Ep. 2. New Crests, new Digimentals

Tommy: Life at Odaiba got off to an exciting start. After escaping fan girls, I ended up at the Digital World despite not seeing it for over three years. I wasn't alone either. Turns out, TK and a bunch of other people know about Digimon! Me and my cousin went there through a computer – weird, right? – with them to help my new classmate Kari's brother, and these kids Yolei and Cody got new digivices. Mine changed into one of those when I lifted the Digimental of Ice and met my partner Bearmon, and I was able to make him armour digivolve to IceLeomon. I've the feeling this is just the beginning!

Everyone ended up in a dog pile as they came out of the computer.

"I definitely liked the Trailmon better," Tommy mumbled from the bottom of the pile. The others heard him but didn't comment. Everyone stood up and got off one another, Sara muttering threats if people didn't get off her immediately.

"Bye, everyone!" the Digimon chorused from the computer as the humans walked out of the elementary school and saw it was already around 7 o'clock judging by the sunset. They said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways.

As they walked home, Tommy and Sara talked about what had happened. "I still can't believe there are others who know about the Digital World," Tommy said, grinning. He had taken off his new goggles and was staring at them.

Sara rolled her eyes, knowing this happy-go-lucky attitude was partly Takuya's influence. She was smiling though, happy for her cousin even if the way he easily accepted being put in charge of a little group by a stranger bothered her. "We better call the others. It's too late to have an actual meeting at our usual spot, so lets talk with them over the phone instead," the female Warrior said.

Placing the goggles back on his head, Tommy nodded in agreement.

At a kids' park later that evening, the eight Children Virtue DigiDestineds had gathered to talk as well. TK's older brother Yamato Ishida, commonly known as Matt, was the last to arrive.

"Sorry I'm late, guys," the Child of Friendship said as he approached the other teens and the two preteens, carrying a black guitar case on his back.

Sora Takenouchi jumped down from the steel bars she had been sitting on. "It's good to be all together again," she said with a smile.

At Cody's, Yolei was fixing her younger friend's computer while he practiced kendo a little at his room's small balcony.

"I can't wait to go there again. Tomorrow, we'll go to the Digital World!" Yolei declared, holding up a screwdriver.

"Digi-armour-energize?" Takuya's voice asked. The Himi cousins were on Sara's bedroom's floor, both their cell phones (with speaker on) and D-tectors on the floor so that the other five Warriors could talk to everyone through them. Fortunately, Tommy's new D-tector model still had the calling function.

"It's a phrase used to activate the new form of digivolving," Tommy told. "For some reason, my D-tector changed into the new one when I touched the Digimental of Ice, and now I just gotta say those words to make my new partner armour digivolve."

"What about spirit evolving?" Koji's older twin brother Koichi Kimura asked. His sister was staying over at his house, so they both talked through Tommy's D-tector. It showed the mark of Light on its screen.

"We tried it. The Spirits wouldn't answer us," Sara said offhandedly, but from her eyes it was clear that she was disappointed.

"If a new form of digivolving is needed, then the Digital World must be in big trouble," Koji stated. Koichi nodded in agreement, although only Koji could see him.

"Right. This Digimon Emperor must be stopped," JP said.

"For some reason, Agumon and the others couldn't digivolve, but Tommy's partner had no problem," Tai said, resting his chin on his hands with his elbows propped against his knees as he sat on the back of a bench.

I just don't understand why my Crest didn't work, he thought as he pulled out a small pendant (his tag) from under his blazer. It was angular and sort of water drop shaped, and held an orange plate with a sun symbol – his Crest of Courage.

"I'm worried. If this Digimon Emperor is enslaving Digimon, will Biyomon and the others be okay?" Sora said.

"I got an e-mail earlier from Mimi. She was worrying about the exact same thing," Kari told.

"I say we go there and do things our way," Matt said.

"We can't. I checked the Digiport before leaving, and it's closed again," Izzy told.

He then held his chin with his right hand while using his left arm as a support for his right elbow (which his friends tended to call his "thinking pose"), and changed the subject: "I've been thinking… Tommy and Sara had digivices that were nothing like ours and they knew about the Digital World and Digimon. My conclusion is that they must have gone to the Digital World before."

"Right. I wonder how those two got their digivices?" Tai said.

"Right. I wonder how those guys got their D-tectors?" Takuya's voice said over Tommy's phone.

