Assassins-----------------chapter 8
(Hey peoples. Sorry I took so long! I've been so busy and tied up lately. Or rather, for a long time. So I'm sorry!)
Big thanks to all my awesome reviewers:
black peeches
tazkol the master of emerald
Tristar
CrestOfHealing
Rael-Lirdu
TerrorizingTaiora11
TrialAndError123456
Tremble Wolf
LOLA
Matt
ang5523
(wow, my biggest load yet!)
You guys are the ones who decide the fate of this story, with your awesome reviews. Not me, YOU. Your reviews determine who gets picked off or who gets closer to the goal. So keep it up! The more things you tell me you want to see, the more exciting this story is going to be. Thanks so much for your wonderful reviews, and how you each take time to tell me in your own words what you think. It means a lot to me, and I will reply to all your reviews personally, as I have always done. Thank you! Keep it up!
Winner of the Review Contest: CrestOfHealing! (who writes awesome reviews AND likes Star Wars! Hehe)
Prize: The character Takato, and the line "What's this I hear about cheese curds?"
Wow people, what is with all the cheese lines anyway? Haha! It's like the Assassins Inside Joke or something. It's Tradition now. Speaking of traditions, I guess this story has two. There's a review contest every chapter, and there's always a line that has something to do with cheese. Weird. I have some awesomely hyper reviewers. Anyway…
Congratulations Child Of Healing! And everyone else, do your best! There is always a chance to win!
Note: For those who are biomerged, the digidestined speaks in italics, the digimon speaks in bold, and both together speak in bold and italics.
Second Note: The Assassin can only assassinate their target, not the person who is out to assassinate them. They can, however, neutralize the person out to get them for an hour. In other words, if someone is neutralized, it does NOT mean they were assassinated. The two words mean two different things. PLEASE remember that this time.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Assassins. But I've discovered that the game Assassins has been a tradition at my college for many, many years, and every single dorm gets its chance to play.
Suggestion: This game would be fun to play with your Youth Group or College or Neighborhood. It lasts all week, and you go about your normal business, and yet still try to assassinate your target. It's one of the only "Ultimate" games that is actually Ultra to the limit! I encourage you all to try it sometime. Maybe at Camp, or school, or Vacation, etc. Introduce this awesome game into YOUR world of friends and family!
Now let's begin...
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In The Forest, 12:00 pm
"And……that's about it," Takato finished, shrugging his shoulders.
Guilmon stared at him with blinking eyes, and then smiled a toothy smile. "Takatomon lives just like normal!" he exclaimed. "Your life is boring! It never changes! You need Guilmon around!"
Takato chuckled, and ruffled his friend's head. "You know I do," he said casually. "But there you have it: the full update on my boring life."
"It's not soboring," Jeri fluttered her eyelids flirtatiously at him.
Takato seemed to lose concentration of everything around him, and just stared at her blankly. Anyone could tell that he was just smitten when it came to Jeri, and that for her to tease him like that left him in a state of shock or something.
Leomon chuckled, then leaned over to whisper in Jeri's ear. "Don't tease him like that," he teased, loud enough for Takato to hear him. "You're making him get lost in your dazzling eyes."
Takato blushed, blinked, then turned his head away. He didn't really have anything to say, considering that was exactly what he was thinking.
"Hey! Takato!"
Takato turned in surprise, hearing a voice that was familiar and yet…not familiar at all. He frowned, seeing someone run up to him. Could it be who he thought it was? "Ryo?" he blurted, his eyes widening. "Ryo, no way! It's you! Where have you been all these years?"
Ryo laughed and gave Takato a hug, a hug hard enough to crack his back and squeeze the air out of him. "Takato it's been way too long!" Ryo exclaimed, releasing Takato from his hug and whacking him on the back.
Takato coughed, rubbed his back, and offered a smile in return. "Sheesh Ryo, your hug is hard enough to bring tears to my eyes!"
"Oh…." Ryo grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
"Man….you've really changed! What's it been? Four years?" Takato shook his head in amazement. "Or longer? I think the last time I saw you was when we said good-bye to our digimon after our last battle! Where did you run off to?"
