Chapter 10 - Bad News
"What are you doing here?"
I was standing in the canyon with Azulongmon overhead. I sighed.
"You want the bad news first?"
Azulongmon sighed as well.
"Do you have any good news to give me?"
"Not really."
"Then why not."
"Sora's been kidnapped."
He looked a little downcast, but not terribly surprised.
"I figured as much, what with you bringing Biyomon here without her present. But the question is, who would try it?"
"I'm not sure. You know more about the history here. Who could command a Mummymon to do something like that?"
Azulongmon looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Hmmm. Most Mummymon, unlike the one that worked for Oikawa, are intelligent and arrogant. Not many could command one, and no ultimate level would consider going against the Digidestined they'd be wiped out. That certainly does narrow it down quite a bit. I'll have Gennai dig some more and we'll get back to you."
I nodded.
"Then there's the question of why they want her in the first place. A bargaining tool, or something else?"
Azulongmon cleared his throat.
"Let's start with who. That might help us with why."
"I could have stopped this you know."
Azulongmon looked down at me, surprised.
"What?"
"I could have, but my… restrictions… inhibited me."
He looked at me, thinking.
"Yes, I suppose you could have. I see what you're getting at. Your leash is off Takato. Try not to use cards or biomerge in front of the others, but consider it more of a guideline than a rule."
He paused for a moment.
"As long as we're opening doors here, why don't you head west? Tai and Izzy are out there, and Tai especially should be informed of the situation."
I nodded.
"You'll take care of Biyomon?"
"Of course. Go. And be careful Takato."
I nodded again.
"Come on boy."
"Right Takatomon!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holding Agumon I ran forward, not looking behind me. I knew that the three digimon behind me were close. Then, to make things worse, a dark shape rose up in front of me, and I collapsed onto the ground.
It's been fun world. Sorry I couldn't save you Izzy.
I heard the other three come up behind us. I shut my eyes and waited for the end.
"TRIPLE FO-"
"EXHAUST FLAME!"
I blinked my eyes open and I looked up. The one in front of me was looking back behind me at Cyclonemon, Tuskmon, and Del…
No. He deleted Deltamon.
I turned back to the dino in front of me and saw Takato walk up beside it.
"BlackGrowlmon… go."
The dino nodded and charged in. Takato smiled at me and held out his hand. I took it and he helped me up.
"You're a hard man to find. If BlackGrowlmon hadn't sensed a battle happening, we wouldn't have found you."
"SLAMMING TUSK!"
"PLASMA BLADE!"
I turned and saw BlackGrowlmon slice right through Tuskmon's tusks, robbing him of his primary weapons.
"ARM BOMBER!"
I watched him turn to meet the new threat, the Cyclonemon, by biting and clamping down on the large arm. I could hear him speak through the Cyclonemon's arm.
"EXHAUST FLAME!"
BlackGrowlmon's generated a flame that had nowhere to go but onto Cyclonemon's arm, deleting the digimon instantly. He then was tackled from behind by the nearly crippled Tuskmon, sending him to the ground. BlackGrowlmon swatted Tuskmon off with his tail, and jumped to his feet. The long nail-like appendage on his arm glowed.
"PLASMA BLADE!"
The Tuskmon fell, deleting as it went down. Takato glanced around.
"Where's Izzy?"
I sighed.
"He fell through the ground back that way."
I pointed into the west towards where I had lost him.
"We'd better go look for him then."
I nodded, and we set out, BlackGrowlmon close behind. I glanced back. Now that the battle was over, he seemed much the same as his rookie form. Happy. The expression on his face was completely innocent. Agumon woke up then, and I put him down. He ran forward to talk to BlackGrowlmon.
"Well, Takato, your BlackGrowlmon is certainly impressive."
Takato smiled.
"Just wait until you see his ultimate form."
I frowned.
"I thought he was an ultimate."
He blinked at me.
"BlackGrowlmon, an ultimate? You must be joking."
"He took out three champions that downed Greymon and Kabuterimon without breaking a sweat. Of course I thought he was an ultimate."
Takato stopped and looked at his digimon for a moment, who was clearing the path ahead of us. He looked thoughtful as he spoke.
"BlackGrowlmon is… special… all of his digivolutions are abnormally powerful."
He smiled a little.
"And most southern quadrant digimon are stronger than the ones around here anyway."
I took a little offense to that, looking at my partner, talking with BlackGrowlmon as he worked, and was a little harsh when I spoke.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He glanced at me and sighed.
