Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Songhai Diaries ❯ Voices in the desert ( Chapter 4 )

Warnings and disclaimer: As much as I'd like to have enough for that, the Diaries universe is Lord Archive's. All rights to Digimon belongs to Toei, Saban and a bunch of other companies. This chapter is rated PG-13 for violence.

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Chapter 4: Voices in the desert
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The passage through the portal felt very different to the kids this time around. It was like (for lack of a better term) falling up a tunnel of swirling colors. The trip made Enitan wish they had not been eating just before. He landed in unfamiliar sand and was getting up when his partner came out of the portal and knocked him over an overgrown tree root. He yelped in pain upon landing a second time in an inappropriate position. If the screaming coming from the other side was any indication, things had not been going really well there either.

After everyone's respective body parts and other possessions were sorted out, the group was able to examine their surroundings. The tree stood in the middle of a barren track of land over sixty feet wide, with nothing else around but the herbs of the savannah forever dried by the sun, and the occasional shrub or tree. Wherever they were, the kids did not recognize the place.

"Where are we?" Ife asked.

She was unnerved by the unexplainable absence of any plant, twig or even the smallest insect on the ground. The three digimon whispered between each others and eventually came to the conclusion that the village was somewhere about a mile west of their position.

"We'd better make it a quick walk, then. It's nearly noon."

Ife's comment quickly came to rest heavily on the children's unprotected shoulder. The sun pierced through the cloudless sky like a rip dripping down relentless light and heat on the travellers. Another large drop of sweat rolled down Enitan's forehead, crossed his brow and dropped to the ground. The boy looked up, swaying lightly under the heat, and wondered how the other kids could keep going on as if it was just a walk to the marketplace. Right before him, his partner staggered similarly, covered in sweat under his dripping pelt.

Naba, that snivelling little thief, was merely a dozen feet further away, and yet it seemed to Enitan like the entire Sahara was laid down between them. The taller boy turned around, looked back at them and stopped the others. He walked up to the reptile digimon, slid the pelt off his right arm and wrung it. Numerous droplets of liquid fell to the ground and the boy shook his head.

"Here. I'll carry that for you," Naba offered.

"Eh, thank you," Gabumon wheezed gratefully.

Just as he handed the piece of stripped fur over to Naba, Enitan reached over and snatched it from the other boy's grasp.

"I'll do it," he grunted.

Naba eyed him with raised eyebrows, but then shrugged and turned away. Gabumon gave is partner a warm smile, but Enitan was too busy tying the fur in a ballot at the end of his spear to notice. He swung the weapon back over his shoulder and set after the other kids without looking back at his partner.

The occasional scorch mark in the ground was the first sign that something was wrong. The black fumes coming from the village were the second. The destroyed buildings and apparent absence of any digimon confirmed something nasty had happened in Komaba. A quick check revealed the destruction of the TV-shaped dimensional gate the kids had previously used to travel to the Digital World. For all her self-control, Palmon was on the verge of tears.

"For once. Just once we could have prevented this. We could have stopped it. We could have..." she struggled to, but could not finish her phrase.

Bitter tears rolled down her cheeks. Ife hugged her partner.

"Don't be so pessimistic," the girl tried to reassure her. "Maybe the guys will find them."

Just as she spoke these words of hope, the boys and their partners crossed the destroyed wall of the village. Her face betrayed the question before she had to ask it, and they shook their heads.

"We're so-" Naba began to apologize, but Ife stopped him with a gesture.

"No. If someone ought to apologize, it's me," she said. "If I'd talked to you like I should have, if I hadn't tried to interpret the message my way, this might not have happened."

"You couldn't have known," Palmon sniffed.

"Nobody could have known," Wormmon concluded. "Nobody can be blamed for this. We've all been hoping it would never happen. We were wrong and we knew it; we just couldn't help it."

"What do you mean, you were 'hoping'?" Naba suddenly asked.

The other two chosen turned toward their respective partners. Palmon tried to blink the tears away. Despite her best efforts, she failed and resolved to wipe them away with her hand.

"It's been going on for months," she recounted. "Villages were attacked. The adults killed, the child-levels taken away. Nobody knew what was going on. Then the Gazimon started to move out of the desert."

"Gazimon?" Enitan asked his partner in a whisper.

"Like the one that attacked us when you came here for the first time," Gabumon whispered back.

