Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon TZ: The Beginning of The End (Original) ❯ The Village of Death ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Apprentice of Gennai 
The story is finally starting to shape up into something decent. Hey Elecmon's in this one!
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.25.2006 | Updated On: 03.25.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 7.8K | Visits: 235 | Status: Completed
The story is finally starting to shape up into something decent. Hey Elecmon's in this one!
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.25.2006 | Updated On: 03.25.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 7.8K | Visits: 235 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Why are you staring at me? Are you expecting something funny here?
Digimon TZ: The Beginning of The End
Episode 5: The Village of Death
by: Gennai's Apprentice
The Digidestined had already been living at Andromon's factory for six weeks now. After their last battle with Leomon, Gomamon had rejoined their ranks and Garudamon digivolved to Phoenixmon. Things had been pretty calm. Izzy and their new friend, Jenji, had developed strong enough weapons to repel Mega Digimon as well as a deflector shield. The factory was impenetrable, but the matter of DeviDramon on Infinity Mountain still had to be resolved, as well as regaining the rest of their Digimon friends.
"Hey, Tai. Have you seen my brother?" Matt walked into a room where it seems the rest of the Digidestined were gathered, but still no T.K. or even Kari. He had been looking for him for a while now, but he still hadn't seen him for two days at least.
"No, him and Kari are having their honeymoon."
"Oh, okay. I just wanted to talk to... WHAT!! Their having a..."
Sora's hand clamped over Matt's loud mouth preventing him from continuing his speech.
"They're married, remember? It's okay. They're a couple rooms down, you don't have to bother them." Sora whispered into his ear.
"Yeah, your right," Matt said in a much quieter tone, "but, here! Of all the places you could've had a honeymoon, why would you want to have one HERE?!"
Everyone looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Okay! Fine, the place isn't that bad." Matt sighed out loud and sat down against a wall. "It just seems like he grows up so fast. Sometimes I just wish he'd just be my little squirt."
"Looks like somebody else's got your little squirt now." Joe quipped.
"Yeah, I guess I always took him for granted. I mean, I was always out doing something, and he was living his life on his own. Now, he's got someone else, and I seem just so very lonely. I never really had an interest in girls, and singing was more like a hobby than a lifestyle. T.K. was pretty much all I've lived for, a little brother to protect. Even after I finally understood that he could take care of himself, I still stayed close to him until recently." Matt finished talking and sat himself down against a wall, and looked up at his friends.
"That's life, I guess." Tai spoke up, "But now, our little break from fighting's gotta end. DeviDramon continues to control File Island from Infinity Mountain. We've gotta bring him down, and soon. We can't do that by just sitting around here. We've gotta take action. There's just one problem, I can't seem to figure out how to get those two out of there..." Tai gave a quirky little smile as everyone else sweatdropped.
"Kari told me what room she and T.K. were going to be in," Tai continued, "I sorta followed them just to be sure. One thing I remember was seeing them carry lots of food into the room. I have a feeling they're going to be there for a while." Tai looked around to see if anyone had any suggestions.
Izzy's face brightened up, "We can set up a false alarm, it will draw them out as soon as they could throw their clothes on." He had a mischievous grin on his face.
"I never knew you could think of this sorta thing, Izzy." Mimi smiled into his face which melted into a passionate kiss. Even Sora put her arm around Tai, who blushed a bright red.
"Before we all start going on our own little honeymoons, why don't we carry out Izzy's plan so we could get outta this place, and save the rest of the Digimon," Joe said a little exasperated. Izzy and Mimi broke apart, and Tai gave a sweatdrop.
Izzy, who always seemed to have his headset on, openned a channel to Jenji, "Jenji, come in. It's Izzy. We need a favor from you."
"Hey Izz," T.K. replied on the other end. "He left to do some 'final touches' on something. He wouldn't tell me what it was."
"Oh, okay. Um, when exactly did you uh... end your um..."
"Honeymoon? A couple hours ago, we ran out of food."
A click came over the headset, meaning someone else had accessed the channel. Kari's voice was the next thing Izzy heard.
"Guess who was the one who ate most of it? Hmmm."
"Okay! So I was hungry! It sure does take a lot of energy out of you." T.K. replied bewilderedly.
Tai grabbed the headset off of Izzy's noggin, when he heard T.K. shouting something about being hungry.
"Which room were you at? You said you were going into the inspection room, but you never came out."
"We changed rooms. We knew you guys'd be waiting for us when we came out. We wanted to have some privacy and leave without having six people hovering over us. So right after we went in and you left, we left that room and went somewhere else. But forget... Hold on." T.K. immediately stopped talking and closed the channel, but Kari was still on.
"So li'l sis, where'd you get the headset, and what's T.K. doing?"
"I'm not your 'li'l sis' anymore Tai. I've grown up.
"Fine, BIG li'l sis."
Kari just sighed and answered the rest of his questions. "I borrowed Ogremon's headset, and my husband is talking with Jenji. Wait, I think T.K. wants to talk to you."
Another click and T.K.'s voice was heard. "Jenji wants all of you guys here immediately." he told Tai excitedly.
After they all met in the control room, they saw Biyomon and Gomamon trying to teach Ogremon how to play Minesweeper, but the computer had a tendency to crash contiuously. Kari had both her arms around T.K.'s neck who was trying to talk to Jenji and trying not to blush at the same time.
"Good, you're all here." Jenji said as he turned away from T.K. and motioned all the Digidestined to stand in a straight line. "I actually had doubts about you, that you'd all have lost your virtues and therefore, your strength. You were all chosen for your most visible virtues which made you the best choices for the Digidestined. There were of course, at least, more than a hundred kids in Heighten View Terrace at the time of the scan. But you eight were the ones chosen to be heroes someday, and you fulfilled that destiny. Now that you have all proven yourselves as the ones in the prophecies, I have decided that now is the time to give you these."
He opened a small digizoid steal box containing eight objects... they were eight Digivices. "I built these while in my hiding. One of the scrolls I stole were instructions for the construction of your original Digivices. They, of course, won't help your Digimon digivolve, bcause you have that power within you. Instead these will do its other functions as well as some modifications I made. It's a watch with an automatic change to Daylight Savings Time, a tracking device with a range of ten kilometers, and a two-way holograph communicator." Jenji knelt down on one knee as each of the Digidestined took a Digivice. After each one had taken their Digivices, Jenji stood up and finished his speech with a flourish, "Now go and fulfill the prophecy and complete your Destiny!"
Everyone stood their solemnly looking down at their Digivices which were exact replicas of the ones they had before. Gomamon and Biyomon stood at their partner's feet and Ogremon stood next to Mimi as well as Izzy. A new sense of duty came over the room.
Tai finally broke the silence, "Gang, we're up against a Digimon who's evil through and through. The only way we're going to beat him is if we retake our friends from his hold. We can't do this by simply staying here. We move tonight, when all of our supplies are gathered."
Mimi spoke up from beside Ogremon, "We're with you, Tai. All the way 'till the end, right guys?"
"Alright!!!" everyone cried as they jumped up with their hands in the air.
~@~
"Several of the scouts we sent out earlier have detected the departure of the Digidestined from their stronghold." Leomon said standing next to a holographic map board.
"How many more of the Digidestined Digimon do we still control?" asked an emotionless Andromon.
"We still have six," a restless Gennai replied, looing him straight into his dark red eyes. "We have Angemon, Gatomon, Greymon, Kabuterimon, Togemon, and Garurumon."
"Contact me again when there are any more developments. I will continue my battle plan development."
~@~
All eight adults and Gomamon were flying high in the air standing on top of Garudamon's huge feet. Joe, who was clutching her leg as tight as super glue, suffered from an intense case of acrophobia.
"Don't you fly around the world in airplanes, Joe?" asked a worried Gomamon.
"I do, but at least most of them are closed cockpit airplanes, and when I do fly in an old biplane once in a while, at least I'm fastened safely. This is completely INSANE!!!"
Everybody pulled their fingers out of their ears after Joe finished his fearful ranting.
They had left the factory and the savannah a couple hours ago and were in some sort of desert. Below was a huge waterfall.
"Hey guys, maybe we can stop here and get some rest, if that's alright with you Tai."
"Sure Sora. Garudamon, land us at the waterfall!"
After they landed at the waterfall, which was still a far off from Infinity Mountain, they rested, but were constantly on guard.
T.K. looked around him, this place looked very familiar to him. In fact, it brought images of Hogmon and Porkmon. Then he realized where he was. T.K. sat down as the rest of his friends were either drinking or cooling off in the pool that formed at the bottom of the waterfall, or were sitting and talking. Kari stopped talking to Tai and went over to sit by T.K., kissing him on the cheek as she sat down.
