Chapter 12 : Prisons
Matadrumon =Matadormon
Shisamon=Seasarmon
Nohemon= Nohemon
Closely pressed to the hard, rocky walls Cody glanced around a corner, Armadimon trailing carefully around his feet. Koichi stood behind him, and waited for his decision.
After following the corridor they had reached a cross way and now Cody had to decide which way to go, since Koichi apparently couldn´t feel his friends.
The corridors still looked exactly the same since they had entered.
Following the current path ahead they were going to run into a dead-end. The way continued for a short while before stopping at a black wall. Even from where Cody stood now, he could see that there were no corners for the way to continue. Why a dead-end had been built into a huge fortress like this was beyond Cody. Not that he wanted to understand what was going on inside the head of this place´s mastermind.
Following the way to his left, Cody could already spot another next cross-way. To his right the way continued around a curve after a while. Cody had no idea which way was better, but he chose to try his left. Maybe they could spot something from there.
Cody took a first step, but was jerked back immediately with a hand covering his mouth. In a panic attack he was about to strike whoever held him back.
"Shhh!" He recognized the voice as Koichi´s and Cody relaxed a bit. But he remained prepared to strike. Cody still didn´t trust Koichi unlike Davis or Ken. Koichi removed his hand and gestured to be quiet. His primarily confusion was quickly replaced with dread and appreciation.
Steps sounded quietly through the corridors. 1..2..3…4…more than 6 at least, he guessed. Pressed against the wall Cody waited and tried to determine from which direction the echo came. The owners of the steps were still far away, but if Cody and Koichi were able to hear their steps, the same thing must true for the other way around.
He looked at Koichi; signaling him that he understood the situation, but Koichi didn´t meet his glance. Instead he starred with widening eyes ahead. Cody followed, but only saw the dead-end.
"What is a dead-end doing in a fortress like this?" Koichi whispered to him with an emotion Cody couldn´t identify.
Before he could reply, Koichi glanced around the corner, behind them and, to Cody´s shock, tiptoed fast to the dead-end.
"What are you doing?" He hissed to the elder boy as soon as he had caught up; Armadimon in his arms. Armadimon wasn´t good at moving quickly and quietly. Koichi was searching the wall fanatically, gliding with his hands over the rough material and….pressing it a bit down under his hands?
Not sure Koichi had heard his question Cody opened his mouth to repeat it, when he was cut off by an eager sounding Koichi.
"There should be no dead end. No matter who built this place. A dead-end like this is a waste of space." Koichi whispered, not looking at Cody. He inspected a torch. Lifted it from its holder and inspected the place it had hung from before.
"What is he talking about?" Armadimon inquired from his arms.
"A hidden door." Cody answered, having understood Koichi´s point, "but we can´t waste time like this." Cody set Armadimon down and glanced back down the different corridors. The steps have become more and more pronounced. Cody sincerely hoped they were heading towards the entrance they had crated few minutes back, preferably through another route than they had come from.
If they waited till the patrols past by them, they could sneak out behind them and walk the way the troup came from. There was bound to be something.
"Help me search. Will be found out otherwise." Koichi said, finally having finished one side of the corridor and now proceeding to the back wall.
"We don´t even know if here really is one or where it –"Cody stated, getting annoyed with his partner on this stupid mission.
"I know!" He hissed back impatiently, "but we don´t have a choice! Troops are coming from all directions. If we don´t find this, we will be caught."
"How do you know where they come from?" Cody asked startled. The steps were loud enough to make him raise his voice above whispering. Koichi still didn´t face him and continued to press his hands on every tile and trace the connections.
"You can hear them, can´t you? And look where we came from. I can you see the little light point down the corridor? That wasn´t there earlier." How Koichi had managed to notice all that when Cody hadn´t noticed Koichi taking his eyes of the wall even once while he had looked at him was a mystery to him, but Cody obeyed none the less. It wasn´t as if he had looked only at Koichi this whole time and maybe it had something to do with his Spirits. Darkness is ought to be happy in this creepy corridors.
