Dark-Angel: I'm back for another chappie of my fic, Devil's Advocates.
Hopefully this chapter will be longer than the last and with a bit more
action.
A big thankyou to the reviewers of my story. As I have said so many times in the past, I really couldn't do this without your great inspiration telling me to continue. You guys are great!
Floramon: D-Angel does not own Digimon or the characters that Mr. Konaka has very generously created so that we could all feel closer to them and even relate somewhat to all of them. That was very nice of him, wasn't it, D-Angel?
A/N: *grits teeth* That was not on the script, Floramon. And in future, would ya mind actually sticking to the script like actors do?
Floramon: But I'm not an actor, now am I? *evil laugh* On to the chappie!
Devil's Advocates Chapter 8: Realisations
~*~*~*~
Rika looked curiously at her sister and her friend while they continued to talk and laugh, completely ignoring the Tamers. Since Rika had nothing better to do, she stared the boy up and down. He was about as tall as Henry, with broad shoulders and dirty-blonde hair. He was wearing baggy, dark blue jeans, a red t-shirt and an unzipped black jacket with white lining over the top. Around his neck, Rika noticed a silver metallic chain necklace, which had tiny blue tips in it.
Alicia listened intently to Brad while he explained that he and the rest of the Devil's Advocates had changed schools as well so that the whole band would be closer together, but the other guys were in a different homeroom group. She finally found the moment to introduce the Tamers. "Hey, Brad. I'll introduce you to my sister and her friends. I'm sure you'll love them." There was a tiny hint of sarcasm present in her voice, but not even Brad noticed. He was now staring directly at Rika, who turned away from his gaze when she felt her cheeks start to feel hot.
Alicia noticed this and glared coldly at Rika. She then turned to Brad, who was now smiling in Rika's direction. "Well, since you two seem to be hitting it off, I'll let yourselves introduce each other." Alicia glared one last time at Rika before walking straight into their homeroom.
Alice, who had just finished taking her books out from her locker, turned around and watched Alicia walk off into the classroom. She frowned and wondered why she would act like that if she had the hots for Henry. But it did make sense that maybe she was a little possessive over Brad, after all, he was in her band. Alice simply shrugged and closed her locker. She then turned to Brad to introduce herself and saw that he was shaking hands with Rika.
Brad smiled warmly at Rika. "Pleasure to meet you. Alicia has told me all about you." He then let go of her hand and waited for her response. But it never came. Rika was just standing there, staring into his eyes. They were cerulean blue, very similar to the colour of the sky, and also very similar to Ryo's eyes.
When Brad raised his eyebrows at her, Rika quickly snapped out of her trance. "Yeah, great. Excuse me." She coldly answered and brushed past him to get to her locker. She furiously twisted her combination so that it would open, but when it didn't, she violently slammed the palm of her hand hard into the locker (A/N: I couldn't even count the amount of times I've done that...). A cold, hard frown creased her features and she turned her head around to see her friends staring at her. She frowned even harder and they quickly turned around, busying themselves with Brad.
Pulling her books out of their places in her locker, Rika thought about what had made something inside of her snap when she had seen Brad's eyes. It was almost like looking into Ryo's, but with a different sense of emotion. Rika had to admit, Brad was rather attractive but she knew she was in love with Ryo. After knowing him for some years, he was beyond attractive in Rika's eyes. But the thought that constantly went over in Rika's head was that the last time she looked into Ryo's eyes, they were full of disappointment and concern.
Rika shuddered and quickly closed her locker. She didn't want to think about Ryo anymore. Not yet, anyway. She just wanted this day to be over so that she could talk more to her grandmother about it. There was no denying it, Seiko Hata was in fact the wisest person Rika knew and she could always rely on her no matter what. Rika ignored the stares her friends and her peers were giving her and walked ignorantly into the classroom, where school awaited her.
Outside, Alice peered around Brad and waited until Rika was out of earshot before reassuring him that Rika often did that. She looked into his eyes for the first time and realised immediately what had repulsed Rika. 'Blue eyes...' "Oh, sorry. I'm Alice, Rika's second best friend."
Brad smiled warmly at Alice as he shook her outstretched hand. "Pleasure to meet you. So, are you a Tamer, too?" Brad's voice had a touch of curiosity in it, obviously because he hadn't seen Alice on television or anything after the D-Reaper incident.
