Chapter 17: Courageous or Stupid?
"Destroy every human you find! Absorb all the data you can! Leave no one alive!" Myotismon shouted orders to the marching digimon army as they neared the city. People on the sidewalks stared for a moment as we came into sight, but soon began to panic and run. The army broke its march and began running full speed. A minute later, the wave of green, black, and white spilled into the city streets from the park the camp was located in on the east side of the city. People ran and screamed as the Ogremon attacked the crowds, breaking people into data effortlessly and absorbing them just as fast. It was a massacre.
I reached the street and noticed how many people were escaping into buildings without pursuit; unacceptable. I ran up to one building and smashed through the doors, which had been hastily barred with an office desk. The desk was thrown back and I walked inside. A man quickly ran up to me from the edge of the room, where dozens of people cowered against the walls.
"Are you okay son?" The man looked me over and decided I was fine. He turned around and ran over to the desk I had blown away, now on the other side of the room. "Quick, help me bar the door again!" I stayed where I was. "Well?" Finally, I walked up to the man.
"Why would I want to do that?" The man's eyes grew wide. "Zero Fist!" I punched the man, slamming him against the wall, making a crater in it. People turned away and screamed. I didn't understand why they didn't simply run up the stairwell on the far left side of the room. The man fell off the wall and crumpled on the floor. He was still alive, but barely.
"Please stop! Don't hurt him!" A little girl ran up to the man. "Don't hurt my daddy!" I pulled back my arm to attack, but hesitated. Tears ran down the child's eyes. I couldn't bring myself to do it; I just couldn't kill an innocent child while looking her in the face. So, I turned around, held both my arms out to my sides, and closed my eyes.
"Dark Storm!!!" Bolts of energy shot from my palms and jumped from person to person, flying about the room. I heard no screams or yells, only the sound of the bolts striking each person. They came back, carrying all the data from the people, the room emptied of all life except me. I walked over to the stairwell and pulled on the door—locked. I yanked a little harder and it popped open. More people were hiding on the next floor; they had forsaken the others in fear.. "That wasn't nice to sacrifice all of your 'friends' like that. You need to be taught a lesson. Dark Storm!!!" Each floor was the same. I would reach it, find people in various rooms and would take their data without looking at them, but it became easier for me to stand with each floor. Finally, I reached the last office. In it, there was only a little boy, playing with a toy car. It must have been the office of one of his parents.
"Are you the man that mommy said was going to come and get me?" The child stopped rolling the car and looked at me innocently.
"Sure am. Zero Fist!" My conscious bothered me no longer. I absorbed the boy's data and left the building. As I stepped outside, I looked around again. The tail end of the force was entering the city, looking for people still remaining. "Break into the buildings! There are hordes of survivors hiding within!" Two Ogremon heeded me and broke through a door. I could hear screams from inside. Other digimon began to follow my advice. I smiled and began to move on to other targets, but something caught my eye. I looked up in the sky and thought I saw something pink flying around. I laughed and moved on. The pink thing flew off quickly to the inner city.
"Oh my God." Jennifer looked at the army of Ogremon stampeding down the street. They were about a mile away now. Everybody was there and ready. Each digimon stood by their partner ready to digivolve at a moment's notice. Jennifer, Joey, Chris, Agumon, Kristen, and Tentomon all stood up front, with the 02' digidestined behind them, and the original digidestined in the back. Tai and Izzy stood behind everybody. "Everybody ready?" There was a shouting of agreement. "Then let's do this! Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to... Kazemon!" The light cleared, but Jennifer's digivice continued to glow pink. "Kazemon digivolve to Arashimon!" The others followed suit.
"Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to... Kumamon!"
"Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!"
"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon!"
"We'll stay back here ready if you guys need help!" TK yelled to the six, already headed to the Ogremon, who were now within firing distance. Arashimon took first shot.
"Fujita Cannon!" The blast charged up and fired, tearing through a dozen Ogremon before stopping. Data flew everywhere. "How many of these guys are there!" Ogremon began to tackle and pound on Arashimon.
