s/k: Ok, updated! Yeah! This is turning out a LOT darker then it's predecessor, I'm actually most pleased with it. Quick not before it's started. When they're biomerged this is the digimon speaking and this would be the Tamer Now that that's all cleared up, R&R!
Ch. 7
Jeri hadn't been in contact with the group since Takato had asked her about the door and a possible escape. The communication connection had died, and she had been left in the cell without any real source of stimuli, truly alone.
Slowly, she leaned over the bowl that Landersmon had left in the cell after his little spat with Rika. Sniffing it, she decided it didn't smell that bad, kinda like normal porridge, cinnamon and some unknown ingredient. Dipping in a finger, she tasted a bit, not bad, need's something though. . . Her mind wandered to her backpack, where the remains of her lunch were. Apples! She thought happily, some small part of her logical mind asking her why she was keeping up a pretense of normalcy, of false happiness. She went over to her pack and grabbed one of the slices, then ripped it into tiny pieces. Casually, she tossed the bits in, and took another taste. It was actually alright, but the already dark cell began to wink and smile at Jeri from all directions, becoming fuzzy, and escorting her to blackness. What's happening!
As it turned out, for such a large, lumbering digimon, Landersmon was an enduring runner. He had been traveling quickly for what seemed like an eon, and was finally beginning to slow down. Ryo's fingers were cramped and hurting, he knew that he should have fallen off and let go of Rika's wrist ages ago. As he was trying desperately not to think about any of that, he saw Rika glance down at him. Her shoulder must be ready to pop out. This is completely ludicrous! As he was thinking this, Rika poked him with her foot.
"Ryo," Her voice was strained, she wouldn't admit it hurt. "you need to get off my arm." He nodded, noticing that she was grinding her teeth. He waited until they were swung up and forward in the seemingly never-ending cycle of Landersmon's running; then let go and clumsily managed to catch the red arm with both hands.
"Better?" He asked as she moved so that both her hands were hanging on as well. She winced when the arm came above her head.
"Better-ish."
They swung in silence, Suzi's squeaking as his grip tightened and loosened becoming the only sounds aside from the digimons even breathing.
After an eternity seeming as long as the first, Landersmon slowed to a stop, circling a small tree like some sort of freak-ish dog. Deciding he was in the right spot, he dumped them all onto the hard, grey imitation grass. Rika knew they should attempt an escape of some sort, but she couldn't even bring herself to wrap a hand around her throbbing right shoulder. Suzi was the only one who even attempted to stand, Landersmon swiped his tail into the backs of her knees, and she didn't try to get up again.
Circling the tree once more, the red monster spotted whatever it was he had been hunting. Grabbing a Tamer in each arm he walked another half a kilometer or so until they reached the base of a small, rocky hill. As he got closer to a patch of tall evergreen trees, Suzi could see what looked like the opening to a cave. Her eyes widened and she fought furiously in the large creature grip. She'd never truly outgrown her fear of the dark, and as long as she could remember she'd been extremely, extremely claustrophobic. "HENRY!"
Landersmon smiled and pushed through a dense section of thicket, shuffling inside. Once inside the roughly hewn out hillside, he shook vigorously, managing to throw Rika, Suzi and Ryo in different directions as he did this.
Ryo hit the rock with his side, his head smacking against the cold stone before he fell to the floor. He now had a cut on his forehead that was bleeding slowly, and any of the resolve he'd had initially to save anybody, including himself, was rapidly diminishing. He heard Rika cough weakly, as if the wind had been knocked out of her; and Suzi crying in a small tucked up ball where she'd fallen.
Landersmon turned to look directly at him, but there was no smug grin as Ryo had been expecting. Instead he picked up Rika and Suzi again, neither making a huge protest, and continued towards a much better lit hallway that had been properly set with blocks of carved stone.
Ryo had to bite back a cry of frustration that this digimon was still going. Hauling himself off the ground, he fell into pace a ways behind the creature that he'd tried so hard to forget about. Who either didn't notice he was there or chose to ignore him. Rika twisted enough to look at Suzi, who looked back and didn't say any out loud, but whose eyes spoke of her terror silently,
They reached a spacious cell complete with iron bars and a grated door. Landermon stopped, opened the heavy iron door, and threw in the two girls. Jeri still lay by the bowl of mush, looking for the world as if she had died. Now, its task done, he turned his slanted, snake-ish red eyes to Ryo. "You followed, why?" The gruff, gravely voice sounded – not innocent - but curious. There was no doubt that Ryo was remembered, and the Tamer was both stunned and terrified that his enemy would stand less then 15 feet away and ask him a question, with seemingly no violent intent.
"I. . ." Ryo swallowed and glanced at Rika. "I came to stop whatever it is you're doing here. I'm came for them." He nodded his head at the three in the cell.
"Ryo, you don't need to do this." Rika brought herself up to stand, leaning against the bars. "Get the hell out of here." She tried to look like she was angry he'd come, it came out as more of a 'what do you think you're doing? Leave! Please!' he tried to ignore her eyes. "Find them." She didn't need to specify who.
"He won't be going anywhere to tell anyone anything." A higher, threatening voice growled from the dark recesses of the cell. A new digimon stepped forward and almost laughed. "You came here to help the other Tamers escape. You can word it as 'honorably' or however else you like, but no matter what the fact that your entire species is a worthless pack of exceptional liars will not do you any good."
Ryo wasn't entirely sure what to make of this digimon, nor was he even sure it was a digimon. Unlike the open hostility and power Landersmon gave off, this creature was infinitely more subtle, comparable to an assassin. It was smaller then the rusty-red minion, more cat-like, more dangerous. The thing was mostly shaped like a mongoose, its fur a shifting black that gave absolutely no reflection of light. The tail was swishing idly, it was more like a foxes, the tip snow-white by contrast to the light-consuming black.
