| Chapter 5: Hero What does it mean? Clive lay on the soft green grass, staring up at the cloudless blue sky. How come I freaked out before, what was it all about? Who was that woman? The vision flashed across his eyes again, it sent a shiver down his spine. It looked so real; it must have some sort of meaning. It felt so real, the fire, the smoke. What was happening to him? He had been sent to some ‘alternate universe’ with a talking ghost, and he was seeing visions of burning villages. Despite the amount of times he tried to tell himself it was a dream, he was only fooling himself. This had to be real, he was sure it was real, he felt pain. Usually in his dreams he couldn’t feel pain, and things weren’t so vivid. He plucked a blade of grass and twirled it around in his fingers; it was real, just like everything else. Why did the gods do this to him? They sure must have something against him, playing with his life so. It wasn’t fair; his life had just been one bad thing after another, one disappointment after the other. Sometimes he just felt like breaking down and crying, but he couldn’t do that, that would just truly show how weak he was. Clive was pulled from his thoughts by a deafening scream, followed by a huge explosion. He was on his feet immediately. “What the hell was that?” He stared at the broken village. Smoke poured from the center of the town, he could already smell it. Images flashed across his vision once again. This time the charred rubble of a village, smoke still drifting up from it. The lumps of wood that had once held the houses together were still red from their fight with the fire that had consumed them. Clive roughly shook his head, keeping his sight locked on the spot where the smoke was coming from. A bright light erupted from that same spot and flew up into the sky, out of sight. Following that was another huge explosion. That was enough for him, he needed to see what was going on. He ran as fast as he could into the village. When he arrived at the spot the explosion was a huge bird like digimon met him, fighting a raging battle with a tall fiery man. “What the…” he stared in shock at the two battling digimon. “Clive!” Wraithmon appeared next to Clive’s head, looking about her frantically, “I’m so glad your alive!” She hugged his neck tightly, which was surprising seeming as she was a ghost. “Of course I’m alive!” He yelled, prying Wraithmon off himself, “What’s going on here?” A huge fireball went flying inches away from his head, slamming into the rubble behind him. He was blown off his feet and was sent flailing to the ground. “Guys I could use some help here!” The huge bird yelled, flying over the other kids heads. Davis stepped forward bravely. “We’re on it, right veemon?” Veemon stepped up next to Davis. “That’s right.” Davis pulled out a small laptop; similar to the one Cody had used to identify Wraithmon. “Digiarmor energize!” He yelled. An intense white light surrounded Veemon. Clive couldn’t really see much of what happened to the small dragon. He could only hear the words, ‘Veemon armor digivolve too…’ Once the light had faded a bigger armor clad dragon like digimon stood in his place. It instantaneously launched itself at the fire man with surprising speed. All Clive could see was a blur of blue and red; but then again, his head had been hit pretty hard when he took that tumble. “Well I’m not just gonna stand around, lets go Armadillomon.” Cody pulled out his D3 and Armadillomon underwent the same process as Veemon. Now standing where Armadillomon had once been was a large bug looking digimon that looked like it worked at the dentist. It had all these big drills poking from everywhere, even from it’s nose. “Digmon, the drill of power.” Clive was shocked, all he could do was stare as TK’s and Kari’s digimon changed into two beautiful angels. “What, How do they do that?” Clive asked, completely ignorant of the fight with Meramon, just staring in awe at the angels. “Its called digivolving Clive. I could do it too, but I’m too inexperienced.” Wraithmon explained to Clive, trying to get his attention. “Do you change into an angel?” He asked not taking his eyes off Angewomon, “Especially one as pretty as her?” “Well I don’t know… I don’t think so…” Wraithmon trailed off, glancing at Clive who seemed to be mesmerized by Angewomon’s grace and style. She could obviously never meet up to her standards. ** “Iris!” Polarmon shouted over the sounds of battle, “We need to help them, they’re losing!” Polarmon