Digital Monsters: Back In Action
By Charles Xavier
…
The Enemy's Trail
"Sora?" Hikari couldn't believe that one of her best friends was working against them. It was quite impossible to believe that Sora Takenouchi would be siding with whatever force PicoDevimon was behind also. "Sora…? Is it really you?"
But Sora did not answer. She ignored Hikari's question and stared blankly at the floor, panting as Eddie remained holding her arm locked behind her back. Takeru and Hikari stepped in closer to her and everybody else stood from their posts. Angemon and Angewomon morphed back into Patamon and Tailmon and went with their partners to inspect Sora too.
"All right. Up on your feet now!" Eddie took no pity for criminals he caught when dealing with a case. And for Eddie, Sora was one of them. He dragged Sora up and hurled her instantly to the wall, securing his grip on her arm. "To be honest, I don't know how you managed to talk your way out of the cops. But you're NOT going to talk your out of this one, Miss Sora Takenouchi!"
"Ow! You're hurting my arm!" Sora yelled, feeling the pain sharpen.
"Yeah, and I'll break it if you don't do as I say."
"Mr. Valiant, please!" Hikari interfered, asking him kindly not to hurt her friend. "There has to be some sort of mistake here."
"I don't see any mistakes here, Hikari. This is Sora Takenouchi okay, in the flesh. And I can see she's been cooking up something with PicoDevimon and his other idiots!"
"No! CHIGAIMASU!" Putting herself in denial did not help Hikari. She didn't want to believe this was happening. She even tried to turn away from this disturbing sight. But then, she looked back when Sora spoke:
"Gomen, Hikari and Takeru. Forgive me for what I have done." She said apologetically. "So much has happened for me ever since this whole thing started…I truly didn't mean to cause any of this, but I had no choice. 'They' forced me into doing this all."
"Who?" Takeru asked.
"…AAA!"
Eddie twisted Sora's arm to an extent it nearly made her scream. "The kid just asked you a question. And you're supposed to answer him back." Eddie wasn't being soft on Sora. She hadn't told him or the Lieutenant anything about her secret involvements, but she had a good reason why.
"Mr. Valiant! Please don't hurt her!" Hikari begged him not to do any further harm.
Eddie slightly relaxed and let Sora speak.
"Acme…" She said with sorrow. "Acme's been making me work them…and I'm the one who's responsible for Mr. Yamazaki's death."
All went speechless.
"I left Yamato's house early so I could find Mr. Yamazaki at Toei before he'd return home. I found him and told him that there was an accident in one of his studios…that was how I brought him into the warehouse, where he got the drop. I didn't mean to get him killed, honestly! But they pushed me into it; there was nothing I could do to resist."
"Thanks for sharing that with us, Miss Takenouchi." Eddie said in a calm voice. "But would you be so kind, dear, in telling us the reason WHY you set us up into this? And WHY the hell you're committing yourself into everything those Acme jerks are tellin' you to do!"
"I can't tell you…" Sora shook her head.
"Then spill it out!"
"AAAAAIIIII!" Sora screamed when Eddie began twisting her arm again, but even further. The pain became more unbearable that Sora started to cry. It was there when she realized that she had to spill the beans on him, even if she was going to accept the fatal consequences. "The Chairman…! The Chairman of Acme's kidnapped my father…! He's taken him in and threatens to kill him unless I follow his instructions! He wants my father to help him build a secret weapon for the company, but they didn't tell me what it was for."
"Secret weapon?" Takeru exclaimed. "What secret weapon?"
"Please! No more!" Sora cried. "If I tell you what it is, I'm afraid Acme will…AAAA!"
When Hikari heard Sora scream again, she thought Eddie was hurting her arm again. But then she saw something sticking out of Sora's waist: a blue feather dart. It must have been shot behind her back where nobody else was looking. Turning her head back at the open doorway, Takeru was the first person to catch sight of a long black barrel of a gun poking out. 'OVER THERE!" He shouted. But the barrel pulled away and disappeared. When all turned back to Sora, she had thumped down onto the floor, sleeping like a baby.
"It's a tranquilizer dart!" Eddie knelt down and pulled the object out of Sora's waist. "The poor girl's fast asleep now…we can't wake her up."
Catherine knelt down beside Sora and checked her pulse reading. "She iz alive, mon Dieu! But I am afraid zee real criminal iz getting away at ziz moment we speak! We have to catch him quick!"
The Lees were brave enough to venture out to the doorway to see if there had been any trails left behind. Fortunately, there was one.
"Aha!" Jenrya picked up what he had found outside and came back into the room to show everyone. "A tranquilizer gun! That could only mean one thing: Sora has been tranquilized!"
