Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Neo Digimon: Digital War ❯ Hollow Victory ( Chapter 20 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lord Archive 
The Chosen must fight as one to defeat the dark lord of File Island. And if they, what is the price of victory?
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 06.16.2002 | Updated On: 06.16.2002 | Pages: 6 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 595 | Status: Completed
The Chosen must fight as one to defeat the dark lord of File Island. And if they, what is the price of victory?
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 06.16.2002 | Updated On: 06.16.2002 | Pages: 6 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 595 | Status: Completed
Neo Digimon:
Digital War
Episode 20 - Hollow Victory
Chibi-Koushiro walks up. "Hi," he waves. "This series is NOT FOR KIDS. It is rated R for a reason. It was not arbitrarily assigned. If you are under 18 years old, and your parents won't let you see a rated R movie-- then you should NOT be reading this either."
Chibi-Koushiro coughed. "Anyway. The characters are properties of Toei Animation Inc., Saban Entertainment and others. They are used without consent. Archive is only borrowing them for an indefinite amount of time.
"Strict Japanese spelling for all names when possible. If an English name for a digimon or his attack is used and you know what the name is supposed to be in Japanese-- please tell Archive so it can be corrected."
_________________
"Skull Satamon led us into a trap," Yamato stated, but his voice wavered slightly. "He used his staff to cause the ground to open up and swallow us whole. Now stuck underground and separated in the oppressive darkness, we desperately try to regroup.
"Skull Satamon is after the smallest Chosen, and didn't bother to waste time dealing with the older Chosen. However, when he came across Koushiro, Skull Satamon attacked."
_________________
"There's a light up ahead," Taichi pointed out.
"It's probably Skull Satamon," Yamato commented.
"Should we go after him now?" Miyako questioned.
Explosions echoed through the air.
"That answers that question," Holsmon replied.
They all rushed toward the light and saw Skull Satamon looming over Koushiro. The evil digimon's staff pointed right at the scared boy who was curled up into a ball.
Taichi took off running.
"Scratch one Chosen," Skull Satamon gloated. "Nail Bone!" Lethal energy spikes shot out from the top of the staff.
Sora's eyes widened in fright as she realized just what Taichi was going to do. She couldn't even scream as he leapt between Koushiro and the oncoming attack. Time seemed to freeze as she watched in horror as two spikes sank into his flesh before exploding. His scream of pain echoed everywhere. Then, as he fell to the ground, she too fell to her knees. Only then did she find her voice, as she yelled, "TAICHI!!"
Hikari had arrived just as her brother fell to the ground. She also cried out her brothers name in horror.
Yamato yelled out his friend's name as well. He wanted Skull Satamon to pay for this.
Skull Satamon merely laughed haughtily, aiming his staff to attack Koushiro and Taichi again.
"MEGA FLAME!!!" Greymon howled in rage, unleashing a gigantic fireball from his mouth.
Skull Satamon stopped the attack by cutting the fireball in half with his staff.
Daisuke clenched his D-3 tightly, seething in anger. "Kill him!"
Stingmon and XV-mon nodded at the same time. Their foe had to die, and it was there job to do it.
Daisuke's D-3 flared.
"XV-mon!" yelled the draconian digimon.
"Stingmon!" added the insectoid.
"Jogress evolve!" They chorused. They flew upward into a spiral and seemed to collide in a massive explosion of energy. Everyone turned to look, even Skull Satamon, as a giant half-dragon, half-insect hovered in the air. He flashed his metallic claws threateningly and called out with two voices, "Paildramon!"
Sora looked at Piyomon, who nodded back to her.
"Piyomon evolve!" A pillar of light erupted where the pink bird stood. Suddenly a gigantic pair of fiery reddish-orange wings stretched forth, and the light subsided to reveal a couple stories tall bird that had a flat beak with crocked teeth growing out it. "Birdramon!" The large bird grimaced in pain as she flapped her wings.
"Palmon evolve!" A pillar of light formed briefly, and when it finished a two story cactus with boxing gloves stood there. "Togemon!"
Skull Satamon didn't seem very concerned about his new opponents. "This is a joke," he spat.
"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon cried out as two cannons on appeared on his hips and fired streams of energy.
Skull Satamon almost seemed to disappear as he not only dodged the attack, but moved behind Paildramon. "Much too slow," he mocked before slamming his staff into the back of the jogress fighter.
Mimi stepped back toward the darkness as she watched Skull Satamon zoom from digimon to digimon, hurting each one before they even had a chance to react. The worst was seeing how easy it was for that devil digimon to send Greymon flying into a Black Gear pillar, causing it to collapse. When the debris and deleting data cleared, they couldn't see Greymon anywhere.
Hikari had run to her brother to see if he was all right. Tears leaked out of her eyes as he wouldn't wake up.
"He'll be all right," Koushiro tried to assure her. "I'm sure of it."
If Hikari heard him, she didn't show any sign of it. Instead she glared angrily at Skull Satamon and her D-3 glowed.
"Gomamon evolve!" A pillar flared around the white seal digimon and when it subsided a white woolly walrus like digimon stood in his place. "Ikkakumon! Harpoon Thunder!"
Skull Satamon turned to late and was hit by the missile in his shoulder. "How dare you?!" he howled, before flying in to attack.
"Now!" Daisuke called out.
"Cable Captor!" Paildramon's claws launched from his hands, each connected by strong metal wires.
"WHAT?!" Skull Satamon cried out, bound by the attack.
"Everyone, fire everything you've got!" Daisuke ordered.
"Meteor Wing!" Showers of flame launched from Birdramon.
"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon added his energy attack.
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon sent out his fiery breath.
"Harpoon Thunder!" Ikkakumon fired off a volley of missiles.
"Prickly Bang Bang!" Togemon sent a shower of cactus needles.
"Red Sun!" Holsmon's angry glare unleashed his energy attack.
"Mega Blaster!" Kabuterimon electrified his target.
