Chapter Nine
Digital Rescuers
Kim stopped in front of the building. "You're sure this is the place?"
The sign did advertise a therapist/counselor, "Sheryl Haring". But Kim had expected something a little more… menacing. The house was a pleasant, one-story building, with a Mexican look. The yard was shady and overgrown, and quite inviting. Kim had always wished she had a yard like that, so she could pretend she was in the woods, miles from civilization.
"There are Digimon here. I'm sure this is the place," said Nagainamon, firmly.
Kim took a tentative step on the gravelly walkway, half expecting to set off a trap. The stones crunched, but that was the extent of it. She took another step, stopped on one leg, and looked around. Seeing nothing dangerous, she put both feet down again. Nagainamon rolled her eyes. With similar caution, Kim approached the door.
It was an ordinary-looking door, with the tasteful small window frosted, so you couldn't see inside. Not wanting to touch the doorknob directly, Kim wrapped her sleeve around her hand before turning it. Without a sound, the door swung open. A cold wind blew out of the room beyond, ruffling Kim's stiff hair, and making her eyes water.
The fell winddied down.Kim poked her head in and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. The room was empty. Incongruously to the house's outside, the walls were made of blocks of stone, with thorns climbing up them, and the floor was dirt and sawdust. On either wall, a torch guttered in a bracket. They gave off more smoke than light, yet there was no dark stain around them. The entire far side of the room was taken up by a stony stairwell, leading away and downward. Shadows pooled in its depths, almost literally.
No one seemed to be around, so Kim motioned for Nagainamon to follow her. Snorting, she flew over. As she looked into the room, she made an expression similar to raising an eyebrow, though she had no eyebrow to raise.
Kim opened her mouth to say something, some bit of advice, perhaps, but realized she had nothing to offer. So, she stopped stalling and tiptoed into the room. She tried to pull a torch out of its holder, but the crumbling wood split in two, and popped sparks all around. Kim sprung back. She stuck her burned hand in her mouth, in an attempt to sooth the pain. She tried again on the second torch, this time carefully. It stayed in one piece.
The partners continued on, down the stairs. They didn't go too far, the passage opening directly into a cold, bare stone corridor. There were no obvious light sources, other than Kim's torch. Nagainamon sniffed the air. "That smoke is getting to my nose," she complained. "They're down here, though."
The left side was a dead end, but the right end of the tunnel continued on, and turned. They walked that way. The soft floor meant their footsteps could be relatively quiet. At the end of the corridor was a black metal door. Bolts marched around its perimeter, and a steel padlock was affixed to a bar running across it. It may have just been Kim's imagination, but the padlock looked a lot like a scowling face. But it was unlocked.
"This is too easy," Kim muttered. Nagainamon nodded, eyes narrowed. Kim took a few strides backwards, and charged at the door. It burst open, and she jumped, landing dramatically in the middle of the room, legs spread, Digivice held in front of her like a police officer's badge. "All right, let the kid go, or you'll deal with me!" she shouted, even before she looked around.
The room was much like the one at the entrance, with another door instead of a staircase. In one corner stood Gen, working on untying his legs, with the ropes that once bound his arms lying, cut, on the floor. He stared wide eyed at Kim. Hiding behind his leg was what looked like a green onion with red eyes, tiny clawed feet, and a small mouth.
There was an awkward silence. Kim's Digivice turned on, projecting a sideways hologram. It had regained power. "Tanemon is a Digimon in training. It is but a small seed, which will some day grow into powerful evolutions."
The ice was broken, at least. "…So you got a Digimon, too, after all." Kim stated.
Gen grinned. "He was helping me out of here." He turned to Tanemon, taking a second to ruffle his leaves. "Isn't that right, buddy?"
Tanemon's eyes closed happily. He hopped and nodded, a full-body action.
Nagainamon snorted iridescently. Her claws massaged the sawdust floor. She whispered to Kim, "This isn't right. I'm getting way to strong a signal in here for just one in-training Digimon."