Alice's face slightly faltered, but it was hardly noticeable. "Not really. I guess you could call me something like a messenger. I wasn't really that important to the Tamers." Her voice had a slight trace of disappointment and bitterness in it, but it was really more like sadness.
Brad, however, shook his head and gave a short second smile. "I'm sure you were vital to the Tamers. Don't ever think that your not important, because everyone else knows you are." He then let go of Alice's hand, but not before slightly kissing it. At this, Alice blushed a deep crimson, but quickly recovered and hid her blush with a warm smile.
"Hope you enjoy your first day here." After saying this Alice walked around the sixteen-year-old boy and began walking towards the classroom door. However, a dark blue shirtsleeve caught her eye and her attention. She knew who it belonged to.
Henry was leaning against the wall of the corridor, head down and deep in thought. Alice walked up to him and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Abruptly, Henry snapped up and looked at the culprit with accusing eyes. When he realised who it was, his expression softened and he forced a smile.
Alice smiled back but couldn't help the curious look she was giving him. "Hey, are you ok? You seem kind of distant. Is everything alright?"
Henry nodded his head while he thought of a good excuse. "Yeah, just kinda spaced out, you know." 'Yeah, great excuse, Henry.'
Alice laughed inwardly and nodded once. "Ok, come on." The two walked together into the classroom, while Kazu practically pounced on Brad.
"Can I have your autograph?! I'm your biggest fan, I swear! Look, I even bought two tickets to your next concert!" Kazu held up two small pieces of paper that were obviously the tickets.
Brad looked slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed by Kazu's unorthodox behaviour. "Uh, yeah sure."
Back inside the classroom, everyone was sitting in their usual spots except for Alicia who was standing at the front of the class, completely ignoring the whispers and rumours that seemed to flow straight to her ears.
Finally, or so it seemed, the homeroom teacher finally walked into the class, followed by Kazu and Brad, who came to stand next to Alicia.
"Ok, class. We have two new students, both of whom I'm sure you know very well already. The first is Alicia Nonaka, who is Rika's sister, and the second is Brad Lewis, who is a member of Alicia's band, Devil's Advocates. Please make them both very welcome." Mrs Coniaras then turned to the two teenagers to her left. "Brad you can go sit in the spare seat next to Rika, and Alicia, since Ryo's not here, you can sit in his seat on the other side of Rika. Isn't that amazing, the two sisters sitting next to each other."
Alicia managed to mutter an "extremely" on the way to her seat. She put her books down on the desk and pulled out the chair to sit in it. As soon as her back met the chair, an aurora of bright light appeared in her head. Another one soon followed, except this time two shadowed figures appeared, sitting back to back on two old wooden chairs. They seemed to be somewhat tied to the chairs, as if someone had captured them and was afraid they'd escape. As soon as it had come, the image had completely vanished from Alicia's mind and a strange, eerie feeling of unspoken fear crossed her body. There was something wrong somewhere, and she knew where and who to.
Alicia looked around and realised that the people around her were staring at her. She looked down and noticed that she was standing up, her hands shaking and plastered tightly to the desk in front of her. Her head then snapped up when she heard the teacher's worried voice ask if she was all right. Alicia couldn't speak. The transfixed fear in her stomach had somehow made its way to her mouth. For a minute, she thought she was going to throw up, until a hand was placed on her shoulder. It was Brad's, who was now standing right next her, reassuring her. In that second, the fear vanished and Alicia felt fine. Everything went back to normal and Alicia slowly sat back down in her chair, embarrassed, but didn't really care. All she cared about was what she saw and how she was going to help the two who were being held captive.
~*~*~*~
Ryo groaned slightly and began to open his eyes. At first, he couldn't see at all, and allowed time for his eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. But when he found out that he really couldn't see, a slight fear hit him and inside he began to panic. A sudden thought came to him that he might be blind, or close to it. But as time wore on, he realised that something was covering his head, preventing him from seeing anything.
Ryo tried to take whatever it was that was covering his face off, but struggled when he realised that his hands had been tied behind his back. He was also sitting on something, and something hard was pushing into his back. He began to pull slightly on what he now knew as ropes, and managed to slightly move whatever he was sitting on forward. A grinding sound was heard when the wooden object moved and Ryo's mind registered that he was sitting on a chair and below him was a ground of concrete.
