Chapter Eighteen

A place of 'Safety'

Leomon either (A) knew the terrain really well (B) had an internal compass (C) was judging direction by the distant billowing smoke (D) all of the above, or (E) was just as lost as I was and making a good show of strutting about through the thickly vegetated forest. We've been travelling long enough that most of the group had calmed to a relative state of sanity. There had been a few ghost, that I'd come to learn to be called Bakamon, but Leomon took care of them with the same amount of effort he applied to clearing a path through the woods, which seemed to take him little effort at all.

We entered into a clearing and Leomon came to a halt. He spun towards us and sat Indian-style on the ground. It was beautiful how remarkably fitting it was for him to do that. He gestured for us to have a seat.

"You sure everyone is safe here?" Brian asked.

Leomon nodded. "I will not take you back to the farm house until I receive word that no one is attacking there."

I looked back at the very obvious path through the woods leading directly here. Was he just hoping no one would see that? If not the path, we were all sitting in a good sized clearing. Should one of their air-born monsters fly overhead there would be nothing to hide us. I then thought to question Leomon's allegiances.

But my doubts were short lived, for I saw that the forest quickly fuzzed and returned to its former state of pre-Leomon destruction.

"Sweet," Brian said, noticing the reconstruction.

"This area has an illusion forest cover," Leomon explained.

"Then why can't we see it?" Josh asked.

"It is only seen from above," Leomon said.

That made sense. I guess.

"Will Justin know to look for us here?" Jessie asked.

Leomon nodded and pointed to Brian. "He can track us with his digivice."

"And mine too?" Josh asked and everyone turned in mild surprise. He held up his own device and Terriermon stood proudly next to him.

"Yes," Leomon said and addressed Jessie. "Did you bond with that digimon?"

"What?" Jessie said. "Oh, I was just holding him when everything went crazy and just never put him down… I guess he could be mine."

Demiveemon smiled and nuzzle Jessie's neck. She laughed, but no magic holy light of goodness came spewing forth from them and no digivice appeared.

Leomon nodded. "Time will tell."

Cliché sage advice from guardian. Check.

Sarah sank to her knees and sat on her heels. Hands covered her nose and mouth and she closed her eyes tight, taking several deep breaths. Jessie knelt down next to her, letting Demiveemon hop out of her arms. She placed a hand on Sarah's shoulder. It's funny how one person show of weakness could inspire another's strength.

There was a rustling in the surrounding brush and everyone froze, eyes involuntarily fixed on the spot. Leomon was on his feet, very scary clawed hand drawn back as if he was about to throw a punch.

And out of the brush, a little head appeared and then two others. Leomon lowered his fist as the little digimon from Primary Village tumbled into the clearing.

"Where you followed?" Leomon asked, letting his fist drop.

"I don't think so," one of the creatures said.

"Go and keep an eye out to be sure."

The little digimon share reluctant looks but withdrew into the forest.

Not twenty minutes had passed before more little digimon found their way to the 'secret' clearing and Leomon sent them all to look-out and send any other in-training digimon somewhere else.

And for about thirty minutes there was quite. In the distance I could hear the explosions of Metalgraymon's reign of terror. With the constant influx of fleeing peons, it took everyone longer than it should have to discover that we'd been invaded. Surprisingly, Leomon was the last to react.

Gatomon emerged through the brush, holding the stem of a round pink digimon with a flower sprouting out of its skull. It had tears in its eyes and was sniffling.

"I'm sorry,' the pink thing said and Gatomon curled her upper lip in disgust. She shoved her thick three inch long claws into its back. The digimon's eyes widened briefly before dissipating.

"Well, this is convenient to find all of you here," Gatomon said, shacking the none-existent filth from her paw. "Now, you all can either come willingly or not. I could really care less and would be just as pleased to end the lot of you right now." She shrugged. "You're choice."

For a two-foot tall deceptively adorable cat creature, Gatomon was vicious.

Brian snorted. "And what makes you think we're not going to e-e-end you?"

The line might have been capable of a decent comeback, but Brian lacked Gatomon's confidence and charisma and he stuttered the last bit. Well, at least Demiveemon was inspired by Brian's piping up. He charged Gatomon and attempted to headbutt her as he had Terriermon, but she moved so fast that she made Demiveemon's charge appear sluggish. She slashed her claws across his oversized head and he was thrown through the brush and into the forest and I saw no more of him.

Leomon drew a long knife from a sheath behind his hips and he rushed Gatomon, who dodged a swipe, braced her weight on one gloved paw, and threw herself forward with her two fuzzy feet smashing into Leomon's gut. Her tail lashed across his chest, and to my immense surprise, Leomon went tumbling into the trunk of a tree. Gatomon and Leomon's weight ratio be damned.

Terriermon screamed: "Bunny Blast!" and a beam of heated pressurized air went hurling from his mouth. Gatomon zipped out of the way and the beam blasted a hole through the vegetation.

Brian gritted his teeth like a proper hero and held up his digivice. "Wizardmon! Let her have it!"

Wizardmon gave Brian a sidelong wide eyed look, and planted himself protectively in front of Brian. He made no move towards Gatomon, who proceeded to dispatch Terriermon. The floppy eared digimon went flying into Leomon, who was just rising to his feet.

Josh started to shake his digivice. "How does this thing work? Come on! Get stronger, Terriermon!"

Gatomon snorted before charging both Leomon and Terriermon.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

"Lightning Claw!"