"Oh…uh…" Ryo scratched his head, looking rather nervous, then shrugged apologetically. "Actually….I came back here."
"HERE?" Takato gave Ryo an open-mouthed expression of jealousy. "No fair! What did you do here? How come you didn't tell any of us!?"
"Well it's kind of complicated," Ryo admitted, still scratching his head. He started walking, slowly, as if to escape or something, but Takato and Guilmon walked right next to him. "You're not going to let me get out of this one are you?" Ryo teased.
"No way! Talk!" Takato grinned and crossed his arms, unaware that he was being led away from the others and into the forest. "What were you doing here?"
"Well, Cyberdramon and I have been training. Just fighting and stuff, and protecting the digital worlds from things that could turn into world-wide catastrophes and stuff." Ryo shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at Leomon and Jeri behind him. He could see Cyberdramon giving him the signal that he was ready to go. Ryo gave a small nod, and kept talking to Takato. "Then, some dude named Lucemon that was in the core of the digital world somehow gained enough power to get rid of us, and had some digimon send us into a different dimension." Ryo laughed, remembering how many adventures he'd had over the years. "Things like that kept happening. But it's all good. We've had fun."
"Wait, different dimension?" Takato made a confused face. "What are you talking about?"
"Um….Cyberdramon and I went to several different dimensions and stuff. I can't possibly explain it all. But basically we've gone on millions of adventures, and fought several foes. And now…we're back here in the digital world. And honestly, I'm happy to be here. And even happier to be a part of this game Assassins. It's awesome!" Ryo grinned happily. "So what about you? What have you been up to?"
Takato threw his arms open wide, in an expression of exasperation. "NOTHING compared to you! I've been living a normal life! Going to school, baking in the bakery, and other stuff. Honestly, it's not been that much."
"Sure it has! We've all got stories to tell!" Ryo elbowed his friend and chuckled to himself. Any second now…..
"CHEESE CURDS!" Leomon roared.
His outburst caught Takato and Guilmon's attention, and they turned to stare back at their companions they'd left behind in shock and confusion. "What the heck?" Takato blurted. He started running, Guilmon and Ryo close behind him, skidded to a stop four feet away from Jeri and her partner, and gaped in surprise at the two of them. "What's this I hear about cheese curds?" He wasn't sure how else to phrase the question, being faced with such an odd scene.
Leomon gave a great growl and sighed loudly. "Nothing," he snapped, and then ended up chuckling. "It's just something I say when I'm upset." He rubbed his face with his hand, and mumbled something under his breath about Cyberdramon.
"Why do you say cheese curds?" Takato insisted. "That's just….weird."
"I like cheese," Guilmon smiled. "Do cheese curds taste good?"
"Enough about the cheese curds!" Leomon roared. "It's better than swearing, okay? Forget I said anything!"
"Why would you be swearing?" Takato frowned. "What's happened?"
"It's this freak.He assassinated me." Leomon indicated Cyberdramon with his giant paw, and gave the silent digimon a scowl. "And I didn't even sense him coming."
Takato blinked in surprise, was about to comment on Cuberdramon probably having some kind of special ability, when something occurred to him. He turned to Ryo. "You….you distracted me!" he said, pointing at the now grinning old friend.
"Guilty as charged," Ryo answered. He patted Takato on the shoulder. "Sorry pal. It was fun, though!" He walked over to his partner Cyberdramon and jumped onto his back. "Better go find my target, I guess." He waved to Takato as Cyberdramon leapt into the air and left the scene dramatically.
Takato stared at the sky where they vanished, then shook his head in both appreciation and annoyance. "Talk about cheese curds," he mumbled. "The words I'd choose to say are 'dang, he's good.'"
Jeri giggled and poked his shoulder. "That's just as bad," she pointed out.
Takato grinned. "At least it doesn't sound as stupid."
Leomon glared at him, but soon joined them in chuckling. It was a pretty odd situation. "I guess this shows that we'd better get serious about the game, doesn't it?" he said.
Jeri nodded. "And you'll protect me, right?"
"As long as we don't separate, no one can assassinate us," Takato said with a sigh. "And I realize now how hard that's actually going to be."
