-1Chapter 3: One Candlemon Lights the Way
"Thanks, Submarimon!" said Jen to the submarine Digimon that had driven them around the perimeter of File Island to File City's docks.
"No problem!" he said back to them as Jared, KoKabuterimon and Veemon hopped out. Submarimon dove back underwater and disappeared.
"Wasn't fun falling in the ocean in the middle of flying, was it guys?" Veemon asked Jared and KoKabuterimon. Jared walked up to Veemon, his head still wet, and shoot it rapidly, getting water all over Veemon. "Hey!"
Jen giggled. "We should probably get these rubies to General Hankeru."
"Right!" said Veemon, walking alongside her off of the dock and onto the sidewalks.
"Wait up!" Jared shouted after them, running with KoKabuterimon behind him.
Along the sidewalk, Jared and Veemon were looking out into the ocean. Far out they saw very dull figures in the middle of the ocean. They heard very distant cries of help, too, probably from them.
Jen and KoKabuterimon were farther ahead than the other two, and looked behind them to see what the hold up was. They both proceeded to look in the direction they were looking, and saw the same figure struggling in the water. From there, as it was hard to tell, they thought they saw Submarimon pop up from underwater and open his hatch, and the figure disappeared as Submarimon submerged back underwater.
"What just happened there?" Jared asked nobody in particular.
"I think Submarimon just saved someone," Jen responded.
"Cool!" Veemon exclaimed. They each saw the ripple of Submarimon swimming toward the shore by the docks and he rose to the surface. The team ran to the dock to see what happened.
In Submarimon's hatch they saw a penguin Digimon and a young boy, around Jen's age, who wore a headband and a muscle shirt. Next to him was a girl around the age on 10 with her hair in pigtails and a small pink dress. Submarimon's hatch opened and the three got out.
"Thanks for the save!" the boy said to Submarimon as he looked over at Jen and the others. "Who are they?"
The penguin and the girl ran over to them in interest. Jen and Veemon looked a bit confused.
"Hi! I'm Alexis and this is Penguinmon!" the girl said to Jen and Veemon. She pointed over at the boy. "That's my brother Max."
Max waved goodbye to Submarimon as he submerged underwater, and ran over to the others. "Uh, hi there, who are you guys?"
"I'm Jen," Jen said, "and this is Veemon." She patted her Veemon on the head.
"I'm Jared and this is KoKabuterimon," he said, jumping up to pat him on the head like Jen did. KoKabuterimon giggled sarcastically.
Penguinmon flapped her wings madly. The Digimon seemed pretty excited. The team continued down the sidewalk and decided to stop at the "McBurgermon's" across the street to get something to eat and chat.
The team walked into the restaurant, KoKabuterimon having to duck due to the low door. The kids sat down at a table and took a look at the menu, remembering that Digimon food was much different from human food.
The female Burgermon behind the counter in the restaurant could tell what they were thinking. "Don't worry!" she said. "We don't make the food out of pure data. It's good for humans in the Digital World, too." Jen sighed with relief, as she was starving. Each of the kids just ordered a burger, still just to be safe. The Digimon, on the other hand, had each ordered triple-decker cheeseburgers and various other menu items.
Veemon sniffed his burger suspiciously. Something was obviously wrong with it.
"Ugh. You guys gonna eat this crap?" Jen asked. "I should have brought real food… I'm kinda hungry."
"I'm not eating it," Jared said. "And I heard humans don't have to eat in the Digital World to survive."
"Whatever, then, I trust that little rumor over this computerized jumbo," Jen said, "Even though I'm gonna end up being starved either way." She dumped her food in the trash while the Mama Burgermon was in the kitchen, not looking. The other kids did the same.
The Digimon were still at the table, KoKabuterimon eating away. The other Digimon didn't seem to appreciate it as much as KoKabuterimon did. He seemed to be enjoying it, so the kids went up to the counter to mingle with the Burgermon.
Mama Burgermon came back to the counter from the kitchen. "Hello, children, would you like anything else?"
