CHAPTER 9
Zoe watched in horror as Takuya turned to face the dark figure.
"Takuya!" Zoe yelled.
He didn't seem to hear.
"Takuya, your heart has grown dark. Use it to increase your power. I can enhance your strength if you'll join with the dark forces and destroy those foolish humans that abandoned you." The shadow said in an evil voice.
"NO! TAKUYA! Don't listen!" Zoe yelled, but to no avail. Even though she couldn't see it, she sensed a change in Takuya. A disturbing one.
"Yes. They will pay." Takuya said in a monotone voice. He looked back at Zoe, seeming to see right through her.
Zoe gasped. His eyes . . . they had lost all their color and sparkle. They were now dark pits of nothingness. Nothing shone in them. No hope. No love. No life.
"Takuya! Please! Just listen! We didn't abandon you! We're-" Zoe was cut off by a dark vapor that covered the whole area, separating her from Takuya.
"You shall not interfere with the darkness ever again!" The shadow's voice snapped as the dark Digimon appeared in front of Zoe and prepared to attack.
"TAKUYA! HELP!" Zoe screamed as loud as she could, shutting her eyes against the anticipated strike.
"TAKUYA!" Zoe screamed, sitting up in bed. She was covered in sweat and was gasping for breath. 'It was just a dream.' She told herself, looking around her room. Nothing was out of place. Everything was as it should be-silent and dark.
The teacher shuffled a few of her papers and took her place at the podium in front of the class. She cleared her throat and the class fell silent. "Alright, let's begin. Romeo and Juliet is considered one of Shakespeare's best tragic romances . . ."
Sao tuned the teacher out and leaned back in her desk chair. She put her right hand out, palm-up. She turned her attention to her gloved hand. A faint blackish-red glow appeared in her palm, which soon burst into a black flame. The flame's core was red and it occasionally sparked with black electricity.
Koji leaned back in his desk and looked around the room, totally bored. When his gaze fell on the flame in Sao's hand, his eyes widened.
Sao noticed he was looking and closed her fist with a knowing smile, smothering the flame.
Kouichi quickly turned his head back to the front of the class and nervously looked over at Sao out of the corner of his eye. Sao was still sitting back in her desk, fist still clenched. She was once again paying attention to the teacher.
A few minutes later, Sao suddenly straightened up in her desk and her eyes flashed. She looked over at Kouichi, who jumped at her sudden movement.
Sao took her thumb out of her fist and jerked it towards the door. Kouichi gave Sao a confused look. Sao rolled her eyes. She put her hands palm-up on her desk. A few moments later, the room turned pitch black. A couple of the students gasped or screamed.
"Everyone remain calm and stay in your seats!" The teacher called through the darkness.
"Kid, come with me." Sao whispered to Kouichi, grabbing his arm and dragging him out the door into the dark hall.
"What just happened?" Kouichi asked.
"Shh." Sao snapped.
Sao dragged Kouichi down the hall to the stairs, and then down the stairs and out into the school courtyard.
"Alright, what's the big idea?" Kouichi asked, jerking his arm free.
"Brown Stinger!"
Sao pushed Kouichi out of the way and dodged herself.
"Well, that answered my question." Kouichi said to himself standing up and pulling his D-Tector out of his pocket.
"Execute . . . Spirit Evolution!" Kouichi and Sao yelled.
"Lowemon!"
"Fueosmon!"
'I'm going to need help to hold them off until the others arrive . . .' Flymon thought to himself.
In a burst of light, Triceramon appeared. Lowemon tensed.
"Alright. I'll try to find the other Warriors." Flymon said, flying off towards the school.
"Shadow Meteor!"
"Darkness Blade!"
Zoe ran down the hall towards the art room. When she got to the door, she stopped and peered into the room. When she spotted Koji and Lisa sitting at one of the tables, working on their paintings, she burst into the room.
"Koji! Lisa!" Zoe exclaimed, running over to the two.
The two looked up quickly upon hearing her voice.
"Zoe, what is it?" Koji asked, putting down his paint brush.
"Kouichi and Sao are in trouble." Zoe said, just loud enough for Koji and Lisa to hear.
Lisa put her paint brush down and stood up. "We've got to go and help."
Koji stood up. "Yeah, but how can we get out of here?"
"Excuse me, but are you supposed to be in here?" The teacher asked from behind Zoe.
The three Warriors sweat-dropped, then turned to the teacher with nervous smiles.
