Digimon VIRAL
Episode Seven
Black and Green and Rocky All Over

   "Do you have any idea where you're going!?" Zuru called forwards, the wind whipping away half of her voice.

   "They said north so I'm going north!" Gavindramon replied, barely turning his head backwards.

   She frowned at the giant raptor. "Audrey, are you sure we should be heading out so blindly?"

   The other teen turned around to try and minimize what sound would be lost in the wind. "We don't really have much choice but to trust those two, they really seem to know about these temples."

   "But do we have to go so fast!?" Kotamon whined.

   "Would you rather...we walk all the way there?" Canismon replied gruffly, leaning forwards to keep his partner from blowing over backwards, as he wouldn't stop sitting straight up and avidly looking at the surroundings as they whizzed by.

   Upon breaking the wall of the sapphire temple, and Gin finding herself a souvenir, the teens and their Digimon followed Zotzmon and Muzenmon – who were now trying their hardest to keep up to speed with Gavindramon – back the way they came and back to the Saline Desert. Thankfully, by this point Ospreymon was almost completely rested, and was able to Evolve and serve as a mode of transportation once again.

   They'd followed the gently curving wall in order to find some form of orientation to their location. At top speed it didn't take too long for them to find that the glimmering white salt had suddenly vanished from beneath them, falling as a sharp cliff, and leading towards a coast and a gaping black sea.

   Zotzmon claimed that the next nearest temple was due north, and that they should reach it if they followed the coast. Of course, the white beaches had begun to wind east and west so often and so irregularly that no one had any honest clue as to which direction they were actually going.

   "If I wasn' so tired from evolvin' I coulda jus'swam us there..." Lutramon was curled between Kotamon's back and her partner's lap, who was inevitably leaning backwards into Nathan.

   Gin patted the otter's hat-covered head. "Don't worry about that. It would have been a little less TERRIFYING," she shouted the one word, lifting her head up to direct it at their current transport, "but it'd have been slower, too."

   Nathan grinned. "Besides, this is fun! Canismon, why can't you fly?"

   The white dog let out a low growl, signaling his displeasure at being asked such a thing.

   "Alright, alright, I get it." The teen pouted a bit. "I was just kidding around, I know dogs can't fly."

   "Oh the chaos that would ensue if they could, too..." Kotamon joked.

   "If you two don't stop he'll throw one of you off." Zuru smiled at her partner and the purple haired boy, and then promptly went back to looking over Audrey's shoulder and squinting at the oncoming wind.

   "Maybe we should stop for directions?" Gin suggested.

   Canismon, who had diverted his attention and turned around to see if their ‘escorts' were still in tow, returned his interest to the conversation. "I really don't think...anyone around here would even...want to tell us where it is."

   "Besides," Nathan piped in, "we're fine as we are."

   Gin huffed. "Well I thought it was a good idea."

   "It is a good idea." Came Gavindramon's throaty voice from up ahead – the last one anyone expected to like that plan. "In fact, I already know where we're going to stop."

   Audrey leaned over to look at the side of his Digimon's head. "You know where you're going?"

   "No." Was the simple response. "I know where I am, I don't know where I'm going. There's a difference."

   The boy sighed softly. "Well is this place close?"

   "You haven't been paying much attention to your surroundings, have you, kid?"

   Audrey frowned a bit, staring ahead. Soon enough he let out a quiet "Oh." when he spotted a large white lighthouse stationed on the coast not far ahead. "It's the lighthouse, isn't it?"

   Gavindramon nodded. "An old friend lives there, he'd be able to tell us where to go, no problem."

   Kotamon peeked her head out from behind Zuru. "Gavindramon has friends?"

   "I'LL THROW YOU OFF, I SWEAR."

   "Aiyaaaah, calm down!" Kotamon nervously patted the part of the giant bird she was sitting on. "Just a joke, a joke!"

   --------------------------------------------

   The sun was, by now, starting to crawl its way under the horizon line, leaving the fat beam from the lighthouse clearly visible against the red sky. Four kids and six Digimon stood on the sandy ground around it, a few of them talking with the bat and the bee, confirming directions and the like.

