Note to readers: All end-of-chapter author's notes are now on a Yahoo group. Check for the link in my bio.
Eternal Conflict
Amalgamation
Chapter 13: Interlude
.o0o.
Hikari held the wooden pole of the spear tightly with both hands, her eyes taking notice of the blunt arrowhead on the top of the pole.
She and Mimi were in another of the practice rooms (there were a lot of them). Mimi was wearing a green tank top with a pair tight green workout shorts. A humanoid robot was standing to the side of them, and Mimi's body was slightly turned towards it, a chrome spear held in her right hand. The droid was a chrome color, and it seemed to just be a walking skeleton, complete with a spear in its right hand.
"This is a practice droid." Mimi explained. Hikari looked at the girl who was supposed to be teaching her, a confused look on her face. Mimi noticed this. "Don't even ask me how it works, just know that it does."
"Who designed it?" Hikari asked in a skeptical tone.
"Ken-kun and Steve did." Mimi answered.
"What's the point of it?" the brown haired girl asked.
"It has settings for various levels of combat for training." Mimi answered. "The main reason we're using it is because I'm not an advocate of the 'beat the crap out of your student approach to teaching'." Mimi answered.
"You mean someone here is?" Hikari asked anxiously.
"Takeru-kun." Mimi answered simply. Hikari paled, which Mimi quickly noticed. "You shouldn't have to worry though." The older girl added. "Takeru-kun may be rough in training, but he won't hurt them."
Hikari relaxed at hearing that news, but only slightly.
"Anyway, before we start out with that droid, I'm going to show you some basics in using a spear." Mimi said, slipping into a fighting stance, positioning her spear in front of her body, using both hands to support it, before she lunged in a motion with all of her strength downward, stabbing down with the spear, the metal arrowhead clanging against the ground as she did so. "This type of lunge should very rarely be used, especially of you're fighting against multiple enemies." Mimi explained. She then moved upward in a short strike with the spear, the arrowhead going through the air.
"Short strikes like that are usually a better idea than the lunges." Mimi stated. "It doesn't keep you open as much and allows you to keep control of your weapon, so you can redirect it towards any threats that you find."
"I assume that throwing the spear is a stupid move to make." Hikari answered.
"Depends on how many of them that you have." Mimi answered, before moving the spear sideways in front of her chest, her hands holding both right below the sideways arrowhead, and at the end of the spear. "This, obviously, is a block." Mimi then returned to a neutral stance, her spear tip resting against the ground.
A question came to Hikari's mind. "Why bother having me and Chizuru-san learning different martial arts forms than the others?"
Mimi thought about what she had to say before answering. "It usually has to do with what Digimon your partner's Ultimate form has a chance of being. In your case, there are only a few things that an Angewomon could evolve into. She can either evolve into Holydramon, Ophanimon, Babamon, Crossmon, or Rosemon. Holydramon is a pure dragon digimon, so there isn't any equivalent weapon that you can train in, while Crossmon is an eagle digimon, so once again there is no weapon to train in. Rosemon and Ophanimon both use types of spears. And if Tailmon ever evolves into a Babamon then we're all going to die."
"So V-mon, Hawkmon, and Armadimon's Ultimate forms are going to use swords?" Hikari asked.
"In V-mon's case, its either that or a large beam of mass destruction. For Hawkmon, that's pretty much it." Mimi paused. "However, Armadimon has a low chance of gaining an Ultimate form that uses a sword. Gennai just thought it would be best for Iori to train more in a weapon that he already knows."
Hikari didn't say anything. Mimi looked at her. "Are you ready to test yourself against this droid?" the older girl said, pointing towards the robot.
Hikari didn't answer, but since Mimi could see the determined look in her eyes, she didn't need to. "Alright then." Mimi said, before she moved towards the back of the droid and pressed a switch. The droid's eyes glowed red and looked towards Hikari.
"TRAINING DROID ACTIVATED." The droid stated in a monotone voice. "BATTLE MODE: SPEAR. DIFFICULTLY LEVEL: NOVICE. TARGET AQUIRED."
After hearing that statement, Hikari tried to emulate the stance that Mimi showed her, and actually managed it decently, only a little bit shaky. "TARGET IDENTIFIED: YAGAMI HIKARI."
After that statement, the droid charged towards the Child of Light, its spear poised over its head. The droid thrust down at Hikari's chest. Hikari jumped out of the way, causing the droid's spear to miss, and impact with the ground, although there wasn't any clanging sound.
