Author's Note: Another short chapter, I'm afraid. And yet again, I get the feeling that this chapter is substandard for me, but I think I know why that is now. Looking at my older stories, I am used to writing characters while they are contemplating something or while they are having a dilemma, because it allows me to dig deeper into their thoughts. In situations where fast and instinctive actions are the dominant factor, like a combat situation, I am pretty much moving into uncharted territory. BUT! This just means that we have reached the part of this story where I can learn the most! So don't be shy, guys! Let me know what I can do to improve! Tell me what I did wrong and what I did right!
On a side note, I am still having trouble recovering from my flu, and I am not sure if this affect my writing any. I may have been more prone to making grammar mistakes or misspellings without picking them up, so if you find a lot of those, I would appreciate it if you would point them out to me so I can fix them. That being said, go ahead and enjoy the 5th chapter of Kari's New Friend! :)
P.S: My honorable guest will find my reply to his review at the bottom of the chapter again, of course! :)
Disclaimer: Yup. This thing is still here. Nothing more needs to be said.
"True friends are those who came into your life, saw the most negative part of you and still
can't find it in themselves to leave you, no matter how contagious you are to them."
Chapter V: Avoiding Capture
Davis swallowed nervously as he followed after the two Kamiya siblings and began climbing down the ladder of the fire escape, doing his best not to look down and remind himself how far up they were. The wind had picked up and he could feel it tear at his hair and clothes, and the swaying of the ladder did nothing to help calm him down from the adrenaline rush he had experienced when the Ghost Digimon had attacked. Rather, it made him feel even tenser to feel how the metal scaffold was rocking back and forth while they were climbing down.
After Tai had somehow managed to calm Kari down enough to make her come along with them without argument, the three of them had made for the computer room, where the fire escape was located. On the way, Tai had made sure to grab his dad's shirt that was lying on the couch in the living room when they passed it, just so that he would have something to cover his torso, and once in the computer room he had immediately dove for Davis' bag in search of something that he could wear in place of the towell that was tied around his waist. While none of Davis' clothes really fit Tai, he somehow managed to squeeze himself down into a pair of boxers that Davis had brought along so he would have a change of underwear.
As the group carefully tried to make their way to solid ground, Davis could hear the screams of other unsuspecting humans over the rush of the wind, normal people who, like himself and the Kamiyas, had just been minding their own business when the Bakemon came knocking. Every time he heard another child cry out for their mother or a cry of pain from someone who tried to fight back and was beaten into submission, he felt a cold sting of horror run through his chest, and he had to keep a hard grip on the ladder to keep himself from trembling and risk losing his grip. As unlikely as it was, he sincerely hoped that his family had made it out of Odaiba before all this started.
So many thoughts and emotions were going through him at the moment, he couldn't make out what he felt. He didn't even feel scared anymore, just shocked and horrified at everything that had happened within the last 20 minutes, if it had even been that long. After Kari had introduced him to Taichi's partner, Agumon, the three of them had decided to wait until Taichi came back from his shower to find something to do for the last hour or so before going to bed. That however, had been cut short when they heard Mrs Kamiya's scream of terror as the Bakemon invaded their apartment.
Naturally, seeing her parents being dragged off by ghosts that looked like they might eat them alive, Kari had panicked and if Davis hadn't grabbed her when he did, she would've rushed over towards her parents in a heartbeat. It had been instinct more than anything else that had made him reach out and grab ahold of her, but he was glad that he had, even if she had hit him atop the head as a result. Even now, he could feel a bump forming where Kari had hit him...
"Alright, finally we're back on solid ground again." Tai declared as he jumped the last few feet down from the ladder and landed in a crouch, which resulted in an extremely awkward position since he was only wearing his dad's dirty white shirt and a pair of obviously too small boxers. If their situation wasn't so serious, Davis would've probably laughed at the sight but as it was, he just couldn't get himself to find anything funny about it. There was too much going on around them.
From what Davis could see, almost the entire Odaiba district had been laid in darkness from the blackout and only a select few buildings still appeared to have any form of electricity. While they were currently standing in an alley between the apartment building where the Kamiya Residence was located and the building next to it, Davis could hear that the main street that ran just outside the alley was overcrowded, probably with humans that the Bakemon had abducted in a similar fashion to how they had abducted Kari's parents.