(------)
Superfluous. A word which here means, I just watched the movie A Series of Unfortunate Events, and I wanted to mention something about it. In which case, "superfluous" describes the entire last sentence. "Something extra that was not needed." And now that I've had my little superfluous writing splurge, I can continue with my story.
(------)
Outside the Inn, 12:05 pm
It was a strange coincidence, but it seemed to Rika that 90 percent of the players of this strangely exhilarating game called Assassins, liked to hang out right next to the Inn, instead of going around in the forest or the town nearby. Why that was, Rika was not entirely sure, but it seemed that if she ever had to look for her target, her best chance was to look around the inn. So that was where she was hiding at the moment, up in a tree where she could see everything.
Several digidestined milled around, talking with each other, sharing news and stories, and excitedly hanging out with their digimon partners. A few individuals here and there complained and laughed about being assassinated already, and promised their friends they'd stick close and help them out. It was a boringly touching situation.
"Please," Rika sighed, rolling her eyes. "Just get on with the game already! All these losers have 24 hours to either assassinate their target, or get eliminated. And what do they do? Stand around and talk. They can do that AFTER they're dead!" She groaned and crossed her arms. This whole situation was stupid.
But it was only a few minutes later that Rika began to realize how valuable it was to sit tight and listen to all the conversations, as the very person she was trying to assassinate was mentioned in a conversation below.
"Hey Mimi, have you seen Biyomon?" Sora asked, looking around her in mild surprise. "I thought she was just here a second ago…"
"Oh yeah…" Mimi giggled. "Some other digimon was whispering at her, so she snuck off to go talk to him. I think somebody's got a boyfriend!"
Sora raised her eyebrows. "What? Really? Maybe it was just…"
"I know what I saw, Sora! He was a boy Biyomon! And he was cute!"
Rika tuned out the rest of the conversation and looked around with interest, then glanced down at her slip of paper that read "Biyomon." She smirked. This was too easy. She slipped out of her hiding place and stole into the woods, looking around for any sign of the bird digimon. Of course, she would have to make sure she shot the right Biyomon, or else everything would be messed up. But she was Rika! She wouldn't mess up.
"Going somewhere?"
Rika whirled around, finding herself face to face with a tall, wolf-like digimon. Her eyes narrowed, and as quickly as she could, she whipped out her water gun and shot, not noticing whether it hit or not. "Neutralized!" she declared, just in case.
The digimon chuckled."Aw…that's too bad, isn't it? Looks like you missed, tough girl." He squirted her on the stomach. "I think you'll find you've just been assassinated."
Rika's eyes widened. How could She have missed? "What?" she blurted, growing angry. "How did…How could….Why didn't I hit you?"
The digimon shrugged."I'm the legendary warrior of light. I move faster than you can shoot."
"Yeah? Well….Who's the witness?" Rika demanded. "There's no one around!"
The digimon was suddenly engulfed in a purplish circle of code, which split into two different sections. Then it dissipated, leaving the digimon Lobomon, and the young digidestined called Kouji. It was Kouji who smirked triumphantly and held out his hand. "Card please?"
Rika glared at him, then tossed it like a ninja star. To her great annoyance, he caught it as easily as catching a large beach ball. "Fine," she sniffed. "I guess that means I'm out of the game."
"I guess so," Kouji shrugged. He looked at her thoughtfully. "So where is Biyomon now?"
"Like I'm going to tell YOU?"
"You might as well."
"Not a chance, go look for yourself!" Rika huffed, then turned and walked off. She had been looking forward to playing the game, and now suddenly, she was eliminated. What fun was that? "This is stupid," she mumbled.
Kouji followed her, hands in his pockets, then cleared his throat. "Can I ask you something?" he called.
She turned and glared at him. "Sure, but that doesn't mean I'm going to answer," she retorted.
Kouji offered her an amused half-smile. "You're probably pretty disappointed about being out of the game so soon, huh?" He was rewarded with a glare. "That goes without saying, apparently. Well I have a suggestion for you."
Rika paused in her aimless trek, offering a small sigh. To tell the truth, she wasn't just disappointed. She was REALLY disappointed, and she couldn't help feeling slightly depressed about having nothing to do so early in their week trip. She couldn't deny that she was willing to take a suggestion from anybody, including the one who had assassinated her. She just wouldn't admit it, and she'd get back at him later. "What?" she demanded, still trying to sound bored and upset.
