Hey guys! Lunamon810 here, once again with another chapter of Digimon: The Crest of Trust. This chapter gave me a bit of trouble writer's-block wise, but I got over it, so yay! Hey at least we're finally getting somewhere with this series, I mean the other stuff was important too, but at least now the plot is developing a lot more. So yeah. Enjoy~
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon!
Claimer: I do own Amber, Seth, Adriane, and Demi!
The next morning, everyone gathered around Izzy's computer to hear what Gennai has to say about the crests. Unfortunately he had no information to help them of the crests, only that the remaining enemies are out searching for the digidestines. Everyone decided to head to the Grasslands to resupply, but by the time they got there Seth and Tai got into a big fight resulting the digidestines to split up. Well today seems to be a major downer, I hope tomorrow won't be as bad. Check next time in Digimon: The Crest of Trust.
Amber, Seth, Clary, Tazzie, Carter, Luna, Lana, Ren, Felix, Felicia, Davis, Joe, Adriane, Ken, Demi, and Willis were all walking in a small, loose cluster in the forest, Amber in the back, Adriane in the front. They were trying to guard the group the best they could. As Amber walked, Davis noticed her zoning out a little bit, making it obvious when he had to repeat her name several times to get her to react to what he was saying. Willis started talking to him for a minute, so he looked away.
When he looked away, Amber found someone putting a hand over her mouth, and restraining her wrists and ankles as she was pulled away from the group, unable to scream or make enough noise for anyone to hear. She watched a Bakemon morph into her and start walking, obtaining the same zoned out look she'd previously had. Amber struggled, but couldn't get free no matter what she did.
She was carried by someone for a good half hour or so, she was above their head so she couldn't see who. She heard two sets of footsteps though, so she figured there were two people there. She could hardly move, now bonded by weird red thread-like stuff. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths, but the thread restricted her breathing a little bit.
They arrived at a bright colored, odd looking house. She was sat down on the ground, and her eyes widened when she saw Puppetmon and Kiwimon, who she knew was one of his henchmen. She tried to break free of the red stuff again, but once again found she couldn't.
"Hehe! Don't even try to break free, you're just wasting energy." Puppetmon said as he pulled her inside by a handful of the thread. She was dragged to a room full of dangerous looking objects, and he cut the thread. She jumped up and braced herself, knowing she as a human was no match for a Mega level digimon. He laughed. "Fighting you first would be no fun! We should play a game first!"
"A game?" Amber said, lowering her arms. "Aren't you going to kill me?"
"Later! First we have to play a game! But which game should we play...Ooh! I know!"
"Oh great. I'm going to die." Amber thought.
"Hide, Seek, and Destroy!"
"Hide, Seek...and Destroy?"
"Yeah! You hide, and I'll seek and destroy!"
"No, leave me alone!" She said, taking a step back. "What I would give to have Lunamon here with me right now."
"I wanna play!"
"Well I don't!"
"You're no fun. I'm putting you in the dungeon until you play with me! Kiwimon!" He binded her again with the red stuff and Kiwimon carried her down to a dungeon room, where Puppetmon then controlled her into standing with her hands above her head against the wall, and cuffs went around her wrists and ankles, stone cuffs that refused to break.
"Let me know when you're ready to play!" Puppetmon said, then ran back upstairs, Kiwimon following close behind. Amber looked around, and realized on either side of her were Wizardmon and Lucemon. She looked to her right.
"Wizardmon! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. These cuffs don't allow us to use our powers, we can't get out of here."
"Oh no..."
"Where are the others?" Wizardmon asked.
"Well...You see..." Amber explained everything since she'd seen Wizardmon last, which was during the storm.
"So you split up?" Wizardmon asked. "And Puppetmon replaced you with a Bakemon?"
"Right." Amber nodded.
"That's not good," Lucemon said
"How do we get out of here now?" Amber said. "I don't know how long it'll take the others to realize it's not me, or how long it'll take for them to find us."
"As far as we know there's no way to get out without unless he sets you free. We've been stuck here ever since that storm," Lucemon said, and Amber sighed.
"Thats about the worst news you could give me right now. So you're telling me if I don't play with that freak of a puppet, I don't get free? And when I'm done playing with him, he'll probably kill me?"
"Kill you or use you against the digidestined," Lucemon said.
"Either way there's no option that'll save me..." Amber said sighing, not knowing what to do. She could either risk having to die or be used against her friends, or rot there. She took a deep breath. "Puppetmon!"
"Amber? Hello? Amber!" Davis said, looking at who he thought was Amber. Amber looked at him.
"Oh, yeah?"
