Chapter 1: New Arrivals
Davis, Yolei, Ken, Tina, and Kari ran up to the creatures, and the pokémon trainers, tamers, and Monster crew followed them less quickly. T.K. and Cody ran towards the five Digidestined. Much to Davis's chagrin, T.K. got a hug from Kari, and Kari had a smile on her face throughout the entire duration of the hug. T.K. didn't try for a kiss, though, which was a point in Davis's favor.
There was a long discussion about what was going on. Nobody knew what was happening, and nobody knew what these creatures were. Fortunately, there was a team that Cody and T.K. had set up that was working to catalogue the menace machines. The team had a sketch artist who Misty and Ash immediately recognized was Tracy, and also on the team was one of the men who were of Gennai's kind---the only one left, as far as they knew. His name was Tarquin Cleaver.
"This is great, but---who's this digimon, here?" Davis asked, pointing to the shark-like digimon.
"That's Tibemon."
"Then…who's her Digidestined?"
The circle of Digidestined sat wide-eyed as a figure came out of the shadows. Davis immediately recognized it as his older sister, June. (So much for older; she was the same age as he was, thanks to time's accident.) Like the other D3 Digidestined, she had an outfit for herself: she had black, vinyl pants, brown work boots on her feet, a gray, fuzzy sweater tied around her waist, a tiger-striped blouse, and what looked like roller-blader's wrist protectors on her arms. Attached to one wrist protector dangled a purple folding umbrella, which would come in handy, assuming that Gennai had been right about world cloud cover.
"Oh, not June!!" Davis cried. "There is no way that June is a Digidestined!"
June put her hands on her hips. "Cleaver said that I have the digivice gene, Davis!" she spat. "And the Digidestined need all the help they can get. That's why it's such a good thing that you and Ken showed up with Imperialdramon. Normally, I'd hate to hear that you made an entrance."
Davis rolled his eyes. "You didn't miss me, did you?"
"Of course not!"
"Sure, you didn't!" T.K. sarcastically shot back. He nudged Ken and whispered, "She didn't stop begging us to 'borrow' a plane from an airport and fly to America to see if you were okay!"
"Zip it, T.J.!"
"It's T.K.," he shot back. Man, getting my name wrong must be genetic, he thought to himself.
"There are other problems, too," Cody added. "I don't think it's safe for us to stay here; we need to get to the power plant right away."
"Power plant?" Yolei asked.
"We don't know why, but these things won't touch nuclear power plants," Cody answered. "They won't go near one or even shoot in the general direction of one at all."
"That's weird," Yolei thought aloud.
"Well, I for one would like to find someplace where we can avoid getting attacked all the time," Davis thought. "Let's move it, already!"
At the power plant, Tracy and the other pokémon trainers had a joyful reunion. Tracy couldn't help but cry as he and Ash hugged. (Chances are that they wouldn't hug if they weren't on another planet where there had been a good chance that they'd never see each other alive.) "I took you for dead!" Tracy cried
"That's a mistake that you shouldn't make!" Ash shot back.
"Not while I'm looking after him!" Misty winked. Tracy would've hugged her, but Togepi was in the way. Tracy and Brock only shook hands; they didn't know each other as well.
"So, how've you been keeping busy?" Ash asked.
Tracy sighed. "Research. It's what I'm good at. They've been making me sketch any of these menace machines that I see to that they'll have pictures to catalogue them. We're trying to mount a defense against them."
"Who's 'they'?" Misty asked. "Who's putting you to work?"
"Cleaver and the Digidestined. I don't have all that many pokémon, so…"
"But Scyther, Marill, and Venonat are great fighters!"
"Not against fifty metal dinosaurs at the same time!" Tracy answered, shaking his head. "And it's not merril and scyther, anymore: Marill evolved into Azumarill, and Scyther evolved to he evolved to Scizor, and, even weirder, he doesn't look as old as he was before."
"That is weird. Something sure messed up time!"
"Tell me something I don't know!"