As a fiery lion face came hurling from Leomon's fist, Gatomon leaped into the air to meet it and her claw sliced it clean in half and it magically lost all fire power and broke apart into tiny bits of digidust. Her strike continued forward, slashing Leomon across his face and he was once again thrown into the same tree trunk. Bits of leaves and bark split from the tree from the force of the impact and there Leomon remained with his chin slumped into his chest.

Feet hitting the ground for half a second and she leaped again for Terriermon. She landed on his shoulders, gloved claws grabbing him by his floppy ears. Her tail whipped around his neck and tightened into a choke hold.

Terriermon fell onto his back, mouth wide, gasping for breath.

"Ever wondered what happens when a digidestine's digimon dies?" She smirked at Josh's horrified expression. "So have I."

"Do something!" Brian shouted. He pushed Wizardmon, who took a few stumbling steps forward and hesitated. Both hands gripped his staff. He watched Gatomon warily. Terriermon continued to wither and choke on the ground.

"Alright!" Josh shouted. "Stop! I'll go with you!"

Through his struggle for air, Terriermon managed to gasp: "No." And he met Josh's stare with watering beady eyes.

If Gatomon had brows, she'd be arching them. "You are useless to us now. You've already sewn your fate to his."

Josh paled.

"Let this be a lesson that the rest of you choose more carefully."

"Wizardmon!" Brian shouted, glaring daggers at his digimon.

"Gah," Terriermon exclaimed and at last his flaying limps came to a stop.

Josh's eyes widened. "You killed him," he whispered. And as I watched Josh's face twist in emotion I knew that he realized the same thing I did. She really would kill us all, and would show the same amount of pity she did Terriermon doing it.

White knuckles gripping his digivice, Josh slowly backed towards the trees, too slowly. Gatomon leaped from Terriermon's limp body for Josh, but she'd only gotten a couple of feet when Terriermon's eyes snapped open and he rose into the air, glowing like a solar flare. And in miliseconds he expanded and raised a glowing thickening arm high into the air above Gatomon. She had time enough to widen her eyes over her shoulder as a cannon-sized gun barrel crashed into her side.

She went flying and tangled into the vegetation.

In Terriermon's place, stood a giant rabbit with machinegun barrel arms. He hoisted both barrels at Gatomon and ginning like a deranged lunatic, opened fire.

I covered my ears against the clicking of the machinegun. The vines tangling Gatomon split apart as a sea of bullets rained down upon them and she fell to the ground in a crouch, raising a gloved paw to cover her face. If I was in a world that made sense, she'd be littered with bullets and bleeding on the ground, but logic didn't work the same way here. At least it didn't seem to apply to the digimon.

And now Wizardmon decided to do something. He raised a hand and sent forth a ball of glowing power at Gatomon. He then rushed to Leomon's aid and with a few wizardly gestures of his hands, Leomon grunted and open his eyes and with a snarl he was back in the fight.

Little Dimiveemon came crawling from the woods. Blood dripped from three claw marks arcos his face. Right, so he's bleeding from a scratch and Gatomon is A-Okay after being smitten with a thousand bullets…. Maybe I should have been feeling some amount of pity for the little monster. Jessie certainly was, for she made a noise with her throat and quickly scooped Demiveemon into her arms.

With the bleeding Demiveemon in her arms, Jessie bit her lip and looked to Brian. "Should we get out of here?"

Don't get me wrong, the thought had crossed my mind before, but, really, how was I supposed to know if there was any place safer. Leomon said this was a safe spot and the little digimon heads were fleeing to here.

Brian shook his head and punched a fits into his palm. "We got this!"

"Fist of the Beast King!" rumbled Leomon.

"Thunder Ball!" cried Wizardmon.

"Gargo Pellets!" shouted the giant monster that was once Terriermon.

Gatomon held both claws before her face, feet positioned in a defensive stance. She gritted her teeth, bracing blow after blow and at last screamed: "Enough!" And she leaped over twelve feet into the air. A ring on her tail that I had not noticed before was glowing and four massive beasts appeared around her.

I had never seen anything more terrifying. Even Metalgraymon firing missiles into toddler town fell short of those four black demon-dragons with fore claws the color of dried blood. They looked like the sort of beast Death would use to draw his carriage. And as Gatomon fell to the earth, the four beasts screeched and two of them split form the others and traveling at the speed of sound, swirled around the surrounding woods, desecrating all vegetation below.

I was thrown to the ground with the force of the aftershock, and only had a moment to wonder why I was not crushed by debris. The reminding beasts of death had shield the majority of everyone in the clearing, everyone except Leomon and psycho-bunny, both of which I did not see anywhere. Wizardmon had managed to dive behind one of the demons feet, only to be spotted by Gatomon.

She hoisted him by the cuff of his robes and backhanded him with her heavy gloved paw. My ears were ringing and my head was all woozy and though I could see that Gatomon was yelling at Wizardmon it was up to my imagination to guess about what. I shook my head, trying to clear it and had a moment to fret if I'd gone deaf, but alas my hearing slowly returned.

I stumbled to my feet and froze.

It was as if a mini hurricane had materialized with us at its eye. The small clearing now extended to a full acre. Wind buffeted the hair of my face and I marveled at the destruction. Sarah was crying and Jessie looked close to it. Brian's indomitable spirit seemed to wither and die as the proof of his powerlessness was displayed in the lay wasted forest. Josh sat on his knees, staring into the red eyes of the demon-dragons.

"Devidramon!" Gatomon called and pointed a claw at Josh. "Kill him."

The two beasts turned their massive heads and retracted their upper gums in a sinister smile.