Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Ok, so this chapter is a shorter one and I don't necessarily like it, though a few of the parts were fun to write. Oh, and this is the first chapter posted from my laptop! Woooooot! This chapter isn't a lot of action, but it starts to create some tensions and it is leading up to something big so... I hope you like it! Review please!

Chapter 4:

Well, this wasn't how he wanted to spend the rest of his day, and it had actually been a good day up until now. He had been used to spending most of his time alone nowadays. He worked for the government and no longer had to go to school so he no longer saw his school friends anymore. Then when he and Michael had joined the Japanese digidestineds he thought he'd make a couple more friends, but that wasn't about to happen. Even when he travelled through the Digital World, the time difference between Japan and America made it a pain to try to find times he could hang out with the others. Besides, most of the other digidestineds seemed to look down upon him and Michael because they were the 'new kids' or something. He did have Michael and Mimi, but Michael wanted to spend most of his time with just Mimi- which he understood because he knew Michael really liked Mimi, but, and he would never tell Michael this, but Mimi already told him that he didn't like Michael in that way, so it was basically pointless.

Which was why it was nice to have someone to hang out with for the weekend. TK was pretty cool too.

Speaking of TK...

"Willis, we have to keep running," Lopmon said as he stopped in his tracks and turned around. Looking behind him, he saw that MarineDevimon had his back turned to him and was running in the opposite direction, more than likely chasing TK and Patamon.

"MarineDevimon stopped chasing us? Yay!" Terriermon cheered.

"Crap," he muttered under his breath before taking off after MarineDevimon.

"Wills, what are you…" Terriermon asked confused.

"He's going after TK!" he said as he tried as hard as he could to quicken his pace.

"Oh," Terriermon said, "I forgot."

"Moron," Lopmon added.

Although he couldn't see it, he could picture Terriermon balling up his tiny fist in as threatening of a manner as he could- but seriously, Terriermon would never be seen as intimidating, at least to him. "Why I oughta…"

"Guys!" he warned. They did not need to have another one of their fights right now. Patamon was already tired and he didn't think the little digimon could fair too well against the huge water demon.

"What?" they both asked at the same time.

"Not now," he ordered.

They must have got the memo because they both stayed silent as they ran after MarineDevimon. The marine digimon was running at a much faster pace, though, and he wasn't catching up to TK or the digimon at all.

"Willis, we can…" Lopmon started, but he understood his partner right away. He stopped and as the twin digimon jumped off his shoulders and landed on the ground in front of him, he nodded.

"Digivolve," he said.

His two partners started glowing and his digivice was shaking as his partners digivolved first into their champion forms and then into their ultimate forms. Rapidmon and Antylamon stood in front of him, and Rapidmon put his arm around him and they started flying towards MarineDevimon at a much faster pace.

MarineDevimon had stopped running and was slowly walking forward. He looked around the massive digimon and saw that TK was facing the digimon with his back against a cliff; TK had run out of beach and didn't have a way out of the situation. Patamon was trying to get out of TK's arms, but the blonde had a strong grip on his partner and wouldn't let go. MarineDevimon was closing in on the two; he needed to get there now before something happened! But there was too much distance; he wasn't going to get there in time.

He watched, horrified, as MarineDevimon drew back one of his claws. Antylamon sped up and he encouraged Rapidmon to go faster. Even with the acceleration, though, there was no way they were going to get there.

He faintly heard MarineDevimon shout out something that sounded like "Dark Claw" and watched as the attack headed straight for TK and Patamon. TK dove out of the way of the attack causing MarineDevimon's attack to hit the stone cliff that was behind TK. TK had dodged the attack, but MarineDevimon's attack had caused rocks to fall off the cliff and fall right where TK and Patamon were on the ground.

He was about to freak out, but he had to put what happened to TK at the back of his mind right now; MarineDevimon was already turning towards his direction with a big smile on his face. Anger filled him and he literally started growling at the digimon- which if he was watching himself he was sure he would've made fun of himself for it cause seriously, humans don't growl- and yelled out, "Destroy him!"

"With pleasure," Rapidmon answered along with a, "Rapid Fire!"

Lopmon followed with, "Bunny Blades!"