   The gaping black sea looked a little less intimidating with the sun at this angle, and with the light beam reflecting off of the heavily rippled surface. Its edges rolled and leaped up at the rocky shore – or what looked like a seaweed-covered shore, most of the rocks were sleeping Sealeomon.

   There wasn't much to the lighthouse itself. It looked like a common, white one, like those back in the real world. A small hut was attached to the side of the tower, and the entire thing looked unsheltered and unprotected, sitting on a part of the coast that jutted out from the mainland.

   "You guys wait down here; it'll slow us all down if I have to explain everything." Gavindramon ordered.

   "But won't the fact that you're...you know, evolved, confuse him?" Gin pondered.

   The giant bird only grunted a response, before flapping his wings once and lifting off of the ground. Within a few seconds he had situated himself on the roof of the tower, looking down through the bars whenever the light wouldn't shine directly into his face. "OY! Katielmon, you in there?!"

   A minute passed, and then another, with no response.

   "KATIELMON!!!" He roared.

   "He's going to attract...unwanted attention if he keeps...shouting like that..." Canismon muttered.

   Finally the giant osprey saw movement from within the tower. It was another bird, a Rookie stage. Pale yellow, with an even paler head, and red spots on his cheeks and wings. Instead of claws on his wings, like Ospreymon had, his feathers elongated and shaped themselves into what would be considered fingers. His wings, the crest feathers on the back of his head, and his trailing tail were all tipped with white, and his beak and feet were a dusty pink.

   "Hmmm? Oh, Ospreymon?" Came a gentle, but tired-sounding voice.

   Gavindramon grinned. "Ohhh yeah! I've Evolved!" He blinked once then tilted his head, noticing that there should be a presence accompanying the cockatiel Digimon. "Hey, where's-?"

   Katielmon cut him off by raising one of his wings, and pointed to the ocean.

   "...Oh."

   "I'm waiting, that's all I do nowadays."

   Gavindramon shifted uncomfortably for a moment, not really being the best at these sorts of situations. "Hey, uh...do you happen to know which way's north? We're trying to find a temple."

   His friend nodded slowly, pointing in what could easily be assumed to be north – they were way off course. "That way. You should hurry though, there's a storm coming and it'll be here before the night rolls in."

   The fact that Katielmon hadn't reacted one bit to the sudden change of topic, Ospreymon's evolution, or even the mention of a temple and ‘we', had the giant bird worried. But he could tell that the lighthouse master had no intention of telling him exactly what had happened, and that this was no time to start prying into his friends business. Instead he exchanged a quick goodbye, and hopped off the tower, landing in front of the others.

   "We're way off course. North is that way." He pointed a tiny arm in the same direction Katielmon had shown him.

   "I told you they were getting us lost." Muzenmon snapped at her partner.

   "No you didn't. You sounded very sure of yourself when you said ‘we're almost there'."

   Muzenmon grumbled.

   "Come on, let's get going." Gavindramon disregarded the two completely. "He said there was a storm coming, and it'd be here before nightfall."

   While the others once again climbed up the crouching Digimon, Audrey walked over and stood right in front of his beak, laying a hand on the cool, metal-like texture. "Hey, you feeling alright? You seem so...subdued compared to how you were before you went up there."

   Gavindramon looked at his partner, coming to what was probably the closest he ever would be to sharing his feelings. "I'm just worried about a friend."

   "Then maybe we should wait, stay a bit and-"

   "No. He needs the time."

   Audrey nodded and climbed up right behind the Digimon's skull, a little surprised but relieved that he wasn't as much of a jerk as he was making himself out to be. The moment he settled himself into the green feathers, they were off once again, following the direction rather than the coast.

   --------------------------------------------

   Flying through a storm of this caliber was probably rather high up there on the list of stupid things the kids had done. They were all drenched and could barely shiver against the wind for it was so strong. Thankfully, Gavindramon was able to keep the lightning away from them.

   Barely anything around them was visible for the most part, until lightning flashed and illuminated their surroundings for a second. All they really had to count on now was that Audrey's partner was able to tell whether or not he was flying in a straight line.

   "How much longer do we have to suffer through this?!" Nathan whined loudly, jumping back into a hunched position when a loud crack of thunder drowned out the tail end of his words.