"There's a lot of people trying to make assassinations," Kouji said slowly, giving her a hinting look. "And a lot of assassinations are happening too easily, because everyone is going around in twos. You could, if you wanted, go around and be that fourth person that ruins everyone's assassination attempt."
"Wouldn't that be like, a sore loser?" Rika snorted. "Not just that, but it's like cheating."
"No, it's rescuing people, if you look at it differently." Kouji shrugged. "And you could do it to all the people who bug you. Like me, for example."
Rika gave him a calculating stare. "I'll think about it," she declared.
"Fair enough. I'm just trying to give you something interesting you can do, to still be a part of the game. From your position, you could be in control over who wins and who doesn't. It's what I would do if I were assassinated."
Rika offered a faint smile. "Not as bad of an idea as I first made it out to be," she decided. "So okay, I've heard your suggestion. You can go now."
Kouji smirked and walked off, Lobomon following him.
Rika watched him go, scowling after his back was turned. Sure, it was an okay "consultation prize" idea, or something of the sort. But she was still upset. "I'll get back at you," she whispered. "So watch your back, Kouji Minamoto."
(---------------)
Legendary Warrior's Hideout, 12:20 pm
Cody stared about him hesitantly, watching everything that took place outside of his crystal sphere prison. Several digimon were talking to each other, or rather, arguing with each other over the most ridiculous of things. It was almost like they were children or something. Shaking his head, Cody decided to put his mind to better use than try to figure out their childish discussions.
He ran his hand along the inside of his spherical prison, feeling something like a low humming vibration of energy. It was fascinating. He knew that everything in the digital world was made up of data, but some kinds of data were more complex, and could contain more energy. This sphere felt like that kind of data. Perhaps if he used his Digivice to scan it and see what it was made of, he would be able to find a way to release himself.
Which brought him to this whole ordeal of being kidnapped. Cody dropped his hand to his pockets, feeling the digivice inside as though it were his only lifeline, and narrowed his eyes at the scene around him. These legendary warriors did not seem to be hostile, nor did they actually care about Cody in the least. Their intentions seemed to be fixated on the idea of causing trouble, rather than endangering anyone. Which could mean that Cody could be here a very long time without anything to do, or they would get bored of containing him and let him walk around.
One of the legendary warriors walked towards him, and he gave the digimon a level, disinterested stare. This particular legendary warrior was the one who seemed to do the most arguing. His name was Grumblemon, or so Cody had heard, and he looked like a thick, squat gnome with a big nose and big fists, who wielded a hammer as though he could destroy worlds with it.
"What your name?" Grumblemon demanded.
Cody narrowed his eyes, and decided not to give an answer. He was still upset about being kidnapped, though it was much more interesting than standing around and waiting for the game to end.
"Well it doesn't matter," Grumblemon decided, snickering. "We have a surprise for you."
Now this was interesting. Cody waited, still playing the silent game, for the warrior of stone to continue.
"As you maybe heard already, we legendary warriors are switching things up a bit," Grumblemon continued, cracking his knuckles with a grin. "We realize you players who are already eliminated are going to be bored. So we give you something exciting to do! Hehehehe!"
Cody held in a sigh. That much he'd already heard. He had also observed that they had no intention of hurting him, and that they meant to make sure Izzy knew what was happening. It seemed they were only trying to shake things up and have some fun. And that couldn't hurt, could it? He finally let out the sigh he'd been holding in and shrugged. "Well then?" he asked. "What is it you had in mind?"
Grumblemon blinked, then smirked. "It's a surprise," he hinted. "And it fun! Don't worry, you wont get bored!" With that, he lifted his hammer over his head, and swung it at the crystal sphere.
Cody sprang out of the way just in time, as the giant hammer smashed a hole right through his prison. For some reason, he felt sad about the destruction, and couldn't help frowning with displeasure.