was right, that meramon was single-handedly beating the five digimon. Iris pondered the situation in whatever spare thinking time she had. A huge fireball flew directly at Angemon sending him flying towards Iris. She quickly jumped out of the way, just in time as he went slamming into a half-standing hut, and shrunk back into Patamon. TK was instantly at his side, trying to get him to move. Why was this meramon so strong? Usually Polarmon could beat up a meramon by herself. Meramon shot another fireball; this time aimed at Hawkmon. He was sent spiraling to the ground, changing back into Poromon as he fell. Yolie ran over to his aid. “That’s it!” Davis yelled, at Flamedramon, “The only was to win is to fight fire with fire!” Iris glanced at Davis, then back to the fight. Digmon was hit head on by fiery punch. He instantly changed back into Oopamon. “I’m sorry Cody, I wasn’t strong enough.” He coughed, before falling limp in Cody’s arms. The only two left standing were Angewomon and Flamedramon, but not for long. Meramon’s next attack was aimed straight at Angewomon. She was blasted out of the sky by a huge fireball, but not before she could get one last celestial arrow in. it hit the meramon in the chest, running right through it. It screamed in pain and clutched the spot on its chest where the arrow had hit. This gave Flamedramon a clear shot. He took this opportunity and slammed the Meramon in the face. it went flying into the rubble of the town, causing old smoke and bits of charred wood to go flying about. He was lost from sight for a moment, but as the smoke cleared its outline stood out. “Damn!” Davis yelled, “Why didn’t it die!?” Iris glanced at Flamedramon; he looked in pretty bad shape. The fight must’ve taken a lot out of him, he was half standing, half bending over; and was clutching his sides, panting. “Davis!” Iris yelled running over to him, “Davis call Flamedramon back!” Davis stared at her for a moment then glanced over to where Flamedramon was. He looked almost about ready to keel over at any second. “Flamedramon!” Davis called, “Flamedramon get out of there!” Flamedramon glanced back at Davis. His eyes hardened and he stood up straight, ignoring the blood that seeped out of the many cuts on his body. “Don’t worry Davis, I’m fine.” He yelled back. Flamedramon stared at the imposing figure of the Meramon. There was something different about this meramon that he had noticed, but in his pain, he had forgotten. The smoke cleared around the figure, revealing a perfectly intact Meramon. Flamedramon stepped back in shock, how was it possible for it to still be alive, and in perfect shape? That last blast Flamedramon had given it had been the biggest attack he could issue, it had taken everything out of him. Yet there it stood, completely unfazed by the effort the digimon had given to kill it. Then it struck him. Its eyes, they were different. They were deep purple, almost black in color, and they seemed to emit a disturbing glow. They weren’t natural. That must’ve been the work of Witchmon. “Davis!” Flamedramon called over his shoulders, remembering to keep his eyes on the Meramon in case it decided to attack while he wasn’t looking, “look at its eyes!” “Huh?” Davis grunted back, “Who’s got pies?” “It’s eyes!” He yelled. That was all he could get in before the Meramon charged forward. The force of the attack was more than Flamedramon could take. It pushed him back against a nearby tree, forcing the air out of his lungs. Flamedramon stared into its eyes, his own blurred from his fatigue. He stared deep into the black pits, searching. A shiver involuntary ran down his spine as he stared deeper into its eyes. Then it hit him like an anvil; images appeared from inside its eyes. Images of burning villages, of little pumpkinmon children. One stood out the most though, one of a small pumpkinmon child, holding onto another pumpkinmon. He appeared to be crying, obviously whomever it was he was holding was dead. He then stood up and walked in the other direction. A sharp pain in his ribs abruptly cut off the vision. The Meramon punched Flamedramon in the stomach again, sending him flying through the tree and to the ground. He de-digivolved back into Veemon. Even though he tried to stop it he was just too weak to fight or even put up any defense. Davis was instantly at his side, “You did good buddy,” He said picking Veemon up in his arms, “But I told you to get out of there while you could, I don’t want to say this but, I