Chapter 43 - Playing The Game
Murmuxmon sat quietly at his desk, going over the report Delia had gathered on the Digidestined. Cody, he remembered the name was. The report was hardly complete, but it wasn't important in any event.
It said a lot that Murmuxmon was seated at a desk rather than a throne like so many other would-be conquerors. It demonstrated a penchant for ruling through careful manipulations rather than pure power. It was why so many other digimon had failed.
As have I.
It was true enough, he supposed, that he had not done well with bouts of pure force in his early days, and had therefore come to rely on deceit and more underhanded tactics than his opponents.
But that is in the past.
He flipped up the screen built into the desk and watched the proceedings. The report was just an excuse. The information was amusing, he supposed, and perhaps one or two of the questions that were answered were worth taking a look at. But he had known the majority of what mattered in the report before Delia had asked the questions.
No. The real point of the exercise was to test the boy. To watch and gage his reactions to the questions, his situation, and the constant aggravation.
The boy seemed to be incredibly resilient emotionally, which was something of curiosity to Murmuxmon, but not something he was incredibly concerned with. He sighed.
Perhaps I worried for nothing. The boy does not have the bearing to walk in his footsteps.
The girl's reactions were more interesting than the boy's to tell the truth. She ranged between deadly calm and wild anger as her mind fought with the invading prescience of Daemon's Dark Spore.
Murmuxmon paused the recording and contemplated this for a moment. It was for this precise reason that he hadn't simply watched it live. He might have felt compelled to intervene sooner and therefore contaminate the results. What he contemplated were the girl's actions towards the boy. They were odd… she seemed to be comforting the boy, reflecting a trace of inner light.
Should I tell Daemon?
He brushed the thought aside almost as soon as he'd come across it. It wasn't really his business, and the things that were his business had been completed to satisfaction.
Besides. It's not like my old enemy is blind. And if he is, I'll enjoy destroying him just that much more.
Murmuxmon watched through the rest of it without stopping. Turning the monitor off, but not closing it, he once more pondered the girl's actions. Then he shrugged. Partly because it was Daemon's problem now, and mostly because the boy would be dead before the day was out.
Shrugging, he returned to his monitor and it settled onto a different image. Or rather, a split screen of two live feeds. Two different groups of Digidestined had infiltrated his base. One deliberately, and the other by accident.
The American fools who had entered by accident posed no particular threat, as they were well within the anti-catalyst matrix, and were therefore powerless. The only real concern he had regarding them was that they were nearing the holding cells. But as the cells were guarded, and they were weakened, he wasn't incredibly worried. The other group worried him more. They had digivolved before entering.
There were only three of them, but the leading ultimate was enough to make him slightly nervous. He knew that digimon, black as it was. The other thing that concerned him was the boy. He wasn't sure quite what effect his field would have on his digivice's ability to alter the world around him. That particular function did not appear to need a catalyst to work, which made the digimon a power to watch carefully.
Dismissing the others as unimportant, he cut the feed to the Americans and watched the boy and his friends, a slight frown on his face.
They'll soon hit a patrol, but will it slow them down?
He didn't have any delusions about any single patrol being able to take down BlackWarGrowlmon, especially if his partner was still able to empower him, but he wondered how much it would slow them.
The frown deepened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I crept ahead cautiously, not liking the prickling feeling I was getting in the back of my neck. I did not like it at all. I glanced down at Otamamon in my arms, actually pleased to see that he was sleeping. He would likely need the rest.
We turned the corner carefully.
And stopped.
What was probably once a straight path was now completely blocked by rubble. Phil grumbled behind me.
"Great, a dead end."
I nodded.
"Recent it appears. Perhaps it could not hold up to the battle with SkullGreymon."
Phil nodded a little, and Steve called us over to where he was.
"Hey, this looks like it might go somewhere!"
It was another collapsed wall of rock, but it was down, alighting another path through the dark. I motioned the others in.
"This looks promising. Let's go."
We walked on for a bit, the darkness starting to get to us. None of us dared to speak, lest we awaken some forgotten guardian, like the aforementioned SkullGreymon. Finally though, just when the darkness was beginning to seem a little too oppressive, a light appeared up ahead. Elated, we headed towards it, only to stop on a sound. We sweat-dropped when we realized what it was.
