A stormtrooper lost in the Digiworld Chapter 9: Ambush.
Hello, it's me. I was not able to write for a while because I was terribly sick. Anyway, now I feel better and will try to continue this story. Oh, and by the way, I forgave my brother and sister for almost breaking my precious…computer. Hope to receive any reviews… some day… Also I am terribly sorry if my story is not good enough for you.
…"Again is that march… Walking and walking and walking forever through this road through the forests… I walk beside my trusted digimon and my other friends. We all go for the same reason. We must rescue our friend, Calumon. Takato, Henry, NZ, Renamon, I, Guilmon, Terriermon, Ulairimon – that is our group. And all are my friends… I feel that even if I still try to keep my precious attitude, I will fail to do so. I am surrounded by good people, who care about me more than I care about them. I can sense more "forbidden" feelings by every day. Now I can feel pity, fear and even compassion… or at least something like that. The voice that was speaking in my head was gone once I went out of the forest. But this strange voice was still telling the truth. And I should quit my paranoia that everyone around me wants to use me and my abilities. I am surrounded by perfect friends. Renamon, my soul mate, who is always so faithful in my abilities, and who supports me morally and physically, Henry, who is always so understanding and calm, and who will always find the right way, Takato, who's optimism is like a light of hope for all… Guilmon and Terriermon are also great companions, and Guilmon is so very friendly, and it seems that he can befriend anyone. And Terriermon is so human-like, it feels that you can discuss anything with him. NZ – a perfect soldier, his loyalty and bravery are unquestionable, he will always be around to help us. Ulairimon – a dark and reserved digimon, but we can always rely on his strength in battle… That's all. And we are quite a team. Still, I remember what happened in the forest, and I still feel guilty… I shouldn't let my curiosity take over. But still, I can't just throw that face out of my head. Damn, why am I accusing myself now? I only asked him, and he decided by himself… Wait, that's another lie. I ordered and I know it. And it was I who thought I was tough. I just never seen a real wound, I was living in my own world, with Renamon strengthen my cocoon… Well, I know that he is a good person, and that I felt safe while we were going through that cursed forest. And somehow I know that he will rather die than betray us all. I know I will probably hit myself in the morning for this thought, but I wish my father was a little like him, well, at least in part of duty and loyalty. I hate my father now though… He shouldn't have left us alone… Oh, I was falling in my memories again. Damn it, I should watch myself not to do so. I should still be strong… I told Renamon not to ask NZ to remove his helm again. I didn't say anything about what's behind it, but I think Renamon got the idea. We still go through the forest. I am starting to have a bad feeling again, like if something will going to happen. But still, our "fighters" seem to be ready. I shouldn't worry about anything…" Rika was thinking when they were going. And what she sensed was not a mere joke of mind. On the other side of the forest resided the fearsome Renamon clan…
"What do you have to say, commander?" Taomon, the leader of the clan, asked his Renamon – type apprentice. It looked like Renamon, only the fur was of red color.
"Our scouts have spotted a group of intruders. There are 4 digimon and 4 strange beings called "humans". The digimon are: one Terriermon, one unknown dino-type digimon, one unknown black digimon, and one Renamon. What are your orders, master?"
"Kill everyone, except the Renamon. If we are lucky, we might get a new add to our glorious clan. Sent ten of our best fighters, they will do the job."
"Your wisdom is unquestionable." Taomon's apprentice bowed and went. The assassins were prepared fast…
Meanwhile the group was not expecting the upcoming attack. Yet everyone felt that something was up. Just in case something will happen Henry made his friend Terriermon digivolve into Gargomon. The group continued to march in column, and everyone who could fight was on the lookout. They had to cross a wide part of the road, which had big trees and bushes on both sides of it.
"A perfect spot for an ambush." Renamon whispered to Gargomon.
