Chapter 23 - Impmon's Tale
I was sitting on the roof of the apartment complex, admiring the view of the sunset. The way the colors mix together, a brilliant tapestry of yellow, orange, and red. BlackGuilmon was snoring beside me, but it somehow seemed to blend into the background noise.
Surprisingly, Impmon wasn't ruining it by mouthing off. We both had questions, but neither of us really wanted to start. I knew we had to eventually though. I had started the day cautioning him on what he could and couldn't tell the Digidestined around here.
But Impmon running his mouth wasn't what worried me.
I couldn't contact Azulongmon.
I also couldn't contact Grani.
I could tell Grani still existed, but I couldn't contact him. Something was wrong.
But first thing's first. Talk to Impmon.
"So…"
He eyed me warily.
"Yeah?"
Start with something simple…
"How are the others?"
"I don't think anything has happened to them. Haven't heard anything anyways."
"Haven't heard anything?"
"We're not exactly on the best of terms, Takato."
"Because of that?"
"Yeah."
"Damn. Your tamers doing okay?"
"I don't know, and I don't care either. Haven't seen 'em in a few years. Good riddance. Hmph."
So much for easy…
"What happened?"
He looked at me like I was nuts.
"You really wanna know?"
"Might as well. I don't know how to get you home, and without Azulongmon, my chances of finding out are slim to none."
He smirked.
"Well, fine. If you really wanna know…
"It was a decent day. Not really that great, but the ups slightly outweighed the downs. And that's only because the regrets came later.
"The good news?
"I hatched.
"I was with my tamers again, too. I wasn't too happy about that at the start, but I calmed down a little after they got me something to eat.
"I should have stayed with the first assumption. It would have saved me a lot of time.
"But, despite my fears, things were good at first. The twins were surprisingly nice and caring for a bit. Their parents were a little uneasy about me when I was Kiimon and Yaamon, but what could I do right?
"Then it blew up in my face when I digivolved.
"I was happy to be Impmon again, you know? I could walk and go places on my own, I wasn't a walking, defenseless piece of free data for just any passing digimon. Now that I was a rookie again, I found I could still go mega again if I had too now.
"In short, life was good. But only for a while, then it all came crashing down."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Impmon, come play with us!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh!"
I jumped down from the rooftop, and intercepted the ball when Mako passed to Ai. Laughing, they began chasing me, and just to be a good sport, I let them catch me and take the ball. We played for a while, but then something happened. Mako threw the ball a little too hard and it hit Ai.
"WAAAAHHHH! Mako you… you… Impmon, get him!"
I froze. This was bad. This was very bad. There was no way I was going to follow Ai's command, but refusing was almost as bad.
"Uhh…"
Ai got up, tears still in her eyes.
"Impmon, I said to get him!"
Mako stood up for himself.
"Get me? Impmon, if you get anyone, it should be her! I didn't mean to do it, it just happened!"
"Impmon, get him!"
"Uhh…"
"No, get her!"
"Him!"
"Her!"
"Him!"
"Her!"
"HIM!"
"HER!"
"HIM!"
"HER!"
"SHADDUP!!"
The noise stopped so suddenly and so completely I could have heard Renamon sneaking up behind me.
Great, what do I do now?
The only thing I knew when I shouted was that I wanted the noise to stop. Now that it had, I had no idea of what to say to them.
"Um, look guys, I'm not going to be 'getting' anyone. Especially if it's either of you two. So, um, stop fighting, okay?"
It didn't exactly work the way I'd hoped.
"But he threw the ball at me!"
Mako was still angry too.
"I was supposed to, you dummy!"
"I'm not a dummy, you are!"
"Nuh uh, you are!"
Still in shock about what was going on, I did the first thing that came to mind.
I ran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow. That sucks. A lot.
"I'm sorry Impmon. I didn't know."
"Yeah, well don't sweat it Takato. It was years ago."
"You never tried to go back?"
"Nah, why bother? Humans are always the same. They don't change that much."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's simple! Humans don't change. I mean, look at you, you're still the overly nice kid I used to know. You've grown a bit, but you're still the same person."
I snorted.
"What a load of crap! You want to talk about change? Look at Rika, how much did she change?"