"What's wrong? You look concerned about something." she asked him.
"This was the place where Patamon and me talked about what he would first Digivolve to. He always looked to be a pig to me, so I suggested Hogmon and Porkmon. This was way before you joined us, and when Devimon split File Island up, and whatever. This place just reminds me so much of him." T.K. just sat there with his face buried in his hands and Kari's arm over him.
"We'll get him and all of our Digimon back soon. I'm sure of it. Then we'll restore the Digiworld and prevent this from ever happenning again." Kari said trying to comfort him.
"Thanks." He hugged Kari tightly, crying softly in her arms. "It's always good to know that when the world turns bleak, there's always somebody there to pick you up. I'm glad it was you."
The two stood up and walked over to Tai. T.K. whispered something in his ear and Tai called the group together.
"Okay guys, T.K. has something to tell us." said Tai as everyone shifted their attention towards him.
"Not far from here is Primary Village, we can probably go there and get some more rest. It's closer to Infinity Mountain and we could probably check out Elecmon and his DigiEggs. We can probably walk from here, but before we do, I'd like to make another announcement. From now on, would it be alright if everybody called me Takeru from now on? I'm a twenty-seven year-old man and for some reason, T.K. just reminds me of a boy I've now grown out of."
"Agreed and understood," Tai said as everybody nodded along with him, except Matt. "Did you get that Matt? He's not you're little brother anymore."
"Yeah, I got it, but it's just so weird. But I'll go along with it, Takeru." he replied as he turned to his younger brother, who had finally grown up in his eyes.
After they had left for Primary Village, a winged bowling ball rose from behind one of the rocks, and flew towards Infinity Mountain.
~@~
Leomon walked towards Andromon purposefully. Being under the control of the Black Rings, he had no choice.
"Andromon, DemiDevimon has reported in. The Digidestined are headed towards Primary Village." Leomon told Andromon, matter-of-factly.
From the shadows of the dimly lit castle walked in the tall figure of Gennai. Ever since he joined the Virus Digimon, he seemed to be growing even younger.
"Good, Elecmon could take care of them. We should mobilize immediately, Andromon."
"I do not believe a single rookie Digimon can stop the powerful and legendary Digidestined."
"I didn't say stop. You, who are controlled by those Black Rings, do not think as I, who still has a free will. I said 'take care' of the Digidestined. You are probably thinking that I would destroy them, but there are far worse things than death. I have already dispatched three of the Digidestined's Digimon under my care, as well as several others."
"You did this all without my permission?"
"Yes, and what are you going to do about it, Andromon? We must act quickly, for a decisive victory."
"Agreed." said Andromon nodding his head, "But you will be the one who will pay the consequences for failure."
"Don't worry, failure is no longer in my vocabulary..."
~@~
Even though Primary Village wasn't too far from the waterfall, everyone, except Joe, agreed to fly, to get there as fast as possible. As they neared the place, Garudamon landed to get some rest.
"Joe, let go of the leg, she's gonna de-digivolve now." Takeru said impatiently.
"Leggo of me Takeru! I want my MOMMY!"
"Settle down, Joe," Mimi chided, "the ground is only a foot away, just make the step."
As soon as he relaxed his frantic grip on her leg ever so slightly, Tai, Matt, Takeru, and even Izzy, grabbed Joe by the waist and yanked him away. This threw all five men to the ground as a light surrounded Garudamon who completed her de-digivolution.
Joe stood up immediately and started screaming at the four, still trying to get up, "I'M GONNA REALLY HURT YOU PEOPLE!!"
"He'll get over it, let's go." Takeru said sitting up and motioning towards Primary Village.
The rest of the way they walked, accompanied by Joe's now insistent whining. "At least I had a jeep in Africa and a van in China! Every time we come to the Digiworld, it's always walk, walk, walk! And these iron rods make poor walking sticks!"
"Oh, shut up, Joe. Those rods maybe pathetic walking sticks, but they can save your life in an attack."
Joe relaxed his expression and breathed a sigh of relief, "You know what? You're right, thanks, I needed that."
"Anytime." Tai replied.
When they arrived, all they saw was destruction around them. The cushiony ground had sunken in, the trees with their little baby toys were merely splinters with broken toys littering the ground. Not a block tower was standing. Not a single block was even on top of another. Everything was demolished, and it looked like it had been that way for a long time now.
"No. Not again." said Mimi murmured as she sank to the ground, on her knees, and sobbed into her hands. Aside from all the devastation, the only evidence that there were eggs and babies there were the small broken shells and the baby's small wicket cradles upturned.
"Elecmon! Elecmon! Where are you!" Takeru called out into the wreckage.
Everyone caught on quickly, and they all ran into the wreckage, leaving their "walking sticks" behind and looked around for the Caretaker of the Village. They all split up and went searching in every "nook and cranny".
"Hey guys, I found him!" cried out Takeru. Everyone raced to where he was standing.
Elecmon was lying belly down, facing an upside-down cradle with a cracked shell in one of his small hands. His eyes were closed.
"Is he dead?" asked a curious Kari.
"No," Izzy answered, "he would've turned into bits of data by now."
Mimi approached ever so cautiously, but when she was about a meter away, she stopped. Elecmon had started to speak.
"Digidestined, you are here, but too late. The Digidestined." Elecmon said and gave a slight chuckle, "You and those before you have caused this. Every time the Guardians send someone to 'save' the Digiworld, my village, my babies, are destroyed. It always happens. I'm going to end the destruction. The only way to do this is to end the legend of the Digidestined. Only then, can the true rebuilding begin."
Slowly, Elecmon's eyes opened, revealing a deep crimson color.
"A black ring's on his leg!" Tai shouted, grabbing Mimi out of the way right before Elecmon would've done his 'Body Attack' into her face.
"You must be destroyed, for the sake of my babies and the future of the Digiworld!"
"No, you've got it all wrong," Matt tried to explain, "we're not the bad guys! It's the Evil, Virus Mons who did this! They're your enemies, not us!"
"NO! YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!!"
Elecmon immediately tried to attack them again, jumping into the air for his 'Sparkling Thunder' attack, but Biyomon used her Spiral Twister, and Gomamon used his Marching Fishes attack to try to destroy the Black Ring. Instead of just destroying the Ring, they destroyed Elecmon as well...
"ELECMON!!!" Takeru shouted at the dissipating bits of data. Everyone had looks of sheer horror at what had just occurred. While staring in silence at the sky, another familiar voice was heard.
"Digidestined, has it ever occurred to you before, to talk things out before using brutal force?"
All of them stared at the figure before them, it was Gennai. He apparently came out of nowhere, but no one did anything, because everyone was rooted to their spots. He looked pretty much the same as before with his brown goatee and youthful looking face, with one exception. Unlike Jenji's robe, which had been a grayish-white, Gennai's was a deep black. Blacker than a black hole.
"I guess not." he continued, "Kill, kill, kill, is all you pretty much think of, isn't it?"
Mimi, who was appalled, not only by his appearance, which she preferred bright colors over the Gothic look, but also by the evil she felt eminating from him. "But we didn't mean to kill him, just save him from the Black Ring!" she cried out with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Ahh... I see, you were just trying to save your friend then. I guess the reason he died was because I inserted a special self-destruct device into that Black Ring."
"WHAT!!!" Tai and Takeru yelled in unison. The enraged duo charged the man unarmed. Gennai, on the other hand, had been advancing slowly every second, and was now only a few meters away from them. Tai leapt into the air to tackle him, while Takeru tried to charge him into his gut. But all of a sudden, they simply fell short of their goal, or actually, flew up.
"Telekenisis!" Gennai said indifferently. Both men flew high up into the air. Biyomon and Gomamon knew that something was very wrong immediately, and began to Digivolve, but they too were stopped.
"Confusion!" he said as he glared at the two Digimon.
"Umm... Sora," Biyomon said with a saddened look on her pink face, "I think I forgot how to Digivolve."
Gennai broke out into hysteric, perverse, laughter. He calmed himself down and smiled a grin of pure evil as he continued to speak, "As I was saying, I set it up so that in any case, if anyone were to attack Elecmon, the Black Ring would overload and explode, taking Elecmon with it. Very simple actually." Gennai started to pace, like he always did, in front of the Digidestined, "Just the same, even though I may have had an indirect part in his death, YOU were the ones who killed him. YOU were the ones who triggered it. Anyone could've done it, but it just had to be you."
