The Four "Horsemon" of the Apocalypse II: Mixed Worlds
By Seruyamon (Cyllya)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. I do own the Dragoon Masters, Ketti, Shoujomon(all levels), and rights to that little black cube.
Note:
Demiveemon = Chibimon
Raidramon = Lightdramon
Note #2:
I know this is less than half the length of the first one, but the next parts will probably be this length.
Chapter I
Q. What is insomnia? A. Insomnia is the perception or complaint of inadequate or poor-quality sleep because of one or more…
These words were read through a pair of bored-looking blue eyes. The eyelids of these eyes began to droop as "of the following" blurred.
"Ken?! Are you awake, Sweetie?!"
Ken snapped awake so suddenly he fell out of his chair. He shielded his eyes from the sunlight that came the window and muttered, "I am now." He yelled, "Yeah, Mother!"
He stood and shook the sleepiness from his head as he looked at his computer screen. It still had the web page about insomnia on it, but his modem had disconnected from the Internet hours ago.
The sound of a yawn came from his bed as the pinecone-like Minomon emerged from the sheets, saying, "Good morning, Ken-chan! How are you doing and when's breakfast?"
"Good morning, fine, and give me five minutes 'cause I just woke up."
"I thought you didn't sleep."
"After four weeks of wakefulness, I conked out while reading about insomnia. How ironic…."
***
After being absent an entire school week, Davis, Yolei, TK, and Cody were finally at school again. Ken, who sat in the back of the class room, didn't get a chance to talk to them or Kari until lunchtime.
"Come sit with us, Ken," Kari said, kicking Davis's leg so he'd move over.
"Thanks," Ken said, sitting between after Davis reluctantly moved over. Kari looked at his lunch tray. The color theme of everyone's meal seemed to be green. Macaroni noodles in a yellow-green sauce, a half a green banana, and opaque gray-green Jell-O….
"I thought you'd decided not to eat school lunch anymore," Kari said.
"I wasn't expecting to go to sleep last night, so I didn't have time to make my lunch at home," Ken explained, "but what is this anyway?"
"Macaroni and cheese, banana, avocado-flavored Jell-O," Kari said, "and milk."
Ken sighed.
"Hey, Cody says he's having trouble transitioning metrics," Yolei said, "Does anyone know any of those dorky memory cues he can use?" Cody was in a different grade and had a different lunchtime.
"Kitchen Helpers Do My Dishes Christmas Morning," Kari said.
"King Hector Died By Drinking Chocolate Milk," Davis said.
"Kids Have Died By Drinking Cafeteria Milk," Ken said, cautiously sniffing the contents of the tiny milk carton.
"You don't have to worry about that here," Davis said laughingly, sensing his disgust, "Even if that stuff does kill you, you can't blame it on milk. That's like… artificial milk made of soy, flour, wheat germ, and mechanically separated turkey."
"I don't think I'm hungry anymore…."
"If the milk bothers you," TK said, "make sure you plug your ears and hum if anyone—especially Davis—tries to tell you what's in the hamburgers."
"Guys," Yolei protested, "cut it out. You're being disgusting!"
"I didn't list the ingredients of anything," TK said defensively.
***
"Mr. Fujiyama!" Tai cried as he and Matt into the computer room after school, "There's some kid on the roof, and I think he's gonna jump!" Mr. Fujiyama, Kari, Davis, TK, Yolei, Cody, Ken, Joe, Sora, and Izzy stared at him in surprise.
"You work here!" Matt yelled, "You're good at counseling students! Hurry, go save him before it's too late!" He pointed frantically toward the door. Mr. Fujiyama half-ran and half-got-shoved out the door which Tai closed and locked. Demiveemon, Poromon, Upamon, Gatomon, Patamon, and Minomon looked out from the cupboard in confusion.
"You da man," Tai said to Matt, "And to think you're wasting your acting talents with a rock band. What a shame."
Matt had folding his arms and grinned proudly, but Tai's fake pity made him burst into a laugh. He said, "Come on, before he gets back."
"You guys are weird," Davis said, but he turned to the computer, held out his Digivice and said, "DigiPort open!"
***
After being joined by Gomamon, Biyomon, and Tentomon, who digivolved to Ultimate, and Agumon and Gabumon, who Warp-Digivolved to Megas, the rest of the group Armor digivolved, and everyone made their way to the beach.
"Alright, everyone," Tai called from his seat on Wargreymon's shoulder, "Be careful. They'll pop up any second. Most likely Billomon, but keep your eyes peeled for his buddies."
