Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Renewal of the Forgotten ❯ A Rock and a Hard Place ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I don’t own Digimon. Just the ones I’ve created myself.

A door opened behind Kasey letting the raucous noise of drunken reprobates infiltrate the kitchen. She didn’t look up to see who came in but contented herself with scrubbing a whiskey glass. The door swung shut and the noise was mercifully muffled once more. It was shortly replaced by a large tub of glass and silverware dropping onto the counter, startling her.

“Sorry,” said the now familiar husky female voice of BlackRenamon. Kasey relaxed a bit upon hearing her voice.

“Is it busy tonight?” The girl asked in a meek voice that attempted nonchalance.

“Undoubtedly so. I believe it’s a contest night.” She began unloading dishes into the sink.

“A contest night?” She looked up at BlackRenamon. “What’s that?”

“It’s usually a fight such as boxing or wrestling. It can get quite rowdy, which is why I don’t want you going out there unless...you’re forced to.” She paused a moment and Kasey noticed that she seemed deep in thought. “You’re a human and they will no doubt harass you mercilessly, especially on nights like this.”

Kasey had now been in this forced slavery at the casino for two or three weeks (to be honest she lost track of time), and every step of the way BlackRenamon had been there to protect her, in some cases taking the brunt of a punishment. She didn’t understand it, but she was no less appreciative.

“Renamon? Can I ask you something?” The black fox turned to her and smiled briefly at being called just Renamon.

“Yes,” she finally said.

“Why do you do so much for me? You protect me from LadyDevimon and everyone else and even take my punishments. Why do you do it?” BlackRenamon looked down, her eyes saddened. She didn’t speak for several minutes and her eyes began to glisten with tears.

“You remember that employee I told you about? The one that rattled me?” She finally spoke in a whisper.

“Yes.” Kasey nodded. BlackRenamon blinked as if in pain.

“Because of my ‘insolence’ Lady Devimon killed her, just to make a point. I was severely beaten because I attempted to stop her. I’ve lived with that guilt ever since and have vowed not to repeat my mistakes.” She looked at Kasey, tears soaking the fur on her face. “I don’t want what happened to her to happen to you. Protecting you has been my way of repenting for my sins.” She took a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes and dry her fur before replacing the look on her face with a steely gaze and heading back out into the fray with tub in hand, leaving Kasey to stew in this new revelation.

***

“My digimon is a rock.” Frazer said, still unsure what to think. The baby rock digimon goggled and blew bubbles at the human.

“It’s pretty cute for being a rock though,” Emma noted.

“I guess...”

“Just because it’s a rock doesn’t mean it’s any less vulnerable. It’s still a baby and you need to take care of it until it evolves,” Piyomon said pointedly. Frazer scooped up his digimon and it smiled at him. He smiled back but at the same time he couldn’t help feeling odd, like a careless teenage boy who had been informed by his girlfriend that he was a father.

“Hey guys...where are we?!” Shouted Kayla who had wandered off to look around. The rest of them suddenly became aware of their surroundings and stood up.

“Looks like we’re in a...canyon,” Emma said noticing the tall rock walls that surrounded them.

“Great Canyon,” replied Piyomon. “We’re not far from the mansion then. But we still have to be careful. A lot of short tempered digimon live in the depths of this canyon and they’d be more than happy to find some easy prey.

“So long as it’s not Giromon I think I’ll be fine.”

“Still, it would be best to stick to the walls and act as inconspicuously as possible.”

“You and Gazimon know the area better than we do, so lead the way.”

The two child level digimon lead the humans through the canyon and for once Gazimon kept a serious attitude. He stayed a step or two ahead of Piyomon, occasionally sniffing the ground to make sure they weren’t wandering into treacherous territory. Meanwhile the two girls gave Frazer a crash course in digimon, or at least what they knew from the show. The show stayed true to at least the basic information according to Piyomon and she agreed that it was a good start off point, especially for someone who knew almost nothing about the Digital World. Afterwards they recounted everything that had happened to them so far and the mission that Grey Lord had given them. By the time they were done they were nearly half way up the canyon.