Kari put here fingers into here ears, blocking out Gennai's voice, while Mimi closed her eyes, trying to convince herself that this was all just a nightmare. The rest just stared at him, afraid to move a muscle in the case he made someone else fly up into the air to join Tai and Takeru.
"Are you all afraid of my new attacks? They were one of the many desirable side effects to the age decreasing process. You can now classify me as a Psychic Digimon, Izzy."
He then turned away and walked towards the horizon, but as he walked, he began to speak again without turning his back.
"I'm wondering, how many Champion Digimon can a Mega and an Ultimate take? Three? Five? Maybe ten? Let's see if your Digimon can take on fifty Champions." With that thought in mind, he stopped and faced the Digidestined once more, and with one word, "Teleport!" he was gone.
As soon as he had said this, he simply disappeared, but to take his place, twelve Bakemon appeared from nowhere. From the horizon, ten Kuwagamon were being led by Kabuterimon. Behind them were another six Tyrannomons as well as twelve DarkTyrannomons led by none other than Greymon. Finally, to finish off the nightmare, to their left was Togemon, accompanied by five of both Raremon and Tsukamon, ghost Digimon and aquatic Digimon respectively.
"Holy... We're in Deeeep sludge..." murmured Tai.
"I believe that's an understatement." replied Izzy in a panicked tone.
"S...s...so what do we do?" asked a fearful Kari.
Joe, who had already been going into hyper fear mode, stated in a very squeaky voice, unusual for a man his age, replied in a very soft tone, "Run for our lives."
Everyone nodded and started to run in the other direction, but stopped. They looked all around themselves. They were trapped, they had nowhere to go.
Tai had the look of fear in his eyes, he didn't know what to do, they couldn't possibly fight, could they? He realized something, and the Crest of Courage shone on his chest as the fear melted away.
"Okay guys," gathering the group like a team huddle, "they're stronger, faster, and more likely to kill us, but time and time again, we've beaten the odds and killed off the enemy. Just because we're adults doesn't mean we doesn't mean we can't have the courage we had when we were kids, we aren't going to go down without a fight, RIGHT GUYS?!"
Everyone caught that contagious, adventurous spirit Tai had, the same kind as when they were just a group of kids just trying to stay alive and save a world while doing it.
"But we don't have any weapons!" exclaimed an excited Joe.
"Are you talking about these?" asked a Bakemon right behind him. Joe screamed his lungs out as the rest of them stumbled backwards from surprise. All of the iron rods the Bakemon was holding shattered into digi-dust.
"Biyomon, Warp-digivolve to... Phoenixmon!"
"Gomamon, Warp-digivolve to... MarineAngemon!"
As the glow around the two Digimon faded, Joe was jumping up and down at the fact Gomamon Warp-digivolved. "Alright Goma! We might just live another day!!"
MarineAngemon just grinned and winked at Joe, then just turned his head as the floating sea mammal looked intently at the Bakemon, indifferent to their powerful foe.
"Hey Joe, these guys need a smile! Smiling Face!" Just as he said this, a powerful beam emitting from his face hit all twelve turning them into data particles.
"Woah, Goma... I mean MarineAngemon, Keep It Up!!"
"Don't worry Joe," the small Digimon said, winking to him, "all these guys need is a little love. Ocean of Love!"
As soon as he said it, Water, gushing forth from the small Digimon, came thundering down on the Tyrannomon and Greymon. The massive Dark Tyrannomon dissipated into data along with several other regular Tyrannomon. As for the rest, they had their Black Rings destroyed and ran off in every direction.
Phoenixmon, who was not to be outdone, started to show off herself.
"Hey, Sora! Check it out! It's time to Heat things up a bit! Star-Light Explosion!!" Fire from her wings torched all the remaining Raremon, but the Tsukamon held their ground alongside the evil Togemon.
"Alright! We're winning!" shouted Takeru. Unfortunately, he spoke too soon. The Kuwagamon broke up their tight flying formation so they would be harder to hit, the Tsukamon turned out to be more durable than any other Champion, and Greymon was right on top of them all.
"Don't kill Greymon!!!" Tai screamed motioning for MarineAngemon and Phoenixmon not to fire at him.
Greymon saw their hesitation, and took the advantage. "Nova Blast!" The explosion hit the ground next to the little band throwing them all over the place.
"Needle Spray!" shouted Togemon, as thousands of sharp needles came towards the group, which was just barely deflected by Phoenixmon.
While MarineAngemon tried to fend off the attacks and beat down the rest of the Tsukamon, the dark side's trump card was being carefully led in by Kabuterimon with the Kuwagamon fast approaching in a delta formation behind Kabuterimon.
"Electro Shocker!" shouted Kabuterimon, as the blast of electrical energy exploded with a bright light, blinding everyone for a few precious seconds. As soon as any of them could see again, All ten Kuwagamons were right on top of them, clamping their oversized pincers.
"Scissor Claw!" a couple of them screeched.
"Power Guillotine!" the rest buzzed.
Immediately everyone hugged the dirt for protection, but one of them didn't get down fast enough...
"KARIIIII!!!" Takeru screamed as soon as the huge Insectoid Digimon passed.
"MarineAngemon!" shouted Joe, "Help Kari!!"
"Smiling Face!" he shouted as another power beam came from his face, wiping out the Kuwagamon holding Kari.
Kari screamed as she fell, just barely missed by MarineAngemon's attack. Takeru ran faster than he ever thought possible, to catch his love, his wife. Just as he was right under her, Kabuterimon caught her in his four arms...
"TeeeeKaaaayyy!!! HELP ME!!!" she shouted desperately as she was flown off.
"Don't hurt Kabuterimon!!" Izzy cried with concern.
"Dammit, that's my wife!" Takeru shrieked at the older man.
"Kabuterimon's my best friend! Do anything, just don't kill him!" Izzy pleaded with T.K.
Tai stepped in as his role as leader and took action immediately, considering that was his sister flying off. "MarineAngemon, You've gotta attack now!"
"Can't Tai, too tired..." he said as the slender being was surrounded by a white light and de-digivolved.
Turning to Phoenixmon, he motioned to her to pick him up. "Phoenixmon, let's go!" Tai yelled as he was getting ready to jump on her. Phoenixmon swooped down and caught him on her wing as he jumped as high as he could into the air. "Sora, stay here!"
"Like I have a choice!" she retorted stomping her feet as her husband made off with her Digimon.
As they were in the air, Phoenixmon was fast behind the fleeing insects. "Star-Light Explosion!" she cried as the explosion fired, but Kabuterimon was barely hurt since the Kuwagamon set themselves up as a wall to protect their leader, dissolving into bits as soon as they were hit.
"Crap! We Gotta Get Closer, Phoenixmon!" Tai yelled at the fiery bird, finally getting in a riding position, clutching her neck.
Kabuterimon turned around, holding Kari with his two lower hands while using his other two to attack. "Electro Shocker!"
Even though a Champion would be no match for a Mega, Phoenixmon had simply used up too much energy and went into a nose dive. Just as she was about to crash, she pulled up slightly to hover over the ground at high speeds for a bit before de-digivolving, and hitting the ground hard for that matter. The two, Tai and Biyomon, tumbled quite a ways before finally stopping. Being pretty scratched and bruised on the grassy field, Tai, sprung to his feet, shaking his fist in the air.
"Damn, we almost had him." Tai said looking in the direction of Infinity Mountain, Kabuterimion's destination. He then turned to the small pink bird and picked her up, "You did a good job, Biyomon," he whispered into the pink bird's ear as she drifted off to sleep, "Sora will be proud of you," as he carried the injured Biyomon back to Primary Village.
It was almost the next morning before he finally got back to the Village, never stopping for a rest, with super-human endurance, collapsed at the borders where the others had made camp. After he was sleeping inside a makeshift cabin made of broken blocks, Biyomon told everything that happened. That night, Takeru felt truly alone, without a hope in the world...
~@~
"Takeru? T.K.?" Kari asked as she looked around. She was trapped in a cage, inside a beautiful room. It was almost like a palace. In front of her was a great chair sitting on a platform.
All of the sudden, little bits of data came together in the chair to form a person, a person wearing a black robe...
"Oh, don't worry your pretty little head." said Gennai with a smug smile growing on his lips as out of two doors Leomon and Andromon came out and stood beside him, "Your little T.K. will be here soon enough."
The last thing Kari heard was Gennai's sick laughter before she fainted into oblivion.
~@~
DemiDevimon wove through the forests on his approach to Infinity Mountain, flying at low levels. Every once in a while, he'd pass one of DeviDramon's minions patrolling the perimeter for those pesky Digidestined.