"Change? What are you? Nuts? If she did change it was only to get worse!"
"What?"
"Lemme tell ya a little story. This happened not long after I left my tamers in the dirt for the second time."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am sooo bored.
There was a loud growl from my stomach.
I'm also hungry.
Then, as if on cue, the divine scent of something barbequing. My mouth started watering instantly. I tracked the smell deep into the park, back behind the shed to the other side, where I saw an absolutely humongous feast awaiting me.
No one will notice if I only take a little, right?
I didn't sense the digimon until it was too late.
In my defense, I'd just like to say that I don't think well on an empty stomach. I jumped down onto the outdoor barbeque. Someone screamed, and that was when I felt them. Six digimon.
Crap…
Taking a quick look around, I breathed in a quick sigh of relief. It was only Terriermon, Lopmon, Monodramon, Dobermon, Renamon, and an Elecmon that I assumed was Jeri's.
Jeri was the one screaming.
At me.
"Renamon, get him!"
"Wha…?"
Now why would they…
Renamon came at me fast and hard. I jumped off the grill, not wanting her to hit it, as I was still intent on getting a little grub.
"Hey, watch it!"
"POWER PAW!"
I jumped back, barely dodging, flipping backwards.
"Oh come on! I just wanted a little food!"
"MURDERER!"
Jeri was screaming at me, clutching Elecmon to her chest, shaking in fear.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
I jumped backwards to avoid the lethal spray, rebounding off a tree trunk and into it's branched where I would be harder to spot. I stopped to rest for a moment.
"He's in there somewhere Renamon. I want that little freak's data!"
Great, me and my big ideas.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
I hop skipped out of the tree as virtually all the leaves and branches were torn from it. I beat a hasty retreat, running for blocks before I somehow lost Renamon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Geeze…"
"Yeah. I scared this old guy into running from his hot dog cart later just to get something to eat. I'm not proud of it, but that's pretty much my only option."
"I wonder what happened? Before I left, Rika was actually starting to be… well, nice. Now you say she's…"
"Off her rocker?"
I paused for a moment.
"Something like that. Look, Impmon, humans do change with time. I'm not sure what made them lash out at you there, other than the last time they saw you was, well…"
I shook my head.
"That's not the point. The point is that people can change. It was probably just a bad reaction from the last time, harsh as it was."
Impmon jumped down and sat beside me, BlackGuilmon still snoring gently on my other side.
"My tamers didn't seem to change all that much."
I sighed.
"I never go to meet your tamers Impmon, I know that. But the thing is, no one really knows how to share when they're six years old. All kids are a little selfish at that age."
"Maybe…"
"Well, don't think on it too hard. Just remember that you don't have to run around knocking over food carts here. Help me out a little and I'll make sure you're fed."
"Putting a leash on me?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I need you to behave that badly. But seriously, if I can't contact Azulongmon, then it means something is seriously wrong. I need to know if I can count on you."
Impmon grinned at me and he asked his question in an over-eager tone that told me he wasn't really all that serious about it.
"Do I get to blow things up?"
"Within reason."
"I'm in."
We chuckled a bit, then I stretched and stood up.
"Look I've got an early start tomorrow morning, and most mornings, so I need to get some sleep."
Impmon looked at me a little warily.
"I don't need to keep that schedule do I?"
"Not if you keep yourself out of trouble you don't. Remember, there are a lot of digimon roaming the city."
"Yeah, I know. 'The majority of them aren't going to attack humans and a lot of them don't like virus types' blah blah blah."
"Yeah. See you tomorrow Impmon."
"Yeah, see ya."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The SkullSatamon that used to be Daemon was furious. Dozens of smaller viruses within the Dark Ocean had already felt the former mega's wrath. But now his tantrum had passed, and he was looking at things more objectively, pacing in his heavy thoughts. He was also talking to himself.
"I must admit that it was inevitable that outright force would fail me. But this new digimon, this new mode of Imperialdramon's disturbs me. At full power he would be nothing, a mere insect. But weakened as I am once more…"
The larger than life ultimate leveled digimon sat down to think. He thought for three days. Then he sighed, stood and began pacing again.