   "Honestly we should have reached it by now." Zotzmon responded. He and Muzenmon had been forced to join the rest of the team, as their wings were drenched and far too heavy to support their weight – Gavindramon was using a well placed Electric Radiance to keep the rain off of his own great wingspan.

   "Has he been heading north? See if he's been heading north!" Muzenmon called up to the team.

   "Oy! Gavindramon! Have you been headi-"

   "Yes of COURSE I HAVE." The bird cut off Kotamon's voice with annoyance. "I know when I'm flying in a straight line thank you very much."

   Audrey smiled to himself a little. At least his partner was back to normal, regardless of the situation they were all in. He could tell this was getting a little arduous for him, though. The rain, and the entire team huddled onto the bird's back was proving to be a lot more weight than he could safely carry for such a distance.

   "The thing is, we can't even see the place..." Zuru mused. "I mean, most of what's around us, we can pick out the shapes and colors a bit, but we're still flying blind."

   "We'll probably get a signal or something, don't worry." Gin was keeping an optimistic attitude about it.

   "Yeah, hey, Audrey!" Nathan called towards the front, "Shouldn't your Digivice be glowing, like Gin's was?"

   The boy turned around to give him a weak smile. "My Digivice is black. If it glows black, there's no way I'd see it."

   Silence.

   "That's stupid!" Nathan groaned.

   Gin chuckled a little. "Audrey, touch it. Mine was warming up, too."

   He reached his hand into his pocket, and sure enough, there was a bit of warmth emanating from the small device, thawing his freezing palm. "Oh, it's warm."

   "Oh, great!" Zuru sighed with relief. "Now we just gotta keep our eyes open and-AGH!" She cut herself off when they were all forced to suddenly have a stronger grip on Gavindramon, who had turned sharply upwards and to the right after a particularly bright flash of lightning.

   "What the hell was that for!?" Kotamon yelled in protest, clinging to both Zuru and Audrey, who were seated in front of her.

   Audrey coughed. "You guys missed it?"

   "I just about flew straight into the wall! It's so damn dark the thing came up outta nowhere!"

   Gavindramon circled around, descending sharply along the side of the wall, being this close the controlled electricity over his wings was reflecting off of the shining black surface. The ground around the walls was just about nonexistent except for a small outcropping that angled down and vanished into the darkness.

   "We've got no choice...but to break in from the air." Canismon pointed out. "There's nowhere to land."

   "I'm aware of that, thanks." The bird responded, his pupils already shrinking into slits. He opened his sharp maw, electricity building up in the back of his throat. "THUNDER RINGS!" A series of half a dozen electric halos shot from his mouth and hit the wall, exploding. A large, dark hole was quickly visible, as the wind and rain stopped the debris from lingering from long.

   Tucking his wings to his sides, Gavindramon dove through the hole, slowing his flight by spreading his wings open, and descending closer to the ground. From what they could see of the area within the walls, it wasn't much different from the Sapphire Temple, there were trees and stones and grass. Of course, instead of being tinted with blue, everything was darker than its natural counterpart, and the trees bore blackberries instead of watermelons.

   Gavindramon held out as long as he could, before finally landing not far from the temple itself, and de-evolving to his Rookie stage.

   "Thanks, Ospreymon." Audrey shivered a bit; checking to make sure his partner was okay. The other joined in, saying their thank you's.

   "Guys, I hate to ruin the mood of the successful entry, but if we keep up like this we'll all die of hypothermia."

   Kotamon tilted her head at her partner. "Die, from cold?" She herself was quite freezing, but didn't mind it in the slightest. Of course, an ice-type would have no problem with the lowering temperature.

   "She's right." Gin sneezed. "And it's raining in here, too."

   Canismon turned round to Zotzmon and Muzenmon. "There's no problem with us taking a night's rest, is there?"

   Zotzmon shook his head, remembering that anyone who'd occupy the temples would be gone for much longer still. "It's fine."

   "Oh, great! I'm exhaaaaausted!" Nathan stumbled himself forwards. "Let's get inside, so we're out of the rain."