"Blizzard Blaster!" Kumamon scattered shots on the digimon dog-piling on Arashimon.
"Nova Blast!" Greymon blew apart some Bakemon who were chasing a woman, swinging her purse about trying to get them away.
"Electro Shocker!" Kabuterimon fired into the middle of the Ogremon from above, sending a wave of electricity through it. As the fight raged on, Ogremon and Bakemon in the back began to spread through the streets.
"Come on Greymon! We can't let them through!" Chris shouted at his partner, who was pushing back on some Ogremon between Nova Blasts.
"There are too many of them!" Greymon struggled against the mob, as clubs beat against his face. Arashimon and Kumamon fired another volley of wind, energy, and snow into the Bakemon. Data showered the street.
"Don't give up! We have to stop them here!" Suddenly, a dozen Bakemon came from the buildings behind Chris, flying straight at the others, who were waiting for the word. Ogremon began to spill past the Americans, going down other streets.
"Come on guys! They can't do it alone!" Tai called out to his friends. "Let's show them how it's done!"
"Gabumon digivolve to... Garurumon!"
"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!"
"Palmon digivolve to... Togemon!"
"Gomamon digivolve to... Ikakumon!"
"Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!"
"Gatomon digivolve to... Angewomon!"
"Veemon digivolve to... Xveemon!"
"Hawkmon digivolve to... Aquilamon!"
"Armadillomon digivolve to... Ankylomon!"
"Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!"
"Everybody split up two or three to a street! We have to try and cover as many as possible!" Izzy shouted out battle plans as the Ogremon began to move in. The digidestined were beginning to become surrounded, trying to fight off the digimon at the street intersections. Ikakumon and Togemon one street, Xveemon and Stingmon another, Armadillomon and Aquilamon on the next one, Garurumon and Birdramon on one of the streets behind everybody else, and finally Angemon and Angewomon flying about wherever they were needed most. Tai and Izzy ran up to help Chris and the others, who were becoming exhausted. Arashimon was firing blindly into the mob, no longer trying to hit any one digimon in particular; it was devastating, but still not enough. Kabuterimon and Greymon had paired up to try and just stay in the fight. Kumamon stood behind them, steadily firing snowballs into the Bakemon trying to fly past.
"Come on Greymon! Show em' who's boss!" Chris cheered on his partner as he took another club to the chest. His knees buckled a moment before he attacked again.
"Calm down Chris! Can't you see he's exhausted!?" Kristen yelled at Chris as she dragged debris out from nearby buildings to make a roadblock.
"Hey, don't yell at me for having the guts to fight against these odds!" Chris yelled back at Kristen as Tai and Izzy began to help her with the roadblock.
"There is a difference between being brave and being stupid Chris." Tai stopped what he was doing looked at Chris. "Courage is fighting when you truly believe you will win, no matter what others think. It's putting aside your fears to accomplish what they would stop. Fighting a fight you know you'll lose isn't brave, it's idiotic." Tai dragged a bench into the street. Kabuterimon was thrown back by a Bakemon and landed behind them. He devolved back to Tentomon and moaned.
"There is just too many of them! I'm sorry I couldn't fight harder Kristen." Kristen ran up to her injured digimon.
"Don't worry about it. If we lose here we can always retreat and regroup. You fought as hard as you could and that is all that matters!" Kristen helped Tentomon to his feet.
"Retreat!?" Chris had turned around at hearing this, ignoring the beating Greymon was taking. "We can't retreat! If we retreat they will just chase us down and take the whole city! We have to make our stand here!" The attack subsided a little; the Ogremon and Bakemon had stopped coming down the street and only the ones still remaining were to be dealt with. "See! We've already beat them! And you wanted to retreat." Chris sneered at Kristen and ran up to Greymon, who was still firing Nova Blasts.
"Nova Blast! Chris, get back! It's too dangerous!" Greymon turned his head a little, seeing Chris running up to him. Meanwhile, an Ogremon jumped on him, knocking him down.