"It's a little unimaginative, but there's no reason it wouldn't work. But I'd have to keep him on a tighter leash than I did the last one. Perhaps it's finally time to awaken my 'sleeper'."
He waved his hand, and a portal appeared, drawing a young man through. He looked confused at first, then frightened, before SkullSatamon stretched forth his hand and an inky black void enveloped him. SkullSatamon withdrew his hand, and the young man was smiling, an creepy, evil, smile devoid of anything pure.
"Awaken my sleeper, and do my bidding."
"Yes, my master?"
"Your time has come, small one. You will attack now, while he has Azulongmon locked away."
"Yes, my master, they will fall before my wrath."
"FOOL! Do you not think I have already tried that?! In a direct conflict they will crush you!"
The young man looked confused again.
"Then what is it you would have me do, my master?"
The enlarged SkullSatamon calmed once more before proceeding. He had to remind himself that he had not chosen this servant for it's intelligence, he had chosen it because it was easy to dominate, easy to guide.
"You will do what I tell you slave. Confusion will be your ally, the shadows your home. You will strike, and then leave, leaving only hostility and chaos in your wake."
"Yes my master."
The SkullSatamon growled, but restrained itself once more.
"Never mind, fool, I will tell you exactly what you must do. You will follow without question, as always."
The young fellow who had sold his soul to the proverbial devil smiled that same oily smirk of smile he had earlier, and asked a single question.
"And the reward we agreed upon?"
"Yours. Once the job is complete. Once the Digidestined are out of my way for good it is little enough to ask."
The evil grin widened on the young man's face, and the two began to discuss things in detail, SkullSatamon going over all the steps several times to make sure that nothing would go wrong.
SkullSatamon grinned at the irony as he watched the portal close behind his subordinate. This was one of the few deals he genuinely intended to honor. If the fool did the job right.
After all, if the fool actually succeeded, not that he held that much hope, it was simply a distraction after all, then the fool's reward would cause the Digidestined far more pain than he himself could ever deliver to them.
Things were finally beginning to look up for the dark digimon lord of the Dark Ocean Between Worlds.
I was sitting on the roof of the apartment complex, admiring the view of the sunset. The way the colors mix together, a brilliant tapestry of yellow, orange, and red. BlackGuilmon was snoring beside me, but it somehow seemed to blend into the background noise.
Surprisingly, Impmon wasn't ruining it by mouthing off. We both had questions, but neither of us really wanted to start. I knew we had to eventually though. I had started the day cautioning him on what he could and couldn't tell the Digidestined around here.
But Impmon running his mouth wasn't what worried me.
I couldn't contact Azulongmon.
I also couldn't contact Grani.
I could tell Grani still existed, but I couldn't contact him. Something was wrong.
But first thing's first. Talk to Impmon.
"So…"
He eyed me warily.
"Yeah?"
Start with something simple…
"How are the others?"
"I don't think anything has happened to them. Haven't heard anything anyways."
"Haven't heard anything?"
"We're not exactly on the best of terms, Takato."
"Because of that?"
"Yeah."
"Damn. Your tamers doing okay?"
"I don't know, and I don't care either. Haven't seen 'em in a few years. Good riddance. Hmph."
So much for easy…
"What happened?"
He looked at me like I was nuts.
"You really wanna know?"
"Might as well. I don't know how to get you home, and without Azulongmon, my chances of finding out are slim to none."
He smirked.
"Well, fine. If you really wanna know…
"It was a decent day. Not really that great, but the ups slightly outweighed the downs. And that's only because the regrets came later.
"The good news?
"I hatched.
"I was with my tamers again, too. I wasn't too happy about that at the start, but I calmed down a little after they got me something to eat.
"I should have stayed with the first assumption. It would have saved me a lot of time.
"But, despite my fears, things were good at first. The twins were surprisingly nice and caring for a bit. Their parents were a little uneasy about me when I was Kiimon and Yaamon, but what could I do right?
"Then it blew up in my face when I digivolved.
"I was happy to be Impmon again, you know? I could walk and go places on my own, I wasn't a walking, defenseless piece of free data for just any passing digimon. Now that I was a rookie again, I found I could still go mega again if I had too now.
