The Dream - Fighting an Uphill Battle Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Ages: Sam, Helen, Michael, Adam, Brendan, Jason and Lisa- 28
Hayley- 27
Andrew and Karen- 25
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The Dream - Fighting an Uphill Battle

Matt Ishida slowly got out of his seat and stretched. It had been a long 9 hour flight to Sydney, but he was glad that they traveled First Class (or at least all but 2) and that the flight was now over. All he had to do was sort out everything that had happened on the flight. Izzy and Yolei had quit the tonsil hockey 30 minutes after the plane took off, when they were allowed to turn their computers back on. Then during the flight, T.K and Kari had a scare when Davis came down to chat with Tai to the rest of them and he had tried to sit on T.K's lap and smother him out. Then when Davis was kicked back upstairs by Matt himself, Tai went back up after and apparently joined the mile high club with Wilton's girlfriend. This almost started a fight which had the potential to cause one of them to go out of the aircraft, so Matt had also managed to calm that situation down (The afore said girlfriend was no where in sight). Eventually after that Matt was able to settle down, relax and talk to Sora but he found her still freaked out about what Izzy and Yolei had said. Mimi was, by that time, turning his drummer into a girl and testing foundation colours on his face. Cody had taken to practicing his kendo moves in the aisle and Satler was teasing Wilton over his girlfriend, yet was shut up when Wilton mentioned that he wasn't with his girl at the moment either. So it was just a nice boring little flight, but they were all in Australia now and that was all that mattered.
"You O.K Sora?" Matt asked as he pulled their hand luggage out of the over head compartment.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied as she stretched and took her bag from him. They all walked out to the gangway and saw Tai and Davis walking down the stairs.
"Had a nice flight guys?" Matt asked them to which he was answered with numerous gestures. Matt and T.K laughed as they walked out and into the gangway, feeling the balmy temperature creeping in from outside.
"Man, it's nice out there." T.K commented as he continued walking up to the arrivals hall.
"Yeah, it's much better than the weather in Odaiba." Kari agreed as she followed him, pulling her digital camera out of it's case.
"I can't wait to see what the beaches are like." Matt said as he followed them with Sora next to him.
"So where you staying Matt?" Jeff asked, almost looking like a clown.
"At the Hyatt with my friends." Matt told him, then added with disgust, "And take that stuff off your face, your not a freaking clown."
Jeff immediately wiped his face off with his sleeve and walked with the rest of the band to the arrivals hall.
"I guess we'll see you in a week for our first rehearsal then Matt." Satler said and Matt nodded, walking away with his friends, waving to his band, who went out the back way where their cars were waiting.
"I'm just going...." Mimi started before she was interrupted by the others shout, "NO!"
"But..."
"NO!"
"oh, you guys are no fun!" Mimi declared, then started pouting.
"You can go shopping when we get out of here Mimi." Tai told her and at this piece of news, she brightened immediately.
They quickly made their way through immigration and collected their luggage.
"At least no one knows that I came down on this flight." Matt said as they were about to walk out into the greeting hall. As soon as the digidestined walked out, a huge scream came from the crowd that had gathered to see the rock star arrive.
"It looks as though you spoke too soon Matt." Sora laughed as she put her arm around him, trying to comfort him. Matt just raised his eyebrows and grunted as they continued walking through to the bus and limousine area. There was a bus waiting there for the Japanese team, so Tai, Davis, T.K, Cody, Mimi and Sora all boarded the bus, taking them off to the Hyatt hotel. While Matt, Joe, Jim, Kari, Izzy and Yolei all climbed into the limo that Matt had organized.

The next day

The streets were already becoming lined with people who had come to see the Olympic Games, traffic was becoming more congested and the city was buzzing with excitement as the days till the opening ceremony were being counted down. Some nation's had decided to stay away from Sydney, in other cities of Australia, such the swimming team of the host nation but the Japanese team had chosen to acclimatize in the city of Sydney. This gave the digidestined the opportunity to enjoy themselves together.
"YAY! Segaworld!" T.K yelled out as he ran into the arcade, Davis, Kari, Tai and Cody all following him. Izzy and Yolei disappeared to tamper with the gaming consoles so that the others could use characters that were not on the original games (or so they said), Mimi left to go shopping, dragging Joe along, Jim had left that morning to visit the hospitals in the area and Matt and Sora joined T.K and Kari in a 4 way game of Daytona USA.
"Hey Matt! That's not fair!" T.K yelled at his brother as he swerved back infront of him and grabbed Matt's arm, trying to make him loose control.
"Look who's talking T.K." Matt laughed as he used his legs to control the wheel and disentangled T.K's arms from his. Matt smashed his front bumper into the back of the right side of T.K's car, which sent him spinning in the air. Suddenly Matt was overtaken and crashed into another car, this time it was him who went out of control.