Jenrya smiled at himself proudly, unaware that all the people around him already knew that Sora was tranquilized minutes ago.
"Yes, Jenrya. I'm glad you finally realized that." Jaarin slipped the heavy handled weapon away from his hands and inspected it. "Hmmm, I've never seen this brand before…Acme Tranquilizer Rifle."
"It's an agent from Acme!" Takeru burst out. "C'mon! We got to find that creep before he gets away!"
"One problem, Takeru." Hikari grabbed her friend by the collar before he could walk away out of the room. "That guy could be hitting the road by about now. How do you think we can catch him at this rate?"
"I believe I can answer that." Rinchei replied, pointing to the doorway boldly. "Everybody…TO THE LEE MOBILE!"
"To the Lee Mobile!" The Lees chorused together, dashing out of the room like a band of super heroes. Eddie, Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon were obliged to follow them, but they had to settle out one small problem first.
"Catherine, stay here and take care of Sora." Hikari asked her. "Call the ambulance and the police force and tell them what's happened here! Takeru and I are going off with the Lees!"
"Of course." Catherine nodded. "Anything for my dear friend, you know?"
"And if they ask about Takeru, tell them that he's innocent…and we're going to prove it!"
"Definitivement, Hikari. You can count on me…au revoir!"
…
NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN
THE LEES!
…
While a musical tune reminiscent to the Batman theme filled the atmosphere, a black Countach Lamborghini (or so called the Lee Mobile) roared on the streets outside of Casino PicoDevimon. Inside it, sat the Lees, Eddie, Hikari, Takeru and the Digimon all buckled up with their seat belts. It was surprising to see a Countach that was large enough to fit in all nine of them in quite comfortably, as cars like these were known only to fit in two. But this was Japan…a country far more developed than the rest of the world.
"There he goes!" Jenrya pointed out at a black Bronco van driving out of a parking lot in front of them at incredible speed. "Floor it, Rinchei!"
Rinchei stepped on the pedal away they went, in pursuit of their enemy rushing past other cars and crossing traffic lights feverishly. The Countach drove unimaginably fast that it made Eddie, Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon fling their heads back to their seats, unable to move. As for the Lees, they were used to driving at this speed all the time; even though they occasionally got pulled over by police whenever they were late to school.
…
The chase took them all the way to the highway bridge, where the enemy was getting a little trickier with them. Thankfully Rinchei never failed to lose him. He was a fast learner and a top notch driver among his family. Even his father complained at times that he drove too fast on the driving wheel.
"I believe we haven't been properly introduced yet." Takeru greeted the human sitting next to him. "The name's Takeru Takaishi, and this is my Digimon friend Patamon. Hajime mashite!" Takeru and Patamon took him by the hand and bowed.
"Sure, pal. Er…doozo yorishiku, or something." Eddie shook his hand casually. "The name's Detective Eddie Valaint." He took out his badge and showed it to Takeru and Patamon. "I'm part of the reason why you're in this whole mess, and I'm here to get you out of it."
He looked over to Hikari and winked at her.
"He's right, Takeru." Hikari said. "We're going find whoever did this to you and get you out of this jam."
Takeru was amazed to see how enthusiastic Hikari was in helping him out. He wished now she could have been this caring to him back when he was working in Toei Animation. "Hikari, arigatou. Thank you all."
While Eddie and Takeru were familiarizing with each other, Shuichon Lee was the only person in the car getting bored. She couldn't do much after all but watch Jaarin and Jenrya shout at Rinchei directions he should go…she felt she needed some entertainment to lighten up the mood.
"Hey, why don't we listen to some music?" She said, reaching her arm out for the radio button.
"Shuichon, how could you think of music at a time like this?" Jaarin asked.
But Shuichon didn't hear her.
…
"All right! You're listening to the DH-1 Radio Mix at nine o'clock in the evening, with me Mr. Fujiyama! And on our all hit request line, I have Mr. Yukio Oikawa on the phone. So, buddy, what would you like to hear?"
"I'd like to hear 'Gothic Girl' by Alice McCoy, please!"
"No problem, 'Gothic Girl' it is! And is there anybody in particular you would like to dedicate this song to?"
"Just play my damn song, you fruitcake!"
"Hiya, Alice!"
"Hi, Steve!"
"Wanna go for a ride?"
"Sure thing!"
"Then, jump in!"
…
'I'm a Gothic Girl,
In a Gothic world.
Dressed in black,
What's wrong with that?
Blonde boys everywhere,
I give them quite a scare!
I'm a creation
From Toei Animation!'
…
'You're so gothic,
And so lovely!'
…
"OOH! This is my favorite song!" Shuichon laughed and clapped her hands with delight. While she was grooving to the song, Jaarin and Jenrya covered their ears. Rinchei wished he could do the same, but he was busy keeping his eyes on the road.