"Don't be afraid for me or yourself Greymon! We can take anything!" Chris walked leisurely around as Kumamon shot down a Bakemon who flew towards him.
"Chris get back here! Don't put yourself in danger like that! You'll make him...!" Tai began to yell at Chris but was cut off by Arashimon.
"Look!" She landed. The attack had stopped. Data showered the street from destroyed Ogremon and Bakemon. There were still many left, but they had stopped coming down the street, going to the streets a block or more down, where the others were still busy fighting. Instead, just two creatures came walking slowly down the street. Arashimon fell to her knees and breathed heavily, exhausted from fighting. Everybody else looked up and dropped what they were doing, ready to fight harder.
"Oh now, don't mind me. I'm only here for a minute. I'd prefer to pay a visit to your neighbors on the other street. I still have a score to settle with those damned angels you know." Myotismon laughed and walked off, leaving me standing in the street before an exhausted Arashimon, battered Greymon, and bruised Kumamon.
"James! Please, don't make us fight." Arashimon slowly stood up, her armor rattling. "Myotismon is controlling you, you have to see that!" I laughed at Arashimon and took a few more steps closer.
"Myotismon is controlling ME? Oh no Jennifer, I am controlling Myotismon if anything. You see, I am the more powerful of us." I continued walking as Arashimon prepared to attack. "What's wrong? Don't trust me anymore? I can see why, heh. No Jennifer, nobody is controlling me. This is all of my free will. I have the power now that I've always wanted, needed." Arashimon aimed. "Go ahead, fire on me. You think you can stop me just because you've become an Ultimate? You wouldn't be able to scratch me at full power, let alone in the sad state you are in now."
"FUJITA CANNON!!!" Arashimon let loose and the shot came tearing at me, low to the street, tearing up asphalt as it went. I held out my hand and focused. The attack slowed and came to a stop in front of me. "What, but... that's impossible!" Arashimon took a step back, shocked that I had stopped her attack. The blast broke into data and I lowered my hand.
"My turn."
"Get out of there Arashimon!" Izzy yelled at her as Tai hauled everybody else into a building. Greymon stood outside though, refusing to devolve. Kumamon argued with Tai as well.
"But I'm not done fighting! Lemme at him! If we can work together, we can get him back to normal!" Kumamon struggled against Tai as he shoved him into the building.
"Zero Fist!" I sprinted forward and jumped up at Arashimon, who had took to the air to dodge me, but wasn't fast enough. I hit her square in her breastplate, which bent inward from my attack. She flew back and smashed into the street. A few moments later, she devolved. Everybody stared in shock from inside. Kumamon fought wildly against Tai who pinned him to the floor.
"We can't do anything to that! We have to get out of here!" Tai looked over at the elevators. "Can you still digivolve Tentomon?"
"Wait!" Chris turned on Tai. "What about Jennifer!? We can't just leave her here!"
"If we go out there we'll be killed! She's on her own now!" Tai screamed at Chris, only half confident in what he was saying.
"Coward." Chris shot Tai a disgusted look and ran outside. Greymon struggled to his feet as Chris ran out towards Jennifer. I was standing over her by this time, adding insult to injury..
"You are even more beautiful devolved." Jennifer spat on me. "Now that wasn't necessary. I hoped maybe you would give me a kiss before I absorbed your data, but I guess not. Don't worry; I'll be sure to reconfigure you as a servant. It won't be so bad."
"Jennifer, Heads up!" Chris ran by and grabbed Jennifer's arm, pulling her out of the hole. He led her into another building across the street and turned to face me. "If Matt can take you, I can." He balled up his fists and charged at me. I easily dodged his blows.
"That was a fluke. Zero Fist!" I grabbed hold of Chris' arm and jabbed him in the gut. He would have flown back, but I held tightly to attack again. "Zero Fist!" He screamed in pain. "Mr. Courage's bravery leads to his death. Interesting."
"Nova Blast!" Greymon fired on my back, but I focused and destroyed the ball of flame without turning or lifting a hand to it. "Chris! Don't worry! If you can take the pain, I can too!" Chris' digivice glowed brightly; the Crest of Courage showing brilliantly.