Cody followed Koichi´s example and lifted the second of the two only torches of its holder and used its light to inspect the rough tiles. He pressed with all of his strength against each and every one, but they didn´t budge. Let alone activating any mechanism, he couldn´t even make them budge the way Koichi did. Again, he didn´t want to know, how much power he had in a single hand. But Cody couldn´t help thinking about it none the less and somehow the presence of the older boy near him was almost scarier than an unknown number of Digimon closing in on them.
"Here is a hole." Armadimon said sniffling in a corner. Koichi was immediately down by his side and inspecting whatever Armadimon had found. Cody scrambled over near panic mode. He didn´t dare to turn around, but he could already hear yelling and cursing.
"Give me that!" Koichi ripped the torch from his hands and slammed it in the second corner on ground level of the back wall.
Nothing happened and slower than good the realization dawned on him that they would have to fight. Just as he finished that thought, Cody noticed that something was happening after all. The wall quietly and slowly phased out of existence and back again, allowing them to see that the dead-end actually continued for another few yards before giving way to a bigger space, but Cody couldn´t make out any more than that.
As the wall once again disappeared, Cody -carrying Armadimon again- and Koichi quickly stepped through. Just in time as well. Turning around, to face the reappearing wall Cody noticed that both torches down in the corners had disappeared far faster than it would happen from simply burning down. With delayed shock he realized that they had used the last time the wall would disappear with the two torches they had as keys. Not only that, a Matadrumon had led a troop of Shisamon and Nohemon to them. He wondered why the Nohemon hadn´t shot any arrows they definitely had been in reach, but then he remembered that he had a Spirit holder next to him. If anything, Koichi was wanted alive.
His blood froze and he had to forcefully calm his mind down, by reminding himself it was over. Cody had been as good as dead just now. Saved by circumstances.
"That was close", Koichi panted, and for the first time Cody felt some kind of connection to the boy next to him. They were in this together. Not cooperating meant death. Not looking out for each other meant death. Not trusting each other meant death.
Cody swallowed. Looking at the elder Digidestined, steading himself against the wall and calming his breath with shaking hands, he couldn´t help but think how irrelevant his problem with the other was. Not to mention that it had almost got them killed.
"We have to keep moving," Cody said as soon as he remembered that only another pair of torches was needed to open the wall again. And in the previous corridors were more than enough. Koichi nodded, standing upright again and slowly setting one foot ahead of another, creeping closer to the room the corridor ended in. Cody did as well, but he couldn´t shake a terrible sense of foreboding.
Something was not right.
That thought got stronger with each step he took. Yet, what Cody could see of the room didn´t do anything to give reason to his worries. Cody caught glimpses of what he supposed were pillars. Still too far away to judge how tall, wide or how many there were from inside the corridor, Cody tried to see anything other important. But from the likely only little part of the room he could spot from still pretty deep inside the corridor he only saw walls as black as they were where he was right now.
Moving forward along the wall, Cody felt that slowly tiles were replaced by simple black walls. With his hands and back he scratched along few sticking out rocks. Entering what Cody now noticed was more a hall than a room he heard Koichi gasp next to him.
Only one look told Cody that he had missed something important. Koichi´s eyes were widened in horror, maybe shock. Quickly assuming the worst Cody scanned the hall, but saw nothing too out of the ordinary.
The hall was huge, 50 yards in diameter, Cody guessed. Everything seemed to be round. It didn´t have a celling per say, more of a dome circling upwards from the floor for about 20 or 30 yards. Walls and ground, as well as columns were made of the same black material the way they had just left was. The columns order made a perfect circle, of maybe 20 yards in diameter. Torches hung from the walls, but they alone weren´t enough to allow Cody to spot all those details. One of the 10 pillars glowed in a faint, yet strong white. Other than that, Cody noticed nothing extraordinary.
Koichi´s expression had now changed to fear and utter fury, his shaking fists were clenched tightly and he took shallow breathes. It scared Cody.