Upon reachilng the base of the mountain, instead of flying up to the palace toward the peak, he instead flew into a cave, concealed by brush. The cave, which was actually a corridor into a secret entrance to the palace, went for quite a ways in. At the end of the corridor was a teleporter that would send him up into the palace. But that wasn't his destination, instead after passing a few torches in, one was unlit. This one, he flew up on top of and dropped himself, causing the hidden lever to go down.
Inside was another room that lit up as soon as DemiDevimon entered. Inside the room was a tranceiver to the Continent of Server where King Etemon reigned. After putting a couple quarters in, the tranceiver activated itself, showing a holograph of King Etemon in his stately red cape.
"Ah hope ya got some news ya little bowling ball, cuz I got 'nutha concert in a coupl'a minutes." King Etemon said, hopping from foot to foot to show his anxiousness.
"Sorry, your highness, but it seems as if the Digidestined are finished for sure. DeviDramon's servant, Gennai, has set up a trap to capture one of them, and ultimately lead them here to destroy them." DemiDevimon said, bowing the whole time.
"Ah know that, but Ah set you there so you could spy on DeviDramon!!" King Etemon replied, hopping even faster.
"Yes, of course sir," DemiDevimon said as he sweat-dropped, "There is a division the DeviDramon's higher ranks, it seems that Gennai may be making a bid for power in order to overthrow DeviDramon!"
"You've earned yerself another day of life, DemiDevimon, uh-huh..."
~@~
Taichi sat on one of the half deflated alphabet cubes that once littered Primary Village. He looked up at the sky and saw all the twinkling little stars like a man at the end of the line. Depressed, hopeless...
"Taichi," Sora said as she sat on the other end of the inflated cube raising Tai a little then back down until they were the same height, "I know your sister is gone, but she's not gone forever. We can't give up now."
"Does it look like I'm giving up? Huh Sora? Does it?" Tai nearly screamed on the verge of tears. "No matter how old she gets, she's still my little sister and I failed to save her... Sort of like I failed to save you from Datamon at Etemon's pyramid. I just wished... I just wished..."
Sora patted him on the back, then gave him a good hug. When she let go, and saw him smile back at her, although weak, it was a smile nonetheless. She knew there was someone else who also needed someone to talk to.
~@~
Takeru, in an isolated part of primary village was busy, busy being destructive. The rage and anger pent up inside him was unleashed as he used his bare hands to tear up what he could, everything he could. Behind him he heard the shuffle of feet. He immediately came up into a fighting stance and was ready to beat up anyone who stepped out.
"Stop it, Stop it right now, this isn't you Takeru." his brother said stepping out from behind a pile of blocks.
"Why should I?! I just watched my friend Elecmon die and Kari taken away by that idiot Gennai! I don't care what anyone says, I- I just want her back!" Takeru, sapped of all his strength slumped down to the ground. Matt approached him but Takeru held up his hand motioning him to stop. Matt underrstood that he needed to be alone and walked away. While leaving, he saw Sora approaching.
"Hey Sora," Matt said.
"How's T.K." she replied.
"He wants to be alone right now, I just finished talking to him."
"Well, he's not going to get it, I need to talk to him." Sora said.
"Go ahead, just go easy on him." Matt said with a smile on his face.
Sora approached the clearing where Takeru was and saw him just lying there in the deflated ground looking up at the stars like Tai was.
"T.K...." Sora began to say.
"I told you guys not to call me that anymore," he said quietly, "I just want to be alone right now."
"No you don't," Sora replied sternly, "I know you don't want to be alone. Whatever is going around in your head right now eating you up! Look around you and what you've done, did this help anyone aside from you? Is this going to help us get Kari back?"
"I thought my brother told you to go easy on me." Takeru replied getting back up and sitting cross-legged.
"I didn't know you were listening."
"I'm always listening."
"Y'know T.K." pausing to let her mention of his childhood name sink in, "you were right, we did act better when we were kids, that same thing applies to you too."
Takeru just sat there silently. Sora continued.
"You and Kari are perhaps the most perfect examples of what we all represent. Love, courage, sincerity, knowledge, reliability, and friendship, but without hope and light everything falls apart. If anything, you T.K. represent all that best things of the guys: Tai's leadership, Matt's determination, Joe's caring, and Izzy's understanding. The same thing with Kari: My love and Mimi's sincerity. In fact, sometimes I wonder that if there ever was going to be another group of digidestined while we were younger, I had a feeling that you would be their leader. Now, with Kari gone, all we have left is you, hope."
"So, what's your point?"
"My point is this, right now, you're acting the exact opposite you have acted all your life. You're acting selffish and vengeful, the way Gennai probably wants you to act," Sora turned to leave, and without turning to look back, she began to walk away. When she reached the edge, she heard him start to sob and she stopped walking.
"There's these times when I just want to be a little kid again, surrounded by all of you, watching out for me," Takeru said standing up as Sora turned around, "Back then, I didn't have anything to worry about since you guys were always there, even though I worried anyway. Now, I have my own responsibilites, and I'm going to step up to them and finish them."
Sora nodded as he continued, "Thanks for straightening me out, Sora."
They both came together and hugged. As they parted T.K. smiled and said, "Sora, you guys can call me anything you want, I won't care." They both laughed.
~@~
By now, everyone had found their little corner and had fallen asleep. Except for T.K. He just lay on his side, imagining Kari lying there beside him, but no one was there. He lay like that since everyone had curled up and gone to sleep. Just before though, he thought he saw Izzy talking to a holographic Jenji, but he was sure that Izzy would talk about it later.
Just then, a flash of light blinded him. As he rubbed his eyes while the light faded away, in its place was a digiegg.
"Oh my..." T.K. said to himself, "Maybe its Elecmon being reborn!" He thought about waking the others, but instead decided to do it later, for now, he just wrapped his arms around the egg and finally fell asleep.
~@~
Several hours later, Matt woke everyone up, except Tai who was already waiting at the smoldering campfire in the center of Primary Village.
As they gathered around the campfire's smoking remains, they noticed the Digiegg that T.K. was holding in his arms with tenderness. Tai nodded in his direction and spoke up, "Alright guys, this place is starting to creep me out, we got a new place to go. Izzy got a message from Jenji before we went to sleep. Go ahead Izzy tell them what's going on."
"Well, according to Jenji, all's quiet on the homefront at Andromon's Factory, but he has just gotten word from Digimon in the surrounding area that something big is going down at Infinity Mountain. What that is, we don't know, what we do know is that some of those same Digimon also spotted a human woman being carried up by a Kabuterimon, which of course means that..."
"Kari is at Infinity Mountain," T.K. interrupted. "What will we do?" he continued, "We've got to save her, but there's no way to get in, I'm sure it's heavily guarded."
"You are correct Takeru," Izzy continued, "but while it will still be incredibly difficult to scale the mountain with what we have, approaching the base is being taken care of. Jenji, with the help of Andromon's computer, is developing a weapon with which we can automatically delete enemy Digimon."
"Wait a sec," Mimi interrupted, "did you say 'delete' or did you mean we will save them from the black rings?"
"Unfortuantely," Izzy continued, "that is exactly what I meant. There is no way to successfully dislodge the black rings without precise attacks, but the weapon being developed is designed to wipe out Digimon over a wide area. The base of the mountain will be cleared out when we approach."
"Hold on, Hold on," Matt said standing up waving his hands, "What if Gabumon or our other Digimon are there, what will happen to them?"
"Nothing," Tai said standing up as well, "We're not going anywhere near Infinity Mountain until we get our Digimon back, and if we don't get them back, then we're not going. I don't care if the whole Digiworld breaks up under me, I'm not going to put Agumon or any other of our other Digimon in danger."
"But what about all those poor innocent Digimon..." Mimi sighed.
Joe, who had been quiet the whole time spoke up, "When the Digiworld is returned to normal, all the Digimon will be reborn at Primary Village. Until then, we must do everything we can to stop that evil, even if other controlled Digimon get in our way."
Everyone nodded solemnly.
Mimi shot up from her seat and stood there with her hands on her hips, "So far, all me and Sora and Kari have been doing was just sit in the background like good little girls, while the guys take care of the big stuff. Now, Sora's got Biyomon back and Kari's gone. There's something big going on, and I in on the action. I'm going to do my part and fight alongside you guys, even if I don't have a Digimon." Joe stood up to object and to remind her of what hapenned last time, but caught himself seeing Mimi's resoluteness.
"That won't be a problem actually," Izzy said, "Jeni has also found out that there's a cache of Mekanorimon not far from the factory, in a place called 'Trash Mountain'."
"It's settled then," Tai said as he begun gathering his belongings, "we're headed to Trash Mountain."