"They don't call them D-tectors, doofus," Sara said, "They call them digivices."

"Okay, digivices," the teenager goggle-head corrected, rolling his eyes although none of the others could see it.

"Maybe they're those kids from three years ago, the ones who had Digimon partners and fought evil Digimon here in the Real World," Zoe's voice came from Sara's D-tector, the device showing the mark of Wind on its screen. "So Tommy, did that Tai guy really pick you as leader?"

"You betcha!" Tommy replied, clasping his hands behind his head, another habit he had picked up from Takuya.

"Yeah. Now I gotta put up living with a goggle-head," Sara said with a smirk, making Takuya and Tommy exclaim "Hey!" while the others burst out laughing.

"Sara, Tommy! Dinner's ready!" Mrs Himi's voice called from the kitchen/dining room.

"We gotta go. Talk to you guys tomorrow, okay?" Tommy said. This is so cool! We're gonna have new adventures in the Digital World!

The next morning, TK and Kari took their seats in class, glancing at the door every two seconds. Tommy and Sara hadn't showed up yet, and the bell will ring any minute.

The Himi cousins came in just as the bell rang. Tommy looked just the same as yesterday – he wore a lime green short-sleeved hooded top over a white shirt, and blue jeans. The only difference was that he had no hat and instead Tai's goggles were still on his head.

At lunch, Tommy, Sara, TK and Kari were walking towards the computer lab in awkward silence. Tommy racked his brains for something so say, scratching the back of his head.

Kari giggled quietly. "What?" Tommy asked, clueless.

"Nothing. You just sorta remind me of Tai," Kari replied, smiling in a friendly manner.

"Oh right! He's your brother. I gotta thank him for these awesome goggles. A close friend of mine used to wear goggles too."

"Really?" TK asked curiously.

Tommy nodded. "Yup. He says goggles are the sign of a leader. Kinda like Tai, huh?"

"Sure sounds like him," TK said with a cheerful smile, and Kari nodded in agreement. Sara just ignored the other three preteens.

They arrived at the computer lab and saw Yolei and Cody already there. Apparently, they had wanted to go to the Digital World for a bit too. "Hi," Yolei greeted them with a grin, while Cody gave a polite bow. It quite surprised the four at how good manners the smaller boy always seemed to use.

Tommy, Yolei and Cody held out their digivices for Sora to see after she, Tai and Izzy arrived. Izzy checked the Digiport and saw it was open. He went to every other computer, then back to the one with the Digiport, saying: "I checked the other computers. It seems to me that the Digiport is only open on this one right here."

Just as the youngsters were about to leave for the Digital World, something (or, more specifically, someone) put a halt to their plans. "Taichi Kamiya, is that you?" asked a voice the older kids hadn't heard in a long time.

"Mr Fujiyama," said Tai, bewildered by his presence, "How have you been?"

"I've been fine," replied Mr Fujiyama, "Sora and Koushiro too, I thought you guys graduated already."

"We did," Sora replied, "But what are you doing here?"

"I'm the new ICT teacher and head of the Computer Club."

"What do you know about using computers?" asked Tai and Sora at the same time.

"Not a single-solitary thing," Mr Fujiyama admitted cheerfully.

Everyone sighed; the older DigiDestineds had not been surprised.

That figures, Tai thought, and he immediately started talking fast and pushing the teacher out of the room, seemingly wanting to talk alone about girls.

"Thanks, Tai," Sora said, after her best friend flashed them the peace/victory sign, "We owe you one."

"Now that that's out of the way," TK said, "let's head to the Digital World."

"All together now!" Tommy stated excitedly, as everyone brought up his or her digivice.

One bright flash of the computer screen later, everyone had disappeared to the Digital World.

The youngsters passed through the dimensional barrier once again.

This time, they all ended up at an area mostly consisting of red rock, though there were a few grassy hills nearby and a forest further away. The area was a few hours' trek away from where they had gone to yesterday.

"Bearmon! Where are you?!" Tommy called, hoping his new partner was somewhere in the area. He wanted to get to know the little guy better, especially since he reminded Tommy of Kumamon. Not to mention how he had befriended a Bearmon on the Island of Lost Digimon.

After calling for Bearmon only a few times, Tommy smiled as he saw the Rookie running towards him in the distance, accompanied by Patamon, Agumon, Gatomon, a light pink bird Digimon named Biyomon and a vaguely-ladybug-resembling Digimon called Tentomon.