"Then keep on the lookout for hidden foes," Kim whispered back. She looked at Gen, who, having freed his ankles, stood up and moved his legs gently, to get blood flowing again. "So, who exactly kidnapped you?" she asked him.
Gen grimaced. "Puppetmon," he said. "He took control of my body, and took me down here. But now he's gone somewhere, and I can move again."
Kim scratched her head thoughtfully. "That makes sense… Dad was being controlled by someone… the dude in the car had been pulled down by some unseen force… Puppetmon must have been trying to kill us in a car crash!"
"Hold on, a car crashed into you- and missed?" Gen gasped.
"Yup! We were really lucky." Kim smiled for a second, before her face fell. "I'm still worried about him, though."
Nagainamon bit Kim gently on the ankle, "Kim, your-"
"HEY!" screamed Tanemon.
Kim's head jerked sharply in the leafy Digimon's direction. Gen and Tanemon exchanged a look. "We were going to look behind that door. To snoop around while Puppetmon is gone." Gen pointed to the door behind him.
Kim grinned wickedly. "Great idea! Who knows what he's been plotting, and we could mess it all up!"
Gen beckoned Kim over to the door, putting a hand on it, but not opening it. Kim followed. Nagainamon half sighed, half growled, and stayed where she was. "LOOK AT YOUR DIGIVICE, YOU MEATHEAD!" she bellowed. Kim stopped halfway, and held the Digivice before her eyes.
The screen was flickering uncertainly. But as Kim watched, an image finally solidified above it. It was of a pink and white creature, standing on its hind legs. Its eyes were on its three-fingered hands, which were the brightest pink on its body. Its entire white face was filled with a pink swirl, and two thick antennas curved from its brow to its cat-like feet. A pink star, radiating stripes, was emblazoned on its stomach. The creature was transparent, and it shimmered and glowed like a mirage. "Illusionmon (rookie) is a Digimon who both creates illusions and is made of illusions. Its favored attack is Unreal Maw, which swallows its enemy in a world of nightmarish visions."
"So…" Kim said slowly. As she watched, the picture flickered, and changed from that of Illusionmon, to an image of Gen. She gulped, and looked from the hologram to the boy next to her. He too was staring at the picture.
"Y-you don't think that, do you?" he asked, voice quavering. Kim poked him in the side. His top half slid sideways, while the bottom half didn't move, in a very unrealistic way. Kim ran. She dropped the torch, which fell through his foot.
Tanemon, who had been sitting so docilely by the fake Gen's feet, began to glow. It expanded smoothly, as if it were a curtain being blown against a glass pane, into the shape of the pixie in the hologram. Its features shimmered into those of Illusionmon.
Illusionmon raised one staring palm, and vibrated with the words, "Unreal Maw". The floor beneath Kim, and beneath Nagainamon, appeared to sink into a whorl of swirling darkness. Kim, having braced herself for an illusory attack, resisted, and didn't fall.
Nagainamon had extended her wings, and was hovering a few feet above her hole. A dark wind seemed to be sucking at her, and slowly pulling her down. At the bottom of the hole were raw red jaws, snapping in anticipation. Kim grabbed hold of her partner, and pulled her away. She landed safely on all fours. So we've survived the first attack, Kim thought.
Nagainamon revved up her necklace, shedding an intense light in the dim room. They must have beenpractically on top of a hotspot. The power slammed through Nagainamon's eyes, and burst out of her mouth. "Electron Stream!" Instead of shooting at the Illusionmon, she aimed the bolt at the fake Gen. It cut through his middle, but instead of shocking him, it split him into two pieces. Kim had to avert her eyes.
The two chunks turned into two more Illusionmon. "That should be all of them," concluded Nagainamon.
"Good," Kim breathed. "Three'll be tough as it is."