"Baby Flame!" Agumon weakly sent out a small fireball from where he had ended up.
"Heaven's Knuckle!" Angemon arrived just in time to add his attack to the mix.
Skull Satamon screamed in pain. He struggled as his body tried to break apart. "I won't be defeated! I won't!" Then all at once he broke apart, his body disappearing as he deleted.
Silence hung over them as the darkness engulfed them once more with Skull Satamon's staff no longer providing light.
"How's Taichi?" Yamato questioned.
"I... I don't know," Koushiro replied.
"We've got to get him help," Hikari pleaded almost hysterically.
"How do we get out of here?" Miyako questioned.
Paildramon nodded to himself. "I'll handle that." He flew up into the air and called out, "Desperado Blaster!" He fired his attack at the ceiling of the enormous cavern, causing part of it to collapse.
The Chosen were rather happy to see the ray of light from the morning sun cast some light into the gloomy cave.
Paildramon flew back down. "Let's get out of this hole."
_________________
Daisuke watched as Leafmon and Chikomon, Wormmon and V-mon's respective baby forms, played with a bunch of other baby digimon at Primary Village. Apparently his digimon partners used up so much energy as Paildramon, they reverted to their youngest forms when they de-evolved.
Miyako cleared her voice as she approached him.
"Report," Daisuke remarked sarcastically.
Miyako gave a sad smirk as she played along and stood stiffly as she told him, "Of Unimon's troops, only Monzaemon and Ganimon are uninjured. Andromon and one Drimogemon are still injured from the battle at Overdell."
Daisuke's eyes widened. "None of the other's survived?"
Miyako nodded her head slowly. "I'm afraid so."
"What about our troops?" Daisuke questioned.
"Piyomon and Agumon are seriously hurt. Neither should go into battle for several days at least. Tentomon and Takeru are also injured, but not nearly as bad," Miyako replied.
"What about Taichi?" Daisuke pressed.
"He still hasn't woken up," Miyako answered.
Daisuke sagged. "Now what about the baby digimon? Who will take care of them with Elecmon dead?"
"Monzaemon, Drimogemon and Ganimon volunteered for that already," Miyako replied. "I'm sure the babies will be in good hands with them."
"I guess." Daisuke sighed.
"Come on. Let's get some lunch. You haven't eaten since dinner last night," Miyako commented.
"I'm not hungry," Daisuke replied shortly before going back to looking at his digimon partners being carefree and having fun.
Miyako looked at the babies with a tinge of jealousy. She should be out having fun with her friends, or at least griping about being at work in her parent's store. It was hard for her to believe that only twelve days ago she was perfectly carefree and without any real worries. Now she had met and lost friends to war and she had killed. In the eleven days she had been in this dimension, she was already someone completely different than the girl she had been. She didn't know if she liked who she was now.
_________________
"Mimi?" Palmon called out, searching for her partner. It wasn't until she left the village and entered Railroad Field she found her. "Mimi, what are you doing out here? I was looking everywhere for you."
"Why?" Mimi questioned simply, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest several meters away from the hole that Paildramon had made for their escape earlier that morning.
"Lunch is ready. Don't you want to eat?" Palmon questioned.
"No... I don't," Mimi replied.
Palmon blinked. "Why not? You need to eat something."
"I'm not hungry," Mimi said shortly.
Palmon folded her leafy arms. "Are you humans ill?"
Mimi looked at Palmon with a confused expression. "Why do you say that?"
"Because Hikari and Daisuke also haven't eaten anything today." Palmon huffed. "If you don't keep your strength up, we can't keep ours up either."
"Why should we help you get strong? So we can help you kill again?" Mimi questioned harshly.
"MIMI?!" Palmon cried out. "What are you talking about?"
"We all helped kill Skull Satamon, didn't we?" Mimi snapped. "If you didn't add your attack to the group's, he'd still be alive."
"If he lived, ALL of us would be dead!" Palmon yelled back. "Hundreds of digimon that used to live on this island are all dead because of him. Can't forget that Taichi might die." She waved her arm toward the village. "You can't tell me Skull Satamon didn't deserve to die. I lost count on the number of friends he took from me, and you know he did all of that. He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't forced to do a damn thing. He chose to do all those evil things. If you want to regret helping to kill that bastard, go right ahead. You can just sit out the rest of this fucking war and forget thousands of innocent digimon are dying because you won't do a damn thing to kill the digimon that's doing it."
Mimi could only stare at her partner blankly.
Palmon tried to stop her tears from flowing. "Mimi, you have to understand sometimes you have to take a life in order to save lives!" She then ran back into the village.
Mimi gazed in the direction Palmon had gone for several moments, before turning back and looking at the hole. "I'm no use to anyone here. So why am I here? I don't want to fight. I don't want to kill. I can't heal anyone. I can't even help my own partner. Why am I here?" Takenouchi broke down and began to sob.
_________________
Koushiro typed into his computer, trying to track down Gennai. The old goat had hacked into his computer, he should be able to find a trace route back. However, despite his skill as a hacker, he could see no means of how Gennai had gotten total access to his computer.
Koushiro groaned in frustration and stretched his tired muscles. He had been focused on this task all day. He didn't want to know what condition Taichi was in, but last he heard Yagami was still asleep. Hikari had kept constant vigil over her brother since Skull Satamon's demise early in the morning. Sora and Yamato were taking turns looking over both of the Yagami siblings. If it wasn't for Andromon, they wouldn't even be sure that Taichi was alive. The android was now with Taichi monitoring his health through his sensors.
Koushiro blinked as something popped up on his computer.
----------
From: Gennai@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
To: Koushiro@prodigious.net
Message:
Please gather all Chosen and their digimon. Inform me when you've done that so I can speak to all of you.
----------
Koushiro frowned and immediately sent one back that Taichi was in a coma.
----------
From: Gennai@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
To: Koushiro@prodigious.net
Message:
That is not good. Even if Taichi has not awakened by tomorrow, have everyone meet tomorrow at high noon. You can inform Taichi of what I have to tell you all when he wakes up.