Rapidmon dropped to the ground and quickly let him go as he shot his attack with his free arm. Once he was on the ground and his partners were fighting MarineDevimon, he ran to where TK had been before the boulders had fallen on top of him. Maybe TK had somehow been able to dodge them; he couldn't be dead… he couldn't be dead.

Luckily he was right. Angemon was flying up from the ground holding an injured but still conscious TK in his arms. Angemon looked beat up too, but the good thing was that they both were alive. Angemon flew right at him and dropped TK off before joining Rapidmon and Antylamon in the fight.

He looked at TK in disbelief, "How…?" he started to ask, but TK cut him off.

"It doesn't matter how, we have a fight to win," TK said pointing towards the battle. He nodded and watched as their partners flew through the air attacking MarineDevimon from all sides.

"Hand of Fate," Angemon yelled sending an orange beam of light towards MarineDevimon. It struck dead on and pushed the digimon back towards Antylamon.

Antylamon was already preparing her attack and yelled out, "Arm Bomber!"

Antylamon released a strong blow that hit MarineDevimon who then went flying towards Rapidmon. Rapidmon then did his attack calling out, "Tri-Beam" and sending three beams of energy towards MarineDevimon.

At that time MarineDevimon yelled, "Evil Wind," but nothing happened. Rapidmon's attack pushed MarineDevimon back towards the ocean and he skidded across the water like a flat rock being skipped. Which was weird because Rapidmon's attack should've destroyed the digimon, but somehow it had just pushed him away… maybe MarineDevimon's 'Evil Wind' had done something after all.

But now that MarineDevimon was gone he was able to completely relax. He just now realized his hands had been balled up tightly into fists and his fingers were happy to have blood circulating back through them again.

Their partners flew towards them and landed. Once on the ground, they all started glowing white and changed back into their rookie forms. Terriermon and Lopmon had a few scratches on them and looked pretty tired and Patamon looked to be in the same state, but the digimon tried their best to act like they were ok. He then took another look at TK and saw he had a pretty nasty cut on his left cheek that was still bleeding. TK also had scratches up and down his arm, but those had stopped bleeding and didn't look as bad as the cut on his face.

After examining his friends and partners, he took the time to examine himself. He had to say he was pretty tired himself, and his body was aching from being roughed up by MarineDevimon. He saw his hands were red meaning that he had been cut somewhere on his body at some point. Probably when MarineDevimon had blown them right into the cliff.

"I think we should go find the others now," TK suggested after some time.

He nodded. They needed to let the others know what had happened.

"Tai, we should be going," Sora informed him.

He turned his head to the right and looked at the girl lying next to him. This girl was down right gorgeous. Her auburn hair flowed down the side of her face, lightly touching her shoulders. Her brown eyes were shimmering like two gemstones reflecting the sunlight. She had a playful smile on her face. She was the most beautiful girl he ever saw, and she was his girlfriend.

He reluctantly turned his body away from Sora to grab his phone off of the nightstand next to his bed. He pressed one of the buttons on the outside of his phone causing the screen to shine brightly in his face. He groaned when he saw the time, seeing that they had just thirty minutes to get ready and meet the others in the park like he had ordered the previous night via text after the whole 'saving Biyomon and Gomamon' thing.

"Do we have to go? Can't we just stay here?" he asked, hoping she would say yes, but he knew she wouldn't.

She laughed, "We can't stay here for too long or else it won't be special anymore."

And last night really had been special. Well, besides the whole saving Biyomon and almost getting destroyed by three digimon part. After WarGreymon had defeated Groundramon, Musyamon, and Wolfmon, they all had returned to the real world. They waited for fifteen minutes in Izzy's apartment- eating all the snacks that had offered them because they and the digimon were really hungry- before deciding to go after them. Right as they were about to go back into the Digital World, Izzy and Joe landed in the bedroom. They all decided they were too tired to talk about what had happened and Tai told them he would send them a text to meet up the next day and discuss all that was going on.

From there, he and Sora said goodbye to the others saying they were going home and heading straight for bed. And that had been their original plan, until they got to Sora's place and he gave her a goodbye kiss. The kiss had then turned into a fierce making out session that caused things to perk up and they decided to head back to his place. They practically sprinted to his apartment and before they knew it they were naked, in his bed. There was that strange time when they had heard someone walk around and slam the door to the apartment, but they were a little caught up in what was going on to care about it. But yeah, it was one of the greatest nights ever.