told you so.” “But what are we gonna do about that Meramon, the others are too hurt to fight.” “Wrong!” Davis exclaimed. He nodded his head towards where Veemon had just been fighting the Meramon. There, Megapolarmon was fighting one on one with the meramon. “What a woman.” Veemon mumbled before fainting in Davis’ arms. Polarmon!” Iris yelled, “Give it all you got!” “Alright Iris but I’m gonna need some help!” She yelled back, jumping lithely out of the way of one of Meramon’s attacks. “Don’t be silly, How many times have you fought Meramon?” “But this meramon is different!” She yelled, “It’s stronger!” “She’s right.” Davis butted in, “Look at its eyes.” Iris stared at him for a moment, then shifted her attention to the Meramon. Its eyes were ablaze with a black fire. They didn’t show any signs of life, just an inexplicable evil. She stared at them till the Meramon jumped out of her view. A shiver ran up her spine, warning her of something. “Let me fight too!” Wraithmon yelled floating up next to Iris. “No way!” Clive yelled running after her, “You saw what that thing did to the others!” “I don’t care, I’m going in.” Clive went to grab hold of her but she disappeared from view, then reappeared in front of the Meramon. “Wraithmon you idiot!” Clive yelled running over to her. “No Clive don’t!” Iris yelled. It was too late; the Meramon had spotted him. It acted quickly, sending a huge fireball in Clive’s direction. “No, Clive watch out!” Wraithmon yelled jumping in front of Clive, trying in vain to take the attack for him. Clive’s digivice started to emit a bright orange glow. Wraithmon was surrounded by the warm glow, making her feel stronger. She felt her power building up inside of her, ready to unleash itself any minuet. “Wraithmon digivolve to…” She started, not even knowing why she said that. The orange glow quickly became a bright white light, surrounding Wraithmon and Clive. Time seemed to stop as Wraithmon underwent her digivolving process. The light faded to a mere yellowish glow surrounding whatever Wraithmon had become. “Bakemon.” She finished proudly. She was instantly in action, stopping the ball of fire from reaching Clive. She set up a purple barrier around them both, meant to prevent magic attacks, but it worked effectively. The fireball harmlessly bounced off the magic barrier and flew into the surrounding rubble. “Are you okay Clive?” Bakemon asked, “You’re not hurt are you?” Clive stared at Bakemon in horror; his face literally depicted disgust and loathing. “What happened to you?” He asked, backing slowly away from her. “What are you talking about Clive?” She floated closer to him. He recoiled in fear, trying to make as much distance between the two as possible. “You’re, You’re…” “No time for idle banter Clive we gotta get out of here!” Iris grabbed Clive’s arm and hauled him to his feet. They ran away from the battling digimon and to the safety of the rubble. “Wraithmon?” Clive asked still in a daze, “What happened to her?” “She digivolved idiot!” Yolie replied stroking Hawkmon’s feathers. “She’s ugly.” He said staring at her. “That doesn’t matter.” Cody butted in, “She’s risking her life for you out there and all you can say is she’s ugly?” Clive snapped out of his daze and stared at Cody. “You’re right…” He trailed off turning his attention towards the raging battle going on before him. Bakemon was busy setting up magic barriers around the two digimon, while Megapolarmon was blasting Meramon with her ice attacks. They seemed to be doing a good job of beating it, well better than the before digimon. But Bakemon was obviously getting tired, as was Megapolarmon. Clive didn’t know how long either of them could keep up their attacks. The Meramon on the other hand was copping quite a beating, and was evidently getting tired of shooting attacks at the magic barrier. Its eyes had noticeably toned down a shade or two of black and were purpler now than before. It was also losing its strength, making its attacks weaker, but still effective. “Let me fight too!” Clive heard Flamon whine. He glanced over to the energetic little ball of feathers. It bounced up and down in front of Melodye. She was staring at it, her eyes following its movements. “I said before, I don’t want you going out there and getting yourself hurt. You’re too small to fight.” She replied sternly. “Ohh but please, “ It begged in it’s high pitched voice, “The other digimon get to fight, why can’t I?” “Yeah the other digimon fought, and look at what