Pushing Back the Borders
A Digimon Frontier fan fic by *blinkblink*
Disclaimer: I don’t own Digimon, or any of the
characters. Please don’t sue me.
-------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4
Lady Devimon sat on her cold throne, holding an icicle to
her side, either ignoring or ignorant of the icy pain the icicle could cause to
both her hand and her side when left there for a prolonged period. She balled her other hand into a fist, her
long nails digging into her palms, her grip so tight that her arm started to
shake. She banged her fist down on her
chair’s arm with a scream, and unconsciously shattered the ice in her other
hand at the same time. The icy shards
fell to the floor, where they sparkled with the light from the torches. She leapt out of her chair and smashed them
with her foot until they were too small to shine, screaming all the while. A cold voice startled her out of her anger.
“So, you continue to throw tantrums at your age? I can’t say I’m surprised.” The voice was low, and carried none of the
respect she was used to hearing from those around her.
She turned abruptly, ice shards forgotten, her eyes
returning to cold and calculating.
“And what do you want here?
I thought you had gone to work for that fool… Seraphimon.”
“Oh, I get time off, now and then, you know. For important things. Like stopping you from doing something this
stupid. Things like that…” He pointed a staff at her, light beginning
to be drawn to it. Lady Devimon stepped
back sharply, and something large and black barreled right into her
attacker. The second Devidramon. It stood over her attacker, throwing him in
its shadow. Lady Devimon strode over to
him quickly and picked up his staff before he could reach it. She twirled it idly as she stared at down at
him.
“So, you would destroy me to help some human
children? You would kill one of your
own kind to save some filthy trash?
Hah. You’re no better than
them.” She turned to the
Devidramon, “throw him in with them,
they can all await death together. And
get those torches out of there. They
don’t deserve light!” She motioned
towards the corridor in which Takuya and Kouji were being held, and the
Devidramon promptly picked up his new charge and lumbered off in that
direction. Lady Devidramon watched him
go, still twirling the staff.
-----------------------------------------------------
Kouji opened his eyes at the sound of something coming. Something big. A Devidramon, then. It tore the torches out of their holders and
stamped on them, putting them out instantly.
It then pulled open the cage door, threw something else in, and pushed
it shut, walking away a second later.
Kouji didn’t bother to move, Takuya would figure out who it was.
And sure enough, he heard the other boy make his way to the
entrance of their cell, and scramble around, trying to find whatever had been
unfortunate enough to be thrown in.
Whoever it was made it easier by standing up and walking straight into
Takuya, as Kouji could gather from the footsteps and the sound of them
impacting on one another.
“Who are you?”
Takuya’s voice, startled. Not
someone they knew then. Kouji let out
the breath he had been holding (and winced).
They hadn’t caught one of the others.
“It is immaterial. You
are a chosen child, correct? You can
spirit evolve into a digimon?”
Takuya replied in the affirmative, and the voice went on,
“where’s the other one being kept, two of you had been captured last I heard,
isn’t that right?”
Takuya’s voice showed his mistrust, “heard from who?”
Kouji wasn’t sure it mattered, if whoever this was knew, he
knew, but he thought he appreciated whatever idiot sort of protection Takuya
was trying to offer him. He wasn’t
sure, but he thought so.
The other voice, much lower than Takuya’s, and much less
emotional, answered in quiet tones, “it doesn’t matter so much who sent
me, as what they sent me to do.
I am here to help you escape, because, for some unknown reason my master
sees something in you, and has sent me to help. You can trust me.
Besides, if I was a friend of Lady Devimon’s, she wouldn’t very well
have thrown me in here with you.”
“He’s in here. Over
there.” Takuya pointed. It was obvious, from his speech. Kouji rolled his eyes. Had he lifted his hand up in front of his
eyes, he would not have been able to see it in this darkness, and neither could
… whoever, see where Takuya was pointing.
But, once alerted that someone else was in the cell with him, the stranger
seemed to almost … sense Kouji out, he certainly began walking towards him with
eerie accuracy. Takuya shadowed him
closely. The stranger sat down next to
him, from which position he spoke again.