It smirked and took a few steps toward Rika, Suzi, and Jeri; close enough that Ryo visibly tensed. Now that it was sure all attention was focused completely, it roughly grabbed Rika's left forearm. Jostling her until despite her best efforts, there were tears forming in her eyes and her tongue was bleeding she'd bitten it so hard to avoid crying out. "Are you having fun, human?"
"Stop it!" Ryo yelled, his hands snapping into fists, shoulders hunching slightly. He could feel his nails biting into his palm, the pain was a welcomed call for him to do something.
Its smirk grew into a ruthless line across the dark-furred face. Snapping its arm, Rika was literally sent flying into the flat stone wall of the cell. She tried to roll over, then didn't move. This seemed to snap Landersmon out of whatever kind of trance he'd been in. He whipped his tail around and caught Ryo's stomach, blowing the boy into the bars of the cell so hard he saw stars and had trouble breathing. As he began to collapse, its sleek, strong arm slid over his throat.
"Ryo!" Rika hissed, anger built up in her, forming a lump in her throat. "Don't, touch him!" She snapped a little louder at the black creature. It turned its head and smiled at the red blood collecting at the corner of her lips to fall drop by drop onto the dirty floor.
Suzi was trembling as she stood up and took a place between the conniving weasel-like digimon and Jeri. "You must need a hearing aid. Leave him alone!" She didn't move when it rotated its whole body to face her, but she wrapped her small, dirt-covered fingers around her D-arc, letting it find its way out of her pocket. He was very aware of how vulnerable they all were without their partners, just as they were.
The smile it had given Rika returned to a knowing smirk. "What are you going to do with that, Tamer? Point it at me? We are all aware that your trained rabbit isn't here." Behind her, Suzi could feel Jeri's D-arc beside her right foot. Not taking her eyes off her opponent, she bent slowly and picked it up in her other hand. Now she could feel them trying to pull together, as if they were incredibly strong magnets, they over-ruled the strength in her arms and connected with a click.
It raised a hardly visibly eyebrow, then asked in a low, sarcastic voice: "Should I be afraid, Tamer?"
( & )
Inside Suzi's D-arc, the colors around the digimon swirled from just pink, to both pink and yellow.
"Something's happening," Monodrmon stated, "and I have a feeling it involves us." None of them were prepared for what happened next, Monodramon, Renamon, Lopmon, and Calumon seemed to delete before the others eyes.
Marineangemon was stunned, tears of panic beginning to form in his eyes. "I don't understand. . ."
( & )
Renamon, Monodramon, Lopmon and Calumon were basically created as their data arranged itself to make a physical form in the Dark Ocean.
"Renamon?" Rika asked, she propped herself up on her arms and drew her legs under her.
"Monodramon!" Ryo gasped, from the corners of his eyes he saw his partner bristle as he registered his Tamers position and Landersmons presence.
"Lopmon." Suzi stated, completely stunned.
There was no call for Calumon, who worriedly scanned his changed surroundings. When he spotted Jeri he ran over to her, calling her name quietly, trying to wake her.
Rika got over her surprise quickly, she knew that they had to attack now, while everything was still chaotic. Ignoring everything else she reached for her D-arc. "Renamon, biomerge!"
"With pleasure." Her partner said back. Once they were merged, they turned in unison to face this new, un-introduced opponent. Nice to see you again Rika. You too, Renamon, you too.
Ryo reacted right after Rika, had it been a second later and the strong arm would have cut him off. "Monodramon, biomerge!" He called, his D-arc reacting from its place clipped on his belt. They were joined at a midpoint between their original places, no longer inhibited or trapped by the threatening black creature.
In the middle of the cell, Sokoyumon and Justimon stood side by side, ready to do battle. For a split second Rika fancied she was back inside the D-reaper, she shook her head to clear her mind. These are two completely different circumstances. This guy's a conscious force of malicious intent, the D-reaper was just a program!
If either of them had been paying attention, they would have noticed like Suzi did that Landersmon's eyes had started to change colour as he watched Sokoyumon take up her traditional stance before a fight. Beneath her mask, her eyes narrowed. In complete unison, she and Justimon leaped at their opponent from opposing sides; only Justimons blow made contact.,
The cell image dissolved around Sokoyumon, she was somewhere completely black, there was no gravity, no feeling, no . . . anything. . . "Justimon! Suzi!" She called, no one came. It was as if she had been forgotten in an empty black waste land. A wasteland where nothing existed, and no one cared if she was recovered.
"Sokoyumon!" Justimon cried in shock, she had collapsed in the middle of her attack on the black digimon, he spun away from his opponent and turned to face it head on, watching both Landersmon and his current adversary.
"You can't get her now, remember the little friend you were with?" Landersmon let out a soft laugh until Lopmon attacked it head on, not bothering to digivolve or even consider it.
"You give them back!" Suzi screamed, her small frame tense, her ruby-brown eye flashing dangerously.
Justimon was momentarily lost between finding a way through the bars to help Lopmon, and looking after his unknown antagonist. This was fixed when he was whirled them around to face the creature. "I don't think so, you've got your plate quite full already. Tamer"
"Justimon glared at it. "Where did you put them?" He didn't raise his voice at all, the tone was even, and calm.
"Like my partner said, remember your friend. . . ?" The emotions that comment dredged up were violent, painful, and doubled now that it was happening in front of him again. With a roar Justimon lunged, and Landersmon simply held Lopmon by her ears to watch this new form of entertainment.