"Hiya, Tommy!" Bearmon said cheerfully as soon as he reached his partner.

Biyomon and Tentomon were having happy reunions with their respective human partners, Sora and Izzy. Agumon asked where Tai was, and Kari told him that the Child of Courage was keeping a teacher busy so that the other DigiDestineds could be in the Digital World without fear of being discovered by the teacher.

Suddenly, a shadow swept over everyone. A very large green bug Digimon that Tommy and the four Children Virtue recognized as a Snimon came flying down and was about to hit Sora. The youngsters didn't notice it, but the Champion was wearing a black metal ring, a dark ring, around its middle.

"Sora, move!" TK yelled, running over to her and pushing her down. The giant insect's sickles just missed them by an inch.

The Chosen Digimon used their special attacks to try and fight him off, but failed as the bug was a skilled flyer and would counterattack with Twin Sickles. "It's just no use. I'm not that strong without my tail ring," Gatomon murmured sadly, wishing she could digivolve to show this overgrown mantis what she could really do.

"Don't worry, everyone. Tommy, use the Digimental of Ice," Bearmon said, turning to the goggle-head.

"Right," Tommy said with his cheeks tinged a tiny bit pink in embarrassment, taking out his digivice from his jeans' pocket. (He had forgotten all about the Digimental thanks to all the action going on.)

Suddenly, a large hole opened up from underneath him, sending him falling into it.

"TOMMY!" Bearmon cried out as a drill-nosed purple and white mole Digimon started to make its way up the hole towards Tommy, who had grabbed onto a rock to stop him from falling all the way down.

"It's a Drimogemon!" Agumon exclaimed as the Digimon started to move closer to Tommy.

"A dark ring," the goggle-head muttered to himself when he saw the black metal ring around its front leg.

There was a loud roar and the ground started to shake from heavy footsteps. Looking over their shoulders, the humans and small Digimon saw a large white snow beast Digimon with a dark ring around his wrist. It carried a boomerang-like bone and reminded everyone of a yeti.

"What is that?" Yolei asked as Cody gripped TK's (who was the closest) shorts in fear. They had experienced some danger yesterday already, but having three monsters attacking and one of the others falling into a giant hole on the ground was starting to get too much for the two new DigiDestineds.

"That would be Mojyamon" Izzy said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Bone boomerang!" Mojyamon yelled, throwing his bone.

"Bearmon, look out!" Kari screamed as it went straight at the Rookie, who was looking over the hole at Tommy.

Bearmon turned only to get hit in the face by Mojyamon's special attack, sending him over the edge. "Bearmon!" Tommy yelled and in that moment (like he'd learned from his role model) he forgot about his own safety, letting go of the rock, turning around and diving to catch Bearmon.

But sadly, they fell into Drimogemon's grasp. When their heads hit the ground they both were knocked out cold, a tiny trickle of blood coming from a small cut Tommy gained on the side of his head.

"Oh my... the ground opened up and ate them," Yolei gasped.

"Tommy!" Sara cried out, her face showing her worry for her cousin. Normally she wouldn't worry about him since they both had learnt to protect themselves, but with the Spirits refusing to answer them and this new enemy the Digimon Emperor, it was safe to say that too much confidence would be foolish. Especially since the others had told Sara about what had happened with Duskmon.

"I want to go home now," Cody said, gripping TK's shorts tighter.

"But first we have to get out of here," TK decided, placing a comforting hand on the younger boy's shoulder. He knew what it was like being the youngest and vulnerable.

Izzy nodded, agreeing with him. He and TK took Cody by each hand with their partners and Agumon close behind. Sora helped Yolei up and, with Biyomon by her side, started leading the younger girl away with the boys following. Kari and Gatomon went to Yolei's side, the preteen taking her peer's hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. Her group truly was worried about Tommy, but they knew from experience that getting to safety must be their first task.

Cody looked over his shoulder and started to shake as Mojyamon began to walk their way.

"I can't take this... I wanna go home, wha-hahahaha!" cried Yolei as the two Digimon trapped them from both front and back.

Having had enough of the other girl, Sara slapped her on the cheek. "Pull yourself together! Wailing isn't gonna get us anywhere! We have to stay strong!" At the end of Sara's little 'toughen up' rant, TK nodded with approval and said she was right. Yolei just looked at the other girl blankly, too surprised of the sudden slap to feel angry about it. (Yet!)

