--o--o--o--
Chapter 3
Changes
--o--o--o--
Chatsuramon smiled down at Impmon-- sort of. It was hard for a creature whose teeth were mostly located outside of his mouth to do anything but snarl but he did his best. Impmon knelt before him, exhausted by the nightmare visions that had been imposed on him by the foo-dog deva.
"Okay," Impmon said at last, wearily levering himself up to his feet, "I'll do it. If you promise to make me digivolve-- make me powerful-- I'll destroy them for you."
"Good," rumbled Chatsuramon. He raised a tiny amount of energy, triggering a process already set up and waiting for the unsuspecting Impmon. A crevasse instantly opened in the ground beneath the little purple digimon and he fell from sight. He was too surprised to yell.
"Now-- where is my little sneak-thief?" Chatsuramon growled.
Kunomon had lingered out of phase to watch Impmon sink from sight in the magma that filled the bottom of the crack. She composed herself, making sure her face was carefully devoid of the contempt she felt for the deva to whom the Sovereign had given her, and then she phased into visibility and knelt before her lord.
"The transformation will not take long," Chatsuramon told her. "When he emerges, locate him and follow him. He will have great power and I want to make sure he will do as I wish."
"You are right not to trust him," Kunomon said with her head still bowed. "Give the power to me and I will do it!"
"I trust you even less, little fox."
"That fool hesitated to accept your offer. I would not have. I want them all dead as much as you and the Sovereign."
Chatsuramon ceased all efforts to smile. "You want to kill one of them in particular-- there's the difference-- your emotions cloud your judgment. No-- Impmon's lust for power is pure and clear-- he will be the perfect tool.
Kunomon dared to look up at her lord. "And if your perfect tool fails you?"
The dog deva's eyes flared with rage and he struck out with one huge paw, bowling over his servant and pinning her to the ground. "You forget your place little one," he snarled. "I have other spies-- I could do without you." He shifted his weight over the gasping renamon and twisted his paw, crushing her into the dirt. "Now-- cease to exist--" he made another ghastly attempt at a smile, "--or beg my forgiveness."
Kunomon struggled for the breath to do so.
--o--o--o--
"I can't believe that actually worked," Rika said as she untangled herself from the improvised glider that the group had used to ride the thermals out of the deep canyon.
"Hey," Coyomon said, sniffing the air, "I think we're not far from where we first landed."
"Yes," Renamon agreed, "there in the distance-- those three mesas look familiar."
The group walked for an hour before spotting Takato's team flag, still miraculously upright, where Kazu and Kenta had planted it. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that the other half of the team might well return to the spot and it would be a smart thing to do to wait for them. They all thought it sounded like a good idea at first but hadn't factored in how Kazu and Kenta behaved when they were bored.
After a few hours, Coyomon suddenly stood up, scowling. "I think I ought to go out and scout the surrounding--"
"Good idea, flea-bag," Rika said through gritted teeth. "I think Renamon and I should come too."
"Why don't we all go?" Asked Kazu, getting to his feet.
"NO!" Rika and her partners all shouted at once.
"You two stay here in case Takato and the rest come back." Rika told them sternly. She spun on her heel and stalked away before Kazu could answer, her partners pacing her on either side.
Rika and her two digimon only got a short respite. Within half an hour they heard the two boys approaching even over the moaning of the ever-present wind. After a short attempt at getting the thoughtless boys to realize that someone had to wait by the flag, Rika spotted a data stream meandering across the desert in the distance. She pointed it out to the boys and commented that they needed to avoid it. Kazu immediately dismissed her concerns-- and seconds afterward, the red beam ripped them off the surface of the desert.
--o--o--o--
Coyomon spat out a mouthful of sand. "Oh yeah," he grumbled, "face-planting in the dirt-- that just never gets old." He reached over to help Rika get to her feet and brushed sand off her back. Renamon shook herself and combed her claws through her tail fur. The Noise Boys groaned and slowly sat up.
