Chapter 3:
And So It Begins
“…and
that is why discipline is essential to our life,” finished Blitzenheim and with a wide smile asked “Any questions?”
Alas, the science teacher’s audience was less than captivated. The ever-so-scorching sun-beams that kept on invading the lab shone over a small, and looking positively brain-dead, audience. The young adults who had just being through an excruciating rant about responsibilities and discipline for over an hour seemed to be ready to jump under the first speeding truck they saw. Save one of them, of course.
“Oh, oh! Herr Blitzenheim! I have a question!” nearly shrieked a girl with straight dark blue hair. Her enthusiastic jumping up and down on her chair as she waved her hand right in front of the teacher’s face made her twin brother cringe. The gold-eyed boy, who was covered in numerous patches and binds from head to toe, moved away from his sibling, his chair producing an awful, deafening screech as it slid across the floor tiles. Said action quickly earned Takahiro another threatening glare from Blitzenheim. The teen tried smiling innocently but due to his numerous injuries, ended up looking like he had just swallowed an extremely sour lemon whole. The overly plump teacher narrowed his eyes at the sweating student once more for good measure before replying to the still wide-eyed Suki.
“Why yes, Miss Ishikawa, do ask,” he said with a sickeningly saccharine voice before growling at the male portion of the students gathered in the room, which meant- in short- everyone else. “At least
some of my students show promise and dedication. Unlike some
others I know.”
Somewhere on Xander’s left, Willis gulped when Blitzenheim’s beady eyes fixated on him.
Xander himself felt the need to gag when Suki cheerily asked their stern ‘overseer’ to retell some insignificant deadly part of his rant on how discipline had helped him in life. The auburn-haired boy would have labeled the girl a mere bootlicker if not for the way she had vigorously scribbled notes while Blitzenheim had been murdering their brain cells one by one for a whole dreadful hour with his rant. The fact that the girl was actually taking Blitzenheim seriously, that showed that things had reached a whole new and unexplored level of disturbing. Takahiro moved his chair even farther away from his sister and sank in until only his bruised golden eyes could be seen looking nervously around. He was probably hoping that the others would forget his unfortunate relation to Suki, Xander guessed.
Hah! Like anyone could forget that Hiro’s teacher’s pet of a sister had just practically begged Blitzenheim to mind-rape them again. To Xander’s biggest- even more surprisingly, pleasant- surprise, Blitzenheim politely turned down Suki’s request and explained he had to go. Hey, maybe the Universe actually was planning on letting him life that day so he could suffer another time, Xander thought hopefully. The teen was just about to get up and leave when Takahiro asked with oh-so-much hope in his voice:
“So we are free to leave?”
“Nooo. You are to stay here until 6 o’clock and write a ten-page essay on the importance of obeying the rules. Bye-bye now!”
Then again, maybe the Universe wanted to see how much he could take before he bit through his own veins to end the misery.
Xander could only blink in disbelief as Blitzenheim almost ran out of the room and slammed the door on his way out. Suki immediately started writing the essay and with a sickening squeal wondered aloud what literary devices she should use. Her bandaged brother whimpered something about life being unfair and a loud bang on Xander’s left indicated that Willis had finally succumbed to the urge of banging his head on his desk. The auburn-haired boy glanced warily to the back of the lab. There, shell-shocked and possibly finally brain-dead after Blitzenheim’s rant, was sitting Kaito, his face as blank as a statue’s as he kept on rocking back and forth.
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Even with the music on, he could still hear the constant ticking of the accursed clock.
Tick. Tick. TICK!
Second after second, the dreaded monotone bangs, as if increased thousand fold just to annoy him, invaded Xander’s mind. The auburn-haired boy tried tugging in the headphones even deeper, but nothing seemed able to stop sound wave after sound wave of annoying ticking from washing all over him.
With a disgruntled sigh, Xander turned his back on the wide-opened window in defeat and his black eyes surveyed the school lab he had learned to despise in the matter of mere hours. Willis was the closest to him- the teen had just put his pen down with a tired groan and had buried his hands deep into his unruly blond hair. Kaito was the farthest- doodling graffiti over the blackboard and grunting every now and then when he had to erase some part and redo it. The delinquent frequently threw hopeful looks at Suki, who was still busy writing on the first row, and daringly waited for the girl to glare and reprimand him for his rule-breaking escapade.
And the clock just kept on ticking and ticking, perched above the blackboard and just above Kaito’s dyed blond head.
Xander was just considering tricking the delinquent that the best way to get Suki’s attention was by smashing the hated clock when Takahiro moved his chair closer to his twin. Alas, his seemingly nonchalant question failed to trick his sister.
“Hey, sis, mind if I take a look at your essay?”
Seeing the threatening look in his sister’s eyes, Takahiro quickly coughed and added, “For entertainment purposes only, of course. No cheating. Or copying. Nosiree!”
“Hiro,” sighed Suki and moved all the 24 pages of text she had written so far away from her twin. “How many times do I have to tell you? You’ll never learn if you keep copying off me!”
