Part 5: Eye of the Tiger
"Tigreromon, do you know what happens when someone fails me?"
"Yes sir, I do. And I will not fail."
"Good." Gavinmon reclined in his throne and said, "Now destroy the children! But bring my servant back to me..."
"As you wish, my lord." The tiger raced away to find the digidestined...and destroy them.
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Tai walked on confidently. They would find Matt and defeat the Dark Masters. If anyone could do it, they could.
"Mimi!" Palmon cried suddenly as Mimi tripped over a rock.
"I hate this," the girl said. "Can we rest?"
"It's getting late," Sora said. "We have to find a place to sleep, anyway."
Tai agreed reluctantly and they searched for a shelter. Then Patamon called, "Hey, look at this!"
"Oh, no," Joe said. "Not another hotel. Remember the last one?"
"Who cares? It's gonna rain," Izzy said.
"Let's go in!" T.K. and Kari cried.
The seven kids walked into the building. It looked exactly like the one Devimon had made so long ago...but that was an illusion. This couldn't be an illusion.
"It's not an illusion, I can tell," Tentomon said happily.
Unknown, black eyes watched them. "Seven little ducks returning to where they once separated. How touching. And now to find the servant. I can deal with them later!"
Inside, the kids had found the same soft beds that had once sent them to different parts of File Island. Mimi hung her pink hat on a bedpost. "Finally!"
Just as Tai drifted off to sleep, Agumon's green eyes flashed. "I hear someone..."
~*~
Not far away, Matt shook his head. "I can't play my harmonica right now, Gabumon. I'm depressed as it is."
"Then will you sing?"
A growl startled the twosome and they whirled around.
"Master has sent me to bring you back, Servant Child."
"Leave me alone, Tigreromon!" Matt yelled.
"The stones cannot help you now," the huge tiger cackled. It was then that Matt remembered. But the others couldn't know he needed their help right now...and why would they help, anyway?
"I am willing to make a deal with you, Servant Child. A staring contest. If you win, I will spare you digidestined...for now. If I win, it's back to the Master."
"Don't do it!" Gabumon cried.
"I accept," Matt said smoothly. He was ready to defeat those black orbs that had imprisoned him...and he knew he could. He clenched his fists and stared at Tigreromon.
The coal black eyes stared right back at the boy. He didn't move. He would be smarter this time. If he blinked or moved, he would be caught...or if he lost.
Matt looked past the eyes, and soon he didn't see Tigreromon at all. He thought back to before the battle between Parrotmon and Greymon, before anything happened in his life. Back to when the eight were normal kids who didn't see monsters ruining Heighton, who didn't know the meaning of Digiworld. Who were friends. Just friends. Not a team sworn to save all worlds, just regular people.
Matt suddenly saw fire out of the corner of his eye. He dove into the forest before Tigreromon could attack. He ran toward the light. Suddenly he heard, "Tiger Flare!"
Heat washed over Matt. Footsteps approached and MetalGarurumon appeared at his side. Matt climbed on and they raced through the trees. "Tiger Flare!"
Tigreromon shouted. The burning fire swept over the young boy, and he clung tighter to his digimon. Finally they stopped in front of the hotel. Matt gasped. Flames leapt from the windows...and Matt heard his friends shout for help.
Matt dismounted and faced MetalGarurumon. "We've got to go in there. How can we get through the fire?"
MetalGarurumon smiled. "Leave everything to me." Matt got back on and his digimon raced at the house. "Ice Wolf Claw!"
They dashed through just as the ice melted. Matt nodded slowly as he understood. The duo bounded up the stairs and ran toward the cries for help.
Matt coughed and shouted, "Get on, you guys!" He helped the kids and the digimon onto MetalGarurumon's back.
Suddenly Mimi collapsed. The smoke was making Matt's eyes water. He shouted, "Can't we just go through the wall?"
MetalGarurumon leapt forward and broke through the flaming walls. Outside, all eight got off. They were all coughing hard--except Mimi, who was unconscious.
"Thanks again," Tai finally managed to say. But the two were gone, vanished into the night. As the children watched the building burn, they all thought about how lucky they were.
Suddenly a huge tiger bounded into the clearing.
"Ahhhhh! Izzy, who's he?" Tai asked.