"All right, then, we just will!" Davis crowed. He pulled Gennai's datacube out of his pocket. "We found this next to Tina's digivice."
"Who's Tina?"
"She's Ken's daughter."
"Time was messed up so that a father is the same age as his daughter?" Tracy asked. After thinking about it for a second, Tracy added, "I guess I should've expected something like this would end up happening to somebody." He took the datacube. "I'll take this to Cleaver, and see what he says."
Tracy's welcome wasn't the only surprise the arrivals received: Takato was in the power plant, too, and he was just coming in from lookout duty. "Henry?!"
"Takato! I can't believe it!"
"Where have you been all this time?!" The two rushed into each other's arms. And when he was done embracing Henry, Takato gave Rika a hug in the same way, which she resented.
"Takato, would you quit touching me?!"
Takato pulled away embarrassed. He noticed Rika's pale skin and the tattered poncho she had draped over her arm. "Rika, you look like you've seen better days!"
"What's it to you if I have?"
Henry shook his head. "We go to another planet; we go through all of this; and things still don't change."
"Shut up!" Rika spat.
Davis plopped down on the couch in one of the employee lounges of the plant. "Hey, you guys have it made! A big-screen TV!"
"Uh-oh!" Tina muttered. "We aren't going to be able to pry him off from that thing!"
Mimicking a kindergarten teacher's voice, Youngdramon shot back, "Don't say things like that! We've got to try; not trying is the only kind of failure! …There has to be a crowbar somewhere in here!" she thought aloud. She waddled off towards a utility closet to pretend to look for one.
"So…here we are," Tai thought, looking over the lounge and the halls of the nuke plant. "Now what?" he asked.
"Good question," Kari agreed. "It looks like they've started this party without us. I guess we just go along with what they're already doing."
"What exactly are they doing here?" Sora asked.
Cody motioned for Tai to follow him, and Cody led him, Sora, and Kari to a room in the middle of the nuke plant. It looked like the inside of one of the reactors. "Uh, Cody? That door back there said "Danger: Radiation Hazard."
"We took the fuel rods out of this reactor so that we could put people inside," he answered. "We've tested it, and it's safe."
Tai shrugged. "You mentioned putting people inside---what sort of people?"
Cody opened the door and motioned inside. "Any kind of people." There were families, individuals, and digimon of all sizes, backgrounds, and types. They were living in the reactor, which---thanks to a lot of scaffolding and the odd piece of a McDonald's Play Place---had been turned into a makeshift, multi-story refugee center. "This is where we keep people we find. It's the only safe place for them."
Sora gaped at all the out-of-place, terrified people who had to call the reactor home. Tai quickly ushered her out of the room, knowing how sensitive Sora was to everything she saw in this seemingly new world she'd been hurled into.
Cody looked at Kari. "Kari, you were a schoolteacher, right?"
Kari was still a little in shock from seeing the refugees, but she nodded, eager to better the situation any way she could.
"Then you've had training and experience with young children?"
"Have I?! Let me tell you about this one kid I had in my class, once. He was an evil genius! And he was in kindergarten! At the time, he was using watercolors to paint a picture so good, I could've submitted it to the Louvre. I told him that I thought it was good, and he threw his brush on the ground, balled up his fists, and said to me," Kari pinched her nose to illustrate how the child sounded. " 'Patronize me again, and I'll slit open your tertiary node and use your lymph for these watercolors!' Then he gave me an evil grin and added, 'I've heard it's a much easier solvent to work with. So back off.' …So yes, I have had experience with children."
"I…see… We could use someone with training at the orphanage."
"Orphanage?"
Cody sighed. "You don't want to know, but I think you'd better. There are loads of children who have no place to go, and there are some who don't even have enough memory to tell us what their names are. Some don't even remember how to speak their own language."
"Yikes," Kari gulped. "Sounds like I'm about to have a problem."
"You could say that," Cody agreed. "But if you can help us solve that problem…"
"I know…I know…I'll help any way I can."
"Thanks," Cody said.
"It looks like everyone here is doing their part, around here. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do the same."
Cody nodded in understanding.