A sharp pain buried deep into Ryo's wrist when he tried twisting the rope around his hands. But to no avail when he felt his blood begin to drip down his arm. Ryo winced slightly at the pain. His mind then wandered back to when he first fell unconscious. He was in a strange building and he began to read what looked like the beginning of a song. The words reflected somewhat of a happening that was about to take place. A sacred happening that would affect the whole world in one way or another.
As soon as Ryo had read the words, a blinding flash of light appeared before him and began to surround the building with golden auroras, one of which surrounded Ryo himself and resulted in him beginning to glow the revered colour. His feelings of despair had been lifted and only the feeling of fullness rested in him. He had felt himself being lifted into the air and pulled through a sort of vortex.
A thought suddenly hit Ryo like a bullet through the chest. He had actually travelled through that vortex so that must mean that he was somewhere that could not be defined as reality. Put simply, he was in another dimension, possibly the Digital World.
A pleased laugh was heard through the hollow building that Ryo was in. Since Ryo didn't recognise it, he thought that it must be his captor. Ryo stiffened himself against the chair that he was sitting on, his back dead straight. There was another sound, this time one of shuffling and moving. Ryo imagined the figure to be walking towards him, a sly smirk plastered on its face.
"My dear Ryo. What have you gotten yourself into?" The finally at last spoke, his voice cold and husk. Yes, his voice. The figure was definitely that of a male, or at least the voice was. If it were a Digimon, then he wouldn't be divided into a gender.
Ryo flinched involuntary in his seat when he heard the piercing voice and spoke his first reaction. "Who are you?" His voice became cold and unpassionate for some unexplainable reason.
The figure laughed again and laid his hand gently on the pouch that was covering Ryo's head. In one swift movement, he roughly pulled it off and kneeled down in front of Ryo so that the teenager could get a good look at who was holding him captive. "Why don't you have a look?"
Ryo's eyes slowly opened because of them being closed for so long and found himself looking straight in the eye of a dark purple Digimon. This Digimon had large wings the same colour as its body and a white skull covered his head. It had white horns, which looked more like antennae sprouting out of the top of the skull. On its shoulders were what looked to be blue shoulder pads and its arms were very skinny but became bulged on the lower arms. Its hands were pale blue and very, very large.
All Ryo could do was stare at such a being. Such a dark, evil being that obviously wanted him for something. Ryo then shut his eyes tightly closed. He felt one of the large hands on top of his head. The hand slightly ruffled his hair then pushed off the top of his head so the Digimon could stand up.
Another pleased laugh was heard, then the voice. "No, it's not a dream. I'm as real as they come and you know it."
"Who are you?" Ryo asked again, his voice was pure ice now. He was angry because of the way this Digimon seemed to be toying with him a little.
An evil chuckle was all that could be heard of the Digimon. He really wanted to anger Ryo for one reason and one reason only. 'The perfect toy, this human.'
~*~*~*~
In one of the corridors of the school, a light purple dinosaur type Digimon with small wings poked its head around one of the doors. It growled with impatience. This Digimon was on a mission: to find that one that his Tamer was so crazy about and tell her something. Something very important and someone's life depended on it.
Monodramon poked his head around another door and his face lit up. There, in the classroom, was Rika Nonaka, the one who could fix this whole mess.
Lucky for him, Rika saw him in the doorway immediately and her head shot up. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to put it, the bell signalling lunch rang and Monodramon panicked and flew into a nearby crevice in the wall outside the classroom.
Students immediately picked their books up and stampeded out of the room, not even waiting for their teacher's official dismissal. All except for Alicia, Brad and Rika. Brad was busy asking Alicia if she was alright after what had happened earlier and Rika was just staring absentmindedly at the doorway where a very anxious Monodramon once stood. Why was he there when Ryo wasn't? Or was Ryo at school this very moment? Or was he in trouble and Monodramon needed help? Jumping at the last question her mind threw at her, Rika hastily picked up her books and ran out of he classroom, all thoughts directed completely on what might have happened to Ryo.
Back in the classroom, Alicia was looking straight ahead of her, too confused and scared to even look at her friend who was looking rather worried about her.
"Alicia, please tell me what happened before in class. You were breathing really heavily and you looked so scared, like you had seen some sort of vision or something." Brad kneeled down beside his friends desk so that he could look at her more carefully.