"Um, of course, I was . . . uh . . . sent by the office to bring these two down . . . to . . . uh . . . pick up their lunches?" Zoe replied nervously.
"But lunch was over an hour ago." The teacher pointed out.
"Heh, gotta go. C'mon guys!" Zoe said quickly, grabbing Koji's and Lisa's arms and dragging them out of the room.
"That was real subtle, Zoe." Koji said sarcastically as the three ran down the hall.
"Yep, subtlety is my specialty." Zoe replied.
The students and teachers from the fourth hour gym classes had gathered around the edge of the field, watching the Digimon fight, totally oblivious to the fact that two of the Digimon were their fellow students.
"Shadow Meteor!"
"Dark Fire Mist!"
The evil Digimon dodged.
Flymon rounded the school building and rejoined the battle. "Brown Stinger!"
Lowemon and Fueosmon barely dodged.
"This is going well." Lowemon said sarcastically.
"Here come the reinforcements! Hurricane Wave!"
"Howling Laser!"
"Flaming Thunder!"
Flymon was knocked to the ground.
"Thunder Fist!"
"Crystal Freeze!"
Triceramon was knocked to the ground. The five Warriors turned to see Beetlemon and Kumamon running towards the fight.
"Alright! Now that the whole team's here, there's no way we can lose!" Lowemon said happily.
"Well, all but Takuya." Kazemon pointed out.
"That's what you think Warriors!" Triceramon sneered.
"Huh?" Lobomon and Kazemon asked in unison.
Flymon jumped into the air above the group of Warriors. "Poison Powder!"
The powder descended on the Warriors.
"What the-" Fueosmon began.
The Warriors slowly sank to their knees.
"What's . . . going on?!" Lowemon asked weakly.
The Warriors soon collapsed completely.
"Excellent." Triceramon said evilly.
The Warriors de-Spirit Evolved and left the humans laying unconscious on the ground. The group of onlookers gasped.
"Hah, foolish humans. I told you we'd win." Triceramon snarled triumphantly. He turned to the crowd of students and teachers. "Wait here, and don't worry, we'll be back to conquer your world soon enough."
"Alright, enough talk. Let's get these weaklings to the Digital World." Flymon said.
Black voids appeared beneath the unconscious Warriors and the evil Digimon, who all fell in and disappeared into the darkness. The voids closed behind them.
Sao slowly opened her eyes. She propped herself up on her forearms and looked around the cold, dank room. Three of the walls appeared to have been cut out of stone or made of a natural cave, and the fourth wall was facing a hall and was made of thick iron bars. The other Warriors were laying around the room, still unconscious. She quickly put a hand to her belt, where she kept her D-Tector. Nothing. 'Dang it.' Sao thought to herself harshly.
A few hours later . . .
Koji woke up and groaned quietly as he sat up. 'Whoa, what the heck happened? And, where am I?' Koji thought to himself, looking around the dark room. There were no windows whatsoever and only a faint glow came from a dying torch on the wall outside the room.
"'Bout time. Get enough sleep?" A cold, sarcastic voice asked from behind him.
Koji spun around to face the voice, but it was too dark to see the speaker. "Who said that?" Koji asked into the darkness.
A small glint of light that came from the darkest corner of the room, which Koji was facing, caught his attention.
Koji heard a soft rustling come from the corner and two figures stepped into the faint glow from the torch.
"I did." A now-familiar voice said in reply to Koji's question.
"Sao." Koji said rather coldly. He noticed that Lisa had something clasped in her hand.
Sao nodded once, took something from Lisa, and turned to the door. She silently walked over to the door and when she reached it, Koji saw another glint of light. He realized that she was holding a pocketknife.
"What are you doing?" Koji asked, half annoyed, half nervous.
"Shh." Lisa whispered harshly. "We're getting out of here and we're going to find out what they did to your little friend."
"Friend?" Koji asked, obviously confused. He looked around at the other Warriors, who were still unconscious. 'Let's see, JP, Tommy, Zoe, Kouichi . . .' Koji thought to himself, ticking them off on his fingers. "Takuya!" Koji practically yelled.
"Shut up!" Sao snapped angrily. "You want to bring down an army of guards?"
"Where'd they take him?" Koji asked.
"You think I know?" Sao retorted angrily. Her expression softened slightly when the door's lock gave a faint 'click'. "Got it." Sao said to herself. She and Lisa turned to Koji.