Hikari then noticed something. The droids attack had left it wide open. 'I should strike now.' The brunette thought, and charged towards the droid, thrusting the spear at its head. The spear connected with a large clang sound and the droid seemed to deactivate, before its eyes glowed again.
"NOVICE ONE LEVEL DEFEATED. DIFFUCULTY LEVEL UPGRADE: NOVICE TWO."
The droid turned its attention back to her and charged at her again, the spear raised to attack. Hikari dodged as the droid once against stabbed with the spear, but the droid used a more controlled strike this time, and didn't leave Hikari an opening. The droid raised the spear again and slashed downward at Hikari. Hikari brought the spear up to block, the two spears colliding. Hikari strained under the strength of the practice droid.
After a few second's Hikari and the droid broke away, and Hikari panted. The droid charged towards her again, slashing with the spear. Hikari ducked and quickly stabbed the droid in the chest.
Mimi looked impressed. 'Gennai was right.' The older girl thought. 'She's a natural at this.'
The droid deactivated, and then quickly activated again. "NOVICE TWO LEVEL DEFEATED. DIFFUCULTY LEVEL UPGRADE: NOVICE THREE."
Hikari's eyes widened as the droid's spear connected with her chest, sending her crashing into the floor. The droid then deactivated, this time actually turning off.
"Are you alright?" Mimi asked, walking over to the eleven-year-old girl, a hand extended. Hikari grabbed it and stood up, panting.
"I'll be fine." Hikari managed out.
"You're a natural at this." Mimi said. "Most people can't even beat the first novice level when they start out."
Hikari didn't really seem interested in how much better she was than other people.
.o0o.
Ken was in pain.
The black haired child looked around the bleak holding cell, noticing that all of the metal was black. He was chained up against the wall, his arms spread. Blood was dripping from cuts on his chest from Orochimon's fangs.
'I've been captured.' Ken though, dismayed. 'How?'
The door to the cell opened, and Ryo walked in. Ken glared at him.
"You have something I want." The Digimon Kaiser said simply as he walked over towards Ken and raised his hand. Black light glowed around his hand.
Ken felt a burning pain in his neck. It seemed that something was burrowing its way out of his neck. Ken screamed… and then it was gone.
A floating spherical object flew into Ryo's neck, burying itself in the location where the object used to be in Ken's neck, and the Digimon Kaiser laughed.
Ken then knew what Ryo meant. 'He wanted my Dark Seed!' A look of realization came onto Ken's face at that thought.
Ryo smirked. "So you realized what I was after." The Kaiser stated in a arrogant tone of voice.
Ken glared at Ryo, but didn't say anything. Ryo laughed. "Luckily for you, you still have use to me alive."
"I'll never help you!" Ken tried to shout, although his voice made the statement come out as a whisper. Without the Dark Seed, his strength was fading fast.
"You're acting as if I need you to do anything other than be chained up to this wall." Ryo said, before he raised his hand, black lightning gathering around it, before it shot off into Ken's chest.
Ken screamed in agony as he felt the lightning course though his body. Then it stopped as Ryo lowered his arm.
"Excellent." Ryo stated, before he turned and exited the room.
Ken fell unconscious.
.o0o.
Ryo walked out of the brig area of his base, and walked through the hall. Like the brig, the walls, floor, and ceiling were made out of black metal. The Digimon Kaiser stopped at a door, and turned towards it, pressing a button at the side of the door. The door slid open and Ryo walked through the doorway, entering a meeting room of some kind, where Orochimon was waiting for him.
"Good work Orochimon." Ryo said as he entered the room.
"Sssank you my lord." The perfect digimon hissed, all eight of his heads bowing down as he said this. Inwardly, Ryo frowned. He hated this Orochimon's speech impediment, but he didn't show this.
He had an image to keep, after all.
"I have another mission for you." Ryo stated.
"How may I ssserve you my lord?" Orochimon asked. Ryo snapped his fingers, and three Evil Spirals materialized in front of him. "I don'ss underssssand my lord." Orochimon said.
"You're going to be a guinea pig of mine." Ryo snapped his fingers again, causing the three Evil Spiral's to attach themselves to the center head. Orochimon fought it, but eventually he succumbed to the power of the evil spirals, and his eyes glowed red.
"How may I be of service master?" Orochimon asked in an emotionless voice.
Ryo smirked. "Report to Testing Room Four." Ryo ordered. "I have some new powers I want to test."
.o0o.
Maria held Wormmon in her arms, while walking to the outskirts of the Gekomon village, Elecmon following behind her. The Gekomon, after apologizing for attacking them under the control of the Kaiser, quickly ran back into the village in order to check on their leader, Tonosama Gekomon.