Moving in unison, the Illusionmon spread into a circle and raised their hands above them. A ball of white light gathered in the center of the circle. At once, they mouthlessly spoke, "Simulation Supernova!" The orb expanded rapidly, but suddenly one side tore apart in wisps, and the entire thing rocketed into the left two Illusionmon. When the mist cleared, there was Nagainamon, pinning the rightmost Illusionmon to the ground.
And now we've lived through two attacks, reveled Kim. She slid a card out of her pocket, and, smiling, pulled it through her Digivice. "Digimodify! Gatling Arm Activate!" An outline traced itself around Nagainamon's right arm, and filled out to become a many-barreled gatling gun.
Nagainamon licked her lips. She lifted the Illusionmon off the ground with her super powered arm, and threw it into the other two. Then she fired a round into the lot. The bullets came out as tiny lightning bolts.
One Illusionmon spoke the words, "Energy Dome". It expanded into a bubble around the other two, and absorbed the attack. Nagainamon flew fast at the dome, using her momentum combined with the arm's weight to throw a mighty punch. It crashed through the 'bubbled' Illusionmon, shattering it into ordinary data. For a second, Nagainamon was haloed by the dancing lights. A savage tableau. The other two Illusionmon rolled out of the way, and the fist slammed into the wall, leaving a cracking dent.
"Unreal Maw!" the Illusionmon said again. This time the mouth appeared in front of Nagainamon, yawning wide with long needle-like teeth. Nagainamon whipped around to face it, glaring as if daring it to attack.
"Dispel Charge!" the dragon shouted. Her scales glowed luminescent orange, then erupted with countless tiny lightning bolts. She looked like the center of one of those novelty glass balls, with static bolts inside. If Kim's hair hadn't already been standing on end, it would have stood on end now.
The lightning burned tiny holes in the mouth, and quickly obliterated it. Nagainamon leered at the Illusionmon, perhaps unnecessarily. She followed up with another Electron Stream, reducing the Illusionmon to data dust. Thedata spun like a small dust devil for a few seconds, then was sucked under the closed door.
Nagainamon breathed out. She dismissed the Gatling Arm, which dissolved quietly into specks of black data. Kim, who had been watching wide-eyed, gave a short bout of applause. "You really are scary when you fight," she breathed.
The blue Digimon paused thoughtfully. "…You helped, I suppose." She said after awhile.
"We've been through this before, haven't we?" Kim asked, grinning. Nagainamon snorted. Kim turned to the door. "I wonder what's back there?"
"Another Digimon," answered Nagainamon, without missing a beat.
Without Kim's noticing it, the area had changed since the Illusionmon's demise. It was no longer a cold, gloomy dungeon. Instead, it was an ordinary room, though empty of furniture. The floor and walls were bare wood, except for a faded, moth-eaten throw rug. A window let in some daylight through the blind- the heck; they were still on ground floor! There was a door in front, a door behind, and a door Kim hadn't seen that lead to the right. They all looked to be an ordinary, rather unattractive grayish wood. Kim peeked through the door behind her. It lead outside. The yard was the same, with the exception of the sign. It now read, "For Sale, brought to you by Real Turf Realtors."
She looked through the door on the other side. Beyond was a room with white plastic blinds pulled over the windows, and a crude bear trap bolted to the floor. Kim wondered what it would have looked like had she looked while the Illusionmon were still around. In the corner, glowing yellow, was a gate. It was smaller than the one that had appeared in Kim's backyard, but still about the circumference of a tractor tire.
"Look in the last door," Nagainamon whispered from behind. Kim walked over to the third door, that had been concealed. She pushed it gently, and it creaked.
The next room sported some peeling red wallpaper, but was otherwise the same as the other two. The blinds had been drawn. In here was a computer, turned on, plugged into the wall. Sitting in front of the computer, with its back to the door, was some kind of wooden doll. A wooden cross on its back draped red strings, and it wore a red hat with a yellow bobble. As if to make sure it stayed put, the puppet was sitting on a body.