The auburn-haired girl's words gave Gatomon an idea. "Kari! Use your Crest to give me at least a little more strength!" she said urgently.

Kari didn't understand how that can be done, but decided to trust Gatomon. Since she knew one time she had managed to give Angewomon, Gatomon's Ultimate form, an arrow by using her Crest of Light (TK had done the same for Angemon a.k.a. Patamon with his Crest of Hope), she recalled the memory of that time.

Her pink Crest glowed beneath her tank top, and Gatomon felt some of her old strength back. She raced towards Mojyamon, jumped, and delivered a Lightning Paw square on the other Champion's face. Mojyamon reeled back from the impact, and Gatomon used the opportunity to grab its bone boomerang and throw it at Snimon. It hit the target, making the Champion fall to the ground temporarily.

"Now that they're distracted, lets get a move on!" Kari declared.

A short while later, the DigiDestineds and Chosen Digimon walked past tropical trees and bushes, hoping to find some sign of where Tommy and Bearmon were.

Suddenly, Cody's digivice started beeping. He took it out of his pocket and saw it had detected something far ahead, as shown by the little black dot on the screen and its beeping. "Hey, umm… guys?" Cody called. Everyone's attention went to him, making him blush a little in embarrassment.

"Uh… my digivice is going off," he said showing the device to them.

"Strange. Mine isn't," TK said as everyone looked at their own.

"Mine either," Kari added, confused.

Yolei was busy scowling at Sara, who pointedly ignored her. She didn't notice that, in her skirt's pocket, her digivice was doing the same as Cody's.

"I wonder if there's a building close by. Maybe Tommy is in there," Izzy commented, mentally tucking away the information that apparently only Cody's digivice was reacting. He planned on thinking on it more later, after this whole mess was dealt with.

"There's no building around here," Biyomon said, looking at Tentomon.

"But there is the temple," the bug Digimon replied.

"A temple? Well whatever is in there that is making Cody's digivice go off like that is worth checking out. Who knows, maybe Tommy and Bearmon are in there too," Sora said as everyone turned to look at the large white temple that could by now be seen through the trees.

Once they got to the top and after Yolei had finished whining, they found two objects situated on pedestals. They were similar to eggs, but the one on the right was metallic with wings and had a strange symbol – a red heart-like shape that was upside-down with a lime green water drop over it.

The one on the left was a little bottle-like with purple and white colouring and a strange symbol of its own – two purple rings with one inside the other, and a grey cross inside the inner ring.

"They look like Digieggs," Sora said, looking up at the two objects.

"Digimentals," Agumon corrected her, remembering Bearmon's words from yesterday.

"That must be what my digivice is reacting to," Cody said, looking at his digivice then back at the eggs. TK murmured in agreement.

"That symbol looks like a mixture of the Crests of Knowledge and Reliability," Izzy remarked, observing the purple and white egg. Bearing the trait of Knowledge and thus holding its Crest, he was the Child of Knowledge. Joe Kido was the Child of Reliability, while Mimi Tachikawa was the Child of Sincerity.

"And that one is clearly a combination of the Crests of Love and Sincerity," Sora said, pointing at the egg with wings. She pulled out from her green sailor uniform skirt's pocket her tag, which held her red Crest of Love.

"What Crests are they?" Kari wondered aloud.

From Yolei's digivice suddenly came a feminine voice: "Yolei Inoue. You are the Child of Compassion."

"What?" Yolei exclaimed, staring at her digivice. The screen showed a strange symbol, which Sara recognized as Lady Ophanimon's symbol.

Now that I think about it, that voice is Lady Ophanimon's, she thought, frowning. What's going on? Are there even more new DigiDestineds out there?

"Iori Hida," Ophanimon's voice said from Cody's digivice. "You are the Child of Integrity."

"Huh?" Cody looked at his digivice in surprise, seeing Ophanimon's symbol on the screen.

Then both digivices' screens became blank again, until Yolei pressed one of the buttons, causing a digital clock showing the time and date appear. It was 12:29.

"U-oh! We gotta get back in twenty-five minutes or we're gonna be late from class. Oh well, I'll just say I was in the Digital World," Yolei said.

"You can't! It's a secret, so you must promise to never tell anyone about it. Only us DigiDestineds can know, no-one else," TK warned her.