"Do you think that Ken's dead?" Maria asked out loud, surprising her partner.
"I don't know, but once Wormmon wakes up we can ask him." Elecmon answered.
"But what if he doesn't?" Maria asked back. Elecmon couldn't say anything. This wasn't the first time that a Chosen Child had been captured, but it was the first time that the partner digimon collapsed as it happened.
"Maria, I'm bringing you back onto the Avalon." Steve said over the communications device. "Have you seen Michael?"
"Is there a problem?" Maria asked, concerned.
"He's blocking his signal." Steve said. "I don't know why."
'That's odd.' Maria thought. "Have you asked Sam and Lou?" she asked.
"They don't want to talk about it." Steve said.
Maria sighed. "I'm sure that Michael will turn up eventually. Besides, we need to get Wormmon back to the Avalon."
"I know. Ken's probably already at the Kaiser's base right now." Steve said. "We need to get him up here as soon as possible."
"So stop talking and do it already!" Maria shouted. She heard Steve chuckle on the other end of the line, before she felt herself be transported to the Avalon.
.o0o.
Iori looked around the empty training room in confusion, and in anger. 'He told me to come here for training, and then he doesn't even show up!' Iori shouted in his mind. Iori was dressed in padded armor, and his bokken was in his right hand, being gripped tightly.
"Not like I want to learn how to kill people anyway." Iori muttered under his breath and turned to leave, before a six sense told him to move.
Iori quickly jumped to the side, avoiding a strike from a bokken and rolled backwards into an attack stance, the bokken in front of his body, in an easy position to block any attack.
Takeru turned towards Iori's position. "You've been trained well." Iori just glared at him. Takeru charged at the younger boy, slashing down with his bokken. Iori brought his sword up, and the two swords collided with the thunk sound of wood hitting wood. Iori pulled his bokken back and moved to strike Takeru at the side, but the Child of Hope parried with his bokken.
"So have you." Iori said in an icy tone. Takeru moved his bokken to strike Iori in the chest, but the young Hida blocked that strike as well. Iori moved to strike Takeru in the legs, but the older child jumped over the sword strike and spun around in the air, his bokken connecting with Iori's chest, sending the younger of the Chosen Children back and heading towards the ground. Iori quickly placed his hand on the ground and back flipped back into a standing position.
"Is this how you started training Miyako and Daisuke-san?" Iori asked.
"Of course it is." Takeru answered, before he charged towards Iori again. Iori charged towards Takeru as well, both warriors' bokkens raised to strike. When they were both in range, they attacked, the bokkens colliding with a sharp crack.
Takeru quickly spun to the side as Iori redirected his bokken to his chest, the wooden blade barely missing its target. Takeru swung downward with his bokken, but Iori blocked it again. Takeru raised his wooden sword up into the air and struck down repeatedly, being blocked by Iori each time. Eventually, Iori was pushed dangerously close to the wall. Takeru slashed down with his bokken again, and Iori dodged and rolled out of the wall, the wooden sword crashing down into the wall.
Iori came up behind Takeru and struck him in the back with his bokken. Usually, his code of honor would have forbidden attacking an opponent in the back, but this fight showed him that Takeru threw honor out the window the instant that he entered the room.
Takeru fell to the ground, smirking before he turned around and struck with his sword, narrowly missing Iori's face by mere millimeters. Takeru then charged forward with his elbow extended in front of him, hitting Iori in the chest and sending him backwards from the force of the elbow colliding with his chest.
Iori gasped as he picked himself off of the ground. Something was different in this sparing session than in the one's that he usually had with his grandfather. 'It doesn't even seem like Takeru-san has a martial arts style.' The young boy thought, pointing his sword towards the older child.
Takeru charged once again, his bokken slashing downward when he got close enough. Iori jumped backwards, dodging the strike, before slashing upward with his own bokken, an attack that Takeru easily parried.
The battle lasted like this for the majority of the time, both combatants parrying each other's attacks. Seconds became minutes, and minutes turned into an hour.
Takeru moved his sword away from Iori's, and he slashed downward, and Iori blocked his attack again. 'He's good.' Takeru thought. 'Far too good.'
Iori leaned backwards as Takeru slashed at his chest, dodging the strike. 'I'm almost out of energy.' Iori thought. The brown haired boy slashed upwards at the same time that Takeru slashed downwards, both bokkens colliding with a sharp crack.
Iori once again charged at Takeru, pulling his sword back.
Takeru spun around and slashed his blade down at Iori as the younger child slashed upwards, their swords once again colliding with each other.
Iori jumped back and prepared to attack Takeru again.