"In short, life was good. But only for a while, then it all came crashing down."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Impmon, come play with us!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh!"
I jumped down from the rooftop, and intercepted the ball when Mako passed to Ai. Laughing, they began chasing me, and just to be a good sport, I let them catch me and take the ball. We played for a while, but then something happened. Mako threw the ball a little too hard and it hit Ai.
"WAAAAHHHH! Mako you… you… Impmon, get him!"
I froze. This was bad. This was very bad. There was no way I was going to follow Ai's command, but refusing was almost as bad.
"Uhh…"
Ai got up, tears still in her eyes.
"Impmon, I said to get him!"
Mako stood up for himself.
"Get me? Impmon, if you get anyone, it should be her! I didn't mean to do it, it just happened!"
"Impmon, get him!"
"Uhh…"
"No, get her!"
"Him!"
"Her!"
"Him!"
"Her!"
"HIM!"
"HER!"
"HIM!"
"HER!"
"SHADDUP!!"
The noise stopped so suddenly and so completely I could have heard Renamon sneaking up behind me.
Great, what do I do now?
The only thing I knew when I shouted was that I wanted the noise to stop. Now that it had, I had no idea of what to say to them.
"Um, look guys, I'm not going to be 'getting' anyone. Especially if it's either of you two. So, um, stop fighting, okay?"
It didn't exactly work the way I'd hoped.
"But he threw the ball at me!"
Mako was still angry too.
"I was supposed to, you dummy!"
"I'm not a dummy, you are!"
"Nuh uh, you are!"
Still in shock about what was going on, I did the first thing that came to mind.
I ran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow. That sucks. A lot.
"I'm sorry Impmon. I didn't know."
"Yeah, well don't sweat it Takato. It was years ago."
"You never tried to go back?"
"Nah, why bother? Humans are always the same. They don't change that much."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's simple! Humans don't change. I mean, look at you, you're still the overly nice kid I used to know. You've grown a bit, but you're still the same person."
I snorted.
"What a load of crap! You want to talk about change? Look at Rika, how much did she change?"
"Change? What are you? Nuts? If she did change it was only to get worse!"
"What?"
"Lemme tell ya a little story. This happened not long after I left my tamers in the dirt for the second time."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am sooo bored.
There was a loud growl from my stomach.
I'm also hungry.
Then, as if on cue, the divine scent of something barbequing. My mouth started watering instantly. I tracked the smell deep into the park, back behind the shed to the other side, where I saw an absolutely humongous feast awaiting me.
No one will notice if I only take a little, right?
I didn't sense the digimon until it was too late.
In my defense, I'd just like to say that I don't think well on an empty stomach. I jumped down onto the outdoor barbeque. Someone screamed, and that was when I felt them. Six digimon.
Crap…
Taking a quick look around, I breathed in a quick sigh of relief. It was only Terriermon, Lopmon, Monodramon, Dobermon, Renamon, and an Elecmon that I assumed was Jeri's.
Jeri was the one screaming.
At me.
"Renamon, get him!"
"Wha…?"
Now why would they…
Renamon came at me fast and hard. I jumped off the grill, not wanting her to hit it, as I was still intent on getting a little grub.
"Hey, watch it!"
"POWER PAW!"
I jumped back, barely dodging, flipping backwards.
"Oh come on! I just wanted a little food!"
"MURDERER!"
Jeri was screaming at me, clutching Elecmon to her chest, shaking in fear.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
I jumped backwards to avoid the lethal spray, rebounding off a tree trunk and into it's branched where I would be harder to spot. I stopped to rest for a moment.
"He's in there somewhere Renamon. I want that little freak's data!"
Great, me and my big ideas.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
I hop skipped out of the tree as virtually all the leaves and branches were torn from it. I beat a hasty retreat, running for blocks before I somehow lost Renamon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Geeze…"
"Yeah. I scared this old guy into running from his hot dog cart later just to get something to eat. I'm not proud of it, but that's pretty much my only option."
"I wonder what happened? Before I left, Rika was actually starting to be… well, nice. Now you say she's…"
"Off her rocker?"
I paused for a moment.
