Pursuit of Light

by DarkCraze

A Takari story. Kari, separated from Tai and the others by Puppetmon, finds herself lost as she searches for a frightened and lost T.K., while at the same time realizing faint emotions for him and battling her own innermost fears of being alone.

1. Targeted Playmate

Author's Note: I do not own Digimon.  If I did I would be the richest frickin' genius in the WORLD!  But unfortunately, because I don't please do not try to sue me (that goes to you, Saban, Fox Kids and Toei), because all that you'll get from me is $2.79, a paper clip and a bottle cap I found at the bottom of my pocket.  Also, for your convenience, this fic is set to immediately follow "The Ultimate Clash" from Season 1, and right before "Etemon's Comeback Tour".  I know, this story never took place in the Digi-timeline, but please try to believe that it does, or just imagine if it does, 'cause it would provide an interesting look into the possible start of Takari.  Oh, and please feel free to place the digivolving special effects, theme songs and any other background music in an ordinary episode where you feel they should go.

Chapter One: Targeted Playmate

The warm, gloriously bright day began to draw to a close in the Digital World as night neared and the tired Digidestined searched for a site to rest.  There were only five at the moment, seeing how Matt, Joe and Mimi had departed from the group only hours before and went on their own ways within Puppetmon's dark and massive forest.  No signs that they would actually run into one another soon were concrete, so the status of the three's well-being was open to speculation.  That fact only led to more worried thoughts, and with the sky beginning to grow dark and their stomachs aching from hunger, the kids felt their normally bright hopes grow sullen.

T.K., who was filled with quiet dismay for the moment, had begun to stray from the group and follow from a distance.  His thumbs tucked through the straps of his backpack, he could only reflect on his older brother's actions from earlier that day.  He still could not understand what had prompted Matt to "find his own path."  The possibilities of what thoughts had been running through the older boy's mind were endless.  Had he made his decision under the context of safety for the others?  Did he feel embarrassed for his brawl earlier with Tai and could not stand seeing their expressions of judgment?

Or worse, did he do it because he had grown tired of watching over T.K?

That last thought struck T.K. as it came to him.  He had figured that was the reason Matt had disappeared just before the incident with the Garbagemon.  Memories of the past flashed briefly in his head.  He could remember how DemiDevimon had come to him when Matt was searching for the other children, leaving him alone in the deserted amusement park.  The winged digimon had said Matt would never come back for him, that he had become tired of being with a "crybaby."  Although his claims had been proven false later on, T.K. still suspected that Matt had partly enjoyed being free of his little brother.  Now with this sudden development, it could easily be suggested that he wanted to taste that freedom once again.

T.K. tried to look up at his hat, where Patamon was currently resting.  He felt the need to talk to his companion about his thoughts and hopefully get a second opinion in the matter.  Yet he could sense that the digimon had fallen asleep during their walk.  His small feet and legs had been tucked into his round body and his bat ears hung low.  T.K. could even hear a mild snoring sound escape the digimon's throat.  This didn't bring much comfort to T.K.'s hopes.  He stared down at the dirt path disappointedly and sighed to himself.

Kari, who had picked up the faint noise, glanced back at T.K. and could see the gloomy air about his expression.  Not knowing if it was serious or not, and not having much experience in cheering others up or the motivation, for she herself felt weary and troubled from the long day's events, she turned forward again and concentrated on the conversation between the older children.

"We can't keep walking.  We've got to find somewhere to sleep for the night and soon," Tai suggested, glancing around at the thick trees that lined their narrow path.

"Not to mention that our digimon need to eat something," Sora acknowledged.

"Don't worry about us," Biyomon told her as she kept in pace with the girl at her side.  "We can go on for another day without food.  It's you we need to find food for."

"Now look, that wouldn't be a smart thing to do," Izzy informed.  "If we're to beat the Dark Masters we need to keep all of our strength up.  It wouldn't look good if they attacked us while we're all at our weakest states."

"No kidding," Tai concurred.  "Puppetmon almost creamed us the last time we ran into him.  If we see him again we have to be ready no matter what."

Koromon looked up at Tai from where he carried him in front of his body.  "I'll take on that block of wood any day," he said, in hope that his boast would brighten their moods.

Sora smiled.  "Not while you're like that, Koromon."