"That's enough." Another voice said. Both Takeru and Iori turned around, and saw a hologram of Gennai standing in the center of the room. Takeru sheathed his bokken.
"What's going on?" Iori asked.
"You're both stronger and have more knowledge of using a sword than we expected." Takeru answered. "I just think he doesn't want us to accidentally kill each other."
Iori grimaced.
"Takeru, I need to speak with you." Gennai's hologram said, before turning to Iori. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your father." He then vanished.
Iori looked confused, and Takeru turned away. 'Could he be thinking… Is Iori…?' Takeru thought, feeling confused, which was something that he didn't like to feel.
.o0o.
Miyako noticed Hikari walking out of training room looking exhausted. "Are you alright Hikari-chan?" Miyako asked. Hikari looked up, seeing the violet haired girl in her vision.
"I'll be fine." The brown haired girl replied. "What are you doing out here?" Hikari asked.
"I'm just taking a walk." Miyako answered, her eyes turning towards the door to the training room that Takeru had held her training session in. "That's weird." Miyako said out loud.
Hikari look puzzled. "What's weird?" she asked.
"When Takeru-kun trained me and Daisuke, as soon as he beat us in a sparing match, he let us out." The girl answered.
'So Mimi wasn't joking.' Hikari thought. "But what's the problem?" Hikari asked.
"Iori said that he had to train with him, but the room's still in use." Miyako clarified.
"So what's the problem?" Hikari asked.
"They've been in there for over an hour." Miyako said in a simple tone.
Hikari's eyes widened. Then the door opened and Takeru walked out, moving quickly towards the elevator on the Avalon, not even acknowledging their presence.
Miyako blinked. "That was rude. Even for him."
Iori walked out of the training room, panting. Hikari ran up to him. "Are you alright Iori-kun?" Hikari asked.
"I'm fine…" Iori panted. "That just wasn't what I was expecting."
.o0o.
Ryo walked into a laboratory control room. Many Nanomon were stationed at the terminals that lined the dark walls. One of them turned around and acknowledged the Digimon Kaiser's presence.
"My lord!" the Nanomon exclaimed. "We are ready to begin the experiment at your command."
Ryo walked up to the center console, which had an elevated slot shaped like the Digivice model belonging to Hikari. Ryo placed his pure black digivice on the pedestal, and it started glowing.
"Begin the experiment." Ryo said in a cold voice. A large monitor on the wall activated, and displayed Orochimon in the middle of an extremely large metal room. He started glowing with dark purple light, while at the same time Ryo's digivice did the same. Orochimon screamed in pain, before exploding into data.
"Shit!" Ryo cursed, turning towards the lead Nanomon of this department of his research team. "What happened!" the Kaiser shouted.
The lead Nanomon pressed some buttons on a console, which caused large strings of code to appear on the central monitor. "It would seem that Orochimon overloaded on your power and self-destructed."
Ryo sighed. "Gather the data." He ordered.
"Yes my lord." The Nanomon said as Orochimon's data particles started gathering in a dense area, glowing red. Ryo grabbed his digivice and pressed a button on it. "Cyber Dramon. I have some data I need you to load."
.o0o.
Takeru exited the elevator, and entered a large room with the symbols of the twelve crests gathered in a circle, which Gennai was standing in the middle of. Takeru walked over towards him.
"Why did you need to see me?" Takeru asked. Gennai looked at him.
"I believe I may have underestimated Iori's potential." Gennai said, sighing. Takeru looked at the brown haired man for a moment.
"You don't think I'm skilled enough to train him." Takeru stated. Gennai didn't say anything. "I see." The blond haired child said. "So who's going to train Iori?"
"I'm going to have to take him on as a student." Gennai said. Takeru looked at him.
"Iori has that much potential?" Takeru asked. "So, I'm assuming Daisuke isn't the Child of Miracles like we thought."
"Now why did you come to that conclusion?" Gennai asked. "You're wrong, by the way. Motomiya Daisuke is the Child of Miracles."
"Then why train Iori instead of Daisuke or Hikari?" Takeru asked. "If Daisuke is the Child of Miracles, and Hikari happens to be both the Child of Light and the Seer of Destiny, where does Iori figure into things?"
"You know as well as I do that more than one prophecy governs the future of the worlds. The identity of the Seer of Destiny no longer matters." Gennai said. "And I believe that the defeat of Ryo may not be the end of this conflict."
"Of course it isn't. Vamdemon is manipulating Oikawa, who's supposedly manipulating Ryo." Takeru said. Gennai stayed silent for a few seconds.
