Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadow War ❯ Chapter 3
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: moose_of_doom 
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 242 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 242 | Status: Completed
Chapter 3:
********
Tasha Konicha picked at her plate, sighed, and turned back to the stack of papers on her desk.
Desk was actually the wrong word. It was more a scene of controlled chaos than anything else. Since she, Matt and Tai had started sorting out the stocks of supplies in Coast Town; she had immersed herself in the practical side of things only to find that the amount of paperwork had increased in direct proportion to the amount of time she spent sorting out the warehouses.
And so, snarling at a grinning Tai not to comment, she had gone to her desk, and started wading through the lists of food, drink and other supplies. Honestly, how much toilet paper could one town need?
‘But then, it is a town preparing for a siege.’
Salamandramon hopped up on the chair beside her, and looked at the stacks.
“Wow.” The little lizard-Digimon said.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Do you try to create this much mess, or does it just come naturally?”
Tasha glanced at the desk, which in all possibility could cover up experiments in chemical warfare, and glared at Salamandramon again.
“Shut… up.”
“Are you busy?”
She looked up suddenly at the sound of the familiar voice, and smiled.
Takeru Takaishi stood framed in the doorway, grinning in at her. She smiled back, then glanced at her desk.
“Busy. Me? Nah.”
He laughed, and came in. then he looked at her desk himself.
“Hey, I think some missing Digimon might be hiding in there.”
“SHUT… UP!”
TK smiled again. Tasha glared at him.
“So when did you get back in?”
“About an hour ago. Being the romantics we are, Davis immediately went in search of Kari, and I came looking for you.”
“it’s nice to be appreciated.”
“That and I was gonna help you with the paper work. Davis’s orders. In fact, he told me to do this.”
He picked up a stack of paper, and dumped it into the large trashcan.
“What?”
“We don’t need the lists. Davis is confident in your ability to manage the warehouses.”
“Great. Suits me fine.”
He grinned at her, and then leaned over and kissed her. When the finally broke apart, she grinned.
“Took ya long enough.”
“I missed you.”
“You’ll miss me even more once the siege starts. We’ll both be busy…”
“Not THAT busy.”
=====================================================================
Davis didn’t find Kari. Instead, he found himself standing on the walls, not far from where Tai and Matt had stood the day before, looking down onto the meadow beneath. For not the first time, he found himself questioning his own judgement. What if he wasn’t the leader that he wanted – no, HAD to be? if he failed here, then all he was had come to nothing.
Suddenly, he found himself wishing that he could talk to Gennai. The ancient guardian of the digital world had been the one who introduced Davis to the power of the Paladin. He had trained him, so that he could rescue Kari. After the battle with Paul, his uncle, Davis had gone back to that small house in the mountains, but Gennai had been gone, and the house had stood deserted. And so Davis was alone.
“Oh, stop being so miserable.”
Veemon turned round, looking at Davis in annoyance.
“Honestly, anyone would think that your gonna die tomorrow. Get a grip on yourself.”
Davis glared down at him.
“Maybe I will die tomorrow.”
“But you never know.”
He jumped as Kari spoke close to his ear. He looked round at her, and glared at the smirk on her face.
“You know, it’s a good thing there’s no ceiling out here, otherwise we’d be scraping you off it.”
He tried to keep the glare on his face, but failed. Instead, he burst into a grin.
“Well, thankyou for breaking up MY miserable mood.”
“He needed it.” Said Veemon. Right before Davis knocked him back off the wall.
The Paladin put his arms around Kari’s shoulders, and held her close. His eyes drifted back to the meadow
“So. What’s wrong?”
He glanced at her.
“In short, I’m scared, Kari. I don’t know if I have what it takes to do this. I don’t know if we’ll win.”
“Davis, I once told you that we never know what the future holds. We wont know what will happen until we’re down there, fighting that battle.”
She wrapped her arms around him.
“But we will win. So long as we’ve got you, we’ll win.”
=====================================================================
Liam Dillon had left Mimi and Michael alone shortly after their meeting. Hell, he hadn’t been contributing much to the conversation anyway. He lay on the camp bed in his tent, unable to sleep, just staring up at the ceiling.