"Me and my big mouth… The southern digital world is a constant fight for survival. A digimon who lives to make it to champion out there is really lucky."
He sighed.
"But, enough of that. Where did you say Izzy fell through?"
"Over there."
I pointed south a little. We walked over, and I recognized the tree off at the edge of our sight that had almost crushed me. Takato looked at the ground carefully.
"BlackGrowlmon, do you think you can dig through this?"
"I can try Takatomon!"
He dug in, dirt flying. After a minute, he stopped and jumped out of the hole.
"Takatomon! There are too many roots in my way!"
He sighed, closed his eyes and fingered the card holder at his waist.
Wait. Card holder?
He looked at me.
"I can still do this, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone."
I nodded.
"If it helps us save Izzy, I promise."
"Good. Hang on a second boy, let me find the right card!"
"Okay Takatomon!"
He pulled the deck out and rifled through it. I walked over and looked over his shoulder at the cards. He glanced back at me.
"Back home, Digimon was a card game before we found out it was real. We use the cards to enhance our digimon."
He pulled out a card and smiled.
"Haven't used this for a while."
His gloved glowed a little then, and the symbol on the top gained half an inch in height.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digmon's Drill Activate!
BlackGrowlmon's forearms glowed and morphed into drills. I was more than a little impressed.
"Wow. That's pretty cool."
"Go for it boy!"
BlackGrowlmon jumped back in the hole and we crowded the edges to try to see what was happening. Then, the ground shattered beneath us, and we tumbled through, just like Izzy had earlier. Looking up, I saw the whole closing up again. Takato was looking carefully at his cards, trying not to loose them. He was doing a surprisingly good job. BlackGrowlmon tumbled below us, drills gone.
DIGI-MODIFY! Aero Wing Activate!
BlackGrowlmon then grew two large tattered bat-like wings. He flew up and caught the three of us. Takato patted his digimon's arm.
"Good job boy. Let's land and try to find Izzy."
The dino with wings landed in the forest below us, and the wings disappeared from his back. Takato's glove went back to normal, and he motioned to BlackGrowlmon. He dedigivolved to BlackGuilmon, and we set out. Bout twenty minutes later, we discovered Izzy, laying with Tentomon, asleep by a fire. Takato smiled.
"He seems fine."
I looked a little skeptical.
"Yeah, but how?"
A voice came from behind us.
"Lilymon caught him when he fell through. I came when I felt Palmon use my crest."
We spun to see Mimi and Palmon coming up behind us. We both sighed in relief. We heard a snort from behind us. We looked back to see Izzy waking up. He blinked sleepily a few times, then smiled at us.
"Tai, Takato! I'm glad you're okay!"
I looked back at Izzy. Agumon spoke up.
"We should be the ones worried about you! We didn't know what happened when you fell through the ground like that!"
Izzy laughed, and we sat around the fire. Takato did not. He turned his back to the fire for a moment. I looked at him.
"What's wrong Takato?"
"Tai… I… I… I'm sorry Tai."
I frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Takato wasn't listening though. He sounded close to tears as he spoke.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her, but I couldn't! I just couldn't! And now she's gone! He took her! I'm sorry!"
I felt something cold settle in the pit of my stomach. I spoke softly.
"Who is she?"
Takato still wasn't listening.
"That stupid Mummymon took her! And I didn't protect her! I could have! I should have!"
I got up and punched him, dropping him to the ground. He lay there for a second, stunned. I spoke again.
"Who was taken Takato?"
He answered so softly that I almost couldn't hear him.
"Sora…"
I felt something a kin to shock, then the cold feeling rose from my stomach and went to my mind, shoving the emotions out. I turned to the others.
"We're leaving. Now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We waited impatiently for Kari and Yolie. Takato and I had avoided the subject of exactly how we had gotten down to Izzy when we told our part, and now we waited for my sister and her friend to return. I had that cold feeling in my stomach again. Ten minutes later we saw something in the distance. A limping figure. Yolie. Ken rushed out to her and helped her in. I looked at her.
"What happened? Where's Kari?"
Yolie broke down and sobbed.
"Ice… Devimon… said he wanted a partner… took Kari… I almost didn't… didn't… KARI!"
Yolie's crying faded to the occasional sob as she spoke.
"Silphymon almost had him down, but he deleted some of the digimon around him, and did… something… to their data, and he was healed again! And he had gotten stronger too! Kari, sacrificed her self for me…"
She broke down again now, and TK leapt up, flames in his eyes.
