Chapter 25: Rivalry
I was the first to wake up from my nap. It was still light out, and it was actually very bright. I fell asleep in a bad position and had a cramp in my neck. At least I had gotten some sleep at all. I stayed still because Herpetomon fell asleep on me earlier. Anissa and Finchmon were the next to get up.
"Hey." I said.
"Hello." She responded.
"Sleep well?" I asked
"Yeah, but this place is so crazy." She said "I still can't believe we both ended up here."
"I know, that is pretty weird, it has something to do with me, but I don't know what it is." I said.
"You don't think I'm holding you guys back do you?" She asked.
"What, no, no way, everyone on the team is important, and necessary. You and Finchmon have some serious skills and I'm glad that of all people, you'd be the one here." I said, this was my lame attempt at flattery.
"Smooth, but thanks anyway." Anissa said. She smiled in that sad way she always used to. I wonder how she would get that crest to light, she seemed to almost be afraid of love, afraid to love. I never understood, but decided not to inquire. I didn't want to hurt her. After our small discussion Codamon and Nick woke up, then Kayla and Gotsumon. Fatomon hadn't gone to sleep, he sat a little ways from the rest of the party. Lastly Matt and Herpetomon woke up.
"Ok, ready to move on?" I asked. Everyone responded "Yes!" I was glad to see the enthusiasm, false or not. We got moving again, towards the north. I didn't lead this time, I hung back to see how everybody was doing. I went to Nick first.
"Hey, how's it going?" I asked
"Not bad, it's so hot though." Nick said.
"Yeah, I guess it is." I said, then went in to whisper. "What's with Fatomon, he's been really quiet since we came to the Digital world. More quiet than usual."
"I was worried at first, but he said that it's his rival, he used to have a rival digimon that he fought with all the time, but he was never able to beat him before. It's kind of his goal." Nick said.
"Oh, well that's cool, I'm sure he can beat him now." I said. Then I moved around the group to K. I was on her left, but tapped her right shoulder. She looked the other way, then back at me.
"Stupid." She said.
"Yeah, I know." I said.
"So Meteormon, how are you doing?" I asked.
"Good, and look, I'm all warm now." He said.
"It's true, check it out." K said. So I put my hand out and felt the red burning rocks he was made of. He really was warm, it wasn't like he was on fire, it was more like the rocks themselves were emitting heat.
"Oh wow, that's so cool, and you were cold when you were Icemon right?" I asked.
"Yeah, K always complained." Meteormon said.
"Shut up, no I didn't." She said.
"It's Ok, I heard you." I said. Then I moved back up to the front. With Herpetomon.
"And how are you doing?" I asked him.
"I'm doing ok," He said "I'm still a little mad at the virus instinct though. I have a feeling something bad is going to happen with it."
"Oh, that. Well, change that anger into joy and we'll have this fight won in no time." I said smiling. He continued to frown, he was bringing me down. "Just try to stay focused" I said.
"Fine, I guess, but it's so hard." He said.
"I know, I know." I said. I put my arms around his shoulders and kept walking. We were crossing some kind of desert now. Even though we didn't need water, it was still very hot out. We dredged on though. Kayla kept complaining. Finally after about 2 hours of walking the D-Corps base was in view. It was a pretty amazing structure, unexplainable. It was one main tower in the middle, surrounded by many curving crescent shaped buildings. I couldn't see from where we were, but I image each of the smaller buildings were connected to that main tower. The base was slowly getting closer and closer to us. All of us were drained from the heat. We had come to our destination. We were standing in front of one of the crescent shaped buildings. There was no door however.
"Ok, are we on the wrong side?" Matt asked Codamon.
"No, just give it a second." Codamon said so we all watched the building. Then slowly the material of the building in front of us opened, it was pulled away like a curtain. The new doorway opened into a short hallway and an opening ahead.
"Wow, that was so cool, the stuff just, like, melted away." I said. The others moved on ahead of me, I was still looking at the concrete that had magically moved aside.
