Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Ethereal ❯ Transporter ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter XV

"That's enough for now, Takeru," remarked Wizardmon. He watched as the blond collapsed onto the ground, sweat dripping from the side of his face as he flung the sword away from him.

Wizardmon smiled ruefully and paced the garden wonderingly. It had been two days already since Takeru began his training and the young man was showing substantial talent in the art of swordsmanship. Wizardmon was astonished by this revelation and in his excitement, he had to admit, he was being harder on Takeru than normal. Piximon, on the other hand, urged him to push Takeru. The blond would need all the training he could get before the others arrived. Pathogen would not wait.

"Lunch time it is!" exclaimed Piximon suddenly from out of nowhere.

Takeru and Wizardmon looked up to see the flapping wings of the small digimon as he neared them, a floating tray of food behind him. He settled onto the grass comfortably and the tray landed beside him neatly. He picked up an apple and threw it to Takeru, who caught it automatically with his left hand. He cringed slightly as the motion caused a brief streak of pain in his arm. Piximon nodded happily.

"No pain, no game! It's a good thing you put that binding spell on Takeru's arm, Wizardmon!" he commented cheerfully as he bit into a watermelon. He spat out a seed and then looked at Takeru again. "How are you coming along?"

Takeru stared at Piximon. "Fine, I suppose," he answered quietly before bringing the apple to his lips slowly. "The pain hasn't exactly gotten any better but I guess you could say I'm starting to get used to it."

Piximon laughed jollily. "Ha, ha! Hurray for Takeru! You'll conquer the poison yet!" he cheered enthusiastically before spitting another seed. It landed beside the first seed Piximon had spat out and suddenly, flourished into a new plant with green leaves sprouting. Piximon smiled. "Self-growing garden, not a single work for me to do but drop the seeds!"

Wizardmon chuckled at this while Takeru stared incredulously at the plant.

"So what did you plan for the others, Wizardmon?"

"Well, I heard from Aero this morning they were heading towards the Glittering Lake," answered Wizardmon casually while Piximon laughed.

"Oh, they have some work ahead of them yet! This should be an excellent chance for Jyou to get in touch with his powers-Yamato, too, now that I think about it. Water and ice, you can't get a better combination than that and those two were a fierce pair," he remarked, closing his eyes thoughtfully.

Takeru looked at them in interest. "What awaits them at the lake?" he asked.

"Your normal, crazed digimon. We did manage to get Metal Seadramon and Piemon to provide some amusement, though. With those two I'm sure the Destined will get more than what they bargained for. And if they thought Snahhanmon was bad, well, these two are utterly insane," answered Wizardmon, with a glimmer in his eyes.

Takeru blinked. Wizardmon had mentioned Snahhanmon the day before and how he had kidnapped Sora. Originally he had been alarmed but when Piximon informed him that it was all a part of their plan, he relaxed. It was one of the few moments he was glad to be with Piximon and Wizardmon instead of the others. However, the training he was receiving here was more than exhausting. He could not even recall all the times they had to stop in order to rebind his arm whenever it began bleeding. Takeru cringed at the memory. It was an excruciating pain but slowly, somehow, he was beginning to ignore it. Once he drowned himself into fighting against Wizardmon's tricks and charms, he found that the pain was no longer apparent. That was the reason why he threw himself into the training. It helped numb the pain no matter the aftereffects.

"When do you think they'll arrive?" inquired Takeru softly. The pain in his arm was slowly coming back and he grew bitter at Wizardmon's spell that immobilized his other arm.

"Well…at the rate they're going now…maybe in another few days," answered Piximon, counting with his staff. "But with some of the tasks we planned out for them, I doubt that will be the case. Maybe by next week."

Takeru thought to himself and took another bite from the apple before spitting it out, coughing. "What? Piximon-!" he stuttered before the red digimon broke into fits of laughter.

"I'm sorry, Takeru, I couldn't resist! You seemed so tense and I wanted to break your concentration!" he exclaimed joyfully.

Takeru wiped his mouth with his sleeve but couldn't resist a small smile at Piximon's antics. He stared at the seemingly innocent apple. "Is it all right to eat now?" he asked warily.

Piximon nodded, smiling.

Takeru frowned and stood up, tossing the apple back to Piximon. "I'm not really hungry all of the sudden," he remarked coolly as he began walking away.

Though he had been there for a short while, he had already discovered every path and exit to Piximon's garden. Perhaps he would go to the Blue Room-a room in Piximon's house that was literally what its name said: blue. In there Takeru found complete and total isolation from the rest of the world and not to mention, it was great place to learn about oneself. He would spend hours in there after training, reliving parts of his memories that would replay themselves in the room, displayed across the walls and ceilings so that it was like Takeru was indeed living his memory. Piximon had said it was an excellent way of facing off against one's fears and insecurities.

