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Beyond Humanity

Chapter 3

Time went by slowly. Tai started to fear for his own humanity. He didn't want to change into anything else. He was happy as a human.

But he didn't have a choice. Eventually everyone would change into something else. Something not human, yet not digimon either.

Izzy calls it the next step in the human evolution.

"Izzy?" Tai asked a bit scared that morning. It had been a day since TK's change. "What is it?"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Tai asked as he looked away. He quickly swiped Mimi's mirror and held it in front of Izzy.

"Dude! That's so…Cool!" Izzy said, grabbing the mirror. His eyes were black, kind of like a beetle's eyes. That made some sense, with Izzy always hanging around Tentomon.

"How long do you think before I change completely?" Izzy asked eagerly. "Wait! Maybe I can calculate it!" Tai smacked his hand on his forehead. Izzy asked him a question and answered it himself. What's the point of asking stuff then? Not that he'd know the answer.

Tai sighed. He didn't like to admit it but Joe was right. He too missed the times were all they had to worry about were evil digimon.

He sighed again as he heard someone crash through the trees again. TK was having a bit of trouble with flying. He had no problem taking off. Staying in the air was the main problem. Plus he had the nasty habit of landing on Joe every time.

Good old reliable Joe. He had voiced his own opinions on this change right away. Like Tai he would fight it.

A frustrated groan was heard, causing Tai to snap back to reality. Matt was complaining about his starting change again. He had started last night. Apparently they were camping near a moderately big source of digital energy. Matt slept too close to it.

And now Matt was turning into a real lone wolf. He had a tail! One that looked a suspiciously lot like WereGarurumon's tail.

Tai couldn't help but laugh at this. Matt had problems sitting down now, with that tail getting in the way every time. According to Wolfboy it hurts like hell when you sit on your tail.

"Aaah!"

Another scream rang through the forests. One of these days they'd attract Puppetmon. Deciding to go check it out Tai stood up. It was probably someone else that started to change.

"Okay, who's the newest victim?" Tai asked nonchalantly.

"Sora!" Biyomon said, jumping up and down in excitement. Tai's mouth fell open once he looked at the creature next to Biyomon. A smaller version of Garudamon stood there. She was still bigger then him though. Almost two meters tall.

"Sora?" Tai asked as he looked up to the bird-like creature. She nodded while tears ran down her newly formed beak.

She looked just like Garudamon, the mask, the wings even the beak. The only difference was the size and the fact that Sora still wore some tattered clothes. Her body still looked rather human-like, except for the feathers and the chickenlegs.

"Izzy's damn map doesn't work." She said. "He said there weren't any major sources around. This place was supposed to be safe."

Tai had absolutely no idea what to say to her. How do you comfort someone that lost her humanity?

Luckily Joe broke the tension by getting crushed by TK again. Even though they were quite a bit apart from each other they heard it loud and clear.

'Poor Sora.' Was all that went through Tai's mind. That was until she grabbed him into a bone-crushing hug. 'Ouch.' Was his newest thought.

Sora quickly calmed down again.

"What am I going to do now Tai? I can't go home looking like this." She sobbed softly.

"I don't know. I just can't understand it. I haven't changed yet." Tai said. 'Let's keep it that way for now.' He added in his thoughts.

Soon night fell once more. They had almost made their way out of Puppetmon's forest. They'd rather take on MetalSeadramon first. He might be a lot bigger then the wooden toy that lives here but according to Izzy he was a lot weaker.

The others had changed some more. That day they had split up to look for food, so it had been like eight hours since he saw anyone but Sora. He did hear Joe's cries of pain a few times.

Matt's face was looking rather wolfish by now. His hair was replaced by the same mane of hair that WereGarurumon has, though there were obvious differences: instead of light-blue with blue stripes, Matt's fur was coloured blond with blue stripes.

He also sported a rather nasty set of sharp teeth that looked like he could tear a man in two with them.

Sitting next to him was Sora. Most people had been a bit shocked by her change. The didn't recognize her at first but soon realised who she was.

Next to her was Mimi, who hadn't changed in any way yet. She looked a bit afraid of the bird-girl sitting next to her. It seemed her mind was a bit in conflict. One part of her screamed that Sora was a fashion disaster but the stronger part told her that nothing had changed. She was still Sora on the inside.

Then there was Joe. He was turning into some kind of mummy-like digimon but that could be because of the fact that TK chose his head as a landing spot.

TK of course couldn't stop laughing at that. Tai suspected that the little angel had figured out how to fly rather easily. He just dropped on Joe for the fun of it.

Kari was sitting next to him. Apparently she and TK had become good friends over the past few days. Tai's big brother instincts told him to watch the boy a lot more closely in the future.

Tai's head started to hurt. Biyomon had started to boast again about how cool 'Soramon' (as she called her) looked. She just refused to shut up about it.