"You're acting stranger than before..." Amber shrugged.
"Am I?" she said. As it turned lunch, they all sat in a circle, eating. When they were done, Davis hugged Amber, who just stayed stiff. He leaned back, blinked hard, then went over to the river to wash his hands with Clary.
"Hey Davis, have you noticed something odd about Amber?"
"You mean besides the fact that she's completely zoned out and she just stood there when I hugged her like I was some foreign object to her?" Davis mumbled.
"I don't think that's Amber. I think something's happened to her and she's been replaced." Clary said. "I'm not sure though. But we need to-" Davis went running at Amber and crossed his arms, stopping a few feet away.
"Where's Amber?"
"I'm right here you dumbo." Amber said crossing her arms.
"Amber-"
"Shut up Seth." The Bakemon had decided everyone seemed suspicious, so he thought he needed to change his personality to fit Amber better, since he didn't know how she acted.
"I. Said. Where's. Amber!?" Davis said, holding the Bakamon Amber up against a tree by their throat.
"Zombie Claw!" Decaying claws came from out of the top of her arms and slashed at Davis.
"Tear shot!" Lunamon hit the Bakemon with it's tear-shaped attack and glared. "Where's my partner!?"
"Vee headbutt!" Veemon called out, then headbutted Amber's stomach.
"Okay, okay I get it I'll tell you! Jeesh! Amber is at Lord Puppetmon's house!"
"Where's that at?" Clary demanded.
"I'll show you!" Davis released it, and it transformed to it's normal form, then showed them the way to Puppetmon's house. "Here, this is it! She's in there!"
"Time to play!" Puppetmon said as he knocked over the box in front of him, to reveal Amber standing behind. She slid to the right to avoid his hammer and ran out, and stood in front of a window, and dodged out of the way as he smashed it. She ran again, and when she passed it cleared it without getting hurt, and was shocked to land in Seth and Davis' linked arms. The carefully sat her down and all three backed away from the house as Puppetmon jumped out. Puppetmon laughed. "We haven't finished our game!"
"I don't want to play!" Amber said, holding up her digivice. "Lunamon!"
"Lunamon digivolve to, Lekismon! Lekismon digivolve to, Crescemon!"
"You hurt me and my friends Puppetmon! I can't let you do that again!" Amber said, her voice strong. "We've taken down Devimon and MetalSeadramon! Now it's your turn!" She said before the other digimon digivolved as well.
"You won't get away without finishing our game!" Puppetmon exclaimed, raising his hammer.
"Watch me!"
"Rapid fire!" Rapidmon called, shooting missile after missile out of it's arms.
"Treasure axe!" The two Antylamon called in unison, making two axes appear for each of them, and they started slashing at Puppetmon, who kept dodging until he was slammed into his own house.
"Spiking strike!" Stingmon called as he pierced Puppetmon's arm with a spike on one of his arms, Puppetmon having attempted to dodge.
"Dark archery!" Crescemon hit Puppetmon with one of her arrows.
"Talisman star!" Taomon called, the sign cutting everything in it's path.
"Wind cutter sword!" Chirinmon, Labramon's evolved form, called as it swooped down, about to hit Amber on the way, and unable to stop. The next thing they knew Puppetmon flicked his hammer and Amber was moved by strings, and the blade cut the strings, and hit Puppetmon so hard his data started to fade away.
"Did Puppetmon just, save her?" Davis asked aloud.
"I think so, Clary said. "But why?"
"Puppetmon?" Amber looked at him.
"You're alright, right?" He asked, and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "You seem alright. Good. I couldn't let you die or else-" His head deteriorated. Amber stared at the place he'd previously been sitting. She took a step back.
"He saved me."
"He was probably just doing it so someone could use you." Joe said.
"But he saved me. Shouldn't they have just killed me if they got such an easy chance?" Amber asked, still staring at the place he'd been.
"I'm not sure, you never know with the Dark Masters." Joe replied.
"Despite the weirdness of the situation, at least that's one more enemy down." Carter said, Sunmon in her arms now.
"Right." Amber nodded. "Well...lets get going then." She said, finally turning away from the house.
As they walked, everyone carrying their in-training digimon, Amber stared downwards. Puppetmon saved her, he should have killed her. He seemed more selfish than one for the team, he would have wanted revenge for dying, and taking her with him would both hurt her team and his for not helping him. So either they have something important enough planned that Puppetmon could put that beside him, or he'd actually cared. She knew it was probably the first one, but it still bothered her.
"You alright Amber?" Clary asked.
"I'm fine. Just confused about Puppetmon." Amber shrugged. "It's nothing, I'll get over it."