Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Indiana Matt and the Isle of the Serpent ❯ Chapter 3
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: dareru 
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.30.2001 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 197 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.30.2001 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 197 | Status: Completed
PART 3
CHAPTER 5
"Nice day for sailing."
Matt grinned and donned his trademark fedora against the torrential downpour that threatened to drown downtown Rio. The hurricane season had just begun the week before, and already the first big storm of the year was upon the South Atlantic. He put an arm around Tai and together they ran out of the embassy and into the conspicuous bright yellow taxi that was waiting for them, courtesy the ever-helpful Mr. Hida.
In a few minutes they were at the very pier that harbored their marine transportation - a small, run-down fishing trawler that had undoubtedly seen better days, but the words San Cristobal were still painted visibly on its hull. Still, a ride is a ride, and as it was free, Matt wasn't about to complain.
Matt, Tai and Iori dashed into the cabin of the ship where they met face to face with the captain - a short, stocky, gruff fellow, missing a leg, who clapped Matt and Iori on the back, and took Tai's hand and kissed it. After a round of introductions, the captain, whose name was Bartolomeo, told the group of their route in his thickly accented, broken manner.
"We go here first," he said, indicating Masaharu's base camp on the sea charts, "take on supplies for a few days, and then begin...how you say...search?...for your island. If weather good and seas not rough, we cover whole area, three days."
"What if it's worse?" inquired Matt.
Bartolomeo shrugged. "Then, it take longer. You want me to control weather, cost you ten times more."
After stowing their gear, Bartolomeo took them on a quick tour of the ship, telling them of its long history as a fishing boat.
"Then, one day, a great monster come out of the deep." Bartolomeo took his arms and spread them as wide as he could. "Ten, twenty times longer than the ship."
This piqued Matt's curiosity. "A monster, you say? What did it look like?"
Bartolomeo shook his head. "It was so horrible, ship's captain forget what it look like. It hit the boat..." He made a noise to that effect and smacked one arm against his other hand. "...and knock it over. Four people eaten alive...including captain's wife and sons. Captain lucky, though - it only take his leg."
The small fellow stared at the ground, and for a moment all the company could hear was the creaking of the timbers and the rain beating down on the deck of the ship. Then, Bartolomeo cheered up, with a barely visible but almost superhuman effort, and pasted a forced smile on his face.
"But enough about vessel history. Come, we go now."
True to his word, the ship was sailing out of port in less than five minutes, directly towards the heart of the storm.
* * *
It had been a rough few hours, but the boat had apparently weathered the hurricane. Except for a few leaks below decks and a piece of railing that had been torn off by the winds, the San Cristobal was still mostly intact, riding at anchor among the small sandbars that surrounded it.
Beneath the small fishing boat, the water was blue and the seas were placid; above it, there was hardly a cloud in sight; the sun shone down on the thoroughly drenched crew, and the mood lightened noticeably.
Tai walked to the front of the ship, spread his arms out and basked in the warm rays of the sun. His hair and clothes soon began to steam as the water evaporated. While he was busy steaming, though, he was completely unaware that Matt was creeping up behind him.
"Ahh, this is certainly worth waiting for, eh, Matt? Matt?" Tai turned his head to look for the professor but it was too late - Matt grabbed Tai by the waist and neatly tossed him overboard.
Tai's head broke the surface and he sputtered angrily. "What was that for?"
Matt smiled infuriatingly and leaned on the railing. "You looked like you needed a bath...besides, the drowned rat look fits you pretty well."
Tai shook his head in mock consternation and, grinning, dove underwater, only to surface right next to Matt's arm, which he promptly tugged on. The Professor temporarily lost his dignity and balance, and fell headlong into the water with a loud splash.
From the cabin, Iori and Bartolomeo watched the two.
"They should laugh while they can. They will soon find that the brotherhood is not something to trifle with, isn't that right, Bartolomeo?"
The captain forced a smile, painfully aware of the knife Iori had pressed to his side.