But all it did to Takeru was remind him of the horrors of the psychiatric ward-yet one way or another, he always found himself back there. He was a slave to his memories. However, occasionally, a cheerful memory would come up-like when he and Yamato were still children, before the Digital World came and swept them away. More often than not, though, Takeru would face off against those doctors that treated him and the patients that elicited such feelings of pathos and grief from him. He hated the ward with all his might and he hated what it did to him.

"Oi, Takeru! What's up?"

Jostled out of his reverie, Takeru looked up to see a small orange-colored digimon making his way to him. The blond smiled sincerely. "Nothing much, Patamon. Just on my way to the Blue Room," he replied as the digimon landed on top of his head.

Patamon nestled into Takeru's hair comfortably. "Why? That room is scary. Come with me and Aero! We're going to the Oceanic Valley," he suggested, looking down at Takeru pleadingly. "Please? You promised you'd hang out with me!"

Takeru smiled slightly. "Well, I guess I have to then," he said simply as he began walking again. "Where is the Oceanic Valley anyway?"

Patamon instantly began flying ahead. "Come on! Follow me!" he cried out excitedly.

Takeru blinked and began to run to catch up with Patamon. He never knew the digimon to fly so quickly. As the scenery around him began to change, Takeru noted with some interest that he was now outside of Piximon's garden. The landscape was still a lush green, though a shade darker than what Piximon's garden would normally be. The sky also seemed more natural-a pale blue with small, fluffy white clouds drifting lazily in the wind. Wild flowers of all variety bloomed and tall trees decorated the area. Takeru stopped for a moment to gaze at the scenery before Patamon called him.

"Takeru! Over here!"

The blond looked ahead and saw Patamon flying over on top of a hill. He breathed in deeply and began running again. He pushed his way up the hill before he stopped at the top, taking in the sight before him.

"This is it?" he asked.

Patamon fluttered beside him and rested on top of his head. "Yup," he answered.

Somehow Takeru had imagined a bright valley filled with waterfalls and more greenery. But what greeted him was a lone and barren wasteland. There was water, yes, but it stretched below him in a grey and dark mass. The weather was also drastically different. It was cold and an icy chill ran up his spine. Takeru narrowed his eyes.

"What happened?" he questioned softly as he began walking down the hill, closer to the half-frozen water. There was a long and narrow bridge that stretched for miles on the bottom but other than that, there was nothing else.

Patamon looked at Takeru sadly. "Pathogen attacked here a while ago. It used to be bright and lots of digimon used to live here but now they're gone. Pathogen corrupted the data here. Nothing can exist," he said.

Takeru looked behind wonderingly and saw that there was no sign of Piximon's territory behind him. Instead, it was yet another empty landscape. He looked at Patamon confusedly. "Are we outside of Piximon's lands?" he inquired.

"Yup. Piximon's border stops right here. Not even Pathogen could find it. Gennai helped put up firewalls and secret codes to hide its presence," replied Patamon.

"Then how do we get back?"

"You simply walk back. Piximon has willed permission for you to access his domain," answered a new voice.

Takeru and Patamon looked up and saw Aero flying to them. He landed beside Takeru, who smiled at him.

"So why are we here?" he asked.

"Well, usually it's Daisuke's job to look for stray digimon in the places Pathogen has destroyed. The last area he was searching in was here so we decided to continue his search since he's with the other Destined right now. There could be some digimon who need our help!" exclaimed another voice.

Takeru turned around and saw Gomamon. He blinked in surprise. "So you're here too, Gomamon?" he questioned before looking at Aero and Patamon. "Exactly who else is joining us on this little quest?

"Don't worry, it's just us!" exclaimed Gomamon brightly. "Now are you ready or what? I saw some Thynnosmon over on the other end."

Patamon whimpered slightly. "We have to go across the bridge?" he whined.

Suddenly Aero glided upwards and forced Takeru onto his back, along with Patamon, who was clinging onto the blond's head.

Patamon laughed. "Hurray for you, Aero!" he cried out happily as they began flying. Gomamon followed in the icy water much to the amazement of Takeru.

The cold air rushed past them in a blur and Takeru felt tears at the corners of his eyes. He held on tightly to Aero's mane and leaned forward slightly to take in more of the scenery. It was similar to the Dark Plains but according to Piximon, that region had already been in that state even before Pathogen. Takeru frowned at the thought of Pathogen. He remembered vividly their last battle against him. It was not one of the memories that haunted him, but merely a memory that served as a constant reminder of why he was so estranged from the others today.