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Many thanks to Keava, my Beta Reader, (the help she gave me was invaluable) as well as kale, who has supported me (I think) in my writings. This fic is dedicated to you both. I hope you liked this little mini Takari I cooked up.
Digimon TZ: The Beginning of The End
Episode 5: The Village of Death
by: Gennai's Apprentice
The Digidestined had already been living at Andromon's factory for six weeks now. After their last battle with Leomon, Gomamon had rejoined their ranks and Garudamon digivolved to Phoenixmon. Things had been pretty calm. Izzy and their new friend, Jenji, had developed strong enough weapons to repel Mega Digimon as well as a deflector shield. The factory was impenetrable, but the matter of DeviDramon on Infinity Mountain still had to be resolved, as well as regaining the rest of their Digimon friends.
"Hey, Tai. Have you seen my brother?" Matt walked into a room where it seems the rest of the Digidestined were gathered, but still no T.K. or even Kari. He had been looking for him for a while now, but he still hadn't seen him for two days at least.
"No, him and Kari are having their honeymoon."
"Oh, okay. I just wanted to talk to... WHAT!! Their having a..."
Sora's hand clamped over Matt's loud mouth preventing him from continuing his speech.
"They're married, remember? It's okay. They're a couple rooms down, you don't have to bother them." Sora whispered into his ear.
"Yeah, your right," Matt said in a much quieter tone, "but, here! Of all the places you could've had a honeymoon, why would you want to have one HERE?!"
Everyone looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Okay! Fine, the place isn't that bad." Matt sighed out loud and sat down against a wall. "It just seems like he grows up so fast. Sometimes I just wish he'd just be my little squirt."
"Looks like somebody else's got your little squirt now." Joe quipped.
"Yeah, I guess I always took him for granted. I mean, I was always out doing something, and he was living his life on his own. Now, he's got someone else, and I seem just so very lonely. I never really had an interest in girls, and singing was more like a hobby than a lifestyle. T.K. was pretty much all I've lived for, a little brother to protect. Even after I finally understood that he could take care of himself, I still stayed close to him until recently." Matt finished talking and sat himself down against a wall, and looked up at his friends.
"That's life, I guess." Tai spoke up, "But now, our little break from fighting's gotta end. DeviDramon continues to control File Island from Infinity Mountain. We've gotta bring him down, and soon. We can't do that by just sitting around here. We've gotta take action. There's just one problem, I can't seem to figure out how to get those two out of there..." Tai gave a quirky little smile as everyone else sweatdropped.
"Kari told me what room she and T.K. were going to be in," Tai continued, "I sorta followed them just to be sure. One thing I remember was seeing them carry lots of food into the room. I have a feeling they're going to be there for a while." Tai looked around to see if anyone had any suggestions.
Izzy's face brightened up, "We can set up a false alarm, it will draw them out as soon as they could throw their clothes on." He had a mischievous grin on his face.
"I never knew you could think of this sorta thing, Izzy." Mimi smiled into his face which melted into a passionate kiss. Even Sora put her arm around Tai, who blushed a bright red.
"Before we all start going on our own little honeymoons, why don't we carry out Izzy's plan so we could get outta this place, and save the rest of the Digimon," Joe said a little exasperated. Izzy and Mimi broke apart, and Tai gave a sweatdrop.
Izzy, who always seemed to have his headset on, openned a channel to Jenji, "Jenji, come in. It's Izzy. We need a favor from you."
"Hey Izz," T.K. replied on the other end. "He left to do some 'final touches' on something. He wouldn't tell me what it was."
"Oh, okay. Um, when exactly did you uh... end your um..."
"Honeymoon? A couple hours ago, we ran out of food."
A click came over the headset, meaning someone else had accessed the channel. Kari's voice was the next thing Izzy heard.
"Guess who was the one who ate most of it? Hmmm."
"Okay! So I was hungry! It sure does take a lot of energy out of you." T.K. replied bewilderedly.
Tai grabbed the headset off of Izzy's noggin, when he heard T.K. shouting something about being hungry.
"Which room were you at? You said you were going into the inspection room, but you never came out."
"We changed rooms. We knew you guys'd be waiting for us when we came out. We wanted to have some privacy and leave without having six people hovering over us. So right after we went in and you left, we left that room and went somewhere else. But forget... Hold on." T.K. immediately stopped talking and closed the channel, but Kari was still on.
"So li'l sis, where'd you get the headset, and what's T.K. doing?"
"I'm not your 'li'l sis' anymore Tai. I've grown up.
"Fine, BIG li'l sis."
Kari just sighed and answered the rest of his questions. "I borrowed Ogremon's headset, and my husband is talking with Jenji. Wait, I think T.K. wants to talk to you."
Another click and T.K.'s voice was heard. "Jenji wants all of you guys here immediately." he told Tai excitedly.
After they all met in the control room, they saw Biyomon and Gomamon trying to teach Ogremon how to play Minesweeper, but the computer had a tendency to crash contiuously. Kari had both her arms around T.K.'s neck who was trying to talk to Jenji and trying not to blush at the same time.
"Good, you're all here." Jenji said as he turned away from T.K. and motioned all the Digidestined to stand in a straight line. "I actually had doubts about you, that you'd all have lost your virtues and therefore, your strength. You were all chosen for your most visible virtues which made you the best choices for the Digidestined. There were of course, at least, more than a hundred kids in Heighten View Terrace at the time of the scan. But you eight were the ones chosen to be heroes someday, and you fulfilled that destiny. Now that you have all proven yourselves as the ones in the prophecies, I have decided that now is the time to give you these."
He opened a small digizoid steal box containing eight objects... they were eight Digivices. "I built these while in my hiding. One of the scrolls I stole were instructions for the construction of your original Digivices. They, of course, won't help your Digimon digivolve, bcause you have that power within you. Instead these will do its other functions as well as some modifications I made. It's a watch with an automatic change to Daylight Savings Time, a tracking device with a range of ten kilometers, and a two-way holograph communicator." Jenji knelt down on one knee as each of the Digidestined took a Digivice. After each one had taken their Digivices, Jenji stood up and finished his speech with a flourish, "Now go and fulfill the prophecy and complete your Destiny!"
Everyone stood their solemnly looking down at their Digivices which were exact replicas of the ones they had before. Gomamon and Biyomon stood at their partner's feet and Ogremon stood next to Mimi as well as Izzy. A new sense of duty came over the room.
Tai finally broke the silence, "Gang, we're up against a Digimon who's evil through and through. The only way we're going to beat him is if we retake our friends from his hold. We can't do this by simply staying here. We move tonight, when all of our supplies are gathered."
Mimi spoke up from beside Ogremon, "We're with you, Tai. All the way 'till the end, right guys?"
"Alright!!!" everyone cried as they jumped up with their hands in the air.
~@~
"Several of the scouts we sent out earlier have detected the departure of the Digidestined from their stronghold." Leomon said standing next to a holographic map board.
"How many more of the Digidestined Digimon do we still control?" asked an emotionless Andromon.
"We still have six," a restless Gennai replied, looing him straight into his dark red eyes. "We have Angemon, Gatomon, Greymon, Kabuterimon, Togemon, and Garurumon."
"Contact me again when there are any more developments. I will continue my battle plan development."
~@~
All eight adults and Gomamon were flying high in the air standing on top of Garudamon's huge feet. Joe, who was clutching her leg as tight as super glue, suffered from an intense case of acrophobia.
"Don't you fly around the world in airplanes, Joe?" asked a worried Gomamon.
"I do, but at least most of them are closed cockpit airplanes, and when I do fly in an old biplane once in a while, at least I'm fastened safely. This is completely INSANE!!!"
Everybody pulled their fingers out of their ears after Joe finished his fearful ranting.
They had left the factory and the savannah a couple hours ago and were in some sort of desert. Below was a huge waterfall.
"Hey guys, maybe we can stop here and get some rest, if that's alright with you Tai."
"Sure Sora. Garudamon, land us at the waterfall!"
After they landed at the waterfall, which was still a far off from Infinity Mountain, they rested, but were constantly on guard.
T.K. looked around him, this place looked very familiar to him. In fact, it brought images of Hogmon and Porkmon. Then he realized where he was. T.K. sat down as the rest of his friends were either drinking or cooling off in the pool that formed at the bottom of the waterfall, or were sitting and talking. Kari stopped talking to Tai and went over to sit by T.K., kissing him on the cheek as she sat down.
"What's wrong? You look concerned about something." she asked him.