As he thought about his new friend, Davis suddenly realized that Kari wasn't beside him anymore. Worried that she might've run off to try and save her parents again, Davis looked around but found to his relief that she had just taken a few steps back and sat down with her back against the wall, while Tai and Agumon had walked over to the corner of the alley to take a look at what they were dealing with.
Seeing Kari stare emptily in front of herself, Davis felt something inside him twist uncomfortably and for a moment, he forgot the situation they were in, as he was overcome by an urge to try to comfort his friend. She looked so fragile where she sat, her light brown eyes fixed on the space just in front of her now dirty socks, and the tear stains that were still visible on her cheeks did nothing to undermine the effect.
"Hey..." Davis said, hesitating only for a brief second before he walked over to where his friend was sitting. As he closed in on her however, Kari pulled her legs up towards her chest and buried her face against her knees, as if she didn't want to look at him.
"Leave me alone, Davis." she spoke hoarsely, her voice barely audible over the sound of the people outside the alley.
This got Davis to stop dead in his tracks, just a few feet in front of his friend. What was he supposed to do? Should he ignore what she had said and try to comfort her anyway, or should he listen to her and give her some space? He wasn't used to comforting people when they broke down, because none of his other friends usually broke down like this in front of their other friends. And even if they did and he had been used to it, Kari was different from his other friends.
"Try putting yourself in her situation." Jun's words from earlier came floating back to him as he desperately racked his brain for an answer to what he should do. What would he have wanted Kari to do, if it had been him worrying about his parents? He knew what it felt like to be upset about something, given how many times a week he and Jun were usually at each other's throats about something, and whenever that happened he usually preferred to be left alone.
But looking over towards where his friend was still sitting with her face buried against her knees, Davis couldn't help but feel like it would be a mistake to leave her like that. She looked so fragile, as if she would break and never heal if he as much as breathed at her in the wrong way. What if he just made it worse?
Just as he was about to throw all hesistance to the wind and just go with his gut, which was telling him to just go over there and at least let his friend know that he was there if she needed someone to talk to, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Flinching at the unexpected contact, Davis head flew to the side to look over his shoulder, fearing that maybe one of the Bakemon had found them but he found that it was just Tai, who had left his post by the corner of the alley and walked over to them.
The older boy gave him a long calculating glance, before shaking his head, as if he could tell exactly what had been going through Davis' head just then. Without hesitating, Davis took a step back to show that he had understood what his role model had been trying to convey. Tai was Kari's older brother after all, so he probably knew how to handle Kari when she got like this. And sure enough, the older boy just offered him an appreciative smile and nodded at him before he turned back towards the girl on the ground and approcahed her.
"Hey Kari?" he said as he kneelt down beside his sister and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, causing her to instantly snap her head up to look at him. "Come on, we've got to get a move on. There are too many Bakemon around these parts."
"B-but what about mom and dad?" Kari questioned with a shaky voice, her damp eyes wide in disbelief at the thought that her brother would just leave their parents behind. On some level, she knew that what her brother was saying was true. If they remained here for much longer, there was a big chance that they would be found by the Bakemon. But that didn't make it any easier for her to hear him talk about it so matter-of-factly.
"It's too dangerous." Tai said, purposely avoiding his sister's accusing gaze and instead focusing his eyes on the spot just to the left of her head. "There are too many people out there right now, it would be close to impossible to find them in the crowd and with Greymon as our only defense, I simply can't risk it. It doesn't appear as if Myotismon wants to kill anyone, or else he would've done so by now so they'll be safe for the time being."
That did little to calm the Kamiya girl down, but she had long since resigned herself to trusting her big brother on this matter, even if she didn't like this new and serious side of him that she had recently been introduced to. Taking a deep breath and praying that Tai wasn't making a mistake, she stood up from her position and looked up at her brother with a determined look in her eyes.
Seeing that his little sister had accepted his judgement in the matter, albeit reluctantly, Tai offered what he hoped was a somewhat comforting smile to her. This entire situation was killing him and he really didn't want to leave their parents behind either, but if it was one thing that he had learned from watching Matt's and TK's interractions in the Digital World, it was that sometimes you need to have the presence of mind to take a step back and look at a situation with no strings attached. Even if they were to try and find their parents in the crowd, Greymon would most likely crush a lot of the other humans in the crowd, but without Greymon they would just be captured by the Bakemon. Their hands were literally tied on the matter and as the leader of the digidestined, Tai had learnt when you needed to fall back and take a moment to regroup.
