Chapter 9 - Adventures and Misadventures
"So how far do we have to go again Joe?"
I glanced down at Gomamon.
"Until we get some answers or run out of land, I guess."
He sighed, not that I could blame him. We'd been walking pretty far. I squinted at something in the distance, and then turned to Matt.
"Is that a town over there?"
He looked at where I pointed, and squinted himself.
"I think so. Let's go have a look. Can't hurt, right?"
He and Gabumon hurried forward, along with Gomamon. Something didn't feel right. I couldn't describe the feeling I was having. The best way I could put it was that it felt like we were walking in with our pants down.
Oh that's a real mature description. And I'm supposed to be a doctor?
Okay, so maybe not with our pants down, but something to that effect, like there was something going on down there that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of.
"Hey Joe, you coming?"
I blushed a little.
I'm supposed to be the oldest and I'm sitting here woolgathering. Great.
"Coming Gomamon!"
After another half hours walk, we finally reached the town. It resembled a port city in most respects. Or at least it would have, if there hadn't been an odd looking mud everywhere. I scraped some off and felt the texture. A little lumpy.
Strange…
Gomamon and I followed Matt and Gabumon around the city. It was deserted, really deserted. Nobody anywhere.
"Hey Joe, do you think that the smell might have driven everyone out?"
I frowned at Matt's question.
Smell? What smell?
Then it hit me. It smelled incredibly bad here. I mean really bad.
"Maybe. But couldn't they get rid of it?"
Matt looked at me like I was crazy.
"How? In case you hadn't noticed, it's coming from the mud around here. How could they get rid of it all?"
"Oh. Well I hadn't noticed. But I suppose you're right. While this is pretty weird, I don't think bad smells are exactly the evil force Azulongmon was talking about."
"I don't know Joe, this mud smells pretty evil to me."
"Gomamon, be serious for once will you?"
"Sure thing Joe."
We walked around town some more, and never once encountered a single living thing. Unless you count the smell. I was almost convinced it was a free-floating, invisible life form with rather permanent BO. But, Matt was right; the mud was the source of the smell. I had held some up to my nose to be sure about it. Then, as we were about to leave and try somewhere else, Matt tripped and fell. He had tripped over a strange looking rock in the mud.
"Ouch…"
That, surprisingly, came not from Matt, who was still face down in the mud, but from the rock he had tripped over. The rock spoke again.
"Can you help me up?"
"Uh, sure…"
I reached down to the 'rock' and pulled. What ever it was was really stuck. I pulled a little too hard and the rock came out, as I fell flat on my back. The rock like creature now rested on my chest. I looked at it a little more closely.
It's a ShellNumemon.
"Thank you boy. I don't suppose you could bring me to the water could you?"
"S-sure."
We brought the ShellNumemon to the water's edge and threw him in as he asked. He came up pretty clean.
"Whew, that's better. Now, what brings you kids here?"
I hesitated a little before answering. My feeling from earlier was back with a vengeance.
"Well, we're here trying to look for signs of some great evil Azulongmon told us about."
"Hmmm. Well, I rather doubt this is it, it's pretty small time now, but everyone's abandoned the village!"
Matt grimaced.
"The smell right?"
The ShellNumemon nodded.
"About a week ago our village and a couple others in the area started coming under constant attack by some Sukamon led by a PlatinumSukamon, and…"
My eyes bugged out for a second.
"D-did you say Sukamon?!"
ShellNumemon looked at me a little strangely.
"Sure did boy. Why? Is a Digidestined like yourself scared of them?"
Matt, Gabumon, Gomamon, and I just stared at each other for a second. Then we sprinted for the edge and threw ourselves in. Twenty minutes later we were more or less clean again, if still wet (Gabumon was complaining about his fur), and we were eying the town a little apprehensively. Matt looked at me.
"I do not want to go back in there."
I sighed.
"Neither do I, but we have to Matt."
He nodded, and we went back in, a little more careful not to touch anything this time. We went back up to the ShellNumemon.
"Where exactly are these Sukamon?"
"A little ways westward friends. Why you thinking of taking them on?"
"Yeah, we're Digidestined after all, it's what we do."
He nodded.
