Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Kitty ❯ Hesitation ( Chapter 2 )

"That didn't feel good," Agumon groaned, trying to shake off the pain of his recent drubbing. "But you've got to make me digivolve again."

"You sure you're ready?" Tai said.

"I'm sure I'm not," he grumbled. "But I've got to."

"I know, I know," Tai said. "I'm telling you, this is against my better judgment." Agumon looked at Tai, his face showing exactly what he thought of Tai's better judgment. "Not one word, Agumon," Tai added, heading off the inevitable sarcastic remark at the pass. "Here goes."

*****

"You!" SaberNekomon flew at Angewomon, claws poised to tear her nemesis' throat out.

Angewomon swiveled in midair, allowing SaberNekomon to go past. "Me. And what did I ever do to you?"

SaberNekomon pushed off from the ground to fling herself back into the air at Angewomon. "Kill... you..." she seethed, her voice an inhuman growl. Angewomon tried to use the same maneuver to dodge her again, but SaberNekomon lashed out with her tail as she was passing by, catching onto Angewomon's leg. A good tug served to throw Angewomon off balance and pull SaberNekomon upwards, as well as turning her to face Angewomon. In a blind rage, she slashed hard and deep with her claws, tearing four bleeding gashes. Angewomon winced in pain as she reached for an arrow, but SaberNekomon didn't give her the time. "Tigris Wave!" she shouted, slashing with her other hand. The whole exchange happened in under two seconds. Angewomon took the full force of the assault, and plummeted to the ground in a tailspin. SaberNekomon was already dropping toward her, having made sure to not release her tail-hold until she was moving in the right direction.

Angewomon rolled onto her back and spread her arms. "Heaven's Charm!"

SaberNekomon flew straight into the energy wave, and screamed as she was thrown back into the air. She hit the ground none too gracefully several yards away, and forced herself to her feet.

And instantly charged for Angewomon again.

*****

Escher Castle was a labyrinthine maze where spatial laws were vastly different than in the outside world. There were several who had become lost in it, and had spent years wandering its halls. A few found their way out. Most found death. Others still wandered, and would likely spend the remainder of their lives doing so. But none who came uninvited ever found what they had been seeking when they had entered.

The most inaccessible room in the castle was rather bare. Its design was simple, four ninety-degree angles. There were no furnishings, and just enough torches that one would not be completely blind. At the far end was a pedestal with a small, black artifact on a stand. The stand had strange writing in a circle around the artifact. The object itself looked like two dragon skulls mounted on a red sphere. The sphere was surrounded by a black framework with an eye on either side as well as up front.

Soon, the lord of the castle entered. For once, he was alone. Myotismon was usually surrounded by whatever minions he had not been displeased with or bored enough to kill as yet. But for this meeting, he brought no one with him.

Placing his hand atop the artifact, he stared into its center eye. The eyes on the sides turned to look into his own, and the writing glowed. Suddenly, the room around him changed. He was standing in a great temple, at the foot of a stairway. At the top of the stairway, far above, was a throne. On the throne, where the light was bright enough to see him but dim enough that no one could make out his features, sat a being. He remained silent, waiting for Myotismon to speak.

Myotismon confidently looked up at the enthroned. "Now do you see?" he gloated. "She's winning. Are you satisfied now, O Ancient One?" he said, saying the creature's title mockingly.

"Perhaps," said the Ancient One. "Your little experiment is working better than I had expected, it is true. But you are far from victory."

"You see how she performs. Even an Ultimate cannot stand against her. The attack that easily dispatched Lady Devimon could not significantly harm SaberNekomon."

"Now that she faces Angewomon, how do you know she will not simply kill her and to the Dark Area with our war against the Digidestined?"

"A rather interesting aspect of the program applied to her."

"You know that such controls, once discovered, are easily broken."

"Control? Give me some credit, I have much more imagination than that."

"Then what...?"

"Just watch. This should impress even you, O Ancient One."

"Very well. But be warned, Myotismon: I am no more forgiving to those who fail me than you are to those who fail you. See that it succeeds."

Myotismon nodded. "It shall. All will be ready when the time comes for me to use my gate to allow you into this world once more." He chose his words so as to remind the Ancient One who was truly at whose mercy, while remaining respectful.

The Ancient One nodded, as Myotismon had just done. "Very well. I am sure you will show yourself worthy of the power and life force that I provide you with." The Ancient One left Myotismon with a similar warning, the warning that he could take back the life he had given him whenever he chose.