"Alright, then it's settled!" he said as he pulled out his Digivice, which had already began to glow. "Agumon! Let's go!"
"Agumon digivolve to..."
As the screen of the device lit up with an orange glow, Tai's partner was engulfed in a similar light, which quickly grew in size as the digivolution progressed. Davis had to cover his eyes to keep from being blinded by the glow, which contrasted heavily against the gloom and darkness of the alley they were in. Once the light died down, a new digimon stood in there in place of Agumon, one that was much larger and looked a whole lot more ferocious than the little yellow dinosaur that Davis had met half an hour ago.
"Greymon!" it proudly called out the name of its new form.
Even though he should've been used to it by now, Davis felt himself tremble slightly at the sight of the new monster. This was the same creature that had devastated Highton View Terrace 4 years ago! And even if he hadn't known that, Greymon still looked pretty terrifying on his own with his large red eyes, his horned brown helmet and the strong arms that ended in razor-sharp claws. Not to mention the size of his teeth!
"Davis! Hurry up! We don't have much time!" Tai's voice brought Davis out of his stupor.
Looking up, he found that both the Kamiya siblings already had climbed onto Greymon's back and was apparently waiting for him to do the same. For a moment, he just blinked as if some part of his mind still wanted to deny that this was really happening, but then he just shook his head and accepted the hand that was offered to him by his role model.
The older boy pulled him up onto Greymon's back, before climbing over to sit on his left shoulder so that the digimon could stand in his full height without the risk of accidently tipping them off of him. Davis mimicked his role model and climbed onto the other shoulder, where he was joined by Kari, since Tai took up too much space on the other shoulder. Once all three of them were seated somewhat comfortably, Tai nodded at Greymon who then left the alley and charged away in the direction where his partner had pointed out to him earlier when they had been scanning the area.
If someone had told Davis just a few days ago that he would be riding a digital dinosaur through the streets of Odaiba, along with his role model Taichi Kamiya and his little sister Hikari, he would've told them that they were crazy. As soon as Greymon made his presence known to the public, the already frigthened humans became even more terrified, if the screams were anything to go by.
The Bakemon had gathered the inhabitants that they had captured in the middle of the streets and was hovering around the crowd, probably to dissuade anyone form trying to escape. Davis didn't have a lot of time to take the scene in however, as Greymon made a mad dash to get away from the crowd as soon as they exited the alley. For such a large and bulky creature, he was surprisingly fast and Davis had to hold on tight to not fall off.
"Kari! Tai!" a familiar voice rang over the bustling sounds of the crowd.
Upon hearing her mom's voice amongst the crowd, Kari's eyes widened and she felt like someone had just kicked her in the gut, as it was made even more real to her what she was doing. She was abandoning her parents! Leaving them at the mercy of an evil digimon whose intentions they knew nothing about! For a moment, she forgot that she had promised Taichi to come along with him and loosened her grip on Greymon's neck, her instincts telling her to go find her parents, but before she could let go of her brother's partner, she felt someone else's hand wrap around hers to steady her grip.
"Don't do it, Kari! I know what you're thinking, but you heard your brother. We've got to get to safety and find out more about the situation before we can do anything." Davis said firmly as he steadied his hold around her hand.
As Kari looked up into Davis eyes, she felt the emotional stress and trauma from the last day finally catch up to her and something within her snapped. All the confusion, all the anger and all the fear that she had built up over the last 20 hours overwhelmed her and she felt like her entire body was on fire from the conflicting emotions she felt as she looked into Davis calming eyes.
Slap!
Time seemed to slow down as Kari raised her still free hand and brought it down on her friend, leaving a red hand-shaped mark on his cheek. Davis eyes widened in shock when he felt the stinging sensation that accompanied the slap and just like when Kari had hit him in the head earlier, he lost his grip on her hand, and his grip on Greymon.
Kari's eyes widened in horror once she realized what she had done. For a brief moment, their eyes met and Kari got a good glimpse of the shock and hurt in her friend's eyes over her actions. A terrible feeling of regret welled up in her chest as her behavior towards him within the last hour replayed in her mind. The things she had screamed at him, hitting him in the head, telling him to go away and leave her alone... and now this. Just two hours ago, she had cried to her brother and hoped that they could patch up their friendship and now that he had apologized and they had made up, the first thing she did was treat him like dirt... she was a terrible friend.
