Bukamon sat himself on Joe's shoulder as the two of them picked a direction and walked. They had to run into somebody eventually.
"The last thing I remember is being in your world." Bukamon said as he looked around, seeing if he could stop anybody.
"Same here. Do you think a digimon did this?" It certainly wasn't anything humans were capable of making happen. But Bukamon shook his head.
"No, I've never heard of this happening. If it was a digimon, they'd have to be really powerful, stronger than even Myotismon." The thought of something even more powerful than Myotismon sent a shiver down Joe's spine.
"Great, and we haven't even managed to defeat him yet." Joe sighed.
"Hey, look on the bright side. Maybe whatever did this is on our side." Bukamon patted Joe's cheek. Joe shook his head.
"With our luck? I doubt it." There was a beat of silence before a thought struck Joe. "Hey, why are you still Bukamon anyway? You're not hungry, are you?"
"No, not right now." Bukamon conceded. "But there's not really much reason to digivolve right now anyway."
"But don't you want to be Gomamon?" Joe took out his digivice. Bukamon seemed to consider that.
"I mean, yeah, but I'm not sure I can do that yet?" Joe gave him a confused look. Bukamon sighed. "I can't explain it as well as some of the others, but, I mean, no sane digimon would stay in their In-Training form if they can help it. But there's just a connection between us yet?" Bukamon made a frustrated sound. "You should ask Motimon when we see him, I think he gets it."
They continued on, Bukamon at some point settling himself on top of Joe's head, chin resting on Joe's forehead. It wasn't long until they came across most of the others. They all already had their digimon, the humans and digital creature regarding each other curiously. Joe thought back to the first time he saw Bukamon. The little guy had wandered up to him and Joe had screamed, running off in a random direction as the digimon merrily and easily kept pace behind him.
"Wow, even you Joe?" Tai commented, walking up to him.
"Yeah, it's uh, really weird." Joe couldn't find it in himself to even try and be scared or surprised. As much as a part of him hated it and found it weird, he'd gotten used to the digimon all around him all the time. He felt more at home in this ragtag group of humans and digimon than he'd ever felt in the digital world.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm Bukamon!" Bukamon lept down to join the group of other digimon and smiled up at the others, no sign of the small break down he'd had just a little while ago. He looked around the group, head cocked to the side. "Has anybody seen Tanemon?"
"Maybe she's still looking for her Chosen Child." Motimon suggested.
"Chosen Child?" Izzy frowned at the name. He looked at the group. "Wait, where's Mimi?"
"Picking flowers?" Tai suggested just as a scream filled the otherwise quiet forest.
"Mimi!" Sora yelled and took off farther into the forest. Joe followed behind her, the rest of the digimon following along. Right, the Kuwagamon. Joe knew they'd - he'd - faced worse, but right now all of their digimon were in In-Training forms. Every step towards Mimi meant a step closer to the Kuwagamon, and Joe could feel tremors of fear starting to make themselves known.
"We've made it through this before, I'll be okay." The familiar voice of Bukamon reassured Joe, and he looked down to see the digimon was right beside him. Joe swallowed nervously and nodded. Right. This was nothing he hadn't done before.
Still, his legs locked up as they stood right at the treeline, Mimi and Tanemon running towards them with the Kuwagamon in hot pursuit. She made it to them as the bug digimon swooped over head, shaving off branches of the trees as he passed. Mimi collapsed to her knees, trembling, and Tanemon tried to soothe her.
"Are you okay Mimi?" She asked and her Digidestine gave a shaky nod.
"Yeah, I'm okay Tanemon."
"Don't you worry, I'm here to protect you." Tanemon promised, nestling close to Mimi, and Mimi gently pet the top of Tanemon's leaves.
"We can't stop now," Matt helped pull Mimi to her feet, "That thing's on its way back!"
Joe sighed did his best to not trip and keep pace with the group as they fled, ducking every now and then as Kuwagamon passed over the heads. But eventually the forest ran out of trees and they came to another spot that had plagued Joe's nightmares: The Cliff. Joe clenched his shaking fists. Dang it, this was his second time being backed into this corner! He should've found a way to avoid it!
"We'll need to find another way down." Tai said as he looked down the cliff.
"We don't have time!" Sora cried as the trees shook before revealing Kuwagamon's bright red carapace. Koromon, the crazy brave digimon he was, tried to fight him off with some bubbles but to no avail. When he went down though, the other digimon cried out and jumped up to try and at least disorient the Champion level digimon.
"BUKAMON!" Joe ran after his partner, not caring to see where the Kuwagamon had landed. He scooped the brown digimon into his arms, and Bukamon gave a chuckle.
"It didn't work last time either."
"Why did you do it?! What if he'd hit you worse?!" Joe cried, wanting to hug Bukamon tightly to his chest but not wanting to hurt him further and risk doing too much damage.
"We have to try still, right?"
The Kuwagamon reared back up, screeching, and Joe followed Bukamon to the edge of the cliff.
"This is what we were made for!" Koromon cried out, leaping out of Tai's arms. "We have to stand and fight!"
"But you can't take him, he's too strong!" Tai argued as slowly each and every Chosen Child lost their battle to keep a hold of their digimon. Joe looked down at Bukamon, who just looked right back up. If things went the same way as last time, it would be okay, but it was still terrifying to let the little guy try and take on such a big and fearsome opponent. He knelt down and let Bukamon out of his arms to join this others.
"You… YOU CAN DO IT BUKAMON!" Joe yelled, his voice joining the chorus as the others called out to their digimon.
He hadn't noticed it the first time, but through the roar of emotions and adrenaline and fear running through his system there was Something Else. And that Something Else shifted Something Big as the sky opened up and the digimon were enveloped in rainbow light. His digivice gave the tell-tale 'SCREEEEE' that signaled a digivolution.
"Whoa." Matt breathed, staring at Gabumon.
"They're… bigger." Tai said, jaw practically on the ground. Six of the digimon surged forward to take on Kuwagamon, but Gomamon hung back, going up to Joe.
"They've got this." He said in reply to Joe's questioning look, going past Joe and up to the ledge. "We need to get out of here though. Palmon! I need your help!" The plant digimon turned around as the other five continued to keep the Kuwagamon distracted.
"Yeah Gomamon?"
"I'm going to need you to lower everybody down to the water." Gomamon instructed before jumping down to the river below.
"But I can't swim!" TK grabbed onto his brother's leg.
"It's okay, we're not going to swim." Joe reassured the youngest digidestined. He peeked over the ledge to where Gomamon was already amassing a swarm of fish to carry them. Joe tried not to think about the distance. "Palmon, can you get us down to him?"
"No problem!" Palmon waved and her claws extended into vines, wrapping around the humans and pulling them over. A few who hadn't caught on to what was going on yelped in surprise, and Tai actually started to try and tear through the vine before realizing it was one of their digimon doing it.
"I figured we might as well skip the big fall this time." Gomamon gave Joe a big toothy grin and Joe scratched the digimon's head.
"Ooh, they're such pretty colors." Mimi cooed, staring at the multi-colored fish. Once all of the Digidestined were down safely the digimon hopped down next.
"Everybody buckled in?" Gomamon asked, and then didn't wait for an answer as he ordered, "Onward, Fish Buddies!"
The Kuwagamon tried to keep up, but it seemed too tired from being attacked by so many Rookies at once to keep up, eventually falling behind with a frustrated roar.