Even though the room was practically pitch-black, and Koji couldn't see their faces, he knew that, for some unknown reason, Sao and Lisa were angry. He decided to go along with what they said, for now. 'No telling what they'd try to do with that knife if they got mad . . .' Koji thought to himself.
"Alright, wake them up. Then we'll go find this . . . Takuya." Lisa said coldly.
Koji quickly woke the others and they assembled behind Sao and Lisa at the door.
"Alright, first things first. We're not going to be able to Spirit Evolve, so we've gotta be quiet about this whole thing." Sao said quietly to the others.
"What do you mean we can't Spirit Evolve?" JP asked.
"They took our D-Tectors." Lisa replied angrily.
The others checked their pockets and, sure enough, their D-Tectors were gone.
"What the-how the heck are we going to find Takuya now?" Kouichi asked.
Sao clenched her gloved hand into an angry fist. She closed her eyes tightly, obviously annoyed. Koji, who was the only one paying any attention to her at the time, got the feeling that she was more mad at herself than anyone else. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Sao flinched when she felt his hand.
"Hey, it's not your fault." Koji said quietly.
Sao knocked his hand off her shoulder quickly. She turned cold, angry eyes on him once more. "Touch me again, and you'll lose your hand." She snapped angrily.
The others fell quiet and looked at Sao and Koji curiously.
Sao quickly calmed herself. "Whatever. We're going to do this alone. The rest of you will only get in our way. C'mon Lisa."
"But Sao, it's too dangerous-" Kouichi began.
"Not another word from you." Lisa snapped.
Sao and Lisa snuck quietly down connecting corridors. Sao suddenly stopped in front of a room and Lisa, not paying attention, accidentally bumped into her. Sao pushed her back with her arm. She pointed to the door. Lisa nodded.
Sao closed her eyes and knelt down. A few moments later, she opened them quickly. She knocked Lisa out of the way just as the door they were in front of opened and Takuya walked out, D-Tector in hand.
Takuya turned and headed down the corridor that Sao and Lisa had come from. As he passed the other Warriors, he acted like he didn't even see them, even though he had to step over Lisa's legs to continue. Sao noticed something different about him. There was definitely something wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. To her, it was more of a feeling than anything else.
"He's after the others." Sao whispered, taking off down the corridor after Takuya.
"Wait for me!" Lisa called, chasing after her.
Zoe watched in horror as Takuya turned to face the dark figure.
"Takuya!" Zoe yelled.
He didn't seem to hear.
"Takuya, your heart has grown dark. Use it to increase your power. I can enhance your strength if you'll join with the dark forces and destroy those foolish humans that abandoned you." The shadow said in an evil voice.
"NO! TAKUYA! Don't listen!" Zoe yelled, but to no avail. Even though she couldn't see it, she sensed a change in Takuya. A disturbing one.
"Yes. They will pay." Takuya said in a monotone voice. He looked back at Zoe, seeming to see right through her.
Zoe gasped. His eyes . . . they had lost all their color and sparkle. They were now dark pits of nothingness. Nothing shone in them. No hope. No love. No life.
"Takuya! Please! Just listen! We didn't abandon you! We're-" Zoe was cut off by a dark vapor that covered the whole area, separating her from Takuya.
"You shall not interfere with the darkness ever again!" The shadow's voice snapped as the dark Digimon appeared in front of Zoe and prepared to attack.
"TAKUYA! HELP!" Zoe screamed as loud as she could, shutting her eyes against the anticipated strike.
"TAKUYA!" Zoe screamed, sitting up in bed. She was covered in sweat and was gasping for breath. 'It was just a dream.' She told herself, looking around her room. Nothing was out of place. Everything was as it should be-silent and dark.
The teacher shuffled a few of her papers and took her place at the podium in front of the class. She cleared her throat and the class fell silent. "Alright, let's begin. Romeo and Juliet is considered one of Shakespeare's best tragic romances . . ."
Sao tuned the teacher out and leaned back in her desk chair. She put her right hand out, palm-up. She turned her attention to her gloved hand. A faint blackish-red glow appeared in her palm, which soon burst into a black flame. The flame's core was red and it occasionally sparked with black electricity.
Koji leaned back in his desk and looked around the room, totally bored. When his gaze fell on the flame in Sao's hand, his eyes widened.
Sao noticed he was looking and closed her fist with a knowing smile, smothering the flame.
Kouichi quickly turned his head back to the front of the class and nervously looked over at Sao out of the corner of his eye. Sao was still sitting back in her desk, fist still clenched. She was once again paying attention to the teacher.