Hearing his last few words, Alicia decided to tell him; after all he was about the closest person in her life right now. "Ok, when I sat down in the chair, I saw a vision of two figures who were tied to the back of chairs and who were sitting back to back on them. And the thing is, I know who they were and where they are. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but that is not normal. People just don't have premonitions when they all of a sudden sit in a random person's chair." Her voice sounded confused but still hinted of that sarcasm that seemed to never go away.
A thought suddenly hit her hard. That wasn't just a random person's chair she had sat on. It was Ryo Akiyama's, the one who was in the vision Alicia had. The one who was tied to a chair and blindfolded. The one who was in trouble.
Without even thinking another thought, Alicia stood up from her desk and ran as fast as she could out the door and into the corridor, where about fifty people were crowding around something. Something purple, with tiny legs and wings attached to arms.
Peering her way through the crowd, Alicia could make out the features of her twin sister and Henry, who were crouching down to meet the creature's height. She pushed her way selfishly through the crowd to stand next to Rika. Rika looked up to meet her glance and realised the glint of fear in her sister's eyes, something that she had never seen before.
Suppressing her own fear, Rika rose from her crouching position and stood next to her sister. "Ryo's disappeared. He never came home last night and he didn't call or anything. Something's happened to him." Her voice sounded shaky and frightened but Rika tried hard not to expose her feelings for Ryo.
Alicia glanced down at Monodramon before responding. "I know, and I know where he is and how he got there."
~*~*~*~
Ryo winced as a trickle of blood dripped slowly down the side of his mouth. A hard punch had met his mouth when he had tried to break free of the ropes tying his hands behind his back and around a chair.
The Digimon snarled at him but it didn't turn around to meet Ryo's face. "It's useless to try and escape from me. And even if you do, I will kill one of your friends every hour until you are found. If I were you, I wouldn't try that again."
Ryo gingerly looked up from the floor to look at the masculine Digimon. It was crossing its arms across its chest and staring straight in front of itself, never taking its eyes off what was there. Unbeknownst to Ryo, there was a tiny window in front of where the Digimon was standing. It was obviously staring at what was outside the window and was compelled to it.
Without warning the Digimon disappeared into thin air with a faint red line around it. Ryo relaxed involuntarily and allowed his head to sink down to his chest. It was then that he heard a faint whimper from behind him. Impulsively, he turned his head around and gasped at what he saw. A girl of about sixteen with blue eyes and blonde hair had been tied to a chair and blindfolded. She was adjacent to Ryo, as her chair had been resting against his this whole time. Ryo was at lost for words and actions. He was completely awestruck by the fact that she had been there the whole time he was taking a beating and she didn't even make a noise. Then Ryo thought that she might have been unconscious for that time and she had just woken up. Wide-eyed, Ryo slowly turned around and let his mind wander. Why was this girl here, and more importantly, how did she get here?
"I'm sorry for not talking or saying anything before, Ryo." The girl spoke for the first, her voice hardly anything more than a whisper. Ryo immediately turned around and looked again at the girl. How did she know his name?
Ryo didn't really know what to say, or more like he didn't know how to say what was forming in his brain. Eventually, he thought he should talk. "It's ok, but..." He stopped, thinking about how he should phrase what he was going to say next. "How did you know my name and how did you get here?"
The girl slowly sighed. "My name is Stacie Tseng and I used to be a huge fan of yours. I even started to play the Digimon card game because of you. To cut a long story short, a couple of days ago I was walking towards this building I had seen about a week before. It was an old building...anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with it. I walked in and began to read off this piece of paper, the same one you read off. The next thing I knew, I was being lifted into the air and then I woke up here, in the Digital World, the world that I longed to venture in before I actually did. And now, I'm regretting what I did." Stacie stopped abruptly and Ryo could tell she didn't what to go much further.
Ryo took a long breath in and held it there for a few seconds. His mind raced rapidly and all he could think about was the fact that this was the Digital World he was in and he was definitely in trouble. Big trouble and he didn't know if he could get of it this time. He exhaled slowly and thought about what was next. "So, what's going to happen to us next?"
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A/N: Yeah, I know cliffy, I'm evil. So now we know what happened to the mysterious Stacie Tseng and how she disappeared but we are yet to find out what she and Ryo are needed for. And who's gonna rescue them from the evil clutched of the captor Digimon? Will it be Rika and the other Tamers, or possibly the Devil's Advocates? All will be revealed in the next chapter along with some surprises. Keep tuned and thanks for reading this fic and reviewing, I really, really appreciate it.