Takahiro’s shoulder slumped in defeat and he strolled like a dead man back to his seat. The gold-eyed boy sprawled on it with a groan and muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
“But you never even let me copy your stuff!”
Trying and failing to escape her brother’s dreaded puppy dog pout, Suki mumbled something under her breath and passed some of her notes to Hiro with an annoyed look. The blue-haired boy didn’t waste any time and swiftly threw away the several sheets he had filled with pointless run-on sentences and all-around nonsense. Seeing how Hiro scribbled as fast as he could in fear that Suki was going to change her mind, Willis carefully stood up and approached the other boy with a hopeful look in his face.
“Mind if I take a look? I’m kinda two pages short.”
Willis somehow managed not to tremble under Takahiro’s judging glare and soon after the blue-haired boy shrugged.
“Heh, why not? Don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said and stuck his tongue out at Suki who had just gasped at the sudden defiance to the school rule system. “But I’ll still kick your butt if you hit on my sister again.”
“Can’t promise that one,” Willis teased but upon seeing Hiro’s unamused look, quickly added “Sheesh, relax! I’m just kidding, man!”
Several more minutes, for Xander- seemingly centuries, passed before any of them broke the silence that had once again descended upon them. It was Kaito’s angry voice that ended the monotone scribbling of pens and shuffling of papers.
“I can’t take it anymore!”suddenly bellowed the teen and threw away the piece of chalk he was holding. “I’m outta here!”
Alas, when the blond delinquent tried to open the door, nothing happened. And no matter how hard he hit, kicked or cussed at it, the stubborn door refused to budge.
“That son of a b
itch has locked us in!” howled Kaito in disbelief.
“Kaito!” Suki snapped and finally looked up from the numerous notes scattered across her desk. “You can’t talk that way about a teacher!”
“Well, excuse me, Princess, for not liking people who lock me up in rooms full of dorks and wannabes!” barked Kaito back.
“I guess you dislike the general police populace of Japan then,” came Xander’s voice from his place at the back of the lab “With you probably having been an honored guest of every prison in this country and all that.”
“Why you… AARGH!” growled the Nishimura and kicked the door one more time with all his might. Nothing happened, aside from Kaito stubbing his toe.
“Try using that big empty head of yours. It’ll surely budge,” quipped Xander once more. Kaito’s threatening ‘hnnn’ only seemed to give him more ammo “Cute. Can you grunt the whole alphabet that way?”
“Are you
trying to get your butt kicked?” growled the delinquent and flexed his fingers.
“Nah. Just finding ways to amuse myself and pass time. Cause this is all so boring, y’know,” shrugged the Yamashita.
“I’ll give you boring!” roared Kaito and lunged at the other boy.
Willis and Hiro were about to get up and somehow try to stop the would-be carnage but Suki interfered faster.
“Please, all of you, calm down,” pleaded the girl with a forced mature voice and positioned herself between the two would-be fighters “There’s no need for violence. Kaito, not every problem is solved by punching things,” the blue-haired girl said with wide eyes full of compassion. “I think your behavior indicates problems at home and on the inside you are just an angry child who wants to come out and play knowing he is safe.”
“And you, Xander,” Suki sighed as she turned her ‘good-samaritan’ gaze at the boy “Your constant sarcastic behavior and need to anger others show signs of a lot of bottled up pain, perhaps a painful memory of the past you are trying to forget. I suggest seeing a professional.”
Xander gaped and stared, and wondered what to do, wordless for the first time in many years, when Hiro mercifully decided to help. “Don’t mind her,” he mouthed at the other boy and clumsily asked his sister to proof-read his essay in hopes of diverting her attention. A disgruntled Kaito glared ominously at Xander before turning the closest chair around and plopping down on it.
“Aww, come on, guys!” Willis quipped while trying to force cheerfulness into his voice. Unsuccessfully. “No need for us to tear our throats out. We should be positive and, uhm, turn this stupid situation around to our advantage. Like… like in The Breakfast Club!”
The other teens in the room looked at the foreign boy quizzically, save for Xander, who asked as snarky as ever:
“You haven’t watched a movie in how many years exactly?”
“Gee, come on! It’s a good one,” protested Willis and explained the basics of the plot to his bored audience. Kaito just let out his signature ‘hnn’ but Suki looked ecstatic of the idea of student-to-student bonding. And if Xander guessed correctly, the chances of somehow veering him and Kaito in the Light, Cheery, Rule-obeying Side. But hope appeared once again when Takahiro expressed his disapproval.
“Meh, sounds boring as hell to me. I’ll pas-“ Xander was surprised Suki’s glare didn’t bore a whole through her brother’s skull. “Then again, count me in!” squeaked the boy with false cheerfulness.
“Well, it does kinda beat staring at the walls and doing nothing,” Xander admitted when Suki’s turned her now big pleading eyes to him “Least we know who’s gonna fill the role of the Brain
less one,” smirked the teen at Kaito.
“I hope you’ve written your will already ‘cause I’m gonna-“ the Nishimura rose threateningly from his place but a gentle arm placed on his shoulder by a very-wide eyed Suki managed to subdue his righteous anger. “You’re lucky that she’s in here to save you, you pussy!
