Ah... well... I guess I never actually made it clear about when this story takes place. It took place 3 years after 01, about 1 year before 02, and Mimi is still around. Thanks for the reviews ^_^



Troubles in the Digiworld.

Chapter 3 : Friends and Foes



"Well, we're here," said Joe.

"Yes, we are now in the Digiworld..." said Sora.

"Question is..." said Joe. "Where are they?"

"I hope Kari has already found Matt and T.K.," said Tai, who was worried about his sister.

"I'm quite sure she's safe, wherever she is," said Sora, comforting Tai.

"Thanks, Sora," smiled Tai. "Anyway, we better start moving. I don't think they could have gotten very far yet."

"I hope..." he thought to himself, as they started walking around, hoping to bump into either Kari, Matt or T.K. They had walked through the forest for several minutes, when Izzy spotted something.

"Tai! Look over here!" he shouted, pointing towards an open area, where several trees had fallen over. The bushes there was somewhat squashed and there were footprints all over the place.

"Looks like there was a fierce battle here, by the looks of things around," said Izzy.

"Wow... look at this giant footprint..." said Joe.

"All the trees here seemed to have been knocked down by some powerful digimon," said Mimi.

"Guys!" shouted Izzy, who was busy typing away on his laptop. "I think I know which digimon caused all this. I've analyzed this giant digimon's footprint... and... I think..." Izzy said slowly in a worried tone, still looking at his laptop screen, before he finally looked up at the other digidestined. "I think... I think its SkullGreymon," he said with a gulp. The others gasped, the girls clapped their hands to their mouth.

"What!? Are you trying to say that MY Agumon digivolved into SkullGreymon?!" Tai shouted at Izzy. "How can it possibly be?!"

"Well... I mean... how many Agumon's do you know?" said Izzy.

"B-But... how?" asked Joe.

"Do you think... Matt, T.K. and Kari... Do you think that they might have fought with SkullGreymon?" asked Mimi nervously.

"There is a high possibility of that. I don't think any other digimon would have dared to go up against SkullGreymon," Izzy stated..

"Kari... no..." Tai said softly.

"Don't worry, Tai. I'm sure Kari is alright. The same goes to Matt and T.K. They know how to take care of themselves," Sora comforted Tai once more.

"What about the digimons?" asked Mimi. "Do you think the digimon's are with them?"

"Well, I guess we have to find them to find out what exactly is going on here," said Izzy as he closes his laptop.

Joe was looking around the place when he shouted for the others.

"Guys! Look! There are other footprints here," he said. Sure enough, they saw several different footprints. There were 3 footprints which looks like they were made by humans while another 6 which looks like they belonged to digimons.

"It must be them. Kari, Matt and T.K., together with the digimons," said Sora.

"Something's wrong. What happened to another 2 digimon? Are they with them?" said Joe.

"Well, if Agumon digivolved into SkullGreymon, and then he was defeated, he probable de-digivolved into Koromon," said Izzy. "Koromon won't leave any prints. And Patamon is probably sitting on T.K.'s head or shoulder or something," Izzy tried to reason out.

"That could be true," said Tai. "But anyway, I think we should follow where these footprints lead to," he said, pointing in the direction which the footprints lead. "Let's get moving. The sooner we find the others, the sooner we'll know what's going on around here."

They followed the footprints, which seems to lead deeper into the forest. Each of them walked closely together and was on full alert. They wouldn't want to walk into any mean digimons, not without their own digimons to protect them. However...

"WaaRrrrGgggHhh!!!!" Joe shouted as he was running at a high speed.

"Run!!!!" Tai shouted.

"I'm running! I'm running!" shouted Izzy.

"WAaah!!! Help!!!" Mimi screamed.

"Mimi! What did you do to upset that Gotsumon!?!" Sora shouted at Mimi as, she too, was running away.

"How was I supposed to know that that was Gotsumon! I thought it was a rock! I just wanted to sit to rest a bit! It's very tiring to walk, you know!" Mimi shouted back.

"Rock Fist!!!" Gotsumon shouted, unleashing his attack. It had almost hit the digidestined as they struggle to run away as far as possible from Gotsumon. They ran and ran, until they couldn't run anymore. They had come up to a face a hillside. They were trapped. They all had their backs pressed against the hill, as Gotsumon slowly walked towards them.

"See what have you done, Mimi!" said Joe. "We're going to die!"

"How was I supposed to know!" said Mimi, a bit irritated that Joe would still blame her. "I'm sorry, okay!"

"What are we going to do, Tai?" Sora asked, looking at Tai.

"Just hang on, guys. I know we can get through this," he said, trying to sound confident. "Psst... Izzy. Do you have idea on how we can get out of this situation?"

"Err... not exactly..." replied Izzy.

Gotsumon was getting nearer and nearer. He grinned at them.

"Rock...."

"Blue Blaster!"