"Yeah, better be ready for any surprises." he replied. But no one was ready enough for what awaited them. Ten skilled renamon', and each as powerful as the last one. They were ready to kill…
Rika's POV:
It all happened so fast… Ulairimon and Renamon managed to sense the attack. But not everyone. Like ten red lightings went out of nowhere. We were quickly split from our digimon, and they were fighting 4 against 8 digimon, who were similar to my Renamon. The other two enemies were going to attack us, and probably dispose of us, but someone got their attention from us. First approaching renamon received more of a dozen red blaster bolts and fell to the ground, disappearing in a cloud of data. The other one quickly avoided the same portion of blasts, and spotted the shooter. This renamon foe came in quick and broke NZ's gun with her paw, and tried to make an uppercut, but this attempt was blocked by the sword. NZ tried to engage in close – quarter combat, but it was futile. His enemy was far more powerful and faster, after 30 seconds of combat she jumped away and tried to pulverize him with her Diamond storm. NZ managed to evade, but one of the crystals hit his helmet, obliterating it, but not the head. Still, it was enough. He lost orientation for a second, and this red renamon got behind him, and turned his head, probably breaking his neck, or, at least, that's what I thought. NZ fell to the ground, his sword was tossed away, and renamon walked in our direction with an evil grin on her face. I was scared, again… Henry got in her way, armed with a stick, and, just when she was ready to smash Henry to a pulp of meat, she just stopped. She looked amazed, and just stared on the edge of the blade coming from her chest. Then she fell, and disappeared. We all were shocked too much to understand what happened. But we saw NZ again standing, his head was turned away by 89 degrees, and his neck looked broken. But then, his head started to turn to us… and I heard bones gnash. His helmet was destroyed, so now we all saw him in all of his … "beauty."
"Bwahahaha! I will have to thank the medics for my metal discs in the neck. The fool didn't respect the first rule: only the dead can't kill from the back." he laughed horribly. Then he looked at us with is half – human – half – electronic glare. He saw the terror in our eyes, and realized that he was not in his helmet. NZ hid his face with a hand and turned away. Then he said:
"Use your cards to help your digimon. They are in deep trouble." and took a blaster pistol from his holster, ran to the place where our digimon were holding their ground. Anyway, they were doing a good fight. Renamon and Ulairimon managed to vanquish two attackers by now, and Guilmon and Gargomon – one. The remaining five attacked Ulairimon simultaneously, but without result. He parried their attempts with his sword, and launched his devastating vortexes, which were feared by everyone. The leader of the attack screamed:
"We cannot fight that horror from beyond the grave, sisters! Fall back!" The remaining attackers run from the battlefield, and Ulairimon managed to grab and drain the soul from another one more of the retreating enemies. I have to admit that he is an impressive digimon, and his powers are deadly efficient. I have to admit also that my Renamon is not nearly as powerful as Ulairimon, who obviously had many years of fighting practice… Anyway, the battle was now over. We managed to defy the attack with minor casualties. No one was even hurt much, yet the foes were powerful.
End POV.
Indeed, the battle was finally over. The attackers didn't expect such a heavy resistance, and retreated, losing more than a half of their squad. The team lost none. And none got any wounds either. Enemy concentrated the attack on the strongest one – Ulairimon, who was immune to their pathetic melee combat skills. Well, at least, they seemed pathetic to him. NZ was still gathering the remains of his helmet. It was completely busted, but he managed to find a commlink, which was working, and extracted it. Renamon heard voice from her hidden commlink.
"Renamon, just checking if my commlink works. Respond at once."
"Renamon responding. I hear you loud and clear, NZ." she replied.
"Great. Over." he replied, than he returned to the rest of the group. Everyone was staring at him for 5 more minutes. They all were confused, whey haven't recognized the stormtrooper without a helmet, and were horrified by his appearance, again. They already got used to his solid helm, and that quite hideous half-metal face could frighten anyone. NZ saw this too, he turned away for a second time, and asked:
"Am I really that scary?" His voice without mechanical jammers was the second thing to get used to. It was powerful and low, but still human.
