A/N: Finally, I know that it has been at least a week since I have posted and I am sorry for the wait, please enjoy. Thanks to Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967 and KittyKatt67 for reviewing chapter 11. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, if I did, I would have given Grumblemon a less annoying way of speaking. ;)
The Warrior of Hope
Chapter 12
No Whamon
I tried to relax against the side of the car, but I cried out when I felt stabs of pain in my back. Zoe looked at me with concern, "What's the matter, Jade?"
"Nothing, my back is just a little sore from my collision with the wall." I didn't want everyone worrying about me, when they should be worrying about the egg. Suddenly, the Trailmon sped up. I braced my feet against the floor. "Looks like this is going to be a bumpy ride, everybody hold on." Everyone nodded and grabbed whatever was close to them. We went around the first turn, my body was about to fly into Tommy, so I quickly pushed my back against the wall, ignoring the pain. I sat there, with my feet pushing me against the wall, the pain so bad that I couldn't even pay attention to what anyone was saying.
We sped up even more right after the next turn, making me push even harder with my feet. We turned around another corner, and the ride became a little smoother, but not much. Bokomon walked up to Zoe and said something, while taking the egg from where she was holding it close to her. He put it in his pink band. Tommy reached out to touch the egg, but Bokomon slapped his hand away. Man, this pain in my back is getting worse. I started to see black spots. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but they only got worse, and then I blacked out.
I awoke to a sharp sting in my cheek. I blinked a couple of times to see Zoe standing over me, getting ready to slap me again, "Come on, wake up!" I covered my face with my hand when her hand started to get closer. "Oh, you're awake!" Zoe brought her hand back.
"Ouch, what did you do that for?" I rubbed my cheek with my hand.
"You passed out, if I hadn't woken you up, you would have fallen right out of the Trailmon." Zoe had her hands on her hips.
"Well, thank you." I smiled up at her.
"End of the line and all is fine. Happy travels." Trailmon told us. Zoe helped me get out of the back and onto the ground. Trailmon backed up and we all waved goodbye.
Koji looked down at me with his arms crossed, "What happened?"
"Well, I just, um, maybe passed out." I looked at the ground.
"You maybe passed out? Jade, if something is the matter, then we can talk about it. If you get to the point of passing out, then it is not okay." Koji was getting really mad, but I know that he was really just concerned.
"Hey, don't get mad at her. It wasn't her fault. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think that it might have been from her hitting the wall before. It did some pretty bad damage to her back." Zoe tried to stick up for me. Wait, Zoe was sticking up for me? This was something new.
"No, he's right. You even asked me what was wrong, and I lied, saying that I was only sore, when the pain was obviously above being sore." I smiled at Zoe, still avoiding Koji's eyes.
Koji sighed, "Let's have a look at your back, then we will have to get moving before Grumblemon and the others catch up with us. Lie down on your stomach." I did as I was told and he was about to lift up my shirt when Zoe smacked his hand away.
"I'll do it, you boys look away. I'm sure Jade doesn't want you looking up her shirt, even if it is only her back." Zoe shooed the boys away and took a peek at my back. She gasped, "Wow, this is even worse than I thought."
"What?" I turned my head to look at her.
"Your back is bleeding. We will need something to cover it up. Bokomon, do you have any cloth that we can use in there?" Zoe looked at the white digimon.
"Of course." He searched his pink band until he came across some purple cloth. He handed it to Zoe.
"Alright, you should sit up, so that I can wrap this around you. Boys, if you even think of peeking, I will hit you so hard that you will forget your own name." Zoe glared at the boys while I followed her instructions. I took of my shirt so that I only had on my black tank top over my black bra. I blushed and turned my back to the boys, taking it off the tank top. Zoe quickly wrapped the cloth around me, tying it in the front. I hurried to put my tank top back on, followed by my shirt.
I stood up, still a little shaky on my feet. Koji quickly came over to me and put his arm around my waist to help me walk. I put my arm around his shoulders. We started to run through the cave, knowing that we had wasted enough time. "Hey everybody, there's an opening up ahead." Takuya announced.
"Let's just hope it gets us outside." Koji remarked.
"Yeah." Takuya agreed as we ran through the opening to another cave. The cave had many support beams holding up the ceiling and a pool in the middle of the room. There was a path zigzagging down to the floor from where we stood. We groaned.
"This doesn't look like outside to me, does this look like outside to you?" J.P. complained.
"Well, duh! It's an underground cavern." Zoe said.