"Aw, you're expecting moi? I'm honored! Tsunami Blade!"
Everyone jumped in start as a wave crashed down on them. Waterlogged, but not too badly harmed, everyone stood to face their attacker and his serpent-like horse.
"Stand your ground everyone," Tai called.
"Yeah, we'll get 'em," Togemogumon said boldly.
"Ice-Wolf Claw!" MetalGarurumon bellowed. His icy blast barely missed the chortling evil Digimon who dove beneath the waves.
"Come and fight, coward!" Flamedramon challenged.
"Right!" Shurimon agreed.
"Your wish is my command!" Billomon giggled as he jumped back into the sky.
"Scatter!" Tai cried, realizing what Billomon's plan as even before the Digimon raised his sword. Everyone looked at Tai confusedly as the senior DigiDestined leaped away from one another.
"Ice Blade!" Billomon yelled, proving the order came too late.
With the group soaked from his previous attack, they were all instant ice sculptures.
Chapter II
Billomon and his horse Coursurfimon hung around just long enough to make sure the Digimon—particularly Flamedramon, Wargreymon, and Garudamon—didn't break out of the ice. Seeing that they stood no chance of escaping on their own, he counted them. It was impossible to tell exactly how many DigiDestined there are, but he was fairly sure no more would be showing up. Laughing haughtily at his own brilliance, he rode Coursurfimon into the ocean.
***
"Now, Mimi," Mrs. Tachikawa said, "Since this flight is so crowded, the stupid…um, airline people gave you a seat far away from us. Will you be okay?"
"Yeah, Mom," Mimi said as people squashed against them from all sides, "I'll see you later."
"Bye, Mimi! Be careful!"
"See ya, Mom!"
Mimi was shoved onto the plane by nervous time-stress people. She looked at her ticket and at a nearby seat. There was a person in the seats on either side of the one she was aiming for: two girls around age nine and twelve. The older-looking one had short dark brown hair with wisps of purple dye and the typical clothes of an American pre-teen. Her shirt said "Gap" on it. The other girl stared out the window. Her hair was long and brown. Her shorts and gloves were sky-blue. Her shirt was black with a lighter sky-blue on the upper third of it.
"Excuse me, I think this is my seat," Mimi said, squeezing past the irritated-looking darker-haired girl. Once she and her purse were positioned comfortably, she turned to the girl, "Hi."
"Hi," the girl said, "I'm Celeste."
"I'm Mimi," Mimi said, "Nice to meet you." Seeing the other girl didn't respond, she turned and said, "Hi," specifically to her. The girl turned, looking at Mimi with green eyes, as if she was surprised to be directly addressed.
"Konnichi wa," she said, smiling. Something about the hardness of her eyes suggested that she wasn't a very social person.
"Oh, how'd you know I'm Japanese?" Mimi asked.
"I didn't," she admitted, "but we're going to Japan, and I was just practicing."
Mimi smiled, "You'll be fine if you can say, 'Hello,' 'goodbye,' 'Thank you,' and 'Can you tell me where the rest room is?'."
"Yep," the girl said, "Bet Celeste can't say any of that though."
"Why should I have to?" Celeste asked, "Most people in Japan know English."
"But it's polite to greet people in their own language," the other girl said, "Not that you'd know anything about politeness…."
"And it's good to be able to ask for the rest room in case of emergencies," Mimi said.
Celeste rolled her eyes.
***
The next thing Kari remembered was unbearable coldness, yet her face and the end halves of her arms and legs seemed to no longer exist.
She opened her eyes. Her vision straightened after a moment and revealed tree branches. She sat up, and a brown leathery blanket fell off her. A small fire was burning just a few feet away, and another one was just ten or so feet off. The other ten DigiDestined were laying randomly around the two fires; each was unconscious, blue with cold, and wrapped in a thick brown blanket. The Digimon were around the same way, but they'd all de-digivolved.
Gatomon and Armadillomon had woken up, gone to the top of a half-buried boulder, and were now talking quietly. Kari began to stand, but her numb legs collapsed the instant she put her weight on them. She squeaked and scrambled backward, having almost landed in the fire.
"Careful, Kari!" Gatomon cried, noticing her awake for the first time.
"Are you okay?" It took Kari a moment to realize that she couldn't identify the voice. After frantically whipping her head around to search the surrounding forest areas, she heard, "No, I'm up here."