"No," each of the kids said simultaneously and firmly.
"Well, that's okay then."
Jared moved to the left of the counter a bit and noticed something in the kitchen. There was a candle Digimon in there heating the food, with several small Burgermon in there cooking it. Though, they weren't using red and yellow bottles for ketchup and mustard. There was a yellow bottle, yes, but the one that should have been red was actually black. "Why don't you guys use red ketchup?" Jared asked Mama Burgermon.
Mama Burgermon looked at him strangely. "What do you mean? Aren't they red?" She walked into the kitchen where the Digimon were cooking and noticed her ketchup bottles were black and not red. On the label where "ketchup" or something would usually be was a large K.
"What could this be?" Mama Burgermon examined the "ketchup" bottle. "This obviously isn't my homemade ketchup."
"I'm guessing that 'K' is supposed to make us think it is ketchup?" Jared stared suspiciously at Mama Burgermon.
Mama Burgermon had just noticed this, and gasped. The kids looked at her strange, but she just placed the bottle on the counter and walked into the kitchen slowly.
"What was that about?" Max asked. They spotted several of the children Burgermon in the kitchen laughing evilly, their eyes glowing red.
"We should probably get out of here," Jen said and they proceeded out the door.
As they turned for the door, though, several Burgermon children were in front of the exit, apparently trying to block their way out. "No escape," the four Burgermon said in unison.
"Okay…" said Jen worriedly. "That's probably not right."
From behind them they heard someone say, "Get the hell away from that door!" and turned around to see it was a candle Digimon floating over to the door. "FLAME BOMBER!" he shouted as he fired a large ball of flame from his candlewick at the Burgermon children. They all fell to the floor.
"Veemon! Help!" Jen shouted as he ran over to the scene. Penguinmon was busy fighting an apparently confused KoKabuterimon.
"KoKabuterimon, what are you doing?!" Jared asked in surprise as he watched him fight Penguinmon. "Scoop Smash!" he shouted and threw Penguinmon crashing out the store window as she flapped her stubby wings. The Burgermon children got up from Candlemon's attack and exited through the door. The kids and Veemon followed, as Mama Burgermon hid in the kitchen and KoKabuterimon flew out the broken window.
The battle found its way into the street. Jared's DigiCell glowed bright red, hovered out of his pocket and zapped red data energy toward KoKabuterimon.
"KoKabuterimon digivolve to… KUWAGAMON!"
KoKabuterimon took a much different form than that of BladeKuwagamon. A large red insectoid Digimon, Kuwagamon looked much fiercer than his other form.
Jared's DigiCell hovered back into his left pocket. "I DID NOT do that…"
"SCISSOR CLAW!" Kuwagamon shouted as it used the sharp edges of its mandibles to slice at Veemon. Veemon quickly recovered, though, and turned to Jen. "Do I have to say it?" Jen nodded and pulled out her DigiCell.
Jen flipped open her Digivice, pressed the "digivolve" button and aimed a stream of data toward Veemon with its antenna. "Initiate Digivolution Matrix!"
Veemon began to glow brightly. "Veemon digivolve to… VEEDRAMON!"
Veedramon stomped on the ground after his digivolution. "What did you guys do to the ketchup in those burgers?!" The Burgermon children remained still and Kuwagamon charged at Veedramon head on.
Veedramon managed to stand his ground and grabbed Kuwagamon's mandible claws, tossing him down the street. Kuwagamon glowed a bright red light for a moment, then the normal white light, de-digivolving into KoKabuterimon again. He was apparently back to normal, as a red data stream rose away from him during this sequence. Jared ran to his Digimon's side as Veedramon de-digivolved back to his Rookie form.
But the red data did not float away like it predictably would. Instead, it took a new form that resembled a machine Digimon. It was light brown drone-like monster with metal plating.
Jared pulled out his Digivice, scanned the Digimon and looked at its stats. "Guardromon, a Champion level Digimon. Its Destruction Grenade attack packs the force of an M1 tank!"