   "Right." Audrey picked up his feathery companion, carrying him piggy-back style. "Here, you've taken us all this way there's no need for you to have to walk the rest of it."

   Ospreymon blinked in slight surprise at his partner, then looked away and muttered a quick "Thanks..."

   Their vision inside the temple walls was improved slightly, as the topmost tower of the building seemed to have been equipped with a powerful lightning rod. The bolts struck it often, giving them more glimpses of the stormy grounds.

   From what they could see, the temple was built very similarly to Gin's, except that everything looked to be stretching upwards into the sky. Each time a bolt of lightning hit the tallest tower, multiple, thin strings of light would illuminate down along the stone façade, and then go out as quickly as they had lit up.

   They were practically running to the thing, barely speaking to each other to save their energy. A wave of relief swept over them once they finally reached the mirror-arched doors.

   Audrey kneeled to let Ospreymon down onto the ground, and then straightened up to face the doors. "Finally here." The Digivice in his pocket was rapidly heating up, as Gin's had done at the previous temple. He reached out his hands and grazed them over the engraved surface, feeling around for the partition. He found it, and placing his hands on either side, made to push the doors open. But they wouldn't move.

   "Is something wrong?" Zuru asked.

   "They're not opening." Audrey muttered. "Maybe they're locked or something.

   Gin looked crushed. "How are we supposed to find a key when it's this dark!?"

   "How do we even know...if there is a key...?" Canismon pointed out.

   Almost in complete unison everyone turned to look at the two Digimon who were now trying their best to get the water off of their wings.

   Zotzmon looked up at them all. "Well of course there's a key."

   "You just got lucky with the door being ajar, last time." Muzenmon continued. "But it's no problem. Locating the key, that is."

   "Why, where's the key?" Nathan scratched the back of his wet head in confusion.

   Ospreymon simply blinked tiredly when Zotzmon pointed a clawed wing at him. "Oh, me? Well that makes sense." He walked over to the doors, placing all six of his claws onto them. Without even bothering to call out an attack of any sort, he sent voltage to the blackened tips. They could all see tiny veins of electricity cover the surface door for a second, and then fade away. The bird was the only one to hear the faint click of a lock being opened, as the rain drowned it out for the others.

   "Thanks Ospreymon." Audrey lingered his palm on his partner's head for a moment, before once again placing his palms on the door and pushing it open. Gratefully, he and the rest of the team stepped into the black, dry interior.

   If anything, it was even darker than the outside. However, the same lights that they had seen on the outside of the structure were on the inside as well, so with each thunder strike they were able to make sure they weren't walking into anything.

   In the center of the room, where the Sapphire Temple had had its ornate fountains, there was a series of winding staircases, which climbed their way around each other and towards the ceiling. There were wispy black curtains of some sort trailing down along the sides of the stairs. A space was clear in the very center of their bases, where a large, black dish was situated inside a hollow in the floor.

   Canismon bounded over to inspect the dish. "Ashes. Well, wood and ashes...not all of it's burned." He stared up at the curtains for a moment. "If we could light a fire...and tear down those curtains...you could probably warm up."

   Ospreymon was already way ahead of him, hitting the wood with a bolt of his own, setting it aflame and then promptly falling over and asleep right next to it.

   Glad to finally have warmth, the rest of them came over. The teens each pulled down a curtain, and wrapped themselves in it while their clothes dried by the fire.

   Muzenmon tugged on the side of Zuru's makeshift toga, causing her to flinch in surprise a little. "Sorry. But I thought I ought to tell you that your temple's the next one."

   "Oh? Please don't tell me it's going to be far away and that we'll have to fly through another storm to get to it..." She mumbled, a weak smile on her face.

   The bee shook her head, chuckling a bit. "No, no. It's actually extremely close to the Obsidian Temple – that being the one we're in now. There's a ravine right beside it, and it's what separates the two."

   "We'll head over in the morning. The storm will have likely died down by then." Zotzmon added, walking by on his way to the fire.

   "Sounds good to me." The chestnut-haired girl yawned, moving to join the rest by the fire, which was by now burning brightly.