She looked at the base of the branches of a nearby tree and blinked in surprise. The owner of the voice appeared to be a boy just a little younger than her. He had silver-gray hair and bright blue eyes. His clothes were navy blue, and he had a black silver-buckled belt, gray gloves, gray boots, and a gray cape.
Kari only gaped at him, wondering, Is he a human?
"You're friend's right," he said, "You should be careful; even if you're immune to fire, frostbite should be defrosted slowly. You'll go into shock if you go leaping into the flames."
After a few more blinks, Kari asked, "What makes you think I'm immune to fire?"
"Nothing," he said, "but some Digimon are."
"I'm not a Digimon."
"I didn't think you were, but that just means I know even less about what you're immune to."
Kari considered for a moment, "What happened? Who are you?"
"My name is Kinomoto Katsuya," he said, jumping out of the tree and bowing, "but my friends call Ketti, and since you and your comrades stood up to that one bozo, you might as well call me that too.
"And after you got frosted, I went and got help from a Tyrannomon. He broke you out and helped me carry you here. He's good at building fires."
"Oh, thank you," Kari said. He gave her a look that said, 'Well?' and she remembered she hadn't introduced herself. She said, "I'm Kari. Nice to meet you. You're a human, right?"
"I don't know."
Kari looked at him quizzically, "Are you a Digimon?"
"Probably not."
"So…you have no idea what you are?"
"Not really," Ketti said, frowning in thought, "I'm probably either a Digimon, a human, or one of those formless Light…um, spirit…things…."
"Something tells me your not one of those Light spirits," Kari said, "I was possessed by one a couple of times. Plus you have a physical form."
"Yeah," Ketti said thoughtfully, "But you were possessed by a Light spirit?"
"Well, I don't think she…or he, or it… is really a spirit, or even a creature of Light," Kari said, "They work to preserve the balance between Light and Darkness. They're made of data and computer information just like Digimon, but they have no physical form."
Ketti looked thoughtful for a moment, then he smiled, and said, "Oh, I knew your name sounded familiar! You're Queen Kari, aren't you?"
"Um, yeah," Kari said, blushing, "I think I might have been called that a couple times…."
"I know a lot of Numemon," Ketti said. He bowed again, "It's an honor to meet you…."
"Do you have a Digivice?" Kari asked.
"What's a Digivice?"
"One of these things," Kari said. She used her numb fingers to pull her Digivice out of her pocket and showed it to him.
"Yeah, I have one of those," Ketti answered. He pulled out a navy-colored D3.
"Then you must be a DigiDestined," Kari said.
In less than two seconds, Ketti was back in the tree with a nervous look. He stammered, "Me? A DigiDestined? I doubt it!"
"I suppose you might be someone's Digimon since you don't know what you are," Kari said, "But Katsuya Kinomoto doesn't sound like a Digimon name."
"But DigiDestined are…" Ketti faded off with a lack of words. Kari waited stubbornly for him to finish, so he stuttered, "They're…incredible! Historical all-powerful beings from another world."
Kari smiled, "Well, we're not all-powerful…. Billomon did a good job of beating us up."
"Don't worry," Ketti said, "Digimon throughout the DigiWorld believe in you, and I'm sure any of them would be ready to back you up."
"That's good to know," Kari said.
"You did beat the Dark Masters," Ketti pointed out, "What are these guys to them? You beat the Digimon Emperor too."
"Good point with the Dark Masters, but the Digimon Emperor reformed," Kari said. She glanced to her left and noticed TK, Patamon, and Davis were awake.
"He did?" Ketti asked.
"Yep, that's him there," Kari gestured to her right.
"Hi," Ken said, surprising Kari.
"Who else is awake?" Kari asked. One by one, everyone said they were awake by or before the time Ketti had introduced himself. They all let him know who they were.
"It's nice to meet you," Ketti said.
"If you're a DigiDestined," Izzy said, "then you must have a Digimon partner."
"Do have a really close friend who's a Digimon?" Tentomon asked.
"No," Ketti said, "I have some friends, but I've never really fitted in that much."
"How did you come to the DigiWorld?" Tai asked.
"I think I was always here," Ketti said, "Gazimon and Maromon found me when I was little. I've never digivolved or anything though, so they figured I was an In-training with amnesia."
Davis looked at his watch and said, "It was nice to meet you, Ketti, but if everyone's thawed out, we need to be going. Are parents are expecting us home in a few minutes."
"What's a parent?"