"Well," commented Rika, looking around at the surreal surroundings, "this is-- different."
The terrain was still a desert but now, instead of red sandstone outcroppings, gigantic gears and cogwheels dominated the landscape, some slowly rotating on huge vertical columns, some scattered across the surface, embedded in the ground and unmoving, some just hanging in the air. Kazu and Kenta began to wildly speculate on the nature of the land they now found themselves in.
"Shut up!" Rika exploded, "shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"
There was a brief but intense shouting match as everyone released a bit of their pent-up frustrations. Coyomon phased out briefly until Rika called him back. "Look," she said to them all in a dangerously quiet voice, "we are going to search until we find Calumon or the rest of the team-- and the sooner we start, the sooner we can all get out of this place-- so let's get going."
A short while afterward, they came across a pedestal clock that was emitting an irregular grinding noise and a sharp, piercing ticking. Its second hand twitched back and forth just short of the full upright position at twelve.
"Should we unstick it?" Kenta asked.
"Might as well," Rika said, reaching out a finger.
"No! Stop!" a voice yelled from behind the group. But it was too late. Rika's finger tapped the second hand and it popped over to the 12 o'clock position. A gong sounded and the clock began to run normally.
The two distraught digimon who had suddenly appeared fit in perfectly with their environment: One seemed to be entirely composed of gear wheels and the other looked to be humanoid creature riding a broken alarm clock that had grown arms and legs.
Rika had her digivice out and was reading the stats to her partners.
"This is not going to be good!" Clockmon moaned, holding his head in his hands.
"Get ready--" Hagurumon said, "--here it comes!"
Most of the group was looking around nervously and Coyomon was studying the two clockwork digimon intently, trying to decide where their vulnerable spots were, when all of the gigantic gears ground to a halt and, seconds later, an immense dragon-type digimon erupted from beneath the sand.
"Megadramon," Rika read from her stat screen, " virus-- Ultimate-- specials are Parry Force and Dark Side Attack. He looks tough."
Rather than sizing up the other digimon, Megadramon focused its attention on Rika. Renamon and Coyomon stepped forward in front of Rika, growling.
The clockwork digimon suddenly realized who Rika was. "A tamer?" Clockmon said in astonishment. "You've been to the real world!"
"It's said that if a digimon downloads the data of another digimon who's been to the real world, they'll gain the power to go there," said Hagurumon with awe in his voice.
"That's ridiculous," Renamon scoffed, not taking her eyes off the looming Megadramon.
"Maybe," Coyomon said, "but it looks like this big truckload of ugly believes it."
"Then show it how wrong it is," Rika sneered to her partners. "Sic 'im!"
"As you wish!" they snarled joyfully together, and blurred into action.
"Criss-Cross," Renamon yelled to Coyomon as the two leaped away from Rika-- not directly at their enormous foe, but outward at opposite angles until they were separated by nearly ninety degrees and then they turned sharply, arrowing forward. Megadramon was uncertain which of them to concentrate on-- confusion that the tactic was designed to create-- but finally decided to attack Renamon. She had closed the distance so quickly that it couldn't use its enormous claws and had to swing its massive, armor plated head around to swat her from the air.
Megadramon's move gave Coyomon the opening he needed. He caught hold of the edge of the right nostril opening in the dragon's head armor and swung his feet up and into the relatively small slit for the eye, triggering his Earth Splitter attack energy just as his paws slammed into the giant yellow orb. There was a thunderous noise of energy transfer followed immediately by a tremendous roar of agony from Megadramon. The dragon wrenched its head around, flinging Coyomon off to cartwheel over his shoulder.
Rika hadn't been idle all that while. Renamon hadn't even hit the ground before she was enveloped in a whirling energy vortex and emerged seconds later in her Champion form, Kyuubimon. She launched a Fox Tail Inferno that was deflected by Megadramon's well-named Parry Force. And all that while, Rika's hands were flashing between her two digivices.