"Come on, we have to think logically," Gatomon told them.  "If we're going to beat Puppetmon we need a plan of attack.  We can't just hope that we'll defeat him on the first try.  We need to think."

"Can't do that on an empty stomach, though," Tentomon pointed out.

As the older children continued to debate their course of activity, thoughts of T.K. continued to fill Kari's mind.  She had not actually spoken directly to him much since the confrontation against Myotismon's deadly forces and their own arrival back in the DigiWorld, and when she had it had not been for friendly leisure discussion.  She was spending most of her time adjusting to this new role of hers, as the newest Digidestined, to pretend as if everything was okay and behave like she did around her friends at home.  Yet this knowledge she held of sensing something plaguing young T.K.'s thoughts only stirred her more so than she already was.

Kari stared up at the mix of pink and yellow covering the sky.  She studied it as she walked, lost in its grand beauty and scope, feeling a slight chill run through her body as the cold night began to make its presence known.  For a moment she was lost in a trance of some sort, like if she was awaiting an answer of what to do from some celestial origin.

Gatomon looked up at her and noticed the distant look in the girl's eyes.  "Kari, what's on your mind?" she asked, interested in what was running through her companion's head. 

Kari, hearing the digimon's words, brought herself out of her spell and looked down toward the feline.  "Huh?  Oh, it's nothing," she replied, accompanying her words with a short smile.

When Gatomon looked forward again, deciding to abandon her curiosity, Kari turned her eyes back briefly at the young boy who was still trailing far behind them, staring downward at the floor.  She sighed to herself, having found no available answer as to what it was that was bringing this out of him.  She could only hope that she would see him drift out of his condition and say something to the rest of the group.

Far off in another area of the forest, watching from a high elevation and hidden within the shrubbery of the tree he stood on, the wicked Puppetmon kept his attention on the now-smaller group of children which he had come across several hours before.  The mischievous Dark Master could care less about why the Digidestined had declined in its membership all of a sudden.  He knew that as long as he could make them suffer he would be content.

He chuckled to himself.  "So, the Digidestined think they're going to get a good night's sleep, huh?" he said to himself in his signature childish rasp.  "Well, they've got another thing coming if they think they'll be safe around me!"

He spotted the youngest boy at the tail of the group, feeling a short wave of contempt sweep by himself.  He could still remember how T.K. had tricked him back when they were inside his mansion.  The cruel joke was lingering in his mind as he watched him from afar.

"That T.K. will learn what it means to mess with me," the insane wooden boy muttered to himself, running his fingers against the cold handle of his mallet at his side.  "If he thinks that making me look like the fool is funny, he hasn't seen me play with my life-size tanks at home.  He's going to…"

He drifted off his sentence as he drew his attention off of T.K. and to the young girl not too far ahead of him.  The one who was looking at T.K. with such a concerned expression on her face.  The one who had been once referred to as the eighth Digidestined child, the one named Kari.

Puppetmon couldn't help but let a new idea flicker inside his mind.  He had grown tired of playing with T.K., and was ready to bring him great pain now.  But the girl could serve as a suitable substitute, and with seeing how worried she appeared for the boy it would be easy to kill two birds with one stone—in a literal sense…

"Ha, all work and no play makes me a stiff two-by-four.  Well, I guess I have someone new to play with," the twisted marionette said to himself.  "Time to get ready, Kari, because I don't like to play fair.  And when I do, it's for keeps…."

*  *  *  *  *

"Hmmm, this looks like a good spot for us to spend the night," Tai said to himself as he observed the small clearing that they had come upon.  He turned back to the others, who were barely approaching his position.  "We better get a fire going so we can get warm.  Plus we need to find some food."

"Oh, good.  I'll be in charge of that department," Tentomon stated as he gave his insectoid wings a jolt of life and buzzed off in the direction of the trees along the clearing.  "Food is my specialty."

Izzy groaned.  "Do you always think with your stomach?" he asked humorously, watching as Biyomon quickly ran to accompany the digimon.

"Hey, I'm a bug.  We always have to eat," was Tentomon's simple reply.

Izzy began to sit down in the center of the clearing and place his laptop before him.  "I'm sure I can find a science teacher back at home who would prove otherwise."

Koromon dropped out of Tai's hands and dropped in front of his feet.  "Come on, Tai.  Let's go look for some firewood for the campfire."