He sighed and gave her a puppy-dog face willing her to just stay there, but she giggled a little and threw the covers off of her. He watched her as she got up off the bed and walk out of the room, carrying a pair of clothes and heading for the bathroom. He had to keep himself from running off after her because it was really tempting, but he had more important business to take care of. That stuff can wait for later, maybe tonight if he got lucky.

He threw his side of the covers off as well and got up onto his feet. Rubbing his eyes, he made his way over to his dresser and picked out some undergarments, a tee-shirt, a pair of socks, and a pair of athletic shorts. He then sat on the bed as he waited for Sora to get out of the bathroom so he could use the shower.

It took her a while- girls could take so long to get ready, did they really need all that time?- but Sora finally exited the bathroom fully clothed- unfortunately- letting him go in. He took a quick shower and threw on his clothes. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw that his hair was flying in at least fifty different directions; it was perfect.

Exiting the bathroom, he saw Sora sitting on the couch with Biyomon in her lap. She had a concerned expression etched on her face, but Biyomon was cheerily telling Sora, "I'm fine!"

Agumon was in the kitchen looking through the cupboards. He watched his partner pick out a box of cereal and opened it up pouring a bunch of cereal into his mouth. Usually he would say something to his partner, but he had saved the day last night so he was going to give Agumon a break.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked to no one in particular.

Sora, seeing that he was out of the bathroom now, stood up and smiled at him, "Of course."

He nodded, "Then let's go."

The park was not too far away from his apartment, so it did not take them too long to arrive at the park. It was raining outside- which was really annoying but they had an umbrella at least- and it was considerably cool for it being summer. He liked it though; it was a nice change of pace from the ninety plus degree days they had been having recently. Because of the weather, the park was completely deserted and everything had a nice coat of water on it.

He took his cell phone out and saw it was ten minutes before midday. Because of their early arrival, they were the only ones there so they found a tree to stand under and stood and talked as they waited for the others to arrive.

It took about five minutes before Izzy arrived with Matt right next to him. Sora greeted the two of them and he nodded his head at both. Izzy greeted him in return, but Matt didn't say anything. Matt actually looked troubled, like there was something he was trying to conceal deep inside of him. He also couldn't help but notice the glare he was getting from the blonde. He didn't know what was wrong; maybe it had something to do with TK.

Yolei and Cody were the next ones to arrive, and after they said hello they retreated away from the others as she waited awkwardly for the other digidestineds in their group to arrive. Ken arrived next and Yolei was instantly overjoyed; he could see something forming between the two despite his disliking of Ken- he couldn't get over the whole Digimon Emperor thing just like mostly everyone else. Joe was the next one to show up. The soon-to-be doctor was carrying an injured Gomamon who did not look good at all. Gomamon was unconscious but was shivering violently. Joe looked worried and didn't say anything to them. Cody broke away from Yolei and Ken to stand next to and talk to Joe.

He winced as Davis and Kari then arrived hand-in-hand. Don't get him wrong, he loved his little sister and Davis and he was glad they were happy together, but there was just something… wrong with them. Maybe he was just imagining it because he was Kari's older brother and didn't want her to date anyone yet- and he also had a sort of rivalry against Davis- but he didn't feel like the two of them were right for each other.

He hugged his sister and shook Davis's hand before looking around at the group. Ok, he and Sora were her along with Matt, Izzy, Joe, Kari, Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Ken. Who did that leave? TK, he wasn't here, and Mimi too. And then there were those other two Americans, Willis and Michael? Were those their names? He didn't know; he didn't really worry too much about them. Yeah, they were digidestineds and everything, but they weren't part of the original team, the core.

"Ok, so any news on where the others are?" he asked the group.

"Mimi texted me saying that her and Michael were not going to make it," Izzy spoke up.

"What about TK?" Matt was obviously concerned and worried.

He rolled his eyes, but Joe answered, "He and Willis should be here soon."

He shot Joe an inquiring glance to which Joe supplied, "I need Patamon to digivolve to heal Gomamon."

"Right, so shall we…" he started before he was cut off.

"You guys weren't about to start without us, were you?" he heard a voice ask from behind him.