"For humans, a parent is one of two people that make dinner and wake you up in the morning," Wormmon said.
"Oh," Ketti said, "Well maybe I'll see you later."
"I'm sure you will," Kari said.
Ketti escorted them to the TV, moving much faster over the land than the other humans, and watched intently as they went through the DigiPort.
"Maybe I can do that," he thought to himself, "but I'd have to asked them first."
***
The DigiDestined barely had time to pick themselves up off the floor before Mr. Fujiyama came near the door. Davis hurriedly unlocked it, pretending to open it out of courtesy.
"There weren't any students on the roof," Mr. Fujiyama said, "Are you sure you saw someone up there?"
"Tai found me in halls, I didn't see anything," Matt said and shrugged.
"I'm sure I saw someone up there," Tai insisted.
"Only Mr. Yoshimura," Mr. Fujiyama said. Matt blinked a few times, frowned, and smacked Tai in the head.
"You dipwit!" he snapped, "Can't you tell the difference between a student and the janitor?!"
"Sorry, I told Mom I needed glasses," Tai moaned, "Maybe the janitor needs counseling."
Chapter III
"Hey, Joe!" someone called to Joe as he walked home.
He turned and blinked in surprised, "Hey, Mimi-chan!" He hugged her when she reached him and asked, "What brings you home?"
"Dad's business trip," Mimi said, "Mom and I wanted to visit family and friends. But as far as I'm concerned, who needs plain old friends? I have two families!"
"We missed you too," Joe said, "and we're glad you're here to help."
"Did I hear right about the Digimon Emperor?" Mimi asked, pulling out of their hug.
"Yeah," Joe said, "Apparently, he's on our side, but he still gives me the jitters. Only Kari seems comfortable around him…but now we have a bigger problem."
"Oh?" Mimi asked.
"The Dragoon Masters," Joe said, "I think they copied the Dark Masters and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They're Megas."
"Uh-oh," Mimi said.
"As much as I'd love to stay here and catch you up on everything," Joe said, "that's most of the big stuff and I'll never hear the end of it from my dad if I come home late again."
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," Mimi said.
"Bye."
***
The entire group, including Mimi, got together at the park the next day after school to discuss the next mission.
"He froze you so easily?" Mimi questioned, "That's awful. I wonder if I could find a way to bring Michael and Willis over here. Oh, and Tanemon still needs help."
"Don't worry. If she's under their control, they won't hurt her," Sora said. "How long are you staying?"
"We have to be home next Monday," Mimi answered sadly.
"And this is Tuesday," Joe pointed out.
"Might as well make the best of this visit," Mimi said, "So who was that kid that helped you?"
"He went by Ketti, but his full name is Katsuya Kinomoto," Kari said, "He seemed pretty nice. He had a Digivice and said he'd been in the DigiWorld for as long as he could remember."
"If he's in the DigiWorld, is his Digimon in this world?" Mimi asked laughingly.
"I doubt it, but that would explain why the two haven't met," Izzy said, "If a Digimon existed constantly in this world, someone would have found it, and we'd have heard about it."
"Maybe some really friendly human found it and hid it so it'd be safe," TK suggested.
"I know if I found some unidentified lost little creature," Kari said, "I'd help it hide."
"For all we know, it could be some kind of thing people make up stories about," Tai said, "Like Big Foot, Kappa, or the Loch Ness Monster."
"What do ya think Big Foot would digivolve into?" Yolei asked.
"Probably turns into the Lock Ness Monster," Davis said.
"It could look so much like a Real-World animal that no one's given it a second glance," Matt suggested, ignoring Yolei and Davis.
"Squirrelmon?" Cody questioned, watching a nearby squirrel run up a tree with a nut.
"Are you a Digimon?" Upamon called to the squirrel, only scaring it off.
"It was worth a try," TK said.
"I heard about a two-headed snake on TV," Mimi said.
"You did?!" Sora demanded.
"Yep, it was kinda 'Y' shaped."
"Is there a way we could contact the Digimon?" Joe asked, "Something that would reach all over the Real World and DigiWorld?"
"Is there just one cyberspace?" Ken asked.
"Maybe," Izzy said to Joe.
"What does cyberspace have to do with this conversation?" Davis asked, sounding irritated.
Ken flinched angrily, sensing that Davis was trying to make him mad, and said, "If my theory is correct and there's only one cyberspace, then it exists neither in this world or the digital world."
"So?"
"If we have access to the Internet in this world," Yolei said, "Then they have the same web pages and such in the DigiWorld."