"Sure thing," Tai agreed.  He began to follow the bouncing pink head toward another part of the clearing when he glanced back at Sora.  "Hey, Sora, wanna help?"

Sora nodded.  "Oh, okay," she said.  She stepped away from where she stood and started to follow the big-haired boy.  She looked back toward the two younger kids.  "You two stay here for now, okay?" she told them with the soft influence of a mother that she possessed.

Kari nodded as Sora and Tai jogged off in search for flammable bark among the trees.  The sun had disappeared many minutes before and all light except that of the creamy white moon and the diamond stars against the sky was nonexistent.  The forest was shrouded in darkness and all that was around them was wrapped within a blanket of thick shadows.

The brown-haired girl moved her eyes toward T.K. once again, who was standing not that far away behind her.  His pig-like friend had already woken up and was now gliding down from his comfortable seat to better observe the area.  T.K., however, hadn't changed during the rest of the walk and still held a look of deep inner thought and emotion dipped with despair, his usually bright blue eyes staring down at the ground.

Kari frowned and could only wonder of what to do.

Within a few minutes Tai, Sora and Izzy had successfully sparked a thirsty fire (with a little assistance from Tentomon and his spark-inducing attack) with the firewood they had assembled before themselves.  They sat around the growing blaze and adjusted its perimeters, while bringing warmth to their shivering bodies, as they waited for the insect and feathered digimon to return with a harvest of berries that they had spotted inside the trees.

Tai and Sora moved smaller sticks of wood into the red flames while Izzy sat close by, engrossed in an activity with his computer.  Kari was busy finishing the last of her own berries that they had collected when searching the plant life.  Then all of a sudden she walked away from the center and carried her own food in her pink scarf toward T.K.

The small boy sat away from them, resting against a tree with his back at the edge of the clearing.  Patamon paid no attention to his friend and ate some of the berries they had given the two.  T.K. did not seem to mind.  He was lost in his thoughts yet again, poking at the ground with a short stick in a contemplative manner.  He did not look like he was searching for answers to complex philosophical questions, because he just stabbed at the dirt repeatedly in a routine order.

Kari stopped in front of him and knelt to his eye level.  "Want some of my food?" she offered, generously holding the scarf out.

T.K. raised his solemn eyes to her.  "Nah, it's okay," he replied without much emotion or light.  "You eat them.  You need to keep yourself going."

Kari had become tired of his slow, sad impression and knew she could not let himself continue like this.  "Are you okay?" she asked, sitting down before him.  "What's wrong?  You don't seem like everything's alright."

T.K. could tell there was no use to sulk in his emotions like this when she already acknowledged it was obvious to her.  Trying to avoid her eyes, he only found Patamon's instead, who had looked up from his food and was staring at him as well.  The small creature seemed to express similar concern, although it was a mystery to how he knew when he had not put much attention in the conversation.  The digimon continued to look up at him, waiting to see if something was really wrong.  T.K. moved his own eyes away and tried to concentrate on something other than them, but their influence had already made a mark on him.  He could not shut himself from the two now.

T.K. raised his innocent cerulean eyes up to Kari.  "It's Matt," he began to explain.  "I never thought that he would do this again, that he would leave me alone and go out on his own.  The last time he did I didn't see him for a long time.  I told him I could take care of myself only because I didn't want him to be angry with himself.  But… I don't know, this is hard to explain."

Kari moved closer, hoping he would feel more comfortable if he knew she was listening to him.  "Come on, you can try."

T.K. pressed his lips together, trying to construct his thoughts into one comprehensive collection.  "Well, have you ever thought you would let Tai down if you didn't do what he had asked for, or if he had to watch you and worry about you all the time?"

Kari nodded.  "Yeah, I've felt like that sometimes."

"That's how it is for me," T.K. continued, pulling his legs closer to his chest and pressing the bottom of his chin against his knees.  "I want to make Matt proud.  I want him to believe he doesn't have to worry about me.  But I don't know… if I can handle myself being alone without him."

Kari reached out and placed a warm hand on his knee.  "You have the rest of us to hang around with, so don't worry about being alone and scared.  And besides, maybe what Matt is doing is for the best.  Big brothers are hard to understand that way.  I know that when Tai doesn't want me to be around him it's because he doesn't want me to get hurt.  Matt might have his own reasons, but for whatever he's doing this for it has to be because of you.  Maybe he wants to become a better big brother for you, T.K."