"Absolutely, sir."
Iori smiled and stared ahead into the clear sky. "Good. Otherwise they may find themselves at the mercy of the great Feathered Serpent, not unlike some arrogant fishermen."
* * *
Fortunately for the San Cristobal, Masaharu's base camp was close by, because after they had tied the boat to the makeshift dock and taken shelter, the back half of the storm broke upon them.
Wind and rain swept the tiny island, lashing the little group of huts mercilessly, but inside, everyone was fairly warm and, at the very least, not wet. The ranking person in the camp was Hikari Kamiya - Tai's younger sister - who was working on her archeology doctorate under Masaharu's careful eye. After the brief family reunion, including the exchanging of dress sizes, everyone got down to business.
"Masaharu had finally found something," said Hikari. "He'd been going at it day and night, almost for three days until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion, and when we pulled him out and practically forced him to eat, the only thing he wanted to do was go back to his research." She produced a small piece of parchment, deteriorating with age but still largely readable - that is, if someone was fluent in ancient Aztec languages. "This is, as he called it, the final piece of the puzzle."
Matt reverently took it in his hands. "Did he say what this is?"
Hikari shook her head. "Nope. Remember, Dr. Ishida, we're here to study Aztec fishing methods, not look for some old relic. Masaharu only came to supervise us, not take part in the research." She looked directly at him. "Something tells me that you're going to do exactly what your father did." She sighed. "So I might as well tell you what happened to him."
Everyone looked to her.
"The day that you got the telegram, he had taken out our only boat before everyone was awake. He left this map and this note." She handed the two items to Matt, who studied them in a brooding silence. "And that's the last we've heard from him. Like he said in the note, if he wasn't back in 12 hours, to call for help, so we did."
Matt sat back in his chair, hand on his chin. Tai took Matt's hand and gently spoke what was on everyone's mind.
"Matt...if he was out, alone, with no food or supplies...he's gone by now."
He nodded. "I know...but we can always look when it clears tomorrow. Right now, all we can do is wait for this damned storm to let up."
* * *
True to the forecast, the weather cleared up that night. As the stars shone brightly above the island base camp, Matt wandered out to the beach and sat, drawing up his legs. He looked up at the heavens, mentally picking out each constellation Masaharu had taught him, and wondered if he was still all right.
"Wherever you are, old man, I'm coming for you. Just hang on."
Matt sighed and stretched out in the sand, placing his fedora over his head, and was asleep in a few moments.
~~~
CHAPTER 6
True to his word, Matt and company were ready to find Masaharu early the next morning, armed with map and diary, plus a small arsenal in case something unexpected happened - Matt's usual whip and revolver, a large machete, and Tai's personal favorite, a sleek black Tommy gun.
"Let's roll, ladies and gentlemen."
* * *
Their final destination, according to Masaharu's map, was the remnants of an extinct volcano surrounded by a coral reef. The once-forbidding lava plug had been eroded by time and weather, and was now just a black stony hill, pockmarked with caves. On the other side of the reef was a small motorboat, red and white, with the Tokyo University logo on it.
"That looks like Dad's boat!" exclaimed Matt. Instinctively, Bartolomeo piloted the San Cristobal towards it, and Matt and Tai leaped out of the boat and onto the island, followed by Iori and Bartolomeo.
Matt got there first, and recognized the boot prints in the wet sand as Masaharu's. "They lead into the caves. Come on, this way!"
The other three were hard pressed to catch up to Matt as he followed the tracks, but all four stopped short when they got to where the footprints ended.
There were literally hundreds of caves in the side of the lava plug! And with Masaharu's footprints gone, they could spend days searching for the cave he went in...then a thought hit Matt.
"Wait a minute...this looks familiar." He pondered for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "The diary!" Flipping through the pages he found the diagram that he sought. "The stone tablet in Panama - that one showed which cave to enter!" Each cave had been painstakingly marked and recorded, and now Matt found the one they wanted in short order, clambering up the rock formation's slope.