----------
Koushiro nodded to himself as he read the email. He got up and went to tell Daisuke. He paused briefly as he passed the building that housed Taichi.
Why did that coward do that? Came unbidden to Koushiro's mind. What did Taichi hope to accomplish by doing something so recklessly stupid? Getting himself killed wouldn't change anything. Because of Yagami, Izumi would never walk normally ever again. Taichi was probably still being a coward, and would rather be dead than live with the guilt of what he had done.
_________________
"How's your wound?" Yamato questioned.
Takeru forced a smile. His hand reflexively rubbed his bandaged chest. "Fine. It hardly hurts."
"Oh, really," Patamon replied sarcastically and poked Takeru in the chest, causing him to seize up in pain.
Yamato shook his head. "I should be thankful you're still alive. I'd have thought an attack like that would kill us."
Takeru frowned, looking in the direction of Taichi's hut. "I got lucky."
Yamato nodded. "I guess so."
Patamon sighed. "I hope Taichi has some luck, too."
"Is he going to be all right?" Takeru questioned.
"Probably. He's made it this far, so he should pull through," Yamato answered.
"Good," Takeru and Patamon replied.
"Be sure to get some rest, and be careful with your chest," Yamato ordered. "You probably have a few broken ribs."
Takeru nodded. He didn't need the warning. He already feared falling down and having a broken rib pierce his lungs or heart. He might already be living on borrowed time if a bone fragment lodged itself in the right place. However, he wasn't about to tell Yamato that. It'd worry his brother too much.
"Have you seen Gabumon?" Yamato questioned.
"Last I saw him, he was being buried under baby digimon," Patamon replied.
Yamato gave a short laugh. "Thanks." He then left to find his partner.
Takeru sighed as he watched Yamato go. He then glanced over at Patamon. "Do you think you have any ability to heal injuries as Angemon or Pegasmon?"
Patamon shook his head. "I don't think so. But I'm relatively new at evolving to those levels. I'd need more practice before I'd know for certain." He then looked closely at his partner. "Why? Are your ribs hurting?"
Takeru shook his head. "No. I was hoping you could heal Taichi. It'd be awful if he died."
"For all of us or Hikari?" Patamon insinuated.
Takeru scratched the back of his head. "Well, both."
_________________
Sora sighed with a heavy heart as she watched the sun set through the window. She then turned and looked at Taichi resting on his stomach on the makeshift bed that had been made for him. He looked so different like this. He was so lifeless it hurt to look at him. She remembered Taichi to be overactive, always getting into things.
Hikari sat next to Taichi, never wavering from that spot. Sora couldn't remember if Hikari had gone the bathroom since they had placed her brother here. It had been a fight just to get Hikari to eat something that day, claiming she wasn't hungry.
Agumon lay curled up at the foot of Taichi's bed, snoring softly.
Andromon had propped himself against the wall next to Taichi. He had placed some wires onto the boy to keep reading's on Yagami's life signs. While the robot had dozed off, he had assured everyone earlier that an alarm would sound if Taichi began to die.
Sora wrapped a blanket around herself as she continued to gaze across the room.
Some time later, sudden movement jerked Sora awake. She barely caught sight of Hikari running out of the room. She then cast a questioning glance at Agumon and Andromon, both looked cluelessly back at her.
"There has been no change in Taichi," Andromon informed her.
Sora got up and quickly tried to track down where Hikari had run off to. She only went a few meters before she heard the sounds of someone retching violently. Takenouchi looked around the corner of the building and saw Hikari hunched over and vomiting.
"Oh, God...." Hikari moaned weakly. "I think I was better off not remembering."
"Hikari-chan?" Sora questioned. "What's wrong?"
Hikari looked at Sora with frightened eyes. "It's nothing. Really!"
Sora folded her arms. "You remember your last nightmare." It wasn't a question.
"Don't be silly. I've never been able to remember them," Hikari tried to brush it off.
"You also never threw up either," Sora retorted.
"Forget about it, Sora-san. There's nothing for me to tell you," Hikari said harshly before walking off.
"Hikari-chan," Sora called out, following the younger Yagami back to where Taichi was resting. She then grabbed the girl's arm. "Hikari-chan!"
Hikari glared. "Right now we should be worried about Taichi, not me." She pulled her arm free and went back to where she had spent the entire day, at her brother's side.
Sora let out a frustrated cry. "Fine, but you WILL tell me about this later."
"Fine. Later," Hikari clipped.
_________________
"Any change?" Daisuke asked as he entered Taichi's room.
"Negative," Andromon replied.
Yamato nodded sadly.
Agumon was asleep, stretched out and laying to Taichi's right.
Daisuke blinked as he looked around. "Where is everyone?"
"Hikari's out taking a dump," Yamato replied. "And Sora made some bitchy comment about needing to find something absorbent soon. Think it's her time of the month."
"A little more than I wanted to know," Daisuke replied.
"You asked," Yamato replied.
"Whatever." Daisuke shook his head. "There's a meeting at noon. Gennai wants to talk to all of us."
"What if Taichi doesn't wake up before then?" Yamato questioned.
"We'll tell Taichi the important stuff when he wakes up," Daisuke replied. "I just wished he'd wake up. I really need his help with everything."
A moment of silence passed before a faint moan of "Did we win?" echoed in the room.
"Taichi?!" Daisuke and Yamato called out, immediately rushing to his sides.
Taichi glanced at the two boys. "Not exactly who I'd want to wake up to."
Yamato gave a short laugh. "Damn, you had us all worried there, Taichi."
"Who's Taichi?" the brown-haired boy questioned.
"WHAT?!" Daisuke called out in shock.
Taichi laughed weakly. "Fooled you, Daisuke."
Daisuke growled. "Don't do that!"
"So, did we win?" Taichi asked again.
"Sure did," Yamato replied. "After Daisuke jogressed his partners to the Perfection form of Paildramon, we all combined our attacks into one and killed him."