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go get her back!"
Takato, however, had a worried expression in his eyes. He looked at Azulongmon.
"Do you think…?"
Azulongmon nodded.
"It is very likely Takato."
TK looked at Takato, not very pleased.
"Friend of yours?"
"Humph. More like enemy. I though I deleted that guy."
He looked at me then, a strange look in his eyes.
"I'm going after him. Alone."
I stared at him hard for a moment, searching his eyes. I saw pain, anger, and determination.
He needs this. He feels he has to make up for not protecting Sora. And besides, with the things I just saw him do, he aught to be safe enough.
I nodded and walked over to him.
"Okay. Just make sure you bring her back in one piece."
He smiled grimly.
"I won't leave until IceDevimon is in pieces."
Takato looked at Azulongmon, who nodded. He struck out north, following Yolie's footprints. TK glared at me.
"Why did you let him do that? Not only is he a rookie, this is personal to me!"
I looked at TK and sighed.
"One, he's not a rookie. He's pretty good. Two, if I told him no, he'd have gone anyway. Just let him do it."
TK looked at me with anger, not really caring. Azulongmon attempted to placate him as well.
"It's personal to Takato as well. He and this IceDevimon have fought before. He kidnapped one of his friends with the intention of making her his partner. It was almost two years ago."
Ken's eyes widened a little, and went up and whispered in TK's ear. The anger seemed to drain out him then. He nodded to Ken and turned back to the rest of us.
"I'm sorry. It's just…"
I nodded.
"Try to put it out of your mind for now. Let's concentrate on finding Sora and this mysterious enemy for now."
He nodded.
"We could go back to that underground place that Digmon found. Maybe there are some clues there."
"Alright. Let's do it. We don't have much else to go on anyways."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked at the silvery clip in my hands, feeling the contours as I gazed at it.
I want to go home…
One of the walls opened and Mummymon stepped through.
"The boss wants to see you missy. Be a good girl and come along."
He grabbed my hand and yanked me roughly to my feet. The pin flew out of my hands and into the corner. I grabbed at it, but Mummymon was already dragging me out of the room. He dragged me rather roughly through some corridors to a room. Then I gasped.
I was looking straight at a leering Datamon.
"What are you doing here?"
I was standing in the canyon with Azulongmon overhead. I sighed.
"You want the bad news first?"
Azulongmon sighed as well.
"Do you have any good news to give me?"
"Not really."
"Then why not."
"Sora's been kidnapped."
He looked a little downcast, but not terribly surprised.
"I figured as much, what with you bringing Biyomon here without her present. But the question is, who would try it?"
"I'm not sure. You know more about the history here. Who could command a Mummymon to do something like that?"
Azulongmon looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Hmmm. Most Mummymon, unlike the one that worked for Oikawa, are intelligent and arrogant. Not many could command one, and no ultimate level would consider going against the Digidestined they'd be wiped out. That certainly does narrow it down quite a bit. I'll have Gennai dig some more and we'll get back to you."
I nodded.
"Then there's the question of why they want her in the first place. A bargaining tool, or something else?"
Azulongmon cleared his throat.
"Let's start with who. That might help us with why."
"I could have stopped this you know."
Azulongmon looked down at me, surprised.
"What?"
"I could have, but my… restrictions… inhibited me."
He looked at me, thinking.
"Yes, I suppose you could have. I see what you're getting at. Your leash is off Takato. Try not to use cards or biomerge in front of the others, but consider it more of a guideline than a rule."
He paused for a moment.
"As long as we're opening doors here, why don't you head west? Tai and Izzy are out there, and Tai especially should be informed of the situation."
I nodded.
"You'll take care of Biyomon?"
"Of course. Go. And be careful Takato."
I nodded again.
"Come on boy."
"Right Takatomon!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holding Agumon I ran forward, not looking behind me. I knew that the three digimon behind me were close. Then, to make things worse, a dark shape rose up in front of me, and I collapsed onto the ground.
It's been fun world. Sorry I couldn't save you Izzy.
I heard the other three come up behind us. I shut my eyes and waited for the end.
"TRIPLE FO-"
"EXHAUST FLAME!"
I blinked my eyes open and I looked up. The one in front of me was looking back behind me at Cyclonemon, Tuskmon, and Del…
No. He deleted Deltamon.
I turned back to the dino in front of me and saw Takato walk up beside it.
"BlackGrowlmon… go."