"Where's the exit?" Takuya asked.
"There must be one somewhere." Koji replied.
"Right." Takuya agreed. Koji slowly took his arm from around my waist, looking at me to make sure that everything was okay. I nodded and took my own arm back. Zoe came to stand beside me, nodding at Koji to go. He and Takuya leapt from the opening, going to search for an exit.
"Hey, wait for me! If Grumblemon finds us down here, we'll be in big trouble." Tommy jumped down after them, with Bokomon and Neemon following behind him.
"Let him find us, I'm not afraid of that stupid runt!" J.P. said angrily.
"Wow, are you trying to impress me with this show of courage, J.P.?" Zoe looked over at him.
"I'm not trying to show anything, give me a break, will you? Grumblemon stole your spirit and I want to get it back, it's as simple as that." J.P. looked to her with determination on his face.
"I'm a…" Zoe seemed speechless.
"Maybe we should just turn back and fight him and get this over with." J.P. said.
"Do you really mean that?" Zoe asked.
"Yeah, you'd better believe it." J.P. replied.
Zoe shrugged, "Well, it's your funeral."
J.P. pouted, "Can I change my mind?" He jumped down to help the others search.
"You know, we could probably get a lot more done if you went to help them. You don't have to stay with me." I looked down at the boys searching along the walls, feeling useless.
"If I left you here, who would help you if we were attacked? You're the princess, right? I couldn't leave you all alone here if I knew that something bad was going to happen." Zoe smiled at me.
"Wow, I'm not complaining, but when did you stop hating me?" I looked at her with curiosity.
"I never really hated you, I just strongly disliked you." Zoe laughed, "But, I guess it was when I saw your leg and how injured it was. I knew that if I hadn't pushed you to help us pull Koji out, then it probably wouldn't have been that bad. I felt bad that I had caused you pain." Zoe bit her lip.
I smiled at her, "It wasn't your fault, if I wasn't so stubborn, I would have quit, even with you challenging me." She smiled back and held her fist up. I held mine up and we fist bumped. Suddenly, water shot out of the pool, hitting Tommy and J.P., throwing them against the wall. "Tommy!" We all yelled.
"J.P.." Tommy mumbled.
"Oh, gee, are you all right little man?" J.P. held Tommy by his shoulders. "Hey, how come nobody yelled out my name?" More water started to come out of the pool; actually, it looked like all of the water was coming out of the pool. J.P. screamed.
"Mama mia!" Zoe exclaimed.
"Definitely," Takuya started.
"Not good." Koji finished. The water started to die down, revealing a giant whale-like digimon.
"What's Whamon doing down here? He lives in the ocean." Bokomon asked.
"Who is Whamon?" Zoe looked at Bokomon.
"He's a whale digimon, and he seems to be quite out of his element." Bokomon explained.
"I can't stand it anymore, do you hear me? I can't stand it!" Whamon yelled.
"He's normally a very gentle digimon, something really must be upsetting him." Bokomon said.
"I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home!" Whamon yelled, thrashing around.
"We've got to stop him!" Koji said.
"Um, all right, I'm ready to go when you are." Takuya said. They both got out their D-Tectors. Takuya yelled, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" He turned into Agunimon.
Next, Koji yelled, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" He transformed into Lobomon. They both jumped onto Whamon, trying to reason with him. "Alright big guy, just calm down."
"Yeah, what is the matter with you?" Agunimon asked.
"Leave me alone!" Whamon threw his head back, making Lobomon and Agunimon fly off. They both landed on their feet. They looked at each other and nodded. They jumped onto Whamon again, this time yelling at him that he was going to doom us all by taking out the support beams. Whamon calmed down after hearing this.
"Come on, let's go talk to him." I started down the path, dragging Zoe along with me for support if I needed it. It was taking so long, that Lobomon jumped over to us. He pulled me into his arms and nodded at Zoe before he jumped back down to where Whamon was finally calmed down in the water.
"You seem to be feeling better now, Whamon. Can you tell us why you were so upset?" Zoe jumped down easily, not having to wait for me anymore. I felt guilty; all I do is slow everybody down.
"Oh, I hate this place! I just want to go back to my home in the ocean. Until very recently, I was swimming, happy and free in the sea, not a care in the world. Then, one day I saw this delicious looking glowing plant. I couldn't help myself, I decided to take a little nibble. Oh, it was yummy! Suddenly, a giant wave pulled me towards the beach. All the rocks started breaking and they fell around me as I was pulled someplace. Next thing I knew, I was stuck in this place with no way out!" Whamon started to cry.
