Insignia
Digimon Adventure
The original chosen children all share another secret after their final battle, one that is guarded until one day. T.K-centric.
Timeline: Set in 02, but in my world the new set is in grade 10 and the original set is in college/university.
Based off an image on DA. Title is 'Chosen Children'; LadyLadyington made it, but the idea behind this story is my own.
img05. deviantart 55cd/i/2011/130/8/7/ chosen_children_by_ladyladyington-d3g1gb8. png
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon Adventure 01 or 02.
Insignia
"Hey good job out there T.K! You won us the championship!" Jake, one of the basketball players clapped T.K happily on the shoulder in the locker room after the game.
"Thanks, but it wasn't just me." T.K grinned, pulling off his sweat soaked shirt and shorts to get into his usual clothes.
"Always so modest." Jake laughed before something caught his eye. "Whoa T.K! How did we not notice that you got a tattoo!"
"What? T.K has a tattoo?" Was the reaction of the locker room, all the team members crowding around the blonde boy who was feeling awkward as the guys stared at his right hip.
"How did your mom let you get that?" One asked impressed.
"Oh you know…" T.K trailed off awkwardly as he quickly pulled his clothes on and pushed his way out of the locker room. He was surprised that he had gone the whole season without anyone noticing.
"But seriously T.K, how did you manage it?" Jake pressed as he followed the blonde out of the locker room.
"I dunno, look I have to go." T.K said.
"Ah, going to celebrate your huge win with your buddies. I get it, I'll see you tomorrow!" Jake grinned at T.K who smiled back as his teammate rushed off to join a group of his friends who were cheering and clapping for him. T.K adjusted his bag and hurried out of the school where Patamon leapt down from the huge tree in the front yard into his arms.
"You won T.K! You made the winning basket!" Patamon chirped happily.
"Thanks Pata! Uh… Did you see the others there?" T.K asked, already knowing the answer. Patamon's ears/wings drooped down and the smile fell.
"No, I'm sorry T.K." Patamon said remorsefully.
"It's fine, I get that they are busy." T.K assured his digimon companion with a huge smile.
"Hmpf, I still don't like it." Patamon huffed, settling himself on T.K's head.
"I know Pata." T.K said not paying attention as he stepped off the curb and fell to the ground with a yelp of pain.
"T.K! Are you all right? What happened?" Patamon jumped off T.K's head, fluttering his wings quickly.
"I'm okay. Just twisted my ankle funny." T.K sighed, hand grasping at his throbbing limb.
"Do you think you can walk?" Patamon asked, getting more worried as time went on.
"I don't think so… It really hurts." T.K admitted.
"Do you want me to go get some help?" Patamon asked, already knowing the answer.
"NO! I mean… Please don't go." T.K's eyes widened dramatically. Patamon fluttered down onto T.K's lap and looked up at him with his huge eyes.
"Never. Since no one is around… I think I should digivolve and get you to your apartment." Patamon said simply, placing one of his paws on T.K's hip.
"It's the only way I guess." T.K bowed his head and both his hip and Patamon started to glow a bright yellow.
"Patamon digivolve to… Angemon!" Patamon transformed into Angemon, the angel digimon looked down at the injured teen and carefully picked him up, cradling him against his chest protectively before flexing his wings and he flew up high into the sky out of view.
"Thanks Angemon." T.K spoke up, looking up at the helmeted angel digimon.
"You know that I will always help you T.K, no matter the task." Angemon's deep voice rumbled through T.K's smaller body.
"Sorry you haven't been out in a while, damn control spires." T.K grumbled.
"Do not worry, if you are ever in need and my armor version can not help, you can always use your insignia." Angemon reminded him.
"I know, just I don't want to use it around the new group because they would be confused and ask too many questions that I don't want to answer." T.K explained.
"I understand." Angemon said quietly as he descended down onto the balcony that led into T.K's apartment.
"I'm just glad that mom isn't home." T.K unlocked the sliding door from where he was being carried by Angemon. Angemon stooped down and shuffled into the room and slowly placed T.K down onto the couch. He placed his large hand on T.K's forehead and T.K grinned up at him.
"Thanks again Angemon." T.K smiled at his friend as his hip and Angemon glowed once more and Patamon re-appeared.
"How are you feeling T.K?" Patamon settled on T.K's stomach, looking up at his friend.
"Much better, thanks Pata." T.K stroked Patamon's head.
"Glad I could help, hold on!" Patamon jumped up into the air and with ease flew over to the fridge, using his little paws and his mouth the bat-pig flew back to his best friend with an ice pack. T.K laughed and gratefully took it from his digimon partner, placing it on his swelling ankle. He sighed out in happiness that the coldness brought his hurt ankle.