"Right," Ken said, "What are the chances this Digimon reads the Internet classifieds?"
Everybody considered for a moment, then Izzy said, "That might work…."
"Ken, you're a genius!" Kari praised.
"You know, if I hadn't heard those same words so many times when I was younger," Ken said quietly, looking uncomfortable, "I probably would never have tried to take over the world."
"Oh, sorry," Kari said.
"Anyway, we should include the URL to a web site," Ken said, "So if one of our parents happen to be reading the classifieds, they won't be confused as to why there's their phone number or their kid's email there."
"Good idea," Izzy said, "Hopefully he speaks English. I'll make a site on Angelfire."
"You're gonna make a web site? Just like that?" Davis asked.
"It's not hard if you know what you're doing," Izzy said.
An hour later the article in the classifieds read: "
Services of a Destined Digimon needed. If you do not know what a Digimon is, you are not qualified. To see other qualifications, see www.angelfire.com/jp4/digidestined.""Looks professional," Tai commented, "We don't have to worry about regular humans asking questions."
"Great," Izzy said.
"Hey, I'll tell Michael to keep a lookout in New York," Mimi said. She took out a cell phone and speed dialed.
"Michael?" Yolei questioned, stars in her eyes.
"She must have really great service if she can call all the way around the world," Joe commented.
"Hey, Michael, it's Mimi," Mimi said, "I'm great, how are you? Look, we need you to keep an eye out for a Digimon without a partner. There's a new DigiDestined, but we can't find his Digimon. Okay, thanks, bye." She turned to the others and said, "He'll be watching!"
Chapter IV
"Anyway, Ketti," Kari said, "Since we're in this together, we ought to try and find your Digimon. You'd be a big help to us."
"I'd love to find my Digimon," Ketti said sadly, leaning against a tree in the DigiWorld, "but I just can't seem to…. I've asked everyone I know to help me look. Airdramon, Mojyamon, Gazimon, and others. None of them have found him yet."
"Why don't you come to the Real World with us and look there?" Ken asked, "Your Digimon might be there if you spent your whole life in the DigiWorld."
"Go to the Real Word?" Ketti brightened, "Awesome!"
"Well, come on then!" Gatomon said. Wormmon nodded.
***
"HOW DO YOU STOP THIS THING?!"
"Seadramon! Can't you go any faster?!"
"Couldn't we go by plane?!"
"It was too expensive!" Michael called to Lopmon. Lopmon and Teriamon were holding onto Willis from dear life. Willis, whose face had taken on a greenish hue, and Michael were clinging to Seadramon's head the same way.
"I'm getting seasick!" Willis complained.
"We'll stop at Panama!" Michael said, "We have to use their canal."
"We're on a sea serpent, not a boat! And can't we make a pit stop in Florida?"
"Seadramon will de-digivolve and we'll stow away until we're in open waters. And no, we're in a hurry. Mimi sent me an email about the Dragoon Masters after she called me. The others will need all the help they can get!"
"Can we take a break at Hawaii?"
"Fine, but don't start acting like a tourist!"
***
A few hours later, Willis and Michael crawled onto the beach near Tokyo and collapsed in the sand. Betamon, Lopmon, and Teriamon were hiding in their partners' partially unzipped backpacks.
"O genki desu ka?" someone asked.
Willis and Michael looked up and saw the not-so-talkative girl Mimi had sat next to on the plane. They wordlessly blinked up at her.
"Nande wa anta desu ka?" the girl asked. Out in the sun, her hair looked streaked red and blond. She looked pretty concerned.
"What did she say?" Willis asked.
"I have no idea," Michael admitted.
"What are you? Are you okay?" the girl repeated, "It's okay. I'm from the US, so my English is better than my Japanese."
"Humans, yes, thank you," Willis said, confused by her first English question, "Can you tell us the way to Odaiba Junior High?"
"Sure, it's just down the street from my school. I'll take you there myself because I have to be there."
***
Mimi froze when three people came around the corner of the school hallways.
"Oh, hi, Mimi," the girl said, "What are you doing here on Saturday?"
"Oh, Melanie, I…um, I'm… serving detention," Mimi said. She mentally slapped herself for such a lame excuse.
"Where you the person that made the bubble gum mosaic on the wall out there?" Willis asked.
"Um, it was a group effort. I only put on one piece…" Mimi said, getting a big sweatdrop.
