Barbamon looked into the newspaper. A satisfied grin appeared on his face. Good, so the police still didn't have a clue where to find for him. He laughed to himself. It was true, humans were nothing but blind fools... they could never catch a powerful Digimon like him.
"Still, there's also the Digimon Police Squad..." he muttered to himself. "And there are Champions of the Sovereigns working directly for them, so it would be unwise to let my guard down..."
He looked up from the newspaper in confusion when the doorbell rang. A deep frown appeared on his face. Nobody should know that he was here, and thanks to the dark field he had created, nobody should be able to come here either... at least not without being filled with fear.
But what if his son somehow managed to follow his trail...?
First things first, he thought, and digivolved back into Doumon. If this was just a false alarm, he didn't want to reveal himself just yet.
He slowly stepped out into the narrow, dirty corridor and walked up to the front door. He listened carefully... but didn't hear anything.
"Who's there?" he barked, not expecting to receive any sort of answer.
A mixture of giggles and chuckles was heard behind the door, then a high voice asked: "Can Ai come out and play?"
Doumon's eyes widened. "What the HECK?" He opened the door... and gasped when the bright, angelic light that was filling the stairway shone into his eye.
A group of children was standing in front of them, five boys and girls that had to be as old as Ai. They all smiled up at him, not in the least scared by his dark appearance. "Hi there, Mister!" the boy in front of him grinned. "Are you Ai's uncle?"
Suddenly, the corridor behind him got filled with the same light as Ai appeared behind him, in full 'High Seraph' mode. She smiled. "Hello, my friends! I am so glad you all could come."
"It's Ai!" the children all cheered. "Yay yay Ai!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Doumon thundered, startling the children, except for Ai. "Did you invite these children? What do they want? What happened to my veil of darkness?"
Ai smiled. "Well, you remember when I took that little walk? That's when I made a few friends. I met Manami when I saved her kitty, for example."
"Hi!" the little girl waved.
"Oh, and since I knew I would have to come back to you, and they wanted to meet me again, I invited them to pay us a visit. Of course, I had to get rid of that icky dark stuff you left in front of our house first..." She smiled. "But did you know that the light from my wings is bright enough to make it disappear?"
"Your light is so pretty, Ai!" another girl said. "I wanna be just like you."
"And she can fly, too!"
"Did you hear how she dealt with that bad man who broke into Mr. Tako's shop?" a boy shouted. "Man, she was sooo cool!"
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Doumon roared. "I've had enough! You went too far this time. I already told you not to overstep your bounds again, foolish girl!" And without any warning, he slapped Ai in the face.
His attack took her by surprise and made her fall back against the wall.
The other children gasped with shock.
"He hurt Ai! That means he's a bad guy!" a little boy shouted.
"Get him!" the first boy yelled.
"STOP!" Ai exclaimed. She was once again speaking in her commanding angel voice. The children stopped back in their tracks.
Ai floated up. "I won't let you harm any innocents again!" she said with flaring eyes.
Doumon grinned. "This again? I wouldn't do that if I were you, Ai... or do you want me to break our promise and let something happen to your parents or your little brother?"
"You won't do that!" Ai shouted. She raised her hands and pointed them at Doumon, with her palms stretched outwards. They began shining in the same bright light as her wings and eyes.
In a flash of darkness, Doumon turned back into Barbamon. "Your powers are impressive, but you are still a child! I have the experience of a lifetime... and the powers of a Demon Lord! You can't win, girl!"
"I won't destroy you, if that is what you think," Ai said with a sad smile. "I will just make sure you won't hurt anyone." And then, the light shone outwards from her palms. It scattered the darkness and engulfed Barbamon's dark body.
Barbamon grunted. The light was unpleasant, but didn't hurt him. "Is that supposed to be an attack?" he laughed. "You're not even using half of your current power, Ai."
Ai giggled. "I'm not trying to."
Barbamon blinked. He was very irritated. If she wasn't to harm him, then why did she... His eyes widened when he realized what she was doing.
"No, stop!" But it was too late.
A cage with bars of shimmering light had appeared all around him. It looked exactly like the cage BioCalumon was imprisoned in, except it was made of angelic light and was big enough to hold Barbamon.
"She captured the bad guy!" a boy shouted.
"Go, Ai!" a girl cheered.
Barbamon growled. "You don't know what you are doing... do you think this cage will hold me?"