"Good luck boys! Maybe once I get this town clean the others will come back."
We left in a westerly course into some trees.
Digivolution_
Gabumon Warp Digivolve to… MetalGarurumon!
"What'd you do that for?"
"Maybe the Sukamon will just give up on site with a mega here."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
We eventually reached a clearing that smelled pretty much like the town and stopped.
This has to be the place…
We entered the clearing cautiously. When we reached the center, Sukamon popped out everwhere. Their ranks parted slightly and a PlatinumSukamon came out into the clearing. MetalGarurumon growled a little.
"What do you guys want?"
Matt growled himself.
"We want you to stop harassing the villages around here!"
"No can do bo…"
He only now seemed to see MetalGarurumon. He gulped, and hopped backwards a little.
"Well, maybe we could…"
"Good."
"…but we'd have to leave the area completely."
"So do it!"
Note to self: Diplomacy isn't Matt's strong point.
The PlatinumSukamon nodded.
"Alright. METAL BOMBER!"
He reached back, and a metal 'poo ball' appeared in his hands. He chucked it, and it landed on Matt's face. Then there was a cry of attack from the surrounding Sukamon.
"BOMBER!"
These weren't metal, so they didn't hurt as much, but soon all four of us were covered from head to toe again. When we managed to open our eyes, they were gone. Two hours later, we were mostly clean and dry again, and were leaving the village and its thankful ShellNumemon behind. Matt shuddered.
"That was not cool."
I nodded.
"So we're in agreement then?"
He nodded back, and our digimon nodded with him. The four of us all spoke at once.
"May we never speak of this again."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What could have done this?"
We were standing the middle of what used to be a village.
I think. With all the damage, all you can tell is that something once stood here, but I'm not sure what. By the size I'm pretty sure it was a village though.
"I'm not sure TK, but I think the trail leads off that way."
I pointed roughly southeast. TK nodded.
"We'd better find out what's up there then, Cody."
"Right. Armadillomon, let's go."
"Right Cody!"
We set off on our trek northeast. The trail was well hidden in some spots, but we always found it again. It was obvious that whatever was up here didn't want to be found. We kept walking for about an hour when we came across a ridge. We crawled up to the edge and looked over at the other side.
That's not good.
On the other side of the ridge were some Golemon and Mekanorimon. They appeared to be digging for some reason. These weren't exactly the digimon I'd use for digging though; I'd use some Drimogemon.
Or a certain Digmon…
I frowned at what I saw next. Apparently it was a village that had been torn apart. Pieces of it were being used to make a coral for captured digimon, which were being used to dig for them.
Now it makes sense, any digimon who specialized in digging would simply tunnel out too fast for them to notice.
They were using excess timbers to shore up the walls as they continued. Something with more intelligence than Golemon or Mekanorimon was directing this operation, I knew.
"What do you think TK?"
He smiled a little nervously.
"Too many to take on at once, even with Shakkoumon. But we still have to rescue those digimon."
I nodded. Then I got an idea.
"We'll dig in!"
"Huh?"
"Digmon can do it. Right Armadillomon?"
"Right Cody! Let me at 'em!"
TK nodded.
"Patamon and I will keep them occupied while you sneak off with the other digimon."
Armor
Digivolution_
Armadillomon Armor Digivolve to… Digmon!
Patamon Armor Digivolve to… Pegasusmon!
TK mounted Pegasusmon and flew up. I could hear the confusion he was causing and decided that now was a good time for Digmon and I to make our move.
"Ready Digmon?"
"Anytime Cody!"
Digmon set his drills and flew into the dirt from our shielded location. I hopped down inside after him and followed, running to keep up. Then, he stopped.
"What's wrong Digmon?"
"There's something down here Cody."
"What? What else can dig like you? Drimogemon would never work for these guys."
"Not a digimon Cody… a structure."
"Hmmm. It's probably what the guys up top are looking for. Just leave it for now, we've got work to do."
"Right!"
Then the dirt flew again as he dug into the tunnel once more. I wandered behind Digmon, and the next thing I saw ahead of him was daylight.
"Are we there?"
"Yep! Right where I'd thought we'd be."