"Oh," Melanie laughed, "I'm here to work on my Japanese with Mr. Tsukishima."
"Oh, you're getting better," Mimi said, "Michael?!"
"I was beginning to think you'd gone blind…" Michael muttered.
"It's nice to see you," Mimi said. A scream was heard from the nearby computer room. Mimi gasped, "Yolei!" The four of them ran toward the computer room.
"You savage greedy little beasts!" Yolei scream, apparently having been tackled by the starving Demiveemon, Upamon, Poromon, and Patamon in their desperate attempt to confiscate her bag of food. She picked herself up off the floor, and sighed in exasperation.
"What happened?" Melanie asked, not noticing that Mimi was deliberately blocking her vision.
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, Yolei, Cody, Davis, and TK rushed to form a wall between the door and the feasting Digimon before she forced her head in.
"Hi!" everyone quickly said at once with a miserably-failed attempt a casualness.
"Uh… hi," Melanie said.
"Um," Mimi said, "These are my friends Yolei—"
"Hi!"
"Cody—"
"Hello!"
"Davis—"
"How's it going?"
"And TK."
"Nice to meet you," TK said. The four of them got big sweatdrops.
"I know they're weird," Mimi explained, "You get used to them."
"They're okay," Melanie said, "These guys mysteriously rose from the ocean and crawled onto the beach like a couple of sick frogs." She gestured to Michael and Willis.
A mumbling came from Michael's direction, followed by a quick motion of his fist and a thump that sounded in unison with something that sounded suspiciously like, "Ow!"
"Did your backpack just say something?" Melanie asked.
"Um, no, that was Willis, huh, Willis?"
"Hmm, what? OW! I mean, yeah…."
Melanie gave him a funny look, but she said, "I'll see you all later, I can't be late for Mr. Tsukishima."
"Bye-bye," Mimi said.
Melanie turned away, heard a crashing sound from within the room, and turned back to see Kari, Ketti, Ken, Gatomon, and Minomon in a heap on the floor. Her eyes widened.
"Ow," Ketti muttered. His clothes were the same as before, save that he was wearing a T-shirt and didn't have his gloves or cape.
"Sorry," Kari said, "We always say we'll put some pillows or somethin' here, but we just never get around to it."
"Uh, guys…" TK said uneasily as they got up.
"What?" Kari asked.
"Oh, hi!" Ketti said amiably, "I haven't met the four of you. I'm Ketti, what are your names?"
Ken and Kari's eyes widened in surprise as they saw Melanie.
"I'm Michael."
"I'm Willis."
"I'm Mimi."
Ketti turned to Melanie. Tears welled up in her shocked-looking eyes, as she ran down the hall screaming, "They lied to me!"
"Hmm," Ketti thought, "Some off the people here have really funny names…."
Chapter V
"Who lied to her?" Mimi asked.
"Who cares, but what are we gonna tell her?" Davis asked.
"We'll worry about that later, meanwhile, we still have to find Ketti's Digimon," Kari said.
"Okay," Davis said, "Where do we start?"
"Here?" TK asked.
"It's as good a place as any, I guess," Davis accepted. The gang followed Ketti around the school in hopes that his Digivice would begin to activate if his Digimon was nearby.
"I still resent that sick frog remark," Betamon said grouchily.
"So, what did you guys tell your parents?" TK asked Michael and Willis.
"I'm backpacking near Buffalo," Willis said.
"You sure do an awful lot of backpacking," Kari laughed.
"At least I'm not in New Jersey attending the National Shuffleboard Championships," Willis said laughingly.
"It was the first thing I thought of!" Michael said defensively, "Mom knows I have to do a paper on it."
"You mean they really have National Shuffleboard Championships?!"
"Sure."
***
After her class was over, Melanie ran through the streets of Tokyo at a speed that made people stare. After she passed, they turned toward the direction she'd come from as if expecting to see some sort of homicidal maniac tailing her.
She ran into the park and immediately headed for a large tree whose branches branched out in vine-like twigs of leaves. Melanie didn't know what kind of tree it was, but in the back of her mind she identified it as something similar to a weeping willow. She jumped onto the lowest branch and bounced up to one a few feet higher. She didn't bother to acknowledge the fact that the average—or even above average—human being couldn't simply hop up four feet like she did.
She sat on the branch and began to cry uncontrollably. She muttered, "They lied to me…." She thought back to where her memorable life had started.
***
She opened her eyes. There was a sympathetic and friendly-looking man standing over her. She asked, "Who are you? Where am I?"