"D-Davis..." she croaked hoarsely, her voice still sore from her screaming earlier. "I... I didn't mean..."
Unfortunately for Kari, she didn't get to finish her apology.
"V-Breath Arrow!"
A large, V-shaped projectile came flying at them out of nowhere and nailed Greymon in the chest, causing the dinosaur to roar in pain and topple over, landing on his back. In the processs, all three kids that had been riding on his shoulder got tossed off. Tai, who by now had become used to being tossed through the air, righted himself mid air and landed on his feet, as if he had practiced being tossed around by giant monsters ever since he was born. Sadly, the same couldn't be said about his sister and her friend, both of whom landed clumsily in a heap a few feet away on the ground.
Davis groaned in discomfort as his sense slowly came back to him. Even though he wasn't as used to being tossed around by giant monsters like his role model was, he was at least trained to recover quickly from being thrown into the ground during soccer games, since the opposing teams tended to always put pressure on the players they preceived as the biggest threats to their goalkeeper. While being tossed off a charging dinosaur and land on asphalt definetely hurt more than being slide tackled by a 9 year old kid, it could've been worse.
Feeling the adrenaline from earlier still pump through him, Davis was quickly on his feet and looked around. They had made decent progress before they had been interrupted and had put some distance between themselves and the crowd that the Bakemon had gathered from the surrounding apartment buildings so at least Greymon hadn't fallen and accidently hurt any of the other humans.
"I thought it was getting a little noisy over here." an unfamiliar voice rumbled from somewhere in the direction that the projectile had come from earlier. "And look what I found when I got here! A Digidestined and his little pet Digimon!"
Upon hearing the voice, Davis spun around on the spot to see what it was that had halted their progress. It didn't sound like another Bakemon, but it had to be some kind of Digimon, probably one that he had never seen before. And sure enough, about 200 meters further down the road he could see a large silhouette approaching, one that was just barely smaller than Greymon.
As their attacker came into view, the first thing that stood out to Davis were the pointy horns on its head, one that stood vertical from its nose and two that stuck out from the back of the dragon-like monster's head, forming a V-shape. The large beast was blue and white in color and had a blue V imprinted on its abdomen, which stood out clearly against the white scales on its belly. Like Greymon, it had clear red eyes that seemed to almost glow in the darkness that still surrounded them, but unlike their orange and blue-striped friend, this creature's eyes had a cold gleam of disinterest in his eyes that sent shivers down Davis' spine when he looked into them.
"I don't believe it..." the low rumble of Greymon's voice broke Davis out of his stupor. "A Veedramon!"
When Veedramon stopped just about 50 meters away from them, Tai immediately sunk into a crouched position, ready to jump out of the way in case their opponent decided to charge at them. He didn't know what they were up against, but whatever this Veedramon was capable of it didn't look like a pushover and on top of that, it had managed to throw Greymon off his feet with a single attack! No matter what the context, that was no small feat.
"Greymon, do you know this guy?" he asked cautiously, taking in the appearence of their attacker. Veedramon and Greymon appeared to be of similar build, with Veedramon being just slightly shorter than his own partner. However, he had learnt the hard way not to measure strength by size. They had made that mistake the first time they met Gatomon, and it had cost them greatly.
"Yeah." Greymon rumbled as he rose to his feet and took a ready-position beside his partner. "Veedramon was a Mythical Dragon Species that was said to inhabit the Folder Continent, a landmass in the Digital World that supposedly sunk into the ocean thousands of years ago. However, with Folder's destruction the Veedramon species was believed to have gone extinct! Some even say that they never existed in the first place!"
Veedramon, who had obviously overheard their conversation, snorted at Greymon's statement.
"Not all of us inhabited Folder when the Great Cataclysm happened, Greymon." he (Davis assumed that this Digimon was male, based on its voice) said with a humorless laugh, almost sounding bitter about the subject. "I had just recently relocated to the Server Continent a few months before my home was destroyed."