Coyomon, now transformed into Kaliskamon, leaped up from Megadramon's blind side and did a back flip right against the underside of the monster's long, snake-like body, using his Razor Tail attack to rip long gashes through its belly. The dragon roared again and tried to get out from between its tormentors. Kyuubimon launched her Dragon Wheel attack, whirling through the sky after the fleeing Ultimate. Megadramon launched a defensive Dark Side Attack, a swarm of small missiles, which crackled into Kyuubimon, knocking her from the sky.
As Megadramon wheeled ponderously around, Kaliskamon landed in a spray of sand next to Kyuubimon. He stretched out a forepaw and made red sparks leap between his claws. "Need a recharge, lover?" he asked her.
"No thanks, handsome," she grinned at Kaliskamon as she got to her feet, "I'm okay-- just got caught by surprise."
"It's slowing down a bit," Kaliskamon said, watching the huge dragon finish its turn and start a run back toward them. "If we can pump a couple more specials into some soft spots, that ought to do it. How about an Over-and-Under?"
"Perfect," Kyuubimon growled as she crouched to leap. "Let's take him apart!"
But they never got the chance to finish their fight. A second flying dragon type swooped down and attacked Megadramon. It was an Ultimate level also but much smaller.
Rika was looking a bit frazzled as she read the interloper's stats from her digivice, an unused Hyper Speed card still tucked between two of her fingers. "Cyberdramon, Ultimate, Desolation Claw."
The newcomer slammed into the larger Ultimate, forcing it to the ground and, as it tried to rise, hit it with Desolation Claw, a burst of energy that burned charred holes in nearly every surface of its body. Megadramon moaned and collapsed.
"Cyberdramon, back off!" called a voice. "That's not the opponent we're looking for!" It was a young boy-- a human.
"Another tamer?" Kyuubimon wondered aloud.
"If so," Kaliskamon said, "he's not a very good one-- his partner isn't listening to him." It was true. Cyberdramon advanced and threw another Desolation Claw attack into the weakly struggling Megadramon.
"So--" the boy frowned, "it's to be the hard way, is it?" He pulled a digivice from his pocket and yelled, "Cyberdramon, obey!" A lash of blue energy grew out of the digivice and as the boy swung it like a whip handle, the energy lash struck out at his digimon, curling around his lower arm and tightening painfully.
"Holy Tesla," Kaliskamon whispered, "I didn't know they could do that."
"Stop it!" the boy yelled again. "You will obey me, Cyberdramon!" The digimon struggled but finally gave in and slunk over to his tamer.
The boy was making introductions as Rika's two digimon approached the group. Rika was seriously upset for some reason and both her partners felt it. Maybe the boy's digimon felt that Kaliskamon had gotten too close to the him, or maybe it was just the tension in the air, but for whatever reason, Cyberdramon suddenly growled and swung a clawed hand at Kaliskamon. It wasn't a serious attack-- but it certainly was the threat of one.
"Oh no," Kyuubimon groaned quietly. She knew her mate well.
Kaliskamon snarled as he dodged back, his shifting, colored fur patterns going blood red and spiky. He fully bared his fangs and they began to glow and hiss with the energy of his Fire Bite attack. Cyberdramon's growl grew louder and he crouched to spring.
"NO!" the boy cried as he swung his digivice whip around his partner's neck. Cyberdramon clawed at the tightening noose with one hand while trying to reach Kaliskamon with the other. "Call off your digimon," the boy shouted to Rika, "or I might not be able to hold him back!"
Rika's scowl fell away to be replaced with an expression of icy calm. "Kaliskamon," she said very, very quietly, "heel."
Even though Cyberdramon's claws were slicing through the air only a hairbreadth from him, Kaliskamon instantly turned and trotted over to her, wheeling in place and sitting next to Rika in a precise pose that mirrored the one Kyuubimon had taken up on the other side of their tamer. Rika crossed her arms over her chest and smiled. A last little wisp of steam drifted away on the wind from Kaliskamon's jaws.