"T.J, T.M! Are you in there?" Davis banged on T.K's front door.
"Just what I need." T.K groaned as he looked at the door and then at his ankle, then at Patamon.
"Do I have to?" Patamon groaned.
"Unless you want to explain why the door is broken when Mom gets home." T.K said.
"Fine." Patamon huffed as he flew over to the door and managed to open the door and flew out of the way when Davis tumbled in.
"There you are! Where were you?" Davis asked, storming in but stopping when he saw T.K laid up on the couch with an ice pack resting on his ankle. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just twisted my ankle after walking home from my basketball game." T.K shrugged it off. "What happened? Where was I supposed to be?"
"The digi-world? To help take down more control spires!" Davis threw his arms up.
"Sorry, but I did tell Cody and Izzy I couldn't come. I had a basketball championship to win." T.K wasn't up for dealing with Davis today.
"Whatever T.M, but something weird happened with Kari and she said you would know!" Davis pointed his finger dramatically at the blonde.
"What happened with Kari?" T.K felt worried now.
"We were fighting some digimon, but Gatomon had de-digivolved and Kari was in danger and Gatomon digivolved to Angewoman! There was a control spire right there so it was suppose to be impossible!" Davis waved his arms.
"Your point? Can't you ask Tai or someone else about this?" T.K asked, not feeling up to this right now.
"Kari said that you would know!" Davis tried to explain why he came to see him.
"Well I'm not in the mood right now Davis… Please just leave me alone." T.K looked up towards the ceiling.
"Oh…Okay, sorry to bother you then." Davis said quietly, leaving the apartment confused.
"Is he okay?" DemiVeemon asked Davis, looking up at his partner.
"I don't know… I didn't think T.M got angry at anything." Davis said confused still as he made his way over towards Kari and Tai's apartment building. He knocked on the door and Kari opened it, surprised to see him.
"Davis! I thought you were going to talk to T.K." Kari tilted her head to the side.
"I did, but he hurt his ankle and is in a grumpy mood." Davis explained as the two entered the living room where Tai was sprawled out with textbooks and his laptop.
"Is he okay?" Tai looked up, worry written over his whole face as he sat up to look at Davis.
"He couldn't get up from the couch, I don't know how he got home." Davis rubbed his neck as he sat down on the couch beside Tai, DemiVeemon sitting comfortably on Davis's lap.
Tai hummed as he glanced at his little sister, he had a pretty good idea of how T.K got home. It seems that lately the insignia's were acting up more often than not if he based it off of what Kari told him happened to her and Gatomon in the digi-world.
"I'll call Matt and let him know." Tai said as he grabbed his phone and dialed the blonde's number.
"What Tai? I'm about to go on!" Matt's voice came through the earpiece.
"T.K hurt his ankle and is laid up at his place, do you want me to go over and stay with him or do you just want to stop by after your gig?" Tai questioned, already starting to pack up his textbooks and notes.
"…You don't mind going to check on him do you? I'll stop by after my gig is done, but I don't want to leave him and Patamon alone if he's hurt." Matt voice took on a tone of urgency that Tai knew always came through when T.K was hurt or in danger.
"Yeah, no problem I knew that was the answer you were going to give." Tai laughed as he shoved his things into a messenger bag.
"Thanks Tai." Matt sounded relieved. "I have to go on, I'll see you two tonight!"
"Kill it Matt." Tai laughed as the two hung up and Tai grabbed his jacket off a hook and pushed his feet into his running shoes.
"I'm coming too Tai." Kari clutched her camera out of reflex.
"No, you need to stay here and explain what happened with Gatomon to Davis." Tai said, his voice taking on the same tone he used when he was leading the others in the digi-world. He didn't understand why she didn't tell her friends why Gatomon could digivolve when the control spires were around, why did she send them to T.K who wasn't even there?
"Okay, tell T.K I hope he feels better soon." Kari stuck out her bottom lip a bit as Tai left the apartment with a wave at Davis and DemiVeemon.
"T.L didn't explain anything to me." Davis spoke up determined to get some answers as Kari turned to him.
"Let me call Yolei and Cody, they should hear this as well." Kari ducked into her and Tai's shared room to grab her D-terminal to message the others.
~~/~~
"T.K its Tai!" Tai called as he knocked on the front door of T.K's apartment he shared with his and Matt's mother. He heard the fluttering of wings and slowly the door swung open to show Patamon breathing heavily as he had opened the door.
"Tai!" Patamon smiled relieved at the sight of the older boy. "I'm glad you're here!"
"Is T.K okay?" Tai questioned worried as he closed the door behind him.
"He twisted his ankle pretty badly." Patamon bit his lower lip worriedly as he flew into the living room where T.K was resting on the couch with his eyes closed and a melting ice pack on his swelling ankle.