Myotismon bowed politely, and touched the artifact again. A bright light flooded from it, and he felt a sharp stinging sensation in his hand, which wasn't normal. Another not-so-subtle warning from the one who would be his master. The light faded, and he was in Escher Castle once more.

Myotismon made a fist. "Yes, I shall show you all right, 'O Ancient One,'" he growled to himself, stalking away.

*****

Just how strong is she? Garurumon thought as she watched SaberNekomon charge at Angewomon. She had apparently been playing with him and Greymon, holding back so as to prolong her own amusement. It was times like this that he missed Izzy and his Digimon Analyzer. If they knew the extent of her power, they'd know how to fight her. I'm going to regret this. "Garurumon digivolve to... WereGarurumon!"

WereGarurumon hopped in front of SaberNekomon. "Garuru Kick!" he shouted, bringing down a foot four times larger than SaberNekomon, energy glowing on his claws.

"Out of my way!" SaberNekomon shouted, flipping sideways to stand next to the foot that was still on the ground. A solid kick knocked it out of place, causing WereGarurumon to fall backwards. The energized foot slammed the ground, causing WereGarurumon to take most of the Garuru Kick's force. SaberNekomon winced, knowing what that felt like. Just to make sure he got the message, she used his head as a springboard to launch herself at Angewomon again. "Don't worry, I'll play with you soon enough," she assured WereGarurumon as she turned her attention back to her nemesis.

She was greeted with a rude reminder of the need to keep her mouth shut during battle. A thick cable wrapped around her waist, and the steel hand at its end grabbed her. "Hey!" she shouted indignantly.

MetalGreymon stamped over, reeling in his bionic arm as he approached. "You people never learn, do you? Who are you working for? What do you have against Angewomon?"

"You'd think they'd know better than to send one Digimon alone," Angewomon said. "We'd better keep an eye out."

"Right," Tai agreed from the ground. "I'll see if I can call the others." Tai walked back into the now-deserted corner store.

MetalGreymon, WereGarurumon, and Angewomon stood over SaberNekomon. "So, what do we do with her?" WereGarurumon said.

"Begging for mercy sounds good," SaberNekomon said. "For you, anyway," she told MetalGreymon. "You, however," she said to WereGarurumon, winking, "I'm sure I could think of something for..."

"Are you insane?" WereGarurumon demanded. "This isn't some kind of game!"

"Of course it is," SaberNekomon laughed. "You guys take it all too seriously. And those humans of yours are even worse."

"What do you want with me?" Angewomon said. "I've never seen you before in my life. Did I do something to you in a previous evolution or something?"

SaberNekomon snarled, her 'game' philosophy gone once more in the face of Angewomon. She said something inaudiable under her breath as she struggled to get her hands free, in hopes of getting them around Angewomon's throat. "...kill you..." she growled. "Kill you and kill you and kill you kill you kill you..." she repeated under her breath, her eyes wide and drool falling from her lips. Her normally-beautiful face was a mask of pure rage. She rambled and thrashed wildly for a few more seconds until an epiphany came to her: this wasn't working. As much as she hated to, she stopped to think.

Step one, of course, was to get out of MetalGreymon's grip. After that, she had opponents to nullify. MetalGreymon would try to recapture her, so she had to make him the first target. Angewomon would... she fought down the surge of anger that the name brought... Angewomon would be the next to attack, from the air, as soon as she was far enough away from MetalGreymon for Angewomon to attack without fear of hitting him. Dodge that attack but strike at WereGarurumon, who's probably going to try the same bogus move again. SaberNekomon giggled, both with anticipation and because she was glad to be so much smarter than they were.

SaberNekomon forced herself to relax. She shut out the yapping humans and Digimon, who were still firing questions at her and speculations at each other, and put her out of her mind. She realized she'd never actually concentrated before, and figured it might be interesting. Come on, no different than squeezing under the bedroom door... She felt for where MetalGreymon's grip was weakest, and began to maneuver herself free. Slowly, so MetalGreymon wouldn't know at first, but she had to be ready to spring the moment he realized it so that he wouldn't have time to tighten his grip. Slowly... slo-o-owly... now!

She twisted her way free of the cable, and slipped out of the claw like soap squeezed through a wet fist. She landed atop the claw, but not to stay. "Tigris Wave!" she aimed for the armored Ultimate's very non-armored jaw, provoking a grunt of pain, even as she flipped away.

"Mega Claw!" MetalGreymon launched his steel hand.

