Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Digimon Xros Wars and its characters are the property of Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai, Toei Animation, and TV Asahi.
| Digimon Xros Wars | Xtra | Part 11 |
The Haunted Zone was comprised of a dismal looking floating island littered with scattered tombstones with a large, spooky mansion looming at its center. Numerous Bakemon and Soulmon, with a handful of Phantomon lurking among them, faded in and out of view as they floated through solid objects and made occasional small talk. A pack of Dobermon circled along the perimeter of the mansion keeping an eye out for intruders. Several Candmon hopped around illuminating the twisted pathways that were all around the mansion, occasionally leading unsuspecting digimon astray. Meanwhile, a bunch of Tsukaimon flitted around spreading rumors and false information.
The peace of this everyday routine was broken only when several humans began yelling from the roof of the mansion. Or, more precisely, it was when Taiki arrived with Akari and Zenjirou at roughly the same time that Nene and Kiriha both emerged from their own portals into the Haunted Zone. This would have been fine except for the fact that as soon as they made contact with the roof of the mansion a trap door opened up beneath them causing them to slide down a shaft until it eventually split off in two directions causing the group to become separated as they continued to plummet down through the hidden passages within the enormous mansion. Falling through the trap door was what caused several of them to commence yelling at the top of their lungs.
"How nice," one of the Bakemon in the vicinity spoke in a surprisingly dignified manner. "It sounds like we might have some actual visitors today."
When they finally came to a stop, Taiki found himself positioned awkwardly over Kiriha and quickly rolled off to the side before pushing himself onto his feet to try to find his bearings. It looked like they had tumbled out of a passage resembling the base of a laundry chute into a long hallway with a multitude of doors on either side. Kiriha groaned and lifted himself into a sitting position.
"You know, you're heavier than you look," he commented dryly.
Taiki decided to ignore his comment and continued looking down the hallway. "I don't suppose you have any idea what kind of Zone this is supposed to be, do you?" He glanced back at Kiriha, finally offering a hand to help him up. Kiriha brushed the hand aside and pushed himself onto his feet on his own.
"Unfortunately," Kiriha responded, "I'm in the same boat as you. I just got here myself."
"I see," Taiki considered that for a few seconds before breaking into a wide grin. "Then I guess we should probably stick together until we find out more about this place."
Shoutmon decided to materialize from Taiki's Xros Loader. "Good idea. Let's have a look around!"
Kiriha sighed. If he got into trouble he wouldn't be able to depend on Greymon and Mail Birdramon. Although they were still in the digital world, this mansion clearly hadn't been built to accommodate dinosaurs or large, mechanized birds. With that in mind, it looked like he was going to be stuck with Taiki and Shoutmon, at least until they found a more open area to explore.
"I wonder what all these doors are for," Shoutmon reached up to jiggle one of the door handles. It wasn't locked and swung open easily. However, at the exact same time a trap door dropped from under Shoutmon's feet. Taiki made a grab for the red dragon's tail as he started to fall, but then Taiki lost his balance and started to fall after him. Without really thinking about it, Kiriha made a grab for the back of Taiki's vest only to be pulled down after them.
Meanwhile, in another part of the mansion, Zenjirou landed flat on his face as Akari landed on top of him. Nene somehow managed to land on her feet so that she was standing next to them. Akari recovered first while Zenjirou was still writhing from having her land on him like that. It was reassuring to see that Nene was there with them even though Taiki didn't appear to be anywhere nearby.
"It looks like we somehow arrived in the same Zone," Nene informed her while they waited for Zenjirou to get back on his feet.
"Do you know anything about this place?" Akari had a feeling she might not like the answer.
"I only know what's been transmitted to me by the Monitamon," Nene responded. "The Haunted Zone is sort of like an amusement park for demonic and ghostly digimon to terrorize their unsuspecting victims."
Zenjirou shrieked and somehow leapt into Nene's arms as a Bakemon emerged from the wall in front of him. Nene promptly dropped in back on the floor.
"They won't hurt us," Nene continued. "They just want to scare us is all."
Even though Nene had warned her, Akari still screamed when a Soulmon emerged from the opposite wall and made a funny face at her. Nene placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright," she tried to sound reassuring. "They're just messing with us."