The dino nodded and charged in. Takato smiled at me and held out his hand. I took it and he helped me up.
"You're a hard man to find. If BlackGrowlmon hadn't sensed a battle happening, we wouldn't have found you."
"SLAMMING TUSK!"
"PLASMA BLADE!"
I turned and saw BlackGrowlmon slice right through Tuskmon's tusks, robbing him of his primary weapons.
"ARM BOMBER!"
I watched him turn to meet the new threat, the Cyclonemon, by biting and clamping down on the large arm. I could hear him speak through the Cyclonemon's arm.
"EXHAUST FLAME!"
BlackGrowlmon's generated a flame that had nowhere to go but onto Cyclonemon's arm, deleting the digimon instantly. He then was tackled from behind by the nearly crippled Tuskmon, sending him to the ground. BlackGrowlmon swatted Tuskmon off with his tail, and jumped to his feet. The long nail-like appendage on his arm glowed.
"PLASMA BLADE!"
The Tuskmon fell, deleting as it went down. Takato glanced around.
"Where's Izzy?"
I sighed.
"He fell through the ground back that way."
I pointed into the west towards where I had lost him.
"We'd better go look for him then."
I nodded, and we set out, BlackGrowlmon close behind. I glanced back. Now that the battle was over, he seemed much the same as his rookie form. Happy. The expression on his face was completely innocent. Agumon woke up then, and I put him down. He ran forward to talk to BlackGrowlmon.
"Well, Takato, your BlackGrowlmon is certainly impressive."
Takato smiled.
"Just wait until you see his ultimate form."
I frowned.
"I thought he was an ultimate."
He blinked at me.
"BlackGrowlmon, an ultimate? You must be joking."
"He took out three champions that downed Greymon and Kabuterimon without breaking a sweat. Of course I thought he was an ultimate."
Takato stopped and looked at his digimon for a moment, who was clearing the path ahead of us. He looked thoughtful as he spoke.
"BlackGrowlmon is… special… all of his digivolutions are abnormally powerful."
He smiled a little.
"And most southern quadrant digimon are stronger than the ones around here anyway."
I took a little offense to that, looking at my partner, talking with BlackGrowlmon as he worked, and was a little harsh when I spoke.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He glanced at me and sighed.
"Me and my big mouth… The southern digital world is a constant fight for survival. A digimon who lives to make it to champion out there is really lucky."
He sighed.
"But, enough of that. Where did you say Izzy fell through?"
"Over there."
I pointed south a little. We walked over, and I recognized the tree off at the edge of our sight that had almost crushed me. Takato looked at the ground carefully.
"BlackGrowlmon, do you think you can dig through this?"
"I can try Takatomon!"
He dug in, dirt flying. After a minute, he stopped and jumped out of the hole.
"Takatomon! There are too many roots in my way!"
He sighed, closed his eyes and fingered the card holder at his waist.
Wait. Card holder?
He looked at me.
"I can still do this, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone."
I nodded.
"If it helps us save Izzy, I promise."
"Good. Hang on a second boy, let me find the right card!"
"Okay Takatomon!"
He pulled the deck out and rifled through it. I walked over and looked over his shoulder at the cards. He glanced back at me.
"Back home, Digimon was a card game before we found out it was real. We use the cards to enhance our digimon."
He pulled out a card and smiled.
"Haven't used this for a while."
His gloved glowed a little then, and the symbol on the top gained half an inch in height.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digmon's Drill Activate!
BlackGrowlmon's forearms glowed and morphed into drills. I was more than a little impressed.
"Wow. That's pretty cool."
"Go for it boy!"
BlackGrowlmon jumped back in the hole and we crowded the edges to try to see what was happening. Then, the ground shattered beneath us, and we tumbled through, just like Izzy had earlier. Looking up, I saw the whole closing up again. Takato was looking carefully at his cards, trying not to loose them. He was doing a surprisingly good job. BlackGrowlmon tumbled below us, drills gone.
DIGI-MODIFY! Aero Wing Activate!
BlackGrowlmon then grew two large tattered bat-like wings. He flew up and caught the three of us. Takato patted his digimon's arm.
"Good job boy. Let's land and try to find Izzy."
The dino with wings landed in the forest below us, and the wings disappeared from his back. Takato's glove went back to normal, and he motioned to BlackGrowlmon. He dedigivolved to BlackGuilmon, and we set out. Bout twenty minutes later, we discovered Izzy, laying with Tentomon, asleep by a fire. Takato smiled.