   --------------------------------------------

   The girls were the first ones up, and had decided to head to the other side on their own, and not bother the boys. They had found Muzenmon and Zotzmon already awake, and convinced the bee to accompany them. Zotzmon would remain, and wake the others should a threat appear. Thankfully the hole that Gavindramon had made was actually almost directly over a half-hill which seemed to grow into the wall, and then back out on the other side.

   Once out, they saw that the temple tied to Zuru's Digivice really wasn't all that far. They could see it clearly across the ravine, which had a sharply angled path leading from one temple to the other, though at the lowest point it was surrounded by black.

   It didn't take them long to edge over the side of the hill, along the engraved obsidian walls, and to start sliding down the very rocky sides of the path – had they taken the path itself they would have simply started to slide down uncontrollably and rather painfully.

   "Well, we made it this far." Gin wiped her brow. "Going back or ahead is going to be exactly the same."

   Zuru stared up at the gleaming green walls of her temple. "And this suddenly looks a lot more intimidating than it did when we were up there." She turned to the other girl, smiling. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way."

   Gin waved her hand. "Oh don't worry about it! There's no way I'd let you go alone, anyway."

   "Eeew..." Lutramon diverted their attention to herself. "This's tar..." She had placed the tip of her paw into the water, and had pulled it back out, thick strands of the stuff dripping back down. "Yeh can't swim i' this..."

   Her partner chuckled a bit. "Well then don't jump in!"

   "And don't get pushed in." Kotamon piped up.

   "Now that's mean. You wouldn't do that." Zuru warned the blue feline.

   Kotamon pointed a claw over the girl's shoulder, to the tar that was behind her. "No, but they would."

   Zuru whipped around to see four dirty, draconic skulls staring up at her with glowing white eyes. "Oh no."

   "Pichemon..." Muzenmon immediately recognized the Digimon. The tar Digimon did not work under Nagamon, so she wasn't worried that their mission had failed and they were being taken care of. Likely, they were simply either being mischievous, or protecting their territory. "They're only at Rookie level, but there are four of them."

   The skulls had begun to rise out of the water, dripping blackness off of their sharp teeth. Their bodies appeared to be made out of tar, and they took on vaguely reptilian shapes as they rose, a thick bony spine visible along each of their backs. Each one of them was emitting a gurgling sort of sound from the back of their throats.

   "Kotamon, can you Evolve?" Zuru backed into the cat, taking the initiative as Lutramon's evolution was more recent than her own partner's.

   "I'm on it!" Kotamon flexed her claws in preparation. Zuru's Digivice was already beginning to glow green. "Kotamon evolve..." Once again she was surrounded by the light of Evolution, her form growing and changing. "Fuurinmon!"

   "Black Blanket!" The four Pichemon spat out a flat glob of tar, aiming to stick the group down to the ground.

   "Oh no you don't." The tar was blown out of their way the moment Fuurinmon opened the sack of wind in her claws. Her clouds began to swirl as a silvery mass began to form at the mouth of the bag, and her four tails split to face the cardinal directions. "Compass Star Tornado!" Four spinning spheres of wind were shot forth, colliding with each of the Pichemon and freezing them on the spot.

   "Awesome! You did it, Fuurinmon!" Zuru patted the white fur around her partner's neck.

   Fuurinmon grunted. "They were just Rookies." She flicked one of her tails. "Anyway, I'm done, let's go. I'll blow you guys up the other side."

   Muzenmon cleared her throat. "You're...not done, actually."

   The rest of them followed her pointed purple claw to the tar behind the frozen Pichemon, where another three skulls had begun to surface.

   "I have a feeling the tar pit is full of these things..." Gin looked worried. Even if Lutramon Evolved to help, if their numbers were just about limitless they wouldn't be able to last against them.

   Zuru looked at the giant stormy feline. "Freeze ‘em and run."

   Fuurinmon nodded. "Got it. Compass Star Tornado!" Wind shot out again, freezing the Pichemon before they could get any closer. "Now go, go, GO!"

   They quickly ran over to the other slope, Fuurinmon opening the yellow sack to its full amount, and controlling the wind that came out of it to safely transport Zuru, Gin, and Lutramon to the ground outside the green wall. Muzenmon simply flew up, and Fuurinmon followed, bounding up the rocky slope and using her own wind to stop herself from falling off-balance.