Palmon continued: "They've been living there since the reformatting, and there hadn't been any problem, but now they sometimes attack travelers and settlements. When the... the... when they —"

The three digimon had to repress a shudder at the evocation of whoever it was.

"Started to appear, it was too much. The tunnels were built so that we could travel with some amount of security."

"'They'? Who are 'they'?" Ife asked.

Palmon looked away.

"We...We don't really know. Digimon, we think. Nobody had ever seen such types before. They come from the desert. They destroy, they eat everything. Without speaking. Without a single word. Such mindless cruelty, it's..." she could not continue.

"Terrifying," Gabumon supplied.

"Even if we can kill a few, there's so many of them they even overtake adults," Wormmon continued.

"And that is what we escaped back in the desert?" Enitan asked his partner.

Gabumon nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Enitan asked the trio.

He turned to his partner with a frown.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Gabumon averted his eyes under the boy's angry stare.

"We didn't think you'd understand," he explained. "We thought it'd be too much,after being transported here and all. And... to be honest... we were kinda happy to get away from it all. Away with you."

The kids remembered the fear and the horror that would come with the locusts. They understood all too well what it meant. To have everything stripped from you, even what you thought could not be taken away. More tears flowed from Palmon's eyes as she cried out:

"And now look where it has brought us!"

Gabumon went up to the plant digimon and hugged her.

"Palmon, stop it!" Ife snapped.

Everyone goggled at the girl. She went on:

"The tracks are obvious. The scorch marks are still hot. If we move fast enough, we can catch up to them."

"You sure of that?" Enitan asked.

She shot him a defiant look.

"The least we can do is try, right?"

Palmon composed herself and escaped the reptile's arms. She would stand by her partner, wherever that led her. Wormmon nodded, but Naba only shrugged.

"It's probably not going to change much, but I don't see why we shouldn't try," the boy commented offhandedly.

Gabumon glanced back at Enitan. Despite all the doubts in his eyes, the boy could tell how much he wanted to go. Sometimes friendship is about putting other people's desires before your own.

"I'm with you," he said.

"Don't give up on them just yet," Ife told the plant.

Footprints; a whole column of them across the landscape like a nasty scar. The mental picture reminded Enitan of his own, still not completely healed wound. Sometimes there was blood. Sometimes there were marks of something, or someone, being dragged along. Most of the footprints were virtually identical and they had to assume that all the attackers were of the same species of digimon. What bothered Enitan was that the footprints were certainly not theirs. The creatures he'd seen could not leave such footprints.

"Ife?" he tried to catch her attention.

Her features were set in a serious expression he had never seen on her face before. It was gone already when she turned toward him, smiling.

"Yes?" she answered in her familiar, sweet tone.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"Yes. Whoever attacked the village, it's probably not them. If Palmon's description is accurate, they don't sound like the type to take prisoners," she said.

Enitan wanted to ask her why they should not tell the digimon. Their partners obviously believed they were walking to their deaths. And the fact that the tracks were obviously headed for the desert did not help the matter.

"What is that?" a deep voice asked as an alarm began to ring softly.

"Ooooohh... They are making our job easier!" a second voice excitedly replied. "One of them is carrying the signature we detected a few days ago!"

"Great. You realize it only makes him more powerful?" the first voice grunted.

"My point, exactly. It hasn't morphed. It hasn't been used already," the new voice explained. "Do you think we should send our little friends out to keep them company?"

"Yes," the first voice agreed. "They are nothing but flies at the moment. Clockmon's back will be covered, and the boss will be pleased."

Your friends will face their fears. If they run away now, they'll never be able to fight.

Why couldn't it just stop talking? Why was it forcing her to put Palmon through this? Why couldn't she reassure her partner? Just because her fears would be confirmed did not mean...

Because your friend must find where his strength lies. And because they must realize that they can vanquish even what they fear most.

Why couldn't it just make sense already? She wanted to answer the boy. She wanted nothing more than to tell him.... Unfortunately, "A voice in my mind told me" didn't sound like a very sane answer.

"You still don't think this is worth it?" Wormmon questioned his partner.

Naba sighed. The digimon was sweet, but someone really needed to get the pink glasses off his face.

"Life's taught me there's little you can change in the world," he dryly retorted.

"How come? Can't you decide who you get to know, by whose side you'll live? Don't you believe in destiny?" Wormmon countered.