"Ken's been captured." Gennai said.
"So we go down that path." Takeru answered. "We may be facing the fall of the Child of Kindness."
"I've had more visions focusing on that time path." Gennai answered, wearily. "I've found references that are disturbing."
"What do you mean?" Takeru asked, concerned.
"There is a high chance that the five Zohar will become active." Gennai answered. "Hikari, Miyako, Daisuke, Iori, and Chizuru each have one Digimental. A pair of digimentals is needed in order to re-forge a Zohar."
"The Zohar of Heaven, Zohar of Defense, Zohar of Balance, Zohar of Serenity, and the Zohar of Initiative." Takeru listed, before he frowned. "You know that I don't place much stock in prophecies and visions. There are too many things that can go wrong."
"That is true." Gennai said, closing his eyes. "Especially with visions, which are translated from the actual event to match things so that the Seer can have some understanding of what he or she is seeing."
"Then why are we relying on it so much?" Takeru asked. "The only time a prophecy has played out the way that we thought it would was during the battle with Venom Vamdemon."
"Having some idea of what to expect is better than flying blind." Gennai answered solemnly. "Of course, we ended up going on an unlikely path." The man admitted. "I just wish that we paid more attention to the prophecies relating to our current events more closely, so we could have ended this. Even when you were with Ryo and Ken to fightMillenniumon, it didn't even occur to me to prepare for Ryo being the Kaiser."
"But you planned on Ken." Takeru stated, unconsciously clenching his fist.
"Yes." Gennai said in a downcast tone. "But if you had become the Kaiser…" Takeru snorted at that. "…then we wouldn't have any guidance at all."
"How do Chizuru and Jun figure into the prophecies?" Takeru asked, changing the subject.
"They don't." Gennai answered. Takeru blinked.
"What do you mean?" Takeru asked. Gennai turned around.
"Chizuru and Jun were never supposed to become Chosen Children." Gennai answered. Takeru blinked again, in confusion. "I don't know what happened exactly, but Chizuru and Jun becoming chosen was a fluke, as was Wizarmon being reconfigured on Earth after he died." There was silence for a few seconds.
"Are you sure it was a fluke?" Takeru asked. Gennai turned around to face him.
"What are you implying?" Gennai answered. Takeru gathered his thoughts for a few seconds.
"We have been trying to create a Digivice artificially, and we had two prototypes being built." Takeru began. "One was an older model, while the second one was the newer type. Now both of them are gone."
"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Gennai asked, a trace amount of anger in his voice. Takeru shrugged.
"Steve didn't even tell me about it until before I went to begin Miyako's training session." Takeru answered. "I'm not even sure if he knew the two digivices were missing until he told me."
"This isn't good." Gennai answered. "If that's true, then Qinglongmon may know of it."
"And what would happen if he were to find out about Steve's little side project?" Takeru asked. Gennai closed his eyes and sighed.
"He may attack us."
.o0o.
"Anything new to report Kuro?" Qinglongmon asked as the masked chosen entered his large chambers, his viral Gabumon at his side. The masked chosen was now wearing a large black cloak that covered the majority of his body, leaving much of his mask in shadow.
The chamber of the god digimon was just a large cave with crystals going off in every direction.
"Saiba has yet to start prepare for another attack." Kuro answered. "Taichi and the other chosen seem to be waiting for another attack and are keeping a low profile. And Ken's been captured, but I not other knowledge of what else is going on with Gennai."
"He has already attempted to select his own chosen children." Qinglongmon stated.
"But why did you select Chizuru and Jun?" Kuro asked. "Gennai would have probably chosen them anyway."
"He wouldn't." Qinglongmon answered. "They have less potential than many other candidates on Earth. They have just enough power to be useful."
"I still think limiting their power is a mistake." Kuro said. "Besides, you have not been paying enough attention."
"What are you saying?" Qinglongmon asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Chizuru has more power than you know." Kuro answered. "Baihumon and Xuanwumon agree with me. Even Zhuqiaomon believes that she may have more potential than you give her credit for."
"You've spoken with the other three Holy Beasts?" Qinglongmon asked.
"My main purpose is that of a liaison between the Holy Beasts and the Chosen, helping out when necessary. This is my job, and it's what Huanlongmon brought me back to life to do. I was chosen for this role because I am the only one of the original chosen who is not infected with a Dark Seed." Kuro answered nonchalantly, before returning to the previous subject. "In fact, there is a high possibility that you gave Gennai someone who can re-forge one of the Zohar." He paused again. "And before you ask, I will not kill Gennai's chosen to prevent the Zohar's return."
End Chapter 13