He sighed. Sometimes he missed running his pub. The little place he had founded in Odaiba with the severance money he had received from the NIDF had been enough to keep that little piece of Ireland, even in Japan. And he always had that piece with him. He fingered the small cross that hung on its chain around his neck. Why was he still fighting, after all this time. When he had left the NIDF, he had sworn to himself that he would never carry a gun again. But here he was, with a rifle lying at the side of his bed and his silenced Beretta in its holster at the small of his back. When Kari had been kidnapped by Paul, Davis’s uncle, he had once again picked up the pistol, and carried it into battle. For what was right.
He laughed quietly at that. When had he ever done anything right? All he had done was killing; so many times that he couldn’t even count anymore. Because when it boiled down to it, Liam Dillon was a warrior. He fought because he was good at it, and it was a part of his nature. He could kill at a drop of a hat if necessary.
So why did one girl have so much power over him? Mimi was… special. He couldn’t think of any other way to describe her. She made him feel like he had done something right for a change.
And now this Michael lad had turned up on the scene, and everything Liam felt was thrown into confusion. Why had he felt such a spike of Jealousy when Mimi had hugged the blonde boy? He didn’t understand it. He was a man who lived his life from day to day, and he had never complained.
His reverie was shattered in a single instant.
=====================================================================
The sentry at the Digidestined camp was as alert as he always was. All of Liam’s troops knew that a sentry who was distracted was a recipe for disaster, so they always kept their attention razor sharp.
And so it was that the Digidestined and troopers inside had a warning when the first Shadowmon lurched out of the gloom. As the trooper, whose name was Sean Riley, saw the first of the Malformed shapes in the large searchlight, he raised his rifle to his shoulder, and kicked away the support that held the alarm bell up. The bell’s ringing was loud enough to wake the whole camp, and as Riley fired his first shot, troopers and Digidestined were already running to his aid.
Riley’s rounds felled several of the creatures, sending them tumbling headlong into the grass that lay around the camp, but there were far more Shadowmon here than the standard twelve to twenty that the troopers had been fighting.
=====================================================================
Michael and Mimi had still been engrossed in deep conversation when the alarm bell had started to ring.
“So, what have you been up to?” the pink-haired girl asked.
“The usual. Uni, partying, you know, all that stuff.”
Mimi smiled grimly.
“No, I don’t. I haven’t been to a real party for nearly six months.”
Michael raised an eyebrow.
“I guess fighting a war doesn’t really do wonders for your social life. How bad has it been?”
“Bad. Liam and his troopers have been fighting day in, day out. And now we have to reach coast town in one piece. Once there… who knows?”
“It sounds bad. Who is this Liam guy, anyway?”
Mimi grinned.
“He’s a soldier. He’s been fighting for us since Paul kidnapped Kari last year. But you weren’t here for that, were you?”
“No. They didn’t come after many USA Digidestined. The place is too well defended.”
“hmm.”
“Why did you go away and fight? You didn’t have to.”
“Michael! These people are my friends, and some of the closest family I ever have!”
He grinned.
“I know. But I missed you anyway.”
She smiled right back at him, her dyed pink hair framing her face.
“Thank you. I missed you too.”
They were leaning close together. Almost close enough too…
The alarm bell cut off anything that might have happened. They looked up, and as Sora raced from the kitchen, the three of them were dashing for the entrance of the tent.
=====================================================================
The four of them stepped out into the middle of a battlefield. Shadowmon were running wild, as the Digidestined and troopers fell back behind them. Mimi, Sora and Michael were caught in the middle of the tide. They could see the line of troopers, shields shining in the glare of the lights. They were at least a hundred yards away.
To the three Digidestined, it might has well have been a hundred miles. The Shadowmon were running towards them, blades bared, when something like a image of ages past burst from the battle line.
Liam Dillon ran, his sword shining in the dull light. As Mimi, Sora and Michael reached him, he swung the large blade in an arc, neatly slicing into the lead Shadowmon.
The big Irishman pulled the blade free, swinging round, bringing up his pistol as he went. Pulling the trigger, he sent a volley of bullets at the advancing creatures, blasting them back.
“RUN!” he shouted, his Ulster accent even clearer than usual.
The four of them dashed for the battle-line, running for their lives ahead of the tide of Shadowmon.
