It was yet another clear night, just after the digital solar eclipse. Above the sky, the three moons of the Digital World were no longer aligned; now they were orbiting the digital realm with a little distance apart from each of them. No clouds were seen, and stars twinkled, illuminating the near-midnight environment where quietness and calmness prevailed, the evidence of the titanic battle that occurred not too long before unseen.
Soft zephyrs, comfortable and whispery, could be felt all around the exposed interior of the Megalith Coliseum. The monument was usually abandoned nowadays, having been the place where the duel between the DigiWira – chosen humans of that part of the Digital World – had their first battle with the ShadoWira, their exact opposites. Digimon dared not enter the coliseum anymore, scared of being trapped in the middle of the crossfire between the two opposing teams. The news about the battle had spread out like wildfire, with the subsequent occurrences between the two teams adding to the story. The Green Meadow Village had been the victim of the fight between good and evil – having been destroyed by a flock of Harpymon who were working under Karatenmon, the Mage General of SkullSatamon.
Speaking of Karatenmon, the occupants of that part of the Digital World was shaken to hear that the Mage General had fallen under his own minion. One Digimon, the result of a fusion between a human called Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman, codenamed the Red ShadoWira, and his Digimon partner Agumon, had successfully destroyed Karatenmon. The news was unbelievable; as a minion, Satriamon was supposed to not possess powers higher than Karatenmon. Many brushed off the news as mere rumors, but the more curious of Digimon had ventured close enough to the borders of the Shadow Realm, where the Black Peak Mountain stood, and had seen the cavernous mountain to be empty.
By the end of the day itself, it was official. Satriamon had deleted Karatenmon from existence.
The news was received with mixed reactions. Some applauded Satriamon for eradicating a profound evil from the Digital World. Some feared that, being at the side of evil himself, Satriamon would rise to be a greater evil than Karatenmon had ever been. Many hoped that Satriamon would follow his fellow ShadoWira's step in allying himself with the DigiWira. An equal number of Digimon however scoffed at that, pointing out that unlike Samudramon who had proven himself to be at the side of good, there was not a single grain of reason to believe that Satriamon was also converted. For all they knew, Satriamon could have finished Karatenmon in order to step up the ranks of SkullSatamon's army.
Nobody however knew the truth yet.
Nobody; except for four beings at present. Three Digimon and one human.
Two of them were currently seeking refuge inside the Megalith Coliseum, near a small bonfire. One human and one Digimon.
"Damn these winds," JD muttered, shivering despite the heat coming from the flames. 'Not even the fire could keep out the cold,' JD mused as he generated a miniscule flicker of flame from his right palm. He sighed, and the flame died out. 'After that battle with the Digis and Karatenmon, I'm too worn out to create a decent amount of fire.' His hazel eyes darted right, towards a pile of dry leaves where a pink puffball creature was sleeping peacefully. 'Obviously, the same goes for Koromon.'
The fire crackled merrily, emitting bright, reddish orange glow against the dark night. From it, the teen's profile was illuminated, and he definitely looked like he had seen better days. His uniform was tattered in multiple places – the lower halves of his sleeves were both gone and JD had thrown away his gloves as they too were too damaged for wear. Right now, he regretted that decision; tattered as they were, the gloves could still keep his hands warm in times like this. It was a hasty decision made out of frustration.
Looking at his bare hands; the knuckles were caked with dry blood and they were in overall, filthy, but JD didn't care. 'These pairs of hands nearly took a life away…'
Instantly he was reminded of that time, when he had attempted to strangle the DigiWira boy. And he'd nearly succeeded, for a brief moment. Adam hadn't been moving at all for several long, excruciating seconds. It was then that the spell on him had been lifted. Then he checked out for Adam's reaction, but the boy was as still as a corpse. But, right before he could panic even further he saw the boy's body twitch, followed by a soft cough and a long gasp for air. Relieved, JD could see that the boy was alive when something stopped him.
Those gray eyes were staring at him with fear. And everything thereafter happened so quickly; JD didn't even know that Adam's teleportation sequence worked that fast. But the DigiWira hadn't given him time to apologize. To the boy, he was still the villain. Adam hadn't allowed him to explain that he was no longer under Karatenmon's spell.
'What difference would it make?' JD picked up a pebble and threw it miserably into the fire. A crackle was heard as the flames bit into the stone, then nothing. The fire remained flickering bright reddish-yellow-orange, undisturbed. 'It doesn't change the fact that I nearly killed him, and the others.' He wiped his soiled hands over his trousers, wanting to clean them, but he winced immediately as his wounded knuckles came into contact with his black leather jackets. Muttering a curse, his eyes fell on his boots.
'At least I still have my boots.' His footwear were both extremely dusty and slashed, but otherwise were in good condition. The ends of his trousers had suffered the same fate as the sleeves of his outer jacket. Luckily for him, the inner crimson shirt he was wearing was intact, with only some minor cuts here and there- it'd been protected mostly by his outer black jacket. 'Never thought that Shadow Accessing could be this damaging. It's a good thing that I managed to get that uniform blueprint from that computer guy at school. Or else I'd have to invest a lot for my clothes.'
JD sighed again morosely at the thought; it only brought back memories of how he'd gotten himself in this mess in the first place. He shook his head to rid himself of that thought, but when he was not thinking about that, his mind would drift back to how much damage he had caused. There was no way he could clear his mind after what he'd done – he'd never be able to forgive himself for almost killing Adam, as well as how close he'd come to destroying the DigiWira in general – but he wanted to at least have a night of peaceful thinking to sort out his thoughts. It was why he'd chosen to remain at the Digital World, and knowing that the Megalith Coliseum was abandoned, he'd chosen to stay there for the night. He could have gone back to his house…but for JD, that was the last place he wanted to be at, at times like this. He'd know no peace should he return there. Especially at this hour, where he knew the house would not be empty.
'That hell-hole? Chances are I'd jump down the balcony if I go back,' JD snorted, cursing himself for even thinking of going back. 'If it's not quiet as a graveyard, it'll be like the domain of the banshees with all the screaming matches Mom and Dad would have, if both of them are home at the same time. As for Jade and Jas…hah, as if they can even remember to return after going off to colleges! Can't blame them though; I'd jump at any opportunity to escape that hell-hole myself. Lucky devils they are. Me? I was stuck…until…damn it.'
Sighing, JD crashed his back on the cold floor of the coliseum. Crossing his arms behind his head, he lied down on his back and watched the sky. That caused memories he was trying to suppress to resurface, and they swam all over the river that was his mind. His previous thought had unwittingly be the start of everything.
He had wished to get out of the 'hell-hole', a term he had coined to depict his home. There was no other term JD could think of to describe it. Every day, for years, he'd wished to be someplace else, somewhere different, away from everything.
One day, about one month ago, his wish was granted.
And that was how he'd gotten himself in this mess.
xxx
xxx
WIRA DIGITAL
Chapter 21 – Seeing Red
xxx
xxx
"Have you heard?"
Adam looked up, and saw a familiar willowy girl standing by the bench he was sitting on. It was morning and he was waiting for the bell to ring. And today, he didn't feel comfortable being around people; it was a kind of reaction that resulted from yet another attempt on his life the day before. He had come to terms with it, but the after-effect was still there. He hadn't talked much to the others after the battle, only of what had happened and nothing more.
But Liu Ying was not someone that he wanted to avoid, as the girl knew perfectly what caused his moodiness. With that, Adam lowered his hands from his neck; he'd been placing them on his neck – an act he'd done subconsciously – while plopping his elbows over his thigh, assuming a somewhat-modified 'thinker' position like the famous statue he'd seen in books.