"I'm Dr. Smith, and you're in the hospital due to a nasty bump on the head," the man said, "Can you tell me who you are?"
The girl thought but couldn't think of her name. She said, "No. I don't remember. Do I have amnesia?"
"I'm afraid so," the doctor said.
"Who am I?"
"I don't know," Dr. Smith said sadly, "I'm sorry."
It was a few days later when the girl's aunt, uncle, and cousin came to the hospital. She was told that she had lived with them since she was very little because her parents had been involve in a deadly car accident. She was told her name was Melanie and that she lived in San Diego, California. She was supposed to be eight at the time, and her birthday was in March.
Years went by, and occasionally her cousin Celeste would slip out a phrase like, "Who knows where you came from?" during an argument. It wasn't much, but when her aunt and uncle gave the sharp-tongued girl evil looks, it made Melanie think.
***
"So maybe Celeste was right," Melanie thought, "Maybe I was dropped here by aliens. I don't know how I got on this planet, but I do know why. I was seven then, not eight. My birthday is in August; I'm a Leo not a Pisces."
She jumped out of the tree and wiped her tears away. She said, "I'm not Melanie Schultz, I'm not human, and I'm not some wimp that's gonna sit around and let destiny pass her by!"
***
"We'll check the playground and then head to the park," Davis said tiredly. Ketti nodded, getting bored himself. After walking across the playground, which appeared to be deserted, the group sighed in disappointment and turned around in unison.
"Yah!" Yolei shouted as Ketti and the others came face-to-face with Melanie.
"Uh, Melanie…?" Mimi asked, "About earlier… they were rehearsing a magic show and—"
"My name's not Melanie," 'Melanie' said.
"It's…not?"
"Nope," she said, "I am Shoujomon." She touched Ketti's Digivice. It emitted a sudden wave of turquoise light before dimming away. The creature identifying herself as 'Shoujomon' grinned and said, "It's nice to meet you Ketti."
"Are you my Digimon?" Ketti asked.
"Mmm-hmm!" Shoujomon nodded.
"You're a Digimon?" Davis asked in disbelief, "What's your attack?"
"Bubble Blow," Shoujomon said, "See? Bubble Blow!" She exhaled a single large pink bubble.
"What's so dangerous about a pink bubble?" Davis asked, reaching to poke the bubble.
"Acid," Ketti said. He spoke too late. The bubble popped, Davis squeaked, and his finger went quickly into his mouth the relieve the pain.
"Obviously, this is the first time I've seen her," Gatomon said, "But I've heard of Shoujomon. Her level is In-training, her attack, needless to say, is Bubble Blow, and her group is Anthropoid. She looks so much like a human that it's hard to tell the difference."
"That's right," Shoujomon said. She explained, "I had amnesia. I didn't even now what a Digimon was because the people who claimed to be my aunt and uncle told me that my few fuzzy memories were just something I'd dreamed about or seen on TV. So I thought I was human."
"So did we," Mimi laughed, "What gave you your memory back?"
"Ketti's Digivice!" Shoujomon grinned. Her watch began beeping. She turned the alarm off and frowned, saying, "I was supposed to head home…."
"Go then," Ketti said, surprising her, "You're family will worry if you don't. I'll see you tomorrow."
"But they lied…they're not really my family," she said.
"A Digimon's family is a group of people that they care for and that cares for them. They take care of each other, like close friends that live together," he said, "Since you had amnesia, did you have a home before them?"
"Oh… good point," Shoujomon accepted, "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Ketti said.
Chapter VI
The DigiDestined met in the computer room the next day. Shoujomon was the last Real World inhabitant to show up.
"Now we just have to wait for Ketti," Willis said. As if on cue, Ketti came through the DigiPort and landed on the floor.
Davis said, "Okay, we can go now."
***
The group entered the DigiWorld, again in the Yokomon Village. To their poor luck, they found that the village was already under attack by a group of eight Mechanorimon. Frantic Yokomon were scurrying everywhere.
"Hey, look! Tai and the others are here!" Agumon called, "We can digivolve!"
"No we can't!" Tentomon whined.
"Gabumon digivolve to…" Gabumon called. He sighed, realizing Tentomon was right. He shouted, "Blue Blaster! Hah!" The Mechanorimon he was aiming at stopped moving for a few seconds, but was otherwise unharmed.
"We can't digivolve either," Teriamon complained. Betamon and Lopmon nodded.