He froze as he heard a step. Neither of them had moved. Almost not daring to, Cody let his eyes leave Koichi, mentally preparing for something more terrifying.
"Welcome." A terribly high and unpleasant voice said.
Koichi had never seen the Digimon that had just stepped out from behind of the white column personally before, but he remembered seeing it in Izzy´s analyzer yesterday. Phelesmon. Ultra. Evil Digimon. The one responsible for Takuya´s blackout for two weeks.
Phelsmon put a hand on the white pillar and caressed it with its claws, not taking its eyes of them.
Koichi took a shaky breath in a futile attempt to calm his boiling blood. He didn´t remember ever being that angry. Not with Cherubimon or Icedevimon, not even with Lucemon. Another breath. He couldn´t afford to let his hatred infect his Darkness in a wrong way, but Lowemon was equally furious. The relationship between light and dark had always been special, not just because right now they were twins.
And yet…. Yet this creature had dared to harm him in the unforgivable way.
To top it off not only Koiji, but all the others, too. JP, a bright yellow sparkling pillar, Tommy, ice flowers blooming on the pillars surface, Zoe, invisible wind building a tornado around it, water, a blue and unruly one, wood, brown with wooden patterns, earth, dirty and uneven, finally steel, silvery and smooth. Each pillar channeling the energy into the ship, providing it with power. Feeding of them.
Koichi could feel it a bit. Koij´s emotions. Agony, fear, desperation, hope, pain, confusion, loneliness. He felt his twin´s presence only weakly, by far not as strong as it is supposed to. It was on the verge of disappearing. Dying. Everyone was.
He felt so angry, he couldn´t move. Koichi didn´t trust himself to. Right now he was out for blood. The one´s who was responsible; not held back by his elements neutrality. It was invalid when his light twin´s life was involved.
Paying the price would definitely come.
"Armadimon evolve to….Ankylomon!" Koichi hardly saw Ankylomon attack Phelesmon.
His wrist was grabbed by Cody´s shaking one. He pulled him back in the corridor, or rather tried to. Koichi didn´t move. Couldn´t move. His Darkness was swelling dangerously low beneath his skin. Just one more little push away.
"What are you doing?" Cody hissed and jerked one more time. "We have to get away from here!" Koichi registered the urgency in Cody´s voice, but he couldn´t translate what it meant; too much was his mind occupied with anger. So he only answered to the meaning he had understood. Leave.
"We can´t." Not once did his eyes lose contact with his brother´s pillar. The more he stared at it, the more the facts sank in. Koji, everyone was alive. Alive. He took a still shaky breath.
"We can´t. My brother and everyone are in those pillars."
Cody let go of his hand and entered the hall again. "Then what should we do?" He asked, "Ankylomon alone can´t beat Phelesmon. " Cody took out his D-terminal, glancing at it, he stated, "And back up won´t come for more than 20 minutes."
There was nothing backup could do anyway. Phelesmon had escaped from Imperialdramon. Another ultra could hardly do much.
They had to outsmart him.
"I don´t know", Koichi admitted. "But we have to do something." Koichi watched Phelesmon easily dodge Ankylomon´s attacks. The latter had already few scratches covering his back.
"We will distract him." Cody said, "You go to these pillars. I wouldn´t be much help with that anyway. To me they all look the same. "
Meeting Koichi´s eyes Cody nodded once and then left to get closer to his partner. Koichi still didn´t understand that particular part of the Partner System. The closer the better?
That kind of thought disappeared as soon as it was finished; drowned out by his emotions.
Koichi sneaked along the walls as quietly and fast as he could without catching Phelsmon´s attention; amazed by how stupid and simple this plan was. Though, maybe he didn´t even need to be careful. Phelsmon seemed highly entertained by Ankylomon. Koichi shuddered when he saw it lick its whip. Disgusting. His gaze drifted involuntarily back to his twin, making it so easy to forget to be careful. Koji´s pillar was the closest to him, which was lucky. That way Koichi didn´t have to question whom to save first. Whoever was closest or his brother. Now both titles fell to Koji.