   "I can see ‘em, there's more'a ‘em surfacin'..." Lutramon pulled her head back; she had been sticking it over the ledge to watch the tar pit.

   "Then let's get this over with and head back ASAP. All we have to do is break the wall; we don't even have to go in, right?" Zuru asked Muzenmon.

   The bee nodded a response. "Going in further was just a matter of exploring, really."

   "Fine by me! Compass Star Tornado!" Fuurinmon once again opened fire, this time breaking the engraved green walls of the Emerald Temple.

   "Right! Let's – hey!" Zuru was knocked to the side as a Pichemon slid by, moving surprisingly quickly for something that was made out of tar and bone.

   "It must've found a way up here, somehow." Gin stared at the blackish trail the Digimon left through the bright green grass, weaving between the mossy rocks and the vine-covered trees – which bore green grapes.

   "Oh no, I can't just let that thing in there." Zuru glared at it. "Gin? Lutramon? You guys stay here and make sure no more come up." With that, she leaped up onto her partner's back, and the two dashed off after the Pichemon.

   The moment they got within the walls it was apparent why the Digimon was moving so quickly, the interior of the temple was extremely windy, and it was likely pushing the creature along. As with the Obsidian and Sapphire Temples before it, this one followed the same build, though parts of it appeared frozen over. Also, the mirrored doors were left wide open, as if the windy atmosphere made them difficult to close.

   Of course, the Pichemon ran right inside the building, cackling mischievously.

   "You realize that the worst that thing can do is make the whole place dirty, right?" Fuurinmon asked her partner.

   Zuru narrowed her eyes at the mass of tar as it vanished from their immediate sight. "Of course I know. But seeing as I'm tied to this temple, it's kind of become personal. Let's just get rid of it and get out."

   They followed it right into the main hall, the ceiling of which was filled with floating ice plates, which directed a wind around them in a way that created a repeating, slightly monotonous tune. Light was filtering through a multitude of windows, reflecting off of the ice in various directions. They skidded to a stop right beside the bright green staircase, which was surrounded by icy protrusions, when they saw the Pichemon right up against the wall, unsure as to where to run to next.

   "No way you're going any further!" Zuru jumped off of her partner's back. "Get the hell out of my temple."

   Pichemon stuck out a tar-covered tongue. "Black Blanket!" A larger blob of tar was spat out.

   "Not this again..." Fuurinmon shot at it, instead of blowing it away, and it froze and fell to the ground, shattering but not splattering. "You're not going one step further. Ice Barrier!" A circle of wind kicked up around the blue feline, which broke and shot towards the squishy black Digimon, freezing along the way until it reached it, shooting through it and encasing it in ice. The Pichemon burst into fragments of data – leaving no computer chips behind.

   Zuru let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, now we can go."

   Fuurinmon looked up at the staircase. "Aren't you gonna, you know, get a souvenir? You're here, you might as well..."

   The girl stared upwards, and shrugged, beginning to walk up the crystalline green steps. "Might as well."

   --------------------------------------------

   The girls hopped over the black debris on the top of the hill, finding that the rest of the team was already waiting for them at the base of it. Fuurinmon was the last to climb in, having lingered to fend off more of the Pichemon. She had also created an icy barrier around the hole left in the Emerald Temple's wall, to keep more of the tar Digimon from coming in.

   "Why didn't you take us with you?" Nathan asked as soon as they had reached the base of the hill.

   "Didn't want to wake you up." Gin shrugged.

   "Plus, it saved some time." Zuru added, rolling her fingers over one of the newly-acquired beads, which were now wrapped around her left wrist.

   "Ah, you took yours, too." Audrey had a line of blackened beads hanging from two of his belt loops. Both of theirs looked just as murky and dead as Gin's, and had the largest bead filled with clouded dirt.

   "If we get going now," Zotzmon flew over and landed in their midst, "we can get the next temple done by the end of the afternoon."

   "You're positive about where this one is, then?" Ospreymon grumbled.

   Muzenmon smiled weakly at the green bird, clearly seeing in her mind's eye the shining red walls of the next temple, situated on a hill not far at all from Nagamon's lair. "Of course."



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