Off-key singing.
"-Oh! Nooooboooody knooows the trouble I've seeeeen! Noooobooody knoooows my sorrow!-"
This was followed by a muffled crash.
"Shut up, Patamon! I've had enough of your caterwauling!"
"That's rich, coming from you Gatomon!"
"You shut it too, Veemon!"
I sighed in relief.
The Odaiba Digidestined.
The others hurried right after me as I approached.
There was strange metal-on-metal noise as we got closer. Pretty much a 'clinking' sound.
"Wormmon! Will you stop with the cup against the bars thing?!"
"But Ken told me that's what prisoners do, Armadillomon!"
"Well it's giving me a headache. Stop. Please."
"Sorry."
We kept creeping closer, and now I was able to spot several guards, most of them rookies with a single champion watching over them. From what I could tell, there were several Koemon to the single Hookmon. We were close enough to rush them now. I looked back at the others, who nodded. They were ready. Steve gave me a thumbs up.
We ran in, not realizing until it was too late that we couldn't digivolve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched Takato grimace as he looked at the holographic image above his glove-thing. From what I read and what Takato had told us, we were in trouble.
There were three 'Karatenmon' ahead of us. They were virus types according to the scanner, and ultimates, a level above Yasyamon. Not only that, from what Takato has said, virus types had the advantage over data types like Yasyamon.
Not good.
"Get 'em Grizzmon!"
"Wait!"
Takato's voice went unheeded as Grizzmon charged in.
"MAUL ATTACK"
"BALLISTIC FEATHERS!"
Grizzmon's physical attack was no match for the projectile explosives, and he was flung back into the wall. He managed to right himself, and miraculously managed to stay in his champion form.
Unfortunately the resulting cave-in cut the two of us off from Takato.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A rumble filled the air suddenly, and for some reason, I felt a strange shiver run down my spine, almost as if the rumble were warning me of some god forsaken horror to come.
Oh, like something around here could really scare me more than being trapped here. Not that I'll admit that fright to anyone, mind you.
"Come, on Matt! The door opened!"
I blinked, then smiled at TK while heading out.
"Right. Sorry, let's go."
We tried to be inconspicuous as we wandered through the fortress. Let's face it, no matter what we could have tried, eleven humans stuck out like sore thumbs. Tai tentatively tried all the doors he came to, revealing nothing. It was a veritable ghost town. Then suddenly he hissed at me.
"Matt, get in here!"
I ran over, and lo and behold, Cody was in the room. I started cursing a moment later as I realized that he was chained to the wall. He smiled as he saw us.
"Hey guys."
"Whoa…"
Tai was being as dense as always, so I tried to clarify for him.
"What happened to you?"
"They just asked me a whole bunch of questions, that's all."
I nodded, and finally succeeded in undoing the manacle. Tai got himself together enough to pull together a coherent question.
"You okay to go on?"
Cody nodded, and he joined our little escapee party.
"Where's Takato?"
Cody shrugged at Kari's question.
"As far as I know he's still free."
"MEGA BONE STICK!"
"SWING SWING!"
The interruption was followed by several thuds as we came to a t-junction in the hallways. On the other side of us, I was rather shocked to see the New York kids there.
Unfortunately, they were getting their butts kicked. One of the Koemon saw us.
"Sir! The other humans have escaped!"
The Apemon that appeared to be in charge narrowed his eyes at us.
"Matt! Over here!"
I smiled in relief as I saw Gabumon's arm waving, only to have my hopes crushed as I realized he was locked up.
Crap. Somehow, if I get through this, I think this is one story I won't tell Jun.
"Foul monkeys! How dare you attack and imprison these noble souls! Have at thee! DOUBLE STRIKE!"
With the New Yorkers on one side, us on the other, and the digimon on the side, the attack could only have come from one direction. The third corridor.
A Yasyamon burst in, both of his wooden swords crashing down, dealing with two of the seven Koemon at once, deleting them. The others swarmed towards him, but a girl's voice called out.
"Yasyamon! Duck!"
