Beam!" Lilithium was pummeled with the two beams and fell off the roof onto the ground…but it still wouldn't regress back down to Blackgatomon and Sneasel. "Are you giving up, yet?" Oyarsa asked. There was no reply. I wonder if that thing isn't "fighting dirty" right now… Oyarsa wondered to herself. She flew down into the alleyway where Lilithium had fallen, and found that Lilithium had flown into one of the buildings as it fell, and it was jumping down on her.

"Slash!"

"Hyper Beam!" Lilithium's cutting attack missed by a millimeter as it was hurled into the air. Oyarsa could see it regressing back down to Sneasel and Blackgatomon. "Finally," Oyarsa thought to herself. Oyarsa became Gatomon and Togetic once again.

"Togetic, go back into Misty's pokéball," Gatomon said. "I've got some other business to wrap up…" Gatomon climbed up to the roof of the building: she needed to have a little post-mêlée chat with her clone.

As she came to the roof, she looked around…her clone wasn't there. Or, at least, it wasn't in sight. Gatomon could smell that it was somewhere around, but probably in hiding. Gatomon also smelled rain, and lots of it. She knew that it was anyone's guess so as to whether it would rain or not, but she wasn't taking any chances. She pulled her digimon-sized poncho out of her backpack, tied her ears back, and slipped it on…and just in the nick of time, too: a downpour suddenly started just as she was tightening the hood. It was surprising how fast the flat roof filled up with puddles from the rain. …Hmm… Gatomon wondered if those puddles wouldn't come in handy. "Lightning Claw!" Gatomon hurled her attack at the water, and electricity flew out and shocked everything.

There was a loud grunt that came out of one of the air intakes of the building. Blackgatomon jumped out of the intake, still shaking off the blow. "It seems like we really are teaching you to fight dirty!" These were ironic words: Blackgatomon was soaking wet and its fur was just as dirty as before. On the other hand, Gatomon was careful to keep herself dry and clean, despite the fights she had been in.

Gatomon summoned up all the will that was in her to plead for her clone's life again. "Listen…listen to me: I learned that you don't have to fight for evil; God is merciful: He'll take you back even now!"

"Like I care! Darkening Claw!" Gatomon leapt out of the way.

"You should care! If I can defect from evil, so can you!"

"That's nice…Unfortunate Path!" Blackgatomon stomped the ground and send a green flash of energy skidding along the roof towards Gatomon.

"Step of Cat!" Gatomon answered, jumping over the energy bolt and onto Blackgatomon. Blackgatomon took the brunt of that kick.

It suddenly became apparent that Blackgatomon was nowhere near as strong as it looked. It collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Gatomon dragged her counterpart to the stairwell to the roof so that there would be shelter for it. She began grooming its fur and treating its wounds with a bit of antibacterial gel that she had in her backpack.

Blackgatomon slowly came to. "What…do you think you're doing?"

"I'm taking you back!"

"Back to where…your side…? Darkening---"

Mostly out of self-defense, Gatomon smacked her clone with her claw. But this was the finishing blow: Blackgatomon began falling down the stairs lifelessly: it was dead.

Gatomon's jaw dropped. She tried to race down the stairs, but she tripped on her own poncho and had to take it off before she could make it down. After what seemed like an eternity, she made it down the stairs to where her clone had come to rest. She held its corpse to her chest, as if mourning for a lost friend… This creature had never been her friend, and yet Gatomon couldn't help but feel that her sister had just died…at her hands.

Kari found Gatomon lying there, mourning. "Gatomon?" Kari asked.

"I…I killed her…!"

"It, Gatomon…you killed 'it'."

"It was…it absolutely refused to think about switching sides…even for a minute! Why couldn't Blackgatomon have become good…I did!" Gatomon jumped up into Kari's arms.

Kari held Gatomon. She thought she knew what was hurting Gatomon. After a pause, she said, "Gatomon…some of us are meant to switch over…we all start out like Blackgatomon. Some of us choose to come back to God…others never do. That's just the way things are. It's not how they're meant to be, I know, but some things aren't fixable…"

Gatomon sobbed. Kari stroked Gatomon's head. There was a long silence as Kari stood there, holding Gatomon. Gatomon finally decided that she had to move on with her life: menace machines were still out there and refugees were out there, too. She couldn't mourn forever for this creature.

Gatomon jumped down from Kari's arms and kicked Blackgatomon. "You…you…"

"Gatomon, don't be hard on it…it can't even hear you!"

Gatomon snorted.

"Gatomon, please, don't be like that, either!" Kari picked her up, again. "I know you're hurt that she didn't choose God, but…but…"

"But what?"

Kari sighed. "Like I said, we all start out just as evil as she is. Some people God chooses to be saved, others not. It's not that she's worse off than you, it's that you're better off…"

Gatomon was still hurt: knowing a fact doesn't always instantly change a person's emotions for the better. "This…it's…"

"I know, Gatomon…but your destiny and hers are different. That's just the way it is… And I don't want you going hard, but you can't let this get to you..." There was a long pause. Kari didn't have the nerve to break it, but she decided to act on an idea she just got... She pulled a trash bag out of her backpack and put Blackgatomon's corpse in it.

"What're you doing??" Gatomon asked, putting her poncho back on.

"I'd like it if we could leave this behind, but Cleaver's going to want to have a look at the body. He needs all the info he can get. Even if he doesn't have an immediate use for it, it can't hurt to have another clone's body on file."

******

Holding his nose, Cleaver thought to himself, Maybe it can hurt to have another clone's body on file…

(1) Oyarsa was actually a creature designed by C.S. Lewis. To make a long story short, he wrote a science fiction trilogy called the Out of the Silent Planet trilogy. In it, he essentially gave a scientific explanation for the existence and nature of spirits. He called the spirits "eldila", which is plural for "eldil", and there was a single eldil that ruled over all the subordinate eldil of a planet who was called "Oyarsa". It was interesting; the eldila had bodies that were somehow moving faster than light speed and yet staying in one place…it had something to do with his book's theory of matter. Anyhow, the eldila were, for the most part, invisible to the naked eye, and there was one time in his second book that two Oyarsa decided that they ought to become visible. Their visible forms looked something like what I had Oyarsa look like in the GIF, and, as I mentioned, C.S. Lewis said that, when one looked directly at the Oyarsa's visible form, it looked as though the form was moving at the viewer at tremendous speed, while, when one looked at it relative to its surroundings, it was immobile. Really, Oyarsa and the eldila were genderless, but I made Oyarsa female in this fiction.