"This was the place where Patamon and me talked about what he would first Digivolve to. He always looked to be a pig to me, so I suggested Hogmon and Porkmon. This was way before you joined us, and when Devimon split File Island up, and whatever. This place just reminds me so much of him." T.K. just sat there with his face buried in his hands and Kari's arm over him.
"We'll get him and all of our Digimon back soon. I'm sure of it. Then we'll restore the Digiworld and prevent this from ever happenning again." Kari said trying to comfort him.
"Thanks." He hugged Kari tightly, crying softly in her arms. "It's always good to know that when the world turns bleak, there's always somebody there to pick you up. I'm glad it was you."
The two stood up and walked over to Tai. T.K. whispered something in his ear and Tai called the group together.
"Okay guys, T.K. has something to tell us." said Tai as everyone shifted their attention towards him.
"Not far from here is Primary Village, we can probably go there and get some more rest. It's closer to Infinity Mountain and we could probably check out Elecmon and his DigiEggs. We can probably walk from here, but before we do, I'd like to make another announcement. From now on, would it be alright if everybody called me Takeru from now on? I'm a twenty-seven year-old man and for some reason, T.K. just reminds me of a boy I've now grown out of."
"Agreed and understood," Tai said as everybody nodded along with him, except Matt. "Did you get that Matt? He's not you're little brother anymore."
"Yeah, I got it, but it's just so weird. But I'll go along with it, Takeru." he replied as he turned to his younger brother, who had finally grown up in his eyes.
After they had left for Primary Village, a winged bowling ball rose from behind one of the rocks, and flew towards Infinity Mountain.
~@~
Leomon walked towards Andromon purposefully. Being under the control of the Black Rings, he had no choice.
"Andromon, DemiDevimon has reported in. The Digidestined are headed towards Primary Village." Leomon told Andromon, matter-of-factly.
From the shadows of the dimly lit castle walked in the tall figure of Gennai. Ever since he joined the Virus Digimon, he seemed to be growing even younger.
"Good, Elecmon could take care of them. We should mobilize immediately, Andromon."
"I do not believe a single rookie Digimon can stop the powerful and legendary Digidestined."
"I didn't say stop. You, who are controlled by those Black Rings, do not think as I, who still has a free will. I said 'take care' of the Digidestined. You are probably thinking that I would destroy them, but there are far worse things than death. I have already dispatched three of the Digidestined's Digimon under my care, as well as several others."
"You did this all without my permission?"
"Yes, and what are you going to do about it, Andromon? We must act quickly, for a decisive victory."
"Agreed." said Andromon nodding his head, "But you will be the one who will pay the consequences for failure."
"Don't worry, failure is no longer in my vocabulary..."
~@~
Even though Primary Village wasn't too far from the waterfall, everyone, except Joe, agreed to fly, to get there as fast as possible. As they neared the place, Garudamon landed to get some rest.
"Joe, let go of the leg, she's gonna de-digivolve now." Takeru said impatiently.
"Leggo of me Takeru! I want my MOMMY!"
"Settle down, Joe," Mimi chided, "the ground is only a foot away, just make the step."
As soon as he relaxed his frantic grip on her leg ever so slightly, Tai, Matt, Takeru, and even Izzy, grabbed Joe by the waist and yanked him away. This threw all five men to the ground as a light surrounded Garudamon who completed her de-digivolution.
Joe stood up immediately and started screaming at the four, still trying to get up, "I'M GONNA REALLY HURT YOU PEOPLE!!"
"He'll get over it, let's go." Takeru said sitting up and motioning towards Primary Village.
The rest of the way they walked, accompanied by Joe's now insistent whining. "At least I had a jeep in Africa and a van in China! Every time we come to the Digiworld, it's always walk, walk, walk! And these iron rods make poor walking sticks!"
"Oh, shut up, Joe. Those rods maybe pathetic walking sticks, but they can save your life in an attack."
Joe relaxed his expression and breathed a sigh of relief, "You know what? You're right, thanks, I needed that."
"Anytime." Tai replied.
When they arrived, all they saw was destruction around them. The cushiony ground had sunken in, the trees with their little baby toys were merely splinters with broken toys littering the ground. Not a block tower was standing. Not a single block was even on top of another. Everything was demolished, and it looked like it had been that way for a long time now.
"No. Not again." said Mimi murmured as she sank to the ground, on her knees, and sobbed into her hands. Aside from all the devastation, the only evidence that there were eggs and babies there were the small broken shells and the baby's small wicket cradles upturned.
"Elecmon! Elecmon! Where are you!" Takeru called out into the wreckage.
Everyone caught on quickly, and they all ran into the wreckage, leaving their "walking sticks" behind and looked around for the Caretaker of the Village. They all split up and went searching in every "nook and cranny".
"Hey guys, I found him!" cried out Takeru. Everyone raced to where he was standing.
Elecmon was lying belly down, facing an upside-down cradle with a cracked shell in one of his small hands. His eyes were closed.
"Is he dead?" asked a curious Kari.
"No," Izzy answered, "he would've turned into bits of data by now."
Mimi approached ever so cautiously, but when she was about a meter away, she stopped. Elecmon had started to speak.
"Digidestined, you are here, but too late. The Digidestined." Elecmon said and gave a slight chuckle, "You and those before you have caused this. Every time the Guardians send someone to 'save' the Digiworld, my village, my babies, are destroyed. It always happens. I'm going to end the destruction. The only way to do this is to end the legend of the Digidestined. Only then, can the true rebuilding begin."
Slowly, Elecmon's eyes opened, revealing a deep crimson color.
"A black ring's on his leg!" Tai shouted, grabbing Mimi out of the way right before Elecmon would've done his 'Body Attack' into her face.
"You must be destroyed, for the sake of my babies and the future of the Digiworld!"
"No, you've got it all wrong," Matt tried to explain, "we're not the bad guys! It's the Evil, Virus Mons who did this! They're your enemies, not us!"
"NO! YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!!"
Elecmon immediately tried to attack them again, jumping into the air for his 'Sparkling Thunder' attack, but Biyomon used her Spiral Twister, and Gomamon used his Marching Fishes attack to try to destroy the Black Ring. Instead of just destroying the Ring, they destroyed Elecmon as well...
"ELECMON!!!" Takeru shouted at the dissipating bits of data. Everyone had looks of sheer horror at what had just occurred. While staring in silence at the sky, another familiar voice was heard.
"Digidestined, has it ever occurred to you before, to talk things out before using brutal force?"
All of them stared at the figure before them, it was Gennai. He apparently came out of nowhere, but no one did anything, because everyone was rooted to their spots. He looked pretty much the same as before with his brown goatee and youthful looking face, with one exception. Unlike Jenji's robe, which had been a grayish-white, Gennai's was a deep black. Blacker than a black hole.
"I guess not." he continued, "Kill, kill, kill, is all you pretty much think of, isn't it?"
Mimi, who was appalled, not only by his appearance, which she preferred bright colors over the Gothic look, but also by the evil she felt eminating from him. "But we didn't mean to kill him, just save him from the Black Ring!" she cried out with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Ahh... I see, you were just trying to save your friend then. I guess the reason he died was because I inserted a special self-destruct device into that Black Ring."
"WHAT!!!" Tai and Takeru yelled in unison. The enraged duo charged the man unarmed. Gennai, on the other hand, had been advancing slowly every second, and was now only a few meters away from them. Tai leapt into the air to tackle him, while Takeru tried to charge him into his gut. But all of a sudden, they simply fell short of their goal, or actually, flew up.
"Telekenisis!" Gennai said indifferently. Both men flew high up into the air. Biyomon and Gomamon knew that something was very wrong immediately, and began to Digivolve, but they too were stopped.
"Confusion!" he said as he glared at the two Digimon.
"Umm... Sora," Biyomon said with a saddened look on her pink face, "I think I forgot how to Digivolve."
Gennai broke out into hysteric, perverse, laughter. He calmed himself down and smiled a grin of pure evil as he continued to speak, "As I was saying, I set it up so that in any case, if anyone were to attack Elecmon, the Black Ring would overload and explode, taking Elecmon with it. Very simple actually." Gennai started to pace, like he always did, in front of the Digidestined, "Just the same, even though I may have had an indirect part in his death, YOU were the ones who killed him. YOU were the ones who triggered it. Anyone could've done it, but it just had to be you."
Kari put here fingers into here ears, blocking out Gennai's voice, while Mimi closed her eyes, trying to convince herself that this was all just a nightmare. The rest just stared at him, afraid to move a muscle in the case he made someone else fly up into the air to join Tai and Takeru.
"Are you all afraid of my new attacks? They were one of the many desirable side effects to the age decreasing process. You can now classify me as a Psychic Digimon, Izzy."
