Chapter 12: CASTIron

I woke up, it was 5:00 in the morning, an hour before I usually wake up. I decided to check on Herpetomon since I might as well get up now. Herpetomon was still asleep so I got up and put on my daily habiliments.

"Herpetomon get up!" I whispered loudly.

"Oh, uh hey." He said, beginning to stir "Sorry about last night."

"Yeah, what was up with that? I know it can be hard to control yourself, but attacking Fatomon?" I inquired. He sat awkwardly and looked down at the floor.

"I'm sorry, I…just, couldn't control it this time, he got in my way, I just couldn't stand it, I, I'm sorry." Herpetomon said. He began to shudder "I'm sorry I'm so much trouble for you. Sometimes I wish I didn't get that way when a Digimon is near, but I can't help it!" I felt bad for him, he really can't do anything about it, and it's just the way he is.

"It's Ok, I know you can't control it. What you need to do is practice staying coherent when you go into 'alert-mode'. You know what I mean?" I told him.

"Yeah, that must be it, once I get better at holding back I should at least be able to stop myself from attacking my friends." Herpetomon said as he began to cheer up. "Thanks."

"No problem, now, school starts soon, you'd better get some sleep today, you look pretty beat up." I said.

"Yeah, Fatomon and I got pretty serious." He said.

"Ok, see ya later." I said as I left my room, waiting for mom to come down and take me to the bus stop. And at 6:15 she did.

Monday went by quickly, as did Tuesday and Wednesday. Herpetomon got better soon after our little talk Monday morning. It had been an uneventful week thus far, but I had a feeling Thursday would be different. School on Thursday was long and arduous. Nana wasn't available after school, so I took a taxi home. I came into the house at 3:30 and Herpetomon was drawing in my room as usual. There was something ironic about seeing Herpetomon draw.

"Hey, what are you drawing now?" I asked him, he looked up.

"My ultimate form, what did you think?" He said like I should've known

"Now you want me to check it over like before right?" I asked, he made an awkward look.

"…Yeah" he admitted

"Well too bad! He he, Alright, let me see it." He handed the pad to me and I got to work. I told him not to look again, he'd just have to be ready for another surprise. After I was done making my changes it was 4:00. I hid the pad in my desk and began working on my homework while Herpetomon lay back on my bed. I slowly worked way through anything from L'Imparfait to Stoichiometry. It was a dreary day and I was feeling very melancholy. After an hour of studies I was alerted to the familiar rumbling of the D-Gadget going off. I grabbed and turned to Herpetomon who sure enough was wide awake on my bed.

"Let's go." I said calmly and we leapt from the window. The weather was odd. The sky was gray and bustling and the temperature was equally as mild, it seemed inappropriate for late November. Although it was gray it was still bright out so Herpetomon had to take to the roofs. This was a fairly short trip, we were running towards the park down the street. I passed several surprised bystanders as I ran straight over to the park. I found it strange that the people had no idea about what was really going on. It was then that the impact of everything that had happened hit me. I had my own Digimon, so did my friends and we were all going out on adventures. All my wishes had come true, but something felt wrong, like this was all bigger than I realized. In any case we had to deal with the problem at hand. We safely reached the park and Herpetomon was at my side. The others hadn't arrived, but the field was already appearing. Soon the park was covered in the dreary gray fog.

"Herpetomon what do you think?" I asked him.

"Not Good." was all he said. He definitely meant it because a second after a huge bellow could be heard from the field.

"Ok, here we go." The display popped up "Oh no way! Devimon! Champion and a virus type. You've got to be kidding. I don't think we can take him alone, try to stave him off until the others get here!" Devimon emerged from the fog with an evil cackle. As he came out I could see that he would easily be one of our most challenging opponents yet. He was tall and relatively thin, but his most frightening feature was his hands. They were big and bandaged, truly a ghastly sight. He had a generally ominous look to him considering his stringiness. He sauntered closer and closer, his arms were motionless at his sides. Without warning he struck. He launched one of his arms at Herpetomon who managed to catch his hand. Devimon was now flying above him, pressing down with his long arms and trying to crush Herpetomon. Herpetomon was trying to hold him, but Devimon's strength was too much.