"Hey T.K." Tai said softly as he knelt beside the couch and pushed back T.K's shaggy blond bangs.
"Tai?" T.K muttered as he slowly opened his eyes a crack to look at his older brother figure.
"I'm right here Teeks. Matt is going to stop by after his gig." Tai said soothingly as he gently lifted the ice pack off the blonde's ankle and winced at the purple swelling. "That looked like it hurt, did it happen in your game?"
"No we won that, but I tripped on the curb on the way home. Pretty stupid right?" T.K tried to prop himself up, but gave up when he found he was too tired to move and pain emitted from his ankle.
"Good job on winning the championships! I would have been there, damn exam…" Tai grumbled as he was really put out when he got the news he had an exam that afternoon.
"It's fine Tai, I know you and the others couldn't come… I was surprised that Kari, Cody, Yolei and Davis still went to the digi-world though…" T.K swallowed as he closed his eyes. Tai growled slightly as he went to get a frozen ice pack to replace the melted one that was currently on T.K's ankle.
"They should have went to see your game and you all could have went to the digi-world together afterwards." Tai grumbled. "That's how a team works."
"Different people and circumstances." T.K shrugged before he winced a bit as Tai placed the frozen ice pack onto his ankle after propping it up on a pillow.
"I guess." Tai said sourly as he gently touched T.K's right hip. "So I take it Angemon brought you home?"
"He insisted and my ankle really hurt…" T.K trailed off before Tai moved his hand to pat the teen on his head.
"No need to explain yourself to me Teeks." Tai said cheerfully.
"I'm just glad it worked! Mine has started to fade a bit, I think it's because I haven't been in contact with the digital world in so long." Tai said sadly as he absently traced his upper left chest where his tattoo was located.
"When you're on break we should all meet up and go to file island for old times sake." T.K smiled and Tai grinned as well as memories came back to the two.
"I think that's a great idea, we just need to look out for the digimon emperor." Patamon grumbled as he landed on T.K's head where he usually perched.
"That guy is annoying me." Tai stated and T.K agreed wholeheartedly.
"Is Kari going to tell Davis, Cody and Yolei about our tattoo's?" T.K asked hesitantly.
"I told her too, they deserve to know as they are the new chosen children." Tai said sourly. "I don't know why she sent Davis to ask you."
"I don't know either." T.K sighed as Patamon moved from his perch on the blond's head and lay on the teen's stomach. "Do you miss it Tai? The way it used to be before?"
"Sometimes." Tai said slowly after a few moments of thought, while texting Joe to make sure he was doing everything right to make sure T.K's ankle was going to be fine.
"I miss it." T.K admitted. "Every time I see this insignia I miss it more, I don't think any of us saw this coming after the final battle."
"Understatement Teeks." Tai laughed as Joe replied with his usual freaking out and then telling Tai he would be over soon to splint it. "Joe is coming over to splint your ankle, apparently he doesn't trust my medical skills."
T.K snorted. "What medical skills?"
"I'm insulted!" Tai cried in mock outrage and T.K dissolved into laughter, the tense mood from before disappearing and Tai smiled at his success.
~~/~~
"We all are here now, so can you please tell us what happened with you and Gatomon?" Davis questioned as Yolei and Cody settled down on the couches while their digimon munched on some watermelon Kari had cut up for them.
"It all leads back to our final battle in the digital world four years ago." Kari began, remembering the battle well; it was seared into her mind.
"We had finally defeated all the Dark Masters and we were pulled into this dimension that was created by Apocalymon, he was motivated by despair and jealousy, he was created of the poor digimon who were doomed to death during the evolution process. It was horrible, all that pain, suffering and darkness." Kari shuddered at the memories, Gatomon sensing this curled up on Kari's right calf where her own insignia was located and Kari smiled at her partner for calming her down. Davis, Cody and Yolei did their best to wrap their heads around the fact that a digimon like Apocalymon existed at all and worse of all the original's had to face him down.
"What happened?" Yolei whispered, unsure as to why she was whispering.
"We knew that if we had any chance of winning we all had to use our crests, they were what we had instead of finding digi-eggs to armor digivolve." Kari explained, comparing the two so the newbies would understand the power of the tags and crests.
"Before we could use them, Apocalymon destroyed them before he deleted us all." Kari petted Gatomon's head as the two shuddered remembering the feeling of being undone.
"You were deleted?" Yolei asked, swallowing hard while Cody looked nauseous and Davis's hand went to DemiVeemon without even thinking about it.