"The only thing destiny's brought me so far is people like Laji," Naba explained.

"Oh..."

The digimon's antennae drooped low enough to fall in the boy's face, and then rose back up.

"But didn't destiny bring us together?"

Naba conceded a faint smile. Maybe destiny was not all that bad.

Forward, forward, always forward. Forward was their sole order, forward they would go. And forward they would find their targets.

Gabumon squinted.

"Guys... something's coming."

"I don't see a thing," his partner commented.

Enitan had trouble seeing anything through the overheated air and the sweat burning his eyes. Gabumon must not have been much better off, considering that he had insisted on taking back his pelt, so the boy figured he should not be complaining.

"Look up!" Palmon told him.

Her voice unmistakably quivered in fear. Enitan's gaze raised and he wondered how he could have missed the column of dust rising in the wind. Whatever was approaching was doing so rapidly and silently. Gabumon tried to pull Enitan aside.

"We must hide!" he urged the boy.

"Where to, genius? We're in the middle of a desert!" Naba exclaimed.

The boy extended his arms out and spun twice for emphasis. The sudden movement caused Wormmon to topple down.

"Whatever we do, we'll stick out like a toubab on the national soccer team! I knew this was hopeless!" Naba continued.

"Nobody forced you to come," Enitan retorted. "And I don't hear you offering a solution."

He would have loved to say he knew how to get them out of this mess, but he had nothing to offer. Naba's arms and head dropped. He sighed deeply, his hand reaching for the pouch full of stones at his waist.

"Fighting, always fighting..."

Enitan spun back toward the older boy. His hand loosened and his spear dropped in the sand.

"What? Are you serious? We're going to...?"

Ife reached to her back to draw an arrow from her quiver.

"Of course we're going to. I don't see you coming up with anything better either!" she retorted.

"But... I thought... We'd... Isn't it..." Enitan attempted to string together an intelligible answer.

"Yes, it's our destiny," Ife added softly. "But nobody ever said it'd be easy. What? Did you think destiny would only have us waltzing in here and everything would turn out alright??"

She put a hand to his shoulder.

"But it doesn't work like that. And sometimes, there's not much difference between destiny and doom..."

Enitan slumped to his knees. His face slowly reddened in an anger he didn't know how to direct. He lashed back.

"Then why are we here? Why are we doing this? Why?" he yelled at the girl.

"I'm doing this because that's the only thing I can do," the girl calmly answered.

She strung her bow and looked back toward the incoming dust column. They could make out groaning sounds not far beyond the next dune. Naba threw a stone in the air and caught it back before slipping it in his sling.

"I'm doing this because there's nothing else I can do," he stated and looked back over his shoulder at the noble boy, "And you? Why are you doing this?"

Enitan fell on all fours, his hands shuffling about in the sand. A tear rolled down his cheek and disappeared in the ground. Do I really have a reason? Is this what destiny's all about? A scaled hand took his own and pulled him up. He looked at his partner's scarlet eyes and a pale smile stretched his lips. Green and red bodies deformed by the heat appeared over the top of the dune. The three Digimon gasped, terrified.

"But... They always come out at night!" Palmon exclaimed.

"Cho! Not anymore, apparently," Naba grumbled, stating the obvious.

After looking for it and spotting it, Enitan collected his spear. The boy picked himself up and held the weapon next to him, blade sticking out to the sky.

"I guess I'm doing this... for a friend," he said.

The wave of green globs was apparently covered in large red spikes. A small group detached from the frontline and rolled down the dune. The digimon were formed of two distinct ovoid parts linked by what looked like yellow flexible pipe. Bulging yellow eyes emerged from the upper sphere. The lower globe was largely taken by a humongous mouth with a ridiculously limited set of fangs lining it. The kids and digimon braced for the assault when Enitan's digivice exploded in blinding blue light. The wave of assailant slowed slightly at this unexpected development. From the digivice burst a spinning shape Enitan recognized as the Digimental he'd found two days before. The object flew toward Gabumon, who was engulfed in the light.

"Gabumon, armor evolve!"

A lightning bolt fell from the empty sky and scattered in small arcs all around the digimon. A series of metal sheets coursing with electricity rose from the sands and surrounded the lizard. The box then began to crumble like an inverted origami paper fold. With a final small wave of energy, the light dissipated through the ground, leaving there what Enitan first thought was a small yellow and blue construction vehicle, until it spoke in a booming metallic voice:

"Building new bonds of friendship, Kenkimon!"

