"I Hate Snakes"
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In Arizona was a tanned skin boy with brown hair and bright blue eyes creeping down a garden maze, being careful to not make a sudden sound to alert the one he was hiding from.
Hissing caught his attention making him hold still before he ducked down behind a statue of a married couple who looked like they were running away in terror.
The teenage male looked out to see a tall woman dressed in black was walking around the hedge, looking for him.
"Come now dear. Don't hide from me. That isn't polite." She cooed.
He kept his mouth shut and tried to still his rapidly beating heart so he wouldn't give himself away and then waited until she turned away to continue on down the path.
(Later on…)
The group of digimon and Demigods had arrived in Arizona after nearly a day of ridding, so the digimon were all exhausted that they reverted back to their In-Training forms.
"I'm so hungry." Tokomon whined.
"Me too." Tsunomon moaned.
"Can we get a cheese burger with a large fries and chocolate milkshake?" Chibimon pleaded as he gave his famous puppy dog eyes.
"I like that idea." Tokomon nodded.
"No, we have to find this shop first. Why though, I have no idea." Koji said as he and Takuya were looking over the map.
Hey were walking along the side of the road, the hot sun beating down on them as they went and looked around to try and find a sign that the digimon would have to read for them because the Demigods couldn't since their minds were made to understand Greek and not English.
"Do you think we might find a sign of where the Caduceus could be?" TK asked.
"I hope so." Koichi said as he looked around to see a car was coming up.
"Maybe we can ask for directions." Takuya said as he then flagged down the car.
It stopped beside them to reveal a beautiful woman in her twenties inside of it and she flashed the five handsome teenagers a smile.
"Hello boys, what can I help you with?" she asked.
Dai rolled her eyes at how she was being ignored just because she was around a group of good looking males.
She was used to this happening to her when she was around TK, Matt and Ken which annoyed her far too much, but after a year of this happening to her, she got used to it.
"Yes, hello, do you know where Em's Rare Finds is located?" TK asked.
The woman smiled as she looked them over, then sneered at the pretty mahogany haired girl which made Koichi step over to Dai and wrap an arm around her shoulders with a blush.
Dai looked up at him curiously, but just smiled at him and he returned it.
"Yeah, it's down this road. Just keep walking and you'll see it." the woman said.
"Thanks." TK said.
The woman then drove off from the group, then they all faced each other, Koji smirking as he saw what his brother had done while TK was frowning.
"So now we just have to keep walking." Matt said.
"This'll be fun." Takuya said.
They all started walking down the road again, but TK paused.
"You can let go of her now you know." He said over to Koichi who still had his arm over Dai's shoulders.
Blushing darkly at this, the son of Ares pulled his arm away.
"R-Right. Sorry about that." He chuckled nervously.
"It's fine." Dai said as she continued on.
TK gave Koichi a challenging look before the two then ran after the Princess of Thieves, both walking on either side of the girl and tried to capture her attention.
"See? I told ya we're the only sane ones left." Koji said.
Takuya and Matt both sighed at this in aggravation before they followed after Koji to catch up to the group.
Chibimon then sniffed at the air.
"Hey, I smell something." He said.
"What, gas fumes and trash?" Koji asked.
"No, I think it's…food." Chibimon said.
Curiously, Tsunomon and Tokomon sniffed at the air to see if the dragon was right and smiled as the three digimon hopped out of their partners' arms and ran off to where they smelt the food.
"Tokomon, come back here!" TK cried.
"Tsunomon!" Matt called.
"Chibimon, get back here!" Dai yelled.
The three Digidestinds all chased after their partners while Takuya, Koji and Koichi followed after them.
Chibimon, Tokomon and Tsunomon kept on running until they made it to a shop that was surrounded by greenery and stopped as they looked up at it.
"Hey, what does that sign say?" Tokomon asked.
"I think it says…Em's Rare Finds. This is the place the others were looking for." Tsunomon said.
"And that yummy smell is coming right from it." Chibimon smiled.
The Demigods caught up to the digimon, the ones they were partnered to picking them up.
