A/N: To my valued readers: This chapter wraps up the first 'arc' of this story and prepares it for the launching of the second one. In the words of my sister and beta reader, this chapter can best be summarized as: 'nothing really happened.' I tried to keep it short, but I hope everyone will enjoy this chapter just the same. I promise that the next few chapters will be more interesting.
"All done!" Robert cheered as he and Roscoe finished putting out the last fire.
Touma looked around the parking lot and sighed. Not only were large sections of the cement scorched, but there were several craters all around. In addition, an entire wall of the school's building had completely caved in thanks to Firamon crashing into it earlier.
"Let's just get out of here before anyone comes!" Christina pleaded. "I don't want-!"
"Pupu!" Lucy's voice suddenly screamed.
"Master, come quickly! Something's happening to Pupumon!" Gaomon's voice alerted everyone.
The white slime in Lucy's arms was shaking violently, although the immediate danger of Firamon was gone. However, before anyone could say anything, a white light surrounded the little creature.
"Aniki, is that...?" Agumon's eyes were bright as Pupumon disappeared into the light.
"Pupumon evolve to...Puroromon!"
"Holy shit! It can fly!" Robert exclaimed as a large yellow bee, minus the black stripes, buzzed out of Lucy's arms.
"Puroromon!" the bee buzzed back into Lucy's arms and looked up at her with large green eyes and a zig-zagged smile on its face.
Lucy smiled at the creature, her face not showing any fear or surprise. "Don't worry; I'll take care of you just the same," she promised. Even Touma was surprised at how calm the girl was, considering that the slimy Digimon that she had been holding in her arms had transformed into a bee right before her very eyes.
The blond sighed. It had been a long night. He only hoped that nothing more-
"Digivice!" Masaru's voice interrupted his thoughts. Touma looked up just in time to see an olive-coloured orb of light drifted down into Lucy and Puroromon's waiting hands.
Masaru smirked and Yoshino could only facepalm as the girl began to ask about the new white and olive-coloured Digivice in her hand. At that moment, both of them thanked the gods for their lack of knowledge on the English language.
Twenty minutes later, the DATS van pulled over next to a deserted park in a quiet residential area.
"What a cool van!" Robert exclaimed as he poked his nose around the van, looking at the computers and other pieces of technology installed inside it.
The DATS team came over to him and the others with paper cups full of steaming liquid. "Hot chocolate," Yoshino told Christina awkwardly in English, "Is good."
Christina managed to smile as she took the cup. "Thank you," she replied politely.
Touma and Gaomon put the DigiEgg in a long metal box behind the driver's seat and closed the lid.
"What was that egg?" Amy, who had been keeping a close eye on Touma ever since his long explanation about the Digimon…heck, ever since she laid eyes on him this morning, asked.
"It's a Digi-tama...or a DigiEgg," Touma explained as he and Gaomon sat on top of the box. "All Digimon start and end their lives as an egg full of simple data. Thus, they never die and will only be reborn again."
"So the egg I found earlier, the one that hatched into Pupumon, was a DigiEgg too?" Lucy asked. Touma nodded in reply.
"I see..." the girl muttered. She was slowly beginning to understand what was going on here.
Roscoe put down his hot chocolate. "What are you going to do now?" he asked Touma solemnly.
Touma took a long sip from a bottle of water before replying. "All Digimon that are reverted back to a DigiEgg in the human world must be return to the Digital World, where they belong, so they can be reborn. The only locations where this return can be made are at branches of DATS, so my teammates and I have to return to Japan before this egg hatches and…" He turned around and saw the faces of the Canadian students in the van with them. There was a long and uncomfortable silence.
"So, you guys are leaving so soon," Allen broke the silence. "That's too bad; I was hoping we could get together and get to know each other better. That's a bummer…" There was more silence.
"Oi!"
Both Touma and Yoshino were annoyed. Once again, their hot-headed teammate was not able to read the mood in the air.
Masaru continued as if he hadn't noticed his teammates glaring at him. "Daimon Masaru…" he said, pointing to himself, as he extended his hand to Henry.
After a pause, Henry extended his hand as well and the two exchanged a warm handshake, much to everyone's surprises. "I'm Henry Wang."
"I'm Agumon!" Agumon extended a large orange claw towards Commandramon. "Looks like aniki got himself another follower!" he exclaimed. Commandramon just raised his eyebrow at this comment as he shook Agumon's claw, albeit not without hesitation.
"I'm Puroromon!" the large yellow bee buzzed back into the van from wherever it had gone to.
"It looks like the language barrier can be overcome with common sense and body language!" Allen remarked as Lucy scolded the Digimon for running off without her knowing.
Touma sighed heavily, but he was thinking hard. There was no way DATS could return to Japan now without first doing something about the two new human-Digimon partner teams of Henry and Commandramon, and Lucy and Puroromon, here in Vancouver. The blond looked at Yoshino. As if knowing what he was thinking, the older girl scowled at him.
"This is the worst!" she exclaimed. "I'm not going to be the one who's explaining this to the taichou!" she told him.
Meanwhile, Henry was pushing away at the teal buttons of his Digivice. "Having fun with your new toy?" Robert teased his friend.
"Oh, yeah..." Henry replied as a holographic screen appeared in front of him. "It even has a holographic map of the surrounding area!" the boy exclaimed as he pressed another button. A holographic picture of Firamon appeared. "Hey, what's this?!"
"That's the Digimon database," Gaomon explained in English. "It has all the information about the Digimon that your Digimon partner, in this case, Commandramon, has encountered."
"Firamon: Level – Adult. Type – Beast. Attribute – Vaccine. Special attacks – Flame Dive, Fira Bomb, and Fira Claw. Description: Protects the historical remains in the Digital World from those who would destroy it, like the good leader he is. Also known as the 'Lion Flying in the Sky'" Henry read. "Interesting..."