The Blue Blaster attacked had hit Gotsumon before he managed to attack the digidestined. Gotsumon was hit from his right and flew into the trees on his left. The digidestined quickly turned their heads to see who had saved them. To their joy, it was Gabumon. Matt. T.K., Kari and the rest of the digimons were right behind him.

"Tai!" shouted Kari.

"Kari! Matt! T.K!" Tai shouted back. "Aren't we glad to see you! That Gotsumon was about to squash us!"

"Speaking of which," said Joe. "Here he comes! And I think he wasn't very happy about what just happened."

Sure enough, Gotsumon was charging towards them.

"Crazy Crusher!"

"Gabumon," Matt said, looking at Gabumon, who nodded.

"Horn Attack!"

"Piyomon! Use your Spiral Twister to help Gabumon!" shouted Sora to her digimon partner.

"Spiral Twister!"

Sure enough, those two attacked combined managed to blow Gotsumon away, into the forest. Gotsumon got up once more, but instead of charging at them again, he turned and ran into the forest once more.

"Tai, are you okay?" asked Kari who was holding Koromon in her hands as she ran to her brother.

"Hi there, Tai!" Koromon greeted Tai with a wide smile.

"Kari, Koromon. You guys are okay. I was worried about you guys," Tai said, looking at Kari, Koromon, Matt and T.K.

All the digimons ran and greeted their partner. It wasn't long before they started to notice that someone was missing. They asked T.K. where Patamon was, but he didn't reply them. They could see that tears were welled up in his eyes. Kari quickly went to T.K. to comfort him while Matt explained the situation to the other digidestined. They were all shocked to know that Patamon was kidnapped and that Black Gears had possessed Agumon, which caused him to digivolved into SkullGreymon, and how Kari came to the rescue by helping Gatomon to digivolve into Angewomon, just in time to save Gabumon from being squashed by SkullGreymon.

"I'm sorry about that, Matt, Gabumon..." Koromon apologized again.

"Don't worry about it," replied Gabumon with a smile.

"And so, anyway," continued Matt, "We were looking for the source of the Black Gears when we heard someone screaming for help. It sounded like Mimi, so we decided to come and check it out. When we arrived, we saw that Gotsumon was about to attack you guys, that's when Gabumon attacked him."

"So... you believe that Devimon might have kidnapped Patamon?" asked Tai after Matt had finished.

"But, we all saw Angemon defeated Devimon," said Joe.

"Hm... It might be possible, though. Digimon's never actually die. It might be possible that Devimon is still around," said Izzy.

"And only Devimon can control the Dark Gears. I don't know of any other digimons who uses them," said Sora.

"We must find Patamon quickly!" said T.K. His eyes were slightly red because he had cried a bit. His voice was still a little shaky. Kari patted his back and said softly,

"We'll find him, okay? Just... just..." Kari couldn't finish her sentence. The truth was, she doesn't know what she could say to make T.K. feel any better. She just sighed sadly. Deep down, she was angry with herself for being unable to comfort her best friend.

"In that case, let's get going!" said Tai with full spirit.

"Don't worry, bro. We'll definitely find Patamon," Matt tried to reassure his brother, but he, like Kari, didn't exactly know what to say to make T.K. feel better.

"Where were you guys before you came to our rescue?" asked Mimi.

"We were a little further down there," Kari pointed to the direction where they came from just now.

"We should be quite near to wherever the Black Gears came from now," said Gatomon, as she lead them.

T.K. and Kari were walking behind of the group. Kari was next to T.K. He was looking at the ground as they walked. Kari tried to look at his face, but could only see the side of his face.

"He really looks sad," she thought to herself. "I really wonder... Devimon. I never faced him before, but he must have been horrible if he made T.K. so worried about Patamon. T.K...."

"Uhm.. Kari?" T.K. suddenly called out her name.

"Yea? What's wrong, T.K?"

"I'm.. uhm... I mean... I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that I was coming to the Digiworld. I hope I didn't made you too worried," he said with a weak smile. "And I'm also sorry about not able to make it to our dat.. I mean our little appointment."

"Oh..." Kari smiled back at him. "Don't worry about it. We'll just take a rain-check."

"Okay!" said T.K. He hasn't been this cheerful ever since he arrived in the Digiworld to look for Patamon.

"Hold it..." said Gatomon, who suddenly stopped. They had reached the other side of the hill.

"I think this is where the Black Gears came from," said Koromon, who was now being held by Tai.

"Wahahahahaa..." laughed a voice. A voice that was familiar with everyone, except Kari. Suddenly, they noticed a few small rocks rolled down the hill. They quickly looked up...

"DEVIMON!"



A new chapter is done! Although I don't feel that this one was as good as the first two... Anyhow, thanks for your supports! I'd never thought I could finish the 3rd Chapter so quickly, and I probably wouldn't either, if not for all your kind reviews. ^_^

And, to TK's Angel, thanks for the help offer. I think I might be needing some help in one of my future chapters. Please keep on R+R! If you have found anything wrong in my fic, please tell me! I'm always trying to improve myself! Thanks again, for reading my fic.