Chapter 9: Prison Break

Thomas

Etemon’s Castle

25 Minutes

 

By the time I made it back to Etemon’s Castle, the moon had crept slowly down the sky and was almost at the horizon. Stars were beginning to gradually fade away as the sky’s murky blackness began to change to a soft and silky sapphire blue that was not unlike Zelda’s even lovelier eyes.

Everyone should still be asleep, I thought as I walked into the fortress. I did get lost a few times, trying to make my way back here. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Statch the next time he gets me lost…To my relief, the candelabras in the hallway were still lit, so I could easily find my way through the castle and to the room Volcamon led me to. I slowly opened the door so it would not creak, and when I entered the vaguely illuminated room, I saw that neither Statch nor Zelda were in their beds. Looking at all the beds in the room, I sighed. There weren’t any signs of a struggle, nor was there any blood.

…I guess I should have expected this. Behind me, I could hear the door open very quietly, along with the familiar metallic clang of a weapon being removed from a holster. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Heh. Now you’ve gone and ruined my big entrance,” Volcamon said, walking up beside me. “How could you tell?”

“I’m an assassin; I can tell when someone wants to kill someone else, and right now, there’s so much bloodlust in the air, I can practically taste it,” I said. I turned to face the Ultimate Digimon. “Plus, I heard you remove that hidden knife from your microphone, and the door creaked slightly when you opened it.” Volcamon looked down at the weapon in his hand.

“You have pretty good hearing, don’t you?” Volcamon asked nervously.

“I’ll have you know that assassins don’t fuck around,” I said. “Now, where are my friends?”

“Your friends aren’t here, Thomas,” Volcamon said. I sighed. “Etemon’s heading for Linnea as we speak to deal with that troublesome Meramon, and there’s nothing you can do to stop him!”

“I don’t have time to waste speaking with you, then,” I said. “You can either tell me where my friends are, or I can stab you in the face. What’ll it be?”

“…You think you can stop me?” Volcamon asked.

“Please; I’ve ended the lives of countless stronger Digimon than you. Killing you shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“Is that so? Then prove it to me, assassin; prove to me that you’re every bit as capable as you claim to be!”

“That’s not something you should be wishing for—”

“Tackle Time!” Volcamon ran past me, and crashed into the brick wall when I stepped out of the way. “Damn it…No fair…moving…”

“You expected me to just stand there and let you attack me? As if.” Volcamon rushed past me, and once again, he collided headfirst with the wall. Why do I always get the stupid ones? When he turned around to face me again, he had a more dazed look on his face than usual, and several bricks from the wall had become dislodged and fell onto the floor. “You know, this would be a lot easier if you’d just tell me where my friends are.”

“No…I’m not…about…to do that…” Volcamon was now holding his head, and his eyes were tightly shut.

“If you tell me, I won’t kill you.”

“Tackle Time…” I rolled my eyes and stepped aside once more. Volcamon continued running and crashed through the glass doors at the opposite end of the room. The Ultimate tripped over the balcony and fell out of the castle, falling to the ground below. I carefully stepped around the smashed glass and looked down.

“…Out cold. Great; now I’ll have to try to find them on my own…” I left the room, closing and locking the door behind me in case Volcamon climbed back up the balcony. I looked around the hallway, and noticed a stairway leading down. Removing a lit candelabrum from its place on the wall, I climbed down the darkened stairway. I walked in silence for a few minutes until I heard a few voices conversing.

“How much longer do we have to stand guard here?”

 “Until Etemon says we can stop, idiot!”

I froze. Those were…Tankmon’s and Giromon’s voices…As slowly and as quietly as I could, I continued climbing down the paved stone stairs.

“Man, those Digimon in Linnea weren’t kidding; this girl really does have some kind of a weird presence,” Tankmon said.

“I know; makes me wanna pop the stupid cunt in the mouth for bein’ so damn irritatin,’” Giromon agreed. “Or, I could just cut off ‘er head.”

“HEY, SHUT UP!”

