The telephone cabin flashed bright, and, throughout the speaker exited the figure of a slender, flaming headed woman. Mizumi placed a loosed strand behind her ear and sigued. It was midday, and the street was crowded. A loud crash didn't manage to call her attention, and the poor innocent who was driving the Toyota Prius was enraged to see the back of his car completely smashed by a bus. Silence and murmurrs were everything heard, as people eyed Mizumi curiously.
"Well?" the woman questioned, furrowing her brow and staring at the numerous curious.
"You... you... you..." someone ventured to say, pointing at Mizumi with a trembling finger.
"Yes. I came out of the telephone cabine, and yes." Mizumi snapped angrily, turning to face a woman who was about to question her, "I'm a Digi." She finished, glancing everyone.
It was like a domino reaction. Suddenly, people began to swear, scream, shriek, and run all about the place. With a smirk, Mizumi saw the Agent's car approaching. They had detected her, perfect. Loosing no time, opening her way through the people without really needing it, since the crowd was moving aside, avoiding being in contact with the perilous being. Mizumi leapt on her moto, which had been parked next to the terrace since yesterday afternoon.
The motor began to roar and the Digi fled throughout the streets, making complicated and dangerous manoeuvres. The Agents followed her, placing a siren and blue, sparkling lights to make the cars move aside. Mizumi was happy with this, the plan was working perfectly. Pretending to be dodging them, the girl rode into a sandy path, going through it for several metres until she stumbled over her moto and made it look like she had fallen off.
"Oof..." Mizumi groaned, rubbing her back.
"Stupid girl, thinking you could evade us with that thing." Kari said, sneering at Mizumi and looking at the fallen vehicle with disgust.
"Sod off, bitch!" Mizumi spat, standing up and glaring at Kari angrily.
"You know? It's not too smart for a Digi to get to a place like this, with not escape, alone." Kari snapped with a smirk, "Ask your friend, Takeru, he knows what I'm talking about. Oh wait! He can't, he is working for the ODE now!" the woman said with a satisfied smirk.
"You know? It's not too smart for an Agent to face a cornered Digi, we can be dangerous." Mizumi said, talking in a complice like way, yet smirking.
"How curious, your lover, Takeru, just said something similar when I caught him." Kari said with a fake, gentle face, "How sweet, you two are made for each other. It will be so romantic when I capture you."
"You and which army?" Mizumi inquired, throwing her shoulders back and clenching her fists, proudly.
"Don't underestimate me, girl." Kari said angrily, starting to get frustrated, "Kenji!" the woman called.
With a gasp, Mizumi saw her brother coming out from the large van and rushing towards the woman. The laptop was firmly held in a tight grip. Never did he bother to steal a single glance at his sister. It really was like she never existed, and that hurt Mizumi. After all, it was her brother.
"I want to explain a few little things before I finish you off. First of all, I am the ODE president, the boss, the master, whichever name you want to call me. However, neither I am the first Agent, nor you are the first Digi. For generations, Digis and Agents have been fighting, just anciently they were called Mages, Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers, and Hunters, Inquisition, Priests, etc." Kari explained calmly, considering this lesson important.
"Is that the reason why we have to kill each other? Because we have been doing it for generations?" Mizumi inquired sardonically.
"No, it's the same as the lion and the zebra. Eventually the zebra sucumbs to the predator. You, my dear girl, are the zebra." Kari said dryly, "As for the virus, well, you were becoming a pest already. Our powers were so even it took us years of fighting until one of you sucumbed. You were becoming so annoyingly powerful we didn't know how to fight you any more. So we thought of the possibility of creating a virus, an informatic virus, to control you, instead of destroying you.
Now we had a problem, we could create a virus, but we couldn't create it phisically, on the real world." Kari explained angrily.
"Of course, you don't have the power of controlling the digital data." Mizumi said smartly.
"Exactly. Only Digis have that power, so we needed a Digi, one that was latent, one that still hadn't developed his power fully, one who didn't know what he was and who would eventually hate Digis, if we persuaded him of your evil." Kari was smiling proudly at this.
"Master?" Kenji was now listening very sharp and attentive at Kari, looking thoughtful. Mizumi was eyeing Kari with full attention, wanting to know where the woman was getting at.