"Heard what?"
Liu Ying saw this as a sign that Adam was up for a conversation, and took a seat beside the boy.
After the battle, right outside the Stone Valley, Liu Ying was barely conscious due to the power she and her partner had so much exerted as Xianamon. She was sitting against the wall of the valley, supported by the side by Gayathri who'd somehow joined them at the very last minute. She was too weak to speak, and she could see Manny pacing about nervously. Sagittarimon, who looked different in his new white armor, was agitated. Above the centaur was Penguinmon, who was for once, not making any wisecracks as he held Tanemon and Shaomon at his sides securely.
Explosions could be heard and everybody tensed. Dark lights flashed from the center of the valley, where Adam had remained, right at the mercy of Satriamon and Karatenmon, and they knew first-hand that both villains were merciless. Something had happened! The explosion was ensued by a deathly silence, which was unnerving. Nobody knew what was happening, and after five minutes Sagittarimon began to move, which forced Penguinmon to jump down with the two lesser Digimon barely supported by his stout wings.
But before the white armored centaur could re-venture into the valley, a flash of white lights appeared right by him, and in front of Liu Ying and Gayathri, Adam materialized, lying on his back with both eyes shut tight. Seeing him, Gayathri quickly abandoned Liu Ying and darted towards him, followed closely by Manny. Sagittarimon remained there, wide-eyed, but relieved upon seeing his human partner. The curly-haired DigiWira knelt beside the boy, who seemed completely oblivious of his surrounding as he still had his eyes closed tight, as if determined to keep everything out of his sight. Gently the girl placed a hand on the boy's left shoulder, and everyone then saw how horribly Adam blanched. His eyes shot open and there was a look of pure fear reflected by his usually bright gray eyes. He however visibly relaxed upon seeing the familiar faces in front of him, but was unable to speak.
Liu Ying, and the others could see that something had severely shaken their leader, but whenever they asked him about it as they made their way back to the Forest Sanctum, Adam remained quiet. After several attempts all of them had given up, and decided to see for themselves via the sun staff.
Strangely, however, the sun staff wasn't able to produce any images at all about the battle inside Stone Valley from the moment where all of them (sans Adam) left the valley. The images buzzed into nothingness and all the DigiWira could see were grains of noises, like the ones on a switched-on television with no programs being aired. Adam finally was able to speak again, and recollected the events that had taken place until the moment he teleported away from JD.
The other DigiWira were horrified to hear that Adam had almost been strangled to death by JD, and was even more disturbed by the fact that Satriamon had been able to defeat Karatenmon. Even TobuCatmon was confounded; that would mean that Satriamon was deadlier than the famed Mage General. They tracked the signal of JD's Digivice, but none dared to go look for him at their present state.
"JD has been suspended," Liu Ying informed Adam. "For skipping classes, and apparently for leaving the school ground without informing the school's authority."
Adam looked indifferent. "Oh."
Liu Ying studied her friend's expression with concern. "It's only for three days though; he got it because he already had it coming. That fight he instigated with Manny on Monday was let off with a final warning by the principal, and yesterday's stunt earned him his second suspension."
As they were just about to recover from their injuries, Jackie contacted them, informing that the school's disciplinary teacher had just gotten hold of the fact that not only JD was missing, but also three other students – Adam, Liu Ying and Manny! Immediately the three of them returned to the computer classroom, right before Mr. Gurmit Singh appeared there. Jackie had told the disciplinarian that the three kids were pulled out from their classes because they were needed to complete a website-making contest that was approaching fast. Mr. Singh, unaware that it was only a cover-story, ended up giving the computer instructor a severe tell-off for making the kids missing their classes for three hours, and Jackie would have to explain it to the principal. Then, the disciplinarian saw the three DigiWira having sustained some small injuries but was immediately distracted by the bell.
The principal (who luckily was in a good mood) had let Jackie off with a warning, and the three DigiWira would need to get their homework assignments from their classmates.
The school prefect looked like she was holding some information off, but Adam didn't ask. There was a faraway look on her face which Adam couldn't figure out. Was she upset about the news? The news about JD's suspension didn't exactly thrill him, but he didn't feel sorry either. He didn't know what to feel. Part of him wanted to feel sorry for JD as the blonde was a victim of a spell. Another part of him was infuriated for the older teen's elaborate, planned-out betrayal.
Adam then saw a glimpse of a familiar built boy with spiked dark maroon hair, and saw an opportunity to change the subject. "Look, there's Manny."
The aforementioned boy saw them and waved, but he wasn't able to join them as a couple of boys approached him – Liu Ying recognized them as her and Manny's classmates. She then remembered to pass Adam a message from another fellow DigiWira. "Oh, Gayathri asked me to tell you that she won't be able to come to school for at least until next week. The doctor told her to rest until the wound on her head is fully healed. She wanted you to inform your class teacher about it. And also, you'll be the one to keep her up to date with the week's homework's assignments. By SMS or e-mails or D-Terminals, any way is fine to her, she said." Liu Ying shrugged, but her expression turned into a small frown as a small smile crossed her friend's face. "Adam?"
"Oh, got it, Liu Ying." Adam's smile became wider. "Actually, I have a better idea about how to inform her of our homework assignments." He cocked his head towards the assembly foyer and grinned impishly. "You get what I mean?"
Liu Ying grinned back at Adam. "I like how you think. Sneaky, you. But it'll give them a chance to mend their relationship. Or start over." She sighed. "I think they need just that."
"Yup," the male DigiWira nodded. "They weren't talking much yesterday, back at the sanctum."
"I noticed too." Liu Ying then looked directly at Adam's face. "You know; if Gayathri doesn't like your idea, prepare to get blasted with that supersonic scream of hers. If that happens can you please tell her that I'm in no way involved in your plan?"
Adam shrugged. "I'll teleport away before she does that. And what are you afraid of? You can do that barrier thingy."
Liu Ying smiled. "I don't think that's the perks of having these powers. Anyway…" She took a glance towards Manny, who despite was chatting with his classmates, his eyes were searching the assembly foyer area. He appeared to be looking for somebody, and Liu Ying had no doubt that she knew who. His eyes caught Dina and Belinda's, and the two girls shook their heads. Liu Ying then returned her gazes towards her present company. "I didn't think you notice all that awkwardness between Gayathri and Manny, with your sullenness yesterday."
"I wasn't in the mood to talk, my ears and eyes worked just fine." Adam pointed out, as his mind reeled back to yesterday's event, after the battle.
As he was recovering from his posttraumatic situation the day before, during the moment when the other DigiWira wisely left him alone, Adam had noticed that there was a kind of awkwardness between Gayathri and Manny. He took some time to observe his teammate and the reformed villain, knowing too well what was causing the stiff. Sure, they talked, but Gayathri would usually tend to Liu Ying, Shaomon or Tanemon if she wasn't fussing at Adam.
"Liu Ying, you need anything?" On her hands, Gayathri had everything from a Kit Kat bar to a pack of Ferrero-Roche. She had gotten them at the hospital's pharmacy, while waiting for Anding to pick her at the hospital. Liu Ying merely shook her head with a grateful smile; she wasn't in the mood to eat anything.
"Shaomon, maybe you'd like to eat something?" Shaomon then asked Gayathri whether she had some banana-fritters, to which the dark-skinned girl shook her head apologetically.