He then turned away and walked towards the horizon, but as he walked, he began to speak again without turning his back.
"I'm wondering, how many Champion Digimon can a Mega and an Ultimate take? Three? Five? Maybe ten? Let's see if your Digimon can take on fifty Champions." With that thought in mind, he stopped and faced the Digidestined once more, and with one word, "Teleport!" he was gone.
As soon as he had said this, he simply disappeared, but to take his place, twelve Bakemon appeared from nowhere. From the horizon, ten Kuwagamon were being led by Kabuterimon. Behind them were another six Tyrannomons as well as twelve DarkTyrannomons led by none other than Greymon. Finally, to finish off the nightmare, to their left was Togemon, accompanied by five of both Raremon and Tsukamon, ghost Digimon and aquatic Digimon respectively.
"Holy... We're in Deeeep sludge..." murmured Tai.
"I believe that's an understatement." replied Izzy in a panicked tone.
"S...s...so what do we do?" asked a fearful Kari.
Joe, who had already been going into hyper fear mode, stated in a very squeaky voice, unusual for a man his age, replied in a very soft tone, "Run for our lives."
Everyone nodded and started to run in the other direction, but stopped. They looked all around themselves. They were trapped, they had nowhere to go.
Tai had the look of fear in his eyes, he didn't know what to do, they couldn't possibly fight, could they? He realized something, and the Crest of Courage shone on his chest as the fear melted away.
"Okay guys," gathering the group like a team huddle, "they're stronger, faster, and more likely to kill us, but time and time again, we've beaten the odds and killed off the enemy. Just because we're adults doesn't mean we doesn't mean we can't have the courage we had when we were kids, we aren't going to go down without a fight, RIGHT GUYS?!"
Everyone caught that contagious, adventurous spirit Tai had, the same kind as when they were just a group of kids just trying to stay alive and save a world while doing it.
"But we don't have any weapons!" exclaimed an excited Joe.
"Are you talking about these?" asked a Bakemon right behind him. Joe screamed his lungs out as the rest of them stumbled backwards from surprise. All of the iron rods the Bakemon was holding shattered into digi-dust.
"Biyomon, Warp-digivolve to... Phoenixmon!"
"Gomamon, Warp-digivolve to... MarineAngemon!"
As the glow around the two Digimon faded, Joe was jumping up and down at the fact Gomamon Warp-digivolved. "Alright Goma! We might just live another day!!"
MarineAngemon just grinned and winked at Joe, then just turned his head as the floating sea mammal looked intently at the Bakemon, indifferent to their powerful foe.
"Hey Joe, these guys need a smile! Smiling Face!" Just as he said this, a powerful beam emitting from his face hit all twelve turning them into data particles.
"Woah, Goma... I mean MarineAngemon, Keep It Up!!"
"Don't worry Joe," the small Digimon said, winking to him, "all these guys need is a little love. Ocean of Love!"
As soon as he said it, Water, gushing forth from the small Digimon, came thundering down on the Tyrannomon and Greymon. The massive Dark Tyrannomon dissipated into data along with several other regular Tyrannomon. As for the rest, they had their Black Rings destroyed and ran off in every direction.
Phoenixmon, who was not to be outdone, started to show off herself.
"Hey, Sora! Check it out! It's time to Heat things up a bit! Star-Light Explosion!!" Fire from her wings torched all the remaining Raremon, but the Tsukamon held their ground alongside the evil Togemon.
"Alright! We're winning!" shouted Takeru. Unfortunately, he spoke too soon. The Kuwagamon broke up their tight flying formation so they would be harder to hit, the Tsukamon turned out to be more durable than any other Champion, and Greymon was right on top of them all.
"Don't kill Greymon!!!" Tai screamed motioning for MarineAngemon and Phoenixmon not to fire at him.
Greymon saw their hesitation, and took the advantage. "Nova Blast!" The explosion hit the ground next to the little band throwing them all over the place.
"Needle Spray!" shouted Togemon, as thousands of sharp needles came towards the group, which was just barely deflected by Phoenixmon.
While MarineAngemon tried to fend off the attacks and beat down the rest of the Tsukamon, the dark side's trump card was being carefully led in by Kabuterimon with the Kuwagamon fast approaching in a delta formation behind Kabuterimon.
"Electro Shocker!" shouted Kabuterimon, as the blast of electrical energy exploded with a bright light, blinding everyone for a few precious seconds. As soon as any of them could see again, All ten Kuwagamons were right on top of them, clamping their oversized pincers.
"Scissor Claw!" a couple of them screeched.
"Power Guillotine!" the rest buzzed.
Immediately everyone hugged the dirt for protection, but one of them didn't get down fast enough...
"KARIIIII!!!" Takeru screamed as soon as the huge Insectoid Digimon passed.
"MarineAngemon!" shouted Joe, "Help Kari!!"
"Smiling Face!" he shouted as another power beam came from his face, wiping out the Kuwagamon holding Kari.
Kari screamed as she fell, just barely missed by MarineAngemon's attack. Takeru ran faster than he ever thought possible, to catch his love, his wife. Just as he was right under her, Kabuterimon caught her in his four arms...
"TeeeeKaaaayyy!!! HELP ME!!!" she shouted desperately as she was flown off.
"Don't hurt Kabuterimon!!" Izzy cried with concern.
"Dammit, that's my wife!" Takeru shrieked at the older man.
"Kabuterimon's my best friend! Do anything, just don't kill him!" Izzy pleaded with T.K.
Tai stepped in as his role as leader and took action immediately, considering that was his sister flying off. "MarineAngemon, You've gotta attack now!"
"Can't Tai, too tired..." he said as the slender being was surrounded by a white light and de-digivolved.
Turning to Phoenixmon, he motioned to her to pick him up. "Phoenixmon, let's go!" Tai yelled as he was getting ready to jump on her. Phoenixmon swooped down and caught him on her wing as he jumped as high as he could into the air. "Sora, stay here!"
"Like I have a choice!" she retorted stomping her feet as her husband made off with her Digimon.
As they were in the air, Phoenixmon was fast behind the fleeing insects. "Star-Light Explosion!" she cried as the explosion fired, but Kabuterimon was barely hurt since the Kuwagamon set themselves up as a wall to protect their leader, dissolving into bits as soon as they were hit.
"Crap! We Gotta Get Closer, Phoenixmon!" Tai yelled at the fiery bird, finally getting in a riding position, clutching her neck.
Kabuterimon turned around, holding Kari with his two lower hands while using his other two to attack. "Electro Shocker!"
Even though a Champion would be no match for a Mega, Phoenixmon had simply used up too much energy and went into a nose dive. Just as she was about to crash, she pulled up slightly to hover over the ground at high speeds for a bit before de-digivolving, and hitting the ground hard for that matter. The two, Tai and Biyomon, tumbled quite a ways before finally stopping. Being pretty scratched and bruised on the grassy field, Tai, sprung to his feet, shaking his fist in the air.
"Damn, we almost had him." Tai said looking in the direction of Infinity Mountain, Kabuterimion's destination. He then turned to the small pink bird and picked her up, "You did a good job, Biyomon," he whispered into the pink bird's ear as she drifted off to sleep, "Sora will be proud of you," as he carried the injured Biyomon back to Primary Village.
It was almost the next morning before he finally got back to the Village, never stopping for a rest, with super-human endurance, collapsed at the borders where the others had made camp. After he was sleeping inside a makeshift cabin made of broken blocks, Biyomon told everything that happened. That night, Takeru felt truly alone, without a hope in the world...
~@~
"Takeru? T.K.?" Kari asked as she looked around. She was trapped in a cage, inside a beautiful room. It was almost like a palace. In front of her was a great chair sitting on a platform.
All of the sudden, little bits of data came together in the chair to form a person, a person wearing a black robe...
"Oh, don't worry your pretty little head." said Gennai with a smug smile growing on his lips as out of two doors Leomon and Andromon came out and stood beside him, "Your little T.K. will be here soon enough."
The last thing Kari heard was Gennai's sick laughter before she fainted into oblivion.
~@~
DemiDevimon wove through the forests on his approach to Infinity Mountain, flying at low levels. Every once in a while, he'd pass one of DeviDramon's minions patrolling the perimeter for those pesky Digidestined.
Upon reachilng the base of the mountain, instead of flying up to the palace toward the peak, he instead flew into a cave, concealed by brush. The cave, which was actually a corridor into a secret entrance to the palace, went for quite a ways in. At the end of the corridor was a teleporter that would send him up into the palace. But that wasn't his destination, instead after passing a few torches in, one was unlit. This one, he flew up on top of and dropped himself, causing the hidden lever to go down.