"Hey, this is the place." Takuya noticed.
"Nice going. You led us right to it." Koji said.
"Come on; let's go check this place out. There has to be some sort of clue in here." Matt said.
Nodding, the group all walked inside of the shot and found that it looked very old inside with the white paint on the walls chipping away and the floors looked like they hadn't been swept in a while, dust floating in the air and there were a few spider webs by the windows.
Walking over to the counter that had a cash register that looked like it came out of the 1950's on, the group all looked around.
"Wow, this place isn't very popular." Takuya muttered.
The floorboards creaked making them look over to see a woman that was in her thirties wearing a long black dress that had long sleeves, wore a black wrap over her head and had dark sunglasses on.
She looked over at the group and smiled with a plate of cookies in her hands.
"Aw, hello children. I wasn't expecting any company." She said with a slight hiss when she spoke a word with an S.
"Um, yes, we were just looking. You have a lovely shop here." Koichi said.
TK frowned at how the son of Ares could be so polite with others, but the boy knew he had to stop being so bitter just because they were fighting over the same girl.
They were on a mission and the mission came first, so they had to fight together not each other.
"What a sweet boy. Would you like some cookies? I just made them fresh." The woman said as she offered them the plate.
They were about to decline, but then the digimons' stomachs growled in hunger making them sigh.
"Sure, we'd love some." Dai said.
"Can we have some milk to go along with them too?" Takuya asked.
"Of course. Just stay here and I'll be right back with some milk. Enjoy yourselves." The woman said as she placed the cookies down.
Nodding at them with a smile, the woman walked to the back of the store and the digimon quickly pounced on the plate, gobbling up as much as they could.
"These are yummy!" Tokomon cheered.
"Whoa, keep it down. We don't want her to hear you talking." Matt said with a finger to his lips to signal them to be quiet.
"We can't help it, Matt. This really does taste good." Tsunomon said.
"It was nice of that lady to give us free food like that." Demiveemon said.
"You said it." Tokomon smiled.
"Why would she give us free food though?" Takuya asked.
"This place is giving me the creeps. And that lady was a bit off." Dai said as she looked around the room.
"And what woman would live a house filled with filth? It doesn't seem right. Maybe we should take a look around." Koji said.
Agreeing, the group grabbed the digimon and snuck off to the back to find a door that led to a maze of shrubs and had statues around that were of animals, people and mythical creatures.
"OK, let's split up to cover more ground." TK said.
They all split up and went off down different paths, Demiveemon and Dai looking around at the shrubs that were about six feet tall.
It was deathly silent which worried them a bit.
A branch then broke which made then tense up and look over.
"Who's there?" Dai called.
"This ain't good." Demiveemon whimpered.
Just then, a boy a few years older than Dai broke out of the shrubbery and ran over to them which surprised the duo of Miracles.
"Who are you?" Dai asked.
"No time to explain. We need to leave now before she finds us." He said as he grabbed her arm and started pulling her along with him.
(With Koichi and Koji…)
The twins were walking down a path when they spotted a statue of a human dressed as a Greek solider from long ago in the past.
"This has got to be the fifth one we found like this." Koji said as he looked it over.
"Koji, what if it's not a statue." Koichi said worried.
Koji looked over at his brother, then remembered the prophesy and his eyes widened in horror.
"Oh no. We need to find the others and fast." He said as they both pulled out their swords.
(With Matt and TK…)
Tsunomon hopped over to the statue of what looked like a centaur while the others stood behind him.
"I wonder why it looks like he's trying to run." He said.
"Who knows?" Matt shrugged.
"Do you think we should head back in case the lady is looking for us?" Tokomon asked.
"I think Dai might be right. There is something off about this entire place, but I just can't figure out what it is." TK said as he looked around.
Suddenly, Koichi and Koji ran over to them making the group look over to see the scared looks on their faces.
"What's going on?" TK asked.
"This place. We need to leave it and now." Koji said.
"Huh?" the digimon and Digidestinds asked.