"Hey!" he snapped at Sora, who was the driver.
"Don't pick on little kids Matt." she told him, smiling and laughing.
"Yay! I won!" Kari exclaimed as she threw her hands up and pumped the air, Schumacher style.
"Good one Kari." T.K said as he hugged her, Sora and Matt just smiling.
"Hey, why don't the four of us go over to the beach?" Matt asked.
"That sounds great." the others replied.
"You wouldn't mind if Yolei and I came along would you?" Izzy asked as he and Yolei walked up to them.
"No, the more the merrier." T.K said.
"I'd just watch out for the sharks and sea snakes while your in the water." Yolei told them. The others paled.
"Sh..sharks and sea snakes?" Matt repeated and Izzy nodded,
"Though attacks are quite rare, there is still the possibility that they can occur."
"Well, I still need to work on my tan." Kari told them and walked off towards the hotel with Sora and Yolei following her.
"I'm still game." T.K said, "You're not chickening out are you Matt?"
"No way." Matt replied, "Race you there?"
"Let's go." said Izzy acknowledging the challenge.
"Go." T.K said as the three of them ran through the streets, catching up to the girls.

"Man! I can't believe this beach. It's twenty times better than the one in the Digiworld." T.K exclaimed as his feet touched the soft sand of Sydney's Bondi Beach.
"Yeah, and there an actual restaurant here for when we get hungry." Izzy said, remembering when they had been fooled in the Digiworld.
"Mmm." Matt muttered as he took his shirt off and placed it with his towel.
"Last one in's a rotten egg!" T.K yelled as he started running down to the water.
"Wait a sec T.K!" Matt called out and T.K walked back up to him.
"You need your sunscreen on."
"Oh, Matt!" T.K whined.
"Don't Oh, Matt me. I don't want mum on my case when she sees you sun burnt." Matt told him and handed him the tube after taking some himself.
"You still keep your tag and crest on Matt?" Sora asked as her eyes fell on the crest that was hanging around his neck.
"Yeah, that way I've always got Gabumon with me, wherever I go." Matt replied.
"I do the same." Izzy stated as he took his shirt off, revealing the tag with the purple crest inside.
"Me took." T.K mimicking their actions, his tag also around his neck.
"I think we all do." stated Kari when a volleyball came flying into their group, Matt catching it.
"Oh, thanks mate." a young man said as he took the ball from Matt's hands. His green eyes staring at the tags and crests on Matt for a bit before running off back to the game his friends were playing.
"He almost seemed to recognize the tags." Izzy said as they watched the game.
"Yeah, I know." Matt agreed.
"Hey, come on Adam, give it a rest will ya. You know you can't beat Mick and I." the youngish man called over the net to his opposition, his blonde hair falling over his eyes. He was fairly tall, but nowhere near as tall as the brown haired man that stood next to him. Both seemed about the same age, as did the two on the other side of the net. An image flicked through T.K's head and he remembered where he had seen the tall man before.
"I know him. That tall guy's Michael Rumpf. He was the one who refused a 10 million dollar contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves to stay with his club in Perth. Everyone thought he was stupid to give it up, but he said that he didn't want to leave his family and girlfriend."
"And I know I've seen the blonde guy from somewhere before too." Matt said, trying to remember his name. He'd seen him a number of times when he was on tour and his name was on the tip of his tongue.
"That's Sam Makin." Kari interrupted his thoughts, "He gave up a lucrative singing contract to stay flying and also to concentrate on his preparation for the Olympics and his team."
"You mean he's participating as well?" Sora asked.
"Yeah."
"What sport?"
"Football." Kari said quietly, knowing something was going to happen between the two hotheads of football.
"OOhhh." Izzy said, realizing that something was going to happen. Suddenly Sam and Michael came up to them.
"Hey, I was wondering if you blokes wanted to have a game?" Sam asked.
T.K and Matt looked at each other.
"Yeah, sure." they replied and followed them over to the court.
"Standard rules." Michael said and Sam served the ball. The game only lasted 30 minutes when Michael slammed home the winning point.
"You guys are good." Matt said as he struggled to regain his breath.
"Thanks for the game." T.K said as he waved good bye and lead Matt over to where their friends had been cheering, Mimi and Joe having joined them in the process. Kari saw Sam and Michael discuss something, heads nodded and Sam ran back over to them.
"Hey, we were wondering if you would like to going us for some lunch. We're having a barbecue and we've got more food than we need, so if you're not doing anything you're free to going us."
"Thanks. That's most kind." Mimi said, taking the arm of a very frightened Sam and leading him over to where his friends were setting up. The others only shrugged and followed her, they could all hear Joe's sigh and him muttering, "Here we go again."