T.K. could tell that her efforts were mainly to brighten his mood.  Although he was still very young, he had gained some insight to how others spoke to small kids.  But there was something different to how she was acting.  Despite that she was as young as him and believed in knowing how elder siblings behaved, her soft tone of voice and kind expression seemed to reveal another part to her.  He was not sure what he felt from it exactly, but he sensed an inner glow of warmth that he never experienced from another person before.  It could have just been the body heat she was passing along through her touch.  All he could understand about it was that it was very comforting.

T.K. felt more at ease now as the young girl once again offered the berries she carried in her scarf.  She gestured that he take some for himself.  "Come on, you gotta eat."

With some brief hesitation and consideration, the young boy reached out and picked one of the berries with his fingers.  He politely plucked it into his mouth and began to chew it slowly.  He smiled at the taste of it.  Kari let a short giggle escape at the sight of the first smile T.K. had put on all day.

While the two children continued to share their meal, the other three children sat around the campfire that was now healthy and crackling with sparkles of crimson embers.  Tai and Sora were busy focusing on the fire and eating their food.  Tai had found interest in heating one of the berries like a marshmallow at the end of a stick, either to make sure he could have at least one warm meal for the night, or to make an attempt at juicing all of the flavor from the berry and make some delicious preserve free of contaminants.  Near them, Koromon and Gatomon chomped on their berries.  The plump pink head sat across from the feline and they picked from the same pile in front of them.  Izzy sat nearby, focusing his mind only on his laptop, indifferent to the activities of the other children and the digimon.  His face revealed a worried look as the computer struggled with functioning correctly.  He gently tapped at a side panel.

Come on, don't do this to me, he told the computer with a thought.

He winced in pain and moaned as the screen began to grow dim.  He noticed a small icon begin to blink near the bottom of the display and realized what was wrong.

"The battery is starting to die out," he muttered aloud, no doubtedly trying to draw the attention of his peers.  "If I don't get it charged up soon I won't be able to use the Digimon Analyzer."

"Well then worry about it after we eat," Tai suggested, not giving the red-haired boy the comforting support he had been hoping for.  "Unless you can find some way to order a banquet through that thing in the middle of nowhere it doesn't matter right now."  He picked up his stick and stared sourly at the berry that had shriveled up into a small prune-like mess.  He turned his attention toward the trees far off in the distance, where the digimon were still on their scavenger hunt.  "Hey, hurry up over there!  The rest of us are hungry and it doesn't take that long to gather berries!"

"It does if you want good ones," Biyomon replied to herself, unaffected by Tai's bossy manner.  She stepped with careful balance across a thin branch, glancing quickly at the large insectoid who was using his curved claws to poke at the shrubbery of the trees.  "Find anything good yet, Tentomon?"

"Not at the moment, but I'm not finished yet.  Or at least my stomach isn't," he told her while moving through the plants.  His oval-shaped jade eyes then noticed something that caught his attention.  He dug further into the massive clumps of twigs from a thin dangling vine just a few inches away from his reach.  The bulb was jet-black and had small red leaves sprouting around from its top.  It looked like a plum, and with a dark, plump exterior as this one had it could easily be concluded that it was packed with luscious juice.

"Oh, boy, delicious fruit!" Tentomon exclaimed as he reached out in hope to satisfy his palette, assuming he had one in his physiology.  "I just love fruit!"

He opened his mouth and clamped it around the bulb when a sudden cry shook the leaf-covered branches above him.  "Ouch!  Hey, who are you calling a fruit?!"

The voice and tug by the vine startled Tentomon so greatly that he stumbled and slipped from the branch when he tried to step away.  He had no time to stretch out his wing appendages and safely stop his fall in mid-air.  The top back of his shell slammed into the ground far below him, stunning him into a state of vulnerability.

"Tentomon!" Biyomon cried out in distress.

She was about to take flight to descend after her friend when another black bulb shot out from behind her and slammed against her head.  The bird was caught off guard and was sent falling off the branch, crashing along with the other digimon below.

Tai and Sora leaped to their feet at the sudden attack that they saw from afar.  Izzy raised his eyes from his computer and just realized that something more serious than his laptop's condition was taking place.  Off toward the back T.K. and Kari turned their heads while they ate quietly together.

