Chapter 9: Vindicated
"You know it's not normal to be blushing this long after a little kiss on the cheek," Izzy told Kari, "especially if you hate the kisser."
Kari looked away. To tell the truth she wasn't blushing because of the kiss anymore. She was blushing because of what she had felt with her pinned hand. Suffice it to say TK had been very excited, and he wasn't lacking any substance to back it up.
Not that she was the best judge, as she only had one other experience with that part of the male anatomy. And the other encounter wasn't exactly on her list of favorite memories, not by a long shot. She was now blushing for a different reason; during that other time she had cried out to Takeru at her peak.
They were walking through the woods following a pair of signals Izzy had found on his laptop which they hoped were the two Americans. TK and Patamon were at the rear and TK was doing some serious thinking while he walked.
TK had come to America to get back together with Kari. Somewhere along the way he had wound up in a million little subplots. There was Piedmon, Izzy and his drugs, the Dark Ocean, Kari and Richard, whether or not he could trust Jack or Melissa for that matter.
TK looked over at Kari. He knew why she was blushing; he had felt it too of course. Odd that someone who said she hated him so much would be so embarrassed by an accidental feel of his crotch. All it did was back up his theory that she was still in love with him and just didn't know it yet.
They were in the dessert, still. All around them as far as the eye could see was sand. "You're a real living compass." Jack commented dryly.
"I don't see you having any bright ideas, oh wilderness expert." Melissa shot back.
Jack sighed, "I do forests and swamps." he told her. "My dessert experience is limited to the kindergarten sandbox."
Melissa shrugged, "Same with me. At least the desert here is flat." Sure enough the area around them was a large flat plain, of sand.
"Yeah, we're wandering through a desert with no food or water; at least it's flat around here." Jack commented sarcastically. He cracked his neck, "At least it can't get any worse."
"I wouldn't say that." said a voice from ahead of them. A lone digimon rose to its feet from the sand. The digimon was tall and humanoid; it was covered in an old cloak, and held a staff with an owl on it. "I am Magimon." it stated.
Jack and Melissa exchanged glances, neither one knew what to make of this. "What do you want?" Bonemon demanded.
"Your heads." Magimon stated twirling the staff into attack position.
"Bone Club!" Bonemon yelled as he leapt forward, bring the bone he held as a weapon down onto Magimon.
He hit nothing but sand. "Nice try." Magimon stated from where he was hovering in the air. "However a wimpy rookie like you will not be able to win."
Jack pushed Melissa behind himself, "We'll handle this." he told her as he gripped his digivice tighter. "Go for it Bonemon!" he yelled.
"Bonemon digivolved to Skelemon." the three foot tall skeleton grew to a good seven feet while his club sprouted a blade and became a sword. "Bone sword!" Skelemon yelled as he leapt into the air and began to slash rapidly at Magimon.
Magimon deflected each and every blow with ease. "You are still too weak to even scratch me." Magimon stated.
Skelemon leapt back into the air. "Bone Boomerang!" he yelled as he threw his sword at his foe. Magimon dodged the attack but Skelemon grabbed his staff. Skelemon planted his foot in Magimon's stomach and kicked. The two flew through the air connected by the staff. This put Magimon in the path of the returning sword.
Magimon hit the ground with a thud and Skelemon landed nimbly a few yards away catching his sword with ease. "Not a bad bit of luck." Magimon stated rising easily to its feet.
"Not luck, skill." Skelemon stated turning to face his opponent.
On the sidelines Jack began to sift through his pockets looking for something. "What are you doing?" Melissa inquired.
"An old superstition I heard about when I was younger," Jack said without looking up, "something about bringing luck to oneself." He pulled an object out of his pocket, and Melissa raised an eyebrow at it, "Hundred sided die." he told her.
Jack tossed it in the air, "27." he called out it landed a 39. "Sixteen." He said repeating the toss, it was an 86. "Third time's the charm." he told her before tossing it again. "62." It landed a 62 and a small deep green glow began underneath his shirt. Jack missed the next three guesses and the glow under his shirt all but vanished. As he prepared for the seventh throw he heard Melissa mumble something about 'lucky seven' he smiled. "Seven." he said as he tossed it, the die landed as a seven. He had just guessed seven on the seventh toss and gotten a seven. "Lucky seven." Jack said before the light burst out again stronger than ever before.
A glow of the same color built up around Skelemon. Both Jack and Melissa stared in shock as Skelemon digivolved. An old black cloak covered him leaving only his face visible, the sword's handle lengthened and the blade changed position and shape, quickly becoming a staff. "I am Necromon." the new digimon stated.
Magimon smiled, "Finally." it whispered. Magimon flew forwards bring his staff down in a deadly arc, but Necromon blocked. Necromon retaliated with his own slash but Magimon blocked. And so it went, attack and block, attack and block. The two digimon paused in their attacks for a moment floating high in the air. Magimon smirked and pointed his staff at the humans, "Magical beam."