Statuedramon…

“Say that again to my face!” Statuedramon shouted. “Try threatening her again! Go on; I dare you!”

“Statuedramon, please, don’t worry about it,” Zelda’s meek voice echoed through the silence that followed Statch’s outburst. “It’s okay…I’ve been treated like this before…”

“Well, in that case, maybe we should go ahead and kill her,” Giromon said.

“I dunno…Etemon always says that dead hostages have no value, Giromon,” Tankmon said.

“It would only be the girl,” Giromon snickered.

“DAMNIT! YOU—!” Statuedramon began yelling unintelligible threats at the two Digimon.

“Statuedramon, please, calm down,” Zelda said gently.

“I can’t…I’m stuck…”

Oh, for fuck’s sake, Statch! I rolled my eyes. At this point, I was now running down the stairs rather noisily, and the end of the stairway soon came into view.

“Sheesh, couldn’t Volcamon be here instead of us?” Tankmon asked. “That stupid lizard is giving me a headache, and the girl’s no better! And she’s actually quiet!”

“Shut up, Tankmon! I think I hear someone coming!” Giromon whispered.

Well, guess there won’t be any use in hiding… I walked into the room, coming face-to-face with the two mechanical Digimon. Separated from me by a row of metal bars that formed a very crudely made prison cell at the opposite end of the room were my two friends. Chains were shackled around their ankles, keeping them both chained to the two back corners of the room.

“Where the hell have you been, Thomas?!” Statuedramon yelled. He was wedged partially between two of the bars, up to his shoulder, and was frantically moving his arm around in a vain attempt to free himself.

“Sorry I took so long,” I said. “It would’ve been a shorter trip if Volcamon had just told me were this room was before he knocked himself unconscious. Bloody idiot…”

“That’s not what I meant, damn it!”

“Wait a minute…You said Volcamon was unconscious,” Giromon said.

“So…you were actually able to defeat him? By yourself?!” Tankmon asked.

“You sound surprised. I have already stated that I was capable of something like this, and much more,” I said.

“Oh, who the hell cares? All this means is that the two of us will get to have all the fun of doing you in by ourselves!” Giromon said.

“…Really? Well…if you think you can, why not try and see for yourself?”

“So…Etemon really was the bandit,” Statuedramon said in a disappointed voice.

“Of course he was, you idiot! I even told you myself!” Tankmon shouted.

“And now, you’re all going to die with that information fresh on your mind!” Giromon, holding his chainsaw in one hand and a grenade in the other, flew over to me and vigorously swung his chainsaw at me. “There’s not a Human around who can stand a chance against my chainsaw!” I effortlessly dodged each of Giromon’s attacks until I struck him across the face with my sword with enough force to make him fly through the air and hit a wall. He fell to the ground, unconscious. I then turned my attention to Tankmon, who slowly wheeled over to me.

“C’mon, Thomas…buddy! We don’t have to do this!” Tankmon said.

“…I take it you were the one behind the attack on Meramon’s restaurant earlier,” I said.

“Of course; who else could’ve hit a building from that far a distance? No one else, that’s who!” Tankmon said with pride, failing to notice that I had walked over to Giromon.

“That’s too bad,” I said, kneeling down next to Giromon to pick up the grenade that had slipped from his limp hand. “I was hoping I would only have to kill the bandit leader that I was ordered to kill today; I hate getting my coat dirty.” Tankmon sneered at me as I ran up to him and shoved Giromon’s grenade down the gun barrel on his head, making him laugh.

“Thanks for the ammunition, dumbass! Hyper Cannon!” Tankmon aimed his barrel at me, and when he prepared to fire Giromon’s grenade, his entire body became enveloped in the flames of a rather small explosion, creating a thick, black smoke that filled the entire room. When it cleared, neither Tankmon nor Giromon were anywhere to be seen.