Grumblemon scowled and rolled his eyes. "No wonder Mercurymon likes you," he mumbled, reaching in and grabbing Cody's arm. He dragged the human hostage out and shoved him toward a hole in the Legendary Warrior's hide out. With agile grace, Cody avoided it, but it would not last. A rough blow to his abdomen later, he found himself careening down a pitch dark, stone slide toward the darkness below…
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The Meeting Room, The Inn, 12:30 pm
Izzy stared at the spot on his screen where he'd last seen Cody's signal, scowling. It hadn't been that long since Cody went missing, and Agunimon had just recently gone out to look for him. But still, Izzy couldn't help wondering if something more was going on here.
"Izzy?"
Izzy turned and found the warrior of fire standing behind him, a fairly serious expression on his face. "What did you find?" Izzy asked, narrowing his eyes slightly. From what he knew of Agunimon, he should probably take whatever he was told with a grain of salt.
"I know two things, actually," Agunimon answered truthfully. Or so it seemed. "The first is that Cody is just fine, and in fact seems to be enjoying himself. The other is that he was hijacked by some friends of mine who want to make it fun and exciting for the players who get eliminated."
"Wait," Tai cut in, raising one eyebrow skeptically and standing up from his chair. "So these friends of yours…they kidnapped Cody because he was eliminated, to give him an adventure or something? Does he know that, or does he think he's been kidnapped?"
Agunimon couldn't help grinning. It was pretty clear that he enjoyed the situation immensely, but it was also clear that he considered it very important to be truthful with Izzy and Tai about what was really going on. He wanted things to go smoothly enough for another reunion to happen in the future. So he was not just clever, he was smart. "He knows," Agunimon chuckled. "He's a smart kid. Even if Mercurymon had everyone pretending to be bad guys, Cody would either figure it out or escape on his own."
"I know that," Izzy stated. "The question is, how do you?"
"You can just tell," Agunimon affirmed. "It's that look he gave me, right before I left. It was like he was saying 'yeah, you can pretend anything you like, but I know exactly what's going on here.' He's fine."
"So lemme get this straight," Tai continued to think things through. "Mercurymon…he's a legendary warrior, isn't he?"
"That's right. The warrior of steel. He's in charge of this little operation, and he's also the one who's going to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. You can trust him."
"What is his plan, exactly?" Izzy demanded seriously. "And why is Cody's signal turned off? That was installed in his digivice for a reason! We're not just doing this monitoring stuff for fun, you know! It's for the safety of everyone here. If something REAL happens, I need to be able to trust that signal!"
Agunimon almost winced. "Unfortunately, I see your point. But I think that's why Mercurymon turned off the signal in the first place."
"Excplain," Izzy ordered.
"I will," a completely new voice answered, a humored tone layered in it. A form appeared out of nowhere, presenting itself as Mercurymon himself. He smirked and gave a small nod to Izzy and Tai. "Forgive my intrusion, and my seemingly thoughtless actions. I am here to put things right."
Agunimon rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, clearly losing some kind of unspoken competition that only he and Mercurymon seemed to have any idea of. But he kept silent and waited.
"Fine then," Izzy sighed. "Why did you kidnap Cody, really? What are your plans with the digidestined you kidnap? And why did you turn off his signal? It's imperative that it remain on at all times so we can keep monitoring."
"I understand," Mercurymon patronized. He paused. "I turned it off to get your attention. If I had simply taken Cody and left, all you would notice is his signal blinking from one location to another…a location that happens to be fairly nearby. And you would have thought nothing of it, assuming that Cody went off with some digimon. You would not realize that something was happening with him right away. So I turned off the signal, alerting you to his absence."
"It worked," Izzy frowned. "It caused a panic in here!"
Tai made a sheepish grin, coughed, and tried to pretend like it was nothing.
Mercurymon smirked, and continued. "That brings me to my reasons for this kidnapping. I find myself feeling rather jealous of my friends and their partners, and the rest of us legendary warriors discovered that we too, wanted some interaction with humans. It is a very incredible thing for your presence to be here while our world is at peace. And since we were not invited to play the game, we decided to participate in our own way.