"Damnit." I threw Chris to the ground and he gladly stayed there, struggling to breathe.
"Greymon digivolve to... Metalgreymon!" Metalgreymon towered over me and looked down, growling. "Giga Blaster!" The armor on his chest opened up and two large missiles flew at me. I held up both hands and focused, stopping the missiles and destroying them, but only barely. He opened up fire again a moment later. "Giga Blaster!" The missiles hit this time, as I was still reeling from the last two. I was thrown back, but landed on my feet.
"You'll pay for that." I threw off my shades and held out my arms. "Dark Storm!" The bolts shot out and hit Metalgreymon, jumping off him and back into him over and over. He howled in pain.
"Stop it!" Tai had run up behind me and slugged me across the back of my head. I spun around and he punched me again. As he pummeled into me, the bolts of energy stopped and came back. Normally I would have absorbed them, but Tai was in the way, so he was hit. He screamed in pain.
"Izzy! Get them out of here! We'll take care of the rest!" Matt tackled me off of Tai, who had run in to help from the neighboring street. Metalgreymon had devolved to Koromon and was carried off by Chris, who was supported by Kumamon. They ran to the elevators of the building and went up, planning to fly away on Kabuterimon's back. Jennifer was up and leaning in the doorway, watching in horror. Matt rolled me over and pinned me to the ground, holding my arms behind my back like he was a cop. "James, snap out of it! You have to fight off the Memoriamon!"
"Let go of me!" I struggled against Matt, as he pressed down harder.
"I went through the same thing as you. They feed on the darkness of your heart and overwhelm you! I was lucky I broke free. You have to fight off the fear they live on." Jennifer walked up and looked down.
"You have no idea what I've been through!" I screamed and struggled harder.
"Yes I do, you just have to believe me! Jennifer, help me!" Matt was beginning to get tired, fast."
"Then why is TK still here?" I stopped squirming and spoke calmly, coldly. I could hear Ogremon raging about all around the city streets around the one we were on. The others had finally been beaten back and were retreating. Matt had run to deliver the news to everybody, reaching us last. He was taken aback by this question.
"Why is TK still here? If you've been through what I have then explain to me where you got the strength to defend your little brother." I shifted my head to the side so I could look him in the face. Jennifer gasped at the sight of my slate grey eyes.
"I wasn't strong enough. He defended himself when I couldn't. Hell, he saved me more than I saved him." Matt stared at me, hoping the 'brutal' truth would convert me, but it didn't—not by a long shot.
"Oh yeah? Well imagine if he couldn't defend himself. Imagine if you were the one that always had to fight, and always lose. Imagine that you were taken from your parents and wasn't strong enough to defend yourself from the world, let alone your little brother. Imagine if one day you finally lost one too many fights and lost the war."
"What are you talking about!?" Matt had pushed himself up, but still pinned me to the ground.
"I wasn't strong enough to save my brother. You want to know why I'm doing this, why I fight? I want power. I want enough power so that I won't ever fail again. I want power to change what happened that day and on every other day. I want power to change the world; make the world; destroy the world. AND I'LL DO ANYTHING TO GET THAT POWER, EVEN IF IT MEANS LOSING MY SOUL TO THIS PAIN FOREVER!!!" I screamed and jumped up, throwing Matt back a few yards. "ZERO FIST!!!" I ran up and hit Matt in the chest, hearing bones break. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. The entire street seemed to go silent; the sound of my attack could be heard across the city.
"James! Please don't!" Jennifer ran up to me, but I kicked her away. Kabuterimon began to fly down.
"ZERO FIST!!!" I slammed Matt again, nearly shattering his face. He bled all over my gloves and fell unconscious. Kabuterimon flew down in a strafe, close enough for Izzy to pick up Jennifer. Kristen rode up front, hanging onto Kabuterimon's head.
"Matt! Get up!" Izzy yelled at his friend.
"FEEL MY PAIN, MY SORROW... MY NIGHTMARE!!! ZERO FIST!!!" I punched Matt one last time, and he broke into data.