"Well, not really…" Renamon tried to lie, but when NZ turned for a minute and looked at her with his crimson – red electronic eye, it made Renamon turn away.
"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to scare you."
"We are sorry too, we didn't have to react in this manner." Henry said.
"Try to familiarize yourselves with my new "face", until a will find another helmet." he replied. They all got out of the forest line as fast as we could, because the enemy should not be sleeping… NZ walked in the face of the column, in silence, accompanied by Ulairimon – the only one not terrified by him. Rika and Renamon walked next, and the darkness was coming, the day was almost over. Rika took the picture drawn by NZ not a while ago, and showed it to Renamon.
"Who is that?" Renamon asked mildly.
"This is Lord Vader, former NZ's commander." Rika replied.
"Well, did you draw him?"
"No, NZ did for me when we were at the forest. He told me that this guy has mechanical arms and legs."
"Poor him. You know, a servant is alike master…" Renamon replied. Meanwhile the last of the attackers were reporting to the clan leader…
"You have failed me, commander." Taomon said heavily.
"I'm sorry, my lord, we were no match for the enemy. Only the one black digimon had the strength to fight five of us simultaneously, not to mention the others. You have trained our fighters by yourself, and you know of what they are capable, but our two more were slain by this strange white-clad human, who used some kind of a strange weapon…"
"Is it so? Well, I suppose we tried to take down a far stronger pray with little forces. I believe that we must let them … pass. Our comrade's death was a lesson for us though… You may go, commander." Taomon replied thoughtfully.
"As you wish my lord." renamon commander replied, bowed and left… Another night was not quite as usual. Because of the ambush the group has beaten it was decided to make all digimon and one particular human to stay on guard all night. Yet NZ was not exactly guarding, he tried to fix his broken rifle, and he used everything he got his hands on to fix it. He even tried to take some details from his D-Power, but everyone considered him that this was not such a bright idea. So now he was just gathering the pieces of his E-11, his blaster pieces and some other stuff he managed to find in his backpack. Terriermon, as usual, was not far away, when it comes to weaponry.
"What are you doing?" asked Terriermon, who landed up on NZ's shoulder like a parrot. NZ took him and carefully placed on the stone nearby.
"I am repairing my rifle, it was heavily damaged." he replied without taking his eyes of the pieces.
"Oh, is it that bad?"
"Yes, it will never be the same thing like before, but at least I will get her to shoot." he said, and looked at Terriermon. His glowing red eye looked even more evil in the dark, and Terriermon had shivers, yet he managed to gather his bravery not to run away. NZ didn't say anything, and attended to the remains of his rifle once more… He worked on it for at least 30 more minutes, and after he finished, it looked like a crooked version of MP-40 rifle used by Germans in World War 2. Trooper reloaded his "brand new" gun and said to Terriermon, who was sitting near all that time, observing his work:
"So, do you want to watch it in action?"
"You bet I want!" he replied with excitement. Then NZ took a head-shaped stone from the ground and installed it like a target. Then he took 20 steps from the target and fired. The gun shot 5 rounds at the stone, not exactly fast, and not as accurate as before, but this was better then nothing. Only two out of five hit the center of the stone, and Terriermon went to see the damage inflicted. He was impressed that the bolt made a clear hole in the stone and busted through a tree behind it.
"Wow that can match my cannons when I am evolved into Gargomon." he gasped. NZ didn't say anything about that, and just tried to smile with the healthy part of his face. After the test he considered his rifle good enough to use, and returned to his usual post.
"So, how's your rifle?" came a voice from the commlink. It was Renamon from the tree.
"Good enough."
"You know, your gun is perfect for surprise attacks. I saw how you used it when we were ambushed. They didn't know what hit them."
"I suppose it is so." there was a minute of silence, and then Renamon said through the commlink quietly:
"Umm, thanks for saving our tamers…"
"It was my duty."