Kouji almost started, the voice was very close now.
“What’s wrong with you?
Why are you lying on the ground, silent?”
At least he hadn’t been poked yet. “Nothing. I’m
tired.” No need to show his weakness to
a stranger if he could get away without doing so, and the imposed blindness was
a good aide towards that end.
“Don’t be a fool. Of
course there’s something wrong with you.
It’s obvious by the way your friend here is hanging over me, ready to
jump me if I try to hurt you. Which
means he doesn’t think you can take care of yourself. I know that you’re as old as him, he wouldn’t be so protective,
unless he thought you were defenseless.
So, what is it? Or I will poke
you.”
He seemed to know exactly what Kouji was thinking. Kouji said nothing. The stranger leaned closer, only to be
grabbed from behind and pulled away by Takuya.
“Hey, lay off him.
If he doesn’t want to talk to you, deal with it.” Takuya was using his angry and annoyed
voice. Of course, he used that one
fairly frequently, so Kouji supposed that it might be his real voice…
“I can help him. I
will help him, if you let me.” The
stranger was released.
“How? Are you a
doctor?”
‘Well, thanks for propagating the myth that all’s well,
Takuya.’ Kouji’s thoughts were anything
but impressed.
“No, but I have magic.
I can use it to heal, if I know what’s wrong with my patient.” If you let me help him, I will. The original statement was still there,
underlying.
“For what price?” It
was a valid point, the only things in the Digital World that had been free were
traps and trouble.
“To cure him, I need my staff. Get it for me, and I’ll do it.”
And then there were those things that were monetarily free, but always
ended up with you having to do impossible things to get them…
Takuya apparently thought so as well, because his sarcasm
was thick as a brick wall. “Oh yeah,
I’ll just shrink into a little mouse, run out of the holes in the door, grab a
staff (which I have no idea the
appearance of) in my mouth, run back past the giant evil Devidramon,
drag it in here, and give it to you then, shall I?”
“No need to be sarcastic.
But the only way I can heal him is with my staff. It’s a price of necessity, not greed.” Whoever this stranger was, he was not
ruffled easily. Kouji sighed. It would turn out that the one person able
to help them would be stuck in here with them, without the tool that would
allow him to do so.
“With your staff, can you defeat Lady Devimon?” He heard the other two turn towards him, and
the stranger walked over.
“Yes. But you would
need to deal with her Devidramon. I
cannot fight all your battles for you.”
“Why are you willing to fight this one?” Kouji refused to budge. Nothing was free. If he stayed stuck in the Digital World much longer, that would
end up being his motto.
“Because my master wishes me to.”
“And why is that?”
“Because this was an obstacle you were not meant to face.”
There was nothing to be said in reply to that. Who was this guy to judge who was and wasn’t
meant to be faced by them? But, he was
willing to help, and they needed it.
Badly.
----------------------------------------------------------
It was getting dark outside. Tomoki was getting cold, and scared. He wanted to light a fire to keep warm, and to keep away the
shadows, but aside from the fact that that would attract the Devidramon, he
also didn’t think he would know how.
Sure, on TV they just rubbed some sticks together and poof, instant
fire, but he was pretty certain that wouldn’t work for him.
And worse, if it was getting dark, that meant that the others would stop
searching soon and he would have to spend the night here, alone, in the
dark. Tomoki whimpered quietly. A buzzing noise caught his attention. Something was moving on the skyline, moving
towards him. Blitzmon and
Fairymon! But they’d never see him, it
was too dark. They’d pass over him,
like they had the last time, and leave him, alone.
Tomoki pulled out Takuya’s digivice (he had shoved it in his
pocked so he wouldn’t drop it) and stared at it. It was dull in his hands.
He pushed the buttons, and poked the blank screen. “C’mon, if you light up, they’ll see me, and
they’ll come save the others!” He
remembered to keep his voice down, but it was hard. “If you light up, we can save Takuya-oniisan! You remember him, your master? C’mon, you’ve got to help him out! Without you, who knows what’ll happen to him
and Kouji-san! Please! You have to light up!” He pressed the buttons all together, hard,
and the screen sprang to life, glowing soft and red. Tomoki moved quickly so that he was in between the light and the
Devidramon, and hoped that he could hide it from them while still attracting
the attention of the others.