"That was so cool." Herpetomon said with me.
"Hello, Mr. Leader and friend, let's go." Finchmon said. We were entranced by the fancifulness of the building, but were jarred by Finchmon's yelling. We ran up to them, but once we stepped in the wall behind us came back, it looked like it had been there the whole time.
"Uhh, that's so cool." I said while I was catching up to the others. They were in the small opening at the end of the hallway. In front of us was and Angemon sitting at a desk. Behind us on the other side of the clearing was another hallway.
"Hello, you must be the tamers." The Angemon said in an angelic voice. His voice was like nothing I'd heard before. Herpetomon had a leathery voice, Gotsumon had an almost raspy voice, but this Angemon had a strange voice, it was like the words weren't coming from his mouth, the words were just, appearing. I found it
"Yes, we are the tamers." I said.
"Good, it's great to meet you." He said, then he got up and shook all of our hands. "If you go down this hallway, take a left, another left and then enter the first door on your right there will be a large meeting room. If you could go in there and wait for Protagamon please."
"Oh, ok then, bye." I said. I led everyone the way he told us to go.
"Wow, what a freak." Anissa said.
"What? He was just happy to see us, we are heroes remember." I said.
"Right." Anissa said. We came to a white door where Angemon said it would be. I opened the door and sure enough there was a huge meeting room inside. There was a long table in the middle that stretched across the whole room. There were more than 5 seats, so I assumed this wasn't just for the D-Corps elites. On the wall opposite the door there was a large window with a view of the tower. Around the tower there was a field where many Digimon were going about their jobs. Some were training, some were talking, it was pretty interesting.
"So, let's just hang here for a while." I said. We each took a seat somewhere around the table next to our Digimon. Except Finchmon and Codamon obviously, they found other places to sit. It was still very bright outside, and the darkness would probably be coming soon.
I was by the window looking at the tower in the center of the place. It looked a little bit like the Hub Tower, but this one was much thicker, probably to make it more battle-ready. It was an amazing scene, all of the buildings were glistening white in the same way Protagamon does. Protagamon herself arrived after about 20 minutes.
"Everyone come quickly, we have an emergency, there's a Digimon in the compound and he's asking to see Fatomon." She said.
"Fatomon?" Nick asked
"I see, call back your soldiers immediately, where is he?" Fatomon asked
"Wait, who is it?" Nick asked.
"He's approaching the quad area." Protagamon said. Fatomon left, Nick followed, then the rest of us followed suit. Fatomon had obviously been here before. He ran through the compound outside to where the door to the quad was. He opened it and stepped outside, we all followed. The darkness had come. The main tower in the center was lit up so we could see fairly well. Across the quad the Digimon meditated. We approached slowly, Fatomon leading the way. He drew his sword. We went closer and closer. The Digimon was up in a flash and it threw a large shuriken towards us. There was something Fatomon wasn't telling us, he knew exactly how to block such an attack. We were all safe and the enemy was now standing in front of us with the shuriken.
"So, you finally came back?" The Digimon said.
"I'm here aren't I" Fatomon said.
"Wise-ass as always." He said
"I see you still fight dirty Ninjamon." Fatomon said.
"Fatomon, what's going on here?" Nick asked. Fatomon turned to him
"This is my old rival, Ninjamon. Before I came to the Real world we used to fight all the time, but I could never beat him. Because he beat me I was honor bound to give my life to him." Fatomon said. "One day I asked him if he would let go to the real world to search for a partner, needless to say, he let me go."
"Oh wow. So let's go, Brendan, K, let's get him." Nick said.
"No!" Fatomon and I said at the same time. Fatomon looked at me and saw that I understood.
"We can't butt in on their fight. This is something they have to do themselves." I said.
"But what if Ninjamon tricks him again? Fatomon?" Nick said.