After this, the blue dragon trailed off, as if talking about it brought back bad memories that he would rather not talk about. Despite their current situation, Davis couldn't help but feel a sting of sympathy for the monster. He hadn't understood half of what the two reptilian Digimon had just said, but what he had managed to gather was that Veedramon's species was basically extinct, and that the continent they had inhabited had somehow been destroyed, meaning that the Veedramon that was standing before them could very well be the last of its kind.
"But none of that matters now!" Veedramon said as he shook his head and refocused on his task. "I have orders to locate the 8th Digidestined and bring him before Myotismon alive. It sucks that I'll have to fight a kid, but the old vampire have put quite a juicy bounty fee on his head and a mon's got to eat after all."
Over where he was standing by his partner's leg, Tai frowned. This Digimon was different from the others they had fought since they had come back to the Human World. For starters, he didn't refer to Myotismon by his self-proclaimed title of "Lord". In fact, he sounded quite disrespectful towards his supposed leader by calling him "old vampire". Secondly, he didn't appear to think of himself as part of Myotismon's Army, since he apparently only was after the 8th child to grab a supposed "bounty" that Myotismon had placed on his head...
"You're a mercenary." Tai stated, his eyes narrowing as he stared down the Mythical Dragon Digimon who was standing opposite to him.
When Veedramon gave no verbal response, Tai took that as confirmation that his guess had been right. Slowly, he began to back away from their opponent, trusting that his partner would stop Veedramon if he decided to charge. Since they were dealing with a mercenary, it could be assumed that he wouldn't have any interest in destroying them, like the rest of Myotismon's army, so that was a good thing. The problem was that one of them happened to be the person who Veedramon had set his sights on.
Glancing over his shoulder, Tai found that Davis was currently staring wide eyed at Veedramon, not even blinking. Since Myotismon's goal was to capture the 8th child, their priority should be on getting Davis to safety before anything else happened. There had to be a reason why Myotismon feared this Digidestined more than he feared the other 7 of them, and if they could just figure out why, they could potentially end Myotismon's reign before he managed to cause too much damage.
"Davis!" he called, getting the attention of the stunned boy. "Take Kari with you and get out of here! Greymon and I will hold off Veedramon while you two make a run for it!"
As his mind processed what Tai had said, Davis felt like the blood froze in his veins and a terrible cold gripped at his chest. Kari! What had happened to Kari when they fell? He had been so focused on himself and their new enemy that he had completely forgotten about his friend! Spinning around in the spot to look for her, he found her still on the ground just a few meters behind him. She was sitting up with her face scrunged up in pain and she had both her hands at her ankle.
"Kari!" he cried out in shock, cursing himself mentally for forgetting about her. In an instant, he was by her side and was gently prying her hands away from her twisted ankle. The limb had already begun to swell and it had attained an unhealthy shade of blue. "I'm so sorry! I totally forgot about you. Does this hurt?"
When Davis poked the bulge on her ankle lightly, Kari gasped in pain and immediately slapped his hand away. It felt like someone was twisting a knife or some other sharp object inside her leg, and the uncomfortable sensation was enough to bring tears to the young girl's eyes. Davis took the hint and immediately retracted his hand from Kari's injured leg. Instead, he carefully grabbed her arm and drapped it over his shoulder before he slowly pulled her to her feet, just like he had done yesterday when he had first found her sick in the street and unable to support herself. Kari flinched slightly from the strain it put on her ankle to get off the ground but once they were standing straight again and she could lean against Davis for support, she seemed to relax a little.
"There we go." Davis said as he looked around for anywhere to run where Veedramon wouldn't be able to go after them. They weren't too far away from the apartment building where he lived and he still had his apartment key in his pocket. Perhaps they could hide out there until the worst of this crazy invasion had passed? If they could just get there, that was. "Okay, we need to get out of here. Try to lean on me as much as you can. Whatever you do, don't put any weight on your injured leg or you might make it worse!"
Kari just nodded numbly as she stared at her friend in shock. Had he already forgotten that she had just slapped him across the face? The red hand-mark was still visible on his cheek, and it made Kari feel guilty just looking at it. It made her insides twist thinking about how awefully she had treated her friend since they had made up, and the fact that Davis didn't even seem to blame her made it even worse. Kari had been upset when Davis went to play soccer with his other friends, and had sulked and felt sorry for herself for an entire afternoon just because of that. But Davis didn't even bat an eyelash after being hit in the head, slapped across the face and told that she hated him...