"Oh, I wish these clouds will just go away and that eclipse's over already so that Tanemon can start recharging!" Gayathri didn't let Tanemon go, as she cradled the little vegetation Digimon around the sanctum and fussed around the Forest Sanctum, all the while averting her eyes from Manny's. She seemed to be well aware that she was being watched by the Blue ShadoWira, who by now was pretty much accepted as a 'Blue DigiWira', although the DigiWira had no specific codenames for themselves.
"TobuCatmon, you really need to get that sun staff repaired." She clicked her tongue, annoyed of the noises displayed by the staff. TobuCatmon merely shrugged off the comment; he could see that Gayathri was restless and that was her way to deal with it.
"Adam, don't just keep everything inside. We need you to tell us what happened." Gayathri sat beside Adam on the large beige stone, not caring whether she was invited by the boy or not. or that she had invaded the boy's personal space.
Adam didn't look like he minded the company. He looked at Gayathri wordlessly, before a ghost of a smile cracked from his tightly-closed mouth. "Can I have that Ferrero-Roche?"
Only after eating those chocolates did Adam feel better, good enough to inform the other DigiWira about the battle that had taken place after the others had evacuated the Stone Valley.
"She didn't even offer Manny those chocolates," Adam mused, his mind back to present day.
Liu Ying looked amused. "Actually, she was going to offer that Kit-Kat to Manny, but someone had to hog all the chocolates to make himself feel better." She smiled, showing that she didn't mean anything by the comment.
Adam's cheeks colored. "Really?" He was dismayed when Liu Ying nodded. "Oops." Then, the boy adapted a defensive look. "But she did offer it to me!" he insisted.
"You were supposed to say no." Her tone was serious, but it was betrayed by the mirth sparkled from her black eyes.
"How was I supposed to know?"
The willowy, raven-haired DigiWira cocked her head sideways towards the direction where Gayathri's two best friends were standing, more specifically, at her own classmate Dina. The said girl saw her and smiled, and Liu Ying returned the gesture before returning her gaze towards her fellow DigiWira. Seeing Adam's somewhat gullible look caused her to shake her head. "You're hopeless."
The two friends chuckled at the memory; with Adam thinking that Liu Ying's comment was solely made due to yesterday's event. Then, the prefect's face regained that faraway expression look which Adam had noticed earlier.
Adam studied her expression and decided to ask her what was bugging her. "You're not telling me everything."
"You noticed, huh?" Liu Ying smiled wryly. "Actually, I just heard about this while passing by the teacher's room. Mr. Singh was informing Mrs. Khatijah – JD's class teacher – that JD was currently suspended. He then added with a slow tone that the school office had gotten a call from JD's parents. Apparently, JD didn't even return home yesterday."
"He ran away?" Adam asked.
"Not really, I think." Liu Ying shook her head. "I think he's still at the Digital World. But the school and his family obviously don't know that. The principal's calling in Kenny, Megat and Samy for inquiries." The prefect snorted derisively. "I doubt however, that JD told them about him being the Red ShadoWira, and about Digimon and all."
"God, what's he up to this time?" Adam moaned. "Hadn't he had enough?"
"Who knows?" Liu Ying got up from her seat. "Anyway, I need to get going. Duty calls. I'll see you later, ok?"
Adam got up too. "Ok. I need to go as well. There's…someone…I want to see, and he's just arrived."
The two DigiWira looked at the school gate and saw Adam's plump, songkok-wearing best friend coming.
'Somehow, JD finds out about me from Hakim. I want to know exactly how.' Adam thought as he and Liu Ying parted ways. 'And what.'
xxx
xxx
"Josh…?"
"What, Koromon?"
"What are we doing back here…?"
JD, with Koromon cradled with one arm, stared hatefully towards the purplish mountain in front of him. The mountain's tip was black, and covered with gray clouds and purple fogs. It stood out against the brownish sky that was the landmark of the feared Shadow Realm. Thunders rumbled every now and then but there was no sign of lightning. The setting was eerie; not many dared to venture within the vicinity of Black Peak Mountain, knowing too well that inside the mountain was the Cave of Solitude, where Karatenmon dwelled. Avian Digimon especially, avoided the place like a plague, while other species wisely chose not to be there as well.
Looking at the mountain, memories flooded JD's mind.
"Where the hell am I?" JD stared around his surrounding, wide-eyed. He was just clicking on some random message on a chat box, when suddenly lights flared out of his computer screen, and then he was there…over an arid region with many dead trees, foggy air and dry earth. A tall rocky mountain could be seen, and JD blinked when he saw something came out of an opening, high above the mountain. It looked like a black bird from where he stood, but as the figure got closer and closer, JD could see that he was wrong, but not totally far off.
It was birdlike, and it had wings, but it resembled a human more than an animal. A humanoid avian creature, to be precise, as it was also wearing light armor over its torso and a pair of white, baggy pants. Its eyes were yellow and penetrating. There was a dignified aura emanating from the creature, intimidating those around him.
Nevertheless, the figure didn't impress JD one bit. The teen merely crossed his arms against his chest, and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.
The avian creature caught his unspoken question. "You are at my domain." It spoke with a deep, masculine voice, indicating that it was a 'he'. "I am Karatenmon. Welcome, chosen human." There was no friendliness or warmness in his tone, but neither were there any threat or malice that JD could detect. The being known as Karatenmon simply sounded aloof and indifferent, like nothing really mattered, or as if he was uninterested.
JD took Karatenmon's apparent appearance at his stride, not feeling threatened at all. "Chosen?" he snorted derisively. "Forced, more like. What do you want?"
Karatenmon flicked his right hand airily, producing a glowing red sphere from out of nowhere.
"You are chosen, Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman, long ago, to wield the powerful Red DigiSphere. With it, you command the power of fire and darkness."
JD laughed; this sounded so absurd! "Hey, who'd you think you are? Zordon of the Power Rangers? Dragging me into all this, and saying stuffs like 'you're chosen' and all it…the next thing I know you'd say something like…say, may the power protect you?"
Karatenmon didn't look pleased. Nevertheless, he continued. "Like it or not, human, this mystical sphere has chosen you. No one else can harness its remarkable power, only you. And of course, your Digimon partner as well." He snapped his fingers, and a ripple of air formed from his side. With a puff of smoke, an orange lizard-like creature emerged. Steel chains that were emanating with yellowish aura bound it, and its green eyes had the look of utmost fear. "And this is your partner, Agumon."
If JD was surprised to see the miniature T-Rex that appeared suddenly before him, he didn't mention it, nor did it appear on his face. He smirked wryly and approached Agumon.
"Why's the baby dino in chains?"
Karatenmon waved his right hand and the chains instantly vanished into thin air. "Not anymore." Karatenmon chuckled darkly, and held out the Red DigiSphere for JD. "I understand that you are tired of your life in your world, correct?" With that said, he stared deeply into JD's eyes. "Busy parents, uncaring siblings, total lack of friends…"
"Like I care," JD huffed in annoyance. His face darkened and JD flicked off some stray blonde strands that were long enough to block his eyes. "How the hell do you know about those?"
"I have my ways." Karatenmon smiled mysteriously. "Now, I am offering you a chance to place yourself above all those cumbersome, earthling matters. You are destined for greatness, Joshua. Here in the Digital World, you can shine. I can see that the Red DigiSphere have chosen its wielders well." The Red DigiSphere glowed as Karatenmon dropped it on JD's palm. Flows of red energy radiated from the sphere and all over JD's arms. "Become my Red ShadoWira, and you will have all the powers you need to be respected, and feared!"