Just a few more steps…
His brothers light was blinding despite its weakness.
Few more…
"Koichi!"
Koichi didn´t have time to look why he was called. Something hard hit him and sent flying across the ground.
Groaning, Koichi lifted his hurting head. Dazed, he hadn´t felt his scratched skin and bruised bones. Almost falling back down into unconsciousness, Koichi saw Cody and Armadimon as a colored blob. What held him awake was that he saw dark boots way to close to on the ground next to him.
"Thought, you were smart?" The owner of the boots taunted. "Just like the other."
Fighting dazzling blackness in his sight Koichi forced his eyes to wander upwards, ignoring the pain and beating headache that came with it. Phelesmon looked down on him with an amused cruel smile on his lips.
"But you are bowing." It stated pleased. "Not that I would ever forgive anything you or that other have done because of it." Koichi briefly wondered, just what Takuya had done to piss it off. He hadn´t heard anything about that.
Fighting with his breaking mind and body Koichi tried to stand up; not having more strength, he didn´t strain his mind by wondering what had happened to Cody and Armadymon.
Phelsmon kicked him and Koichi crashed against the next wall. He felt his senses leave him, but he didn´t pass out. Too much was happening inside his head to rest peacefully in his own Darkness. His head felt overloaded; coming closer to exploding every heartbeat. The presences around him were in turmoil filling his head and erasing every thought as soon as it formed.
Now that his head was empty from his own thoughts, Koichi felt his friends' emotions so clearly. It was them who prevented him from passing out. But Koichi didn´t have energy to move. And likely neither a body still capable of it.
He felt a hand close around his throat. Something lifted him up, held him in the air above the ground, painfully cutting of his air supply.
"So much easier." Phelesmon mused, but Koichi couldn´t comprehend the meaning of its words. Everything hurt too much. His legs touched the ground as Koichi was dragged across the hall, but he didn´t feel it. Koichi wasn´t sure it was his body that was pulled; he saw many things overlapping. Himself being dragged from many different prespectives, Cody lying on the ground next to Armadimon trying to get up. "Other than the other brat, there is no way any of these things could have reclaimed their Spirits…."
Everything was getting blurry to him. Darkness filled every cell of his body, clearing his mind painfully empty of everything. Koichi couldn´t see anymore. He felt passing something. "There was no need to go complicated. We could have been done weeks ago."
Whatever it was made Koichi move. Slowly, with each muscle burning he lifted a hand to the iron claw around his neck. The claw didn´t budge. With every piece of strength he had, Koichi tried. It was no good.
A new wave of pain hit him when he was slammed against a new wall. This wall was cold. Deadly so. Even though his body was on fire he felt the cold. And it hurt. Almost more that the fire devouring him from the inside out.
"Hurt each other to death." Something said, the voice pounding painfully in his head.
Phelsmon.
Right.
He couldn´t loose.
It took a while for Koichi to realize that wasn´t his thought. It just came to him. But it was true. In an overwhelming sense, he felt that one sentence to be the truth of the universe.
Koichi felt his body burn more. And this time he fueled it; raising the torturous pain till just beneath his skin. His blood ran in hellish circles of freezing and boiling. It hurt, but he couldn´t scream; no air in his lungs and no knowledge how to form words. Pinned against Ice´s pillar which froze him from behind by no choice of its own, Koichi heard it.
Don´t give up...
Now he couldn´t lose anymore, but Koichi wondered if he would survive it none the less.
The looming Darkness in his skin ripped him apart cell from cell, invaded his mind. Burning and freezing at the same time, erasing everything but the sensation of pain and coming change. Clouding his sight, his senses and his body with pain Darkness roamed free; slowly changing him along; into the true and only Darkness.
And he slipped away. Away from the cruel claw. Unbelievable coldness surrounded him; making Koichi feel it despite being on the edge of his sanity and consciousness.
Then his back connected with something solid. Something, that Koichi knew to be the source of the ice that had and was still hurting him along with his own Darkness.