He turned around and saw Terriermon and Lopmon running at him with their ears over their heads acting as umbrellas- though there ears were still attached to them so they were still getting wet either way. Patamon was flying in the air above the two twin digimon, and Willis and TK were running towards the tree. Once they got under cover, they shook their heads flinging water all over. The two teens looked like they had just jumped off a cliff after running an ultra marathon; they looked exhausted and beat up, bad. Their digimon were the same way, but they seemed to have a little more life to them.

"TK!" Matt called out running for his brother. TK's look of exhaustion instantly turned to one of anger as he stepped out of the way of Matt's charging hug.

"Don't touch me," he shot at his brother. Everyone stopped their little side-chatter to watch as Matt stared at his brother with a mixed look of shock and fear while TK started right back with one of frustration and sheer determination. Something was going on between these two; Matt really needed to back off before he did something to really piss TK off.

"TK, he just wants to know you're ok! You and Willis don't look good!" Kari defended Matt.

TK rolled his eyes but stopped glaring at his brother. "We're both fine," he muttered, looking down at the ground.

"What happened," Matt asked.

Willis then launched into a tale about how they were heading to Japan so MagnaAngemon could heal Gomamon when they were ambushed by a digimon by the name of MarineDevimon. They had got pretty beat up, but they were able to push the digimon away, but didn't destroy him. He was about to interrogate the two more on this new digimon, but Joe interrupted.

"TK, I need Patamon to digivolve now. Gomamon…" Joe said. He turned to see Gomamon was still in the same state as before. Patamon flew right next to Gomamon, who Joe had set down on a patch of somewhat dry grass. TK looked reluctant to have his partner digivolve, but the blonde finally pulled out his green D-3 digivice and Patamon digivolved to his ultimate form. MagnaAngemon then used his "Magna Antidote," on Gomamon. Instantly, Gomamon had stopped shaking. The digimon didn't wake up, but Joe put his hand on his partner's forehead and smiled.

"His fever's broken," Joe informed them, "He should wake up after some time. Thanks TK, and Patamon."

MagnaAngemon had already dedigivolved and was sitting on top of TK's uncovered head. TK smiled at Joe but didn't say anything in return. He then decided to get back to the main topic of the meeting.

"So, guys, we need to talk about the rogue digimon that have been appearing," he said.

Kari spoke up, "Wait, I thought it was only Cerberumon and now this MarineDevimon character. Have there been others?"

He nodded and then told his, Matt's, and Sora's story of how they defeated Groundramon, Musyamon, and Wolfmon in order to save Biyomon. Biyomon then explained how she was visiting the Yokomon Village when Musyamon and Wolfmon appeared and attacked the village. She was caught off guard and was no match for the two digimon, especially since Sora wasn't there to have her digivolve.

After they had recounted their story, Izzy and Joe both explained their battle against Tankdramon and SkullScorpiomon. By the sound of it, they had nearly come close to being defeated, but luckily they got lucky and were able to defeat the digimon.

But after hearing their story, he started to realize that this was serious. First it was Patamon who was in a state of almost deterioration. Then he, Sora, and Matt had almost been defeated by the rogue digimon they faced, but luckily MetalGreymon had been able to digivolve into his mega form to save the day. There also was the close call Izzy and Joe told them about, and by the sounds of it they had nearly been destroyed. Now TK and Willis had been attacked by this new digimon, MarineDevimon. Things were starting to heat up in the Digital World, fast, as if something big was going to happen. The calm before the storm had already happened lasting three years; now the storm was already brewing and they needed to be ready before they were caught in the middle of whatever it was that was coming for them.

"We need to do something about these attacks," Izzy stated.

"No shiz, Sherlock," he said rolling his eyes, "What we need to worry about is what we are going to do."

"Well what do you think Tai," Sora asked, looking him in the eyes. He stared at her and she smiled. 'No, Tai,' he scolded himself, 'Not in front of everyone else.'

"I think we need to go to the Digital World and find the leader of these rogue digimon," he concluded.

Matt instantly opposed, "What makes you think there's someone behind these attacks? We have had rogue digimon pop up in the past."

"Yes, but…" he tried, but Izzy stopped him.