The dumbstruck children looked up to see a face carved in a piston-like structure where one would have expected a control cabin. The newly evolved Kenkimon had two triangular caterpillar tracks for legs, a forklift for a right arm, a backhoe for a left one and a small crane on its back. With a noise of hydraulic machinery, Kenkimon moved in front of the group.

"Stand back!" he warned them.

"What?! Oh no... The boss isn't going to like that!" a voice panicked in the darkened room.

"Pah!" the other voice snorted derisively. "Just flies! We've done away with more powerful digimon than that. And afterward, we'll just retrieve the power source."

He chuckled evilly.

"Strenght is in number. If we send the whole lot of them out, they can evolve to Perfect and still not get out of it."

The children and digimon scrambled back before the newcomers approaching with no intent of singing epics. Kenkimon raised his backhoe as blue energy began to build up in it.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

When the ball reached the size of it's container, he swung the arm as if throwing a bowling ball. The attack tracked along the ground and created a wall of sand in front of the children which temporarily hid the red and green digimon. When the sand fell back, it revealed a deep, vitrified trench protecting the group. It crackled and sizzled as it rapidly cooled down. A second Hyper Bulldozer created a wedge-shaped fort with Kenkimon standing just outside the point.

"Gabumon?" Enitan asked. "Is that really you?"

"Call me Kenkimon now. I armor evolved... Thank you for being a friend."

"Didn't we leave that thing back home?" Enitan asked in amazement.

"Enitan! Now's not the time for questions!" Ife yelled at him.

The digimon kept pouring over the dune. When the first green creatures went within Kenkimon's reach, he violently swung his arm at them. With a groan of pain, they flew into the air and landed dozens of feet away. They rolled around for a few seconds, then bounced back up to join the assault again, apparently none the worse for it. Kenkimon swung both arms wildly, but despite his best attempts at keeping the innumerable digimon in check, some slipped past him. They tried to jump across the trench, but failed miserably. Enitan saw his chance and thrust his weapon down at the green glob, but despite the boy putting all his weight in the blow, the creature just bend and snapped back, as if it was made of rubber.

Enitan was sent on his back in the sand. As he got back up, he saw one of the yellow-eyed creature fly at him, it's mouth open in a silent scream of rage. The mouth closed and opened back, launching a cloud of ominous green gaz.

Ife pulled on the bowstring until it was on the verge of breaking, holding the arrow with an uncertain hand. She fired at one of the jumping creatures, but the projectile apparently had no effect; it merely skidded off the rubbery skin and broke on one of the spikes. Ife blinked in panic as the creature disappeared from sight into the pit before her.

"What...?" she mumbled.

"Poison Ivy!"

Palmon's fingers extended and thoroughly battered the red and green bigmouth. The attack did not seen to have any effect beyond causing it to fall back on the other side of the trench.

"Poison Ivy!"

The plant reiterated her attack and grabbed another digimon by the head. She raised it, intent with slamming it into the ground.

"Wait! Throw it up! I need an easy target!" Ife called for her partner.

Palmon's eyebrows raised, but she just shrugged and obeyed. The digimon spun high in the air, its mouth wide open in an angry growl. Ife aimed and fired. The arrow flew through the air and entered the open mouth. The creature merely closed it and apparently swallowed. Ife and Palmon's eyes widened.

"It... ate it. It just ate it like it was some piece of fruit!" Palmon panicked.

Ife took an unsteady step back.

"What are these things?" she breathed out.

"Sticky Net!"

A creature was enveloped by the attack and glued on the spot. Then the spikes on his body flew out through the air, ripping the attack to shreds. Naba was beyond himself with uselessness. He kept throwing stones as hard as he could, and he could throw them pretty hard with his sling, but he could not seem to get any reaction. The projectiles just bounced off the creatures as if they were mere pieces of fluff. He eventually threw the weapon down in the sand.

"This is useless!"

"Come on, Naba, you can't give up now!" Wormmon encouraged him.

"If only it had some effect!" Naba grumbled.

Another of the dangerously numerous child-levels nearly jumped at the two of them, but Wormmon was quick to react.

"Silk Thread!"

The attack hit the digimon square in the eyes and it fell back with a loud growl of pain. Naba's eyes light up.

"The eyes' the weak point! Hey, Enitan!"