It seemed to work, Tomoki felt his heart leap up into his
throat as they came closer, closer, until he could see their eyes! He waved, and Fairymon landed precariously
in the tree. Blitzmon continued to
hover, afraid of landing and then falling out of the tree.
“Tomoki! We’ve been
SO worried! Where have you been! Where’s Takuya, have you seen him?” She put the two digimon she had been holding
down and gave Tomoki a huge hug, Tomoki wasn’t sure if he should be happy or
embarrassed (he didn’t usually get hugs from scantily clothed female
digimon…). He settled on the former,
before realizing that Fairymon and Blitzmon had no idea that there was a
Devidramon sitting right behind them.
He swiveled around sharply, and found that he couldn’t see enough
through the tree’s foliage to tell if it was still there. Odds are that it was though.
“Fairymon, listen, there’s a big Devidramon sitting right
over there, and if it hears us, it’s gonna come out and squash us like
bugs! It’s guarding the place where
Takuya-oniisan and Kouji-san are! They
got caught by this mean, mean lady digimon, Lady Devimon. Takuya-oniisan dropped his digivice for me,
and I used it to signal you with!
See!” He held the digivice up,
but it had stopped glowing. Behind
them, Blitzmon was getting tired of hovering.
Fairymon sighed.
“Look, let’s go land a ways away and make a plan. We’ve got to do something, but sitting here
in this tree worrying about being caught isn’t helping. Blitzmon, can you carry him Tomoki please? I’ll take Bokomon and Neemon.” She picked them up and flew off before
disappearing down into the trees. Tomoki
was picked up (he got the feeling that he weighed nothing to Blitzmon), and
they flew after her.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Soooo… what’s life in the human world like?”
Kouji sighed. Could
they not just sit in silence?
“It’s pretty good.
The food’s great!” That was
Takuya all right. Kouji mentally rolled
his eyes. The human world had hundreds
of advantages over the digital one, and still the fist thing that came to
Takuya’s mind was food. “I like it here
too, but … I miss my family a lot. We
all do.” Now Takuya was getting
sentimental. Greeeeat. And it wasn’t even true either.
‘What do I have to miss?
I’m as well off here as I am at home.
At least there’s something for me to do here, a purpose of me to be
here.’ There didn’t seem to be one of
those at home. And then there was the
one other question that had been plaguing Kouji’s mind: if he didn’t get home,
would anyone care? What did he
have? A pseudo-life with his father,
moving from place to place so fast he hardly had time to find somewhere quiet
to go, being forever without a constant in his life. His father was hardly ever there, he was either at work or …
somewhere else. Never home. No mother to speak of, no relatives who
would consider visiting them (he did have an aunt, but he had only met her
once, and that had not been under the best of circumstances. She had left again with no thought given
towards him, and made it clear that she would not be returning).
Who would care if he didn’t go home, either because he
stayed here or because he… Well, no
need to be pessimistic now. But really,
who would? Kouji was startled to find
that four names immediately came to mind, the names of four children who he
knew nothing about, nothing more than their names, those of their digimon, and
what sort of clothing they wore. So why
did they take precedence in his thoughts over anything else? Kouji realized for the first time that the
only people he gave a care towards were the four whom he knew nothing
about.
Takuya was overly-energetic, with a normal family life and a
little brother whose birthday he had missed in coming to the digital world.
Tomoki was a frightened little boy trying to be brave while
missed his mother, and wished he saw his older sister more.
Izumi was a happy, optimistic girl who had moved home to
Japan after living in Italy, and parts of the odd language had followed her
home
Junpei liked Izumi, and wanted to be stronger to impress
her, while eating everything in sight at the same time. (That, thought Kouji, was one relationship
which was going no where at all).
He could string together one sentence about each of them in
his thoughts, but knew nothing else.