"Not even our families?" Cody asked, frowning. He wasn't sure if he even could keep a secret this big from his mother and grandfather.

"Nope. Sorry," Kari said with an apologetic smile.

Yolei sighed, not looking forward to getting in trouble. "All right, I promise. But who was that woman talking to me?"

"Lady Ophanimon," Sara replied, crossing her arms. But she was smiling, a memory of how she and Tommy had played with the Celestial Digimon when the three were in their Rookie forms flashing by in her mind.

"Who is she?" Kari and Yolei asked at the same time.

"You don't need to know that now," Sara said offhandedly.

This really ticked Yolei off. "Hey, I asked you a question!"

"Yolei, I'm more curious about what Crests even are," Cody said, placing a calming hand on his friend's arm.

"They're these things," TK replied as he pulled his tag from under his sweater. It held his Crest of Hope. Kari pulled hers out too.

"You see, our Crests allow our Digimon partners to digivolve to ultimate level. They're based on our strongest virtue," Izzy told, taking out his Crest from his school trousers' pocket.

"I see…" Cody muttered.

"Yolei, Cody? I think you should try lifting them," Sora said, exchanging a look with Izzy. Both of them remembered what Tai had said last night.

Flashback

"Even Yolei and Cody couldn't lift the egg but Tommy had no problem."

End flashback

They might not have been able to lift the Digimental Tommy lifted, but maybe that's because these eggs are meant for them and can only be lifted by their owner, Izzy theorized in his mind.

"Huh? You want us to try it?" Yolei asked. Sora and Izzy nodded.

"Uuh, okay," Cody said with an unsure nod as he and the older kid went to stand in front of the pedestal.

Yolei took hold of the Digimental of Compassion and Cody put his hands around the Digimental of Integrity. They pulled, and the eggs came off at once.

A stream of red mixed with lime green light and another of purple an' gray light came from the eggs' previous spots, and two creatures formed in them. From the red light a red and white hawk-like Digimon jumped out, while a yellow armadillo-resembling Digimon came from the purple light. The lights faded as the two Rookie levels smiled up at their new human partners.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Hawkmon greeted, his voice holding a British accent.

"I was having a nice nap. Did ya have to wake me up?" Armadillomon asked, yawning. But he didn't really seem annoyed.

"Wow, two more new Chosen Digimon!" Agumon said with a toothy smile. He came up to Hawkmon and Armadillomon, holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Agumon. These guys are my friends, and those two humans released you from what I think was a deep sleep."

"Well, I did assume that they are mine and Armadillomon's new partners. My name is Hawkmon, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Agumon," the bird-like Rookie replied, shaking Agumon's hand with his right wing. Agumon grinned, feeling that he and Hawkmon were going to get along well.

"This is nice and all, but shouldn't we be worrying about finding Tommy and Bearmon?" Sara said.

"Right. Yolei, Cody, you might want to prepare yourselves to help your partners fight," TK said with a nod.

"Fight?! But I don't want to fight! I don't like this place and I want to go home!" Yolei wailed, dropping her new Digimental and running off.

"Yolei!" Sora called, picking up the Digimental (which for some reason didn't feel at all heavy anymore) and raced after the younger girl with Hawkmon following her. She caught up to the 11-year-old, finding her sitting on the temple's steps. The orange-haired teen sat next to Yolei, putting the Digimental to its owner's hands and holding them in her own. Yolei looked at Sora in confusion. "Look, I know this all sounds scary, but it's going to be okay," Sora said in a motherly tone.

Yolei looked sceptical. "How do you know?"

"Because one of my best friends is a girl who is a lot like you. When she was 10, she didn't want to fight either even though she knew she had to. But she decided to try for the sake of her friends because she cared about us. Wouldn't you like to be there to protect Cody in the face of danger?"

Yolei nodded, starting to feel determined. "Yes. We've been friends ever since he was little, so I'm definitely going to be around if Cody will be in danger."

Standing up along with Sora, their hands still around the Digimental, Yolei declared: "I will do whatever it takes to protect the ones I love!" At once, the Digimental of Compassion as well as Sora's Crest (though the Crest so faintly that only Sora noticed) started to glow red.

The girls' and Hawkmon's attention then turned to the top of the temple when they heard a crash.

Meanwhile, after Yolei and Sora had run off, Izzy asked Cody: "So, Cody, what do you think of the Digital World so far?"