"Yes and we re-appeared in a white void, ready to give up. We had all been through so much and giving up seemed like peace. However T.K being the holder of hope refused to give up and he sparked us back to life and with our confidence renewed and our resolve to fight strengthened the symbols of our crests appeared on our chests, bringing our power out to let our digimon digivolve. We worked together and defeated Apocalymon, the next day or so we said our goodbyes and came home, when we did we noticed something physically different about our selves." Kari finished the backstory to her explanation.
"What appeared and how does this relate to Gatomon being able to digivolve when a control spire was nearby?" Davis asked, trying not to sound impatient around his crush.
"Mine appeared on my right calf, T.K's on his right hip, Tai's on his chest over his heart, Matt's on his right upper arm, on the inside, Sora's on the left side of her hairline, Izzy's on his left bicep, Mimi has her's on her outer right thigh and Joe's is on his left ankle." Kari explained, pushing her white stocking off her right calf to show a tattoo for light.
"We discovered them when we got back to the human world and we just thought they were remainders of when we accessed the power of our crests in that battle, but when the older group returned to the Digital World they realized that they could use them to have their digimon evolve even with control spires around, only Tai and Matt's insignia's let them go past their Champion stages all the way to their Mega forms." Kari finished her explanation and picked up a slice of watermelon to eat while the trio in front of her processed the information.
"That is… So cool!" Davis stated excitedly. "That digimon emperor would never see it coming! It can be our secret weapon!"
"I don't think that is a good idea Davis." Cody spoke up and Kari nodded her agreement.
"Why not?" Davis asked, crossing his arm sticking out his bottom lip.
"There is a side effect of using the insignia's." Kari gained their attention at her words.
"What kind of side effects? Nothing too horrible I hope!" Yolei leaned forward worried for her friends.
"No, nothing horrible. It just makes us extremely exhausted and we sleep for at least a day afterword's." Kari explained, smothering a yawn as she spoke.
"That's why T.M was snappy with me, plus his hurt ankle…" Davis mused, suddenly feeling guilty.
"Oh that reminds me, Kari. Why did you send Davis to T.K to get answers when you could have just told us to start with, why didn't you guys tell us about the tattoo's in the first place?" Yolei fired her questions off at the other girl in the room.
"Ah, I sent Davis to talk to T.K because T.K has a good way of explaining things and until today I had never had to use my insignia, but T.K has so he has a better understanding of how it worked. We didn't tell you guys about it because it's kind of a guarded secret, not even our parents know about them and until we used them in your presence we had decided to keep it a secret." Kari explained, her shoulders hunching over guilty. She looked like she truly regretted sending Davis to T.K rather than just explain it herself.
"Why was his ankle hurt?" Cody asked Davis, nodding slightly to guilty looking girl in front of him showing he understood.
"No idea." Davis shrugged his shoulders before Yolei smacked her palm to her forehead as she realized.
"Oh gosh! Today was T.K's basketball game we were supposed to go to! He must have twisted his ankle during the game!" Yolei exclaimed, guilt in her voice as the others sank down in their seats as they remembered how they promised to go cheer him on.
"We have to make this up to him!" Kari said eyes watering as she realized how she had been treating her best friend recently.
"We will, we have to." Cody agreed.
~~/~~
"For someone with no medical skill, you did alright Tai." Joe patted Tai's shoulder after finishing fixing up T.K's ankle.
"All your fate in me is astounding." Tai rolled his eyes fondly while tossing Patamon up in the air, making the small digimon giggle happily.
"Do we need to remind you of the time you thought you could walk off your broken leg?" Joe raised and eyebrow while T.K hide his laugher behind his hand.
"…Point taken." Tai grumbled as he gently tugged Patamon's little paws out to the side making the digimon huff in his face.
"Thanks for coming over Tai, Joe. I've missed you guys." T.K admitted as the medicine Joe had forced down his throat with Tai's help kicked in, making him drowsy as he snuggled down on the couch while Joe pulling a blanket up to the blond's chin to keep him warm.
"We missed you too T.K, but we will always be here." Joe promised while he brushed his left hand over his ankle where his insignia was located.
"Always, now sleep kid." Tai said fondly, brushing back the teen's bangs as T.K fell asleep, arms curling around Patamon when the digimon wiggled under his arm determined to sleep next to T.K to protect him from everything.
"So Teeks mentioned a picnic on File Island when we all get the time, just us original Digi-Destined. Think we can make it happen?" Tai turned to Joe who was already pulling his phone out.
"Totally do able, I have missed Gomamon something crazy and we can see Mimi again." Joe smiled at the thought.
"Maybe we can teach them basketball this time around." Tai smiled at the thought and Joe returned it as the two settled down to wait for Izzy, Sora and Matt to join them to watch over T.K for the night while Mimi was sending them message after message rambling and ordering them to take photos and keep her updated as per usual.