He turned around excitedly just in time to see the cloud speed up toward Enitan. The only thing the boy could do was to shield his face with his arms. Naba grabbed them and pulled the other boy aside. The cloud landed in the sand were Enitan had been sitting seconds before and the ground began to sizzle. Kenkimon's voice came with a very angry tone.

"That does it! Enitan?" he inquired.

Enitan's face hardened at his partner's request.

"Go for it."

"Crazy Crane!"

The crane hook glowed with green energy and was launched forward, right in the middle of the assailants. Where it landed, a large explosion sent the digimon flying. One of them flickered once or twice before vaporizing into a cloud of small particles. A single one. The Digidestined and chosen digimon collectively had large beads of sweat form on their heads.

"Okay... This is ridiculous," Enitan commented.

"How come these bouncing stomachs are so strong!" Ife asked.

"We told you! Nobody knows!" Palmon yelled back.

"Ibukumon... The name's fitting," Kenkimon commented.

Several of the newly christened Ibukumon massed against his caterpillar tracks. They opened their mouths in unison and released a cloud of green gases that completely hid the tracks. Wormmon and Palmon launched their attacks blindly.

"Sticky Net!"

"Poison Ivy!"

The purple fingers and threaded net disappeared in the cloud. Fractions of seconds later, Palmon was tugged forward violently. She only owed not falling into the pit before her to Naba's reflexes. They pulled back, with no apparent effects.

"They got my fingers!" Palmon panicked.

She did not dare pulling he fingers back completely for fear the creature would cross to their side. A pause, then she shrieked in pain.

"Ack! It burns, It burns! Get it off! Please!"

The tugging continued, harder. The group centered around the wailing plant to try and pull her away to safety. Kenkimon was helpless, not daring to attack in the middle of the cloud for fear of touching his friend's fingers. He continued to keep the Ibukumon as far away from the children as he could. More cries of attack came from the Ibukumon crowd. The gas condensed on the machine digimon and the bright yellow began to take a nasty reddish tint.

Acid! Enitan thought.

"Kenkimon! Back away! They're trying to damage your caterpillars!" he ordered.

His partner began to move back hastily with worrying grinding noises. Naba suddenly shoved Ife's bow and arrow in her hands and pointed at the creature with Palmon's in his mouth.

"The eyes! Aim for the eyes!" he yelled.

He suited the action to the word and launched his last rock forward. It hit the Ibukumon straight in its left eye. Blinded by pain, it tried even harder to pull back Palmon, and Naba had to join his efforts to Enitan and Wormmon's so that the plant would not fall down. Ife carefully took aim and released the arrow. It flew forward and stabbed the digimon in the head, right into the eyes. The orb snapped back, then the digimon exploded in green particles.

"Nice shot!" Enitan cheered.

The girl blushed and briefly looked away.

"Thank you..."

She did not get to say more, as the plant's finger came back. They lashed violently at the group, completely out of control. Palmon herself had a red mark left across her chest. Wormmon and Naba noticed that it rather felt like being hit by Fatima's ruler, only less painful.

"They're burned!" Ife exclaimed upon giving the appendages a closer look.

"I... can take it. We must... win. Can't.. let them just... get out of here," Palmon panted.

"This is it! Nobody hurts my friends!" Kenkimon said angrily as he came to cross the trench.

Blue energy built up in his backhoe as it raised high above the kids.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

The attack exploded violently amongst the green and red horrors. Several of them flickered and vanished into clouds of particles. The particles were drawn to the body of those of their comrades that were still alive. They did not seem affected by the others' death.

"Are they doing what I think?" Wormmon asked with a disgusted tone.

"They're absorbing the data!" Palmon screamed.

"Hyper Bulldozer!"

Kenkimon's second attack had even less of an effect, barely deleting a couple Ibukumon and apparently strengthening the remaining ones. He thrust his forklift forward and the tips penetrated the heads exactly in the eyes. More data was sent flying. Enitan looked around to see nothing but additional digimon pouring over the crest of the dune. Reinforcements. Another series of acid attacks was sent at the armored digimon's caterpillars .

"Kenkimon! We have to get away from here!" Enitan ordered his partner.

"But..." the digimon tried to protest.

"We can't win against so many of them!" he yelled back. "And if they jam you, there's no way we'll make it out of there alive!"

"Okay..."