"I didn't want to use this right away but there's no other choice, flare activate!" I called and rose the D-Gadget. Immediately Herpetomon could feel the affects, he began to glow and threw Devimon's hand to the side. Then he jumped up and attacked. "Lizard Claw!" his flare power was so strong it brought Devimon to the ground. Herpetomon landed softly next to me as the light subsided.

"Hey guys! Did we miss anything?" I heard Kayla call from the fog. Before I could answer Devimon went towards her. He thrust out his hand again and grabbed her. "Gotsumon, help! Ahhhhhh" Gotsumon raced after her, but Devimon was already flying.

"Herpetomon, you'll have to throw Gotsumon again." I told him. So he ran to Gotsumon and told him.

"Ok, hurry up!" Gotsumon said and Herpetomon grabbed him by the arm, jumped towards Devimon and threw Gotsumon as hard as he could. He was sent hurtling towards Devimon and he cracked him one hard in the head, causing him to drop Kayla.

"Herpetomon, grab her." I told him. So he did, as she was falling he jumped up and snatched her out of harms way. She appeared to be fine, but a little bit shaken.

"Hey B, I'm Ok." She assured me suddenly, without warning Devimon snatched Herpetomon out from underneath her. She was brought to the ground so I went to her as Gotsumon was grabbed as well. I was left alone tending to Kayla while Gotsumon and Herpetomon were being held literally around the waist by Devimon.

"Herpetomon hang in there!" I yelled to him "Oh man, where's Nick?"

As if on queue I heard Fatomon's armor clunking through the field.

"Nick, hurry, the Digimon are in trouble!" I yelled. Nick came up behind me as Fatomon ran in to attack. Devimon was preoccupied with Herpetomon and Gotsumon who were writhing in his hands. Fatomon approached from the front of Devimon and drew his sword. Devimon was still laughing. Then his eyes began to glow, and soon after a crimson beam shot out of each eye. Fatomon anticipated the attack and put his sword in front of the blast. The beams hit the sword and to our grim surprise we heard chunks of metal fall to the ground, his sword had shattered. The force had knocked Fatomon to the ground. Nick, K, and I watched worriedly from the side. Fatomon got up and looked to be at a loss for what to do next.

"Fatomon!" Nick called to him "You're the only one who can do this now! You need to digivolve, to save us all." Nick seemed strangely excited about all this. K and I just watched as Fatomon stretched a bit and ran into Devimon again. Nick was staring intently, his muscles tensing a little. Devimon blasted his lasers like before, but Fatomon was wise to it now, he somewhat sluggishly dodged the attacks, moving ever closer.

"Now! Do it!" Nick yelled. Fatomon jumped in the air.

-Digivolution activate-

"Fatomon Digivolve to…" His armor was stripped off. While he grew, new armor was created around him. He now had thicker armor covering his legs and chest. The armor was now red, rimmed in black. He had plate mail running up his chest and shoulder armor. He had armor running down his left arm, but not his right, the sword wielding arm. His sword also grew from a comparatively small scimitar to a long devastating blade. Lastly his helmet changed. It was no longer a grill with his maw sticking out, but it was a face-fitting helmet that followed the shape of his head. It was decorated to look like his face underneath. "Castimon!"

"Wow, cool, I didn't think it would really work." Nick said laughing. Devimon had backed up to the street and in front of some houses. Castimon prepared to strike. I didn't know what kind of power Castimon had, but I was worried that it would harm the houses. In addition to the police monitoring us the last thing we need is a criminal record.