We came up into a group made of various rookies and champions. They looked more than a little scared of us, and I spoke quietly.
"We're here to get you out! Come on! Go through the tunnel!"
They complied without words, understanding the need for silence. Once we were alone, I ordered Digmon forward.
"Destroy the wall Digmon! Let's help TK!"
"I thought we didn't want them to know we were here Cody."
"That was then, but right now I think that Pegasusmon could use a hand."
"Right Cody! ROCK CRACKING!"
The attack was, as stated, meant to destroy steel and, well, rocks, so the flimsy wood barrier exploded into splinters and showered the enemy forces. Pegasusmon was grounded, unable to lift his wings to fly anymore.
"STAR SHOWER!"
Pegasusmon's attack flew into the enemy, distracting them from rushing us, but it didn't last long. He lost his energy and dedigivolved into Patamon. We forced our way over to TK, and spun to defend him. The Golemon and Mekanorimon closed.
"TWIN BE-"
"ROCK BA-"
"POSITRON LASER!"
Half of the enemy forces disintegrated before our eyes as Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode flew over the ridge…
…wearing a blue scarf?
Ken and Davis walked in and the rest of them scattered over the hills. They were smiling broadly as they walked over.
"We saw Pegasusmon from the town we were in, so we thought we'd give you a hand."
"I should have known. But what's with the scarf?"
Davis rolled his eyes.
"Veemon seems to have a talent for card playing, TK."
Imperialdramon dedigivolved, and there was Veemon in a ten-gallon hat, and Wormmon had the blue scarf on.
"I thought that the scarf was Veemon's? Why's Wormmon have it?"
Veemon reached for his throat, then looked at Wormmon. He glared for a second, then let it drop.
"Ah, well, he can have it, it didn't exactly show up on me anyways. I wonder why the scarf showed on Imperialdramon though? It's kind of annoying…"
Davis laughed. Ken smiled as well, then spoke.
"So, what happened here?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I was in a cell, that was for certain, but the bricks were yellow, or at least they were in the torchlight. Finally able to move, I felt for my digivice, only to find it missing. I sobbed a little.
How will anyone ever find me?
"So how far do we have to go again Joe?"
I glanced down at Gomamon.
"Until we get some answers or run out of land, I guess."
He sighed, not that I could blame him. We'd been walking pretty far. I squinted at something in the distance, and then turned to Matt.
"Is that a town over there?"
He looked at where I pointed, and squinted himself.
"I think so. Let's go have a look. Can't hurt, right?"
He and Gabumon hurried forward, along with Gomamon. Something didn't feel right. I couldn't describe the feeling I was having. The best way I could put it was that it felt like we were walking in with our pants down.
Oh that's a real mature description. And I'm supposed to be a doctor?
Okay, so maybe not with our pants down, but something to that effect, like there was something going on down there that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of.
"Hey Joe, you coming?"
I blushed a little.
I'm supposed to be the oldest and I'm sitting here woolgathering. Great.
"Coming Gomamon!"
After another half hours walk, we finally reached the town. It resembled a port city in most respects. Or at least it would have, if there hadn't been an odd looking mud everywhere. I scraped some off and felt the texture. A little lumpy.
Strange…
Gomamon and I followed Matt and Gabumon around the city. It was deserted, really deserted. Nobody anywhere.
"Hey Joe, do you think that the smell might have driven everyone out?"
I frowned at Matt's question.
Smell? What smell?
Then it hit me. It smelled incredibly bad here. I mean really bad.
"Maybe. But couldn't they get rid of it?"
Matt looked at me like I was crazy.
"How? In case you hadn't noticed, it's coming from the mud around here. How could they get rid of it all?"
"Oh. Well I hadn't noticed. But I suppose you're right. While this is pretty weird, I don't think bad smells are exactly the evil force Azulongmon was talking about."
"I don't know Joe, this mud smells pretty evil to me."
"Gomamon, be serious for once will you?"
"Sure thing Joe."
We walked around town some more, and never once encountered a single living thing. Unless you count the smell. I was almost convinced it was a free-floating, invisible life form with rather permanent BO. But, Matt was right; the mud was the source of the smell. I had held some up to my nose to be sure about it. Then, as we were about to leave and try somewhere else, Matt tripped and fell. He had tripped over a strange looking rock in the mud.