“So, there’s already a human in the Digital World but you had to find me first?” Frazer clarified.

“Yup,” Kayla nodded. “He said the area they were in was too dangerous for just the two of us.”

“They in trouble or something?”

“I don’t know,” Emma answered, “Grey Lord didn’t tell us any more than that. But I’d assume so since he’s basically asking us to rescue h—hey, ow!” Piyomon and Gazimon had stopped abruptly and as a result their humans piled into them.

“Why’d you s– –” Kayla began. The digimon shushed them and looked straight ahead with narrowed eyes. Even Frazer’s small rock digimon seemed restless and began spitting out angry bubbles.

“Hey, whatsa matter?” He asked as he tried to settle the digimon down though he was clueless on how you were supposed to calm down a rock.

“Something...is watching us. Or waiting for us.” Gazimon finally whispered. This hushed up the humans as they began looking around trying to see or hear whatever it was their digimon had detected.

“Hey!” Frazer shouted. His little rock digimon had finally managed to wriggle out of his grasp and dropped heavily to the ground.

“Don’t move!” Piyomon whispered at him. “Don’t make a sound!” But it was too late. Out of nowhere a hulking green mass hurled itself at Frazer throwing him against the canyon wall and pinning him there. He grunted and clenched his eyes as the air was forcefully expelled from his lungs. He kicked his legs against the wall and futilely tried to loosen the grip of the large clawed hand holding him there.

“Frazer!” The older girl yelled and gasped at the sight of an Ogremon, more ferocious than he was ever depicted on the show. Covered in leathery green skin, head covered in thick matted locks of grey hair, long broken yellow nails and the smell of decay emanating from him.

“Get down!” Piyomon yelled at her human. “There are more of them!” Emma turned to see a second Ogremon and ducked just in time to miss a skull crushing blow, but Kayla wasn’t so lucky.

“Kayla, watch out!” Gazimon leapt in the air and pushed his girl down onto the ground. A spiked portion of the club narrowly grazed her arm, but it hooked into Gazimon’s mid-section and threw him with bone breaking force into the canyon wall and he fell to the ground. His limp body lay motionless and unresponsive.

“Gazimon, no....” Kayla whimpered. Meanwhile Piyomon was unsuccessfully holding off two Ogremon who were slowly backing her into a corner.

“Emma, you have to make me digivolve! That’s our only chance of getting out of here!”

“But - but I don’t know how!” She yelled back, scrambling away from an Ogremon in search of something to use as a weapon. Piyomon issued another green energy blast at her attackers.

“Yes, you do! You’ve done it twice already!” She dodged a club. Kayla scooped up Gazimon before her Ogremon could take a finishing blow.

“Stay away from him you big ugly jerk!” She turned to run but the Ogremon backhanded her sending her sprawling to ground, Gazimon flying from her grip.

“No I haven’t!” Emma tried to argue again. Her hand searched out a large rock and she aimed it at the back of one of Piyomon’s assailants. “I told you, I don’t know h-aaaaaaaaaahhhh!” An Ogremon that she wasn’t paying attention to grabbed her by the wrist and plucked her off the ground. She was now face to face with a row of jagged teeth and beady black eyes full of blood lust. She flailed her free arm and legs eventually landing a foot on the Ogremon’s nose. The Ogremon growled in pain then swiped at her with a clawed hand, cutting through her shirt.

Frazer was still struggling, unable to breath and barely able to move. With everyone else incapacitated trying to fight off their own Ogremon there was no one to help him. The lack of oxygen was finally starting to affect him. He could no longer hear the sounds of the others fighting, just the pounding of blood in his head and the vague realization that he was probably going to die.

“No...this isn’t happening...” Piyomon said to herself. She carefully aimed a blast and hit one of the Ogremon in the eye. Distracted, she was able to slip through a gap between them. She turned her attention to her partner who was about to be gutted. As the Ogremon pulled his arm back to strike Piyomon barreled into his legs, knocking him off balance. Emma scrambled up from the pile as soon as she could, clutching her stomach.