"Hush, Kenji. That is how I found your brother, the end of career exams made him a little tense." Kari winked at Kenji, who was looking terrified, "Perfect, an intelligent informat, who has just finished his career, and son of the most brilliant informat of the world. We just told him what he had to do, and he did.The results were splendid!" Kari was looking at Kenji proudly.
"Kenji..." Mizumi whispered, turning her face to stare with disbelief at Kenji, "You knew?" the girl inquired.
"No, I swear I didn't know!" Kenji was shaking his head violently, staring at his hands fearfully, pure horror crossing his face and cold sweat trickling down his skin.
"You knew something was happening to you!" Mizumi affirmed with deception, "And you still hate us, even more! You created a thing to control us! You saw it being used on Dad, and you didn't do anything to help him!" Mizumi growled more angry by the moment, tensing visibly, and inflating her chest with fury.
"Sister, I was afraid... I..." Kenji stuttered, staring at his sister in a pleading way.
"Sister? Now you have a sister!" Mizumi snorted despectively, "You were afraid? I was afraid, I spent a whole month locked in my room after I found out I was a Digi, and Tk managed to make me love this life! And you go and start to work for the enemy, knowing you might be a Digi, suspecting that Dad was a Digi as well. Your stupid virus ripped him from my side, but know what?" Mizumi was crying at this point, her voice raised to an angered yell, "You won't manage to keep him away from me, Kenji, because I love him!"
There was a flash, and explosion of fire that engulfed Mizumi. Kenji was frightened at first, but Kari was completely terrified, observing how the ball of fire was growing slightly, more in bulk than in height. Making a spiral, the flames consumed themselves, vanishing around the mysterious creature that had replaced Mizumi. The beast was large, like a small horse in size. A sharp, cruved, golden beak was open as the animal breathed heavily, almost as if it lacked air. The lion like body and the hawk head was covered by a coat of flamming red fur, while the head was crowned by a spiked crest of igniting feathers, with golden tips. The claws were sharp and curve like persian daggers, the lion twil swayed back and forth, and the large wings trembled lightly. The animal stared at her clawed hands curiously, glancing back and forth at her body with the black, deep eyes.
"Mizumi?" Kenji ventured, yed received only a loud, angry shriek from the griffin like creature.
"Do not fear, my dear Kenji. All Digis can transform into those aberrations." Kari said holding Kenji's forearm, while observing the griffin with a look of sitisfaction, as if it was her own creation.
"Don't touch me!" Kenji spat disgustedly, pulling his arm away from Kari's touch and staring at her with hatred.
"Fine! Have it your way!" Kari glared at Kenji angrily.
The Agent drew out a remote control from one of her pockets and pushed several buttons. Inmediatly, an army of Agents appeared, walking like brainless zombies out of the car, only to do the woman's bidings. Mizumi shrieked. They were not Agents, but Digis being controled by the virus. Seeing Jake was bad enough, but seeing a whole troop of six Digis walking towards her was heartbreaking. There was Izzy, her father, walking like one of them. Suddenly, the man winked briefly, and smiled swiftly at the girl. Had it not been for how strange it would look, Mizumi would have shrieked with joy. Instead she remained impassive and stared back an Kari.
"Now for my last, little surprise!" Kari was enjoying the torture impossed on the girl.
The girl gasped, and her wings oppened a little as the last Digi walked out of the car. Looking full of anger, the former blue eyes had turned dark, dull and empty. The blond head, the short, golden strands were falling in dark, velver blue over his face and skin. Such skin was a tint of light, ash gray, making him look sick, unhealthy. The Digi stood before Kari, glaring at Mizumi and clenching his fists, prepared for battle.
"Oh... Tk." Mizumi whispered, staring at the boy with saddened eyes.
Kenji looked away shamefully. Seeing his sister suffering like that, her heart shattered in a million pieces. The worst part of it was the knowledge that this was his fault. Takeru would not be like that if he hadn't accepted that job. If he hadn't been so foolish as to allow himself being convinced that Digis were the enemy, and that his odd abilities was a slight contagious dolence, cause of being so close to computers. The boy's brown eyes opened wide. Down in the forest, hidden in the foliage, was people. With a smile, Kenji moved farther from Kari and waited. Perhaps he would have to say a lot of sorries, and clear many things, but he would be out of that brain washing sect.