(With Takuya…)
Takuya was walking around when his sister came out from the corner of a shrub with a teenage boy.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Takuya asked.
"I don't know." Dai said.
"How many others are here right now?" the mysterious boy asked.
"Huh? Why do you want to know?" Takuya asked defensively.
"My name is Ryo Akiyama, I'm a son of Athena." He said.
They looked at him in shock, the prophesy coming back to them about the part of a stranger.
They needed to come here to find him.
"If you're a Demigod then why are ya here?" Demiveemon asked.
"Because she caught me and brought me here. My team was out on a quest to defeat some monster that were praying on innocents, but then this woman appeared and tricked us into coming to this place. She got to all of my friends and then came after me. I've been on the run from her in this place for years until she finally trapped me in this place." Ryo explained.
"The lady who gave us the cookies?" Demiveemon asked.
"Tell me you didn't eat them." Ryo said looking worried.
"No, but the digimon did." Takuya explained.
"Why? Is there something wrong with them?" Dai asked.
"They were drugged. It'll make your body go numb so you can't run away from her." Ryo explained.
Demiveemon froze at that and whimpered as he felt the prickly feeling of being numbed happening to his ears.
Dai cradled him in worry while Takuya pulled out his sword and shield.
"Who is after us?" Takuya asked.
(With the others…)
"We're in Medusa's lair." Koichi said.
"Great, just our luck." Matt groaned.
"Who's Medusa?" Tokomon asked.
He was feeling a bit weird, but shook it off to focus on helping the others.
"Medusa used to be a beautiful woman that every man wanted and would fight to gain her affections." TK explained.
"Kinda like you and Koichi with Dai, right?" Tsunomon asked.
Koji and Matt both looked away to not laugh while their brothers both blushed furiously at that.
"Yeah, kind of like that." TK said.
"Anyway, the God of Seas Poseidon wanted Medusa for himself, but she refused to be with him." Koichi said getting back into the story.
"He kept chasing her until Medusa ran into Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom's temple and begged for Athena's protection as Poseidon caught Medusa and raped her there on the temple floors." Koji said.
"Being disgusted by this, Athena cursed Medusa so she would never have men chase after her again. She turned her into a monster with snakes for hair and eyes that could turn any man and creature into stone." Matt said.
"So these statues used to be real living creatures?" Tsunomon asked as he tried to move, but couldn't.
"We need to find Demiveemon, Dai and Takuya fast." Tokomon said.
(With the others…)
A hissing sound made Ryo, Dai, Demiveemon and Takuya tense up as they turned to see the woman step out from behind a shrub and walk over to them, taking off her wrap to reveal the snakes that made up her hair.
Ryo flinched back at the sight of them knowing they wanted his blood after what his mother did to their master.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two children of Hermes in my lair. I never knew he had a daughter. Are you a spoiled little Princess?" the woman taunted.
She then pulled off her glasses.
"Don't look!" Ryo yelled as he and the other three closed their eyes.
Medusa looked them all over with a twisted smile as she slowly walked over to them, her snakes hissing as they flicked their tongues out to taste their fear and anxiousness to escape.
"Come now. Why don't you look at me? Am I too hideous to look upon? Well, that's not my fault is it?" she sneered.
She ran her hand through Ryo's hair and he gritted his teeth to brush off the disgust he felt from being touched by her.
"That was your mother's fault." Medusa whispered in his ear while her snakes nipped at his face.
"Leave him alone!" Takuya demanded.
Medusa turned to him next and then put her face right up against him.
"You look so much like your father. He's a snake lover isn't he?" she asked.
Then her attention went to Dai, taking in her shoulder length mahogany hair and the gorgon picked up a stand, combing her fingers through it.
"What a sweet thing you are. Tell me, do you have your father's dark brown eyes? Why don't you open them up so that I can see them?" Medusa asked sweetly.
Demiveemon was whimpered as he had his face hidden in his partner's chest to avoid looking into the gray eyes of the gorgon.
His body was completely numb now and he had no way of helping them out.
To be continued…