"What's happening?" JD demanded, and flicked his hands to get rid of the energy flow – they were causing tingling effects on his arm, something akin to the feeling of being tickled by bird feathers. What happened next was not what he'd expected – he had generated sparks of flames from in-betweens of his fingers. His eyes shot wide, and he gaped, speechless. He did it again and this time around he managed to form a perfect ball of flames on his palms. He swished his hands, and two fireballs sailed towards the nearest dead tree. The tree caught fire and was set ablaze, as JD watched in astonishment.
Karatenmon smiled maliciously. "So, do we have a deal?"
JD shook his head; the previous night he'd gotten a splitting headache as memories of himself as the Red ShadoWira invaded his mind. Now however, the memories returned with only a mild throbbing over the temples, but that didn't make it any less annoying.
He didn't want to be evil, but he'd wanted an escape. It would be good enough for him to be able to come to this Digital World without having to do anything. Perhaps this place would not be so bad after all for him. The prospect of a strange new land did appeal him. However, when he was about to ask Karatenmon about that…somehow his eyes were drawn to Karatenmon's eyes, which from their original yellow had assumed a scarlet glow which somehow, to JD, looked…menacing! Something in his heart told him to look away quickly, but against his will his head was affixed in his position. He wanted to struggle, but somehow found his body immobilized. His confidence wavering and he could hear Karatenmon snickering, before everything became…black.
"Damned memories," he muttered.
Karatenmon pushed both of them hard. The Mage General was a strict instructor. After Manny was recruited as the Blue ShadoWira just a day after he was given the Red DigiSphere, they were both put into rigorous training against a flock of birds, known as the Black Biyomon.
"HAAA!!" JD fired a stream of flames, which was easily countered by a Black Biyomon's Spiral Twister attack – a spiraling green flames which cancelled out JD's flames. It was a good thing that the Black Biyomon was also under a spell – JD was already annoyed enough. He blasted the Rookie Digimon again with a stronger torrent of flames, which this time around, evaporated the Black Biyomon's attack and consumed the unfortunate rookie with flames. To his surprise, the Black Biyomon combusted right before his eyes, causing him to shiver and dropped on his knees.
"Get up!" Karatenmon's cold voice rang. JD looked up, and saw those scarlet eyes once again… "We have a business to attend to. Look at your clothes; it will not do for that to happen with every battle training."
JD's blue jeans were dirty, but pretty much in good shape. His shirt however was singed in many parts – the sleeves were already burned by the rookie's flames. So were the lower halves of the red shirt, which was burnt, torn, and soiled with soot. The only thing that kept the shirt hanging on his torso was the upper half, which with a growl, JD tore away.
"What do you want me to do?"
"It is to my understanding that the DigiWira have acquired…uniforms. Somewhat queer, in my opinion…" Karatenmon clucked his tongue. "…but nevertheless, a wise choice of gear for they are durable. Perhaps they have acquired it from their home world…your home world. For your best interests, Joshua, attain them."
The spell beginning to seep in him, JD snickered and crossed his arms against his chest. "Why, sounds to me that you care."
"I do not," Karatenmon replied coolly. "My intention was for you and Emmanuel to have as little questions as possible from your families. What are you going to answer to them should they inquire about missing clothing articles?"
JD snorted. "HA! If that day comes when my folks actually noticed things like that, I'll go check whether horns have sprouted from my cat's head."
"Interesting proverb. Elaborate."
"Means IMPOSSIBLE," JD said bitterly. "The house maid would fuss, but her alone. Nobody else cares enough."
Karatenmon smiled; JD's resentment of his family was what fueling the mage's spell. As long as he felt that way, his spell would remain intact. It was a much more potent hold. Every spell needed something to hold on to, as JD now realized. He was stupid, he thought, for succumbing to the Mage General's evil power so easily, but then again, how could have he fight it? And Karatenmon would always find time to listen to him venting his anger, which was unknown to him, was what causing the spell to grow.
Koromon noticed his partner's silence as JD's hazel eyes were transfixed on the Black Peak Mountain. From the way those eyes shone, Koromon knew that JD was relieving the memories, and chose to keep quiet. When JD was ready to speak, he would listen, but now, the In-Training knew that his human friend needed to come into terms with himself, in order for him to move on.
With that, he snuggled close to JD for comfort. The teen subconsciously drew him close to his body as the chilly wind of the mountain breezed the area, but remained silent.
As he crossed the computer room one area, JD overheard conversations inside. He recognized those voices belonging to the three kids whom Karatenmon had pinpointed to be the DigiWira – Adam Ariff, Chang Liu Ying, and Gayathri Nadarajah. Curious, he stood by an open window, careful not to let himself be inconspicuous. The corridor was deserted. It was break time and the DigiWira seemed to be having a meeting with Mr. Jackie Chan, the computer instructor.
'So Chan knows about them being DigiWira, eh?' he thought. 'Interesting…'
His mouth split into a grin when he heard Liu Ying complaining about the uniforms, while both Adam and Gayathri defended them. Looks like he's found what he's looking for, JD thought once again. He peeked through the windowsills and saw that the three DigiWira were debating amongst themselves, but something seemed odd with the computer instructor. He was fiddling with his computer, and JD's grin grew wider when he saw what program the teacher was closing. 'Gotcha!'
He lowered his body underneath the windows and moved quietly towards the stairs, careful not to let his presence known. It was break time and not many people would come there anyway. He stood there quietly, waiting for the perfect moment to come in the computer classroom to get that specific file he'd seen. His moment came about an hour later; the DigiWira were already off to class for a long time, when break time ended, and he saw Jackie being called away to a meeting at the office. He saw the door being locked, and waited for Jackie to be out of sight before slinking off towards the computer classroom.
He took out his cell phone – Karatenmon had modified the phone for JD to be able to call upon a DigiPort anywhere, anytime he wished. This time around he would need the gateway to be opened for Karatenmon's spell to work. A blast of light, and the door was open. JD walked in and quickly approached the computer, which was left on. He scanned the recently-opened file, and sniggered upon seeing the aptly-titled Adobe Photoshop file named 'DigiWira-Uniforms'. Quickly he copied the file and had it transferred to his phone via Bluetooth.
"Tomorrow, DigiWira…prepare for the ShadoWira's grand entrance!"
JD rubbed his dully-throbbing temples; the memories he had thereafter were even worse. The ShadoWira had trashed the DigiWira with their powers and Reichmon, but now he was thankful that the DigiWira's powers were activated as well in their time of need. Or else all three of them would've perished that day under their hands.
Realizing that he had been very quiet, he looked down into the eyes of his In-Training partner, which were affixed on him. It looked like the little Digimon had been like that for quite a while already. Smiling wryly, he pushed his thoughts away and focused at his intention for coming there.
"Koromon, you strong enough for a Shadow Access Digivolution?"
"No. I'm sorry. I'm still too weak to even reach my Agumon form."
JD huffed slowly, not out of anger, but the frustration was evident. "Didn't the fruits you had for breakfast earlier helped?"
He was only answered by a growl coming from Koromon's stomach…wherever it was; it was hard to tell where exactly the stomach of a pink puffball Digimon was. The blonde teen groaned inwardly, but couldn't blame his partner. Especially, when his own stomach roared, demanding to be fed. JD chose however to ignore it.
"Why can't we just go back?" Koromon pleaded. "I'm sure the others will forgive you."
JD shook his head. "Not just yet. I can't. I wronged them a lot."
"Manny and Penguinmon were accepted. Why should it be any different for us?"
"For starters, Manny and Penguinmon didn't almost kill anybody. Secondly, they offered themselves in exchange for TobuCatmon, when we kidnapped that cat. That for sure had placed them in the DigiWira's good book. And finally, not only did they manage to rescue TobuCatmon, but they also managed to retrieve the White DigiSphere which I took from Adam."