Daisuke smirked. "So much for his so called prophecy of getting killed by the smallest. It was a great group effort to kill him."
A cry of, "Taichi!" was all the warning the wounded boy had before finding himself fiercely hugged by his sobbing sister.
"Ouch. You're... hurting me," Taichi wheezed out.
Hikari looked abashed as she pulled away quickly. "Sorry. It's just you've been asleep since yesterday. You had us all worried!"
"Yeah!" Agumon cried out, finally awake as well. "I haven't left your side at all!"
Taichi smiled weakly. "How is everyone else?"
Daisuke forced his smile. "Well, we have a few injuries. But nothing for you to worry about."
Taichi scowled slightly. "What aren't you telling me?"
Hikari frowned. "We'll tell you later. Now just focus on getting better. Okay?"
"Fine." Taichi let out a yawn before falling back asleep.
Hikari looked nervous.
"He's just asleep," Andromon answered her unvoiced question. "His consciousness is not as low as it was before he woke up."
"He'll be tired for several days while his injuries heal. This is normal," Yamato assured her.
Hikari nodded, hoping what they said was true.
_________________
Author's Notes:
Coming Soon:
Chapter 21 - New Mission
Gennai contacts the Chosen and informs them of what they need to do next, but do they want to follow him after nearly losing one of their members already?
"OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE!"
shouts the entire chibi-Chosen as they prance around File Island.
Chibi-Daisuke tries to sneak a skirt peak of what's under chibi-Mimi's school dress. A tail whips out from her skirt, wraps around his neck, and draws him in. Chibi-Mimi makes a strange face and chibi-Daisuke is suddenly thrown out of her skirt by the tail. He looks like he had been beaten into a bloody pulp.
The remaining chibi-Chosen continue the mantra until they start climbing up Infinity Mountain. Chibi-Hikari falls off and her skirt lifts up showing a picture of a broken heart on her white panties.
"Now for a little extra," chibi-Hikari moans.
------------------
"Welcome back to 'Whose Line is it Anyway' - Digimon style," Referee announced. "To recap our guests, we have Bobby from Lord Archive's Diaries series."
Bobby waved, a blond America boy of fourteen who was dressed in torn jeans and a new T-shirt with 'Shameless Plug: Read War Diaries Entry 14' written on it.
"Hirokazu, or 'Kazu' to you North American viewer, to represent the Digimon Tamers," Referee continued. "Also we have Armadimon for Adventures Zero-Two, and...." Referee frown at the two digimon fighting over the forth seat. "Along with Gomamon AND Tentomon jointly representing Zero-One.
Gomamon and Tentomon stopped fighting and looked rather sheepish.
"Now for the final game, which is for all contestants. Armadimon will be interviewing the others as potential dates, per the old game show, 'The Dating Game.' However, each of the other contestants have each been given a personality quirk which they are reading now," Referee informed in monotone fashion.
Gomamon and Tentomon compared cards they were given and then looked at each other strangely.
Armadimon was now sitting on one edge of the stage, while the others were lined up toward the other side. Gomamon and Tentomon pushed their chairs together before moving on top of them, and Bobby kept bouncing on his seat.
Armadimon fluttered his eyebrows. "Bachelor number one, what would you consider a romantic date?"
Hirokazu scratched the back of his head. "Um, well, I wouldn't really know. I'd protect you from anything that might attack you during the date, like cows or exploding food. That's romantic, right?" He then looked at Referee. "If I win, I get that all-you-can-eat dinner package, right? Pops ate all the food again."
Armadimon eyed Hirokazu warily before moving along. "Ahem, bachelor number two...." He stared as Bobby was bouncing on his chair.
"Yes?" Bobby questioned.
"Erm... I so love swimming. Do you know of any good places you could take me swimming?" Armadimon questioned.
"Oh, si. I know of good place. Nice sandy beaches," Bobby replied with a fake accent.
Armadimon blinked. "Okay. Bachelor number three-"
"Yes?" Gomamon and Tentomon replied simultaneously and then glared at each other.
"You're bachelor four," Tentomon said angrily.
"How can we be separate bachelors?" Gomamon returned tersely.
Tentomon mimed holding something. "I can fix that."
"Oh, yeah. And you'd kill us," Gomamon retorted. "Is that what you want? Both of us dead."
"Only one of us has to go," Tentomon replied evilly.
Armadimon coughed loudly. "BACHELOR number one, if I was a sundae, what toppings would you cover me with?"
Hirokazu imitated up-ending a bucket over his head. He then fluttered his eyes and said in a feminine voice, "Well, lot's chocolate, sprinkles, and whip cream. Best to act cute when the guy is adding the toppings so he doesn't pay any attention to how much he puts on it."
Armadimon compared his own 'looks' to Hirokazu's. He then huffed before looking over at Bobby, who was still bouncing. "Bachelor number two, I love going on romantic walks. What are your favorite foods?"
"Oh, tacos and burritos are good." Bobby nodded.
"Bachelor-" Armadimon was interrupted again.
"Keep your mouth shut or we'll both lose," Tentomon shot at Gomamon.
"Me? You're the one with the psychotic attitude!" Gomamon returned.
BUZZ "Name your guesses," Referee told Armadimon.
"Well, bachelor number one is a not for me. Sex changing with water is one thing, his suitors are another!" Armadimon huffed. "Ranma, you can go back to Akane."
"Of all the uncute things you could say," Hirokazu pouted.
"Bachelor three and four would be too much trouble of being joined twins who can't agree," Armadimon said with mock regretfulness.
"Oh, we can agree," Gomamon said.
"We just hate each other's guts," Tentomon replied.
"We share the same guts, moron," Gomamon snapped.
"Ahem," Armadimon cleared his throat, but then pouted. "I'll have to chose bachelor two if I must. Though I don't know how a poor Mexican full of jumping beans could afford me."