“Indeed. Whatever shall I do without her,” the Yamashita retorted with a bland voice.
“Sheesh, stop it already,” Willis said in a vain try to defuse the situation. “That’s no BC camaraderie I’m seeing here. Heh.”
“I guess BC does stand for Basket-Case in
your case, doesn’t it,” Xander sn
iggered.
“For goodness’ sake, Xander, would it hurt you not to mouth off at others for at least five minutes?” sighed Suki and pinched the bridge of her nose in hopes of driving away the impending headache.
“No idea, Princess. Never actually tried it,” was the nonchalant response she got. And to Xander she looked like she was going to scream. But apparently Suki really could pull off the proper lady attitude very successfully. The blue-haired girl took a deep breath and, after straitening her hair and skirt, took a chair of her own and put it next to Kaito’s. “I suggest we gather round and play some variation of Truth or Dare or something,” she said with a wide smile full of pearly-white teeth.
“I’ll go first then,” Kaito suddenly exclaimed with a sincere smile that somehow disturbed the others and hinted at impending trouble. “And I’ll start with Princess. Truth or dare?”
Suki looked deeply in thought, probably weighing what kind of gruesome dare Kaito could come up with and if her secrets were worth it. But what really made her look up in surprise was when Xander’s voice cut her musings short.
“I’m not normally one to ruin a game or something, but keep in mind that chances are, if you choose dare he’ll make you make-out with either him or your own brother. Not like I’d care but, uhm, y’know… ahem.”
“Did you just give me a sincere warning?” Suki muttered in disbelief and beamed at the prospect that her psychological analysis from earlier was probably helping Xander. “Okay then, I pick truth.”
“Whatever, Princess, like I care,” Kaito shrugged and tried masking the anger that the other teen had foiled his perfect plan. “Have you ever… done anything a bad girl would do in your life. But not something small but something… y’know, rule-breaking.”
“Of course not,” Suki replied with disdain and bridled up I’m a proper lady and-“
“-And she’s lying,” laughed Takahiro and barely resisted from snorting when he saw his twin’s betrayed and angered look. “Are you going to tell them or should I?”
“Well, I, uhm,” Suki stammered and glared once more at Hiro “last year I lost a bet, to Hiro of all people, and he… made me get a tattoo,” finished the ‘proper lady’ and hid her ashamed face behind the veil of her long hair.
“Heh, who’d’ve thought Princess was into that. Where is it?” laughed Kaito and mockingly wiped a tear from his eye.
“Nowhere you’re gonna see, punk,” growled Hiro as he entered Big Protective Brother Mode once more and rose up from his chair.
“Relax, Hiro, it’s my turn now,” said Suki and smirked at Kaito. “Okay, Nishimura, truth or-“
“Of course I’d like that, Princess,” suddenly sn
iggered the delinquent and winked at the girl.
“Like what?”she asked in confusion.
“To get more intimate with you, didn’t you just ask me that?”
“WHAT?! You’d like to get intimate with my sister?!” roared Takahiro and clenched his fists before suddenly blanking out for a second “Why, I’d like to do that!”
“Takahiro!” gasped Suki and hastily stepped away from her twin. “How could you!”
“What?! No, no, Suki! He just asked me if I’d like to be the captain of the football team this year,” explained Hiro with a laugh and pointed at Willis. “I didn’t even know you were
on the team,” explained the other boy in confusion.
Xander was just about to ask if everyone had finally gone completely nuts when a calm, almost serene, and oh-so-trustworthy voice invaded his hearing. The world swirled around him as promises of fame and success and proving everyone wrong filled his mind. Somewhere next to him Kaito tried standing up only to fall on his back with a thud. Hiro, yawn after yawn, gave up on rubbing his eyes and sprawled himself on the nearest desk. Willis followed him to Dreamland soon after, only to lose his balance and fall over the other boy. A sleepy Suki giggled at the duo only to nod off herself right where she was standing.
And the voice kept whispering in Xander’s ear, promising everything he had ever wanted, only for the price of a single nap. All he had to do was sleep, sleep, sleep…
“I’d… I’d like that,” the auburn-haired boy yawned and went to sleep.
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“Huh? Did… did I dose off or something?”
Alas, no one answered Xander’s barely audible question. The air around him remained as still as ever, a chilling sensation now spreading across the room with no pleasant sun to warm it up. Only the eerie glow of the moon, entering through the wide opened windows, provided some kind of light in the otherwise pitch-black room.
Xander sleepily rubbed his eyes in a vain hope to clear his head. Whatever the reason, the others still appeared to be sleeping. A soft snoring could be heard from the darkened silhouettes of Willis and Takahiro, accompanied by what seemed like mumbling coming from the blond teen’s backpack. Right next to Xander was sprawled Suki, mouth slightly agape as her chest rose and fell with each breath she took. The gentle beams of the moon ended up reflected by her dark blue hair and onto Kaito, still laying on the floor and trying to find a more comfortable position.
“Betrayer.”