Koromon looked up at his human partner with pity reflected from his large crimson eyes. "You were under a spell, Josh," he pointed out. "It's not your fault."
"And speaking of Adam, that sham I pulled on him was really the icing of the cake for everything," JD concluded bitterly. "Now he and the other DigiWira would never see me as anything…but a two-tongued jerk."
Koromon looked up at his human partner. "Was it really a sham, Josh?" he asked softly.
JD blinked, and thought about it. Was it really a sham? That was what he had intended. At first. And every now and then when he was still under the spell, he would remind himself of his deceptive mission, and would justify all his actions in favor of his plan. But amidst all that, he did enjoy being a friend with the younger boy.
Friend. It was a somewhat alien word in his vocabulary. Sure, he had other friends; Megat, Samy and Kenny hung out with him often while at school, but he didn't really enjoy their companies. Not that much, but he tolerated them. Kenny would volunteer to finish up his homework, whenever JD didn't feel like doing it. JD knew Kenny when he saved the boy from a couple of bullies, when they were in Form One. Since then, the boy would latch on him when they were at school, much to his amusement. Megat and Samy…what were they to him, exactly? He didn't remember how he'd gotten to know them, but could pinpoint one of the reasons for spending a lot of time together in after-school detention. As for his classmates – he rarely, if at all, talked to them. He'd rather slink of at the corner of the classroom and brood. That was his second-best known modes; people would say that if JD Kamaruzaman wasn't in his troublemaker mode, he'd be in his dark, brooding mode. Nobody understood why, but JD was fine that way.
Manny – he was a comrade. A fellow ShadoWira, both with a same deluded mission. But friends? JD hadn't had the opportunity to get to know the Sabahan boy more. JD knew the two DigiWira girls even less. The only thing he knew about Gayathri was the fact that she was one of the prettiest girls in school. Liu Ying – something about that fiery, yet cool, prefect, attracted him. JD smirked when he remembered their first encounter, which was something he doubted that she would tell others. And Adam – JD hadn't intended to target him at first, but when the boy's best friend unwittingly let slip about the boy's history, JD chose to shift his target from Liu Ying to Adam. He hadn't encountered someone, who despite being so different from himself, could also be so similar, in more than one ways.
JD sighed. "The truth is…I'm too ashamed to face them." He thought of how close he'd come to become a murderer. "Especially Adam."
"I'm sure he'll understand," Koromon consoled. "Adam doesn't look like one who could hold a grudge for a long time. Neither do Liu Ying and Gayathri."
"You think?" He remembered Liu Ying's enraged reaction upon his revelation, but what struck him as strange was how Adam responded. He didn't yell at him like Liu Ying had, but the way he just looked at him with that pair of thunderstorm-gray eyes, it just chilled him to the spine, now that he thought of it. And what made him felt worse now was the fact that he knew what had brought that kind of reaction from Adam. "You didn't see Adam and Liu Ying when I told them that I was the Red ShadoWira, back at school, couple of days back. The looks they had in their eyes…it's just lucky me that looks can't kill. At least, not in our home world it can't, here I bet Liu Ying could send me to high heavens with her telekinetic power."
"Can you blame them?" Koromon asked softly.
JD's face fell. "No, I suppose not. Man, I feel like crap!"
"I know how you feel. We're in the same boat. But if you need time to sort things out yourself…then I'm willing to stay by your side, all the time."
Koromon, as Agumon before meeting JD, was TobuCatmon's informant whenever an attack occurred. He was captured by Karatenmon's henchman while being out from the safety of the Forest Sanctum, and soon found himself partnered to JD, forming a deadly duo. After the spell was broken, Koromon regained all his past memories, and remembered how the DigiWira were like. It was why he was confident that the DigiWira would eventually accept them. But for now, he understood his partner's grief, and didn't want to push him anymore.
JD didn't respond to Koromon's words, but they penetrated deep into his heart and mind, and he was taken aback by his Digimon partner's loyalty. Then he thought of the DigiWira's partners and how loyal they were to their humans. Even the noisy, somewhat annoying Penguinmon, remained at Manny's side – JD had thought that the human and the Digimon powered by the Blue DigiSphere to be incompatible. Then his mind reflected the time when he'd seen the evidence of a Digimon's true loyalty to his human partner – when Centarumon dark-digivolved into the raging Black Knightmon to defend not only Adam, but the other DigiWira and his fellow Digimon as well.
"Can I ask you something, Josh?" Koromon's slightly high-pitched, childlike voice broke in the silence once again.
"Shoot." The blonde teen however didn't look like he was in the mood to answer questions, but he was willing to accommodate his partner.
"Why Adam?"
To Koromon's surprise, JD merely chuckled. A dark, somewhat dry chuckle, which didn't sound as if he was thrilled. It was a chuckle void of happiness. "I was wondering when that question will pop up." He considered it for a moment, and then decided that he had nothing to lose. Besides, Koromon was loyal to him; he could trust him.
"This goes no further between us?" he implored.
Koromon nodded. "Don't you trust me by now?"
"Heh. Sorry."
JD took a deep breath as he recalled what Hakim had mentioned to him…by accident, from the looks of it, during an online chatting conversation between them.
'Hey, I can recall that you have one best friend. Adam, right? Always saw you two around.' JD decided to start asking about Adam, since he couldn't get any lead for Liu Ying. It was pure luck that he had found Hakim's MySpace personal page a few days back, and had added him. That boy had a lot of friends, he noted, from all walks of life. Did he add everyone on the face of the Earth, JD had to wonder. No one has 300 friends! From there, he'd gotten Hakim's Yahoo Messenger ID and sneakily decided to add him; maybe he could find some real leads for Adam instead. After all, best friends tell each other everything, right?
'Yeah. Adam. He's really a great friend once you get to know him,' Hakim replied, with a smiley. JD took note of that.
'Once you get to know him? What if we don't know him?'
'Ummm….he's still ok.'
JD saw that Hakim sounded somewhat unsure. He decided to press on this matter. 'You don't sound so sure.'
'I don't mean to give that kind of impression. Really, he's cool.'
JD thought for a while; he had seen Adam around the school only somewhat recently, not more than a year ago. All that time he spent brooding around the school, he took notice of a lot of things. For instance, he knew that Hakim had been around since the first day of his Form One year. Adam however, appeared only later, somewhere around the middle of the year, after the new term. And, now that JD thought of it, he remembered Adam being somewhat withdrawn, always with a stoic expression, and very, very quiet. He almost looked antisocial, from how JD perceived him. Almost like…himself.
'I saw him around since late last year. He didn't look so cool. I mean, he was somewhat withdrawn, with sad eyes.' JD did notice; there was one time when they had almost brooded at the same place – right by the school's artificial fountain. However Adam apparently had been made known of JD's reputation, as the younger boy had moved away from that spot. JD had caught that look in Adam's eyes, but that time he'd brushed it off, deeming it as unimportant. Now, it came up…and JD soon found a pave which would lead him to the information he seek.
'Ummm…Adam was like that for a while.'
'Any idea why? He just looked so sad.' JD didn't know it, but had a feeling that this was important.
For a while, Hakim didn't reply. Hakim gave him the impression as someone who would slip up while under pressure, so JD decided to do just that.
'He's just a kid; no kid should look that sad.'
'Umm…'
'He got abused or something?'
'NO. Nothing like that…'
'His parents don't care about him?'
'No…from what I know they were great, Adam adored them a lot.'