"It's so new and interesting, but scary too. Though I haven't been here enough to form a more accurate opinion yet," the 8-year-old replied, and Sara couldn't help wondering why he spoke as if he was much older. "But I'm not sure what would be the best thing to do to satisfy my curiosity."

"Then do what I did three years ago. Stick around and observe the Digital World while fighting to protect it," the red-haired preteen replied, finishing with a smile: "If there's a problem you can't solve, then come to me and we can solve it together."

He was about to say more, but there was an earthquake caused by two DarkTyrannomon fighting near the temple and one of them hitting it very hard as a result. This caused some of the rocks of the roof to fall, causing a cave-in.

"Great, now we're stuck here," Sara grumbled as the dust lifted. Gatomon mumbled something similar as she walked over to Kari with Agumon to check that the girl was all right.

"What do we do?" Kari asked Izzy. However, the older boy was looking at Cody and his Digimental with interest, as the child went to the blocked off entrance with TK, Sara, Patamon and Armadillomon.

If we move those two rocks, the roof will fall. So we need to move every rock around them first, since they're smaller… the brunette thought, and gasped when his Digimental started to glow purple. Izzy gasped too, as his Crest reacted to Cody.

Instinctively, Yolei and Cody said as their Digimentals glowed: "Digi-armour-energize!"

When Tommy woke up, he was on the side of a sheer cliff face, which made him sweatdrop since it wasn't the first time he woke up by a cliff.

"Ah, I see you've awakened at last. Not such a big hotshot now, are you?"

Tommy looked up to see the source, and saw a boy his age wearing a blue spandex suit and a dark blue upside-down-V-like cape with seemingly-thick yellow shoulder pads. The other boy's eyes and part of his face were covered by big, goggles-like purple sunglasses with yellow rims. His navy blue and blue-gray hair stuck to every direction in spikes, vaguely similar to but shorter than Tai's. To the Warrior of Ice it looked like Jun's hair.

"Do you have any idea of who you're dealing with?" asked Tommy, his intimidation severely weakened by the fact that even if he did break free he would be hard-pressed to get up the cliff to face the Digimon Emperor.

"Tomoki," said the Digimon Emperor, "new leader of the DigiDestined and the Warrior of Ice."

"How'd you know that?" asked Tommy, shocked. How can he know I'm a Legendary Warrior? Does he know about the others too? Wait a minute! Is it just me, or does that guy's voice seem vaguely familiar?

"I don't reveal my sources," said the Digimon Emperor, "But don't feel too bad; I didn't leave you out here alone."

And with a snap of his fingers, part of the opposite cliff face opened up and revealed Bearmon. "Hiya, Tommy!" greeted Bearmon, seemingly not very afraid or just too naïve to realise the situation. "Nice view, isn't it?"

"Let Bearmon go!" Tommy shouted at the Digimon Emperor. "If you wanna fight someone, fight me! But let my friend go!"

"I don't think so. You have been trespassing on my land, and I do not let that go without punishment," the Digimon Emperor said smugly, clicking his fingers.

A dark ring appeared and headed towards Bearmon. "No, Bearmon!" Tommy cried out. "Come on, execute! Aargh! What good is being a Warrior if I can't save my Digimon partner?" Great, I'm gonna lose my friend after knowing him for only a day. Wait a second! That's it! "Bearmon, quick armour digivolve!"

"Excuse me, but don't you need these to carry out that little trick?" the Emperor said smugly, holding out Tommy's new D-terminal and newly-modelled D-tector.

"Hey, those are mine!" the goggle-head exclaimed.

"Thank you for stating the obvious," the Emperor replied sarcastically.

The dark ring was almost upon Bearmon when–

"Eagle Eye!" shouted Halsemon, destroying it by lasers coming from his eyes as he flew in with Yolei on his back and carrying Submarimon using his feet. He threw the latter towards Bearmon as the other Armour Digimon fired his Oxygen Torpedo attack to rescue the Rookie. Halsemon himself fired his attack again at Tommy's restraints, freeing the boy.

Tommy jumped on Halsemon's back as he flew by, thanking Yolei and the Armour Digimon.

"Sorry to crash the party," Submarimon joked as his attack crumbled the cliff face Bearmon was stuck to. He opened his glass-like top half, allowing the Rookie to get in, and closing it before they hit the ground with a crash.