"It's Ok, now that I have you guys behind me there's no way I can lose. I don't want you to help me either, put the D-Gadget away." Fatomon said. So Nick reluctantly put it in his pocket. We backed off to the side and the two opponents stood directly across from each other, about 35 feet apart. The other soldiers had been called away so it was just us out here, fighting in the dim light of the tower. I could see people looking from the windows though.
"We have…unfinished business." Ninjamon said.
"Man, you ain't kiddin" Fatomon said. They just stared at each other for a while, the tension was very strong. Then they charged. Ninjamon drew his sword, but it was smaller than Fatomon's. Their swords clashed together.
"So you have gotten stronger." Ninjamon said. The jumped back and pulled their swords away. Ninjamon took out two shuriken and threw them at Fatomon. Fatomon took his sword and deflected them with ease. They were sent flying into the ground. Ninjamon drew his sword again and charged at Fatomon. Fatomon slashed at him, but Ninjamon had jumped over him. Ninjamon took a stab at Fatomon's backside, but Fatomon swung the sword behind him and deflected it. Then Fatomon spun around and took a diagonal slash, it hit. Ninjamon was leaking a little data, but he was still able to fight. He took up his sword and slashed at Fatomon's head. Fatomon didn't even block because the attack just hit his helmet and the sword was knocked out of Ninjamon's hands. Fatomon took advantage and punched him in the chest, sending him backwards. Ninjamon appeared to be down, but once Fatomon approached Ninjamon took out and threw another shuriken, it hit Fatomon's leg. He was still walking, it had only grazed him. Ninjamon was out of shuriken so he took the sword again. Fatomon made a hard slash down on him. Ninjamon put up his sword and tried to block. The force of Fatomon's attack had cut Ninjamon's blade in half. The cut off piece fell to the ground and Ninjamon looked shocked. Fatomon stood over him with his sword pointing at him.
"Oh, well, you have some skill." Ninjamon said. "Was it your partnership with the human that made you so strong?"
"Yes." Fatomon said.
"Well, you know the drill, I'm yours." Ninjamon said.
"Yes, but I won't kill you, you did me that favor." Fatomon said "I'll just bring you along on our mission if it's alright with our leader."
"Yeah, it's fine with me." I said.
"What? How can we bring him with us?" Nick asked, Fatomon had helped Ninjamon up and they walked over to us. "He'll probably kill us in our sleep."
"I promise to you I won't." Ninjamon said. "I'm honor-bound."
"Yeah, see, it's Ok." I said "Hi, I'm Brendan, this is my Digimon Herpetomon." I said, then continued to introduce the others.
"Not a bad group." Ninjamon said "So what's the deal?"
"That's what we are going to find out." I said. "Let's go." I led us back to the meeting room, but I got us lost and Codamon had to help me out. We were now an 11-strong force. Even without a tamer Ninjamon was a skilled fighter and another valued member. I stepped in with the others following me. Protagamon and a few other Digimon were standing by the window, they had been watching the fight.
"We're back." I said. I came in and sat down, the others came too. The Digimon who were watching looked puzzled.
"What're you doing Fatomon? You had the chance to get rid of him, what's going on?" A Silphymon by the window asked.
"Have you no honor?" Fatomon asked "Long ago this Digimon and I fought time and time again. I was always defeated and we came to an agreement, the loser would owe his life to the winner. Ninjamon, here, could have killed me, but he didn't, I'm just repaying the favor."
"Oh, I see." The Silphymon said.
"Yeah, so now, if it's alright with Protagamon we'd like to bring him with us on whatever this mission is." I said.
"Yes, if that's alright with Ninjamon. He did break into the compound, but I suppose he wasn't go to harm anyone, we can just…let it slide." Protagamon said.
"The only reason I came was because I knew Fatomon would be here." Ninjamon said.
"Very good, well, let's just drop it and move on to the mission." Protagamon said. "Now, You all know of the threat Alice-M is causing to the Digital world, it has been terrorizing us for months now, and this is the beginning of the end of it. Tamers, your mission is to infiltrate Alice-M's base and destroy him." Protagamon said.