happened to them.” Melodye pointed out, motioning to the group. Flamon stopped bouncing and glanced about itself, beholding the injured digimon. Her eyes filled up with tears as she looked back at Melodye. “You’re right, I just wanted to show you that I can fight just as good as any other digimon, just because I’m small doesn’t mean I’m incompetent.” She hopped away from Melodye and away from the rest of the group. Melodye went to follow her but Patamon stopped her. “Let me handle it.” He said sympathetically, “I had the same problem.” He flew over to Flamon and set himself down next to her. “Flamon?” He put one of his paws where he suspected her shoulder would have been; had she not been a ball, “Are you alright?” “I’m fine.” She sniffled in reply, “Just leave me alone.” “Flamon I know what you’re going through, I had the same problem when I first tried to digivolve. All the other digimon were digivolving to their champion stages, but I just couldn’t.” He waited for Flamon to reply, but she said nothing, “I just want to tell you, it’s not the end of the world. Remember all things come with time.” He stared at her back for a moment longer. Deciding she wasn’t going to say anything her turned to go. “Thank you Patamon.” She whispered. He smiled to himself as he left her sitting in the corner. ** “Polarmon doesn’t look to good, I don’t know how long she can stay fighting.” Iris said viewing the fight with apprehension, “She’s running out of energy, she won’t be able to attack soon.” “Don’t worry about it, “ Davis comforted her, “You gotta believe in your digimon, if you don’t have faith they wont be able to fight.” Iris looked over at Davis gratefully. “You’re right, but I don’t think Bakemon can keep those barriers up for much longer, and if they fall then the fight will be over.” “I hate to say it but you’re right,” Kari observed as Meramon shot another blast of fire at Megapolarmon. The barrier blocked some of it but the blast still affected her, showing the barriers were fading. Megapolarmon countered the attack with one of her own. “Icicle cannon!” She roared as a huge sharp icicle shot out of her mouth, slamming hard into the Meramon's chest. It stumbled back, but quickly regained its composure. This time it tried launching an attack at Bakemon, but Megapolarmon intercepted the attack, taking it head on. That was all the barriers could take, they were disintegrated, and Megapolarmon was sent flying to the ground. “Oh no!” Iris shouted. She was tempted to run out and comfort Megapolarmon but she knew she’d only be in the way if she did. Megapolarmon slowly pulled itself to its feet, stumbling slightly. The Meramon seemed to be in equally as much pain as she was, but it refused to give in. It ran forward, it’s fist pulled back in an attacking position. It was too late for Megapolarmon to act. She didn’t have enough time to jump out of the way, or the energy to charge up her cannon. She knew this was surly the end, she was unable to protect Iris or the digiworld so she deserved to die. She stared at Meramon's eyes, looking deep into the purple oblivion. She couldn’t detect any life in this monster at all. It didn’t have a soul. How it was keeping itself alive was beyond her, as was its motivation for trying to kill them. As the impending attack drew closer everything seemed to be in slow motion. She could hear her heat pounding in her ears, could hear her heavy breathing all around her. Her short life flashed before her eyes. All the moments her and Iris had shared, all the battles she had fought, all the things she had experienced came together in one big collage of memories that lasted only a second. She closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow to be issued, but it never came. She waited crouched down in the dirt and rubble, but she felt no pain, nothing hit her, nothing happened. She lifted her eyes up, expecting to meet those lifeless purple pits that had replaced her enemy’s eyes, but all she saw was the burnt rubble of the once thriving pumpkinmon town. She could hear the sounds of battle not too far away from her. She glanced around the battlefield, searching for her savior. She caught sight of the Meramon; it was being furiously pounded by something. She looked closer, trying to catch a glimpse of, whatever it was beating into her enemy. It was moving so fast, but she managed to see what it was. A huge bug looking digimon was pounding relentlessly into the huge fire like man. What was it? How did it