"Ouch…"
That, surprisingly, came not from Matt, who was still face down in the mud, but from the rock he had tripped over. The rock spoke again.
"Can you help me up?"
"Uh, sure…"
I reached down to the 'rock' and pulled. What ever it was was really stuck. I pulled a little too hard and the rock came out, as I fell flat on my back. The rock like creature now rested on my chest. I looked at it a little more closely.
It's a ShellNumemon.
"Thank you boy. I don't suppose you could bring me to the water could you?"
"S-sure."
We brought the ShellNumemon to the water's edge and threw him in as he asked. He came up pretty clean.
"Whew, that's better. Now, what brings you kids here?"
I hesitated a little before answering. My feeling from earlier was back with a vengeance.
"Well, we're here trying to look for signs of some great evil Azulongmon told us about."
"Hmmm. Well, I rather doubt this is it, it's pretty small time now, but everyone's abandoned the village!"
Matt grimaced.
"The smell right?"
The ShellNumemon nodded.
"About a week ago our village and a couple others in the area started coming under constant attack by some Sukamon led by a PlatinumSukamon, and…"
My eyes bugged out for a second.
"D-did you say Sukamon?!"
ShellNumemon looked at me a little strangely.
"Sure did boy. Why? Is a Digidestined like yourself scared of them?"
Matt, Gabumon, Gomamon, and I just stared at each other for a second. Then we sprinted for the edge and threw ourselves in. Twenty minutes later we were more or less clean again, if still wet (Gabumon was complaining about his fur), and we were eying the town a little apprehensively. Matt looked at me.
"I do not want to go back in there."
I sighed.
"Neither do I, but we have to Matt."
He nodded, and we went back in, a little more careful not to touch anything this time. We went back up to the ShellNumemon.
"Where exactly are these Sukamon?"
"A little ways westward friends. Why you thinking of taking them on?"
"Yeah, we're Digidestined after all, it's what we do."
He nodded.
"Good luck boys! Maybe once I get this town clean the others will come back."
We left in a westerly course into some trees.
Digivolution_
Gabumon Warp Digivolve to… MetalGarurumon!
"What'd you do that for?"
"Maybe the Sukamon will just give up on site with a mega here."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
We eventually reached a clearing that smelled pretty much like the town and stopped.
This has to be the place…
We entered the clearing cautiously. When we reached the center, Sukamon popped out everwhere. Their ranks parted slightly and a PlatinumSukamon came out into the clearing. MetalGarurumon growled a little.
"What do you guys want?"
Matt growled himself.
"We want you to stop harassing the villages around here!"
"No can do bo…"
He only now seemed to see MetalGarurumon. He gulped, and hopped backwards a little.
"Well, maybe we could…"
"Good."
"…but we'd have to leave the area completely."
"So do it!"
Note to self: Diplomacy isn't Matt's strong point.
The PlatinumSukamon nodded.
"Alright. METAL BOMBER!"
He reached back, and a metal 'poo ball' appeared in his hands. He chucked it, and it landed on Matt's face. Then there was a cry of attack from the surrounding Sukamon.
"BOMBER!"
These weren't metal, so they didn't hurt as much, but soon all four of us were covered from head to toe again. When we managed to open our eyes, they were gone. Two hours later, we were mostly clean and dry again, and were leaving the village and its thankful ShellNumemon behind. Matt shuddered.
"That was not cool."
I nodded.
"So we're in agreement then?"
He nodded back, and our digimon nodded with him. The four of us all spoke at once.
"May we never speak of this again."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What could have done this?"
We were standing the middle of what used to be a village.
I think. With all the damage, all you can tell is that something once stood here, but I'm not sure what. By the size I'm pretty sure it was a village though.
"I'm not sure TK, but I think the trail leads off that way."
I pointed roughly southeast. TK nodded.
"We'd better find out what's up there then, Cody."
"Right. Armadillomon, let's go."
"Right Cody!"
We set off on our trek northeast. The trail was well hidden in some spots, but we always found it again. It was obvious that whatever was up here didn't want to be found. We kept walking for about an hour when we came across a ridge. We crawled up to the edge and looked over at the other side.