He was much more comfortable in water since his species were used to being in water at all times, but was still determined to help out against any lackeys the Digimon Emperor might send after them.

"Ya coulda knocked," Bearmon replied, smiling. His partner was taken safely to the ground by Halsemon.

Gatomon showed up in front of the Digimon Emperor, who was busy looking down below while grinding his teeth in anger. She punched him to the stomach before he could take out his whip, and grabbed the digivice and D-terminal, then jumped off the cliff.

Patamon caught her and landed her in front of Tommy. The feline Champion then gave the goggle-head his digivice and D-terminal.

"Thanks, Gatomon. Bearmon, it's our turn now," Tommy said, holding up his digivice, "Digi-armour-energize!"

Bearmon armour digivolved into IceLeomon. "Let's show this Digimon Emperor what Armour Digimon are all about, guys," IceLeomon suggested with a cocky grin.

TK shook his head in amusement, thinking: He looks a lot like Leomon but they aren't completely alike.

"Right with you," said Submarimon. He was somewhat similar to a swordfish, the purple and grey symbol of Integrity on his stomach.

"Won't argue with you there," added Halsemon. The red and lime green symbol for Compassion was on his helmet.

Halsemon took to the air to face Snimon with Yolei still on his back, while Submarimon headed into a large hole that would take him underground to battle Drimogemon. This left IceLeomon to take care of Mojyamon.

"I only need one attack to free you," IceLeomon said in a matter-of-fact tone, hopping up on a small plateau in front of the DigiDestined. He was about to use his Crystal Breeze attack [I know that's Kumamon's, but he's linked to the Spirits of Ice, so…], when his opponent provided him with a better idea.

Mojyamon threw a giant icicle at IceLeomon, who caught the icicle and, without waiting, threw it fast right onto the dark ring in Mojyamon's left arm. It crumbled partially, falling off and disintegrating upon contact with the ground.

"This isn't over!" the Digimon Emperor shouted, jumping off the cliff just as one of his slaves, a Devidramon, flew by.

Back at the cliff everyone was in front of, the poor three Digimon that had been trapped as the Emperor's slaves were greeted by the children and now-dedigivolved Rookies.

"We're sorry we had to fight you. I hope we're still friends," Bearmon said in his childish voice as he grinned up at the Champions.

"It's okay. It was like working. All day long it was destroy this, destroy that… We need a vacation!" the Digimon laughed, walking away.

"So Yolei, will I be able to count on you from now on?" Hawkmon asked the lavender-haired girl, his light blue eyes showing determination.

"Yep!" she quipped with a grin, giving him a thumbs up.

"So Cody, we're a team now right?" Armadillomon asked with a grin, a merry gleam in his emerald eyes.

"Of course," Cody answered as he smiled softly.

"Lets all come here again tomorrow. We could try freeing some of the slaves," TK suggested.

"Good idea. Our partners could keep watch on the different areas of the Digital World and alert us whenever there's trouble. I have a suspicion that the Digiport isn't going to lock up any time soon until the Digimon Emperor is defeated," Izzy said with a thoughtful look. There were murmurs of agreement from the others.

"The birds and the bees, huh? Thanks, teach," came the nervous voice of Tai from behind the computer room's door.

"Boy, when it comes to girls, this guy has a lot to learn," the Child of Courage muttered, walking into the room with his hands in his light grey trousers' pockets.

"What happened to you guys?" Tai asked when the others screamed and landed in a dog pile on the computer room's floor.

"Please don't ask," was the response as everyone groaned.

"The Digimon returned to their In-Training forms," Tai gasped, surprised to see three unfamiliar Digimon.

"Huh?" Tommy blinked and looked up to see a small but cute blue Digimon lying on his head. He resembled a cat's head, his name was Wanyamon, and he had yellow eyes and a short cat tail.

"Wow! You're so cute!" Yolei said, hugging a light pink bird head with a feather sticking up at the back. He had two tiny wings and was called Poromon.

"I don't understand how this little fellow can turn into such a big Digimon like Submarimon," Cody sighed from his position on the floor, looking at the pale yellow head with three-fingered ears in front of him. The little Upamon was looking up at his partner with a smile.

"Are we going to have to do this every time we come back?" Kari asked from her cramped spot on Tommy's back.

"I hope not. I do like you, Kari, but can you please get off me?" Tommy moaned.