Within a few seconds several large figures began to drop down from inside the cover of the trees and land on the ground with ease, moving into the clearing.  They stood as tall as the two oldest children in the group, with wide yellow faces encompassed by an expanse of large purple and green leaves.  Their arrangement, and the fact that right beneath their faces their bodies were constructed from a countless grouping of green thorn-covered vines, made them appear as flowers.  Yet that could not be said, for they had eyes and mouths as well, which could not be counted as valid characteristics of normal flora.  At the end of each of their four arms were the black bulbs Tentomon had mistaken for fruit.  Now it was a wonder how he could have, seeing how each bulb had its own mouth and set of sharp teeth.

"Uh, Izzy, care to tell us what in the world these things are?" Tai asked as he stood watching the creatures making their way onto the clearing grounds.

Izzy smirked.  "Oh, so now is when you care about my computer's well being?"

"Just answer the question, okay?!" Tai exclaimed as he didn't feel the need to be told he was wrong at the moment.

Izzy stood up with his laptop against his arm, calling up the Digimon Analyzer.  Instantly a profile popped up onto the screen.

"They're Blossomon," the boy reported.  "As ultimate-level digimon they use their Spiral Flower attack to take down their enemies.  This is certainly not the type of digimon to hang around with if you're allergic to pollen."

T.K. and Kari jumped up and ran to the group, with Patamon flying right after the two.  "Are they good digimon?  What do they want from us?" the youngest boy asked.

"Do you think I would know that?!" Tai exclaimed.

"Maybe they just saw our campfire and wanted to say hello," Sora suggested.

"Yeah, and I like to sniff fire hydrants," Gatomon said with blunt sarcasm.

With a quick flutter of their wings Biyomon and Tentomon lifted themselves into the air, recomposing themselves and glancing around to quickly take in what was going on.  They were suddenly startled once again as a gruff sound came to them from nearby and something leaped out from the darkness.  They both shot away and darted over the heads of the Blossomon who had ignored them and accompanied their human companions.

Out of the murky black shadows of the forest around them came more dark creatures.  They were different and far more numerous than the Blossomon.  From the fiery glow of the lit branches in the clearing's center, the group could see the new body of masses.  Their bodies were made of dark brown wood, their heads jagged and worn around the surface.  They stared with deep dark eyes and waved their four stumpy arms.  They were as tall as the Blossomon, and as more and more revealed themselves from the camouflage of trees and darkness it was easy to see that there were a lot of them.

Before Izzy could inform the others of what this other type of digimon was, Tentomon spoke.  "Those are Woodmon, a very rude and annoying champion-type if you ask me.  They absorb all of the energy they can get from any digimon they run into and just go about as if nothing happened."

"There's so many of them!" Kari said in observance.  "Why are they all together?"

"I can think of one reason," Gatomon offered.  "That evil little puppet Dark Master sent an army of his to destroy us."

Koromon plopped forward a foot, putting on a game face of anger and courage as the Woodmon began to blend into the small Blossomon population and move even closer, eyeing the children and their digimon.  Then, as they collected into one fierce-looking body, the Blossomon let out a wild cry and charged in their direction with their wicked vine arms outstretched and ready to attack.

"Let me at them!  I'll make compost out of all of them!" Koromon boldly trumpeted.

Tai reached down and grabbed his digivice from his shorts, pointing it toward the brave little creature.  "Go get 'em!"

The power within the digivice surged and responded to the boy's own emotions, sending its energy straight into the pink digimon head.

"Koromon, digivolve to… Agumon!"

Without hesitation Agumon charged across the ground, in turning calling the bird, insect and feline to follow him.  Patamon kept himself in the air, close to T.K., in hope that he would stay safe from harm.

A long Blossomon vine nearly struck Agumon's head but he dodged to the right and avoided it in time.  "Pepper Breath!" the orange dinosaur cried with a large puff of orange-yellow fire that flew from his mouth and ahead of his own run.  It struck into the massive army and exploded against the front of the crowd, spitting flames that danced over several of the Woodmon and forced them to stop in fright and put out the embers.

"Super Shocker!"

"Spiral Twister!"

"Lightning Paw!"

The attacks did very little if any damage.  Even with Agumon spitting the most effective defense, and Gatomon with a champion-level attack, the army was very much intact and still on the move.  The Blossomon whipped their vines at the digimon, knocking them down hard.  Yet the unfaltering digimon force climbed back up and tried desperately to hurt the offensive.