"Here we go again." Agunimon said.
"You don't have to be such a big crybaby." Lobomon told him.
"He's sure losing a lot of water, is that normal?" Neemon asked.
"No idea." Bokomon replied.
"This is embarrassing, does he really think all that blubbering is going to help him?" J.P. asked before doubling over in pain.
"Hey, are you okay, J.P.?" Tommy asked.
"I'll be fine once I get this pain to go away." J.P. replied, still holding his stomach.
"A-a-an-and it's all my fault that you guys got hurt! I'm so sorry!" Whamon cried.
"You're forgiven, all right?" J.P. was obviously annoyed.
"Well, at least you have some company now. We're stuck here too. Maybe with your help we can figure out a way to escape." Zoe said, looking on the bright side.
"Huh? Okay!" Whamon stopped crying immediately. I smacked my forehead with my hand, so this is all it takes to make him stop crying? We should have Zoe talk more often. Whamon sunk down into the water, breathing heavily. "Whamon!" We all yelled. All the water disappeared, leaving Whamon at the bottom of the empty pool. Suddenly, Grumblemon burst out of the bottom of the pool, showing us the cause of the water being drained.
"Grumblemon!" We all yelled.
"No where hide now." Grumblemon chuckled. "Me so glad we see each other again, only this time me steal your spirits good!" His bad grammar was giving me a headache.
"You're an annoying little gnome, you know that?" Lobomon said.
"Yeah, what he said, oh, and by the way, you're not stealing anything from anyone ever again. We're not afraid of you anymore, Grumblemon!" Agunimon said.
"Na na na na nana, Grumblemon!" Grumblemon said. "You will be!" He pulled out a small bottle. "Look, look." He waved the bottle in front of his face, making a shiny powder come out. When it touched the ceiling, circles appeared. "You may think it Gigasmon spirit, but I have other powers. You no defeat me, earth spirit be mine. Me first to find you, so Mercurymon and others no will have you now, it too late for them. Meet my new friends." Grumblemon laughed as the circles on the ceiling became Golemon. Then, a giant Golemon rose from beneath him. "Get them!" Grumblemon ordered.
The Golemon rushed at us, "Let's turn these rocks into pebbles." Agunimon and Lobomon attacked the Golemon. "Pyro Tornado!" Agunimon became a tornado of flames. He destroyed four Golemon.
"Lobo Kendo!" Lobomon took out his blade and destroyed five Golemon.
"Nice job guys, keep it up!" I cheered. Suddenly, three Golemon started to come towards us. I stumbled backwards, still finding it hard to walk. Zoe and Tommy helped me up, helping me back up towards the wall.
"Excuse me gentlemen, we could use some assistance over here!" Bokomon called out.
"Be right there!" Agunimon told us.
"We're on the way." Lobomon said. Before they could come to our rescue, two hands on ropes reached out and grabbed them. I looked over to see that the hands came from Arbormon.
"Hey, let go!" J.P. shouted before running forward, only to grab his stomach in pain.
"No, you can't fight in this condition!" Zoe grabbed his arm.
"She's right, the best thing we can do now is hide!" Bokomon said before running to hide.
"Hey, good hiding, you're invisible." Neemon said.
"Over here, brainiac." Bokomon said.
"Wow, you're pretty fast too." Neemon commented.
"You meathead, the only reason I'm hiding is because I have to protect Seraphimon's egg!" Bokomon yelled at him.
"Mmhmm." Neemon looked at him suspiciously.
"I refuse to just hide and give up!" J.P. said.
"J.P., you're too badly hurt right now, Agunimon and Lobomon will think of something, we have to trust them." Tommy told him.
"Come on Zoe, think. If only I could spirit evolve." Zoe looked down at her D-Tector.
I put my hand on her shoulder, "You can't fight, but I can." I pulled out my D-Tector and prepared to use it.
"No, you're hurt even worse than J.P., there is no way that you can fight." Zoe tried to pull it out of my hands.
"I have to try, Agunimon and Lobomon can't hold out much longer, their fractal codes are outside their bodies right now, and I'm the only one with a beast spirit that can help them." I pulled my D-Tector out, "Execute, Beast Spirit Evolution!" I felt myself transforming into Gatowomon. "Gatowomon!"