"Good enough," Referee commented. He then threw his cue cards away. "Since points are meaningless, it has been decided to leave the overall winner or winners of 'Who's Line is it Anyway?' to you, the readers. Cast your decision of who's the funniest by sending your vote by email to Lord Archive at achive@mich.com or leave your vote in a review at fanfiction.net. All votes must be received by February 14th, 2002."
Digital War
Episode 20 - Hollow Victory
Chibi-Koushiro walks up. "Hi," he waves. "This series is NOT FOR KIDS. It is rated R for a reason. It was not arbitrarily assigned. If you are under 18 years old, and your parents won't let you see a rated R movie-- then you should NOT be reading this either."
Chibi-Koushiro coughed. "Anyway. The characters are properties of Toei Animation Inc., Saban Entertainment and others. They are used without consent. Archive is only borrowing them for an indefinite amount of time.
"Strict Japanese spelling for all names when possible. If an English name for a digimon or his attack is used and you know what the name is supposed to be in Japanese-- please tell Archive so it can be corrected."
_________________
"Skull Satamon led us into a trap," Yamato stated, but his voice wavered slightly. "He used his staff to cause the ground to open up and swallow us whole. Now stuck underground and separated in the oppressive darkness, we desperately try to regroup.
"Skull Satamon is after the smallest Chosen, and didn't bother to waste time dealing with the older Chosen. However, when he came across Koushiro, Skull Satamon attacked."
_________________
"There's a light up ahead," Taichi pointed out.
"It's probably Skull Satamon," Yamato commented.
"Should we go after him now?" Miyako questioned.
Explosions echoed through the air.
"That answers that question," Holsmon replied.
They all rushed toward the light and saw Skull Satamon looming over Koushiro. The evil digimon's staff pointed right at the scared boy who was curled up into a ball.
Taichi took off running.
"Scratch one Chosen," Skull Satamon gloated. "Nail Bone!" Lethal energy spikes shot out from the top of the staff.
Sora's eyes widened in fright as she realized just what Taichi was going to do. She couldn't even scream as he leapt between Koushiro and the oncoming attack. Time seemed to freeze as she watched in horror as two spikes sank into his flesh before exploding. His scream of pain echoed everywhere. Then, as he fell to the ground, she too fell to her knees. Only then did she find her voice, as she yelled, "TAICHI!!"
Hikari had arrived just as her brother fell to the ground. She also cried out her brothers name in horror.
Yamato yelled out his friend's name as well. He wanted Skull Satamon to pay for this.
Skull Satamon merely laughed haughtily, aiming his staff to attack Koushiro and Taichi again.
"MEGA FLAME!!!" Greymon howled in rage, unleashing a gigantic fireball from his mouth.
Skull Satamon stopped the attack by cutting the fireball in half with his staff.
Daisuke clenched his D-3 tightly, seething in anger. "Kill him!"
Stingmon and XV-mon nodded at the same time. Their foe had to die, and it was there job to do it.
Daisuke's D-3 flared.
"XV-mon!" yelled the draconian digimon.
"Stingmon!" added the insectoid.
"Jogress evolve!" They chorused. They flew upward into a spiral and seemed to collide in a massive explosion of energy. Everyone turned to look, even Skull Satamon, as a giant half-dragon, half-insect hovered in the air. He flashed his metallic claws threateningly and called out with two voices, "Paildramon!"
Sora looked at Piyomon, who nodded back to her.
"Piyomon evolve!" A pillar of light erupted where the pink bird stood. Suddenly a gigantic pair of fiery reddish-orange wings stretched forth, and the light subsided to reveal a couple stories tall bird that had a flat beak with crocked teeth growing out it. "Birdramon!" The large bird grimaced in pain as she flapped her wings.
"Palmon evolve!" A pillar of light formed briefly, and when it finished a two story cactus with boxing gloves stood there. "Togemon!"
Skull Satamon didn't seem very concerned about his new opponents. "This is a joke," he spat.
"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon cried out as two cannons on appeared on his hips and fired streams of energy.
Skull Satamon almost seemed to disappear as he not only dodged the attack, but moved behind Paildramon. "Much too slow," he mocked before slamming his staff into the back of the jogress fighter.
Mimi stepped back toward the darkness as she watched Skull Satamon zoom from digimon to digimon, hurting each one before they even had a chance to react. The worst was seeing how easy it was for that devil digimon to send Greymon flying into a Black Gear pillar, causing it to collapse. When the debris and deleting data cleared, they couldn't see Greymon anywhere.
Hikari had run to her brother to see if he was all right. Tears leaked out of her eyes as he wouldn't wake up.
"He'll be all right," Koushiro tried to assure her. "I'm sure of it."
If Hikari heard him, she didn't show any sign of it. Instead she glared angrily at Skull Satamon and her D-3 glowed.
"Gomamon evolve!" A pillar flared around the white seal digimon and when it subsided a white woolly walrus like digimon stood in his place. "Ikkakumon! Harpoon Thunder!"
Skull Satamon turned to late and was hit by the missile in his shoulder. "How dare you?!" he howled, before flying in to attack.
"Now!" Daisuke called out.
"Cable Captor!" Paildramon's claws launched from his hands, each connected by strong metal wires.
"WHAT?!" Skull Satamon cried out, bound by the attack.
"Everyone, fire everything you've got!" Daisuke ordered.
"Meteor Wing!" Showers of flame launched from Birdramon.
"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon added his energy attack.
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon sent out his fiery breath.
"Harpoon Thunder!" Ikkakumon fired off a volley of missiles.
"Prickly Bang Bang!" Togemon sent a shower of cactus needles.
"Red Sun!" Holsmon's angry glare unleashed his energy attack.
"Mega Blaster!" Kabuterimon electrified his target.
"Baby Flame!" Agumon weakly sent out a small fireball from where he had ended up.
"Heaven's Knuckle!" Angemon arrived just in time to add his attack to the mix.
Skull Satamon screamed in pain. He struggled as his body tried to break apart. "I won't be defeated! I won't!" Then all at once he broke apart, his body disappearing as he deleted.