"Still, you managed to slay two renamon. Yet, how come you are still alive? I saw from afar that your neck was broken by the enemy, NZ."
"Metal discs in the neck, it's hard enough to break them."
"Hm, clever." she said, and after that there was silence. Renamon was feeling guilty, because she was not there to protect her tamer, and that Rika's life – the most important life for her, and also the life of others, resided in the hands of one … human? "Even an armed human is not much of a thread to a clever digimon. Still, my respect towards this particular human soldier is growing. He maybe weak compared to digimon, but not afraid to fight…" Renamon thought, while sitting on the top of the tree. She never said much, because there was no one to talk to, and she was afraid that someone will laugh at her. There were two things she was afraid of: first was the death of her tamer, and the second was humiliation. That's basically why she never talked much to anyone, and kept her thoughts for herself. "If only there was a person I could ask an advice on this problem, which I have… "she thought. After a minute Renamon turned her commlink on again.
"Err, NZ? Can I ask you something?" she asked. NZ, who was patrolling on the ground, looked at the tree, where she was hiding, and a red light scanned through it.
"I have told you before and I can repeat it again that you may ask me anything any day of the week. What is on your mind?" he replied.
"Do you think Rika will forgive me for not defending her in time? I mean, she was so scared, and I was not there for her…"
"I think she will. And I doubt it was your fault too. And even if it was – well, no one is perfect. I think she will forgive you, Rika is a good girl, even though she is a bit shy to admit it."
"Thank you, NZ." she replied and focused on her thoughts again. "I sure hope he is right about it… Hope Rika will forgive me. I'm glad we had that talk though, I feel a lot more confident now. NZ is such a nice guy… Wait, what was that thought I just had? I must control myself and my mind also... But still, he is quite nice to us, even to me, never fears, never shouting, never arguing, never whining, always polite. Also I can ask him for a piece of advice and always receive a clear and impartial answer. And that's quite enough. I can even call him…a friend." she thought, while observing NZ from the tree. And he just stood there, like a statue, tirelessly staring in the dark with his rifle ready to fire. Suddenly, Renamon felt something going on in the camp. She stood up and teleported herself in the camp. It was Rika, she was not asleep, and was shivering like a leaf. Renamon quickly went to her and asked:
"What's wrong, Rika? Is there a thread?"
"Ekkk! Oh, that's you, Renamon. I'm sorry, I just had a bad dream, that's all."
"About what was that dream?"
"About the ambush and in my dream we were not so lucky…" Rika nodded, and here eyes went watery again, yet she tried to hold it.
"Don't worry, I am here, you are safe, nothing will happen. I'm sorry that I was not there to protect you that time…"
"I don't blame you, it wasn't your fault, after all, we now are safe and I was saved."
"Thank you for forgiving me, Rika. I promise this will never happen again." Renamon said quietly, and suddenly heard a voice from her commlink.
"Renamon, where are you? What happened?" it was NZ, who spotted that Renamon was not at her post.
"Renamon responding. It was Rika, she had a bad dream, and so I went to check out that everything is alright. I'll be back immediately."
"Roger. Remaining on post, awaiting further instructions. End transmission." he replied. Renamon stayed with Rika till she was asleep, and then got back to her post at the tree. She was much relieved after that, because Rika forgave her, and was not angry at her for leaving her alone in time of danger. Then she heard from her commlink:
"Rika forgave you, didn't she?"
"Yes, she did, how did you know?"
"The look on your face tells me the truth."
"How can you see my face when I am on the tree?"
"My electronic eye can see much better than my remaining eye, for obvious reasons, so it is not that much problem. I'm glad you have resolved your problem."
"You do? Why?"
"Why do you look so amazed? I thought it is normal to be glad when a friend has succeeded in resolving his problems."