"My name's Sam by the way." he said to the following group as soon as he could escape from Mimi's grasp, "That's my best friend Michael who was playing with me and the one over there by the stove, who looks like he's going to burn himself, is Adam, the one drooling over the Leo DiCaprio key chain is Lisa, the one who's bashing Adam over the head is Helen, the one on the laptop is Jason, the funny guy is Brendan, the one drawing the anime cartoons is Hayley, the one who's hitting on all those girls over there is my little brother Andrew and our other friend, who's in training at Brisbane still, is Karen."
"Well, my name's Takeru, but everyone just calls me T.K, the other blonde is my brother Matt, just don't ask him for an autograph, the one with blue hair is Joe, miss pink hair that was clinging on to you is Mimi, The guy with the laptop is Izzy, the girl next to him is Yolei, Sora is the one next to Matt and this is my girlfriend Kari. There are others in our group but they're not here at the moment."
"And who says we're not T.K?" came Tai's voice from behind them.
"I'm Tai and I'm the leader of this group." Tai said as he made his way to the front.
"More like the leader of Davis." Joe muttered as Davis followed Tai up the front.
"Well if the two has-beens don't decide to turn up now." Sam said to them, expecting a response.
"You're no better than the rest of us." Tai snapped back.
"Yeah, I know that soccer is a team sport, unlike you hogs." and Sam turned to see if the meat was ready.
"We're going." Tai announced and was surprised when no one followed him back up the beach.
"Tai, you're being too immature." Matt said, taking a plate from Adam.
"Oh, am I? Well tell that to Mr-I'm-better-than-everyone-else-so-suck-shit over there." Tai yelled back.
"I have to agree with Matt on this one." Sora said, standing next to him and Sam.
"Oh, that's right. Go on! Agree with your boyfriend over there. I can see when I'm not welcome." Tai said as he started to wander off.
"Tai wait!" everyone was surprised to hear Sam call out.
"What do you want. To rub this in my face?" Tai spat.
"Now that was uncalled for. No, I came to apologize. I shouldn't have said what I did, you two are good. I admit, Davis may be at the limit of his talent, but you still have plenty of room for improvement Tai. But you just have to listen, not just to me or your friends but to your coaches as well. They've been doing this for God knows how many years and they know how to get more from a player. My talent is one that's God given and I thank his every day for that. I'm lucky, but I still listen to the advice that my coaches give me Tai. Do this and God will show you the way." Sam told him, "Now, you want a shrimp from the barbie?"
Tai laughed at this saying, "Yeah, alright. I'm sorry too, but that shrimp does sound nice though."
"Where would Tai get the stupid idea that we would be going out huh?" Matt asked Sora as he sat down at the bench.
"Jason, pack your stuff away. You can go back to it tonight." Brendan said as he almost threw the laptop into the ocean but was stopped by both Jason and Izzy's yells.
"I just bought that Brendan!" Jason complained as he quickly snatched the laptop out of his hands.
"Plus that would be sacrilege. You can't destroy a new Pentium IV laptop." Izzy added and soon he, Jason and Yolei were engaged in a conversation about the limitations of all the computers in existence, more specifically the ones that use Windows as their primary system.
"Do you think Spencer is going to try and bring down the network again?" Sam asked Helen, who replied,
"If he tries, I can assure you that he's going to be one dead Spencer."
"Who is this?" Cody asked.
"Andrew Spencer. We've known him since High School and he always trys and bring Jason down, ever since he started beating him in Information Systems." Adam replied, pulling his burnt hand out of the Esky full of water.
"I've heard about him." Izzy said from his conversation, "Don't tell me you guys actually know Andrew Spencer, the famous Overlord of the world wide web?"
"Yep, that's him." Jason replied, "But he's not going to be for long. I'm planning on buying out his stock."
And with that he started laughing, a sweatdrop appearing on everyone else's forehead.
"O.K. Now that's over, let's dig in!" Lisa yelled and they all started shoveling the food into their mouths.
"Hey pass us the mayo will ya?" Andrew called across the table and Adam threw the plastic bottle to him. Next thing the digidestined saw was a huge pile of the white sauce on his and Sam's plates.
"How can you eat that much of the stuff?" T.K asked, trying not to look sickened.
"Quite easily. It's the most beautiful stuff in the world." Andrew replied, placing a huge amount on his steak and putting it in his mouth so as to prove his point.
"Don't be disgusting." Sam scolded him to which Andrew just hit his brother in the arm and continued eating.