"Make it easy for me, why doncha?" SaberNekomon laughed as she grabbed the cable the hand was attached to. "For a second, I thought I might have to work for it!" She yanked the cable as hard as she could as she dropped to the ground, and flipped the titanic cyborg Digimon into the air. She made a big show of getting out of the way as MetalGreymon landed on his head. Angewomon zoomed at her, but she simply flipped over. "Don't worry, you'll get yours soon enough." She'd learned her lesson about carelessness. She'd finish Angewomon once her little helpers were out of the way.

"Wolf Claw!" WereGarurumon shouted, slashing at her. The claw left an energy trail behind it.

Well, it's almost the same attack, she thought, hating to admit having been slightly off in her predictions. She rolled under the attack and ran between WereGarurumon's legs. When the wolf Digimon had halfway turned towards her again, she slashed deeply into his ankle and gave it a good kick, causing him to yelp and land rather ungracefully on his back. She saw MetalGreymon's shadow fall, and launched herself into the air, feetfirst, and drove her right heel into the same spot on his jaw that she'd Tigris Waved before. SaberNekomon turned in midair to land on her feet even as the dinosaur toppled onto WereGarurumon. She leapt into the air again. "Now, say adios." Her claws began to glow as she aimed for MetalGreymon's throat, but a strong pair of arms grabbed her. "From behind," she growled at Angewomon. "Big surprise." She kicked her legs upward, flipping to land on top of Angewomon. Taking her by the throat, she steered her to the ground headfirst. Angewomon landed with a satisfying thud, and SaberNekomon planted her foot in Angewomon's back. "Game over," she announced.

"Wolf Claw!" WereGarurumon shouted, knocking SaberNekomon off of Angewomon. With his other hand, he pulled Angewomon out of MetalGreymon's line of fire and leapt away.

"Giga Blaster!" MetalGreymon unleashed the two gigantic missiles at the relatively tiny SaberNekmon.

"Tigris Wave!" SaberNekomon slashed with both claws, sending twin energy arcs which detonated the missiles. MetalGreymon looked through the smoke to see... no one. After exactly three seconds of wondering just where his foe was, he felt a sledgehammer blow to the back of his head, throwing him onto his face. The loud clang of the blow still echoed through his head. SaberNekomon slashed MetalGreymon's tail just because she could, and then leapt at WereGarurumon. WereGarurumon tried to bring his fist down on the infuriating cat woman, who simply caught his fist and pulled it forward, bringing him closer. Leaping, she landed a kick to his chest that left him feeling like he'd been hit by a Locomon, and he was sent flying backwards to the ground. From there, she leapt to stamp on MetalGreymon's head, and bounced to do the same to WereGarurumon's, getting a rythmic "Oof!" "Ugh!" from them. She giggled again, despite her growing annoyance at their ever-continuing interference. She hadn't had this much fun in... she had never had this much fun! She hopped down from WereGarurumon's bruised skull just as he began to devolve back into Gabumon. As SaberNekmon turned away, MetalGreymon reverted down to Koromon.

SaberNekomon didn't have to turn to know that Angewomon was probably taking aim. She dropped and rolled to let any possible Celestial Arrows fly by. Sure enough, an explosion struck the spot where she'd just been standing. She leapt in the direction that the arrow had been fired from, and as expected, Angewomon was in her path. The angel Digimon fired two more arrows, but SaberNekomon managed to twist around them both. She reached Angewomon, knocking her bow out of her hand, tearing it off of the sleeve it had grown from. The arrow she was trying to ready dropped to the ground below. SaberNekomon grabbed Angewomon by the wing and held on tight, yanking off her helmet. She got a glimpse of Angewomon's blue eyes. Her pupilless blue eyes. Angewomon's flying instantly became more erratic. "Hah! And I was wondering how you saw with this thing!" SaberNekomon laughed hysterically. "How ironic!" On the syllable ron, she struck the helmet against Angewomon's head. Angewomon spiralled to the ground. SaberNekomon touched down next to her, where she was reaching frantically for her lost helmet. "Keep on," SaberNekomon taunted. "It's right there!" On there, she kicked Angewomon in the back, causing her to roll over twice. SaberNekomon laughed.

"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon fired in the direction of the laughter, and the rainbow of energy sent a nova of pain through SaberNekomon's body. SaberNekomon screamed, and dropped Angewomon's helmet.