Xander couldn’t help but shudder as the mysterious stoic voice tore apart the silence. The single word, said without an ounce of emotion, seemed to linger in the cool night air and the Yamashita was almost scared by what he would see when he turned around.
There, right next to him under the cover of the darkness, was standing a girl. How she had snuck up on him like that, he couldn’t guess. The only thing he could see clearly with what little light he had were her eyes. Glassy, dead eyes that showed no emotion, no signs of life. They were just there- lifeless cerulean orbs hinting to the ever-so-stoic, statuesque expression of their owner.
“Betrayer,” whispered the girl once more, as if to herself.
Splash.
Xander looked with surprise at the drop of liquid that had fallen on the cold floor tiles right in front of him. All his sense screamed ‘Run!’ but the teen couldn’t help but outstretch his arm. The drop glistened under the moonlight. Serene. Harmless…
But when his finger touched its cold surface, everything around him was drained away.
It was as if someone had turned off the moon, leaving only the blackness of the room. And amidst all that darkness, he could hear- he could feel- the water. Raging, swirling, devouring… alive. Soon the ocean around him started giving off a light of its own. An eerie, dreadful glow seemingly affecting only the auburn-haired boy and the girl that was still standing next to him. Xander could see her clearly then- the gothic Lolita dress, the twin graying pigtails framing her emotionless face, her ghoulish white skin… She remained as stoic as ever and kept on whispering to herself, shivering all the while, and the only word Xander could understand was repeated over and over.
“Betrayer.”
And then, amidst the raging black waters, another voice spoke. Gurgling. Mocking. Murderous.
Terrifying.
“Your fault! Was it not? That’s what you are, are you not? Guilty! It was your fault, all of it, from the beginning to the end! YOUR FAULT!”
“Because of you they had to go there. Because of your foolishness and arrogance and rashness. You practically helped him spring that trap by running off on your own! YOUR FAULT!”
“Because of you, they nearly died. Because of you, all was nearly lost. And do you know why he died? Because of you! Your fault, yours, yours, ONLY YOURS!”
“It is your fault for not keeping your emotions in check! You let rage cloud your judgment, fear fill your heart and pride devour your soul! You made him digivolve into that abomination! Because of you, he died! YOUR FAULT!”
“And in the end, you did wise to turn them down. Because you feel guilty do you not? You know that if another bonds, it would surely die, perish, wither away because of you! YOUR FAULT!”
“I saw what hides in the depths of your soul, mortal. You. Are. Mine!”
Xander’s screams never left his mouth. The clawed, webbed hands erupted from the darkness behind him and took hold of his neck, clawing, gripping, choking…
And as the water rose to claim its defenseless victim, the girl just kept on whispering and whispering and-
“Hey, pal, I know that you’re probably sick of all of us already, but I don’t think suicide is the right option.”
Willis trembling voice made Xander’s eyes snap open. The science lab looked right like how he had left it- save for the mysterious girl and the fact that the others seemed to have awoken. Suki was looking at him in a strange, almost apologetic kind of way, and it took the boy some time to realize that Willis was still gripping tightly his wrist and trying to yank the hand… from Xander’s own throat. His own nails were etched into the bleeding skin of his neck. What really made him shudder however, was the disturbed tone of Kaito.
“You… you should dust off, Smartass. No time for napping anymore. The door’s finally open.”
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“They are coming. I guess it is time to see what you are made of, eh, boy?” the arrogant words of the strange bat-like creature didn’t seem to affect the one standing next to him in the least. The cool night breeze blew past the shady duo once more and the yellow cat-like eyes of the bat-creature bore into the ones of his companion. “Well?”
“Don’t think I’m gonna back out now like some coward, DemiDevimon,” said the teen and leaned on the roof’s railing. The boy looked around lazily, as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them. The roof of Shinjuku High School, luckily- for the two conspirators that is, was as empty as one would expect from a roof of a school building late at night. Save for the two beings- one human, one Digimon- silently observing the sports grounds hidden under the veil of the night.
An eerie glow flared up for a second in the darkness as the human boy pushed back his glasses and they reflected the luminescent glow of his partner’s yellow eyes. “Who would’ve thought that
that attack proved to be their downfall,” snickered the teen.
“Shows how much you have to learn,” spat the bat-creature from where he had perched himself on the railing. “Knowing your opponent, setting up a good trap, making sure you have the home field advantage and making sure your opponent is incapacitated in some way is three-fourths of the battle,” explained the Digimon in an exasperated tone that showed that this particular topic had been discussed quite a few times before.
“Well, can’t blame me for deeming Evil Lies an useless attack now, can you?” replied the other darkened silhouette with annoyance “Most of the time, putting your opponent to sleep by whispering to him false promises doesn’t work quite well in battle.”
The Digimon’s fluorescent eyes showed that the creature was smiling, although none could guess that by his stern tone. “Oh, my little foolish boy, real battles are decided before even beginning. Only fools rely on brute strength or making critical decisions in a heated moment. And let me tell you something- fools aren’t remembered by history. The prepared ones are. And what’s taking them so long? Don’t they have to be out already?”