The boy struggled for a few seconds more before Cyberdramon quieted and could be released from the energy whip.
"Looks like you're having a bit of trouble controlling your digimon, Ryo" Rika observed with just the tiniest bit of a sneer in her voice.
"Sorry," he said, grinning and seemingly unperturbed by the incident, "Cyberdramon just loves to fight."
"Mine do too," Rika said, "But they--"
"Hey!" shouted Kazu suddenly, "You're Ryo Akiyama, the digimon champion!" The hero-worshiping chatter of the Noise Boys revealed Ryo to be Rika's one-time arch nemesis back when being a tamer meant nothing more than mastering a card game. Ryo had been the only player to ever beat Rika in a Digimon Grand Prix-- something the boys felt it necessary to mention at least half a dozen times. Rika lost her calm expression. Ryo at least had the good grace to be embarrassed by their fawning.
"There's still one thing that needs taking care of," Ryo said, pulling a out a pocket knife as he walked to the pedestal clock. He stuck the knife into the face of the clock, blocking the second hand from turning. There was a rumbling and all the giant gears and cogs began turning once more. "Great," he said as Megadramon's twitching body was pulled beneath the sands, "everything's set."
"Uhm--" Kaliskamon asked of nobody in particular, "why couldn't we have just killed it and downloaded its data?"
Everyone ignored him.
"Do you think someday I'll be able to go to the real world?" Hagurumon asked of Ryo.
"Sure," Ryo told him cheerfully, "just keep dreaming and you can make anything happen."
Rika snorted. Kaliskamon whispered to her, "Jeeze-- is this guy for real?"
--o--o--o--
Kunomon nearly screamed in frustration. "You're telling me a master smith like you can't get this damned thing off of me?" She shook her wrist at the cowering digimon.
"It would take far more energy than I can command," he told her, "and that much energy could kill you even if it did break the shackle."
"It will kill me if I don't get it off," she snarled, "because I'm not going to kowtow to that pompous moron ever again!"
The smith had no idea what she was talking about but correctly assumed that silence was the safest course to take.
Kunomon's fur stood on end and crackled with the seething energy of her fury and her instinct was to kill the smith and destroy his workshop as a way to calm herself but Chatsuramon's words came back to her, '--your emotions cloud your judgment--'. As much as she hated to admit it, there was some truth in that statement. She calmed her ragged breathing and told herself to think. Think of someone who did command the amount of energy she needed and of some way to coerce them into using it to free her instead of killing and devouring her.
The snarl of desperation slowly dropped from her face as an idea began to form in her mind. Any digimon that suited her purposes would be foolish to cooperate instead of merely taking her as a victim-- and who was the biggest fool she knew? Kunomon grinned and turned to the dubious smith. "Excuse me for frightening you," she said, smiling a smile that was no less frightening to the smith than her snarl had been. "I would like you to make something for me--" her mouth twisted strangely as she forced out a word she seldom used, "--please."
--o--o--o--
Kyuubimon had curled herself around so that Rika could use her flank for a backrest and Kaliskamon, not to be outdone, stretched out in front of his tamer to provide his forepaws as a handy place to put her feet. Both digimon glared at Kazu and Kenta who hadn't shut up for hours. Even now as the group sat around a comforting fire, in what should have been a quiet and relaxed time, the two boys kept chattering away, half of their talk being praise of Ryo and half of it complaints about their situation.
Rika seethed for a while and then her resentment boiled over in a brief and bitter exchange with Kazu. Kazu, of course, didn't know when to shut up. Rika came to a decision and stood up suddenly.
"Congratulations," Rika said, glaring at Kazu and Kenta, "you've got a new babysitter. Maybe he'll take you home to your mommies" She turned, made an impatient gesture with one hand to her two partners, and stalked away from the fire. The two digimon rose and followed her out into the darkness.
--o--o--o--