Koichi was pressing against it with no more strength than a slight touch and yet it gave in as easily as had it been floating in midair and started drifting in the same direction Koichi was still stumbling and falling.
Just as suddenly as he had slipped out of the claws hold Koichi left the infinite coldness behind. Falling to the ground, panting heavily with almost no control over his body or senses Koichi realized he had fallen backwards, passed right through the pillar Phelesmon had chocked him against as if it was nothing more than an illusion.
Ice´s pillar.
Tommy´s pillar.
He had taken Tommy out of it. Darkness´ characteristics. Koichi wanted to smile. Saved Tommy. He could still save more. Koji.
But he had no time to even breath to the boy who was looking at him with confusion and fear, for he collapsed screaming from pain as Darkness clawed his body apart and slowly, ever so slowly took something away, that would never return.
Darkness drowned the fire inside him, Darkness filled his every being, Darkness hurt beyond believe.
Readying his arm, Imperialdramon charged energy in the canon. He carefully adjusted the power level and density of the beam. Anything too much and all the Digimon would die. Not to mention that the canyon would collapse.
"Positron Laser!" Digimon hurried out of the destructive attack's path, but because they were so many, not all made it. Imperialdramon hit an Icedevimon and two Giromon. Hurt, and no longer able to fly the three fell. As they came close to him he kicked and punched them to either side, away from his friends on the ground.
The space emptied from his attack was quickly filled again with Digimon swarming towards him, forcing him to retreat lower. Imperiladramon readied his canon, charged and shot. Repeating the same process over and over. Each time he got more tired. Each time he got more scratches and wounds; he had neither time nor space to evade any attack. And if he did the attack would hit his partners below. One deep scratch had cut his left wing half way through. A part of his face mask had been cut. And he didn´t feel his right arm anymore.
Wargreymon and MetalGarurumon were doing the same as him. Shooting, hitting, retreating, shooting…
Wargreymon´s Brave Shield was cracked and a corner was missing. Both his claws were dripping with blood. Whose that was, Imerialdramon didn´t know. One of his horns and spikes on his shoulders were missing. The armor on both his arms was scratched and partly destroyed.
MetalGarurumon didn´t look any better. His entire body was cut up with armor breaking and he had a hard time keeping his balance in the air; one of his metal wings had been damaged. Moreover his munitions were running out.
Hopefully the others were making an escape plan, but he didn´t know. No matter what happened below them, Imperialdramon didn´t know. He had no time to spare to even steal a glance down.
Awkward. That´s the best word to describe the current situation. Kari was overly aware of the boy standing near her. A boy who was so similar to Tai and yet had this huge difference in attitude. Kari didn´t know what to think. Tai had dismissed the matter for later, but right now, standing next to him, Kari couldn´t help but think about it.
Killing.
Killing Digimon. She understood his argumentation, but in no way would she ever be able to think the same. Every life is precious. So how come Takuya had so little respect for it?
She watched the battle field. Lilimon and Zudomon were doing their best, but Lilimon´s purifying magic had no effect and attack was all that was left. But even then they didn't kill. How come Takuya could not see how important that was. What could make them have such a huge disagreement? Kari glanced back to Takuya, hoping that one look could answer her questions.
He was just simply standing there, watching the battle and cleaning a few of his cuts with a red piece of his jacked, but Kari could tell that in reality he saw something different. Pain and worry flashed across his face and Kari quickly averted her eyes, starring at cracking ground to his feet. Seeing insecurity on somebody like Tai just seemed wrong. She didn´t know her brother or even Davis to show these emotions.
Wait a minute. Cracking ground?
The ground was really breaking under his feet. Kari quickly scanned where she and Angewomon stood. Nothing. Back by him, the cracks got bigger. No way. Again?
"Takuya!" She yelled. He was too far away for her to do anything else. Why had she moved away from him? She was supposed to protect him. With her yell she got the attention of everyone present. Takuya, too looked at her confused. "Underground!" Cracks have spread and part was already falling down.
He reacted immediately; jumping backwards, dropping his blood soaked piece of jacked in exchange for clenching his fists and landing in a striking position. But he was too late.