A few minutes later, Sao suddenly straightened up in her desk and her eyes flashed. She looked over at Kouichi, who jumped at her sudden movement.
Sao took her thumb out of her fist and jerked it towards the door. Kouichi gave Sao a confused look. Sao rolled her eyes. She put her hands palm-up on her desk. A few moments later, the room turned pitch black. A couple of the students gasped or screamed.
"Everyone remain calm and stay in your seats!" The teacher called through the darkness.
"Kid, come with me." Sao whispered to Kouichi, grabbing his arm and dragging him out the door into the dark hall.
"What just happened?" Kouichi asked.
"Shh." Sao snapped.
Sao dragged Kouichi down the hall to the stairs, and then down the stairs and out into the school courtyard.
"Alright, what's the big idea?" Kouichi asked, jerking his arm free.
"Brown Stinger!"
Sao pushed Kouichi out of the way and dodged herself.
"Well, that answered my question." Kouichi said to himself standing up and pulling his D-Tector out of his pocket.
"Execute . . . Spirit Evolution!" Kouichi and Sao yelled.
"Lowemon!"
"Fueosmon!"
'I'm going to need help to hold them off until the others arrive . . .' Flymon thought to himself.
In a burst of light, Triceramon appeared. Lowemon tensed.
"Alright. I'll try to find the other Warriors." Flymon said, flying off towards the school.
"Shadow Meteor!"
"Darkness Blade!"
Zoe ran down the hall towards the art room. When she got to the door, she stopped and peered into the room. When she spotted Koji and Lisa sitting at one of the tables, working on their paintings, she burst into the room.
"Koji! Lisa!" Zoe exclaimed, running over to the two.
The two looked up quickly upon hearing her voice.
"Zoe, what is it?" Koji asked, putting down his paint brush.
"Kouichi and Sao are in trouble." Zoe said, just loud enough for Koji and Lisa to hear.
Lisa put her paint brush down and stood up. "We've got to go and help."
Koji stood up. "Yeah, but how can we get out of here?"
"Excuse me, but are you supposed to be in here?" The teacher asked from behind Zoe.
The three Warriors sweat-dropped, then turned to the teacher with nervous smiles.
"Um, of course, I was . . . uh . . . sent by the office to bring these two down . . . to . . . uh . . . pick up their lunches?" Zoe replied nervously.
"But lunch was over an hour ago." The teacher pointed out.
"Heh, gotta go. C'mon guys!" Zoe said quickly, grabbing Koji's and Lisa's arms and dragging them out of the room.
"That was real subtle, Zoe." Koji said sarcastically as the three ran down the hall.
"Yep, subtlety is my specialty." Zoe replied.
The students and teachers from the fourth hour gym classes had gathered around the edge of the field, watching the Digimon fight, totally oblivious to the fact that two of the Digimon were their fellow students.
"Shadow Meteor!"
"Dark Fire Mist!"
The evil Digimon dodged.
Flymon rounded the school building and rejoined the battle. "Brown Stinger!"
Lowemon and Fueosmon barely dodged.
"This is going well." Lowemon said sarcastically.
"Here come the reinforcements! Hurricane Wave!"
"Howling Laser!"
"Flaming Thunder!"
Flymon was knocked to the ground.
"Thunder Fist!"
"Crystal Freeze!"
Triceramon was knocked to the ground. The five Warriors turned to see Beetlemon and Kumamon running towards the fight.
"Alright! Now that the whole team's here, there's no way we can lose!" Lowemon said happily.
"Well, all but Takuya." Kazemon pointed out.
"That's what you think Warriors!" Triceramon sneered.
"Huh?" Lobomon and Kazemon asked in unison.
Flymon jumped into the air above the group of Warriors. "Poison Powder!"
The powder descended on the Warriors.
"What the-" Fueosmon began.
The Warriors slowly sank to their knees.
"What's . . . going on?!" Lowemon asked weakly.
The Warriors soon collapsed completely.
"Excellent." Triceramon said evilly.
The Warriors de-Spirit Evolved and left the humans laying unconscious on the ground. The group of onlookers gasped.
"Hah, foolish humans. I told you we'd win." Triceramon snarled triumphantly. He turned to the crowd of students and teachers. "Wait here, and don't worry, we'll be back to conquer your world soon enough."
"Alright, enough talk. Let's get these weaklings to the Digital World." Flymon said.
Black voids appeared beneath the unconscious Warriors and the evil Digimon, who all fell in and disappeared into the darkness. The voids closed behind them.