"Oh, nothing, sorry…"
"I'm sorry, I'll try not to confuse you, yet I don't know exactly the source of your confusion." NZ replied, and returned to staring in the dark, trying to spot any possible enemies. Renamon really was confused, but it was not NZ who was the problem. "Why I am acting like so? I must be getting crazy or something, I cannot adequately react to a decent and normal phrase? I must have over worried today or something. I need some rest… no, really, I feel tired…" she thought, and then asked through the commlink:
"NZ, can I go off the post and get some sleep? I believe I'm too tired to react properly to anything." and yawned.
"Of course you can, but before you go, contact any remaining digimon to take your position, without any digimon around this part of the security perimeter might become weakened. " NZ replied calmly.
"Thanks." Renamon replied and went to Terriermon to ask him to hold the post for her while she is resting. She found him sitting on the stone staring on Ulairimon, who was staring at him also.
"Err, what you two are doing?" she asked. Guilmon, who jumped out of nowhere, said:
"They are playing "who will blink first" game."
"And who is winning?"
"It's a draw. No one blinked yet." Guilmon responded quietly. "I'm definitely going to be sick." Renamon thought, and whispered to Terriermon:
"Can you take my post near NZ's position when you will realize you can't win because you can't tell if he blinks or not?"
"Oh, alright, but why do you want me do guard for you? Going somewhere?" he asked and made a strange smirk.
"I'm really tired and am not in the mood for jokes, Terriermon. Thanks anyway…" she replied and went to the encampment. When she got there, she saw Rika once again, whose sleeping bag was away from the others, like always. Renamon laid near to her, and entered the land of dreams again… Meanwhile Terriermon was already at NZ's position, yet it was hard for him to climb a tree, so he stayed on the ground also.
"So, about what you are talking to Renamon about?" he asked slyly.
"She asks me questions, and I give her answers." NZ replied emotionlessly.
"Why does she ask you for advice, of all people?"
"Don't know, I am not a mind reader."
"Fine, I'll put the question otherwise: how do you think why she asks you for advice?"
"I don't know, I have never thought of that. She probably has her own reasons, and I don't want to guess what they are."
"You are a locked person, you know that?"
"What is a "locked person"?"
"You don't know? It's a type of personality who doesn't show his feelings and doesn't care for anybody. Do you care for any of us?"
"I care for any of you, that's why I'm trying to help when my aid is required."
"Oh, just forget it. You are hopeless."
"As you wish." NZ replied shortly. Terriermon was disappointed, he wanted to have a conversation with him about the relations between people or something like that, but all his attempts were in vane. He had a feeling that he was trying to make a hole in a wall with his head.
With such thoughts he went to the encampment, and saw the picture… of Renamon sleeping near Rika, so innocent and precious, that Terriermon called NZ:
"Hey, come here for a minute! You have to see this...". NZ came shortly after this call, with his rifle ready to fire.
"What have you seen? A thread?"
"No, put away your rifle, you martinet! Just look at them! They are so cute together!" whispered Terriermon. Even though he whispered quietly, this was enough to awake their "object" of observation. She also heard what NZ was going to reply:
"They should not be disturbed. They are tired. We must return to our posts now, so that the enemy will not manage to sneak through. Let's go." he said quietly, and went back to his post. Terriermon joined him right afterwards.
"How can you be such a stone?" he asked.
"We have other responsibilities, you should not leave your post just to stare at a sleeping comrade."
"Give me a break, I get enough of such annotations from Henry. Don't tell me that you haven't felt anything while looking at them."
"Actually, I did. I felt that something bad might happen to all of them if I won't be at my post."
"You are teasing me, aren't you?"
"I'm telling you the truth. I constantly feel the need to carry out my duties, and to be around in case something bad happens to any of you."
"Oh, so that's it. I was not expecting to hear that from you." Terriermon said, and silenced… The sun was coming up, and it was time to get the other people out of the sleep. Their trip was getting closer to the end…
There, done. I'm sorry for the time, I just was brain-dead for ideas, and it took me some time to figure out what will be next. Terribly sorry for any mistakes or anything else that might be my fault.