s/k: Hah! Four chapters reposted! dances around
Ch.
4
Rika's
head was pounding, someone screamed. Then came a harsh grating
voice:
"Just remember Tamer, if you don't tell my master
whatever it is he wants, we'll have another 'talk' soon." Jeri
sobbed quietly and nodded, just go away! Please!
"Keep
this in mind, it was cluttered thoughts that got your friend caught,
you should learn to watch what you think." Another voice
muttered, it was higher, more ruthless.
She whimpered and
crawled over to where Rika was laying. Shuffling footsteps shuffled
their way out of the cell.
"Rika! Rika, please wake up,
please!"
"Okay, I'm good," Rika murmured
thickly, "What happened?"
"After it knocked you
out, it left and came back with its 'master'. They asked me a
bunch of questions about a Creator. When I told them I didn't know
what they were talking about, they weren't impressed and - ."
Jeri paused, her eyes drifting down to her battered legs. Rika's
own eye was caught by a nasty looking slice 3 inches long running
down her left shin. She went to tear off some of her long black shirt
to wrap around it, and found the material to be stronger then she'd
anticipated. After a minute, she managed to get a usable amount off
and tie it over the cut; there were others, obviously, but she
couldn't fix everything. Jeri continued: "Then it just
threatened me some more and left." Her voice quavered, she was
terrified.
"Okay," Rika nodded, "you take a
nap, sleep will help. If they come back with some sort of food, I'll
wake you up."
"Thanks."
"No
problem."
. . . .
"So,
how exactly are we going to get to the digital world? That portal in
Guilmon's hideout closed last week, inconvenient, huh?" Kazu
said, suddenly the simplicity of their plan vanished.
"Like
this." Henry grinned a little; he tossed a new card to each of
them. It was yellow, with light blue for the 'D' on the back. "These
will transport us back and forth between the three worlds. Just say
where you want to go when you swipe the card."
"Okay."
The others nodded, it sounded simple enough now.
Henry looked
each of them in the eye before saying: "Right, swipe the card.
We're going to the Dark Ocean!"
Ryo noticed a slight flare of annoyance that Henry had taken Takato's unquestioned role as their 'leader' without any outside opinion. It bothered him a bit, but he told himself it was nothing, and promised no to cause any trouble on purpose. The Tamers swiped their new cards and disappeared from behind the tree in the school yard.
. . . .
A
large bowel of something was placed in front of Rika, it both looked
and smelled absolutely disgusting. As the thing, 'it' turned to
leave, she said bluntly:
"Do you really expect us to eat
this and survive?"
'It' whipped around, its eyes glinting
dangerously. "Do you see a turkey dinner in your near future,
Tamer? Unless you do, I'd eat what you've got. I personally
wouldn't mind seeing you beg as you starve, but that's not
something I make decisions on."
"Better to starve and
die then stay under the tyranny of a 5 year olds rejected science
experiment and its beloved mutant mummy." Rika stated, pressing
herself against the bars and glaring.
"What, is it some gruesome fate at the hands of your ancient friend that smells like cat food? I'm terrified, help, someone save the poor defenseless Tamer." She gasped dramatically and feigned passing out. "Ever stop to think that maybe there's a reason we're Tamers? We've defeated far worse then you while bickering among ourselves, what makes you think that you'll have better luck when we're agreeing on things?"
The dragonish creature came closer to Rika, until its face was level with hers and only separated by a few inches and the bars. "You have no idea what's coming for you." It narrowed its eyes into smaller slits and seemed to glow, shedding at least a little light in the dark enclosure.
Rika found herself floating up a few inches off the ground, she had time to understand that something very bad was about to happen before an invisible hand snapped her roughly across the cell and into the stone wall. "AAAII!" She gave a sharp, short scream as the chains tightened and snapped her wrists before the bolts anchoring them came right out of the wall.