"Huh? Oh sorry, Tommy!" yelped the brunette girl, jumping up.

"Yep, definitely a Zoe moment," Tommy mumbled. Sara heard him and chuckled. In response, he shot her a glare.

"And I thought digivolving was hard," Patamon joked, heard through the gateway between the two worlds.

"Well at least we can get home safely," TK sighed, leaning slightly against the computer's desk.

Sora sighed in slight disappointment, thinking: I know Biyomon and the others want to stay behind to guard their new home areas, but that doesn't' mean I have to be happy about it. I wish they would have chosen to come with us.

"TAI!" yelled a voice from the computer.

Everyone turned to the computer screen to see the five smallish Digimon. Agumon was waving madly, happy to at least see his human partner through the gate. Tai grinned and waved back.

"Don't worry, we will be safe here, because the Digimon Emperor never comes out at night," Biyomon said as Agumon stopped waving his hands around.

"All that power and he's afraid of the dark," Tentomon laughed.

"Well get some rest. You'll need it for tomorrow," Sora giggled, cheering up.

"We're going back tomorrow aren't we?" Tommy asked, excited. He couldn't wait to see the Digital World again!

Tommy was in his room explaining to the furball known as Wanyamon about his videogames, when his aunt's voice came: "Tommy, dear, you have a guest."

The goggle-head put his partner onto his pillow before walking to the front door where Mrs Himi stood. "Takuya?!" he exclaimed in surprise, which caused Sara to come out of her room. She too was a little surprised to see their team's leader at the front door at this time of evening. Her mother retreated to her and her husband's bedroom to allow the preteens and teen talk in private.

"Hi, you two," 14-year-old Takuya said with his usual laid-back grin. "I just decided to pop by to give this to you, Tommy." He took off his olive green cap, which he had been wearing ever since he was a little boy, and put it in Tommy's hands. "Since you've got that Tai guy's goggles, I figured you would like my cap. I bet you'll become a great leader to your new team, buddy."

"Thanks, Takuya," Tommy said to his idol. He then felt a little sad as a thought crossed his mind. "Does this mean I'm no longer part of the old team?"

"Of course not!" Takuya said, swinging his arm around Tommy's shoulders. Glancing at Sara, he grinned and did the same to her despite the annoyed but playful scowl he got in response from the girl. "We're the Legendary Warriors. No matter how old we get, we'll always be a team, right?"

Smiling, the younger boy replied: "Right!"

To be continued…

If anyone's wondering why no-one's asked Tommy about how can the Emperor seem familiar to him and know he's a Warrior, it's coz he forgot about both of those things. And he'll keep on forgetting about them in the heat of their adventures, though he MIGHT mention it to someone eventually.

And if anyone's wondering how they got out of the temple, use your imagination to think how Submarimon coulda done it. I'll probably show that in a flashback later.

In this fic, Koji's voice is kinda like Selena Gomez' in my head. I genderbent Koji coz a) I think the only thing that coulda made Koji's character in Frontier better is being a girl and b) I head somewhee that Koji was originally meant to be a girl but that was changed because of Rika.

I made up the Crests of Compassion and Integrity, as you probably have guessed, based on the Crests Yolei and Cody inherited in canon. This is coz I think it'd be stupid if they don't have something that's in some form or another entirely their own like in canon Davis had the Golden Digiegg of Miracles besides the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship. In this fic, Yolei and Cody sort of inherited the Crests of Love & Sincerity and Knowledge & Reliability, but at the same time their Crests are theirs and theirs alone. In the second half, something that's already been heavily hinted at in my 'Digital Adventure' fic will be revealed about those two, as well as Tommy and some other kids (cyber cookies to anyone who can figure out what I'm planning!).

Also, the Crests react to those who have the same trait as their strongest virtue when said virtue is displayed. E.g. Tommy has plenty of courage, Yolei cares for her closest friend Cody a lot, and Cody is curious about things and uses any knowledge he has to solve problems. Thus Tai's, Sora's, and Izzy's Crests reacted to them. The same will happen with the other DigiDestineds; e.g. Tai's Crest would react to Takuya and Kari's to Koji, etc.

I hated how the older kids were practically cast-offs in canon. That's why they'll remain active in this fic, though not quite as much as the younger kids since the juniors have more time in their hands.

Anyhoo, I hope this fic is great. The next episode isn't gonna have much new stuff in it that deviates from canon.