The digimon were excited, of course, by this change. Even Agumon wanted to see Tai change. He made a bet with the other digimon that his partner would turn into a WarGreymon look-a-like.

"Look at me! I'm flying!" A known voice yelled out.

A red shape hung in front of Mimi. "Buzz of Izzy." She yelled at the teen-turned-bug. Izzy had actually sought for a source of digital energy. He was now a miniature version of MegaKabuterimon. Well, miniature was an understatement. He was even taller then Sora was now.

"Buzz! Buzz!" Izzy joked and flew off again.

'He better stop making those bug-related jokes, else I'll swat him with a newspaper. A big one.' Tai thought as Izzy took for the skies.

"Okay, it's getting rather late. As soon as Izzy comes back someone will keep watch for an hour or two. Any volunteers?"

Matt lifted his hand, not even bothering to open his mouth to say anything. Tai decided that that was for the best.

He needed a few hours of sleep. He had tired himself out by collecting food and comforting people today.

Tai laid down on the cold ground. There wasn't a cave around for miles so they just camped in the middle of the forest. He knew it was dangerous but they all needed sleep.

Soon Tai was asleep, dreaming of soccer.

Tai ran towards the opponents goal. The score was 0-0 and if he managed to score one point his team would win the tournament.

Sora kicked the ball to him. He now had a clear shot.

Tai quickly calculated where he should kick. A split second latter he kicked with all the strength he could muster.

But the ball didn't reach the goal. As a matter of fact, the ball was gone.

'Where'd it go?' he said to his dream team-mates. 'Eh Tai? You'd better look down.' Normal Sora had been replaced by Bird Sora.

Tai was afraid to look down but did so anyway.

And he immediately wished he hadn't done so.

The ball was still there. Pinned to the claws on what he once called feet.

Tai screamed in terror but all he heard was a draconic roar of fear. He glanced at his hands and found the same: sharp claws that could rip through steel.

'Don't be afraid Tai.' Sora said. 'It's fun being digital.'

'No-no-no.' Tai muttered repeatedly.

'She's right.' Matt appeared out of no where, now completely changed. He looked like a blond version of WereGarurumon without the snazzy outfit but dressed in the rags of his old clothes.

'I will not change-I will not change-I will not change.' Tai muttered, like some kind of Mantra.

'You can't stop it Tai. Gennai calculated that before we can save the Digital World we'll all change.' Izzy appeared out of nowhere. 'Besides, it's fun!'

Tai screamed again in an attempt to wake himself up.

"Okay Joe, so now you put the shaving cream on his hand.' Gomamon instructed. 'Why did I let you talk me into this again?' Joe asked as he did what the seal told him. He couldn't even remember why he brought the shaving cream. He suspected that Gomamon had slipped it into his bag before they left but he wasn't sure.

"You're doing this because Matt's been trying scare you with his new dentals so that you would scream and then you would look like a wimp. Now be quiet."

Joe decided that the seal was right and placed even more shaving cream on Matt's hand, though it looked more like a paw now.

Gomamon picked up a feather that Sora lost earlier and moved it to Matt's face. 'Slowly.' He thought.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!"

A scream was heard, causing Gomamon and Joe to jump up in fear (of getting caught)

Luckily no one woke from the sound.

Joe looked around to see who woke up. He saw Tai sitting up, sweat running down his face.

"Tai? Are you okay?" Joe asked cautiously.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, nothing to worry about. I just need to go-" Tai's arm hurt like hell all of a sudden. "Go to the toilet, yes that's it." Tai stood up and grabbed his sweater.

"That was weird." Joe said while Gomamon did a new attempt with the feather.

Tai quickly ran to the river. His left arm burnt. He knew something was happening to it but he was afraid to look at it.

He felt the human flesh on it dissolve, leaving him with the feeling that something was missing, that something was just plain wrong with his arm.

Tai used all his will power to stop himself from changing.

It worked. A bit. His left arm was now tingling with energy. It was as if it told him that it would be back. That the change would continue, whether he likes it or not.

Tai looked at his arm and nearly fainted at what he saw.

What happened to Tai? What will happen next? Why am I asking this stupid questions?

I hope everyone likes the changes I put the digidestined through. And you'll know what happened to Tai next chapter 'wink'

Reviews

Lord Pata: I know! And poor Joe, at this rate he'll turn into a Mummymon.

Graypheonix: Nice idea! Mind if I use it? And sorry no BlackWarGreymon either. I have something much more fun in mind 'EVIL LAUGH THAT SHATTERS BONE!!'

Depthmon: for Joe, he gets crushed every time

Super garurumon: I know but that's only because he's my favourite character

Doodle-chan: I liked writing that bit ;)

As always: R&R people!