Jeri sat up in alarm, her eyes widening at the scene that greeted her. "Rika!" She was torn between running to her friend and staying curled safely in her corner. 'It' turned its gaze to her form, she hadn't chosen either option and stayed kneeling from her nap on the ground to its right."Would you like to say something too, Tamer?" The strange creatures glare was focused entirely on Jeri, it ignored Rika as she sat up shakily in the background, her chains clattering off as they slipped over her bent hands.
Rika's
mind was singly tracked, the pain coming in seemingly never-ending
waves from her wrists was nauseating. It could not be ignored,
particularly right after the event before the body had any chance of
transporting its own painkillers to the area. Distantly, her eyes
registered 'It' watching Jeri tremble.
'It' stood there,
breathing heavily for a moment. "You're not worth the effort
now." The creature mumbled, it glanced at Rika, then hastened away
from view.
Rika just stayed where she was for a while,
relishing the silence, and that she and Jeri were the only ones
there. After an unknown amount of time: "Jeri?" Rika asked
softly, her voice tight with pain. She got up slowly, careful to not
move her arms any more then was absolutely needed. Jeri still hadn't
answered. Looking over to her friend, she saw the other girl had
collapsed backwards. Taking careful, smooth steps she managed to make
her way over to the other girl. Jeri was twitching, it was as if she
were asleep and fighting a nightmare.
Before
anything was set in Rika's mind as to what might be happening with
her friend, her digivice began to beep; she'd forgotten it was with
her. "Stupid thing!" She mumbled thickly through her tears,
hitting it with her elbow so that it dropped to the floor. A small,
blurry picture appeared in 3D above the screen.
"Rika!"
Ryo's voice came from the little speaker in her D-arc, it sounded
distant, like on a radio with bad reception. "Rika, can you hear
me? Are you there?"
"Ryo!" She smiled in spite of
herself and her situation. "What the hell's going on?"
The
face of the little picture hardened. "That doesn't matter right
now, you need to see if there's a way to get out of. . . wherever
you are."
If Rika had ever felt a need to hit someone hard, it was now. "Any suggestions?" She snapped, she hadn't meant too, but recent events included, she was entitled to snap. Without really expecting an answer from Ryo, she studied the stone cell carefully. The section of the bar wall that acted like a door had a gap under it, maybe . . .
She used her foot to push her D-arc across the floor towards the gate (much to Ryo's protest, as he couldn't see anything), then very, very cautiously lowered herself so that she was on her stomach on the ground. It wasn't actually very difficult to get under the 'door', the cell was obviously meant to hold larger captives, and her own captors must have expected the chains to hold herself and Jeri. Her greatest challenge at that moment was how to pick up her D-arc. Eventually, she managed to force it into one of the baggy pockets of her pants with her elbow.
"This is ludicrous!" She whispered, tears stinging her eyes again. The cell was one of many down a long stone hall, towards the end Rika was currently facing, she heard heavy footsteps, and the same high, cruel voice that had found her in the shadows. Turning, she ran down the hall in the opposite direction as fast as she dared. She chanced a glance backwards and glimpsed the rusty red skin of 'It' before her head faced forward, and registered the wall in front of her. Closing her eyes against the in-escapable impact, she braced herself for the pain that would come with it. After 2 agonizingly long seconds, she still hadn't hit the wall.
Confused, she opened her eyes and slowed to a jog, then stopped. The scene she saw wasn't like anything she had expected. There wasn't any colour, it was all blacks, whites, and shades of grey. She was in a dead forest, and through the trees, she could see a beach. The only sounds were that of the surf. Deciding to put as much distance as she could between herself and the now either non-existent or invisible prison, she ran down onto the sand. It stretched on for miles into the grey fog on both sides of her, but to her right she could see a group of what could have been people huddled around something.
Walking carefully towards the group, she saw the most welcome sight she could think of. Immediately she broke into a run, eating the distance between them like it was nothing. One of the figures turned around at the sounds of life, then all of them. Ryo stepped forward a little, not believing his eyes for a moment.
"Rika!"