"Destruction Grenade!" the Guardromon shouted in a robotic tone and fired a grenade from one of the compartments on its right arm. It shot at Penguinmon and Candlemon and they fell to the ground.
As Penguinmon was on the ground, Candlemon seemed to get back up. "Flame Bomber!" it shouted and it shot a fireball from its candlewick at Guardromon. It took no effect, though, and he stood his ground.
/I wish I could do something…/ Max thought to himself. He suddenly felt something in his right pocket. He looked down at it and saw that there was something glowing in it. He dug in his pocket and found a DigiCell for himself. It had a red trim compared to the others.
"Alright, I guess I use this thing for something," he said. He then flipped the phone open and pressed the Digivolution button. "Initiate Digivolution Matrix!" he shouted as he aimed the antenna at Candlemon. A stream of data emitted from it.
"Candlemon digivolve to…" His body glowed white and he began to take a more humanoid shape.
"MERAMON!" The new Digimon resembled a human completely engulfed in orange and red flames.
"Haha, sweet. I got a Digimon," said Max in a cool-like manner, as if it was normal.
Jared pulled out his Digivice and scanned the Digimon. "Meramon, a Fire Digimon, Champion level!" he read off of the holo-display on his DigiCell.
Meramon stood defiantly, looking down slightly at the Guardromon. His six-foot size was certainly intimidating. "FIREBALL!" he shouted as he threw a ball of flame at Guardromon. This caused him to stumble a bit, but he still never gave up.
"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon shouted once again. He fired several grenades from the compartment on his arms but each of the grenades burned up when they touched Meramon.
"Didn't work like you planned, did it?" he asked smart-mouthed.
Guardromon looked at Meramon in fear and began to take off. But Meramon didn't let this happen. "FLAMING CHARGE!" he shouted. The flames around his body grew, and he ran at quick speeds after Guardromon. He head butted him in the back, causing him to fall over in the street. Guardromon began to glow and he de-digivolved into a gear Digimon, Hagurumon. The kids and their Digimon ran over to the scene with Meramon, after which he then de-digivolved back into Candlemon.
"We WILL meet again, DigiDestined!" the gear Digimon yelled and in a flash of light, he teleported away.
"DigiDestined?" Jen asked nobody in particular.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jared asked in the same manner.
"I dunno," KoKabuterimon said, "but aren't you guys wondering why I unwillingly digivolved into something I shouldn't have?"
"It was probably that viral substance from the kitchen," Jared said. "You're the only one who ate a burger, you know…"
"The bigger mystery is where it came from?" Jen wondered. "I mean, someone probably put it in there." All heads turned to Candlemon.
"Hey, don't look at me, I just work there," he said.
"Not anymore," Max stated proudly. "You're my partner now!"
Candlemon's grin grew wide. "THANK YOU. I need to get out of that stupid restaurant. The Digimon from Server have been coming in illegally looking for jobs lately, anyway, they'll replace me with one eventually."
"I guess all we can do is figure this world out, right?" Alexis asked.
"Yeah, I guess so, sis," Max said. "Let's head south, I heard Submarimon talk about a large castle there. Maybe the king of Digimon lives there or something."
"That sounds a bit farfetched," Jared said. "But might as well try… and what about these rubies?"
"We should split up," Jen said. "Jared and I will go to the General and Max and Alexis will go with Candlemon and Penguinmon to the castle. We'll meet up with you there, okay?"
"Right." Nodding to each other, the kids and their Digimon went their separate ways. As Jen and Jared ran down the sidewalk, the extra gold-trimmed Digivice fell from Jen's pocket without her realization.
Before Max could pick it up and give it back to her, it began to glow brightly as a small, silver ball Digimon with red gloves ran up to it quickly, picked it up and ran away with it.
"Hey!" Max shouted at the silver Digimon. It ignored him completely and disappeared into the far away street. "Aww man, now Jen can't help Veemon digivolve!" Max and Alexis were completely ignorant to the existence of a fifth DigiDestined. Max had thought the Digivice was truly Jen's.