Floramon: Yeah, me too. Please review! Peace out.
A big thankyou to the reviewers of my story. As I have said so many times in the past, I really couldn't do this without your great inspiration telling me to continue. You guys are great!
Floramon: D-Angel does not own Digimon or the characters that Mr. Konaka has very generously created so that we could all feel closer to them and even relate somewhat to all of them. That was very nice of him, wasn't it, D-Angel?
A/N: *grits teeth* That was not on the script, Floramon. And in future, would ya mind actually sticking to the script like actors do?
Floramon: But I'm not an actor, now am I? *evil laugh* On to the chappie!
Devil's Advocates Chapter 8: Realisations
~*~*~*~
Rika looked curiously at her sister and her friend while they continued to talk and laugh, completely ignoring the Tamers. Since Rika had nothing better to do, she stared the boy up and down. He was about as tall as Henry, with broad shoulders and dirty-blonde hair. He was wearing baggy, dark blue jeans, a red t-shirt and an unzipped black jacket with white lining over the top. Around his neck, Rika noticed a silver metallic chain necklace, which had tiny blue tips in it.
Alicia listened intently to Brad while he explained that he and the rest of the Devil's Advocates had changed schools as well so that the whole band would be closer together, but the other guys were in a different homeroom group. She finally found the moment to introduce the Tamers. "Hey, Brad. I'll introduce you to my sister and her friends. I'm sure you'll love them." There was a tiny hint of sarcasm present in her voice, but not even Brad noticed. He was now staring directly at Rika, who turned away from his gaze when she felt her cheeks start to feel hot.
Alicia noticed this and glared coldly at Rika. She then turned to Brad, who was now smiling in Rika's direction. "Well, since you two seem to be hitting it off, I'll let yourselves introduce each other." Alicia glared one last time at Rika before walking straight into their homeroom.
Alice, who had just finished taking her books out from her locker, turned around and watched Alicia walk off into the classroom. She frowned and wondered why she would act like that if she had the hots for Henry. But it did make sense that maybe she was a little possessive over Brad, after all, he was in her band. Alice simply shrugged and closed her locker. She then turned to Brad to introduce herself and saw that he was shaking hands with Rika.
Brad smiled warmly at Rika. "Pleasure to meet you. Alicia has told me all about you." He then let go of her hand and waited for her response. But it never came. Rika was just standing there, staring into his eyes. They were cerulean blue, very similar to the colour of the sky, and also very similar to Ryo's eyes.
When Brad raised his eyebrows at her, Rika quickly snapped out of her trance. "Yeah, great. Excuse me." She coldly answered and brushed past him to get to her locker. She furiously twisted her combination so that it would open, but when it didn't, she violently slammed the palm of her hand hard into the locker (A/N: I couldn't even count the amount of times I've done that...). A cold, hard frown creased her features and she turned her head around to see her friends staring at her. She frowned even harder and they quickly turned around, busying themselves with Brad.
Pulling her books out of their places in her locker, Rika thought about what had made something inside of her snap when she had seen Brad's eyes. It was almost like looking into Ryo's, but with a different sense of emotion. Rika had to admit, Brad was rather attractive but she knew she was in love with Ryo. After knowing him for some years, he was beyond attractive in Rika's eyes. But the thought that constantly went over in Rika's head was that the last time she looked into Ryo's eyes, they were full of disappointment and concern.
Rika shuddered and quickly closed her locker. She didn't want to think about Ryo anymore. Not yet, anyway. She just wanted this day to be over so that she could talk more to her grandmother about it. There was no denying it, Seiko Hata was in fact the wisest person Rika knew and she could always rely on her no matter what. Rika ignored the stares her friends and her peers were giving her and walked ignorantly into the classroom, where school awaited her.
Outside, Alice peered around Brad and waited until Rika was out of earshot before reassuring him that Rika often did that. She looked into his eyes for the first time and realised immediately what had repulsed Rika. 'Blue eyes...' "Oh, sorry. I'm Alice, Rika's second best friend."
Brad smiled warmly at Alice as he shook her outstretched hand. "Pleasure to meet you. So, are you a Tamer, too?" Brad's voice had a touch of curiosity in it, obviously because he hadn't seen Alice on television or anything after the D-Reaper incident.