"It seems logical that there would be a leader of these digimon that have attacked us. Yes, we have dealt with random digimon attacks before, but that is exactly what they have been, random. These digimon attacks have been back to back. Granted, I cannot supply sufficient evidence to prove my hypothesis, but my instinct is telling me Tai is right."

He nodded at Izzy before continuing, "So I think we should go into the Digital World and look for this new enemy."

"What?" Matt yelled at him. He was really into yelling at him recently. Sure they had fought a little the other night, but they were tired and in bad spirits. This was midday and Matt should be back to normal. Something was wrong though. "You're suggesting we go to the Digital World literally looking for trouble!?"

"Well what do you think we should do, hot shot?" he asked Matt.

"We don't go looking for this new enemy if there even is one! We know nothing about what is going on; we would be going into a fight practically blindfolded with no information for us to use whatsoever," Matt answered.

"Yes, but it's better than just sitting here doing nothing as the enemy prepares to fight against us. I can tell something is going to go down, something big, and it's going to happen soon…" he replied.

"The new evil," TK said quietly and ominously.

All eyes turned to the blonde who was looking down at the ground, listening in to the conversation.

"What do you mean TK?" Kari asked.

TK looked up at each of them and continued, "Don't you remember what Gennai told us three years ago? He warned us about an enemy that we would face who we have faced before. That was MaloMyotismon, but MaloMyotismon wasn't the only digimon Gennai foreshadowed. He said there was a new evil, one we never faced before, and one who was stronger than Piedmon, Dragomon, and even MaloMyotismon. I think this digimon is the mastermind of these recent attacks."

Everyone stayed silent as they thought back on that day three years ago when they met Gennai in Primary Village. Now that he thought about it, TK was right. He didn't know how he could've forgot about that…

"So why don't we go to the Digital World right now and look for this new digimon. We can take him!" Davis spoke up.

He rolled his eyes and looked at his sister's boyfriend, "Because, although I can't believe I'm saying this, Matt is right. We don't know anything about this new digimon. I agree, we have to go to the Digital World and deal with this new evil, but we need to prepare first."

"We're as ready as we're ever going to be," Davis said.

"No, we're not Davis! Stop being so arrogant and use your damn head for once!" Matt shouted.

"Now you listen here…" Davis started, but he interrupted.

"Guys! Fighting is not going to help right now!" he shot, glaring at both of them.

"You all need to stop this right now!" Sora called out suddenly, "Tai is right, we can't fight with each other at a time like this. If there really is a new evil preparing to attack us, then we need to make sure that we are ready at any time, and fighting with each other is going to worsen our chances of defeating this evil."

He was about to speak up, but Sora glared at him and he shut his mouth. Davis and Matt both stayed silent too, but they looked extremely frustrated. Whatever happened to the times where everyone got along and no one got hurt and… apparently those days were gone.

The rest of the meeting was frustrating as they fought again, but this time it was about the topic of what to do with the digimon. They couldn't decide to keep their partners here in the real world, or if they should sent them back to the Digital World. Obviously the digimon needed to be in the Digital World- it was their home- but at the same time the digidestineds were reluctant to let their digimon go due to all of the distress calls that have been going on. In the end, they decided that the digimon needed to go back to the Digital World except for Gomamon, TokPata, and Biyomon- Gomamon because he was still recovering, Patamon because of the attacks from Cerberumon and MarineDevimon, and Biyomon also because of the recent attacks.

Once it was decided, TK said, "Alright, I'm heading home before I collapse."

He looked the blonde over and he had to say it was a really great idea. TK looked exhausted like he didn't sleep well last night. Plus the scratches on his arms and the cut on his face had to have been affecting him. TK waved goodbye before walking off.

"I'll walk you home!" Kari quickly shouted out as she ran off to catch up with TK.

"I'll go with you guys! Wait up!" Yolei also ran after TK.

He heard Davis growl and run after his girlfriend. Cody also said goodbye and ran after the others. Ken, now being the only 'young' digidestined save for Willis, also left along with Willis. Then Joe headed off, along with Izzy and Matt. He looked at Sora, the only one left, and said, "Shall we?"

"No," she said simply and then walked off towards her apartment. What was wrong with her? Ok, he did give her a piece of his mind during one of the arguments, but why would that affect anything? It shouldn't, but apparently it did; Sora was not happy with him at all. Damn, he was looking forward to going back to his place with her too.