"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere!" Veedramon's rumbling voice interrupted her thoughts. "You may not be the 8th child, but handing in a Digidestined to Myotismon should fetch me enough digidollars for at least a weeks worth of food!"
With that, the Mythical Dragon Digimon charged towards the three children with his eyes glued at Tai, who was holding his Digivice in his hand which marked him as a Digidestined. Reacting quickly, Greymon took a step forward and intercepted his enemy, but was pushed back by the sheer might of his opponent. Just like Tai had feared, Veedramon was stronger than his size suggested, possibly even stronger than Greymon. The two reptilian Digimon were locked in a handstand and Greymon had to dig his feet deep into the ground to keep himself from being pushed further back.
"Go!" Taichi called to the two 9 year olds. "We'll be right behind you, once we kick this guy's butt!"
Davis needed no further encouragement, as he and Kari escaped down a nearby alley. As soon as the two of them were out of sight, the leader of the Digidestined took a deep breath and reached inside himself to find the burning determination that had guided him through their final fight against Etemon, and then again through his quest to reunite the Digidestined when they were separated. The golden pendant that hung around his neck heated up and began to glow orange, along with his Digivice.
"Greymon!" he called to his partner. "Knock him back! Let's take this to the next level!"
After a moment of struggling with his opponent, Greymon managed to push their locked arms to the side and headbutt Veedramon, causing their horned heads to bounce of each other without seemingly doing any damage to either of them. However, it gave Greymon just the opening he needed.
"Nova Blast!" he roared as he released a huge fireball from his mouth that nailed Veedramon square in the chest and sent the Mythical Dragon flying back a few feet before he landed in a heap. Greymon noted with a smug sense of satisfaction that Veedramon, due to his smaller frame, had actually become airborne from the attack, whereas he himself had only toppled over from Veedramon's attack earlier.
As he watched Veedramon get thrown back by Greymon's attack, Tai saw his chance. The bulge on his chest began to glow even brigther and his Digivice started screeching as he pulled on the power of his Crest of Courage. Just like before, Greymon began glowing orange and his already impressive frame grew even larger. His left arm also expanded and took on a mechanic appearence that went with a chestplate that formed over his chest. His brown helmet changed to one made of metal, and a mane of wild orange hair sprouted out from under the back of his helmet. To top it off, the orange dinosaur grew a pair of large purple wings.
"Greymon digivolve to... MetalGreymon!"
Tai let out a sigh of relief as the digivolution finished without interruption. Digivolving from Champion to Ultimate always took a little more time than their regular digivolution from Rookie to Champion, since it required a whole lot more power to accomplish. It wasn't something that they had immediately picked up on but Izzy, being the observant genius that he was, had of course noticed it once he began to look deeper into Ultimate Digivolution after his partner had achieved it. Because of this, they usually had the others covering whoever was going Ultimate when they did it, or tried to digivolve before the battle begun, to avoid being left as sitting ducks.
"Now that's more like it! Show him what you've got, MetalGreymon!" Tai cheered his partner on.
Truth to be told, he wasn't sure if it was worth wasting so much energy on a single Champion when he had no idea what else could be lurking about, but they needed to finish this quickly. Davis and Kari were defenseless while they were on their own and the longer he left them that way, the bigger the risk that something would find them. If he could have, Tai would've escaped with them but he couldn't leave Greymon alone to fight off Veedramon. Besides, it wasn't as if he himself would be of much help if another Digimon decided to attack them.
-:-:-:-
Yamato "Matt" Ishida sighed as he checked the time on his Digivice for what had to be the 10th time within the last 5 minutes. They had been stuck in traffic for over 40 minutes now and the taxi had barely moved since they had come to a stop half-way across the Rainbow Bridge. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Matt pocketed his Digivice again and looked out the window at the impenetrable fog that surrounded the bridge.
After their encounter with Myotismon earlier that evening, Matt and TK had made an effort to locate the unidentified Digivice signal that their Digivices had picked up during the fight. Despite Matt's protest that it was getting late, TK had insisted that he wanted to just give it a few more minutes until eventually, the events from the day had caught up with his little brother and they had been forced to call of their search. Seeing that his brother had been tired enough to fall asleep where he was standing, Matt had decided to just call a taxi to get him home.