"Now Castimon!" Nick said

"No wait, the houses!" I called

Too late "Thousand Stabs," Castimon called he drew his sword and began to stab Devimon again, and again, until his motions were a blur of the flashing red of his sword. Devimon was pushed back to the houses and I thought he would crush them, but when Castimon's attack ended Devimon fell to the ground spewing data, nearly defeated. Herpetomon and Gotsumon made their escape.

"Nick! What were you thinking!" I yelled at him. "That attack could've crushed those houses behind Devimon!"

"What do you mean, we did it didn't we?" He replied

"Yes, but that's not the point, it could have caused a lot of harm and you just made the decision on a whim like that, that, that was so foolish!" I said

The fight was going on behind Nick, Devimon was in bad shape and our partners were throttling him.

"What is your problem, it doesn't matter, they're fine." Nick replied, becoming agitated.

"Don't you see? This is something much greater than ourselves, a great power, and we need to be responsible. We need to think things through." I tried to explain.

"Whatever, we're out of here. Castimon let's go." Nick said. I hadn't noticed in my fury, but Devimon had been defeated. Nick was already walking away, K was standing again, and I was still puzzled at Nick's behavior. Our Digimon were at our sides.

"Hold it right there!" It was Lyons again. Nick stopped and came back to us as Lyons came closer.

"You again, what is it with you, what do you want?" I asked.

"What I want is for you to get those Digimon out of this world!" He yelled "They are a menace and I want them gone."

"Get rid of them? You fool, you don't understand our situation at all. We don't' know how to send them back, and even if we did we wouldn't because they are our friends and they belong with us." I explained for the group.

"Don't you talk to me like that! You need to respect your elders. Well, since there's no way to make them go back I'll have to do it for you." He went into his jacket and pulled out a sizeable magnum pistol. Our Digimon got in front of us

"Whoa, Inspector put that away, please." Kayla said.

"No, if you can't make them go away then I'll just have to get rid of them." He was struggling with his aim, I took the initiative. I leaned forward to Herpetomon,

"Hey, let's switch, it's you he wants. After all, he can't shoot us." I whispered

"Right, I understand" Herpetomon went behind me, luckily without saying anything the others understood and did the same.

"Move it! I need to get rid of them." Lyons said

"No, Lyons, we won't let you. You need to understand that not all Digimon are bad, not all will be like Devimon." I explained.

"Please, move" He looked like he was very confused and upset, he was almost crying. I assume he'd been drinking and was having some inner turmoil. "Move, Damn it!"

"No!" We all said in unison. Lyons was startled and he looked like he was going to break down. He brought down the gun and stood looking at it in his hand. I whispered a command in Herpetomon's ear. He dashed over to Lyon's with outrageous speed. Before he knew what happened Herpetomon had taken the gun from him, and tossed it away.

"Now go, and leave us alone." Herpetomon said quietly. "Please, just let us stay here." Inspector Lyons was startled, he stumbled back to his car which was waiting outside the field. "I'm not done with you yet, I'll find a way!" Lyons yelled out his window as he sped away.

We watched as his car disappeared down the road. Nick turned to leave again, Castimon followed. "Bye," Nick said. I refused to answer, Kay replied "Bye." I didn't know what Nick was going to do with Castimon, but I didn't care.

"What's your problem?" Kayla asked.

"I can't believe him, that kind of carelessness makes me crazy." I said.

"Same here." Herpetomon said frowning.

"Well, what's done is done, I guess." She said

"It's always been that way with him. He always just does whatever he thinks of right away without even thinking. It pisses me off." I said. K was speechless. "We're going home, see you next time." Herpetomon and I left quickly. I was feeling very upset for some reason. Nick's actions were getting to me. It made me angry, and I didn't like it. I tried to repress and get over it, but his foolishness was outstanding, I couldn't believe it. Herpetomon and I circled to the back of the house and jumped in as usual. We didn't say anything for a while. We were both upset with Nick.

"Come on, let's go to bed." Was all I could say.