'WERE?' Past tense? Were, adored, they were all in past tenses. Hakim couldn't make the same mistake twice. JD realized that Hakim had slipped up. 'His parents have passed away?' He began to put two and two together, and smiled. He'd found something, especially from the lack of response from Hakim's part.
After more seconds passed, Hakim's reply came up. "No..."
'Don't lie, that's a sin.' JD decided to tease the boy; with the songkok he was wearing at school JD assumed that Hakim had a strong religious background. 'It makes sense, now. The only reason a kid could be that sad is because of a tragedy…so he probably moved here for a fresh start.'
'I…I'm not supposed to mention anything.'
'Come now, it's not that I don't know already. I know I'm right. If I were wrong you'd just say it straight that I'm wrong, and now you're hesitating, so I know I'm right. Come on, spill it already. It's not like I'm going to broadcast it to the school or anything. That's so not me – I'm antisocial. It's not like I know him either. If he wants it to be a secret, so fine, I'll keep my mouth shut. So the way I see it, it's harmless.'
'It'll be like betraying a trust.'
JD groaned, and thought that maybe it wasn't easy to crack Hakim after all. But Hakim didn't deny anything either. And it looked like all he needed was some convincing. 'You're not. It's called betrayal if you go to the school media and blab to them. Then the whole school knows.'
'But still…'
Okay, obviously it was not going to be easy. It'd be easier in real life, of course, but online, Hakim could easily log off, and ignored him. JD had to deal with this delicately. He'd have to go with what he had. So Adam had lost both parents, but Liu Ying too, had lost her father. By now, both looked as if they had coped and moved on.
'Ok, ok. You don't have to tell the details. Fine, I can respect that. I just wanna clarify one thing though…are his parents dead? That way, I won't make stupid comments about that should I come across him in future. Sensitivity's sake, and whatnot.'
'Yes. His parents and older brother have passed away. Adam was in Standard six then. I can only say that much, that's all I know.'
'Must be brutal.' JD suddenly saw something new. Wait a minute….older brother?
'I need to go now. Just…promise me you won't tell a soul about this?'
JD smiled, and typed back. 'I won't. That's a promise. See ya.'
So Adam lost not only his parents, but an older brother as well? JD frowned for a while as the fact that the DigiWira was an orphan struck a chord in his heart. Was he really going to use this information against the DigiWira? While JD himself had an older brother and an older sister, but they were never there for him. At least, when they'd gotten older, into colleges, and had moved out of the house. They were close when they were younger. Sometimes, JD would still feel a sense of longing, but whenever that feeling came he'd brush them off away. If they didn't miss him, why would he bother missing them? He had better things to do anyway. Parents never home? Fine. Siblings never home? Fine with him as well.
He saw his reflection on the mirror – his eyes were glowing crimson. Cloudiness enveloped his mind. He could only think of one thing.
'If I'm feeling this way when I think about Jade and Jas, perhaps Adam's also thinking the same way about his late brother. Hmmm…' JD twiddled with the thin-chained necklace he wore on his neck. 'I wonder how old Adam's brother had been before he died? Maybe I should ask Hakim that. But anyway…' he grinned. '…I can see how it's gonna be now…heh, heh.'
"You didn't…" Koromon frowned. "That…that's…"
"Cruel? Manipulative? Just downright plain evil?" JD asked softly, and nodded. "I know. And he's mad as hell with me now."
Koromon was speechless. He might be a Digimon, he might not have a brother, but the concept wasn't strange to him. He had been vague of JD's plan before, but now that he knew of it…
"It makes you sick just thinking about it, huh?" JD asked. "Don't lie. It's making me sick either. I can't believe I did that. I of all people should know."
Koromon chose to remain silent – JD obviously was regretting his actions, and voicing out his opinion would be like rubbing a salt on a wound. It would aggravate JD's remorse.
Several tensed minutes drifted by like the breezes from the mountain, before JD walked closer to the mountain before taking out his cell phone from his trousers pocket. He pressed some buttons on the phone, and lights erupted from the screen of the phone. The light sucked both of them in, before the phone itself vanished within the light. A distance away, the lights reappeared and JD stood right in front of the entrance of the Cave of Solitude.
"What are we doing here, Josh?" Koromon asked again with a wavering voice. "I don't like this place…it gives me nightmare."
"Really?" A ghost of a smirk appeared on the blonde's face. A hint of the usual cockiness was resurfacing, although still pretty much inhibited by his grief. "Well, worry no more, Koromon; I'm gonna put a stop on that, at least." The smirk vanished; JD's mouth had formed a thin line. "You know, they say a way to get rid of a nightmare is to get rid of its source, first. I think I can do just that."
He placed Koromon down, and waved both hands towards the entrance. Flames erupted from his palms, swirling around his arms, radiating with burning hunger. JD waited for his power of pyrokinesis to reach its peak – it was somewhat difficult and he was still fairly weak, but he was confident that he could at least do this right. He'd been saving up energy from the previous night, and while the breakfast they had was scanty, JD hoped it would be enough for him to see this through. There was no need to rush; he had all the time he needed.
"HAA!!" he yelled, and let the flames shot into the dark cavern.
Not too long after, the Digital World once again rejoiced – for the Cave of Solitude was somehow set ablaze. Thick, black smokes could be seen coming out from the borders of the Shadow Realm, and those who dared enough to approach the dark area was astounded, yet amazed, upon seeing the cave drowned in flames.
xxx
xxx
"Hakim?"
The plump, fair-skinned boy saw his best friend, and mustered up a smile. "Hi, Adam."
Lately, these past few weeks, Hakim's usual jovial demeanor had drastically shifted to a somewhat sullen mood. It was so great a change that Adam for once, had thought of him as being one of the ShadoWira. He was glad to have been wrong, but then, what could be causing Hakim's mood change? However, Adam noticed that Hakim was beginning to lose his shoddier temperament, gradually shifting back to his usual state, although he was still far enough from his usual happy-go-lucky self.
Every now and then, Adam managed to catch Hakim looking at him with an odd expression – a somewhat guilty expression, now that Adam thought about it. He had shrugged it off at first, thinking that Hakim would tell him when he was ready. But when JD had let slip that it was Hakim who had aided him in his 'Adam's background research', Adam couldn't ignore those guilty looks anymore. Something was definitely up, and Adam wanted to know what.
"Can I ask you something?" Adam asked bracingly.
The smile on Hakim's face faltered. "Umm…I guess. What about?"
Adam didn't miss the slight change of expression, but only kept that in mind as he thought of the best way to coerce Hakim into telling him of what he should've told him. Adam didn't want to bully Hakim into answering him, and he still had time. After thinking about it for a brief few seconds, Adam decided that he'd do it in a light-hearted way, so that Hakim would not feel intimidated. 'And maybe I should take a stab on adding some little white-lies, just to see how Hakim would react to it,' Adam thought silently.
"Hakim, have you seen JD?" Adam asked casually. To his pleasure, he saw the slightly stricken expression on Hakim's face, and added with a carefully even tone. "He said that he'd meet us here this morning, but…I don't see him around."
"Uh…us?" Hakim squeaked.
"Yes, us," Adam said, rolling his eyes for effect and smiled. "He told me that it was you who'd mention that I'm interested to learn basketball, but didn't know who to ask to teach me." Inward, Adam cringed at the thought – it was a nice memory, only tarnished due to the sole fact that JD had been plotting against him all the while. "So he offered to teach me a few days back. Weird, huh? The school troublemaker suddenly being so civil and nice all of a sudden."
"He did?" Hakim asked, bewildered. Adam took note of it; apparently Hakim had never told JD that, but oh well…he could just assume that it was JD who made up stories, not Adam.