“Hey, I did my part- the only way out is through the gym and that leads straight to us. And I made sure that the only way out of the second floor leads to the gym, so they should be here any second now. Not my fault if they are too stupid to find the way,” growled the teen with contempt.
“And there’s still that little problem with the American boy. He has a partner on hand but I can’t say how strong that partner is. When we strike, we strike at it first. And make sure it counts,” smirked the bat-creature and his eyes glowed even more ominously in the night.
Another gust of wind forced the lazy clouds to pick up their pace on their travel through the sky and the moon’s light shone upon the scheming duo for several brief moments. The Digimon became visible for a moment- a winged, almost spherical, bat-like creature whose true face was forever partially obscured by a dark blue mask sewn over it. DemiDevimon stared intently at his partner as the boy kept on pretending he was very interested with the nearby score board of the school football field. Alas, the human kept on gripping the railing ever so tightly and in the end the bat-creature had no choice but to ask with a frustrated sigh, “What’s wrong now?”
“You can’t run away from a battle just because the opponent can fight back!”replied the boy after a brief moment of silence. “We made sure I can digivolve you today, why be scared by-“
“Enough!” the hidden anger in the creature’s command reverberated into his partner’s mind “Run away?
Run away?! There is no point in fighting a battle that does not promise you a clean victory. What good is winning if your opponent manages to hurt you enough to weaken you for any future battles? Yes, breaking through the Gate nearly deleted me and passing through the Veil weakened me even more! You can digivolve me and I know I can beat that boy’s partner even if it can digivolve, too! But I know I can’t do it with one hit in an open battle.”
“You have a lot of potential, boy,” continued the Digimon with the faintest trace of sincere care in his voice “So much raw anger, such wrath just waiting to come out and crush your enemies! But you have to harness that wrath. Fleeing from a battle is nothing to be ashamed of. Bide your time, live to fight another day, plot and scheme and make sure that when next time comes, there won’t be a need to battle. And-“
The bat-creature’s abrupt stop drew the full attention of his partner who had kept staring at the score board in something akin to shame during the whole time. DemiDevimon’s eyes dilapidated even more and he sniffed the night air with a low hiss.
“They are coming,” the bat informed his partner “but they are not the only ones who have come to pay us a visit,” finished he with disgust and pointed at the field with a tattered wing.
A lone pale girl was standing under the moonlight in the center of the football field and her lifeless eyes bore into the group of shocked teenagers that had just exited through the gym doors. The duo on the roof watched with interest as water started leaking out from under the newcomer’s feet- ghastly water that refused to reflect the gentle beams of the moon and somehow looked even blacker than the night engulfing their surroundings. And then, just like that, the girl melted into the air and a lone word riding on the cool wind reached the partner and Digimon observing the scene from the roof.
“Betrayer.”
Just as suddenly, a lone hand appeared out of the tainted puddle. A short rocky hand that ended up belonging to a little humanoid creature, seemingly made entirely out of rock. Its ecstatic shouts tore apart the silence that had descended around the whole school with the arrival of the ghostly girl.
“Free. Free! FREEDOM! Come on, guys, it’s safe here! We can escape him at last! Come on, while there’s still time. FREEDOM!”
“We are pulling out,” declared DemiDevimon and earned himself a glare from his partner “One too many players have joined our little game of chess. Besides, some of those Digimon could end up doing our work for us. A victory is still a victory, even if you are not the one slaying your enemies.”
After a second or two, the bespectacled teen agreed with a sigh and turned to leave when his partner cut him off once more.
“We are not walking. Digivolve me and I will fly us out of here. The energy spike that girl sent made even my dulled senses cringe- those two buffoons sent by the Sovereigns will be here any minute now. And besides,” added the Digimon and looked around with a threatening hiss “there are other players joining the game, not only that one we saw. And whoever they are, they are doing a darn good job of hiding from me.”
The shout of a certain blue-haired girl filled the air as the teen did just what his partner had told him to do.
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Xander’s brain refused to believe it. All day long he had pondered over his unwanted digital guests and all afternoon he had cursed his fate for getting in detention on the first day of school. And he hadn’t even done anything wrong in the first place- Blitzenheim had just assumed he was guilty by just being there. The whole day had seemed like some surreal nightmare, a bad dream that was ‘bad’ just because of its absurdity and strangeness. Digimon messengers for breakfast, detention for lunch, Blitzenheim’s mind-annihilating rant for an afternoon snack, and hallucinations for dinner- those he could handle. Somehow.
If barely.
But this…
The teen’s obsidian eyes widened even more as the specter of a pond in the middle of the field grew even larger in size. More and more Digimon surged out and just kept on adding one more entry after another in the list of invaders into his normal, relatively peaceful and naturally teenage angsty life. The cold wind picked up its pace once more and the clouds once again resumed their careless journey. One of them passed in front of the moon, but hiding the celestial body’s light didn’t help hide the severity of their situation. The rush of digital creatures of all shapes, sizes, colors and oddities refused to cease.