get here? Where did it come from? Why did it save her? These were a few of the questions that were going through Megapolarmon’s head at that moment. Only a few seconds ago she was fearing for her very life, and now… “Are you alright?” She heard Iris voice next to her. She glanced over to her partner, smiling slightly. “I’m fine.” She sighed and lay her head in her paws. She could feel the de-digivolving process go through as she changed back to Polarmon, “Just a little tired.” She whispered. “C’mon.” Iris helped Polarmon to her feet and they walked over to the rest of the group. ** “Stingmon you can do it!” Ken yelled to his digi partner. Stingmon glanced back at Ken and gave him an appeciative smile. He quickly turned his attention to the wounded Meramon; it was considerably slow as Stingmon weaved circles around it. It tried in vain to follow his movements, but it only managed to stumble dizzily to the ground. “That’s it, now finish it off!” Ken yelled from the sidelines. Stingmon instantly launched the finishing attack. It hit the meramon head on blasting it into the rubble. It lay there for a few moments, its purple eyes fading back into its natural red. It stared hauntingly into Stingmon’s eyes before giving in. It started, from its feet to slowly dissolve into data then flying into the sky and disappearing. “Ken!” Yolie yelled scrambling over rubble and logs to get to him, “We were all so worried about you!” Ken refused to look at her, keeping his eyes to the ground. He turned towards his digimon, who had transformed back into Wormmon. “What’s the matter Ken?” She asked placing her hand on his shoulder, “Are you okay?” “I’m fine,” He whispered in reply, “just leave me alone.” “Ken…” Wormmon started crawling over to Ken’s feet, “Don’t you think you should tell them?” Ken sighed and looked down at Wormmon, Wormmon just looked up at Ken expectantly. “Alright.” He sighed, “Why don’t you all gather round to hear my tale.” He spat seeing the group crowding around him. “Ken…” Wormmon said looking up at Ken once again. “Alright, I-I just I saw what happened to this village and I remembered what I did… as the digimon emperor.” He stopped for a moment, trying to hold back the tears that burned his eyes. “But Ken, that’s all in the past.” Kari said standing face to face with him, “You have to realize that what you did has past and there’s no way of going back and changing it.” “Yeah,” Davis chimed in, “didn’t we already go through this, we forgive you for what you did now get over it.” “it’s not that simple. Whenever I see things like…this I think back to all the pain and suffering I caused.” “Ken we gave you another chance, what else do you want?” Davis replied. “You wouldn’t understand! My hands, they caused so much pain…” “Ken…” TK started walking over closer to him, “If you’re going to live in the past we might as well leave you here to sulk. The thing you have to realize is you can’t do anything about those digimon you hurt, or killed.” Ken noticeably tensed at the thought; his shoulders started to shake with sobs. “TK.” Yolie scalded, glaring at him. “Yolie if Ken want’s to stop living in the past and come to his senses about the whole thing then he’s gonna have to listen to me. Now as I was saying, if you want a chance to make up for what you did then you have to come to terms that you did kill many digimon in your anger. And the only way to fix that is to stop the killing that is going on right now, or more digimon are gonna end up like your victims.” Ken’s shoulders were shaking violently with sobs; he lifted his head to look TK in the eyes. TK stared into his bright blue eyes as if he were staring right into his soul. “I know that, it’s just so hard.” “Ken we’ve all killed digimon in the past, you think being a digidestined is easy?” Davis reminded him. “He’s right, in order to preserve the peace we had to make some sacrifices, and that meant killing digimon. good and bad.” Kari said helpfully. “It’s different. You all killed for a reason, I just did it because I was a heartless fool.” “It’s okay Ken.” Wormmon pulled at the bottom of Ken’s pants, “Remember what I said, if you just be the sweet kind Ken that we all love, then you don’t need to ask for forgiveness, because we’ve already forgiven you.” “That’s right Ken, don’t worry about it, it’s all in the past.” Cody stepped up to Ken and looked him in the eye; “I forgive you for what you did.” “Yeah we all do.” Davis said, speaking for the whole group. Ken’s sobbing