What did they fear, whom did they love (other than their parents, and in
Junpei’s case, Izumi), why where they here?
And why was he? Of all of them,
he was the most out of place. He was
the one that didn’t fit in with the others.
Was he here to keep an eye on them?
If that was the case, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
“Hey, Kouji! What do
you like to eat?” Takuya’s voice was
pitched to be both loud, and happy.
Takuya, for all his faults and impulsiveness, didn’t need too much
looking after. He gave out more than he
took in. He was the leader, the one who
made sure the others got along, and were all right.
“What are you rabbiting on about now, Takuya?” Kouji tried to put as much impatience and
annoyance into his voice as possible.
It did nothing to deter the other boy.
“Talkin’ about our favorite foods! What’s yours?” If he had
been able to, Takuya would probably have been bouncing up and down. As it was, he was seated on the ground
(Kouji supposed that he had learned something after all from his earlier
encounter with the low ceiling).
“Sushi.” Just pick a
simple food and have done with it.
“Colour?”
“What is this, twenty questions?” He was willing to answer one stupid question, if he thought it
would shut Takuya up, but he wasn’t going to sit there all day and do it.
“You wanna play twenty questions?”
“NO!”
The stranger in the cell sighed. Human children were very odd.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tomoki crept by the Devidramon, staying pushed up against
the wall as he had on his previous mission into the cave. But this time, he wouldn’t be coming out so
soon. He had a job to do. He had to get Takuya-oniisan’s digivice to
him, so that Takuya-oniisan could digivolve and get Kouji-san’s and his own
digivice, and then they could digivolve too, and together the five of
them would beat Lady Devimon and the Devidramon. At least, that was what Izumi-san and Junpei-san had said. They were waiting outside to digivolve and
take out that Devidramon. Tomoki wasn’t
so sure about this plan. Sure, getting
the digivice to Takuya-oniisan, and even getting their digivices would probably
be easy, but if the Devidramon had been able beat all the others to catch
Takuya-oniisan, wouldn’t they just do it again?
He had pointed this out, but Izumi-san had said that now
they would have the element of surprise, instead of the other way around, and
this time they would be more motivated.
Whatever that meant.
Further into the dark corridor Tomoki switched sides of the
wall, he wouldn’t want to have to do that in the lit chamber up ahead, since
the side he was now on was the side that contained the cell in which Kouji-san
was. He hopped that Takuya-oniisan
would be in there too, it would make things considerably simpler. The entrance to the corridor was in the
beginning of the areas touched by the light of Lady Devimon’s torches, and he
could see her, sitting in her chair, doing something to her nails with what
appeared to be a file. Fortunately, she
was very occupied in this activity, and she did not notice Tomoki slip through
the small lighted part of the cavern into the prison-corridor.
The corridor was as dark as he remembered it being, but the
last time he had been walking towards the light, so it had been easy to see
where he was going (or at least, nor run into walls), but now he had no idea
where anything was, and was afraid of running into the walls. He could hear, from the end of the corridor,
the sound of voices.
“Okay, I’m thinking of someone.”
“I refuse to play this childish game.”
“C’mon, we’re kids!”
“That is not an excuse.”
“Sure it is. I won’t
tell anyone.”
“Fine! But only
because you are more annoying when I don’t answer. Is it a man?”
Tomoki was paying too much attention to the conversation and
ended up walking smack-dab into the grate-thing and then rebounding off it to
sit down hard on the ground.
There was movement in the cage. Tomoki opened his eyes wide (he knew that the more light got into
the eyes, the more you could see, so it wouldn’t hurt to give them a little
help, right?) but still saw nothing.
The voice though, that he recognized.
“Who’s there? I’m
warnin’ you, we’ve had enough of your little visits to last a lifetime.” Takuya-oniisan was obviously not very
happy right now.
“Takuya-oniisan, it’s me!
Tomoki!”
“Tomoki?!” The tone of voice changed immediately. “What the hell are you doing in here? Get out of here, now!” The change was perhaps not for the better.