His other senses, having shut down due to the initial shock, gradually started returning. First came his hearing- and with it, Suki’s terrified blood-curdling shrieks. Xander could hear a very distressed Takahiro behind him trying to comfort his sister. The noise of the Digimon horde also didn’t go by unnoticed. But what really grabbed the Yamashita’s attention was the smell- his nose seemed to be suddenly inhumanly sensitive. A thousand different scents filled the air and the boy could distinguish the smell of exotic flowers coming from the plant Digimon, the wet fur of the beasty ones and even the scaly skin of the reptiles. Or maybe it was just his imagination, reminding a boy which thought he had outgrown that long ago what had the Digital World smelled like, felt like.
To his surprise, the amount of Digimon coming out seemed to decrease. Less and less came out and the majority of the ones who had passed over started scattering around. But Xander dared not hope for anything- being the butt of the Universe’s sick jokes for a whole day was one thing but… things had stopped being even remotely funny when he had tried to tear his own throat out.
Xander slowly looked around and tried not to attract the Digimon’s attention but a quiet voice inside him did wonder why he even bothered- the ones running around them were obviously not interested in a group of strangely acting humans. If those shrieking critters even knew how humans looked or should act like- Xander noticed that none were above the Rookie level. Maybe if the group walked away slo-
With a deafening roar that sent Suki into a sobbing fit yet again, another hand appeared from beneath the surface of the ghastly waters. The creature slowly hauled itself out and looked around in surprise. The clouds moved away from the way of the moonlight yet again and the group managed to get a good look of the bigger Digimon. Pure white fur covered the muscular body of the gorilla-like creature, save for its chest and abs which were a dull black color. One could have surely mistaken it for some rare kind of a white ordinary gorilla, if not for the massive energy canon that was serving it as a substitute for a right arm.
The gargantuan primate sniffed the air and his hoarse voice managed to overpower the chaotic chatter of the crowd and even Suki’s uneven sobs.
“Freedom? Free. At last! I am finally FREE!”
Gorillamon. Champion level. And that meant no childish behavior to keep him busy from crunching them and then using their bones as toothpicks. A sudden movement came from Xander’s right and he had to keep himself from cringing- the Yamashita had been so busy staring at the last one to pass the threshold of the two worlds that he had completely forgotten about his unfortunate companions.
“Let’s move back. Very slowly. Whatever you do, stay out of the big one’s attention,” Willis whispered and tried sounding calm but his voice was more high-pitched then he had obviously intended. Apparently he had been the first one to snap out of the shock. Xander couldn’t help but wonder if the American just had logical thinking or really knew what they were facing. Xander glanced at the blond teen and for a moment tried to guess what was he thinking behind those blue eyes of his. The Yamashita couldn’t know if he was imagining it or not, but the look of the other boy was how he pictured his own face at the moment. Surprised. Confused. Out of place. But knowing damn too well what they were facing.
With a silent nod of understanding, the auburn-haired boy decided to leave his questions for later, if such later ever came that is, and took hold of one of Suki’s arms. A very distressed Takahiro nodded as well and the trio started slowly pulling back, accompanied by a very nervous Willis and an extremely pale Kaito. The lack of any explanatives from the delinquent showed Xander just how shocked and, most certainly, scared the other teen was. He would have found it even funny and pointed it out with a sarcastic remark, if not for the probability of a rampaging gorilla made out of data making midnight snacks out of them. And then the Universe decided to screw up his life even more.
“Free-“ the gorilla’s eyes suddenly came across the fleeting group of humans. Only the way they dilapidated was enough to show off the wrath of the creature, but apparently he decided that a blood-chilling roar was even better “YOU! You will not take be back, you hear me? NEVER!”
Seeing the albino beast lunging at them at full speed did wonders to Kaito’s resolve. The delinquent practically howled ‘Run, you idiots!’ and after tearing Suki out of the two other’s hands, picked her up bridal style and dashed back towards the building. The rest didn’t hesitate to follow his example. Alas, the Universe had apparently decided to target Takahiro next. The unlucky blue-haired teen tripped over something unseen in the darkness and ended up face-first into the wet grass covering the football field.
Xander cursed his and Takahiro’s unfortunate luck once more and grabbed Willis by the sleeve to get his attention. The two foreign boys swiftly grabbed their companion and hoisted him back up on his wobbling legs but, alas, Gorillamon was already within firing range.
“Energy Cannon!”
Time seemed to have suddenly decided to slow its flow for no apparent reason. But then again, Xander asked himself, maybe it was not time but him. Maybe he was just seeing things that way because he was actually going to die in mere seconds. But whether it was time or himself, the energy beam cutting through the darkness of the night and lighting everything on its path remained as slow as ever. Willis just stood next to him like frozen and Takahiro tried pulling him away, his screams falling in deaf years as all Xander could see was his moving lips. And his own body just refused to move faster and surpass the boundaries of time. What good it was, seeing everything in slow-motion, if he couldn’t do a darn thing. Heck, probably just the Universe wanted to have one last long laugh at him before all ended. For him, that is.
“Not on my watch ya won’t! TERRIER TORNADO!”