"Tigreromon. He works for Gavinmon. He holds a grudge forever, and he has a major attitude problem," Izzy said. "He probably started the fire with his Tiger Flare technique!"
"You haven't seen my other attack!" Tigreromon said. "Fire Blaze!"
"Fire Blaze? Tiger Flare? Easy to see that he's a fire element," Sora remarked as the children dodged the attack.
"Palmon, digivolve to...Togemon!" Togemon walked forward. "You're asking for some Needle Spray!"
Nothing happened, and suddenly Tigreromon smiled. He shot a Fire Blaze directly at the unmoving Mimi!
"Togemon, digivolve to...Lillymon!"
Lillymon swept her digidestined out of the way. The blazing light hit the ground. Suddenly another light engulfed the digimon.
"Agumon, digivolve to...Greymon!"
"Tentomon, digivolve to...Kabuterimon!"
"Gatomon, digivolve to...Angewomon!"
"Patamon, digivolve to...Angemon!"
"Biyomon, digivolve to...Birdramon!"
"Gomamon, digivolve to...Ikkakumon!"
The champion digimon shot their attacks at Tigreromon. He withstood them very happily, as if he enjoyed it. Suddenly Tigreromon's eyes turned green and fired eye-beams at the kids.
"Greymon, digivolve to...MetalGreymon! Giga Blaster!" The eye-beams were stopped.
"Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon cried. The children suddenly wavered, and the younger ones fell under the bright eye-beams.
"Haven't you learned not to mess with us yet?" Tai asked. MetalGreymon shot at Tigreromon again.
Suddenly Tigreromon shouted, "Tiger Flare!" The digimon all devolved to rookies. Then, with an evil laugh, the tiger aimed at the digidestined.
A harmonica made the digimon whip around. Matt held the instrument to his lips as he watched the evil digimon. Matt let go with one hand and reached into his pocket. He brought out the blue stone. Tai saw him and held out the stone that meant courage. The others who were awake did the same. Then Sora found the stones for T.K., Kari, and Mimi. She placed the pebbles in their hands.
Eight beams of light shot out and joined at a central point. They fed power into the chain. Suddenly Tai saw Matt fall to his knees. "What?" he asked.
"That digimon...it saps Matt of his power..." Gomamon whispered.
Right on time, the warm voice said, "Transport," and the kids fell to the ground, this time in Machinedramon's city.
Mimi rubbed her head. "What happened?"
Palmon smiled. "Matt saved us all from the fire...and then Tigreromon attacked! But we helped you, Kari, and T.K. to get the special rocks...and we got away!"
"I'm back to a rookie," Salamon said to Kari. "Again."
The digidestined stood up. "These stone things are weird. What other attacks does this digimon have? Why does she take Matt's energy? And where did that kid go?"
Matt was indeed gone, and the others could only hope that the eye of the tiger hadn't overcome him. Then Kari began to hum the words to a song she had recently learned.
"Rising up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances.
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a kid and her will to survive.
Yeah, it's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of
the fight,
Risin' up to the challenge of our rivals.
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the
night
And he's watching us all with the eye...of the tiger."
The six youths clapped and Kari blushed. She hadn't meant to sing out loud. Salamon grinned at her. "Sing if you want, Kari, we just escaped destruction!" Then Salamon turned serious. "But what if the 'eye of the tiger' is still watching us?"
Even Izzy was at a loss for words. Then he began to explain a very complex experiment that could help them, but he added, "It will take about two weeks, of course..."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but we don't have two weeks!" Tai cried. "Matt's gone. He's probably hurt. We have two Dark Masters plus Gavinmon to worry about, and that tiger. We just can't spare two weeks on an experiment! We don't have that much time. And what if Matt was caught, huh? He could turn on us again! Besides the fact that Gavinmon and what's-his-name are mad at him..."
"We didn't know you cared about Matt," Biyomon said.
"I don't! But I'm the leader of everyone, including him!"
Two familiar inky eyes watched from the shadows. "Gigadramon, Megadramon, Tankmon, Mekanorimon, and Machinedramon, prepare for battle!" the tiger growled. "And this time, I'll make sure they don't get away alive!"
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This time...sure...this is not good. This is very much not good. But I'm enjoying writing it! Part 6 is half-finished already, so expect it soon!