"Heaven's..." SaberNekomon wasn't waiting for the next attack. She forced herself forward, her fury drowning out the pain in an instant. Howling, she flung her foot under Angewomon and kicked her as if she were a soccer ball. In a burst of light, Angewomon reverted to Gatomon. The helmet and bow vanished as Gatomon landed on her back several yards away. SaberNekomon felt an itch that she would later come to realize was Koromon and Gabumon trying to use their attacks against her.

Far too angry to compose a parting shot, SaberNekomon settled for leaping into the air and plunging toward Gatomon, her claws poised to tear the Champion to shreds. Her grinning mouth was stretched grotesquely wide as, in her red-clouded vision, Gatomon became larger and larger between her outstretched claws.

"No!" A familiar voice. Through her rage, it took SaberNekomon a moment to recognize it as Kari's. Kari was now standing in front of Gatomon. The trembling girl's eyes were shut tightly against what she knew was coming.

SaberNekomon's eyes went wide as she saw Kari growing closer in the slow motion of crisis, her claws speeding toward the terrified girl. SaberNekomon gasped, and duplicating her exit from the Kamiya residence, she thought of an alley she'd passed by on the way to the store, and decided that that alley was where she was. And in a flicker of yellow light, she was there.

With a roar, she kicked a nearby garbage can. It sailed out of the alley and clear across the street, stopping only when it slammed into the wall of a building. Why? she screamed silently, trying to reason what had happened. Again, you choose her over me. Why? Tears began to roll down her face. It took her a moment to realize what they were. As Miko, that had never happened to her.

She heard a meowing, and looked to see a small kitten where the garbage can had been. Apparently, he had been ready to jump into the garbage can to rummage for food. With a sigh, SaberNekomon gathered the kitten into her arms, and sat down against a wall. The kitten rubbed his head against SaberNekomon, purring.

*****

Hikari Kamiya realized that she was still alive. She gathered the courage to open her eyes, and saw that SaberNekomon was gone. Suddenly weak, she fell to the ground beside Gatomon. Gatomon walked over to her shakily, and Kari sat up, and hugged her partner tightly. "Are you okay, Gatomon?"

"Don't worry about me," Gatomon said. "You shouldn't have had to do that. I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault," Kari assured her.

Soon, Kari herself was embraced by Tai. Matt, Koromon, and Gabumon were immediately at her and Gatomons' sides as well. "Kari, are you hurt are you all right what did she do to you I thought for a second..." Tai blurted all at once.

"We're fine," Kari said. "She... didn't want to hurt me."

"What are you talking about?" Tai demanded. "She almost cut you in half! I swear I'm going to kill that..."

"No, Tai," Kari insisted. "She stopped before she'd have hurt me. She could have killed me, but she stopped and... where is she, anyway?"

"She disappeared," Matt said. "Literally disappeared, with about a millisecond to go. You sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm sure. But why'd she stop? I know any of the Dark Masters would have given an arm to be where she was." Kari scooped up Gatomon, and rose to her feet. "Are Agumon and Gabumon all right?"

How does she do it? Tai wondered. After all that, she's still thinking of the Digimon, and even trying to figure out SaberNekomon. How's she do it? "Everybody's fine, Kari. Look, I've got to call Izzy again and tell him we don't need backup. Then we need to get over to his place so we can figure this out. I'd take you home, but we've got to see if Izzy can shed some light on this, and I'm not leaving you there alone 'til we get back."

"Okay," Kari mumbled, not really caring for all the attention. "She's after Gatomon anyway, so I ought to be there."

Tai led Kari into the store where it had all began. "Back in a sec," he told the others.

"She was playing with us," Gabumon confirmed his earlier idea. "She had no problem beating us as Ultimates. She could have gotten out of MetalGreymon's grip whenever she wanted. It is just a game to her."

And to think I actually thought she was cute, Matt added silently.

"We've got to figure what we're going to do about her. But right now, we'd better get moving," Gabumon said, motioning to the police, who were out of their cars and on their way, though cautiously. "Looks like the officers have regained their nerve."

Matt, Agumon, and Gabumon ran into the store after Tai to warn him. Tai said a quick "Got to go, bye!" to Izzy before dropping the phone. Kari followed a step behind Tai, and the six made their exit through the rear door.

***

Voice of Davis: Man, that chick's got issues. The gang better be ready, 'cause the next round's not gonna be any easier. And just who is this Ancient guy, anyway? Just keep watching Digimon: Digital Monsters to find out.

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AN: Escher Castle is just my name for Myotismon's castle, because on the inside it's like an M.C. Escher drawing.