The rest of the day passed with little discomfort, apart from the full stomachs that they were carrying around. Everyone enjoyed the sun, surf and sand that Sydney had to offer. T.K's eyes scanned the ocean, thinking how amazing it was. The colours couldn't be more defined if they tried, the sun slowly lowering itself below the horizon T.K knew that they needed to get back to the hotel soon. T.K moved his head to look at Kari, who was laying next to him when the sun reflected off something shiny on Sam's chest. Looking closer, T.K saw that it was a pair of dogtags but they had an unusual colour to them, on one side it was the usual metallic finish but on the other side, it was a sky blue. Thinking it strange, T.K's eyes searched the sea for the Sam's counterparts. The same sun reflected off of Michael's chest and on a closer look, a similar pair of dogtags were worn but on the other side of his, the colour was a forest green. A quick scan of the rest of the group revealed that they all had dogtags on, but of various colours on the side that wasn't metal. Adam's had a light green, Brendan's was navy, Jason's was purple, Helen's was orange, Lisa's was mauve, Hayley's was red and Andrew's was gray. There was only this Karen's to learn about.
"What's up T.K?" Kari's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Just have a look at the other group and see if you can find anything similar between them." T.K replied.
"They're all wearing dogtags." Kari said after looking about.
"And if they turn over, you'll notice..." T.K began.
"They've got colours on the other side." Kari finished, sitting up and looked at him.
"You don't think..." T.K started as he looked back at her.
"They could be the digidestined before us?" said Kari.
"I don't know but that was what I was thinking too."
"Maybe we should tell the others."
"Or we could ask them about it ourselves." T.K suggested, then spotted Sam walking around to the drinks shack, "Let's go."
Kari got up and chased after T.K, both slowing down as they approached the young man.
"You two coming for a drink as well?" he asked and was surprised when he didn't hear a reply. Looking up, he saw both of them looking at his dogtags, which were on the coloured side. He knew it was no use trying to hide it from them now, they were digidestined after all. Plus they had probably seen it clearly by now.
"You're a digidestined too, aren't you?" Kari asked as Sam turned his dogtags over to the metal side again.
"How did you know about that?" Sam retorted.
"'Cause we are too." T.K said as he pulled his crest out of his pocket.
"Hope." Sam muttered, then Kari brought out her crest.
"Light."
"What's yours?" T.K asked, "I saw a pair of wings on it."
"My crest is the crest of Freedom." Sam told them.
"And the others?"
Sam sighed before saying, "Nothing escapes you two does it?"
The two shook their heads and Sam said, "Michael's is the crest of Loyalty, Adam's is Friendship, Brendan's is Responsibility, Jason's is Intelligence, Helen's is Courage, Lisa's is Sincerity, Hayley's is Determination, Andrew's is Honor and Karen's is Joy. Plus then there is Simon."
"Who's Simon?" T.K and Kari asked simultaneously.
"Simon was the one who controlled the Digiworld when we were sent there. He was the Digimon Kaiser." Sam told them, "But don't worry. He's completely different now, but in some ways still the same."
"The Digimon Emperor that we had to fight was called Ken. He's changed for the better now too, we found out that he's a Digidestined as well, plus there's another one in America called Michael as well." T.K told Sam, who nodded.
"I heard all about your adventures from Gennai." Sam said.
"You really know Gennai?" Kari asked and Sam nodded.
"What did he say?"
"At the times when he told me about you the first time, he said you sucked." T.K and Kari both fell over, "He said that everyone sucked, but you had a lot of potential. The second time he was almost having a nervous breakdown over the new kids, Davis, Yolei and Cody."
"That sounds about right." T.K replied.
"The second time he also allowed our Digimon to live with us here in the real world." Sam told them.
"What? You mean you've got Digimon here and people don't give a second look?"
"Nope. When we finished, all of us were quite famous as people were able to see it through a tear in the dimensional barrier. They all realized that we had saved the world, but we didn't want all that attention. We just wanted to live our lives the way we did before." Sam said as he raised his voice, a fire burning in his eyes, "But did they realize THAT?! NO!"
"Uhh, Sam?" T.K said nervously, trying to break the Digidestined of Freedom out of his trance.
"What?" Sam asked, then saw the two nervous teenagers looking at him, "Oh, sorry guys. It's just that, no one understands."
"That's O.K Sam. We were lucky that it never happened to us." Kari said as the bartender placed Sam's drinks down.
"Thanks mate." Sam said as he handed him the money and walked with Kari and T.K back down the beach.
"O.K, I think we'd better get going everyone." Tai announced as they arrived back.
"We might see ya around the complex then." Adam said as he and the others started waving.
"Hey T.K." Sam called out, "If ever you guys want a tour guide, here's my number and address. My door's open to everyone."
"Thanks Sam." Matt said and shook the older man's hand.
"I'll see you in the play-offs." Tai called over his shoulder.
"I'm counting on that Tai." Sam yelled back and soon all the Digidestined had left the now deserted beach. Nothing moving except the wind and a few lone people walking along the beach.