"Something like that. Look, Impmon, humans do change with time. I'm not sure what made them lash out at you there, other than the last time they saw you was, well…"
I shook my head.
"That's not the point. The point is that people can change. It was probably just a bad reaction from the last time, harsh as it was."
Impmon jumped down and sat beside me, BlackGuilmon still snoring gently on my other side.
"My tamers didn't seem to change all that much."
I sighed.
"I never go to meet your tamers Impmon, I know that. But the thing is, no one really knows how to share when they're six years old. All kids are a little selfish at that age."
"Maybe…"
"Well, don't think on it too hard. Just remember that you don't have to run around knocking over food carts here. Help me out a little and I'll make sure you're fed."
"Putting a leash on me?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I need you to behave that badly. But seriously, if I can't contact Azulongmon, then it means something is seriously wrong. I need to know if I can count on you."
Impmon grinned at me and he asked his question in an over-eager tone that told me he wasn't really all that serious about it.
"Do I get to blow things up?"
"Within reason."
"I'm in."
We chuckled a bit, then I stretched and stood up.
"Look I've got an early start tomorrow morning, and most mornings, so I need to get some sleep."
Impmon looked at me a little warily.
"I don't need to keep that schedule do I?"
"Not if you keep yourself out of trouble you don't. Remember, there are a lot of digimon roaming the city."
"Yeah, I know. 'The majority of them aren't going to attack humans and a lot of them don't like virus types' blah blah blah."
"Yeah. See you tomorrow Impmon."
"Yeah, see ya."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The SkullSatamon that used to be Daemon was furious. Dozens of smaller viruses within the Dark Ocean had already felt the former mega's wrath. But now his tantrum had passed, and he was looking at things more objectively, pacing in his heavy thoughts. He was also talking to himself.
"I must admit that it was inevitable that outright force would fail me. But this new digimon, this new mode of Imperialdramon's disturbs me. At full power he would be nothing, a mere insect. But weakened as I am once more…"
The larger than life ultimate leveled digimon sat down to think. He thought for three days. Then he sighed, stood and began pacing again.
"It's a little unimaginative, but there's no reason it wouldn't work. But I'd have to keep him on a tighter leash than I did the last one. Perhaps it's finally time to awaken my 'sleeper'."
He waved his hand, and a portal appeared, drawing a young man through. He looked confused at first, then frightened, before SkullSatamon stretched forth his hand and an inky black void enveloped him. SkullSatamon withdrew his hand, and the young man was smiling, an creepy, evil, smile devoid of anything pure.
"Awaken my sleeper, and do my bidding."
"Yes, my master?"
"Your time has come, small one. You will attack now, while he has Azulongmon locked away."
"Yes, my master, they will fall before my wrath."
"FOOL! Do you not think I have already tried that?! In a direct conflict they will crush you!"
The young man looked confused again.
"Then what is it you would have me do, my master?"
The enlarged SkullSatamon calmed once more before proceeding. He had to remind himself that he had not chosen this servant for it's intelligence, he had chosen it because it was easy to dominate, easy to guide.
"You will do what I tell you slave. Confusion will be your ally, the shadows your home. You will strike, and then leave, leaving only hostility and chaos in your wake."
"Yes my master."
The SkullSatamon growled, but restrained itself once more.
"Never mind, fool, I will tell you exactly what you must do. You will follow without question, as always."
The young fellow who had sold his soul to the proverbial devil smiled that same oily smirk of smile he had earlier, and asked a single question.
"And the reward we agreed upon?"
"Yours. Once the job is complete. Once the Digidestined are out of my way for good it is little enough to ask."
The evil grin widened on the young man's face, and the two began to discuss things in detail, SkullSatamon going over all the steps several times to make sure that nothing would go wrong.
SkullSatamon grinned at the irony as he watched the portal close behind his subordinate. This was one of the few deals he genuinely intended to honor. If the fool did the job right.
After all, if the fool actually succeeded, not that he held that much hope, it was simply a distraction after all, then the fool's reward would cause the Digidestined far more pain than he himself could ever deliver to them.
Things were finally beginning to look up for the dark digimon lord of the Dark Ocean Between Worlds.