"He seems fine."
I looked a little skeptical.
"Yeah, but how?"
A voice came from behind us.
"Lilymon caught him when he fell through. I came when I felt Palmon use my crest."
We spun to see Mimi and Palmon coming up behind us. We both sighed in relief. We heard a snort from behind us. We looked back to see Izzy waking up. He blinked sleepily a few times, then smiled at us.
"Tai, Takato! I'm glad you're okay!"
I looked back at Izzy. Agumon spoke up.
"We should be the ones worried about you! We didn't know what happened when you fell through the ground like that!"
Izzy laughed, and we sat around the fire. Takato did not. He turned his back to the fire for a moment. I looked at him.
"What's wrong Takato?"
"Tai… I… I… I'm sorry Tai."
I frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Takato wasn't listening though. He sounded close to tears as he spoke.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her, but I couldn't! I just couldn't! And now she's gone! He took her! I'm sorry!"
I felt something cold settle in the pit of my stomach. I spoke softly.
"Who is she?"
Takato still wasn't listening.
"That stupid Mummymon took her! And I didn't protect her! I could have! I should have!"
I got up and punched him, dropping him to the ground. He lay there for a second, stunned. I spoke again.
"Who was taken Takato?"
He answered so softly that I almost couldn't hear him.
"Sora…"
I felt something a kin to shock, then the cold feeling rose from my stomach and went to my mind, shoving the emotions out. I turned to the others.
"We're leaving. Now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We waited impatiently for Kari and Yolie. Takato and I had avoided the subject of exactly how we had gotten down to Izzy when we told our part, and now we waited for my sister and her friend to return. I had that cold feeling in my stomach again. Ten minutes later we saw something in the distance. A limping figure. Yolie. Ken rushed out to her and helped her in. I looked at her.
"What happened? Where's Kari?"
Yolie broke down and sobbed.
"Ice… Devimon… said he wanted a partner… took Kari… I almost didn't… didn't… KARI!"
Yolie's crying faded to the occasional sob as she spoke.
"Silphymon almost had him down, but he deleted some of the digimon around him, and did… something… to their data, and he was healed again! And he had gotten stronger too! Kari, sacrificed her self for me…"
She broke down again now, and TK leapt up, flames in his eyes.
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go get her back!"
Takato, however, had a worried expression in his eyes. He looked at Azulongmon.
"Do you think…?"
Azulongmon nodded.
"It is very likely Takato."
TK looked at Takato, not very pleased.
"Friend of yours?"
"Humph. More like enemy. I though I deleted that guy."
He looked at me then, a strange look in his eyes.
"I'm going after him. Alone."
I stared at him hard for a moment, searching his eyes. I saw pain, anger, and determination.
He needs this. He feels he has to make up for not protecting Sora. And besides, with the things I just saw him do, he aught to be safe enough.
I nodded and walked over to him.
"Okay. Just make sure you bring her back in one piece."
He smiled grimly.
"I won't leave until IceDevimon is in pieces."
Takato looked at Azulongmon, who nodded. He struck out north, following Yolie's footprints. TK glared at me.
"Why did you let him do that? Not only is he a rookie, this is personal to me!"
I looked at TK and sighed.
"One, he's not a rookie. He's pretty good. Two, if I told him no, he'd have gone anyway. Just let him do it."
TK looked at me with anger, not really caring. Azulongmon attempted to placate him as well.
"It's personal to Takato as well. He and this IceDevimon have fought before. He kidnapped one of his friends with the intention of making her his partner. It was almost two years ago."
Ken's eyes widened a little, and went up and whispered in TK's ear. The anger seemed to drain out him then. He nodded to Ken and turned back to the rest of us.
"I'm sorry. It's just…"
I nodded.
"Try to put it out of your mind for now. Let's concentrate on finding Sora and this mysterious enemy for now."
He nodded.
"We could go back to that underground place that Digmon found. Maybe there are some clues there."
"Alright. Let's do it. We don't have much else to go on anyways."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked at the silvery clip in my hands, feeling the contours as I gazed at it.
I want to go home…
One of the walls opened and Mummymon stepped through.
"The boss wants to see you missy. Be a good girl and come along."
He grabbed my hand and yanked me roughly to my feet. The pin flew out of my hands and into the corner. I grabbed at it, but Mummymon was already dragging me out of the room. He dragged me rather roughly through some corridors to a room. Then I gasped.
I was looking straight at a leering Datamon.