Matt waited for his companions before going on, but at what looked like just another continuation of floor, he stopped short and got out his whip. Expertly he flicked the whip at the floor and it fell away - a cunningly disguised bed of reeds and vegetation, covered with a fine powder of volcanic ash and held up by a few flimsy strands of rope which were designed to lead a person to his or her demise, for below the fake floor was a pit that none of the four could see to the bottom of.
Thinking quickly, Matt spied an overhanging ledge that could easily hold the weight of any one of them. He uncoiled his whip and lashed it to the ledge, tugging on it a few times, then offered it to Iori.
"After you, Mr. Hida."
The little man nervously gripped the lash, tugging on it just for good measure, and then, with arms and legs wrapped around it, swung across to the other side, landing on all fours. He laughed nervously and, brushing himself off, threw the whip back. Next to go was Tai; he sailed through the air gracefully and landed on the other side in one fluid motion. Bartolomeo was next. He closed his eyes and made a quick prayer, but his ungainly shuffle lacked the impetus to get him to the other side and he began to fall backwards. Matt made a run at the whip, jumping over the chasm and hitting the lash with enough force to carry him and the scared ship captain to the other side.
"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?"
"I rather scrape the hull of every boat in Rio harbor," muttered Bartolomeo darkly.
Now the daylight was beginning to fade as they pressed deeper into the caves, so Matt lit a torch. He stopped for a moment as he felt a stone move under his feet, but began to walk again when all of a sudden, the hairs on the back of his neck tingled, as if a sixth sense was warning him, and he threw himself flat on the ground.
"Get down!"
As soon as he shouted, a volley of darts sliced through the air above them, where their waists were a moment ago, one of them cutting a neat furrow straight through Tai's hair.
"Someone really doesn't want us in here, do they?" said Matt with a rueful grin, worry for his father temporarily pushed aside as his sense of adventure got warmed up. They picked themselves up off of the floor and cautiously walked onward.
But after a while it became apparent that the only hazard that they faced was exhaustion, as the cave stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they reached the end, and sitting the center of the cave was a grand altar, adorned with symbols and Nahuatl text, at the center a slot for a staff of some sort...but no staff was to be found.
Matt felt a twinge of sadness and yet also excitement; surely, someone already found the Staff of the Feathered Serpent; and that someone, too, may have kidnapped Masaharu! He whirled around and looked at Tai.
"Tai! Do you realize what this means? The Staff isn't here!" He laughed almost hysterically.
"Matt? Are you all right?" asked Tai. "You...usually aren't this happy to find that someone's stolen an artifact..."
Matt raced over to Tai and picked him up off of his feet. "Yeah yeah, but if the Staff isn't here that means someone's taken it already!" Noting the lack of comprehension on Tai's face, Matt clarified. "...and that means, that that someone probably kidnapped Masaharu!"
*click*
Matt set Tai carefully down as he realized that he was now staring down the barrel of a very dangerous-looking pistol, held in Iori Hida's hand.
"Dr. Ishida, the Staff of the Feathered Serpent is in very safe hands. I do not suggest continuing this line of exploration. It could lead to...very unpleasant circumstances."
"Iori...the Staff is a priceless artifact..."
"The staff," said Iori, his grating voice taking on a sharp edge, "is in the hands of the Brotherhood of the Serpent." He opened his shirt to reveal a large serpent tattooed on his chest. "The second coming of Quetzalcoatl is upon us, Dr. Ishida. Now that the Brotherhood is in control of the Feathered Serpent, the end of the world is at hand. Your father nearly cost us the Staff, Dr. Ishida, and we have dealt with him accordingly. You are getting too close for comfort."
"What have you done with my father?"
Iori smiled thinly, humorlessly. "Your father is being held to watch the second coming. Sadly, you will not be able to join us. Goodbye, Dr. Ishida. I hope you like snakes."