"The players who are eliminated during the game find themselves with nothing to do. So they either join other players, or wander around not doing anything. This is rather boring, and it discourages people from actually playing the game to the best of their ability. However, what if players start to go missing? Just a few…one a day perhaps, and just the ones who have been eliminated. Your players are going to become much more serious about playing. They will begin to realize that if they get eliminated, they might go missing too. And it will also be a distraction. Your game becomes more interesting, and the ones who are bored have something to do."
"What if they start to panic?" Tai cut in. "TK was ready to storm out and go looking for Cody, regardless of the game! How are we going to assure people that everything is fine, if we don't even know where they are or what's happening with them?"
"Another reason I'm here," Mercuyrmon stated dully. "You and Izzy are the administrators. If you simply say that they were picked at random to be kidnapped, but that it is all part of the game, they will be less worried. You will still know where they are because their signals will be on. But you can use it as a tool for getting people to stop mulling about and start assassinating."
"I guess that's a good idea," Tai mumbled, thinking it over.
"What we will do with these few kidnapped digidestined and/or digimon is pretty simple really. We will give them things to do throughout the digital world…that is, throughout places nearby. For example, there is a large underground maze that is pretty famous. I estimate Cody is probably trying to find his way out of it right now. And of course, other small activities for them to do. We will try to keep them under the impression that they are kidnapped, as part of the game, but we also promise that if they start panicking, we will return them here unharmed right away." Mercurymon finished speaking, and took a deep breath.
Izzy drummed his fingers on the table, thoughtful. He couldn't really find anything wrong with the whole idea, but it still bothered him that he wasn't asked first. He decided to mention it. "Why didn't you just ask us first?" he accused.
Mercurymon shrugged. "We didn't think of it right away."
"It gives the people who are doing nothing something to do," Tai whispered in Izzy's ear. "Maybe it isn't so bad after all. These are the Legendary Warriors after all. If anyone should do this, it should be them."
Izzy sighed, spreading his hands apart. "Fine, but you can't be mean! Don't take anyone who gets scared, and don't freak anyone out! If they don't want to do it, bring them back, okay?"
"You have my word," Mercurymon bowed. "And as you can see, the signal has now returned."
Izzy glanced at the screen, then blinked. Sure enough, Cody's red light indicated that he was underground, beneath the Legendary Tower, the supposed hideout for the legendary warriors. He glanced up to say something, then realized Mercurymon was gone.
"Well?" Agunimon sighed. "Told ya."
Izzy tapped his fingers together thoughtfully. "So I see," he mumbled. And for now, he just stared at the screen of his laptop and waited. Only time would tell if this was a good idea or a bad one.
(------------)
…..and now I'll leave you hanging till next time.
PLEASE read this:. The Review Contest is going to be happening EVERY CHAPTER, until I say it isn't. That means, you have to write the review that I like best, and you get to win a prize. I'm sure you've figured out the prize by now, right? You get to choose a character and a phrase, and I will put them in the story. That means that it is your RESPONSIBILITY to review, so that you can help this story progress.
But if you would like to know some good tips on how to win this review contest, here they are:
First, you have to understand that you guys help to decide who wins this story just by telling me which CHARACTERS you want to see more of. So if you want to see more of a character, please don't hesitate to tell me. Putting down the names of the characters you'd like to see more of is nice. Also, if you think that I have written a certain character OOC, then you should TELL ME! That can score you big points on this contest. I need to know your opinion. Being HONEST about what you think, and about how you think it could IMPROVE. Another thing I love is randomness and silliness, and just being YOURSELF. I love reviews that talk about the chapter, to indicate that you have actually read it. YOUR REVIEWS DO NOT HAVE TO BE LONG IF YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE THEM LONG! (Though I like long ones!)
NOW…just because I am saying all this DOES NOT mean that you have to do all that! That would be like me telling you how to write YOUR review. And that's just silly. You can put whatever you want, even tell me it sucks if you feel like it. I just want to hear from you. But the best way to win is by using the tips up above….and also, most of those tips will help you to be a valuable reviewer to other authors besides myself. Writing good reviews is a practice everyone should learn.
So don't be afraid of being critical, or telling me which romance you think should be featured, or whether you think it should really be Izzy's Mom or just a fake, or what character you hope to see assassinated next and what not. It's not going to happen if I don't know you want it to!
So…..until next time……REVIEW!
--Rika195