So fast, that Kari couldn´t identify what it was; something shot from the small hole upwards and tangled itself around Takuya´s wrist. He, in turn grabbed it with his other hand and pulled, decreasing the pull to his other hand and increasing the pressure to whoever held the other end of the red string. Kari saw Angewomon pull the string of her bow and felt her charging a bow with deadly light and electricity.
Maybe Kari should have been worried or afraid, but she wasn´t. Looking at Takuya, seeing the dangerous glimmer in his eyes, his already burning fists, she felt that there was no reason to worry about him.
"Are you really alright with this?"
"No, I´m not, and will never be. That´s why I choose now."
Takuya didn´t receive an answer. Instead he felt how Agnimon´s flame and his fire were growing stronger and closer.
Two flames becoming one.
Takuya let his fire spread, starting from his fist and cheeks over his arms, covering his legs and setting the familiar whip on fire.
Takuya didn´t feel it. No fire could ever burn him. ON the contrary it was pleasant to be engulfed by his element. He felt invincible, like nothing could ever penetrate his fiery skin. Of course that was only a feeling, but it didn´t stop Takuya from enjoying it.
Still, he held his flames at bay, not allowing them to burn deeper in his skin just yet.
With a strong pull, that surpasses the strength a human should possess he forced Phelesmon out of the ground. Strangely it was dripping wet. Apparently there was an underground river or lake or whatsoever.
Angewomon behind Phelesmon had her arrow ready to shoot. She didn´t, though. Maybe because she would hit Takuya if she missed or maybe because she couldn´t decide, if to aim for the kill or not. That was just fine with him. He had a lot to pay back.
"You haven´t gotten any more beautiful." Takuya remarked. There was little distance between the two; it was enough for either retreat or attack though. For battle it was perfect.
There was just the little problem that Takuya was not ready for battle yet. He was still human.
To his surprise Phelesmon completely ignored Takuya´s comment. He just quickly checked what the other Digidestined were doing before retuning his attention to Takuya.
"You have caused us a lot of trouble." Phelesmon said with that voice that sent a chill down Takuya´s spine.
"It´s what I do, you damn clown." Phelesmon´s eyes flashed dangerously. Behind it Angewomon aimed carefully. Takuya sure hoped she wouldn´t miss. That arrow looked dangerous.
Just as she released the string Phelsemon jumped forward. With a outstretched hand aiming for Takuya. But Takuya had waited for that. Phelesmon had already seen Angewomon aim at him, so there was no way he would simply wait to be hit. Moreover the easiest way to avoid getting hit was to have a hostage. Namely Takuya, who was not only closest, but also the target from the very beginning. Takuya had waited for movement and now it came. He jumped backwards with inhuman speed.
Still it wasn´t enough. Phelesmon was faster and closed the distance between them fast. He aimed for his throat. Takuya caught the reaching claw with his burning hands. He made contact with the ground again and Takuya steadied himself, still holding the claw. Takuya noticed with stratification that Phelesmon had not expected to find himself engaged in a strength contest. With a human no less.
Sadly, though, Takuya remembered that both his hands were immobile, while Phelesmon still had one. And it was just a matter of time until said Digimon remembered that.
Before did Takuya decided to surprise it a bit more.
"Spirit Evolution!" He breathed through clenched teeth.
Oh yeah. The face was priceless.
He let every mental barrier collapse, allowing his fire to burn stronger and fiercer. Allowing his flames to devour his body and something really precious in exchange for strength.
"I´m sorry about the price."
I think this is quite a cliffhanger. :)
To be perfectly honest writing about Cody and Koichi on the inside is not as much fun as telling what happens outside. Hope it doesn´t appear in my
Please comment and criticize again. And thanks for the reviews.
21.1.12
I´ve edited the part where Koichi escaped Phelesmon and pushed Tommy out of the pillar more by accident than anything else, because i think it wasn´t clear enough how it happened.
More explanations to that will come in the next chapters anyway, though.