Pathogen resembled a human. In fact, he looked so much like a human that in the beginning, they were unsure of whether or not he was. How he came to be was a mystery at first but it was slowly unraveled before them. Pathogen was digimon and human. He was created in the real world by a group of scientists and engineers-people who were playing around with the theory of the Digital World because they didn't know any better. They had managed to acquire some digimon DNA when they ventured into the Digital World and thus, created an entirely new species in their laboratory. Half human, half digimon, he was codenamed Pathogen because the digimon they acquired the DNA from was viral. His human name, however, was Oikawa Yukio. But few knew this fact.

He was raised, more or less, as a normal child with strange abilities considering his digimon counterpart. The scientists that brought him to life created him as proof of another world existing with other living creatures. But once Yukio found out this little fact, he went haywire and suddenly began questioning his own existence and purpose. He lashed out against the scientists and escaped to the Digital World where he soon began to wreak havoc in the name of vengeance. Somehow he created the theory that he was meant to rule the Digital World and all its inhabitants and thus, began a tyranny. He changed his appearance to be more like a digimon and all chaos ensued.

In a strange way, Takeru felt himself relating to Yukio, or Pathogen, as the others preferred since there seemed to be no traces of humanity left in him. Of course, Takeru didn't feel the compelling need to conquer everything, but he did feel lost. The questioning of existence was not something new to him. Takeru closed his eyes. Don't get lost in this again, Takeru, his mind warned him. This was yet another issue he would often face in the Blue Room and something he never did quite overcome.

Takeru cursed bitterly to himself. After four years of being in a ward, it seemed they had driven him to insanity rather than sanity.

"Thynnosmon!"

"Wow, that's a lot of fish," remarked Patamon.

They landed on the edge of the bridge and Takeru got off from Aero's back. There were numerous fish digimon in the water, flapping about wildly, unable to contain their excitement.

"Yay! A savior at last!"

"Wait, you don't look like Daisuke!"

"Where's Daisuke?"

The Thynnosmon were a hyper group and Takeru found himself incapable of answering all their questions at once. However, when he explained to them what had happened to Daisuke, they immediately began protesting.

"No! Daisuke promised to come back for us!"

"We don't like blonds!"

Takeru found himself overwhelmed by the sudden hostility before Patamon hushed them all up.

"You all be quiet! You should be grateful for Takeru! He's one of the Destined, too! Daisuke's away on his training so therefore, Takeru's here to cover! You all understand?" the orange digimon barked.

The Thynnosmon were silenced and Takeru stared at Patamon in newfound respect.

"We still want Daisuke!"

"This Takeru is too scary!"

"He's not DAISUKE!"

Then the uproar began soon after. Takeru sighed while Patamon flew dejectedly to him.

"I tried," he said.

Takeru smiled. "I know. Thanks," he replied before turning to Gomamon, who was trying to calm the protesting Thynnosmon. "What do you want us to do?"

Gomamon looked up. "We have to get them out of here. There's little food here and Piximon said they were welcomed to stay at his garden. They can't make the trip themselves because the water's simply too cold for them," he replied.

"So we have to transport them," murmured Takeru.

There were numerous Thynnosmon, however, and they were spread on about over a wide area. Takeru found himself wondering how they would be able to transport them across the bridge and back to Piximon's garden.

"If Daisuke were here, he would have no trouble!"

"We want Daisuke! We want Daisuke!"

"Bring us Daisuke!"

The chanting was beginning to frustrate Takeru considerably before he finally glared at all of the Thynnosmon.

"Gather up and join your fins together," he ordered coldly.

The Thynnosmon looked frightened and did as Takeru told them to without a single thought. Patamon grinned at this.

"Gomamon, hold onto the first Thynnosmon and Aero, you hold onto him," continued Takeru.

Finally Takeru held onto Aero's mane and took a deep breath. Patamon looked down at him inquisitively.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

Takeru closed his eyes and clung tightly to Aero. "Pray," he murmured before a steady gust of wind formed around all of them.

The Thynnosmon were panicking but maintained a hold on each other as the winds picked up, forming a giant sphere with sparks of lightning flashing here and there. Gomamon looked at Takeru worriedly.

"You've done this before, right?" he asked.

"A couple of times," replied Takeru tightly as he focused on Piximon's garden. An image of the sea that was located on the far edge of his garden floated to surface and Takeru concentrated on that. "Here goes nothing."

And with one mighty gust, they all vanished into the air, leaving a faint trail of light and dust.

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TBC