Silence hung over them as the darkness engulfed them once more with Skull Satamon's staff no longer providing light.
"How's Taichi?" Yamato questioned.
"I... I don't know," Koushiro replied.
"We've got to get him help," Hikari pleaded almost hysterically.
"How do we get out of here?" Miyako questioned.
Paildramon nodded to himself. "I'll handle that." He flew up into the air and called out, "Desperado Blaster!" He fired his attack at the ceiling of the enormous cavern, causing part of it to collapse.
The Chosen were rather happy to see the ray of light from the morning sun cast some light into the gloomy cave.
Paildramon flew back down. "Let's get out of this hole."
_________________
Daisuke watched as Leafmon and Chikomon, Wormmon and V-mon's respective baby forms, played with a bunch of other baby digimon at Primary Village. Apparently his digimon partners used up so much energy as Paildramon, they reverted to their youngest forms when they de-evolved.
Miyako cleared her voice as she approached him.
"Report," Daisuke remarked sarcastically.
Miyako gave a sad smirk as she played along and stood stiffly as she told him, "Of Unimon's troops, only Monzaemon and Ganimon are uninjured. Andromon and one Drimogemon are still injured from the battle at Overdell."
Daisuke's eyes widened. "None of the other's survived?"
Miyako nodded her head slowly. "I'm afraid so."
"What about our troops?" Daisuke questioned.
"Piyomon and Agumon are seriously hurt. Neither should go into battle for several days at least. Tentomon and Takeru are also injured, but not nearly as bad," Miyako replied.
"What about Taichi?" Daisuke pressed.
"He still hasn't woken up," Miyako answered.
Daisuke sagged. "Now what about the baby digimon? Who will take care of them with Elecmon dead?"
"Monzaemon, Drimogemon and Ganimon volunteered for that already," Miyako replied. "I'm sure the babies will be in good hands with them."
"I guess." Daisuke sighed.
"Come on. Let's get some lunch. You haven't eaten since dinner last night," Miyako commented.
"I'm not hungry," Daisuke replied shortly before going back to looking at his digimon partners being carefree and having fun.
Miyako looked at the babies with a tinge of jealousy. She should be out having fun with her friends, or at least griping about being at work in her parent's store. It was hard for her to believe that only twelve days ago she was perfectly carefree and without any real worries. Now she had met and lost friends to war and she had killed. In the eleven days she had been in this dimension, she was already someone completely different than the girl she had been. She didn't know if she liked who she was now.
_________________
"Mimi?" Palmon called out, searching for her partner. It wasn't until she left the village and entered Railroad Field she found her. "Mimi, what are you doing out here? I was looking everywhere for you."
"Why?" Mimi questioned simply, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest several meters away from the hole that Paildramon had made for their escape earlier that morning.
"Lunch is ready. Don't you want to eat?" Palmon questioned.
"No... I don't," Mimi replied.
Palmon blinked. "Why not? You need to eat something."
"I'm not hungry," Mimi said shortly.
Palmon folded her leafy arms. "Are you humans ill?"
Mimi looked at Palmon with a confused expression. "Why do you say that?"
"Because Hikari and Daisuke also haven't eaten anything today." Palmon huffed. "If you don't keep your strength up, we can't keep ours up either."
"Why should we help you get strong? So we can help you kill again?" Mimi questioned harshly.
"MIMI?!" Palmon cried out. "What are you talking about?"
"We all helped kill Skull Satamon, didn't we?" Mimi snapped. "If you didn't add your attack to the group's, he'd still be alive."
"If he lived, ALL of us would be dead!" Palmon yelled back. "Hundreds of digimon that used to live on this island are all dead because of him. Can't forget that Taichi might die." She waved her arm toward the village. "You can't tell me Skull Satamon didn't deserve to die. I lost count on the number of friends he took from me, and you know he did all of that. He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't forced to do a damn thing. He chose to do all those evil things. If you want to regret helping to kill that bastard, go right ahead. You can just sit out the rest of this fucking war and forget thousands of innocent digimon are dying because you won't do a damn thing to kill the digimon that's doing it."
Mimi could only stare at her partner blankly.
Palmon tried to stop her tears from flowing. "Mimi, you have to understand sometimes you have to take a life in order to save lives!" She then ran back into the village.
Mimi gazed in the direction Palmon had gone for several moments, before turning back and looking at the hole. "I'm no use to anyone here. So why am I here? I don't want to fight. I don't want to kill. I can't heal anyone. I can't even help my own partner. Why am I here?" Takenouchi broke down and began to sob.
_________________
Koushiro typed into his computer, trying to track down Gennai. The old goat had hacked into his computer, he should be able to find a trace route back. However, despite his skill as a hacker, he could see no means of how Gennai had gotten total access to his computer.
Koushiro groaned in frustration and stretched his tired muscles. He had been focused on this task all day. He didn't want to know what condition Taichi was in, but last he heard Yagami was still asleep. Hikari had kept constant vigil over her brother since Skull Satamon's demise early in the morning. Sora and Yamato were taking turns looking over both of the Yagami siblings. If it wasn't for Andromon, they wouldn't even be sure that Taichi was alive. The android was now with Taichi monitoring his health through his sensors.
Koushiro blinked as something popped up on his computer.
----------
From: Gennai@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
To: Koushiro@prodigious.net
Message:
Please gather all Chosen and their digimon. Inform me when you've done that so I can speak to all of you.
----------
Koushiro frowned and immediately sent one back that Taichi was in a coma.
----------
From: Gennai@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
To: Koushiro@prodigious.net
Message:
That is not good. Even if Taichi has not awakened by tomorrow, have everyone meet tomorrow at high noon. You can inform Taichi of what I have to tell you all when he wakes up.
----------
Koushiro nodded to himself as he read the email. He got up and went to tell Daisuke. He paused briefly as he passed the building that housed Taichi.