The little man pulled a lever and the floor around the altar collapsed, dropping Matt and Tai into a pit full of angry, rattling snakes.
~~~
CHAPTER 5
"Nice day for sailing."
Matt grinned and donned his trademark fedora against the torrential downpour that threatened to drown downtown Rio. The hurricane season had just begun the week before, and already the first big storm of the year was upon the South Atlantic. He put an arm around Tai and together they ran out of the embassy and into the conspicuous bright yellow taxi that was waiting for them, courtesy the ever-helpful Mr. Hida.
In a few minutes they were at the very pier that harbored their marine transportation - a small, run-down fishing trawler that had undoubtedly seen better days, but the words San Cristobal were still painted visibly on its hull. Still, a ride is a ride, and as it was free, Matt wasn't about to complain.
Matt, Tai and Iori dashed into the cabin of the ship where they met face to face with the captain - a short, stocky, gruff fellow, missing a leg, who clapped Matt and Iori on the back, and took Tai's hand and kissed it. After a round of introductions, the captain, whose name was Bartolomeo, told the group of their route in his thickly accented, broken manner.
"We go here first," he said, indicating Masaharu's base camp on the sea charts, "take on supplies for a few days, and then begin...how you say...search?...for your island. If weather good and seas not rough, we cover whole area, three days."
"What if it's worse?" inquired Matt.
Bartolomeo shrugged. "Then, it take longer. You want me to control weather, cost you ten times more."
After stowing their gear, Bartolomeo took them on a quick tour of the ship, telling them of its long history as a fishing boat.
"Then, one day, a great monster come out of the deep." Bartolomeo took his arms and spread them as wide as he could. "Ten, twenty times longer than the ship."
This piqued Matt's curiosity. "A monster, you say? What did it look like?"
Bartolomeo shook his head. "It was so horrible, ship's captain forget what it look like. It hit the boat..." He made a noise to that effect and smacked one arm against his other hand. "...and knock it over. Four people eaten alive...including captain's wife and sons. Captain lucky, though - it only take his leg."
The small fellow stared at the ground, and for a moment all the company could hear was the creaking of the timbers and the rain beating down on the deck of the ship. Then, Bartolomeo cheered up, with a barely visible but almost superhuman effort, and pasted a forced smile on his face.
"But enough about vessel history. Come, we go now."
True to his word, the ship was sailing out of port in less than five minutes, directly towards the heart of the storm.
* * *
It had been a rough few hours, but the boat had apparently weathered the hurricane. Except for a few leaks below decks and a piece of railing that had been torn off by the winds, the San Cristobal was still mostly intact, riding at anchor among the small sandbars that surrounded it.
Beneath the small fishing boat, the water was blue and the seas were placid; above it, there was hardly a cloud in sight; the sun shone down on the thoroughly drenched crew, and the mood lightened noticeably.
Tai walked to the front of the ship, spread his arms out and basked in the warm rays of the sun. His hair and clothes soon began to steam as the water evaporated. While he was busy steaming, though, he was completely unaware that Matt was creeping up behind him.
"Ahh, this is certainly worth waiting for, eh, Matt? Matt?" Tai turned his head to look for the professor but it was too late - Matt grabbed Tai by the waist and neatly tossed him overboard.
Tai's head broke the surface and he sputtered angrily. "What was that for?"
Matt smiled infuriatingly and leaned on the railing. "You looked like you needed a bath...besides, the drowned rat look fits you pretty well."
Tai shook his head in mock consternation and, grinning, dove underwater, only to surface right next to Matt's arm, which he promptly tugged on. The Professor temporarily lost his dignity and balance, and fell headlong into the water with a loud splash.
From the cabin, Iori and Bartolomeo watched the two.
"They should laugh while they can. They will soon find that the brotherhood is not something to trifle with, isn't that right, Bartolomeo?"
The captain forced a smile, painfully aware of the knife Iori had pressed to his side.
"Absolutely, sir."