Time resumed its original pace just as fast, but to Xander things seemed to be running on fast-forward now. The deadly beam of light shot towards them with incredible speed. Willis’ backpack suddenly burst open and for a fleeting moment the Yamashita saw a cream-white-and-green long-eared Digimon that swirled into a greenish vortex just as fast and positioned itself on the path of the beam. The two attacks collided and for a second it seemed that the living twister would prevail. Then the sound of an explosion filled the air and the dog-bunny hybrid was shot back and came to abrupt halt after skidding through the rough ground several times.
“Terriermon!”
Willis jerked back his head with enough force that it snapped. The Gorillamon growled once more and took aim yet again- only for a green blur to appear out of nowhere and whack the albino Digimon’s head with a giant bone club. Ogremon’s form appeared out of the ordinary to Xander- only for him to realize a second later that the digital oni was still carrying the chest with the Digi-Eggs on his back. Must had been really in a hurry to help them, the Yamashita guessed- otherwise he would had surely left them behind. Alas, the precious package proved to be Ogremon’s outdoing. Trying to keep it out of harm cost him the free use of a hand- something that would had really came in handy in such a brawl. Gorillamon quickly shrugged off the surprise attack and with his two strong legs pushed the green foe off him. Ogremon landed several meters back. Right onto the chest.
The container burst open and what were once, or at least looked like, wooden planks quickly dissipated into floating bits of data. The tree precious eggs bounced off the wet ground due to the impact and a severely distressed Ogremon managed to grab only one with his free hand. The other two tumbled off in different directions and Gorillamon picked that as the moment to fire off his laser attack in a fit of blind rage. The energy beam dug crevices in the ground and as everyone ducked for cover, Xander could see the fear for the eggs in the ogre’s eyes. And then Takahiro did something that everyone, his sister included, deemed very, very, too-stupid-to-live stupid. He rushed into the line of fire to get the eggs.
Two odd eggs guarded by some odd scary creature battling another scary creature that he had barely learned that even existed mere minutes before. But due to some unknown reason- be it Fate, Destiny or just pure coincidence- Takahiro dived in to save them.
After barely being missed by the killer light show of the digital King-Kong, the gold-eyed boy put all his hopes in a final leap of fate. The beam somehow missed him yet again and surged right passed the eggs. The blue-haired teen had just managed to get his trembling hands on one of them, only for the other to be blown away… right into Suki’s shaking hands. Takahiro looked ready to flash some goofy smile completely unbecoming of the dire situation when he noticed the primate Digimon looming over him. The albino gorilla had decided to take things up close and personal. He reared back his enormous fist and before even the beast opened its mouth, Xander- and if he guessed correctly, Willis as well- knew which words were going to be the last ones Hiro would hear.
“Power Lift-“
“Beast Sword!”
The gorilla’s breathing came to an abrupt stop as the bestial warrior glanced at the humanoid lion that had snuck next to him with lightning speed. Leomon’s signature machete was rammed into the other Digimon’s chest to the very hilt. Even under the veil of the night Xander could see the blurring of the white beast’s form. As his body became more and more unstable and pixilated, Gorillamon growled one last time before bursting into a thousand specks of data and leaving a strange floating light ball hanging in the air.
“You will… not… take me…back!”
“Forgive me, my brother, for having to put an untimely end to your life,” whispered Leomon with respect.
Just when Xander believed that the end to the surprises had finally come and nothing could possibly hope to top that… the Universe proved that it was not yet tired of mercilessly proving him wrong. A bright light suddenly erupted from Suki and Takahiro’s hands and shot up to the night sky, tearing apart the veil of the night in the process and illuminating everything around the twins. Willis nearly dropped the injured Terriermon who he had just carefully picked up when the light dissipated and a pair of Digimon resembling an oversized blue drop and a miniature sun appeared into, respectively, Suki and Takahiro’s hands. And then even the blue-haired girl’s renewed shrieks of surprise were silenced when another light erupted shortly from seemingly random places in the grass. It didn’t take long for Xander to guess that they were from the Digivices that had scattered upon the breaking of the chest.
A very surprised Leomon stared at the giggling digital creature into the hands of the very confused boy lying in front of him. After scratching the back of his head and pinching the bridge of his snout to drive away the impending headache, the formerly lone bestial warrior grumbled:
“Ogremon, I think we have a lot of explaining to do.”
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“Run a full scan on it once more! Analyze that data some time tonight! Inform the shock troops! And someone, please give me a damn cup of coffee!”
The stern, and at the moment- rather angry, voice of the well-dressed man seemingly just entering his ‘golden years’ reverberated from the high ceiling and monitor-covered walls of the dome-like chamber. Trios and duos of shocked and rapidly-sweating scientists and government agents ran around like headless flies, each of them trying to somehow help subdue the chaos raging around them and in turn just creating more of it. The feeling of total disorientation was strengthened by the constant howling and beeping of various alarms and the flaring up of one enormous computer screen after another. Actually, the rapidly-changing lights emanated by the dozens upon dozens of displays were the only things that provided some form of lighting in the otherwise dark chamber.