Currently, the younger boy was sleeping soundly in his seat with Patamon curled up into a ball in his lap. Matt's own partner, Gabumon, had reverted back to his In-Training form after his fight against Myotismon and had also fallen asleep shortly after they had sat down in the taxi. Thankfully, neither of the two Digimon made any sounds as they slept, so they could easily pass as some kind of stuffed animals.
"Excuse me, sir?" Matt asked as he leaned forward to talk with the taxi driver. "Do you know what's taking so long? We've been stuck here for almost 45 minutes now!"
The driver, a middle aged brown-haired man, turned around to face him and shook his head.
"I'm sorry sir." he said apologetically. "I've been trying to find out what's going on through the radio, but all the channels are just filled with static."
Hearing that the radio was just receiving static on all channels, Matt frowned. That sounded very strange. He watched as the taxi driver tried to call someone on his phone but even from the backseat Matt could hear that the phone also received just static, as if all radio signals were being disrupted. A sense of foreboding began to creep up on him as he looked back out the window at the fogbank that surrounded Rainbow Bridge on all sides. Something here was very wrong...
Grwooooooooh.
A rumbling sound that sounded suspiciously like a distant roar echoed from somewhere far ahead of them in the fog and Matt felt his heart sink in his chest and suddenly, the reason for the hold-up became painfully clear to him. There was something here on the bridge, something that shouldn't be here. Feeling his heartbeat increase, he cautiously reached back into his pocket and retrieved his Digivice.
"What was that strange sound?" the driver asked, craning his neck to try and make out something through the thick layer of fog that obscured their vision. When he couldn't see anything, he unlocked the door and stepped outside as if that would help him see through the fog. Once he was outside, Matt reached over and shook his sleeping partner and brother awake.
"Hey, wake up guys." he whispered quietly. "There's trouble brewing."
Author's Note: Yup, there is indeed trouble brewing for our young heroes. After a lot of consideration, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to show a few of the changes that happened to the other Digidestined, since they are in fact the result of Davis being involved in the invasion in a way that he wasn't in canon. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Chapter 5!
Now, I don't know about you guys but I feel like the "fight" situation in this chapter was kind of stiff. Of course, there was a lot of conversation going on during that same fight, but I still feel like that scene right there definetely wasn't my brightest moment as a Fanfic Author. I would appreciate it if someone who was well-versed in the art of writing fight scenes could give me a few pointers, either in a review or in a PM.
Speaking of reviews, I am sad to say that we didn't reach the Review Goal I had set for the last chapter, which was 100 reviews. I admit that maybe I was being a little too optimistic, but I am confident that we can get past 100 reviews with this chapter! I'm just gonna leave it at that. On a side note, I want to take the time out to say that this story is now the most reviewed and followed Digimon story on this site that have been posted within the last 6 months, and it is currently tied at 87 favs within the same time period (with Digimon Hunter Davis). That is INSANE! Thank you guys so much! You're awesome and I feel so happy knowing that people appreciate the work I put into this story!
And of course, to my Honorable Guest: Yeah, Davis is still making it up as he goes along. It is still Davis after all. Actually, I am not entirerly sure if it is canon or not that humans become more impervious to injury while in the Digital World or not. I mean, Kari twisted her ankle pretty easily in Adventure 02 and TK beat the living crap out of Ken while he was the Emperor. Though admitedly, 02 did have a lot of trouble with consistency...
I guess that Homeostasis and Yggdrasil do fill similar roles, but I prefer to think of them as separate beings since they haven't been officially confirmed to be the same entity. Also, as far as I can tell Homeostasis didn't have any actual powers (unless you count possessing 8-9 year old girls as a power) whereas Yggdrasil seems to have some kind of connection or control over the existance of the Digital World. Maybe that's just the impression he made on me though, and I admit that my impression of him comes more from the Digital Monster X-Evolution movie than from Data Squad/Savers. And while it is plenty of fun to speculate, it won't lead us anywhere since the name Homeostasis haven't even been mentioned since the Adventure series so we can't confirm anything.
Anyway, I imagine that there was a lot to comment upon in this chapter, since I am heading into uncharted territory with my writing here. A lot of my writing comes from me being able to relate the characters I portray and while I have been in life-death situation, I have never experienced them next to a Digital Dinosaur, so it's hard to really relate to what the characters might be feeling or thinking in that situation. I'll cross my fingers that it turned out okay though. Hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to reading your next review! :)