 "Pepper Breath!" Agumon spat another fireball and forced several Woodmon back a foot or two.  He turned his head and looked back toward Tai, who was standing very far away from the battle.  "Tai!  You have to make me digivolve to Greymon!  It's the only way we can defeat them!"

Tai pointed his digivice out at him.  "Okay, here it goes!"

Just as Agumon was about to accept the power and jump into the next level a Woodmon caught him from behind and wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace.  Agumon quickly panicked and struggled to free himself of the hold, but all of his attempts failed miserably.

"Agumon!" Tai screamed.

"Twig Tap!" the Woodmon exclaimed.  He did not find much struggle left in the brave lizard as Agumon moaned in pain and a slight glow poured from his body and soaked through the bark arms.

In seconds several more Woodmon leaped at Agumon, desperate to feed off his energy.  He was quickly subdued and crowded around in one riotous gathering.  Tai and the other children could do nothing but watch helplessly as their digimon were failing to bring an end to the attack.

A moment later something small was tossed out from inside of the Woodmon pile-up and thrown back in the direction of the children.  Tai gasped as he found Koromon bounce hard against the ground and come to a stop close to his feet.

"Koromon!"  He darted to his friend and picked him up from the dirt, seeing his face in tight pain.  "What did they do to you?"

"I'm sorry, Tai," the digimon said in a weak tone of voice.  "They sucked so much energy out of my body I de-digivolved."

"At this rate we might not be able to beat them at all!" Izzy shouted.  "Our digimon can not stand up to them if they can be taken down like that!"

"We can't stay here!" Sora exclaimed.  "We have to retreat before we're all in trouble."

Tai reacted to her suggestion like if it was a sharp slap in the face.  "What?!  We can't stop now!  This is our chance to weaken Puppetmon's forces!"

Sora turned to him, shocked by his stubborn approach, especially at such a time as that one.  "Tai, look at this fight!  There's too many of them and we cannot defend ourselves like this!"

Tai glanced around quickly and saw Sora's point.  Far off at the other end of the clearing Gatomon, Tentomon and Biyomon were putting up a valiant resistance against the large force, but their attacks were in vain.  Some were lucky to even back a few Blossomon away and knock a couple Woodmon down for a brief moment.  Yet he began to see a massive group bypass the digimon and walk without barriers to the children's coordinates, looking very, very fierce.

The boy took the stick he had roasted the berry with and dipped it into the campfire, igniting it like a torch.  He stood his ground and held the stick like a glowing sword of fire.  "You're right, Sora, but we can't back down now.  We have to fight!"

Sora could not handle Tai's insane behavior and decided she could not let the two youngest Digidestined take a part in his suicidal mission.  She turned to T.K. and Kari as Tai took off and tried to draw the enemy's attention from the others.  "T.K., you and Kari have to get out of here and find somewhere safe to wait."

T.K.'s fears rose up once again.  He felt a tight knot form in his throat.  "But—you need us.  We can't leave."

"You have to.  Just find somewhere else other than here. Protect Kari and stay out of sight!" she instructed, turning and running toward the blazing fire as a group of Woodmon neared them.

T.K. shook his head.  He could not imagine being left alone from the group again.  He knew that Kari would be at his side, but how would he be able to protect her when he could barely even handle taking care of himself?

"But Sora—" he started to choke out.

"Just go!" the auburn-colored hair girl shouted with a wave of her arm.  She pulled her leg back and called upon her soccer instincts as she kicked a lit piece of firewood at the approaching army, forcing them to halt as the fire made contact with their own flammable bodies.

Kari reached out and took T.K.'s hand, nudging him away from where he stood.  "Come on, T.K.," she insisted, desperate to flee as much as Sora wanted them to.

The small boy still felt reluctant, but after allowing her to tug several times turned and began to run with the girl.  Patamon flapped his ears and flew after them both in a hurry.

The two crossed the clearing and broke through the trees just as a flaming Woodmon was tossed behind them and rolled across the ground.  They disappeared into the shadows and escaped from the ongoing battle that their friends were fighting on their own.

The white cat realized that her companion had just left her.  She turned and tried to reassure herself she was okay, but to her horror couldn't.

"Kari!" she called out, just as a Blossomon came up from behind and wrapped its crushing vines around her neck.