"Let me introduce you your sunset, Digi!" Kari laughed, fidgeting with the remote control.
Takeru yelled incoherently, his body flashed and grew in size. Leaping from inside the brightness, a grey horse with a bluish black mane appeared, neighed violently. Mizumi looked at the former palomino with fear, his eyes were completely dark, hollow, and the hatred that had been programmed in him seemed to burn, reflected in those black orbs.
With a wild neigh, the pegasus pounced forward and opened his wings, starting a flight towards the fire griffin. Mizumi shrieked with an acute yell, and oppened her ruffled wings, shaking her beak from side to side. It wasn't like she had ever flown beffore, but a vigorous flapping of her wings, and a loyal faith on her instincts, the female Digi was on the air. Takeru was far more experienced as they battled, and it added that Mizumi was trying to do a diversion manoeuvre to avoid hurting him.
"TK, it's me, Mizumi!" the griffin shrieked desperately while turning upside down on the air to let her body fall and spin before touching the ground.
To no avail, for Takeru was still determined to battle. Looking in a state of pure fury, the gray pegasus pursued a retreating Mizumi, who kept shrieking names and sentences at the creature with desperation. From the depths of the foliage, with a call to battle, the rest of the Digis came out and began to fight Kari's zombies. At a single order from the Agent, the slave Digis began to battle with the same fury their enemies were showing.
Kenji was horrified at the scenery before him. The guilt was shaking him vividly, and his skin was pale and sweaty, his sould mortified by the knowledge that this was all his fault. Watching Mizumi evading her lover's attacks, trying to make him recognize her with all her efforts, the sadness in her black eyes. All those things made Kenji shake with sorrow. There was nothing he could do, he knew nothing of his power or possibilities.
"Wait!" Kenji said to himself, the light of realization illuminating his brain, "I do know something about Digis." The boy muttered staring at the laptop.
Opening it rapidly, the boy began to type furiously, while sustaining the small computer with the left arm. A few moments later, the file had been programed, not he just had to execute it. Glancing at a map, staring at the large animals, Kenji calculated rapidly. Pressing enter, just when he thought it was the exact moment, the boy materialized the code he had activated.
Mizumi flew rapidly, dodging with tired wings another of Takeru's attacks. The griffin was not conscious of the battle below, or of her brother, or anything else for that matter. Every fibre of her body had been placed in the laborious attempt at returning Takeru's conscience and surviving to tell the tale. With a bluish glow, several sparks, just as she flew without noticing the oddity, a peak of ice of enormous proportions grew. The pegasus neighed loudly and flapped, just avoiding the sudden attack.
"NO!" Mizumi shrieked, stopping her flight and watching Takeru glide lazily, recovering from the shock of the attack, and the slight touch of ice on his hooves.
"Stupid Kenji!" Kari snarled angrily, "I gave you a glorious oportunity, and this is the way you repay me?" the woman drew out a gun and aimed at Kenji.
The boy was staring fearfully at the woman, who was threatening him with a gun. Looking weak and inexperienced, Kenji raised his right arm in a sign of submission. Kari smirked, enjoying every second of Kenji's suffering. The woman's index finger began to pull the trigger, that venomous smile of satisfaction being apparent on her lips. Before Kari knew what had attacked her, a purple, sparkling ray of electricity hit her hand, burning it and sending her gun flying away.
"AH!" the woman gasped painfully, holding her burnt, left hand with her other, while hissing about her skin's achy feeling.
Without mourning about her damaged hand for long, Kari turned to look at the direction where the lightning came from. It couldn't have been more shameful, and more surprising than it was. Standing proudly, next to a very lively Jake and a joyous Chiyo, stood the most intelligent man she had ever known. Izumi Koushiro smiled at her from the distance, his left hand sparkling with the possibility of a second attack. Kari wanted to yell, from all the people she shouldn't have subestimated, and she didn't consider Izumi to be a dangerous oponent once being controled by the virus.
"Stupid Izzy, the virus is still inyour veins, I can always regain control of your body!" Kari yelled with a smirk of superiority, drawing out her remote control.