Melissa pushed Jack to the ground as soon as the staff pointed towards them. As Jack fell he yanked her down with him. The beam hit the place they had been a moment earlier and sent up a wave of sand that buried them.
Everything was perfect in Magimon's mind. The humans were dead and now Necromon would use his powers to bring them back; unwittingly reviving Dragoramon, the most powerful digimon of all time. "It seems your friends are dead." Magimon told Necromon.
"Oh are they. I think you missed." Necromon stated calmly. Magimon looked down in time to see a pair of heads poke out of the sand. How had they survived the attack, because they surely couldn't have avoided it? "Dark slash." Magimon spun in surprise and saw the crescent of energy at the last second. It was the last thing he saw.
Necromon landed on the ground and dedigivolved into Skullmon. "I did it!" he yelled happily as he bounced up to the two sand covered humans.
"You sure did." Melissa said patting him on the head.
"Good job buddy." Jack said.
Without warning Melissa threw her arms around Jack. "My hero!" she declared as they both fell back onto the sand.
They were flying now, TK on Pegasusmon, Kari on Nefertimon, and Izzy on Kabuterimon. They were following a canyon out to a desert where Izzy was sure they would find the Americans. The trip had been uneventful so far but TK had a bad felling about it.
All of the sudden the air around them was suffused with the sound of buzzing. "Brown stinger." a hail of brown spikes rained into Nefertimon's side and she fell from the sky. Falling alongside her was Kari.
TK nearly threw himself off Pegasusmon in order to catch Kari's hand. When he grabbed it her momentum nearly finished the job. "Are you okay?" he asked her as Pegasusmon flew over to the edge of the canyon.
Kari looked back at him wide eyed. "T, TK." she stuttered stunned.
"Brown stinger." this attack was aimed at Pegasusmon. He dodged it, but TK lost his balance and the two humans fell to the ground which, luckily, wasn't much of a drop.
On the ground TK saw the Flymon coming in for another attack and threw himself in front of Kari. As he watched the Flymon's stinger get ready to fire TK realized he was likely going to die. Then Kari tackled him from behind.
"Star shower!"
"Electro-shocker!"
"Cat's eye beam!"
Completely stunned by the ferocity of the counterattack Flymon retreated into the woods.
TK suddenly became aware of something soaking into the back of his shirt. "Kari are you," he rolled over afraid that the girl had been injured only to find that while her face was wet it wasn't blood, "crying?"
Kari glared back at him through tear filled eyes. Without warning she slapped him, "You selfish jerk!" she yelled, "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed." She was now openly weeping, tears flowing freely down her face. "Don't you ever do something that stupid ever again." she commanded. She buried her face in TK's chest, "I love you too much Takeru, I don't want to lose you."
TK gently stroked her hair, "It's okay Hika; I'm not going to leave you, not now not ever." Kari looked up at the use of her old nickname and TK kissed her on her forehead. "I love you too Kari, I love you too." he whispered.
"Hate to interrupt your loving moment," Izzy said, "but there was just some weird energy spike near those two signals and I have a feeling it's not good."
"I'm tired." Melissa whined; Jack ignored her. "I'm tired and my legs hurt." Jack continued ignoring her. "I'm tired, and my legs hurt, and I'm all sandy, and I'm thirsty." Melissa whined even louder.
"Will you just shut up!" Jack yelled. "We're all tired, and sandy, and the only thing around here for you too drink comes out of my cock and it isn't happening 'cause I'm not into sex in the sand!" Jack shook his head and sped up.
Melissa smiled; it was so much fun to piss him off. "So what was that glowy thing under your shirt back at the fight?" she asked.
Jack looked back at her still scowling, "Glowy thing?" He thought for a second and pulled out a small pendant with an animalistic figure holding a spear engraved on it. "I guess you mean this thing," he said, "it's just a good luck charm I've had since I was a kid." He put it back under his shirt.
"What do the little red dots on the digiwhatchamacallit mean?" Melissa asked.
"Read the instruction manual." Jack told her.
"I didn't get one." Melissa said fiddling with the buttons on her digivice.
Jack shrugged, "Neither did I. Maybe Skullmon can help."
Melissa poked the little digimon on her shoulder, "He's still asleep." she announced.
"Why'd I have to get a skeletal digimon?" Jack complained. "Anything else and we could've eaten it by now."
"That's weird, there's only one dot on it now." Melissa said she was still fiddling with her digivice.
"Need any help?" a voice asked from above them. They looked up and saw a giant bug, and a horse and sphinx with wings. Izzy was on the bug, and TK and Kari were on the horse. Kari was smiling.
"Go away and come back yesterday." Melissa called up jokingly.
Nefertimon swooped down and landed next to them. "Get on." she told the Americans. They complied and the nine of them soared off away from the dessert.
In the center of the dessert there stood an enormous, ancient, and decrepit castle. Deep within the castle a small amphibian hopped around; the castle was almost ready for its new master, the new Digimon Kaizer.