"Don't look so surprised," Adam grinned. "How did you know JD anyway? I never knew that you two were friends." 'Whoa…careful Adam, take one step at a time.' He however didn't fail to make the questions sounded enthusiastic instead of demanding.
"Uh…thru MySpace, actually," Hakim admitted. Adam knew that this was the truth; he'd seen the link to Hakim's MySpace page from JD's profile page. "He was the one who added me, but how did he manage to find my profile amidst thousands there is still beyond me," he continued, gradually warming up to Adam's questions.
"Weird." Adam crunched his brows together. 'One more questionnaire…' He smiled again before adapting a somewhat-wondering expression. "You know, I never thought of it until recently, but…JD somehow reminded me of my late brother. I've told you about Abang Zad, haven't I?"
At this, Hakim instantly paled. His mouth hung open, and there was a panic-stricken look reflected from his round eyes. He was already so fair; Adam wondered how his friend managed to become paler upon hearing about Aizad, his deceased older brother. But judging by Hakim's reaction, Adam knew that he was on the right track. He decided to continue.
"And I know that you won't tell anybody, because I told you not to…but it's kinda weird how JD was so similar in many ways to Abang Zad. I think even Kak Lisha would say the same thing if she gets to know JD," Adam said with a thoughtful note. 'This isn't a lie…somehow JD did behave like arwah Abang Zad.' Adam then fixed a deep look into his friend's nervous orbs.
"Adam…about that," Hakim began nervously. He lowered his eyes and continued with a glum tone. "I'm sorry. I should've told you, but I just got a lot of things in my mind lately that I forgot to tell you about it."
'Bingo.' Adam gave an assuring smile to his best friend, showing that he wasn't mad at Hakim. How could he be? There was no way for Hakim to know that JD would use this fragile piece of information against Adam. "Don't worry about it. But how did you manage to talk about that, of all other things?"
"Well…" Hakim was sweating, and took off his songkok, revealing short, curly black hair underneath which looked damp. He then fidgeted with the soft velvety material of the songkok as Adam waited for an answer patiently. "We were chatting online and the topic about you came up. He mentioned that you had sad eyes…you know, during that moment when you were still grieving? He kept on making wild guesses, and eventually he touched the subject about your parents in a way that you wouldn't want people to think about them. And…I slipped up. I told them that your parents were great, and you adored them. JD caught the past tenses I used, and used it against me. He asked me later whether it was only your parents, as he didn't want to come by you and accidentally make any insensitive comments…so I told them it was your parents and your big brother."
'Not make insensitive comments? That's a laugh,' Adam thought bitterly. 'He didn't comment on anything alright, but…' Outside, however, his expression remained neutral. "Oh…"
"You're not mad at me, are you?" There was a pleading tone in Hakim's voice.
"Of course not," Adam quickly answered. He was not angry at Hakim, but he was infuriated with JD, more than ever. He'd gotten his answer, and the next time he saw the Red ShadoWira, he would be sure to give him a piece of his mind.
"You sure? I swear, that's the only blunder I've made. I'm…I'm not even sure from where that thing about basketball comes from. Basketball isn't even your favorite sport." Hakim was right about that; Adam didn't even think that he'd want to finish up his basketball lesson with JD anymore. "JD did ask some questions later… something about how old your brother had been before he died and how was he to you. I thought that there was something fishy of how he wanted to know about that, but I didn't see any harm in telling them about those stuffs," Hakim confided. "I don't know…maybe he just wants to be friendly, or maybe he knows things about losing someone…I don't know. I never really keep in touch that much with him and he wasn't online for most of the time nowadays."
"Hakim, you said that there were a lot of things on your mind recently," Adam reminded Hakim, wanting more than ever to change the subject of conversation. Besides, Hakim looked forlorn; Adam hoped that by confiding at him about his problems, it would relieve Hakim of the burden of whatever problems he was having. "C'mon, you can tell me."
"I suppose I can. It's now or never. I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time now, but I was coming to terms with the implications of what this could do to me. I wasn't prepared to do it, and I didn't really want to, and I'm mad at my folks for doing this to me. I mean, I like it a lot here. I have lots of friends, and I have a great best friend! I'm just not prepared to leave all of that…"
Hakim was babbling now; Adam noticed that his best friend was upset, but he still couldn't find the reason behind it. He however sensed that Hakim would need to vent, and that he'd been keeping this to himself for a long time. Adam could even see that Hakim was beginning to blink so rapidly, and his eyes shining oddly.
"…but it's a great opportunity for the whole family. I mean, the pay is awesome there's no way Ayah would decline such an offer. Ibu also was happy with it. Not just happy…she was ecstatic! My siblings and I weren't that thrilled, but it was I who was the most unwilling, the others eventually said that they could cope."
Hakim took a deep breath and Adam saw that he was slightly shivering.
"Adam, we're moving away…."
Adam gasped softly; he didn't see that coming at all. It left him speechless.
"And not to just any place. Overseas. Ayah got a job offer…at Saudi Arabia!"
xxx
xxx
Eerie moans were heard coming from all around him. Hordes of floating white sheets, with dark eyes and rows of yellow sharp teeth approached him. Ghosts, or rather, ghost Digimon. But he wasn't scared, or impressed, or amused. What was this; kindergarten horror story for scaring kids? Or low budget ghost movie for terrifying people with low tolerance to adrenaline rushes?
"Oh, shut your traps, you worthless pieces of shit!" he growled in annoyance.
Extending his hands forward, a torrent of flames erupted and jetted towards the ghost-like beings. Their sheets caught the flames and all the ghosts shrieked in dismay when the white sheets that constituted their bodies were burning at a rapid speed. The human teen in front of them was ruthless; his hazel eyes flashed dangerously as he continued releasing flames from the in-betweens of his fingers, with no intention to stop or to slow down at all.
"Josh…" whimpered a figure wrapped in leathery black cloth in front of the human's body. "You don't have to do this. Let's get out of here while we still can…"
The human snickered. "Shush, Koromon. I'm gonna teach that SkullSatamon a lesson for messing with our minds. That cowardly old bag of bones is hiding away in that castle of his, unable to come out, so we'll exterminate these Bakemon here first. You just sit there, and let me do the dirty work. No complaining."
One of the burning Bakemon howled and all of a sudden, a cyanotic blue arm emerged out from his body-sheet, and delivered a forceful punch onto JD's body. The blue, sickly-looking arm of the Bakemon was surprisingly muscular, and it somehow resisted the flames JD had released. The attack was unexpected, and JD sailed backwards with a howl and landed on his back with a crash.
"TEE HEE HEE….HEE HEE HEE…" the Bakemon laughed as the flames on their sheets suddenly vanished mysteriously, as their bodies glowed in dark red aura. There were six of them. They suddenly huddled to each other, forming two groups, with one group consisted of three Bakemon. They joined with each other, forming two hulking monstrosities wearing red hood and cape, and wielding scythes. They had only spinal bones as their bodies, made out of gleaming dark metal which joined at the inferior to floating gray orbs. Underneath the hoods, they could see purple, gleaming metallic skulls, with the eye sockets glowing orange.
JD quickly got up and grabbed his chest, breathing in and out painfully. His breath was ragged. Blood trickled out from his mouth. His eyes narrowed upon seeing the two caped demons, who were both approaching them slowly, as if knowing that there was nowhere for JD and Koromon to run.
"Oh, crap!" the blonde swore loudly. "Koromon, what are they?"