Sao slowly opened her eyes. She propped herself up on her forearms and looked around the cold, dank room. Three of the walls appeared to have been cut out of stone or made of a natural cave, and the fourth wall was facing a hall and was made of thick iron bars. The other Warriors were laying around the room, still unconscious. She quickly put a hand to her belt, where she kept her D-Tector. Nothing. 'Dang it.' Sao thought to herself harshly.
A few hours later . . .
Koji woke up and groaned quietly as he sat up. 'Whoa, what the heck happened? And, where am I?' Koji thought to himself, looking around the dark room. There were no windows whatsoever and only a faint glow came from a dying torch on the wall outside the room.
"'Bout time. Get enough sleep?" A cold, sarcastic voice asked from behind him.
Koji spun around to face the voice, but it was too dark to see the speaker. "Who said that?" Koji asked into the darkness.
A small glint of light that came from the darkest corner of the room, which Koji was facing, caught his attention.
Koji heard a soft rustling come from the corner and two figures stepped into the faint glow from the torch.
"I did." A now-familiar voice said in reply to Koji's question.
"Sao." Koji said rather coldly. He noticed that Lisa had something clasped in her hand.
Sao nodded once, took something from Lisa, and turned to the door. She silently walked over to the door and when she reached it, Koji saw another glint of light. He realized that she was holding a pocketknife.
"What are you doing?" Koji asked, half annoyed, half nervous.
"Shh." Lisa whispered harshly. "We're getting out of here and we're going to find out what they did to your little friend."
"Friend?" Koji asked, obviously confused. He looked around at the other Warriors, who were still unconscious. 'Let's see, JP, Tommy, Zoe, Kouichi . . .' Koji thought to himself, ticking them off on his fingers. "Takuya!" Koji practically yelled.
"Shut up!" Sao snapped angrily. "You want to bring down an army of guards?"
"Where'd they take him?" Koji asked.
"You think I know?" Sao retorted angrily. Her expression softened slightly when the door's lock gave a faint 'click'. "Got it." Sao said to herself. She and Lisa turned to Koji.
Even though the room was practically pitch-black, and Koji couldn't see their faces, he knew that, for some unknown reason, Sao and Lisa were angry. He decided to go along with what they said, for now. 'No telling what they'd try to do with that knife if they got mad . . .' Koji thought to himself.
"Alright, wake them up. Then we'll go find this . . . Takuya." Lisa said coldly.
Koji quickly woke the others and they assembled behind Sao and Lisa at the door.
"Alright, first things first. We're not going to be able to Spirit Evolve, so we've gotta be quiet about this whole thing." Sao said quietly to the others.
"What do you mean we can't Spirit Evolve?" JP asked.
"They took our D-Tectors." Lisa replied angrily.
The others checked their pockets and, sure enough, their D-Tectors were gone.
"What the-how the heck are we going to find Takuya now?" Kouichi asked.
Sao clenched her gloved hand into an angry fist. She closed her eyes tightly, obviously annoyed. Koji, who was the only one paying any attention to her at the time, got the feeling that she was more mad at herself than anyone else. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Sao flinched when she felt his hand.
"Hey, it's not your fault." Koji said quietly.
Sao knocked his hand off her shoulder quickly. She turned cold, angry eyes on him once more. "Touch me again, and you'll lose your hand." She snapped angrily.
The others fell quiet and looked at Sao and Koji curiously.
Sao quickly calmed herself. "Whatever. We're going to do this alone. The rest of you will only get in our way. C'mon Lisa."
"But Sao, it's too dangerous-" Kouichi began.
"Not another word from you." Lisa snapped.
Sao and Lisa snuck quietly down connecting corridors. Sao suddenly stopped in front of a room and Lisa, not paying attention, accidentally bumped into her. Sao pushed her back with her arm. She pointed to the door. Lisa nodded.
Sao closed her eyes and knelt down. A few moments later, she opened them quickly. She knocked Lisa out of the way just as the door they were in front of opened and Takuya walked out, D-Tector in hand.
Takuya turned and headed down the corridor that Sao and Lisa had come from. As he passed the other Warriors, he acted like he didn't even see them, even though he had to step over Lisa's legs to continue. Sao noticed something different about him. There was definitely something wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. To her, it was more of a feeling than anything else.
"He's after the others." Sao whispered, taking off down the corridor after Takuya.
"Wait for me!" Lisa called, chasing after her.