"Isn't that what you told me, Barbamon?" Ai giggled. "That Lucemon was the most powerful one? I was afraid of you, afraid that you would hurt my family and afraid of my powers... but not anymore." The look she gave him was filled with pity. "You are just a lonely old man who never had any love in his life... that's why I feel sorry for you."
"I don't need your pity!" Barbamon spat.
"Maybe," Ai said. "But still, I don't want to kill you. You are a criminal and criminals must be put into prison... and now you are in my prison. And now you can stay here and think about what you have done."
She then flew around the cage and smiled down at her new friends. "Well then, are you ready to play?"
"Yaaaaayyyyyyy!" her fan club shouted, and together, they all ran downstairs, followed by Ai's winged form.
Barbamon was left behind in his luminous cage. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch the bars with his hands.
ZZZZAAAAPPPPPP!
Barbamon winced when he received a nasty shock. "It really is true..." he grumbled. "Creatures of darkness and powers of light do not mix..."
Next, he conjured up a small fireball and threw it against the barrier. It exploded, but the cage did not even get a dent.
"So she really tricked me, is that it?" he grumbled as he sat down on the floor. "I never would have guessed that her powers are already this strong... or that she knew how to create such a stage."
He then looked down at the floor... and smirked. Ai's cage of light didn't cover the floor... he wasn't completely trapped.
Once again a satisfied smirk appeared on his face as he turned his corporeal form into shadows and sunk down into the floor...
...only to appear in the building's lobby... in the middle of ANOTHER golden cage. Exactly like the first one, only that this one had a floor and no ceiling.
Ai and her little entourage were standing all around the cage as if they had been just waiting for that moment. The girls giggled and squealed, while the boys stuck out their tongues and made rude gestures their parents would probably never allow them.
Ai was hovering behind them, a smug expression on her face. "And now we see the only known captive Barbamon in existence. Remember: He just loooves fruit!"
And with wide grins, the children pulled apples, bananas and other fruit out from behind their backs... most of them slightly overripe.
"FRUIT SHOWER!!" Manami yelled.
"FRUIT SHOWER!" the other kids chorused and started to pelt Barbamon with their slushy projectiles.
Barbamon raised his arms and growled when a rotten grapefruit hit his right eye. Quickly, he floated back up through the ceiling again until he reappeared back in his first cage... still trapped, but safe.
With a groan, he sat down on the floor again. He growled while his beard dripped with different sorts of fruit juices. "I hate children so much..."
"Phew! You stink like an entire barrel of expired fruit!"
Barbamon looked up... and this time, his eyes really looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets. "You? How did you get out of your cage?"
BioCalumon smirked as he floated around Barbamon's cage. "Might have to do with the keys you left behind on the table... it was just a matter of how to get it. Don't be surprised. I have my own helpers as well..."
Barbamon looked like he was going to explode. "That girl... I should have known..."
"Ai?" Bio chuckled. "Sounds plausible, but no, it wasn't her."
"But then who...?"
"I'm afraid I still don't plan on sharing my secrets with you," Bio smirked as he came floating as close to the cage of light as he could. "I only want to remind you about what I told you earlier: That some time, I would get out, and that some day, you would be sorry about how you treated me, right? I offered you the chance of being my partner... but you threw that chance away. Well, I have some bitter news for you, Lord of Greed: Your reign... is coming to an end!"
Bio snapped his fingers, and out of nowhere, a dark little shape came zooming through the room. It almost looked like a little cloud of smoke, but it was so fast that Barbamon could not take a closer look at it. It effortlessly zipped through the bars of the cage, flew past Barbamon's pockets, left the cage again and put the object into Bio's waiting hands. And in a blink, the strange cloud was gone.
Bio sneered at Barbamon while showing him the object he was holding.
It was the Virus Circlet!
"No..." Barbamon whispered. He froze when he realized that this was worse than just being trapped for an indefinite time... this time, all of his plans were in danger, all of the reasons for his actions, his ambitions...
"Give it back!" he shouted. "I command you!"
BioCalumon laughed. He laughed an insane, high-pitched laugh that should forever haunt his nightmares. Such as the fearsome grimace the little devil gave him.
"Wrong..." Bio whispered. "You won't be able to command anyone anymore... you... are... NOTHING!"
And then, Barbamon felt it... the feeling he had dreaded ever since he had become the Lord of Greed for the first time in his life...
He felt... powerless!
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(Posted Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:54)
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