…
The trail had gone cold. The Lees had been searching the streets of Tokyo for at least an hour now. They went block to block trying to hunt down the Bronco van after it had craftily lost them through the busy highway.
"This is not good." Rinchei was getting rather tired driving endlessly along the empty road. Everywhere he looked there was no sign of their man. It was if he vanished into thin air like a ghost would. "We're not getting anywhere here, guys."
Until…
"Soo desu ne? Then what do you call that, Rinchei?" Jenrya pointed out again in the road's distance. As they got closer to what Jenrya had spotted, they saw that it was by luck the Bronco van they had been seeking. However, it seemed that its door was left open and the driver inside had escaped. Rinchei stopped the car and everyone stepped out.
"Speak of the devil." Takeru said, leading Hikari and their Digimon further ahead the abandoned vehicle to find a sewer drop that had been left open. "He's gone underground!"
After Eddie and the Lees checked inside the van for any possible clues, they came over to Takeru and the others to check what they had uncovered.
"Whew!" Jenrya looked down into the empty black hole. "It's pretty dark down there…I don't know about you guys, but this is kind of giving me the creeps! And there's no way I'm going to go into that spooky darkness!"
"Well, congratulations. You ain't going down there anyways!" Eddie said, grabbing onto the ladder. "I'm the one going down…and Hikari and Takeru are coming with me. And while we're at it, I want you Lee kids to go back and get the cops here, fast! You understand?"
"But, what if you get into any danger?"
"Never mind him, Jenrya!" Rinchei told his little brother off. "The detective knows what he's doing…besides, we saved him once already. Let's just do what he says and get some help."
"Hang on, wait a second!" But they didn't. The Lees returned to their Countach, with Jaarin pulling the rebellious Jenrya by the shirt back with them. "I wanted to do some of that kung-fu fighting like we did back in the casino…that was fun! What if Eddie gets outnumbered by some alligators in the sewers?"
"Alligators don't live in the sewers." Rinchei opened the door and the Lees jumped back inside. "You've been watching far too many cartoons, Henry. I think you should give your TV addiction a little bit of a break."
The Lees buckled themselves up in the car, and waved goodbye at the detective and their friends…apart from Jenrya, who was looking very grumpy at his older brother.
"By the way, Rinchei one thing: my name is not Henry…IT'S JENRYA!"
…
"OW!"
"Gomen, Hikari."
Takeru whispered to her, after having stepped on her foot for the third time. Navigating deeper and deeper into the sewers wasn't an easy task. None of them had flashlights, and the only light emitting from this dark labyrinth was the cigarette lighter Eddie held in his hand to guide them through the place. Tailmon and Patamon stuck together, a little frightened with the eeriness of the sewers. Takeru and Hikari, though they weren't fully aware of it, held hands together as they walked through the tunnels, following right behind the detective's tail…
"Takeru, I'm scared." Hikari's hand began to tremble. Takeru squeezed her hand to ensure that nothing was going to hurt her if something was to jump out of nowhere. "I think I heard footsteps back there."
"Where?"
"Behind us. I think I heard noises coming from behind Patamon and Tailmon."
Takeru looked back and could see nobody…his naked eye couldn't fully tell if anything was lurking about in the shadows. And Takeru could hear nothing either…or maybe whatever was following them had simply stopped and remained silent.
Takeru looked down upon the Digimon, they didn't appear as nervous as Hikari.
"Did any of you two hear weird noises behind us?" He asked them.
Patamon and Tailmon shrugged and shook their heads.
"Hmmm." Takeru turned back to Hikari and tried to settle her down. "Hikari, I think you ought to calm down a bit…you've got nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing following us. As long as just keep up with me, I'm sure nothing will go wrong, okay?"
How wrong he was, because Hikari suddenly spotted unknown hands grappling onto Patamon's and Tailmon's mouths from behind their backs. While the Digimon struggled to get free, they were pulled back into the darkness. And before Hikari could shout about what she had just witnessed, she too had her mouth sealed by other hands, which slithered around behind her head soundlessly. Takeru reacted quickly and grabbed Hikari to save her from whoever was pulling her back, but he too was taken by other sets of hands that strongly restrained him back. Soon they all disappeared from Eddie's light.
"What the hell was that?" Eddie heard some loud shuffling in his ears. He spun back to find that Takeru, Hikari and their Digimon were gone. "Takeru…! Hikari…! Where did you guys go?"
His reply never came…he only felt something club him on the head, knocking him out in a split second flat.
…
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews again!
BTW: Can anyone guess what song I was parodying in this chapter with Alice?