The man had no need to answer. Without saying a single word, Izzy grabbed the injection from Chiyo, and showed it to the Angent. Kari squinted her eyes to glanced at it more properly, to recognice it from the distance. Terror appeared in her pale features, her face shapeshifted with horror. Knowledge reached the Agent's brain, as the woman finally guessed what Izzy was raising with such pride.
The man applied the shot himself, gasping in silence at the pain. Moments later a current of electricity rushed across his body, changing his gray skin into his red headed pale one, his night hair into a crown of flames. Kari looked around, scared to even glance. With fear in her eyes, the woman saw various Digis waking up from their mindless state, and another being stabbed by the injection.
"NO!" Kari shrieked, real suffering touching her face, "My plan, my perfect plan!" the woman yelled.
Nobody knew why, but her eyes landed on Kenji's innocent figure, "It is all your fault!" with a cruel sneer, Kari demanded, glaring at Kenji.
The boy stared at her questioningly, wondering why it had been his fault that she had failed, when it had been him who had, unknowingly, aided her to gather that much power. However, the vice, the madness glinting like crystal in her eyes, it was far more scary than the calculating, cold and cruel Kari. Kenji recoiled when the female Agent fidgeted with her artifact, making Takeru neigh loudly and flap his wings.
Mizumi knew inmediatly what Kari had commanded. Takeru flapped his wings and flew towards the small and frightened Kenji, who just didn't know where to hide his shaky bones. Without thinking twice, Mizumi folded her wings and let herself fall towards her brother. With a neigh, Takeru raised his head and flapped his wings, firing a collection of sharp, golden and luminous darts. Kenji shrieked, covering himself uselessly with his arm.
Just in that moment, Mizumi extended her wings, turned around and landed right in front of her brother. Valiantly, with a shriek, the female Digi inflated her chest, glaring at the sharp, golden thorns with pride. The darts cut her body, penetrating her, slashing her skin and flesh, and making all the gashes itch and hurt. Mizumi shrieked, and her body collapsed. Blood was oozing from all the wounds, not fluently but enough to tint her feathers with a dark, crimson colour.
"Mizumi!" Kenji let himself kneel on the floor and touch the griffin's neck.
Mizumi glowed, while inhaling large mouthfuls of air, and diminished in size. Once the light had faded, the human woman was laying on the ground, still bearing various gashes, none of which seemed grave. However, she was feeling completely exhausted, never having been so tired in her life. Somehow she believed this had to be normal, since maintaining the animal figure for so long must have burnt down all her energy reserves.
The woman glanced around. A thick silence, a tense stillness had spread throughout the battlefield. All eyes were on her, staring at her figure with curiosity, worry and expectation. Izzy was preocupied, but ignored whether his pressence would be neccesary at that exact moment. The former palomino landed, and stared at Mizumi through those empty, dull, black eyes, snorting and pawing on the ground.
It was impossible, Mizumi had tried all formulas, all words, all sentences to make him recover his personality. Nothing had worked, neither her name, nor his own, nor had anything from what Mizumi had told Takeru. Glancing at him from her laying position, Mizumi felt like crying. The empty feeling spreading across her stomach, the sensation that she had lost Takeru forever, like she had lost her father. The knowledge that she loved him more than anything, that Takeru was the man who had managed to change her into a more joyous, less obsessive person.
The black eyes, that had been closed at this train of thoughts, snapped open abruptly, with realization. Mizumi stared at the horse, who was still and observant, glancing at her with patience, waiting for another fight of the same proportions. The woman's lips parted into a grin. It was one chance in a million, but it was worth a try. After all, she never got a response. Before Kenji or anyone else knew what had happened, Mizumi stood up in a leap and sprinted towards the pegasus. The winged stallion reared, while neighing furiously, showing his hooves in a sign that he was going to use them as weapons. Mizumi began to stop her race, extending her arms right in front of the wild animal.
"I love you!" Mizumi yelled loudly right when the stallion dropped his weight to stomp the girl with his hard hooves.
Mizumi shut her eyes tightly and waited for the impact.
To Be Continued...
AN: Ok, another chapter. What will happen next? I hope you are all liking it, because nobody is telling me anything and I'm not sure. One more chapter to go, if I feel like writting it... maybe I should focus on my other stories.