"Armor Digivolve, everyone!" Davis ordered.
"DigiArmor energize!" he, TK, Kari, Yolei, Ken, and Cody shouted.
"Veemon…"
"Patamon…"
"Gatomon…"
"Hawkmon…"
"Wormmon…"
"Armadillomon…"
"Armor Digivolve to…" they said together.
"Flamedramon!"
"Pegasusmon!"
"Nefertimon!"
"Shurimon!"
"Bullmon!"
"Digmon!"
"Yeah! Blast 'em, guys!" TK cheered.
"Star Shower!" Pegasusmon cried. Most of the Mechanorimon he attacked didn't seemed to be too badly damaged, but the one that got the most of the attack reconfigured.
"Matador Dash!" Bullmon snorted. He lowered his head, charged forward, and knocked the Mechanorimon he hit about fifty feet.
"Twin Beam!" in responded, knocking Bullmon into the fountain. Ken winced and looked at his Digimon worriedly. Bullmon stumbled up and looked for a target among the panicky Yokomon.
"I think they're out numbered unless those Yokomon fight," Ketti's Digimon said.
"Yeah," Ketti said. He looked at her and asked, "You digivolved when you came through the DigiPort? What's your name now?"
"Tolumon," she said proudly. She still looked vaguely humanoid and was the same height as before. She had a long white sleeveless dress that hid her feet; the flowing skirt was sown to white bands on her wrist. Each hand looked like a cross between a hand and a paw, and she had short sharp claws. Her hair looked a little shorter, and she had pointed catlike ears. Her skin was covered in very short tan fur, her nose was black, and her pupils didn't seem quite as round as they were before.
Ketti started to speak, but Yolei came up to them and said, "Here, let's see if she can digivolve. I'll make a copy of one of my DigiEggs. You have a d-terminal?" He showed his d-terminal to her, and she hook it up to hers. After pushing a few buttons, she said, "There."
"Thanks," Ketti said. He looked at the DigiEgg on the screen; Yolei had randomly chosen the DigiEgg of Love. He said, "DigiArmor Energize!"
"Tolumon armor digivolve to… Feonamon!"
Ketti looked at Feonamon, the big cat-headed bird with paws instead of talons. Her body was navy blue, but her head was white with the Crest of Love printed on her forehead in red. She had useless-looking paws on her wing joints. She looked at her partner, grinned and took flight.
Ketti smiled and looked at his D3 and d-terminal. He murmured, "Wow, I really am a DigiDestined."
"Sonic Gale!" Feonamon squawked. She gave a sharp flap of her wings and sent a whirlwind spiraling down onto a Mechanorimon. The robot disintegrated. A little black cube about two inches on each side fell to the ground where the Mechanorimon had been standing.
Ken walked over a picked it up. No one else seemed to notice it. The other DigiDestined cheered as the battle ended, so he put it in his pocket and joined them.
Feonamon and the other Digimon de-digivolved and went to their partners.
"Way to go everyone!" Davis said.
"Great job for a first battle, you guys," Kari said to Ketti and Tolumon.
"With them, plus Mimi, Michael, and Willis," Tai said, "that's five more Digimon than was with us last time. We'll be able to beat the Dragoon Master easy!"
"That's great," Tentomon said, "but aren't you guys even curious to why those Mechanorimon were attacking us?"
"Oh, I forgot about that," Tai said.
"I assume they work for the Dragoon Masters?" Izzy asked.
"Probably," Tentomon said, "We don't know why they attacked either."
"Calm down everyone!" Biyomon had been saying to the Yokomon throughout this whole conversation and most of the battle. Sora joined her, and the Yokomon stopped bouncing around.
"I guess we come back tomorrow," Tai said, "Most of the Digimon are pooped."
"So we're just going to let the Dragoon Masters sit around for another day?" Davis demanded.
"Unfortunately, yes," Tai said solemnly, "As annoying as it is, and despite all the extra help we have, we need to be at top strength when we face them." He turned to Agumon, "Why couldn't you digivolve?"
"I don't know, Tai," Agumon said, "I just couldn't. It felt exactly how it did when there was a Control Spire around." He pointed to the ruins of the Control Spire that had been there before, "That one's still broken."
"Hmm," Izzy said, "That's something we'll have to look into. In the meantime, let's be glad of what we've already accomplished, though it's not very much."
"Izzy's right," Tai said, "Perk up everyone. Let's go home and get some rest, 'cause we'll need it tomorrow."
The others nodded.
The End