Iori smiled and stared ahead into the clear sky. "Good. Otherwise they may find themselves at the mercy of the great Feathered Serpent, not unlike some arrogant fishermen."
* * *
Fortunately for the San Cristobal, Masaharu's base camp was close by, because after they had tied the boat to the makeshift dock and taken shelter, the back half of the storm broke upon them.
Wind and rain swept the tiny island, lashing the little group of huts mercilessly, but inside, everyone was fairly warm and, at the very least, not wet. The ranking person in the camp was Hikari Kamiya - Tai's younger sister - who was working on her archeology doctorate under Masaharu's careful eye. After the brief family reunion, including the exchanging of dress sizes, everyone got down to business.
"Masaharu had finally found something," said Hikari. "He'd been going at it day and night, almost for three days until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion, and when we pulled him out and practically forced him to eat, the only thing he wanted to do was go back to his research." She produced a small piece of parchment, deteriorating with age but still largely readable - that is, if someone was fluent in ancient Aztec languages. "This is, as he called it, the final piece of the puzzle."
Matt reverently took it in his hands. "Did he say what this is?"
Hikari shook her head. "Nope. Remember, Dr. Ishida, we're here to study Aztec fishing methods, not look for some old relic. Masaharu only came to supervise us, not take part in the research." She looked directly at him. "Something tells me that you're going to do exactly what your father did." She sighed. "So I might as well tell you what happened to him."
Everyone looked to her.
"The day that you got the telegram, he had taken out our only boat before everyone was awake. He left this map and this note." She handed the two items to Matt, who studied them in a brooding silence. "And that's the last we've heard from him. Like he said in the note, if he wasn't back in 12 hours, to call for help, so we did."
Matt sat back in his chair, hand on his chin. Tai took Matt's hand and gently spoke what was on everyone's mind.
"Matt...if he was out, alone, with no food or supplies...he's gone by now."
He nodded. "I know...but we can always look when it clears tomorrow. Right now, all we can do is wait for this damned storm to let up."
* * *
True to the forecast, the weather cleared up that night. As the stars shone brightly above the island base camp, Matt wandered out to the beach and sat, drawing up his legs. He looked up at the heavens, mentally picking out each constellation Masaharu had taught him, and wondered if he was still all right.
"Wherever you are, old man, I'm coming for you. Just hang on."
Matt sighed and stretched out in the sand, placing his fedora over his head, and was asleep in a few moments.
~~~
CHAPTER 6
True to his word, Matt and company were ready to find Masaharu early the next morning, armed with map and diary, plus a small arsenal in case something unexpected happened - Matt's usual whip and revolver, a large machete, and Tai's personal favorite, a sleek black Tommy gun.
"Let's roll, ladies and gentlemen."
* * *
Their final destination, according to Masaharu's map, was the remnants of an extinct volcano surrounded by a coral reef. The once-forbidding lava plug had been eroded by time and weather, and was now just a black stony hill, pockmarked with caves. On the other side of the reef was a small motorboat, red and white, with the Tokyo University logo on it.
"That looks like Dad's boat!" exclaimed Matt. Instinctively, Bartolomeo piloted the San Cristobal towards it, and Matt and Tai leaped out of the boat and onto the island, followed by Iori and Bartolomeo.
Matt got there first, and recognized the boot prints in the wet sand as Masaharu's. "They lead into the caves. Come on, this way!"
The other three were hard pressed to catch up to Matt as he followed the tracks, but all four stopped short when they got to where the footprints ended.
There were literally hundreds of caves in the side of the lava plug! And with Masaharu's footprints gone, they could spend days searching for the cave he went in...then a thought hit Matt.
"Wait a minute...this looks familiar." He pondered for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "The diary!" Flipping through the pages he found the diagram that he sought. "The stone tablet in Panama - that one showed which cave to enter!" Each cave had been painstakingly marked and recorded, and now Matt found the one they wanted in short order, clambering up the rock formation's slope.