Liam stumbled on the craggy ground, falling headlong, his pistol flying from his grip. He heard Mimi’s scream, and swung his sword round in a desperate parry, stopping the wickedly curved blade that had been aimed at his neck. He wouldn’t have time to parry the backswing…
The Shadowmon fell back, as bullets punched into its torso. As Liam got to his feet, Michael lowered the silenced Beretta. The four turned again, and ran for the line, as the troopers fired covering shot’s past them. As they stumbled through the shield-wall, Liam looked back once, at the hill that crested the camp.
A figure was there, silhouetted against the full moon. Even at the distance, Liam could make out the stooped, malformed shape of a Shadowmon. But the creature it was sitting on was unlike anything he had ever seen. As he watched the thing reared up, and the mounted Shadowmon waved its sword high in the air. The rest of the Shadowmon turned, retreating into the darkness. The big Irishman could only ponder what he had just seen.
Finally, he turned away from the sight, as the battle line, sensing that the fight was over, slowly drifted apart, warily, cautiously.
Mimi was standing with Michael, and beaming at him intensely, with a pride on her face that Liam had never seen before. The spike of Jealousy spiked through his stomach again, but he forced himself to walk over to them. They turned to face him.
“Nice shooting. I’ll take that now.” He indicated the Beretta.
Michael looked down, as if seeing the gun for the first time.
“Yeah.”
He safed the pistol, and handed it to the Irishman, who slipped the weapon back into it’s holster. Liam smiled slightly.
“It was a brave thing you did. You have my thanks.”
Mimi’s smile broadened.
“It was brave, wasn’t it?”
She turned to look at him, and her smile was more thoughtful, a trace of irony creeping into it.
“Mind you, you weren’t so bad yourself, Mr Dillon.”
“All part of the job, girl dear. I suggest you all get packed. I’m moving us out tonight. We should reach coast town before morning.”
He turned and walked away, sliding his blooded sword into the scabbard as he went. Mimi stared after him, and Michael looked at her, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“There is something about him, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.”
She sighed.
“But I’m damned if I know what it is.”
=============================================================
The huge red eye in the cave is joined by others now. Although they glow with some inner, dark radiance, they do not cast enough light to show the cavern in which the rest. All that can be seen is the hint of scales, and the rustling of huge wings.
Twelve sets of huge eyes can be seen in the darkness.
And then there is the sound of huge claws, scrabbling at stone.
Digging a way out…
=============================================================
********
Tasha Konicha picked at her plate, sighed, and turned back to the stack of papers on her desk.
Desk was actually the wrong word. It was more a scene of controlled chaos than anything else. Since she, Matt and Tai had started sorting out the stocks of supplies in Coast Town; she had immersed herself in the practical side of things only to find that the amount of paperwork had increased in direct proportion to the amount of time she spent sorting out the warehouses.
And so, snarling at a grinning Tai not to comment, she had gone to her desk, and started wading through the lists of food, drink and other supplies. Honestly, how much toilet paper could one town need?
‘But then, it is a town preparing for a siege.’
Salamandramon hopped up on the chair beside her, and looked at the stacks.
“Wow.” The little lizard-Digimon said.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Do you try to create this much mess, or does it just come naturally?”
Tasha glanced at the desk, which in all possibility could cover up experiments in chemical warfare, and glared at Salamandramon again.
“Shut… up.”
“Are you busy?”
She looked up suddenly at the sound of the familiar voice, and smiled.
Takeru Takaishi stood framed in the doorway, grinning in at her. She smiled back, then glanced at her desk.
“Busy. Me? Nah.”
He laughed, and came in. then he looked at her desk himself.
“Hey, I think some missing Digimon might be hiding in there.”
“SHUT… UP!”
TK smiled again. Tasha glared at him.
“So when did you get back in?”
“About an hour ago. Being the romantics we are, Davis immediately went in search of Kari, and I came looking for you.”
“it’s nice to be appreciated.”
“That and I was gonna help you with the paper work. Davis’s orders. In fact, he told me to do this.”
He picked up a stack of paper, and dumped it into the large trashcan.
“What?”
“We don’t need the lists. Davis is confident in your ability to manage the warehouses.”
“Great. Suits me fine.”
He grinned at her, and then leaned over and kissed her. When the finally broke apart, she grinned.
“Took ya long enough.”
“I missed you.”
“You’ll miss me even more once the siege starts. We’ll both be busy…”
“Not THAT busy.”