That's not good.
On the other side of the ridge were some Golemon and Mekanorimon. They appeared to be digging for some reason. These weren't exactly the digimon I'd use for digging though; I'd use some Drimogemon.
Or a certain Digmon…
I frowned at what I saw next. Apparently it was a village that had been torn apart. Pieces of it were being used to make a coral for captured digimon, which were being used to dig for them.
Now it makes sense, any digimon who specialized in digging would simply tunnel out too fast for them to notice.
They were using excess timbers to shore up the walls as they continued. Something with more intelligence than Golemon or Mekanorimon was directing this operation, I knew.
"What do you think TK?"
He smiled a little nervously.
"Too many to take on at once, even with Shakkoumon. But we still have to rescue those digimon."
I nodded. Then I got an idea.
"We'll dig in!"
"Huh?"
"Digmon can do it. Right Armadillomon?"
"Right Cody! Let me at 'em!"
TK nodded.
"Patamon and I will keep them occupied while you sneak off with the other digimon."
Armor
Digivolution_
Armadillomon Armor Digivolve to… Digmon!
Patamon Armor Digivolve to… Pegasusmon!
TK mounted Pegasusmon and flew up. I could hear the confusion he was causing and decided that now was a good time for Digmon and I to make our move.
"Ready Digmon?"
"Anytime Cody!"
Digmon set his drills and flew into the dirt from our shielded location. I hopped down inside after him and followed, running to keep up. Then, he stopped.
"What's wrong Digmon?"
"There's something down here Cody."
"What? What else can dig like you? Drimogemon would never work for these guys."
"Not a digimon Cody… a structure."
"Hmmm. It's probably what the guys up top are looking for. Just leave it for now, we've got work to do."
"Right!"
Then the dirt flew again as he dug into the tunnel once more. I wandered behind Digmon, and the next thing I saw ahead of him was daylight.
"Are we there?"
"Yep! Right where I'd thought we'd be."
We came up into a group made of various rookies and champions. They looked more than a little scared of us, and I spoke quietly.
"We're here to get you out! Come on! Go through the tunnel!"
They complied without words, understanding the need for silence. Once we were alone, I ordered Digmon forward.
"Destroy the wall Digmon! Let's help TK!"
"I thought we didn't want them to know we were here Cody."
"That was then, but right now I think that Pegasusmon could use a hand."
"Right Cody! ROCK CRACKING!"
The attack was, as stated, meant to destroy steel and, well, rocks, so the flimsy wood barrier exploded into splinters and showered the enemy forces. Pegasusmon was grounded, unable to lift his wings to fly anymore.
"STAR SHOWER!"
Pegasusmon's attack flew into the enemy, distracting them from rushing us, but it didn't last long. He lost his energy and dedigivolved into Patamon. We forced our way over to TK, and spun to defend him. The Golemon and Mekanorimon closed.
"TWIN BE-"
"ROCK BA-"
"POSITRON LASER!"
Half of the enemy forces disintegrated before our eyes as Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode flew over the ridge…
…wearing a blue scarf?
Ken and Davis walked in and the rest of them scattered over the hills. They were smiling broadly as they walked over.
"We saw Pegasusmon from the town we were in, so we thought we'd give you a hand."
"I should have known. But what's with the scarf?"
Davis rolled his eyes.
"Veemon seems to have a talent for card playing, TK."
Imperialdramon dedigivolved, and there was Veemon in a ten-gallon hat, and Wormmon had the blue scarf on.
"I thought that the scarf was Veemon's? Why's Wormmon have it?"
Veemon reached for his throat, then looked at Wormmon. He glared for a second, then let it drop.
"Ah, well, he can have it, it didn't exactly show up on me anyways. I wonder why the scarf showed on Imperialdramon though? It's kind of annoying…"
Davis laughed. Ken smiled as well, then spoke.
"So, what happened here?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I was in a cell, that was for certain, but the bricks were yellow, or at least they were in the torchlight. Finally able to move, I felt for my digivice, only to find it missing. I sobbed a little.
How will anyone ever find me?