Matt waited for his companions before going on, but at what looked like just another continuation of floor, he stopped short and got out his whip. Expertly he flicked the whip at the floor and it fell away - a cunningly disguised bed of reeds and vegetation, covered with a fine powder of volcanic ash and held up by a few flimsy strands of rope which were designed to lead a person to his or her demise, for below the fake floor was a pit that none of the four could see to the bottom of.
Thinking quickly, Matt spied an overhanging ledge that could easily hold the weight of any one of them. He uncoiled his whip and lashed it to the ledge, tugging on it a few times, then offered it to Iori.
"After you, Mr. Hida."
The little man nervously gripped the lash, tugging on it just for good measure, and then, with arms and legs wrapped around it, swung across to the other side, landing on all fours. He laughed nervously and, brushing himself off, threw the whip back. Next to go was Tai; he sailed through the air gracefully and landed on the other side in one fluid motion. Bartolomeo was next. He closed his eyes and made a quick prayer, but his ungainly shuffle lacked the impetus to get him to the other side and he began to fall backwards. Matt made a run at the whip, jumping over the chasm and hitting the lash with enough force to carry him and the scared ship captain to the other side.
"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?"
"I rather scrape the hull of every boat in Rio harbor," muttered Bartolomeo darkly.
Now the daylight was beginning to fade as they pressed deeper into the caves, so Matt lit a torch. He stopped for a moment as he felt a stone move under his feet, but began to walk again when all of a sudden, the hairs on the back of his neck tingled, as if a sixth sense was warning him, and he threw himself flat on the ground.
"Get down!"
As soon as he shouted, a volley of darts sliced through the air above them, where their waists were a moment ago, one of them cutting a neat furrow straight through Tai's hair.
"Someone really doesn't want us in here, do they?" said Matt with a rueful grin, worry for his father temporarily pushed aside as his sense of adventure got warmed up. They picked themselves up off of the floor and cautiously walked onward.
But after a while it became apparent that the only hazard that they faced was exhaustion, as the cave stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they reached the end, and sitting the center of the cave was a grand altar, adorned with symbols and Nahuatl text, at the center a slot for a staff of some sort...but no staff was to be found.
Matt felt a twinge of sadness and yet also excitement; surely, someone already found the Staff of the Feathered Serpent; and that someone, too, may have kidnapped Masaharu! He whirled around and looked at Tai.
"Tai! Do you realize what this means? The Staff isn't here!" He laughed almost hysterically.
"Matt? Are you all right?" asked Tai. "You...usually aren't this happy to find that someone's stolen an artifact..."
Matt raced over to Tai and picked him up off of his feet. "Yeah yeah, but if the Staff isn't here that means someone's taken it already!" Noting the lack of comprehension on Tai's face, Matt clarified. "...and that means, that that someone probably kidnapped Masaharu!"
*click*
Matt set Tai carefully down as he realized that he was now staring down the barrel of a very dangerous-looking pistol, held in Iori Hida's hand.
"Dr. Ishida, the Staff of the Feathered Serpent is in very safe hands. I do not suggest continuing this line of exploration. It could lead to...very unpleasant circumstances."
"Iori...the Staff is a priceless artifact..."
"The staff," said Iori, his grating voice taking on a sharp edge, "is in the hands of the Brotherhood of the Serpent." He opened his shirt to reveal a large serpent tattooed on his chest. "The second coming of Quetzalcoatl is upon us, Dr. Ishida. Now that the Brotherhood is in control of the Feathered Serpent, the end of the world is at hand. Your father nearly cost us the Staff, Dr. Ishida, and we have dealt with him accordingly. You are getting too close for comfort."
"What have you done with my father?"
Iori smiled thinly, humorlessly. "Your father is being held to watch the second coming. Sadly, you will not be able to join us. Goodbye, Dr. Ishida. I hope you like snakes."
The little man pulled a lever and the floor around the altar collapsed, dropping Matt and Tai into a pit full of angry, rattling snakes.
~~~