Strange, that explosion shouldn’t have been large enough for Giromon to get caught up in the blast…

“Thomas!” Statuedramon yelled. “Now that the bad guys are dead, I would be most appreciative if you would be so kind as to GET ME OUT OF THESE BARS!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” With a few well-aimed strikes of my sword, I cleanly sliced through the bars of the cell, freeing Statuedramon and creating an opening large enough for me to walk through. “Are you two okay?”

“We’re fine,” Zelda said. “They’ve taken my Talismans and Statuedramon’s weapons, but they didn’t hurt us.”

“Our stuff is over there.” Statch pointed to a wooden table with Zelda’s satchel and his own sword and shield on it. “But I think Tankmon had the keys when you blew him up…” I gave the Rookie Digimon a blank look. “When you blew him up,” he repeated.

“Give me a little credit, Statch,” I said. I jammed the tip of my sword into the keyhole of the shackle around his ankle, and it opened immediately, and as I did the same for Zelda, Statuedramon walked out of the cell to the table where his weapons were.

“Where did you go last night?” Zelda asked.

“Yeah, what happened?” Statch asked, handing Zelda her satchel. “Why were you the only one lucky enough to not get caught?”

“I went to pay a visit to Meramon,” I said. “I wasn’t sure if he was the one we were looking for or not, and while I was there, his diner was attacked by Tankmon, and one of his little brothers was killed.”

“How terrible,” Zelda said breathlessly.

“Wait, you’re pitying him?!” Statuedramon asked. “After everything he said to you the other day, after he tried to attack you, you still feel bad for him?!”

“That’s enough, Statuedramon,” I said firmly.

“Etemon is the bad guy…that’s hard to believe,” Statuedramon said. “He had such good food and everything!”

“Where is Etemon right now?” Zelda asked as she fastened her satchel around her waist.

“Volcamon told me he was on his way to Linnea to deal with Meramon,” I said.

“Come on, we have to go after him!” Statuedramon said.

Linnea Village

7 Minutes

 

“We should be getting close,” I said. Damn it, where is that restaurant?!

“Thomas, look out!” Statuedramon shouted just as a small, singe-covered Digimon, carrying a chainsaw, whizzed right past my head. Though he missed my head, Giromon did manage to hit my left shoulder with his chainsaw, and as he saw my blood stain my clothes and run down my arm, he laughed, completely beside himself with glee.

“That’s what you get for killing my friend Tankmon with one of my weapons!” Giromon said.

“Yes,” Volcamon said, walking up next to Giromon. “Tankmon must be avenged!”

“So…you’re still alive,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m a little surprised myself,” Volcamon said. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, “If I were a Human, that fall would’ve killed me for sure. Still, it really hurt, and I passed out for a little while…”

“Now there’s no way you’re going to win!” Giromon sneered. “The three of you are no match for Volcamon!”

“Bring it on!” Statuedramon said, brandishing his sword as Volcamon ran up to him and thrust his knee into the Rookie’s face. Statuedramon nearly fell over, his face a bloody mess, and Volcamon punched him in the face. His weapons flew out of his hands, and he fell over, barely conscious and unarmed.

“You’re next!” Volcamon pointed at me. “Tackle Time!”

“Thomas…look out,” Statuedramon said weakly as a small trickle of blood welled from his mouth. I, however, stood my ground. As the Android Digimon got closer and closer to me, I drew my sword and held it up, and as Volcamon prepared to crash into me, I thrust my blade into his stomach. Surprised, Volcamon fell to his back, trying to cover up the bleeding wound on his stomach.

“What the HELL?! No…no way!” Giromon exclaimed, dropping his chainsaw. “How could anybody defeat Volcamon so quickly?!” Giromon looked over at me, at my blood-drenched sword, and flew away screaming.

“Giromon…come back,” Volcamon said weakly. “Help…me…”

“No way! I’m not fighting anyone who can hurt you that badly!” Giromon shouted back, vanishing into the distance.

“Cowardly…little…bastard…” Volcamon coughed up a large puddle of blood, and then fell silent before his body dissolved into small fragments of data. 

“Come on, we have to hurry,” I said. “Etemon could have already made it to Meramon’s saloon by now!”