“Are you okay, Emma?” Piyomon asked.

“Yeah...” she grunted, “I’ll be fine.” She looked up and saw Frazer was still being pinned against the wall and quickly losing strength. The Ogremon pinning him there was taking a sadistic pleasure in slowly crushing his trachea. “Piyomon!” Emma winced. “We have to help him! He’s gonna die!” Piyomon looked in the same direction then quickly turned to her partner again.

“You have to make me evolve, Emma! I can’t do much damage as I am, not against so many of them!” Panic was starting to come through in her voice, and her determination was almost electric.

“I told you,” Emma repeated, practically pleading this time and still bent double as she clutched her stomach. “I don’t know how!” This was all going so very wrong. How pathetic, she thought, to barely have begun on their adventure and already they were facing overwhelming odds. And if she could only make Piyomon evolve instead of watching as her friends were massacred, if only...a squealing beep interrupted her thoughts. She recognized that noise. It was the same one the computer made when it sucked both her and Kayla into the Digital World, and again when Piyomon evolved in the forest to defend her from Gargomon. Emma and Piyomon locked eyes. Was this it, was she about to evolve?

...But nothing happened. The temporary moment of relief vanished to be replaced with puzzled fear. They turned towards Frazer again. He was barely moving now. Suddenly a large rock came hurling towards his attacker from somewhere out of sight. The rock contacted the Ogremon’s skull with a sickening crunch and he released the boy as he roared in agony, a thick, dark green substance now gushing from his face. Frazer slumped to the ground and made no effort to move. Emma made to go to him but Piyomon prevented her.

“We can help him later but we need to get out of here,” she warned. Her partner failed to notice that the Ogremon were advancing again and they were even angrier than they were ten minutes ago. “Please, we need to go.” She tugged again at her human’s arm.

“But...they’re not moving.” Emma said finally. Kayla had noticed as well and froze in her attempt to rescue her unconscious digimon. She pointed toward the top of the canyon, but said nothing. All of the Ogremon were already looking in the same direction. Piyomon and Emma did the same. Silhouetted against the afternoon sun was a humanoid figure.

“GRIZZLY WING!”

A dark cloud erupted from his outstretched arms and blocked out the sun. Both the Ogremon and the human group watched in a dumbfounded curiosity as shadows crept across their faces. As the cloud grew closer the sound of wing beats could be distinguished.

“Bats...” Emma whispered in awe. “They’re bats...”

The forms of many hundreds of bats descended on the Ogremon, wide chaotic grins featured prominently on their round heads. The Ogremon, quick to anger but slow to logic, did not defend themselves quickly enough. The bats dived at them, clinging to their faces and tearing off pieces of flesh with their small sharp teeth. They scratched out their eyes with dagger sharp claws and clung to their arms and legs with insane amounts of determination no matter how hard the Ogremon tried to fling them away. They had no choice but to retreat into the depths of the canyon, the army of bats following them like an angry swarm of bees.

Kayla, who had been huddled protectively over the limp form of Gazimon, finally looked up and caught Emma’s sight. They shared a mutual look of awe and fear. They had known each other too long and a verbal expression of what had just happened would be redundant. Kayla turned to look in another direction and Emma followed her gaze, glancing upon the unresponsive form of Frazer. She ran to his side, climbing up onto the short ledge where he had fallen, and turned him onto his back. A defined red hand mark laced around his neck.

“Frazer,” she choked out, trying to hold back tears. She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him lightly. “Frazer, please don’t be dead. Please...it’ll be all my fault if you die.” Piyomon leaned close to his face, turning her head, and placed a wing on his chest.

“He’s still breathing.” Piyomon informed her. Emma took a deep breath and shuddered. Kayla shuffled up to them, holding onto Gazimon as if her life depended on it. Her eyes were red and glossy.