Alice's face slightly faltered, but it was hardly noticeable. "Not really. I guess you could call me something like a messenger. I wasn't really that important to the Tamers." Her voice had a slight trace of disappointment and bitterness in it, but it was really more like sadness.
Brad, however, shook his head and gave a short second smile. "I'm sure you were vital to the Tamers. Don't ever think that your not important, because everyone else knows you are." He then let go of Alice's hand, but not before slightly kissing it. At this, Alice blushed a deep crimson, but quickly recovered and hid her blush with a warm smile.
"Hope you enjoy your first day here." After saying this Alice walked around the sixteen-year-old boy and began walking towards the classroom door. However, a dark blue shirtsleeve caught her eye and her attention. She knew who it belonged to.
Henry was leaning against the wall of the corridor, head down and deep in thought. Alice walked up to him and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Abruptly, Henry snapped up and looked at the culprit with accusing eyes. When he realised who it was, his expression softened and he forced a smile.
Alice smiled back but couldn't help the curious look she was giving him. "Hey, are you ok? You seem kind of distant. Is everything alright?"
Henry nodded his head while he thought of a good excuse. "Yeah, just kinda spaced out, you know." 'Yeah, great excuse, Henry.'
Alice laughed inwardly and nodded once. "Ok, come on." The two walked together into the classroom, while Kazu practically pounced on Brad.
"Can I have your autograph?! I'm your biggest fan, I swear! Look, I even bought two tickets to your next concert!" Kazu held up two small pieces of paper that were obviously the tickets.
Brad looked slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed by Kazu's unorthodox behaviour. "Uh, yeah sure."
Back inside the classroom, everyone was sitting in their usual spots except for Alicia who was standing at the front of the class, completely ignoring the whispers and rumours that seemed to flow straight to her ears.
Finally, or so it seemed, the homeroom teacher finally walked into the class, followed by Kazu and Brad, who came to stand next to Alicia.
"Ok, class. We have two new students, both of whom I'm sure you know very well already. The first is Alicia Nonaka, who is Rika's sister, and the second is Brad Lewis, who is a member of Alicia's band, Devil's Advocates. Please make them both very welcome." Mrs Coniaras then turned to the two teenagers to her left. "Brad you can go sit in the spare seat next to Rika, and Alicia, since Ryo's not here, you can sit in his seat on the other side of Rika. Isn't that amazing, the two sisters sitting next to each other."
Alicia managed to mutter an "extremely" on the way to her seat. She put her books down on the desk and pulled out the chair to sit in it. As soon as her back met the chair, an aurora of bright light appeared in her head. Another one soon followed, except this time two shadowed figures appeared, sitting back to back on two old wooden chairs. They seemed to be somewhat tied to the chairs, as if someone had captured them and was afraid they'd escape. As soon as it had come, the image had completely vanished from Alicia's mind and a strange, eerie feeling of unspoken fear crossed her body. There was something wrong somewhere, and she knew where and who to.
Alicia looked around and realised that the people around her were staring at her. She looked down and noticed that she was standing up, her hands shaking and plastered tightly to the desk in front of her. Her head then snapped up when she heard the teacher's worried voice ask if she was all right. Alicia couldn't speak. The transfixed fear in her stomach had somehow made its way to her mouth. For a minute, she thought she was going to throw up, until a hand was placed on her shoulder. It was Brad's, who was now standing right next her, reassuring her. In that second, the fear vanished and Alicia felt fine. Everything went back to normal and Alicia slowly sat back down in her chair, embarrassed, but didn't really care. All she cared about was what she saw and how she was going to help the two who were being held captive.
~*~*~*~
Ryo groaned slightly and began to open his eyes. At first, he couldn't see at all, and allowed time for his eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. But when he found out that he really couldn't see, a slight fear hit him and inside he began to panic. A sudden thought came to him that he might be blind, or close to it. But as time wore on, he realised that something was covering his head, preventing him from seeing anything.
Ryo tried to take whatever it was that was covering his face off, but struggled when he realised that his hands had been tied behind his back. He was also sitting on something, and something hard was pushing into his back. He began to pull slightly on what he now knew as ropes, and managed to slightly move whatever he was sitting on forward. A grinding sound was heard when the wooden object moved and Ryo's mind registered that he was sitting on a chair and below him was a ground of concrete.