Inside was another room that lit up as soon as DemiDevimon entered. Inside the room was a tranceiver to the Continent of Server where King Etemon reigned. After putting a couple quarters in, the tranceiver activated itself, showing a holograph of King Etemon in his stately red cape.
"Ah hope ya got some news ya little bowling ball, cuz I got 'nutha concert in a coupl'a minutes." King Etemon said, hopping from foot to foot to show his anxiousness.
"Sorry, your highness, but it seems as if the Digidestined are finished for sure. DeviDramon's servant, Gennai, has set up a trap to capture one of them, and ultimately lead them here to destroy them." DemiDevimon said, bowing the whole time.
"Ah know that, but Ah set you there so you could spy on DeviDramon!!" King Etemon replied, hopping even faster.
"Yes, of course sir," DemiDevimon said as he sweat-dropped, "There is a division the DeviDramon's higher ranks, it seems that Gennai may be making a bid for power in order to overthrow DeviDramon!"
"You've earned yerself another day of life, DemiDevimon, uh-huh..."
~@~
Taichi sat on one of the half deflated alphabet cubes that once littered Primary Village. He looked up at the sky and saw all the twinkling little stars like a man at the end of the line. Depressed, hopeless...
"Taichi," Sora said as she sat on the other end of the inflated cube raising Tai a little then back down until they were the same height, "I know your sister is gone, but she's not gone forever. We can't give up now."
"Does it look like I'm giving up? Huh Sora? Does it?" Tai nearly screamed on the verge of tears. "No matter how old she gets, she's still my little sister and I failed to save her... Sort of like I failed to save you from Datamon at Etemon's pyramid. I just wished... I just wished..."
Sora patted him on the back, then gave him a good hug. When she let go, and saw him smile back at her, although weak, it was a smile nonetheless. She knew there was someone else who also needed someone to talk to.
~@~
Takeru, in an isolated part of primary village was busy, busy being destructive. The rage and anger pent up inside him was unleashed as he used his bare hands to tear up what he could, everything he could. Behind him he heard the shuffle of feet. He immediately came up into a fighting stance and was ready to beat up anyone who stepped out.
"Stop it, Stop it right now, this isn't you Takeru." his brother said stepping out from behind a pile of blocks.
"Why should I?! I just watched my friend Elecmon die and Kari taken away by that idiot Gennai! I don't care what anyone says, I- I just want her back!" Takeru, sapped of all his strength slumped down to the ground. Matt approached him but Takeru held up his hand motioning him to stop. Matt underrstood that he needed to be alone and walked away. While leaving, he saw Sora approaching.
"Hey Sora," Matt said.
"How's T.K." she replied.
"He wants to be alone right now, I just finished talking to him."
"Well, he's not going to get it, I need to talk to him." Sora said.
"Go ahead, just go easy on him." Matt said with a smile on his face.
Sora approached the clearing where Takeru was and saw him just lying there in the deflated ground looking up at the stars like Tai was.
"T.K...." Sora began to say.
"I told you guys not to call me that anymore," he said quietly, "I just want to be alone right now."
"No you don't," Sora replied sternly, "I know you don't want to be alone. Whatever is going around in your head right now eating you up! Look around you and what you've done, did this help anyone aside from you? Is this going to help us get Kari back?"
"I thought my brother told you to go easy on me." Takeru replied getting back up and sitting cross-legged.
"I didn't know you were listening."
"I'm always listening."
"Y'know T.K." pausing to let her mention of his childhood name sink in, "you were right, we did act better when we were kids, that same thing applies to you too."
Takeru just sat there silently. Sora continued.
"You and Kari are perhaps the most perfect examples of what we all represent. Love, courage, sincerity, knowledge, reliability, and friendship, but without hope and light everything falls apart. If anything, you T.K. represent all that best things of the guys: Tai's leadership, Matt's determination, Joe's caring, and Izzy's understanding. The same thing with Kari: My love and Mimi's sincerity. In fact, sometimes I wonder that if there ever was going to be another group of digidestined while we were younger, I had a feeling that you would be their leader. Now, with Kari gone, all we have left is you, hope."
"So, what's your point?"
"My point is this, right now, you're acting the exact opposite you have acted all your life. You're acting selffish and vengeful, the way Gennai probably wants you to act," Sora turned to leave, and without turning to look back, she began to walk away. When she reached the edge, she heard him start to sob and she stopped walking.
"There's these times when I just want to be a little kid again, surrounded by all of you, watching out for me," Takeru said standing up as Sora turned around, "Back then, I didn't have anything to worry about since you guys were always there, even though I worried anyway. Now, I have my own responsibilites, and I'm going to step up to them and finish them."
Sora nodded as he continued, "Thanks for straightening me out, Sora."
They both came together and hugged. As they parted T.K. smiled and said, "Sora, you guys can call me anything you want, I won't care." They both laughed.
~@~
By now, everyone had found their little corner and had fallen asleep. Except for T.K. He just lay on his side, imagining Kari lying there beside him, but no one was there. He lay like that since everyone had curled up and gone to sleep. Just before though, he thought he saw Izzy talking to a holographic Jenji, but he was sure that Izzy would talk about it later.
Just then, a flash of light blinded him. As he rubbed his eyes while the light faded away, in its place was a digiegg.
"Oh my..." T.K. said to himself, "Maybe its Elecmon being reborn!" He thought about waking the others, but instead decided to do it later, for now, he just wrapped his arms around the egg and finally fell asleep.
~@~
Several hours later, Matt woke everyone up, except Tai who was already waiting at the smoldering campfire in the center of Primary Village.
As they gathered around the campfire's smoking remains, they noticed the Digiegg that T.K. was holding in his arms with tenderness. Tai nodded in his direction and spoke up, "Alright guys, this place is starting to creep me out, we got a new place to go. Izzy got a message from Jenji before we went to sleep. Go ahead Izzy tell them what's going on."
"Well, according to Jenji, all's quiet on the homefront at Andromon's Factory, but he has just gotten word from Digimon in the surrounding area that something big is going down at Infinity Mountain. What that is, we don't know, what we do know is that some of those same Digimon also spotted a human woman being carried up by a Kabuterimon, which of course means that..."
"Kari is at Infinity Mountain," T.K. interrupted. "What will we do?" he continued, "We've got to save her, but there's no way to get in, I'm sure it's heavily guarded."
"You are correct Takeru," Izzy continued, "but while it will still be incredibly difficult to scale the mountain with what we have, approaching the base is being taken care of. Jenji, with the help of Andromon's computer, is developing a weapon with which we can automatically delete enemy Digimon."
"Wait a sec," Mimi interrupted, "did you say 'delete' or did you mean we will save them from the black rings?"
"Unfortuantely," Izzy continued, "that is exactly what I meant. There is no way to successfully dislodge the black rings without precise attacks, but the weapon being developed is designed to wipe out Digimon over a wide area. The base of the mountain will be cleared out when we approach."
"Hold on, Hold on," Matt said standing up waving his hands, "What if Gabumon or our other Digimon are there, what will happen to them?"
"Nothing," Tai said standing up as well, "We're not going anywhere near Infinity Mountain until we get our Digimon back, and if we don't get them back, then we're not going. I don't care if the whole Digiworld breaks up under me, I'm not going to put Agumon or any other of our other Digimon in danger."
"But what about all those poor innocent Digimon..." Mimi sighed.
Joe, who had been quiet the whole time spoke up, "When the Digiworld is returned to normal, all the Digimon will be reborn at Primary Village. Until then, we must do everything we can to stop that evil, even if other controlled Digimon get in our way."
Everyone nodded solemnly.
Mimi shot up from her seat and stood there with her hands on her hips, "So far, all me and Sora and Kari have been doing was just sit in the background like good little girls, while the guys take care of the big stuff. Now, Sora's got Biyomon back and Kari's gone. There's something big going on, and I in on the action. I'm going to do my part and fight alongside you guys, even if I don't have a Digimon." Joe stood up to object and to remind her of what hapenned last time, but caught himself seeing Mimi's resoluteness.
"That won't be a problem actually," Izzy said, "Jeni has also found out that there's a cache of Mekanorimon not far from the factory, in a place called 'Trash Mountain'."
"It's settled then," Tai said as he begun gathering his belongings, "we're headed to Trash Mountain."
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Many thanks to Keava, my Beta Reader, (the help she gave me was invaluable) as well as kale, who has supported me (I think) in my writings. This fic is dedicated to you both. I hope you liked this little mini Takari I cooked up.