“Is he...” Kayla started to say.
“He’s still breathing,” Piyomon repeated. “I think he’ll be fine.”

“They will both be better as soon as we return to the mansion.” said a familiar voice behind them. The three of them jumped and turned around. Grey Lord stood there (looking just the slightest bit sickly, Piyomon noticed) holding a large black rock. “Thank goodness she acted when she did or he may have been out of luck.” The three looked at each other confused.

“Who?” Kayla aksed. Grey Lord held out the black rock and it turned out not to be a rock at all, or rather it wasn’t just a rock. It was a large diamond shaped cut of black onyx. Two large, frightened eyes looked out at them. Two little white wings sat on either side of what could only be called its head, not actually touching but hovering just a couple centimeters away. A cat-like tail hovered behind it in the same fashion.

“Is that his digimon?” Emma asked.

“It is. And I’m disappointed to say she was the only one who managed to evolve during your ordeal. She showed great courage for such a young digimon.” Though he didn’t say it in a way meant to reprimand them, the group still felt the heavy weight of guilt at their inability to protect themselves. Grey Lord handed the young digimon to Piyomon then knelt down to scoop up the still unconscious Frazer. “We shouldn’t encounter anymore hostiles, my presence will make sure of that.” The group followed after him in somber silence.

Piyomon held the heavy little digimon protectively against her chest. It looked up at her and cooed, then snuggled into her crimson feathers. The little girl had been quite brave, especially against an Ogremon. At the same time Piyomon felt defeated. She should have done more, tried harder. She was an entire level above this little one and yet she barely caused much more damage. It was her responsibility to protect the group, being the most experienced, yet her boss had to come and rescue them as if she were as defenseless as a Baby. Being out-done by a young digimon was always a blow to the ego.

Kayla caressed the soft grey fur on Gazimon’s face. He nearly died to protect her and they had barely gotten to know each other. If she hadn’t been so stupid and payed attention for once in her life, maybe Gazimon wouldn’t have had to sacrifice himself. He’d still be awake and trying to keep their spirits up with some idiotic banter. She didn’t deserve to have a digimon partner if all she wouldd do was get them killed. Despite being assured he’d be fine, and the fact that digimon don’t really die, being made of data, she still worried. Once she was sure he’d be okay maybe she’d resign from the “digi-destined” gig. After all, there was no way she would be good enough.

Emma rubbed at her stomach. She was afraid to look at how much damage had been done. With any luck it was just a superficial scratch. But she ignored the pain for the most part, she was too busy worrying about her friend. Oh God, if he died...she didn’t want to think about it. It was all her fault they got into this mess in the first place. She was the oldest and therefor responsible for making sure everyone was okay. She should have remembered they were in a dangerous place, should have kept everyone quiet until they were safely out of the canyon, the explanations could have waited. So much for leadership skills. She was a failure as a leader and a friend and that’s all there was to it. And if Frazer died...oh God, if he died...there would be nothing to relieve her of the crushing guilt....

“We’re nearly there...uhng,” Grey Lord stumbled a bit, but managed a graceful landing into a kneeling position. Piyomon rushed to his side.

“Are you okay, Grey Lord?” He looked even more sickly than before.

“Yes, ngh, I’m fine.” He breathed and closed his eyes. “It is just a little further to the mansion. I’ll be fine once inside.”

“You shouldn’t have come out in the sun, it’s draining your strength...”

“It was...a necessary risk.” He opened his eyes and smiled weakly at Piyomon. With a little effort he stood back up and continued walking. They had reached the top of the canyon now, near small market run by an old Monochromon. “Before I send you off into the unknown I decided it would be best to do some basic training with you.”

“Basic training?” Emma questioned.

“Yes. As it is you are unskilled and unprepared. Sending you off now would be unwise. However, time is also our enemy. We will start soon, but first I need to rest.”

***

Author’s Note: Another chapter finally finished. And a fight scene! I like how this turned out, and the story should definitely start speeding up now. Please read and review, thanks!