I went over to help Agunimon and Lobomon; I couldn't let them get their spirits taken. "J.P., look out for Tommy and Zoe!" I called out to him as I ran.
"Kitty wants to play?" Arbormon looked down at me, "Fine, Power Pummel!" His foot came out on a rope, trying to kick me into the wall. I dodged it.
I jumped up to where he was standing, "Cat Claw!" My claws extended and I slashed the rope that was attached to the hand that held Lobomon.
Behind me, I heard J.P. yell, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" He turned into Beetlemon.
Tommy came next, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" Kumamon appeared.
I smiled; they were definitely trying to help. The distraction of my friends gave Arbormon his chance, "Blockade Seed!" He fired a small seed from his mouth, hitting me in the back and releasing vines that surrounded my body. I felt them tighten, and then I felt my energy being sucked away.
"No, I've got to get free!" My body was already tired from the earlier fight; I couldn't take much more of this. I struggled, but my energy was already gone.
Across the room, J.P. and Tommy were losing their fight as well. "Arbormon, take care them while me get spirit!" Grumblemon yelled.
"I'm on it Grumblemon, but first I've got to change, into something more comfortable." He released Lobomon and Agunimon. "Arbormon Slide Evolution! Petaldramon!" He became a giant log with a flower for a face. "Much better."
I was still losing energy, I could barely focus on the fact that Whamon had just spit out J.P.'s beast spirit. I closed my eyes for a second, and when I opened them I was looking at a blue and yellow tank with a cannon on its head, "MetalKabuterimon!" He charged up an attack, "Bolo Thunder!" He shot energy from both his arms that resembled a two-weight bola. Unfortunately, it hit the ceiling instead of Grumblemon. He continued attacking, hitting the ceiling many more times.
"He can't control it." I mumbled, glad that he hadn't aimed for the ceiling above me yet.
"Gatowomon, we have to head for cover!" Lobomon was next to me. "Lobo Kendo!" He used his sword to cut the vines from my body. He grabbed my arm and I followed him, dodging falling pieces of the ceiling. Grumblemon was backing up towards the one Golemon left. It looked like he was trying to reason with MetalKabuterimon, but all he succeeded in doing was making him realize that he was hitting the ceiling. It seems that J.P. finally got control of his beast spirit.
"Electron Cannon!" MetalKabuterimon yelled, shooting electricity out of the cannon on his head. It was a perfect hit, there was no way Grumblemon could have dodged it. "MetalKabuterimon, Slide Evolution! Beetlemon!" He walked towards Grumblemon, who had his fractal code showing. "Fractal code, digitize!" He scanned the fractal code with his D-Tector, taking Grumblemon's spirit and releasing Kazemon's spirit.
Lobomon, Agunimon and I all changed back into our human forms. I looked up at the ceiling, "Guys, we have to get out of here." The ceiling was crumbling; it was going to crash down on us any second. I started to run, dragging them along with me, until they finally got the message.
"Run!" Takuya yelled to the others, but they seemed caught up in the moment. "Run! Didn't you hear me? Run!" They finally looked up at us, just as water started crashing down from the ceiling. It flooded the room, and I was plunged into darkness. I could still breathe, and I wasn't covered by water anymore.
"Did we die?" I heard Tommy ask.
"Uh, I don't think so." Zoe replied.
"Smells like something did, phew." J.P. commented.
"Ew, thanks for mentioning that." I said, noticing the smell for the first time. Suddenly, I could see light coming in from between what looked like teeth. Are we inside of something? The teeth opened to reveal water.
"It's the ocean." Tommy said. "It's Whamon!" We all exclaimed at once.
"I don't know how you saved us, but thank you." Bokomon said. I noticed that everyone had made it out of the cave inside of Whamon, I sighed in relief.
"Yeah, and welcome home, Whamon." Zoe said.
"Oh, I'm the one that should be thanking you, without your help, I might have been stuck in that cave forever. Hold on everybody, we should be reaching the island very soon." Whamon informed us.
"Island?" Takuya asked. We all looked out across the ocean, trying to catch a glimpse.
I felt someone come up behind me and wrap their arms around my waist. "I was afraid for a second there that I had lost you." Koji whispered into my ear. I leaned back into his embrace, careful not to let my back touch his chest.
"You can't get rid of me that easily. I'm just glad that everyone is okay." I relaxed in his arms, enjoying the time we had together before our inevitable next battle.
A/N: Finally, no more Grumblemon! I was really getting tired of the way he talks. Please review! :)