=====================================================================
Davis didn’t find Kari. Instead, he found himself standing on the walls, not far from where Tai and Matt had stood the day before, looking down onto the meadow beneath. For not the first time, he found himself questioning his own judgement. What if he wasn’t the leader that he wanted – no, HAD to be? if he failed here, then all he was had come to nothing.
Suddenly, he found himself wishing that he could talk to Gennai. The ancient guardian of the digital world had been the one who introduced Davis to the power of the Paladin. He had trained him, so that he could rescue Kari. After the battle with Paul, his uncle, Davis had gone back to that small house in the mountains, but Gennai had been gone, and the house had stood deserted. And so Davis was alone.
“Oh, stop being so miserable.”
Veemon turned round, looking at Davis in annoyance.
“Honestly, anyone would think that your gonna die tomorrow. Get a grip on yourself.”
Davis glared down at him.
“Maybe I will die tomorrow.”
“But you never know.”
He jumped as Kari spoke close to his ear. He looked round at her, and glared at the smirk on her face.
“You know, it’s a good thing there’s no ceiling out here, otherwise we’d be scraping you off it.”
He tried to keep the glare on his face, but failed. Instead, he burst into a grin.
“Well, thankyou for breaking up MY miserable mood.”
“He needed it.” Said Veemon. Right before Davis knocked him back off the wall.
The Paladin put his arms around Kari’s shoulders, and held her close. His eyes drifted back to the meadow
“So. What’s wrong?”
He glanced at her.
“In short, I’m scared, Kari. I don’t know if I have what it takes to do this. I don’t know if we’ll win.”
“Davis, I once told you that we never know what the future holds. We wont know what will happen until we’re down there, fighting that battle.”
She wrapped her arms around him.
“But we will win. So long as we’ve got you, we’ll win.”
=====================================================================
Liam Dillon had left Mimi and Michael alone shortly after their meeting. Hell, he hadn’t been contributing much to the conversation anyway. He lay on the camp bed in his tent, unable to sleep, just staring up at the ceiling.
He sighed. Sometimes he missed running his pub. The little place he had founded in Odaiba with the severance money he had received from the NIDF had been enough to keep that little piece of Ireland, even in Japan. And he always had that piece with him. He fingered the small cross that hung on its chain around his neck. Why was he still fighting, after all this time. When he had left the NIDF, he had sworn to himself that he would never carry a gun again. But here he was, with a rifle lying at the side of his bed and his silenced Beretta in its holster at the small of his back. When Kari had been kidnapped by Paul, Davis’s uncle, he had once again picked up the pistol, and carried it into battle. For what was right.
He laughed quietly at that. When had he ever done anything right? All he had done was killing; so many times that he couldn’t even count anymore. Because when it boiled down to it, Liam Dillon was a warrior. He fought because he was good at it, and it was a part of his nature. He could kill at a drop of a hat if necessary.
So why did one girl have so much power over him? Mimi was… special. He couldn’t think of any other way to describe her. She made him feel like he had done something right for a change.
And now this Michael lad had turned up on the scene, and everything Liam felt was thrown into confusion. Why had he felt such a spike of Jealousy when Mimi had hugged the blonde boy? He didn’t understand it. He was a man who lived his life from day to day, and he had never complained.
His reverie was shattered in a single instant.
=====================================================================
The sentry at the Digidestined camp was as alert as he always was. All of Liam’s troops knew that a sentry who was distracted was a recipe for disaster, so they always kept their attention razor sharp.
And so it was that the Digidestined and troopers inside had a warning when the first Shadowmon lurched out of the gloom. As the trooper, whose name was Sean Riley, saw the first of the Malformed shapes in the large searchlight, he raised his rifle to his shoulder, and kicked away the support that held the alarm bell up. The bell’s ringing was loud enough to wake the whole camp, and as Riley fired his first shot, troopers and Digidestined were already running to his aid.
Riley’s rounds felled several of the creatures, sending them tumbling headlong into the grass that lay around the camp, but there were far more Shadowmon here than the standard twelve to twenty that the troopers had been fighting.
=====================================================================
Michael and Mimi had still been engrossed in deep conversation when the alarm bell had started to ring.
“So, what have you been up to?” the pink-haired girl asked.
“The usual. Uni, partying, you know, all that stuff.”
Mimi smiled grimly.
“No, I don’t. I haven’t been to a real party for nearly six months.”
Michael raised an eyebrow.