Why did that coward do that? Came unbidden to Koushiro's mind. What did Taichi hope to accomplish by doing something so recklessly stupid? Getting himself killed wouldn't change anything. Because of Yagami, Izumi would never walk normally ever again. Taichi was probably still being a coward, and would rather be dead than live with the guilt of what he had done.
_________________
"How's your wound?" Yamato questioned.
Takeru forced a smile. His hand reflexively rubbed his bandaged chest. "Fine. It hardly hurts."
"Oh, really," Patamon replied sarcastically and poked Takeru in the chest, causing him to seize up in pain.
Yamato shook his head. "I should be thankful you're still alive. I'd have thought an attack like that would kill us."
Takeru frowned, looking in the direction of Taichi's hut. "I got lucky."
Yamato nodded. "I guess so."
Patamon sighed. "I hope Taichi has some luck, too."
"Is he going to be all right?" Takeru questioned.
"Probably. He's made it this far, so he should pull through," Yamato answered.
"Good," Takeru and Patamon replied.
"Be sure to get some rest, and be careful with your chest," Yamato ordered. "You probably have a few broken ribs."
Takeru nodded. He didn't need the warning. He already feared falling down and having a broken rib pierce his lungs or heart. He might already be living on borrowed time if a bone fragment lodged itself in the right place. However, he wasn't about to tell Yamato that. It'd worry his brother too much.
"Have you seen Gabumon?" Yamato questioned.
"Last I saw him, he was being buried under baby digimon," Patamon replied.
Yamato gave a short laugh. "Thanks." He then left to find his partner.
Takeru sighed as he watched Yamato go. He then glanced over at Patamon. "Do you think you have any ability to heal injuries as Angemon or Pegasmon?"
Patamon shook his head. "I don't think so. But I'm relatively new at evolving to those levels. I'd need more practice before I'd know for certain." He then looked closely at his partner. "Why? Are your ribs hurting?"
Takeru shook his head. "No. I was hoping you could heal Taichi. It'd be awful if he died."
"For all of us or Hikari?" Patamon insinuated.
Takeru scratched the back of his head. "Well, both."
_________________
Sora sighed with a heavy heart as she watched the sun set through the window. She then turned and looked at Taichi resting on his stomach on the makeshift bed that had been made for him. He looked so different like this. He was so lifeless it hurt to look at him. She remembered Taichi to be overactive, always getting into things.
Hikari sat next to Taichi, never wavering from that spot. Sora couldn't remember if Hikari had gone the bathroom since they had placed her brother here. It had been a fight just to get Hikari to eat something that day, claiming she wasn't hungry.
Agumon lay curled up at the foot of Taichi's bed, snoring softly.
Andromon had propped himself against the wall next to Taichi. He had placed some wires onto the boy to keep reading's on Yagami's life signs. While the robot had dozed off, he had assured everyone earlier that an alarm would sound if Taichi began to die.
Sora wrapped a blanket around herself as she continued to gaze across the room.
Some time later, sudden movement jerked Sora awake. She barely caught sight of Hikari running out of the room. She then cast a questioning glance at Agumon and Andromon, both looked cluelessly back at her.
"There has been no change in Taichi," Andromon informed her.
Sora got up and quickly tried to track down where Hikari had run off to. She only went a few meters before she heard the sounds of someone retching violently. Takenouchi looked around the corner of the building and saw Hikari hunched over and vomiting.
"Oh, God...." Hikari moaned weakly. "I think I was better off not remembering."
"Hikari-chan?" Sora questioned. "What's wrong?"
Hikari looked at Sora with frightened eyes. "It's nothing. Really!"
Sora folded her arms. "You remember your last nightmare." It wasn't a question.
"Don't be silly. I've never been able to remember them," Hikari tried to brush it off.
"You also never threw up either," Sora retorted.
"Forget about it, Sora-san. There's nothing for me to tell you," Hikari said harshly before walking off.
"Hikari-chan," Sora called out, following the younger Yagami back to where Taichi was resting. She then grabbed the girl's arm. "Hikari-chan!"
Hikari glared. "Right now we should be worried about Taichi, not me." She pulled her arm free and went back to where she had spent the entire day, at her brother's side.
Sora let out a frustrated cry. "Fine, but you WILL tell me about this later."
"Fine. Later," Hikari clipped.
_________________
"Any change?" Daisuke asked as he entered Taichi's room.
"Negative," Andromon replied.
Yamato nodded sadly.
Agumon was asleep, stretched out and laying to Taichi's right.
Daisuke blinked as he looked around. "Where is everyone?"
"Hikari's out taking a dump," Yamato replied. "And Sora made some bitchy comment about needing to find something absorbent soon. Think it's her time of the month."
"A little more than I wanted to know," Daisuke replied.
"You asked," Yamato replied.
"Whatever." Daisuke shook his head. "There's a meeting at noon. Gennai wants to talk to all of us."
"What if Taichi doesn't wake up before then?" Yamato questioned.
"We'll tell Taichi the important stuff when he wakes up," Daisuke replied. "I just wished he'd wake up. I really need his help with everything."
A moment of silence passed before a faint moan of "Did we win?" echoed in the room.
"Taichi?!" Daisuke and Yamato called out, immediately rushing to his sides.
Taichi glanced at the two boys. "Not exactly who I'd want to wake up to."
Yamato gave a short laugh. "Damn, you had us all worried there, Taichi."
"Who's Taichi?" the brown-haired boy questioned.
"WHAT?!" Daisuke called out in shock.
Taichi laughed weakly. "Fooled you, Daisuke."
Daisuke growled. "Don't do that!"
"So, did we win?" Taichi asked again.
"Sure did," Yamato replied. "After Daisuke jogressed his partners to the Perfection form of Paildramon, we all combined our attacks into one and killed him."
Daisuke smirked. "So much for his so called prophecy of getting killed by the smallest. It was a great group effort to kill him."
A cry of, "Taichi!" was all the warning the wounded boy had before finding himself fiercely hugged by his sobbing sister.