A sharp pain buried deep into Ryo's wrist when he tried twisting the rope around his hands. But to no avail when he felt his blood begin to drip down his arm. Ryo winced slightly at the pain. His mind then wandered back to when he first fell unconscious. He was in a strange building and he began to read what looked like the beginning of a song. The words reflected somewhat of a happening that was about to take place. A sacred happening that would affect the whole world in one way or another.
As soon as Ryo had read the words, a blinding flash of light appeared before him and began to surround the building with golden auroras, one of which surrounded Ryo himself and resulted in him beginning to glow the revered colour. His feelings of despair had been lifted and only the feeling of fullness rested in him. He had felt himself being lifted into the air and pulled through a sort of vortex.
A thought suddenly hit Ryo like a bullet through the chest. He had actually travelled through that vortex so that must mean that he was somewhere that could not be defined as reality. Put simply, he was in another dimension, possibly the Digital World.
A pleased laugh was heard through the hollow building that Ryo was in. Since Ryo didn't recognise it, he thought that it must be his captor. Ryo stiffened himself against the chair that he was sitting on, his back dead straight. There was another sound, this time one of shuffling and moving. Ryo imagined the figure to be walking towards him, a sly smirk plastered on its face.
"My dear Ryo. What have you gotten yourself into?" The finally at last spoke, his voice cold and husk. Yes, his voice. The figure was definitely that of a male, or at least the voice was. If it were a Digimon, then he wouldn't be divided into a gender.
Ryo flinched involuntary in his seat when he heard the piercing voice and spoke his first reaction. "Who are you?" His voice became cold and unpassionate for some unexplainable reason.
The figure laughed again and laid his hand gently on the pouch that was covering Ryo's head. In one swift movement, he roughly pulled it off and kneeled down in front of Ryo so that the teenager could get a good look at who was holding him captive. "Why don't you have a look?"
Ryo's eyes slowly opened because of them being closed for so long and found himself looking straight in the eye of a dark purple Digimon. This Digimon had large wings the same colour as its body and a white skull covered his head. It had white horns, which looked more like antennae sprouting out of the top of the skull. On its shoulders were what looked to be blue shoulder pads and its arms were very skinny but became bulged on the lower arms. Its hands were pale blue and very, very large.
All Ryo could do was stare at such a being. Such a dark, evil being that obviously wanted him for something. Ryo then shut his eyes tightly closed. He felt one of the large hands on top of his head. The hand slightly ruffled his hair then pushed off the top of his head so the Digimon could stand up.
Another pleased laugh was heard, then the voice. "No, it's not a dream. I'm as real as they come and you know it."
"Who are you?" Ryo asked again, his voice was pure ice now. He was angry because of the way this Digimon seemed to be toying with him a little.
An evil chuckle was all that could be heard of the Digimon. He really wanted to anger Ryo for one reason and one reason only. 'The perfect toy, this human.'
~*~*~*~
In one of the corridors of the school, a light purple dinosaur type Digimon with small wings poked its head around one of the doors. It growled with impatience. This Digimon was on a mission: to find that one that his Tamer was so crazy about and tell her something. Something very important and someone's life depended on it.
Monodramon poked his head around another door and his face lit up. There, in the classroom, was Rika Nonaka, the one who could fix this whole mess.
Lucky for him, Rika saw him in the doorway immediately and her head shot up. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to put it, the bell signalling lunch rang and Monodramon panicked and flew into a nearby crevice in the wall outside the classroom.
Students immediately picked their books up and stampeded out of the room, not even waiting for their teacher's official dismissal. All except for Alicia, Brad and Rika. Brad was busy asking Alicia if she was alright after what had happened earlier and Rika was just staring absentmindedly at the doorway where a very anxious Monodramon once stood. Why was he there when Ryo wasn't? Or was Ryo at school this very moment? Or was he in trouble and Monodramon needed help? Jumping at the last question her mind threw at her, Rika hastily picked up her books and ran out of he classroom, all thoughts directed completely on what might have happened to Ryo.
Back in the classroom, Alicia was looking straight ahead of her, too confused and scared to even look at her friend who was looking rather worried about her.
"Alicia, please tell me what happened before in class. You were breathing really heavily and you looked so scared, like you had seen some sort of vision or something." Brad kneeled down beside his friends desk so that he could look at her more carefully.
Hearing his last few words, Alicia decided to tell him; after all he was about the closest person in her life right now. "Ok, when I sat down in the chair, I saw a vision of two figures who were tied to the back of chairs and who were sitting back to back on them. And the thing is, I know who they were and where they are. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but that is not normal. People just don't have premonitions when they all of a sudden sit in a random person's chair." Her voice sounded confused but still hinted of that sarcasm that seemed to never go away.