“I guess fighting a war doesn’t really do wonders for your social life. How bad has it been?”
“Bad. Liam and his troopers have been fighting day in, day out. And now we have to reach coast town in one piece. Once there… who knows?”
“It sounds bad. Who is this Liam guy, anyway?”
Mimi grinned.
“He’s a soldier. He’s been fighting for us since Paul kidnapped Kari last year. But you weren’t here for that, were you?”
“No. They didn’t come after many USA Digidestined. The place is too well defended.”
“hmm.”
“Why did you go away and fight? You didn’t have to.”
“Michael! These people are my friends, and some of the closest family I ever have!”
He grinned.
“I know. But I missed you anyway.”
She smiled right back at him, her dyed pink hair framing her face.
“Thank you. I missed you too.”
They were leaning close together. Almost close enough too…
The alarm bell cut off anything that might have happened. They looked up, and as Sora raced from the kitchen, the three of them were dashing for the entrance of the tent.
=====================================================================
The four of them stepped out into the middle of a battlefield. Shadowmon were running wild, as the Digidestined and troopers fell back behind them. Mimi, Sora and Michael were caught in the middle of the tide. They could see the line of troopers, shields shining in the glare of the lights. They were at least a hundred yards away.
To the three Digidestined, it might has well have been a hundred miles. The Shadowmon were running towards them, blades bared, when something like a image of ages past burst from the battle line.
Liam Dillon ran, his sword shining in the dull light. As Mimi, Sora and Michael reached him, he swung the large blade in an arc, neatly slicing into the lead Shadowmon.
The big Irishman pulled the blade free, swinging round, bringing up his pistol as he went. Pulling the trigger, he sent a volley of bullets at the advancing creatures, blasting them back.
“RUN!” he shouted, his Ulster accent even clearer than usual.
The four of them dashed for the battle-line, running for their lives ahead of the tide of Shadowmon.
Liam stumbled on the craggy ground, falling headlong, his pistol flying from his grip. He heard Mimi’s scream, and swung his sword round in a desperate parry, stopping the wickedly curved blade that had been aimed at his neck. He wouldn’t have time to parry the backswing…
The Shadowmon fell back, as bullets punched into its torso. As Liam got to his feet, Michael lowered the silenced Beretta. The four turned again, and ran for the line, as the troopers fired covering shot’s past them. As they stumbled through the shield-wall, Liam looked back once, at the hill that crested the camp.
A figure was there, silhouetted against the full moon. Even at the distance, Liam could make out the stooped, malformed shape of a Shadowmon. But the creature it was sitting on was unlike anything he had ever seen. As he watched the thing reared up, and the mounted Shadowmon waved its sword high in the air. The rest of the Shadowmon turned, retreating into the darkness. The big Irishman could only ponder what he had just seen.
Finally, he turned away from the sight, as the battle line, sensing that the fight was over, slowly drifted apart, warily, cautiously.
Mimi was standing with Michael, and beaming at him intensely, with a pride on her face that Liam had never seen before. The spike of Jealousy spiked through his stomach again, but he forced himself to walk over to them. They turned to face him.
“Nice shooting. I’ll take that now.” He indicated the Beretta.
Michael looked down, as if seeing the gun for the first time.
“Yeah.”
He safed the pistol, and handed it to the Irishman, who slipped the weapon back into it’s holster. Liam smiled slightly.
“It was a brave thing you did. You have my thanks.”
Mimi’s smile broadened.
“It was brave, wasn’t it?”
She turned to look at him, and her smile was more thoughtful, a trace of irony creeping into it.
“Mind you, you weren’t so bad yourself, Mr Dillon.”
“All part of the job, girl dear. I suggest you all get packed. I’m moving us out tonight. We should reach coast town before morning.”
He turned and walked away, sliding his blooded sword into the scabbard as he went. Mimi stared after him, and Michael looked at her, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“There is something about him, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.”
She sighed.
“But I’m damned if I know what it is.”
=============================================================
The huge red eye in the cave is joined by others now. Although they glow with some inner, dark radiance, they do not cast enough light to show the cavern in which the rest. All that can be seen is the hint of scales, and the rustling of huge wings.
Twelve sets of huge eyes can be seen in the darkness.
And then there is the sound of huge claws, scrabbling at stone.
Digging a way out…
=============================================================