"Oh, no…" Koromon moaned, still latched to JD's body by JD's black uniform jacket. "Those are MetalPhantomon, they are Ultimates. We're done for."
"Ultimates? Damn!" JD backed away and took out his cell phone. "We better split."
The MetalPhantomon glided towards JD as he keyed in the necessary numbers to generate a DigiPort. Just as one of the MetalPhantomon swung its scythe towards JD, the ShadoWira was enveloped by a bright dark purple light and began to be absorbed by the portal.
However, the scythe managed to slice away the cell phone before it too was consumed by the DigiPort. The cell phone was split into half, and burst into data particles. The burst of light that erupted from JD's cell phone however remain, and echoes of cries from JD and Koromon could be heard. The MetalPhantomon curiously approached the energy burst, only to find themselves being sucked into the DigiPort as well. The DigiPort light then dimmed, before completely vanishing out of sight.
Everything was quiet again at the Shadow Realm, before the silence was broken a few seconds later by a roaring thunder. That however, was a usual occurrence at the realm of darkness.
From the Horror Hall, SkullSatamon emerged from the shadows cast by the jaw-shaped doorway of his bastion. He had been standing there all this while, watching the events that unfolded before him with his very own eyes. The demonic Digimon chuckled darkly, seeing how his ghastly followers had tailed JD and Koromon to wherever the DigiPort was taking them. His bony fingers caressed the orb within his ribcage – there was a yellow glow that was emitted by the orb. Formerly, there was only a mere tint, but now the glow had manifested, covering one-sixth of the orb.
"I wonder…" SkullSatamon muttered darkly. "Should I wait for the outcome of dear Joshua's exploits with those MetalPhantomon, or proceed with the next general? The Mage General has fallen; perhaps it's time for the exquisite Dryad General to make her move against the meddlesome heirs of Grademon."
xxx
xxx
"What in the names of the three moons of the Digital World…"
TobuCatmon blinked open his eyes, hearing strange buzzes coming from within the sanctum. He was having a catnap, and was somewhat irritated that he was disturbed, especially when he was certain that nothing was wrong in the Digital World. Sure, the Red ShadoWira might still be at large, but wasn't he supposed to be at school today? As human, Joshua Kamaruzaman was not much of a threat to the now-four DigiWira. As Satriamon however…TobuCatmon had assumed that he still had about three more hours before he'd worry about that.
His attention was caught by the sun staff, which was displaying the most peculiar thing. It was showing a panned-out scenery, of a dark atmosphere and a tall, black-peaked mountain. Thick smokes rose from somewhere near the middle of the mountain, where raging flames were seen. Technically, it was quite impossible to burn a mountain, but it looked like someone had attempted to do just that. TobuCatmon's weary eyes widened when he recognized the mountain.
"Black Peak Mountain!"
The buzzing sound he was hearing however didn't come from the staff. Instead, it was coming from the floor. Underneath the rattan mat that was covering the marbled floor of the Forest Sanctum, TobuCatmon could see a part of the five-pointed star that was etched on it glowing.
More specifically, the part with the red-colored circle was blinking. The other four circles however did not bear any strange occurring.
"Joshua? Agumon?" TobuCatmon wondered. His attention shifted back to the sun staff. 'Did they do that? Were they the ones who burned the Cave of Solitude?' A brief smile flashed across the feline's face. 'There is no other reason for them to burn down that cave…unless Karatenmon is really out of the picture…and the duo of the Red DigiSphere are now at the side of good!'
TobuCatmon beamed happily, feeling more and more convinced that he was correct. He flew towards the sun staff and hovered in front of it.
"Show me Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman and Agumon."
The scene shown by the sun staff diminished into nothingness showing only the wooden material of the late Wizardmon's staff. Then it glowed again…and to TobuCatmon's disappointment it only showed noises similar to the ones it was displaying the previous day, when he attempted to watch the aftermath of the battle. Nothing could be seen except grains of noises.
Shrugging, he decided that if for the time being both JD and Agumon decided that they did not want to be found, then so be it. Perhaps they needed time to sort things out. But TobuCatmon strongly believed that they would fare better if they'd let the other DigiWira help them. Nevertheless, everyone had his way of dealing with troubling things; perhaps this was their way. TobuCatmon began to look forward to meet them – he held no grudge against them despite they had kidnapped him once. In fact, he couldn't wait to meet JD, and he missed Agumon dearly – the dinosaur rookie was a great help to him once, before he'd gotten Wizardmon's sun staff to observe the Digital World.
'But then again…' his eyes averted back to the glowing red circle on the floor. 'Why did the red circle glowed?' He waited anxiously, but the circle only remained glowing in its red hue; it didn't turn into dark violet as it had before, prior to the DigiWira's first encounter with the ShadoWira. 'At least now I know that whatever is going on, at least Joshua and Agumon are no longer evil. I should inform the DigiWira about this.' The light on the red circle began to die down, until it was no longer visible. Everything resumed back to normal. TobuCatmon checked the time and smiled to himself. 'Three more hours before school is over…perhaps I will continue with my catnap now…'
xxx
xxx
"OOFF!"
"Ummmph…ummm…."
JD winced painfully; the DigiPort had caused him to fall on his belly. His knees and palms were both scraped; they had landed on a hard, stony surface. He then heard a whine coming from underneath his chest and immediately rolled over his back; Koromon had been strapped in front of his body, and he still was, resulting in him being squeezed miserably between JD and the hard stone surface.
"Thank God we manage to escape those bone-brained maniacs," JD muttered, and eyed the new injuries he'd gotten in disdain. "More wounds. That's just great." Disgusted, he wiped his bleeding palm over his somewhat tattered crimson shirt, and watched as the blood blended with his shirt. Then he frowned, something seemed odd with his shirt's coloring.
He looked up, and his frown deepened. "Where the hell are we now? Even Shadow Realm doesn't look so…black-and-whitish." He observed his surrounding, taking note of the lack of color of his surrounding. The ground, the trees, the sky…everything was very dull and in shades of gray. He could feel a harsh breeze blowing against his back, and the sound of waves gently splattering the beach. Turning around, he saw the sea, but the waters were also a murky shade of gray towards the beach, becoming darker and murkier as it stretched towards the horizon where the sea looked black as ink. JD realized that they were currently on top of a stone clearing, just inches away from the end of the line, which led to a very deep ravine. JD had no doubt that should they fell just a mere meter away from where they were at right now, they wouldn't have to worry about where they were at right now. They would instead, fall to their doom.
JD felt a chill. The fine hairs on his neck and arms stood up; something was really uncanny. He'd gotten a foreboding feeling all of a sudden, and his heart thumped faster.
"Koromon, where are we?"
The In-Training looked around, and gasped softly as realization hit him. "I…this place…I don't believe it…"
"Koromon?" JD was growing concerned when he saw the little In-Training began to shiver uncontrollably. A look of fear was evident on his face.
"I…I've only heard of this place in myth and legend. I've…never thought…that I'd someday end up here. Nobody wants to come here. Even the Cave of Solitude is better than here...I'd even give anything to be at the Shadow Realm right now…at least from there we know how to get away from."
JD clicked his tongue impatiently; he knew his partner was well-versed in all things Digital World, but he was getting impatient. "Koromon, get to the point."
Koromon inched closer to his partner's body. "Josh…we're at the Dark Ocean!"
xxx
xxx
Author's Note:
A quick update before my winter exams. Thought that I'd have fun with the Dark Ocean plot, somewhat similar to Digimon 02. This is one of the intermission chapters, with some drama, mostly JD-centric. SkullSatamon mentions a general there, anyone care to guess who the general might be?