Yasyamon did as ordered and a Grizzmon carrying a brown haired girl sitting just in front of its shoulder blades, legs on either side of the neck, sailed over him just in front of the crowd.
"CRESCENT DAWN!"
With a long swipe of one of its forepaws, the massive bear let loose a crescent shaped light beam, eradicating the others.
"METALIC FUR!"
The Apemon let loose hairs of razor-sharp metal at them, but the Yasyamon vaulted the Grizzmon and its rider this time.
"Never fear! I shall defend you! DOUBLE ARM GAURDS!"
The Grizzmon used the distraction to run around behind the Apemon and, with the girl still mounted just in front of the shoulder blades mind you, reared up and brought it's paws up, claws gleaming.
"MAUL ATTACK!"
The Apemon, who was still trying to get through Yasyamon's defences, never knew what hit him as he was ground underneath the other digimon.
Then I backed away in fear as I realized just who the girl was.
Jun…
"MAATTY!"
My eyes widened as my girlfriend did her imitation of a human cannonball right at me.
"Oof!"
That was about all I was capable of as she knocked me to the ground.
"Oh, Matty, you're the greatest! What other guy would get his girlfriend a digimon for Christmas!"
My eyes widened into golf balls as the pieces all fell into place in my mind. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to realize that denying this would only bring more trouble than was already present.
"Yeah… isn't it great…?"
Then, a thing for which was grateful, the attention was taken off me as Gomamon came hurtling out of the tunnel.
"JOE!"
The underwater monster flung himself at Joe, but at least Joe managed to stay upright.
"G-Gomamon?"
Gomamon grinned, and climbed around on Joe until he was on his back, their heads side by side.
"Just promise me you won't do that again, Joe."
Joe smiled, and flicked away a few tears.
"I promise Gomamon. I promise."
Gomamon grinned.
"I'll hold you to that Joe. Introducing our next guest, Yasyamon's Digidestined-"
A pretty girl with her brown hair pulled into a bun with a medical bag by her side steps hesitantly out of the corridor and into the circle of light where we could see her.
"-Carmela Shultz!"
She smiled shyly, and Joe promptly fainted. Gomamon groaned.
"Someone get him off of me!"
Murmuxmon sat quietly at his desk, going over the report Delia had gathered on the Digidestined. Cody, he remembered the name was. The report was hardly complete, but it wasn't important in any event.
It said a lot that Murmuxmon was seated at a desk rather than a throne like so many other would-be conquerors. It demonstrated a penchant for ruling through careful manipulations rather than pure power. It was why so many other digimon had failed.
As have I.
It was true enough, he supposed, that he had not done well with bouts of pure force in his early days, and had therefore come to rely on deceit and more underhanded tactics than his opponents.
But that is in the past.
He flipped up the screen built into the desk and watched the proceedings. The report was just an excuse. The information was amusing, he supposed, and perhaps one or two of the questions that were answered were worth taking a look at. But he had known the majority of what mattered in the report before Delia had asked the questions.
No. The real point of the exercise was to test the boy. To watch and gage his reactions to the questions, his situation, and the constant aggravation.
The boy seemed to be incredibly resilient emotionally, which was something of curiosity to Murmuxmon, but not something he was incredibly concerned with. He sighed.
Perhaps I worried for nothing. The boy does not have the bearing to walk in his footsteps.
The girl's reactions were more interesting than the boy's to tell the truth. She ranged between deadly calm and wild anger as her mind fought with the invading prescience of Daemon's Dark Spore.
Murmuxmon paused the recording and contemplated this for a moment. It was for this precise reason that he hadn't simply watched it live. He might have felt compelled to intervene sooner and therefore contaminate the results. What he contemplated were the girl's actions towards the boy. They were odd… she seemed to be comforting the boy, reflecting a trace of inner light.
Should I tell Daemon?
He brushed the thought aside almost as soon as he'd come across it. It wasn't really his business, and the things that were his business had been completed to satisfaction.
Besides. It's not like my old enemy is blind. And if he is, I'll enjoy destroying him just that much more.
Murmuxmon watched through the rest of it without stopping. Turning the monitor off, but not closing it, he once more pondered the girl's actions. Then he shrugged. Partly because it was Daemon's problem now, and mostly because the boy would be dead before the day was out.