increased, his hands coming up to cover his face. “Thank you everyone.” He mumbled between hiccups. “What’s up with him?” Melodye whispered into Iris’ ear. “I’m not really sure, Davis told me he went all crazy and tried to destroy the digiworld or something like that, and now he’s good again and he’s trying to repent for what he did.” “Ohh.” Melodye said nodding her head, “I get it.” “What’s going on over here?” Clive asked loudly, a small ghost digimon lying limply in his arms. “Shh,” Melodye shushed him, motioning over to the sobbing form of Ken, “It’s a kind of emotional moment.” “Someone wanna fill me in?” He asked in a quieter tone. “Not now,” Melodye whispered back, “What happened to Wraithmon?” “She’s tired, and I think she’s pretty badly hurt.” He looked down at the limped form in his arms; “She changed again.” “That’s strange, Flamon’s never changed, but here are all these digimon who can just digivolve at will, it’s quite mind boggling.” Clive just shrugged and continued staring at his injured digimon. “Umm does anyone know how to heal a ghost?” He asked. Everyone’s heads turned towards Clive. They all stared on in confusion; Ken glanced up at Clive, his tear-stained eyes shimmering in the light. “Here…” He stood up and walked over to the maimed digimon, wiping his eyes and nose with a sniffling sound, “I think I know what to do…” He picked up the small ghost and held her gently in his arms. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were searching for something inside of her. He quickly snapped them open. “Clive, give me your digivice.” He ordered. Clive instantly had his digivice out and handed it to Ken who snatched it up. He gently laid her down on the ground, and held the digivice just over her head. It started to glow a healing golden light, as did the small ghost. The light completely engulfed the small digimon, blinding the group as they watched on. As it started to fade it revealed Yuriemon, floating inches from the ground. “Wraithmon?” Clive asked in confusion, and happiness. “Yuriemon,” She answered, “It’s Yuriemon now Clive.” “You mean you changed again, just like when you changed into…” He trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.” “Yuriemon.” Yolie started, breaking the silence, “The in-training form of Wraithmon, her special attack is ghastly breath.” Clive stared at her for a moment more before mumbling something and glancing back at Yuriemon. “Umm guys, I really think we should be going now.” Davis pointed out, staring out over the horizon, “The sun’s going down.” “You’re right, lets get out of here before any more digimon decide to attack.” Yolie agreed stalking past the group to the edge of the town. The rest of the group followed her and they were soon out of the town. “Hey umm Davis…” Iris asked jogging to catch up with Davis, “How long do you think it’ll take for us to get back, I mean by the time we get to that TV the sun will already have gone down.” Davis glanced at her’ “Hmm, your right, oh well it wont be that much after dark…” He trailed off his attention swaying to something in the bushes to their left, “or we could just use that one.” He pushed the bushes aside and alerted the rest of the group. “Nice going Davis, I so didn’t want to go through that smelly cave. No offence Yuriemon.” Yolie pushed her way through the group so she could get close to the TV. She immediately pulled out her Digivice and held it out in front of her. “Digiport open!” She yelled. The other children followed and they were soon back in the real world. “Ah get off me!” Yolie yelled trying to push the pile of people off her. “What a horrible dream.” Clive said jumping off the group and sitting on a nearby chair. “Clive this isn’t a dream.” Yuriemon insisted. “Oh great she followed me home. How am I supposed to explain this to mom?” “Clive that’s not very nice.” Kari said walking over to comfort the little ghost. “It doesn’t matter, none of this is real anyway.” “It’s thinking like that, that can get you into trouble.” Ken said walking over next to Clive, “I used to think that digimon weren’t real, but then I learned they’re not just data on a computer, they’re real.” Clive stared at Ken in confusion. “What are you talking about?” Clive stood up and started walking to the door; ”You’re all crazy!” He stormed out leaving a confused group of teenagers in his wake. “Well that was weird.” Davis said staring at the door. “Clive wait for me.” Yuriemon floated out the door after her master. “Poor guy.” |