As the elderly man tried taking a deep breath and slowing down his heartbeat, a confident, albeit very baffled voice, came from somewhere above and somehow managed to be louder than the cacophony currently raging around.
“Take a breather, sir. We wouldn’t want you passing out on us right now. You’re not young anymore, y’know.”
“Why how nice of you to be concerned about me, Richard,” the gentleman with a graying goatee and ponytail replied as he looked up. “Now give me a full status report.”
High above the bustling crowd, right in the center of an enormous spherical hologram currently representing possibly the biggest map of Tokyo, was perched a lonely figure, surprisingly that of a teen or at most a young adult if one judged by his size and voice. The speaker didn’t bother to look down from his mechanical suspension throne as the contraption constantly changed position as if just by his will and took him to one part of the hologram or another. Possibly two dozens of red lights flashed around the holographic map in various directions and the bright bursts provided a reasonably good explanation as to why the boy on the mechanical chair was sporting a strange pair of high-tech visors.
“On the contrary to what we thought we had at hand,” shouted the one identified as Richard so he could be heard over the bustle of the crowd “the situation ain’t so bad after all, sir. Yeah, I’ve never seen so many Digimon rushing out of the same gateway before but actually the strongest of them are just Rookie level. And that’s just several of them. I managed to put a Barghest on 24 of them, possible missed a dozen max. The worst will have to deal with is probably vandalism and some drunks stumbling upon them.”
“Vandalism?!” came a squeaky voice from somewhere deep inside the tangled crowd “But vandalism means violence and then the army will reply with violence and then the Digimon will Digivolve out of violence AND THEN THEY’LL WRECK THE WHOLE CITY!”
“Kunemon, take a chill pill and come up here, kay? Someone’s gonna squash you down there,” said Richard without looking down and kept interacting with the various hologram interfaces. Not longafter, a yellow oversized caterpillar with black lightning marks all over his body zoomed up the suspensions holding up the mechanical throne and perched himself on top of Richard’s head.
“There was a Champion that managed to Realize,” continued with his report the teen “but apparently he got deleted. Possibly by the two other Champions that slipped past us this morning. But those two are kinda fuzzy. Can’t get a good reading on them. And after the initial spike there was another big surge that died out as fast as it had appeared- as if it was trying to mask its presence. That signal fled the place before the surge even began- like it was running away or something. And shortly after losing the signal of the Champion that Realized minutes ago the system picked up two more power surges. Big spikes that died out just as quickly. But I think they are still in the vicinity of the school,” several seconds passed before the teen buried his face in his hands in frustration “Aaargh! I can’t make heads or tails out of this! All the feedback by the satellites has been jammed by that initial power surge that tore the Veil!”
“I want explanations, Richard!” shouted the white-haired man from the bottom of the chamber “How come they are jamming us when we should be jamming them? And why did the system become all erratic earlier when that happened?”
“No idea, sir,” admitted the teen “But whatever caused that power surge, the signal is none we’ve ever seen. That’s why it crashed- Sibyl is not used to such amount of data flaring up. And the frequency of the signal didn’t help. It’s all… jumbled up. Heck, that’s not even in the system registry. The signal was unknown but familiar in a way, so that’s why Sibyl acted all erratic- on top of being overworked, the system didn’t know what to do. A complete crash. That’s why some of them got away without a tracer attached. I had to put all the Barghest on them manually. While keeping the whole system from totally turning off and leaving us completely blind if I may a-“
“Sir, I ran the scans you requested,” suddenly announced a booming female voice seemingly coming out of nowhere
“you are not going to believe this but- the signal- it’s, it’s not from the Digital World.”
The last statement managed to somehow put a halt to the bustling of the crowd and grabbed everyone’s undivided attention. The elderly man could only stammer and his words would have been probably left unheard if not for the sudden silence that had descended upon the chamber.
“How- how come ‘not from the Digital World’?”
“I ran the scans a dozen times, sir,” said the voice
“but the results are the same every time. The signal which tore the Veil is similar in many ways but at its core, it’s a completely different one. That’s why Aegis didn’t even try to stop it- it recognizes only the main frequency and that one just wasn’t in his directives. Same with Excalibur and Naegling- they couldn’t delete the data because that strange signal’s code kept them from reaching the Digimon which they could affect. Some good now that they are all in our world,” finished the speaker with a sigh.
“So, Rei-chan,” asked Richard with forceful cheerfulness as he tried to hide his annoyance and ignored the ‘humph’ coming from the other side “you’re telling me that my programs and my perfect genius monitoring system didn’t work just because that code’s termination wasn’t on their ‘to do’ list?”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Aw, nuts!”
“Nuts? You got any? Cause I’m hungry,” announced Kunemon from atop Richard’s head.
“I guess you are going to spend another all-nighter fine-tuning your perfect creations then, Ritchie, my boy,” came the white-haired man’s smug reply from below.
“Y’know, an all-nighter isn’t that bad, sir,” quipped Ritchie “considering you’re going to be the one telling the Chief Cabinet Secretary how many Digimon we let running loose around the streets of Tokyo tonight.”
A moment of silence.
“Aw, nuts!”