Shrugging, he returned to his monitor and it settled onto a different image. Or rather, a split screen of two live feeds. Two different groups of Digidestined had infiltrated his base. One deliberately, and the other by accident.
The American fools who had entered by accident posed no particular threat, as they were well within the anti-catalyst matrix, and were therefore powerless. The only real concern he had regarding them was that they were nearing the holding cells. But as the cells were guarded, and they were weakened, he wasn't incredibly worried. The other group worried him more. They had digivolved before entering.
There were only three of them, but the leading ultimate was enough to make him slightly nervous. He knew that digimon, black as it was. The other thing that concerned him was the boy. He wasn't sure quite what effect his field would have on his digivice's ability to alter the world around him. That particular function did not appear to need a catalyst to work, which made the digimon a power to watch carefully.
Dismissing the others as unimportant, he cut the feed to the Americans and watched the boy and his friends, a slight frown on his face.
They'll soon hit a patrol, but will it slow them down?
He didn't have any delusions about any single patrol being able to take down BlackWarGrowlmon, especially if his partner was still able to empower him, but he wondered how much it would slow them.
The frown deepened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I crept ahead cautiously, not liking the prickling feeling I was getting in the back of my neck. I did not like it at all. I glanced down at Otamamon in my arms, actually pleased to see that he was sleeping. He would likely need the rest.
We turned the corner carefully.
And stopped.
What was probably once a straight path was now completely blocked by rubble. Phil grumbled behind me.
"Great, a dead end."
I nodded.
"Recent it appears. Perhaps it could not hold up to the battle with SkullGreymon."
Phil nodded a little, and Steve called us over to where he was.
"Hey, this looks like it might go somewhere!"
It was another collapsed wall of rock, but it was down, alighting another path through the dark. I motioned the others in.
"This looks promising. Let's go."
We walked on for a bit, the darkness starting to get to us. None of us dared to speak, lest we awaken some forgotten guardian, like the aforementioned SkullGreymon. Finally though, just when the darkness was beginning to seem a little too oppressive, a light appeared up ahead. Elated, we headed towards it, only to stop on a sound. We sweat-dropped when we realized what it was.
Off-key singing.
"-Oh! Nooooboooody knooows the trouble I've seeeeen! Noooobooody knoooows my sorrow!-"
This was followed by a muffled crash.
"Shut up, Patamon! I've had enough of your caterwauling!"
"That's rich, coming from you Gatomon!"
"You shut it too, Veemon!"
I sighed in relief.
The Odaiba Digidestined.
The others hurried right after me as I approached.
There was strange metal-on-metal noise as we got closer. Pretty much a 'clinking' sound.
"Wormmon! Will you stop with the cup against the bars thing?!"
"But Ken told me that's what prisoners do, Armadillomon!"
"Well it's giving me a headache. Stop. Please."
"Sorry."
We kept creeping closer, and now I was able to spot several guards, most of them rookies with a single champion watching over them. From what I could tell, there were several Koemon to the single Hookmon. We were close enough to rush them now. I looked back at the others, who nodded. They were ready. Steve gave me a thumbs up.
We ran in, not realizing until it was too late that we couldn't digivolve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched Takato grimace as he looked at the holographic image above his glove-thing. From what I read and what Takato had told us, we were in trouble.
There were three 'Karatenmon' ahead of us. They were virus types according to the scanner, and ultimates, a level above Yasyamon. Not only that, from what Takato has said, virus types had the advantage over data types like Yasyamon.
Not good.
"Get 'em Grizzmon!"
"Wait!"
Takato's voice went unheeded as Grizzmon charged in.
"MAUL ATTACK"
"BALLISTIC FEATHERS!"
Grizzmon's physical attack was no match for the projectile explosives, and he was flung back into the wall. He managed to right himself, and miraculously managed to stay in his champion form.
Unfortunately the resulting cave-in cut the two of us off from Takato.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A rumble filled the air suddenly, and for some reason, I felt a strange shiver run down my spine, almost as if the rumble were warning me of some god forsaken horror to come.
Oh, like something around here could really scare me more than being trapped here. Not that I'll admit that fright to anyone, mind you.