"NO!!!" Izzy screamed from the digimon, as he flew up from his second strafe, no longer able to pick up Matt, obviously.
"JAMES, STOP!!!" Kristen yelled from the back of her partner.
"We can't help him anymore." Jennifer muttered as tears flowed from her eyes, watching me absorb Matt's data. "We have to get out of here. We have to get out of town." Kristen rubbed her eyes and pulled on Kabuterimon's head, signaling him to pull up.
"Hold... on." Kabuterimon flew up at a steep incline and leveled out about a thousand feet from the ground. Everybody looked around. There were thousands of Ogremon and Bakemon, flowing through the city. They destroyed, killed, and absorbed the data of every living thing in their path. At the center of it stood Myotismon, his whip rolled in his hand. He was a bit roughed up, but looked like he was in a victorious mood. "He didn't..." Jennifer turned to Izzy.
"No, but he fought them off. Kristen, take us that way." Izzy pointed to a spec in the distant sky: Aquilamon." Kristen merely nodded and Kabuterimon flew in the direction Izzy had pointed. As they flew off, I stood in the street, still empty and torn apart from the fighting. I was breathing heavily and looked around. I picked up my shades and put them back on. Down the street I noticed a music store with the display window shattered. I walked up to it and went inside. In a case stood an acoustic guitar, polished to mirror status.
"Hmmm, I didn't know how to play before." I opened the case and took down the guitar. "But I do now, heh." I strummed it and tuned it a bit to my liking. "Thanks Matt, I always wanted to play the guitar." I laughed a little more and walked out of the store.
"I don't see how they beat you before Myotismon. Either you are weaker than you seem, or they caught you off guard." I was playing the tune to a song I liked, my shades sitting next to me on the ledge of the building. I sat on the edge, mumbling lyrics here and there as I went along. "...holding on is harder than it seems..." The sun was setting as we stood on top of a skyscraper, looking at the digimon army, still ravaging the city. The digidestined were long gone.
"The angels are more powerful than you think they are. You haven't faced anything yet James."
"And yet I've already destroyed one digidestined and nearly killed the others? I don't think it gets much harder." I continued to play the guitar as I spoke.
"What?" Myotismon turned to me. "Who did you destroy; whose data do you have?" I tapped the guitar and Myotismon laughed. "You know what this means, don't you?"
"That I'm the lead singer of a band?" I let out a low chuckle.
"No, that there is one less Mega for us to worry about." I stopped playing and turned to look at Myotismon. "You took him out before he could revive his virtue. If much more time had passed, we may have had to fight Metalgarurumon. That can't happen now." I smiled, turned away, and started playing again.
"I haven't been evil for a month, but have already done more than any other dark digimon has been able to ever do. This is including thousands of years that you all have been in the digital world. Why is that? Oh yeah, I'm more powerful than..."
"Shut up." Myotismon didn't allow me to finish that sentence. "Don't be arrogant. You are able to do this because we showed you how to do this." Myotismon turned around and headed to the stairwell.
"Where are you going?" I stopped playing again and looked at the sunset.
"I'm going to check on the captains about the status of the troops. We lost quite a few against them." He opened the door but stopped and turned his head back to me. "Do you plan to go back to the battle tonight? When I last checked we were still fighting of the stragglers at the police stations. Those pistols are more powerful against us than we had expected." Digimon hadn't had much contact with human firearms.
"No, I plan to sit here for the rest of the night. I'm making my headquarters in this building."
"Headquarters of what? You have no troops!" Myotismon yelled at me.
"Then I'll make some." I stopped playing for a moment and focused a sphere of dark energy in the palm of my glove.
"Who would be your captains?" Myotismon asked, intrigued at my plans.
"I don't know. Maybe I could reconfigure the digidestined I kill and bring them to our cause. Anybody I make is a slave to me." I reabsorbed the orb and played again. Myotismon laughed and walked down the stairwell, closing the door behind me. I started playing a different tune.
"In the end... it doesn't even matter..."