“I, I came to give you your digivice, Izumi-san and
Junpei-san told me to give it to you.”
Here both Takuya and Kouji broke in with a few choice words about the
other two older children, and Tomoki feared briefly for their safety, before
remembering the part about them.
“They’re waiting outside to attack the Devidramon guarding the
cave!” ‘We’re going to get out of
here! Why aren’t you happy, Takuya-oniisan?’
“What? Tell them to
get out of here! They’ll be killed!”
“Wait. This is your
only chance for escape. You must take
it. You must defeat the Devidramon, if
you want to get away.” Tomoki didn’t
recognize the voice, but there wasn’t time to wonder about it.
“Un! Izumi-san says
you have to spirit-evolve and get Kouji-san and my digivices, and then we can
evolve and beat the Devidramon and Lady Devimon!”
“Takuya, you should take the digivice and get out of
here. Get out of here, and take Tomoki
and the other two with you. This is the
stupidest plan I’ve ever heard, and somebody’s going to get killed if you
continue on with it.” Kouji-san didn’t
sound very good. Like he had a sore
throat, or something. Tomoki wasn’t
given time to ask though, because Takuya-oniisan broke in,
“We’ve already had this discussion, so no. But,” here, Tomoki heard him turn back
towards him (Tomoki), “Tomoki, if you go back and tell the others to go, to run
away and not worry about us, do you think they would?”
WHAT? “WHAT?” Tomoki’s mind and voice spoke together, “of
course not! They would never do
that! And even if they would, I
wouldn’t! So, don’t even think about
that, Takuya-oniisan! Either both of
you come with me, or none of us get out!”
How could Takuya-oniisan even think something like that, never
mind say it. He had been hanging out
with Kouji-san for too long. Kouji-san
was nice, but he wasn’t really a ‘team player’.
“All right then.
Tomoki, give me the digivice.
Look, this is what we’re going to do, because there’s nothing else we
can. I’m going to spirit evolve, break
down this damn gate, run out of this cave like a bat out of hell, and get Lady
Devimon to follow me. You, Tomoki, and
you, whoever you are, are going to take advantage of her absence to steal the
digivices, and the staff. Kouji is going
to stay here until whoever he is gets his staff and then he is going to come
back with Tomoki and heal him. Kouji
and Tomoki will then evolve and come out to fight the Devidramon. By that time I’ll probably be having some
problems with Lady Devimon, and you’re going to have to bail me out.” Tomoki felt that he was missing a big part
of this background to this conversation, but Takuya was plowing on ahead,
“after that, the five of us will have to deal with the Devidramon. Hopefully we can take out one, and by that
time Lady Devimon’ll be gone, and the other one will lose initiative and
leave. Got it?”
Tomoki pushed the digivice throw the gate and waited until
Takuya-oniisan grabbed it. When he did,
it lit up almost happily, showing the area around him in a reddish light. Tomoki could see Kouji lying on the floor of
the cell- what was wrong with him?- and the cape of something else, but it
moved backwards out of the light before he could do more than catch a glimpse
of it.
“Okay, here we go.
Tomoki, you had better stand away from the grate, it’s going
bye-bye.”
Tomoki moved away further down the cave and stood against
the wall. As soon as Takuya evolved
she’d probably hear it, so he’d have to get out of here fast before Lady
Devimon came and trapped him in the corridor.
“Spirit … EVOLUTION!”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oooo, cliffhanger!
I’m sorry. Boy, this story’s
just moving right along, eh? Thanks to
the reviewers, you’re really helping on that front! :) I feel kind of bad
that the problems got so out of hand that another character had to come in to
save the others. *sigh*. May this be a lesson to you, don’t give your
characters free-reign! They dig
themselves into deep problems, and then expect you to be able to fix them! But I think I got my revenge! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Sooo, is he alive?”
“Yep.”
“And he’s not fictional?”
“Nope.”
“So, he’s real, and alive, then?”
“Yes, that’s generally what alive and not fictional is taken
to mean.”
“And … it’s a man?”
“You don’t do this very often, do you Kouji?”
-----------------------------------------------------------------