Kiriha landed on top of Taiki and Shoutmon when they finally stopped falling. This time they were in what looked like a wide open ballroom with enormous jeweled chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. At least this room was spacious enough that he would be able to call upon Greymon and Mail Birdramon if he needed them. After a moment's hesitation, Kiriha finally pulled himself off of Taiki so he could get back on his feet.
"This time, don't touch anything," Kiriha warned Shoutmon.
"How was I supposed to know there was a trap door?" Shoutmon burst onto his feet while Taiki was still partially leaning over him which knocked the boy flat on his back.
"Calm down Shoutmon," Taiki winced slightly as he sat up again. Then he tried to get back on his feet, managing without further incident this time. "We need to work together to find a way out of here."
That was when he noticed that they were surrounded by Bakemon and Soulmon, with more filtering into the room with every passing second. Shoutmon yelped in surprise when a Phantomon began rising up out of the floor in front of him and backed into Taiki. Since they weren't far from the wall this caused Taiki to stumble into a hanging tapestry, one that happened to conceal a hidden passage.
The ghostly digimon filling the ballroom began cackling delightedly. Kiriha decided to follow Taiki behind the tapestry just in time to hear the first of the jeweled chandeliers clattering to the floor.
"Taiki, are you there?" Akari was trying to reach him with her Wrister, but all she heard was static.
"We might not be able to get a signal here," noted Nene. The hallway they had fallen into was rapidly filling with Bakemon and Soulmon all just waiting for an opportunity to surprise them. Akari had become unfazed by the ghostly digimon after the third or fourth confrontation, but Zenjirou was still shrieking whenever they passed in front of him. Nene began counting down in her head and sure enough, there was another audible yelp from Zenjirou as he wrapped himself around her waist. She reached down to pry him off of her and shoved him aside. "Relax, they're only digimon."
Except, Zenjirou stumbled against the wall which spun around knocking him into a secret passage. Nene frowned. She hadn't meant to push him quite that hard. Then again, she hadn't anticipated that the wall would move either.
"Come on," Nene grabbed Akari by the arm. "We'd better go after him."
The passage behind the wall must have been a tower with a spiral staircase. However, once Nene and Akari were standing on the stairs they suddenly collapsed to form a steep incline. As they slid down the passage Nene spotted Zenjirou just in time to watch him disappear down another trap door that closed over him and locked into place so that she and Akari simply kept on sliding.
Zenjirou toppled onto the floor of what looked like an elaborate control room filled with viewing monitors and a complicated looking control panel covered in buttons, dials and switches. There was a Mummymon sitting on a rolling office chair sitting in front of the control panel reading a newspaper while taking a sip of coffee from an ancient looking mug. He peered over the top of his newspaper and looked directly at Zenjirou.
"Boo!" he exclaimed noncommittally. Zenjirou shrieked and bolted from the room. The Mummymon chuckled and went back to reading his newspaper.
The passage behind the tapestry brought Taiki, Shoutmon and Kiriha to another hallway lined with many doors. Or it might have been the same hallway as before. There was no way to be sure. At least there were fewer ghostly digimon in the hallway which afforded them a little breathing room. Kiriha was beginning to think he should just leave the Haunted Zone to Taiki and transfer himself to a less troublesome Zone. Although, if he did leave, he couldn't be alone with Taiki. Not that they were alone now. Even without Shoutmon getting in the way this Zone was extremely crowded.
The boys walked down the hallway until the floor began rising under their feet. A trap door opened above them in the ceiling as the platform they were standing on continued rising upward. It seemed that they had found some kind of elevator. Well, at least they didn't have to fall on top of each other this time.
"I wonder how big this place is," Taiki spoke up as they waited for the platform to reach its destination.
"Who knows?" Kiriha shrugged. The way they had been dropped through trap doors and stumbling through hidden passages it was impossible for him to discern the actual size of the building. It was rather frustrating, in part, because the architecture was more of a menace to them than the digimon inhabiting it.
Zenjirou came upon a strange looking digimon that, much to his relief, didn't appear to be a ghost. Omekamon spun around at the sound of approaching footsteps. The paper puppet digimon had been in the process of drawing himself a new face and there was still a blank spot where his mouth should have been. When he realized this, Omekamon spun back around so that his back was to Zenjirou and hastily scribbled a fiendish, shark-like grin for a mouth.