"Ouch. You're... hurting me," Taichi wheezed out.
Hikari looked abashed as she pulled away quickly. "Sorry. It's just you've been asleep since yesterday. You had us all worried!"
"Yeah!" Agumon cried out, finally awake as well. "I haven't left your side at all!"
Taichi smiled weakly. "How is everyone else?"
Daisuke forced his smile. "Well, we have a few injuries. But nothing for you to worry about."
Taichi scowled slightly. "What aren't you telling me?"
Hikari frowned. "We'll tell you later. Now just focus on getting better. Okay?"
"Fine." Taichi let out a yawn before falling back asleep.
Hikari looked nervous.
"He's just asleep," Andromon answered her unvoiced question. "His consciousness is not as low as it was before he woke up."
"He'll be tired for several days while his injuries heal. This is normal," Yamato assured her.
Hikari nodded, hoping what they said was true.
_________________
Author's Notes:
Coming Soon:
Chapter 21 - New Mission
Gennai contacts the Chosen and informs them of what they need to do next, but do they want to follow him after nearly losing one of their members already?
"OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE!"
shouts the entire chibi-Chosen as they prance around File Island.
Chibi-Daisuke tries to sneak a skirt peak of what's under chibi-Mimi's school dress. A tail whips out from her skirt, wraps around his neck, and draws him in. Chibi-Mimi makes a strange face and chibi-Daisuke is suddenly thrown out of her skirt by the tail. He looks like he had been beaten into a bloody pulp.
The remaining chibi-Chosen continue the mantra until they start climbing up Infinity Mountain. Chibi-Hikari falls off and her skirt lifts up showing a picture of a broken heart on her white panties.
"Now for a little extra," chibi-Hikari moans.
------------------
"Welcome back to 'Whose Line is it Anyway' - Digimon style," Referee announced. "To recap our guests, we have Bobby from Lord Archive's Diaries series."
Bobby waved, a blond America boy of fourteen who was dressed in torn jeans and a new T-shirt with 'Shameless Plug: Read War Diaries Entry 14' written on it.
"Hirokazu, or 'Kazu' to you North American viewer, to represent the Digimon Tamers," Referee continued. "Also we have Armadimon for Adventures Zero-Two, and...." Referee frown at the two digimon fighting over the forth seat. "Along with Gomamon AND Tentomon jointly representing Zero-One.
Gomamon and Tentomon stopped fighting and looked rather sheepish.
"Now for the final game, which is for all contestants. Armadimon will be interviewing the others as potential dates, per the old game show, 'The Dating Game.' However, each of the other contestants have each been given a personality quirk which they are reading now," Referee informed in monotone fashion.
Gomamon and Tentomon compared cards they were given and then looked at each other strangely.
Armadimon was now sitting on one edge of the stage, while the others were lined up toward the other side. Gomamon and Tentomon pushed their chairs together before moving on top of them, and Bobby kept bouncing on his seat.
Armadimon fluttered his eyebrows. "Bachelor number one, what would you consider a romantic date?"
Hirokazu scratched the back of his head. "Um, well, I wouldn't really know. I'd protect you from anything that might attack you during the date, like cows or exploding food. That's romantic, right?" He then looked at Referee. "If I win, I get that all-you-can-eat dinner package, right? Pops ate all the food again."
Armadimon eyed Hirokazu warily before moving along. "Ahem, bachelor number two...." He stared as Bobby was bouncing on his chair.
"Yes?" Bobby questioned.
"Erm... I so love swimming. Do you know of any good places you could take me swimming?" Armadimon questioned.
"Oh, si. I know of good place. Nice sandy beaches," Bobby replied with a fake accent.
Armadimon blinked. "Okay. Bachelor number three-"
"Yes?" Gomamon and Tentomon replied simultaneously and then glared at each other.
"You're bachelor four," Tentomon said angrily.
"How can we be separate bachelors?" Gomamon returned tersely.
Tentomon mimed holding something. "I can fix that."
"Oh, yeah. And you'd kill us," Gomamon retorted. "Is that what you want? Both of us dead."
"Only one of us has to go," Tentomon replied evilly.
Armadimon coughed loudly. "BACHELOR number one, if I was a sundae, what toppings would you cover me with?"
Hirokazu imitated up-ending a bucket over his head. He then fluttered his eyes and said in a feminine voice, "Well, lot's chocolate, sprinkles, and whip cream. Best to act cute when the guy is adding the toppings so he doesn't pay any attention to how much he puts on it."
Armadimon compared his own 'looks' to Hirokazu's. He then huffed before looking over at Bobby, who was still bouncing. "Bachelor number two, I love going on romantic walks. What are your favorite foods?"
"Oh, tacos and burritos are good." Bobby nodded.
"Bachelor-" Armadimon was interrupted again.
"Keep your mouth shut or we'll both lose," Tentomon shot at Gomamon.
"Me? You're the one with the psychotic attitude!" Gomamon returned.
BUZZ "Name your guesses," Referee told Armadimon.
"Well, bachelor number one is a not for me. Sex changing with water is one thing, his suitors are another!" Armadimon huffed. "Ranma, you can go back to Akane."
"Of all the uncute things you could say," Hirokazu pouted.
"Bachelor three and four would be too much trouble of being joined twins who can't agree," Armadimon said with mock regretfulness.
"Oh, we can agree," Gomamon said.
"We just hate each other's guts," Tentomon replied.
"We share the same guts, moron," Gomamon snapped.
"Ahem," Armadimon cleared his throat, but then pouted. "I'll have to chose bachelor two if I must. Though I don't know how a poor Mexican full of jumping beans could afford me."
"Good enough," Referee commented. He then threw his cue cards away. "Since points are meaningless, it has been decided to leave the overall winner or winners of 'Who's Line is it Anyway?' to you, the readers. Cast your decision of who's the funniest by sending your vote by email to Lord Archive at achive@mich.com or leave your vote in a review at fanfiction.net. All votes must be received by February 14th, 2002."