The digimon did not seem to agree until a loud clanking sound came up, indicating that something had broke. Enitan's fingernails dug into the palm of his hand as his partner briefly struggled to move back. With another loud noise the machinery resettled into position. The Armor digimon rolled around and sped away from the battle, making sure to keep his speed low enough, so he could stay between the children, their partner and the other digimon. The Ibukumon immediately gave chase.

"Look what you've done, you idiot! You only strengthened them!"

"But, elder..."

"Shut up! The only reason I keep you around is to purify the pool. Remember that. Now call your bastardized minions back. We have data to upload."

A gulp.

"Yes, of course."

Without a word, without a look back, the entire small army turned their back to the Chosen Children and bounced back toward the desert. The children were left frozen by this unexpected development. Kenkimon tried to follow them for a while, but Naba ordered him off. Enitan scowled.

"Not a good idea. You said it yourself: we can't win against so many of them," Naba explained. "That'd only get us killed."

"Killed... Did we... Did I...?" Ife mumbled.

The girl's hands began to shake and she dropped her bow in her hand with a horrified look. Her breathing shortened.

"They were... Were they?" Ife continued.

"Digimon? What else could they be?" Palmon inquired.

Ife began to wobble slightly. Her partner wrapped her burnt hands around the girl and brought her to sit. Enitan just looked on, incapable of speaking. Naba continued to look toward the horizon where the Ibukumon had disappeared.

"Did I...?" the girl asked again.

"You did," Naba deadpanned without looking at her. "You aimed and shot. A nice shot at that. You released the arrow, nobody else. You'd better cope with it."

Enitan looked at the boy in disbelief.

"How can you be so jaded!" he exclaimed. "Do you realize what she did?" he added, his voice marked with disgust.

Ife began to sob softly. Naba did not grace either of them with a look.

"Kill or be killed. Sometimes there's no choice. I learned that. You'll have too," he shot Enitan a harsh look. "They certainly did."

And I had no answers to that. When Kenkimon looked at me. When he wanted me to allow him to kill these monsters who'd killed those he knew and loved, I told him "Go for it". Without a second thought. I told him to kill them. And I fully believed that it was the right thing to do. Does the belief that you are right make killing right? Did Ife have the same hought? Could she even have such thoughts? This is not some holy war, this is our war... and the first casualties are our doing. Ife's doing. I still can't believe it. Kenkimon killed, not me, but she just did.

They all stayed in the Digital World to spread the news, but I wish Gabumon didn't. It's just... so difficult. I wish he was here. He'd be able to reassure me. To tell me there's a reason for all of this. I know he would. That's what friends are for.

Enitan flipped over the small electronic device, a sort of small computer. The blue symbol embedded on the digimental flashed on the screen. How could things appear out of thin air like that? It made no sense! But then being destined to save a parallel world made of computer data hardly made any sense in the first place, did it?

Did it?

I can't stop thinking about it. About what he said. Learn it. Enitan asked the right question. How could he be so casual about it? I've killed today, and it's certainly not something women are expected to do around here. I've had to kill before. Chickens, back at the concession. It's natural, isn't it? They are animals, and we have to kill them somehow, to eat. Is it really what I was thinking when I fired? It's so blurry, I can barely remember. Was I really so... direct? No... so hateful? Did I hate that creature so much that I had to kill it? Palmon and the others... They obviously did. But could I really hate that much? Palmon... I sure hope she's alright. She said she'd be, and she should, considering what she did for Enitan, but I'm still worried sick...

The voice in the back of her head had kept silent and she did not know if she was glad or annoyed about it. Whoever... Whatever it was had helped make some sense out of this. And then it had just vanished. She could not lose her mind. Not now. Not like her.

"Aunt Inaya..." Ife whispered.

Why? Why couldn't I do anything? I was there! I was supposed to help! And I could only stand there chucking stones. They did something. They did everything and all I could do was to make snide remarks at them! Enitan's got that spear of his, and Ife that big-ass bow, and what do I get? A fucking sling. But then what would I do with a bow? When real troubles come around, what am I supposed to do? Shoot pebbles up their ass? I feel so useless. I'm here, and Wormmon's back there, and still there's nothing I can do for him.

Authors' notes: As usual, explicative notes are available on my personal website, see my profile for the url.

In adition to Riddler, Drakys and Archive, Xuxu gets a big "Thank you!" this time around. I don't know how I could keep up the quality without all of you!