"Omeka," Omekamon turned back to face Zenjirou.
Zenjirou hesitated. It seemed like the digimon he had been observing had drawn on its own face.
"Omeka," Omekamon spoke again. He sidled up to Zenjirou and swiftly raised his marker to scribble a mustache on Zenjirou's face before shuffling down the hallway.
"What the-?" Zenjirou stared in total astonishment as Omekamon ran off. "What a strange digimon..."
Nene and Akari finally reached the bottom of the staircase turned incline. They emerged from a doorway hidden behind a statue of a regal looking warrior digimon into what looked to be the main entrance to the mansion.
"It looks like we've made it to the ground floor," Nene observed. Unfortunately, they still hadn't managed to catch up with the others which meant they might have to continue looking for them.
"I hope Taiki and Zenjirou are doing okay," Akari didn't give much thought to Kiriha. He seemed like someone who could handle himself in almost any situation.
"We might be able to get a better view of the mansion from outside," Nene suggested.
Then an explosion sounded. Both girls found that to be somewhat discouraging because it meant that a fight had broken out somewhere.
Step.
"Omeka."
Step.
"Omeka."
Step.
"Omeka."
Zenjirou stopped and turned around. The strange digimon he had encountered had begun following him almost as soon as Zenjirou had begun walking in the opposite direction that Omekamon had run off in after doodling on his face. When Zenjirou turned to face him, Omekamon stood perfectly still and pretended like he wasn't there. Zenjirou turned back around and resumed walking.
"Omeka."
Step.
"Omeka."
Step.
"Omeka."
Zenjirou stopped again. He looked back at Omekamon. The digimon had gone totally rigid again.
"You know I can see you, right?" Zenjirou spoke to the rather odd digimon.
"Omeka," Omekamon answered with a shake of his head.
Zenjirou shrugged and resumed walking. At least Omekamon was better than the ghosts that had frightened him earlier. He just hoped he would meet up with the others soon.
The elevator platform brought Taiki, Shoutmon and Kiriha to a wide open room leading out onto a balcony overlooking the area outside the front of the mansion. There were also more Bakemon, Soulmon, and a few Phantomon in the room, but none of them appeared to be interested in the two humans or the red dragon who accompanied them as all the ghostly digimon were flocking over to the balcony. There were even a few of the not-so-ethereal Tsukaimon scattered among them.
"They're ignoring us," Shoutmon sounded almost disappointed by this turn of events.
"Then there must be a reason for it," noted Kiriha. He started making his way over to the balcony that was rapidly becoming crowded with ghostly spectators. There was definitely something going on out there.
Taiki shrugged and followed after him with Shoutmon not far behind him. That was when they heard the explosion. However, they were too far from the edge of the balcony to see anything that was going on beneath them, but then Taiki noticed that all of the ghostly digimon were looking up. The explosion had come from the sky.
Taiki had assumed that he and the others had all fallen into the mansion and would eventually be able to meet up with each other as long as they kept moving, but that wasn't the case. The explosion they heard had come from Black Fladramon as he slammed into a metal claw on a chain with his entire body engulfed in crimson flames to free Crystal from the clutches of Apocalymon. However, even then, they were surrounded by a small army of Deathmon.
Taiki's eyes went wide as a look of horror filled his face. He quickly realized that he hadn't been paying enough attention and while he had been exploring the mansion with child-like curiosity, simply enjoying the novelty of his predicament with Kiriha, one of his friends had been in very real danger. He turned to Kiriha.
"We have to help her," Taiki spoke insistently. Without Nene and Sparrowmon he had no way to fly so he was going to have to count on Kiriha to come through with Mail Birdramon instead.
"This really isn't any of my concern, but fine," Kiriha responded rather offhandedly. He had a good mind to believe that the girl in question didn't really need to be rescued, but he didn't like to see Taiki in such a panic either so he decided he might as well play along for a little while. Besides, he was interested to see what Crystal's team would do to defend themselves.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Talk about mood whiplash. Did anyone honestly expect me to go through with a comic relief chapter without transforming it into something sinister?