*  *  *  *  *

"Keep going!" Kari shouted to the boy at her side as they raced past sharp branches and puddles of mud and water.

They both made their way down a thin, narrow path that was difficult to navigate through.  Their clothes were poked and tugged by jagged twigs that caught onto the fabric.  They tried to shield their faces at the same time, desperately trying to move as fast as their little legs could take them.  They were already far away from the clearing and did not know when to stop.

"T.K.," the winged digimon began, "where are we supposed to—"

He was cut short when something slammed him from behind and sent him down to the floor, crashing hard into the cold ground.

The two kids stopped at the sound and turned around to see who had fallen. "Patamon, what happened?!" T.K. asked as he and the girl hurried over to his fallen friend.

Suddenly the long dark handle of a heavy object stuck out from the side of the path and collided against the shins of the two.  They tripped and landed on the ground, slamming their elbows into the dirt and feeling stinging pain shoot up their arms and sides.

The boy slowly tried to lift his face up from the dirt and looked toward his friend. "Are you okay, Kari?" he asked.

She gave off a slight nod in response as she tried to sit up. "What happened just now?"

Then the two heard the faint evil giggles radiating from all around them.  They froze and listened closely as something moved near to their area, shuffling through the branches from all around.  Patamon slowly began to regain mobility and crawled closer to T.K., crouching into his lap.

With a flash a short figure leaped onto the dirt path and directed their attention ahead of them.  Their eyes reacted with surprise and fear as they discovered the small wooden body of Puppetmon standing and staring at them with his mallet in hand and malicious look in his red eyes.

"Where do the two of you think you're going?" he asked with some of his natural dark tone in his humor.  "I still run the show in this forest, and rule number one is to stand still when I'm trying to destroy you!"

Kari glared at the villain with hatred in her expression, obviously trying to behave without anxiety around the powerful enemy.  "What do you want from us?  We have nothing that would help you."

Puppetmon smiled.  "Think again, girlie.  I'm bored.  I want to play a game."

T.K. shook his head defiantly.  "I told you I was never going to play with you again."

"Forget you," the puppet said.  He raised a finger toward the small girl.  "I want to play with her now."

Kari gasped as she was singled-out to face certain death.  The young boy moved up in front of her, blocking her from the Dark Master's sight.  "You leave her alone!"

"Not likely!"  He flipped his large mallet in his hands and began to advance on them, his slow pace deliberate to strike uncontrolled terror in their little bodies.

"I won't let you hurt them!" Patamon exclaimed as he jumped up from the ground and into the air.  With that the power in T.K.'s digivice began to rise and transfer into the winged creature.

"Patamon, digivolve to…"

"I don't think so!" the puppet shouted, pulling back his mallet.  "Puppet Pummel!"

The digimon slammed the thick hammer into the orange mammal just as a faint white-yellow glow covered his body.  Patamon cried out in pain as the digivolve cancelled itself and he was sent into the rough bark of a thick tree, collapsing into a silent heap on the floor.

"Patamon, no!" T.K. cried.

Kari grabbed his hand and pulled him away.  "Hurry, let's get out of here!" she ordered as they tried to escape.

The menacing wooden boy tsk-tsked.  "Not this time."  He pulled his right arm back and shot out his hand.  Several thin wires flew from his fingertips and streamed through the air like needles.  They reached T.K. within a mere second, melting onto his skin and clothes around his feet, hands and head.  He stopped instantly as the wires tightened and froze him in an awkward and hurtful position.

Kari stopped as she realized what had just occurred and tried to go back and rescue him.  Before she could more metallic threads flew from Puppetmon and caught her as well.  She felt her skin being tugged at, fused with the ends of the wires and restricting her from even moving another centimeter.  She screamed at the sharp pain that traveled through her nerves.  Her hand gripped the pink scarf which she still carried with her, trying to divert the pain into it by digging her fingers into the fabric.

Laughing to himself, Puppetmon snapped his hand back and pulled the two kids down to the floor, leaving them vulnerable.  T.K. and Kari struggled desperately to move, but much to their disappointment could not even imitate poor helpless worms lying in the dirt correctly.

The children stopped moving and stared up at the digimon who had stepped up to them and looked down with such wicked delight on his face.  They felt a cold chill run through their insides as they could only wonder what this insane being had in store for them.

All they could tell themselves was that it wouldn't be good.

"Time to play!"