"Don't hog your new toy, Henry!" Allen laughed as he tried to grab the Digivice out of his friend's hands. "Come on, let your friends have a look at it!"
"Hey, I was thinking..." Robert spoke up. "After tonight, we really need a way to cool off and relax. Soooo... How about we hit the mall tomorrow? After all, it's a Saturday!"
"We have to study for midterms!" Roscoe protested.
"Aww...we can't study if we're so tensed up about digital monsters and worrying about when they might attack next," argued Amy, the shopaholic of the group, agreeing with Robert. "Plus, I won't be able to shop when midterms start next week, so I might as well waste all my allowance tomorrow!" She giggled. "Right, Chris?"
"Well..." Christina hesitated. "I'm not sure-"
"I heard there's a sale at Gucci this weekend!" Amy interrupted, knowing that Christina, who loved her shoes almost as much she loved Allen, would not be able to resist this new temptation.
"Touma, why don't you and your teammates join us?" Christina turned to the amused blond, who had been watching them the entire time. "It's only one day, and you have to keep an eye on them too, right?" She glanced at Commandramon and Puroromon.
"She's right," Yoshino told her teammate in a low voice. Even if her English wasn't as good as Touma's, Yoshino was able to read body language incredibly well. "We need to keep a close eye on these new Digimon until we find a way to deal with them, or at least until they decide to join DATS as members. But..." The woman glanced over at Plotmon, who was trying to talk to Henry and Commandramon, but the two of them kept turning away from the puppy.
"I know," Touma whispered back, "It looks like convincing them will be difficult."
"Lucy and Phoebe, please join us as well," Allen extended the invitation to the mall to the two girls who were outside his circle of friends. "After all, you both helped us a lot tonight."
"Well, I'm not sure..." Phoebe stammered.
"Of course she'll go!" Plotmon interrupted, nudging her partner. "Where and when?" the puppy asked before Phoebe could say anything else.
"11 o'clock tomorrow in the food court at...hmmm...how about the Brook?" Allen turned to his friends for their inputs. "It's the closest one near here, after all."
"With a Gucci," Christina added.
"Yeah, Brookbridge Centre is fine..." Roscoe muttered, still not sure whether the whole thing was a good idea or not.
"I can't go," Lucy spoke up, "I have...work to go to," she explained quietly.
"No, you don't," Henry spoke up, "You told Maria two weeks ago that you were only free on Saturdays to work on team projects, if I remember correctly. If you're free, you better come," he said in his no-nonsense voice.
After a tense silence, Lucy sighed in defeat. "I'll be there," she muttered as somebody's cell phone rang.
"I have to go," Phoebe bowed her head apologetically as she and Plotmon hopped out of the back of the van. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Commandramon and co.!" Plotmon added cheerfully.
Lucy stood up. "I'll be leaving as well," she said. "Come, Puroromon." The two of them, plus Phoebe and Plotmon, disappeared into the darkness.
"Will they be alright by themselves, in the dark?" Roscoe asked anxiously. "All four of them?"
"That dog and bee-like thing is with them," Allen assured his friend. "They'll be fine...at least, compared to what she probably has to face at home," he muttered.
"Who?" Gaomon, who had been eavesdropping on them by orders of his master, asked solemnly. "And what do you mean?"
Allen and Roscoe glanced at each other nervously, but it was Amy, sitting beside Roscoe, who spoke first:
"It's only a rumour," the girl said in a low voice so that the others wouldn't hear them, "about Lucy. But one way or another, a lot of students in our school thinks that she and her family are gang members."
Later, after the Canadians had left, Masaru and the others got ready to settle down for the day.
"Oi Touma," Masaru spoke up from his sleeping bag, "Are you absolutely sure it was a good idea to sent Commandramon home with that boy? They were still bickering when they left..."
"Well, since they're partners now, they have to get along anyway, whether they like it or not," Touma replied. "Better start knowing each other now than later."
"Aniki, we fought a lot too when we first met," Agumon spoke up.
"You two still do," Gaomon sighed as he finished his cup of hot chocolate.
Yoshino smiled. "They're a lot like the two of you," she teased as Masaru and Agumon glared at her.
"I'm kind of glad I've met them however," Masaru sighed after a moment, "That kid really gave Firamon a scare, and his Digimon is awesome-"
"Aniki!" Agumon pouted, hurt by his boss's praise for another Digimon.
Masaru laughed. "I can see that they'll both be going places, Agumon. Not only them, but everyone else: they're going to become really strong! Agumon, we can't lose to them!" he vowed.
"Right! We definitely won't!" Agumon vowed, his sour feelings evaporating.
"We have to become stronger than them! We have to train more!" Masaru yawned. "Tomorrow, okay, Agumon?" the brunette yawned again.
Agumon's large green eyes were fluttering with sleepiness. "Sure thing, aniki..." the orange lizard muttered as he closed his eyes. "Tomorrow..."
Touma and Yoshino shook their heads as their teammates tired themselves to sleep. In moments, the van was full of their loud and rather disgusting snores.
"Touma."
The blond turned his attention to his older teammate. Yoshino had a stern look on her face.
"Just why did you tell those kids the truth about DATS and the Digimon?" she asked. "Did...did Plotmon and her partner have something to do with it?"
"Perhaps..." Touma replied quietly. "But maybe..." the blond glanced at Masaru and Agumon, who were snoring like pigs on the floor of the van.
"Touma?" Yoshino asked, confused.
In the darkness, the blond smiled to himself. "Maybe it was because Masaru was on to something..."
No Glossary this week!