1. Courage and Light
Yuuko Kamiya hummed to herself as she carefully arranged pieces of instant cookie dough on a baking sheet, opened the oven door and slid the sheet into the oven. She then moved into the living room and sat down to watch what the newsman was saying on TV.
Earlier that day, her two children, Taichi and Hikari, had left in response to an earlier news report of a police chase involving an enemy that had increasingly involved their attention, as well as the attention of their "DigiDestined" friends. Now, having seen their efforts in helping to stop the enemy, she was baking cookies for the "valiant heroes" to enjoy upon their return. It wasn't just the kids participating, though.
Three months previous, at the beginning of the year, she and her husband had been thrown a curveball no parenting manual could possibly have prepared them for. After an apparent hiding campaign for the better part of the year, Tai and Kari had introduced two very unusual and attention-grabbing additions to the family, bizarre talking creatures you couldn't classify either as pets or children. Tai had a little orange T. Rex-like thing called "Agumon", and Kari had a white cat-like thing that could (and usually did) stand on two legs called "Gatomon".
At first, Yuuko and her husband were stymied on how to treat the "Digimon partners", as Tai and Kari called them, but gradually on their advice began taking a "hands-off" approach, only directly speaking to either of them whenever Tai or Kari was not in sight (a rare event in any case). And slowly but surely, the mom began to realize she had unexpected celebrity on her hands when the phone rang and a newspaper reporter asked a few questions for her. She also liked the attention she got in public, and her husband got at work, because of suddenly being involved in one of the hottest topics of curiosity ever to sweep Tokyo. When the weight of celebrity got too heavy though, she did wonder how exactly she had managed to end up in the middle of all of it without even trying. As she had said to herself as Kari grew out of her previously sickly state, "Life works in mysterious ways."
A knock at the door told her that the kids had arrived. "Come in guys." she yelled, and the door opened to reveal Tai with Agumon, Kari and Gatomon close behind.
She turned from her position to greet her children with a smile. "I saw you on the TV, and decided you need some cookies to reward my conquering heroes with!" she explained, gesturing to the oven where the cookies were baking.
"Great, Mom. We'll be in my room, just knock when they're ready." Tai replied with a waving gesture as the group hustled into the apartment, leaving the shoes at the door and scuffling their way toward Tai's room.
"OK, dear. Dad's doing overtime at work, so just come out if anyone needs something." mom Yuuko replied, well aware of the need to keep the Digimon as private as circumstances allowed. The last thing she, or her husband, wanted was a mob of admirers crashing in looking for autographs and who-knows-what because the kids were flaunting their public position a little too much. As it was, she already had a few times where she had to turn away persistent fans to keep the peace and quiet.
Yuuko surfed through the channels, only occasionally stopping on a news station to get updates on the recent situation and "monster appearance". At least, the news people had stopped calling the appearance of these Digimon "monster attacks", despite the fact that some looked the same as "monsters" seen in the weird events of summer 1999 and of the holidays just before the enterance of two of those "monsters" into the family. Thanks to a combination of courageous, careful action and a careful PR campaign, the "monsters" were seen less as a public menace and more as a curiosity and protector of the public interest against predatory criminals. Analysts and conspiracy theorists spun stories of government experiments and failed alien invasions, stories she couldn't quite believe. Since Tai and Kari both said they couldn't explain the bond between each of them and their respective partners, the mom was content with whatever they told them was true about those creatures.
Flicking through the channels, the Kamiya mom was suddenly aware of something different than usual going on in Tai's room. Normally, she could hear a medley of talking voices coming from the room: Tai's, Kari's, the modestly sweet-hearted voice of Agumon and the "sugar and spice" feline attitude of Gatomon. But this time the medley of voices was different; in with Tai's and Kari's voices were a deep, very husky kind of voice and a confident feminine voice that seemed to echo with some kind of divine influence. This change was naturally unsettling, but because there did not seem to be any signs of distress coming from the room it did not merit immediate attention.
The Kamiya mom put down the remote and gave a curiously unsettled glance in the direction of Tai's room. Something WAS different, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Perhaps she should go knock and ask...