A thought suddenly hit her hard. That wasn't just a random person's chair she had sat on. It was Ryo Akiyama's, the one who was in the vision Alicia had. The one who was tied to a chair and blindfolded. The one who was in trouble.
Without even thinking another thought, Alicia stood up from her desk and ran as fast as she could out the door and into the corridor, where about fifty people were crowding around something. Something purple, with tiny legs and wings attached to arms.
Peering her way through the crowd, Alicia could make out the features of her twin sister and Henry, who were crouching down to meet the creature's height. She pushed her way selfishly through the crowd to stand next to Rika. Rika looked up to meet her glance and realised the glint of fear in her sister's eyes, something that she had never seen before.
Suppressing her own fear, Rika rose from her crouching position and stood next to her sister. "Ryo's disappeared. He never came home last night and he didn't call or anything. Something's happened to him." Her voice sounded shaky and frightened but Rika tried hard not to expose her feelings for Ryo.
Alicia glanced down at Monodramon before responding. "I know, and I know where he is and how he got there."
~*~*~*~
Ryo winced as a trickle of blood dripped slowly down the side of his mouth. A hard punch had met his mouth when he had tried to break free of the ropes tying his hands behind his back and around a chair.
The Digimon snarled at him but it didn't turn around to meet Ryo's face. "It's useless to try and escape from me. And even if you do, I will kill one of your friends every hour until you are found. If I were you, I wouldn't try that again."
Ryo gingerly looked up from the floor to look at the masculine Digimon. It was crossing its arms across its chest and staring straight in front of itself, never taking its eyes off what was there. Unbeknownst to Ryo, there was a tiny window in front of where the Digimon was standing. It was obviously staring at what was outside the window and was compelled to it.
Without warning the Digimon disappeared into thin air with a faint red line around it. Ryo relaxed involuntarily and allowed his head to sink down to his chest. It was then that he heard a faint whimper from behind him. Impulsively, he turned his head around and gasped at what he saw. A girl of about sixteen with blue eyes and blonde hair had been tied to a chair and blindfolded. She was adjacent to Ryo, as her chair had been resting against his this whole time. Ryo was at lost for words and actions. He was completely awestruck by the fact that she had been there the whole time he was taking a beating and she didn't even make a noise. Then Ryo thought that she might have been unconscious for that time and she had just woken up. Wide-eyed, Ryo slowly turned around and let his mind wander. Why was this girl here, and more importantly, how did she get here?
"I'm sorry for not talking or saying anything before, Ryo." The girl spoke for the first, her voice hardly anything more than a whisper. Ryo immediately turned around and looked again at the girl. How did she know his name?
Ryo didn't really know what to say, or more like he didn't know how to say what was forming in his brain. Eventually, he thought he should talk. "It's ok, but..." He stopped, thinking about how he should phrase what he was going to say next. "How did you know my name and how did you get here?"
The girl slowly sighed. "My name is Stacie Tseng and I used to be a huge fan of yours. I even started to play the Digimon card game because of you. To cut a long story short, a couple of days ago I was walking towards this building I had seen about a week before. It was an old building...anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with it. I walked in and began to read off this piece of paper, the same one you read off. The next thing I knew, I was being lifted into the air and then I woke up here, in the Digital World, the world that I longed to venture in before I actually did. And now, I'm regretting what I did." Stacie stopped abruptly and Ryo could tell she didn't what to go much further.
Ryo took a long breath in and held it there for a few seconds. His mind raced rapidly and all he could think about was the fact that this was the Digital World he was in and he was definitely in trouble. Big trouble and he didn't know if he could get of it this time. He exhaled slowly and thought about what was next. "So, what's going to happen to us next?"
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A/N: Yeah, I know cliffy, I'm evil. So now we know what happened to the mysterious Stacie Tseng and how she disappeared but we are yet to find out what she and Ryo are needed for. And who's gonna rescue them from the evil clutched of the captor Digimon? Will it be Rika and the other Tamers, or possibly the Devil's Advocates? All will be revealed in the next chapter along with some surprises. Keep tuned and thanks for reading this fic and reviewing, I really, really appreciate it.
Floramon: Yeah, me too. Please review! Peace out.