"Come, on Matt! The door opened!"
I blinked, then smiled at TK while heading out.
"Right. Sorry, let's go."
We tried to be inconspicuous as we wandered through the fortress. Let's face it, no matter what we could have tried, eleven humans stuck out like sore thumbs. Tai tentatively tried all the doors he came to, revealing nothing. It was a veritable ghost town. Then suddenly he hissed at me.
"Matt, get in here!"
I ran over, and lo and behold, Cody was in the room. I started cursing a moment later as I realized that he was chained to the wall. He smiled as he saw us.
"Hey guys."
"Whoa…"
Tai was being as dense as always, so I tried to clarify for him.
"What happened to you?"
"They just asked me a whole bunch of questions, that's all."
I nodded, and finally succeeded in undoing the manacle. Tai got himself together enough to pull together a coherent question.
"You okay to go on?"
Cody nodded, and he joined our little escapee party.
"Where's Takato?"
Cody shrugged at Kari's question.
"As far as I know he's still free."
"MEGA BONE STICK!"
"SWING SWING!"
The interruption was followed by several thuds as we came to a t-junction in the hallways. On the other side of us, I was rather shocked to see the New York kids there.
Unfortunately, they were getting their butts kicked. One of the Koemon saw us.
"Sir! The other humans have escaped!"
The Apemon that appeared to be in charge narrowed his eyes at us.
"Matt! Over here!"
I smiled in relief as I saw Gabumon's arm waving, only to have my hopes crushed as I realized he was locked up.
Crap. Somehow, if I get through this, I think this is one story I won't tell Jun.
"Foul monkeys! How dare you attack and imprison these noble souls! Have at thee! DOUBLE STRIKE!"
With the New Yorkers on one side, us on the other, and the digimon on the side, the attack could only have come from one direction. The third corridor.
A Yasyamon burst in, both of his wooden swords crashing down, dealing with two of the seven Koemon at once, deleting them. The others swarmed towards him, but a girl's voice called out.
"Yasyamon! Duck!"
Yasyamon did as ordered and a Grizzmon carrying a brown haired girl sitting just in front of its shoulder blades, legs on either side of the neck, sailed over him just in front of the crowd.
"CRESCENT DAWN!"
With a long swipe of one of its forepaws, the massive bear let loose a crescent shaped light beam, eradicating the others.
"METALIC FUR!"
The Apemon let loose hairs of razor-sharp metal at them, but the Yasyamon vaulted the Grizzmon and its rider this time.
"Never fear! I shall defend you! DOUBLE ARM GAURDS!"
The Grizzmon used the distraction to run around behind the Apemon and, with the girl still mounted just in front of the shoulder blades mind you, reared up and brought it's paws up, claws gleaming.
"MAUL ATTACK!"
The Apemon, who was still trying to get through Yasyamon's defences, never knew what hit him as he was ground underneath the other digimon.
Then I backed away in fear as I realized just who the girl was.
Jun…
"MAATTY!"
My eyes widened as my girlfriend did her imitation of a human cannonball right at me.
"Oof!"
That was about all I was capable of as she knocked me to the ground.
"Oh, Matty, you're the greatest! What other guy would get his girlfriend a digimon for Christmas!"
My eyes widened into golf balls as the pieces all fell into place in my mind. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to realize that denying this would only bring more trouble than was already present.
"Yeah… isn't it great…?"
Then, a thing for which was grateful, the attention was taken off me as Gomamon came hurtling out of the tunnel.
"JOE!"
The underwater monster flung himself at Joe, but at least Joe managed to stay upright.
"G-Gomamon?"
Gomamon grinned, and climbed around on Joe until he was on his back, their heads side by side.
"Just promise me you won't do that again, Joe."
Joe smiled, and flicked away a few tears.
"I promise Gomamon. I promise."
Gomamon grinned.
"I'll hold you to that Joe. Introducing our next guest, Yasyamon's Digidestined-"
A pretty girl with her brown hair pulled into a bun with a medical bag by her side steps hesitantly out of the corridor and into the circle of light where we could see her.
"-Carmela Shultz!"
She smiled shyly, and Joe promptly fainted. Gomamon groaned.
"Someone get him off of me!"