A whiff of smoky smell brought her attention back to the oven and the cookies she had forgotten to check. She scrambled back to the oven, put her oven mitts on and quickly pulled the cookies out of the oven. Nervously grabbing a spatula, she lifted the bottom of one of the cookies to see it had blackened due to overcooking; the tops were fine, but the bottoms were blackly burned. Sighing, she began arranging the cookies on platter to take to Tai's room; anything involving cooking with her was a gamble on the results at best.
Cookies neatly arranged on the platter, the Kamiya mom turned off the oven, picked up the platter of cookies and walked over to the door to Tai's room. She knocked on the door; it was usually unlocked, but opening it without knocking was an action done at personal risk of getting yelled at or shoved back out. The voices inside the room quickly fell silent, mystifying the mom further.
"Is that you, Mom?" Kari asked from behind the door.
"Yeah, I got the cookies for you all. I let 'em go a little too long, so the bottoms are burned. The rest is fine though." Yuuko replied.
"OK, Mom. Just leave the tray on the dresser by the door. One of us will bring it back out later." Kari stated.
The Kamiya mom opened the door, took one look and let out a loud yelp of fright and surprise. The cookie tray dropped to the floor, cookies scattering everywhere, and the door slammed shut again. The reason for the surprise? It was not Agumon and Gatomon in the room with Tai and Kari.
Standing in the room in place of the little dinosaur and feline was their evolved forms: WarGreymon and Angewomon. Both a test and a prank on poor mom, it was determined that both of these advanced forms, relatively humanoid in size and shape, could comfortably be maintained in human world space conditions, as opposed to the very large forms most other Digimon took beyond Rookie which obviously could not fit in the confined indoor spaces typical of a Tokyo apartment.
As for what happened to Mrs. Kamiya, she had backed away from the door in fright, heart pounding, then after a few moments peeked open the door again, eyes wide. When all she saw was Tai and Kari with Agumon and Gatomon, she opened the door fully and stared at her children with a look of great confusion and mortification on her face.
"What's the matter, Mom? You look like you just saw a ghost!" Kari asked, unsuccessfully trying to hide her giggling. The two Digimon were eagerly scooping up the cookies fallen on the floor, and Tai looked over the whole scene with a smirk on his face.
"Eh... But...?" the mom began to stutter, looking back and forth between her daughter and the Digimon near her feet, which showed no indication of having changed at all as they scooped up scattered cookies. The mom finally began scratching her head in the confusion and lack of sense the situation had, giving a look Kari would gladly have snapped a photo of had it not been for the fact that her mom would never forgive her for it. Finally, the Kamiya mom walked away, beginning to mutter something about the mushrooms she'd bought from the health food store causing her to hallucinate.
Kari closed the door behind her mom, and looked back at Agumon and Gatomon as they giggled like imps. "We got her talking to herself!" Agumon exclaimed with all too obvious glee.
"Yeah, that's very funny guys, but that nearly gave mom a heart attack! If you want to be doing this on a regular basis, someone's going to have to tell her." Tai cautioned, walking toward the center of the room.
"Oh Tai, relax! Let them have a little fun, they deserve it right?" Kari responded, approaching her older brother in a playful gesture that got her pushed away. The two DigiDestined watched as their partners, having recovered the dropped cookies and put them back on the platter (eating a few in the process), again jumped to their higher forms. For WarGreymon, it was hard to sit with the armor on in the back, so he took it off and laid it aside. Angewomon, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy "laying pretty" on Tai's bedroom floor, toying with her "older brother" with flirty gestures designed to make him react with mortification.
"Oh brother in arms, isn't this just so wonderful?" Angewomon all but exclaimed, latching onto WarGreymon with a hug that caused both Tai and Kari to burst out in chuckles.
"Um... you can let go of me now..." WarGreymon weakly replied, blushing under his armor. For all his mortification, he felt Angewomon was right, all the Digimon having regained access to forms and powers that had so long been denied by the return of the Crest powers. He had gained much by being able to enter an alternate form that was compatible with human world living, but "little sister" Gatomon had not only gained that advantage but the sense of freedom and display of her "true self" that the Ultimate form represented. This was a day of long-hoped for wishes coming true for both sister and brother...